Issue #52: July 2006
In This Issue:

• Editorial: Why Some People Quit And Some People Never Give Up, By Tom Venuto
  
• Latest Burn The Fat And Bodybuilding Blogs
  
• Ask Tom Q & A of The Month: Alcohol And Fat Loss
  
• Article of the month: Cutting Through The Hype Of Supplement Ads By Nick Nilsson
  
• Dare To Dream By Chris Widener
  
• Motivational Quotes of the month

An Editorial By Tom Venuto
www.Tomvenuto.com

Some people just never quit. They have ferocious persistence and they never let go of their goals. They're like the bulldog that refuses to release its teeth-hold on a bone. No matter how hard you try to pull it out of his mouth... the harder the dog chomps down with a vice like grip. Other people abandon their biggest goals and dreams at the first obstacle they encounter. Did you ever wonder why that is? There is a reason

An extremely important guideline for achieving fitness and fat loss success is the concept that there is no failure; only feedback. You don’t “fail”, you only get results.

This is a concept from Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and the first time I ever heard it was from Anthony Robbins. It stuck with me and never left me, because it’s a very, very powerful shift in mindset.

A lot of people will second-guess themselves and they’ll bail out and quit, just because what they try at first doesn’t work. They consider it a permanent failure, but all they need is a little attitude change, a mindset change, or what we call a reframe.

Instead of saying, “This is failure” they can say to themselves, “I produced a result” and “this is only temporary.” This change in perspective is going to change the way that they move forward and how they mentally process and explain the experience. It turns into a learning experience and valuable feedback for a course correction and not a failure.

It's all about your results and your interpretation of those results

Dr Martin Seligman, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, did some incredible research on this subject and reported it in his book, Learned Optimism. Dr. Seligman noticed that the difference between people who give up and people who persist and never quit is what he referred to as “explanatory style.” He said that explanatory style is the way we explain or interpret bad events or failures.

People who habitually give up have an explanatory style of permanence. They hit a plateau in their diet and explain it by saying, “diet’s never work” or “I have bad genetics so I’ll always be fat.” These explanations imply permanence. Other people hit a plateau and explain it by saying, “I ate out too many times this week,” or “I haven’t found the right diet for my body type yet.” These explanations of your results imply being temporary.

The people who see obstacles as temporary and as valuable learning experiences are the ones who never quit and if you learn from past experiences, not repeating what doesn’t work, and if you never quit, you eventually must succeed. Those who see obstacles or negative results as permanent failure are the ones who give up easily and often generalize their failure to other areas of their lives.

BLOG-IT: You can comment on this article at the Burn The Fat Blog

This article is an excerpt from Tom Venuto’s newest e-book, THE FAT BURN FILES, scheduled to be released in late July or Early August 2006. You can sign up for the book release announcement list at http://www.TheFatBurnFiles.com

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QUESTION OF THE MONTH
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Dear Tom: What about alcohol? How does that fit into your burning fat program? I am not talking binge drinking, just one or two a day.

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LATEST BLOG POSTS
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Burn The fat Blog

He was built like a brick house, but he smoked like a chimney! http://www.burnthefatblog.com/archives/2006/07/post_2.php

BodyBuilding Secrets Blog

Gain An Inch Of Solid Muscle On Your Arms With Superset Training

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ARTICLE OF THE MONTH
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Cutting Through The Hype Of Supplement Ads
By Nick Nilsson
www.fitstep.com

I'll start with the bottom line: you don't NEED supplements to burn fat or build muscle. The human body can function and make excellent athletic progress on nothing but quality food and proper training.

But you CAN use supplements to help the process along faster. The real key is knowing what works, what is garbage, and when an advertiser is simply trying to take your money.

Let me put it this way...in a recent muscle magazine, I counted 120 pages of full-page (in some cases 3 to 6 page), high-powered supplement ads. If you were to buy all these products, you'd be laughing all the way to the bank...laughing maniacally, because you'd have to rob it in order to pay for all those supplements!

There ARE good supplement manufacturers who make good products... they put in what they say they're putting in and don't try to fool you with advertising. But this article is about the BAD ones and it's more fun to talk about them...

So what sneaky tricks do advertisers use to separate you from your money?

1. Unprovable Testimonials

How many times have you seen testimonials like "I lost 10 pounds in a week" or "I gained 20 pounds of muscle in a month." These testimonials prey upon the desire in all of us for fast and easy results. Who wouldn't want results this quickly? After all, if this person did it, I should get those same results too, right?

