ITALICS = we need reader's advice. Please send email.

May 5, 2000

Hi Jay,

I am in W1D4 and I was wondering what you can REALLY get away with eating on a free day. I tend to gain water weight very quickly so I don't want to mess up. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Candace

Hi Candance!! (I like your email address)

Retaining water and eating a bunch on your free day actually have nothing to do with each other. If you don't want to retain any water, then drink as much water as you possibly can. The reason you retain it is because you don't get enough the way it is, and your body will hold onto what it has in case it needs it. If you drink a lot of water, your body becomes satisfied that it will get what it needs and will release the water you have been retaining. For example. I just went through the cutting phase of my diet this week. Starting last Saturday, I began to drink 3 gallons of water a day. I was drinking over a gallon a day up to that point and weighed 180 on Saturday morning. Monday night I weighed myself again just for the heck of it, and had lost 6 lbs. I was at 174. I've never been that low. Even though I was drinking over a gallon a day, I still was retaining some, and then when I went to 3 gallons a day, my body pretty much released everything it had because it knew there'd be more coming. It works the same with fat. That's why getting about 15% of your calories from fat will make you lose fat. And I mean EFA's such as flax seed oil and canola oil, not saturated fats. It makes sense, and it really does work. It's kind of like when you don't have any money, you want to save as much as you can in case you need it. But when you have a lot of money, you spend it freely.

That explanation should kind of answer your free day question. You need to tell your body that a famine is not happening, so that it will continue to lose weight for you. You do this by having a free day once a week. The free day is also great because, even though you're in week one, at some point you will really want to eat some pizza or ice cream or whatever. And if you tell yourself that you shouldn't be having it, and then eventually do, you'll start to feel guilty, you'll doubt yourself, etc. So, just incorporate it into your new lifestyle instead of running away from it. I think both of those reasons are equally important if you want your changes to be permanent.

As for your other question concerning my free day, I usually break it up over the weekend. For instance, Friday night I will usually eat fajitas at On the Border. Then I follow my regular plan Saturday morning because I usually work out then and like drinking the myoplex after my workouts. Then Saturday night I'll usually eat some ice cream and go out to eat somewhere with my girlfriend Christie. Personally, I never really scarf down a couple Big Mac's or anything like that because I just don't care for them and I guess over the years have programmed myself to like chicken and steak and stuff like that more than the traditional junk food. But, I still feel it's fine to eat whatever you want, it just happens the things I want are half way healthy (although high in calories).

Thanks for writing. Take care, and let me know how it goes.

Jay

April 20, 2000

Hi Jay,

I was wondering if it is okay to drink milk on the BFL program. There is nothing in the book about it. I have been having milk on my grape nuts in the morning and someone at my work told me that it wasn't allowed, what do you say? I usually drink 2% but have gone down to 1% and am on my way to skim (which is basically white water to me). Any information you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Angie

What? Drink milk, are you crazzzy??!!

Just kidding. Hi Angie.

Here's my take on any food, not just milk. Almost every thing you can consume will either help you get a better body or will hinder you from getting a better body, and the key is to figure out what is what for YOU. What I usually do is figure out the nutritional value and then decide if it's to your advantage or disadvantage to eat/drink it. Keep in mind that for each whole food meal (if you're trying to lose fat and increase muscle definition and are between 120-150 lbs) you probably want to be around 300 calories (1500 calories a day / 5 meals), 20-30 grams of carbs, and 20-30 grams of protein. So, let's just say you eat a bowl of grapenuts that has 300 calories, 30 grams of carbs, and no protein plus a cup of milk on it that has 100 calories, 12 grams of carbs and 8 grams of protein. That's 400 total calories, 42 grams of carbs, and 8 grams of protein. If this is the case, I'd recommend picking something different that has less calories and carbs, and more protein. Now, I don't know the exact numbers that you need to consume each day, nor do I know the exact amount of grapenuts you're eating or what the content of that is, so the numbers above are just a best guess but I think you get the idea.

I know when I started last year, I was a cereal junkie. But, after closer inspection of the nutritional value I gave it up, and milk also for the most part because it just provided too much of some things (calories and carbs) and not enough of the other (protein). You can check out my typical diet on the nutrition page of my website. For the most part, that's what I still stick to today.

One other thing, when you read the food labels, realize that the info is per serving. So you then need to see how much a serving is. Most products adjust the serving size to make the nutritional info more appealing, so just be careful. I've found that most cereal serving sizes are very small.

