Chasing Health:The Book - 2010

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Chasing Health

A book by Dr. Garth J Wright

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To my youngest daughter, Natalie,

Who is my main inspiration for

Making this journey….

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I give here thanks to God. Without Him and His Son, I would have no salvatiion in Heaven, only this short time on earth.

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Preface

Let me start by saying that I am not a guru or self-proclaimed expert on health and fitness. My doctoral degree is in Dentistry. I think I know a considerable amount about these subjects, partly from my background in the sciences (both behavioral and biomedical), and the health professions, and partly from personal experience.

I am currently a Professor and many of my happiest hours are spent teaching, but I do not claim to have all the answers. What is presented in this book are my ideas based on my own experiences, except where I have received guidance from others, in which case, I have cited them for their valuable contributions to my health.

Rather than an “expert”, I only claim to be a man, who in his late 50‟s, saw his health (and his future) in jeopardy, and took it back. Through that process, my eyes were opened wide, as yours will be, if you take the journey, to many ideas both related and unrelated to the subject of this book.

Other “experts” may take exception to all or part of what I have presented here, and in some cases with good reason. I know with absolute certainty only what happened to me… and it has been, for me, life-altering!

Throughout this book it is implied that physical fitness, a normal or below-normal body fat content and proper nutrition constitute good health. I believe this from my core, but I also realize this is a controversial subject. Can people who have serious diseases, conditions or chemical addictions achieve health through those means? Perhaps and perhaps not, but one thing is certain to me, and that is this: That incorporating these measures as much as is possible into your life will be beneficial, no matter what level of health you can achieve.

So let the Chase begin!

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Table of Contents

Preface Page 4

Chapter One Out of the Gates page 6

Chapter Two Stumbled and Fell page 10

Chapter Three Back on Your Feet page 14

Chapter Four How Do You Get There? Page 20

Chapter Five Starting to Run page 30

Chapter Six What Goes In page 32

Chapter Seven What Burns It Up page 57

Chapter Eight In Hot Pursuit page 78

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Chapter 1 – Out of the Gates

“Damn! I feel like hell. Shouldn‟ta drank the rest of that bottle of wine before bed… Dammit! Runnin‟ late already, and I just don‟t wanna face the office at all…. so much work piled up! I‟m soooo tired! Well, just one more smoke… and into the shower. (very sarcastically) I‟m sure this’ll be another Really Great Day!”

Does this remind you of anyone you know? You maybe?

“One Life to Live”, sounds like a soap opera, but it is true! This is not a dress rehearsal, it is the Real Deal. If you are not honoring the body (and Mind) you were given as a gift, now is the time to start. Should you decide to take that road, this little book will be your guide and your friend!

Since you are reading this, the chances are that you are a person who has health issues. Hopefully, you have already begun the journey toward being healthy again, and just want some guidance, just like I did when I first realized I needed help. But whether you are just beginning to think about being healthy again, or already on your way, but having limited success in your efforts, this book will surely be of help to you.

This is just as much a self-awareness book as it is a self-help book. After reading it, you will know for sure that there is a way out of the corner you have painted yourself into, and you will have some great ideas for planning and executing your escape back to a healthy life.

There are two primary themes in this book. Most all of the ideas in this book can be sub-headings below these. The first is GRADUAL IS GOOD, and the second is TANSTAAFL.

I cannot stress enough how much you need to embrace this first principle throughout your quest for a healthy life, and even more so, if you are past 40.

There is no way I know of that you can attain total health, or even maximal health for your situation, whatever it may be, without large quantities of exercises including resistance training (weight lifting).

The human body is a marvelously adaptive organism. If you are very sedentary, overweight and in poor health, it is fairly amazing that your body has survived what you have done to it, but it survived because it was able to adapt itself to those severe conditions! If left there too long, however, it will break down.

Ironically, your body can just as easily get used to very difficult exercise routines, both cardiovascular workouts and weight training! Additionally, it will flourish

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under those conditions. But before you become afraid of what lies ahead, please indulge me and read on. It is not as bad as you think. This is not the Biggest Loser!

You did not get where you are overnight, did you? If you are anything like me, it all just sort of snuck up on you. So then, getting to a high level of health and fitness will not happen for you overnight either. Gains will be infinitesimally slow in the beginning, and then gradually accelerate as you approach your goal.

The task looks so huge to most people, that they believe it just cannot be accomplished. They are WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!! But until they stop believing in a negative outcome, and begin to believe in their minds that it is possible to be fit and healthy again, they will remain frozen to act.

That problem is one that a major portion of this book is devoted to solving. Without exception, the biggest challenge we face in this life is time. It races by, no matter what we do, so there is much urgency in acting quickly and deliberately to claim what is rightfully ours on this earth! That means that now is the time for you to act!

This book will help you get going and the key is to start out very gently, and then gradually add to your routines as your muscles strengthen and your connective tissues (ligaments, tendons, cartilages, joints and fascia) add bracing for this new muscle activity. Too much too soon, and you will probably sustain an injury, usually to those connective tissues, mentioned above. This will most likely put you right out of the game, and you will be worse off than when you started!

A good friend of mine, who is five years my junior, determined to follow me on the journey several months after I got started and was already going strong. I was elated for him, and although I warned him about starting out very slowly, he enrolled in a boot camp at his gym, without my knowing, and blew out his knee in the second session. Several cortisone shots later, and doctor‟s orders to stay off of it, he will probably need surgery like the one he had on the other side a few years ago. I hope not. Nevertheless, his plan, however poorly formulated, was interrupted!

For some, this type of injury will just be a setback from which they will recover, and then they will move back onto the path toward health anyway, just delayed slightly. But for those with less vision and determination, it‟s game over! They will give up near the beginning of their challenge and resign themselves to poor health. They will trade in their beautiful new vision for their old belief that it is just impossible. They will miss out on all the benefits and fun! They will most likely not live as long as they would have if they were fit and healthy.

These folks are not doomed for certain, but something extraordinary will be required to spur them to act again, after their injury heals. Perhaps this is you,

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and just maybe someone gave you my book to be just the right nudge you need to get going again! Just remember: GRADUAL IS GOOD.

I never ran (except on treadmills) until October 2008. I was already getting into pretty good shape by then, but I did not want to have a setback, so I started out gradually. I set an arbitrary time of one hour for each “running” session, and 3 sessions per week. Using 4 minute intervals, I started out running 15 seconds and walking fast 3 minutes and 45 seconds. The 15 second runs were very physically challenging to me at first, and I only covered about two and one half miles, in the beginning, during the hour. The next week, I ran 30 seconds and walked 3 minutes and 30 seconds.

After two more months, when I got to 2 minutes of each, I rewarded myself with an expensive pair of running shoes. I had shin splints for a few months, but they finally subsided as the muscle attachments strengthened. After three months, when I was running 3 minutes and walking only one, I realized that the walking was not necessary anymore, because I did not feel any need to walk when my watch said it was time to. My body had finally accommodated to running.

So did I just take off running solid? No, I stuck to my plan and went 2 more weeks with short walks between runs. When I was finally running continuously, I was covering 5 miles in an hour, something that had seemed totally impossible at the outset!

I ran my first 10K race (6.2 miles) the following March in one hour and 4 minutes! That was just less than 6 mph. Six months later I ran a 5K race in 27:18 (that is close to 7 mph for 3 consecutive miles!). Today, I run 6 mph for one hour three times per week, and I am using the above technique to gradually take it up to 7 mph! So, you see, gradual is good.

The second primary theme in this book is: TANSTAAFL. It stands for: “There ain‟t no such thing as a free lunch”.

It is human nature, unfortunately, to always look for an easy way out of a situation, but there are just no substitutes for discipline and hard work. So, if you want the maximum health possible for you, you will have to change what you are doing (or not doing) now, and replace it with a different lifestyle! This is actually simple, and this book will show you the way, but it is not easy! Much effort and restraint are required to lose fat, gain muscle, and maximize cardiovascular fitness and endurance, but the payoff is well worth it!

In the US and many other so-called “advanced” societies, all sorts of pills, diet plans, food systems and exercise devices are heavily marketed with multi-media blitzes. They all promise or imply that you can look and feel like the sexy people in the ads, with little or no effort, or much investment of your time, as long as you purchase their products. The marketing is very persuasive, but rarely do they

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help you get results of any kind, much less like the people in the ads, who got healthy and fit by hard work and discipline, not by using the products that they are representing!

I am ashamed to say, I have spent thousands of dollars in my lifetime, chasing rainbows and getting nowhere (Can you say AbMaster?). Perhaps you have too, but if those experiences have helped you to realize what this book promotes, then the money was well spent. Regret nothing, and move toward health. Chase it hard, and catch it!

Just remember, TANSTAAFL, so you are not seduced by the lure of an easy way to a healthy life. I say it like a weird word at least 3 times a day, or more! I use it as a motivational tool to get me going when “life happens”, and tries to derail my efforts. It makes me tough!

If you want to go where I am going, then you will have to set some priorities and forego much of what your life now consists of, but I promise you that you will not miss any of it (eventually)!

So, my book is not a miracle cure for what currently ails you, but I believe in my heart that this is your chance to gain or regain the status of being a fit and healthy person, and in most cases it will not take more than one year to be there, (or at least well on your way to being there).

Just reading this book, however, will not help you. You must act, and quickly. If you read it, and then do nothing for weeks or months, then all the time and effort I spent on it will be wasted! How tragic! Do not let that happen! Start gently, but START! Time will not stop for you, or anyone else!

When you come to the chapter on Vision and Goals, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!!! Do not skip over it. THIS IS SO IMPORTANT! We have all been bombarded with “the goals thing”. It seems like a “buzz” word, but the truth (your truth) lies within that chapter. So follow through with the process, and you will receive for your efforts the power and motivation you will need to keep going when it gets tough, and it will get tough! Your Vision of your future will make you an unstoppable machine in your chase for health!

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Chapter 2 – Stumbled and Fell

Obesity, which is defined by many as being more than 30% heavier than your ideal weight, and it‟s associated problems (type II diabetes mellitus, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, metabolic imbalances and stroke, to name a few), is at an epidemic level in the US. Our healthcare delivery system is being crushed under the weight of it, no pun intended! The taxpayers are footing the bill, and it will only get worse, before it gets any better.

How did this happen to a nation of intelligent people?

What went wrong?

After World War II, America went rapidly through many unprecedented changes in the way its people lived. People moved to the cities in record numbers, which required the establishment of sprawling suburbs. Automobiles and mass transit systems became available to the average person. Technological advancements in agriculture and work-saving devices accelerated suddenly. Restaurants more than doubled in number due to our ability to easily reach them in automobiles, and for the first time, fast food, delivered to people right in their cars, became widely available. Can you say, Big Mac?

The idea of walking somewhere over a block away was replaced with driving or riding there. Overnight, it seemed, our country's population became simultaneously more mobile and more sedentary. No one paid much attention to these changes at first, but as caloric need decreased, due to decreased muscle activity, caloric intake increased!

People were not eating out of their gardens, as in the past, but were now loading up on more refined, highly-processed foods, which contained more fats and sugars, added to increase satisfaction, desire and more sales. Human nutritional requirements were taking a back seat.

Television's new popularity was contributing to the creation of a nation of “couch potatoes”, and each successive generation was lured further into eating a bad diet by slick commercials, which looked reasonable, but flew in the face of reason.

We started tipping the scales, and by the 1980‟s, it was becoming harder and harder to find someone that did not have something to lose, mostly around their middles! Changes in the way we worked also contributed to the heaviness of Americans, as desk jobs became more the norm than the exception.

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Exercise was not being, in general, promoted by medicine, nor was good nutrition. Exercise requirements in public schools went into decline. By the 1990‟s, pockets of resistance were developing in response to what was starting to be seen as a burgeoning national health catastrophe. These were like a “whimper”, however, compared to the loud “bark” of the marketing machine, which continued to sell us down the river, with total disregard for America‟s Health.

Super-refined sugars, super-hydrogenated fats, chemical additives, preservatives and fruits and vegetables hybridized for their ability to withstand mechanical picking and shipping to distant markets, rather than to satisfy human nutritional needs, all added to an almost surreal but very dangerous situation.

As we ushered in the 21st Century, we were a nation of largely unhealthy, overweight people with a broken healthcare delivery system (nearly destroyed by the medical insurance industry), which was unable to serve so many victims of the commercial conspiracy that enabled them to be in the poor shape they were now in. Little has changed to date.

During the last decade, however, health promotion has grown exponentially, turning what was a small concern into a gargantuan industry. Many Americans have benefited, but far too few of us have heeded the call, and the elderly and infirm too often believe there is no hope, or they put all their faith in medicine (or quackery) to devise some means to save them.

Scientific discoveries in medicine are coming faster and faster, and will, without any doubt, provide miraculous “cures” for an increasing number of ailments, however it is totally ludicrous to sit around waiting on these developments when 95% of people currently at risk, can make a significant improvement in their health (and well being), through their own determination to do whatever it takes to get fit.

I have a recurring dream. In this nightmare, I am very old and I am sitting in a physician's office on an examination table. The Doc comes in and says, “I have good news and bad news, which do you want first?” I say, “Doc, give me the best first, and save the worst for last”. He tells me that science finally cracked the human aging process, and from now on people will live a thousand years and look and feel 25 their entire lives! “Great”, I say, ”but what‟s the bad news?” “Well”, he says, “They don‟t know how to reverse aging. You can live another thousand years, but you will look and feel the way you do now”. Then time flashes forward 500 years… I‟m sitting in a restaurant and I overhear this 25 year old looking woman say to her friend, “Look! It‟s one of the old geezers that didn‟t die before health and longevity became normal”. Actually, this dream does not shake me up nearly as bad as it once did, since I found out that I have an excellent chance of reaching advanced age more healthy and fit than when I was at 25!

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This book will show how improvements in your health, well-being and fitness can be accomplished through a gradual and sustained effort, involving balanced nutrition, excess fat loss, building muscle mass and training for strength and endurance. Most anyone, regardless of their present condition, can make these improvements, and are usually within one year of reaching their goal. It is simple, but not easy. It will be difficult at times, but well worth the effort.

So what did go wrong?

The modern “American Way” became a health nightmare. Money and greed (and perhaps a little laziness) are at the root of it, but it is not too late to turn the thing around. The great thing about Americans is that they can pull together better than any nation on the planet, once they become convinced that a solution is needed for a challenge that threatens us all.

Because I was born in 1951, and have always been a resident and citizen of the US, it should not be hard to believe that, even though I am of above-average intelligence, I was brought down just like so many others. The “fix” was in. I somehow, in the back of my mind, suspected that I was headed down a dangerous road, but never believed what should have been obvious! Well, at least not until May of 2008, when I got the “Wake-Up Call”.

After school was out and my students‟ grades were posted, I felt more overweight and unfit than ever before. I was tipping the scales at almost 240 lbs. and the least strenuous task would get me breathing hard and make my heart race. I was not feeling “well” very often, it seemed to me.

At my regular semi-annual doctor visit (with blood work done the week prior), I received the bad news. My lipid panel was a mess! Total cholesterol was way up, HDL too low, LDL way up and the ratio was in the danger zone! My 

and other beings, our memories, personalities, abilities, habits, body functions, dreams, aspirations and knowledge.

The possible combinations are near infinity, and that is why no two people are alike (even identical twins). For that reason, we must always be very careful when making generalizations about humans. Each person will get different results from the same set of conditions, once exposed to them. Each program must be customized for the individual. Sounds a bit like an experiment, huh? Well, that is what Life is!

Scientific studies have shown that only about 15% (some say only 5%) of all this activity is under our conscious control. The other 85%, or so, runs everything else! This part comprises our unconscious or subconscious mind, which includes regulation of all the physical and chemical processes which maintain life, and mental functioning.

You do not have to remind yourself to breathe, do you? Why do you breathe faster when you work hard? These are under autonomic or subconscious control. So are all of the millions of metabolic chemical reactions which must take place every minute so that your amazing body continues to function!

Why do your “alarms” go crazy when you are in immediate physical danger? You may be able to use conscious control to help you avoid potentially dangerous situations, but when danger arises, your subconscious will make you do “amazing performances” to avoid injury or death. These are most often things you could not do willfully or intentionally. Why? The subconscious is more powerful than the conscious mind.

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Does it seem amazing to you that we can make “heads or tails” out of all the millions of pieces of sensory information, both external and internal, which come at us 24/7? It does to me, but through study I found out about the RAS or reticular activating system of the brain. This grouping of neurons acts as a filter, so that important stimuli are given priority over the less important or irrelevant ones. It “tells you” that the edge of that knife you are chopping celery with is much more important than the wood pattern in the cutting board.

