A female friend asked me this question just this morning.  The answer is simple and didn’t take me more than a few seconds to answer.

If you just want to lose weight and look “thin“, the answer is no.  But if you want to look “sexy“, the answer is a definite yes!

If you just want to look thin like the marathoner below, all you’ve got to do is take long walks or jog around for a few hours everyday and watch what you eat.

But if you want to have shapely butts and thighs, toned arms and you want to look sexy and healthy like the athlete below, you need to do some olympic lifting and other types of resistance training.

IMHO, having a really flat butt (see below) can be as unattractive as having a flabby one.

Our perception of beauty has changed and thin is the new fat..but fat is still fat No excuses! Now hit the gym!

This idea came from Mark Limbaga

Here in the Philippines, this pair of gloves is commonly known as “kargador gloves”.  It is being used by construction workers, carpenters, electricians, fishermen, garbage collectors and men in other jobs that require heavy lifting or carrying rough objects.

They usually last for more than 2 months and are usually washed once a week.  They only cost around 10-20 pesos a pair from hardware stores and approximately  30 pesos if bought from Ace hardware or Handyman.

This pair of gloves is ideal for really heavy lifters who keep busting their expensive leather gloves or for people who just aren’t willing to shell out that much for leather gloves that will smell like dead rat after a month.

What was old is new again.  Is it nostalgia?  Not this time.  Kettlebells have actually been around for hundreds of years in one form or another.  It’s just a tried and true method of “swinging” your way into shape that doesn’t involve big band music and poodle skirts.  So what is a kettlebell?  It’s basically a cast iron ball similar to a cannonball where a loop that you can grip is welded to the ball giving you the ability to lift it and even swing it every-which-way when doing whatever exercise or drills that come to mind.  Normally the weights you see will vary from 10-100lbs in varying increments.

The primary purpose of kettlebell training is to increase functional strength and explosive speed.  So most “swingers” in the kettlebell lifestyle are athletes who are training to increase their performance in their respective sport.  Honestly when I first saw them my question to those who use them was, “What’s the difference between kettlebells and dumbbells?”  Seeing as how both can be gripped with one (or sometimes two) hands, my first impression was that kettlebells are just another marketing scheme to sell fitness gear.  But the “swingers” swear by them for several reasons that are legitimate on several fronts.

When it comes to swinging a kettlebell with two hands, it has an advantage over a dumbbell since most dumbbells have a narrower grip.  This narrow grip in dumbbells is because A) they are really only meant for one-handed use, and B) they have plates on both sides that gives weight to the dumbbell.  Also, since kettlebells are a smooth and compact ball, it allows you to avoid bashing yourself in the knees if you are swinging the kettlebell between your legs.  With larger dumbbells you would have to perform the same movement with possibly an unnatural stance.

When it comes to stability for overhead presses, kettlebells are much more stable due to their lower center of gravity when compared to dumbbells.  In addition, the ball portion of the kettlebells stabilized since it will maintain contact with your forearm throughout the press that further adds stability.  In fact, dumbbells often require much more assistance from training partners when doing presses overhead since they are so unstable when using the heavier weights.  While instability is good for developing your coordination, the risk to reward ratio falls dramatically once you are getting into the weights that could severely injure you should you slip in the slightest.  Kettlebells also have risks of injury if used improperly, especially to the wrists, but as long as you are not performing the “catches” where you whip the weight around your wrist, your risk of injury is negligible if not non-existant altogether.

Finally many people just prefer training with kettlebells because they are quick to grab during transition when doing circuits and are less cumbersome during the movement.  Due to their flat bottom, kettlebells will not roll away from you if you need to put them down quickly only to pick them up quickly later.

Since kettlebells are dynamic pieces of training equipment, describing the complex movements of swinging and pressing does not do them justice.  Therefore we’ll be assembling a series of instructional videos that will give you a better idea of what to expect in this hot “new” trend in the fitness lifestyle and post them here.  In the meantime, feel free to ask our resident kettlebell expert coaches as to how you might incorporate them into your training.  If anything, kettlebells make for an outstanding source of variety to keep your training fresh and interesting.

