Bodybuilding - Maximize your metabolism

Bodybuilding - Maximize your metabolism
1 Prelude to the System………………………………….…….1
2 The Magic of Beliefs, Values, Goals, and Persistence..34
You Can’t Hit a Target You Don’t Have, and You Can’t
Have a Target Until You Know Your Beliefs and Values
3 Your Burning Desire……………………………………….. 51
The Starting Point of All Goal Attainment
4 Unleash Your Metabolism………………………………….57
Proper Elimination Begins with a Thorough Cleansing
5 Taking Control………………………………………………..71
Your Blueprints for Losing Fat
6 Your New Metabolic Diet……………………………………84
Your Foundation for Metabolic Success
Contents
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7 Create an Energy Bang with Enzymes and Water……..98
Immediately Boost Your Vitality by Increasing Your
Digestive Efficiency
8 Metabolic Superchargers That Work……………………111
Dietary Supplements and Metabolic Enhancers
9 Lift More Now, Weigh Less Forever………………….…137
The Power of Anaerobic Training and Muscle
Stimulation
10 Your Cardiovascular Metabolic Tune-up………………166
Fitness That Forces Your Metabolism to Burn Hotter
Than Hot
11 Oxygen Creates Movement Before Movement Creates
Oxygen………………………………………………………193
Easy Breathing Exercises That Stimulate Your
Metabolism and Cleanse Your Lymphatic System
12 Mastering Your Emotions and Your State of Mind…..206
Discover How Your Emotional States Control Your
Metabolism
13 Cut Years off of Your Efforts…………………………….220
Model the Behavior of Successful People
xiii
14 Mind–Body Link and Laser Visualization………………233
Your Body Is a Direct Reflection of the Way You See
Yourself When You Close Your Eyes! Change How You
See Yourself, and You’ll Change How Others See You!
15 Massage Therapy…………………………………………..256
Let Someone Else Do the Work While You Reap All the
Benefits
16 Getting Yourself to Exercise Regularly………………...272
Failure to Exercise Is Not an Option
17 Take Action: Your Motivational Challenge…………….282
Become Your Perfect Self—Starting Today!
18 Seven Days to Shape Your Life and Your Body………301
Multiply Your Metabolic Rate Every Day for the Next
Seven Days!
Bibliography…………………………………………………357
Index………………………………………………………….363

Preface
My university studies in nutrition have been both a blessing and
a bane. Those years of schooling taught me much about the
process of nourishing the human body. However, I also
discovered that the more formal education one has on “good
nutrition,” the less one actually knows about how to help people
reach their health and fitness goals.
The problem, of course, is the considerable time lag between
academic discovery and meaningful application. By the time
things get studied by scientists, then categorized and studied
again, written about in textbooks, and delivered to the
universities to be studied by the next generation, the information
is already out of date!
In all this there is a blessing, however. The science of nutrition
and exercise—and the way they both affect the human body—
changes almost as rapidly as the computer industry. (For the
reader who is not familiar with the computer industry, it
practically doubles every year.)
What does all this mean? Well, for one thing, it means that the
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most up-to-date individuals in the field of nutrition and fitness
are not necessarily the most highly “schooled.” Rather, the real
experts are the ones who are in the field, testing each of the
new theories, reading books, going to seminars, listening to
tapes, and experimenting with all that seems viable. They then
adopt the most valuable aspects of each theory or approach
and discard the rubbish that inevitably finds its way in. And
that’s what I’ve done here. This book is a culmination of over
fifteen years of research, trial and error, and experimentation to
find the techniques that guarantee great results—and do so
every time they are properly used.
There are really only three ways to proceed in choosing a
nutrition and fitness regimen:
· Spend years reading, learning, and doing your own
experiments (way too time consuming for most folks)
· Follow the crowd (not very wise, since the crowd is what
keeps getting fatter and less healthy each year)
· Follow proven paths that have been developed from years
of practical experiments
It is precisely for the benefit of those who choose the third
option that this book was written.
I’ve spent years studying people who have successfully
Preface xv
mastered their metabolism. I wanted to know what set them
apart from the rest—and exactly what it was that they did that
made them so successful—while their neighbors failed to obtain
comparable results, regardless of how hard they seemed to diet
and exercise.
I was driven by the notion that millions of people would benefit
from this information if it could be distilled into a practical, easyto-
follow guide that systematized the secrets for success.
When I use the term secrets here, I simply mean the tactics that
only the few successful people were regularly using, the same
tactics that the unsuccessful people seem to consistently skip
over. Since no one else had stepped forward and done this, I
decided to put all my expertise down on paper—and to finally
share the truth about how to instantly and permanently
stimulate your metabolism.
The system that follows represents the fruits of these many
years of research and testing. It’s the culmination of a longterm,
multidisciplinary research project to create an easy-tounderstand,
personal guide to mastering your metabolism. My
goal in creating this book is to help you master yours.
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The World Has Been Waiting
As you might expect, virtually all health and exercise programs
are crammed to the rafters with clients who are desperate to
gain the upper hand on their metabolism so they can lose
unwanted pounds and regain their youthful figures.
Many of these men and women have unfortunately been
suckered into the whirlwind of diets, gadgets, and weight-loss
theories that invariably promise far more than they deliver.
They’re victims of the false marketing and ridiculous claims of
the diet and exercise industries that have been brainwashing us
for years.
They’ve tried to lose weight with every plan imaginable.
They’ve read books, listened to tapes, even joined groups.
Perhaps once or twice in their dieting lives, they’ve caught a
fleeting glimpse of their ideal weight, but they’ve never achieved
their ideal on a sustained basis. Within a few months or a year,
their weight has invariably zoomed right back to a
disappointingly high level.
These are the overweight men and women who are regularly
beating a path to the doors of health clubs, mine included, only
to find that their goal of permanent weight loss is as elusive as
the calorie-free hot-fudge malt. The difference between what
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other clubs do and what my health clubs have done (and what
you’ll learn about in this book) is that we take a whole-body
approach to health. We help our clients master their metabolism
by using a systematic process, and it is that systematic process
that’s laid out in detail in this book.
My Search for the Answer
It was the desperate longing for an effective weight-loss
regimen on the part of all these fitness seekers that inspired me
in the late 1980s to launch my search for the perfect metabolic
enhancers. At that time, early clinical research was making
important new discoveries which hinted that metabolic rate is
not the intractable biological enemy of the overweight. In other
words, it was found that one’s metabolism is not necessarily
predetermined by genetics. Rather, metabolism is an aspect of
one’s physiology that is amenable to dramatic change—indeed,
to change that can be realized in a relatively short period of
time.
The secret that was unfolding, ever so slowly, was that
introducing certain dietary nutrients into the body at key
times during the day—into the body of a person with the
proper physical and mental training, that is—can (and
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does!) induce the metabolic rate to rise, thereby literally
turning the human body into a fat-burning furnace with a
voracious appetite for melting unwanted fat.
In other words, if you know how to do it, it is possible to speed
up your metabolism and lose unwanted weight, permanently.
And the how turns out to be a formula which is so scientific that
it could be duplicated in almost any individual who’s willing to
make certain changes in the way they live.
It’s that formula that I was striving to come up with, and
through years of research I found it! I discovered that the secret
to losing weight is not to be found merely in trying new diets or
new weight-loss programs. Only when you change your
metabolism will you finally vanquish your enemy and free
yourself from the dieting roller coaster.
To create a program that could readily be duplicated by all
who used it presented special difficulties. After all, we’re all
different and our metabolisms ebb and flow at different rates.
Moreover, I wanted a program that was all encompassing, one
that included every factor that could have a profound, healthful
effect on a person’s metabolism.
To achieve that goal, I traced all the elements of the
successful programs that were out there and I tossed out all the
Preface xix
fluff. Then an amazing thing happened: Once there were only a
few elements left on the drawing board, it finally all made sense.
I realized that the “active ingredients” of various individual
approaches were capable of working in concert to boost human
metabolism, almost forcing a slow metabolism to rise—indeed,
to far surpass its normal level.
That discovery is the main reason why I have made education
the cornerstone of the mission and operational strategy of each
of the companies I have established. I believe that once people
learn how to develop their health, their fitness, and their
metabolism, and once they invest in themselves and experience
the amazing rewards, all the requisite ingredients for achieving
success in life—motivation, confidence, and enthusiasm—will
just naturally follow.
In all of my businesses, my staff and I strive to make
continuing education an easy, inspiring part of every client’s
experience with us. If you haven’t already visited one of my
facilities, I invite you to do so; I believe it will change the way
you think about fitness and nutrition. If you haven’t had a
chance to subscribe to one of my health and fitness newsletters
or visited my Web site, I urge you to do that, too. Be sure to
keep back issues of the newsletters on hand and make them
part of your health and fitness library. Even if you read only a
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little at a time, you’ll soon know more than most people ever will
about what really makes our bodies work.
I hope you enjoy this book as much as I have enjoyed writing
it for you.
Christopher V. Guerriero
**********************
I welcome interaction with my readers. You may contact me
by e-mail or postal mail, or through my Web site.
Web site: www.MaximizeYourMetabolism.com
e-mail: Author@MaximizeYourMetabolism.com
Christopher V. Guerriero
In care of:
Wisdom Books, LLC
292 Route 22 West
Green Brook, NJ 08812
This book was written with the sole objective of helping the reader
achieve a stronger metabolism, better overall health, more energy,
freedom from slow-working diets, and a more worthwhile life.
Welcome to the newest technology of health and fitness management…
1
Prelude to the System
“There are two types of people in this world:
those who make their body fit their lifestyle
and those who make their lifestyle fit their body.
It’s up to you to choose
which of these two categories you want to be in.”
—Christopher V. Guerriero
We all have dreams of what we want to look like. We all want to
believe deep down in our souls that we can and will look and
feel great. We all want to be complimented on our looks and our
physique, and even approached by others for advice on issues
of health. For many of us, however, those dreams have largely
taken second place to our day-to-day frustrations, to the extent
that we no longer even make an effort to realize our dreams.
Before we go any further, I want to congratulate you, because
by reading this book you have chosen to join the ranks of that
top 10 percent of the population that will truly create their own
physical destiny, rather than allowing their destiny to be
determined by their current physical structure.
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As you read this book during the next few days or weeks, you
will grow and learn more than you could ever imagine. Just
open your mind, forget everything you once thought to be set in
stone, and enjoy the results.
Knowing how to achieve a state of true balance among the
various parts of your body is the only way to embark on a
health- and metabolism-enhancing diet. You need to know
which areas inside your complex digestive system are working
at optimum performance and which ones need to be
rejuvenated.
Picture a table with only one leg. Even if you take the corner
that’s opposite that leg and lean it against a wall to get it to
stand up, how likely is it to remain standing when you begin to
place objects on top of it? Not likely at all. Now if that same
table had two legs, it would probably last a bit longer. Three
legs, even longer yet. And if the table had all four legs, I bet you
could pile a whole bunch of stuff on top of it without disturbing
the table’s balance.
The same is true of your digestive and metabolic system. If
there are any unbalanced hormonal, glandular, or nutrient
reservoirs, a diet will produce results that are, at best,
temporary and insignificant. Yet if you could remedy these
imbalances as part and parcel of a dieting regimen, the results
Prelude to the System 3
would not only be more healthful but also much more dramatic.
The most powerful aspect of this book is that it holds the
secrets to finally attaining balance within your body, but only if
you combine all the techniques you encounter in it. As you
make your way through the book, take your time and thoroughly
read and implement the steps given in each chapter before
going on to the next.
You will likely be surprised by the changes your body will
make along the way. Finishing this book will become an
adventure for you. One suggestion I usually give my personal
clients is to take a photo of themselves before they start reading
and implementing this program, and then take another photo,
holding this book up, after they have completed it. Send me
those photos for my files, and I’ll more than likely use many of
them in upcoming printings.
The Cardinal Rule of Losing Weight
Everyone knows how to lose weight and stay thin. All you have
to do is burn more calories than you consume, right? Well, it’s
not quite that simple, but there is a very scientific way of
handling this challenge that virtually guarantees results for
everyone who follows the same formula. And that formula is
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what this book is all about. By the time you have made your
way through it and implemented all the steps that are set forth
along the way, you will have Maximized Your Metabolism.
The basis of permanent weight loss has never really changed:
consume fewer calories and, at the same time, try to burn
additional calories by moving your body to a greater degree
than you were accustomed to moving it in the past.
Unfortunately, the ability of humans to master this approach
hasn’t changed a whole lot, despite years of trying.
The result? Millions of Americans are locked in an endless
struggle to control their weight and master their health. The
trouble is that lurking behind the simplicity of the cardinal rule of
weight loss is a problem of far greater difficulty. You may have
heard it verbalized like this:
“I just can’t seem to lose weight predictably.”
“I think I’ve screwed up my metabolism.”
“Professional” dieters, defined here as people who have
dieted so many times they can’t count them all, resoundingly
report that repeated dieting causes major roadblocks to their
efforts to lose weight and stay thin. Study after study has shown
that the “yo-yo” dieting effect that we in America seem to be
caught up in is very taxing to the correct functioning of our
Prelude to the System 5
metabolism. Hence, our metabolic rate becomes slower and
slower with each weight-loss–weight-gain cycle.
But that’s not the only reason why our metabolisms may be a
bit sluggish. The strength, or the “speed,” of our metabolism is
usually determined by several factors, such as
· Past dieting, especially attempts at rapid weight loss
· Age
As a matter of fact, your metabolism begins to slow in
early adulthood, at a rate of 2 percent per decade.
· Activity level
Less active people generally have a slower metabolism.
· Lack of proper physical activity
Certain exercises tend to increase a person’s
metabolism while others have only a slight effect on it. By
making small but appropriate changes to your current
level of activity, you could boost your metabolism
massively (more on this in the chapter on exercise).
· Lack of proper meal placement during the day—every day
One notion about weight loss that’s prevalent in this
country is that people can lose weight by skipping
breakfast. Nothing could be further from the truth! In fact,
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eating a healthful breakfast actually turns up our fatburning
furnace (our metabolism) and gives us far more
mental and physical energy for the first half of the day. A
full description of how and when to eat for best results
will be laid out for you later in this book.
Now let’s get back to your past dieting attempts. Just look at
the results and note the undesirable changes that seem to
occur the more times you’ve dieted. By better than a two-to-one
margin over less-frequent dieters, “professional” dieters have
found that:
· Weight-loss strategies that used to be effective for them are
showing far fewer results now
· Gaining weight has become easier
· Losing weight has become harder
· Dieting plateaus have become more frequent
· Weight loss is becoming increasingly hopeless
The cause of all of these common complaints is the slowing of
your metabolism. Well, now is the time to put an end to that.
Now is the time to take control of your metabolism—and your
life. Now is the time to master your metabolism by following the
course laid out in the following chapters. But be warned! Each
Prelude to the System 7
chapter contains one step that will increase your metabolic rate
and improve your health. Skipping one or more of these
chapters may stop the process in its tracks. Very few people are
aware of their own “weak link,” the reason that their particular
metabolism is not working at peak efficiency. Everyone who has
attempted to lose weight through dieting has created one or
more personal “weak links,” and these weak links are the
reason why other weight-loss programs fail to get you the
results you want.
Each of the chapters in this book has been designed to
maximize your metabolism while minimizing each of your weak
links. Every factor that affects your particular metabolism will
become stronger and help boost your metabolic rate. If you find
that you’re tempted to skip one or more chapters, may I suggest
that the techniques outlined in those chapters are probably the
ones that your particular body needs the most.
Remember, you’re seeking a new level of understanding of
how your metabolism works, and at the same time you’re
training your metabolism to function at its optimum level.
Many overweight men and women find that trying to control
their metabolic rate is nothing short of a hellish nightmare, and
that’s why the word “permanent” has never been part of their
weight-loss vocabulary. One recent national survey showed, for
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example, that 66 percent of Americans were overweight.
Translated into absolute numbers, this means that at least 90
million adults take in more calories than they burn up. Another
review, this one called the National Health and Nutrition
Examination Survey, showed that the number of overweight
Americans increased by 8 percent between 1976 and 1988, and
I’m willing to bet that the number has continued to increase in
the years since 1988.
The said thing is that not only are the overweight becoming
more numerous, they’re also getting fatter, despite the fact that
there are more “weight-loss” products, creams, pills, and
potions on the market today than ever before.
According to the National Center for Health Statistics,
American men now weigh nearly 9 pounds more, on average,
than in 1960, and American women weigh nearly 13 pounds
more, on average, than their counterparts of just a decade ago.
How could this be possible? After all, in the past, people didn’t
know half of what they know today about proper diet and
exercise! Just as one example, back in the 1960s there was a
state-of-the-art exercise machine that I like to call the Fat
Vibrator. You know what I’m talking about: the machine that had
a large belt that a “fitness expert” would wrap around your
waist. When the machine was turned on, the belt would
Prelude to the System 9
“vibrate” the weight right off of your body. Well, this sounds
funny to us now, but back then people really believed that it
would help them lose weight—and there are versions of that
machine still on the market today!
Yes, people are getting fatter, and, as a nation, we seem
powerless to reverse this trend, despite our best attempts to do
so. But the worst is almost surely yet to come: Though only
about one in four Americans are obese, fully 80 percent of men
and 70 percent of women over the age of forty are more than 10
pounds overweight. If you’re in your twenties or thirties now and
are having difficulty losing weight, you can well imagine how
hard it will be for you to slim down in another ten or twenty
years.
This book can end all that!
I don’t profess to have uncovered, discovered, or developed
anything new. I’ve simply spent more than a decade of my life
studying various health-enhancing techniques, exercise
regimens, nutritional programs, and more.
As a matter of fact, I’ve been so passionate about finding
answers to the questions we’ve all had about how to
permanently increase our body’s ability to burn fat, get in shape,
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and stay healthy that at one point I was reading two books a
week, attending seminars, and studying the effects of various
weight-loss techniques by downloading information about them
to my clients, who willingly took all this information and put it
into practice for me.
The result is a proven set of strategies that will help you
become leaner and healthier. This book gives you the principles
you need to lose weight, fast!—without pain, without guilt, and,
most importantly, without backsliding. The weight you lose will
never, ever return, provided you make the modifications in your
health and fitness regimen that are laid out in this text.
Sound too good to be true? Well, keep reading . . .
For over fifteen years now, I’ve been teaching men and
women how to rev up their metabolism, lose weight, and
become fit. I’ve personally witnessed their disappointment with
weight-loss schemes that promise so much but deliver so little.
By the time they get to me, they’ve been scammed by
everything and everyone. They’ve tried the pills, the potions, the
body wraps, and much more. They’ve joined local chapters of
the big, national weight-loss chains. They’ve eaten those
Prelude to the System 11
expensive, prepackaged meals. They’ve listened to the tapes
that offer subliminal suggestions. They’ve read dozens of
glittering magazine articles. And, of course, they’ve seen all the
books in the bookstores. All this, and they’re still looking for the
answer. Well, here it is!
The Missing Link
What overweight people need, of course, is not another new
diet. What is needed—but has never before been available—is
a comprehensive program that shows you how to maximize
your metabolism effectively. That’s the ultimate key to dealing
with the weight-loss struggle, the abracadabra of opening up a
whole new, magical way of healthful living.
This is what Maximize Your Metabolism promises, and this is
what the techniques described herein will deliver.
Before I get down to the exciting details of why these
techniques work and what they can do for you, I’m going to ask
you to rethink many of the things you’ve been told about how to
lose weight and stay thin.
Forget about losing weight the long, slow, “sensible” way:
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It is my opinion that the long, slow, moderate approach to
permanent weight loss will never work for most overweight
people. This business of bumping along, losing a pound this
week and a half-pound the next through simple restriction in
caloric intake, might work for a few iron-willed Victorians, but it
will never work for the vast majority of people, simply because
they just don’t have the willpower or the time!
Don’t get me wrong! I’m certainly not condoning or advocating
rapid weight loss. On the contrary, the rate of weight reduction
I’m recommending is not detrimental to good health, but it will
show results faster than a pound a week, possibly far more.
It’s important to keep in mind that the intent of this book is to
improve your overall health and metabolism as well as your
body’s efficiency in utilizing the food you give it. Do not look
upon it as just another “diet book,” because that’s neither what it
is nor what it is meant to be. It was designed to give you a
blueprint for attaining a higher metabolic rate in a healthful way.
This blueprint will enable your body to burn up all the food you
eat and to assimilate that food properly, so that your body
utilizes all the nutrients in each mouthful of food and excretes all
the waste that’s produced in your day-to-day living.
The problem is that most overweight people have been on so
many diets that they’ve made disturbing alterations to their
Prelude to the System 13
metabolic systems. As a result, many of them are discovering
that losing weight the old-fashioned, “sensible” way with 1200-
calorie-per-day, low-fat diets just doesn’t work anymore. Their
weight loss comes to a halt, they get frustrated, and then they
revert to their former pattern of overeating. Of course, the long,
slow, sensible way does work for some overweight people. If it
does, that’s terrific. But in case it doesn’t—and this is what
happens more often than not—I’ll teach you how to take the bull
by the metabolic horns. I’ll show you that losing weight a bit
faster is not only the MOST sensible way to lose weight, but
that for many overweight people it’s the ONLY way to do so.
Forget about learning how to eat in “moderation”
Moderation is the straightest, surest road to mediocrity and
weight-loss failure that has ever been invented. Now I know that
most of the so-called weight-loss and behavior-modification
experts preach the gospel of moderation. Nevertheless, I’ve
learned through years of study that that doctrine is hopelessly
inadequate and rarely produces the lasting change in behavior
that you need.
To be sure, caloric restriction does have its merits, but not in
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maximizing your metabolic rate, and that’s the focus of this
book: raising your metabolism, keeping it high, and reaping all
the benefits associated with that process.
Just tell me, for example, where all your attempts at
moderation have gotten you. Well, if you’re like most of the
clients who come to my office, you’ve found that moderation
was great for a short time; but then, with no prior notice, your
results began to taper off dramatically, which is to say that your
determination and effort were noticeably present but the fruits of
your labor were not.
What’s wrong, of course, is that while moderation may be a
worthy path, it is far too flimsy a strategy to help you achieve
your goal. In the case of long-term moderation, what occurs is a
methodical slowing of your metabolism. As you cut down on
your intake of food, you also cut down on your body’s need to
attain a high metabolic rate, and so your metabolism slows
down. When you follow a moderation-type diet, you are in
essence training your metabolism to work at a slower pace.
Then, when you do eat or drink, that food or liquid can’t be fully
and efficiently digested, so it’s stored . . . as fat!
Forget about denial…
Prelude to the System 15
Just because you implement the strategies put forth in this
book doesn’t mean that you have to turn yourself into the type
of person who can never enjoy a chocolate brownie or a dish of
ice cream for fear of losing control. Successful metabolic control
doesn’t depend on long-term denial, and this powerful new
program does not promote any such solution. Pumping up your
metabolism is the name of the game, and it will turn you into a
winner in no time at all.
Imagine the new freedom that comes with knowing that your
revved-up metabolic system is always on duty, always ready,
able, and eager to burn up those excess calories instead of
turning them into fat as it once did. There’s no denial here, just
good, healthful living, making you fit and ready for action.
Forget what you’ve heard about exercise
In the course of my life, I’ve operated a successful nutritional
consulting business and several large, upscale health clubs.
Believe me, I’ve seen more than my share of misstatements
and out-and-out lies made by an industry that sometimes
seems more eager to help your billfold—not your body—to lose
weight.
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Contrary to what you’ve been told on those TV infomercials,
exercise cannot turn you into a muscle-bound man or woman in
six weeks or less. Exercise cannot transform fat into muscle.
Exercise cannot cause “spot” reduction anywhere on your body.
Moderate exercise cannot cause dramatic weight loss, no
matter what they tell you.
Is exercise important to long-term weight control? You better
believe it. But in this book, I’ll show you that exercise’s greatest
contribution to weight control has less to do with the number of
calories it induces your body to burn up than it does with the
almost miraculous changes it makes in the way your metabolic
system functions. Here’s where the real payoffs come into play.
If more Americans knew the full story of how exercise alters
metabolic rate, the thought of embarking on an exercise
program wouldn’t be so scary—and a lot more than (the actual)
15 percent of adults would be exercising regularly.
In reality, exercise does burn off the calories that you
consume, and if it’s done properly it will also immediately burn
off some of your stored fat. However, your actual motivation for
exercising should be the increase in metabolic rate that will
accrue from engaging in exercise on a regular basis. Even then,
you won’t significantly increase your metabolism unless you go
about your exercise in the fashion that is explained in a later
Prelude to the System 17
chapter of this book. This method will enable you to burn
calories and body fat virtually all the time, even when you’re not
exercising—indeed, even when you’re sleeping!
A promise to you . . .
Rebuilding your metabolic system and setting you up for
lifelong health will take place in four orderly steps:
1. Cleansing your system
2. Reformulating your eating (times of meals, as well as
quantity and quality of the food you consume)
3. Introducing strength-building and cardiovascular exercises
into your life, to both stabilize and increase your metabolic
rate for the long term
4. Training your mental core
Sound difficult? Believe me, it isn’t. We’ve got plenty of great
tips and motivational help to enable you to succeed in making
these miraculous, life-enhancing changes. And the best part is
that you can make them in thirty days or less! That’s right! In
less than the time between the dates of receipt of successive
bank statements, you will have turned your system into a virtual
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18
furnace of metabolic activity that will have you losing weight,
regaining good health, and carving out a richer, fitter future and
a fuller life.
As mentioned earlier, each chapter contains a technique that
will help you increase your metabolism, so you won’t have to
wait until you’ve completely finished this book before you begin
to reap the rewards of the program. The book is laid out in such
a way that you can read a chapter and then implement the
strategy that’s outlined there before moving on to the next
chapter. But, please, do yourself a favor and stick with it; keep
at the reading of the book until you’ve gotten all the way to the
end. As a matter of fact, I recommend that you do yourself one
better: go back and read it again.
More than a decade ago, I read that each time you read a
book, you pick up something new—not because you missed it
the first time through, but because you’re not the same person
you were when you read it the first time. Each time you read
this book, you’ll pick up new pieces to help you in the pursuit of
your health and fitness goals. Each time you read this book—
no, each time you reread each chapter (since you’ll be
implementing the techniques in each chapter as you go
along)—you’ll become a better, healthier person.
Prelude to the System 19
And There’s More
Once you bring your metabolic rate under control, you will not,
you simply cannot, believe the enormous difference it will make
in bringing your weight under permanent control.
For many of my clients, the unwanted weight seemed to
automatically disappear when their metabolic system took
command of their dietary fat intake and used that fuel for power
rather than for building up stores of fat. Believe me, you will be
one powerful person! For the first time in your life, you’ll be the
one calling the shots, plus you’ll get two additional benefits that
are extremely worthwhile:
First, you’ll be able to breeze through your culinary life
unmindful of those years of eating taboos you’ve suffered
through in years past. When you crank up your metabolic rate,
you won’t have to worry about those myriad do-I-or-don’t-I
eating situations that can turn an ordinary diet into disaster.
With this program, not only will your high-speed metabolic rate
iron out the bumps and lumps in your road to a thinner you, but
you’ll also gain the upper hand in how you eat, what you eat,
even when you eat. You’ll have the power to “take it or leave it.”
If you want to enjoy an occasional sugary dessert, have a
periodic nighttime snack, or even indulge in a rare caloric binge,
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20
you can do so, and yet your increased metabolic rate will save
you from the weight volatility you’ve become so accustomed to.
Second—and this is perhaps the more important of the two
benefits—this program launches you into a whole new orbit of
better eating and better living, the physically fit way. That’s right!
You may have been missing out on huge parts of the good life
because of your sluggish metabolism and your sedentary ways.
No more! I want to give you the ability to be content with your
every decision as to how, what, and when you eat, and I want
you to feel good about those decisions, precisely because they
are the decisions that you truly wanted to make. In other words,
you won’t feel guilty or ashamed every time you take a bite of
food.
Eating is such a natural activity that you should feel great
when you engage in it (before, during, and after). You simply
must learn to eat the correct foods and to eat at the proper
times. I believe that one of the greatest downfalls of all of the
poorly designed dieting programs that are out there is that they
make people feel bad about eating! After all, what’s bad about
eating? Eating is what enables us to survive and to thrive. You
should keep in mind that it’s only the act of making poor choices
about what we eat that cuts down on how long we survive and
Prelude to the System 21
whether we thrive.
I promise that by the time you’ve finished this four-course
menu for self-change and empowerment, you’ll be able to do
both (survive and thrive). Finally, you’ll start behaving around
food in ways that so-called normal people do. You’ll enjoy life as
you’ve never enjoyed it before, without craving the junk food
that may have been your downfall in the past!
There are certain Universal Laws of health, and you’ll
learn some of the most important ones in this book. The
concept of a Universal Law can easily be illustrated by
a non–health-related law that you are no doubt familiar
with: the Law of Gravity.
The Law of Gravity, like all Universal Laws, was
not made by humans. It says that if you jump off a cliff,
you will fall down; you won’t be propelled upwards or
sideways. You may not even be aware of the law of
gravity, but you will fall just the same. You may think
the law of gravity is stupid, false, or unfair, and you
may even argue the point; nevertheless, you will fall.
The same is true of the Universal Laws of health:
you may not actually believe that consuming adequate
amounts of water will have a profound impact on your
metabolism, your weight, your health, and your looks,
but it has those effects all the same; in fact, it has a very
profound effect, as do all the Universal Laws of health.
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22
The Golden Road Ahead
The bottom line is this: the principles in this book will work,
regardless of how long you’ve been overweight, how much
weight you may need or want to lose, or how many times you’ve
failed. Since this program is based on science, it can work for
you. Just apply the easy techniques put forth in this book, and
you’ll develop unshakable self-control and stop your overeating
behavior dead in its tracks.
With each powerful step of this program, you’ll learn new,
take-charge strategies to change the way you behave. Each
day, you’ll build on the success of the day before. In no time at
all, you’ll be a person who has control over your life and your
weight. You’ll be a person who’s thinner, more attractive, and
more energetic. And you’ll be a person you can admire, a
person who has won the respect and admiration of family and
friends. I promise you that all of this will come about—you will
be successful—if you simply follow the strategies laid out in this
book.
I started my research with the actual dieting process, since
this is the one aspect that the majority of my clients kept
insisting that I help them with. Thus, I will begin here with a
Prelude to the System 23
discussion of dieting, but before I do, please be advised that
this is not a diet book and that I do not profess to be an expert
in dieting. I know a few techniques that work for everyone who
follows them (with few exceptions, such as people with intense
medical challenges or physical limitations—and those people
should definitely consult a physician prior to embarking on this
program and request instructions as to how to alter it in order to
meet their specific needs).
There are a few basics that need to be followed in dieting,
including an initial cleansing routine that I will not go into now
(though I will cover it in great detail later).
First, you must consume slightly less than your body expels
throughout the day. Then you must cut out all the foods that
limit your efficiency, such as sugars and sweets, added fats
(including, but not limited to, all fried foods), alcohol, all drugs
(except those prescribed by your physician), all processed
foods, and all dairy products except egg whites (we’ll get into
this more in a later part of the book). Then you must further limit
your intake of starchy foods, such as breads, pasta, potatoes,
and beans. You do need to include in your diet some foods that
are fresh, clean sources of protein, such as fish, chicken, and
egg whites, and you need to eat some fresh, raw, colorful
vegetables.
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I know, I know! At this point you’re thinking to yourself, “But
you said that we weren’t going to have to sacrifice the foods we
wanted!” Now stop complaining! I’m not finished, and I never
said that you could eat poorly and still be healthy. You must eat
healthfully, exercise properly, and train your mind to help you in
the process. Then you can eat your favorite foods on occasion
without any negative consequences, because your metabolism
will be so high that as soon as you eat that chocolate cake your
metabolism will burn it right up. (Note that I said on occasion.
You cannot do this sort of thing very frequently!)
Now that’s the basics, and here’s where it has brought me:
after experimenting for months with my clients, I found that after
they had done all of this, we could further manipulate their
metabolism by introducing certain foods at specific times of the
day. Yes, you may have heard of this before, things like eating
your carbohydrates mostly in the morning and, as the day goes
on, slowly increasing your intake of clean (low-fat) protein and
decreasing your intake of carbohydrates. However, there’s
more to this part of the equation. We can combine certain foods
at a single meal to help your body with the digestive process.
What does all this mean? It’s simple. Now we have the basis
for altering our metabolism as we see fit. Don’t worry if you
don’t yet get it. I’m going to give you an example later, in the
Prelude to the System 25
chapter on dieting.
After the dieting part of the equation was completed, I found
that it was possible to duplicate these amazing results in client
after successful client. Only then did I begin working on the
fitness aspect of the program. Exercise is a key ingredient. If
you’re not convinced that exercise is vital to a healthful lifestyle,
you need this chapter more than anyone else, so clear your
mind and concentrate.
Different forms of exercise help us in different ways. Aerobic
(cardiovascular type) exercise helps us by strengthening our
heart muscle and by increasing the amount of oxygen in our
bloodstream. Oxygen helps us burn fat and build strong
muscles. Now strong muscles are not necessarily large
muscles, so if you’re like some of my clients who desperately
want to avoid building muscles, don’t worry! We’re not here to
build muscle size, but we do want to build muscle density,
which not only makes us stronger and healthier but also builds
both our immune system and our metabolism.
Note: If you would like to build large muscles, then check out
my web site at www.MaximizeYourMetabolism.com. There’s
a special section there just for you.
The other form of exercise we’ll be doing is anaerobic. For
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26
purposes of this book, we’ll use that term to describe weightbearing
exercises. While aerobic exercise will allow us to burn
body fat as we exercise and maybe even for a few hours
afterwards, anaerobic exercise makes it possible for us to burn
body fat at all times (even when we’re sitting down or sleeping).
Now what I just said is quite well known and not too hard to
understand, although we’ll go into more detail on it in the
chapter on exercise. But we’re going to take this a step further.
In a chapter dedicated to the all-so-important topic of anaerobic
exercise, I’ll show you a specific exercise routine that will
tremendously increase your metabolism.
The final aspect of this metabolic equation that we’ve been
discussing is mental training. Creating and holding an image of
yourself as someone who has already achieved your goals is
mandatory for fast and lasting success. I cannot be more
convinced of this fact. This is the point that all other programs
have mistakenly left out. Maybe they didn’t know about its
importance at the time, or maybe they thought you wouldn’t
believe that your mind could have such a profound impact on
your health and your appearance. Believe it or not, what you
focus on during the day is what determines your success. To
emphasize this fact, I’ll quote two pioneers in the field of mind
development.
Prelude to the System 27
The popular success philosopher Napoleon Hill once wrote:
Whatever the human mind can conceive and believe it can
achieve.
According to William James, the eminent Harvard
psychologist of the early 1900s:
The greatest discovery of the nineteenth century was not
in the realm of physical science, but the power of the
subconscious (mind) touched by faith.
James concluded:
Every individual can tap into an eternal reservoir of power
that will enable them to [achieve] bodily healing, financial
independence, spiritual awakening, prosperity beyond
your wildest dreams.
The knowledge that we can alter our surroundings with our
mind dates back centuries. And I’m not here to quote scripture,
but the power of the mind is also noted in every major religious
text, including the Bible:
Everything is possible for him who believes.
According to your faith will it be done to you.
Training the mind is at least as important in our process to
rapidly reach our goals as exercise and dieting combined. A
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28
person can never outperform their own self-image, so
implanting the right image in your mind from the start is vital—
and it may take some time, since you’ve probably been walking
around all these years with a poor image of yourself when it
comes to your body.
I recently heard a story that vividly illustrates this point. A
study was carried out to measure the correlation between the
incidence of breast cancer in women in America and women’s
feelings toward their breasts. It’s no wonder that this nation has
both the highest breast-augmentation (enlargement) rate and
the highest breast-cancer rate. If you hate a part of your body
so much that you’re willing to have surgery to alter it, that hate
(whether it be conscious or subconscious) will cause problems
for you internally.
What we’ll be dealing with when you get to the chapter on
mental training (the one entitled “Laser Visualization”) is how to
develop a positive self-image and a sense of passion about how
great you’ll feel once you’ve achieved your fitness goals.
Your mind is always the key to achieving your goals. Keeping
your mind in a positive state as you progress through this
program is paramount in achieving your physical goals.
In the chapter on visualization, you’ll learn a technique for
developing your inner image, which will then guide your outer
Prelude to the System 29
results. In that chapter we’ll discuss how to focus for thirty
minutes each day on the person that you will become. You’ll
learn how to be detailed in your visualization and how to
concentrate on every aspect of your life that will be improving:
how other people will react to you, your new body, and your
new energy level; what type of clothing you’ll be wearing; what
changes you’ll be making in your hairstyle; etc.
Still More Testing
I continued to test and refine this system during countless hours
with my clients. Slowly, the solution to the metabolic puzzle fell
into place. What has gone into the making of this
comprehensive, informative book you are now reading is the
successful experience of tens of thousands of people who, like
you, were seeking to improve their health, their appearance,
and their metabolism. This included thousands of my personal
clients, as well as members of my clubs who have worked with
me or my staff.
An Avalanche of Interest
There are many people today who are following fat-loss and
diet programs and yet are basically unhealthy. Most of these
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30
programs have no real emphasis on permanent fat loss or
metabolic enhancement. Others can actually increase your
susceptibility to potentially severe health problems. A properly
planned fat-loss or metabolic-enhancement program should be
specifically designed to improve your level of health as you
achieve permanent fat loss through a heightened metabolism.
Many of us have potential hereditary problems: a family
history of a certain disorder such as heart disease, high blood
pressure, hypoglycemia, arthritis, or obesity. Often, a general
diet plan that is good for one person can be very harmful to
another. For example, a person with a family history of—and
therefore a susceptibility to—heart disease should not be
placed on a diet that can increase the risk of heart or circulatory
problems, yet this practice is commonplace, especially with fad
or gimmicky diet plans and programs.
The program that you are about to encounter was developed
in the early 1980s after it was found that a person could
significantly increase their metabolic rate by introducing certain
nutrients into their system at specific points throughout the day.
The program employs what I call the Pyramid System of caloric
staggering. Put simply, a person follows three separate diets
throughout the course of a week. Each of these diets provides a
different level of calories, proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and
Prelude to the System 31
fiber. I have found that adopting such a diet can and will greatly
increase the rate at which a person’s metabolism assimilates
and distributes all of the nutrients taken in during the day.
In essence, this book was designed to provide you with the
information and blueprints necessary for you to transcend your
past limitations and go on to achieve massive results in every
area of your physical well-being . . . and your life.
My mission in life thus far has been a simple one: to help as
many people as possible to achieve their physical goals. I
began by creating eating/dieting programs for those who
wanted to achieve a healthier, more attractive appearance.
Because of the exacting nature of these programs, it took
three business days for my clients to complete a course of
instruction (in person), which severely limited the number of
clients I could work with. A few years after embarking on this
endeavor, I came to the realization that I could help a lot more
people if I simply trained others who could assist me in creating
and disseminating these programs. And so it was that the
challenge of teaching my techniques to others began.
The struggle became easier and easier as time went on, and I
was fortunate to be working with people who were open-minded
enough to test my program and read all the material I had
developed up to that point. But I was still unable to offer help to
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32
all the people who contacted me. I then decided to open an
office dedicated to creating an atmosphere that was conducive
to helping my clients achieve their physical goals. Although this
office eventually became a great health club, I still came to the
nagging conclusion that I was limited to helping only the people
who actually visited my clubs. It was becoming clear that the
program had to be written down.
The development of these techniques has taken nearly fifteen
years. During that time, the health field has changed
immensely. In fact, as stated earlier, the health field changes on
a weekly, if not daily, basis. Fad diets come and go, but so do
the great schemes employed in the marketing of them. What
remained after all the fads and gimmicks fell by the wayside
were the golden laws that are contained in this book, the laws
that govern every person’s metabolism.
I hope you profit as much as all of my other clients have from
this material. If you put yourself into it a hundred percent, I know
you will.
Deep within man dwell those slumbering powers;
powers that would astonish him,
that he never dreamed of possessing;
forces that would revolutionize his life
if aroused and put into action.
—Orison Sweet Marden
Prelude to the System 33
One final note before we begin
I had to dig into both old and new scientific research to filter
out science from science fiction for you, using a skeptical eye.
This book provides you with a serious method of stepping up
your metabolism. I realize the information that is contained
herein is not for everyone. Some people will read this book and
then put it right back on the shelf—or in the box that contains
their other health, fitness, or dieting books. That’s fine for them,
but not for you. You’ve taken the first step by purchasing a book
like this. You’ve proved that you want to learn and master your
metabolism.
I hope you’ll put this information to good use. It’s taken me
years to gather and condense this material into a workable
system—a system of simple steps that will yield the results you
seek, steps which have helped numerous personal clients of
mine to achieve the goals they had set for themselves over the
years.
Good luck, and enjoy the process.
2
The Magic of Beliefs, Values,
Goals, and Persistence
You Can’t Hit a Target You Don’t Have,
and You Can’t Have a Target
Until You Know Your Beliefs and Values
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.
Live the life you’ve imagined.”
