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!

I’ll bet you thought that was a ridiculous title for a blog when you first read it, didn’t you! Well, hear me out before you write this off as silliness, please!

 

For those of you in other countries or just having come back from an alien kidnapping for 5 years or more, Michael Vick is an American football player who went to prison for operating a dog fighting business on the side, and for assorted other crimes based on his initial failure to come clean about what he was doing. He’s served his prison time and now is trying to make a comeback as a football player, and so the instantaneous news outlets are all debating the issue of whether all or certain parts of the USA can ever “forgive Michael Vick” for what he’s done.

 

Well, I don’t plan on EVER forgiving Michael Vick, only not for the reason you might think. I don’t plan on forgiving him because he never did anything to me to forgive him of.

 

See, this is where so many of us get it wrong—and also where we ourselves go so terribly and needlessly wrong. We take offense for something that never was meant to offend us, and then we carry that resentment or hatred in our heart forever.  The bottom line—and this is a critical spiritual principle—is that if you take up an offense for another, or just take up an offense against someone even though you’ve never been personally harmed by them, you have no real ability to forgive them. Those harmed or truly offended have the power to forgive them, and they will experience the healing that comes from forgiveness. BUT, if you who really were not the target of the behavior take up an offense against the person who did it, you’ll find yourself battling with recurring anger, resentment and all the other corrosive things that come from it.

 

But what in the heck does unforgiveness have to do with transformations? Everything, that’s all! See, a physical transformation that brings you no joy or achieves no change in your heart is worthless, and it will soon disappear. If you still have that hard heart and that bitter spirit inside, you’ll soon find yourself medicating with ice cream, pizza, brownies, beer, wine and prescription medications, all in an attempt to kill the pain of unforgiveness.

 

What is the way out? Admitting it. In order to admit you have unforgiveness you first have to look within fearlessly and fully. You can do that by thinking about the things that trouble you on a daily basis, the things you fear or avoid on a daily basis, and journaling about them or talking to a confidant about them. Soon, you can connect the dots, and I promise you that you’ll find an old, old resentment or huge offense against you in your past that you’ve never dealt with. And you will also find more than a couple of Michael Vicks in there too.

 

To get rid of the Michael Vicks is easy. Just recognize the mistaken offense and turn that whole issue over to your Higher Power and you’re done.  The true offenses you’ve never forgiven require real work. They require an intentional and active forgiveness, and a relentless unwillingness to bury that issue again until it is resolved. When you get it done, you’ll have the ability to feed your spirit good things again, and to experience true forgiveness of yourself as well as others. You’ll be able to feel joy again, perhaps for the first time in years, and you’ll be FREE! That freedom will allow you to break the grip of the drugs, alcohol, food or behavior that keeps enslaving you, that keeps defeating your attempts to complete a real transformation.

 

If you need help with the steps to forgiveness, drop me an email, which I will keep completely confidential, and I’ll try to help you.

 

 

Rick Warren, one of my all-time favorite authors and speakers, has a way with words and memorable phrases.  They aren’t just entertaining either; they’re very useful and life-changing in spiritual matters.

Here are some of my favorite phrases he uses: Of himself, he says, “Yes, I’m an addict–I’m addicted to changed lives!” I love that one,  because it describes me too.  I write these blogs and do all the speaking I do not because Body for Life, especially the spiritual aspect of it, has done so much for me and for others as well, and seeing others “get it” really does give me a rush! If you have to have an addiction, what more could you ask for than being addicted to helping others change their lives for the better?

Here’s another “Warrenism.”  “Resentment is the result of what others have done to you; guilt is the result of what you’ve done to others. We are not made to live with guilt or resentment,  because we were made to treat others and be treated by others with respect and good intentions.” [this is actually a paraphrase of a much longer talk on the topic.]  I love this saying, because  guilt and resentment cause more problems than all other human emotions put together–except fear. Guilt causes physical and mental deterioration, hiding and low self-esteem. It often leads to alcoholism or other chemical abuse. Resentment has exactly the same effects. Every twelve step or similar recovery program in the country recognizes these facts by steps that require people to deal quickly and thoroughly with guilt and resentment so that the cycle of dependency can be broken.  What I love about Warren’s statement is that he nails the reason that guilt and resentment harm us so much–we were not designed to treat or be treating cruelly. That’s just not the fuel we should run on.

