THE SECRET OF TURNING YOUR BODY INTO THE BEST SHAPE OF

YOUR LIFE
Hungarian author, Tamas Podlovics, tells you how after 44 years of struggling with his overweight
he transformed his body into a perfect shape in 44 days.
 FIT OVER 45
by Tamas Podlovics

Have you been aching for a perfect physique? Would you like to be proud of your body?
Walk along the beach and collect the admiring glances? Do you want to feel good
physically, emotionally?

Once you are through with this book, it will turn around your life, which will never be the
same. You will lose those unwanted pounds of fat, and you will lighten up your soul. I am
talking from real life experience, as you can see on these photos.

I had been struggling for 44 years in vain then I just turned my body into a perfect shape in
44 days. And you can do it too. I was the same ordinary person just like you. Working,
having a family, raising 3 kids. Trying to be in shape but never quite reaching it. I want to
share this wonderful experience with you so you can have the best shape of your life, too
and as a side effect you'll have the cleanest soul and spirit, as well.

One of the reasons I wrote this book was that so many people had asked me how I had done
it. How I trained, what I ate. The main strength of this book is CERDIBILITY. I am real, I
am no athlete, no fitness trainer. Just an ordinary architect who did it.

These two photos were taken

on 2/28/2012. Age 44, weight
196 Lb.

These two photos were taken

44 days later on 4/13/2012. Age
44, weight 171 Lb.
 INTRODUCTION

My name is Tamas Podlovics. I am 44 and a half years old, when I am

starting to write this book. I would like to share with you the
experience I went through, how my life turned around and how I got
into the best shape of my life by the age of 44.

I am an architect, specialized in 3d modeling/visualization,

(www.podlovics.hu) I have three daughters and I live in Hungary, in
Budapest, by the river Danube.
I speak English, because I was an exchange student in the US 20 years
ago, and I have practiced English ever since.

This book is based on credibility

This book is based on credibility. I am real, you can see me on current

photos in this book, you can check out my facebook site. I am living
the same life as you do. I don't want to sell you anything. No
supplements, no secret diet plans, I am just sharing my experiences.
The best way to learn is learning from our mistakes. The best way to
teach is by showing an example...

I am a real person, and there is no fiction in this book.

I am a real person, and there is no fiction in this book. I am neither a

professional athlete or body-builder, nor a fitness coach. I have tried
many-many diets, different kinds of exercises, even did long distance
triathlon (Ironman) and could never quite get into shape. Until now.

It is possible for everyone

The reason I am writing this book is that I want to tell everyone: It is
possible. I know that more than 60% of the population of the USA is
overweight, obese. This is like an epidemic. We have the same
problem in Europe, although not yet on that scale. And there is a
solution to this epidemic. Obesity embitters the life of millions of
Americans and millions of other people all over the world. People try
to blame genes, food industry, convenience, TV and just about
everyone else for their fatness. However, the only person to blame is
you. If you are fat, if you are unhappy with your body, you are the
only one to blame. But never mind, you will be able to solve this
problem. You alone, with the help of this book.

I divided this book into five parts:

1. In the first part I will tel you about my life, my childhood,

teenage years and adult life, in case you are interested in who I
am and how I got around writing this book. It is not that
important, though. You may skip this chapter, as my life has not
been that interesting.

If you read it, however, I'd like to show you a series of

'coincidences' in my life that lead me to the point where I am
now. And now I know there are no such things as 'coincidence'
or 'luck'. I firmly believe that we shape our lives with our
thoughts and feelings.

2. In the second part I will be going into details of the diet part of
staying in shape. How important it is what you eat, when you
eat and how much you eat

3. In the third part I will tell you about the physical activities that
you should do in order to get into shape. This is also
unavoidable and it is fun. I enjoy it every day and I have to say
these are the best moments of my days.

4. In the fourth part I will tell you about the spiritual change that
really turned my life around. I will tell you about the films I
watched, the books I read and how the cleansing of my mind
 helped me get rid of the unwanted pounds of fat. This is a very
important part of the book, maybe the most important.

5. In this last part I philosophize about the effects of positive

thinking on our society. How our society would change if
everyone learned to be happy and content and co-operate
instead of compete.

I recommend you to read this book many times. You can skip my
biography, but the last four parts are something to read over and over
and plant it firmly in your mind. I tried to be as compact as I could.
This book is not about long-winded monologues. I tried to compile the
essence of a good life in here.

March, 2013
PART ONE

THE PAST

School years

I must admit I had a good childhood. I was born in Leninvaros (named

after Lenin the communist leader). I spent my childhood there from
1967 until 1986. It was a small industrial town, built that time with a
population of about 20.000. The town had three big factories, a
chemical plant, a power-plant and an oil refinery. 90% of the adult
population worked at these factories. My parents worked at the
chemical plant, in an administrative position.
Everybody lived in blocks of flats, just like the projects in the US.
These were 3 to 10-story, prefabricated concrete buildings. It was
socialism time, everyone was equal, there were no real differences.

Hungary was the happiest barrack in the bloc, because we had food.
Hungary has quite good agricultural facilities and tradition, so we
always had enough food. When I was in the elementary school from
the age of 8-14, we had morning snack, lunch and an afternoon snack
in the school. For morning snack we received some milk, or cocoa
(nothing like Nesquick, it was rather a brown colored milk), and a
half-moon shaped bun, called kifli. So we had some protein, fat and
carbohydrates.

Lunch was always something warm and good. There was always a
soup of some kind, then a pottage with some meat or some pasta.
For dinner my mom always cooked something, so we had warm food
for dinner. That was the main meal of the day.

If I look back on the photos of that time, there were very few obese
kids. We had no fast food, and we had no tv or computers. That time
in Hungary there was only two TV channels, #1 and #2, and #2 had
transmission only in the afternoons. On Mondays there was no TV at
all.

As a child I loved to go down to the court in front of our block and

play soccer with my friends. We moved a lot, and we were not fat.

At around the age of 10, however, I started to gain weight. Looking

back at that time I know what the reason was. My parents came home
from work at exactly 3:30 PM every weekday and they always
brought home some confectionery from work. They also ate there and
they could always purchase something sweet for the kids. So we (me
and my younger sister) got hooked on cakes and sweets.

Another interesting thing was that my father made us drink a half liter
of cocoa ( about 17 oz) every morning. We drank it as soon as we got
up, that was our breakfast. Although, I don't think it caused us much
harm, since it was in the morning and it had some nutritional value,
too.

But the cakes were definitely wrong. We got so hooked on them, that I
was craving for them by 3:30 every afternoon. So I started to gain
weight and became a fat kid. That, of course, caused me many
psychological problems. I was shy to the girls, I was ashamed to
undress in the summer or in PE classes. That was the first time I
started to work out. My father welded me a pair of barbells, and I did
different kinds of exercises with them. We had fixed a pair of rings in
the door-jamb and I tried pull-ups on them. I had no idea about
nutrition or calorie intake, so I ate my cakes and did the exercises. I
was lucky because I started to grow taller, so by the age of 14-15 I
became normal again. That was my first experience with obesity.
Then high school came along, the hormones started to do their work
and although I was not skinny, I was not obese either. I ate my cakes,
but young age and fast metabolism did their job too. That time in the
PE class only those boys could get anA, who could do the five
Power Exercises . That was our PE teacher's condition to get an
A. These exercise were:
rope climbing, using only the hands (about 20 feet high up)
8 dips on a pair of gym parallel bars
3 pull-ups and push-ups on a pair of gymnastics rings
3 leg lifts to your wrists on a wall bar
20 push-ups.

As I was a bit heavy, I could not do these exercises. But since I was
and otherwise straight-A student, I could not let it happen that the
only B I got was in PE. So I started to work out at home with my
weights, did the pull-ups, push-ups, and even went to an afternoon
gymnastics class, which I enjoyed very much, although I could
not do anything on half of the instruments ( horse or beams).

I trained hard and by the end of my first year in high-school I was able
to to do these Power Exercises. That was a great achievement for
me and I was very proud of myself.

And since I was always a bit heavy, I tried different kinds of sports to
lose weight. I did swimming, weight-lifting, kayak, table tennis,
skating and of course the gymnastics.

I have to say I was an OK kid by my teenage years, I always had a

little baby fat on me, but dressed up I looked acceptable.
And since I was and otherwise very good student, that impressed the
girls, so I even had girl-friends. I had my first real love at the age of
16 and I even got laid by the age of 18.

As all the other kids I had my experiments with drinking and smoking,
too. I think I smoked my first cigarette at the age of 14 and got drunk
at the age of 16. That time we hadn't known anything about the effects
of cigarette on our health. Almost every adult smoked, cigarettes were
cheap, and I remember, when my parents had guests in our home (a
two-room 400 sqft apartment) the room was always full of smoke.

By the age of 17-18 we regularly went out with my friends to pubs

and drank beer and smoked cigarettes there. There was no underage
rule that time.
A year in the army

By the age of 18 I got accepted to the Technical University of

Budapest to the Faculty of Architecture. That was/is a very good
institute and my parents were very proud of me. However, you had to
serve a year in the army before you could enroll in your class.

The socialist army was another interesting experience for me. It was
all about smoking and getting drunk as often as you could. I was
'lucky' enough to become a gas station attendant within the army, so I
had the good life of nothing to do the whole day. I filled up the cars in
the morning and in the evening and the rest of the day I slept.