—Henry David Thoreau
What’s the difference between the person who continually tries
to diet—or to get onto a permanent exercise program—and fails
and the individual who steadfastly sticks with his/her program
through good times and bad, the dieter who carries on despite
demoralizing setbacks and temporary defeats and keeps up his
efforts through thick and thin?
Is it physical or moral superiority? Is it finding the “right” diet?
Is it unflagging support from family and close friends? Is it luck?
Or is it an unremitting will to win?
While you could argue that all of these qualities are important,
The Magic of Beliefs, Values, Goals, and Persistence 35
most people would agree that there is one trait that propels
more dieters into the winners’ circle than all others combined.
That quality is persistence.
Persistence suggests a steadfast resolve that refuses to be
compromised. It indicates a lack of self-pity and self-indulgence.
And it implies above all else that unyielding “will to win,” a
refusal to surrender despite petty annoyances, major obstacles,
even demoralizing setbacks. Whether you call it tenacity,
stamina, guts, or determination, this uniquely human trait
translates into that enviable quality of hanging on until victory
has been achieved.
Our greatest victories are usually one step past
our biggest failures.
The winners we see and admire in all walks of life have this
kind of willpower. And the winners in the dieting game have it,
too. They know how to learn from their failures rather than be
defeated by them. They then use this new knowledge to reach
even higher goals.
Conversely, lack of persistence is a leading cause of failure,
particularly when it comes to making changes in diet or
exercise. Sure, there are lots of people out there who want to
boost their metabolism and get thin and fit, but not all of them
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want it badly enough to persist in their efforts. How about you?
Are you willing to do what it takes, regardless of all obstacles?
Experience with men and women who have tried to kick their
unhealthful habits has demonstrated that lack of persistence is
a weakness that is common to the majority. They’re ready to
give up at the first hint of discomfort or pain. They’re easily
overcome by delays or setbacks. Only a precious few carry on,
despite all opposition, until they achieve their goals.
Strangely enough, it is precisely at that point that most dieters
could win the weight-loss battle. All they need is that little extra
push to hang on for a short time longer. This thought was stated
so nicely by the Greek historian Polybius:
Some men give up their designs when they have almost
reached the goal; while others, on the contrary, obtain a
victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous
efforts than before.
Those who are persistent when it comes to behavioral
changes earn their success at the very point where many other
dieters end in failure. History is laced with examples where men
and women have fallen short of their goals only because they
failed to hang on.
The Magic of Beliefs, Values, Goals, and Persistence 37
How to Spot Weak Persistence
Take a look at your own history. You’ll likely see that you’ve
been victimized by lack of persistence in many of your previous
dieting attempts. This has been the Achilles’ heel of nearly all
dieters at one time or another, and it tends to show up in a
variety of disguises. Here are just a few:
· Willingness, perhaps even eagerness, to succumb to a
temporary dieting slip
· Tendency to blame the diet regimen for your own inability to
stick to it
· Fear of meeting head-on those situations which you know
present great difficulty
· Inclination to compromise your dieting goals
· Failure to set clearly defined short- and long-term goals and
hold yourself accountable for reaching each one of them
· Lack of an organized plan for achieving your dieting goals
Goal Setting Builds Persistence and the Desire to Win
A great example of a situation in life where persistence is
essential is parenthood. After all, giving up is not an option
when a parent is teaching a child to walk. Now let’s make a
similar commitment here: From now on, giving up is not an
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option when attempting to reach your health and fitness goals.
From now on, you must rank being fit right up there with
essential bodily functions such as breathing.
To reach this level of passion, you must have goals that are
· Perfectly clear and detailed
· Put in writing on some type of a goal chart so you can see
where you have to be at every stage of the process
· Part of your everyday routine
The most important aspect of reaching any goal is to
work on its achievement, to the best of your ability, each
and every day without fail.
Goal Setting Points the Way
Goals are the mental road maps that your mind uses to attain
its desired ends, the conduits that funnel all of your physical and
mental energies toward a single, important, unified purpose.
A wealth of professional research has shown that goal setting
helps you focus on the tasks at hand and, as a result, improves
your ability to stick to your behavior-change program. Writing in
the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, researchers
Pierre Baron and Robert G. Watters reported that dieters who
set goals lose much more weight than those who do not. Their
The Magic of Beliefs, Values, Goals, and Persistence 39
findings confirm scores of earlier studies on dieting, exercise,
and behavior change, including those by Robert L. Litrownik of
the University of Illinois and H. Jon Geis of the Institute for
Rational Living in New York City. They all verify that the ability
to stick to your program of change, no matter what its
description, is aided considerably by proper goal setting.
How Goal Setting Builds Your Will to Succeed
Goal setting builds willpower by working in precisely the same
way as “desire-building” exercises, in that both rely on the
mind’s ability to translate thoughts into concrete things, and
ideas into successful reality.
Setting goals the Maximize Your Metabolism way keeps your
new style of living at the forefront of your daily thinking. The
result is that you’re constantly reminded in a positive, yet
forceful way that sticking to your diet and exercise regimen is
your top priority, a daily routine to which you pledge unswerving
allegiance.
Your goals become your mental companion as you steadily
chip away at those unwanted pounds. They measure your
successes, in effect complimenting you on your achievements,
and direct your efforts away from past mistakes and false starts.
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Goal setting is the best way to stay motivated. Goals provide
focus for your workout program and clarify what you are trying
to achieve. As you attain each goal, you are encouraged by
your success, which in turn motivates you to stay the course.
Five Easy Steps to Setting Perfect Goals
There are five easy rules for setting effective goals. Anyone can
do it. You need take only a half-hour or so, do a bit of soulsearching
and pencil work, and—voilà!—you’re all set.
Step One. Fix in your mind the precise goal you wish to
reach, and make sure that it’s something that’s both
measurable and specific. A vague goal, such as “I want to be
fit,” gives you nothing to shoot for. Decide when and what you
are going to achieve, such as “I want to reduce my body fat by
two percentage points by the 1st of September.” Be sure to take
whatever steps are needed to assess your progress. In this
example, you need to know your current percentage of body fat
(get it tested—it shouldn’t cost more than $20 at any good
health club) and then monitor it on a weekly basis thereafter.
But beware of a common mistake! Don’t get caught in the trap
of setting a goal for one thing when what you really want is
something else. Many overweight people claim that they’re
The Magic of Beliefs, Values, Goals, and Persistence 41
dieting because they want to “get thin,” even though their real
goal is (or perhaps should be!) not simply to get thin but to stay
thin. This is sort of like stating that your goal is to climb Mt.
Everest when what you’re actually aiming for is to build a sixroom
condo once you get to the top.
Since strategies for losing weight necessarily involve making
changes in behavior, be as specific as possible about the extent
to which you’re willing to change your behavior. The last thing
you want is to achieve your ideal weight only to complain later
that the weight has come back. It would be much better to set a
goal of reaching a certain weight and remaining there (within 2
to 4 pounds) for good.
Make sure that your goals are realistic and attainable. If you
set your expectations too high, you will get frustrated and will be
more likely to quit. On the other hand, your goals should not be
too easy; they should be challenging. When you achieve a
challenging goal, your pride and satisfaction will engender in
you a greater degree of motivation to take the next step. Make
your goals lofty enough to force you to venture beyond your
comfort zone, but not so far from your current circumstances
that they seem unrealistic or even impossible to you.
Put simply, set each of your goals at an appropriate level right
at the outset. If you want to lose 15 pounds, say so. If you want
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to lose 40 pounds and remain at 110 for the rest of your life,
admit it and be proud. If you want to lose 20 pounds and eat
nutritionally better meals, let that be your decision. But above
all, be specific. Tell your subconscious exactly what you want,
and your subconscious will find a way to make it happen.
Once you have set a particular goal, don’t share it with anyone
for at least the first thirty days. That will give it enough time to
sink deep into your subconscious mind and become part of your
everyday life, a habit. After that, share it only with those people
who you know will be encouraging to you and helpful in your
pursuit.
Make sure your goal becomes such a burning desire that it
drives you hard enough to fend off any negative feedback, from
yourself or others, with virtually no effort on your part.
Step Two. Determine exactly how you are going to achieve
your goal. This step of the goal-setting process calls for some
planning on your part, since you’ve got to know how the
Maximize Your Metabolism program will play out in your life.
Set short-term goals as steppingstones to your ultimate (longterm)
goals. If your long-term goal is to be able to bench press
200 pounds within a year’s time, set short-term (weekly or
monthly) goals for the weight you will need to be able to bench
The Magic of Beliefs, Values, Goals, and Persistence 43
press at each stage in order to achieve your long-term goal. In
other words, develop a plan. It’s a lot easier to limit yourself to
thinking about accomplishing your goal just a little at a time,
such as increasing your bench press by 2.5 or 5 pounds a
week, than to have the specter of the whole thing (such as
increasing your bench press by 50 pounds) hanging over your
head.
One problem is that many would-be behavior-changers let
other people think and plan for them. They believe they’re
actually doing their own thinking and planning, but they end up
turning their problems over to others in the hope that someone
else might solve them. Then they readily accept the opinions
and decisions of others. Ralph Waldo Emerson noted this when
he said, “Our chief want in life is somebody who will make us do
what we can.”
Step Three. Select a timetable for the attainment of your goal.
Predicting the rate at which weight loss will occur, through
caloric restriction and increased physical activity, will take some
calculation and some imagination on your part.
Without a timetable to plot your course, it will be difficult to
make firm connections between the fading past and the unseen
future. To make this association more explicit, keep a logbook
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of your dieting progress. Although these dieting diaries are
sometimes viewed as tedious, pencil-pushing exercises, they’re
quite valuable, not only for charting progress but also for
reviving spirits that flag and re-energizing motivation that
founders. Besides, it can be fun—perhaps even educational—to
read them in later months or years.
Another way to track your progress is to get a piece of poster
board and tack it lengthwise to a wall that only you will see.
Draw a horizontal line across the center of the poster, and write
your present weight at the far left side of the line and your goal
weight at the far right side. Make tick marks on the line to
indicate the weeks or months when you’ll be “weighing in” or
otherwise checking your progress. This will serve as a timeline,
which you can use to visually track where you are now and
where you should be at the end of each week or month of your
journey.
Your weekly weigh-ins will keep you aware of your progress.
Based upon the degree of your intermediate successes, you
can either reward yourself or adopt whatever self-correcting
behavior you need in order to achieve your goal on schedule.
Step Four. Decide what you’ll do to prevent relapses in your
program—and to meet them head-on if they occur. To
The Magic of Beliefs, Values, Goals, and Persistence 45
accomplish this step, you’ll need to deliberate and make
contracts with yourself. Much of what you have done in your
dieting past has been correct. Repeating your past dieting
successes will bring you even closer to victory this time.
But what about those areas in which you’ve had problems?
Do you find it hard to stick to a diet during holiday entertaining?
Are you particularly vulnerable to dieting failure when you eat in
a restaurant? Have you stumbled and fallen on your road to a
fitter, leaner body as the result of a temporary personal problem
(depression, anxiety, anger, etc.)?
Whatever the problem, you’ve got to pre-plan a solution for it,
just in case it arises in your dieting life again. What will you do
differently this time? Make a note of that action, and include it in
your goal statement.
What I’ve found to be most effective is a process for
enumerating all the foreseeable challenges that may arise and
for deciding in advance how to handle them if they do. I
originally developed this process for my clients, but I’ve used it
in running my business as well. Here’s how it works:
Go to any office-supply store and get a three-ring binder and a
stack of plain, white, three-hole-punched paper. Using a
separate sheet of paper for every challenge you think you may
encounter on your way to reaching your goal, write out the
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challenge at the top. Below that, list all the undesirable
consequences of failing to meet this challenge. Finally, write out
the best, step-by-step approach you can think of to avoid being
faced with this challenge in the first place (or to deal with it
effectively if it does present itself and you happen to succumb to
it).
The Magic of Beliefs, Values, Goals, and Persistence 47
Here’s an example of what a challenge sheet might consist of.
Challenge: Eating out at a restaurant with friends
******************************
What bad can come of this:
1. I miss this week’s goal
2. I lose self-confidence by giving in . . . and by thinking that just one
bad meal won’t hurt my progress
3. I reinforce my cravings and make reaching my goal that much more
of an effort
4. ________________________________________________________
__________________________ ____
5. ________________________________________________________
__________________________ ____
******************************
How I can avoid this problem:
1. I can make sure that every food I order is on my diet, and I can tell the
waiter not to use any butter or oil when preparing my food
2. I can pick a restaurant where I know I’ll be able to order a special
meal without any hassle
3. ________________________________________________________
____________ __________________
4. ________________________________________________________
___________________ __ _________
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Step Five. The fifth and final step is to write a clear, concise
success statement. Then, once you’ve written it, read it aloud to
yourself three or more times each day, including once just after
waking up in the morning and once right before going to bed at
night. As you read your success statement, see, feel, and
believe you have already reached your weight-loss goal,
visualizing yourself from head to toe in top shape and full of
energy, mentally and physically. Read the statement with
feeling, and feel great when you say it.
Here’s an example of what a goal statement might look like:
I weigh 135 [or your goal weight], and I look and feel
great. I love showing off my tight body. People
congratulate me daily on my achievement. I reached
my goal by following every step of the Maximize your
Metabolism program.
Read this statement out loud to yourself at least three times a
day. Memorize it. This is one of the most important
psychological tools you can use to train your subconscious
mind to help you reach your goals.
The Magic of Autosuggestion
What you are practicing in this part of our goal-setting chapter is
The Magic of Beliefs, Values, Goals, and Persistence 49
the principle of autosuggestion, your direct link of
communication with your subconscious. Here’s how it works:
Your subconscious mind is always open and drinking in any
and all stimuli from your surroundings. For example, your
subconscious knows the exact color of the tree you pass after
you make that right-hand turn just before pulling into the parking
lot at your place of work. Your conscious mind may never have
picked that up, but your subconscious mind picks up and stores
everything. Just as easily as it picks up useless information,
such as the color of that tree, it also stores everything you think
about and everything you hear.
This is good news, for if your subconscious mind is open to
everything you think and you can implant anything you want into
it, then you can limit yourself to thinking positive thoughts and
allow your subconscious mind to bring positive things into your
life.
Now this book isn’t meant to be an instructional guide to
training your subconscious mind, but if you follow the basics
outlined in the book you’ll actually train your subconscious mind
for success. And a trained subconscious mind is a powerful
asset when it comes to gaining control of your metabolism and
your health.
Each time you read your success statement, you are sending
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subliminal suggestions to your subconscious, suggestions
which it must eventually heed. The more often you repeat your
affirmation in a positive, emotional state, the faster it will sink
into your subconscious. And remember: your subconscious
mind reacts best to these suggestions when they are drenched
in desire-supporting emotions and any other imagery from the
five senses that you can provide.
One secret to really accelerating your progress is to take a
large piece of poster board and make a collage of what your
goal body looks like. One way to do this is to go through as
many magazines as you can get your hands on and cut out
pictures of bodies that look just as yours will look once you
reach your goal. Paste them all on this poster board. Paste on
pictures of entire bodies, as well as pictures of body parts such
as a tight stomach or a great lower body. Paste on pictures of
people who look great in street clothes or in a bathing suit.
Paste on pictures of people who are enjoying life in their strong,
healthy body. Then put this poster where you can see it on a
daily basis, and keep adding to it. Above all, have fun with this
exercise.
3
Your Burning Desire
The Starting Point of All Goal Attainment
“Whatever you persistently and passionately desire,
is always fulfilled.”
—Napoleon Bonaparte
Without a true, burning desire, nothing that is truly valuable and
permanent can ever be accomplished—except, of course, by
luck, and it doesn’t pay to count on that. Once you have
committed to achieving a goal and developed an intense desire,
your brain begins to draw into your life the dominant thoughts
that you hold in your mind. Success coaches have proved time
and time again that your outer world is an exact picture of your
inner world.
If you subconsciously focus on how fat you are, your mind will
present opportunities for becoming even fatter. But if you have
a burning desire to become more lean and energized, you will
develop a stronger self-image—and your outer world (your
body) will be affected accordingly. What is even more amazing
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is that the stronger your desire, the faster the results will
become a reality!
Remember, wishing alone will never bring results in great
numbers. Appropriate action must accompany those wishes.
The first step is to develop a true, burning desire—so burning
that it becomes an obsession. Next, you need to create a
detailed plan of action for reaching your goals (or have a
professional create a plan for you). Finally, you have to back up
that plan with a level of persistence that refuses to admit of
failure.
The information and exercises contained in this book are
intended to serve as a set of blueprints to help guide you
through the process of attaining a heightened metabolism,
better health, and a more attractive appearance. Thus, you
should use the book as your plan of action for reaching your
goals.
Before we go any further, I’d like to share with you an exercise
that helped me reach more goals in one thirty-day period than I
had been able to reach during the entire year leading up to that
time. I met a man who felt so strongly about this exercise that
he instilled it in me. I have to confess that when he first
described it to me, I thought it was going to be a waste of time.
After completing it, however, I had a better understanding of
Your Burning Desire 53
myself and my desires, and I had my top four goals laid out in
front of me. By the way, the goals that I developed in that
process were far different from the goals I had thought were
important to me prior to going through it.
The exercise is called Crystallizing Your Focus, because after
you’ve completed it you’ll have a crystal-clear focus of what
your goals are and then we can proceed. Whatever you do,
don’t skip over this exercise! I assure you, its relevance will
become clear as we continue.
Exercise #1. Make a list of 51 wishes for your body: things
you’d like to change a little, things you’d like to change a lot,
small alterations in your appearance, the way you walk, your
strength level, your endurance level, your health (be specific),
your energy level, your ability to handle stress, etc.
Take as much time as you need to complete this exercise, but
try to do it in as short a time as possible. I’ve had some clients
who have finished it in an hour, and I’ve had others who had to
put in three days of consistent hard work to get through it. Do
yourself a favor, and start when you have at least an hour of
silent, uninterrupted time. If that means getting up an hour
earlier than everyone else in the house in order to find the
necessary peace and quiet, then that’s what you should do.
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Once you’ve completed the first part of the exercise, move on
to the second part, which is far easier: “time prioritizing” your
list. Next to each item, write a number that represents the
amount of time (in years) you’re giving yourself to complete
each one. For example, if one of your wishes is to shed 25
pounds and you know you can do that in a few months, you’ll
write a “1” next to that one, because you know you can reach
that goal in the first year. Use the numbers 1, 3, 5, and 10 (for
1, 3, 5, and 10 years, respectively) to time prioritize the wishes
on your list.
Okay, put the book down, right now,
and don’t come back to it
until you’ve completed your time prioritization.
Great! Now you’re ready to prioritize the items within each
“time category” on your list. Just as in sports or other contests,
you can make a basic tournament board to help in this process.
First, list all of your 1-year goals on one page, all of your 3-
year goals on another page, and so on, until you have four
pages (one page for each of the four chronological groupings).
Next, take your list of 1-year goals and complete the
tournament board: Take your first two goals, draw a box around
them, decide which of the two is more important to you, and
Your Burning Desire 55
then write the more important one just outside and to the right of
the box. Then compare that “winning goal” (the one you wrote
outside the box) to the third goal on that sheet: put them both
into a new box and choose the more important of those two
goals, writing the more important goal just outside and to the
right of that box. Continue this process until you have only one
“winning” goal on that page. Then go through the same process
and prioritize your 3-year goals, your 5-year goals, and your 10-
year goals.
Stop right now and do the exercise.
Congratulations! You’ve now identified your top four goals for
your body and your health. I’ll bet you’re a bit surprised by the
results. If nothing else, you should be much clearer as to what
you need to focus on for the remainder of this book.
Exercise #2. Now make a list of all of the things about your
life that will improve once you’ve achieved your highest-priority
1-year goal. Things such as the new doors that will open up for
you, the increased energy you’ll have, the richer friendships you
may have, the more confidence you’ll feel, etc. Make sure to
have at least twenty-five items on your list.
Now do the same for your highest-priority 3-year goal, your
highest-priority five-year goal, and your highest-priority ten-year
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goal. Remember: list at least twenty-five benefits for each goal!
Now as you work your way through the rest of this book, I
want you to focus all your efforts on your highest-priority 1-year
goal.
4
Unleash Your Metabolism
Proper Elimination Begins with a Thorough Cleansing
One of the biggest difficulties that crop up in renovating the
metabolic system is to undo the years of damage that’s been
done by eating the wrong foods, or by eating the right foods in
the wrong amounts. It’s bad enough that we’ve eaten all sorts of
junk food, but far more problematic is that we’ve allowed way
too much of it to accumulate in our digestive system, particularly
in the colon.
Throughout the years, our bodies have digested and
assimilated hundreds of thousands of pounds of food. That’s
truly amazing, isn’t it? Even more amazing—and of much
greater importance—is that unless we have consumed the
correct foods, our bodies probably have not digested everything
completely, at least not yet!
At different stages of our lives, our bodies react in different
ways to the food we eat. When we began life, our systems
were, for the most part, clean and efficient, and in our early
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years our parents probably fed us foods that were somewhat
wholesome and promoted good health. As we entered our
teens, however, our hormones kicked in, our digestive system
changed, and the foods we chose to eat also changed—
probably for the worse! As we got to the end of our teenage
years and reached early adulthood, our enzyme production
changed. Now doesn’t it make sense that our eating habits
should also have changed—for the better—to keep up with
each of these various stages and changes that our body went
through? Have yours? If you’re like most people, the answer is
a resounding no!
The trouble is, our enzymatic systems changed but our eating
patterns did not. The fast foods that our teenage metabolisms
devoured are now clogging up our slower, adult metabolisms.
Keeping Pace
Each time our body goes through a change, no matter how big
or small, the consistency and the concentration of the enzymes
in our system also change. Changes in our external
environment bring about changes in our internal world. A
dramatic but easy-to-understand example of this process is as
follows:
Unleash Your Metabolism 59
Suppose you took two children, born at about the same time
and in the same area, and both of healthy parents. Suppose,
further, that you relegated one of them to life in a poor section
of a third-world country while the other was brought up in the
lap of luxury in a clean, healthful environment. Now I’d be willing
to bet that if you took the well-off child to that third-world country
to meet the impoverished one ten years later, the well-off child
would become sick. Why would this happen? Well, the answer
is simple: the child who was brought up in the healthful
environment has never been subjected to the germs that he/she
would have encountered in the impoverished country, while the
less fortunate child has built up an immune system that allows
him/her to literally digest the germs as they enter his/her body.
I use this drastic example to illustrate how changes in your
environment can cause everything about your inner systems to
undergo at least slight modification. This happens because the
human body attempts to acclimate to its surroundings in order
to survive. The same is true, though to a far lesser extent, in
regard to changes in your age, your activity level, your sleep
patterns, etc. Each one of these elements, if changed, would
cause a slight modification in the production of enzymes in your
system.
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The Poisonous Result
When the human body is given the wrong foods on a regular
basis, certain undesirable “matter” tends to build up on the walls
of the colon. If this matter is allowed to remain, it ferments, and
the fermentation may cause odors to emanate from either the
skin (such as the skin of the feet) or the mouth. In addition to
the fermentation, this buildup of matter is the main cause of
blockage in the bowels, which is even more serious. In the
worst case, blockages can cause illness and, eventually, death.
According to William T. Tiller, N.D., president of the
International Association for Colon Hydrotherapy, waste
material accumulates in the colon, and then it breaks down and
becomes toxic. Waste particles are “toxic,” in the sense that
they are recognized by the body’s immune system as allergens,
so an inflammatory allergic reaction occurs, often resulting in
one or another of a variety of disorders.
To avoid having this happen to you, the Maximize Your
Metabolism program has been designed to gently remove these
accumulated toxic wastes from your system.
As mentioned earlier, the longer this material is allowed to
remain, the greater the buildup in the colon. This poisonous
matter forms layers that are virtually “glued” to the walls of your
Unleash Your Metabolism 61
digestive tract. The longer the layers are allowed to remain
there, the more clogged the system becomes. In addition, this
coating of dead material may start making its way up your
colon, where it can cause even greater problems.
Constipation Provides an Important Clue
Fortunately, Mother Nature has a formidable warning system
that sends out signals of imminent danger. As you might guess,
that warning often comes in the form of constipation.
We’ve all experienced constipation at one time or another:
abnormally delayed or infrequent bowel movements, or difficulty
in eliminating dry, hardened feces from our system.
Although constipation is not a good thing, being constipated
does not necessarily mean that we’re in danger of toxic
poisoning. But there are many people who are constantly
constipated or are plagued with frequent bouts of this condition.
Those folks should pay particular attention to this chapter.
The Cleanse
The answer to this problem is simply to “clean house”—our
digestive house, that is. Cleansing the entire digestive tract
once a week to re-energize the digestive system is
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recommended for everyone.
This process will scrape away at the built-up matter and
eventually flush all of it away, allowing the system to function as
efficiently as that of a newborn. The benefits that you can
expect from this are abundant, including better sleep patterns;
sharper concentration and focus; much less stress; stronger
muscle contractions; better absorption of nutrients into your
muscles, organs, and bones; and much more energy.
The most important aspect of this cleansing process is that it
restores that born-again purity to your digestive system, thereby
enabling it to maximize the metabolism-building features that
will be introduced in the next stage of the Maximize Your
Metabolism program.
The 24-Hour Cleanse
It’s a good idea to begin each cleanse during the morning
hours, with your first meal. The process itself couldn’t be easier:
simply mix the juice of one lemon into a glass of plain, fresh
(preferably distilled) water, and then drink this mixture, being
sure to wait at least ten to thirty minutes before you consume
anything else. Think of the solution of lemon juice and water as
a liquid Brillo pad, cleaning everything it touches on its way
Unleash Your Metabolism 63
down. Though the overall cleansing process outlined in this
chapter is to be done only once a week, taking this morning
drink of lemon water is something you can do every day of your
life for a mild daily cleanse of your digestive system.
Once you have drunk the lemon water and waited the
requisite ten to thirty minutes, you may consume any fruit or
vegetable you like, just as long as you juice it—but be sure to
juice it yourself. (Bottled or canned juices are not allowed, since
the processing removes many of the valuable vitamins and
minerals.)
You may also prepare a vegetable soup by boiling pure water
(no salt!) and adding fresh, raw vegetables.
Speaking of which, you should strive to buy the freshest,
organic fruits and vegetables you can find. Organic fruits and
vegetables have notably more vitamins and minerals, plus you
get the added benefit of consuming food that has not been
chemically treated in any way.
Drink Plenty of Water
In addition to the freshly juiced vegetables and fruits, and
possibly a soup, you’ll be consuming a fair amount of water on
the day of your cleanse. Calculate your required water intake as
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follows: drink at least one cup of water for every 14 pounds of
body weight. If you weigh 150 pounds, for example, you are to
consume about ten or eleven cups of water. (The day after you
complete the cleansing process, you may resume your normal
daily consumption of water, which ought to be about one cup for
every 20 pounds of body weight.)
Incidentally, when I refer to water, I mean pure water, not
coffee, tea, flavored seltzer, iced tea, etc. In addition, no salt or
salt products are allowed in the water you consume for your
cleanse. As stated earlier, distilled water would be best, as it
contains no harmful chemicals or metals. Although distilled
water literally contains almost none of the natural minerals
found in well water, it is still a far better choice when it comes to
cleaning out your system.
What Else Do You Get to Eat?
Just one additional thing: during the cleansing period, you may
consume as many fresh, raw, organic vegetables as you wish,
and one serving of fresh, raw, organic fruit (but just one kind of
fruit, no combinations!). Remember, the cleanse phase of this
program is designed to give your digestive system a longneeded
rest and purify it for the next stage of the program.
Unleash Your Metabolism 65
Keep in mind that many, if not most, of the people who
undergo this cleansing process have overburdened their
digestive systems for years. The all-American custom has been
to eat whatever and whenever we want. It’s not uncommon for
people to start the day by eating a “hearty” breakfast of, say,
bacon, eggs, toast, and coffee—and sending their digestive
systems through a living hell as a result. Another common
practice, which is just as bad, consists of skipping breakfast
entirely—indeed, people who do this are depriving their
metabolism of the fuel it needs to get fired up in the morning.
The point here is that most people either start the day off by
consuming the wrong foods or by depriving their bodies of food
altogether.
Among other imprudent habits are big lunches full of all the
wrong foods, snacking all afternoon long, a big dinner, and a full
evening of nighttime “grazing” that often lasts right up until the
time that the late-evening news comes on. People who engage
in these sorts of bad habits cause their digestive systems to
work overtime, getting virtually no rest at all during the “night
shift” yet needing to be up and ready to go for around round of
eating (most likely poor eating) the next day.
As you can imagine, the digestive systems of most folks want
and need to be cleansed and recharged.
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On the day of the cleanse, you can enjoy as many meals as
you wish, as long as they consist of the following kinds of food:
fresh vegetables or fruits and their juices; fresh vegetable soup;
and fresh, clean, pure water. Nothing else should pass your lips
during this portion of the program, things like aspirin and
vitamins included. The only exception would be any drugs or
other substances recommended by your personal physician or
nutritionist. If you must take prescription drugs on the day of the
cleanse, you should consult your physician in regard to the
advisability of going through the cleansing process.
Why the Concern?
When you “fast” in this fashion, even for as little as twenty-four
hours, any drugs you take could have a more pronounced effect
on your system, since there will be no solid food for them to
bind to, and no food in your system to protect your stomach
lining from pharmaceuticals that may be too harsh for it. Many
drugs, in fact, carry warnings about NOT ingesting them on an
empty stomach.
During the cleansing period, you may experience a slight
headache or some muscle soreness or stiffness. This is a
normal response of your body to the massive amount of dead
Unleash Your Metabolism 67
matter accumulated in your bowels. The more hardened
material there is, the greater your chances of experiencing one
or more of these symptoms.
Should you experience any of these symptoms, the most likely
cause is the loosening of this caked-on material and the
process of preparing for it to be eliminated. Shortly before the
actual elimination occurs, the hardened matter takes on a more
concentrated form in its attempt to survive. This makes the
dead matter harder to eliminate, but it also signals its eventual
breakup and elimination. Once the top layer of this built-up
matter is eliminated, the layers below are quick to follow.
How Long Does This Process Take?
The total time that it will take to fully clean and eliminate this
buildup varies from one individual to another. Some people can
clean out their entire system in one to three days. Others have
so much colonic “sludge”—for lack of a better term—that it
takes them longer. If you fall into the latter category, my
suggestion is to go through this “clean-sweep” process for three
days straight, then refrain from it for a week, and finally repeat
the whole thing. Continue this cycle of cleansing and resting
until you feel totally cleansed internally (physically lighter, more
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mentally alert, and more vibrant).
A sure sign that your cleanse has worked is expulsion of an
abnormally large amount of feces in a single bowel movement.
Another sign is having one bowel movement for each meal
consumed in a single day; for example, if you eat four times on
a given day, then you should “poop” four times that day, usually
within thirty to forty-five minutes after each meal.
Your cleanse can last anywhere from one to three days. You
may want to take a little longer than this on your first try—it’s
really a matter of personal preference. I suggest going through
this type of fast on a regular basis, ideally once a week for a
period of twenty-four hours.
Regardless of the time it takes for your initial cleanse to
produce the desired results, going through this cleansing
process will become easier and easier in subsequent weeks
and your system will become cleaner and healthier as times
goes on.
You can benefit from a weekly or biweekly cleansing for the
rest of your life. Not only is it very healthful, but it also provides
a great source of live enzymes and an ideal combination of
nutrients for your body and mind.
Unleash Your Metabolism 69
Any diet that you start without first properly cleansing
your digestive system is destined to provide few, if any,
of the many benefits that you deserve to reap from it.
The Next Step
Now that your system has been swept clean of its impurities, we
can begin the process of actually increasing your metabolism,
and it all starts by changing the way you eat.
5
Taking Control
Your Blueprints for Losing Fat
Everybody knows how to lose weight and stay thin. Do you
recall seeing the same sentence earlier in the book? The
reason why I’ve reiterated it here is that, for years, Americans
have been obsessed with only one side of the crucial dieting
equation: the number of calories they consume. In one diet
program after another, proponents have tried—and failed—to
prove that reducing the intake of calories is the one and only
answer to weight loss. Surveys show that 140 million Americans
(about half of the population) are on diets right now but that 60
percent of Americans are overweight! Even worse, past studies
reveal that a full 95 percent of those who are dieting will fail to
achieve permanent weight loss.
To date, more than a hundred different dieting strategies have
been devised. Most of them have been disseminated in book
form, and virtually all of them claim that reducing calories is the
Holy Grail, whereas nothing could be further from the truth.
Taking Control 71
Your metabolism is far more important. Here’s why.
We humans expend energy (calories) in three ways: by
increasing our resting metabolic rate, by engaging in physical
activity, and through the process of thermogenesis (the
burning of calories that occurs when we digest and metabolize
our food).
Resting Metabolism
More than half of the calories we expend during the day are
burned up by a process known as resting metabolism or basal
metabolism, which consists of the burning of calories for the
purpose of producing energy to sustain life and maintain normal
bodily functions such as respiration and circulation.
In an average male, resting metabolism is responsible for as
Physical
Activity
Thermic
Effect of Food
Resting
Metabolic
Rate
Categories of Energy Expenditure in Humans
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much as 60 to 75 percent of the total calories burned. As we
shall see in the chapters on exercise, however, resting
metabolism is highly dependent on lean muscle mass and will
form one of the key components that we’re going to exploit in
order to raise your metabolism over the long term.
Energy Expended during Physical Activity
The second component of metabolism is the number of calories
burned through physical activity. Obviously, this is the element
that most exercise professionals harp on relentlessly—and with
good reason. This is one of the most significant variables in the
metabolic equation.
The number of calories your burn during physical activity is
dependent upon the frequency, intensity, and duration of
exercise, and totals 10 to 30 percent of the total calories burned
daily.
Most studies show that overweight men and women are less
active, on average, than their physically trim counterparts. This
is, of course, one of the major factors that cause people to
become overweight in the first place—and to remain that way
once they get there.
Taking Control 73
Thermic Effect of Food
The third element of metabolism is due to the thermic effect of
food (TEF), which has to do with the energy we use up just by
virtue of eating, digesting, and metabolizing food. As you might
expect, this effect is most pronounced shortly after eating a
meal. Indeed, the more calories we consume, the more calories
we burn—in absolute numbers, at least.
In normal people, TEF raises the total energy expenditure of
the body by more than 40% of the resting metabolic rate (RMR)
within one hour after eating a 1500-calorie meal. That’s about
the size of a good Thanksgiving Day pig-out. The TEF typically
peaks about an hour to an hour and a half after a meal, but it
can remain elevated for up to six hours, depending on how
calorically sinful your repast.
But don’t get the wrong idea here: you cannot lose weight by
eating greater quantities of food! The TEF is never enough to
fully digest and work off all the calories consumed at a meal—in
fact, it doesn’t even come close.
Adaptive Energy Expenditure
There is one other element of metabolism that bears
mentioning, and that is adaptive energy expenditure. This refers
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to the ability of the human body to adapt to stress or change.
The effect of this component is not completely understood by
scientists, but we do know that it varies from person to person
and that it can play an important role in the energy-balance
equation.
Because our body is highly adaptable, it actually responds to
undesirable conditions by decreasing or increasing the amount
of energy required for any given activity. It is for this reason that
people in third-world countries are able to survive on a mere
bowl of rice each day. Their bodies have responded to the lack
of food by rigidly conserving energy and lowering their
metabolic rate.
The Reality of Energy Balance
Being in a state of energy deficit, whether it comes about
through decreased calorie consumption or increased calorie
expenditure, will result in weight loss for some people. The
standard formula states that to achieve a reduction of one
pound of body weight, 3500 calories must be used up. The
problem is that the more often a person experiences a severe
energy deficit, the lesser the effect it has in the way of weight
loss.
Taking Control 75
This adaptive effect is well documented through the
experience of yo-yo dieters: the more they deprive themselves
of food, the more likely it is that their bodies will squirrel away
whatever nutrients they can muster up. Paradoxically, their selfdeprivation
makes it all the more difficult for them to lose
weight.
Our body’s survival mechanisms respond to intentionally
inflicted calorie deficits just as they would during times of
famine. That is, they become more efficient at using food by
burning calories more slowly. What this means for dieters is that
their metabolism slows down and they store the excess
nutrients in the form of fat, saving it in case there’s another
deficit sometime in the future.
The best way to combat this natural tendency is to
systematically increase your metabolism by every means
possible, as we teach you to do in this book.
The human body is an incredible machine. It can withstand a
great deal of abuse, and in time it will acclimate to almost
anything that’s inflicted upon it. We can train our muscles to
grow (as when bodybuilders abuse their muscles by constantly
increasing the amount of weight they lift, which forces the
muscles to acclimate and grow in order to survive), and our
brains to hold more information (the more we read and the more
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experiences we have, the stronger the neural pathways in our
brains become and the more information our brains can
process), and our lungs to hold more air.
Perhaps one of the most incredible examples of human
adaptability is the power to train your metabolism to either
speed up or slow down. And we’re not talking about a process
that takes months or years; we’re talking about physiological
changes that can be achieved in a matter of days. As healthy
human beings, we can change the way our digestive system
and our metabolism handle the food which enters our stomach.
Before a camel goes into the desert, it can store enough water
to survive for weeks without a fresh supply. How does it do this?
Well, I can assure you, the camel doesn’t know how this
happens, nor does it care. As long as it doesn’t die of thirst, I’ll
bet it never even notices. A camel’s system simply has a
survival mechanism that triggers the sensation of thirst and
increases the capacity of certain muscle cells to hold water. And
the result? A rise in the amount of water the camel can drink
and store.
Our Metabolic Systems Work the Same Way
If we deprive ourselves of water for some reason, our survival
Taking Control 77
mechanism will cause certain parts of our bodies to store more
water than usual. In fact, we will end up storing almost as much
water as we take in. On top of that, the process of perspiration
will slow down, thereby causing us to retain even more water.
This not only makes us look “puffy,” it also creates an
atmosphere that is not conducive to achieving a heightened
metabolism.
The solution is simple: In an earlier chapter you learned a
simple formula that helped you determine how much water your
body needs. Now all you have to do is supply it with at least that
amount of water every day, causing the old, built-up water to be
literally washed away.
The miracle of the human body doesn’t stop there. If we can
pull off this trick with our water-storage sites, then why not do a
similar thing with the parts of the body where we store our
carbohydrates, our proteins, and, yes, even our fats? The
answer is that we can, and I’m sure you’ll just love the way it’s
done: to train your system to shed fat, you simply need to trick it
into believing that it will always be supplied with as much fat as
it desires.
As great as it sounds, there is somewhat of a fallacy in this
line of thinking. If the process of losing weight were really this
easy, all you would have to do to reduce your fat content would
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be to ingest an abundance of fat, right? WRONG! Simply
stated, what you have to do is see to it that your body gets the
percentage of fat that it needs, not the percentage that your
mind desires! Moreover, you have to follow a similar approach
when it comes to your intake of carbohydrates and proteins.
After all, too much of any nutrient will be converted to fat, a
process that will simply prolong the entire fat-burning,
metabolic-boosting process.
Remember, this is a training regimen. As with just about any
kind of training, it may seem difficult, if not impossible, at first.
Believe me, many of my clients have felt this way. However,
what they quickly (and happily, I might add) discover is that
once they take the plunge and get started on their new diet,
they notice great results almost right away, and that’s what
keeps them motivated. Then, during their first week, they make
a few minor modifications that help to tailor their diet, their
exercise routine, and other aspects of their health and fitness so
that they blend perfectly into their lifestyle.
To complete this training, we will need to teach our
metabolism what to crave, what to use as fuel, and what to
discard as waste. Our bodies now crave anything and
everything that we enjoyed as kids. Unfortunately, since those
days our metabolism has made a 180-degree turn-around in
Taking Control 79
terms of what it needs to survive.
It is my estimate that nearly 90 percent of us have been eating
meals that consist primarily of carbohydrates (breads, cereals,
grains, pasta, fruits, and sugars) throughout our lifetime. This
has trained our systems to crave and use carbohydrates as
fuel. Then when we consume carbohydrates, our bodies
assume that we are about to engage in strenuous activity. We
are, in essence, like Pavlov’s dog. Carbohydrates ring our bell,
and our bodies respond just as they’ve been trained: they
secrete a hormone known as insulin which will either (a) digest
and use the newly acquired carbohydrates as energy, (b)
properly store the excess in the liver or the muscles, or (c)
deposit the excess in the form of fat. The normal action taken
by the body when faced with strenuous exercise is to first use
up carbohydrates from the stomach (the last meal eaten that
day) and then go on to utilize carbohydrates from the muscles
and the liver in turn. Only as a last resort will the body use up
the carbohydrates that have been stored as fat.
The Road Back to Metabolic Health
To optimize our fat-burning furnace, we need to train our
metabolism to go through a similar process whenever it sees
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fat, so that it will use that intake of fat as energy rather than
immediately storing it in our cells. Since our metabolisms are
accustomed to being positively reinforced for using
carbohydrates as energy, this new process may be a rough
transition, at least at the start. But you can rest assured that a
successful transition will leave you with a body that uses up
both the stored fat and the incoming fat as energy. And there
are some rather nice side effects to all this: Your system will
chip away at any cholesterol deposits you might have
accumulated, and it will make better use of the vitamins you
ingest. In addition, you will end up with a more abundant supply
of vitamins A, D, E, and K, which are known to promote
healthier hair and skin.