One more: “Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it’s kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. …You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you’re going into self-centeredness, which is ‘my problem, my issues, my pain.’ But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.”

I don’t think I even need to tell you why I love that quote so much. Simply, it directs us to the solution and directs us away from self-centeredness or self-pity.

I hope you enjoyed these. More importantly, I hope you remember them and put them into practice. They’ll help you love others, love God, and love yourself appropriately–which is the true secret of the good life!

For Fitness Fanatics who crave a site that uses real names instead of names like “Hippy Pickle” and for people who want to be able to talk about their faith and hope with others, there is something “new” yet old that is ready for you now!  Just go to http://bflspirit.com/ and you can get started with the completely revived and reworked website that is the successor to the Torch. It will let you do anything you can do on any of the other sites, pictures, blogs, a database for your challenge, and you’ll enjoy the experience.

Plus, you will not find Hippy Pickle on there and have to run the risk of figuring out whether you’re communicating with a man or a woman or a sociopath!  Come see us! I am a regular blogger there, and there are several other writers you can read as well in case you’re getting sick of my blabber!

God Bless!

Without singling out anyone, I want to discuss the occasional posts on the guestbook that make it sound like the primary goal of a person’s challenge is to “show” someone how well the person can do. It generally revolves around the rather obstructive attitude of a spouse, significant other, former significant other, or a friend, and the goal is generally to get a good result and then push that into the face of the other person!

Well, I would just say that revenge, or even just plain old resentment, makes pretty lousy fuel to power a good challenge. I say this with some experience, because until I recovered from chronic alcoholism, my life pretty much consisted of living on alcohol, anger, resentment, envy, and the ultimate emotion that these produce–SELF PITY! I learned that no resentment is worth keeping, and that I simply couldn’t afford the luxury of carrying it around with me. Most importantly, I learned that I was getting something out of being resentful, though I certainly wasn’t consciously aware of it at the time.

The worst thing that resentment does is to turn over to another person the power to make you happy, sad or angry. The end product of all that frustration, unhappiness and dissatisfaction is to produce self pity and depression.

So, the heck of it is that you can really get going on a good challenge, to stuff it in someone’s face, but ultimately you’re going to be so unhappy that being fit is going to seem pretty much nothing at all.

It is far better to forgive the offense of the other and to spare all the agony–or better yet–overlook the offense and not even get angry. How do you do that? By treating them just as you would if they were completely supportive of you. By giving them the save attention, love and services you would under ideal conditions. This might not change them, but it will change you. It will FREE YOU to be the person you want to be, the person God wants you to be. Forgiveness is critical, to YOU, not them.

This is the toughest blog I’ve ever written. Millie the wonder dog, my 13 year old Brittany Spaniel, died last evening, July 10 2009 at home in Okemos Michigan. This is her “obituary.”

Millie Ruth Harris, a pure bred Brittany Spaniel, was born on April 24 1996 in Wichita Kansas. She was to be my son Eric’s hunting dog. Eric and my wife Ruth picked out Millie because she was “so cute and lively and kept running away from the other puppies of the litter!” How appropriate would those words turn out to be.

Millie soon left Kansas, where the bird hunting was plentiful, when we moved to Michigan in March 1997. She was there to keep my wife company while I was working and before we had made any real friends. It was while walking Millie that Ruth met one of her fast friends. In reality, though, you didn’t walk Millie–she walked you! She was so strong and so headstrong that she literally pulled on the leash all the way, glancing back with a look that said, “get the lead out–c’mon!”

