October was the biggest month in the history of this blog in terms of readership, so I want to take the time to thank you all for playing such a huge role in that success.

Who am I kidding – thank you for being entirely responsible for making this happen.

As always, this site is all about giving you practical information that you can put to use immediately. Going forward, I want to make sure that I am on track and giving you exactly what you want, but for that I will need your help.

What do you want to read about?

There is no wrong or insane topic. If you want to read about pancakes (seriously, someone drop that as a suggestion so I can have an excuse to do it), then so be it!

Leave your suggestion in the comment section below and I will return the favor by blessing you with the most epic of internet high fives as well as do more research into said topic – this is a win/win situation here.

Photo Credit: oddsock

“If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.”
-Bruce Lee

Sexification Note: This has been a topic that I’ve been focusing on a lot lately as I take on more and more responsibilities and it has been extremely helpful. Hopefully you walk away with the same feeling of awesomeness and empowerment that I did after writing it.

Let me paint a picture for you. Its 12am on a Saturday morning, and I’m just finishing up a pre-bed meal of meat, meat and more meat. It is glorious. I turn on the TV, completely intending for it to be a brief channel surfing session before giving in to my bed’s sweet embrace. That is, until I hear a loud, booming voice ask the question that sends my night spinning into an entirely different direction – can you freeze your farts and smell them later?

My interest is officially piqued.

5 hours later, not only have I figured out the salary range of a pimp, but I’ve also watched the triforce of horrible movies – Ernest Goes To Jail, Ernest Goes To Camp & Ernest Scared Stupid. It is now 5am. I have work at 9. The P.O.N.R. has been passed (point of no return – for those not in the know), so any amount of sleep that I get will only serve to piss me off. My only choice is to stay awake and power through my work day like the champ that I am. Did I also mention that it was Squatin’ Saturday? Needless to say, I ditched that workout for a 360 min static hold in my bed. I’m sure you’re wondering by now what the heck the point of that story was, so I said all of that to say this – if you’re failing to manage your time effectively, then you’re seriously limiting your personal growth potential.

I’m willing to bet that there isn’t one of us who hasn’t at some point wished that there were more than 24 hours in a day. Just imagine the possibilities! The difference between us and the people who are most successful in their field is that many of us act like we live in fantasy land where time is infinite. I know that there have been times where I’ve looked at what I wanted to accomplish, and what I actually did accomplish and threw up my hands in defeat, wishing that some magical troll would drop a few extra hours of time into my lap. I consider myself a logical man, and while I know this wont happen, that doesn’t stop me from often using my time in such a way that you’d actually believe that I thought those extra few hours were on their way. Successful people, on the other hand, simply accept the reality that there is a finite amount of time in the day, and time will only appear as it is created by them. Luckily for us, time management, like any other skill, can be learned if we simply study and apply the habits of those who have been successful in the same pursuit.

You Gotta Get Up To Get Down

The old adage “The early bird catches the worm” is false. Waking up early gives the person a head start in terms of seizing the day, but if they wake up early and do nothing then they’re just getting less sleep for no good reason. Nevertheless, it highlights a very important lesson – waking up early is quite possibly one of the simplest things that we can do in order to maximize our output from a time management perspective, yet a lot of people tend to skip right over this.

Why is that? Well, mainly because it requires effort to do, but I’m sure there are a host of other reasons out there. In order to get up early, you have to go to bed earlier, but the sad truth is that most folks just aren’t willing to make that necessary sacrifice. A lot of people claim that they don’t have time to workout, or have time to cook meals or have time to pursue the goals that they have been putting off for years, but 9 times out of 10 that is just a lie dressed up in truth’s clothing. If your fridge looks like Alanis Morissette in her “Thank You” video, yet you hit the level cap in World of Warcraft in 1 week, don’t say that you don’t have time to do anything because you do – you just chose to do something else with it.

