When I was at the Ultimate Transformation Camp sponsored by EAS in 2004, we were each given a mental quality and asked to do a brief video that described what it was and how it was or was not critical to the overall transformation process. Mine was mental strength.

I said that mental strength, or inner strength, is a desirable quality that is made up of a combination of confidence, perseverance, discipline and concentration. With mental strength plus a healthy helping of visualization, a transformation effort will usually succeed; without mental strength, a person will struggle to achieve major goals.

I next addressed how a person develops mental strength, and I analogized it to exactly the way a person builds muscle. As you know, muscular strength and size grow when the muscle is placed under load—stressed. Muscle strength and size grow best when the muscle is heavily stressed for short periods of time, followed by the appropriate nutrition, and a rest period. Mental strength is developed exactly the same way. And, just as muscle actually begins to wane in strength and size if it is regularly overstressed for long periods, not fed properly and not allowed to rest, mental strength is diminished in such circumstances.

The natural enemies of mental strength are an unforgiving attitude—what recovery people usually call a resentment, worry, fear and self-perjury (failing to keep your promises to yourself). These destroy the mental strength because they erode confidence, disrupt concentration, and impede discipline and perseverance. Think about the last time you so anguished over something that happened to you that you couldn’t get it out of your head. Remember how everything else that was going on around you seemed distant and confusing? Remember how hard it was to pray and experience joy? That’s how mental strength is sabotaged.

To build mental strength, we need regular but infrequent stressors to the mind. So, it makes sense to welcome, to even be thankful for the adversities that come into our lives. They are there for a purpose, to prepare us, to make us stronger, and to make us more useful. But, the continuing vestiges of adversity, if we allow them, erode our mental strength through the unforgiving spirit, worry and fear.

How do we stop that from happening? An attitude of gratitude must always lead. As silly as it sounds to welcome bad news, we need to give thanks in it, if for nothing else that the bad news could have been much worse. For me, that always starts with prayer. Prayer is the proper nutrition that we need to grow our mental muscles! First, the serenity prayer because it helps me to sort out what I can do and what I can’t. “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Unless I can accept the things I can’t change, I’m sure to grow frustrated and fearful, and eventually to be bitter and distrustful. Who needs that?

Mental strength also grows in those who learn early to not harbor resentment, and to forgive at the first opportunity. Every once in a while, someone will ask me, “Are you going to let them get away with that?” I always respond, “Yes, I am. I cannot afford the luxury of nursing a resentment, and I also need all the friends I can get.” This response quells any desire to exercise my anger toward another, and also reminds me that few things are worth losing a friend over.

This blog has gone on too long. But it’s important. You have invested way too much planning time, money, sweat and sacrifice into your challenge so far to get half-baked results. And making sure that you finish with a clear head, and a truly transformed and strong mental attitude as well will truly be the best thing you ever did for yourself.

None of this material is original with me. Everything I know that is important is something I learned in recovery from alcoholism. When they toss you into a closed hospital unit for 28 days, that’s “adversity!” But, while you’re there–when you begin to learn how to live life joyously, and free, that’s the beginning of mental strength!

In typical David Letterman fashion, I present for you the top ten ways to improve the life you live. The difference between Letterman’s top tens and mine are that these are serious, not frivolous. And they are particularly applicable to those who are in the process of transforming—physically, mentally, spiritually—or all of them! These are all not only important but critical for the process you are involved in.

10. STOP creating your own bad news! Most people are absolutely unaware that they are doing this when they are, but recognizing the process may just by itself allow you to control this negative character trait.

Those who create their own bad news do it in two common ways. They either habitually think negative thoughts, or they habitually engage in self pity or envy, often at the same time. Negative thoughts that are especially crippling are those that deal with your own natural abilities and gifts, and those that deal with what others are doing. In the transformation business, the most common self-directed negative thought is “This will probably not work for me—I’ve never been able to find a diet and exercise program that works.” Another very common negative thought is about others: “I wonder if those pictures are real? I wonder if they really got those results like they said they did, and I REALLY wonder if they did it just 12 weeks?” Can’t you hear the envy practically dripping from that last sentence?

How do I know these thoughts are that common? They are expressed nearly daily on the Body For Life guestbook by newcomers to the programs and they are veiled in many of the questions that newcomers ask as well.

So why are these types of thoughts so self-destructive? It’s precisely because of what the title of this blog implies—they actually act upon us just like we had received some really bad news from outside sources. You experience the same emotions and the same hormonal effects in your body as though you had really failed, just by thinking that thought. And when you start thinking negative thoughts about others, even others you don’t know, you begin to experience the same negative reactions in your body as though it really happened that someone won the contest by committing fraud and kept you from winning!

This character flaw is as old as mankind, and so common that it is even the subject of Proverbs in the Bible! One Proverb says simply, “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.” Other scriptures also point out that from these thoughts spring many other evils. The book of James says if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts you should not boast about it or deny the truth, and that where there is envy and selfish ambition there is disorder and hatred and evil practices.

How, then, do you avoid destructive thoughts that become bad news for you? First of all, a daily “heart check” is a good idea. By that I mean reviewing the day at its end to see if any such thoughts or envious practices crept into your life, and if so, to write them down. Next, make your purpose to do better the next day—even to make amends if you did anything destructive toward another. Then, make sure that you regularly do something to benefit another who has no capacity to pay you back. I am talking about real acts of charity, not just paying for the coffee of the guy behind you! I’m talking about giving to those in need, or quietly helping another without anyone knowing it. These acts by themselves will go a long way toward keeping your heart in the right place—and keeping bad news from coming to your mind or your door!

April 4 Blog on Fear
by: Michael Harris 8/30/2007 The Greatest Enemy to Success!

Ready to start that last challenge of the year? You have 3 days left to get at it! A question: This has derailed more challenges than all the other things put together. It not only derails challenges, it tears up relationships, increases the chance of life-threatening diseases, causes us to break our promises to others and to ourselves, and eventually brings on self-loathing and loss of enjoyment of life itself. Know what it is? Injury? Not even close! Selfishness? Getting warmer. Addiction? It’s usually part of addiction, but it’s not the answer either.

FEAR! That’s what I’m talking about. And unless you can master fear, you will find yourself sitting one the sideline while others who have no more talent than you do take the prizes and reap the rewards of life. Some people are fearful but don’t really think they are. What they do is gently and deceptively relabel this most corrosive all human emotions. They will call it “concern,” or “anxiety” or getting a bit closer, “nervousness”. But the truth is, it’s fear no matter what they call it. If you are a fearful person you know it deep down in your gut–without me or anyone else having to tell you. But you’ve worked hard to make sure your family, friends and co-workers don’t find out, haven’t you? In fact, one of the things you are most afraid of is that they’ll find out what you’re really like, and then they’ll reject you!

If this blog sounds like it’s written for someone else, you probably are NOT a fearful person, but read on anyway, beause you probably know at least one fearful person who could use some help. I was a fearful person myself for many years. When I was nine, I lost my Dad in an airplane crash, and hearing that news and looking at those pictures of the wreckage strewn over a mile of farmground, plus thinking I was completely alone, produced a fear and loneliness that dogged me for many, many years. It affected my entire life for a long time.

How do you get out of fear, or get through it? I wrote an entire series of blogs on fear, on April 4, 5 and 6. My understanding from the feedback of others is that they helped a great deal. If you have time, and if you think this condition might be causing you some problems, please read on below as I’ve included those blogs below this one.You can copy these. All you have to do is to highlight them, and cut and paste them into a word document.

Those three days describe the reality of fear, and the specific steps a person must take to rid themselves of this mental plague. It’s not psycho-babble or anything like that. It’s simply a proven way of dealing with fear, and replacing it with useful emotions that power you, not rob you.

The beauty of this “program” of conquering fear is that it fits just perfectly into the physical, emotional and spiritual work you’ll be doing during your challenge anyway. So, please, check out the blogs, copy them, and give it a try. All you have to lose is some baggage!

God bless all of you!

The speaker said he could easily sum up the root cause of every one of his life’s failures in just one word,”fear.” I was there when he said it, and I was seated where I could watch about half the audience without turning around. What I saw was most interesting–the vast majority of that audience was nodding in agreement, as though to signal that they they understood and empathized with what he had just said. This speaker was a war hero, by the way!

When I have examined my own life’s failures, and have blown away the dust of denial and excuses, I too usually come up with that one word, FEAR!

I drank alcoholically for 18 years or so. I did it because I was afraid, afraid that people wouldn’t accept me if they really knew what I was like; afraid that I was going to fail at things; afraid that I would be alone and lonely; afraid that I would get sick. you name it, I was afraid of it, and alcohol was my daily cure for that illness!

I entered into a bad relationship years ago because I was afraid of being alone. I stayed in a bad business relationship for years because I was afraid of taking the risk of going out on my own. Fear has also been at the root of most of my other character defects, such as gossip, envy, jealousy, and rage. At the ROOT of each of these failures, there lurked fear, and the character defect is a way of acting like I wasn’t fearful, when in fact I was.

So, why are we discussing fear in a Body for Life blog, you ask? let me ask you a question–what is the number one failure in any body for life activity? Statistically it is quite clear that failure to finish is number one, far above all others put together. And something tells me that fear has an awful lot to do with that!

Oh sure, I’ve heard all the other excuses, and so have you! “I got sick. I hurt myself. My dog died. My parents divorced. My husband doesn’t want me to keep doing this. I’m too busy. It’s not working.” Yet, for most people that I have talked with, who eventually finished a challenge successfully, it actually required conquering a specific fear that they had–and all this other stuff was just window dressing in reality!

Fear is an equal opportunity life-wrecker. It visits us all if we live long enough. And, it seems to me that it really comes calling about the time that we make up our minds that we’re going to do something life-changing. Some people think of fear as being caused by an inner conflict, some part of you that doesn’t want the other part to succeed. Others think of it as a very real and evil spiritual force. Whatever we think of it, the truth is that chronic fear is a corrosive, life-sapping, depressing force that we must rid ourselves of, if we are to live effectively and happily. Those who claim that fear is a great motivator are partially right. Fear can motivate people, whether you have it or inflict it, but the final effect of fear is to destroy people, not help them.

I can tell you this today about fear. Though it once absolutely ruled my life, today it does not. I can also tell you that if I obtained victory over fear, certainly you can as well. I can also promise you that if you gain victory over fear, Body for Life–and every other challenge that comes visiting you–will be conquerable and perhaps even enjoyable.

We’re running out of space today. Tomorrow, I’ll have some specific applications on conquering fear. But,if you want a little heads up on tomorrow, I’ll give you a little hint. Truly conquering fear takes believing in a power greater than yourself! And, to win, you have to surrender!

(Next blog is right below)
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Still More Fear!
by: Michael Harris 8/30/2007

April 5:

Yesterday we examined chronic fear from the perspective of how it affects our everyday lives and how we deal with it. Most of us deal with it by denying we have it, projecting it on others, or medicating ourselves with food or drugs so we don’t have to face it or deal with it.

Well you can continue to deny it, project it, or medicate yourself over it, but in the long haul it will not go away or lose its hold over you. In fact, for most people, chronic fear produces a whole new host of problems eventually–anxiety, ulcerative colitis, headaches, backaches, and so on. While fear might be a real boon for the medical and pharmaceutical industries, for those of us dealing with it, it becomes a life-altering nightmare over time.

So, how do we get rid of it? It starts by admitting we have it. That means saying to ourselves and even others on occasion, “I am afraid…” It means we stop re-labeling it. Frankly, we are NOT “concerned, a bit nervous, or up-tight.” We are FEARFUL! The admission is the key to dealing with it. Once we admit we have a problem we then are freed to deal with it responsibly.

Second, we need to figure out where the heck it came from. For most of us, this means a bit of self-analysis, a bit of journaling perhaps, maybe even a talk with our parents about some things that happened to us as kids. Some prayerful asking of our Creator during a quiet time is helpful. A short personal retreat, away from all distractions, often leads to true “enlightenment” concerning the cause or causes.

Third, and this is where the real work begins, we need to forgive. You’ll find almost certainly that your fear is from something involving another human being, perhaps an authority figure who belittled or took advantage of you, or an abusive relationship. You cannot win the game of life until you get free of the fear, and true freedom starts by doing away with every hidden or possible source of resentment. Forgive the person or persons who wronged you quickly and completely, whether you feel like it or not. Forgiveness involves action not feelings. Write it out, that you forgive so and so on such and such a date for doing this and that. Forgive yourself while you’re at it, for the time you’ve wasted, the things you’ve missed, and the people you’ve hurt along the way. Do that by writing down where you fell short, and just give it to God! Make amends where you need to, and then move forward. This is the eniire process of truly surrendering, and it is only through this surrender that you win!

