PJ’s Fitness Blog
A blog about a fitter you. Come find out what is on the cutting edge of fitness science and be a part of the ongoing conversation.
Did you know that your body has a ‘burn fat’ button, and with one simple command, your can direct you body to dump pounds of fat? Well it true – but most people push the ‘pack on the fat’ button instead.
We were meant to eat protein, and that is how it still should be. Our genetics haven’t changed in the last 10,000 years, but our diet sure has, and now we have the biggest obesity epidemic the planet has ever seen.
When we increase protein intake, our bodies shed fat. When we increase fast carbs, our bodies hold on to fat.
When protein intake goes down, your body anticipates (more…)
Do these jeans make my butt look big or is it my genes?
I’m usually not one to re-post other people’s stuff, but an email I got today from Dr. Sears, explained an important subject so clearly, I just had to copy and paste it. I like most of what Dr. Sears has to say, although I don’t buy the supplements he sells, because I eat so clean. Below is his latest topic, and one that I agree with completely, and have also counseled my own X Gym clients on for the last couple years.
Have you resigned yourself to gaining weight because it “runs in the family”?
Bad genetics doesn’t have to catch up with you. You can change your genes simply by making a few adjustments to your diet.1
When you eat certain foods, nutrients release hormones that switch your genes on and off. And the nutrients in low-glycemic foods turn off genes that lead to weight gain and diseases that may follow.
We found this out when we studied the response to the glycemic index (GI) in people who have metabolic syndrome.
The glycemic index measures how fast your food breaks down to sugar in your bloodstream. Metabolic syndrome is a medical term for overweight people whose cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood sugar levels are high. It puts them at risk for diabetes, heart attack, and stroke.
In the study, one group ate foods with a low GI rating of 40-60. The other group ate foods with a high GI rating of about 80-100.
In just 12 weeks, the high GI diet increased the activity of 62 genes that lead to disease. These genes activate your (more…)
When I originally finished this post in its entirely, it was quite a monster. To make it easier to digest, I decided to break it up into smaller sections. Here is part one and the following parts will be posted every few days. That way, you will not only be able to understand the concepts better, but you will be able to put them into practice more easily by applying the principles one by one, letting them build on one another.
This concept is one that is very important to learn, because it is the key to permanent fitness and fat loss. The process of rewiring your brain for permanent fitness is easy when it is done in metered doses, but releasing all the information at once would be disservice and would make it seem like more of a challenge than it really is.
My upcoming lecture will make this all very easy to understand and implement, but since I only have the written word as a vehicle for the message here, it needs to be delivered it in metered doses.
I have written previously on how our identity shapes our decisions, actions and results. It warrants revisiting, with a new twist of course, because it’s all about how we see ourselves, or in other words, our “mind’s eye.” This term is interchangeable with “identity” because they really are the same thing.
The strongest force that guides your actions is the need to remain consistent with your mind’s eye. This will dictate your actions, habits and patterns. This is very important because these actions, habits and patterns create who you are.
If you see yourself as a conservative person, but want to “cut loose” and have a “wild and crazy time,” you may be able to do that for a short while, but you will soon revert back to your usual conservative lifestyle.
The same goes for your body. If you think of yourself as a fat person, you may be able to change your patterns with exercise and diet for a short time (maybe even long enough to lose all the weight you want to) but if your mind’s eye doesn’t change, you will go right back to the way you were.
This is why people yo-yo diet. Their body changes, but their brain doesn’t. It’s a shame so few people are talking about this, but it is the fundamental reason 97% of dieters fail to keep the weight off. If trainers Jillian and Bob from the Biggest Loser TV show knew this principle, they could change their students forever, instead of just throwing them under the weight loss yo-yo bus like all the other trainers.
Have conservative people become wild and stayed that way? Have fat people lost their weight and kept it off? Of course, and in every case, they changed their mind’s eye to make the change permanent. 100% of the 3% who do succeed in staying thin have trained their brains along with their body. This process must happen for permanent success. There are no exceptions.
