Making the Cut (3 page)

Sit-ups to Test Abdominal or Trunk Strength

How many sit-ups can you do in a minute? To perform the traditional sit-up, lie on the floor with your knees bent, feet flat. Your hands should
rest
on your thighs (not grabbing them to complete the lift up—that’s cheating!). Squeeze your stomach, push your back flat against the floor, and come up high enough for your hands to touch the tops of your knees. Don’t pull up with your neck or head, keep your chin tucked in, and keep your lower back flush to the floor. Time yourself and count how many you can do in one minute, then check the chart below for your rating.

         
ONE-MINUTE SIT-UP TEST (MEN)

         
ONE-MINUTE SIT-UP TEST (WOMEN)

Wall Sit to Measure Lower Body Strength

To test your lower body strength, we’re going to see how long you can hold a wall-sit position. Place your back flat against the wall and lower your body into a seated position with your knees bent at a 90-degree angle. Start the timer as soon as you’re in position, and hang in there as long as you can. Do not place your hands on the wall
—that’s cheating
! As soon as you have to come out of position or your booty touches the floor, time’s up. Thirty seconds is average. Sixty seconds is good. Ninety seconds is excellent. In order to begin
Making the Cut,
you must be able to hold a wall sit for a minimum of 30 seconds.

Mind over Matter
You can change your life by changing your mind. It’s really that simple—
nothing
is impossible for the willing mind! We all have the power to gain control of our lives, reach our goals, and live our dreams. Your challenge is to locate, nurture, and believe in your ability to do so. Any lingering sense of inferiority or inadequacy will interfere with the attainment of your goals and dreams, while self-confidence and a positive attitude lead to success. To push your body toward ripped perfection, your mind has
got
to be strong and focused. It is imperative that you hone and train your mind as intensely as you train your body. This means following a few guidelines and performing some mental exercises to replace self-defeating behaviors with positive ones, and to remove distractions and bring mental clarity and self-control. After all, it’s your mind that directs and drives everything you do, or don’t do—so get it on your side! Throughout the book you will find Mind over Matter sidebars, filled with pointers and exercises to help keep your mind focused, your motivation high, and your goals in sight.

2                   SCIENCE

E
stablishing and maintaining a healthful diet is
crucial
to your overall success on this program. The right diet will regulate your blood sugar, balance your hormones, and maximize your energy, all of which promote optimal fat burning and muscle development.

When I worked on NBC’s
The Biggest Loser,
I’d travel for three months at a time and have barely a moment to myself. I was lucky if I got to work out more than once a week. I was able to maintain my physique throughout the shoot, though, by following this diet plan to the letter. Once you incorporate these seven nutritional principles into your lifestyle, you will look, feel, and perform better in
all
areas of your life.

THE RULES

Rule 1: Stick to Your Magic Number

Calories
do
count in this program, and small errors can add up to a big disappointment. The trick is to cut calories in just the right way so that you are creating enough of a deficit to lose the weight you want to lose, but not so much of a deficit that your body goes into starvation-survival mode and your metabolism slows down. While you’re
Making the Cut,
you’re also going to need enough calories to power you through your workouts, so we’ll have to add that into the mix too.

As I stated up front, this program functions under the assumption that you are already moderately fit and don’t need to lose a significant amount of weight (under 20 pounds), so your calories will not be drastically reduced on my program. As everyone has a different metabolism, though, each person will have a different calorie allowance, a calculation that is based on an individual’s basal metabolic rate, or BMR. Your BMR is the number of calories that your body needs to function at the most basic level—it’s what you’d burn if you sat on the couch all day and didn’t move a muscle. Using a simple formula, you will be able to calculate your BMR and identify the amount of calories you should be eating in a day. The idea here is that you will have plenty of energy for your workouts while also creating a caloric deficit through your daily activities and exercise. And you’ll burn off those last remaining fat deposits that have been annoying the hell out of you for years!

You can also calculate your BMR on the Web; just do a keyword search for “BMR calculator.” If you don’t have access to a computer, or are interested in how BMR is calculated, I’ve included the mathematical formula below. The formula uses the variables of your height, weight, age, and gender, which is a much more accurate way of calculating your BMR than using body weight alone. The only factor this calculation omits is lean body mass, your body’s ratio of muscle to fat. Remember, leaner bodies need more calories than less lean ones, and therefore this equation will be accurate give or take 100 calories. In the very muscular it will underestimate caloric needs, and in the less muscular it will overestimate them.

