Ben – Now down to 16.7% – that’s 6% down in 10 weeks!!!
Peter – Down 1% and 1kg of pure fat this week! Down 6% overall!
Geoffrey – 1kg of muscle gained and now down to 11.1% body-fat!

Quote of the Week:

“You will experience tremendous resistance when trying to develop a new habit. (This is not easy.)

Good habits are hard to form but easy to live with. Bad habits are easy to form but hard to live with.

Remember that successful people do things that unsuccessful people aren’t willing to do. It will take you around 28 days to form a new habit, but once it’s “ingrained” it feels more uncomfortable not doing the activity than doing it.” – John Carter Fitness

Human Champion…

Sir Nicholas WintonThis week I wanted to go completely off topic.

As much as I love the world of health and fitness, I also like to take an interest in other areas of human achievement and remarkable stories.

Purely by chance during the week, I learnt about Sir Nicholas Winton.

Winton, born in England in 1909, has achieved some remarkable things.

During World War 2, he began service in the RAF – making his way from Airman to Flight Lieutenant in a 19 year career.

However, before his service in the war, he was able to organise the evacuation of 669 mostly Jewish children from Czechoslovakia during the initial stages of the Nazi occupation.

The details of his exploits remained secret, until 1988, when his wife found a scrapbook of the children’s details in their attic.

His work became the focus of a story presented on an English TV show called “That’s Life!” in the same year. Nicholas was invited to be an audience member during the show and this happened…

A remarkable an inspirational story of humanity.

As ever, I look forward to seeing you all working hard and making the most of life over the next week.

Brian.

The recipe to success…my top tips to help you get the best results.

After last week’s newsletter/blog post, I thought it would be a good idea to follow on from the goal setting with some tips that will help you all achieve great results.

1. Establish meaningful goals.
“Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant. There is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.” Von Herder, J.

Following on from last week’s newsletter/blog post, it is vital to set goals that are meaningful to you.

If you are not connected to the outcome, you will never make and adhere to the lifestyle changes needed achieve what you want.

2. Train at least 4 times per week consistently
Training hard at least 4 times per week, will give you a 50% greater chance of hitting your goals over training just 3 times per week.

3. Be prepared to make changes to your lifestyle
If your lifestyle was on track, you would already have the results you want. Even if you train hard for 4 hours a week, that is still less than 3% of your total time per week focused on your results.

What are you doing for the other 97%? Make that time count.

4. You get out what you put in.

If you consistently do the right things, you will get the right result.

If you make excuses and do all the wrong things, you will get a bad result.

5. What gets measured, gets done.
Measure your progress – if you want to lose fat get your body-fat tested every week, if you want to gain muscle get your body-fat tested in way that allows you to distinguish between lean muscle gain and fat levels.

The 12 point body-fat system of BioSignature allows for both.

If you measure you progress you can assess what is working, what is not and where you need to improve.

6. Plan for success, don’t just hope it will happen by chance.
Blindly following an ambiguous plan to get leaner/lose weight/healthier will result in ambiguous results.

You must set-out a clear plan to get to a specific destination. Think of it as a road map to the body you want.

7. Shooting yourself in the foot is shooting YOURSELF in the foot.
If you work with a coach/trainer and you don’t follow their advice, you are just hurting your results.

Your body, your responsibility. You only get one, why not give it your best shot to make the most of it.

8. Use the formula for the greatest results.
Smart plan + hard work + consistency = results.

*smart plan = (effective training + a clean diet + the right supplements)

Time spent doing the wrong things + inconsistency = disappointment.

9. Use the power of hormones.
Use intense training and interval cardio sessions to promote the correct hormones to melt away the fat.

Eat the right foods to reduce stress and toxicity in your body. The less stressed, toxic and better nourished your body is, the better your results will be.

10. Prioritise your health
Your health is the foundation upon which the quality of your life is built.

Don’t believe me?
What happens when you catch a dose of the seasonal cold/flu bug going around?
Does your ability to enjoy life diminish? Does your effectiveness at work suffer?

