I try to never make assumptions about people.

I get it, life is tough and shit happens.

Maybe a stripper you met 5 years ago knocks on your door and tells you that you’re the father of her child.

That’s never happened to me, but if it did, I wouldn’t let my health and body go to shit.

And after talking with thousands of people over the years, I’ve found that all their “excuses” for not being able to lose weight and get in shape are more or less the same.

I know I know, someone’s gonna say “But Keith everyone is unique and has special life circumstances you could never understand.”

Ya maybe…

But at some point you have to stop and wonder: If so many people are overweight and using the same excuses, maybe they’re not as special as they think they are.

Here are some of the excuses I hear the most and why they’re full of crap:

“I don’t have money”

I get it.

But it doesn’t cost you anything to eat less.

In fact, eating less is 100% free.

OMG Keith you’re so insensitive about people’s money situations. 

Grow up. You guys are adults. No one is putting a gun to your head and telling you to eat fucking Taco Bell every day.

If you’re spending as little as $5 on Taco Bell (which doesn’t even get you much food) 3x per week, that’s more than enough to buy a week’s supply of “cheap” healthy foods like potatoes, beans, eggs, plus some veggies. 

In fact, it’ll cost you significantly less than eating fast food.

But shh…the people who’ve failed don’t want to hear that.

“I’m not motivated”

If I had the magic formula for staying motivated 24/7, I’d be the richest man in the world.

But motivation is temporary.

Motivation is watching an Youtube video and feeling a spark to do something for the next hour.

But it goes away, it always does.

What you need is discipline, the ability to do shit even when you don’t feel like it.

Funny thing about discipline is that once you start doing, you have no problem to keep going.

The secret is just getting started.

“I don’t have access to a gym”

Yeah, because bodyweight exercises aren’t a thing .

If you can’t squeeze in a 10 min bodyweight circuit a few times per week, then you have bigger problems, my friend.

Don’t have 10 minutes to spare? I really want to believe you, but I really sorta don’t.

“I eat healthy but I’m still gaining weight”

Funny thing is, when I ask these people to show me how many calories they’re eating per day, they always have no idea.

Or they give me some fluffy answer like “not that much.”

“Healthy” is subjective and just because you think you’re eating healthy doesn’t mean you’re not eating a lot.

“I don’t have energy”

I love this excuse.

Not because I get off on people’s misery, but this excuse is a perfect example that illustrates the destructive power of being overweight and out of shape.

Here’s my expertly drawn image to describe what I mean:

Having no energy causes you to eat crap and not exercise. Eating crap and not exercising causes you to gain weight, which in turn, causes low energy.

It’s a vicious cycle, and until you can accept that the very reason you can’t lose weight is the exact reason you need to, then you’ll be stuck forever. 

“I don’t have time”

Show me how much time you spend on your phone per day and watch me magically pull a whole bunch of time out of my ass.

FYI the average person spends 4 hours per day on their phone.

Even if we dive into more extreme cases, where someone is working 12+ hours per day, commuting 1 hour back and forth work, and taking care of a family…

It all comes down to a discipline and behavior issue.

Also, if you’re struggling to lose weight, not having time (in theory) should help you lose weight.

In theory, this is how things should go if you really have no time:

No time = no time to eat = lose weight

But here’s what really happens:

No time = lack of structure and plan = overeat = gain weight

What’s your excuse? Lemme know in the comments

The post Excuses (And Why You’re A Liar) appeared first on FitMole.

I mean, here were these things called “dumbbells” and “barbells” that had the ability to physically change the shape of my body. Crazy sh!t.

I was more pumped than a white guy wearing a TapOut shirt who just drank a RedBull. Except I’m not white.

And I don’t wear TapOut shirts.

And I don’t drink RedBull.

But my first 5 years of working out, I never really got great results.

This was mostly because I was jumped between workouts every 2 weeks…. ….and could never stay motivated enough to stick with anything for more than 2 weeks.

As you can imagine, not the greatest combination.

My first 5 years looked something like this:

Not too fun…

So how did I get over it, and finally transform my body?

Sure I could say I stopped eating so much crap.

Or I could give some cliche “I just wanted it bad enough” motivational speech with Hans Zimmer music playing in the background.

But here’s the truth:

I let myself fail.

Sounds sexy, I know.

And not just in the “Oh I screwed up my diet, let’s start next Monday” sense.

So every time I failed, it was no longer a set back.

Instead, it was a necessary step to grow and come closer to my goals.

