In Case You Missed It...

I got my 15-seconds yesterday.

I appeared on CityTV Toronto's Breakfast Television yesterday morning and did a quick demo of some of the exercises that you'll find in the new FitAndBusyDad e-book. Kevin Frankish, the host, was a good sport. And even though I got cut off slightly at the end (there's just too much to talk about), I may end up back sometime soon. And sorry guys, I did NOT get a chance to meet Dina.

You can find the video HERE. (Sorry, but it's not like YouTube, so I can't embed the video into the blog.)

CL
FitAndBusyDad

P.S. If you haven't already, get a sneak peak of what's in the book by signing up above for my newsletter or by clicking HERE.

Let's Get Ready To Rumble!!!!

Ah yes, it smells like spring and therefore another soccer season is upon us! It's time to load up the minivan with lawn chairs and a packed cooler full of bottled water, gatorade and sliced oranges and head out to field to mingle with the other parents who also think that they're kid's the second coming of Ronaldinho.

AJ, my oldest, I'm proud to say, has made an "A" Division U11 team (yes, she just turned 10, so she's playing a year up). For us, that means lots of traveling to various weekend tournaments, lots of practices (2-3 per week) and (with the price of gas expected to go through the roof this summer) lots of money!!!



Joey (4-yrs-old), pictured above, may not return to the game this season because of the incident that occurred after this picture was taken. We're still petitioning the league, but she's gone through all the standard anger management courses and has promised to only drop-kick the ball from now on and NOT her opponents (regardless of how much she dislikes the headband they're wearing).* She has expressed an interest in art as of late, so maybe we'll just take this season off to work on her brush strokes.

*I am, of course, kidding. There was no "incident" and she'll be playing the same "bee hive", chase the ball soccer that we parents just love to watch.

As for the other 2, they're still too young. Frankie is perfectly content sitting on her princess lawn chair, sun hat on, sipping her pink lemonade and cheering her sisters on from the sideline. Mikey, as much as I know she wants to get out there, can't walk yet, let alone kick a ball. Plus, the intermittent breast feeding breaks may prove to be a distraction for the coaches.

All in all, this should be quite the summer. Even Rozanne, my wife, is playing with her usual team in a competitive women's league.

As for me, the last time I played soccer was when I was 8. I think it was my parents forcing me to get out there because I was a tubby, bacon and rice eating bundle of a child. A lot of good it did me though, because they just stuck me in net. Yes, I was the original "Big-Fat-Goalie... ...Monica Geller had nothing on me.

See you on the pitch (I mean the sideline),
CL

P.S. I'm reading a great book right now called, "Raising Our Athletic Daughters" by Jann Zimmerman & Gil Reavill. I highly suggest picking up a copy if you have girls. It's main point talks about how participating in sports can positively affect girls lives through the difficult years of adolescence. With 4 daughters, I'll be reading this one a few times!

Another 20-Minutes

I had another great workout yesterday. It was inspired by my friend Dr. Gavin Maxwell who is a former Olympic canoeist. Back when Gavin was training, he was able to do 82 pull-ups straight (with a kip). GavMax is about 6'4", 250. Former Olympian or not, if at his size he was able to do 82 pull-ups, then at 5'11, 180, I should at least be able to do 50.

So the goal of yesterday's workout was to do 50 pull-ups in as little sets as possible and progress to doing 1 full set of 50 straight (that's a pretty lofty goal, but I'm bound to it now that it's in the blogsphere).

So here's what went down...

1) Bodyweight Warm-Up (Squats, Push-ups, Lunges, Stick-Ups & Planks)

2a) 50 x Pull-Ups (17, 12, 9, 7, 5)
2b) 100 x Close-Grip Decline Push-Ups (48, 30, 12, 10)

3) Front Squat Tabata @ 135lbs

4) 50 x Blast Strap Inverted Rows (22, 15, 13)

Then it was off to my mall escapade with Mikey my 9-month-old.

