In Lean Eating, we keep data on everything clients want to improve. Wanna lose weight? Step on the scale. Wanna be more precise and lose fat? Get out the calipers and measure body fat. Wanna fit into your skinny clothes? Try them on once in a while. Wanna feel better? Then every few weeks, actually ask yourself how you’re feeling, write it down, and review it every few months.

Basic stuff right? Bullshit. I work with professional athletes and teams, I consult with major gym chains on their personal training practices, I work one-on-one with clients from all walks of life from all over the world. And believe me: practically no one does this. In fact, sometimes I feel like we’re the only ones who really do this stuff, and the reason is because it works! There’s an old saying you’d be wise to follow: “What gets measured gets done.”

2. Take photos.

Admit it: you care — at least a little, and maybe a lot — about how you look. And that’s okay! In fact, it’s healthy and normal. Who doesn’t want to look great? Well, for the same way you’d measure weight loss if you want to lose weight, you better take photos if you want to look better. In Lean Eating, it’s built into the program: every few weeks, you step in front of the camera and snap a few photos.

Understand that it’s normal to not be totally at ease about taking photos of yourself at first. Just know that it’s a) a very important step toward self-awareness, without which you simply cannot change, b) the best way to document your hard work, and c) possibly the most motivating thing you will ever do for yourself.

(And remember, everyone starts in the same place: out of shape. Take a look at the Men’s and Women’s “before” photos from Lean Eating; think they were comfortable taking those shots? Then look at the “afters” and think about how they felt then.)

3. Do something every day.

One of my colleagues once put it best: if something is important, do it every day; if it’s not important, don’t do it at all.

Bingo.

Change happens only when you slowly tear down old habits and build new ones in their place. That has to be daily, in my experience. In fact, that’s one of the reasons exercise alone doesn’t work — doing something 3 times a week isn’t enough to build a new habit. That’s also why personal training isn’t very effective (unless it combines nutrition and daily habit building, like we teach in our Precision Nutrition Certification.)

Instead, in Lean Eating, you have something to do every day. A workout to do, a lesson to read, a habit to practice, fellow clients and coaches to chat with. If you want to get in the best shape of your life, ask yourself, “What’s one thing I could start doing every day?”

4. Make it easy.

To do something every day, you have to make that “something” easy enough that you’re 100% confident you could do it every day for 30 days. That often means scaling your ambitious plans way back.

Unfortunately, most people bite off way more than they can chew. They commit to working out an hour a day, eating four healthy meals, cutting out chocolate, running a marathon, cooking more, waking up earlier — nothing less than a complete overhaul of their lives. Maybe they’re able to do it all for 3 days, a week, some people even a little longer perhaps. But inevitably, they miss a day, then two . . . then it all falls apart. They lose confidence, feel guilty, beat themselves up, and go back to doing exactly what they were doing before: nothing. All or nothing.

Instead, make it easy on yourself, way easier than you think at first. Instead of eating 4 healthy meals a day, eat 1 healthy meal a day and give yourself permission to leave everything else the same. Can’t commit to that for 30 days? Hell, eat an apple a day. Or take fish oil each day. Or switch from your morning latte to a green tea, or water. Instead of working out an hour a day, how ’bout a 10-minute walk? Is that too much? What about a 5-minute walk?

“JB, don’t be ridiculous, that’s not going to do anything,” you might think. But that’s just your ego talking: you don’t want to look foolish or admit that something so easy might be all you can muster right now. All I can say is: stop that. That kind of thinking will keep you stuck exactly where you are. Let go of your ego, accept where you are, and commit only to something so easy that you could do it without thinking for at least 30 days straight.

[Note: the principle is valid no matter how advanced you are, too. I have elite athletes training 2 hours a day wanting to jump immediately to 4 hours. Why not start with another 15-20 minutes at first? Again, put your ego aside.]

In Lean Eating, we despise “all or nothing” thinking. Instead, we commit to “always something” — no matter how small at first.

5. Practice only one habit at a time.

In the Lean Eating Coaching Program, we have clients work on just ONE habit at a time. Often they find this frustrating at first, because they expect to be able to do everything, right away. But that’s just ego-driven impatience, and unfortunately change doesn’t work that way.

Numerous studies show that people are typically quite successful when they limit their change to one behavior at a time, for say 3-4 weeks before introducing a new one. BUT: introduce even 2 new behaviors at once, and the failure rate is nearly 100%.

That’s a tough lesson to learn. In fact, one of our $10,000 grand prize winners actually complained that the one thing he wished was different about Lean Eating was this one-habit-at-time thing — why couldn’t we have taught him all this stuff at the beginning?!!

Well, because then he would have failed.

Again, put your ego aside, and change your expectation: people can only change one behavior at a time. So pick one — anything positive will do — and give yourself permission to leave everything else in your life as-is, at least for now. There will be plenty of time for the rest, trust me. People overestimate how hard change will be, and underestimate how long it will take. Stick to one habit at a time, and you’ll get there.

6. No “wondering & worrying” questions.

Ah, another tough lesson to learn. Change is an uncomfortable process, always. You leave what you know (your habits, your lifestyle, your environment) and by trying something new, you take a tentative step into an unknown and uncertain place.