The subconscious catalogues all the information and the rank it is given by the RAS. We know this because people under hypnosis can recount even the most insignificant details when asked to recall them! Without a properly functioning RAS, you would suffer from sensory overload and your computer would crash!

In fact, schizophrenia, a form of psychosis (mental disorders in which there is derangement or detachment from reality), is a basic inability of the individual to make sense of, or prioritize the sensory stimuli which they receive. They are inappropriate in almost every situation, unable to handle even the simplest tasks, much less comprehend the future! They often display genius in certain areas, however!

Focusing on an object of desire or an expected outcome stimulates the RAS to give that object or outcome a high priority as it is stored in the conscious and unconscious memory banks. This focusing is what causes your subconscious mind to start moving you toward your desired change or acquisition, even when your conscious mind is occupied elsewhere! It does this by facilitating behavioral change.

Suppose you desire a particular watch. You suddenly start to notice it everywhere in magazine ads, on billboards and on other peoples‟ wrists. You never noticed that watch before, but it was there! It just had not become a priority for you yet. You may even find yourself engaging automatically in behaviors which get you that watch, like earning the extra money needed for the purchase. Focusing is another way of saying visualizing, and that is a big part of what will get you where you want to go!

What comes next may be somewhat unsettling to you, but it is a proven concept that you must acknowledge as real, or whatever “wishes” you make for your future life will not be “granted”. Here it is: What you are now and everything you will be and do in the future are limited only by what beliefs you (and others) have programmed into your subconscious mind! Reread the last sentence. OK, now take a deep breath. Let it all out.

I would be willing to bet good money that there are things you believe about yourself which are not true! Furthermore, because you believe them, and your subconscious accepts what you believe literally and completely without question, they are self-fulfilling prophesies!

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I am in such total avoidance of “negative self-talk” nowadays, that before I write the next sentences, I have to tell my subconscious that it is just for illustration only and not true at all. “I am not a math person”. “I am not a morning person”. “I could never have a relationship like theirs”. “I am a naturally large person, who can never be thin”. Substitute your own “beliefs”, and you might just begin to see why you (and so many others) have so much difficulty with change.

Desired changes in your life will only rarely come about through willpower alone. You can start it up on willpower, but you will run out of steam if “That‟s all ya got”. It is like trying to fight an army of 85 thousand warriors with an army of 15 thousand (remember that your nervous system is 15% [at most] conscious and 85% [at least] subconscious). The odds against you are just too great.

If you try something and quit before you have any success (I do not believe in the “F” word [not that “F” word, Bunkie, the other one! {FAIL}]), then it reinforces your belief that it is just not possible. Remind you of anyone?

A thorough study of very successful people reveals that every one of them had a Vision of their future, and once that Vision was embedded into their subconscious, they were unstoppable. They encountered obstacles and setbacks, but they were just “bumps in the road” for them, because their subconscious was propelling them toward their Vision, a place where willpower alone cannot go. Their deeds, which seemed remarkable to others around them, came as naturally as breathing. They did not “wish” for things to happen, they saw them clearly in their “mind‟s eye” as though they had already come to pass. Time just needed to catch up to their Vision, that‟s all!

Why this process of implanting one‟s subconscious with a clear Vision of a successful future comes so naturally to some individuals and not to others, is not well understood. It has both genetic and environmental components. We do know however, that all individuals possess the capability to do it.

Everyone‟s subconscious is programmed, maybe just not the program which would allow them to make the changes they want to make. Negative statements made by authority figures (like your parents, relatives, teachers and yourself), are blindly and literally accepted by your subconscious as true. These “truths” then become limits which narrow your options for change.

On a more personal level, my own life contains a perfect example of this. When I was 4 years old, my mother took me to the dentist for the first time. The term high-tech had not even been coined in the early fifties, but that would have been my description of his office, if it had! It made such a huge impression on me that from then on, I never wanted to go into any other field but dentistry.

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I somehow, at that tender age, created a Vision of my future that was embedded so completely into my subconscious that nothing could stop me from getting there. In fact, it was more like it was coming toward me. While other 10 year olds wanted to be firemen or army men when they grew up, I was the “odd” kid who wanted to be the dentist.

My journey toward that Vision reads like a stumble over broken stones. At so many points along the way, it appeared to others (and me), that it would never come to pass. How I could have navigated that obstacle course and completed dental school at the top of my class, can only be explained by a having a Vision that kept me trying when so many others would have “thrown in the towel”.

When others encouraged me to give up and try for something else, I just refused to admit that it was not my destiny to become a dentist. I would never say the words: “I will never be a dentist”, and at the time, I knew absolutely nothing about the subconscious mind or scientific goal setting!

I bet I know what you are thinking right now; “Dr. Wright was given the special gift of Vision, and therefore, I won’t be able to pull this off like he did”. If you are, you‟d be dead wrong. My life is full of instances of failures which I now know were due to “bad programming” in my subconscious mind. Unless we know about this, it is fairly miraculous that good Visions ever get embedded there! Luckily, it happens sometimes, as in my case.

Fortunately, the subconscious is reprogrammable! You can remove any negative programming and replace it with a program which facilitates making the changes you seek! It is not a difficult process either!

Let‟s say, you believe that there is something metabolically wrong with you that keeps you overweight (many people do). Say out loud with emotion and conviction: “I absolutely CANCEL any belief that my metabolism is preventing me from achieving my ideal weight. I Am so thankful and happy that on or before (a date) I weigh (a number) pounds or less and have a body fat % of (a number) or less! My metabolism functions flawlessly and helps me to reach my goals. My life is great!” Plug in your numbers, and don‟t be afraid to challenge yourself!

Write the goals in pen and the deadline in pencil, as Tom Venuto says. Not reaching a goal you set by the deadline is not failure. Set a new date and you will eventually succeed!

Visualizing exactly what you want to be like, and revisiting that Vision daily while attaching the emotions of happiness and peace to it will further reinforce the changes to happen. Much work will be needed to get there, but now the subconscious, not just the conscious mind will be helping you to “get the job done.” At first, it will seem a little awkward, but in time you will be doing things “automatically” that you never used to do, and when you stop to look, you will see

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that they are actions which carry you further along the path to your Vision and that you are making greater progress than you ever could have “wished” for.

You see, “wishing” does not get embedded in the subconscious because it is fantasy. The subconscious only accepts the real, the concrete. Notice that I did not say “true”, because the subconscious is blind to the truth. It is the way something is declared, rather than whether it is true or not that determines whether your subconscious mind accepts it as true.

The statement: “I‟m fat.”, for instance, is blindly accepted as true by the subconscious. It does not matter if it is said by someone weighing 600 pounds or an 80 pound anorectic adult. With this “truth” imbedded in the subconscious, the obese person will not be able to lose weight because his or her subconscious believes this is what they are, and the anorectic will look in the mirror and see a “fat” person, even at the edge of death!

According to many surveys, only about 3% of people have written goals. The other 97% are “winging it‟. It is no wonder people do not get more of what they wish for. I am not talking about “To Do” lists, which many people use. You might consider these “written goals”, but they do not address the big picture, or do much to embed anything into your subconscious. How often do you complete all of the items on that list? You deal with the crisis stuff first, like paying your electric bill before they turn the “juice” off, then the day is gone and there are still too many items left on the list. Your willpower was not great enough to see you through.

The difference between this and subconscious-embedded goals is the difference between reactive and proactive. When you have a Vision and goals in place, you get more done (of the things that move you toward your desires), but with seemingly less effort!

There is certainly no “one best way” to create a Vision, Goals and Action Plans, but for them to be successfully embedded into your subconscious and help you achieve them, certain principles must be adhered to during the process.

First, when stating a desired outcome or goal, be specific. Ask yourself what you want, why you want it and what will you do (or give up) to attain it? When you answer the “why” question, get in touch with your emotional reasons. Things like: “So I can be around to play with my grandkids” or “So I can prove to my wife I am not the flake she says I am”. Emotions will give power to your goals and embed them deeper. Write the answers down.

Look at your goal and see if it is measurable. If not, how will you be sure when you achieve it? A goal like: “I want to feel better than I do now”, is not specific. You might feel just a “little” better tomorrow and then your subconscious would see the goal as “reached”, and stop changing your behavior before you even

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started to change. Instead, if your goal had measurable specifics, you would not even need to know exactly how you were going to get there. Your subconscious would figure out what you need to do and put you on the path!

That sounds pretty dramatic, but it frequently happens just that way! I think it works better if you gain knowledge and understanding of the process (and reading this book is doing that for you), but it gives you some idea of just what a powerful ally your unconscious is!

Secondly, never leave your goal open-ended as to time. Select a deadline for its accomplishment, and make it challenging, but not impossible, to reach in that period. Since a task always fills the time available to complete it, if you set your deadline too far in the future, you will most likely take longer than necessary to get there! Do not be afraid to push it, because if you come up short of completion (or attainment) by the deadline, you just move it out farther by the amount of time you will need to finish (and you should have a very clear idea by then, how long that will be).

Thirdly, THINK BIG! Obviously, if your want is outside natural laws, or so fantastic that it would take a miracle to achieve, then you are not being realistic. Within what is really possible, however, you should make your goal a greater challenge rather than a lesser one. Remember, you are capable of more than ever before with your subconscious motivating you!

If you aim for the stars and fall short only to land on the moon, you have still achieved greatness! Also know that it is impossible to screw this up! If you overestimate initially you can go back and readjust later. This is not a one-shot deal… it is a process. It will always be a work in progress! That is what makes it so interesting and enjoyable!

Fourth, make sure that you are the only one responsible for achieving your goals. If you hook your success to the actions of others, you cannot be certain of their actions and thus your outcome. Others will always benefit from your success, but ultimately, this needs to be about you! If that sounds selfish to you, that is because it is!

Selfish is not always a bad thing! Most likely, your new behavioral changes will be met with some resistance from those close to you. People fear what they do not understand, but if you are consistent, they will usually accept what you are doing, and support you (sometimes even join you as you become their inspiration).

Occasionally you may lose someone who will not accept the path you have set yourself on. There is a price to pay for everything in this life, and this may end up being part of it. Know this: If you do not make your own choices, others will make

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them for you. Which way do you want it? Always use “I”, never “we” or “us” when writing goals.

Fifth, make sure that your goals are phrased in positive terms. The unconscious has trouble distinguishing between positive and negative. It focuses more on the issues. The conscious mind is the same way.

Don‟t believe me? Say to yourself, “I will not eat chocolate”. Say it several times. Now what is on your mind? CHOCOLATE! To get chocolate out of the picture, it would be better to affirm: “I eat a balanced diet of good foods which promotes my health”. So do not write a goal like “I want to lose 25 lbs in the next 12 weeks”. Write it: “By October 8, I weigh 167 lbs or less and I have a body fat %age of 15% or less. These are probably not your numbers, but you get the idea.

Also notice that there is an allowance made here for greater improvement than anticipated. This is very important, because the subconscious takes goals literally, if you do not put the “or less” (or more, bigger, longer… whatever term applies), you will automatically limit yourself to just that amount of improvement and no more! You might be cheating yourself out of additional success, so be sure to include these terms.

Sixth, write goals in the present tense, as though they have already occurred. This makes them more like real states of being, that are moving toward you, rather than futures that you are scratching and fighting to get to. This “trick” you play on your subconscious is the key to getting all the motivation you will need to achieve your desires! Notice in the example above, “I weigh”, not “I will weigh”. This may seem insignificant, but make no mistake, the difference is HUGE!

So, NOW it is time to create your Vision, Five-Year and One-Year Goals.

Get Excited!

Get out a pencil and paper (or a laptop for you Millennials and high-teckers), and write down and answer those questions adding in all the emotion you can generate. Your Vision should be first. This is the ultimate future YOU. Think of it as a description of your perfect day way up in the future, but write it in the present tense.

You can just confine your focus to the health and fitness aspects of your life or the sky‟s the limit! Use all the senses in your descriptions. Do not limit your writing to the physical, but include your mental and spiritual sides, too. Describe the feelings of satisfaction and joy you have there. The richer the mosaic you create, the stronger its attraction!

When you are pretty satisfied with your Vision, then calculate (estimate) how far toward your vision you can get in five years, and then in one year. Do not be

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afraid to “step up”, but be realistic. If you want to weigh 300 lbs. less than you do now a year from now, I do not think you should write it down, because that would not be safe or healthy. Two pounds per week is a good, healthy fat-loss rate. You might do better and still be healthy, so be sure to put in the “or less”. One hundred pounds in a year is achievable and will not damage your body if you work your plan consistently.

It took me more than a year to be 50 lbs lighter, but I am a true endomorph, and I have a thing for tortilla chips sometimes (yes, I‟m definitely human, guys and girls!). It is really more about making steady progress, than how much, anyway.

It will be harder to write measurable goals for the non-physical aspects, so get creative. For a vision like “I have a Masters Degree in Accounting”, a one-year goal might be “By such and such a date, I have completed the following courses with a grade of “B” or better (then list).

Please do not agonize over these estimates too much! As you get going on your Path, you will be refining your Vision and Goals anyway. It is just so important to start NOW! Remember, this is a process.

The more senses you can apply to your vision, the more real it is to your subconscious. Hear, smell, taste and touch as well as see your vision in the “theater of your mind”. It also helps to write down and say out loud, with emotion, a description of your vision. Corkboards for photos of things, bodies, vacations etc, and whiteboards to write affirmations on are also great reinforcements.

In a relaxed state, your subconscious is even more susceptible to suggestion. Self-hypnosis works in just this way. Relaxing yourself in bed or a comfortable chair and   

then going to the multi-sensory “theater of your mind” where you experience every aspect of your “brilliant future” is an extremely powerful way of attracting yourself to that Vision.

Many people, however, become so relaxed that they drift off to sleep. If you do nod off when trying this exercise, make a recording (any laptop computer has a microphone jack and recording software, then playback through headphones) describing yourself becoming gradually more relaxed in a favorite place, like the beach or on a sunny mountaintop, then begin, in a very relaxed tone of voice, to describe your vision in detail using all the senses. Write it down and read it if you do not feel comfortable adlibbing. Now, if you fall asleep, it will not diminish the power of the exercise, since the subconscious, unlike the conscious mind, never sleeps! It takes in sensory information 24/7!

The more frequently you do this, the more effective it is at reprogramming your subconscious belief system and embedding your Vision into your subconscious. It usually takes at least 21-30 days for habit patterns of behavior which support

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your Vision to develop, so be patient! Review your Vision and goals daily to help embed them permanently into your unconscious!

If a Vision is a snapshot of how your life will be in the long run, then goals are “chunks” of your Vision, and action plans are the specifics of how to reach them. When you initially wrote your vision and one-year goals for health and fitness, you were only partly finished. The rest of the job will get done in the next chapters, which constitute the “nuts and bolts” of creating your Plan.

Short-range (12 week) goals should be written on a small card that you can carry around in your pocket. I started doing this after Tom Venuto said he can never be caught without his. He offers a reward to anyone who can catch him without his “goal card”. That is how important it is! You will also develop weekly and daily action plans for both nutrition and exercise.

Is all of this sounding a might hokey to you at this point? I know. I had my doubts too, but after becoming free of almost 50 pounds of fat I had been carrying around just over a year ago, at this writing, I am a believer!

Many times recently I have found myself waking up uncharacteristically at 5 am at the start of a busy day, so that I could run 5 miles in the dark! Doing this always amazes me, but I have no doubt that it happens because my subconscious knows that there is no where else in my schedule that day for it to get done, and it does not want me to miss a workout that moves me toward my Vision (or goal)!

The amazing thing is, is that one success leads to another. Working in one area of your life bleeds over into the other areas, until you are moving forward on many fronts! You would not believe me if told you all the dreams that I have moved from the “back burners” up to the “front burners” in the last year! Even I am amazed! I even went skydiving for the first time this year!

You start out in life full of big ideas and dreams, then the world (really just negativity that gets embedded into your subconscious) takes the wind out of your sails and you end up settling for a “smaller life” than the one you once saw. With the knowledge you now have, however, you can get your dreams back! Within the Laws of Nature and reason, if you can Visualize it, it can be attained or accomplished!

Two final things about this subject, and then I will move on to the “How To” stuff.

First, the wants, desires, goals and outcomes are important, but nowhere near as important as the Journey. Being on your right Path is “where it‟s at”, and you definitely need a map (Vision and Goals) to keep you headed in the right direction, but reaching the destination, however momentarily satisfying, is an anti-climax and a bit of a let-down.

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This happened to me when I reached the end of my first 12-week “mission”, as I call them. I suddenly felt kind of lost and without direction. I generally knew where I was headed by my Vision and Long-term Goals, but my immediate plan got stalled. The solution to this problem is to anticipate.