Everyone has the exact same amount of time at their disposal over the course of the day, but where successful people differ from the masses is how they make use of it. In his book Time Power, Brian Tracy highlights the importance of what he coins the “golden hour.” What the golden hour entails is simply waking up an hour or so earlier than you usually do, and working without any interruptions for that entire hour. Now, an hour of working might not seem like a significant amount of time, but think of the long term potential – that’s 7 hours a week, 28-31 hours a month, 365 hours a year that came into existence simply because you committed to making it a habit to wake up one hour earlier.

Is it hard? It can be; permanent change is hard, and anyone who says that it isn’t probably hasn’t done it before. But take solace and find inspiration in the fact that successful people all around the world are doing just that every day – and you can too.

Eric Cressey – 6:30 to 7am.

Brian St. Pierre – 5:30 to 6:45am.

Tony Gentilcore -6:30 to 7am.

Michael Boyle – 5:30am.

Leigh Peele – 5am to 12pm.

JC – 5am.

Krista Schaus – 5:30 to 7am, depending on the time of year.

Ross Enamait – 4:30 to 5am.

Many of the people on this list have children, and all are entrepreneurs with a very busy workload. I’m sure that they would love to get a few more hours of sleep, but do they complain about it? Quite the opposite – they embrace it, learn to love it, and thrive because of it. These people aren’t just waking up early for the sake of doing so – they’re actively using this time to get after it, whether it is answering emails, writing blog posts or what have you.  I realize that such a drastic change to one’s lifestyle can be difficult, so just try it out a few days each week and see how much more productive you become.

Synchronize

During my internship at Cressey Performance, I got a chance to see some serious time management experts at work. Take Eric Cressey for example – the guy is a machine. I’ve watched him bang out a heavy set of deadlifts and then for the rest interval head into the office and knock out a quick blog post like it was nothing at all. All of the staff can be found frequently listening to audio books during their commute to and from work, with Brian going as far as to purchase Dragon Naturally Speaking, which is a voice recognition software that allows him to create blog content while on the road – talk about dedication! So what’s the take home point here? Try to make the best use of your time by combining tasks together in order to accomplish more in less time. Cleaning the house? That would be a good time to catch up on some phone calls that you’ve been meaning to make. Cooking dinner? You can always watch an educational DVD while you wait. Stuck in the airport during a layover? Brainstorm some creative ideas. Sitting on the toilet? What a perfect time to read a book! The possibilities are almost endless – use your imagination and see what tasks you can combine to free up some additional time during your days.

Operation: Distraction

How many times have you been in the zone on a particular day – like the Neo of getting things done – only to later derail your train of awesomeness upon the rocks of Facebook or some other distraction? One minute the sun is up and you’re plowing through work, and the next minute its Wesley Snipes dark outside, infomercials are all over the TV, and you’re wondering where the hell your day went. We’re all guilty of this happening, which is completely fine, but it’s when those brief distraction turns into hours of not getting anything done that it can start to become a problem. While I’m not successful by any means yet, one way that I’ve found to help eliminate this problem is to schedule my distractions. When you know that your reward for a hard day’s work is right around the corner it’s easier to continue working diligently until that time arrives. Likewise, when your scheduled time is over, it’s also that much easier to get back into the groove of things now that you’ve imposed limits on yourself.

Personally, I like to schedule an hour of watching the Chappelle Show or playing some multiplayer in Uncharted 2 as my end of the day distraction, but even then I use that time to get in some static stretching or mobility work.

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

How would you like to start every morning with a laser-like focus, knowing exactly what your tasks were for the day as soon as you woke up? Well you can, by doing as Brian Tracy suggests and simply planning your next day out before you go to bed. By doing so, your mind is actively at work figuring out solutions to the next day’s tasks and problems, so that when you wake up in the morning you are in ultimate G.S.D. mode, checking task after task off with amazing efficiency. Without such a list, the odds of you waking up and winging it for the entire day are increased by a ridiculous amount. So, no matter how you make the list, whether you do it in bed or while standing on top of your roof, basking in the glorious moonlight, just make sure it gets done.