All those things I had poisoned my body with had an effect on my

health. I developed a skin rash, called Psoriasis. It is a fast
development of scaly patches on the top layer of the skin. I had it all
over my body and especially on my hairy skin on my skull. It was a
troubling experience, the doctors tried to cure the symptoms, but not
the cause. This sickness has followed me through for the next 22 years
of my life.

Because of the lazy lifestyle I got fat again. My comrades always

joked about my 'tits' when they saw me shirtless. I was ashamed, so I
started to do some push-ups again, in my idle time, but not much
really changed.
University years, a year in the US

After a year I was discharged from the army and could start my higher
education. Those years were all about partying, drinking, womanizing,
smoking and some studying. But I think everybody who attended
college had the same experience.

I was 'lucky' enough to get to know an American guy while I was in

the army. I was one night away on leave in Budapest and I went to the
only pub, where one could meet foreigners, because I really liked to
practice my English. So, in the pub I met a guy named Douglas, who
was hitch-hiking all aver Europe with one backpack. I invited him to
my parent's house in the countryside for the following weekend. I
called home to tell my parents about the American guy visiting us and
they were really scared. That time in Hungary we could not even think
about traveling to the US, and to meet a real American was something
entirely new for them. It was 1987, two years before the Wall came
down.

So, next Friday I went home on leave, and waited for Doug to show
up. I gave him written instructions but almost nobody spoke English
in Hungary, especially in the countryside. In the end he showed up, all
wet, because he was taken from the neighboring village on a bicycle
by an old men who had once worked on a boat and spoke some
English.

My mother washed his clothes, we fed him, and I even took him to a
home party, one of my friend's birthday party. The socialist blocks
of flats amazed Doug, I remember him taking so many photos.
He stayed for the weekend, then went on hitch-hiking to Turkey.

The reason I mentioned Doug is that he invited me to the US in the

following summer. An ordinary Hungarian was not allowed to travel
to the US, unless he had a letter of invitation from an American
citizen, who took the responsibility of feeding and boarding the
ordinary Hungarian while in America. Doug did that and a lot more
for me.
I had enough money to buy the airplane ticket, plus I had $150 cash.
And I wanted to stay for a month! That was quite an adventurous idea
from me. Doug was living in Rochester, NY and I flew to NYC. I did
not know that he lived so far. And somehow we misunderstood each
other, because he was not waiting for me at the airport. Remember,
there was no email that time and I could not afford to call the USA
either. I had kept in touch with Doug by snail-mail correspondence.

So I sat there at JFK, for a few hours, tried to call him, but got no
answer. In the end one of the porters at the airport told me to take a
train and go the the YMCA on 42nd street in Manhattan. I did so, and
that was my first real glimpse of America. Skyscrapers, limousines,
big yellow cabs. It was amazing. The weirdest thing for me was that
the cars were quiet and the air was a lot cleaner than in Budapest. We
still had mostly 2-tack Trabies and other East German cars in
Hungary, and they emitted so much smoke.

When walking up from the subway a nice black guy asked me where I
wanted to go. I told him and he was kind enough to show me to the
YMCA, where he asked me for a couple of dollars for the help. I was
shocked. I gave him two dollars, and my budget was down to about
$140. I took a room at the YMCA, $15/night, went to a McDonald's,
ate a big mac, drank a coke, and I was down to $120. I did the quick
math and realized that I wouldn't last a week here, not to mention a
month.

Next morning as I walked out of the YMCA building another skinny

guy asked me if I could lend him $15, because he had to go
Downtown to a bank to change his Jamaican dollars to US dollars. He
gave me his room number in the YMCA, so I could come up to him
and get back my $15. Me, the naive East-bloc boy, lent him the 15
bucks, which I had never seen any more, of course. Welcome to the
world of free enterprise.

Anyway, I started to walk the streets to try and get some dishwasher
job, and tried to call Doug every hour. Naturally, nobody wanted to
employ me without any permit. However, I could reach Doug. I told
him about my situation, we cleared the misunderstanding about my
arrival date and he had promised to find me some free
accommodation. Which he had, indeed. I slept on the couch of a very
friendly Brazilian family, in their living room in Brooklyn. They were
kind and helpful even though there were already 5 of them living in a
small apartment.

Another 'luck' was my finding a spotter job. On a billboard in the

YMCA there was a small ad saying :Do you wanna work? and a
phone number. I called the number and it turned out to be a Swiss and
an Irish guy, selling closet organizers on the street. Apparently that
was something advertised on Teleshop that time, they just copied it
and sold them on the street. And I spotted the police for them. They
payed me $10 an hour, which was very good money that time, and
bought me breakfast too. I had worked for 3 weeks for them, saved up
a thousand dollars then I quit.

I visited Doug in Rochester, NY, stayed at his father's place who also
gave me some gardening jobs, payed me $5 an hour, and had my own
room with a bath. That was very comfortable after the couch in
Brooklyn. We ate every day white bread with mayonnaise, which, now
I know, was not the best way to lose weight, again. After a week I
went to the Niagara falls then I decided to hop on a Greyhound bus
and go see sunny California.

As I was sitting at the bus station in Buffalo, NY, we started to chat

with a friendly American guy. He was in the military and was on his
way home to North Carolina. I told him about my plans to go to
California and he asked me if I had considered renting a car. Honestly,
I had never rented a car before, so it never crossed my mind. He
offered to call up some rental agencies for me and ask for quotes. It
turned out that at Avis you could rent a decent car (Chevy Cavalier)
for $150 per week with unlimited mileage. That was about the cost of
the bus to California, one way. It was however too much for me alone,
so I looked around at the bus terminal for some foreign looking young
people. I found blonde guy with a backpack and asked him where he
was from. It turned out he was from Germany, just arrived from
Canada and was headed to NYC. I asked him if he wanted to join me
and rent a car together and go to California instead. He was flexible
enough to come with me. What a strike of luck, I thought. In exchange
for his help, we took the American soldier with us and drove him
home to NC.

To cut my long story short we traveled 10.000 miles with Manfred, the
German guy. Slept in the car most of the time, bought a cool-box and
filled it up with food and drinks from the supermarket, we showered at
garden hoses, and at every major city we went to the local youth
hostel to find people who were willing to travel with us by paying for
the gas. We visited Florida, New Orleans, Houston, San Diego, Los
Angeles, Las Vegas. We stayed in Vegas for a week, ate in the buffet
of Circus-Circus, played Black Jack for the free drinks and spent the
day at the pool of Golden Nugget. We just had a great time. And I had
the time of my life. The 20-year old Hungarian traveling all across
America.

We lost contact with Doug, who arranged the whole US visit for me,
but Doug, if you read this book, get in touch with me!
Back in Budapest

My psoriasis stuck, but I did not pay too much attention to it, since
most of it was covered by my hair. I did all the smoking and drinking I
could and started to gain weight again. I tried to eat less but I really
never watched what I ate. I just had no idea about carbohydrates,
protein, fat, etc. I was never satisfied with my body, my looks, but I
got by. I was a diligent, good student though, and got a scholarship to
study in the US for a semester, as an exchange student. I spent that
semester, plus a winter semester at Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL.
That was the greatest time of my life. It was still 1990, when the Wall
just went down a year before in the Eastern Bloc. We had been closed
from the world for 40 years and for me the USA was paradise.
Especially Florida. Sunshine, palm trees, blue sea, blue skies.
Everybody had a car. That was something new for me. Color TV,
more than 2 TV channels, computers. I had hardly seen any computers
before.

And life was happy. My fellow students were happy, they also had the
time of their lives. I befriended many and I still keep in touch with one
of them, Mike Murphy from Washington, DC, who became a real
friend of mine and have visited me already 4 times in Hungary over
these years. But that's another story.

Mike was also a bit on the heavy side, so we wanted to lose weight
together. Although we always ordered Domino's Pizza and easily
drank 6 cans of Coors LIGHT each with it, we ate SlimFast during the
day, went to the gym and even did some jogging. It did some good to
us but not really much. I remember reading about magic weight-loss
pills in the US papers that time, and I dreamed of buying them (but I
did not have the money) and going back to Hungary nice and slim
looking. It never happened. The only real good exercise that did help
me was taking a part time job at UPS. Now, that was something. In the
Florida heat I had to stand in the back of a big truck and build walls
out of packages that continuously arrived on a conveyor belt and were
loaded up on the trunk of the truck by some heavy-weight dudes. And
it went on non-stop for 4 hours. By the end I was always soaked in
sweat. That was some turbulence training. But I enjoyed the result, a
better shaped body.

Eating in the US was also something new for me. Back in Hungary
everyone cooked for themselves. In the US almost nobody cooked,
they either ate out, ordered, or just warmed up some prepared food.
Also, in the cafeteria of Eckerd College you could eat either pizza,
pasta or hamburger and some cakes. And drink sodas, loaded with
sugar. Well, it's no surprise people get so fat there.

Studying in the US was, however, a wonderful experience for me. I

learned to enjoy life and be a happy student. I am really grateful for
that time.
SWITZERLAND

In Florida I got to know a Swiss girl, named Sylvia. We fell in love

and spent a few months together, renting a house in St. Pete with some
other Swiss students, and went together for a round tour of the US for
a month. We bought a Mazda 626 and traveled 10.000 miles with it.
When I got back in Hungary, I kept in touch with Sylvia and her father
helped me to find a summer job in Switzerland. We stayed at her
parents' house and had dinner there every evening. That was again a
new experience for me. Her mother was of French origin and she
cooked the French way. Before the main course we had green salad
every time. We had red wine with every dinner. In general, the Swiss
ate very good and healthy food. The cheese, the meat, the canaps, the
wine was all good there. I took a bicycle to work every day, and I also
started to do some push-ups and sit-ups after work at home. And that
had its result. I was in a lot better shape again. I was still young, 23,
and even with all the partying and drinking we did, I could maintain a
reasonable shape.

