Mouse over the link provided and RIGHT CLICK to SAVE TARGET AS to download the 42-minute interview I did with Tom in celebration of his amazing success even though he was faced with a blown disc in his neck and over $10,000 in damage and lost possessions due to a flood and sewer backup in his home. Tom did it “even though” and “without exception.”

Here is the link to download the mp3 interview. MOUSE OVER THIS AND RIGHT CLICK TO SAVE TARGET AS

I cannot stress how common it is that new students come to me frustrated after paying an in-person personal trainer a lot of money with no weight-loss results to show for it. Personal trainers can be great–as long as they are used for what they are best at–THE WORKOUT. Very very few personal trainers have the training, experience, tolerance and time to deal with lifestyle- and nutrition-management strategies. Those are the areas Leanness Lifestyle University especially excels with.

What Leanness Lifestyle University does not do is precisely what personal trainers are best at–IN PERSON WORKOUTS. They do what we don’t do. We do what they don’t do. It’s a match made in heaven if you can do both. But if you go to a personal trainer to lose weight you are not putting your money to maximal use.

FROM A NEW STUDENT

“It seems that there are a lot of steps involved and I’m afraid that it will be another failed attempt on my part. As of now, my esteem and faith is pretty low. I’ve been working with a trainer for the past 16 weeks and I have no results to show for it.

I KNOW that I am putting in the time and effort necessary and that this would work for the average person. I’m afraid that i’m not average. My body does not want to give up fat. Only in the past week has my trainer admitted to me that she’s not an expert in nutirtion and that she would need to consult a friend about my situation because I should be dropping the weight and I’m just not. It took her 16 weeks to think of this.

I was taking in 1300 cals and now i’m up to 1600. I’m 5′7″ and 185 pounds so I guess thats supposed to be the magic number for me. No luck yet. i’m working hard with no results.

Fear is stopping me at this point. Pure and simple. Let me know if you have any thoughts.

Thanks”

======================

My Reply:

Okay, now we’re getting somewhere.

I asked what you believe you need. The clearest answer you gave for that is “I don’t have a clear answer”

Next — I don’t blame you a BIT for being frustrated with NO results in 16 weeks. The bottom line is you got some good workouts in but not some good LIFESTYLE and NUTRITION workouts so you could figure out what to eat and how to make it work in your life. You also were not challenged to ask WHY you want to do this in the first place. I ask that and much more.

You are confused. Join the crowd of almost every new person who comes to me. I do what your trainer is scratching his/her head over. You are not confusing to me. The issue you are having is whether all this INTERNET STUFF is worth it and doable. It is. It’s an education. It’s like going to a local University and sitting in a classroom where you learn life-changing lessons that NO ONE can take away from you when you graduate.

You are special yet still quite average. You are unique yet exceptionally common. In NO way are you broken or some enigma that I can’t figure out. The fact your trainer couldn’t figure you out is, again, NOT a surprise. It’s not what they do. It’s what I do. They are with you an hour a day. LL University is the other 23 hours in a day.

Low faith? Again, join the crowd. Most come to me pretty broken down. How many failures must one endure to finally win? I’ll give you the answer — ONE MORE. You keep going until you win. I call this PWE(squared)

Pursue the worthy endeavor
Persist without exception

Never give up. Part of that, for you, is getting the education and putting in the time FOR YOU that is necessary to get the education (the REAL education) that you need to succeed.

Your body does NOT want to give up fat. You are 100% right! We can nudge your body into giving up fat — guaranteed.

We say “Feel the fear and do it anyway.” Being afraid is normal at first here. Giving up before you start? Not normal for my students and definitely not a pattern for someone who is eventually going to be successful.

I AM an expert in nutrition. Can you dedicate 1 hour per day for 1 week and then 45 minutes per day for 1 week and then 30 minutes per day for 1 week and then 15 minutes per day from then on (if you stay) to get an education that can change your life? If you can? Stay, commit to this investment of time with my educational program. You’ll be amazed what you learn and how your body responds to your newly applied knowledge.

Sincerely in health,

David Greenwalt B.Sc., CSCS - Founder
Leanness Lifestyle

The most common “negative-calorie” food touted is celery. A stalk of celery is about six calories. The miracle pitch is that the calories it takes to chew it and digest it are about nine calories. Hence, the six-calorie celery ends up being a negative-calorie food because nine (the calories purported to digest it) is greater than six.

Ah, the legend of “negative calorie foods” continues the long tradition of folklore fixes for weight loss.

Mathematically? I haven’t found any credible source that back ups the claim that you burn more calories eating and digesting celery than that which celery provides.

What is known, proveable and is scientific is what is called the thermic effect of food (TEF). Through TEF the body uses energy (calories) to digest food. This equals about 5-10 percent of calories consumed. See page 157 of LL V.4.

About 3% of fat calories consumed are used to digest it. About 7% of carb calories consumed are used to digest it. About 25% of protein calories consumed are used to digest it. A calorie truly is NOT a calorie. Protein does provide a greater TEF than either carbs or fats. But did you see anywhere that I mentioned that fats, carbs or proteins have a TEF of 105%? Uh, no.

What you’ll find if you scour the NET is eventually common sense prevails. Even IF celery WAS a negative-calorie food no one eats JUST celery and if someone was hoping for the extra “calorie burn” from eating celery to burn off one pound of stored body fat? Good luck — even with the folklore versions where they state you burn an additional 6 calories MORE to digest it than a stalk of celery contains you’d have to eat over 500 stalks to burn off an additional one pound of stored body fat (a pound of stored body fat has roughly 3500 kcals in it)

That said, almost everyone could use a few more fruits and vegetables in their daily regimen, and choosing a wide variety among those with fewer calories isn’t a bad idea if you’re trying to lose weight. Opting for a piece of fruit or a plate of vegetables instead of snacking on nachos and cheese certainly will help you toward your weight-loss goal. But it’s not because they have “negative calories.” It’s because of the standard, simplistic fact they contain fewer calories than you might otherwise eat and then a BUNCH of reasons the common “experts” don’t talk about relating to food addiction, food allergies and much more — well beyond the focus of this short article on negative-calorie foods.