If I binged on 5000 calories worth of ice cream and gummy worms, sure I would feel bad afterwards…

…But I also knew that this was an opportunity for me to analyze my the triggers/habits that caused the binge eating.

So next time, I can adapt .

So the next time you screw up, ask yourself these 2 questions:

1. Why did you fail? 
2. What can you do to improve next time?

Missing a workout or having one bad day of eating isn’t the end of the world.

It’s how you react to the setbacks that will ultimately determine your success.

Every dip you rise from brings you one step closer:

When you flip failure on its head and view it as a necessary stepping stone to success, everything changes.

For those of you struggling to transform your body, maybe the problem isn’t that you keep failing.

Maybe you just haven’t failed enough.

While I 100% agree that failure is necessary to getting long term results, you don’t need to be stupid about it.

Don’t follow BS diets, take scammy supplements, and train recklessly just in the name of failure.

You should still follow a solid training and nutrition plan from the get go.

And luckily you don’t need to suffer for 5 years like me and can have a rock-solid routine from the start with Superhero Shredding 2.0.

The post Rethinking Failure appeared first on FitMole.

You can hire the world’s most bad ass personal trainer to design a workout routine for you.

You can have Bobby Flay cook you gourmet, healthy meals 7 days per week.

You can have bikini models sit on your lap and feed you…(while Bobby Flay sits in the corner and watches you while he eats a sandwich).

But none of this matters.

Actually thinking about it now, the third point would help a lot.

But none of this matters if you lack the motivation and discipline to follow through with whatever plan you’re on.

That’s why billions of dollars are dropped every year on fitness related products but 99% of people are still in absolute shit shape.

It’s not the “tools” that are the problem, it’s you (and your fucked up mind).

You lack the motivation.

You lack the inspiration.

You lack the discipline.

You lack the ability to take control of your life because there’s never anything truly at risk.

Oh you watched a Youtube video and now you’re motivated? That’s cute

Want to feel motivated right now?

Go to Youtube and type in “motivational videos.”

There are thousands of motivational videos out there with movie quotes ad random dudes working out.

And there’s about 127 videos with the same audio from that Rocky Balboa speech being overlaid on completely irrelevant video clips.

Go right now.

Get motivated for 5-10 minutes and come back here.

We all good?

Alright, I bet you’re feeling pumped…all ready to take on the world and shit, huh?

I bet you now feel like you’re finally going to hit the gym 5x per week, take spinning classes every morning, clean up your diet, and build that body you’ve always dreamed of.

Sweet!

Now check back with me in 2 weeks.

[2 weeks later…]

Woah what’s that?

You gave up?

It was too hard?

You had no time?

Wait…hear that?

Yeah I don’t hear anything either because that’s the sound of no one giving a shit about you and your excuses.

You see, the truth about motivational is that motivation is cheap.

There’s an endless supply of it.

We have motivational Youtube videos, inspirational Instagram quote pics, and an endless amount of blog posts on motivation (this one included).

There’s no real value to motivation.

It’s like a spark that never starts an actual fire.

“Gun to your head” motivation

See what Denzel Washington did to that dude?

He blew his brains the fuck out, all because he didn’t hold up his end of the deal.

You need to find your Denzel.

Not someone to literally someone to shoot you in the head if you don’t reach your goal (that wouldn’t be very smart).

But a method that truly motivates you to take action.

And if you don’t take action, you suffer the consequences.

I’m not one to use extreme violence as a form of motivation, so let’s go to the next best thing – cold hard cash.

Using money to motivate you to take action

Whatif someone said you need to lose 5 pounds this month or $1000 would be extracted from your bank account?

How much more likely would you reach your goals?

For most people the answer is a fuck load more likely.

That’s why I love using bets to increase motivation and form new habits.

The following are a couple services you can use to make bets with yourselves or others:

• Stickk
• Beeminder 
• DietBet

Personally I’ve only used Stickk and it works like this:

• State your goal and date you want to achieve the goal by.
• Set the amount of money you want to put on the line.
• Set the destination that the money gets sent to if you don’t hit your goals (this can be a person you choose or a charity)
• Now you’re probably wondering, who validates whether you legitimately hit a goal or not? Yeah that’s the only slight problem with these services. It’s all validated via an honor system (your word) or someone you ask to validate for you. So you need to be honest here. Don’t ask a weak-minded friend to validate whether you hit a goal or not. Pick someone who will show zero mercy if you fail to reach your goals.

The #1 biggest mistake people make when betting money

Not betting enough.

Seriously, don’t bet $20-100.

Sure that might sound like a decent amount at the time but in the grand scheme of things it’s really pussy money.

