No Nonsence Six Pack

No NoNonsense Nonsense6 Muscle 6Pack PackBuilding

Introduction Preface Preface

IMPORTANT This is a step-by-step program that involves gradual but consistent progression to the point of lifting very heavy weights. Proper warm-up is mandatory before every workout to ensure that you protect your tendons, ligaments and joints from injury. Although exercise is beneficial, and this program has been created to progress beginners to advanced and elite training levels, there is still the risk of injury. Vince DelMonte and its owners, agents, affiliates and employees will not be held responsible or liable for any injury sustained while lifting or moving weights at your home, gym or elsewhere. Always consult with your physician before beginning any weight-training program or other exercise plan, even if it is progressive in nature. If you experience any strain or pain while training, stop and immediately consult your family doctor.

You Are Getting Everything In Your Life That You Deserve – Based On The Person You Are & The Decisions You Make If You Are Happy With What You Are Getting Then Keep Doing What You Are Doing.

“NOTHING Will Change Until YOU Decide To Make It Happen.” -Vince DelMonte & Peter Carvell-

© Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.

Page 2 of 111 www.YourSixPackQuest.com

No NoNonsense NonsenseMuscle 6 PackBuilding

Table of Introduction Contents

No Nonsense 6 pack Your Six Pack in Six Months: The No Nonsense Fat Loss System By Vince DelMonte

TaBLE oF ContEntS

Introduction

Page 4

Chapter 1 15 Reasons You Won’t Get A Six Pack

Page 7

Chapter 2 Your Six Pack Motivation Plan

Page 28

Chapter 3 Your Six Pack Weight Training Plan

Page 44

Chapter 4 Your Six Pack Cardio Plan

Page 53

Chapter 5 Your Six Pack Meal Plan

Page 63

Chapter 6 Your Six Pack Supplement Plan

Page 89

Chapter 7 Your Six Pack Lifestyle Plan

Page 99

Closing


Page 110



Introduction Introduction

INTRODUCTION “Everyone has the ability to create a beautiful body; the potential is already inside of you.” Welcome! Your six pack quest could be the toughest challenge you’ll ever face. Peter would tell you that, and I can tell you that from personal experience. To me, having a six-pack represents more than vanity and being shallow – it represents someone who is TRULY committed to their goals. Many authors would congratulate you in their welcome message for “taking action” and ordering this program but I’ll hold off on the lip service. I’m going to hold off on my “congratulations” until you replace your pot-belly “before” pictures with a set of “after” pictures showing off your chiseled, rock-hard, washboard abs! When Peter, 276 lbs and clinically obese, emailed me two years ago telling me about his “six pack quest,” I wished him good luck and brushed him off in my head because I get hundreds of emails each week from clients who talk BIG but never come through. Interestingly, it’s always the client or customer who purchases my program, never talks big, and never has any email communication with me that sends me his or her incredible transformation story a few months later and says, “Thanks for the program, check out the results I got…!” Peter was one of those success stories - and we’ll get into the system he followed shortly. I want to stress that just because you are reading this book does NOT mean that you are ready to change! Do you have a gym membership you never use? Do you say you’re going to go tomorrow, but don’t? Have you spent hundreds of dollars on programs, hoping for a quick fix and a new body? Will you be someone who only takes the first step (reading the book) but never takes the second and third and fourth step of following through day by day? I want to tell you the most important thing I told Peter before he began his journey. Peter said to me, “Vince, what if it does not work?” I said, “What do you mean, ‘it?’” Peter said, “The program – what if it does not work?” I immediately got frustrated because I realized that Peter was not truly committed to his goals yet. He had not made a DECISION to be successful. He was putting the responsibility on the program to work instead of putting the responsibility on him to © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




make the program work. I said, “Peter, the program will not fail you; only you can fail yourself.” That’s when Peter discovered he had never truly taken responsibility for his health and his overweight body. It was not his new job’s fault, it was not his long hours’ fault, it was not his friends’ fault, it was not his personal trainer’s fault, it was not the chocolates’ and sweets’ fault, it was not his genetics’ fault - it was HIS fault and his fault only. That is when the light bulb went off in Peter’s head and he suddenly realized a belief that I hold true in my life.

EVERYONE HAS THE ABILITY TO BE GREAT. I believe that we were all created to be GREAT. But if this is so, what has happened to most of us? Whether it is your jaded beliefs about life’s limitations, cultural perceptions of what is possible or a circle of friends who share negativity about life, I believe that YOU have the decision to accept or reject these limiting beliefs and to embrace your full ability. Peter realized he had the power to make the decision to regain his health and the ability to sculpt a body he could be proud of. It was not too late for Peter and it’s not too late for you! Peter said this recently: “Man, making the decision to get my abs required SO many lifestyle changes, so much dedication, and persistence, but it was worth it.” He also wanted to share this: “There will be days you want to quit, and you’re going to have to work SO hard mentally and physically, but I kept reminding myself that this was more than looking good; it was about creating a wonderful new life that would provide me with more energy, more confidence so I could be more successful in all areas of my life.” Both Peter and I would tell you - whether you believe it or not – everyone has the ability to create a beautiful body; the potential is already inside of you. You wouldn’t be reading this book right now if you did not have some degree of motivation. Despite how much Peter thanks me, I always remind him, “It was all you bro – you made the decision to follow my advice - not me.” Yes, I am about to empower you with the tools and information that will turn your paunch and sag into a killer set of washboard abs, but don’t ever put the responsibility back on me – this is all about you!

I’ve got the program. I’ve got the tools. I’ve got the expertise.





You’ve got the desire, the motivation, the drive and the commitment. And if you don’t have it now, you will find it along the way. It’s time to get to the system that helped Peter go from 276 lbs down to 176 lbs in just six months - the system that Peter followed to lose over 20% body fat in just 24 weeks, and the same system that is going to help you get your fittest, leanest and sexiest body EVER! If you follow this through to the end, this will be one of the most exciting times of your entire life! To your six pack quest, Vince DelMonte




Introduction Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

15 REASONS YOU WILL NOT GET A SIX PACK 1. Not Defining a Strong Enough “Why”

Perhaps the most important question you should ask yourself before beginning Your Six Pack Quest is, “Why do I want a six-pack?” I will be using the word “six-pack” to represent the highest level of fitness you can achieve. I understand that many of you would simply be happy with 30 lbs less, looser clothes and a flatter stomach. When I say, “six-pack” it represents the highest goal you can set for yourself physically. Give yourself a moment and ask yourself that question, and with whatever answer you come up with ask, “Why do I want that…” and then ask, “Why is that important to me?” and keep asking, “Why? Why? Why?” Seriously, if you think about it, a six-pack by itself is useless. But, chances are, a sixpack is something that can “buy” you what you want. A six-pack can buy you respect, pride, achievement, sex, power, health, identity and many other motivations. Until you define your “why” strong enough you will have a very hard time staying motivated and waking up each morning to chase your goal. I’m sure if you keep asking “why” you will discover a very emotional, but maybe not logical, reason. How emotional that reason is will determine your success. For example, a woman who says, “I want to lose all the fat to look good in my wedding dress,” is going to be far less successful than one who keeps asking “why” until she realizes that she wants to look good in her wedding dress because it’s a third generation dress that her mother, her grandmother and her great-grandmother wore, and she does not want to disgrace the family name! You see the difference in “whys?” Until you dig up the emotional reason of your “why” it will be easy to ignore your goals when the going gets tough. Asking the reason “why” and defining it strongly enough revolves around meaning, and if something has meaning to us, we focus our efforts on it.

So, let me ask you again, “Why do you REALLY want a six-pack?”





2. Not Being Truly Committed To Your Goals On a scale of 1 to 10 how committed are you to achieving your goals? It’s amazing how many clients walk into my office and say, “Yeah, I want to lose 40 lbs.” But thenwhen I ask them how committed they are to losing that 40 pounds on a scale of 1-10, they reply, “I would say I’m about a 7 or so…” and then they come up with multiple reasons why they are not a 10 out of 10. Trust me, I’ve heard every reason: • • • • •

Well I have a family and kids to attend to… I have a busy job that takes up lots of time… I’m not exactly sure if I’ll get the results… I don’t know what I’m doing… I don’t know if I’ll stay motivated…

I’m not here to tell you what your priorities are but I can tell you that your commitment level will reflect the results you get. If you’re only putting out 70% effort, don’t expect 100% return. If you are an 8 or 9 out of 10, let me ask you, “What is holding you back from being a 10 out of 10?” I want to state very clearly that if you TRULY want to get a ripped midsection that will make people envy you then you MUST be a 10 out of 10. I don’t care what’s going on in your life; you will NOT casually lose 30-40 lbs without being committed to your goals. I have never met anyone who has done this. That’s like casually making a million dollars – it doesn’t happen without putting in your “road work!” This is a very important question to ask because it will teach you a lot about yourself. Because I’m honest and straight-up with my clients I’ve helped many of them realize that the reason they have only had short-term success is because they really aren’t that serious. I have no problem telling someone, “You know what – it doesn’t sound like you’re that serious about your goals and I can’t help you until you get your commitment level up to a 10 out of 10.” In the past five years as a trainer, I’ve turned away thousands of dollars from potential clients I chose not to work with because I knew they were not truly serious about relieving their pain and doing what they said they wanted to do. And you know what? That’s OK. If you’re not that serious, at least you can be honest with yourself and admit that you aren’t committed to doing certain things that would help you achieve your goals. That’s actually a powerful way to determine how committed you are. Ask yourself this question, “What am I NOT willing to do?”

When you ask yourself this question you will see the REAL you.





For example - if you are not willing to wake up at 5 am to work out because that’s the only time in the day to train and you would rather take an extra hour of sleep – guess what? That’s not true commitment! If you are not willing to spend an extra hour on Sunday to cook your meals for the following week because you would rather watch a football game, then guess what? That’s not commitment. If you’re not willing to cut out the rum and cokes on the weekends because you like your party life too much, then guess what? That’s not true commitment. A problem I faced with Peter (and many other clients) is that he didn’t even know what true commitment really was. I realized I was partly to blame for some of my clients’ failures. How can I ask you to be truly committed if you don’t even know what it looks like?! So my question to you is, “Where and when in your life have you had the greatest success because of your commitment?” Think about it. Perhaps you have a very healthy marriage? Maybe you have a tremendous relationship with your children? Perhaps you have a booming business or career? Maybe you have a killer social life? Maybe you have an extremely strong spiritual relationship with God? Maybe you’re a straight A student?

Now ask yourself how and why you are committed to those goals. Can you transfer the same characteristics and qualities from your family, business, spiritual or social life into your physical world? You need to have the same commitment as the Spanish settlers when they traveled to the New World. I don’t remember much from history class but the captains of the boats got a 10 out of 10 commitment from their sailors. When the settlers ventured into the New World that was dark and daunting - far away from the comfort of home the Captains burned the boats to the ground! Back then there were no trains, planes or automobiles, and they burned their only means of transportation back home. That is TRUE commitment. They gave themselves no way out – essentially they locked themselves in a room and threw away the key so they were forced to follow through on their commitment. First they made their commitment and then their commitment made them! Are you ready to do the same?





3. Believing You Are Too Old To Get Lean It’s true that maintaining a healthy weight becomes more difficult as you age. Despite that, most people eat less food with age – typically, your activity level and lifestyle tame down quite a bit too, decreasing your energy output and resulting in fat gain. I will tell you and research will tell you that the main reason you are gaining weight with age is not because of your age but because you are losing muscle with age! I’ve read studies that state you can lose five-10 pounds of muscle every 10 years starting at the young age of 25. I bet you young folk don’t feel so invincible now! By the age of 65, you can experience a drop in metabolism by as much as 25%, which can work out to a daily metabolic drop of 500 calories, which can often result in a brand new spare tire (and not the kind you keep in your trunk). The good news is that numerous studies show – even over the age of 60 – that you can reverse muscle loss and rebuild the metabolism of your youth. The news is so good that by maintaining your muscle mass you can reduce the drop of 5-7% per year to 0.36% per year - and with the weight training, nutrition and supplement plan I’m going to show you in this book, you can even crank your metabolism higher than when you were in your 20’s! So if you believe you can NOT build muscle mass with age or at least maintain muscle mass with age – then stop reading and give up right now. If you don’t believe me, next time you’re at the gym, look for the oldest and most muscular guy. Notice that he is also extremely lean? Adding or maintaining lean muscle mass is your secret weapon to your six pack quest.

4. Not Understanding The Reasons You Burn Fat Notice that I did not say, “Not understanding the reasons you burn calories.” Everybody knows that when you exercise you burn calories from carbs, proteins and fats. But you shouldn’t care about burning calories from proteins and carbs because that has nothing to do with getting rid of the ugly fat on your arms, stomach, thighs and butt.

Following an incorrect plan will cause you only to burn the sugars in your muscle and sometimes burn your precious muscle for energy. The plan you’re going to follow is designed to dig deep into your fat stores and burn the most stubborn fat for energy. Here is an important lesson that you must grasp – one of the most important lessons I shared with Peter and one I’ll share with you:





In other words, your body will not burn fat unless your body needs energy. Your body will not tap into your fat stores unless it needs to because it requires energy (increased metabolism) to break down the fat bonds. My friend John Berardi uses this analogy: “Breaking fat down when it’s not necessary is like running your heater on high with the windows open on a hot summer night. You don’t need the heat!” So what is the safest and most effective way to burn fat? Create the highest energy demand possible and you will never struggle with weight loss again. Your metabolism will selfishly and anxiously incinerate body fat for energy, leaving you with a twopack, then a four-pack, and eventually your six-pack if you can burn off all the stored energy (fat) on your body! That’s what I told Peter. “Peter, you know what fat really is? It’s just stored energy. People who say they can’t lose the lower ab fat or last 10 lbs simply have not trained hard enough to burn off that lost 10 lbs of stored energy.” A little different than trying to starve the fat off your body, correct? Your goal is to burn the fat off your body! Let’s look at the times when your body has the greatest chance to use your “stored energy,” or “stubborn fat.” During Exercise: Depending on the nature and intensity of the exercise, you can increase your metabolism up to 20-fold on the highest end. Most people train at intensities that only increase their metabolism 2- to 5-fold. Even if you are an animal when you train, work out 60 minutes a day, seven days a week, what about the other 23 hours in the day and the other 161 hours in the week? You are only burning calories 4% of the time (and that’s assuming the best case scenario). We’ll talk about those other hours of the day in a moment. After Exercise: What happens after you work out, depending on the intensity of your workout and nature of your workout (sprinting and weights work best), is that your body has to pay back the energy it has spent and your metabolism stays high for an additional 1-2 hours. This is best known as the afterburn effect. A lot of research shows that you can sustain an afterburn effect for up to 24 hours, which means that when you head off to work, back to your family or off to the movies, you’ll still be burning calories. I’m sure you’re thinking, “So how do I maximize the afterburn effect?”

Your Six Pack Quest will show you how. During Repair: Imagine borrowing a huge sum of money from your line of credit. This is the equivalent of a very hard workout that damages your body. After you borrow the money you realize that you will be in debt for a long time. The greater the line of credit, the greater the shock to your body and mind, and the longer it takes to pay back the debt you created. This is the equivalent of what happens to your metabolism after a hard weight training or cardio session. The damage you inflict on your body is costly to repair, and as a result, you get a boost in metabolism. Guess what © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




happens when you train in a way your body is familiar with? There is very minimal, if any, muscle damage, and your metabolism stays the same. That’s why new trainees sometimes gain weight when they first start working out. They train with zero intensity, think their body needs more calories because they are “working out,” and because their training regime is so tame they gain weight! Eating “Expensive” Foods: Certain foods “cost” more energy to breakdown and metabolize than others. For example, protein is a very “costly” food compared to carbs and fat. If you were to eat 100 calories of fat - let’s say a tablespoon of butter - your body would “gain access” to 97% of those calories because it is efficient in breaking down fats and using them for fuel. But with carbs, your body is less efficient. For every 100 calories you eat, the body will only gain access to 88-90% of them. The other calories are “burned away” in the process of breaking down the food. Since breaking down carbs “costs” energy we can say there is small boost in metabolism from eating them. However, the body is most inefficient at breaking down protein. For example, if you ate a chicken breast that yields 200 calories, the body is roughly “gaining access” to only 80% of those calories. Therefore your 200 calorie chicken breast would really yield 160 calories. Where do the other 40 calories go? They are “wasted” or burned away for the work required in breaking down the food. Starting to see why proteins can make you very lean very fast? When You Gain Lean Muscle Mass: Your body turns over new cells and tissue every few hours and this daily demolition and reconstruction process burns calories. Your muscles are cells too and require a greater amount of calories to maintain themselves, routinely breaking down and building up new proteins. For every extra pound of muscle you add to your body you will burn up to an additional 50 calories a day – even while you are at the movies. Consider that if you add an extra 10 pounds of lean muscle mass (which is not uncommon for beginners in the first four months), you will burn an extra 500 calories a day or an extra one pound per week (since 3,500 calories roughly equals one pound of weight).

That’s an extra 182,500 calories burned per year, which means you’ll burn off and/or keep off 52 pounds per year! You see why your muscular friends can go away on an all-inclusive vacation, not work out, pig out and come back just as lean? They have so much muscle on their bodies that they just burn off the excess calories. It’s like the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. But in our case, the lean stay lean and the fat get fatter.





5. Obsessing Over Calorie Counting You probably know a few people who actually like counting calories, and if you are one of them, and it works for you, don’t fix what’s not broken. Interestingly, Peter and I never spoke about calorie counting during the entire six months. I had no interest (nor did he) in punching numbers. I’m sure you know someone who has lost a lot of weight, and if you ask them how many calories they’re taking in they’ll reply, “I’m not sure,” or they’ll give you some ball park number. An important lesson to learn is that not all calories are created equal. Let’s say calorie counting did work and I needed 2,500 calories a day to lose weight. Does that mean I could consume 2,500 calories of chips and Doritos because I’m in a caloric deficit? Does that mean I will get the same lean and ripped body eating 2,500 calories of Buffalo wings instead of 2,500 calories of steamed chicken breast? No! Ignoring the science (and common sense) that not all calories are created equal ignores the fact that different foods act differently on your body, digesting at different rates, causing the release of different hormones, affecting your ability to lose fat and your ability to gain muscle. Don’t get me wrong, the meal plans you will be following are based on certain macronutrient breakdowns and calories, but if you were to transfer your efforts to simply eating the right foods then you would notice a dramatic change in body composition.

6. Lack of Compliancy I’m not sure if I learned this from John Berardi or Alwyn Cosgrove but it was advice that I passed onto Peter when he approached me about his six pack quest. As a personal trainer for the past five years I’ve discovered that people don’t come to me for “weight loss.” They come to me to look good naked, improve their health, increase their energy, get back into their old clothes and other reasons. I became very aware that my clients were coming to me for one reason – RESULTS - and if I failed to design a meal plan and training program that they could comply with, and be committed to, they would fail. I’ve seen many trainers set their clients up for failure by designing an unrealistic plan. For example, how realistic is it for an obese person to go from eating two Big Macs and fries for lunch to chicken breast and spinach? It’s not going to happen! In my opinion, it’s the trainers’ fault that client did not succeed because they were too afraid to create an “easier” plan the client could comply with.





Personally, if I had a client who was eating two Big Macs and a Coke each day for lunch, I would say, “Well, let’s cut that down to one Big Mac and a Diet Coke,” so the change is not as drastic. Most people fail because they are asked to make major changes right out of the gate. After years of living a certain way it’s unrealistic to expect people to completely transform their lifestyle just because they start a new program. I was very aware not to make this mistake with Peter. Without my years of experience working with overweight individuals, I would have probably written out the hardest diet, similar to a bodybuilder’s pre-contest diet, thinking that was the right way. Giving a beginner a pre-contest bodybuilder diet is like giving a beginner a five-day bodybuilding program, which would be so hard to follow that they would just give up and say, “This is too hard for me.” The last thing I wanted to do was ask Peter to make too many changes too soon. The best results come when you comply 90% of the time with a plan that is “better than yesterday.” Instead of writing the “perfect diet” I would rather write an easier one that Peter can actually follow and then progress the “intensity” of the diet as he maintains compliance. For example, when I met Peter, he was only eating two big meals a day. My first piece of advice was for Peter to eat every four hours, for a total of five times a day. I didn’t care what he ate – just as long as he was eating something. That advice helped establish the habit of eating frequently. Once he mastered that habit, we moved on to the next piece of advice - but NOT until he was 90% compliant to the first step. That is the same advice I recommend to you when following the meal plans specifically. For example, your meal plans on this program are designed “perfectly.” This means they are going to be a stretch for you if you are not used to eating properly, and they involve a lot of change which could set you up for failure. But here’s how you are going to overcome this potential pitfall: I want you to choose one habit that you will comply with 90% of the time. That could mean you’ll put ALL of your effort into eating your veggies for each meal – and do nothing else. Until you ‘master each step’ and are doing it 90% of the time, don’t even think about moving on. If we’re using the example of eating all your veggies I should tell you that 90% equates to 31 of the 35 meals you consume each week. So basically, if you only eat your veggies at 25 of your 35 meals then you are only 71% compliant. The closer you are to 90% compliancy the quicker you will see results. In the nutrition chapter, you will learn how to “periodize” your nutrition plan so you can focus on mastering one “nutrition rule” at a time. I am going to give you a stepby-step process to progress from start to finish. Each week, you’ll focus on

implementing one new habit, from basic to advanced, until the meal plans become apart of your lifestyle.





7. You’re Fat Because Of Habitual Obesity, Not Genetic Obesity Genes play a huge role in the amount of fat cells a person has, and their ability to incinerate fat stores. But who cares? Why get caught up in things we can’t control? Personally, I don’t want to know what the “percentages” are of me being able to gain muscle – I don’t need the statistics. Just give me the tools and principles and I’ll max that out and go from there. If I told you that genes played a 100% role in the way your body looks (which they don’t) would you just give up hope? Some would. If I handed you the two fattest people in the world as your parents would you accept that your destiny was to be fat too? Some would. I know you are not one of those people or else you would have given up a long time ago - and you are here reading. Let me personally applaud you! Often I have to show “tough love” to my clients and remind them that their weight issues are often the result of “habitual obesity.” Many people will say that kids born to obese parents have a 60% chance of being obese when they grow up but I have to vehemently disagree. Genetically they may be burdened, but don’t neglect the fact that most of those 60% who are obese also overeat, eat the wrong foods and do not exercise. I suggest a child born to obese parents has more like a 90% chance of becoming fat! Let me explain habitual obesity. It’s when your skinny grandparents eat every kind of junk food, never exercise, and gain 20-30 pounds of extra weight. Next, your grandparents give birth to your mom, who marries your dad who had skinny parents who slacked off too. Together, they mimic the lifestyle of their parents and bring you into the picture. As you grow up, you watch your parents indulge in poor eating habits, a lazy lifestyle, no activity, no self-control and surprise, you also become fat; probably fatter than your parents who were fatter than their parents. Although I was quite unsympathetic in my example, I hope you see that my point is clear.