To accomplish this, you must gradually decrease your intake
of carbohydrates, which will force your body to search for
alternate sources of fuel. This decrease of carbohydrates must
be accompanied by a gradual decrease of fat intake, which will
force your body to use stored fat for energy, and a simultaneous
increase in protein intake, to ensure that existing muscle is not
burned as fuel. This process is not experimental; it has been
demonstrated to work, and to melt off fat. Drastic forms of this
approach, however, are unhealthful; therefore, I have provided
an example diet for you later in this book.
Taking Control 81
Self-Monitoring Will Improve Your Success
When decreasing your intake of carbohydrates, your first step is
to chronicle just what kind of carbohydrate-eating lifestyle
you’ve developed. You can make the whole process easier by
using one of those inexpensive journals, or even a small
notebook. For the next seven days, keep a complete record of
everything that enters your mouth (food, drink, snacks, gum,
etc.). Then sit down in a quite place, where you’re sure not to
be disturbed for thirty minutes, and review what you’ve written.
You’ll need to have four different colored markers for this
project. Use one color for protein, and circle each and every
item that is a major protein source (fish, meat, chicken, and
anything else that used to be part of a live animal that has eyes,
plus eggs). Use another colored marker to circle all of the
sources of carbohydrates among the items listed in your journal,
including any food that originated from plants (fruits, grains,
vegetables, and beans) or is sweet tasting (for example, candy,
cake, and non-diet soda). Use a third color for foods containing
fats and fat products (butter, margarine, oil, mayonnaise,
margarine, spray oil products, etc.).
Use the last colored marker to circle any items that contain a
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combination of nutrients from two (or all three) of the other
categories. Examples of this would be fried foods (fried chicken
contains both protein and fats) and baked goods (breads and
pastries contain a combination of carbohydrates and fats).
Now look and see which colors dominate your list. My guess
is that it will be your carbohydrate color and your combination
color.
Next, over the course of the next thirty days, eliminate all of
the fats (not just fats and fat products, but also fried foods). And
don’t object by claiming that your body needs some fats to
survive. Unless you have some type of medical condition that
requires you to consume a certain amount of fat (check with
your physician if you think you do), you’re going to be getting
more than enough fat from the foods you eat, WITHOUT
injecting ANY additional fat into your diet. In fact, your daily
requirement of fat is a mere tablespoonful, yet the average
American adult consumes six to eight tablespoonfuls of fat each
day. Remember, our objective in this program is to force your
system to metabolize your body’s stored fat (for use in the form
of energy) rather than to allow it to head directly for the food in
your stomach every time it feels a need to supply you with
energy.
Your body has had a valid reason for storing fat: you have
Taking Control 83
been giving it so much fat, over so long a period of time, that
you have convinced your body it will need this fuel for future
use, and so it has stored it. Your body has only been doing its
job.
In addition to cutting out all of the added fat from your diet,
you must also lower your intake of carbohydrates over the next
thirty days. During that time, you’re going to eliminate all
breads, pasta, cakes, sweets, sodas, and starchy foods (such
as potatoes, beans, and avocados) from your diet.
In the meantime, you’re going to increase your intake of leafy
green vegetables (and other colorful vegetables), such as
broccoli, peppers, asparagus, and cucumbers. To top this off,
you’re going to eat most of them in their clean, raw state, and
you’re going to try to get them from the organic section of your
grocery store.
As if this weren’t enough, you will also have to look at how all
of your foods are prepared. Commit to not putting anything into
your mouth unless it’s baked, broiled, or steamed—or, in the
case of vegetables, raw. If you go out to eat, as we all do from
time to time, make sure that whatever food you order adheres
to the above standards (it’s really not that hard), and make sure
that the person who prepares your food uses as little oil as
possible in the baking or broiling process. (Eating food that’s
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prepared without added oil is the best bet, but when eating out
we must assume that the chef will add a bit of oil just for taste.)
The final aspect of your thirty-day changeover is the
elimination of dairy products. The only food that’s allowed in this
category is egg whites. What this means is that for the next
thirty day, you must refrain from consuming milk, cheese, and
cream, as well as any and all products derived from those
sources.
As an extra gift to your body, stop all alcohol and coffee
intake. They’re slowly poisoning your body and your mind by
creating adverse chemical reactions.
6
Your New Metabolic Diet
Your Foundation for Metabolic Success
Now that we’ve given you a blueprint for losing fat, it’s time to
take a look at what a typical one-, two-, or three-month
metabolism-maximizing diet looks like. The Pyramid ProgramÒ
that follows was designed for any man or woman who wants to
achieve a leaner, more energized, and healthier appearance.
You can use this program (which, as you will soon see, is
actually a three-diet program) as a template, your template for
dietary change. It was designed specifically for a woman who
weighed 150 pounds. You can either use the diet as is or tailor
the program modestly to suit your caloric requirements, whether
slightly higher (for a rather overweight man, or for a woman who
weighs more than 150) or lower (for a not-so-overweight man or
a woman under 150 pounds).
As a general rule of thumb, you should increase or decrease
your food intake by fifty calories for every five pounds by which
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86
your body weight differs from 150 pounds. If you take in fewer
than the number of calories prescribed in this program, be sure
that the majority of the calories you trim from your diet come
from the carbohydrate category (that is, you should cut down on
carbohydrates such as potatoes, rice, and breads). Conversely,
whenever you increase your intake of calories, make up the
difference either by selecting foods from the protein category or
by eating vegetables that are especially good for your health
(such as salads and raw, non-starchy vegetables).
The most important thing to remember is to eat according to
the “Law of the Three ONLY’s”:
1. ONLY within the prescribed food groups
2. ONLY in the ratios specified
3. ONLY on the days scheduled
Getting Started
There are two phases to this program. The first phase will last
from sixty to ninety days, depending on how quickly your body
reacts to the combinations of foods you eat. Then you’ll begin
phase two, which is a “maintenance” step of the program.
Phase two will supply you with the blueprints you’ll need to
either maintain your new physique or continue to lose weight.
Your New Metabolic Diet 87
The maintenance phase is simply a time for you to begin adding
back into your diet some of the foods you crave (within reason)
and to balance the effects that those new foods may have on
your body, so in phase two you should follow diet #2 (that is, the
second phase-one diet) for a full two days each week.
Phase-One Objectives
The goal of phase one, which is the part of the program that
consists of three separate diets, is to help strip fat and water
from between your muscle and your skin while at the same time
preparing your metabolism for phase two. Each of the diets in
the first phase will bring you closer to your goal of total
metabolic control in its own way. This phase has been designed
to provide your body with the nutrients that are needed to burn
any subcutaneous fat deposits, increase your energy level and
metabolic rate, and improve your nutrient absorption.
Your New Food “Cycling” Program
In phase one of the Maximize Your Metabolism program, you
must strictly adhere to diet #1 for two days, diet #2 for the
following two or three days, and diet #3 for the final two or three
days of a seven-day cycle, at which point you are to repeat the
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seven-day cycle.
It is this cycling of nutrients and calories that will enable your
metabolism to attain its peak fat-burning level. While on this
program, drink a minimum of twelve glasses of pure water each
day. (I realize that this goes slightly against what I said earlier
about consuming one glass for every 20 pounds of body weight,
but for the time being, consuming the amount of water I’m
suggesting here will help your body to shed fat faster.)
Turn the page to see what diet #1 looks like. ..
Your New Metabolic Diet 89
Phase One, Diet #1
Meal Food
0
1 cup warm water
w/ 2 tbsp. lemon juice added
2 servings of grits or cream of rice
1
3 egg whites, large*
1 cup nonfat, sugar-free yogurt
2
¼ cup Grape-Nuts (optional)
6 oz. turkey breast*
3
1 mixed salad, large*
1 sweet potato, large*
4
½ cup broccoli*
6 oz. chicken breast*
5 1 mixed salad, large*
½ cup brown rice*
*See the general guidelines that start on p. 94.
Again, the diets presented here are just examples. If you use
these diets, you’ll need to adhere to the following points, which
you should apply to all three diets in this program:
· You should consume the warm water no later than thirty
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90
minutes after arising in the morning
· You should space the meals about two to three hours apart
· There should be at least one hour between the time you
finish your last meal and the time you go to bed at night
Remember: each of the three diets is designed to be followed
for more than one day during a seven-day cycle. Be sure that
you consume all the foods listed for that diet on each of those
days (and at the indicated meals). Don’t omit foods from one
day and add them to another day, and don’t omit foods from
one meal and add them to another meal.
Besides the solution of lemon juice and water (meal 0) that’s
to be taken every day, there are five meals (meals 1–5) to be
eaten every day that you’re on diet #1, and four meals (meals
1–4) to be eaten every day that you’re on diet #2 or diet #3.
If you wish, a personalized diet can be created for your
particular body—just visit us online for information about that.
Phase One, Diet #2
Diet #2 is intended to deplete your muscle stores of glycogen
and water. Following this diet for two or three consecutive days
will increase the rate at which your metabolic system burns fat.
It will also reduce the capacity of your muscle cells to hold
water, thereby causing them to release excess stored water.
Your New Metabolic Diet 91
Here’s how you are to determine whether to follow this diet for
two days or three days: If your weight loss is going a bit too
slow, you should follow diet #2 for the full three days (and then
follow diet #3 for only two days, in order to complete a full
seven-day cycle for the three phase-one diets combined). If
your weight loss is proceeding fast enough for you, then you
should follow diet #2 for only two days (meaning that you would
then follow diet #3 for the remaining three days of the cycle).
Phase One, Diet #2
Meal Food
0
1 cup warm water
w/ 2 tbsp. lemon juice added
3–6 egg whites, large*
1
2 rice cakes, plain*
6 oz. turkey breast*
2
1 mixed salad, large*
3 slices fat-free American cheese
3
5 fat-free crackers
3 oz. grilled meat*
4
1 mixed salad, large*
*See the general guidelines that start on p. 94.
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Since this portion of the diet program is low in carbohydrates,
you may experience “withdrawal symptoms.” Many diets that
are low in sugar produce this effect, but it’s entirely normal and
there’s no need for concern. This program was specifically
designed to rid your body of such harmful elements as sugar
buildup, toxins, and excess fat deposits. During the first two
weeks, feel free to consume a small piece of fruit if you begin to
feel overly lethargic or slightly dizzy.
Phase One, Diet #3
Diet #3 is designed for the final two or three days of your sevenday
cycle. This food regimen will provide your muscles and liver
with an ample supply of new glycogen in the form of complex
carbohydrates and glucose polymers. Introducing these
nutrients into your system at this point will force your
metabolism and energy level to rise.
Your New Metabolic Diet 93
Phase One, Diet #3
Meal Food
0
1 cup warm water
w/ 2 tbsp. lemon juice added
1 serving of grits or cream of rice
1 5 egg whites, large*
spinach (optional), in quantity desired*
1 6-oz. can water-packed tuna, drained*
2
¼ cup brown rice*
6 oz. turkey breast*
3
1 mixed salad, large*
6 oz. fish*
4
1 mixed salad, large*
*See the general guidelines given below.
A more detailed description of these diets is found in the final
chapter of this book.
When preparing your meals, be sure to avoid using any butter,
margarine, oil, mayonnaise, prepared sauces, or salt. Instead,
substitute any herb or herbal product you wish (just no salt or
fat!). For the first two weeks only, you may also use fat-free
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94
salad dressing, fat-free butter, and fat-free mayonnaise, but
there is a one-tbsp. limit per meal on these ingredients. Just in
case you do opt to use these additional ingredients, you should
be aware of the possibility that they will slow your progress. The
only reason you’re allowed to use them in the beginning is that
they’ll add a little taste to an otherwise bland diet.
General guidelines
No foods other than those listed on these pages should
be consumed unless you first discuss any deviation from
the Maximize Your Metabolism diet with your nutritionist or
physician.
· If you are hungry or feel the need for additional food, you
may increase your consumption of the protein sources
(chicken, turkey, egg whites, tuna, and fish) at any of the
meals for phase one during the first two weeks without
slowing your weight loss.
· Either sliced or ground turkey (the 98% fat-free variety) may
be substituted for chicken if you use it in the same quantity.
Both chicken and turkey should be measured after cooking.
Just in case you don’t have a scale, 6 oz. of meat is about
the same size as two decks of playing cards.
Your New Metabolic Diet 95
· While on this diet, you are permitted to consume any type of
fish other than carp, herring, mackerel, mullet, salmon,
sardines, squid, or tuna steak. These kinds of fish are
simply higher in fat, and have been shown to slow the
increase of metabolism in some people.
· For purposes of this diet, the term grilled meat refers to any
very lean red or white meat (beef, pork, turkey, or chicken).
As long as you’re on this program, be sure that before you
consume any type of meat, you remove all the skin and
visible fat prior to cooking.
· For purposes of this diet, the term mixed salad refers to any
combination of raw, non-starchy vegetables (one that’s
devoid of starchy vegetables such as potatoes, avocados,
and beans).
· You may substitute a good “whey” protein powder for
chicken/turkey or eggs, provided you make the substitution
according to the following formula: two scoops of protein
powder mixed in water is equivalent to either three egg
whites or 3 oz. of chicken or turkey. Be sure not to make
this substitution at more than one meal on any given day.
· Fish or sushi/sashimi may be substituted for tuna or chicken
in this phase: 3 oz. of sushi is equivalent to 3 oz. of chicken
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96
or 1/2 of a 6-oz. can of tuna.
· Rice should always be measured prior to cooking.
· Vegetable quantities should be measured after cooking.
· A medium, plain baked potato may be substituted for 1/2
cup of rice. If you make this substitution, be sure to remove
the skin from the potato prior to eating it.
· Candy that is both sugar free and sodium free may be eaten
periodically throughout the day.
· For the first two weeks of the program, bagels, English
muffins, and rice cakes can be eaten interchangeably, as
long as you substitute one of them for another according to
the following formula: two rice cakes is equivalent to either
one medium bagel or one whole English muffin. You should
be aware of the possibility that this substitution will slightly
retard your weight loss.
· At some point during the first two weeks of this phase, you
may experience a slight increase in intestinal gas. This is
normal. It’s caused by the elimination of previously built-up
matter within your system, and the expulsion of this matter
is an important step toward a fully functioning digestive
system.
· You may experience an increase in urination and/or
Your New Metabolic Diet 97
defecation during this phase of the program. This is due in
part to the delicate cleansing effect that this particular
combination of foods has on your digestive system, and in
part to an increase in your metabolic rate.
7
Create an Energy Bang with
Enzymes and Water
Immediately Boost Your Vitality
by Increasing Your Digestive Efficiency
Do you want more energy without having to do any more work?
If so, this will probably be one of your favorite chapters. After
making just slight modifications in your diet, as outlined in the
next few pages, your body and your mind could enjoy up to 30
percent more energy. What a tremendous boost to your health
and to your life! Put into practice all the knowledge you gain in
the rest of this book, and that percentage could go even higher!
What could you do with all that extra energy?
The human body uses more energy digesting food than it
does in performing almost any other normal function. Thus, it
might be tempting to think that if we stopped eating altogether,
we would have endless energy (since none of our energy would
be used up in carrying out the process of digestion).
Unfortunately, that’s not quite how it works. Our body is a very
Create an Energy Bang with Enzymes and Water 99
complex organism. In order for us to perform any action, we
must first supply our body with enough energy (calories).
Obviously, the way we do this is by eating and drinking.
However, like a car, if the body is supplied with the wrong type
of fuel, it will eventually stop performing, or at least stop
performing efficiently.
This next paragraph is vitally important, so please read and
reread it until you understand exactly why it has been included
here.
In today’s hectic society, we find ourselves spending less and
less time thinking about the nutrients we put into our bodies. We
do this so that we have more time to concentrate on work,
family, and everything else. We then justify eating overcooked
fast food, which dulls our focus and slows our physical and
mental pace.
Hmm, what went wrong? Well, let me tell you: what went
wrong is that we put way too little emphasis on the types of food
we eat. If we simply spent more time in planning our food
intake, the foods we eat could supply us with a much greater
supply of energy, because our digestive system would require
much less energy for the digestive process itself. It’s no secret
that digesting high-fat foods from fast-food restaurants requires
much more energy than digesting foods that are more healthful.
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Choosing the correct foods, then, has a direct impact on our
health and our energy level, because nutritious foods such as
vegetables and low-fat proteins increase our metabolism and
improve our immune and digestive systems!
This can easily be visualized in the following two sequences:
Poorly planned diet (fast food, for example)
à More time and energy spent in digesting food
à Less energy available to us, mentally and
physically
à Stress
Properly planned diet (low-fat protein and fresh, raw
vegetables)
à Fast, thorough digestion
à Massive energy reserves
There are two nutrients that outperform all others when it
comes to squeezing the most out of every calorie that we
consume: enzymes and water. Enzymes have been called the
spark plugs of life. They are responsible for digesting everything
that goes into our mouth. Without enzymes, not only would our
foods literally stagnate in our stomach, but our hormones and
glands would be unable to function.
Create an Energy Bang with Enzymes and Water 101
There are four major enzymes:
· Amylase, needed to break down starches
· Lipase, needed to break down fats
· Protease, needed to break down protein
· Cellulase, needed to break down cellulose
We need to have proper amounts of each of these four major
enzymes—along with thousands of others, both known and
unknown—in our system on a regular basis. When food, drinks,
or other substances are introduced into the human body without
the proper enzymes, those substances cannot be fully digested.
Although the human body makes some of its own digestive
substances, some foods cannot be fully processed without the
help of outside enzymes that were “designed” to digest those
particular nutrients.
Our Need for Enzymes
When a person eats red meat, the majority of enzymes
necessary to digest that meat are not present in the meat itself.
And for all we know, things may have been different in this
respect a thousand years ago, before the introduction of
steroids and other drugs that we routinely inject into our
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livestock nowadays.
Perhaps there were enzymes present in the meat back in the
days when cattle were “free range” and were allowed to graze
on the best of grasses, grasses that had not been fertilized with
chemicals. Or when cattle were allowed to run free and to get
enough exercise in the wild so as to remain strong, healthy, and
free of the diseases that we find on the cattle farms of today.
In times gone by, the meat may have been full of the natural
enzymes that are necessary for the human body to digest it in
its entirety. But this is not the case today. The meat we eat is
dependent on the intake of “outside” enzymes at the same meal
for its digestion. If these other enzymes are not present, we are
left with partially digested food in our digestive tract. Now the
problem with partially digested food is that it becomes stale and
stagnant, even to the point of developing gases and attracting
toxins—and, eventually, even worms. (Yes, the human body
can, and often does, provide a comfy home for various types of
worms.)
The process that takes place in our digestive system is similar
to what occurs when a deer has been hit by a car and is killed.
After several hours, the flesh of the deer begins to turn rancid,
which is similar to what happens when undigested meats are
allowed to remain in the human digestive tract.
Create an Energy Bang with Enzymes and Water 103
Why do I use such an unappealing example? The reason,
very simply, is that I want you to get the point, and the point is
that we need to digest our food as soon as possible after
consuming it.
Retracing Our Steps
How do we do this? How do we stop this process of rotting and
decay in our digestive system without taking red meat out of our
diet? Simply by consuming the correct enzymes in the same
meal as the meat! As stated above, protease is the enzyme that
is primarily responsible for the digestion of protein, but we also
need a sufficient amount of lipase in our system, since red meat
contains a large amount of fat.
Is the mere presence of those two enzymes enough to ensure
complete digestion? Absolutely not! Full digestion requires that
those enzymes be combined properly, in a live state (such as
found in raw vegetables), and mixed with other enzymes that
facilitate their work. To get enzymes like this into your body, you
must consume them in as fresh a state as possible.
One example of a food that has high levels of enzymes in its
live state is raw vegetables. (And raw organic vegetables have
a far higher level of enzymes than other raw vegetables.)
Nevertheless, eating a few raw vegetables with a meal does not
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ensure full digestion.
Our bodies need to be healthy and “regular,” as opposed to
“constipated” (this was covered in great detail in chapter 4),
before we eat meat. What this means is that you should
regularly eat foods that contain high levels of live enzymes. As
a matter of fact, a person who eats foods that contain high
levels of live enzymes and omits all other foods from their diet
(except for perhaps a small serving of protein several times
each day) will be very healthy and quite regular.
Enzymes are found in all living things. However, they tend to
get destroyed because of the chemicals we use to clean our
food and the high temperatures at which we cook it. The foods
that tend to contain plenty of live enzymes are fruits and
vegetables, as long as they are eaten raw (not processed,
canned, cooked, etc. before being consumed). Examples of
foods that contain little in the way of live enzymes are meats,
breads, pasta, processed or canned foods, etc. Virtually any
process (including cooking) that we use to make food last
longer or give it a longer shelf life is bound to destroy most of its
live enzymes.
By now, it should be clear to you that without ingesting each of
these enzymes in their correct proportions, we would fail to
function. It is important to keep in mind that everything that our
Create an Energy Bang with Enzymes and Water 105
bodies ingest, no matter how large or small, must be either
assimilated or eliminated, and both of those processes are
controlled directly through our enzymatic systems.
The Magic of Water
Enzymes are not the only dietary component that we need as
an aid in the digestion of the food we eat. We must also
consume an abundance of plain, fresh WATER.
We all know how great a glass of ice-cold water feels and
tastes on a hot day. But do you realize how absolutely important
plain, clean water is to your health? Water is a rather simple
organic compound, composed of two parts hydrogen and one
part oxygen. It is tasteless, odorless, and clear, yet no living
organism can survive for more than seventy-two hours without a
constant supply of this largely overlooked miracle of nature.
The main constituent of the human body is water, to the tune
of 70% by weight. Through stress or starvation, the body can
become depleted by up to half of its carbohydrate, fat, and
protein stores before death or disease sets in, but if only 20% of
the body’s store of water is depleted, delirium and death are
likely to occur.
Your personal requirements for water will vary with your
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weight, physical activity, and age. The importance of the need
to consume a certain amount of water was stated earlier, but it
warrants repetition here. Under normal environmental
conditions, the body of a physically active adult requires
approximately one cup of water for every 14 to 20 pounds of
body weight. This adds up to about eight to ten glasses of water
per day for an average-sized female, and ten to twelve glasses
for an average-sized male. To put it more precisely, the proper
level of water in the body is attained when the input of water
matches the output of bodily fluids. The main avenue for water
loss is through the urinary tract, but the body also excretes
water in the feces, in exhaled air, and through perspiration.
As stated earlier, water makes up over 70% of body weight in
humans and is stored in various areas within the body. We will
focus on two types of water storage in humans: intercellular and
intravascular. Water that is stored intercellularly (literally,
“between the cells”) is responsible for the health of the cells that
it encompasses. Unfortunately, it is also the main component of
subcutaneous water deposits, which are deposits of water
under the skin. This is the water that accumulates between a
person’s muscle and skin and causes the bloated appearance
we all dread.
Water that is stored intravascularly (literally, “within the
Create an Energy Bang with Enzymes and Water 107
vessels”) is the water that helps regulate blood pressure. When
the body is deprived of water for an extended period of time, it
compensates for this deficiency by moving water from one
storage site to another, thus maintaining an equal balance of
water everywhere.
The problem with this is that when water is transported from
intravascular storage sites for use in other areas of the body, it
causes the blood pressure to rise accordingly. Therefore,
people who engage in strenuous activity such as sports without
replacing the water lost through perspiration are taxing their
bodies in more ways than they might realize.
In addition to creating an unhealthful condition in the body, a
lack of water places the entire system in a survival mode,
forcing it to retain any water that is consumed from that point
on.
This is one of the reasons why nutritionists claim that people
who have a greater-than-average tendency to retain water
should gradually consume still more water—even to the point of
throwing their body’s defense mechanism out of commission—
so that their system will begin to excrete the optimum amount of
fluid. This takes the pressure off of the body and allows it to
freely excrete both the old (stored or retained) water as well as
the new water on a regular basis.
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Whenever this balance is upset, the cells are forced to
function with the old, more polluted water within them. As an
analogy, think of your cells as inhabiting a lake. Now where
would you rather live? In a lake that’s stagnant and filled with
algae, or in a lake that’s constantly being “spring fed” with a
clean supply of water? The answer is obvious.
Pure water should, by far, be everyone’s natural choice of
coolant and thirst quencher. Sodas and sports drinks that
contain sugar (sucrose, fructose, glucose) and sodium actually
increase the body’s need for pure water. In a country such as
the U.S., which is blessed with some of the cleanest drinking
water in the world, it’s hard to believe that most Americans
consume far more carbonated, sugar-filled drinks than plain
water.
The Enzyme–Water Link
Truly, the most healthful source of water available to us lies not
only within our great water reservoirs but also within the foods
those reservoirs allow us to grow. The most natural and most
nutrient-rich state of both enzymes and water is their live state.
Although that statement may sound a bit unorthodox or even
gross, think of it this way:
Create an Energy Bang with Enzymes and Water 109
A vegetable has a massive supply of both enzymes and
water. Even better than that, those enzymes and water are
combined in their most natural and most useful state. When we
humans were created, we were given certain vegetation and
animals to enable us to satisfy our hunger. Whatever your
religious background, you must believe that those things were
not given to us in cooked or chemically disinfected form.
Humans were designed to function at their peak level of
efficiency, but that can come about only when the nutrients they
consume are ingested in the proper proportion. Nature takes
care of that for us by combining life-giving nutrients inside those
pretty packages that we call vegetables, fruits, grains, fish, and
meat.
Each of these foods just naturally contains the proper amount
of enzymes needed to digest that particular type of food. The
problems arise when we cook that food. Now don’t get me
wrong! I am certainly not advocating the consumption of raw
meat. In fact, what I’m suggesting is more like the exact
opposite of that.
What is so wonderful about this whole business of enzymes is
that there is a major exception to the rule that each source of
food contains virtually the exact amount of enzymes we need in
order to digest it. The exception to that rule is the vegetables,
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which were endowed with a more-than-abundant supply of both
water and enzymes. As a matter of fact, vegetables were given
so much in the way of nutrients that if we were to consume
them only in their raw state, we could get away with digesting
quite a bit of the other four categories of foods in a cooked
state. Thus, combining fresh, raw vegetables with all other
foods is essential to the metabolism-boosting process.
8
Metabolic Superchargers That Work
Dietary Supplements and Metabolic Enhancers
No book about maximizing your metabolism would be complete
without a few words on dietary supplements, since their use—
and accompanying controversy—seem to be everywhere.
More than four out of every ten adults in the U.S. take vitamin
and mineral supplements, or herbal and non-herbal concoctions
that are thought to stimulate metabolism, curb appetite, or yield
one of a myriad of other desirable outcomes.
As a nation, we spend more than $3 billion annually on
supplements, making this category of products the third largest
in terms of over-the-counter sales.
Hundreds of these products go straight to the heart of the
dieting and weight-loss business, promising faster weight loss,
higher metabolism, and a variety of other benefits ranging from
enhanced sexual performance to fewer wrinkles.
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What Are Dietary Supplements?
Dietary supplements are preparations—in many cases a pill, but
frequently in liquid or powder form—that contain nutrients which
are intended to supply the body with adequate, or more than
adequate, supplies of what the body needs to function at a
certain level.
Certain supplements can enhance your metabolism, improve
your physical performance and health, alter your bodily makeup,
and help you achieve a variety of other important goals.
Many are designed to help you achieve optimal nutrition, and to
make up for the failure of consuming foods that can provide
appropriate daily levels of all the nutrients you need to thrive.
Metabolic Goals of Supplementation
In addition to improving overall health, supplements offer the
student of good health an opportunity to focus on a number of
goals specific to metabolic change, including increases in
· Muscle mass
By increasing muscle mass, you increase your metabolic
rate—by fifty calories per day per pound of muscle
added!
· Muscle work capacity
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By increasing the aerobic and anaerobic capacity of your
muscles, you heighten the amount of work your muscles
can do, and you increase your fat-burning capacity
accordingly.
· Energy expenditure
By increasing your energy use, you increase the number
of calories you burn each day. The more energy
expended, the greater the number of calories burned.
Should You Use Supplements?
I’m often asked about supplements, and my advice is invariably
the same: This program is founded on the principle that good
health and maximum metabolism can be accomplished by
increasing your energy expenditure in a certain way (as detailed
in the chapter on exercise) while decreasing your intake of
certain foods and increasing your intake of others (see the
chapter on diet). However, you can accelerate the process by
systematically adhering to a program of healthful supplement
use at the same time.
Ultimately, the advisability and effectiveness of using dietary
supplements comes down to the question of whether or not you
can maintaining a healthful, well-balanced diet that provides all
the vitamins, minerals, fiber, enzymes, and other nutritive
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components that you need to maintain vigorous and viable good
health. Unfortunately, for most people the answer to that
question is NO.
In today’s society, the soils in which our fruits and vegetables
are grown tend to be over used and are rarely given enough
time between crops to replenish their nutrient content. And soil
that lacks nutrients tends to produce crops that also lack
nutrients. Top that off with the fact that in order to have a good
crop, season after season, farmers add literally tons of
pesticides to our “natural” foods to ensure that the insects won’t
devour it.
A healthful diet is an essential start! Without that ingredient,
we have nothing to build upon. An active lifestyle is a good
second step toward attaining great health and a strong
metabolism. Among the other components laid out for you in
this book, you must also add a good source of nutrients to your
daily regimen.
There are so many supplements on the market that I can’t go
into great detail about any one product, but I will say that in all
my years of working with people, I’ve found only one type of
vitamin/mineral supplement that truly encompasses every
aspect of what we need as humans to survive and thrive, and
that is a 100% natural, plant-derived, powdered nutritional drink.
Metabolic Superchargers That Work 115
There are many products out there that fill the bill. If you
cannot find one in your health-food store, just contact my office
and we’ll help you find a quality brand. When you set out to look
for a product of this type, make sure that the one you choose is
composed of nutrients derived from a combination of several
different sources, such as spirulina, barley, chlorella, seaweed,
and other plants and herbs. Also, make sure that your product
of choice is made only from organic sources. Then consume
one, two, or three servings of this natural concoction each and
every day.
I have been recommending this type of supplement to my
clients over the years, for four main reasons:
1.) It’s all natural
2.) You get everything you need in one delicious glass
rather than having to take a handful of pills
3.) It contains all the nutrients that scientists have
discovered, and some that they have yet to discover
4.) It’s 100% bio-available, meaning that every nutrient
that’s in each scoop you consume is assimilated and used
to build the health of every cell in your body (as opposed to
man-made supplements that are created in a lab, then
pasteurized and dehydrated, and finally melted into a pill)
Many man-made supplements are created from sources that
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the human body cannot assimilate. In reality, only 20 to 50
percent of what’s in many of those pills is actually usable by
your body.
The need for a nutritional additive in our diet should be
obvious: the average American diet tends to be nearly devoid of
the optimally healthful foods that I’ve mentioned—and way too
heavy on fast foods such as hamburgers, french fries, and soft
drinks.
As a nation, we abuse our bodies nutritionally, thereby
compromising our ability to absorb even the small amount of
nutrients still found in the foods we eat. It’s been said that a
large percentage of people live most of their lives in a
malnourished state—and are therefore plagued by chronic lowgrade
health problems, including fatigue, headache, weight
fluctuations, sleep disorders, digestive discomforts, and stressrelated
difficulties.
Not only are our diets to blame for poor health, but we’ve also
had a series of formidable obstacles along our road to better
health: pollution, stress, irregular meals, toxins and additives in
our foods, and a variety of external pressures that, together,
can push our body’s systems to the edge.
Now bear in mind that you cannot take a crummy diet, add
supplements to it, and assume that all will be fine. Nonetheless,
Metabolic Superchargers That Work 117
let’s move on to the topic you’ve been waiting for: supplements
that actually help to increase your metabolic rate (as opposed to
those that only claim to do so).
There are a multitude of supplements that can help. The
problem is that some folks find it difficult to separate those that
actually work, from those that only claim to work. After reading
this chapter, you will be able to make smarter choices for your
particular needs.
What Are We Talking About?
Whenever I launch into a discussion about supplements, I find it
helpful to draw clear lines about the category of supplements
I’m talking about. At this point, I’m not discussing dietary
supplements that are intended to provide a certain daily vitamin
or mineral level. The importance of that type of supplement was
pointed out earlier in this chapter. Nor am I addressing the
myriad of pharmaceuticals and other medical preparations that
are prescribed by doctors for their patients who need them.
This chapter is about the few supplements that could be
considered for use in your program, together with a short
discussion of some that should be avoided.
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Individual Results Vary
Not everyone who uses dietary supplements will enjoy results
that are identical to those that some friend or family member
has told them about, but that’s to be expected. After all, we’re
all different. The outcome of supplement use will vary according
to such things as genetic factors; your body’s ability to digest,
absorb, and utilize the particular supplements you ingest; your
current state of health; and your past and current dietary habits.
The bottom line is that in using supplements, each of us is
undertaking an experiment. Try some of the supplements that
you think may be helpful to your program, and then evaluate
your results over time, closely following the manufacturer’s and
your doctor’s recommendations.
Natural Metabolic Enhancers
In the dietary supplement market there has been a pronounced
emphasis on metabolic enhancement and weight loss. As a
result, creating new natural metabolic enhancers and appetite
suppressants have been the main focus of the natural product
industry. We will now examine the ingredients most commonly
associated with weight loss and metabolic enhancement.
There is a considerable amount of incorrect information that
has been given to the public. This false information has been
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magnified by the internet, with many individuals and companies
sourcing and profiting from this incorrect information. The
information in this chapter will help to shed light on the facts
based on scientific studies.
What Works
Gymnema sylvestre
Gymnema sylvestre is the leaf of a tree native to Africa and
India. The leaves were traditionally used by chewing, which
caused an inability to recognize sweet flavors. For this reason,
gymnema sylvestre is known as the “sugar destroyer”. (23)
Scientists have found that gymnemic acid, its active ingredient,
increases the activity of enzymes responsible for glucose
uptake and use, thus aiding in fat loss and increasing the
metabolism.
This herb is also used as a stomachic, diuretic, astringent,
and tonic. Studies have shown that it increases urine output and
reduces hyperglycemia in both animals and humans.
Bitter melon
Bitter melon is cultivated throughout tropical regions of the
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world and is used as a food as well as a medicine. This fruit is
known to control appetite, prevent overeating, and regulate
blood sugar levels. It improves the body’s ability to use blood
sugar and get blood sugar into the cells of your body. Bitter
melon improves glucose tolerance without increasing blood
insulin levels which is an important part of digesting and utilizing
carbohydrates without the added risk of storing additional
bodyfat. In a study published in the Journal of
Ethnopharmacology in 1986, 100 ml of bitter melon was found
to improve glucose tolerance by 73%. (24)
Gugulipid
The ability of Gugulipid to lower cholesterol has been known
since testing began on guggul in the late 1960s. Recent
research has confirmed that Gugulipid can also stimulate the
thyroid, creating thermogenesis that can positively affect
metabolism and weight loss.
Gugulipid has the ability to burn away stored fat by “resetting”
the body’s “fat thermostat” a few degrees higher.
· In a study conducted in India in 1995, Bhatt et. al. found
that Guggulu helped in weight loss. Fifty-eight obese adults
were studied; twenty-seven ate a diet of 1200-1600
calories and took a half hour walk per day, while thirty-one
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did the same but were also given 1.5-3 grams/day of
Guggulu. After thirty days, the Guggulu group had a mean
weight reduction of 2.25 kg. more than in the non-Guggulu
group. All patients in the Guggulu group lost weight, while
three in the non-Guggulu group did not. (25)
Gugulipid is non-toxic, well tolerated, and safe for human use.
Guarana (Caffeine)
Guarana, a berry that grows in Brazil and Venezuela, is often
the caffeine of choice that is combined with herbs such as
ephedra to produce a higher metabolism. It contains a large
amount of guaranine, which is chemically identical to caffeine.
Caffeine has the ability to suppress the appetite, and combined
with ephedra (described above), creates a thermogenic blend
that works as a metabolism booster to aid in weight loss.
In the U.S., guarana is often used to boost stamina and
endurance, or to help a person lose weight, or to stay alert.
Coleus Forskohlii
Coleus is a perennial plant in the mint family. Forskolin, a
chemical found in coleus, activates an enzyme (adenylate
cyclase) that affects every cell in the body and significantly
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influences metabolic processes. Forskolin can improve calcium
concentration in cells, increase thermogenesis and lean body
mass, and promote weight loss. (21) The calcium concentration
in cells is important for muscle contraction, secretory processes,
hormone function, and to promote the health of vital body
organs. Coleus aids in weight loss and maintenance of lean
body mass due to its ability to break down stored body fat, as
well as inhibit the synthesis of adipose tissue. It increases
thyroid hormone production and the release of fatty acids,
thereby increasing metabolism. Coleus may also reduce
inflammation and improve blood pressure and cardiac function.
Two recent studied suggest that coleus forskohlii has
significant metabolic qualities.
· In one study conducted in 1999, six overweight women
were given 250 mg. of coleus forskolin extract two times
daily for eight weeks. During the study, body weight and fat
content decreased significantly, while lean body mass
increased significantly. The average weight loss was about
9 pounds. (21)
· Dr. Richard Kreider, a respected sports nutrition
professional, recently studied 23 overweight females who
received 25 mg of forskolin two times a day for twelve
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weeks, while others received placebo. The forskolin group
had a decrease in bodyweight while the placebo group
experienced weight gain. Those in the forskolin group also
reported more energy and decreased appetite. Dr. Kreider
concluded that coleus may promote weight and fat loss and
diminish weight gain in overweight subjects. (22)
Although there has not been a great deal of clinical research
regarding the effects of coleus on weight loss, the existing
information is very promising.
Vanadium
Research at the Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center
supports vanadium as an essential nutrient that is beneficial for
thyroid hormone metabolism. Vanadium has several
physiological insulin-like effects, making it likely to have a
positive effect on carbohydrate metabolism and weight loss.
Vanadium may also inhibit appetite and curb cravings. The
decrease in body weight caused by vanadium can be largely
ascribed to less food intake caused by taste aversion and a
possible effect at the appetite center. (26) Studies have also
shown that the insulin-like properties of vanadium may benefit
those with diabetes.
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Glucosamine sulfate
Glucosamine is a unique, patented ingredient that allows fat to
be burned instead of stored, which results in weight loss. (27)
The effect of insulin on the formation of fatty acids in the body
is delayed by glucosamine, indicating that glucosamine plays a
role as a messenger for this insulin effect. (29) For example,
insulin is secreted when the sugar content is high and allows for
fat storage. Fat cells can’t be metabolized when there are high
insulin levels in the body. High insulin levels also trigger the
hypothalamus to send hunger signals, which sets off
carbohydrate cravings. Thus one eats more, which leads to
even more insulin release. These extra carbohydrates are
converted into glucose and then stored in the body as fat.
In a clinical study, glucosamine was found to burn stored fat.
The researchers found that when used as directed,
glucosamine is safe and promotes weight loss. (28)
Chitosan
Chitosan is a form of dietary fiber that is most commonly
derived from shellfish. Like dietary fiber, chitosan is not
digestible but is believed to benefit the gastrointestinal tract.
Studies have shown that taken with ascorbic acid (vitamin C), it
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forms a gel in the intestines which binds to fat and prevents
absorption, allowing these fats to be eliminated from the body.
Scientists believe that this ability is linked to chitosan’s strong
positive magnetic charge, which enables it to easily bind to fat,
which is negatively charged. (30) Chitosan has other benefits
as well; for example, it has been shown to reduce plasma
cholesterol. (31)
Supplements That Are Cause for Concern
While there are many dietary supplements that are extremely
helpful in promoting metabolism and weight loss, there are also
supplements and chemicals that you may do well to avoid.
Ephedra (Ma Huang)
Ma Huang is an herb that has been used in China for over three
thousand years. Ephedra contains ephedrine alkaloids, which
are naturally occurring compounds found in plants. Another
alkaloid in Ma Huang is pseudoephedrine, which is less potent
than ephedrine and is used in common cold remedies.
Although this herb does work to heighten a persons
metabolism it is often misused, thus it falls under my list of
those that are a cause for concern. For the last several years,
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there has been a great deal of debate involving the use of
weight loss products that contain ephedra (also known as Ma
Huang). Some medical professionals have claimed that
ephedra is unsafe, but on the other side of the coin are millions
of consumers who safely use these products to aid them in
weight loss. The only way to understand what is accurate about
ephedra regarding its safety and efficacy as a metabolic
enhancer is to examine the scientific evidence available, and
with the advent of the internet case studies are readily available
to anyone who wishes to do their due diligence. For the
purposes of this book, however, we will simply state that this
substance has been found to increase the metabolic rate of
those who use it, but it has also been linked to several adverse
side effects including death, so seek a physicians assistance if
you choose to use a product that contains ephedra.
Chromium Picolinate
Chromium is one of the sixteen essential trace minerals that
help keep the body healthy and fit. It is one of the most
important nutrients in controlling blood sugar and sugar
cravings, and contains a wide variety of benefits. Chromium
helps insulin metabolize fat, convert protein into muscle, and
converts sugar into energy, thereby encouraging weight loss
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and increasing lean body mass. Chromium is essential for the
metabolism of glucose into energy. Chromium deficiency can
trigger a craving for sweets. Some research even suggests that
chromium supplementation can cause improvements in fatburning.