That’s how the running thing got started. When I became interested in getting fit and needed to run as part of my regular cardio, no one wanted to run with me–except Millie! She was always ready, and she would literally drag me the entire two miles. Every day we would be out there, rain or shine, summer or winter.  Running with her in winter was perilous. More than once she pulled me right through a stop sign on icy streets with cars coming at us! Her winter specialty, though, was to run down by the river, run off the roadway and dive into a bunch of raspberry bushes that usually held rabbits and thorns of course. She would get hopelessly tangled up in the leash and the bushes and I’d have to go extract her!

Her other regular specialty was running away. She had a way of winning your confidence and lulling you into the notion that she’d stay in the yard while you were gardening or lying in the sun. And somehow in a moment she would be gone! We live in a village, but our home is right on the edge of a large wooded area with the river, so  when she took off, you had almost no idea how to find her again. She never came back home either! But, she would always eventually show up at the home of Ruth’s friend, the one she met while walking Millie.

In the last year Millie developed arthritis and was unable to run anymore. She took it much better than I did. I really missed her out there. Within the last few months she began to decline noticably and quickly. The vet tried what he could but said in a vettish way that she was just old and we should feed her well and keep her comfortable.

Though she was agitated and breathing heavily before she died naturally, she did not seem to suffer any pain or even any real  stress until just a couple of hours before she left us. She died right where she spent her spare time, sleeping on her side on her favorite pillow on our deck.

I’ve never been attached to an animal like Millie.  I miss her much already. I buried her this morning in the back yard area she loved.  This is hard!

PRINCIPLES TO TRANSFORM BY!
by: Michael Harris 7/2/2008
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1. Act your way to better thinking! In spite of opinion to the contrary, you cannot think your way into the right attitude, but taking the right actions will produce the right attitude. Do what you don’t feel like doing, and then you’ll feel like doing it!

2.When things look the worst, that’s the best time to begin a transformation! Popular opinion to the contrary, self-hatred may be the best chance you have to make a winner of yourself. It’s the good in you that hates the bad, and you have to talk to the good, feed it and grow it, and kill off all the bad. If you were all bad, you’d hate others rather than yourself!

3. To be successful, act successful! Successful people get up early, show up regularly, ready to play, and in uniform! They also keep their promises to themselves and others, even when it hurts! Your reputation is your only stock in trade, and your inner transformation is only as good as your reputation. You cannot sell it if you do not have it!

4. See that reflection in the mirror? You are looking at the problem!There is a world of difference between a condition and a problem. If it’s something you cannot control, you don’t have a problem, you have a condition. Though you cannot change it, you can change your perspective and view of it. The one problem you can for sure work on is you! Accept what you cannot change and change what you can—know the difference!

5. Just like your body, your spirit needs regular exercise as well! A. Deep knee bends—at prayer time. B. Stooping, to help another who cannot help himself.C. Reading the scripture or other sacred writings. Memorize a key thought each week.

6. The biggest impediments to a transformation, fear, resentment, envy and self-pity. Fear will paralyze you; force you to withdraw from your activity, and eventually drive you into hiding and depression. Action in the face of fear is the cure. Resentment will corrode you spiritually and emotionally from the inside out. Nothing worth doing can be accomplished in the face of resentment. Forgiveness is the only option. Envy will keep you from celebrating the achievements of others, and make you bitter, and self-pity will keep you in hiding forever!

7. Transforming is a risky enterprise! No risk, no gain!  There is significant risk in every transformation, risk of injury, embarrassment, failure or problems with relationships. A transformation challenge without risk is not worth doing. You can do more than you think you can! Your risk will be rewarded if you work as hard as you can!

8. Doing a couple’s challenge? Know your partner! A couple’s challenge will stretch, stress and test your relationship like nothing else. To make it rewarding, remember this:
A. A woman’s deepest needs are unconditional love and security. Without them, she is NOT happy! Unconditional love is to be given, and is not earned! “quit whining” is not love language!
B. A man’s deepest need is respect. Respect is unconditional and is not earned. Letting a man know through word or deed that you believe he is deficient in some material way, in strength, knowledge or passion, will wound him far more than you can imagine. Comparing his results to another man who looks better is also not a good idea.