Overeating, poor food choices, a lack of self-control and discipline, and extreme inactivity collectively lead to habitual obesity – even in individuals with lean parents. Sure, many doctors, textbooks and talk shows will sugar coat the truth and pat you on the back and say, “It’s not your fault,” and reassure you that it’s “genetics,” but I strongly say that an environment that supports overeating and inactivity is the true





culprit and has resulted in the genesis of lousy “genetics,” which is really habitual obesity.

8. Dieting Makes You Fat Not only are the first three letters in the word “diet” D I E, but they trigger thought processes of deprivation, restriction and failure. When I refer to the word “diet” in this book I am referring to a way of eating, but the word diet also represents a temporary way of eating. So why do diets fail? Hormonal issues: As soon as you go on a diet your stress levels go up. That increases your cortisol level and causes your adrenals to burn out since they try to make up for a lack of hormones, such as those produced by your thyroid, which controls your metabolism. That begins a downward spiral and that’s when your body begins to store fat. That’s why cutting calories more and more (as diets promote) is a losing strategy because this creates more stress on your body, more cortisol and less thyroid which damages your metabolism so much that your body becomes an instant fat gain machine. Not only will you go through this dietary hell but you’ll lose muscle mass – so it’s a double-edged sword. This program will teach you a different philosophy and how to decrease your stress, increase your energy expenditure and restore your body’s hormonal capacity to burn fat. Decrease In Metabolism – A diet encourages starvation. You starve yourself - and then you starve yourself more. When you eat less and less, your metabolism slows. Why? If I was your metabolism and you were starving me here is what I would say to you: “Whoa…. When the heck am I going to get fed again? I’d better start storing fat for energy, because I have no idea how long this fast is going to last. Good luck trying to break me down for energy while you starve yourself. I’m taking care of myself before you. I’m turning down the heat of your metabolism so I can conserve some calories.” So, as you eat less food your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) and Thermic Effect of Feeding (TEF) go down. Your Resting Metabolic Rate is the amount of calories you burn at rest and the Thermic Effect of Feeding is the amount of energy required to digest, absorb and eliminate the foods you eat. These are two massive processes that help maintain a fast metabolism, and by dieting you diminish your ability to burn fat. Dieting Burns Your Hard-Earned Muscle – Where do you think your body is going to get energy when you attempt to train hard? If your calories are so low your body will be forced to break down muscle tissue for energy because it is released quicker than © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




fat in high intense situations. Yes, you’ll lose weight on the scale but you’ll be losing muscle and water which is the weight you CAN NOT afford to lose. Your body needs food to power its workouts and dieting leads to muscle loss. Diets Don’t Last Forever – Why do people go on diets? They go on diets to lose weight and then once they do that they can go back to the way they were eating before. I wish it worked that way but unfortunately the common diets people go on are not easily maintained on a day-to-day basis. There aren’t too many people in the world who can eat steamed chicken breast and broccoli day in and day out for their entire lives. Diets Trigger Mental Stress – Do any of these comments sound familiar? “Man I have to lose weight,” “I can’t eat this… I can’t eat that…” “I need to cut this out… I need to cut that out…” “I can’t go here … I can’t go there…” My goodness, that is so stressful. As we discussed, stress causes cortisol release which leads to muscle loss and fat gain, so following a meal plan that is not stressful is a huge contributor to your six pack quest. Diets Equal Weight Regain – Dieting is a triple-edged sword. Not only will you see a reduction in metabolism and muscle mass but this will result in gaining the weight back, plus more, because your metabolism has been damaged.

9. Overemphasis on Aerobics The reality is that aerobics (referred to as low-intensity cardio) will help you burn calories, but many trainees fail to realize the pitfalls of an aerobic-based fat-loss program until it’s too late. There are a number of problems with solely relying on aerobic exercise (this also refers to any sort of cardio like walking, talking, running, cycling, swimming, stair master, aerobic classes):

Your Body Adapts Quickly – Aerobic work leads to efficiency overtime. This means that two years ago when you started running, for example, you may have burned 500 calories in a 60-minute run, but now you can only burn 400 calories during the same run. No Afterburn Effect – You know that the number of calories you burn throughout the day is more important than the amount you burn in the actual workout, and this is where aerobic cardio “misses the mark.” Let’s create a hypothetical situation using someone who uses cardio as their primary source of exercise, without weight training. The client does three 60-minute walk/jogs per week. Even though the client will, in reality, only burn 250-300 calories, let’s be generous and say they burn 500 calories per workout. With no afterburn effect (because of the low intensity), the body burns about 1,500 calories a week. There are 3,500 calories in one pound of fat. So how © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




long will it take to lose ONE POUND of fat (which might not even be all fat, it could be muscle It would take about two and a half weeks to lose ONE pound of fat on this type of program – and that’s assuming their nutrition is excellent. Is that fast enough for you?

and water too)?

You can laugh out loud with me! That means it will take about one year to lose 10 pounds! Throw in a few cheat meals and that will cancel out an entire four days of aerobic work! This type of plan does not produce the kind of results most people are looking for. Muscle Loss With Just Cardio – Most weight-loss plans that have no physical activity result in a 1:1 ratio of fat to muscle loss. For each pound of fat you lose you will also lose one pound of muscle! So the true result of someone you know who just lost 50 pounds with no exercise is actually 25 pounds of fat loss and 25 pounds of muscle loss. Now you can explain to them why they are confused because their body fat percentage is STILL the same! Even worse, losing 25 pounds of metabolically active muscle means a slowed metabolism. So what happens when you add cardio into a weight-loss plan absent of weight training? Not much different than above. The person might burn an extra five-10 pounds above the original 50, but the cardio will do nothing to preserve the muscle mass. Your quest for a six-pack has now turned into a pipe dream. Doing Aerobic Cardio Over Interval Cardio – Here, I would like to speak in defense of aerobic cardio for a moment - and I only discovered this in the real world while training myself and other fitness models and bodybuilders.

Realize that high-intensity cardio, such as interval training, creates more stress and cortisol in the body - so for an individual who is already stressed, interval cardio will result in muscle loss and fat storage. I had a female fitness athlete who was in her final weeks of contest prep when she hit a massive plateau after following a contest nutrition plan, lifestyle and weight-training program to the letter. She was also doing interval cardio and we were stumped. I was suspicious about the amount of stress on her body from the intense training and dieting so we made one change – we replaced interval cardio with low intensity walking on a slight incline, and her fat started to drop like magic. That was it. This solution worked for me and for a few other clients, so realize that low intensity is an option and can be used in certain situations. This does not only apply to physical stress, it can also apply to intense lifestyle stress however this is not an excuse to avoid hard cardio but a real life scenario you might consider applying if you are physically or mentally stressed and one





method is not working – most likely you will find success with the opposite alternative.

10. Avoiding the Weights (Resistance Training) When you add weight training to your fat-loss program, even with a severe reduction in calories, your body holds onto at least (in a worst case scenario) 80% of your muscle mass, and in Peter’s case, weight training was able to almost completely offset the amount of lost muscle mass. Peter only lost one pound of muscle in the six months on the program (which you would never know unless I told you).

Typically, here is the effect of hard dieting and exercise on metabolism: Person A: Hard diet Person B: Hard diet and cardio Person C: Hard diet and weight training

Start Weight A) 250

Finish Weight 200

Fat Loss 25 lbs

Muscle Loss Effect On Metabolism 25 lbs high

B) 250

200

28-30 lbs

20-22 lbs

medium

C) 250

200

40-45 lbs

5-10 lbs

low to none

Weight training sends a signal to the brain to “hang on” to your muscle so when you are on low calories your body is forced to burn fat instead of muscle. As soon as you start doing high reps and low intensity cardio it says, “This is easy and because this muscle makes me work so hard during the day I’m going to strip some of it off.” Cardio does not allow your body to “hold on” to muscle like weight training and as we learned earlier, adding one pound of muscle to your body can increase your daily metabolism by 50 calories, which can speed up your six pack quest quickly, when you add five-10 pounds of muscle. Here is another example that stresses how the lean get lean and the fat get fatter: Consider two individuals who both do 30 minutes on the Stairmaster each day, and both put out 70% effort (tracked by a heart rate monitor). One weighs 200 pounds and carries 180 pounds of muscle (10% body fat) and the other is 150 pounds and has 135 lbs of muscle (10% body fat). They both have the same amount of body fat but one has more muscle. © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




Who gets lean? They both do. Who gets leaner? The one with more muscle mass. Why? Despite doing the exact same workout, the factor that determines how many calories and how much fat you burn, is muscle! Here’s a metaphor. The same two people decide to drive from Toronto to Montreal, about 300 miles. One drives a Honda Civic and one drives a Hummer. They drive side by side at 60 miles an hour. Do they burn the same amount of fuel? Of course not. The bigger vehicle requires more fuel to get to the same destination at the same speed, just like the larger person burns more calories doing the same cardio workout as his/her smaller friend. Moral of the story – once again – more muscle equals more calories being burned. Some authors will go the extreme and say that no cardio is even necessary with weight training and a nutrition plan to get a lean body, but I believe adding cardio will accelerate the process.

The secret to your six pack quest, as it was for Peter, is simply small energy deficits in your nutrition plan, keeping your metabolism cranked with weight training to “hang onto” or build more muscle, and eliminating insulin spikes that result from refined carbs, simple carbs and a lack of carbs. We’ll talk about nutrition soon. I trust you see that “more is not better” when it comes to aerobic cardio, and to cement this point just look at marathon runners. Why the heck are there so many overweight marathon runners? Your body is always sorting out the checks and balances, and heavy aerobic exercise continues to backfire by lowering hormones that support muscle growth, resulting in a slowed metabolism. Is High Intensity Cardio That Much Better? Look at the start line of the 100-meter dash. Those athletes don’t run farther than 400 meters at a time and they don’t have a spec of fat on them. How can that be? Hard training forces your body to say, “Wow… this is hard… how long is this going to last for? I better dig out some fat for energy so I don’t die!” During easy training your body says, “Oh this easy… I’ve done this before. I think I’ll just burn some local sugar and save my fat for something more intense.” For our discussion, I will refer to “intensity” as level of effort measured by heart rate. The higher the intensity the higher the heart rate, and the lower the intensity the lower the heart rate. Which is going to burn more calories? A higher intensity or lower intensity? This is where a lot of people get confused, but I urge you to stick to common sense as it will guide you to the scientific and logical answer. Training at a lower intensity, such as © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




55% to 60% of your maximum heart rate, has been described as the “fat burning zone” because it promotes burning a greater amount of fat over glycogen (stored sugars). A good example is walking on the treadmill or taking a hike for 45 minutes. People have been led to believe that they are burning more fat than glycogen - which is true. But when you shift the intensity to 75% and start running on the treadmill on an incline, the body begins to burn less fat and more glycogen for immediate energy. Here is where you must apply common sense to avoid the confusion. Which will burn more total calories? Training at a higher intensity or lower intensity? The answer is higher!

Even though low-intensity cardio burns a greater percentage of fat during the workout, higher intensity cardio is more effective because it burns more TOTAL calories, resulting in more fat calories lost. Now, you are probably saying, “But I can only train that hard for 20-30 minutes before I get tired, and I can train at a lower intensity for 60 minutes no problem. Wouldn’t it be the same thing if I have no time constraints?” That’s why I recommend interval training in Your Six Pack Quest because you can still train for 45 minutes but at a greater clip. Shortly, you’ll learn the specific cardio programs this system relies on.

11. Overestimating The Power of Fat Burners I’m asked almost every day, “Which ones work or are they just hype?” If you have experimented with fat burners then you probably know that almost every one promises the world, but when it comes time to deliver, they simply come up short. I take this topic very seriously because there is so much at stake. Most “fat burning” products are sold under the names of fat burners, metabolism boosters, energy enhancers, reducing agents, thermo formulas, herbal booster and more. The ones that actually work will have a combination of ephedrine and caffeine. These drugs both have herbal sources so product manufacturers can create mixtures of guarana (a caffeine source) and ma huang (an ephedrine source) so they can be marketed as “natural” and “herbal.” © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




Beware: Caffeine is a stimulant. Ephedrine, also a stimulant, is a bronchodilator and is sold over-the-counter as an asthma medication. If you want me to drop names of some of the products I’m referring to, I’ll give you a partial list. Hydroxycut, Lipo6, Hot-Rox and Syntrax are the popular ones, and the list of other “thermogenic formulas” that have combinations of caffeine and ephedrine could go on for days. Yes, stimulants will accelerate weight loss in the short term through a variety of mechanisms but they will fail in the long run. Stimulants increase metabolism by 10% so more calories are burned during a day. They also have a diuretic effect which leads to water loss, and can suppress appetite by manipulating the neurotransmitters in your brain. And you don’t want to mess with your brain! These stimulants also increase your heart beat which is why you sweat more during your workout. Side effects include headaches, tremors and sometimes stroke and even death. Most people will not die by stacking these stimulants but there are many obese people at special risk - and when combined with hypertension – this is when death can occur. Here’s why I believe they are dangerous – especially in the long term - and why you will need to make a wise decision when it comes to using them. I say this because fat burners are here to stay due to the simple and effective marketing behind them. Here’s why: 1. Fat loss is a very emotional topic, and your wallet is attached to your heart by a string, and marketers know how to tug on that heartstring so your wallet pops out. 2. You will lose weight because of the mechanisms above so you’ll be convinced that it’s working. 3. Stacking stimulants or even stimulants on their own is very addictive. Just like recreational drugs, when dramatic dosages are taken for long periods of time, a “withdrawal” and “loss of energy” occurs when the drugs are not taken. Since this classic addiction is 100% legal, companies make a fortune. While I am not advocating ephedrine and caffeine for the average person, you should be aware that I used them myself in the last four weeks of my pre-contest preparation. I have no problem recommending ephedrine and caffeine to a healthy individual if your body needs some extra heat to boost your metabolism when you can’t take your training volume any higher or your caloric intake any lower. When your thyroid is so low from the reduced calories, this stack helps your body dig into the last bit of © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




fat. I never used more than 75 mg of ephedrine and 200 mg of caffeine a day, with one day off every three days, for four weeks at the most. For most people, this will not be necessary at all. Peter, for example, did not use any stimulants during his entire six-month transformation. There has been research to show zero negative effects of taking the similar dosage above up to three times a day for up to six months, but I am not comfortable recommending this extended dosage to anyone, and although my recommendations are quite tame compared to many books, I do not want to risk the addictive properties. I would always recommend at least four to eight weeks of recovery after any cycle. Many of you are probably wondering why I’m not scaring you about the 39 year old lady who took her fat burner as suggested by her trainer… and died (from heart failure). I certainly do not recommend that anyone with heart disease, a pre-existing heart condition, or hypertension experiment with ephedrine or caffeine. The use of ephedrine and caffeine can also increase blood pressure, cause headaches, dizziness, irregular heartbeat and increased thirst. Death is admittedly rare and the reality is that you could easily find a dozen people taking it and with no side effects – my biggest caution is the side effect of addiction and not being able to train without your “kick.” In summary, selling fat-loss in a bottle is a surefire way of making lots of money because they can be marketed as safe and cheap. With overhyped ads and their addictive properties fat burners can be a dream come true for every supplement company out there looking to make a quick buck.

12. Never Detoxing Your Body Fat loss occurs from the inside out and detoxing (cleansing) your body is a critical starting point for improving your digestive health and creating the correct internal environment to support fat loss.

Since we no longer live during the time of Adam and Eve, it’s no secret that hundreds, if not thousands, of environmental chemicals and toxins can easily find their way into the food you are relying on to increase your metabolism and burn fat, as a result of our food supply, water intake, exposure to the sun, cigarettes, stress and even the air we breath. Toxicity does not build up overnight but accumulates in small amounts over a long period of time. It’s like the rust spots on your car that have been building up over the past four years and then one day appears seemingly out of nowhere. We no longer live © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




in a world where this can be taken lightly because of our environmental challenges and processed foods. Just like spring cleaning your home or getting regular service checks on your vehicle, you should make a regular commitment to cleaning your internal organs and digestive system on a similar schedule. I recommend doing this twice a year when the seasons change - like spring and fall. So how does detoxification improve the chance of getting a ripped six-pack? Detox diets typically consist of some sort of fast to rid the body of toxins, created in your body by diets filled with processed food, alcohol, substance abuse, lack of exercise, pollutants in the air, and stress. Prior to attempting a fat-loss program it is important to dissolve and eliminate the body of toxins and congestion, to cleanse the kidneys and digestive system, to purify the glands, to eliminate hardened materials in the joints and muscles, to build a healthy bloodstream, to maintain optimal blood pressure, and to - what you are dying for me to say - lose weight. However, realize that detox diets are NOT fat loss programs although they do result in weight loss and a degree of muscle loss (which you can gain back very quickly). Don’t be fooled by claims that state you will not lose muscle while on a cleanse or detox diet. I am personally a fan of Stanley Burroughs’ Lemonade Diet (The Master Cleanser Diet can be found at http://www.thelemonadediet.com), and dropped 15 pounds while doing it for seven days. Typically, 3-10 days is perfect and will make your body feel absolutely amazing. The first three days of any detox, especially the Lemonade Diet, are the toughest, and you must plan ahead and be fully prepared to take on this fast. It’s not easy but your sleep quality will be tremendous, and you’ll find yourself waking up a few hours earlier each morning wide awake because your body is not taxed with digestion. When you return to your training program and meal plan your body will have an incredible response to both. I personally noticed a quick gain in muscle mass since my energy levels were improved and the absorption of my food was enhanced. Another excellent cleanse is taking in only raw vegetables via whole food or juicing for 5-10 days.

13. Not Monitoring Your Progress With Intuition Intuition involves having the courage to be a part of the training process by acknowledging the fact that everyone is different and that every stimulus in this program can vary in response. If you have ever emailed me a question about training volume, intensity, reps, sets, loads, how much cardio, how little cardio, how many carbs, how much protein etc., © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




you may have noticed my reply went something like this: “I have no idea – what do you think?” I ask this because I’m serious. I have no idea. This answer horrifies many people. Perhaps they have been encouraged not to think, but to be told, and conform to the social pressure not to think for themselves. I have no idea if this mentality of not thinking for yourself came from the church, government or educational courses, but I don’t believe science should regulate your thinking. Most likely you are closer to the answer than I am because you know and understand your body better than I do. Don’t be afraid to trust your “gut” or “instinct” and follow the clues your body gives you to make decisions without the fear of being “right.” You have to understand that the program I’ve designed will be downloaded by thousands and thousands of people, and for you to assume it works perfectly without any modifications or training decisions made on your part, is being foolish and naive. Using intuition allows you to decide which direction you should go next. Most people just follow my program (and still get amazing results) without making any changes and with no rationale other than because I said so. I’m not telling you to rewrite the entire program by any means but I encourage you to look at your training program more as an art rather than a science. Intuition allows you to alter things like training volume, workout intensity, number of sets and reps, less cardio, more cardio etc. Your training should always change for a solid reason and that reason should be based on your own experience, your current knowledge of yourself and your current response to the training and diet stimulus, not just because a certain number of weeks have gone by and it’s time to try the next phase. If you feel that you would benefit from a few extra reps at the end of a certain set then pump away. If you feel that you are undertrained at a certain number of sets then keep going. If you are making incredible gains on a specific “4-week phase” and feel another few weeks would benefit you then do it. If you find that 45 minutes of slow cardio is better for fat loss than 20 minutes of hard running then take responsibility from that decision and learn from it. Don’t be afraid to be involved in the training process and modify variables if your intuition tells you so. The moral of the story (as well as the flip side to all this) is don’t change something just to change it.

It’s very difficult to go wrong when you apply a set training protocol (my program) and combine it with your own intuition.





14. Not Becoming Better Than You Were Yesterday I, personally, have never heard anyone speak on this simple philosophy. I can’t remember where I heard this saying but it’s extremely powerful if executed with a long term vision. My Dad often said, “Inch by inch, life is a cinch. Yard by yard, life is hard.” This is how you should build into your diet and training program. For example, if you are eating two double cheeseburgers every day for lunch then you don’t need to start eating a steamed chicken breast today. You could eat 1.5 double cheeseburgers today and still see a positive response. Tomorrow, or next week you could eat only one double cheeseburger, then you could eat a single cheeseburger, then a homemade sandwich, then finally a steamed chicken breast. Do you see why this model is so powerful? It’s based on progression and simply “out doing” your previous day by an “inch,” not by a “yard.” Apply this to all areas of your life. If you are tying to get to bed at midnight and you are currently in bed at 2 am then don’t set yourself up for failure by attempting a two-hour improvement. This week focus on getting to bed at 1:30 am, then 1 am, then 12:30 am and finally midnight.

You will see far more success when you design a plan that you can follow - one that is realistic. Simply focusing on whatever you did yesterday – and doing it just a little better - is a proven model to getting you to your six-pack. 15. Not Learning By Doing There are two parts to learning. Gaining knowledge from a book, friend, audio or video, which is based on theory, and learning from experience, which is doing. I recommend you do both concurrently, but relying on the perception that anything can be learned by reading, watching and listening is false and dangerous. Don’t tell me my program is “low volume” or “high volume” based on a book you read. Go out and perform the program how it’s laid out and listen to your body, monitor your progress, and decide for yourself if it’s “high volume” or “low volume” based on your experience and results. You see what I am saying? Don’t tell me that a certain rep range won’t work for you because you heard another “expert” disagree with that rep range for your body type. Find out for yourself. I personally care about one thing and one thing only – results! It does not matter what © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




I say, what a text book says or what any research article claims or predicts – all that matters is what is happening.

Value this philosophy above everything else as you perform Your Six Pack Quest program and by responding appropriately, with no attachment to your prior perceptions, you’ll have your best body EVER!





Chapter 2: YOUR SIX PACK MOTIVATION PLAN

“Today’s obsessions become tomorrow’s realities.” Rosetta DelMonte (my mom)

While conducting research from my past customers and current newsletter subscribers on their obstacles to achieving a six-pack, the number one response was a lack of motivation. It looks like I have my work cut out for me.