(32) It can also play a role in lowering harmful LDL
cholesterol and increasing beneficial HDL cholesterol. (33)
So why is it included on this list of nutrients to avoid? In 1995,
a widely-used form of chromium, chromium picolinate, was
linked to chromosome damage and cancer in animals and
humans. The picolinate—not the chromium itself—was found to
be hazardous. The University of Berkeley in California warns
that nobody should take chromium picolinate. (34) The most
effective and safest form of chromium is niacin-bound chromium
nicotinate (or polynicotinate), such as chromium chelavite.
For our purposes, chromium is an extremely beneficial
natural product for metabolism enhancement, as long as the
picolinic variety is avoided.
Androstenedione
Androstenedione, a sex steroid precursor to testosterone, is
marketed to increase blood testosterone levels and as a natural
alternative to anabolic steroids. It is believed to increase muscle
size and strength, as well as increasing libido. However, some
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studies have shown that androstenedione has no effect on
testosterone levels in the body. (35) The use of
androstenedione was popularized when a professional baseball
player admitted to using it the year he hit a record number of
home runs. Although legal in baseball, androstenedione is
banned by the International Olympic Committee, the National
Football League, and the National Collegiate Athletic
Association.
Even though androstenedione may benefit athletes, it is
dangerous and potentially deadly. (36) If this substance does
increase testosterone levels, side effects may occur that are
similar to those associated with androgenic-anabolic steroids,
including kidney and liver damage, acne, premature baldness,
enlarged prostate, reduced sperm count, and heightened
aggression. (37) Androstenedione may cause testicular atrophy,
reduce beneficial HDL cholesterol, disrupt liver metabolism, and
cause problems in the endocrine system.
For these reasons, no one is encouraged to take
androstenedione supplements.
5-HTP (L-5-hydroxytryptophan)
5-HTP is an amino acid that is a metabolite of L-tryptophan. It
comes from the seed of a legume (Griffonia simplicifolia) grown
Metabolic Superchargers That Work 129
in Africa. When it is ingested, it works by passing through the
blood-brain barrier to enter the brain, where it’s converted into
serotonin, a neurotransmitter that affects mood, sleep, appetite,
memory, and learning. Although limited research exists, it
seems that 5-HTP may be beneficial in treating anxiety, obesity,
and depression due to its action as serotonin. (42)
There may be a correlation, however, between 5-HTP and
Eosinophilia myalgia syndrome (EMS), a rare disorder causing
muscle pain, swelling, skin rash, and even death. In 1989, the
FDA pulled L-tryptophan from the market after over 1,500
people came down with EMS and thirty-eight deaths were
reported. This outbreak was probably caused by a contaminant
in an L-tryptophan shipment from Japan, and it is unclear
whether the contaminant or the L-tryptophan itself was the
cause of the EMS. (43) About 95% of the EMS outbreak could
be traced to this batch of L-tryptophan, but others who came
down with the syndrome took L-tryptophan from a different
manufacturer - and some people who took contaminated doses
from the Japan shipment did not get sick. Nevertheless, due to
the seriousness of the syndrome, the FDA has not allowed Ltryptophan
to be sold in the United States since 1989, although
5-HTP is still legal.
Due to the potential risks associated with L-tryptophan, the
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FDA does not recommend treatment with 5-HTP.
What Doesn’t Work
L-Carnitine
L-carnitine is a nutrient that is found naturally in the human
body. It is essential for the production of energy from fat, and is
found primarily in red meats, poultry, dairy products, egg whites,
and soy. L-carnitine has been proven helpful for the heart; it
benefits angina, arrhythmias, and heart failure by normalizing
heart rate, blood pressure, and blood lipid levels. However,
claims that L-carnitine can increase metabolism, enhance
athletic performance, and increase energy levels are not true.
No study to date has linked L-carnitine with performance
enhancement. (38,39)
Citrus aurantium
Citrus aurantium is made from a fruit known as Seville orange,
sour orange, or bitter orange. It has been hailed by some as a
safe and effective treatment for obesity and weight loss. It has
also been compared to ephedra in its potential thermogenic
effects, and acclaimed due to its apparent high level of safety.
The anti-ephedra establishment seems to have chosen citrus
aurantium as its new poster child for obesity treatment, but the
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majority of the currently published research shows no benefit for
weight loss by citrus aurantium supplementation.
In China the fruit is known as “zhi shi” and is used to treat
chest congestion and indigestion. Synephrine, its active
substance, is similar in chemical composition to ephedra.
However, synephrine is not concentrated in high enough levels
in citrus aurantium to make a difference regarding metabolism.
The lack of clinical research regarding its safety, efficacy, and
dosage when used for metabolic enhancement is a cause for
concern. There simply is not yet enough known about its
actions in weight loss. Manufacturers of citrus aurantium claim
that it causes weight loss by increasing metabolic rate, calorie
expenditure and energy levels, as well as by burning fat and
suppressing the appetite. But these claims are not supported by
the clinical evidence.
One other major problem that has been completely ignored by
purveyors of supplements is that all attempts to extract
synephrine and make a meaningful product have not worked.
The concentration cannot be extracted from the fruit in amounts
significant enough to cause weight loss. A study of the orange
peel produced a maximum of only 1.7% when assayed. So
while it is true that citrus aurantium may positively affect
metabolism, currently there is no scientific method of extracting
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the large amounts of synephrine needed to meaningfully alter
metabolism. Therefore, claims that citrus aurantium can speed
up the metabolism are, at this point, false. (15)
Hydroxycitric acid (Garcinia cambogia)
Hydroxycitric acid (HCA) is the extract from the garcinia
cambogia fruit. Early research showed that HCA might be able
to block the conversion of carbohydrates to fat in the human
body. However, the most recent clinical data shows that HCA
has very little effect on weight loss or metabolism.
· In August 1999, Kriketos et. al. published an article in the
International Journal of Obesity that studied whether or not
hydroxycitric acid affects energy expenditure and substrate
oxidation in adult males in a post-absorptive state. They
found that treatment with HCA did not affect energy
expenditure, either during rest or during moderately intense
exercise. The results do not support the hypothesis that
HCA alters the short-term rate of fat oxidation in the fasting
state, during rest or moderate exercise. (40)
· In November 1998, in the Journal of the American Medical
Association (JAMA), Heymsfield et. al. conducted a
randomized controlled trial on HCA as a potential antiMetabolic
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obesity agent. Subjects were given either 1500 mg. of HCA
or a placebo for twelve weeks. Patients in both groups lost
significant amounts of weight; however, the weight loss
differences between the groups were not significant. (41)
Producers of garcinia cambogia often site its potential slimming
qualities, as well as the fact that it has less side effects than
some central nervous system stimulants. While it is true that
HCA does not affect the central nervous system, it also does
nothing to affect metabolism or weight control.
What Else Is Recommended
An increasing number of experts, including many doctors,
suggest that people can benefit from dietary supplements,
particularly if they are taken in conjunction with a nutritionally
sound diet and exercise regimen. One thing that’s important to
keep in mind, however, is that both the amount of weight loss
and the risk to health and safety will vary from one dietary
supplement to another.
What I advise my clients to do is to eat the foods—rather than
to just take vitamin supplements—that contain the essential
vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that are needed for proper
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metabolism. Then they can add a few additional supplements to
their already healthy lifestyle.
For example, all nutrients are vital for maximum metabolic
energy, but optimal levels of all B-complex vitamins are
especially important, since they’re cofactors in all metabolic
functions. The B vitamins work in concert with various enzymes
that break down carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, as spelled
out here:
· Vitamin B1 serves as a co-enzyme in the metabolism of
carbohydrates.
· Vitamin B2 is a must for cellular respiration, as is vitamin
B3 (commonly known as niacin).
· Vitamin B5 helps to ensure that our adrenal glands
function properly (also known as pantothenic acid).
· Vitamin B6 is needed for the metabolism of
carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.
· Vitamin B12 plays such an important role as an energy
booster that a proper discussion of it would take up an
entire chapter all by itself.
One of the important functions of vitamin B12 is to help
prevent anemia, which can decrease the amount of
oxygen delivered to the brain and other parts of the body;
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it is also critical to the synthesis of DNA.
Vitamins B1, B2, B3, and B5 are particularly important for
anyone who undertakes the program of physical activity that I’m
recommending in this book. Deficiencies in these nutrients often
result in fatigue and a reduced aerobic capacity, which is
caused by the inability of the body to metabolize the lactic-acid
by-products of heavy exercise.
In addition, vitamin B12 has been found to be essential to
proper metabolic activity. This vitamin also seems to help
neutralize adverse reactions to the sulfite preservatives that are
found in so many foods and beverages and are responsible for
life-threatening asthmatic attacks in sensitized individuals.
Natural Products That Suppress Appetite
· Peppermint leaf aids digestion, stimulates metabolism,
good for nausea.
· Bladderwrack kelp stimulates thyroid gland.
· L-glutamine is an amino acid that increases protein
metabolism and improves strength.
· DL-phenylalanine suppresses appetite and is good for
depression and chronic pain.
· L-tyrosine is an amino acid important for neurotransmitters
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in the brain that affect appetite control. It also elevates the
health of the thyroid gland.
Special Provisos for Those Who Use Supplements
If you decide to use dietary supplements—and I suggest that
you consider doing so—a few additional words of caution could
be helpful:
· Check with your doctor to be sure it’s safe for you to take
the specific supplements you have in mind.
· Use each supplement as directed.
· Avoid taking supplements in “mega” doses (ten or more
times the recommended Daily Value).
9
Lift More Now, Weigh Less Forever!
The Power of Anaerobic Training
and Muscle Stimulation
Ask any American what comes to mind when he or she thinks of
exercise, and most will reply with the name of some form of
aerobic exercise, such as bicycling, swimming, or cross-country
skiing. Ever since Dr. Kenneth Cooper’s first book, Aerobics,
was published in 1968, the benefits of aerobic exercise have
been widely touted. In fact, the fitness boom of the 1970s and
1980s coincided with the rise in aerobic exercise, especially
recreational running and jogging.
Aerobic exercise can bestow many benefits on those who
engage in it, including increased lung capacity and improved
heart function, both of which help supply oxygen to the working
muscles and improve the health of your heart and
cardiovascular system. But aerobic exercise does little to
develop or maintain muscular strength. And while aerobic
exercise is important to a top-flight metabolism, it takes a back
seat to strength training when it comes to controlling the way
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you go about burning calories and losing weight as well as the
amount of weight you lose.
The next few chapters were designed to give you a clear
understanding of how certain types of exercise affect the
functioning of your body and what you can do to gain control.
You must learn both of these if you are to truly maximize your
metabolism.
Strength Training Induces A Higher Metabolic Rate
The term strength training refers to developing muscle strength
and endurance through resistance training. Muscle strength
refers to a one-time maximum effort of force that one applies in
an isolated movement of a single muscle group. Technically
defined, muscle endurance is the ability of muscles to apply a
sub-maximal force repeatedly or to be exercised over an
extended period of time. Common exercises that build both
muscular endurance and strength are push-ups, sit-ups, chinups,
a variety of machine exercises, and lifting of free weights.
Strength training will prevent muscle tissue from declining as
you get older. Contrary to popular myth, however, strength
training will not make you bulky unless you set up a strenuous
program that’s geared to that particular purpose.
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Keep in mind that the chief metabolic difference between
aerobic exercise (exercise that uses oxygen during
performance) and anaerobic strength-building exercises is that
while aerobic exercise burns more body fat during the actual
exercise session, anaerobic exercise continues to cause
calories and body fat to burn for quite a while after the exercise
session is over. For this reason, anaerobic exercise has a far
more dramatic effect on your resting metabolic rate. You’ll see
why in a moment.
Scientists have only recently begun to recognize this benefit of
anaerobic exercise. Training for muscular strength has long
been popular among bodybuilders and professional athletes,
but it is only now finding its way into the workouts of other
Americans. The evidence is now clear that muscle-enhancing
exercises offer health and fitness benefits that everyone needs.
Metabolic Benefits of Strength-Building Exercise
One of the principal benefits of strength training is that it builds
the density of muscle—and the denser the muscle, the more
calories that are burned up. Losing muscle but continuing to
take in the same amount of food forces people to put on weight
in the form of body fat.
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Unfortunately, that’s precisely what tends to happen to us
humans over the course of our adult life. As we age, our
metabolism decreases by about one-half of one percent per
year. When we reach our thirties, we begin to lose muscle
mass, so we’ll just naturally gain weight unless we take
measures to prevent it from happening. Considering that every
pound of muscle burns up to fifty calories a day, it’s easy to
understand the contribution that muscle mass makes to losing
weight quickly and effectively—and keeping it off in the long
run.
The Maximize Your Metabolism program is intended to help
you build a strong metabolism, decrease your body fat, and
increase your muscle density, but not to increase your weight.
Although muscle weighs more (per unit volume) than body fat,
muscle takes up far less space. Thus, the end result of going
through this program will be a much slimmer, tighter, more
efficient, and healthier body.
Traditionally, it was thought that metabolic balance—and
therefore weight maintenance—could be achieved through a
simple balance of energy sources: Input had to be
commensurate with output. If you consumed more calories than
you burned, you would gain weight; if you burned more calories
than you ate, you would lose weight. In order to maintain a
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given weight, the number of calories consumed had to equal the
number of calories spent.
Although this was a sound theory, it failed to take into account
the body’s awesome ability to adapt. It is now widely recognized
that adaptation is one of the important functions of our rather
sophisticated metabolic system.
The Reality of Energy Balance
The creation of an energy deficit, either through decreased
calorie consumption or increased calorie expenditure, will result
in weight loss for most people. Unless this is done properly,
however, weight loss will probably be achieved only the first few
times a person creates an energy deficit—and even then, the
weight loss isn’t likely to be long lasting. For every 3500 calories
of energy used up, there should be a reduction in body weight
of one pound. The more often a person experiences a severe
energy deficit, however, the less of an effect it has on weight
loss.
This adaptive effect is well documented through the
experience of the yo-yo dieting generation. The greater and/or
more frequent the energy deficit, the more difficult it becomes to
lose weight (and the easier it is to gain weight!).
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Our body’s survival mechanisms respond to drastic calorie
deficits just as they would during times of famine. That is, they
become more efficient at using food energy, by burning calories
more slowly. What that means for the dieter is that when they
consume greater quantities of food, their slower metabolism
causes the excess nutrients to be stored as fat, which the body
wants to save in case there’s another deficit sometime in the
future.
Let me repeat this very crucial point: The more instances
in which you restrict your calorie intake for a prolonged
period of time, the slower your metabolism becomes. The
slower your metabolism becomes, the more calories your
body will store as fat the next time you eat.
The best way to combat this natural tendency to conserve
energy is to reset your metabolic rate with a comprehensive
program of strength building and aerobic activity. Both types of
exercise are vital to firing up your metabolism. What will help
you make permanent weight loss a part of your life—and give
you a greater sense of personal satisfaction as a result—is a
balanced fitness program.
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Strength Training to the Rescue
While it is common knowledge that aerobic exercise is crucial in
helping the overweight shed unwanted pounds, a growing
portion of the research in the field of health and fitness suggests
that strength training plays an especially important role.
Wayne L. Wescott, Ph.D., a physician and author of several
popular fitness books as well as a former YMCA fitness director,
is one of the leading proponents of strength training. His
research—the results of which are consistent with my own
findings—shows that dieters who engage in both strengthtraining
exercise and aerobic exercise lose significantly more
weight than those who limit themselves to aerobic exercise
alone. This greater weight loss in those who take up strength
training stems from a combination of greater expenditure of
calories and a heightened metabolism that burns fat throughout
the day.
According to Wescott, these dramatic results can be traced to
the metabolic differences between muscle and fat. “Muscle is
very active tissue,” says Dr. Wescott, “and requires more
energy to maintain than fat.”
The trouble is that as we grow older we lose valuable muscle
mass. Physiologists estimate that every pound of muscle we
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lose reduces our RMR by up to fifty calories a day. That’s bad,
and we need to retake control by replacing that lost muscle
mass via a regular strength-training program.
As we age, Dr. Wescott explains, our RMR naturally
decreases by about one-half of one percent per year. Thus, if
we continue to eat the same types of food that we did when we
were younger—and in the same amounts that we did then—
we’ll automatically gain body fat, unless we take preventive
measures. Indeed, we will not only add body fat but also lose
vital muscle density and strength. As a result, our bone density
will be lowered, the health of our internal organs (including our
heart) will decline, and our mental clarity will suffer. As you can
see, in touting only the weight-loss benefits of including both
aerobic and anaerobic exercise in a daily fitness regimen, we’re
really just scratching the surface in terms of the good that can
accrue.
When the overweight depend on diet alone to control weight,
what often happens is that they lose muscle, not fat. In fact, up
to 50 percent of weight loss that results from dieting alone can
manifest itself in the form of loss of lean muscle. This poses an
enormous problem: Lean muscle burns calories, even while the
body is at rest, while fat stores calories. The more fat we store,
the easier it can be to gain weight. Strength training turns this
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situation around by helping us to shed fat.
The Metabolic Good News
For every pound of fat that you replace with muscle, you’ll
lose half a pound of body weight. Replace ten pounds of fat
with muscle, and you’ll notice enormous changes in your
fat-burning potential, as well as in your ability to eat greater
amounts of food without gaining weight.
Best of all, strength training provides results quickly; it can
help you add over a pound of muscle each month that you’re in
training. In just a few months, you can rebuild the muscle you
may have lost over the years as a result of a sedentary lifestyle.
The upshot of all this is that people who try to control their
weight through diet alone can still have the metabolism of a “fat”
person, even if they have a temporarily thinner body. And when
these people resume normal eating, they often find that the old
weight returns—this time with “interest,” in the form of added
pounds, leaving them even heavier than at the start. This can
ultimately lead to the yo-yo syndrome: ongoing fluctuations in
body weight.
It is far more efficient to use exercise (rather than diet) as a
metabolism-boosting and fat-burning strategy. We burn off
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calories both during and after exercise—even as we sleep,
watch television, or read a book. Strength-building exercises fire
up our caloric “furnace” and raise our resting metabolic rate.
And that’s not all!
What Happens When You Weight Train
Physiologically speaking, when you engage in strength-training
exercises, your body causes your muscle tissue to break down.
In a sense, you actually injure your muscle tissue. Then when
you rest the affected muscles and supply them with the proper
nutrients, they automatically seek to protect themselves from
further injury by becoming stronger and more responsive.
This may sound like a harsh—perhaps even a masochistic—
way to set about losing weight, but it’s totally natural and
actually very healthful. Your body adapts to stress by repairing
its muscle tissue and stimulating new muscle-tissue growth to
overcome the additional workload. In essence, your muscles
become stronger and denser and, as a result, better able to
withstand stress in the future.
Here’s an example of how you might progress in a strengthtraining
program: Say that you’re just getting started on a
workout regimen and can perform ten repetitions of a barbell
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bench press using 100-pound weights. If you do four sets of this
exercise three days a week (say Monday, Wednesday, and
Friday), your muscles will become denser and stronger, and in
two to three weeks you’ll be able to do twelve to fourteen
repetitions. At that point, you’ll be ready to start lifting heavier
weights (adding, say, five or ten pounds), so you should
(temporarily) go back to doing just four sets of ten repetitions
each and then gradually build up to fourteen or so repetitions.
After a few more weeks, you’ll be able to lift still-heavier
weights.
This example illustrates the “progressive resistance” concept:
as soon as your body adapts to lifting a heavier set of weights,
you give it more. This process forces your muscles to acclimate
and ultimately to become healthier, and it’s a surefire way to
build up your metabolism.
Why Blood Supply to Your Muscles Is So Important
As a practical matter, many different forms of exercise,
including those that are designed primarily for aerobic
conditioning, will generate some degree of strength and muscle
development. But since strength-building exercises exert such
formidable stresses, your muscles will need a greater supply of
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blood in order to carry on their restorative and strengthening
processes.
Many of the strength-training principles I’ll be teaching you are
specifically designed to enhance the flow of blood to your
muscles. When you are training properly, you’ll notice a
dramatic step-up in the amount of blood that rushes to your
muscles. This is precisely what is supposed to happen—and
will if you train correctly.
When blood is forced into your muscles during your
weightlifting program, it helps speed up the process of repair
which your muscle tissue needs to undergo. If you follow the
program laid out in this book, your muscles will rebuild
themselves, becoming denser and stronger than they were
originally. That’s why you must be careful and follow this
program to the letter. Never perform your strength exercises out
of order or train the same muscle group two days in a row. If
you do, your muscles won’t have sufficient time to repair
themselves.
Before You Begin
Many people schedule their exercise routine close to mealtime.
Don’t do that! As mentioned above, one of the most important
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elements of weight training is that it forces huge amounts of
blood to flow to your muscle tissue. This is what gives you the
strength to do the exercise and enables your body to repair any
temporary damage that may occur. Digestion is also a major
user of blood, so subjecting your body to the processes of
digestion and strenuous exercise simultaneously could cause
your heart and your digestive system to be overworked, which
could deprive your hungry muscles of the requisite nutrients.
If you program your exercise routine too close to mealtime,
you’ll end up compromising your strength-training program right
from the start. Eating just after or just before your workout won’t
allow your system to get the proper amounts of blood it needs.
Plan on waiting at least a full hour after a meal before
exercising, and wait at least a half-hour after your workout is
over before you eat your next meal.
Exercise Routine
When you’re just beginning a weight-training program, it is
important to limit yourself to exercises that are easy. A personal
trainer can be a tremendous help in getting you started on the
right foot. He or she is likely to recommend that you start with a
one-set, ten-rep program of eight to ten different exercises that
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you’re to do two or three times a week. (Don’t be discouraged if
you don’t know what I mean by sets and reps. I explain these
terms for you a little later in this chapter.)
Common exercises include the bench press, pull-downs, flies,
bicep curls, incline sit-ups or leg lifts, squats, and a cardio
routine. Whatever you do, be sure to tackle your chosen
exercises in an appropriate order. There are many systematic
ways in which you can train your muscles. I’ve included an
example exercise routine in this book, but any qualified
personal trainer or fitness coach can prescribe an exercise
routine that’s right for you.
Always train your muscle groups in an organized, systematic
fashion. Typically, your trainer will recommend starting with a
larger muscle group and working your way down to a smaller
one. If you’re doing more than one set of a particular exercise,
you should complete all those sets before going on to the first
set of another exercise. Moreover, you should do all the
exercises for one muscle group before going on to another
muscle group. Once you choose a predefined order in which to
work your muscles, stick to it until and unless your trainer
instructs you otherwise.
You will most likely be told to start by exercising your back,
since this is your body’s largest muscle group. Your back
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routine might include three sets of a rowing exercise. If this is
the case, you should do all three sets, but allow a proper resting
period in between, before moving on to the next exercise group.
And be sure not to do one set for your back, then one set for
your arms, and then a repeat of the back exercise. Granted, at
times it may not be so easy to fit in the various exercises in the
proper exercise sequence, especially when your health club is
extremely busy, but take your time and do it right.
If your back workout includes two or three different back
exercises, then do all of those back exercises together before
moving on to the exercises for some other muscle group (such
as doing squats to strengthen your leg muscles). On a chest
routine, you should do all of your bench presses first, then your
incline bench presses, and finally your flies.
If you do your exercises “out of order,” you’ll miss the added
benefit of fully targeting blood to just one muscle group at a
time. Only by targeting your muscle power to one specific group
at a time can you fully enjoy the stimulation that your exercise
program provides and optimize the long-term benefits that you
gain from it.
Simply stated, start with the largest muscle group, and finish
exercising that group before moving on to the next-largest one.
Then continue this process until you’ve completed your entire
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exercise routine.
The only note I would add is that your body will eventually get
a bit “stale” as it becomes accustomed to your established
exercise routine. This will probably happen about three months
after you embark on your exercise program, provided that
you’ve kept up with it on a regular basis during that time. To
deal with this stale condition, you’ll need to systematically alter
the order in which you perform your exercises; otherwise, your
results will begin to diminish. If you find that you need help with
this, one thing you can do is to get hold of a good manual on
exercise routines that will help you reach higher levels of
success. (For example, you can order manuals on basic,
intermediate, and advanced exercise programs either directly
from my office or online via my Web site.)
Exercise Sets and Reps
Walk into any health club or gym, and you’re bound to hear the
terms sets and reps. A rep (which is short for “repetition”)
consists of a single performance of one particular weight-lifting
or other exercise movement, while a set consists of the sum
total of all the times that you engage in a particular movement in
succession before taking a rest.
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For example, suppose that you set out to do pushups. If you
do just one pushup, that’s one rep; if you do six pushups, that’s
six reps. If you then decide to stop and take a quick rest, even if
it’s just long enough to catch your breath, that signals the end of
one set of pushups. If you then do six more reps (that is, after
your short rest period), these six new pushups count as your
second set.
The best way to increase your metabolism is to do three to
four sets of eight to twelve reps apiece. For example, you might
lift a certain weight eight to twelve times in succession, then rest
for a bit (just long enough to allow your muscles to recover),
and then repeat the entire cycle (of exercising and resting) two
or three times. Typically, the breaks between sets would last
about thirty seconds.
The number of sets per exercise is always a personal matter,
and you’ll notice that different exercisers are following different
routines, according to their particular goals, interests, and
personal preferences. One note here, and it’s a very important
one: Don’t take the advice of other exercisers at a health club or
gym. I’m sure they all mean well, but your goal is to persist in a
given program, not to try one approach and then switch to
another, helter-skelter.
It’s best to take the advice of one source that you consider to
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be an expert. You can start by following the expert advice in this
book. Once you’ve mastered every aspect of what’s presented
here, you should move on, either to a more advanced manual
or to another fitness expert. Just be sure not to change your
routine until you’ve truly mastered the one you’re following at
any given time; this is where so many otherwise-successful
people fail miserably.
Progressive Resistance
As mentioned before, one of the wonderful things about
muscles is that they get stronger and denser as we subject
them to additional stress (in the form of progressively moredemanding
exercises). That’s why we must continually add
more stress to our lifting program, by either increasing the
amount of weight lifted or decreasing the duration of the rest
period between sets.
As muscles adapt to a particular level of stress (weight or rest
time), the amount of stress must be gently increased (by
increasing the weight or cutting down on the rest period) if you
are to continue to reap the benefits of the exercise in the form of
denser, stronger muscles and an ever-increasing metabolism
caused by those denser muscles. If you refrain from upping the
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level of stress, your program will still be beneficial, but you won’t
develop the muscle density that you’ve set your sights on.
Please remember that, as noted earlier, muscle density does
not equate to muscle size. An increase in muscle density is a
direct result of a rise in the concentration of muscle fibers that
work in harmony within a particular muscle. In effect, the more
compact and concentrated the muscle fibers, the stronger and
more solid the muscle. An increase in muscle size, on the other
hand, is achieved by performing a certain number of sets and
reps of specific exercises in a way that increases not only the
density of a muscle (the inner compactness of its fibers) but
also its volume.
Progressive resistance is your key to muscle density and
metabolic enhancement through anaerobic training. You may
have heard progressive resistance referred to as “progressive
overload.” Same deal. No matter which term you use to
describe it, this is just the periodic (and permanent) introduction
of additional stress to an exercise routine, regardless of what
form the added stress may take (either an increase in the “load”
to which you subject your muscles in each set or a decrease in
the duration of the rest period between sets).
By way of example, suppose your start your bench press by
lifting 100-pound weights. In no time at all, you’ll find that your
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arms, shoulders, and chest muscles have strengthened and
become denser and that lifting 100 pounds is too easy. As a
result, you’ll have to either add weight or reduce the rest period
between sets in order to prevent your muscles from becoming
too comfortable. You can either move up in terms of the amount
of weight lifted (say to 105 or 110 pounds) or decrease the rest
period between sets (say from thirty seconds to twenty-five or
even twenty seconds). As the weeks turn into months, you’ll
keep adding weight at a rate of about five pounds per month or
decreasing the duration of the rest period between sets by five
seconds per month. Once you reach a point where your rest
period is down to only ten seconds between sets or you are
unwilling to increase the amount of weight you’re lifting, it’s time
to alter your exercise routine by choosing different exercises.
If your goals include increasing muscle size as well as muscle
density, whether throughout your entire body or just in certain
parts of your body, you can raise the amount of weight you lift in
increments of ten pounds per month (rather than just five)
without decreasing the rest period between sets. By making just
that one modification, you will begin to add volume to your
muscles.
To reiterate: if you want to continue to make progress, you
must progressively increase the amount of weight you lift or
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decrease the length of the break between sets.
Another point you need to understand is that an increase in
the number of reps will translate into an increase in strength.
Some people believe they’re capable of gaining strength only by
increasing the amount of weight they lift. Not so! Strength can
also be enhanced by increasing the number of reps. Muscular
endurance comes from taking shorter breaks between sets, and
muscular density/metabolic enhancement comes from
persistently working on improving muscle strength and/or
muscular endurance.
Always Exercise in Proper Form
You should always be sure to do your exercises in proper form.
After all, the key to maximum metabolic benefit in strengthbuilding
exercises lies not just in doing an exercise (regardless
of style or form). The essential ingredient is to do the exercises
correctly so that you get the most out of each exercise you’ve
chosen.
That’s one of the reasons why health clubs usually have
mirrors located near or around their free-weight area. The
mirrors are there so that, among other things, you can pay
particular attention to your form.
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Your exercising motions should be clean and fluid and in a
direct line with the muscle’s proper axis. If at all possible, you
should not allow your line of exercise motion to stray. Pay close
attention to maintaining good form from the first rep of the first
set to the last rep of the final set. Never jerk or throw the
weights around. Never create an unbalanced movement (that
is, you should never hold less weight in one hand than you hold
in the other). Whenever possible, work out with a training
partner, someone who can assist you in your workouts and
whom you can assist in return.
Negative and Positive Resistance
Whenever you do any type of strength-training exercise, you’re
really asking two different parts of your muscle to participate.
The “positive” phase of the exercise, which takes place while
the muscle is lifting a weight (either lifting the dumbbell in a
bicep curl or elevating the bar in a bench press), is called
concentric contraction. The end of that motion is the point at
which your arms are close to your chest (in the curl) or fully
extended (in the case of the bench press).
The other part is the eccentric contraction, which is termed the
“negative” phase of the exercise. This is the phase that calls
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upon muscle resistance as you slowly return the weight to its
starting position.
Interestingly enough, it’s just as important, if not more
important and more physiologically demanding, to let the weight
slowly return to the original position in the negative phase as it
is to push or pull the weight, as the case may be, in the positive
phase. Returning the weight slowly and with resistance on
every repetition is important, because this is the phase that
promotes greater flow of red blood cells to your muscles, which
in turn builds greater strength.
Of course, another way you’ll know your form is correct, in
addition to using mirrors to check yourself as you exercise, is
that you’ll feel warmth, some fatigue, and a “burning” feeling at
the end of each set for each muscle group. If you don’t get this
sensation, review your form and pay greater attention to what
you see in the mirrors. They’re telling you something. Your form
may be poor, and if so, you may not be allowing a full
complement of blood to reach your target muscles.
Though getting tired is not a sure sign that you’re doing an
exercise correctly, either feeling lactic acid accumulate in your
muscles or not experiencing fatigue is usually is a sure sign that
you’re not doing it right.
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Lifting Speed
In addition to lifting form, lifting speed is an important element
that has a major effect on how much blood moves to your target
muscles. And while you might think that the faster you lift the
weights the sooner you’ll notice great results, the opposite is
true.
Although fast lifting creates a certain momentum, it doesn’t
promote optimal blood flow to the muscle. What does promote
this blood flow is slower movement. Slow lifting creates less
internal muscle friction and requires a more even application of
your muscle power through your range of motion.
You say you don’t believe me? Well, just try it. For example,
try doing a bench press with a slow, even pressure, and be sure
to do it with perfect form and no wavering. You’ll find it’s much
more difficult than a quick pressing motion. The slower
movement also generates a more rapid flow of blood to the
muscle groups you are training. You might also unwittingly
discover that too much speed has the undesirable effect of
increasing your frequency of lifting-related injury.
Your exercise trainer might recommend, as I do, taking one to
two seconds for each lifting movement (the positive phase) and
three to four seconds for each lowering movement (the negative
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phase).
Whatever your actual lifting speed, always remember to come
back slower during the resistance phase with each and every
repetition. All of which brings us back to proper form. If you
discover that the weight you’ve chosen to lift in a certain
exercise is so heavy that you cannot maintain proper form and
at the same time perform the negative phase slowly and in full
control, you should lighten the weight until you can do it exactly
as intended.
Far too many beginners pay attention only to the amount of
the weight to be lifted, and not to the quality of the movement
performed. Your muscles cannot know how much weight is on
the bar or machine, but they will respond very well if you are not
only using good, controlled form but also executing the return
phase slowly and with the proper resistance.
Exercise Selection
It is very important to select at least one exercise for each major
muscle group in order to promote well-balanced muscle
development. Training only a few muscle groups, or training
one particular muscle group more than the others, increases the
risk of injury.
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Exercise Sequence
Another important element of strength training is exercise
sequence. When performing a variety of weightlifting exercises,
it is advisable to proceed from the larger muscle groups to the
smaller muscle groups. This allows for optimal performance of
the most demanding exercises at those times when you are
feeling fresh and energetic and your fatigue levels are at their
lowest.
Another reason for starting with the larger muscle groups, one
that is often overlooked, is illustrated by the common example
of training both back and biceps. Ordinarily, you would want to
train your back first, since it is the larger muscle group of the
two. So let’s say you’re doing the Rear Pull-Down. In that
exercise, you are indirectly working your biceps, too, since both
muscle groups are at work in the pulling motion. This means
that your biceps will actually be warmed up and ready to train
when you get to exercises that focus directly on them.
You will derive a similar benefit when you perform exercises
that require pushing motions, since they tend to involve use of
the chest, shoulders, and triceps. By the time you’re done with
your chest exercises, both your shoulders and your triceps will
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be warm and ready to train. Of course, you might not always do
your pulling motions (the ones with your back and biceps) on
the same day as your pushing motions (the ones with your
chest, shoulders, and triceps). In fact, as you advance you will
want to split up your exercise days so that you train certain
muscles on one day of the week and others on a different day.
This topic will be discussed a little later.
To Avoid Injury, Avoid Over-Training
Beginning weight-trainers are often a gung-ho group.
Unfortunately, that’s one of the major reasons why so many of
them drop out long before they’ve given themselves a chance to
adjust to a healthful change in lifestyle.
Be sure to pay close attention to your body and to what it tries
to tell you. If you ever find that you’re feeling weak, sore, “burnt
out,” or wishing you could skip a workout, you may well be overtraining.
This is a common complaint of beginners.
Not providing your muscles with enough rest could very well
hinder your progress. Training the wrong muscle groups on
consecutive days—or doing too many sets or exercises on the
same muscle group—may also set you on the road to failure.
Remember, weightlifting temporarily “injures” the muscles that
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you’re training, and they need time to recover and grow.
Ordinarily, that rejuvenation process takes a couple of days, so
the watchword is: don’t exercise the same muscle group two
days in a row.
As you become slightly more advanced in your exercise
program, you may find that splitting up your training days is
more effective for you. Suppose, for example, that you wish to
adopt a weekly routine that includes chest, shoulders, triceps,
and abdominal muscles (abs for short) on Monday. Then on
Tuesday you might switch your routine and exercise your back,
legs, biceps, and abdominals/stomach muscles. (Note that you
can train your abs on both of those training days, but then be
sure to give your whole body a needed rest on Wednesday—
you deserve it!) You could go back to the chest group, including
chest, shoulders, triceps, and abdominal muscles, on Thursday.
And on Friday you could again exercise your biceps, abs, legs,
and back. Then you would rest over the weekend and start all
over on Monday.
Whatever routine you create, remember one thing: Listen to
your body! If you’re over-training, your body will tell you. If that
happens, take it easy. Allow your muscles to grow and
strengthen at their pace, rather than according to some arbitrary
schedule you’ve set up for yourself.
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In no time at all, you’ll begin achieving spectacular results.
And I’m not talking just about the results you can see: the
shapelier body; the smooth, sculptured muscles; the tight, toned
physique. I’m talking about the high-speed metabolic system
you’ve created that’s constantly burning up calories each
morning and afternoon, and even while you sleep. It’s
incredible, and so are the results you can obtain by undertaking
the other important half of the metabolic-exercising duo: aerobic
exercise.
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10
Your Cardiovascular Metabolic Tune-up
Fitness That Forces Your Metabolism
to Burn Hotter Than Hot
Now that I’ve introduced you to the metabolic underpinnings of
my strength-training program, you’re ready to get started on the
logistics of a good cardiovascular program. Metabolic fitness
includes both aerobic and strength-training elements, and they
work together to produce total metabolic health.
As you learned in the previous chapter, aerobic exercises
include that very large class of movements that can be
performed only by burning huge amounts of oxygen. We’re
talking about running, jogging, spinning® (an aerobics class on
bikes), power walking, cross-country skiing, etc. Since they
place such heavy demands on your heart and lungs, it should
come as no surprise that they are excellent exercises to
promote cardiovascular fitness.
However, they also burn calories, and that’s why they’re so
important when it comes to increasing your metabolism. Not
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only does aerobic exercise burn more calories as you exercise,
it keeps your metabolic rate high for several hours afterwards!
We’ve seen that proper exercise, along with a good diet that’s
low in fat, moderate in carbohydrates, and high in protein, is
crucial for metabolic control, because both dieting and exercise
help reduce body fat. Moreover, exercise works in still other
ways to promote weight loss.
Exercise Regulates Appetite
Appetite has to do with our psychological desire for food.
Hunger, in contrast, refers to our physiological requirement for
nutrition. In other words, appetite refers to the food we crave,
while hunger refers to the nutrition our bodies need.
One belief that’s widely held in America is that exercise
increases appetite, leading to increased calorie consumption
and the risk of weight gain. Actually, just the opposite is true.
Regular exercise moderates the cravings that can lead to
weight gain. With all those fad diets, we eat less because we
make ourselves eat less—and this can actually increase our
appetite. With exercise, we eat less because we want less.
This happens for well-documented physiological reasons that
center on the hypothalamus, a gland that’s located in the brain
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and exerts a specific type of control over our metabolic rate.
Besides producing essential hormones, the hypothalamus
triggers our sense of hunger. It is a commonly accepted theory
that we feel hungry when the glucose supply to our brain gets
too low. Sensing this, the hypothalamus sends out warnings of
an impending food deficit. In response, we start thinking about
food and our stomach contracts, leading to the sensation of
“growling.” Then our body secretes chemicals, such as
hydrochloric acid, to help us digest the upcoming meal.
Exercise inhibits hunger by raising the levels of certain
chemicals in the blood and brain: glucose, serotonin,
noradrenaline, adrenaline, and dopamine. These chemicals
send a signal to the brain to announce that the body’s hunger
has been satisfied. In effect, regular exercise leads us to say
“I’m full” sooner than we would if we were not exercising
regularly. What’s more, this sense of reduced appetite may last
for as long as six hours after we finish exercising.
Other researchers have pointed out that the exercising body is
much more likely to crave the foods that are important for
physical performance. Many people who exercise regularly are
drawn to the more wholesome complex carbohydrates and
proteins that the body needs to function well. Research
suggests that exercisers lose weight because of the body’s
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natural preference for good food and its aversion to fats and
simple carbohydrates that inhibit athletic performance.
What does all this mean? Does it perhaps mean that the more
we exercise, the less hungry we’ll be? NO! It means that proper
exercise inhibits hunger—to a point. But remember, we’re
building muscle density, and the denser the muscles, the more
calories they will consume. If we don’t supply them with FAT
from our foods, they will burn the fat already stored in our
body!!!
After all is said and done, we may be slightly hungrier as a
result of exercising, but our body will crave foods that are more
healthful and it will burn body fat for energy. And therein lies the
magic!
Exercise Can Elevate Our Mood
Another contribution that exercise can make to the weight-loss
process resides in its unique ability to alter mood. Depression,
boredom, fatigue, and stress are very common complaints of
Americans. Moreover, such complaints are quite prevalent
among those who are overweight.
Mood swings can be problematic for anyone. Some people
eat for the express purpose of filling an emotional void, or to
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ward off feelings of loneliness, boredom, or depression. It isn’t
hard at all to see how so many people with emotional disorders
end up becoming compulsive overeaters. In effect, they use
food to alter their mood, much like those who are addicted to
mind-altering chemicals.
Exercise, in contrast, provides a calorie-free “high” that
dependably helps us manage our moods and our weight. The
results of research studies undertaken on a nationwide scale
have shown that adults who are physically inactive are at much
greater risk of feeling the effects of mood than those who
regularly engage in physical activity.
Most individuals report that they experience an overall sense
of wellness or feel energized following vigorous aerobic
exercise. Countless studies show that depression, anxiety, and
mood state are favorably affected by regular exercise, which
can also help improve a person’s self-esteem.
Getting Your Cardiovascular Training Program Started
The best way to start your program of aerobic fitness is to
demonstrate some good, common sense and see your doctor.
