You helped change my day

I'll tell you what. Isn't it so easy to tell people what to do
sometimes and then not even take the advice yourself?

My Monday started out as an off-day for me. I felt so tired.
Maybe it was because I was up late watching the Red Sox win
the World Series, but to say the least I was not in the mood to
do anything.

This coming the morning after I sent you the information about
the 'Choose to Move' Contest.

Then I opened my email box and there were some emails from
people wanting to get in on the contest. So far it's been a nice
response, but frankly I am expecting a lot more people to get
involved in this.

So if you haven't yet, simply reply to this email and tell me all
the choices that you are making that are holding you back from
your fat loss goals and how you plan on changing them and you
get a f.r.e.e gift.

I didn't say what that was last email but the people who have
already gotten involved are PUMPED about them so I figure I can
just let you know now....to maybe 'nudge' you into action.

Once you enter you get a goal setting package to get you started
and you get my email consulting services at no cost until November
30, 2007 when the contest ends.

I am going to set a deadline by when this email has to be sent by
you so you have enough time to make a significant change. The
deadline for entry will be Monday, November 5, 2007. So once
Tuesday comes, no more entries.

That will give you roughly 3 and a half weeks to do something great
with both your body and life. And if you think that's not enough time
to make a significant change, I'll just be blunt and say you're wrong.

You can make some pretty awesome changes in about 21 days
typically.

So email me and get involved. Winner of the contest gets a prize pack
that's never been given out (because it's new) and will cost quite a bit
of money when it hits the market.

I'm not telling you what it is though, because like I said in the last email
I want you to do this for YOU, not because you might win something
for f.r.e.e.

But back to my Monday. Boy did I not feel like going to the gym.
You just have those kinds of days, you know what I mean?

But reading through my emails of people wanting to get involved in the
contest and change their bodies reminded me that all I was doing right
then was making a choice not to exercise.

All I had to do if I wanted to exercise was MAKE THE CHOICE to
exercise.

So that's what I did. I also made the choice to do a workout at home
rather then go all the way to the gym.

So what I did was grab my back pack, found all of my big and heavy
certification books and put 'em in. I got my bag to weight a little over
20 pounds. Not bad.

Sure as hell makes pushups and the plank a little tougher.

My workout was about 30 minutes and I kind of experimented a bit
to see what kind of exercises I could do with a back pack and I
honestly did an incredible full body workout.

I was doing Turkish get ups, Bulgarian squats, pushup varieties, calf raises,
shoulder presses, backpack rows, and I even tried to do some backpack
swings.

Now I know you might not recognize some of those exercises, but when
I get some time I'm going to do my best to put together a backpack
workout package with some pictures and workouts to give to you.

If you don't have any old textbooks from school, I'm sure your kids do.
You can use pretty much anything that has some weight to it. And it's
really easy to take a book out to lighten the load for certain exercises.

One more point I'd like to make...actually more like advice.

Don't eat chili 5 minutes after a solid workout like I did. Things can
go from good to bad pretty fast :).

I don't know what I was thinking.

Anyways, I as you have my off-days, but it really is just a choice if
you're going to let that off-day slow you down or make it into an
amazing day.

Because of YOU, my day turned amazing.

How about you make the choice now to change a few things that
are slowing your fat loss goals down and let me know about them.

I know tonight is Halloween but remember it's
YOUR choice how much candy you eat.

So what do you say?

Are you ready turn things around and start taking the steps to
success?

I look forward to hearing from you,

Dan Grant

PS - The value of the package you get just for signing up would
usually cost $150, but it's all yours f.r.e.e by entering the 'Choose
to Move' Contest.

life and it's choices

I am consistently getting questions every day about fat loss. Most
people are asking this question specifically so I thought I would
share it with you.

"What's the best way to lose weight?"

There's a lot of answers to this question but the one I want to
focus on right now is the concept of moving and being active.

When I was growing up, I was the typical kid who played every
sport possible and literally tried to play them as much as possible.

The only thing that stopped me from playing outside with friends
was homework (not my choice) and Saturday morning wrestling on
television.

These days that's a very different story, isn't it? Kids are rushing
home from school to play video games, not to play a highly
competitive and often times fight producing game of street hockey.

Obviously the problem isn't just with kids, though. The whole world
is getting fatter and fatter. We are now in a day and age where we
know so much about the body and effective ways to optimally
lose fat, but we're continuing to get fatter and fatter.

Video games are actually starting to promote how they help with
weight loss. The Nintendo Wii is one the hottest selling systems
right now. I read an article how a guy lost 8 pounds playing with the
Wii system. Is there any magic to the Wii?

No. It just promotes movement.

50 years ago, we were typically a fairly healthy nation, other then
the fact that doctors were promoting smoking, but that's a different
story.

Obviously our food choices have changed, as well and a variety of
other choices that our advanced society seems to introduce to us on
almost a daily basis now.

But the key word there is 'choices.'