9. Self-promotion never achieves worthy goals! Self-promotion always leads to frustration and disappointment. No amount of success or adulation is ever enough for the self-promoted person. Why then do we take those photos and do those essays? So that others will know, and will have assurance that you did what you said you did and that they too can do it.

10. The greatest thing a champion can do–leave a legacy!
A. If all you leave behind when you’re done is a leather jacket and a trophy, you have wasted your time and missed the whole point!
B. To leave a legacy, look within your spheres of influence (family, organizations or work) and find people who will do what you did, and will pass it on to others. Will your family emulate you or mock you in the end? It depends on YOU!

After the Challenge–What Then?
by: Michael Harris  3/19/2007

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So, your results were good, and you’re looking forward to living a “normal life” now. Only one thing is bothering you–you’re not sure what that is going to look like. You are also more than a little worried about your ability to hold onto this newfound you, right?

First, the “good news.” It never takes as much effort and suffering to maintain good health as it does to get it back. You won’t have to work out quite as hard, nor will you have to eat quite as strictly to maintain your physique. Now, the bad news–you’ll have to figure out how to do it on your own!

Continuing to eat the six smaller meals a day helps make your new life easier. Since the whole purpose of eating six small meals a day is to stabilize insulin levels and blood sugar levels, which minimizes cravings, mood swings, and fat formation, it makes sense to keep that up. If you lost weight and burned fat while on the six small meals regimen, and you are now at or below the weight you want to be, then you’ll need to add a bit to each meal. Eating 42 meals a week, you really only need to adjust upward about 50 to 100 calories to stop the weight loss cycle. As an example, if your “meal” is a Myoplex, all you would need to do is add about 3/4 of a tablespoon of flaxseed oil to the shake and you would add about 100 calories to that meal. Just an ounce more meat or a slightly larger carb would accomplish the same things. So, whatever you do, don’t go back to eating plates full of food at each opportunity. Make very small dietary adjustments, or you’ll be trying to catch up with the gigantic swings that can take place!

You’ll know when you get there with the diet. It will feel right. The key is to still stay away from the “trigger foods” that cause you issues, and to allow for the usual free day excesses as well. Sugary snacks should probably always be strictly a free day activity for all of us.

And what about exercise? Once again, you’ll need to find your plateau. I am sixty now, so I recover more slowly than most of you would. So, what I do in maintenance stage is work each body part every 6 or 7 days, and that takes about 30 to 40 minutes four days a week. Now, that means an extra workout day a week, but that’s not a problem since I work out at home. For me, working out each muscle group one day a week nicely maintains both mass and injury-free joints if I’m careful. I really don’t think anyone who is happy with their body needs to work out with weights more than a couple of hours a week, but if you enjoy it, and you still want to try to add mass, go for it! As far as cardio, I still do the 3 HIIT sessions a week, early in the morning on an empty stomach, and that will never change.

May I emphasize once again, because this does take trial and error, that the key is “small adjustments” so you don’t have huge swings. You will know that things are basically staying the way you want them by your weekly weigh ins and waist measurements, and if either gets more than 3 pounds or 1/2 inch out of where you want it, then make those adjustments and see what happens next week. Get your checkup regularly and keep tabs on those blood lipid levels.

Don’t let the maintenace phase get you down. It’s no different than owning and operating an auto. Checking the tires, the fluid levels and the operating systems are part of that responsbility, as are the same kinds of things with your body. This IS Body for LIFE, remember?

Getting the Most out of Your Time Between Transformation Challenges
by: Michael Harris  3/18/2007

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Are you planning another challenge after finishing the one you’re in now? If so, the material that follows should be of some interest and some help to you. It seems like roughly one-half of those who start and complete a 12 week transformation challenge are planning on going into another one in order to get into the shape that they want.

The first thing I want to ask you–actually I’m begging you–is to NOT GO IMMEDIATELY from one challenge right into the next one without a break. Here’s why. Whether you really feel like it or not, a transformation challenge takes a toll on you. The early rising, strenuous exercising and relatively strict dieting are good for you–but over 12 weeks time they can also wear you out. You deserve AND NEED a week or more of rest before you get back into the gym. Think about this: If you go right from one challenge to another, what you’re really doing is taking a 24 week challenge. That’s nearly 6 months, and it’s longer than most should be doing. Most second and subsequent challenges that occur without a break between tend to be very unproductive and unhappy experiences. They also tend to be more often plagued by injuries, illnesses and overtraining effects.

