Are You Getting Anwhere?

STOP DOING THIS

Don't talk about your goals

Doing that gives you a false sense of accomplishment and annoys your friends.

Quit looking for new information on how to get results

There's nothing new to doing what you need to do. Don't reinvent the wheel. It's all common knowledge.

Don't complain

Gain weight easy? Hard to put on muscle? Does that mean it's impossible? Work harder. Was it hard for you to go to work one day because of traffic? Did you just not show up?

Don't take things for granted

Think about all the business that were huge and now are gone. Think about the people in high school that were popular and now are nothing. Think about the A-list actors from the a decade ago that can hardly get a decent role on a TV show. Did you get in shape but then started to gain weight. Happens all the time. Did you get cocky? Did you start to slide because you thought you could get away with that extra bagel?

Don't shop for groceries or go to restaurants hungry

You crave empty carbs been you're hungry. You'll buy Red Baron pizzas at the store, or eat 2 baskets full of corn chips or bread sticks. Chips make hips and rolls make rolls.

Don't look for an easy way to get results

There is none. If there was, everyone would have already accomplished it.

START DOING THIS

Track what you're eating

Track your exercises. Blog, journal it, track it. If you're not, you obviously don't care enough and deserve to get there.

Be happy that it's hard to be in shape

If it was easy, everyone would look great. Personally, I'd hate that, I would have to be judged off my personality and I would never survive.

Recognize your bad habits.

Bad habits don't immediately give you bad results. If ice cream immediately upped your body fat by 15% and gave you type 2 diabetes you'd stop eating (I hope).

It's the little things that get you, because they're little and you let them slide. Back pain, body fat, high blood pressure, bad relationships, low wages, everything bad in life is from your bad habits.

Prove to yourself who's in control

I give up things to show myself who's in charge. I can't live with the fact that anything could possibly have control over me. Maybe it's because I have a history of addicts in my family, but I can't live without knowing I have control.

Stay away from bad environments

It's easy to eat healthy when I"m home because I don't have junk food around at all. At my grandmas house it's harder to make those choices.

Recognize your successes

So many of you are so successful in areas of your life but can't do something so simple that you want to do? Why? Think about how good you are at other things, how you did that, and how you could apply that to your fitness goals?

FRIENDS

No one is going to help you

Everyone is too worried about the little dilemmas in their life to waste their time thinking about what you're doing. Are you thinking about their aspirations right now, or are you concerned with your own?

Get rid of loser friends and people that aren't developing themselves

Eliminate bad influences from your life, they don't want you around anyway. If you stop drinking you won't want to be around your drinking buddies, and they definitely don't want a sober person around. If you eat healthy, people who eat shit don't want you around reminding them of how bad their life choices are. 

Negative people and bad influences are not so transparent

They're hidden in your life and use subtlety to throw you off base. Think hard on who they are, and they'll eventually reveal themselves. Just like they'll slowly get you off track, not just push you off the rails in a few single meetings.

"That's too hard. It's easy for her. Wish my family was rich. That could never happen. Easy for them to say. If I had time and money I could do that." People who say things like that are friends you need to delete. 

Do you have the right mentor?

A lot of trainers were in shape at one point but now are chubby or even fat. They say they know how to get in shape though and flash old photos of themselves. But being in shape isn't about getting in shape one time, it's about a lifestyle you can maintain. If they can't live that, how could they possibly teach it?

THE COMPOUND EFFECT

A lot of what I mentioned was taken from life experience, and a lot of the things mentioned were also heavily influenced by a recent book I've been reading called THE COMPOUND EFFECT by Darren Hardy. http://www.thecompoundeffect.com/

Simple Method to Getting Ripped

So those that have been keeping up with me know that I've used some of the more extreme diets to get lean fast.  But these are not necessary at all. You can eat moderately and have fun on the way there. I used them because I'm trying to get to a certain body fat as quickly as possible.

The problem with these diets, besides how brutal they are, is that they don't teach long term nutrition habits.  They actually do the opposite. As they make you never want to diet again, and they give you bad memories associated with your weight loss.