Several weeks before you reach the end of a “year”, get busy looking at how far you have come and where you still want to go. Some revisions are likely to occur and these refinements to your Plan help you to reset both your long-term and short-term goals and action plans. As soon as you reach one deadline, you are already headed for your next one! It is definitely more about the “ride” than the “arrival”!

Secondly, a word about action. All the best-laid plans in the world (and they are important) add up to nothing if you do not act upon them. Hopefully, you have already begun to walk or ride or hit the gym (gently) as per my previous suggestion to “wing it” temporarily. If you have not, however, start now!

Have no fear that your subconscious will not be providing you with helpful motivation to accomplish your goals up the way, but the embedding process takes a little time and patience to “kick in”. The changes need time to become habitual and may feel awkward and maybe even a little uncomfortable for awhile, but after the first month or so, as the Oracle says to Neo in the movie The Matrix, “You will feel Right as Rain”.

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Chapter 5 – Starting to Run

Now that you have a Vision and Goals written down (Please go back to Chapter 4 if you do not!!!), you are a “3 Percenter”! You should be proud of yourself! It is said by some that life comes down ultimately to a handful of “defining moments”. I know that the act of writing your goals down was one of yours! Your life will be more ”Yours” from now on! Congratulations!

The remainder of this book will be about the practical methods (and reasons for them) which will get you where you want to go. There is no “one way” for this to occur, and again, I do not claim to be an expert, but I believe that what follows constitutes a solid foundation for your success.

I encourage you to use the information to your advantage and supplement it with information you obtain elsewhere. Be careful of hype or promises that seem “too good to be true”, they probably are (not true, that is). For me, Tom Venuto‟s BFFM is the ”Gold Standard”. Read it! (http://www.burnthefat.com)

The outset of your “crusade” to chase after your health is a very exciting, but a critical time. As I have said already, these changes may seem awkward and perhaps even overwhelming initially. It is during this first month or so that the “dropout” rate is at its highest, so you will need to focus and use all of your willpower for the next short while.

Review your Vision and Goals daily or even multiple times per day to get these embedded into your subconscious as quickly as possible! Once that happens, you will be unstoppable! Just be patient and success will be yours (actually “ours”, because with your success, I succeed as well).

The remainder of this book is divided into two sections: “What Goes In”, (the nutritional guidelines), and “What Burns It Up”, (the exercise guidelines). I will give you all the information you will need to develop successful strategies for becoming healthy and fit again (or for the first time). These strategies are not “get there quick” ones, but lifestyle changes, which once habitual, will get you to your goals while increasing, rather than jeopardizing your health.

Have patience! The changes you seek will come, but it will take time. Remember, you did not get to where you are overnight, did you? Just work your Plan, and at some point up the way you will look at the pictures you made of yourself (you should have made the initial ones already… if not, DO IT!!!), and you will see the changes!

You will begin to feel better; so much better, that you will never want to go back to hurting yourself ever again! I am very excited for you, because you have all this to look forward to! I know you are feeling excited too.

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This is a very good time to scan your mental landscape for negativity, which lurks around every corner in there, and is dying to derail your efforts! Just knowing this is a huge step in defusing it, but you must go the distance. I only mention this again, because I am not leaving our success to chance, OK?

CANCEL negative thoughts which pop up into your consciousness, and REPLACE them with the ones you want to be there. Review the rules for writing goals outlined in the last chapter, because they also apply to the reprogramming of these negative “truths” (false truths).

This is very powerful and so important at this early stage in the process that I had to repeat it again. Sorry if I am sounding like a broken record, but subconscious programming is a repetitive process. You will have to cancel and replace some of these thoughts many times before they cease to exist, so be on your guard! Your success depends on it!

Also, included in the information that follows, are instructions for creating twelve-week “missions” that have defined, end-point goals, and also weekly and daily goals for diet and exercise. My Vision and all my Goals are very “real” to me, but these short-term goals are even more so, since they are always “right in my face” from a time standpoint.

You need to become proficient at creating and using these missions to work your Plan. The goal card I carry in my wallet outlines my current 12-week goals, and I never forget to create my next mission when I‟m still a couple of weeks away from completing my current one. If you do this too, you will succeed!

So let‟s find out how you are going to Chase down your Health and Embrace It!

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Chapter 6 – What Goes In

Nutrition is the subject of this chapter. In it will be discussed: water, alcohol, macronutrients, good foods, bad foods, when to eat, how much to eat, and meal planning. I will also show you how to calculate your requirements. This information is important, so pay close attention.

Put very simply:

More calories taken in than burned = fat storage

More calories burned than taken in = fat burned

Actually, a calorie is not a calorie is not a calorie. The type of nutrients ingested plays an important role in health, and as mentioned earlier, when nutrient intake is reduced too much, the body reacts by holding on to its stores, which causes “plateauing” during attempts to lose weight.

Trying to achieve total health, whatever that is for you, is not possible by just altering what goes in to you. You have to incorporate exercise, and if those exercises do not include resistance training, you will have difficulty achieving what you want. Training with weights and fat loss go together.

Diets of all kinds have been developed and promoted for weight loss, weight gain and healthy living. Grapefruit diets, protein diets, low carb diets even cookie diets! The list is very long. Many of these plans are beneficial to health, while many others, most of which come and go, can have serious negative health consequences.

Good nutritional habits alone can make an improvement in your health, but unless you can change your body through both diet and exercise, you will probably just see your “diet” as a temporary measure, and go off of it at some point and back to your old “normal” eating patterns.

So you see, even though I have divided nutrition and exercise in this book, they work together to create the You, that you are after!

Water

Water is probably the most important nutrient of all. All biological activity is water-based. Most people do not drink nearly enough water and their body suffers for it. Metabolism and energy production go way down when you have insufficient water, also known as dehydration.

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When dehydrated, if you are trying to shed pounds, the process slows. Immune function is compromised, which increases your chances of getting an infection and cancer. Athletic performance suffers, especially endurance. Aging signs become more apparent when you are dehydrated. Mental functioning also declines.

Your body is mostly water. On average human body weight is 65% H2O!

Your blood and cellular fluids are 90% water. Muscle tissue 70% and even bones and teeth are 20-30% water! If a body was totally dehydrated, it would be a pile of dust that would fit into a shoe box! Wow!

When you are dehydrated, your kidneys, which are major processors of toxic waste material, function poorly. This puts more pressure on your liver to deal with that job and thus reduces its capacity to mobilize fat stores for energy. Now you get hungry for carbs, and your fat stays put! Ouch! It is a vicious cycle, because you overeat on the carbs and then they get stored as fat rather than in the muscles as glycogen, which is a ready source of energy for movement. Glycogen storage is most efficient under conditions of, what else, proper hydration!

Proper hydration, among its many other benefits, maintains body temperature, increases muscle strength and endurance, facilitates digestion and absorption of food, suppresses appetite, lubricates and cushions body tissues and reduces the risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, headaches, arthritis, and heartburn, to name a few. Water is more important than you can imagine!

Becoming dehydrated just 5% less than optimum can cause a 20 – 30% decrease in athletic performance. A 10% decrease can make you lethargic and have flu-like symptoms. At a 20% deficit, you can die!

Before a year and a half ago, I rarely drank water. If I was working outside in the summer heat, sure, but otherwise, I just used it to take a pill with. Today, I am never without a water bottle. I drink water all day, and even more before and during exercise. I cannot imagine not having water nearby to drink. I avoid becoming dehydrated at all costs. It takes your health in the opposite direction of where you want it to go.

Most people are the way I was. They rarely drink enough water to stay properly hydrated. It seems that the body‟s system for sensing dehydration is designed more for crisis management than optimal functioning. By the time you are thirsty, you are already dehydrated!

Since you cannot depend on your body to tell you how much water you should drink, you need to determine how much that is for you and make it a new habit. Now that you understand that process, (review chapter 4, if not), it should be simple for you.

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In the news today there are an increasing number of articles about drinkable water becoming a dwindling resource around the world. This subject causes me much more concern than ever, now that I realize how important having enough water is to our bodies. How will the human race survive after we waste or pollute all of the drinkable water on this planet?

We all need to be conserving water, doing things like shortening showers and not washing one pair of jeans when a whole load could be done with the same amount. If you want more ideas, just put “water conservation” into a web search engine, and see thousands of results come up! Simple changes over a large population can make a huge difference (think one drop X 6 billion)! You need to do your part, just do not conserve on the amount of water you drink! OK?

It can be argued that much of the water you consume is included in whatever else you eat and drink. It is true that you get some of your water this way. Coffee and beer are mostly water, right? The body can extract the water out of these “mixtures”, but it requires more energy to do it. Basically, there is no substitute for plain, unadulterated water! In this form, your body can put it right to use where it is most needed.

So how much water do you need to drink?

It is difficult to determine exactly what each person‟s requirement for water is, because there are many variables, but it is always better to miscalculate on the “high” side than drink too little. Theoretically, you could kill yourself by drinking too much water, but you would have to drink much more than the amounts below and you would be really sick first.

You will definitely be “going” more often if you are well hydrated, and this can be a bit of a nuisance if you are not used to it. It is a small price to pay, however, and the flushing effect helps kidney function and prevents toxins from accumulating in your body, which boosts your overall health and wellbeing!

Large bodies require more water than small ones, and other variables like local climate and one‟s physical activity level also affect your requirement. One way is to calculate a range using your TDEE or total daily energy expenditure.

I mentioned the TDEE earlier, and I will address it again in this chapter, so once you have a TDEE for you, you can use the chart below to see what amount you need to drink. Bear in mind that as you become smaller and more active your TDEE will change, and thus your water needs as well.

Here is how to calculate your TDEE: ((LBM/2.2) x 21.6) + 370 x FITNESS FACTOR.

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To get your LBM or lean body mass (everything in your body except fat) you first have to find out what your body fat is, and subtract that from your total weight. To get the body fat mass, you can be weighed under water, “get pinched” on several areas of your body, preferably by some one experienced in using calipers, use an impedance device or use the AccuMeasure Caliper on yourself, like I do, in just one location, the iliac crest area. The caliper is available online. You will find link for it at chasinghealth.com. It comes with instructions which are easy to understand,

Except for underwater weighing, which is very accurate, the measurement for body fat will only be a good guess. As long as you are being consistent from week to week in how you obtain it, it is not that important that you be “spot on” with this number. Being consistent is more important. If your TDEE is a little off, it is OK, as you will be tweaking your exercise load, fitness factor and calorie deficit to get good results anyway.

Plugging your LBM into the equation above will give you your BMR (basal metabolic rate), which as mentioned before, is how many calories per day you burn while doing no work. You then multiply your BMR by a fitness factor, which is a number between 1 and 2. One is a couch potato, and two is a marathon runner. At first you should use 1.2 or 1.3 if you are doing very light workouts 3 times per week. As you increase your activities to burning 2500 – 3000 calories per week, you will need to adjust this number to 1.4 or 1.5. The more burn, the greater the number you plug in. I think you get the idea here.

Your TDEE is recalculated each week after your weekly “weigh in”, and body fat measurement. The TDEE is an estimate of the number of calories you burn daily and how many calories you would need to take in, not to lose, but to maintain your current weight at your current activity level. You determine your calorie intake for fat loss by taking a percentage (65 to 80%) of your current TDEE to be your daily calorie limit.

Clear as mud, right? Please do not worry. This calculation can be programmed into any spreadsheet like MS Excel so that it comes up automatically after entering weight and body fat. The online resources linked to this book have downloadable templates which have these and other calculations formatted into them. This will help you track your progress, which is essential to your

success.

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Water Intake per Day

TDEE (Calories) H2O Ounces

2000 60-100

2500 80-125

3000 100-150

4000 115-175

5000 130-200

FYI – 128 fluid ounces = 1 gallon

Start with an amount in the middle of the range closest to your TDEE and then give your body a chance to adapt. If you find the changes too great from how much you were previously taking in, work up to the new amount gradually. The way you feel and your strength and endurance will help you adjust to the proper amount, which will seem like a lot at first. Remember, if you get thirsty, you were not drinking enough to begin with, so don’t ever let yourself get thirsty!

Alcohol

While on the subject of drinking, I would like to address the issue of ethanol. You know, fun juice! I like a glass of wine or a beer now and again, and I do not see this as a problem. Some articles tout ethanol as beneficial in moderation, but I have serious reservations about that. Rather than drink behind some health reason, do it because you like the way it makes you feel. Ethanol is, after all, a consciousness-altering chemical! There is nothing wrong with having a little fun, just do not get carried away!

Daily drinking, binge drinking, becoming very intoxicated and not being able to stop after one or maybe two drinks are all signs of alcoholism. This is serious, as it takes a heavy toll on your physical and mental condition. The longer it continues, the greater the damage. The good news is that if you stop abusing yourself soon enough, most or all of the damage is reversed and you can still be healthy! So if you have this problem, deal with it decisively and quickly. Attend an AA meeting and stop hanging around clubs. If you look around inside these places late at night, you do not see any healthy people!

If you must drink in moderation, however, you need to understand what ethanol does besides make you tipsy. Alcohol is officially a carbohydrate molecule, but it

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burns hotter than other carbs. Regular carbohydrate molecules burn at the rate of 4 calories per gram, but ethanol burns at 7 calories per gram! Fats burn at 9 calories per gram, so alcohol is more like a fat than a carb with respect to how many calories you have to add to your total daily intake, when you drink it. Never forget to enter these calories into your food log.

Alcohol does not fit into the body‟s metabolic scheme for the creation of energy, nor is it a building block of cells, so it has no nutrient value. Ethanol is just empty calories. It is actually a toxin (poison), so it causes the liver to work overtime converting it into harmless molecules. This unfortunately suspends, temporarily, the liver‟s work of metabolizing fat, which interrupts fat loss! To make things worse, the body “sees” these empty calories as an excess. When there are excess calories, any other nutrients in the blood will be stored as, what else, fat! I used to go out for a beer, burger and fries quite often, but learning these facts made me stop that!

Alcohol also causes dehydration. The “hangover” experienced from drinking too much ethanol, is mostly the result of its dehydrating effect on the brain and body tissues. The best hangover “cure” is to only drink alcohol in limited quantities! Even when you do just have a drink or two, make sure you drink one extra glass of water for each ethanol-containing drink, so you do not get dehydrated!

If you are concerned about losing your drinking buddies, do not worry. Go ahead and meet them out. Get your own drinks from the bar. Order sparkling soda with a lime or a non-alcoholic beer and have them pour it into a glass. Now all you have to do is pretend to be a little more stupid than usual, and none of them will be the wiser! Just do not stay out really late. You need to get enough sleep.

Macronutrients

The foods we eat are combinations of different molecules. These molecules have different forms and uses (or bad effects) in your body. Examples are water, proteins, fats (lipids), carbohydrates, soluble and insoluble fiber, inert substances, electrolytes and toxic substances, also known as poisons.

When reading food labels or food information from tables, you will see much data concerning these food components. You need to learn to understand and evaluate this information accurately if you intend to control what goes into your body. Watch out for manipulations of this data by food manufacturers.

Foods that have a high calorie density will usually list a very small serving size. They are hoping that you will just look at the calorie information, which will be low due to the reduced size of each serving. You need to make sure you know how much of these foods are normally consumed at one sitting, how many “servings” that is, and then multiply each piece of data that many times to get the “real” values for that food.

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The so called macronutrients are fats, carbohydrates and protein. These three groups of molecules are needed in large quantities by the body (thus the “macro” prefix). Basically, fats and carbohydrates are energy-providing molecules. They plug into the body‟s oxidation system which creates within your cells high-energy molecular bonds which are broken down to provide the energy you need to do everything which supports your body functions and your muscle activities. Protein is the “construction material” needed for building body tissues like muscles, and the hormones and enzymes needed for metabolic functioning and control.

Fats or Lipids

A discussion of fats must include both ingested fats, a necessary part of your diet, and stored fats, the deposits under your skin, in your muscles and around your organs, also known as adipose tissue.

Fats are the most energy-rich nutrients. Carbohydrates and proteins contain less than half the energy fats have, ounce for ounce. When you burn one gram of fat, you get 9 calories. A calorie is a unit of heat production, and is a basic measure of how much energy the body can get from a particular food.

Carbohydrates, which are discussed below, are readily converted into fats and stored when there is an excess of calories (when you eat more than you require). Refined sugars undergo this conversion process more readily than other carbs!

Fats have gotten a bad rap, mainly because most people think that ingested fats go straight into storage in the body. This is not the case. Around 15 to 20% of your food intake should be fats! You need these to maintain proper health! So do not think fat is your enemy and try to avoid all fats like many people do. They are just hurting themselves!

