A Blueprint for Resilience

1 – Make No Excuses

A lot of great people didn’t come from money, or status. Quite a few were born as common people. With no money, no connections, and had just sheer grit. Don’t waste time blaming your circumstances. No matter how unfair things are your consistency will speak louder than your background ever will.

2 – Climb The Ranks

Never wait around for handouts. Climb the ranks by putting in the work, and always out working everybody else around you. Hard work will always trump lazy talent. Today, we are stuck in a system that hands more power to rich old men and rewards mediocrity; however, your job will be to break through. If you want something, earn it. Put in the work every single day. 99% of anything is simply showing up when no one else will or has. Results come from discipline, not luck, so learn to depend on internal validation not external rewards.

Always ask remember two things:

  • Keep the relentless mindset. Do, or die. Never surrender.
  • Keep the desire burning to climb ahead. Will to power.

3 – Adapt, or Get Left Behind

Always be like water. Water adapts and takes the shape of anything it’s poured into. But given enough time and force it can destroy even mountains.

The world is never static, and the game is constantly changing. Homeostasis is not the norm it’s the exception in this world.

Don’t play by the rules, but always keep things stable in your life.

Our politicians are stuck in old-school thinking. The world changes, but some refuse to adapt. If you don’t innovate, you’ll get crushed. Reinvent yourself, or stay irrelevant.

Look at athletes or MMA fighters switching up training camps, politicians changing their platforms, or bodybuilders constantly evolving their routines. They know that if you stand still, you get left behind. The same goes for you. If you are unwilling to adapt, then prepare to be just spinning your wheels. Keep your car in park and the world will leave you in the dust zooming by in a suped up sportscar.

4 – Leadership Is Never About Power

No leader who has been admired through history built an empire solely by flexing power. Leadership isn’t about being flashy, but about structure and stability for the common man following you. If you want to lead, then leave your ego at the door. Show up every day and deliver, lead by example.

True leadership is not about making a spectacle of yourself or exerting power for the sake of control. You can rule by fear, or rule by love. It is always about building trust, creating stability, and leading by example. That will make people love you, and you don’t need to inspire fear or make displays of ego.

Great leaders throughout history, whether they were military figures, political leaders, or entrepreneurs earned respect and love by being consistent, reliable, and focused on the needs of the people they led. They understood that the foundation of any empire, organization, or movement was grounded in structure, responsibility, and the everyday actions that maintained it.

Leaving ego at the door is key here. It’s about serving those you’re leading, not elevating yourself above them. The best leaders make others feel like they matter and provide a clear path forward, not through grand gestures, but through discipline, consistency, and vision.

5 – True Strength is in Detachment

What is the greatest power move you can make? Walking away from power when you don’t need it anymore. True power isn’t addicted to more power for its own sake. Know when to step back, enjoy, and let go. Not many people have forever held on to status, fame, wealth, and power. Besides all those things are temporary and peripheral.

True strength is knowing when to let go. Take control of your own life, and never get trapped by ego. Never get stuck in the past or obsessed with fame or status. Let go when it’s time, and make room for growth.

6 – The Real Fight Is Internal

If you want to make it to the top, then your greatest opponent, or challenger will be yourself. The only competition you have in life is the man, or woman staring back at you in the mirror. Whatever you are setting your sights on in life, the battle is always about pushing past (and breaking) limits and getting used to being very uncomfortable. Every time you feel like quitting, or giving up that’s when you have to go even further and work even harder and dig even deeper. Pain is weakness leaving the body. Your worst enemy in life is always yourself.

This isn’t about some wake up call. Life is tough. The world is a clown show circus right now. You’ve got the power, skills, knowledge, and wisdom needed to be somebody better than that. Don’t wait for tomorrow, but get after it today.

7 – Make Your Own Opportunities

Quit waiting for someone to hand you something like you deserve it, and are entitled to it. Did I wake up in shape by random chance one morning? Obviously not.

Today is the day that you’re going to stop waiting for someone to give you a job, some girl to give you a shot, and to join the gym. You need to create your own opportunities. You can’t be the guy waiting for that phone call or knock to happen. You have to be the guy making the calls and doing the knocking. With opportunity, you have to build things, grind for things and take them on the chin when they come or capture them don’t let them slip you by.

The system is rigged and life isn’t fair, but complaining about it never fixed anything. Neither did self destructive behaviors out of seeking pity or attention. Create your own path in life, and take whatever you can get that comes your way. And turn all the bad events into opportunities to create good events.