Now, the other side of this whole argument is that if you really love grapenuts with milk on them, and that's going to help you stick to all other aspects of the program, then by all means go for it. Just keep that in mind when you start tweaking things because you want better results. For me, I was pleasantly surprised how much better I like oatmeal and eggs in the morning instead of cereal.

Hope that helps. Let me know.

Jay

April 19, 2000

Jay,

Thanks for the input. Another question- will I always be sore from weightlifting? I always thought you had to be sore in order to know you accomplished a good workout, yet I talk with people who are partially through the program or have finished that say that the soreness passes after the first couple of weeks into the program.. Since you have lifted for so long and have done the program.....what are your thoughts?

Thanks again....

Rachelle

Hey Rachelle-

Depending on how you workout, you will be more sore than other times. Soreness definitely isn't a prerequisite for building muscle, but it can be an indication. For instance, when I do a low rep/ high weight workout, I don't get that sore afterwards. I did this workout for 2 months and increased my bench press by 30 lbs, but never really got sore. Lower reps like that stimulate a different muscle fiber. But, if I do anywhere from 6-12 reps, I am always sore if I am using maximum intensity. The soreness is not as intense as the first couple weeks after not having worked out in a couple years, but it's still there. I was walking around like frankenstein on Monday and Tuesday from doing legs last Saturday.

My personal opinion, especially if you're doing the workouts outlined in the BFL book, is that you should be feeling something the next couple days. If you're not, then you could probably crank up the intensity of your workouts. And a sure fire way to do this is to do these 3 things: first, really concentrate and focus on making the muscle you are supposed to be working do all the work. Relax your others body parts and really visualize the little army of men in your muscle kicking it into overdrive and doing ALL of the work. Second, do the eccentric (negative) portion of the movement at a slower pace. And especially make sure that it's slower than the concentric (positive) portion of the movement. Lastly, really try to hit those 10's. When you get to the last rep that you can possibly do, really dig down and see if you can use your will-power to squeeze one more out. Your body really is more capable than what you think. If you don't believe me, check out the show that's running on TLC right now called Navy Seals: Hell Week. These guys are required to workout for one week solid, with no sleep. The instructors say that it doesn't take an incredible physical effort, just an incredible mental one...never give up. Kind of makes getting the rep beyond your last one seem easy.

If all that doesn't make you sore, let me know. Just make sure you're recovering appropriately from your workouts though (the supplements will speed the recovery for most). I feel that the workouts in the book are designed knowing that people probably won't workout at a really high intensity, and that's why they're able to do the workouts twice a week. Once you get to a certain level (which is after the 12 week period for most) you'll probably want to scale it back. Personally, I only work each body part once a week, for about 15-20 minutes.

Take care,

Jay

April 10, 2000

Hello,

Right now I am on a very limited budget. Are the supplements absolutely necessary or are there any other alternatives? If so, please enlighten me.

Thanks!

Cristi

Hi Cristi-

That is very good question, and I've tried to come up with an explanation that'll let you decide if they're necessary for you.

(First, let's agree that to be successful on this program we need to lose fat and replace it with lean muscle).

The process of building lean muscle is as follows. You perform intense resistance training to slightly damage the muscles. Your body's defense mechanism then sets off the necessary procedures to make the muscle stronger so that it can withstand any future damage (it's adjusting to it's environment). And to build this new muscle, it needs a certain amount of high quality nutrients and a certain amount of recovery time.

There's a great analogy in the BFL book that goes as follows: Building lean muscle is similar to maintaining a building. Say an earthquake (intense resistance training) hits and slightly damages the building. Your job is to now make the building stronger. So what you do is take the best people and materials (supplements) that you can get and you rebuild the structure to make it stronger to prevent damage from future earthquakes. But, if another earthquake hits before you have time (recovery period) to get the new structure in place, it causes further damage and you're worse off than when you started. So, in order for your building to be the strongest it can be in the shortest amount of time, you need intense earthquakes, you need really good building materials, you need a really fast recovery team, and you need the next earthquake to hold off till you get the new structure in place.