Sincerely Yours In Health,

David Greenwalt B.Sc. - Founder
http://www.LeannessLifestyle.com
http://www.LifestyleAtWork.com

I’ve been busy revamping some products and I’d like to re-introduce you to my Leanness Lifestyle Audio Companion.

The Audio Companion is not just my Leanness Lifestyle book on audio. It’s a lot of what is in the book but also substantially more than is in the book in so many ways. Quite literally there are many parts of the Audio Companion that I created after the book was written and published.

I’ve recently made each CD available individually. You no longer have to purchase all 8 of the CDs (which is over 7 hours of professionally recorded material).

I encourage everyone to have a look again if you haven’t in quite a while.

For every CD I now have a short audio clip sample you can listen to online and I also give you every single TRACK description that each CD contains. I had forgotten that one of the CDs has 50 tracks! I really did put a lot of painstaking work into TRACKING out each CD so you could get to each individual thought/subject easily as you’re playing it.

I am making the CDs available through my Power Store company quite frankly because the shopping cart is already set up there and ready to go.

If you don’t own the CD version of the Audio Companion it’s worth owning. In any event please have another look with the link below.

Click Here to View CDs and Hear Audio Samples

Sincerely,

David Greenwalt-Founder
http://www.LeannessLifestyle.com

I’ve always made myself available to answer questions of those who want to know more about Leanness Lifestyle Online before they sign up. What I’ve realized is I’ve always had an incredible, untapped resource in dedicated, enthusiastic and best of all–successful Leanness Lifestyle members who are more than willing to also answer basic questions to help anyone get the answers they need about joining.

If you are on the fence or simply undecided about becoming a member of Leanness Lifestyle Online then I encourage you to use the Mentoring section of my website for non-members to ask several Leanness Lifestyle Coaches and Mentors basic questions about what Leanness Lifestyle Online is, is not, what it provides and what it does not.

This is absolutely free. I do require an email to make sure anyone using the system is legit but there is absolutely no payment information taken of any kind–it’s a completely free service to help answer your questions and get you moving forward through your transformation journey without delay.

Here’s the link!

http://www.LeannessLifestyle.com/mentoring/

Sincerely Yours In health,

David Greenwalt CSCS–Founder
http://www.LeannessLifestyle.com

Just remember, you are a freshman, neither I nor you should expect you to feel like you have a Ph.D. here yet. The cool thing about this process, however, is the education is like “dog years” in return on investment of time. For every month you listen, read, work, and study here it’s like seven months at a traditional university. So if a Bachelors is typically earned in 48 months you’ll realistically need to immerse yourself in my program about six months worth to “get it” and have that Bachelors. But, even before six months I need you to follow this mantra — “Just be good for today.”

You wrote to me about a diet you had previously followed and liked …

“but only if you were hungry which was defined by your stomach growling)”

Okay — for ANY man or woman who has fought weight for more than a year or so I have coined the term “weight fighter.” And for all weight fighters hunger is a LIAR — at first — and for some, forever. So, you cannot trust hunger. It might tell you that you are hungry when you are not. It might tell you that you are not full when you are. It might do just the opposite. It might tell you that you should NOT eat when you really should and it might tell you that you are full when you are not.

So what do you do? Part of the answer lies in you learning your numbers. One food, then one meal, then one day at a time I need you to use my Nutrition Analyzer to begin logging so you know your numbers. If, at first, this is flat-out overwhelming? Skip it for now. Just do the three basics if you are breaking out in cold sweats. The basics are:

: Log your weight every day and read on the MY GRADE TODAY page WHY we log our weight. Also, download my book and read about SCALE: FRIEND OR FOE too. This is a must. The MY GRADE TODAY page is found under the REPORTS tab.

: Log any activity you do FOR THE PURPOSE OF IMPROVING PHYSICAL FITNESS. That’s all we log here.

: Use my nutrition basics tool called the NFL DAILY (click on ANY of the WHY links with that tool to learn WHY I want you to do something) I explain every single detail of every piece of the nutrition basics so you fully understand why you are eating the way you will be.

The best is if you will do the basics AND use the NA (Nutrition Analyzer) but if a little kid in you wants to rebel against that? It’s okay. Skip it for now. Just know that at some point you WILL need to use the NA — for sure, 100%, no questions asked.

=========

You also wrote to me …

“I also liked I didn’t have to think about it”

Instinctually you are driven, like all of us are, toward calorie-dense foods. Those foods are the ones laiden with fat and sugar. In today’s modern environment those foods are everywhere and exceptionally processed and refined.

As a 46 year YOUNG woman you have a lengthy history of a certain style/habit of eating and exercising (or not). These habits are long-standing and SOME will need replacing. The good news is habits are not like eye color — they were learned, they can be relearned.

Food addiction and brain allergy from food are both very real. And like any addiction or allergy they are both nasty and alarmingly powerful.

The environment we all live in with today’s modern advances is what is being termed an OBESOGENIC ENVIRONMENT. That is, the environment is intensely supportive of creating and perpetuating obesity.

Wow, sounds darn near hopeless doesn’t it? Well, not to me. Why? Because I know the rest of the story.

