To be a life-changing fitness pro, you need to take responsibility for both the advice you offer, and your client’s ability to follow that advice. Yes, even those “difficult clients.” The ones other fitness professionals tell you to fire.

Here at Precision Nutrition, we don’t fire our clients. We take a completely different approach.

In this 4 part video series – filmed live at the 2011 Perform Better Summit in Long Beach, California – we’ll share that approach with you. And, by the end of the series, you’ll be better equipped to get unbelievable results with every type of client you work with. Even the challenging ones.

For now, simply click the play button below to get started with Part 2 of The Compliance Solution.  (If you missed part 1, click here).  The video is about 15 minutes in length.

For the past four years now, Precision Nutrition has coached over 8,000 clients to lose over 150,000 pounds of fat. Weight is lost, behaviors are slowly modified, and lives are changed for the better.

The really cool thing is, our coaches rarely meet clients in person — all coaching is done online.

Now these results wouldn’t have been possible without understanding the power of change psychology, specifically helping clients modify their daily practices and get past common stumbling blocks.  Indeed, it’s only when we switched from an exercise and nutrition focus to a change focus that we saw a huge leap forward in our success rate.

Of course, our data support this approach.  Compared to our earlier example – where only 55% of patients are compliant with their life-saving medications – our coaching system yields, on average, over 70% compliance.

In other words, for every 10 workouts or nutrition habits prescribed, our clients do about 7 of them.

That’s a pretty awesome accomplishment considering that people take their prescription medications only 5 out of 10 times. Plus, we’re asking a lot more of them than to swallow some magic pill.

The question, however, is this: how do we get these kinds of results? Well, there are four key lessons I’d like to share with you over the course of the next few videos.

First up…

Lesson #1: Coach To Both Sides of the Brain

You may have heard that the brain can be split up into two sides: a left side (or hemisphere) and a right side (or hemisphere). You may have also learned that everyone is dominant in one side or the other. While things are a bit more complicated than that, we can use this as an interesting model for coaching change.

According to the hemispheric model…the left brain is the logical side and it’s responsible for:

• Logic and analytical thinking
• Rationality and reason
• Forming strategies and creating structure

On the other side is the right brain, and it’s responsible for:

• Intuition and emotion
• Holistic thinking and pattern recognition
• Creating art, beauty, and using imagination

Unfortunately, most of us spend all our time appealing to the left side. We talk sets and reps, calorie expenditure, disease risk rates, macronutrients, target heart rate, and nutrient timing.

It’s a lot like math. And when clients fail to understand and appreciate a subject we think is especially important, we give them an equally left-brained handout or website to read.

The problem? Most of our decision making (whether we like it or not) is more right-brained than left. So, by appealing to reason alone, we get the classic situation where clients think they know exactly what to do. But they simply feel like they can’t do it.

The solution? Start speaking to their right brain.

In the great book Switch, authors Chip and Dan Heath use the metaphor of a rider with a whip, steering an elephant.

• The elephant is the emotional brain.
• The rider with the whip is the logical brain.
• The path they’re walking is the environment.

As with any new change scenario, the elephant (emotional brain) may be scared, especially when it perceives the change to be difficult or uncomfortable. And fear brings resistance.

Of course, the rider (logical brain) has the reigns and a whip. So he can steer, prod, and lash that frightened elephant. However, that never lasts long. The rider always gets tired and, after that, the elephant goes where it wants.

Here’s the point: the rational brain can only control the emotional brain for so long, and that’s exhausting to do. As a coach, it’s far more effective to get the elephant and the rider on the same page by minimizing fear.

In addition, the Heath brothers introduce another concept called “shaping the path.” In essence, it means helping clear away of temptations and roadblocks before they become an issue. It means helping make daily practices automatic so that they’re habitual and don’t use up our precious willpower reserves.

Here are just a few examples of strategies for shaping the path:

• To stay committed to a morning workout, lay out your workout clothes the night before.
• To avoid food temptations, get rid of the cookie jar and candy bowls around the office.
• To avoid skipping workouts, pay for training sessions in advance.

There are hundreds of other examples we could use here but the point is this: most fitness professionals have spent their careers focusing exclusively on their own left-brained learning.  And while their heads are full of interesting physiology, biochemistry, and mathematics, they’re poorly equipped when it comes to helping real people make meaningful change.

To overcome this problem, it’s essential to spend some time doing some right-brained work.  As a professional, this time spent will mean a huge leap forward in client results.

Wrap-Up and Today’s Takeaways

That’s it for Part 2 of The Compliance Solution. In just a few days we’ll be back with Part 3 of the video series, and a few additional lessons.

In the meantime, here are four important takeaway messages for you to think about.

• Switching from a focus on exercise physiology alone to a balanced focus on physiology and change psychology is an important first step to getting remarkable client results.

• As a coach, you must focus on both sides of the brain. Taking a strictly rational/logical approach to behavior change will create clients who think they know what to do. But feel like they can’t do it.

• By working with deep motivation and recognizing the role of the emotional brain in decision-making we can prevent rider fatigue and better facilitate change.

• We can also go one step further by helping clients shape the path to health and fitness.

PN Certification Program begins Wednesday, March 7th, 2012 — waiting list now open.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to deliver life-changing, research-driven nutrition coaching – so that you can help each and every type of client that comes to you for advice – the PN Certification program is perfect for you.

Based on over 10 years of research and statistical data from over 8,000 clients, the certification is a comprehensive nutrition coaching course designed specifically to teach professionals working in a personal training or strength coaching environment how to get clients in the best shape of their lives.

We’ve opened the waiting list for the March 2012 program. I strongly recommend you get your name on the list now because spots are limited and typically sell out within hours each time we run the program.

Click here to join the waiting list.

To be a life-changing fitness pro, you need to take responsibility for both the advice you offer, and your client’s ability to follow that advice.  Yes, even those “difficult clients.” The ones other fitness professionals tell you to fire.

Here at Precision Nutrition, we don’t fire our clients.  We take a completely different approach.

In this 4 part video series – filmed live at the 2011 Perform Better Summit in Long Beach, California – we’ll share that approach with you.  And, by the end of the series, you’ll be better equipped to get unbelievable results with every type of client you work with.  Even the challenging ones.

For now, simply click the play button below to get started with Part 1 of The Compliance Solution.  The video is about 15 minutes in length.

Problem clients…it’s okay to admit it, we all have them.

Some appear to be “great clients” at first. They show up for all their training appointments. They listen attentively when we talk about nutrition and lifestyle. Some even memorize shopping lists, calorie counts, and meal plans.

Despite all this, they sometimes get poor results.

So we push them harder during the workouts, give them less food, add more cardio, and cycle their calories. But, as the weeks turn into months, nothing changes.

The client is frustrated, we’re frustrated, and left with only one logical explanation: they’re lying. They can’t possibly be doing what we recommend.

Other clients never even get that far.

While they’re present for all training appointments, they won’t even pretend to care about nutrition and lifestyle change. Indeed, when it’s time to talk their diet and their daily practices: They. Just. Never. Listen.

We’re Not Just Educators; We’re Coaches

When faced with difficult clients, many of us throw up our hands. “It’s not our fault!” we exclaim. We can only provide the education. It’s our client’s job to do the rest. Right?

Well, not exactly.

Over the past 10 years, the Precision Nutrition team has coached thousands of people in what many people consider to be the World’s Largest Body Transformation Program. We’ve helped them lose fat, get healthy, and change their lives.  The results have been incredible. To date, over 150,000 pounds have been lost and thousands of lives changed.

We’ve also spent a tremendous amount of time learning subjects that traditionally go beyond the boundaries of exercise and nutrition; including coaching theory, change psychology, and neuroscience.

And, after working with all these people, charting their progress and behavior changes, and applying the latest exercise, nutrition, and coaching strategies — only one conclusion can be drawn. Helping clients change, using the best practices of change psychology, is the only way to have long-term success in this field.