So the first thing clients do is try to resolve that tension, try to make it “certain” again, by asking all kinds of frenzied questions and working themselves into a panic:

• “What about this supplement, or that?”
• “What do you think about this theory / guru / article I read / study that was published?”
• “What about when (unforeseeable future event) happens — what do I do then?”
• “What about (rare, irrelevant and highly unlikely situation) — what do I do in that case?”
• etc., etc.

In Lean Eating, we call these “wondering & worrying” questions, and we have a strict ban on them, because although they’re well-intentioned, they don’t reduce anxiety at all. In fact, they do the exact opposite, whipping people into a froth of nail-biting and distracting them from the only two questions that matter:

1. What should I do today?
2. How do I do that?

The first question is asking for the next step, the “right now.” That’s the only thing you should concern yourself with, because it’s the only thing you can control. The second question is asking for clarification and instruction, so that you can do what you need to do properly.

Those are the only two kinds of questions that lead to calm, focused action. They’re all we allow our clients to ask, and they’re all you should be asking too. So next time you find yourself asking a question about fitness, take a second and think, “Am I focused on what to do right now? Or is this just wondering and worrying?”

7. Get a little help from your friends.

We call this “social support” — and it makes all the difference in the world.

Who you have in your social circle — and what they do, and how they think — will have an almost magnetic pull on who you are. In fact, there is interesting new research showing that obesity spreads almost like an epidemic. The people in your life will forever be pulling you, even unconsciously, toward being just like them. As another of my colleagues likes to say, “You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.”

That’s all well and good, except when it comes time to change, because as you change those same people will be pulling you back to the way you were — usually not intentionally or maliciously, just . . . just because. They can’t help it.

When it comes to fitness and fat loss, the same applies. Now this doesn’t mean you need to scrap your friends and family and beg the local yoga teacher to adopt you. It just means that as you start to get in shape, you better get some other like-minded people in your life, or you’ll soon be putting the pounds back on faster than you lost them in the first place. I’ve seen it time and time again.

That’s why Lean Eating is a group program, with a social component to it: you can interact daily with people who are just like you, chasing the same goals as you. No matter where you are in the world, no matter where you’re starting, you will find people in the group just like you who get where you’re coming from. That reassurance, and even the mere realization that you aren’t alone in this, exerts a new sort of magnetic pull — this time, though, toward the life you want and not the one you’re leaving behind.

So take the opportunity to join groups or befriend new people who are doing what you want to do: maybe yoga or spin class, a friendly team sport league, even reconnect with a fit friend you maybe haven’t talked to in a while. Anything. Because if you don’t, beware the subtle but powerful pull back to where you were.

8. Be accountable to someone.

As much as you need to be picked up when you’re down, as much as you need be helped and supported from time to time, as much as you need some positivity in your life . . . you also need someone to kick your ass back into gear when you’re slacking, and help you snap out of the simple laziness that we all fall into from time to time.

In Lean Eating, that person is your coach, whose job it is to stay on top of you as much as it is to support you. If you miss a day, okay, fine; miss two, and we’re on you. If there’s a legitimate problem, we’ll help find a solution; if there’s just an excuse, we’ll call “bullshit” and get you back to being honest with yourself again.

Everyone needs someone to hold them accountable, especially in the beginning of a new process that they’re unfamiliar with. So who is that person in your life right now? Who challenges your excuses? Who helps you get back on track?

Who are you accountable to?

***

There you go, 8 lessons you can use right now to change your body, and ultimately your life — courtesy of the Lean Eating Coaching Program.

Pick one, and put it to use today, because that’s what it really takes to change.

…

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About the Author

Dr. John Berardi is the co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Precision Nutrition Inc. One of the world’s foremost experts on sport and exercise nutrition, Dr. Berardi has authored numerous peer-reviewed studies, books, textbooks and hundreds of magazine articles on the topics of exercise and sport nutrition.

As a nutrition coach and exercise physiologist, he has coached hundreds of elite athletes, among them professionals and Olympic gold medalists, and thousands of everyday folk through the Lean Eating Coaching Program.

Studying under renowned researcher Dr. Peter Lemon, Dr. Berardi received his PhD in Exercise Physiology and Nutrient Biochemistry at the University of Western Ontario and is an Adjunct Professor at Eastern Michigan University and the University of Texas.

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1. Give in, ease up on the intensity and take the easy road out or

2. Dig deep and suck it up because, “Pain is just weakness leaving the body.”

So what made me choose the latter?

An array of thoughts raced through my mind as I was about to make my split second decision. So I closed my eyes and channeled my energies to visualize for a moment exactly what I wanted and needed to achieve out of this class. The vivid image of a ‘sexy six-pack’ was all I could see. With each punch and jab I repeated that phrase in my mind, just like a broken record, over and over again. And all of a sudden, there it was…my second wind; a wicked burst of energy that had the power to blast me down the home straight.

Do you have a mantra that fires you up?
Trigger words that can change your attitude in the blink of an eye?

‘Sexy six-pack’ has been my mantra for quite some time now. It is what pulls me through when I want to give up. It forces me to think of the end result and not the pain of the present moment. Because when I ask myself, “How bad do I want it?” There is only ever one answer… Real bad.

