Fitter by exercise

If you want some simple yet effective ideas to start your fat loss project, try this:

If you want to reduce your body fat, focus on increasing the amount of exercise you get rather than decreasing your food intake. A recent national study was done using two groups of sedentary men, one group in their 20′s and the other over age 65. A lot was learned from this accumulated data and it is interesting to note that there was a significant relationship between lack of physical activity and fat. Not surprisingly, the most sedentary men had the most body fat.

These studies have also indicated that the governments current recommended daily allowance for calories does not correlate with the body’s actual energy needs. For example, although 2400 calories have been calculated for older men, they in fact burned an average of 2800 calories daily.

The leading experts now recommend that people who want to lose weight start increasing their physical activity. Just being more active in general (such as climbing the stairs instead of taking the elevator, moving around instead of sitting still, sitting up instead of lying down as well as showing some excitement and enthusiasm instead of boredom), are things that more effectively burns calories and reduces body fat. Everyone seems to have lost sight of the value of being active. Consider this, a half-hour aerobic workout accounts for far less energy expenditure than our minute-to-minute movement in the office or at home.

Millions of Americans are trying to lose weight, spending approximately $30 billion a year on diet programs and products, often they do lose some weight. But, if you check with the same people five years later, you will find that nearly all have regained whatever weight they lost. A national panel recently sought data to determine if any commercial diet program could prove long-term success. Not a single program could do so.Being seriously overweight and particularly obesity predisposes individuals to a number of diseases and serious health problems, and it’s now a known fact that when caloric intake is excessive, some of the excess frequently is saturated fat.

People who diet without exercising often get fatter with time. Although your weight may initially drop while dieting, such weight loss consists mostly of water and muscle. When the weight returns, it comes back as fat. To avoid getting fatter over time, increase your metabolism by exercising regularly.

Walking is one of the best exercises for strengthening bones, controlling weight, toning the leg muscles, maintaining good posture and improving positive self-concept. To lose weight, it’s more important to walk for time than speed. Walking at a moderate pace yields longer workouts with less soreness – leading t more miles and more fat worked off on a regular basis. High intensity walks on alternate days help condition one’s system. But in a walking, weight-loss program, you are not requried to walk an hour every day as some people would have you believe.

When it comes to good health and weight loss, exercise and diet are inter-related. Exercising without maintaining a balanced diet is no more beneficial than dieting whle remaining inactive.

For definitive effective information that will help you lose fat permanently, Go HERE

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By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.BurnTheFat.com
www.InnerCircle.com

The secret to getting super lean – I’m talking about being RIPPED, not just “average body fat” – is all about mastering the art of “peaking.” Most people do not have a clue about what it takes to reach the type of low body fat levels that reveal ripped six-pack abs, muscle striations, vascularity and extreme muscular definition, so they go about it completely the wrong way.

Here’s a case in point: One of my newsletter subscribers recently sent me this question:

Tom, on your www.burnthefat.com website, you wrote:

‘Who better to model than bodybuilders and fitness competitors? No athletes in the world get as lean as quickly as bodybuilders and fitness competitors. The transformations they undergo in 12 weeks prior to competition would boggle your mind! Only ultra-endurance athletes come close in terms of low body fat levels, but endurance athletes like triathaletes and marathoners often get lean at the expense of chewing up all their muscle. Some of them are nothing but skin and bone.’

“There seems to be a contradiction unless I’m missing something. Why do bodybuilders and fitness competitors have to go through a 12 week ‘transformation’ prior to every event instead of staying ‘lean and mean’ all the time? If they practice the secrets exposed in your book, they should be staying in shape all the time instead of having to work at losing fat prior to every competitive event, correct?”

There is a logical explanation for why bodybuilders and other physique athletes (fitness and figure competitors), don’t remain completely ripped all year round, and it’s the very reason they are able to get so ripped on the day of a contest…

You can’t hold a peak forever or it’s not a “peak”, right? What is the definition of a peak? It’s a high point surrounded by two lower points isn’t it?

Therefore, any shape you can stay in all year round is NOT your “peak” condition.

The intelligent approach to nutrition and training (which almost all bodybuilders and fitness/figure competitors use), is to train and diet in a seasonal or cyclical fashion and build up to a peak, then ease off to a maintenance or growth phase.