After that summer I continued my studies at the Technical University

of Budapest, but we kept in touch with Sylvia. I visited her and she
visited me. Two more years went by and after graduation I moved to
Switzerland. We rented a house with Sylvia and two other Swiss girls.
I must express my gratitude to Sylvia, Dainela and Flavia, they all
helped me a lot to become a more civilized person, not the East-bloc
boy I used to be.

However, my greatest mentor way my Swiss employer Peter

Thomann. He was a father for me who gave me a chance and gave me
a very reasonable salary even though I worked black in his office.
And in Switzerland they take employing illegal foreigners very
seriously. With Peter, who is 79 at the time I write this book, we still
keep in touch, I just visited him a few months ago. He is still in
perfect shape, still vigorous, full of life, always smiling. And have a
girl-friend of 48, a nice looking German girl.
BACK TO HUNGARY

Our relationship with Sylvia came to an end. She was a very nice,
loving and caring person, but I wasn't. I simply left her for another
girl. Now, I ask for her forgiveness.

Some girls came and went, then in December, 1993 I met Gabi, my
future wife at a pre-new-year party. There was strong physical
attraction between us. She worked at the time in Paris as an au pair,
baby-sitter, and I was still in Switzerland. We visited each other on the
week ends and spent passionate times together. Our relationship hadn't
been smooth from the beginning. I was a jealous, dominating tyrant.
She, however, loved me with her whole heart. She told me that I was
on the top of her pyramid. We fought, quarreled, but passion and
physical attraction overcame these fights. Once she finished her work
in Paris, she moved to Switzerland to live with me. We spent another
year there, but finally we decided to move back to Hungary. Part of
the reason was that she couldn't find any employment in Switzerland,
and wanted to go home and part of it was that I also never really felt
happy there. I was always a foreigner, an East-bloc guy.

With the money I saved in Switzerland we bought a small apartment

in Budapest, moved in and she got pregnant pretty soon. We married
in may 1996 and our first daughter was born on October 3, 1996. I
worked as a sales person for a small company selling Apple
Macintosh computers, which was something really new in Hungary. I
enjoyed my life, my child, my work. But the first storm clouds
appeared on the sky of our marriage already. Sex was rarer, which was
understandable from my wife's point of view, she was very much
occupied with our daughter and she was tired in the evenings. I moved
to a bigger company to work, where I met new women and started to
flirt around. Then my wife got pregnant again and we decided to move
into the countryside, bought a ruin of a house with a garden and I
started to re-build it. We moved into the house in February, 1998, and
my second daughter was born in that month too.
After this time our marriage went downhill. I don't want to go into
details too much, but we completely estranged. I remember there was
a time when we lived together for a year without sex or touching each
other.

But life went on, we raised our kids, I had started my own small
business, specialized in 3d computer visualization. My work gave me
satisfaction and we always managed financially. That was the period
in my life when I just worked, eat, drank and smoked. By the time I
was 35 I was over 210 Lbs. Although on the surface we looked happy,
we weren't. I was not happy with my life, with my body, but I didn't
dare to admit it even to myself.
I joined the local gym, went to work out there, but I didn't change my
eating habits and although I gained some muscles, I was still fat.
I met a guy at the gym, Jozsef, with whom we got along quite well. He
was in the gambling business, was running slot machines and he was
also married with two kids. On the surface he also looked happy. We
visited them in their big house sometimes and sometimes they came to
see us.

Jozsef and me picked up the habit of jogging a mile before working

out at the gym. For me it was something new. I never really ran before
and I smoked, so my lungs were not up to the challenge. But my
healthy vanity overcame this problem and I gave up cigarettes, in
order to be able to run. I started to get better and better in running.

Then I met - via my wife's friends - some people who ran marathons
and did long distance triathlons, called Ironman. I was awed by their
performance and I decided that I could do that too.
With Josef we started to run longer distances, and within a few month
we did our first half marathon. My knees really hurt after the run but I
felt really joyous. We decided to go for the marathon and in a few
months did that too. My first marathon took me 4 hours and 27
minutes to complete, but I did it. I was 37 years old that time.

All this training started to have an effect on my body. I lost some

weight, I was around 190 Lbs. I looked a lot better, I did not look
overweight dressed, but when undressed I still had fat on my body. I
had the look of the skinny-fat runner. I still did not know anything
about nutrition, my marriage was in ruins, my emotional state
imbalanced. Jozsef divorced that time, and I learned from him how
much a show their marriage was. On the surface they were the perfect
family, but in the deep they almost killed each other. That time he also
recommended to me that we divorce with my wife, but I was way too
much afraid to take that step.

So we dived ourselves into the endurance sports. We prepared for the

Ironman. We bought bicycles, started to swim and kept on running. It
was some kind of an escape for us from our everyday lives.

It was the summer of 2005 when we rode our bikes home from a 50-
mile ride, when an old man turned his car right in front of my bike. I
hit the car, flew over it and landed on the sidewalk on my hands and
knees. Some of my fingernails came off, and my knees were bruised
quite seriously. As I lay on the sidewalk Jozsef came over put my head
in his lap and I lost consciousness. It was a wonderful, calm feeling.
When I came to the ambulance and the police had already arrived,
they took me to a hospital. I went home the same day on my own
responsibility, my wife came to collect me. My bike was ruined so
were my knees. That Ironman race was gone for me. It was a lesson
from life which I did not understand quite well that time. One of my
old friend from the gym, a writer of spiritual books, Peter, told me that
my breaking my knees showed me that I needed to live more humbly,
with more modesty. I heard him bud I did not listen.

Fortunately, my body healed well, and finally in the end of the

summer we did the Ironman race with Jozsef in splits, together. I
swam the 2.3 miles, he rode the 112 miles on the bike (I had no bike)
and we split the running in halves. It was a wonderful feeling to run
through the finish line hand-in-hand.
As my 38 year-old body seemed to heel well, we continued training.
We swam, biked, ran and sometimes went to the gym for some weight
training. No nutritional plan still, though. I was already in good shape,
or I could even say in the best shape of my live, but I still had fat on
my body even after all this training. I remember days when I ran 12
miles in the hills then rode my bike for another 50 miles. I looked
good dressed, but I still had that insistent baby-fat on me.

Finally I did 3 Ironmans in three consecutive years, in 2006-2008.

I even won a trip to Kona, Hawaii to visit the Ironman World
Championship. That was the moment when I decided to quit long
distance endurance training. Although I was awed by the performance
these guys did in Hawaii, I did not want to look like them. They were
skinny, short people, you wouldn't notice in the street walking by. Also
I learned that long distance endurance training may have some
negative effects on your body, on your immune system and anyway
who had 2-3 hours to train every day?

I started to buy books and read all about weight training and nutrition.
My first inspiration was Mike Geary's Six-pack Abs, then Tom
Venuto's Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle e-books. They gave me insight
and inspiration. I started to watch my diet, and I switched to weight
training from endurance training. I went to the gym 2-3 times a week,
and I did my swimming, running, biking for recovery training. I also
quit eating refined carbohydrates: bread, pasta, rice, potato. I ate lots
of meat, fruits, vegetables and dairy products.
My training was dramatically less than in the Ironman times and
surprisingly I could still keep myself in shape. Although, I was still
not satisfied with myself, I eat better and trained less. However, my
mental state still was not right.

My marriage with my wife seemed to consolidate. Even Jozsef told

me that he was surprised that we had survived all these hard times and
we were still together. We had our third daughter born in 2004, I had
my work, my wife quit teaching in the high school and started to learn
yoga. She finally became a yoga teacher and she had some private
students. Our marriage seemed to heal. We did not love each other any
more but with some compromises we could live together. We even had
a schedule for sex - twice a week - which was an enormous
improvement compared to our earlier periods.

I thought I was happy, I thought I was the king of the world. I Had my
three beautiful and healthy daughters, my wife, my job -that I liked,
owned my house, had no mortgage, owned two cars. We even had a
swimming pool in our garden. We could go on holidays, we were
financially secure. Everything looked perfect. On the surface...
In February 2012 I went to put to sleep my youngest daughter. We lay
in the bed, she fell asleep soon. I loved these moments. She always
looked so beautiful, peaceful, innocent, holding her plush toys. I
usually fell asleep by her side too, but not that night. I had something
on my mind and I wanted to check something on the computer. Since
all my machines were in my office that was in a separate building I
decided to look up that thing on my wife's computer, which was in the
house. I walked up to her small study, she was sitting in front of her
computer and I asked her to let me check something. She got very
nervous and asked me to leave and not to read what she was writing.
Now, that picked my curiosity. I asked what it was and she told me
that she was writing to her friend in Belgium about us and asking her
about the divorce, because that lady had divorced too. I was stunned,
but I left her at it. The next day, however I swept through her emails
and documents, found the letters she wrote, had them translated from
French with Google translate and I found out that my wife had a lover.