In other words, helping clients take the next positive step in their lives — and knowing what steps are right for them — is the key to becoming a life-changing fitness professional.

Compliance and The Medical Field

Make no mistake, coaching people through their struggles with compliance isn’t always easy. However, it’s not a challenge reserved for fitness pros.

I was shocked when I first learned that doctors report embarrassingly low compliance rates when prescribing life-saving heart disease, diabetes, and cancer medications. In fact, the latest data suggest that patients take these medications only half the time.

Scary, for sure.  Also a little intimidating since, as fitness pros, we’re asking our clients to do much more than swallow a magic pill. Exercise, nutrition, and lifestyle changes; they’re a bit more involved.

What’s Your Success Rate?

Keeping compliance issues in mind, typically, if a trainer has 20 clients in their roster, their client breakdown looks something like this:

• 1 client experiences jaw-dropping results
• 9 clients experience decent results, but could be better
• 6 clients experience poor results
• 5 clients drop out

It’s a little disturbing.  And I should know, I’ve been there.

I began my career as a trainer and I can tell you that I struggled through the same challenges.  I wondered: why are more than half my clients getting poor results or dropping out?  And why are so few of my clients achieving jaw-dropping transformations?

At the time, my solution was to learn more.  So off to grad school I went.

What I Didn’t Learn In Grad School

After a few years in the field, I decided to go back to graduate school.  I figured I needed to learn more about exercise and nutrition so I could help my clients achieve those jaw-dropping transformations they were all after.

Five years later, after spending a ridiculous amount of time and money earning a PhD in exercise and nutritional science, I was a little disappointed. While I wouldn’t trade my grad school experiences for the world, when I got back out into the field I wasn’t much further along.

I learned that it wasn’t the high level physiology stuff that was tripping my clients up.  Instead, it was the simple habits and practices built into their daily lives.  Unfortunately I hadn’t learned anything about helping clients with those.

In other words, I can tell you something with authority: what’s missing from your programs isn’t a mystery nutrient or exercise protocol.  What’s missing is something called change psychology.

For me, when I realized this, I completely reworked our coaching approach here at Precision Nutrition. And the more we learned about change psychology, the better the results our clients achieved.

Learning The Basics of Change Psychology

If you’re interested in learning more about this dynamic field, the best way to get acquainted is to read a few excellent, and landmark, books:

• The Power of Less by Leo Babauta
• Influence by Robert Cialdini
• Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson and colleagues
• Switch by Chip and Dan Heath
• The Blackmail Diet by John Bear
• Motivational Interviewing by William R. Miller PhD, Stephen Rollnick PhD.

These books will open your eyes to a whole new way of coaching.

For example, one of my biggest ah-ha moments came when reading Motivational Interviewing.  Until I read this book it never really occurred to me that with my coaching strategies I could be making my clients less likely to change.

That’s right, even with the best of intentions, even if I deeply care about helping my clients, my own agenda, even my language, could literally make my clients less able to make important changes in their lives.

Powerful stuff.  Lessons we all need to learn if we want to be the best fitness pros we can be.

Wrap-Up and Today’s Takeaways

That’s it for Part 1 of The Compliance Solution.  In just a few days we’ll be back with Part 2 of the video series.

In the meantime, here are three important takeaway messages for you to think about.

• Real world coaching requires a mix of physiology and psychology. And psychology is perhaps the most important of the two.

• To improve your knowledge of change psychology, I recommend starting with Motivational Interviewing.  It’s the best book on coaching behavior change that I’ve ever read; the insights come fast and furious.

• For most clients their biggest stumbling block is compliance, the ability to do what they know they should do. Understanding how to help them overcome their limiting factors is the most important skill you can have as a coach.

PN Certification Program begins Wednesday, March 7th, 2012 — waiting list now open.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to deliver life-changing, research-driven nutrition coaching – so that you can help each and every type of client that comes to you for advice – the PN Certification program is perfect for you.

Based on over 10 years of research and statistical data from over 8,000 clients, the certification is a comprehensive nutrition coaching course designed specifically to teach professionals working in a personal training or strength coaching environment how to get clients in the best shape of their lives.

We’ve opened the waiting list for the March 2012 program. I strongly recommend you get your name on the list now because spots are limited and typically sell out within hours each time we run the program.

Click here to join the waiting list.

Eat less and exercise more.  It’s generally a great prescription for improving health and improving body composition.  However, it doesn’t always work.

In a small number of people, even with an awesome exercise plan and a rock-solid diet, the results are less than stellar.  They suffer from mysterious symptoms and complaints that they just shouldn’t be experiencing based on how much effort they put into their fitness and health. 

Make no mistake; exercise and nutrition can make everyone better.  But, for some people, it doesn’t take them all the way.  Because there’s a physiological log-jam.  Something on the inside that’s preventing their progress.

Here at Precision Nutrition, when we meet clients who have issues that exercise and nutrition – not to mention their own doctors – can’t seem to solve, there’s one guy we call.  His name is Bryan Walsh. 

Dr. Walsh has a sharp mind, a fitness background, a degree in naturopathic medicine, and extensive additional training and certifications. His wife is a naturopath too. (We bet his kids are the healthiest on the planet.)

So, when clients have nowhere else to turn, Dr. Walsh turns from mild-mannered dad and husband into forensic physiologist. He pulls out his microscope, analyzes blood, saliva, urine, lifestyle – whatever he has to. And he frees up the physiological jam.

That’s why, when Dr. Walsh volunteered to work on a monthly case study feature with us, we jumped at the chance. By following along with these fascinating cases, you’ll see exactly how a talented practitioner thinks; and you’ll also learn how to improve your own health.

In today’s case, we’ll meet a client who came to Dr. Walsh with a single complaint: adult acne. However, upon further investigation, Dr. Walsh discovered that she was suffering from problems with her sex hormones, blood sugar, and stress hormones.

Learn how “Doctor Detective” Walsh unraveled the mystery and helped this client achieve surprising results.

The client

It’s not every day that a young woman with a great diet, exercise plan, and attitude walks into my office with health complaints. Lots of them, in fact. That got my attention right away.

Jill was 34 and healthy. But she had adult acne. Yeah, acne – y’know, the stuff you’re supposed to grow out of, right around the time you lose your crush on Justin Bieber and quit breaking into your parents’ liquor cabinet? Well, Jill’s acne never got the memo that it was time to move on.

Jill was a woman on a mission. She’d been to many conventional doctors who merely put her on a variety of topical and oral medications, which included antibiotics (minocycline, tetracycline, clindamycin), as well as Differin®, Retin A, and azelaic acid. When that didn’t work, she tried alternative treatments such as natural acne washes, zinc and chromium supplementation, and honey masks.

Nothing helped. Doctors told her nothing was wrong, and that she’d just have to live with the breakouts.

After two years of trying everything, not only was her acne unimproved, but she now experienced frequent urinary tract infections (likely from the antibiotics). She was frustrated. She knew something was wrong.

But what? She looked fit and healthy. She ate well on an organic diet. She exercised regularly. At 5’9” and 130 lb, her weight was normal. She was even upbeat and positive.

Yet acne was only one of her issues.

Jill believed she also had hormone imbalances. She’d been trying to get pregnant for 10 years with no luck. She and her husband had pretty much given up on her dream of having a baby.

The client’s signs and symptoms

I examined Jill when she came into my office. She had significant acne and mild facial hair growth. Other than low blood pressure (100/70), all other physical exam findings were normal.

I dug deeper, scribbling notes as I went. Jill described the following:

Aha, I thought. Based on her medical history, her signs and her symptoms thus far, Jill’s probably experiencing blood sugar issues (i.e. reactive hypoglycemia), sex hormone imbalances, digestive dysfunction, and possible adrenal hormone imbalances.

