The Paleo Diet

For those of you that don't know, I started Crossfit a couple of years ago. I have heard all of the jokes, you know the ones like, "The first rule of Fight Club is to never talk about Fight Club while the first rule of Crossfit is to talk all the f****n time about Crossfit." Well, I must admit that when you start feeling that you are getting results it is difficult not to talk about it.

In saying that I don't think that I have given it 100%. I still can't do a pull up. I still struggle with double unders and my burpees seem to have gotten worse over the last 100 weeks but I had a couple telling me that I look a lot more muscular and look better than before. That is really cool. Thank you.

One of the things that I have learnt is that despite how hard you work in the gym you are not going to get anywhere unless you really watch what you are putting into your body. There is no point in busting your gut at the gym and then going home and having pizza and french fries. (By the way, I am a New Zealander and that is how we eat pizzas with french fries.)

The Crossfit community follow something  call the Paleo Diet and I it is interesting. Lots of protein, lots of vegetables, some nuts, some eggs (I love eggs), and some fruit. Of course that isn't everything but it seems to be working for me.

At the moment, I am reading a book called the Paleo Diet mistakes and I was really happy this morning to read that kimchi is an accepted part of the Diet. I love kimchi although the first time I had it in Korea I got food poisoning. Of course it could have been the meat we had or anything but I blamed the kimchi. It is good though and I have forgiven it and it is a major part of my Paleo Diet. I like it mixed up with pork. MMMM, delicious.

I think with anything that you want in your eating regime you need to make sure that you can keep it going for life. It isn't a two week thing, it is a lifelong thing.

Give it a try and see if you can stick to it.

About three years ago I was watching the New Zealand version of 60 Minutes. One of the articles (is that the right word?) was made by Peter Fitzsimons. For New Zealanders you will probably remember him as a rugby player who played a few test matches for the Wallabies, the Australian national rugby team. He talked about sugar and how it was making him fat. It was while watching this I was introduced to the Sweet Poison book and David Gillespie, who wrote the book was interviewed for the piece.

Recently I read another one of David Gillespie's books, The Sweet Poison Quit Plan. This book had a lot of recipes without using sugar as the author believes that it is sugar that made him fat and sugar is the culprit for a great deal of our health problems today.

I must admit that I have a sweet tooth. I love my ice cream. I love chocolate. I love lollies (as we call them in New Zealand) and I love the cream puffs (choux cream) that they sell in Japan. I'm getting hungry just writing this. However after reading this I am determined to wean myself off the sugar. I have bought into the Paleo Diet. I have read that fat is actually good for you and sugar makes you fat. Judging from my research and my experience it seems that they are right. The more sugar you eat, the more you want and that gets you fat. While by eating healthy fats the body seems to know how much is enough and sends a message to your brain to say that you have had enough.

One of the interesting things from reading these books is that you should limit your fruit intake. We have been brought up with the idea that fruit is healthy, which is it but you need to have it in moderation.

Last year my friend suggested that I buy dark chocolate with a high cacao content. He said that whenever I felt like some sweet food to have that. It was a very good idea as I trained my body to not want sugar anymore. Unfortunately like most people, this wasn't sustainable. However after reading The Sweet Poison Quit Plan I can see how it is done and hopefully I will be successful this time, although I do like the odd Moscow Mule. I wonder if I can cheat. Wish me luck.

For people who are interested, here is David Gillespie's Amazon page and if you want to watch Peter Fitzsimons' piece, you can see it here.

Good luck with your weight loss. I will be back in a few months with a progress report. By the way, I am 97 kgs (214 pounds) today. My goal is 92 kgs. (203 pounds)

The Rejection Challenge

Recently my friend made me aware of this website. :http://fearbuster.com/  A guy by the name of Jia Jiang over the course of 100 days went out of his way to be rejected. He was starting a company and he wanted some investors but he was scared of being rejected. So he gave himself a challenge to be rejected 100 times over 100 days.

This sounds all very well and good but after a few times being rejected, he found that people were starting to say yes. So he would ask some outlandish requests and people would say yes.

My personal favourite is, apparently, Jiang knocked on somebody's door and asked if he could play soccer in the guy's backyard. The answer was yes.

I would like you to join me in the 100 day rejection challenge that I am going to try. Everyday, starting from the 21st of May, I'm going to try to get rejected.

The thought of this challenge literally scares the s**t out of me but I know that if I can go through with it then I can probably accomplish anything I want and I think I might start getting results that have been alluding me over the years.

Jiang filmed his rejections and that is great. I don't think I am going to do that but it might be quite good to have that accountability. That's basically up to you.

Good luck and I hope it works out for you. I will come back in 104 days and tell you how it went.

Confidence Account

I few days ago I participated in a webinar presented by one of the authors of a Golden Hour book that I have a read a couple of times recently, it is called 6 Months to 6 Figures by Peter Voogd. You can find it on Amazon here.

Peter spoke for a couple of hours and although there was some technical difficulties with the production, it was very easy to see and hear Peter's passion and enthusiasm for his work.

One of the things that Peter talked about in his webinar was the concept of the Confidence Account. This is very important for me personally as I am slowing learning, especially over the last couple of months that confidence is crucial in all areas of life and there are some things that you need to do to build your confidence.

Before I talk about them I just want to say that some of the advice out there like "Just be confident" is about as much use as bucket on the Titanic. It's no use at all. However the advice in this webinar was very good and useful for people who are looking to build their confidence levels.