And if at some point you know that you’re not going to reach your goal, you’re just going to wipe it off as “Eh, it’s only $100.”

Put something big on the line.

Something that will really really sting.

So choose an amount that will really piss you off if you lose it.

Obviously don’t bet an amount that will financially ruin you.

I recently placed a business related bet with myself where $10k is at stake.

That hurts me. I don’t want to lose it but at the same time, it’s not going to destroy my life.

So what are you waiting for?

Put some money on the line and take action.

You’ll be surprised by what you’ll actually be able to do.

And if you need a good workout/diet plan to do, I heard Superhero X12 is pretty damn good.

Just saying

The post The Truth About Fitness Motivation appeared first on FitMole.

You know that game Minecraft?

That game that’s basically just blocks and look like it was designed in 1999…

It makes no fucking sense to me but apparently millions of people love it.

And for the dude who created Minecraft (Markus Persson), it paid off handsomely.

Last year he sold the company for $2.5 billion to Microsoft.

$2.5 BILLION.

That’s a lot of Chipotle with extra guac.

Now you would think being a billionaire is all it’s cracked up to be…if dudes like Dan Bilzerian are to be believed.

You would think it’s nothing but hanging out with supermodels, driving a different Ferrari for every day of the week, and private yachts…but apparently that’s not the case.

As Markus said on Twitter, it’s actually quite miserable:

The problem with getting everything is you run out of reasons to keep trying, and human interaction becomes impossible due to imbalance.

— Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015

Hanging out in ibiza with a bunch of friends and partying with famous people, able to do whatever I want, and I’ve never felt more isolated.

— Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015

Now why am I talking about this and what does it have to do with fitness?

A lot more than you think, actually.

Your pursuit to build your dream body might be hurting you more than you think

When starting this whole fitness thing to lose fat and build muscle, you probably have an idea (or at least a vague idea) of how you want to look in 3, 6, or 12 months from now.

Maybe you even have an “idol” like a celebrity you want to look like in a certain time frame.

“I want to build a body like Chris Evans…” is an email I get at least 2 times per week, guaranteed.

A lot of guys have this weird idea in their head that if they start building muscle/getting ripped that all their life problems will be solved.

• Getting ripped will instantly 10x my confidence levels.
• Building 20 pounds of muscle will automatically let me drown in a sea of pussy.
• If I look like [insert super ripped dude], then I will finally get the respect I deserve and be happy.

But it doesn’t always happen.

If you have a certain fitness/physique goal and believe achieving said goal will instantly solve whatever problems you have, then you’re probably wrong.

Sure there are some things like improved health and increased physical strength that inevitably happen, but beyond that, I don’t believe reaching a certain fitness goal will change your life in the way most people think.

Just like becoming a billionaire didn’t help completely change the Minecraft creator’s life in the way you would think, getting a ripped six pack and a body that looks like Superman won’t instantly change everything.

Don’t chase goals…

I’m a big believer that goals themselves, are useless.

You can have goals of reaching 8% body fat or making a billion dollars, but in the end, 1 of 2 things typically happen:

1. You end up wanting more and more

You never become satisfied with what you have and only become happy when you get more. “More” can be losing even more body fat or gaining more muscle.

The problem is, there will always be “more” to had.

A lot of guys fall into the trap of muscle dysmorphia and never feel satisfied with where they are in terms of muscularity, leanness, and physique development.

2. You become sad and depressed because achieving said goal didn’t provide the desired result

You can set the goal of building 18 inch biceps and a lot of guys do because they believe having 18 inch arms will make them happy or gain respect from others.

But when it actually happens, not much actually changes. Having 18 inch arms is cool and all, but if you tie your self-worth to it, then you’re just fucking yourself over.

Instead, chase the process

Fitness is a double edged sword.

On one hand, it can help you build lean, strong, and physically healthy bodies.

But on the other hand, it can lead to you tying your self-worth to how you physically look or perform in the gym.

This will RUIN your life. 

To beat this, you need to stop chasing goals.

Stop thinking that you absolutely need to lose 10 pounds to feel happy or that you need to gain 20 pounds of muscle in order to get attract women.

This is why so many guys ego lift.

They tie their self worth too much to the amount of weight they’re pushing and think other people actually give a shit.

Instead, start developing a “process oriented” mindset and just love the process of fitness.

Start loving the fact that you lost 1 pound of fat this past week.

Start loving the fact that your arms grew by 1/2 an inch these last 6 months.