After being “Doctor Detective” for many years, I like to think my instincts are pretty good. Still, I’m a cautious guy. I don’t like to jump to conclusions. So I turned to the diagnostic tests for confirmation.

The tests and assessments

Taking a good medical history and critically evaluating symptoms often tells you everything you need to know about a case. However, there are some things you can’t learn just from asking questions.

I can’t see into clients’ blood vessels or cells, or guess the chemistry of their urine. Lab testing gives me insight that I can’t get from conversation. In fact, labwork is one of the most useful tools in my arsenal.

I like to start small with some basic tests. Sometimes these are all I need. I always start with a good blood chemistry panel plus a salivary hormone panel. Jill is also a candidate for a digestive function panel, but we opted against it for now.

The test results

Blood chemistry panel

When read correctly, a good blood chemistry panel speaks volumes about a patient’s internal physiological processes. Here are some of the significant findings from Jill’s blood chemistry panel:

You’ll notice that even though none of these values were outside the lab reference range, I still flagged some of them as problematic. Why?

Well, what most people don’t realize is that, except for lipids (cholesterol, HDL, LDL, etc), the range provided by the laboratory is derived from blood samples taken from people visiting their doctor. In other words, sick people. Healthy people go to the doctor far less often than sick ones do.

Therefore when your doctor says your blood work is “normal”, s/he’s really saying: “You are as healthy as 90 percent of people visiting the doctor today” and “Congratulations! You probably don’t have a weird unusual disease!”

That’s not enough for me. I don’t just want to know that people are surviving. I want to know how to make them thrive.

So we look at blood panels a different way: as a means to evaluate health and optimal function.

In addition to the findings above, we also saw evidence of possible dehydration (slightly elevated albumin, hemoglobin and hematocrit) on the blood chemistry, which could be masking an anemic tendency on her blood work. If someone is dehydrated, their anemia will be harder, if not impossible, to spot on a blood chemistry test.

Is it plausible there are a lot of dehydrated anemic patients walking around today being told there is nothing wrong with them today? You bet. More than most people realize.

Hormone panel

Hormonally, Jill had a number of things going on.

We ran a month-long female hormone panel to track her hormones over the course of an entire month. The results appear in the graph below. Note that normal estrogen for a female cycle is in blue, normal progesterone is in red. Jill’s results are in dashed green.

Hormone panel results - click to enlarge

Based on this graph, you can see that Jill has fairly normal progesterone levels and timing, but estrogen starts and ends elevated throughout the entire month. This tells us that estrogen is dominant. This consistently high level of estrogen, and its effects on her tissues, helps explain many of her symptoms during menses.

But perhaps the most significant finding with regard to her acne was what we found when testing her testosterone.

Although many people assume that testosterone is a “male” hormone and estrogen is a “female” hormone, both men and women produce both types of hormones. They just differ in the relative amounts.

Elevated testosterone in women is more common than people realize. High testosterone causes everything from infertility, low libido, mood issues, difficulty losing weight, to the more obvious signs like acne and facial hair growth.

As far as Jill’s acne was concerned, we felt this was the smoking gun we were looking for.

Cortisol panel

To add insult to injury, Jill also showed chronically low cortisol levels throughout the day (as you can see below — her results are mapped on the blue line), which is consistent with reactive hypoglycemia.

Cortisol, also known as a glucocorticoid, has powerful influences on maintaining healthy blood sugar levels. When people with low cortisol skip meals, their blood sugar drops too low, and epinephrine is released as a backup plan to increase glucose. It is epinephrine that causing the shakiness, lightheadedness, and irritability experienced between meals.

Cortisol panel results - click to enlarge

The prescription

We may be “health gunslingers for hire”, but we ain’t supplement junkies. Nor do we respect practitioners that send patients out with grocery bags of supplements. It’s simply not necessary. Some people need more than others, but there is no need to take a supplement without proof that you need it.

We also don’t believe in protocols for specific conditions. For example we don’t have an acne protocol, or even an acne supplement. Instead, we look at which physiological pathways are dysfunctional and seek to improve those pathways using targeted nutritional approaches.

That being said, let’s find out what we did for Jill.

Issue #1 – Blood sugar imbalances

Her symptoms and blood work (low LDH) suggested reactive hypoglycemia, otherwise known as excessive blood sugar fluctuations. This is critical to address, as reactive hypoglycemia in women often increases testosterone production.

It’s crucial for women with this condition to eat small, frequent meals, whether they feel hungry or not. Anytime Jill feels lightheaded or shaky between meals, she’s waited too long and created hormone havoc in her body. Addressing low cortisol will also help correct her blood sugar fluctuations.

Issue #2 – Vitamin deficiencies

Jill seemed to be deficient in a number of nutrients (vitamin B12, folic acid, vitamin C, zinc) solely based on her blood work, so we gave her a high-potency multivitamin-mineral called Complete Multi by Designs for Health (2 caps, three times a day).

We also gave her additional sublingual vitamin B12 (1mg three times a day), as digestive issues can inhibit vitamin B12 absorption. This was designed to help what appeared to be a sub-clinical macrocytic anemia.

Issue #3 – Digestive dysfunction

We had Jill start with a three-week elimination diet to help reduce gut inflammation caused by possible food sensitivities. We also supplemented digestive enzymes (Digestzyme by Designs for Health, 2-3 capsule per meal). Later in her protocol, we also put her on Designs for Health Probiotics Supreme (2 caps a day) to help combat the assumed dysbiosis she had from antibiotic use.

Issue #4 – Hormone imbalances

We needed to eliminate her excess hormones, specifically estrogen and testosterone. This is most easily accomplished by improving liver and gall bladder detoxification pathways, since this is the primary pathway steroid hormones are cleared out of the body. Specifically we used Designs for Health Amino-D-Tox (2 caps, three times a day), LV/GB (one cap three times a day) and Clearvite by Apex Energetics (one scoop three times a day, which also addresses gastrointestinal health).

Issue #5 – Adrenal imbalances

Normally we don’t address adrenal imbalances right away. Rather we support other systems for a period of time, re-evaluate, and see if anything improved. However, given that high testosterone was a key finding, we needed to address the low cortisol to stop the vicious hormonal cycle happening anytime her blood sugar got too low. We prescribed an adaptogenic formula called Adaptocrine by Apex Energetics (2 caps, three times a day) designed to help support the body’s stress response.

Obviously there were other things to address, and additional directions we could go, but this was enough for the next 12 weeks, at which time we’d redo lab testing and evaluate her symptoms.

While this may seem like a lot, it’s all for good reason. For example, if her testosterone is high, we need to stop its overproduction (i.e. due to blood sugar fluctuations) and get rid of the excess levels (i.e. liver support).

The outcome

A few weeks after finishing the protocol, Jill submitted follow-up blood chemistry panel and salivary hormone testing. However, while we were pleased with her symptom improvement, we were initially puzzled by the lab results.

Symptomatically, Jill reported a complete resolution of her acne. She also had an “abundance of energy”, no more gas and bloating, emotional balance for the first time in 10 years, and she felt “happier and more alive” than she had in a long time.

Mission accomplished, right? Not really.

Her testosterone had lowered considerably from 67 pg/ml down to 15 pg/ml, which is a good thing. However her estrogen and progesterone remained very elevated. And now she had high glucose, alkaline phosphatase, white blood cells, and lipids (cholesterol and triglycerides).

Not exactly the direction we wanted to go. Scratching our head we wondered where we went wrong, and where we were going to go next.

But then we got our answer.

One week later, we had our answer. Jill was finally pregnant! As she told us in an excited email:

“…Yet the best, most joyous and most unexpected result was … I found out that I was pregnant! Never in million years did my husband and I think we could fall pregnant with the current state of my hormones and so quickly, after addressing my health concerns.”

Her pregnancy explained the odd lab values that came back post testing. So yes, apparently mission accomplished.

Summary

So what can we take away from Jill’s story?

