Mr. Guile's MAXIMUM BODY MAXIMUM MIND Challenge

I'm testing a new challenge to destroy apathy and sloth. I know this challenge isn't for everyone, but I'm laying down a basic framework for this.

WHY?
I've been dozing around like a lumbering idiot for the last week. THIS IS NOT THE LIFESTYLE I WANT! I want a better lifestyle, a better body, and a better mind. Last week I ate out 5 times and had greasy nasty food. I cannot allow myself to slip down this terrible slope, so I'm creating a challenge for myself. If anyone wants in, feel free to jump or chime in. This won't be easy, but if you want to become better, put your balls on the line and get the hell out of your comfort zone.

I refuse to stand on the sidelines. After watching LIMITLESS - I already saw that I had a "Magic pill" that would make me rich and powerful. It's called ME. I already have the powerful ability to become incredible. I just need to utilize it. I also got this idea after played a new game called Crysis 2 (yes, I'm a video game nerd, and yes I do have the computer to run it at full specs in 3D. Suck my balls.). The game is about adaptability and survivability. Change modes to adapt, engage, and emerge victorious. Guys shooting at you? MAXIMUM ARMOR. Need to be sneaky? CLOAK. Guy you don't like? MAXIMUM STRENGTH.

You wanna have a sharp mind and a body girls would love to fuck 6 times in a single night? MAXIMUM BODY, MAXIMUM MIND.


Here's my guidelines LAST REVISED 4/9/2011

1. NO SMOKING - Smoking is obviously bad. Don't do it, even if it's a drunk cigarette, which brings me to the next point

2. LESS ALCOHOL - Really, alcohol is bad for gaming. I saw this when I went out last weekend. I went out with an empty stomach and it really didn't work out too well. The limitation is 2 drinks when you're out gaming ONLY. THE ONLY ALCOHOL EXCEPTION IS IF A GIRL BUYS YOU ALCOHOL. YOU NEED TO EARN YOUR BEER WITH GAMING, NOT MONEY.

3. REGULAR INTAKE OF HEALTHY FOOD - This means you need to consistently eat throughout the day. 6 small meals a day will work very well. Each meal must consist of 70% Fruits and Veggies, 20% Proteins and Carbs, 10% Fats. NO EXCEPTIONS, NO FAST FOOD.

4. WEIGHT TRAINING EVERY MON, WED, FRI - Get a trainer and work out on these days, or go lift. TRACK WEIGHTS AND EXERCISES

5. CARDIO - TUE, THURS, SUN, - Go run at least a half mile. Half mile too easy? Pump up the distance. TRACK YOUR TIME AND DISTANCE

6. 30 MINUTES OF TIME WASTERS A DAY - This includes video games, browsing the web, YouTube, ect. ONLY 30 MINUTES. NO MORE. The rest of your day should include but is not limited to, running game, doing schoolwork(for college students), doing work, learning a new skill or talent, reading a self-help book, anything productive.

7. ONE DAY OF REST - Saturday is your rest day. You may have only ONE meal of your choice

8. DAILY REPORT IN - Post a journal entry every day for this challenge.

I will be refining this after I complete the first week. If the first week goes well, I will continue for another week. Pictures to be posted soon.

Wish me luck gentlemen.

TODAY I AM CHOOSING TO BE INCREDIBLE
TODAY I AM CHOOSING EXCELLENCE
TODAY I AM CHOOSING TO BE BETTER THAN I WAS YESTERDAY.

TIPS, TRICKS, AND RESOURCES last revised 4/9/2011

It's been about a week. I'm on my first day of rest and my body is seriously kicking ass. Here's a list of health rewards associated with completing this challenge.

-Increased daily energy
-Increased focus
-More precise hearing
-Easier digestion of information
-Better tuned internal clock - No need for an alarm clock anymore
-Get out of bed faster
-Leaner, more toned body
-Generally happier demeanor

What I find to be the most difficult aspect of the challenge is guideline #3 - REGULAR INTAKE OF HEALTHY FOOD. It's hard because -
1. We're all used to eating 3 meals a day (2 for college students)
2. We like our fatty greasy nasty foods.
3. When our bodies see change at first, it is sometimes hostile towards it.
4. When you eat 6 meals a day all at around 300 or so calories, you're never hungry, but you're never full, leaving your body is a strange grey area of unsatisfaction.

