FITNESS PHILIPPINES

I’ve lost 40 lbs on EET in 6 months while still eating junk food every day

2011-05-14T20:28:00.000-07:00

This article was originally published on Hive Health Media, and documents my current progress on the Eating and Exercise Timing (EET) Fitness Plan. Below is the full article, but you can read the originally published work here.

That’s right. After I had established what the “perfect” EET habits for me that led to my 30 lbs weight loss were, I just continued doing them and knew that they would still do great things for me. 2 months later, all my expectations were completely met as I shaved off yet another 10 lbs, bringing my total weight loss on the EET to 40 lbs in 6 months.

WHAT EET IS

For those that don’t know, EET is short for “Eating and Exercise Timing”. It’s a weight loss and fitness plan created by Jon Pearlstone that allows its participants to eat literally whatever they want every day of the week without any calorie counting, portion control, or any sort of food deprivation. Exercise is ideally involved in a participant’s plan, but all workouts last less than 30 minutes.

Jon Pearlstone, creator of EET, enjoying his plan

This sort of structure was crafted to make eat as easy and stress-free for the participants as much as possible. The plan is personalized in such a way that it can blend in easily with anyone’s current way of living, including schedule, groceries and everything else.

That “eat whatever you want” line is no exaggeration, either. I eat things from Pizza Hut, KFC, and Burger King all the time and they’ve all served to help me meet my weight loss gains! I’ve actually written many topics about the plan and my experiences on it on Hive, so I highly recommend you check them out!

I DIDN’T EVEN NOTICE THESE “LAST 10 LBS!”

Jon Pearlstone today

More than 2 months ago, I wrote that “I’m still very confident that I’ll (lose that last 10 lbs) using EET, and without changing what I’m currently doing a whole lot.” And that’s honestly what really happened. Up to that point, I had been on the plan for around 4 months and had gone through several adjustments, to slow get me used to the “ideal” situations that EET would have me be in.

On day 1, I weighed in at 214 lbs and told Jon Pearlstone that my goal weight was 194, primarily because I had weighted at least 200 lbs for most of my adult life, and breaking that number would be a milestone for me. I had reached that goal around 3 months into the plan, and Jon told me something truly surprising. He said that the plan would naturally be able to allow me to lose 20 more pounds, without my doing anything too radical. I was already ecstatic at the point, since I had achieved the weight loss goal I had been fighting towards for at least half a decade in only 3 months, but this new piece of information left me a bit skeptical. “This plan was already outrageously effective for me, so it can’t be any better right? Right?” But it was.

I had lost another 10 lbs only a month later, and the feeling gave me a new air of confidence about the plan. This truly was the magic formula for me, and the best thing about it was that I didn’t even notice these brand new, epic changes. I see people write about how difficult it is to lose “those last 10 lbs” all the time, but, just to be perfectly honest, for me it was a walk in the park.

The reason for this is that the plan became second nature for me by the time I got to my 30 lbs weight loss. I already considered it a part of my natural lifestyle and dropping it for something completely different would be too much of a hassle for me at this point in time. The reason it became second nature for me so quickly was that Jon carefully crafted my personalized plan in such a way that it was fun and sustainable for me as early as possible, and it still is to this day.

WHAT I’M CURRENTLY DOING

EET uses a technique called “forecasting”, which is a basically a schedule that the participant will follow in order to make full use of the plan. My current daily forecast is as follows:

7:30 AM – Wake up and drink Green Tea
10:30 AM – Work out of the day
11:30 AM – Treat meal where I can eat whatever I want. Pizza, fried chicken, ice cream, you name it!
5:30 PM – 1/2 can salmon, 4 egg whites, 1 chicken breast salad, 1 cup skim milk, 1/4 cup almonds, 1 small servings zero-fat yogurt
Pre-Bed (usually around 11:00 PM) – Decaf Green Tea

And here are the workouts I’m currently performing:

SWEDISH INTERVALS

Jog in place for 1 minute – I’m able to do 180 steps in 1 minute
Jump Rope as fast as I can for 1 minute – I’m currently able to do 150 – 160 rope revolutions per minute
Jog in place for 30 seconds – I’m able to do 90 steps in 30 seconds
Repeat the latter two steps 9 more times for a total of only 16 minutes of exercise.

I perform this workout every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday

I really like jumping rope since it’s almost a new skill for me to polish. I only recently picked this exercise up again after years of my rope gathering dust in the closet, and I’m still very rusty. I stumble several times during my workout, and it’s something I’m having fun trying to improve.

SWEDISH INTERVALS WITH BURNOUT SESSION

Same format as the Swedish Intervals above, but with a few more minutes of work added afterward:
1 minute total rest
Hit the heavy bag with various mixed martial arts techniques such as punches, kicks, elbows and knees for 1 minute – I’m able to do 130 – 140 strikes in 1 minute
Jog in place for 30 seconds – I’m able to do 90 steps in 30 seconds
Repeat the latter two steps 4 more times for a total of 7 1/2 minutes of additional work

I perform this workout every Monday and Friday

Originally, my Swedish Intervals were composed mostly of hitting the heavy bag, but Jon said that this was always less than ideal because Swedish Intervals are supposed to be composed of continuous movement exercise, and combinations on a bag are serial movements. Nonetheless, I kept with this workout for many months since hitting the heavy bag was my favorite “cardio” type of activity.
With my recent rediscovery of the jump rope, though, all that has changed. I still wanted to perform heavy bag work regularly, though, so Jon gave me permission to do these burnout sessions after my jump rope intervals.

I don’t do them very often, in a week anymore, though, because doing it in this format for 5 days in a week seems to burn me out too much, especially since I seem, to be hitting the bag with more force nowadays. So, I decided to split my Swedish workouts into the “hard” and “easy” format you’re reading about now. Because of the current format my heavy bag work is in now, the number of strikes I’m able to output per minute has also dropped. Before I switched to this format, I was always able to hit the bag more than 150 times each minute, but that’s changed as well since I’m performing my striking after a full Swedish Interval workout.

STRENGTH CIRCUITS

A Strength circuit for me is composed of 7 exercises performed back to back without any rest. After a full circuit, I get to rest completely for 30 seconds, then repeat the whole thing 4 more times for a total of 5 circuits. I also do a warm up circuit before beginning the full 5 circuits. The exercises I’m currently using are performed in this order:

1. Wide Push Ups – 7 reps
2. V-Ups – 11 reps
3. Front Squats with 95 lbs barbell – 5 reps
4. Bicycle Roman Twists – 7 reps
5. Chin ups – 8 reps
6. Bench Crunches – 7 reps
7. Romanian Deadlift with 95 lbs barbell – 7 reps

TABATA INTERVALS

Tabata Intervals are intervals of a continuous exercise performed at maximal intensity for 20 seconds straight, followed immediately by total rest for 10 seconds. This interval is repeated 7 more times for a total of 4 minutes of work.

Tabata Intervals are always performed after the Strength Circuits. A 3-minute rest window in between both workouts is recommended for performance on the Tabata Intervals to remain unhindered. My Tabata exercise is as follows:

Exercycle – 25 kph

If you check out my past article, you can see a huge discrepancy in my numbers for the Tabata work. About a month or two ago, the speedometer on my exercycle broke and I had it replaced with a new one. The technician who came to my house to set up the new speedometer tested it out and said that it was working perfectly, and, honestly, it was giving me more realistic numbers as per my performance.

Don’t ask me why my old speedometer was giving me those numbers. The thing’s broken and I honestly don’t know how it worked in the first place.

You can check out my past exercises and numbers here.

THE FORBIDDEN WEIGHT RANGE

I had already mentioned that I weighed in at over 200 lbs for much of my adult life. I had always wanted to break that barrier, but never imagined that I would ever be able to reach the 170 lbs range. I had weighed within the 180 lbs range throughout my college life and I had already considered it a miracle if I could maintain that weight range once again. With EET, not only did I reach that range, but I surpassed it! I was completely ecstatic when it first happened, and now that my weight is currently stable at 173 – 174 lbs, it looks like I’m not even going back there again. It’s simply amazing how well this plan worked for me!

DO I WANT MORE?

That’s said, if you were to ask me if I wanted to settle for where I am now, I would have to say “Hell, No!” Now that I’ve come this far, all I want to do is take it further. As far as I can tell, this is pretty much the maximum weight range that my current EET plan can take me, but I want to see if I can go down yet another weight range and maintain that for the rest of my life using EET.

To do that, though, I’ll definitely have to make some changes this time around, some of them possible being major. I’ll have to consult with Jon Pearlstone again to see what can be done, but I’m just plain curious to see how much magic I can squeeze out of this amazing plan!

THE GREAT BIPHASIC SLEEP EXPERIMENT

2011-04-26T03:14:00.000-07:00

I recently stumbled upon this very interesting blog post by the famous Steve Pavlina, about him trying out biphasic sleep. Biphasic sleep basically means sleeping two times a day instead of the usual one.

THE BENEFITS OF GOING BIPHASIC

Some people believe that sleeping this way is more beneficial because it saves them more time. This is because, when you sleep multiple times a day, you theoretically need less sleeping time each time than you would with just one huge chunk.

Specifically, in the usual nightly sleeping time, most people need 8-9 hours to feel completely rested the next day. For Biphasic sleep, there is one core sleep time, which is when you get most your sleep done, and one nap time. Most biphasic sleepers allot 4.5 hours for their core sleep and 1.5 hours for their nap time. The timing of each isn’t really that important as long as they’re both reasonable spaced apart, so that they feel independent of each other. You wouldn’t want to take an hour long nap, get up then have to sleep again after only an hour or two, right? A 6-8 hour time gap in between will usually be sufficient.

This results in sleeping only a total of 6 hours instead of the usual 8-9, giving you 2-3 extra hours of waking time in a single day.

THE NIGHT OWL VS. THE EARLY BIRD

I’ve known of multiphasic sleep patterns such as biphasic sleep for some time now, and, while I’ve dabbled in some of them from time to time, I’ve never really stuck to any of them because I enjoyed just sleeping in on some days. I’m just that type of lazy bum, I guess, hehe.

Anyway, going back to Steve Pavlina’s fascinating article, he mentions a dilemma he had with sleeping only once a day that I am actually currently having. Steve Pavlina routinely wakes up at 5:00 AM every morning, primarily because he enjoys starting the day before most people do, and, thus, has to sleep relatively early to compensate. This creates the problem of dealing with appointments, parties, dinners, and the like, that all take place in the middle of the night. Attending even one of these would leave him tired and drained the next day, which he wouldn’t enjoy.

There is thus the dilemma of The Night Owl vs. The Early Bird. Steve doesn’t want to give up his Early Bird habit, but still wants to regularly attend these sorts of nightly events whenever they present themselves.
The Biphasic Sleeping schedule solves this by allowing him to nap before the night-time appointment, which would ideally leave him well-rested, then still have enough time to get in all his core sleep before 5:00 AM since he’ll only need 4.5 hours. As long as he’s in bed at 12:30 AM, he’ll be good.

HOW SLEEP SCREWED UP MY LIFE

I’ve had a very terrible sleeping pattern for most of my life. I would stay awake for the entire day, and much of the night, then sleep for 9-10 hours to compensate, resulting in a 30 hour block on some days. Since days on our planet occur for only 24 hours, having a daily life that consists of 30-hour blocks can seriously screw with your overall schedule in relation with the rest of the world.

This is why I very recently developed the habit of rising daily 6:30 AM, no matter what time I fell asleep. It feels great, since I’m able to interact with other human beings more regularly now, and it just plain feels more natural to be awake during the day, instead of at night.

The problem is that, on some days, I feel extremely tired. This is because my years of odd sleeping and waking habits still find themselves activating, even when they’re completely unwanted. Even when I’m completely exhausted at night, I would sometimes still sleep very late and not get enough sleep by the time 6:30 AM hit.

KILLING TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE

The 4.5 / 1.5 distribution blocks in Biphasic Sleep address this problem nicely, though. I already sleep only 4.5-5 hours every night because of my prior bad sleeping habits, but now can make up feeling exhausted because of it by just having a 1.5 hour nap sometime during the day.

I’d also been bothered by the same Night Owl problem Steve encountered, so Biphasic Sleep literally solved two of my lifestyle problems in an instant, which I very much appreciate.

MY BIPHASIC SLEEP SCHEDULE

The current biphasic sleep schedule that I’ve set is Core Sleep from 2:30 AM – 7:30 AM and Naptime from 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM. I’ve had to adjust my 6:30 waking time recently to accommodate certain schedules better, and the naptime’s just experimental for the time being. I just feel that that particular time creates a large enough gap between the two sleep times and that I believe I’m easily very flexible during those times of the day. That might change in the future, but for now I’m good with it.

I’m also allotting 5 hours for Core Sleep and 2 hours for Naptime just to give me a little leeway. I know that I’m totally not used to this sort of schedule at the moment, so I’m allowing myself more time to adjust and make sure that I get the 4.5 and 1.5 hours recommended. When I feel totally fine with the schedule, I’ll drop it down to the appropriate numbers.

That’s still only 7 hours total sleep time, though, which is still 2 hours less than my usual 9, so I’m still getting the time-gaining benefits of Biphasic Sleep.

READY, SET … GO!

Okay, so yesterday was day 1. so how did it feel? I was never a “morning person”, so I’ve always sucked at getting out of bed, but after going around and about with my needed activities, I felt fresh as a daisy. No problems, so far, and hopefully, that’s how it’ll remain the rest of the time!

Join me on my quest to adopt Biphasic Sleep and see if I stay on it or not! Have you tried Biphasic sleep yet or know a thing or two about it? Give me some advice and leave a comment below; I’d love to hear about it!

THE MIND AND BODY OF MAN

2011-02-11T07:41:00.000-08:00

There have been many great thinkers of our time that have given great thought as to the nature of the human body. Does the body itself think, or does it receive instruction and guidance to something else, what one might term, the mind? Does the mind exist, but is it one and the same as the human body? Is the mind simply the human brain, with each synapse representing a separate thought or emotion? Or is it something invisible, something divine, something that cannot yet be fully understood by current thinkers? Let us explore these theories and the philosophers behind them, beginning with one of the greatest thinkers of all time.

Socrates

Socrates was a man who lived literally only to think of and teach philosophy. He took this so literally that he did not even want to get paid or get fed for his troubles of teaching the people of Athens. For him, studying philosophy was the highest thing man could do, as it aided him in increasing both his knowledge and wisdom, and thus become a better person.

Socrates thought that knowledge and wisdom exceeded anything else a man could have, whether it be strength, power, or riches. Thus, one of his primary philosophies was about the separation of the body and the soul. The soul to him was like what we now understand as the mind. It is the entity within man that thinks, that philosophies, and has wisdom. It is the charioteer that controls the mighty chariot known as the human body. In this sense, the body would seem as a powerless slave under the direct control of the soul. The soul, thus, is the master, and the body is beneath its boot.