Imagine what would happen if you developed a serious, long-term health issue.

Look after your health or it will divorce you.

On the flip side, if you make the time for regular exercise and to nourish your body, all aspects of your life will improve.

11. Don’t be the richest man/woman in the graveyard
Following on from the last point, don’t prioritise money over your health.

Work and earning money is important, but your health is even more important.

How much work will you do and how will your family be supported if you lose your health?

12. Enjoy the ride
Yes you need to work hard and stay focused for the greatest results, but that does not mean you cannot enjoy the journey.

Learn to enjoy the challenge and relish the feeling of accomplishment you get from success.

Well those are my top tips.

By far the most important is be inspired by setting goals that are important to you.

Once you light that fire you can feed it to help you achieve great things.

Brian.

Hope you have all had a great week and made some real progress towards your goals.

Well done this week...

Well done to Geoffrey – now down to an awesome 11.5% body-fat. So far he has dropped 5.2% body-fat and gained just under 2kg of lean muscle mass in 5 weeks.
Well done to Ben – down 4% in 5 weeks!

Both are doing well due to being consistent with their diet.

Goal Setting…

This week I wanted to follow on from my brief points about nutrition tips, giving you all a chance to re-set your goals for the year ahead.

I’ve attached a goal setting form to this post. Take some time to fill it out.

Think about your long -term goals (over the next year) and also your shorter term goals (1-2 months)

Make sure you also take time to really think why you want to achieve your goals. Will it improve the quality of your life? Are you concerned about your long-term health? Maybe you just want to look even better in the mirror. Whatever the reason, make sure you write down what motivates you.

Getting behind the reasons why will help keep you motivated long-term; motivated to maintain the changes and habits you need to introduce to get you on track.

Habits…

Once you know the what and the why, you can focus on the how.

You need to think about the new habits you need to introduce to get results and also the bad habits that could be holding you back.

I’ll give you three examples of common goals and problems I see regularly:

• I want to lose weight, but I find it hard to eat the right things.
• I have a sore back and bad posture and it holds me back from the hard training I want to do.
• I really want to get results but my work is too busy.

We’ll go through them one at a time and look at ways to work around them.

1. I want to lose weight, but I find it hard to eat the right things.

Chances are that you are too reactive with your eating and not pro-active enough.

What do I mean? Think about it, most pre-packaged and pre-cooked convenience food is horrendous for fat loss. That is just the way the world is. So if you leave your food to chance, grabbing whatever is available when you are hungry, more often than not you will eat foods that will severely hamper your weight loss goals.

So how do you overcome this problem? Simple, think ahead and prepare the right foods in advance. If you make it easy to make the right choices, you usually will.

With your evening meal, just double up your portions and take the extra with you to work the next day. What could be simpler than open the lid, fork in and eat? Even if you are busy all day and don’t have time to sit and eat properly, you can still pick at it all day.

The new habit: Prepare food in advance and make it easy for myself to eat the right foods.

2. I have a sore back and bad posture and it holds me back from the hard training I want to do.

99% of the time, joint soreness and muscular pain is due to muscular imbalance around a joint.

With the case of a lower back pain it is usually the muscles that cross of the front of the hip (Psoas and Rectus Femoris) being tight due to extended periods of sitting or even sleeping with your hips in a shortened position.

The law of repetitive motion states that a muscle will adapt to small repetitive movements, or being stuck in shortened position for a long time, by becoming tight.

So the simple way to fix it it is too stretch, gradually improving the range of motion. This will in turn reduce the tightness at the front of the hip, allowing your pelvis to tilt back to where it should be and reduce the pressure on your lower back.

I found the most success with stretching comes from using 5-6 sets of 15-30 seconds per day. So you could do it all in one go, or stretch in the morning and then again at night.

If you stick to this, you will surprised how much more flexible your hips will become in even just one week.

The new habit: Spend 10 mins a day stretching the front of my hips.