What’s next? Well, tomorrow we’ll talk about how to replace fear, and with what, and how we avoid sliding back into that slue of despond. It’s not as hard as you think. Like most things, it’s much easier to maintain a clean house than to have to do a complete remodeling job all the time. See you then!

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FEAR–GRADUATION DAY!
by: Michael Harris 8/30/2007

Well, this is payoff day–the day that we finish up with fear. Today is the closing ceremony, where we’ll talk about how to replace fear and maintain a life of freedom from fear.

Once you rid yourself of your fears by doing what we talked about yesterday, you MUST intentionally replace them with something. If you don’t, something will end up replacing it anyway. Nature abhors a vacuum, and an empty human spirit will be filled with something, one way or another. If you don’t take positive action, the fear might be replaced by some addiction or obsession, by lust or greed, or even by more fear. So, the key is to replace it with something good,not bad.

I’m sure you’ve heard that perfect faith drives out fear. It does, and faith in a higher power will certainly provide a foundation for a fear-free life. But mere faith, without more, can sometimes end up more like wishful thinking than spiritual strength. So, let’s make this “active faith.” What is the one thing that most people who possess faith, who believe that they are created, valuable beings have in common? A love for one another,and a desire to help one another. So, my project for replacing fear with active faith is a very simple one–love in action!

Love in action—in the Body for Life world–is also called the universal law of reciprocation. Simply put, you should regularly, at least once a week, do something good for someone who cannot pay you back, and do it without getting caught. Use your imagination–slip money into a jacket pocket, or leave it on someone’s door. Send a gift certificate for a restaurant anonymously. Pay for someone’s way at a function that they can’t afford to go to otherwise. Pray for opportunities to do things for people–they will come along. If you still have some forgiving or amends to make for your past fear-driven behavior, think about how you might right some of those wrongs anonymously. Just don’t get caught, unless a direct apology is in order, of course,

Until you’ve experienced it, you cannot imagine the intense joy that comes from doing something anonymously that truly benefits another. That joy produces something else over time. Hope. Because God truly rewards those who help others for the right reason. It helps you to expectantly look forward to seeing who and what God will bring into your life as your next project, and it helps you to see with confidence that every single need you have is being taken care of–and all without you having to worry about it! In due time, you will look back over all this and not only wonder what ever happen to that old fear-driven you, but also wonder what happened to all the problems that caused those fears!

Does this all sound too extravagant to you? It will take place in your life if you just take the steps of faith to do it.
Staying rid of fear by replacing it is really a life long project. It is very much like staying physically fit. Use it or lose it applies here! Exercise those faith muscles this weekend by attending your favorite house of worship and asking God to help you make sense of all this.

Above all else, don’t ever give up again. Don’t let fear win even one small battle. Face it; admit it; get rid of it, and don’t let it live rent free in your head ever again! Fight for your freedom from fear!

God Bless!

What’s the one quality you must have to successfully complete a transformation that changes you both on the outside and inside?
Many people would suggest things like perseverance, optimism, work ethic, discipline, high pain threshold, stuff like that. But I believe that the most important quality to success is TRUTH.
By TRUTH, I am talking about more than honesty. Here is an acronym that might help you to understand what I’m driving at. Truth is a character trait that is:
Total
Real
Unwavering
Trustworthy
Honesty
You’ve heard the saying that “The truth shall set you free?” Well, that’s what we’re really talking about here. Truth begins at home. It is much more than cash register honesty. Truth is being true to yourself, by not living a lie, by owning up to your shortcomings, by honoring all self-promises.
See, most people think that being truthful is just not telling lies to others, but TRUTH requires more than that. To have the character trait of TRUTH, you need to tell the truth to others, but the whole truth as well. Allowing another to have a wrong conclusions simply because you chose to stay silent is not TRUTH. TRUTH speaks out, even though it may harm the speaker to do so. THe most important person to be truthful with is you. Did you ever stop to think that in order to tell another a lie you first have to tell yourself one–you have to tell yourself that you are justified in telling that lie.
Lies are always revealed, which means that ultimately TRUTH wins out.
So no doubt you are wondering how it could be that TRUTH is such an important quality in a simple diet and exercise plan? Primarily it is because you have so many opportunities to fudge on the program, both overtly and covertly. You can simply choose to openly have an unauthorized food that is consumed in public in front of those who know you’re not supposed to eat it, or you can do it at home, late at night when no one is looking, and stuff yourself with your favorite food medication. Ice cream, toast with peanut butter melted on it, cookies, fudge, whatever! This behavior is even worse than the covert consumption in public, because you not only do wrong, but you take steps to cover it up. The ice cream box goes deep down in the trash and peanut butter is way back in the back of the cupboard–”no one will know.” Well, the one person who knows is YOU, and this type of activity, especially when it becomes secret, is deadly to your own self confidence and your own ability to ever keep promises. This is the perfect example of the great recovery saying, “You are only as sick as the secrets you keep.”
TRUTH does NOT come naturally to any of us. That’s why we find life so frustrating. We punish our children for lying to us, and the same day find ourselves lying to another about our intentions or what we did that day. TRUTH SETS US FREE, and the opposite enslaves us, and it also frustrates us, especially when we are trying to achieve a big goal.
There is much evil in the world, and some measure of it is coming from the insides of us. And when it does, when “Bad Mike” comes out instead of the person I had hoped to be that day, I disappoint myself for sure. But there is also much good in the world, and some of that is inside us as well. The key is to grow the good and starve the bad. Frankly, that’s the main reason that we should do anonymous deeds of charity during a challenge. Doing good intentionally creates and grows goodness in us and it starves the bad in us. And starving the bad gives you the chance to become a person of TRUTH.

Many first time challengers in the body for life transformation contest are puzzled by the term “inner transformation.” The scores that the judges use seem to give a great deal of value to a competitor’s inner transformation, so it certainly behooves you to understand exactly what is meant by that term.

Many people think that achieving a good inner transformation is all about raising one’s self esteem. Well, that is an indirect benefit of a good inner transformation, but it really isn’t what it is all about. What it is really about is achieving an entirely new way of prioritizing and directing your life. It’s all about actions rather than just feelings. If you feel good about yourself, but all you do is spend your time pleasing yourself, what good does that do anyone? But, if you spend your time adding value to others’ lives, not because you desire to make a bunch of money doing it or to get a measure of fame from doing it, then you have achieved an inner transformation worthy of a champion.

The word champion originally applied to someone appointed by the king to defend, protect and assist others and to place his life and future at risk while doing it. It applied to someone whose life literally represented true love in action. These were knights in shining armor, literally! So, a true champion’s inner transformation will result in a life of service to others without expectation of anything in return. This is a continual way of living out Bill Phillips’ term that he calls the “universal law of reciprocation. The remaining question, though, is how does this happen?

Well, first of all you must start your inner transformation just like you do your physical one, by measuring where you are inwardly. In other words, taking an inventory of your mindsets, of your fears, of your guilty feelings and secrets, of your resentments—of anything at all that will hold you back from success. To take this inventory, you’ll need a quiet place and an hour or two to truly look inward at yourself, and to truly be honest with yourself about where you are.

Think about people who have wronged you over the course of your life—and assess the feelings you have as you think about them. If your feelings are moving or painful, you have work to do—you have some forgiveness to do! Then, think about secrets you have kept about things you have done, or lies you have led for a long time. Kept secrets and lies both produce the same thing in you—guilt and shame. The key to this first phase is to make sure you have all the inner stumbling blocks down on paper and firmly in mind.

What next? Let’s start with the guilt and shame we mentioned above, that comes from the lies you have led or the secrets you have kept. Here, you have two things you need to do, confession and restitution. Confession of what you have done needs to be done with a trusted person who cannot be harmed by what you tell them, and who will keep your confidence. Restitution needs to be done as directly as possible. It can be done anonymously, and should be in some circumstances. But, if you harmed another who is still around, making direct restitution and asking for forgiveness from them can create a really powerful moment for the both of you. Be cautious, but don’t be cowardly—we’re trying to rid you of fear here, remember?

If forgiveness is required, first forgive others and then get to forgiving yourself. My personal opinion is that self-forgiveness is really required far more rarely than forgiveness of others. Active forgiveness requires praying for the person who wronged you, and treating them just like they are truly forgiven. Don’t open yourself up for more hurt, so don’t get cozy again with an ex or someone you used to be in a relationship with, but make absolutely certain that you no longer think or say anything derogatory about that person. If you wish to tell them you’ve forgiven them, you may. But, don’t expect anyone to be overwhelmed by that. Most people just don’t own up to what they’ve done to others—and some are even unaware of the fact that they deeply hurt you.

The combination of an excellent inner transformation and an effective outer transformation will truly attract people to you, and the opportunities to do good without expecting anything in return will be right in front of your face. If all you get is an effective outer transformation, you will truly have short-changed the most important person in your life—YOU!

According to Bill Phillips, the architect of this fabulous Body for Life system, the contest was designed as a way of giving people motivation to do the challenge and stick with it. But Dave and Amy Sayers are living proof that there are other ways of staying motivated when you can’t enter the contest. This is their story!

See, Dave Sayers, Amy’s husband, works for Abbott Nutrition, a company whose parent is Abbott Laboratories, which owns EAS as well as the Body for Life contest and products. Rules are rules, and the employees of the sponsor can’t enter the contest. But Abbott, being a company that is heavily invested in promoting employee health, has a corporate challenge. There, the Abbott employees competed to change their bodies into the healthiest and fittest they could be—in twelve weeks. Dave decided to enter that contest, and that’s how it all started. At least that’s how the healthy changes got started.

Dave and Amy’s relationship got started years before Dave started that corporate challenge. Amy and Dave fell in love in high school, but their paths separated for quite a while. Dave always knew they were meant to be soul mates, so in 1995 when they married, it was no surprise at all. On that wedding day, not only did Dave gain Amy as his life mate, he also became the stepfather of Amy’s two beautiful daughters, McLaine and Shelby.

Amy is an epileptic, and the seizures required some very strong medications. Those medications came with a huge price. In a very short time, Amy’s weight ballooned from a trim 130 pounds to 235 pounds. Not only that, but the seizure medications are tough on the liver, and as her weight rose, so did her cholesterol levels. Amy was faced with a weight that was uncomfortably high, cholesterol levels that were dangerously high, and a predicament—since cholesterol medications would only add to the liver stress from the anti-seizure meds. So, she made a literal life-changing decision. She joined Dave in the challenge and they did this transformation thing together!

Though for Amy the BFL routine was at first a struggle, Dave was used to physical exercise and had always wanted to do this contest anyway, so he took right to it. Soon, it became a regular routine for both of them, and their results, outside AND inside, have been nothing short of amazing.

The first challenge results were stunning. Between the two of them they lost a total of 70 pounds, about 35 pounds each! Though Amy’s highest weight was 235 pounds, she now weighs 137, and took 43 of those pounds off the BFL way in her first two challenges.

I have an entire picture gallery on my website, www.mikeharris.org dedicated to the Sayers’ pictures. They tell a great story in themselves, but they are only a part of it. I really like how Amy put it when I asked her how it went and what kept her motivated. Amy is a school teacher and expresses thoughts very well. “You know, even though I never entered an official challenge, the challenge was on within me from day one. No amount of recognition or prizes could ever compare to the assurance that I have inside me that I will be able to enjoy my later years with my children, and with their children. I have come to appreciate that I was given only one earthly body to last my life long and I have a responsibility to take care of it.”

Both Dave and Amy say that quitting was never an option once they got started together on this new road of life. Amy even got in the habit of getting up at 4:30 a.m. to do her cardio, so that her busy school days don’t leave her too tired to do it later in the day. The obstacles they have faced are just the same as those of you doing the contest have run into, eating clean, especially when no one is looking, knowing when you’re too sick to work out and need to rest, and just fitting this grand lifestyle in with all the other things this busy family has going—church activities, gymnastics meets for the girls, and lots of other things.

As to the great things that have come their way in addition to their svelte looks and better health, here is what Amy mentions in her interview responses:

“David and I have our priorities in line, and when two people put their health at the top of that list, great things happen for each of them. What’s nice about doing BFL together is that these great things happen for the two of you-together. David and I plan our weekly menu together, we shop together, and we coordinate our workout schedules together. To be able to openly discuss something that you are working so hard at each and every day is great. It’s not this separate thing that I do and want to tell him about, it’s something we share.

As far as accountability, well, to be honest, it’s quite “in your face” when it comes to doing it with the person you love the most. It drives me to stay on track, and I only get resentful once in awhile that his portion sizes are bigger than mine. Mind you, I can go head to head with him on free day!”

As for how David responded to that same question, read what he said here and see if you think he just might have some strong feelings for this “soul mate” of his.

