Monthly Archive for November, 2005

Get the Edge - Day 4: Yet another diet

Published
by
david chiu
on Wednesday November 30, 2005
· Filed under: Goals, Life, Nutrition
.

As part of the Get the Edge series Anthony Robbins gives you the tools to completely transform your life and way of thinking. On Day 4 he concentrates on diet and nutrition. He spends a lot of time describing the alkaline diet - a diet based on the theory that the more acidic your bloodstream is, the more prone you are to be overweight and have other health problems. Personally I have never heard about the alkaline diet so I decided to do som google research on the subject. I was able to find some references and a book on Amazon.com describing the requisite miracles that accompany a lot of the fad diets out there. The basics of the diet sounds pretty sensible and a lot of it sounded in line with another diet - The Abs Diet. I’m generally trying to follow the Abs Diet so I’m just gonna ignore this part of the series. Plus I’m not sure if I buy into the whole alkaline/acid blood theory.

A few days ago I came to the conclusion that I’m just not burning enough calories to get lean. Part of the problem is that I’m not doing enough cardio and the other half of the problem is that I find it hard to find the time to actually do cardio. So I started thinking about all the methods of shedding bodyfat. On paper it seems simple. The methods in shedding bodyfat boil down to: consuming less calories, burning more calories and increasing resting metabolic rate. You accomplish these things through diet, cardio and putting on lean muscle. So I started thinking, isn’t there a way to naturally increase metabolic rate throughout the day without using stimulants? Well, green tea has shown to increase metabolic rate, but isn’t there some sort of non strenuous exercise I could do throughout the day to burn more calories? Well I did some google research and found suggestions such as getting up and walking around the office every hour. But then I found some NEAT research. NEAT stands for Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis and the Mayo clinic has done some research that shows that people who fidget during the day burn up to 300-800 extra calories! That’s huge! That would definitely accelerate weight loss. So now I’m vigorously jiggling my legs up and down hundreds of times under my desk trying to burn those extra 800 calories a day. Yes I may look like a freak with my chair shaking violently, but burning 800 calories in a day without breaking a sweat is COMPLETELY worth it!

today’s nutrition
breakfast: cranberry odwalla bar, 1/2 mango, green tea
lunch: 1packet chicken of the sea wild alaskan salmon, handful of marcona almonds, 2 c water, few slices on mango
snack: few slices mango, green tea, 1packet chicken of the sea wild alaskan salmon, handful of marcona almonds
dinner: pork chop, zuchinni

today’s fitness
none / 6 hours of NEAT (vigorous leg jiggling - don’t laugh)

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Get the Edge Day 3: Learn to love thyself

Published
by
david chiu
on Tuesday November 29, 2005
· Filed under: Goals, Life
.

Today I continued listening to “Get the Edge”. On day 3 of the series Anthony Robbins spends a lot of time talking about relationships. At first I thought about skipping forward to the next tape since the majority of his message is geared towards singles. But then I realized that a lot of what he was saying could also be applied to acting. Questions such as - “Why do I feel this way? Do I feel this way because of past or present circumstances? Why am I in this relationship?” All of these questions are perfect when working on a scene and building/finding the relationship with your scene partner.

The next thing he talks about is loving yourself because if you don’t love yourself you won’t have much to give in a relationship. For instance, the Biblical saying “Love thy neighbor as thyself” pre-supposes that you actually love yourself. This also affects your self confidence. The more you accept who you are and are able to love yourself for who you are, all your flaws and who you want to be, the more you will be able to walk confidently in the world.

So one of the exercises he urges people to do daily is look in the mirror and tell yourself what you love about yourself. For instance, I would say something like, “David, I love you for your spirit and not giving up on your dreams”. It sounds stupid and self centered, but sometimes I think we do need to be a little more self centered and concentrate more on our own positive attributes than to be self critic all the time.

This exercise reminds me of a scene in Jerry Maguire where Cuba Gooding Jr’s character is nervous about walking through the conference hall with all the corporate sponsors. Jerry Maguire starts telling him how he is one of the greatest quarter backs in football and reassures him by reciting all of his impressive football stats. Cuba’s character is reassured with confidence and he goes on to become successful. Anthony Robbins exercise is exactly the same except you are reassuring yourself. “Psyching ourself up” for everyday challenges and achieving your wildest dreams. Pro athletes do it all the time before a game. Maybe they don’t look in a mirror and recite affirmations out loud, but they do their own rituals. Mohammed Ali always talked about how great he was. I’m sure his positive affirmations he made in public did help him always strive to be the greatest.

