The Magic Trio

Everyone should have a basic understanding of metabolism.

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist, but there are several important facts about metabolism and weight loss that you need to know. In order to harness your body’s true fat burning capabilities, you must first understand how your body uses energy. Metabolism is a complex process, but I will use a simple supply and demand analogy and say that your metabolism is your body’s demand for energy. A person with a high metabolism has a higher demand for energy than a person with a low metabolism. As your body uses energy, it needs to create more energy for basic bodily functions, activity, and to respond to fight or flight. This process of creating more energy in itself requires energy. Therefore, someone who uses more energy will need to create more energy and will use more energy in the process of creating more energy. Confused yet?

It is important to learn the facts about metabolism and weight loss before jumping to conclusions.

Let me dumb it down. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: activity level, facts about metabolism, fast metabolism, fat burning, metabolism, metabolism and weight loss, slow metabolism, what is metabolism

Apr 11

Self Improvement Ideas for Enjoying Life

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Enjoying Life

My favorite movie of all time is Back to the Future.

My favorite quote in the movie is from Biff Tannen. “Why don’t you make like a tree and get out of here!” My second favorite quote in the movie is from Marty McFly. “If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.” This quote is more relevant to this section. I believe that if you are driven and motivated enough, you can do anything you want and become good at anything you want. Good is a relative and somewhat subjective term here. For example, if you are 80 years old, you can’t realistically expect to become the world’s best golfer. But you may be able to become a scratch golfer. There will always be some constraints, but you’ll find that the more you put your mind to something, the more realistic becoming good or even an expert will become, “good” and “expert” being self-defined. These days, with the abundance of self-made experts willing to share their insights, you can spend fewer hours to become an expert, yourself. Here are a few self improvement ideas for enjoying life.

"If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything."

Care. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: become an expert, reading, self improvement, self improvement ideas

Mar 22

How to Pay Off Your Mortgage Early

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Personal Finance

A mortgage is probably the biggest expenditure you’ll ever face.

If you’ve read any of my financial advice to this point, you should know by now that I am not a big fan of debt. The idea of paying someone else to allow me to pay for something doesn’t sit well with me. I realize some forms of debt, like student loans, are more difficult to avoid than others. However, in general, I do everything I can to steer clear of debt and so should you. The one exception I’ll make is a mortgage. There are two reasons for this. First, I currently do not have enough money to buy a house with straight up cash. (If I did, I’d be all over it). Second, if you play your cards right, you can either use your home to save yourself a huge chunk of money each month (by living in it once it is paid off) or turn it into an income-generating asset by renting it out (before or after it is paid off). In theory, your home should also appreciate in value long-term which makes your mortgage an investment. One important piece of information you should know is how to pay off your mortgage early.

Don't sink unnecessary investment fees into your home.

How big of an investment fee are you paying on your mortgage? Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: bi-weekly payment program, David Bach, how to pay off your mortgage early, mortgage interest, mortgage savings, The Automatic Millionaire

Mar 05

The Lean Gains Protocol: An Advanced Intermittent Fasting Diet

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Lean Gains is one of the best health and fitness blogs out there.

The author, Martin Berkhan, is living proof that you can get absolutely shredded by eating infrequently. This guy is one of the most ripped dudes I have ever seen. The Lean Gains protocol is based on an intermittent fasting diet, but it takes it to a whole new level. Eat Stop Eat recommends one 24-hour fast per week. The Lean Gains protocol incorporates daily fasting. It’s a 16-hour fast with an eight-hour feeding window. I guarantee probably no one you know is using this strategy. In fact, they most likely wouldn’t even think about doing this. They’d probably tell you that you’re out of your mind for even bringing it up. First, I’ll say that the people who are usually the most successful do things that no one else does. So before you conform to the masses, let me explain how it works.

Martin Berkhan clearly knows a thing or two about fat loss.

Here is the beauty of Lean Gains. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Eat Stop Eat, fat loss, intermittent fasting, intermittent fasting diet, Lean Gains, Martin Berkhan

8 comments

Feb 18

How to Reduce Stress in Your Life

Categories:

Enjoying Life

A big part of enjoying life is minimizing stress and vice versa.

The more you enjoy your life, the less stressed you are and the less stressed you are, the more you enjoy your life. Therefore, controlling stress will definitely improve the quality of your life. Knowing how to reduce stress in your life is an important part of The Magic Trio. If there are one or two big things causing the majority of your stress, then address them. Whether it’s a stressful job or a stressful relationship, there are always other options available and you should choose the options that make you a happier person. You know the feeling you get when something big that has been looming over your head and causing you to lose sleep gets resolved? It’s like a giant weight has been lifted off your shoulders. Learn to face these issues quickly instead of letting them marinate inside your head and consume your life. People tend to worry too much and the actual outcomes are usually never as bad as initially feared.

Everyone can benefit from having less stress in their lives.

