My first-ever progress pic (and ignoring naysayers)

Last night I was culling my wardrobe.

The process is a necessary one when you're losing weight. At each stage you toss out the size that no longer fits. It cleanses you, makes room for clothes that are suited to the new version of you. And it burns the ships.

I can't tell you how many times in the last year I've heard, "maybe you should hang onto them...you know, in case you gain the weight back."

Sorry to be blunt, but fuck that. I don't want that as a "just in case" scenario. The objective here is to live better and leaner and stronger and make THAT my reality.

So as I pulled on this pair of pants; pants which, a little better than a year ago, fit me perfectly; my five-year-old daughter was playing with my phone. She clicked some pictures of stuff in my room, and a couple of me trying on old clothes. I saw this picture and was floored.

I don't normally post progress pictures. I take them, but that progress is for me, not you. Standing there trying on pants, I knew without a doubt that those size 38 slacks were too big. That was obvious. But just how much too big...well, here's the reveal:

I was just amazed at the difference. I had to share this pic. I put it on Facebook. I texted it to people. I emailed it to my mom. And I got a lot of congratulatory messages. But over the last year the messages I've had from people, even very recently, have been really mixed, and that's been a little surprising. So I'm going to offer some advice for those of you who are interested in improving. Fundamentally, ignore what other people say.

1. "That doesn't sound healthy"

As soon as I started training and losing weight, the negatives came out. People of all stripes had advice and suggestions of course, but I was able to ignore the negatives because I had done my research. I apply caloric control, regulate my carb intake, and practice intermittent fasting...all concepts recommended by top fitness experts and supported by a mountain of research.

2. "I believe in moderation"

Again, that's great. I recognize the fact that you're trying to help. But moderation doesn't work. I have a diet that appears weird to a lot of people. I don't own a toaster, because I don't buy bread. I don't own a microwave because I eat real food (actually, it just took up too much space for something I only used to heat up a cup of coffee at a time...I have a Keurig now -- problem solved!). By controlling my carb intake, I'm actually able to sneak an occasional cookie or ice cream with my kid, or have some bread with my dinner when I go to a restaurant.

3. "You need a balanced diet"

"Balance" in the diet is a myth. You NEED protein and fats for sure. You ADD carbohydrates in the form of vegetables and fruits. To most people, a balanced diet is one that incorporates a comfortable amount of foods they're addicted to (most likely cereals). In reality, "balance" means optimization, not equal amounts of good stuff to crap.

4. "I don't think you should do that...my doctor suggested..."

Did it work? Awesome. But I'm betting it didn't, because doctors are on average about 15 years behind the current research in actual weight loss.

5. "Be careful. You don't want to get too thin."

Really? REALLY?? I'm working my ass off to get my weight down and add some muscle, and I'm being cautioned to not lose too much weight? This warning comes from at least two people: one of whom has never had any issue with their weight, and another who is chronically overweight. Trust me...I'm easily 30 lbs away from even approaching "too thin," and still have some inches to go before I even start showing abs. There's ZERO danger that "too thin" will be an issue.

You've read about my diet. You've read about my workout strategy. There's really nothing more to say apart from, "this shit works." It's a line I've heard repeatedly from people who have asked me for the solution to their weight problem. They see the results, and thanks to a camera-happy little kid, you can see the results too.

The fight's far from over, but so far, 2013 is working for me. How's yours going?

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Summer Time Training

Well, the stats are in. Although I haven't gained significant muscle mass (by measure), my weight has come down to 180 lbs., and my waist down to 35 inches (that's a loss of 12 lbs. and 2 inches). If we're using the Golden Ratio, I do need to cut 2-3 more inches from my waist, but so far I'm liking the results.

That was on the first 12-week AGR program, geared only towards losing fat. What didn't work was the diet plan. It was totally confusing, and even the "done-for-you" meal plans were strange. There was a lot of calculation left to do, and the complexity of it was a real nightmare, especially when following the weekly shopping list.

As you may know, I always try to follow a program to the letter as provided in order to give an honest review. In this case, it was impossible. The shopping list was literally compiled from the weekly servings, which meant (and I'm not joking) buying 1/6 of a grapefruit, and 5/6 of an apple. Not exactly strong planning. The argument in the forum was that it's "only a guideline." For twenty bucks, I don't expect a guideline, and I don't expect to spend time calculating substitutions on a list that was supposed to be done already.

Anyway, to make up for it, I switched to an eating plan that's sort of a cross between the Man 2.0 plan by Romaniello and Bornstein, and the 1-Day Diet by Josh Bezoni (via BioTrust). Bezoni suggests cutting calories by focusing on two liquid meals a day (read "protein shakes"), followed by a sensible dinner. This is similar to other programs, including the Visalus and Isagenix programs, as well as the Slim-Fast Plan. The major difference here is you're in control of what goes in the shakes.

In the Man 2.0 plan, the rules are straightforward as well: eat what you want (if it fits your macros), but do it within eight hours. This enables you to implement intermittent fasting by extending your overnight fast. It also does various hormonal things that amplify fat burning while controlling that dreaded insulin response. Adding to this, there's a day where I eat what I want, and one where I eat nothing.

