10 Tips To Wake Up On Time, Every Time

Having trouble waking up on time? If your boss is on the verge of firing you, or you're about to flunk out of a class for being good at being late, these 10 easy tips should help you get out of the bed on time.

1. Make sure you are getting enough sleep. I don't care if you're Superman. If you try to sleep for only 2 hours each night it just is not going to work. I've tried a couple different sleeping arrangements but the most effective will always fall between 5-8 hours of sleep a night. Remember, sleep is vital for muscle growth, fat loss, overall health, mood, and much more. Get those ZzzzZZZ's just don't over or under do it.

2. Invest in a quality alarm clock that will wake your neighbors up if you had to. If you think you're in control of that internal clock, think again. Get an alarm clock with a nice large display so that you can tell what time it is when it rings.

3. Before you go to sleep make the conscious choice to wake up at "x" time. This way when you get your wet dreams interrupted by your ridiculously loud alarm clock, you will see the time and force yourself to get up.

4. Avoid the Snooze Function of Death. They made the snooze function for one reason and one reason alone. For you to be too lazy to wake up. Never use that function.

5. When your alarm goes off. Wake up and STAY UP!. Do not go crawling back to your bed. Your bed is anchored in your mind as your sleeping haven. The second you place your groggy hand back on that bed you'll fall asleep faster than a Jennifer Lopez movie.

6. Place that alarm clock as far away from you as possible. There is no use placing the alarm clock next to your bed, you might as well unplug it and cuddle with it while you sleep. Put the little sucker in a place where it will still scream at you in the morning, but make you work to shut it up. I preferably like it next to my sink and shower so I can wake up and be there to shower or brush my teeth.

7. Move On! the second you wake up, move on to your next daily habit. Brush your teeth, take a shower, drink some coffee...

8. Turn some music on when you wake up. I'm not talking that little dinky music on your alarm that makes Rap sound like Polka. Jump on the computer and turn on a jam with a beat. Music controls emotions and body rhythms, use this tool to energize you in the morning.

9. Let the light in. The importance of the sun cannot be explained to a mere mortal like you. The sun regulates serotonin levels deciding if you're either happy or like them poor Alaskans, plagued with S.A.D.'s syndrome (depressed). The sun also regulates your circadian cycle (your natural alarm clock) which makes it easier for your grumpy ass to wake up.

10. Try to make your days as fun and non-stressful as possible. It's a lot easier to wake up looking forward to what is ahead of you then to wake up and want to stay in bed to hide from your troubles. Be a man and do what needs to be done!

If worse comes to worse, click the email me button on the top of this page, send me your name, number, and address, and I will personally come down with a club to wake you up (don't ask me what the club is for).

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How Reading Fast Like Superman Saved The Day

Ever find yourself with a test tomorrow and you haven't studied a single thing? Do you have to give a report on a company's profile that stacks from your desk to the ceiling? If you answered yes, then you know where I was yesterday. I believe the correct term is "screwed". If you guys didn't know this time of year is the wonderful time of finals for us students. All is fun and games until you find out you have a final in 2 hours, and the last time you've seen the required text is when you were too cheap to buy it because $150.00 can feed a family of 20 in Tanzania. Read on to see how my life was saved.

The story dates back to when this blog was created. I created this blog to document my choice to actively play the game of life. I made the choice to make myself as strong(lifewise) as I can possibly be to succeed at life. About this same time I also came to the conclusion that I need to be able to absorb information faster and more effectively to test it out and apply it. I remembered buying a book a couple of years ago by Evelyn Wood called The Evelyn Wood Seven-Day Speed Reading and Learning Program, which was an ok book(there are a lot better speed reading tutorial books out there). The problem I encountered with that book was that it was not written in a language that could be easily understood and applied.

I found myself in a dilemma. I needed to learn how to read fast but I didn't know what was real and what was fake out there. I did what I do for all my information, went to google and typed in "speed reading forum". Surprisingly I was unable to find a lot of quality information about speed reading. I did come across a ridiculous amount of products that claimed almost impossible things(I haven't been able to try the read a book in an hour products but I'm willing to give them a shot and post you guys a review, I will do a post and individually review all of these products in seperate posts). The good thing is that I came across a couple that really helped me. In a month I got my reading speed from 234 words per minute with 80% comprehension to 789 words per minute with 90% comprehension (now you know my secret on being able to post about anything and everything, I read everything there is available because I'm cool like that ; p).

Fast foward to yesterday. I am walking down the street ready to go to the gym when my phone alarm goes off (I have a treo so my microsoft outlook synchronizes the calendar with it). In bright big letters of death my phone screams to me final 7pm(like the over dramatization huh?). I almost have a major panic attack, but instead I pick up my phone and call my friend and he sends me 5 weeks worth of notes. The notes end up being 40 full pages. I look at the time, it is almost 5pm, I have 2 hours to study. I run to the Starbucks on campus where all the tables are full. I use my charm to coerce a girl into letting me share her little 3 foot in diameter table with me. I speed read all of the notes and do a little exercise called mind mapping which the speed reading courses teach to really pound the information into the memory.

7pm comes I crank out the test in under 30 minutes (we were given 1 hour and 40 minutes). Speed reading had saved the day again. I recommend speed reading to anyone and wish that they taught it in elementary school to kids. Look foward for some posts on the products that helped me the most, and the products that deserver to call the trash home.

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Remember it's the "Prestige" not the "Illusionist"

I just saw a badass movie a few weekends ago. The movie is called the "Prestige."