Your mind’s eye is housed in your subconscious brain. You may not even know that you think of yourself the way you really do, because your conscious brain isn’t always on the same page as your subconscious brain. The ONLY way to find out what is housed inside your subconscious brain is to look at your actions and the results of those actions.
Have you ever done something or said something and immediately thought, “Where the heck did that come from?” That action or language certainly isn’t you, or is it? We all have “brain farts” where we make stupid mistakes and sometimes they are just that, but most of the time it’s your subconscious brain taking over and keeping you consistent with who it thinks you are.
Do you know someone who always has to be right, no matter what, even when they themselves know they are wrong? Many of us have had bosses like that, haven’t we? That’s what your subconscious brain is like. It’s “the boss” and it always has to be right. Whatever it believes you are is the way it will make you act. It’s the way we are wired and whether you like it or not, that is what you have to work with.
What if the mind’s eye is not the one you want? Well, the good news is “the boss” is easy to reprogram. In fact, it’s even easier to reprogram than your conscious mind, and it can be done by faithfully following the 7 steps I will lay out for you through this blog.
To be continued in part two…
Changing your mind’s eye and personal identity might seem like a daunting task at first, and this blog has limitations due to the fact that it is only one form of communication, but if you would like to learn easy and specific strategies on how to apply these principles and work with me live, then come to my next seminar, because this is the subject matter I will be speaking about with much more detail than can be delivered through this medium. Click here for more details…
Me, Steve and Kourt eating Taz's truffles!
Raw cacao (the chocolate bean) certainly is! In fact, cacao packs the most potent antioxidant punch of any food on the planet. It stomps all over acai berry and leaves blueberries in the dust.It’s vital to choose the right chocolate however, because most commercially prepared varieties are just plain toxic because of all the sugar, processing and additives.
So how do you get the good stuff? I tell you, but first, check out some of the health (and fitness) benefits I have found, with the research studies to back them up. Just click the last word in each sentence to hyperlink to the study reference:
Most people think of food when the word Thanksgiving is uttered. Their next thought is usually about family and who they will be with. Unfortunately, most people surveyed have negative associations with holiday family gatherings and focus mostly on what they can do to avoid conflicts, uneasy dynamics and tension. These associations are also tied to food patterns, so family gatherings can cause an unhealthy emotional chain of events that result in unhealthy eating and overindulgence.
The reason for such a reaction is because food is medicine. We medicate our brains with food. Certain foods (i.e fast carbs, sugar and starches) do make us feel better in the moment, but cause us to feel worse soon after. Food is the most powerful drug there is, and some foods are even more addictive than cocaine.
The good news is that food addictions have a physical component that last only 3 days or less, so as far as your cells are concerned, they don’t crave it for long after they stop getting a certain food. The psychological component on the other hand, takes longer to break, especially if it is tied to patterns associated with family, established over long periods of time.
This psychological aspect can easily be overcome though. One extremely effective technique is to crowd your mind with (more…)
We sure had fun filming our first X Gym workout DVD! Tellit Productions shot and directed it, and they are now in the editing phase (which takes the most time). It will be out in time for Christmas though, so I’ll make sure everyone knows about it when it is done.
Our DVD will be amazingly superior to all the others out there. Here are some reasons why:
How much time have you wasted in traditional gyms for slow or no results? How much money have you spent on diets and weight loss products that don’t work? How many pounds have you lost and regained in your lifetime? Would you like a solution to these problems once and for all? It’s coming soon! I promise!
It makes a great gift too! If you are an X Gym member, you are probably tired of trying to explain to your friends and family about the workout you endure. Well, this will be your chance to buy them a copy so they will “get it” and start to see for themselves how fast results can be achieved!
If you aren’t an X Gym member, this is your chance to satisfy your curiosity and treat yourself to a workout routine that will finally produce rapid results that will last a lifetime!
Now I’ll leave you with a little teaser clip of some behind the scenes moments:
I had to laugh when I read the article posted on www.bakeryandsnacks.com about orthorexia. They call this a “healthy eating disorder” that is on the rise where “sufferers restrict the consumption of sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, wheat, gluten, yeast, soya, corn and dairy foods. They also cut out any foods which contain artificial additives, or have come into contact with pesticides and herbicides.”
