In this edition of the Nerd Fitness Reader Spotlight, I had to opportunity to interview Matt (67Alecto on the NF Message Boards), a guy who has lost 157 pounds in ONE YEAR.  Yup, Matt is the man.  I love his story because it wasn’t just “running on a treadmill for four hours a day,” it was an adjustment in his diet, mindset, and weight training!

Steve: Hey Matt!  Thanks for the interview man.  If you could, describe a typical day before you decided to change your life.

Matt: Apathy is a good word. I could detail eating 4000-7000 calories on a regular basis, but what it really came down to was apathy. I’d eat without thinking, eat without even really being hungry, and then snack simply because it was the usual time to have a snack.

My activity level was basically nil. I had torn my rotator cuff a few years ago and it took me from playing tennis 5x a week, playing on softball and flag football teams, plus working out at the company gym to nothing. My shoulder wasn’t much better after finishing physical therapy, and I only made a half-hearted effort the following year to try to workout again. It was “hard”, so I quit.

I went from being active enough to where I could at least keep up with the fork, to zero activity and no change in eating habits. I was already overweight, but over the next 4 years it added 100+lbs.

I’d go to work, come home, play computer games, go to bed sometime after midnight, wake up 6 hours later and start all over again.

Steve: What was your motivation to make that change? What put you over the edge?

Matt: The infamous “Ah hah!” moment that all obese people have when they decide to lose weight – I didn’t have one. I knew I had to lose weight, and that my health was horrible (I was taking 4 medications for cholesterol and bloodsugar). I just always told myself I’d get to it later.

I had been vaguely aware of Tyler over at 344pounds.com starting his weight loss blog. Consumerist had a few updates over the course of 6 months, and I had been curious as to how he would do. When he hit 100lbs lost, my thought was “If some random blogger can do it, I sure as hell can”. I set aside the excuses and got to work. I wasn’t happy, wasn’t feeling good, and it was no longer an option to continue this way.

Steve: So that was you a year ago.  What does your life look like now?  What’s a typical day for you?

Matt: Instead of letting the day happen to me, I attack it.

I value time I can spend outside being active. I started in July of 2009 and it was a mild summer. I could work in the yard, go walking in the neighborhood, and hiking on the weekends. I went from playing computer games 20+ hours a week to less than half that. It’s not that I’ve felt I had to sacrifice playing on the computer, it’s just that if I’m going to do it, I want it to be a richer experience rather than doing it just to do it.

Oh, and picking clothes out to wear is actually an enjoyable experience…or at least doesn’t suck like it used to.  In 1 year, I have lost 157lbs, went from 48″ pants to 34″, and in shirts from 5XL to 2X/XL (depending on the cut of the shirt, I wear either an XL or a 2XL to accommodate my shoulders). Shopping for clothes, needless to say, is much easier.

Steve: Congrats man, that’s a hell of a transformation in just one year.  If you could pick, what’s the one thing you think that had the most impact on your weight loss?

Matt: Setting aside all of the bull****. One of my favorite scenes from both the graphic novel and movie “Wanted” is with The Repairman. When asked by Wesley what he repairs, he simply states “A lifetime of bad habits” and then he proceeds to punch him over and over. That’s it right there.

At some point, we all need someone to tie us to a chair and beat the crap out of us (metaphorically speaking) until we realize we have to be accountable for our actions and stop making excuses. [Steve's note: AMEN.]

“I’m tired. I’m hungry. I gained 10lbs after eating a Hershey’s kiss last night. It’s hard. It hurts. I’ll just circle the parking lot one more time to see if that spot opens up. I drank 12 beers and ate 40 wings over the weekend, but I don’t understand how I didn’t lose weight this week. It’s a holiday, so I’m federally required to eat 10,000 calories.”

If you can’t be accountable to yourself…if you can’t stop lying to yourself, then you just aren’t ready to change.

Steve: That’s a helluva attitude Matt, I love it.  This is question I couldn’t wait to ask: wow important has weight training been to your success?

Matt: Extremely. I started out walking, and supplemented it with resistance band workouts every other day. Eventually, I discovered the “No Gym, No Problem” post at Nerd Fitness and started doing level 1. I couldn’t do a pushup, but instead of skipping it because it was hard, I tried it on my knees. Nope, not happening. Should I quit? Nope…do them on the stairs. I started about 5 stairs up and was able to do the sets with wide and close grips.

I couldn’t do pullups, nor inverted rows, so I had to skip those. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t do the squats, lunges, and so on.

Once winter was truly here, I went ahead and joined a gym since walking outside wasn’t an option. The gym is 24×7, and I started with a mix of dumbbell and machine work. Farmer’s carries, squats on the smith machine, cable rows, bicep curls, tricep extensions, seated shoulder press, and so on. It could have been worse, but it wasn’t as good as it was once I discovered Stronglifts 5×5. I started out doing the overhead, bench, and squats in the smith machine because the freeweights were always being used by these two guys who worked out at the same time.

Like most gym goers they eventually stopped coming, and I switched to the free weights.

I started out with the bar, and have worked up to overhead 115, squats 340, bench 165, and deadlift 235. The ego kicks in every now and then about how my bench and overhead are so far behind, but I remind myself that I am running a calorie deficit and can’t expect big gains. I’ve currently deloaded on bench and deadlift and am working my way back up to ensure my form is good.

Steve: Had you tried losing weight in the past? If you had failed then, what has made you succeed now?

Matt: When the mood would strike me, I could lose weight by portion control and working out 5x a week. About 10 years ago I started working for a company that had an on-site gym, and I lost about 50lbs over the course of 2 years. As my job changed, I’d like to say that I didn’t have time to workout, but really what it was was the apathy…I let it drop down in my priorities. I remember just before I started the new position, I bought a pair of 38″ jeans that I couldn’t quite button. I figured that I’d be in them in the next month. Never happened. Donated those jeans a few years later.***

As a young person, you always think that you’ll have time for everything you want to do. 10 years later, I know that I can’t be wasting my time anymore.

The reason why it is working for me now is because I’ve cut out the excuses.

Steve: Do you have any specific advice for other guys in the same boat, trying to lose a large amount of weight?

Matt: 4 things are essential:

• Figure out what your calorie needs are. There are tons of online calorie calculators out there. The one at http://www.phord.com/cc/ is great. Losing weight is “calories in < calories out.”
• Set your calorie goal at a point where you will lose weight regardless of your activity. Don’t let being sick, or getting an injury be an excuse to shovel food in your mouth.
• Keep a food log and track all of your calories. I use http://caloriecount.about.com/ because they were always coming up near the top of searches when I’d look up calorie information. All free, it has online logs for everything, and a giant database of foods and activities that are easily accessed.
• Be more active. Get at least 30 minutes of some sort of activity a day. I started out walking, and shooting around on the basketball court. But do the little things, too. Take the stairs, park in the first spot you find, walk to the mailbox, and so on.

Steve: Thanks Matt, that’s great advice. Onto the Nerd Stuff: favorite video game of all time?

Matt: Toss-up between Max Payne 1 and 2, and GTA: Vice City.

Max Payne 1 and 2 had amazing writing and great gameplay. I keep them together because the sequel had practically no changes to game play and just extended the story. The user mods for it like Kung Fu 3.0 took it even further. I used to love making gameplay movies since the developer keys enabled you move the camera around, slow things down, and more. Here’s one of my videos that has gotten a lot of attention over the years:

Vice City was such an immersive world. I’m still floored about how much they put into the 80s radio stations. Being the nerd that I am, I have ripped those files out of the game and have MP3s of VROCK, Flash, and Wave 103 that I still listen to regularly. I’d just drive around listening to the radio stations and try insane stunts. A big advantage of playing on the PC vs the consoles is having built-in replay functions which allow you to save out all the insanity.

Steve: Are you playing any game right now?

Matt: Left 4 Dead 1 and 2 are the ones I play on a regular basis.

Steve: If you could have one superpower, what would it be, and why?

Matt: Super strength. Chicks dig it when you can open jars for them.

Steve: Hahahahaha, touche’.  What’s your movie to live by?

Matt: They Live. “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I’m all out of bubblegum.”

Steve: What’s one piece of advice you would give to a random stranger?

Matt: Set a goal and start yesterday.

There ya have it folks – this is what’s possible when you “put aside all the bull****,” start to eat better, and pick up some weights.  And if you’re a female reading this article, don’t think weight lifting is only for guys – just ask Moe: the powerlifting gamer-girl you didn’t know existed.

-Steve

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Today, an 800-pound virtual gorilla is going to help you get in shape.