All fats are not equal, however. Saturated fats, which contain more hydrogen (are hydrogenated), are poorer sources than unsaturated fats, often called monounsaturated or polyunsaturated. Saturated fats are implicated in cardiovascular problems like coronary artery disease, and should be limited. Meats and dairy products are often high in saturated fat.

Foods labels are required to disclose how much of the total fat-calories come from saturated fat in a particular food. There is no way to eliminate saturated fats from your diet, but you should reduce their amount when possible. Many food companies provide alternatives to saturated fats nowadays.

Trans-fats are unsaturated fats which occur naturally only in very small amounts, mainly in meat and dairy products. Hydrogenation of naturally-occurring, unsaturated cis-fats to give them a longer shelf-life, results in some of them being converted to trans-fats. These remain incorporated within these super-saturated

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fats, and are not only non-essential fats (they perform no function in the body), but they are implicated as causative agents in: coronary artery disease, Alzheimer‟s disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, liver dysfunction and infertility. These fats are much worse for your health than the naturally-occurring saturated fats mentioned above, and should be avoided completely by eliminating or greatly reducing processed foods from your diet! There is currently a worldwide health initiative to eliminate trans-fats from food products.

There are some high-fat foods that are very good for you and should not be avoided. These include: pecans, walnuts, cashews, peanuts, olives (and olive oil), salmon, avocados and other fish and vegetables containing essential fatty acids or EFAs. EFAs are the omega 3 and omega 6 oils. These “good” fats, rather than being avoided, should be consumed regularly. They are health-beneficial. At 12-15 % of total calories, these fats actually promote fat loss!

As mentioned earlier, Americans, as a whole, have too much body fat. Our diet is far too loaded with processed foods containing the worst types of fats and carbohydrates. Combining refined sugars with saturated fats (in practically all processed foods) is the biggest cause of body fat deposits! Pastries, white bread, ice cream and breaded fried foods are some of the biggest offenders, and the most highly sought after in our country, in no small part because we have been conditioned to eat these foods.

Women naturally have a higher body fat content than men, in proportion to their total weight. This has mainly to do with hormonal differences and the fact that breast tissue is largely adipose (fatty) in composition.

Women in good condition can expect to be in the 15% - 20% body fat range. Men should be in the 10% - 15% body fat range if lean and fit.

People can be divided into distinct “body types”. A complete explanation of these can be found online or in BFFM, but basically: Everyone carries programming in their genes which determines how they store and metabolize fats.

Ectomophic individuals are the most fortunate. Their metabolism is always revved up! They can lose excess fat easily, if they ever have any (which is rare). The other two body types envy them, because they seem to be able to eat what they want and not gain weight! These people are probably not reading this book!

Mesomorphic individuals have to be careful! They can get their metabolism going easily enough to lose fat when they are determined to, but they have to eat enough to do it. They can gain fat deposits just as easily, though, if they do not eat enough and exercise enough! They are natural bodybuilders and athletes, as they see results easily with effort.

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Endomorphic individuals, like me, are to be pitied (just kidding)! They only have to look at food to gain weight, and they have to exercise a lot more to say goodbye to their fat deposits! For these people, a Plan is essential to any success they will have. Winging it, will confuse them and rob them of any gains they seek.

If you are an endomorph, however, do not lose hope! The recipe for your success lies within these pages! You will have to eat more than you ever imagined in order to get your metabolism going, and you will not be able to miss planned workouts often. Once I had my subconscious working for me, being disciplined became natural. It will for you too!

Whereas mesomorphs might be able to lose fat at the rate of 2 lbs per week easily, endomorphs will be happy with one pound or less per week. No matter, when you become fit and nearer your ideal weight, these body-type classifications become much less important anyway, mainly because you and your subconscious have begun to gain mastery over your inherited tendencies!

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are the food molecules which are most easily converted in the mitochondria of your cells into energy. Fats can be utilized for energy as well, but the process is much less efficient than for carbs! So even though carbohydrates provide only four calories per gram when burned compared to nine for fats, they are easier for the body to use.

Carbohydrates are derived mostly from plants and fall into two main groups: Simple Carbohydrates, sugars, which are the monosaccharide and disaccharide types, and Complex Carbohydrates or polysaccharides, which include starches and cruciferous (fibrous) vegetables.

Many nutrition books and diet plans have come out strongly against carbohydrates. “All protein”, “Don‟t eat anything white”, “low carb”, the list goes on. These suggest that there is something wrong with all carbohydrates! This is just WRONG!!! Like most everything else, there are good and bad carbohydrates. Your challenge is to find out which is which, and eliminate or severely reduce the bad ones, rather than going to war with all carbs! Without carbohydrates, you will struggle to find enough energy to do what it takes to achieve your goals!

As I mentioned before, I was “brainwashed” into believing that a low-carbohydrate diet was a beneficial way of life. I went on this diet many times over the last 20 years, several times for 6 months or longer. My belief that eating like that was health-beneficial was reinforced by the fact that I lost 15-20 pounds every time I went on it. The fact that I always gained all the fat back plus more

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every time I went off of the low-carb diet, was something I conveniently overlooked somehow. I gradually moved away from my ideal weight, and stressed out my poor body in the process. In reality, you need carbohydrates in proper quantity and quality!

When a person eats more than they require, a small amount of carbohydrate is stored as glycogen in the muscles and liver, but any additional excess carbohydrates get converted into, and stored as fat in the liver, under the skin, in the muscle tissues and around your internal organs. This occurs when carbohydrate molecules are in your tissues in amounts much greater than are needed to provide for your energy requirements.

Why do people eat more than they need anyway?

Hunger has both physical and psychological components. When energy is needed by the body and glycogen has been depleted from the liver and muscles, fats can be brought out of storage and burned, but the body prefers to burn carbs for energy, so you get hungry as a result, and mainly for carbohydrates. Satisfying your hunger “feels good” and the tendency is to grab for something sweet or starchy!

When you eat while under psychological stress, which is a common condition for most people living in our fast-paced society, the brain makes a strong association between the “good feeling” that eating produces and stress relief. This association then causes people who are under emotional stress to eat regardless of whether their body needs more energy or not! They use food like a drug instead of for nutrition.

Because we have been “conditioned” by marketing to equate foods high in refined sugars and saturated fats with “comfort”, this emotional eating behavior has been responsible for most of the obesity problems people now face. The fact that foods of this kind are so readily available in this country adds to the problem.

No matter which way you turn, someone is enticing you to eat something that will push your health in the wrong direction! No matter how much denial you have when you consume these foods, you will harbor some guilt, and this guilt chips away at your sense of wellbeing.

Ironically, exercise is a much better method of stress relief than eating anyway. The endorphins, which are potent brain chemicals produced by vigorous physical activity, not only make you “feel good”, but reduce or even eliminate “stress eating”, which helps move you toward your ideal weight, and benefits your overall health!

Your body, rather than your brain, then takes over your eating patterns, so that you eat only what you need and your diet shifts away from the deadly high

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saturated fat – refined sugar containing foods, and towards more nutritious foods like vegetables, lean protein and good fats. With a proper diet, you can “blow it” by eating something decadent occasionally, and without compromising your health! In other words, you can do this “guilt free”, just not all the time!

You need carbohydrates, and unless you are insulin-resistant, probably in the range of 50-55% of your total diet. Carbs should be eaten together with lean protein and good fats. Eating simple (high glycemic index) refined carbohydrates, with saturated fat in large quantities alone, as in “junk food” snacking, causes the pancreas to suddenly release too much insulin into the bloodstream. This leads to rapid storage of carbohydrates as glycogen and fat, which progresses to a condition called hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. About 30 minutes after the “bad snack”, you suddenly feel weak and hungry, even though you do not need to eat again, and unfortunately your fat deposits just increased! This vicious cycle is what causes obesity!

All carbohydrates, when ingested, however, will not cause this rapid release of insulin. Complex carbs, both starchy and fibrous, stimulate insulin production at much lower levels, which prevents blood sugar levels from swinging wildly up and down. These types of carbohydrates also help prevent insulin resistance.

Insulin released in proper amounts is good, because it is necessary for the proper utilization of proteins and carbohydrates. When insulin sensitivity is high, insulin is able to bring carbohydrates into the muscles to be stored as glycogen, and bring amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, into the muscles to repair them and make them grow bigger! The good news is that if you are insulin resistant or even a full Type II Diabetic, eating the right kinds of carbohydrates together with lean protein and good fats can very often bring you back to being insulin sensitive again, especially after you lose your excess body fat.

I was insulin resistant less than two years ago, but my blood sugar levels have been normal since I lost my excess fat and stopped eating very many processed foods! My Physician is very pleased with me over this, apparently because so few of her insulin resistant patients avoid becoming Type II Diabetics!

Fortunately the list of good carbohydrates is long!

Natural Simple Carbohydrates like fructose, found in fruit, and lactose, found in dairy products are OK, but overeating these can work against fat loss, so try to eat them in moderation and more so at the beginning of the day rather than later in the day. Individuals who are lactose intolerant should avoid dairy products. I love fruit, and eat it daily alone or in smoothies with whey protein added, but I try to avoid it at night.

Starchy Complex Carbohydrates include: whole grain cereals, whole-grain breads and whole-grain pastas, oatmeal, brown rice, beans, yams and potatoes,

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among others. These should be included in a balanced diet and eaten along with protein and good fats. When attempting to lose fat, however, it is best to consume these before evening, when they should be replaced with the fibrous vegetable type carbs.

Fibrous Complex Carbohydrates include: leafy greens (lettuces, spinach, turnip, collard and mustard), broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, squashes, cucumbers, asparagus and tomatoes, among others. These have very low calorie density, so you can have large portions of them, which help “fill you up”. They also provide fiber which helps promote gastrointestinal health.

Vegetables and fruit contain “food factors”, chemical extensions which are found on plant carbohydrate molecules. These are impossible to synthesize and are health-producing. Biochemists are still learning more about these elusive, naturally-occurring agents every year! Unfortunately, processing often destroys these, so stick with natural, non-processed fruit and veggies when possible!

In my opinion, too few Americans eat enough vegetables. I did not want them on my plate when I was still eating a lot of refined, processed foods, but when I stopped that, I began to eat them. Now, I crave vegetables and normally have them at every meal. I even put several handfuls of spinach leaves in my breakfast smoothie!

The Bad Carbohydrates, which you should severely limit or avoid altogether are:

refined sugars (sucrose, glucose syrup, dextrose, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, brown sugar and rice syrup), white “enriched” bread, white rice and white “enriched”    

bread, white rice and white “enriched” flour. Learn to read food labels, and look for these in the ingredients list. If you see them, especially near or at the top of the list, you should avoid eating that food and look for a healthy alternative. These carbohydrates have little nutritional value, but add lots of calories to your diet! As explained already, they push your health in the wrong direction.

If you target 50% as the amount of carbohydrate you want to consume in your diet, and you are eating, for example, 2000 calories per day, then you will need to eat 2000 X .50 = 1000 of your calories as carbs. Since food labels show macronutrients in grams, you will need to convert grams to calories. Since burning 1g of carbohydrate yields 4 calories, you need to divide 1000 by 4 = 250 or the total number of grams of carbohydrate you can consume that day.

Conversely, when you eat a food item which contains carbohydrate, you can multiply the number of grams consumed, which is listed on the food label as “Total carb”, by 4 to get the number of calories you must add to your daily total. If you do not plan your meals for each day, you will usually run “over” your carbohydrate allowance, or reach a point too early in the day when you cannot consume anymore carbohydrate! This creates all sorts of problems, and is precisely why Meal Planning is so important to your success!

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I use a software application on my smart phone to plan and track my dietary intake each day. It was difficult at first, but as I built up my database of foods I eat over and over, it became much easier. I prepare most of my meals for each day the night before or when I get up, and I carry it all in an insulated satchel which keeps it cool and fresh. You are probably thinking, “That sounds like so much trouble!!!” It takes a little getting used to, but like any habit, once it becomes embedded, it just seems to happen!

There are days when it doesn‟t always go perfectly, so you have to be flexible. I will grab a salad with grilled chicken out, or even “blow it” a little occasionally, like having pizza or Mexican food, but only occasionally! Every other day or so, I transfer my diet data to a computer spreadsheet which I created. By tracking this information, along with the data on calories burned by exercising, I am able to make adjustments when needed, in order to achieve the results I expect!

Two last concepts concerning carbohydrates, and then I‟ll move on to proteins. Tom Venuto strongly promotes these, and feels they are very beneficial, if not essential, to maximizing fat loss, and I agree. They are Carb Tapering and Carb Cycling. Carb Tapering has already been alluded to above. It is reducing the

percentage of carbohydrate in your diet throughout the day, especially, simple and starchy carbs. Meals during the first half of the day may be 55-60% carb, but less than 40% for the rest of the day. Along with exercise, this causes the body to bring more fat out of storage to burn for fuel.

Carb Cycling is the technique of having several “low calorie” days (65-80% of your TDEE), followed by a “high calorie” day or a “re-feed” day every third or fourth day. The change in calories is made mainly at the expense of carbohydrates rather than protein or fat, which helps to get your body to “give up” its fat stores more readily. By adding carb calories back in every third or fourth day to bring caloric consumption up near your TDEE, you “fool” your body into not recognizing what you are doing, so that it doesn‟t go into “starvation mode” and start protecting its fat stores, which would initiate a “plateau”. In this way, you can continue to burn your own fat, usually at the rate of 1-2 pounds per week. The re-feed days are always welcome, because you are allowed to eat the foods you have been limiting for the last 2-3 days! Like everything else, you may have to play around with the percentages and frequencies to get the best results, but if you are tracking your progress well, you will find the optimal combination for you.

Protein

The discovery of DNA by James D. Watson and Francis Crick in 1953 completely shattered any previously held notions about the nature of the world we live in.

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Legend has it that Crick announced as they entered the Eagle Pub in Cambridge, “We have found the secret of Life!” They won the Nobel Prize.

Today, we have now cracked the human genetic code and that of many other species of plants and animals. As a result, medical science is advancing quickly. The codes found in the double helix molecules that exist in our chromosomes are instructions for the manufacture, by your cells, of proteins! These very complex molecules make up a very large part of your body. Around 20% of your total weight is from proteins (remember that you are 65% water), and 70% of those proteins are found in your voluntary muscles.

Besides supporting body motion through muscle contractions, proteins play major roles in growth and development, reproduction, energy production, waste management, tissue repair and metabolism.

I get goose bumps every time I think about how a single cell, half of which is contributed by each parent, gives rise to over 200 distinctly different human body tissue types. All of them, eye lens to stomach lining, come from this one cell by what appears to be magic! Instead of any hocus pocus; however, it is proteins created from the genetic instructions found in that first cell that are the managers and most of the materials for this immense construction project!

Once the body is completed, it has to be grown to full size and then stop growing when it gets there. Proteins manage that too. Their work is never done, either, as long as you are alive. Although your appearance only gradually changes with time, your tissues are being continuously replenished, mostly with newly created proteins!

Your skin has all new cells every month, but your fingerprints do not change! Amazing! Many internal organs are totally renewed in just weeks, and your entire skeleton in just a few months. It‟s like continuously remodeling a house, but the owner doesn‟t want to change anything, just tear out things and put them back the way they were. And all of it is done using proteins, with the help of carbohydrates and fats for energy to drive the machine!

Are you beginning to understand the importance of these molecules to us?

What complicates the picture even more is the fact that there is no way for your body to store protein. You must have a regular intake to survive. If protein in your diet is too low, your body only has one choice, to cannibalize protein from one part of your body to use somewhere it is needed in another. This can work for awhile, but eventually the body cannot function normally and you will get sick.

Malnutrition caused in many areas of the world by the severe lack of protein kills millions of people each year. These “wasting” diseases, like Kwashiorkor, are

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easily cured by ingesting whole protein in sufficient quantity. Without it, the body simply “consumes” itself until it can no longer survive.

Furthermore, the building blocks of proteins are called amino acids. There are 20 different ones, and only 11 of them can be manufactured in the body. They are called dispensable amino acids. The other 9 cannot be made by us, and therefore must be ingested, or new proteins will not be created, (except through self-destruction). These are the essential amino acids. Amino acids are linked together in a sequence programmed by individual genes through peptide bonding. Protein molecules are also referred to as polypeptides. I will not use the paper here to list the amino acids as they can be found in any biochemistry book or online, if you are interested.

The reason that it is not important for you to know their names individually is that your body is quite good at breaking down the whole proteins you eat into the various amino acids anyway. You typically will not find them listed on food labels unless they are specifically added, in which case they will be listed in the ingredients and will have an effect on the grams of total protein.

