AOL.com in Canada recently interviewed me for one of their web properties – That’s Fit. You can read the interview by clicking here.

Fitness couturess and fanatic, MizzFIT, recently reviewed MyBodyTutor.com. You can read her review of MyBodyTutor.com by clicking here.

All gyms offer weekly or daily guest passes to entice us to sign up. In NYC, if you’re willing to travel all over the place, it’s possible to game the system because there are so many gyms. Not sure who’d want to do that but…

Actually, blogger, Buns of Steal, does that and, of course, blogs about it. So when she signed up, I was really excited (and flattered) because that goes against her entire objective: get through 2010, working out regularly, without ever paying for a gym membership. You can read about the day the gym hopper paid by clicking here.

Choo choo! You hear that? That’s the self promotion train leaving.

On totally unrelated notes, which I add because this post would be otherwise inadequately sized, here’s how to tell if you’re buying the freshest bread possible in a grocery store:

Look at the tie that is holding the wrapper closed. Bread is delivered five days a week, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and the bread maker puts a different colored tie on to designate which day of the week the bread was baked. Here’s the cheat sheet:

Monday – Blue

Tuesday – Green

Thursday – Red

Friday – White

Saturday – Yellow

So, if you’re buying bread on a Sunday look for a yellow tie because it’ll be the freshest.

FedEx.

What a remarkable success story.

It also has one of the most recognizable logos in the world. Did you know there is an arrow pointing towards the right in it? (See the green arrow?)

This is fantastic! Now, every time you buy bread or see a FedEx truck you’ll think of me and MyBodyTutor.com.

Now that I’m thinking of MyBodyTutor did I forget to mention we recently launched an affiliate program? It’s by application only. So far our limited partners are loving it. If you’re interested in learning more about it, click here.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming next week.

In the movie Hurt Locker, which just won 6 Academy Awards, the main character Staff Sergeant William James says to his little son, who is playing with a Jack-in-a-box:

You love playing with that. You love playing with all your stuffed animals. You love your Mommy, your Daddy. You love your pajamas. You love everything, don’t ya? Yea. But you know what, buddy? As you get older… some of the things you love might not seem so special anymore. Like your Jack-in-a-Box. Maybe you’ll realize it’s just a piece of tin and a stuffed animal. And then you forget the few things you really love. And by the time you get to my age, maybe it’s only one or two things. With me, I think it’s one.

I loved the movie but I loved that quote even more.

What do you really love?

It’s a scary thought, especially, when you take away all of the people in your life that you love.

Sergeant William James is an adrenaline junkie who is the leader of a U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal. He will do anything for the thrill of defusing a bomb that could vaporize him instantly. So much so that he left his family to do the one and only thing he really loves over and over again.

I wonder if this is the key to achieving remarkable success. To love what you do so much that you’re willing to forgo everything else in your life.

If you look at almost every insanely successful person, they’ve put their hours in. Malcolm Gladwell says it’s 10,000 hours. He argues that whether you’re Bill Gates or the Beatles you’ve put in 10,000 hours of practice to become extraordinary successful.

But if you have a life, that’s very hard to do. However, if your entire life is what you love, you have a huge advantage.

So the question then becomes what do you love? Because no matter how much you try to convince yourself that you enjoy the process of mastery, it’s going to be very hard to put in those hours, unless you love the subject you’re trying to master.

“How much do you love what you’re doing?” is a great question to gauge potential success. In fact, that’s how Warren Buffet chooses who he’s going to invest in. “I have to look them in the eye and decide whether they love the business or they love the money. It’s fine if they love the money, but they have to love the business more.” he says.

Whenever I meet a fellow entrepreneur, I’m always curious to know what drives them. What ultimately gets them out of bed every morning? What keeps them up at night? I always follow up with, “Would you sit on a beach for $1,000,000 per year from nine to five?” And I’ll keep raising it if they don’t budge, until they eventually do, because everyone has a price.

Jim Collins who wrote one of the bestselling business books of all time, Good to Great, has a great way to look at it. In the introduction he writes:

As I was finishing this manuscript, I went for a run and an odd question popped into my mind: How much would someone have to pay me not to publish Good to Great?