3. I really want to get results but my work is too busy.

Admittedly the odd training session can suffer due to one-off work commitments, but long-term you need make sure you prioritise your health.

How much work will you get done if you get seriously ill?

As an example, last year I coached a female client back to normal day life after being almost bed ridden for 2 years due to severe adrenal fatigue – which was brought about by a high flying London lifestyle.

I like to compare your relationship with your health to a marriage. If you take it for granted, eventually it will divorce you and it will be very expensive when it does.

Schedule in your exercise time like a work appointment and commit to it, if you consistently get your training and diet right you will get great results and enjoy great long-term health.

Make sure you also understand the difference between effectiveness vs. efficiency and how to make sure your time your time in the most effective ways.

Two books I can highly recommend are:

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
First Things First

Both are by Stephen Covey.

A big point Covey makes is about sharpening your saw so you are at your most effective, rather then just going through the motions day-to-day. You’ll find you you will get a lot more done and create more free time for yourself.

Looking after you health will come into this.

If you have great health and energy, all aspects of your life will improve.

Brian.

Last week’s health, hormones and fat loss seminar was a great success.
Click the link to download:

health-hormones-and-fat-loss

Brian.

Free seminar or health, hormones and fat loss…

The date for the seminar is now Saturday 25th February at 9.30am. The seminar will feature an hour long talk, about some of the most important issues I encounter when helping people lose fat and regain their health.

I will also be giving a talk the week before (Sat 18th Feb), but this is for members undertaking the 8 week challenge only.

Topics will include:

• Why counting calories leads to misery and failure
• The most effective way to approach fat loss and better health
• How to better manage insulin – the fat storage hormone
• How eating gluten makes you fat and stupid (no joke on this one)
• The problems of excess estrogen, where you pick it up from and how to better manage it
• 5 tips you can take away with you on the day to improve health and lose fat

It wil be limited to 40 people, so when I have the registration sheet organised I will let you all know. Please feel free to bring along friends and family, just be sure to register both yourself and them with us.
Diet

Bit of a rant on diet and nutrition this week. Please take a second to digest this one small fact:

Diet is 80% of your results.

So if you train hard for four hours a week (which represents a whole of 2% of your week), are you making the most of the other 98% of your week to promote fat loss?

Follow a Paleo style diet and use a diet diary. Its that simple.

The more your diet consists of good quality meat, fish and green vegetables the quicker you will lose fat.

You can make excuses or get results. Which do you prefer?

I think Jack Lalanne put it best over 50 years ago…

Successes this week…

Christine – 3 weeks in, 3 1/2 bodyfat gone!
Peter -  1 week in and 1% bodyfat gone and 1kg lean mass gained
Helen – 7kg down in 10 weeks

Massive well done to you all.

Inspirational quote…

Thanks to Vanessa for this one:

“Up to the age of 30, you have the body you were born with. After 30, you have the body you deserve”
- Sharon Stone.

Inspirational photos…

It has been a great week for inspirational photos being sent between my network of coaches online and around the world.  I wanted to share three of the best this week…(click on each to see a full size version)

I’ve had a few concerns this week about women and weight lifting. This next picture dispels that myth.  To achieve the physique of the girl in the top picture, should you so wish it, you need to train like a bodybuilder and have ample access to illegal male hormones.

To achieve the physique of the girl in the lower picture, you have only have to do two things: 1 – train hard, 2 – eat well.

And finally, proof that age is just a number and not an excuse.

An 82 year old grandmother sets a new PB with a deadlift of 69kg

I’m looking forward to another great week ahead with you all.

Brian.

Luke - My first offcial Australian victim of death circuits...

If you want to give your start to 2012 a real bang, try using death circuits.

They are TOUGH, BRUTALLY TOUGH if done right – but in terms of bang for buck, will give you awesome results for your time.

They are awesome for promoting fast changes in body composition.

They work by giving your body a massive hit of lactic acid, which in turn will promote growth hormone production and a boost in metabolism.

Give these two routines a go:

All exercises performed with a 4-0-1-0 routine, 6-8 reps.

