Whenever writing something that is the foreward what will be what many consider contrary to their world views, qualifications come into light almost immediately. It is no doubt a product of our society which seems to put badges, ranks, and degrees as the physical justification of anyone’s validity. They claim an institution is required to give sanction to the legitimacy of those words. If it eases your mind to know what is about to come arrives from the mind of someone that has had experience in the field, than I will jump through this one hoop if it maintains your focus.

I have been lifting since I was fifteen, my father was (in his spare time) a power lifter and marathon runner. He is responsible for planting and germinating the seed that exercise and pride in your body is something that no man is complete without. I rowed for years after that, mainly at a high school level, and after college as an amateur. Right now I am 25 years old, 5’11”, 190 lbs. I deadlift 455, bench 315, and row a 10K in about 39 minutes. That is all I am going to say about my level of commitment.

Stop making excuses.

You are the sole recipient and motivator for your success. There is no mystery to achievement and personal gain; it requires nothing more than your complete devotion and hard work. Work will get you results, but only hard work will get you that which you dream of. Hard work is painful, it takes precedence over many other things you may find far more enjoyable, it requires great sacrifice and requires the 100% commitment of your mind. It is not impossible, stop building up achievement as some edifice which you will never reach. You can reach it, and the only your own mind is what is preventing you from reaching it. Hard work is agonizing, this is why so many choose to avoid it and seek a softer alternative. There is no alternative if you goal is to achieve the exceptional. Whether you need to lose a massive amount of weight, or just the last five pounds, you will have to agonize. The sooner you face this wall of opposition and make up your mind that you must face it to continue, then you will achieve.

Everyone possesses the ability to become something great, the only inertia derives from your own lack of desire, nothing else. You overcome this inertia by desiring to become something extraordinary, and taking pride in such should be the singular source of pleasure that you should hope to achieve.

Genetics is not an excuse. Your genes make it easier or harder, they do not prevent you from reaching your goal, however lofty it is. I have no genes for becoming what I am, but with the application of hours of sweat, I have achieved. Genetics is not keeping you out of shape, or preventing you from losing weight, your own mental intertia is.

There is no such thing as emotional eating. No one is coating your food with cocaine, food is not an addictive substance. Overeating is not a disease, cancer is. You are addicted to your own mental inertia because it’s easier and you lack the willpower to alter your own motivation. If you lack the self control, remove that which you cannot resist. Do not act like you cannot combat the evil desire to eat food when you feel an emotion, mans mind in its unlimited capacity is limited by physical non-living things so long as he desires to be owned by it.

Everything is emotional, no one does anything for any reason other than emotion. I am an emotional lifter, drinker, lover, worker, driver, and thinker. Channel your emotion, use it as a weapon against your own mental inertia and take charge of that which seeks to own you. No one or thing possesses the ability to take your achievements away from you, do not let these things possess the ability to inhibit your desire to remove your mental inertia.

This website is a sham and a fraud. You are placing your own lack of mental fortitude in a collective of leeches. These leeches swim a fetid pool, draining each other of motivation by making excuses and justifications for inadequacy rather than facing the elephant in the room. The leeches desire to take away from you the inherent responsibility of overcoming your own mental inertia. Look within yourself for the burning engine of desire and open the carburetor. Seeking justification in the simpering of other sycophants, as well as placing the credit on your achievement thus far on anything but this burning engine is a sacrilege committed against your own holy self.

Look upon your burning engine, idling within you and let it breath.

I will not wish you luck,

I have to go to the gym now
-ADG

Hi Dutch!

I already did my gym today.

And tomorrow, I shall make the most of these great outdoors.

Bon Weekend,

Minu, I was just going to say the same thing!

I do believe in this overall mindset of personal accountability and responsibility. I think many people are here looking for the tools to achieve these goals. That is what we try to give and receive here...our personal experiences, successes and failures, what has worked in our own lives. If it makes you feel better about yourself to belittle others, go back to Jr High.