1. Symptoms of reactive hypoglycemia, including shakiness, lightheadedness and irritability between meals are often correlated with low cortisol.
2. Blood sugar fluctuations will almost always cause hormone imbalances in women, specifically elevated testosterone.
3. High testosterone in women can result in mood issues (i.e. depression), infertility, difficulty losing weight, low libido, as well as external manifestations such as acne and facial hair growth.
4. Getting rid of excess testosterone requires balancing blood sugar to slow down its production, and supporting liver detoxification pathways to clear out the excess that is already present.

In the next article . . .

Jill contacted us a year later, elated with a new baby boy, but with a whole new set of symptoms: extreme fatigue, depression, and difficult weight loss.

We ran a blood chemistry, and it showed a very high TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) coupled with low thyroxine and T3 (Thyroid hormones).  However, low thyroid hormone was not her primary issue.  Her problems were being caused by something very common today, which we’ll cover next month.

Stay tuned, detectives.

Click here to join the waiting list.

“A microwave dinner appeals to us because it takes only a few minutes to prepare; yet it took nature millions of years to produce the oil for the plastic wrapper and make the soil that grew the trees for the cardboard tray.”
– David Wann

Folks, we have a trash problem.

The average American creates 4.5 pounds (2 kg) of trash per day. This means the United States dumps 1.4 billion pounds of trash into landfills every 24 hours. That’s billion, with a “b”.

40% of this trash is packaging — often just one-time-use packaging from processed foods.

Food packaging doesn’t dematerialize into nothingness. It has to go somewhere.

Overconsumption of processed food is a problem for our body, and the packaging is a problem for our planet.

My trash-free eating experiment

For the past few years I’ve been experimenting with ways to limit my food packaging and overall trash production while still maintaining a nutritious food intake and not relocating to a yurt in the mountains.

I’ve spent weeks collecting my trash and seeing where I could improve.

I’ve kept trash logs and taken photos.

I’ve toured recycling facilities and interviewed experts about using plastic protein jugs.

Now – to be clear, I’m not talking about food scraps (e.g., citrus rinds, apple cores, etc.).  That’s another issue (see here: All About Food Waste). I’m talking about the packaging that food comes in.

I have an acronym for my current nutrition goal: PALTAP.

Produce
As
Little
Trash
As
Possible

This baby goes at the top of each grocery list. And yes, only cool people come up with acronyms for their nutrition goals.

Here’s what I found out along the way.

The big Kahuna: plastic

Every piece of plastic made still exists today. Nobody’s really sure how long plastic takes to break down, but guesses range from 500 to 1000 years for things like polyethylene plastic grocery bags.

Do you know where plastic comes from? Oil. 7-8% of world oil production goes to manufacturing plastics.

We’ve produced nearly as much plastic in the last 10 years as we have in all previous decades put together.

But can’t we just recycle it?  Not so fast. Depending on prices, plastic is sometimes shipped to China for recycling. In case you need my commentary here: This isn’t a very sustainable solution.

Further, a glass jar is often recycled into another glass jar. An aluminum can is often recycled into another aluminum can. A plastic bottle isn’t recycled into another plastic bottle. It’s molded into a less-durable product until one day it’s dumped in a landfill.

So while I’m all about PALTAP, minimizing plastic is even more of a priority.

Lessons learned

Dear diary,

It seems like only yesterday that I started keeping my first trash journal. Three minutes into the experiment I was already responsible for two pieces of trash (a plastic strawberry container and a kale twist tie).

Then I realized that perhaps my protein powder packets were also an issue.

Needless to say, it was a long week.

My first offenses

Recycling guy helps me decide on bagged vs. plastic-jugged protein

Offender #1: Convenience foods

We often avoid convenience foods because of their preservatives, additives, salt, sugar, etc. But my new reason to avoid them is the trash: plastic wrappers, plastic/cardboard trays, boxes. Yikes.

Even “healthy”, “whole food” type convenience foods get in on the act.

Offender #2: Takeout food

Restaurants are great. They use real plates, glasses and silverware. But carryout boxes for leftovers can be an issue. Whenever I get takeout it’s a trash extravaganza: paper/plastic bowls, plastic utensils, mustard packets, bags, Styrofoam (a plastic), napkins, etc.

If you order food from a restaurant, try bringing your own container to bring the food home.

Recycling guy explains the problem of Styrofoam to me

Offender #3: Bulk food

For several years, I think I missed the point with bulk food. I would go to the store, pull some fresh plastic bags from the roll, and feel like I was doing something positive – after all, I was buying in bulk.

But I was still creating a demand for more plastic/trash. It’s all about reusing here. Get a couple bags and jars you can refill, keep them in your car/purse/backpack, and be the coolest person in your neighbourhood.

Operation No-Plastic Man

After this wake-up call about my plastic buying habits (even the ones I thought were “responsible” and “healthy”), I got serious. Here are some strategies for cutting down on your plastic packaging.

Strategy 1: Use non-plastic bags at the grocery store

When getting fruits and vegetables from the grocery store, don’t worry about putting them in plastic bags. You can bring your own bags from home, or just set the produce directly in the basket/cart (and then into your reusable bag after checking out).

Otherwise, we use the plastic bag for about 15 minutes to carry apples, then the bag hangs around for about 1,000 years in a landfill. Not worth it.

I now carry dry beans, grains, bread, vegetables and fruits in fabric produce bags like those in the photos above and below. The bags even air dry after washing.

Strategy 2: Get a reusable water bottle

Old school?  Yes. Effective?  Yes.

Americans use about 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour.  I like Life Factory because they offer glass bottles protected by a silicone sleeve. If you only drink from your reusable bottle and water fountains, you are saving lots of potential trash.

And don’t forget about one-time-use cups.  If you go out for coffee/tea, bring a reusable mug/thermos. If you go out for soda, well, you’re living in the 1950s. Nobody goes to a soda shop any more.

Strategy 3: Bulk loose leaf tea

Instead of buying a box of tea bags (with the box wrapped in plastic and each tea bag wrapped in paper), how about bringing your own tin/jar to the store for a refill?  If you are a heavy tea drinker (like me), this saves LOTS of packaging. You can do this with bulk coffee too.

Strategy 4: Reusable shopping bags

Let me stop right here. If you don’t carry groceries in reusable shopping bags, introduce yourself to 2005.

Strategy 5: Fresh bread

You can bring a reusable bread bag to a bakery or grocery store that makes fresh bread. Then take the bread home and freeze it in a freezer-safe bag for long-term storage (slice before freezing).

Strategy 6: Refill your nut butter

I was on a nut butter squeeze pack kick for about one year. Thanks to me, there are now 365 little empty nut butter squeeze packs in landfills. Way to go, Ryan.

But I do have good news: I learned that you can refill your own jar with nut butter in the bulk department. It’s often less expensive.

And yes, when you come to the store carrying a jar to refill with nut butter, your chances of getting asked out by a cute girl (or guy) go up dramatically. Trust me.

Strategy 7: Chew less plastic

I love fresh breath as much as the next suave gentleman, but chewing gum often contains plastic. I’ve weaned myself down to 1-2 pieces daily (and use herbal breath spray when needed).

Strategy 8: Pick your frozen packages carefully

If you get frozen fruits/veggies, try to find brands that use less packaging (like 365 organic) or brands that have biodegradable packaging (like Stahlbush Farms).

Strategy 9: Reusable utensils

Are you 10% more hippie when you carry around reusable bamboo utensils?  Yes. But the planet won’t explode in 5 years. (At least not because of something you did.)

Shopping list mission

On your shopping list include how you plan to purchase and transport your food (e.g., bulk organic walnuts in reusable bag). And in big bold letters at the top, write PALTAP. Walk around with your head held high, my no-plastic friend.

Milk

Milk (non-dairy and cow’s) often comes in cardboard or plastic containers. More trash.