I was shocked. My life collapsed to the floor. With my mind I

understood her, but my ego could not accept it. I could never have
imagined it. I was so sure of myself, of my power over her. I wanted
to learn more about the affair so I bought and planted a key-logger
onto her machine. From then on I had all her emails, letters recorded
and the software even took a screen-shot of her monitor on every
mouse-click. So I could even read the answers of her lover. His name
was Sanyi, by the way. He and my wife had had a short relationship
when they were young, and they found each other again on the net.

When it was all clear to me I decided to confront her. I took her out
for lunch one day, while the kids were in school, I held her hands,
looked into her eyes and asked her: Do you see somebody else?.
She looked aside and told me that her conscience was clean. When I
asked specifically about Sanyi, she admitted it, though.

Then a week started when I begged, threatened, cried to her to give up

her lover and to give me another chance, to start all over. We even had
sex that week, which was probably for pitying me. I could not sleep, I
could hardly eat. (Started to lose weight, though, which was good)

During our run I asked Jozsef for his advice and he told me to move to
his house. He lived practically alone in a big 3500 sqf house and he
planned to go to India for a month anyway, pretty soon. He thought it
was a good idea that I stayed in his house while he'd be away.
So on a sunny Monday afternoon I moved out of my house of 16
years. I cried and all my daughters cried with me. My youngest
daughter Hanna took it the worst, since we were very close to each
other. I used to walk her to school every morning, hand-in-hand, I
used to put her to sleep every night. We had spent a lot of time
together.

The next day after my moving out she came over and slept at my new
place. Fortunately Jozsef lived only about 4 miles from my house.

On one side I was heart-broken. I still could not sleep, I had to take
sleeping pills and tranquilizers. I would fall asleep at 10 PM (after
drinking some wine) then I would wake up at 1 AM and could not go
back to sleep.

On the other side I wanted revenge. I wanted to break my wife

financially, get the custody of the kids and break her emotionally too.
I did not realize that it was only my ego talking. I was the prime male
whose female was taken by another male. I still had my key-logger
and it broke my heart every night reading my wife's love letters to her
lover.

Jozsef helped me a lot. He would sit down with me every night, listen
to my complaints and would always give me good advices. The most
important thing he taught me was to live in the present. He told me to
release the past, and never worry a moment about the future. He
advised me not to call my wife, to communicate with her only via
email and only about practical matters. No emotions, because those
would renew our fights.

His insistent calmness, the tranquil environment of his house helped

me to turn around. I remember one day we were jogging in the woods
and I told him that my wife wanted an 80-20% division of our estate,
having the 80% for herself. I was so upset about the injustice of it and
I thought he would agree with me and confirm my beliefs. After all I
was the one who made all that money to buy the house, the cars, to
build the pool, etc. And I will never forget what he told me: What
would Jesus do in your shoes? That stopped me in my tracks. I halted
and told him: He would give her everything. It was a great turning
point for me.
I finally removed the key-logger, and released my wife to live her life.
I started to read spiritual books, Wayne Dyer, Rhonda Byrnes,
Eckhard Tolle, Louise L Hay, Charles Haanel, Wallace Wattles,
Neville Goddard, Vadim Zeland. And it all boiled down to the same:
Whatever feelings and emotions you project to your environment, the
same things will you get back from life. If you project happy thoughts,
positive emotions, if you just trust life and let go all negative things in
your mind your life will be a pleasure trip. I released my anger, my
want of revenge, my regrets, my resentments. I simply re-wrote my
past life in my mind. I even created a reason for being together with
my wife for 18 years. Our task was to bring into life our three
beautiful and smart daughters. We were almost done raising them, but
we could not wait longer with our separation. We had to direct our
lives away from each other because we were not good influence upon
each other. And it happened at the very last moment.

I already had had a deteriorating relationship with my elder daughters.

They were 16 and 14 at the time of our separation. They were
teenagers, they had their own ego. I had not been not the almighty
father figure for them any more. And my ego could not take that. I
used to fight with them a lot, sometimes even hit them. My only
solace was the youngest one, who was still before adolescence, who
was still hanging on her parents for security, who still admired and
trusted us.

After our separation my relationship with my daughters changed. As I

slowly became a much calmer, much more accepting father, even my
teenage daughters came back to me. When I am writing these lines it
has been already over a year that I don't live with them. I moved to
Budapest, the capital of Hungary, I am renting a small apartment
there. My girls love to come and stay with me. Every other week-end
they are here and even sometimes they come on their own.

Jozsef's saying of What would Jesus do in your place made me

reconsider the division of our estate. I resigned from everything, I left
my 50% to my kids. I am paying an alimony which is almost twice as
much as my wife wanted from me, and actually the double of what I
intended to pay at the beginning.
I have left with almost nothing. I kept only my car and my computers
that I use for work. It was a great release. I also learned that our
responsibility toward our children is not to give them everything we
can, but to teach them to be independent from us as soon as they can.
Happiness can not depend on any external circumstance. Happiness
must come from within. I am teaching them their independence. They,
my daughters and my wife, still depend on me financially, but they
will reach their happiness when they won't depend on me any more. I
don't try to influence them directly any more. I also learned that
people learn either from their own mistakes or from good examples.

I Am trying to be a god example for them. Just yesterday while we

were watching the Simpsons on TV, my daughters told me that they
were so happy that I am not such a father who watches soccer games
on TV all day, who drinks beer and has a fat belly. They told me they
were so happy that I can help them solving math problems, help them
with learning English. This is not bragging, it is just to show how you
can influence them indirectly. I never tell them what to do and how to
do any more. I let them learn from their mistakes and I am trying to be
the best example I can.

I don't watch TV, although I let my youngest watch it sometimes,

when she is here. I eat healthy food and cook the the same good things
whenever they are here. I don't force them to do anything and I try to
be as conforming as I can. I do sports but I don't force them to do it.
They see my example and they do it themselves. I try to be always
calm and always positive with them. I keep smiling and try not to let
anything upset me. I consider them to be my teachers in staying calm.
Their teenage disarray used to upset me so much. The fact that they
could sleep until 10-11 AM on week-ends was the same. Now I just
smile and show them the good example.

I learned to meditate every day. I think it is one of the most important

things that I learned. It helps to calm my mind, to fill myself with
positive thoughts, with love and with gratitude. Whenever my ex-wife
comes up with something that could upset me, I make myself
remember how grateful I am to her. How she gave birth to our
children, how she fed them from her body and how she stayed with
me for 18 years of her life. Even now, tears come to my eyes, when I
think of these. But these tears are the tears of gratitude.

I will write more about positive thinking in the fourth chapter of this
book.
PART 2
TRAINING

Training is only 10-20 %

In order to have the perfect body I'd say training plays about 10-20%
part. But if you want to feel good, experience the happy hormones,
feel fit and powerful, training is very important.

When I was a kid I tried different sports. Played soccer, table tennis,
tried weight lifting, gymnastics, kayak, ice skating. I had not excelled
in any of them, but it gave me a good overview.

During my college years it was mostly drinking, smoking and

womanizing, I did not care much about training or eating the right
stuff. After I got married and became father I just gained a few pounds
every year. Familiar story?

By the time I became 35 I was 210 pounds at my 6 feet height, and I

was overweight. That was the first time I realized, I did not like
myself this way.

I got inspired by some friends who ran marathons and did long
distance triathlons (Ironman). I went to see one of their races and I
was awed by their performance. 2.3 mi swim, 112 mi biking and 26
mi running was an unbelievably lot.

So I decided to run too. First, I started small. With some friends we

used to run up the small hills in our neighborhood, but I was always
lagging behind, because of my weight and because I smoked. But my
vanity got the better of me and I just quit smoking. Just like that from
one day to the other. I fell back sometime, but it was only a few times,
when I consumed alcohol. So my lungs started to clear and my
running got faster. Remember, I was already 34 at that time.

Then I decided to train for a half marathon. I started to run longer

distances and within 2 months I could run the 13 miles. I did my first
official race, Budapest Half Marathon, in 2003, at the age 36. Then I
increased training and did my first real marathon the next year. It took
me 4 hours ad 45 minutes, but I did it. I was a lot leaner, but still
overweight, about 190-195 Lb.

I was enthusiastic and I enjoyed the results of my sportive life-style. I

felt better, I could smell things again and I looked a lot better. I got to
know new people, my fellow athletes, and I enjoyed every race. I was
proud of my performance and I really loved competition. I decided to
do the Ironman too, so I bought my first bike, for about $50, a used,
old racing bike. I was joined by a friend, Jozsef, who just got divorced
that time. He escaped into sports too, and we started to run and ride
our bikes together.

Knock me down, I'm not bigger than life...

I felt on the top of the world, I felt almighty. I loved my physique, and
I felt powerful. And now reminiscing back to that time one song of the
Red Hot Chili Peppers comes to my mind: If you see me getting
mighty, if you see me getting high, knock me down, I'm not bigger
than life. And that was so true. I got hit by a car, crashed my bike
completely, lost my consciousness, and the ambulance had to take me
to a hospital. Fortunately I was not permanently or too seriously
injured, but lost some fingernails and bruised my knees quite badly.

That was lesson #1, although I did not realize it that time. Life put me
to my knees. So I could not compete on my first Ironman race,
because of my knees, and I had no bicycle, but even so we did the race
in a pair with my friend. I swam, he biked and we shared the marathon
run. That was my first Ironman participation, in 2005.

Fortunately the old man's insurance paid, because the accident was
entirely his fault, and I could later buy a new bike. I continued
training, and next year I completed my first real Ironman alone, in 11
hours and 54 minutes. That was some achievement. Although another
bike accident almost broke my shoulder, and that should have warned
me that I carried too much weight on my shoulders.

