Getting in Shape, No Holds Barred

[impaul99]

I have created a new challenge for myself as we enter into the New Year. I have decided to take the Health and Fitness category of my life by storm and apply a "No Holds Barred" approach to getting healthy and in shape using every self development strategy, technology, experience I've learned over the last 10 years.

In the past when I've worked on the other areas of my life like finances, and a career and relationships etc, I was still learning Personal Development technologies and such so it was still a stumbling process for me because I had to learn the PD strategy and then apply it to what I was doing. Now I already know the PD strategies that work, and I have the experience and the beliefs in place to apply them so this should be really exciting for me.

I will be tracking the progress of the challenge on my blog here ( Getting in Shape, No Holds Barred ) in case anyone wants to follow along.

Man, this is so exciting for me. In the recent years I've been helping so many others get their lives in order, and of course working on my own personal development in the areas I have already been fairly successful in, but I've never applied all I know to an area of my life that's been.... well... let's say neglected up until this point.

[Frans]

"Getting in shape" is a very generic intention, Paul

I read on your blog that you will measure your bodyfat percentage regularly, but I suggest you test also your VO2 Max (= maximum volume of oxygen you can consume) BEFORE you start with your program and after a few weeks/months.
The higher this value, the better your condition.

[floramorada]

Good for you Paul! Health is my number one value right now, so I was happy to see this post. Way to use overwhelming force.

using every self development strategy, technology, experience I've learned over the last 10 years.

I've been into PD for about a year and a half now. The amount of information i've absorbed and applied, all the strategies i've learned about, and simply how much i've grown, matured, and learned is mind-boggling. I can only imagine the arsenal you have.
Now is the time to apply it. Try it, apply it, fail sometimes, experiment, try again, change things, observe results, make adjustments, record, persist... sorry I'm just blabbering now.

My point is, i'm terribly excited for you. I'm excited to see you succeed. And i'm inspired by your enthusiasm. I'll be watching your blog.

[impaul99]

Originally Posted by Frans

"Getting in shape" is a very generic intention, Paul

I read on your blog that you will measure your bodyfat percentage regularly, but I suggest you test also your VO2 Max (= maximum volume of oxygen you can consume) BEFORE you start with your program and after a few weeks/months.
The higher this value, the better your condition.

When I say "Getting in Shape", I am basically speaking of losing excess body fat, gaining lean muscle tissue, gaining strength, flexibility, speed, endurance and improving my cardiovascular health. I have it detailed out in my journal, I just put "getting in shape" on the forum as a summary, but I know what you mean by "getting in shape" being very generic, as ROUND is a shape too

Now, about VO2 Max, how is that measured? Is this something I can measure myself or is this something I would have to go to a doctor for?

[Frans]

For precise VO2 Max measurements, you must go to a laboratory where they measure your oxygen uptake (usually when running on a treadmill), but you can also do it yourself with this online VO2 Max calculator:

VO2 Max Calculator

(just do a Cooper-test (12 km) and enter your results on that page)

[impaul99]

[QUOTE=floramorada;24463]Good for you Paul! Health is my number one value right now, so I was happy to see this post. Way to use overwhelming force.

Cool, I hadn't read that post by Steve before now, but I can see now he's advocating exactly what I'm doing. Nice!

I've been into PD for about a year and a half now. The amount of information i've absorbed and applied, all the strategies i've learned about, and simply how much i've grown, matured, and learned is mind-boggling. I can only imagine the arsenal you have.

Although some things take time, you're probably not too far behind. Keep in mind that when I started, the Self-Help section at most bookstores was a little row on a bookshelf. Today it's a SECTION in most bookstores with so many more resources available at your fingertips. Plus, I didn't have StevePavlina.com when I was first learning, hehehe.

I can see diligent students of PD today achieving success much faster with the available resources than myself or Steve, but in some cases it isn't the resources available that matter, it's the speed at which the person can look in the mirror and see his ego and change his beliefs etc.

It's very nice to see more and more people diving into PD! Keep it up, the rewards are amazing.

Now is the time to apply it. Try it, apply it, fail sometimes, experiment, try again, change things, observe results, make adjustments, record, persist... sorry I'm just blabbering now.

My point is, i'm terribly excited for you. I'm excited to see you succeed. And i'm inspired by your enthusiasm. I'll be watching your blog.