My solution?  About 50% of the time I just add a couple handfuls of whole almonds or spoonfuls of hempseeds to the blender with some water – ta da – homemade almond or hemp milk without the trash (I do this with Super Shakes – I don’t drink milk otherwise).

Note: if you do homemade nut milk, you won’t be getting added vitamins and minerals that are often included in store bought products, so if you rely on these, you should replace them with a supplement. If you drink cow’s milk, consider finding a product in refillable glass bottles.

Have (non-plastic) containers

Keep some large food storage jars at home for dry goods. I keep dry beans, peas, lentils, nuts, seeds, and grains in jars. It makes for easy access and when friends/family come over they think I have my life together.

If you have any old glass food jars, wash them, dry them, and re-use them for storing bulk dry goods.

Canned foods

I used to eat a can of beans nearly every day. Something about it didn’t feel right.

Finally I realized it was the empty can just staring back at me afterwards. I was generating a tin can each day.

My solution?  Dry split peas (yellow and green) and lentils (brown and red). These legumes don’t require pre-soaking — split peas can be cooked in 45 minutes or less, brown lentils can be cooked in 30 minutes or less, and red lentils can be cooked in 12 minutes or less.

Foil, plastic wrap, and plastic bags

Believe it or not, we can re-use this stuff. I rinse and dry it – then use it a few times before it’s really mangled.

I used to laugh at my grandma when she did this. Now I’m her.

When I freeze bananas for super shakes, I reuse the same bag several times before discarding it. When I roast veggies, I’ll use the same foil several times before discarding it.

Go biodegradable

If you do buy food with packaging, look for companies that use biodegradable and/or compostable packaging.

Farmers’ markets

At markets, you’ll often find bagless fresh bread, and loads of veggies and fruits. Just bring your own reusable containers/bags.

Straight from the source

Visit (or even better, volunteer at) an organic garden/farm. Bring the stuff directly home – no packaging.

What about recycling?

“Recycling is a rite of atonement for the sin of excess.” – John Tierney

While recycling is a better option than trashing things, we can’t recycle enough to offset our growing consumption. Recycling is great as the final option in the 3 Rs. Remember those from elementary school?  Reduce, reuse … then recycle.

Recycling tips & factoids

• Most facilities will now recycle cardboard milk containers and tetra-paks.
• Plastic numbers 3-7 are the hardest to recycle.
• Styrofoam can be recycled (it is an expanded plastic) but since it is so bulky and light, many centers don’t accept it.
• Aluminum foil isn’t always recyclable.
• Don’t send plastic bags to recycling centers. They clog up the machinery.
• If the container you recycle is dirty or has a label, it doesn’t really matter. It just comes off in the washing and grinding process.
• It’s OK to leave plastic lids on plastic bottles. But take the metal lids off glass jars before you toss them in the blue bin.

My trip to the recycling facility

What does a day of low-trash eating look like?

		Shake & granola for a topper
		Big mixed salad with beans and olives
		Peach and pistachio
		Squash, collards, red lentils, toast with peanut butter
		Lentils, cabbage, peppers, apple with almond butter

The spectrum

All of our choices are on a spectrum. Some choices are better, some worse.

At one end we have pre-packaged foods layered with plastic and paper. At the other end we have growing our own food in the backyard.

Don’t forget about the gray area in between. Any positive step is a positive step. While we can’t do everything, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do something.

How could you move one “notch” along the spectrum today?

Other trash free living tips

Most trash free living ideas just come down to thinking ahead and being prepared.

• Use bar soap and shampoo bars.
• Use Preserve toothbrushes.
• Nix junk mail and phone books. Register to receive less at:
• catalogchoice.org
• yellowpagesoptout.com
• I used to go to conferences, seminars and other events and load up on free stuff. No more. It’s just clutter and eventual trash.
• Maybe you can find a market that is free of packaging.

Trash freedom also comes from greater awareness. Consider keeping track of your food trash for one week, or even one day.

Tips and resources

A documentary about trash

Living plastic free

How to get started reducing trash

Hey, why not build a trash house?

References

Plastic: A Toxic Love Story. Susan Freinkel. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; None edition (April 18, 2011)

Infographic – The truth about plastic: http://c1.eatdrinkbetter.com/files/2011/07/plastics.jpg

Stuart T. Waste: Uncovering the global food scandal. 2009. Norton.

Bloom J. American Wasteland. 2010. Da Capo Lifelong Books.

Thomas P. Behind the label: chewing gum. The Ecologist. January 12, 2010.

Tierney J. Recycling is garbage. NY Times. June 30, 1996.

Click here to join the waiting list.

But they’re not just physique magicians, internet sadists, and keyboard jockeys. They’re also real people with real lives, real experiences, and real world challenges of their own.

They’ve done what you’ve done. They’ve been where you are. That’s what makes them so darn good.

In this series of Lean Eating Coach profiles, you’ll get to know a little about them. Today, a profile of Georgie Fear.

Coach Georgie Fear is lying in a hospital bed. She’s pale and weak. Her big dark baby-seal eyes look huge in her delicate face. She came to Toronto to bond with the other PN coaches and ended up with a flu from hell, enjoying Canadian medical hospitality.

She can barely move. Yet when I ask how she’s doing, she expends her last bit of energy to give me a thumbs-up.

That’s Georgie.

A couple of days earlier, she’d been rambunctious and silly, fluffing out the ends of her Pippi Longstocking red braid over Coach Roland Fisher’s (ahem) “hair-challenged” pate, arranging it like a used-car-salesman combover. The camera flashes, other coaches crack up, and she grins like a fiend.

That’s Georgie.

Playful, bright, eager, and full of loving energy, she’s like a happy puppy. Well, a happy puppy with PhD-level expertise in nutrition and a conversational familiarity with the enzymatic effects of dietary anthocyanins in the human liver.

“I love coaching so much,” she squeals, in a recent phone call to me.

“It’s just great to be communicating, talking to people, getting to be a nutrition geek. I love being able to motivate people, help them over their hurdles. I love it most when I help them get through a real tough problem, ’cause then I feel like, ‘Yeah! I’m here for something!’”

“I like to help people out, and to help them solve their own problems too. It’s really my dream job. I still wake up and pinch myself and think, ‘Oh my God! This is my life!’”

Georgie’s journey

Despite her joyous demeanour, things haven’t always been happy for Georgie. “I’ve been into nutrition for what feels like my whole life, and sadly I started in a way that many other dietitians get into it, which is having eating issues.” She laughs ruefully.

As a teenager, she’d struggled with food (“I’d say I was a slow improver,” she chuckles, “which is a little embarrassing”), but gradually climbed out of the hole. Along the way she had to come to terms with managing stress, a poor body image, and a compulsive desire to exercise — problems, she says, that affect countless women in the fitness and nutrition industries.

It’s probably hard to believe, looking at her photos that now radiate good health and wellness, that Coach Georgie could ever have felt unattractive. Yet, she explains, her adolescence was challenging.

“I was a gangly, glasses-faced kid. I didn’t have a lot of friends. I was awkward as hell. I didn’t feel very good about myself.

“At some point, as a teenager, I must have received some kind of compliment about being thin, or being pretty, and I thought, ‘Oh! If I’m pretty or thin, then maybe people will like me!’ And I became absolutely obsessed with cutting calories, being thin, being attractive, just wanting so bad for other people to like what they saw in me.”

It’s an experience, she says, that is common to many of her clients as well. It helps her understand women’s struggles with body image, eating, and exercise.

“I’m grateful for this experience,” she says, “even though it was hard on my body. It built me up so much on the inside, it built me such a strong personality, and sense of security. A lot of times I think that coming through this awful fragility makes me stronger. And it’s been a tremendous asset in my counselling and coaching.

“I have gone both ways: I’ve lost weight, I’ve gained weight, and like my clients, have really struggled to find balance. For a long time I was not secure in my weight or myself. It took me a long time to get comfortable with food and in my body. So I totally get what my clients are experiencing.”