“Before BFL and the way it has made me feel, both physically and mentally, I never fully realized how bad I used to feel. My brother had a valve blockage a few years ago that required Angioplasty and having a stint put in. After his surgery, it was so easy for him to breath and his stamina improved so much, that he then realized how hard it had been to breath before his surgery, and how often he had become short of breath. As we put on weight and become more and more out of shape, because this happens at a steady pace, we don’t necessarily notice the changes in how we feel physically. The greatest benefit I’ve received from BFL, physically, is how great I feel. I get around easier, I feel good, and I have stamina and endurance to handle anything I decide to do on a given day. My overall confidence has improved dramatically, because I feel like I can literally do anything I put my mind to. Physically, I know I can do it, and BFL has shown me that I’m mentally strong enough to do it too.

As for our relationship together, it has always been great. BFL has just made it even better. As I just said, the greatest benefit I’ve received from BFL, physically, is how great I feel. But without doubt, the number one greatest gift I’ve received from BFL is how great Amy feels about herself. When you truly love someone with your whole heart and being, there just isn’t anything in the world more important to you than their happiness. I knew for years before BFL, that Amy didn’t feel good about herself, and I had serious fears that she might never really feel good about herself ever again. That’s hard to deal with. I tried so hard to make sure that she felt loved and appreciated, but in the end, you can’t make anyone feel good about themselves, unless they feel good about themselves first. Body for Life has lifted the weight of the world (and actual body weight) off of Amy’s shoulders and now she feels as good about herself as I’ve always felt about her. There is no amount of money in this world that is equal to what that is worth to me. She has always been a beautiful person on the inside (where it counts the most,) but BFL has helped her to feel so good about herself on the outside, that now that inner beauty just radiates out from her every day, and that is really awesome to see!”

I asked these two what they’d like to say to those of you couples who are thinking about doing a challenge but really wondering if they can get through this. I can’t do any better than just quote what they wrote for you, because it sounds absolutely perfect. Here is Amy’s response:

“Realize that though you are doing this together, you each need to have separate goals. I have found that even if I might not eat something that David eats, or understand why he is doing his workout a particular way, that is ok. I don’t question what is working for him because I realize that the routines that we establish are very personal, even if we are both body for lifers. It makes for some great discussion, and David does a great job of answering my questions when I have them.

What you can do is this: When your spouse either needs to miss a day because of sickness, OR, if he/she doesn’t eat clean or misses a workout, point it out in a positive way. Last spring I had some seizures and didn’t work out a couple days because of it, and sometimes those nasty migraines still disrupt my day. David does a wonderful job of reminding me that a few days out of my life will not change the lifestyle I have chosen for myself. It is because I adhere to the program almost all the time, that make it ok when I’m sick and unable to work out. Also, if one of you eats unclean or misses a workout, well, because you CHOSE not to for one reason or another; don’t make your spouse feel bad about it. Instead, remind them to “isolate it” as we say at our house. Don’t dwell on it, move on, and make your next workout out or your next meal, a great one. Remind them this is NOT A REASON TO JUST GIVE UP A CHALLENGE OR EAT UNCLEAN THE REST OF THE DAY. “

And Dave offered this advice for you all:

“To me there are two huge reasons for couples to do this together.

1. Eating is so easy if you’re both following the program versus one following BFL and the other eating whatever and whenever.

2. As Amy noted, the encouragement you are able to give to each other is invaluable.”

Well, there was more in the transcript, including the fact that this couple spend some time volunteering at Notre Dame to help with seating folks at the Irish football games. That is why you see them in ND and usher’s garb in the one head shot photo in the gallery. Please take a look at those pictures, and just let it sink into your mind how truly amazing this life turnaround really is. About a hundred total pounds of fat, GONE, for Amy, and a healthy lifestyle that co-exists with a difficult condition, epilepsy. The girl of his dreams for Dave, 35 pounds of fat gone, and a healthy lifestyle as well! Oh, this family has the same challenges and “moments” that all the rest of us have, but they also have a tremendous commitment to the healthy lifestyle that is body for life, as well as lasting commitments to their faith, and to their family relationships.

Now you know why I wanted to tell you about Dave and Amy! If you have questions for them, or would like to contact them, let me know, and I’ll see if I can’t hook you up. They’re willing to help with questions you might have about their transformations!

Here’s how Amy summed up the entire body for life experience: “Mike, it is just so hard to put into words how [much] BFL has done for me. I thank God everyday for taking my life down this path.”

So do we, Amy, so do we!

I am a person who found an entire new life in recovery and then in Christianity, and because of how those things impacted my life, three of my great “loves” are slogans that are meaningful, acronyms that are truly memorable, and short passages of wisdom that are life-changing. So, I pay a lot of attention to slogans, especially to slogans that appear in ads or promotional materials for so-called motivational programs—like Body for Life. One of those slogans that has deep significance is the one that titles this Blog. Here’s why.

In Body For Life [BFL], we are all called on to change our minds. That doesn’t mean, of course, changing our options as we commonly use it in conversation. Usually, when someone tells us, “I’ve changed my mind,” it simply means that they are no longer going to do what they said they’d do, or that they are now going to do what they said they weren’t. In BFL, changing your mind really means changing the way you think, the values you use to make your decisions, and your entire perspective on life. It also means strengthening your mind. Without mental strength, all the good intentions in the world won’t help you a darn bit.

Would an example help here? I think so, so here is a common one I see on the guestbook. Mom is worried—because she just started BFL and she is busily baking cookies and other Holiday goodies to feed to her children and other family members—and she is afraid she is going to be tempted by them! Really! This is a classic case of a person deciding to do a transformation challenge, but not really a mind change. She is absolutely oblivious of the fact that this is exactly how she became a sugar and sweets junkie herself, because her parents did the very same thing she is doing. Somehow, she allows her mind to assume that serving sweets to her own children is just fine, even though for her they are a deadly temptation, an invitation to descend back down into the uncontrollable eating problems that led her to BFL in the first place. In spite of the way she knows this works, she somehow just closes her mind and assumes that the kids will eat all this but will make up their own minds to eat healthy one day soon.

The bottom line is that a changed mindset in BFL is one which regards the way to live as beginning with the type of foods we eat. That mindset should be to eat the best foods we can, and to feed healthy foods to the kids who are too young to make good choices themselves. That mindset should also include making available some healthy choices for those who ARE old enough to choose by themselves, but who often will just eat whatever is placed in front of them.

If we don’t acquire that type of a mindset, then in reality our BFL experience is simply going to be another temporary diet and exercise program that affects only us, and a temporary effect at that. If we don’t care enough to change our entire outlook on healthy eating, it will indeed be a short time before we are again reaching into the candy dishes at work, or the pizza in the break room, or the birthday cake that someone brought home today. That’s no way to live, not for me anyway.

Now, don’t get too hung up on this example if it doesn’t apply to you or you think my theory is a bit off base. There are many other areas where you need to change your mind. Early morning cardio is a great one. I get up every morning at 5:30 to exercise, not because I want to, but because I regard that as part of my job. I never question whether I should get up and go to work—and you probably don’t either—but most of us wrestle with whether we should get up and exercise early. The mindset that “This is what I do” is not an easy one to acquire, but over time you will adapt to it, if you try.

Another area where most of us need a mind change is the universal law of reciprocation. At Christmas time we’re all sort of generous, looking for ways to bless others and help them a bit. How about making at least one day every week “Christmas day?” In other words, on Saturday, for example, live just as though it was Christmas day, joyfully, generously and extravagantly toward others!

How do you begin this “mind change?” Just like every other change—with a deep commitment in your heart. Write it down, in your journal, and make it a promise to yourself. Something like, “For the next 84 days I will furnish authorized foods only to myself and good foods to the rest of my family, except on free days.” Renew that little vow every morning by making that once again your goal for that day. A few successful checks on that goal at the end of your day, and you’ll be well on your way to truly “changing your mind.”

It Takes DRIVE to Complete a Good Challenge!
by: Michael Harris 7/14/2007
——————————————————————————–
Ready for another acronym? I think they’re helpful, really, as a way of checking our own behavior. Yesterday’s was borrowed from 12 step recovery, and is a checklist to be sure you don’t get in trouble as a result of failing to read your own needs. Today’s acronyms are actually a couple I created myself, in order to help us know where we’re going in a challenge. Here’s the first, DRIVE!

A GREAT TRANSFORMATION TAKES D.R.I.V.E.!

D is for Discipline. Guts, mastery over the flesh, refusing to hit the snooze alarm, staring down that spouse or helpmate who wants to take you out for an unauthorized meal. Without this, you’ll stand for nothing, and fall for everything!

R is for Regularity. Doing it every day, the same time, the same way. Without this, things crowd in, and results wane.

I is for Intensity. When you do it, put your all to it. Leave nothing on the table. Without this, it becomes just another dull job.

V is for Variety. Not slacking off, but changing up. 12 weeks of the same thing makes for dullness and drudge. Change up your cardio types, your exercise order and types every three to four weeks. Buy a cookbook—12 weeks of turkey breast and brown rice can make suicide sound pretty good! Without this, even if you make it, 12 weeks will seem like eternity.

E is for Excellence. Make your form, your workout journals, your attire, your appearance, and your attitude all say that you are a winner NOW! The better you look, the better you do! Without this, you’ve done the challenge for no good reason.

In the next blog, right below this, we’ll talk about the downside, D.R.I.F.T.

——————————————————————————–

Don’t Do the DRIFT!
by: Michael Harris 7/14/2007
——————————————————————————–
Above, we learned that it takes drive to do a great challenge. To review, drive stands for discipline, regularity, intensity, variety and excellence. This blog is about what happens when you lose focus, when it all starts going south on you. Here are the symptoms, which of course are parts of an acronym that describes the DRIFT that takes place.

D is for Dull. It all becomes uninteresting and one dimensional. The meals are dry and dull; the workouts are just something to get through. Skipping or cheating begins to seem like the thing to do. Your mind wanders throughout the day, especially when doing your workouts.

R is for Routine: No longer are you trying any new exercises or seeking to better any of your personal bests. The same old same old is good enough for you, and you are seriously thinking it might be time to just take a break or try something new.

I is for Impatience which rears its ugly head. You don’t know why, but the people whose support kept you going early on become the victims of your little tantrums. People at work who used to ask you for advice are beginning to mumble that they liked the “old person” a lot better. When they see the look on your face, people in the gym who used to ask you for advice just get out of your way!

F is for “Forgetfulness” that suddenly becomes a new excuse. You “forgot” to pack your meals, or to work out on the way home, or that today was NOT your free day. Funny, you don’t forget the things you really want to do—just the things you know you ought to do.

T is for Temptation that eventually does you in. Temptation to sleep in, to stop “wasting all your time exercising,” to once again begin to hoard and eat those little guilty pleasure foods, to extend free day to free weekends, and then free week, and then……….

So, how do you avoid the curse of the drift? Simple. Not easy, but simple.

1. You act your way to better thinking rather than lying around waiting for a better attitude to get you going. Right actions bring with them right attitudes. Waiting for a right attitude brings with it only more waiting, and then failure.

2. You work the universal law of reciprocation. That is, you do something to help someone who cannot possibly do you any good at all. And you tell no one. Not even the person you helped, you do it all anonymously. This simple act of kindness that no one will ever know will bring you enough joy and newfound energy that you won’t have time to start to drift!

THE LADY SUCCESS DOCUMENT (a/k/a “The Eight Week
Miracle!), compiled by Mike Harris, 2006 Men’s BFL Champion

ACTUAL POSTS FROM THE GUESTBOOK OF THE BODY FOR LIFE WEBSITE AND EMAILS SENT TO ME, LAST EDITED 11/27/09

This is a document that consists of either actual guestbook posts from ladies, or responses from
personal emails (where I requested additional details) These posts have only been edited by the
Microsoft spell check system to avoid embarrassing or unreadable errors in the posts.
Otherwise, these are the exact words used, and the names and dates on which these occurred.
This document probably represents less than 3 % of the overall number of posts I’ve seen on the
topic, but I chose not to copy posts that did not give detailed information and were only general in
nature. The few that are copies of emails sent to me were sent after I saw a post about progress
on the guestbook, and asked for more details. Of course, as you might imagine, there are some
who have posted and said that they DID NOT experience the 8 week miracle. None of them
admitted to struggling with eating right, but why would they? My sense is that most women who
do not see good results on BFL simply are unable to adhere to the diet 6 days a week. Certainly, there are a select few who either have endocrine problems of a severe nature, or have trashed their bodies with eating disorders, who simply will not see significant results in a program like this. BUT, they are very few and far between.