I plan to do a local version of this documentary as I posted earlier here in the Philippines.  For inspiration, below is the full version of Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days.  Most Filipinos can relate to this film since just as Americans are a diverse group with a wide range of ethic backgrounds so is the average Filipino.  Most Filipinos are a one or a mixture of the following ethnicities:  Chinese, Malay, Japanese, Korean, Caucasian, Black, Latino, etc due to several hundred years of foreign occupations, refugee immigration, and military bases stationed here.  So the documentary does an outstanding job of picking a wide range of races and ethnicities to show how the program will theoretically work for all of those who can take it seriously and follow it with discipline for 30 days.

Throughout the film you will see how many drugs and medications these individuals will be able to abandon forever and blow the minds of their doctors who, up until then, had never seen or heard of curing something that was “supposed to have no cure”.  You will also see the struggles of some of the subjects with respect to how they must deal with the “withdrawal” symptoms of food.  As I’ve said before, there is no doubt that food is one of the most powerfully addictive “drugs” that will give you both euphoric highs after eating and crushingly depressive lows when you are deprived of a craving.  But when watching this film be sure to ask yourself whether or not cravings are “natural” or rather a highly addictive side-effect of eating unhealthy processed food.  While I’ll always say that everything in moderation is okay, obviously that is a very relative statement for many people who have little restraint.  To be clear, those who abuse their bodies and feel the dramatic highs and lows are technically no better than the addict or shabu junkie on the corner looking for their next fix.

Again, think about what I said above when watching this film.  Also notice that those who put their heart and soul into the project got more out of if than they believed possible.  What made them successful was that they had an open mind.  A few others in the film were negative, self-loathing, prideful, and defeatist in that they could not accept that they had been doing something wrong their entire lives.  They could not accept that “authorities”, i.e. their doctors might have been all wrong this whole time.  As I’ve said elsewhere, pride is a very powerful thing and something that I do not fully understand.  Pride is so powerful for some people that they’d rather die and take everyone down with them (like the crab mentality) to avoid admitting that they made a mistake.  Even if you can get them to admit that there is nothing wrong with learning from their mistakes (since nobody is perfect) they resent you as if you take pleasure in their faults.  Nobody can possibly win in a situation like that.  Therefore for something like this to work, it often requires a group effort and support from those who are going through the same things that you experience.  Just like working out where you are much more motivated to train inside of a gym since you feed off of the energy of those around you, the best results of a detoxification eating plan are seen when you surround yourself with positive and like minded people.

Finally take note that while this documentary focuses on diabetes, it also can be applied to treating or curing nearly every chronic disease known to humankind.  There is no greater power to cure than a healthy lifestyle and good nutrition.  Food is the ultimate “medicine” and, when used properly, it can treat or cure anything.

Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days Part 1

Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days Part 2

Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days Part 3

Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days Part 4

Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days Part 5

Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days Part 6

Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days Part 7

Be sure to pass this along to all of your friends and family so that they too may help ease the suffering of another or even save a life.  I have yet to meet someone who wasn’t changed forever after watching this documentary.  In the future, the life you save may be your own.

Don’t hate me because I’m educated.

People are desperate to whiten their skin.  Here in the Philippines, especially in Metro-Manila, you see endless glutathione advertisements and Photoshop enhanced models proclaiming the so-called miracles of glutathione and its effects on reducing pigment in the skin.  When it comes to this type of product that makes impossible claims, all semblance of critical thinking and common sense flies out the window.  People want to believe in a product so desperately, that they will even viciously fight against the bearer of bad news.  I’ve literally been banned from discussion forums here in the Philippines for challenging glutathione advertisers to show one sliver of research (whether mainstream or suppressed), case studies, or other evidence that glutathione (especially oral glutathione) whitens skin.  Simply for asking hard questions I am banned and called an “intellectual bully”.  I shouldn’t be surprised since censorship of facts that stand to threaten a corporate or government agenda is something I see in ever major mainstream media publication.  But then again, these banishments came on discussion forums that, as far as I know, did not have a vested interest in selling oral glutathione.  But these days nothing would surprise me based on how many high-powered celebrities in all forms of media have put their names and reputations on the line to hawk controversial products.  I can just imagine their e-mails to the moderators:

“Hey do you know who I am?!?  Shut him up!  Do you know what will happen if too many people find out the truth!?!?”

But hey….I’m used to people getting angry at me when I tell the truth.  As Adolph Hitler once said,

“The bigger the lie, the more likely it is for the people to believe it.”

