Being Negative Is Natural

I am a little weird.  In college I liked chemistry a lot – got lot’s of A’s, did extra problems, etc.

There was only one thing from chemistry that is useful in coaching today, and that is this thing called “delta G” or DG.

Look, chemistry isn’t all boring (There’s an explosion and fire in it for you):

(Bear with me, I’m going somewhere with this and this will be useful to YOU.)

In chemistry one of the important things to find out was if a reaction is spontaneous or not.  This is, if you add two things together will they react (combine and do stuff like hopefully explode!) spontaneously… or automatically.

Like, if you wanted to make water.  Water is H2O.

So, if you take 1 O and add it to 2 H’s, will you get H2O spontaneously (automatically)?

There’s a formula to answer that questions I won’t share ‘cuz it’s very complicated and won’t help the story at all.

What is important is what the formula would tell you.  The number you would get would be DG:

• If DG was a negative number, then the reaction was spontaneous.
• And if DG was positive, then the reaction was not spontaneous.

So, look at that again.  If DG is positive, then the reaction is non-spontaneous, and it requires added energy to happen.

If DG is negative, then the reaction is spontaneous.  It’s automatic.

How This Matters To You

I think that this is a lot like life, and the important things in life.  You know, letting the busy-ness of life creep in, take over and edge out time for exercise is pretty much automatic.  That’s true no matter how much you happen to like exercise, or how important you say that it is for you to be fit.

Being in bad shape, losing muscle, losing strength, gaining fat, finding yourself with a mouthful of junk are all pretty much spontaneous in the world we currently live in.  You don’t need to expend any energy to get yourself tired, fat or in bad shape.

The positive things that you want in life/your body are going to require that you put energy in.  DG is positive.

The negative things that you generally do not want are pretty much going to happen to you regardless. DG is negative.

It is easy and nearly automatic to get off track.  It is easy and nearly automatic that life will present you with ample opportunity to (that you will later tell in a story called an excuse) veer off course to the body you want.  And, then, when you get to the body you want, life will provide ample opportunity for you to get rid of it.

The negative stuff is automatic.  Life will provide far more than you ask for as long as you are alive.

The positive stuff takes work, effort, diligence, choice, struggle and discipline.  That you must provide.  Pretty much none of what you really want it is automatic.

Getting the body you deserve.

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Josef Brandenburg is 2010, Washington, DC  Personal Trainer of the Year Nominee for both Personal Fitness Professional Magazine and The Washington, DC Fitness Association, The DC Fitness Advisor and the Fitness Expert for the PCOS Challenge TV Show. He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have.

Getting buzzed while getting buff: How to drink without ruining your progress

Over the past few years I have noticed something profound – most people like to drink.  (Well, it is profound to me since I think alcohol tastes like cat pee.  I was very young when I got my first cat.)  Even when people have hired me to help them drop a ton of body fat quickly they still really want to be able to drink.

Since I pride myself on being able to help normal people (vs. bodybuilders) get results in the real world I decided to figure this one out.  (By figure it out, I mean steal ideas from my clients.)

After observing client behavior and measuring client results over the past few years I’ve come up with these 3 simple rules that make everyone happy:

#1.  Beer makes you fat: Beer and fruity drinks like margaritas and daiquiris kill all progress, and can often reverse a week of hard work in the gym and kitchen.  The short explanation is that your body fat is fundamentally regulated by the hormone insulin.  And your insulin levels are fundamentally regulated by the quantity and quality of carbs in your diet.

In fruity drinks and beer the quantity is huge and the quality is horrible.  Drinking beer seems to be like drinking bread – it can actually help you gain fat while losing muscle.  The worst of both worlds.

Solution:  read tip #2, switch to light beer or something like Michelob Ultra, or use a sugar-free mixer like Crystal Light, seltzer or diet soda.

#2.  Hard liquor and wine are fine: Within reason (around 6 drinks per week) hard liquor and wine don’t seem to slow people down very much at all.  It seems like it’s the carbs in the drinks (tip #1), not the alcohol itself that is the big villain.

#3.  Get buzzed, not hammered: This should be common sense right?  If you get really drunk on a regular basis your progress will suffer if not disappear.  This is always worse if done with beer or fruity drinks.

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s top personal trainer for busy people. He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have. To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here. You can also pick up a copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.