Happy reading! Mike Harris

Posted by Loise Miller, 6/30/04What if I had quit at week 4 when my scale weight went up 5 lbs
and I cried because I worked so hard. I read everyone’s posts about week 8 and 9 and I
continued. What if I had quit on week 6 when I saw no change but I visited Hussman sight [www.hussmanfitness.com] and he said when there is no change in body weight that is the time your body is changing fat for muscle.
I believed and carry on. If I had quit, at night I would not have gone to bed smiling after looking at
my 8 week pictures. They are absolutely awesome. If I had quit, I would not be jumping for joy
because I have lost 6 lbs of scale weight. The feeling is awesome; this result had me in the gym
so fast I hit all my 10’s and then some. I am in week 10 my next 2 weeks will be the best ever.
Have ever wonder why results come out in the last four weeks? Please stick with the programme
it works.
Denise Kowal, 1/7/04C1D52 I haven’t posted in a while, so I owe you all some encouragement.
After the first six weeks of feeling changes but seeing little, the “high burner” switch must have
turned on inside me. The last week and a half has yielded unbelievable results in terms of
increased energy, decreased body fat, and (shock of all shocks) a little six-pack peeking out! No,
I haven’t changed anything – still eating clean and about the same quantities (like the book
suggests), and workouts leave me in tears every time, but it just goes to show me that patience,
persistence, and hard work will be rewarded. So those of you who are wondering how come you
aren’t getting the results you hear about from other people, remember this: every body is
different, and each has its own schedule for change. Stay with the program, because it works.
Review it often to make sure you are doing what you should, and carry on! Results will be yours if
you stick with it. Be strong! –Denise
Linne, Goleta California, 2/28/05Well, I posted my Week 8 photos on BFL Tracker! I am finally
seeing a difference, my clothes are getting baggier, I’m feeling happier and all is well! So many
people told me they didn’t see a real difference until around week 7 or 8 and I felt like…”week 7 or
8?” “I can’t wait that long!” But you have to power through it and know you may not see it right
away, you may not see it until wk or 7-8-9, but it will happen. For anyone who gets discouraged,
please hang in there, the early weeks can get discouraging (maybe even a little depressing) but
don’t give up, you can do it.
From “Chriss” in a personal email to me on 4/10/05: “my transformation took the entire 12
weeks, didn’t actually see a lot of change until week 8, and I am really GLAD that I did not step on
the scale, measure myself, or anything until day84, and wow what an improvement. Actually, the
photos were the icing on the cake, because the scale only moved 7 pounds, but I lost 15
inches, went from size 10 to a size 6, and lost 12% body fat! So, who cares what the scale says,
and doing the weekly re-measurements is for the birds.”
Kellie, from Santa Clara Utah, 5/16/05Happy Monday Everyone!!! I am proud to write it is C2D1
Here!!! I NEVER would have believed that I would be writing that! It’s amazing what happens
when you commit to a goal and actually FOLLOW through. All you women starting out, don’t get
discouraged. Keep working towards your goal. Keep your self promises. If you falter a bit, don’t
get down and out just brush it off and over come it. Be patient with the results. I didn’t see any till
week 8, but what happened between then and the end, is amazing to me. Am I the best??? Far
from it!!! But in my opinion I’ve already won!!! I’m already a champion, because I followed through
and finished something that is important to me! My greatest reward is a healthy body and a brain
that says I CAN DO IT, energy to keep up with my 12 1/2 year old daughter who runs a 6 min.
mile and my 2 year old who just plain runs me ragged!!! The level head that keeps me sane when
I’m rushing from work, to ball games, to ballet!!! And the self confidence that I’m not so bad after
all and I know that I can handle all of the above!!!!
Karla, in an email to me 8/12/05I could tell a difference after 4 weeks, but it was slight. The
biggest change I noticed was after 9 weeks, when I took a photo. I’m highly critical of myself in
the mirror, but I couldn’t deny the change in the pictures. Also around week 9, my clothes were
more loose fitting, and now, most of them don’t fit at all. To be clear, I wasn’t overweight before.
But I was completely out of shape. I don’t know if it’s harder for really overweight people or not,
as far as seeing quicker results. Even though I didn’t see the physical changes right away, the
mental changes came within a week or two. Not to the level I’m at right now, but I could already
tell I was feeling good. And in other ways physically, the better diet has helped in so many ways,
and early on. I hope people focus on the bigger picture, instead of only worrying about their
appearance, weight on the scale, etc. I know it’s hard to do that. Sorry for the long response.
Thanks for your interest!
Amy San Diego, 8/7/06Hello I know it has been a while but as some of you know I have been on
the hunt for a job! It is going well a few interviews here and there. I am completely elated with all
of my changes so far I am in week 10 and people are now noticing the differences. Hallelujah! I
got asked if I had lost 15 lbs. ****************************For all of those concerned with not
dropping scale weight I haven’t lost a pound but I look like I have and my pant size doesn’t lie!!!!
Size 11/12 to an 8!! Keep up your dedication and hard work! Started boot camp for abs today…oh
my gosh! I know I will be feeling this in the am. I had a funniest home video moment in the gym
today. I feel very at home in the gym and comfortably know my way around. Well today was a
different story I was following the abs training and only could find a flat bench for the side
obliques. (Now it is visual time) I reached up to hold on to the bench and twisted my body as I
curled my legs up I fell off the bench…Ha Ha Ha!! I was sooooooo embarrassed but I shrugged it
off and kept up with the ab workout. Guaranteed that everyone in the gym saw the fall out. At
least I laughed and moved on!! Keep up the good work everyone it is totally worth it!
Kimberley, Bunker Hill W.V., 2/8/07 I have been reading some of the other posts and the 8-
week change. It is sooo true. I did this program in 2003 and week 8 and all the rest of the weeks
were stunning. I would wake up looking different everyday. Amazing. I had been so discouraged
because my husband was losing like crazy and looking great. And here I was stuck, so it seemed.
Week 8 oh week 8 I cannot wait to get there. I could see a different lump (that’s a good thing,
muscle) everyday. I would look in the mirror and wonder who the heck was that. Hang in there
ladies. The results WILL come. It is like Christmas. Almost overnight it happens. I can’t wait for
week 8, I can’t wait for week 8.
Posted by Jami from Medford Oregon on 3/8/07 Okay, this is going sound lame, but a few
tears shot out of my eyes this morning when I changed into my workout clothes and took a
gander at my progress from yesterday. We’re in the middle of week 10 and we’re literally seeing
change every day. THIS PLAN WORKS!!!! The more faithful you are to how it’s laid out, the more
results you will see. My goal for the 12 weeks was 20 pounds lost and I’m now down 23.5. I cried,
I guess, because I was so hopeful when we began and wasn’t sure how it would go. Tears of joy.
The changes inside are more wonderful than the exterior. I am really blown away at how life
changing it really is. EDITOR’S NOTE: Jami’s couple’s challenge was on the featured
challengers of the 2007 BFL website. She and her husband are featured in the Champions
Body for Life book as well.
Posted by Sarah, on active duty in Afghanistan, on 3/21/07 Well, here I am- staring down
the last 48 hours of my challenge. I feel like I’ve been through it all. I had the withdrawal
headaches from sugar in the beginning. i had the aches and rotten attitude during the first couple
weeks- wondering why the fat wasn’t falling off of my body and why I hurt so darned much. I’ve
been at that point where I couldn’t understand why my weight would plateau…and I would get on
the scale every day. I measured my body every day- more for accountability purposes than
anything else. in the process, I learned how sensitive my body was to extra calories and sugar
(which would explain why everyone in my family is diabetic!) When I hit a plateau and felt
frustrated, I kept asking myself how much effort I had put into eating exact amounts that day. I
discovered a few things. 1. I lost a majority of my weight in the first three weeks, but a majority of
my inches after that. 2. The last two weeks really do matter. My last 7 pounds came off and I went
from a snug size 8 to a size 6, AND I lost another 2 inches from my waist. I am energetic and full
of hope. For everyone who wakes up feeling bloating or wondering why they just aren’t losing that
fast, I have three recommendations for you. Ask yourself if you’re eating the right amounts (for
women- that’s less than 1500 calories a day). Ask yourself if you’re eating high glycemic carbslike
a lot of fruit. I’m not saying that fruit is bad- I’m just saying it could have a profound effect on
your challenge. And lastly- are you eating a lot of sugar-substitutes? They are a lesser evil than
sugar, but plenty of substitutes will cause your body to react in the same way as it would to sugar.
Anyway, I’m getting ready to head back to the states after a long year in Afghanistan. I had a few
days where I was dragging my food around the mountains with me- it took some creative
planning on my part. Oh yeah- for all you new guys starting out. Stay flexible. If you cheat, give
that day up as your free day. If you miss a workout, let that be your free day. Don’t tell yourself
“oh, no big deal…I still am going to take my original free day.” Realize that you may be breaking a
sugar addiction and be patient with yourself and your cravings, but be strong. I’ve got faith in you.
I’m 26 pounds lighter and went from a size 12/14 to a size 6. I’m looking forward to sending in my
packet- not because I expect to win- but because it symbolizes my completion of a something
great. See you all next year at the expo! (I’m planning ahead.) AND, a personal email to me from
the same Sarah: “Mike, feel free to add anything I said to that document. It helped me
immensely to read that women’s document- and if I can be a part of inspiring or helping other
people out, I’d be proud to be a part of that. I just felt so compelled to share my joy with everyone
today, so I posted that note on the guestbook. I hope that others out there realize if I can drag my
rice and tuna around the mountains (questioning my sanity the whole time) while working with the
people/livestock or whatever the mission/crisis was- they can do it with their own particular set of
adversities and challenges. if I even inspire one person, I’ve done great. So yes, please add me
to that document. I’d be proud to be a part of that. Sarah” (email 3/22/07) EDITOR’S NOTE:
Sarah’s transformation was also among the 2007 featured challengers on the BFL
website.
Posted by Lacy, Olney, Md, on 4/2/07 “Hi all! First all, I’m stoked! I looked in the mirror
yesterday and saw the makings of a lil’ 6 pack, too cool!! If that isn’t motivation I don’t know what
is!Okay, I’m on challenge 2, week 2 day 1. For those early in the program with no changes,
please listen to my story….
NO CHANGE in weight, barely any in clothing, and little difference in the photo up until week 8.
Then I started to see some changes. Week 12 I took my photo and was literally astonished with
my new bod, jumped on the scale and weight EXACTLY the same thing as my starting weight!
Dropped from size 16 to size 12 and the photos don’t lie. Same weight on the scale. That hit me
hard, but I’ve since had my sanity talked back in and I’m really psyched. I’m on essentially week
14 and just feel like at the end of this second challenge I’ll have that body I’ve always wanted!So
please, please, please don’t expect pounds to melt off fast, this is a slow moving program where
you literally get healthy on the inside before you start to see it on the outside! You must be
patient, you must stick with the program, and you must keep going or you will never see those
changes start to manifest them on the outside. You can’t visualize the great things happening
inside, but if you keep going and keep going, soon they will be on the outside and when they start
to show, they show fast!!” (In an email to me, Lacy told me that she weighed 173 at the beginning
and end of that first challenge and that people have told her she looks like she weighs 140.)
KRISTY, a 41 year old lady who did BFL three years ago with good results, reported on the
guestbook on April 24 2007 that she had seen great results at the beginning and near the end of
her challenge, losing five pounds or more in weeks 10 and 11. She has gone from a size 8 to a
baggy size 6, but not quite a size 4. She estimates her starting body fat at 35% and knows that
her measured body fat at the end of week 11 is 24%. She has lost 17 scale pounds so far. She
was sedentary for the most part before her latest body for life transformation and endured a
lengthy plateau between her early results and the results that came in weeks 10 and 11.
Sometimes it doesn’t take quite 8 weeks to see really amazing things.
Nicole T wrote this email to me on 4/25/07: “I am 43, always been active and healthy but
weighed 185 lbs on January 1st of this year. I vowed to learn to eat reasonably and lose some
weight. I started by buying a skin tight pair of size 15 black jeans which I would use as my
benchmark. I weighed and measured myself as well. I tried on my own to change my eating
habits and exercise but wasn’t progressing. I finally gave Body for Life a chance. I started my
first challenge on March 5. My jeans were still skin tight. I followed the program to the letter. At
the four week mark I couldn’t wait to weigh and measure myself and try my jeans. I did and I was
so devastated. The scale hadn’t moved although I was ready and warned about that. So I went
to my measuring tape. I was sure the changes would show there. Nope. Not one centimetre
lost. In fact I GAINED on my thighs. But the worse came when I tried on my jeans, they were still
suck-in-your-gut-to-snap-shut tight. I only kept going with BFL because I’d heard that week 8 was
the week to see changes. Truthfully, I didn’t think I would see them. I did not alter anything; I
stuck to the BFL following it to the letter and counted the weeks. Well, at the end of week 7 I was
getting dressed for work and pulled out the only clean pants I had: the black jeans. I couldn’t
believe my eyes. They were huge and baggy! I was making my children’s lunches and had to
keep pulling up my pants because they were hanging at my hips! My daughter told me I was
gross because she could see my underwear. I finally had to get a belt to keep them on. I haven’t
worn those pants since. They’re TOO BIG! That was last week. I can’t wait to see what the next
few weeks have to offer.” Signed simply, “Nicole”
Posted by Frances from Biloxi Mississippi on 4/29/07: Hi, everyone! Just dropping in to let you
know about more changes I am going through. If you will remember, I am one of the ladies whose
fat is just so darned stubborn it won’t budge. Well, week 8 came and went and not much diff:(
BUT…week 9 came and something began to happen. Inches started coming off and weight
started dropping on the scale. The BF% did not change but at least it did not move up. I
previously had lost 5% BF in the early 5 weeks and was amazed at how much marbleized fat I
had in my muscles. I truthfully just didn’t have much muscle mass to begin with so I was carrying
quite a bit of adipose tissue on some skinny bones. WoW! I just had to go back and change the
last sentence to reflect a PAST tense! So here are some more changes and I am only day 3 on
week 10. I woke up skinnier! Yep. I stretched to get the mind racing and when my hands fell
across my abs there was nothing there!!! I jumped out of bed and the scale was down another
pound. Now my scale has not moved in weeks. I think I might have lost 2-3 lbs the first 4 weeks
and then nothing until week 9. I began to lose a pound a day! I am not fibbing here. A pound a
day! I am eating 6 balanced meals a day, sometime 7-8 depending on how long the day has
gotten. I exercise with all I have and do the appointed workouts as BFL wrote them. That is it! I
am losing inches, too! I lost 3 inches last week in my waist. I know I have lost more but I am not
measuring again till Thurs (my free day).BTW: Regarding free day for me, I take a free meal. And
not just some junk meal because I can. I just eat out someplace and get home cooked style food
that is not as artificial as the fast-food places. I watch my portion size too! For me, eating BFL is
about eating wholesome foods, not “dieting”. I was already a whole foods buff, but I still have
cake and hot dogs and what not on my free day but it is all natural products and usually a dessert
I made from scratch using wholesome ingredients. These things are not bad for you if you begin
with healthy ingredients. It’s that other stuff that is killing us all! Well, that and eating way too
much of it! So try to think in terms of long-term health when using your free day/meal. It is not an
opportunity to junk out. We should never ever have an opportunity to do that to our bodies! If you