With the backlash I’ve received in my time of speaking out against the misinformation, if not outright lies, about oral glutathione, I can see that people do not know history if the words of Hitler are still alive and well today where the bearers of “bad news” aka the truth are figuratively crucified.  For goodness sake, I live in the same building of one of these celebrities/spokesmodels who has glutathione advertisements all over Metro-Manila.  In these advertisements (and even on TV!!!) this individual is gleaming white.  But once the video filters of TV and the lightening effects of Photoshop are gone, you are left looking at someone who looks so…ordinary.  When I see this person in the elevator I cannot help but to stare and I have to bite my tongue not to ask,

“Doesn’t your conscience bother you that you are facilitating the lie to tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people who look up to you?”

But this is not the first time I’ve seen these glutathione endorsers up close and personal.  And I’m sure their reply to me would be something to the effect of either that it was the fault of their manager or that it’s “just business”.  Just business indeed.

This brings me to the bottom line:  Glutathione is big money here in the Philippines.  But as a trained biochemist, I can tell you categorically that glutathione, especially oral glutathione does not survive digestion intact to enter into the bloodstream.  Once glutathione hits the stomach acids it is broken down to glutamine.  If the body feel the “need” for more glutathione, it will produce glutathione on its own in a separate process.  It doesn’t matter if you are taking glutathione pills or are eating soy, whey, or animal protein, your body will not raise its “normal” levels of glutathione in the blood.

If you buy oral glutathione pills, you were scammed.  Get over it.

So this brings me to the question of injectable glutathione.  First of all,  you can buy the injectable version of glutathione for about Php4,000 or so for 10 doses.  Most dermatologists charge around Php30,000-Php50,000 for the same 10 doses of the same product.  What a racket.  Not only this but there is no guarantee that injectable glutathione will make you whiter.  Every other biochemist or doctor that I know will admit that there is no evidence that glutathione whitens skin.  In fact, you can read statements from several doctors on discussion forums like Pinoyexchange.com that basically say the same thing that I am saying here.  Alas…it doesn’t matter.  People make it their figurative “religion” and will attack “heretics” like me for either asking tough questions of for speaking the truth.  And the truth is that only injectable glutathione might, as in less than about a 5% chance might cause a reddening of the skin.  But whitening?  I have seen no evidence of that.  Certainly injectable has many health benefits as an antioxidant.  But then again drinking fresh carrot juice also has an enormous amount of antioxidants without high cost and risk of injections.

So I’ll get off my soapbox now.  If those reading this want to throw their money away, don’t say that I didn’t warn you.  But one thing that I promise is that when you find out the hard way, I won’t tell you that “I told you so”.  Hopefully you will have beaten yourself up enough for being a sucker/chump and will warn others like I am warning you now.  At that point it’s safe to say that you are at harmony with the Universe.  One thing is for sure, based on my observation is that P.T. Barnum was right when he said,

“A sucker is born every minute.”

As long as the insanity ceases and people learn from their mistakes, at least they might appreciate their newfound wisdom.

I love this documentary.  Cancer is one of the biggest industries in the world.  Here in the Philippines I recently lost a friend, Dondi Ledesma just as I was beginning to understand his brilliance.  Unfortunately my dissenting opinion of his cancer treatment was trumped by the trust of his family in conventional Western medicine.  Within weeks, Dondi was gone but definitely not forgotten.  The world lost a virtuoso…one of the most talented Filipino musicians the world has ever seen.  But his passing hopefully will not be in vain if the Philippines can break the shackles that is the lies of the American Cancer Society, American Medical Association, and their ilk.  We can defeat cancer through proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle.  When I was a biochemistry student in college I realized that while there are doctors who entered medicine to help people, the profession also attracts a large number of sociopaths who care only about keeping the beds of hospitals full as well as paying off their 3rd Porsche.

I’m posting this incredible documentary in memory not only of Dondi but also all of those other friends and family who I have lost due to the benevolence and hubris from those sociopaths in white coats.  I’m also posting it as a way for speaking out for all of the doctors and other health professionals who wish to change the medical profession to truly help people but are forced into silence through intimidation if not outright threats.