As perfunctory as this advice may seem, it’s a great step to
take—and for reasons far more important than the obvious.
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First of all, a complete physical exam will yield important
information about the condition of your heart. For example, The
American College of Sports Medicine warns that people with a
history of high blood pressure or abnormal resting EKGs, or a
family history of heart disease, run a higher-than-average risk of
causing injury to the heart as a result of performing certain
exercises. Only your physician can provide the information you
need to make an intelligent decision in this regard.
Also important is the feedback you’ll get—if you ask for it—in
the way of test results from your doctor’s lab. The staff at any
lab that’s worth its salt will scrutinize your blood chemistry and
give you important information that will enable you to track your
fitness progress.
By knowing HDL and LDL cholesterol levels, for example, you
can chart improvements in your body chemistry as you
exercise. The same is true of the levels of triglycerides and
glucose in your blood. Since these levels can be improved
through exercise and diet, you’ll gain solid evidence of how
unseen chemical reactions in your body are improving through
the use of this program.
Test Your Physiological Condition
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Your next step is to find out what kind of physiological shape
you’re in. Again, this is recommended simply to help establish
benchmarks regarding your present condition so that you can
set reasonable expectations for the rate of progress you’ll be
making in the weeks and months ahead.
Any quality health club can provide a number of different tests
that take only a few minutes each. These tests can show you
how you stack up—in terms of key fitness components such as
muscle strength, cardiovascular fitness, and flexibility—against
others in your age group.
The beauty of these tests is that once you’ve taken them, you
can intelligently set goals and chart your progress. You may, for
example, wish to reduce your resting heart rate from its present
75 beats per minute to a new goal of 65. Or you might want to
reduce your heart’s recovery time. Every area of fitness that you
succeed in improving will assist you in creating a more powerful
metabolism and a healthier body.
A good health club will also help you set realistic goals for the
future, whether you become a member or not.
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Rating Cardiovascular Exercises
There are an almost-unending variety of exercises from which
to choose when planning your aerobics program. Some can be
done only in summer, others only in winter. Some are strictly
indoor pursuits, while others are clearly outdoor activities. Some
involve specialized equipment, while others can be done with
little more than a good pair of shoes and a T-shirt.
In this book, we’ll focus exclusively on those exercises that
most easily lend themselves to some sort of objective measure
of improvement in health and fitness. The easier it is to
measure the number of calories expended, the easier it will be
to predict the results you will realize from doing an exercise.
This is one of the main reasons why I believe everyone should
become a member of a good health club. Health clubs provide
measurable results, whereas outdoor activities are harder to
measure because of all of the external variables that tend to
modify one’s daily exercise program (wind direction,
temperature, and precipitation, as well as factors such as the
presence of cars, trucks, or other exercisers that get in the way
while you’re trying to jog or ride a bike).
Aerobic exercises
Aerobics classes are one example of a good total-body
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exercise. To get really dramatic results from this type of activity,
however, people often go the high-impact-exercise route, where
overuse injuries are common.
Running and jogging on a treadmill are also great
exercises for cardiovascular conditioning. But again, they are
high-impact exercises that frequently cause an undue amount
of damage to the feet, ankles, legs, or hips. If done without
regular stretching, these exercises can actually reduce
flexibility. Proper use of a treadmill, however, considerably
reduces your chances of injury, and it allows you to monitor
your heart rate at the same time.
Indoor rowing (on a rowing machine) is one of the top-rated
aerobic exercises.
Spinning® and indoor rock climbing are two of the best
aerobic exercises you can choose—according to some studies,
at least. They tend to be gentler on joints and bones than the
high-impact exercises, and yet they aid in conditioning all the
major upper- and lower-body muscle groups.
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Walking on a treadmill has always been a popular exercise,
but it needs to be done at a brisk, “power-walking” pace to get
the full cardiovascular benefit. Most people don’t walk fast
enough, or at a high enough incline, to get an aerobic workout.
Exercising the MYM (Maximize Your Metabolism) Way
No matter what sort of exercise you choose, it should be
incorporated into a proven system that maximizes aerobic effect
and minimizes personal injury. The MYM formula was created
after years of personal study and input from many major health
and fitness associations such as the American College of
Sports Medicine. It includes five crucial elements:
1. Aerobic warm-up
2. Minor stretching
3. Aerobic and strength conditioning
4. Aerobic cool-down
5. Final, more-detailed stretching
If at first glance this looks like a lot of exercise, don’t let it
overwhelm you. You have a choice of when to do both your
aerobic and strength-conditioning workouts, either on the same
day or on an alternating basis. Your warm-up, stretching, and
cool-down sessions will be fairly brief, as explained below, but
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they do need to be part and parcel of every workout session.
The MYM (Maximize Your Metabolism) formula
1. The Warm-up. The first step in any exercise program is the
warm-up. The purpose of the warm-up is to elevate the core
temperature of your muscles, increase your pulse rate and the
flow of blood throughout your body, and prepare your body for
exercise. Your warm-up should be of low intensity, and it should
last five to ten minutes. It might include brisk walking,
performing jumping jacks, or doing some indoor cycling.
2. Stretching. The second component of an exercise program
is stretching. Stretching the major muscles of the body prior to
exercising prepares the body for the meat of your workout.
Stretching helps to enhance your physical performance,
prevents debilitating injuries, and makes you look and feel
better by improving your muscle elasticity.
Proper stretching of the muscles will increase your range of
motion and improve the quality of your movements. Never
stretch a cold muscle! Always make sure your muscles are
warmed up before you begin to stretch. When a muscle is
properly warmed up, it is filled with healthy, oxygenated blood,
which then circulates to nearby tissues and helps remove
unwanted waste products from your system.
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Be sure to pay special attention to the primary muscles you
used in your warm-up. If you did your warm-up on a bicycle, for
example, then it’s okay to stretch all of your muscles, but pay
special attention to the ones you used in the warm-up. (In the
example of warming up on a bicycle, it would be your
quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, and hips.)
When stretching, remember to adhere to the following
guidelines:
· Stretch slowly and in a controlled manner, and assume a
comfortable position (but never bounce)
· Stretch a muscle to the point of light tension, not pain
· Hold each stretch for fifteen to thirty seconds, then slowly
release and return to the starting configuration
· Take slow, deep breaths while stretching, and do not hold
your breath
· Increase the effort and duration of each stretch at regular
intervals, to continue improving your flexibility
· Include stretches for the entire body
· To prevent boredom, learn two or three difference stretches
for each area of the body
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Here are some stretching exercises you should include in your
workouts.
Chest and shoulders (pectorals and deltoids)
Stand and keep your knees slightly bent. Bring your arms
behind your back, clasping your hands together. Slowly lift
upward. If you are unable to bring your hands together, simply
bring them back as far as you feel comfortable. As you become
more flexible and feel like increasing the stretch, bend forward
at your waist and raise your arms higher. Hold the stretch for
fifteen to thirty seconds.
Upper back and shoulder (rhomboids and deltoids)
Stand and keep your knees slightly bent. Reach across the
front of your body with your right hand, grasping your left elbow.
Slowly pull your left elbow across your chin toward your right
shoulder. You should feel slight tension on the outside of your
left arm and shoulder. Hold the stretch for fifteen to thirty
seconds. Repeat with your other arm.
Back of arm, upper and middle back, and shoulder (triceps,
latissimus dorsi, and deltoids)
Stand and raise both arms above your head. Drop your left
hand behind your head. With your right hand, reach down to
your left elbow and pull your elbow toward your head. Hold the
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stretch for fifteen to thirty seconds. Repeat with your other arm.
Back and hips (obliques, erector spinae, and gluteus)
Sit on the floor and fully extend both legs. Bend your left leg
and cross it over your right leg. Place your left foot on the floor,
on the outer side of your right knee. Keeping your buttocks on
the floor, turn your upper body to the left. Using your right
elbow, press against the outside of your left thigh. Hold this
position steady for fifteen to thirty seconds. Switch sides and
repeat.
Back of thigh (hamstrings)
Stand erect, with both feet flat on the floor and close together.
Slowly bend at the hips, lowering your hand to the floor while
keeping your knees locked and straight. Be cautious, and move
slowly on this stretch. When you feel a slight tension in your
lower back or at the backs of your legs, stop lowering your body
and hold that position. Taking slow, deep breaths, hold the
stretch for fifteen to thirty seconds.
Front of thigh (quadriceps)
Stand near a wall or stationary object, and place your right
hand on that object at shoulder level for support. Lift your left
heel toward your buttocks, and grasp your foot with your left
hand. Keeping your knee, hip, and ankle in the same vertical
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plane, slowly raise your foot, using your hand. You should feel
this stretch all along the front of your thigh. When you feel a
slight stretch in your leg, stop and hold the stretch for fifteen to
thirty seconds. Switch legs and repeat.
3, 4. Aerobic Conditioning and Cool-down. The third
component of the exercise program is aerobic exercise. Your
normal aerobic session is meant to burn fat by increasing your
internal temperature. There is, however, another important
aspect of this, and that’s the fourth component: the aerobic
cool-down.
A healthy individual should engage in cardiovascular exercise
at least three to five times a week, for a minimum of twenty to
forty-five minutes per session, with an intensity that’s between
60 and 80 percent of your maximum heart rate (max HR). Here,
however, we’re going to increase these numbers a bit, because
we’re looking for safe but fast results: you’re going to focus on
performing your aerobic workout five or six times per week, for
thirty to 60 minutes per session, at a heart rate of 70 to 80
percent of your max.
Your heart rate should be monitored during your exercise
routine, either by taking your pulse via your wrist or your neck or
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by using a heart-rate monitor. For this program, you should
invest in a good heart-rate monitor. (This shouldn’t cost you
more than about $75.) People who are currently out of shape or
just starting out should begin training at a somewhat lower
intensity, probably between 60 and 70 percent of their max HR.
Every aerobic workout, whether performed by a novice or an
advanced trainer, should be started gradually. Begin with a fiveminute
warm-up at a low intensity (at about 50 to 60 percent of
your max HR), do your full aerobic workout, and then end with a
five- to ten-minute cool-down (at the same low intensity of 50 to
60 percent of your max HR).
It’s important that you understand and implement different
methods of cardiovascular exercise in your program. For
example, you can ride a stationary bike a few days per week,
do a brisk walking routine on a treadmill another day, and spend
yet another day using an elliptical machine at your health club.
It is critical that you be aware of the different options (including
machines) that are available for cardiovascular exercises, so
that you can overcome any plateaus you encounter and prevent
boredom as well. You will eventually experience both of these
outcomes (plateaus and boredom) if you continue to do the
same exercise—and in the same training style—for more than
sixty to ninety days. In order to keep on realizing the kinds of
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results you desire, you should always be on the lookout for
ways to vary your exercises and use different types of
equipment. Then when you reach a plateau, you can simply
change your routine and implement a new method.
Let’s now discuss the three different training methods that you
should work into your cardiovascular exercise program.
Continuous training
The first method, which is the most common and traditional
way of doing cardiovascular exercise, is called continuous
training. This means that you do one form of cardiovascular
exercise, such as riding a stationary bike, for the full duration of
your exercise session. As a result, you use the large muscle
groups continuously for the entire routine.
This is the method that I suggest you use in each of your
training sessions, unless you are already very skilled or are
working out under the tutelage of a highly skilled personal
trainer. This is not to say that you shouldn’t vary your exercises,
but all of my studies indicate that people get far better results
from sticking to one particular exercise during each of their
workouts. If you want to choose a different cardiovascular
exercise for the next day’s workout, that’s where variety can
come into play.
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183
The next method is good for those individuals who are already
very experienced (people with more than one year of heavy
aerobic training experience).
Interval training
Interval training is an intermediate method of cardiovascular
training and thus should not be done by beginners. Interval
training consists of repeated intervals of relatively low intensity,
such as walking, interspersed with intervals of high intensity,
such as running.
The “light” intervals should be undertaken at an intensity
ranging from 50 to 70 percent of your max HR, while the
“heavy” intervals should be done at an intensity ranging from 75
to 85 percent of your max HR (though you should get an okay
by your physician before training at an intensity greater than 80
percent of your max HR). In either case (light or heavy interval),
the intensity should be chosen on the basis of your functional
capacity and your personal goals and interests.
The light intervals (in this example, walking) should take
approximately thirty to sixty seconds to complete, and the heavy
(running) intervals should last about one to two minutes. This
form of training is prefaced with a two- to five-minute warm-up,
and then the intervals begin. You should first do thirty seconds
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of light, followed immediately by one minute of heavy, then
another thirty to sixty seconds of light, then one to two minutes
of heavy. Each pair of intervals should be repeated only about
fifteen times.
Please note: Before doing your interval training, warm up with
one type of cardiovascular activity for about two to five minutes,
then stretch the muscles that you used for that activity, and
finally launch into your interval training.
If you’re one of those people who are easily bored, you’ll
almost surely want to incorporate the next method into your
program.
Composite training
The third training method, called composite training, is a
combination of several different cardiovascular exercises, one
after the other. One example is bicycling for ten minutes, then
immediately switching to a treadmill for ten minutes, followed by
running or jogging for ten minutes, then bicycling again or
jumping onto an elliptical machine, and ending with a cool-down
and stretching of the muscles used. Or you could walk on a
treadmill for fifteen minutes, do the stair-climber for the next ten
minutes, proceed to the elliptical machine, and then complete
your thirty- to sixty-minute exercise period with a walking
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185
routine—followed, of course, by a cool-down and stretching
session.
If you want to take it one step further and try something really
intense and exciting, combine the interval training with the
composite training. While you’re on the treadmill, for example,
you could either change the speed (from walking to jogging) or
alter the inclination of the surface (from horizontal, say, to a 5-
percent grade) every other minute. After ten minutes on the
treadmill, you could move on to the stationary bike, changing
the resistance from more intense to less intense every other
minute.
Remember, you should always begin with a low-intensity
warm-up and then stretch the muscles you used in that activity.
You should conclude your workout with a cool-down of five to
ten minutes (also at low intensity) and a stretch.
Measuring your heart rate
While following this program, I suggest monitoring your heart
rate at all times in order to keep track of your intensity during
any cardiovascular exercise. (Using a heart-rate monitor will
make this much easier for you.) Exercise that does not raise
your heart rate to a certain level—and keep it there for thirty
minutes—WILL NOT contribute significantly to reaching your
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maximum metabolic rate.
The heart rate that you should maintain during exercise is
called your target heart rate. There are several formulas for
arriving at this figure. One of the simplest, which gives lower
and upper bounds on the heart rate you should aim for, is as
follows:
(220 minus your age) multiplied by 0.70 = your lower bound
(220 minus your age) multiplied by 0.80 = your upper bound
According to this formula, the target heart-rate range for a
forty-year-old would be 126–144 (126 being the lower bound,
and 144 the upper). What this means is that if forty-year-olds
are exercising but their heart rate is below 126 beats per
minute, then they aren’t exercising as efficiently as they should
be. If, on the other hand, their heart rate is over 144, then
they’re literally burning muscle rather than fat—and putting
themselves at greater risk of heart injury during the exercise
itself.
Some methods for figuring your target heart rate take
individual differences into consideration. Here’s a step-by-step
formula you can use for that purpose:
1. Subtract your age from 220 to find your maximum heart rate
2. Subtract your resting heart rate (see below) from your
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maximum heart rate to determine your heart-rate reserve
3. Take 70 percent of your heart-rate reserve (multiply it by
0.70) to determine your heart-rate rise
4. Add your heart-rate rise to your resting heart rate to find
your target rate
Resting heart rate should be determined by taking your pulse
after sitting quietly for five minutes. When checking your heart
rate during a workout, you should take your pulse within five
seconds after interrupting your exercise routine, because the
rate will start to go down once you stop moving. Count your
pulse for six seconds, and multiply by ten to get the per-minute
rate. If you have access to a personal trainer, be sure to ask
him or her to do this for you; otherwise, you can take a reading
of your heart-rate monitor, which will give you the most accurate
count without your having to stop exercising.
When to exercise
The hour just before the evening meal is a popular time for
exercise. A late-afternoon workout provides a welcome change
of pace at the end of the workday and helps dissolve the day’s
worries and tensions.
Another popular time to work out is early morning, before the
workday begins. Advocates of the early start say it makes them
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more alert and energetic on the job.
Among the factors you should consider in developing your
workout schedule are personal preference, job and family
responsibilities, and availability of exercise facilities. It’s
important to schedule your workouts for a time when there is
little chance that you will have to cancel or interrupt them
because of other demands on your time. (Metropolitan Life
Insurance Company, 1996)
No more excuses, no more procrastination
During the next few months, you will probably come up with
plenty of excuses as to why you should skip a workout or two.
But keep in mind that the human mind can be trained to make a
habit of something if that thing is performed for twenty-seven
days in a row. Let’s commit to making fitness a lifestyle, by not
missing any scheduled workouts for the next twenty-eight or
more days.
Remember, the key to staying motivated and continuing to
achieve the results you want is to keep your exercise program
fun and exciting by constantly trying new exercises.
5. Final Stretching. The fifth and final component of the MYM
Fitness Formula is stretching. The same stretching exercises
performed at the start of the workout can and should be
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189
performed again. In fact, it is during the stretching period after a
workout that the majority of gains in flexibility occur. Stretching
also aids in flushing the muscles of undesirable biochemical byproducts
of exercise, such as lactic acid, that can cause
soreness.
Exercising Smart to Prevent Injuries
Despite the best-intentioned exercise plans, injury may occur.
Undoubtedly, the best way to deal with injury is prevention. This
is best accomplished with sensible training and a
knowledgeable approach to your exercise routine. The following
guidelines should help make your training both safe and
enjoyable.
Golden rules of exercising
· Avoid strenuous exercise if you are feeling ill or have been
sick for an extended period of time.
· Exercise with the proper frequency: three to five days per
week of aerobic exercise, and three days per week (every
other day) of strength-training exercise.
· Exercise at the intensity level that’s best for your individual
fitness needs.
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If you’re just beginning an exercise program, exercise at
a heart rate that’s near the lower end of your target
heart-rate range, and then gradually increase the
intensity of your workouts.
· Always use proper form when exercising (never sacrifice
form in order to lift heavier weights during a strengthtraining
workout).
· Wear shoes that are designed for the exercise you’re doing
(running shoes for running, cross trainers for cross training,
good walking shoes for dedicated walkers), and wear
comfortable clothing (the kind that allows your body to
sweat).
If exercising outdoors, take weather conditions into
account before you leave for your workout.
· Avoid doing any one exercise too often.
Performing one exercise over and over can tire the
muscles involved in that exercise and cause
unnecessary muscle strain. Adding variety to your
workout allows you to work your muscles differently and
continue building your motivation.
· Drink plenty of water.
Drinking water before, during, and after a workout is
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essential. From an exercise standpoint, replenishing your
body’s water supply greatly enhances your strength,
speed, and endurance. Experts recommend drinking up
to twenty ounces of water during the hour or two before
you begin exercising, and taking another three to six
ounces every ten minutes during your exercise period. I
advise my clients to keep with them a sipper bottle filled
with water while they’re exercising, and to sip on it
throughout the entire workout.
If You Are Injured
If you become injured, consult your personal physician
immediately. If you choose not to see your physician, the
“r.i.c.e.” treatment is often best: rest, ice, compression,
elevation.
· Rest the injured body part (for no less than forty-eight
hours) to prevent further injury and to initiate the healing
process.
· Ice the injured area immediately for fifteen to twenty
minutes, and repeat three to four times a day, to help
reduce internal bleeding and keep the swelling down.
· Compression provided with semi-firm bandaging will keep
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the swelling down and provide comfort.
· Elevate the injured area, to allow blood to drain back to the
heart and prevent it from pooling in the injured area.
11
Oxygen Creates Movement Before Movement Creates
Oxygen
Easy Breathing Exercises That Stimulate Your Metabolism
and Cleanse Your Lymphatic System
Ultimately, everything we say about the metabolic system
comes down to energy. Getting it. Storing it. Burning it. From a
physiological standpoint, we quite literally have energy to burn.
Our bodies can store tremendous reserves of all the enzymes,
acids, and other important substances that enable our muscles
to move and our metabolic systems to function at top efficiency.
We have sufficient energy stores to enable us to exercise for
five straight days without refueling. Even a couch potato has
enough stored energy to provide for a 50-mile run.
The energy, of course, is stored as fat, and using these
energy stores in a metabolically efficient manner is the real
sticking point. That’s why learning how to maximize your access
to these fuels is a crucial step in your metabolic makeover. As
you’re well aware, this book has tried in many ways to impress
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you with the importance of proper fitness and nutrition.
However, all the best exercises and all the best nutrition in the
world will be useless unless your body has the proper amount
of oxygen to unleash its energy. Oxygen is a crucial component
to a strong and healthy metabolism.
There’s Magic in the Air
You may not realize it, but your lungs aren’t simply empty sacs
that automatically inflate and deflate. They’re organs crowded
with specialized tissues designed for this crucial exchange of a
variety of gases and the metabolism that follows.
Each of your lungs weighs about a pound. Since lungs do not
have muscles, they depend on muscles in the rib and stomach
areas for their crucial movements. Your diaphragm (that
partition of muscle and connective tissue that separates the
chest and abdominal cavities) contracts and flattens. At the
same time, the muscles in the vicinity of your ribs gently pull the
rib cage upward. This enlarges the chest cavity and causes air
to be “sucked” into the lungs. When the rib muscles and
diaphragm relax to their original positions, air is forced out.
On a day that’s devoid of aerobic exercise, you’ll unthinkingly
perform this exchange about 20,000 times. Over an entire
Oxygen Creates Movement 195
lifetime, that amounts to more than half a billion round trips. And
it’s all automatic: no thought, no preparation. Your medulla, that
part of the brain stem that controls involuntary action, keeps all
this equipment working without conscious thought. If it didn’t,
you’d die within minutes.
Your Air Exchange System
A breath of fresh air can enter your lungs through your nose or
your mouth. As you probably learned in your high-school health
class, the nose is the preferred route. The hairs in the nose help
not only to filter the air of impurities but also to warm the air you
breathe, bringing it closer to a temperature that your body can
use effectively.
When you exercise vigorously, especially when you do
aerobic exercises, you may start to pant. That’s not because
your lungs need more air; it’s because your blood has too much
carbon dioxide. The need for oxygen in your muscles is more
than the heart can handle, forcing fuel to be burned with little or
no oxygen—anaerobically. The result is a buildup of lactic acid,
which causes muscle soreness and fatigue.
To neutralize this buildup, the body produces more carbon
dioxide. The brain causes the breathing rate to quicken in order
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to raise the amount of oxygen coming in and, in turn, to
increase the elimination of carbon dioxide. During a vigorous
workout, you’ll probably need more air than your nose will allow,
so the overwhelming amount of respiration will take place
through the mouth.
In either event, the diaphragm and the muscles in the rib area
move to create the suction that draws air into the chest,
expanding the lungs. In the lungs, tiny elastic balloons called
alveoli process the air, and a gas exchange takes place. The
oxygen from the inhaled air diffuses and saturates the
hemoglobin in your red blood cells. Meanwhile, the blood,
anxious to take on the oxygen, discharges carbon dioxide
through the capillary walls into the alveoli.
The rest of the oxygen journey is fascinating, though it isn’t
vital that you know all about it in order to participate in the MYM
program. If you’re interested, I suggest picking up one of the
many science books that lay out the full path in a far more
detailed explanation than I will get into here.
Oxygen Becomes the All-Important Ingredient
The fuel that enables you to move your muscles is a chemical
made by the body called adenosine triphosphate (ATP). This is
Oxygen Creates Movement 197
the basic energy source for muscular contraction.
However, the body has only enough ATP on hand to fuel
activity for about ten seconds. Once the store of ATP is used
up, you’ve got to manufacture ATP. Your body can easily do
that, but not without oxygen. When you engage in vigorous
activity such as what we’re recommending here, the body
requires lots of oxygen. That’s why I’ve devoted an entire
chapter to teaching you how to get it more efficiently.
In order to speed up the metabolism, the body needs largerthan-
normal supplies of oxygen, not only to manufacture ATP
but also to accommodate the waste products that are given off
in the ATP-making process. ATP is produced at a high rate from
carbohydrate (glycogen) stores within the muscle, but the byproduct
is lactic acid. Your body must dispose of this lactic acid;
otherwise, your muscles will become so fatigued that you may
have to wrap up your exercise session prematurely.
Your oxygen delivery system is crucial to your full metabolic
development, because it is the main provider of ATP in any
exercise session that lasts more than about three minutes.
O-X-Y-G-E-N Spells Greater Metabolism
As you can readily see, true metabolic enhancement comes
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from an efficient interconnection of several key components.
Peak metabolism is enabled, in part, by the development of
strong, healthy muscles through weight training and aerobic
exercise. An optimal exercise regimen, in turn, is dependent on
a good supply of oxygen, to produce the ATP you so
desperately need for a good workout.
So, let’s start out right. Let’s start getting greater amounts of
that precious oxygen you need, so you can further turn your
metabolism into a real fat burner. We’ll start by discussing the
breathing process. This presentation is a bit technical, but it
contains information that you need to have.
How to Breathe
Most of us have been brought up in what I call the suck-in-yourgut
style of breathing, in which you expand your chest with each
breath. As a result, the upper chest takes over the chore of
breathing. This can lead to the high blood pressure, racing
heart, and shallow breathing that fuel many of our ills, including
headaches, heart disease, and hot flashes.
Even worse, this is probably the least efficient way to get
oxygen surging through the body, because it doesn’t put
enough air into the lower lungs, which is where the blood flow is
Oxygen Creates Movement 199
richest—and oxygen-rich blood is what your metabolic system
thrives on. The more blood that comes in contact with the
oxygen, the greater the amount of oxygen that’s delivered to the
various parts of the body.
Are You Breathing Properly?
Here’s a quick way to find out if you’re breathing properly: Lie
on your back with a book on your stomach. Now inhale. What
happens to the book? Well, if you’re breathing properly, the
book will rise. The problem I find with most newcomers to my
health clubs is that they simply expand their chests when they
breathe, and the book goes down. The effect is even more
noticeable if you ask them to take a series of deep breaths.
Expanding only your chest when you breathe means that your
diaphragm is rising, which will squeeze your lungs and limit their
capacity. If both your chest and your belly expand with each
breath, your diaphragm will flatten as you inhale, allowing your
lungs to inflate fully with oxygen. That means you’re maximizing
your oxygen-delivery system, which in turn maximizes the
amount of energy that’s available to be burned.
The best way to breathe is diaphragmatically: breathe through
your nose, and concentrate on making both your chest and your
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stomach move—not just one or the other. This forces your
lungs to take in more oxygen than they could ever
accommodate if you took shallower breaths. Aim for five to
seven breaths per minute while engaged in normal, everyday
activity. Obviously, the number of breaths you take each minute
while you’re exercising will be somewhat higher. Breathing
diaphragmatically may cause your breaths to get a bit
shallower, and the frequency of breathing will definitely
increase. In addition, the air you breathe will most likely come
from your mouth rather than your nose.
Sometime when you’re not exercising, try this technique:
Focus on your breath without trying to manipulate it in any way.
Then, with your mouth closed, inhale quietly through your nose
as you silently count to four. After that, hold your breath and
count to sixteen. Finally, exhale through your mouth and count
to eight.
Work to make your breathing deeper, slower, and quieter.
Your chest and your belly should expand like a balloon as you
inhale.
Breathing for Maximum Metabolism
I heartily recommend that you embark on a regular program of
Oxygen Creates Movement 201
breathing exercises, as outlined above. You don’t need to lie on
your back to do breathing exercises, so you can do them at any
time and in any place you choose. Just concentrate on the
proper motion with each breath. Do this repeatedly, and you’ll
develop neuromuscular patterns that will help you breathe
correctly while you’re exercising. Do your breathing exercises at
least twice a day, ten times each session, and then work your
way up to three times a day.
Whatever you do, don’t look upon your breathing exercises as
an insignificant component of your overall health and fitness
program. Improper breathing has held back many a person from
attaining their peak health level and their peak efficiency level,
both at home and at work. Devoting a few minutes to training
one’s body to breathe properly can greatly improve one’s health
and promote a greater degree of success and happiness.
Remember, you can try this breathing exercise at any time of
the day or night. Though it may be easier at first to do it lying
down, you can also do it sitting, standing, walking, and so on.
It’s an excellent exercise to try before you get out of bed in the
morning, or whenever you are anxious, tense, or low on energy,
since it will help relax you and flood your brain and your
muscles with oxygen-rich blood. Over time, it will help deepen
your breathing and make it more natural.
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Other Tips on Proper Breathing
Although it has not been scientifically proven that your lungs
can be improved through training, you can learn to use them
more effectively. Here are a few ways you can do so:
Take deep breaths before you attempt to do anything that
requires a great deal of physical exertion. As you approach a
difficult exercise, for example, take five deep breaths. This will
flush carbon dioxide from your bloodstream, so that even if the
subsequent strenuous activity causes your blood to become
saturated with carbon dioxide, it won’t affect you all that much,
not with all that oxygen in your bloodstream. Remember,
shortness of breath isn’t caused by the need of your lungs for
oxygen, but by the excess of carbon dioxide in your blood.
Abdominal conditioning, such as sit-ups and crunches (situps
with your feet raised up on a chair or bed), can be helpful.
However, the best approach is to give these muscles regular
training, as outlined in the final chapter.
The Training Effect
The more you exercise, the better this whole oxygen-handling
system works. What I’ve found with my clients is that wellOxygen
Creates Movement 203
trained runners accumulate less lactic acid than occasional
joggers because they have higher anaerobic thresholds. This
means their heart and blood vessels perform the gas exchange
more efficiently, staving off the production of lactic acid.
Remember, it’s the accumulation of the poisonous lactic acid
that shuts your exercising system down. Conversely, the more
oxygen you take in, the harder your muscles can work, the
greater their growth and development, and, ultimately, the faster
and more efficient your metabolism becomes.
The training program outlined in this book will help to increase
the capacity of your muscle fibers to extract oxygen from the
blood, thereby enabling you to exercise more intensely before
becoming short of breath.
Practice breathing properly, especially during your workouts.
Take several deep breaths when you’re weight training, just
prior to lifting the weights. Always exhale during the negative
phase of the exercise.
Proper breathing can help you in other ways as well
Helps counter stress. Just three to five deep, full breaths can
transport you from panic to calmness by allowing extra oxygen
into your brain and lower lungs, making you better able to focus.
Lessens headaches. The brain is a muscle, and as such
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requires a clean, fresh supply of oxygen-rich blood at all times.
Without an adequate supply of blood, the brain cannot function
properly. One of the signs of a lack of oxygen in the brain is a
headache.
Helps reduce high blood pressure. Deep breathing can
reduce stress, and stress is one of the major causes of heart
disease. The Journal of Human Hypertension recently reported
that just two ten-minute sessions of deep, slow breathing can
lower the blood pressure by as much as eleven points.
Reduces menopausal hot flashes. According to a study
reported in the medical journal Menopause, increasing the
depth of your breaths while cutting your breathing rate in half
(six to eight breaths per minute, instead of the usual fourteen to
sixteen) can reduce the incidence of menopausal hot flashes.
Slows the aging process. As mentioned in other parts of this
book, the body has a way of slowing down when you get older.
By following this program, however, you’ll help to stem this
inexorable slide. According to some experts, if you don’t
practice deep breathing at least twice a day, your lung capacity
at age seventy will be a third of what it was when you were
twenty.
In summary, the way deep breathing works is that it leads to
Oxygen Creates Movement 205
much greater intake of oxygen, meaning that the heart doesn’t
have to work so hard, ultimately bringing about a decrease in
heart rate and blood pressure and enabling the entire body to
enjoy an oxygen “bath.” More oxygen translates into better
digestion; better workouts; more energy; less stress; a longer,
leaner, more attractive life; and a stronger metabolism!
12
Mastering Your Emotions
and Your State of Mind
Discover How Your Emotional States
Control Your Metabolism
“It has been my experience that people who successfully
fit a healthful-living program into their lives
rank being fit right up there with oxygen.”
—Christopher V. Guerriero
Nothing of any value ever happens in life without there first
being an intense desire for its achievement followed by a
rigorous program of emotional management that keeps you
focused on your goal. In the case of setting out to improve your
health and fitness, your program of emotional management
must enhance your metabolic function as well. Managing your
emotions and feelings is critically important to successfully
maximizing your metabolism and should be taken very
seriously.
Emotions are the key to our hormonal responses. If we are in
Mastering Your Emotions and Your State of Mind 207
a depressed state (meaning that every time we think about our
body, we think negative thoughts), then our hormones, glands,
and related systems will all work in concert to keep us in a
depressed state—an emotional state that in turn brings about a
depressed or slower-working metabolism.
Fortunately, the opposite is also true! A heightened
enthusiasm for life results in a heightened metabolism. As a
matter of fact, whenever we enlist any negative emotions such
as depression, anger, hatred, or jealousy, we slow the process
of building our metabolism. More importantly, whenever we
enlist positive emotions such as love, enthusiasm, or faith, we
immediately strengthen the metabolism-building process. The
upshot of this is that a positive emotional state can be very
exciting—even monumental—if it’s structured properly.
Mood and Food
You’re probably already very familiar with how food alters
mood. There are many people who have learned to deal with
their emotions, whether positive or negative, by using food as a
coping mechanism.
When they’re happy, they eat. When they’re depressed, they
eat. When they’re angry, they eat. When they’re excited, they
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eat. After they feed their emotions with food, they may also feel
guilty, so what happens then? You guessed it! They eat all the
more, and the cycle starts all over.
Other people, because of chemical imbalances or emotional
issues, have a difficult time eating normally. Sometimes they’re
able to exert considerable control over the types and quantity of
food they eat, while at other times they may binge
uncontrollably. The bottom line is that, much of the time, they’re
terribly preoccupied with food—and their relationship with food
makes them miserable.
Hormonal Effects
Not only does food alter mood, but mood then proceeds to alter
metabolism. We’re all familiar with the phenomenon of
wintertime weight gain. One of the reasons why that occurs is
that we force our metabolism to slow down in winter: we sleep
more, we’re less energetic, and we’re more prone to sadness
and depression. As a result, our metabolism follows our mood
on its downhill slide.
Much of this change is due to hormonal changes. It was this
discovery that first led researchers to study the link between
emotions, hormones, and metabolism.
Mastering Your Emotions and Your State of Mind 209
What Is a Hormone?
In the simplest of terms, hormones are the “messengers” that
your body uses to communicate with other tissues, using your
bloodstream as a chemical freeway.
We could say that your brain acts as the traffic cop in this
scenario. It directs hormones to various parts of your body and
regulates the functioning of your cells. Hormones ultimately
determine how you feel, both physically and emotionally.
You’re probably familiar with some hormones, such as thyroid,
insulin, testosterone, and estrogen. Each type of hormone
performs a very unique role in the body and supports a wide
range of physical functions. In order for the body to function
optimally, all of our hormones must pull together and work as a
team. And that means that they cannot be disrupted by the
myriad of negative emotions that often come into play in our
lives.
Changes in hormone levels can exert a profound influence on
the amount of fat your metabolic system decides to store, as
well as on a variety of other functions, including sexual desire,
mood states, energy levels, and physical appearance (skin and
muscle tone). Hormonal imbalances have also been closely
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associated with heart disease, osteoporosis, and certain types
of cancer.
In short, because hormones impact your metabolic system
and virtually every other major system and organ in the body,
optimization of your emotions becomes a critical component in
maximizing your metabolism. If you succeed on the emotional
front, you’re certain to end up looking, feeling, and performing at
your best.
Managing Your Emotions
A big part of achieving metabolic success is learning to manage
our emotions. All too often, we accept negative emotions as a
“necessary evil” in our lives, something that we are powerless to
control.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Though we all have
“hot buttons” that can lead us to feel anxiety, anger, depression,
or even burnout, we can learn to be sensitive to our emotions
and take active steps to turn them all into metabolic enhancers.
The key is to become acutely aware of our emotions, and then
learn how to develop alternative responses that turn
undesirable situations into positive ones.
Mastering Your Emotions and Your State of Mind 211
Managing Emotions: A Three-Pronged Program
People who lead high-stress lives need to develop a personal
program of emotional management. Emotional management
helps keep life’s hassles in perspective and allows you to
increase both your productivity and your performance in all
areas of your life. A good emotional management program
consists of three parts: physical fitness, effective time
management, and self-image development.
Physical Fitness
By far the most important component of any emotional
management program is an ongoing exercise program. Being
physically fit pays handsome dividends to those who seek and
demand personal excellence. This is because of exercise’s
unique ability to almost “inoculate” a person with a certain
degree of immunity to stress.
Exercise is very effective in reducing anxiety, although
precisely how this occurs is not fully understood. Some
researchers believe exercise satisfies the evolutionary need of
humans to engage in large-muscle, physically aggressive
activity. Primitive humans frequently practiced this form of
adaptive behavior, but in our sedentary, civilized lifestyle there
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are fewer outlets for behavior of this sort.
Certainly, one of the benefits of exercise, and perhaps one
often overlooked by medical researchers, is that exercise takes
one’s mind off of the event that produced the negative emotion
in the first place. Exercisers report that it’s extremely difficult to
concentrate on the negative event while participating in an
intense workout.
My own research with my clients has shown that the
physiological response of fit people to life’s stressors is superior
to that of the unfit. For example, several studies have shown
that people with low levels of aerobic fitness experience greater
cardiovascular stress than people with higher levels of fitness.
The heart rates of the less-fit test subjects increased by nearly
thirty beats per minute more than the heart rates of highly fit
subjects when faced with a stressor.
Another study showed that physically fit subjects had
significantly reduced psychosocial stress responses to various
stressors as compared to their less-physically-fit counterparts.
In plain language, what this says is that physically fit people
perform better, both physiologically and psychologically, when
faced with stressful situations—and it is in stressful situations
that true excellence tends to be manifested. Moreover, some
studies have demonstrated that fitness plays a vital role in the
Mastering Your Emotions and Your State of Mind 213
ability to recover from stressful events, both mental and
physical.
According to the results of several recent experiments, the
great stressors of life, such as those measured in the Holmes
Stress Test, simply don’t seem to impact the lives of physically
fit people the way they do the unfit. A four-year study of
corporate managers showed, for example, that physical fitness
seemed to buffer the impact of the typical ill effects caused by
stress.
Many other studies confirm these results, suggesting that
being physically fit reduces the effects of stress. Similar
outcomes have been reported among those who regularly
engage in exercise, whether they are super physically fit or not.
In practical terms, this means that regular exercise is like a
soothing tonic that can be taken to produce results that are
almost immediate as well as to provide long-term immunity to
stress.
Endorphins: The Body’s Natural Stress Relievers
Perhaps the best explanation as to precisely how exercise
helps you manage your emotions—helps, that is, by reducing
stress, tension, and anxiety and by enhancing self-awareness—
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has been put forth by biochemists. As found in numerous
studies, the pituitary gland increases its production of
endorphins during exercise. Endorphins have long been
associated with pain reduction. Moreover, the endorphin level
rises sharply during exercise, and is now believed to be
responsible for the exercise-induced euphoria reported by many
athletes and other exercisers.
Studies at Duke University Medical Center showed that
exercise is associated with a significant reduction in negative
emotional states, and with a significant increase in positive
mood states such as a sense of vigor and self-appreciation.
Exercising to Reduce Stress
A program of regular cardiovascular exercise is a key
component of emotional management. Research has found that
the exercises most effective in reducing stress and enhancing
mood are the same ones that produce the greatest levels of
cardiovascular (aerobic) endurance.
Recommended exercises include riding a stationary bike,
participating in an aerobics class or a group exercise class, or
using weights in an aerobic fashion. Whatever the exercise, it
Mastering Your Emotions and Your State of Mind 215
should be vigorous enough to keep your heart rate in your
target heart-rate range (as detailed earlier in this book).
The benefits of exercising to reduce stress are both immediate
and long range. Not only can a proper exercise routine reduce
the crush of stress right now, but it can also condition your body
to handle stress better in the near future. And it doesn’t take
long for exercise to have this effect.
Your emotions are not always under your direct control,
but your actions are.
It is extremely difficult, perhaps even impossible, to maintain a
negative, metabolism-robbing emotion when your actions are in
opposition to that emotion.
If you’re feeling sad, for example, you often unwittingly
enhance that emotion by adopting body language that supports
sadness: shrugging your shoulders, hanging your head, and
speaking in low, hushed tones.
However, did you know that you can help banish ALL negative
emotion by adopting a physical presence and manner that’s just
the opposite of the emotion you’re trying to eliminate? If you
hold your head high, walk firmly upright with confidence and
speed, and speak in an excited tone, in no time at all you’ll
discover that that negative emotion slips away as your new
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behavior creates an entirely new mindset. What’s more, your
metabolic rate will follow suit. The more positive your emotional
level becomes, the greater the likelihood of your metabolism
regaining its normal—or a slightly elevated—state.
Try it and see for yourself. It works every time.
Take Action
One piece of good news is that we can take ACTION to modify
our emotions. For the same reasons that it’s difficult to maintain
a negative emotion when your body language is positive, it’s
also difficult to maintain a negative emotion when your actions
are positive.