Socrates believed this quite firmly. In fact, his refusal to accept payment and food while teaching illustrates quite well how lowly he thought of his own body. The only thing that mattered was the thought processes he had involved himself with, and nothing else.

Rene Descartes, who lived in the 17^th century, was a man who thought much the same as Socrates did. A scientist at heart, Descartes studied law in his youth at the behest of his family, but later on switched to mathematics. He was brilliant and immersed in his craft that he went to create the Cartesian geometry, which is widely taught in schools today. Descartes was also a theologian, and was thus a fierce believer in God. Finally, Descartes was a philosopher who extensively created study upon study to figure out his own existence, and thus, the existence of all humanity.

Descartes was therefore much like Socrates in that he was purely a thinker. In his philosophical adventures concerning existence, he concludes that he exists because he was thinking. The fact that something was thinking meant that something capable of thought existed at that time. The fact that he knew it was himself that was thinking led him to believe that he is primarily a thinking being.

Rene Descartes

A “thinking being”: something that exists primarily to think and to gain knowledge and wisdom. Because of his background, Descartes naturally thought of the mind as vastly superior to the body, as Socrates did. Like Socrates, he also links the mind to the soul, and, because he was a fierce believer in God, thinks that it has a direct connection to God and thus, divine. The body, on the other hand, is merely the vessel that the mind joins in to interact with the rest of God’s creations, and thus, in this way, gain the knowledge and wisdom it so needs. The body is thus necessary in this sense, but is still much inferior to the mind. This is because the body can be damaged in certain ways and can thus deceive the mind when the senses perceive something falsely. In this sense, the body is imperfect, and is beneath the perfection of the mind.

When the 20^th century came around, various thinkers such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Jean-Paul Sartre proposed a way of looking at the mind and body of man completely opposite to that of Descartes and Socrates. Instead of a dualistic approach that separates the two, thinkers such as Merleau-Ponty and Sartre, proposed such a thing as phenomenology, which takes a more monistic approach to the subject, and thus combines the two.

Phenomenology views reality and man’s interaction with it as the most important thing. Thus, while the mind is still important in that it contains man’s knowledge and wisdom, the body is equally as important because the mind only gains these things and grows by interacting with the rest of reality, particularly with other people. The body is thus not merely a slave to the mind as Socrates suggests, or as something imperfect that could be potentially deceitful as Descartes states, but as an integral part of existence, which the mind cannot do without.

To this day, both views concerning separation and unification of the body and mind exist. These philosophies even penetrate popular culture in such films as the Matrix, and more recently, the billion-dollar earning blockbuster known as Avatar.

In the Matrix, the war is fought on two fronts, both in reality and in the mind. The mind here is thought to be more powerful, as it is the primary weapon the humans have in order to survive the war against the machines. The humans hook themselves up to computers and fight the machines on the inside, using only their powers of thought and consciousness. Humans who have been enslaved by the machines since birth are shown to be able to “live” rich and full lives as mere thought constructs in an imaginary world; All mind, and no body.

Jean-Paul Sartre

In Avatar, the main character, Jake Sully, is wheelchair-bound and longs for a better existence. To this end, he allows his mind to be transferred another, stronger body, and eventually finds value in himself and in life as a whole through this manner. The alien race in the film, known as the Pandorans, are also seen as relating to others and to the planet itself through a form of physical interaction. Truly, this film has very phenomenological roots.

Then, there are other recent movies that take the separation of body and mind to more extremes, such as in Inception, where, similar to the Matrix, humans can enter others peoples’ consciousness and steal their thoughts and secrets. In another extreme, movies such as the Expendables stress the strength of the physical body and its direct interaction with others as the primary way of solving conflict.

Which do I feel is more correct, though, at least to myself? I would personally have to go with phenomenology in this one, especially since I’m so into health and fitness and thus value my body to such a high degree. I, of course, don’t mean to downplay the mind in any way when I stress this. I have earned consistently high grades throughout my academic life and have seen the respect that it brings to young people. Having an ample amount of knowledge and wisdom also aids one greatly in living on one’s own in the world, even without the help of others. This can be easily demonstrated in one’s resume, where one typically has a greater chance of earning a better living if he or she has a better academic record. A greater array of knowledge can also help the business correctly strategize his next business deal and venture.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

I feel, however, that having only one side of this coin being polished isn’t enough to get you through life well enough. I feel that if the mind should be strong, then the body should be just as strong if not moreso. For the mind to function, it must still exist in reality after all, and if the body is weak, then the mind’s attainment of knowledge and wisdom from reality will be seriously impaired. If the body is strong and healthy, then constant interaction with reality will continue unabated, leaving the mind to grow as it will.

While everyone knows the value of a clean academic record and tons of degrees hanging on walls, they also know that a sound mind must live in a sound body as well. Wealthy businessmen spend literally millions when they get to a certain age, attempting to recover the body they had so neglected in their youth.

Man is also not an island, and cannot live without others. Pure contact through thought is totally unheard of, and so people must interact and gain relationships through the powers of the body, through the expressions of the voice, the sensations of touch, and so on.

I sincerely believe that the body and mind should not be classified as apart from one another, as one is just as equally important as the other. I have seen the benefits of having strength in both sides of my existence in my life thus far and I cannot fathom letting one go in favor of the other. Mind and body are one, and I intend to keep it that way.

I'VE LOST 20 LBS IN 12 WEEKS ON EET! NOW WITH BEFORE AND AFTER PICS

2011-02-02T00:37:00.000-08:00

This is another article I wrote for Hive Health Media concerning my progress on the EET Fitness Plan. I mention below that the original publication of this article was a bit delayed, but now this version is even more more so. In fact, at the time of this publishing, I'm actually near the end of my 16th week on EET, and have made even more significant gains. I'm really loving this plan and the fact that it's still fun and exciting for me while still helping me lose weight and maintain a good amount of muscle mass even on the 16th week is pretty amazing.

I've been very busy lately, as is evidenced by my lack of articles on the blog, and it's not just because of grad school and personal stuff, too. I'm actually in the middle of another project I'm trying to get off the ground, which I'll write about extensively if it goes the way I planned it. Anyway, check out my progress on week 12 of the plan, and the first in my series of "After Pics" for EET.

This article's actually a bit delayed because I've been really busy lately, but at least now I've got some Before and After pics to show off my journey with EET:

The interesting thing about this is that this was actually my original goal weight. When I started EET at 214 lbs 12 weeks ago, Jon asked me what my goal weight was and I figured "20 lbs lost sounds good". Within the last 5 or so years that I've been trying out different diet and fitness plans, I'd never lost a solid 20 lbs before, much less kept that off for the long term. So, I figured that getting down to 194 and staying there for the foreseeable future sounds great! After all, during that 5-year time period,m the only time I'd dropped below 200 lbs (to only 199, as a matter of fact), was when I was under an extreme amount of stress. So, dropping below that figure without stressing out and by eating whatever I wanted every day sounded like too much of a sweet deal. And it was, truth be told, especially since I lost it all in less time than I figured. I figured that loss would realistically take at least 4 months with sort of diet, much less under 3.

WHAT I ATE OVER THE 12 WEEKS

I get asked this sometimes because I don't exactly outline my Treat Meals every time I do an article. The reason I don't do this a lot is because my Treat Meals are usually different most of the time. Here are some sample Treat Meals I've had recently which also seem to recur every once in a while:

SAMPLE TREAT MEAL 1:

1 plate pork barbeque

1 plate fried chicken

1 bowl broccoli

1 large plate Filipino noodles (Pancit)

2 glasses A&W root beer

1 large slice chocolate cake

SAMPLE TREAT MEAL 2:

1 large plate lechon kawali

1 plate mixed vegetables

1 large plate spaghetti and meatballs

2 glasses A&W root beer

1 large cup vanilla ice cream

SAMPLE TREAT MEAL 3:

1 Pizza Hut Super Supreme Personal Pan Pizza

1 bottle Raspberry Sola Iced Tea

2 Krispy Kreme donuts

SAMPLE TREAT MEAL 4:

1 large plate Chinese Crispy Lemon Chicken

1 bowl garlic broccoli

1 large plate Yang Chow Fried Rice

2 glasses Royal Tru-Orange soda

TREAT MEAL NOTES:

These sample treat meals all follow EET's guidelines concerning meals, in that they all have protein, fiber, and vegetables. I ate these meals plenty of times during my 12 weeks on EET, and will still eat them in the future. While EET does have guidelines for meal composition, the exact foods themselves were all chosen by me because, well, I like to eat 'em! These sample meals only represent a fraction of all the Treat Meals I like to eat because I like to consume different things most of the time.

MORE ... MORE!

Anyway, now that I've lost 20 lbs, what do I want? More, of course, as greedy as that sounds. I had attained my goal weight in a relatively short amount of time and without any hassle, am managing to keep from rebounding and regaining any weight, as is typical of such plans that offer this much loss, but I didn't meet my actual, true goal. This was the one I pretty much never told Jon and just kept it to myself. I had achieved the goal weight I had communicated to Mr. EET nearly 3 months ago, but I had not achieved the goal body figure I had in my noggin. And I wasn't about to stop before achieving this.

Is that even possible on EET, though? Would this diet that allows me to consume junk like Keebler's Soft Batch take me even further and help me attain more impressive figures than 20 lbs lost in 12 weeks? Would this plan also allow me to keep this weight off?

"Absolutely!" Mr. EET, aka Jon Pearlstone, enthusiastically replies to me. In fact, he told me this during my first week of EET, when he first saw my "Before" picture. I told him about the 20 lbs weight goal prior to that, and, a few days later, he replies with something like "make that 40 lbs!" In my head I was all, "okay, whatever you say, Jon." But, in fact, it was all true.

HOW TO IMPROVE ON PERFECTION

More than a month ago, I had written an article about how I attained the "Perfect" EET Forecast. It was perfect at the time in such a way that it would allow me to achieve my goal weight, and it did. Now, though, since the new goal is to lose an additional 20 lbs, that forecast has pretty much outlived its usefulness. My body has simply outgrown it and though it is still very possible that keeping it would still allow me to reach my goal, adapting it to something even more effective would aid in the rapidity and efficiency of my success. And that's what I want!

THE BASE DAY

EET defines the Base Day as "a detailed one day script for all Eating, Activity, and Exercise (the member) usually completes successfully and loses weight". Base Days are supposed to leave the member fully satisfied in terms of the foods they eat, yet almost always lose weight by the very next day. This is a very key concept in EET, and something I apparently still wasn't using up to this point. I had lost 20 lbs in only 12 weeks using only the other guidelines, so it was now time to add another key component to take everything to the next level.

Base Day Treat Meals are essentially constructed by taking the healthiest options of the individual member's favorite foods and placing them in a single Treat Meal.

WHY WAIT?

Why didn't I start using a Base Day right off the bat? Maybe if I did I'd have lost 40 lbs by this time! Unfortunately, it's not that easy. EET's all about progressions, and its main goal would be to ease each member into individualized plans in such a way that they will become completely sustainable.

Base Days can only be successfully forecasted until the member has become completely used to a consistent, basic timing pattern. This will assure that the Base Day will be followed correctly and that it will work when forecasted. If EET forced members into an immediate Base Day, then members might not want to follow it if they haven't adjusted their habits to it yet.

This is also important so that each member can have time to sort out which foods they exactly love, and, after a complete and comprehensive list has been formed, they, with the help of the EET consultant, can construct an appropriate Base Day Treat Meal.

In any case, I feel it's safe to say that I have certainly adjusted enough to warrant having a Base Day. I love my Base Day Treat Meal and certainly look forward to it every time it's forecasted. It's also not like I'm confined to it forever from this point on. While Base Day Treat Meals are excellent for accelerating weight loss, I will still have other days where I will forecast other types of treat meals. I can still forecast wolfing down popcorn at the movies, eating at parties, and dinner with friends.

SO EET IMPLEMENTS FOOD RESTRICTIONS WHEN MEMBERS ARE MORE ADVANCED? LAME!

No, not at all. The Base Day is definitely not followed every day. EET recommends each member to have it as much as possible during a week, but also does not recommend it literally every day.

A Base Day is recommended for most of the week because it's an advanced tool to take members' progress to another level. However, since a Base Day follows an exact script, and thus an exact layout for what the Treat Meal for that day should be, recommending it every day would mean that EET would be placing food restrictions, and that's not at all what EET's all about. 4 Base Day Treat Meals and 3 other Treat Meals a week are great for a single, weekly forecast. EET still wants members to eat plenty at dinners with friends, parties, movies, and so on during the week. Of course, I want this for myself as well, which is why I implemented this in my own forecast below:

MY NEW FORECAST

As defined, the Base Day has a detailed script, which includes both eating and exercising. I've detailed my exercises before, but I'd never been too in-depth about the foods I ate. Well, now it's time. After an extensive chat with Jon, we came up with an exact treat meal that would be perfect for me on a Base Day:

1 large bowl Arroz Caldo, with extra chicken
1 bowl steamed broccoli
1 small mango
1 small banana
4 pieces Keebler's Soft Batch cookies
1 large handful Cheetos (I like the Twists ones best)
1 cup skim milk

For my non-treat meal, I have what Jon calls the EET Salad, which has chicken, shrimps, mild salsa, low-fat, low-calorie dressing (I'm currently using Kraft's), and, of course, a ton of mixed vegetables, including things like broccoli, onions, peppers, lettuce, and spinach. I add to this a cup of skim milk, and 1 serving of low-fat flavored yogurt as dessert.

With that in mind, here's my current forecast:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday (Base Days)
7:30 AM - Wake up, Green tea
11:30 AM - Swedish Intervals on the Exercise Bike and Heavy Bag
12:30 PM - Base Day Treat Meal (see above)
5:30 PM - EET Salad, 1 cup skim milk, 1 serving low-fat yogurt
Pre-Bed - Decaf Green tea

Tuesdays and Thursdays (Grad School Days)
7:30 AM - Wake up, Green tea
8:00 AM - 4:00 PM - Grad School
4:30 PM - Strength Circuits and Tabata Intervals
5:30 PM - Treat Meal (anything I want, as long as it has a protein source, vegetables, fiber, and water)
Pre-bed - Decaf Green tea

Saturday (Optional Base Day)

7:30 AM - Wake up, Green tea

11:30 AM - Strength Circuits and Tabata Intervals

12:30 PM - Base Day Treat Meal (see above)

5:30 PM - EET Salad, 1 cup skim milk, 1 serving low-fat yogurt

Pre-Bed - Decaf Green tea

A rather nice looking bowl of Arroz Caldo

FORECAST NOTES

I currently have 4 Base Days for this week, though any one of them can be adapted to a non-base day if plans suddenly come up. It is highly recommended to forecast as many Base Days in a week that I know I can realistically handle, but I'm never tied down to them, which is excellent.