Just because video games are the hottest things going doesn't mean
your kids have to have them. Even if they do have one why not just
set a time limit to an hour a night to start.

I remember when I got the original Nintendo after begging my dad
for it. I think I was 8 or 9 at the time and I played Mario Bros. like
a champ with my brother and sister. But it never stopped me from
going outside and running around. I was able to make that choice.

The choices that get introduced to us all the time are ways to make
us lazier then we already are. That's actually a big time selling point
for a lot products.

"You can do such and such all from the comfort of your couch"

{!firstname}, you signed up for my newsletter because you are
looking for answers on how to get in shape and live a great life.

I think we all might have to take a step back and look at all the choices
that are out there and figure out some of the choices we're making
that are stopping us from fat loss and overall health.

Be honest with yourself. If you're watching too much tv or going
to fast food joints too much write it down and commit to changing
that.

Last time I did this I got a huge response so I'm going to do it again.

I want you to email me your list of choices that you
feel are holding you back and how you plan to change them.

I'll give you special gift that's never been handed out before and in
30 days you will write to me again about how your new choices
have changed your body and life and if you have made the greatest
changes in your life you will get an extremely special gift from me.

I won't tell you what it is because I want you to first do this for YOU.
Not because you might get something for f.r.e.e.

Maybe I can call it the "Choose to Move" Contest.

Let me check my calendar to see when the contest should
end........ok, I'm back. The contest will end on November 30, 2007.

So email me as soon as you can to get things started. Remember,
you have to email me with your choices that are holding you back
and how you plan on changing. Just simply click 'reply' to this email.

Look forward to hearing from you,

Dan Grant

PS - So on November 30 or before you just have to email me with
how you've improved your body and life in just one month by changing
your choices. Before and After pictures would be great too, actually
they'd be awesome. Have fun with it and start moving.

The Rules of Lifting

How'd your weekend go?

Mine was pretty busy. All I've been doing is writing some
information up on everything from my philosophy to "How to Love the
Job You Loathe" (It's a book by Debbie Shelton and she asked me to
contribute a chapter for it because of my mindset techniques and
thoughts).

I've also been doing some nutritional research to develop a plan
for high school baseball players. I will be the Strength Coordinator
for a local baseball academy this coming winter.

So it's all pretty neat...and busy.

Today I want to share with you a piece of something else
I had been working on this weekend.

It's going to be for my email coaching business that will be
getting started in the coming weeks.

When people sign up for coaching they will get a bunch of
material on everything from nutrition to exercise to commitment
sheets. It will be a pretty nice size package.

There will be a section in it called the Rules of Lifting (tentative
name as of right now).

So I thought I'd share one of my 'rules' with you right now.

Actually this one's more like a myth.

You can't shape your muscle.

I hear the term 'tone' and 'shape' a lot from people.

"I want to tone my arms"

"I really would like to shape my calf muscles"

People think the way to do that is by lifting lighter weights and
doing a high number of reps.

There's still a lot of trainers out there that teach that too.

Here's what 'toning' really is.

It's building lean muscle and burning fat that's on that muscle.

So if you want to tone your arms you're going to have to lift some
heavy weights to 'build' the muscle.

I think the point I'm trying to point out here is that you can't
literally 'shape' your muscles to look the way you want them too.

Your muscles will form the way they are genetically supposed to on
your body.

So the simple fact of the matter is this: Just focus on building
lean muscle instead of toning your muscle. You'll have to focus on
probably losing fat first if you're overweight, however. If there's fat on
top of the muscle you will never be able to have a 'ripped' body
because the fat is hiding it.

And whether you like it or not, the fact of the matter is that to
build muscle you have to lift heavy weight.

Till next time,

Dan Grant

PS - 9 experts, 1 book on everything you need to know about how
to succeed at a fat loss program. Keep your eyes open because
it will be ready very soon and there will be a special launch when
that happens.

Which one of these things doesn't belong here?

Today I was working out at one of the local gyms here in
Winchester and I felt like I was in that old game I used to play as
as kid.

Do you remember that game, Which one of these things doesn't belong?
I think that's what it was called anyways.

Remember how there were usually 4 or 5 objects and you had to pick
the object that didn't match or had no relation to the other 4
objects?

That was ME on this morning.

I was in the free weight section (my usual hangout in gyms) doing
some dumbbell lunges. There were only 4 other people in the fr.ee
weight section with me so it was nice. I hate when it's busy.

To my amazement (well maybe not actually amazed, but caught of guard
to say the least) EVERY person who was in the fre.e weight section
was doing concentration curls.

The exercise where you sit down with a dumbbell, put your elbow on
the inside of your leg, and proceed to curl the dumbbell and get
a 'pump' in your biceps (which is about all the exercise is actually
good for).

Now, I'm not all against isolation exercises as some people might
think, but I really do believe that they are almost pointless
when it comes to fat loss training.

The more muscles you can work in the shortest amount of time will
boost your metabolism sky high and it will prevent the unwanted
hormone cortisol to enter your body.