If you start to feel any negative symptoms, you should take
immediate corrective action. Plan an activity which is the
opposite of the emotion you’re experiencing. Feeling down? Go
to a concert. Take your child or a niece or nephew to the zoo or
to a children’s museum. Volunteer for a cause you believe in.
Take up a new hobby, whether it’s a simple one like gardening
or a more demanding one like sailing, mountain climbing, or
bungee jumping. Try a new exercise regimen. Get out and meet
new people, and learn new things.
No matter what form it takes, becoming active and involved
Mastering Your Emotions and Your State of Mind 217
will give you a fresh view of what your life is about, enable you
to learn new skills and techniques, and recharge your batteries.
This not only builds good, positive emotions; it also alleviates
boredom, reinvigorates your work ethic, and reminds you of the
good you can actually accomplish.
Do One Thing at a Time
Another aid in managing your emotions is to concentrate on
your immediate task. Clear the desk and your head, and let
tomorrow’s job wait. It also helps to do the most difficult tasks
during your high-energy periods. You may want to map your
daily energy to determine your peak hours. Keep track of the
high-energy times of your day over a period of several weeks,
look for patterns, and then de-stress accordingly.
Avoid Perfectionism
Thinking that a job has to be done perfectly is a setup for
becoming overstressed. When you’re overstressed, your
performance levels decline—and that’s exactly the opposite of
what you want. Another trait that often accompanies
perfectionism is procrastination. If we tell ourselves a job has to
be done perfectly, we often put off doing it. That produces even
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greater stress and, ultimately, a vicious circle of defeat.
Stop Trying to Control Others
Worrying about things over which we have no control is a
fruitless and unrewarding mode of behavior. Remember
Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer:
Accept the things we cannot change,
change the things we can,
and have the wisdom to know the difference.
Plan Playtime into Each Day
Make a point of setting aside some time for play, and then
honor that commitment to yourself. What playtime consists of is
different for different people. For purposes of improving your
health and fitness, it would be best to plan “active” play into
each day (over and above your exercise time). An example
might be running around with your dog, playing a ten-minute
game of basketball, or taking a walk around the lake or through
the park on your lunch break.
Employers learned long ago that workers are more productive
when they take short breaks twice a day. A good option for desk
Mastering Your Emotions and Your State of Mind 219
workers would be to take a nice, brisk walk on their work break,
whether around the block or up and down the hallways. The
important thing is to build breaks into our day as a matter of
course. Whenever we avail ourselves of a chance to relax or to
take a break, we greatly minimize the negative effects of both
mental and physical stress.
In the end, it is you who are in charge of your emotions. And
though you cannot gain control of every single event in your life,
you can control your actions and your emotions and make them
both positive and constructive. Adopting the measures we’ve
discussed here will put you in charge of your life—and of your
metabolism.
So let’s sum up this chapter . . . . You cannot Maximize Your
Metabolism without shutting out negative or depressing
thoughts from your mind AND replacing them with positive,
exciting thoughts that are powerful enough to alter your
emotions and your actions. Speak positively to everyone you
meet, think only positive thoughts, and train yourself to move
about at double your usual speed.
Do this, starting today. I know it will be frustrating at first, but
hold onto the notion that you’re not doing this to benefit the
people you’re dealing with. Rather, you’re doing it for a strictly
selfish reason: to heighten your own metabolism.
13
Cut Years off of Your Efforts
Model the Behavior of Successful People
“Every successful person has at least one good lesson to teach.
Learn by other people’s mistakes!”
—Christopher V. Guerriero
Most attempts to change unwanted behavior fail. Even in the
most successful clinical weight-loss programs, most patients
who succeed in losing 10 percent of their body weight gain back
two-thirds of that weight in a year—and end up gaining all of it
back in five years.
The task of modifying one’s behavior, however, is neither
impossible nor hopeless. Our research has consistently shown
that one way the overweight and those who lead sedentary
lifestyles can mend their ways is to model their behavior after
an approach taken by someone who has already successfully
made a change in the desired direction. One of the most
valuable aspects of this book—and I hope you use it this way—
is that it can be followed as if the advice contained in it were
Cut Years off of Your Efforts 221
being given to you by your personal mentor. I’ve mentored
many people in my life, and perhaps the most surprising
(indeed flattering!) trait I’ve seen in each of my successful
clients/students/friends is their willingness to adopt most, if not
all, of what I do and to follow my lead in aspects of their life that
pertain to health and fitness.
As pointed out in an earlier part of this book, I’ve spent years
distilling all of the successful methods I’ve encountered over the
years. With the help of many clients, I’ve tested these methods
to ensure that the results people obtained in their quest for
better health and fitness could be duplicated. Finally, I’ve
documented them in this book.
Until you find models of your own, I suggest using this book as
your mentor. Keep it in your private library for repeated
reference, and make sure that whomever you choose as a
mentor understands everything that’s outlined herein.
When you model the behavior of a successful person, you
learn from their accomplishments as well as their mistakes. You
can then proceed to build upon their accomplishments and
avoid all the pitfalls that they encountered, thereby cutting years
off of your efforts!
Let’s face it, changing our behavior is often a lonely business.
Oftentimes, when we look for support we can’t find it, even—
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perhaps especially—from family members. In fact, family
members often turn out to be far more of a hindrance than a
help.
One study showed that the majority of survey respondents (74
percent) believed their mate was more likely to hinder their
progress than to help. When queried about specific
nonsupportive types of behavior, the respondents were
sweepingly disheartened:
· 78 percent claimed that their partner snacked in front of
them, despite the partner’s realization that observing the
snacking behavior made it more difficult for them to stick to
their healthful diet
· 47 percent said their partner insulted them about their
physical faults
· 70 percent felt that their partner “didn’t seem to care”
whether they were in shape or not
What About Active Support?
A remarkable 81 percent of partners “rarely compliment” them
on their achievements.
If you can’t get support at home, then where can you get the
help you need to fully utilize the techniques outlined in this
Cut Years off of Your Efforts 223
book? Well, there are two answers to this question. First, you
can buddy up with someone. Give a willing friend a copy of this
book, and ask them to read it concurrently with you. Then, after
reading it through once, review each chapter together and hold
each other accountable for following everything in that chapter.
The second answer is to find someone who has successfully
done what you want to do and model your behavior after their
winning ways.
There are two possible pitfalls, however, that you should
beware of:
First, you shouldn’t set out to model the behavior of someone
who has just recently lost a ton of weight, gained ten pounds of
muscle, or adopted a healthful lifestyle. People like that have
not yet had time to demonstrate long-term success; they have
only just begun. Although getting on track is your first goal—and
these would-be mentors may have your best interests at heart
in trying to help you get there—your main goal is to reach your
intended weight and then remain there by mastering your
metabolism. You shouldn’t get stuck on emulating the behavior
of someone who has yet to prove their perseverance over the
long haul.
Second, when people know that you’re using them as a role
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model or a mentor, they tend to act like an expert and may offer
their input to too great an extent, or in areas you don’t want help
in.
There are several ways to handle the mentoring of a person
who wants to help you but may not know where to draw the line.
My suggestion is to silently observe them. Don’t let them in on
your plan to use them as a role model. Just watch and interact
with them. Feed off their energy, but use what you’re learning
here as your bible, so that you can identify their shortcomings
and avoid following suit. But by all means, don’t hesitate to
absorb all of their positive traits.
You can also build your own fictitious mentoring group. This
process may seem foolish, but it has helped hundreds of my
clients reach their goals when they didn’t have a coach to help
them, or when I was already too booked up with personal
clients to take on any more.
To build your group, simply go to someplace that’s quiet and
mentally build a group of four or five “fictitious” people (it usually
helps to have both men and women in the group). Give each of
the members of your fictitious group a distinct personality that
will help you reach your goals.
For example, one member may have reached his/her goal
weight years ago and may still look incredible. That person is
Cut Years off of Your Efforts 225
the one who should tell you what you can expect and how to
avoid all the pitfalls you may encounter along the way. Such a
person may also be a bit more critical of you, and may try to get
you to reach beyond your goals—simply because they did it,
they succeeded in keeping off their excess weight. Give
personalities to each of the members of your fictitious group,
and make them all very positive thinkers who use only helpful
motivational advice to guide you.
Now that you have your fictitious mentoring group, you must
set up regular meetings with them. Never show up late for a
meeting, and they’ll never let you down. They’ll always be there
if you need to have an emergency meeting before you go out to
eat with your friends, or if your spouse has just prepared a big,
greasy meal for dinner and there’s nothing healthful for you to
eat.
Use your group to give you all the positive support you need,
and never tell anyone else about your group.
The fictitious mentoring group is one of the most powerful
health and fitness techniques ever studied. Use it wisely and
often, and you’ll soon see why so many people can attribute
their success to this process. If you have family members or
friends who are well informed about weight loss and the role
that metabolism plays in it and are clearly supportive in helping
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you achieve your goals, use them as well.
D.R. Black demonstrated that couples lost significantly more
weight than individual participants in a controlled weight-loss
study (Health Psychology, 1990, 9:330–347). A study by J.B.
Lassner showed similar results: behavior-change programs
based on a family systems approach were more successful
than programs without such support (Annals of Behavioral
Medicine, 1991, 13:66–72). A common conclusion among
studies of this type is that enhanced social support improves
one’s chances of long-term maintenance of weight loss.
Modeling Made Easy
A role model is a person you admire and whose behavior you
want to emulate. The most important trait you should be looking
for in a role model is successful achievement of what you wish
to achieve.
This is true in any endeavor you might choose, not just in
taking up a diet and exercise program. If you want to be more
successful in your work, for example, seek out a person who’s
already successfully doing the type of work you do, and learn
from that person’s successes—and, yes, even from their
failures.
Cut Years off of Your Efforts 227
It makes no sense whatsoever for you to bumble and stumble
along, learning a new mode of behavior, when there’s an ample
supply of successful others out there who may be eager to
share the secrets of their accomplishments with you. When you
find such a person, learn as much as you can about how they
achieved their goals, and learn to read into each person, so
you’ll be able to distinguish between when they’re just bragging
and when they’re actually telling you what made them
successful.
Role-Model Checklist
How much do you know about the person you admire most? His
or her success is probably the most obvious trait that you’ve
noticed, but that one attribute may not prove to be sufficient.
Besides having already achieved what you are setting out to
achieve, a role model should have the following qualities:
honesty
commitment
sense of humor
determination
good self-image
high moral values
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Things to review and do
1. Describe the characteristics of the person you wish to
model.
2. Do some research on where you’ll most likely find such a
mentor.
3. Begin looking for the kind of mentor you have in mind.
Keeping Company with Other Successful Individuals
When you keep company with winners in your pursuit of
increased metabolism, some of their desire to achieve will rub
off on you. That’s one of the reasons given by dieting clubs
such as Weight Watchers and Overeaters Anonymous for the
higher rates of permanent weight loss among their members
than among dieters who try to go it alone. Let’s face it, getting in
shape can be a lonely and difficult business. All too often, the
dieter gets little or no help from his or her family and friends. I
realize that these people want to help, but frankly, they most
likely don’t know how to support your efforts to change.
To improve your chances of success, seek out supportive
friends who share your desire to rid themselves of unwanted
Cut Years off of Your Efforts 229
behavior. Share this book with them, and begin living in a new,
more healthful way.
Books That Offer Models
Just as you can learn to model your behavior after that of others
with whom you associate, you can do the same thing by reading
about the successful exploits of others.
You’d be surprised at how many others have tried and
succeeded at doing precisely what you want to do. Some of
them have gone on to write books about their trials, travails, and
eventual achievement. Let me point out some of the books I’d
recommend as being useful as you attempt to build up your
enthusiasm and a strong will.
One such book is Psycho-Cybernetics, by Maxwell Maltz. This
perennial bestseller has helped thousands of people just like
you improve their lives through a remarkable program of
exercises, many of which entail modeling the behavior of others
who have been successful. Maltz suggests that you seek out
these people, observe their behavior, and then imagine yourself
performing in the same successful way.
Still another book which is excellent reading is Napoleon Hill’s
Think and Grow Rich. This upbeat work will teach you how to
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take a new look at yourself and will give you a realistic way to
achieve your goals, whatever they may be. Hill was one of the
first of the popular psychologists to recommend that you join
what he calls a “master-mind group,” a body of specially
selected people who have the same goal in mind. Hill also
recommends that you pattern your behavior after group
participants that you have specially selected for the successes
you wish to emulate. Hill’s book is mainly focused on building
wealth, but the techniques he uses are powerful, and they can
easily be converted and used to help people get into great
physical shape.
You might also choose any one of a number of good
biographies about outstanding men and women whose salutary
qualities you would do well to emulate. Contemporary mentors
who have achieved greatness in their area of expertise, such as
Lee Iacocca, Oprah Winfrey, Ted Turner, and Sandra Day
O’Connor, provide excellent modeling support. There is
something special in reading about the success of others that
strengthens one’s will to achieve. Reading, and the images it
creates, can awaken the vast inner energy within you, which
may have long been dormant and just waiting for such a revival.
I’m sure you’ll find many other books that will inspire you in
your quest for better health and fitness. Why not go to your
Cut Years off of Your Efforts 231
library today and choose a couple of these books for your
nightly reading project for the next thirty days? Books like these
will be tremendously effective in helping you switch to your new
mode of behavior. Your goal should include reading at least one
autobiography of a successful person, or one book on mental
training or self-improvement, each month.
What’s a Dieter to Do?
In the course of this program, you can take several steps to
improve your social support system for your weight-loss efforts
and increase your chances of success.
First, make plans to solicit social support from outside the
family. Help of this sort can come from many different sources—
books, mentors, friends, or your own fictitious mentoring group,
just to name a few.
Second, proactively enlist the help of your family. Include your
mate if you believe he or she can provide positive support for
you.
When one member of a family is not living healthfully or is
physically unfit, that sends a ripple effect through the entire
family unit. The other side of the family-influence coin is that
every member of the family can eventually share in the benefits
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of a proper diet and fitness regimen. Just make sure, as stated
earlier, that you first start the ball rolling by yourself. First, read
this book from cover to cover, and then reread it one chapter at
a time, putting the various dieting, exercise, and emotional
management techniques into effect as you go. Next, start your
visualization program (which will be explained in detail in
chapter 14). Then, begin your mentoring program. Finally, invite
your family to share in your new energy and enthusiasm toward
your diet.
Third, get active! Ask for the help you need but are not
getting. It will do absolute wonders for your motivation and selfconfidence.
Invite compliments, ask for greater help with your
challenges, and solicit your partner’s cooperation in your dieting
or fitness regimen. At the very minimum, convince your partner
to do his/her snacking in private.
Bear in mind that role models can motivate, but only if they
are people whose achievements we find attainable. Comparing
ourselves or our loved ones to superachievers won’t shame us
into performing better. It will simply leave us feeling worse.
14
Mind–Body Link and Laser Visualization
Your Body Is a Direct Reflection of the Way
You See Yourself When You Close Your Eyes!
Change How You See Yourself,
and You’ll Change How Others See You!
Success, in the minds of many people, is an outside force that
controls the direction of their lives. They believe in the outdated
idea that “as the twig is bent, so grows the tree.” In fact, they
believe so strongly in that old adage that they grow up to lead
lives that are governed by their past. They falsely harbor
thoughts and feelings to the effect that dramatic change and
self-improvement are impossible goals.
Unfortunately, until some awesome crisis causes them to
confront their mistaken notion of reality and they actually accept
responsibility for their fate, they’ll continue to float through life
being mere passengers on a ship of fate that’s steered by
others and by “luck.” Their lifestyle will continue to be one of
groping and coping, or of just “getting by.” Such a lifestyle and
thought pattern will take over every aspect of their lives, from
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their health to their appearance, from their fitness level to their
finances, and will even paralyze them in their relationships.
The reality is that all of us can take charge of our lives and
shape our destinies through a planned program of visualization
exercises that can truly make us winners in all departments of
life: in our physical health, our careers, our family relationships,
our friendships, and virtually every other aspect as well.
I like to refer to this higher plane of living as being in a state of
Laser Visualization, meaning that you have practiced and
honed your ability to visualize the present and your desired
future to such a degree that you can see it without ever closing
your eyes. It means you can see the world around you, not as
others see it, but rather as you have determined that you want it
to look. It’s all a matter of your outlook on life.
We all know that when we are depressed, nothing we do
seems to go right. What usually triggers depression?
Depression is triggered by the way we react to a certain person
or event, such as a rainy day. If you tended to get depressed
and sleepy when you were younger simply because it was a
rainy day, then you probably still get sleepy and depressed
whenever it rains.
Did you know there are people who actually get excited when
it rains? What about all those kids who grow up loving to play in
Mind–Body Link and Laser Visualization 235
the rain? What kinds of feelings do you think they associate with
rainy days? Let me tell you, rainy days are playtimes for them.
The moral of this story is that the rain does not determine your
feelings, nor does it determine how you will act that day. You
are in control of your every mood, and of every reaction you
have to events and other people.
Let’s look at another example that may be closer to home for
you. Think of someone you really love (or someone you’re really
intimidated by—either scenario will work here). If you’re in a bad
mood, thinking about someone you truly love has a tendency to
bring you right out of that mood. If you’re in a great mood but
you’re told that you have to make a presentation to your
intimidating boss, you might click into a depressed or
introverted mood for your presentation.
You see, in both cases most people would allow themselves
to be controlled by the event, rather than deciding to take
charge and to be in control of how the event affected them.
Once you attain the state of Laser Visualization, you will be in
control of every event in your life, and minor things like a rainy
day or a presentation to your boss will not divert you from
reaching your goal!
Laser Visualization Changes Everything
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Being in a state of Laser Visualization consists basically of
imagining things. I use the term Laser Visualization because
this psychological process can carve new successes and
destinies with the most stunning accuracy and efficiency. After
you practice the techniques in this chapter, you’ll be able to
focus your thoughts like a powerful laser beam, drawing into
your life whatever you focus on throughout the day.
New research suggests that the superior achievements of
famous thinkers may have been more the result of mental
conditioning and visualization than of genetic superiority. You
can learn to condition your mind in the same way and improve
your performance in virtually all aspects of life.
This laser technique enables you to bypass old, outdated
inhibitions and access the core realities hidden in your own
subconscious. It is believed that the famous physicist Albert
Einstein, for example, spent hours imagining what it would be
like to travel at the speed of light. It was through this technique
of visualization that he was able to create his famous theories of
time and space.
Nikola Tesla, another great physicist, was said to visualize all
of his famous discoveries (such as the principle of the rotating
magnetic field) before he made them, and all of his inventions
(including wireless communication and fluorescent lights) before
Mind–Body Link and Laser Visualization 237
he built them.
Much as for these scientific luminaries, visualization can be
YOUR inner guide, the internal compass that directs you
unerringly toward the important goals of your life. It’s already
there, waiting in your mind’s eye right now, yearning to be
developed.
Visualization can make your dream body become a reality
Interestingly enough, we use visualization in our lives every
day—sometimes for good purposes, but, more often than not,
for uses that stifle our development.
To understand how that happens, let’s look first at the
Universal Laws of imagination, mind, and achievement. These
are the principles that have guided the successes of men and
women throughout the ages.
Let me again explain the concept of a Universal Law. A
Universal Law is a law that is not refutable by anyone. It cannot
be opposed in any way, and it cannot be altered by anyone. We
must move in accordance with these laws, just as humans have
done since the beginning of time. Perhaps the most visual of
these laws to use as an example is the Law of Gravity. When
Sir Isaac Newton was sitting under that legendary apple tree
and stumbled upon this law, the apple that fell on his head had
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no choice of direction in which to fall once the twig had
snapped. It could not have moved upward or sideways. The
Law states that any object that is not significantly affected by air
resistance will be drawn directly downward, to the earth. All
other Universal Laws are equally unbreakable.
Law Number 1: The mental images and ideas we hold in our
minds produce the physical reality and the activities to
which the images correspond.
Law Number 2: A human being always acts in accordance
with the mental images and ideas he/she holds and accepts
as either true or false, real or imagined, regardless of their
source.
“The imagination,” according to the great success writer
Napoleon Hill, “is literally the workshop wherein are fashioned
all plans created by man. The impulse, the desire, is given
shape, form and action through the aid of the imagination
faculty of the mind.”
What Hill is saying is that before we can really achieve
something we desire, we must first have an image of that reality
already alive in our imagination. And, according to Universal
Law Number 1, once the visualization or idea of the thing has
been created, willpower will see to it that the physical
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counterpart to the thing is created. You will enable your
willpower to create its counterpart in reality: a dynamically
slim, youthful, energetic body.
We must remember that everything in our world is made up of
energy. Your thoughts, for example, are energy. And thought is
an energy that can be transferred into its physical equivalent.
A sculptor will have a visualization, an idea, of what he or she
wants to create before even beginning to shape and mold. A
child may dream of being an actress long before she ever takes
an acting lesson. Dreams, of course, are forms of visualization.
And studies show that people who have a clear idea of what
they want are far more likely to achieve it.
We have all seen evidence of this in our own lives. Whenever
we have an idea that we think about constantly, our minds
cannot help churning out concepts and actions to turn that idea
into reality: a better job, a more workable relationship with our
spouse or children, a better way of doing something. If we can
imagine the solution to our problem, we can create a solution in
reality.
A special note of caution is in order here: The opposite is also
true—and must be avoided at all cost! Whenever you
consistently think bad thoughts, bad things will be drawn into
your life. If you constantly harbor thoughts of your relationship
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being bad, you will cause your relationship to become bad. If
you constantly picture yourself as being fat, out of shape,
unhealthy, sickly, or unmotivated, you will draw these things into
your life! And this will happen unless you switch from harboring
negative thoughts to entertaining positive, successful thoughts.
You can engage in visualization at any time of the day. In fact,
when you have become good at this process, you’ll be able to
hold on to the goals you have visualized, even while you’re
working, sleeping, talking, driving, etc. And once you become
good at this, your mind will actually be stronger and more
receptive to your current needs.
Although you could practice visualization at any time, I
suggest that you do your visualizing while you’re as deeply
relaxed as possible, and that you do this as frequently—and for
as long a time—as is convenient for you. You don’t need to go
into a trance-like meditation. What is important is clarity and
singularity of focus. In that respect, it’s like daydreaming,
something we just naturally do all the time. The biggest
difference is that daydreaming is a random, almost involuntary
preoccupation, whereas Laser Visualization is planned,
purposeful, and goal oriented.
The Imagination Can Do Our Bidding
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The second principle of visualization is even more important
than the first. This law states, in effect, that a person always
acts, feels, and performs in accordance with the images in his
or her mind, regardless of where they come from. When you
think and believe in yourself as a “winner,” for example, your
mind will retain any thoughts and beliefs that are appropriate to
this mindset, and it will automatically discard any thoughts and
ideas that are unsupportive.
The second law states, in addition, that the mind never acts in
a vacuum. It will process any visualization, any thought or idea
it receives, regardless of the source. The subconscious mind
makes no distinction whatsoever between constructive and
destructive thoughts and images. Nor does it judge whether the
material it receives is true or false, real or imagined.
The more important point—and this is a powerfully important
discovery—is this: The subconscious will do this with any
information it gets, even with images which you purposefully
plant in your subconscious. Using Laser Visualization, you
can learn to use your mind to intentionally create whatever you
want in your life, including a better, healthier body.
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As We Visualize, So We Become
Keep repeating to your son that he is stupid and worthless, and
before long he’ll reproduce that image in reality. In other words,
he’ll start behaving as if he were stupid and worthless. Since
you have been feeding him visualizations of a “loser,” he’ll start
selecting and accepting from his world those images and ideas
that support the notion that he is worthless.
On the other hand, tell your son that he is exceptionally bright,
and although he may have only average intelligence, he will
begin to act on the visualizations you’ve put into his head and
will perform according to this new self-image. He’ll actually
begin to perform as a better-than-average student.
Again, remember that it makes no difference whether your
images are true or false. If you perceive them to be true, they
will carry full weight with you.
Food for Thought
Feed your mind thoughts about a fat, slovenly body, incapable
of serious exercise and metabolic change, and that age-old
saying “whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap” is sure
to be fulfilled. Before you know it, you’ll be binging on ice cream
and brownies, and continuing your life as a couch potato.
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Feed your mind visuals about slimness, health, and a happier,
more fit you, and your mind will find harmonizing thoughts,
ideas, and actions from the world around it to turn these
pictures into the real thing: a permanently thinner you. The
winners’ circle will soon be yours!
Why not visualize yourself as fit, vibrant, and beautiful?
Realizing that your actions, feelings, and behavior are the
direct result of the images and beliefs with which you nourish
your mind, you have the perfect tool you need to build a better
body. By evoking mental pictures of yourself having
successfully boosted your metabolism (becoming fit, eating
right, and being in good health), you’ll provide yourself with the
images your willpower needs to turn your goals into reality.
Getting Started
Your first step in controlling your mind–body link through proper
visualization is to decide what you want to look like. What do
you want to physically and mentally change about yourself?
Remember, your body is a direct reflection of the way you see
yourself when you close your eyes! Change how you see
yourself and you’ll change how others see you!
I know what you’re thinking: “But I went through this process
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in an earlier chapter. Why do I have to do it again?” Well, let me
make two comments about that:
First, the more you write and re-write your affirmation, your
statement of success, and your goals, the more focused you will
be and the more honed or polished they will become. If you rewrote
your goals twenty times a day, each day making them
crisper and more accurate, you wouldn’t be wasting a single
second. In fact, you’d be doing more for yourself this way than
by almost any other step you could take toward reaching your
goals.
Second, what I want you to do in this chapter is different. This
exercise will help you take what you’ve already written and
make it clearer and more precise. Remember, the more focused
your goals, the faster they will become a reality.
All I want you to do here is to describe in writing the person
you have set out to become, in simple, declarative language.
And here’s the most important thing: write your description of
your dream self as if the changes have already taken place.
Your goal, in the visualization exercises that follow, is to add as
many visual and emotional details to this “picture” as possible.
You might write something like this:
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Now that I have lost thirty pounds, my clothes are
fitting more loosely. My metabolism is a fat-burning
furnace. I’m losing weight, I have tons of energy, and I
feel great!
Visualize yourself in such a way that you portray your success
as completely and accurately as possible. Picture yourself in
happy situations, enjoying your successes as if they were
already yours. Make sure you see this very clearly. You might
be able to reinforce your visualization by actually drawing a
picture of your goal body.
Finally, believe with all your heart that the object of your
visualization, your goal body, is yours—or will become yours.
Remember, any disbelief will simply introduce negative energy
into the situation and will dilute the power of this exercise. Once
you see that you have indeed achieved your ideal body,
acknowledge that you made it happen and be proud of yourself!
Now go out and live life in the knowledge that you are already
at your goal weight, that you’ve already achieved your success,
and that you’re already proud of all you’ve achieved. Your body
will soon resemble the picture that you have in your mind.
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How to Visualize
I want you to do just what I’ve outlined above, and to do it every
day for the next thirty days. Set aside a time each day when you
can relax, uninterrupted, a time when you can let your
imagination run free and wild.
You might choose to do this exercise in the morning before
you arise, or perhaps at the end of the day before you go to
sleep. For that matter, you can do this exercise at any time of
the day. The more positive energy you send out, the more you
will get back. That’s just the way the Universe works.
Any comfortable spot will do: a bed, a couch, an easy chair,
even at your desk. The important thing is that your mind be free
from distractions: away from phones, kids, and computers;
away from it all.
Find your spot, and then make a conscious effort to relax each
part, each muscle of your body, one by one. Start with your
head and neck, and work your way down to your toes. This
should take several minutes. As you perform this relaxation
exercise, take slow, deep breaths. Allow yourself to become as
relaxed as possible. Close your eyes and let your thoughts drift
inward.
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Your First Week
During the first seven days of this exercise, picture as vividly as
possible how rewarding and satisfying your life will become
when you achieve the body of your dreams. Keep a running list
in your personal journal of all the benefits of your maximized
metabolism.
Think of how you will behave once you achieve your goal
weight, fitness level, or eating regimen. Make these pictures as
detailed as possible. Are you confident and self-assured? Are
you achieving success in the other areas of your life as well?
See yourself acting confidently and deliberately in those
situations that have caused you embarrassment in the past.
See yourself behaving with assuredness, poise, and, above all,
determination, especially in circumstances where you may have
previously wilted with trepidation. At the gym. On the track. In a
new dress or suit. At a business meeting. At your wedding or
high-school reunion.
Hold these pictures in your mind as long as you can. Turn
them over again and again. Look for new detail, added
dimension, colorful nuance—and, perhaps most of all, rich
emotion.
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Your Second Week
Emotions are crucial to the process of visualization.
When combined with your emotions, your visualizations will
sharpen and intensify your ability to change your ways of
thinking and your behavior, much as a magnifying glass focuses
and intensifies the rays of the sun.
The need to incorporate your emotions into the process of
visualization is precisely the point that most other so-called selfhelp
gurus miss. You see, affirmations in and of themselves
don’t work, and positive thinking alone is practically a waste of
your time. As a matter of fact, none of this mental training will
do much of anything for you UNLESS you mix emotion in with it!
Emotions are the spark plugs that start that beautiful car sitting
in your garage. No matter how beautiful that car is, no matter
how fast the engine, no matter how many times you wax it, it
won’t go anywhere without spark plugs. Likewise, your positive
self-talk and all your visualization training won’t go anywhere in
the absence of strong emotions.
I’m thinking about emotions such as love, happiness,
confidence, joy, self-respect, etc. When you drench your
visualizations with these emotions, they are twice as valuable
as goal-directing devices. How do you feel when your
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metabolism is under your complete control? Happy? What
emotions do you experience when you show off a sleek, welltoned
body? Well, remember the emotions that you experience
at times like that. In fact, remember them fifty times a day.
The more you experience those emotions while picturing
your goal body, the faster your results will come.
Since Laser Visualization is new to most of you, it will take
time and practice to achieve its most important results. Your
powers of visualization may have grown diffuse and weak from
disuse. But your imagination can become more vivid, more
effective, through use and training, just as any muscle or organ
of the body becomes stronger through use.
Be particularly careful to focus on visions that reflect your
reasons for mastering your metabolism and becoming
physically fit, and be sure to add the special leavening agent of
emotion. Think not just in terms of being thin, but of being
happily and joyously thin. Or thin and sexy. You know what I
mean.
Imagine each benefit in its smallest detail, so that you become
thoroughly familiar with every aspect of the idea. By doing so,
you will set for yourself a pattern, and create a mold, after which
your inner life will shape your outer life. You will generate wellwww.
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beaten mental paths, “habits,” along which your visualization
can travel in its search for shapely expression. Repeat the
same visual pictures again and again, and a new, sexier you
will take shape before your very eyes.
Your Third and Fourth Weeks
In the third and fourth weeks, the time you devote to your
visualization exercises must grow longer, first to twenty minutes,
and then to thirty minutes or more. You see, once you’ve
mastered this technique, you will be holding your image twentyfour
hours a day. That twenty- to thirty-minute period of intense
training will act simply as a booster, or a refresher, of your
actual affirmation or statement of success.
Visualize yourself as being powerfully strong and in control of
every aspect of your life. See yourself routinely saying no to
junk food and other temptations that slow your metabolism. See
how much better you’ll look, in full detail—and get emotional
about it!
It Works!
Successful users of the program outlined in this book have
profited from this technique over and over again. Many were
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skeptical at first, but in no time at all they found themselves
vigorously reducing the gap between their inner and outer
selves.
In his book Psycho-Cybernetics, Maxwell Maltz recounts the
miracles that many men and women have achieved by
visualization. His work cites how a salesman increased his
sales by 400 percent, simply by imagining he was successful;
how a world-famous chess player and a professional golfer
“practiced” winning plays in their imagination; and how a
renowned concert pianist became great by practicing the piano
“in his head.”
Napoleon Hill, Shakti Gawain, William Atkinson, and Robert
Assagioli, as well as many famous students of visualization who
came before them, recognized the vital role that visualization
plays in achieving lifelong dreams, whether the dream is to
develop the perfect body or to make a million dollars.
This daily exercise will lend new determination and
resoluteness to your willpower. These visions, rich with desiresupporting
emotions, will become new memories, new “tapes” if
you will, that your mind will automatically “play” when your
program needs a temporary boost. Just as negative “old tapes”
can drag you down, these new tapes you create through laser
visualization will force your subconscious mind to help you
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reach your goal.
Before long, you’ll see yourself spontaneously acting with
confidence and poise. You’ll find that you can effortlessly and
successfully follow the program and create the new you.
Words of Power
One exercise that is quite helpful in fostering positive visions is
called Words of Power. The secret here is to think of the words
that produce vivid images of success. Only you can provide the
words, since only you know which words have the power to
evoke strong, positive mental images of your success—words
that are also laden with emotion.
Examples of words of power you might choose are energetic,
youthful, dynamic, and sexy. You be the judge. To bring these
words alive in your imagination, write your words of power in
your journal as many times as you can. My guess is that you’ll
choose two or three words, and that you’ll write each of them
anywhere from two hundred to four hundred times. Every time
you do this, they will be further ingrained in your psyche and the
emotions associated with them will be strengthened.
As you begin what appears to be a genuinely tedious task, an
interesting thing will happen: your mind will start drifting from
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the mechanical labor of writing the words, and you’ll
unconsciously start visualizing what your words of power mean
to you.
You’ll start daydreaming about how much more sexy and
attractive you’ll look when you’re thin: the clothes you’ll wear,
the places you’ll go, the people you’ll meet, and how they’ll
instantly feel about you. Think about these images and keep
writing. They’ll keep coming just as long as you keep writing.
When the images stop presenting themselves and your mind
drifts to another subject, that’s the time to move on to the next
word.
This is a fabulous exercise. Try it and you’ll see! You can even
use your words of power while exercising or while eating
healthful foods. In fact, just thinking about your power words
can begin the flow of desire-building images, emotions, and
energy.
Selecting Your Power Words
Right now, make up a list of power words, your “dieting
vocabulary.” Perhaps the words that light up your desire are
skinny, trim, and attractive, though you’re not limited to
selecting words that have something to do with dieting per se.
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At least some of your power words may be pertinent to
successes in other areas of your life that are associated with
being very attractive and energized. So be it.
Affirmations Spur Your Visualizations
Making daily affirmations is another excellent way to help the
visualization process bring about your desired outcome. To
affirm something means to state it as the truth. There is always
some thought or idea running through your mind that you could
affirm. This “self-talk” can be either positive or negative, and it’s
very often unconscious.
As you’re getting dressed in the morning, taking a shower,
going about your work, or driving someplace, your mind is
thinking thoughts, some of which are positive and some of
which are negative. There is no such thing as an “in-between”
My Personal Words of Power
1. ________________________________
2. ________________________________
3. ________________________________
4. ________________________________
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thought; every thought you have is either a help or a hindrance
to achieving your goals. There are no gray areas here.
If you are not in full control, monitoring your thoughts and
training yourself to think positively at all times, your mind will
take the garbage that others are showering on you and use it to
form negative images. The negativity may come from the
morning news, or from coworkers, or from any of the persons,
places, and events that subconsciously influence you
throughout the day. You can put a stop to this influx of
negativity by training yourself to think positive thoughts, to feel
positive emotions, and to repeat positive affirmations throughout
the day—especially the ones that are associated with
maximizing your metabolism.
Making affirmations is one way in which we can consciously
utilize our self-talk to purposely create good in our lives. They
work for the same reason that visualizations work: our
subconscious mind has this miraculous ability to translate
visualizations into reality, thoughts into results.
An affirmation should be stated in the present, as if it is
already valid, and it should be repeated as often as possible—
many times a day is best. Phrases that begin with “I am” and “I
have” are very effective. An affirmation that has to do with good
health might go something like this: I am healthy and well, and
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every day I feel better and more energized.
You Can’t Go Wrong!
My clients have profited from this technique over and over
again. Controlling themselves became easier, and developing
the staying power they needed in order to achieve their goals
became more natural.
This daily exercise will fan the flames of desire, lending fresh
determination and resoluteness to your new diet and exercise
regimen. And the visions you experience, rich with desiresupporting
emotions, will provide new memories that you can
mentally repeat over and over again when you need a mental or
physical boost.
Practice Makes Perfect
As you practice these exercises each day, you’ll be amazed at
how quickly they’ll incite your desire to the level that’s needed
for successful self-change. Moreover, you can do these
exercises at any time or in any situation. They’ll continue to
work for as long as you continue to use them, and they’ll point
the way to an exciting future—but only if you allow them to do
so.
15
Massage Therapy
Let Someone Else Do the Work
While You Reap All the Benefits
To many newcomers to the Maximize Your Metabolism
program, treating yourself to a therapeutic massage may seem
to be just a pretentious self-indulgence, the kind of pampering
that’s to be enjoyed only by those who can afford to frequent a
pricey spa or exercise boutique.
The truth is that massage can do a lot of good for anyone, but
especially for those who are serious about improving their
health, reducing their physical and mental stress, and
maximizing their metabolism.
The aim of massage therapy is to work on the body in order to
free up the mind, but it also frees up all the toxins stored within
your muscles and the destructive stresses that are embedded
within your other vital systems. The concept of a mind–body
connection dates back to the ancient Chinese, who believed
that all illness was the result of imbalance and disharmony
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between the body and the mind.
German psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich has probably done as
much as anyone to solidify the mind–body link in recent times.
Reich, a contemporary of Sigmund Freud, believed that
emotions don’t just drift through the brain, but that they also
show up in the body, often becoming enmeshed in muscles,
where they remain unexpressed, thereby creating stress,
tension, and mental and physical pain.
To get his patients back in touch with these unexpressed
feelings, Reich manipulated and massaged their bodies, putting
pressure on certain key areas in an attempt to undo the
negative effects that had accumulated. Reich believed that once
the toxic deposits due to unexpressed emotional states were
broken up and the unpleasant memories of those states were
eliminated, he could then proceed to use the more traditional,
talk-oriented therapy.
Whatever the origins of massage, it works. It has a
tremendous healing effect on both mind and body, and more
and more people are turning to massage for relief.
Let’s face it, most Americans do things to the extreme.
They’re so focused on their work that they don’t even notice that
they’ve sat all day staring at their computers or performing
tedious tasks around the office. Naturally, they end up with taut
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muscles, a stiff neck, and a backache, and massage works
wonders to relieve their pain and tension.
Scientific as well as psychological notions as to why massage
is beneficial abound. The most popular theory is that toxins
such as lactic acid accumulate in the muscles through normal
metabolism and exercise. Most of these toxins are removed by
the flow of blood through the body, but knots sometimes form in
the muscles, resulting in pain. Stroking, kneading, and other
manipulations used in Swedish and other forms of massage
bring about the hasty removal of both the knots and the toxins.
Massage Is Catching On
No wonder that in today’s go-go, high-stress society,
therapeutic massage is rapidly gaining even wider acceptance.
The newcomers tend to be people in high-pressure careers,
such as middle and upper managers, CEOs, stockbrokers,
bond traders, and lawyers. But the list doesn’t stop there.
Doctors, business owners, housewives, mothers, clerical
workers, and people in many other walks of life are availing
themselves of massage therapy as a way to increase their
productivity while reducing their daily stress. They go to
massage therapists because they want to relax and unwind.
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Most health clubs and chiropractors’ offices have added
massage to their menu of treatments. If a prospective client is
unable or unwilling to get to one of these types of places for a
massage, many of them will bring the massage to the client. Inoffice
and in-home visits are commonplace these days, and
they include everything from a full-body massage to just a
“chair” massage (a special chair is set up and the client is given
a fifteen-minute treatment, without disrobing).
Massage is often combined with modifications to the client’s
sensory environment. For example, relaxing music, soft colors,
and dim lighting can be incorporated into the process. It’s all
part of a holistic, mind–body approach to good health.
How Massage Helps
Researchers aren’t precisely sure about all of the benefits that
massage exerts on the human body and mind. But there is no
doubt whatsoever that the benefits are significant, or that they
are both immediate and long lasting.
By stimulating blood circulation and oxygen flow through the
muscles, massage helps to lower blood pressure, speed up
healing of injured tissue, and aid in keeping muscles supple.
But it is not a panacea, and it is not recommended for those
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with circulatory ailments. For those of you who are wondering,
one thing massage will not do is permanently rub away excess
weight.
The list of benefits a given person can expect to attain from
one massage session is quite lengthy. The list of benefits one
can expect from massage performed on a regular basis is easily
twice as long. Those benefits include an increased metabolic
rate, which comes about by improving how all of the other
bodily systems work.
For example, you’ve heard the expression “the chain is only
as strong as its weakest link.” Well, the body can function only
as well as its weakest link, and the metabolism can be only as
healthy as its weakest link. Massage helps soothe the stress
away from many of our internal organs: the muscles and all of
the other systems in our body. When stress is reduced, our
body simply functions better.
Here are just a few ways in which it does so:
Massage both calms and relaxes. Part of that has to do with
the relaxed environment and the therapeutic context in which
the massage generally occurs. This soothing effect is then
heightened by the professional yet caring touch of a qualified
massage therapist. It works out knots in the muscles, releases
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physical stress, soothes the mind, and just plain feels good.
Massage promotes flexibility, since many massage routines
involve stretching and caressing tired and aching muscle
groups. It kneads away stress and improves the elasticity of the
muscles.
