"The first wealth is health." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
May 16
“Do you want to live longer, look better, feel better, and make more money? Take care of the only body you will ever have. You can’t treat a Ferrari like a pickup truck and expect it to drive like a Ferrari. Your body is more valuable than a Ferrari, so take care of it! A healthier, stronger body will give you the confidence and energy needed to do things most people would consider ‘impossible.’”
—
Pete Leibman
Source:
Apr 26
“Health seems to be one of those things we become enormously concerned about when there’s a possibility we’re going to lose it - and yet we take it for granted while we have it. I encourage you to think about your health before you have placed yourself in jeopardy!”
—
Zig Ziglar
Source:
Mar 28
“It’s always inspiring to see ripped grandfathers in the gym. Who would have thought the secret to immortality lies right here in this building.”
Mar 25
GTA: San Andreas
A few months ago I had this sudden urge to play Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. For those of you not familiar with the game, it is a third-person shooter/driving RPG. The protagonist, CJ, progresses through the game through a series of missions, helping others achieve their goals. As CJ moves up the social ranks and expands his network, he gains respect among his peers and he improves his health and skill set in many areas. He essentially develops himself from a lowly gangster to a successful businessman and entrepreneur. The setting is a fictional Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas, and CJ can roam around all three cities by foot, bikes, motorcycles, cars, and planes. It is exceedingly violent and highly addictive, and it is the best GTA in the series in my opinion.
So as I advanced through the game again, I noticed several things. There are several “meters” that measure CJ’s statistics and characteristics. Health and Stamina are two of them. When the gym became available to CJ, I still remembered where it was even after it has been years since I last played it. lol. You actually have the option to keep CJ in shape by lifting weights and doing cardio. You can keep him as skinny as you want, as fat as you want, or as ripped as you want. (You can also eat food in this game) High five to those of you that got him ripped the second you had access to the gym like I did haha. You can increase his muscle mass by lifting weights and you can increase his stamina by running and biking around. As I went through this process again I asked myself, if people are willing to make himself fit in a video game, why not do it in real life? While I was working CJ out, I thought to myself, “I should be at a gym in real life.” lol.
You also have the option of increasing CJ’s skill set in all of the vehicles he drives and all of the weapons he uses. There is a meter for every type of weapon and vehicle. As he builds relationships and helps people, his respect meter goes up. This is the only way he can progress in the game, and it is also the only way you can progress in real life. The more people CJ helps, the more money he makes. As Jim Rohn says, “Affect the few and you earn that pay. Affect the many, and you earn that pay.” Find a way to serve the many, for service to many leads to greatness. As CJ moves up, he can afford the best clothing and the hottest cars, he increases his fitness levels, and even his sex appeal meter goes up. haha! If you are willing to go to the top in this game, and advance every meter to its fullest potential, why not go to the top in the game of life?
“If you don’t respect your body, ain’t nobody going to respect you!”
— Sweet Johnson, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
One thing I’ve learned from all successful people, whether it is success in health, business, or career - is that all successful people have an extraordinary, phenomenal work ethic. You don’t have to be the most talented person, or even the smartest person because you can achieve so much more than the smartest and talented ever will just by outworking them. As Jim Rohn so eloquently put, “I make up in numbers what I lack in skill. Now who can do that? Anybody that’s ambitious. Anybody with a little ingenuity. Anybody.” The person that is spending six days a week at the gym will always beat the person spending one day a week at the gym. The person that is eating six small & healthy meals a day will always beat the person eating one healthy meal a day. It doesn’t matter how much you know about health or how genetically gifted you are, if you don’t put in the same daily activity as the consistent people, you will never get the same results that they have. Period point blank.
Every year in January everyone sets their new years resolution on becoming healthier by joining a gym. The consistent ones hate this month because they take up all our space. They tell themselves, “This is the year I turn my life around.” But by the time February comes the gyms aren’t as crowded, and by March it’s back to normal, and only the champions remain. Most of these people have quit after only a few weeks because they are not seeing any results. What they don’t realize is that a few weeks in the gym is not going to fix years/decades of mediocrity: lack of exercise & atrocious eating habits. No, the gym is not a scam, you’re the scam. It’s not working because you’re not working. You actually have to show up for your success day in and day out, and if you’re not willing to do that, it will never happen for you. You have to have the willpower to stick and stay long-term, and only then will the results come. You too can enjoy the healthiest, sexiest body you can possibly have, and you deserve it. But just because you deserve it does not mean it will happen for you without putting in the work. Sometimes you just have to take what’s yours. So take it, every single day. Because when it comes down to it, the people with the most insane work ethic always wins.
Mar 23
“Hanging out with my good friend Gym tonite. Gym is always complaining about how no one hangs out with him on Friday nights.”
