My Results on the 30 Day Cutting Challenge.

If you don't already know I took a 30 day cutting challenge. I will link that right here so you can go check it out.  The challenge was hard to achieve but I would like to share the last 30 days with you.

I decided to start this challenge on March 28, 2017.  I started it because I noticed I was gaining fat, not because I was eating junk food, but rather the opposite.  I was eating food I considered healthy, that are proven to be good for you.  The only thing was I was eating soooooo many calories, probably over 3000 a day.  I was doing this because I thought I would be able to gain muscle and maintain low body fat.  This ended up not being true, I did gain muscle but also fat, at this point I decided I needed to change how much I was eating.

Over the last 30 days I would say the first week was the hardest.  I was and still kind of am not used to eating 1200 calories on non workout days and 1800 calories on workout days.  However now that I have been on my 30 day cutting challenge the 1800 calorie workout days feel like heaven and are actually easy and makes it feel like I am having a lot more food than I actually am.

Let's talk about the process of these last 30 days.  As I am writing this it is April 28, 2017 which is my birthday.  Today I am going to have a cheat day most likely.  Speaking of cheat days, I have taken 4 cheat days and even 2 of those were HUGE cheat days.  But with following my 30 day cutting challenge I have lost fat.  While doing my cha
llenge I have been also following the workout plan from Kinobody's Greek God Program, so I dropped fat and have been making strength improvements on all my workouts, even though my calories were so low.  I am saying this  to impress upon you that you can drop fat, and gain muscle, while having some cheat days which makes the process more enjoyable.  Look at the transformation from these 2 photos below!

I may not look that much more skinny but I really notice the fat I dropped.  However, I do still have a while to go till I am shredded and really toned, so I do plan on continuing the 30 Day Cutting Challenge and making it a lifestyle.  I am going to move up my calories an extra 200-300 a day.  I do find that my muscles grow faster while I eat more calories.

If I end up gaining fat while doing 1400-1500 calories on rest days and 2000-2100 calories on workout days, I will go back to what I did over the last month.

Closing thoughts.
I hope this small transformation over the past month has inspired upon you to start a challenge of your own if you haven't followed along with me already.  If you have been following along share your results I would love to hear them!  If you have just started, share what your challenge is over the next 30 days.

My Personality Test The Logician (INTP-A) (16 Personalities)

What is your personality?

Before you read this section go ahead right now and take the test if you haven't already (it's free and only takes about 12 minutes).  What is your personality?  Chances are it described you perfectly which may be kind of creepy.  If it didn't describe you I recommend taking it again just to be sure you answered the questions to the best of your ability and to be as precise as possible until it does describe you and how you think.

If I were you I would take this test not to live by it and follow everything because we all have our own uniqueness.  But instead take the ideas from it and form yourself in the best way possible.  Use your strengths as fuel and look at your weaknesses.  You may have never noticed these before, but just recognizing them can give you better insight on taking your life to the next level.

It is important to know your personality type because it will giv
e you a better understanding of who you are that you may have never seen before.  Maybe there is a career path, social circle, or other area of life you should be looking for that you haven't noticed and this will give you insight on it.

What is my personality? 

I am The Logician, which is INTP-A.  This means my traits are Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Prospecting, and Assertive.

From the first sentence about Logicians I can relate 100%.  "The Logician personality type is fairly rare, making up only three percent of the population, which is definitely a good thing for them, as there’s nothing they’d be more unhappy about than being “common”."   Like I said earlier you should easily relate to what the text is saying about your personality.

Other logicians include, Bill Gates, Albert Einstein, Rene Descartes, Issac Newton, Neo from the Matrix, and Abed from the TV show Community.

Strengths

To sum it up I have a few strengths that I really connect with that it states on the 16 Personalities website.  My first is Imaginative,  I can find myself with many ideas that may seem out there to a lot of people and even me at times, but some of these ideas make for the best blog posts and videos.

The next is enthusiastic.  Believe it or not I can be very excited even if on my videos I seem mono-tone.  If you get me talking about cars or working out or something I really enjoy I will be able to talk forever on these subjects, but I am less talkative for small talk or things I don't find interesting.

These are only a couple strengths and the ones that I find I identify the most with off of the strengths it listed.

Weaknesses

For my weakness I will also share the ones I relate to the most and leave out the others.  Another things is its completely useless if I just read over my weaknesses and write them down here without doing things to improve on them.

Insensitivity is a huge weakness for me, I will often not even notice if I say something that is considered wrong for the situation at hand.  I believe this is because I am not the most social person so it is easy for me to use logic to offer advice, instead of emotional support and often times the advice can come across as rude to others.

Absent minded when my mind is captured by something interesting.  This can also link to one of my traits, being enthusiastic.  If I am doing something that I love where time is flying by I can
be so immersed in it that I forget to drink water or lose sleep over it because I don't even want to sleep if I am doing something I love doing.