are craving processed food, go make the item you are craving from scratch! I am NOT saying not
to eat cake, cookies, doughnuts, pizza, etc…just saying make them yourself using wholesome
ingredients. That is MY take on Free Day/Meal. ABS MAY APPEAR EVEN LATER THAN WEEK
10 IN LADIES!!
Here is a guestbook post from Jocelyn of Waco on 5/31/07 (whose husband works in a Snicker’s
Candy Bar plant by the way!!), followed by an email from her with a bit more information: “Thank
you all so much for your compliments! I trained my abs HARD like every other muscle. As the
layers of fat melted off they eventually uncovered my abs. It wasn’t easy; this is the first time in
my life I’ve seen abs, and that’s after having 2 kids lol. It’s possible, just not easy. I got my packet
sent in I also had delivery confirmation added to it, so at least I know EAS will get it “On
June 1, Jocelyn added dietary details to her remarkable results story: “My progress started
stalling out a few times. At week 10 I was at my old afters (from 03) measurements and weight
wise), I thought there was no more room for improvement. So I figured I’d end strong. I cut out
whole wheat bread and tortillas and pasta out after week 10, week 11 I cut out fruit and I upped
my water. Week 11 was when I started noticing my abs were coming out, I couldn’t believe it.
When I did my final measurements my hips and my thighs were both one whole inch each less
than my old afters (I didn’t think it was possible to get any smaller than that). In my 2nd challenge
I lost about 24 lbs, went from 26.9% body fat to about 12%, and I am in better shape than I EVER
have been before. I am smaller than I was in high school, better shape than the last times I did
BFL.” [Editor’s note: Dropping the starchy carbs in week 10, cutting out fruits in week 11 and
increasing water consumption really helps to drive out those last few pounds off fat and water
between the skin and abs, and is a strategy long used by professional bodybuilders and fitness
competitors.] And in an email to me she tells more about how it happened: “Wow Mike I am
very honored that you’d ask to put this in your success document! Of course you can!! My abs
didn’t appear until I was below my possible perceived smallest weight and waist size. I didn’t
think it could get better, I didn’t think I could see my abs. I felt them rock hard below that last
layer and in my very last week of this challenge they uncovered. Honestly I thought things
couldn’t get better, but I ate a little bit cleaner just to see and made sure I hit my 10’s and
they came out. (the bold is mine, not hers)The # of inches and everything is irrelevant, everyone
is different. When I had my week 10 results I didn’t think there was room for improvement, but I
found that there really was. I hope this is helpful to you! Thank you Mike ” EDITOR’S NOTE:
Jocelyn’s transformation was among those selected for featured challengers on the BFL
website. She is also a feature in a new infomercial for the P 90 X fitness program. She is
also a Beach Bodies grand champion and she currently lives in western Michigan.
From Michele B, received by email of 11/8/07: Mike, I promised I would send you information
for the ladies success journal, so here it is: During the first 6-7 weeks of the challenge I was one
of the “lucky” ones. What I mean by that is I saw steady weight loss on the scale during those
weeks. However, when I took my week 6 picture I saw little change. There was some drop in
inches, and I went from a 16 to a loose fitting 14but still not a 12. At the end of 8 weeks I
wondered if I had any chance of seeing the “8 week miracle” that so many women with little to no
weight loss speak of getting. Somewhere around week 10 I started seeing the difference. The
size 12 pants fit, and the next week they were loose. By week 12 I was in a comfortable size 10!
The inches seemed to melt faster after week 10, and people started noticing it in my new body.
Even one of the very conservative guys at work commented on my weight loss! That was when I
knew it was real. I lost 24lbs total over the 12 weeks, but dropping from a size 16 to a 10 was the
bigger accomplishment. The best part was when my husband stared at my legs one day while I
was tying my shoes before a run. He said he was amazed at how strong my legs have gotten,
and that he could really see the muscle coming out. After 17 years of marriage I’m thrilled that he
is still checking out my legs! One of the women at work told me I look “fit”….me, fit? Imagine
that! I’ll be forty in less than a year, and thanks to BFL I am on my way to 40 and FABULOUS! I
have more energy than ever, and I’m not even the least bit moody anymore (yes, I admit I WAS
moody). The sugar highs and lows are gone, and the cravings have gone from cupcakes to long
runs. I’m training for a half marathon now and am currently running over 7 miles without falling
over on the side of the road…all thanks to my improved body…thanks to BFL and hard work! I
hope this helps someone else hang in there. I wanted to give up more than once, but I stuck it
out with the support of the wonderful people in my life, especially on the GB. If you are a lady
reading this…YOU CAN DO IT! The end result is WORTH the difficult days. And here’s the best
part. I am still exercising regularly with cardio and weights, eating 6 meals each day, and
following a maintenance eating pattern and the weight is still coming off. I would like to drop one
(or 2) more sizes, and I know I can do it by completing another challenge after the half marathon.
Life is good! Michele
FROM LIL OFF THE GUESTBOOK on 12/3/07: Robin, 8 Week Miracle Story here. If you are
frustrated with or questioning your progress, I am a living 8-week miracle. At weeks 6 and 7, I
was considering whether I had the ability to lose weight at all. I saw no change in my pants.
Around week 8, people at my office started commenting, and I noticed a change in my pants, etc.
From that point on, I saw almost daily changes. End of challenge results: 15.5 lbs lost; down .
8% body fat; all tape measurements went down,; my waist went down the most (2 inches). Mike,
feel free to snip and drop this into your ongoing “book.” Thank you to all who helped me along the
way! I am so glad I finished! I am so proud. Thank you, thank you. 1/23/08 KARLA sent this to me
via email: “In my first 4 weeks of BFL, I had the normal 4 week freak-out because I wasn’t seeing
any really noticeable results. I’d lost 3 pounds and nothing more. Then I ran upon your “Success
Document” and had hope of what I might begin to see at the 8th week. The 8th week came and I
did think I was seeing some changes. So, I pulled out the measuring tape and I had lost 3 inches
off of my waist. By the 12th week, I’d lost a total of 5 inches off of my waist. I also fit into a smaller
pants size in the 11th week. After taking all of my measurements, I was down 6 inches all over.
The definition of muscle that I was seeing in my legs and my arms also began around the 9th
week. Now, that scale of mine wasn’t doing much in terms of moving, but I was definitely seeing
and measuring those changes. Right then I knew for myself that the scale is NOT a good
measure of how well I was doing on this plan. I don’t care now what the scale says…if I can look
good at this weight then so be it. That is what I’m after anyways. So, to sum it all up, at the end of
12 weeks, I lost a grand total of 8 pounds and 12.75 inches. So, I lost 5 more pounds and almost
another 7 inches in the last 4 weeks of BFL!! BFL works!! Just keep with it and don’t give up or
give in!! I can’t imagine what I will look like from here on in. It can only get better and better!!!
Then, KARLA, who already had the lady success document added: “I know when I doubted, I
would re-read that document and keep working hard knowing it would happen!”
FROM LINDA from Winnipeg, on 3/31/08: “One week ago, I posted voicing my frustration with
lack of weight loss and no change noted on pictures between weeks 6 and 9. I was hoping for the
results most women get in weeks 8 and 9. Well, I weighed in yesterday at the end of week 10 and
I was down 6 lbs! My new jeans are so loose they are uncomfortable. So, hang in there! It will
happen.” HERE IS LINDA’S end of challenge information: “ Day 84! I’m happy with the results.
I lost 10lb. Very strange…I lost 4 in the first 2 weeks and 6 in week 10. My goal was 135 and I’m
at 144 so I have a ways to go. Better than scale results though, I lost 2 inches on my chest, 3 and
a half on my waist, 3 on my hips and 1 and a half from my thighs. My menopot is nearly gone and
I feel great. I am taking a few days to rest and reflect on new goals before starting again.”
FROM JULIE OF MERRIMACK N.H.: on 4/12/08: “Lynette – I took two weeks off between
challenges with the recommendation of Mike Harris. I was only going to take one week but I sure
am glad that I took two. I didn’t gain anything back, actually lost a 1/2 lb. and felt much stronger
when I started back up this past Monday. I will do the same thing again after this challenge! Your
body totally needs that rest from all the heavy lifting.”
6/17/08, posted by Mary Okoniewski from somewhere overseas: “DAY 85! Thank you so
much it has been an awesome journey- I could not have done so without the guest book, blogs,
and the support of other people. I am so thankful – I joined the military 23 years ago because I
lacked self discipline. I realized shortly thereafter that self discipline comes from within and that
could not be instilled by another. I went about my days letting life happen to me, not really
concerning myself with my lack of discipline. These 12 weeks have been a challenge in several
ways, as they are for most (if not all) I’m sure. For me… I’m retiring from the US NAVY after 23
years of service, I just completed my BS on June 6th, my daughter graduated from high school
last week, I’m coordinating three separate household moves, I don’t have employment after the
service(I know it will come:), my girls leaving their friends.. moving once again…, trying to be the
rock, stable and supportive, has been difficult. But through it all I have derived my strength and
determination from all of you here and have inspired three others to take the challenge. Let me
share what happened on cardio day Week 11 – my workouts were getting pushed later and later,
my eating wasn’t “clean” 100% but rather clean and never missed a workout. I was running
people here and there… and was to go out for lunch when I realized.. no, I HAD to workout – so in
the 90 degree heat I put my running gear on and went. As I was jogging along I realized – this
was it – this was SELF DISCIPLINE – I was so happy – I never imagined that this journey would
lead me there – what I’ve admired in others my entire life I now had. What a gift – I ran 2.5 miles in
20 minutes! Hit my HIITs and set a personal record. When I returned home I looked up self
discipline in the dictionary just to be sure – self discipline: the regulation or correction of one’s self
for the sake of improvement. WOW – Thank you Bill Phillips, Guest book, Champion Bloggers,
and numerous others. I have received the greatest gift. I love my new self and looking forward to
the taking and facing my next challenge whatever it maybe. Thank you and I will continue to read
and hopefully inspire.
I’m sitting here… surround by movers…who don’t speak my language…LOL… all that is left in my
room is my computer!!! YIKES My Body Life Success Journal has been packed- oops- these guys
are good. I thought I might share some of the numbers with you!
I am a 43 yr old female, 5’6″ tall, who started BFL on the 24th of March 2008. I weighed 178lbs,
my waist was 34″, my thighs 26 1/4″, I wore a size 14. Today, i weigh 157!! and my waist is a slim
28 1/2″.. my thighs 24 1/4″…and wearing a size 10 but tried on three pairs of 8’s two weeks ago..
and YES I can wear an 8… is that CRAZY???? Yes crazy… but wonderfully so!!! it WORKS!! I
saw the physical results early on and then very slow – but the greatest reward is not in the
numbers but on the inside … although don’t get me wrong – the numbers ROCK!!!! I’m sorry if I’m
rambling… just so pleased and thankful.”
Posted by Janice from Indiana, by post and email of 10/22/08: My journey began because I was
at the end of my rope, I had tried and failed at every weight loss program there is. Truth be
known, I used the weight to hide behind, and even though I am outgoing and an extrovert, I have
low self-esteem. The program was recommended to all members of the gym I go to, so I bought
Bill’s book, read it, and was immediately hooked, I COULD DO THIS, I was sure. Like all of us, I
was mortified by my before pictures, but my liberation began the day I posted them on tracker, it
was one of the hardest tasks I have ever accomplished. Over the course of the next nine weeks, I
would post pictures and not see much difference with my eyes (others apparently could see
things I could not). Week 9 was a horrible week for me. I ate a box of chocolate caramels by
myself and came home in tears that night, certain that I was in a stage of self-sabotage.
Fortunately, there was the BFL Community. They rose to the challenge and got me through my
darkest hour. Oddly enough, when I posted my 9 week pictures at the end of the week I could
actually see the changes myself. Bear in mind, the changes I saw were nowhere near the
changes that others saw. The next day someone on the tracker website noticed my pics and
started a thread about them, I was shocked and amazed that others thought I had done
something great. That was the catalyst that pushed me over the edge and gave me the
determination to go on.
I am 54 years old. To date, I have lost between 5 and 6 lbs. of weight. Hey, NO BIG DEAL. 5 lbs
is 5 lbs but, more importantly, I have lost 16 lbs of body fat and gained 11 lbs of muscle. I have
lost nearly 16 inches, including 4 inches from both my waist and my hips. WOW!! Oh and my
Body Fat has dropped about 9%. The eight week miracle doesn’t always hit at week 8,
sometimes it is at 6 weeks, sometimes not until weeks 9, 10, 11 or even 12, but it will hit!! Hang in
there, please do not give up. Body for Life is not really about the external changes although they
are a huge plus, but they are about the internal changes, learning to love ourselves so others can
love us for who we are. I was by no means perfect on the plan, I stumbled, but BFL gives you the
opportunity to pick yourself back up and get back on track. One meal or one day or one week is
not going to completely derail anyone, the important thing is to pick yourself back up and get your
act together, so you can achieve the life and the body you want for yourself. I encourage you to
share your pics online, if not for yourself, then for others who may be inspired by your success.
Even if you can’t see changes, others will if they are there. The successes you cannot see may
well be the ones that save someone else’s life.
From Alicia, on the guestbook, 3/13/09 [the post was directed to a specific person whose name
has been deleted here]
Let me just say I know where you are coming from. I work two jobs and I am the soul provider for
my husband, two dogs and myself. I am sure your life is a little chaotic and hectic, even more so
than mine. But I want you to take that fear and channel it into this program.
I know that you are afraid of the results and not seeing what you want. I have tried every fad diet
out there as well as every pill. I would spend 90 minutes on my ellipical and tried to burn more
calories than I was taking in, and not in a good way. I thought if I ate a pizza I would just have to
work out harder the next day, and I thought that was healthy. I was very skepitcal when my
husband told be to read the BFL book.
But here I am closing in at the end of my week 10, I have lost all the weight I set for a goal in the
beginning!! I have quit smoking after 20 years, I eat right and I am truly in better shape than I ever
was!!! You can do this. If you plan well and take some time out on Sunday premake meals, and
plan your workouts you will succeed. Then you will have the best feeling about yourself and your
accomplishments. There were times during my challenge that I wanted to quit, when I didn’t see
anything happen to my body then the miracle happened. Around week 7-9 I woke up and it was
just there. I have abs, I fit into all my clothes I was going toss because I was to fat to fit into, and I
was running faster, lifting more. I had more energy and was not napping on the sofa all weekend.
I am living life and feeling great for my accomplishments!!!
I know you can you do this. Your life right now is a big Challenge, working, school, single Mom,
and you are surviving, you are pushing forward. You aren’t letting things get you down there, you
just keep pushing. And that is all the BFL Challenge is, pushing yourself and going farther. If you
weren’t going to school right now you would be stuck never learning, never moving forward. And
that is exactly what this is, learning using that knowledge to move forward and grow. YOU CAN
DO THIS!!!
A personal email from Alisha with her statistics at week 10: “Thanks Mike. I feel so good and
privileged that you want to add me, and I hope to help others when they think “this
just isn’t working” or if they are skeptical. I have read it and it helped me when I
thought I would throw in the towel.
I was 139lbs at my first weigh in and my goal was to be 120-125lbs. I currently
weigh 124lbs. When I was 139 and only 5′ 2″ I was wearing a size 9 or 10 and now
I am down to a size 2-4 depending on the pants.
Thanks again Mike, without your help and your knowledge I am not sure I would be
where I am today.”