Plants contain protein, but most of them are lacking in one or more of the essential amino acids. For this reason, strict vegetarians have a very difficult time getting all the building materials ingested to create the proteins to repair, maintain or grow tissues like muscle. Combining plants carefully, such as eating brown rice with beans can provide some whole protein, but not of the best quality. Soy beans are a plant product that does provide whole protein.

Animals provide the best sources of complete protein in the form of muscles, eggs and milk. These contain all the amino acids. The trick is choosing from among these and avoiding as much saturated fats as possible. This is done primarily by reducing or eliminating egg yolks while eating the protein-rich whites, using low-fat or non-fat dairy products, eating fish, lean poultry and lean beef cuts and eliminating or greatly reducing the consumption of pork, cured or fresh, as it is higher in saturated fat. Grilling or roasting rather than frying is another way of keeping the fat content lower. Processed meats, such as lunchmeats and sausages should also be avoided.

A list of good sources of high quality protein will contain:

Turkey Breast

Chicken Breast

Beef (Top Round or Lean Sirloin)

Chicken Eggs (mostly whites)

Fish and Shellfish

Cheese, Milk and Yogurt (low-fat or non-fat)

Protein Powder (Whey or Egg White-based)

Soy Beans (and products made from them, like tofu)

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Proteins like these should be eaten throughout the day with every meal to maximize fat loss. Because the body has to work pretty hard to break down and utilize protein, it produces a “thermic” effect, which keeps your metabolism revved up between meals. This aids in the burning of your fat stores, and adds to what exercise and carbohydrate management accomplish there. If increasing muscle mass is you goal, then protein, which is the stuff muscle is made of, must be consumed in amounts that exceed what is required just for maintenance.

So how do you know how much protein to eat?

There is some controversy on this subject, but it is quite easily cleared up, I think, through examination of the issues. The US recommended daily allowance, or RDA, for protein is .36 gram per pound of ideal body weight, and that protein should make up 15-20% of dietary intake. These recommendations are for “average” individuals. Following this advice, a 154 lb. male would consume 56 grams of protein daily and a 110 lb. female would need 40 grams.

Although there is some evidence that higher protein diets in very sedentary individuals may contribute to osteoporosis and possibly worsen kidney disease in individuals who already have it, there is no evidence that ingesting larger amounts of protein in healthy individuals who exercise regularly has any harmful effects. Instead, eating double the RDA for them is more beneficial in aiding fat loss and muscle growth.

A better rule for protein intake is 30% of calories ingested. This turns out to be very close to 1 gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight, if you are eating enough. Under these guidelines, the individuals above would be consuming 156 grams and 110 grams respectively each day, and if they select lower saturated fat protein, they will increase their health rather than diminish it.

Bodybuilders will at critical phases of their training increase protein intake to even 40% of calorie intake! By very carefully spreading their intake out over the course of the entire day, they insure that sufficient protein is available to grow muscles larger after they have been worked hard through weight training. This increase requires the lowering of carbohydrate intake, which helps prevent fat deposits from forming under the skin. This is what produces the defined, “ripped” look they seek.

You may not aspire to being “ripped”, but employing these principles will help you to lose excess fat and reach your ideal weight with toned muscles and in good health! As I said before, I was able to lose 50 pounds and I am still amazed how good an old guy‟s body like mine can look!

Protein burns at 4 calories per gram, the same as carbohydrate. If you are currently eating 2200 cal/day, and you are eating 30% of those calories as

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protein, then you will need to eat 2200 x .30 = 660 calories, or 660/4 = 165 grams of protein. Ironically, if you are fairly close to your ideal weight, you should be right around 165 lb! Active healthy people at their ideal weight should consume about a gram of protein per pound of body weight per day!

As you will see in the next section which discusses when to eat, you will be ingesting this protein in 25-35 gram portions 5-6 times throughout your day along with good fats and carbohydrates, that is, if you are working your plan properly.

If the individual above ate all 165 grams of his daily protein intake at breakfast, most of it would go to waste, and there would be none for use later in the day, since protein cannot be stored. He would then start consuming his own muscles!

So, spread out your protein consumption throughout each day to increase the burning of your stored fat and keep all the muscle you have!

When to Eat

The concept of three meals per day has big drawbacks to achieving optimum fat loss and nutritional health. Americans typically eat this way and do not even make the most of it. They skimp on breakfast, which is probably the most important meal of the day. They eat too heartily at lunch. They “pig-out” at dinner. They “snack” throughout the day and up until bedtime with processed “junk” foods. All bad!

Ideally, if the 3-meal-per-day diet is done properly: Breakfast should be the largest meal with the highest carbohydrate percentage, and never “skipped”. Lunch would be smaller and dinner smaller still. Healthy “snacks” should be eaten between meals, and should contain some protein. Eating should be suspended altogether 2 hours before bedding down. Macronutrients should be: Fat 15-20%, Carb 45-55% and Protein 30%. Caloric intake should be based on the weekly calculated TDEE (after your weekly weigh-in and estimate of LBM). Processed foods should be avoided. Even this method has limitations; however, mainly that fat loss is inhibited because “meal” sizes are so much larger than they need to be.

Eating 5 to 6 smaller (250-350cal) meals per day, as outlined below, is a much better way to keep fat burning off of you, and to never be “starving”. Women for the most part being smaller than men, should consider 5 meals per day rather than 6, because their daily calorie intake divided by 6, produces such small portions. You want to eat enough at each meal to feel satisfied.

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Combined with regular exercise which includes weight training, it is the optimal method for getting to your ideal weight as quickly and as safely as possible, while increasing your health and wellbeing!

The challenge, in adopting a dietary plan of this type, is that it puts you out of sync with the vast majority of other people! Meal “times” will not always be when they eat, and this can sometimes cause friction with those closest to you. With persistence and patience, however, it will become “normal” and they will stop bugging you about it. They may even join you when they see the great results you are getting with your Plan!

You will feel awkward at first, for sure, as changing not only what you eat, but also when you eat it is a lot to get used to. Old habits are hard to break. Remember, willpower will only be needed until your subconscious makes it all habitual. I found myself reverting automatically back to my “old” ways quite often during the first few months, but I just kept getting back to my Plan every time it happened, and eventually it stopped.

If this is all seeming somewhat harsh to you, remember, it is a process. You do not have to do it perfectly in the beginning. Even after you get it going right, you are still able to “cheat” occasionally to lighten your mood, and this you can do without any guilt whatsoever, because you are seeing the results you seek! As I have noted previously, your “cheat meals” will become fewer and fewer, just like mine did, as you learn to love the foods that are good for you!

Since Chasing Health is not a diet book, per se, I am not going to provide you with pages and pages of meals already planned out for you. I know you are thinking, “Why not?” I have already provided you with enough information above for you to be able to develop your own eating plan, and in order for you to “own” it, you will need to do that rather than delegating it. Nobody knows what you like as much as you do anyway!

If you find yourself totally lost about how to proceed, you can fall back on mimicry. I have included some of my typical meals below. Just realize, if you do not like what you see, that it is MY way, not necessarily yours. The web, and its search engines, is an inexhaustible resource for meal plans and recipes, but just be careful that they fit your guidelines. BFFM also has some great ideas.

No two people are alike, so totally customizing your Plan is the only way to go, but it is fine to adopt something not yours at first, and then tweak it later. I love to prepare foods in different ways, but I am quite happy with a diet that does not have a lot of variety. In other words, I am happy eating the same foods over and over, because I like them so much! My thought process is something like, “Now let me see… bison, beef, turkey, chicken or fish… it doesn‟t matter… I like them all…” Whereas I cook most everything on my non-stick electric grill, you may

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need to create exotic recipes, and believe me, they are out there for you to find. Just check the nutritional data before you go shopping, OK?

Let‟s say you normally rise at 6 AM and retire at 11PM. You are going to eat at roughly 6, 9, 12, 3, 6 & 9 (or 6, 10, 1, 5 & 9 for women). Let‟s say your calculated TDEE is 2400 calories this week. If this is one of your “low” days (when you are only going to consume only 70% of your TDEE), then you will be eating roughly 1700 calories for the day. If you eat the same number of calories at each meal that would be about 283, but since you are going to incorporate the concept of carb tapering for greater fat loss, breakfast will be bigger, maybe 400 cal, and the other meals will be 250 – 270. Your carbohydrate amount for breakfast and meal #2 can be higher (60%) and then taper off to 40-45% later in the day. As long as it totals up close to the guidelines, you have a Plan! The trick is to make sure you keep protein (30%) and good fats (15-20%) in each meal.

At my age, melatonin production decreases, so you cannot sleep as long as when you are young, so I normally wake after 6 or maybe 7 hours of slumber. If you typically sleep longer, you may only be able to fit 5 meals into your waking hours. In that case, the only thing that changes is the math. The calorie intake and the frequency (roughly every 3 hours) stay the same. You should get adequate amounts of sleep, however. Staying up very late and sleeping late are not conducive to proper nutrition or health.

You will be taking the meals you eat away from home with you, for the most part, so plan ahead about a week. This allows you cook things that then can be heated in a microwave oven at your office or other locations. If I cannot find a heating device, I will eat cold chicken or salmon and veggies. I keep stashes of canned tuna or salmon at work in case I mess up and don‟t bring food, which is rare. I sometimes go to a restaurant and order a grilled chicken salad with the dressing on the side, and water.

You will probably notice, once you embark upon this Plan, that it really seems like a lot of food! Remember however, that you have probably been eating smaller quantities of very calorie dense foods. A big hamburger can be 1000 calories! Add a large fries, and you have blown almost your 

whole calorie budget in one meal! The meals you will be eating on this plan will fill you up, and if they do not seem appetizing at first, if you are anything like me, you will grow to love them, and you will rarely be “really hungry” like before. This is because they have a more gradual effect on your blood sugar and insulin levels.

I considered not even mentioning the subject of dishonesty, because of the negativity it carries with it, but frankly, most of the lack of success of nutritional plans in achieving their goals results from the under-reporting of what is consumed. If you fudge on your plan, who suffers? YOU! Conveniently forgetting to write down a food item or not disclosing the full amount eaten of it will affect

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your results and undermine your efforts. I have done this! I am tempted to do it all the time! I do NOT do it because it only hurts ME!

Once eating like this becomes second nature to you, you will not have to write down every meal for the next week because you already know, pretty much, what‟s going to happen. If you slip up, you just put it in the food diary and suck it up! In the beginning, though, you need to stick to a written meal plan, otherwise, you will consume all manner of edibles and drinkables and then get sudden amnesia when you sit down to report it. It does not have to be that rigid, however. If you want Thursday‟s meal #3 on Wednesday instead, great! Just write down what the changes were. That way you keep your self-honesty, which is something to really be proud of! Personal integrity does not just count in your dealings with others. It is important that YOU know you are good to your word!

Meals

Below I have listed some of my typical meals and their values. What I am showing you is for my typical “low” day which right now is 2200 calories. On my “re-feed” days (every third day for me), I eat 2900 calories, so the carbs are increased on those days. You will need to adjust the amounts by your TDEE and the caloric deficit you are using (20-35%) to make these meals work for you. I change the food items around for variety, but the numbers do not change much.

It is really not that hard to put simple meals together, and you should keep it simple in the beginning. You will probably need to make some minor changes to your calorie deficit % and or your fitness factor if after a few weeks nothing seems to be happening. Once you start seeing the results you want, however, you can start playing around with the meals themselves if you like. That‟s fine as long as you keep working within the guidelines you have established.

Each meal should have a protein source (either natural or a protein shake), some good fat, and some carbohydrate (simple, starchy or fibrous). For greater fat loss, eat the simple carbs earlier in day and taper the total amount of carbs throughout the day.

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Meal #1 (6:00 AM)

Cal Fat Carb Prot

Shredded wheat 1 biscuit 80 .5g 18.5g 2.5g

Pumpkin Flax Cereal ¼ C 75 3.5g 11.0g 2.0g

Fresh Blueberries 1C 60 1.0g 17.0g 1.0g

Non-fat Milk 1C 90 0.0g 13.0g 9.0g

Udo‟s Oil 1 tbsp 120 13.0g 0.0g 0.0g

Totals 425 18.0g 59.5g 14.5g

Amount of Calories from: 35% 52% 13%

This is one of my favorite breakfasts! It is higher in fat due to the Udo‟s Oil, which is a blend of Omega 3 and 6 fats from vegetable sources, blended by Udo Erasmus. You will find it in the refrigerator section of most health food stores. I take 1 tablespoon of it every morning with meal #1 or #2 usually.

Meal #2 (9:00 AM)

Cal Fat Carb Prot

Non-fat yogurt 1/2C 80 0.5g 18.5g 2.5g

Mandarin orange 1 50 0.5g 15.0g 1.0g

Protein Bar 1 180 4.5g 17.0g 20.0g

Totals 310 5.5g 51.0g 23.5g

Amount of Calories from: 14% 59% 27%

Protein bars are “processed” foods and although a convenient way to get your protein needs satisfied on the go, you should limit the intake of these to one per day. Natural sources are the best ones!

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Meal #3 (12:00 NOON)

Cal Fat Carb Prot

Wild Pacific Salmon 3 oz 156 6.5g 0.0g 23.5g

Sesame Ginger Sauce 1/2 tbsp 25 2.5g 0.5g 0.0g

Broccoli 1C 20 0.0g 3.5g 2.0g

Tomato 1 1/2 small 52 1.0g 10.5g 1.5g

Brown Rice 1/2C 109 0.5g 23.0g 2.5g

Totals 362 10.5g 37.5g 29.5g

Amount of Calories from: 26% 43% 31%

Meal #4 (3:00 PM)

Cal Fat Carb Prot

Protein Powder / H2O 2 scoops 140 2.0g 3.0g 27.0g

Apple 1 116 0.5g 30.5g 0.5g

Triscuits 5 100 3.5g 16.5g 2.5g

Totals 356 6.0g 50.0g 30.0g

Amount of Calories from: 14% 53% 33%

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Meal #5 (6:00 PM)

Cal Fat Carb Prot

Seared Tuna 6 oz 195 1.5g 0.0g 42.0g

Green beans 1C 34 0.0g 7.5g 2.0g

Fresh Spinach 2C 20 0.0g 5.0g 1.0g

Artichoke hearts 4 pc 40 4.0g 4.0g 0.0g

Avocado 1/2 114 10.5g 6.0g 1.5g

Tomato 1 52 1.0g 10.5g 1.5g

Totals 455 17.0g 33.0g 48.0g

Amount of Calories from: 32% 28% 40%

Meal #6 (9:00 PM)

Cal Fat Carb Prot

Soy Beans (steamed) 8 oz 148 7.5g 10.5g 12.5g

Red Wine 6 oz 150 0.0g 4.5g 0.0g

Totals 298 7.5g 15.0g 12.5g

Amount of Calories from: 38% 34% 28%

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Cal Fat Carb Prot

Daily Totals 2,206 64.5g 246.0g 158.0g

26% 45% 29%

The higher fat content of this daily meal plan (6% above the recommended high of 20% for fats) is a reflection of its “good fat” content. Udo‟s oil, avocado, soy beans and salmon are all high in EFAs, which shows that any diet plan cannot be evaluated purely by the numbers. A somewhat higher fat content is acceptable, as long as it consists of mostly “good” fats rather than dairy and meat fats. The carbohydrate and protein contents are acceptable even with the higher fat percentage.

This should give you some ideas for how to design your meal plan each day. The possibilities are as endless as the foods you choose to eat. Just remember to eat as many unaltered natural foods as you can. It is nearly impossible to completely avoid processed foods, but your health will benefit from severely limiting these from your diet.

There are many ways to obtain the food values for a particular food. If it has a label, the information can be found there usually. A food scale and measuring cups/spoons are essential if you want to avoid guessing. For foods like fruits, vegetables and meats, you will need to refer to a table. Purchase one at a bookstore, or use one online (like caloriecounter.com) or if you have a smart phone, use an integrated application like LOSE IT or LIVESTRONG. With these, when you change the serving size, the values change for you, and it keeps a running total so you can see at any point during the day what your numbers are for calories, fats, carbohydrates and protein. This helps you make mid-course corrections.

I started out writing it all down and using a calculator, but that takes a lot of time. Now, on my phone, it‟s a breeze! I transfer the daily data to a spreadsheet on my laptop every few days. In this way I can see how both nutrition and exercise are affecting my overall results! The link in the back of the book will take you to the chasinghealth.com website. There I have some downloadable templates to help you track your progress. I hope they are helpful.

Review the Macronutrients sections of this chapter above for suggestions for which foods to include in your plan. The lists are only partial ones, so many more good foods are out there for you to find. It is up to you to become a student of good nutrition. Read all you can!

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To help you in your quest I am listing below all the foods I can think of which you should severely limit or avoid altogether. Some of these may wind up in your “cheat meals”, but I hope not too often.

