Natural Bodybuilding, Fitness, and Peak Performance

‘Overcome Procrastination’ before it Smashes Your Dreams

Okay… so does ‘Overcome Procrastination’ before it “smashes your dreams” sound a bit dramatic? I’ll tell you why it’s likely not and you’re better off thinking otherwise. In fact, I’ll reveal a few reasons, starting with a paraphrased quote revealed by Tony Robbins that’s stuck with me for all the years since I heard it:

“… You don’t want to get to the end of your life and realize you only lived one-tenth of it.”

Wow… that hit me hard. My subconscious mind often defaults to that quote whenever I realize I might be putting off vital actions for fear of overall failure.

Here’s a more objectively-centered realization that can be coupled with that quote in providing you leverage to overcome procrastination – especially procrastination on your big objectives: In a Yale study, fully 75% of seasoned citizens felt more regret over what they’d wanted to do in their lives but hadn’t tried because of “fear of failure” than those things they had tried but “failed” at.

Maybe as we get older we realize the transitory nature of “embarrassment” from taking a shot at something big and stumbling in contrast to the eternal disgrace of never having had the courage to try at all.  Whatever the case, even if we’re well into our second half of life, we don’t want to be there; we want to know we at least gave those other nine-tenths our best shot.

 

Procrastination often lends itself to humor. However, there's usually nothing funny about its potential long-term effects on our lives when it's chronically problematic.

 

Overcome Procrastination ‘coz there’s a reason it’s called the “dream stealer”

Of course, there are different levels of procrastination. There are those that can create small but inconvenient rushes in our lives (like doing taxes at the last minute), and those that can lead to postponement and even abandonment of our biggest aspirations. It’s putting off the steps that lead to the big aspirations that land the procrastination of particular tasks in the category of ‘dream stealer.’

But even procrastinated tasks that are seemingly ancillary to our big aspirations can have a negative effect on achieving them and potentially prevent it all together. If we put off doing taxes to the point that it negatively affects personal financial resources, it could eventually have a dire effect on pursuing a particular career dream. Likewise, if we put off improving our health and fitness, all other dreams and aspirations could go up in smoke; we’ve got nothing without our health.

Overcome Procrastination and become someone who Makes Things Happen

In the late nineties, I worked for a guy who changed his life for the better rather quickly. In fact, he went from having a start-up business to a thriving business in record time. He did well, despite the fact that he lacked talent in some areas and there was a lot he didn’t know (like all of us).

There was one trait I noticed about Greg (his name) that stood out above all others; the one thing I learned from him. He’d get an idea to do something, and the next day…. Why… he’d be doing it. I mean… this guy was the opposite of the procrastinator. He would at least start taking small steps in the direction of his idea to see if it had “legs.” Then he’d use that feedback to either ‘tweak’ his idea or dump it and come up with a new one. Greg seemed to continuously use this formula on his biggest aspirations while having a large family to tend to simultaneously. He appeared to treat all his projects and heart-felt concerns as if today was all he had and tomorrow might never come.

He unknowingly became my mentor on this one vital skill.

Overcome Procrastination, “The Dream Stealer”, by Understanding its Psychology

At another time, I had a co-worker who said he really had a great theme for a pizza restaurant he wanted to open. He would gladly talk about how he was going to open this pizza place someday, yet he never took even the most rudimentary action for making it happen. When I became inquisitive about his inaction, he answered me by saying:

“My problem is procrastination; I have a real tendency to procrastinate.”

I liked his candidness. But at the same time, I was a little surprised; how could he not know how fast time flies and how short life is by that age? He was in his mid-fifties – well enough along in his sixth decade to know that time is merciless when we put these things off.

Then it dawned on me: He knows enough to know he’s procrastinating. He knows it’s holding him back. Yet he doesn’t know enough about the underlying “psychology of procrastination” to conquer it and resume forward. That’s a problem. And that just happens to be where a lot of people are; self-actualized enough to know they need to overcome procrastination but lacking the know-how to stop the procrastinating of overcoming it.

Kind of ironic.

The Psychology of Procrastination: One simple Equation makes the Difference in Understanding

There are a number of books out there on ‘overcoming procrastination.’ Some of them are quite good. Yet what I’ve noticed that separates The Psychology of Procrastination from the rest is a simple equation on page 22 of the book. You see… I like things to start out simple. I like to be able to understand the nitty-gritty details of a topic when they’re predicated on a framework that I can see and understand in one glance. Then all the other psychology described makes perfect sense. That’s the way to start a book. And that’s how Roger Constandse begins this powerful work on overcoming procrastination.

Remember: To get more of what you want out of life, you need to become more of a ‘high performance person.’ High performance people have discovered how to conquer procrastination whenever it begins to rear its ugly head.