Not sure about your macros? We took the Man 2.0 diet numbers and created a spreadsheet that does the math for you. ==>Here it is.<==

So, in the most general possible sense, my diet looks like this:

• Lunch: Smoothie + Apple (noon)
• Snack: Smoothie + Apple (mid-afternoonish)
• Supper: Meat + Veggies (suppertime-ish)
• Snack: maybe

Total daily cals = about 1200-1500 (where my maintenance is about 1800). Sounds weak, right? But I'm not lacking energy, my sugar and cholesterol numbers are awesome, and I'm losing fat and gaining muscle. Not huge muscle...that's still to come. But the muscle is building for sure (I even bought a barbell).

Now, that's for Monday through Saturday. Sunday is usually cheat day, where I eat whatever I want (including breakfast). Good news for festival and carnival season! (mmmm...Ribfest) Monday, then, is a fast day, which resets Leptin levels and burns fat. Tuesday is a regular day on the above plan, but I don't have my first meal until noon, so it's really like a 36-hour fast. It sounds awful, but it's totally doable.

So, now we're onto the next 12 weeks, and I was struggling with what to do for workouts. The solution was to just keep doing what I was doing, and move on to the next part of the same program. So for the next three months, I'm on the "Build & Burn" cycle of the Adonis Golden Ratio. Why not? The Burn program worked, so I'll just move forward with this.

I have an older copy which does recommend using some HIIT workouts. It just happens that I've found my muscles and joints have been getting stiff, so to increase mobility I'm also applying the no-intensity and low-intensity workouts from TACFIT (sort of a calisthenics and light stretching program for recovery and mobility). I'm also using Craig's 4-minute metabolic miracles to amp up the metabolism on off days, and supplementing with the Maybe Mudder workouts on Saturdays (this is right from the Tough Mudder website).

So, if you want to know, the whole plan looks like this:

• Monday: (fast day; regular day if Sunday is a fast day instead)
• Morning: Adonis Golden Ratio
• Evening: TACFIT Day 1 (low intensity, mostly joint mobility)

• Tuesday: (regular day)
• Morning: TACFIT Day 2 (low intensity, mostly stretching), 4 Minute Miracle

• Wednesday: (regular day)
• Morning: AGR
• Evening: TACFIT Day 1

• Thursday: (regular day, sometimes extra fast day)
• Morning: TACFIT Day 2, 4 Minute Miracle

• Friday: (regular day)
• Morning: AGR

• Saturday: (regular day; cheat day if something's going on)
• Morning: Maybe Mudder (do this outside!!)
• Afternoon: AGR

• Sunday: (cheat day; fast day if I decide to cheat on Saturday instead)
• Rest

Got it? Good...now go break a sweat.

*****
Here's a great smoothie, to give you an idea:

1 cup (8 oz) unsweetened vanilla almond milk
3/4 cup frozen mixed berries
1/2 cup low-fat Greek yogurt
2 scoops vanilla BioTrust LowCarb protein powder (or whey protein of your choice)

Mix. Drink.

Cal: 383.5. P: 40.75. C: 15.75. F: 16.6

You can add a handful of baby spinach if you need an extra veggie boost to your day. This stuff is low enough that I don't count it in my calorie numbers in this quantity.

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Rackin' frackin' hackin'...

So, regular readers may have noticed there's been a definite slow down in the posting routine at The Man Sphere in the last couple of months.

It turns out the template we were using on the site had actually suffered from a fairly intrusive hack. Now, what happened was the hackers somehow got into the template files and added a whole bunch of invisible URLs to the home page. These URLs would turn up on search engines, allowing the hacker to claim them as backlinks to their websites.

Their many, many websites.

Well, Google caught hold of this, and apparently having dozens of hidden links with invisible text on your website is a violation of their advertising policy. To this end, they shut down our entire account (as a publisher, that is). This is the only explanation we can think of, because Google has the ability to cancel your advertising account without warning, and without having to actually provide an explanation as to why they're doing it. It means I'm never allowed to participate in their ad programs again for as long as I live (nice, eh?)

Anyway, in addition to this, we also found an extra web page that was added to an inactive Wordpress theme that was apparently redirecting people to a fake Citibank phishing site. Derp! This page went entirely unnoticed by us or the hosting company. The net result was we got spanked way down the search engine rankings, and as a result we've been playing catch up like mad just getting the housekeeping done.

New passwords, new databases, new template, and new ad platforms. And no new articles. In short, it's been a bit of a nightmare.

But all that's about to change. As you know, we've put out a stack of new products, and will be rolling out more in short order. In addition, we've just launched the Man Under Construction Project, which is the most exciting development.

The Man Under Construction Project is designed to be a six-month e-course for men recovering from divorce, or who are just trying to get their lives back in order. The trial run is happening right now on The Man Sphere, and will be free for the remainder of 2013. Just swing over there, get signed up, and you'll be in the loop.

That's exciting stuff, because it's the project I've been working on for the better part of the last four years...and it's finally coming to life! So if you're a regular reader, and a regular dude, I encourage you to have a look at the course, and come along for the ride. You'll be glad you did!

