Archive for January 2012

What better time to sample a Belgian beer than on a snowy Sunday afternoon watching not one, but two awesome NFL playoff games. Just to rub it in a little more- I later enjoyed some of New York City’s finest wings from Blondie’s with a tray of veggies on the side of course.

Needless to say it was a good night for me and both, Patriot and Giant fans. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Raven’s kicker, Billy Cundiff after shanking a 30 yard field goal. I always feel for those kickers but nonetheless I’m looking forward to a heated rematch and some awesomely expensive commercials in a couple weeks time.
 

Dave Matthew’s Band and the Belgium Golden Ale

 
Sunday wasn’t my first time sampling the imported Belgium Golden Ale “Duvel”. My first tasting came while I was over in Europe playing hockey. A few buddies and I planned a road trip from Cologne, Germany to Antwerp, Belgium and hit up a Dave Matthew’s Band concert while we were there.

After 10 of us piled into a van the trip literally started off with a bang. Our designated driver, lets call him “Shannon”, backed the van into a parked car while the occupants sat idling. Whoops. Not the best way to start off a road trip.

I don’t know if it was the fact that we were ten hockey players in a van or that the damaged car was filled with illegal contraband but the mildly pissed off owner of the car said that we should go.

We did however eventually make it to a pub in Belgium and my initial impression of Duvel was this – “What is this “magical” beer the Belgians drink?”

It was good, and I mean really good.

Served in a traditional tulip glass the foam rested on top of the crystal clear beer.

Looking back now I can’t remember with much detail what I liked most about the beer. If I had to guess, it had a lot to do with getting it fresh from the source, the quantity it came in and the people I was with.
 

New York City and the Belgium Golden Ale

 
Being an off day from the hustle and bustle I grabbed the 75cl bottle (the equivalent to 3/4 of a litre or approximately 26 ounces). To my surprise the bottle came nicely topped with a champagne cork and wasn’t something we often see here on this side of the Atlantic.

Nothing is cheap in this city and I had to shell out a handful of dollars and cents, something I’ll gladly do over paying 5 dollars in any New York City establishment for a Coors Light. The alcohol content was a strong 8.5% abv.- giving you a good bang for your buck.

Considering myself more of a beer connoisseur (definitely still a rookie) than I use to be, I opted for a reasonably sized red wine glass in place of the standard tulip shaped glass most bars serve a Duvel in.

Honestly any glass will do and it is what makes you feel comfortable that is important. Just make sure it is clean, as I was reminded how important that is during a recent trip to ‘Beer School’ while visiting the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Colorado. Foam and bubbles stick to dirt in a glass and can make a good beer taste skunky.

I gave the Duvel a steady pour trying to give life to the beer and was pleasantly surprised by the amount of carbonation and foam sitting a top the pale golden beer. The initial smell was on the sweet side but the yeast took over reminding me of Stella Artois (its Belgium cousin).

The heavy foam which hung around forever made it look heavier than it tasted. The beer struck a mix of fruit and spice with a clean smooth aftertaste.

Crisp and clean is the simplest way to describe this beauty.

In my opinion this is a great beer for anytime, with anyone and with anything- 8.9 out of 10. Go earn it!

Cheers,

Jon

PS. Stay tuned for highlights from my trip to Anheuser-Busch brewery, time spent with the Budweiser Clydesdales and Beer School.

Click Here and Start Earning Your Beer

Being my first blog post this is not an easy subject to cover. Mentally, emotionally and physically- last summer was a tough one for me.

My first owner gave me up because I got into our neighbors paddock and roughed up a sheep.

Apparently it’s frowned upon to chase sheep. Even more frowned upon when a couple weeks later the sheep in question passes away from complications aroused from the chase.

Needless to say the farmer was not happy, complained to the city and I was deemed “dangerous to livestock”.

Dangerous to livestock? Me? No way. We were just having a little fun. When sheep run- you chase em right?

The sheep incident was a cross roads in my short-lived life. Things started to spiral out of control and the next thing I knew I was dropped off at a vet clinic to be put down.

Yep, you heard it right. I was apparently too much to handle with my newly acquired “dangerous to livestock” title and wasn’t worth the extra work or cost.

Thankfully the vet was compassionate and saw something in me the authority had failed to see. He decided there was no way he could put down such a beautiful, um, handsome young animal and brought in a behaviorist to figure out whether or not I was dangerous.

Regardless I did a lot of growing up over the next couple of days but thankfully it turned out all right as Sean and his girlfriend Kelly adopted me a couple weeks later.
 

The Incident

 
A strapping young lad in the prime years of my life I was happy as could be in my new home… until it happened.

My parents were advised that being such a large dog with a “dangerous to livestock” title and fully intact (if you know was I’m getting at) probably wasn’t the best idea.

Within a week I was scheduled for “the surgery”.

To further complicate matters, my mom who is studying to become a Vet performed the un-speak-able herself.

That’s right- she chopped my balls off.
 

The Point

 
All right, pity story is over, enough rambling… What’s the point of today’s blog post?