CL

P.S. OK, maybe it took me 30-minutes ;-)

Mall Food Sucks

I hate the mall. I hate being there. I hate feeling like I have to buy something if I'm there. I'd much rather be doing something productive than wasting my time shopping for stuff I don't need.

But when your wife needs a 2.5hr emergency root canal,

AND her dentist's office is 45-mins away from home,

AND you're with your 9-month-old,

AND it's raining outside,

AND the mall is the only place within 5-minutes of the dentist office,

AND the only other viable, indoor hang-out within a mile is IKEA,

THEN you don't have much of a choice.

So I found myself at a higher-end mall on the west end of Toronto. The worst part about the mall is the food court. How can someone possibly make a healthy decision when KFC, McDonalds and Arby's are your restaurant choices? Even the so-called "healthy" salad bars were crap with their sub-par tomatoes, browning lettuce and rubberized chicken.

I almost broke though and bought an Arby's Roast Beef Sandwich combo complete w/those curly fries (I don't think I've had one of those since high school). But, I thought, if I'm going to use up my weekly reward meal, I'm not wasting it on cheap garbage. So I got the heck out of the food court and went walking.

I was HUNGRY. I had just finished a kick-ass workout (more on that tomorrow) an hour and a half before, so my body was jonesin' for some grub. So right between a Club Monaco and a Banana Republic (like it matters) is a sushi "booth". So I go up to the lady and ask for some sashimi (instead of all the "prepared" sushi with the sugar rice in the display fridge). I end up spending about $17CDN for 15 pieces of paper thin raw fish.

What a rip off!!!

Lesson learned...

Be prepared. Pack the chicken breast you barbecued last night so that you don't have to spend 20 bucks just to eat some mediocre sushi at the mall. [It was worth it though because at least I know I'm putting something relatively good into my body (relative to a Big Mac, I guess)].

...And encourage your family to FLOSS, so that we don't end up in this predicament again!

To your dental hygiene,

CL
FitAndBusyDad

Blood!

Thanks to my buddy Vince DelMonte for showing this one to everybody at our Mastermind meeting a couple of weeks ago. Check it out. It's worth the laugh...




It's off to Paramount Canada's Wonderland with the kids tomorrow. Have a great weekend everyone!

CL

I'm taking it back...

Last Thursday, I wrote about fat loss and the simplicity at which fat loss was achieved.

I got a few emails yesterday expressing people's concern with that statement. So let's clarify what I said in Thursday's blog post...

"...but it really is simple - watch what you eat (lots of water, lean protein, healthy fats, fruits and veggies), train hard (weight training & intervals work best) and try to get rid of as much stress as possible."

So what I said was, fat loss is SIMPLE...S-I-M-P-L-E.

Fat loss is simple...It's just not EASY!

In fact, it's really f_cking HARD!

Just ask the fitness model on the cover of Men's Health how much canned tuna and broccoli he had to eat to make the line through his abs a little deeper.

Just ask the MMA fighter who has to get rid of the last 5lbs to make his weight class.

If losing fat were that EASY we wouldn't have an obesity epidemic. We'd be a society of Men's Health and Shape magazine cover models.

Now I'm not saying this to discourage anyone. Nor am I saying that achieving the body you've always wanted is impossible. It just takes HARD WORK and CONSISTENCY. Stay on track with your nutrition. Use a program that works and train hard (even if you don't see any "results" after the first couple of weeks...trust me, something's happening). Give it all you've got and you'll get there.

CL

It's Your Last Chance!

The Turbulence Training Transformation Contest closes today.

Hurry and get your votes in on who you think made the most dramatic transformation.

Go to www.transformationcontest.com to place your vote.

Go to www.turbulencetraining.com to use the same program that one of the finalists used to lose 30lbs in 3 months!!!

CL

The Most Common Question

"Hey, Chris! How do I get rid of this?"

That is the most common question I get when I attend any family event, party, shindig, baptism, barmitzvah, baby naming, wedding...well, you get the point. Someone - a friend, relative, aquaintence, in-law, or someone I've never met before who found out that I help get people LEAN - will come up to me, regardless of what I'm doing, and pose the above question while grabbing they're trouble spot (usually a full clench of the hand with a shake and a jiggle).