THE MOST POWERFUL FORMULA FOR UNSTOPPABLE MOTIVATION 1. Define A Strong Enough “Why” This first step is far more important than “goal setting” (which will come later) because you will wake up many mornings and “losing 30 lbs of fat” will just not motivate you. But waking up and realizing “you want to look attractive for the new girl/guy in your class” will motivate you. The secret to staying motivated is not just having a goal, but identifying a strong “emotional why” - why you want the goal. It’s the purpose behind the goal that will get you out of bed every morning. So let me ask you, “What are YOUR reasons for wanting a six-pack?” Is it your health, like it was for Peter? Do you want more respect from your friends? Do you want to attract the opposite sex? Is it for a sense of accomplishment? Is it to define your identity? Is it to test your body’s limits? Is it to be an example to loved ones? Instead of just writing your goal of losing 30 lbs, write “Lose 30 lbs to be the most shredded guy at the staff pool party next summer and to increase my confidence to hook up with the hot blonde and to impress my buddies,” or “Lose 30 lbs to be the hot blonde at the pool party, and to hook up with the most shredded guy there.” Sure, I know this is superficial but these are emotional reasons and people take action from emotion because it’s a feeling, and feelings make you move. Logical reasons such as, “Lose 30 lbs to improve my health” are not as powerful as emotional ones like, “Lose 30 lbs to be able to backpack through Europe for two months with my grandchildren and set an positive example for my youngest grandchild struggling with her weight.”





So ask yourself these two questions as you write your goals: 1. What is the number one emotional benefit in reaching my goals? 2. Why is this emotional benefit important to me? If you’re having trouble being honest with these questions think of someone you know who is living a life that you desire. I have a buddy who is ripped to the bone year round and gets attention wherever he goes – whether we are at the movies, in South Beach Florida with models everywhere, a bodybuilding show with pros, or in Europe – this guy turns heads everywhere. Being with him is quite an emotional experience and can help you discover what you want very quickly. Think of someone you know personally that has achieved a certain lifestyle, reputation, image and health that you admire and look up to. Who is the role model to you that you want to be to others? Visualize what this person is doing right now when you lack motivation.

2. Create The Emotional Environment “Show Me Your Friends And I’ll Show You Your Future.” Luch DelMonte (my dad) I was fortunate to be raised in a very loving and supportive environment although that did not prevent me from making a series of bad lifestyle choices. I discovered how true my father’s wisdom was when I was forced to take responsibility for some poor decisions, which compromised my reputation and character, because of the friends I was hanging around. Maybe you can relate? I’ve also read, “You are the average of the top five people you hang around the most.” So if you hang out with five millionaires then I’m betting you are a millionaire or on your way to becoming a millionaire. If the five people you hang out with the most are “spiritual giants” then I’m guessing you too are one, or you’re on your way. If the top five people you associate with the most are A+ students then I’m guessing you are too. If your top five people are overweight and suffer from many health problems I’m guessing you are too or you’re on your way. Show me your friends and I’ll show you you’re future. So the lesson here is simple. Choose your friends wisely and surround yourself with people that “raise the bar” for your life, not lower it. I make a constant evaluation of the people I let into my life. If they can not bring the best out of me physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually then I have to ask why they are in my life. In return, I strive to bring out the best in my friends in those four areas as well.





Here are some ideas that will help create an environment to accelerate your six pack quest: • Join a forum or community of people with similar goals. • Train in the gym when all the “ripped” guys and gals work out and train close to their space. • Hang out with people who are outdoors a lot so you can’t hide inside - and become more conscious of what you do in public. • Hang out with a group of athletes who are constantly talking about the races, workouts and competitions they have done. • Get involved with a local competitive sports team – not recreational! • Sign up for a 12-week transformation competition to meet other competitors. • Subscribe to a fitness magazine and leave them lying around your bedroom, bathroom and coffee table. • Find a workout partner who is fitter than you and motivating to you. • Hire a personal trainer who will inspire and motivate you. • If you are single and pursuing a lifestyle change, don’t start dating someone who has no value for fitness or respect for their body. • Make new friends with people who live and breathe fitness. Perhaps you could pursue a friendship with some of the personal trainers or gym owners in your area. • Find out when the next big fitness competition or fitness expo is in your area, and attend. • Cut out an image that best represents your dream physique. To make it emotionally appealing, cut out your own face and paste it over top. It is very important to sense what it would feel like to have your new body. • Watch a movie or sports show that reveals your dream physique being admired and in the public eye. Maybe you want to have the physique of an Ultimate Fighter. Watch Ultimate Fighter regularly on TV, so the feelings are etched into your subconscious. • Post your pictures on the fridge, bathroom window, beside your bed, in your car and at your work space. © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




Most importantly, find an environment that has strong emotions attached to it so that the experience becomes branded inside your subconscious mind. 3. You Get What You Focus On Just like my Mom said, “Today’s obsessions become tomorrow’s realities.” There is a massive degree of truth to this - in a good way and a bad way. Lately, this message has been packaged into a book called “The Secret,” by Rhonda Byrne, which is based on the Law of Attraction and the power of positive thinking – concepts that are not “secrets,” although it sure seems like it since many people are not living life to their fullest potential. Whether or not you have mastered the Law of Attraction or understand the formal description of this philosophy does not matter. The Law of Attraction simply states that “like attracts like.” This means that you are getting whatever your subconscious mind is focusing on. Your subconscious is the little subtext of thoughts running through your head each day. It might sound like this: • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

“It’s my stupid genetics.” “I can’t lose this last 10 lbs no matter what I try.” “I have a slow metabolism.” “I’ll give it a try and see what happens.” “It’s too hard.” “I have a thyroid problem.” “I hate doing cardio.” “I wish I had the willpower.” “None of my friends are fit.” “I look better than most people my age.” “Everyone else gets results except for me.” “I’ll never be able to see my abs.” “I hit menopause.” “This fat just does not want to leave my body.”

Can you see the problem with these thoughts?

Apart from being completely negative, they are all based on a fatalistic mentality. The individual is not focusing on trying his best and doing his best. © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




• The individual is focusing on what he does NOT want (pot belly), instead of focusing on what he DOES want. • The individual sees his goals (a six-pack) as impossible, so he will never make a true effort to find a solution. • The individual has never succeeded in the past, so he is having trouble looking towards the future and then rewriting the future. • The individual does not believe he deserves the body of his dreams. He is allowing his surroundings to influence his decisions. • The individual who buys into academic stats will only put in a 60% effort because he has chosen to believe that he has zero control of the other 40%.

4. Decide What Is Realistic It’s interesting that my “weight-loss” clients have been far more challenging to work with than my “muscle-building” clients. Why is that? I believe that because of the volume of magic pills and magic diets in the media, we have created a very impatient society obsessed with instant gratification. It’s not uncommon to see advertisements for conventional diets in the mainstream media that focus on using scale weight and pounds. Ads like: “Lose 30 lbs in 30 days,” or “Lose 9 lbs every 11 days,” or “Lose 8-15 lbs in the first 2 weeks.” Most of these sites will even have before and after pictures and “proof” with testimonials. The problem is that you can only lose around 1% of your body fat each week. Anything more than 1% body fat each week is usually water and muscle being sucked and stripped out of the body. You cannot lose 8-15 lbs of body fat in two weeks.

Yes, you can lose 8-15 lbs of weight, which results in the loss of several pounds of muscle and lots of water, but that is the wrong goal. What happens when you go on a diet of low calories? It appears to work initially because you experience a drop on the scale, but your metabolism eventually slows to adjust for the lower caloric intake. As your metabolism slows you hit a plateau because your body begins freaking out, out of a response for survival, since it has not received any food in a while. As your metabolism comes to a halt, your body stores fat since it’s not sure when it will be fed next. Out of survival, your body must find energy to keep your brain alive so it breaks down your precious muscle tissue for





energy - and what is your muscle tissue responsible for? Keeping your metabolism high to burn fat! You see the double-edged sword that can backfire on you and begin a deadly cycle? That is why Your Six Pack Quest is about digging the fat out with exercise – specifically weight training, which increases your metabolism throughout the day and adds lean muscle to your body so that it does not slow down. Now you are digging the fat out of the hole instead of burying it deeper inside your body. Learn to recognize bogus claims that focus on weight loss and not fat loss. One of the reasons Peter was able to stay motivated was because he had realistic goals and realistic role models (like myself) who did not mislead him with false hopes. We agreed that 1% body fat was our minimum standard to hit each week, which is a realistic time frame. Peter had a very clear focus on keeping muscle while losing the fat, and that’s a very key distinction.

5. Focus On The 80/20 Rule Many people lose their motivation because they overwhelm themselves with too much information. Certainly, no one would disagree that we lack information but I’m confident saying that we have too much information, which results in “broken focus.” For example, most people simply need to eat more veggies and lean protein with each meal to improve their body composition, but instead go out and buy a diet book on Metabolic Typing looking for “the long lost secrets” which can become detrimental and result in “paralysis by analysis.” This happens to people who are afraid to start because of the fear of making a mistake or looking foolish so they don’t do anything until they have all the details and become so overwhelmed that they don’t move. Yes, there are “long lost secrets” out there but do yourself a favor and max out the basic and fundamental principles before buying the latest “metabolic typing diet” or “blood type” diet when all you need to do is increase your meal frequency and increase your water intake to start the fat-loss process. While working with Peter and my fat loss clients I remind them of “The Pareto Principle” which is also known as the 80/20 rule. An Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula that determined 20% of the people in his country owned 80% of the wealth. It’s an excellent philosophy to understand when chasing your six-pack.





The 80/20 rule emphasizes the few (20%) and considers the many (80%) trivial. You can apply this to every strength training, cardio training, diet plan, supplement plan and lifestyle plan. Consider your supplement plan as an example: 80% of your supplement results will come from only 20% of the supplements on the market today. That 20% are the basics like a multi-vitamin, fish oils, greens product, protein powder and creatine. Don’t worry about the other 80%. How will this help you manage information overload? The Pareto Principle is a reminder to focus on the 20% of the things that matter. Every one of your weight training workouts, cardio workouts and meal plans has a 20% component that you MUST nail every day – this is the 20% you need to focus on. If something in your schedule has to slip, if something is going to get compromised, make sure it’s not that 20%. For example, when I go out for dinner on the weekends, while leaning down, I’ll make sure that I only get my carbs from veggies and don’t consume the bread and dessert, because avoiding this 20% of foods contributes to 80% of my six-pack from a diet standpoint. However, I seem to be able to eat fattier meats like steak, so if I can’t get my chicken breast, it’s not as harmful as consuming the carbs. But I know for myself that 80% of my results come from being very strict in my carb intake – there are certain carbs that my body loves to turn to fat in my stomach – so I am aware of this and realize that and apply the Pareto Principle.

6. Take the First 3 Months Very Seriously Working in the fitness industry for the past five years has showed me that 60% of new members will quit in the first three months if they are not seeing results. Most of these members who quit are the same ones who have intentions of sticking around for a year and even commit to a 12-month membership of $500-700 just to get access to the club which rents them out time, space and equipment. So what gives? There are two reasons: 1) Not enough “emotional pain” 2) Unable to overcome struggles and obstacles

Not Enough “Emotional Pain” The reality is that many people are just not serious about losing their belly fat and relieving their “pain.” I challenge you to ask yourself, “On a scale of 1 to 10 how serious am I about my goals?”





If you are only a 4 or 5 out of 10 then don’t expect to drop 30-40 lbs, change your life and get a six-pack. This question can reveal your true colours by showing you why you have been unsuccessful in the past. Perhaps you just aren’t that serious about this! Yeah, sure, it would be nice to have a flat stomach, fit into your clothes, feel happier and get some more attention but when it comes to stepping up you’re not willing to make it happen. This can reveal two things: 1. Maybe you were never destined to have a six-pack because your commitment level is not where it should be (which is 10 out of 10). 2. Maybe you really do want a six-pack and you have just discovered the main thing holding you back has been your lack of commitment, and now you are prepared to change that.

Not Addressing Your Obstacles and Struggles So, ask yourself, “On a scale of 1 to 10 how committed am I to my six pack quest?” If you answered either an 8 or a 9 then I would ask, “What is preventing you from being a 10?” Most likely one of your answers will fall into one of these categories: • • • • • • • • •

Lack of education Ineffective training program Poor intensity Horrible lifting technique Boredom from no variety Slow or no progress Laziness No social support at home Only making short term commitments

Most people would be a solid 10 out of 10 if they could overcome the following problems – notice the word problems. These are the true reasons you have been unsuccessful in the past and unless you address them, you will only repeat history and have short-term success. Your Six Pack Quest includes every tool you need to be successful and leaves no room for anything less than a 10 out of 10 commitment.





7. Re-Adjust Your Belief System Everything you do is a result of your thought processes and beliefs. If you believe it will take 30 days to change a habit, then most likely it will take 30 days. If you believe it will take one year to lose all the fat, then you will choose the path and make the decisions that lead to a one-year plan. If you believe that you are destined to be moderately fit looking, then you will put in a moderately average effort in the gym and in your training. If you believe only the genetically gifted deserve to be ripped, then you will not take missed workouts, fast food binges and poor lifestyle habits seriously. However, if you believe that you are a nutrition authority in your family, you will not be ordering in fast food on the weekends. If you believe that you are a fitness role model to your friends, you will be suggesting physical activities on the weekends. If you see yourself with a fitness model’s body, you will not have a hard time waking up at 6 am for cardio. If you view yourself as a warrior trainer, you will not wimp out on those last few reps. If you believe that you are the strongest guy in the gym, you will start assessing your lifting progress more diligently. If you see yourself as a healthy human being, you won’t throw chips and cookies into your grocery cart! Do you see the difference? Can you see how your subconscious thoughts are a direct product of what you are getting in life? The battle truly begins in the mind.

Readjusting your belief system requires three things: 1. Repetition. Repetition. Repetition. Take one day at a time. Just because you put the Law of Attraction in place and start having new thoughts and beliefs, does not magically mean that you will become thin and ripped. There is still the action and effort of doing. You still need to do the work yourself. In the end, your goals will really come down to JUST DOING IT one day at a time. Each day you have to keep verbally telling yourself who you are. Write down your goals and read them on your way to work or before you get out of bed in the morning. Record your thoughts and beliefs and listen to your own voice each day. Each day you will have to fight against the lies that you are lazy, not motivated, not genetically gifted, food is making you fat etc. Don’t deceive yourself or trick yourself into accepting these false truths. Don’t give these lies power by enforcing negative self thoughts. Each day you will have to make new choices based on the new person you are becoming.





2. Get Emotional Support. Whether it’s a social support group, a personal trainer, a close friend, an Internet community or a coaching program on the phone, surround yourself with people who are working toward the same goal. If you can’t find a group, then create a group yourself. Take positive action toward your goals. This is the best way to defeat a negative environment. The emotional support you receive weekly, or however often you meet, will help carry you through the week. I can’t stress how important it is to get yourself A LOT of support. This support system will represent “pictures” of what you want and keep you committed to your goals.

3. Don’t Focus on “Trying” or “Wanting”. Until you truly believe that you have the power to change, you will not be in control of your fate. Doubt can do many things. I had doubt that I could defeat my skinny genetics. I had doubt when I developed an unexpected pot belly one year. I told myself I wanted to become lean and muscular. But “wanting” was not powerful enough. I didn’t think I should be lean and muscular; I just wanted to be lean and muscular. But I was only hoping and wanting –- a huge part of my subconscious did not think it was truly possible. This creates a negative feedback loop. When you only want or try to succeed, then subtle decisions affect the outcome. For example, if you are out in a social setting with lots of finger foods and fried foods, and the temptation to eat just one is so bad, what are you going to do? If you are only trying and wanting to succeed, then you are going to cave in to the temptation and justify it by saying: “It was only one sampling and it won’t really hurt my progress, right?” Another example, if you are training in the gym and getting ready to push out one last rep in your workout, after your muscles are screaming at you to stop, what are you going to do? If you are only trying and wanting to succeed, then you are going to decide the pain is not worth it. Instead of pushing for that one last rep, you are going to end the set and rack the weights and justify it by saying: “It’s OK, it was just one rep, and it would have been too hard anyway, right?”





As you can see, I have a huge issue with “wanting” and “trying.” In fact, it drives me crazy! For certain decisions in your life, it’s not enough to want or try them. You must make them happen.

You must DECIDE that you will DO IT. It’s like locking yourself in a room with no way out -- and then throwing away the key to prove your commitment to finding a way out! Once you decide that you will obtain your peak physique, there will be no more uncertainty or hoping. When you make the decision to stop wanting and start creating, then you will cross yet another barrier. When you are in another social setting with “pot-belly” food or in the gym underneath that same set of weights, you’ll realize that eating just one or racking before you’re done is not an option. Why? Because you have decided to earn your peak physique, regardless of pain and temptation! IT IS WORTH IT, and by making hard food decisions and pushing 110% each and every time, you will reach your goal.

8. Focus On Goal Getting Instead of Goal Setting I was going to write out an entire section on goal setting but I am more inspired to write to the people who are stuck because they are not moving or taking action toward their desired goal. They are stuck because they are putting more emphasis on goal setting instead of goal getting. They are putting more emphasis on reading and learning how to set goals instead of just doing it. Many people take the first step of writing down their goals but they forget to take the second and third steps. Writing down your goal of “losing 40 lbs of fat” is just one of hundreds of mini goals along the way. The best advice I can give you is to keep taking the next step and to keep moving in the direction you are running. For example, when you are tempted to snack on some potato chips ask yourself, “Will this action get me closer to my goal or further from my goal?” When you are unsure if you should have an unplanned alcoholic beverage then ask yourself, “Will this drink get me closer to my six-pack or further from my six-pack?” You will know the correct answer each and every time and by making the right decision you will be taking more steps toward your goal. These small details (which we latter classify as slip-ups) DO matter. I believe that every small decision either helps or hurts. Whatever you do or don’t do is going to have a substantial effect on the direction you are going. Always ask yourself, “Will this step keep me moving toward my goal or away from my goal?” You will soon discover how





powerful the little decisions and the little battles are in the big picture, and it’s these victories that are more powerful than any magic pill or breakthrough program. All the fundamental principles of fat loss have been discovered and are in this book. The only reason you will not be successful is if you do not apply this knowledge and keep moving, one step at a time, toward your goal. With all that said, I’m going to summarize every goal setting book I’ve read and provide you with 5 simple steps to making your goals attainable:

1. Write it down In your mind I’m sure you have some great visuals of how you would like to look and feel. The problem is, that is often where they remain – swimming around in our head, taking up space and never being acted upon - and most people finish their life without achieving any of them. If you are 100% committed to your goals, if you’re a 10 out of 10, then write it down. Studies have shown that you have a better chance of achieving your goal by simply writing it down. Another advantage is that you will be constantly reminded about what you said yesterday, a few weeks ago and a few months ago. My father always used a little saying with me and my brothers: “Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal.” This is so true and writing down your goals will help weed out distractions.

2. Break it down Taking six months to achieve a six-pack can sound like a long time - and it is. This is where most people fall off track. They overwhelm themselves with how far away they are and then fall back to ground zero. I suggest you write down mini goals before each week and before each day. If you focus on the habits that contribute to losing 1% fat each week and only 1% body fat each week, then you will create some serious momentum and motivation when you step on the scale and see a loss of 10-15 lbs in the first two or three months. Your daily and weekly goal achieving is working and nothing is going to stop you now. For example, if you are low on veggies and protein, put “Go to grocery store after work” on your to-do list for tomorrow. This is far more powerful than saying, “Eat more veggies this week.” Another example: “Go to bed at 10:30 pm so I can wake up early to train before work,” is far more powerful than saying, “Work out three times this week.”





Take all of your goals and break them down into manageable pieces that can be handled one a time, day by day, week by week, until you get your six-pack.

3. Take small steps Because you have written down your action steps you know exactly what needs to be done – it is your turn to execute. Aim for 90% compliancy toward your goals, meaning that if your goal is to eat 35 meals a week, you should be getting 32-33 of the meals on your meal plan. If you are just starting out then you might set a 50% compliancy goal which means you will eat at least 17-18 of the meals on your plan. The following week you would aim for 55% compliancy and ensure you nail at least 19-20 of the meals on your meal plan, and so on. These are small steps to nailing your meal plan in the very first month. Taking small steps will give you confidence and motivation and keep you moving on the steady track toward your goals.

4. Take the next step A lot of people will download this e-book and fall off course within the first two months even though they will have all the tools to be successful. They will get off to a solid start, lose some weight, feel and see a difference, but forget to keep taking new steps because they are so excited by their initial progress (which you should be). Don’t forget to keep asking, “What’s the next step? What can I do this week that will move me closer to my goals?” Once you find the answer, write it down, break it down and take that next step. You are now building unstoppable motivation and getting very close to crossing the finish line.

5. Take one more step This is the difference between getting a four-pack and a six-pack. This is the difference between getting all the fat off and everything but the last 10 pounds off your stomach. This is the difference between 1st place and 2nd place and winners and champions. Winners take all the steps above but champions “go the extra mile” and get that extra hour of sleep, that extra cardio session, extra rep, and extra self-control. When you get to the point in this program when you don’t believe you can do anything else, find and take that one more step and that’s when you will become a true champion – and hopefully the next $1000 winner of my transformation contest.





9. Roll With The Punches I always teach that training is more an art than a science. As nice as it would be for a textbook to tell you EXACTLY what to do, this is not how the real world works. It’s very doubtful that science will ever be able to determine training decisions because it can not replace how individuals can “feel it out.” People often lose motivation because “the program stops working,” which is a dangerous and foolish statement because it removes them from the training process and implies the program is in control of the trainee instead of the trainee in control of the program. The reality is that you will need to become a part of the training process. This was one of the major ingredients to Peter’s success in overcoming plateaus and staying motivated. When Peter stopped losing 1% fat per week and sent me a panicky email like, “Oh my gosh Vince, I didn’t lose any weight last week… what should we do?” I replied, “I don’t know, what do you think we should do?” Peter offered three things he was curious about changing and I guided him to choose one and monitor the effect over the following seven days. One of the variables we changed was the time he ate his first meal. Instead of eating his first meal at 8 am, he woke up earlier and ate his first meal at 6 am and the weight started coming off again.

To stay motivated, I recommend that you treat whatever training program, meal plan and lifestyle plan you are on, as a baseline. I have already designed the baseline training program, meal plan, supplement plan and lifestyle plan for you and these plans consist of the fundamentals and main principles which universally apply to everyone. Without these “pillars” in place, the fine tuning (or rolling with the punches) will have much less impact on your results. Once you have your baseline in place, you can simply and systematically adjust your intake one variable at a time. For example, you will begin with a set amount of carbohydrates each day, and by monitoring your body’s biofeedback (also referred to as a feedback loop), you can figure out, very quickly, how your body responds to those carbohydrates by the end of a one-week period. After seven days, you will jump on the scale or measure your body fat and see if you have dropped 1% body fat. You can also measure your performance, but since this book is about your six-pack quest then ensure you have lost your 1-3 pounds of fat. If you are on track and hit your goal then don’t change anything. Keep doing what you are doing because your baseline is working.