Don’t sweat the small stuff. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: chronic stress, cortisol, enjoying life, extrovert, fight or flight, how to reduce stress in your life, introvert

Feb 07

Tracking Your Expenses With A Monthly Budget Worksheet

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Personal Finance

Tracking your expenses is extremely important.

You don’t want to leave things to chance. If you keep track of how many calories you take in and make sure it’s less than the number of calories you expend, then you will never gain weight. Similarly, if you keep track of how much money you spend and make sure it’s less than the amount you bring in, you’ll never go into debt. This is precisely why I track my calorie intake and expenditure as well as my income and expenses. I track ALL of my income and expenses, no matter how minute. I categorize my expenses and account for every single dollar I spend in an Excel monthly budget worksheet to determine my minimum required income (MRI). When you have data to analyze, you are able to spot trends and identify opportunities for improvement. Without the data, you will only have a vague idea of your spending patterns at best and most likely will be completely unaware of them.

A monthly budget worksheet can be an essential tool to staying on track for financial independence.

Here is an example of my MRI spreadsheet: Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: financial independence, minimum required income, monthly budget worksheet, savings, tracking expenses

4 comments

Jan 30

The Best Fat Loss Diet Plan

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The Magic Trio eating plan is based around intermittent fasting.

Now that you have fat loss as the objective and know how to measure it, it’s time to talk about how to do it. Intermittent fasting is one of the easiest ways to lose fat. Let’s face it. There aren’t many options for an easy fat loss diet plan out there. It’s ironic that so many people focus on what to eat in order to lose fat when one of the best ways to lose fat is to simply refrain from eating. After I began intermittent fasting, I was able to reduce my body fat percentage by over 65% in less than a year. Sure, there were other factors that contributed to this, but intermittent fasting was a major one. There are two main reasons why people don’t consider intermittent fasting when attempting to lose fat. First, they are afraid of causing their body to go into “starvation mode”. Second, they think it’s too difficult.

Intermittent fasting is the best fat loss diet plan.

First, let me address the starvation mode myth. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Brad Pilon, Eat Stop Eat, fat loss, fat loss diet plan, intermittent fasting, starvation mode

Jan 18

The New Work Life Balance Definition

Categories:

Enjoying Life

How do you spend your waking hours?

Everyone has 168 hours per week. How you spend these hours will dictate how successful you are. The Magic Trio defines success as how much of your life you enjoy. Therefore, people who spend more of their waking hours enjoying life are the most successful. Until you obtain financial independence, your work life balance definition should go something like 40-10-10-50 (hours). I’ll explain further shortly. 58 hours per week should be spent on sleep and personal hygiene. That leaves 110 hours per week for you to live your life. If you are working 50 hours a week at a job you despise, you are spending almost 50% of your waking hours not enjoying your life. If this is the case, then you are not very successful. If you are financially independent, you may only spend 10 hours a week or less managing your work-independent income streams. Assuming you are also physically fit, then you are likely enjoying 90% to 100% of your life.

Your work life balance definition should allow you to enjoy your life while still making progress towards long-term goals.

Most people are not at 90%. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 168 hours per week, 40 hour work week, enjoying life, physical fitness, time management, work life balance, work life balance definition

Jan 10

A Better Alternative to Work Save Retire

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Personal Finance

Why save money?

There are some obvious answers to this question. A popular one is retirement. This is usually the answer people think of, but it’s not even close to being the most important. For many working people, retirement is so far away, that saving for it seems irrelevant. This is why so many people put off saving for retirement until it’s too late. This is a huge blunder, but an easy one to make if you operate like the average Joe. Think about it? Why would anyone sacrifice even a penny of hard-earned wages for something so distant that it’s nearly impossible to envision? I believe it’s crucial to save money, but not for retirement in the traditional sense. There is a better alternative to the work, save, retire grind.

Don't just work, save, retire. Pursue financial independence!

What is really the most important reason for saving money? Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: financial independence, passive income, retirement, saving, saving for retirement, work save retire, work-independent income

Jan 02

Healthy Body Fat Percentage for Men and Women

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Tags: American Council on Exercise, body fat, body fat percentage, healthy body fat percentage, healthy body fat percentage for men, healthy body fat percentage for women

Most people don’t know their body fat percentage.

This is as bad as not knowing how much money you spend. It’s a travesty, especially in the realm of health and physical fitness. Why is body fat percentage so important? It’s the single best indicator of body composition. Anyone who cares at all about their health should know approximately what their body fat percentage is. On the other hand, almost everyone knows how much they weigh. Weight is not a good indicator of body composition. Neither is Body Mass Index (BMI). You can obtain what is widely considered to be a normal BMI and still have all kinds of hidden health problems. That is not likely to be the case with body fat percentage. What is a healthy body fat percentage for men and women?

Looking good on the beach is a nice perk of having a healthy body fat percentage.

Short answer: see highlighted ranges below Read the rest of this entry »