Lori from Colorado on 5/1/09, an email that I requested after seeing a post on the guestbook. The key topic here is the 2 weeks of active rest, but the challenge results as well will be of considerable interest to those of you who think you just didn’t see much happen:
“Hello Mike,
I started my challenge January 19 and completed it on April 12th. I had very few results initially and really wondered if the “8 Week Miracle” was true. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? Week 4 found me somewhat discouraged, but all of you encouraged me to keep going.
By week 7, I thought I was starting to see some slight changes but continued on. Once week 9 hit and I took measurements I realized ‘something’ was beginning to happen for me at last. Weeks 11 and 12 flew by and I didn’t realize the truth of what had occurred until I viewed my final photos.
At week 12, I had lost a total of 8 pounds (151 to 143) and my body fat went from 26.4% to 21.8 %. I lost a total of 11 inches in hips, chest, waist and thighs. By April 21st my weight was down to 141.
During my 3 weeks of active rest, I continued eating 6 meals a day with very little change to what I did during the challenge. My free days were actually a little ‘free-er” with my birthday and a trip to Vegas occurring during this time. I had cheesecake and other yummy foods on my birthday, and one Vegas buffet and one visit to a Mexican Restaurant on the same day. I did plan very well for my Vegas trip and brought food for my regular days. I took cooked chicken, apples, oatmeal, boiled eggs, protein pancakes, protein shake packets and a few protein bars. My suitcase was still under 50 pounds!!
( Ah…who needs clothes in Vegas anyway!!) (kidding) This lasted me to my free day with enough ‘good’ food for my trip home on Monday. My free day was a doozy and I did pay for it with a stomach ache that night. It was so good to have a reminder of how wonderful you feel when eating properly 6 days a week.
Today, near the end of my 3 weeks of active rest, I had my weight and body fat % checked with a very accurate piece of equipment. My body fat during active rest dropped from my end of challenge 21.8 % to 18 %. My weight dropped from 143 to 138. My friend bought me size small workout clothes and I thought she was dreaming. I have NEVER seen myself as ‘small!’ Now I do because they fit!
My various workouts during active rest included some light yoga, pushups, abs, walks with my kids, an outdoor run or two, a first attempt on the Precor elliptical machine (loved it), stretching, few pull ups and some parts of a video for legs. I had one session with a trainer for abs. I did what I wanted and did no weight lifting at all. My cardio was relatively light and I enjoyed myself. I also had a massage….does that count?
I am really happy in my skin once again and now feel as if I have the ability to continue this lifestyle. I realize I do not have to be constantly pushing myself to stay in shape. With the principles I’ve learned from Body for Life and the faith I used to get through the tough stages, I am empowered to help others achieve success. To me, that is what truly matters.
Thanks Mike for your support and kicks in the pants! I have needed both. I’m so excited to see what the future holds. I feel more alive than ever.

Sincerely, Lori

11/28/09: And even if you don’t get an 8 week bump or “miracle,” that’s not to say you won’t see great results. Some people are just more like the paper towel theory. Here’s BRIGIT from Virginia describing the results of her two challenges.
“I turned 48 at the end of May, 2009, and was disgusted with how I had let myself go. Seeing my ‘before’ pictures was devastating and there was no room for denial. Was I “too old” to turn this around? Where would I be by 50 at this rate? It was a terrifying thought. I started Challenge 1 on 6/10/09. I experienced steady results throughout despite a fair amount of travel. The “paper towel ” effect was evident as I steadily lost 1.5 pounds a week, just melting away steadily. There was no 8 week miracle for me, which was really disappointing. I wanted a spectacular transformation like I saw in the books. Regardless, I felt better; my energy increased, and things were slowly changing. At the end of the first 12 weeks my body fat had dropped by 9%. from 43% to 34%. I lost 22 pounds of fat and gained 2 pounds of muscle, so the scale dropped 20 pounds from 175 to 155. I went from size 18 jeans to size 10. I was happier, healthier and determined. Now that I knew what to do, I planned to just keep doing it.

“I completed my official challenge packet and sent it in. Because the official round dates fell as they did, I went directly to challenge 2 with no active rest. That was a mistake. Active Rest for a minimum of 2 weeks is not only ideal, it is essential. IMHO, the body needs time to recover and repair and the mind needs a reset period.

“My second challenge was from Sept 2 to Nov 24 and was filled with real life issues. I went on a cruise and was fine, because I knew how to eat properly now. I traveled 3 weeks in the back woods with no gym and no running water, and still I was fine. I ate clean and worked out every day regardless of my location, and I challenged myself to get some sort of workout in regardless of circumstances. My body was changing I could feel it, but once again there was no 8 week miracle. “POUT!”. However, those jiggly flaps under my arms were gone now, and when I crossed my arms I could feel my own biceps. I was able to lift and carry lots of large, heavy things with minimal strain and no damage/injury to myself. I have stamina and endurance now. Oh, how nice it was to surprise the men–especially the young ones!

“It is very affordable to travel with shakes and bars. The planning is what kept me on track. This is Body-for- Life, not just Body-for-A-While right? I needed to be able to do this wherever I was and with whatever life was throwing at me. I think I have proven to myself that I can. During challenge 2 I lost 17 pounds, 9% body fat, and 4 jeans sizes. .

“Challenge Fat % start- end Scale start-end Fat lbs lost Size start-end
1 43% to 34% 175 to 144 22 18 to 10
2 34% to 25% 155 to 138 19 10 to 6

“I will be maintaining this for at least a month of Active Rest. I also find myself thankful for the slow steady loss as my skin has mostly kept up with it to include what was my sagging belly ‘apron’ which is now on its way to revealing some abs… maybe by Valentine’s day!”

From here on out, it’s literally a sprint until Christmas and then the end of 2009. How will you remember this year? As a mixture of success and failures? As nothing significant at all? As the biggest year of your life? 

Well, how you remember it will largely be determined by how you finish it. Somewhat like golf, life is divided up into “rounds” that we call years. And like golf, the round isn’t over until the last hole is played. And, if you’re a golfer you’ll understand this, how you remember a round of golf is usually by how you played one particular hole, and unless that experience was quite unusual, the last hole is usually the one that sticks in your mind longest. How you finish the last hole also has a lot to do with how soon you want to play again!

So, whether or not you’re officially enrolled in the Holiday Challenge or not, I’m asking  you to think about finishing the year by sprinting toward the RIGHT goal this year. Sprint toward a goal that finds you more focused on giving than getting. Sprint towards a goal that has you more focused on eating RIGHT rather than eating long or eating big. Sprint towards a goal that has you fitter, leaner, more efficient and less needy, but also wildly extravagant toward others who need things and need grace just to keep going under the burdens of their lives.

And, start today towards this sprint to the end of 2009. Life really does go so much more smoothly if we stay in today. Yesterday can only serve as a reminder of our successes or failures that day, and worry won’t change it. Tomorrow, no matter how hard we strain to control it from today, will NEVER turn out as good as we hoped it would, or as bad as we feared it might! In fact, tomorrow never comes. We truly only have TODAY to live in and to do what we will with it.

Want to see a movie that will uplift you this Christmas season? I’m no movie expert by any means, but “The Blindside” is a great movie loosely based on a true story, and the Jim Carrey version of Christmas Carol is both impressive and spectacular. If you have your mind open to what you can do for others that will improve your own attitude, either one of those movies is going to help you figure out how!

This is the first in a series of ten blogs about the elements of a life well-lived. It is not DIRECTLY about Transformation principles, but I promise you that every one of the principles I write about is beneficial for helping you to complete and retain the results of an excellent transformation, and to build on it day by day for many years. This material comes from a presentation I give to men who wish to live an effective life of lasting faith. The principles are equally applicable to women, and they will work well no matter your faith or your current spiritual condition.

We are created and hard-wired for stories—to listen to them, to relate them, and to live them. Pay attention to your story; put it in writing, and commit it to memory.

