Do you think that you need to follow your diet program perfectly in order to achieve fat loss success? Well if you’ve been following my fat loss journey on my blogs you already know that I don’t eat perfect all the time. Guess what? None of my fellow fitness professional friends do either. Just read this article below written by my good friend Tom Venuto. He shares 10 key points to eating the foods that you enjoy and still stay on track with your diet program.

Tom Venuto’s Holiday Survival Guide

By Tom Venuto
Author of Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle
Creator of the Burn The Fat Inner Circle

How to Stay on Your Diet and Stay in Shape Over the Holidays
Without Turning into a Miserable Scrooge!
(A Holiday Survival Guide)

My mom makes the most amazing Christmas cake in the world; it’s been a tradition in our family for as long as I can remember.

First, she mixes up a light, fluffy, vanilla cake mix, pours it into the pans and then pops it in the oven. After it’s been baked, she stacks the cake in two layers with whipped cream spread generously between each layer. She then pours on red and green Jell-O, which gets soaked up inside the cake. Next, whipped cream is smothered all the way around for frosting. And finally, she garnishes it with red and green sprinkles. A few red and green-striped candy canes are stuck in the top as the finishing touch, and off it goes to the refrigerator so it can be served chilled later.

Now let me tell you, as a bodybuilder, I have a lot of discipline. But when that moist, delicious, red and green, Jell-O- filled, whipped-cream covered cake is sitting on the table in front of me on December 25th, it takes every ounce of my willpower to keep from calling it a “VERY high carb day” and devouring numerous very large slices. Despite the temptation, I don’t “pig out” nor do I deprive myself. Instead, I’m content with eating my single piece, savoring every mouthwatering bite, all the while repeating my mantra, “Nothing tastes as good as being lean feels.” The next day, on December 26th, I’m on the bike or Stairmaster at the crack of dawn, followed by six perfect meals of lean protein and complex carbohydrate - just like every other day of the year.

A week later, on December 31st, I usually go out for a nice dinner (very naughty food, I must admit), and then we toast champagne to the New Year at midnight. I’m in bed at a reasonable hour shortly thereafter. Unless it’s a scheduled day of rest on New Years day, I’m not groggy and hung over like many of my friends are. I’m in the gym squatting, bench pressing, curling, or “stairmastering” just like I usually am. And here’s the point: You can and should enjoy the holidays. You can enjoy being with family and going out with friends. You can go to holiday parties and have fun. You can enjoy a few “naughty” meals. You can have a piece of cake and a glass or two of champagne. There’s no reason why you can’t enjoy yourself AND stay healthy, lean and fit through the holidays. All it takes is some planning, some goal-setting and little dose of old-fashioned discipline. I’d like to share with you 10 ways that you can follow your diet and stay in great shape over the holidays without turning into a “miserable Scrooge.” If you follow this advice, then you’ll be one of the proud few with a New Year’s resolution to be the best you’ve ever been in the new year to come - instead of one of the guilt-ridden many who must resolve to reclaim what they lost over the year that’s just passed them by.

1. Expect to stay on your program over the holidays

“Fail to plan and you plan to fail” is a time worn and cliched statement, but it’s still some of the best success advice you will ever hear. Not only do most people fail to plan, they consciously plan to fail over the holidays. Most people expect to “blow” their diet and skip workouts over the holidays. They expect to eat more, to exercise less and to gain weight. As a result, they don’t even make the effort. Instead of taking control, they resign themselves to maintenance at best, or back-sliding at worst. This negative expectancy leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy. By the first week of January, they’re in the worst shape they’ve been in for a year and they frantically make New Year’s resolutions to shed the excess fat they’ve gained. You can avoid this trap by planning to succeed during the holidays. Set up a positive expectation. Resolve now that you will not tolerate slipping backwards. Keep your standards up and don’t settle! Not only can you plan to “stay in shape” over the holidays, you can plan to improve! All you have to do is make the decision and expect success.