She pauses on the phone. “Wait, let me kick my dog out of the room. He’s chewing very loudly.” The dog in question is Georgie’s beloved bulldog Rupert. “He kept snoring so loudly on our last coaching conference call that I had to keep putting the phone on mute.”

Finding her power

Athletics got her in to trouble, but athletics got her out of it.

She took up running in her freshman year of high school because she wanted to be skinny. ”I figured a coach yelling at me to run mile after mile would be perfect,” she says.

To her 14-year-old eyes, “all the other girls on the team were tall and beautiful and lanky, and I was this short, freckled hobbit. I’m built like a fire hydrant, not like a runner.” (Maybe fire hydrants look different in Colorado, where Georgie now makes her home.)

She got cut from cross-country, and stubbornly went out for track, where, she reports, her coaches said, “‘Look honey, you’re really strong, but you’re not fast, so let’s have you throw this heavy metal ball instead.’ So, I became a shotputter instead.” Later, she discovered a love for discus throwing as well.

She found that hauling and tossing heavy things was a better fit for her body and spirit, and that “the less I ate, the less strong I was.” Now she had a reason to fuel her physique properly. There was a new fire in her belly.

“If I mess around with my food, then yeah, I might be a pretty face, but I’ll sit here unable to move, and that sucks.”

A kindly strength and conditioning coach found her, nurtured her, and built her — brick by iron brick — into a powerhouse of body and spirit.

“He always said, ‘C’mon, let’s put another ten pounds on there,’ or ‘C’mon, you can do this, you can squat that, you can deadlift that.’ And ‘I don’t want to hear your whining, just do it.’ He praised me so much for my efforts and performance, it really shifted my thinking away from what my body looked like to what it could do.”

In college, she added rowing to her repertoire. Then a new fling appeared.

Finding her stride

A friend suggested she try marathon running. With three weeks of training, Georgie hit her first 26-mile route.

“Not a good idea,” she recounts. “We had bets going on who could go the longest in the running portion without having to walk.” She finished the Philadelphia Marathon… “and then got sick the entire way home to New Jersey.”

Next marathon, she won her age category. (“And then I found out it was only because there were four people in my age group,” she quips.) After that, a 50-km run where she won the open category for all age groups.

“I felt like Superman. I felt like I could do anything or be anything.”

Though fun and exciting, running tweaked some of the same challenges she’d experienced as a teenager. She pushed herself to run more, do more, be more. Seven marathons came and went.

“As I kept trying harder and harder to be fast — God did not make this body to be fast — I lost some of the joy in it.”

More lessons learned about overdoing it. More coaching insights. And it didn’t get her any leaner — a fact she often shares with her clients who are pounding the asphalt hoping to melt fat.

“I don’t believe in driving people the way I used to drive myself,” she explains.

“I believe in drawing them with a carrot. Having treated myself with the whip — go to the gym, lift it, I don’t care if you’re tired, or if the room is spinning — I know it doesn’t work. You backlash against it. If you have a horse and you whip it, and it wants to walk, eventually it won’t go.

“Just let go of the reins, and the horse might decide that running is fun.”

Finding her groove

As a personal trainer, then a grad student at Rutgers in nutrition, she started a little website called AskGeorgie.com.

“There’s so much nutrition garbage on the internet that I just felt, like, I can’t criticize it if I’m not putting my own stuff out there. Shut up and do something about it! I’m going to be one small voice, giving what I feel is good advice.”

The little website grew. And grew. She loved answering questions, and the questions kept on coming.

Then she produced a cookbook, Dig In. “Compared to what I know now, the first cookbook was so simplistic,” she laughs. “I had no idea what I was doing! I was just learning to cook and bringing everyone along with me.”

Then, another cookbook, Fuel Up. And an iPhone/Android app.

She worked as Sports Nutritionist for Rutgers University Athletics, overseeing nutrition programming for 21 Division I athletic teams.

Georgie had found her groove. Almost. She yearned for wide open spaces.

Taking a leap of faith, she left her job at Rutgers, crossed the country, and bought a house in Colorado, where she could pursue her favourite outdoor activities such as climbing, hiking, and mountain biking.

And that’s when the call from Dr. Berardi came. He needed another women’s coach for the Lean Eating program. Georgie was thrilled beyond measure.

“It made me want to jump up and down and clap my hands! Oh my God! I feel like a celebrity!”

Yet she remains humble and grounded.

“I guess what matters most is feeling comfortable enough in my own knowledge to feel like I’m an authority. Not to be self-doubting, and say ‘Oh, I don’t know what I’m talking about.’ No! I do know my stuff! I have my act together! I actually know a lot!” She lives the lifestyle, like all PN coaches.

With characteristic self-deprecation, she says she’s a “wimpy coach. I imagine Coach Krista Schaus is a total badass. And Coach Cynthia has her military background. I feel like I’m the ‘nice one’, y’know, Oh, that’s OK, just try your best.” More laughs.

“I focus on the fun. This feels good. If it feels good you don’t have to tell people to come back and do it. The dentist has to remind you, like with a little appointment card. But a massage therapist? They don’t have to remind you to come in! You want to come back!”

“I keep telling people, ‘Find the joy. Find something fun, wherever that is. Even if that’s just rolling around on a foam roller! Then you won’t have to worry about motivation, because your body will naturally gravitate to whatever feels good.”

Self-criticism doesn’t work, she says. Self-love works a lot better, especially in the long term.

“Hating yourself can make you go to the gym, sure. But loving yourself can make you go to the gym too. Maybe the outside — the action — looks exactly the same. But the experience on the inside is completely different.”

Finding her dream

What drives her now, she says, is a lot different than what drove her fifteen years ago. Or even, perhaps, fifteen minutes ago. “I’ve reinvented myself more times than Madonna,” she cracks.

Of primary importance: “I want to get amazing results with my clients.” She’s thrown herself with characteristic exuberance into the job of Lean Eating women’s coach, and her Lean Eaters love her back.

“And I wouldn’t mind selling a bajillion books. Not for money, but because it’s so much fun — I feel like I’m communicating with all these people around the world. Someone from Bolivia bought my book recently… I was tickled pink! Someone’s reading my stuff in Bolivia!

“It’s all a great way to get good nutrition into people’s lives. It’s almost like I’m there with them, in their homes.”

And if you’re lucky enough to be one of Georgie’s Lean Eating clients, rest assured that she’ll be there with you for the whole rollicking, frolicking, funny, and self-lovin’ journey.

Click here to join the waiting list.

In May 2012, we’ll open registration for the Scrawny To Brawny Coaching Program, exclusively for skinny guys looking to build muscle once and for all.

This program is really important to me, because I started out as a skinny guy myself — and if you’ve never been there, you won’t really understand what it’s like.

So, last year, while shooting some of the video for the first ever coaching program, I did an interview about my own transformation: what it was like, why I did it, how I did it and the key lessons I learned in the process.

I want to share that video with you today.  Check it out.

[Note: Our first two S2B coaching programs kicked off in June of 2010 and May of 2011. They were both a huge success.  So we've followed this up with a second program in 2011.  That program launched on November 9th and the next one will be in May 2012.]

If you’re a skinny guy yourself, I strongly recommend that you try the coaching program when registration opens in May 2012. Because this is the program I designed for the guy I used to be.

The thing is, the gym culture has changed — mostly for the worse, in my opinion.

The end of mentorship

Not to go on and on about the golden days here, but the fact is that even 15 years ago, before commercial gym chains took over, you would actually know the people who were working out around you, and they might even help you from time to time.

In fact, that’s exactly what happened to me, and had I not met and been mentored by a few key people, I would have failed miserably.

I see this all the time now. Young guys, middle-aged guys, older guys — simply wasting time in the gym. I see them spending hours in the gym, I see them drinking shakes, but the months go by and … nothing happens. They look exactly the same.

I’ve been there.