 Your story will change more lives than your job, your reputation or your checkbook. Life is short—live, organize and commit your story to writing now.  You don’t know how much time you have left, and if you die without telling your story, what do you leave to others?  “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” (From the letter of James in the New Testament)

If you have read this far already, stay with me a while. I know what many of you are thinking—“no one would find my story interesting or inspirational. I haven’t accomplished a thing yet.”  Well, that’s not exactly accurate, unless of course you are much younger than I think.  If you are reading this you have made a commitment to do something that few other people seriously do—to remake your life physically, emotionally and maybe even spiritually.

I cannot think of a thing that is more important in remaking your life and your body than keeping a thorough journal of your activities. A journal helps you remember what you did, and it helps you to understand what worked and what didn’t. Simply reviewing that journal every couple of days will give you a flyover view of your activities of the last few weeks and will save you a lot of time in planning all your future activities—because all you have to do is to mark the spot where you did the activity that worked, and just do it again for the current day.  You can also keep track of foods and supplements and calories. You can record all your exercises—including your beginning and ending weights lifted, as well as positions of seats on exercise machines. A journal should be carried with you wherever you go.

So, if you go to all that trouble to create an exercise and food journal, for just a few minutes more at the end of each day you can journal in the other things that added value to your life.  Enter the celebrations, and  the passages of lives of others or your own. Make notes about the little personal goals you established and met that day, and take a few moments to plan out that next day as well.  Also note any special events that took place on a particular day, because that may help you to put a lot into perspective. For example, in my last transformation journal, I put down the day that my Brittany spaniel dog, Millie the wonder dog, died.  In my current journal, I have the day that our new dog George came to live with us. These are dates I never want to forget!

Once you are done with the twelve week challenge, your journal will also help you to write your contest entry.  It will help you tremendously to relive the experience of the whole journey.

The next thing you need to do for yourself is to create two minute and five minute versions of your story! See, you’ll find that few people unless they know you really well will listen to you for more than 2 to 5 minutes, depending on circumstances. Have you ever had the frustrating experience of seeing someone in the gym who came up to you and asked you what you were doing to see such great results, and then as soon as you start to tell them, they wander off or start looking around or at their watch? It’s not that they don’t care—it’s just that you don’t have their undivided attention! How do you get it?

Well, begin your story with something like, “I never thought I could lose twenty pounds of fat so easily……and all by just exercising less than 3 hours a week!  I tried all the other stuff and none of it worked, but this does! You can do it, too, and it doesn’t even require any special skills or expensive diet supplements.  Here’s the name of the book I read, and my phone number’s at the bottom if you have any questions. I’m not a trainer, but I’d love to help you get started on this if you are interested. This program can change your life!” Then, just hand them a card that you’ve prepared and printed off on calling card sized cards. Mine say, “Mike Harris”, along with my phone number, and the name of the book(s) and then “2006 Body for Life Champion.”  They probably cost me less than 25 cents a piece to print, even on the heavier stock paper I used, and I just keep them with me always, in my billfold and in my workout journal. This little moment is sometimes all the time you have with someone, but the key is to tell them something great quickly, and then assure them THEY can do it too, and give them something they’ll remember or be able to look at. This is the two minute version.

The five minute version can be a little more interactive and is usually appropriate for formal settings instead of casual contact situations. I often give my five minute version when I’m waiting with people, or riding on commercial transportation, or sitting next to someone at a dinner party who is interested in what I do. It can allow a bit of time for a few questions, and still will leave people wanting to know more.

The more you do this the more confident you’ll become in telling your story and the more joy you’ll build into your life. Trying to help others with absolutely no monetary or other expectation in return is truly the most rewarding activity any of us can do.  

“Most of you people have read enough of my writings on the forums or guestbooks or blogsites to know that I have little patience for people who are just not at all committed to the cause. And my lack of patience is for a good reason–I want to help those people who have not only potential, but true desire to make their lives better. I just don’t have the time or skills to figure out how to motivate the unmotivated, to educate the unwilling, or to rescue those who don’t want to be saved!

See, “potential,” which I define as “ability that has stalled in the middle of the road” is not your friend–it is actually your enemy. “Potential” is one of those words that works best at a funeral or when ruminating about someone who has gone on–either by dying or going to prison! It’s a sad word, usually in sentences like, “it’s too bad about what happened to him–he has sooo much potential!” And the person with the potential is usually the last to know–he’s certain he’s smarter and more gifted than the rest of us–and that his time is coming soon.

Want a concrete example of “potential?” How about football player Lawrence Phillips? Never heard of him? Well, he was a terrific running back at the University of Nebraska–an early favorite to receive the Heisman trophy, and then too bad about that time he dragged his girlfriend down the stairs by her hair and beat her up and got suspended! But they worked with him and he finished out his college career early and went with the St. Louis Rams. 6th overall in the draft, Phillips was expected to be great with St. Louis but was kicked off the team for being unwilling to practice or follow orders and Coach Vermeil at the time called Phillips “potentially” the best running back he had ever coached.

Phillips then went to Miami where he was soon cut due to attitude and assaulting a woman in a nightclub. He laid out a while, played arena football and left the team without notice, went to canadian football where he was quickly suspended from two different teams for insubordination and arguing with coaches.

In 2005 he drove his automobile into a crowd of teenagers after playing playground football with them, and was jailed and eventually convicted of some of the assault charges for that. Currently he awaits sentencing on a charge of once again assaulting a woman, his girlfriend, and nearly choking her to death.

Larry Phillips, great potential–and hopeless future. Now, I am sure that most of the people who want help from you but are unwilling to do what you say, or to follow the rules, or to complete anything correctly, will not harm you or steal anything from you–except your time. But, your time is your most valuable resource.

So, before committing a great deal of time to rescue someone from himself, ask some good questions. “Why do you want to do BFL?” “What are your goals?” “Who are you doing this for?” “When is the last time you actually felt like a real success?” “What in your life will have to be rearranged or lowered in priority to allow you to do this?” If someone has no clue to any of these, then that is A CLUE that you might be dealing with someone who is just going to waste your time and ultimately blame you for their sorry results.

I firmly believe in helping others–even the helpless others. But, only if they truly want to change. If they are getting more out of staying sorry and sick than they would out of getting healthy, you’re wasting your time. Be generous with your time, but don’t cast your pearls before swine!

When I’m out with George, my newly adopted 7 year old Lab, at  0 dark 30 in the morning, I get to spend a lot of time thinking. Though I technically am walking George, he is actually walking me, since he is always out ahead of me, setting the pace and the course. So, I have loads of time to think, and I leave my I pod home so I am not needlessly distracted by it. Here are some of the things I thought about this morning. Probably none of them were original but they were interesting to me as they just kind of flowed through a mind that was uncluttered that early in the day.

1. If something looks wrong to me, I should first consider my own perspective. The moon and stars look entirely different at 6:00a.m. than they did at 10:00 p.m. but they haven’t changed—only my perspective of them has. Perspective often determines our political, social and economic opinions, and others who come from different perspectives have different opinions than mine. They are not necessarily wrong, just different.

2. Most things I do have three phases to them. There is the “I get to” phase, the “I ought to” phase, and the “I have to” phase.  By the time something gets to the “I have to” phase, my options and joy are gone!

3. When I leave my I Pod home, I hear, see and notice a lot more than I otherwise would. When the ears are busy, the mind focuses on what they are hearing. When the ears aren’t busy, the mind and eyes are working much better. Apparently there is such a thing as distracted walking, as well as distracted driving!

4. The more I walk my dog, the less poop I have in my yard. BUT, to have happy neighbors, that poop needs to end up in my trash barrel, not their yards. That’s why God still makes plastic bags!

5. Who is my neighbor anyway? These days, there are no real neighborhoods, front porches or events. We have a neighborhood watch sign at the entrance to our housing association, but we don’t really have a neighborhood. That’s too bad—I remember back when—back when we all knew all our neighbors, what they were doing, and what they thought of the rest of us.

6. Loyalty is a great and admirable trait. It seems to come naturally to dogs, but not to cats or humans.

7. I hear devoted military people say this a lot, “I’m just doing my duty.” And they mean it. Still, they get a good deal of satisfaction with doing their duty. If you want more than just satisfaction, if you want true joy, do something good for another, but something that is not your duty! When we give not out of obligation or duty, we are acting like God, giving without an expectation of return, and that really does produce great joy.

George at Home

8. The mind really needs free time. Not casual time, but free time. Playing solitaire or surfing the web is casual time, but for the mind it isn’t free time. Walking a dog is free time for the mind…….and the dog!

There are many, many variables in transformation challenges but there is one thing that every successful challenge has in common—adversity.  Adversity is an unanticipated and serious interruption of the challenge routine, and it can be anything from an illness or injury to the unexpected loss of a loved one or some other disruption of a relationship.

When adversity comes to you, be prepared to welcome it, and to use it to your advantage during the remainder of the challenge. Yes, you read that right! I want you to literally welcome adversity. I’m not talking about being glad to see it, but acknowledging its presence, and accepting that this is the way it is. Then, set out to do what it takes to be a winner!

See, it’s not that I am a fan of adversity, I just don’t like pain or suffering. But, I do like what it does to those who are willing to assume the appropriate mindset when it comes. There is an old saying, that has some real truth to it, and it goes like this: “What does not kill you will make you stronger.”
Here are some examples of real live adversity that has propelled people to championship results:
1. Jerry Braam, a 2001 champion, spent a week in the hospital with the flu, and as soon as he got out, he went right back to his challenge and achieved remarkable results, becoming a champion in his age group.
2. Julie Whitt did her challenge with the breathing capacity of one-half of one lung, and literally had to wear supplementary oxygen while working out. She became the 2004 inspirational champion.
3. Margi Faze, the 2007 grand master champion, spent nearly two weeks at home, unable to exercise, because she had to take care of a daughter with a fractured collarbone.
4. Though it was not a body for life challenge, Denise Taylor did her daily workouts at the hospital where her daughter was receiving treatments for cancer. She missed no time at all with her daughter, and exercised while she was asleep or in other routines at the hospital. Her accomplishments and the celebration of her daughter’s life are videos you can see over at transformation.com.
5. Though my situation was minor compared to others, I too saw that welcoming adversity could help more than anything else. I was simply unable to do most of the exercises when I started on August 26 2006, due to injuries, but just did what I could and stuck with the diet very strictly. In the end,  the pain was gone, and the world looked completely different than it did twelve weeks before!

See, it’s interesting that as human beings we crave comfort, ease and wealth. Yet, when we grow stronger is when we are placed under stress and sometimes even painful conditions.  This is not only a physical phenomenon, but a spiritual phenomenon as well. The Apostle Paul found his ministry most successful when he was in chains in prison; Martin Luther King wrote his most important work ever when he was in a Birmingham jail cell. Every sacred writing I am aware of, through doctrine or historical references, makes clear that those of faith are called to suffer as a part of their spiritual journey.

So, when adversity comes, welcome it. How? First of all, by calling it what it is and owning up to it. My big issue was self-pity, and self-pity is like a cockroach. If you call it what it is, you shed light on it, and just like a cockroach, the self-pity will go away because it hates the light.  Second, make a careful assessment. No matter how bad the problem is, you’re going to have to eat anyway, right? So, if all else fails, you can at least eat right. Do that!  And don’t quit trying just because someone told you that you couldn’t do ANY exercises at all. See, doctors are busy, and they hate to see their work undone, so they often just tell you something like, “no exercise for 6 weeks, until you get that ankle healed.” Well, common sense would tell you that as long as you’re not doing lower body exercises, that there are many, many things you can do to keep your upper body occupied. Do those things. The key is to stop worrying about what you CAN’T do, and to start doing what you CAN do.

Simple enough, don’t you think? So, when adversity comes, welcome it; quit whining; and start winning!

One of the most common reasons given for failing to successfully finish a challenge is peer pressure. Peer pressure is a real and powerful phenomenon. But it’s not as simple as it seems. Most people who feel what they say is peer pressure are experiencing a combination of peer pressure and low self-confidence. This is an important point, because the cure for one will not affect the other.

See, if you just lack self-confidence– which is a form of fear–you’ll always be tempted to take the way of least resistance, and others are always willing to allow you to do that, because it also makes life easier for them. For example, if you forced your spouse to do a transformation with you, once you lose confidence and decide to quit, that also relieves your spouse of having to do a transformation. It wasn’t your spouse who pressured you into quitting—it was your lack of confidence in yourself that did you in. The cure for all fear is right actions. If you do the next right thing in front of you for a while, you’ll realize that what you thought was all peer pressure was mostly just your own lack of self-confidence (fear) and others taking advantage of it.