So to cut it short I did 3 Ironmans in three consecutive years in 2006-

7-8. In 2008 the race was in August, and I started something new in
April. I started dieting, meaning eating less refined carbohydrates:
bread, pasta, etc. and I successfully lost another 10 Lb's. And that
meant I could cut my racing time an hour shorter. I finished my third
Ironman race in 10 hours and 52 minutes. I was the 40th finisher
among about 270 participants, many of them professional triathletes.
Another experience lead me off this path though. That year the
organizers of the race held a raffle and one person could win a trip to
Hawaii, to the Ironman World Championship, to watch and root for
the Hungarian qualified athletes. And surprisingly, I won the raffle. I
was overwhelmed by the chance and I enjoyed every minute of the
three weeks I spent on Hawaii. However, I realized one thing. I did not
want to look like these triathletes. I admire their performance and the
effort they put into their training, but they were small and skinny, 120-
150 Lb guys and I did not want to look that way. So there on Hawaii I
decided to look for another way of training, where I could keep my
muscles and be ripped the same time. And that lead me to resistance
training.
 I tried endurance training with little effect on my physique.

I elaborated on my running and long-distance triathlon past just to

show you where I came from. How I tried endurance training which
had a positive effect on my body, but it just cost me way too much
training.

I purchased a few books online about resistance training and dieting. I

have to mention here Tom Venuto's Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle e-
book, and Mike Geary,'s 6-pack Abs e-book. They gave me sound
knowledge and helped me to find the right balance in dieting-training.
Since then I have read a lot more material about training and diet and I
compiled my experiences in this book.
In the gym at age 45
TRAINING GUIDELINES

Forget long term, medium/low intensity cardio. Been there, done that,
as Ice Cube says. Many people start jogging/biking/spinnig, but as far
as my experience shows, this is not enough. It helps, of course, but
long-term cardio is far less effective that intensive or interval training.
When I am writing these lines, I am already over 45, and I still run 5
miles 1-2 times a week, just for the fun of it. I call these runs
recovery runs. It helps my muscles to recover from the real training.
Real training can be either resistance training or so called High
Intensity Interval Training. (HIIT)

Resistance training

I go to the gym for resistance training (weight training) twice a week.

One day is for upper body training and one for legs and arms training.
And this is enough. Upper body training consists of 2 exercises each
for chest, back and shoulder. That is 6 exercises altogether. I usually
do 4 sets of 10 reps, with 30 second rests between sets. Keeping slow
motion in good form is very important. One rep lasts 3-4 seconds,
meaning that extorting is about 1 second and the negative movement
lasts about 3 seconds. For example bench press: 1 sec pushing the
weight up, 3 secs lowering the weight to the chest. Pull-ups: One sec
pulling your body up, 3 sec lowering your body. This way one set lasts
about 40 secs, rest is 30 secs, so 4 sets is about 5 minutes, all 6 sets is
about half an hour to 40 minutes. Then some stretching and you're
done.

I must mention here that these training methods are not iron-clad.
However, I tried different ways and they seem to be the most
effective. I learned these training methods from Steve and Becky
Holman's Old School New Body e-book.

Another favorite expert of mine is Drew Bayne, whose newsletters I

read quite often. He is an expert in High Intensity Training. He
recommends that one rep should last at least 10 seconds. 4 seconds in
the positive movement 2 seconds at the peak and another 4 seconds in
the negative movement. You can experiment with this method, too. In
this case you may need lower the weights, though.

If you have time, and you are already in the gym, do some 10-15
minutes cardio for cool-downs. It's been working for me. You're still
within an hour of exercise in the gym.

Focus on training.

Once you are there in the gym, focus on training. The gym is not for
gossiping or socializing, although you may meet handsome men and
good-looking girls there, talk is for after training.

Do complex exercises

Try to do complex exercises that use as many muscles as possible.

Forget concentrated work-outs. Do bench presses, pull ups, chin
ups, whatever weight and machine is available. For upper body do 2
exercises for each main upper body muscle group: chest, back,
shoulder.

In the appendix I'll show you some exercises, that I do.

On leg/arms day I do 4 exercises of 4 sets for legs, and one exercise of

4 sets for biceps and triceps each. The good thing in doing leg
exercises and then arms, that leg muscles are big muscles, with huge
hormonal/metabolic effects on your body and doing them first helps
boosting your arm muscles too. In fact I recommend that you do some
4 sets of leg exercises before each training. It helps your body release
testosterone in your system and make the whole workout more
effective. This tip is also from the Old School New Body e-book, from
Steve and Becky Holman.

That would be all about weight training.

 High Intensity Interval training (HIIT)

On the other days I do fun exercises, HIIT training. I go down to the

local gym, sit on the stationary bike, do 5 minutes of warm-up, then
10 minutes of HIIT training. It looks like this: you do 30 secs of
biking at the maximum level you can do for 30 secs, then you do 30
secs at a very low/easy level. You repeat the whole set 10 times, it
takes 10 minutes. You are done with training. Fun, isn't it? It does not
have to be bike. It can be a Stairmaster or you can go out to some park
or green area in your neighborhood and do sprints. The main thing is
to involve again as many muscles as you can, legs always included.
You can even do burpees or squat-and-jumps in your home. Do 10-12
of them, rest for 30 secs and repeat the whole thing 10 times.

Another good exercise for HIIT training is clean-and-press or dumbell

snatches. These exercises involve many major muscle groups,
including your legs. These exercises come from kettle bell training.

I sometimes add some upper body exercise, though. I like to be in the

gym. You can do some pull-downs, bench presses, or chin-ups with
smaller weight than usual, but in very slow motion. One rep should
last 6-8 secs and you do 10 reps, 4 times. It is just for working over
your upper body muscles too, once you are there in the gym, and
anyway, wouldn't it look stupid if you left in 15 minutes after your
arrival?

Also, forget crunches, side bends and other ineffective ab exercises. If

you want to have 6-pack abs, train big muscles, such as your legs. The
more and bigger muscles you train, the more fat you burn, the more
testosterone and growth hormone your body releases, the better the
metabolic effect. Sweat. That is always a good indication of training
well. If you don't sweat, you don't train hard enough, or you keep too
long rest periods.

Keep your body hydrated.

Drink while training, otherwise it is hard to sweat. Keep your body
hydrated. If you are thirsty, it is already too late, you are dehydrated.
Your performance decreases exponentially. This was the first thing I
learned when running marathons. Drink at every station, even if you
don't feel thirsty. Another good indication of hydration is the color of
your urine. If it is yellow, you need to drink. The right color is
colorless/watery.

If you feel lazy and tired before going to the gym, you probably need
to drink more water or unsweetened tea. You feel tired because you
are dehydrated.

So summing it up:
weight training 2 times a week, one upper body, one legs/arms
HIIT training 2 times a week.
Recovery cardio 1-2 times a week.

None of the workouts should last longer than 50 minutes, on HIIT

days you can even go down to 30 minutes or less.

Also, feel free to vary the training days and the workout types. As I
mentioned in the beginning of this chapter training is only 10-20%
responsible for having a perfect body. You will learn about the rest in
the following chapters.

Keep smiling, enjoy!

PART 3

DIET

When I started to write this book I thought that diet is the most crucial
part of having a slim, ripped, healthy body. I'd say it is 80% diet and
20% training. In the next chapter I will elaborate on the positive mind-
set, which I think, is the most crucial part of being healthy. But that
will come later, let us focus on diet.

I am sharing my experiences

Here, I am sharing my experiences with you. I don't claim to be a

guru, I am the ordinary guy, just like you. However, whatever I share
with you here, has worked on me. Credibility is on my side.

Forget refined carbohydrates.

First of all, forget refined carbohydrates. There is only one time during
your day, when you can indulge in bread, pasta, pizza, chocolate,
candy, white rice, etc. Right after training your muscles to exhaustion.
This time you have depleted the glycogen stores of your muscles and
when you eat refined carbohydrates they go for re-feeding your
muscles' glycogen stores, instead of turning into fat.

The main problem with this type of carbohydrates is that we digest

them way to fast. Practically you have no time to work them off.
You eat a plate of pasta or a pizza or a piece of cake or bread your
body turns them into sugar, increasing your blood sugar level, which
triggers your pancreas to release insulin into your blood, which turns
this sugar into fat, that you store on your belly, butt, tits, whatever is
the favorite place of your body to store fat.

Instead of eating refined carbohydrates (all wheat products, including

whole grain / brown bread, white rice, potato and all sweets) eat:
vegetables
eggs
dairy
nuts
fruits
meat

And the order of importance is from top to bottom.

Meat may not be that important, but protein is

When I started this book, meat was in the second place for me.
However, since then I eat a lot less meat and I can still maintain my
muscle mass. I consume whey protein at my breakfast, eat a lot of
eggs, cottage cheese, so I take enough protein.

Try organic

Also important: if you have the chance get organic, farm food. I try to
buy the farm eggs, home made cottage cheese, organic veggies if I
can. It is not always easy, and I have to go to some special market for
these foods, so I don't always eat organic. Rather, I buy my food in the
nearest supermarket.

Organs?

As for the meat I had been a big meat consumer, but nowadays I tend
to eat less red meat. I buy chicken or turkey breast or my favorite is
liver. I know for many people organs seem to be disgusting, but liver
actually is a very good source of vitamins and minerals. Duck and
goose liver are real delicacies.
 Fruits are the best right after training.