You see, one gift we ALL have is a developed, incredible brain capable of thinking, reasoning, learning and logic. We call this INTELLECT. As a society we don’t all think, say and do whatever “feels” natural. Think about it. Men can be “dogs.” Sure. Some would say “It’s their way. It’s natural.” I say BUNK to that! Natural isn’t always best. But what gift or power do we have to fight what is “natural?” INTELLECT

Intellect is thinking. Intellect is being exceptionally conscious. When someone says to me “health conscious” it has a meaning unlike what it has for most others. I know that being exceptionally CONSCIOUS and MINDFUL (rather than mind-less) are keys to eventual weight loss and weight management success.

Are you seeing why “so I don’t have to think about it” is death to eventual success?

==========

You also wrote in your introduction …

“Physical activity seems to help me better than controling food.”

This would be a false and/or limiting belief. In weight loss exercise is AT MOST 20% of the equation. Read that again. This means nutrition is at least 80% of the equation.

The areas that will need your attention are covered within this website. Doing the three basics daily, reading my book, and branching sooner rather than later into the NA with diligent, consistent consciousness in KNOWING YOUR NUMBERS rather than going by instinct or what “feels” right are big steps toward your eventual success.

Did you see how I NEVER, in this lesson, ever said “THE KEY” to your success? There is no ONE key. Obesity is complex. Humans are complex. Weight loss is complex. Therefore it is DESERVING of the proper mindset, attention and education that a program like mine can provide and that YOU can help yourself to truly absorb. It’s ALWAYS a personal decision. Free will reigns. No one, including me, can pull your strings, nor do I want to.

Be MINDFUL of my intent and the fact that with any of this we’ve only scratched the surface. The really really good news is if you will do what I’ve said here to at least start? You will really be beginning a new journey, a road less traveled, and you’ll be well on your way to weight loss, better health, a vibrancy you haven’t felt in years and all of the good you deserve.

Coach David Greenwalt CSCS-Founder

“I have used other systems in the past like Men’s Health, but there are no real people to help you make changes. The interactive system was not interactive because it could not help you when you got stuck or needed a different exercise. If you could no longer increase the weight it would continue to increase it on you. Having yourself and the other coaches to speak with about issues or concerns will really help make a difference.”

One very big difference between Leanness Lifestyle online and other programs is that personal touch. All questions are answered by myself or real Leanness Lifestyle coaches (real trained, successful people). That feeling of being connected is natural and almost instantaeous once new members begin.

If you’re not already a member see for yourself what the Leanness Lifestyle difference is really like.

http://www.LeannessLifestyle.com

Sincerely yours in health,

David Greenwalt-Founder

“My biggest concern is not being successful. I have a very active lifestyle, I have 3 kids and work full time. I leave my home at 6am and I’m home at 6 or 7pm. My hubby and I have the kid’s homework, and various kids activities we need to tend to when we get home. My concern is not only eating right but finding the time to workout and put the right effort into doing this. How do I juggle all of it?”

============

from David:

We all have the same 24 hours. Your day sounds quite common for a vast majority of my female clients. “She who has a strong enough why can bear almost any how.” One of the things we help clients work on is what is called their WHY. We’ve had a strong focus on this success component since 1999.

It’ll cost you money, time and effort to make the changes you desire. But what does it cost you for NOT changing?

MONEY:: Yes (having multiple sizes in a wardrobe is expensive; not reaching for other financial opportunities because of self-esteem can have an impact as well).

Next is TIME:: Does it cost you time now for not changing? Yes. How? The time you spend with family is many times of poorer quality due to internal feelings of self-loathing and guilt over not honoring yourself in personal time just for you, in health, fitness and leanness. More time is wasted being less productive too since you have less overall energy. You have less energy and are less productive now than you will be when you are honoring yourself and becoming that fit person you can certainly become using my program.

EFFORT: You have less energy now than you will have when you are even 10 pounds lighter than now. It takes a LOT of energy to support the NEGATIVE mindset of being unfit and feeling too fat. How much NEGATIVE energy goes into feeling bad? A lot. Now, will it take energy to do my program? Yes. But regardless you are SPENDING ENERGY either way — the biggest difference is the flow of energy doing my program is toward honoring you and growth and becoming better; it’s positive. The energy you now spend goes into self-loathing and negative regret.

Far too often the mindset of a person on the fence is that the current way is easier, takes less money and requires less energy. The reality is it’s harder, most costly and is literally life sucking for energy.

Think about it. Is it really easier to do nothing about your health, your body and your self image? Are your days filled with clear-minded positive thoughts NOW? Hardly. It’s VERY difficult living a fraction of what you are capable of becoming. Staying the same is more costly in the long run (besides clothing what about health costs?), it doesn’t give you more time and the time you spend with yourself and family is of a lower quality because of your mindset in knowing you aren’t the best you can become. Last, energy in your current state is lower than it can be and it’s flat-out draining to spend so much energy on negativity.

How many thoughts do you have in a day relating to poor self-image or body image? For most women especially the thoughts are too many to count when they aren’t honoring themselves properly. That too affects your relationships (intimacy with hubby is of a poorer quality, attitude is lower usually, quality time with kids is lower usually) and no matter how we slice it this has SO much to do with how you feel about yourself on the inside as you settle for status quo.

To me — what one should fear is NOT trying. It’s natural to fear the new. But at least if you approach it with a well thought out program such as mine you are giving yourself the best opportunity there is for success and I’d rather try hard, give it my all and fail, learn from the failure and try again, than not try at all and stay miserable. The ones who are successful ultimately FEEL THE FEAR AND DO IT ANYWAY.