My favorite fitness author, Albuquerque attorney Clarence Bass, coined the phrase “active rest.” That’s what you need to do between challenges. What you need to do, for at least one week and preferably two, is to stay clear out of the gym and away from the weight lifting routine entirely. And don’t worry about losing muscle mass, you won’t. The phenomenon called muscle memory will put you right back into the groove very quickly once you are rested. In fact, you might actually pick up some muscle mass due to the well-deserved rest. Your joints will thank you for it too.

Instead of lifting weights, do one or two of your favorite non-resistance training types of exercises. I do lots of calisthenics such as pushups, pullups, and squat jumps. I also do some bike riding or stair climbing. I take very long walks with my dog. Others enjoy things like swimming, mountain climbing, hiking, or even chopping wood and heavy gardening activity. This gets you out of the old groove, works different areas of your body, and still gives you plenty of fat-burning and fitness forming activity.

As for the diet, stick with the six meals a day. But, add in a bit of red meat if you are inclined, and experiment with some non-typical foods. This might be a good time to try a little of that natural peanut butter you’ve been craving. I eat a fair amount of non-tropical fruits and berries as carb portions during my rest periods. And I eat some lean red meat which has lots of creatine in it. Don’t make your two weeks off a two week free day or you’ll regret it.

Consider your two weeks active rest a working vacation. You’ll be amazed at your renewed strength, your enthusiastic outlook, and your youthful appearance following your time off. If you don’t do it, you’ll feel like you’re dragging a 100 pound anchor around with you for the next twelve weeks. Which one sounds like the best bet to you?

THE UNRECOGNIZABLE BODY FOR LIFE ROUTINE!Tweaks are a common occurrence and usually a common cause for discussion on this forum. Over and over, it is debated whether the “latest and greatest” science is the way to go, rather than that which is in a book from 10 years ago. The debate rages both in the areas of exercise and diet. The most common “tweaks” are to add cardiovascular activity, or to work abs every day or every other day, or to work out each group of muscles every other day. In each one of these cases, the trainee lacks faith that the program as outlined in the book will produce the results they desire as quickly as they desire them to occur. Once the tweaks start, especially if there are several of them, the program becomes less and less recognizable as body for life. Someone doing daily cardio, working abs every day, eating a low carb diet, and also trying to work in some other routine such as kick-boxing, or jazzercise, or P90X is spending most of their spare time doing exercise routine after exercise routine. Eventually, it gets down to the point that about the only thing they share with the original routine in the book is that they still say they are “doing body for life.” The book has simply become the impetus for all this activity rather than the template for it. Is this bad? Is this good? I think it all depends on the trainee. For me, exercise and diet are a means to an end. They take up little of my time, only about 4 hours for exercise, and very little time for food prep, and they allow me to enjoy life. Not that I don’t like working out–I do–but certainly I’d rather be doing other things most of the time. So, body for life really works for me best if I do it by the book. For those who desire to spend much of their times in a gym, or pounding the streets in running shoes, or bouncing around a kick-boxing class, good for you! But, I came to body for life because it is efficient; it’s good science; and it really works. I’ve stayed with body for life because it’s efficient; it’s good science; it really works; and it has transformed me both outside and inside as well. It has enabled me to become a better person, to enjoy life more, and to prioritize my life in a way that works best. So, when I think about tweaks, I think, “why mess up a perfect system?” And I don’t!

Here is a rerun of a blog I did for the Body For Life website, in late May 2007.  It is right where I am today, coming back again and again to the basics of this program. So, I thought I would share it with you readers!