ARROZ CALDO

Another thing one might notice is the Arroz Caldo, which you might not be familiar with. I'm from the Philippines, and one thing I've never liked is that all the most recommended diet literature is from abroad. Sure, they're all very well-written, but they also just say exactly what you need to eat. If none of the food in the book is available to you for one reason or another, then you're out of luck, which was always a problem of mine. EET takes the foods that you normally eat and love, gets the healthiest of those, and compiles them into a single Base Day treat meal. It's much more convenient for me since I don't have to struggle to create health food recipes that I can't complete because of a lack of ingredients.

GRAD SCHOOL DAYS

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, you might notice that I only scheduled one meal for that day. That's not a typo, it's really just one meal! This isn't a typical forecast by any means, but my Grad School days are a bit special. I typically stay up most of the night before I go to school to finish up all my studies. Because of this, I usually wind up exhausted during my days. I'd have erratic behavior sometimes, which can cause problems for regular forecasting, I only recently discovered that if I took a power nap in the middle of the day, I'd be full of energy again! Because of this, I scheduled my usual lunch time to be a power nap instead.

Don't I get really hungry, though? Not really. I feel hungry, sure, but nothing so bad that it upsets me. EET has an Intermittent Fasting component for me that I've more than gotten used to, so while I do feel hungry during these times, it's nothing that really bothers me, as long as I keep my water consumption up. And, yes, I normally drink a lot of water in a single day; about 3 - 3.5 gallons, I believe. In fact, with this schedule, I can even work out at the end of my long fast, using Strength Circuits, if you can believe it.

THE OPTIONAL BASE DAY

Finally, Saturday is only an optional Base Day. Chances are that I'll go out during the weekend and hang out with friends, party, or just watch a movie. During these times, I'm definitely going to indulge in junk food and whatnot, and Saturday's just the day for that! If nothing comes up, then it's just another Base Day.

Of course, my social day can be any of the other Base Days, but it's just great to have at least one day where you've allocated the possibility of breaking the routine. This way, I can still have 4 Base Days, while still enjoying myself the other times of the week!

And you better believe that I'm eating stuff like the ones I mention at the top of this article all the time; Sometimes even more! It feels really great to have lost a lot of weight that way, and keep it off. I've even tremendously increased my exercise progress, as you can see below:

UPGRADING MY EXERCISES

This is how my workouts are currently progressing:

Swedish Intervals on the Exercise Bike

(Performed Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, as per current Forecast)

55 - 60 kph during the fast intervals --> Increased 7 - 12 kph from day one

35 - 40 kph during the slow intervals --> Increased 4 - 9 kph from day one

Swedish Intervals on the Heavy Bag

(Performed Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, right after Swedish Intervals on the Exercise Bike, as per current Forecast)

85 - 100 strikes (punches, kicks, elbows, knees) during the fast intervals --> Increased 35 - 50 strikes from day 1

120 - 130 steps jogging during the slow intervals --> Increased 20 - 30 steps from day 1

Strength Circuits

(Performed Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, as per current Forecast)

Feet Up Push Ups - 5 reps --> Began with 5 reps normal push ups

Medicine Ball Russian Twist (5kg ball) - 12 reps --> Began with only 5 reps
Alternating Lunges with Dumbbells (25 lbs in each hand) - 5 reps each leg --> Began with 5 reps bodyweight squats

Medicine Ball Sit ups (5kg ball) - 12 reps --> Began with only 5 reps

Chin Ups - 5 reps --> Began with 5 reps Lat Pull Downs (50 lbs)

Medicine Ball Figure Eight (5kg ball) - 12 reps --> Began with 5 reps

Tabata Intervals

(Performed Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, right after Strength Circuits, as per current Forecast)

65 - 70 kph on the Exercise Bike --> Increased 6 - 11 kph from day one

EXERCISE NOTES

Check out this past article of mine if you wish to find out other details about how exactly my individual workouts were structured.

One thing that you may notice is that I've now made my numbers ranges instead of just exact figures for some of the exercises. The reason for this is that my body's progressing far more than what the standard EET progression recommends, which is just add 1 to pretty much all the numbers every 2 weeks. I found that, at this point, this sort of progression only slowed me down. To remedy this, I decided to find the maximum number I could reach for the relevant exercises, then shoot for that every time. If I couldn't, I would at least note down the average number I could complete at that time. This would give me both a maximum and minimum range that I could work within.

I would always try to shoot for the maximum, and if I saw that the maximum was becoming more and more like a minimum number, then that means I'd progressed yet again. When this happens, I simply assign new numbers and shoot for higher targets. This makes the exercises even more fun and challenging than before, which is something that I very much appreciate.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Well, there you have it. That is how I plan to lose another 20 lbs now that I've reached my original goal weight loss of 20 lbs on EET Fitness. Do I genuinely think that I'll get there? Most definitely. EET's served me well up until this point, so I have absolutely no doubt that it will help me reach this new goal. Don't believe me? Well, I'll still be blogging my updates regularly and honestly, so you can just sit back and judge for yourself. Either way, I'm sure it'll be a hell of a lot of fun!

WHY DO PEOPLE PLAY?

2011-01-16T05:07:00.000-08:00

Why do people play? As a child, it seems only natural to while away one’s time playing, yet one does not know why. Maybe, because, to a child, play seems like worth and is worthwhile. Or, after the initial instincts of survival, such as consumption of food and going to sleep, the pleasure centers of the brain are some of the first to become developed, resulting in a child’s wanting to engage in pleasure, or in other words, to play.

Why then, do adults still play? It is a common observation that, the older one gets, the less one engages in play, yet it seems that play itself never truly goes away. There are even such phrases as “toys for the big boys”, implying more complex ways to engage in play. Hot Wheels evolve into Ferraris, and video game guns to actual, live firearms. This then implies that play is not merely for the child and is something that, once learned, is perhaps never let go, but only adapted into other forms.

Confusing, is it not? That such a simple thing as play, something that all humans know of and have engaged in since before any of us can remember could be so difficult to define, and perhaps even fully understand. Scientists and philosophers have actually attempted to study this everyday phenomenon and give it a universal definition, but only seem to have made the concept more and more complicated as time passes by.

CLASSICAL THEORIES OF PLAY

THE SURPLUS ENERGY THEORY

Children Play ...

The 19th century brought us the Surplus Energy Theory, which assumes that energy is produced at a constant rate and can be stored. However, energy storage capacity within humans is limited, and so excess energy is released in the form of play. A variation of this theory also suggests that some responses available to the human body, such as running wild, yelling out loud, and so on, are rarely utilized, and so must be released after a period of deprivation, in the form of play.

The primary criticism of this is that children (and sometimes even adults) play even when fatigued. They play for the activity itself, and not because of some energy that needs to be expended or some response within themselves that they rarely use. In fact, in this day and age, fatigue is often the reason for many individuals to engage in play. After a long day’s work, many individuals will just plop down onto their couches, put on their favorite video game, and play their fatigue away.

THE INSTINCT THEORY

Another classic theory of play is the Instinct Theory, in that it is in our instinct to perform certain acts that our ancestors developed, yet we now rarely utilize, such as climbing the monkey bars. These skills are imprinted into our genetic code and must be utilized in some form or another. The problem with this theory is that it appears to classify play in very limited activities, such as those in a playground or possible sports setting. As time passes, however, more and more ways to play become invented, such as the aforementioned example of video games, that are obviously not imprinted within our genes as instincts.

THE PREPARATION THEORY

The Preparation Theory states that one plays in order to prepare oneself for later responsibilities in life, so it classifies play as a sort of make believe reality that children engage in to develop real-world skills. As mentioned, people do not stop playing even upon reaching adulthood, which is pretty much the major thorn in this theory’s side.

THE RECAPITULATION THEORY

There is also something called the Recapitulation Theory, which is similar to the Instinct theory in that man apparently has to act out all of the behaviors learned through the many years of evolution. However, since many of these behaviors are no longer relevant in modern society, they have to be utilized in other ways, such as in play. The criticism against this is also the same as in the Instinct theory, where some modern ways to play, such as video games, were not learned through our species’ evolution.

... and so do adults!

RELAXATION THEORY

The final Classic Theory of play is one that is possibly the most relatable amongst all of these, which is the Relaxation Theory. It states that people play in order to recuperate from other activities, such as work. Though many can relate to this, it is not without its criticisms. It does not explain why very young children still engage in play, since they have no responsibilities that need recuperating from, such as work.

RECENT THEORIES OF PLAY

THE GENERALIZATION THEORY

More recent theories of play include the Generalization Theory which states that there are skills or experiences we have learned in the work environment that we want to utilize in other times of the day. Again, like the Relaxation Theory, it does not explain why very young children play, since they have not experienced working environments yet.

THE COMPENSATION THEORY

The Compensation Theory is pretty much the opposite of the Generalization Theory. It states that there are needs people have that are not met in the working environment, but are met during play. It has the exact same criticism, however, in that it, again, ignores the circumstances of very young children.

THE CATHARSIS THEORY

The Catharsis Theory states that play is a way to release aggression that all humans have, but in a sanctioned environment. The primary criticism is, of course, that not all forms of play are ways to release aggression, such as in chess, or other activities people may enjoy that require relaxation and concentration.

Do people play sports to release aggression?

THE PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY

The Psychoanalytic Theory states that people engage in play to escape some sort of past unpleasantness, either by reenacting it in a positive manner, or performing activities that make one forget them. It, however, ignores that fact that not all people play in order to escape some dark, past trauma. Many play because they simply want to, and not because of any past negativity.

THE DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY

The Developmental Theory states that play is a result of the growing intellect of a person during maturity. The older one gets, the more complicated play seems to become. However, it does not take into account that, despite the fact that intellect can grow only so far in humans, play can still evolve and become further complicated, partly because of the advancements of technology.

THE LEARNING THEORY

The Learning Theory states that play is mostly a reaction of sorts to a person’s environment, in that a person learns from his or her environments during as they mature, and these learned behaviors are manifested in play. The theory, however, ignores a person’s instincts and how they contribute to play.

MODERN THEORIES OF PLAY

THE AROUSAL - SEEKING THEORY

The most modern theories of play include the Arousal – Seeking Theory and the Competence Theory. The latter states that play exists to enhance the arousal of a person within certain environments. This is most applicable to thrill seekers who enjoy such things as Extreme Sports, sky diving, base jumping, and the like. This theory appears to have the least amount of criticism, outside of the fact that there is still very little research pertaining to it compared to the others. Its best aspect is that it recognizes that arousal levels and related reactions are different for each individual, which explains different forms of play and their settings.

THE COMPETENCE THEORY

The Competence Theory states that play is based on the need to produce certain effects within the environment, such as an increase in a certain type of skill. It is perhaps the most relatable to those who have turned their preferred modes of play into something more serious, such as professional athletes. The primary criticism against this Theory is that, like the Arousal – Seeking Theory, it lacks research.

WHY DO I PLAY?

I suppose if I would relate my personal experiences to the theories stated above, I would first of all go with the Relaxation Theory. One of the modes of play I primarily engage in is video games. I have utilized it to recuperate the stresses of reality, whether it be school or work, and still do to this day. Currently, though, I apply this theory primarily to the graduate classes I am taking, since they may sometime become stressful in their own way. I counter this by relaxing with my current favorite video game and eliminate any stress that I may have.

Another theory that I believe applies to me is the Competence Theory. I started my blog as an interesting experiment to see if I would enjoy it and possibly make something of it. Now, I find that it is an excellent way to increase my skills as a writer and as communicator to others, and one that I genuinely enjoy. I enjoy it so much that I indeed can classify blogging as a form of play for myself. This goes the same for my aims and goals for personal fitness, whether for myself or for others. I have always been interested in fitness and genuinely enjoy reaching higher physical levels. Thus, I try to learn as many skills health and fitness skills as I can throughout my life out of a genuine sense of interest.

Why do you play?

One final theory I can relate to is the Arousal – Seeking Theory, which I experience when I am performing my exercises, especially on the heavy bag. When I practice my martial arts techniques, I imagine that I am one of my movie idols, such as Bruce Lee, and it excites me, though in reality I know that I am nowhere near that level of skill. Nonetheless, I feel a high sense of arousal and enjoyment when I perform martial arts, and thus it feels like yet another form of play for me. I also feel similarly when I go the distance on my other exercises, such as going all out in Tabata Intervals or in my strength training. There is a certain limit to physical training that many people are afraid to go near, yet something that I am always excited to try and exceed.

As you can see, there are many ways to view play, and each theory need not be viewed on its own. Every person is different, whether because of age, or culture, and so one may find that one or two out of these many theories apply to them the best though it may be entirely different to others.

Why do you play?

THE 4-HOUR BODY DIET VS. EET FITNESS

2011-01-15T04:59:00.000-08:00

This my latest article published on Hive Health Media, and talks about my experiences on the latest diet plans I've been on, EET Fitness, and the 4-Hour Body. I'm currently still on EET (and experiencing amazing results!) but was also on the diet prescribed by the 4-Hour Body for several months prior to first adopting it. I compare both plans and show why I prefer one over the other. You can check out the original article here, but the full text is also below:

In my previous article, I mentioned that I was on a "Paleo diet" before trying out EET. This was not entirely true. I was actually on Tim Ferriss' Fat Loss Diet at the time. The reason I mentioned it as a "Paleo diet" was because I didn't want to drop names at the time. Anyway, I read Mr. Ferriss' first book, The 4-Hour Workweek less than a year ago and very much liked it. I then became a regular reader of his blog where I became fascinated with his 4-Hour Body category. What intrigued me the most was the previously mentioned fat loss diet, so I wanted to try it out for myself.

THE 4-HOUR DIET

As a big fan of the 4-Hour Workweek, I was very much excited to get my hands on a copy of Mr. Ferriss' new book. I opened it and immediately went to the fat loss portion. My laughably humongous grin slowly transitioned to depressing frown as I discovered that the diet he had hyped up so much was literally the one posted on his blog.

Why was I disappointed? Does the diet not, in fact work? Oh, it works, all right. Mr. Ferriss' diet is sort of-but not really Paleo because it has lentils and/or beans as a regular component, so I suppose one could easily classify it as "modified Paleo", with one cheat day per week containing literally only junk food that the participant likes to eat. Mr. Ferriss notes that he regularly makes himself sick during his cheat days so he won't crave the treats he ate that day the rest of the week. This once-a-week-excessive-cheat-meal seems to work wonders for Mr. Ferriss, though others have expressed doubts about it.

EET FITNESS

The current plan that I'm on, EET Fitness, has guidelines not only for food consumption, but for exercise as well. EET has controlled cheat meals literally every day, as long as the timing guidelines with the proper exercise formats are met. The rest of the meals on EET Fitness are actually quite similar to the 4-Hour Body's meals in that they could be considered "clean". The meal guidelines on EET, however, never restricts any type of food during any time. There are recommendations, but it is up to the participant how close he or she wants to follow them. Finally, while the 4-Hour Diet is in book or blog form, EET Fitness has a consultant that helps the participant every step of the way and personalizes the plan to make it as comfortable and easy as possible.