Mar 12
Keeping The Fire Alive
One day at the gym I met some guys that were laughing there asses off on the computers. When I leaned over to find out what video they were watching, it turned out to be a fitness model who combined humor and a plethora of knowledge. After finishing this video, we were all fired up and ready to hit the weights lol. This was when I discovered one of my YouTube mentors, Mr. Greg Plitt.
Mar 11
6 Days Labor, 1 Day Rest
According to Foursquare, twelve days in a row at the gym is my personal record. Just like what the video in my previous post says, “let me define exhaustion for you.” I usually exercise six days in a row with one day rest. Some of you may think this is crazy, but what’s crazy to some is normal to others. People are just on different levels. But if you want crazy results, you have to be willing to do the crazy activity. If you want to be as healthy and sexy as the healthiest and sexiest people in the world, you have to exercise like they exercise, eat like they eat, and sleep like they sleep. Yes, it is that simple. It has been done before and it has been proven. All you have to do is duplicate it.
“Here’s an old testament philosophy. It says, ‘six days labor, one day rest.’ Six one is probably best because if you rest too long, the weeds take the garden.” - Jim Rohn
We already have a good philosophy about health, we read this blog, we read about fitness, and we know what it takes to be the healthiest we can be. We may already have a good attitude about health, we have a gym membership, we exercise when we “feel” like it, we have a healthy meal every once in a while, and we have a smile on our face because we are proud of ourselves when it does happen. All we need to do is be consistent with the activity. In my experience, this is where most people stop and this is what most people need to work on the most, so we can reap the rewards of our results, and live a lifestyle beyond our wildest imagination. Now that’s something to be proud of.
We want to get to the point where exercising six days a week has become such a natural habit that we don’t even think about it. When life happens and plans change, the workout is simply shifted to another time on the same day, but never cancelled. If the activity comes naturally, the results will come naturally. We only have one life, why not have the healthiest, sexiest body you can possibly have, and achieve your maximum genetic potential? What did you do to improve your health today?
Mar 01
Complete Exhaustion
So you want to be successful huh?
Well there’s one thing in this world that has the ability to change our whole life in an instant.
You know what it is? It’s action.
So first step: You just need to make the decision.
Ask yourself this: A year from now, five years from now, what are you going to wish you did today?
The secret to getting ahead in this world is first getting started.
You can’t let fear stand in the way of your dreams.
You cannot think, “Oh, what if this doesn’t work.”
If you believe enough in the process and the end result, success is going to come to you.
It will. You just gotta be willing to see it through to the end.
But first, you just gotta jump in the deep end.
And once something goes into motion, it stays in motion.
The process itself feeds the fire.
You can’t be trapped by fear.
Limits like fears, they’re illusions. Disregard them.
If you’re passionate about it and you go full throttle, there’s no doubt you’re gonna be good at it.
Because what makes someone good at something?
It’s dedication, hard work, and it’s doing it with the proper direction and methodology.
So if you plug away, you’re gonna be good.
But what makes someone a professional at something?
It’s the concept of taking that little idea, that little decision you make, and executing to take it as far as your imagination holds, dedicating every breath in your body to that single cause.
Seeing the grand picture at the end of the road to be the absolute best and not settling for any reason.
It’s not talent, it’s not innate ability, it simply comes down to how hungry you are.
How hungry are you to improve? How big is your appetite for success?
What are you willing to do to reach your dreams?
The professionals, the best at their craft, they don’t care about the naysayers, they don’t care about the fun they’re foregoing, they don’t take days off.
They are 100% set in their ways in perfecting their craft.
Because it’s all for a much larger purpose than any semblance of happiness that immediate gratification provides.
Reaching your goal, well that’s just pure bliss.
The higher the expectations, the larger the goal, well the feeling just magnifies.
So what’s the difference between you and them?
The professionals, they’re the ones who are willing to knock on the doors of complete exhaustion every single day.
Now let me define exhaustion for you.
Exhaustion is at that very point where it’s just so damn painful that you just can’t push anymore.
That it hurts so bad that you can’t even think straight.
It’s in reaching that point when deep down, you know, that you did absolutely everything in your power.
That there wasn’t one more thing you could’ve done.
So what’s the difference between them and you?
What are you doing in this present moment in time?
Ask yourself this: are you moving closer to your goals? Or are you moving further away from them?
Are you knocking on those doors of exhaustion? Or are you just uncomfortable?
You see, being uncomfortable is not exhaustion.
Being uncomfortable is your mind quitting before your body.
Being uncomfortable is just saying no to trying again.
Achieving greatness happens when you’re willing to do something that will kill you just to make you better.
You see, it’s easier to buy the ticket to see the game than it is to be the one to prepare for it.
It’s easier to hang out with your friends than it is to hang with the stairs for an hour.
It’s easier to sleep in than it is to wake up to a hundred sprints.
It’s easier to go to a party than it is to go ass to the grass in squats.
It’s easier to watch athletes from the couch than it is to be the one hoisting the trophy.