The only advice I can give for this is "BE STRONGER THAN YOUR FOOD." Here is a list of foods I am using for the challenge. Typically, I like to use foods that I consider an FSR (First Strike Ration - Taking the first strike against HUNGER!) FSR's are foods that can be eaten instantly out of the bag with little to no preparation. Keep em in your bag when you're out and about.

1. Dried Apricots from Wal-Mart (Great Value) - This is the only god damn dried fruit that has no added sugar. A fantastic FSR
2. Quaker oats Oatmeal Squares - The whole grains, fiber, and protein give an energy boost, plus, it's a delicious cereal. Throw em in a bag and call it an FSR
3. Fresh Fruit - Get a big tub of it and eat it all week. This makes a great meal
4. Fresh salad - Spice up your salad with some low calorie Italian dressing. If you're feeling like spicing up your life, throw in some herbs. Dill, basil leaves, parsley sprigs, sesame seeds, and cracked pepper work great.
5. Larabars - These bars are dates and other things, typically nuts. My favorite one is the Cashew cookie. stay away from dessert flavors like Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough or Brownie. this 200 calorie bar is a great meal replacement bar, and super cheap too. FSR
6. Veggie stir fry - Use 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil, season the oil with Tim Ferriss' CPR - Cumin, Paprika, Rosemary. Use salt and pepper for base spices. If you're feeling spicy, add in crushed red pepper or chipotle pepper. Add a small amount of meat, cook the meat a little bit, add it frozen veggies. Stir fry for 10 minutes until meat and veggies are done. Put onto a plate and eat. Cheap meal, easy to make, easy to clean up. To change the flavor of the dish completely, just switch out the meat. Sick of it? Try it with Beef, chicken, fish, egg, ect. This is a perfect opportunity to experiment with spices as well.

I recommend one, and only one supplement. I get it from my personal trainer.
ULTRAMEAL - by Metagenics
This powder protein is awesome. If you eat meat, you only need to take just 1 scoop a day. All ingredients are derived from freeze dried food in order to allow the body to quickly absorb all nutrients and proteins. Use the whey protein version for bulking up and building muscle. Use the other version for leaning out and toning muscle. A perfect companion to an emerging six pack.

STAYING PRODUCTIVE
At first, you may have some problems staying productive. You will be sitting restlessly in front of the computer screen saying, "WHAT THE HELL DO I DO?????"


1. Make a list! Keep it on your phone, or sticky notes on the computer. I use an iPhone app called "Pocket Informant" to keep track of all my tasks and due dates. The point is to keep your mind engaged at all times. If you're looking around for something to do, here's a few things I do

2. Read a book - not just PUA books though. Check out titles like The Four Hour Work Week, The Four Hour Body, The Alchemist, Everyone Loves You When You're Dead, The Power of Now, The Secret, The Power, Ect. Self Help books are some of my favorite books in the world. They're not just literature, it's literature that's changed people all over the world.

3. Play music in the background - This helps me write papers, clean my room, whatever. The human brain is HARD WIRED FOR MUSIC. Put on your favorite songs, listen to them over and over again.

4. Clean your habitat - Often times, us dudes are dudes and keep our living quarters not so clean. If you want to be productive, even for 15 minutes, just clean up one section of your room every day. In about 4 days, your whole room will be clean with just 15 minutes of work each day.

5. Pursue something new - I started to use Rosetta stone to learn a new language. If you don't have anything else to do, start culturing yourself. You will not regret it, and a sophisticated, attractive, intelligent female always enjoys a man that can appreciate ballet, the works of Darius Milhaud, or Xenakis architecture.

For all you guys trying out this challenge, I hope this information helps you out! I will be doing the challenge for another week. Check back next Saturday for another update.

DAY 1

Got up, worked out with the personal trainer. He's kicking my ass, which is great. I noticed the after-effects of what a poor diet does. My stomach has gained a small layer of flab. Not cool. I will be running on days that I have off.

The urge to order a pizza settled in the afternoon after I bought groceries. I made sure to eat something before I went out shopping. Shopping when you're hungry is just asking to get fat. I scarfed down some veggie rolls for lunch before orchestra rehearsal. Not feeling the effects of good eating, yet...