If I can help you I’m inside the Club and would welcome it — here’s to you feeling your fear and doing it anyway.

http://www.LeannessLifestyle.com

Sincerely,

David Greenwalt-Founder

According to both the Mobile Marketing Association
and Pew Internet & American Life Project Surveys,
40% of US Mobile phone users text message.

Could you use a little healthy motivation and knowledge
every day? How about once a week? Or maybe just Monday,
Wednesday and Friday?

Is there a particular time of day when it’d be really great
to get a healthy reminder, tip or strategy to keep you
progressing toward your health and fitness goals?

If this sounds kinda cool then checkout my new

Healthy Text Motivator Service

If you’re a text messager it’s pretty darn cool
even if I do say so myself.

For a limited time it’s not $9.95 per month –

It’s FREE!

Check it out —

http://www.myhealthytext.com

Sincerely yours in health,

David Greenwalt CSCS
http://www.leannesslifestyle.com

I’ve pitched this idea to a few close friends and we’ve always got a good chuckle out of it. This is really just a mild rant and is not to be taken all that serious. Just some food for thought and a tongue-in-cheek theory I have.

In an effort to make sense of nonsense I’ve recently come to the conclusion that the government has decided we, the people, are not allowed more than two vices legally at a time. It’s not that one particular vice is more harmful or morally bankrupt than another–it’s just that the two vices we’ve been given are the maximum allowed–”I’m sorry, you cannot exceed the two vices you have been given.”

The two vices we’ve been given? Tobacco and alcohol. Between 1920 and 1933 the government actually tried to take away one of the two given vices and it failed miserably–it was called prohibition. Here is what one source had to say about it:

“National prohibition of alcohol (1920-33)–the “noble experiment”–was undertaken to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, reduce the tax burden created by prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America. The results of that experiment clearly indicate that it was a miserable failure on all counts. The evidence affirms sound economic theory, which predicts that prohibition of mutually beneficial exchanges is doomed to failure.”

As for tobacco? It’s just too big to ban. Too much money flowing into the government from big tobacco to abolish it and even if the government really wanted to, the uproar from addicted nicotine addicts would be not dissimilar to prohibition–a huge colossal failure.

The government’s message to us is clear. “We hear you oh addicted souls of democracy. And we concur. Thou shalt have two vices to satisfy the need for escape and inhibition (alcohol) and the need for artificial countering and coping (tobacco).”

Once you understand the government’s position it’s easier to understand why they continually say no to other vices–it’s not that the other vices are more harmful–it’s just that it would exceed the two-vice maximum allowed by law.

Moreover, it is my belief the government has established the two-maximum vice not so much because they care about the health and welfare of we Americans but because of image problems internationally. I mean, it’s okay if they allow us to drink and smoke, what’s so bad about that? But what if they let us drink, smoke, smoke pot, gamble and lie around with hookers while doing anabolic steroids purely for muscular enhancement? What would the international community think of us then?

So, when bills are introduced to make marijuana legal or even to make it medically legal for those who get no pain relief from anything else, there is a HUGE resistance by the government for one reason–it will have exceeded the two-vice maximum and our international image may be EVEN MORE tarnished than it already is. It’s simply unacceptable. It’s not that marijuana is going to harm more people than tobacco and alcohol. Get real.

One source said this about both … “According to the National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependency, 105,000 Americans die annually from alcohol-related causes which could include everything from falls to drunk driving accidents to cirrhosis of the liver. For comparison sake, there are 365,000 tobacco-related deaths in the U.S. each year.” And as a former police officer? If it weren’t for alcohol half the police in America could be sent home. That’s a conservative estimate.

So, since I’m all about solutions and not just pointing out problems, let me give my solution to the two-vice maximum.

I say let US choose our two vices. Okay, okay, we understand the government doesn’t want to give the appearance of the United States being a bunch of hedonistic, whack jobs. Got it. But since it’s barely arguable that the two vices we have are the worst we could have (when compared to pot, steroids, hookers, gambling) then just let us choose which two vices we want every year. And maybe if you choose no vices you get a $1,000 tax credit or something.

I think it could work. It would go like this. Every year, maybe at the department of motor vehicles, you could register for which two vices you want to partake in that year. Maybe a guy is single or divorced and decides he wants to buff up 20 extra pounds of muscle so he checks the “hookers” and “steroids” boxes. Fine. So he can’t smoke or drink. Maybe in another year stress is really high and business isn’t all that great. Just check “marijuana” and “gambling” so you get to relax and try your hand at lady luck for income.

In either example it’s barely debatable that the two vices chosen by either person are less harmful than tobacco and alcohol–I’m pretty certain they are–or at least no MORE harmful. And they fit the “escape” and “addiction” needs of we Americans as well.

I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, I think this case is closed. Problem solved. Someone needs to run this up the flagpole and see if it’s got any bite on capitol hill.

Should I? Shouldn’t I? Do I want to? Why? Etc.

Well, the indecision leads to “kinda” acting like you are going to gain weight again (more eating than maintenance) and I had pushed my body fat up to 8%. Well, for those who know me you KNOW that 8% is “no man’s land” and I’ve spoken of this before. I ALL but lose my abs as I near 10% since I am Mr. Typical Male. So, no man’s land means I get blurry, crappy abs and am not really big enough to be “big.” When I was 12% body fat and 214 pounds last winter I was at least BIG with no abs. At 8%? Just kinda fatter and abs going bye bye.

Enough. Decision now made. Well, actually, decision made about 10 days ago. Down about 3 pounds. Will lose about 6 more and call it good at 6%ish. That’s where I keep good abs, am really living the Lifestyle as I know how (not bulking to gain lean body mass) etc. It’s not even hard for me as you might imagine.