Even if you’re tempted to change something it is not necessary to make any tweaks or adjustments. However, if next week you jump on the scale and have not lost your 1-3 lbs, then you must change ONE variable and make an adjustment. You can change anything: • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Carb intake Food selection Time you ingest your first meal Water intake Caloric intake Workout frequency Length of cardio sessions Style of cardio sessions Workout intensity Meal frequency Amount of cheat meals The time you go to bed Remove a specific food i.e. alcohol Minimize a certain stress

Ask yourself, “From my personal experience, what do I think is the one thing I need to change this week to get back on track?” At the end of the week you’ll continue for another week, trust your instincts, and measure the results again at the end of the week. This is the process that you must repeat each week to maintain your 1-3 lbs of body fat loss each week, until you are lean and shredded! Maintaining motivation is all about using this feedback look and adjusting your program, if necessary, based on your weekly progress. A lot of people get too caught up with rules and textbook academics, instead of listening to their bodies, trusting their instincts and measuring real world results. Maintaining motivation to get six-pack abs really comes down to this: If I was a pure marketer without five years of personal training in the real world I might be inclined to market a program that screams, “Follow my 30-minute workout three times a week, period. If you don’t do it like this then you will fail.” This is not how the real world works and this philosophy does not allow for flexibility nor is it effective for the long term. I can’t stress enough that you should use the programs and meal plans in this book as baselines and starting points, and then fine tune the program, if necessary, as you monitor your results and get © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




performance feedback, body measurements, and body fat measurements. This is the cornerstone of Peter’s success and a “pillar” many people miss the boat on. So many people blame the program and say, “This program didn’t work,” because they get lost in the dogma and some experts’ formula and they did not have the courage to experiment and test new things on their own – a process that will lead to continual and better results. Finally, it’s important to note that you may not arrive at your goal in a straight line. Some weeks you’ll be ahead of your target and other weeks you’ll be behind, and if you zigzag your way to your goal then you are just like everyone else who has been successful. Understand the body is filled with many complex systems. Don’t lose motivation if you are a little behind one week, and don’t consider this a “failure.” If you expect 100% progress the entire time then you will miss out on the learning experience and being a part of the process which is the most fulfilling part of Your Six Pack Quest.





CHAPTER 3 YOUR SIX PACK WEIGHT-TRAINING PLAN

Three “Cornerstone” Goals 1. Create A Caloric Deficit You could run two marathons every day and still be fat if you consumed more calories than you put out. It’s as simple as that. Unless you create a caloric deficit, you’ll never burn fat and get a six-pack. Every weight-training program I’ve included is designed to create a “metabolic boost,” “metabolic disturbance,” and “metabolic overdrive.” Consider the 3-day workout for beginners, 4-day workout for intermediates and 5-day program for advanced trainees, and each will take you through an “air sucking” and “muscle pumping” workout to jack up Excess Post Oxygen Consumption (EPOC). Basically, the oxygen debt you go into needs to be paid back so your metabolism stays elevated for 12-24 hours after the workout is over. 2. Increase The Metabolic Cost Of Each Circuit Notice that I did not say, “Increase the metabolic cost of each exercise.” A lot of programs will have you do stiff leg deadlift/bent over row/clean/shoulder press/squat ALL in one exercise! Come on now, let’s not get carried away! These complexes look “cool” on paper but when it comes to the real world they involve too much thinking, which takes away from training intensity. Don’t get me wrong, I am fully aware of the demand on the body if you are able to combo all of these metabolically demanding exercises into one. These “complexes” look great in theory but the question is, “Can you apply it safely and effectively?” Exercise complexes that involve too much “thinking” take away from the intensity of the workout because you’re capacity to push yourself drops. Complexes certainly have a time and place but from my experience, combining two to four “traditional” exercises, depending on which program you are on, creates a higher overall metabolic demand from your ability to push harder. 3. Increase the Metabolic Demand Of Each Workout Goal number three will be carried through the entire workout so that you don’t just jack up your metabolism –you jack up your metabolism super high. The greater the overall energy expenditure of each workout, the faster you get your six-pack. That’s © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




why I could never create a fat loss program on the foundation of 20-minute and 30-minute workouts, a few times a week, to get a six-pack. Sure this will work for many beginners up to a certain point in time but you’ll eventually discover you just can’t progress the metabolic demand, no matter how hard you push yourself, with such low volume. If you are striving for even 1/10th of the look of a professional athlete, know that those athletes did not develop their bodies on three 20-minute workouts a week, so how in the world could you? The third goal must also be carried out from week to week, month to month and year to year. Over the next six months get ready to transform into a completely new person – inside and out!





The No-Nonsense Six-Pack Weight-Training Principles 1. Step Into The “Hurt Box” And Apply The ICE Principle As a former long-distance runner and triathlete, my teammates and I used to describe the last half of a race, tempo run, or interval run, as ‘getting into the hurt box.’ It was our way of acknowledging our mental toughness and ability to get out of our comfort zone. During your workouts I DO NOT want you to fixate on meaningless variables such as reps, sets, rest periods and tempos. Although I use these variables as guidelines in all my programs it is more important that you emphasize what cannot be measured (intensity) rather than what can be measured (reps, sets, load etc). For those who own my muscle building program you’ll know that I emphasize the “details” with more emphasis since strength progression plays a much more important role compared to a fat loss program. A famous strength coach created the ICE principle, which stands for Intensity, Concentration, and Exertion of Effort. Notice the absence of the word “thinking.” No sets, reps, loads, tempos, rest periods mentioned! Focusing on measurable variables requires “thinking,” which moves you away from being in tune and dialled in to your body’s own computer system and feedback signals.

Whichever program you start on, it’s important not to obsess about the “numbers” and not to get trapped in a web of details that can decrease the experience of the workout. The entire purpose of creating a training response - burning fat in our case - requires experiencing your muscles shake, heart rate pump, body sweat, and muscles pump and gorge with blood. Relying on this biofeedback is critical to creating a path of self-discovery and to avoid getting trapped in “measuring.” It is important to concentrate on the task at hand but not act like you’re a robot without a say in the workout.

2. Keep the Program Alive Another reason I prefer you to rely on the experience is because it’s an excellent way of keeping the program alive. You will notice in your program that you have rep ranges, set ranges and rest ranges. I left tempo out completely because in the last few years I’ve found this principle to be the most distracting variable of all. You will need to decide for yourself whether to begin with five sets or six sets, six to eight reps or eight -12 reps, 30-second recovery or 90-second recovery.





I gave Peter the freedom to alter and manoeuvre small details to better suit his training experience in order to get a better quality workout based on his biofeedback that day. I am giving you the same freedom because you’re not a robot. Even though I prescribe “16-week” programs, combined with your own intuition and options, it is not unrealistic to keep a program alive for 24-52 weeks at a time. If you are making incredible gains on the 4-day program and at 16 weeks you feel amazing and more energized than ever, keep plugging away. Don’t worry about taking a down week unless your body is sending signals of burnout. Your body will avoid habituation if you continually progress and stagger through different applications.

3. Focus On Full Range Of Motion Whether you are using bodyweight or weighted exercises, the first priority of your workouts should revolve around full range of exercise motion. In terms of progress from a fat-burning and muscle-building standpoint it’s important to establish joint, tendon and ligament strength prior to exposing these tissues to loads.

It’s a common sense progression that will prevent injuries and prepare your body for the second progression - speed of movement - and the third progression - increasing load. Each exercise has a more effective range of motion that will recruit the maximal muscle fibres and increase your metabolism. Shorter range movements are further down the continuum when you progress to a heavy duty muscle-building program and focus on maximal strength – not the goal of this program. If you are not training through a full range of motion you are simply working the parts of your body that are already strong. Training through a full range of motion will force new muscle fibres to wake up, strengthen and condition. Notice I said strengthen and condition, not just strengthen. Conditioning requires taking your muscles into oxygen debt which requires a full range of motion.

Training through a partial range of motion may look impressive because you can lift bigger weights, but this program is about being impressive and investing time at the gym instead of spending time at the gym! Throughout the video I will demonstrate full range of motion for each exercise.





4. Lift Explosively At Start Of Workout And Controlled Near End I designed these workouts so that you will be lifting explosively near the start of the workout, while you are fresh and have the greatest amount of concentration. As you work your way down through the combos, you’ll use a more controlled bodybuilding pace with exercises that require less concentration. This is a very simple and effective approach because it takes the thinking out and puts the intensity in. You can’t train at a high intensity if you are supposed to do an explosive movement that requires thinking at the end of your workout, when you are the most fatigued. You will notice the exercises go from “complex” to “simple” as the workout progresses, to maintain the intensity and speed of movement. In a perfect situation you would be able to train explosively during the entire workout (and if you can then I would

question your workout intensity).

After a few weeks, or even a few workouts of ‘full range of motion’ lifting through all your respective lifts you will begin to emphasize how fast you are trying to move, not how fast you are actually moving, because this is relative to the individual. Obviously, as you lift heavier weights the slower you or the bar will move, but your intent should to be move as fast as possible, and I’m not talking about using momentum, torque, leverage or spotted assistance. As you begin to fatigue through your workout, listen to your body, you will ease into a “bodybuilding tempo” which I prefer to call a rhythm or pumping of the weight. Best described, and I will show you this in the video, is pumping your reps without stopping at the bottom or the top of a movement. Every rep should be a mission in itself to achieve a full range of motion and a full contraction of the muscle, not just counting reps. From the top to bottom, you should be stretching and then squeezing the heck out of the bar, dumbbells or muscles for every rep.

5. Focus On Increasing Load After progressing from full range of motion to increased speed it is safe for you to progress to increasing load. In every bodybuilding circle, including my No-Nonsense Muscle-Building book, I emphasize the need to lift heavy to maintain your muscle mass during a cutting phase. You’ve probably heard of dozens of bodybuilders who don’t change their training at all between pre-contest and off-season, and simply lift as heavy as possible all year round. Ronnie Coleman demonstrated this doing 800 lb deadlifts 2-3 weeks out from the Olympia. I used this philosophy on myself, and include it in my No-Nonsense Fat-Cutting program. I relied on the cardio and diet to cut the fat, while the heavy weights were designed to maintain muscle mass, the same philosophy I really exploit during the 5 day © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




Metabolic Overdrive program. If you are a “hard gainer,” and are cutting, then you will probably need to rely on the lower reps and longer rest periods to preserve your muscle mass. If you are a ‘hard loser’ you will probably need to rely on the higher reps and shorter rest periods. Lifting heavy weights puts a high amount of tension on your muscles and sends a signal to your brain that says, “These weights are pretty darn heavy so we’d better keep this muscle on us to protect us from future stress.” Although, I want to emphasize that lifting heavy is not the only way to maximize the tension on your muscles. During the DVD’s I really hammer this point home and will constantly preach that increasing strength is only one adaptation you can chase after to create a metabolic disturbance – don’t forget that an impressive physique is built through speed, power and conditioning (endurance) too.

6. Emphasize Maximal Tension With Speed, Power And Endurance Realize that your muscles have no idea how much weight is on the bar. A “hard workout” has nothing to do with how much weight you lift – especially in your quest for a six-pack. A “hard workout” should be defined by how much stress a muscle is under, not by the load.

Associating hard with heavy is narrow-minded when it comes to fat loss. It’s a concept that I personally have adjusted my view on over the years and if you’ve used my muscle building program, you’ll know I place more emphasis on actual load, but not during my fat loss program. As I demonstrate in the 5-day program, workload capacity can be improved by progressively higher volumes of training, plus high intensities. You’ll notice some of the best physiques on athletes who train for speed, power and endurance (such as speed skaters with phenomenal musculature and leanness), which is a very unique training approach not considered or used by many. Probably because it’s so darn hard and requires you to totally depart from your comfort zone. The most effective way to get rid of your belly fat is to simply train hard regularly. Throwing speed training, power training and endurance training all into the same workout is a no-fail approach to jolting your metabolism into overdrive.





7. Emphasis On Lactic Acid Training There has been a lot of research on the relationship between the amount of lactic acid produced and the output of growth hormone. This is powerful, because growth hormone is very lypolitic and anti-catabolic, which means it digs out your stubborn body fat and protects your precious muscle, respectively. The best example of this is 200m and 400m sprinters who are ripped to the bone. Sprint training results in enormous lactic acid production throughout the entire body – if you don’t believe me then go to your local track and sprint around it like you’re being chased by a bear.

This also explains why most athletes involved in anaerobic sports (who sometimes have the worst nutrition habits) are quite lean. That is also why you see a lot of bulky guys at the gym who have muscle mass everywhere but also have a huge belly – their training is absent of lactic acid production. Lactic acid is not released until your muscles are absent of oxygen for 90 to 120 seconds (roughly), hence the higher rep ranges, super sets, giant sets, quad sets and high volume circuits with little rest (that can last up to 4 minutes). Progressing from the 3-day workout to 4-day workout to 5-day workout is critical. It will help increase your conditioning so you can jack up your lactate level, which in turn, increases GH production. This goes along with my philosophy of, “Focus on getting as fit as possible and you’ll start looking fit.” When was the last time you met someone who was out of shape but had a ripped body? I want to elaborate on the power of shorter “rest intervals,” which I believe is the most underestimated variable to maximize metabolism and build muscle. Whether you are training for muscle or fat loss, I can’t recall the last time I saw someone in the gym training with any degree of oxygen debt, or “sucking in air,” as I prefer to call it. What you do see are people sitting on the bench looking around, chatting up a storm, or talking on their cell phone. It amazes me how many people expect to transform their body without sweating and going into any oxygen debt during their workout. It has been said that muscle fibres must not only be engaged but also fatigued to be fully stimulated. Heavy weights will certainly stimulate the majority of the muscle fibres, but many are left untrained and untapped. The super sets, giant sets, quad sets and short rest periods are the secret to maximizing your metabolism, by stimulating the greatest amount of muscle fibre. This response occurs from the cumulative fatigue effect. After your first workout on any phase you will immediately know what I’m talking about.





In preparation for the video that goes along with this program, I used the 5-day Overdrive program to maintain my muscle, get extremely lean and as you’ll see when you watch it – I’m in pretty solid shape. You’ll see me shoulder press 90 pound dumbbells without a spotter (during a fat loss phase) while super setting with heavy wood choppers. A lot of people can shoulder press 90 pound dumbbells but the question is, “Can they come back and do it again and again and again in a pre fatigued state with little rest?” I can! That’s what produces impressive results. I believe you will experience jaw-dropping results when your fitness progresses to the point where you can incorporate strength and conditioning into the same workout. You’ll have to witness this yourself to believe so be prepared to enter the sacred “hurt box!”

8. Fingernail to Toenail Training I heard Scott Abel use this term, first, and it’s a very accurate term because you’ll feel like you’ve used every single muscle from your fingernails to toenails by the end of your workout. When your entire body is quivering and shaking at the end of the workout you’ll know that you have stimulated your entire central nervous system. Using this program, you’ll incorporate bodyweight exercises, free weights, unilateral movements, multi-plane movements, plyometrics and unstable surfaces. On top of stimulating your nervous system, one thing is for certain - you will never get bored or lose motivation with my workouts. They are exciting, inspiring and challenging, and will help create a pool of sweat for onlookers to follow your trail. No matter what famous bodybuilder wrote the program, I cannot maintain motivation for more than a few weeks doing traditional “straight set” programs that involve more sitting than lifting. I’m going out on a limb and making the assumption that you’re like this too.

Let’s touch on each component of the program to help ensure you are experiencing “fingernail to toenail” training: • Bodyweight exercises are foundational to creating stability, mastering technique, establishing body awareness, and muscle recruitment before load is introduced. • Free weights allow your body to train around a natural range of motion and prepare you for the real world. They force your weak links to catch up, improve coordination and balance, and require a greater energy output, hence the greater metabolic disturbance. • Unilateral movements will expose any weaknesses from limb to limb and ensure your body is in balance and that you can use each muscle group without the assistance of a dominant side.





• Multi-plane movements are abundant in my program, more than you’ve probably ever done before, and will be a huge wake-up call. Life is performed in multiple planes of movement – you move forward, backward, reach, bend, move side to side and twist from side to side. How many of those movements do you currently perform right now? This training program is designed around how you move in real life, and training for function. When you train according to the demands of life and sport, you do not need to train predominantly for aesthetics as bodybuilders do. However, you can’t help but be impressed by top athletes in any sport, which goes for bodybuilders too, so you will be doing many traditional bodybuilding exercises following this program. They will be blended into “whole body exercises” that treat the body as a unit and not just a “body part.” I can assure you that this program will not make you that jacked-up dude with ripped abs who helps his neighbour lift a medium-size couch and blows out his back. After a few months on my “bodybuilding functional” programs you’ll not only have a six-pack but you’ll be in your best shape for real life function.

Enjoy the workouts, train hard and expect success.





Chapter 4: YOUR SIX-PACK CARDIO PLAN One of the toughest obstacles during Your Six Pack Quest will be following through till the bitter end, without losing motivation, making excuses, losing focus or accepting, “I’m just not meant to have a six-pack.” That is the biggest lie of

all.

I have discovered that motivation and persistence are not enough to get a six-pack. You can be the most motivated and persistent individual in the world, but you can move your training in the wrong direction by using outdated or ineffective protocols. Of all the training variables involved in getting a six-pack, I’ve found that cardiovascular training is the most poorly performed, and it’s where people lack the most knowledge.

Let’s just say, if people knew how to do cardio properly for fat-loss then they would be able to easily get rid of that last little bit of body fat. Luckily for you, I have discovered the most powerful cardio system to rid yourself of your unwanted fat cells and put the finishing touches on your physique.

Razor Sharp Abdominal Cardio Workout The most powerful cardio workout I have discovered uses a split routine developed by scientists at the University of Tokyo and the Institute of Sports Medicine in Copenhagen, Denmark. They found that doing repeated bouts of cardio increased fat burning instead of doing just one continuous workout. I’ve added an abdominal workout into the rest period of each bout that will chisel your midsection and help target the most stubborn deposits. You will find a selection of cardio workouts and abdominal routines in the Razor Sharp Abdominal Cardio Workout and DVD. It involves two 30-minute bouts of cardio (any style) with a 10-15 minute abdominal circuit between breaks. The ab exercises chosen are based on electromyography (EMG) studies, which means these require the most muscle activation hence a quicker, cutter and firmer set of abs! The studies by the Japanese and the Danish scientists demonstrated that one 60-minute cardio session is not as effective as two 30-minute sessions with a break in between.





The results showed higher fat metabolism, stress hormone levels (i.e. catecholamines), and blood ketone levels (a sign of increased fat use) while decreasing insulin and blood sugar levels using two 30-minute workouts instead of one continuous 60 minute workout.

Catecholamine production is critical for burning fat. These fight-or-flight hormones – which consist of adrenaline – crank up your metabolism for hours after you leave the gym. From personal experience, and client response, taking a break allows a greater overall work output and keeps the program interesting.

Targeting Stubborn Fat The revolutionary new study, discussed above, by Dr. Bente Stallknecht and colleagues, from the University of Copenhagen, discovered that spot reduction is possible by isolating certain muscle groups, combining cardio, and boosting hormones that accelerate fat metabolism and elevate fat tissue temperature during exercise. Until recently, researchers and fitness experts have believed it’s not possible to spot reduce. Trained muscles increase in temperature and unload chemicals, such as growth hormone, epinephrine and nor-epinephrine that endorse fat usage for fuel. These hormones travel into the fat stores of the targeted muscle groups and accelerate fat breakdown in those tissues. The Razor Sharp Abdominal Cardio Workout includes all the above elements to promote fat burning around your stomach. Don’t expect miracles or anything magical but you can spot reduce! Performing at least four of these workouts throughout the week (2 sets of 30-minute cardio with a 15-minute abdominal workout in between) will burn up to 3,5000 calories per week which is good enough for one pound of fat loss per week – and that’s without the effect of your meal plan and weight-training program! Commonly Asked Fat Loss Questions Regarding Cardio Training 1. Why do many fitness experts say, “Cardio is dead?” Most “fat-loss experts” who promote this message are trying to get you away from outrageous amounts of cardio training for fat loss. What they should say is “Long slow cardio is dead,” as far as fat loss goes and I’ll be the first to back them up 100%. Many of these experts spread this message for marketing purposes and to offer their “resistance training” and “interval training” based products as a quicker and faster solution.