The Simplest Program There Is!
by: Michael Harris  5/30/2007

Body for Life, it has long been said, is a simple program, but not easy. The only way it gets complicated is if YOU complicate it. Most “tweaks” to the Body for Life program, in order to try to speed up its results, or to exceed its results, are futile in the end. Most people don’ tweak the diet, but many of those who fail do cheat at it. Most tweaks are to the exercise program. Here’s why you shouldn’t even think seriously about tweaking it during your twelve weeks.

First of all, while it is a one size fits all program, it does work perfectly for everyone who has not dieted and exercised regularly within the last year. That is because if you are that deconditioned and that far off from normal eating, virtually any organized activity that causes you to work at or near your maximum ability in lifting or in cardio activity will produce an adaptive response by causing muscles to grow, and burning fat in the case of cardio. So, since the program really is optimal for about 95% of those who need to use it, there is no reason to suppose that you are someone or something special and therefore need to “tweak” it. It works just as designed, with three heavy workout sessions per week, alternating between upper and lower body workouts, interspersed with three high intensity cardio sessions twenty minutes long. Assuming you will switch to different exercises every 4 weeks or so during the 12 weeks, you should continue to improve both in the amount of weight you can lift, and in the changes to your physical composition.

This program as outlined above works perfectly because it provides a great opportunity to grow lean muscle which raises the resting metabolic rate, because muscle burns calories even at rest. It works perfectly because if followed correctly the diet provides the right amounts of quality proteins and low glycemic carbs, along with small amounts of good fats, so that it is possible to actually grow muscle mass while at the same time burning fat and losing scale pounds.

Further, the changes in body composition along with the body becoming accustomed to eating and using the right foods, cause the body to leave its status as a weak,flabby, fat storing and sugar-craving machine, and to become a strong, lean and healthy, fat and sugar burning machine instead. The way your body uses the food you eat will completely change if you do this right.

In the end, you will have a completely different and more productive body composition that will allow you to eat more than you used to, and yet continue to stay lean and even grown leaner. You will have a stronger immune system, a healthier attitude and outlook on life, and a desire to excel in all you do. Are these extravagant claims? Not really. They are exactly the results that most everyone who sticks it out will get some measure of in the end.

There are really only two ways you can lose while doing body for life. One is to just quit, or never get started. The other is to get so distracted, so desperate for change, that you are unable or unwilling to take the challenge from beginning to end as it is intended. No one can predict exactly how you will end up if you start modifying the BFL program, but certainly you place everything at risk by doing so. How? Well, mainly because you run the risk of an overtraining effect, which may cause you to get weak, to produce cortisol which reduces muscle mass, and even to get ill due to a compromised immune system. Don’t risk all this for such a small potential benefit. It’s just not worth it. Do the challenge as intended and as written. You won’t be sorry.

So simple, so profoundly effective, yet so difficult that it may well be the most challenging thing you’ve ever done! That’s Body for Life. What are you waiting for?

 

This blog is actually just a guestbook post I wrote recently on the Body for Life guestbook.   Its purpose was to inform others that anyone can do a championship level challenge, but that sudden enthusiasm or a quick attempt to catch up on missed opportunities is not going to work.

Whenever anyone does an excellent job, like [name removed] just did, everyone wants to know what they did “differently,” meaning how did they “tweak” the program. The inference is that because someone did it better than most of us, they must have some big secret to getting better results than the rest.

However, the 12 years of history of this challenge demonstrate rather clearly that there really is NO SECRET for an excellent challenge, and that the results are achieved by those who work harder, diet more strictly, and do not delude themselves and others into thinking that they are doing this “to the T” when in fact they are on cruise control instead of in a race. No amount of inspiration or excitement will last for long enough to produce results. Extra cardio, fat burners, trendy gym memberships, and all of those kinds of things might help just a little bit, for a very short while, but there is simply no substitute for rugged, gut-busting workouts, and for gritty determination when the going gets really tough. Doing a terrific transformation in just twelve weeks is simple–but it’s certainly not easy–and often it’s not even pleasant. It’s key to stay focused, to stay prepared, and to stay on task.