READY ... FIGHT!

I forget exactly how long I was on the 4-Hour Body Diet, but it was somewhere around 5 - 6 straight months. I was on it for quite a while, but immediately replaced it when I discovered EET Fitness. The primary reason I switched plans was because I saw, from EET's initial claims, features that were absent from Mr. Ferriss' diet that I longed for. I have now been on EET Fitness for 3 months now and feel that I can make a proper comparison.

The comparison will be broken up into rounds, each with its own category. At the end of the round, the author will score it to whoever he sees has the better components, diet-wise.

ROUND 1: THE DAILY MEALS

THE 4-HOUR DIET

Timothy Ferriss, author of "The 4-Hour Body"

I tried the meal format of the 4-Hour Body Diet for several months and had mixed results. I would gain results as advertised if I could summon up all my mental powers to follow the diet as written, but unfortunately, I just couldn't. The problem was with the taste. In order for the diet to work as best as possible, it needs to be as clean as possible. This awarded me with the blandest tasting meals I ever had.

I'm no chef, so that means that I have no idea how to make something taste good unless it already does. That said, Whenever I tried something that wasn't tuna straight from the can, would bathe it in sauces just so I wouldn't go nuts. "Sauces." Hah! I meant ketchup. I love tuna, though, and, I found, that was pretty much the only good protein source I could get my hands on that I could eat as clean as possible. Unfortunately, Mr. Ferriss' diet has one eating meals 4-5 times a day. I like tuna, but not that much. I wouldn't be able to take eating that 4-5 times a day, 6 days a week for uh, the rest of my life? Ugh. But you know what? I tried. I really did.

I'd like to clarify before continuing that I loved the rest of the components of the meals, though. I very much love eating beans and vegetables, which we have an abundance of in this country, so I didn't lack in options with those and I could eat them all day every day. It was just the meat option in each meal that bothered me to no end.

EET FITNESS

Jon Pearlstone, creator of EET Fitness

EET is similar to the 4-Hour Diet in that it has "clean" meals as well. These meals would contain proper protein sources, vegetables, fiber, and water, and are very similar to the regular meals that the 4-Hour Body diet require. These meals are also eaten 7 days of the wee, instead of the 6 that the 4 Hour Body require.

However, days on EET Fitness are not confined to just these meals, unlike in the 4-Hour Body Diet, where you eat literally only these types of meals all day for 6 straight days. There are daily treat meals on EET, if you meet all of the requirements to open the Metabolic Window. These treat meals are composed of literally anything the participant wants, as long as it at least contains the four major components of the clean meals: protein, vegetables, fiber, and water. Desserts can be added on top of this, as well as anything else the participant loves to eat. There are also other guidelines in placed to prevent participants from overeating during treat meals, such that they remain controlled and sustainable whenever they are scheduled.

AND THE FIRST ROUND GOES TO ...

EET wins this round, since the daily meals require no arduous mental toughness as opposed to the 4-Hour Body Diet. I must point out, though, that there are people out there who like the type of meals consumed 6 days a week on the 4-Hour Diet, to the point that they really wouldn't mind consuming them all day every day. Obviously, Mr. Ferriss is one of them, but I, however, am not, so I have to score the round to EET Fitness. EET Fitness is now ahead 1-0.

ROUND 2: POST-WORKOUT MEALS

THE 4-HOUR DIET

The diet also states that you can eat larger meals with white carbohydrates after "sports training". I mentioned in my previous article that I was already habitually working out every day, primarily because I had gained an honest taste for it over a decade ago. This meant that I could have these larger meals every day, which was a definite breather for me, given the choice of meals I had the rest of the day.

Since I did all of my workouts in the afternoons, all my large meals were dinners. I realized that I'd read before that if you consume a lot of calories in the evening, your body would store it as fat, since you're not as active during that time anymore. However, Mr. Ferriss placed his large meal as dinner in the article as well (a pizza), so I figured it was all right.

Unfortunately, since my meals the rest of the day were so bland (or too repetitive, at the very least), I went nuts every time I ate a big meal. I would just take more and more portions of stuff I liked, just to satisfy the cravings I held back the rest of the day. This didn't happen every day, but it happened often enough that it did way more bad than good.

EET FITNESS

EET Fitness has very specific guidelines for working out. Like the 4-Hour Body Diet, larger meals are permitted after each workout, but, unlike the 4-Hour Body Diet, these are true cheat meals where the participant can eat literally whatever he or she wants as long as the basic components previously mentioned are present. This allows for events where the participant would want to fully indulge in the foods he or she loves, but without needlessly binging.

AND THE SECOND ROUND GOES TO ...

EET Fitness once again, primarily because, if the participant wants to overindulge in foods he or she wants after a workout, he or she is fully permitted to because of EET's timing guidelines. In the 4-Hour Body, if one overindulges in post-workout meals that aren't within the specifically designated cheat day, more harm than good can be easily done, so plenty of mental toughness is still required. EET Fitness goes up another notch to 2-0.

ROUND THREE: THE CHEAT DAY

THE 4-HOUR DIET

Now, on to the cheat day! You'd think I'd have been relieved to have this all-you-can-eat junk food haven that lasts exactly 24 hourson the 4-Hour Body Diet, and to be honest, I was at first. Unfortunately, I realized that I just didn't have it in me to make the most of the cheat day as Mr. Ferriss does. Mr. Ferriss says that he regularly "makes himself sick" on Saturdays by indulging in all the treats he held back on for the rest of the week. I could do it. One large meal, sure. But meals for the entire day composed of just junk food? I couldn't do it for some reason. I kept wanting healthier options in at least some of the meals. That was very interesting for me to discover during this trial.

The cheat day also failed its primary purpose: to prevent my cravings for the next 6 days. Sure, it would do that for the next 1-2 days, maybe even 3. But after that, the cravings would return as normal, especially considering the bland meals I was constantly having.

EET FITNESS

There are no cheat days on EET Fitness, only cheat meals, and those are permitted literally every day if the guidelines for the Metabolic Window are met. This fit me like a glove because, as I mentioned, I found myself incapable of eating myself sick for an entire day like Mr. Ferriss does. I just didn't have it in me. Eating some treats every day felt much more comfortable and natural for me than over-stuffing myself for an entire day once a week.

AND THE THIRD ROUND GOES TO ...

EET Fitness once again because of the way it distributes its cheat meals. EET Fitness leaves the 4-Hour Body in the dust 3-0.

EET WINS BY WAY OF KNOCKOUT

Here's a quick recap of how EET Fitness dominated the 4-Hour Diet for me:

1. Eat treats literally every day, thus silencing any and all cravings and mental anguish

2. A consultant that helps you every step of the way and more, takes away all the guesswork, and clearly evaluates your progress

3. Lose 10 pounds in 6 weeks and keep it off (I'm actually down 16 after week 11)

THE LOSER'S CORNER

To recap, this is the stuff that didn't work for me on the 4-Hour Diet:

1. Bland meals literally all day 6 days a week

2. A post-workout meal that invited overeating but wasn't supposed to

3. A Cheat day that never did what it was supposed to do

4. Lose a ton of weight after 30 mentally agonizing days then gain it all back plus a couple more a few weeks later

TO BE FAIR ...

Just to be fair, EET has its own set of weaknesses and difficulties that I need to point out. I went through through these, though others may not and some may encounter different sorts of weaknesses on the plan:

1. There are quite a bit of guidelines, and though all of them are very flexible in their own way, it will take a bit of time to learn and properly apply them all.

2. There is a huge risk of overeating during the first few weeks or so on the plan, when one hasn't yet gotten used to the daily treat meals.

3. EET recommends one work out in the morning before the first meal of the day at least a few times a week for best results. I had a lot of difficulty with this guideline since I was so used to eating breakfast at the start of the day.

BUT ... DOESN'T THE 4-HOUR DIET WORK?

Oh, yes, as I've mentioned before, it definitely does, no questions asked. It worked very well for Tim Ferriss, on many commenters on the blog post, and, if you pick up the book, there are about a dozen stories there of different people that have tried, and succeeded, at it.

Unfortunately, though, it didn't work for me. I tried my best for several months, but it just didn't stick. Should you try it out? I honestly don't know. I can't say whether you'll wind up with results like mine or like Mr. Ferriss'. Hopefully, though this article will have at least pointed you in the right direction of whether the 4-Hour Body diet is right for you or not.

SERIOUSLY IMPRESSIVE! I'VE LOST 20 POUNDS IN ONLY 12 WEEKS THANKS TO EET!

2011-01-09T00:36:00.000-08:00

I went down to 194 lbs from 214 at the very tail end of my 12th week on EET, which is incredibly impressive, considering that I was 198 lbs only a week before. As I mentioned in that previous article of mine, I would slightly alter my weekly forecasts to take into account my graduate school restarting after the holidays. Therefore, My current weekly EET forecast looks like this:

WEEKLY EET FORECAST

1. Monday, Wednesday, Friday

7:30 AM - Wake up, green tea

10:30 AM - Swedish Intervals on the exercise bag and the heavy bag

11:30 AM - Treat Meal (whatever I want, as long as it includes a good protein source such as chicken, as well as vegetables, fiber, and water)

4:30 PM - Tuna, vegetables, 1 cup skim milk, 1 serving low-fat yogurt

7:30 PM - Salmon, decaf green tea

8:30 PM - Stretching

Decaf green tea - right before bed

2. Tuesday, Thursday

7:30 AM - Wake up, green tea

8:00 AM - 4:00 PM - Grad School

12:00 PM - Strength Circuits with Tabatas

1:00 PM - Treat Meal (whatever I want, as long as it includes a good protein source such as chicken, as well as vegetables, fiber, and water)

5:00 PM - Salmon, decaf green tea

5:30 PM - Stretching

Decaf green tea - right before bed

3. Saturday

7:30 AM - Wake up, green tea

10:30 AM - Strength Circuits with Tabatas

11:30 AM - Treat Meal (whatever I want, as long as it includes a good protein source such as chicken, as well as vegetables, fiber, and water)

4:30 PM - Tuna, vegetables, 1 cup skim milk, 1 serving low-fat yogurt

7:30 PM - Salmon, decaf green tea

8:30 PM - Stretching

Decaf green tea - right before bed

NOTES

My Tuesday and Thursday forecast looks that way because I sleep at much earlier times during those days, as a result of routinely staying up late the night before to study. My workouts all stay the same with the same sort of progression I outlined in my previous article. And, yes, "whatever I want" still literally means that. Things like ice cream and Cheetos still regularly populate my daily treat meals. Not bad, eh?

EET CONTINUES ITS MAGIC! HOW I LOST 16 POUNDS IN 11 WEEKS WITH NO FOOD RESTRICTIONS!

2011-01-08T23:00:00.000-08:00

This is my latest article for Hive Health Media, detailing my progress on EET. I wrote this article a week ago, so it's not very current as I post it on my blog, but it will make a nice lead-in to some other amazing leaps that I've got going on EET, which I'll have up tomorrow. Anyway, enjoy the article and please leave any questions and comments if you have any. You can also check out the original Hive version, but in any case, here's exactly how I lost 16 pounds in only 11 weeks without any sort of food restrictions:

I was extremely pleased this morning when I found that EET was continuing to work its magic on my fitness goals; I finally broke 200 lbs! I've spent most of the past 5 years above 200 lbs, so this is indeed a personal milestone for me, especially since I got to to this weight by losing 16 lbs in only 11 weeks with a diet that allows me to eat literally anything every day of the week. Sure, I do admit that there were some difficulties in the beginning, but I have to say that most of the 11 weeks I've spent on EET have been a breeze.

Here's what I currently do on EET:

DAILY FORECAST (Optimized for Holiday season)

7:30 AM - Wake up, green tea
10:30 AM - Work out
11:30 AM - Treat Meal (whatever I want, as long as it includes a good protein source such as chicken, vegetables, fiber, and water)
4:30 PM - Tuna, vegetables, 1 cup skim milk, 1 serving low-fat yogurt
8:30 PM - Salmon, vegetables, decaf green tea
9:30 PM - Stretching
Decaf green tea - right before bed

MY EET WORKOUTS

SCHEDULE
Swedish Intervals - Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday
Strength Circuits with Tabatas - Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday

SWEDISH INTERVALS
30 1-minute rounds composed thusly:

1. The first 10 rounds are comprised of
   - 1-minute at 33 kph on the exercise bike
   - 1-minute at 51 kph on the exercise bike

Alternated until all 10 rounds are finished, then a 1-minute transition to the heavy bag occurs where I also drink plenty of water. The next 20 rounds are comprised of
   - 1-minute performing a minimum of 62 strikes on the heavy bag (punching and kicking combinations)
   - 1-minute jogging for at least 120 steps

Alternated until the last 20 rounds are finished, totaling 30 minutes of almost non-stop exercise. The only time I take a break and drink water is during the 1-minute transition from the exercise bike to the heavy bag.

STRENGTH CIRCUITS

CIRCUITS: 5

REPETITIONS: 10

REST IN BETWEEN CIRCUITS: 30 seconds (treated as water breaks)

EXERCISES (performed continuously as a circuit in this order):

- Medicine Ball Russian Twist (5kg ball)

- Full Push Ups

- Full Air Squats

- Medicine Ball Situps (5kg ball)

- Lat Pull Down (50 lbs)

- Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift (2x 25lbs dumbbells)

- Medicine Ball Figure Eight (5kg ball)

WARM UP CIRCUIT:

5 repetitions of each of the same exercises, in the same order, performed continuously for 1 whole circuit. There is no rest between the warm up circuit and the first circuit of the main workout.

TABATA INTERVALS (performed 2 minutes after Strength Circuits)

15 straight rounds composed thusly:
- 20 seconds of 62 kph on the exercise bike
- 10 seconds complete rest

Alternated until all 15 rounds are completed, totaling 3 minutes and 50 seconds of exercise.

PROGRESSION:

Every 2 weeks, I raise the strength circuit repetitions, number of strikes on the heavy bag and kph on the exercise bike by 1.

The Strength Circuit warm up repetitions are always half of what the main circuit repetitions are, rounded down for decimals.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Aside from the progressions, I'm going to continue with this exact overall forecast for until the end of the holiday season. When my graduate studies resume after New Year's, I'll take that into account in my schedule but the rest will be pretty much the same.

I'm truly in awe of this plan and am actually almost in disbelief that this has worked this well so far. 11 weeks ago I was one of those individuals who swore that the only way to consistently lose weight was to precisely restrict calories, portions, types of food and so on, but now those beliefs have pretty much all been shattered.

I let myself go and truly ate whatever I wanted until I was satisfied during the times I was allowed every day for 11 weeks straight, and I continued to lose weight while maintaining all of the muscle mass I had built up over the years. Now this is how to start a new year!