*Note: do not compare this movie with the "Illusionist" as it is a terrible movie, and Ed Norton does a terrible Austrain accent. I fell asleep in the "Illusionist" *

The prestige is by the same dude who did Batman Begins (Christopher Nolan) and Memento, both stellar movies. You will love the movie because it grips you from the moment it starts and doesn't let up.

I am a personal fan of Christian Bale (I loved Batman Begins, Machinist, Equilibrium). I also think Scarlett Johanson plays good supporting roles. I have noticed that directors seem to start pairing up with certain actors, and it seems that this director likes Christian Bale and Michael Caine. I have a friend of mine who works on a lot of the Spielberg movies, and he told me that it was "the best movie I have seen in five years." He also kept talking about Transporter 2, which I haven't seen yet.Read More...

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Put A Leash On That Inner Extremist

You know those people, all or nothing, live or die, starve to be skinny, forget about life to get money. I myself am currently one of these people (if you haven't been able to pick it up from my other posts). Extremism has gotten me to a lot of places in my life that I would not be at otherwise, but it has also gotten me in over my head.

I am lucky enough to be surrounded by good "grounding" people who pull my head down as it starts to float away. In the life of an extremist like myself (and probably you since you're reading this) there is a perfect balance somewhere in the middle to be strived for. The balance is the place where we can stand firmly, go after what we want, without losing sight of everything else in our lives.

You've seen those "holics" people. Gambaholics and Alcoholics. These are all horrible forms of extremism. The good thing about these extremists (the "hoics) is that it is easily catchable and shunned upon by society. Now there is the other group that is extremist because of society. That few percent of society who try to conform to society so much that they give up the balance in their life.

Everything I have done up to this point in my life has always been All or Nothing. This is a good mentality but only when applied in the right circumstances. A key example of this for me would be healthy eating habits. When I first started planning my meals and calorie counting, I went completely OCD on it. I had to count every single calorie and plan everything else or I felt like I was not at maximum efficiency. Now a days, studies show that the more extreme you are with your diet, the less likely you are to keep it. There was a time when i dropped from 17% body fat to 9% from being extreme with my health behaviors. It was a good thing that I was able to reach that low of a body fat percentage in such a short time but the sad thing was, I did not keep it. 3 Months later my body fat % was up to 20%(+3 % from when I initially started) and I was 10 pounds heavier! The extreme diet that I had put myself on did not work. I could not keep up 2X a day of Cardio and 6 fully cooked meals per day.

Fast Forward to Now a Days. I am at a comfortable 11.6% body fat and a good weight. I've eaten Chipotle a few times this week and don't pay too much attention to my meals. I just simply keep in mind what is okay, excellent, or bad food. Instead of writing down what I ate exactly I just keep that in mind. I make the time to work out but I'm not spending 4 hours in the gym any longer (I'm spending at most 30-45 minutes a day 4 days a week). This healthy lifestyle that I live now I can do with my eyes closed. Instead of having to go extreme I just live life normally how it is supposed to be and get the good results.

This analogy applies to all aspects of my life. Now my life belief is to find something that will progress me as a person, but instead of going all out at it, just chisel away slowly at a comfortable pace. What would've taken the old extremist me 4 hours a day, 7 days a week in the gym to get results but then to lose them now takes me, the "comfortable life lover," 30 minutes a day 4 days a week.

The answer is always balance. Whenever I feel like I am heading too much in one direction of life and forgetting about the other important factors, it is time to stop, look around, and throw a leash on that inner extremist.

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Are you tired of checking your voicemail?

If you're like me, you don't like checking your voicemail. I remember that I would get behind a few days on voicemails, and then I'd have like 20 voicemails to check. Some would be good, some would be not so good. I started to grow a weird fear of checking my voicemail because I knew that there would be a message from my landlord. So what my immediate solution was to disconnect my voicemail. Plus, if you think about it, you can read way faster than you can listen to stuff. Your brain thinks five times faster than the spoken word.

So that leaves a lot of wasted time. This wasn't the best solution, but it worked. At first, I was happy because I didn't have all those voicemails. But other people weren't so happy. When my landlord finally got ahold of me she yelled at me, and I started hearing through the grapevine that she wasn't the only one with problems with my service.

So, I was looking for a solution, and I heard about a company in the UK that was converting voice mail to text, but it wasn't yet available. My good buddy Ben (itsgoodtobehere.blogspot.com) is always up on the latest technology as is my buddy Randy (wewinatlife.com). Well, he just told me a few days ago about a service that does offer voicemail to text, and it is amazing. When he showed it to me, I got really excited. *Note, I have no affiliation with the company and am making no money off this.

Now, here's the cool part, and this is what I am doing. The first month is free, so you can try it out and cancel on the 29th day.

Here's how I have my system setup

1.)Go to https://simulscribe.com/ for your free trial
2.)Ensure that you set it up to send you alerts to the email that you check the most. *For Treo & Blackberry Users, you can have it sent to your phone.
3.)Enjoy and also, if you want to listen to your voicemail. They send you a wav version of your voice mail too.

So enjoy, get your voicemails transcribed for you for free. Win at life, be merry

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The Do's And Don'ts Of Being In A Bar or Club V0.2beta

You know that awkward feeling of being in a bar, standing on the wall of chumps surrounded by 3 World of Warcraft geeks who are out in public for the first time in their life?... Don't let that happen again. These few do's and don'ts of bars and clubs that have been field tested, mother approved, should help you out.