And the only way that will really work is to make the challenge the number one priority in your life for the next twelve weeks. Those of us who spend the 12 weeks bickering with family about our diets or our workout times, or who spend time telling themselves they are doing everything they are supposed to, while they are grabbing little nibbles out of the snack bowls at work, are really just wasting their time. This actually takes dedication that most people will not muster. We are ALL capable of it, but few are willing to put themselves through what it takes to excel. Stay strong, stay steady, and stay focused, and you’ll do fine. But if you try to stay enthusiastic for the entire twelve weeks, or you look for some instant miracle here, you’ll be joining soon the ranks of those who just thought this would be easy, and found out otherwise.

Just so you know, I’m not talking about ANYONE on the guestbook as I make all these comparisons between others and champions. I’m just drawing on my 7 years on the guestbook, and my own experiences in doing challenges prior to my championship challenge in 2006. So, don’t get paranoid and think that somehow I’m talking about a certain person. The problems that keep us from achieving a good challenge are just the problems that most of us who live disorganized and uninspiring lives pick up along the way. The cures for them are just hard work, focus and commitment.

 BEFORE YOU EAT THAT JUNK!!

Go through this little checklist that those of us who are prone to addictive behavior often use in order to avoid doing the wrong thing for the wrong reason:

1. Hungry? Am I truly hungry, or is this a craving ignited by something as simple as a whiff of good food being prepared?

2. Angry? Am I upset about something or with someone to the point that I just want to eat over it?

3. Lonely? Am I missing someone or something out of my routine, or grieving subconsciously over a recent loss, and could that be why I think I need that “comfort food?”

5. Tired? Did I miss some sleep last night, or am I overtraining, or have I been really stressed at work? Often, fatigue sets up exactly the same signals to the brain that hunger does. But, sleep or rest is NOT FATTENING!

To help you remember the checklist, it is H.A.L.T., for hungry, angry, lonely or tired. Make sure you are really hungry before you make that decision that might well set off a firestorm of destructive eating and other destructive behavior. Even just going through the checklist might buy you enough time to avoid something really dumb

The days of Barney Fyfe are long gone and law enforcement, military, and para-military people are professional to the core. So, it’s hard to imagine even that a conversation like this could occur between law enforcement officers: “Hey Jim, would you mind swinging by my apartment before we answer that call? I just realized I forgot to bring my gun with me!” Or, you could simply substitute for “gun”  the words “bulletproof vest” or “protective headgear” depending on the nature of the mission. The point is, professional people bring with them and have with them at all times the equipment they need to complete their mission. They do that by donning or securing the equipment they will need for each day in a systematic fashion, utilizing a checklist or a visual inspection method that prevents any oversight that could be fatal!

So, even though that mythical conversation above probably never happens between LEOs, something similar far too often takes place between we transformers and ourselves. It usually goes like this: “uh-oh, I forgot my food–again!” Or, “wait a minute! I’m sure I put that workout journal in my bag–didn’t I?” Or even, “Darn it! When I said I was going to do my cardio tonight I forgot all about that evening group meeting.”

The end result of this kind of behavior, particularly if it is repetitive, is destructive. What it does is to impair self-confidence, which is one of the keys to making a good transformation. It also, of course, can impair results overall if it becomes a habitual problem, but even just a two or three times a week occurrence of one or more of these common lapses can really distract a transformer and rob confidence to the point that it really becomes a problem. Only one thing is worse, and that is habitually and intentionally cheating on the diet.

Preparation and follow through is key in the spiritual formation portion of a transformation as well. Most Christians are quite familiar with Paul’s famous passage to the Ephesians, at chapter 6, where he exhorts them to “put on the full armor of God,” and names each and every weapon or shield that they need to take up in order to do battle with the enemy. 

So, whether the “enemy” is you and your disorganized efforts at preparation, or it is some outside force, the key to winning the battle is to use a checklist, daily, to prioritize all your transformation efforts and protect them from outside interference, and to follow through cheerfully and relentlessly. In the end, if you do that, the victory will be yours. But, if you show up for the big game and you’re not even in uniform, I’m afraid the outcome has already been determined.  

Discipline of the mind, body and spirit–the key to a real and lasting transformation!