My answer? I wrote about it here before. But it really is simple - watch what you eat (lots of water, lean protein, healthy fats, fruits and veggies), train hard (weight training & intervals work best) and try to get rid of as much stress as possible.

Think it's really any harder than that? It's not. Just ask my friend Craig Ballantyne, creator of Turbulence Training, who has been helping people for years with his revolutionary TT system and now has closed his first ever Transformation Contest.

Take a look at how these contest finalists transformed their bodies using Turbulence Training.

Even better, you can vote for which contestant you think overcame the biggest obstacles and made the most dramatic transformation.

You CAN achieve the body you've always wanted. What's holding you back?

CL

Fix Your Posture Today

I got an email from Jim Lin over at The Busy Dad Blog a couple of days ago. We were talking about some of the exercises that I use for my programming and he was interested in learning how to do a stick-up.

The stick-up is one of my favorite everyday exercises. It allows you to really open up your chest and use all those little muscles in your upper mid-back (the ones responsible for giving you good posture).

Because we live in an "anterior dominant" world...we drive, type on a computer, eat, converse, spend "chest-day" Mondays bench pressing...our "non-mirror" muscles tend to get neglected. I'm willing to bet that 4 out of 5 people that work in an office have poor posture just from sitting at their desk all day typing away at their computers.

If you get the chance, get up from your desk a couple of times a day and do some stick-ups. Perform 10 reps 2-3 times daily and you should see a marked improvement in your posture.

The Stick-Up
(I apologize for the "burglar look" in these pictures. But the look and the exercise fit though.)

1. Start by planting yourself against a wall so that your head, shoulders, elbows, knuckles and tail bone are contacting the wall. Initiate the movement by pulling your elbows in and contracting all of your upper back muscles pulling your shoulders down and back.








2. Slowly, ensuring that your shoulders do not elevate (travel upwards toward your ears), raise yours arms along the wall maintaining contact with the wall at all times (ie. Your knuckles or elbows should not come off the wall at all).











Couple this exercise with some stretches for your pecs (chest) and you'll be sitting and standing upright in no time.

CL

Butt Out Already!

I was watching Oprah with my wife a little while back (c'mon guys, your wives make you watch it too). Usually, I'd have my laptop with me and pretend that I was watching when I'd really be working. But this episode was on health and fitness, so it particularly grasped my interest.

There was a doctor on the show (Dr. Oz, I think) who was talking about the dangers of smoking, for both the smoker themselves and their kids. There was one particular statistic that made me fall off the couch...

Through second hand smoke, your child inhales the equivalent of 1 out of every 4 cigarettes that you consume.

1 OUT OF EVERY 4!!!

Listen, it's your perrogative if you smoke. I can understand that.

But don't light up in front of your kids.

Don't do it when they're in the room.

Don't go to another room while they're in the house.

Don't crack a window in the car and smoke your butt while someone is sitting beside you.

Kill yourself BY YOURSELF.

Who ever said that cigarette smoking was cool needs to be institutionalized. What is this, the 80s? It causes cancer of the mouth, lungs and throat. It turns your teeth yellow. It makes your clothes stink. It makes you look like an idiot when you're standing outside in the freezing cold without a jacket on while you're having a butt.

Your kids are smoking 1/4 of the crap you're smoking and they don't even know it.

Be more responsible. Be less selfish. Get rid of the cigarettes.

cl

The Paper Towel Theory

I was going to write something myself this morning, but couldn't come up with anything better than this. It's genius!

From Alwyn Cosgrove's blog...

This is a pretty good explanation of the visual representation of fat loss that was emailed to me recently (And attributed originally to a "Bob White"). Hope you enjoy it..

Let’s assume you go out and buy two rolls of paper towels, each with 112 paper towels on it. You put one aside, and keep it for future reference (your “before” picture). The other one represents you (I’ll call your paper towel “Ed”).