Foods to avoid:

Potato chips

Corn chips

Fried foods

Bacon

Sausage

Hot dogs

Hamburgers

Fast food

Pastries

Donuts

Candy

Cookies

Ice cream

Sweetened cereals

White bread and flour („enriched” or not)

White rice

Soda

Sugar-sweetened drinks

Alcohol

Sweets

Sweetened yogurt

Butter

Cream sauces

Pork and other higher fat-containing meats

Sour cream

Cream and cream cheese

Whole Milk

Egg Yolks (just 1 per every 6 eggs)

Most restaurant foods

Pizza (unless it has whole wheat crust and veggies)

If this list looks like your current diet, then you definitely have some adjustments to make. Before I made my decision to chase after it, I ate all these things and I honestly did not think my diet was that terrible… Man! Was I ever WRONG!!! Once I was underway with my Plan, however, I started eating properly, and gradually stopped wanting to eat off that list. Even now, I sometimes indulge in one of those items, but more and more, find that I am not happier for doing it.

The upside of eating great food in proper quantity is the way it makes you feel.

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I‟m sure you have heard, “YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT”. Well, it is true! It takes a little while, so some patience is required, but when your body starts to function the way it was intended to, you will notice a huge difference!

I wake up feeling wonderful and feel that way all day long! That never used to happen to me. When you combine that with awesome exercise routines, both cardiovascular and resistance training, as outlined in the next chapter, the results are simply amazing! Armed with these tools you will be able to chase your health down from behind and completely surround it!

Chapter 7 - What Burns It Up

Changing your eating habits, as outlined above, sets the stage for unstoppable fat loss. This will NOT occur, however, unless you do something which requires the fat to be burned. That “something” is movement. Dieting alone, as mentioned above, makes losing fat very difficult, and it is not health promoting.

On the other hand, you can spend all of your time in the gym, but if you eat the wrong foods and eat too much, it won‟t get you where you want to go. Proper nutrition and a reasonable calorie reduction, combined with a sensible and a systematic approach to physical fitness will get you there predictably.

When you use your muscles to move your body more than how much it normally moves, or push and pull against forces that are greater than it normally encounters, the increased energy requirement will be satisfied through the oxidation, or burning, of carbohydrates and fats. If your nutrition is right, with enough effort, you will be able to burn 1-2 lbs of your stored fat per week!

This is commonly referred to as exercise, a word which really just means “doing”.

It is a simplification of a very complex process, but basically, the more exercise you do, the more fat you will lose. Other really great things will also happen to your body, including getting stronger and better looking when you exercise regularly.

This is a good time to return to a point I mentioned earlier. If you have not had a complete physical examination with your physician, do it now! Make sure you are cleared for any type of exercise, whether cardiovascular workouts or weight training. If you have restrictions, make sure you understand what they are, and which exercises you are cleared for.

If you go to a gym, let the trainers or consultants know your situation, so they can help you design a program which is safe for you. Commit yourself to doing whatever it takes to have as many of these restrictions removed as is possible. In

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the majority of cases, as someone becomes more fit and healthy, their physician will clear them for additional exercises.

Good nutrition and regular exercise will always improve metabolic deficiencies and strengthen muscles and the connective tissues which support them, but you want to engage in them safely, so DO NOT „wing it” on this one, please! Get a physical exam from your doctor! He or she will probably tell you to “go for it!” anyway.

If you are already exercising regularly, or if you have in the past, some of the information in this section will already be familiar to you, so bear with me. If you are new to exercising, “what” to get started with is important, but “how” to start is even more so. At the risk of being overly repetitive, “Gradual is Good”!

It is so important to ease a weak cardiovascular system into vigorous exercise, and equally as important to gently strengthen connective tissues, to help avoid injury. It has been my experience that most people do this pretty naturally, but others become impatient and want to jump right into the more challenging routines. If this is you, resist the temptation and proceed gradually for the sake of your own health!

I believe the information below will safely help you get started and continue improving your workouts as part of your overall Plan to reach optimal fitness and health. My suggestions are based on what I have read and experienced myself. I do not have any experience as a personal athletic trainer, nor do I have credentials in this area. If this concerns you, please discuss what is outlined below with any professionals you like. I also suggest that you read as much as you can in this field. A lot has been written about exercise. I list a number of sources in the back of this book, and many more are good reads. I do not think you can ever know too much!

Rather than reinvent the wheel, I fall back heavily upon my mentor, Tom Venuto. Using his BFFM principles, I have seen results which I could have never imagined I would have achieved! In fact, most of the exercise guidelines in this book are like his, with my own spin on them here and there. As I have mentioned already, you definitely need to download his book, Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle. Get it on his website, http://www.burnthefat.com.

Cardiovascular Exercise

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Cardiovascular exercise is also called “cardio”. This type of exercise might be better called cardiopulmonary, since the lungs are where the oxygen gets from the air you breathe into your cardiovascular system (heart, arteries and veins). This is because it is (or at least should be) highly aerobic or oxygen-requiring.

The energy required to accomplish this type of sustained workout is gotten from the burning of carbohydrates and more importantly, stored fat, in your cells. More O2 is needed for this “respiration” than is needed for your normal activities, which is why you breathe deeper and faster when you engage in them, and why they are termed aerobic.

Actually, the more of this type of activity you engage in, the more efficient your cardiopulmonary system becomes. This is termed cardiovascular fitness, and is a measure of how well, under stress, your lungs exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide, your heart pumps blood through your circulatory system and your muscles are able to continue working.

How quickly you return to normal after you stop the activity is another indicator of this type of conditioning. The more out of shape you are, the longer it takes you to recover. If you are not used to exercising and you overdo it, your heart rate can stay unusually high for an extended period before gradually decreasing. This is another good reason to start out slowly with cardio workouts.

Once you become very cardiovascularly fit, you have to increase your workouts to avoid the diminishing returns caused by accommodation. This is just one example of how incredibly adaptable the human body is! This can be done by changing which muscles are involved in the exercise, the intensity, the duration or the frequency of the cardio work, or by changing them all as much as is needed to keep you working hard, and your fat burning.

This might seem like “common sense” to you, but when I go to the gym, I see the same people, month after month, on the same machine, going the same speed, at the same level and doing it for the same amount of time. They read a book, and they do not break a sweat or breathe hard. I am sure these folks are under the impression that their workouts are very beneficial. It cannot be argued that any exercise, no matter how easy, is better than none at all, but workouts like these are not aerobic! I do not see the bodies of these people change much either!

If you are interested in burning off your stored fat deposits, you are going to have to do lots of cardio, and it will have to be challenging, no matter how fit you become! You will need to breathe harder and perspire during every workout!

When I first started to exercise, it was cardio. I chose the elliptical trainer at the suggestion of an employee at my gym, which is the machine probably least likely to injure you. After about 10 minutes of work at the lowest setting, my out-of-shape, obese body was yelling at me to get off!

Today I will spend 45 minutes to an hour on the elliptical trainer making 100 rpm up near the highest resistance level. I will do this or a different exercise five to six days per week! Part of what makes this possible is that I am much more fit now than when I started. Also, I have 50 fewer pounds of stored fat than I did back then!

Aerobic exercise has been around as long as we have. A long, sustained run was often needed by early hunters to escape becoming a meal themselves! Those that were well-conditioned survived longer. Runners were often used in early civilizations to deliver urgent messages between settlements, so they had to be in good shape. The Incas of South America developed an elaborate system for this.

The Greeks certainly admired the physical attributes of their athletes (from whom the word comes), but their general population was, like ours today, much more into being sedentary. Rowers on Roman oar-powered ships had to be cardio-fit, whether they served voluntarily, or otherwise. Many other examples can be seen throughout history as well, but it was not until fairly recently that the link between fitness and health became a widely accepted fact.

Cardiovascular exercise takes many forms. Actually, any type of sustained muscle activity will raise your heart rate and get you breathing faster. Running, fast walking, climbing (stairs, cliffs or mountains), cross country skiing, jumping up and down, downhill skiing (if you don‟t rest too much), swimming, bicycling and rowing are all examples. Even weight training, if done in a continuous fashion with little or no rest between sets, can be very aerobic. I will discuss this in the next section on resistance exercise.

Today many of these activities are simulated by machines which engage the same muscles, while helping you to avoid injuries. These devices can mostly be found in fitness centers, but the fitness conscious often have them in their homes for easy access. Self-discipline is needed, however, because the path of least resistance is to let these home machines become dust collectors when “life” gets in the way of fitness (but I hope you won‟t let it!).

Treadmills, stair-climbers, rowing machines, stationary bicycles and skiing machines will all get the job done, and can be electronically adjusted to vary the workload to fit each person‟s fitness level. Most of them will track calories burned fairly accurately, and let you know when you are out of the “target zone”, as long as you input your age and weight before you begin. The heart-rate monitor on a machine determines if you are doing too little or too much, helping you to adjust.

I like all of these machines, but none of them as much as the elliptical machine. A fairly recent entry into the market, these machines offer a wide range of adjustments which change not only the resistance, but also change which leg

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muscles are engaged. Many of these allow you to involve upper body muscles as well.

Probably the biggest advantage of these machines, however, is that they are “low-impact”. Due to the rotational path in which your feet move the platforms, your joints are spared the beating they often receive from activities such as running, jumping or climbing!

Machines are great, in my opinion, and they come in very handy, especially when the weather outside is not cooperative, but doing cardio outdoors has a special place in my heart. I have already related how I gradually worked my way up to running 5 miles three times per week at 6 miles per hour. Well, believe it or not, writing a book takes time, and things have definitely changed for me since I wrote about that last year! My knees just could not take the pounding! Each stride places your entire weight suddenly on the joint. I had some osteoarthritis in my knees already from youth abuse, I guess, but it became worse the more I ran. My knees would really hurt after I ran and I was taking more ibuprofen than was recommended, which can hurt your health.

As much as I had come to love running, I made the big decision to quit after running the Capitol 10K Race, here in Austin, last April. I cut nearly 10 minutes off my performance the previous year, but I was in such agony, I hobbled like a cripple back to my car, and drove home in pain.

I started riding my mountain bike instead, and found that it was also low-impact. My knees recovered completely even though I continued to cycle further and further with each succeeding ride. At some point, I realized that I needed a road bicycle, and got a nice one through my friend, Jim, The Two Wheeler Dealer, in Wilmington, NC. I had to get special shoes and gear, too. You can checkout his website, bikesarefun.com.

Just as in the case of running, I built up my speed and endurance over a series of rides. Now I typically ride two or three times per week, weather permitting, for 45 minutes to an hour, but I have ridden as long as two and a half hours, all on the pedals! My average speed has gradually increased from about 12 mph to 17mph. The hills in Austin are very challenging, which makes cycling here a high intensity interval training (HIIT), instead of the sustained-level type cardio exercise that cycling on flat terrain produces (unless you consciously speed up and slow down). I will talk more about HIIT below.

It is good to be flexible. As it turns out, I love cycling now every bit as much as I liked running before. If there ever comes a time when I cannot ride my bicycle anymore, I am certain I will find another cardiovascular activity to do outside! If the way I feel now is any indication, however, even though I am 59, I will be riding the roads for many more years!

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I certainly hope that I have made a compelling argument for you want to do cardiovascular exercise. Now let me show you how to do it!

If you still have not started exercising, please start now! Start with some brisk walks or if you have access to one, some sessions on the elliptical machine or stationary bicycle. Start out slowly and at the lower resistance settings. Gradually increase the resistance as your fitness level increases.

If you are just beginning to exercise, you should start out doing 3 cardio sessions per week. Space these out if possible. MWF or TThS, or whatever fits into your schedule initially. Your goal to lose most of your stored body fat will be very dependent upon your cardiovascular workouts. With specific goals for weight and body fat percentages plugged into your 12-week missions and longer-range goals, your subconscious will be helping you to do what is necessary to get there.

Theories abound about just how to do cardio exercise for: fat loss, endurance or maintenance. It can be confusing and complicated, so I suggest you wait until later to address the complexities. The main thing to remember is: The more cardio you do, the more fat you will burn.

You should plan to move as quickly, but as safely as is possible, from 3 cardio sessions per week of 20-30 minutes each to 5-6 sessions. These sessions will lengthen gradually until they are each 45 minutes to an hour. You must keep the intensity of your workouts challenging, to keep your fat coming off, and that means increasing the resistance as your fitness increases! Simple, right? Sure! Just not easy!

How do you do this without winging it? You make sure that you stay in the “target zone” or sometimes called the “fat-burning zone” or “training zone”. This is measured by your heart rate and is modified by both your age and your fitness level.

Your heart rate should stay between 70% and 85% of the maximum heart rate for your age while you are exercising, depending on your fitness level. You can get a fair estimate of your maximum heart rate (EMHR) by subtracting your age from 220. I am 59, so my EMHR is: 220 – 59 = 161 beats per minute (bpm). So my approximate training zone is 70-85% of 161, or 113 bpm to 136 bpm. A beginner should keep his or her heart rate in the lower part of this range, and gradually move toward the top of that range as fitness increases.

If you are using a machine that has a heart rate monitor, just grip the metal handles with your bare hands and it will display your current rate in bpm. You can then increase or decrease the resistance level, or speed up or slow down to get to the correct bpm.

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If you are walking or running outside, you can use a watch with a second hand. Check your pulse on your wrist for 10 seconds and then multiply by 6 to get the approximate bpm, and then adjust the activity level as required to stay in the “zone”.

Since the above estimate is based upon average fitness levels, a more accurate method of determining this range is based upon your fitness level, which may not be typical. Your resting heart rate (RHR) is a very good measure of your cardiovascular fitness. Take your pulse in the morning after you wake, but before you get up. Normal is 72 bpm for someone of average fitness. 90 bpm would mean you really have some work to do. Elite athletes, like Iron Men (or Women), can have a RHR in the low 40 bpm. It is evening, and my RHR just sitting here at my laptop is 54 bpm. It is usually about 50 bpm when I wake up. That is down about 30 bpm from two years ago!

Next you have to figure your heart rate reserve (HRR). You get this by subtracting your RHR from your EMHR. For me that is 161 – 50 = 111. Now take 60% and 80% your HRR, and add it to you RHR. For me that would be:

111 (.6) = 66.6 + 50 = 116.6 bpm

and

111 (.8) = 88.8 + 50 = 138.8 bpm.

If I was a beginner I would use the lower end of that range as my target. Since I am very fit now, I am doing cardio at the top of this range. Notice that this came out very close to the numbers in the first example. They are higher because my fitness is better than average.

These calculations are just guidelines, but good starting points. If you are really obese and sedentary, you should keep your heart rate below these minimums until you start seeing some changes. If you find the level you have chosen to workout at is not challenging at all, then increase the work until you start breathing faster, then check your heart rate again.

You can check yourself by monitoring your breathing anytime you are exercising. You should be breathing hard, but not so hard that you are gasping for air or have difficulty talking normally. If you cannot get through a short sentence without struggling, you are working too hard! Slow down or lighten up on the resistance level until breathing is easier, but not as easy as when you are at rest.

I have found that I can workout at a 145 bpm heart rate for extended periods without any distress at all. I recover very quickly to lower heart rates as soon as I reduce the load as well. This let‟s me know that I am not exceeding my limits, even though I am working well above my age-predicted range. This means that I

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have conditioned my body so well that it works like the body of a person much younger than I am, and that is a good thing!

I need to mention here that when you do cardio, especially as a beginner, you will notice that after 20 minutes or so that your heart rate will go faster even though you have stayed at the same resistance level. This is normal, and has to do with depletion of glycogen from the muscles and your fitness. This lets you know you are burning more fat, so do not worry. Just lighten up the load until you see your bpm drop back down to your target. As you become more fit this happens later and later during your cardio sessions until you almost do not notice it all.

HIIT or high intensity interval training is a way of performing cardio which increases EPOC or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. Instead of just dialing in your target heart rate and keeping it the same for the entire workout, you divide the time into 1-2 minute sections or intervals. You increase the resistance or work to a level which will push your heart rate above your “target zone” for one interval, then reduce the load for the next interval enough to allow you to recover. You alternate these high and low intervals for the entire workout.

This phenomenon will actually have you burning your fat for hours after you complete your workout. Do not get too excited though, because the “after-burn” is only on the order 50 to 100 Calories more than with steady-state cardio, which is about the same amount as an apple or 1 shredded wheat biscuit! Still, it is something to consider. Training with weights, as it turns out, increases EPOC even more dramatically than HIIT, and that is why any fat-loss program should include resistance exercise!