Saturday night, I am out at a bar drunk to pieces from the 6 beers that I had pounded before jumping in my friend Sarah's car (she was a sweetheart and volunteered herself to be the D.D., If we had more people like this in the world we wouldn't have wars... JK.). We arrive at the club and my friend buys me two more shots and a beer. Time for the fun to start... I look up and what do I see? A sight that I have not seen since my days of living in West Hollywood and going to Club Highlands. The imfamous "WALL OF CHUMPS". Those few lost souls that are wondering why am I in this bar/club standing with my 2 Star Wars buddies. I was once one of these guys and catch myself in that awkward situation every now and then (minus being a dork.. shuttup Star Wars is cool!). Here are my do's and don'ts to keep myself and hopefully YOU out of that situation.

DO'S
Do whatever it takes to have the most kick ass time... meaning go there with positive energy, drink if you have to (just make sure you got money for a Taxi or a poor old soul you can call your D.D.). Whatever you do just make sure you will have a fun time

Do go with fun people, you are who you hang out with and if you bring loser or debbie downer friends, you will be a loser debbie downer.

Do go with a good ratio of guys/girls. You don't have to roll in there looking like Snoop Dogg with your pimp cane but you don't have to bring the whole farm of cock's in your backyard with ya! Show them females that you aren't walking girl repellant by being with other girls.

Do Socialize!.. So important! Why go to a social watering/drinking hole if you're going to play the creepy uni-bomber role. Put your talking lips on and get ready to talk to anybody who can increase the amount of fun that you are having.

DO NOT'S
Do Not get too drunk that you get you and all of your friends kicked out of the place while managing to be the human barf fountain for the night. Keep it cool, know your limits and on top of all BE SAFE!

Do Not be the creepy guy who looks like a child rapist. Put on a nice friendly smile to the occasional person guy or girl (remember you're just being your nice and friendly self).

Do Not be afraid to talk to others. People who go to bars don't go because they're anti-social and they have nothing better to do. They go because they are fun outgoing people who like to go into society and socialize with others. Take this chance to build on your social network. Talk to anybody just because that is the social person you are. If you were at your 5 year old little sister's birthday party would you be the creepy weirdo? No you'd be the fun guy carrying the party on.

Do Not whip your penis out and wave it around like you just found out that you have one. Sorry, this one had to be said. (this goes out to you Mr. Ryan Wood... (thats a whole other story)

Those couple of tips should help ya out. Just be careful with the being social one, if you have a girlfriend like I do. If your girlfriend ends up chasing you down the street because you were talking to two random girls.. for now.. just run. Maybe one day I will post "How to talk to random girls without having your girlfriend beat the crap out of you".

til then, live life have fun

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Wake Up, Don't Eat, Work Out and Win!

No this is not an article about starving yourself throughout the day, it's an article about using your starvation from sleep to boost your cardio efficiency by 300%. So ready to wake up, take life by the hand and whip it into shape? That's the attitude! And if you're anything like me, morning means 12 noon. Time to change that! Today I'm writing about waking up early and getting that morning cardio in. It's a little hard to preach about this because I don't practice this yet...(I'll show you my no faith reader...) I am changing my daily schedule to implement this, read on and you will see why your non-morning ass should also!

I could go into the scientific jargon on why you should do this, which I will.. but I'd rather start off with what benefits you will see immediately just by implementing this. I notice that no matter what time I sleep, I wake up at 11am. I can go to sleep at 7am and wake up at 11am or go to sleep at midnight and still wake up at that time. That is obviously over sleeping, or just poor sleeping habits. By the time I wake up, half of my day has already gone by. Getting my (or your) lazy butt out of bed at 6-8am (or whenever as long as you have time before you go to work/school or just sit in front of the t.v.) will fix one of the biggest problems that I have. I will now have bought myself an extra 3-5 effective hours in my day. I'm sorry if I don't considering going to the bar with the boys effective hours, neither is sitting in front of this computer reading my blog all day.. go live life!.

The second benefit you and I will both have is that we will get the most pain staking or out of the way thing in our lives... out of the way, early. Getting the cardio in first thing in the morning will ensure that we get it done no matter what. The same way that we brush our teeth should be the same way that we do cardio (not with a toothbrush dork, i meant consistency). Our days should consist of, wake up, brush teeth, change to gym clothes and go do cardio (wherever you choose, i just do it at the gym so that i can watch prison break on my IPOD video, more on that at a later time) I personally like to keep my cardio around the 30 minute mark, no more no less. With our morning cardio out of the way, we can continue on with our daily duties feeling good that we got it done. Also, we can't deep fry a Turkey for Thanksgiving, eat the whole thing, and blame missing cardio because we're full and don't want to cramp (sorry to push my life on to yours but too bad!)

Those two benefits alone should have you on the edge of your seat like me ready to start the day off right tomorrow. If not, you suck and here are the boring medical reasons on why doing cardio in the morning in a fasted state is not only good for you but a must (no I'm not drawing you a diagram you logical weirdo).

1. It all comes down to efficiency ratios baby! Doing cardio in a fasted state is arguably the most efficient way to burn that fat off (apparently some people at Stanford have too much time on their hands and like to prove things wrong, apparently their next research is to prove gravity does not exist... JK.) The reason behind this is that when you're in a fasted (meaning you have not eaten anything all night) state your body has already burnt off all of your calories from food. Thus from doing cardio you will burn strictly calories from fat opposed to doing cardio mid day after you eat when you first have to burn off calories from your last meal before you can burn calories from fat.

