Accepting Client Applications for Bodybuilding.com's $100,000 Challenge

Bodybuilding.com is doing a $100,000 body transformation challenge for the new year. They are giving away $100,000 worth of prizes, the grand prize for male and female is $25,000 along with the ultimate transformation body. 10 runner ups get $2500, and everyone else gets healthy and fit. Seems like a winning opportunity to me.

This is a 12 week challenge and all participants must be signed up sometime in 2012.

I believe that with my expertise, if I found the right client(s), I would help him/her win, or at very least, make a dramatic health transformation well worth any investment in time and money. I'm talking about potential biggest loser numbers, training to the point that you probably wont like me much during the 84 days, and of course a very strict adherence to all of my nutritional and extra curricular exercise prescriptions.

To the right people/person, I will make my training very affordable with an additional 20% gratuity bonus if you win prize money. I also reserve rights to use before/after pictures and testimonials for future marketing and my book. Don't assume that you can't afford a high quality professional trainer. If you can convince me that you have what it takes and have the desperate desire for the transformation, I will figure out a way to work with you.

If you think you have what it takes to win, and you are serious about an extreme health and fitness transformation, please email me an application video or email response at MarvelusHealth@gmail.com and JaredMarvel@gmail.com.

Here's what I want in the video:

1. Basic Info: Name, Age, Height, Weight, Body Fat %

2. Health Background: Vital Stats (Blood Pressure, Resting Heart Rate), Current Health Issues, Current Prescription Medications, Any Previous Injuries/Surgeries

3. Motivation: What is your motivation? Your driving force in wanting this transformation?

4. Desire: Explain exactly what you want from your transformation.

5. Drive: How bad do you want it?

6. Aware: What will it cost you if you don't transform your health?


Contact me at the above e-mails for more information.

Thank You


Jared Marvel

5 Steps to Effective and Permanent Lifestyle Changes

This is a simple strategy that I use to make life long healthy changes in my lifestyle. The key to any change and decision making process is consciousness.

When it comes to changing your diet, it's crucial to understand the intended relationship between food and the human body. The simple yet incredibly complex idea that everything you consume (internally and topically) ultimately dictates or has a major influence on how the body functions.

There are only 3 things we as humans can not live with out: oxygen, water, and vital nutrition. Notice how I said nutrition rather than food. That's because what most people consider food, is not really food at all, but instead; disease causing, big pharma supporting, population controlling, toxic waste!

We are conditioned to eat this way our entire childhood. It's the reason all the sugary cereals are ground level. It's why they put toys in 'happy' meals. It's the flavored milks and processed foods for school lunches. It's teaching kids how to spell bologna before they can spell broccoli. It's the reason the health of our country has been on a rapid decline in the last 30 years. We have been listening to the FDA instead of Grandma (I don't have to tell you AGAIN what the D stands for do I?) The FDA taught us how to eat since we were children in public schools learning the food guide pyramid (a diet very closely resembling the ancient egyptian slave bread diet, that without the long rigorous hours of building pyramids, ultimately resulted in the same health epidemics we are experiencing now with the modern grain eating inactive lifestyle.)


More examples of childhood conditioning:
-Thinking Kool-Aid is good for you because it's made with water
-7 Up is a health drink when sick
-"Milk, it does a body good" because your favorite celebrity drinks it
-Ovaltine (hot sugar chocolate made out by commercials to be a delicious multivitamin)
-Lucky Charms (or any other kids cereal) are a good childs breakfast because they're fortified with vitamins and made with wheat
-Poptarts are a breakfast food
-Candy located conveniently at every grocery store checkout and gas station register
-The delicious taste of Pepto Bismal and TUMS, ok maybe I was just a weird kid.




It's time to stop eating like a child and start making educated health decisions as a conscious adult and learn the fundamentals of a natural, nutrient dense, vital life supporting diet.


Here are five steps to making educated changes to improve your lifestyle:


1st Step: Become a conscious consumer, gain awareness of exactly what it is you're eating and how detrimental these foods are to your health and well being by doing some easy research.

For Example:

What's in your child's McDonalds 'happy' meal?

Truth About High Fructose Corn Sugar! Check the Ingredients to your food, they put it in practically everything! Salad dressing, ketchup, soda, candy, fruit juices, etc.