Everybody has played the original Donkey Kong at one point or another, right?  If you haven’t, here’s the premise: Donkey Kong has kidnapped the princess, and it’s your job as Mario to climb up ladders and over obstacles until you reach the top of the level where she’s being held captive.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, take 30 seconds to watch this video, and then join the conversation.

Who’s your princess?

Mario is constantly risking life and limb to scale a treacherous obstacle course, climbing faulty ladders, dodging rolling barrels, and escaping pesky flames. Why?  Because his lady friend has been captured by an damn dirty ape and he is her only hope of survival!  If you were put in Mario’s comically oversized boots, I bet you would do the same thing.

Take a look at your life and your quest for health: who is your “princess?” Why do you want to get in shape?  If you say “why not!” or “my friend told me to,” you probably won’t be jumping through hoops or over barrels to get there anytime soon.

Now, if you said, “because  I want to grow old with my wife” or “because my father died of heart failure at 53, and I want to actually see my kids grow up,” I bet you’ll actually take steps to turn your life around.

It doesn’t have to be this serious either: maybe your motivation is “I want to impress the cute waitress at the coffee shop and I know she works out” or “I want to look in the mirror and be proud of what I see.”  Whatever your “princess” is, keep that in your mind every day, especially on days when you feel like sleeping in/pigging out/doing nothing.

Secondly, do you have a set goal? Mario’s girlfriend was waiting at the top of the level, which meant Mario had a specific challenge to accomplish to rescue her.  What are your specific goals?

• Lose 95 pounds.
• Run 3 marathons in 2010.
• Bench press 200 pounds 5 times.
• Get down to a 34-inch waist.

Depending on how far away you are from your goal at the start, the longer  and more perilous the level might be.  No matter how far away that goal is however, as long as it’s in your mind and SPECIFIC, you’ll remember why you’re going through all this trouble and you’ll know how much further you need to go.

Barrels and Hammers

Mario’s journey from the bottom of the screen to the top is no cakewalk.  He’s got all kinds of garbage to contend with, including barrels hurled with ferocity by our furry villain.  Fortunately, Mario’s quite the acrobatic plumber, and provided he’s paying attention he can leap over these rolling barrels with ease.  Of course, he can also grab a super hammer instead, turning temporarily invisible and whacking the hell out of those things.

What are the barrels in your life? These are the obstacles that have derailed your previous weight loss efforts and will threaten to do so again if you’re not prepared.  Let’s see if any of this sounds familiar:

1) Extra difficult project at work. In the past, these stressful times at work are a reason to say “hell with it” and order pizza, hit up Taco Bell for fourth meal, and generally completely disregard your own well-being while putting the company first.

• Jump - Although it’s difficult, find a way to eat sensibly while going out for food during these few bad days and make a pact to get right back on the train once the workload slows down.  You also de-stress by going for a brisk walk every few hours to clear your mind.
• Hammer - In anticipation of a rough work week, you fire up a bunch of grilled chicken and cut up a bunch of veggies on Sunday night so you have all meals ready for the week.  You deftly avoid the vending machines and instead chomp down on a healthy snack brought from home.  Recognizing the importance of a clear mind, you still find time to exercise and come back to your desk refreshed.

2) 3-day holiday weekend. Ugh.  A million beers, six dozen hot wings, a truckload of hamburgers, and a pallet full of Ruffles have all been invited to a party in your stomach.

• Jump - You know that a long weekend is coming up, so you eat extra diligently for the days leading up to it.  A few days off the wagon aren’t enough to sabotage your adventure, and you get right back on track when the holiday is over.
• Hammer – It’s a weekend in the US, which means there’s probably a fun race going on that morning.   Instead of sleeping in, you sign up for the race, maybe raise some money for a good cause, and get something accomplished before you would even normally wake up!  That runner’s high carries you through the rest of the day while you enjoy some beers and surprisingly decent eating.

3) Freak snowstorm. Aw crap, you were going to go to the gym today, but there’s now eighteen inches of snow on the ground.  Oh well, looks like you now have the perfect excuse to lie the couch, eat Oreos, and watch a marathon of America’s Funniest Home Videos, right?  Fail.

• Jump - Just because you’re stuck inside doesn’t mean you have to put your life on hold.  Go about your normal routine, do a kick ass body weight exercise routine inside, and take care of business.
• Hammer - Screw the gym and pretend like you’re recreating the training montage from Rocky IV: go shovel the driveway, chop some wood, and climb a freaking mountain while screaming the name of your arch rival.

Our lives are full of these barrels.  Identify yours and have a game plan for how you’re going to deal with them.  Be prepared, plan ahead, and then either jump over them or hammer the hell out of them.

What happens if you get hit by one? Sh** happens, and every now and again you’ll get hit.  We’re all human, and this game of life isn’t easy.  Fortunately, unless you literally got run over by a barrel, you’re probably okay to get up and try again (wooo extra lives!).   So you ate like a pig, drank like a fish, and exercised less than Jabba the Hutt, WHO CARES.

Set your alarm for 7AM the next morning, get your ass out of bed, and get back on track.  That princess isn’t going to save herself.

The flames

As Mario is climbing the level, dodging barrels, grabbing hammers, and scaling ladders, there’s this little rinky-dink flame hanging out at the bottom.  It’s slow and clumsy, but it will eventually catch up to Mario should he become complacent and not advance further.

That flame is chasing you too.  Standing still and jumping over obstacles as they come to you can only take you so far – it’s time to make some progress.  Be stronger and faster today than you were yesterday – find a way to lift one extra pound, do one extra rep, and be one second faster.

Always be leveling up, and always be moving forward.

How’s your game of life going?

This is the part where we all help each other win.  Who’s your “princess,” what are your barrels, and how do jump/hammer them?

Leave your advice for others in the comments!

-Steve

PS – Exciting news!  Over the weekend, I was contacted by the cool folks that run The Daily Brainstorm who asked me to be a contributor!  This online newspaper pulls in articles from a select group of bloggers, including Leo at ZenHabits, Everett at Far Beyond the Stars, and Darren over at ProBlogger.  I’m a BIG fan of these guys (and most of the other contributors too), so I’m quite honored to have my name occupy the same webspace. If you got a few minutes I’d encourage you to check it out!

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photo 1, photo 2, photo 3, photo 4

This post is heavily inspired by Corbett Barr’s great article over on ThinkTraffic.net. I couldn’t help but think how a similar article based around fitness milestones would work well for Nerd Fitness (with some Super Mario Bros. thrown in there).

As Corbett explained in his post, everybody’s journey will be different.  If I left something out or you think I put things out of order, let me know in the comments!

Level 1-1, Start! (Here we go!)

1. You lose your first pound. You step on the scale after a few days of eating less and you’re down a pound, headed in the right direction for the first time in your life!  Hopefully you don’t celebrate by eating everything off the dollar menu at Wendy’s.

2. You prepare your your first healthy meal. After realizing that it actually was pretty good and saved you some money, you decide to bring your lunch in to work at least two times a week instead of fast food.  Somewhere, the Burger King silently weeps.

3. You walk your first mile. Dusting the cobwebs off your old running shoes, you head out for a walk around your block and make it a whole mile without stopping.  Sure you were huffing a puffing along the way and you got passed by a kid on a tricycle, but it’s a start.  You take note to start the couch to 5k program.

4.  You do your first set of 5 push ups. Using the success and confidence from your first few weeks of weight loss, you’ve worked your way up to five whole push ups and that distant pipedream (get it? Mario? Pipe? ZING!) of 20 in a row no longer seems impossible.

5. You tighten your belt a few notches. You put on your favorite pair of jeans and realize that your belt is now two loops farther over from where it started.  Take that, pants!

First mushroom (Yahoo! Big Mario!)

6. You get your first “hey, did you lose weight?” comment, and DAMN it feels good. “Thanks, Marcia from Accounting!  I HAVE lost weight, thanks for noticing.”  You reside on cloud 9 for the rest of the day, even after getting yelled at for not putting cover sheets on your TPS reports.

7. You run in your first 5k, and survive. Who cares that you lost to an 80 year old grandmother pushing a stroller with two grandkids in it.  You signed up for a race, you trained for it, and then you did it.  You briefly entertain the thought of sabotaging future grandmothers pushing strollers before deciding to just train harder next time.

8. You buy new clothes. Your shirts now feel two sizes too big, and your pants keep falling down!  You drop your old clothes off at Goodwill and make the trip over to the mall for a whole new wardrobe, punching one of the ‘real life mannequins’ at Abercrombie & Fitch in the face while you’re there.