Neo: What are you trying to tell me? That I can create time magically out of thin air?

Morpheus: No, Neo. I’m trying to tell you that when you’re ready, you won’t have to.

That’s an exact quote from The Matrix. I didn’t change a thing. Nope, not me.

Relevant links: Reverse pyramid training

The other day I was roaming my local library, in search of large amounts of nerdery to sooth my soul, when I stumbled upon the greatest piece of literary fiction ever created: Marvel Zombies.

Seriously. It’s the best. I now render your ability to argue against this point useless (insert mystical finger waving and arm flailing here)! Did you think Peter Parker was just your friendly neighborhood spider? Just wait until he hits you with a face full of arteries and veins instead of webbing, son!

In this alternate bizzaro world, all of your favorite Marvel superheroes have been zombified, which is bad news for the human race since we’re the only thing left on the menu. While constantly fluxing between a state of anxiety and “zomgwtf”, I started to notice a pattern – these dudes knew how to stay ripped!

I can already hear all the thoughts of you naysayers out there. Oh sure, blame it on the fact that they’re battle scarred and in a constant state of decomposition, or that they may or may not be missing several limbs and/or random body parts. My response? Bullocks, I say! Success leaves clues, and while they may smell a little ripe, these protectors of the universe know a thing or two and have given me the go ahead to break you off a piece of that knowledge and how us mere mortals can apply it.

The Typical Diet Cycle

Come, step into my time machine. Let us go back to any one of your many past diet attempts where you tried valiantly, but in the end fell far from reaching your goals. Did they happen to look something like this?

Phase 1: You begin your diet with great gusto. You are awesome, you are great, and you are unstoppable. Rarr!

Phase 2: Hunger begins to set in, but you have it under control. It’ll take more than that to keep you from achieving awesomeness.

Phase 3: You haven’t lost as much fat as you had hoped for, and now your hunger is at code red levels. You’re not sure how much more of this you can take.

Phase 4: You break, and my goodness what a break it is! Several cookies, cakes and small villages later you lay defeated in a food coma on the floor. Having undone days or weeks of progress in one fell swoop, you are down, but not out for the count. You vow to begin once again with a renewed spirit, because this time will be different.

And the cycle repeats itself again, and again, and again. Mad frustration ensues.

Of Zombies And Men

When these zombies get hungry, they get HONGRY! Due to their ramped up superhero metabolism and high levels of physical activity, their appetite is almost insatiable. As a side effect of this ravenous hunger, if they go too long without food they start to go crazy and are unable to focus anything more complex than finding their next meal. Simply put, they start to make stupid choices that decrease the likelihood of achieving their goal (i.e. man flesh).

Starting to sound familiar, eh?*

When we embark on our own physique changing adventures, we commonly experience the exact same things that zombies do. “Nuh uh, Rog, we’re different! We’re able to push those feelings of hunger to the back of our minds and power through it!” Yeah, initially. But what happens when those moments of hunger are constantly rolling around in your head? You’re at the movie theater eye-balling the popcorn chomper eight rows ahead. You’re in the parking lot plotting how you’re gonna scrape that decade old piece of bubble gum off the pavement and into your mouth. You’re on the toilet, wishing you had packed yourself a peanut butter and banana sammich. What? Don’t act like it’s just me!

The fact of the matter is that at some point you’re going to be hungry while trying to lose fat, but I’m going to share with you a tactic that you can use sparingly when facing down the hunger beast.

Thank You, Giant-Man

As the leader of the superheroes, Henry Pym, better known as Giant-Man, is responsible for coming up with the technology necessary to transport the heroes from world to world across the universe in order to gobble up any humans that they can. Given the nature of such a complex task, Pym has to keep his wits about him while focusing on his work otherwise he is useless. In order to do this, he has to take the edge off of his hunger before it gets out of control and reduces his ability to think straight, and what better way to do this than by keeping a real live human tied up in the basement and using him as an occasional snack bar!

