Turning Hesitation into Meditation into Inspiration: An Email From Gregg Avedon

Awhile back I decided to reach out to Gregg Avedon, one of the guys who inspired me to, well, become awesome.

I sent him an email with all the usual fanboy stuff, telling him how much of an inspiration he's been to me, how he's pretty much got the life I want, I imagine his face on women's bodies when I have sex, blah blah blah, you know how it is.

(Okay, okay.  Not the last one.  Not all the time, anyway.)

I ended the email with two questions:

"When you were first starting out, did you ever doubt yourself or your
ability to achieve your goals? If so, how did you quash those doubts?"

The next morning I checked my email and discovered Gregg had not only replied to my email, but had put an almost overwhelming amount of thought and detail into his response:

Matt,


First of all, I appreciate the kind words and it's great to hear that you're striving to achieve your goals and working to get better every day! As for your question, sure. What you're feeling is very normal. EVERYONE has self doubt at some level, no matter what they seem like on the outside, there's always that small voice inside trying to cast doubt over you. Some people are much better at controlling that voice inside. Their drive for success outweighs everything else. But the truth is that not everyone is built this way.


One thing that you can do is to start working on how you see yourself, how you speak to yourself (inside your head), and start to truly believe that you have the power within to accomplish your goals. You've got to believe it because you can't count on anyone else to do it for you. When we're younger we tend to think that we can do or be anything and then life happens and we become conditioned to think that there are limititations to what we can do, who we can become, and that ultimately effects the person that we become.


I've always said this and it's so true...that we spend the first quarter of our lives putting up walls and the rest of our lives trying to take them down. Things that happen in your life will create that self doubt in you and in how you view your personal ability to accomplish things.


I suggest that you spend some time alone and somewhere quiet outside where you can really connect to your higher self. I know this can sound odd if you're not used to doing this, but it will help. While outside and quiet begin to just concentrate on your breathing...in and out, in and out, your stomach rising and falling, your chest rising and falling. This will help you clear your mind and begin to center yourself. Start to notice everything around you...the trees, the leaves, the wind, the birds...everything. Begin to realize that you're a part of everything around you. Start to see your authentic self and feel your own power within. Know that the possibilities are endless. Know that you are unlimited potential. Keep breathing and allowing yourself to feel this power move through you. Know that you have full control over your actions.


Do this every day...it only takes 10 minutes and you will begin to feel more and more connected to yourself and everything around you. You will begin to realize that you have the power to achieve your goals. Don't let anyone take that power away from you...with their words or actions. In fact, don't even talk to others that you can't trust with your feelings and dreams who may cast any doubt in the fact that you can accomplish them. You will become a walking example of accomplising exactly what you set out to do and people will see it. People will want a piece of that and those same people who might doubt you will now be asking you what it is that you do to stay so fit, to accomplish your goals...they will want to be more like you!


I hope that doesn't sound WAY OUT THERE for you. The bottom line is that I want to see you take your own power and make it happen for yourself, because you hold all the cards...you've just got to believe.


All the best Matt,


Gregg

What a guy.

Unfortunately he made these suggestions to me during the dead of winter, but I let it slide as he lives in Florida and I'm assuming it's easy to forget the rest of the country is snowed-in when you're laying out on the beach.

Gregg is most definitely the real deal, and, as lame as it sounds, him and his website will always hold a special place in my heart (stop giggling) because his diet advice and the workouts on his site (for lack of a better term) changed my life.

He also released a book a couple of years back with some pretty sweet recipes called Muscle Chow.

To learn more about Gregg Avedon click here.

Honestly, the videos on his Home page crack me up.

I'm Back, Baby!

It's been a good week.

And not just because last night some sort of genetically-modified super-cougar raised her glass to mine and said, "To you and me and the prospect of a good fuck sometime."

It was just as awkward as it was flattering.

No, I'm talking about fitness.  Last week I covered exactly what I had been doing for the last three weeks in order to get completely off-track and gain 4 lbs. of pure, squishy fatness.  I ate a shit-ton of delicious ice cream, only trained about once a week and adopted an extremely negative attitude.  I was tired, bloated and depressed.

No more.


Starting Monday, I jumped back on track and stayed there.  I started The Superhero Workout, and only ate good, wholesome food, keeping the carbs low at all times other than breakfast and post-workout.  I've already lost a few pounds of fat, water and various body garbage, and that makes me all the more excited to keep this going and share my experience with others.  In fact, I checked myself out in a public bathroom last night and (through the reclaiming of my self image) popped a boner.

There I was, standing in the middle of the men's bathroom at Brewski's, staring at the shiny golden god in my reflection with only a thin layer of denim restraining my erection.

And so I decided to take pictures of everything I ate over the course of one day, to provide an example of what I might eat throughout the day, and to answer the "What do you eat?" question I've gotten from a few readers.


9:50 a.m.

A tall glass of ice-cold water, first thing.  Crisp.

10:05 a.m.

Smoothie and organic coffee sweetened with vanilla creme-flavored liquid stevia.

Smoothie recipe:

1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1 tbsp. ground flaxseed
1 scoop greens/superfood powder
1 1/2 scoops strawberry-flavored protein powder
Handful of ice.

Blend it, drink it, thank me.

10:15 a.m.

Supplements.
Since the greens were in the smoothie, I didn't take any more.

2:00 p.m.

Post-workout shake.
(Sorry, I chugged some of it before realizing I hadn't taken a picture yet.)

Post-workout shake recipe:

10-12 oz. water
25g strawberry whey isolate
40-50g dextrose
5g creatine
5g glutamine
Ice.