I am NOT talking about bulking up and getting fat and out of shape every year, then dieting it all off every year. What I’m talking about is going from good shape to great (peak) shape, then easing back off to good shape…. but never getting “out of shape.” Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

Here’s an example: I have no intentions whatsoever of walking around 365 days a year at 4% body fat like I appear in the photo on my website. Off-season, when I’m not competing, my body fat is usually between 8 – 10%. Mind you, that’s very lean and still single digit body fat.

I don’t stray too far from competition shape, but I don’t maintain contest shape all the time. It takes me 12-14 weeks or so to gradually drop from 9.5% to 3.5%-4.0% body fat to “peak” for competition with NO loss of lean body mass…using the same techniques I reveal in my e-book.

It would be almost impossible to maintain 4% body fat, and even if I could, why would I want to? For the few weeks prior to competition I’m so depleted, ripped, and even “drawn” in the face, that complete strangers walk up and offer to feed me.

Okay, so I’m just kidding about that, but let’s just say being “being ripped to shreds” isn’t a desirable condition to maintain because it takes such a monumental effort to stay there. It’s probably not even healthy to try forcing yourself to hold extreme low body fat. Unless you’re a natural “ectomorph” (skinny, fast metabolism body type), your body will fight you. Not only that, anabolic hormones may drop and sometimes your immune system is affected as well. It’s just not “normal” to walk around all the time with literally no subcutaneous body fat.

Instead of attempting to hold the peak, I cycle back into a less demanding off-season program and avoid creeping beyond 9.9% body fat. Some years I’ve stayed leaner – like 6-7%, (which takes effort), especially when I knew I would be photographed, but I don’t let my body fat go over 10%.

This practice isn’t just restricted to bodybuilders. Athletes in all sports use periodization to build themselves up to their best shape for competition. Is a pro football player in the same condition in March-April as he is in August-September? Not a chance. Many show up fat and out of shape (relatively speaking) for training camp, others just need fine tuning, but none are in peak form… that’s why they have training camp!!!

There’s another reason you wouldn’t want to maintain a “ripped to shreds” physique all year round – you’d have to be dieting (calorie restricted) all the time. And this is one of the reasons that 95% of people can’t lose weight and keep it off –they are CHRONIC dieters… always on some type of diet. Know anyone like that?

You can’t stay on restricted low calories indefinitely. Sooner or later your metabolism slows down and you plateau as your body adapts to the chronically lowered food intake. But if you diet for fat loss and push incredibly hard for 3 months, then ease off for a while and eat a little more (healthy food, not “pigging out”), your metabolic rate is re-stimulated. In a few weeks or months, you can return to another fat loss phase and reach an even lower body fat level, until you finally reach the point that’s your happy maintenance level for life – a level that is healthy and realistic – as well as visually appealing.

Bodybuilders have discovered a methodology for losing fat that’s so effective, it puts them in complete control of their body composition. They’ve mastered this area of their lives and will never have to worry about it again. If they ever “slip” and fall off the wagon like all humans do at times … no problem! They know how to get back into shape fast.

Bodybuilders have the tools and knowledge to hold a low body fat all year round (such as 9% for men, or about 15% for women), and then at a whim, to reach a temporary “peak” of extremely low body fat for the purpose of competition. Maybe most important of all, they have the power and control to slowly ease back from peak shape into maintenance, and not balloon up and yo-yo like most conventional dieters!

What if you had the power to stay lean all year round, and then get super lean when summer rolled around, or when you took your vacation to the Caribbean, or when your wedding date was coming up? Wouldn’t you like to be in control of your body like that? Isn’t that the same thing that bodybuilders and fitness/figure competitors do, only on a more practical, real-world level?

So even if you have no competitive aspirations whatsoever, don’t you agree that there’s something of value everyone could learn from physique athletes? Don’t model yourself after the huge crowd of losers who gobble diet pills, buy exercise gimmicks and suffer through starvation diets like automatons, only to gain back everything they lost! Instead, learn from the leanest athletes on Earth – natural bodybuilders and fitness competitors…

These physique athletes get as ripped as they want to be, exactly when they want to, simply by manipulating their diets in a cyclical fashion between pre-contest “cutting” programs and off season “maintenance” or “muscle growth” programs. Even if you have no desire to ever compete, try this seasonal “peaking” approach yourself and you’ll see that it can work as well for you as it does for elite bodybuilders.