It was an interesting thought experiment, given that I’d just spent the previous five years working on the research project and writing this book. Not there isn’t some number that might entice me to bury it, but by the time I crossed the hundred-million-dollar threshold, it was time to head back down the trail. Even that much couldn’t convince me to abandon the project.

Don’t get me wrong. 1 million bucks per year is a ridiculous amount of money. You could do a lot of things with that. But if your number isn’t all that high, and you’d consider a cool million per year, I don’t think you’re in love with your business all that much (job, career) and there’s nothing wrong with that!

And if you don’t love what you do, you can at least love the life your work provides. I just think it’s very hard to achieve remarkable success.

Here’s what I love: Making a positive impact on people.

What do you love?

[Check out the comments over at Brazen Careerist.com!]

Thank you very much for all the birthday wishes yesterday! I really appreciate it.

Many of you have taken advantage of my birthday offer which is great. I know you won’t regret it! The offer lasts until the 17^th so be sure to email me, if you’re interested. Again, I hardly ever offer a discount so now is your chance. (The price I charge is already very reasonable!)

Now, let’s get to the second part of my birthday celebration. This is getting fun!

How would you like to have me in your bedroom?

Read on.

Obviously (or maybe not) I’m extremely passionate about what I do. I feel as if I’m doing what I was born to be doing. I love spreading my message. I love talking about my philosophy, and ultimately, what I’m most interested in is inflicting positive change on people.

The best way I know of to do this is by coaching. Nothing is more effective than one on one coaching (with a proven program and application) to make positive change happen. There’s certainly a direct correlation between how much interaction there is and how effective it is.

I think public speaking is another very powerful way to create the transfer of emotion that’s so necessary. And I don’t do enough of it.

So here’s your opportunity to have me in your bedroom or living room or wherever your computer is, FREE!

I’m planning on offering a 30 minute webinar for you and 9 of your friends. I send you a link. You log onto a website at a specific time and date (sometime in the evening) that we agree on and you watch me speak from the comfort of your own home. We’ll all chat together as well. It really is a lot of fun! And it’s with 9 of your friends/coworkers/family members/etc.

I will be talking about how to get the body you want.

We’ll cover:

-Exercise and diet myths that’ll surprise you

-Why 97% of people don’t stick to diets

-Why almost all diets don’t work

-Why diet books are constantly bestsellers

-The best way to prevent cravings

-The best way to stop overeating

-What emotional eating is and how to stop it

-The one question you should ask before starting anything new

-The easiest and most sustainable nutrition program you could ever ask for

-The secret to getting the body you want

-And lots more, plus we’ll open it up so you can ask me any questions you like

Promises: No hard selling, whatsoever. This is about you! My goal is for you to walk away from your desk and be crystal clear on what you need to do to get the body you want.

I’m very confident anyone who is a part of this will get a lot out of it (and have a lot of fun!). Way more than you’ll ever get out of any book, magazine or TV show about diet and exercise and it’s absolutely free.

This is a first come, first served. I’m going to limit this to 10 groups.

If you’d like to be a Champion for your group, here’s what you need to do:

Think of 9 other people that you think would benefit from this. It can be a combo of your friends/coworkers/family, etc. It doesn’t matter.

Email me at adam at mybodytutor dot com with the subject line “Webinar Promotion”. In the email, tell me your name and number so we can speak and include the first names of your guests and their email addresses. I respect your privacy! These email addresses will only be used to send your guests the link for the webinar once you and I agree on a date and time. As soon as the webinar happens, I’ll delete all of the email addresses.

Few important notes:

One: You must email me with the names and email addresses. Please don’t email me saying you’d love to do this without any names or email addresses. The idea is for you to act quickly by sending an email to your peoples, letting them know the deal. It shouldn’t be hard. It’s free!

Here’s a sample email I put together for you:

Hey guys!

So, I read this guy Adam Gilbert’s blog. He runs this company called MyBodyTutor.com and it looks pretty cool. It seems as though he’s helped hundreds of people and has really made a huge difference in a lot of people’s lives.

Anyway, on his blog he mentioned this webinar thing. Basically, I need to get 9 people together and he’ll do a live webinar for all of us, for free. Here check out the post (link to this post). He’s going to cover a lot of interesting topics about weight loss and health and fitness and help us get the body we want. What do we have to lose?

Let me know if you’re in asap.