Thank you very much. One of the reasons I posted this publicly is to apply leverage on myself. I believe Tony Robbin's lesson for me today is going to talk about Leverage and suggest that I let 2-3 people know that I'm doing this so that I apply leverage to myself committing to this publicly to at least 2-3 people. Because I'm applying "overwhelming force" as you mentioned above, I decided 2-3 people wasn't enough, so I posted it publicly on my blog for the whole world to read and call me a loser if I give up, lol

So far, I can tell you the changes have been amazing for me. Like I normally absolutely despise going on the treadmill, but in the last two days, my first two days of doing this, I've been DYING to jump on it. I've applied so much mental conditioning already and I'm just getting started that yesterday we ordered pizza and while I was eating it all I could think about was "Hurry up, eat this stupid thing so I can go jump on the treadmill, hurry!" It's like when I was a kid playing games with the other kids and mom would call us to dinner and we just wanted to hurry up and finish it so we could go back to playing. By the way, obviously I haven't gotten to the part of the process where I drastically change my diet yet, if you're wondering why I'm eating Pizza Tony asked me to just keep track of what I eat for 5 days eating exactly what I normally eat so I'm doing that right now. The plan is to apply a massive change to diet right after Christmas Dinner . I'll have more details in my blog entries.

[impaul99]

Originally Posted by Frans

For precise VO2 Max measurements, you must go to a laboratory where they measure your oxygen uptake (usually when running on a treadmill), but you can also do it yourself with this online VO2 Max calculator:

VO2 Max Calculator

(just do a Cooper-test (12 km) and enter your results on that page)

Cool, so using the online tool all I need to do is keep track of distance traveled and the time it took to travel that distance? Am I understanding it correctly? As part of my modeling strategy I went out yesteday and purchased a pair of running shoes, one of those Nike + runner tracking gadgets and an iPod Nano which it hooks up to. Using it I'm able to track the pace of my run over time, the distance traveled in a specific lenght of time, approximate # of calories burned and set goals for myself etc. Very impressed with the system so far.

[Frans]

Originally Posted by impaul99

Cool, so using the online tool all I need to do is keep track of distance traveled and the time it took to travel that distance?

Yep. (well, it's not as accurate as a laboratory test, of course)

Another tip: when I do my cardio (always outdoors), I always wear a heart rate monitor, so I can find the perfect balance between high and low exertions (especially when doing HIIT (high intensity interval training)). So, within less time, you can train more efficiently (and burn more calories ).

[impaul99]

Originally Posted by Frans

Yep. (well, it's not as accurate as a laboratory test, of course)

Another tip: when I do my cardio (always outdoors), I always wear a heart rate monitor, so I can find the perfect balance between high and low exertions (especially when doing HIIT (high intensity interval training)). So, within less time, you can train more efficiently (and burn more calories ).

Yup, I got one a while back, I just have to find it in this messy room of mine. In the meantime, the treadmill I have has a semi-accurate one built into the handles. So far I've just been doing really basic brisk walk/half-runs just to get my body moving. I'd say that right now 70% of my effort is going to getting my mental state ready for this, 25% to getting moving and 5% focus on my diet at the moment. In a few days I'll be getting more organized with my workouts and by next week after the christmas dinners are done I'll be making some dramatic changes to my nutritional needs.

[cela]

Hey Paul!

Congrats on the decision to go "No Holds Barred"! You will certainly have our support. Feel free to join our Daily Workout Thread that Hsiang-Lin started up on this board - I have found it very helpful. We will check your blog, too!

I've only been seriously focussed on my diet and fitness for about a month, and I already feel fantastic - fat and inches lost, muscle mass gained, and clothes are starting to fit properly again!

I'd offer you good luck, but you know, you don't need it - once you've REALLY made the decision, the rest is easy!

Cheers,
Claire

[impaul99]

Originally Posted by cela

Hey Paul!

Congrats on the decision to go "No Holds Barred"! You will certainly have our support. Feel free to join our Daily Workout Thread that Hsiang-Lin started up on this board - I have found it very helpful. We will check your blog, too!

I've only been seriously focussed on my diet and fitness for about a month, and I already feel fantastic - fat and inches lost, muscle mass gained, and clothes are starting to fit properly again!

I'd offer you good luck, but you know, you don't need it - once you've REALLY made the decision, the rest is easy!

Cheers,
Claire

Thanks Claire, I'm very excited. I just got off the treadmill a few minutes ago. It's so much fun this time around. It makes so much difference getting your thinking straight before starting to exercise. It's so funny because I'm so committed to this that today when I went Christmas shopping I didn't want to chance not having enough time to listen to the third day of my Tony Robbins program that I took it with me on my iPod and was walking around the mall with Tony talking to me. I've never done personal development while shopping! Kinda cool, hehehe!

It's not a bad idea actually considering I sometimes walk around the mall for hours. That's a lot of idle time that can be used for personal development, hehe.

The next thing I've got to figure out is what information I want to track (diet, weight, workouts etc.), how often, and how to organize my blog entries to provide the most value to visitors. Can anyone offer suggestions as to what could help you to know about from the blog? Specific things I did, results, key distinctions???

[impaul99]

I have now posted an article on my site based on what I learned in the first 3 days of my plan. It mostly dives into the mental aspects of getting your thinking in alignment before diving into an action plan.

You can find the article here: Getting in Shape - The First Steps

I welcome your feedback.