That brings me to that “second wind.” Athletes talk about it all the time, but what is it?

In the concept of mindfulness we talk about “flow,” or being in the “zone.” “Flow is a heightened state of consciousness in which one is fully immersed in. Once achieved, mind and body work in perfect unison without conscious effort.” By letting go of everything else around us we can channel all our physical and mental energies into the task at hand. During this moment in time, our mind enters a magical state of ecstasy. In this state, all else ceases as our mind and bodies work in perfect harmony to achieve the desired result.

So how do we get there?

Well it all starts with having a goal. A goal so deeply ingrained within your subconscious that it will give you the strength to soldier on when the going gets tough. Goals enable you to summon the power within yourself when you begin to feel weak. Our minds are much stronger than what we are likely to believe. By nurturing this mind power we can achieve great things. But in order to do so requires a strategic plan. Initially we can get some results by just winging it. But when you are striving for so-called perfection, winging it does not cut it. You need to take baby steps, lots of them. Baby steps are goals. You need daily goals, weekly goals, monthly goals, short-term goals, and long-term goals. Goals are the strategic plans that propel you towards the end result.

Goals are typically written on a piece of paper (if not verbal) in the midst of excitement and then lost in a drawer or perhaps even thrown out. So what then happens? They are forgotten. Another year passes and we are back to square one. Goals need to be acted on—everyday.

I have a little blue book where all my dreams reside. My little blue book contains pages of goals, check-points, charts, accountability calendars, quotes, pictures, and affirmations. Every morning as I eat my breakfast, I ponder over my little blue book. This is my morning ritual. I enjoy the silence as my imagination roams free. During this time I am able to let go of everything that consumes me, allowing me to create my ultimate body. Here I experience my goals in the moment; this is where total awareness is achieved. Being in the now I can see perfectly how my ultimate body will look and how it makes me feels.

Lean, athletic, tight, sexy, confident, and radiant.

These are qualities that mean the world to me. I allow myself to feel all the emotions that are attached to these words. My morning ritual puts me in a positive mindset, the perfect way to start my day. It brings me excitement, focus, clarity, and determination. It is this combination that I need to lead me down the winning path.

Visualization as described above is a vital process on the path to my success. Visualization can give us the confidence to realize that success is possible. Repeating success in our minds on a daily basis builds self-belief. The unconscious mind cannot distinguish from the conscious one. Therefore, by allowing ourselves to access this state of mind where success has already been achieved makes the physicality of arriving there all the easier.

So take your first baby step, open up your little blue book, put pen to paper, visualize, and believe. Your journey to success begins with the mind. So feed your mind positive thoughts and watch the world around you take on a new light. Know that each day that passes you by brings you one step closer to achieving your ultimate goal. And before you know it, you’ll be living the dream that you were once dreaming of.

…

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About Author

Chelle Jeans is a certified nutritionist and personal trainer who is dedicating this new chapter of her life to find balance in mind, body, and soul. Her passion in life is learning how to create the ultimate body through the right combination of nutrition and fitness, and inspiring others along the way.

You can check out her blog here: http://chellesultimatechallenge.blogspot.com/

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Now, I’ve always made it clear who this type of diet is for. It’s for folks who area pretty lean already. So, if you’re closer to 20 or 30% body fat, it’s not for you at all. If you’re in this range,  your fat loss approach should start with The Precision Nutrition System.

Now, while the GSD is expressly for those already lean folks who want to get REALLY lean, the lessons learned from doing something like the GSD are absolutely universal. That’s why today’s update comes from Precision Nutrition Member, Canada K.

Canada K is a 37 year old guy, who, by day, is a chemical engineer and father of 3 boys. By night, however, he paints his face and turns into a bonified gym warrior.

During the last few months, with the help of the GSD, he’s made it his mission to drop the stubborn body fat. You know, the stuff that prevented him from ever dipping into the land of single digits – in other words, below 10%.  And drop it, he did, ending up around 6% body fat.

How did he do it? And what did he learn? Well, that’s what you’re here to find out. From the man himself.

Get Shredded Diet -
The 17 Lessons I Learned

I just came off a successful run at the Get Shredded Diet. It was such a mind-blowing experience, it took me several days to even partially wrap my head around everything I learned. Indeed, it was a brain explosion and I’m still processing everything. Following are my random thoughts, experiences, and philosophies around fat loss:

Lesson #1: If You Don’t Have The Body You Want, You’re Doing It Wrong
I’ve done the fat loss extreme (GSD) and, thank you very much, I kicked it’s a$$. The key was my attitude. It wasn’t until I got the right attitude that I starting seeing results.

Now, I thought I had it before, I really did. I’d have argued day and night that I had it. And, with a few people I did argue. But I didn’t get it. I was too confident in my knowledge. To certain I was on the right track. And because of that, I wasn’t doing the right workouts or eating the right stuff. It held me back.

Only once I admitted I didn’t know what I was doing 100% – only then did I begin to learn how to get lean. Only then did I start to discover the right workout and the right nutrition program. And my body followed suit. I started to get lean.