If you’re interested in learning even more secrets of bodybuilders and fitness models, visit the Burn The Fat website at: www.BurnTheFat.com

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT) and a certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS). Tom is the author of the #1 best-selling e-book, “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using the secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn body fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com. To learn more about Tom’s Fat Loss Support Community, visit: www.InnerCircle.com

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By Tom Venuto
www.BurnTheFat.com

QUESTION: Dear Tom: I know it will probably be different for everyone, but I find it hard to set weekly goals for body fat percentage because I don’t know what an average body fat percentage drop in a week is supposed to look like. I’m a 30 year old female. Any input?

ANSWER: I recommend setting a fat reduction goal of about half a percent per week (0.5%). Based on many years of testing clients in person with skinfold calipers, I’ve concluded that this is about average.

This is an honest number that reflects not just the outliers in the top success stories, but an average of everyone. That’s what makes this figure a good realistic weekly goal

To see some of the more exceptional transformations, visit:HERE

Chris, for example dropped 9% body fat in 7 weeks. That’s not typical, but its possible in a highly motivating environment like our Burn the Fat body transformation contests.

To calculate realistic, average weekly fat loss:

If your body fat measured 24.6 percent on day one of week one, then 24.1 percent would be your goal for the end of that seven-day period. That will be an impressive 6% drop in your body fat if you keep that up over 12 weeks.

If you’re more ambitious and you want to shed body fat even faster, it’s certainly possible, although it does depend on body size. Larger people can often lose larger amounts of weight and body fat.

When someone is already lean and wants to get even leaner, there is less fat remaining so it becomes more difficult to lose large amounts every week.

I’ve seen many people drop 0.6 percent or 0.7 percent body fat per week if they worked hard, usually doing multiple cardio sessions per week on top of their weight training, combined with excellent dietary compliance.

I’ve even seen people shed 0.8 to 1.0 percent body fat per week, but more often than not, those were temporary spikes in progress, reflecting one exceptionally good week, or in conjunction with a highly motivating event, like one of our burn the fat challenge contests (where the reward of a luxury trip to Maui is dangling in front of you).

If you lose less than a half a percent per week, as long as you made some forward progress, you should celebrate that as success.

It’s more normal for results to vary from one week to the next than to drop the same amount every week, so an occasional slow week is nothing to get upset about. It’s just feedback.

After a below average week, to bring the rate of fat loss up to average or better for the next week, you’ll need to:

(a) re-establish compliance if you had a bad week (get back on the wagon! and start tracking food intake more meticulously if necessary) or

(b) make adjustments to your nutrition and training to increase your caloric deficit and optimize body composition changes.

Last but not least, if you want to be one of those “not typical” people, then remember this:

* Above average results require above average effort.
* Extraordinary results require extraordinary effort.

Everything in this article is explained in even further detail in my fat loss program, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle at: http://www.BurnTheFat.com

Train hard and expect success!

Tom Venuto, author of
Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is the author of the #1 best seller, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle: Fat Burning Secrets of the World’s Best Bodybuilders and Fitness Models. Tom is a lifetime natural bodybuilder and fat loss expert who achieved an astonishing 3.7% body fat level without drugs or supplements. Discover how to increase your metabolism and burn stubborn body fat, find out which foods burn fat and which foods turn to fat, plus get a free fat loss report and mini course by visiting Tom’s site at: www.BurnTheFat.com
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By Tom Venuto
www.BurnTheFat.com

At the Burn the Fat Inner Circle member forums, I get a question which comes up with alarming frequency: “Why isn’t my cardio working?” Despite not only doing regular cardio for weeks, but actually increasing the duration of her workouts, one member still saw no added fat loss and started wondering what she was doing wrong… or what was wrong with her! I gave her the surprisingly simple answer, which I’ve printed for you as well in this article and new research has added even more to the answer – it’s a NEAT explanation…

How is it possible that some people do tons of cardio and don’t lose weight?

Simple: Weight loss is a function of caloric deficit, not how much cardio you do. Cardio is only one of the tools you use to create and increase a caloric deficit.

Endurance athletes are a perfect example for illustrating the error in thinking that “an hour a day” (or whatever amount) of cardio will guarantee weight loss…

They might train for two, three, even four hours or more on some days, but they are often not trying to lose weight. They (have to) eat huge amounts of food to fuel their training and keep their weight stable.

It’s not unusual at all for a cyclist to burn 4000 or 5000 calories per day and not lose any weight. Why? Same reason you’re doing a lot of cardio but not losing weight: there’s no calorie deficit. Calories in are equaling the calories out.