Research has shown the cortisol enters the body at around 43 minutes
during intense weight training. Cortisol is known for eating away
away at lean muscle tissue, which isn't good if your transforming
your body into a lean mean fighting machine...sorry, I get carried
away sometimes.

So compound lifts such as squats, deadlifts, chin ups, pushups, hang
cleans, clean and presses, etc. are far more useful because they
work a lot of muscles at one time and rev up your metabolism.
Same thing goes for your abs too. Crunches don't get you six pack
abs. Actually, I would dare to say (might get some heat for this
comment) that NO ab exercises you do while lying flat on the floor
will get you a set of six packs.

I mean they are isolation exercises too so why would they be any
different then concentration curls.

My abs have been 'showing' more and more lately and I don't do ANY
floor (on my back) or stability ball exercises. I'll use the rollout wheel,
every once in a while, and as all of my clients now (and love) the
plank is a key exercise in my training.

Remember last week I mentioned the study that showed you lose
stomach fat FIRST while doing interval training?

If you want a six pack then you need to be doing interval training
and have a solid nutrition plan for one thing. But I also think you
need to have a program that focuses around compound movements to
really help with getting your metabolism to high fat burning levels
all day long.

There's a whole teleseminar happening next week on six pack abs.
I'll be there listening in and I hope you will be too. I'm always
interested in seeing what kind of new information I can pick up.
It's a no-cost teleseminar too, so don't worry about that.
It's all at IWantAbsNow.com.

So, which one of these things doesn't belong here?

I guess I didn't on today :).

Have a great weekend!

Dan Grant

PS - The six pack teleseminar series does start next Monday so
go sign up and learn some awesome info at IWantAbsNow.com.

spot reduction...can it really happen?

I wanted to let you know about some new research results I found out this
past week.

Professor Steve Boucher, an Australian fat loss expert, found in a
recent study that he performed that "high intensity intermittent
exercise (i.e. intervals) may result in greater fat loss in the
abdomen".

If you are one of the millions of people out there looking to lose
some inches on their stomach then intervals are the way to go.

I've been teaching that for a long time now, but I still see so many
people performing long, slow cardio at gyms with little to no results.

Make the change if you haven't done so yet.

I explain in detail the proper way to perform intervals in my
fr-ee 'Get on Track' Fat Loss 5-day E-course, which you can grab
at http://myfatlossrevolution.com for a limited time.

While we are on the subject of losing some fat around the belly I
should let you know about fre-e teleseminar series my friend and
colleague Scott Colby is putting together.

It's a weekly teleseminar series that features some top name guys in
the industry focusing on how to get a six pack.

Scott was the masterming behind a highly successful teleseminar
series last January called, My Ultimate Body Makeover.

The information is guarateed to be practical and cutting edge.
I will send you all the information later this week, though.

Have a successful week

Dan Grant

PS - remember if you aren't sure how to perform intervals properly,
just go to http://www.myfatlossrevolution.com to sign up for my
fre-e e-course that gives you specific details on how to do them.

What if fat loss was a sport?

I wanted to tell you about a little revelation I had recently.

By now you might know that I moved to Virginia and it's been great. Nice weather, nice scenery. As I'm getting my business going down here, though, I needed something to do.

I volunteered to help coach the Varsity Baseball Team at Millbrook High School for their fall ball season. It's been a blast so far. I've taught the kids my hitting philosophy (I used to play college ball at the University of Northern Iowa) and we've also done some training.

As we were training a thought just randomly popped in my head.

Why don't people do more 'sport specific' type exercise?

That might not make sense to you, but it was clear as day to me.

What if we thought of fat loss as a sport? What would be the type of training that we'd do?

Well, first I would have to analyze which sports had the fitter, most ripped athletes. Right away, sprinters come to mind. Other sports that come to mind are soccer and tennis. You don't really see any unfit soccer and tennis players at higher levels.

Then I would analyze their training. Sprinters do a lot of full body heavy lifting and they sprint, of course :).

Tennis players and soccer players don't necessarily lift as heavy or as hard as sprinters but they do use fast bursts of energy for a short period of time with an extended rest.

Sounds kind of like interval training, doesn't it?

Most guys would love to look like sprinters...so why don't they train like one?

Most females would love to look the way female soccer and tennis players look...so why don't they train like one?

I understand the time commitment that must be put in to become an actual superstar athlete, but that doesn't mean you can't do what works for these athletes.

Craig Ballantyne, is writing a chapter for my upcoming ebook The Degrees of Change Fat Loss Plan on cardio training and he loves intervals.

His clients get results like you wouldn't believe. Maybe we should all start doing what the best are doing?

Till next time.

Live Strong,

Dan Grant

PS - If you haven't signed up at www.myfatlossrevolution.com yet I would now, because I have put together a 'Get on Track Fast' Fat Loss 5 day E-course and it will only be there for a little be. If you have signed up you should either just be getting it or just finishing. Let me know what you thought of it.