Why Grow Old?

Why is it that so many people dread getting older?

I mean, what is it that causes sensible, mature, educated people to burst into tears or go thorough 'mid-life' crises at the very mention of their fortieth birthday?

It's weird, isn't it? After all, getting older is a natural part of life.

After working with thousands of people from all walks of life, I can reveal this: it's not the actual calendar years that cause people stress and concern, it's what those years do to your body, your face and your appearance.

Not much of a revelation, I agree, but nonetheless it's true.

In fact, if it wasn't for the visible signs of ageing that build up over the years, most people wouldn't give a damn about how many candles they have on their birthday cake at all.

The trouble is, we're all brainwashed from quite an early age about what it means to grow older. We're told 'you're not getting any younger y'know!' or 'you really should be slowing down and taking it a bit easier at your age' or 'you shouldn't expect to achieve as much as you did when you were younger'.

Look, let's get something straight, once and for all.

Despite what you've been told by doctors, physios and so-called fitness 'experts' over the years, you do not automatically enter into a downward spiral of performance and appearance as you age.

Physical degeneration is not an inevitable part of the ageing process.

In fact, you can and should be able to not only maintain but also improve your physical abilities across the course of your lifetime. You can be fitter in your forties, fifties, sixties and even seventies than you are/were in your twenties and thirties.

Don't believe me?

Just look at the likes of long-distance runner and adventure racer Helen Klein. She took up jogging at 55, and progressed to complete over 75 marathons and 100 ultra-distance marathons (these are races over 100 miles in length) during a career that went on well into her mid-seventies.

What about Professor Art De Vany, author of soon-to-be-published Evolutionary Fitness? He rides mountain bikes and dirt bikes competitively (in open competition), trains rigorously on a daily basis and has an amazingly muscular and firm physique with only 8% bodyfat. He's 68!

These aren't isolated cases, though, sadly, they are quite rare... though they needn't be!

Any day of the week you could begin the process of building the better, fitter, faster, firmer, stronger, leaner you and start to benefit from the amazing energy and vitality that's available to you at every moment of your life, regardless of age.

But first, I need you to understand something.

These improvements do not come from some new fad fitness programme.

They don't come from the latest diet.

They don't come from those fancy gizmos, gadgets or wonder pills.

They come from good, old-fashioned, honest-to-goodness effort.

(This is where I lose half of my readers! : ) )

Just follow my seven-point plan and get the most out ofyour body regardless of your age.

1. Engage in challenging exercise every day. Look, three times a week just doesn't cut it when it comes to maintaining or improving your physical self. The human body is a movement machine, so move it or lose it.

2. Use strength-based exercises at least three times a week where you challenge the muscles and joints and load the bones. With over 600 muscles in the human body, it just doesn't make sense to train the way most people do by isolating different muscles and blasting them to death. Instead, use my 600 rule and try to find exercises that use as many muscles as you possibly can. My Integrated Movement Training page here on handbag will give you a great workout.

3. Drink fresh, clean water every day. You need around a litre for every 50lbs of body weight in order to maintain a decent hydration level. Less than this and your organs, your skin, your muscles and even your brain cease to operate effectively.

4. Avoid all processed food. Another name for processed food is 'denatured' food. In other words, all of the nature has been removed from it in order to make it last longer on the shelves. Do you really want to eat something without any 'nature' in it? Only you can decide that, but I tell you this: foods with colourings, flavourings and numbers instead of ingredients will more likely end your life early than extend it. Opt instead for fresh produce, ensuring that 80% of what you eat comes from fresh (ideally organic) sources.

5. Eat less. People eat too much. Enough said.

6. Sleep more. The human body requires sleep of both great quality and quantity. Getting eight hours a night is a good start, but not enough. To truly benefit from your sleep, try to get your sleep patterns worked out so that you are asleep between the hours of 10pm and 2am to make the most of your body's hormonal repair processes. The hours 2am to 6am are important to countering stress. In other words, all sleep is not the same. The timing is important too.

