New-found Inspiration and Motivation!

As the personification of the term ectomorph, I sometimes find it hard to find good inspriation and motivation from real life athletes. Most articles and motivational fitness blogs show pictures of big bulky guys with shoulders about five times as large as the waist, and to be honest those pictures and articles don't resonate very well with me.



I can appreciate and take some inspiration of course, but there is something deep inside me that tells me that that type of body structure is not for my body type (and I really don't want to become THAT huge anyways). I've been searching the web for an athlete or fitness model who I can look up to and get inspiration from, but its hard as I wanted to find someone who has the body shape that looks like what I believe my body CAN look like if I give it my best!

I think I found one such inspiration, and he has just the type of physique that I want to have and can realisticly imagine having!

His name is Frank Medrano, and check out his total bodyweight workout underneath! Now thats a killer!!

Enjoy

If you have another ecto-athlete or fitness model that you look up to for inspiration and motivation, feel free to share it in the comments below. I would love to see what inspires you!

Now I'm going to clean up the entire kitchen and get ready for the food-preporation that Im doing this evening.

Until next time!

Bjørnar

A Quick Update

And so it begins!

Today me and my girlfriend went out shopping for my first whole week food preparation! Breakfast, lunch and dinner, and one super shake. It is actually just for three days, but it's for me and my girl both so it's six days total of cooking, so I get the feeling of making for the whole week. Feels great having all those different healthy foods in the fridge and I am really looking forward to making it all tomorrow.

Will definitely try to make a blog post about it tomorrow night. We'll just have to see how I feel when I am done with it all! ;)

The grosery list is as follows:

• 36 eggs

• 6 red bell peppers

• 3 small red onions

• 2 big bags of spinach

• 3 avocados

• 1 package fresh redcurrant berries

• 1 package with fresh strawberries

• 2 packages with fresh blueberries

• 1.75 kg beef strips

• 2 broccolies

• 6 medium-sized sweet potatoes

• 1 bottle white wine vinegar

• 1 bag of pecans, cashews and macadamia each

• 2 bags of frozen mixed berries

• 1 carton of rice milk (couldn't find unsweetened almond milk which is a bit thicker and easier to use in the recipes)

• 4 hermetic cans of tuna

• and a brand spanking new BIG frying pan! :)

we also went to the Food Festival and bought some really good all natural apple juice from Norway! Delikeable! 

Also there are some ingredients that I will be using in the meals that I already had at home, like different marinades, spices, ecologic coconut oil and some others I cant remember in a hurry.

Shopping list is based on a pdf called Scrawny To Brawny Nutrition which you can find here: http://www.scrawnytobrawny.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/The-Ultimate-Muscle-Meal-Guide.pdf

Until next time. 
Bjørnar

Thoughts About Fear

So lately I have been feeling some fear-based thoughts about the upcoming challenge. Some really old limiting beliefs and worrying thoughts. To put it simply; I feel like there's a ton of things that needs to be in order before I start the project (and even during the four months) and I fear being dissapointed with myself for not being able to complete the challenge.

I thought that the best way to handle this would be to face my fears and the ego-voice in my head, and write them down to get clarification and control over the situation.

Here Are My Fears — According To My Stupid Ego Inner Voice:

#1 - MONEY: Almost every worrying thought I have about something, almost always comes down to MONEY. Fuck! I hate being a slave to capitalism and money, constantly having this small voice in the back of my head saying that I could never afford this or that. But even though I hate being like this, sometimes I fall back into old ways, and I get all insecure and worrying about it. This time its about the cost of the challenge. My ego keeps bitching about "How can I afford going through it?" and "this seems too hard, just drop it!". Can't help to believe that the little voice might be into something.. All the food that I need to consume is going to be immense and the costs will follow, and then there is costs for the training center etc.. I am worryed that I'll fucking bankrupt myself during this challenge, and that I'll be back in dept-world and having to worry about money in a lot of other ways.

#2 - TIME: I mean, I have a job with unregular shifts (some in the evening and some early) plus other time-consuming activities (strangely I can't remember any activities that I currently have that are very time-consuming! Stupid ego-voice!!) so how will I ever be able to even find the time to actually DO this challenge?? I need time for the studying of the program so I understand WHY I'm doing what I'm doing. I need time for the actual workouts. And the hardest of them all, I need time to EAT and prepare food. 

And not surprisingly - the biggest one is:

#3 - FOOD: This is most definitivly my biggest hold-back-point right now. Just the thoughts about paying for all that food, preparing all that food, storing all that food and then eating all that food makes me want to back down. Thoughts like "what about when I go on vacation, how will I be able to eat as much every day?" and other similar thoughts keep coming up.

While writing this post, I actually came up with some answers (or solutions) that IMMEDIATELY turned off the worrying and limiting thought process connected to these three "fears".

Here Are My Solutions — According To My Smart Concious Inner Voice:

#1 - MONEY: Well, I only have so much money - and thats OK! I just stretch my limits as far as I am comfortable to go while still having enough money to save some. Just do the best with what I have! Sure, the results might be a lot better if I had a more stable financial situation* (* read: filthy ritch), but the results I will get will be a lot better than doing nothing at all!

#2 - TIME: When I was writing about the money aspect of the challenge, I tried as hard as I could to come up with some time consuming activities that I currently possess. I found none. STOP BEING LAZY! Thats the only thing I can say. Just fucking do it. When it comes to preparing food and going to the gym these are just routines that will become easier over time. Of course it will be hard, and I guess especially in the beginning, but who said it was going to be easy?