On another note, I weighed myself tonight as a checkin to my current progress. Two weeks now and no change. Not good. I guess I really need to start doing some serious cardio…

today’s nutrition
Breakfast: 16oz of raw berry colostrum kefir, 1/2 cup of marcona almonds in sunflower oil and sea salt

Snack:2 cups of coffee

Lunch: 2/3 of a Baja Fresh chicken Burrito Ultimo w/ no rice or sour cream, 1 cup of water

Snack: leftover buritto from lunch, 2 cups of water

Dinner: soup made with leftover turkey, green beans, lentils and corn, 2 cups of water

Snack: 1 cup matcha green tea, 2 cups of water, 8oz whey protein shake (23g protein)

today’s fitness
10 sets of 10 reps alternating dumbbell row - 43lbs.

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Change Starts Here

Published
by
david chiu
on Monday November 28, 2005
· Filed under: Fitness, Goals, Nutrition
.

breakfast: • 3 cups of berry raw colostrum kefir
lunch: • cup of tuna salad
• 1/2 cup of beet and onion salad
• 1 boiled egg
• 1 pint of skim milk
snack: • marcona almonds with sunflower oil and rosemary
• 1 cup of low fat cottage cheese
dinner: • Double-Double with fries, rootbeer and a chocolate shake
snack: • 1/2 cup raw colostrum berry kefir
• 1 cup of matcha green tea

Exercise:
31 pushups - no break
3 more sets of 10 pushups
6 close grip pushup - 30sec rest in between
3 sets of 10 decline pushups
2 sets of single arm barbel press 23lbs
2 sets of single arm barbel press 43lbs
10 pushups
2 sets of 8 reps, alternate height and hand position pushups

The magic moment of this day: Feeling the drive of passion click on during my workout and really feeling the desire to transform.

What did I do today to achieve my goal of complete and total self-confidence: Listen to Anthony Robbins Total Confidence subliminal tape and also continue listening to the Get the Edge series.

What did I do today to achieve my goal of becoming a critically acclaimed, wildly successful actor: Practiced trying to change my emotional state to sadness while driving home from work. I also listened and read more about the psychology of changing emotional states and emotional intelligence.

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Avis audition

Published
by
david chiu
on Monday November 28, 2005
· Filed under: On Stage
.

Here’s my next chance at another national commercial. This time for Avis.

The setup is perfect for me: three guys in business suits are sitting in a car bobbing their heads to hardcore rap music and mouthing the words. Then all of a sudden a cell phone rings. The driver turns off the music and they all shift into “business” mode - “Yes sir. we’re running about 20min late because of the traffic. Ok. Sorry sir. We’ll be there.” The passenger hangs up the phone and the driver turns the music back on blast and they continue their head bobbing to the rap music.

This is like a scene off of Office Space. And it’s also my reality almost every day driving into work.

Now let’s see if I can at least get a callback…

4 Comments

The road to becoming a fitness model… or at least looking like one.

Published
by
david chiu
on Friday November 25, 2005
· Filed under: Fitness, Nutrition
.

It all begins with diet. Diet is the muti-billion dollar word that is thrown around nowadays luring people to spend thousands of dollars in the search for the holy grail of existence - being skinny. I’ll admit, I was lured into this trap years ago before it became such a hot fad to pop diet pills and be associated with the latest [Name Brand] Diet. I used to be a GNC gold card carrying member and subjected my body to experiements by taking almost every single supplement that existed at GNC. Now I’ll admit, I was never “fat” per se, over weight as a child, skinny in High School, but then turned 21, started drinking and hanging out in bars, and I started getting a gut. So as an adult I’ve struggled for years to obtain the proverbial “six pack” and look like an athlete. Three years of training with a trainer did help add some muscle and definition, but no six pack. Then I started reading about different body building diets and discovered the low carb diet which was just starting to gain attention through The Atkins Diet. Six months later I had went from chubby at 185lbs and 30% bodyfat to 155lbs and 15% bodyfat. But the six pack still eluded me. I now needed more muscle. So once again I hired a trainer, started eating whatever I wanted, gained 10lbs of muscle, but then started gaining weight in my midsection again. So here I am again hovering around 180lbs/20% bodyfat. Now I am determined to go all the way and tranform my body into it’s peak physical state.