I really like HIIT because it is more challenging and much less boring than just chugging monotonously along for an hour. I do not use HIIT for every cardio workout I do, however. Sometimes a good old boring steady-state workout is all I can handle. Just remember that how much is always more important than what kind, anyway. Doing 20 minutes of HIIT will not burn off nearly as much fat as 45 minutes of steady-state cardio. If you are a beginner, I would go for 3-6 months before using HIIT. It will be enough of a challenge just getting up to speed with steady-state cardio workouts.

Another technique which can make your cardio workout a more effective fat burner is to do it first thing in the morning, before you have a meal. Fasted Cardio, as it is referred to, takes advantage of the fact that during sleep, you have used up most of the glycogen in your muscles, so exercising gets the fat burning sooner during the workout. The insulin released by your pancreas after eating interferes with fat metabolism as well, so exercising in a fasted state can get fat metabolized faster.

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I use this technique several times per week at least, and really like getting a workout completed before my day really gets started. It is very motivational to getting the challenges I have set for myself that day accomplished!

As with HIIT, fasted cardio is not a panacea, so do not think you can cut your early morning cardio workout short and get the same results just because you are fasting! Some peoples‟ schedules just do not permit early morning workouts, or they would rather do cardio later in the day anyway. They will still benefit if they do the work! Remember TANSTAAFL!!!

What about when you have gotten down to your ideal weight and body fat percentage? Do you quit doing cardio? No Way! You just go from 5-6 cardio workouts per week, to 3. This way you maintain your cardiovascular fitness level and keep fat from going back into storage. If you feel those new much smaller pants getting a little tighter in the waist, add another cardio session or go a little longer and harder 3 times per week. Cut back on the “cheat” meals too!

Another benefit provided by cardiovascular exercise is the release of endorphins into your bloodstream. These chemicals elevate your mood and increase your sense of well-being. If you suffer from depression, exercise can be very helpful!

With endorphins circulating around your brain, your whole outlook on life seems better! You will sleep better too!

Some people believe that a lot of cardio will cause you to digest your own muscle tissue. This would only happen, however, if you were malnourished. If you follow the nutritional guidelines above, you need not worry that this will happen. In fact, some people are even able to gain muscle while engaging in cardio, as long as they do resistance training and eat well too!

To prevent boredom and accommodation (which makes doing the same thing less effective over time), you should change up your cardio workouts every few months or even more often. You will be surprised how much of a challenge doing something new seems to be at the outset! It is also very good to take a week off from exercise completely every few months. Your body will thank you for it, and it will not stop you from achieving your goals.

Now you know everything you need to know to start putting cardiovascular workouts safely into your Plan. Along with good nutrition, plenty of sleep and resistance training, which gets covered next, your cardio sessions will be very beneficial in helping you to meet your expectations!

During these sessions you should imagine that you are chasing after your health. Believe me; the more cardio you do, the faster you are gaining on it!

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Resistance Exercise

When I started looking for help to get my health back and found it, I learned something that I had never known before, and that was that weight training (AKA resistance exercise) is an essential part of any plan to lose excess stored fat and increase your strength and fitness. I was skeptical, but Tom Venuto‟s explanation of this in BFFM made perfect sense to me. After doing further research to confirm this on my own, I decided to include it in my Plan.

I think most people are surprised and doubtful that “weight lifting” is not just for “muscle heads”, or they think that if they resistance train, they will become too muscular or lose flexibility. These are common misconceptions, and nothing to be concerned about. Research these things and judge for yourself.

The fact is, that especially for people who are striving to lose fat, weight training is a necessary ingredient in their Plan, because although cardiovascular workouts burn fat mostly during the exercise, resistance training burns more fat after the exercise has been completed. These sessions will not make you look like a bodybuilder either, unless, of course, that is your goal.

The EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) mentioned above, is much higher for weight training than for cardio. One study showed that following intense resistance exercise metabolism was still elevated 13% above normal after 3 hours, and 4% after 16 hours. The effect was still measurable 38 hours after the exercise was completed!

Although there is considerable variation in the amount of additional fat loss the studies show EPOC producing, 150 calories per session for a 70 kg person is reasonable, if not conservative. If a pound of fat is 3500 calories, and you are doing three high density weight training sessions per week, that is an additional pound of fat lost every eight weeks or so. That is about 6.5 more pounds per year!

When I state that, depending upon your body type and the amount of exercise you do, assuming, of course, that your nutrition is right, that you can lose 1-2 lbs of stored body fat per week, the weight training you do definitely helps put that number closer to 2 than 1, so do not leave this key component of your Plan out!

If you are thinking: “Another thing I have to fit into my crazy schedule!?” then join the club. I know there are only so many hours in a day, but you WILL find time for all of it, if it is important enough to you. I would give you a pair of rose-colored glasses to see all this through, but I don‟t have any. TANSTAAFL!!!

Cut back on television watching and you will free up some time. I‟m sure if you examine your current daily routine you can identify many more “chunks” of time you are wasting. Use these to your advantage! Remember, once your desires get

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embedded into your unconscious, it will be helping you to carve out the time you will need to achieve them anyway.

Your resistance workouts should be only 20-30 minutes if you are starting out as a beginner, or have had a long hiatus from training. Initially, you will only be doing 2 full-body sessions per week. As you gradually gain strength, your sessions should increase to 40-45 minutes. These sessions will begin to focus on fewer body parts per session, and will be accomplished 3-4 times per week eventually.

Exceeding an hour of intense weight exercises can lead to catabolism, which produces muscle loss rather than gain, so more is not better in this case. Even when you reach an advanced training level, after a number of years of experience, you should keep your sessions to 45 minutes or so. This way you will keep your muscle or add to it, whichever is your goal.

Since you will be doing both 

cardiovascular and resistance exercises, there will be days when you will be doing both, and how you accomplish this, will be dependent upon your personal preferences and your schedule. On these days, I prefer to do fasted cardio early in the morning, and weight training later that day. This way I am well rested and more energized for both sessions. If I can only exercise once that day, however, I find it best to weight train first, and then do 30 minutes of cardio afterwards. This is very challenging!

If I try to do 45 minutes of cardio immediately after 45 minutes of intense, high-density resistance training, it can make me feel overwhelmed or even sick to my stomach sometimes. Spacing out these two sessions allows me to increase the total session time without any undesirable side effects. You can burn more fat this way! Don‟t get me wrong, on these days I KNOW I have worked myself hard! I go to bed early and sleep, like a baby!

You need to stick to your schedule, but inevitably, you will miss a workout. Do not despair! Just continue on your schedule as if it did not happen. Attempting to “make up” the missed session by doubling up, will only make things worse. Have no regrets and move forward! Your Plan is still intact! Stick with it!

You can do your weight training at home with a minimum of equipment and a small amount of space. You will need at least some dumbbells. A bar and weights in addition to these would be even better. Add an adjustable bench, and you can do a lot of different exercises. The cost for setting something like this up is very reasonable.

When money is not the issue, and an extra room is available to use, a very elaborate home gym can be created, which includes not only all the best weight training equipment, but cardio machines as well. Belonging to a gym, however, is

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probably the best approach to achieving quality and affordability in your workouts.

If you live in a city, there is probably a gym very close to your home or work. They love to give you tours and short-term guest memberships, so checkout several before you join one. Don‟t let anyone pressure you, and once you have decided on the one you like the best, tell them you are “on the fence” about which one to join and ask for a better deal than they are currently offering, because they might just give you a discount!

The condominiums where I live have a complete fitness center on the property. I belong to a gym not far away, so I use them both about equally. My gym has a wider variety of equipment, but I can tailor my weight training sessions for either. Large companies, more and more are providing fitness areas to their employees, so check where you work first, before joining a gym. If your employer does not provide one, many local gyms often offer discounted memberships to local area employees.

So now that you have a place to workout with weights, you need to get started! Your two full-body sessions will be done on nonconsecutive days. Ideally you should put at least two off-days between these. This allows time for the muscles to recover and repair after being worked. I‟m just talking about resistance exercise here, so understand that you will be doing cardiovascular workouts on most of the days you do not lift weights, and eventually, some of the days you do.

A full-body workout will include one exercise for each of the following: chest, quadriceps, hamstrings, back, forearms, biceps, triceps, shoulders, calves and abdominals. You will be doing 3 sets of each exercise; each set being between 6 and 12 repetitions (reps). Probably the best way to accomplish this is in a circuit at a gym, but if you are starting with a modest home gym, you will have to look ahead to the list of “Top 5” exercises for each body part.

Most gyms have machines with stacks of weight plates which isolate one body part. They are arranged so you can move smoothly from one to the next. Start with a weight which makes the exercise easy to do without straining, but which feels a bit challenging in the last few reps. Have a gym employee show you how to do the exercises properly if you are in doubt.

DO NOT try to show off with these exercises! You will get injured, and have to heal before you can start over. As you get stronger, you will be gradually adding more weight, so don‟t rush it!

You should rest between exercises, but only as much as you have to. Do not make this too easy! Rest no more than a minute or two at the most, then start the next exercise. If you feel like going ahead before a minute, continue on. The less you rest, the more fat you can burn!

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At first, you can just repeat the whole circuit three times in a row. This should not take more than 30 minutes unless the gym is really crowded. If your schedule will allow you to go at off-peak times (not when everyone gets off work), it will minimize waiting for the machines to be free. If someone is doing all 3 sets of an exercise in a row, ask them politely if you can “work in” with them. Then you can alternate until they are done. Always be willing to let others do this when they ask you too. It adds to the experience when everyone is happier.

Expect to be sore the second day after your workout. This is common, and if you are always gradually increasing in either reps or weight, you can expect this to be a “feature” of your life. I am always sore somewhere depending on which workout I did last. I have learned to embrace this kind of pain, because it lets me know that I am getting results! I would much rather get muscle soreness than the joint pain and general body aches I used to have continuously from being overweight and inactive. I never feel that kind of pain anymore. Ibuprofen or Naproxin will help dull the aches if you can‟t tolerate them.

Each time you do your triple circuit, you will “up the challenge” in some way, but be flexible. Sometimes you will just be tired or maybe improperly hydrated (shame on you), and will have to keep it the same or even back off of what you did last time. Over time you will improve, however. You can improve by: adding more resistance (weight), doing more repetitions or reducing the rest interval between exercises.

If you did 3 sets of 6 reps each last time for each body part, then this time do 7 reps the first set and back to 6 reps on the last 2 sets, while keeping the weight the same. The next time, do 2 sets of 7 and I set of 6, and so on.

Research has shown that the best repetition range for fat loss is between 6 and 12 reps, so when you get to 3 sets of 12, increase the weight a small amount (5 or 10 lbs) and go down to 3 sets of 6, and start moving up in reps again. If you do not feel like you can change the weight or reps that day, keep them the same, but try resting 10 seconds less between exercises. Try for some small improvement at each workout.

Once you have grown accustomed to all the exercises, say after a month, start doing all 3 sets for each body part consecutively. This will be much more challenging because the muscles fibers are reengaged again after such a short time, rather than the length of time it takes for the entire circuit. If you need more rest between sets that is OK, you can reduce it later.

If you cannot complete all the reps of the third set, or more importantly, the second set, then you should lower the weight rather than strain too much. Proper form while doing resistance exercise is more important than how much weight

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you lift. Injuries occur most often when more weight than can be pulled or pushed is attempted without maintaining proper form during the entire rep.

The proper form for any particular exercise can be demonstrated by experienced personnel at your gym. Many training manuals are also available with hundreds of illustrations and or photographs showing the proper way to execute exercises. My favorite way to research this is to enter the name of the exercise into an internet search engine. Among the results, you will always find a number of videos showing someone with a really great body performing the exercise properly.

Not only do these videos show you the correct body positioning, the setup of the equipment adjustments, if any, and how to proceed through the entire cycle of the exercise, but also the proper tempo to which it should be done. Tempo is very important to proper execution, as it affects directly the amount of benefit you receive from that exercise. Ideally you should take 2-3 seconds to engage the load (pull or push) and move it through its full range. Once there, without stopping for more time than it takes to reverse the direction, take 3-4 seconds to return to the starting position. Without stopping, complete this cycle again until all the reps in that set have been completed. You will get the maximum fat burn and be much less likely to injure yourself if these details are strictly adhered to.

After another month or so of doing two full-body sessions per week with three consecutive sets per station, add a third weekly session while keeping one or two no-resistance training days between them. Stay with this for at least another month, while gradually but consistently increasing the challenge of each session as described above.

Since you are always working against your body‟s ability to accommodate to any situation it can get used to, it is best to change your resistance training at least every few months or so. Always keep a record of what you were doing before you change it, because depending on what kind of results you saw, you may or may not want to return to that system, or something similar, in the future. This is another reason to keep good records.

This is a good point to begin replacing some of the exercises you have been doing on machines with different ones. Since every person is different, and with hundreds of resistance exercises to choose from, there is no set way to construct a workout plan. Luckily, since I did not know what I was doing at first, I had BFFM, and Tom’s Top Fives. He listed his top five favorite exercises for each muscle group. If you only select from this list, you will always have quality resistance exercises to train with. There certainly are other exercises you can do, and I encourage you to make a study of this subject and try as many as you like, but it is probably best to wait until you have at least a year of working out with these first.

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Tom Venuto‟s Top Fives

QUADICEPS

Squats

Leg Press

Lunges

Hack Squat

Leg Extension

HAMSTRINGS

Lying Leg Curl

Stiff Leg Deadlift

Seated Leg Curl

Single Leg Curl

Hyperextension

CALVES

Standing Calf Raise

Seated Calf Raise

Calf Press

Donkey Calf Raise

One Leg Calf Raise

ABDOMINALS

Crunch

Reverse Crunch

Hip Lift

Hanging Knee-up

Cable Crunch

BACK

Barbell Rows

Dumbbell Rows

Chin ups

Pulldowns

Cable Rows

CHEST

Barbell Bench

Dumbbell Bench Press

Dumbbell Flyes

Wide Grip Dips

Cable Crossovers

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SHOULDERS

Military Barbell Press

Dumbbell Press

Dumbbell Lateral Raise

Dumbbell Rear Lateral Raise

Dumbbell Front Raise

Biceps

Barbell Curl

Dumbbell Curl

Preacher Curl

Concentration Curl

Cable/ Machine Curl

Triceps

Lying Triceps Extension

Close Grip Bench Press

Triceps Pushdown

Parallel Bar Dips

French Press

Forearms

Barbell Wrist Curl

Reverse Wrist Curl

Reverse Curl

Hammer Curl

Dumbbell Wrist Curl

Your objective should be to gradually shift your three full-body workouts per week from the machines to the exercises listed above. Do not change your workout routines too often so you get the most from them, but often enough to avoid boredom and challenge yourself. Remember, proper form and tempo.

After a year, you will not be a beginning resistance trainer anymore. You are an intermediate. At this point you should have read several books on the subject and have begun to develop some subjective idea of where you want to go. For maximal fat loss and muscle development the trend should be in the direction of more weight training sessions per week. You will be working fewer muscle groups during each workout, but you will be increasing the number of exercises done for those groups.

A good intermediate plan is the two day split routine. You will workout half the body on one day, and the other half of the body the other day. You can maintain your three sessions per week, allowing for 1-2 off weight training days between each session. The example below is straight out of BFFM, and the exact one I

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used when I started into split routines. Of course, this is just an example. You can select different exercises and or workout on different days if it suits you.

TWO DAY SPLIT (Intermediate)

Mon Tues Wed Thur Fri Sat Sun

Chest Off Legs Off Chest Off Off

Shoulders Back Shoulders

Triceps Biceps Triceps

Abs Calves Abs

Repeat following Monday picking up with day 2 workout

Intermediate workout: sample exercises

Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, Abdominals (Day One)

1. Flat Bench Press: dumbbell, barbell or machine (chest)

2. Incline Dumbbell flyes or pec deck flye machine (chest)

3. Seated Dumbbell or machine overhead press (shoulders)

4. Dumbbell side lateral raise (shoulders)

5. Tricep Pushdown (triceps)

6. Overhead tricep extension with dumbbell (triceps)

7. Crunches (abs)

8. Reverse Crunches (abs)

Legs, Back, Biceps, Calves (Day two)

1. Leg Press machine (quads)

2. Leg extension machine (quads)

3. Lying Leg Curl (hamstrings)

4. Low back extension/hyperextension (lower back/hamstrings)

5. Pull-ups or lat pulldowns (lats/upper back)

6. Seated Cable Rows (lats)

7. Barbell curl (biceps)

8. Seated alternating dumbbell curl (biceps)

9. Standing Calf Machine (calves)

10. Seated Calf Machine (calves)

You can stay with this plan indefinitely, because it is a great one, well researched, tried and true. Just change the exercises every few months to avoid getting too “comfortable”, and use Progressive Resistance by increasing the challenge of each session in some small way (reps, weight or rest interval).