Fruits are the best to eat in the morning or right after training. I always
eat some protein with the fruits, too in order to slow down the
digestion process, to acquire enough time to burn it off. Fruits also
contain sugar, and you don't realize how much calories you take in
when you eat fruits.

Use spices bravely when cooking. Don't be afraid of salt. Also, don't
be afraid of fat/lard. I cook everything with lard. It brings out the taste
of everything.

Fat nuts

While talking about fats, I eat a lot of peanuts. Interestingly, although

peanut is almost 100% fat, and contains tons of calories, I am still
getting away eating almost a whole bag of them a day. When I am
hungry and I have no time to cook or when I am traveling I always eat
peanuts. I must emphasize that I eat the unsalted type. Although salt is
healthy and not the evil thing it used to be said, I noticed that I retain
water when I eat too much salty peanuts. That is something you may
experiment with. I use salt when cooking, but eat peanuts unsalted.
And I don't eat the whole bag in one sitting, but I may peck during the
day.

Focus on the food while eating

In the appendix of this book I share some simple but delicious recipes.
I love to cook, it is a source of constant joy for me to prepare my own
meals and I eat them with the utmost pleasure. Eating gives me great
joy. When you eat concentrate on the food. Don't eat absent minded.
Don't watch TV, don't read, don't sit in front of your computer reading
facebook posts, whatever. Focus on the food. Enjoy the tastes in your
mouth.

By the way focusing on things in your life is important. When you

train focus on training, when you work focus on your work and when
you're with someone focus on her/him. That makes life again a lot
simpler.

Hydrate

I mentioned in the training part already hydration. I heard once a very

interesting lecture about vitamins, salt and hydration from a
Hungarian physician. He said that 90% of headaches were caused by
dehydration. Especially for women (I am not talking about the
bedtime headaches). Women don't drink enough water, because they
are afraid of using public restrooms, and that is understandable.
However, they should try. You are supposed to consume about 1-1.5
gallons of liquid a day, including the liquids from your food. As I
mentioned earlier watch your urine. It should be colorless/odorless.
Then you are hydrated. Don't be afraid of coffee, tee, but don't use
sugar. Sugar goes straight to become fat, unless you consume it right
after training. Keep that in mind.
Calorie counting

My real weight-loss started when I started counting calories. It is a

very useful and educational experience for everyone. If you want to
have a nice lean body, if you want to lose weight you have to learn :

what to eat
how much to eat
when to eat

Count for one month

I already mentioned the first one, what to eat. How much to eat is also
an important factor. Take the time and measure your food for one
month. Check the calorie values on the packaging or on the internet.
Download any calorie counter app to your smart-phone and use it. Just
for one month. You will learn a LOT. You will find out that you
underestimated the amount of calories you have been taking. You will
also find out that the exercises that you do burn a lot less calories than
you imagined.

So many people jog today, which is a good thing, by the way.

However, let's do a little math:

An average 150LB person jogs for half an hour at 6mph (10 minutes
per mile). How many calories does he burn? 330 kcal. That is less than
2 slices of pizza or a plate of macaroni with cheese. Not much.
I was 191 Lbs when I started counting calories and my aim was to lose
2 Lbs per week. My daily calorie intake was 1700 kcal. If I took more,
I had to burn it off. If I ate 2400 kcal on one day I had to burn off the
difference of 700 kcal by running, biking or weight training. I was
very strict to myself, I always underestimated the training calories and
overestimated the food-intake calories. And it worked. I lost even
more that 2 Lbs per week and within 6 weeks I was ripped. I started in
the beginning of March and by the middle of April I was looking just
cool. My 44 year old body had never been this ripped. Whenever I had
the chance I took off my shirt. I trained that way. Fortunately in the
local gym it was no problem, as long as you laid a towel on the bench
or whatever machine you used.
I went jogging topless, I rode my bike that way in the whole summer.
It was just so much fun to have a body that attracts the admiring
glances from females and the envious glances from males. You
deserve that feeling too. And you can also make it happen.

Ever since I haven't been counting calories, and I can still keep my
weight in check. I learned what, when and how much to eat, I learned
how and when to train, and it is easy and it is fun.

When I am writing these words I am over 45, my height is 6' and my

weight is 174 Lbs. My abs are ripped, You can see the veins on my
arms and my body looks a lot younger than my years. I want you to
feel this way too.

At age 45, March, 2013

Timing your meal

Timing your eating is also very important, if you want to lose weight.
I mentioned already eating right after exercise. That is the ONLY time,
when you're allowed to consume refined carbohydrates. But only if
you really crave for it. I rather eat fruits after exercise. Fruits are
nutritious, rich in vitamins and fibers. They are a much better
alternative to re-feed your muscles than bread, pasta or candies. And
in the first month of your weight-loss count these calories. It is
important to learn how many calories you consume.

Have your last meal at least 4 hours before going to bed.

The other timing advice, that I also noticed is an old advice. Don't eat
after 6 pm, or have your last meal at least 4 hours before going to bed.
This is the best way to make your body burn off fat during your sleep.
Sometimes I eat a handful of nuts (peanut, walnut, cashew, pistachios)
just to make sure that I won't feel hungry during the night. You'll see
amazing results if you keep in mind these two timing advices.
Learn to cook

Now I can see many of you frown at this advice. I don't have the
time, I can't cook, etc. I couldn't cook until I got separated from my
wife. She cooked excellent meals, she is still in great shape, and I am
always grateful for her for all the years we spent together. But life
goes on, you face new challenges. I had to take care of myself, and I
just did not trust processed meals. Cooking is fun and a great source of
pleasure.

Don't watch TV

If you think you don't have the time, take my advice and don't watch
TV. You'll save hours every day that you can spend on yourself: doing
sports and cooking. TV does not bring anything good in your life.
Especially the news and politics. I think TV poisons us especially our
children. I haven't watched TV for one year, when I am writing these
lines. I watch it only when my youngest daughter stays with me and
she watches The Simpsons or the Penguins of Madagascar. I quit
reading online news too. I watch educational movies about the
Universe, quantum physics, astronomy, spiritualism on Youtube. You
can learn a lot from these. I also read a lot. When you read, you use
your imagination. When you watch TV, you turn off your imagination.
I sometimes go to the movies or watch a good film at home. But no
more news, serials, commercials and all the other BS. You just don't
need it.

So back to cooking. I learned a few things from my mom, my

girlfriends, my ex-wife and I read a few recipes on-line or
created/modified them. And I love cooking. I know what ingredients I
use, I know they are healthy and delicious. And I lick my plate every
time, because my food tastes so good. All the recipes I compiled in the
Appendix are quick and easily made meals. I don't like to spend hours
in the kitchen. Just cook simple, delicious and nutritious meals. Also,
you can eat a lot of stuff raw. Most of the veggies, fruits, dairy
products, eggs don't need preparation.
You'll become of what you consume. Remember this.
PART 4
POSITIVE THINKING

Meditate every day, think positive thoughts, exercise, and eat healthy
food.

I read somewhere that for the perfect life you need to do four things:
Meditate every day, think positive thoughts, exercise and eat healthy
food. I practice all four.

I haven't been always like this. In the first 44 years of my life I lived
the life of the people in the Matrix. I was a smart kid, I had a good
education and I had a good job. As I mentioned in the preface I am an
architect and I do 3d modeling with computer, called visualization.
You may see my work online at: www.podlovics.hu

I had a wife, three beautiful daughters, I owned my house with a

garden, a pool a double garage and I had my little office in a separate
building. I always thought that I had had a good life. Until everything
fell apart. When I was 44 and my wife was 41 she fell in love with
another man. And she had every reason to do so. I was a dominating
tyrant at home. I made the money so I thought that I had the right to
tell everyone in my family what to do and how to do it. My wife had
loved me with her whole heart for the first 10 years of our marriage,
but I successfully destroyed this love. And still I thought I had a good
life. I worked, did my sport things (although I was always on the
overweight side), I directed the life of my kids and my wife. Then in
February 2012 everything fell apart. I found out that my wife was
seeing another man. I just could not believe it. I faced her and she
admitted everything. My whole life collapsed. My ego received a
giant blow. I was down on the floor. I begged her to come back to me
but she had told me that she just did not see any chance any more for
us.

And she was right, I know now, but at that time I just could not accept
it. I was desperate, I was crying to her for a week. Finally I could not
bear the thought any more so I moved out of our house. A very good
friend of my invited me to live in his house. So with a lot of crying I
said goodbye to my three daughters (the smallest 8 years old that time)
and I moved out. It was a hard time. I could not eat, I could not sleep.
I had to take tranquilizers to be able to sleep. Then my self-pity turned
into rage. I wanted to destroy my wife. I wanted to ruin her financially
and sue the kids from her. And I would have done it. I would have
fought if it wasn't for my friend who shared his home with me. He had
been through a divorce, a very materialistic life and had turned into a
very tranquil, calm, spiritual person. He used to have a semi-legal
gambling business, and by that time he had left that life and turned
into a yoga teacher and went to school to learn integral psychology.

Live in the present

So, he calmed me and taught me to focus on the present. He told me to

forget about the past, especially all the negative feelings of my past,
and not to worry about the future. Live in the present, he used to tell
me. He also advised me to not to communicate with my wife, only via
email and only about practical matters. Nothing emotional. It was
hard, because my wife attacked me in every email (and she was right
most of the time) and I wanted to defend my side if the truth.