Tough Love & Final Thoughts

Let’s get real. Life isn’t going to hand you anything for free. Whatever you earn in life is earned through blood and tears and sweat. Not through handouts. Maybe some people get to have a weak and soft easy life but those people aren’t as fortunate. They don’t get to turn themselves into gold from lead. We do. Stay hungry. Stay relentless.

Discipline, Not Genetics

Iron Resilience: The Truth About Weight Loss & Macros

Introduction

The typical Western diet. High fat, high carb, high calorie and low in protein and micronutrients.
The typical balanced diet with high protein macros for bodybuilding.

Weight loss boils down to calories burned vs calories consumed. You cannot violate the laws of thermodynamics as much as you wish you could. Consume way too much of anything and you’ll gain weight. Which is a layman’s way of saying: eat more calories than you burn and you gain weight. Eat less than you burn and you lose weight. You can lose weight eating lard, ice cream, sugar and candy bars. But that wouldn’t be smart and I’ll explain further below.

CICO: Calories In, Calories Out

Eat fewer calories than you burn → You lose weight

Eat more calories than you burn → You gain weight

That’s all there is to understand about weight loss.

Macros matter for body composition

Protein: Builds & retains muscle

Carbs: Fuel workouts & recovery

Fats: Support hormones & brain function

If you ignore macros, then you’ll lose muscle, have no energy, or just generally feel awful. You can eat junk and still lose weight if it fits your macros, but it’s not ideal. Focus on whole foods and hitting your protein goal.

My ideal macros that I recommend for natural bodybuilding especially those wanting to be lean or maintain leanness are as follows:

  • 40-45% of total calories for protein.
  • 20-25% of total calories for fat.
  • 35-40% of total calories for carbs.

You can break this down into meals. One small meal before the gym (mix of complex and quick carbs and proteins), one small or medium meal after the gym, one medium or large meal at dinnertime, and a light or small meal with slow digesting proteins and complex carbs before bed.

Can you eat junk and still lose weight? Yes.

Should you? Not if you care about muscle, strength, and performance.

Recommendations for Cutting

I have only simple, and easy to follow instructions for cutting. They are hard because they require discipline, and good habits.

  • Eat high protein to keep muscle. Higher than maintaining, or for bulking.
  • Time carbs around workouts. Do not cut carbs. You need them to fuel your workouts.
  • Get enough fats for hormones. Do not cut out fat entirely. Your nervous system, and brain is almost entirely fat, or insulated in fat.
  • Avoid extreme deficits. Never aim to lose more than 1-2 lbs a week (.5 kg to 1 kg). That is usually only a deficit of 250-500 calories. Sustainable deficit = no crash dieting.

Summary

Losing weight is about being in a calorie deficit primarily. Macros are crucial for muscle maintenance, energy, and hormonal balance. While junk foods can fit into your diet, the priority should be on eating a high protein balanced diet with carbs timed around your workouts. A crash diet isn’t sustainable long term, and therefore always focus on a slow cut.

You are what you eat…

Redefining My Life: How Fitness Helped Me Find Strength After Years of Struggle

Introduction

I grew up in an extremely rural environment as a child and teenager. It was extremely rough at times I’ll admit. I didn’t fit in anywhere much when there were people my age around, and that got rarer and rarer the older I got. Until basically by age 18 it was just me, myself and I. I felt incredibly rejected. This feeling of rejection and isolation would extend until my mid to late 20s. And likewise, whatever it was about me I had an extremely difficult time making friends and meeting women.

Although I saw the most changes in my body in my late 20s and later again now in my mid 30s I will say absolutely on some level my mind wasn’t as healthy as my body.

Naturally, I am shy and introverted. Quite quiet as well. However, my job forces me to interact with numerous people on a daily basis. And it has given me over the years an ability of sorts to put on a performance. Such that I can wear a mask as I need to in social environments and one which is the one an individual or group of individuals want or need to see. This may sound manipulative but it’s a rather tried and true tactic of anyone who has ever been in any sort of public role as an introvert or shy person.

Without getting physically stronger and bigger than most people I doubt I’d have the confidence I have now and I doubt I’d have the respect on some level. When I was a really skinny guy working security jobs it was a daily occurrence to get fucked with. Now, it’s a rather extremely rare occurrence. You’ll always get one or two types of people who are hot headed to the extreme and just cannot calm down regardless. Other than that it’s fairly easy sailing if you’re both big and intimidating looking.

Early Struggles

Most of my life I was either obese or skinnyfat. I was skinnyfat for my early 20s for the most part due to living in extreme poverty for a lot of it. I just couldn’t get enough calories in to even be a normal size for a guy my height. There was no money to support it. And when I was obese or overweight I dealt with quite a lot of bullying.