2. Plan all your workouts in advance

You know your schedule is going to get hectic over the holidays. You’ll be cooking, shopping, wrapping gifts, sending cards, going to parties, traveling, visiting family, and so on. To stay on your training and nutrition regimen is definitely going to take some sound time management skills. Plan your schedule in advance. Anticipate what’s coming up. Write it down. Put it on your calendar. By doing so, you won’t be caught unprepared. Use a schedule book or monthly calendar and “make appointments” for ALL your workouts for the entire holiday season. Then, post a copy where you will be forced to look at it every day. This is a powerful exercise that will keep you focused and force you to think about and prepare for each upcoming workout. If you try to “wing it” and squeeze in your workouts and meals whenever you have time left over, you’ll find that there never is any time left over! Somehow your daily activities always seem to “expand” to fill the hours in every day. So schedule your workouts and meal times in your calendar just like you would any other appointment or event. Once you’ve done that, stick to your schedule religiously.

3. Set some compelling training and fitness goals over the holiday period

Don’t wait until January 1st to set your goals just because you think it will be harder to achieve them over the holidays. On the contrary, studies on personal achievement have shown that you’ll usually reach 80% of the goals you put onto paper. The problem is that few people set any goals at all, and fewer still set them during the holidays. Why wait? Why not do it now? Set some big goals that you can start working on during the holidays: Set a goal to lose the 25 lbs you’ve always wanted to lose NOW Set the goal to gain 10 lbs of solid muscle NOW Been contemplating a competition in bodybuilding, fitness or the new ladies figure division? Pick an early spring show and GO FOR IT - START TRAINING NOW! Goal setting should not be a once a year affair, it should be a continuous process. You should always have your goals in writing and your list should be regularly updated and rewritten. If you only set goals once a year, you’re not going to accomplish much in your life.

4. Give yourself permission to have “free meals” - and schedule them in

A planned “free meal” or “re-feeding day” helps you to stay on your program better in the long run. If you’re too strict all the time, you’re setting yourself up for cravings and binging. A few free meals per week will have very little effect on your physique. Also, if you’ve been on a strict, low carb and/or low calorie regimen for a long time, a full day of maintenance level calories might actually be good for you! It will boost your metabolic rate and give your body the signal that you’re not starving and that it’s ok to keep burning a lot of calories. Over the holidays, schedule your dinners and parties so they become your “free meals.” Then, for the rest of your meals, be steadfast! Just the fact that you know you have free meals coming up will relieve the pressure of staying on a strict diet for a long time. Also, when you do have your free meal – ENJOY IT! If you’re going to eat it and feel guilty, then don’t have it at all. If you’ve stayed with the program all week long, then when your free meal rolls around, you deserve it!

5. If you fall off the wagon, get right back on it

So you had about a dozen too many of those Christmas cookies did you? Don’t worry; because you have free meals built into your plan, you shouldn’t let guilt immobilize you. Even if you fall completely off the wagon, don’t beat yourself up. All you have to do is get right back on your program without missing another beat. Too many people mess up once and then think their entire diet is ruined. They feel as if everything they’ve done prior to that day was wasted and there’s no sense going on. Or even worse, they rationalize to themselves, “Well, I already cheated, so it doesn’t matter now, I might as well keep pigging out.” That’s nonsense. If you threw in the towel every time you didn’t score 100% on your diet, most people would never get through more than a few days on any structured program. Just because you slip up once doesn’t mean you should quit! You’re only human. Don’t let one small slip keep you derailed. Firmly plant your wheels back on the tracks and start rolling again.

6. Maintain your consistent eating schedule

If there’s one thing that all people who successfully get lean and stay lean have in common, it’s consistency. Without it, you never get any momentum going. It’s like taking two steps forward, only to take three steps back. Many people allow the busy Holidays to throw them off their regular eating schedule. They completely veer off their usual meal frequency, or they start eating foods they would normally never eat (because “it’s there”). Once you have a habit pattern going, it’s fairly easy to keep it going. But once you lose momentum, it’s very difficult to get it going again because you must overcome inertia all over again. (An object at rest tends to stay at rest!) On the major holidays, when there’s a big dinner scheduled, many people think that skipping their morning and afternoon meals to “save room” for the big one later is a good idea. It’s not. This is actually a good way to invite a binge that could set your back for days. Don’t lose your consistency or your momentum. Continue with your pattern of eating small, frequent meals all year round. All you have to do is count your holiday dinners as one of your regular meals and keep them small.