5 THINGS I'M THANKFUL FOR GOING INTO 2011

2011-01-01T03:20:00.000-08:00

I don't really have any New Year's Resolutions for 2011 (and I'll explain why in a little bit), so instead of creating a list comprised of that, I'm going to create a list of things that occurred for me in 2010 that I'm thankful for having going into 2011. The US has Thanksgiving for lists like this, but since we don't celebrate that in my country, I guess January 1st is the best place to have it.

1. I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions

No, I'm not kidding, and yes, I do believe that this should be at the top. I find that New Year's Resolutions are tools to make people increasingly lazy and indecisive. I don't really want to point fingers and label those who honestly enjoy making these and look forward to writing them down, but I feel that they do more harm than good.

That's not to say, however, that I dislike resolutions in general. Far from it, in fact. It's just the timeframe of it all that I don't like. People make resolutions like "I'll lose weight in 2011" or "I'll start exercising in 2011" or "I'll quit smoking in 2011". Well that's all fine and good, but why didn't you start sooner? Why did you have to wait for January 1, 2011 to make these resolutions? New Year's Resolutions are convenient excuses for people to put things that they should be doing as soon as possible off for a few more months.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

I make resolutions as often as possible. Once I think of something I need to do or change, I implement it as quickly as I can. If I can't do it immediately, then I jot it down in Google Calendar so it can be put on a schedule I'm comfortable with. If I didn't do it this way, I would never have accomplished a lot of things I have in this year. I hate wasting time and hate putting important things off, so I tend to complete all my tasks as soon as possible.

2. Deciding to go into blogging and take it seriously
I decided this in mid-March, 2010. I was looking through different opportunities for me to grab onto and blogging caught my attention for one reason or another. I tried it out and, after a few months, I was hooked. I'm still very new at this, though, but am thankful partly because of the individuals I have met through this art and because of the opportunities it has and will open up to me.

3. Trying out EET Fitness
This is one of things that blogging opened up to me. I would never have met its founder, Jon Pearlstone, if I wasn't a serious fitnessblogger. EET Fitness is a plan that allows a person to gain his or her ideal fitness level and eat whatever they desire literally every day of the year, simultaneously eliminating any and all cravings and creating a sustainable lifestyle you'll never rebound out of. I've made some magnificent gains on this plan and have actually lost 16 pounds in only 11 weeks, while still maintaining the muscle mass I'd built up, because of it. This is apparently only the tip of the iceberg, though, and I'm very eager to see how far EET Fitness can take me!

4. Finishing up my graduate school studies
Taking up Human Kinetics was something I'd always wanted to do, but couldn't because it wasn't offered at my college. I'm only three months into finally completing my year and a half journey in learning about the hard sciences behind the subject I'm most passionate about, and it was all worth it. I met some amazing people along the way and learned a great deal.

Ryu from the Street
Fighter series

5. Launching my separate martial arts blog
Last but not least is my second blog, The World and Martial Arts. In it, I reveal how the martial arts are represented in society today. So, I talk about things like the UFC, fighting video games such as Street Fighter, martial arts cinema and anime, and my idol, Bruce Lee.

I previously wrote a lot about mixed martial arts on this blog, but things got out of hand for a while and I wound up writing only about the UFC and completely eliminating the fitness aspects of the blog. I was criticized for this and, knowing full well that the martial arts is a tremendous reason why I'm so into fitness, I could not let it go, and so decided to create a place for me to talk about it.

At first, I wanted it to be strictly about Mixed Martial Arts, but since I'm not that great a news journalist (I always wind up several days behind everybody else) and I'm not a real Mixed Martial Artist, I thought that this would eventually drive the blog to stagnation, as I could not very well compete with the other MMA blogs out there are clearly leagues above my own. So, I decided to pool all of the aspects of my martial arts passion in a single domain and make an entirely new beast.

The blog's still very much experimental but I believe that I've more or less found a groove for it, and I'm very happy with it at the moment.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Of course, there are other things that I'm more than thankful for such as my loving family, my true friends, my health, and so on, but I wanted to highlight these five because they meant a whole lot to me this year and are things that I'm sure will carry me into the new year and beyond.

THE TRON LEGACY WORKOUT

2010-12-30T04:49:00.000-08:00

While there was a ton of action from one of Tron Legacy's villains, Rinzler, two of the heroes, Quorra and Sam Flynn, played respectively by Olivia Wilde and Garrett Hedlund, carried their share of stunts as well, and for that, they needed to be fit.

A WILDE FITNESS REGIME

Wilde tells Women's Health magazine, "I worked with a personal trainer, so I did about an hour of cardio five or six days a week, mixed martial arts / fighting three times a week, and that's a lot more than my normal [routine]!"

She apparently also likes spinning and shares some moves she uses on the swiss ball:

Olivia Wilde as Quorra

REVERSE CRUNCH
Sit on the floor and squeeze a Swiss ball between your thighs. Now place your hands behind you and lean back a little. Lift your legs off the floor and crunch your knees into your chest, holding for a few seconds before returning to your starting position. Repeat 30 reps.

HIP RAISES
Lying on the floor with your legs up at a 90-degree angle, squeeze the Swiss ball with your shins and feet and squeeze in your lower abs to move the ball towards your head. Hold for a couple of seconds and repeat for 30 reps.

INNER THIGH SQUEEZE
Standing with your feet on either side of a Swiss ball, lower yourself down slightly and squeeze the ball, holding for a couple of seconds. Repeat 10 times for 3 sets. As you develop strength in your lower legs, you can increase the number of squeezes by 5, for 15, 20, etc.

Aside from needing to get enough strength, stamina, and skill to survive the hours upon hours of martial arts stuntwork required for the film, Wilde adds that the body-hugging suit she wore throughout the film offered additional problems she had to overcome, since she apparently couldn't gain or lose weight in order to fit the costume at all times. Her body had to be just right a hundred percent of the time in order for her to be Quorra.

Garrett Hedlund as
Sam Flynn

"The thing about these costumes is that they don't stretch. So once we had our last fitting it was like 'okay, this is the size of the costume now,' just so you know it can't change. It's not like we can do a little adjustment on this one. Each suit was a sculpture. It was such an intricate piece of craftmanship. So you couldn't say, 'oh, they'll get me another one. Maybe they can let this out a little at the seams'. So there was a certain dedication to the suit, a relationship that we had to have with our suits, both good and bad."

Aside from working out daily, Wilde also had to watch her food intake throughout the film. She stuck to a vegetarian diet, avoiding meat but eating fish for protein. She also avoided bread pasta cheese and too much alcohol. Wilde said that she dreamt of huge plates of pasta and could not wait to start eating normally again.

BODY BY FLYNN

Garrett Hedlund was apparently too skinny and soft at first to be impressive enough to be Sam Flynn and fill out the body-hugging suit that troubled Olivia Wilde so much. His trainer Logan Hood devised a workout that was constantly changing to keep Hedlund engaged and working to maximum capacity. The goal of the workouts was to get Hedlund lean and athletic while still packing on muscle.

The workout is a circuit type that focused on such things as farmer walks, bear crawls, box jumps, and tire drags. Hedlund also needed wider shoulders to give him a more imposing look, so various overhead presses were also incorporated. A full sample workout is actually shared here.

Tronjitsu in action!

TRONJITSU?

As if standard celebrity fitness regimens weren't enough, if you still want to be fit, different and get your Tron fix at the same time then England-based Troy Dureh has just the thing for you. Dureh has crafted a new workout inspired by the film called "Tronjitsu", where he mixes moves from Parkour, Capoeira, free running, and other martial for a 60-minute workout that pay homage to the action sequences of Tron Legacy. The participants even have their own Light Discs to hold and get to fly in the air with Energie Platforms. Last but not least, the workout is, of course, done to the tune of Daft Punk's Derezzed, the official soundtrack of the film. Now that's a true fitness homage!

HOW TO ADAPT TO EET

2010-12-26T01:27:00.000-08:00

This is the latest article in my series on Hive Health Media about my experiences on the EET Fitness Plan. It concerns the problems I had adapting to the plan in the beginning. These days, the lifestyle recommended within EET's guidelines fits me like a glove, but it wasn't always smooth sailing. The full text is below, but you can go here for the original piece.

In my last article, I talked about how I managed to transition to an ideal forecast in order to eventually lose 10 pounds in only 6 weeks while on the EET Fitness Plan. In fact, I've continued to lose weight since then, and am currently at 202 lbs! The transition wasn't smooth sailing, though, as I mentioned that I did have some trouble adapting to some of the things I needed to do.

STOP PIGGING OUT

The first trial I had to overcome was to not pig out every time I had a treat meal. Members just starting out on the plan aren't supposed to gorge on their chosen treats, as their metabolisms haven't adjusted yet. Treats are allowed, yes, but in a certain moderation outlined by EET's Golden Rule: only eat what you need and nothing more.

So, no pigging out. No eating past the point of satiety just because you like the taste of the treats you're eating. Jon tells me that those who have been on EET for a relatively long period of time (such as himself) can be very lenient with this rule, but that's not yet allowed for newer members like me.

So, on to the meal structure. Each meal on EET is supposed to have

a) Protein
b) Vegetables
c) Fiber
d) Water

So, during treat meals, the first strategy I employed was to simply consume enough of the above 4 so that, by the time I reached dessert, I would already be close to full so I wouldn't overeat. Unfortunately, pigging out is more evil than our biological signals can handle, so, when faced with options for sweets, I just ate and ate and ate and ate, regardless of whether I was already full or not. Yes, I have a sweet tooth, and a really terrible one, at that. I stuffed my face full of food regardless of whether I needed it or not.

Before EET, I was on a Paleo diet with 1 cheat meal a week. Because of this, I had to condition my mind to stay away from cheat meals at least 6 times a week. My conditioning wasn't perfect, but I tried my best.

So, when I first started on EET, my mind was still in the "cheat day" sort of phase, where I would make the most out of the snacks I craved by eating as much of them as I wanted when I knew I was allowed. This sort of thinking is a definite hurdle when cheat meals are allowed literally every day.

What EET recommended was something extremely simple:

Just portion out everything you want to consume and pack away the rest.

This is some of the actual ice cream I ate
during my first few weeks on EET

I had actually already been doing this for things like ice cream, where I would take a portion in a cup, then put the rest back in the freezer, but I wasn't applying it to finger foods like cookies. I'm one of those guys who can wipe away an entire bag of cookies after first opening it, so this simple portioning idea was all I needed.

What stopped me from just getting up and putting more on my plate? Something called a closer. A closer is basically a signal to your mind that eating time's over. It can be different for everyone, but for me it's putting all the dishes away and brushing my teeth. Once I do that, my mind becomes completely free from food.

LOWER THE NOTCH A BIT

The second problem I had to overcome was to stop exercising all out during every workout session. I exercise literally every day on EET and, at one point, I felt I wasn't recovering well enough and always felt sore and weak.

Before I began EET, I developed the habit of always going all out with my work outs. I was already working out every day, but I had various splits implemented, plus martial arts workouts in between my weight lifting days, so I was pretty much working out different things almost every day.

While splits can be implemented on EET, they're not really recommended, which left my workouts for the week much less varied. This meant that I had to ease off on my workouts a bit, in order for my body to be fully recovered for the next session that had the same exercises.

The workouts shouldn't be too easy, but, at the same time, shouldn't leave you wanting to puke every time. I always just aimed for the latter, so it took a bit of time for me to find that sweet spot that EET very much recommends. Jon took away a lot of the guesswork during our consultations, and that was a big help indeed.

It's also interesting to note that, despite working less harder than I was before in my workouts, I seem to be experiencing faster results.

BREAKFAST IS AN ILLUSION

The last ordeal I faced was also the most difficult one, and it was skipping breakfast. EET recommends one consume only green tea during the first few hours of the day, after which the workout of the day would possibly commence. This featured not one, but two problems for me to adapt to:

a) Not eating after waking
b) Working out in the morning

I was always under the "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" spell, so for years, I never missed it. I was also never much of a morning person, so I would always work out in the afternoons.

The first time I worked out after skipping breakfast, I had extreme headaches at the beginning of the workout, during which I felt weak and sickly. I definitely didn't want to go through that again.

I consulted with Jon immediately after and he recommended that I take small protein snacks every hour before the workout. I chose egg whites, so my morning adaptation schedule looked something like this:

7:30 - Wake up, green tea
8:30 - 2-3 egg whites
9:30 - 2-3 egg whites
10:30 - Workout

I also increased my water intake during these times. I had already developed the habit of constantly drinking water, to the point where I was consuming nearly 2 gallons a day, but increasing it by about a gallon more greatly helped in my adapting to not eating full meals at the very beginning of the day.

It took about 2-3 weeks, but I eventually managed to get used to not eating breakfast, which is actually one of the things I'm most proud of during my time on EET. I would previously be extremely religious about breakfast, such that I would need to have a full and filling meal at the start of the day, no matter what! Given that I behaved this way for many, many years and that my body seemed to react so violently to my wanting to change my habits, I honestly thought I could never do it, especially in that short amount of time.

The process also felt far easier than I thought it ever would. Just by consuming some egg whites and water, I gradually managed to convince my body that I didn't have to eat breakfast. At all. I did feel a bit uneasy at times, when the hunger would creep in unexpectedly, but it was nothing that couldn't be easily brushed off mentally.

These days, I can go for hours on end in the morning consuming nothing but green tea and water, and still have plenty of energy to work out! Pretty amazing, as far as I'm concerned.

EET's shown me a lot of interesting things over the past few months and, so far, they've been working out perfectly.

HOW PURE IMAGINATION CAN BUILD YOUR DREAM BODY

2010-12-24T01:48:00.000-08:00

When people start on a health and fitness plan of sorts, a lot of the time, they only see what's in the mirror, and nothing beyond that. The only thing that registers in their minds is "I'm fat", or "I'm skinny", and after days or weeks on a certain plan, give up because they don't see any noticeable changes. People can sometimes easily lose hope on attaining higher levels of fitness because of the harsh criticisms of society. The notion that how their body currently looks is unsightly can easily sink in and cause them to give up when they've just started on the path.

LET THE MIND RUN FREE

People need to look beyond what they perceive in the mirror and let their minds run free and positive. Fine, think what you will of the current state of your body, but know that there is always a possible happier ending beyond that, one that is attained through hard work, consistency, and patience.

Easier said than done, I suppose, especially when most people clearly lack that last virtue. The easiest way to gain the upper hand in this situation is to imagine it. Don't just look at your goals as they're written on a piece of paper. What does "lose 50 pounds of body fat and gain muscle" actually look like?

LOOK TO THE STARS

Does Arnold Schwarzenegger have
the look you desire?

If you lack the imagination to construct a fitter version of yourself upon reaching your goals, then visualize someone who has. Famous movie stars are ideal for this situation, because they present so many options for you. Which star's body would you like to have the most? Or at least resemble?