So, do you need supplements? Well in the following analogy the supplements play the following roles: the building materials (myoplex), the speed of the recovery team (myoplex, betagen), and the intensity of the earthquake (phosphagen, betagen). And you provide the length of time between earthquakes by giving your muscles a certain amount of time to recover. By not using supplements you are essentially causing the initial damage to be less, the nutrients you need to build the new muscle will be less than optimal quality, and the recovery period will be longer. And if you don't allow yourself ample recovery time, you're just causing further damage. Now, this process is fine is you aren't in any hurry, but if you want to build lean muscle in as short a time period as possible, you're going to want to use the supplements. Also note that this lean muscle will cause the rate at which you burn fat to increase exponentially.

Ok, you probably realize that you do need the supplements, but that doesn't help your financial situation any. If you check out the email section of the website, there's an email from a guy named Dennis (it's towards the bottom) that gives tips and ideas for making your supplement bill less of a burden.

I hope that helps you out Cristi. Let me know.

Jay

April 8, 2000

Jay,

I keep hearing that someone has finished the challenge and never "cheated". Does that mean they didn't cheat on their 6 days or does it mean they don't take a "free day"? If they don't. I would assume they eat the same but what do they do for exericise. I'm in my second week of the challenge and I'm "going for it", so I want to know if I should follow the BFL book or kick it up a knotch. Help!

Thanks, Jay,

Connie

Hi Connie-

It's hard telling what whatever you heard means. But, I can tell you from personal experience that kicking it up a notch is not the answer. Sticking to the program is. There are both physiological and mental reasons for the cheat day. And working out everyday is not the answer either. If your body is not recovering, then any extra work you do is wasted, and probably detrimental.

Case and point. Last year, I thought I'd just minimize the cheat day as much as possible, and work out 4 times a week because "I really wanted to win" as if everyone else didn't. So I did, and it seemed to be working for the first 6 weeks. I was tired as a dog the whole time, but I was getting stronger and looking pretty good so I kept at it. Well, it stopped at 6 weeks. The following 6 weeks I didn't make any progress in strength or how I felt. I kept thinking more was the answer, but as I increased it I felt worse. I was SERIOUSLY overtrained.

Another case, I just saw a post on the BFL guestbook yesterday. It was from someone who was bummed out that they got sick and couldn't work out for a week. He said it ended up being the best thing that could've happened because his results after that were better than before. For a certain amount of exercise, your body needs a certain amount of time to recover. And if it doesn't happen, it can't grow anymore.

I wrote a better example of this to a reader the other day and posted it on the email section of the website. It's one of the first emails. You might want to read it. (www.csd.net/~jfixsen/bodyforlife/)

And finally, it seems like most people who do the program are missing the forest through the trees. I know I sure did the first time around. A lot of what we should be getting from this process is not just a 12 week body. It's a new body for life, it's new found confidence, it's learning that helping others feels better than helping yourself. I really never believed that last one till I started doing this website, but I can tell you it's true. And the reason helping others works so well is because it will REALLY keep you motivated to do well. I'm having my best transformation ever since starting this.

I hope that helps, and didn't sound like I was preaching. Bottom line, do what works for you. And keep in mind that you probably won't do it for very long without your cheat day and by working out everyday.

Good luck, Connie.

Jay

April 7, 2000

Hey Jay,

Thanks for the great site. The information you present is easy to read and definitely pertinent to all of us trying to make a transformation. My question to you is: How much will lack of sleep stunt your potential development? I've been on the program religiously for 47 days, with just a few cheats in my diet, and I haven't missed a workout. I've also been doing an extra cardio session two to four times a week in the evenings before I hit the sack. I'm guessing I'm not seeing the progress I'd like because I only average 5 to 7 hours of sleep a night (I work rotating shifts; ie, four days, two days off, four nights....etc). Just wanted to hear your thoughts on the subject. I thought for sure the fat would be melting off with the six meals a day, and the extra cardio on top of the typical BFL workouts, but it just ain't happening. Anyway, thanks again for your wonderful site, and good luck with your ongoing tranformation!

Jeff

Hey Jeff-

Thanks for the email. You have the same problem that I think A LOT of people have. And that is that the philosophy of "More is Better" is taking over your program. In the BFL book, Bill really stresses that you have to give you body time to recover. He explains it like this: when you workout, you are slightly damaging muscle tissue. Your body's natural response to this is to make the muscle stronger so that it can withstand the damage next time. And it repairs this damage when you're sleeping. But if you don't give it a chance to repair it, it doesn't get repaired and it doesn't get stronger. He compares it to a building that is slightly damaged by an earthquake. They send in the repair crew to make the structure even stronger than before so that it can withstand another earthquake, but before they can get the new and improved structure in place, another earthquake hits and it damages it even further. Does this make sense?