This weakness has an upside for work ethic at times, but most times sleep is more important to recharge and recover.  I have many days where I will be about to go to bed but I am watching something on youtube.  Not cat videos and stuff like that but people who are actually teaching me something.  Whether if its for my healthy, money, or well being I will often be so drawn into it or want to learn more that I won't sleep for another hour or 2 after I wanted to because I wanted to learn more.  I also do this with other things such as reading, making a good video at night if I don't make one during the day, and sometimes even writing a whole blog post because an idea pops in my head and I feel I could write forever.

As a logician I can be very condescending.  I was laughing while reading what is says about me here because it perfectly describes many situations for me, and they do a better job of describing it than I can, so I will copy and paste it for your to read here.

"Attempts at connecting with others are often worse than Logicians’ withdrawal. People with the Logician personality type take pride in their knowledge and rationale, and enjoy sharing their ideas, but in trying to explain how they got from A to B to Z, they can get frustrated, sometimes simplifying things to the point of insult as they struggle to gauge their conversation partners’ perspective. The ultimate insult comes as Logicians give up with a dismissive “never mind”."

This paragraph is a perfect description of how I often am.  I don't do this to insult anyone, I do it because often times no matter how much I describe something sometimes people just don't understand and I get aggravated.  To better help people understand me I need to be a better storyteller.

What is the weakness you need to work on the most?

Career path's

The next section I want to talk about is career path's.  This is probably the biggest contributor to finding yourself and living a happier life, and this one I need lots of work on.  I, like most people go to a job I hate at the moment.  I never really took the time to read through and take action on moving toward one of these careers it suggests, at least job wise.  I do take time everyday however to get out of the job I am currently in, but never really think to look at these career paths, and I guess maybe I should!

We all don't want to live a life we hate so looking at the career path's for your personality type will be a huge step if you decide to look it over and take some action.  As a logician for example, it says that we should work in places that are more tuned to a small or technical workplace, or be entrepreneurial (which I am and always like to work on things that I had the idea for, and time will always fly by if I do work I like, even if at the moment it doesn't make money I know it will if I keep working at it.  And it doesn't even feel like work most of the time.  I love being here everyday and love to show up everyday, my job however, not so much.)

What are good career paths for your personality?  I would love to hear and would love for you to get a better understanding as well so you can take the steps to get out of a job you hate and into a path of mastering your career and loving everyday because the work you do is fun and has a huge impact in your life!

Closing thoughts

I hope you did take the test!  If you didn't already go ahead and take it now by clicking the link. Click here to find out your personality! You will notice I left out a few sections of the conclusion of my personality, this is because I don't have a lot to say on those at the moment in my life.

I would love to hear what you learned and if taking the personality test helped you in some way to improve yourself.

Cheers, Brian.

What to do to Make Today a Better Day. (My 5 Tips)

Practice gratitude
I've been practicing gratitude for a good 3-4 weeks now.  I have been writing down 3 things I am grateful for in the morning and 3 things at night.  It has become a habit for me and I hope it does for you as well!  It will take some re-wiring of your brain, which we will talk about in a minute, but first I want you to envision waking up feeling 10% happier every morning and 10% happier before you go to bed.  Sounds pretty cool right?

Gratitude is the biggest contributor to me having a good day.  Without it I don't notice the little things that are good in my life.  We live in a world where we are always focussed on the problems we face but never on how grateful we can be.  Think about this for a second. Not everyone woke up today. (read that last sentence again) Yep that's right not everyone had the privilege of waking up today but you did, and you woke up to live another joyous day.
Simply by writing down 3 things upon waking up and before going to bed I have re-wired my brain to see things as happening for me (which we'll talk about in a second).  I am not saying that I have achieved happiness, I am probably far from it, but this practice of gratitude each and everyday has made me feel happier with my life and the good things in life that are taken for granted.  Even if a day was "bad" I still have to write down 3 good things for that day, which can turn a day that seemed bad into a 10% better day.

Remember things happen for a reason and are happening for you.
I used to play victim for the dumbest things.  Thinking that the unviverse or something or someone was making "bad" things happen to me.  I used to get mad at people who would drive a little bit too slow, haven't we all.  And I still do at times if I have to be honest, just not as much.  
Many times I would think to myself "why is this person doing this to me?"  have you had this same experience?  I know it can be frustrating if we are thinking things are happening to us.  The second I remember things happen for me in life it makes all the difference.  I start to envision how maybe if this person was going a little faster I could get in an accident and him going slow is saving me from a life ending accident.  Realizing things happen for me has made driving and other areas of life less stressful.  What area's of life do you need to use this tactic for?

Get some fresh air.
Staying indoors or breathing the same dull air from a building can be very destructive.  This is for me personally, I find if I don't have fresh air to breathe it becomes harder to feel relaxed while breathing. The weather is starting to warm up so I thought this would be a perfect time to share this in a blog post.  If you hate the cold like I do, getting fresh air can be a struggle, plus for me cold air feels weird when I breathe it in.  However in the spring and summer outside air is very easy for me to breathe in and actually gives me a calming sensation.
Even if you work at a desk all day try to find a way to open some windows at least so air is coming in.  This is what I do at home. I have my desk right in front of my window so on nice warm days I can have it open and hear the birds, wind, and breathe in fresh air.  It relaxes me and helps me have a relaxing work environment.

