Neither your age, nor your health should ever (!) stand in your way.
Now, most of you know by now that 12 years ago I nearly died and doctors did not give me any good news. But with faith I moved forward and apply healthy living on all levels and also did some house cleaning and moving closer to God ( I am a follower of Jesus Christ).
Obviously it was a long and hard road and the body took long to respond to this healthy living but the wheel did turn and it is keeping on turning as a result.
Now, I am not naïve in thinking everyone with serious health issues can and will turn around like I did, but what I do believe is that with faith in God and by living very healthy, one CAN make a huge difference. Obviously you need your doctor’s approval to embark on such a journey.
But, let me share with you the core of my healthy living
My training program is as follows:
Mondays – Chest, Biceps and abs
Tuesdays – Shoulders, Traps and calves
Wednesdays – rest
Thursdays – Back, triceps and abs
Fridays – Legs, upper pecs and calves
Saturdays & Sundays – rest
My supplement regime
Health supplements:
ALA (Alpha Lipoic Acid)
CQ10 (Co Enzyme Q10)
Omega 3+6
Strong Multi Vitamin
Slow release Vit C
Muscle building supplements:
Whey protein powder
L-Glutamine
BCAA
How do I structure my training?
I do a 3-months Cutting phase with a very specific cutting phase diet and training with lighter weights at a higher rep range followed by 1 week rest and then a 3-month building phase with a very specific building phase diet and training with heavier weights to absolute muscle failure at lower reps (about 8 reps per set) followed by 1 week rest and the repeat.
This allow me to build muscle but also to recover the strained tendons and joints.
About my diets
I make use of one of the top fitness nutritionists in the field (BERNADETTE BEYER) to work out my diets for each phase according to my bodytype and goals. This is the crucial part of your success and without a very focussed diet there will be no success.
My blog contains a LOT of info for free that can help you through all these processes.
But for those interested, I also offer my exact training/supplem and diet system via the ADVANCED SYSTEM II (option E). The same nutritionist I use will also work out your diet solution and I myself attend to working out your training and supplement attack based. If you want to signup, just choose option E via the following link: https://gertlouw.com/contact-me
Hi everyone, just want to give you a heads up about one of the latest major scam supplement products out there. It is marketed under ESPN (which is NOT the real ESPN) and in the advertisement, fake stories are made up to support ridiculous claims of it’s worth.
These two scam products are: HYPERTONE FORCE and HYPERTONE EXCEL.
Neither the gold medalist, Wayde van Niekerk or me (Gert Louw), both mentioned as “proof” in the article, has ever touched this product. Both our photos stolen and fake stories written.
Please stay clear, this is a well known trick to get hooks into your credit card for monthly deductions and you’re going to get a worthless product.
Never (!) believe marketing articles with fantastical claims over the internet. 99% of them are scams to get access to your credit cards.
Now this is probably what everyone wants to hear – lol! BUT, the truth is, there are methods to cheat and still get to the top!
Life is not meant to be without a dessert once on a while…and I am talking Baked Chocolate Fondant with oozing real sweet chocolate out if it’s center with ice cream (real ! ice cream) liberally used. The same goes for the odd glass of wine/whiskey or beer or whatever blows your skirt up, even a chocolate!
A certain balance needs to be applied to stay sane with anything in life. I’ve just done a 3 weeks severe cutting diet, sticking 100% to it…and, it’s was hell! The more you are going to disallow yourself a treat once in a while, the bigger the chance that your diet will fail completely in the end. You would just say…”I had enough”. And you know what? I have big compassion for that…so let’s have a look here how (!) you can cheat regularly without crashing your diet and keep yourself sane and focused to stick 98% to your diet.
Sundays to Fridays – sorry that (!) is where you stick 100% to your diet.
Get yourself some sugarless, carb less, fat free sweets. Do some searching and buy those that have as little calories as possible…like below 10! Then during the Sunday to Friday period…pop a few (3-4) of those during the day when you feel the urge to treat yourself a bit. Apart from that – nothing else.
The key is always to eat all your regular meals and drink all your water (2L-4L)…THAT is what keeps you full and keep the urges to eat wrong away.
Obviously, if you are at your target body fat then some different rules apply. Then you are allowed 2 -3 cheats evenly spaced out during the week. But for this documents purpose, let’s assume we are dealing with all those that are still far from the target body fat levels.
Your cheat should be left for a weekend day…when you are less stressed, more relaxed and doing something you like. This cheat will go to great lengths to make you not feeling deprived of some great things and food in life. Even if you don’t feel like a cheat, maybe it is a good idea…simply to help you stay balanced and not feeling deprived later on in the week.
Now, “HOW?” should you cheat?
There can only be one cheat and that cheat can only be once per day per week on just 1 day of the week!
First you eat the diet as normal for that day as specified.
Let’s look at the next cheat scenario’s:
1. Ice Cream cheat / Soft drink / dessert cheat / potato crisps – once anytime during day. Then for 2 of your meals for the day cut out carbs completely. One small meals carbs and one larger meals carbs.