If I were you, I would definitely cut out your "extra" cardio. The 6 days (3 cardio/3 weights) as it is is almost too much, but since most people are not training at a really high intensity, it works really well for them. Once you start really cranking it up, you have to allow even more time to recover. I'd cut back a little, refocus on increasing the intensity of your workouts (not the length or frequency), try to get more sleep if you can, and see where that takes you.

Good luck. Let me know how it goes.

Jay

PS. I'm compiling a list of people who write in and where they're from so I can let you know if anyone else is doing BFL in your area. If you want on it, send me your home city.

April 5, 2000

Hi Jay,

I noticed in your cardio section that you mentioned running with a dog. I would like to recommend to any person who might be interested to check out adopting a retired racing Greyhound. We adopted one about about 2 months ago and they make Greyt pets! They are used to being walked on a lead and are great sprinters which is an asset to the high point part of the cardio.

Unfortunately because of the amount of preschoolers I would have to bring with me on doggie walks I haven't been able to run with my Grey yet but he walks with you extremely well. Check out www.rmga.org for some Colorado Greys that are available and links to other Greyhound sites. These dogs are in need of good homes. Thanks for your web page, its Great.

Michelle in Westminster, CO

March 30, 2000

Jay,

I think your plan for my 10k looks GREAT, and do-able. You're right, I probably needn't worry about the race, just do it, but I want to do well, too. Someone took a pic of me finishing my first 5k race, and in the background there's no one. NO ONE! I came in dead last (but smiling)! I don't want to come in last again.

Thanks for your help, I'll keep you posted!

Cindy

Cindy,

That's pretty funny. At least you were in the race though. That's what's important.

A friend of mine runs marathons all over the world, and about 5 yrs ago talked me into doing a 10K. I was in good physical shape from weight training, but certainly not a runner, and in fact hadn't ran in years. He made me a running program and I did the 10K three weeks later. I think the competition brings out more in you than you'll ever know when you're practicing. So I know you'll do ok. I really try to focus on this idea when I weight train also. I have pretty much taught and made myself believe that whenever I've maxed out on a set, that I can do 2 more. This comes from competition, pride, determination, etc. But it does exist and can really separate you from the pack if you can call upon it at will.

I'll talk to you later.

Jay

March 30, 2000
(More from Flynn..)

Hi Jay, no need to answer, just some rambling from Ringwood, USA. Your mind-muscle article has really helped. Increased some of my exercises to the next level with a smooth transition. Thanks. Seems like the visual reinforcements of improvement for the past five weeks all kicked in this week. I knew I was improving and now am starting to see it. I do share what is happening to me with others and just wish everyone felt as good as I do. Have tried to correlate the feeling and the nearest I get is waking up on Christmas morning when I was a kid, knowing it was going to be a great day. Well, that`s how I feel every morning now. Sorry if that sounds syrupy, but that`s the way I feel. Have a great one, holler when you can,

Flynn

Hey Flynn-

Thanks for writing in. Never get tired of hearing how everybody is doing. I'm glad the mind-muscle connection (my buddy Jas calls it MMC) page is helping out. I really believe that's what separates the good from the great when it comes to seeing results. That and patience. Jas just told me that this week he has kept the weight to a point where he can really focus on each individual muscle, and said it's making a big difference for him. And it wasn't even new to him, he just forgot. So do I a little. Trying to get people to do it has helped me refocus as well.

I can recall several times that I've been frustrated cause I felt I wasn't progressing, and then one day you just see it. It's this reason that it's so important to have measurable checkpoints like body fat testing, otherwise all you have is the mirror. And I feel the same way as you about waking up each morning. I think looking forward to improving who you are each day is definitely something to get excited about.

I'd tell you to have a great week, but it sounds like you've got it covered. Take care.

Jay

Hi Christa-

Thanks for writing. You have 2 very good questions. To answer the first one, I believe that 20 minutes is enough if your goal is to lose fat and to have a consistent healthy lifestyle. I don't think anything over 20 minutes is detrimental, except for maybe in the long run you'll eventually get burnt out, or you'll be pushing your body too hard on a regular basis that it can't recover which then it becomes detrimental. I think a 60 mile bike ride once a week as a 4th cardio session won't hurt anything, and personally sounds like fun. I do extra stuff all the time such as riding my dirt bike and playing softball. I'm usually more tired for my "regular" workouts, but if you give yourself plenty of rest you'll be fine. Just listen to your body.