7. Relax more. Yep, I know I said to move more, but I also want you to relax more too. That doesn't mean watch more TV. Read a book, listen to music, take a massage or acupuncture, take more holidays, add variety to your weekends. Studies show that people who are more aware of the need for a balance between activity and constructive relaxation live longer, are less stressed and achieve more.

Well, there you go.

My guide to looking and performing better as you age.

It may not be what you were expecting.

In fact, many of you are probably thinking, 'Yeah, but I know all that already, where's the new stuff?'

Sorry, not this time!

There's nothing faddy, or hi-tech about this approach. It just works.

My challenge to you is to take everything I've just told you and use it for 30 days in its entirety. Don't skip a thing. If you do, I GUARANTEE that no matter what your current age or physical condition is, you'll look, feel and perform better than you have in years.

If you want a more structured system of applying these reules, then go to www.lookgreatnakedchallenge.com

Sugar... it 'aint as sweet as you think!

I've been getting lots of emails from my readers asking me how serious I am about cutting sugar out from their diets.

"Can't I cut down rather than give it up entirely?"

"I LOVE my sugar! Can't I just have it in my first tea or coffee of the day?"

When first asked from a position of 'all things in moderation' it sounds absolutely fine that cutting down rather than cutting out should be ok.

So why am I such an anti-sugar activist during the elimination diet?

Well, for a start, sugar is responsible for increased fat storage, the very opposite of what you're trying to achieve on the elimination diet.

It does this by overstimulating insulin which commands triglycerides (fat) to move in and take up residence in your fat cells.

This is the last thing you want.

Essentially, it takes you from a fat-burning mode into a fat-storing mode.

Not really what you want is it?

But it doesn't stop there!

In her amazing report, Dr Nancy Appleton revealed that sugar is far
more harmful than most of us would ever realise:

- It increases LDL
(the BAD cholesterol)
- It decreses HDL
(the GOOD Choloesterol)
- It suppresses immune system function
- It can cause hypoglycemia
- It can cause insulin sensitivity
- It can cause food allergies
- It cn rob your body of vital minerals
- It has been linked to numerous
cancers
And much more besides!

Look, I'm not much into scaremongering or fright tactics to get people to comply. I'd much rather they were educated into making the right choices for their health, but seriously, sugar is bad news.

That's why I cut it from the elimination diet.

You see, once you've cut it and then try to put it back (if you even want to) you tend to see the power it has.

Until then, well, you're still an addict that says 'it's not that bad' or 'if it were that bad then people would do something about it'

Like they do about cigarettes?

Like they do about alcohol?

Pollution?

Look, we know lots of bad things are out there and we, as grown ups
make our own decisions about what they mean to us.

But I just want to be honest with you so that you are making choices from a position of strength rather than that of an addict.
So if you want the very best results from the next 30 days then you
simply must drop sugar from your diet.

That means:

STOP ingesting glucose, sucrose, fructose, maltose, dextrose and
all the other 'ose'

STOP drinking alcohol (serious sugar!!!!!!!!!!)

STOP refined carbs like pasta, bread, cookies etc

STOP hidden 'ose's' like breakfast cereals, ready roast chickens, sandwich meats etc

REDUCE complex carbs like rice, potatoes

INCREASE fibrous carbs like asparagus, artichokesm brooccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, celery, cabbage, onions, leeks,etc
For the remainder of your elimination diet, please, please, please keep sugar at arms length.

It WILL be hard, I'm not denying that but it WILL be worth it.

To put it as plain and simply as I can, I just can't guarantee your results if you don't.

It's THAT important!

Go for it!

Dax
www.lookgreatnakedchallenge.com
www.daxmoy-pts.co.uk

How To Set Fitness Goals

We’ve all heard the old proverb ‘a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’ right?

The moral is that in order to achieve anything in life we have to take some small action toward making it happen.