Smile.
You may be saying to yourself "smile? That sounds stupid."  It may seem that way and even might look or feel silly at first but I assure you it isn't.  Smiles are contagious.  However so are frowns.  I find that if someone is smiling and happy it helps me smile, but if someone is frowning or not happy I start to not smile as well.  With this said, smiling isn't just to make you feel good but also to make others feel good as well.
If you smile you trick yourself into thinking you are happy even if you are sad.  The trick actually works and makes you happier in most cases.  Motion creates emotion, just like if you stand up taller you will feel more confident, if you smile more you will be more happy throughout your day.

Breathe to release tension.
Most of us carry so much tension within our bodies throughout the day, me included.  I needed something that would help me release tensions naturally.  Over the last couple years I have gotten into meditation.  This helps clear my mind for the day ahead of me but that doesn't mean I won't be tense or have negativity or negative thoughts throughout my day.

I often find myself moving in some way and I am usually unable to stay still even as I write this blog post.  That only happens when I am unconscious of my breathing.  The second I start to focus on deep breathing I start to relax more and more and move around a lot less.
Breathing is one of the staples to a better day, not only if you move around a lot or can't stay still but also for stressful situations.  Breathing can make us think more clear or even talk at a normal speed (something I need to work on in my videos).

Closing thoughts.
What was your favorite tip on todays blog post?  What other tip would you add to share with others.  Please leave your favorite tip, and your tips to make today a better day in the comments below.

Cheers,

Brian 

Like this post? don't forget to share it with someone you think it will help!

Why You Should Follow Along With The 30 Day Cutting Challenge and Start a 30 Day Challenge of Your Own.

If you haven't yet saw I started a 30 day cutting challenge because I started gaining fat because of how much I was eating.  Today my goal is to encourage you to start a 30 day challenge of your own and follow along with me.

Why you should start.

Do you make resolutions but get nowhere?  Or are you someone who knows with a small push you will have a snowball effect of positive change in your life?  Then you should start your 30 day challenge and follow along with me.  Tell your friends to check this blog out and get others to join you and motivate you and keep you accountable.  Also share to the comments so others can see your progress and help you along as well and so you can help them along.  I will also be there as a guide for you if you need any help.

The hardest thing for everyone is starting.  Once you start, however you feel great, maybe not right away but after a few days or a week. Many times we over estimate what we can do in one year and underestimate what we can do in 10 years.  And for this reason we give up if we don't see results right away.

The universe doesn't work like that.  You must put in every single day and give it your all to receive back.  If you don't give this challenge your all it won't give you shit!  If you give it your all, then share your week to week experience with everyone else on here and on any other social media network, or with anyone you think needs to start.

The world is moving fast, you can either move along with it or be left in the dust, and I would rather see you do the first one.

What if I suck?

Sucking at something or being a "newbie" shouldn't be an excuse not to do a 30 day challenge but instead should be your fuel to start.  Sure I used to be pretty lean a few months back, and now I am not as lean.  This doesn't mean I can't be even more lean than I was before.  I bet you right now there is someone else in a worse situation that you reading this and they are going to start, and even if they are worse off than you are right now they will end up better unless you take action.  Do you want to be the person looking back at your life and regret not taking action.  Or would you rather be someone who took action even if it was a total failure but you gave it your best and took action every single day?  I really want you to answer this question.  It might sound like a dickish question but it is a true question.

I can't tell you how many times I see a random stranger that looks interesting that I want to talk to and I don't talk.  Today this actually changed twice.  Let my experience here be motivation to start a 30 day challenge of your own.  Almost everyday I go outside or around people I see at least one person who looks cool or interesting, and looks like someone I would like to know more about.  Usually I don't talk and 3 minutes later regret it because that person could've been a really cool friend to bring into my life.  Today I faced my social anxiety twice, and I am happier than ever!

The first situation I saw a couple people standing outside on woodward with their Lamborghini Gallardo, and Jaguar F-Type.  I went and talked to them for about 20 minutes.  I was so anxious from just talking to strangers I was shaking almost the whole time.  But what I learned is that these people aren't going to kill me but instead talk about cars with me, what a cool experience!  Then I went to the mall and talked to some random stranger for a minute or 2 and the guy was happy to talk to me, and yes I was scared,  it is about an hour later and I am still smiling from this experience because I took action I have never taken before.  It may seem small, but a staircase is filled with small steps each one of us must climb to get to the top.

Starting this challenge should be a turning point in your life.  We all have things we do that are mediocre.  ALL OF US!  You can either live your life as a mediocre life forever or take small 5, 7, 10, 30 day challenge's to drastically improve just a little bit and be a little bit better each day.

My eating habits were mediocre so I started this challenge and I'm already 1/5 complete with it.  There are plenty of other things I need to work on, but I am doing one challenge at a time.

If you don't want to look back on your life at 80 years old and regret it, start today because time is going to pass no matter what, why not make the best of the time you have by taking this challenge and sharing your challenge and experience in the comments below!

Good job on starting, I cannot wait to hear what your 30 Day Challenge is going to be!
-Brian