My problem with the “Cardio is dead,” message is that it’s very misleading because I have never met anyone with ripped abs who did not have some sort of cardio regime in their program. Have you? Yes, many people go “overboard” with cardio training, and yes, many people take the “long way,” relying solely on long, slow cardio sessions, but there is no doubt that “fat-burning aerobics” is critical for digging out calories and boosting hormones that build muscle and cut fat. So if cardio is not part of your program then, hello?! It amazes me how many people in my gym rely only on “bodybuilding” training programs that involve minimal sweating, plus a five-minute cardio warm-up and MAYBE a 20-minute walk on the treadmill as their “fat burning” protocol. Where is the caloric expenditure? Where is the oxygen debt? Where is the hormone production? 2. When is the best time to do cardio? I’ve heard many fat-loss experts state that performing cardio on an empty stomach is useless and ineffective. However, I’m only interested in what works in the real world, and bodybuilders and fitness models figured out the truth years ago. I’ve found that the earlier I do my morning cardio the leaner I get, and the faster I get lean. This means you will get better results doing cardio at 6 am than at 9 am because you kick start your metabolism earlier and give your body an extra three hours in the day to burn fat. Kick that in over the course of a week and that’s an extra 21 hours your metabolism is burning calories. From my experience, and I’m sure anyone who has practised this protocol in the real world can testify, no matter what kind of cardio you do, you will burn more fat in the morning in a fasted state than during any other period in the day. Doing cardio before breakfast is so powerful because blood and liver glycogen are low, forcing your body to find energy through fat for fuel. Unless you are already on an extremely low-carb diet (less than 20% intake), then early morning cardio on an empty stomach might not be necessary, as it could lead to muscle loss. But this is the only exception. Consider this method an extreme plateau buster if you are looking to maximize fat loss over a short period of time. Understand that this is on the furthest end of the “extreme” continuum and you won’t have anywhere else to go after this, meaning that you should not exploit the effects of this strategy unless you have hit an extreme plateau. For most people, doing longer and harder cardio, the way I show you, more often will do the trick. My only caution is to hard gainers who can run the risk of losing muscle © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




if they use too much interval cardio for either the first or second cardio bouts and it can strip muscle quicker than long, slow cardio – especially on a empty stomach. Using interval training for either the first or second cardio bout is effective any time during the day - so just get it in. If you are a ‘hard gainer’ like me, and have a difficult time holding on to your muscle, here’s a little trick to solve that problem. Take about 10-15 grams of protein powder (very small) plus 5 grams of creatine and a few grams of BCAA’s (optional) - this will help blunt cortisol levels that tend to be high in the morning and will help preserve your muscle mass without increasing your insulin levels. 3. When should I do cardio if I can’t do it in the morning? The next best alternative to early morning cardio is to do your cardio after your weight training, but before you consume your post-workout drink, since glucose levels are depleted and your body will have to dig for fat to complete the workout. I prefer to break up my cardio bouts into hard steady state training for the first round and then shorter intervals for the second round. It’s important to listen to your body as well. Many times I intend to do 20 minutes of intervals plus a hard 20-minute tempo run, but I’m so drained from my weights, I’ll simply do a longer and slower steady-state cardio workout for both bouts. This is not an excuse to wimp out though but time to listen to the clues your body is sending. 4. How long should my cardio sessions last? I wish I could guarantee that three days a week of 20-minute cardio would work like a miracle pill, but I have yet to meet anyone who has got six-pack abs with this (lack of) mileage. Yes, everything will be done progressively, and initially, 20 minutes three times a week might get the first 10-15 pounds off, but it’s safe to say you will hit a plateau very quickly because you’re not doing enough. Keep in mind that your goal is to get the maximal result with the minimal amount of work, so you have two options: 1. Before you increase the distance (time) of either of your cardio rounds, focus on increasing the intensity of the first bout and then the second bout. That might keep your 1% fat coming off each week without changing anything else. Do those three 20-minute workouts as hard as possible. This might mean that you focus on going from a 20-minute walk at 4.0 mph on the treadmill to a 20-minute tempo run at 9.0 mph. That could take 4-6 months of training in itself. 2. After increasing the intensity, aim to add five minutes every two weeks to each © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




bout until you are doing the 2 x 30 minute protocol. Currently, I follow a 2 x 25 minute protocol (with an abdominal circuit in between) either in the morning on a empty stomach or after my last meal before bed. Ideally, adding five minutes to each bout every two weeks will provide a very gradual and consistent weight loss, and this is something you will monitor each week. If you are not dropping 1% fat each week then you have to re-evaluate your program to justify the five-minute increase. If you are on track with your goals then it might not be necessary to change a thing. 5. How hard should I do my cardio sessions? Ultimately, evaluating your goals and getting on the scale each week will tell you if you need to be doing your cardio harder. If you are dropping weight at a perfect rate then don’t fix what’s not broken. Just keep doing what you are doing even if you are crawling during your cardio sessions. If you want to get super shredded, be honest with yourself and ask yourself if you are doing your cardio hard enough. Do you choose the elliptical because you can read your magazine and watch TV, or do you look at your cardio sessions as opportunities to sweat your brains out and dig deep into your fat cells for energy?

I CAN TELL YOU THAT IF YOU’RE NOT LEAVING A PUDDLE OF WATER AND A TRAIL OF SWEAT AFTER YOUR CARDIO WORKOUTS THEN YOU’RE ALMOST WASTING YOUR TIME. GOING TO THE GYM IS ABOUT INVESTING TIME, NOT SPENDING TIME. To fully maximize your cardio time and drop 1% fat per week, your cardio bouts must be hard - hard enough that you are “sucking air,” and deep into the “hurt box” the last five -10 minutes of each bout. You should not be able to wear the same shirt at your next workout, because you sweat it up and stunk it up so bad. What did you say? Your cardio sessions don’t look like that at all? That’s what I figured! Start increasing the speed and incline to wake up your workout and melt off that spare tire. 6. How often should I do cardio? If you are not losing 1% body fat per week you will need to step up the frequency of your workouts. At some point during your six-pack quest you will probably have to do cardio more often to see consistent results. You should begin with 2 x 15 minute bouts and build it up to 4 x 30 minute bouts. Don’t be surprised if you have to build up to 5-6 cardio sessions a week when you’re





dialling into the last stubborn 5 pounds covering up your lower abs. During my last few weeks of contest preparation, I was up to 10-12 cardio sessions a week, which is not uncommon when you are pushing low single digit body fat and want to look freaky lean! Unless you are training for a bodybuilding or fitness model show, photo shoot or want to take your six-pack to an eight-pack, this level of commitment will not be required, but be prepared to increase your cardio frequency to see consistent results no matter what your goals are. 7. How should I spend my first mini cardio bout? Use “steady state” cardio which means 75% intensity. If you can not train at a 75% effort then your goal is to improve your conditioning until you can maintain a 75% pace. I like to call this a tempo run (or tempo workout), and it should feel much higher than your comfort pace. If you could walk comfortably at 30 minutes for 4.0 mph then, for a tempo run, you would focus on running for 20 minutes but at 6.0 or 7.0 mph. These workouts will burn up lots of calories - and the more calories you burn the greater percentage of those calories are fat. Tempo training is the first step to investing your time in the gym instead of spending your time in the gym. Whether you are doing a 15 minute tempo workout or a 30 minute tempo workout for your first mini bout, get ready to boost your overall fitness and feel like a champ. Tempo runs can burn anywhere from 300-800 calories and that’s not including the abdominal circuit and second cardio bout you’re about to do. 8. Which abdominal circuit should I use? You can use any circuit and I recommend rotating all six around until you find the one you like best. Keep the program alive by switching it up to avoid boredom. 9. How should I spend my second mini cardio bout? If you’re cardio fitness is low then your first bout should have wiped you out and you’ll have to resort to “slow cardio” which is okay because you’ll have already drained the majority of your sugars and now this second session will tap into your fat stores quicker. Slow cardio is the equivalent of a light hike or walk with minimal sweating or increase in your heart rate. When performed alone, it blasts minimal calories and has no influence on muscle loss, muscle gain or EPOC. However, it can be an effective tool to extend your cardio sessions without burnout and even though it has limited caloric burn and zero after burn effect on your metab© Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




olism, it can still produce results when placed in the second half of your workout. If your fitness is decent then your secret weapon is interval training also known as High Intensity Interval Training (H.I.I.T.). This is a far more powerful option for your second bout then slow cardio. Unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock you should know that interval cardio burns more overall calories than slow cardio because of the spike in metabolism from the oxygen debt your body must pay back. There is a lot of research that suggests you can expect nine times greater fat loss during a 20-week cycle of interval training versus slow cardio. Why is interval training so powerful? Personally I don’t care about the scientific reasons but we know it has to do with EPOC and lactic acid production to trigger Growth Hormone. Most interval workouts would consist of a 1:1 ratio of hard or all-out efforts alternated with easy efforts to recover. Each effort would last 30-60 seconds for a range of 5-20 efforts and at a 90% effort. As you get fitter, the basic 5 x 30 second sprints is just not going to cut it and you’ll have to increase the speed and eventually the volume of the workout, so be ready to listen for those cues from your body. If time is not on your side and you are not a complete beginner then interval cardio is a far more effective weapon to have in your arsenal. In the Razor Sharp Abdominal Cardio Workout you will find interval cardio workouts that include one- to five-minute efforts. The effectiveness of this comes from the ability to achieve more “work density” during a workout and cover more distance with more effort. Ultimately you will be burning the most overall calories which will lead to a greater percentage of fat. If you do not have a few months of “cardio base” behind you then you will not survive a single 1-5 minute effort at 75% effort. These are certainly for more advanced trainees with excellent conditioning.

Two Bonus Tips & Plateau Busters 1. I offer this advice with discretion, and with the assumption that you have medical clearance to use stimulants and have no history of blood pressure or heart problems. This advice will have the greatest impact when you hit that 90% threshold in your training and dialling down to low single digit body fat (for males) and low teen percentage body fat (for females). Bodybuilders and fitness competitors figured this out years ago, and if you are on the lowest calorie meal plan and have maxed out all other training and lifestyle options then you can consider taking a fat burner about 30 minutes before your weight training workouts and/or cardio workouts. An alternative is having a big cup of steaming black coffee or green tea if your stomach does not mind the “sloshing around.” © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




2. Secondly, always search for the hills. If your fitness level can handle rolling terrain then go for it. Training on hills (or inclines) will target your glutes and quads more, which are the two largest muscles in your body. As opposed to walking on a flat surface (or flat treadmill), your body uses your calves more, which burns less calories. Training on an incline or rolling terrain will burn far more calories than training on a flat surface and get you to your goals almost twice as fast.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER Now it is time to determine how you will structure your entire cardio routine. Below I have provided a variety of programs, as a starting point, but you will have to improvise and use your own intuition from past training experiences as you evaluate your progress. Personally I prefer a tempo run for my first bout and interval cardio bout for my second bout and incorporate 1-5 minute intervals similar to below. When I get closer to a competition, to preserve muscle mass especially when calories are super low, I opt for long slow cardio (walking on an incline) for both bouts. I find that too much interval cardio and tempo cardio interferes with weight training progress, recovery and strips my muscle hardness when I’m focusing on losing the last 5 pounds. Keep that in mind when you reach that bridge.

If You Have 3 Hours A Week: If this is your lifestyle then do 3 weight-training workouts a week. For example, begin with the 3 Day Metabolic Boost program which will take 30-45 minutes a session and finish with 2 x 15 minute bouts of your choice of cardio for each bout.

If You Have 3-5 Hours A Week: Begin with the 3 Day Boost program or 4 Day Extreme program which will take 30-60 minutes each workout and use the rest of your time on tempo cardio or interval cardio for the first and second bouts (in either order) preferably after your weights. Here is an example: Monday – 30-60 minutes of weights + 2 x 20 minute cardio bouts Tuesday – 30-60 minutes of weights + 2 x 20 minute cardio bouts Wednesday – Off





Thursday – 30-60 minutes of weights + 2 x 20 minute cardio bouts Friday – Off Saturday – 30-60 minutes of weights + 2 x 20 minute cardio bouts Sunday – Off

If You Have 5-7 Hours A Week: Use any of the weight training program which will take 30-75 minutes (I’m assuming if you can train longer then you are using the Extreme or Overdrive programs which are longer) plus a combination of interval cardio and steady cardio. Here is an example: Monday – 45-75 minutes of weights Tuesday – 45-75 minutes of weights Wednesday – 2 x 30 minute cardio bouts Thursday – 45-75 minutes of weights Friday – 2 x 30 minute cardio bouts Saturday – 45-75 minutes of weights Sunday – Off

If You Have 7-9 Hours A Week: You will have many options with this time commitment so design your program around five 75-minute weight-training workouts and aim for 5-6 cardio workouts after your weights or at separate times of the day if possible. For example: Monday – 60-75 minutes of weights + 2 x 30 minute cardio bouts Tuesday – 60-75 minutes of weights + 2 x 30 minute cardio bouts Wednesday – 60-75 minutes of weights + 2 x 30 minute cardio bouts (easy)





Thursday – 2 x 30 minute cardio bouts Friday – 60-75 minutes of weights + 2 x 30 minute cardio bouts Saturday – 60-75 minutes of weights + 2 x 30 minute cardio bouts Sunday – Off ** Best results will come if you can do your cardio in the morning and weights in the evening or vice versa. ** Off days can be used as a cardio day and one post weight cardio workout can be dropped.

The Bottom Line Pick a template and adapt it to your schedule. There is no “magic formula” that will work for everyone and I’m giving you the permission to use these principles and customize the smaller details. For example, I don’t care if you begin with H.I.I.T. cardio for 30 minutes or tempo cardio for 30 minutes. Just pick one and measure the results. If it’s working then don’t change anything. If you are not on track then change ONE variable and measure the result the next week. Repeat this formula to keep your 1% fat coming off each week.

Conclusion As you can see, I place huge importance on cardio in your overall success. If you just want to drop a few pounds and see a two-pack or maybe even a four-pack then my cardio protocol could be considered extreme, but remember you are on a six-pack quest! The fat that you hate the most is going to challenge you to the fight of your life. Achieving a six-pack, in my books, is far more than a “vain achievement,” – it represents a level of achievement equivalent of a successful career, healthy marriage and clean mind. I want to reassure you, and I know Peter would agree, that it is much harder to get lean than it is to stay lean. I’m guessing that you are not going to go through the quest of your life and then give it up when you get there. Yes, you have to commit to some serious road work to get shredded, but it won’t take near that amount to stay shredded.





Chapter 5: YOUR SIX PACK NUTRITION PLAN The first goal of your nutrition plan is to ask yourself, “Based on my dietary habits right now, where am I on the nutrition continuum?” Are you already eating a healthy diet? Do you skimp on fruits and vegetables? Do you get enough protein? Do you overdo it on carbs? You should be following the six-pack meal plans 90% of the time (you should aim for 90% compliancy with every component of the program), but I do not expect that right from day one. There may be a small percentage of you who are ready to nail the meal plans every day, but for many, attempting to do so will set you up for failure. I would not consider these “bodybuilding pre-contest diets” but for some they will involve so much change that they may feel that way. Having a beginner adopt a bodybuilder’s contest diet is like having a beginner client do a stretching session in the morning, weights in the afternoon and a cardio session in the evening. Although it’s a great program, it’s just too much change – and it will inevitably lead to failure. Instead, I would prefer to increase the “intensity” of the program week by week, and build these habits into your lifestyle bit by bit. Once you have mastered one step (and you are 90% compliant), you can introduce slightly tougher habits.

I believe that success breeds success, and I have created this plan in stages so that you cannot fail. I believe it takes at least two weeks to establish one new habit. The Power of Progressive Compliance Progressive compliance is the same as progressive overload. Just as you need to continually give your muscles a reason to grow, you must give your fat a reason to leave. Doing the same thing gets you the same thing. Just like you begin with lower intensities and progress to heavier intensities, you will start with an easier meal plan and progress to a more ‘difficult’ meal plan. Another reason you need to maintain compliancy is so you can monitor your results week by week. If you are making too many changes, all at once, then how will you know what is contributing to what? Aside from the new body you create in the process, you should value the self-discovery process of what works for you and what does not work. This will be invaluable information to apply to future programs and to ensure predictable and consistent results. How successful do you think Peter would have been if I told him to increase his water, eat more frequently, eat more veggies and eat more protein all at the same time? And





what if, in two weeks, he had not changed at all? He would have wasted two weeks and been two weeks further from his goal instead of two weeks closer, and we would not have discovered anything because too many variables were involved. Instead, I had Peter cut out all his carbohydrates after 6pm for the first two weeks. He was only losing 1 lb per week so we knew that we needed to do something different and more intense to get to his 2 lb (average) weekly goal. Over the next two weeks we focused on eating protein with every meal, and after two weeks we discovered that he was losing 1.5 lbs per week. In the following two weeks Peter focused on eating veggies with EVERY meal and he started dropping 2-2.5 lbs per week. Experiencing this consistent progress was a major “aha” moment for Peter because he was able to measure his results and see that “what he put in was what he got out.” Using this progressive compliance strategy got Peter to “buy in” to the system I was teaching him. The opposite can happen as well. I’ve had clients say, “Okay, for the first two weeks I’m just going to focus on drinking 4 L of water a day,” and at the end of two weeks their weight has not changed at all, so we know we need to do something more intense. At the end of the day, the main message is that you need to be compliant to a plan that is slightly better than the last phase you were in. I had no interest in impressing Peter with the “perfect” diet plan that he would never be able to follow, nor am I interested in doing that to you. I want to see you be successful.

The Elimination Plan One of my favorite and most powerful strategies in coaching my clients is teaching you what not to eat. I call this the Elimination Plan, and it can be just enough to get you moving in the right direction and stir up some quick momentum in your first few weeks on the program. I use the Elimination Plan with clients who do not want to count calories or follow a pre-set caloric plan. I will caution that the Elimination Plan will only get you so far, and there will come a time will you’ll have to bite the bullet and use my Metabolic Calorie Formula to shave the last few body fat points holding you back from that shredded look.

The Elimination Plan is a scale that ranks foods from worst to best and will help you fight back against the foods declaring war on your health and waistline: The F List – These are the foods that will cause instant failure. They are damaging

to your appearance, health and fitness to an extreme degree. These foods are the equivalent of trying to swim across the Atlantic Ocean - you will barely make it a few





hours into the journey before you drown.

The D List – These foods will not kill you as fast, but for people starting at rock

bottom, moving towards this list will help you drop a few pounds. It’s not much better than trying to swim across the Atlantic Ocean, only this time you are taking a raft so you might think you are making progress at the start, but on this journey it is just a matter of time before the raft sinks.

The C List – People who eat most of their foods off this list are still sitting on the

fence. They have not decided if it’s really worth it, and if the sacrifices will be worth the reward. On this list you’re taking a boat across the Atlantic Ocean - you’ll make it, but it’s going to be one long and painful journey.

The B List – These foods are okay to eat every once in awhile and will do little harm

to your health and waistline. They will provide a steady, but not rapid, fat loss. Consider this like flying coach across the Atlantic Ocean - you’ll definitely make the journey but it’s not going to be as comfortable as flying fist class.

The A List – The absolute best ingredients you can put into your body with no ill ef-

fects. These are the only foods that will make your machine work flawlessly. Consider this like flying first class across the Atlantic Ocean - it’s the fastest, safest and best way to travel.





The

F

List:

Store-bought commercially-baked goods i.e. cookies, pastries Lots and lots of empty calories, specifically high amounts of saturated fats which decreases your fat burning ability and fills your body with sugar and fat. Bacon Empty calories, salt and fat. Bacon is loaded with nitrites and nitrates, which are related to stomach, pancreatic and colon cancers. Fast food burgers Any “ultimate” cheeseburger is going to get you around half your daily “energy’ with 1,000 calories, 70 grams of bad fat, half your daily sodium intake, and sugar. Having any sort of burger for lunch will wipe you out the rest of the day as your body uses 70% or more of your energy for digestion. Potato Chips By far the most accurate marketing in the media, “You won’t just eat one,” which is great if you want a bag loaded with preservatives, processed to the max, pumped with sodium, dripped in trans fat, covered in hydrogenated oils and loaded with fillers to halt your six pack quest. Hot dogs and lunch meat A better name would be “mystery meat” because of its conglomeration of pork and beef which are really high in sodium, and filled with nitrites and nitrates (which is a

carcinogen that can lead to cancer).

French Fries One of the most nutrient deprived foods, especially after they are fried in trans fat at high temperatures. Because French Fries are not a solo meal, the damage to the body is magnified when combined with a sugary soda and fatty burger that increase insulin levels and destroys your health. I’ve heard some doctors say that one French fry is worse than a cigarette. Anything that is fried, even healthy foods, increases the issue of trans fats and the potent cancer causing substance acrylamide. These fats are often underestimated by more “mild” side effects like weight gain, ageing, clotting, inflammation and eventually cancer. Doughnuts You get to choose from chocolate, vanilla, coconut, sprinkles and every kind of ic© Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




ing that round up to 300-500 calories, 20-30 grams of fat and 50-100 grams of sugar, which become attractive options for breakfast when in a rush, but result in a serious crash mid-morning. You’re better off skipping breakfast altogether. Soft Drinks Better described as “liquid candy” they contain up to 150 calories of sugar, artificial food colors, sulphites, artificial sweeteners like aspartame, high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, sodium, and lots of empty calories that result in a rapid energy crash. Not to mention that they decrease your appetite, which deprives you of nutrient dense calories. Chinese Fast Food Every Christmas Eve while I was growing up, my Dad’s side of the family had an annual tradition of hitting the Mandarin Chinese buffet - and yes it was good! I wish I knew that monosodium glutamate (MSG) is what they used to make the food taste delicious and fresh at the expense of an increased risk of stomach, rectal and colon cancer. MSG is in all sorts of food like canned soups, crackers, cold cuts, frozen food and much more, and is known as an “excitotoxin,” which damages your cells like a poison by over-exciting them. Some of the less harmful effects of MSG are obesity, eye damage, headaches, fatigue and depression (did you detect the sarcasm?) Whenever you are eating processed food, it’s safe to assume you are getting a nice drip of MSG, so your best bet is to stick to as much natural and whole food sources as possible when shopping and eating out.