7. Control your portion sizes.

You can have your cake and eat it too – you just can’t eat the whole thing! One of the most important rules to remember this holiday season is the law of energy balance, which states: To lose body fat, you must consume fewer calories than you burn up each day. There are two corollaries to the law of energy balance:

1. A caloric surplus gets stored as fat – even healthy food.

2. Small amounts of anything – even junk food – will NOT get stored as fat if you stay in a calorie deficit. There’s no reason to deprive yourself of things you enjoy. Just make sure you don’t overindulge. As long as you enjoy your favorite foods in moderation, and you keep working out, it won’t end up around your waistline.

8. Don’t buy into the low standards and expectations of others

Keep your standards high, but don’t expect other people’s standards to be as high as yours. Remember that most people have already planned in advance to fail at fitness over the holidays. You’ve decided to stay strong (haven’t you?) Don’t let their negative influence drag you down. When you’ve reached your pre-ordained drink limit, say “When” and switch to water or a non alcoholic, non caloric beverage. When they offer you seconds on dessert, politely say, “No thank you, it was absolutely delicious, but I’m full, I can’t eat another bite.” And when the wee hours of the morning start to roll around, and your friends are egging you on to keep partying, politely tell them you need your sleep. Tomorrow is a work out day. If they’re really your friends, they’ll understand.

9. Make the best choices possible in every situation.

You know those tables you see at holiday parties that are covered with yards of chips, dips, pretzels, cookies, salami, candies, punch, liquor, and a seemingly endless assortment of other goodies? Well, did you also notice that there is usually a tray full of carrot sticks, cauliflower, celery and other healthy snacks too? No matter where you are, you always have choices. Sometimes you have to choose between bad and worse. Other times you can choose between good and better. But always make the best choice possible based on whatever your options are. If nothing else, you can choose to eat a small portion of something “bad” rather than a huge portion, thereby obeying the law of calorie balance. Chances are good that there’s probably something healthy on the menu at every holiday gathering. As you know, lean proteins and fibrous carbs are a great for getting lean, so fill up on the turkey breast, try to get a vegetable in there, and go easy on the desserts.

10. If you drink, enjoy alcohol in moderation

If you enjoy having a few drinks on special occasions, then go ahead and have a drink or two. But if you’re serious about your fitness goals, you must drink infrequently and in moderation. Alcohol puts fat oxidation on hold while providing a large amount of calories. When there’s alcohol in your bloodstream, you’re not in fat burning mode. I’ve never met anyone in my life that was truly serious about fitness or bodybuilding who was a heavy drinker. Alcohol and muscles just don’t mix. The impact goes beyond added body fat; your energy levels and workouts can be ruined for days after a night of heavy drinking. A glass of wine actually has some health benefits. But there’s NEVER any reason or excuse for binge drinking or getting drunk. So go ahead and toast to the New Year, but know when to say when. In conclusion, there’s no reason to let your exercise and nutrition program spoil your holidays, but there’s also no reason to let your holidays spoil your exercise and nutrition program! Put these 10 holiday tips into practice and you can start losing fat today, not next year.

Eat right, train hard and expect success
-Tom Venuto

Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer, certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle. Tom teaches you how to lose fat without drugs or supplements using the little-known secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and turbo-charge your metabolism by visiting www.BurnOffTheFat.com, home of Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle and The Burn The Fat Inner Circle, the Internet’s premier members-only fat loss support community.

My good friend and mentor Tom Venuto wrote some incredible articles recently to help you survive the holiday season and end up being leaner when it all ends rather than 5 to 10 pounds fatter like the majority of the population. This article is the first in the series.

The Holiday Fitness Challenge

By Tom Venuto
Author of Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle
Creator of the Burn The Fat Inner Circle

Media reports say that most people gain between 5 and 10 pounds of body fat in the six weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, the average amount is much more modest - just over a pound. However, even modest holiday weight gain may be cause for concern: A study by the National Institutes of Health found that this seasonal weight gain - even just a pound - is usually not lost after the holidays; it simply adds to the “weight creep” that “sneaks up” on us as we get older. Whether its a pound or ten pounds, did you ever ask yourself why does holiday weight gain happen at all? Here are some common answers I’ve heard:

“I’m too busy over the holidays to work out as often as usual.”
“I’m more stressed over the holidays, and the food is there, so I eat more.”
“I have at least three parties to attend and then there’s christmas and New Year’s, so it’s impossible to stay on a diet”
“No one can tell me not to enjoy myself over the holidays so I’m just going to eat whatever I want.”