BMR FORMULA

Women:
BMR = 655 + (4.35 × weight in pounds) + (4.7 × height in inches) - (4.7 × age in years)

Men:
BMR = 66 + (6.23 × weight in pounds) + (12.7 × height in inches) - (6.8 × age in years)

Now that you know your BMR, you know where to set your daily calorie allowance. Do your best to stick to this calorie allowance exactly for the entire 30 days. I’m sorry to tell you that there are no “cheat days” on this program. (It’s only 30 days—suck it up!) Normally, I recommend varying calorie intake when trying to lose weight to avoid weight-loss plateaus, but
Making the Cut
is a different animal, and we’re not going to be dropping our calories low enough to trigger a plateau. The objective here is to get lean and mean in 30 days, which means that consistency is key.

Conscious Choice Making
In this exercise you will learn to create and live the life that you choose. There are three steps involved. The first is imagining your goals. I will help you create and define your goals so that they fit your dreams but are also realistically attainable. This step applies not just to your health but to all areas of your life: work, relationships, finance, family, you name it.

The second step is adopting a positive attitude and having faith in your ability to
achieve
those goals. Everything in the universe is energy and information, including your belief system. On a quantum mechanical level your body is no different from the body of the universe. (I know this sounds a little kooky and new age, but bear with me here, I know what I’m talking about.) By choosing to change the energy and information within your own body, you change the energy and information around you, thus causing things to happen. I will teach you to lead your life with pure intent and faith in the outcome rather than in a perpetual state of wishing and hoping for the results you desire.

The third step is
actualizing
your goals. Everything in life is a choice. From the moment we wake up and decide what kind of mood we’re in, to the final choice we make as to whether to floss our teeth at night, we’re making decisions all the time. Some choices are conscious and some are not, but the only way to live your dreams is to master the art of conscious choice making. I will teach you to become aware and in control by evaluating every one of your choices, no matter how big or small, with two simple but critical questions:

1. What are the consequences of the choice I am making?

2. Will this choice bring happiness into my life and bring me closer to my goals?

Learn to listen to and take cues from your body when you need to make a tough decision. For example, does your decision give you a sensation of pressure in your chest, or does a feeling of calm come over you? With these techniques you can make bold and deliberate choices that create the end result you are seeking. Even when a situation occurs that is out of your control, you always control how you choose to react to it.

Sometimes things happen that unexpectedly move us into a crisis. By controlling the way you react to life’s curveballs, you successfully affect the outcome in your favor. Committing to this level of accountability will positively transform your entire life. By intentionally choosing each step you take, you have control. You’ll immediately feel more confident, excited, reassured, and most important, focused on what new disciplines you need to master to achieve your goals.

Rule 2: Eat for Your Metabolic Type

The proper balance of the three basic macronutrients—carbohydrates, proteins, and fats—is often debated. The truth is that the correct mix depends on you and your utterly individual biochemical needs. (That’s right, we’re just as individual on the inside as we are on the outside.) Apart from eating the right
number
of calories, you also need to be eating the kinds of foods that give you the specific ratios of carbs-to-proteins-to-fats that are best for the way your body metabolizes the food you eat.

It’s mostly true that a calorie is a calorie is a calorie—the difference between eating 1,500 calories of Oreos and eating 1,500 calories of chicken is fairly minimal in terms of actual weight gain. But there is a little more to it when you’re looking to get into the fiercest shape of your life. By identifying and catering to your ideal macronutrient ratio, you will:

          optimize your physical energy and mental clarity

          get more out of your workouts

          eat less because your appetite will stabilize and you will feel more satiated

          create more lean muscle mass

          increase your base metabolism

How do you figure out what your ideal ratio is? Although as I’ve said we’re all unique in our biochemical makeup, those of us in the fitness industry use three basic categories of metabolic type to identify the diet that is right for any given person. These types are
slow oxidizers, balanced oxidizers,
and
fast oxidizers,
and they form a continuum along which all of us fall somewhere. Briefly, the types break down as follows:

          Slow oxidizers require a higher percentage of carbohydrates than of fat and protein, both to lose weight and to feel both physically and mentally energized.