2. Chocolate cheat 150g – anytime during day. The same as above: For 2 of your meals for the day cut out carbs completely. One small meals carbs and one larger meals carbs.
3. Alcohol cheat (500ml equivalent wine) – anytime during day. Usually late afternoon or evening you will use this cheat. So for the evening meal cut out carbs completely and ONLY clean fatless meat and salad…no sauces, no carbs, nothing else! And definitely no dessert. If you want dessert, then no wine! One or the other… [Note: be very careful with alcohol. It is the key reason why men, especially older men, struggle to loose fat around the tummy and have a bloated look to the tummy. Best is to cut alcohol COMPLETELY out and have other types of cheats.]
Remember that with any of the above cheats it will set you back 24 to 48 hours before your body reverted to the level before you cheated and only then will it be able to start losing fat again. So even though you have cheated it is STILL very much possible to loose fat for the week, but only within above rules.
I strongly believe that the only winning approach is a balanced approach. That keeps you focused and you feel like “life” is not deprived of you. Part of this balance is to cheat on a weekly basis with your diet by applying above wisdom!
Wish you all happy dieting and a great training week!
Gert Louw
In all my coaching systems and many articles on my site, I regularly refer to the process of transforming into a wow physique by “climbing a ladder step by step”.
Here I want to explain as to WHAT exactly I mean by that.
Now, many people think they are starting to climb the ladder and start transforming, and they actually start doing rather great, but then stuff starts happening…things like: getting sick regularly, tendon/joint injury or other serious injury or they lose hope because they just cannot put on muscle no matter how hard they train and some just cannot lose fat no matter how hard they diet.
This is when the train stops and they get off the ladder.
Not because it was not possible but because they LACK knowledge.
KNOWLEDGE in terms off:
You CANNOT lose fat if the calories are too low…then your body enters famine mode and you WILL lose all your hard earned muscle first before it uses the fat – no matter how HARD you train! There is a sweet spot with calories where the body use fat for energy and keep muscles safe. You need to find it. (In my SYSTEMS I and II this is covered).
You CANNOT build muscle if: caloric intake too low, body fat too low or you do too much cardio!
You WILL get sick regularly if you continue pounding your body week after week, month after month, in the wrong fashion and you do not use certain basic health supporting supplements.
You WILL run into serious tendon and joint issues if you do not alternate every 3 months between BUILDING and CUTTING phases to allow healing and strengthening.
All of these are covered in detail in my COACHING SYSTEMS (https://gertlouw.com/contact-me), but the bottom line which brings all these together are a continuous alternating between a 3 month CUTTING PHASE and a 3 monthly BUILDING phase.
Each Phase has its own specific training methodology and specific type diet.
The two phases are vastly different and by continuously alternating between them, you allow your body every 3 months to go through a process off:
Loosing max fat while protecting muscles in Cutting Phase.
Building max muscle at slightly higher body fat levels in the Building Phase.
Allowing your body to be fed correctly for your exact goal and training methodology for each phase.
Allowing tendons and joints to strengthen and recover regularly in Cutting Phase.
Allowing the body a balanced and healthy approach preventing sickness and injury by not overtraining and stressing the body and immune system.
These 2 phases hold the KEY to climbing the ladder. One step on the ladder = 1 BP (Building phase) + 1 CP (Cutting Phase). After each step you will be able to see a significant difference in shape and size. THIS is how you climb up the ladder.
Look at the following graph showing the BODY FAT variation during the phases
This is what your body fat will do when sticking to my SYSTEM I or II training that incorporates these principles (BP = Building Phase, CP = Cutting Phase):
Every BP1 + CP1 covers a 6 month period. At the end of each of the cutting phases your body fat is lower and lower till typically after a 3 year period you reach crazy levels like 5% body fat.
Let’s look what your muscle size will do when alternating between the phases:
At the end of each of the cutting phases your body weight is higher than after the previous cutting phase. That COUPLED with the fact that the body fat is lower after each Cutting Phase compared to the previous cutting phase makes a HUGE difference on how the body looks and the amount of lean mass you are carrying.
THIS (!) is how you climb the ladder…not after one cutting phase or one building phase but after various of these phases. Stopping with the process simply mean you stop climbing the ladder.
Simply put – After each Building Phase your muscle weight is higher at lower body fat levels, and during the Cutting Phase you show your results, keeping that muscles safe and dropping the body fat on each Cutting Phase lower and lower than in the previous Cutting Phases until after a few years you look back and say…”WOW!”
I get ask by many guys how they should start out on this road of transforming their body.
They know what their end-goal is looking like, but the process just sounds and look very overwhelming, especially if you’ve never been into bodybuilding before.
So with this article let me help you to get it off the ground.
I am assuming you are starting from ground zero…very unfit coach potato with little to no weight training experience.
Sure if you got the money, you can get yourself a personal trainer who will then guide you through the process – however, choose well, not all personal trainers are equal. In the very least, if his body does not look like your end goal body, stay away! You do not want someone with theoretical knowledge, u want someone who has the knowledge AND reached success!