There is a cure for cancer and basically all other chronic diseases.  It’s up to you to grab it.  The $100 trillion (try to imagine that number in Pesos…wow) of unfunded medical liabilities of the West that will collapse their economies does not need to repeat itself here in Manila or the rest of the Philippines:

Dying to Have Known Part 1

Dying to Have Known Part 2

Dying to Have Known Part 3

Dying to Have Known Part 4

Dying to Have Known Part 5

Dying to Have Known Part 6

Dying to Have Known Part 7

Dying to Have Known Part 8

Be sure to buy the original documentary if you can find it and share it with all of your friends and relatives.  You too might save a life.

From the Manila Bulletin – Dairy For Skin Health article:

http://www.mb.com.ph/node/289896/dairy-

This is an article that focuses on acne, presumably on the Filipino even though acne is a universal problem.  The lead-in is a description of acne.  The writer considers acne to be a disease.  Already I have a problem with what is being said since it is misleading.  Acne is a condition but it is hardly a disease as much as aging is a disease.  It would be more accurate to call acne a syndrome that is the result of bad diet, age, or genetics.

For the most part, I agree with the advice given here with respect to sticking to a low glycemic diet to reduce or severity of acne.  Bananas, on the other hand, are not a low glycemic food as it appears on the list.  In the strictest sense, to ensure a low glycemic response it would be prudent to include a protein source (soy, non-denatured whey, etc) with any predominant carb source such as fruit.  Eating fruit with a small amount of peanut butter or raw nuts would be an ideal strategy.

The author and I differ sharply with respect to cows milk.  She says that one would lose out on the calcium from drinking milk from the cow.  First of all, more often than not, the body functions via negative feedback loops.  If you add excess calcium to the body and do not do physical activity (especially load bearing like lifting weights), the body will actually leech calcium from the body, no matter how much milk you drink.  Notice that the nations with the highest instance of osteoporosis have the highest calcium consumption.  So the USDA and other US government boards are nothing more than marketing arms of the dairy industry in my humble opinion.  But don’t take my word for it…look for yourself who serves on the board of the USDA and how they have corporate ties.  The BS from the USA need not infect the minds of those here in the Philippines if we use critical thinking.

Secondly, the author speaks about whey protein lactoferrin.  The problem I have with this is that most commercially available milk is pasteurized and therefore denatured, i.e. no longer a highly bioavailable protein source.  Once heated, the amount of whey protein lactoferrin is minimal if any at all.  If you wish to add this to your diet, you need to drink fresh raw milk, but you won’t find it in most grocery stores.  You would need to get it fresh from the goat or cow.  The author suggests other sources of enriched milk, but you will probably get quite a bit of “bad” with the “good”.

The best advice is to eat a balanced vegetarian diet.  Personally I’ve found meat to be a trigger of acne.  Eating a low glycemic diet devoid of animal protein would likely put acne companies out of business.  Keep in mind that there is a huge amount of money to be made where in curing acne, you need the guidance of someone who has been there and conquered acne.

If you are currently suffering from acne, leave any questions here.  I’m also looking for people who would like to undergo a study here in the Philippines.  It’s best if you live in Metro-Manila where we can document your progress.  If you have moderate to severe acne, let me know.  We can work with you on your diet and document it.  With a few minor changes in lifestyle, we can prove that acne can be a thing of the past.

I’ve officially declared myself to be a vegetarian.  In Metro-Manila, that is not an easy thing to do.  In the Philippines, almost everything sold is pork or chicken in restaurants for either dine in, take out or delivery.  Even in the grocery stores, it’s difficult or very expensive to find organic or vegetarian friendly food.  While I’ve lived long periods of time not eating meat due to circumstance, and felt great mind you, I still considered myself to be an omnivore of sorts since I would eat meat whenever I had the chance.  I like the taste of meat.  Now that I’m no longer a teenager or a “starving student” in college, budget is now much less of an issue when it comes to food choice.  But as time wore on, the effects of meat began to show their signs on wear and tear on the body.

Ask yourself if you have experienced at last this one of the symptoms of a meat-eaters diet.  If so, you are a candidate to switch to a vegetarian diet as much as humanly (and practically) as possible so as to minimize said symptoms.  I probably don’t need to tell you this, especially if you have a family history of cancer, diabetes, or you are either gaining or having a hard time losing weight.