What you need to do is shift your focus OFF of some kind of prerequisite time spent doing cardio and ON to the REAL pre-requisite for weight loss: a caloric deficit.

If your caloric intake remains exactly the same and you add cardio or other training or activity you will create a deficit and you will lose weight, guaranteed.

With all this talk about “cardio” and “training” one important area that people often forget about is all the other activity in your life outside of your cardio and weight training. There’s a name for that:

Non exercise activity thermogenesis, or NEAT

NEAT is all your physical activity throughout the day, excluding your “formal” workouts.

NEAT includes all the calories you burn from casual walking, shopping, yard work, housework, standing, pacing and even little things like talking, chewing, changing posture, maintaining posture and fidgeting. Walking contributes to the majority of NEAT

It seems like a bunch of little stuff – and it is – which is why most people completely ignore it. Big mistake.

At the end of the day, week, month and year, all the little stuff adds up to a very significant amount of energy. For most people, NEAT accounts for about 30% of physical activity calories spent daily, but NEAT can run as low 15% in sedentary individuals and as high as 50% in highly active individuals.

I’m always telling people to exercise more – to burn more, not just eat less. This is not only for health, fitness and well-being, but also to help increase fat loss.

But some people say that increasing exercise doesn’t always work and they quote from research to make their case. It’s true that some studies paradoxically don’t show better weight loss by adding exercise on top of diet.

But there are explanations for this…

If you add training into your fat loss regime but you don’t maintain your nutritional discipline and keep your food intake the same, you remain in energy balance. If a study doesn’t monitor this type of compensation, or if the researchers trust the subjects to accurately self-report their own food intake (hahahahahahahaha!), it will look like the exercise was for nothing.

In studies where the food intake was controlled when exercise was added… surprise, surprise, weight loss increased!

Stated differently, all these “experts” who keep saying that exercise doesn’t work for weight loss are ignoring or not understanding the concepts of calorie deficit and energy compensation.

Why Exercise “Doesn’t Work” – The NEAT Explanation

So a handful of people exercise and then eat more than they were eating before and then scratch their heads and wonder why they aren’t losing. DUH!

Or, they go on some idiotic crusade against exercise. “SEE! exercise is a waste of time… all you have to do is follow the ‘magic’ diet!”

Wrong. Dieting alone is the worst way to lose weight because without training, the composition of the weight you lose is not so good (goodbye muscle… hello skinny fat person!). Want to avoid skinny fat syndrome? It’s nutrition, then weight training, then add in and manipulate the cardio as your results dictate.

There’s another type of compensation that researchers have recently started studying. When people increase their training, especially high intensity training, sometimes they also compensate by moving less later in the day and in the days that that follow!

For example, you work out like an animal in the morning, but then instead of your usual walking around and doing housework the rest of the day, you crash and plop your tired body in your LAZY BOY for a nice nap and a marathon session of TV. The next day, the delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) sets in and then you REALLY don’t feel like moving!

Research on NEAT is extensive and it tells us that NEAT plays a major role in obesity and fat loss. Finding ways to INCREASE NEAT along with formal exercise can be a promising strategy to increase your total daily calorie burn and thus, increase fat loss. The flip side of that equation is finding ways to avoid decreases in NEAT that we might not have been aware of. Because NEAT is so completely off most people’s radars, most people miss this.

(NOTE: For a real eye-opener, try a using a pedometer or bodybugg for a while)

Previous studies have confirmed that many people compensated and decreased their activity (NEAT) during the remainder of the day or on rest days after exercise training. This led anti-exercise pundits once again to spit out their party line, “see, exercise doesn’t work! You might as well just diet.”

However, a study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found no immediate debilitative effect on NEAT on the day of exercise or on the following 2 days. In fact, there was a delayed reaction and NEAT actually INCREASED 48 hours after the exercise session (60 minutes of treadmill walking at 6 kph @ 10% grade with 5 minute intervals at 0% grade).

Why the conflicting findings? Scientists aren’t 100% sure yet, but they have discovered that part of it has to do with exercise intensity.

Moderate Intensity vs High Intensity cardio: Effect on NEAT

You sometimes hear certain trainers claim that only high intensity exercise is worthwhile and everything else is a waste of time or at best inefficient. That’s not always true, on many levels, and one of them involves NEAT.