As for your second question, you've probably guessed that that is not my area of expertise. What I'd recommend is to talk to your doctor for his opinion. But since you asked, I'll give you my thoughts. If I was in your shoes, I'd run a little experiment. Stick to the program for the 12 weeks and then re-evaluate. If you see improvements, then create another 12 week plan and check your progress at that point. I'd give it at least 6 months or longer, and if at that time your body is in top shape except for your stomach, and you are no longer seeing progress there, then I'd possible consider alternatives. Personally, I think you can do it, but I just don't know how long it will take. Just make sure to take pictures and have a definitive way to measure your progress besides looking in the mirror each day. I'll post your question on the website and see if I can get any women who might have experienced the same problem to write in.

Good luck, Christa.

Jay

(This was part of an on-going conversation)

March 25, 2000
(This incredible gentleman is 67 years old!!!!!)

Jay,

I live in Ringwood OK which is about 90 miles south of Pratt, KS. Population is 200-300 which is a little large but we all have to make adjustments in life. Spent almost 30 yrs in Memphis, Tn in air traffic control and this is as big a town as I ever want to live in. Enough of that. My primary reason for starting this was I just wasn`t quite ready for the rocking chair on the porch scene. I help several of the farmers around here and building fence etc was starting to make me more tired than I thought I should be. Also have grandchildren in Springville, UT that I love to hike in the mountains with and that was also starting to take it`s toll. Anyway, the undue fatigue and many other old age symtoms are already gone and I have no idea what to shoot for since I`ve already exceeded all expectations.

I was up to 200 lbs but lost down to 183 before starting the program but didn`t feel all that great. I have not missed a workout or cheated on meals except on cheat day. My hexes are 5 lbs through 25 lbs in 5 lb increments. Can use up to the 25 pounders for about every thing except DB extensions and seated presses. Starting out my left shoulder was painful and sounded like it had rice krispies in it. It is still not where it should be but the pain and most of the rice krispies are gone. Am going to 30 lbs for some exercises this week and probably 35 for one arm rows.

If a ten is not reached at the proper number of sets and you have one or two reps left, is it ok to do them? If you exceed the number of reps by one or two to total burn is it still a ten? Would like to get to between 160 and 165 lbs with body fat anywhere below 16%. No place around to test body fat, last cholesterol check was 250, but Dr said hdl to ldl ratio was such that he wasn`t concerned, whatever that means. Too long, promise next one not so wordy. Thanks for info and support. The concentrating on the muscles being worked really helps.

Flynn

Hey Flynn-

Acknowledging that you're not ready for the rocking chair and doing something about it is truly inspirational. Congratulations. Possible ideas for your next set of goals is to help others realize it as well. If you can do it with a set of dumbells and a treadmill with no support for miles, then I think the list of excuses not to try for everyone else just went down significantly.

I think hitting the 10 at a specific rep on a specific set is not something that you'll get every time. As you get stronger, or depending on how you feel that day, you might be able to do a little extra here and there or do a little less if you've increased the weight. If you get to your required number of reps and don't feel like you've hit a ten, make note, and then next time increase the weight accordingly so that you will. You're obviously progressing if you can do extra reps at a weight were you previously were hitting 10's.

As for the bodyfat testing, I think it's the best way to measure progress. If your goals are to lose fat and gain muscle I can't think of any other way to measure that. So, if that's a goal of yours, and you're measuing it, then I'd recommend going to the city and having it done. At least you'll have no doubts about were you stand. I think the calipers are as accurate as the person administering the test. As long as you have the same person do it the same way each time, you should get consistent results which is what you really want. For example, if you go from 20% to 16% you've lost 4% bodyfat. Maybe in reality you went from 22% to 18%, but you still lost 4%.

Best of luck continuing on. I'll probably post our conversation in hopes that it'll help inspire others as well. Keep me posted.

Thanks,

Jay

March 20, 2000

Jay,

I like it, I really do! I think it is a very well-written and put together site.