Seems like sound and logical advice on the most part, but a word of caution.

That one small step could be all it takes to ensure the failure of all of your health and fitness efforts.

Especially if that step is in the wrong direction!

You see, most new and returning exercisers set out with good intentions and a list of ‘wishes’ without ever giving a thought to planning or setting realistic goals.

They simply join a gym and begin a diet with the intention of ‘getting fit’ or ‘losing weight’ and then feel disillusioned a couple of months later when neither result is achieved.

This sets in place a vicious cycle of failure where negative results create negative thoughts and feelings which, in turn, perpetuate the negative results.

And on, and on and on…

If you really want to see some real success and actually achieve your goals for a change, then follow these 4 simple steps:

Define your aim – Merely stating that you wish to ‘lose weight’ or ‘get fit’ is of little value when setting your health and fitness goals. These definitions are far too broad and are relatively meaningless and as such hold very little power to motivate us.

Instead you need to define what these terms mean.

Is getting fit running a mile?

Completing the marathon?

Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro?

Does losing weight involve losing 15lbs of total weight or 10lbs of body-fat?

Can you see the difference in the approach?

In the first instance we are merely ‘getting fit’ whereas in the second we are completing the marathon. This creates a situation where we now have a specific target to aim at along with an actual measure from which we can ascertain our current level of success.

If you want to stay motivated and on track then stating your specific aim is the best way to assure your success.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE THIS YEAR?

Define your purpose – Whilst many people have found some level of success with the first step, there are still many who set their goals specifically and yet still fail to achieve them.

Invariably, when assessing why success was not forthcoming there always seems to be the feeling that the goal was not worth the effort required to achieve it. For this reason it is important to determine from the outset ‘WHY am I doing this thing?’

You see, without this sense of purpose there will always be a lack of passion or compelling reasons to stay with the goal when the going gets tough.

Conversely, those people who exhibit a great sense of purpose are always more willing to find a way when the odds are stacked against them. The difference is passion!

WHY DO YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE THIS? (What makes it so important to you?)

Define the territory and plan the route – Even if you know where you want to get to and why you want to get there, it’s still a good idea to plan HOW you’re going to achieve the goal.

This is somewhat like planning a route on a map.

You may well be able to locate the destination on the map, but if you don’t know where you’re starting from you’ll never know which turns to take in order to get there and so you’ll be more likely to get lost along the way.

In terms of health and fitness, it’s a good idea to find out where you’re starting from by taking measurements, photographs and maybe testing your fitness with a run, some pushups or some other test relevant to the goal.

This will enable you to determine where you are relative to the end goal and allow you to plan the following weeks and months of training accordingly. In addition, you’ll be able to perform these tests at 4-6 week periods to find out how well you’re doing and adapt your approach if it’s not working.

WHERE ARE YOU IN RELATION TO THE GOAL? What do you need to do in order to get from where you are now to your final destination?

Take massive and consistent action – Even when all of the above steps are completed, it’s all for nothing if you fail to do anything to actually make progress toward your goal. You have to DO SOMETHING! And the bigger the better!

You see, sometimes it’s the small things that stop you from achieving the big things in life. Small things like habits exert an immense influence upon our lives and create a ‘gravitational pull’ every time we try to break free of them.

For this reason it’s often a good idea to smash a habit by taking massive action at the start of your new health and fitness ‘habit’. Don’t just ‘start a diet’, change your lifestyle!

But we all know that large actions aren’t always sustainable don’t we?

This is where consistency becomes important. It’s the ‘little things’ that we do everyday that determine our success in any endeavour and so our efforts need to focus on doing the right little things everyday.

For example, a single workout will produced few if any gains in muscle tone or fitness, but perform that same workout on a regular basis and you create a powerful habit that will practically guarantee your health and fitness success. This is the power of the little things!

WHAT MASSIVE ACTION ARE YOU GOING TO TAKE?

WHAT LITTLE THING CAN YOU DO EVERY DAY?