The

D

List:

Fried Fish As much as I love a nice seafood dinner, I have to warn you about the non-healthy components of fried shrimp, clams, oysters, and lobsters. They can easily be filled with toxic mercury, and contaminated with parasites and resistant viruses that can withstand high heat and eventually become hurtful to you. Again, anything fried raises the issue of trans fat, acrylamide and toxins that can increase free radicals in your body. Without a diet high in antioxidants, you’re setting up your waistline and health to fight a losing battle. Pizza You have no idea how painful that was to type! I can eat a large, double cheese, meat-lovers pie any night of the week - but most pizzas just add up to 110% of your daily recommended intake without the “extra this,” and “extra that.” You’re better off eliminating pizza altogether. Even one slice can cancel out the entire caloric expenditure from a hard workout – what a shame (and this is coming from a pizza lover). One slice of pizza typically has more fat than a cheeseburger. The main “evil” in pizza is the cheese! That innocent single slice of good old-fashioned cheese pizza (without any topping) can add up to half a day’s worth of saturated fat - and when was the last time you ate just one slice? Even a “personal pizza” can add up to 700-1,000 calories, loads of sodium and 30-40 grams of fat (most of that saturated fat). If you must, go for thin crust, without the cheese, and load it with spinach, peppers, broccoli and chicken. Another riskier choice would be half cheese, ham and pineapple. Pizza is a social food, so most likely it’s accompanied by wings, alcoholic beverages, finger foods and chips. Most importantly, be aware of what pizza attracts – late nights, alcohol, finger food, sodas, wings, chips, and a boat full of calories. Starbucks and other “fast food” coffee shops I’m confident in saying that Starbucks is offering just as many unhealthy food choices as McDonalds and other fast food chains. Grab a coffee and pastry and you’re easily around 1,000 calories. A double chocolate chip Frappuccino blended crème is 670 calories and 22 grams of fat! Add a coffee cake at 500 calories and 20 grams of fat and you’ve just consumed the equivalent of a bag of movie theater popcorn (in place of breakfast)! Even if you pick the “healthier” size, milk, syrup and whipped cream, don’t neglect the load of stress you’re putting on your adrenal glands with the sugar and caffeine that can cause burnout. Too much sugar and caffeine will eventually lead to fatigue, sleeplessness, depression, emotional illness and also depletion in





B vitamins, which are responsible for metabolizing your carbohydrates. Don’t ever forget that your body can survive without a double latte frappuccino, but it can’t survive without water. This should influence your beverage selection strongly. Canned soups Soups get their salty taste from sodium - half your recommended daily intake in just one can - MSG’s (a deadly preservative), trans fats and unidentifiable “vegetables” that create the false impression you’re getting some nutrients. Most canned soups have a chewy, rubbery and indiscernible flavor (not to mention pre-chewed appearance), and that should be enough to avoid them in the grocery store. You’re better off making your soup from scratch. Ice cream Another “treat” that hammers your waistline because of the calories and saturated fat. Even if you were to discipline yourself to one Ben & Jerry’s chocolate-dipped waffle cone, you’ll cancel out half your morning cardio workout with 300-400 calories and 15-20 grams of fat. Get a double scoop, because it’s a hot day, and your intake jumps to 800 calories and over 30 grams of fat – about the same as a rack of ribs (that at least provides some protein). Some companies are creating low-fat and no-fat options to reduce your intake to 100-200 calories – this will cause less damage only if you resist sprinkling it with topping. Finger Food and Appetizers Nachos, wings, garlic loaf, spinach dip, potato skins – these are foods meant to be shared in groups, but often consumed by one individual. Before you know it, you’ve personally consumed 1,000-2,000 calories before your main course. Add in a few alcoholic beverages, main course, and dessert and you’ve consumed two day’s worth of calories in one sitting. Forget the fact that almost all appetizers are fried, baked and loaded with sodium, the major culprit is the volume of calories because, let’s face it – appetizers are tasty! Cereals Unless you are eating oatmeal or quinoa, even the “healthy” breakfast cereals are sure fire six-pack killers. Do you ever wonder why it’s so easy for kids to eat breakfast every morning? It’s because they are consuming “breakfast candy,” nothing more and nothing less. Most cereals have high amounts of sugar (read the labels next time), are worse than white bread, and will spike your insulin so high you’ll be in a coma by lunch. The only cereals you can “get away with” for a short period of time are All Bran and Fiber One, which have low calories and high fibre. Juices Pre-packaged and bottled fruit juices are the easiest way to over consume calories and turn your fat-loss program into a bulking one. Anything bottled or packaged, even juice, has been stripped of its nutrients and phytochemicals. You’re better © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




off juicing real fruit so you get your fiber, vitamins, minerals and more phytochemicals – plus real fruit juice is more filling. Add a few glasses of juice each day and you’re easily adding 150-300 sugary calories that will result in an energy crash by mid-morning. Foods with White Flour If you are able to avoid anything from white or enriched flour, like cereals, pretzels, bagels, white bread (not whole grain, wheat or rye bread), crackers, pitas or anything else from white flour, then your quest for a six-pack will accelerate dramatically. These are refined carbohydrates and have been stripped of their nutritional value. They act like white sugar in your body. When eating bread, make sure the first ingredient is always “100% whole wheat” or “100% whole grain,” and avoid white bread at all costs.





The

C

List

Alcohol In the Lifestyle chapter, I’ll discuss how the negatives outweigh the positives, but for now, let’s face it, alcohol isn’t getting you any leaner. Having one or two drinks a week may not result in any long-term health problems, but it will certainly not speed up your six-pack quest. You will not meet any bodybuilder or fitness model, who is serious about leaning down, who consumes one or two drinks a week in moderation. That should tell you something. Alcohol suppresses your testosterone levels, slows fat loss and contains empty calories, which should be three good reasons to lay off the booze! Cheese Unless you are eating 100% organic cheese that comes from cows that were on a purely grass-fed diet and were raised naturally, then I would cut the cheese when it comes to cutting your fat. Commercially manufactured cheese equals a lot of chemicals, calories, saturated fats and hydrogenated oils. I would bump cheese up to the B List if you can afford organic grass-fed cheese because you’ll get a balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fats, very high CLA (conjugated linoleic acid; high beta-carotene, vitamin A, vitamin D, and vitamin E, calcium and cheese that is free from antibiotics and growth hormones.

Eliminating processed dairy sources will be a huge step to seeing your abs faster and improving your health. Chocolate The only way chocolate made the C List, respectably high, is because I am only referring to rich, dark chocolate that has been connected to improved insulin resistance and blood pressure. Cocoa, found in dark chocolate, is rich in flavanols, a species of polyphenols found in plants. I often include a slice or two of dark chocolate into my fat loss clients’ meal plans, as a treat each evening before bed, if they stuck to their meal plan all day. It must be dark chocolate in order to reap the antioxidant benefit, but don’t get too excited because chocolate is still very high in sugar which can damage your immune system, delay recovery and can lead to over indulgence if you are not satisfying your craving with a balanced diet of proteins, carbs and fats. Manufactured Protein Bars To date, I have not found a protein bar that I’m truly satisfied with, and have been disappointed by the lack of protein bars that contain healthy fats, protein, fiber, and are low in carbohydrates. Most bars that claim to be “low carb” still have over 20 © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




grams of carbs, and are loaded with high fructose corn syrup that disturb your insulin levels. Some research on the actual makeup of energy bars and protein bars has found that most nutritional labels are very misleading because they do not include glycerin, which is a sweetener and moisture additive. The bar’s sodium and saturated fat levels are often two to three times higher, and the average bar contains an extra eight grams of sugar over what was shown on the packaging. The only thing accurately reported was the protein, cholesterol and calorie count. A friend of mine, who is a fitness model, never travels without a protein bar in her purse for emergencies, and I think this is a fantastic insurance policy if you’re tempted to reach for foods from the F and C List, but in the end, whole food is your first choice and eventually you’ll want to drop the bars completely. Butter Many people are unaware of butter’s rich source of vitamins, minerals, CLA, a small amount of essential fatty acids and cholesterol (responsible for testosterone production and intestinal health). I was always fearful using a bit of butter while cooking because of the fat, until I learned that 15% of the fatty acids in butter are of the short and medium chain variety, which are not stored as fat but used for your body’s daily functions and organs. With four weeks left before a competition, I’ll cut out butter and replace it with calorie-free cooking spray to avoid the incidental calories and risk of consuming too much. Don’t be afraid to use a bit of butter while cooking until you are ready to strip the last few pounds. Energy Drinks The main ingredient in energy drinks is caffeine, which blocks the chemical that makes you feel sleepy. This chemical is known as adenosine and also plays a role in blood vessel dilation. When blocked it causes your brain’s blood vessels to constrict. This is why you feel your heart rate increase, blood pressure rise and you begin to sweat sooner. Caffeine also releases calcium, which allows you to be stronger and get a more intense workout. You will also feel happier from the increased dopamine release. The short-term benefits are excellent while dieting because of the increased alertness and workout intensity, but in the long-term it can leave you drained and exhausted when the effects wear off and your brain reconnects with adenosine. I don’t have as much of a problem with the caffeine as I do with the sugar that contributes to the majority of calories. Most energy drinks contain up to seven teaspoons of sugar, which is the daily recommend intake for someone on a 2,000 calorie diet. As you know, controlling insulin levels is mandatory for dropping the last 10-20 pounds of fat, and sugary energy drinks will stunt your progress.





The

B

List

Multi-Coloured Fruits The only reason fruit does not qualify for the A List is because of its sugar, and if you are super committed to getting a six-pack then you’ll eventually have to replace these natural sugars with starchy carbs that have less sugar. When you are stripping off the last few pounds of fat, every insulin spike slows the process. Some experts go the extreme, saying that “fruit is evil,” but if you eliminate them completely you’ll miss out on the fibre opportunity, low-calorie benefit, vitamins, minerals and fullness they can provide. During the last six to eight weeks of your program you might consider cutting your fruit completely and replacing it with more vegetables and starchy carbs to make your plan more effective. Avoid calorie-packed raisins; although very high in antioxidants, which are an excellent bulking food, they do not fit into a fat-loss program. If fruit is consumed during a strict fat-loss program, front load it into the start of your day, before or after a workout. Tuna By far one of the most powerful and affordable proteins you can get for your buck, tuna comes packed with 30-40 grams of protein in a single tin. It’s carb-free and fatfree, and can be mixed with calorie-free salsa to accelerate your six pack quest. Some of my roommates from university lived on rice cakes, tuna and chicken breast - and were shredded to the bone. Tuna should absolutely be a staple of your diet and the only reason it did not make the A List is because of its mercury content which can create toxicity if eaten in excess, which is more than 3 cans per week. Cottage Cheese This is one of the best protein sources for maintaining your muscle mass because of a slow-releasing protein called casein. Not only does cottage cheese contain casein, which plays a huge role in absorption and slowing digestion, but it’s affordable, easily portable (just don’t let it get warm or the chunky curds and texture will knock you out), and it contains 60 grams of protein for a 500 ml container. Even when choosing the fatfree kind (your first choice), the reason cottage cheese didn’t make my A List is because of the milk sugar. I personally cut cottage cheese at around four weeks from a contest to control insulin levels better. Milk





Milk is a double-edged sword because of its sugar content (that many people can not digest) and high fat. It can be an easy source of protein for the “growing teenager,” an aggressive form of bulking, and for older folks wanting more calcium. I personally, including many other bodybuilders and fitness models I’ve spoken to, find that lactose can cause you to hold water and bloat. I always look harder and leaner and lose fat faster when I cut dairy. If you can consume lactose then this is a convenient form of protein, but as your body fat drops lower and lower then I suggest you limit your milk intake. Low-Fat Yogurt This is a better alternative to milk because it contains a critical ingredient for the efficiency of your digestion system – bacteria.

Be aware that most yogurt contains a lot of sugar, even in a small serving, so read the labels and look for a natural one without all the calories. When dialing down to six-pack abs, you’ll find that yogurt should be replaced with a carb with less sugar – like oatmeal or a slice of whole wheat bread. Protein Powder Why didn’t protein powder make the A list? I would never put protein powders in the same category as metabolically and hormonally active food. Powders lack the enzymes and hormones and substance of a lean piece of fish, beef or steak. They also contain lots of fillers, artificial flavors and sweeteners and when you’re pushing the last 5-10 pounds of fat off your lower abdomen, you want to stay as natural as possible. In the last six weeks of a contest, I’ll always cut my protein powders completely (for the best results) and rely solely on whole food – you’ll be amazed at the impact on your metabolism. Whole Wheat and Whole Grain Products Many bodybuilders will cut whole grains completely with 12-16 weeks left before a competition, but if used in moderation, complex carbohydrates can remain a staple up until a few weeks before your deadline. My most recent meal plan consisted of one slice of whole grain bread (18 grams of carbs and two grams of sugar) for meals one and two, and my body fat dropped just fine. However, if your body fat is not dropping with whole wheat and whole grain products (like bread and pasta) then you are probably “carb-sensitive” and need to cut them out completely. In the big picture, whole grain products can be used all year long if not overeaten. Mixed Nuts and Natural Peanut Butter I almost sabotaged my first fitness show when I came home one night absolutely starving and found a bag of salted peanuts in my cupboards. Convincing myself that they were high in protein I began “sneaking” a small handful here and a small handful





there, and the next time I stepped on the scale, I hadn’t lost a thing. After discovering that just 32 peanuts have 150 calories (six grams of protein and five grams of carbs), I realized that I was canceling out half of my cardio workouts with the two “innocent” handfuls I was indulging in each day. Nuts do make a wonderful and convenient snack combined with proteins and healthy fats to keep you feeling full. If your meal plan says, “eight almonds,” that is not a joke. It sounds petty but it’s not; nuts are a calorically dense food - that’s the reason they didn’t make the A List. They are easy to overeat. Natural peanut butter became a “candy” for me when I added it to my oatmeal/egg white pancakes in the morning, but like nuts, it is calorically dense and can easily add an extra 100-200 calories a day if you’re not careful. Never eat the peanut butter loaded with sugars, syrup and hydrogenated oils. The ingredients should read “peanuts and salt,” and it should taste “different” for it to be natural. Lean beef My mission on weekends is to find the best steak houses around. I love my steak, but it does not make the A List because of the fat content. Lean beef is loaded with high-quality protein, B vitamins and creatine, which is excellent for building muscle and making you feel satisfied. If you can avoid the fatty cuts of beef then having one or two small pieces (6-12 oz depending on your size) will do little harm, but if you are striving to follow the strictest plan possible, stick with chicken and egg whites instead. Beans Mixed beans are a cool food because they contain a high amount of protein and carbs. I consider them a carb and look at the protein as a “bonus.” Beans have zero fat, no cholesterol, and are one of the best sources of fibre (which explains the extra gas you’ll initially experience until your body gets used to the increased fibre). Black beans have been found to have the highest antioxidant levels, followed by red, brown, yellow and white – the darker the bean the more flavonoids, therefore, the more antioxidants. The only reason these don’t make the A List is because of the high carbohydrate - but they should still be a staple for most of your journey. Olive Oil Without a doubt, extra-virgin olive oil is clearly one of the best monounsaturated fat sources for you, as long as you don’t use it for cooking, which can cause oxidative damage at high temperatures. The only reason that olive oil did not make the A List is because olive oil can hit you with extra calories if you’re not careful. If measured properly olive oil should stay in your program as long as possible to reap the numerous health benefits and cardioprotective nutrients.





The

A

List

Multi-Coloured Vegetables These are, by far, the most underestimated and underutilized food for getting lean very, very fast. I consider veggies a “free food” because they have virtually no calories, and are loaded with water, fiber, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytochemicals. They help improve the digestion and absorption of your food. They also trick you into feeling like you ate a large meal, which is a key when dieting to control food craving and hunger pains. If you could only consume two food sources to get a six-pack faster than anything else it would be proteins and veggies. Green Tea Why is green tea on the A List? Green Tea serves many purposes, and one that you might not think of – socializing. While you are dieting, I strongly suggest that you avoid restaurants as much as possible, which can limit your social options. Instead of having to stay in every day of the week, I’m still able to meet up with my friends socially while dieting and drink a large Green Tea with some natural sweetener to get me through the night - and still enjoy myself. Don’t be fooled be the advertisements that say Green Tea will help you lose fat fast. Green Tea does increase your metabolism, but barely enough to burn one pound every 50 days which I’m guessing is not as fast as you would like. Chicken By far, chicken is the most popular choice of bodybuilders and fitness models for getting lean. I even know one competitor who consumes chicken breast, broccoli and a baked potato for six meals a day, 12 weeks straight, for each competition! Go for the leanest part of the chicken - the breast - and avoid the fatty part in the thighs that can sneak in “incidental” calories. To maintain the power of this protein, ensure it is not fried, but always steamed, broiled or baked. As we mentioned above, chicken “cold cuts” do not count as they are loaded with preservatives, binders, fillers and other unknown chemicals that don’t mix well with a six-pack. Eggs and Egg Whites Egg whites are another staple in a bodybuilder’s and fitness model’s diet as they are the only other protein that can compete with chicken for its absolutely zero fat count and carb count. Between two meals, I always consume 20 egg whites a day. A typical “six-pack” omelet in the morning after my cardio (on a empty stomach) would consist of 10 egg whites, 1 egg yolk, tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms and calorie-free cooking spray with organic salsa on top – absolutely delicious! I‘ll have this meal twice a day, which is perfect for gaining muscle and leaning down fast. Eggs wear many hats:





scrambled, omelets, sunny-side-up, over easy, frittatas and hard boiled. Oatmeal and Quinoa I’ve always wondered why every bodybuilder and fitness model I speak too includes oatmeal on a daily basis. The power of oatmeal is that it is slowly released into your bloodstream and does not cause an insulin spike, which is perfect for getting lean and making you full. A typical half cup includes three grams of fat, five grams of protein, and 27 grams of carbs, which is an ideal balance. Always choose the natural oats that do not contain sugar like the sugary and sweetened instant packets. Brown Rice This is another cornerstone staple whether you are bulking up or leaning down, as long as you measure it out to keep the calories controlled. Brown rice and basmati rice are your top choices for a slow releasing starchy carbohydrate. Avoid white rice because it’s the processed version of brown rice and enters your blood stream quickly, making you hungry again within the hour. Fish and Fish Oils One of Peter’s staple foods was fish, so he was able to overcome the boredom that comes with eating chicken and egg whites every day. The majority of fish has virtually no fat and no carbs, is high in protein and light on the stomach so you don’t feel bloated. Experiment with an assortment of fish from cat fish, flounder, herring cod, Halibut, haddock, mahi mahi, marlin, mackerel, orange roughy, salmon, trout and tuna. Use common sense and stick to herbs for flavouring instead of fatty sauces and butters. Even though some of your fattier fish like herring, mackerel, sardines, salmon and trout, contain your good fat like Omega 3’s, be aware of the calories and stick to your leanest forms of fish in the last few weeks of your quest. Avoid fast food fish because, even with a custom order, it’s guaranteed that it will get dipped in butter and fatty sauces. Salsa I consider this my secret weapon when dieting – I call it my “free food” because I can have as much as I want and it’s delicious on anything. I mix it into my chicken, tuna and egg whites instead of popular condiments and sauces high in sugar, fillers and salt. Purified Water One of the best investments you can make is a filtration system that guarantees healthy, clean water that is free of undesirable bacteria, viruses and other micro-organisms. I always consume between four and eight liters per day. You cannot afford to drink anything less than clear, fresh water. Filling your body with chlorine, fluoride, asbestos, Crypto sporidium and Giardia, and other chemical substances increases free radical formation which leads to a whole series of health problems like ageing, hardening of the arteries, difficulty breaking down cholesterol, liver malfunction, weakening of the immune system and cancer. If you do not purchase a purification system then drink distilled water. © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




16 Ways to “Periodize” Your 84-Day Meal Plan In an ideal world you would use the Calorie Formula below, stick with one 84-day meal plan and have a six-pack in 12 weeks! Many people will get 80-90% of the way to their goal by starting at a certain number of calories and only having to drop the intake a few times. For example, a male around 220 pounds might be able to use the 2,800-calorie meal plan from start to finish, and only have to manipulate his cardio output and weight-training frequency. Another male might have to start at 2800 calories and keep dropping 200 calories every 2-4 weeks until his goal is reached. This next section is one of my favorite components of the program because it will require you to become a part of the process. Some people are not going to like this section because they simply want to be told exactly what to do. They want to be told to eat 34.88% protein 12 minutes before they work out. I believe that you are closer to the answers and solutions to your problems than I am. You know your body better than I do and you will be able to guide yourself to your six-pack, with my step-by-step plan below, while paying close attention to your results and listening to your body. The idea of adjusting your nutrition plan intuitively will frustrate some left-brained academics, but with few exceptions, academics are usually not the ones with the best bodies! The people who have the best bodies are those living in the real world. They train hard, eat properly, pay close attention to their results and listen to what their bodies are telling them, despite what the latest textbook says. Don’t be an individual who wants to get spoon fed the answers, without thinking or being involved in the training process. If there was a “perfect” nutrient ratio or “perfect” formula, then you would have probably found it by now. Although I consider my system to be quite effective, it’s not “perfect” and will require you to have the courage to make some unique decisions based on your intuition. There is no program or ratio combination that you should follow by law. Don’t be afraid to determine what works best for you. Have the confidence to do some “tweaking.” Allow yourself some flexibility and enjoy the journey.

Let’s get started.





1. Figure Out Your Caloric Intake

Bodyweight x 13 = until you have a “two-pack’ Bodyweight x 12 = until you have a “four-pack” Bodyweight x 11 = until you have a “six-pack” Bodyweight x 10 = until you have an “eight-pack”

You will not need to go any lower than a multiple of 10 - guaranteed. Don’t be impatient and start lower, at a multiple of 11, because you already have a four-pack. This is a generic formula but you should start at 13 and progress downward based on my criteria above - or when you hit a plateau.

Here is a step-by-step plan to progressively intensify your nutrition program and ensure that you do not hit a plateau for more than a week. Apply this and you will keep dropping your 1% body fat each week:

2. Eat your protein first If you are in a life and death situation and only have time to eat one food selection on your plate, eat your protein first. Do not move on to step two until you are consuming at least 90% of your weekly protein intake as shown on your plan. You have 35 meals on your meal plan so by the end of the week you will have consumed 33 of the 35 protein meals.

3. Balance your proteins with your veggies Apply the same strategy to your veggies now – this might be a little more challenging but resort to juicing or pre-preparing your veggies so you have no, “They take too long to eat” excuse. Don’t be surprised if your grocery bill goes up, and if affordability is not an issue, aim to get organic or locally grown vegetables.

4. Master your meal frequency Buy yourself a stop watch or schedule in your palm pilot every time you will eat. You’ll be amazed at how powerful this reinforcement is and how easy it is to let three or four hours go by without a meal. We are creatures of habit and the sooner you can get into a set routine, the more automatic the routine will become and the quicker you’ll see results. My perfect schedule is 6am, 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm (and a 9pm meal if I’m bulking). © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




5. Start your first meal earlier You’ll be amazed at what happens when you consume your first meal at 7 am instead of 9am each day, or make any small improvements in when you consume your first meal. The moral of the story here is to get your first meal in you as soon as possible so that you break the deadly fast that shuts down your metabolism each night as you sleep.

6. Measure your water “I drink a lot of water” is the most annoying phrase to a personal trainer when they ask their client how much water they consume. Start with a 4 L container and pour all your water into your cups and bottles from there. At the end of the day you’ll see how much you are in fact drinking. Guzzle whatever is left before you go to bed to ensure you hit your goal water intake. I aim for six liters a day, which does keep you in the bathroom regularly, but flushes out the fat much quicker.

7. Add cayenne pepper and lemon to your water This is a little secret of mine that helps cleanse your liver and detoxify your body all day long. Over 75% of my water intake comes from this combination and I’ve felt “cleaner” ever since starting.

8. Measure your fats closely It’s not a bad idea, for two or three days, to write down just your fat intake to ensure you are not exceeding your fat intake through butter, sauces or oils that you can easily mis-measure.

9. Stop eating out completely You’re starting to get really serious when you are prepared for this step. It will require you to take initiative and offer healthier solutions to prevent you from “losing control.” Restaurants, for many people, just require too much willpower and discomfort from creating the false assumption you are eating healthy when your food might be loaded with “hidden calories” unknown by the waiter or waitress.





10. Cut your alcohol intake completely You heard me say it, “You do the booze and you lose!” You can’t afford to be spiking your insulin, adding extra calories and shutting down your body’s fat-burning ability, so structure your next few weeks, till you hit your deadline, around less socializing where alcohol is flowing.

11. Begin shopping organic It’s hard to say if switching over to organic foods will make an immediate difference, but it certainly will for your long-term health. This is a step to consider when you want to start freeing your body of chemicals like pesticides. There is no question that fresh organic (note that fresh non-organic is better than un-fresh organic) food contains higher nutrient levels such as vitamin C, iron, magnesium and phosphorus, and less nitrates. Hopefully as organic becomes more in demand the prices will drop so that we can avoid the negative effects of chemical fertilizers inside our body.