On top of that a naturally shy or introverted person gets fucked with. People take quietness as a sort of invitation to mess with you. And you aren’t really scoring numerous dates and you won’t be very popular.

Overall my teen years to early 20s really lowered my self esteem quite a bit. And the loneliness and isolation from people, along with being chronically online and other factors going on (drug use in my 20s and abusive toxic relationships or friendships when I did manage to land one) I was totally at rock bottom.

Although I bounced back by age 28, a year or so later I’d be back worse off than I ever was before. I only gained any sort of female interest at that time perhaps due to being fit. But it was short-lived.

The Turning Point

I decided that I had to do something about my life. While in my late 20s I decided to get in the best shape physically, and this helped a lot massively, my mindset was still stuck back in the past, my self esteem was beyond dismal, and overall I was healthy physically but not mentally.

I had gotten myself into an extremely bad relationship with a woman who was honestly a malignant narcissist. She took away everything I had ever worked for in life. And ripped the soul out of me. Slowly but surely I was diagnosed with Bipolar and C-PTSD.

I wanted my sanity back, I wanted my body back and even better than before, I wanted out of the dead end jobs I was working on, I wanted out of living with my parents again, and most of all I wanted my sobriety back.

It wasn’t anything miraculous or something spectacular. No, I simply decided enough was enough and I moved. I went back to college even though I was way older than my classmates. I quit all drugs cold turkey.

And for the last two years it’s been nothing but gym sessions, making money, thinking positive and aiming high. Also landed myself a beautiful, loving and supportive girlfriend while I was at it.

Resilience Through Fitness

Fitness taught me discipline more than even the military did. I didn’t have anyone ordering me to eat well or workout. I didn’t have any motivation besides not being unhealthy anymore. The onus was all on me to succeed. And failure wasn’t an option.

Building muscle and losing fat taught me patience. I had to learn about anatomy, nutrition, macros, meal planning, and so forth. I had to track my calories meticulously. And my portions. Some nights I spent 4 hours at the gym to get up for 8am the next morning for class.

Most of all I just went to the gym regardless of if I wanted too or not. I needed too. Not wanted too.

You can’t be 50 percent healthy. If your body is healthy and your mind isn’t you aren’t fit. If your body is unhealthy and your mind is healthy then you aren’t fit either.

Self transformation is always internal but produces external results with enough patience. Patience is the virtue. Resilience is what keeps you patient in even the bleakest of time.

Without either patience nor resilience then natural bodybuilding isn’t for you.

Conclusion

I do not have any natural god given talents or elite genetics. When I want something I simply go for it and work hard for it. Day in and day out. I didn’t want to be the fat kid who got bullied anymore. I didn’t want to be the skinny guy who got messed with and was scared of everybody.

The only solution was to pick up the barbell and put down the fork.

All I can say is, if you are reading this and going through what I did then, don’t complain, workout, stay focused, be patient, have discipline and grind. You’ll get there.

Thanks for reading.

Discipline, Not Genetics

Physique as of February 2025



Alright, here’s a reality that I am hyper aware of. Genetics. Do I have great or elite genetics? I most definitely do not. However, I think most people that aren’t well versed in diet, nutrition and proper exercise routines would guess that I do or did.

In fact, with most things in life including fitness I was a late bloomer. I started from the opposite end of being severely obese and out of shape. But in a year, I transformed my body, my mind, and my life. Not because of luck, and certainly not because of genetics, but because I simply knew what I wanted and I always work relentlessly in life to get what I want. I wanted more than anything else to lose that weight and be in shape. And my sanity and independence back.

Usually guys who work out will either develop severe vanity, or severe body dysmorphia. Usually the most narcissistic are the most insecure amongst them. However, this isn’t always the case as there is always someone who is at an elite level and well aware of it, but has the maturity of a six year old. Usually though the more elite level someone is then the more you can expect them to be humble and hypercritical — never on others but on themselves. Sometimes comments come from someone’s place of insecurity. You look better than them how is it possible? Therefore, they have to accuse you of taking steroids or other drugs. Either that or insult some perceived lagging muscle group. Or call you fatter than you are. Or smaller.

I gotta say I’m not a saint and I’ve battled my own doubts and demons too, but I never got into fitness to impress anyone else. I did it for the man in the mirror. It was all for me. No one else. And now I use that energy simply as a means to inspire others.

I have my own fitness goals beyond where I’m at now still despite losing 70 lbs (approx 31.8kg) and likewise strength goals. But I don’t workout for women or to impress other men. I hope it just shows that even if you’re starting from a rock bottom position (obesity) you can do a lot for your body and life in a year if you hyperfocus on it and keep at it consistently and with a lot of discipline. And take accountability and responsibility for your own life and progress. A typical fat person’s excuse is always oh it’s my genetics.