When you come to fully understand the psychology of procrastination, beginning with that simple and powerful equation on page 22, you will not only possess the tools to conquer this ‘dream stealer’, but also the fundamental knowledge to fully exploit those powerful tools.
 

‘You… On a Diet’: A book Review

It isn’t often that I review another author’s work. In fact, this is the first time for me to delve into such a task. But with the obvious alignment of philosophy between many of my own recommendations and those dished out (no pun intended) in the book ‘You, On a Diet: The Owner’s Manual for Waist Management’, I thought it natural to put in my two cents on the pros and cons of this particular “diet book.”

And just what alignment am I speaking of? The most prominent in ‘You… On a Diet’ is the advice against “dieting” despite the clever way the authors have chosen to grab the attention of their audience with the title. They aim their message at the millions of people who torture themselves with the regimented routines of excessive deprivation. Those routines are typically called “diets.” Yet if this is dieting and it’s most often doomed to the failure of recidivistic behavior over the long run, then it’s dieting we need to sensibly replace; hence, the clever irony of the title. 

I can attest to the effectiveness of not “dieting”, but “enhancing eating habits” instead. When I dropped fifty pounds of blubber, I did it slowly and in a fun manner that had me incrementally adding a new small challenge every two or three weeks. This allowed my body and subconscious mind to slowly adapt to ‘lean eating’ and take on the self-image of a “high performance person” rather than the self-pity of a deprived person. This is very much aligned with what Dr. Mehmet C. Oz and Dr. Michael F. Roizen recommend in their book ‘You, On a Diet; An Owner’s Manual for Waist Management.’

"You, On a Diet": Great "eating habits" recommendations with a bit of "deprivation" on the subject of exercise.

‘You, On a Diet: An Owner’s Manual for Waist Management’

Okay… so I’ll admit to not being crazy about the title of this book. It seems to shamelessly assume and reinforce an excessive self-absorption by its contemporary target audience. But that doesn’t take away from some valuable content contained within. The basic premise behind ‘You, on a Diet’, by physicians Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz, is that it’s nearly impossible to count one’s calories and weigh one’s food (diet) for long-term body fat control. This is why individuals who take these measures to lose weight inevitably end up at a loss for what to do once they’ve dropped the extra pounds. Thus the authors stress proper food choices rather than food quantity-reduction for long-term fat loss success.

A slight refinement of this principle is something to which I can personally ascribe my own success with fat loss. The skill of “instinctive eating” has kept me lean after the loss of fifty pounds of body fat that I removed without ever weighing food or doing anything with calories other than estimating them.

Drs. Oz and Roizen also contend that it’s the size of our waists and not our body weight that’s the true indicator of our health and fitness levels. This would certainly put the teachings of ‘You… On a Diet’ in alignment with the bodybuilding community on this issue; bodybuilders consider being “in shape” as having a respectable ratio between a big torso and small waistline. So the tag-line title ‘An Owner’s Manual for Waist Management’ is a cool play on words that makes up for the slight misleading shallowness I find in its preceding main title.

‘You, On a Diet’: What to Eat

The authors of ‘You… On a Diet’ point out that the hormone ‘ghrelin’ stimulates appetite while the hormone ‘leptin’ suppresses it. In order to reduce the former and raise the latter, we need to eat more healthful foods such as fruits, vegetables, and nuts while eliminating or reducing intake of foods containing simple sugars and high fructose corn syrup. Sure, there’s nothing new here in terms of which foods to reduce and which to increase. However, the ghrelin/leptin ratio is news to most people and an added compelling reason to lean toward natural foods rather than sugary processed ones in addition to the reason of contrasting calorie content. If counting calories is ineffective over the long term, then feeling satiated from consumption of more natural, unprocessed foods should more than make up for it by eventually creating a favorable hormonal ratio.

This has been one of my “secrets” to getting and staying lean. It’s even my secret to “eating for muscle gain.” While many individuals are obsessed with counting calories (whether for weight loss or weight gain), I’ve stayed focused on “instinctive quantities” derived at by making better choices of foods. This has allowed my clients and me to be unburdened by the demands of strict diets that cause many people to conclude they can’t stick with it over the long term.

“You… on a Diet”: Deprivation doesn’t work

Also in alignment with what I’ve observed is the co-author’s contention that dieters feel they’re in constant battle with temptation to eat what’s not allowed in their diets. This builds a feeling of deprivation which only creates more desire to eat the pastries, doughnuts, and potato-chips rather than the skinless chicken, broccoli, and carrot sticks.