These answers all have a few things in common. First, they assume that it’s an either/or proposition: You can either get in better shape or enjoy yourself, but not both. Stated in reverse: You can either deprive yourself of holiday enjoyments or gain weight, but it has to be one or the other. The truth is, “either/or thinking” is a very limiting form of thinking.

Second, these are all excuses or rationalizations. “I’m too busy” for example, is always an excuse, because I have never known someone who was too busy to make time for his or her highest life priorities. The problem is, most people do not make exercise or eating healthy a priority. We all have the same amount of time - 24 hours a day - but the way people prioritize the use of time is the difference between success and mediocrity. And remember, words mean little. Actions reveal a person’s true priorities.

Third, none of these are the real reasons most people gain weight over the holidays to begin with. The real reason is because an intention was never set for the opposite: To get in better shape over the holidays.

Most people set a “goal” to get in worse shape over the holidays. It’s not consciously set, of course, as few people would intentionally set out to gain fat. They simply do it by default. In their minds, they accept that it must be just about impossible to stay in shape with everything going on over the holiday season, so why bother?

Once the decision has been made, then the rationalizing (“rationing lies”) continues:
“Why should I deprive myself?”
“Family is more important”
“Worrying about diet and exercise during the holidays is neurotic”
“I don’t care if I gain a few pounds, I’m going to enjoy myself anyway”
“It’s only these two or three weeks that I let myself go wild”
“I’ll start the first week in January and lose the weight then.”

As a result of this “negative goal-setting,” they expect to work out less, eat more and gain a few pounds, and they don’t seem to even consider alternatives.

But what would happen if you set an intention and a goal to get in better shape?

What would happen if you decided that it was not an all or nothing proposition and that you could enjoy the holidays and all it has to offer and get in better shape at the same time?

And what if you decided that your health and your body were the highest priorities in your life, because you realized that can’t enjoy anything else in life, including family or holidays, if you don’t have your health?

Here’s what would happen: You would get in better shape!

I’m not all that different from you just because I’m a bodybuilder and fitness professional. I have many of the same problems, concerns and struggles as you do. Although today I always get in better shape between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, that’s a result of a conscious choice, a close examination of my old belief systems and a lot of action. For me, it all started about six years ago.

For most of my adult life, I wasn’t much of a traveler and I didn’t enjoy flying or staying in hotels. For one thing, I had so many business commitments in the East Coast health club business, that I seldom left town, as I had to “tend to the stores.” But I also had a belief that if I traveled, my workouts and nutrition would suffer. After all, it would be hard to stick with my usual bodybuilding diet, and I wouldn’t have access to my usual gyms. For these reasons, I never did much travel..

Then I was forced to take some trips for business reasons. Predictably enough, my nutrition and workouts suffered while I was spending time in airplanes and in hotels. With my experience having confirmed my beliefs, I re-affirmed to myself, “See, traveling is nothing but a pain. You just can’t stay on a diet and training program when you’re out of town.”

After several more trips, I noticed that something very negative happened: I surrendered. I had resigned myself to “not bother” while I was on the road. I let my expectations create my reality.

But I didn’t let it go on for long. As soon as I became aware of what was happening, I decided that I wouldn’t tolerate it, so I challenged myself and my previous limiting beliefs. I asked myself, “Why the heck not? Why let myself backslide? Why even settle for maintaining? Why not challenge myself to improve while I’m traveling?” The answer was: There was no reason, there were only excuses.

From that day forward, I set a challenge for myself: To come back from every trip or vacation in better shape than when I left. Of course there were exceptions, as when I went on a vacation for total R & R. But I never let travel get in my way again. I prepared food that I would eat on the planes so airline food was never an excuse… I only chose hotels that had kitchens, so I could cook my own food. I went food shopping immediately after check-in. I wrote my training schedule and scouted gyms in advance… And I actually found myself training harder than usual.

No matter where I was training - it could even be some “dungeon” of a gym in the middle of nowhere - it didn’t matter because my mind was focused on improving and looking better when I came home than when I left. I had a goal!