And I know how that feels, because I’ve done it. I’ve felt that embarrassment, that sense of defeat. To put it bluntly, it feels like shit.

In my local gym here, I teach a class exclusively for those skinny guys, because I also know how to overcome all that — and I know, because someone once taught me.

Now, with this program, I can finally teach anyone, anywhere in the world.

And if you’re a skinny guy who’s motivated and willing to learn (and by “learn”, I mean “do what I tell you”), then I’m willing to teach you too.

A summary of the S2B Coaching Program:

The S2B coaching program is essentially a muscle-building version of our renowned fat loss coaching program, Lean Eating.

• Group coaching program exclusively for skinny guys looking to build muscle
• Only 200 spots in the program
• Private website exclusively for S2B clients
• Detailed nutrition instruction
• Complete training program
• Private support forum with guaranteed responses from dedicated coaches
• $99 down, $99 per month
• $20,000 in prizes for the best body transformations
• Results guaranteed: you build the muscle you want or the course is free.

We use this very same coaching methodology in Lean Eating, our fat loss coaching program. And our research shows that our methods are 3-5x more effective than working with a trainer in person. The reasons for that are many, but in short, it’s because:

1. We address every aspect of the body transformation process, from training, nutrition, cooking, supplementation, recovery, dealing with negative influences in your life … everything, basically, and
2. We do it one step at a time, in a carefully designed process that adds just a little more each day, preventing you from burning out or getting overwhelmed — and allowing you to keep the body you’ve built for life, even when life gets in the way.

Want Some Muscle-Building Help? The Next S2B Coaching Program Begins May 2012.

For skinny guys only: In May 2012, we’re launching the next Scrawny to Brawny Coaching Program and taking a small group of just 200 guys through a complete 12-month body transformation — training, nutrition, supplementation, recovery . . . everything.

The problem is going to be how to decide who gets in, because last time we ran the Scrawny to Brawny program, we had thousands of guys express interest and not nearly enough spots for everyone.

Our solution has always been to reward those who are the most eager and motivated — the guys who want it the most — because in my experience they make the best clients. So here’s how it’s going to work:

If you’re interested in being a part of the next S2B coaching program, join the waiting list by adding your name and email below — we’ll send you some more info about the program, and we’ll give you a chance to register for one of the spots 24 hours before the general public.

Click here to join the waiting list.

In the last week alone, over 35,000 people read the free book.  And the number one thing they asked for was a printable version. So we created just that.

Click here to download the free PDF

This beautifully designed PDF version of the book is now available for you to download, print out, and share with your friends and colleagues.  It’s just a special thank you to everyone who checked out the book.

One more thing.

If you already read the book and have any questions about the content, feel free to post them on our site.  We recently created a “comments section” at the bottom of each chapter.

This means that you can post your questions in the relevant section and receive a reply from myself or a member of the PN Team.  So far, the most frequently asked questions include:

• Which form of IF is best for women?
• Can IF be used in people with heart disease or diabetes?
• Should compettive athletes use IF?
• What if I’ve always eaten small meals, more frequently?
• What if I’m struggling? Should I just do something else altogether?

We answer these questions and more in the comments section at the end of each chapter.  So, if you have questions about the book, don’t let them go unanswered.

Click here to post your intermittent fasting questions

Free E-Book: Experiments with Intermittent Fasting

Click here to join the waiting list.

Anyone who’s ever made the transition from scrawny to brawny knows that getting big isn’t an accident. Adding pounds of muscle doesn’t just happen.

“I looked in the mirror this morning and saw I added 20 pounds! Then I won the lottery.  Then…I woke up.”

Dream on, buddy.

The reality is: gaining size and transforming your body is a concentrated assault on your physiology. But that’s not all. There’s also a mental makeover that’s required.

You see, if you follow “scrawny habits” and think “scrawny thoughts” you’re always going to be scrawny. No question about it. Might as well stock up on medium-size t-shirts.

But if you follow “brawny habits” and think “brawny thoughts”, you can gain mass quicker than you ever thought possible.

How do I know?

Well, not only have I made the scrawny to brawny transition myself, I’ve also helped hundreds of other guys do it, too. So have the Scrawny to Brawny coaches.  Indeed, a few months ago we opened our doors to 200 scrawny guys who had tried — and failed — to get big in the past.

The result of following the recommendations in our coaching program? Over 1600 pounds gained in six months.  In fact, our 10 finalists gained an average of 27 pounds each.

S2B client "MPudzianowski" gained 36 lbs in the program.

[View all our finalists from the last Scrawny To Brawny Coaching Program.]

Now, these guys weren’t anything special. They weren’t bodybuilders or fitness models. Heck, most of them didn’t even look like they lifted weights before they started the program! They were just a group of average guys with average genetics.

But over the course of the coaching program, they learned “brawny habits” that completely changed the way they looked and the way they lived.

Why are we telling you all this? Well, for one, we’re damn proud of these guys. But the other reason is this: we want to share their mistakes (and our solutions to those mistakes).  Because we want to help take you from scrawny to brawny.

If you want to finally gain some size and learn how to add muscle the right way – even if you’re skeptical about being able to do it – we suggest you avoid the “deadly six” and heed our advice.

“Looking back, I wasn’t even optimistic about starting the Scrawny to Brawny program. In my mind, I knew we weren’t going to gain weight. But, after my brother pushed me to sign up, I reluctantly gave in.”

– deadaim (S2B coaching client who gained 38 pounds in the program)

The 6 Scrawny Guy Mistakes:

Mistake #1. You Collect Too Much Information.

You have a handful of online fitness sites bookmarked and read an article or two every day. Perhaps you even print the articles so you can read them again later. You spend time in the forums, putting your two cents in and giving advice.

But are you actually practicing what you preach? Are you really training hard in the gym and eating big in the kitchen?

If you’re still scrawny, probably not.

This was one S2B client’s (forum name, krh) problem when he signed up.

S2B client “krh” gained 28 lbs in the program.

(We call this “analysis paralysis.” krh called it being an “infovore.”)

Because he was devouring article after article and compiling a mountain of knowledge, krh had the illusion that he was actually making progress. But when he looked in the mirror, he just saw the same scrawny guy.

(krh, by the way, ended up gaining 28 pounds in the S2B program.)

Solution: Go on a two-week fitness media fast. That’s right. No reading fitness magazines, books, or online articles for a full 14 days. You probably already know enough of the basics to make your time in the gym worthwhile. So why don’t you get your ass in there and really start training?

Mistake #2. You Don’t Eat Nearly Enough.

Yeah, we already know you eat a lot. (That’s what everyone tells us, at least.) But if you’re still not gaining weight, guess what? You aren’t eating nearly enough.

Most scrawny guys have a metabolism akin to a hummingbird hooked on trailer park meth. To combat your fast metabolism, you have to treat your fork like an American Express card: you should never leave home without it.

At the height of their Scrawny to Brawny journey, our clients eat a Muscle Breakfast, Muscle Lunch, Muscle Dinner, and consume three healthy, calorie-packed Super Shakes. Now that’s eating big. And it translates to big results.

“Within the first month, I’d already gained 18 pounds. And that was just from drinking the Super Shakes. We hadn’t even started the muscle meals yet.”

– deadaim

How much are you eating every day? Are you even keeping track? You don’t have to count calories, but you do have to stuff your face with healthy food multiple times per day.

Mistake #3. You Jump Around From Program to Program.

“HIT looks cool. Oh, but so does high-threshold hypertrophy. But I could also do a body-part split. Or maybe I should train like an athlete. Screw it, I’ll just do them all!“

Scrawny guys take the old bodybuilding colloquialism “keep your body guessing” to absurd lengths.

Brawny guys understand that to get great results you have to do a few things:

• Pick a program that’s made for you (a scrawny guy who wants to add muscle)
• Follow the program for at least two months
• Practice progressive overload and focus on taking a small step forward every time you’re in the gym (i.e. add more weight to the bar, take less rest, do more repetitions or sets, or perform the exercise more smoothly)

Only then can you judge a program’s effectiveness.