But alas, most of us are not so fortunate to be able to afford a personal trainer.
The good news is that in the early steps (first couple of months) a personal trainer is really not a critical part. (and then after these first few months all you really need is a dedicated training partner with the same goals and dedication as you!)
The critical part is the fact that you have made the decision to change your life and to what degree you are ready to sacrifice your comfort levels to reach this success.
I don’t know you, but for this one time, tell yourself you’ve made this decision and gonna stick to it no matter what. Then be a MAN and show some dedication and perseverance!
OK, this is now week one, tomorrow is Monday and you want to START!
Consider this…
CORRECT DIETING DETERMINES 80% OF YOUR BODY TRANSFORMATION SUCCESS.
CORRECT AND INTENSE TRAINING (AND NOT OVERTRAINING) DETERMINES 17.5% OF YOUR BODY TRANSFORMATION SUCCESS.
CORRECT SUPPLEMENTATION DETERMINES 2.5% OF YOUR TRANSFORMATION SUCCESS.
So, for now, forget about supplements and only focus on the correct diet and training. Supplements you should only consider once you have the training and diet well under your control.
WANT SOMETHING MORE ADVANCED & FULLY CUSTOMIZED? The program I am following for the past 6 years, available now fully customised on all levels, just for you. Every little secret, every hard-earned practical fact, every scientific study that actually support the (very) few supplements between all the thousand ridiculous advertisement claims have been filtered en incorporated into one system that MAKES A DIFFERENCE click here:
Train 4 days a week for first month: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Rest on the other days or do moderate cardio for not more than 20 minutes.
On these days train with weights (resistance exercises) for not longer than 30 minutes.
During each training session do the following:
One exercise for biceps
One exercise for triceps
One exercise for pecs/chest
One exercise for shoulders
One exercise for back
One exercise for upper legs
One exercise for calves
One exercise for stomach.
Each exercise must consist of two sets of 12 reps. No resting between reps. 1 min resting between sets.
Use a light weight allowing you to comfortably do the 12 reps.
Each 7 days increase the weights by about 10%…very important rule, this allows the body and tendons to adapt to the new exercise and weights.
MONTH 2
Train 4 days a week for the 2nd month: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Rest on the other days or do moderate cardio for not more than 20 minutes.
On each of these days train with weights for not longer than 40 minutes.
On each of the following day you must do:
MONDAYS
Three exercises for biceps
Three exercises for triceps
TUESDAYS
Three exercises for shoulders
Three exercises for trapezuims
THUSDAYS
Three exercises for pecs/chest
Three exercises for back
FRIDAY
Three exercises for upper legs
Two exercises for calves
Two exercises for stomach.
Each exercise must consist of two sets of 10 reps. No resting between reps. 1 min resting between sets.
Use a light weight allowing you to just-just complete the 10 reps.
Each 14 days increase the weights by about 10%…very important rule, this allows the body and tendons to adapt to the new exercise and weights.
Stay with the same program from month three, but in month three increase the weight size to allow you to achieve muscle failure on the 8th rep in each set. From here onwards do only 8 reps per set and you MUST not be able to do 1 more rep after the 8th rep due to muscle failure!
Regarding the execution of exercises and which exercises to choose:
Always do the compound exercises fist in a training session…this simply means it is an exercise that involved the most possible amount of muscles: bench press, shoulder press, squats, deadlift, barbell bicep curls. These are the core group exercises that sparks growth.
Look around in the gym, ask trainers and talk to those who got the muscles to show you on how to correctly execute an exercise – 99% of the guys would be very friendly showing you the ropes.
The DIET
This is a much simpler aspect and a basic plan can be laid down rather easily. Just remember….you will NOT grow if you do not eat for growth. You need to eat small balanced meals every 3-4 hours from waking up to the point of going to bed. The period just before and after training is also very important.
Diet
One thing I realized – I will not grow if I do not get my diet sorted correctly. Diet makes up easily 80% of muscle Building Phase success. I did not believe that in the past and paid hard penalties for wasted effort!
My diet is not a diet to lose weight without training. My diet will work great to lose unwanted weight but only with a dedicated and serious training routine.
This is just a sample. It can help you get started and may just be all you need to achieve success. However, each of us are different and body types and sizes vary…so if you have concerns, do more homework or best yet, see a sports doctor or dietician to design a muscle-building diet for you. However, I had GREAT success by following this basic diet structure.
Here an example of my typical dieting routine:
(note: 40g of whey protein shake can easily be exchanged with 6 eggs whites or 150g tuna in brine or 150g chicken fillet, etc…)
Meal 1:
For extra calcium and protein, I sometimes mixed my shake with fat-free milk. However, water is cheaper. I never drank concentrated shakes. I used at least 400ml of water/fat-free milk.
Meal 2:
Oats and muscle-building go perfect together as a morning meal. Oats release their energy slowly throughout the day, so I won’t feel drained or experience hunger pangs. Substitutions: none really, nothing comes close to oats. Sometimes I used cinnamon over my oats. Be careful of the calorie count and do not exceed the calorie count of the oats.