What do you think happened? It’s not hard to guess: I always came home in better shape than when I left.

Since then, my “travel challenge” has become somewhat of a ritual in my life. When I’m away from my “home-base” it becomes a “fitness road trip.” I search the Internet or yellow pages or ask locals to help me find the most hard-core gym nearby wherever I will be staying. When I get there, I train every bit as hard as if I had a competition just weeks away. I look forward to it now. In fact, this is what led me to my “holiday fitness challenge.”

Like many people, I travel over the holidays, so I’m automatically in “travel challenge” mode at thanksgiving, Christmas time and New Year’s. But with the additional temptations and busyness that the holidays bring on top of the usual travel stresses, I saw fit to declare a new challenge: “The Holiday Challenge.” The difference was that for my “holiday challenge,” I pledged to not only to return home in better shape than when I left, but to enjoy the holidays to the fullest at the same time.

People who think I “deprive” myself to look the way I do would be shocked: I eat some damn good food over the holidays including Pie at Thanksgiving and my mom’s famous red and green Jell-0 Christmas cake. Then on New Year’s I’m usually toasting champagne and having a blast with friends or family. The difference is, every other meal stays right on schedule and I work out hard and consistently over the holidays; I don’t let everything fall apart just because ‘tis the season.’

The idea that you can either enjoy the holidays or stay in shape - but not both - is damaging and limiting. It hurts your social life, your emotional life and your physical life. Life is not an either or proposition; it’s a matter of balance. Success does not mean going to extremes. Success can be a simple matter of re-examining your beliefs, rearranging your priorities, setting goals, changing the questions you ask yourself, re-evaluating your expectations and acting in accordance with all of the above.

Your expectations will become your reality. What are you expecting? Are you expecting to be in better shape after holiday parties, celebrations, banquets, dinners, and desserts? If not, then why not? What’s preventing you from enjoying all of the above and still getting in better shape? Do you have a limiting belief which dictates that it’s one or the other? Could it be that you never set a goal, intention or expectation to do it? Could it be that you’re rationalizing or making excuses? If so, then I challenge you to change it this year… and then keep the change… for the rest of your life.

As of this writing, there are just under two weeks until the end of the year. Why not see how much you can improve your physique over the holidays, without depriving yourself of any holiday enjoyments or festivities? Just step up your expectations. Step up your standards. Step up your nutrition. Step up your training. Step up your action. Step up to the “holiday fitness challenge” the minute you finish reading this, and just see what happens!

Eat right, train hard and expect success
-Tom Venuto

Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer, certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle. Tom teaches you how to lose fat without drugs or supplements using the little-known secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and turbo-charge your metabolism by visiting www.BurnOffTheFat.com, home of Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle and The Burn The Fat Inner Circle, the Internet’s premier members-only fat loss support community.

Achieving 5% body fat is looking better and better. It’s been an outstanding week. I’m really focusing on my short and long term goals and bombarding my mind with them. I’ve been talking with some of my colleagues and we’re sharing our inspiring journeys with each other. My nutrition intake has been fantastic and my workouts have been outstanding. Right now I’m on cloud 9.

I had a great conversation with my business mentor Deborah Micek on Tuesday night. We were talking about our life goals which is very common for this time of year and New Years resolutions being announced by everyone.

But this conversation was much different. Coach Deb didn’t ask me to reveal my goals for 2008. She asked me a much more powerful question. “What are your goals for 2018?” There was a moment of silence as I thought to myself, “What a powerful question.”

Asking yourself what are you going to achieve in life 10 years from now has a totally different impact on the way you think when you ask yourself what are you going to achieve this year.

What I observe from people when they set New Years Resolutions and their goals for the year, they kind of panic and try to make it happen all at once, and when it’s not happening immediately they get discouraged and give up.

When you set your goals for 10 years from now it kind of takes a bit of pressure off of you. It encourages you to dream big and explore your thoughts for what you really want out of life. It no longer becomes, “I’ve got to lose 30 pounds in 30 days to look great for my best friends wedding.”

