Classical Conditioning

As you have probably witnessed, one of first words spoken to a child on a repetitive basis is 'No!' We as human beings can sometimes be conditioned by these negative experiences and end up with low expectations of what we can really do. As a result, this often extends to how one views their body. In order to fix this problem it would be wise to look at what others have accomplished and to also look at subject itself in a little more detail.

Whether we know it or not, human body is capable of making tremendous transformations in relatively short periods of time. Whether it is gaining muscle or losing weight, ample evidence has already been documented to back up these claims. The real secret behind this is knowledge. In other words we need to take an intelligent, cautious and scientific approach to our diet and exercise.

Mike Mentzer (Mr. Universe) claimed that an individual could realize his or her genetic potential in one year! While this may seem a little unreasonable, who can argue with his clients? Though it might take more than a year to reach ultimate plateau of your human existence, I do believe it is possible to reach your goal(s) in a comparably short period of time.

Roadblocks

The main excuse or reason I often hear and one which we should eliminate is, "I was born this way." Though stated in many different ways I think we can all understand meaning. While saying "You can't pick your parents" is true we should not let this hold us back. Any person no matter how poor their genetics are can dramatically improve their appearance with proper mental outlook and physical application.

You just have to pick right kind of diet and training for your body type. There are generally three body types a person will have:

1. Mesomorph - describes a person who is more muscular looking even though they may not train, an athletic type build.

Perceived Failure

A lot of people go through life failing at things not because of anything that has to do with them but rather current path they are following. Take jobs for example. Some people will feel like it was their fault after they have studied years for a career only to find out for some reason it didn't work out. They may well have put everything they had into it. Sometimes a person just isn't cut out for a certain job, even though they still might be interested in it.

The same thing can be applied to and said of diets. You might carefully research a certain approach to weight loss for literally hours and it might make total sense to you. But what happens when you fail? Either one of two things has happened. Firstly, be honest with yourself and ask if you really did give it a good try. If your answer is a definite yes to this question then reason is probably number two - it just wasn't right approach to you.

Natural Laws vs. Feelings

Even though natural laws have certain cause and effect characteristics to them we must realize that we as human beings have feelings, desires, likes, dislikes, cravings and ability to reason. As an example, take a rag doused with gasoline that has a match thrown onto it. Whether rag likes it or not, it will burn. But say it could reason and also take action and it decided that it didn't like to be consumed. Then either consciously or subconsciously, rag would try to prevent this change from happening. The mind is a very powerful tool and you would be amazed at power it has over your body if it isn't 100% in favor of a certain approach.

Sometimes, a person may not even be able to adequately put into words why they don't like something. On occasion, people may rely on intuition. Like when you have a bad feeling about something...you can't explain it, but something about a particular situation, thing or person just bothers or upsets you for some reason. Only to find out later that you were right. The same can be applied to a particular nutritional approach.