Meal 3:
The 50g at this meal was a solid food protein. I was weary of bananas. They are excellent directly after working out, but due to their quick releasing energy, I want to avoid them at any other time. Substitutions: 50g protein = 4 medium size egg whites / small piece of chicken fillet/fish or beef fillet.
By small is meant about half a fist size. Although the yellow of an egg is healthy, the amount of calories it has due to its fat content makes it unsuitable for muscle-building purposes. At most I took one yellow and mixed it in with the 4 whites. But as stated, it’s best without.
Meal 4:
This I took immediately before working out. Substitutions: None
Post Workout:
Note this is the ONLY time I ate a banana. My body requires immediate energy after workout and a banana is excellent in providing it. Substitutions: The whey and glutamine cannot be substituted. However, the banana can be replaced by 200ml fruit juice, any flavor. Apple works great. But, a banana stays the number one choice.
Meal 6:
Substitutions: None
Meal 7:
Small evening meal with no starches, only veggies/salad and protein (fillet, chicken or fish – 150g). No butter and limited salt with veggies/salad. I used a liberal (2 spoons) amounts of extra virgin olive oil with salad/veggies.
Meal 8:
Substitutions: Although the casein protein powder is preferred, I sometimes ate 250g fat-free cottage cheese.
General Diet Points:
I did not eat starches after 6 p.m. That means no rice, pasta, bread, rusks, potato, etc.
The protein portion in the evening was a solid food and is typically the size of my fist in volume.
All the protein portions were fat-free. I chose chicken fillet, beef fillet or fish.
I was careful to use sauces over protein. It adds a lot of unwanted calories. I rather use herbs and spices liberally and things like squeezed lemon juice, basic gravy sauce. I also tried to cook the chicken in orange juice for a tangy change.
I allowed myself a large salad portion. But we are only talking basic salad here, no fancy stuff. Only green leafs, tomato, cucumber, gherkin, seeds, very little nuts and some parmesan shavings allowed. I used 2 spoons of extra virgin olive oil over salad. For a something different, I also used balsamic vinegar to taste. It goes especially nice with the olive oil.
Cooked and raw veggies were allowed.
Butter and salt were a taboo for me. However, over veggies I used a tablespoon of butter for taste purposes.
Critical Diet Points I Adhered Too:
I tried staying away from diet carbonated drinks and too much coffee (only 2 cups daily with fat-free milk and no sugar). Both these items act as a mild diuretic and means I will have to drink even more water to replace the water lost as a result. Plus the sweeteners used in diet carbonated drinks are questionable!
I NEVER skipped a meal. This is the #1 enemy for Building Phase muscles.
I never ate more than the suggested amounts, otherwise I would gain fat.
I never ate less than the suggested amounts or I would struggle to build muscle.
I ate my meals even if I felt full!
My meals were spaced between 3-4 hours apart.
I used NO alcohol during the week and weekends only one glass of wine or one beer per day. Alcohol is a big enemy of dieting and building muscles. Cutting it out completely is the best option.
I do NOT smoke. I cannot be successful at building muscles and continue smoking, the two oppose each other.
Sweets and chocolate: Sorry, I had none of these.
Cheat meal? Once per week (only one meal). I never stuffed myself (important), but had a sit-down meal and ate whatever my taste buds felt like including my favorite dessert.
Why did I use two different proteins powders?
Whey isolate is a quick releasing protein powder and perfect to use when my body requires an immediate uptake of protein.
Casein protein is used when I need a slow uptake of protein, such as while I am sleeping.
I tried to use trusted local (South African) supplements when I can, simply because they are cheaper than the imported ones.
Why so many shakes?
Well, simply to make my life easier. I did not have the time to stand for hours at night preparing the next day meals. But know this, solid protein sources are always preferred to protein shakes if you can manage the time. But I was careful not to replace my existing solid meals with shakes. The human body was not designed to live on liquids alone.
Conclusion
Remember – Each one who has reached body transformation success holds some truth. Use these recipes but keep on educating yourself and starting to mould it to make it your own unique winning recipe that suites you best.
Never change more than one aspect at a time before verifying that it works and only then introduce another change.
It is a battle of the mind and wills…but we each has but ONE life to live…and we need to make it the BEST life we can!
Don’t wake up like me at 41 and start making a difference…if u are young, use that opportunity and never live with any regrets about wasted opportunities! But that being said, even if you are 60, you can still transform to kick many a lazy 25 y/o’s ass! Time is precious…never let it slip you by.
Is that at all possible? Let me put it this way…not by sitting on the coach with the bag of crisps in your hand it’s not!
Most of you are aware that I am preaching a complete lifestyle change but with this article I am going to focus on how you can get your metabolism fired up to function at its peak level.
I think it is common knowledge that the higher you’re resting metabolism is the quicker you are going get rid of that unwanted fat layer.