Now, picture that ideal body in your mind and see it every time you look at yourself in the mirror. What will happen here is a sort of clash of the senses, where you clearly see yourself in your current state, with your mind forcing you to see your ideal state.

You can either see the glass as half empty or half full as a reaction to this. What we, of course want, is the latter reaction. When you see your current self and ideal self overlap, think "present" and "future". No ifs or buts, just "present" and "future". This will allow you to focus on your goal of a fitter body as a single path, without any diversions that allow you to quit halfway or run away when the going gets tough. Patience can be your best friend, and in this case, it's a movie star.

EYE OF THE TIGER

So, who's got my ideal Hollywood body? It's Sylvester Stallone, circa Rocky 3! Stallone looked incredibly ripped in 1982: not too huge, but not too thin, either, especially in that final confrontation against villain Clubber Lang. His body in that film ringed "just right" for me in a Goldilocks flash of realization. One key thing about my image of this physique is that it's stayed constant in my mind for years and years and years. I'm a big fan of action movies, so I've seen my share of ideal male physiques, but that Rocky 3 body has just stood the test of time for whatever reason.

Sylvester Stallone's Rocky 3 physique
is my idea of a perfect body

STAND THE TEST OF TIME

That's another key aspect of imagining your way to fitness success: stay as consistent as possible! It's fine if you jump from one kind of physique to another when you're just trying to find what exactly it is that you want, but if it's been several years already and you're still choosing perfect physiques every other day, then something's definitely wrong. It just shows that you don't know what it is that you want, and is most probably why you're not getting there. You've got to pick a very specific goal and stick with it, or you'll never get through a single plan.

KNOW WHAT HARD WORK LOOKS LIKE

Another great technique in fitness visualization is to find out as much as you can about how the star you chose attained that ideal physique. What did he or she have to go through to look that way? Having this information will help you realize that even these high and mighty movie stars had to work hard to look that way. That's right. No one's just given perfect bods. Literally everyone has to work for them! Even Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is known to have had a genetic advantage throughout his bodybuilding career, still had to work hard and lift tons of metal day in and day out throughout his youth to get the physique we associate with him so much.

Sly had to work extra hard to be sculpted,
and you should, too!

This is another reason why I like Stallone's Rocky 3 physique as my ideal body. In his book, Sly Moves, he relates the hardships he had growing up being poor, and how he had a very unhealthy lifestyle when he first started filming the first Rocky movie. He actually got that way in Rocky 3 by overtraining literally every day, on top of starring, writing, and directing the film itself. This is actually one of the worst ways to get to your goals, and I do not recommend it at all. But, the point is that Sly Stallone constantly worked hard to attain the physique that he wanted, and that means you should too.

PUT 2 AND 2 TOGETHER

Visualizing the path to your perfect body isn't just you having a thought bubble above your head all day. It's actually knowing how that body came together and how you can do it, too! It will take some time, definitely, since, unfortunately, not all of us are gifted with Arnold's superior genes. But you will get there, that's for sure, as long as you follow this specific formula:

CONSISTENCY = Pick a perfect physique and stick with it. Know exactly what you want and keep focused on it, no matter what.
HARD WORK = Know that even famous movie stars had to work extra hard to get their famous bodies. That means that you need to work extra hard as well!

So ...

CONSISTENCY + HARD WORK = YOUR PERFECT BODY

Now go out there and get imagining!

THE WORST WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT

2010-12-21T02:16:00.000-08:00

Okay, so there are much worse ways to lose weight than the one I'm about to discuss, such as dehydrating in the middle of the desert or some other similarly gruesome fate. What I'm about to relate happened to me just over a year ago, and yes, it did make me lose a lot of weight in a relatively short amount of time, but it's the weight loss method I'd recommend the least.

In early 2009, I was accepted into a prestigious company in my country, and given the typical office desk job. My qualifications were pretty god, so they gave me a lot of responsibilities. It was really fun for the first 3 months or so, but after that, things became extremely hectic. The company was completing a project that was extremely grand, and a guaranteed success, but it was very much behind on it. The company was also brand new so it had very little employees at the time. Put two and two together and you see me handling the job of at least a dozen employees.

WORST. JOB. EVER.

Don't let this happen to you!

It became so bad that I was eventually working from 9 in the morning to midnight, every day for 6 days. Without any overtime pay. I, of course, burned out after a few weeks of doing that, and took a sick day because of it, but still went back to work the very next day like the good, little lap dog that I was. Going through something like this stresses a person out to extremes. One week was bad enough with this sort of pressure, but I had to endure it for two whole months! During this time, I thought long and hard if this was what I wanted to do the rest of my life, and two straight months of my superiors telling me that "this is going to get better, just be patient", didn't really help me too much.

I, of course, turned in my resignation and got the hell out of there as quickly as I could. The job did have a promising future, but if it was already seriously costing me my health after only 4 months, then I didn't want any part of it. I had tried to keep in the best shape I could at the time, as I'd already valued health and fitness for years on end, so sacrificing my body and my beliefs for a steady paycheck didn't sit well with me. At all.

WEIGHT LOSS THE WRONG WAY

Christian Bale from "The Machinist".

Aside from overall health and self-esteem, the other thing that I noticed drop was my weight. During the two whole months of office hell, my weight went from 210 to 199 pounds. 11 pounds in 8 weeks! Not bad. Or, should I say, terribly bad. I really don't think that sacrificing all your health and happiness for 2 months justifies losing 11 pounds in 8 weeks, especially if much of that is most probably muscle. I looked like a real zombie back then. And some of my superiors and co-workers didn't fare any better. Good old lap dogs.

WEIGHT LOSS THE RIGHT WAY?

After I left that horrid job, though, I bounced back, weight wise that is, by fighting through depression with cookies and ice cream! Yeah, take that, bad feelings! I went back to exercising every day, but I ate like a farm animal every day, just shoveling any yummy treat in my mouth to make me feel better. Because of my constant exercise, I didn't balloon ridiculously like some people do while fighting through depression, but I did become very fat (emphasis on VERY). So, I quickly went from 199 to 214 pounds.

Jon Pearlstone, aka "Mr. EET".

Very recently, though, I discovered the EET Fitness Plan, and, after only 6 weeks on it, I lost 10 pounds of body fat! So, not only did I maintain all my muscle mass, I feel happy and full of energy every day! Take that, weight loss from stress! The health part is the reason for the question mark in that subtitle, though. Many of the people in the fitness community have voiced out their disgust for the plan, since it allows its participants to eat any sort of junk food literally every day. So, the questions about my long-term health on this plan are still really up in the air.

So far, though, the plan's going great. I feel excellent, and the plan has generated tremendous long term health improvements from some of the other members, so hope remains positive for me.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Stress in society is very commonplace, and it's a serious cause of decline in public health. Having gone through some tremendous stress myself, I really recommend that anyone who feels close to burning out completely remove themselves from the source of the stress immediately. If you're in it for the long haul, then it's not worth it. Get out now! I'm not forcing anyone, but that's what I did and I don't regret it for even a second.

HOW TO PRODUCE THE PERFECT EET FORECAST

2010-12-17T18:14:00.000-08:00

This is the next article I submitted to the Hive Health Media network wherein I chronicle my currently successful weight loss on the EET Fitness Plan. I write about how I gradually scheduled EET into my life and what did and didn't work for me. Below is the complete text but you can go here for the original article.

In the last article I made, I offered the weekly schedule, or forecast, that I use to lose weight on the EET Fitness Plan. It looks like this:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

7:30 AM - Wake up; Green tea

9:30 AM - Interval training on the exercise bike and heavy bag, totaling 30 minutes

10:30 AM - Treat Meal (usually consisting of something like fried chicken, mixed vegetables, root beer, a cup of ice cream, and a bowl of Cheetos)

2:30 PM - 2 small sandwiches, 1 tuna and 1 chicken breast, both with vegetables and mustard

5:30 PM - Egg white omelet with hummus and a plate of vegetables

8:00 PM - 15 minutes of stretching

8:30 PM - 1/2 can of Salmon (about 110g) and decaf green tea

Tuesday and Thursday

7:30 AM - Wake up; Green tea

8:30 AM - 4:00 PM - Grad school

12:00 PM - Treat Meal during lunch break (usually consisting of something like pork chops, mixed vegetables, skim milk, and a plate of cookies)

4:30 PM - Circuit weight training and Tabata intervals, totaling to around 20 minutes

5:30 PM - Treat Meal (same as 12:00 PM meal)

9:00 PM - 15 minutes of stretching

9:30 PM - Decaf green tea

Jon tells me that this forecast is very ideal, but I didn't automatically start with it.

THE FIRST FORECAST

The first EET forecast that I had for the first 2 or so weeks (October 14 - 30) was the same every day of the week, and it was pretty much my current Tuesday / Thursday forecast:

7:30 AM - Wake up; Green tea

12:00 PM - Treat Meal

4:30 PM - Exercise

5:30 PM - Treat Meal

9:30 PM - Decaf green tea

I told Jon that I was usually busy in the mornings so would prefer if my exercises were scheduled in the afternoon. The exercises would, of course, be the ones I discussed in "How to EET anything you want and be fit for life part 6", but alternated. So, I'd do the Swedish Intervals on Mondays, The Strength Circuits with Tabatas on Tuesday, Swedish Intervals again on Wednesday, and so on.

The forecast was also very similar to to the schedule I was already following, so I was very comfortable with it since I didn't have to make too many changes. Specifically, I made four changes to the typical schedule I was following before:

1. I gradually developed the habit of drinking green tea at the appropriate times

2. I had to adapt my current exercise routine (which was power lifting - based at the time) to the ones recommended by EET.

3. I allowed myself treats (usually a dessert of some kind) at the scheduled meals instead of forcing them away from me.

4. I had to start skipping breakfast

Except for the first one, all of those presented some problems for me during these first two weeks on the plan, especially the last one. I will highlight these problems and discuss them in detail in a future article.

The primary problem with this forecast was, ironically, the reason I liked it so much: it was already so close to the one I was already following. Jon explains that this is no good since the forecast needs to send a message to the body to adapt for the better. The plan I had at the time was responsible for the body I had, and that certainly hit a nerve for me.

It was true that I had become particularly fat over the years despite exercising pretty much every day, so Jon pretty much just said "stop doing what you're doing because it clearly isn't working". I admitted to myself that I wasn't embracing EET in its entirety simply because I was too lazy to adapt my entire schedule.

2-A-DAYS

So we developed a second weekly forecast for myself, which I used during the next 2 or so weeks (October 31 - November 16). It looked like this:

Mondays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays

7:30 AM - Wake up; Green tea

9:30 AM - Interval training on the heavy bag

10:30 AM - Treat Meal

4:30 PM - Circuit weight training and Tabata intervals, totaling to around 20 minutes

5:30 PM - Treat Meal

9:30 PM - Decaf green tea

Tuesday and Thursday

7:30 AM - Wake up; Green tea

8:30 AM - 4:00 PM - Grad school

12:00 PM - Treat Meal during lunch break

4:30 PM - Circuit weight training and Tabata intervals

5:30 PM - Treat Meal

9:30 PM - Decaf green tea

Wednesdays

7:30 AM - Wake up; Green tea

9:30 AM - Interval training on the heavy bag

10:30 AM - Treat Meal

2:30 PM - 2 small sandwiches, 1 tuna and 1 chicken breast, both with vegetables and mustard

5:30 PM - Egg white omelet with hummus and a plate of vegetables

8:30 PM - 1/2 can of Salmon and decaf green tea

I called this plan my "2-a-day" forecast, since I worked out twice a day most of the week. The reason this was done was because:

1. The change from the old schedule to the new one should be gradual, so a lot of my old habits still remained, such as working out in the afternoon while having two treat meals, but with new ones added in to initiate the changes needed for my body.

2. The workouts in the morning were added more frequently on top of my afternoon workouts because Jon said the Swedish Intervals, which were best done in the mornings, would be better for my fat loss at this stage of the game.

I also didn't work out twice a day every day, so it's not like I was burning out. I actually felt very comfortable with this schedule after just the first week of being on it.

Jon also later revealed to me that this is his "vacation forecast", where a long weekend with decadent eating somewhere exotic is planned, but all within the guidelines of the Metabolic Window.

THE PERFECT FORECAST

Jon and I arrived at my "perfect forecast" when he said that the Wednesday forecast:

7:30 AM - Wake up; Green tea

9:30 AM - Interval training on the heavy bag

10:30 AM - Treat Meal

2:30 PM - 2 small sandwiches, 1 tuna and 1 chicken breast, both with vegetables and mustard

5:30 PM - Egg white omelet with hummus and a plate of vegetables

8:30 PM - 1/2 can of Salmon and decaf green tea

Was like a perfect day of EETing for me already. So, I suggested that we create a new forecast with this schedule in place for most of the week, which is the one I'm using now (November 17 - present):

Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

7:30 AM - Wake up; Green tea

9:30 AM - Interval training on the exercise bike and heavy bag, totaling 30 minutes

10:30 AM - Treat Meal (usually consisting of something like fried chicken, mixed vegetables, root beer, a cup of ice cream, and a bowl of Cheetos)

2:30 PM - 2 small sandwiches, 1 tuna and 1 chicken breast, both with vegetables and mustard

5:30 PM - Egg white omelet with hummus and a plate of vegetables

8:00 PM - 15 minutes of stretching

8:30 PM - 1/2 can of Salmon (about 110g) and decaf green tea

Tuesday and Thursday

7:30 AM - Wake up; Green tea

8:30 AM - 4:00 PM - Grad school

12:00 PM - Treat Meal during lunch break (usually consisting of something like pork chops, mixed vegetables, skim milk, and a plate of cookies)

4:30 PM - Circuit weight training and Tabata intervals, totaling to around 20 minutes

5:30 PM - Treat Meal (same as 12:00 PM meal)

9:00 PM - 15 minutes of stretching

9:30 PM - Decaf green tea

WHY THE DELAY?

The reason I wasn't given this forecast immediately after the first one was because EET doesn't force forecasts on its participants. The changes made have to be gradual. Jon figured that I was happy with working out in the afternoon and eating two treat meals a day and I was. Like I mentioned, I liked the first schedule very much because it closely resembled the one I was already following. Using that as a base forecast, EET carefully eased me into one that would be considered more ideal, which is basically how it's done.

EET looks at the current schedule you follow and eases you into a new one you that will promote simultaneous fat loss and muscle mass increase while allowing treats every day. That final factor is really the hook here and it's what EET is really all about. No, not the junk food, really, but a plan you can be completely comfortable with and maintain literally the rest of your life.

Am I there yet? I personally don't think so since I'm still really early into the plan, but I gotta say, after realizing that the first 4 weeks on the plan were really less than ideal, it makes my 10 pound weight loss all the more satisfying.