12. Start eating whole food 100% of the time It is not uncommon for bodybuilders and fitness models to cut all supplements like protein powder, and resort to strictly whole food 12-16 weeks before a show. I cut my protein powder out, even before and after workouts, within four weeks of a show or deadline. Whole food will maximize your metabolism more effectively than powders, and your body will get more vitamins, minerals and amino acids, which is especially important when you’re living on an ultra-low caloric intake. You can not afford to put anything “low quality” in your body.

13. Substitute your fattier protein for leaner proteins This is when your diet should consist of primarily chicken, egg whites and fish. I know many bodybuilders who purposely keep beef in their diet for the hormones and for the fat intake, but if you are having a hard time cutting the last few pounds, experiment with the absence of beef for at least two weeks and measure the results.





14. Substitute your fruits for more veggies If you are ultra “carb sensitive” and getting enough veggies in your diet then this step could be pushed up higher on the scale, but to strip off the last 5-6 pounds of stubborn fat, control insulin spikes by eliminating fruit completely. I know many bodybuilders and fitness models who cut their fruit completely 12 weeks out from competition, but I consider this extreme unless you are supplementing with a fiber supplement. But don’t fear if you don’t consume any fruit for the last four to six weeks before your deadline to force the fat off.

16. Consider stacking ephedrine and caffeine This suggestion applies only to those completely free of any heart conditions and blood pressure problems, and if you are uncomfortable with using these products for a very short period of time then don’t fear – they are not necessary. They can be very helpful when your thyroid begins to slow from an ultra-low caloric intake. Only consider stacking ephedrine and caffeine if you cannot take your calories any lower and if you cannot increase your energy expenditure any further. This stack will boost your metabolism by about 10% and can be a great way to get your motor running again. For males, I would recommend taking 25mg of ephedrine and 100 mg of caffeine to start and build it up to a maximum of 75 grams of ephedrine and 200 mg of caffeine stacked together. Although it is not uncommon to take this combo up to three times a day, I would recommend only once a day to aim for the maximum result with the minimum intake.

17. Introduce “re-feed” days An alternate way to “spike” your metabolism naturally with out ephedrine and caffeine is to introduce one of the most powerful fat burning strategies on the planet. It claims first place by a mile. The second place system does not even come close. It is the ONLY way to outsmart the body’s starvation response when calories and carbs are restricted. Not only do you avoid the negative responses of consistent caloric restriction, but you gain a series of positive responses.

Cycling your calories has earned various names over the years and is considered the bodybuilder’s and fitness model’s best-kept secret.





You might hear this system promoted as “carbohydrate cycling”, “zig-zag dieting”, “hi-low dieting”, “carbing-up” or “re-feeding.” It is excellent for anyone who has trouble with fat loss or wants to crash through a plateau. The benefit is that it allows you to maximize fat loss without the expense of muscle loss. This is mainly because your body’s metabolism does not get turned off by going into starvation mode; it is cranked up again right before it figures out it was even going there! This has been the bodybuilder’s and fitness model’s best kept secret for decades and now you know it!

Why cycling calories is better than a constant low carb diet…

The longer you stay on a low carb diet, the less effective your diet and training become on your fat loss goals. Basically, after three or so days of low carbs, your body’s glycogen levels will be almost depleted and you will notice that your training intensity and workout quality will start to suffer and take a beating. You will have very little energy, lose your strength and start to notice that your muscles will “flatten out” and look softer. Your body is smarter than you think, and will interpret the low carbohydrates as a threat for survival, so your metabolic rate will slow down and your thyroid gland will slow down and decrease the output of thyroid hormone. This is why you need to “mix things up” and keep your body on full alert with a high carb day every fourth day.

The only way to lose fat and build muscle at the same time...

This question will continue with the ages. Some will scream that building muscle and losing fat is impossible. You can only chase one goal at a time. I agree that choosing one goal is a more effective approach, but let’s consider what happens when alternating high and low carb days. Every fourth day, during the “high carb” day, your energy levels go up, your muscles fill out and become harder, and your metabolic rate catches a spark of lighter fluid to start the fire up again. Mentally, you get a break from all the discipline and staleness of eating low carb, which can cause some people to break and give up. Unless you have really, really dieted before, you will not understand what I am talking about! The “high carb” day is literally a high day because you can reward yourself for another three-day victory, side-step the side-effects, and have something to look forward to for your discipline. The best part is that you will notice your body getting noticeably leaner with every four-day cycle as your body keeps digging out the fat stores and using the carbohydrates to make you look more ripped. Your metabolic rate will never stop working for you.





Most importantly, the high carb day will prevent muscle loss and it may even help you increase small amounts of muscle mass in the process. That is why you have heard of clients losing 15-30 pounds of fat in only three or four months, but also gaining three or four pounds of muscle. Most likely, whether intentional or not, they were using some form of carbohydrate cycling.

A little tip to emphasize weak body parts during carbohydrate cycling: I always had my high carbohydrate days on Wednesday and Saturday. This does not work perfectly to a 3:1 rotation, but I adapted the principles of cycling to my training program. My two weakest body parts were shoulders and biceps. Shoulders got trained on Wednesday and biceps got trained on Saturday. I made sure that I had my high carbohydrate day on the same days I trained my weakest body parts, so that if any muscle were to make gains during my pre contest diet diet, it would be my two weakest muscle groups.





Adaptation of 3:1 cycling based on body type…

Ectomorph:

Ultra skinny guys/gals have the greatest chance of losing muscle while cutting, so 3:1 might actually backfire on you. Instead, one high carb day might need to be substituted with two or three high carb days and then repeat. This will really ensure that no muscle is lost and that you might even make better muscle gains on your high days.





Mesomorphs:

Naturally muscular guys/gals should suit the 3:1 model perfectly, although the only way to be sure is to test it out and assess the results. An extra day can be added to make the rotation 4:1 or even 5:1. Some mesomorphs, who have a harder time losing fat, could also benefit from a 7:1 rotation. Again, if the high days need to be adjusted, two days should do the trick.





Endomorphs:

Naturally chubby guys/gals, who have the hardest time losing fat, will benefit the most from stretching out the rotation to a longer cycle such as 7:1, to a maximum of 14:1. If you have a large percentage of fat to lose in a short period of time, then you will have to push your body to its limits to maximize the fat loss - 3:1 will be just too darn slow, so start with a more stretched-out rotation.





How Do I Know How to Adjust The Days? Simple. Make sure you are dropping around 1 to 3 pounds of body fat per week, which will be your weekly 1% standard. Anything more is not very wise and will result in loss of lean body mass. It will take three or four weeks to figure out what is working. Use the mirror and stay in tune with the visual changes of your body. If you are leaning out and looking more muscular, then everything is perfect and on track. If you are losing body fat but looking softer, then you need an extra re-feed day or more frequent re-feed days because you might be losing muscle. If you are getting bigger and not losing fat where you need to, then your calories are still too high or you need to lengthen out the break between high and low days.





Chapter 6: YOUR SIX-PACK SUPPLEMENT PLAN The most important message I can get across is that NO supplement melts fat! A supplement, by definition, means, “the addition to…” No matter what you have read in a magazine, seen in the media, or heard from an expert, a supplement will NOT be the SOLUTION. Getting a six-pack requires fat mobilization, and the delivery of fatty acids into the mitochondria of the muscle cell where they can be burned as fuel. Fat loss is a result of a series of complicated biological processes at the cellular level which you control through exercise and diet - no supplement has the power to do this alone. Until you understand that a “supplement” is just “the extra,” and will not achieve the over-inflated results that are promised, you will continue to be fooled into believing there is a “quick and easy” miracle pill that will do the work for you.

No supplement can do the work for you, and assuming you are compliant to your nutrition plan and training program 90% of the time, at best, the supplement only will make up a five-10% difference in the fat loss process. The Problem with “Does This Work…?” Aside from this statement pushing ownership and responsibility off the individual, I find this philosophy of thinking rooted in people’s confusion and attempts to build food. The proof is in most people’s kitchens – shoeboxes or cupboards filled with dozens of different supplements. They have a bottle of Vitamin C for bone protection; a bottle of Vitamin E for immune function; a bottle of Glutamine to (supposedly) preserve muscle; a bottle of L-Tyrosine for mental alertness and a bottle of Co-Enzyme Q10 for cardiovascular health. Sound familiar?

Aware of it or not, people have turned what is supposed to be a kitchen into a laboratory of pills, powders and capsules literally trying to build food.





Asking, “Does this work…” and “Does that work…” results in broken focus that distracts you from your efforts and reliance on what truly works – diet, lifestyle and training. This mentality is a crutch to your mindset, your bank account and in some situations, your health! Supplements can become a crutch, because they allow for slip-ups in your diet and training to occur – “It’s okay if I slip up here because I’m taking Supplement X which will cover up for it…” This is the kind of thinking that will lead you one step away from your six-pack instead of one step closer to it.

How To Create Your Supplement Plan There are many people who aren’t interested in joining the “anti-supplement” sect, and have unlimited disposable income to improve their health and maximize that 10% difference when their training, diet and lifestyle is at a 90% threshold. The good news is that adding certain supplements to a hard and consistent training program, and a diet low in sugar, high in fibre and one that makes use of the Empowered meal plans, will be helpful in getting to your six-pack faster. Most supplements complement one another, creating a synergistic effect. I suggest that you start using one supplement at a time, allowing at least two weeks to elapse so you can monitor the effects and decide if you will keep it or drop it. If the product is having a visible and noticeable effect on anything related to your health and fitness goals, then record the effects, and add a new supplement. Repeat this process until you have built your own supplement plan.

The Solution Believe me, I have no problem with supplements themselves, but I take exception to those who think (consciously or unconsciously) supplements will take the responsibility off themselves, and believe that certain supplements are “quick and easy” solutions. Whatever your criteria for picking supplements, or your level of disposable income, don’t subscribe to the faulty belief that the supplements I recommend work magic.





Only when you are dialled into your training and nutrition plan can you expect to see serious results from a supplement program. 1. Multivitamin or Greens Product The foundation of fat loss, as shown in your Six Pack Quest Meal Plans, is to get 10-15 serving of fruits and veggies (primarily veggies as you get leaner and leaner), which can be a daunting task unless you work full-time out of your home. In an ideal world you would consume your 10-15 servings through whole food or homemade juice (using a juicer), but I also recommend using a multivitamin or Greens product in conjunction with your meal plan. Consider it an insurance policy. The likelihood of hitting someone while you’re driving your car is unlikely, but if you do, you will be very thankful that you have insurance. This is the same as taking your Multi or Greens product. I personally use a product called VGF25+. The women’s version is VFG 25+ Women. For future reference, the supplements I use are at http://www.VinceDelMonteNutrition.com. I have to admit, since my nutrition is quite clean and I get my 10-15 servings a day (mostly through juicing), it might be redundant to take a Multivitamin, but I have no problem ensuring all my levels are topped off. If you don’t mind spending a little extra, use a Greens powder, which will also fill in any gaps and keep your levels to the brim. Most servings from a Greens powder are fruits, veggies and other “extra” ingredients compacted and distilled as powder. Whatever you choose to take, don’t rely on your Multi or Greens product to take the place of real food; in other words, don’t take them instead of food. These supplements are an insurance policy to ensure you are always protected.

2. Fish Oils Before I list all the wonderful benefits of fish oil supplementation, and before you get excited about doubling and tripling your dosage, let me remind you that not even fish oil supplements are a magic bullet for fat loss. Don’t expect to pop a few pills every meal and see the fat melt away. Nothing is that good to be true! Getting your omega-3’s from a weekly consumption of salmon, menhaden, anchovy, sardine, or crilla is the equivalent of getting 10-15 servings of fruits and veggies in your diet.





Fish oils are responsible for cardiovascular health, longlasting joints, reduced risk of diabetes and a boost in metabolism. Ideally your fish oil supplement should be around 30% (around 300 mg) EPA plus 60% (around 600 mg) DHA. Your product will not work as effectively if they are not stacked together. Fish oils are something you don’t ever want to run out of, and it’s safe to take up to between 6-10 grams (6-10 capsules) a day (1-2 per meal). A minimum of 5-6 grams should be taken each day, split up between two or three meals. To really exploit the benefits of this supplement, push it up to 10 grams a day. The formula I use, EFA Icon, has a higher potency level so it does not require 6-10 capsules to get the same benefit. This is an ideal choice for anyone, like me, who does not like “popping” pills. EFA Icon is 150 EPA and 90 DHA but the Krill Oil has 47 times more antioxidant power than conventional fish oils you’ll find at the store, so you’ll “pop” far fewer pills.

3. Protein Powder Like other supplements, protein powder does not work magic, nor will it be your secret weapon to getting your six-pack, but it can certainly make your life much easier. No matter what the store clerk says, protein powder does not have the same effect as a chicken breast, a few eggs, can of tuna, tub of cottage cheese, or lean steak. Nothing beats the real thing, but there are certain times in the day when protein powder is more appealing than roasting a steak, like when you are in a rush, and before or after your workout. To simplify your life, I’m going to recommend you stick with one protein powder – it is not necessary to buy an isolate for during your workouts, a casein protein for before bedtime, and a blend for snacks. Aside from being costly it makes very little difference in terms of results. Also, fat loss is easier to acquire when all your calories are from whole foods because of the lower caloric intake. Unlike protein shakes, whole foods will help you deal with hunger cravings and will help increase your metabolism. It’s one thing to consume three or more shakes when you are aiming to take in 4,000-6,000 calories a day, but when you are dipping into the 2,000-calorie range, you can’t afford to displace your calories with powders over nutrient dense whole food. If you want to use them, consume no more than two shakes a day, if that. I find, psychologically, the “fancier” supplements you buy, the less you rely on yourself to train hard and sleep hard. I, personally, don’t notice any difference when using an Isolate versus Whey versus a Blend versus a Hydrolysate. The bottom line is that the purpose of using a protein powder is to get an instant boost in your metabo-





lism and preserve your muscle mass while dieting, which is a very good thing because muscle drives your metabolic furnace. There are far more “elegant,” super-proteins in existence but I’m happy using Lean, which has 35 grams of concentrate protein and eight grams of fibre per scoop. But after using all of them, I’ve given up looking for “the one.” I’m convinced it does not exist, nor will it ever exist, so I rely on my training, diet and lifestyle to get the job done. The reason you’ll continue to see more “bells and whistles” added to the rolodex of protein powder options is because you buy it. Consumers’ lack of education and lust for “short cuts” fuels the fire that burns you back. Unfortunately, there will always be a greater fool who puts the responsibility on it rather than I.

Extras To Consider 4. Creatine Creatine during a fat loss program? I won’t say it’s a “must,” but for its low cost and numerous benefits it’s pretty darn close to being one. The entire goal of losing fat is to keep your metabolism as high as possible, and we know the most effective way is good old-fashioned weight training.

Maintaining your strength, as much as possible, is a key criteria for maintaining your muscle mass and there is no other natural, safe and time-tested supplement like creatine that can do this for you. While cutting your calories you will begin to feel “flat” and lose your pumps, but creatine will allow you to train harder and keep your muscles “full” and hard. After you load up on creatine your muscles will be super-hydrated, swelled and stretched, which leads to strength improvements of five to 15 percent. But since your calories are in a deficit instead of a surplus, the creatine will offset any significant loss in strength. Psychologically, this will play a huge role because you won’t feel like you’re wasting away, and you’ll really be satisfied with the “new you” coming through, and you’ll be able to see a tight and crisp physique not far in the distance. For anyone over 200 pounds, I recommend taking two big tablespoons (about 5-10 grams a serving, which would be 10-20 grams a day) each day – one before you work out and one after you work out.





For anyone under 200 pounds, I recommend two small tablespoons (about 2.5-5 grams a each day – one before you work out and one after you work out. Another alternative is to take it first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, with a litre of water, before you do your cardio.

serving which would be 5-10 grams a day)

In the end, the take home message when it comes to creatine and fat loss is that you can burn more energy during exercise (by doing a few extra reps and a few extra pounds), which leads to more glucose burned and eventually more reliance on fat for fuel during the day. Some people retain a bit of water while on creatine, but that should be of little concern because it is easier to get rid of water than fat. When deciding to buy creatine, it is another boring recommendation, because all you need is a basic creatine monohydrate powder that says Creapure on the container. In my opinion, this is how supplement shopping should be – boring. A red flag of “supplement dependence” is when you get all hot and excited about picking out the fanciest and most expensive “third and fourth generation” scientific breakthroughs.

5. BCAA The majority of “ripped guys/gals” I know, and the many famous strength coaches I know, use large volumes of BCAA’s every day and place them just as high on the totem pole as protein powder, so I feel they deserve consideration. There are three Branched Chain Amino Acids - leucine, isoleucine and valine - that have earned elite status over other amino acids because they have a more impressive resume for the following reasons: • • • • •

BCAA’s BCAA’s BCAA’s BCAA’s BCAA’s

provide energy. promote protein synthesis. prevent muscle breakdown. increase muscle building hormones. help prevent muscle soreness.

From this list alone, BCAA’s are a safe bet, especially since the entire epicentre of fat loss is revolved around maintaining muscle mass to fuel your metabolic furnace. BCAA dosage recommendations are still unclear, and you’ll meet strength coaches recommending everything from three grams a day to 20 grams a day. Considering this is not a cheap supplement I would suggest starting on the lower end and progressing up – based on your evaluation and monitoring of progress. I would recommend spacing them out throughout the entire day - taking 1-3 grams with each meal will create a consistent schedule to maintain.





Supplements To Consider With 5 Pounds To Go… • ALA (alpha lipoic acid) • Acetyl-L-Carnitine • Chitosan • Chromium • CLA • Digestive Enzymes • Guggul Lipids • HCA • Hoodia Gordonii • L-Glutamine • L-Tyrosine • MCT’s • NO2 • Testosterone Boosters • Vandal Sulfate • Vitamin C • Yohimbine

Supplement Conclusion 1. Supplements are only “supplements” Remind yourself of this over and over, and formulate it into your belief system. Preach this message to your friends and start spreading the truth, because the truth will set you free. 2. Start with the “basics” first If you’re going to supplement, you should start with these three – in this order. Add Prograde’s VGF 25+ or a Greens powder (found at any sport and nutrition store, or health food store, or by doing a Google search) as well as EFA Icon, the highest quality fish oil, or you can buy one from your local health and nutrition store. You’ll definitely want to have a protein powder like Lean in your cupboards, or one of your choice from your local health and nutrition store. 3. Add one supplement every two weeks The next two you can introduce are creatine and BCAA’s, unless you are already using them. Pick one and monitor its effects. After these two supplements are added into your program, it’s your decision if you wish to experiment with any others listed above. Don’t forget to add one at a time so you can measure the effect though. From my experience, don’t expect to see or feel noticeable (or even slight) results until © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




you’re pushing the envelope and approaching the last five -10 pounds. Nothing is more powerful than diet and exercise, but you may see a “boost” or “surge” if you’ve got a distinct 4-pack and are pushing for the last two abs to pop out. 4. Avoid “too good to be true” products As a rule of thumb, I like to see a supplement on the market for at least three years before I give it any thought, because you’d be surprised how many of these products come and go. Most new “high-tech” products are the same old stuff dressed in a sleeker and sexier package. Any quality product will pass the test of time and you might as well let other “suckers” do the experimenting for you. 5. Formulas are often inadequate Over the last few years I’ve built relationships with supplement owners, supplement creators, supplement store owners and guys “behind the scenes” in the supplement industry, to discover that many companies make very low quality products, so low that you’ll (literally) be peeing your money down the toilet. I got fooled recently when I purchased a “3-in-1” product that claimed to have organic greens, a detox formula, and liver cleansing formula all in one – I’ll admit I got quite excited even though it was $80 for a month’s supply. I then spoke with an “inside” friend who knew the owner of the company, who described the owner as a “douche bag” and informed me how the formula was “outdated,” the potency was “garbage,” and is only sold at the store I bought it from because the store owner has exclusivity to it, gets “high profit margins” and it “sells easily” because of the packaging. I felt foolish for being so naïve and forgetting to follow my own advice because I thought I’d found “the one.” I hope this does not look like trash talk but I feel this really hammers my point home and I don’t want you getting burned. 6. Put ownership on yourself, not a supplement In other words, focus on I and not it. The most annoying email I get is, “Vince, it’s (supplement X) not working.” I’ll reply, “Are you giving it a reason to work?” Meaning, have you hit a 90% threshold in your diet, nutrition and lifestyle because that’s the main time you’ll see or feel a supplement working. No supplement is going to do your road work for you. There will come a point when you’ll need to step up and grind it out, and put all the principles of this book into action to get long-term results. 7. Don’t buy the cheapest or the most expensive Just because a supplement is expensive does not mean it’s good, and it’s often dif© Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




ficult to determine the true quality of a product. Many companies “overcharge” to give the product prestige, which is a very influential technique. As long as there are unsuspecting users, supplement companies will get away with making crap because people think it works because of the expensive price. On the flip side, don’t but the cheapest supplement - because it’s cheap for a reason. You’ll either waste your money because it’s so ineffective that you discard of it, or you’ll use so much of it because of the low potency. Always choose the most reputable company you can find from honest sources you can trust, and don’t forget to take responsibility to test it yourself and come to your own conclusions. When you find a product you like, stick to it and buy it mass quantities to save money. Spending $40-50 on a 2.2 lb tub of protein powder is ridiculous considering you can get 10-15 lbs for about $70-80. 8. What’s your budget? I know people who spend up to $200 a week on supplements. Financially they can, and they think, “Even if it does not help me, it’s not going to hurt me either,” which is a very accurate statement. My warning is, “How the heck do you know what is working and how do you learn from this experience?” If I was taking a dozen different supplements, I would like to know which is responsible for what so I can keep some and drop others. Your goal is to allocate your budget to whole food first and then move on to the “basics” next. No need to get hot and bothered because your friend is able to experiment with every “brand new era” product because he has more disposable income. Be an example by getting better results without supplements and he/she will follow suit. 9. How serious are you? If you came to me with the goal of competing on stage in just a Speedo or bikini, and in front of hundreds of people, then I would consider you very serious. Right away, I would ensure you were taking my basic recommendations, as well as creatine and BCAA’s. Instead of making our supplement decisions based on, “Can you afford it,” we would ask, “Can you afford not to take it?” The supplements you use should reflect your level of commitment, and your goals. If a busy parent came to me and only wanted to “lose a few pounds” and increase their energy levels then I would expect to see no more than a Multi and fish oils in their cupboard.





10. There will always be a greater fool Supplement companies understand how to write in a very “cartoonish,” easy-to-understand language, which appeals to the average “gym-rat.” The marketers behind these products are not concerned with their messages getting diluted because there is always a new generation of “sheep” coming through the mill. Even though the public is being informed of the deception and misinformation, I don’t see this problem going away anytime soon. Expect to see the same businessman in a different suit with a different pitch every day, and as long as there are impetuous youth hungry for the “quick and easy” solution there will always be a greater fool to sell to.