Xoxox

-Your name here

Two: This is an experiment on my part. I guarantee fun, interesting conversation, tons of education, question and answers, and maybe even a few technical difficulties (but I hope not).

Three: It doesn’t matter if your group is all guys or girls. Age doesn’t matter, either. Finally, if you’re a current or former client, you can participate in this, too!

Four: There’s no deadline for this but I anticipate having all the groups done by Monday.

I hope to hear from you soon!

Remember: The deadline for my program offer is the 17^th.

Thanks for making my birthday special.

I’m not one to make a big deal over my birthday. After all, it’s just a number. But, I’m breaking my own rule this year. I’ve come up with two ways, I’d like to share my day with you (it’s actually tomorrow, the 10th) – and one of them involves me being in your bedroom.

So, let’s get this out of the way. Yes, I want you to try MyBodyTutor. But, only because I know it’ll help you. Actually, I believe it’ll change your life for the better. (And if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be doing it.)

MBT isn’t for everyone though. If you’re in amazing shape, you do not need my services!

However, if you have trouble staying consistent with your diet and/or exercise, have intense cravings, overeat, binge, are obsessed with food, always say, “I’ll start tomorrow!”, constantly make excuses and justify poor choices, find it hard to stay motivated, or are sick of going to the gym and not seeing (or feeling) results MBT is for YOU!

You know when you have a friend who’s complaining about something – maybe her boyfriend -and you know exactly what she should do!?!

The only thing is, it doesn’t matter if you tell them or not. They won’t listen until they’re ready.

That’s how I feel with MBT. You’ve been reading my blog, maybe even my other blog. You know me. And I KNOW 100% that my program will help you get the body you want. I even back it up with a full money back guarantee!

Let’s take Ruth M, a client from the USA living in Thailand right now. (She’ll be a case study soon.) She signed up on November 10^th. Just yesterday she sent me an email thanking me and in it she writes, “Your system is the most effective and efficient way I have ever seen to get fit and healthy.”

I have hundreds of emails like that. Again though, don’t take my word for it. Try my program. Absolutely risk free!

So…what’s stopping you?

Let’s explore 3 potential reasons:

One. “I already know what to do.” Um, so do the other 200 million Americans (for the most part) that are out of shape and unhappy with the way they look and feel. A lack of knowledge isn’t the problem. If anything, there’s too much information!

A lack of consistent action is the real problem.

No one said it was easy to take consistent action! Knowledge without action is worthless. And that’s exactly why I created MyBodyTutor: To help you take consistent action (doing the right things) to ensure we get the result you want.

Two. You don’t think it’s worth it. If you don’t think your health and fitness is worth it then you never will. At least, I certainly won’t convince you! Unfortunately, it’ll be your doctor, down the line.

Besides, I only want to work with people who value their health and fitness and view it as an investment in themselves. (Not an expense.) And for those that are very ROI focused – the dividends your fitness pays are off the charts in terms of happiness, quality of life, energy, focus, and confidence.

Compare MBT to a personal trainer. Although a personal trainer is very helpful, I know it’s what we do in between workouts that really makes the difference! Besides, I’m betting you don’t need someone to hold your hand in the gym. You just need someone to make sure you get to the gym. (Sure, we’ll tell you exactly what to do.)

The most effective long-lasting results will come from daily and personal accountability which will ensure you stay consistent with both diet and exercise in and out of the gym.

Three. You’re scared. And I totally understand that. It takes courage to start something new. It takes courage to even think about starting something new!

Deep down you really want to be healthy and fit and love the way you look and feel, but you also don’t want to put forth the effort. Welcome to the world of cognitive dissonance – which is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas or wants.

To reduce the uncomfortable feeling (dissonance) these two opposing wants cause you to change your attitudes and beliefs. So, you’ll justify or rationalize. (I don’t really want to be healthy and fit.)

You’re scared because you know MBT will work. You know it’s exactly what you need. But because you’re scared, you’ll question the program. You’ll question the results. You’ll question the guarantee. You’ll question anything and everything until you can find something to latch onto to so you feel comfortable not taking action.

Here’s my question to you: If you’re truly honest with yourself, and base your future results on your past performance, where will you be in 6 months from today?

There you have it. 3 common reasons you might not try MBT.