9. You finally stop drinking soda for good. It took you two months of weening yourself off that daily case of Mountain Dew, but you’re at the point now where you water actually sounds like a good idea to you.  Sure you’ll have the occasional Jack and Coke on the weekends, but other than that, soda is a distant afterthought.

10. You sign up for your company’s softball team/Ultimate Frisbee team/running club. You’re no longer ashamed of your body and start exercising with other people that you know.  You might still end up at the end of the lineup or back of the pack, but damnit you’re having fun.

Hit by your first enemy (Booo, back to little Mario)

11. You hit a weight-loss plateau. Despite an great week of eating healthy and running, you step on the scale and see the same damn number you saw last week!  WTF, mate?

12.  A friend of yours has already lost more weight than you in half the time. You start to blame your poor genetics and/or assume he took a shortcut (when in reality you have no idea how hard he’s trained or how clean his diet has become).

13. You get hurt and can’t exercise for two weeks. You twist an ankle when you play Wii Tennis with a little too much intensity, and the doctor says “no exercise until you recover.”  Damn!  All of that hard work and momentum comes to a screeching halt.  Oh well, at least you’re still eating well, right?

14. You have a bad week of eating. Crap.  A destination wedding, vacation with college buddies, or a trip with your kids to Grandma’s for the week means TONS of bad food.  Back home, you step on the scale while covering your eyes, afraid of what you’ll see.

Fire-Flower time (Back on track, picking up steam…)

15. You mix things up. Up to this point, you’ve been counting calories (instead of paying attention to the quality of your calories) and only jogging for your workouts.  After the wake-up call from your previous bad week of vacation, you step it up a notch – You adopt a healthier diet of mostly lean meats, veggies, fruits, and nuts, and you start putting serious effort into legitimate weight training and interval training.

16. You do a pull up. You struggle, sweat, and squirm your way until your chin is above the bar before dropping like a sack of hammers to the floor.  When you recover twenty minutes later, you realize that you just lifted your entire body weight off the ground and over the bar!  If Chuck Norris was presented, he would have started a slow clap for you, before roundhouse-kicking a criminal in the face.

17. You buy a new bathing suit and can’t wait to show it off. No more t-shirts in the pool for you!  You have a weekend beach trip coming up and for the first time in your life you’re excited about it.  Tickets to the gun show are free, ladies!

18. You hit a big weight milestone. 100 pounds lost, 30% of your body weight, etc.  Whatever that big number was in your head, you’re actually THERE.  Now, instead of focusing on the scale, you’re solely focused on getting stronger and faster.  Big day.

Star Power (It’s go time!)

19. People start to ask YOU for advice. Bob from IT wants to know if he’s doing push ups properly, Linda from Reception asks you questions about eating healthy, and your Dad emails you with questions on how to get rid of his beer gut.

20.  You can see your abs. Holy crap, they exist!  It’s taken months/years of hard work in the gym, a dedicated approach to your diet, and time for the extra skin around your gut to tighten up, but that six pack of abs is finally starting to pop out.  “Giddy” hardly describes your disposition these days.

21.  You get seriously excited about exercising daily. Bench pressing your body weight, deadlifting twice your weight, doing 10 pull ups in a row, running a 5k in under 20 minutes, and so on.  It’s weird, but now for some reason you can’t WAIT to exercise each day.  You’ve been transformed into a completely different person.  Optimus Prime would be proud.

22. You look back at an old picture of you and don’t even recognize yourself. You stumble through some old pictures of yourself on Facebook and your jaw drops.  Looking at pictures of yourself feels like looking at pictures of a different person.  In many ways, it is.

Where you at?

So, where are you on your journey?  What milestones do you look for?  Did I mix up the order on any of these?

Let me know in the comments!

-Steve

photo source

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A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, the Jedi helped keep the peace.

Today, they’re going to help you level up your life.

How? By teaching you to surround yourself with the right people!  If you spend your days sitting around listening to lazy bums who eat poorly and make fun of you for exercising, you’re going to struggle in your quest to a healthier life.  Conversely, if you surround yourself with positive people who are constantly doing things to better themselves while encouraging you to do the same, you’ll be influenced and far more likely to actually make changes in your life.

Alrighty, let’s build you a council!

Why have a  Jedi council?

Having your own Jedi council will put you in the right frame of mind. The people on your council can offer advice when you are confused, support you when you’re down, encourage you when you need encouragement, and provide you with a constant source of motivation, inspiration, and education.

In fitness, finances, business, and life, having a Jedi council has pushed me to become a better person.  On days when I feel like sleeping in, on afternoons when I feel like skipping the gym, on weekends when I feel like stuffing my face with terrible food, my mind always reverts back to the lessons and words of wisdom I’ve learned from my “council.”  Even when they’re not there to inspire me directly, I can always feel their presence.

The Force is strong with them.

How to pick your council

It’s time to start assembling your own personal Jedi council. You want to pick people that have already had the type of success that you’re after and have shared or are willing to share their wisdom on how they did it.    These can be authors of how-to books, bloggers, TV stars, your local gym trainer, a friend of yours, whoever.  You don’t need to personally know the people on your council; they can still be a mentor to you.  Here’s what you’re looking for in a potential Jedi council member:

1) They are true masters of their craft. The 12 members of the Jedi council put in the work, did their time, and worked incredibly hard to rise to the highest level of the order.  People looked to them for advice and guidance because they were truly the best of the best.

You need to pick people who are masters of their respective craft too, whatever that may be.

If you need to lose a lot of weight, choose people like Tyler over at 344 pounds to be on your council, because he’s BEEN there and DONE that, while writing about it the entire way.  If you are trying to pack on muscle, pick guys like Jason Ferruggia who has made a living from transforming people into athletic powerhouses.  Select people who have already traveled the path that you’re beginning to walk, and follow where they lead.  You’ll soon have a chance to venture on your own path, but when starting out why not learn from the best?

2) They are honest and just. Let’s be honest, there’s a lot of crap information, false advertising, and useless products out there (I’d guess 90% of fitness stuff you see on TV/read on the internet is effing useless or dangerous).  Don’t pick people that have sites loaded up with ads for diet pills and/or achieved success through questionable means.  If a fitness guru makes an outlandish statement or promises incredibly results in a short period of time, he better back it up with scientific evidence and personal proof.

It’s okay to be skeptical. Unless you have a medical condition, the only things you need to get in shape are diet, exercise, and willpower.  That’s it.  Anybody who tells you otherwise is probably a Sith lord in disguise.  Booooo Dark Side.

3) They are constantly vigilant, always learning, always improving. Jedi never stop training and never stop learning.  Even Jedi Grand Master Yoda continued to train, mediate, and learn new things until he died at the age of 900.  You need to learn from people that never want to stop learning and improving themselves.  The fitness industry is constantly evolving as new discoveries are made and studies are concluded – you need people who are excited to learn about all this new stuff and share their theories and opinions with you.

4) The force is strong with them. Everybody learns at a different pace, has different starting points, and different goals.  Do you need to be yelled at to work harder, or do you need to be encouraged?   Do you like a straight forward approach or do you need your fitness information disguised as something else before you’ll actually read it?  Are you a self-starter or do you need constant sources of inspiration to stay on target?

I can’t tell you what will work for you; you need to figure that out for yourself. Find what works for you, and find council members who resonate with your beliefs and training styles.  Determine if you need daily reminders, weekly reports, humor, etc. whatever to be successful.  The internet is a big place, which allows you to be incredibly selective on who gets to give you advice.

Your attention is the most important currency of all – spend it wisely.

My advice - subscribe to the websites of authors you enjoy, and sign up for email updates from authors that you never miss.  Instead of skimming 100 fitness blogs a day, pick a dozen that you really truly love and concentrate on learning as much as possible from them.

Who’s on MY Jedi Council?