2. After an over night fast your glycogen levels will be lower which means that your body will burn more fat.

3. Early morning cardio wakes you up better than a cup of coffee and will set your circadian rhythms better than laying butt naked in the sun at 6am in the morning. This means that by doing this habitually you and I will in theory be more energized when going into work.

4. After you do cardio in the morning your metabolism will spike giving putting your body into high gear. If you do cardio in the evening or at night you cannot take advantage of your super human metabolism.

5. You will be less inclined to be A.D.D. and skip your cardio work out because something more fun comes along.

6. The last and most important reason is to just do it because I said so. So send me them emails on your experiences and I'll post them for your fellow winners.

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10 Tips to Manage That Cash Flow

Managing your money can be a difficult job. We are raised in a society where Television, billboards, and your Local Amway or Tupperware neighbor are trying to tell you to BUY BUY BUY. Although buying is always fun and often time a necessity, it can lay a serious dent in that bank account of yours. Here are 10 tips that will help you manage your money and make it grow.

1. Take the time to examine how you already interact with your money (are you careful, carefree, or just a big baller?).

2. Track where you are at the moment. You can do this preferably with Microsoft Money. If you don't have Microsoft Money or you don't have the money to buy it you can use an excel sheet or just a plain paper journal. The main thing that you want to keep track of is your NET WORTH. This is done by calculating all of the money that you have going out, all of the money that you have coming in, how much you currently owe people or people currently owe you, and how much you have currently in all of your savings, checking, 401k, stocks etc.

3. Since you have a good understanding of where you are currently it is time to plan for the future. Set financial goals for you to reach. Examples would be save x amount for college fund or save x amount per month to buy that plasma you have always wanted.

4. Make those hard choices correctly. When considering if you should buy something take into consideration the want vs. need factor. Are you buying this item because you need it, or because you want it?

5. Never be late on any of your bills. Your credit is your life and if you lower that credit by only a couple points you're looking at a couple hundred dollars a month difference on that new mortgage or 50 dollars difference a month on that new car you want to buy.

6. Use your log Always, as much as you think you're a brainiac you can't remember all those transactions and debts in your head.

7. Don't be too cheap that one day you go all out and splurge. Find yourself a comfortable middle ground between being stingy and being careless.

8. Just say NO, to debts that is. Have as little debts as possible, the only debt you should have is a mortgage that is comfortable (don't buy your dream house that will bankrupt you and will get foreclosed on when it is time for it to adjust, use this awesome tool from CNN to figure out how much house you can afford).

9. Plan your retirement and do it correctly. It is easy to get caught up in the now and think that you can live off pennies later on. Make sure you give yourself some room to breathe in the later years

10. Shop around! When you buy something take the time to shop around. This includes buying your house. Just make sure you are in constant guard of your credit. You should get a good idea after 2-3 places that you've gone too. Anything more than that and your credit will take a big hit. Remember, the more you get your credit pulled, the lower it will go!

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Listen to Your iPod and get Smarter at the same time

You probably thought that the iPod was not good for much other then keeping your mind off your long workout. But studies have recently shown that you actually get smarter when you workout and listen to music.

Participants were given music while they worked out, and the study confirmed that it increased their intelligence.

Who says you can't have a great time and get smarter?

If you'd like to read about the study, click here:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-03/osu-alm032304.php

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Have No Fear, Life's Purpose Is Here

If you feel a lack of motivation in your life or just need a quick boost in your current motivation this spastic rambling is for you. We all find ourselves in different spots of our lives with each coming day. It is good to take some time every now and then to evaluate where you've been, where you are, and where you're going.

I was doing my daily round of post readings and I came across a post with a very good topic about it. The post was written by Steve Pavlina and was title "how to discover your life's purpose in about 20 minutes". In a nutshell, Steve talks about discovery of one's life purpose mainly by doing an exercise for about 20 minutes. The exercise was just okay but the article got me thinking about my own goals and where I wanted to go. The interesting question taht it provoked is, are my goals my own? or have they been implanted into me from societal conditioning of school, religion, and other various influences. I got interested and gave the exercise a try. I have yet to find my purpose with the exercise but it got me back to thinking about goals. Are my goals solid ones? Are they my own? How far have I come to reaching them?

I have a journal that i used to keep that I wrote all of my goals in. I flipped thru it and I saw that a lot of the goals that I have written down I have achieved. Create good relationships with friends and family, generate wealth, expand myself on a daily basis, staty as healthy as possible. This is where I came to a choice... Do I pat myself on the back for acheiving what I wanted or do I sit here and feel purposeless... After thinking about it. I decided to do what I do best. Love where I am at in my life and strive to be betteer with each coming day.

The next week I am going to work on goals and setting new ones that will challenge me but without setting too far that I won't be able to reach them and feel bad. Here are some simple tips I learned about goal setting through my experiences.

Set goals that challenge! - don't give into the temptation to set easy goals just so that you can reach them. Push yourself to become a better person with each coming day.

Sky is the limit but to climb Mount Everest you need to do it one rock at a time... - I used to set goals that were my end goals. Instead of looking at the big picture of my goal, I wanted to jump from step A to step Z. Don't fall into this mistake. Take it one step at a time. Instead of focusing on "I want to get rich" focus on the next step that will take you from where you are at to eventually get you to that goal. The journey is always the best part!

Write your goals down - although you might have super memory, writing your goals down keeps them not only on file, but subconciously in your head. Open up a new word document or take out a piece of paper. Write down your goals and put them in a place you can see often. This will remind you to take the right paths when they come.