The core represents the lean Ed. The towels represent the fat that is covering the lean Ed.For sake of argument, let’s say that Ed wants to lose 28 pounds of fat, so (112/28) each sheet represents a quarter-pound of fat lost.Let’s also assume that Ed loses his fat equally during each day of the program.Each day during the first week, you tear a sheet off of Ed, representing the fat he has lost for the day. Next, you put Ed next to the full roll (“Big Ed”) for comparison.No noticeable difference! Even at the end of the week!"This can’t be working for me! This program sucks! " But, you continue to follow your fat loss program. At the end of weeks two and three, you continue to compare Ed to Big Ed, and still notice very little difference.But Ed is determined!

He continues to work hard!

Three more weeks go by, the sheets peeling off day after day, before Ed gets up the courage to stand next to Big Ed again. Now there’s a big difference!By the end of the program (112 days), Ed is down to his lean dream, or somewhere near it. Big Ed is still - well, big.

The lesson to be learned is that fat, like paper towels, comes off in sheets. When you are heavy, you are big around. And when you are big around, that fat is spread over a MUCH larger area – just like that outside towel sheet. The closer you get to the lean you, the more each lost pound of fat shows, because it is spread over a smaller area.While the outside sheet may only cover one layer of the roll, the inside sheet may go around 4 times. That last sheet looks like it gives you four times the results of the first sheet, but in reality, the results are the same – your perception is just different! And you’ll never see the inside, if you aren’t patient while the outside is coming off.

Great Analogy!

CL

TGIF...Restaurant Eating

After a couple of days of being in meetings, it's great to get out and enjoy the Toronto wind and rain (note the sarcasm). I came out of those intensive Mastermind sessions with more motivation and drive than before.
While I was in yesterday's meeting, I got an email from my mom asking me to come to a party at a buffet restaurant. I respectfully declined. As much as I love spending time with my extended family, nothing good can possibly come out of eating at an all-you-can-eat buffet, no matter how disciplined you are.

If you do have to go out to a restaurant where you know temptation may get the best of you, here's what I do to make sure my hard earned results don't go down the toilet...

1) Get a workout in to jack your metabolism up. Before we go out, I try to do a quick bodyweight circuit before I jump in the shower. I've got a chin-up bar mounted in my door frame, so a typical circuit would look like this...

1) Jumping Jacks x 25
2) Prisoner Squats x 25
3) Chins (or Stick-ups if you don't have a bar) x 10-15
4) Lunges x 20
5) Close Grip Push-ups x 20

I would do 2-3 circuits trying to beat my time on each successive one.

2) Eat something and drink lots of water before hand. If you're going to a place like a buffet, make sure you ingest something healthy before you leave. This will give you a "full" feeling and hopefully you won't chow down on the deep fried calamari and chicken wings. Even a protein shake would be better than not consuming anything at all.

3) Say NO, DON'T GO. If it's a buffet you're invited to, suggest a healthier restaurant alternative. Nothing feels worse than eating more than you can handle and feeling like a bag of crap afterwards.

Have a great weekend. Eat Smart.

CL

A Little Experiment

So my Blackberry crapped out on me again...for the last time.

I've been reading a lot of books on time and energy management (the 4-Hour Work Week, Power of Full Engagement and Dan Kennedy's "No BS" book are my favorites). One of the common ideas in each book is the concept of inaccessibility. We live in a world of constant communication where there is so much stimuli, it hinders productivity. Have you ever been on a roll with a project only to get interrupted with a phone call or mindless email or one of those "have you got a minute?" conversations that seem to go on for hours? By that time your focused energy on the task is gone and you can't afford that 15-20 minutes that it took you to get focused again.

Well, I'm out. There are too many things that require my undivided attention (my kids, my wife, finishing projects) that I can't afford the interruptions. So the PDA is gone and so are the excuses...for now.

I'm going to go a month without it and see how it goes. I'll still have the "Bat Phone" with me so that my family can get a hold of me...maybe. I'll check my emails and voicemail twice daily at scheduled times.