Below are the people who have qualified to be on my Jedi Council. These are people who have earned my trust and thus get my undivided attention.  I’ve haven’t met most of them (yet), but that doesn’t diminish the impact they’ve had on my life.  They all do things differently, but one thing is certain – the Force is strong with all of them:

• Craig Ballantyne – I consider Craig to be the Yoda of the online fitness industry. He’s one hell of a guy and gives away a RIDICULOUS amount of free workouts and instructional videos.  Don’t let the infomercial-style approach of some of his products fool you, this guy knows what he’s doing and gets results.
• Jason Ferruggia – I’m a huge fan of Jason’s site and his training philosophy. Sometimes foul-mouthed, often politically incorrect, Jason tells it like it is with a no-BS approach to packing on muscle and improving athletic performance.  He’s one of the strongest dudes I know, and he’s a vegan!
• VIc Magary- Vic runs  GymJunkies.com and puts himself through Hell with each workout. This dude pushes his body harder and farther than most would even dream, which is why he’s a constant source of inspiration to me.  Vic’s also a former US soldier; I have the utmost respect for him and the the other members of our armed forces.  Thanks for your service Vic.
• Mike Rickett - Mike is my personal Yoda, and actually the only guy on my list that I’ve actually met. Mike was the teacher of my personal trainer certification class a year and a half ago, and since then I’ve gotten a chance to really get to know him.  He’s easily the most knowledgeable fitness expert I’ve ever crossed paths with, which is why I’m so excited to work with him on creating the Nerd Fitness Rebel Guide (like the Death Star, it’s not fully operational…yet).
• Mark Rippetoe – If you want to get really strong, you need to be doing squats, deadlifts, presses, pull ups, and chin ups. If you want to do those things well, you need to read Starting Strength (affiliate link) by Mark Rippetoe.  I completely restructured my workouts and my form on almost all exercises after reading this book.   If you’re serious about lifting weights, I can’t recommend Starting Strength enough.
• Mark Sisson – Mark runs Mark’s Daily Apple, a site dedicated to living a primal lifestyle. After reading a few books on the Paleo Diet, I stumbled across Mark’s site and I’ve been reading it ever since.  As far as a diet is concerned, the Primal/Paleo diet makes complete sense to me, which is why I endorse it and try to abide by it when possible.  Mark’s site is a daily reminder to improve the quality of food that I’m shoveling into my mouth on a regular basis.  Thanks Mark!
• Mark Twight – Mark is the man who trained all the actors for the movie 300. Mark’s also the guy who said “appearance is a consequence of fitness,”  something I repeat to myself daily.  I’m trying to pack on some muscle (going for the Ryan Reynolds in Blade 3 look), but I’m not doing it with iso-dumbbell curls and calf raises.  I’m just concentrating on becoming stronger by lifting heavy weights and letting nature do the rest.

Because I’m trying to pack on muscle, get strong as hell, and improve athletic performance, my Jedi Council is composed of people who are really good at doing those things. If you’re more like Jabba the Hutt and you want to slim down, your Jedi Council should have at least a few people who have had specific success doing exactly that.

Who’s on your council?

I’ve showed you mine, now show me yours.  Where do you get your inspiration and motivation from?  Who am I not learning from that I should be?  Share in the comments below and we can put together a resource of great books, guides, sites, and sources for people getting started in the whole level-life journey.

If you’re forming your Jedi Council now, hop on over to the Nerd Fitness Rebellion message board and share your findings with your fellow rebels.  This is a battle we’re all fighting as a group, and the more we can work together and inspire each other to level up, the better chance we’ll have at success.

Hopefully I’ve earned the right to be part of your council. If I haven’t yet, let me know what I need to do and I’ll make it happen.

-Steve

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If you liked this post, you might enjoy these others:

• Real Life Role-Playing – What is Your Profession?
• Become a Jedi – How the Force Can Help You Get in Shape
• The Definitive Guide to Hacking Into the Matrix
• Daft Punk’s Kick-Ass Guide to Fitness

photo source: Manga Monkey

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Today, let’s delve deep into the nerd aspect of Nerd Fitness and turn life into a giant role-playing game.  Why?  Because it’s damn fun, nerdy, and quite applicable.  If you’ve played World of Warcraft, Everquest, Final Fantasy, or practically any fantasy-based RPG this article will feel right at home.  If you have no clue what I’m talking about, this will still be a fun exercise for you.

I promise.  Let’s get started.

Your Race is Already Determined

Before you pick your profession, let’s talk about your “race.” Every RPG always has elves, hobbits, ogres, trolls, humans, wood elves, night elves, etc.  Each race has their own particular attributes that make them who they are.  Take a look in the mirror RIGHT NOW.  That’s your race.  300 pounds overweight, 50 pounds underweight, average, tall, short, beer gut, 6-pack abs, etc.  These are attributes about yourself that you cannot change immediately, so that’s your starting point.  Depending on your “race,” certain professions will be easier or harder for you to obtain.

Here’s an example: If you are an ogre (really tall and quite overweight), it’s going to be more work for you to become a really good Assassin (Parkour traceur), but if you’re willing to put the time in, anything is possible.  Maybe you’re an elf (incredibly thin) and you want to be a super-strong Warrior.  You’re going to need to spend months and months eating insane amounts of calories and lifting heavy weights to get results, but it is possible.

Make sense? Good!  Let’s check out the different professions.

Warrior

This tank is incredibly strong and powerful, pushing weight like it’s his job. Which is good, because it IS his job.  Big, bulky, and strong as an ox, Warriors constantly try to push themselves to be bigger, better, stronger.  Eating and lifting are the only two things Warriors worry about.  You do NOT want to go punch for punch with a Warrior.  You will get destroyed.

Primary attributes: Strength, power

Training: Pure strength-building weight training, Olympic lifting.

Real life example: Any World’s Strongest Man competitor.

Scout

Scouts can cover great distances in a short amount of time. Built for distance and efficiency rather than strength and power, these guys can outlast any animal on the planet.  They eat a diet higher in carbohydrates to give them enough fuel to survive these grueling treks cross-country, and their muscles are designed to last for hours rather than minutes or seconds (like a Warrior).  A growing contingent of scouts have moved to barefoot running, returning to their ancient ancestral roots.

Primary attributes: Stamina, endurance.

Training: Lots of distance training, long bike rides, high volume exercises with any sort of weight training.

Real life example: Marathon runners, Ironman athletes.

Ranger

Rangers are a hybrid of Warriors and Scouts, built for strength AND endurance. A jack-of-all-trades but master of none, Rangers are well-equipped for any situation.  Their weight training revolves around varying the reps, sets, and downtime to continually force those body to adapt to new situations.  Usually Rangers follow a Paleo Diet, eating things that can only be found in nature.  Thanks to this type of training and diet, Rangers have incredibly low body-fat percentages.

Primary attributes: Functional strength, adaptability.

Training: Lots of weight training but with minimal downtime (think crossfit and 300 training).

Real Life example: Gerard Butler in 300.

Assassin

To assassins, the world is one giant playground. Every building can be climbed, every gap can be jumped, every obstacle can be conquered.  Assassins spend most of their time training with functional body weight exercises as that’s usually the only thing they need to lift.

Fearless, calculated, and efficient, Assassins have low body fat percentages because extra weight could mean the difference between life and death on a mission.  They have solid endurance as well, allowing them to progress through an obstacle-filled environment without breaking a sweat.

Primary Attributes: Agility, stamina

Training: Parkour, free running, rock climbing.

Real World example: Parkour traceurs, free runners, most athletes on Ninja Warrior.

Monk

This isn’t the monk you’re used to. These monks can kick your ass with their fists and feet, and they will do it before you even knew what happened.  Incredibly agile, lightning fast, and loaded with power, Monks specialize in martial arts to stay in shape and destroy the opposition.

Training is mostly spent in dojos and in the ring, with some weight training thrown in to help produce stronger punches and kicks.  Monks only carry enough weight and muscle to provide maximum efficiency with each attack.  Muscles are compact and powerful, core strength is high, and speed is favored over size.

Primary Attributes: Agility, power

Training: MMA, Capoeria, Muay Thai boxing, Tai Kwon Do

Real life example: Georges St. Pierre (MMA fighter).

Druid

Druids are one with nature. Often vegan or vegetarian, they specialize in being one with themselves, finding balance in everything.  These peaceful folk spend a majority of their time training in the arts of yoga, meditation, and tai chi.  Strength training is only done if necessary, as  most druids aren’t interested in massive muscles or explosive power.  Druids also follow a minimalist diet, high in vegetables, fruits, and nuts.  Some eat meat, but only enough to get sufficient protein.  Processed foods are the enemy.

Primary attributes: agility, flexibility

Training: meditation, yoga, tai chi

Real life example: Yoga instructors.

My Profession

I was born an elf (incredibly thin, can’t put on any weight or muscle without tons of effort), and I want to be a Warrior/Ranger hybrid…let’s call it a Berzerker class?

That sounds pretty bad ass, so I’m going with it.

I have to eat tons of high quality calories every day while spending my training hours in the gym.  I focus on lift like squats, deadlifts, presses, pull ups, dips, and chin ups.  I vary my rep range and downtime between sets to build strength, power, and muscle size.  Eventually I’d love to add in some Assassin (parkour) and Monk (capoeira) training – I just don’t have the time right now.

Sure, it’d be a much quicker path for me to become a scout (as I already have the body type), but I hate running and I don’t want to look like a marathon runner, so I picked a different direction.