O.K. I have a way out there thought..... Do you think these types of posts that Hank presents are from the Traineo people themselves - to kinda "keep us on our toes" and keep us awake?!? I don't know ....... just a thought.

What the heck? Poor Hank has missed the point! It's so great that he's achieved what he has and can look down from his bench press and mingle with us weaklings. However, in my next life, when I'm Ruler over All (a Lord of the Rings of sorts), I will give him the wonderful, life changing opportunity to have a baby or two and pack the pounds on his once shapely tush. Maybe even give him some saggy pecs. But the number one thing he can experience is the postpartum depression (yes, Hank, that is real. Believe it or not, but exercise DOESN'T fix everything). But, alas, he is one VERY smart and experienced fellow for his ripe old age of 25.

Oh, and one more thing.



I tend to agree with the fact that everything is emotional - including eating. Whether it is to fulfill crappy emotional urges or just out of pure enjoyment and ecstasy, intentional or unintentional, it is all emotional. The catch is what you do about it all in the end. But the avenues a person decides to take or the bumps they experience in getting there is not for anybody to judge. Especially when the judgmental person is very well schooled in ONLY their opinion. I wish that I could return to my 25-year-old body. Especially since I was a model and had the time and energy to focus on that and that only. But, three kids and life later, something that once was very easy to be has become hard. This ISN'T an excuse, it's life. I, like so many others, work hard everyday to make sure I am taking care of myself AND my family. But the reality is that you win some and you lose some. It's all about if you get back on and keep riding. SO, please take your cute little "encouraging" monologue and go eat it with your protein bars. It was truly nothing more than condescending ideas from an unexperienced adolescent.

Okay, so you're 25 years old, and you think you have no one to thank for your own success but yourself. I felt that way when I was 25, too.

Have you ever been disabled for any length of time? Ever had to deal with chronic illness? Ever tried to maintain your weight when you were in constant pain and unable to exercise? How about in constant pain, working fulltime, unable to exercise, and caring for several small children?

Grow up, kid. There's a thing or two in life that you haven't experienced yet, and you have no business judging others until you have walked in their shoes.

This has absolutely nothing to do with Hank's comments. Everyone has a different lot in life, that's a given. Not everyone is going to go into an exercise regimen and come out looking like Atlas reincarnate or Schwarzenegger. Personal achievement is all relative, not an absolute. If two people share the same goal of being in the best possible shape, and if they put 110% of true, dedicated, and concerted effort into it, it's unlikely that they'll both end up on the same fitness level. One of the two people will be in superior shape than the other, but this doesn't mean that neither has become the best they can be.

The point Hank is making is that the majority of people out there have this desire for personal success, but do not want to put in the effort necessary to achieve it. Yes, there are many people who have x, y, and z obstacles in their lives that make achievement harder, but that doesn't mean they can't attain a level of fitness mastery in their lives.

Having a full-time job and four kids (or what have you) does not preclude you from being able to be in shape. If you have the right mindset, and if you are willing to dedicate whatever time you can to improving your fitness level, you should be able to reach a level of fitness that is tailored around your other priorities. As I said, being fit is all relative and will be different for everyone.

What's wrong with Traineo is that many people here all share this desire to improve their fitness through anything but hard work. When you look around these forums, you see countless posts of people fretting over the most inane crap imaginable. The spectrum of nonsense includes everything from the effectiveness of fad diets to Wii workouts. In other words, the majority of these posts consist of people wanting to shortcut their way to better health, which is the WORST approach you can take when trying to achieve this goal. Very rarely do you see people talking about the need for strenuous effort and hard work (except for maybe Dean).

Instead of people trying to curb this behavior, the traineo community condones it. Under the guise of being "understanding," and from an adamant refusal by members to point out people's obvious deficiencies and erroneous judgement, traineo members accept behavior that will, at best, lead to nothing but successive failure and underachievement. What this community is left with, then, is an endless cycle of blatant falsities and half-truths that people buy into. What everyone here claims is "support" is oftentimes bad advice enshrouded in political correctness.

