G’day,

It’s been a crazy few days, I have spent most my free time answering email and messages from people who have seen my video titled 84 Days In 48 Seconds.

This video has taken on a life of its own. This video has now been watched over 220, 000 times!

I honestly never realized it would be seen by this many people. This is because there are now millions of videos on YouTube so it is extremely difficult for any video to get even 1,000 views.

However, if your video does break out it will get seen by a lot of people and may even attract attention from the “big websites” which will add exponentially more views in a short period of time.

This is what happened yesterday, as I was contacted by Diet.com for placement of the 84 Day video onto their homepage!

I am not a member of Diet.com, however they do run a very popular 10 week Challenge of their own which documents one person’s weight loss journey with weekly video updates.

It is great to see a big site like Diet.com using this type of accountability tool for their members. Can you imagine the pressure to succeed when your video is being seen by 500,000 people on YouTube in real-time each week?

I know personally the pressure to follow through on your physique transformation in real-time has been a massive factor in my success thus far (still a long way to go!).

Perhaps you could start using YouTube as your own accountability tool to keep you on track and accountable to other people in real-time too?

If you interested in seeing what real-time accountability looks like on YouTube just take a look through my video archive here.

Before I sign off today I’ll just mention that there may be an even bigger platform that this 84 Day video may be featured on soon (Hint: US TV!). That’s all I can say right now, I’ll keep you posted if it goes ahead!

Cheers,
Adam Waters, NESTA-CPT

P.S. Below is a screenshot of the video as it appeared on Diet.com today. You can see it on the bottom of the page next to the red arrow.

P.S.S. Below are Day 321 pics for September 25, 2007: Mission 3 Phase 2 – Day 27 of 70

G’day,

24 hours ago something big happened, and I’ve been struggling to keep pace ever since!

Here’s the lowdown, my body transformation time-lapse video 84 Days In 48 Seconds was propelled right next door to the biggest time-lapse videos on YouTube.

I’m specifically talking about Noah, king of the human time lapse with his video getting over 6,000,000 views to date. For some reason, the mysterious entity that is YouTube decided to put my 84 Day video next to Noah in the “Related Videos” panel!

The result, I have received 40,000 views and over 100 comments to my 84 Day video in the last 24 hours. Now since I long ago made a pledge to reply to every email, comment and message that specifically asks me for help I have been super busy in the last 24 hours!

If you haven’t seen the video and are curious you can watch it below.

Before I sign off today I want to let you know that I’ll be making a very important blog post tomorrow that’s gonna bring Mission 3 right down to the wire…in real-time!

Until tomorrow…

Eat Clean,
Shred Hard,
Think BIG

Cheers,
Adam Waters, NESTA-CPT

P.S. I’ve been so busy today that I didn’t have time to take my Day 320 pics, but I’ll be back tomorrow with my Day 321 pics.

P.S.S. Thanks Suzette, James and Ryuerik for asking about my meeting with my old friends on Saturday night who hadn’t seen me for 3 years. They got a massive shock and all they kept saying was bikkurishta (English: I’m surprised) and yassetta na (English: You became skinny).

G’day,

Just a quick picture update today as I have to go out tonight and meet old friends from Okinawa who I haven’t seen for a few years.

The last time they saw me I was 35 kg’s heavier so they will get quite a shock when they see me tonight (they don’t know what I’ve been up to in the last 9 months!).

It’s gonna be a blast!

Until tomorrow…

Eat Clean,
Shred Heard,
Think BIG!

Cheers,
Adam Waters, NESTA-CPT

P.S. Below are Day 318 pics for September 22, 2007: Mission 3 Phase 2 – Day 24 of 70

G’day,

The picture slide above is from July 22, 2003 (the lowest point of my life) and March 24, 2007.

There is a lot of pain (and joy) in this picture slide. The pain I speak of is not just emotional, there was also a lot of physical pain I went through to transform my body in that time period.

What some people may not realize is that I was somewhat successful in transforming my body prior to the start of Mission 1. Between July 2003 and November 8, 2006 (start of M1) I did lose 20 kg’s and 7% percent of bodyfat. This got me down to my M1, Day 1 starting stats of 84.5 kg’s and 20.8% bodyfat.

July 2003: Pain Dictated My Life

When I cast my mind back to July 2003 I remember quite clearly how much pain I felt daily due to the shape I was in and the fact that my life was going nowhere. I still had a glimmer of faith that I could turn my life around but I knew the road was going to be long and hard.

At that time pain did dictate my life. Every day I would wake up feeling miserable and frustrated with myself that another day had passed and I still hadn’t taken action on my long-held dreams of re-transforming my physique (and life).