Sometimes I could not resist and fought back and it always further
deteriorated our relationship. But the calming words and presence of
my friend finally took effect. I slowly turned myself around and
started to change. It also started to show on my exterior, on my body. I
lost about 20 LB's in a month. Of course, my emotional state helped
me not to have appetite but it also gave me the drive to become leaner.

That was a good start for me, however, I would have gained it all back
if I stayed in that mental state. I started to calm down. We used to run
almost every morning with my friend in the hills and talked about life.
I started to read books from spiritual writers. Wayne Dyer, Rhonda
Byrnes, Vadim Zeland, Wallace wattles, Neville Goddard, Charles
Haanel. All these books had a great effect on my view on life.
 Wake up from your walking dream

I realized that I had been dreaming with open eyes for 44 years. I had
lived my life and thing just happened to me. After reading the books
again and again they changed my perspective. I found out that we
actually create our lives with our feelings. I released all negative
things from my past. I forgave my wife and I practiced gratitude
towards her. Even now, when I am writing these lines, a year after our
separation, I need to wake up sometimes, when I communicate with
her. Whenever I feel that I am being attacked, I try to observe my
emotions and overcome the urge to fight back. I always think about
how grateful I am to her. For the years she had spent with me, for
giving birth to our beautiful daughters, for sacrificing her beauty to
feed them from her body. And when these thoughts come, I feel calm
and peaceful. I thank her for all in my head. And it is a wonderful
feeling.

What would J/B/D do?

Whenever you don't know what should be the right decision I use the
phrase I read somewhere: What would J/B/D do? And J/B/D is
Jesus/Buddha/Dalai Lama.

So after the initial urge to fight back and destroy my wife I got to the
point when I gave up everything. That's what J/B/D would have done.
I resigned from my part of the mutual property (house with the
garden, mortgage free, and her car) and I decided to pay double of the
alimony that she wanted from me. I was left with my car and my
clothes, nothing else. However, I had my work, and I had my life in
front of me. I released my grip on life, my grip on the lives of my wife
and my children.

Teach your children to be independent

I also read somewhere that our greatest responsibility towards our
children (and ex-wife too) is to teach them to be independent from us
in every aspect. Although they still depend on me financially, when I
am writing these words, they will have to learn to be independent as
soon as they grow up. It is not the responsibility of the parent to buy
car/house or whatever material things to make the life of the child
more comfortable. If they depend on us in such things they won't find
happiness. Everybody is responsible only for their own life. You don't
have to carry the burden of others even if they are your children. I
know it sounds egoistic/sarcastic, but if you think about it deeply, you
will realize that material help makes no difference in the happiness of
anyone.

Be a good example

Show them good example. Live a life that is worth to follow. Eat well,
exercise, meditate and think positive thoughts. They will follow you,
because they will see your happiness, and they will feel your life
energy. Release the grip on life, let things happen. If you think only
positive thoughts, only positive things will happen to you. There is no
good or bad. Everything that happens to you in your life is neutral.
You decide if you take it as a good thing or a bad thing. Don't let your
emotions your habits direct you. Wake up, be conscious. Be aware of
life. Let me give you a few examples.

In my old life when there was a long line at the cashier in a store I
always became nervous, stressed. I was trying to switch line, to get
into a faster one. Sometimes I got so pissed that I just left my basket
full of goods there in the store and walked out without buying
anything. When I drove my car and there was a jam, same thing
happened. Got stressed. When someone drove too slow I honked,
flashed my lights on them. When someone made me wait for a few
minutes I got angry at them. I thought I was so important, that nobody
was allowed to play with my time. And what did I get in return: Stress,
the greatest killer. The cause of all of our sicknesses, obesity, deaths.

What I do today is wake up in such situations and be aware of my

thoughts/emotions. I simply try not to let my tranquility be disturbed.
There's a long line? I relax, play a Free-cell on my phone, or simply
visualize that they open another line. And it happens... Traffic jams?
Who cares, I just smile and relax. And it dissolves.

Love your teachers

If there are people in your life who can easily get on your nerves, who
can piss you off just love them. They are your teachers who teach you
to stay calm even with them. Whenever I meet someone who gets on
my nerves I imagine in my mind that I go to that person and hug him,
giving him my full love. This is a very good practice. It happens
mostly in the gym, where some tattooed, bald, steroid-fed guy starts
dropping the weights loudly, so that the whole gym resonates. I know
that these people have some serious self-esteem problems. I used to
judge them, labeled them or just assumed them to be assholes. I
consciously don't do it any more. I try to give them my love, just in
myself.

Cleanse your soul

Don't attach too much significance to anything

In order to cleanse your soul of burdens, you need to clear your mind
of resentment, anger, sorrow, pity, and all those negative feelings. The
only person you hurt with these feeling is yourself. Again, release
your grip on life. Take it easy. Don't take anything seriously, especially
yourself. And to quote my favorite spiritual writer, Vadim Zeland:
Don't attach too much significance to anything. If you face a
problem, or a problematic situation start contemplating the
significance of that problem, and consciously lower it. Most of the
problems disappear. Like the line at the cashier. Be proud of yourself
for not getting upset at anything.

Whatever happens to you, say: This is the most favorable way of

 events.

Whatever happens to you, say: This is the most favorable way of

events. Don't let anything get you down. I just read a book by Dan
Millman, The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, and one of the most
important thing I learned from the book is to be happy without any
reason. If you are happy with life, life will be happy to you. And I am
sharing my experience here.

Fill yourself up with love

Another important thing to be fit in mind and body, whatever your

age, is to love yourself. Every morning I try to meditate for 10-40
minutes, however long I feel comfortable. But I always finish my
meditation with filling myself with love. I try to imagine the most
unsympathetic people I had met and I visualize myself going to them
and hugging them, giving them my full love. Like to the tattooed,
steroid-fed, bald guys in the gym. This fills me up with love and I love
myself as well, as much as I can. This is not some egoistic self-love,
because I don't compare myself to others. I don't place myself above
anyone else. Just love yourself as much as you can and love others as
much as you can. And don't judge them any way.

Happiness must come from you.

The goal of our life is to find happiness. But happiness can't depend
on external circumstances. You can't expect happiness from your
financial situation, from your partners, spouses, children, colleagues,
lovers etc. Happiness must come from you. Whatever happens be
happy with it. Be content with whatever you have. You can dream of
more, but don't put too much significance to it. The winner always
knows what he will do if he loses. The loser only talks about what he
will do if he wins. Have a plan B. Because once you know what you
will do if you lose, you don't put too much significance to winning.
Have you ever noticed, that if you strive for something too much, you
never get it. However, if you release it, and take it easy you get it most
of the time. Remember, happiness comes from within. I know many
rich people who are not happy. They are full of stress, they always
pursue some new goal, and once they reach it they are not satisfied.
They are never relaxed, never happy. The same thing can be true of
not having a partner, a child, a better car, house etc. They can't be the
conditions of your happiness.

Try giving, without expecting anything in exchange. It is the best

feeling. Try serving people, without expecting anything in exchange.
Be humble, polite, modest. Love yourself, but don't place yourself
above the others. Life will open up, and it will be a joy-ride.

A perfect body comes from a perfect mind

I know these sentences are not what you expect in a book about
having a fit body, about looking your best. But beauty comes from
inside. We learned once in school: A sound mind is in a sound body.
I would turn it around: A perfect body comes from a perfect mind

You will realize that you don't have to struggle for anything in life.
Life is not a fight, it is rather a joy-ride. But you must have the right
mind-set in order to achieve this state. Let go of the tensions, the bad
habits, the stress. Don't let your habits direct you. Be conscious. Wake
up. This is a dream that you can direct. Life is like a lucid dream, you
can have anything you want, just be conscious. Live in the present,
forget all the bad things of the past, don't let yourself have bad
conscience. And never worry about the future. Everything will turn
out just perfect, you will realize.

I know it is hard to believe it, just like this. My spiritual turnover

happened about a year before the time, when I am writing these lines.
It did not happen from one day to the next, it is a process. And I am
almost afraid to tell you that you need a shock, a trauma, a blow from
life if you want to change. You need to be desperate, be down on the
floor. There are a few people who can change without receiving a
trauma, but most of us need that slap on our face from life. Just wake
up and notice that slap on your face. Try to see the reason behind
anything that you perceive as a bad thing happening to you.

I am sharing my experiences with you. I became to be in the best

shape of my life at the age of 44. Now, I am approaching 46, and I am
still in perfect shape. I am getting the admiring glances, I love to be
shirtless, I enjoy showing my body. My work is great, I have more
money than I need, and I have the best relationship with my ex-wife
and with my children that I ever had. I don't worry about my future, I
enjoy every day of my life. Right now I am sitting on the balcony of
my rental apartment in one of the best condos in Budapest. It is April
22, 2013. The sun shines, I am tanned already, had a great bike ride
this morning, and I am headed to the gym in my condo in an hour, for
some fun workout. I cooked some great food, I love cooking and
eating. I feel happy and content. I don't miss anything.
I want you to feel the same way, every day of your life.

A short story to add:

In the local gym, in February, 2013 I saw a flier, where they were
looking for muscular men for a US movie, shot in Hungary, from the
age of 18 to 60. Since I was proud of my 45-year old body I sent my
photo and my measurements to the email address they provided.

I was called to a casting, where in 2 days 4000 men applied. We had to

fill up a paper about our height, weight and other data, then they took
a photo of us in clothes and shirtless. They measured our chest, waist,
hip and calf sizes.