It looks like higher intensity training has more potential to DECREASE NEAT later on than low or moderate intensity training. You burn a lot of calories DURING the workout when training at high intensity. However, the calories burned during the formal training can be at least partly canceled out by a decrease in NEAT outside the training session.

It also appears that moderate intensity exercise may be better tolerated than high intensity exercise by some people, especially beginners and obese individuals. The low or moderate intensity workouts don’t wipe them out so much that they don’t become fatigued, sluggish and sore later in the day…. and there’s no decrease in NEAT.

Am I saying you shouldn’t do high intensity exercise? Not at all.

High intensity training can be very effective and very time efficient and a mix of high and lower-intensity training might be ideal. But if you do a lot of high intensity training, you have to be aware of how OVER-doing it might affect your energy and activity level outside the gym – on the day of training, and even in the days that follow the intense workout. Otherwise, you might end up with fewer total calories burned at the end of the week, not more.

If you don’t understand the calorie balance equation and the calorie deficit… if you don’t understand the compensatory effect of NEAT on energy out and you don’t understand the compensatory effect of eating behaviors on energy in, then you can do cardio until you’re blue in the face and you’ll still be in energy balance… and your body fat will stay exactly the same.

Important points

1. This study SUPPORTS the role of exercise for weight loss and debunks the idea that exercise doesn’t work for weight loss, provided all else remains equal when exercise is added on top of diet.

2. Exercise intensity can affect NEAT for days after a workout is over. Too much high intensity work might zap your energy and activity outside the gym, resulting in a lower level of NEAT. You have to keep up your habitual activity level outside the gym after pushing yourself hard in the gym.

3. This information supports the role of low moderate intensity exercise (like 60 minutes of treadmill walking) based on the effect this has on your activity outside the gym. It is not true that only high intensity training is worthwhile. There are pros and cons of training at various intensities.

4. If you can keep up your NEAT, you can increase your weekly calorie expenditure and increase your fat loss.

5. It’s important in research to look beyond short term results (during a workout bout, 24 hour studies, etc), and also consider longer term effects. We should watch out for more studies on NEAT that go beyond 24 hours to learn more.

NEAT is a great way to improve your total fat loss results, but it can also undermine your efforts if you don’t consider the toll it takes on your daily energy expenditure. The best thing you can do is follow a fat loss system like my Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle Program that takes account of the big picture, including NEAT.
Train hard and expect success!

Tom Venuto, author of
Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle
Click HERE to get your copy!

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a fat loss expert, lifetime natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, freelance writer, and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle: Fat-Burning Secrets of The World’s Best Bodybuilders & Fitness Models (e-book) which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.BurnTheFat.com

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Hey! Just watch this Video, makes you think!.

My reason for letting you see this, besides it being remarkable is to ilustrate that change happens and you should look to change your life for the better. I watched a video the other day talking about the number of people…all over the world…that are either already Obese or will become Obese. It’s frightening and I would urge you all to not allow the high fat, sugar saturated world that we live in make you overweight and lethargic. I know it’s hard but we all must put in more effort to be healthy. We are a physical being, no if’s or buts, just have to remember to be physical.

To get a real lowdown on getting rid of the fat and making a real difference visit:
http://www.icanlosepounds.com

I was trying some ideas out the other day and I found a new way to exercise my upper body that I can do in my own home at any time. I really think it complements my rowing so I’ll keep on doing it and see if I ge any results.


The exercise is sort of doing pushups but leaning against a wall at an angle above 45 degrees, with your arm spread quite wide. It really gives you the burn across the top of your chest and I like to do it, which makes a whole lot of difference. I’ve also started running uphil to add resistance to my outdoor stuff. Should give me a good calory deficit.

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Thanks and I’ll see you at the gym!

You know, I’ve just been on holiday and must admit to having the best opportunities to get some exercise done in a long time. I think, if your in the right environment it really does drive you to do more. So, if you feel you are not motivated, travel to a place that makes you feel more alive, like in the country or a big park. Don’t look at your back yard and just say “well, it makes me feel lethargic” or “I can’t do this”, just get to a place that really makes you get up and run. walk fast or something. Just get out there!

Here is another article which should help you understand more about motivation

“Over the last few days I have had the chance to watch two very good films, which, if you haven’t seen already, I would highly recommend you get a copy and watch as soon as you can. The two films in question are ‘ Meet the Robinsons ‘ and ‘Castaway ‘. The former, even though it’s an animated film has a strong underlying message and the latter, staring Tom Hanks is just so thought provoking it ends up being more than just a film.