Conclusion Since I wrote on supplements, in my last book, I have not seen much change in the “supplement mafia.” Most companies still use pizzazz, promise and presentation, and I hope you will be wise enough to see through it. It’s pretty ugly out there so stick to my recommendations and CAVEAT EMPTOR (which is Latin for, ‘Let the buyer beware’). Hopefully, this chapter has alerted you to the dubious integrity of some of the people at the helm of major supplement companies. Maybe it will make you think twice about where you decide to spend your money. I doubt that the day will ever come when advertising pitchmen cease to bend, twist, and exaggerate the truth. Until then — and as always — be wary and choose wisely. It’s pretty ugly out there, but remember, the most powerful “fat burning supplement” is always exercise, diet and lifestyle.





Chapter 7: YOUR SIX PACK LIFESTYLE PLAN The theme of this chapter will be based on my favorite motivating line, “Will it get you closer to your goal or further from your goal?” Every day my Inbox gets filled with close to 500 new emails asking questions that can be answered with common sense. Most of them seek my permission to indulge in certain behaviors that, I assume, will relieve their guilt if I say, “It’s okay to do that…” I can’t count how many times I’ve experienced this as a Personal Trainer, or overheard clients of a trainer express relief at a party with statements like, “My trainer said it was okay to have one glass of wine tonight” or “My trainer said it was okay to eat chicken wings once per week.” Sure, many six-pack quest busters can be justified with dozens of excuses, and people will always say things like, “Don’t worry, you’re already in great shape and look fine.” However, allowing room for these slip-ups will slowly take you from 90% compliancy to 80%, 70% and eventually back to where you started. A better question to ask when tempted to justify something not on your meal plan, shortening your workout, not investing in a certain supplement, overindulging at a party, skipping a meal, eating out instead of preparing at home, delaying your grocery shopping a day etc., is, “Will this get me closer to my goal or further from my goal?” So ask yourself the following: • Will this alcoholic drink help me get my six-pack or delay my six-pack? • Will having a few handfuls of popcorn at the movies get me closer to my goals or further from my goals? • Will “just one” slice of cake speed up my gains or slow my gains? • Will cutting time off my cardio workout get me into my swimsuit faster or slower? • Will not eating my vegetables just this once, because I’m too lazy, assist in me losing 1% fat per week?

Do you see how slipping ‘just once’ can add up very quickly because of a series of poor choices? It’s not the one slip-up, but the accumulation of slip-ups, and snowball effect it creates.





Giving you control of these situations will force you to put your money where your mouth is, and reveal your true commitment. Perhaps you are not that serious about getting a six-pack – only time will tell when you are faced with compromising decisions to move closer to your goals or give in and fall away from the gold standard of 90% compliancy. This is the most powerful question you can use to hold yourself accountable, because the more times you ask yourself this question the more likely it is you are losing focus of the emotional reasons behind your goals. For example, when preparing for this video series, I battled daily with my diet and sacrificed my favorite social activity – traveling and eating out – to lean down to “camera-ready” shape. I couldn’t believe how many times I slipped up and had to ask myself, “Why the heck do you keep slipping up?” Or better, “Why the heck are you not as committed as you say you are?” After some self-analysis and asking myself, “Why, why, why I wanted to look good for my six-pack video,” I realized that I had not considered the consequences - strongly enough - of NOT looking good, and putting my name on a six-pack product that did not represent. I realized that my name, reputation, and credibility were at stake, and that I would compromise my platform by appearing in the videos if I did not look the part. Would you trust a guy selling a six-pack program if he didn’t have a six-pack himself? That was good enough motivation for me to wake up and say “No!” to a few all-inclusive vacations with friends (for now), and to say “No!” to eating out almost every day. I said to myself, “You have the rest of your life to travel all you want and to eat out all you want, but you’re only going to get one shot at doing this video and making a strong impression.” Remember, it’s much easier to maintain your six-pack than it is to get your six-pack, and by the end of the transformation, if successful, you will be a new person. The taste of victory will transform your mind, body and soul so that you will never go back to the old you again. I hope you get to the point where this all becomes a habit, and becomes ingrained into your lifestyle – especially the meal plans – to the point that old temptations become easy positive choices. This is the place you want to set your sights on. It’s the place where you no longer have to fight with yourself and resist, or even think about it consciously anymore. You will be making the rights choices (especially in the kitchen) every day - and every situation and every decision is pushing you in the right direction.





These will become behaviors, just like taking a shower in the morning and taking the garbage out every week, that are automatic and consistent. Through this process, you can beat any obstacle and win - the fight is worth it! People would joke around with me during my contest prep, saying things like, “How’s one slice of pizza going to hurt you… you can have one slice, come on!” I would reply, “I have the rest of my life to eat pizza; I’m just cutting it out for 16 weeks of my life until I’m ripped, and then I’ll introduce it back in.” Notice how I didn’t have just a “time investment” mindset but a “habit development and lifestyle change” mindset. I knew that continually saying, “No,” would lead to a new and changed me – what I ultimately wanted. If you have a mindset of, “Man, I have to follow this diet for 12 weeks and do cardio every morning,” I believe you will fail because you are not embracing the longterm vision of achieving a new lifestyle, and ultimately becoming a new person.

Your Six Pack Quest is ultimately about a lifestyle change, not just looking “hot” and seeking out a temporary change to solve some short-term dissatisfaction. You are seeking out a lifestyle that you can maintain the rest of your life. Getting a six-pack will change your life. The process will change your life – you will literally become a new person, and will be looked upon as a hero and role model to your circle of influence, and you will have a new respect for yourself. You will maintain this new identity and have a deeper, driving motivation to live up to your new self. I’m guessing that you would not achieve the body of your dreams after months of hard work and sacrifice, and then just flush it down the toilet and go back to your old self? Less than 10% of people who take their goals all the way across the finish line, instead of stopping a few miles short, fall back into old patterns.





Your Six Pack Quest is about a permanent lifestyle change.

Here are some of the most common pitfalls you’ll want to be aware of. Eating Out

One of my favorite social activities is to eat in a different restaurant every week – I just love high quality food. I am Italian after all! Every restaurant visit will offer you a wide array of decadent appetizers and drinks that do not appear on your meal plan. The “danger alert” button flashes full force, and by not avoiding or minimizing the potential damage, you can easily cancel out an entire week of training with a few bad choices. The good news is that you can eat out, whether it’s at a restaurant, barbecue, party, or lunch meeting, if you follow these rules and keep your restaurant visits to a minimum:

1. Decide what you want before you arrive If a restaurant is not willing to cook what you want, then get up and leave. I don’t suggest doing this on a first date (I did it once and embarrassed the girl so much I never saw a second date), but you should never let a restaurant bully you into what you can and cannot eat. Start looking at the menu as a bully and you’ll have a whole new experience when visiting restaurants. During hard training and contest prep, if I find myself in a restaurant, I don’t even open the menu. I simply tell the server what I want and if they are not willing to do that, I politely get up and leave. Remember that you’re in a restaurant – they have a kitchen with lots of different food, so asking for some fish, a salad and an extra large serving of veggies without sauce, is not going to throw the chef into a panic. It’s no big deal to ask for extra asparagus or an extra chicken breast instead of the pasta or “unlimited garlic loaf.” You might even want to ask the chef to throw some mixed nuts or guacamole onto your salad to ensure you get your ‘good fats.’ Just don’t be afraid to ask and take control. Chefs know how to cook, and in most cases they’ll be able to make you what you want. And your friends will be extra impressed when you take responsibility for your health, without looking at the menu, by telling the waiter what you want – not letting the menu dictate what you put in your body. You always have a choice!

2. Stick to water with lemon/lime © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




Save a few bucks on your tab and stay away from anything but water or Green Tea. If you’re in a fancier restaurant then order a bottle of Perrier water (carbonated) with extra lemon and lime – this is my drink of choice when I’m out. Avoid juices, alcoholic drinks, soda, and coffee at all costs.

3. Ask for extra veggies I have no idea why, but almost every restaurant I’ve ever been in considers three carrots and a broccoli stalk a “side of veggies.” I’m always conscious to ask for a double serving of veggies - which usually turns into what your meal plan would consider one serving. If they insult you by bringing back three peas as your “order of veggies” then send it back and demand what you want.

4. Where is the protein? Men should be asking for at least eight ounces of complete protein (slightly bigger than two decks of cards), and women should go for four ounces of complete protein (slightly bigger than one deck). Your safest bet is chicken, fish, or lean beef, like sirloin. To keep the protein as lean as possible, cut off the extra fat and the skin.

5. Ask them to hold the bread If I’m in an Italian restaurant and the waiter brings out a complimentary loaf of focaccia bread, I’m not going to ruin my night and have a mind war with it – I’m going to eat it and enjoy it. Ask them to hold the bread if you want to avoid the temptation.

6. Time a hard workout before the restaurant If you want to enjoy a side baked potato, rice or bread (starchy carbs), work out HARD before you head out. The damage will be minimal because the majority of the calories will go into your muscles instead of fat stores.

7. Beware of the fats It’s difficult to get “healthy fats” when you eat out, and it’s probably the most difficult part to control, even if you custom order your meal. The chef is likely using plenty of oils, butter and sauces to flavor up your meal, and this is where your “extra” and “hidden” calories will sneak up on you. Again, don’t be afraid to ask the chef to prepare your meal with less butter, oil, sauces or dressing, because these “hidden killers” have no nutritional value and can double the amount of calories you take in. Ask for the sauces to come on the side so you can control how much you put on.





8. Apply these same rules when eating fast food Fast food can quickly sabotage your six-pack efforts and cancel out the caloric expenditure of a few intense workouts. Obviously your best bet is to avoid fast food altogether because of the low nutrient value, but if you do find yourself in this situation, the same rules apply.

Alcohol Let’s get this straight – no kind of booze is going to contribute to your six pack quest, health and performance. Sure, a study here and a study there will say that there are cardiovascular benefits to moderate beer and wine consumption, but I would rather listen to someone who actually has ripped abs. You will never meet a competitive athlete or bodybuilder who heavily drinks. Alcohol and six-pack abs just don’t mix, and if your stomach could talk, I’m confident it would say, “You do the booze and you lose!” Justifying alcohol consumption comes back to the question, “Will this help me or hurt me?” Everything moves you either closer to your goals or further from your goals. Before you decide to consume an alcoholic beverage during Your Six Pack Quest ask yourself, “Will this move me closer to or further from my goals?” Make your decision and take responsibility for it. The reality is that alcohol serves many purposes, and can play a role in enjoying life and special occasions. Let me reassure you that I enjoy a cold beer (or two) during the summer or when I’m out with the boys, and I can’t turn down a glass of wine if I’m out with a girlfriend. Binge drinking and getting “loaded” doing shots, having “a few” bottles of wine or a “case” of beer is not recommended if you’re truly serious about leaning down once and for all. A lot of research suggests that some people can stay thin while drinking, while others tend to get fat. Here is what we know. It should be more than enough reason to limit or eliminate alcohol altogether, at least until you get your six-pack: • Alcohol is an empty calorie, meaning that you could still lose weight if you were on a 1,500-calorie meal plan that included 500 calories from alcohol. The deficit would be enough to lose fat, but you would be sacrificing 500 calories of necessary vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential fatty acids, fiber and other good stuff. • Alcohol adds up to a lot of extra calories very quickly. Even having two 150-calorie beers a night will add up to 300 calories a day, which will cancel out half, or that entire cardio workout you just did. Over the course of a week that’s an extra 2,100 calories. That’s almost one pound of fat, so if you’re on track for losing 2 lbs of fat per week it’s going to take you almost twice as long! Alcohol also increases your appetite, which can suddenly bump those 300 calories to closer to 1,000 calories when you throw in some “munchies” to accompany your booze. © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




• It’s no coincidence that you slam back a pitcher of beer on your own when you go out for half-price appetizers with your friends. Alcohol typically accompanies highcalorie meals (wings, nachos, pizza, “munchies”), and it doesn’t help that alcohol is a potent appetizer. Alcoholic drinks increase appetite far more then carb-based drinks. • Alcohol also kills your testosterone levels after a night of “boozing,” for up to 24 hours. Really heavy, “drunk fests” can shut your testosterone down and affect your workouts for up to three days because of the muscle-wasting hormone cortisol that is released in response. • Alcohol also shuts down your ability to burn fat. If you are serious about getting washboard abs for your deadline then you can not afford to “lose time” storing fat instead of burning fat, because your liver is busy metabolizing alcohol. Your body can burn carbs, fats or proteins for energy, and to a certain degree, decides on the source of fuel based on what is available. Here’s what happens when you pump your body with enough drinks to start a “buzz.” After a small portion of alcohol gets converted to fat, your liver converts the rest into acetate, and acetate is released into the blood stream, which replaces fat as a source of fuel. Can you say, “Fat loss, get to the back of the line!” • Your “circle of influence” also reflects how much you overindulge – that can play a huge role in the standards you set for yourself, and the choices you make. There is nothing wrong with alcohol in itself but I would stress that, until you achieve your goals, stick to the straight and narrow path. If you find it hard to give it up, I would suggest that you “strategically” reward yourself every few weeks with a drink, and enjoy it without guilt, and then get right back on track.

The take-home message is that building a leaner, faster and stronger body just doesn’t mix with alcohol. Stress A few years ago I heard one of the world’s leading experts in fat loss give a speech on losing fat. His first and only advice “Eliminate the stress in your life!” You don’t need scientific proof or academic textbooks to tell you that stress pushes you toward sugary and high-fat foods (there is an overwhelming amount of evidence to prove it). Women tend to “give in” to overeating more than men when on edge. The speaker went on to warn that it’s not just the catastrophic stresses, like relationships, job and money struggles, which put the brakes on fat burning. It is the minor, everyday stresses like being late for work, a big exam, traffic jam and losing your brand new iPod, which can trigger the signals to start snacking.





Understand How Stress Makes You Fat Whatever your personality, stress is a part of our everyday lives, and for most people the response goes beyond anxiety and discomfort. The troubles root from our neuroendocrine system – a mind-body connection that stems back to the survival days of Adam and Eve. Although our stresses might not come from being chased by a dinosaur through our backyard, this system turns on a sequence of hormones whenever our “survival” is threatened. These hormones say to us, “You’d better fight or flee these threats.” The response for some people can be a loss in appetite, and for others an increase an appetite – both result in stress-induced weight gain (which becomes another stress to add to

the list).

Unfortunately, from my observations in life, many people tend to be victims of their situations and choose to sit down and get swallowed up in their frustration and anger, as opposed to going out and expending energy like our ancestors would if they were physically fighting off danger. Since your neuroendocrine system has no idea if you fought or fled the situation, it still replenishes the nutritional stores that were depleted from the energy expanded on the stress – which creates a hunger craving. To add to the matter even more, your body’s preferred source of fuel during a “fight or flight” situation is sugar, which is why pastries, sweets and chocolate become instantly attractive solutions. As you’ve learned, high sugar levels set the perfect landscape to store fat.

Responding To Stress Is A Learned Habit It’s easy to blame your “spare tire” on life’s stresses. You’ll be reassured by many friends with low standards in life that, “It’s okay, it’s not your fault. Your stress is making you fat.” I don’t buy that, because eating when you are stressed is a learned habit. Yes, it’s a favored choice by your brain chemistry, but who ever said you didn’t have a choice? After a stressful event, eating becomes the activity that treats stress. It’s simple, comforting and feels (and tastes) good. Once you give in, you begin a behavior that becomes automatic every time you feel “threatened” or stressed.





The Solution Don’t believe the lie that you cannot interrupt the deadly cycle of eating “comfort foods” when you are stressed. Whether you struggle from this because of hormones, habits, or a combination of both, here are some action steps to reduce stress in your life: • Surround yourself with positive people. • Get at least eight hours of sleep each night. • Ensure time each day for your favorite hobby or activity. • Follow your weight-training and cardio program. • Accept that you can not control every event in your life. • Follow your Empowered Nutrition meal plan. • Join a social community that supports your goals and behaviors. • Spend enough time with your loved ones. • Take “mini-retirements” or vacations a few times a year. • Spend an hour a day reading, meditating or praying. • Avoid alcohol, drugs and smoking. • Re-evaluate your profession – do you love what you do? • Learn how to say “no” to events and people that can cause stress. • Stop watching negative media – unless you plan to respond. • Cut up your credit cards and live below your means to avoid debt.

Sleep Lack of sleep is another critical component of your performance and quest for a six-pack. Underestimating the power of sleep is the equivalent of underestimating the influence of insufficient water intake. We take it for granted because most people assume if they are getting between six and eight hours a night, and don’t suffer from sleep insomnia, then they have nothing to worry about.

Most people are unaware that there is a positive relationship between the amount of sleep you get and body composition! Further, a lack of sleep over time contributes to carbohydrate intolerance and fat gain, which explains stalled progress. I believe very strongly that sleep is another variable under our control. It plays a significant role in Your Six Pack Quest, and is often overlooked. Realize that there is a ton of medical evidence to support that lack of sleep is related to obesity. At least 73% of people who get half the recommended 7-8 hours of sleep © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




a night are more likely to be obese; people sleeping just five hours a night are at 50% risk and those sleeping six hours a night are at 23% risk. Of course, many individuals are highly functional and capable with only five-six hours a night, but the take-home message is to aim for at least one extra hour of sleep each night and measure the results in your progress. Don’t be surprised if you notice your performance increasing, energy rising and your six-pack becoming more of a reality.

How Is A Lack Of Sleep Related To Gaining Weight? • Many people would say that you burn more calories moving instead of sleeping, but this is not true. If you are only sleeping five hours a night, then you have an extra three or four hours a day to consume calories, which can add up very quickly. You’ll be amazed by how many calories you won’t consume just sleeping the recommended eight hours a night. Individuals who are only sleeping four or five hours, and progress to seven or eight hours will see the greatest loss in weight, but even adding one hour of sleep. • When you don’t get enough sleep your body releases a stomach hormone called grehlin into your system, which increases your appetite. Insufficient sleep also reduces the amount of leptin in your body, which decreases your appetite and is responsible for telling your brain that you are full so you don’t keep eating. • Stimulants like coffee act as artificial energy boosters. Eight-time Mr. Olympian, Lee Haney says it best, “Stimulants are borrowed energy; it’s not real and it has to be repaid.” It’s easy to fall victim to the caffeine fix, by taking a double espresso or popping a caffeine pill in order to compensate, but this reliance on java will put you in the “sleep hole” even deeper and only fix the problem temporarily.

Tips To Maximize Quality Of Sleep • I’ve found that for every hour of sleep I get before midnight, it feels like the equivalent of two hours sleep. I believe this is because maximizing night time sleeping hours and daylight waking hours enhances sleep quality. • Spend 30-60 minutes reading before you go to bed each night to relax. • Turn off the darn T.V. by 9 pm. • Avoid stimulants around dinner time. • Get into a “pre-sleep” routine, like your “pre-workout” routine. Perhaps you take a





hot shower, read a relaxing book or write in a journal - whatever series of habits readies you for some Z’s. • Aim for 49-56 hours of sleep per week. • Make up any lost sleep with naps or “sleep-ins” to compensate. • Take one or two 20-minute power naps whenever you need to correct any nighttime losses during the week. • Train hard every workout and you’ll sleep like a baby. • Go to bed between 10-11 pm, and sleep without an alarm clock to estimate an accurate amount of sleep you should aim for each night. For most people it will be eight hours.





CLOSING You are now one massive step closer to achieving your six pack quest! I applaud you for reading this far because a large percentage of the population invest in fitness information products and never even read them. I am pleased that you are not one of these people. However, the journey is only beginning. A map to a treasure chest is worth nothing if you don’t set sail! The same with this program. The power of this knowledge is not the knowledge itself, but what happens when you apply this knowledge and take action! Remember, this program WILL NOT FAIL YOU - only you can fail the program. I urge you to become a new person by action and habit. And I urge you to start TODAY! Not tomorrow, not next week or next year. Start TODAY! I want you to start watching the DVD’s of the first program you’re going to start with. Write down your emotional why. Print off your meal plan. I want you to go shopping for food today. I want you to print off the training program. Order your supplements pronto. Announce your six pack quest to your friends and family. Get some social support and get started TODAY! I want you to take an intentional step in the next direction. JUST START MOVING! I did not write this information because I was bored one day or to impress you with my knowledge. My goal is to see you develop the body you have always wanted and to prove to yourself that any transformation is possible if you are truly committed and prepared to take action! You now have all the tools and information you need to achieve a leaner, healthier, more muscular and attractive body. So don’t wait! Although competing at six percent body fat was one of the most exciting and rewarding days of my life, it was not the best part. Yes, being there with all the other competitors and walking on stage and knowing that I belonged was a huge satisfaction and high, but it did not beat the actual journey of getting there! So enjoy the journey. Your commitment will be tested daily. Your beliefs will be hammered by temptations. Your body will be beaten by the constant workouts. Your mind will tell you to stop. Your friends will think you’re crazy. But remember, EVERY DAY IS WORTH IT! I made this manual like a road map. I was not interested in writing another fat loss manual with pages upon pages of academic research and the physiological reasoning behind everything. I had no interest in paralyzing you with so much information that you get overwhelmed. I wanted to provide you with real world practical information. Have confidence in this program. Trust this program. Trust me and trust yourself. Do not look for short-cuts. Do not try a different program three weeks from now. Do not second guess yourself because of something else you heard. Follow the program and you will start seeing results, which will accelerate your motivation to continue © Vince Delmonte www.YourSixPackQuest.com 2006. All rights reserved.




staying focused one day at a time! Be patient and do it the way I have shown you. Your hard work WILL pay off! The best news is that you do not have to attack this battle on your own. I will stay in contact with you with my newsletters and broadcast emails. You can always get in touch with me by emailing me at one of my private email addresses: [email protected] or by joining my Facebook Fan Group at http://www.facebook.com/ pages/Vince-DelMonte/26468623640?ref=ts Make sure you save my email to your Safe List so I don’t get put in your junk folder! And please do me a favor by staying in touch with me. I would love to hear from you every few months and I hope that you can be the next $1000 winner of my quarterly Six Pack Transformation Challenge. Decide which deadline you are going to shoot for and make it happen. My favorite emails are Success Stories that you send me about how much you have changed, because I can share them on my website to inspire others! Again, I applaud you for taking action and look forward to hearing about your six pack quest.

To a long-lasting friendship! Your friend and coach,

Vince DelMonte Vince DelMonte



No Nonsence Six Pack

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