This article by Bob Youngs was originally posted at EliteFTS.com Reposted with permission.

I have now been staring at my computer screen for 30 minutes. I know what I want to say, I just don’t know how to say it. I’m not very good at self promotion and I’m trying to write an article that promotes my book. I guess I should start at the beginning. Dave Tate encouraged me to write a book about my fight with leukemia. About half way through, I thought the book was terrible and wanted to just stop. Dave said to keep going and if nothing else I could just give it to my friends and family as a kind of thank you. So, I finished the book. I poured my heart and soul into it and I’m very proud of the finished product. But, I still wasn’t sure if it was any good. So, I figured I would send it to my close friends and family as Dave had originally proposed and see how it was received. I sent out this email along with the book after the second edit:

Dear Family and Friends,

I just got back from doing something I thought I would never do. I just walked 10 miles. I had set the goal for myself and went out and did it. I’m not going to lie, it flat out sucked, but I did it. I am going to attach an early copy of the book I have written. I looked back and on this date last year I was in a coma. Only three days earlier they had read me my Last Rights. What a difference a year can make.

I want you all to know that the letter to my family and friends at the end is about all of you. You have all touched my life in a way that has helped shape who I am. You are all a part of my family. I am here to write this today because you believed in me. So, please enjoy the book and let me know what you think. We still probably have another month or so before the final version is ready for sale.

As far as the update, life is good. No, life is great. As you will see from the book it took me a long time to get to a point where I was at peace with everything I went through. I am currently spending a lot of time getting into good physical shape. I should start taking my Six Sigma Black Belt Management class next month. Michele is doing well. She is working as the Vice President of Default Servicing at Bank United. She has been very busy with work, but I am very proud of how much responsibility she is taking on. Christopher is doing well. He made the Honor Roll to end the school year. He is currently going to Summer Camp at his Elementary School and loving it. He is very much his Father’s son and has the stubborn streak to prove it. But, he is a great kid and we are getting to spend a lot of time together.

I hope this finds all of you doing well. I look forward to the next time we get to see each other.

Cover of the new book from Bob Youngs

It didn’t take long for me to start getting responses back. I knew everyone would probably tell me it was good. Who among your friends and family would tell you a book about fighting leukemia and winning sucks? But, the responses I received blew me away. I received very lengthy emails about how the book had caused them to look hard at their own lives and re-think what really is important to them. I thought the book might actually be okay at this point. Here are some of the messages I received. I’ll leave them as anonymous quotes:

* “Very powerful mate! This will help a lot of people.”
* “I just finished reading your book and I must tell you I don’t think I have ever read anything like it in my life. I really respect the way you let it all out and have such respect for yourself and your feelings for others.”
* “Your book made me realize that I can’t change people and that I need to change my perspective on things. We spend so much time wasting quality time on dumb shit that before you know it time is up.”
* “I had tears in my eyes during 3/4 of your book.”
* “The book was extremely thought provoking. Not just because it was you, but because it was a man like me. It brought many messages home, made me think.”

But, I still wasn’t sure if the book would have an appeal to people who didn’t really know me. So, I had to go out on a limb and have some people who were not close to me read it. I sent it to some people who had written books of their own and asked for their opinion. Here is some of the response I received:

* “I am very blessed to have been sent a copy of your book. I devoured it in one (long) sitting last night.”
* “Wow. Incredible. I’ve never met you and I’ve never spoken with you. But now I feel like I know you and your incredible fiancée: to open your hearts and souls and spill those innermost thoughts is a hell of a helpful thing for the rest of us. Thanks for the kick in the gut about acting upon the important things in life – friends, family and making a difference.”
* “Your book really opened my eyes to what is important in life!”
* “I had to keep reminding myself that you live in the end. What an incredible story.”

So, I thought I might actually have a book that people would enjoy. More importantly I was discovering that the book was really causing people to look at their own lives. I was then asked to play in a company poker game by a friend of mine who owns a Military supply company (www.buysourceone.com). The majority of the employees are either former military or law enforcement personnel. We got on the subject of my book and many of them wanted to read the book. I figured it would be another good chance to get some feedback. Here are some of the responses I received:

* “I very quickly developed a lump in my throat. My God what resolve!!”
* “Your strength and attitude are incredible.”
* “It’s very rare that a book moves me like yours did. Job well done!”
* “Once I got started, I just couldn’t put the book down.”

Now comes the hard part for me. The book will be available as an e-book on EFS. I’m still not sure how it will be received. I think there is something in there for everyone. I was very lucky to get some of my good friends to help me with the project. Alwyn Cosgrove and Dave Tate both wrote Forwards for the book. They stood next to me during the whole time I was fighting leukemia and never wavered in their support of me. To say their Forwards are moving is an understatement. I have also included three Appendices at the end that cover a lot of powerlifting and training info. I hope you enjoy the book as much as those who have read it so far.

Get Bob’s book at EliteFTS.com

Well, you could say that the New Year really starts tomorrow. With the first day of the year falling on a Friday, and then a lazy weekend, a lot of people have probably decided to push their resolutions “start date” back to Monday the 4th. This isnt the case for all of you, but ma be for some of you. Some of you have decided to hire a personal trainer, as you’re not sure where to start with your weightloss. Others are starting alone. Either way you decide, there are some simple things that you can do that will definitely help with your weight and fat loss goals, personal trainer or not.

1. Don’t jump right into a strict diet!
Unless, of course, you don’t really want to do it. From my own personal experiences, both with myself, and my personal training clients, diving headlong into a restrictive diet program is by far the worst thing you can do. Start with making small changes to your diet, eliminating junk, and adding in more protein and tons of water. This is HUGE, and will take you a long way towards the body you really want.