The point of this? Two points:

1. Everytime I lose weight I want it off yesterday. Yep - even me. Now, for me it’s more a mental picture of “Okay, I know what to do, I’m doing it, I’ll keep doing it so let’s just get it done okay?” Nope. Gotta be patient and let the fat come off over weeks, not days. It’s not that I’m dreading anything. It’s just that it’s like brushing my teeth so let’s be done with it. Doesn’t work that way.

2. Indecision sucks. Are you undecided? Get off the fence. Once you know what you want, for real, and get moving in that direction it’s such a better feeling. Even if I had decided to get big again to add more muscle that decision would have been fine too - at least I would have been decided. Limbo, when limbo isn’t maintenance, is just not good.

As far as portions go? There is no reason to get completely bloated. Full? Sure. Otherwise, again, the pity-party switch may be thrown. Eat until YOU are satisfied, not until your relatives are satisfied you’ve eaten as much as they have.

This is a time of year when many magazines and Internet sites are offering “clean-eating tips” for Thanksgiving. I’m not against eating clean as long as it’s how you are REALLY hard-wired and it won’t cause a pity-party switch to be thrown. The overwhelming majority of us are hard-wired to indulge at least some on Thanksgiving and to a lessor extent the next day too. For these reasons I don’t spend much time writing about holiday eating. Remember, the 10-12 meals are one-half of one percent of all your meals for the year and if I really stretch it I said those meals might have a full one percent impact on your weight for the year. It’s inconsequential–if you STOP.

Here are my guidelines for Lifestyle Thanksgiving eating.

I would suggest you increase exercise a total of 90 to 180 minutes this week (that means through Sunday). 30 minutes extra every day from Wednesday through Sunday should do it.

Don’t invert the splurge rule. I hereby grant every member to have 2 moderate splurge meals on Thanksgiving AND the day after. That’s a total of four splurges. Don’t gorge. Eat till you’re satisfied. That will take care of your splurges for the next seven days. Even if you eat 4 times a day that leaves you with 24 more meals to eat clean over a 7-day period.

What I meant by don’t invert the splurge rule is don’t have 24 splurges and 4 clean meals in 7 days if you’re a 4-meal a day eater. If you’re a 6-meal a day eater that would be like eating 38 splurges and 4 clean meals since 6-meal a day eaters eat 42 meals a week. Don’t invert the splurge rule. Have your four and stop it!

Next, weigh every day. Yes, the weight is going to go up. So what? It’s 90% water and probably even higher. You need to know what you are doing while you are doing it. Do NOT wait to weigh yourself until after you have had too many splurges. That is a recipe for failure. Stay awake. Stay in the present. Don’t drift off into a Thanksgiving coma and wake up 5-7 days later beating yourself senseless with verbal abuse as you stand on the scale for the first time in a week. Weigh every single day. Stay in the present. Stay awake!

Drink more water or maintain good water habits. Flush, flush, flush. You might think it’s dumb to drink a lot of water since you will be holding more of it. Wrong. Water is the medium that your body uses to perform every chemical reaction that occurs. It can speed up metabolism if consumed adequately and slow metabolism if not enough. And drinking too little of it sends additional signals to the brain that cause the release of hormones telling your body to hold on to the water you do consume.

Make a commitment that what you don’t eat by the 2nd day (the day after Thanksgiving) you will throw or give away. By then you HAVE had enough. If you need to reset your pity-party switch now that tells you that two days of extra splurges is enough then begin good self-talk to accomplish this so you don’t feel you’ve been too good by stopping after the 2nd day.

If you want to log your Thanksgiving day make it easy. Unless you do eat very very clean simply log it as a day where you consumed 2-4 times what your average day usually is. If your average is 1400 calories then assume, honestly, that you consumed 2800 calories to 5600 calories. What is most common is probably between 2 and 3 times your daily average. Create one Custom Meal called Thanksgiving 2004 and input the data as 40% carb, 40% fat and 20% protein. Did you hear that difference? 40% carb, 40% fat, 20% protein.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving everyone! Be safe, splurge a little and be a good Lifestyler.

Thanksgiving History

In 1621, after a hard and devastating first year in the New World the Pilgrim’s fall harvest was very successful and plentiful. There was corn, fruits, vegetables, along with fish which was packed in salt, and meat that was smoke cured over fires. They found they had enough food to put away for the winter.

The Pilgrims had beaten the odds. They built homes in the wilderness, they raised enough crops to keep them alive during the long coming winter, and they were at peace with their Indian neighbors. Their Governor, William Bradford, proclaimed a day of thanksgiving that was to be shared by all the colonists and the neighboring Native American Indians.

The custom of an annually celebrated thanksgiving, held after the harvest, continued through the years. During the American Revolution (late 1770’s) a day of national thanksgiving was suggested by the Continental Congress.

In 1817 New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom. By the middle of the 19th century many other states also celebrated a Thanksgiving Day. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a national day of thanksgiving. Since then each president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, usually designating the fourth Thursday of each November as the holiday.

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Thanksgiving causes many well-intentioned dieters, not true, seasoned Lifestylers, a great deal of stress. In my opinion they worry needlessly over what is going to be served. Here’s how I view Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is a holiday and one that can help us reflect on what we are thankful for. It also provides some of us an opportunity rather than a cross to bear with respect to meeting up with family. I recognize I am blessed in this regard but not everyone is and for many reasons. Whatever Thanksgiving means to you the one thing it does for too many is kick off the treacherous Thanksgiving through January 15th weight-gain phase.

Throughout the year I will eat about 2,184 meals. Over Thanksgiving and the day after I will eat about 10-12 times. That is one-half of one percent of the meals I will eat in a year. What impact might any of us expect one-half of one percent of our meals to contribute to our weight? Well, since the meals we may have on and right after Thanksgiving may be more calorie-dense and fat-laiden I’ll bump up the grand total of Thanksgiving to one percent of the total effect of your weight for the year. Doesn’t sound like very much does it? And it’s not.