Before we get to the nitty-gritty of the how, let’s quickly delve into why a lot of people are sitting with these slow metabolisms. I’ve already touched on some reasons in some of my earlier articles.
Granted, for some people it might actually be genetic, but for the most (and I claim easily 95%) they have enough control over the metabolic rate to make a very big difference weight wise.
The slow metabolism origins
The first main reason
In my article DIET IS FOR LOSERS I already discussed how people are training their body in a complete negative way by following short-term diets. Each diet train the body to drop the resting metabolic rate since it senses it might be in a famine period. After the diet target weight is reached and you revert back to your normal eating habits, your body is adding on as much fat as possible to prepare for the next approaching “famine” period and it then lowers the resting metabolic rate every time you hit a new diet…for good!
Therefore DIETS is one of the main reasons the resting metabolic rate is slowing down year after year.
One should never follow a diet (or short-term solution) but make a long-term lifestyle change if you want a healthy metabolic rate.
The second main reason
In conjunction with above problem, the same people will tend to become more and more inactive due to various reasons:
Our western lifestyle is that of coach potatoes in front of tv.
Being more overweight year after year make it even more difficult to become active.
Time and work may sometimes be limiting factors.
How are you going to get this slow resting metabolic rate fired up for peak performance?
If you are not ready to make a complete lifestyle change, skip this article…but be aware there is absolutely NO quick fix available anywhere in our little spot of the universe. The closest you will get to a quick and last fix (not to get a healthy metabolic rate but get rid of the fat layer) is the operation that restrict your amount of food uptake by your body…serious stuff…..we were designed a certain way, alter with that design and you ask for serious problems. That being said, there are success stories out there of people who did the operation…
So a lifestyle change is a basic need to start the process of correcting your resting metabolic rate.
Part of a lifestyle change is eating a small balanced meal every 3-4 hours (from waking up to going to bed). Why? Well, the body was designed that way. The 3 meals a day plan most people follow is far from what the body need to act optimally. It allows your blood sugar levels to drop too low and also does not give the food in the correct way for your body to grow/lose fat and function optimally.
After you’ve ate a meal, even small, your resting metabolic rate will be much higher than normal for the next 3 hours. That is due to all the functions your body is performing to get the food from your stomach to your blood to feed the body. Your digestive system uses a lot of energy to do it’s job. Whether it is a small or big meal does not matter so much. Therefore the more frequent you can keep this system active the more energy you will burn and the higher your metabolic rate. But please, this is not a ticket to hit the fridge on the hour! You must stick religiously to the 3-4 hour rule and the meals must be small and balanced and ONLY what your body need. No more, no less.
But that alone is not going to solve the problem. There is much damage done and that damage need to be undone.
For years on end your body has been trained to slow down you’re resting metabolic rate and no matter what you do now that metabolism will need time to adapt. There is no quick way out. The more the damage the longer it will take. Let me put it to you like this, the more diets you’ve tried in the past the longer it is going to take to get your metabolism to function optimally.
No two people will react the same, but a general guideline is it can take between 6 to 8 months for worse case scenarios metabolic rates to start functioning optimally again. But don’t fear, on average it take 2 – 3 months to sort out the metabolism for most people.
Put the scale away!
Another point I want to raise at this stage is weighing yourself too often.
Put that scale away. You are aware of the damage that has been done to your metabolism and that will take some time to repair. Implement your lifestyle change and religiously stick to it.
I suggest that you never weight yourself more than once a month – at the same time every month.
Think about it…
It allow yourself to slip up once or twice, it gives enough breathing space for woman to avoid problems about periods etc. Your scale is not going to tell you the true story of what is busy happening in your body for the first couple of months. You need to re-program your body and while that new program is being written you do NOT want the scale to show you week after week a negative picture that will demotivate you within the first month.
You’ve made that lifestyle change (with all that goes along with it) – stick to it and once a month you can check yourself. Even measurements must only be done not more than once a month.
NEVER let the scale or measurements rule your lifestyle change. That is one of the quickest ways to fail and fall back. With the lifestyle change you eat right, train right, supplement right and do all in the right combinations and frequentcy…your body WILL respond.
A very important factor that determines the resting metabolic rate will be the amount of lean mass your body carries. The more lean mass the higher you’re resting metabolic rate.
Now I already hear (once agin) many women (and men) crying out, “we don’t wanna built any muscle just tone a bit”. Well, “toning” IS BUILDINGMUSCLE! An inactive person losing all the unwanted fat would need to built at least 15 – 30% muscle to reach his/her target for a “toning” look/appearance. There is NOT something like toning, toning IS building muscle. So adding 15-30% muscle will have a dramatic effect on your resting metabolic rate and will give you that “toning” look.
This is also why I always recommend to overweight guys, to first focus on building decent muscle, then the process of losing the fat will be MUCH easier. In fact, without you even trying, you will loose fat because you’ve change your lifestyle.
Body builders generally have this aspect very good under control and that is also one of the reasons they are so successful in cutting to low body fat levels.