Youtube can be a great resource if used with skepticism. Do a search for all the items I say to cut out in step 3 adding the words "Health detriments of...". Watch documentaries like "Food Inc", "Supersize Me", "Big Bucks, Big Pharma", "Fast Food Baby", "Fresh", "The Future of Food", etc. There is a lot of information at our disposal in the modern internet age, my suggestion is UTILIZE IT!!

2nd Step: Make the conscious decision to stop polluting your body with chemicals and other toxic inorganic materials and search websites like VegWeb for delicious recipes that are 100% natural and organic ingredients.

3rd Step: Pay close attention to how your mind and body feel when you cut out fast food, soda, cigarettes, alcohol, trans fatty acids, artificial sweeteners, inorganic pesticides/fertilizers, gluten, HFCS, dairy, junk food, GMO, fried foods, etc. Experience the enjoyment of mental clarity, improved energy, hormonal balance, and and overall improvement in your passion and love for a healthy and active life.

4th Step: Compare to previous way of life prior to change (depressed, anger, frustration, sick, beat down, tired, on prescription meds, unstable, etc). There should be no question that NOTHING TASTES AS GOOD AS BEING HEALTHY FEELS!

5th Step: Don't fall back into old habits because they're convenient and comfortable, make the commitment to improve your health on a daily basis, or be forced to accept the consequence of being ill. Why would you go back when you look and feel as good as you will?

Function Over Fashion For the Feet

When I went to China, I was wearing Nike running shoes. All the kung fu kids thought my shoes were great and would give me their endorsement with their common thumbs up. When I would train with the master, he would always laugh and tell me that my shoes were no good and proceed to demonstrate by powerfully rotating his hips and grinding his feet into the earth.

Though I didn't speak Mandarin, I understood what he was demonstrating to me. That power is generated from the hips and core but requires the body to be grounded as it all starts in the feet. In my Nike Air Max running shoes, I might as well have been throwing punches in outer space.

For a deeper understanding of this concept try this:

1. Stand in a park in a throwing stance and without moving your feet, throw a baseball as far as you can.
2. Now get in a deep pool or river and throw a baseball as far as you can while treading water.

So I started wearing the traditional school issued kung fu shoes, which are just a little bit of fabric and a rubber sole. I immediately felt more solid and connected to the ground, more stable and better balanced. I walked 10-20 miles a day and trained hard 6 hours a day in the shoes until the sole wore down enough to go buy a new pair (for 8 dollars). I wore the new ones for a day but decided that the thinner soled shoe felt better and continued to wear them for the rest of my time in China.

(Notice in the picture the uneven wear on my right heel. This is a result of a faulty heel strike pattern from being entrapped in tennis shoes my entire life. None of my shoes since China 2008 have this same wear pattern. In the last 3 years I have done some serious rehabilitation work with my bodies structural alignment and gait pattern.)

When I got back to the states I purchased two pairs of the very first model of Vibram FiveFingers, when they only came in three colors. I've been wearing my Classics and KSO's for years now and have been a huge advocate for them convincing hundreds of people of their benefits and how great it feels to be 'barefoot' and connected to the earth.


For years I've toyed with the thought of going completely barefoot, but almost every attempt has left blisters the bottom of my feet, so I keep all natural for only grass, sand, and soil. In the Arizona desert, that limits you to parks. The Arizona desert is not very forgiving on the feet. But wait a second... who else have I heard about walking across the desert nearly barefoot?...This is a rhetorical question and the key word in the question is NEARLY.

The Jesus sandal otherwise called huaraches are now my 'shoe' of choice when I'm not able to go completely nude with my feet. This is the style of shoe that is commonly found throughout history in native tribes around the world for there simplicity to make and high function and performance. Yes I said performance! It doesn't matter what your running times currently are in your shock absorbing, state of the art running shoes, an improper gait and foot strike pattern will lead to debilitating injuries somewhere down the road (pun intended).

If you like to run, I suggest you learn how to do it properly by researching the internet on the topic of forefoot walking and running, and/or come to me and I can analyze your current gait and help you realign your body to move more efficiently.