Celebrate the small wins and never develop the mindset that achieving a certain fixed goal is going to bring about game changing rewards.

Learn to love the journey.

This is what I teach with the non-fitness lifestyle and in my course Superhero Shredding 2.0.

If you don’t do this, it’s quite likely that building your “dream” body will only make you miserable.

What do you think? For those who have achieved a fitness goal they were at for months/years, did it change your life the way you thought it would? Let me know in the comments below.

The post Will Building Your Dream Body Make You Miserable? appeared first on FitMole.

I’m going to tell you something that will blow your mind: there is more than one way to get in shape.

Squats and deadlifts are not the only way to build big legs.

You don’t need to cut all “refined” carbs and join the palo cult to achieve optimal health.

Hell, you don’t even need to join the gym and lift weights if you don’t care about building bodybuilder levels of muscle mass.

AMAZING, huh?

Who would have thought that there are actually other ways to get in shape that didn’t involve the hardcore, “train till you puke” mentality.

But that’s what fitness has become.

Everyone these days tries to back up their beliefs with scientific “research,” and everyone’s pointing fingers at how this diet or this workout is best because it worked for THAT guy.

Yeah…that guy who got a six pack from eating all his carbs at night has now established that eating carbs at night is the best way to get ripped.

Such utter bullshit.

I bet my left nut that for every single guy who got ripped by eating carbs at night, there’s a hundred other guys who got ripped by eating the most of their carbs in the morning.

Point is, don’t get sucked into the belief that there’s only one way to do something just because someone posts a naked selfie and says their way training or dieting is best.

You need to find your own path…your own way of training and dieting that fits your lifestyle and not just blindly follow random internet advice (yes, even advice I put out) and think it’s the best way to do something.

 How I found my own path to grow my back

The picture above was taken about 2-3 years apart.

On the left was about after 5 years of on and off training. My training was incredibly inconsistent.

I mean, understood the principles of effective training and progression but never really applied it myself for whatever reason. And it showed.

My back looked very blah. Far from horrible, but nowhere where I wanted it to be.

On the right was after finally nailing my training down to an exact science of simply focusing on one thing – getting stronger.

That’s it.

I spent way too much fucking time trying to figure out what the best back exercise was and everyone on blogs and forums kept saying how the bent over barbell row was one of the best back exercises.

My big problem with this was I could never “activate” my back muscles when doing bent over barbell rows no matter how perfect my form was.  For some reason, I had a really shitty mind-muscle connection and you need to contract your back muscles if you want it to grow.

So after a few more months of frustration, I decided to ditch the bent over barbell rows and just focus on 2 exercises I knew I was good at – weighted pull ups and cable rows.

Yeah, I know cables aren’t as hardcore as barbells, but MY back fired up like crazy when doing them.

And guess what happened when I decided to focus on these 2 back exercises?

My back started growing like crazy because it created an extremely strong mind-muscle connection and I progressively got stronger week after week.

The point is, if I kept trying to incorporate bent over barbell rows into my routine just because everyone else said it was the “best,” my back probably wouldn’t look like it does today.

I chose the best exercises that worked for me.

I chose what I liked to do.

I didn’t just do something because I was told it was the “best” way.

Are you scared to do something different?

Because I was.

I wanted to increase the size of my back and did so using what I thought was the best exercise out there.

I didn’t question the internet “big dogs” and was scared that if I wasn’t doing bent-over barbell rows, I wouldn’t be able to build a big back.

If you find yourself in the same situation, then I want you do one thing after reading this blog post – try something.

That’s it.

If you’ve been doing something that hasn’t been working for you despite everyone saying it’s the best way, then just try something else.

Even if your idea is a little “out there,” just do it.

There’s nothing worse than never testing and adjusting your methods.

It’s your life and no amount of science or shirtless selfie douchebags can tell you what’s right or wrong.

How have you forged your own path? Let me know in the comments below.

Note: Just so no one takes this this post the wrong way – you can’t just try ANYTHING. You can’t start eating in a 3000 calorie surplus every day. and just “try it” to see if it will help you lose weight (hint: it won’t work). You still have to work within certain rules of fitness. You still need to create a calorie deficit to lose weight, you still need progressive overload to build muscle. It’s how you work within these rules that I want you to experiment with. 

Note 2: One of the big ideas behind the upcoming release of Superhero Shredding 2.0 (update: It’s live) is to give you as much flexibility as possible. So I’ll be including a bunch of new splits as well as custom training templates so you’ll have much more control over how you train. 

The post Stop Being A Little Bitch And Forge Your Own Path appeared first on FitMole.