Why?

Because I can.  It’s my world.

How About You?

Spartans, “What is your PROFESSION!?”

Leave a comment with your current race and what profession you’re going after.  I picked six classes up above to keep things simple, but let me know if I left out one that should be in there.  Feel free to combine two classes like I did as well.  Just so we’re clear: all classes are gender-neutral, so you can be a female warrior or male druid.  There are no restrictions.

This is something that won’t happen for quite a while, but eventually I’d love to create specific guides for each class so that the NF rebel army can specialize in their training and help the Rebellion grow stronger…

I’m curious to see how many we have of each class.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

-Steve

By the way, have you signed up for the May 28-Day Challenge? Winners will get an NF T-shirt.

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Photo: KennyMatic

“One shall stand, one shall fall!”

Growing up as a little kid, I freaking LOVED Transformers.  A toy that could start as one thing and then…wait for it….transform…into something completely different – pure brilliance.  Hey look it’s a robot dude – oh wait NO it’s a car!

What’s not to love?

Fast forward to my freshman year of college: I bonded with three new acquaintances over the original Transformers movie on DVD. I now live with one of them, the other does the graphic design work for this site, and I’ll be attending the wedding of the third in the Bahamas in June.

To say that Transformers have played a major role in my life is an understatement.

Welp, today is the day that I give back. I going to teach you how to transform your life and make Optimus Prime proud.  He’s the leader of the Autobots, he protects us from the Decepticons, and he can turn into a mack truck!  I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a guy I’d want to be proud of me.

Make Small Changes, Get Big Results.

I’m going to guess that you plopped down $9.25 to watch the new Transformers movie in the theater.

Sure it was poorly acted, had a terrible plot, and often didn’t make much sense, but damn it was loud, pretty, and fun.  If you try to tell me you didn’t get goosebumps and maybe even cheer out loud the first time you saw Optimus Prime transform (low quality, sorry) then you’re lying.

Optimus is not a fan of lying.  Stop it.

Now that you’re done lying, I want you to think back to that scene – the HELL did a massive truck transform into a freaking walking and talking robot?

Easy.

One step at a time.

It wasn’t one giant move that turned Optimus from shape A to shape B – it was really just one tiny process after the other.  The front grill receded, then his headlights inverted (sounds painful, I know),  then the windshield split apart,  then the  wheels tuck under, then the sides of the truck pulled out, etc.  14 million tiny processes later, Optimus had transformed (see what I did there) from a mack truck to a robot.

You will transform in the same way:

One step at a time.

1) Transform your mind.

If you weigh a lot more than your ideal weight, you might feel like one of the tiny Optimus Primes in this picture: overwhelmed.

That journey to the ‘finish line’ feels impossibly far away, the odds against you seem enormous, and your chance of success appears to be minimal.  

That mentality will get you nowhere.

Don’t think about how big the gap is between where you are now and where you want to be.  Instead, concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other, starting the next step in your process, and moving a little bit closer towards closer towards that goal.

Imagine a young Optimus Prime transforming for the first time – yes I know there was never a baby Optimus (was there?), but look at the tiny Prime at the VERY top and just pretend for a minute.

He was probably pretty intimidated, right?

However, by only moving one tiny thing at a time and making only change at a time, over and over and over, he eventually reached a result that was pretty damn awesome.

You need to transform how you look at each day. Don’t say “holy crap I have 200 pounds to lose, I’m screwed!”  Instead, say “This is the new me, and I’m going to make one change this week.  And then next week I will make another change.”  And so on…

Pretty soon, you will be a newer, upgraded version of yourself.

2) Transform Your Diet.

Make small changes to your diet that you can sustain for the rest of your life.

Here’s a simple example – I used to eat Skippy peanut butter sandwiches on white bread, every day of my life, since I was probably five years old.  After learning about how unhealthy white bread is, I made the switch to wheat bread.  A month after that, I made the change from Skippy to natural peanut butter.  After reading about how many types of wheat bread contain high fructose corn syrup, I went one step further to flaxseed bread.

I know for a fact that the old Steve never would have touched a PB sandwich on flaxseed bread. However, because it was just one change (white to wheat bread), followed by another single change (Skippy to natural PB)…my picky eating habits were okay with it. Bam!  My PB sandwiches have been completely transformed.

Take that Megatron!

Try making small changes to your diet too:

• Switch from white rice to brown rice
• Switch from white bread to wheat bread
• Try ONE new vegetable a week.  They won’t hurt you, I swear.
• Slowly cut back on the number of sodas you drink daily (liquid calories are brutal, get them out of your diet!)
• Get grilled vegetables instead of fries as your side when going out to eat this week.
• Skip the popcorn at the movie theater when you go see Kick-Ass (who’s seen it?  How was it?)

Rome wasn’t built in a day.  A robot doesn’t become a truck in one step.  You won’t lose 100 pounds overnight.  Slowly transform your diet, make changes that you can live with, and the new YOU will have a much better chance of fighting off the Decepticons and obesity.

I like our chances against both of those enemies.

3) Transform your workout.

If you’re just getting started on your weight loss journey, I’m going to guess that the first thing you thought to do was go for a run.  Maybe after a few weeks of running and a few pounds lost, you decided to join a gym…where you spend most of your time on the treadmill or on the elliptical. 

You’re not alone.

Every time I work out, I have to walk through the overcrowded treadmills, ellipticals, and machines to get to my mecca: the free weight section.  Anybody who reads this site knows that I’m a huge fan of lifting weights over just cardio, and a strong advocate of free weights over machines.  [side note: unless you're a vampire, walking on a treadmill INSIDE when it's 70 and sunny outside should be illegal].

Sorry Optimus, your machine brethren can’t hold a candle to free weights when it comes to building strength and stability.

Now, I know just getting started with weight lifting is scary, especially if you don’t really know what you’re doing and the free-weight section is loaded with roided-up meatheads.  If you’re a girl, this section of the gym can be downright terrifying (in which case, you should take notes from Moe).

Try this out: instead of jumping headfirst into the free weight section, try taking things one exercise at a time. Every week, set aside 15 minutes to learn about a new exercise, and then spend 5 minutes in the gym incorporating it into your routine.

• Instead of doing the leg extension machine or any sort of leg machine, do squats (and go DOWN far enough!) or lunges with dumbbells in your hands.
• Instead of doing the chest press machine, lie down on a bench and do dumbbell presses, or try dips. Push ups work too!
• Instead of doing the lat-pull down machine, do pull ups! Too tough? try inverted rows.

A few months of just one new exercise a week will leave you with tons of options for a full free-weight routine, a lot more knowledge about which exercises work which muscles, and far more preparation for real-world situations than the machine-trained humans around you.

Here’s another way to look at things.  If you can only do one push up right now, how the hell are you going to do 50 in a row some day?  One at a time! Do two in a row this week, try for 3 or 4 in a row next week.  If you can do just one more, each time out, you will be getting stronger.

All of these “just one more’s” eventually add up to “holy crap look what I did!”

More than meets the eye.

If you’re trying to get in shape, whether its slimming down or bulking up, I know there’s a better version of yourself hidden inside you.  The great thing about being human is that you can really transform yourself into whatever you want if you’re willing to work for it.

• If you want to be big and strong, start lifting heavy weights and eating lots of high-quality food.
• If you want to be a great runner, start running and get faster every day.
• If you want to be on Ninja Warrior, start doing a million pull ups and practice your Japanese.

Whatever you want to become, if you break it down into steps and get started TODAY on that first step, you can accomplish your goals and you will transform into whatever you want.

Now, go make Optimus Prime proud.

-Steve

Warrior Dash Update: We’ve already raised 1400 dollars for Nerd Dash 2010! If you haven’t visited the site yet, please go check it out, watch the (hopefully) hilarious video, and consider making a small donation: 5 bucks, 10 bucks, whatever.

Remember, small additions can add up to huge results…like sending 4 cabins worth of kids with cancer to Camp Sunshine!

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Here are some other popular posts that will get you motivated:

• Become a Jedi: Learn the Ways of the Force
• Life Lessons Learned from Billy Madison
• The Lord of the Rings Guide to Getting Sh** Done
• The Definitive Guide to Hacking into the Matrix: Are you the One?

photo:isayx3, shawnwarne_60000, kelvin255,  revlimit , boy wonder

I’m about as useless in a kitchen as a chef is with a lightsaber.

Actually, that sounds awesome, so I’m way more useless than that.

I’m a picky eater, I don’t know how to cook anything, and I’m an impatient S.O.B.  Honestly, I’d much rather play video games than spend an hour in the kitchen making some delicious creation.  I imagine I’m not the only nerd who feels this way, right?