Find out how to measure your progress and keep track from time to time. When a body builder work's out, he keeps track of body fat and muscle growth from week to week. With whatever your goal applies to, find out a fun and creative way to keep track of your progress.

Grind Away - with most of my goals it is always darkest before light comes. From my past experiences, it is always that last few steps in your goal that make the difference between failure or success. Good work ethic and persistance will always lead to success.

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Wonder Why You've Been Stingy Lately?

So you haven't been spending a lot of money? Stopped feeding the dogs? Maybe even... stopped feeding the kids? According to a recent article publised by the New York Times entitled "Just Thinking About Money Can Turn The Mind Stingy", thinking about money can do exactly what the title says. Some Psychologists conducted a test in which people were subconciously reminded about money. After the test, these same people showed some alarming behavior such as: need to be isolated, unacceptance of help, unwilling to give or receive help. Money is important because it feeds us and buys that 60" plasma in the living room. But thinking about it endlessly can really put some depression into your life. Check out the article here to read more on the study.

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A Low Fat Thanksgiving

In the last article we showed you the healthy things that you were already eating for Thanksgiving. In this article by Fiona Haynes from about.com, you'll learn how to kick it up a notch and really have a healthy Thanksgiving. Nothing feels better than surviving Turkey Day with your waist-line intact. Need some healthy recipes for thanksgiving? Click here and check out about.com healhty thanksgiving day recipe. Click here for recipes

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Eat On Thanksgiving Without The Guilt

Thanksgiving Day (A.K.A. Get Fat Day) is here. If you're like me, your mouth is probably watering just thinking about those yummy meal items. I personally am roasting a turkey, deep frying a second turkey, and trying my hand at baking a honey baked ham. What this means is a lot of eating, a lot of food comas, and most of all a lot of calories i need to burn. Yes chewing does take calories... but not enough to win at life!. Here is a good post by Joy Bauer on how to make the best out of your Thanksgiving Day without having to give up any of those yummy items that are on the table every year. Click here to check out her article

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Length Does Matter: A Workout Length Primer

Tired of spending your whole day in the gym? Here is some good news for you. Your weight training workouts should never last for more than 45 minutes to an hour. The optimal workout length falls somewhere around the 45-50 minute range. Workouts that last for longer than an hour put a lot of strain on your nervous and endocrine system. Specifically your growth hormone and testosterone levels will decrease while your cortisone (that stuff that makes your body hold on to fat and lose muscle instead.

Keeping your length around that time period also ensures that you get the best work out possible while not taking important time from your busy life. A good drill and game to play with your workouut partner or yourself is to try to beat your last workout's time. Keep decreasing until you get to a point where you feel the workout working and you're not wasting your whole day.

Next time someone trys to tell you that size doesn't matter. Whip it out (this post)and show them that it really does.

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Using Self-Help as an Excuse to Quit

The more I started reading personal growth books (that's right I had no life!) the more I started to believe that I had to listen to my emotions. This led me to quit every time I started to feel bad instead of hanging in there and persevering.

I would tell myself that if I could read one more book or get one more audio or go to one more seminar that my life would change and I would never have challenges with my emotions. The interesting thing is the only thing that I have found that changes your life is action. Insight without action is useless. John Locke said “A man's beliefs are reflected by his actions” Damn, I'm a slow learner. He's smart!

Please don't be like me in this regard. I'm a slow learner.

There is no excuse to ever quit, regardless of how you feel. I remember being at West Point and having the “no excuse” policy. You either got the result or you had “no excuse.” That is the policy that I'm taking these days. Either I get the result or I have no good excuse. That's it!

The policy with regards to my emotions is that I persevere until I can have the time to listen to my emotions. And guess what I am finding? Sometimes when I persevere my emotional challenges go away! Silly silly me.

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Feel in a Rut? Jump Out!

IN A RUT GET OUT

You in a bad mood? You upset because you missed the latest episode of Prison Break and want to know if Schofield was able to hot wire a turbine engine with the metal implants in his fillings?. Well, here are some tips to help you to get your butt in gear!

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1. GO ON A QUICK JOG AROUND THE BLOCK

Remember your grandma always used to say, “Johnny, get out of the house!” Well, this time and probably only this time. She was right. Sometimes all we need is a little motion and like that our emotion will change. What I like to do is go on a quick jog around the block. I grab my iPod and blast my favorite song as I run as fast I can. Some may say that you should warm-up first, and they're probably right, but when you feel bad you're not thinking about warming up =)

2. GO ON A WALK AND RELAX

Not the running type. Old college football injuries? Crazy Ex-girlfriend injuries? Whatever your story. You can still go on a walk and get some benefits. Another reason is that when you feel bad you start to anchor locations to certain states of mind. (We have Pavlov and his dogs to thank for that!)

3. SMILE

And smile for real, not the cheap smile you give to your girlfriend's dad. Studies at UC Berkley showed that when they took depressed patients and just had them smile for five minutes a day, that after thirty days they reported feeling better. Give it a shot and even if it doesn't work, at least you'll have a cool cheesy smile, like that used car salesman that you bought that Winnebago from. That's cool!

4. BREATHE

Pregnant chics practice breathing, and it helps them to deliver a baby! Imagine if you did it yourself! Follow this ratio! Breath in for a count for four, hold for a count of four, and exhale for a count of four. Why a count of four? Because it's easy to keep track of! Enjoy and before long you'll be instructing Lamaze classes!