I no longer have my balls, which means I no longer produce Testosterone. Which means, technically I have the right to a reduced libido, less lean muscle mass and more body fat.

I have an excuse.

It makes me sad to see men walking around fully intact and not producing Testosterone.

Testosterone is naturally occurring in the body and is one of the hormones responsible for increasing protein synthesis (muscle building) and metabolic capacity, leading to faster muscle repair/building, increased energy (fat) burning, a stronger libido and greater cognitive functioning.

When you are inactive and unhealthy there is no demand on your body to produce Testosterone.

You may as well have my mom chop your balls off too.

Furthermore, low levels of this hormone decrease energy and muscle building, leading you on a downward spiral. In order to reverse the trend, you need to give your body a reason to increase its production. This can be achieved through beer belly exercises and strength resistance training outlined in the 3BG System.

There are limitations to how much of this hormone your body will produce even in the best of shape (for good reason). This causes some people go the added (illegal) step. But too much of anything is a very bad thing and remember that your body knows what is best.

If you are sticking with the Mind-Body-Mouth approach outlined in the 3BG System, you won’t have any problems stimulating your body’s natural production of Testosterone.

If you’re sitting on your ass all day, eating fried greasy foods and not getting in short intense workouts like the one Jonny performs here, then you might as well stop calling yourself a man.

Sorry for sounding a little bitter. I have an excuse… You do not.

Catch you next week.

Dante

PS. The sheep had it coming…

Click Here and Start Earning Your Beer

You have made up your mind to change your lifestyle (realization) and you have a plan of attack. You are now ready for the final mind-set phase, which is Action.
 

Nothing is accomplished unless you take action.

 
Results demand action; there isn’t an easier way to put it. The amazing thing is, ‘action’ is more powerful than merely being a step closer to the final result.

The actual process of accomplishing an act, no matter how small, triggers positive energy and reinforces the desired behavior. In other words, forcing yourself to take action re-trains your body and mind.

Some days the amount of energy you will be able to devote to health and fitness will be less than others. That is a normal reality of life. The beauty is, as long as you take a step in the right direction, no matter how small that step is, it will be something to be proud of and encourage you to do the same the next day.

It is through a series of consecutive positive actions that you manage to win over the mind. Eventually your actions will be larger and larger and so will the benefits.

What it comes down to is waking up each day and doing what most people aren’t willing to do; stop making excuses and take responsibility for your actions. You do this, and nothing can stop you from reaching your goals.
 

The Biggest Excuse

 
The biggest excuse people use in not accomplishing their goals is lack of time. Which is funny because the third biggest use of our time after working 8 hours a day and sleeping another 8 hours at night is watching television. Men on average spend 3 hours per day in front of the tube. Women are not far behind at 2 and a half.

If you can find enough time in a day to watch 3 hours of television then you can certainly find time to get in shape and accomplish your goals.

My guilty pleasure is Facebook. Sometimes I set out to do some early morning writing and before I know it I’m logged in, knee deep into someone else’s life. I call it the “Facebook trance” and I’m sure if they re-did the statistics on time wasters it would be up there on par with time spent watching television. Is it any wonder it has been nicknamed “Crackbook”?

Give yourself a smack the next time you catch yourself wasting time on other people’s lives.
 

Here’s how I stay focused:

 
I keep focused by asking myself the following questions. Is someone else’s life more important than my own? Is what I want to achieve really important to me? The small action steps needed to accomplish my goal do not seem that bad after all.

As the shoe company’s saying goes- take action and “just do it”. Everything else will fall into place.
 

For a quick explanation have a look at the video below:

Yours in health,

Sean

Click Here and Start Earning Your Beer

I hate reading articles that start with words of wisdom from some old dead dude but the more I thought about introducing today’s post, like an annoying song playing over in my mind, the following quote was all I could think about.

“If you fail to plan, then plan to fail.”

No idea who wrote this short true statement but the article could probably end here and most would get the message.
 

Step 1: Realization

 
The other day I laid out the first step of 3 (Realization) in implementing lasting change. The biggest problem with implementing change is the lack of realization of your current situation. Once you have taken the first step in realizing the need for lifestyle change, the next step is planning.

Like the earlier quote alludes, in order to get to where you need to go you must have a plan to take you there. Without a plan leading you in the right direction (towards your goal), you won’t make it.

You wouldn’t set out on a trip without first mapping out where you need to go would you?

Then why is it that most set vague New Years resolutions and never take time to map out and plan exactly how to achieve them?

It would be great if you could turn on your computer, click on the browser, plug in your goal and have the Google Bots spit out a step-by-step plan on how to achieve it. Unfortunately no one’s developed the App just yet (I’m sure someone’s working on it).
 

Step 2: Map it out (Planning)

 
The reality is this- you need to think, plan and map out how you are going to achieve your goal. You need a master plan and here’s how to do it:

Take out a blank piece of paper. Break your goals down into short and long term. A long-term goal can be categorized in time periods of 1, 3 and 5 years. By short term I mean no longer than 90 days. Anything past 90 days is too far away and will cause you to lose focus. 90-day increments give you enough time to accomplish amazing things while allowing you to look back and analyze what worked, what didn’t and what can be improved upon.