REMEMBER- Regardless of the 'barefoot' shoe you decide to try. Always start with walking before you try to run, this is especially important for well conditioned runners. The conditioned runner wearing running shoes is not ready for the jarring barefoot impact of an improper heel strike pattern that is associated with running shoes. I recommend walking for a couple months before progressing to speed walking for a few months. Then, if so inclined, gently start practicing forefoot running in the park for a few months before thinking about going back to the pavement treadmill. Ideally you wouldn't run on the pavement at all and would stick to grass, dirt, soil, sand, rock...you know, the earth! Enjoy! The earth under your feet is a great feeling!

Are You a Junk Food Junkie?

I'm that house that nobody likes on Halloween, passing out packs of cinnamon almonds and dehydrated cinnamon apples...

Figuratively of course. Nobody in their right mind would accept home made Halloween treats nowadays in fear of poisoning their children. But ironically, good spirited parents will allow their children to eat pounds and pounds of candy in the name of tradition that celebrates what? Dead people, evil spirits, ghosts, zombies, and diabetes and obesity?

To get an idea of the scale of damage of what your child brought home in his/her pillow case; the average Jack-O-Lantern bucket holds about 250 pieces of candy, which equals more than 10 thousand calories, and 3 pounds of sugar.

I'm not trying to ruin a great holiday that all kids and adults enjoy but this is one of the most important holidays to practice moderation and self control or you're setting yourself up well for a holiday season overwhelmed with sick days.

The easiest way to practice self control with junk food is to not have one single bite. AVOIDANCE. It is easier to avoid the pitfalls of junk food binges if you don't take that first bite that we always justify with the intention to stop at that bite. I am honest with my self and know that if I eat one piece, I will eat at least 6, just like if I eat one french fry or potato chip, I will eat them all. I recognize that food has serious addictive qualities hence the term JUNK FOOD JUNKIE. That's one thing that I can proudly say that I am not. My body operates on 0% junk and 100% nutrient dense vital life giving food...


Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween. Mine was spent exploring some new professional options and climbing on quartz.

A Fermented Apple a Day Will Keep the Doctor Away

Raw apple cider vinegar has been a folk health remedy for centuries as fermentation goes far back in history. Hippocrates (known as the father of medicine) treated his patients with apple cider vinegar with much success. The health benefits of fermentation were later written about by the Bragg family as part of their natural hygienic approach to health (a natural health approach promoted by the Hippocrates Health Institute). The Bragg family name is well known in the health world as being proponents of natural health from the regular practice of fasting, eating an ultra clean organic vegetarian diet, optimal breathing, regular exercise, and plenty of water. They have proven by the example of many believers and followers that their diet will healthily sustain human life for well over 100 years, for some into their 120's!!

I highly endorse all of the Bragg books as valuable health references, but this blog is focused on one interesting nutritional practice that your grandmother could probably tell you a little something about and the Braggs dedicated an entire book on. The health benefits of fermentation, more specifically, apple cider vinegar.

Fermentation is a familiar process that we all are familiar with. The basic premise of fermentation is that live yeast and bacterias feeds off of sugar which results in the byproduct alcohol. When you continue to ferment, the alcohol will turn to vinegar. The living yeasts and bacteria feeding off of the sugars of the fruit produce enzymes and valuable nutrients that can help treat and prevent many illnesses and maintain good health.


Here are Some of the Possible Medicinal Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar:


-Detoxification: Helps to improve the rate of toxin removal and improve bowel irregularity

-Arthritis: May help with joint pain and stiffness

-Diabetes: Helps control blood glucose fluctuations when taken before and/or after meals.

-Weight Management: Helps lower appetite resulting in smaller, more appropriate portioned meals

-Weight Loss: Helps to break down body fat due to its content of acetic acid, which may also help prevent the buildup of body fat and fats accumulated in the liver

-Skin: When used externally, it can improve the condition of the skin by restoring pH balance. Used diluted with water (1 part ACV, 3 parts water), ACV can be used as a treatment for acne and dandruff

-Other Potential Medicinal Uses: Lowered blood pressure, lowered cholesterol, sore throat, allergies, heartburn, gout, flu, chronic fatigue syndrome


The benefits of raw apple cider vinegar result from the beneficial nutrients and enzymes it contains. Raw apple cider vinegar contains: potassium, calcium, acetic acid (slows digestion of starch and prevents fat storage), malic acid (anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal), pectin (regulate blood pressure and reduce bad cholesterol), and ash (helps maintain alkalinity and pH balance in body). Not all apple cider vinegars contain all of these medicinal ingredients. Only apple cider vinegar that has not been pasteurized and refined. It is only valuable as a health aid in it's natural state containing what Bragg calls 'the mother' which is the sediment that settle to the bottom of the bottle. The picture at the top is the apple cider vinegar that I recommend, it's made by Bragg and is found cheap in the natural section of every grocery store.