If the peer pressure is real, that’s different. There, you need a few people who will be there for you, who are of the same mind you are. You need a small “community.” These should be BFL’ers who share the same goals and passions you do. This doesn’t mean they have to be there all the time, but you have to have people who can help you get through something with a phone call or an email or some other form of personal contact. With these like-minded people, you will not feel alone and vulnerable, and you’ll be able to resist the temptation that comes from your peers. You’ll feel like you’re doing something important and worth standing up for. This is the power of community. The stories of loners often make great movies, but in real life, loners get devoured!

Peer pressure never stops. It’s worst in your younger years, because you don’t have the experience to understand that being in with the in-crowd is not the way to happiness. But, even at my age, 63, peer pressure is here to stay. There are two ways for me to lose in a peer pressure situation, to give in to it, or to let the peers anger me. Either one diminishes my peace. Today, I choose to stay aligned with small groups of strong people who help me stay on track, and I choose to respect and accept people who disagree with me, without letting it bother me. It’s not easy to deal with others who are trying to change us, but it is certainly possible to do so. The key is to let them know that you are committed to what you are committed to, that they cannot change that, but that you respect them even though you do not agree with them. Be forewarned that any contact they initiate after you let them know there is no way you’re changing will usually be for the purpose of still trying to change you!

To review, look first within yourself to see if the perceived peer pressure is coming from your fears rather than from others. If it is from within, keep doing the next right thing in front of you, and you’ll conquer your fears. If it is from others, begin by accepting them and respecting them without allowing them to change you, and stay close to your small community.

I see it on the Body for Life guestbook all the time. The message from the newbie usually goes like this:
“I am really desperate to get fit. I can’t believe I have let myself go so far. I’ve got to do this now. HELP!!!
If our newbie only knew exactly how appropriate the word desperate was for his or her situation! The dictionary definition of desperation is:
“state of reckless behavior due to despair.”

And that is exactly what happens. The desperate newbies, out of recklessness, do not read the book thoroughly; they plan poorly or not at all; they crash diet, eating fitfully and poorly and without the energy to support the changes they want; they begin exercising without any clue of what they are doing; and soon enough they are either discouraged, or injured or out of energy, or all of these!

Why do they do this? Because it at least feels like they are finally doing something. See, most people who come here in desperation have lived much of their lives in that mode. They don’t know how to live proactively and to set and achieve goals in an organized manner. So, they simply let everything go until it reaches a crisis mode or dies of neglect. This is true for everything pretty much, but especially of things they don’t find naturally enjoyable. This is why students cram for tests; this is why toothaches always occur on weekends; this is why people are suddenly shocked to find that their expenses exceed their incomes.

Can desperate people be helped or will they just be here in roman candle mode, going from a bright shining ball of fire to small glob of ashes in just a moment? Well, it depends on whether they can catch one really important idea and understand the truth of it. Here is is:

DESPERATION IS NOT A SUITABLE SUBSTITUTE FOR PREPARATION, INFORMATION, AND PERSPIRATION—FROM WHICH FLOWS MOTIVATION!

See, what works to change poor habits and to produce concrete results is careful preparation, which means setting goals and readying yourself for the 12 week journey; thorough information, which comes from reading the book and understanding the process of what you are about to undertake; and perspiration, which is hard work in both the dieting and the exercise parts of this 12 week journey. After you do those things for a time, you’ll see some results, gain some confidence and then you’ll have motivation! You have to invest in your challenge before you will truly want to continue to do it. People always have this principle backwards. They confuse desperation with motivation, and they think it will carry them to the finish line. But true motivation comes from right actions not vice versa. That’s why listening to motivational speakers is not enough. It is the miracle of the moment and as soon as the speech is over the motivation begins to fade. To get lasting motivation you have to begin the behavior changes you want so badly.

As they say in the twelve step groups: “You have to act your way into better thinking instead of trying to think your way into better actions!”

So, if you are a desperate newbie, or you’re talking to one, be sure to remind yourself or the one you’re talking to that actions produce appropriate positive feelings and that desperation and all the recklessness that comes from it simply leads to a more spectacular failure.

            Friends, there are five elements to every truly complete transformation and believe it or not, they all begin with a P. Some of them you’ll look forward to, and some you’ll dread as they loom, but each one is absolutely certain to come along during your 12 or 18 week journey to a new you. They are the complete package, and this blog summarizes them. Let’s dive in, shall we?

            PURPOSE: Purpose is the foundation, walls and roof of your transformation. You were created for a purpose, and everything you do should be on purpose, and for a purpose. There is nothing in life as futile as doing something without a purpose. As you get ready for your transformation, think deeply about what you wish to accomplish (your goals) and also about what you will do with yourself once you achieve it. In other words, have a noble purpose, something that will benefit not just you, but others as well.  You see,  “I’m getting rid of my muffin top” is a purpose, but it is a pretty shallow one; whereas, “getting my diabetes under control so I can get back to work again” will benefit not only the trainee, but the family and others in his sphere of influence as well. So, have a carefully-thought-out, achievable and durable purpose that will last far beyond the end of your transformation.

            PREPARATION: This is critical. If you are one of those “ready, fire, aim!” kinds of folks, you will be frustrated and unfulfilled, probably ineffective too, during most of your challenge time. You have to do your shopping, your workout planning, and manage the entire structure of your life in a way that gives your transformation great priority, but which does not frustrate you or those around you. Don’t just prepare a week ahead—look way out, to anticipate any events in the time period of your transformation that you must cope with.

            PASSION:  Porter Freeman didn’t use this word, but he described it perfectly when he simply said, “you have to want it.” And, this is so hard, and so long, that you have to REALLY want it in order to last. That means starting with passion, a true desire of the mind, will and spirit to accomplish this thing.  That’s why you need the before photos to look at, the progress photos to keep you going,  and why you DON’T need to depend on the scales or the compliments of family or co-workers to keep you going. Passion has to come from within, and if you don’t have it, you’re setting yourself up for failure.  You get passion the old fashioned way, by ACTING passionately about something. Once you act that way, the feelings will follow.

            PAIN: This is the one you’re not looking forward to, but trust me—it’s truly mandatory in a great transformation. Don’t go looking for it—it’s like Enterprise Car Rental—it will come to you!  I’m talking about both physical and emotional pain here. One often causes the other, and they ride together in most peoples’ lives. But, why is it necessary? Well, why do you suppose the military and para-military groups put their elite troops through the pain of drills and survival exercises? Two reasons: it helps them to build character and endurance; and it teaches them that they can do more than they ever thought they could. When pain sets in, you’ll hear the old tapes running through your head—the ones that tell you: “that’s good enough; you can quit now; no sense in making a fool of yourself or going crazy here.” Those are the old ideas that always kept you from being the real person you want to be, and when you face down pain and keep going when every fiber in your body wants to quit, you ARE building character and endurance—as well as realizing you can do more than you thought you could.

            PERSEVERANCE: This is the lasting quality that will get you to the finish line, because of or in spite of all of the above-mentioned things.  This is also the rarest of good qualities. Without perseverance you’ll just find yourself with a collection of half-read books, half-completed journals, and half baked ideas, starting over and over again. And the saddest part of it that you won’t even realize it’s your own fault! As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The great majority of men are bundles of beginnings.”  The best way to ensure perseverance is to do or go through all of the other things, purpose, preparation, passion, and pain. By doing so, you will build so much value into this transformation that quitting is simply not going to be an option.

            You can do this! But you can’t do this successfully without a good deal of work in both the head and the heart! It’s a simple program, but it’s not easy. Mastering or conquering the P’s will definitely be the key to getting to the finish line safely and successfully.

How are your free days going?

I can’t think of anything that is a better predictor of whether someone is going to succeed in a body for life transformation than how the free days go. For those of us who have problems managing a safe and sane free day, it not only slows our progress if we pig out all day long, but it greatly increases our chances of giving up before the twelve weeks is over. It is not just the food itself, it is the guilt and shame that comes with the monstrous overeating, the depression that ensues from that, and the additional overeating that occurs as the trainee begins to give up. Pretty soon, the old “what’s the use?” rears its ugly head, and then the person is thinking that there must be a better, easier solution somewhere else.

I agree that BFL is anything but easy. It’s darned hard in fact. But unlike diets, what you are doing with body for life is utterly different than just losing weight. What you are doing with the carefully structured 6 small meals a day, and the intense but short exercising, is prompting and encouraging your body to burn fat and gain muscle at the very same time. This of course is great, but it also comes at a price. It requires constant disicpline and attention to what one is doing. Even on free day, it requires that a person have the discipline to stop at the end of the day. Those who cannot do this are not bad people, but they just have bad problems with food. Rather than a free DAY, for them a free MEAL is probably the very best idea.

I see the same patterns in people on BFL who cannot or will not manage their food intake as I did in myself and others when I was going through treatment for alcoholism. In other words, it is not a simple, easy matter to just stop overeating, because the addiction is a complex symptom of a much deeper problem.

Body for Life provides great temporary structure for those who struggle with an eating disorder. But by itself it is not designed to cure that eating disorder. Those who continue to struggle will want to look into some 12 step programs dealing with food or similar addictions if they hope to live a long, healthy life free of battles with food. It’s really not the food–it’s the underlying problem, and that’s where the 12 step programs can really step up (pardon the pun) and deal with the underlying issues.

I realize I’m not talking to the majority of those who read this blog, but there are lots of people who lurk on the website, and many of them read the guestbook and the blogs. My hope is that they might see this, and that if they are a person with an eating disorder that they will hang in there with the program of body for life, and that they will also take that next step, to forgiving themselves or others, and to looking into a specialized voluntary support group that can help them to confront their underlying problems without having to give up on their dreams to be healthy and free.

God bless, everyone!

O.K., maybe there ARE some things that are more worthless than what I’m about to talk about, but in the world of transformation athletics, these things–all mindsets–are right up close to the top! If you have them, read this carefully, and I’ll show you at the end how to get rid of them. They are challenge killers.

 GOOD INTENTIONS! This is the mindset that keeps saying to self and others, “O.K., that’s it! Tomorrow I’m absolutely going to start back on this with all I’ve got. No cheating, no missing workouts, no way–I’m in it to win it!” I cringe whenever I see that, because the word “tomorrow” is the clue that it will NEVER HAPPEN! This is just an immature way of acting and reasoning that has always led this person to failure after failure, but somehow it still makes sense to them to say it again and again. Good intentions–as the old saying goes, “the road to hell is paved with them.”

2. PERFECTIONISM! A perfectionist sets out to do this whole program just perfectly. And, when it can’t be done, he or she just starts over, and over, and over. Eventually, over and over leads to dropping out, and our perfectionist is always worse off than when they started. By the way, I also hate the saying “progress, not perfection,” not because it is wrong, but it is misused as an excuse for not trying your best. You owe it to yourself and others to try as hard as you can, but you owe it to yourself to also keep going when you don’t measure up to your own standards.

3. LIVING IN THE PAST! I’ll be 63 this week, and so I have lots of friends who are senior citizens. Unfortunately for many of them, real living stopped a while back, about the time they retired from their workplaces. When they talk with other guys, it’s all about what they used to do, and it not only is boring, but they don’t even realize that talking about things that start with “I remember the time…” really keeps them from forward vision about anything more important than looking for their sneakers so they can get to the early bird special. DON’T BE THAT GUY! Living in the past is not only ineffective, it becomes a way of slowly dying instead of living life to the utmost. You owe it to yourself and others to be the best you can be–TODAY! Not tomorrow, not perfectly, and not in the past!

The solution for killing off each one of these mindsets? ACTION. Consistent and persistent appropriate and effort-filled actions will eradicate these silly crutches. You’ll feel different once you take the right actions. You’ll think different. And others will like you a heck of a lot better. So, throw out your McDonald’s senior coffee cup, dust off those weights, and get back in the game–TODAY!

Someone asked me recently, “What are the three most important things I need to know to get and stay as fit as you are?” (This person doesn’t read this website, so let me just say that he is one of those people who prides himself on being intelligent, insightful, and efficient. So, that’s why he usually fails!) Here is what I told him:

1. Never fail to work out just because you don’t feel like it. Do the workout, and then you’ll feel like it.
2. Write down everything that goes in your mouth BEFORE it goes in your mouth.
3. Do something at least once a week to help someone who cannot pay you back, and don’t tell anyone about it.

My friend was disappointed. He simply said, “there has to be more to it than that.”  My response was, “these are the most important–the rest of it anyone can do.”

I am absolutely certain that he won’t follow this advice. His whole purpose in asking me that question was to try to find the “trick” or the best “tips” to getting fit. But, the bottom line is that each one of the principles I set out for him is something that most people have completely backwards. Most people believe that action follows moods, but the truth is that you must act your way to better thinking. Most people think that a diet journal should have in it what you’ve already eaten. But, writing it down before you eat it usually changes bad habits much more quickly. And so far as helping others anonymously, most people–though they rarely would admit to it–are looking for someone to help them so they can get ahead of others–which is why they never do!