Look at my pictures and tell me I got great genetics especially from my starting point. Nah. It’s an excuse. Anybody can be lean and muscular. I prove that. That’s the point I try to make. Could care less about looking like some underwear model.

My transformation seems easy. Yet it required hyperfocus, brutal discipline, and consistent hard work. No shortcuts. No magic. Just showing up every day at the gym (usually at night) and pushing harder than the day (or night ;)) before. It wasn’t very glamorous — yet effective, and that’s exactly the point I want to make.

Anyone can be lean and muscular. Anyone can transform. But you have to want it badly enough to work for it every single day.

Physique in December 2023

30-Day Ironclad Self-Discipline Challenge: 7 Powerful Habits for Unstoppable Success

In the popular style of many 30 day or 60 day challenges. I am creating one here for my valued readers. These are all simple habits anyone can start doing at any time and anywhere. No matter who they are or what they know.

For the next 30 days, you will live by and seek to internalize these habits for increased discipline, health, fitness and financial success. As well as getting enough rest and sleeping properly.

Habit #1 – Wake up 4 hours earlier than usual

While these babies are sleeping…we are either getting fitter or smarter or richer.

Most people start their mornings before work, college, or whatever else is on the agenda by waking up an hour or two before their day starts. Someone who wakes up 4 hours earlier than usual (for a 9-to-5 lifestyle, that means 5 AM, and for an 8-to-4, that means 4 AM) gains an extra two hours of time.

The key here is that you gain time to actually wake up, plan your day, and get a workout in during the quietest part of your day. Of course, all while everyone else is still asleep and probably making excuses to skip it later. The day hasn’t even started, and they’ve already called it quits

Research shows that the brain is most alert during the first few hours of waking up. Early risers tend to be more focused and productive because they aren’t distracted by the events of the day. This is due to the circadian rhythm, which affects cognitive performance.

Early mornings allow for a calm period to reflect, meditate, workout, or plan your day, reducing stress before it builds up. Or before you run out of time to do them. Instead they’ve already been done because you got out of bed and got to work.

Achieving something early in the day, such as completing a workout, builds confidence and momentum.

By taking advantage of the quiet early morning hours, you can build discipline, improve your mood, and enhance productivity, all while achieving better results in the gym and in life.

Finding it hard to achieve: gradually wake up 15 minutes earlier each day until you’re at your target time. Use those early hours to focus on your biggest tasks, whether it’s self-development, working on your goals, or simply getting ahead in your work. Ensure you get at least 6.5 to 8 hours of sleep.

Habit #2 – Get 8 hours of sleep every night

No sleep, no gains.

While a lot of people may tell you that you don’t need sleep any bodybuilder or professional worth their weight in salt knows the value of a good night’s sleep. Ideally you want to hit 8 hours a night. If you are going to be waking up at 5am, then you are going to be in bed at 9pm and certainly no later than 11pm.

Establish a consistent bedtime and stick to it. Avoid screens and big meals before bed. Make sure your sleeping environment is dark, cool, and quiet. Prioritize sleep over late-night distractions.

In other words, your phone, laptop and other gadget’s don’t go to bed with you.

Quality sleep benefits your cognition, improves your memory, and improves decision making abilities. Sleep is especially important for those working out or recovering from physical strain, or illness. Sufficient sleep helps regulate mood and emotions, therefore, decreasing anxiety and irritability.

Sleep regulates important hormones, including cortisol (stress hormone) and ghrelin (hunger hormone) all of which will affect your health and body composition.

Habit #3 – Complete a to-do list with at least 5 tasks daily

Every night, 15 to 20 minutes before bed you are going to take out a notepad and a pen. And you are going to write down 5 to 10 tasks that you can realistically accomplish and that need to be done or are even overdo already. No more procrastinating and no more bullshitting yourself. This is a solid but simple system for staying accountable and making real progress. If you commit to this every night, you’ll be miles ahead in no time.

This nightly habit is a powerful accountability tool that helps you stay focused, productive, and disciplined. By writing down tasks each night, you create clarity, direction, and momentum for the next day.

Waking up with a plan prevents wasted time and energy on deciding what to do. While it’s important to be flexible sometimes being utterly fucking clueless about what you need to get done in a run of a day will compound into weeks, months and then years of wasted time. You can’t sulk about what time you already burned away but you can recapture the time you have left. And most importantly no one is guaranteed any amount of time. Every second, every minute and every hour counts.

