March 2005. Hello! I recently received this message from on of my "Inner Circle" members in response to my detailed "8 Week Abs" Challenge diet and exercise program and wanted to pass it on to everyone so that we can all learn together.

I have to say I think you are really going astray with your eating and working out regime. You started out doing more weights and now it seems as if you need to keep adding more and more cardio into the equation in order to get where you want to be. Plus you keep restricting calories.

I'm sorry, but I don't agree with your methods at all. For one you still don't eat enough vegetables and it just doesn't seem like "real" food you eat. I'm sorry to be so bold, but I've been working out long enough to see where you are heading. I think you are doing a real disservice to your members and frankly I will not be renewing my subscription.

I hope you re-evaluate some things you are doing and decide if you think this is what you should be doing for long-term benefits.

First, I responded as follows:

Hi!

I sure do appreciate your bold statements. I certainly understand where you are coming from.

This “8 Week Abs” program is a “pre-contest” program designed to get very lean and cut for a photo shoot. It is a typical program, outlined in detail to show subscribers what fitness models and competitors go through to get down to ~10% body fat. It is a once-a-year or so type of program – and one that certainly can’t be sustained. It isn’t intended to.

If you go through the years of other newsletters in TIC you will see that once a year I do a photo shoot and follow this type of very restricted program—I’ve just never fully-detailed it before. Usually the combination of diet and exercise is a very healthy combination of healthy foods and more “regular”/mainstream exercise. If you pick up a copy of “Oxygen” magazine or other types of “Fitness” and “Figure” competitor magazines, you will see that this is exactly what models and competitors go through for contests. Although it isn’t healthy for the long-term, it is certainly normal for this type of thing.

I hope you continue to stay aboard! If you do, you’ll see this phase end and another begin. For everything there is a season!

As it is my job to educate you with “the truth” of weight loss, it is my duty to more fully explain some things, and here it is:

The Mice. Some time ago I saw something on TV that has stayed with me. I’ve never been very good at trivia so I can’t tell you exactly when and on what channel and give the study by name, but I can tell you what I saw. The show was spotlighting a study and a person opened a door. Inside was a wall absolutely full of mice cages stacked on top of each other – a wall full of them, and as a viewer I was struck by the noise. Those mice were running all over the place, climbing the walls, running on wheels, bouncing off of each other, etc. They were totally active and noisy.

Then the person moved to the side and opened the door all the way. The other side of the room was filled with stacked cages up against the wall as well. And the contrast was amazing. Every single caged mouse was curled up and sleeping. It was totally silent and still. Again, the contrast was complete. One side of the room was making a complete racket and the other was “as silent as a church mouse!”

What was the difference? The only difference was that the sleeping side was fed a high carbohydrate food – mainly sugary starches (if not total starches) and the other side was fed mainly proteins.

It struck me hard at that point in time that too many processed sugary starches (high glycemic), are responsible for this nation’s depression, lethargy, and obesity.

I tell you this because at this point in time, following this “8 Week Abs” challenge with the reduction in calories and the increase in exercise, as you know, has left me feeling energized and powerful. America, in general, doesn’t understand this concept as we are sedentary, are sold a bill of goods that 3x a week exercise is enough, and that 2,000 calories a day is required for good health. Why, oh why, does everyone think they are obese – especially in comparison to other nations??

I don’t know if I’ve ever felt as good as I do now. In other years, as the writer expressed, I concentrated more on strength training, but this year since my muscle mass is high enough from years of strength training, and because I want to burn down my legs a bit rather than have them bulky this time, I decided to concentrate on aerobic power moves – which both build muscle (1lb this week!) and burn fat – a perfect combination.

Calorie Restriction and Longer Life. Do you realize that restricting calories is proving to extend life? http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1175/is_3_37/ai_n6097592 Not only does the article (one of hundreds) explain that:

“You have to decide how many calories you need, how far you want to drop, and what the easiest way to practice is. A lot of engineers do CR, I think partly because life-extension appeals to that type of person. They think, "If I feed my body the right things, it will work better" while the article discusses how our society is preoccupied with food – “real” food that is harming our health!

Other cultures, in fact MOST other cultures eat FAR, FAR fewer calories per day than our lethargic, obese population does. They are much thinner and don’t suffer the levels of cancer and other disease that we do. They are, in fact, much healthier. Is “my diet” sustainable? The rest of the world thinks so. The rest of the world is aghast at the amount of food we Americans consume. Travelers to our country, especially from countries like Africa, are overwhelmed by the amount of food to be found in our grocery stores. We have too much available to us and we eat too much.

Exercise Each Week. Just as soon as our “authorities” recently suggested that 3 30-minute exercise sessions a week are sufficient for American’s health, they began almost immediately to take that back and state that at least an hour a day is what is necessary (http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/SM/00068.html). My exercise program is about an hour a day – 6 to 9 hours a week during the spring time, but falls back to 3-5 a week once I reach my ideal weight as I maintain it over the summer and into the fall through a restricted diet.

What in the world did we do in prehistoric days? What does a large portion of our planet still do? Walk, run, and ride bicycles everywhere that they need to go. They actually physically work for their food and water. They probably accumulate 40 hours of real exercise each week! They build and maintain their own homes (I mean maintain the structure, not the carpets!), they dig their own wells, etc.