A problem many people have is they don’t stop the day after Thanksgiving. They keep it going, as I said before, through mid January or later.

Thanksgiving is a time when the women in our family really get to show off how they cook–and we’ve got some good cooks let me tell you. Cooking has become something I expect to see in a museum some day on exhibit since it really seems to be going out of style and that makes Thanksgiving even more wonderful to me–it’s the day when most families, when schedules will permit, go all out cooking foods you never get at any other time of the year. It’s the day when cooking goes on for hours and hours and hours to get it just right. You have plenty of fingers on one hand to count the other occasions in a year when this might take place. I’m not about to short-change myself by giving up some sensible indulgence of these wonderful-tasting foods just so I can be a picture-perfect dieter and not gain 2 pounds of water weight. No thank you. On every Thanksgiving since I’ve been alive I have some of anything I want. I don’t go home feeling deprived. By not going home feeling deprived I don’t send out pity-party invitations.

I talk about pity-party invitations in LL V.4. This usually occurs when an internal mechanism inside you says you’ve been better than you should have been. You may be wonderful for a few hours but what happens is the pity-party invitations will have been sent shortly after you said “No thank you” for the fifth time and right about the time you chomped on your fourth piece of broccoli sans any dressing or sauce. When you send out the pity-party invites who shows up is quite ugly. Mr. Binge, Ms. Secret Eating, Mrs. Fields and more may arrive and the total caloric effect may end up being much worse than if you had simply eaten a little more at Thanksgiving and NOT gone home feeling too perfect. You see, this is important, you have to be aware of your internal switch that thinks you’ve been too good. When that switch is turned on it gets ugly–it just gets ugly.

With this said there is no reason for you to eat what you DON’T want. I am not a believer that because Aunt Matilda is trying to forcefeed you pumpkin pie that you should cave in and eat if you don’t like it. Take a bite. Be polite. Then say it’s good but it’s just not you. Eat what you want that you know isn’t a trigger. If you are unsure if it’s a trigger then you may just have to try it and find out. With all the normal Thanksgiving foods it could be really hard to figure out what’s a trigger and what isn’t anyway. Skip the foods you KNOW are triggers, that’s the message here. Have what you want. Don’t have what you don’t want. Personally I skip anything really splurgey unless I think I am REALLY going to love it. I’m picky with my splurges and that’s just because I know everything counts. I just hate wasting calories on mediocre food.

In part 2 I’ll discuss portions and every strategy important to enjoy this special holiday.

I must give a cautionary piece of advice for those who do find they need to dip below 1000-1200 calories a day. You MUST supplement with a quality multi-vitamin like The Bridge. You SHOULD supplement with 500-1000mg of extra, separate calcium. You SHOULD supplement with omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil or a combination of fish and flax oils if you don’t consume 2-3 servings of salmon a week. You should keep your carbohydrate intake to between 30 and 40 percent. Fats should be kept to between 10 and 20 percent. Proteins will make up the rest.

As you can see, no where in this article, did I EVER say you couldn’t achieve the lowest body fat you have ever imagined achieving. You can. There may come a time, however, when you need to re-evaluate what you’ve accomplished, where you are, what your health and lifestyle is like, and what you really want out of those last 10 pounds or whatever. What you will REALLY get by achieving that super low body fat is something only you can define. But you SHOULD define it in your PROS on the Club Lifestyle website. The PROS of a 5′5″ woman dropping from 165 to 140 are different than that same woman dropping from 140 to 125 many times. Always re-evaluate your PROS along the way and don’t slough this task off. Achieving your goal is always doable and only you can decide if the cost to benefit ratio makes it worth it.

I hope this article has helped the MANY who have already traveled the super lean road, are doing it now, or are considering it very soon. I hope you have a better understanding of what a REAL stall is, what to do if you believe you truly have stalled, and why your next-door neighbor at your same age, sex, height and weight has little trouble dropping 30 pounds and you seem to stall everytime once you’ve lost 15.

Before I conclude let me caution you one more time against automatically blaming your CT as the reason you are currently stuck. Most times (read that again) it is NOT the CT causing the stall. It’s food quality, quantity, alcohol and overall energy balance is out of whack. This is the case over 80 percent of the time. This means it’s PROBABLY the case for you right now if you are stuck.

In conclusion remember, living an actively-fit lifestyle (AFL) and a nutritionally-fit lifestyle (NFL) are admirable qualities regardless of where you end up on the scale or by body fat measures. If you are truly living your AFL and NFL no one can criticize or critique you for not having done the things we all know are good, healthy and beneficial for daily life, vitality and longevity. Perform and the outcome will occur. How much performance is necessary will vary by individual, as will the outcome for that performance. Yes, there are some universal standards that work nicely across a bell curve of the population. Most diets are based on those bell-curve standards. I’m here to tell you what you don’t and won’t hear elsewhere. I’m here today talking to those who do NOT fall within the bell curve but also to EVERYONE because EVERYONE will reach their CT, as unique as it is, at some point during the journey to super lean.

As I said, hormonally and enzymatically, you have trained your body from past weight loss efforts to respond when it senses starvation or you have crossed the body fat threshold (that point where YOUR body senses body fat is too low even if your body fat is still way too high). The CT isn’t fair or equitable in any way.