Priotizing what matters in life and needs to be done and then spending the day ahead doing them is powerful. No other word suffices. Only a powerful man or woman does that. They decide on what needs to be done no matter how big or small, write it down and they go about it task by task.

Do the most important tasks first and that means especially the ones you dread, the ones you hate and the ones you have been putting off for days, weeks or even years.

Knowing what you need to do fuels motivation, builds discipline and gives you purpose. Achieving them gives you confidence and life experience. And small positive habits compound over time.

30 minutes a day for a year is:

1 year = 182.5 hours (7.6 full days)

5 years = 912.5 hours (38 full days)

That’s over a month of nonstop work in five years.

If applied to skill-building, fitness, or personal growth, this compounds into mastery and transformation over time. Small, consistent efforts lead to massive long-term results.

Writing things down will give you more mental clarity and structure. Doing them will build confidence and long term results with even consistent small efforts.

Habit #4 – Answer yes or no without hesitation

A man of inaction is universally resented by most types of people. He can’t decide what he wants in life and doesn’t have the backbone to say no to the things he doesn’t want too. Instead, there has to be some sort of excuse given or reason given if he doesn’t want too. Or failing that he just says “yes”, does it, and isn’t satisfied.

Next time someone asks you a “yes”, or “no” question the answer from now on is a “yes”, or “no”. Without giving an explanation unless absolutely necessary. And when one is given it is a simple direct sentence.

Boundaries and limits are important to set. While compromise can be a part of life, it doesn’t mean being a doormat or a passive non agent in life. When someone asks you to do something you do not want to do then you are going to tell them: “no”.  On the other end, you say “yes” if it is something you actually want to do. There is no more maybes. No more excuses. No more white lies.

“No I don’t want to do that.”

Or

“Yes, I can do that for you.”

Your time is money. Don’t waste it letting others make your decisions for you and how to spend your time. Live with no excuses and no hesitation. You want it, it’s a yes and if you don’t then it’s a no. Simple.

Habit #5 – Always carry a notebook and pen

Genius can strike at any opportunity. So can ideas, thoughts, feelings, and anything else that pops into mind. If you don’t want to lose track of that momentum or line of thought then it’s best to write it down as soon as it comes to you. Even if in a short hand, messy, and jotted down format.

Get in the habit of writing things down as soon as they come to mind. Whether it’s a new idea, a task to remember, or something you want to explore later.

Ideas come when you least expect them. If you’re not ready to capture them, you’ll lose them. Your notebook is your tool for staying on top of your thoughts.

In today’s world everybody has a smart phone and usually that has some sort of notepad app or way to text or message yourself even. Use that time wasting doom scrolling gadget that keeps you up all night on pornhub for some good for once. Even that is a start.

In the military we were taught to always have a pen and paper to write things down. A notebook we could carry in our breast pocket and something to write in it.

From now on you are going to copy this lesson from the military school of life and write down any ideas that randomly pop into your mind. In addition to that you have a handy way to easily take down anyone’s contact information and other information. That doesn’t need a battery or plug in. And isn’t on cloud storage.

Habit #6 – Eat no more than 3 meals a day, no snacking

Assuming you don’t have any issues with your blood sugar and you aren’t burning over 2500-3000 calories a day doing cardio, then snacking is something that can add in excess calories and lead to excess unfavorable weight gain.

Calorie wise and macro wise it does not matter how you get your calories in or meet your macros as long as you reach your set goals. However, restricting or moderating snacking will help you further reach those goals.

Too many meals and snacks throw your energy off. Stick to eating 2 or 3 meals a day, and avoid snacking in between. Give your body time to digest and reset. Try intermittent fasting by eating lunch and dinner, but skipping breakfast.

Habit #7 – Do something every day that moves you closer to your goal

Every single day you should be working towards your main goal or goals in life. Towards your dream. Achieving the goal physique, goal career or business you want, the relationships you want to have with people socially and romantically, and whatever else you have set your mind too.

Too many people see only results and not the work that went in. They say it’s all gotta be luck, circumstances, genetics, and so forth. They are only spinning their weeks by going to the gym to look the same as they did last week, last month and last year. Likewise working the same dead end jobs with no room for promotion or growth.

If you don’t like the life you have then it’s time to stop being a crybaby, or lazy and time to get to work.

Final Words

These seven habits separate the disciplined from the average. Waking up early, prioritizing rest, staying organized, making decisive choices, capturing ideas, eating with intention, and taking daily action all lead to a stronger, more successful life. Master these habits, and you’ll gain an edge most people will never have.

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