I'll admit, I was a little addicted to the crackberry. Times have been often that I look for that little blinking red light to see if there's a new message waiting for me. But no more. Let's see when I start to feel the withdrawal kick in. I'll report back.

Feeling Liberated,
CL

The "No-Time" Workout

I literally had NO TIME to train yesterday, so I managed to squeeze in 20-minutes...so, I guess I did have "time". Here's what went down...

1)Warm-up BW circuit (Prisoner Squats, push-ups, reverse lunges, stick-ups, planks (front & side).

2a) Chin-Ups x 3 sets (20, 15, 12 reps)
2b) Pistols (1-leg squats) x 3 (15, 12, 12 reps)

3) Kettlebell Swings x 100 (w/ a 54lb KB) - it took me 2 sets to finish 100

After that, it was off to dinner to celebrate AJ's 10th birthday.

The bottom line.......
You don't NEED an hour and a half, fancy equipment and an elliptical machine to train.

CL

Happy Birthday AJ

Today marks my 10th Anniversary of fatherhood. My little girl, whom I named after the greatest athlete that ever lived, turns 10 today. Ten years of bloody noses, changing diapers, soccer practices, days at the beach

So this being a very special day, here are a few things that I've learned over the past 10 years about being a dad...

-Stay active (and I'm not just saying that because of what I do for a living). Kids learn through observation. Set the standard. If being active is an important part of your life, it'll be an important part of theirs...my 2-year-old knows what a kettlebell is!

-Spend time. It's not about the X-box or all the arts, dance or sports programs they're in. Kids just want you around to take notice and spend time with them. Let them know that they're important.

-The minivan is inevitable. Guys, seriously, you can't avoid it. Drive all the SUVs you want. Squeeze your growing family into that mid-size sedan. Drop your kids off in your sportscar...whatever. It's so darn practical you'd be a fool not to have one. I've got a bike/snowboard rack on mine to say "Yeah, I've still got it". I've even hung blast straps off the roof rack at my daughter's school's parking lot to get a quick workout in. I've got a black one with a spoiler on it...but, yes, it's still a minivan.

CL

4-Minutes of Hell

With my fat burning efforts being accelerated as of late, I've been experimenting with different ways of "finishing" my workouts.

One of the best finishers that I've been using are TABATAs. This 4-minute protocol was created by a Japanese sport scientist and encorporates 20s work periods with 10s rest periods. In order to get the most out of them, you absolutely need to use big, multi-joint movements (no bicep curls or calf raises here). If you're at the gym, then try this protocol using either dumbbell thrusters (squat presses) or front squats (it's easier to rack the bar for your rest periods). If you're at home, try using kettlebell swings or if you don't have any equipment, you could do burpees.

Here's the TABATA I did yesterday after my fat burning lifting session to kick my own ass...

1a) Kettlebell Swings x 20s
REST 10s
1b) Spiderman Push-Ups x 20s
Rest 10s
-Repeat 4 times

I was DONE after that.

Get Lean,
CL

Oh, so close...I Love this time of Year

I was watching the Kansas-Davidson NCAA basketball tournament game yesterday afternoon and it made me appreciate a few things...

1. I survived yet another (and what was probably the worst yet) Toronto winter.

2. College basketball is still "pure" - guys play w/heart and leave everything on the floor, there aren't any cry-babies or over inflated contracts

3. I've got great kids - My wife was at a bridal shower, so it was me and the 4 little ladies. I set AJ (9) and Joey (4) up with some crafts. Frankie (2) sat beside me on the couch w/my laptop and a set of ear buds watching a movie and Mikey (8-months) fell asleep on my lap. Unreal! I got to watch most of the game uninterrupted.

March Madness marks the beginning of spring for the Lopez household. So aside from purging all that we seemed to have collected over the winter, spring also means that it's time to get outside.