To me, this is like a car commercial that uses special effects to catch your attention then has an official disclaimer like "car should not be driven underwater" or "does not imply resistance to meteor strikes." It looks and sounds cool but you know it's just not real - you want to believe but...

And believe me, I would LOVE to think that results like this are possible with just a supplement. But how do you prove that those results even happened? You can't. How do you prove it was due to that supplement? You can't. How do you know the person wasn't "on" something? You can't. And how do you get your money back when it doesn't work? You can't.

About 10 years ago, I did an experiment on myself to see just how much weight I could gain in a week (keep in mind, I was just aiming for total bodyweight, which includes muscle, water and fat). By going on a very strict diet and training program for 2 weeks then completely reversing everything and loading up, I was able to gain 25 pounds of bodyweight in 7 days. And I owed it all to the incredible new supplement I was taking called Hydrogen Dioxide (a.k.a. H2O).

Here's the full story on that:

How I Gained 25 Pounds in One Week

2. Before and After Photos

Before and after photos can be very inspiring and offer proof that a product works. Or they can fool you like the time Homer Simpson opened a can of beer that had just been in a paint shaking machine.

Here's a before and after picture technique you can try at home:

Your Before Picture:

• - slouch as much as you can
• - let your gut hang out and down, push it out if you can
• - bow your shoulders in, hunch your back over, and bow your knees in
• - stand directly square to the camera so you look as wide as possible
• - frown or look miserable
• - have a messy, unflattering hairdo
• - wear the most unflattering clothing you can find - make sure the clothes highlight every bulge
• - don't flex or tighten up anything - make yourself feel as flabby as possible

Your After Picture:

• - stand up straight and tall
• - suck in your gut and flex your abdominals
• - keep your shoulders back
• - look happy and wear a big smile
• - stand slightly sideways (tilting your body at angle makes it look thinner)
• - wear flattering clothing and have your hair neat
• - flex all your muscles and keep everything tight

You can make quite a change in yourself pretty quickly!

3. Pay An Athlete To Get Fat Then Pay Them To Get Back In Shape

It is a little-known fact that some supplement companies have been known to actually pay well-trained athletes to stop training and get fat. Why? To get a really awful-looking "before" picture.

Then, when the athlete starts training hard again, eating right and, of course, taking their magic supplement, they get into great shape very quickly. The goal is to convince you that it was the supplement that was the key to the transformation, not the fact that it was a well-trained athlete in the first place. But an average person is NOT going to be able to make a transformation like this, no matter how good the supplement is.

When you're already a well-trained athlete, you can make dramatic changes to your body extremely quickly (as evidenced by my own 25 pounds in a week weight gain I talked about above). To me, it's like telling a professional boxer that he can only punch with his face for a few rounds. When he starts up with the fists again, he's going to make a pretty rapid improvement!

4. 6 Page Special Ad Reports

Have you ever started reading an article in a magazine only to realize partway through that you're being sold a supplement? These styles of ads are VERY common - informative enough to make you believe it's the magazine itself writing the article but, lo and behold, the best solution to the topic in the "special report" is the supplement they're trying to get you to buy.

Note to supplement companies: even a good product can be wrecked with too much slick advertising.

5. Misrepresenting Legitimate Scientific Studies

Here's the set-up: take an ingredient that showed some positive results in an isolated scientific study that has nothing to do with actual weight training, e.g. malnourished toddlers in Lithuania showed an increase in lean tissue when given nutrient "X".

Now assume that the same results will also happen in a 200 lb healthy male athlete. Tell people that nutrient "X" is backed by scientific studies. They know that you're not going to actually READ those studies!

Here's the kicker... now include 10 mg of it in your product when the effective dose in the toddlers was actually 1000 mg!

And here's a fun way to kill an afternoon: call up these companies and ask them to send you copies of the studies they've used to prove their supplements are effective. I've done that... they don't stay on the line very long. Oh, they've sent me "studies," but where I went to school, legitimate scientific studies don't generally include price lists.

6. Name Your Product Similar to a Drug and Claim It's "Almost Illegal"

7. Proprietary Formulas

I have no problem with people keeping the lid on the specifics of an effective formula to keep others from copying it. But when that is used an excuse to include next to nothing of the active ingredients that actually do anything...

You see, I don't want to pay for a pill that is 95% methylbullcrapsomethingorother and 5% active ingredient. When the phrase "proprietary formula" is used, the manufacturer doesn't legally have to say exactly how much of each of the ingredients is in the formula.