I could actually write pages on all the supplements and diet plans I’ve tried but I’ll cut to the chase and just mention what I plan to do now. I’ve basically sworn off of diet pills especially after I started having panic attacks from a possible overdose of stimulants. Instead, this time my plan is going to be all about quality organic food, eating more balanced meals and maximum effort at the gym.

Things I’ve definitely learned from years of research is - drink a gallon of water a day, eat 6 times a day, and limit or eliminate simple carbs, sugar and alcohol.

The current diet plans I am going to model is along the lines of Body for Life and the Abs Diet.

I am also going to journal my diet everyday to help me watch my diet and progress. I’m going to try the Abs Diet online site and Fit Day as well. I’ll see how useful these sites actually are.

On another note, I find it interesting that in all these different programs that talk about sef transformation, they always talk about journaling your progress. Whether it’s Anthony Robbins “Hour of Power”, or a diet program, or a training program. Journaling is a powerful tool.

0 Comments

Happy Thanksgiving!

Published
by
david chiu
on Thursday November 24, 2005
· Filed under: Life, Nutrition
.

I find it hard to stick to any kind of diet during the holidays but this year Heather and I had our own Thanksgiving by ourselves since we couldn’t afford to visit our families. For Thanksgiving we cooked:

• A honey brined free-range Heritage turkey
• Green bean casserole with organic green beans
• Oyster stuffing made with Marcona almonds and oysters
• Horseradish mashed potatoes made with organic potatoes
• Broccoli salad
and…
• Ginger snap Pumpkin Pie made with organic Pumpkin and raw creme

Everything was delicious!

Thanksgiving is also a good time to actually give thanks for all the blessings in your life. No matter what your situation is, there is always things to be thankful for. It’s a good exercise in positive thinking! For me I’m thankful for my good health, my job (even though it’s not exactly what I want to do), my beautiful wife, my supportive family, Heather’s supportive family, all the talents I have been blessed with, the life I have been given and all the successes I have achieved.

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Goals / RPM Plan

Published
by
david chiu
on Tuesday November 22, 2005
· Filed under: Nutrition
.

My Nutrition RPM Plan:

Result Purpose Map
  • 180lbs 10% bodyfat
  • increase energy and vitality
  • increase focus
  • increase health and immunity
  • look like a fitness model
  • to be healthy enough to rapidly achieve my dreams
  • to get the nutrition to be focused on my goals
  • to have the energy to be unstoppable in achieving my goals
  • to give me a boost in confidence
  • eat organic food
  • drink matcha green tea
  • drink raw milk
  • use raw dairy products
  • eat minimaly processed food
  • eliminate refined sugar in diet
  • eat balanced meal in line with Body for Life diet
  • eat 6 times a day
  • drink gallon of water a day
  • eat 2500 calories a day

Obstacles:
The problem is that I love to eat and I love all kinds of food - plus I get so busy that it is sometimes hard to eat right.

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The Truth.

Published
by
david chiu
on Monday November 21, 2005
· Filed under: Goals, Life
.

“The truth will set you free.”

…or so the saying goes. And I believe it. Facing the truth is the first step to positive change, but it can be a difficult thing to do. Who wants to admit that their lifestyle or their choices are wrong in some way? That drinking all the soda you want and eating junk food are bad for you? Or that no matter how you slice it, you ARE fat? Or that the occasional workout or half-hearted effort at the gym is actually going to be effective? Or that you are truly unsatisfied or dissappointed with your life and career because you never took the risk to follow your dreams?

Most people don’t want to face the truth because the truth hurts and facing the truth means you might have to change and change requires effort and ultimately…. you don’t really want to change. So people end up settling for the mediocre. A mediocre career, a mediocre life, a mediocre existence. And it doesn’t matter how much money you make or what you have accomplished. As Anthony Robbins says in “Get the Edge”, mediocre is when you are not living up to YOUR full potential.

So I have these lofty goals:
I want to be one of the best method actors of my generation. I want to be a critically acclaimed, highly sought after, hard working actor. I want to inspire people with my work. I want to maintain an elite level of fitness and health. I want financial abundance. I want my life to be full of passion and vitality. I want to be a great communicator and motivator. I want to be the best husband, son, brother and friend.

I want so much more than an ordinary life.