Constipation – Do you have a daily bowel movement?  An old rule of thumb is that a sign of general health is to do “number 2″ at least once per day.  And when you do so it shouldn’t take 15-20 minutes of excessive straining like you are giving birth.  Your total time “on the throne” should only require about 30 seconds.  If not, you are definitely not getting enough fiber as a minimum.

While I could go on and on about why someone should go as vegan as possible (and I’ll add more in due time), for now my best advise it to ease yourself into it.  Food is the most powerful “drug” of all and many people literally feel drug-like withdrawal symptoms when they radically change their diets.  This is especially true when if you’ve ever witnessed someone who went on a raw, whole-food, plant based diet like the ones used to cure diabetes and cancer.  If you’ve ever witnessed or experienced a severe case of PMS, you’ll have an idea of what someone is feeling after the first week on said diet.  After that initial period of transition, the person starts to feel much better and feels almost “reborn”.  After 3 weeks, most people no longer experience their former cravings and will even feel sick to their stomach if they eat their former favorite food.

But again, I am not one to preach about why you should minimize your consumption of meat.  Even I will still eat meat from time to time during social functions or special occasions.  It’s next to impossible to go to a fiesta in the Philippines and not blow your diet.  That aside, with the vegetable meat substitutes, I feel like I’m not missing a thing.

Check out the following website below.  This is where I get my veggie meat in Manila (actually they are located in Makati but will deliver in the Metro) and I am in no way affiliated with their small company…I just really like their products and everyone asks me where I get my vegetarian meat substitute after they taste it:

http://veggieboutique.multiply.com

You can download their price list on the site.  My personal favorite is the “beef ribs” from their Taiwan price list.  I served it to a friend of mine who coaches at Eclipse from time to time.  He couldn’t believe that the veggie beef was not meat.  He literally said, “Are you sure this isn’t beef!?!?  Are you sure?  Positive?” about 5 times.   It’s that good in both taste and texture.  It’s made from a combination of soy and wheat for texture.

The other items that I personally recommend is the veggie ham, sausage (tastes like hot dogs), and the barbecue sticks.  They also sell Meat Magic that can be made to taste like chicken, beef, or pork.  We made some veggie adobo that fooled at least 3 people until we told them that what they were eating was not chicken.  There are several other Filipino dishes that we prepared where nobody could tell the difference.  Meat Magic is interesting because it weighs 3 times more when hydrated.  In total you save at least 50% on your grocery bills if you use vegetarian meat substitute.

I know that Manila has a few vegetarian restaurants, but until now being a practical vegetarian has been difficult.  But thanks to products and services like Veggie Boutique, it’s getting that much easier.  Give vegetarian meat products a chance and experiment with as many products as you can.  At least 80% of those who have tried the veggie meat that I have served them had no idea that it wasn’t animal based protein until I told them.  When I later told them, they were pleasantly surprised and they too saw the idea of being primarily a vegetarian was possible if not the most practical option after all.

Remember, as time goes on, more and more research shows that literally all major disease is directly linked to animal protein (meat).  Most people would prefer to avoid working their entire lives to create something for themselves and their family to only have it taken away in a few weeks or months due to a serious illness that could have avoided by just a few different choices in lifestyle.  I’ve lost too many friends and family to disease that probably could have been avoided.  Each and every time they did the conventional route of treatment it was in vain.  Part of why I write this now is for those who want to avoid laying in a hospital bed wishing that they could have done things differently.  It’s never too late (or too early) to make a change for the better!

“In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

-George Orwell

There has been quite a shakeup in many Western nations as of late, especially in the USA where many universities are facing lawsuits from their former students.  As the economy worsens and the unofficial unemployment rate creeps past 24%, scenarios such as these will become commonplace.  I can almost hear the dissenting voices now:

“But on the news it says that unemployment is ‘only’ 9.8% and the worst is behind them!  Where do you get that crazy number?”

Seeing as how that number is issued by the government and includes only people who previously had a job and are both currently unemployed while still actively seeking a job, it shouldn’t be too hard to think critically and realize that new graduates are not included in that “magically” low 9.8% we read in the mainstream.  But the reality is that new graduates face unemployment numbers even worse than the 24% that I stated above.  In fact, unless they have a sense of an entrepreneurial spirit there is little, if any, hope of them ever entering the workforce.  So to get to the point, these disenfranchised former students are now suing their former universities for misleading, if not outright lying, about jobs waiting for them after they are handed their diploma and shake hands with the Dean.