There you have it.

These four steps are simple yet very effective and are the blueprint for practically every successful person you’ve ever read or heard about.

Follow them for six months and you’ll be astounded at what can be achieved.

I guarantee it!

Dax
www.daxmoy-pts.co.uk
www.lookgreatnakedchallenge.com

Need More Calcium?

One of the criticisms of the elimination diet in the past has been that the lack of Dairy potentially means a shortfall in calcium uptake, especially of concern to those with osteoporosis or who're pregnant or lactating.

But this is not the case at all!

Calcium is abundant and present in many foods.

For Instance:


Spinach
Turnip greens
Mustard greens
Collard greens
Blackstrap molasses
Swiss chard
Yogurt
Kale
Mozzarella cheese
Milk (goat's milk and cow's milk)
Basil, thyme, dill seed, cinnamon, and peppermint leaves
Romaine lettuce
Rhubarb
Celery
Broccoli
Sesame seeds
Fennel
Cabbage
Summer squash
Green beans
Garlic
Tofu
Brussel sprouts
Oranges
Asparagus
Crimini mushrooms

So there's a lot of choice!

Don't forget though, to properly absorb calcium from your foods you need a good supply of vitamin D in your diet (best sources are in fish and eggs and natural sunlight)!

Dax
www.daxmoy-pts.co.uk
www.lookgreatnakedchallenge.com

Did You Know?...

My MAGIC HUNDRED blog over at http://www.magichundred.blogspot.com/ has a bunch of motivational and uplifting messages for those of you in need of a lift...

The 7 Rules of Fast Fat Gain

So, you’ve decided to give up.

You’re fed up of all the diets that have promised you great results yet left you hungry, tired, irritable and weak.

You’re fed up of all the ‘wonder workouts’ that have promised you amazing strength, fitness and flexibility ‘in just minutes a day’ but that have left you feeling tired, sore, stiff and, truth be told, no firmer or less flabby than you were before.

But most of all, you’re fed up of all those fitness ‘experts’ out there who tell you how easy it is, how little time it takes and how amazing you’re going to look if you follow THEIR program (ONLY theirs, mind you, no-one else’s will even come near to what they’re offering).

So you’re quitting.

You’re giving up the diet and exercise ‘thing’ and have decided that you’ll just go with the flow and see what happens to your body when the experts aren’t poking their noses into your business and ramming their idea of healthy down your throat.

What a great idea!

No more ‘eat this’ or ‘don’t eat that’, no more ‘don’t forget your cardio’ or ‘weights is better’.

In fact, no more interference of any kind from the countless do-gooders who seem to think that it’s ok for them to advise, nag and bully you into following all kinds of fat loss and fitness advice… as long as it’s theirs.

Good on you!

But before you take the quitters route that most people take, doesn’t it make sense to quit in the right way?

Sure it does!

There’s a science to quitting too y’know and I’m just the person to share it with you : )

So here’s the deal. If you want to quit and quit fast, if you want to pack on pound after pound of soft, warm, figure-blurring bodyfat then you’ve got to have a strategy.

You’ve got to have a plan.

MY plan is easy, straightforward and six-year-old-simple to follow and consists of just seven rules that, if you follow them, will guarantee you the maximum fat gain in the shortest time frame.

It consists of just 7 rules

Rule one: Only eat processed foods

If you’re truly serious about packing on some serious fat-pounds, you’ll follow this rule faithfully.

Without a doubt, processed foods are the No.1 friend to fat due to their denatured, sugar-loaded and mostly synthetic nature.

With most of the vitamins and minerals removed from processed foods, the highly calorific and mostly indigestible remain, creating a massive storehouse of both calories and toxins for you to bury deep within your already overloaded fatty tissues.

Better still, the toxic nature of most processed foods mean that you’ll gain not only fat but a whole lot of subcutaneous water too as your body tries to ‘dilute’ the impact of all the extra toxins you’re holding onto, meaning that you’ll put on extra scale weight and look soft and squidgy into the bargain.