Now, as a 25 year-old living with college buddies, my options for dining are severely limited – go out and pick up something, eat in at a restaurant, or find a way to eat something at home.  Because eating out is expensive and usually unhealthy, I learned how to make a few meals that are quick, cheap, and easy.  [Insert immature joke here about "quick, cheap, and easy"].

teeheehee.

Steve’s Go-To Meal

Chicken, brown rice, and asparagus.

Win.

Protein, veggies, and a pretty dang good carbohydrate.  I went ahead and tried to film myself preparing the meal.  This might be a waste of time for most of you, but hopefully there are a few other clueless nerds out there who will get some use out of this.  Just a heads up, it’s kind of long – about 6 and a half minutes, but it’s worth a watch if you’re a complete n00b in the kitchen.

Yeah, I know there are ways to make this healthier, more complex, etc.  I wanted to keep it RIDICULOUSLY simple to start, and then you can start messing around with other options after that once you’re used to actually cooking yourself a meal.  Here we go:

Steve Cooks…Seriously

In case you can’t watch the video, here’s what I cover:

What to Buy

• Tyson Frozen chicken tenderloins – Yeah, I know it’s not organic free-range, blah blah blah.  If you’re strapped for cash and need protein, a bag of these tenderloins is a perfect source and only like 8 bucks at any store.
• 10 minute Boil-In-A-Bag brown rice – doesn’t get much easier than this.  Yeah you can go with a rice steamer, buy organic brown rice, etc.  However, if you’re new to this whole cooking thing this is a good way to get started.  Remember, brown rice – good. White rice – bad.
• Asparagus - buy it in a bundle/bushel? at your supermarket.
• Olive Oil Cooking Spray – you can go with regular olive oil, but the spray just makes things so much easier.
• Garlic powder – hit up the spices aisle in your supermarket, and look for one of these
• Ground pepper
• Sea salt
• Olive oil

How to Cook It

Once you have all of your ingredients, it’s time to get started.  Here ya go:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees, and wait for it to get to the right temp.
2. Wash your asparagus and dry off with a paper towel.
3. Put down a piece of tinfoil on a cookie sheet, and lay out the tenderloins on the foil.  Spray both sides of each piece with the olive oil spray.  Sprinkle the garlic poder, ground pepper, and sea salt on the chicken, then stick it in the oven for 33 minutes.
4. Put a pot of water on to boil.
5. Pull the chicken out of the oven and stop the timer when there are 13 minutes still left.
6. Take your asparagus, and break off the bottom of each ‘stem’ – if you grab towards the bottom, you’ll feel where it’s supposed to break.
7. Put them on the cookie sheet next to the chicken, and spray again with olive oil spray.  Use your hands to roll the asparagus so they’re well coated with the stuff.  Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper.
8. Put the chicken and asparagus back in the oven, and restart the timer.  Drop your bag of brown rice right into the boiling water on the stove.
9. With 3 minutes left on the oven timer, your rice is done.  Carefully empty the pot in your sink, then open the bag, and empty onto a plate.
10. When the chicken and asparagus is done, put it on the plate with your rice, and EAT.

Thoughts?

I honestly have no clue how this is going to be received, but I figure we’re all friends here right?  I think it’d be good to have half a dozen meals on here so everybody knows how to make at least a few meals that are healthy.  In the future I should have some camera help so it’s not as awkward…can’t promise I’ll be any less of a tool though (exhibit A is pictured to the right).

I need your help though.  As I said in the video, I don’t know how to cook much, and because I’m a picky eater I don’t vary my meals that much.  I bet there are a few of you out there who LOVE to cook though, and probably know how to make some great healthy dishes.

If you’re one of those people, I’d really appreciate it if you posted your healthy recipe over on the Nerd Fitness Message Boards under the recipes section.  The Rebel Army is counting on you – proper nutrition is a key component of world domination (or so I’ve been told).  Maybe some day we can put out a NF cookbook.

A boy can dream…

Alright, let’s hear it. More food? No more food? Got some food ideas you want to share with the rest of the rebel army?  Hook a brother up!

-Steve

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photo: Arbon

This is a guest post from my friend Jim Hodgson.  Jim went from being a really big guy to a really in-shape guy, completing a freaking Ironman Triathlon this past July.  When he asked me about writing a guest post about the fat guy perspective when it comes to food and fitness, I said hell yeah.  Here’s Jim!

This web site, Nerd Fitness, is great. I’ve known Steve in real life since around the time he started working on it, so I have a little real-life perspective to share. Here is why it’s good: because Steve really wants it to be good. He works very hard on it, and it shows.

However, for all his hard work and enthusiasm, Steve has never been, nor will he probably ever be, fat. He does not know what it’s like to hear Kool and The Gang’s “Jungle Boogie” in his head every time he eats like I do. Oh yeah baby, food time is party time to me.

Yes, I have intimate knowledge of fatness and nerdy-ness, as I believe the following photo will adequately attest:

Note that not only am I one half of the above photo, my dad and sister taking up the other half, but I am wearing a Perl shirt to boot. I was around 320lbs at that time, and as of March of 2010 I was 210 lbs, so I’ve lost over 100 lbs since beginning my journey. I’m still working every day on eating right and being more fit, but this photo is pretty much a textbook case of fat nerd.

The thing is, I have a extremely slow metabolism. It seems sometimes that if I eat a single leaf of lettuce, I will see a pound on the scale as a result. Contrast that with Steve, who could probably eat pretty much whatever he wants and never gain a pound.

Fortunately, good advice on healthy living works for both the fast-metabolism-Steves of the world who wish to put on muscle as well as for the fat Jims of the world who wish to lose weight.  After all, being healthy is being healthy no matter what.  The challenges can be different along the way though, so I’ve talked Steve into letting me write a guest post from a fat guy’s perspective.

I believe that overeating is just like drug or alcohol addiction in that you never really shake it. What’s more, you can give up cigarettes or booze entirely, but you can’t give up food for long.

Keep in mind that I am neither a nutritionist nor a doctor, so you should ask licensed, trained professionals about everything I say to make sure you don’t explode or get a bad case of the farts or something.

You can’t outrun a bad diet

This is something I once tried really hard to do. When I started exercising to lose more weight, I bought a HRM (heart rate monitor). It tracks calories in addition to timing workouts, but no one’s really saying the calorie counts it keeps are exactly accurate, so I’d advise taking them with a grain of… caution, not salt, because we need to watch our sodium intake! Zing!

Anyway, when I got my HRM I figured a pound was 3500 calories, so I’d just do 3500 calories of cardio per week and lose a pound. Easy!

Well, that actually might work IF I ate the same thing in a week of no workouts as a week WITH workouts, but doing the equivalent of 500 calories of exercise a day is nothing to sneeze at. I usually burn around 1100 calories per hour running, 900 or so for an hour of cycling, and 6-700 for an hour of swimming, so any way you slice it that is a half hour plus per day, every day, for a whole week with no rest days.

The problem comes when I eat more because I have worked out hard and I’m hungrier, or worse, when I tell myself that pizza is okay because I just burned 1000 calories in a workout. Sometimes this is true, but it can easily get out of hand – running to the fridge does not earn me a burger.

If you are like me and you have a super slow metabolism, there is probably not a functional level of exercise where you will be able to eat whatever you want and be slim. To me that’s like saying there’s no such thing as true love — because believe me brother, I LOVE food — but that’s where I’m at right now on weight loss philosophy, or “weilossophy”.

I cut out alcohol entirely for nine months leading up to my race. I gave up sodas as well, even diet sodas. I believe that diet soda keeps you fat, or at least hampers weight loss, though I have no scientific data to support that belief.  I also used a food diary to calculate my intake of calories, and hardest of all, watch my carbohydrate intake.

Whenever I thought about cheating, or letting it slide just this one time, I said to myself “No, this time I’m going to do it right.”

Pick a course, stay the course, and do it for you

Life change can be a real pain in the hind parts. Sometimes it feels like you’re just slogging away with no measurable results, and for
what? Isn’t life too short to be miserable? Well, yes and no. Its my personal belief that some suffering is good for you, but you have to suffer smart.

I observed a big bump in people exercising alongside me in January of each year due to New Years resolutions. By June they were almost all gone. I knew I had been that person before, but not this time. This time I knew I had to stick with it.

110 lbs later, I am so dreaming of a cheeseburger here.

Originally I started losing weight because I wanted to have more success with girls. I’m ashamed to admit it because I should have done it just to be a better me, but that’s the truth of the matter. As time went on, other factors came into play. My mom passed away, and as a result I had a highly increased sense of my own mortality. I’ve always thought that I would someday lose the weight and become more athletic. I just finally realized that the time had come.