Before that, I was doing stuff wrong. That’s why I didn’t have the body I wanted. Perhaps that’s why you don’t have the body you want either.

Lesson #2: When Fat Loss Turns Invisible – The Dead Zone
Fat loss is a funny game when you get into the 10-15% range. Above 15%, any fat loss looks good. Your shape improves, you get slimmer, clothes get smaller, and so on.

Once you slide below 15%, the returns really diminish. You can lose a boatload of fat and it seems invisible. It’s not until you get below 10%, or even 8%, where abs start to appear, where your waistline starts to get really tight, and where veins really start to show up.

So basically, there is this giant dead zone in the middle where you’re making real gains but they’re incredibly unsatisfying. You must hang in there anyway. If you don’t, you’ll never be lean.

Lesson #3: When Fat Loss Turns Invisible – The Dead Zone, Part 2
At some point during the fat loss trek, everything seemed to stall. The scale was inching downwards, but the tummy looked the same, no abs in sight.  On and on the stupid diet went, and still no abs. Here’s why. My body was shedding fat from other, less sexy, places like my quads, my back and my a$$. I just wasn’t looking there. If I would have been, I might have been happier with my progress.

Our bodies are funny things, and fat will come off unevenly. Sometimes it’s not where we want it to come from most. It doesn’t matter. That’s the way it goes. You’ve gotta just keep plugging away. Because eventually the fat will be lost. All of it.

In my case, it’s clear that my abs won’t really pop until I get down to probably 5%. Others may be luckier, but that seems to be what I have to do.

Lesson #4: Food Is Only Fuel & All Eating Is Emotional
Fundamentally, food is fuel. The only other reasons we eat is for socializing and for emotional reasons. This probably ruffles feathers, but I am basically saying that all eating is emotional, especially overeating and unhealthy eating.

It is also nearly impossible to divorce the emotional aspect from eating and make it simply a re-fueling process. If it was, we’d all eat nutritionally perfect gruel and be perfectly happy with it. Getting to an elite level of body comp and staying there requires wrapping your head around the FACT that the reason you reach for the bag of Doritos, or the cheesecake, or the Aero bar is emotional eating.

Lesson #5: Eating Will Always Be Emotional… Learn To Use That
I don’t think we ever completely get past the emotional aspects of eating. But the people who are most successful at attaining elite body comp are the ones who get past it, and learn to look at food purely as fuel.

Decadent foods like pizza or ice cream become special occasions, kind of like the rest of the world might treat an expensive bottle of champagne. They are things to be savored and enjoyed rarely, not as a staple.

Think about this: a person who indulges in booze every day is called an alcoholic. Someone who indulges in junk food every day is called… your average North American.

Lesson #6: Fat Loss Is Easy, It’s Your Brain That’s Getting In The Way
This will pi$$ a lot of people off, but fat loss is actually pretty easy. It’s way, WAY easier than muscle gain. It’s not always pleasant, it’s pretty much always socially uncomfortable, and it forces you to go against the grain of your friends, coworkers and family. But when we break it down to a pure physiological process, fat loss is easy.

It’s all the mental stuff tied up in eating that make it pretty much impossible for most of the world. It’s the emotions around eating, the addiction to the taste and the feeling of food, the bonding that comes from sharing food with others, and the sense of belonging that comes from “going with the flow”.  Most people fail not because they don’t have the right diet plan, not because they don’t have access to the right food, and not because they don’t know or understand exactly what they need to do. All the physiological elements are in place, and they work. Most people fail because they don’t consider the psychological aspect of the diet.

Food, particularly sugar and refined carbohydrates, is addictive. The cravings can be emotionally crippling. Hunger is a feeling completely foreign to westerners and we can’t handle it; it breaks us as brutally as being physically beaten.

There’s also the profound sense of alienation that comes from doing something “different”. Once food and shelter are taken care of, our number one need as human beings is to feel like we belong. When a person starts a diet they isolate themselves form the norm. And the single most social thing we do, as a species, is share food and drink. Many people will abandon a diet because it feels like they’re excluded, and for a heavy person already feeling badly about their self-image and their sense of belonging, that’s just too high a price to pay. They’d rather be obese than alone.

I’m not trying to be all haughty and holier-than-thou, let me be the first to admit I’m an emotional eater. I get a profound sense of happiness from sweets. It’s such a satisfying feeling it is (honestly and without exaggeration) practically sexual. But now I can control the psychological aspects of eating, and for long periods I can treat food purely as fuel. I feel like if any single thing allows me call myself an upper-tier gym warrior it’s that.

Lesson #7: Re-feed Days Are Great And Terrible
Re-feed days are a mixed blessing. For the most part, the key is learning to stop eating when you get “satisfied”, but that is very hard to do when you’re in the throes of indulging your carb addiction. It’s like telling an alcoholic to have just 1 beer.

I found myself eating things I didn’t even want because the day was almost over, and if I didn’t eat the ice cream, or the chocolate bar, or the donuts now, I’d miss my chance for another two weeks! How stupid is that?

So be careful with re-feeds. Because they can be very helpful during something like the GSD. However, when emotions kick in, they can become difficult to control. Again, all eating is emotional!