So what does Peter Voogd say about confidence? Basically confidence comes from doing the things you know you should do when you know you should whether you like it or not. For example, this morning I went to the gym and had a class between 8am and 9am. Yesterday I had done a workout which had knocked me out for want of a better phrase. I could have easily said to myself "My bed feels good and it would do me good to spend another couple of hours in bed. I had scheduled it though, it was in the diary so I forced myself to go there and although the workout was very tough and I felt absolutely knackered at the end, I felt good and felt more confident to get things done today.

Another important thing that Peter mentions is that every choice you make in your life is going to hurt your confidence or take away from your confidence. Or every decision takes you either closer or further away from your goals. So my going to the gym this morning took me closer to my goal of supreme fitness. If I had decided to stay in bed, I would have taken a step backwards.

We all have a confidence account and the more deposits you make into that account the better for you and the people around you. Salad or Fench fries? Go home or make another couple of calls? Go and talk to her or order another beer? (Actually that's a difficult decision).

"That pisses me off!"

I read this article yesterday. http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245146 As the title suggests, it talks about the 6 behaviours that people in business loathe. It is a really interesting article and I would like to share my thoughts on that today.

The article was written by Adam Callinan and it says that he is an entrepreneur and a venture investor. It sounds as though he knows what he is talking about.

Anyway lets get to two of the  behaviours that people in business can't stand.

Number one, Don't do what you say you are going to do. This is a crucial one for me personally. My friend taught me that every time that you say you are going to do something and you don't do it, it chips away at your confidence so the fact that you don't go to the gym then that is not go for your confidence and you start getting into a rut and as my friend would say "it's all over."

Of course this is a business article and if you say to a customer/client that you are going to do something and you don't do it, your trust has gone and it is all uphill from there.

Number two, constantly looking at your phone. I must admit that I check my phone often throughout the day and if I am on the train then I like to look at articles or read mail on my phone. I don't think that there is much difference doing that than reading a newspaper for example. However, when you are with people that you know and you are in conversation with them, leave your phone in your pocket.

I totally agree with Mr. Callinan. It is really annoying for example when you are on a date and the other person is constantly on their phone. I must admit for me it doesn't do much for my confidence and at times I may think that they are planning their next date after this.

Also what really gets my goat is when people are walking along the street and have their eyes on their phone instead of the way ahead. You basically have to stop in front of them so they don't crash into you. Also if you are unlucky to be walking behind them when they are staring at their phone they are walking incredibly slowly and at times, especially in Tokyo it can be difficult to get past.

I will talk about the remaining pet hates over the next couple of posts.

Act upon what you read

The most important thing about reading on a daily basis especially in the area that I am doing is that you need to act on what you read. This is something that I haven't necessarily done very well in the past.

Basically it is all very well reading for one hour a day. This is great and I'm sure you will learn a few things, however, if you are just reading then you will be onto the path of getting information overload. When you are overloaded with information it can stop you from taking action and nothing gets done. I'm sure you have heard of the concept paralysis by analysis.

In his book 6 Months to 6 Figures, Peter Voogd says that most people operate on information overload as opposed to mastery. He explains that mastery should be at a level where you can comfortably teach a class on the subject you have just read about.

A lot of people will brag about the fact that they have read 50,70, 90 books this year. That is all very well and good but Voogd thinks that he would rather master 5 books that are congruent with his goals.

I think that Voogd is correct in his thinking but you have may have to read 50 books to find those 5 books to concentrate all of your effort on. So, initially read a lot and then concentrate on those books. That's my opinion anyway.

What I like about Voogd's approach is that he will read and read and study and study the chapter until, as I said before he is so confident that he would be able to teach the class. This is the opposite to what I do on occasions in which I am so keen to finish the book and get my 'book count' up that I will rush through it and not really digest what I am reading. This is not the best and it could be seen as a real waste of time.

Don't just read for the sake of reading. Really try to understand the information and use it in your life. That is what I am trying to do anyway.

Since starting this reading endeavour a few years ago one of the genres that I have read a lot of is the PUA/Seduction area. I think that this subculture was brought into the public's eye by the book by Neil Strauss, The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists. The Game brought this society into the public domain and I'm willing to bet changed a few guy's lives. I know that it has mine. Basically the premise of the book is to give men the power to seduce women and to charm them and date and ultimately sleep with them, because lets face it that's why men on the planet.

Of course there has been a lot of controversy about this book and the hundreds and possibly thousands of other people who have gone into the business of helping men like myself in their dealings with women. I must admit about 8 years ago I was very shy around a women. I didn't know what to say, how to act and I basically just let them take the lead which I have found out is totally the wrong way to go about it. Maybe I was influenced by my mother being the dominant parent in the household and so i thought when you go out on dates it is the women who should take the lead. No wonder I left a wake of grumpy women behind me but I suppose that you have to learn these things at some stage, it is just I was learning it in my mid thirties.

Over the years I have read many books on this subject. It is difficult to say which is the best as they all offer many different things and depending how far you are along in the journey they may be good for you and they may not. You just have to jump in and decide for yourself.

Along with the books there are many videos on youtube and there are many programmes that the various people put out there for your consumption. This can be hit or miss but the prices at times are not over the top and you probably pay more on a night on the town for what some of the programmes cost. Just be careful that you are not paying for something that you don't want like a weekly subscription. This can be quite costly. So make sure you read everything carefully.

If you are like me and you are still not comfortable around women then I highly recommend that you go to your local book store or on Amazon and have a look around to see what there is out there. Who knows, you may find things that can help you in your business life as well as your private life as I have found a numerous occasions.