Hmmm, sounds pretty good to me. How can healthy eating be a disorder? Oh yeah, if you are selling baked goods and snacks, I guess orthorexics aren’t buying your garbage are they?
If you go to Wikipedia and look up the definition, they mention problems going overboard with this, and just like anything, that certainly is a possibility. I’m sure some people take it too far and hurt their health, or could even die from being too much of an extremist, but as for me, I’m a proud orthorexic! I actually eat some dairy from time to time, so does this make me a lacto-orthorexic?
My “condition” causes me to “suffer” through 4,000 calories of good food per day (or more) and keeps me leaner than ever. It also gives me the most energy and strength of my life and the mental clarity to boot. Another orthorexic recently posted in a BBC news story shares some of these “symptoms.”
My mom passed away from early onset Alzheimer’s disease, so I am a volunteer in a long study at the VA hospital which tests my memory, cognition, coordination and mental capacity every year. They tell me I am bucking the odds so far by improving my scores every year instead of the normal decline for people past 40. I know that I owe this in large part to being an orthorexic.
Besides all the great physical and mental health benefits we know about from eating clean, it also makes you look great and it burns fat like crazy! Th
e picture above is of a strict orthorexic who trains at the X Gym. Contrast him to the typical American who eats bakery and snack items, and the choice should be a no-brainer!
Think about it. Michelangelo sculpted “David” 500 years ago, and lots of people looked that way back then because they were mostly orthorexics by default. They just didn’t have crappy food available to eat. It was ALL organic, all fowl was wild or free range, and cows ate grass! If Michelangelo was around today and sculpted from the average modern population, his statue might have turned out different…
As of July 1, I will be exclusively at the Alki and Kirkland X Gyms per the divorce ruling. Evan, Joanna, Steve, Mike, Kailyn and I are all going to Alki, and the Alki crew will be at the Belltown club. It will still be called X Gym, and as far as I know, the protocols will stay the same too.
I have formed many close friendships at the Belltown club and hope to keep in touch with everyone. I can be contacted any time through my email (pj@xgym.com), the website (www.xgym.com), and the club phones at Alki (206) 938-9496 or Kirkland (425) 822-9496.
Losing any of the 3 clubs is a tragedy for me and I am extremely sad to say goodbye to Belltown. I wish to thank all the members there for their friendship, patronage, and help in making it the most successful X Gym ever. It was a blast!
The Belltown club will always have a special place in my heart. It was my first X Gym, and the one I bought over 11 years ago from my very first personal training client and dear friend, Melissa. There are so many fond memories there. It will be extremely difficult to tear myself away, but life throws us curve balls sometimes, and we just have to make the best of them.
With change comes opportunity as well, so I’m looking forward with wonderful anticipation to the changes I can now bring to Alki with my “A Team” of senior trainers. Evan, Joanna, Steve and Mike have been at the Belltown X Gym the longest, and are amazing at what they do. Kailyn will bring his ideas for growth and skills in customer service as well. I know the Alki clients will be thrilled with the improvements in store for them!
We will also be rolling out a new online schedule system for Alki and Kirkland members, a new website, and an outdoor boot camp (see video below).
Thanks again for the memories Belltown! You will forever bring a smile to may face and warmth to my soul.
Here is the new outdoor boot camp teaser clip. It’s pretty corny, but that’s what you get when you shoot, produce, and publish in one afternoon:
If I told you about a spice that could help you burn more fat, would you start to incorporate it in your recipes? How about if I told you that it also does the following things:
* Reduces gas and bloating
* Assists in the digestion of protein
* Improves your body’s ability to digest fats instead of store them
* Promotes proper metabolism.
* Maintains and improves intestinal flora
* Improves elimination of wastes and toxins
* Rejuvenates your liver cells and recharges their capability to break down toxins
* Helps to prevent alcohol and other toxins from being converted into compounds that may be harmful to your liver
* Supports formation of healthy tissue
* Stimulates formation of new blood tissue
* Is a powerful anti-inflammatory (more…)