But it’s also a lot easier to look back on your life and know you gave it your all than it is to live with regrets.
Not living up to your potential, well that weighs on your shoulders for a lifetime.
No one ever said that being successful was gonna be easy.
But I’ll tell you one thing, it sure as hell is worth it.
You are your own maker in this world, and there is no such thing as failure.
You just gotta tell it, “No, not this time. Not with me. I’m gonna try again and again and again. And I’m gonna look failure straight in the face and I’m gonna tell it that I’m willing to go through all the struggles to reach my dreams.”
Because without struggle, there’s never gonna be any progress.
It’s all in how bad you want it.
How big is your appetite for success?
Do you just want to fight? Or are you starving out there for it?
Stay empty, stay driven, stay hungry.
Feb 27
Samahan meeting 9-19-08. The screen was cropped because you can’t see the content in the original. Good times. How does your “triangle” look like?
Feb 06
“If your health were perfect in every respect, what would you look like? How would you feel?”
— Brian Tracy, Focal Point pg. 150
Jan 06
Racehorses
You bought an expensive racehorse, one that cost $500,000. If you owned an expensive racehorse, what kinds of foods would you feed it? If you had invested all that money in a horse, would you feed it junk food, potato chips, soda, donuts, bagels, candy bars, and jugs of coffee? Of course not!
How much more valuable are you than a racehorse? Just as you would feed an expensive racehorse with the most nutritious foods you could possibly find, you must feed yourself with the very best foods as well. Treat yourself like the most expensive and most important person in the whole world, because you are.
Source:
High Fructose Corn Syrup
HFCS is a man-made sweetener that’s cheaper and sweeter than sugar. Food manufacturers love it because it enhances their profits, so they add it into an unbelievable number of foods. Cereal. Ketchup. Soda. Pasta sauce. Cookies. Even some meal replacement bars, which are supposed to be good for you, list HFCS way up high on the ingredients list. If “High Fructose Corn Syrup” shows up anywhere on the ingredients, do not eat it!
We’re talking about a processed sweetener that didn’t even exist in he food chain until the 1970s. And HFCS is really, really, really bad for you. That’s because it’s packed with calories, but your body doesn’t recognize these calories. In fact, HFCS shuts off your body’s natural appetite control switches, so you can eat and eat and eat far beyond what your body would normally be able to handle. You probably know guys who can down a 2-liter bottle of Coke in a single sitting. Well, guess what? Before HFCS was invented, humans couldn’t do that. Our natural appetite control switches would kick in, detect the sugar we’re consuming, and say “¡No más!” But by shutting off the switches that control appetite, HFCS - a true junk food - is making America fat. In 1970, Americans ate about a half a pound of HFCS per person per year. By the late 1990s, every person was consuming about 62 pounds every year.
When you eat any carbohydrate - whether it contains glucose or starch - your body releases insulin to regulate your body weight. First, it tries to push the carbs into your muscle cells to be used as energy and facilitates carb storage in the liver for later use. Then it suppresses your appetite, telling your body that you’ve had enough. Finally, it stimulates production of another protein, leptin, which is manufactured in your fat cells. In essence, leptin helps regulate how much fat you store and helps increase your metabolism to keep your weight in check. Fructose screws up a system that was working perfectly fine without it. Fructose doesn’t stimulate insulin and therefore doesn’t increase the production of leptin - and that’s the most important argument against fructose and HFCS: Without insulin and leptin, your body has no shut-off mechanism. You can drink 4 liters of Coke or down a half a gallon of frozen yogurt, and your body thinks you haven’t eaten since the last time Bill Gates borrowed money from his dad.
Unlike glucose, your body doesn’t use fructose as an immediate source of energy; it metabolizes it into fat. While the small amount of fructose you get naturally through fruit and honey won’t make you fat, eating HFCS is sort of like setting up an IV that pumps fat directly to your gut. One of the worst offenders is soft drinks: Soda consumption has doubled from 25 to 50 gallons per person per year in the last few decades. So the amount of HFCS we’re getting is unprecedented - and many researchers think there’s a direct link between the huge amount of HFCS we’re consuming and the huge numbers we’re seeing on the scale.
Source:
Jan 01
“90-95% of your 60-100 trillion cells are replaced each year. Every year is a new you! Happy New Years!”
— Don Colbert, MD. The Seven Pillars of Health
According to Foursquare, twelve days in a row at the gym is my personal record. Just like what the video in my previous post says, “let me define exhaustion for you.” I usually exercise six days in a row with one day rest. Some of you may think this is crazy, but what’s crazy to some is normal to others. People are just on different levels. But if you want crazy results, you have to be willing to do the crazy activity. If you want to be as healthy and sexy as the healthiest and sexiest people in the world, you have to exercise like they exercise, eat like they eat, and sleep like they sleep. Yes, it is that simple. It has been done before and it has been proven. All you have to do is duplicate it.