Lesson #8: Busting Out Of The Rut
I would never have pushed myself to this extreme if I hadn’t been afraid of being humiliated. In hindsight, what I did wasn’t even that extreme; it just looked that way from deep inside the walls of my rut.

I had no idea how many constraints I had put on myself, or how many different avenues I had simply refused to explore, until I climbed out of my rut and looked back at my old self.

We are all putting constraints on ourselves, telling ourselves “no I can’t”, “that’s doesn’t work for me”, “it’s too hard to try”. It’s all self-deluded horses##t, and no one is doing it to us. We’re doing it to ourselves. And we must stop. For our physical and our mental health.

Lesson #9: Competition Drives Us To Great Heights
Competition is probably the only thing that pushed me from good to great. And that’s why I’m so glad myself and some of the other PN guys decided to do this.

The fear of losing horribly and being humiliated in our little ad hoc contest was a strong motivator. Plus, the desire to win was also very strong. In fact, these were the only reasons I ever considered puling myself out of my comfortable rut.

That rut was actually a grave. It’s a grave because once you put yourself into one, you’ll probably spend the rest of your life there, and die there too. So, if you want to make big chances, you’ll need a big goal. Compete for something. It’s very useful.

Lesson #10: No Limits
I could compete someday if I wanted to. I’m not saying that I’ve got such an exceptional body that I could walk away with a title or anything. I’m saying that there is no physiological reason why I couldn’t. My body type isn’t standing in the way, genetics aren’t standing I the way either.

My lifestyle, and what time I can afford to dedicate to bodybuilding IS standing in the way. My own mental toughness is another possible barrier, but much less of one than before. In essence, I realize that the only limits I have are those I place on myself. And I realize that I’m now in control of them.  Very liberating!

Lesson #11: Water Shedding
Before taking my “after photos,” I decided to try water manipulation. It’s something necessary to look your best. So I wanted to do everything I could.  Now, I can’t say for absolute certain that the water shedding made a significant difference. I believe it made me look leaner and fuller, but then again I wasn’t an ideal candidate: I’m not particularly huge nor was I lean enough where the differences would be most striking.

Plus I don’t feel like I’m sophisticated enough to know the feeling of “flat” versus “full” versus “depleted”.  I also wasn’t able to follow the process exactly, and I’m told water-shedding is an extremely delicate balance, so that would have been another factor.

Still, I feel like it made my muscles look bigger and rounder. It was a worthwhile experience to try, because once again it forced me to do something way outside my usual rut .

Lesson #12: Water Shedding & Drinking Tons Of Water
As part of my water manipulation, I had to drink 3 gallons of water a day for a few days. This was actually harder than the diet. It’s a physically demanding task in ways that really surprised me. Much like the first few days of the GSD were depressing, so was water loading. The only difference was, by the time you start getting used to it, it’s over.

Lesson #13: Bodybuilding Is About Creating An Illusion
So much of what we see in magazines and on stage is actually kind of fake.

Compare Cliff (another PN Member who also did the GSD recently) and I. The big guy has 25 pounds of pure muscle more than I do, and only 8 pounds more fat. He is clearly the better bodybuilder. But the human eye is fooled into seeing leaner muscles as being bigger. When you rely on the human eye, I got the edge.

It makes no damned sense! But, at the same time, it’s the truth. So remember this, the leaner you are, the bigger you seem to look. Especially with your shirt off. And in pictures.

Lesson #14: A Great Body Looks Lousy With Lousy Photography & Lighting
When you take a picture of yourself, how it looks has as much to do with the lighting, the coloring, the angle, and just sheer dumb luck as the condition of your body.

I took a dozen front-double bicep pictures on photo day. Some made me look soft and small, but the one I picked made me look huge. The others were just bad pictures.

And don’t forget other finishing touches. I fake-tanned for a month before the pictures, and believe me I was brown! I still looked pasty white under the light of the sun. This over-exposed-washing-out tends to blur the muscular detail makes abs invisible.

So if you’re taking a picture, you need to have some color or you need to manage the lighting to compensate. Even the buffest bod looks smooth otherwise. Oiling up your body helps too. The oil catches the light and emphasizes definition. I took pictures with and without oil, and the difference is notable.

Lesson #15: Full-Body Shaving
Shaving was both interesting and a drag. Body hair definitely blurs the muscular details. But nothing is as irritating as the unbelievable itching in the inner thighs on the third day after a shave.

For men there is a balancing act. Unless a guy is freaky huge, or really lean, men look feminine with no body hair. But thick or dark hair hides the muscles, and makes anything but the buffest abs hard to see. Plus uber-hairiness is off-putting to the ladies.

My compromise going forward is that I’ll keep shaving my arms (who likes hairy knuckles?) and probably my abs. I’ll use clippers everywhere else (except… well… there!).

Lesson #16: Bigger Muscles Show Better Than Small Ones
There are two ways for your muscles to really “pop”. Either you get rid of all the fat covering them up, or you grow those muscles really big so that they are easier to see underneath the fat.

That’s why a more muscular guy can look really good at higher body fat, the bigger muscles are still easily visible. As a slimmer guy, the message is clear. If I want to look like an underwear model I either have to maintain sub 7% body fat, or I have to gain a bunch more muscle.