But because it’s my birthday, and because I really want to give you the push to try MBT, I’d like to offer you $50 off if you take action and sign up by February 17^th. Full money back guarantee still applies, of course.

Curious about having me in your bedroom? I’ll share the second way I plan on celebrating my birthday with you on Thursday (2/11).

Note: If you’re interested in taking me up on this rare opportunity (I hardly ever offer discounts) simply email me at adam at mybodytutor dot com with ‘Birthday Promotion’ in the subject headline and we’ll get you going!

First the blog: MyBodyTutor.com/blog

Now the back-story:

For over 2 years, I’ve written a daily inspiration each morning for my clients.

I write about all sorts of topics ranging from emotional eating to mindless eating to psychology to exercise to happiness. And they’ve only been available to my clients…until now!

So, why am I making them available to everyone now?

3 reasons:

1. As corny as it sounds, I want to leave a legacy. I want to help and impact as many people as I can. I want to spread the goodness. I want to make a lasting contribution in the field of health and fitness because it’s something I’ve been so passionate about for so long (since I was in 4^th grade).

Fewer things are more rewarding than helping people realize their health and fitness goals because when you look good, you feel good. And life’s too short to not feel as good as you can!

2. Because my clients aren’t paying me for daily inspirations. What they are paying for is daily and personal accountability, support, coaching, guidance and motivation, long with a proven program that works. GUARANTEED!

The daily inspirations are only a tiny part of the equation. Besides, I’m confident in this day and age, a lack of knowledge isn’t the problem. If anything, it’s too much information!

For the most part, we all know what to do. (Sure, we’ll tell you exactly what to do in order to reach your goal and give you all sorts of tricks and tips along the way.) But the real magic happens in actually doing it day in and day out.

The problem we all have (unless you’re in great shape) is a lack of consistent action. Getting into your desired shape is about 3 things. Eating right. Exercising. And doing those two things consistently. That’s it!

It’s the consistency part that’s so hard though. And that’s what I truly believe MBT is the best in the world at: Helping you stay consistent: meal by meal, workout by workout, and day by day.

3. Some people’s egos are just too big!

I hate to say it but it’s true.

The first and most important step to getting into your desired shape (besides admitting that you aren’t) is being able to admit that you need some help.

No matter what, some people just can’t ask. It’s just not in their DNA. And having to pay for help? Forget about it!

No matter how affordable we make this program for what we offer (we’ll be with you every single day to make sure you’re doing the right thing in the kitchen and in the gym!) and how risk free it is, some people just can’t do it.

Instead, they rather jog in place, month after month, year after year. (“Okay starting tomorrow, I’ll…” which quickly becomes next Monday, then next week, then next month, then your next New Year’s Resolution…over and over again.)

So, I’m really excited about this because now my audience expands. And that’s totally fine by me! I want to help as many people as I can. I live for this!

Regardless, I guarantee if you read my blog each day you’ll be healthier, fitter and happier. You’ll be far better off reading my blog than not reading it. Try it. See how you feel.

Don’t want to miss a beat? Neither do 1100+ other people! (As of Tuesday 11/10/09)

Subscribe for FREE and get them delivered warm and fresh to your inbox whenever there’s a new post.

I don’t say this lightly. I really and truly believe you’ll enjoy them, especially if you enjoy this blog and are interested in health, fitness and wellness.

Business will remain as usual here, on this blog, and although my posting frequency has been sporadic as of late I’ll be back to posting once a week. (To all of those who’ve emailed me asking why I haven’t been posting regularly, I appreciate it.)

While I’m on the self-promotion train, and because you can now get almost anything delivered, why not get a free subscription to GuruGilbert as well?

Thanks, as always, for reading!

After I hung up my SAE underwear junior year, I immediately began looking forward to the day I could start helping the next guy in my fraternity prepare. I guess it’s the teacher in me.

I waited and waited. Finally, I got my wish! It’s been 5 years since anyone has competed for SAE at Binghamton so I was very excited when Petar emailed me in May asking for help with a huge goal of losing (what turned out to be) 35 pounds and competing in Greek God.

Although I’ve never met him in person (and I still haven’t) I was eager to help because not only do I love helping people realize their body’s full potential but I also know how overwhelming getting prepared for Greek God actually is.

