By Ricky Parcell. Program creator, TheBodyCamp.com
- MINDSET…(Thinking) I’m not talking about “think-yourself-thin” mumbo-jumbo here. Far from it. I’m talking about the science” of setting goals and the psychology of achieving them.
I’m talking about reprogramming your mind for success so that instead of fighting against cravings or forcing yourself to the gym, your new healthy behaviors turn over to “auto-pilot” mode and all the healthy eating and consistent training that once seemed so hard is as effortless as tying your shoes or brushing your teeth.
I’m also talking about the power of visualization and re-making your self-image. You’ll never out-perform your self-image. If you want to change your body on the outside, you must first change the image you hold of yourself on the inside…
Olympians, weightlifters, golfers, and other elite athletes have been hip to “mind training” since the 70’s, when the Soviets first revealed how they used these techniques to dominate in so many sports.
Natural bodybuilders/fitness models are masters at this, and if you could get inside their thought process, you’d learn more about body transformation than you ever would by looking at their nutrition journal or training plan.
Countless clients have told me that until they mastered their minds, they could never stay focused, stay motivated or stick with their program. After they mastered it, they were unstoppable!
Without fail, those who gloss over this at first and fail to get results, eventually realize the paradox that the biggest secret to physical change is mental change.
- NUTRITION (natural, live foods).You might have heard the expression, “You can’t out-train a bad diet”…well it’s 100% true. Without the right eating plan that accounts for your individual needs and goals, everything else falls apart. First, here’s a crucial tip about how fitness models eat to get lean. And it’s one of the most important tips I can possibly share with you, because it’s the total opposite of what every “diet” tells you: Cutting calories is NOT the best way to burn fat. That’s why, if you watch natural bodybuilders, one thing you’ll notice about them is that they always seem to be eating.
You see, while “dieters” eat as little as they can stand trying to get thin…
“Burners” eat early and often, because they know it’s the key to restoring and ramping up your metabolism into a fat-burning machine.
Eating natural, live foods in smaller portions and often is key and critical to your success.
As is this – earn your simple carbs and sugars with a quick 20 minute workout before indulging yourself.
Never unintentionally over-eat….which leads to storing food away as unwanted fat… and we need to be mindful about triggering our body’s “starvation response” by eating too little, so you never feel hungry.
In fact, many people tell me they eat more at www.thebodycamp.com here in Ibiza, Spain than they’ve ever eaten…!
Yet they get leaner than they’ve ever been before (and some who under-ate before find themselves eating up to 50% more without storing an ounce of it as fat)…
After depriving themselves on diet after diet, they’re eating without guilt and feeling full, without the hunger pangs, cravings and “brain fog” they’re used to.
Now, you might be wondering… if fitness models/natural bodybuilders use food to fuel their metabolic fire, where does the final FAT BURN come from?
- CARDIO (10-30 minutes daily)
You see, “diets” do get one thing right: You DO need a “calorie deficit” in order to burn fat… in other words, you still need to use up more calories than you eat.
The difference is, with www.thebodycamp.com, the “deficit” comes from natural, live foods combined with fun workouts and luxury rest, in incredible surroundings!
Unlike the “diet” strategy that tries to starve the fat, the fitness model/bodybuilder strategy is to BURN the fat with increased activity.
Think of the third element – the right cardio – as a Fat burning ACCELERATOR.
You don’t have sweat on a treadmill every day… you don’t have to jog for hours… you don’t have to sit on a hard bicycle seat for an hour… you don’t have to do hours of H.I.T.T training (high intensity training)… unless you like them!
Its not about what type of cardio you choose, it’s about how you do the cardio of your choice and if you do it regularly – daily!
Couldn’t you lose fat, without cardio, with the right nutrition alone? Yes, but… that’s the long, slow, hard way, and there’s no telling how much muscle you’ll lose along with the fat if all you do is diet and you’re not using the fourth and final element.
- STRENGTH (Toning with body weight or weights). The right strength training also burns calories and increases metabolism, so adding this fourth element is like getting a double boost in fat-burning, but here’s the real reasons to strength train:
Strength training is how you avoid getting “skinny fat”, or losing muscle when you’re in a fat-burning calorie deficit.
We must all be strength training three times a week minimum for a great body. And remember – it’s lean muscle that gives a great body its shape – with all the right curves, and the strength to do everything you want your body to do.
Don’t worry – at www.thebodycamp.com we are not going to make you “pump iron” like Arnold Schwarzenegger or spend half your life at the gym – remember, our retreat and workouts are designed for ordinary people with lots of other demands on their energy and time.
That’s why we use and have built perfectly balanced 20-30 minute routines for every goal and level of fitness, based on 5 years at world class retreats and 20 years of my own personal experimentation – years of experience training hundreds of clients in person and observing their daily habits.
Don’t worry about getting “bulky” or “too big”, either – believe me, there is no way you will ever wind up looking like a competitive bodybuilder by accident. It just doesn’t happen – not even for men, and especially not for women.
- REST (De-stress). Without recovery and repair time the body can’t heal and relax – NEVER overlook this critical part of your daily routine..it leads to weight gain, an unhealthy body and stress within the mind. Enough said.
So, thinking about the above five elements ….are you considering them every day? How close are you to using them on a daily basis, to achieve the body you deserve?