Lesson #17: It’s An Exclusive Club
I think maybe 1 person in 1,000 will ever be able to drag themselves down to single digit body fat as adults. It’s way, way, WAY easier to be obese.

However, for those who are willing to commit to getting very lean, it’s totally possible. You just have to remember this. You probably don’t know what you’re doing – yet. You probably don’t know what you’re getting into – yet. Do it anyway. You’ll learn so much along the way. And when you stall, don’t be afraid to reach out for help. The PN Member Zone is a great place to do just that.

For More Help
Those are some great lessons from our friend, Canada K. Now, for those of you wondering how you too can become part of the “exclusive leanness club,” here’s how I recommend getting started.

Step 1: Begin with The Precision Nutrition System.
This is the cornerstone of everything we do here at Precision Nutrition. Skipping this step is like building a house on a foundation of sand.  In other words, don’t do it. Get the right plan from the start.

Step 2: Once you’re lean, that’s when you can try the GSD.
As above, once you’ve built a foundation of good habits with the PN System, and you get your body fat down to the mid-teens, that’s when you can take the next step, just like Canada K did.

Step 3: Think about the Lean Eating Program.
As Canada K said above, fat loss is mostly about your brain – and how it gets in the way. If you’re the type of person who’d like to skip the trial and error and get right down to business with expert coaching, a rock-solid support system, and a system that guarantees your success, make sure you put your name on the waiting list for our next Lean Eating group. The next one kicks off in January of 2010.

…

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About the Author

Dr. John Berardi is the co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Precision Nutrition Inc. One of the world’s foremost experts on sport and exercise nutrition, Dr. Berardi has authored numerous peer-reviewed studies, books, textbooks and hundreds of magazine articles on the topics of exercise and sport nutrition.

As a nutrition coach and exercise physiologist, he has coached hundreds of elite athletes, among them professionals and Olympic gold medalists, and thousands of everyday folk through the Lean Eating Coaching Program.

Studying under renowned researcher Dr. Peter Lemon, Dr. Berardi received his PhD in Exercise Physiology and Nutrient Biochemistry at the University of Western Ontario and is an Adjunct Professor at Eastern Michigan University and the University of Texas.

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No Pain, No Gain.

The Ultimate Truth?

Success with your body and in every area of your life is all about stepping outside of your comfort zone and that means embracing pain.

To reach high levels of physical and personal success you must approach your training, and your entire life, as an endeavor in constant growth. The ultimate truth is, you are either moving forward or moving backward; growing or dying. There’s no such thing as comfortably maintaining.

To grow, you must step above past achievements; beyond your perceived boundaries and limits. That means stepping out of the known, into the unknown; out of the familiar and into the unfamiliar; out of the comfortable into the uncomfortable. You must get out of your comfort zone.

The Late Cavett Robert, who was founder of the National Speakers Association, said something I’ll never forget:

“Most people are running around their whole lives with their umbilical cords in their hands and they’re looking for some place to plug it back in.”

Most people are scared of the new, unknown and unfamiliar. They prefer to stay in that womb of comfort. When the going gets tough; when the effort gets painful, when the work gets hard, they always pull back into safety. But the extraordinary people do the opposite. They know they have to get out of the comfort zone, and into new territory or they’ll stagnate and die.

Walt Disney once said that he never wanted to repeat a past success. He was always creating something new. They called it “Imagineering.” Disney’s mission was to continuously dream up and create things they had never done before, and look at what Disney has become today.

Here’s a little quote that you should post on your bulletin board, your computer desktop or somewhere you will always see it:

“Do what you always did, get what you always got.”

You can’t grow or change by doing what you’ve already done. You’ve got to train just to prevent yourself from going backwards. Maintenance doesn’t occur when you do nothing, maintenance is working to fight entropy (the tendency for things to naturally deteriorate).

Still, most people won’t leave their comfort zones. They won’t do it in business, they won’t do it in their personal lives. They won’t do it in their sport. They won’t do it for personal health and fitness. Why? The answer is simple… It hurts.

By definition, what’s it like outside the comfort zone? It’s UN-COMFORTABLE, right? Change is uncomfortable. Sometimes it’s physically painful, but it’s always mentally and emotionally painful, in the form of discipline, sacrifice, uncertainty and fear.

The maxim, “no pain no gain” gets knocked all the time as if it were bad advice. The fact of life is that you don’t grow unless you are constantly stepping outside the comfort zone, and outside the comfort zone is discomfort and pain.

How Champions and Winners Think

I find that it’s mostly the non-achievers who make out “no pain, no gain” to be a bad thing. But the winners get it. The champions understand stepping outside the comfort zone in a healthy context, so they embrace it.

When you’re talking about the Olympics, or pro bodybuilding or the Super Bowl or a world championship, you’d better believe it’s physical pain, it’s discipline, it’s sacrifice, it’s blood, sweat, and tears – literally. But for most people who simply want to go from unfit to fit, from overweight to ideal weight, it’s not so much about physical “pain”; it’s more like stretching yourself.