During the middle of this last summer I was fighting a severe case of burn out with only a few months to go until my Ironman race. It sucked. All I can tell you is that I just made myself do my workouts anyway. I had been working for it for a year, my dad was coming to see me race, as well as my sister, girlfriend, and a bunch of other friends. I couldn’t let them see me fail, but more importantly I couldn’t let ME see me fail.

I told myself, okay, if you’re hurting or tired or whatever, that’s fine, but you have to show up. Everyone has bad days or feels unmotivated, but I made myself show up every time.

I knew if I let myself skip workouts entirely I was finished, and I found that once I got myself to go I was usually okay.  Just moving my feet and starting the workout was usually the hardest part.

I think that is the biggest difference between me now and me then. I might not be at my best every day, but I’ll be on time and in the game.

Wow, if only there were a handy forum where people who are working on fitness and weight loss gathered to discuss these sorts of things. Oh wait, there’s one right here! My name is Jim on the Nerd Fitness forums, and I want to hear about your goals.

Be mentally ready for change

One of the things I noticed after I lost the first 60 or 70 pounds was that I was no longer invisible. I would say something in a group of people and someone would laugh or agree with me and I would be shocked. I hadn’t even realized until that moment how disregarded I was when I was a wobbling stack of ham.

I’m not sure if this happens to people who gain muscle or not, but I suspect that it does. I can only speak from my own fat experience.

Mind you, I am not a fatness apologist. I try not to tell people their business, and I believe that increased kindness and understanding between human beings is ultimately a good thing, but I also think that if I can lose over 100lbs, anyone can.

After all, in many ways I am a buffoon.

For better or worse, though, when you go through your body shape changes, people will treat you differently. Don’t let it shake you.

You picked a course for yourself and now you will stay on it. The people who love you for you are still going to love you when you’re more fit, and you’ll be alive longer to enjoy it!

-Jim

For more adventures and gripping philosophy, you can find Jim practicing the manly art of writing every weekday on his own blog. Check out the RSS feed or subscribe via email!

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with today’s article.  I just love Homer, and I wanted to get your attention…although you might be eating a doughnut right now as you read this.  Let’s hope not.

Before I start, I want to let you know I’m not condoning zero exercise.  In fact, exercise is freaking awesome and something you should try to do every day. However, I am here to tell you that if your primary concern is weight loss, exercise is merely the icing on the cake.  90% of your waistline battle is won or lost in the kitchen (or at the restaurant table, or at the drive-thru window, etc.)

Warning: this will ask you to possibly make some substantial changes to your diet – are you up for it?

Eat Real Food

I’m a huge fan of the food philosophy presented in books like The Paleo Diet, Good Calories Bad Calories, and sites like Mark’s Daily Apple. Why?  Because they make this diet thing so simple and logical even a caveman could understand it.  My apologies if you’re a caveman.  If you’re new to the “Paleo Diet” concept, here it is in a nutshell.  Rather than list what you can’t eat, here’s what you CAN eat:

REAL foods – veggies, lean meats, fish, eggs, fruit, and nuts.

Why does this work? Because you’re only eating foods that you’re genetically engineered to thrive on: high quality, high energy REAL foods.  Not from a box, not from a bag, not from a window.  Food from the earth.  Yay nature.

Cut Way Back on the Rest

Bread, cereal, pasta, fried food, rice, bagels, doughnuts, waffles, chips, tortillas, candy etc. – these things are all loaded with carbs (and if they’re processed – refined carbs and sugar), and I’ll bet a million Monopoly dollars they’re the cause of 99% of the population’s weight problem. I’m not telling you to give all of this stuff up completely – I’m just telling you that this is probably the reason the weight isn’t coming off of your frame.  Here’s why:

Most grains, refined carbs and sugar were nonexistent way back in the day, which means our bodies never quite adapted to properly process them.  If you want to understand more why our bodies have such an issue with grains and carbs, this is the best article I’ve read.  Here’s a great video to explain why refined carbs make you fat:

Video – Why You Got Fat

Today’s general recommended diet ratio of 50-60% carbs, 30% protein, 10-20% fat is so far off it’s ridiculous. I’m sorry, but it is.  This ratio has been pushed on the public for decades, and new “low fat” items continue to pop up every day…and yet the country continues to get wider and bigger and fatter.

Something’s not right.

How I Know it Works

Although I’ve recently added some grains back into my diet to bulk up (oats, flaxseed bread, and brown rice), I can attest to the fact that the Paleo Diet absolutely works.   In the four months that I switched to a Paleo diet (my ratio was probably 40% fat, 40% protein, and 20% carbs), my body fat percentage dropped from 12% down to 5%.  Besides myself, many NF readers have lost quite a bit of weight from making this change as well.

If you’re interested in giving the Paleo Diet a shot, check out this GREAT resource.  Pick a few things on the list, put together your meals, and you will lose weight.  If you’re interested in learning more about ‘going paleo,’ Mark’s Primal Blueprint 101 is a great place to get your feet wet.

Cut Out Liquid Calories

Soda, beer, juice, margaritas Gatorade, vitamin water, cappuccinos, fruit coolatas – avoid them whenever possible (except for beer on St. Patty’s Day…come on.) These beverages are all loaded with sugar which immediately turn to fat in your system.  And switching from a 12 pack of Coke to a 12 pack of Diet Coke might not solve your problems either.  Read my article why Diet Coke might make you fat. My advice: chug water like it’s your job.  It will curb your appetite, keep your insides running properly, and give you an excuse to get up and go for a walk to the bathroom every thirty minutes.

No Paleo? Eat Less Than Before!

Don’t want to change what you eat?  Welp, you’re just going to count calories (using a site like DailyBurn).  It’s a pain in the ass, but it works.  Here are the three equations you need to know:

• Calories consumed > Calories burned = weight gain.
• Calories consumed < Calories burned = weight loss.
• 3500 less calories per week = 1 pound of fat weight loss.

As explained in the video above, the types of you food you eat is more important than these equations let on, but just creating a caloric deficit will still produce weight loss (although far less efficiently).  Tyler over at 344pounds.com has had incredible results by continuing to eat his favorite foods in moderation.  However, along with eating his favorite foods in moderation, Tyler also spends hours and hours in the gym burning off all of those calories, which is incredibly time consuming.  I just don’t have that kind of free time and I guess that you don’t either, so why not work smarter instead of harder? Rather than eating bad foods and spending hours working it off, instead eat GOOD foods, put in only 20-30 minutes of solid exercise, and then enjoy the rest of your day.  Life’s too short to spend it doing stuff that’s just not necessary.

The Choice Is Yours

I’m not going to yell at you and force you to only eat grilled chicken and steamed vegetables for every meal – I’m not your mom (phew, that would be weird).  Besides, you’re a grown individual and you can make choices for yourself.

I AM, however, telling you that if you want to see results without spending hours upon hours in the gym, you need to get your diet under control, and this is the most efficient way for you to get there.  The more you can change to what’s been listed above, the quicker you’ll get to your goal weight.  Switching to a 100% Paleo Diet after years of eating bad carbs is a recipe for disaster.  Instead, try finding a way to implement a change or two along the way until you start to see those results.

I realize this is much easier said than done, which means this isn’t really about your diet: it’s about your will power and finding a good balance of changes that you can successfully manage. Whenever somebody says “I can’t give up that food” or “I just don’t have time to prepare a healthy meal” all I hear is, “I don’t want it badly enough yet.”

I’m okay with that.

If you’re not at that point yet to take control of your life, I’ll do my best to inspire and motivate you to get there…but the desire to change has to come from within you.  If you ARE at the point where you really want to make a change, I’m here to help, along with a community of people on our message boards who are there to support you.

Do we have any Paleo Dieters here? How did you successfully make the transition from a modern diet to a healthy one?  Do you have concerns about giving up carbs and eating more fat? I’m only writing from experience and my own research, but would love to hear some stories on your weight loss successes or failures and I know others would too.

Let’s hear it!

-Steve

28 Day Challenge Update – On March 1st I put a call out for people to join me on a 28-challenge.  Over fifty new people signed up for the Nerd Fitness Message Boards and about a dozen bloggers signed up to post their challenge results on their own websites.  Sounds like a dedicated bunch of fools to me.  You can follow my challenge here – I’ll be writing every day throughout.  Join us!

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photo: Greg Easton Photography

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you probably ate a ****load of food last night while watching the Super Bowl (Google definitely had the best ad, by the way).