2. Don’t try to do everything at once.
This should really go without saying, but you aren’t going to be able to lose 30 pounds of fat, gain 20 pounds of muscle, get in shape to run a marathon, and win a bodybuilding contest all at the same time. These pursuits, while all being worthwhile, require VERY different training programs, and unfortunately when it comes to your body, more is usually not better. that being said, you can add muscle while losing fat and getting in better shape, but to have extreme goals for all of these different pursuits means that you are going to have to pick a goal, bust your ass to get to it, and then refocus on the next goal.

3. Don’t be afraid to look for help.
This one holds especially true for changing your body and your life from where you are at now, to where you want to be. Fortunately now, in the information age, tips, tricks, and plans to reach your specific goals are literally only a few keystrokes and mouse clicks away. The only problem is that there is SO MUCH information out there. Contrary to that however, people are all reachable now, and you do have the ability to contact them. How many will reply is up in the air, but those with solid info will have no problem laying t=it all out there. really what it boils down to is, if you decide to go it without a personal trainer, make sure that you are doing your research.

4. TAKE ACTION NOW
Of the 4 points here, this is the most important, and why I saved it for last. You can do as much as you would like researching, planning your diet, plotting your new training program, and talking about how you’re going to lose weight, get fit, and look like you did 10 years ago. However, all of the planning, talking, and thinking will get you NO WHERE unless you take massive action. This is probably the step that most have trouble with. They have the best intentions in the world, but wont take action towards their goals. I could go on forever about this, but there are literally hundreds of books dedicated to this one subject. My question to you is will this be the year you take action? Will you decide this that now is the time to invest your time, energy, and money into yourself, and not your things? Will you make 2010 your best year yet?

This post is something that I have been contemplating posting for a long time. Thanks to my buddy Al Caslow for kind of giving me the motivation to talk about it. He actually made a great post about one aspect of this in this Training Log atEliteFTS . It is kind of nice because as a personal trainer, I see this issue from both sides of the fence if you will. I’m actually going to break this into two parts, as i feel it is a really good topic. The first part will cover my sponsorship with EFS. The second part will talk about my personal training clients, guys I talk to about training, and people in general.

For those of you who don’t know, or don’t follow powerlifting, Dave Tate has put up several announcements on his Facebook page as of late about looking for new athletes that he might consider as taking on as a sponsor. Guys come out of the woodwork when they read this, as an being an EFS athlete is a big deal. Here is why: EFS is the only company that sponsors athletes and really gives them a forum to showcase not only themselves, but the knowledge that they have in the field. It is way more than just their picture or name on the website stuck somewhere between the contact page and the legal disclaimer. Without making this a complete pitch for EFS, Dave is THE ONLY guy who does a ton for his guys. I could literally pump out 2 or 3 different blog posts about it.

Knowing this, what Dave does for his guys, and the money that is involved, the question turns to you. Will you work for the sponsorship? Al talks about competing your ass off. He uses that as his example. He mentions Jeremy Frey, a guy who has put over 300lbs on his total since he got sponsored by EFS. I will say that i agree with Al. What good is getting sponsored if you only do a meet every year or two? Some of you will fire back at me, and say “Well Pegg, you have been on since January, and you have only done one meet.” You know what, you’re right. I wont say that this isn’t a call to action for me, because it is. I will say this though in my defense, not as an excuse, as I don’t have one, but only because it ties into my next point. I also think that it is something that a lot of guys overlook as an aspect to give back. Do you talk about it? I try to talk about EFS as much as I can when it comes down to it. I don’t throw it into random conversation, but you can bet that if it involves training, I’m talking about it. I’ve got 1000 friends on Facebook. I’ve got almost 2000 followers on Twitter. I have this blog that gets about 300 or so views a day. That means that if I only mention EFS once per day outside of the actual site, I reach over 3000 people. How many people do you network with? I’m not trying to say that I am a big deal, as I’m not, but are you pushing to grow your network and make yourself worth the investment? These are the things some of you guys have to think about. Especially if you are in the same boat that I am. I’m not the strongest guy out there. Never will be. With this injury, I’m never going to post a huge total. But I try to do other things, like the stuff that I talked about earlier, to give back. Are you thinking that far ahead? Will you work for it?

Something else that I try to do is make myself as accessible as possible, both on the site, and outside of it. A lot of this is done through the stuff that I mentioned earlier. I get, as I’m sure a lot of the guys on the site do, a ton of training questions on both Facebook and Twitter. Rather than just blow guys off, and tell them to ask me on EFS, I do my best to try to answer them. I know that Jo Jordan, our resident Gear Whore at EFS takes time to call guys who are having issues either with sizing gear properly, or getting it to work properly. I know that this speaks a lot of his character, but it also says a lot for the guys Dave brings on, and for the environment that being on the team has. Would you call a guy you have never met, and don’t know from anyone to discuss something that has absolutely no bearing on you? EFS doesn’t pay me to answer questions on Facebook. Jo doesn’t make money from Metal for talking on the phone. It s just one way that we work for it. I want to say too that I’m not trying to sound uppity, and the only reason that we do the things we do is because Dave tells us to. He doesn’t. I’m not saying that these are things that you should necessarily do, or feel obligated to do either. I’m just trying to give you some examples of things that i know guys on the Team do. That way, perhaps, when Dave is looking for guys to sponsor, and you feel like you would be a good fit, you can work for it. Getting sponsored isn’t a gift. You earn it.