Had fresh fruit for dinner, along with some whole grain cereal (no milk). Approached 2 girls with a direct approach at the super market. Shot down, but whatever.

Still hungry as hell. This fruit is a little sour too. Crap... Just shows how much farther I need to go. I browsed the web for only 30 minutes today. Now it's off to do some homework and write some music before bed.

Good luck with your challenge brotha!

Awesome, It's a good thing your pushing hard for the discipline.

I read an article that said most self help was useless because people are not willing to change their behavior, I believe it. Many people should be targeting certain behaviors patterns a lot more. I try my best not to procrastinate as I personally find this to be one of the most debilitating behaviors.

I'll be doing something like this shortly. It's funny people always talk about their ambitions and rah rah but they don't even have the simple discipline to follow a simple diet. How could they possibly achieve anything big, if they can't stay true to the most trivial tasks?

What exactly is it your looking for?
Big build or like just general fitness?

Or a bit of both? three days weight and three days cardio is very balanced in my opinion definitely not a bad thing depending what your aiming for as sex is generally a cardio workout. Half a mile run (800m) is indeed very modest I do about 3.1 miles (5km) every other day, ideally I'd like to run 1.5miles in under 7 minutes.

Thanks guys! Here's what I hope to accomplish within this challenge.

1. To have a better body overall. I have a bit of a muffin top whenever I throw on my slim jeans. It's time to get rid of that. Not tomorrow. Not after school's not. NOW.

2. This is to overall be a more productive person. There's a book I read called The Slight Edge which is about instead of doing 4 things for a long period of time attempting to get results in a short range of time, expand to doing 100 small things a day that are productive and over a long period of time, this will produce better results. Instead of working on a huge paper with intermittent distractions like YouTube, my roommates, or video games, I will continually keep my mind engaged throughout the day and push to expand my work capacity. If there's anything I learned being a Professional Musician touring, performing constantly, traveling, and more, it's all about having a high work capacity. I would say my work capacity is extremely high, but I want to push it even further.

3. What's wrong with having the body of a pornstar?

I will post an update today. I will talk about productivity levels and more, scientifically of course. I have been tracking times and coordinating factors into productivity. This is going to be another fun experiment. If everything works out well, I can start making graphs and stuff. Pictures to be posted tonight.

I recommend the talent code by Daniel Coyle also, There's a bit of reference here to musicians maybe it's something you can relate to.
He reckons it takes about 10,000 hours of deep practice to reach mastery level but usually people who are dedicated do many many more hours.
Weather they are Soccer players/Musicians/Actors and Artists etc. It's not always the physical side, kids who grow up around parents who are musicians will be indoctrinated and witness the process of playing music at an earlier age.

10,000 hours makes sense to me though,

5 hours a day practice x 5 days a week x 52 weeks in a year x 10 years = 13000 hours.

3 hours a day practice x 7 days a week x 52 weeks in a year x 10 years = 10920 hours.

http://www.amazon.com/Talent-Code-Great ... 055380684X

I can tell you a person like Micheal Phelps put's a lot more hours into it than that, he spends 2-5 hours in the pool not including his weight, visualization sessions, strict diet, stroke revision and off pool cardio sessions. It's not 8 hour training days with youtube/tv sessions in between, it's 8 dedicated hours of training.

I might check your book out. hehe ^^

DAY 2 - TUESDAY

Minh - I have actually read that book. It is a very good book! I do agree with the 10,000 hour rule, and I have been practicing quite a bit lately, seeing I have many playing commitment to adhere to.

Here's the breakdown for today. Starting to try and eat 6 small meals a day rather than 3 large ones (or 2 for me actually...). I'm noticing a boost in energy from the foods I'm consuming. Fresh fruit and veggies, oatmeal squares cereal, nuts, dried fruit, juices are mainly what I consume throughout the entire day. It's giving me a small energy boost. I'm not feeling hungry anymore, nor full. Plus, eating a large meal takes time. Snacking on oatmeal squares or fruit while working is increasing productivity quite well.

Cardio was rough... .79 miles and ran for just 11:22... Pace was 14:21/mile. Not good. I'll have to keep working at it. Not giving up.

Tuesday is the most busiest day for me, since I have a lot of playing and rehearsal commitments on this day. Wednesday is pretty bad too, but not as bad as Tuesday. The sun was out today and that gave me some more energy throughout my day. I spent my 30 time-waster minutes browsing the web again today. I'm wiped and will probably go to bed early for a workout with the trainer tomorrow.

My mornings and afternoons are high energy, when the sun goes down, my body starts to shut down a little bit. Perhaps sunlight is a factor.

DAY 3 - WEDNESDAY

My body woke me up at 6:30 today. Alarm was set for 8:30. My mind was restless, but I eased myself into falling asleep again. Probably a bad idea. I woke up a little groggy, but after working out with the trainer, something strange happened. I don't need as much food as I thought before... My overall food consumption is going down and my energy is going up. Staying hydrated really helps too. By eating smaller meals throughout the day, my time for productivity has increased immensely. Here's a comparison:

Typical Day
Work on a paper for 2 hours with little to no progress due to distractions
Practice percussion aloofly for 4-5 hours a day, learning only 5-6 bars of music and refining what I know slightly.
Sit around eating pizza watching NetFlix, alone.
Wallow around in the filth that is my room and be fine with it

MAXIMUM Challenge Day
Get up early, work out
Practice percussion in short bursts 1 hour, 2x a day. Learning 4-5 bars of music in each time.
Spend little to no time doing time waster things
Slowly chip away at papers, projects, presentations, ect.
Clean the room one area at a time.

What gets done in a typical day
Write 3 pages of a paper or work equivalent
Practice percussion and learn 5-6 bars and review

What gets done on a MAXIMUM CHALLENGE Day
Write 1 page of a paper
Clean an area of my room
Chip away at a project
Vacuum the floor of my room
Discuss percussion logistics for concerts with professors
Compost a few bars of music for the next commission for the next client.
Start the laundry before orchestra rehearsal, dry and fold afterwards in the free hour or so afterwards.
Reading books for self-improvement throughout the day in my spare time.

Tons more stuff gets done when you chip away at it. I am not sprinting anymore, I'm pacing myself and freeing myself of distractions by just doing small task after small task.

I'm looking into books by Tim Ferriss - The 4 hour work week and the 4 hour body. I'm seriously considering purchasing both of these books and reading them.

Some observations - The effects of the food are kicking in. My body is starting to detoxify itself. I am feeling sharper and faster in the morning. I see people trudging along left and right, but I'm ready to go at all times now. It's a really wicked feeling and I am enjoying it. My ear is able to hear the softest and slightest sounds. My hair is starting to look better, some seasonal rashes I get on my skin don't itch anymore. I have more energy throughout the day. This is probably the best thing I've done for my body in a long time.

However, it's testing me. I really want to order a freaking pizza. Fighting the urge!

Limitless was a great movie!! Wow, I felt like I was on the pill myself after I came out of that movie!

Congratulations, this sounds like a really excellent challenge. I may partake in this very soon too. I've already been embarking on a week long exercise routine with 3 days of cardio and 3 days of strength for the past 2 months. I've also been carefully watching my diet, minimizing carb & fat intake.

Advice: if you have an iphone, download the "MyFitnessPal" app, it requires to record down everything that you've eaten for the day and keeps careful tab of your caloric intake.

My problem lays in boosting my productivity for the day, I'm wasting too much time (at least 5 hrs a day) browsing news and chatting with my friends online everyday when I should be focusing my efforts in finding a job after graduation. I'd like to take this challenge to address this area of concern.

LOL, 5 hours a day bumming can be spent day gaming or walking the streets looking for sets, that will definitely be more beneficial as your getting daily exercise and your putting more hours into your art which is pick up.

That's hitting two birds with one stone!

I recommend V02 Max/Interval training also,
Run 3 minutes at 100% non stop with a 30 second break x 5 sets of three minutes. Do this once a week and I can guarantee you will see your 1 mile time decrease.

http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl= ... x=85&ty=37

Ideally for the three minutes you want to be on 80% - 100% maximum oxygen intake/ 160-200 heart beats per minute. This workout only takes less than 20 minutes.