It’s Not About The Body Fat

Tom,

At 69+, I've come to appreciate the wisdom of the ancient Middle-Way (meaning balance) of Mind, Body, & Spirit. Fifty years ago, anybody who worked out everyday was a "dumb jock". Well, I was one! Since then I've gained about a pound a year. But today's calculations say I'm unhealthy.
Weird!

I appreciate your work.

Gordie

Stop the presses! Tom Venuto and Shawn Philips together on and audio. I think that I just felt the Earth shake beneath me.

Seriously, you two are my favorite people to follow because of your approach, values, and sincerity. You both ROCK!

Now onto this awesome topic...

You said 4 very important words, "Take it for Granted." But I don't think that it's health that we take for granted. I believe that it's life that we take for granted.

It's sad to see people who have suffered from a heart attack continue to frequent fast food joints on a daily basis. It's sad to see people with type II diabetes continue to consume large quantities of man made crap. It's sad to see someone who lost a loved one make that promise to change their own poor habits so they don't suffer the same fate, yet weeks later turn around and go back to their unhealthy lifestyle. Lack of health and even fear of lack of health just doesn't seem to be as much of a motivator as it really should be.

I feel that health is not as much a priority because there are drugs that 'supposedly' help with the problem, or if something drastic happens they can always get a quintuple bipass to prolong their poor quality of life a little longer.

I believe that we need to place a much greater value on living the best quality of life possible. It's not enough to settle and merely exist. I believe that we should demand nothing less than the best quality of life from ourselves. I believe that each of us deserves to live the best quality of life possible and that in order to see some serious changes we all have to believe in ourselves and feel with every ounce of our being that we truly deserve it.

Strength For Life is a must read book in my opinion and Shawn's blog totally kicks butt!

It's absolutely awesome to have a fat loss goal, achieve that goal, and experience not just the body transformation that takes place, but also the life transformation that takes place.

What I like about placing health at the top of our life values is that you'll always have a goal to aim for. It's something that you can always improve. It keeps your journey going beyond just the fat loss goal. It keeps the focus on a healthy lifestyle. It keeps the focus on growth which I believe is the best goal that we can aim for.

I really appreciate it when you share these success stories Tom. The one thing that I love about the success stories that come from people following your guidance is that it's always more than just a body transformation. I love hearing about the mindset shift and the life transformation.

For some people, getting off these prescription drugs is a major cost savings. The small investment that they've made in your programs is surely impacting their wallets just as it's impact their body.

They're getting more than just a new body. They're gaining the belief that they can achieve whatever they set their minds too and are encouraged to improve their health and life every way that they can.

Once again Tom, thanks for being such a great leader and role model. I can't wait to hear that interview with Shawn.

Scott Tousignant

Thanks for your insights scott - especially reminding us that its not even just a health and body transformation, its a health, body and MIND transformation

Shawn is a great guy with a great message. I second the recommendation for "Strength For life" and I'm looking forward to the interview myself!

Hi Tom,

I notice you mention a podcast below so I went looking for a link and found this:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/burnthefatpodcast

This feed contained a single podcast from 2007. Is this correct, or am I looking in the wrong place?

Cheers,

Rob

Rob - Im not even sure what that link is. I don't have a "proper" podcast. I should have said an audio interview
ie, download an mp3 off the site

my interview with shawn will be an audio interview and the audio stream and or mp3 will be made availablen the burn the fat blog

cheers

tom

Tom I love this article/post!

My personal experience with clients is that 95% of people initally want to start to exercise and eat better because they are motivated to change the size, shape and appearence of their external physics, by building lean muscle and burning body fat.

Which is great, and we all want this, and it's brilliant if it get's them moving.

Unfortuantly though, as you have pointed out here, very few actually value their health enough to even worry about how and why they are doing it and what effect the process they take has on their overall health.

Much like yourself I advocate, live and teach a healthy natural bodybuilding lifestyle for all those reasons, to create, build and scuplt a beatiful body and physic but also increase, improve and master a health and wellbeing.

Thanks for using your voice of influence that reaches so many to recommend natural bodybuilding for what it really is, a healthy lifestyle with tremendous benefits on many levels.

Keep it coming Tom

Adam
Get a Free video course on Boosting Metabolsim and Fat Loss at http://www.BodyByAdam.co.uk

I lost 6.5 stone in seven months and I did if from weight training and exercising (cardio) every morning. i have a good physique for the first time in my life, my health is better and I feel better about myself. I dont consider myself a bodybuilder but I know the weight training was a huge part of my results and I didn't end up one of those skinny-fat people you talk about.

Healthy Lifestyle - the only reason why I touch weights, run, eat right, etc.

Man, aren't you right. Since losing 70 lbs (and counting) from 295 to 225, I've have never felt better since I've decided to live a more healthy lifestyle by eating better, and regular excersise. I guess it's the whole mind-body-soul thing, because the way I feel is so much different than what I was a couple years ago. My outlook on life has totally changed and making my mind up to change is first, and most important step. Then as I decide to eat better, I start to see changes in my body. I started to feel more energized. Even my demeanor changed, I started to have a lot more confidence in myself.

But the reason I decided to change the way I eat and have a more active lifestyle was a combination of things. But the main reason was because my cousin, who at 33, had the heart of a 80 year old man. He had two heart attacks, the last one all most took his life. The doctors told him that he was going to have to eat a lot better if he wanted to live. No more terrible foods, and large portions. But his ordeal, and treatment effected me, and made me scared for my life. I looked at my family history. It was filled with blood pressure, heart attacks, and diabetes. I knew if I didn't change, I was on my way down that road. I didn't want to have those conditions, so I decided to eat a lot healthier in reasonable portions, and became more active. Since then, my health has never been better. Great post Tom!

"It’s a misconception that the “bodybuilding” lifestyle is in some way not healthy or doesn’t dramatically IMPROVE your health"

Even if you have no intention of building significant amounts of muscle, knowing how to train and diet is pretty important. It makes it so even if you gain a few lbs of fat, it's a non-issue to cut it right back off.

Perhaps bodybuilders should be teaching our health classes in schools?"

"Pay now - eating healthy and body building or Pay later - high blood pressure, heart disease, problems with their joints, etc., etc. etc., not withstanding the big bucks for all the meds. I'll continue to pump iron, thank you."

Scott, sadly humans expect far more from others than they do of themselves. In all aspects of life.

It is a total mind transformation and major reworking of old entrenched attitudes of comfort first. At first it's a fight, but, later the work of creating a change in physical and mental states on one's own force & determination is not just tangible, but, so empowering. It takes work to achieve any goal. Part of the "trick" is shifting the meter to log effort and sweat as part of the gratification pattern where once it used to be sitting on a soft couch watching the tv with half opened eyes.............

It's an enormous mental shift that beautifully carries into all areas of ones life.
Thanks Tom for lighting this path.

Tom, one of these days, could you write what was it like psychologically to get ripped for the first time ?

It seems like I have some sort of an glass ceiling at around 12% and it really kind of messes with my mind..

Thanks!

Arto,

You may want to read this blog.

http://www.burnthefatblog.com/archives/2008/06/how_i_got_ripped_for_the_very.php

Yeah, thanks Carlos !

I've read that, and this particular part is the one I was kind of referring to here:

"Some other day, I’ll tell you all the details of the emotional roller coaster ride that was my first contest diet, but let it suffice to say, at that point, I still didn’t know what I was doing."

So, Tom, when might this some other day be ? :)