Understanding this has absolutely nothing to do with one's age. Rather, it has much more to do with willfully realizing and honing in your personal willpower, dedication, and self-motivation. If you cannot realize this, or simply refuse to, then you need to wake up.

There are no doubt plenty of people here that want the magic pill to weight loss, but there are those that have experienced success to varying degrees through the hard work necessary. The vast majority of people who have lost weight and kept it off or achieved the fitness level they desire did it using dedication, sacrifice, and effort. To basically say everyone here except Dean is a herd of sheep who just wants to feel good about themselves while settling for mediocrity is an insult to those who have had or are well on their way to success.

Many people do not respond well to harshness and having their "obvious deficiencies and erroneous judgment" pointed out to them. Positive reinforcement works better for most. I think the problem lies in giving encouragement and praise when it is unearned. And yes, that happens here, because that is a problem that, I believe, is rampant in American society as a whole. It is highly unlikely the way to fix that involves poking a sharp stick in an open wound. The first reaction to attack is defense, and defensiveness does not generally lead to constructive behavior.

I'm all for personal responsibility, and I don't think there is enough of that anywhere. People are always disappointed when they ask me how I've lost the weight so far. They want to hear how I can eat all I want and still lose weight or that the Ab-Roller really does turn you into a goddess. They certainly don't like hearing about the exercise I do.

All of this is a really long way of saying that I think the main message is a good one, but the delivery is crap. "You'll catch more bees with honey," didn't become a cliche without reason.

I can't believe I'm even going to continue this conversation, however, I feel like I need to defend myself and all the others who turn to this website for support.

I understand that excuses can be made and people let other things take priority over good health habits. And it is very true that a person needs to take responsiblity for their own failure or success. It is also VERY true that hard work and sacrifice are the key components in losing weight, developing good habits, and ultimately achieving success. Most everything that Hank and Howard wrote is true, but their posts lack the "understanding" that people acheive success their own way. Fad diets and Wii workouts might be a load of crap for some, but may actually work for others. It is true that there aren't any "shortcuts" to the end goal, but sometimes those shortcuts are the boost the person needs to develop good habits.

I personally exercise EVERYDAY (believe it or not), alternating between strength training and aerobic activity, and I DO follow a very healthy eating plan containing all the food groups. I have a big jug of water that I fill every morning so I can get my required amount of water per day. I am actually halfway to my goals and I have been doing this for three months. The part this website plays for me in my life is my support system that I don't have anywhere else. It helps me have the motivation I need to pick myself back up when I fall. It is great that Hank and Howard don't need that support system, but some do.

The thing that really sucked about those posts made by Howard and Hank, was the VERY judgmental, condescending assumption that everyone who came to this website was trying to come up with excuses not to take control of their lives. Obviously, some of us are or we wouldn't be here exposing our weaknesses to literally the world. We would be sitting on our couches gaining weight. I would agree that there is a good chance that there are wasters of cyberspace here, but is that really anyone's place to judge? Let them live and learn.

Indeed.

Like with all subjects, be them of race, creed or apperances; generalizing, in general, is generally not accurate.

And when such generalizations, (even when made in the virtual world), are delivered without a shred of tact, nor a byte of empathy, it's a shame.

Let's not put words into my mouth here. I wasn't talking about "everyone". Read it again. I was referring to a collective of individuals that definitely exist in this community (and society as a whole). I was using Dean as an example because he truly is one of the few people on this site who thinks outside the box and puts healthy living into a larger perspective.





The reaction you're referring to is exactly what gets to me. Many people have been coddled to believe that hard work is secondary to comfort when achieving a goal. Rather than coddling these people in return, they need to be jarred and spurred into action. If this rubs you the wrong way, so be it.

LOL! Thanks for that!

Big Cheers!