A lot can happen in 10 years. Think of all the successes that you’ve achieved in the past 10 years. How has your life changed? I’ll tell you how mine has changed. I graduated from the University of Windsor’s Human Kinetics program, got married to my beautiful wife Angie, had 2 beautiful children Shayne and Noelle, Opened a health club, became depressed, closed the health club, claimed bankruptcy, found my passion and fire, helped thousands of people achieve their dream body, get to connect with wonderful people such as yourself on a daily basis all around the world, found the true meaning of life and treasure every second that I have with Angie and my children.

What are my life goals for 2018? I picture you, me, and all my fellow readers on cruise trips and island vacations together where we celebrate your health, vitality, zest for life, and our sexy bodies. I see us all lounging around the pool or sitting around a fire pit and sharing our stories about how making our health the #1 priorities in our lives has created incredible success in all areas of our lives.

I see each and every one of us truly making a difference in this world and spreading the message of optimal health and well being.

I’d love to hear what your life goals are for 2018. Feel free to share them here.

I just returned from an incredibly intense chest and back superset session from The Fit Bastard Year Of Workouts. This is my last week for this phase. My arms are quite shaky while I’m typing here.

Someone made a comment to me last week that supersets are old school and that I should get with the times. Are you serious? Yes there are some pretty crazy and creative workouts on the market these days and they all promise amazing results and rapid fat loss. Some of them are absolutely outrageous.

All I have to say in response to that is, just because it’s a technique that’s been around for a while does not mean that it doesn’t work. It’s been working for many decades and will still work for many more decades. There are so many different ways to do supersets and get creative and trust me… they frickin work!

As with any program of course you need to mix it up. If you were to do supersets all the time they would lose their effectiveness, but simply because the theory has been around for a while does not mean that it will lose it’s effectiveness.

I’ve got to admit that I do have a secret for my high levels of intensity during my workouts. For the past 4 months I’ve been listening to Stephen Pierce’s Optimindzation audio program. Prior to my workout I have the “Extraordinary Energy & Mental Caffeine” audio playing either at my computer or in my car. There’s no music. It’s just pure Isochronic Tones baby, and it Rocks!

During my workout I listen to the “Physical Power & Athletic “Zone”” audio in my mp3 player. It does something to me that I can’t explain. Without words or music it gives me the powerful boost that I need to drive me through my workouts and achieve my personal bests.

These are just 2 audios in a series of 12. Others consist of Creative Focus & Innovative Mind, Relaxation Mastery, Amazing Sleep & Insomnia Help, Absolute Stress Relief & Anxiety Reduction, Immune System Maximizer, and more.

I have many of them playing throughout the day in my computer or in my car or while I fall asleep at night. They are part of my daily routine and I wanted to mention them to you since I am journaling everything that I do that helps me to achieve fat loss success.

I’ll keep you up to date on my progress during the holidays. I plan on being in better shape by the end of them while most people will put on at least 5 pounds… so the statistics say

Have an absolutely amazing day!

It’s time for my daily check in to let you know how my fat loss progress is going. This has been a fantastic week for me. I’ve kept up my workouts, ate great food, had a nice cheat meal, listened to some incredibly inspiring audios, and interacted with some very positive people. After a bit of a hiatus I am motoring right along. So what am I doing today to bring me closer to my goal of 5% body fat by January 31st?

I’m just about to head out the door and head to the gym for a shoulder and ab workout. I’ll be doing supersest from The Fit Bastard Year Of Workouts. Yesterday I worked out bi’s and tri’s and was in and out of the gym in less than 20 minutes. The trainer at the desk said, “Wow that was quick. You’re done already?”

Then she took one look at my shirt and saw that it was soaked. I showed her that I could barely pick up the pen on the desk and that it would be impossible to even attempt to do another curl or extension.

I leave everything that I got at the gym. There is no wasted time and I put every ounce of energy into my workout. I show up there with an intense purpose. I refuse to just go through the motions.

In the New Year I will be filming my workouts to show you just how intense they are and to encourage you to push yourself to your true potential.

I’ve spent some time over at Tom Venuto’s Burn The Fat Inner Circle today. The place is buzzing with positive energy, great support, and priceless information. So many people have been very open with their challenges and what they plan on doing to overcome them and I totally love it.

In the goals and motivation forum of the Burn The Fat Inner Circle one gentleman asked a great question that so many of us in the northern hemisphere can relate to. I know that I sure can.

