The Secret Weapon in Creating The Body You Want

Most people let their thinking absolutely destroy them and their chances of ever creating the body they really want.  To make that even worse very few people are even aware of what the process of thinking actually is, so they have no place to go to make effective changes.

The good news is that the solution is actually quite simple:

Thinking is nothing more than the process of asking and answering questions.  Think about it, you just asked yourself a question about that statement I made… “is that true?”

With questions you can find any answer that you are looking for, or as the Bible says, “seek and ye shall find.”  The problem is that most of the time we are unconscious about the questions we ask – we simply ask them out of habit or despair.

So, if you ask yourself a question like, “why am I so fat?” or “why can’t I lose weight?” you WILL get an answer.  The problem is that there really aren’t any USEFUL answers to
those questions.

It doesn’t matter if the presupposition in your question is accurate or not, your brain will find an answer.  In the above you presupposed that:

#1.  You are a fat person (different than being a person with extra body-fat on them.  No, that is not just semantics – one is a temporary condition, the other is the identity that you have for yourself.  One of THE most powerful forces in the human personality IS the need to stay consistent with your identity.)

#2.  You can’t lose weight

By the way, your presuppositions are WRONG.

These are poor questions, but your brain will absolutely give you an answer anyway.  Unfortunately, the only answers to that question are self-defeating like:

• “because I have bad genetics”
• ”because I don’t have the time”
• ”because my parents treated me with junk food so now I love it”
• ”because I’m a big, fat slob who doesn’t have any self-discipline”
• “I don’t know, but there’s no point in working out”

Or something to that effect.

It turns out that what you REALLY wanted to know was:

“How can I drop a lot of body fat really fast, do that without being hungry, while increasing my energy levels and do it in a way that actually fits my schedule and while eating food that tastes good?”

That’s a question that has a VERY useful answer.

The same thing goes for life and fitness overall.  Asking yourself
questions like:

• Why can’t I eat French fries, everyone else is [in a whiny voice, of course]?
• Why do I keep screwing up?
• Why does _______ suck?

These questions can only yield answers that will make you feel hopeless and put-upon.

Better questions would be:

• ”What CAN I eat right now that would taste good AND help me get the body I want?” [this one COMPLETELY shifts your focus from what you’re missing out on to what you want, and thus completely changes how you feel and experience that situation.]
• What do I love about working out?
• How can I get back on track and be really happy doing it?
• Why do I love being fit?

YES, those questions actually have REAL answers.  Your brain may reply to the first one with, “Nothing!” initially.  But, you’re the boss  and you can always ask again, and ask with the expectation that you will get an answer – which you’ll get in no more than 60sec.  (By the way, when it comes to people’s brains and their kids they always seem to forget that they are the boss and that they call the shots…)

The questions you ask will determine what you focus on, and thus how you feel and what kind of action you do or don’t take.  Be conscious of the questions you are asking.  If you’re feeling bad its usually being compounded by a negative question, and you can turn things around very quickly with a positive question.

A positive question will get your focused on what you want, what you like and how to get there while having a good time and will completely change how you feel.

Let me leave you with these questions.  By the way if you take 10sec per question to really answer specifically, and to FEEL the answers you will feel like a million bucks!

#1.  What are you happy about in my body/fitness/lifestyle right now?  Why
does that make me happy?  How does that make me feel?

#2.  What am I proud of in my body/fitness/lifestyle?  Why am I proud of
that?  How does that make me feel?

#3.  What am I looking forward to in my body/fitness/lifestyle?  Why am I
looking forward to that?  How does that make me feel?

#4.  On a general note:  What am I grateful for in my life?  Why?  How
does that make me feel?

#5.  Who do I love?  Why?  How does that make me feel?

Really take the 10sec to specifically answer and feel those answers.

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and an award winning Washington DC personal trainer that was nominated several times for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine.  Oh, and check out his new web-site washingtondcpersonaltrainer.com

The Client Success Manual: The Body You Want In A Box

I am completely overhauling the Client Success Manual that I give to all of my coaching clients and I was thinking, “since I can’t work with everyone, there are probably a lot of other people who want want my complete system  in a binder.”  Actually I was going to turn it into a complete kit with everything on CD (in case you don’t have the time to read) + the manual + my best exercise programs + maybe some DVD’s.

