Reform Your Identity and Cut Your Need For Willpower

The fundamental reason people struggle with weight loss and fitness is that they are fighting against their own identity. The strongest force in the human psyche is our need for our own identity to match up with our actions. If our identity is one of a fat person, we will stay that way or rebound back to it when we do lose weight.

Breaking out of your struggle pattern requires re-writing your identity. This means re-programming your subconscious. Because your identity is located in your subconscious, many people don't even know what their identity is.

Some people even have conflicting identities between their conscious and subconscious minds. This can be observed when someone is surprised by how fat they look in the mirror or in pictures. They say to themselves, "Wow, I'm not that fat" or, "Cameras sure do add extra weight."

It really doesn't matter what your conscious mind thinks you are like. Your subconscious mind always wins. Whatever picture you have stored in your subconscious will be the one that is controlling both your conscious and unconscious actions to make sure you are that way on the outside.

The key to permanent change is to reprogram your subconscious picture of yourself or your "mind's eye". There are a handful of techniques I use when counseling clients on this, but one of the most effective and easiest to implement is through the use of verbal proclamations.

I write customized proclamations for my clients based on their three highest human needs which I score according to a list of questions I ask them, but some general proclamations are listed below. You will find some that work better than others based on your personality, so stick with the ones that elicit the most emotion for you.

When you are saying your proclamations, make sure you are feeling them with the highest emotional intensity possible. Be emphatic and repeat them over emphasizing a different word each time. They will cause the proclamation to have a different meaning every time you say it.

Stand/sit up straight with perfect posture, keep your chin high, and speak forcefully. Pick a convenient time and place. I do mine in the shower or in the car at least twice a day.

My main proclamation is "Every day and in every way I am getting stronger and wiser." I say this a minimum of 12 times because I emphasize a different word each time.

Making yourself do this exercise every day regardless of whether you feel like it or not is the true key to making it work. Remember that commitment is the difference between "can do" and "will do." Anyone can talk about what they can do, but what you will do is the only thing that counts toward reprogramming your subconscious.

Here are some proclamation examples:
"I choose to be fit because I deserve it."
"I know I have that within me to achieve success."
"I command my subconscious to produce only thoughts that empower my goals."
"All the tools I need are already within me."
"I choose healthy foods because I choose a healthy life."

Let these move you emotionally, and they will speak to your subconscious. As your subconscious hears these repeat messages, it will believe them and implement them. Then making the right choices comes naturally and effortlessly because there is no more struggle!

If You Have a Big But, You Probably Have a Big Butt

Excuses are often the biggest reason for the size of your butt. I have heard them all, ranging from “I’d like to exercise, but I just don’t have the time” to, “I have tried it all, but nothing ever works.” There is always a “but” stuck in there somewhere when folks with big butts are trying to explain why their butts are so big.

Your “but” is based on your personality and how you were raised. You learned somewhere that excuses get you out of uncomfortable stuff and make life easier, but in the end, excuses just grow your hind end.

Using “buts” are just a way to keep you within your comfort zone. Staying within your comfort zone often means staying within the parameters of your “minds eye”. Everyone has a certain way they see themselves, and when their fitness progress exceeds that visual picture programmed into their subconscious, sabotage and “buts” take over so everything goes back to normal and within the comfort zone.

No one got fit by staying comfortable, and if that is your goal, you will never be fit either. Real fitness means stretching your comfort zone and pushing your envelope to expand it and make it bigger. It means doing workouts that aren’t comfortable and addressing the mental roadblocks that cause your “buts”.

It also means changing your minds eye by regularly picturing yourself the way you want to look and feel, and feeling that sensation in the present tense. This practice actually changes the wiring in your brain and will not only help you reach your goals faster, but will also help you stay there once you reach them.

You simply cannot have both comfort and fitness. You must pick one and fully commit to it. The X Gym workout takes only 20 minutes twice a week, and it is the most intense workout there is. Nutritional commitment is also required, and that takes some stretching of the comfort zone as well.

Stretching your comfort zone causes growth. The more you stretch it, the faster you grow, and as with all living creatures, you are either growing or dying. There is no in between. Comfort will kill you. Pushing your envelope will save you.
People tell me I look younger every year. They say that I now look like I am in my 20’s, and I do feel that young, but my driver’s license says I’m 42. I am in the best shape of my life, I eat the most calories I ever have, I’m the leanest I have ever been, and I’m the strongest too. My cardio fitness is also the highest of my life, and you can bet I don’t try to stay comfortable!

Other X Gym trainers tell the same tale. Zach just placed 2nd in the Fireman Combat Challenge and earned a trip to the world championships in Vegas. Jenn just won the Fall City run, and then a month later, took 2nd in her first ever sprint triathlon. Scott qualified to compete in the World Ironman competition in Canada recently, and earned the title “All American” for his efforts.

All of us have small butts because we don’t use the word “but!” We are no different than you either. If we can do it, so can you. It’s just a matter of deciding between comfort or fitness and then committing fully to your decision. If you do decide to get rid of your “but” you will also find that you will get rid of your “butt!”

Get fit and stay fit without willpower!

I'm finally up and running with my blog! The world of fitness and nutrition is so riddled with misinformation it's astounding. The info here is new, correct, effective, and all based on the latest scientific research.

I will regularly post interesting new topics on this blog that I stumble across each week. Be sure to order my book to, as it has all the best information and techniques on exercise, nutrition and brain training so fitness can be achieved and maintained without the need for willpower! Stop the diet yo-yo once and for all!

Here's something interesting I came across today:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Overeating makes the brain go haywire, prompting a cascade of damage that may cause diabetes, heart disease and other ills, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.

Eating too much appears to activate a usually dormant immune system pathway in the brain, sending out immune cells to attack and destroy invaders that are not there, Dongsheng Cai of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues found.

The finding, reported in the journal Cell, could help explain why obesity causes so many different diseases. It might also offer a way to prevent obesity itself.

"This pathway is usually present but inactive in the brain," Cai said in a statement.
Obesity is a growing global problem, with 1.8 billion people estimated to be overweight or obese in 2007. Drugs marketed so far to fight obesity have only limited success and, often, severe side-effects.

Cai's team worked in mice, seeking to explain studies that have shown that obesity causes chronic inflammation throughout the body. This inflammation is found in a range of diseases related to obesity, including heart disease and diabetes.
They homed in on a compound known as IKKbeta/NK-kappaB.

Immune cells such as macrophages and leukocytes use it but Cai's team found it in the hypothalamus, a part of the brain linked with metabolism in mice and humans alike.

"The hypothalamus is the 'headquarters' for regulating energy," they wrote.
They found high levels of the compound there but it was normally inactive.
When they fed mice a high-fat diet, it became extremely active. And when it was active, the body ignored signals from leptin, a hormone that normally helps regulate appetite, and insulin, which helps convert food into energy.

Stimulating IKKbeta/NK-kappaB made the mice eat more, while suppressing it made them eat less.

Cai believes his team has discovered a master switch for the diseases caused by overeating.

"Hypothalamic IKKb/NF-kB could underlie the entire family of modern diseases induced by overnutrition and obesity," his team wrote.

Cai does not know why this compound would be in the brain and in the immune system but suspects it evolved long ago in primitive animals that do not have the same sophisticated immune system as modern animals, including mice and humans.

"Presumably it played some role to guide the immune defense," Cai said in a telephone interview. "In today's society, this pathway is mobilized by a different environmental challenge -- overnutrition."

"Knocking out" the gene using genetic engineering kept mice eating normally and prevented obesity. This cannot be done in people but Cai believes a drug, or even gene therapy, might work.