Rest 30 seconds between exercises, 2 mins between rounds.

Have one warm-up round, then into 4 working rounds.

Death Circuit 1:

A1: DB Squats

A2: BB Bent over row

A3: Leg Press

A4: DB Shoulder press

A5: DB Split squats

Death Circuit 2:

A1: Wide grip chins

A2: Dips

A3: CG seated Row

A4: Step-ups (12 reps each leg 2-0-1-0 tempo)

A5: Single Arm DB row

Give them a go and I promise you’ll get a great start to your health and fitness goals for 2012.

Brian.

Its been a great week – the first one so far where every single person assessed has managed to drop bodyfat (some more than others – you know who you are!)

Massive well done to:

Laura – 3.6% bodyfat in 4 weeks and now buying size 8 dresses
Lisa – 4% in 6 weeks
Helen – 2% and 4kg in the past two weeks!

I often get asked how some people seem to do so well right from the start and why others struggle. It call comes down to consistency. We all (me included) have to do the same things to get and stay lean – namely eat better and train hard. There are no shortcuts.

On that note, there have been some great articles flying between the coaches I network with over face-book and the net, and all touch on the same areas as we are now well and truly into the festive season.

The key is keep balance between enjoying yourself and not going so overboard you ruin your results.

One of those articles has given me the idea to put together a check-list that you can use to help you get on track for better results.

The success list…For the the best results I must:

1. Realise that diet is 80% of my results…
Whether you are trying lose fat or gain muscle, eating the correct foods at the correct times will account for 80% of your results.

The old adage “you are what you eat” really is true. So if you eat good quality, healthy foods, you will be healthy.

It does not matter how hard you train, or if you had one really good day with your diet before it went wrong. Your results reflect how consistent you have been with your diet. If you’re not getting the results, your diet has not been consistently right.

My recommendation is to follow a Paleo style eating plan – as most people simply do not need vast amounts of carbohydrates in their diet and their bodies do not handle them well.

2. Keep a diet diary…
Keeping a diet diary makes you completely aware of where your diet needs work and what is holding you back on your results.

It also makes you accountable for any mistakes you make and the connection between being consistent and getting results. Whether you keep a diet diary or not, if you’re not the getting the results you want, then the diet has gone wrong somewhere.

3. Train at least 4 times per week.
The difference in the results you get from 3 sessions a week to 4 is massive, trust me.

As a perspective, its not uncommon for people who really want amazing results to train 8-12 times a week (think of those film stars who achieve great physiques in record time).

If you are training hard 4 times a week you will get good results, but those sessions have to be productive and focused.

4. Have a clear picture in my head of what my results will look like.

You can set goals like “get to 16% bodyfat in 4 weeks” or “lose 10kg in 12 weeks” – but unless you can put those numbers into a mental picture, you’ll find it very hard to connect with them.

As an example, take a look at Ritchie, he was my very first 12 week transformation client and he managed to drop 10% bodyfat in that time

We even did a video for him:

If you can picture how you will look and feel once you’ve achieved your results, you’ll have a stronger emotional connection to them. This help you to make better choices when it comes to your food and staying focused.

As you can see from Ritchie, a 10% drop in bodyfat will give you a massive change in physical appearance. For you girls, a 5% decrease in bodyfat will mean a drop in dress size.

5. Keep my liver and my kidneys happy…
One of the secondary functions of fat is to act as a store for toxins, so that if your kidneys and liver are overwhelmed, said toxins can be stored in a fat cell until a time when the body can deal with it.

Keep your liver and kidneys happy and you’ll store less fat.

You liver utilises amino acids (from protein) to bind or chelate to toxins so that they can be excreted from your body. So eat plenty of good quality, organic animal protein and your liver will have the tools to excrete toxins.

Your kidneys are responsible for phase 3 detoxification and require your urine to be alkaline to be to transport toxins outside of the body. Green vegetables are great for alkalising and if you struggle to get enough in you can supplement with a powdered greens drink such as vital greens.