  Many people balloon back up after one of these diets. Same goes for over training. Ever watch Biggest Loser? Those people can't keep that kind of regimen long term. It's not practical. See Proof!

What about most of these outrageous diets give you the illusion of weight loss only to truly be ridding you of water and muscle weight. Just like getting sick and not eating for days. Basically the same thing except you're torturing your body on purpose this time.

Not to mention some people getting addicted to these extreme diets and never getting off of them.

But I digress. Let me instruct you on the basic way to get lean, preserve muscle and your mind, and do it at a steady pace.

K.I.S.S...Not those dudes
K.I.S.S. means:
"Keep It Simple Stupid"

1st: Find your caloric maintenance.
There's tons of formulas and online calculators that do this.  One of my favorites is the:

Katch McArdle Formula.

There's the old school method where you multiply your weight from a number between 12-15  based off of how active you are.  There's no 100% to say for certain. Bodies have different metabolisms. Bodies react to food and exercise differently.

Basically you have to experiment. Some guys like to start with 3000 calories per day and some women start with 1800 per day.  Anyway, just pick a starting point for getting to know yourself.  Now you're going to take 20% of that and it will be your amount of fat.

Fat is healthy and necessary.

The only problem with fat is it's calorie density. Fat is worth 9 calories whereas protein and carbs are only worth 4.

 =  4 calories

Protein, now, you need your protein.  The best way is to take your LBM (Lean Body Mass) and multiply it by 1.25-1.5.  Why so high?  Because you're on a deficit and want to retain as much muscle as possible.  Not to mention all the hardcore workouts you're doing. You're not the average human walking the streets. Though most could do with more walking.  Hiiiyyyooooo!!!!!!!

By the way, you obtain your LBM by subtracting your total fat from your body weight. You get your fat lbs from subtracting your body fat from your overall weight.

Now take your fat and protein calories. Remember that protein is worth 4 calories and fat is wroth 9. Subtract it from your total calories. That's how many carbs you need.

Measure yourself weekly.

Once you finally hit a plateau, you can subtract some calories. Maybe around 300. All from your carbs. Add some more cardio too.  This is that experimenting we were talking about earlier.  You're going to hit plateaus, and this is how you get past them.

Some people like to make it even simpler and just even  40% carbs  and  40% protein.  You can do that too. But I find the former version better calibrated to the individual.

I think it goes without saying you need to be on a weight lifting program.  I'll write some more posts about that as well.

That's all for today children.

https://www.getfarmerfit.com

You Should've Already Got Results

You should see results every week. If you don't, what you're doing is wrong.

How do you actually know if you're doing something wrong. You could try to judge yourself by a mirror, or how you fit in your clothes, or how many times you get hit on Saturday night. 

But believe it or not there's much better ways of doing this.

Weigh yourself.

Measure your body fat.

I don't care if you use an electronic or analog caliper. Whatever you do use the same measurement method and don't switch, because the measuring tool will then become the variable.

If you're using analog calipers make sure you're using the same person as the measurer.

Also make sure it's you getting measured every time. HAHAHAHA I'm hilarious.

But seriously though folks. You can get yourself one of them hi tech weight scales out of a department store that measures your weight, bf%, LBM, waterweight, etc. all in one. It's 2013! We're living in the future people. 

After you've done that another good idea would be to find your LBM (Lean Body Mass).

Subtract your body fat percentage from your weight and and you'll have that. If you actually need me to explain how that's done then you're not allowed to read my blogs for now on, let alone make eye contact with me.

This way when you lose or gain weight you'll know how much of it was muscle and how much was fat.

I got a guy down 2 lbs one week and he was a little disspointed. Until I pointed out to him that he gained 3 lbs of muscle at the same time, so he actually lost 5 lbs of fat!

That's what sucks about just measuring your weight.

Those girls that are happy about losing weight after being sick for a week and not eating really only lost water weight and muscle, but these are not the girls that measure their body fat and LBM so ignorance is bliss.

Also get your measurements around your waist, hips, arms, etc, and check that out from time to time as well but not as frequently.

That'll do for today. I'm going to start making my blogs shorter but more frequent. 

I'll tell you what to do if you're not getting the correct results in the next blog.

Until then, keep trying to be like me.