The best part is when the scientific study they used to prove their product works shows a dose of 5 grams is needed to be effective and their serving size/pill size is only 1 gram... AND they have 10 other ingredients listed as being in the pill.

8. Professional Bodybuilder Testimonials

Because I'm quite sure that a pro bodybuilder weighing 280lb at 4% bodyfat really gained all that muscle from a couple of scoops of some fruity powder that is supposed to give you a better pump.

9. The "Latest" Supplement

There was a time when the AMC Pacer and the Gremlin were the "latest" cars to come off the assembly line. Just because something is the "latest" doesn't mean that it actually works.

The current craze: Nitric Oxide (a product that is supposed to increase circulation to muscles, resulting in a greater "pump"/blood flow to the muscles for increasing muscle growth). Let me put it this way...I've tried it, I've researched it and don't waste your money on it.

The only way it'll work is if you mix it with something else that DOES work (like creatine, for instance). Then you're just paying extra for the privelege of combining the two supplements.

You want a better pump? Drink more water - that's what blood primarily is. The better hydrated you are, the greater your blood volume will be. Need proof? One of the primary dangers of diuretic use for reducing water levels to show muscles better is thickening of the blood, which basically is reduced blood volume. The more water you have in your body, the greater your blood volume will be and the stronger your pumps will be.

Heck, if you REALLY want to build muscle, half your day should be spent sloshing around because you've drank so much water!

10. "Eat What You Want And Still Lose Weight"

Chances are, a product like this contains something to speed up your metabolism (most likely a herbal stimulant) and/or something to block the absorption of fat or carbs. You will probably lose weight but you may be a nervous insomniac with debilitating cramps and greasy diarrhea. What a great way to promote good health!

Conclusion:

Bottom line, I have no problem with supplements or supplement ads that are legitimate. What I do have a problem with (and you probably gathered this from the article) is the way people are manipulated through clever advertising into spending their hard-earned money on useless products. It gives weight training a bad name makes even good products look suspicious.

You see, a supplement can only do so much - it can only SUPPORT what you're doing with your weight training and nutrition. If your training program or nutrition don't work without supplementation, no supplement is going to fix that.

I use supplements every single day. They can help tremendously in your training, especially when you use supplements that are effective and have proven to be so! There are plenty of good supplements and good manufacturers out there.

-Nick Nilsson

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MONTHLY MOTIVATOR
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Dare to Dream
Chris Widener

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."

-Teddy Roosevelt

Do you remember when you were a child and no dream seemed too big? Some of us thought we would walk on the moon; some dreamed of riding with Roy Rogers; others imagined stepping to the plate in a big-league game. Every one of us, when we were young, had a common trait - we were dreamers. The world hadn't gotten to us yet to show us that we couldn't possibly achieve what our hearts longed for. And we were yet still years from realizing that in some cases we weren't built for achieving our dream (I realized about my junior year of high school that I was too short and to slow to play professional basketball. The dreamer is always the last to know).

Eventually we started to let our dreams die. People began to tell us that we couldn't do the things we wanted. It was impossible. Responsible people don't pursue their dreams. Settle down, get a job, be dependable. Take care of business, live the mundane, be content. Do you know what I say to that? Hooey!

It is time to dream again!

Why? Here are just a few reasons:

Avoiding regret. The facts are in, and someday we will all lie on our deathbed looking back through the history of our lives. We will undoubtedly think about what we wished we had done or accomplished. I for one don't want to regret what could have been, what should have been. So I am deciding today to pursue my dreams.

Making the world a better place. All of the great accomplishments that have ever happened began with a person who had a dream. Somebody rebuffed the nay-sayers and said to themselves, "This can be done, and I am the one who will do it." And in many instances they changed the world for the better. It isn't just the Martin Luther King's and the J.F.K's either. Think of all the people we have never heard of who have started things large and small that help people world-wide every day.

The world needs people like you to dream of something great and then to pursue it will all of your heart. Maybe you belong to a business, school, or organization that started out with good intentions but has settled into the same ol' same ol'. Shake them up and remind them of how they could really help people if only they would dream!

Personal and family fulfillment. One of the things that happens when we stop pursuing our dreams is that a little piece of us dies and we become disheartened, if only in that area of our lives. Stepping up and pursuing your dream rekindles that passion and zeal that everyone has the capacity for and lets us experience fulfillment. Having a purpose puts the zip in our step and the zing in our emotions!