“Our workout room is in a converted garage off of our house that we also use for storage. It is attached to the house through a front foyer that isn’t heated (with a screen door that doesn’t block the cold wind).

Living in Northern New England, winters can be tough. Lately, I haven’t been able to get myself out from under my warm covers to walk through that front-foyer cold barrier to our workout room. I need motivation. Any ideas?”

Here was my response…

“We just got nailed by a snow storm here in Ontario Canada. I can totally relate to what you are saying about those warm and cozy covers on you and not wanting to get out from under them.

Here’s a video of exactly what I do:

After a week of this, there was no way that I was going to stay in bed longer than I needed to.

Now that’s one determined dude that’s going to look phenomenal on the beaches in May.”

If you are looking for support, encouragement, top-notch articles, great recipes, and so much more, I encourage you to join the Burn The Fat Inner Circle for a one month trial for just $1. I guarantee that it will be the best dollar that you ever spend.

Claim your $1 trial here: Burn The Fat Inner Circle

As for nutrition, I’m continuing to follow Jon Benson’s Every Other Day Diet Plan. It’s what’s been working for me and I’m not about to make any changes especially with the tremendous success that I’ve had on it.

After my workout I’m going to have some grilled salmon and loads of veggies. So far today I’ve had a fruit salad and 3 eggs for breakfast, as well as tuna and whole wheat pasta for lunch.

I’m going to start filming more of my meals as well to give you an idea of how I prepare my foods for the week and plan in advance.

Well off to the gym I go. I look forward to sharing much more of what has been working for me.

Have a frickin’ awesome day!

You can achieve Unstoppable Fat Loss! It doesn’t matter what obstacles you’ve faced. It doesn’t matter what challenges may get in your way. It doesn’t matter if you have bad genetics, no time, you’re too tired, you’re over 50, thyroid problem, bad back, bad knees, have six kids, or anything else. There is absolutely nothing that should hold you back from achieving the best body that you can possibly have.

Take a moment to watch this short video clip and realize that the time to achieve fat loss success is right now at this very moment. Not tomorrow, or January 2nd, or any other time. Go after your dream today and make it become a reality!

I’d love to hear your comments about the video. Please click on the comment link and share your thoughts and feelings.

The audio clips in the video above are taken from the 21 interviews contained in Unstoppable Fat Loss. I continue to learn from these audios daily.

The pictures are of many of the people that I interviewed. The majority of these people have faced some incredibly serious challenges. Many have been extremely overweight most of their lives and were still able to achieve permanent fat loss.

Some of them went from being obese to becoming bulimic before they found a healthy way of living.

And some of them faced some incredible genetic challenges and they took those challenges head on to achieve the best success that I’ve ever witnessed.

There are many days where I require a bit of inspiration and motivation. Don’t we all? I get tired at times just like you. Life gets in my way just like yours. I’ve had knee surgery just like many of you.

I don’t allow anything to get in my way. Some things may slow me down and my path to success is never a straight line, but I always stay on the path.

You can too!

You deserve this more than anything because once you have your health in tact and you are happy and content with your body EVERYTHING is possible. Limitless energy, clear focus, increased productivity, enjoyment of life, fun with your family, career advances, and anything else that you can think of.

When you are living in optimal health everything falls into place. Make your health your #1 priority. Don’t put it off until tomorrow.

The time is now!

It’s time for a new fat loss journal format for Angie and I. Rather than simply documenting the success that we’re having while on the Every Other Day Diet Plan, we want to focus on the overall fat loss approach that we take to drive us towards the lean and sexy bodies that we desire.
So you’ve probably been wondering where we’ve been and why Angie and I haven’t been posting our daily progress. Well I certainly don’t have any excuses. Life got in the way a bit and that’s ok.

At first it was the overwhelming demand on my server as it kept crashing due to the popularity of this blog. That kept me busy for several days and at the same time I was feverishly focusing on my business while revising my products, creating support communities for each of them, and preparing to create blogs for all my customers who want to hold themselves accountable.

Not to mention having to put Sammi our cat to sleep and eating emotionally for several days because of it.

I could list many other things that I allowed to get in the way of me and my fat loss goals, but really they haven’t gotten in my way. I’m still going at it and I’m still focused on what I want to achieve.

