Well anyways “the coop” played one of my favorite songs…Feed my
Frankenstein…and it was AWESOME! If you ever saw the movie Wayne’s
World…that is the song that they hear at the concert.

Well anyways it got me thinking about Frankenstein since during the
show they had this big awkward puppet (like 15ft tall) that was
supposed to represent the Frankenstein monster.

When you actually look at what the Frankenstein monster actually is
it is a collection of body parts from several different dead people
and possibly even animals. The end is a monster that is hideous.

A lot of people that try to write their own training programs often
times attempt to do the same thing. They take “this” and combine it
with “that” in the hope of creating something great…but until you
know how they might interact with each other. Sometimes you get
something great…sometimes not so much.

Well if you are on a program don’t try to mix and match it if you
don’t understand how. You can create a monster that way. Once you
understand the hows and whys then you reserve the right to make
yourself into a monster.

Well that’s it for today. If you ever have a chance to see Alice
you should take it. He puts on an awesome show.

Eric J. Moss

P.S. You rock!

First the bad news. The average Thanksgiving dinner contains about 3000 calories according to research conducted by the American Council of Exercise. While many “fitness people” would recommend taking in low calorie, tasteless whatevers it’s probably a bit late for that and even if it wasn’t I say enjoy the holiday because whatever damage is done can be undone when you get back. And heck, according to Joel Marion (author of the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet) eating high calorie meals can up your leptin levels and increase your fat burning potential. So don’t worry because you don’t get fat in a day even if you are putting Micheal Phelps to shame with your Thanksgiving eating habits. The problem here is what happens AFTER Thanksgiving break.

If walking around the local stores is any indicator of what’s going on outside it’s that the Christmas holiday’s are upon us. I can’t even stomach walking through a store because there is so much Christmas music being played that by the time Christmas gets here I’ll be waiting for Mr. Clause with a baseball bat. Or maybe my grinchlike ways are starting a bit early this year.

Well anyways before I get off tangent with a rant that says that people have forgotten what the real meaning of Christmas is about (see if you can tell me where the tradition of “stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there” comes from) the and all that stuff let me point out what the entire month of December is like for most people. Most will go to work where some coworker has brought in some cookies in the shape of snowmen, Christmas trees or Santa’s head and offer it to their coworkers.

Some might say “No thanks.” but the majority of people will say “yes”. Yeah one time won’t kill your goals but unfortunately it isn’t just one time. One time quickly leads to two, two leads to four, add that to the multiple Christmas parties that they’ll be attending and pretty soon everybody’s this becomes the description of how everybody looks.

He had a broad face and a little round belly,

That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And then bam right as the New Year hits the gyms drop their rates in an effort to get a $hit ton of new customers 75% of which will never step foot in the door again despite having paid for a years worth of gym membership. So how then can you combat this so you never get too far over?

Bring back the Terminator mentality baby!
A cyborg isn’t going to accept cookies if they aren’t in line with his mission. A T-100 isn’t going to skip training sessions if it isn’t in line with his mission. Well at least not on the weekdays.

You see if you are dedicated 5 out of 7 days you won’t lose any progress at all and you’ll still be able to attend Christmas parties and that sort of thing on the weekends which is when most parties get thrown. You can do your best to maintain it now, or you can get all Spartanesque after the holidays. Hell if you want to steal a kiss under the mistletoe or at midnight New Years Eve don’t you think you are going to want to have your physique under control?

not after a bowl full of jelly

Having a targeted fat loss plan even for just 2 weeks will do more then having a “kind of” plan for a year. I mean seriously how many people have you seen that claim they were on a diet or watching what they eat and yet are eating cookies and cakes? Yeah they watched it go right down the gullet.

she's watching what she eats but her eyes are closed

Eric Moss over and out

The ceremony took place in a church that I grew up as a part of. You may not know this about me but I am half Filipino and we incorporated 3 Filipino customs into the ceremony.

From there we got into the limo and started cranking out some rockin tunes (that’s how I do things) and went off to the reception where we had pictures taken. Let’s just say they are very me.

My sister is a lot like me as you can tell.

best man doing what he does.

Getting the garter, the right way.

…carrying suitcases ;P

Well it is time for me to sit back and relax and enjoy our days on the beach as a newlywed. A drink in one hand, a titanium wedding band on the other and just let it all have been worth it.

My wedding band. Titanium, that is what the space shuttle is made out of. Light weight but strong.