You may be wondering what the difference is between my manual and what I put on my blog or in my Primer Magazine article.  A lot!  While I give away some pretty great stuff (in my humble opinion), the stuff I give to paying clients is a lot better.

I haven’t finished it yet, but was wondering how many people who read my blog would be interested in it.  If you are send an email to my assistant at thebodyyouwant@yahoo.com with your name and email address.  Of course people who let me know now will be on my “pre-order” list and will get extra goodies and discounts on it when it comes out + first access to the first printing (it could run out fast).

Look for it on June 1st!

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and an award winning personal trainer in Washington DC that was nominated several times for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine.  Oh, and check out his new web-site washingtondcpersonaltrainer.com

What Do Hitler and Dieticians Have In Common? Lose a lot of fat fast without being hungry.

You’ve heard it said over and over again by well-meaning dieticians, “ a calorie is a calorie is a calorie.  To lose weight you just need to eat fewer of them.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a fat, carb or protein.”

Adolph Hitler said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”  That all calories are created equal is one of those lies.  It turns out that there really isn’t much research to support that theory.

WILL YOU STARVE SO THAT THEY WILL BE BETTER FED?

Near the end of WWII Ancel Keys started a starvation study to see how best to help the people in the decimated parts of Europe after the war was over.  For the first 12 weeks the 36 young men were really well fed – about 3,200 kcal/day, 3 huge meals per day with multiple courses, lots of protein and definitely dessert.

Things changed completely for the second 12 weeks.  At this point his volunteers were fed a diet based on what people in war ravaged Easter Europe would be eating – cabbage, bread, peas, and extremely small quantities of meat (so small that most of the participants were unaware that there was any meat at all in their diet).  This worked out to be just under 1,600 kcal/day.

The men (all participants were men) were NOT happy.  They were always hungry, had no energy, miserable, developed numerous health and psychological problems, and thought about food constantly.  (Does that sound like you on your last diet?) (1)

The Monkey Wrench

In the late 1960’s John Yudkin at the University of London was having remarkable success using low-carb diets for weight loss.  To silence his critics he decided to do a formal study of his clinic’s clients.

These are the instructions he gave them:

“The subjects were asked to take between 10 and 20 oz milk daily (about 300-600 ml), and as much meat, fish, eggs, cheese, butter, margarine, cream and leafy vegetables as they wished. The amount of carbohydrate in other food was listed in “units” with each unit consisting of 5 g carbohydrate; the subjects were told to limit these foods to not more than 10 units (or 50 g) carbohydrate daily.”

It turns out that these people VOLUNTARILY ended up eating LESS than Ancel Key’s folks in terms of calories, but had NONE of the emotional or physiological problems.  In fact they all had MORE energy, and were NEVER hungry.

Ancel Key’s people had to be held against their will in locked bunkers to comply with the 1,570 kcal/day diet.  Yudkin’s people WILLINGLY and AUTOMATICALLY ate 1,560 kcal/day and felt BETTER. (2)

What’s The Difference?

Key’s Semi-Starvation         Yudkin’s Low Carb
100g protein                         83g protein
30g fat                                105g fat
225g carb                            67g carb
1570 kcal                              1560 kcal

One was a low fat diet, and one was a low carb diet.

How many ways can I say it?  I’m not even touching on the studies where the low carb groups ate MORE – a lots more – than their low fat counter parts and dropped 75-100% more fat.

I’m about to graduate from one of the top Dietetic program in the US – UMD.  Yes, I’m 6 years “late”;-).  Every semester is exactly the same.  They repeat over and over again the dogma: “for weight loss eat as little fat as possible, and a high carb diet.  All that matters is eating fewer calories and nothing else.”

But they repeat this without EVER offering up a single reference, and never actually investigating the so-called science that supports this idea.

Lucky for me (and you) I’ve stayed busy getting my real education outside of school – at least 4 seminars per year, 50 books, and I’m always in touch with experts in the real world who are getting results that people will actually pay money for, not parroting inane theories just because that’s what everyone else thinks.

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and an award winning personal trainer in Washington DC that was nominated several times for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine.  Oh, and check out his new web-site washingtondcpersonaltrainer.com

References

1.  Tucker, Todd. The Great Starvation Experiment: Ancel Keys and the Men Who Starved for Science.  University of Minn. Press. 2008

2.  Yudkin, John.  The Low Carbohydrate Diet in the Treatment of Obesity.  Postgraduate Medical Journal. May; 51(5):151-54

Q & A: How Can I Get Fit At Home?