Take your 90-day goal and work backwards from there. People call it end point visualization and what you’re doing is visualizing yourself having accomplished the goal. If you can see yourself achieving the goal than you can reverse engineer how you got there.

Write down exactly what steps you would need to take, who you would need to talk to for help, who would you need to act like to get it done, step by step, day by day until you’re back where you’re starting from.
 

Here’s the planning process in action

 
Our goal at BeerBellyBeGone.com is to build an army of 100,00 men and women by 2015 who adopt the “Earn Your Beer” mentality, live healthy and balanced lives, drink and enjoy beer, and make a difference in their lives and the lives of others.

This is a huge 3 year goal and the only way we’re going to accomplish this is to work backwards from having already accomplished it, breaking it down into smaller 90-day sub goals. On a blank piece of paper I then brainstormed and wrote down all the things I would have to do in order to accomplish this feat.

For example;

• blog 3 times per week,
• upload 3 weekly videos to Youtube,
• contact like minded websites/blogs and establish relationships,
• make myself available to do guest articles or blog posts,
• help our readers get in the best shape possible by answering questions, writing new and innovative workouts, monthly workout videos,
• weekly beer reviews,
• post tasty healthy recipes to the site,
• learn all I can about internet marketing and sales…
• and the list goes on and on.

 
I then break it down into monthly, weekly, daily tasks, divide them up between our team members and execute the plan. At the end of each day/week I re-evaluate our productivity and try to eliminate time wasters. This allows me to get more done the following day/week leading us closer to our goal.

It is really that simple. Take the time to plan or plan to fail.

Before I sign off I’ll leave you with another “thinker” from a dead dude…

“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up someplace else.” (Lawrence J. Peter)

Set aside 5 minutes today and map out a plan or end up nowhere near where you want to be… See you soon with the last and most important step of the 3 steps to implementing lasting change- Action.
 

For a quick explanation have a look at the video below:

Yours in health,

Sean

Click Here and Start Earning Your Beer

This time last year I started to develop a 3 part video series on what I believe is the real reason why people fail at following through on their New Year’s resolutions.

Then during a recent call to my brother he pointed out that I too had dropped the ball and failed on putting together parts 2 and 3 of the series…

Let’s face it, as great as they may seem- New Years resolutions do not work. According to a study done in 2007 at the University of Bristol 80 percent of people who make New Years resolutions have failed by January 20th.

The study followed 3000 individuals whom in my opinion were destined to fail before they began.

At the onset of the study only 52 percent of those involved were confident they would follow through and stick to their resolution. That’s a little less than half of the gents in the study that decided from the start they wouldn’t make it. Talk about setting yourself up for failure.
 

Why is it New Years resolutions are so hard to follow through with?

 
Most people (me included) have amazing intentions of kicking the New Year off on the right foot, wiping the slate clean and accomplishing some major goals. Only to wind up in our old routines a few days later, goals and aspirations pushed aside until next year.

Today’s date is January 17, leaving us 3 days until most give up on what we set out to accomplish earlier in the year. I read somewhere it takes 21 days to adopt a new habit into your routine. Therefore our goal over the next 3 days is to take a look at the mindset behind lifestyle change in order to make it past January 20th and beyond.

If you were one of the smart people that already knew resolutions didn’t work and decided not to set any goals or resolutions for yourself this year, this will be your opportunity to start now and do it right.
 

Getting back on track

 
As I set out to do last year, let’s get at it and tackle the first step in the 3 Phases to any Lifestyle Change; Realization of the Need for Change.

There is a big difference between the simple awareness of not being what you once were, and the admission that your current lifestyle and waistline are going to cut years off your life. Only the latter will propel you into taking the necessary steps towards change because realization forces you to take full responsibility for your lifestyle and your body.

A colleague of mine use to treat a patient for years and throughout their time together had tried on numerous occasions to get his patient to quit smoking- but nothing worked.

Then one day the patient walks in and my friend can tell that he has quit smoking. His skin looked more alive and his clothes and hair smelled better. The Doctor congratulated him and asked, “What after all these years inspired you to quit? “

The patient looked back towards my friend and said, “I’ve got emphysema, I had to quit.”

This was his realization of the need for change. He finally decided to quit smoking because he had to. His doctor told him if he didn’t give up smoking, he wouldn’t be able to breathe.

Does this seem like an extreme example? Not really… Think of the countless number of times you’ve heard of someone who waits until they have a heart attack or triple bypass surgery before they start to eat well and exercise.
 

Why wait for the heart attack?

 
Take some time today, look in the mirror and ask, “What aspect (or aspects) of my life can I improve upon?” Then write them down. Once you’ve written it down, sift through and come up with some attainable goals.

The realization of the need for change is the first step in accomplishing a lasting lifestyle change. And because I made a promise to myself and you, I’ll be back tomorrow with step 2 (Planning) of the 3 steps to change and show you what to do with the goals you’ve written down.
 

For a quick explanation have a look at the video below:

Yours in health,

Sean

Click Here and Start Earning Your Beer