Now, briefly, if you don’t know the plots of either film I’ll go through what I think the films are about and give the message I and see if they both become thought provoking for you as well.

Meet the Robinsons is about a boys journey(Lewis) from orphan with no family to a great inventor with a fantastic family and more in his life than you can shake a stick at, with a nice twist at the end to sort out someone else’s life along the way. Lewis is a bit of an inventor and, by perseverance and determination his inventions become bigger and better. There is a catch phrase in the film ‘Keep Moving Forward’ and I think, for anyone who wants to make something of their lives, this is such a good motivator as you just have to keep moving forward despite setbacks and distractions and you will achieve the goals and dreams you have. Meet the Robinsons also has an element of time travel in it, a bit ‘Back to the Future’ I would admit but it does add to the message of the film and enables the twist at the end that I mentioned earlier. To watch this film is a joy and certainly makes you think.

As I said, I would highly recommend this film to anyone, not just your kids.

Castaway is also a great motivator. The film, centred on a character played by Tom Hanks (Chuck Noland) follows the life of a man who has a reasonable job and seems to have a happy life, with a girlfriend (Helen Hunt) and responsibilities. He has to travel abroad by plane for his company (FedEx) and, during the flight the plane gets into a really bad storm over the Pacific Ocean. The plane comes down in the sea and he is the only survivor. Eventually, he is washed up on a small deserted Island, which becomes his home for the next four years. After going through suicidal thoughts and making himself a noose to hang by then not being able to go through with it, he starts to learn the basic skills for survival, some of which I think a lot of us don’t have as we live in a very convenient society. We follow the day to day happenings including when he makes a football his companion to which he uses as a focus for his subconscious and talks to from time to time (like talking through the third person, if you know what that is). Anyway, the majority of time he spends on the Island is skipped but we join him again as he has decided to make a break for freedom and built himself a raft from wood and various materials with oars and a shelter come sail (though you’ll have to watch the film to understand what that bits about). He sets off with the football friend (called Wilson after the name on the ball) and makes his attempt to re join the human race. This section, as you may guess is as difficult as the first Months on the Island but he seems to be watched over by a Whale who keeps him alive by waking him up from time to time so as not to let him just drift off and die on the raft, which is quite touching. Anyway, after drifting for days and weeks through good weather and some pretty horrendous storms he is passed by a large freight ship that rescues him and, you may think, his life returns to normal. But there is a twist at the end as his life is not the same, his girlfriend (Played by Helen Hunt) has married because she was told he was dead (though admitted she always knew, somehow, that he was still alive) and he looks at his life and must see that it has to take on a new direction. There is a part, right at the end where he has reached a cross roads in a road in the middle of nowhere and he gets out of his car and looks down each road, not knowing which route to take. The film fades at this point, leaving you to finish off the script, as you would see fit.

Now, what I’m getting at here is, unless you’ve been asleep for the last 4 or so Months, you’ll be very aware of the credit situation sweeping around the globe. Now, because of this, there are a lot of people, especially in the US, who are facing bankruptcy or eviction or having to really change the way they spend (or don’t spend) what little money they have. The Banks, also having a hard time, also have to re asses what they do and how they do it. This is a major crossroads and should make a lot of people think very hard how they conduct themselves. Hardship of any kind, like the sort Tom’s character faces when on that island should change the direction peoples lives are going in.

The same could be said for the people in New Orleans after Katrina and still now as a lot needs to be done to re build the communities and make peoples lives better than they were before such a disaster. If your in a situation of hardship and you are wondering why such things happen to you then you should look inward and ask yourself some very important questions, then adapt and do what you have to do to not only survive but break out from your Island and make a bid for freedom and do what you have to do, despite difficulties, problems and seemingly impossible odds. You could make a start by setting up your own business (not as difficult as you may think) simply set out what level of achievement you want and then use the resources on hand to get there, simple as that.

Be motivated and get off your Island, you can do it and it doesn’t matter about your age of background. You’re stood at the crossroads and looking at 4 directions, which one you take is up to you, but make the choice and go for it!”

John Morris is an internet entrepreneur who has a number of on line and off line businesses. The business is split into 2 main areas, internet startup and building and health, well being and fitness. To visit one of his sites go to Here

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