Now let’s return to get a shortlist of what you need to do to supercharge your metabolism:
Lifestyle change (eating + training + supplements + vitamins + spirituality). In some of my earlier posts I dealt in detail with what lifestyle chances involves.
Eating every 3-4 hours [keep metabolic rate fired up for up to 3 hours after eating]
Training 4-5 days a week [resting metabolic rate raised for up to 24 hours after training]
Grow muscle as much as you can but 15-30% minimum fore real change = toning. [more muscle = higher resting metabolic rate].
The above WILL kick start your metabolism into overdrive. It again is the combination of ALL the above and not any single item that makes the difference. You need to cover ALL THE ANGLES if you want to get your metabolism fired up and restored to function optimally.
As you can see, you cannot get away from some key changes in your life if you want to get rid of fat, look good and have a great body. These factors will always remain constant because it brings us back to how we were designed and suppose to live. Not as chips eating coach potatoes but as active people eating right and small meals every 3-4 hours.
Yes there are other supplements out there can can have a positive effect on your resting metabolism for a couple of hours (caffeine pills, green tea extract, etc…) but this should be ignored at first. Focus purerly on getting to grips with all aspects of your lifestyle change. Once you have that fully under control (I reckon it will take you at least 3 months) then by all means investigate other avenues of boosting your resting metabolic rate. But remember: NOTHING is a substitute other than above to fire up your metabolism in the correct way. Do not try to take any shortcuts!
Fire up that metabolism guys and girls and make 2013 the year that you become the best you can be…for good!
I’ve seen this happening over and over…The latest diet book hit the shelves, everyone is raving about it. My wife and her friends is part of the crowd and decided to jump in.
She and her friends lose a fair amount of weight. Happy faces, goal reached…
But so they think…
Life returns to normal and so the eating does too. No need to diet anymore, they have reached their goal. In any case one can only continue for so long on the diet…
One year later and the crowd is each 20kg heavier than before they started with the previous diet. So it goes on…and year after year the diets come and go and every year they end 20kg heavier than the year before.
No matter how good that diet is, it is still a diet which means a short-term solution. That short-term solution, year after year, wreak havoc on your metabolism and literally train your body in a complete negative fashion about fat-loss.
And every year it becomes more and more difficult to get that fat off…
Year after year your metabolism is slowing down and due to the strict diet interruptions your body thinks it must add-on as much fat to cope with these “starvation” periods.
This is as true for guys as it is for girls
Once your body is trained in such a negative way…it is gonna take some time to straight things out and reverse that process. By time I mean anything from 6-9 months.
And that is why most people later give totally up with dieting because nothing is working anymore even when they try it for months! And so they become…MASSIVE!
At long last it look like my wifes eyes has opened and she is done with dieting. She now start seeing the logic behind a lifestyle change.
What is a lifestyle change?
We’ll it is a lot of things but for this discussion I will focus on the eating aspect.
A lifestyle eating plan is NOT a diet. It is an eating regimen you will follow day in day out, year in year out…
You can change this regimen but it will always adhere to the same basic principles.
Those basic principles are:
You MUST eat every 3-4 hours.
You MUST always eat SMALL meals.
Every meal MUST contain a clean protein source (fat-less) with little carbohydrates (preferably in the form of lots of veggies)
At least 2L water per day.
No smoking and very little alcohol.
Potent multivitamin every day.
Cheating once a week with only one meal and do NOT stuff yourself even with the cheat meal.
Let’s look at the first principle: “You MUST eat every 3-4 hours.”
The bottom line is, your body is designed to be fed every 3-4 hours. The western 3 time a day eating habit is NOT good for the body. Your whole system works near perfect when fed every 3-4 hours. It keeps your blood sugar levels stable and is perfect for feeding muscle for growth and speed up a fat-loss environment.
Yes, it can be cumbersome to eat so often but the fast solution to that is protein shakes. Make sure it has no carbohydrates but a clean, preferably slow release protein matrix. Slow is better because it keeps the releasing of the protein stable over a long time and does not flush the body with too much protein at one time. Together with a shake you can eat a few veggies or instead a fruit with not too much fruit sugar (bananas and mango’s = no-no).
You will have nearly no cravings anymore because your body is fed the way it was designed to need food. You should not feel hungry at all. (Although initially if u were used to high volumes food it might be a bit of a problem and you might need a craving suppressant to help you through the initial period.)
You can carry a shaker and small container with the protein powder with you. To mix and eat takes you 3 minutes…there is NO excuse for not taking such a meal no matter how busy you are.
Principle two: “You MUST always eat SMALL meals.”
Small means a fist size protein with two fist size portion veggies or if rice/pasta, just one fist size.
Your body does not need more than this every 3-4 hours unless you partake in strenuous training (Then refer to my training eating regimen in my first blog post.).
Small also means your stomach will literally start to shrink. Yes, without loosing any fat the tummy will already be smaller just because of the stomach that shrinked.
Your body will also start to use the food more efficiently. You will feel less bloated and will have less constipation.
Principle three: “Every meal MUST contain a clean protein source (fat-less) with little carbohydrates (preferably in the form of lots of veggies).