NOT ALL EETERS ARE BUILT ALIKE

I have to reiterate that EET's ideal forecasts are built from the ground up and carefully individualized for each person. This means that every person following EET has his or her own unique forecast, and that these forecasts are completely different from mine. They eat different things at different times of the day, and have a different selection of exercises, especially the diabetics and people over 50 who also follow the plan. Nevertheless, many of these people have also had very similar successes to mine, which clearly means that there is no single, magic forecast on EET. Again, EET has guidelines, but no rules.

MORE PROBLEMS AHEAD

As mentioned, though, there were other rocky starts to my path on EET aside from just the forecasting. Terrible headaches in the morning, overeating, and overtraining were things I had to also contend with, all of which I'll discuss in detail in future articles. Stay tuned!

WEIGHT LOSS AT NEW ALL-TIME LOW

2010-12-13T01:36:00.000-08:00

I'm currently at week 8 in my journey with the EET Fitness plan, and my weight's just hit a new all-time low. I made a huge deal of the 10-pound weight loss I achieved in only 6 weeks on the plan, but body weight fluctuates literally every day, and mine fluctuated regularly from 204 - 206 pounds. My then all-time low weight of 204 pounds stayed as constant as it could be in the next 2 weeks.

This morning, however, I found myself facing an entirely new number from my scale: 202! This means that the EET Fitness plan is still working its wonders, and hasn't stalled. There have been no adjustments to my current forecast. I've kept everything the same but the weight just keeps on shedding!

I've been keeping tabs on my weight using a Word document for nearly 3 years now, and my weight's almost always been 205 - 220 pounds during that time. The only times I reached that weight or lower was when I was under a severe amount of stress from a previous job I had, and when I was experimenting with a mostly-liquid diet of sorts.

Again, EET allows its participant to eat any sort of food they want literally every day, and promises the fittest body you've ever had. Given its lofty promises, I'm incredibly surprised at how truly effective it is. And, given how the only other times I've reached this weight or below is through suffering of some sort, I'd say that EET has been my best bet so far.

I hope the show is far from over, though, because I'm rarin' to lose some more pounds! Show me what you've got, EET!

INSPIRATION FROM THE BIG MAN HIMSELF

2010-12-11T01:50:00.000-08:00

By that I mean the man himself, Mr. EET! When I first encountered his EET Fitness Plan, I figured that this guy was either some evil snake oil dealer on the internet or an honestly awesome person. I say the former because he says that he's formulated a health and fitness plan that will allow you to unlock the fittest body you've ever had while consuming junk food every day. That's a pretty fantastical claim, and one that's readily dismissed by a good majority of the fitness community (believe me, I've looked!) But, if he's on the level, then he's surely the latter.

And he is definitely awesome. Mr. EET, aka Jon Pearlstone, is a 47 year old man with the body of a 20 year old, and he did it by eating junk food every day! That's inspirational on so many levels for me:

1) He's definitely someone to aspire to, given what he's accomplished

2) He's just some Dude, and I mean that in the most respectful way possible. He's not some big shot celebrity (yet!) on a horse so high that he's virtually unreachable. He's a humble person who is genuinely passionate about his work, and who allowed me into his inner circle after only a few e-mails.

3) He has crafted a fitness plan so understanding of the common man's dilemma on dieting (since he's been there plenty of times before), that it's flexible enough for literally anyone to climb aboard and succeed without failing even once for the rest of their lives. That's just pure genius.

Jon Pearlstone, aka "Mr. EET", at age 47,
after 2 years of being on EET.

So, yeah, I look highly upon him, and you can just imagine my surprise and happiness when, during our last e-mail exchange, he shared this single line:

in some ways your results have been more amazing than all of ours because I started you out eating BIG treat meals -- none of us did that -- we didn't trust EET the way we do now.

That's high praise from the big man himself. And believe me, Jon doesn't hand out compliments like that every time you communicate with him. He'll tell you flat out if you're failing on his plan, or succeeding, and how you can either fix it, or make your situation even better. After all, you don't guide people through a fitness plan by giving them compliments that aren't warranted. Any trainer knows that that sort of talk will always have the opposite effect.

So, why am I so happy with just that one, simple line? Well, first of all, it's from the creator of the plan himself, and second of all, I know for a fact that it's not just sugar-coated hogwash because I just lost 10 pounds in 6 weeks following his plan. I've tried dozens of plans over the years and none of them have come close to this sort of weight loss, and none of them feel nearly as sustainable. Remember, I eat junk food every day! People on EET don't count calories either, so it's not like I have just 1 cookie then starve the rest of the day. No way! I wouldn't last two days on a plan like that, let alone 6 weeks!

Anyway, inspiration can come from many places, and people who are trying to lose weight and gain better figures need all that they can get. Not that I really need much of that on this plan, but you see, EET isn't a typical dry diet plan where one size fits all and you simply follow a set pattern in a book or website and see what happens. It evolves with you and your willingness to take it to the next level. And with that compliment, I'm more than inspired to continue with and do my best on EET.

HOW I LOST 10 POUNDS IN 6 WEEKS EATING JUNK FOOD EVERY DAY

2010-12-09T23:59:00.000-08:00

This is an article I made that was published on Hive Health Media a few days ago. In it, I discuss where I currently am on the EET Fitness Plan and how I got there. This is all real. No tricks, no special pills, and no skipping junk food. Below is the complete text, but you can go here for the original article on Hive.

Now that I've discussed in detail what EET's all about in the "How to EET anything you want and be fit for life" series of articles, it's now time to discuss my personal journey with EET. I'll start with, of course, the very beginning, and work my way up from there.

JUNK FOOD DIET

EET has several features, including:

1) Eat any treat you like (cookies, chips, ice cream, whatever) every day and lose weight

2) Create a personalized diet and fitness plan that you can maintain for the rest of your life without fear of quitting and relapsing

Among others. That first one is where the real controversy lies, and why people label this plan as a junk food diet that can never work. EAT JUNK FOOD EVERY DAY AND LOSE WEIGHT? Sounds like something from a sleazy infomercial, right? That's what I originally thought, too, but I decided to dive in anyway. And, honestly, after 6 whole weeks on the plan, it has worked wonderfully for me.

STATS

I'm a 5'11" Filipino male and, before starting on EET, I weighed 214lbs. After 6 whole weeks, though, I lost 10 pounds, no kidding. The only other ways that I lost this much weight that fast was a) Suffering through weeks on end with work-related stress problems and b) Experimenting with a sort of liquid diet I made up. I've also previously lost this much on traditionally cleaner diets. These are the types that tell you to eat totally clean 6 days a week and have a cheat day the other day, but, not this fast and easy. Well, on this plan I pretty much have a cheat day every day, never deny myself any food and still lost weight! So, given the options, I think I'll stick with EET a bit longer.

I've also known and read about people from all over who have tried all sorts of diets, most of them suffering through them and quitting earlier than they expected, and never lose this much weight. Pretty amazing for a "junk food diet" if you ask me. Jon also tells me that this is all just the tip of the iceberg, which makes me pretty eager.

TYPICAL FORECAST

I talked about forecasting in part 4 of my first series of articles and even offered an example. I'll offer a more complete weekly forecast, though, which will be very representative of what a typical week on EET is like for me.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
7:30 AM - Wake up; Green tea
9:30 AM - Interval training on the exercise bike and heavy bag, totaling 30 minutes
10:30 AM - Treat Meal (usually consisting of something like fried chicken, mixed vegetables, root beer, a cup of ice cream, and a bowl of Cheetos)
2:30 PM - 2 small sandwiches, 1 tuna and 1 chicken breast, both with vegetables and mustard
5:30 PM - Egg white omelet with hummus and a plate of vegetables
8:00 PM - 15 minutes of stretching
8:30 PM - 1/2 can of Salmon (about 110g) and decaf green tea

Tuesday and Thursday
7:30 AM - Wake up; Green tea
8:30 AM - 4:00 PM - Grad school
12:00 PM - Treat Meal during lunch break (usually consisting of something like pork chops, mixed vegetables, skim milk, and a plate of cookies)
4:30 PM - Circuit weight training and Tabata intervals, totaling to around 20 minutes
5:30 PM - Treat Meal (same as 12:00 PM meal)
9:00 PM - 15 minutes of stretching
9:30 PM - Decaf green tea

I'm in grad school pretty much the entire day on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the other days I work on my articles, study, do research, go out, do chores at home, and so on.

HIGHLY INDIVIDUALIZED FORECASTING

And doing that every day for several weeks lost me 10 whole pounds. I didn't start out with that forecast, though. Believe it or not, it took quite a bit of tweaking to finally arrive at that schedule. While EET has several forecasting templates, every member's forecast is very different from one another because of their individual lifestyles. You don't adjust your life so that you can go on EET, it's the other way around. So, if you decide to just go and copy my weekly forecast, I really can't guarantee the same results. That forecast took about 2 whole weeks of work from both me and the EET consultant, so it's really not something just pulled out of a hat. I'll discuss in detail how that forecast came about in my next article.

HIVE HEALTH MEDIA BADGE AND OTHER UPDATES

2010-11-27T23:41:00.000-08:00

No, I haven't given up on this blog. I still love to regularly write about health and fitness, but I've been so caught up in a bunch of things that I kind of neglected this blog. So, basically, I'm admitting that I suck at scheduling, hehe.

THE EET FITNESS PLAN

Anyway, the primary reason I haven't been writing more recent articles is because I'm currently trying out EET Fitness, which is a health and fitness plan whose main selling point is that you can eat whatever you love every day and be fitter and healthier than ever. Most people today would find that sort of idea absolutely ludicrous, what with the current conservative health and fitness wisdom stating that junk food, treats, or whatever you want to call them, should be eaten only once a week or month. Some diet plans even forbid such foods flat out entirely. So, I wanted to find out first hand what makes this plan work, if it even works at all, and communicate it to as many folks as possible.

HIVE HEALTH MEDIA

I wanted to originally publish my series on Fitness Philippines, but I managed to get it published on a very popular website that integrates health and fitness blogs and ideas into a single location, Hive Health Media. Because of this, I've officially added the Hive Health Media contributor badge to my site. My series has gotten much larger than I originally figured it would, so I'm going to be contributing to Hive more regularly now. And, once my EET series eventually ends, I plan to contribute more health and fitness articles in the future. Hive's a great site, and I want to continue supporting it.

EET THE UNORTHODOX

But the expansion of my article's not the exact reason I've become so infrequent in posting new articles on Fitness Philippines. A lot of the articles on this blog were created from my daily musings on health and fitness. But, because literally everything I'm doing to that end is because of EET's guidelines, everything new I try out and learn on my own has to be placed in my EET series on Hive. Though EET's guidelines are very effective, they're also very unorthodox, so it pretty much changed my entire way of thinking about health and fitness. So, until I can get my mind straight again and create independent ideas outside of the EET landscape, I'm pretty much out of a lot of fresh ideas for articles at the moment.

GRADUATE STUDIES

I'm also currently taking up graduate studies in exercise and sports science at the University of the Philippines Diliman's College of Human Kinetics. One of my big plans for this blog is to take all of what I've learned in graduate school and create articles about them from my point of view. Many of the articles on the blog were created from this line of thought. I've only just really scratched the surface on what I've learned, and to properly create the rest of the articles, I need detailed lesson plans for each subject, and arrange each element into a publishing schedule that makes sense to me. I haven't done this yet, so it's really holding me back on updating my blog as well. My graduate studies end in March, though, so I'll be able to free up more time for myself after that, and finally share everything I've learned to everyone out there.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Well, that's it for now. Please also check out my new martial arts blog, "The World and Martial Arts", which I'm updating very regularly. As of this writing, I'm in the middle of completing my series of review articles about UFC 123, so check those out if you're interested and please leave some comments. If you have any questions, comments, or whatever on EET, martial arts, health, or fitness, please don't hesitate to contact me via Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail.

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR POSTURE AND FLEXIBILITY WITH THE FITNESS FIXER

2010-11-06T04:48:00.000-07:00

I recently discovered a great fitness blog by one Jolie Bookspan, called "The Fitness Fixer". Dr. Bookspan has written many tremendously useful fitness articles there, especially on the topic of flexibility and posture, among others. Here are some articles that I highly recommend you check out:

What does Stretching Do?

Fixing Upper Back and Neck Pain

Nice Neck Stretch

Better Shoulder and Triceps Stretch

Better Achilles Tendon Stretch

Save Knees when Squatting

Prevent Back Surgery

And that's just the tip of the iceberg! I'm a huge advocate of flexibility and have been stretching for years and have to say that the stretches linked above are truly very effective. Dr. Bookspan's advice on how to engage your abdominals throughout every day life while correcting your posture and possibly eliminate any existing back pain you have is also top notch. Unfortunately, due to some technical difficulties, Dr. Bookspan and her colleagues haven't posted since April, but, hopefully she can contribute more articles soon as the ones already published are absolute gold. Check out her posts on Healthline, I highly recommend them!

THE TURKISH GETUP

2010-11-05T03:29:00.000-07:00

I'd like to highlight a little-known, but very effective and very fun exercise known as the Turkish Getup. A Russian exercise meant to be performed with a kettlebell,it can also be performed with a dumbbell.Here's a very detailed video of how to perform this unique exercise:

And here's a quick clip showing how you can do it with a dumbbell:

LEARN PROPER FORM FIRST!

Like any other exercise, make sure that you get the proper form down before you attempt the lift with heavy weights. Star with very light weights first (perhaps something in the area of the 50% and below of your 1 repetition maximum?), then follow the first video step by step until you can do the movement perfectly. Then you can progress to heavier loads.

VERY EFFICIENT EXERCISE

The Turkish Getup is a very efficient exercise since it can work out several muscle groups (particularly, your chest, shoulders, triceps, abdominals, lower back and quadriceps).

If you plan on integrating this into one of your workouts, you should insert it in a day where you're working your whole body, since it'll be a bit difficult to add it to a day when you're working only certain body parts, given how many it involves.

If you've never tried this exercise before, or any other similar to it, your body will have to take time to learn it, and you'll probably be more sore than usual after you perform it. This is a good thing, because it means that your body's taking additional effort to adapt to the new movements and weight placement, which means greater benefits. Definitely a plus for you!

CLOSING THOUGHTS

The Turkish Getup isn't currently part of my regular workout routine, but I've done it many times throughout my years of working out and I like it very much, so it's my absolutely pleasure to recommend it to you!

So, what do you think? Have you tried out this exercise before or have additional questions about it? If so, please leave a comment below and share your thoughts!

BEHOLD, MY NEW MARTIAL ARTS BLOG!

2010-11-01T00:24:00.000-07:00

When I first started Fitness Philippines, I thought it would be best if I strung together all my interests so I wouldn't ever run out of material. So, the blog was originally about my take on fitness, health, nutrition, and the martial arts. 6 months pass and I find that the topics are extremely skewed, especially considering the blog title. A good majority of the posts were concerned only about martial arts, specifically UFC events. I'm obsessed with the UFC and decided to review every match I saw in great detail. Combine that with the recent explosion in the number of events the UFC holds per month, plus a TV show, and a limited schedule that didn't allow me to post every day, and Fitness Philippines transformed into something misleading. It wasn't about fitness from the point of view of a Filipino any longer, it was just about mixed martial arts (MMA).