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Go Find Confidence

Austin Powers had lots of it, James Bond has it too... No it's not a charming british accent you ditz! It's confidence. Dictionary.com defines confidence as:

2. belief in oneself and one's powers or abilities; self-confidence; self-reliance; assurance: His lack of confidence defeated him.



I can write books on the subject of confidence(I will one day just so I can come back and tell you "I told you so:"). Today confidence applies to relationships in your life. This does not just include dating but ALL (friends, family, colleagues, co-workers etc.) Now you must be asking: Who the hell is this guy? and what makes him an authority on confidence? Well my friend your stupid questions actually have a good answer. This question is answered with the story of how Geoff and I met eachother. It starts a little like this:

Once upon a time, we were dating coaches and met eachother. (Complicated huh?)

After hundreds upon hundreds of students and seminars we have given we have one main thing to say. Confidence is the most underlying key in any social interaction. Now this is easily said but the act of confidence is a whole other story. When i first researched confidence to teach to students I did what any analytical person would do. I broke confidence down to the simplest of terms to try to explain it to the students. Terms such as "love yourself, believe in yourself, not being afraid" were terms that would pop up over and over again. By the time i drilled the notion of confidence into their head they had the perfect dictionary meaning of perfect. We thought that if someone understood what confidence is they would be able to go out and shine with confidence. Man were we wrong. Confidence is not something you can read out of a book. Instead it is something you have to practice and build.

After trial after trial to teach this word confidence we found that confidence cannot be taught (now you're probably thinking: "I'm Screwed"). No my friend, lucky for you confidence cannot be taught, but it can be learned. The most common case before we learned how to show someone how to learn confidence was that the person would go out and try to act out this word confidence. When they tried to act it out they were "faking it" and came off as over compensating and socially awkward. This is where we found the golden nugget of confidence.

One cannot go out and pretend to be confidence, in fact confidence is more like a muscle that is built over time with exercise. The more you exercise it the more powerful the word. Confidence in a sense comes down to this: Being comfortable with who you are and portraying it to yourself and others at all times(especially in awksward situations). Imagine this: 2 guys on a plane have never sky dived before. Person 1 jumps around getting himself excited, he then runs up to the door screams geronimo and jumps out the plane. Person 2 walks up to the door gives a grin to the instructor and calmy says "I'll see you" below and jumps. This example shows the difference between confidence and boldness. The first sky diver was bold, facing his fears and causing a ruckus. The second sky diver calmly believed in the fact that he knew he could do it.

The good news for skydiver 1 is that boldness leads to confidence. So my challenge for you is to go out and push yourself into as many awkward situations as possible and try to act as calm and un-awkward as possible.

Next time you see that beautiful person across the bar, go introduce yourself. Next time your boss offers a position, be the one to step up. Next time your kid is looking for a role model, do it without fear and with confidence. You'll experience a lot more of life along the way.

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From Fat to Phat!

Ever wanted to step in the shoes of a fat fiance and chronicle your fat loss for millions of online and subscribers of Men's Health? Ok maybe not... but here is a good article from Men's health by David Schipper who does just that. He chronicles his whole journey from being a fat fiance to fit groom. Whew, what a relief for his fiance. David also gives tips on losing 30 lbs. in 3 months (if you read my last article, this is when you should be asking yourself: I hope that means 30lbs. of fat not muscle) Read the article here.

<source>
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Track That Fat, Lose That Ass

After years of experimenting with different forms of diets, weight loss programs, and basically everything that has ever been printed on paper or put on a cd (I'll post on that some other day) I have come down to one conclusion. There is one habit that if taken into account will guarantee success and on-going success with trimming off that fat and keeping it low. The good news is, this habit only takes about 2 minutes a week.

This habit comes down to one minor thing... Tracking your body fat. Everyone who begins the journey of diets always comes in with one mindset. They want to cut off X amount of pounds so that they can look good and feel better. I know this because I was there just a few years ago. Now this mindset in and of itself is flawed. First of all it takes into account only one detail. WEIGHT LOSS!.. Weight loss accounts for nothing. It does not take into account how much body fat and lean muscle mass that an individual has. All it takes into account is how much that scale says. This flaw can be exemplified by one analogy.

Would you rather be 6'2" Bubba the line backer who is 25% body fat weighing in at 230 pounds or would you rather be 6'2" Ken the star quarterback who is 9% body fat but also weighing in at 230 pounds. Although at first both of them seem the same. They are the same height and the same weight. The only difference is that Bubba looks like a walking blob and Ken looks like a Da Vinci sculpture got up and walked away. It comes down to one thing, and one thing alone: BODY COMPOSITION.

So next time before you make your New Years resolution of losing 10 pounds to fit into the pants that you can't wear anymore. Ask yourself one question, would you rather be a fat light weight or a fitter version of yourself? Body Fat is less dense then its cousin muscle. Body fat will fill in the gaps between muscles giving you a round puffy look. Muscle on the other hand makes you look fit and compact. Staying the same weight but lowering body fat % can lower your waist line by unbelievable amounts.

Stick to this one thought and measure yourself once per week under the same conditions. If you measure yourself after a shower Monday morning then do that for the rest of your life. If you measure yourself first thing when you wake up naked then measure yourself first thing when you wake up naked same time every week. This will keep consistency.