How do you develop flexibility? What does your trainer tell you? You stretch to the point of discomfort, but not to the point of pain, right? You get into a position of slight discomfort and you hold it just long enough, then what happens? The discomfort goes away, because the muscle becomes more pliable, and the range of motion is increased.

Each time, you stretch a little further, just barely into the range you’ve never been in before, and eventually, you’re doing the splits. And why do you approach it like that? Because you don’t want to injure yourself. Stretch too far, too fast and your muscle tears.

The elite athletes and high achievers really have to push themselves; they’re going to push their boundaries and test their limits. But if you’re not an elite athlete or seasoned bodybuilder, and you take the advice, “no pain, no gain” too literally, you’re going to end up getting injured.

I always say to my training partner when I watch him cringing during a set and he finishes up with that pained look on his face, “Are you injured, or just hurt?” He knows what I’m talking about. If he says he’s hurt, I say, “OK, good. As long as you’re not injured. Let’s get on with it. Next set.”

Good Pain vs Bad Pain

It’s not about injury. That is bad pain. Pushing yourself through that is stupidity. But do stretch yourself. You can’t improve unless you stretch yourself. If someone just wants too “stay fit” – OK fine. It actually doesn’t take that much to stay fit, once you’ve already achieved it.

But what if you want to improve? What if you want a new body? What if you want to change? If that’s what you want, you’ve got to push yourself a little. You’ve got to break comfort zones. And if your body is not changing, then I don’t care how hard you think you’re working, whatever you’re doing right now is inside your comfort zone.

The statement “no pain, no gain” has been misinterpreted, criticized and labeled a fallacy by many. However, the people doing the criticizing are almost always comfort zoners who haven’t achieved much. Don’t listen to them. Instead, follow the small percentage of people who step out and achieve great things.

Embrace the “good pain” of growth like the champions do. Soon it subsides, you enjoy the benefits of the change and the pain is forgotten. You’ve reached a new, higher plateau of achievement. Enjoy the view for a short while. But be on guard because it’s not long before that higher level becomes your new comfort zone and then its time to press on again.

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About the Author

Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT) and a certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS). Tom is the author of the #1 best-selling e-book, “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using the secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models.

Learn how to get rid of stubborn body fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com. To learn more about Tom’s Fat Loss Support Community, visit: www.burnthefatinnercircle.com Natasha Lepore of UCLA; and Christian Gaser of the University of Jena in Germany.

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The Fountain of Youth World Summit with Dax Moy, one of the four most successful achievement coaches for personal trainers in the world.

Kevin: WOW! What’s next?

Dax: What’s next is know why you want it. To be really, really honest, most people don’t know why they want what they want. Or they will never admit it to themselves. You know what, they’ll say “oh yeah I would like a new Land Rover Discovery”, in my case you know? “Why do I want it?” You know it’s a great car. And that’s when most people start, “it’s a great car; made me feel…” Basically when I actually went through the “why do I want it” phase, what it really, really, really came down to was: it would make me feel successful, it would make me feel special, it would make me feel like I made it. Those are the obvious reasons. Because it is a great car, it’s got x horsepower, and the wheels are shinning; they are not really good reasons. They are not the things that I see that are going to hold you on course when things get tough, okay? But, when you know why you want it, when you get to the bottom of the real reason well, actually you know? Again, if I even dig a little bit deeper; for most of my life I felt poor, and I felt like I wasn’t going to amount to anything. This was going to make me feel rich, like I was turning into something that I wanted to be.

Kevin: Right, fantastic stuff. So, we have gone through the “why”. So now; what are the next couple of steps?

Dax: The next couple of steps. Know the price. There is a price for everything. You know, you want new shoes, there is a price. You want to get fit, there is a price. Too many people they enter into the beginning phases of a goal, maybe thinking about what they want and why they want it, but they don’t actually say; what is this going to cost me? It might cost you in money. It might cost you in time, commitment, effort, and might cost you in things that; you know, if we are talking about health and fitness, the things that you may have to abstain from.

All I ask, in my personal training students here in the UK that we have — I just finished a team meeting just before I came up and some of my coaches were saying I am having problems with X, you know, and she is saying to me that she is unhappy with the right improvement that she is making. So, I said okay, let me see her journal. She has not been paying; we told her up front what the price was. We said no wheat, dairy, caffeine or alcohol. You’ve got to do your homework twice a day, which is, they are only 10 minute homeworks actually, but you’ve got to do them twice a day, you are going to read these books, you are going to go to sleep at this time at night, you can’t do this, you must do this… That’s not just us being really butting up; you telling me what your stated game is and me telling you the quickest way of getting there.

Kevin: I think it is fantastic that you put it so simply because a lot of people do spend a lot of time planning how they are going to be healthy, and then they get right to the point where, you know, they know what needs to be done and just freeze. What’s the tipping point there?

Dax: The tipping point is, very often what I have found is the people that, the people that struggle with paying the price didn’t commit successfully in the second phase, right? They weren’t really honest with why they wanted it.

And nine times out of ten when I find the person who fails to pay the price, it is going to be someone who wasn’t really honest with themselves about why they wanted it. The other one time out of ten will be a person that once they get there, once they get to the point of paying the price is usually because they don’t believe that the paying of the price will bring them the goods. Yeah, they are terrified. If I tell you that the price is X amount of workout per week, eat this way, go to sleep at this time and you go to sleep later, you only do half the workouts, and you have changed your nutritional strategy; you have not paid the price. And you are not going to get the goods.