Great stuff!


Rule two: Cram in as many starchy carbs as you can

Starchy carbs eaten in isolation or, better yet, with sugary carbs are an absolutely fantastic way to accelerate the battle of the bulge and gain both fat and body weight at a more rapid pace.

Eating carbohydrates in isolation allows your hormones to engage in a free-running form of guerrilla warfare where insulin levels raise through the roof and, in doing so, command your body to store fat.

A word of warning though; whatever you do, don’t mix your starches with fats or proteins. This reduces both the amount and the effect of all that lovely insulin and will definitely scupper your chances at serious fat gain.


Rule Three: Get to bed as late as you can

If rapid fat gain is your greatest desire, then make sure that you get to bed as late as you possibly can, with the ideal scenario being that you stay up so late every night that you fall asleep on the sofa.

Doing This will ensure a steady supply of the stress hormone cortisol into your bloodstream to help you break down all that energy-consuming lean muscle tissue that’s slowing down your fat gain.

Just don’t ruin the effect by getting to bed by 10:30 or you’ll find that the cortisol levels drop far too low to cannibalise your muscle and you may even find that you lose all your precious fat!

Rule four: Steer clear of water

Drink too much water and you’ll not only do away with your body’s false food cravings (meaning that you won’t eat unnecessarily), but you’ll also create a freer flowing route for the digestion of the foods you’ve eaten.

Obviously, this is a bad thing as it means you won’t keep undigested foods in your stomach long enough for them to go putrid and add to the overall toxic load on your system.

Remember, anything that speeds up your metabolism is bad!

Instead, use coffee, tea and soda to 'mix up' your metabolism and increase toxicity.


Rule five: Don’t forget the alcohol!

Alcohol is just about as pure a sugar source as you can get and is absolutely jam-packed with calories that contribute nothing to the function of your body.

Better still, alcohol adds to your toxic load meaning that you’ll hold a large amount of water too!

Rule Six Use the microwave for all of your cooking

Microwave’s are great!

During the heating process they vibrate the molecules of your food so fast that they actually change their structure, meaning that when you eat nuked food, your body has no idea about how to cope with them, let alone extract nutrition from them.

This is fantastic for your fat gain quest because you’ll be adding to your toxic load AND creating a surplus of non-nutritional calories, meaning that you’ll get hungry again very soon after eating and have another opportunity to stock up on calories.

Rule Seven: Avoid all unnecessary movement

There’s no getting away from it, movement of any kind costs you valuable calorie-energy and robs you of the vital fat building stores that’ll be necessary for your quest.

Stay as still as you can to conserve as much energy as possible and commit to using as many labour-saving devices as you can find. Things like remote controls, stair lifts, escalators etc all serve a valuable role in the creation of your fat stores, so use them.

If you are forced to move, then whatever you do, don’t engage in any form of activity that might lead to an increase in strength or muscle mass as this’ll speed up your metabolism and rob you of calories. Instead, engage in steady-state, slow aerobic activities as these are energy efficient and have the added benefit of increasing cortisol and, in doing so, breaking down that calorie-robbing muscle tissue.

So that’s it!

Your seven rules that, if followed, will absolutely guarantee that you pack on fat faster than you’d ever believe possible and allow you to thumb your nose and poke your tongue out at every personal trainer or diet guru who ever promised you a rapid result from following their plans.

Follow just one or two of them for even a short time and you’ll see a rapid softening of the waistline and an appreciable gain in scale-weight. Follow them all and you’ll gain so much weight that you’ll be stunned by the reflection staring back at you within a month.

Give it a go!

Note: If you’re one of those wierdo’s who feel that you’d like to take the extreme approach of actually losing bodyfat then just reverse the rules above to see equally rapid fat loss… I don’t know why you’d want to though!


Dax Moy
www.daxmoy-pts.co.uk