Then, every 6 months or so an event would trigger me into action. I would get up the next day and decide to take action (this is why I have so many “before pictures”) and go “hell for leather” in the gym for a few weeks or months.

I would always make some progress during those “failed challenges” but inevitably the pain I felt in the gym (and in my mind) was not commensurate with the results I was getting. What made it even harder was that I would keep having “flashbacks” to my Body for Life 2000 Challenge success and constantly beat myself up about “why and how I let myself go”.

My Life-Changing Mindset Shift

I continued this cycle for over 3 years until one fateful day (November 8, 2006) when I decided to make a simple mindset shift. Instead of letting pain dictate my life I decided to channel the pain I felt into my training and diet discipline.

As you can see on this blog this simple mindset shift quite literally changed my life. I still remember the first set of my first weight training session on Mission 1. I remember staring into the mirror for one whole minute before I started on the first set of Barbell Bent Over Rows.

I told myself in no uncertain terms,

You are here for a reason, it is time for you to regain control of your life starting RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW. You are going to channel all the pain you have felt for the last 3 years into this rep, set and workout session. The truth is, you deserve this pain, it has to be this way because you and you alone are responsible for where you are right now. 

For the first time in a very long time I remained laser-focused during a whole workout session. I kept the pain front and center in my mind and channeled this pain into every single rep of that workout.

As my body started transforming in front of my very eyes (evidenced by the daily pictures I took) I began to redefine the meaning of pain in my mind. As I progressed throughout Mission 1 the pain I felt for that one hour in the gym was nothing compared to the emotional pain I had felt for the previous 3 years.

The Choice Is Yours…

I soon realized that in life pain is inevitable. The only choice you have is whether to meet pain on your terms or whether you let the pain you feel dictate your life.

Your body is a perfect metaphor for this idea, that being you can either choose 1 hour of pain every day and live in the body of your dreams OR you can do nothing (and feel no physical pain) and live in the body of your nightmares.

(Sorry to sound so dramatic but I literally had nightmares about my physical shape and the embarrassment I felt daily).

The bottom line is this:

 

Is it more “painful” to take the daily actions required (physical, financial, spiritual, academic) to live the life of your dreams OR is it less painful not to take the daily actions required and live a life of regret?

I know which pain I would rather feel, I’ll take my pain in small doses every day and live the life of my dreams because that pain is temporary while regret is forever.

How about you?

Peace,
Adam Waters, NESTA-CPT

P.S. Below are Day 317 pics for September 21, 2007: Mission 3 Phase 2 – Day 22 of 70

G’day,

I had a killer HIIT cardio workout today!

Once again I felt I was re-connecting with my “former self” in my earlier Mission 1 battles against the granddaddy of all cardio equipment…the treadmill!

The Point Of No Return!

As I was midway through the last 16 km/h interval covered in a pool of sweat I reached the point of no return. It is times like these where you have to put the pain, agony and discomfort aside and remember (every single second!) why you are doing this.

Even though I am feeling the pain in real-time my mind does start to wander strangely enough. I start to focus my mind on the bigger picture and visualize how I’m gonna feel on Day 365 when it comes time to take my final M3 pictures.

Driven By A 128KB Picture

As great as the pain is in that moment the pain I would feel if I missed my six-pack goal by Day 365 is infinitely greater.

Believe it or not I am also driven by that 128KB picture that will be placed over the question mark in my header graphic on Day 365!

Nothing would please me more than to be able to place a “shredded six-pack” in that space that far exceeds my M2 final picture.

This would probably not surprise many people because as you can see I’m a very visually orientated person. Tracking my progress through daily pictures not only keeps me accountable every single day but also allows me to create a self-fulfilling prophecy of physique transformation when I see constant progress.

Real-Time Accountability With Tom Venuto!

Another factor that drives me are the regular progress picture updates I place in Tom Venuto’s Burn The Fat Inner Circle Photo Gallery. Just knowing that Tom himself actually checks these pictures is a massive motivation for me.

Actually, I posted an entry in the Cardio Forum of the Inner Circle titled Man Vs. Machine back on January 13, 2007 (originally written on Day 38) as I entered the final “shred phase” of Mission 1.

Tom actually replied to my post! I can’t describe how motivating that was for me at that time.

I really “hit the hammer” hard after that exchange!

Below is a transcript of that exchange between me and Tom.

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Man Vs Machine: My Definition Of Cardio Intensity

Posted by
AdamWaters

G’day,

I thought I would post something I wrote on Day 38 of my blog. I am by no means a “HIIT cardio guru.” I just thought it might be relevant for people who struggle with intensity and how hard you need to push yourself to see results. Here it is below.