The only thing I would add would be to the Nutrition section. You stress low-fat too much. It's a natural reaction to our high-fat intake society. However, there are certain types of fat we need every single day. From the knowledge you espoused on the site I'm sure you've heard of them. They are EFA's (Essential Fatty Acids). These are fats that your body needs every single day in order to support its myriad biochemical processes. Unfortunately, your body cannot produce these fats and must be ingested every day. Failure to do this will make you deficient, with a wide range of potential problems as a result. I usually recommend that people get UDO's choice blended oil. This is a blend of flax, sunflower and evening primrose oil, amongst others. For those trying to lose fat I recommend straight flax oil. Believe it or not, if you take flax oil (especially if you've been following a low fat diet for awhile), you will immediately start losing bodyfat. It is a potent fat decoupler. I know, it doesn't sound intuitively correct, but then again what is when it comes to losing fat and building muscle (eating 6 times/day to lose fat, weight training less not more (but more intensely) to build muscle, etc). I don't recommend staying on strictly flax forever because you will become deficient in the other Omega's that flax is deficient in. This is where I recommend UDO for long term use.

The other thing I would beef up a little is the Free Day subject. This is a real big bone of contention for a lot of people. It doesn't seem right (there's that intuitive thing again) that you should go hog wild one day per week and still make better progress doing it that way than by being strict all the time. People need to understand they WILL get better results. Give the underlying reasons both physical AND mental for the Free Day. It should help a lot of people out that are wary of doing it.

I really liked your mind-muscle connection writeup. This is one of the most important things a person needs to learn in the gym. It usually takes them a few years to actually learn this concept. Very good.

I am a member of a Yahoo BFL club which has over 3,000 members and receives over 10,000 hits per day. I'l like to post your URL there. I think a lot of people can benefit from your site.

Hank

March 20, 2000

Hi,

Just wanted to let you know your page is great! It's the first I've seen that actually answers the questions of newbies, and I will definately refer them to it! I have seen so much bogus, and backwards advice being handed out, it's scary. Usually by the time I find out about it the damage is done, and the poor person is left back at square one, feeling discouraged and let down by the program. I've found that most questions could be answered if they just took the time to REALLY read the book. I can tell you have and have provided an excellant synopsis of it! Bill would be proud.

I can answer the question about restarting the program. Contestants are judged on EACH 12 week period. You can enter as many times as you want, a new profile has to be submitted each time, obviously some of the details will change. Before and after shots of course within their allotted time. I myself am entering for my third time, even with all the mistakes I made, I've had wonderful results. I can't wait to see what I can accomplish doing it right!

Again, great site!

Dana

Thanks a lot, Dana, for the encouragement. I'm in the same boat as you...this is my second time in the contest. I think even if you won the contest, you could really benefit from doing it again (and again) simply because you're setting new goals. It's a learning process that really doesn't stop until you do.

Jay

March 16, 2000

Hey Jay-

I really cannot afford the $280 shakes/month, but I'm looking at this as my investment in myself and will take money out of my savings to compensate for the expense. After the Challenge is over, I plan to continue the training schedule like you do, but I don't know about cutting back on some of the EAS stuff to fit my budget. I guess I'll face that decision in 12 weeks.

Dennis

Hey Dennis-

Your initial investment can last longer than one month. You get what you need by taking 1 serving of the phoshagen and betagen (instead of 2-3) each day, which will last you 2-3 months I'd say. You probably want to take 3 servings of each the first week, which is a loading phase, but then a maintenance dose of once a day (for each one) after that should be plenty for you.

The mypolex can be thinned out also. I'd recommend getting the Super Shake package, but you can use it like the package that gives you the Myoplex Lite. What I mean is that you can just divide all the Mypolex Deluxe in half (1 myoplex lite is roughly half a deluxe). So instead of consuming 3 full packages a day, only take 1.5 - 2 packs a day. This will make your Mypolex last 6-8 weeks, so that you're looking at a lot smaller monthly bill (you can buy the supplments individually at the discounted rate from www.nathigh.com and that includes free shipping). Since your primary goal is more about losing fat than it is to build muscle, this reduced amount of calories will be better for you anyways. Just make sure you're getting enough though, because not enough is worse than too much because it'll lead to overtraining and fatigue, which leads to burnout and not finishing. You just gotta figure out what YOU need. You're going to be tired the first couple weeks regardless of what you take, so just keep that in mind. I was always tired when I started, but once I got into the gym, I always had the energy I needed, and I figure this was mainly due to the supplements and the good food I was eating.

You definitely got the right attitude when you say you're investing in yourself. I mean you (and everybody else) spends money to keep their car running optimally, but not their body? Doesn't make sense if you think about it.

