New FAT LOSS PILL

Another great message from Chris “The Kiwi” of Athletic Greens

Hey mate,

I hope this finds you better than ever.

There is a new fat loss pill available, and it will do everything for your fat loss and health that you want it to.

All you have to do …. is swallow it.

I won’t lie, for many people, it is going to be a very bitter pill.

**********

10.30 am, post morning gym rush, cafe in Bondi, Sydney, 2008.

“Mate, it is crazy, these credit card bills and car payments are hammering me, no matter what I try and do, I just can’t seem to get ahead. You know how much I want to start my own studio, but I just can’t save the money to make it happen,” Jake* a personal trainer at Fitness First in Bondi Junction, looked unhappy and upset. Completely ripped, glowing with health and energy, fully booked by happy personal training clients, idolized by the other trainers at his gym as a model of success, yet he was genuinely depressed by his financial situation, which he told me, never seemed to change. He was surviving paycheck to paycheck, and he was not a happy camper. “I really really want to step out on my own and start this studio, but I can’t seem to make it happen. Mate, can you help me?”

Jake, 32, who in his 20′s had gone from a fat diabetic who never exercised to a rippling lean living show of health and vitality – and one of the most sought after trainers in Sydney – looked at me hopefully. Despite having been the fat kid and unhealthy most of his life Jake had turned that all around and was a phenomenal physical specimen. There was nothing he didn’t eat that wasn’t good for him, he trained to perfection, and placed his health at the top of his priorities list.

It showed, it was HIS health, HE OWNED IT.

I glanced at his $300 Italian designer sunglasses (new the previous week), looked over at his shiny late model BMW parked beside the cafe we were sitting in, and considered what I knew of Jake’s earnings, then his lifestyle, spending habits, and all the cool STUFF he thought he owned – and continued to buy – but which really owned him.

I paused, looked at him, and said the most obvious thing that popped into my mind.

“Jake, do you take responsibility for your physical health?”

*************

12.15pm, lunch at a restaurant in Potts Point, Sydney, same day in 2008.

 Rita looked up from her pasta, her eyes alive with energy as she finished describing the excitement of opening her latest store. Her FOURTEENTH. “I don’t get sick of it Chris, it is still exciting to me.”

Rita*, 44, mother of three, whose husband had done a runner when she was at the ripe old age of 21, with two kids in hand and a “bun in the oven”.

Rita, “solo mother”, who with no education beyond 10th grade in high school had gone to work at a beauty salon to earn enough to be able to ensure her kids had lunch every day.

Rita, who had scraped and saved and gone on to start her own small beauty salon, and had relentlessly hammered down and fanatically controlled every expense she could, while growing sales and revenues dramatically.

Rita, who had so successfully managed her first store, that she had opened another, and then another.

Rita, who for many years now had had absolutely no concerns about how she was going to pay for her lunch, or her kids lunch, today, or tomorrow, or for the rest of her life, and remained running her businesses simply because it was fun.

Rita who was technically obese, was on medication for her blood pressure, depression and cholesterol, and had asked me to lunch so we could talk about health and exercise.

Rita, whom the last time we met, had broken down crying in the business mentoring group we were in, complaining that no matter what she did or tried, she just couldn’t lose much fat, let alone keep it off, that she was depressed about her weight, and now her health was jeopardizing her ability to play with her first grandchild.

“Chris, I have tried everything! Everything, and everything, and it never works” Rita exclaimed as the conversation moved to health and exercise. “Just what have you tried Rita?” I asked, curious, but already guessing the answer. She continued with a list of diets and exercise regimes she had “tried” – and she had indeed, tried nearly everything.

Her eyes getting emotional as she neared the end of her story about how she tried everything and could never lose fat, I pointedly looked at her plate of pasta. “Yes I know I shouldn’t eat it, but it is just this once, the pasta here is amazing. Anyway Chris, can you help me?”

A long pause.

“Rita, do you take responsibility for your financial position, or is it an accident?”

***********

I don’t remember exactly what day of the week it was, but that day stands out very clearly in my mind – the comparison was so blunt.

As someone who moves around in and has friends in the largely different worlds of health and fitness AND business and investing, there is something that has always, always leaped out at me….

Why are so many health professionals (personal trainers/nutritionists/exercise specialists), lean and healthy, eating well and exercising regularly, earning a good living – yet a complete FINANCIAL MESS, surviving hand to mouth, paycheck to paycheck, and miserable with it?

Why are they almost always so good with their health, yes so very few are also good with their finances?

Why are so many investors and business people, completely and adamantly in control of their own financial destiny – yet FAT AND UNHEALTHY and miserable with it?

Why are they almost always so good with their finances, yes so very rarely good with their health?

There is ONE reason, and ONE reason only.

This ties straight back to that FAT LOSS PILL I mentioned earlier. Frequently bitter to swallow, especially when one is getting started…. also known as

Yes, there are a few genetic outliers out there who can eat what they want, do what they want, and stay ripped year round. This is called winning the fat loss genetic lottery (it doesn’t change much in terms of life expectancy for these folks, HEALTH and food quality still reign supreme, if it makes you feel better).