[John Hill]

Hi Paul,

Nice to hear you are going to start looking after yourself instead of only helping others and there is no better time to start than right now.

I've been a personal trainer for years and have written a number of articles on health and fitness among other things on my website. You may be interested in a couple of articles specifically on the best ways to burn fat and the best times to exercise.

You can check it out at Universe Of Success

Good luck with the training,
John

[Merlin]

As far as an intention goes, I'd settle for having my chest bigger than my fat gut - LOL

Is that a clear enough goal?
I'm guessing that's going to mean something like 75% fat loss and 25% muscle building.

Something more to add to the new year's resolution list...

[impaul99]

Originally Posted by Merlin

As far as an intention goes, I'd settle for having my chest bigger than my fat gut - LOL

Is that a clear enough goal?
I'm guessing that's going to mean something like 75% fat loss and 25% muscle building.

Something more to add to the new year's resolution list...

If you haven't already, check out my blog. I wrote a couple of articles on the plan I'm following. Now that I've done it, I totally believe that you need to first get the mental aspects of a health plan figured out before just trying to attack the problem from the point of view of taking massive action. Most peope set a New Years resolution to lose __ lbs and then they join a gym. That doesn't work. The only people who benefit from that are the countless gyms who sign up thousands of people on the first week of January. You'll notice they don't like doing the month to month thing because they know you won't be back in February, so instead they try to get a 2 year contract setup etc.

[impaul99]

Just a quick update on this. I have now completed writing the first four articles of this program and finished 19 straight days of aerobic workout.

My update on the program is available here for anyone interested:
Getting in Shape Series - New Year Update

[Jim]

Originally Posted by impaul99

Just a quick update on this. I have now completed writing the first four articles of this program and finished 19 straight days of aerobic workout.

My update on the program is available here for anyone interested:
Getting in Shape Series - New Year Update

Paul -

Looks like you're off to a great start. Congratulations!

When dealing with users of RunFatBoy, the biggest issue seems to be maintaining long term consistency. For those that get enough energy to get off of the couch, they usually get the burst of enthusiasm in the beginning and then as the workouts progress, the enthusiasm wanes. I like the idea of telling a few friends of your intentions for this might create enough peer pressure to keep the user in for the long haul.

[impaul99]

Originally Posted by Jim

Paul -

Looks like you're off to a great start. Congratulations!

When dealing with users of RunFatBoy, the biggest issue seems to be maintaining long term consistency. For those that get enough energy to get off of the couch, they usually get the burst of enthusiasm in the beginning and then as the workouts progress, the enthusiasm wanes. I like the idea of telling a few friends of your intentions for this might create enough peer pressure to keep the user in for the long haul.

Yeah, a big part of exercising long term is getting the mental / psychological aspects of the plan figured out first. Wilpower will only get you to exercise for a few days, weeks, perhaps a few months, but after that it runs out. If you're mentally not prepared you will not only be fighting the exercise machine but you'll also be fighting a war within your head. The secret is to conquer your inner demons first.

[Donn]

Tracking gets to be infectious. I track my caloric intake on my diet (daily), caloric expenditure during exercise (daily), BP, wgt, blood sugar and body measurements (weekly). Tracking is giving me some surprises. For example, I find I can gain wgt on a 2000 cal diet, I can drop 1 to 2 lbs per week if I don't binge, and just working around the house (I'm retired) burns up cals. I also do monthly photos of myself in a relaxed, standing position (front and side views) as a reality check (could be a big ego buster sometimes; particularly after a heavy workout).

[impaul99]

Originally Posted by Donn

Tracking gets to be infectious. I track my caloric intake on my diet (daily), caloric expenditure during exercise (daily), BP, wgt, blood sugar and body measurements (weekly). Tracking is giving me some surprises. For example, I find I can gain wgt on a 2000 cal diet, I can drop 1 to 2 lbs per week if I don't binge, and just working around the house (I'm retired) burns up cals. I also do monthly photos of myself in a relaxed, standing position (front and side views) as a reality check (could be a big ego buster sometimes; particularly after a heavy workout).

Yeah, it's cool we have technology like digital cameras!

I went to see a Naturopath today and one additional source of ammunition I now have is a photograph of my blood as a "before" picture. I had a consultation with a nutritionist and now have a personalized diet plan for myself. In 4-6 weeks I'll get to see a comparison of my blood after following the diet.

Very exciting.

[impaul99]

For anyone following my series of articles, I've written the fifth article in this series available here: Getting in Shape Series - Step 5 - Shifting Your Identity

Thanks!

[impaul99]

For any interested, I have decided to write an eBook describing the Health and Fitness plan I have developed for myself. I have a more detailed description of my eBook including a sign-up to receive a free copy when it's completed here: The Dabbler's Guide to Health and Fitness by Paul Piotrowski

Thanks!