While I can sympathize with these students to some degree, at the same time I cannot help but think that a big fat “I told you so” is in order.  While I was a multi-time Dean’s List scholar (meaning I busted my butt in school) in Biochemistry who went on to further training in Naval Aviation (yea…I know they are only remotely related, but that’s part of the point), I never stopped studying my first love of fitness, human performance, and coaching.  In fact, if I could do it all over again there is part of me that wishes that I could have just kept the money and, more importantly, time I spent on formal education and would have just invested both said time and money in doing what I do best.

At the same time, I wouldn’t trade my experiences in school since it made me appreciate both who I’ve become as well as appreciate how precious is time.  If I had skipped school I wouldn’t be able to see what a waste of time college is for those who are only going there because it is expected of them (by their parents) and they see it as the only ticket to the middle class.  If I had skipped school I might have wondered how much more successful I would have been if I went to school instead of the truth that I now realize.  As Mark Twain famously said,

“I never let my schooling interfere with my education.”

I couldn’t agree more.  Sometimes I’m thankful for a touch of attention deficit disorder (ADD) that made it next to impossible for me to pay attention, let alone attend, lectures.  It made me work that much harder to make the Dean’s List since I needed to teach myself.  But at the same time, I realized that I knew most of my coursework prior to attending college simply from reading everything I could get my hands on in fitness and human performance.  In other words everything you can possibly learn in college is already freely available in the real world.  In stark contrast, most of what you can only learn in the real world cannot be learned in school.

For those who are not completely offended at the notion that I am in the process of shattering a “sacred” institution that they hold most dear, keep reading….I’m about to get to the point.  That point must come after the following with this set of questions:

“If you could save untold amounts of time and money while receiving both a high paying yet satisfying job what would you sacrifice?”

“Why do people spend untold amounts of time and money in college to be told that they have ‘no experience and no skills’ to therefore start off at near minimum wage in a job they statistically will hate?” (Most people statistically change jobs several times throughout their lives and wind up in a career that has nothing to do with their college degree.)

“Why do people quit a job they loved and were paid well while in school yet turn their backs on said job because it wasn’t “traditional” (meaning wearing a suit, tie, a 9-6 schedule, etc) according to social norms?”

And people wonder why there is so much depression, obesity, anxiety, etc when it comes to the modern age.  Pride is a powerful thing, and is something that I don’t think that I’ll ever fully understand.  People would rather do something that is “normal” rather than be different from all of the rest.  But then again, this attitude readily explains why 1% of the people in the world (those considered “eccentric” or “weird” just for not being like everybody else) have 99% of the wealth.  This top 1% found something that they loved, and then put their heart and soul into it.  It is very rare when money and material success doesn’t follow them like a paperclip to an electric magnet.  Most importantly, these individuals love their work and would never consider retiring.  List most of the self-made billionaires in the world, and you will find that most of them dropped out of (or never went) to college.

So that brings me to all of the “should-be” fitness professionals, trainers, coaches, and specialists here in the Philippines who could never imagine the potential that is the industry that is the parent of Eclipse 24/7 Fitness Center.  These same people will wait for years in school and then for a chance at going abroad, volunteering endless amounts of time doing things like changing bedpans in a hospital while cursing every minute.  Then they curse every minute of the next 30 years of their lives while dreaming of the day of moving back to the Philippines to open a small business that will allow them the freedom to do what they love.

It doesn’t have to be this way if you could only channel the same drive, discipline, and hidden entrepreneurial spirit that I just described above into learning the coaching trade at a gym like Eclipse.

So that’s the punchline.  We are looking for a few good men and women who want to be one of us.  We are looking for someone whose goal is to help people to become the best that they can be.  We are looking for that individual who is not afraid to master the in’s and out’s of what it means to enter our ranks.  Make no mistake about it, become a full “Coach” at Eclipse takes a long time and it’s not easy.  But then again, nothing in life that is worthwhile is easy now is it?  At the same time, anyone who has a true passion for the industry would be welcomed by us with open arms.  We would be there to teach you just like we have taught our long-time members over the past 5 years.  In fact, many of our junior coaches were our members at one time.  As they grew physically, their confidence grew where now they are making a very good living while basically setting their own schedule with a full schedule of clients.  That confidence and independent entrepreneurial spirit is what has sustained us through the years but now it is time, once again, for us to grow as well.