Day 38 of 84

Status – Round 4: Phase 2: Day 1

Today was a titanic struggle, it was literally man versus machine. No, I wasn’t squaring off against the Terminator, the machine I am talking about is far more lethal. Can you guess what it is? One word…Treadmill. Yes I know, it may look harmless to the unitiated but once you start a high intensity workout on it there’s no going back baby!

It all started at 9.30 am this morning. When I woke up I felt queasy just thinking about it. I was going for my personal best – 4 cycles of 6, 12, 14, and 16 km/h at 1 minute intervals BUT the last cycle had to be 2 minutes and 5 seconds.

I hit 2 minutes at 16 km/h on Tuesday this week, now it was time to up the ante to 2 minutes and 5 seconds. Five extra seconds may not sound like much but let me tell you…it was pure torture. As I entered the final minute I was already feeling nauseous, my stomach was churning, my calves were aching.

The final 15 seconds felt like 15 minutes. This is living life in the moment, right here right now. Will you fulfill the most important promise you can make? You know…the ones you make to yourself. Of course I did, do you know why?

Because, no matter how hard it is I always know in the back of my mind that these are the moments that define success or failure. The only way you can dramatically transform your physique in a short period of time is to continually raise your standards.

You have to break through new barriers every single workout. If you stay stagnant even for one workout you will not progress, simple as that. The great thing is that you can apply these intense experiences to other areas of your life. Are you living in the moment? Do you cherish what you already have? Do you respect yourself and others enough to keep the promises you make?

I have discovered over the course of the last 38 days that changing your body shape is a great metaphor for life changes. I already feel more confident and secure in myself. I also notice that the people around me are reacting to me differently, in a positive way. The changes in me are now becoming obvious, almost daily I am stopped by someone I know. They tell me how great I am looking, they also notice my new-found confidence.

So yes, I can safely say that those extra 5 seconds don’t just make a little bit of difference…they make ALL the difference. Until next time that is, when it will be those extra 10 seconds. I can already feel it now…

Adam Waters
Inner Circle Contributor

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Posted by
AdamWaters

Jan 13,2007
3:27 PM

G’day Rhez,

You hit the nail on the head. It really is those extra 5 or 10 seconds that make all the difference. Here’s a ‘funny thing’ I go through during these intense moments. While my lungs, legs and calves are screaming for mercy I actually ask myself this question “What is pain?”, “Is this pain?” The answer I always come up with is “No, this is pleasure, this is living life ‘to the max”

Once you do finish there is no better feeling knowing that you achieved your goal for that day coupled with the endorphin rush!

Cheers,
Adam

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Posted by
tomvenuto

Jan 13,2007
4:19 PM

“Hit the nail on the head” is right

style="font-style:italic;">ALL the growth happens outside the comfort zone.

I’ve experienced changes in my body happen so fast it is almost too hard to believe… if and only if I push beyond the comfort zone…. Its astonishing how you could put in hours and hours of training a week and get very little additional progress… but its usually because those hours consist of what you’ve already done before.

when you push intensity beyond that, the effect is so pronounced that I can only describe it as a threshold effect… before the threshold, almost nothing – you only maintain, even if you are putting in a lot of time..

but one tiny step over the threshold, which can be minutes or even just seconds as adam says, and the progress starts coming EXPONENTIALLY faster

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Posted by
AdamWaters

Jan 13,2007
4:44 PM

I couldn’t agree more Tom. You said it best in your “Burn The Fat Show” episode 1.

Just above your regular pain threshold is where all growth occurs. It may only be “5 seconds” or “one more rep” at that moment in time, but taken over 12 week period (for example) the growth you get is exponential. It seems to me to be some kind of “law of the universe” that you have to respect and practice in order to see results.

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Can you see how motivating that is?

Just imagine having the fat loss guru himself, Tom Venuto keeping you accountable to your goals in real-time through the Photo Gallery and Forums.

The great news is that you can! Go to Burn The Fat Inner Circle to learn how the Internet’s premiere fat loss community can help you achieve the body of your dreams, as it has done for me.

Alternatively, you can read more about my experience with the Inner Circle from Day 202: Breaking News…I Am Now An Official Contributor to The Inner Circle

Until tomorrow…

Eat Clean,
Shred Hard,
Think BIG!

Cheers,
Adam Waters, NESTA-CPT

P.S. Below are Day 316 pics for September 20, 2007: Mission 3 Phase 2 – Day 22 of 70