For some women the CT point could be when she’s 30 pounds overweight according to every height and weight chart known to man and has just under 30 percent body fat. Is she at goal? In her mind? No way. Her body has a different goal however. A guy may hit his CT at 18% body fat and 30 pounds overweight. Other women may not hit their CT until they are 9 percent body fat and damn near UNDERweight. These are the ladies who will look at you in almost amazement and “deer in the headlights” with why it’s SO HARD for you and they just don’t see it. There are guys who don’t hit their CT until 6-7% body fat comes and their reaction to guys who hit their CT at 12, 15 or 18% is one of shock, dismay and disbelief. And yes, the ones who hit their CT way early DO HATE the ones who hit their CT way late. It’s the natural order of things. And to be honest, those who hit their CT way early are allowed to hate the ones who hit their CT way late.

With the help of my nutrition tool called the “Nutrition Analyzer” and my calorie-balancing checkbook called “Lean Account” you can more accurately determine if you have hit your CT. Things will just NOT make sense (assuming you have sense and are sensible about your expectations). Those who have hit their CT will be heard uttering things like “Gee, I haven’t eaten a processed food in weeks, I live on veggies and lean meats, I’m eating 1200 cals a day and exercising 500 mins a week and I haven’t lost any weight in three weeks. Gee, that doesn’t sound right.” See what I mean? It just won’t make sense.

Remember, everyone has a CT. It just varies as to when it’s gonna kick in. When it does you have a few choices:

1. Eat even less
2. Eat Cleaner
3. Exercise even more
4. Some of everything

Before you opt for #1 you should first determine if you are on planet earth with what you are really eating, drinking, splurging with. What you eat, as in the quality of what you eat, can have an impact on total food allowed. Next, look at your macronutrient balance. Are carbs and/or fat still too high? Where are those carbs and fats coming from?

Before you opt for #3 you should determine if you are at a level where overtraining has already occurred or is about to occur if you go higher. For women this activity-overtraining threshold is usually in the 600-800 minutes a week (if sustained for longer than a month or so) range and for guys it’s about one-half to two-thirds that of women. I’m not talking about your newly crowned Gold-medal wearing marathoner next door neighbor. I’m talking about average men and women without the genetics of a freak.

What is usually best to break through the dreaded CT is to maximize time exercising and burn more calories while doing it. If that is already in order then bring activity up 30 minutes a week until that over-training level is about to be reached. Do this without lowering calories. So, ladies, if you are doing 300 minutes a week and have TRULY hit your CT then do 330 next week, 360 the week after and so on. Continue to increase minutes until you are noticing signs of near overtraining (sleep disturbance, strong achiness, immune system compromised, poor recovery, every one and every thing around you sucks and you pretty much think that everyone but you is an idiot etc.) At that point it’s probably time to hold steady and be careful with your training. Guys, you do the same except move your activity from 150 minutes a week up 30 minutes a week until you are in the 300-400 range, maybe more, with the same near over-training guidelines I have given here and elsewhere.

Once you have truly done the preceding three paragraphs and at least two full weeks have gone by with no weight loss you get to begin reducing calories. “Well by how much Mr. Smarty Pants?” I can already here you asking. Once CT has truly hit it can get silly. Most women will do well in the 1000-1200 calorie range. Most guys in the 1300-1500 calorie range. The big lie kept secret in the magazines and “diet” books though is it is NOT uncommon once the CT has been reached for women to have to dip well under 1000 cals a day. Many need to live in the 700-800 range until their weight goal is reached–some even a bit less. For guys? Contrary to what the hucksters elsewhere will tell you it’s NOT uncommon for guys to have to dip below 1500 calories, with many living in the 1100-1300 calorie range until their goal is reached. Some will have to dip just under 1000 calories to achieve their goal.

Keep something in mind here. When I say “goal” I’m referring to whatever the ultimate, low-body fat you is. That may be 12 percent for some women. It may be seven percent for other women. It’ll vary. For guys it may be ten percent or five percent. The massive variance on WHEN the CT will hit is matched by the massive variance on what your ultimate, realistic low body fat is.

In the last part (part 3) I’ll discuss some cautions about any VLC (very-low-calorie) eating plans. I’ll also conclude with the good news.

Have you reached your critical threshold (CT)?
PART 1 of 3

CT is a point where returns are less than expected based on true investment (not half-baked, pie-in-the-sky investment belief). Investment of what? Time, effort and intake.

Every single person alive has a CT where effort to move further ahead will be exponentially higher than all previous periods of weight loss. It’s as though everything is cooking along nicely, by the numbers, and then BAM, out of nowhere it seems, the progress stalls (a true stall is one that lasts longer than two weeks) and the weight fighter is left scratching his head.

Before I continue I have to shut off all the people reading this who are two weeks into their program cheering me on because they all feel the pain already–not so fast. I said very early, and not on accident, that I’m talking REAL investment of time (output) and clean input (quality food and drink). Most THINK they are working hard when they are not and most THINK they are eating clean when they are not. That universal law has not changed–nothing has in fact. I’m simply bringing to your attention the idea of the CT point in your weight loss journey. You already know it exists. You simply never looked at it like I’m giving it to you here.

The CT point is real. It’s not in your head.

Another interesting facet about the CT is it can change after a first pass weight loss attempt. You also already know this is true. For example, Sally drops from 165 to 125. During her journey she noticed it started getting “really hard” about 135 pounds but she persevered and blasted on past it for the last ten pounds. Those ten were very uncomfortable and required way more activity and less input than what it took to get to 135–seemed very odd to her but she did it. After a few months Sally blossomed back up to about 150 and vowed she had had enough and was gonna do it again, but this time down to 120 so she could maintain about 127 give or take. Sally is smart–she knows that GETTING to 120 isn’t STAYING at 120 and it’ll never happen that way. So, she starts at 150 and does great for the first 10 pounds but then BAM, again, she starts to experience her CT. This time it started about 140 rather than 135. Hmmm, that’s odd. Or is it? Actually it’s not odd at all. It’s quite common for the CT point to move up on passes beyond the first or second. In other words, it’s going to be more difficult, earlier, on passes beyond the first or MAYBE the second, to get to the lower goal.