Lastly, never stop weighing yourself. The thought process behind this is everytime i look back on my charts and photos of my roller coaster rides of fat loss. Everytime my results would go south from me either getting lazy and not eating healthy or just not working out in general, I would stop measuring myself. This action is kind of like the heroin addict that won't admit he's addicted. He'll keep shooting up until one day he's too deep in the rabbit hole to look back. Keeping track of your body composition will slap you in the face with a frying pan every Monday you wake up. After you get slapped enough times, you're going to want to get up and do something about it.

Yesterday I posted a post with an excel sheet that will do all the math for you. Simple plug, chug, save, and be fit for the rest of your life. I'm at my perfect body composition now but I still weigh myself every Monday morning and I haven't had a fallback since.

It's getting pretty late and i have to be up in 4 hours. Tomorrow I will right a post on how exactly you should go about measuring yourself and how to optimally use the excel sheet that i have posted yesterday.

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Body Fat: Check Yo' Self

If you are like me in anyway, your bathroom mirror is probably completely defiled by scotch tapings of your weekly body fat chart. What is a weekly body fat chart? a Weekly body fat chart is used to keep track of your weekly body fat, lean mass and optimal weight. This chart (that i made from scratch) will show you if you've been naughty with them Chipotle Burritos or nice with that cardboard excuse for a meal. Download the chart here After you download the file just replace the red numbers on there with your numbers.

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Want Wolverine-Like Healing Powers? Drink Wheatgrass!

You can stop being jealous of Wolverine's manliness and super healing powers (maybe just the powers). Wheatgrass has been shown to have regenerative powers and an ability to increase your immune system. Countless studies on wheatgrass show that just a 1-2 Oz. shot of wheatgrass a day will keep you big, healty, and give you more energy than a 4-pack of Red Bulls. The chlorophyll in wheatgrass serves as an alkalizer to undo the acidicness of all of those drinks at the bar with your best-friend's sister (ooops it slipped...). Studies have also shown that a single shot of wheatgrass has more vitamins then all the vegetables in your fridge combined (this part I still doubt a little). Before you go join the X-Men, check out this article on wheatgrass here. <source>

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Finances: Check Yo' Self

Tired of never knowing how your finances look? One of the most common mistakes the average person makes is to never check on their finances and goals. Just because you had your money stolen by the school bully when you were in high school doesn't mean you should just give up. About.com offers a quick fixin' article that sums it up for even the most financially un-savvy of us. The article from About.com

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Movie Review: 007 Casino Royale

So you're not easily amused by big explosions, fancy Bond mobiles, and Bond single handedly taking on an army with a Silenced PP7? Fear not my movie content seeking friend this film has the dialogue, wit, and charm that would make any movie go-er appreciate Bond.

Today Geoff and I decided to give our fingers a break from the blog to go watch the new bond flick starring Daniel Craig so that we could selflessly post a review for you guys to read. Alright... so we’re not that selfless and we wanted to watch the movie also, but the good news is we have a hell of a review for you.

Daniel Craig does an excellent job at capturing the suave, finesse, and charm of the bond character. Besides being able to kill anyone with his bare hands, hooking up with every woman in the movie, and wearing the suit correctly, Daniel Craig brought a sense of elegance and smoothness back to the character that has not been seen since the days of Sean Connery.

The plot of the story is very well written and surprisingly has good content. It starts off with enough action to give you an epepileptic seizure and doesn't stop until the end of the movie. The movie as a whole has a more realistic feel to it. Instead of concentrating on cool gadgets that Bond can blow things up with, the movie focuses more on the character development of Bond and how he becomes the double-o agent that we know and love today.

The story of the plot is of Bond’s first mission as double-O agent. Bond is portrayed in this movie as very realistic. He bleeds, gets hurt, and is surpisingly very emotionally vulnerable. The plot does a great job of laying the foundations for the character that we know now. The plot also does a great job of showing the chemistry between Bond and one of his many Bond-Girls to come (watch the movie for this part, I don’t want to spoil too much for you).

My one complaint is that towards the end, the movie dragged out a lot. We thought the movie was going to end multiple times before it finally did.

Overall this is a must watch for bond lovers and non bond lovers.
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Drink Wine... Become An Athlete?

A recent study on mice has shown that there is hope for all raging alcoholics who want to beat Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France. So you think you're cool because you can do a 5 minute keg stand? Put your alcoholism to good use. According to a study published this month by Dr. David Sinclair of the Harvard Medical School, the drug resveratrol, which can be found in common red wine has been linked with reversing the effects of obesity in mice, extending their life, and increasing their endurance!

Before you go down 5 bottles of wine to try to get Hercules-like physique and stamina, be forewarned that the experiments have yet to be tested on humans.

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How To Win At Life Without Wasting Your Life

You don't have to be as smart as Einstein to win at life. And unlike your little brother who yells "I win at life!" when he beats you at Madden 2007, you can have a life also!

Here are some basic tips on time management to get the best out of those hours that you are awake:

Research has consistently shown that the most productive part of a person's day is the last hour that they have at work. Sound too familiar? As humans it is in our genetics to be procrastinators. The monkeys did it, your parents did it and guess what my wait to the last minute friend... you do it too! The quick answer to this problem is Time Blocking. If you tried to read the above link http://www.focusontime.com/ and got as confused as i did here is time blocking in a short applicable nutshell. Your day consists of a mere 24 hours. In that time you have to fit in sleep, work, school, the gym, meals, daily necessities, and of course... reading this blog. If you take into account down time from traveling to and from destinations and just flat out being lazy, not even a 48 hour day would be enough. This is where time blocking comes in.