Then about a month later I received a call that I was cast to be a

background artist, as a Trachian soldier for the movie Hercules,
starring Dwayne Johnson.

We had a so called bootcamp for a week, where I was chosen to be

one of the four officers of the army. This is what I looked like in my
costume:
The story is not over yet, the filming will start in June, 2013. I don't
know if I will be part of it or not, but it has been fun, so far.
PART 5

Influence on our society

2012 was the year of change. For me definitely. I turned 45, I

separated from my wife, I left my old life behind, I resigned from
most of my material possessions, I started a new life, a new way of
thinking.

I learned a lot in this year. I learned to release my fears, to have no

anger, jealousy, resentment, sorrow or any negative feeling any more.
Of course it does not happen from one day to the other, it is a process
that is still going on. I realized how little I know, and how much more
I can learn. I woke up from my dream and started to live consciously. I
started to create my own life. I am still learning and I hope I will
continuously, for the rest of my life. I am probably half-way on my
life track, but I am having the best time of it. I am enjoying every
moment of it.

Can you imagine if most of the people in the world would feel this
way? How much happier life would become on Earth? What is
everybody's goal in life? To be happy. How can you reach that state?
Most people start listing conditions: I will be happy when I'll have
enough money, when I find my love, when I'll have children, when I'll
have my house, car, clothes, diamonds or whatever material
possessions you can imagine. None of these thing can be the condition
of our happiness. Happiness must come from within. As I mentioned
earlier, there are happy poor people and unhappy rich people. There
are happy single people and unhappy married ones. These thing can
not be the conditions of happiness.

Of course, we all have the right to live comfortably, without fighting

for our mere survival from day-to-day. But we don't live in the Stone
age or not even in the Middle ages. In our current state of
development on our planet we could all live comfortably. If we just
found the inner peace. If everybody found the work that they enjoy the
most. If nobody would envy the life of others. If we could have our
inner harmony and be content with our lives. If instead of competing
with one another we would co-operate with each other. Can you
imagine such life?

If you don't attach too much significance to anything, if you release

your grip on life, life gets a lot easier. If you accept defeat in advance,
if you are prepared with your Plan B, then you lose the tension
already in your Plan A.

I wish for everyone to feel this way. I am not writing this book for the
money I can make out of it, although it may make my life even more
comfortable. I don't desire great material things in my life. When I
moved out of my home of 16 years, I took one suitcase of clothes with
me, I had my car and my bicycle. And I had too realize that I did not
really need more. Think it over, how many clothes do you have in
your closet that you haven't used in more than a year? You can throw
those away. Or rather give them away to those who need it.

With this book I'd like to serve. With sharing my experiences and
showing example I'd like to serve our society. I would like to have
most of our society look and feel like me. It would reach the critical
mass, and would turn this world over to be a better place.

My Humblest Regards,
Tamas Podlovics

Budapest, 4/30/2013
APPENDIX A
TRAINING EXAMPLES

If you are over forty years old the most important thing to keep in
mind when training is recovery. I mentioned that in the pursuit of
losing weight training is only a small part. But you need to train to
have muscles to look good, to hold your frame. Here are some training
samples I do.

When using weights always use such weights that you can perform 8-
12 repetitions. If you can do more, increase the weight. The last (4th)
set should go until failure. That is when you actually break your
muscle fibers and they will be rebuilt in greater size.

Keep in mind: these training examples are not iron-cast. You can do
any other exercise, as long and you do it until failure and you employ
as many muscles ass possible, meaning doing complex exercices.

There is no use going down to the gym and chat or do only biceps
curls or crunches.

Monday (upper body day)

1. Warm up on the stationery bike or treadmill or stairmaster for 5-

10 minutes
2. 4 sets of leg exercise; either lunges or squats (with weight) or
squat-and-jump-ups or sissy squats. 4 sets of 10 repetitions of
any of these. Rest period 30-40 seconds. For the leg training
you can also do 4 bursts of 30 secs on the stationary bike with
30 secs of easy rides in between.
3. Chest training: either bench press or flat-bench flies or push-
ups. Again 4 sets of 10 reps with 30 secs of rest in between.
4. Back training: pull-downs or pull-ups on a bar or flat-bench
rows or incline-bench rows. Same thing, 4 sets of 10 reps with
30 secs of rest.
5. Shoulder training: upright rows or lateral raises (4 sets of 10) or
4 times 1-minute hand-stands by the wall (my favorite)
6. Stretching
 7. If you still feel like training 10-20 minutes of any kind of
recovery cardio (like in the warm-up)

Tuesday (leg day):

1. Warm up on the stationery bike or treadmill or stairmaster for 5-

10 minutes
2. Squats, 4x10
3. Lounges 4x10
4. Step-ups on a bench with weights 4x10
5. Sissy squats 4x10
6. Biceps curls
7. Triceps kickbacks
8. Stretching
9. If you still feel like training 10-20 minutes of any kind of
recovery cardio (like in the warm-up)

Wednesday (recovery)

Jogging or bike riding for 20-40 minutes

Thursday

Another upper body day, but choose another exercise from the list
than on Monday

Friday (HIIT day)

1. Warm up on the stationery bike or treadmill or stairmaster for 5-

10 minutes
2. Interval training either on the stationary bike (30 seconds of
very intensive ride followed by 30 secs of easy ride, 10 times
repeating), or same thing on the treadmill (30 secs of uphill, fast
run followed by 30 secs of rest by stepping at the side of the
treadmill) or after warming up for five minutes 30 secs of
 sprints or uphill runs outdoor followed by 30 secs of rest. Any
of the above exercises are to be repeated 10 times. The length of
the HIIT is 10 minutes this way.

Try doing your training always before lunch or dinner. This way the
food goes right to re-feed your muscles.

Feel free the change the days, or vary the sequences. Nothing is
carved in stone. Just make sure you do weight training and recovery
cardio every week.
APPENDIX B

MY DISHES

I share some of the recipes here, that I cook for myself. These are all
simple, quickly made dishes. Preparation usually won't take more than
5-10 minutes, actual cooking-baking is 10-20 minutes. So you can
have your food in half an hour in the worst case.
I don't want to spend too much time standing in the kitchen so I cook
fast.

1. Green salad with some protein (either eggs or meat or both)

Prepared green salad and some fried eggs, bacon and some spices.
Simple, fast , delicious.

You can melt cheese on the top.

 2. Cheese roll

This is one of the complex ones:

Melt some sliced cheese in a baking tray for 5 minutes. Boil 5 eggs,
hard. Mix the egg yolks with butter and mustard. Mix the egg whites
with green spices and cream cheese. Spread the egg yolk mix over the
melt and cooled cheese, add slices of ham, spread the egg white mix
over the hams. Roll it up.
 3. Baking pan veggies

One of my favorites: Slice up any kind of fresh vegetables: Carrots,

white carrots, celery, eggplants, zucchini, beetroot, peppers, onions.
Put them in a baking tray, add about 2 spoons of lard or duck fat, add
spices (salt, pepper, chilli, garlic).
Bake it in the oven at 200 C (400 F). In the last 5 minutes add a few
eggs and bacon on the top and let them fry in the oven too.
 4. Baking pan veggies with fish.

Slice up any kind of fresh vegetables: Carrots, white carrots, celery,

egg plants, zucchini, beetroot, peppers, onions.
Put them in a baking tray, add about 2 spoons of lard or duck fat, add
spices (salt, pepper, chilli, garlic). Put 2 slices of frozen fish fillet on
the top. Put some olive oil and spices on the fish, too.
Bake it for 20 minutes at 400 F
 5. Baking pan veggies with liver.

Slice up any kind of fresh vegetables: Carrots, white carrots, celery,

egg plants, zucchini, beetroot, peppers, onions.
Put them in a baking tray, add about 2 spoons of lard or duck fat, add
spices (salt, pepper, chilli, garlic).
Bake them for 10 minutes. Add some liver and some spices and bake
them for another 10 minutes together at 400 F
 6. Frozen vegetables with protein (eggs or meat or bacon)

Use any kind of frozen vegetables: beans, cauliflower, brussel sprouts

or any kind of mixed ones (Wok, French, Spring)
Fry up in a skillet some lard and put the frozen veggies on it. Add
spices: Salt, pepper, chilly, garlic, then cover it with a lid for 5
minutes. Stir sometimes, so it won't stick. After 5 minutes remove the
lid and fry until all water evaporated from the pan (usually another 5
minutes)
In the end break some eggs over it or add some bacon for the last 5
minutes
 7. Cheese and veggies lasagna (my own creation)

Fry up some frozen vegetables in a skillet just like in recipe #6.

Beat up 4-5 eggs until they are foamy. Add some baking soda to it.
Lay sliced cheese on the bottom of a baking tray.
Pour the cooked vegetables over the cheese.
Pour the eggs over the veggies. Add some salt and spices.
Add sliced cheese on the top.
Bake them in the oven for 10 minutes at 400 F.
 8. My favorite protein dessert.

Peel 4 apples, then grate them. Add 4 eggs, about a pound of cottage
cheese, a teaspoon of baking soda and about a spoon of coconut oil or
butter.
Add some raisins, grated lemon skin(?) and 2 scoops of your favorite
protein powder (I like chocolate-coconut).
Mix the whole in a big pan, then put some baking paper in a baking
tray, pour the mixture over it, flatten, then bake it for 10 minutes in the
oven. Awesome, protein rich, delicious, low calorie dessert.