So Eat more quality protein and green veg and you’ll store less fat and toxins.

6. Ditch the alcohol…
Alcohol will stand between you and your goals like a massive unconquerable mountain. IT MAKES THAT MUCH OF A DIFFERENCE.

But why?

There are many ways alcohols effects will hinder your progress. But a a simple take home point is that alcohol behaves like a sugar once it is inside the body, the only difference is that while pure sugar has 4 calories per gram, alcohol has

Your body will not burn any other fuel (glucose or fat) until it has burnt up the alcohol in your system.

Add to that the disruption to your hydration levels for the next 5 days, the effect on your kidneys and liver (remember you want to keep them happy if you want to lose fat).

If you want great results, ditch the alcohol. If you are happy to chose slower results, then at least keep the rest of your diet 100% clean and limit your intake to either a single night of 5 drinks or 1 glass of a good quality red if its more frequent. That way you can still have your fun and not hamper your results.

7. Supplement to aid my results…

Supplements, for the most part, will help you body to overcome years of nutritional deficiencies in quick time.

Other supplements, such as the specific protocols used in BioSignature, will help your body excrete certain toxins such as excess estrogen.

8. Realise the healthier I am, the easier it gets…
The key to successful fat loss is to build health. The healthier you become and in turn the more balanced your hormones are, the easier you will find it to get great results and keep them.

As an added benefit, the leaner and healthier you get, the more you can cheat on your nutrition and get away with it.

 

8 week challenge in the new year…

I’ll be taking people on board for the Function Well 8 week new year transformation challenge in February, so if you are passionate about achieving some remarkable results get in contact with me over the next two weeks.

But be aware that you will be following the check list above, but the rewards will be worth it.

Brian.

I make a habit of saying to everyone I train, that keeping a clean diet will yield 80% of your results for fat loss.

I’ve always liked the expression “You can’t out-train a bad diet”, which is very true. Your diet and nutrition should back up the hard work you put into the gym, otherwise you are selling yourself short on the results you will get.

How not to eat…

Great little comedy video from the UK, called the Brian Butterfield diet, great example of how not to eat:

Points to remember for your nutrition:

• Never go hungry or miss meal
• Never feel that your diet has to be boring or exacatly the same foods everyday – take a look at this website for some recipe ideas to keep the diet fresh: http://www.paleoplan.com/recipes/

You can have a some freedom at the the weekends IF your diet has been clean the rest of the week, but there is a big difference between a single cheat meal and a whole weekend of eating crap.

Cheat meals

A great way to reward yourself and to help you stick to good nutrition longterm is have a treat meal once a week, where you can indulge any cravings you have. If you follow some basic rules you can enjoy your treat without it affecting your fat loss program:

• Eat gluten free
• Be sure to eat protein first to lower the insulin response – a meat/fish based starter is a great way to do this
• Eat your treat meal in the evening to avoid the temptation to have bad food all day long

Poliquin Cheat meal rules

Surviving the holiday season…
Christmas is always going to be tough – lots of social events, bad food and alchohol to scupper your hard work. But you can limit the damage and at least maintain your weight without putting any on.

Great article from Charles Poliquin on how to limit the damage done during the festive period:

http://www.charlespoliquin.com/Blog/tabid/130/EntryId/798/Holiday-Weight-Managment-Ten-Simple-Tips-to-Beat-Holiday-Weight-Gain.aspx

Follow those tips and your nutrition will help you achieve great results in no time.
This weeks successes…

Massive well done to Lisa (4% bodyfat and 2kg lost in 6 weeks), Helen (nearly 3kg lost in 7 days!) and Gareth (2% bodyfat lost in 7 days)
Brian.

I’ve called it “Crush the weak”:

10 reps to down to 1 rep – drop one rep per round:

Scarecrows
Step-ups (10 reps each leg)
renegade rows (10 reps each arm)
supermans (press-up position – 10 reps each arm)
squat to press (ass to med ball)

Repeat until finish for time.

My time: 26 mins 19 secs and I was little bit sick half-way through.