The Hardest Part of Body Transformation

Today, I’m going to talk about the hardest part about transforming your body. See if it’s ever affected you?

What’s the hardest part about transforming your body, whether your goal was to lose fat, gain muscle, or simply be healthier?

Would it be because you don’t know what to do? If so, I’ll list all the steps you need to take to lose fat, build muscle and simply be healthier below.

Lose Fat – Everything you need to do:

1. Do resistance training 2-3 times per week with big, multi-joint movements.
2. Be active in the rest of your life
3. Get Enough sleep (at least 7 hours per night)
4. Find a way to eat that will allow you to stay in a slight caloric deficit (any way of eating will suffice). Start with 11-12 calories per pound of body weight and adjust from there.
5. Keep your protein intake high (40 grams per meal)
6. You can choose to do cardio or not.
7. Keep 80% of your diet from whole, nutritious foods, 10% from “crap” foods and 10% from not good, but not crap foods (“Not good, but not crap foods” is where alcohol falls)

Gain Muscle – Everything you need to do:

1. Do resistance training 3 times per week with big, multi-joint movements for 80% of the movements and 20% single-joint movements (percentages don’t have to be perfect).
2. Be active in the rest of your life
3. Get Enough sleep (at least 7 hours per night)
4. Find a way to eat that will allow you to stay in a slight caloric excess (any way of eating will suffice). Start with 14-15 calories per pound of body weight and adjust from there.
5. Keep your protein intake high (1 gram per pound of body weight)
6. You can choose to do cardio or not, but if you choose to do so, make sure it doesn’t impede recovery
7. Keep 70% of your diet from whole, nutritious foods, 15% from “crap” foods and 15% from not good, but not crap foods (“Not good, but not crap foods” is where alcohol falls)

Become Healthier – Everything you need to do:

1. Do resistance training 2-3 times per week with big, multi-joint movements.
2. Be active in the rest of your life
3. Get Enough sleep (at least 7 hours per night)
4. Find a way to eat that will allow you to eat at a caloric balance. Start with 12-13 calories per pound of bodyweight and adjust from there.
5. Keep your protein intake high (2x’s RDA recommended amount)
6. Do some form of cardio at least 1-2 days per week for at least 30 minutes (this can be broken up into 10-minute blocks and be done on the same days you do resistance training)
7. Keep 80% of your diet from whole, nutritious foods, 10% from “crap” foods and 10% from not good, but not crap foods (“Not good, but not crap foods” is where alcohol falls).

And that’s it. That’s literally all you need to know to ever lose fat, gain muscle or stay healthy for the rest of your life. Don’t they all look eerily similar? Here’s the thing – they are.

The Secret Sauce to Body Transformation

People come to me, often looking for the “secret sauce” of what’s going to get them results.

I’ll tell you what is missing from all the lists above and is truly the “secret” when it comes to losing fat, gaining muscle, staying healthy, and just transforming your body.

Are you ready for it?

The secret to transforming your body:
Consistency

Consistency is the hard part.

And what makes consistency hard?

It’s obviously not the knowledge of what to do – It’s all up there.

It’s not necessarily our desires. I’m pretty sure you all want to look or feel somewhat better. I know I do.

It might be how we prioritize those goals – although if pressed, you might say your health is pretty damn important.

So if it’s not what to do, our desire to do it or whether or not we think they’re important, then what is it?

The weak link with any body transformation is:
Our Mindset

I can go on for a very long time with our mindset. Here are 5 examples of how our minds sabotage our consistency.
A: “ I worked out hard, so I deserve to eat this snack.”
That snack ends up having double the calories you burned during your workout.

B: “I’ve been working so hard. I don’t know why I’m not seeing progress.”
This is after 4 weeks of effort. After 4 weeks, most people wouldn’t notice progress, even if there was some. And sometimes, it takes, GASP, 8 weeks of focused effort before your body starts to realize – “Hey, this human is doing something different. Let’s adapt,” and that’s when you actually *start* to see some progress.

C: “I like eating too much. It’s not worth it.”
Who said you had to stop eating? Sure, if you’re trying out for My 700-lb Life, and want to be gluttonous all the time, then yeah, maybe this isn’t for you. But, if you’re trying to lose weight and think the only way is to completely deprive yourself, then that’s a mindset problem, not a “you can’t eat” problem.

D: “Everything I do, doesn’t work.”
Doubtful. What I usually find is, you haven’t put in enough work, over a long-enough period of time to see progress. Look at “B” on this list. Usually people give up before their body has really had a chance to catch up with what they’re doing.

E: “I don’t have enough self-control/willpower.”
No one does. And the people who do, eventually burn the F’ out. If you’re relying on willpower or self-control as the way that you will change your body, you’re doing it wrong. You need habits. Habits are mindless and automatic. If every day you need to summon willpower or self-control for every food choice or workout you have, you’re not going to last very long.

And those things are literally just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how I see our minds fucking with us.

It happens to all of us, nearly every day.

We justify our ‘failures’ by saying “We don’t care.”

We talk ourselves into giving up, when it’s the exact moment we should double down on our efforts.

And most heartbreakingly, we give up before we even begin. (Hat tip: Dear Evan Hansen)

We let fear determine our actions, or inactions, instead of love for who we are and what we’re capable of achieving.

It’s time for a change.

Let’s Have a Conversation

I got to this part of the email and all of the writing that had been coming natural, stopped. Why did it stop? Because now I feel like I should sell this program that I earnestly believe in.

But I have no desire to do so. Not because I don’t want you to do the program. I do.

But because, every time I write to sell, I lose the essence of “who I am” in the writing. It becomes facts, instead of a conversation. And I don’t need to spew more facts – that’s not going to help you change.

A conversation can.

So if you’re interested in the program and want to have a conversation about it, let’s set up a time for a call.

We can set up a time for a conversation (All calls will be 15-minutes):
Tonight (1/4/18) from 7 pm to 8:30 pm
Tomorrow (1/5/18) from 6 to 8 pm
Sunday from 1 to 4 pm
Sometime next week

A quick overview of Fat Loss University

1. Starts January 15th (not this Monday, but next Monday)Super affordable $12 per week
2. Program designed to help you build healthy lifestyle habits
3. All the other things you need: Meal plans (3 sample ones), Workouts (with more being added), ways to overcome the biggest obstacles you face (mindset blocks)
4. A community based program with daily check-ins to help keep you on track, no matter where you are

So, if you’re interested in making a better change, to stop letting fear determine your actions, but instead, love for who you are and what you’re capable of, let’s set up a time for a conversation.

Cheers!
John