The body is smart. Hormonally and enzymatically it “learns” from past experience. It can adapt sooner once it learns from what it has been put through in the past. This is universally true for every mental and physical endeavor you ask of the body. Think about it. Once you do anything once it’s easier (usually) to do it again. Why? Learning in all regards and adaptation by the body. How long would it take you to ride a bike if you hadn’t ridden one in 10 years? My point is made.

In part 2 I’ll discuss how unfair the CT is and what you should do to break through it when (not if) it occurs.

http://www.stanford.edu/group/SICD/PhilipMorris/pmorris.html

In the above report are these statements:

There are really no longer any disputes about the negative health effects of tobacco and the fact that smoking tobacco can lead to the loss of life. But just to reiterate these points from important groups :

According to a 1999 World Health Organization report “Tobacco has killed four million people in the year 1999. [Meaning that 1 out of every 10 deaths was tobacco related] By the 2020s or the early 2030s, that preventable death toll will rise to 10 million deaths per year.”
According to a report by the World Bank, “Half of all long-term smokers will eventually be killed by tobacco, and of these, half will die during productive middle age, losing 20 to 25 years of life.

The diseases associated with smoking are well documented and include cancers of the lung and other organs, ischemic heart disease and other circulatory diseases, and respiratory diseases such as emphysema. In regions where tuberculosis is prevalent, smokers also face a greater risk than nonsmokers of dying from this disease.”

The other day I was telling my son about how hilarious AND sick it is that Philip Morris is also the largest advertiser for ANTI-smoking campaigns. Huh? You read that right. Yes, they produce the product that is responsible for killing millions of users every year. Yes, they produce commercials and advertisements telling people not to smoke and the hazards of smoking. Why? Damage control. Agreements with legislators at the Federal and State level so they can continue selling death and addiction.

This brings me to an article Coach Tom pointed me to today found here.

http://www.slate.com/id/2128999/?GT1=7407

In this article on American’s expanding waistline Laura Kipnis states “Despite the fact that most of us now apparently face a roly-poly future, a visceral revulsion toward fat persists. It’s an interesting form of social hypocrisy, hatred for fatness coupled with a free ride toward the industries that exploit the susceptible. But wait: Is that the sound of corporate responsibility kicking into gear? Yes, in its ever public-spirited way, McDonald’s has just announced it will start printing calorie information on its food wrappers. Once you’ve paid for your Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, you will learn that you’re about to put away 730 calories*.

This brings me to the point of this article from me and the reason I told my son it’s hilarious AND sick that you consider the producers of addiction-based consumables are also the ones creating campaigns that give the appearance they care about your health too.

Here’s why it’s hilarious AND sick.

When you create an addictive substance you haven’t created a product for a consumer. You have created a product to create a user. A consumer can say “No thanks, I don’t want that.” A user is a whole different animal–and I do mean animal. Once I have you addicted I can tell you in advertisements and box labels all day long the damage you are doing to yourself. Your chances of quitting because of my campaign are two: slim and none.

It’s quite a successful business model really. Create a product that creates a USER rather than a consumer. The product should truly feed a biological addiction and then, after lawsuits and a few billion in payouts, create campaigns that seem to be against the very product you produce. The cool AND sick thing about this business model is once you have the subject under the grips of your addictive product you KNOW very well that cutely devised campaigns that seem educationally against your product won’t change your USER from using. Oh, sure, a few will maybe get the message and change but it won’t be because of your message. And you know it. They’ll change for the same reasons any addict changes–the multivaried and complex reasons beyond the scope of this article.

Tobacco and junk-food producers KNOW what they are doing. They know the users they are creating. And USERS aren’t consumers.

Dear Friend,

Hi, My name is David Greenwalt. I’m a lifestyle and fitness coach and author of the most authoritative book and program on body transformation ever–The Leanness Lifestyle.

The photos you see on this first blog are of my wonderful wife Tracy and me. Tracy is a lifelong weight fighter who weighs less today than she did in eighth grade. As for me? I was always active but had simply let myself get too fat. My wife Tracy and I have conquered what you’re trying to conquer. We know what it’s like to be too fat. Just look at our pictures here and tell us it’s not true. We also know what it feels like to get lean and live lean–and at 40 plus years old too!

Today I’m proud to say that I empower people to change their lives for a living. And I do it with cutting-edge knowledge, teaching and online technology that only insiders are aware of let alone properly know how to use.

I’ve seen it all and read it all. Wouldn’t it be nice, once and for all, to go to one, expert source for your questions instead of relying on the latest infomercial, newspaper blurb, water-cooler expert, or magazine “trick” of the month?

Wouldn’t it be nice to have every fitness, nutrition, exercise and lifestyle question answered quickly and privately based on over 23 years of real-world experience and from a trusted friend who has your best interests at heart?

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could be personally taught how to eat and train no matter what your budget is or what equipment you have access to?

Since August 1999 when I first started Club Lifestyle I’ve been working personally with thousands of men and women—people just like you who want to lose body fat while tightening and toning their muscles. Some just want to drop a few pounds and be healthier. Others want to compete in bodybuilding or fitness competitions. Still others want and need to lose a hundred pounds or more. I’ve worked with every person with every goal. And when I say personally I mean personally.

My intention is for this blog to become your trusted source for fitness- and body-transformation tips, ideas, motivation and news. The official website for this particular company I run is www.leannesslifestyle.com

Sincerely yours in health,

David Greenwalt CSCS