We Americans are slack because we have forgotten what “normal and healthy” is. Normal and healthy is not what we have become in America. And we can see this by our large mortality in so many areas. Do you remember the 50’s and 60’s? Think about the TV families and consider how the mom’s and dad’s looked – not to mention the kids. It has only been since we went “low-fat” and since fast-food became so prevalent, and divorce caused mothers to have to work which left them little time if any to cook, that our bodies have begun to suffer so badly. We have come a long, long way from what is healthy, and it is my job to keep people’s perspective in line with reality – which is what my newsletters and programs do.

Athletes in Training. In addition to Beyonce Knowles, Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Lopez, Demi Moore and Hillary Swank, those of us who are working toward a short-term specific physical goal work far more diligently and more intensely than those with standard “3 times a week exercise for health” goal (and we’ve already discussed how that isn’t nearly enough). To prepare for a movie, to win a gold medal, to prepare for a photo shoot, a tennis match, a triathlon, and for any other competition, training like an athlete-in-training is required – and that means following PLANNED restricted meals and exercising on average, 2-6 hours a day! These people’s physique’s take our breath away. These people worked very hard to get those beautiful physiques AND typically don’t keep them for long. Reaching for stars (literally) will cause your body to reach a new and higher state of health, however, and the higher level absolutely can be maintained at some point – the point that is maintained is up to the individual and the (good) sacrifice they are willing to make.

Variety In Exercise. The very worst thing someone who is exercising can do (besides not exercising) is to stick with the same exercise year after year. Not only does that become so boring that the person will most likely end their program, but the body adapts very quickly to the program and eventually doesn’t respond much at all to it. In the first few years of my exercise experience I mainly lifted weights. As a malnourished young woman, I found the building up of muscle very exciting and loved to work as hard as I could – really push myself with the weights in order to sculpt my body. But as time went on and my muscle mass began increasing, not only did I become less-than-enthusiastic with some workouts, but also grew too much muscle for my taste in my legs.

At that point and because of an overuse injury in 2 of my tendons, I began experimenting with other forms of exercise. I found that I loved rollerblading and that it not only burned lots of calories but toned down my legs beautifully. I also remembered how much I love to run, and in the process bought an elliptical which I found had great results with. Because I found new things to enjoy, my program continued onward and with an increased passion and the great results began again -- more muscle where I wanted it and less fat over all. Now I’m thoroughly enjoying kickboxing. When my alarm goes off at 6am, I actually smile broadly as I turn it off with anticipation of the workout to come. If you aren’t feeling that level of excitement with your program and it’s results, you need a change.

The most important thing you can do as far as your exercise goes is to do what you love – and know that that will change over time. And…as you do what you love and have a passion for it, expect your body to reach new levels. Although the muscle in my legs is being burned down a bit right now, the muscle in the rest of my body is looking great – the one-to-two hours of exercise a day coupled with the 1,000-to-1,400 calories a day has grown another pound of muscle while the fat continues to burn off. That is the hallmark of an effective fitness program – lean mass is grown and/or maintained while fat burns off. It is the best possible outcome – the healthiest outcome. Now when I run I feel like a gazelle as I’ve previously described – while sprinting I get the sensation of having “liquid legs” while my breath barely accelerates. It really is quite amazing.

Real Food. As best as I can determine, real food is what God put on the planet. Nothing else is real. If it comes in a box or a bag or some other sort of commercialized packaging, it isn’t real. We may think it is real as we have become accustomed to it, but it is not. In fact, I will go so far as to say that it is poison. It causes heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Real food prevents heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Pot pies, cookies, boxed cereals, bottled salad dressings, pancakes made from bake mixes, regular cheesecake, etc, all cause great distress to the body with it’s chemicals and sugars. What I eat on a regular basis doesn’t:

• Eggs
• Cheese
• Meats
• Raw and steamed veggies
• Fruits
• Nuts
• Fish
• Hummus and beans
• Oatmeal
• Chocolate
• Etc

What I eat that isn’t real food (i.e. naturally occurring in the planet) are breads and English muffins, wasa crackers, vinegars, splenda, sugar-free hard candies, fat-free mayo, and protein powders. I may not be doing the best for my body with these un-natural foods, but it’s still a much better diet than sodas, burgers, and frozen dinners.

And as far as my current meal plan goes, I think that 6-7 servings of vegetables each day is enough, don’t you?

One Last Note. I hear so often, “well, you just don’t understand, I love to eat.” The reason I find a reason each spring time to go on a fat-loss mission is because I, too, LOVE to eat. I love everything – French fries, cheese cake, potato chips, sodas, cookies, candies, etc. And although I rarely eat any of those items any more because I’ve made a conscious health decision not to, I do overeat everything else that I’m allowed – cheese, nuts, chocolate -- everything, and find myself at 1,500-1,800 calories per day on average.

At the beginning of each Autumn I find myself at around 13% body fat, then as the season progresses and winter occurs, I find that I go up to as high as 18% body fat – which really shows on my small frame, and then in order to get back into shape I find an inspiring and compelling reason to get tough again so that I can burn that fat off quickly -- seasonal cardiovascular exercise and more calorie restriction. I enjoy the food and relaxation over the winter, and I enjoy getting the layers of fat off over the course of late winter and early spring. To every thing there is a season.

To Close. I would like to sincerely thank the writer of this message. Every message I receive reminds me of the perspective of others and provides the opportunity for more education on safe weight loss and body sculpting. Please do send your comments and questions regularly.

For more information, join us in "The Inner Circle" as is part of the "Live Your Dreams" package detailed on my main web page.