Kevin: Wow! How do you practice differently now then you did when you first started? How has your approached changed with people, with the people you work with?

Dax: I’ll rap that up in really one simple answerable word, its systems. I was always a bit of a fly by the seat of my pants kind of guy. I am still very much in tune with my feelings and my emotive factors. I still pay a lot of attention to those but I’ve also tried to set systems up around things that mean, I guess I can reproduce myself. Instead of being one Dax Moy, there are twenty people in my studios doing things exactly the same way Dax Moy does them. So, you get the same workout with them that you’ll get with me. I guess that is one of the biggest things; system, I don’t just mean in terms of my business no, I’ve got a systematic approach in my year. Every single twelve weeks my family and I take a vacation, every twelve weeks without fail. I would consider my year to be spiralling down if that didn’t happened. I don’t work Wednesday or Friday evenings anymore. No, that is not part of my system. I work the rest of the week; I don’t work weekends either anymore actually. It’s kind of like saying, “look for most things there are some exceptions to the rule, but most of us, don’t live within the rule; we live within the exceptions”. I think that’s what I was doing. That is what a lot of my clients do. That is what my students do. That is what a lot of my readers do. They spend their lives living within the exceptions.

Kevin: Well, it kind of answers my last question. If everyone took and maybe you can expand on that; if everyone took one thing away from this particular call, what will it be?

Dax: Set in place a system that will make you happy. For me happiness is the ultimate aim of life. Consider these quotes; “you know I am having a great day today. Why am I feeling so great today?” “I had a great conversation with someone today. I went for a great meal at lunch time, I didn’t rush; I took my time; I still had time to read a book, you know.” “My desk was clear when I got into work this morning that made me feel completely different for the start of my day.” These are all just ingredients for the recipe of happiness and none of us have exactly the same recipe. For example, in my life, I also as well as my family value adventure. So, that is where the twelve weeks vacation comes in. My vacations are pretty adventurous. I have lived in the outback of Australia in a camp cabana. I have parachuted on to the Great Barrier Reef.

So, if I get all the other ingredients and I tell my family that I love them; my work is going great; I have a great meal and I read a book, but now twelve weeks have gone by and I go, “God I haven’t had any adventure anymore”; I start to feel less than me. I no longer feel like me. I feel that in some way I’m starting to diminish.

So, many people are going through life losing themselves. That’s because, quite simply, they are not following their own rules. If you don’t like the word rules, take that word and use the word recipe. You are not following your own recipe for what makes you happy. You know what it is; you know what the ingredients are. I need this amount of time; this amount of money; I need to read these amounts of books; this is the type of body I want; this is the type of sex life I want; this is this, this, this, this, and this, and this, and this. That’s your recipe ingredients but the only trouble is; most people either aren’t going out, you know; they are living on opposite ingredients, they are doing all the things they hate in life and they are wondering why their life is crap.

They might be getting some of the ingredients but not the rest and when they do get them, they never mixed them together. What I mean by mixing them together is creating that system. Here is an interesting thing, most people are looking; I hate people all the time telling me that they are trying to create work life balance, work life balance, work life balance; you hear this? And, I used to be a coach that tried to help people create work life balance. It only lasts six months you know; that is non-sense. We don’t want work life balance. Nothing in life is balance because once it becomes balance, it becomes still. Unless its movement, life’s action. So, we don’t want work life balance at all. I mean, you picture a see-saw right? When the see-saw is at a balance, when its in balance it is at rest; it is not moving.

Kevin: Wow! You know every time I’ve interviewed and talked with you Dax; I’ve really gotten some great insights from it. This is incredible stuff and we are running out of time.

Let me do a little talk here because I have the Magic 100 program and I did it and one of my goals was to go to California and I had no reason whatsoever to go to California and I just put it down there because I just kind of wanted to go. The funny thing about it is that things fell into place, I mean almost within 30 days I had a trip planned to go to California and I had a business meeting out there and there was an Expo out there, and then, it was just insane how it happened. Is it that once you do set the intention and you write it down and you say it out loud, man it just happens. And, just as a testimony to the Magic 100 for me is that I have done it and the power of it is just incredible!

To read the rest of this transcript as well as access more information by health experts on abundance, optimum health, and longevity just like Dax Moy, please visit (http://fountainofyouthworldsummit.com) .

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About the Author

Kevin Gianni is a health advocate, author and speaker. He has helped thousands of people in over 85 countries learn how to take control of their health–and keep it. To view his popular internet TV Show “The Renegade Health Show” (and get a free gift!) with commentary on natural health issues, vegan and raw food diets, holistic nutrition and more click here.

His book, “The Busy Person’s Fitness Solution,” is a step-by-step guide to optimum health for the time and energy-strapped. To find out more about abundance, optimum health and self motivation click here… or you’re interested in the vegan and raw food diet and cutting edge holistic nutrition click here. For access to free interviews, downloads and a complete bodyweight exercise archive visit www.LiveAwesome.com.

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