Leaving a legacy. How will your children remember you? As one who sought all that life had to offer, using your gifts and talents to their fullest extent, leading the family with a zest for life, or as an overweight couch potato who could have been? Our children need to see that we dream; that we search for something better. They in turn will do the same!

So where do we start? Here are some ideas:

Reconnect with your dream. Set aside some time to let yourself dream. What have you placed on the backburner in order to live the status quo? Settle on one or two dreams that you can and will pursue. Don't come up with too many. That will only deter you further.

Decide that you will do it. This may seem elementary but many people never decide and commit fully to their dream. They simply keep "thinking" about it.

Tell others that you are going to do it. This puts you on the record as to what you are dreaming about. It makes you accountable. It will help you do it if for no other reason than to avoid embarrassment!

Develop a step-by-step plan. This is absolutely essential. You must sit down and write out a few things:

A timeline. How long will it take to the end?

Action steps. Point-by-point what you will do and when you will do them. Resources you will need to draw from. What will it take? Who will need to be involved for help or advice?

An evaluation tool. You need to evaluate from time to time whether you are progressing or not.

A celebration. Yep, when you are done you should already have planned what you will do to celebrate. Make it big!

I have found that there is no better time than now. So, set aside some time today to get started on your dream. Follow the action plan and set your sights for the top of the mountain! You will be glad you did!

Reproduced with permission from Chris Widener's Weekly Ezine.

About Chis Widener

Chris Widener is an Internationally recognized speaker, author and radio host. Chris is the author of five books and 30 audio programs as well as over 350 success articles. In addition to being a featured contributing editor to the Jim Rohn One-Year Success Plan, Chris was the host emcee and guest speaker for the 2004 Jim Rohn Weekend Leadership Event held in Anaheim, CA - he received rave reviews not only from Jim Rohn, Denis Waitley and Brian Tracy, but also all the attendees! Chris demonstrates a style that is engaging and versatile while providing life-changing principles of leadership, motivation and success. If you would like to order Chris' products, including his Newest Release, The Angel Inside as well as Live the Life You Always Dreamed Of, The Secrets of Influence or his CD series, The Extraordinary Leaders Seminar, or to book him to speak at your next event, go to http://www.chriswidener.com or call 800-929-0434. Also - to subscribe to Chris's free Weekly Ezine, send a blank email to subscribe@chriswidener.com

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QUOTES OF THE MONTH
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"The ability to discipline yourself to delay gratification in the short term in order to enjoy greater rewards in the long term is the indispensable prerequisite for success."

- Maxwell Maltz

"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going."

“I can teach anybody how to get what they want out of life. The problem is, I can’t find anybody who can tell me what they want."

- Mark Twain

“Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all of your energies on a limited set of targets."

- Nido Qubein

“Compared to what we ought to be, we are only half awake. We are making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources. Stating the thing broadly, the human individual thus lives far within his limits. He possesses power of various sorts which he habitually fails to use."

- William James

“World class performers alter the language they use when they talk to themselves and others. They adjust their language from the middle class to the world class level. They create self talk scripts and repeat them daily until the change takes place. They use the power of mental pictures, or visualization training, to adjust how they experience events. The combination of these two processes has a powerful effect on the mindset of the performer. Sadly, these mental reprogramming concepts are so simple that most people miss them."

- Steve Siebold

“The most evolved among us understand that winning is an inside job. It’s not about beating or besting someone else, but rather getting the best from ourselves. Winning is about being better tomorrow than you were today.”"

- Bill Gove

“The whole purpose of existence is growing and all nature is continually growing. Whenever anything stops growing, it starts to die.”"

- Robert Collier

"Obstacles are the raw material for progress. Don’t avoid them or allow yourself to become discouraged. They’re actually very useful. Your obstacles are some of the most important raw material you’ll need to shape your life. By coming up with a strategy to overcome each obstacle, you’ll create a step by step path to get to the next level.”"

- Dan Sullivan

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COPYRIGHT:
This newsletter is copyrighted material. No part of this newsletter May be reproduced without permission from the authors.

DISCLAIMER:
The techniques, ideas, and suggestions in this document are not intended as a substitute for proper medical advice. Always consult your physician or health care professional before performing any new exercise, exercise technique or beginning any new diet. Any use of the techniques, ideas, and suggestions in this document is at the reader's sole discretion and risk.

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