We're off to a wedding in the Dominican Republic in a few weeks so my fat loss efforts have accelerated. With the weather getting better, it feels good to be able to head out the door and get over to Riverdale Park to run some hills or pull the sled. Remember, nothing's better for fat loss than running intervals (on a track, on a hill, pulling a sled).

So, instead of slogging it with a slow paced run, try sprinting up a hill a few times for some variety (just make sure you're properly warmed-up. Stay consistent with it and you should be seeing your abs in no time!

Train smart, train hard.
CL

The 2 Most Important Rules for Attaining the Body You Want

I was walking outside this afternoon on my way to a training session, espresso in hand. On the way, I passed by one of these new gyms claiming that without breaking a sweat, you can get the results of a 90-minute workout done in 4 minutes (do you feel another rant coming?). 4-MINUTES!?! NO SWEAT!?! Inside you'll find these huge expensive machines that look like a cross between a rowing machine, an elliptical and one of those huge industrial fans (like the ones they use on movie sets to "create" wind). This "revolutionary" machine, as told to me by one of the "trainers" at the new gym, will give me the same workout results as a 50-minute strength session, 30-minute run and 10-minute stretch session.

GIVE ME A FREAKIN' BREAK ALREADY! First it was that vibrating thing that you stood on that would shake the fat away. Then came the thigh master and the ab curler. Now there's a place that promises results in 4-minutes? Buyer beware.

I'll give it to you plain and simple...There is no magic bullet. After 4-minutes of hardly sweating the Workout Fairy isn't going to suddenly appear and give you a 6-pack. As far as I'm concerned, there are only 2 THINGS THAT WILL DETERMINE WHETHER OR NOT YOU GET THE RESULTS YOU DESIRE (and DESERVE)...

1. Consistency - Enough with this "I'll start on Monday" BS. Get started and keep on going. If you mess-up with your diet by eating a cheeseburger and fries, don't go home with the "well, I screwed up, so I might as well have a pizza for dinner" attitude. If your car had a flat tire, would you slash the other 3? Get back up on the wagon and keep going.

2. Hard Work - Bring it. Every workout, every obstacle, every challenge. Give it your all and only good things will come. You'll get out of it what you put into it.

Sorry guys, it's not glamourous or sexy. In fact, there's nothing glamourous or sexy about the process of getting there. The glamourous and sexy of it all is when you strip down on the beach and start cleaning between the striations on your abs with a Q-tip. Very few ever really got anywhere without the 2 rules above.

Train, Live and Work Hard (and with Purpose).
-CL
The Busiest Dad in the World

P.S. Want a REAL workout in 4-minutes? It's called a TABATA...Check back next week and I'll show you what that is.

Poor Form

I'm allowed to rant a little, aren't I?

A couple of weeks ago, I trekked up to Markham (a suburb where I grew up just north of Toronto) to pick my dad up and take him to a doctor's appointment. Before heading over, I needed to get some training in so I headed down to the local YMCA for a quick lifting session. It was a dead lift day and I managed to get in some DB presses and some chins in as well. Overall, a great, quick session.

While I was on my 3rd set of deads, I noticed a relatively big guy (big as in "jacked", not big as in "fat") trying to teach a novice dude how to lift. They were doing what looked like a clean and press from the floor...AFTER they did bunch of heavy dumbbell AND barbell overhead pressing, lateral raises and front raises.

Now, I don't profess to be the most technically sound trainer when it comes to Olympic lifting (I still try to see a friend of mine who is a strength coach with the Maple Leafs organization to brush up on my technique every now and then). Here's my issue with what was going on (READ: wrong) with the situation:

1. The novice guy was about 6'3" and (I'm guessing) 150lbs soaking wet! He could hardly lift the 45lb bar that they were using. I doubt this guy couldn't even do a full push-up.

2. The guy "teaching" him had the worst form I have ever seen in my entire life! His spine was curved forward and his knees were locked when he picked and launched the bar off the floor and then he would arch his back like he was looking up to heaven to press the bar over his head.