The only thing I find myself at odds with is something derived at by the somewhat subjective nature of the experience of “satiation.” If a dieter switches all food intake from the sugary processed variety over to the natural “out of the ground” type, he or she will drop body fat. However, calories are calories; we can still eat too big of quantities even after we’ve made this critical switch. If you tell some people, like me, to eat until they feel “satiated”, it might well be taken as an ‘okay’ to eat “to your heart’s content.” This, I’ve found from my own experience, can stop fat loss in its tracks or even reverse its course.

The remedy, even while not counting calories, is to learn your body’s signals so as to stop eating just short of what many of us would describe as “satiation.” In other words, losing fat requires frequent feedings of nutritious foods that leave us just “slightly short of complete satiation”; not hungry – but not really “full” either. The feedback to monitor is whether we feel some lowering of blood sugar and its accompanying hunger for a good thirty minutes before each meal when the meals are spread about three hours apart. That’s when you’ll know you’re burning some fat calories throughout the day without compromising your muscle or long-term metabolism.

You, On a Diet: The odds and ends

Drs. Roizen and Oz also cover medical options (their pros and cons) for obese persons who find typical eating habit changes and exercise to be inadequate for their challenge. These options include everything from surgery to certain types of drug prescriptions and are especially worth considering for those dealing with obesity over the age of fifty. Some of what’s talked about:

• Bariatric surgery
• Plastic surgery
• Amphetamines
• Drugs that act like serotonin
• Drugs that inhibit fat absorption in the body

Medical options should always be by prescription and under the supervision of a qualified MD. These are serious alternatives that must be deliberated upon with one’s personal physician before a decision is made. However, for ‘morbid obesity’ (100 pounds overweight for men – 80 pounds overweight for women), these are viable options the authors discuss in detail.

“You, on a Diet”: A disagreement

I like most of what the authors of ‘You… On a Diet’ have to say, but disagree with the sparse section on exercise. I can’t slam them too much for exercise sparseness; it is, after all, a ‘diet’ book. However, their claim that “20 minutes of bodyweight exercise/ three times per week is all you need” is almost laughable. This is hardly enough time to provide the body with adequate cardiovascular exercise to burn fat. It certainly isn’t enough time performing resistance exercises to add enough muscle to the body to replace metabolism-boosting, shape-creating solid tissue that’s lost with age.

Maybe these are merely the words of a diehard bodybuilder but I think enhancing one’s eating habits and implementing an exercise routine should provide compelling, even exciting… results. That’s what keeps us motivated. It definitely beats the somewhat drab prospect of “losing weight” just to see a droopy-skinned skeleton reflected from the mirror. That’s what unchecked sarcopenia can leave us with. This is precisely the reason HardBody Success has an effective and highly doable resistance training workout as its cornerstone.

Conclusion

Overall, I think ‘You, On a Diet: An Owner’s Manual for Waist Management’ is worthy of its price tag and time-in-reading. I’d say the best take-away quote from within deals with “emotional eating” with the following:

“… live and eat in the present – not being upset about what you ate in the past and not obsessing about what you’ll eat in the future.”

Well said!

My input: Think of yourself as a “high-performance person”… your body as a “high performance machine”… and each day as one where you’ll get your greatest satisfaction from “performing well” (moving closer to what you want). This formula will more likely get you the body you want than any calorie-counting, food-weighing regimen of deprivation.

"Product Buyback Guarantee"; what to look for on the Internet

I must confess; I've gotten burned. I've had an Internet service company take me for a ride by not delivering half the value for which I'd paid them upfront. Imagine that.

What's more bothersome than anything else is the bad reputation for Internet marketing that these unscrupulous merchants create which makes for an uphill slogging for the honest ones. This is one of those immeasurable costs.

These guys convinced me (indirectly) to extend my 'product buyback guarantee'. You can call it a money-back guarantee, a generous refund policy, or a no-risk trial… whatever. I'm now giving my book customers a 12 MONTH 'product buyback guarantee'/money-back guarantee.

Regardless of terminology, it's what these people who took me for a ride were adamantly against having that should have been a red flag for me. Without mentioning names, they had it right on the bottom of their contract: 'No refunds'.

What is a company telling you when they offer no refund/'product buyback guarantee'? In my opinion, they're saying they don't have confidence. They don't have confidence in their products or services so they want you to "eat it" when they don't deliver. If they don't have the confidence to stand behind their proclaimed value with a guarantee - then that value will probably remain only a proclamation rather than an actuality.

Why would I offer such an unheard-of guarantee; a one-year 'product buyback guarantee'? Because I know I can deliver the fitness/bodybuilding value that I promise people.

I recommend that you only deal with online merchants who offer not only a guarantee - but a product buyback guarantee allowing a generous amount of time for you to judge the value delivered by the product or service.