3 Tricks to Being Successful

The decisions we make everyday are a result of the following factors:

• Emotion
• Logic
• Convenience

A simple analogy to illustrate how we are influenced by these factors is as follows:

Imagine a little man riding a huge elephant. At first glance, it might seem like the rider is controlling the elephant, but this is only partially true. If the elephant and the rider ever want opposite things, the elephant is always going to win. For instance…and this may sound silly, but bear with me…if the elephant wants to run off a cliff there is nothing the rider can do to stop it

In this analogy, the rider represents our logic, the elephant represents emotion, the cliff represents (no surprise here) failure. The unmentioned factor, convenience is the path that leads to the cliff. If we want to avoid the cliff (heart-attach, stroke, cancer..) we can do a few things:

1. Train the elephant. That is what the next post is about. It’s depressing to think about dying early. It’s also depressing to step on a scale and realize you are worse off then you thought. But these things are necessary. They give you an emotional response to avoid the cliff.
2. Become a Better Rider. In future posts, I will lay out a diet plan. There are literally billions of ways you can become healthy. Perhaps you have tried some of them. If you’re reading this, it means they didn’t work and your rider needs some improvements! Becoming a better rider means finding an easier and more effective fat-loss plan. I’m here to help.
3. Shape the Path. If the cliff is harder to get to, you greatly improve your chance of success. This is simple: If you have a weakness for Oreos (I do!), don’t keep them in the house. If you constantly over-eat, don’t go to a buffet. Eventually, the cliff will be further and further and you will be successful!

5 Reasons to Overcome Obesity

Sure, everyone wants to be healthy, but not everyone succeeds when it comes to fat loss. Why is that?

It’s simple, you have not found enough of a reason to change. You’ve become overwhelmed with excuses which cause you to fail. But if you really want to be healthy, you need to decide–right now–WHY.

Here are some reasons, but you might have your own.

1. You want to live to see your children grow up. Every day, people die of heart attacks, strokes, and cancer. Next time you look at your child, ask am I making choices that will help me live to see them grow up.
2. You want an active lifestyle. Life is so much better when you can move. You can play with your kids. You can participate in activities with your friends. You can walk around amusement parks without getting out of breath. You can fit in airline seats (well, as much as is possible) and see the world. Life is good when your healthy!
3. You want to sleep better. Sleep apnea is common among over weight people.
4. You want to feel better. Do you suffer from back pain? Being healthy improves the way you feel. Are you regularly tired? Having a normal body weight increases your energy. Studies have even shown that you will be happier!
5. You want a better job. Every employer wants to hire someone who is responsible and motivated. Appearance is a very important way to convey this. Someone who can’t take care of their own health will be viewed just like the person who just rolled out of bed and walked into a job interview.

Remember these reasons because they will guarantee your success in reaching your goal.

How to Become Fatter…or Avoid It

Fat is a natural part of our bodies. You can’t live without fat. Seriously, the person with the least amount of fat was a body builder who still had 3% body fat, right before dying. As you may know, fat is a storage of energy. Why does our body need this energy storage?

Our body runs on blood sugar. If you’ve ever tried starving yourself and got a headache, it is because your blood sugar dropped and your brain started running out of energy. When our blood sugar gets low, our body starts converting fat into sugar.

When we eat, some of the food is converted to sugar which enter our blood stream to run our body. If we get too much sugar in our blood, it can actually be toxic (diabetes). So our bodies respond by producing insulin which tell the body to start storing the energy as fat to be used for later. Unfortunately, for many people, later never comes and the fat keeps on multiplying.

Insulin is the main contributor to fat-gain. To begin fat-loss, you need to lower your insulin levels by controlling how much sugar enters your blood stream. The most effective way to do this is with a low-carb diet.

The reason to avoid carbs temporarily while losing fat, is because carbs metabolize really quickly into blood sugar. This is bad for fat loss because insulin meals. The resuoverreacts with high carb lt is your body stores more of the food you eat as body fat.

Compare the two graphs on the right. The first is an example of a meal with mostly carbs. Since carbs break down so quickly, you see a big spike in blood sugar which is followed by an even bigger spike in insulin.

The second graph is an example of a meal with mostly proteins, fats, and vegetables. Because these types of foods convert to blood sugar slowly, there is no peak and the blood sugar level is fairly constant.

There is another side-effect of high-carb meals. Notice in the first graph, there is a large dip in blood sugar right after the peak. This is because the insulin did it’s job TOO well. When your blood sugar is low (below the red line) your body begins to tell your brain to eat more. This causes you to over-eat. The graphs below illustrate this:

In the next post, I will outline how to lose fat quickly and easily.