Question:

Josef (spelled right!)-

I just came across your website. I unfortunately do not live near the DC area. I am

wondering what you could recommend for me. I am a new mom that wants to lose at
least 30lbs. Do I need to belong to a gym for this (which I don’t have a lot of time
for) or is there an at home program that you could recommend?

Answer:

You definitely do not need to be a gym member to get back into pre-pregnancy shape.  While I do think that people (especially men) will get into better shape overall at a gym, you can still get a lot done at home.  So, if it comes down to a choice between not working out all and working out at home only, you can choose the home gym and get great results there.

As for what to put into a home gym, I laid that out in this blog post – you can create a great gym for less than $150!  No $2,000 treadmill or elliptical machine needed!

And for the program that I would recommend for your home fitness odyssey that would be Turbulence Training by Craig Ballantyne – its 3 x 45min workouts that you can do completely at home with minimal equipment.  If you are short on time and could only manage 2.5hrs/week, then this will get you the most bang for you buck.  There are programs that can get faster results, but this seems like it fits your life the best.

He’s doing a special $5 promotional trial right here.  You can try it out for 21days for $5 and decide if its right for you.

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and a personal trainer in Washington DC that was nominated several times for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine.  Oh, and check out his new web-site washingtondcpersonaltrainer.com

A New Year, A New Body – The Exclusive Workouts

Want to lose 10 pounds in as little as 28 days?  Think that sounds out of reach or that it will require starvation?  Well think again – you can start shredding body fat almost immediately by lifting smart and eating your fill of healthy foods.  Find out how to amp up your metabolism and accelerate your progress in part two of our four part series.

Oh and while you’re at my article do me a favor and post a comment or two.

Thanks.

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and a personal trainer in Washington DC that was nominated several times for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine.  Oh, and check out his new web-site washingtondcpersonaltrainer.com

A New Year, A New Body

Happy New Year!

You asked for it, you got it.  Many of you all have asked for:

• Help with motivation
• Help with energy
• Help with finding the time
• More samples of my programs
• More exercise guidance
• Help with dropping belly fat, arm fat, back fat, thigh fat, butt fat…

Here it is. With the good folks at Primer Magazine, I have laid out a complete 12-week, 3-phase program that addresses ALL of the above points and spells out the nutrition AND exercise program to get you MAXIMUM results in MINIMUM time.

For the ladies, yes, Primer is a men’s magazine, don’t worry about this.  This is a fat loss program NOT a muscle growth program.  While almost everyone will gain some muscle on this program, the women just won’t gain that much and what you do gain will be sexy and feminine.  It takes a lot of a different kind of work to turn into a she-man, and this isn’t that program.  (Not to mention that there really isn’t that much demand for the she-man look.)

There are only 2 differences between men and women when it comes to body-composition training (improving ratio of fat to muscle):

#1.  Women usually need fewer carbs.  So just eat more fruits and veggies and use a Whey recovery drink intead of a carb + protein one (i.e. Surge)

#2.  Sometimes women need extra cardio.  Occaisionally women need to add 10, 15 or 20min of hard steady-state work AFTER their intervals.

However, I don’t see this very often.  I have plenty of ladies in their late 50’s who look great without any steady-state work.

So, 1st follow the plan as written and track results.

2nd If results are not as desired, check that you are eating on-point and lifting heavy enough weight.

3rd, if #2 doesn’t fix (it almost always does), then tack on 15min.

Here is part one of the road map to a brand new you.

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and a Washington, DC based nominee for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine. Click here to find out more.

Josef At The Grocery Store

Q: Hi Joseph (misspelled:-),
I’ve found your newsletters and blog very helpful. While looking at your

recipes, I wondered what brand pasta sauce you use. Do you make your own or do you

buy it in the store? Could you either let me know the recipe for the sauce or the

brand you use?
Thanks!

A: _______,
That’s the easiest question I’ve ever been asked – thanks!

I just get whatever is on sale at Whole Foods and check the label for

added sugar. I prefer organic. That usually ends up being the 365

Organic (365 = WF generic brand), or Muir Glenn (sp?).

This has nothing to do with your question, but here are 2 funny youtube

videos on how too 2 exercises right:

*I mention “boobs” in this one

*I mention “floor sex” in this one

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and a Washington, DC based nominee for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine. Click here to find out more.