4:00 p.m.

Scrambled eggs with 1 whole egg and 1/2 cup of liquid egg whites, with garlic.
Usually I'd add a vegetable like spinach or broccoli, but I was all out.

7:45

Beef stew, recipe courtesy of strength coach Dan John:

1 can tomato soup
1 can french onion soup
1-2 lbs. stew beef
Bag of frozen stew veggies
Olive oil (I used coconut)
Pepper

1.  Heat oil in big pot
2.  Brown meat in oil, pepper it
3.  Throw in soups and veggies
4.  Simmer until meat is tender.

Done and done.

10:00 p.m.

Protein pudding

1 cup low fat grass-fed milk
2 cups fat free cottage cheese
1 pkg. Sugar free instant pudding mix

Blend milk and cottage cheese until completely smooth, then  whisk in pudding mix and stick in the fridge for 5 minutes.
I won't lie, it's delicious with some sugar-free Cool Whip on top.

Later on that night I had a bowl of Greek yogurt, which I failed to take a picture of.  Sorry.

Oh, and I'm including these because during the Summer months my sweet tooth is as strong as ever:

It's things like this that keep me sane when I'm dieting.

Was this a perfect day of eating?  Maybe, maybe not.  That's probably a subject for debate.  The point is that I took in a lot of decent food and had all the right macro-nutrients at the right times, without lowering caloric intake too much and keeping the protein high.  I'll most likely have a cheat meal once or twice a week to keep leptin levels high, depending on how much of a deficit I'm in.

Have any questions?  Had trouble seeing something in the photos?  Think the stew looks awful?  


Comment!

How to Get Out of Shape, or, What I've Been Doing the Last Three Weeks

So I hopped on the scale today and found that in the last three weeks or so, I've gained about 4 lbs. of fat.

It's about damned time.

You see, about a month ago I woke up, walked over to my mirror and took a long, hard look at myself wearing just a pair of boxer briefs.  My arms and legs looked powerful, my shoulders resembled cannonballs and a six-pack was actually peeking through. In short, I was starting to look way too fucking sexy.

"This can't be!" I screamed at the shimmering, golden barbarian that stood before me.

That's when I realized something had to be done; I couldn't let my body be sculpted into this...this god.

And so, through great effort, I've managed to convert myself into a lazy, unmotivated shell of a man in just 3 short weeks.

Here are a few tips on how to let go and finally become that worthless slob you've always dreamed of being, along with warnings as to what you should not be doing:

1.  Eat ice cream after every meal.  Seriously.

I went to the grocery store simply for the purpose of buying ice cream just so I'd have something to munch on while watching My Name is Earl on Netflix.  They had a 2 for $7 deal on Edy's, so I stocked up on Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup and Thin Mint (That's right, chocolate ice cream with chunks of the Girl Scouts' Thin Mint cookies.  It's awesome).  There were days when I would eat this stuff after breakfast, lunch and dinner, and sometimes as a post-midnight snack.

What not to do:

Only eat ice cream and other sweet treats on weekly or bi-weekly cheat days or cheat meals, following the principles of leptin expert Joel Marion and fitness king John Romaniello.

2.  Make breads and pasta a staple of your diet, and take in massive amounts of carbs with every meal.

After a personal experiment where I severely limited gluten in my diet, I was feeling fantastic.  My energy levels went up, my brain fog lifted and I just had a general feeling of well-being along with extremely healthy digestion.  My poops were awesome.  All but eliminating gluten was obviously a very, very bad choice, so I started devouring sandwiches as if there were a chance a coupon for one night with Jessica Biel was hidden in between the slices of delicious blood sugar-raising refined grains.

What not to do:

Limit intake of gluten-containing products and carbs in general, keeping majority of carb intake during breakfast and peri-workout.  Make any pre-bed meals based on fat instead of carbs, because carbs are fuel for high-intensity activity, and since you're about to lay down for 8 hours, they'll likely get stored.  Dietary fat is primarily what is burned during sleep, so keep that in mind.

3.  Find any reason to skip a workout, no matter how small.

This isn't difficult to do once your diet is in shambles and you don't have the energy to clip your toenails, let alone move iron.  I'd use every excuse from "I feel a headache coming on" to "I need to finish this mission in Grand Theft Auto IV!" to not train.  I haven't felt a good pump in weeks, and I'm feeling as feeble and inadequate as ever.  Score!

What not to do:

Develop a "No excuses" mindset.  Unless it's an emergency, under no circumstances are you to refrain from training.  It doesn't matter if your favorite rerun of Friends is on tv (I know the monkey is adorable, but this is what DVDs and Netflix are for) or if your buddies want to go out to the bar.  It's okay if you're a little late; they'll forgive you.

4.  Hang on to every word your critics say.

Ya know those people who talk shit behind your back, tell you you'll fail at every opportunity and seem to revel in taking a dump on other people's dreams and goals?  They're usually right.  Chances are, you never will lose that fat, get your dream job, or meet the "one".

Just give up.

What not to do:

Eject these toxic, poisonous pieces of human garbage from your life.  They're so disgusted with themselves and their own lack of control when it comes to their own lives that they try to convince you you're just as weak as they are.  Find people who are willing to identify their goals and take action, and listen to what they have to say; there's a good chance they've had to overcome many of the same trials you have, and are happy to offer kind words and advice.  Believe in yourself.

So there it is.  Following these four simple rules should get you well on your way to becoming sad, pathetic and pudgy.

Go get 'em, tiger.





Have anything to add that will help others get out of shape?  Comment!