You’re thinking to yourself, “I put on five pounds last night, how the hell do I get back on track?”  I’m going to introduce a seemingly ridiculous concept to you, one that I hadn’t ever considered until doing the research:

Intermittent Fasting.

Sounds like the worst thing ever, right?  Starving yourself on purpose?  “TOTALLY LAME,” as Awesome-O would say.

Well, if you’ve been unsuccessful at losing weight, if you’ve lost weight but you’ve hit a plateau, or if you just want to try something new, this might be the jump start you need.

Disclaimer: this is just my opinion based on my research and reading. This is less of a recommendation article rather than an eye-opener and call for discussion.  I do present my opinion at the end though, and I’d love to hear yours.

Diets – Six Meals For the Win?

For years, the concept of lots of small meals throughout the day really clicked with me.

If you space out your meals evenly, keep your calorie count low, you’ll lose weight, right?  I’ve even talked about how breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  Lots of people follow the “eat multiple meals a day” ideology and lose weight, so it works.  Less calories, more meals, evenly spread out.  It makes sense.

However, I’ve recently done some research and reading on IF…which also makes a lot of sense to me.  By not eating every once a while, your body has to burn the fat in your system for energy, which would lead to weight loss.  Also, by not eating for twenty four hours, you’re pushing your body into a calorie deficit, which also leads to weight loss.  It makes sense.

So, how can these two seemingly conflicting ideologies both make sense? Simple – they both allow your body to burn more calories than you consume.  And, if other research on the body’s physiology while fasting is to be believed, there are multiple other benefits as well.

Let’s get down to business.

What the Hell is Intermittent Fasting?

IF is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: you purposely avoid eating for a twenty-four hour period (or two) during the week. Why?  Because recent studies have shown that your metabolism operates more on a marathon basis (how many calories consumed over a long period of time) than on a sprint basis (what you ate yesterday).  Prior to this research, I was giving way too much credit to my stomach – it’s not nearly as intelligent as I thought.  Think long term when it comes to calories consumed and burned, not short term.

Mark over at Mark’s Daily Apple has a great write-up on the evolutionary science behind fasting. Mark runs one of the most thorough and successful paleo diet blogs out there, and I highly value his opinion.  I love looking into the evolutionary aspects of diet and fitness, and I’m often very weary of any new “breakthrough” that requires a pill or drink or anything.  We’ve survived as a species for tens of thousands of years with diet, exercise, and intelligence.

Fasting is one of those evolutionary aspects that makes complete sense to me.

How Does it Work?

Our bodies are genetically engineered to deal with feast or famine.  10,00 years ago, surprisingly there was no free All-Star Slam Breakfast from Denny’s!   Our bodies need fuel to operate, and if there isn’t any food in the stomach to pull from, it uses the fat stored within the body for energy.  The fat gets burned for energy, the body keeps moving, and thus becomes leaner.

Secondly, because of these skipped meals, you are putting your body into a calorie deficit (averaged out for the week).  Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint, so start thinking of your calories more in terms of weekly units rather than daily amounts, iif that helps.  More calories burned compared to calories consumed = weight loss!

Here’s a video from Brad over at Eat Stop Eat (which reads like an infomercial, ugh…but it’s legit) explaining the similarities between fasting and exercise.  He also wrote a guest post over on Fitness Black Book.  I considered setting up an affiliate link for Brad’s e-book in case you’re interested in purchasing it, but I didn’t want you to think I wrote this article to get affiliate money.  Instead, you can form your own opinion, and then buy Brad’s book if you’re interested.

Brad Pilon – Eat Stop Eat

How Do You Do It?

Simple: pick a day (or two) per week and purposely skip breakfast and lunch, and then eat a normal dinner. Brad over at Eat Stop Eat recommends doing this type of fasting once or twice a week – for example, a fast on Monday, and then another one on Thursday.  Liquids are okay on fasting days, just not ones with calories.  Heyoooo H2O!

If you’re used to eating a LOT of food, and you normally eat a big breakfast, this is going to be a pretty big drastic change.  Start by skipping breakfast and see how your body reacts to it.  If you can handle that, work your way up to skipping breakfast and lunch.  Notice that I’m not saying you should skip breakfast and lunch every day.  Eat normally five days a week, try a fast one of the other days for a few weeks and see how your body reacts.

Eat, don’t eat, and then eat.  Got it?

Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

A recent article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition gives a great overview of these benefits which include decreases in blood pressure, reduction in oxidative damage to lipids, protein and DNA, improvement in insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake, as well as decreases in fat mass.”  This study discusses studies done with humans (not mice) specifically.

From the LA times: Mark P. Mattson, chief of the laboratory of neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging: “In normal health subjects, moderate fasting — maybe one day a week or cutting back on calories a couple of days a week — will have health benefits for most anybody.”

I’d like to see more studies, with better controls done for more solid proof of these benefits, but I expect that to happen soon.

Risks of Intermittent Fasting

So, all we see so far are GOOD things about not eating for a full day. What the hell is BAD about it? First off, I can see myself getting extremely hungry to the point of annoyance when starting out this process.  This is echoed by Ruth Frechman, a registered dietitian in Burbank and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Assn: “You’re hungry, fatigued, irritable. Fasting is not very comfortable. People try to cut back one day and the next day they’re starving and they overeat.”

I imagine there is quite the learning curve for your body when it has to switch from using readily accessible carbs for energy to using your body’s fat stores, so I can see the first few fasting days being extremely difficult.  NF Reader Matt makes a great point in the comments that I’m reposting here for all to see:

“One thing I think people who are considering this should ask themselves – how are you at controling your hunger at the moment?  Losing weight is all about consuming less calories than you burn.   The biggest obstacle to this is hunger.  That is, uncontrollable hunger.  If you are starving yourself on 800 calories a day, then you will be much more likely to binge and go way over your calorie goal.  So it becomes important to eat when you are hungry, not when you are starving.”

Moral of the story? Don’t overdo it – if you feel light headed and you can’t function, EAT SOMETHING.  Listen to your body, and find a way to make it work for you.  We only get one chance on this planet, so make it count.

Have I tried It Yet?

Honestly, I haven’t. Well, not on purpose anyway.  The idea of skipping a meal or two goes against everything I’ve done for the past seven years.  If you’re a person who is used to eating a lot of food all day long, this probably scares the crap out of you too.  However, considering the fitness gurus and researchers that I read all highly recommend this type of “diet,” I’d be stupid if I didn’t give it a shot.  After all, if I can’t practice what I preach then I’m being dishonest to myself and to you all.

My biggest concern was losing more weight and muscle mass.  Then I saw that Craig Ballantyne, another fitness dude whose opinion I really respect, gained 13 pounds, most of which was muscle, while doing IF.  If he can do it, so can I.

Lastly, I was worried I wouldn’t have enough energy to get through a workout if I didn’t eat beforehand.  However, after doing my research on IF, I did a test-workout this past Saturday in a fasted state and had zero problem getting through the routine.  That was a big boost for me to move forward with writing this article and planning to try it out myself.

I’m going to try this one day this week, I’ll let everybody know how it goes. I still expect to build muscle and put on some pounds, even when skipping the first two meals of the day occasionally.

Do I Recommend It?

This is tough for me. Because I haven’t done it yet, I’m cautious about throwing my whole support behind the concept.  However, I do believe that this is another system that will definitely work for many people (but not all).  It’s just like every other successful diet: eat good foods, and don’t eat too much.

This is my recommendation:

• Is your current plan working? Good! Don’t change it!
• Is your current plan NOT working? Give this a shot.

If you only get ONE thing from this whole article, it’s this: there is more than one way to lose weight, so don’t worry about your method being the best.  The best diet is the one that makes you lose weight and keeps you healthy.  If you’re already losing weight, keep doing what you’re doing.  If you’re not, maybe do a little bit more reading on IF and give it a shot.

My advice? Do it the day after you’ve stuffed yourself, and balance things out.  In terms of losing the most weight the quickest, I’d probably recommend the Paleo Diet and intermittent fasting with weight training in the gym.

So what are your thoughts? Have you tried fasting before?  Successful or miserable failure?  Will you give a shot?  If so, please post your stories, thoughts, successes, concerns in the comments and we’ll see if this is something we can all wrap our heads around.

-Steve

PS- Message Board Update – The message boards are still in ‘beta testing,’ but I would love to add some more readers to the mix to help me test it out.  We have about 20 readers contributing already , keeping track of their workouts, encouraging each other, etc, and I want some more!  If you’re interested in helping kick start the NF message boards, email me at steve@nerdfitness.com and I’ll get you an invite.

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picture – Undronotto