The thought of having to stand on stage in front of 3000+ people in your underwear is enough to make anyone sick and with the added tasks of creating sets and skits and, uh, school work – it’s enough to make anyone go crazy.

So for 5 months, I treated him like a regular client. At first, he was worried that we weren’t working together in person. I assured him it’s never stopped me from helping anyone. (It actually helps!)

I felt like I was reliving my days of prep for Greek God especially as we got closer to October. In fact, I actually enjoyed the training more so than I did the actual event.

For a hot minute in high school, I wanted to be a bodybuilder but when I learned that professional bodybuilders are drug addicts that dream dissipated as quickly as their muscles deflate when they’re off steroids. I always loved the lifestyle though.

When we’d talk on the phone for our weekly chats, it was as if nothing changed. The rumors of who was taking steroids were in full force as was the realization that some competitors were and have taken diuretics. Petar was worried that he was at a major disadvantage.

I felt his pain because it’s very easy to get caught up in the buzz that surrounds Greek God. But it’s also important to remember that it’s only one night and he was smart enough to know this.

I told him not to worry about the other competitors. That he could only control what he does in terms of how hard he trains and how well he eats. That’s it. I assured him that not only is it obvious who takes steroids but it doesn’t look good either. He agreed whole heartedly.

But again, the frustrations and fear don’t go away.

In the end, Petar was an amazing and gracious student. I mean, look at his before and after photos! (And in case you’re wondering that’s self-tanner in the after picture.) He went from 220 pounds and husky to 185 pounds and absolutely shredded.

He also has an experience he will never ever forget and neither will I. I got way more out of helping him than he did.

I just hope it’s not another 5 years before someone represents SAE.

I have nothing left to say about Greek God.

Except:

Petar IS Greek God!

“Gilbert you’re up!” yelled one of the Alpha Epsilon Phi girls. As I approached the stage my heart was pounding like crazy. All I heard was “Gil IS Greek God! Gil IS Greek God!”

I’ll never forget the deafening noise and the blinding lights as I walked up the stairs on to the stage. I had my pose down memorized inside and out. I was focused.

Just the night before, I was prancing around, in one of the gross third floor bathrooms of Newing’s Broome Hall, trying to figure out the best way to shave my legs. Apparently, all of the contestants shaved their legs. Too bad I had no idea how to. I called up the girl that was running Greek God and asked her how. She was absolutely meticulous in how she ran the event.

After all, the real purpose of the event is to raise money for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation. Not to have college fraternity guys pose in their underwear.

But when I called her it didn’t go over as well as I had hoped. Although she laughed hysterically – she didn’t really appreciate my lack of preparation. I was on my own.

So, I was kneeling down ready to begin my pose down staring at my tanned feet with all eyes on me. As if being thrown into Greek God 3 weeks prior, competing against juniors and seniors as a sophomore, having an awful experience shaving my legs the night before and building all the sets that morning wasn’t enough – the wrong music started playing!

To say my one and only Greek God outing was underwhelming is an understatement or was it?

Flash forward to my junior year of college. My boys and I came back from the summer extremely excited for the year to come. We were now upperclassmen living in the fraternity house feeling pretty confident.

Until, 4 weeks before Greek God when my boys and I were talking about how fun it would be if we had a contestant. Before you know it, we were on the phone with every fraternity president and contestant asking if they had a problem if I competed again. Apparently, competing 2 years in a row is not allowed. Like Bloomberg though, I was in business. Again.

The diet, the exercise, the tanning, the rumors and the procrastination all started once more. Evidently some fraternities take Greek God extremely seriously. Which, I’m sure, puts a lot of pressure on the actual contestant to look good. After all, it’s expensive to participate. It’s also a chance for lesser known fraternities to make a name for themselves. But c’mon – it’s also only one freakin’ night!

As a lifelong fitness freak (not safe for work – watch the last 5 seconds of the clip), I’ve gradually added muscle throughout the years.

However, it wasn’t until my junior and senior year of high school when I became absolutely obsessed because I finally had access to a gym whenever I wanted being that I was able to drive. My mom always wondered why I ate the way I did and I’d always have to explain to her that I didn’t want to take drugs. For her own peace of mind, she had me tested for any and all steroids which I was totally cool with because I no longer had to explain my eating.