Yes I skipped my workouts for 2 weeks. Yes I ate like crap several times and had a few beers. And yes I put on 2 pounds. But did I really fail? Does the Every Other Day Diet Plan not work? Are my Fit Bastard Workouts not effective? Have the incredible messages in Unstoppable Fat Loss not sunken in?

I know for certain that many people would blame this temporary setback on the programs themselves. I get emails frequently from people asking, “How do I know your programs really work? I’ve tried other programs before and I always seem to fail. How do I know that yours will work this time?”

The vast majority of the time it’s not the programs that fail. It’s you failing the programs. I could have easily said that I gave the Every Other Day Diet 100% of my effort. I complied to the extreme plan about 80% of the time and I was doing really well.

But if after 2 weeks of not following the program does it mean that it doesn’t work? Heck no! It works amazing and I’m right back at it. But really I was never off of it.

In my mind I knew that I had to handle what life was dealing to me at the moment. Sure I could have managed to squeeze in a workout here and there. I was aware of what was going on and I knew that I could have done better. But at the same time I knew that it was just a matter of days before I was right back at it and I knew that this little setback was minor in the grand scheme of things.

During those 2 weeks I was not performing at my best. I was sluggish, fatigued, and felt a bit jello-like. In my mind I knew the difference between how I was feeling at that moment… which was lousy, and how I felt while I was eating well and exercising regularly. I was definitely eager to get that energetic feeling back. And now here it is

I must admit that the big trigger that set this all off was not being able to post my daily journal to this blog because my server kept crashing from all the traffic. The accountability factor of sharing my journey with you is absolutely huge to me.

That’s why I’m so excited to be creating personal blogs for all of my customers. I know what the accountability is going to do for them and I know how exciting it’s going to be for them to look back at their journal and see how far they’ve come and all the successes they’ve achieved along the way.

Today I was listening to the Unstoppable Fat Loss interview that I did with Clark Bartram. I love that interview. He touches on some pretty awesome points that really resonate with me. One of them that really hit home was…

“You are committed to what you confess.”

I can’t believe that in my first several dozen times that I have listened to that interview I did not pick up on this crucial point.

Maybe because it’s so appropriate to the situations that I’m facing. I am committed to what I confess to you. When I was sharing my journey daily with you I was confessing all my goals, successes, as well as challenges and setbacks. This was driving me to succeed.

The moment that I stopped confessing, my commitment turned down a few notches. It became easier to say, “I’ll do better tomorrow.”

Clark also mentioned something very timely on the call. When I interviewed him nearly 1 year ago, he was going through a 2 week period where he hadn’t been working out and he was not eating the most nutritious foods. He was more than fine with this because he knew it was only temporary and he knew what he was capable of.

If a world class bodybuilder who has graced the covers of more fitness magazines than anyone else I know, can go through a 2 week period of slacking off from his program and realize that it’s not perfection that he should be striving for, but simply being the best that he can be, then why should I feel any differently?

I’m not in this to be perfect and I don’t want you to think that you have to be perfect too. Just be the best that you can be. Realize that the path to your dream body is not straight. It has many curves and takes many detours. That’s natural.

Today I had the best workout that I’ve had in a while. I blasted my chest and back in a very quick and intense superset session. I feel absolutely amazing. I went for a nice 30 minute brisk walk in the cold rainy weather and loved every second of it. It gave me time to reflect on the past few weeks and get very excited for what’s in store in the next few months.

I also worked out on Saturday and Sunday, so I feel like my path is currently heading straight in the direction of my goal. I now feel that my next detour will be much shorter

I’ve been eating very well the past few days and following the Every Other Day Diet Plan right on the money, so it won’t be long before the results start showing once again.

I’m committed to my goals and I’m committed to you. You are playing a key role in my fat loss success, and for that I’m extremely grateful.

Angie is feeling under the weather today and has been for the past few days along with the kids. She’s looking forward to documenting her journey once again as well. We love every second of it. It’s an incredibly powerful tool in your fat loss arsenal.

I look forward to sharing all the details of my journey and hope that you will share your comments and questions along the way.

Have an absolutely amazing day and never lose sight of your ultimate goal. You deserve it!