Clean protein means NO FAT. Before preparing chicken, get rid of the skin and any visible fat. Any meat with any visible fat is completely out. The only red meat you should eat is fillet.
Fatless pork and of course fish is also great clean protein sources.
Protein uptake is more efficiently when the meal is combined with some sort of carbohydrate. But rather try to eat a fair portion of veggies (2 fist, maybe even 3 fist sizes) instead of rice/pasta. Bread should be avoided. Rice crackers and provita will be better choices. If you have to eat bread, then low GI.
Principle four: “At least 2L water per day.”
Yes, you might get the a frequent toilet routine the first week or so, but when your body is used to it, it will be near normal.
Water assist in flushing the bad stuff out of your body. It also assists with the metabolism of fat and as such will literally help with your fat-loss process.
Water has a multitude of beneficial aspects and you CANNOT expect a successful lifestyle change without at least 2L water per day. Less than 2L will also severely hamper your fatloss efforts.
Note: People training vigorously will obviously need higher amounts of water.
Principle five: “No smoking and very little alcohol.”
No lifestyle change can be made when any form of addictive substance is abused. Social drugs are COMPLETELY out. You cannot make a successful lifestyle change and think you can continue smoking. I am not gonna give you the ins and outs about smoking here…It is very well-known and available on the internet. Drinking more tha n one to two glasses per week will make you struggle to lose fat. Alcohol is a fat magnet! Especially for guys struggling to lose fat around the waist.
No serious fitness enthusiast or bodybuilder smoke, drink…it simply goes against everything that fitness stands for. Get rid of it!
Principle six: “Potent multivitamin every day.”
No matter how balanced you eat, you will struggle to supply the body with all the necessary vitamins, minerals and antioxidants it needs, especially when training hard.
It is rather crucial that you use a very potent multi vitamin daily, It helps the body to function optimally. And an optimal body makes it easier to get rid of fat, regenerate exercise damaged tissue and help keep the body healthy. It is proven over and over by serious athletes that a potent multi vitamin is very important.
Principle seven: “Cheating once a week with only one meal and do NOT stuff yourself even with the cheat meal.”
Once a week with one meal you can cheat…not more than that.
Plus after that cheat you must NOT feel stuffed. NEVER ever must you stuff yourself.
Eat what you want during this cheat but one or maybe two portions. After this cheat it must be a full 6 days before you are allowed to cheat again.
These are just core principles of eating correctly for a lifestyle change. There are many other smaller points of note…but don’t concern yourself from the start with too much info. The smaller your steps the better you can climb the ladder…the bigger the leaps the harder you fall.
Every week or so educate and learn more about healthy eating for fitness enthusiasts and climb the ladder step by step.
Just by following these basic principles you will have nearly and 80% success eating correctly. Make it simple and make it easy.
Wish you all MUCH success!
Follow this link for complete coaching and diet systems to reach your dream body: DIET and COACHING systems
It is the beginning of a new year…into the 3rd week already and many people are already failing on grand new years resolutions made.
I boldly make this statement: “There is no bigger gift you can give yourself than by making a serious lifestyle change.”
But I have to give up watching tv, sitting on the couch and eat my favorite crisps, drinking with the guys, partying, eating my favorite pudding everyday…and I am waaay to fat and old to start with such stuff…that is only for the youngsters, in any case I don’t really want to look muscly!
Let’s take a tour…
This is me when I “followed” the typical above lifestyle.
Now this is me after making a serious lifestyle change. (granted a few years later…)
I am 48 now…and I look and feel the best in my whole life…and also very healthy.
If I did not make this change…imagine how bad I would have look now…
My goal with this post is to help some of you realize your dream of a total new you are very close and very much possible.
First, let’s get down to the basics.
What benefits does such a lifestyle change have (to name just a few):
1) Better self image.
2) Better self control
3) Learning to eat healthy.
4) Lower cholesterol
5) Significant lower blood pressure.
6) Sharper brain function.
7) More energy.
8) Stronger bone structure.
9) Healthier heart, kidneys and liver – longer lifespan.
10) Younger looking skin.
11) Better sexual ability
12) People start noticing and envy you.
13) Dramatic decreased change of getting diabetes or similar conditions.
14) New lust for life.
…alas for the bald heads…the hair does not grow back no matter how big a lifestyle change you make. Some things are just inevitable. Accept it, it makes life easier.
What do I have to give up:
1) Smoking!
2) Regular drinking (The odd – one or two glasses a wine per week is fine).
3) Late nights
4) Fast Food
5) About 90 minutes per day (be that early morning, over lunch or evening)
What is it gonna cost me:
1) Basic exercise clothing.
2) Gym bag, towel, etc…
3) Gym membership (I am on Discovery Vitality so it cost me R80 ($8) per month.
Now, look again at those 2 pictures. This is real and there are MANY other cases where people made similar changes, maybe even better!