Massage eases pain, tension, and fatigue for those
suffering from a variety of medical conditions, including lowback
pain, cancer, and sickle-cell anemia. This pain-reducing
capability is thought to be the result, in part, of the ability of
massage to increase the body’s natural production of the brain
chemical serotonin, which is associated with pain reduction.
Massage can relieve respiratory conditions such as
asthma and emphysema, according to the Encyclopedia of
Natural Healing. It can also balance the nervous system and
improve sleep quality.
Circulation and Metabolism
Therapeutic massage is especially beneficial for men and
women who want to improve their metabolism, because it
improves circulation—and circulation aids proper and effective
metabolism. Massage has long been associated with pain
reduction; the reason, of course, is that massage alters
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circulation. Relaxation is a physiological reaction that causes
blood vessels to dilate, improving blood flow. In addition, proper
massage can increase the flow of oxygen to the skin and
muscles, prevent illness by boosting the immune system, and
improve the circulation of the lymph and blood vessels, which
replenish the tissues with needed nutrients. Blood flow is
important to improving the metabolism and oxygenating the
blood, as discussed earlier.
Types of Massage
There are literally hundreds of different styles of massage
therapy around today, and that number is growing as massage
therapists around the world dream up new approaches. There’s
everything from basic Swedish massage to Rolfing, raindrop
massage, and hot-rock therapy. There are probably just as
many different types of massage as there are reasons for
having a massage performed. What’s more, the various
massage techniques can be applied either singly or in
combination.
Swedish massage, the most familiar technique, uses oils to
reduce friction, and it employs long, full strokes along with
kneading and pounding motions. In the newly popular Japanese
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Shiatsu and Chinese acupressure, the fingers are used to apply
pressure along certain paths on the body in order to release chi
(trapped energy). Other techniques include deep-tissue or
structural massage, and reflexology, which focuses on the feet
and hands.
For those of you who have no experience with massage
therapy, let me say that the therapeutic massage regimen that I
recommend involves five basic strokes:
· Effleurage, to smooth and extend muscles
· Petrissage, to knead tense muscles
· Friction, to release knots deep in the muscles
· Vibration, to help minimize tension and fatigue
· Tapotement, to stimulate and excite the muscles
Swedish Massage
Most of us are familiar with the so-called Swedish massage.
This is the style we so often see in the movies or on television.
It uses long, gliding strokes as well as kneading and friction
techniques. Its focus is principally on reducing muscle tension
and inducing general relaxation.
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Sports Massage
Sports massage, on the other hand, is a newer form of
massage therapy that was developed to provide important
benefits to those who engage in athletics, whether it be
professionals, weekend runners, or weightlifters.
The purpose of sports massage is to help maintain your
physical condition; boost your energy, endurance, and
metabolism; improve your range of athletic motion; and prevent
injuries to your muscles and tendons.
Developed in the 1980s, this industry has grown to such a
degree that it’s now a major component of sports medicine and
a permanent fixture at many professional and amateur sporting
events. Visit most exercise and fitness centers today and you’ll
find therapists who practice sports massage. You’ll also
encounter them at casual weekend sporting events such as 10K
races, not to mention major events such as the Olympic games,
Ironman competitions, Goodwill and Pan-American games,
bicycle races, and big-city marathons.
Competitive athletes aren’t the only ones who can—or
should—reap the rewards of sports massage, however. Anyone
who exercises on the level that’s recommended in this book can
benefit from it. In fact, sports massage helps the muscles to
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deal with the repetitive motions inherent in the aerobic and
anaerobic activities that are part of the Maximize Your
Metabolism program.
Massage, Exercise, and Metabolism
When your muscles are tense, the blood can’t flow through
them efficiently, so that your body doesn’t get the oxygen and
nutrients it needs. As a result, your metabolism becomes
sluggish, which in turn causes pain, stiffness, spasms, and
cramps. Frequent massage can help you perform up to your
potential and lower your vulnerability to injury.
Muscles get sore when their fibers become abnormally
constricted. This can be due to tension, lack of stretching, or
overactivity. Sports massage works to get the kinks out so that
muscles can perform optimally.
Deep Muscle Benefits
Sports massage differs from your garden-variety massage in
both technique and purpose. A sports massage therapist
manipulates the muscles, and the soft tissues around them, to
spread out the constricted muscle fibers. This powerful action
enhances circulation to those tissues, relaxing the muscles and
Massage Therapy 267
reducing pain as it promotes the release of endorphins, the
body’s natural painkillers, into the bloodstream.
As with other types of massage, sports massage improves the
flow of lymph fluid, which carries immune-boosting white blood
cells and also filters out toxins and waste products. Active
people especially need their systems cleared of waste products
such as lactic acid.
Lactic acid is one of the by-products of physical activity. It’s
the end product in the metabolism of glucose during the
anaerobic production of energy. Muscles give off lactic acid
during exercise; as a result, it can build up in the body.
Eventually, the body will rid itself of such by-products on its
own. In fact, as your body adapts to increased levels of
exercise, it also improves in its ability to remove lactic acid from
the system. In the meantime, massage speeds up that process,
and so the muscles are more quickly prepared for the next bout
of activity.
Sports-massage therapists use a particular combination of
massage strokes, timing them in a certain way in order to heal
and relax the muscles while energizing the body. Different
techniques are employed, depending on whether the massage
is being given before an exercise session or just for purposes of
relaxation.
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When to Have a Massage
Whenever you feel tense, achy, or out of sorts, a massage can
do you wonders. Massage can also become a regular part of
your metabolic-enhancing routine if you incorporate it into your
weekly or bimonthly regimen.
Getting the Right Touch
Any massage that you receive will be no better than the skill
and technique of the person who delivers it. Here’s what you
should look for in booking your massage:
First, check with your local department of health about the
regulation of massage in your area, and find out what types of
credentials a massage therapist needs in order to practice. In
some localities, massage therapists need to be licensed by the
state, while other areas rely on licensing by the county or city,
and still others require nothing!
Second, determine whether your prospective massage
therapist has the proper licensure and certification.
Professionals should be certified in either “therapeutic
massage” or “body work” by the independent National
Certification Board for Massage. Make sure your chosen
Massage Therapy 269
massage therapist has completed at least a two-year academic
program in the art of massage and has had at least the
minimum number of hours of practical training required to
become a Registered Massage Therapist (RMT).
If you want a proper sports massage, it may be a good idea to
insist that your therapist be a member of the American Massage
Therapy Association (AMTA). To check on practitioners in your
area, you can visit the AMTA on the Web, at
www.amtamassage.org.
Third, seek the recommendations of others. If you’re scouting
around for a therapist, there is nothing that beats references
from friends. Word-of-mouth advertising nearly always proves to
be beneficial when it comes to selecting someone who will be
laying their hands on you. Knowing that your massage therapist
has delivered superior services to others helps ensure that he
or she will deliver the same to you.
Although the list of massage therapies given above is
incomplete, it does form a basis for you to get started in your
search for a technique that fits both your lifestyle and your
personality.
My suggestion at this point is to do a bit of research into
massage therapists in your area. Try to choose someone who is
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within reasonable distance of your home or place of work, and
be sure that both the therapist and his/her studio fit your needs.
Then relax, and let the therapist do the work for you. By the end
of just one visit, you should be able to tell whether you’ve
chosen well—and you will probably have made a good friend,
someone who can work with you to maximize your metabolism.
16
Getting Yourself to Exercise Regularly
Failure to Exercise Is Not an Option
Failure is not an option when a parent
is teaching a child to walk.
Let’s make a commitment to each other:
failure is not an option when we’re striving to
reach our health and fitness goals either.
This book seeks to demonstrate that exercise bestows a myriad
of benefits upon the exerciser, beginning with a more
controllable and user-friendly metabolic rate and extending to a
full range of outcomes that have personal excellence as their
aim. Men and women who engage in regular exercise tend to
enjoy better health and longevity, extraordinary freedom from
disease and debility, and enhanced psychological well-being, all
of which help form the cornerstone of their other achievements
in life.
Millions of Americans take these benefits to heart. More than
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a hundred million Americans are swimmers, seventy-five million
are bicyclists, seventy-five million work out at health clubs, and
thirty-five million are joggers. One survey shows that a
whopping 40 percent of all Americans claim to exercise
regularly.
It has been my experience, after years of working with people,
that some tend to lose themselves in their workout, while others
seem to find themselves.
This is why it seems surprising that exercise is not part of the
daily routine for most of the people who participate in health and
fitness surveys. Such studies indicate that the majority of
people are woefully inactive. For example, only 22 percent of
Americans are active at a level that’s recommended for good
health. Many folks exercise at a level of exertion that ebbs and
flows with the intensity of their desire to lose weight. The
majority of adults in our great country who are over the age of
twenty-five are almost completely sedentary.
Interestingly enough, most people believe in the value of
exercise and what it can do for them, both physically and
psychologically. Even many of the holdouts who don’t exercise
think they’d be more attractive and self-assured if they did. The
majority of those who engage in exercise on a regular basis
report significant benefits in terms of enhanced energy, mood,
Getting Yourself to Exercise Regularly 273
and creativity; improved health and body shape; greater control
of stress; and even a more active social life.
How We Begin and How We Fade
Most people typically begin their exercise programs in response
to nagging problems caused by weight gain. For many of us,
New Year’s Day is the starting date for a flurry of activity in this
regard, as we become penitent over too much holiday eating
and entertaining—and long stretches of winter idleness—and
plunge headlong into exercise programs. Health clubs and
gyms experience a resurgence of membership, while jogging
and walking paths become crowded with would-be fitness
enthusiasts. Manufacturers of exercise equipment and
purveyors of weight-loss programs vie elbow to elbow for the
available advertising time on radio and television and in print
media. For many folks, however, the motivation to exercise
fades within a few short weeks.
Why We Fade
Perhaps the most common reason given by sedentary people
for avoiding exercise is a lack of time. Many studies have been
conducted in which people who drop out of fitness programs
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blame time constraints. A nationwide Gallup Poll conducted in
1989 revealed that 39 percent of respondents said their reason
for not exercising was that they “had no time for such activity.”
Twenty percent of the respondents felt that they got enough
exercise in their daily routine, hence that they had no need to
do anything extra. Another study, undertaken by Melpolmene
Institute, a women’s fitness and health organization, reached a
similar conclusion: time was perceived to be a major limiting
factor.
Is it true that the vast majority of people in this country don’t
have time to fit an exercise period into their day on a regular
basis? I don’t believe so, and neither do many other experts.
One of the foremost researchers on the phenomenon of the
failure to stick with an exercise program is Dr. Roy Shephard of
the University of Toronto. In two separate studies, Dr. Shephard
points out that although people say that lack of time is their
major obstacle to exercising, it’s really just an excuse. The
average American, says Dr. Shephard, has between fifteen and
eighteen hours of leisure time per week, and often has the TV
on for seven hours a day at home.
By strictly adhering to and implementing the practices laid out
in this manual, not only will you gain the motivation you need to
get fired up about your fitness-filled future, but you will also
Getting Yourself to Exercise Regularly 275
experience major changes in your body that will keep that fire lit
for years to come.
What Experience Has Proved
Throughout the years that I’ve been in the exercise and fitness
business, I’ve seen literally thousands of men and women start
and sustain meaningful, long-term exercise programs. I’ve also
seen my share of dropouts. My overall conclusion is that if you
can sustain your exercise program for a good, solid thirty to
sixty days, you have an excellent chance of making it a
permanent part of your lifestyle, and of seeing dramatic results
if it is done properly. Here are some tips for making the process
a little easier:
Find an activity you enjoy. This seems so obvious to me,
and yet millions of would-be exercisers base their choice of
exercise regimen on all the wrong criteria. Instead of finding
exercises they consider to be enjoyable, they choose them
solely according to the number of calories they’ll burn up, or
how trendy looking the gym or health club appears. Then, when
the novelty wears off, so does the commitment.
Many research studies have shown that if people pursue an
activity they don’t like, they won’t stick with it for long at a time—
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and they’ll eventually abandon it altogether. To avoid this kind
of exercise burnout, start with exercises that you truly enjoy.
Whether it’s running, walking, or using exercise equipment such
as free weights, make sure you like what you’re doing and that
it provides the results you’re looking for.
Make exercising convenient. Virtually everyone has a busy
lifestyle. In fact, just about everyone would say that their day is
completely filled. In order to add an exercise program, you may
have to eliminate a less important activity (such as watching
TV). If your day is too crowded, you’ll soon be looking for
excuses to skip your exercise program. At first, that might mean
skipping just an exercise session or two. Later, however, you’re
likely to let entire weeks go by without exercising. Finally, you’ll
go back to the old sedentary lifestyle that you promised you’d
give up.
Don’t let that happen to you. The more convenient you can
make your exercise routine, the better. That means scheduling
your exercises at a time of day when you’ll consistently do them
and on days of the week when you can exercise regularly.
Set goals and chart your progress. “Nothing succeeds like
success,” said French novelist Alexandre Dumas. The more
Getting Yourself to Exercise Regularly 277
success we achieve in any endeavor, the more likely we are to
continue with it. This notion is extremely important, especially
when it comes to exercising our bodies and building up our
metabolism.
Goals are the mental roadmap that your mind uses to attain its
desired ends. Goals are the conduits that funnel all of your
physical and mental energies toward a single purpose.
A wealth of professional research has demonstrated that
being precise about health and fitness goals improves the
chances of sticking to an exercise program. Perhaps the best
way to do this is to use a journal or logbook to chart your
progress. Making frequent (daily, if possible) entries in your
journal will help keep your motivation high and prevent your
commitment from waning.
Do imagination exercises. This is another useful way to
enhance your motivation. You may already be familiar with this
psychological technique from some weight-loss class you have
attended. The method is simple and easy to follow. We’ve
spoken about this earlier, but because of its importance I’ll
briefly touch upon it here.
First, find a quiet place where you can relax without being
interrupted, preferably in a comfortable chair in a private room.
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Then close your eyes and imagine yourself with the body that
you desire (and that will soon be yours!): the clean, sculpted
look, with well-defined muscles that are lean, flexible, and ready
for any kind of movement you might choose. Visualize how
you’ll look with no excess body fat, and see yourself in your new
body, engaging in your favorite activities to your heart’s desire.
Imagine how your family, friends, and coworkers will treat the
“new you.” Hear them congratulating you, and get a sense of
how that feels. In short, get excited!
Try to make your visualizations as specific as possible, and try
to drench your images with lots of emotion. How do you feel
when people compliment you on your new, slimmer look? What
emotions race through your whole being when your increased
stamina and productivity enable you to do all those wonderful
things you’ve been yearning to do?
Perform this exercise several times a day. You may be
capable of doing it in as little as one minute, but you should
work your way up to thirty minutes each time. You’ll be
surprised at how well it will enhance your ability to stick to your
exercise plans and almost magically bring about the results you
desire.
Take responsibility. Sticking to your exercise program is
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nobody’s responsibility but your own. Nobody can do it for you,
and no one else is to blame if you miss a workout. That means
you’ve got to take responsibility for each and every workout, as
well as for the results. You’ve got to become proactive in your
approach, planning in advance in order to ward off problems
and temptations that might beset you. Then one to three
months hence, when you find that people are complimenting
you and noticing you from across the room, you’ll have the
immense satisfaction of knowing that your accomplishments
were of your own doing, not someone else’s. You’re the one to
whom people will give all the credit when you succeed. By the
same token, you’re the one they’ll hold responsible for your
failure if you don’t stick to your exercise regimen or you start
skipping workouts.
In the end, what it all boils down to is this: If you have to
actually tell people that you work out, your workout is not
working well enough. But if people begin complimenting you
and asking about how you work out or what type of diet you’re
on, then you’ll know that all your efforts have been worthwhile.
My goal so far in this book has been to give you all the
techniques that truly work and cut out the ones that are just
plain worthless. The only proof I have that these techniques
work are the piles of compliments that are heaped on my clients
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by friends and family. Just think: if you stick with the Maximize
Your Metabolism program, you’ll be the next person to receive
all those delicious compliments.
One thing you need to plan for is what you will do when that
report simply “must be done” by tomorrow morning and your
regular time to exercise is at 5:30 P.M. today. And what will you
do to pump yourself up when your interest dwindles?
One excellent suggestion is that you enlist a friend to exercise
with you. Going it alone may be perfectly fine for the person
who’s into long-distance running, but partnering with someone
may be a far better solution for those who follow the Maximize
Your Metabolism program. If you don’t have a workout partner,
then by all means use your fictitious mentoring group.
In the past, I’ve forced some of my clients to switch gym bags
(contents included!) with their exercise partner. That way,
neither of them can exercise unless the other shows up.
Remember: plan in advance. Then when problems crop up,
you’ll have ready-made solutions at your disposal, thus staving
off the possibility of a missed workout.
Let others help you. One of the easiest ways to stick to your
program of exercising to maximize your metabolism is to draw
upon the motivational reservoir found in others; you don’t
Getting Yourself to Exercise Regularly 281
absolutely have to go it alone.
In this respect, employers have an important role to play.
Studies show that jobs and careers are placing increased
pressures on employees. As a result, lack of time is seen as a
major constraint to regular exercise.
Many employers are solving this problem—and ending up with
employees who are more productive—by offering one or more
exercise or fitness options at company expense. Among such
offerings are installation of a company-owned fitness center,
giving employees time off for exercise, and paying for all or a
portion of a health-club membership. Check with your employer
to see what is presently offered, or what could be offered in the
future if employee interest is sufficient.
The support of family and friends has also been identified as
being quite influential in encouraging relatively inactive people
to become more active. Perhaps the single most effective form
of encouragement is the presence and companionship of a
friend or relative at the times when you engage in exercise or
other physical activity. Many people find that their spouse is the
one who provides the greatest support in this regard.
Keep it fun. This is probably the best advice of all! I realize
that the techniques outlined in this book are not easy, but they
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work nonetheless, and they work better than any other
combination of techniques I’ve come across. If you need to find
ways to keep your routine fun in order to stick to it, then
challenge yourself to do just that. By reading this book and
studying what it has to offer, you’ve already surmounted the
biggest hurdle and you’ve created the cornerstone for a
powerful health and fitness regimen. Now all you have to do is
keep it fun.
One way you can do that is by varying the music you listen to
while working out. Put yourself in charge of the tunes you hear,
by using a portable CD player while you exercise. Or you could
join two different health clubs and then alternate between them,
spending a week at each one. You be the judge, and, as the
saying goes, “Just do it!”
My health club provides free subscriptions to several
motivational e-mail newsletters (some daily, some weekly) to
help the members stick to their programs. As a reader of this
book, you too are invited and encouraged to sign up for one or
more of these newsletters today—they’re free, and they’re well
worth it.
17
Take Action: Your Motivational Challenge
Become Your Perfect Self—Starting Today!
“The difference between a successful person and others
is not a lack of strength, but rather in a lack of will.”
—Vince Lombardi
In this book I have placed a great deal of emphasis on the role
that both diet and exercise play in permanently maximizing your
metabolism. Now I want to go one step further. In order for you
to accomplish any goal, you must keep pushing, every single
day. In this program, as in life in general, motivation is key.
One of the truly legendary motivators of our time was the
great coach of the Green Bay Packers, Vince Lombardi. In his
long and illustrious career, Vince never put forth anything but
his best effort. Moreover, he expected the same of his players
and staff. In one of his many motivational speeches, he said:
Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all-the-time thing.
You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right
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once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is
a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.
Lombardi then went on to say:
There is no room for second place. There is only one
place in my game, and that’s first place. The object is to
win—to beat the other guy. . . . I believe in God, and I
believe in human decency. But I firmly believe that any
man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he
holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart
out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of
battle—Victorious.
Motivating Yourself to Victory
I want you to be victorious in this program. Just how close at
hand that victory is—in this or any other program you’ll try, and
no matter what aspect of your life it pertains to—hinges on the
effort you’re willing to put in to achieve it. If you harness the
awesome power of your motivation, you can and will achieve
anything you want in life.
Fortunately, the techniques outlined in this book will go a long
way in providing much of the motivation you’ll need. What I
have observed in my many years in the health and fitness field
is that men and women who begin to take care of their lives
Take Action: Your Motivational Challenge 285
tend to do so in ever-widening spheres. They start small, and,
compelled by their successes, they become interested in,
motivated for, and more capable of other forms of selfimprovement.
Their motivation, when properly harnessed and
trained, becomes a self-perpetuating phenomenon.
I have personally witnessed many clients who, having taken
up strength training, group exercise classes, hiking, or
swimming as an adjunct to their metabolic rejuvenation,
continued in these activities long after attaining the metabolic
rate they were aiming for.
The crucial point is this: Not all Americans who have
committed themselves to a lifestyle that includes regular
exercise are pursuing exercise for its own sake, nor are they
necessarily undertaking their exercise program in a quest for
the shapeliest body in the locker room or the shortest time on
the marathon course. On the contrary, I’ve found that many
people who exercise do so because exercise transforms their
lives and helps them become the best human beings they can
be.
How does this happen? Exercise provides a vital link to
improving both our body and our mind. Exercising makes us
feel good about ourselves. And when we feel good about
ourselves, we perform better in every other area of our lives. In
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fact, we become
· More ambitious
· More creative
· More confident
· More energetic
· Better able to cope with life’s adversities
· More likely to be honest with ourselves—and honest and
fair in our dealings with everyone around us
And, of course, there are so many other attributes that could be
included in this list.
The Pursuit of Excellence
Though I wrote this book as both a motivational mainspring and
a manual of the most up-to-date methods for generating
massive improvements in metabolism, each and every one of
my clients has gone on to apply the material contained herein to
the improvement of other aspects of their life. I suggest that you
do the same. Look upon the program outlined in this book as
your opportunity to accept responsibility for your fate and to set
out to achieve a state of well-being that comes from a balance
of winning in all departments of your life: your career, your
family, your friendships, your health, and your appearance. It all
Take Action: Your Motivational Challenge 287
begins with your ability to master your metabolism.
The reality is that all of us can take charge of our lives and our
destinies through a planned program of building our selfmotivation.
But make no mistake about it: self-motivation is not
easy, and it is not what gets you results, but it is the essential
spark that ignites the flame. There can be no blazing fire without
a spark, and there can be no accomplishment without
motivation. And the stronger the motivation, the greater the
accomplishment!
Tips for Motivational Success
The point of this chapter is to refresh your memory about some
of the important motivational techniques we talked about in
earlier chapters. Your challenge is to put them to good use in
your life, starting right now (that is, if you haven’t already made
them a part of your everyday life).
Affirmations
Throughout this entire book, I’ve tried to include important steps
to help you reprogram your thinking, envision yourself as you
would like to look, and then actually affirm your “picture” of
yourself. Brian Tracy, one of the world’s leading experts on
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personal success, has said:
Affirmations are hard to do because people have a natural
tendency to return to homeostasis, to what is comfortable,
to avoid change. But habits are learned and can be
unlearned. If you put in three weeks repeating
[affirmations] to yourself, you’ll be amazed at the results.
The formula for affirmations is to put what you want to
happen in the first person, present tense, in a positive
statement, as if it has already taken place. “I weigh 165
pounds.” “I am earning $40,000.” “I am a non-smoker.”
Don’t fall into the trap Tracy talks about. Don’t take the easy
way out. Break new ground in your life. Use the power of
affirmation to keep yourself focused and motivated.
Goal Statements
Another powerful strategy you can use to build motivation is the
formulation of a goal statement. In my opinion, goal statements
form the heart of the famous Think and Grow Rich program
created by Napoleon Hill. In case you’re not aware of who
Napoleon Hill was, he was born into poverty in 1883, in a oneroom
cabin in rural Virginia. When he was only ten years old,
his mother died. Two years later, his father remarried. He began
Take Action: Your Motivational Challenge 289
his writing career at age thirteen as a “mountain reporter” for
small-town newspapers and went on to become one of
America’s most beloved motivational authors. Faced with
enormous disadvantages and pressures himself, he dedicated
more than twenty-five years of his life to pinning down the
reasons why so many people fail to achieve true financial
success and happiness in their life. Of course, he became
fabulously wealthy in the process.
Hill advised his readers to write down their goals and read
them aloud every day, just as I have advised you to do. His
approach was new to his era. Since that time, of course,
millions of people have used similar techniques to help
themselves achieve success—in every area of life—just as you
are now using such techniques to help you achieve all of your
health and fitness goals. You should be proud of yourself;
you’re in good company.
Brian Tracy offers similar advice:
Just like working out, you can build up your mental
muscles by exercising them. Take 3 ´ 5 index cards and
write down your goals. As incredible as it seems, this
creates a force field around you that draws in people and
circumstances that help. That sounds mystical, but think
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about the most powerful forces in the universe that are
invisible, mysterious, and yet real, like love or gravity. To
skeptics, I say, “Try out these things for thirty days, and
simply draw pragmatic conclusions.” My ideas are based
on what happens, not theory. I’m telling you what
successful people really do.
Spending Time with Winners
Another point I have emphasized, and which I’ll underscore
here, is to get busy spending time with “winners”: in person, in
books, on the Net, wherever. Listen to what Anthony Robbins, a
famous motivational speaker, said about this concept at one of
his seminars:
Whom you spend time with is who you become. If you
hang out with firecrackers who see every setback as a
challenge and an opportunity to try something better, you’ll
become a firecracker who sees every setback as a
challenge and an opportunity to try something better. If
you hang out with schleps who sit around all day kvetching
about their problems and who see every setback as proof
they are once more getting fiddled by the fickle finger of
fate, then you’ll become a schlep.
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Robbins reiterates some other tips we’ve emphasized in this
book:
Events in your life don’t count as much as the decisions
you make about them. Don’t be a victim. Take
responsibility for everything that happens in your life.
Focus is reality. Whatever you focus on, you feel. The
point is that the mind doesn’t know the difference between
something you vividly imagined and something you
actually experienced. So, if you vividly imagine yourself
succeeding, your mind is conned into believing that you
have already succeeded.
If you do as Robbins prescribes, success will soon follow.
Laser Visualization and Modeling
More than fifty years ago, plastic surgeon Dr. Maxwell Maltz
had a revelation after witnessing behavioral and personality
changes in his patients who had been involved in disfiguring
accidents or had undergone corrective surgery: how you see
and what you believe about your self-image controls absolutely
what you can and cannot accomplish.
As you learned in the chapter on visualization, visualizing
yourself in your mind’s eye is a crucial first step in turning your
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goal body into reality. Maltz takes this a step further. He says
the habits and actions you associate with your self-image
cannot be changed or overcome without conscious effort,
positive thinking, and willpower:
The person who has a “fat” self-image—whose self-image
claims to have a “sweet tooth,” to be unable to resist “junk
food,” who cannot find the time to exercise—will be unable
to lose weight and keep it off no matter what he tries to do
consciously in opposition to that self-image.
What you must do in order to win is to “reset” the facts about
your self-image, from those that portend failure to those that
exude success. Modeling your behavior after that of successful
people also has the effect of implanting new, more motivational
“pictures” in your mind. According to Maltz, this is like the
intended action of a heat-seeking missile: you aim and launch it,
and it effectively hits its goal.
The powerful strategies I’ve outlined in this book need a
formula to make them work. Here it is:
“I am responsible.”
Until you fully believe that nothing occurs by accident, and that
you must accept responsibility for every event in your life every
day, you will be virtually incapable of performing at a level that’s
Take Action: Your Motivational Challenge 293
anywhere near your true potential. Once you understand this
fact, however, everything will be clearer and your goals will
seem to rush toward you.
Your success in fitness, health, and every other area of your
life begins in your mind, the most powerful instrument of change
on this planet. So powerful in fact, that it has abilities and
powers that you’re not even aware of. You were born with these
powers, but you may never have learned how to master them.
Self-motivation is a matter of choice. Moreover, it’s a personal
responsibility that you must shoulder. That is, making the right
kinds of changes in your life is your responsibility. Nobody can
do it for you, and you certainly owe it to yourself to make it
happen.
Successful living is available to all those who are willing to
disregard the negative feelings that tend to hold them back. The
energy to reach our goals is generated by closing our mind to
all negative “self-talk” and flooding it with our personal success
statement.
Successful motivation is not a born-again experience. Rather,
it is something that develops from refusing to cave in to
negative impulses. It means taking positive action, and doing
the right things over and over again until success is yours.
Top motivational speakers such as Zig Ziglar agree. In his
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294
book Success For Dummies, Ziglar says that by creating goals
and developing the right mental attitudes through positive
visualization, we can achieve success in any environment.
The biggest obstacle to success is feeling that you’re not good
enough, or comparing yourself unfavorably to others. The
psychologist Abraham Maslow said that the story of the human
race is one of people selling themselves short. Don’t make that
mistake!
Your Future Is What You Make of It
To build and sustain motivation, you must have a structured
program of activities that reinforce your efforts to take control of
your life. Leaving elements of this program to chance is, without
question, the worst thing you can do. Anything left to chance will
soon be forgotten in the crush of daily events. Use this book as
your guide. Use the structure that has now been integrated into
your life (through the various types of activities you’ve
encountered in the Maximize Your Metabolism program, such
as goal setting, journaling, visualizing, dieting, exercising, etc.)
to guide your future decisions.
Keep in mind, however, that this book was not designed to be
read like a military field manual, nor were the various activities
Take Action: Your Motivational Challenge 295
presented in the book intended to be treated as a precise set of
instructions to be followed to the letter. This book actually gives
you only an outline, which then has to be personalized
according to your particular goals and circumstances.
And remember this: Even though building motivation is a longterm
pursuit, you need only make about thirty consecutive days’
worth of consistent efforts in order to ingrain the skill of
successful self-motivation into your life. Practice these
principles for the next month, and chances are that you’ll
develop a lifetime of successful motivation in the process.
The Decision Is Now Yours
The decision to incorporate this challenge—and keep on using
it—is now yours to make. You can keep sliding along, groping
and coping with mediocre performance and less-thansatisfactory
results. Or you can step out, away from the crowd,
and start charting your own successful destiny.
You can do it. I know you can. Don’t wait for someone else to
set you free. You have the power within you to make your
dreams come true.
George Bernard Shaw made the following astute observation:
People are always blaming circumstances for what they
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are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get
what they want in this life are the people who get up and
look for the circumstances they want. And if they can’t find
them, they make them.
I’ve been teaching the kinds of techniques that are found in
this book for over fifteen years, and in the last couple of years
I’ve provided information—in the form of manuals and books
like this one—to hundreds of my clients around the United
States. I’m very pleased and grateful for all the thank-you letters
I’ve received from clients who have achieved astonishing
results.
I know literally hundreds of people who have made great
strides in their health and fitness results with the information
you now hold in your hands. However, I also have to tell you
that there are failures: people who habitually buy books and
tapes, join one health or weight-loss club after another, or try
everything from subliminal suggestion to neuro-linguistic
programming but never put a single foot forward to take action.
Why is it that some people succeed with this information while
others in virtually the same situation fail? Actually, that question
has triggered the growth of a whole industry: the motivational
industry. Icons in this industry have studied this phenomenon
Take Action: Your Motivational Challenge 297
for centuries. The most widely recognized leaders in the field
include Brian Tracy, Jim Rohn, Mark Victor Hansen, Earl
Nightingale, Anthony Robbins, Dr. Tony Alessandra, Napoleon
Hill, Dr. Deepak Chopra, Stephen Covey, Les Brown, Bob
Proctor, and Dr. Dennis Waitley—just to name a few.
A friend of mine, Michael Monroe Kiefer, wrote a book entitled
The Powermind System in which he lists four Essential
Personality Traits for High Achievement. He states that anyone
who sets out to become a high achiever, in any area of life, can
succeed only by focusing on personal responsibility,
personal honor, self-discipline, and persistence.
The difference between a person who has just skimmed this
book and someone like you who has made it all the way
through from beginning to end (and, I hope, doing each of the
exercises and making the sorts of changes in your life that we
spoke of along the way) is that the person who has just
scratched the surface is lacking in one or more of these four
personality traits.
You must take full responsibility for everything that happens to
you in life, including your weight, your looks, and your
metabolism. This may seem shallow. I realize that there are
horrible things happening in this world. I know that world peace
is threatened by one bellicose group after another. I am aware
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of the fact that hunger and disease are widespread. I know how
hard it can be to handle the stresses that crop up in the
workplace. And I realize that it may seem trivial—perhaps even
selfish—to pay so much attention to your appearance and your
personal health to the almost total exclusion of all these
important issues.
Well, let me tell you something: Your appearance, health,
fitness level, and mental awareness are what enable you to be
successful in life. And the more success you have, the more
people you can help and the more you can control your destiny.
People who consistently fail at reaching their health and
fitness goals usually refer to success as a matter of luck, fate,
or coincidence. Or they claim that others have some advantage
over them. You, on the other hand, are one of those rare
individuals who are keenly aware of the fact that success is
definitely not an accident.
In writing this book, I set out to create a cadre of
independents, not to breed a following of dependents. This
book is all about taking control and personal responsibility, and
it has supplied you with all the tools you need to achieve
success in every area of your life, starting with your health. You
are now in control of your life and your metabolism, because
you have assumed responsibility for reaching your goals.
Take Action: Your Motivational Challenge 299
When I say that you have all the tools you need, I mean it. I
have held nothing back (fortunately, I didn’t need to hold
anything back) for inclusion in a sequel to this book. Everything
I wanted to impart to you is right here, between the front and
back covers of this one little volume. There will no further books
forthcoming until (and unless) I make new discoveries that will
further help you to reach your health and fitness goals.
Moreover, any new discoveries that I make and/or new
techniques that I develop will be posted on my Web site.
(Another way to get that information is to contact me directly, at
my office.)
The demand for my services far exceeds my time and energy,
so I get to hand pick the people whom I choose to work with,
the ones I see as having a true desire to follow a proven system
in its entirety. That ability to be selective is what gave me the
freedom to produce this book. You see, my reason for writing it
was not to create a demand for my services but rather to equip
you with the tools necessary for you to succeed on your own—
for you to be in control of your metabolism.
I really hope you’ll pick up the ball and run with it. I look
forward to hearing of your successes—and possibly even
meeting you someday. In fact, I would like for us to have a
continuing relationship, so I urge you to subscribe to one of my
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300
newsletters, which are my conduit for maintaining a continuing
health and fitness dialogue with my clients and the reading
public.
For those of you who have made it this far in the program,
please visit me online (at www.MaximizeYourMetabolism.com)
to obtain further information about my newsletters and to
receive a special gift I have reserved just for you. This Web
site was developed for the express purpose of sharing groundbreaking
knowledge with you—and so that I could extend to you
my very best offers on other books and tapes that I think you
may find useful.
Thank you for investing in this book, and thank you for reading
and learning from it. Now move on to the final chapter, the one
that incorporates all that we’ve discussed so far: the one that’s
entitled “Seven Days to Shape Your Life and Your Body.”
18
Seven Days to Shape Your Life
and Your Body
Multiply Your Metabolic Rate Every Day
for the Next Seven Days!
Seven days to build your metabolism,
develop high levels of energy,
overcome every past dieting barrier, eliminate stress,
unlock your true potential, and so much more . . . .
This chapter puts it all together and lays it out
in an easy-to-follow format.
At last, you have all the pieces of the metabolic puzzle. Put
them together and you’ve got a powerful blueprint to boost your
metabolism to sizzling levels and elevate your health, fitness,
and general well-being to an all-time high.
Still, reading this material will do nothing unless you put it to
work in your life. That’s why I’ve created this important chapter.
It will help you crystallize your thinking about what I’ve tried to
302
teach you throughout this book, and then to immediately apply
that knowledge in your everyday life. Finally, it will give you
specific exercises that will instantly put you on the path to
success.
Each day is a new day, and each day you have the same
basic choices. The way you handle those choices will determine
whether or not you are successful. If you follow the rules and
guidelines in this chapter, you will develop a certain “momentum
of success,” and without a doubt you will achieve your health
and fitness goals.
In this chapter, I’ve laid out activities or exercises for you to
do. Each day that you successfully follow the outline presented
here, you’ll be drawn closer to your goal.
One note of caution: don’t move on to the next day’s program
until you’ve completed the current day’s activities. Even more
importantly, complete the current day’s activities in full on the
current day; don’t postpone any of them. Make the commitment
to become a person of action, starting right now!
In all my years of training and developing people, I’ve found
that the majority of failures happen at this point. You might think
that’s a depressing—almost demotivating—way to start this
chapter, but let’s look at it another way: Everyone is driven by
both pain and pleasure. My job right now is to show you both.
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The pain is that this is the point where most failures occur; the
pleasure, on the other hand, is that this is the point where all
successful people excel and run to the finish line. This is where
it all happens. And it’s not only quite exciting but also pretty
damned motivating if you’re truly dedicated!
Maximize Your Emotions
Not a moment goes by in life without emotions, and those
emotions have specific effects on our health. Today, day one,
we’ll take control of our health by taking control of our emotions.
Day One. In the first day of our weeklong goal-setting/actiontaking
program, I want you to focus entirely on your emotional
health. All you’ll have to do is study the emotions that you
normally experience, and then focus on wiping out the negative
ones and boosting the positive ones.
You can help this process along by repeating an affirmation
such as the following:
I am so happy weighing _____ pounds. I eat only
healthful foods and drink lots of plain, fresh water.
People comment about how great I look, and that
makes me feel energized.
304
Emotions, you’ll recall, are the key to our hormonal responses,
so when you repeat your affirmation, be sure to get excited
about it. When we’re depressed, our hormones, glands, and
related systems unite to keep us in a depressed state. On the
other hand, a heightened enthusiasm for life does just the
opposite, and that’s why it’s absolutely essential to the process
of raising our metabolism.
A big part of achieving metabolic success is that of managing
your own emotions. You can take active steps to turn all of your
feelings into assets that will enhance your health, especially
your metabolism. One of the best-kept secrets as to how you
can master your emotions is the use of visualization. The more
clearly you can visualize yourself acting out and looking like that
“person” you describe in your affirmations, the more excited
you’ll become.
Whenever you repeat your affirmations, make a point of
actually seeing yourself happy, weighing your goal weight and
dressed in clothing that you think will flatter your physique. Most
importantly, be sure to visualize other people remarking on how
great you look and congratulating you on your new body, and
then experience how good that feels.
Here’s an extremely important point:
Bibliography 305
You are in charge of every emotion you have this day (and
night).
We humans all have equal access to everything the universe
has to offer, and the resources we’ve been given in order to
deal with people and events in our everyday life are about the
same. We all have exactly the same amount of time in each
day, more or less the same obstacles to face each day, and
practically the same set of mental capabilities for overcoming
those obstacles and helping us make good use of our time.
What makes a person great is how much control they exert
over their emotions. In other words, no one can control your
emotions but you. If someone cuts you off on the highway, how
do you react? You’re in control of your reaction, and that
reaction causes a whole chain of events to take place within
your body that will have a significant effect on the functioning of
your metabolism. If you curse and get mad, then your body will
internalize this emotion and react accordingly. If you simply
make adjustments in your driving, become more aware of your
surroundings, and refrain from getting angry, then your
metabolism, hormones, glands, and all the other systems in
your body will have a greater capacity to function at peak level.
The upshot of all this is that getting our metabolism to function
306
at its best is a direct result of how well we control our emotions.
I’ll guarantee you that the healthiest people in the world
realize this fact, and, regardless of whether they think about it
actively or simply have it tucked away in their subconscious
mind, they are living in a harmonious way and are in control of
how they react to situations. They never allow a situation or
another person to dictate their responses to the particular hand
of cards that life deals out to them on any given day.
Our three-pronged approach
You may recall that in the chapter on emotions it was noted
that emotional management can be made easier by a simple,
three-pronged approach: a program of physical fitness, effective
time management, and self-image development. And keep in
mind that it’s rather difficult to maintain a negative emotion
when your actions are positive. In fact, what I consider to be
one of today’s greatest discoveries is the fact that the human
mind cannot entertain a negative thought at the same time that
it’s focused on a thought that’s positive. The two just cannot
coexist. It’s up to you to choose what thoughts you will allow
yourself to focus on, each and every minute of each and every
day.
Bibliography 307
Today’s assignment
1. Keep a journal with you all day long. In it, list every type of
emotional experience you have. Next to each emotion you
list, keep track of how long that emotion lasts and how
many times you experience it in the course of the day.
2. Answer the following questions in your journal: What does
your perfect body look like? How does it feel to be in the
best shape you’ve ever been in (in your entire life)?
3. List what you will give up in return for achieving your goals.
4. What is your goal date, the date on which you intend to
have achieved your ideal body?
5. Prepare, in writing, a detailed and carefully designed plan of
action for achieving the body that you envision for yourself.
Be sure your plan of action is both specific and achievable.
6. In a single paragraph, summarize the answers to all the
questions given above. Make sure your summary is positive
and expressed in the present tense. Get excited as you
write it out. Remember: by following what I say, you will
achieve the results you’re aiming for.
7. Read your summary out loud ten or more times in an
excited, passionate, obsessive state of mind.
Your mind is the key to all your emotions and the key to
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achieving all your goals. Keeping your mind in a positive state is
vital to achieving anything worthwhile in life.
It’s Time to Go on a Cleanse
Nothing that’s great can be built on a weak foundation. Building
a strong health and fitness foundation starts with first cleaning
out your digestive system.