I always knew, somehow, I’d end up doing something in health and fitness so I’ve had her or my sister take pictures of me once a year to document my progress. As ridiculous as that sounds (and believe me they let me know) I only did it because I take great pride in being able to say the only things I’ve ever taken were protein shakes and protein bars. And not that I think I’m this (Greek) God because I certainly don’t. However, I always laugh when I see people who gain 35 pounds of muscle very quickly. Sure, that’s natural bro!

So, I took it as a compliment when in the weeks before Greek God both my sophomore and junior year, people would ask me if I was taking steroids. And although it was slightly annoying it made me laugh because I’ve truly been a fitness freak since I was in 4^th grade. How would they know that though? While most kids were getting ready for school in the mornings probably eating Fruity Pebbles, I was working out in my room, a make shift gym.

Although my life is way more than protein shakes and protein bars now, it’s still a part of me. In college, steroids were certainly available. It’s pretty obvious who took them. But the good stuff – the stuff that sticks – takes the longest to gain but is actually sustainable and always lasts.

In the end, Greek God my junior year turned out to be awesome. My toga skit was fun as was my formal wear skit. And, as always, the part I trained the most for was the pose down (see picture above).

Unfortunately, no one in my fraternity has competed since my junior year of college. That’s like 5 years!

But a few months ago I got an email from Petar (yes, Petar) that he is doing it for SAE this year and that he’d love some help.

Petar has been an extremely gracious student and a lot of fun to work with.

I’ll say no more. Except:

Petar IS…

It was a gorgeous October day of my junior year of high school. I got home from school and decided it was time to start looking through the two books I had on colleges. I knew of Binghamton and how it was a great public school but didn’t really know much else. I flipped through one of the books until I got to the few pages on Binghamton.

I saw under special events that every October there was an annual sorority/fraternity bodybuilding event sponsored by the sorority Alpha Epsilon Phi. Destiny? I was intrigued! It was called Greek God.

A few paragraphs down I saw that the tuition per year was a little less than $10k. They also had a great business school. The choice became so clear right then and there.

Spend in 1 year what my entire Binghamton education would cost elsewhere or go to Binghamton. In my mind, I was going to Binghamton.

My senior year, I applied to the business school early admission…

Binghamton it was.

Fast forward 1 year to the beginning of my first semester freshman year of college. I remember going into one of the two huge gyms and seeing the entire place packed out on that Saturday evening. The music was bumping. The bleachers from floor to ceiling were all pulled out. What looked like at least 8 basketball courts in between all the bleachers, were covered with paper to protect the floor from the hundreds of folding seats on top of it. There was a huge stage with balloons all around it. The fraternities were going nuts and the sorority girls were screaming.

And for some reason, I was nervous. Even though I wasn’t in a fraternity (pledging didn’t start until the second semester) I knew I was going to do this one day. Posing in front of 3000+ fraternity/sorority members in my underwear seemed very intimidating.

I had time though. People only do it once in their college career. I figured I’d do it either my junior or senior year.

Fast forward 11 months and 1 week. I pledged the fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) and my pledge brothers and I were all so excited to reap the benefits of actually being in the fraternity, not servicing it as a pledge! In Binghamton, most students live on campus for 2 years and off for 2. My friends and I had worked it out so we were near each other. It was going to be awesome.

An older frat brother was set to do it for us. He had been training hard all summer long and was looking real good. In what could’ve been a made for TV movie, he broke his arm.

Not only are shirtless line ups uncomfortable while you pledge but for someone who is as obsessed with their health and fitness as I am – torture ensued.  Being forced to eat mayo and drink oil were common punishments. Of course, it was all in good fun though. Most of it was brought on by me anyway because I can be a wise ass.

So, I got the call. “Gilbert, you’re doing Greek God. You don’t have a choice.”

Great!  I had 3 weeks to prepare for what every other contestant had been preparing months and months for. And unfortunately, the Greek God competition is only 1/3 body building. There is a toga skit where the contestant must be brought out on a chariot (that was to be built by the fraternity – to demonstrate our team work – ha!) and then a formal wear skit. In essence, it was a talent competition with only 1/3 of it being a 60 second pose down.

Three problems: My fraternity didn’t really care about Greek God, in terms of helping me build the sets and the chariot. And I didn’t really care all that much about the other parts of the competition.