Here are my Favorite Recipes to Start Including ACV Into Your Lifestyle:

For a single serving

Pour a splash of ACV into a glass (start with about a 1/2-1 tbsp). Match amount of ACV with raw honey by eyeballing the level on the glass. Dilute with water, add cinnamon to taste. (Cinnamon also aids in the maintenance of blood glucose levels). Lower the amount of honey used as the ACV becomes more palatable.

This cider is especially delicious made with hot water on a cold winter morning!

To prepare for a full month or for a family

Pour 16 ounces of ACV into a gallon pitcher/jug. Add 1 can of frozen grape juice concentrate. Add up to 1 cup stevia (optional). Fill pitcher/jug with water and mix. Consume one or two half cup servings per day (morning and night) and add cinnamon with each dose. Dilute with more water if necessary.

The Adrenaline Junkies Perspective on the Modern Man's Struggle

I have a theory on why people like Alex Honnald (above) and Dean Potter (bottom) free solo and participate in other dangerous, life threatening activities....

I think it is human nature, some more so than others of course, to want to taunt death and live so close to the edge of death that you are overwhelmed with nothing but the desire to live. In that brief moment that you feel death brush your shoulder, it doesn't matter what we've gone through or what we're going through in our lives, we realize then that nothing is bad enough to not want to still be here if only to experience it. It no longer becomes a matter of labeling and classifying one experience bad and another good, you become appreciative of the fact that you are still around to experience something, to experience life. There is no good or bad experience except that which we make in our own minds, but it's not that easy in our modern world. It has become increasingly difficult to not worry and be happy no matter how many times you listen to Bobby McFerrin's "don't worry be happy".

So here's the problem: we have gone so far away from our primitive human existence of survival that we have become spoiled and desensitized to the very fear of death that keeps us alive and gives us the motivation to want to live. And not just live, but live passionately. The human existence is no longer even referred to as an existence but is now more commonly referred to as "the human condition". We have become miserable creatures because of the fact that we are self conscious. Not self conscious in the self image connotation but self conscious in the sense that we are aware and conscious of our own being. We accept the modern world as the environment that we inherited when we were born into it, but we are all well aware of the negative impact our modern life has had on the earth, our own health and society.

Young generations get their ears guaged or get tribal tattoos to make them feel a part of something that we've been missing for a long time. There is no tribe nowadays. Our sense of community continues to deteriorate the more we tune in to the news and are witness to the murderors and pedophiles. Most people living in our society could probably name more serial killers than nobel peace prize recipiants.

People live for themselves, and if they are helping others, it is with the understanding that it will ultimately come back to them, even if it's just the belief of karma. Not because they're selfish neccessarily, but because that is how our society works. We are all trying desperately to stay afloat and get on top of the ups and downs of our capitilist country. In some instances this might even mean resorting to criminal activity. But criminals have their place in our culture and provide jobs for the media, lawyers, police, penitentury, court system, etc. There is a huge demand for criminals in our society and we actually depend on them and promote their fear provoking acts through the media. There might as well be a craiglist job posting for:


WANTED: Amatuer Criminal

Must be willing to break the law and be brought to justice. Very little experience needed.

Pay: Full room and board, meals, and structured living with no responsibility.

We spend more money than we earn to fit into the infrastructure providing jobs for others, then we borrow money from the bank with good intention to pay it back before the interest gets too high. But life continues to unfold and you are forced to improvise those plans. You get a flat tire, a speeding ticket, laid off of your job, have a child, and end up falling deeper and deeper in debt unable to pay the interest let alone pay off the principal.