So why don’t we do the same thing?

Not the whole holding another dude hostage and eating him thing, but the stopping your hunger before it becomes an issue.

Have A Cookie

In order to lose fat, you need to achieve a caloric deficit, either through more activity, less food or a combination of both. How great that deficit is is based on how fast you want to safely and realistically reach your goals, but in general the larger the deficit the more physical hunger you’re going to experience. This time around though, instead of having an almighty binge when those thoughts of hunger feel downright unbearable, just have a cookie.

Have a cookie?!

Yep, have a cookie.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be a cookie, but have whatever it is that will sooth the beast within, allowing you to continually move forward towards your goal. Will having a small bag of chips now keep you from setting up residence at the all-you-can-eat buffet a few days down the road? Then eat ‘em – then get right back to work. Alternatively, you could also simply eat a little bit more of the food you’re already eating. If you constantly find yourself repeating the cycle that I talked about earlier, then you need to consider moving into a smaller deficit. Lyle McDonald wrote a great piece on caloric deficits that you should check out. Regardless of the scenario, I’d rather see someone take one small step back and preserve their sanity and momentum than take a huge hit and moonwalk all the way back to where they started, perhaps even further. Yes, it will take longer to reach your goal, but I’d much rather see that happen than have you constantly reinforce negative thought patterns that come from not achieving what you set out to do.

If that option doesn’t appeal to your Spartan dietary sensibilities, than you only have one other option.

Nut Up Or Shut Up

Accept the fact you’re going to be hungry at some point and anticipate it. Knuckle down and get it done if it is that important to you. If you’re not willing to do any of these things, then you can simply keep replaying this infinite loop until you get tired enough to do something about it. Like Captain Planet said folks, the power is yours.

What dietary blunders have you made in the past and what did you do to solve them? Leave your answer in the comment section below!

* – No, I’m not from Canada.

Photo Credit: istolethetv

It really burns my biscuits (and not just any biscuits – I’m talking Red Lobster Cheddar levels of biscuiticity here!) when I create a program for a gym member only to find out that they’re kinda sorta not really doing the program that I wrote for them at all. That’s right madame, you most certainly did mistake a set goblet squat for 10 sets of tricep kickbacks, but it’s a simple error and I completely understand how you could have gotten the two confused. Needless to say, it’s refreshing to have a client who is excited to train and trusts me enough as a trainer to know that I have their best interest in mind.

Enter Kiersten.

I’ve been training with Kiersten for 4 weeks and in that short amount of time her progress has been nothing short of fantastic. Like many people she is looking to drop a few pounds, but she began  our sessions with the mindset that it takes time to achieve results – a rarity in this day and age where people don’t want results today, but last week. Working with Kiersten has been an absolute joy for me, not only because she has such a positive attitude, but because no matter what is going on in her life outside the gym, she shows up with a bright smile and a willingness to straight up crush it.

I currently train her 3x a week using full body workouts, with a little extra focus on her posterior chain during each session, which ranges from trap bar deadlifts, 45 degree back extensions, and, of course, the illustrious hip thrust. As much as she loves the strength training aspect, I think she gets her jollies by crushing the circuit that concludes each training session. I’ve taken Escalating Density Training, a concept brought to the mainstream by Charles Staley, and applied it to her fat loss circuits. I pretty much just set the clock for 10 minutes and let her cause as much chaos as she can within that time frame. The progression method is simple – each following session she strives to do more work than she did last time within that same 10 minutes.  Since we started incorporating these circuits during week 2, she has improved her performance each and every session.

Here is one of her most least favorite circuits:

• Forward Sled Drag – 50lbs (25 Yards)
• 30 punches on the punching bag
• Medicine Ball Slams – 12lbs (10 reps)
• Jumping Jacks – 20 reps

And would you look at that, no bulk whatsoever. She feels stronger, her clothes fit better, and already she is noticing positive changes in her physique. Whowouldathunkit? Great job, Kiersten!

Photo Credit: Multitrack