Most scrawny guys stay scrawny because they’re too impatient to actually stick with a program.

Solution: Pick a program (preferably something with compound movements and heavy lifting) and stick to it for at least eight weeks. And, during each week of the program, make sure you do a little more, or a little better than the previous week.

Mistake #4. You Don’t Measure Progress.

“If you start something and don’t see any kind of progress, you’ll give up.”

- Mark Christopher (S2B client who gained 30 pounds in the program)

The quickest way to become broke is to never track your spending.

Well, the easiest way to stay scrawny is to never track your stats or measure your progress.

That’s why brawny guys measure things like:

• how much weight they used for every set of every exercise of every workout
• how many meals they eat
• compliance to their “brawny habits”

They also step on the scale every week, take girth measurements and monthly progress photos. Why? The more things you measure, the more progress you’ll see.

Didn’t increase your weight but added 1/2 an inch to your chest? You’d never know if you didn’t measure.

Measuring your progress and keeping track of your workout and nutrition “stats” helps show you where things are progressing and what you need to work on to keep getting results.

Not getting any bigger? Are you drinking three Super Shakes and eating three “muscle meals”? Are you sure?

You’ve probably heard it before, but what gets measured gets managed.

Solution: Get a training journal and write down the basics: sets, reps, and how much weight you used. Also, make it a weekly habit to check both your girth measurements and your body weight.

“I can’t tell you how ridiculous it sounds, but simply clicking the little accountability box on my S2B screen and getting that green checkmark (for completing the day’s nutrition and workout habits) was incredibly motivating. It was instant feedback on how well I was doing.”

– krh

Mistake #5. You Don’t Have a Mentor or Social Support.

You don’t just get thrown into a calculus class and expect to do well, especially if you don’t know how to do calculus.

Instead, you have a teacher to, well, teach you. With their help, you figure out how to do the work, and ace the class.

Think about it. Does it really make sense to go at it alone? Would you just pack up all your gear and head into the jungle without a guide? Hell no! You’d pick a smart dude with a machete who knows the jungle like his own back yard to show you around.

Finding a scrawny guy who’s undergone a major transformation — or who’s currently undergoing one — will help you gain valuable insight into the muscle-building process.

In the S2B program, you have mentors like Coach Paul, who went from 133 lbs to 210 lbs in 18 months.

And if you can’t find a mentor, you should at least try to surround yourself with other people who have the same goals as you. Why? If you have a training partner or a group of guys to train with, a few things will happen:

• you’ll go to the gym consistently
• you’ll push yourself on hard exercises
• you’ll have someone to share the setbacks and triumphs of gaining muscle

Solution: Find someone who’s done what you want to do and ask for their advice. See what kind of habits they follow, then do the exact same thing.

“I’d get on the S2B forum a couple times per week and visit with the other guys. It was like having a group of virtual training partners.”

– TheBrandons (S2B client who gained 25 pounds in the program)

Mistake #6. You Try To Do Too Much At Once.

“You are the sum of your habits. PN helped me cultivate the brawny habits that are now a part of me. If I’m not doing them I feel off and out of balance.”

- Mark Christopher

Here’s the truth: gaining weight is as simple as following a series of well thought out habits. Thing is, the habits have to be conducive to building muscle. (Duh.)

Follow scrawny habits like not eating enough or jumping from program to program and you’ll look the same next year as you do right now.

Follow brawny habits (like the solutions we’ve given you) and you’ll be well on your way to making a huge body transformation.

But here’s the kicker: if you try to do all these new habits at once, in the beginning of your S2B journey, you’ll undoubtedly fail.

Remember, your scrawny habits were developed over years and you’ve been practicing them every day. So, to overcome them and adopt a new set of habits, it’ll take time and lots of practice.

But it can be done.

Solution: Choose only one new habit to follow and stick with it, and it alone, for at least 2 weeks, until you have it mastered. In fact, don’t move on to the next habit until this first one is mastered.

What to Do Today:

After each “Scrawny Guy Mistake” above, we gave you an appropriate solution. But if you tried to follow all of those at one time, you’d get frustrated and fail. Suddenly, you’d be back to where you started.

Instead of overloading yourself, pick any habit from the list below and follow that for the next two weeks. After that, move on to another and another until you’re following every habit consistently.

• Go on a two-week fitness media fast.
• Drink 3 Super Shakes every day.
• Pick a program that was written for your goal and stick to it..
• Keep a workout journal and/or track your girth measurements.
• Train with a mentor or group of like-minded guys with similar goals.

Want More Help? The Next S2B Coaching Program Begins May 2012.

For skinny guys only: In May 2012, we’re relaunching the Scrawny to Brawny Coaching Program and taking a small group of just 200 guys through a complete 12-month body transformation — training, nutrition, supplementation, recovery . . . everything.

The problem is going to be how to decide who gets in, because last time we ran the Scrawny to Brawny program, we had thousands of guys express interest and not nearly enough spots for everyone.

Our solution has always been to reward those who are the most eager and motivated — the guys who want it the most — because in my experience they make the best clients. So here’s how it’s going to work:

If you’re interested in being a part of the next S2B coaching program, join the waiting list by adding your name and email below — we’ll send you some more info about the program, and we’ll give you a chance to register for one of the spots 24 hours before the general public.

Click here to join the waiting list.

The book is called “Experiments with Intermittent Fasting.”  The best part?  It’s totally free.

[Honestly, once you see it, you’re gonna think we’re crazy for just giving it away. It’s really that good].

So, if you haven’t yet heard of IF, it’s time to take notice.  This style of eating is getting extremely popular and is worth considering in certain situations.

And if you have heard of IF – and are wondering if it’s for you – we’ll help answer that question in this book.  We’ll also share our experiences with half a dozen different IF protocols. And we’ll provide key takeaways for everyone interested in looking better, feeling better, and performing at their highest potential.

Experiments with Intermittent Fasting (Free)

Free E-Book: Experiments with Intermittent Fasting

Click here to join the waiting list.

Last Friday I made an appearance on the Canadian health and fitness show, Wylde on Health – along with my friend and author of The Kick Acid Diet, Dr Alwyn Wong.

The topic of the show – something we’ve written about extensively on the PN site – was the impact of diet, exercise, and stress on the body’s acid-base balance and overall health.

The conversation was lively and interesting, and if you’ve not thought much about your own acid-base status, it’s worth watching.

Acid-Base Health Part 1

Acid-Base Health Part 2

Acid-Base Health Part 3

Acid-Base Health Part 4

Acid-Base Health Part 5

Acid-Base Health Part 6

Acid-Base Health Part 7

Acid-Base Health Part 8

For More on Acid-Base Health

If you’re interested in reading more about acid-base health, look no further than the following articles, all published right here on the Precision Nutrition site:

All About Dietary Acids and Bases
Acid-base regulation and your health from PN’s “All About” article series.

Covering Your Nutritional Bases: The Importance of Acid-Base Balance
Employing a few simple strategies to neutralize your high-acid diet may mean the difference between chronic low-grade acidosis — and the associated muscle wasting, bone loss, and altered hormonal profile — and a healthy, alkaline diet.

PN Experiment: Do Greens Supplements Improve Acid/Base Status?
Greens supplements are marketed as magical health potions that can improve the way you look, the way you feel, and the way you perform. PN’s volunteer research subjects tackle the acid-base question and pee into cups, all in the name of PN science!

You can also check out the following videos:

Eat and Run: Acid/Base Nutrition Video
In this video, part of a series called “Eat and Run,” we talk all about Acid Base Balance.

Body Fuel: Acid/Base Nutrition Video
In this video, I answer the question: “What can I do to get the muscle building benefits of a high protein diet without the risk of becoming too acidic?”

Click here to join the waiting list.