And I lived in the dorms which meant I didn’t have access to a kitchen. I had to rely on dining hall food which was barely edible. For 3 full weeks, my entire hall had to endure my (illegal) usage of the good ol’ faithful George Foreman grill while I stunk up the floor.

As health and fitness has been my passion since I was in 4^th grade, I was lucky in that I was in good shape. But I had to take my body to the next level in 3 weeks. Thankfully, I was born for this. (Although later I realized I enjoyed the training way more than I did the actual competition.)

Other fraternities took Greek God extremely (and way too) seriously. My favorite part of doing Greek God my sophomore year was probably waking up early on the Saturday of Greek God to build my chariot (that’s what you’re looking at above. It’s a boxing ring. And I was Rocky!) with one or two other helpful brothers. Of course, other fraternities had theirs built for months.

Don’t get me wrong. They were there to support me like crazy during the competition. While other fraternities screamed their representative’s name is Greek God, it was awesome to hear my friends scream mine.

Hearing  ”Gil is Greek God” being yelled with all of their hearts as I was getting ready for my pose down back stage was a feeling and an experience I’ll never forget…

Recently, Time Magazine featured an article by John Cloud, entitled ‘Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin‘ that is generating a ton of buzz.

I addressed my thoughts on this in my Daily Inspiration the following day and I strongly considered doing so on this blog but I didn’t want to contribute to the buzz because it doesn’t deserve the attention.

But when I received an email from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) I felt as though it was my responsibility to address this to the world being that this is what I do and have lived since I was in 4^th grade.

This is just too important to ignore. The email from them said: “Last Friday, an article appeared in Time Magazine making statements that we believe run counter to fact and the public interest. The article claimed that exercise, contrary to the research with which we are all familiar, is not an effective health tool, particularly as it pertains to weight loss…”

They continued, (addressing the fitness professionals on their mailing list):

“Your assistance is needed in getting the right health message out to the public. Also we encourage you to adapt our letter to the editor and submit it to your local news outlets, helping readers and viewers get the best evidence-based facts and information.”

So here I am. Never fear MyBodyTutor is here! I’m going to make this as simple and concise as possible.

Ridiculously enough, this debate made the rounds last year and the year before that as well. It’s nothing new!

Of course, the media loves stories like this because it’s attention grabbing. It makes you stop in your tracks and say, “Wait a second. What? Exercise won’t make you thin?” It’s written for the same people who seek out the get rich quick schemes that don’t really want to change. Sadly, that’s 95% of the population.

Here’s the deal: To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume. Energy (food) in must be less than energy (movement) out.

When we exercise intensely – it can make us very hungry, even ravenous. There in lies one of the problems.

It’s called overcompensation. If you exercise say for 30 minutes at a moderate pace – you may burn 200 calories. And you’ll (most likely) overestimate how hard you worked. (Most people think they worked out harder than they really did. Most people also think they eat better than they really do.)

And if you think it’s now okay to eat a donut or a piece of chocolate – you just negated your entire workout for purposes of weight loss. (I’m not even going to mention the gazillion and one benefits exercising has on our health, fitness and over all well being. This is just about weight loss right now as was Time’s moronic article.)

(Ugh. I can’t resist. Here’s a few.)

Or, why not slog down a Gatorade to aide in your recovery. Whoops! There goes your workout. (Sports drinks are only necessary when you are running marathons and the like!)

Which leads to the real problem at hand:

Food (or drink) as a reward.

This is the problem we all have. While you’re working your tail off exercising, you might be thinking about how hard you’re working. And because you’re working so damn hard – you might feel you deserve a reward – a food reward.

In fact, exercising might make you feel that you deserve food as a reward a lot more than if you weren’t exercising at all. After all, you’re working your butt off! “I’m working my butt off and I can’t eat junk?!?” you say to yourself.

That will make you feel deprived.

Because you still believe food is the reward! It’s not your fault. We’ve been conditioned to think of food as the reward since we were infants. But when food is your reward that leads to bad news!

So all of this brings me to several important points:

1. Food shouldn’t be a reward. And if it has to be one – let’s make it about fresh food. Indulge yourself. But with real food!

2. If you exercise, and of course you should – don’t throw away all of your hard work with poor eating. You literally can negate a hard work out with 10 bites!