A good rule of thumb to prevent losing muscle, is to not expose the same muscles to intense resistance more often than every four days. This allows time for the muscle tissue to recover and grow stronger. Unlike with cardio, more is

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not better with resistance training. So if your schedule gets messed up, just make sure you don‟t work the same muscles you exercised just a few days before.

I created a six-week Weight Training form on my computer and print it out with the exercises I am currently doing. I write in the dates, sets, reps and weights, so I have a record of everything I do. This helps me decide which areas to change if I am not getting the results I want. You do not have to get fancy about this. A Big Chief tablet and a pencil will work just as well! My blank form is on the website, so feel free to download it if you like.

If you decide to stay with the two day split system, and continue with your cardio workouts and good nutrition as well, you will eventually reach your ideal weight and body fat content. If you are anything like me, you will love weight training by then, and will keep it up. It is really good for you and helps maintain your health! Reduce your cardiovascular sessions to three per week, increase your daily calorie intake somewhat to stop the weight loss and be happy!

But what if you, like me, want to take it to the next level? Then GO FOR IT!!!

You might want to become a serious body sculptor, maybe even compete! You could become a fitness model or even with enough knowledge, a coach or trainer! The only real limit is your own imagination! One thing is certain, and that is that between now and then, you will have to gain a lot of experience and knowledge. This means becoming a serious student of health and fitness, and learning much more than can be found within these pages.

Turn the TV off and study! This book is hopefully your launching pad, and if it is, I hope you will look back kindly at the purpose it served you. It is just a start, though. I do not aspire to becoming a competitive bodybuilder or fitness model, but even at age 59, I believe that I could with vision, hard effort and determination! I do, however, enjoy the pursuit of being very lean, muscular, fit and healthy, and it shows. My experiment is working! People make positive comments about the way I have changed all the time. You can do this!

The next level after being on the two day split is advanced. After 18 months or two years of resistance training behind you and the additional knowledge mentioned above, you will be ready. At this level your plan will be totally customized to your own needs and likes. You will have opinions about those complexities I mentioned earlier, and controversial areas within this discipline. If you belong to the Burn the Fat Inner Circle, you can go online to discuss these issues with other knowledgeable people and broaden your knowledge base.

You will begin to divide your body‟s muscles into smaller groups while adding more exercises per workout to any given muscle. This way you can do up to four weight workouts per week, rather than just three, and still have enough days for recovery and growth of each area before working it again. Three day split and four day split routines can be created for this purpose. So instead of two

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exercises per body part per workout, you can do three and even four exercises per each group and still keep your workouts to 45 minutes or less! The muscle development under these conditions can easily double or triple if you want it to!

Imagine just concentrating on the chest and triceps for 30 minutes! Throw in some abdominal work and you will have thoroughly worked these areas with 3-4 exercises each! You will not be working your chest and triceps for another week or more, so they will have additional time to grow and recover in response to the added nutrients you will be providing them. This is bodybuilding and it is fun!

The small amounts of fat that you add with this process can be eliminated within a few weeks by lowering caloric intake and increasing the cardio. This is known as “cutting” and it is how you keep muscle definition as you continue to add muscle mass to your frame! You are always in complete control of these processes as you work your Plan. Everything is natural and health promoting!

You should warm up before each session to loosen up and reduce the chance of injury. Cold muscles can get hurt more easily. Do five minutes of light cardio and then 12-15 reps of a lighter-than-you-will-use weight for each muscle group you will be working during the session. These few minutes are well spent, believe me!

Calves, forearms and abdominals are special muscle groups. They need more reps than the others, in the range of 15-25 per set. This obviously makes them take a little longer to do, but you just won‟t see much development with lower reps on these. Abdominals can also be worked more often. I do abdominal exercises twice per week rather than once. I currently work my abs on Mondays and Fridays.

The density of a resistance workout refers to the amount of exercise done in a given amount of time. The less you rest between sets, the more density. I see people at my gym who rest five minutes between sets! What a waste of time! It is challenging to go faster, but it burns more fat, and you get finished sooner with much more accomplished! The more you work on reducing the rest between sets, the better you get at moving right along!

There are many other techniques you will come across in your readings such as: drop sets, ascending sets and supersets. I have used all of these, but found that supersets are one of the best ways you can use to increase the density of your weight training sessions.

Instead of doing three sets of an exercise and resting 30 seconds or a minute between each set, you add a second exercise with a different muscle group, like bench press and dumbbell curls. Go back and forth with little or no rest until you complete all six sets. Each exercise pair is a superset! One muscle group rests (sort of) while the other muscle group works. Time-wise you get two for one!

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For a real challenge try pairing two exercises that work the same muscle group

like barbell curls and preacher curls. You will have to lower the weight you normally use for each exercise or you will not even make it through the second superset! The “burn” is amazing, and you will see gains you have not yet seen!

Another technique inspired by Vince Gironda, a bodybuilding champion of old who was way ahead of his time, is the 8X8. I have used this one a lot and it gets awesome results, but you cannot keep it up for very many weeks. It will wear you out! You do eight sets of eight reps with as little rest as you can stand between sets.

As you might expect, the rest periods increase as you work your way up to that eighth set! You definitely have to lower the weight you use for this one, and it will still blow you away! Very challenging, but FUN! Only advanced trainers should try this one! You will be lucky to get in four exercises in 45 minutes, usually only three! There is also a 10X10, but I‟m not sure if I will ever be ready for it!

I am in the eighth week of my current 12-week mission to become as lean as I can be, while keeping all the muscle I have, or even adding to it. I am right on track to make my goal of 177 lbs and 7.75% body fat. Last week, I calculated my combined cardio and resistance burn at 6000 calories.

I had been using a four day split system for the last six months, but because of the high density of my resistance workouts, my leg workout and my back and calf workout got so short that rather than add another exercise to each, I combined them into one workout. This is not for the beginner or intermediate! This workout is a killer! Forget doing cardio anywhere near this one! It takes 45 minutes, but I do not rest for more than 30-45 seconds between exercises. I set it up into three supersets of four body parts: quads, hams, calves, and back. Each of these mini-circuits must be completed three times in a row, and since there are three of them, that is 36 sets! I drink about a half gallon of water during this one!

Here is what my current weight training schedule looks like:

MONDAYS

Chest/Biceps/Abdominals

BB Bench Press

A1 160 3x10

Incline DB Flyes

B1 30s 3x10

DB Bench Press

C1 50s 3x10

Standing BB Curl

A2 95 3x10

Sitting Alternate DB curls

B2 40s 3x10

Preacher DB Curl

C2 25s 3x10

Cable Crunches

D1 144 3x25

Reverse Crunches

D2 --- 3x25

Obliques (front, back,sides)

D3 50 3x25

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WEDNESDAYS

Back/Calves/Quadriceps/Hamstrings

Pulldowns

A1 144 3x10

BB Rows

B1 125 3x10

One Arm DB Rows

C1 52.5 3x10

DB Single Calf Raise

A2 45s 3x20

Donkey Calf Raise

B2 210 3x20

Sitting Calf Raise

C2 50s 3x20

BB Squats

A3 140 3x10

Leg Extension Machine

B3 144 3x10

Walking Lunges

C3 35s 3x10

Stiff Leg Deadlifts

A4 125 3x10

Single Leg Curl Standing

B4 72 3x10

Seated Leg Curl Machine

C4 120 3x10

FRIDAYS

Shoulders/Triceps/Abdominals

DB Shoulder Press

A1 45s 3x10

DB Side Raises

B1 30s 3x10

Forward-leaning DB Raises

C1 40s 3x10

Pushdowns (Straight Bar)

A2 144 3x10

French Pullovers

B2 30s 3x10

DB Single Raises

C2 25s 3x10

Cable Crunches

D1 144 3x25

Reverse Crunches

D2 --- 3x25

Obliques (front, back,sides)

D3 50 3x25

Forearm rope/bar flexor

E1 27.5 3x20

Forearm rope/bar extensor

E2 27.5 3x20

My supersets are designated by the letters A-E (A1+A2+A3+A4 = super set A).

These three workouts average 45 minutes each and burn about 500 calories.

This example is for illustration only. It is here for you to see the type of resistance training you might do at the advanced level. Do not try this system if you are a beginner or intermediate.

Now you should have enough information to put resistance exercise into your Plan. I hope that you understand its importance in the chase for your health. Armed with all the tools you now have at your disposal, you will certainly catch it.

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Chapter 8 – In Hot Pursuit

I have discussed all the major elements of your Plan to regain your health.

1. Vision, Goals, and Action Plans

2. Nutrition

3. Cardiovascular Exercise

4. Resistance Exercise

None of these alone will get you there. You could employ them all separately and the results would be mediocre at best. Utilized together, however, they are more powerful than the sum of their individual contributions, and not just by a small amount. The difference in your results will be exponential, or many times that amount! They feed on each other and give you the momentum to succeed!

I hope that you have already begun the process, but if you have not, perhaps because you wanted to wait until you had all the information I was providing you, then, please begin right away. The sooner you start, the sooner you will have a better life!

Begin by creating your Vision. Do not freeze on this, because you can change it later if you want to. You cannot mess it up! Remember, it is an ongoing process. Then develop five-year and one-year goals. From your one-year goals, you create a 12-week mission which will take you one fourth the way there from where you are now (and remember to take your before pictures, so you will recall later what you looked like then). Use your 12-week goals to set up weekly goals for weight and body fat percentage. These will be typed into the spreadsheet you will create.

Once you know exactly where you will be in 12 weeks, write it down, using your own words as though it has already come to pass. My current goal card says:

“By 9/3/2010: I AM so appreciative and content that I weigh 177 lb or less. My body fat is 7.75% or less. My lean body mass is 163.25 lb. or more. I achieved all of this using BFFM Principles: 5 days per week HIIT cardio, high density 3 day split weight training and flexibility work. I look great! Cut, healthy and powerful. I am a dynamic force! My nutrition is just right for reaching my goals! I love to eat what is good for my body and mind! I choose exercises that are good for my body! I am having fun! I am enjoying being alive! I’m expecting success! My life is an AWESOME journey!”

Laminate it and carry it with you, like I do, at all times! Review it often, and read it aloud with as much emotion as you can generate! Smile when you do this, because you are going there!

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Just know that what seems forced now, will be very natural to you very soon, so use your willpower and have patience. Your powerful subconscious will be helping you shortly.

Develop meals using the guidelines I have given you, and keep good records, even if you “cheat”. Use software if you can. It will make your record keeping much easier, otherwise, just write all the food down and look up the values online or in a table.

Each meal should have a protein source (either natural or a protein shake), some good fat, and some carbohydrate (simple, starchy or fibrous). For greater fat loss, eat the simple carbs earlier in day and taper the total amount of carbs throughout the day. Refer back to the sections on individual macronutrients for food choices to plan meals from. The listings are incomplete, so use your new knowledge to research other foods. Evaluate them and decide whether to add them or not.

Develop your schedule for cardiovascular and resistance exercise. Keep a record of all your exercise activity.

Create a spreadsheet like the one below to record the data. Weigh yourself and estimate your body fat percentage once every week under the same conditions, and enter your honest findings in the spaces provided. If you do not know how to create a spreadsheet, ask a nerd. He will set it up for you, or download the template from the link in the back of this book.

Review this data often and compare your results with the weekly goals you have set. If you are not getting results which meet your goals, then tweak your Plan by changing what goes in and what burns it up. Make small adjustments, and wait a few weeks to see if your results change. If not, tweak them some more, wait and observe. You will get results, and then will know you are in control of your Plan!

I am certain you will find this process as interesting and fun as I have found it to be! You will get back everything you put into it! TANSTAAFL!!!

My week begins on Friday with a weigh-in and AccuMeasure Caliper check at the iliac crest site. Once weight and fat % is entered, the LBM, BFM, Ideal weight, BMR, TDEE and Calorie Deficit (30% of TDEE in my case) are automatically computed. I compare these to my goals to determine if I am on track or not.

Here are the calculations, if you want to “do-it-yourself”:

BFM (body fat mass) = TOTAL WEIGHT X % BODY FAT

LBM (lean body mass) = WEIGHT – BFM

IDEAL WEIGHT = LBM X .91

BMR (basal metabolic rate) = ((LBM / 2.2) X 21.6) + 370

TDEE = BMR X Fitness factor (a number between 1 and 2)

LOW-DAY CALORIE ALLOWANCE = TDEE X .65 to .80 (depends on the cut)

HIGH-DAY CALORIE ALLOWANCE (re-feed day) = TDEE

Each day I transfer my nutritional and exercise data to the fields provided from my smart phone.

The following is a rollover comment box attached to week 2. I update it daily. This daily exercise information stays hidden until the cursor contacts the “WT & Cardio” box, and then it pops up. c = Calories burned, WT = weight training, HD-SS = high density supersets, m = minutes, h = hours

F- Cycling 1h 16mi 900c = 900c

S- OFF = 0c

S- OFF = 0c

M- WT LHShTrisAbsFrms 65m HD-SS 750c = 750c

T- Cycling 2h 16 mph 1800c 32 mi = 1800c

W- WT CvBk 30m 350c HD-SS/Elliptical (no arms) 30m #12-14 325c = 675c

Th- WT ChBiAb 50m HD-SS 550c / Elliptical (w/arms) 17-15 11m 125c = 675c

WEEKLY TOTAL = 4800c

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This 12-week mission occurred during my first building phase. I added seven

pounds of muscle and about three pounds of fat during this period. Later on, I "cut" to get more definition.

You can set up a MS Excel Spreadsheet using the above calculations, and even create cool looking bar graphs that display your progress at a glance!

Well, that's it! I certainly hope that, after having read what is written here, you

make a firm decision to Chase After Your Health. You will encounter many

challenges during this pursuit, but if you use the knowledge you now possess

and the knowledge you will be feeding yourself in the future, you will undoubtedly

have a better life.

Please drop me an email at garthjoe@gmail.com if you have questions or

just want to let me know how well you are doing with your Plan.

Stay in Hot Pursuit of your Health until you seize it!

Dr. Joe

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Online Sources

http://www.chasinghealth.com

http://www.burnthefat.com

http://www.bikesarefun.com

Good Reading

BURN THE FAT FEED THE MUSCLE: Fat Burning Secrets of the World‟s Best Bodybuilders & Fitness Models. By Tom Venuto

Get Buffed by Ian King

The Poliquin Principles by Charles Poliquin

Understanding Bodybuilding Nutrition & Training by Chris Aceto

Keys to the Inner Universe by Bill Pearl

Brawn by Stuart McRobert

Strength Training Anatomy by Frederick Delavier

Bodybuilding a Scientific Approach by Fred Hatfield

The Body Fat Solution by Tom Venuto

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Bibliography

1. American Capitalism, 1945-2000: Continuity and Change from Mass Production to the Information Society (American Ways Series) by Wyatt C. Wells. ISBN13: 9781566635370; ISBN10: 1566635373

2. Modern American Lives: Individuals and Issues in American History Since 1945 by Blaine T. Browne and Robert C. Cottrell

3. The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom by Dalai Lama Pub. Date: October 2002 Publisher: Sterling Publishing Format: Hardcover, 394pp, ISBN-13: 9780760737392, ISBN: 0760737398

4. Obesity: Epidemiology, Pathophysiology, and Prevention, Debasis Bagchi, Harry G. Preuss, CRC Press, 2007

5. Getting past a Weight-loss Plateau, by Mayo Clinic staff, March 2, 2010 © 1998-2010 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (MFMER).

6. BURN THE FAT FEED THE MUSCLE: Fat Burning Secrets of the World‟s Best Bodybuilders & Fitness Models. By Tom Venuto, ISBN 0-9724132-0-0, Copyright 2003, Fitness Renaissance, LLC.

7. Schuenke MD, Mikat RP, McBride JM (March 2002). "Effect of an acute period of resistance exercise on excess post-exercise oxygen consumption: implications for body mass management". European Journal of Applied Physiology 86 (5): 411–7.

8. Unleashing the Wild Physique by Vince Gironda. Sterling Pub Co Inc; Notations edition (September 1984), ISBN-10: 0806978880,

ISBN-13: 978-0806978888

9. “Water: The Nutrient”, Linda S. Boeckner, Extension Nutrition Specialist, 1989, Revised January 2009. Extension is a Division of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln cooperating with the Counties and the United States Department of Agriculture.

10. Harper's Illustrated Biochemistry, Twenty-Eighth Edition. Robert K. Murray, David A Bender, Kathleen M. Botham, Peter J. Kennelly, Victor W. Rodwell, P. Anthony Weil. Copyright © 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

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11. Get Buffed by Ian King

12. The Poliquin Principles by Charles Poliquin