Break your day into pieces. Use useful tools such as a Microsoft Outlook's calendar program or just a paper planner will do. When you look at your list of things to do it is going to look mighty big. Break them down and assign times, deadlines, and set appointments with yourself. You are the mediator in this so it is your job to kick your own butt if you look at your list for the day and the only thing that you have accomplished was wake up. (or you can shout me an email and i will march down there and kick your butt for you!!).

If you have a PDA, Smart Phone, or Blackberry make your dog jealous by using your opposable and the built in calendar to time block your day. Don't have money for expensive things like these Smart-Ass Phones for a calendar on the go? No worries!! Google and Yahoo! offer an excellent FREE calendar/planner service that will synchronize streamlessly with your Microsoft Outlook to make sure all of your dates are correct. Click the above links or go to http://calendar.yahoo.com/ or http://calendar.google.com/ to access the pages.

Taking 5 minutes before you go to sleep to time block will free up hours in your day from downtime and procrastination. Today I showed you the why? and tools for using time blocking. Tomorrow I will post part 2 of the series with a step by step how to:

My time block for posting is up and now it is time for more winning at life. ...Read More!

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How To Stay in Shape with No Work

We all know what to do, but what happens when you're short on time. Well, here is a top 5 list of things to do to stay in shape without working hard or working out!

1. Keep Liquids in Your Body. We sometimes eat when we're thirsty SO stay hydrated to avoid this trap. Drink Vitamin Water, Teas, Water, whatever, but keep liquids in your body. And drink liquid before you eat your meals because I see people who eat when really they're just dehydrated. Also, avoid fruit juices with lots of sugars as they will make you fat!
2. Do some physical activity each day. This can be anything -- from taking the stairs instead of the elevator, to walking to a store rather than driving, but do one physical activity per day. Personally, I go on a 20 minute walk each day. Getting laid does count too!
3. Have a salad with as many meals as possible. Green, leafy salads help eliminate toxins from the body so that you don't crave junk-food as much. This will also help fill you up so that you don't turn to as many Grains.
4. Get Away from Grains! Processed carbs make you fat in a heartbeat. They feed grains to pigs to fatten them up. Do you think they act differently in the human body?! People eat these to help fill themselves up, thing is that grains aren't as good for you as we once thought. So watch your grains to watch your waistline.
5. Have a junk meal! We started eating junk food when we were like two years old when we had a our first birthday cake, and why stop now?! The only thing is that we need to moderate ourselves. No one likes that word BUT here's how you do it. Once a week have a junk meal where you eat what you have been craving for that week. Afterwards it's back to business!

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USING THIS BLOG TO WIN AT LIFE FOR DUMMIES V1.0

Today is the unofficial launch of How To Win At Life's official blog. This will most likely be the biggest accomplishment of your life up to this point (unless your name is Spider-Man, then you automatically win at life). The fact that you have found this blog alone has made you a candidate to win at life. The only question is ARE YOU MAN (or WOMAN) enough? If your answer is no please click this link to waste your life away now if you are like myself 5 years ago, sick of wasting your life away broke, playing video games, and just losing at life in general, please read on!

This blog (if you cannot already tell) is based upon winning at life. When we say life, we mean every single aspect of life. We will cover everything from fashion to health and wealth and even to.... (drum roll) dating and relationship tips.

As of now the blog will be split into 5 categories which we will try to update as much as possible. The five categories are:

General - This category is for general announcements just like the one you are reading. It is also here for us to bitch slap those who aren't winning in life and also my favorite: the haters (go lose at solitaire by yourself and come back when you're ready to win)

Health - Health tips, tools, and the occasional health boot camp schedule where i will be your host from hell

Wealth - We're rich and guess what you can be too! How to increase your income and further your career, or how to jump start a brand new one!

Relationships - Got a Wife? Got a Girlfriend? Got a F@!% Buddy? Want one? or if you're out there for the occasion one night stand our no hassle, no haggles, no bull $h!t (ohh no it still spells feces) tips.

And last but not least, the element that puts them all together, bundles them up and prepares them for the public... STYLE

Style - Are you a dork? Are you cool? Are you a champ? I bet you are!! but keeping that baby blanket on your bed as a grown man is not going to get you anywhere in life

Now would be the perfect time for me to introduce myself and the other writer and list our accomplishments in life. Instead I will write you tons of quality material for you to fall in love with. Then we might tell you who we are (if you're lucky).

Let the winning begin!

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A Never Ending Journey to Win At Life

I could go into the usual blog introduction and give you the coming of age story of my life, but i won't. I'm here to share with you guys my personality of over achievement (My Bloginality is ESTJ!!!). Am I someone who is ultra successful and has won at life? NO... but i am currently winning at life. This blog will detail you my thoughts, tips, tools, and even questions (I am no Expert) on how to win at life. Now you're probably asking yourself: How does he know if he wins at life or not? Good question! it all comes down to progress charts. Basically I will take the basic Anthony Robbins view on the three parts of life: Health (fitness, overall health etc.), Wealth (career, savings, investments, finance, etc.), and Relationships (family, friends, significant others etc.). Now you're probably asking yourself: what is considered "winning" is it a scale of 1-10? is it a 5 star rating? Well my fellow champion of life that is all up to you to decide. For some it is an easy answer: I want this much money, this hot of a wife, and to be 7% body fat weighing 150 lbs. For others it might be: As long as I am progressing (getting in my workouts, actively dating, trying my best at my job) I will be happy.

IT IS UP TO YOU TO DECIDE!!

lets just hope that you don't have a personality type of a chicken.

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