3. The best exercise of all: Keep your mouth shut. (I know this is a lot easier said than done. The rationalizations and justifications we come up with are brilliant! We will always fool ourselves. Enter MyBodyTutor!)

4. Thinking about how intensely I exercise makes me want to eat healthfully because I know how hard I work and I don’t want to waste my time. I want to get all of the benefits that exercise yields.

5. When we eat sugar, fat and salt we get a temporary rise in dopamine. But of course, it’s very fleeting. (Which is why once you start, it’s hard to stop. We want more and more!)

However, it’s been proven that we get the same feeling of reward and pleasure from exercise. So if you can look at exercise for the immediate short term benefits of pleasure – like you might do for junk food – it becomes a treat to workout. Not a sacrifice.

6. Going back to point 3 – who wants to workout and workout and not see any changes in your body? I see so many people in the gym that look exactly the same month after month – even with a personal trainer.

Obviously their diet is lacking. And of course, they’d be even bigger if they didn’t exercise. But what a waste!

In short: Exercise is critical in helping you to lose weight because it burns lots of calories. It creates a calorie deficit. But only if you don’t overcompensate!

In fact, diet is 70-80% of the battle. If you can’t control yourself like John Cloud, you’re not alone. Most people can’t.

But he shouldn’t make ridiculous claims.

Instead, he should admit that he needs help. Sadly, most people can’t do that. And that’s the first step to getting in to the shape you want to be in.

Sadly, most people can’t admit when they’re totally wrong either. And in this day and age, when 2/3 of the American population is overweight, the last thing we need is messages like this being put out there. There is enough conflicting information.

So John can you admit that you need some help? I’ll tell you what. I’ll even work with you for free. All I ask is that instead of making bogus claims like exercising won’t make you thin – you tell the world that what they really need is daily and personal accountability.

A very hopeful,

-Adam Gilbert
Chief Body Tutor
MyBodyTutor, Inc.

Any business, like any relationship, has ups and downs. It’s the ups that keep you going through the downs. If there are too many downs then it’s time to get out.

Thankfully, there have been plenty of ups!

Recently, MyBodyTutor.com was featured in a segment on Good Morning America. The segment was about outside the box fitness solutions. It’s very flattering and really exciting to be recognized for your idea!

You can watch the segment by clicking here. (There will be an ad that you have to watch first)

MBT has a very different philosophy than the gazillion other diet/fitness/wellness companies out there. It goes against conventional wisdom because I’m not claiming you don’t know what to do! I don’t try to create an information advantage like a lawyer or a accountant or a web developer. I’m sick of seeing all of these diet programs out there claiming that they have the secret or magic formula.

In this day and age information advantages are disappearing rapidly. Any and all information is accessible 24/7/365! Being aware of this can really change the way you conduct business too.

So my premise has always been very simple:

*We all know what to do for the most part! We all know that eating McDonald’s and cookies all day is bad for us. Lack of knowledge isn’t the problem!

*We have become insanely good at rationalizing our lack of exercise and poor eating. It’s incredible the excuses we can sell ourselves on. As Nobel prize-winning physicist Richard P. Feynman said, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”

*As Albert Einstein said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Getting in shape is about 3 things. Eating right. Exercising. And doing those two things consistently! That’s it!

*Unfortunately, the consistency part is very hard. Many people start programs. But most people don’t keep on going with them. Why? Well besides the excuses and the rationalizations Zig Ziglar said it best, “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily.”

By keeping my clients honest with themselves and by keeping them consistent and motivated and inspired and guiding them on a daily basis I make it very hard for people to make excuses and very possible to stay consistent. In short: by providing daily and personal accountability it makes all of the difference in the world.

And that’s why my clients are so successful. Because I help them eat right meal by meal, workout by workout and day by day! Nothing sexy. But it’s ridiculously effective!

I know if I can help my clients stay consistent then they will absolutely see and feel the results they want! As Tom Seaver said, “In baseball, my theory is to strive for consistency, not to worry about the numbers. If you dwell on statistics you get shortsighted, if you aim for consistency, the numbers will be there at the end.”

I wish they spoke a little bit more about that on GMA. Because we don’t know just tell you what to do. Anyone can do that. We actually make sure you do it!

But hey I’m not complaining!