3....And this one's the kicker. The YMCA trainers were all standing around in awe admiring the guy for such a great feat of strength. These trainers were watching and I'm sure taking notes so that they could use their new found exercise on their next 40-year-old, overweight, female client.

So what's the big deal, you say? First, a novice lifter should not be Olympic lifting at all unless he's being taught by the proper coach (ie. NOT your "boy" with the massive traps that you sit behind in English class). Learn how to squat, deadlift and bench first...better yet, show me you can do 20 push-ups. Second, just because your "boy" is massive, doesn't mean he knows what he's doing in the gym. Third, if you're a trainer or on the staff of any gym and you see someone doing something questionable, show them a better alternative...IT'S YOUR PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY! I almost went over and suggested something myself and played the "off-duty cop" roll....should I have? I didn't think it was place seeing as to them I'm just another "member" trying to get my swell on.

No, I'm not a know-it-all and I will be the first to admit that I have so much more to learn (and I've been doing this for almost 10 years now). What I do know, thanks to many a mentor, is that the basics work. Stick to your presses, squats, deadlifts, chins, rows and dips and you'll build the body you want (and that goes for both male and female athletes/lifters/regular people). Olympic lifting has it's place in the performance enhancement world, but not for 17-year-old toothpicks who don't even know how to pick a weight up off the floor properly.

-CL
The Busiest Dad in the World

Make 2008 YOUR Best Year! Part 2

By now, most of you should be well into your New Year's routines of eating well, exercising and forming other new and healthy habits that will help you achieve success in '08. So without further delay, here my Top 5 Things You Can Do To Make 2008 YOUR Year...

5. DON'T RE-INVENT THE WHEEL. If there is someone out there who has accomplished what you want to accomplish, done what you've dreamed about doing and is making the money you want to make, then find out how they did it and replicate that process. Or better yet, ask them to be your mentor and have them show you how to do it. There's no point in going through all the struggles by yourself in an effort to be successful. It's like going on Safari in the African Wild without a tour guide. The chances of your getting eaten by a lion is less likely if you've got someone there I learned this at a seminar that I attended this past November in Palm Beach.

4. LESS IS MORE. I've preached this (and so have a bunch of my colleagues) and it applies to everything. Your workouts, your possessions, your business. Use Pareto's Law - the 80-20 rule. 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. 80% of your sales, come from 20% of your clients. Find out where the dead weight is and cut it out. Make things easier by simplifying. Two great books that have helped me try to simplify things in my life are The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss and Simple-ology by Mark Joyner.

3. Build your own HOME GYM. No, don't drop 10G's on a complete renovation, a customized lifting platform and sauna (although if I had the $$$, the time and the space that's what I'd do). But for a fraction of the price you can have a half decent set-up. My "home gym" will never take place of where I train. But for days when I'm stuck, this set-up will do. Go out and get a door gym, a stability ball, a kettlebell of a relatively challenging weight and yoga mat. That's it. I'll drop some good workouts over the next few weeks on how to use just those 4 pieces of equipment.

2. Try 24-HOUR-FASTING. I previously wrote about this HERE. I started 24-hour fasts late in the year with amazing results. Pick-up a copy of Brad Pilon's EAT-STOP-EAT and learn how incorporating 24-hour fasts into your week can help decrease body fat, increase mental awareness, increase growth hormone and help with overall hormone regulation.

1. COMMIT YOUR GOALS TO PAPER AND REVIEW THEM DAILY. I was using Brian Tracy's method of writing my top 10 goals down every single day and say them to myself before I left the house (even if that meant reading them in the warming car on a cold Toronto winter's morning). Now, I use Dax Moy's Magic 100Click Here to get it now and kick start your year! system - 100 Goals in 100 Days. Sound scary? It is! But you have absolutely no idea how POWERFUL this system is. I just started my second Magic Hundred. I completed 73 of my first Magic 100. (Still need to learn how to surf in Maui and snowboard the French Alps). If there is one thing that you need to do this year, THIS IS IT!


-CL
THE BUSIEST DAD IN THE WORLD