There are also people who win the financial lottery (though very few of them stay rich).

However, for the absolute majority of people, myself included:

It is EASY to be FAT, UNHEALTHY, lazy, in a boring relationship, or a slave to your next PAYCHECK

And

It is really HARD to be LEAN, FIT, full of life, in a dynamic relationship, and to control your finances such that you know life won’t fall to pieces if your next paycheck doesn’t arrive

Not hard because it is difficult to do these things, (it is not, once you are doing them) but hard because most people fail to take the necessary step to make it happen.

Quite simply, most people fail to take Responsibility.

IF your health and fitness or fat loss are important to you… THEN

 …. for your HEALTH and FAT LOSS

If you were to ask Jake how he went from fat and diabetic to so lean and healthy, and how he stays that way, he would look at you very seriously. HIs reply would be something like this;

“I never accidentally ate a meal in my life. Nor did I accidentally go to the gym, accidentally put blackout curtains in my room and start going to bed early, or accidentally stop boozing it up partying four nights a week. It was hard in the beginning to make some of those changes, but I went after it, and now it is second nature to me, and easy. But it was no accident, it was all me, mate.”

Jake takes 100% responsibility for his health and physical fitness outcome. There is nothing he doesn’t eat regularly that isn’t good for him, he trains intelligently, focuses on sleep and sun and planned relaxation.

He takes responsibility for his health, it shows.

It is HIS health, HE OWNS IT.

There will be no doubt or hesitation. No ambiguity. He will be very very clear.

Ask Jake if his current physical state of being is his responsibility, and he will answer, in his very Aussie twang (just hold your nose and talk like Crocodile Dundee): “You better F****** believe it mate!”

His finances are another matter. Ask him about his monthly expenditures on new clothes and toys for his house, how many meals he has out each day, how he pays for ALL those things, how much he spends on rent on his amazing condo and lease payments on his flash new car – and he squirms and gets uncomfortable, and most of what you will hear is exactly what I heard back from him…..  “Yes, but…”

Kiwi Two Cents: great work on taking responsibility for the health and fitness, but when it comes to the financial situation – complete horseshit.

IF your financial dreams and having more time and financial freedom are important to you…. THEN 

Sit down and talk to Rita about her amazing rags to riches story, ask her how she did it, ask her if it was it an accident? Ask her… did she just get lucky?

She will calmly and adamantly tell you how she takes 100% responsibility for the earnings and expenses both in each and every one of her stores, and also for her personal life. She takes responsibility and directly manages EVERY item in her income statement. That she has done so since the day her husband walked out on her and her little children and left her with nothing, that as a result her lifestyle was very very limited at the beginning.

That her current financial position, and her success in opening and running every single one of those stores, in good times and bad, was due to her focus, dedication, perseverance.

HER financial position, she will tell you with absolute clarity; was and is 100% HER responsibility, she OWNS it.

She will tell you that you don’t need to be rich to be in control of your financial position, but that you absolutely need to be in control of your financial position if you would like to change that financial position.

Ask her why her “diets” have all failed, why she is carrying fat that she says she does not want, why if she says her health is important to her yet she has terrible health, and she will squirm and her language will change – just like Jake’s did – from one of clarity and power, to one consisting of a bunch of self defeating psychobabble – “Yes, but…” ” I am trying..” “My friends won’t help me.. “It is not my fault….” “Nothing I try works…” “I will start exercising again next month…”  “Just this exception….”

Kiwi Two Cents: great work on taking responsibility for your financial situation, but when it comes to health and exercise – complete horseshit.

Why so few people who can powerfully take responsibility for one area of their lives cannot do so for other areas of their lives is beyond me. (I should point out that at 24 I was living way beyond my means, and I have been fat multiple times in my life – none of it was an accident).

If Happiness is important to you, THEN

There is obviously a lot more to life than health and finances, but whatever it is that you think you will make you happier, TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR IT.

New Fat Loss Pill 

also known as

That means that if you want fat loss, more energy, or anything else to do with health and you are currently not getting the results you want –  or worse, you are telling yourself (or anyone else) lies or crap about your situation then you need to start, right now, to:

 – Take 100% responsibility for YOUR Diet Compliance

 – Take 100% responsibility for YOUR Regular Sun Exposure and Vitamin D levels

– Take 100% responsibility for YOUR Sleep Quality AND Quantity

 – Take 100% responsibility for YOUR Stress and Relaxation

– Take 100% responsibility for YOUR Regular Intelligent Exercise

If it is something you say you want, yet you are not doing all of those things, then rather than lying to yourself further, don’t you think it is time you Man/Woman Up, go take responsibility and go make it happen?

It is YOUR health, it is YOUR body, and it is YOUR happiness.

And if you are already taking 100% responsibility for your physical health (power to you!) then take a long hard look in the mirror and ask yourself if there is some other area in your life that is important to you, but where you are failing to take responsibility.

Take 100% Responsibility; while the first steps may be a little bit tough for some, the changes will astound you. I guarantee it.

Go after it mate! 

“100% Focus on Happiness”     

That is my mantra, and it starts with taking RESPONSIBILITY for your health and happiness.

Chris “the Kiwi”