THE WORLD AND MARTIAL ARTS

Check out my new martial arts reviews over at the new blog!

Realizing that, I decided to create another blog devoted to just my views on martial arts in general. I call it THE WORLD AND MARTIAL ARTS, since it's how martial arts are represented in today's modern society. Central to this would be UFC events, which would clearly represent how martial arts are viewed today as a sport, various films, such as Tekken and The Expendables, which tend to reach a larger, or at least different, crowd, and video games, which has its own unique audience and culture attached.

As of this writing, there are 12 new articles I've created exclusively for that blog. The martial arts-related topics on Fitness Philippines will now also redirect to the new blog as well (NOTE: As of this writing, this isn't in place yet), so that each blog will have a solid topic all its own. I've learned a lot during my 7 months of blogging, and am still trying to improve to make my articles some of the best and most read on the internet.

HOW TO EET ANYTHING YOU WANT AND BE FIT FOR LIFE

2010-10-31T23:21:00.000-07:00

UPDATED WITH PART 6!

I exercise literally every day of the week, and I don't find that excessive at all. I also find it odd that whenever I see articles that talk about working out every day, people comment that it's unhealthy, easily leads to injury, and so on, but there's a simple response to that: not if you know what you're doing.

And there's another reason why I exercise every day: because I naturally love doing it. And people used to do it, too, in the days before video games and computers. When sports were the favorite pastime no matter what your age was, and you'd spend all your free time on it. That's exercising every day and loving it. It's what I'm all about.

DIETS SUCK

What I don't do every day, however, is diet. Why? Because I easily break my diets. It's actually such a shame to admit this because I write about diet and health regularly on this blog. I do specialize in exercise and physical fitness, though, so those are topics I've had a lot of success on, but, after college, dieting's always puzzled me.

Would you trust health and fitness advice from this guy?

During college, I would eat junk food and fast food all day and maintained a very slim figure for my height. I'm 5'11" and had a 28 inch waist and weighed around 180 pounds. That was almost a decade ago. These days, my waistline's 34 inches and I weigh 210 pounds. Yeah, I've packed on more muscle over the years, but you can tell from that waistline increase that muscle wasn't the only reason I gained weight. It's pretty much because I've never been able to fully control my junk food habits for long periods of time.

All of the diets I've been on these past few years were always restrictive in some way, either in type of food or amount of food eaten per day. Sure, they'd work, and each of them got me below 200 pounds, but I could never maintain them for long periods and would always regain the weight and inches.

THE EET FITNESS PLAN

Recently, though, I discovered something called the EET (Eating and Exercise Timing) Fitness Plan by one Jon Pearlstone, which claims to be able to make one achieve high levels of health and fitness while never restricting any type of food or amount eaten per day. The plan instead focuses instead on the timing of one's meals and activities throughout the day.

Will this plan work for me in the long term this time? We'll see ... join me as I review the EET Fitness Plan in detail!

Jon Pearlstone today, after 2 years
on the EET Fitness Plan

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 4

PART 5

PART 6

WHAT MAKES A GOOD WARM UP?

2010-10-25T03:57:00.000-07:00

Before any physical activity, one should always warm up. A good warm should be composed of the following factors:

1. IT SHOULD MIMIC THE ACTUAL PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

In order to properly prepare the body for the actual movements to take place during training, the warm up should be composed of the movements themselves, or movements very close to them. Jogging, for example, is a very good warm up for long distance runners or sprinters, but is a terrible warm up for Olympic weight lifters. These athletes would benefit better from a warm up composed of the actual lifts, but at a much lower intensity, such as being performed at a much lighter weight, and without the explosiveness required, such as in a hanging clean and press.

Image from gettyimages.com

2. IT SHOULD MAKE ONE SWEAT
In order to properly be warmed up, the body's temperature needs to rise 1-2 degrees. The best indicator of this is a light sweat.

3. IT SHOULD NOT CAUSE FATIGUE

Warm ups that cause the athletes to be fatigued, such as stair running or running a mile, are inefficient because they become tired even before the actual training sessions begin. They will therefore most probably not perform at their peak capacities, unless they rest for a long period of time (more than 3 minutes). After the rest, their body's would have already cooled down, thus removing the benefits of the warm up. The athletes should be sweating after the warm up but should not be breathing too heavy.

4. IT SHOULD LAST AT LEAST 5 - 15 MINUTES

This factor is much more situation-dependent than the rest. In weight lifting, for example, a good warm up would be composed of the actual lifts the person would perform, but at a much lower intensity.

For example, if one of the exercise for the day would be a back squat, performed at 80% of the persons 1-repetition maximum, at 5 reps for 5 sets, a warm up set should be performed beforehand. A good warm up for this would be the exact same exercise performed at a lower intensity, but at a higher volume. So, the first set would be a back squat performed at only 40% of the person's 1-repetition maximum (half of the actual weight to be lifted), performed for 1 set at 15 repetitions. The first set of the actual work out would take place immediately after.

Athletes who will be performing intense physical fitness training for extended periods, such as a basketball team going through a 3-hour workout, should follow the fourth rule very closely, however, and make the most of it. So, a good warm up for this situation would be composed of movements that the athletes will be using in the actual training session, but at a lower intensity, and for 15 minutes, in order to make them sweat.

Image from mopo.ca

Sports-specific movements for basketball would include such things as high knees, side, forward, and diagonal lunges, and trunk rotations. Light dribbling, shooting, and general basketball drills would be even better since they will prepare the athletes' bodies for the exact movements they will perform.

Also note that athletes at the elite level will most probably need longer warm ups because it takes more effort for their bodies to sweat.

5. SHOULD NOT INCLUDE STRETCHING UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY

Unless the activity to be trained demands a high level of flexibility, such as gymnastics or ballet, then people should not stretch before, after, or during, the warm up. Stretching should not be performed before a warm up because the body responds better to flexibility exercises when warm. Stretching before the body has warmed up will not make the most out of the exercise since the joints would probably not reach their maximum flexibility levels and might even cause injury.

Stretching should also not be done immediately after the warm up exercises since they typically lower the body's temperature during the holding phases of the movements, thus cooling the body down and removing much of the benefits of the warm up. For activities such as gymnastics, which demand a tremendous amount of flexibility, and thus, strict flexibility exercises before the actual training program, a second warm up should be performed after stretching to warm the body up again.

BENEFITS

Good morning exercise. Image
from fitnessandfreebies.com

Warm ups prevent injuries because they prepare the body for the high intensity of the work to be done. Performing high intensity exercise before preparing the body beforehand by stimulating the relevant muscle groups accordingly might shock it and cause injury. According to "The Art of Expressing the Human Body"Bruce Lee broke his back in the 1960's because he performed the "good morning" exercise with a bar loaded with his own body weight without a proper warm up.

Prepping the body beforehand will also allow the muscles to perform more efficiently than if they were to train "cold", and will therefore make the most out of the training session.

Did this article help you craft a good warm up for yourself? What constitutes a good warm up for you? Please leave a comment below as I'd love to see what you think!

FITNESS FOR GAMERS: HOW TO BECOME A TRUE GAMING ATHLETE

2010-10-21T01:47:00.000-07:00

I'm a gamer myself, which is pretty obvious considering some of the articles I write. I find that it's a great way for me to relax and rest from time to time, and forgot the troubles of the world for a bit. That said, there are those out there who play games professionally. First off, they should actually follow the requirements to be physically fit. In other words, they should be physically active, take in proper nutrition, have adequate rest and relaxation, integrate good health practices in their lifestyles (eg: no smoking!), and have regular medical and dental check ups. That's just good advice for anyone, and not only gamers.

This article will focus on fitness techniques that will actually help professional gamers become better at what they do for a living.

CORE MUSCULATURE

Professional gamers tend to sit for very long periods of time, much like chess players. As such, they need to work on the muscles that keep them erect. These would be their core muscles, specifically their abdominal and lower back muscles.

Since gamers tend to sit perfectly still, and don't flex (bend forward), extend (bend backward), or rotate very often, then good abdominal exercises for them would be isometric in nature. Exercises such as the plank and side plank would be ideal in this case. Of course, other abdominal exercises such as crunches and bicycle crunches are great as well.

As for the lower back, great exercises would be the good morning (do not load the barbell with any plates. If you don't have access to a barbell, use a similar object such as a broomstick. Just be sure to perform the exercise as correctly and as strictly as possible), Supermans, back extensions, romanian deadlifts, and deadlifts.

WRISTS AND FINGERS

Next, gamers need to address the most mobile aspect of their bodies: their wrists and fingers. The exercises related to preventing carpal tunnel syndrome will help them tremendously in this regard. Gamers should perform the stretches and ball squeeze exercise very frequently throughout the day, and should incorporate the wrist curl and reverse wrist curl exercises in the link.

REACTION TIME

Reaction time is another important aspect of professional gaming, but is really best developed by playing the actual game in the competition.

SAMPLE TRAINING PROGRAM

As most gamers, I believe, are sedentary individuals, the training programs given to them should not be too intense, but should also create room for further improvements. This sample training program is to be performed three times a week, with at least 48 hours rest in between workouts (so Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays would be a good schedule). Perform 3 sets of each exercise with 10 repetitions each, then move on to the next exercise on the list. There should be a 30 second to 1 minute rest period in between all sets.

Some of the exercises in the list, require dumbbells.If you wish to perform this sample program but do not have dumbbells, you can skip these exercises for now, but it would not be ideal. Having access to dumbbells,whether bought, borrowed, or through a gym membership, would be excellent as it would aid in the progression of this program and allow more options. The wrist curls and reverse wrist curls are also very important as they strengthen the wrist muscles, which are always very active throughout competitions.

Choose a weight for these exercises that you can lift for 10 times straight with perfect form. The perfect weight would be the one that you have to struggle a bit to lift at the 9th or 10th repetition.

THE EXERCISES

The exercises should be performed in the exact order given:

Push ups (or knee push ups) - works the chest, shoulders, triceps, and core muscles
Plank (hold for at least 10 seconds)
Superman (hold for at least 10 seconds)
Squats (perform only at the range you're comfortable at. Forcing yourself to go too far down may result in knee injuries. Remember that your knees should never go over your toes!) - works the leg muscles as well as the core (keep your back straight during the movement)
Good morning (Again, do not load the barbell with any plates. If you don't have access to a barbell, use a similar object such as a broomstick)

Bicycle crunches

Kneeling Dumbbell Rows - additional work for the back, plus biceps
Wrist Curls (check here and scroll down for a video)
Reverse Wrist Curls (check here and scroll down for a video)

WARM UP FIRST!

Perform a warm up set before performing this workout. The warm up set should be composed of 1 set of all the exercises, in the exact order given, performed in a circuit fashion (continuously with no rest in between exercises). Perform each of the exercises at half the number of repetitions you would do that for that session (so if you're doing 10 repetitions that day, do only 5 repetitions for each exercise in the warm up. For the exercises that involve holding a pose (plank and Superman), hold the pose for half the time required for that session. After the circuit is completed, immediately perform the first set of the main workout (in this case, the first set of push ups).

STRETCHING

After all the sets are finished, perform the stretches indicated in this workout, then follow with the stretches for preventing carpal tunnel syndrome.

PROGRESSIONS

Since gaming is all about endurance (sitting for long periods, moving the wrists and fingers for long periods, etc), progressions should be handled the same way, by way of increasing the repetitions and sets for each of the exercises:

WEEK 1: Perform 10 repetitions of each exercise / hold the relevant exercise for at least 10 seconds
WEEK 2: Perform 12 repetitions of each exercise / hold the relevant exercise for at least 20 seconds
WEEK 3: Perform 15 repetitions of each exercise / hold the relevant exercise for at least 30 seconds
WEEK 4: Perform 10 repetitions of each exercise / hold the relevant exercise for at least 10 seconds
WEEK 5: Perform 12 repetitions of each exercise / hold the relevant exercise for at least 20 seconds
WEEK 6: Perform 15 repetitions of each exercise / hold the relevant exercise for at least 30 seconds

BENEFITS

So, if you're a professional gamer, what can this workout do for you? Like any professional athlete who trains hard at their craft, you'll be able to last longer and perform better at what you do. Being able to sit still comfortably for longer periods of time and being able to move your wrists and fingers around faster may not be too impressive to the average bystander, but it could mean all the difference to the professional gamer who wants to stay as focused as possible for longer periods without worrying about lower back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and the like. It can even fix some bad posture problems that you might have!

FINAL THOUGHTS

The progressions listed here are, of course, the tip of the iceberg. As mentioned, most gamers are sedentary and are therefore not used to physical conditioning, so they need to start out slow. That doesn't mean they have to stay there, though! A quick word of warning, however: if you have any sort of medical complication or injury such as any joint problems, then please do not attempt this workout without at least consulting your doctor. The exercises may aggravate any existing ailments you might have.

If you are interested in this workout and have any questions or comments about it, or want to find out how it ideally progresses past the 6th week, please e-mail me or leave a comment below.

HOW TO RIDE JEEPNEYS THE HEALTHY WAY

2010-10-20T04:36:00.000-07:00

If you live in the Philippines, or have at least visited it at one point or another, you'll most probably be familiar with one of the country's cultural icons: the jeepney. A staple in public transportation throughout the country, the jeepney is favored by many within the country to help get them to their selected destinations. It's cheap and usually hassle-free, but one thing's for sure, though, if you ride on it, you'd better be prepared to suck in some of that sweet fuselage clogging the city air.

The jeepney is typically open, meaning that it has no doors or windows, just holes for people to slip into and breathe out of. Unfortunately, when you ride the vehicle throughout major metropolitan areas, you get a face full of exhaust almost every time.

While funny because it's true, it's also a bit unfair, because that isn't the case a hundred percent of the time. What is true 100% of the time is the horrible exhaust coming from the back of the vehicle, caused by the archaic diesel engine it carries. What's even more horrible about it is that, when the jeepney is moving, it sucks the pollution it exhales right back in, and the riders appreciate this all the more because the jeepney is completely open, allowing more of the contaminated air to flow in. The faster the jeepney goes, the more black air it sucks back in. This is caused by something called drag force.

WHAT TO DO

You can read about the science behind it in more detail if you like, but the point is that sitting near the tail end of the jeepney is extraordinarily bad for your health, especially if you ride it regularly. If you can, ride up front with the driver, or sit as close to him as you possibly can. Much of the exhaust would have already dissipated by then, leaving you much cleaner air to breathe in. I assure you, this is much better for you in the long run than having to consider wading through a bunch of seated people when you get to your stop.

Got any more health-related tips regarding jeepney riding or have questions about turbulent flow? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts!