The latest Adonis Index and Venus Index contest winners have just been announced and the pictures blew me away. Check them out if you haven’t already.

Adonis Index Contest Winners PIX

Clipped from: www.adonisindex.com (share this clip)

Venus Index Contest Winners PIX

Clipped from: www.venusindex.com (share this clip)

Congrats to all the winners.

This is what it’s all about. Setting a goal, and then doing what it takes to achieve that goal. The results speak for themselves.

Our next contest starts in January 2012 and the competition is just going to get better and better.

John

Getting in shape and then staying in shape is a daily personal challenge. Your level of dedication and commitment to yourself is what will determine how far you can take your body and how well you can maintain it.

The underlying message is that it’s all about you. It’s your body, your effort, your decision, your results, your triumph, your failure, your struggle, your personal growth, your reward.

In the end, you gotta put in the time to get the results.

It has nothing to do with anyone else besides you. Nobody else will care if you just let yourself go and give up on your body, in fact our society makes it quite easy to do this as so many other people are doing it. Blending into the masses and having an average (or below average) body is quite easy to do. In fact it takes zero effort to be ‘just like everyone else’.

The real effort comes in when you try to do something better, something more with yourself, something worth doing.

At this point you’re choosing to separate yourself from the norm and do something better. This is where it gets tougher, this is where you get push back…this is also where you get recognized for being and doing something most other people cannot or will not do.

Some people will judge, some will throw arrows, some will try to hold you back. But in the end it’s your personal commitment to yourself that will determine if you succeed or fail. Nobody else can make you succeed, and nobody else can make you fail. Your success or failure will be yours to own.

Changing your body is one of the only things you can truly do by yourself for yourself (sure social support helps) but in the end, you have to make it happen.

The only question is ‘will you do it’?

John

As of this week my blog will be taking on a new format. I will be writing about weight loss and diet at my new blog www.anythinggoesdiet.com/blog

I will link each article from that blog here so if you’re used to coming here to read then you’ll still be able to find everything here.

I’ll also be posting each Adonis Index and Venus Index post here as well. This site will be a hub or ‘portal’ to each of my other sites, and I”ll also do an occasional post that is unique to this blog as well.

From AdonisIndex.com: Understanding the Peer Review Process

Today I interview my friend Dr. Geoff Dover. He explains the peer review process and why the info you get in a book or magazine about diet or fitness is very different from the info you get in a scientific paper.

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From VenusIndex.com: VI Transformation Week 2 and Consistency

The Venus Index transformation is in the second week and now is the time to be getting into a rhythm and finding a groove for the rest of the contest.

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I’ll be posting more updates this week. Check back soon.

John

It’s becoming apparent that the people who get results with their diet and training programs usually have the least to say about it.

I had to go through it too

I’ve noticed a pattern with our contest winners and all of the guys (and girls) who make the decision to finally change their bodies once and for all…and the pattern is this:

The beginning of the transformation = Out of Shape Skeptic

Before they do anything they start out very skeptical, they spend an inordinate amount of time reading about diet and fitness thinking they are ‘educating’ themselves when in reality they’re just becoming more confused and paralyzed with information overload.

This is not surprising considering most of the ‘information’ they’re reading is actually just marketing that is not rooted in science or fact.  In reality what they’re reading is a collection of anecdotes, logical fallacies and nonsensical analogies to twist half truths into reasonable sounding arguments, and in many cases totally ridiculous sounding arguments (insert blood type diet, macrobiotics, bulking cutting, metabolic typing and on and on)…sigh, it never ceases to amaze me what some people will believe.

At this stage these people are quite opinionated and aren’t afraid to tell others what to do (even though they are out of shape and in no position to be a role model for anyone)

At this point they’re argumentative and seem to have the contrarion opinion to everything. As far as they’re concerned, they’re right and everyone else is wrong (I suppose somewhere in the back of their mind they’re doing this to justify why they’re still out of shape)

BUT of course there is also a place in their mind that is entirely unsatisfied with their body and really wants to make a change.

At some point they start to learn that talk is cheap and it’s time to either put up or shut up.

This is the turning point when words become action, and a single minded desire to succeed becomes the marching orders for each day.

The never ending list of excuses as to why they’re still out of shape despite their vast ‘knowledge’ from all the marketing…err…information they have read fades away and is replaced by solutions and positive action towards real results.

Simply Amazing!

The urgency to make something happen NOW sets in and becomes a driving force…and the harsh reality that “tomorrow” never comes sets in.

They finally understand that you cannot start a transformation “tomorrow”…there is no such thing as “tomorrow”…it has to start TODAY.

Now the real transformation has begun.

Mind and body are moving in a singular direction, and make no mistake, a transformation is always both mind and body.

The final and most interesting thing that happens is the newly transformed person has much less to say, is less argumentative and spends less time ‘preaching’ to others.

This is ironic considering it is at this point that they finally truly know what it takes to transform and get into great shape (if there ever was a time for them to be argumentative and ‘preachy’ it is now!)

However they’ve also learned one other critical lesson along the way…and that is it’s impossible to teach another person how to transform if that person is not ready to be a student.

Ali never argued, but she sure did transform!

Ohh the irony!

Instead a degree of quite confidence becomes part of their new mind as they now know what it takes to have the body they’ve always wanted. They end up with a secret to share that almost nobody is willing to hear!

This general pattern describes almost everyone I have ever coached through a transformation.

And with that said, it’s time for the next group of willing students to step up and become the new group of exceptional people to make the decision to transform.

The fourth Adonis Transformation Contest starts Jan 19th and the first Venus Index Transformation Contest also starts on the 19th.

For all those exceptional Adonis Index men who’ve already achieved an exceptional shape we will be accepting entries for the first ever Adonis Index Open Contest on the final day of the transformation contest on April 13th.

It’s officially PUT UP OR SHUT UP TIME!

John