#3 - FOOD: There are currently millions and millions of people starving in this world, and my biggest concern at the moment is about how I can eat as much as possible. That made me a little sick actually. I realize that I need to focus at the tast at hand and whats important to me. This challenge is for ME. I CHOOSE to take it. I WILL take it. But I will take it in my own pace and tempo. I will not jump from 2-3 meals a day to 6-8 just like that. I cant see how that would be healthy. I need to start somewhere (over the rainbow) and keep going from there. Start eating more than I did before is a good place to start. This is a challenge - NOT a competition!

Life Is A Work In Progress - Take It Step By Step.

This is exactly what I will do. Step by step, and try not to overdo anything. The goal is to successfully complete the whole four months without giving up, and I have to give my self a fighting chance by not making it too hard on my self! 

Now I REALLY need to go get something to eat! So hungry!!

Until next time!

Bjørnar

A Quick Update

The Most Important Path To Victory Is The First Step."

So I've had a short meeting with one of my best friends, and a guy who happens to be the guy I hoped would assist me in making the support team and I pitched him my idea and my goals.

Guess what? Your best friends are the ones you can count on! So Mr. Navid Siamaki will be joining our team shortly.

I'm so excited with getting started. Just had to share.

Until next time

Bjørnar

To Be The Man That Defies The Laws Of Physics

I was searching the web for some motivation, when it hit me!


 


His progress is so inspiring. Can't wait to get the same results. Only need to study up some and prepare (starting to eat more, so that the nutrition aspect of the challenge does't get too hard).

Until next time!
Bjørnar

A Path Found

"Do or do not, there is no try."

So I've resently poundered over what I want to have as a long term project. A challenge that will prove to me that I can do anything I set my mind to and a goal that I can grow from.

Last weekend at the 31th of August and the first of September there was a huge two-day conference in Oslo called Morten Hake Summit. This was the fourth anual summit, and  it's the biggest conference of its kind in northern Europe. It focuses on self development, a better communication between men and women and becoming a better verison of yourself. There we got to meet great minds like Steve Pavlina, Jamie Smart and tons more interesting speakers who shared their knowledge with us. Being the event director and because I've been working with the event the last three years, I got to hang around backstage with the speakers and also after the actual event, and so I got additional inspiration and ideas as to what I need to do next. I decided that I need to do something that I have been wanting to do for a long time, but never actually got around to do because I made excuses for myself. Now its time to change this limiting behaviour and get around and actually doing something good for myself.

From Cub to Full Grown Bear.

I'm currently twenty-six years old and I weigh the same as I did ten years ago. I am 1.83 tall (6 foot) and weigh around 56 kg. That makes me a tall and fairly slim guy, and I've always wanted to look and feel like a bigger guy. Previously in my life's journey I would feel like my physique was holding me back from the things that I wanted to do. I used to have limiting beliefs like "I can never get a good looking and smart girl, because who would like someone who's as thin as me?" and "I will never be one of the cool guys because I will never be as good looking as them". Several years later and much more experience with women and hanging around the "cool guys" I of course know better. But this does not remove the fact that I am a tall and skinny fellow! Now, does this bother or hinder me in any way? To be honest I don't believe it does. I have a lovely girlfriend who is both beautiful and much smarter than me, I get to work with the things I like and I have awesome open-minded concious friends.

So why am I whining about this then??

Well. All of the above does not change the fact that I would LIKE to be grow some more muscle and gain a healthier lifestyle. Only because I know it will serve me good in the long run and because I think it will make me feel even better.

A Path Found

"So what is this path, and why don't you just pick up a Mens Health Magazine eat some more and hit the gym" you ask?

Been there, done that. The fact is that I've desperately tried many different approaches and acted on sound advice from personal trainers and articles on the internet, with no results to show for it.

So a couple of years ago I came over a book called "Scrawny to Brawny - The Complete Way to Gaining Muscle the Natural Way". Here I got introduced to terms like hardgainer, hypertrophy-challenged and most importantly ectomorph. Ectomorph is one of the three different somatotypes (A method for classifying different body types based on spesific physical characteristics). This book is not only a workout program but also a dietary plan that is set up for four months, and is specifically made for guys who has a hard time gaining muscle mass.

I'm done being a little cub, and its now time to become a full grown bear.

An Inviation For Those Like Me

I know that this program is very hard, and to be honest I'm a bit worried that I will only disappoint myself if I don't make it through it. So my plan is to invite other guys in my community that have a challenge with gaining muscle mass and want to do something about it into a mastermind group. This mastermind group will function like a support group where we push and support each other, share thoughts and progress, make meals together and get through it like a group.

I have already got hold on some guys that want to participate and help us. We will have coaches that can help us in the hard times, personal trainers with experience from the program and a guy that already did the S2B program and will help us with the nutrition aspect of it.

And all of this I present to you as a present, free of charge!

So if you live in Oslo, and want to be a part of it, leave me a message in the comments underneath this post, and I will add you to our online group.

Also; if you DON'T live in Oslo, but want to go through this challenge yourself I HIGHLY suggest you buy a copy of the book on amazon and let me know in the comments, Ill add you too to the online group so you can follow our progress and share your own insight through this journey. The more the merrier

I will start the program in October, so you still have some time to prepare.

Until next time!

Bjørnar