Now that I know what I want and what my goals are I first have to face the truth of who I really am today. I need to see all my faults and weaknesses so that I can change and make positive steps towards my goals:

who i am right now.
I am often a shy, reserved, guy with a self inferiority complex and low self confidence. To make up for these traits I play different characters in life because I lack the confidence to just be myself. The most common character I embody is the mean scowling hip-hop/R&B wanna be gangsta, wanna be player. My fear and lack of self confidence sometimes manifests itself as hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating) during certain social circumstances, stage fright and mental self conflict. I work in a very un-fulfilling career as a computer technology specialist and web developer and have been aspiring to be a full-time working actor for 9 years. As an actor I’m often hindered by my inability to be vulnerable, truthful and connect to my emotions which results in a fake, un-natural, self conscious performance. The same applies to my real life. Not only that, but I also try to avoid conflict at all costs and don’t invest enough in my emotions or my relationships and end up living fragmented, disconnected and untrue in an unfulfilled life. Lastly, focus and discipline has always been a problem for me preventing me from realizing my full potential. I also have a gut at 180lbs and 20% bodyfat even though I’ve trained with a trainer on and off for 3 years.

So there it is. The whole truth unveiled to the world. I feel like Eminem in his last MC battle in the film “8 Mile” where he just raps about every negative thing he could think about himself. By putting it all out there his opponent had nothing else to say. He turned his weakness into power. That’s what I’m doing. I’m using this blog as a catalyst and to empower my transformation.

So what’s next? Creating a plan for change. Then creating the discipline needed to make the changes occur. To make things easier I’ve broken down my goals to 4 main categories: fitness, nutrition, acting and personal development. Now I have to make my actual plans…

0 Comments

Nokia Audition

Published
by
david chiu
on Monday November 21, 2005
· Filed under: On Stage
.

I’ve got a Nokia audition today! I was told that I would be playing the role of the hero. I like the sound of that.

I was talking to my friend Jeff Ross the other day who had just finished a commercial audition workshop. He told me that the most important thing he learned is that once you step inside the audition room you are auditioning. Even before the tape starts rolling. So the goal is to engage and charm the casting director with your personality. Make a point to make a comment about something to show your personality.

I’ll have to try that today. A national commercial would be a nice gift to me for the holidays!

2 Comments

My Internal Monologue

Published
by
david chiu
on Thursday November 17, 2005
· Filed under: Inspiration, Life
.

This morning I was feeling a little on edge as I was driving to work:

“I gotta make something happen. I’m sick of being a slave to corporate America. I gotta make some films, I gotta get myself out there. I need more auditions. I’m getting older and I’m not doing enough to achieve my goals. I…”

I was getting anxious and I had to force myself to stop my internal chatter. I know part of my problem is that I get so anxious to achieve my goals that I end up going in a million different directions with no focus. My focus right now needs to be changing myself and my thoughts about self. I need to find confidence and power in who I am as a person and as an artist. I need to be able to be unabashedly true to myself and my feelings. If I can’t do this, how do I expect to reach my full potential as a person and an actor?

So I started meditative breathing. Then I started thinking: How do you fundamentally change who you are?

Believe. I remember my friend Matt whom I grew up with through high-school and college. We went to the same oppressive Baptist church and participated in all the church activities. We were decent kids and didn’t get into a lot of trouble, but then we went to college and rebelled. Matt got involved in the typical college life of partying and drinking. Then one night he got in a really bad motorcycle accident and his life started to change. Eventually he went to seminary and now he’s a pastor. Back in college I would have never imagined him as a pastor, but he fundamentally changed his life through his faith and beliefs. The same thing happened with rapper Kanye West. Kanye was a hot beat producer for people like Jay-Z, but he wanted to become something more. One night he got in an almost fatal accident that landed him in a hospital for months with his broken jaw wired shut. There in the hospital he found his faith in God and also found his voice as an artist. That experience transformed him into the mega-star he is today.

So to me, faith and belief are one of the most potent catalysts for transformational change. Whether it’s a belief in God or choosing to believe in yourself or even choosing to believe in the goodness of others. Belief is a powerful force.

Breathe. If you focus and control your breathing you can positively affect your own physiology. This has already been proven by Asian monks for centuries.

Think. This is tied closely to belief. If you think different, you will behave different. If you think positive, your actions will be positive and will eventually lead to success.

Move. Life is filled with movement. Movement effects emotions and physiology. If you want to think different, feel different, move, dance, throw your body into the rhythm of life.

Eat. What you eat determines how you feel, how you think, how you act. Food is fuel for life. Do you think race car drivers put generic gas in their race cars on racing day? So why should you fuel yourself with bad food?

So these are the things I must strive to do to fundamentally change myself for the better: believe, breathe, think, move and eat. I can feel myself changing already.

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