Your biggest hurdle you will face is to break out of your comfort zone. You have trained yourself very well to be entrenched in that zone and that zone is mighty nice…but that is what is gonna be your biggest thing to overcome.
First week is fine…but then the mind and body start realizing it is not in its comfort zone anymore and the cravings start to get back into that comfort zone again.
You will have to decide if you are going to be a slave to this mind controlling mechanism your whole life or not. You have the power to overcome…believe me u have. But no-one is going to grab it on your behalf – YOU MUST!
Be the BEST you can be…rise above the rest…make yourself proud in yourself…make yourself someone u like inside and out when you look in that mirror. Make your wife and kids proud of you.
How can I stick to this new mindset?
1) First you must focus your mind and entrench the new you in your mind. Visualize yourself and where you want to be. Visualize yourself training and eating right. Get yourself determined…no-one and nothing must be able to sway that determination.
2) Take small steps!!! Climbing a ladder step by step and you will get to the top, leap and you will most probably fall very hard! So control that eagerness with wisdom.
How do I take these small manageable steps?
That must be done on three levels: training, diet and addressing your spirituality.
Training: You cannot start training from the first day like a guy who has been doing it regularly for the past 5 years. For example: You cannot use my program at my level and think it is going to work for you. It is a far to great a leap, you will burn and fall and loose that determination.
You will have to break such a plan down into very small manageable portions. If you are very unfit you must spend something like 10 min at gym for 4 days (2 days on one day off and 2 days on again) in the first week. Week two you make it 15 minutes. Week three 20 minutes.
The 3rd week is usually a week that the body start realizing something is going on, so for the 4th week keep it at 20 minutes for 4 days per week. Then the 5th week up it to 25 minutes, and so on until you reach a 50 minute workout. Be in touch with your body…if you feel the pace is to quick keep the time pinned down for 2 weeks at a time instead of increasing it.
Just make sure you get a overall body workout during each session: legs, upper body (arms, shoulders, back, abs) as well as a little cardio (treadmill, etc…) When you reached the 50 minute mark, start doing some good homework as to the type of programs (mine might be a good starting point) out there and how to start splitting the days up between the different muscle groups. Then you can start moving to the next level. By then your body and mind would have broken the comfort zone mold and you are well on your way.
Diet is and always will be your most important part of any lifestyle change. You cannot get muscle to grow if you do not feed them correctly.
With a diet you can make bigger leaps that the small steps required for training. However, rather take a step by step approach to get to your desired eating plan. A too big change might just through the whole body off balance and give you serious headaches, constipation, low energy, etc…
Introduce weekly a change in the diet to get to your target diet within a maximum of 2 month period.
When you reached that target diet, you can start focusing on the finer detail, like supplements, etc…
This is a lifestyle change so this will be how you will eat from now on…you can still cheat, but ONCE a week.
Spirituality – Make this the opportunity to become a better person inside and out. It is well know that I am a follower of Christ. You have to choose your own path. But get your life sorted in the face of God. Get Him part of everything you do. Cut out the wrong things from your life. It is one hell (excuse the pun!) of a feeling when you can look in that mirror and you like the person you see…inside and out.
I do believe this should be a critical part in your transformation process. I’ve been there and changing this aspect makes it soooo much easier!
What! You say you don’t want too look too “muscly”! Really?
Look at my after pic and truly tell me you think I look worse than my before picture. Here I am quite direct…I believe a man was created to be a muscled creature…leave the nice flowing shapes to the women. We are supposed to be strong, muscled creatures to lead and protect our families. Feel free to differ from me…
I am but one of MANY other guys who made such a transformation. I did it by a choice I made and I followed a certain process to get to the goal. I am still on my way, but never ever do I want to turn back again. Life is too precious to WASTE!
Here is a short video I did on some key aspects of growing muscle fast:
Contact me anytime if you need some encouragement or pointers –
All footage shot during the 2nd week of Jan 2013.
My training is spot on and weight now at 87.5kg, 8% bf (bodyfat) and 1.75m tall. (For those that don’t know – I am 48 y/o.)
I am busy cutting right now to lower bf from 8 to 6%. This should take me 2 to 3 months…slow process to ensure I loose no muscle but only bf.
The following changes is applied to my normal training program:
Close to the same diet as before just make sure I cheat less often and decrease carbohydrates (complex and simple) intake slightly (about 15%).
Same training as before with exception of 15 reps per set and not 8 as in the growth phase of the program.
Decreasing all my training weights for all excercises by approximately 1/3 of the weight size.
Muscle failure at approximately the 15th rep in each set (instead of the 8th rep as in the building phase).
Minimal rest inbetween sets…sweat baby sweat! (If too exhausted = 1 min stretching)
Introduce more supersets and more burnout sets (to maximize energy expenditure).
Will post update photos soon on lower body fat levels.
Wish you all a blessed 2013!
ScoobyMuscle (Gert)
Here is a motivational video I did a few months ago:
WORLD WIDE WEB BICEP FLEX-OFF 2012
Anyone want to enter for the 2013 vid? Email me at scoobymuscle@hotmail.co.za