Day Two. In the chapter on cleansing, I began the process of
renovating your metabolic system by describing how you should
thoroughly cleanse your digestive tract.
Everyone needs to move their bowels at least twice a day, but
your goal is to have as many bowel movements as the number
of meals you eat in a day’s time. If you eat three meals a day,
you should have three bowel movements a day. Eating six
times per day (large or small meals) means six movements per
day.
I realize that having that many bowel movements is far from
the norm in our society and may seem rather strange or
unusual, but not if you consider what the typical American
lifestyle consists of: eating fast food, getting all stressed out,
sleeping poorly, and getting little or no exercise. Thankfully,
neither you nor I—nor anyone else who follows the program
Bibliography 309
presented in this book—still leads this sort of life.
Here’s the scoop on bowel activity: The vast majority of
Americans move their bowels only a few times a week. That
being the case, where the heck does all that built-up waste
matter go? Well, it doesn’t go anywhere! It remains tightly
compacted in your bowels, normally in the sigmoid colon,
sometimes in what is called the cecum, and sometimes in little
sacs called diverticuli that are formed to hold solid waste
products that accumulate.
That’s right, all that gunk remains stored in your bowels until
you finally clean it out—that is, unless your body functions
properly and your bowels regularly move after every meal.
(Ideally, a bowel movement will take place within sixty minutes
after a meal.)
When this matter is allowed to remain in your system, health
problems are imminent. Your bowels are forced to expand to
store it, and your engorged bowels press against other internal
organs in turn, thereby causing further health problems.
This solid waste matter builds up in the form of layers that are
virtually “glued” to the walls of your digestive tract. The longer
the waste is allowed to remain there, the more clogged the
system becomes. In addition, this coating of dead material will
slowly encrust the walls of your colon.
310
The problem is, for the rest of our lives we will be ingesting
considerable amounts of environmental and digestive toxins
(chemicals in our food, pollutants in the air, an occasional soft
drink, toxins in our water supply, etc.) that we must regularly
eliminate from our bodies. Unless we properly excrete this stuff,
not only will our metabolic system suffer, but the overall state of
our health will decline.
By doing a thorough cleansing of your system, you will enable
your metabolism and your digestive system to make full use of
the nutrients available in the foods you eat, so that you’ll get
more power from fewer calories. And therein lies the secret to
permanent weight loss. However, before you can benefit from a
cleanse, you must get your bowels working.
Here are a few simple techniques you can use to accomplish
this; these are techniques that you’ll be responsible for
performing today.
The solution to buildup of solid waste
I strongly recommend that you cleanse your entire digestive
tract on a weekly basis—or every other week at the very least. I
showed you exactly how to do that in chapter 4: scraping away
at the built-up matter and eventually flushing all of it away,
thereby allowing your system to function as efficiently as
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possible. That process is very healthful, and it provides a great
source of live enzymes and perfectly combined nutrients for
your body and mind.
Right now, I want you to decide how often you’re going to go
through that cleansing process. Will you cleanse your system
once a week? Every two weeks? Every Sunday? Only once in a
blue moon? Be specific in your planning, and be sure to write it
down or it won’t get done.
Today’s assignment
1. In an earlier chapter, we discussed the importance of
consuming no less than one cup of water per day for every
fourteen pounds of body weight. Figure out how much water
that comes to for a person of your weight, and then find a
nice-looking container that holds at least that much. Commit
to filling that container with water each morning and then
drinking the contents throughout the day, each and every
day. Start drinking that much water today. More is better! In
fact, you should consume a few extra glasses of water on
days when you’re going through the cleansing process.
2. Start the day (today) by mixing the juice of one lemon with a
glass of plain, fresh (preferably distilled) water. Consume
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this at least ten to thirty minutes before you consume
anything else.
3. Once the requisite time has elapsed, you may consume any
fruit or vegetable juice, just as long as you juice it yourself—
bottled or canned fruit juices are not allowed.
4. You may wish to make a broth by placing some fresh,
organic vegetables in distilled water and cooking them over
low heat, until the vegetables are soft.
5. Consume no fewer than three servings of fresh, raw, highfiber
vegetables (preferably organic) throughout the day,
and have two or more servings of high-fiber fruits such as
apples or figs as well.
6. The better the vegetables, the better the cleanse. Everyone
has his or her favorites. List yours in your journal. But first, I
want you to do some research on the health benefits of
various vegetables. Find out which vegetables help certain
ailments and which ones work best together. Get yourself
one of the many good books that are available on vegetable
juicing.
7. Now here’s the kicker. We want to stimulate our colon
muscles to evacuate any built-up matter that it may be
harboring. To do this, we’re going to use an herb that has
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many health benefits: cayenne. This herb helps to
strengthen the blood and the internal organs, improves
blood flow, and stimulates all the systems of the body, from
the brain to the digestive system. Today’s goal will be to
consume 1/4 teaspoonful of fresh cayenne powder in a bit
of water or juice—and to repeat this every day. Once you
get used to that serving size, gradually increase the amount
to one full teaspoonful per day. Cayenne will stimulate and
help strengthen your bowels, cleaning them out and making
them strong again.
Just a note of caution: cayenne is spicy hot, so you
should notice a hot, tingling sensation when you
consume it, but it’s very good for your health—so much
so that you shouldn’t go for even a single day without
drinking the prescribed cayenne solution. And try to
avoid substituting the cayenne capsules found in healthfood
stores for the fresh cayenne powder that’s called
for. We want this very healthful herb to actually touch
every inch of our digestive tract, stimulating the walls of
our intestines as it moves through our system.
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Lighting Your Metabolic Fire
The focus of this book has been threefold: to rev up your
metabolic rate, to increase your fitness level, and to improve
your physical and mental health. It’s now time to ignite the fire
by improving your food choices.
Day Three. On this day, day three, you’re going to start your
food program. As promised, I’ve included an example of what
your diet could look like. Obviously, every person is different.
Since it’s impossible for me to sit across from you and create a
diet that’s specific to your individual body, this is about the best
I can do.
Throughout this book, I’ve tried to educate you and change
your way of thinking about food. Hopefully, you can make
appropriate alterations to the example diet and adapt it to your
particular needs. If I’ve been successful in imparting to you a
general sense of what works and what doesn’t, you should have
enough information to determine the basic changes that need to
be made. Now don’t get me wrong. You will probably be
somewhat confused—everyone is at first. Nevertheless, if you
use the example diet I’ve provided, along with the techniques
outlined in this text, I promise that you’ll do fine.
Bibliography 315
Add the following eating program to the success you’ve
already enjoyed on days one and two, and you’ll be well on your
way to making a tremendous shift in your metabolism, your
appearance, and your destiny.
The example diet was designed for a woman who weighs
approximately 150 pounds and wishes to attain a much leaner,
healthier, more vibrant body. If you weigh more than 150 or are
male, you will need to increase your intake of protein and
vegetables. Women should consume an additional 50 calories
for every 5 pounds of weight over 150. Men should add 500
calories (mainly from protein and vegetable sources) to the
baseline calorie count, plus another 200 calories for every 25
pounds of weight over 175.
The baseline for phase one, diet #1 is 1868 calories, so a man
who weighs 225 pounds at the start of this program would
consume about 2768 calories on diet #1:
1868 + 500 + {200 ´ [(225 – 175) ¸ 25]}
= 2368 + {200 ´[50 ¸ 25]}
= 2368 + {200 ´ 2}
= 2368 + 400
= 2768
316
A woman who weighs 175 at the start of the program would
consume about 2118 calories on diet #1:
1868 + {50 ´ [(175 – 150) ¸ 5]}
= 1868 + {50 ´ [25 ¸ 5]}
= 1868 + {50 ´ 5}
= 1868 + 250
= 2118
Phase one of the dieting program is to be followed for
(tentatively) a period of sixty to ninety days; it consists of three
separate diets, each of which will draw you closer to your goal
in its own way.
Phase two is a maintenance diet, one that will help you maintain
your new, hard-earned physique. Once you graduate from
phase one to phase two, be sure to follow diet #2 (as laid out in
this book) for two days each week; on the remaining five days
of the week, you should make a point of eating food that’s
generally considered healthful.
Bibliography 317
Although the diets we’re talking about here were designed to
be followed for longer than thirty days, your results will be
dramatic—and will be realized in thirty days or less!—if you
follow the entire MYM program put forth in this book.
Phase One, Diet #1
Meal Food Calories Protein
(g)
Carbs
(g)
Fats
(g)
0
1 cup warm water
w/ 2 tbsp. lemon juice added
2 servings of grits or cream of
rice
200 4.4 44.0 0.8
1
3 egg whites, large* 48 10.1 1.1 0.0
1 cup nonfat, sugar-free yogurt 70 13.2 4.3 0.0
2
¼ cup Grape-Nuts (optional) 100 3.3 21.2 0.1
6 oz. turkey breast* 386 58.4 8.0 6.6
3
1 mixed salad, large* 86 2.5 8.4 0.0
1 sweet potato, large* 236 2.4 48.8 0.4
4
½ cup broccoli* 30 1.3 4.8 0.0
6 oz. chicken breast* 386 58.4 8.0 6.6
5 1 mixed salad, large* 86 2.5 8.4 0.0
½ cup brown rice* 240 8.0 52.0 2.0
Total 1868 164.5 209.0 16.5
Calories 1868 790 836 149
Percentage of Total Calories (%) 100 42 45 8
*See the diet notes that start on p. 321.
318
Remember, the diet itself is merely one piece of the overall
success puzzle.
This dieting program was developed through use of an indepth
health history and an in-office consultation with each of
my clients, with the intention of providing them with the nutrients
needed to burn any subcutaneous fat deposits, increase
lean muscle strength (not size), increase energy level, and
improve the digestive system. To help clients achieve the
desired results as quickly as possible, the three phase-one diets
were used in conjunction with the example exercise program
that’s presented later in this chapter.
Diet #1 is to be strictly adhered to for a period of two days,
then diet #2 for the next three days, and finally diet #3 for the
last two days of a seven-day cycle, at which point the entire
cycle is to be repeated. Alternating your diets like this is a
powerful way to increase your metabolism. The two-day, threeday,
two-day pattern presented in this chapter is designed to
fully stimulate your metabolism, to maximum efficiency. If you
feel as though you’re burning too much fat too fast, however,
you can use the following pattern instead: diet #1 for the first
two days, then diet #2 for the next two days, and finally diet #3
for the last three days of a seven-day cycle, at which point this
entire cycle is to be repeated. This cycling of nutrients and
Bibliography 319
calories enables the metabolism to attain its peak fat-burning
level.
One word of caution: water intake during a program like
this cannot be allowed to fall below one gallon per day.
Diet #1 was designed to help strip fat and water from the area
between the muscle and the skin.
Diet #2 is intended to deplete your muscles of both glycogen
and water. Following this diet for three consecutive days will
increase the rate at which your metabolism burns fat and
decrease the sensitivity of your muscle cells to water, thereby
causing them to release any stored water. Because of the lack
of carbohydrates (in particular, sugars) consumed on these
days, you may experience one or more of the following:
· Tendency to be more temperamental than usual
· Slightly greater-than-usual weight loss (due to loss of water)
· Increase in perspiration
· Craving for sweets
· Increase in urination
Please be advised that these are normal “withdrawal
symptoms” that may occur as a result of the small quantity of
sugar you’re consuming. As stated earlier, this program was
specifically designed to rid your body of such harmful things as
320
sugar, toxins, and excess fat deposits. During the period when
these undesirable substances are being eliminated (which
usually occurs during the first fourteen days), you may consume
a small piece of fruit (to deal with the effects of withdrawal from
sugar) if you begin to feel lethargic or slightly dizzy.
Phase One, Diet #2
Meal Food Calories Protein
(g)
Carbs
(g)
Fats
(g)
0
1 cup warm water
w/ 2 tbsp. lemon juice
added
3–6 egg whites, large* 48 10.1 1.1 0.0
1
2 rice cakes, plain* 70 1.5 16.0 0.0
6 oz. turkey breast* 386 58.4 8.0 6.6
2
1 mixed salad, large* 86 2.5 8.4 0.0
3 slices fat-free American
cheese
180 36.0 2.0 2.4
3
5 fat-free crackers 50 2.1 11.2 0.0
3 oz. grilled meat* 156 25.4 0.0 5.9
4
1 mixed salad, large* 86 2.5 8.4 0.0
Total 1062 138.5 55.1 14.9
Calories 1062 665 220 134
Percentage of Total Calories (%) 100 63 21 13
*See the diet notes that start on p. 321.
Bibliography 321
Diet notes
· If you are hungry or feel the need for additional food, you
may increase your consumption of the protein sources
(chicken, turkey, egg whites, tuna, and fish) at any of the
Phase One, Diet #3
Meal Food Calories Protein
(g)
Carbs
(g)
Fats
(g)
0
1 cup warm water
w/ 2 tbsp. lemon juice
added
1 serving of grits or cream
of rice
100 2.2 22.0 0.4
1 5 egg whites, large* 80 16.8 1.7 0.0
spinach (optional), in
quantity desired*
— — — —
1 6-oz. can water-packed
tuna, drained*
180 36.0 2.0 2.4
2
¼ cup brown rice* 120 4.0 26.0 1.0
6 oz. turkey breast* 386 58.4 8.0 6.6
3
1 mixed salad, large* 86 2.5 8.4 0.0
6 oz. fish* 156 25.4 0.0 5.9
4
1 mixed salad, large* 86 2.5 8.4 0.0
Total 1194 147.8 76.5 16.3
Calories 1194 709 306 147
Percentage of T otal Calories (%) 100 59 26 12
*See the diet notes given below.
322
meals for phase one during the first two weeks, but by day
15 you must be 100 percent on target with your food
consumption.
· Either sliced or ground turkey (the 98% fat-free variety) may
be substituted for chicken if you use it in the same quantity.
Both chicken and turkey should be measured after cooking.
Six ounces of meat is about the same size as two decks of
playing cards.
· While on this diet, you are permitted to consume any type of
fish other than carp, herring, mackerel, mullet, salmon,
sardines, squid, and tuna steak.
· For purposes of this diet, the term grilled meat refers to any
very lean red or white meat (beef, pork, turkey, or chicken).
As long as you’re on this program, be sure that before you
consume any type of meat, you remove all the skin and
visible fat prior to cooking.
· For purposes of this diet, the term mixed salad refers to any
combination of raw, non-starchy vegetables (one that’s
devoid of starchy vegetables such as potatoes, avocados,
and beans).
· Your may substitute a pure protein drink in place of
chicken/turkey or eggs, provided you make the substitution
Bibliography 323
according to the following formula: two scoops of protein
powder mixed in water is equivalent to either three egg
whites or 3 oz. of chicken or turkey. Be sure not to make
this substitution at more than one meal on any given day.
For purposes of this book, a pure protein drink is one which
contains at least 40 grams of protein and less than 5 grams
of carbohydrates in each serving.
· Fish or sushi/sashimi may be substituted for tuna or chicken
in this phase: 3 oz. of sushi is equivalent to 3 oz. of chicken
or 1/2 of a 6-oz. can of tuna.
· A medium, plain baked potato may be substituted for 1/2
cup of rice. If you make this substitution, be sure to remove
the skin from the potato prior to eating it.
· Rice should be measured prior to cooking.
· Vegetable quantities should be measured after cooking.
· Candy that is both sugar free and sodium free may be eaten
periodically throughout the day.
· For the first two weeks of the program, bagels, English
muffins, and rice cakes can be considered interchangeable
as long as you substitute one of them for another according
to the following formula: two rice cakes is equivalent to
either one medium bagel or one whole English muffin. You
324
should be aware of the possibility that this substitution will
slightly retard your weight loss.
· When preparing your meals, avoid using any butter,
margarine, oil, mayonnaise, prepared sauces, or salt. In
place of these items, you may substitute any herb or herbal
product (no salt or fat), and—for the first two weeks
ONLY—you may use fat-free salad dressing, fat-free butter
(*promise*), or fat-free mayonnaise (but there is a limit of
one tablespoon per meal, total, for these last three
ingredients).
· You may experience an increase in urination and/or
defecation during this phase of the program. This is due, in
part, to the delicate cleansing effect that this particular
combination of foods has on your digestive system, and in
part to an increase in your metabolic rate.
· At some point during the first two weeks of this phase, you
may experience a slight increase in intestinal gas. This is
normal; it’s caused by the elimination of previously built-up
matter within your system. The release of this matter is a
mandatory step toward a fully functioning digestive system.
Today’s assignment
1. Spend time making slight modifications to the three
Bibliography 325
example diets given above for phase one. Show them to
your physician or your health-care professional if you wish,
and then get started.
2. That’s it. You have enough on your plate for today. Just
keep to the diets, make some notes in your journal, and
commit to following this new way of eating for at least the
next sixty to ninety days.
STOP HERE!
Don’t go any further unless you’ve completed every part
of each of the previous assignments. This is not a race. It’s
a training process for your metabolism, and it must be
undertaken in a systematic way. Each day, do your
exercises in full, make notes in your personal journal, and
continue implementing and improving that day’s exercises
for a period of thirty days (or as otherwise indicated). As
you get to each of the upcoming days (days four through
seven), add that new day’s activities to your ongoing
exercises from all the days prior to it.
How to Add Octane to Your Cardiovascular Training
Congratulations! You’re one of a relatively small contingent of
readers who have made it this far. Most people put the book
326
down after the previous section. What your persistence
demonstrates is that you’re one of those in that top 10 percent
of the population who truly want to improve their health and
their appearance—and you will succeed! Now let’s maximize
your metabolism by training your cardiovascular system.
Day Four. Your metabolic fitness includes both aerobic and
strength-training elements that work together to produce total
metabolic health. You simply cannot have the whole package
without including physical training and a systematic, healthful
diet.
As you learned previously, aerobic (cardiovascular) exercises
are those that burn huge amounts of oxygen. Do you remember
what they are? Here are a few examples:
running
jogging
aerobics classes
spinning® classes
power walking
indoor rock climbing
Exercises such as these place heavy demands on your heart
and lungs; they are excellent methods for promoting
Bibliography 327
cardiovascular fitness. Cardiovascular exercise is also known to
· Burn calories and help regulate appetite
· Lift your mood
· Relieve depression, boredom, fatigue, and stress
Regardless of the program you choose, I recommend that
your entire exercise program include the following five
elements:
1. Aerobic warm-up
2. Minor stretching
3. Aerobic and strength conditioning
4. Aerobic cool-down
5. Final, more-detailed stretching
Now not everyone will have the time for all five of these
activities, but you should never miss your warm-up, or the
actual aerobic and strength-training session, or your cool-down.
The stretching is very helpful, but for purposes of this program
the stretching is slightly less important than the cardiovascular
part. However, you should not let more than thirty days go by
without including a stretching component in your exercise
routine.
The warm-up elevates the core temperature of your muscles,
328
increases the pulse rate and blood flow throughout your body,
and gets your body ready for exercise. Stretching prepares the
body for exercise by improving the elasticity of the muscles,
which helps to prevent injury. The aerobic exercise you choose
should be performed within your target heart range (THR). The
simplest way to determine your THR is the following formula,
which gives lower and upper bounds on the heart rate you
should aim for:
(220 minus your age) multiplied by 0.70 = your lower bound
(220 minus your age) multiplied by 0.80 = your upper bound
Monitor your heart rate by using a heart-rate monitor strapped
to your chest (this can be purchased for around $75 in any
fitness store). Be sure to keep your heart rate within your target
heart range (THR) during your entire period of aerobic exercise
(that is, keep it between the lower and upper bounds given by
the above formula).
The cool-down is really just the opposite of the warm-up. The
rate at which you exercise (and your heart rate) should slowly
decrease during the cool-down, thereby allowing your body to
eliminate harmful lactates and return to a normal temperature.
Now set some short-term goals, say weekly, for the amount of
time you will spend on the actual aerobic-conditioning phase of
Bibliography 329
your exercise routine. If you can perform only ten minutes’
worth of moderate cardiovascular exercise at this point, then
setting a goal of working up to a thirty-minute exercise period
within the next seven days is neither attainable nor safe.
Pushing yourself too hard will not increase your
metabolism. What is needed for an increase in metabolism
is persistent training (that is, being sure not to miss your
scheduled training sessions). Increasing the length of your
cardio session by, let’s say, five minutes on every third workout
is a great goal—one that will constantly increase your metabolic
rate—but stop increasing the length of your cardio workouts
once you get up to sixty minutes.
As for the intensity of each of your training sessions,
remember to monitor your heart rate so that you will always be
in the correct fat-burning, metabolic-enhancing range. Whatever
your level of aerobic/cardiovascular activity, select and write out
your goals, then focus wholeheartedly on achieving those goals.
And do it now.
Today’s assignment
1. Write out your cardiovascular goals (for example, to do
some form of aerobic conditioning four times each week, for
thirty minutes each time).
330
2. Commit to keeping to the following schedule for the next
thirty days:
a. Five minutes of a general warm-up
b. Five minutes of light stretching
c. At least thirty minutes of aerobic conditioning (we’ll add
your strength training tomorrow, on day five)
d. Ten minutes of a general cool-down
e. Ten minutes of light stretching
3. Never set a schedule without actually starting to follow
it that very day! Start and complete your first aerobic
session according to the schedule laid out above.
4. Write out a schedule of the exact times at which you will
train each day for the next few days. In fact, you should get
into the habit of writing out the next day’s schedule each
night before you go to bed.
This is a good place to make a side note regarding your
journal entries. You should be writing out your goals on a
regular basis, either daily or weekly. The more you write and rewrite
your goals, the more ingrained in your subconscious they
will become. So make this a regular practice, and never miss a
journal entry.
Bibliography 331
Building Dense, Well-Toned Muscles
The other half of the fitness equation is the development of
muscle strength and endurance, what we’ll call strength
training. Today, day five, you’ll begin to accelerate your
progress tenfold, by incorporating strength training into your
program.
Day Five. Muscle endurance is the ability of muscles to apply
a sub-maximal force repeatedly or to be exercised over an
extended period of time. Here are some common means of
building muscle endurance:
free weights
exercise machines
push-ups, sit-ups, chin-ups
Of these three, my favorite is the use of free weights. No matter
what your goals are, free weights give you greater control over
your destiny. In the absence of free weights (dumbbells or
barbells), you can resort to push-ups, sit-ups, etc.; however,
your progress will be slower and harder to track.
One of the principal benefits of muscle conditioning is that
muscles serve as the body’s motor, burning most of the energy
it produces. Losing muscle density while continuing to take in
the same amount of energy in the form of food has the
332
undesirable outcome of causing you to put on weight in the form
of fat.
When we reach our thirties, we begin to lose muscle mass, for
a myriad of reasons. As we age, our basal metabolic rate
decreases by about one-half of one percent per year. Thus, our
overall metabolic rate will naturally start slowing as we get older
unless we can increase our muscle density. The way we do this
in the Maximize Your Metabolism program is through strength
training.
Keep in mind that every pound of muscle burns approximately
fifty calories per day. Thus, for every pound of muscle you gain,
you can eat fifty additional calories’ worth of food each day
without gaining weight in the form of fat. Better yet, make your
diet a bit more healthful and gain a few pounds of muscle
density, and then see what happens. What you will undoubtedly
find is that you’ll have a rapid drop in body fat on account of
your heightened metabolism! Obviously, the opposite is also
true. Lose a pound of muscle mass (and you’ll lose a lot of
muscle mass if you don’t exercise regularly and properly), and
you’ll have to cut back on your food intake by fifty or more
calories a day in order to avoid gaining weight.
Traditionally, weight-loss science has taught that optimum
metabolism can be achieved by balancing the sources of
Bibliography 333
energy. In short, what goes in must equal what goes out. If the
energy equivalent of the food you eat is more than the energy
you burn, you’ll gain weight. If you burn more energy than the
equivalent of what you ingest in the way of food, you’ll lose
weight.
However, that’s not the whole story. There is also an adaptive
effect of dieting: the greater the number of times you restrict
your calories for a prolonged period of time, the slower your
metabolism becomes. The slower your metabolism, the more
calories your body will store as body fat the next time you eat.
The best way to combat this natural tendency to conserve
energy is to reset your metabolic rate with a comprehensive
program of strength training and aerobic activity. A balanced
fitness program will help you make permanent weight loss a
part of your life.
It’s far more efficient to use exercise as a metabolic-boosting
and fat-burning strategy for losing weight than it is to count on
diet alone. In fact, we tend to burn off calories both during and
after exercise. Strength-building exercises fire up our caloric
“furnace” and raise our resting metabolic rate.
Weight training has the added effect of breaking down muscle
tissue. In reality, you injure your muscle tissue when you lift
weights, but if you rest the affected muscles and supply them
334
with proper nutrients, they’ll automatically seek to protect
themselves from further injury by becoming stronger and more
responsive. This may sound like a harsh, masochistic approach
to fitness, but it’s totally natural and very good for your health.
Your body adapts to the stress of weight training by repairing
the injured muscle tissue and then stimulating growth of new
muscle tissue in order to overcome the additional workload. In
essence, your muscles become stronger and denser to
overcome the added stress.
Now don’t be alarmed. I know what you’re thinking: “It sounds
as if I have to become a bodybuilder or at least gain tons in the
way of muscular size.” That’s not what muscle density means.
We discussed this earlier, but I feel compelled to review it now.
Muscle density refers to the strength, health, and tightness of
your muscles, while muscle size refers to their volume. You can
greatly increase your muscle density without increasing your
muscle size! If your goal is to gain in muscular size, slight
modifications can be made to this program to accomplish that
goal, but this book is focused on gaining in muscle density, not
size.
Since strength-building exercises exert stresses on your
muscles, they require an increased flow of blood in order to
carry on their restorative and strengthening processes. When
Bibliography 335
blood is forced into your muscles during your weightlifting
program, it helps speed up the repair process in your muscle
tissues. As they rebuild themselves, they become denser and
stronger than they were before. That’s why it is so important for
you to follow your strength-training regimen to the letter, and to
combine that program with a good diet and proper rest.
Your strength-training routine
Always start out with an easy strength-training regimen,
perhaps with a one-set, ten-rep program of eight to ten different
exercises, two or three times a week.
Your normal routine might include a warm-up, followed by
some squats, and then some pull-downs, bench presses, bicep
curls, tricep push-downs, side laterals, incline sit-ups (or leg
lifts), and finally a cardio regimen. Make sure you do your
exercises in the proper order.
Typically, your personal trainer (if you’re lucky enough to have
a good one) will recommend starting with a larger muscle group
and working your way down to a smaller one. Always train your
muscle groups in an organized, systematic fashion, and
complete all the sets for each exercise (if you’re doing more
than one) before going on to another exercise. Once you
establish a particular order in which to work your muscles, stick
336
to that order (unless otherwise noted by your trainer) for thirty
days before modifying it and adding variety.
Exercise sets
Just a refresher: A rep (short for “repetition”) is a single
performance of one particular weight-lifting or exercise
movement. A set consists of the sum total of all the times that
you engage in a particular movement in succession before
taking a rest. The best exercise system for increasing your
metabolism is to do three to four sets of eight to twelve reps
each. In this system, you should choose a weight that can be
lifted ONLY eight to twelve times (meaning that you are actually
incapable of lifting the weight one more time after you reach the
eighth or twelfth rep, respectively). Then you should repeat the
sequence two or three more times (that is, do two or three more
sets), allowing just enough rest in between sets for you to
recover. Normally, your rest time between sets will be about
thirty seconds.
The secret of progressive resistance
As muscles adapt to a particular level of resistance (for
example, the amount of weight you lift or the amount of rest
time between sets), you should gradually increase your
Bibliography 337
resistance, either by increasing the amount of weight you lift or
decreasing your rest period between sets. This must occur if
you are to continue to reap the benefits of the exercise in the
form of denser, stronger muscles and an ever-increasing
metabolism caused by those denser muscles. If you don’t
increase your resistance from time to time, your program will
still be beneficial, but you probably won’t develop the muscular
density that you have set as your goal.
Progressively increasing your resistance is your key to muscle
density and metabolic enhancement through anaerobic (weight)
training. The progression principle requires that as soon as the
weight you are lifting is no longer causing sufficient stress on
your muscles, you must either increase your resistance or
decrease your rest time between sets. That way, you’ll ensure
that the workout continues to be a challenge for you.
Always exercise in proper form. The key to realizing the
maximum metabolic benefit through weight training is found not
in just doing an exercise—regardless of style or form—but in
doing it correctly, so that you’ll get the most out of every
exercise you do.
Your exercising motions should be clean and fluid, and
directly in line with the proper axis of the muscle being worked.
338
If you can possibly help it, you shouldn’t allow your line of
exercise motion to stray. Instruction in how to perform any given
exercise correctly can be obtained from a fitness coach or a
personal trainer at a good health club.
In addition to lifting form, lifting speed is an important element
that has a major effect on the flow of blood to your target
muscles. And while you might think better results are to be
realized from lifting weights at a faster pace, the opposite is
actually true. Although fast lifting creates a certain momentum,
it doesn’t promote optimal blood flow to the muscle, so it pays to
slow down a bit.
Always listen to your body. If your body tells you there’s
something that isn’t right, then stop the exercise immediately
and rest for a few days before attempting that particular
exercise again. But continue with all other aspects of your
training and diet.
The next thirty days
Here you are! The next thirty days will change your life,
forever! Have you been completing your daily activities and
exercises so far? If not, stop here and make sure you’re on
target up to this point. Then once you are, you may
proceed.
Bibliography 339
The exercise routine presented in the table below is a sample
of one that I used with several clients of mine who had made
tremendous progress and surpassed their goals. I’ve included it
here, not necessarily for you to follow but so that you can see
what a well-structured routine looks like. Study it and then
create your own routine, using the one given here as a skeleton
to build upon and personalize for your particular level of
experience.
The clients who used this routine had already had a fair
amount of experience in exercising, and they knew all about
proper form for each of the exercises listed in the table. What
they did not know was how to put their knowledge to use to
achieve the results they wanted. Only after years of trial and
error did they decide to consult me. This exercise routine, which
I assigned to them, brought not only the kinds of results they
sought but many more besides.
Today’s assignment
1. Review the exercise routine that’s laid out in the following
table and make any modifications you see fit, but keep the
general structure, such as the order of the exercises. You
may even want to keep the exercises themselves.
2. Before your first workout, write out a clear and concise goal
340
for what you want to achieve in the next thirty days of
training. Then commit to never missing a workout. You
might wish to use one of my favorite slogans: “miss your
favorite television show, but never miss one of your training
sessions.”
3. Have fun. This is not work. This is the way you scientifically
and systematically reach your goals. The process can be
fun, but you must force yourself to be persistent.
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MYM (Maximize Your Metabolism) Workout*
Days 1 to 30 Days 31 to 60
Exercise Sets Reps Rest
(sec.) Sets Reps Rest
(sec.)
Legs
Squats 3 10–15 30–45 3 8–10 20–30
Stiff-leg
deadlifts 3 10–15 30–45 3 8–10 20–30
Lunges 0 — — 3 8–10 20–30
Back
One-arm row 3 10–15 30–45 3 8–10 20–30
Pull-downs 0 — — 3 8–10 20–30
Chest
Incline bench 3 10–15 30–45 3 8–10 20–30
Flat flies 0 — — 3 8–10 20–30
Shoulders
Upright row 3 10–15 30–45 3 10–12 20–30
Bent lateral 0 — — 3 10–12 20–30
Biceps
Alternating
D-bell curls 3 15–20 30–45 3 8–12 20–30
Concentrating
curls 0 — — 3 8–10 20–30
Triceps
Tricep
kick-backs 3 10–15 30–45 3 8–10 20–30
Overhead
extensions 0 — — 3 8–12 20–30
Abdominals
Lying leg lift 2 10–15 15 2 20–25 15
Reverse
crunches 1 10 0 1 20 0
Crunches 1 15 0 1 25 0
Parallel
crunches 1 10 0 1 10 0
*Begin each workout with ten minutes of light aerobics, and end it with twenty to
forty-five minutes of the same.
Don’t forget…if you’re limited on time check out the book: The 2 Day Workout
342
Day Six. We’ve already talked about the importance of a
personal journal in helping you keep your eye on what’s going
on in your program. But now we’re going to explain precisely
how to build your goals by use of your journal. In the process of
doing that, we’ll be planning your physical destiny.
I once heard a professional speaker named Zig Ziglar give an
explanation of the importance of goals. I have used his
approach to achieving goals many times, and I’d like to share it
with you now.
Ziglar told of a world-famous archer who could hit the bull’seye
using a bow and arrow nearly every time he attempted it.
He went on to say that he could teach anyone to be more
accurate with a bow and arrow, and even to hit the target more
often on average—and closer to the center of the bull’s-eye—
than that expert archer could. The way Zig proposed to do this
was to blindfold the archer, spin him around several times, and
then give him no clue as to where the target was.
That may sound silly at first. How could this world-renowned
archer possibly hit a target if he were blindfolded and dizzy? But
it very astutely illustrates my point about setting goals: You
cannot hit a goal you do not have.
Setting goals is a vital part of many of our accomplishments.
In fact, I’d be willing to bet that you’ve never achieved anything
Bibliography 343
worthwhile in life without first having set the attainment of that
particular milestone as a goal. You may not have been aware
that you were setting a goal. You may not have actually gotten
your goal down on paper. You may not even have thought of it
as a goal, but you did desire to attain it, and so you
subconsciously set that goal in your mind.
You may be able to speed up the achievement of your goals
by following the formula given below, but only if you are
persistent in your efforts.
Your formula for success
1. Set a goal for yourself.
2. Become highly passionate about attaining this goal.
3. Clearly write out your goal.
4. Write out a detailed “plan of action,” with monthly, weekly,
and daily steps, and be persistent in following your plan.
5. About thirty times each day, think about how great it will be
to have achieved this goal—in essence, become obsessed
with its attainment.
6. Stay on top of your plan of action, and if you notice that it
isn’t working, study the situation and then make changes to
your plan to help improve upon it.
344
Today’s assignment
1. Complete the exercise on Crystallizing Your Focus found in
the chapter on desire (chapter 3), and then have your
number-one goal in front of you when you set out to do
today’s exercises.
2. No goal can be properly set or achieved without a
sufficiently strong desire for its attainment. Write out, in a
special place in the front of your journal, exactly why you
desire to achieve your goal. If you are really on track, you’ll
get a bit emotional about it. If you don’t get emotional about
your goal, then it’s not the right goal for you, and you
probably won’t have enough desire to be persistent in trying
to achieve it.
3. Write out a clear description of your goal. As you do this,
you can follow an approach that’s similar to what you used
in doing step #2 of today’s assignment, but you need to
chisel down the description of your goal to a powerful twoto
three-sentence statement that gets you focused and
jazzed up just by reading it.
4. Neatly rewrite the description of your goal at the top of a
clean page in your journal. A line or two below that, write
the words “Plan of Action.” Now get very detailed, and write
Bibliography 345
a list of everything you need to do to reach your goal.
Finally, write out exactly how you will achieve each of these
“sub-goals.”
5. As I said before, you need to be flexible in your approach.
Modify your plan if you figure that by modifying it you’ll be
likely to reach your goal even sooner. But be careful: Study
your plan and your potential modification carefully. Don’t
rush into any changes to your plan. If you find yourself
making frequent or rushed changes, then you know you’re
just procrastinating—and ultimately setting yourself up for
failure.
At this point, I’d like to include a brief discussion on being
flexible. I prefer to illustrate my view of flexibility like this:
Picture a field with two trees in it, one of them large,
about fifty feet tall, and strong looking; the other still
young, only about ten feet tall, and relatively thin. If only
one of these trees survives in a major windstorm, it won’t
be the larger one, the one that refused to bend in the
wind. The tree that will survive is the younger, smaller
one, because it was flexible and let the wind bend it
temporarily. Now, don’t get me wrong; I am very adamant
about holding to my vision and my goals. But the
346
approach I take to reaching my goals, and the approach
you take to reaching yours, must be filled with desire,
must be written out clearly, and must be flexible enough
to be modified if necessary.
6. One additional element that’s absolutely essential in setting
goals is a deadline. None of your goals will be reached on
time if you have no deadlines! Whenever you set a deadline
for yourself, be sure that it’s reasonable and attainable, but
one that scares you a bit as well!
Day Seven. This is your day for rest and play. As you know,
all work and no play makes Jack (and Jill) just as dull as can be.
And though you should reward yourself once in a while, you’re
on a mission right now and you want to keep up the momentum
for the next thirty days without veering off course—not even
once.
The resting and playing I’m referring to here are to be physical
in nature. This is your chance to rest your body and exercise
your mind.
Yes, I know, you think you’ve been exercising your mind the
whole time you’ve been reading this book and doing the
exercises laid out herein. But now we’re going to put your mind
through mental boot camp. We’re going to crank up the volume
Bibliography 347
on your desire to attain your goal. And most importantly, we’re
going to set up a “success mindset” for you.
You may recall that a few chapters back I told you that when
you train with weights, rather than just doing aerobic exercises,
your body responds by burning calories during your exercise
routine as well as for a long time after you’re finished exercising
for the day. I used the example of burning calories (body fat)
while you sleep.
Well, now we’re going to program your mind so that it’s
focused on achieving your goal even when you’re focused on
your normal daily activities. Let’s think of this process as one of
training your mind so well now that you can run it on autopilot
later. Even when you’re not focused on achieving your goal,
your mind will be drawing it into your life!
Okay. Enough explanation. This is a hard-core, “just-do-it”
kind of exercise, so let’s move on to the daily assignment.
Today’s assignment
1. You have already written a really good affirmation (the twoto
three-sentence statement of your achieving your goal).
Now take that affirmation, and read it out loud at least a
hundred times today. Do this in a place where no one can
hear or see you! In fact, don’t tell anyone about this
348
exercise, or even that you have a goal. Let others see the
results in full before you let them in on the existence of your
goal or how you have accomplished it. Take several breaks
from your normal day today, and, with great excitement,
repeat your success statement ten to twenty times. When
you do this, make sure you’re visualizing yourself as having
already achieved your goal.
This is very important, so I’ll say it again: when you
repeat your success statement, make sure you are
highly emotional about it (get excited) and be sure to
visualize yourself as having already achieved your
goal (see yourself in the shape you’re aiming for—
and see yourself being congratulated by others).
2. Even when you’re not repeating your success statement,
stay focused on the mental picture you have of yourself
having already achieved your goal. At least four times
today, take five to ten minutes to sit quietly in a room where
you won’t be disturbed; first relax, and then clearly visualize
yourself having already achieved your goal. See the colors,
hear the compliments of others, feel the clothes you have
on, feel how great your new body feels. Get as many of
your senses involved as you can. I know this will take time
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out of your day, but it will make a dramatic impact on the
speed with which you reach your goal. And the faster you
reach your physical goal, the faster you can become more
successful in all other areas of your life. Remember, not
being in top shape holds you back in every aspect of your
life. You may not understand that now, and that’s OK. Just
take it on faith that once you’ve gotten into top shape
physically, it will be a lot easier to achieve all your other
goals—financial goals, relationship and family goals,
business goals, etc.
3. At the end of your day, while lying in bed, repeat your
success statement to yourself, again visualizing yourself as
having achieved your goal (this time in a relaxed state of
mind—don’t get excited or emotional). Do this over and over
until you fall asleep. Make this the last thing you think about
as you drift off. This will help to deeply root your affirmation
in your subconscious mind.
That’s it! You’ve done it!
You’ve completed the most powerful Seven Days of Training
that you could ever come across. And you’ve done it all on your
own!
Actually, you aren’t quite finished yet! Remember that you are
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to use what you learned in this book (about yourself and about
fitness) to continue these activities for a period of at least thirty
days. Don’t stop doing any of the activities you’ve been
engaged in during the past seven days. Indeed, don’t stop
doing anything you’ve learned, regardless of where it’s
presented in this book.
The exercises prescribed for this seven-day period were
designed to simply get the ball rolling. It’s now your
responsibility to keep it rolling. Your degree of success will be
determined by the extent to which you keep moving forward,
daily, in each of the areas we’ve discussed. Whenever you find
that you aren’t progressing fast enough or that you aren’t
heading in the right direction, just review what was presented
here and figure out what aspect of this program you’ve become
slack on. If you get to the point of needing an extra kick in the
rear end, redo the entire last chapter. If there’s one particular
exercise in this chapter that you don’t feel like doing, that’s
almost surely the one that’s holding you back!
I have successfully used the information in this book with
thousands of participants at my health clubs. I know it works. I
know it will work for you if you follow it faithfully.
Good luck, and please keep in touch. My office is filled with
letters from successful clients, and I would truly love to have a
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letter from you describing your success. In fact, I would like you
to make that one of your goals. In thirty days, write me a short
letter and let me know how you used this material to reach your
goal. You might even include before-and-after pictures. If you
do, I’ll send you a Certificate of Completion and a small gift.
And remember this: I respect you, and I’m very proud of you
for having read this entire book and gone through this program.
I know what it takes to maximize your metabolism, and I know
that these last seven days have been hectic for you, but keep in
mind that there are lots of people out there who—like me—
definitely want to see you succeed. And you’re not alone in this;
I’ll always do my best to answer your health and fitness
questions. Bodybuilding - Maximize your metabolism.
Here’s to your health!