As far as the training schedule, I think you got it correct. Here's the split I'd recommend. Workout on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. On Tuesday and Thursday, do your cardio first thing in the morning. Then on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, go to the gym and do your weight training. Then Saturday, I'd recommend sleeping in and going to the gym and doing both your cardio and weight training. This way you can fit your workouts into 2 weekdays plus Saturday morning. Your other alternative is to switch to MWF which gives you Saturday off. I tend to like Saturdays though because it's one less day during the week, plus I'm in no hurry to finish on Saturday morning and there's usually not much of a crowd.

I think the above schedule would work good for you. You can also add your walking route on your days off for burning some extra fat, but I'd wait a few weeks till you get in the habit of the program. Doing too much too fast might be a little much for your body and could lead to burnout. Basically, just do whatever it takes to get into the gym 3 times a week and to do cardio 3 times a week. For some it may mean going to bed at 7 because you need that much sleep, for others it may not be a big deal at all, and you can even do 2 additional days of walking while going to bed at 10. Just start slow and work your way up, listening to your body the whole time (just don't be afraid to push yourself). And again, your body builds muscle and burns fat while you're resting and eating.

Good luck,

Jay

March 16, 2000

Jay,

Thank you very much for your words of encouragement. You have a great web sight. I hope you don't mind, but I would like to use the Shawn Phillips photo as the vision of what I would like to look like. Are there other photos of him on the web? If I can get myself looking like that...WOW...that would then make my wife a believer. She is very skeptical and I am looking forward to proving her wrong. How long have you been on this life altering event? Do you have any before and after photos posted so that your success can be viewed? I would be interested in knowing where you began and where you are at now. Anyway, thanks again, and I hope that we can keep in touch. I look forward to hearing from you again.

-Tony-

Hey Tony-

Feel free to use any of the Shawn Phillips photos that you want. He's my inspiration also. I have the picture that you see on the very first page of the website (and in the background of the 'welcome' page hanging on my bathroom mirror and fridge. I like Shawn because he looks awesome, and he's one of the few people I can read an article from and get something new and valuable that hasn't been said yet. To get any of the pictures, you can download them right off the website by right-clicking anywhere on the background image that you want and then selecting 'save background image as' . Every page has a different picture of Shawn. Since I adjusted all the lighting to work as background pictures, you might be better off going to http://www.bodyforlife.com/highpoint/shawnphillips/gallery_01.asp which is where I got the originals. Aside from that, you can usually find some in the Muscle Media magazines.

I began the challenge in May of last year. I got really burned out by August because I tried cutting out a lot of stuff in my diet the last month because I didn't look like Shawn and thought that I should have, and ended up with no fuel in the tank to finish. Valuable lessen there. I really doubt it took him only 3 months to get that refined, but I know you can get close. Anyways, I took a 2 month break, and now am doing the contest again. Partly because I really want to finish with a full head of steam, but mostly because my buddy and Dad needed someone to do it with. We're in week 5.

I have some pictures that I just took at the 4 week point that I can send you if you want. It's the leanest I've ever looked, and continues to get better each day. I don't have them posted on the site because I don't want it to be about me or people to compare themselves to me because we all start at different points and get results at different rates. But I'll probably post them in the next month or so back in a little corner just so the audience knows I practice what I preach.

Good luck Tony. Keep in touch.

Jay

March 16, 2000

Jay,

Thanks for the reply. It is a good site. One question though. Ive made several mistakes thoughout the contest, didn't train during two of the weeks. I straightened out the mistakes with the toll free number. I have gotten good results but I won't finish with the results I wanted because of what I just mentioned. I am re-registering for the contest. The question is, for re-registered contestants, do the judges look only at the results for each 12 weeks alone or do they also consider where a contestant like me might have originally started? My re-start pictures will show me much much leaner than my original start with added muscle and muscle tone. I'm not greedy for the prizes, just winning, with or without prizes, is something I could use right now. OR, would going 14 weeks disqualify me from the contest.

Joe

Hey Joe-

To be honest, I'm not sure what the judges will think, but I don't think it's relevant either way. Just start over from your new starting point, set new goals that are higher than the last time, and go from there. Do you remember Jeff Siedman from the Body of Work video? He STARTED OUT leaner and more cut than almost anyone who finishes, and he still won. It's not just about the pictures, it's about how you've changed. And I think the fact that you're continuing to try says a lot.

Good luck man. Let me know.

Jay