(Limo and reception pics by my friend and groomsmen Mike Dlugosz which I hijacked from facebook)

Eric J. Moss game over and out

In one of the early fight scenes Johnny Dep and Orlando Bloom start sword fighting in Orlando Bloom’s character’s (is that proper English??? I have no idea ) blacksmith shop.

At around 3:06 into that you see that the sword fighting ends up on opposite sides of a wagon which acts as a bit of a see saw. The pirate Johnny Depp’s character (Captain Jack Sparrow) is locked in constant combat with Orlando Bloom’s character (Will Turner) where they have to remain in balance with each other and life and fitness can be very similar to this situation. Let’s imagine for a moment that Orlando Bloom is the fitness side of us and that Johnny Depp is the “rest of life” side to us. If one gains the upper hand they can quickly start to take over and the wagon itself loses it’s balance.

For most people, the pirate Johnny Depp wins. They start out their training programs with the best of intentions but life takes over and their diet and exercise program goes to Davey Jones’ locker.

For others (definitely not the majority) the “goody goody” Orlando Bloom wins. These are the people who never ever cheat on their diet and their friends run off because they have become so unbelievably boring. fitness has taken over their life.

I was out at a bar this past Friday celebrating a friend’s 30th birthday. I was drinking beer and eating buffalo wings and for whatever reason people always want to do shots with me just like a regular guy and yet I am able to stay ripped and keep my friends. The next day was back to normal and I had a maximal strength training session. I was keeping life balanced with my fitness.

At that same birthday party I was reflecting with some friends about a wedding we went to earlier this year where the groom had gone through a fat loss program a couple years back and to this day doesn’t cheat…ever. He didn’t even have any of his wedding cake. Does that sound balanced to you? Not to me and it certainly doesn’t sound like fun.

The fact of the matter is we do all this training and eating right stuff to improve our quality of life. What good is being fit ripped and strong if you are unable to ever enjoy it? Sure going all Spartan is great when you have to achieve a goal but if you come back to the see saw analogy it’s because one side (the life side) was starting to take over and balance would have been lost if you weren’t able to lean harder to one side to regain it.

Cheating on your diet can do more then just prevent yourself from going crazy. The author of the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet Joel Marion uses it to replenish your Leptin levels (which he believes is the missing part of the puzzle in many fat loss diets and I can’t say I disagree with him). Remember that whole thing about your body adapting to what you do.

I stay ripped 24/7. It actually isn’t that hard when you are well balanced. The first part that you need to do is realize your life has taken your fitness out of balance. Lean hard (attack fat like an all out war) to one side till you get to where you want to be fitness and body composition wise. When you feel like you have lost enough fat you can start to reintroduce the things that make life fun again…like beer and cheeseburgers (unless you are following Joel’s diet at which point just do what he tells you and remember to only stay on it for 25 days.)

When you are where you want to be, keep track of where you are. I weigh myself pretty much daily and try to stay within 5lbs of my target weight. If I start to get a little soft in the midsection or notice my strength is lacking I dedicate myself harder till I am within a comfortable range again. I am able to stay good “most of the time” so that when my friends come over for that other “some of the time” I can have a beer or 4 of them without feeling guilty.

I'm only about 5lbs heavier then this normally.

One of the things that my clients and I have been trying to do is open a kettlebell class at her job in the lunch hour for the employees of their company. They have been raving about the results they have gotten (fat loss, strength and conditioning and all simultaneously) and it’s partially because of the mindset change they have gotten.

So they’re discussing it with a coworker and she is saying things like…
“Oh I can’t do a bootcamp.” (It’s only called a bootcamp because it sounds cool and is normally outdoors. Calling people maggots isn’t really my thing)

“My back wouldn’t be able to handle it.” (Let me be the judge of that. If it’s beyond my scope my desire to not injure first overrides my ego.)

Now at this point one of my client’s simply walks away from her. She herself moonlights as a personal trainer and understand how frustrating this sort of thing can be. A person like that is beyond our help because everything you do starts in your head.

You have got to keep an open mind in order to learn anything. Yeah keep what you know but just store it to review it later. My client (the personal trainer) needed to prepare for her wedding and instead of letting her ego take over she took me on to help her lose fat and we accomplished her main goal the first month of training. That’s because she kept an open mind.

A professor visited a Zen master to enquire about Zen. As the master was speaking the professor kept interupting with his own opinions. So the master served some tea. He overfilled the cup and tea went everywhere. The professor shouted “the cup is full, there is no room for more tea!” The master replied “like this cup, your mind is so full of its own opinions, there is no room for anything new, in order to taste my tea, you must first empty your cup.”