Do you want to be one of us and avoid the potential dead-end existence that is the “rat-race” forever?  Do you want your income to be directly proportional to your effort (a six figure income is very possible if you put your life into your work).  If so there has never been a better time than the present to get in on the ground floor as we re-launch Eclipse 24/7 Fitness Center into its 6th year in Manila!

We’ve started on our resolutions.  How about you?

Live it up this Christmas.  You might as well, especially if you are digesting this column and intend to consume the challenge that I am about to serve you steaming hot.

That’s right.  This is a challenge that could change not only your life but the lives of everyone you know, if not the face of this proud nation forever.

I’m going to give you a chance to reverse one of the fastest growing diseases that will afflict 50% of you in your lifetime.  That disease is diabetes.  You know…tons of pills (some people take up to 20 medications), daily injections for type I, blindness, impotence, amputation of feet, legs, daily pricks of the finger for sugar testing, and more “fun stuff” than you can possibly imagine.

I’m sure this challenge will receive some condemnation by the industries of processed food, diet beverages, and even some sociopaths in the medical community who took an oath to squeeze money out of you instead of an oath to save lives.

But it is what it is.  It’s only a challenge and the outcome is ultimately up to you.  We’ll have a doctor supervising you and we will document the reversal of your diabetes on film for the rest of the world to see.

I feel, however, that we stand at a point in history of the Philippines where we can break away from all of the bad habits of the rest of the world.  We don’t need to be bankrupted by foreign drug companies and their corrupt medical associations such as the FDA, USDA (US Department of Agriculture), AMA (American Medical Association), and the ACS (American Cancer Society).  These organizations and their parent drug companies do not (yet) have your local leaders in their pocket.  And if enough of you can show that you have the desire to see the truth that has been kept from the world for so long, we can show the powers that be that we can be a nation of health.  A healthy nation can spend money otherwise spent on dying to be instead spent on living.

Imagine if the $100 trillion (yes you read that correctly – see http://www.usdebtclock.org) that must be spent on Medicare instead would not be needed for prolonging misery but instead could be used for electric bullet trains that would connect Laoag to Davao, or Cebu to Pampanga.  Imagine that instead of throwing it all away on pills, we could use the savings for tidal power electric generation where our great-grandchildren would have clean cheap energy to grow food to finally feed the starving masses.  Imagine living to 150 or older while looking 25 using advanced telomere technology that is only a generation away and our progeny would be free to explore the solar system.  To be a nation of dreamers and explorers is much better than a nation of jejemons who only serve to perpetuate a dead-end welfare state that is simply unsustainable.  If we continue to emulate the USA, we will wind up worse off than they will be…and that’s definitely not going to be a pretty picture in the coming decade.  We are in a position where there is nowhere to go but up, so let’s learn from the mistakes of those nations who came before us.

Sure, I sound like an idealist or a dreamer.  But if you look at the numbers, it’s all probable if we just take care of the most basic things…the things that are so impossibly simple.  I don’t care who you are or who you think you are, but I have not met anyone who is in a wheelchair with 6 months to live who, regardless of their wealth, wouldn’t give it all away just to be healthy and able to walk again.  In the end, those who have lived a life without disease, and the worries and stress that comes with these diseases were the wealthiest of all.  If they were able to help the ones that they love to be free of these diseases then they are the true “billionaires” among us.

What I am asking is simple.  Give me 30 days of your life and pledge to me your discipline to see it through.  At the end, if you can endure, you will look at the world in a completely different way.  Not only will you probably never need your diabetes related medicine again, but you will give millions and possibly billions of people hope that they can be just like you.

We all want a purpose in this life.  What is your purpose?  Maybe together we can find out.

If you are interested, leave your questions here or contact us through our Eclipse Gym or Eclipse Fitness Center fan page.  I will update later with a phone number that you can call.  This is open to all members and non-members of Eclipse alike and there is no age limit.  Type I and Type II diabetes will be documented.

Have a Merry Christmas and eat heartily.  Consider it a celebration and “getting your fill” before you are reborn in 2011.  But I believe that when you look back at 2010 when you are finished, you won’t miss it one bit.