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Five New Products on The Man Sphere

It's been a really hectic couple of weeks. Last week I was on holidays from work, so I took the time to get The Man Sphere tweaked up a bit with some new articles (published this week), along with putting the finishing touches through my affiliate network on the launch of the TMS Metabolic Nightmare.

In addition, I really put the hammer down on my diet and workout programs in preparation for Monday's photo shoot with Revolve Talent. By switching to an intermittent That alone was worth the price of admission, but I'll save the pics for after the touch ups are done!

This week, even though I'm back to work and scrambling to get caught up on correspondence and other items of emergent crisis, I finally also got the first category of new retail info products ready for the Sphere. The first set is entirely devoted to self-confidence and overcoming the basic block most guys have with moving forward after they've suffered a demoralizing setback like divorce or job loss.

These are the products we just launched today:

Positive Thinking and Self-Talk Tactics Revealed: A comprehensive guide to using self-talk to produce positive thinking and project a happier, more confident, and more successful self. Self-talk is one of the primary motivators in both driving people into a depressive state and pulling them out of one, and this guide helps the reader through that process to create a healthy, positive state of mind.

How to Build Your Self Esteem: A great guide to not only reveal what self esteem is and how to determine your own level of self esteem, but also on how to enhance your own self esteem and that of others. Becoming a leader who encourages others and takes pride in their own accomplishments is one of the hardest balancing acts there is, and this report shows you how to do just that.

51 Ways to Overcome Shyness: An excellent addition to any course on confidence, this short, easy to follow report walks you through overcoming one of the biggest obstacles most guys face in trying to achieve their goals. Whether it's engaging in conversation with a stranger, speaking your mind at work, or getting a girl's phone number, shyness is one of those unfortunate states that gets in the way of true confidence. This report tackles all of that.

The Power of Self Confidence: This four-page report is packed with useful advice on how to build self-confidence. The power of self-confidence lies in creating new opportunities, and trusting oneself to see them through. Even just using the simple daily exercises in this report can help guys get back on track and taking charge of their lives. A must have free report for anyone looking to boost their confidence.

These haven't been released as affiliate products (as yet), but they are starting to generate some buzz already. We're merely retailing them of course, but they will form one of the info product cornerstones of the Man Under Construction project, which is the whole point. Watch for more products in the coming weeks, as we build our platform for the big release of Man Under Construction (can you tell I'm getting excited?).

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The strange lives of bass

Some of you might know that I work at a small, out of the way animation studio in the country. Right outside my window is a beautiful vista, complete with a nicely stocked bass pond.

Watching the birds and following the signs of spring as they've gradually unfurled has been a great distraction over the last couple of weeks, and now that the weather is finally becoming reliably warm getting out for a walk (and hopefully soon also some terrain training) is a daily ritual.

Well, let me tell you about this bass pond...

There's a pretty healthy population of largemouth bass, and an even bigger population of various sunfish. Pumpkinseed and bluegill seem to be the most prevalent. No, I haven't done much fishing, but I may this year just because it's been a while since I've wet a line.

Anyway, there is one large-ish bass my bosses have named Freddy. Freddy lives under the dock, and is missing most of his tail fin. He's also fairly tame, and enjoys a snack of cat kibble from time to time.

But that's not what I'm writing about today. Today I saw the strangest thing I've ever seen bass do. Along the shoreline, where it's nice and warm (but still devoid of weeds, being early spring and all), smaller bass and sunfish like to sit and warm themselves. So do the minnows they snack on.

Under normal conditions, bass are ambush predators. They hide in cover or rest suspended in deeper water and strike at unsuspecting prey fish. That's important.

Today, I watched smaller bass -- sometimes alone, sometimes as a group -- rush at schools of minnows and then suddenly stop short of striking. It thought this was bizarre so I observed. Well, damned if they didn't pause a moment, and then strike one at a time.

Follow me on this. What they were doing was rushing towards a school of minnows and the stopping. The startled minnows fled into shallower water, but were trapped against the shore. From there, the bass could just dart in and grab whatever minnow they wanted.

No word of a lie, these bass were actually corralling the minnows against the shoreline for easy pickings. Yikes!

Since I've never heard of bass either a) working as a team or b) strategically corralling their prey, my only conclusion (until I hear otherwise, of course) is that this is an adaptive behaviour...something they've figured out, and then taught to others. We know they remember -- Freddy, for example, always returns to his territory under the dock, and knows the sound of footsteps will get him some kibble, even though it's been half a year since he's been hand fed. The rest of the fish know when a human silhouette appears on the shore there's a chance someone will be dumping a bucket of minnows (my boss keeps the pond stocked with bait fish as well, to feed the bass), and flock closer to the shore.

But this was a complete surprise. I find animals fascinating, because the more we learn about them, the more we realize how adaptable we are. If they're so remarkable as to develop a new hunting strategy in the absence of good cover, how remarkable must we be in overcoming obstacles that block our success? I think I'm going to mull this one over for a while.

And get my tackle ready for the season.

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