90% Necessity

Well, we're halfway through January and, unfortunately, we are already starting to see the excuses come out.

But here's the bottom line:

If you want to truly "transform" your body, then you can't keep doing what you used to do. And that means not drinking a gallon of beer to wash down wings/burgers/insert_greasy_meat_pile_here.

Or for you it might mean not snacking on a bag of candy while you are bored at work. Or eating half of your husband's Doritos while you watch 24.

What do you think got you into this situation in the first place?

Whatever it was, you have to stop it.

I can write all the programs I can possibly think of, but in the end, its ALL up to YOU.

It's not hard to find the social support you need online. You should even have it offline as well.

And you also have all the info you need to succeed (although you probably didn't need to get an expert to tell you not to eat wings and drink beer if you want to lose fat).

You have everything you need to succeed.

So if you are having a tough time, there are a couple of things you have to ask yourself:

1) What do I want more?
a) Beer, soda, chips, wings, candy, & greasy pizza
OR
b) A lifetime of success built on the foundation of a health 2007.

If you choose b, you'll show your husband or wife, kids, family, and friends that when you set your mind to something, that you will come through, even if it means skipping pizza night with guys or dessert night with the gals (I don't know if "dessert night" actually exists, but it sounds like fun).

Next, you have to ask yourself if you are adhering to the "90% Necessity".

For nutrition info, one of the top guys in the biz is Dr. John Berardi, Ph.D. (See Dr. John's Precision Nutrition Site). Its no surprise he's worked on 3 books for Rodale/Men's Health.

Anyways, John likes to talk about the 90/10 rule. You need to have 90% compliance to your nutrition plan to have success.

So ask yourself, are you eating according to plan 90% of the time? Now most of you will say yes, if you rely on self-perception. But if you use John's compliance grid, you'll get an honest wake-up call.

Take a piece of paper and create a 6x7 chart (6 meals, 7 days). That gives you 42 boxes. check each time you eat correctly, and mark an X each time you go off track.

You only have FOUR X's for that entire sheet. Any more, and you are under 90%. So let's say pizza night turns into pizza night plus pizza midnight snack plus pizza breakfast. Uh-oh, thats 3 bad meals, leaving you only 1 more bad meal for the entire week!

If you aren't at 90% compliance, and you wonder why things aren't going so well in the fat loss department, give yourself the truth test of the compliance grid.

If you really want to succeed, aim even higher. And eventually, when you do go off-track, you'll realize how crappy those meals make you feel, and will give you even more inspiration to stay on track.

Good luck, enjoy your outings and everyone have a good weekend, but don't rely on booze and grease to make a day of it.

If you do, just remember, there are consequences to each of your actions, and you'll soon figure out what you value most (booze and beer, or transformation success).

If you can't go 6-weeks, let alone 7 days, without a 3000-calorie plus pig-out, you don't need me to tell you how things are going to end up.

Be consistent and compliant,
CB

P.S. What's stopping you from succeeding?
Do you need more workouts? Do you need more variety?

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See the Workout Pass video here!