We expect modern medicine to keep us alive while we get stuck in the 9-5 hustle and bustle of a 40+ hour work week, completely neglecting our health. We become overly stressed from the day to day repetitiveness of our lives and the fact that we have responsibilities and obligations that prevent us and even cause us to forget about what we actually want to do with our lives. We live in the same place for years without really getting to know our neighbors and establishing a relationship with them. And we work until we are too old to play, with the hope that we will be entitled to some kind of retirement fund.

I have heard many times before in psychology that suicide is a normal and often a reoccuring thought for humans, not the thought to go through with it per se, but just in contemplation of an easy escape from the struggle, or to question the impact of our death. For an adrenaline junkie, it is not about questioning death. The adrenaline junkie has already accepted death as an imminent threat and ultimately something that is inevitable. The adrenaline junkie evaluates what is important and pursues the question of life..."what can I accomplish in the short time that I am here."

The play it safe type look at people that live and risk death for their passions as crazy, but in reality we risk death every time we get inside our vehicle, everytime we consume substances like alcohol, ciggarettes and artery clogging trans fatty acids, and everytime we play outside in a lightening storm (as crazy as it sounds this is common during Arizona monsoon season). To not risk your life is crazy, if there is no risk of death, you are not alive.

This is not an endorsement to go crazy and live a dangerous renagade lifestyle, but an endorsement to accept the fact that we will die sooner or later, so you might as well live a little. Overcome your fears, do something nobody would ever imagine you doing, including yourself! Express yourself through art. Regain your health and your priorities. Love one another, hug a stranger, kiss a friend. Do something everyday to distract yourself from the stresses of life whether it be meditation or skydiving. Enjoy your life to the fullest, because if you don't right now in this moment, one of these days you wont get another chance...


"To me it's really, it's so simple... that life should be lived on the edge of life. you have to exercise rebellion. to refuse to taper yourself to rules, to refuse your own success, to refuse to repeat yourself, to see every day, every year, every idea as a true challenge. and then you are going to live your life on the tightrope." -Phillipe Petit

BodProg

If you are honest with yourself about your fitness goals and you truly want to accomplish them, it is critical that you hold yourself accountable. One way that I hold myself accountable is I have a folder on my desktop entitled "BodProg". Having a folder in which I keep track of my progress easily accessible on my desktop keeps me extremely motivated to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Don't worry about weight anymore, focus on the visible results, since that is primarily what your goals are, to look better, right? When you stop focusing on the scale and start focusing on your appearance you are forced to face your insecurities head on. It's easy to quit when you're looking at a number on a scale that you can easily detach yourself from. But what you see in the mirror is nearly impossible to detach from. This is why it is such a powerful motivator. Body insecurities carry many emotions with them. When you force yourself to face them on a daily basis, you are more likely to stick to the plan and continue making serious healthy changes in your lifestyle.

I take a picture of my physique on a weekly basis. It's not because I'm obsessed with myself, it's because I'm obsessed with progress. Taking weekly pictures holds me accountable to a lifestyle that I am committed to maintaining, a lifestyle that results in low body fat and chiseled obliques.

We all have an image in our heads of what we want our body to look like. The problem for many is that the gap from where we're at to where we want to be is seemingly too large and will take too long. In the long process of struggle, we lose our motivation. In order to bridge that gap, we must become obsessed about what we want, all day everyday, not just during our workouts but while making food choices throughout the day.

Here's what I recommend to stay on track and reach your goals.

1. Take a picture of yourself on a weekly basis saving the picture as the current date. For example, the picture above was taken today and saved as 071211 (July 12, 2011).

2. Create a folder on your desktop entitled BodProg, or whatever works for you. Save all your pictures to the folder.

3. Before every meal, and every workout, take a look at your most recent picture and make a decision right there whether you are going to force progress or learn to love yourself the way you are (which is good too if you can honestly do so, but if you can't, FORCE PROGRESS).

4. Once you have decided to force progress, visualize your goal, and proceed with passion and consciousness. Make conscious decisions about everything that goes in your mouth. Ask yourself "Is this doughnut in alignment with what I want my body to look like?"

5. Love yourself by feeding your body large amounts of vital living foods that are full of minerals, vitamins, enzymes, anti-oxidants, and water.

6. Hate yourself by pushing yourself through a punishing workout that is guaranteed to inspire change in your body. (NOTE: don't really hate yourself, but use your insecurities and desire for change as a deep motivator to push through your limits)