The natural response to your question would be the physiological aspects of how to change your physique, which a lot of people have already touched upon; Lift heavy, Eat right, Cardio. But none of these things will do a lick of good for you if you don’t have these three things going for you:
1. Inspiration – There’s a great group of people on the AnabolicMinds forums. In the two years that I’ve been a part of this community, I’ve learned more about exercising, nutrition, supplements, and in general, myself. Reading through other people’s logs and seeing them overcome some of their hardest obstacles with the help of this community, is what inspired me to get really focused on what I want to achieve; health, fitness, and state of mind. Without inspiration, you’ll never have the desire to even find out what you need to do in the first place. And these boards are FULL of inspiring people.
2. Motivation – So you may have found the desire to achieve a goal, but what’s going to push you to get through the hardest times? Motivation. And one great way to keep yourself motivated is to allow others to follow you in your journey. It’s easy for us to convince ourselves to stray (we are our worst enemy), but when you have others holding you accountable, then you’re not only lying to yourself, you’re lying to the people who are just there to help you succeed. There’s been many times I wanted to skip a workout to get a couple hours of sleep (AM workouts), or give in to temptations when I know it would hinder my goals, but by running a log of what I’m doing and having people that I look up to and who have inspired me, I’ve found myself not wanting to let them down. Run a log of what you’re doing, and see how hard it is to deviate from your plan. Small things you can do to stay motivated that make a big impact; put up pictures of people around your home that shows the physique you desire to have and every time you see it simply say to yourself, “I WILL look like that” which is very different than, “I WANT to look like that.” That one word changes something from being a desire and turns it into a definite. Have a book of inspirational quotes that you can read every day. When you read, you create self-talk, and whether you realize it or not, reading something that is telling you that you WILL achieve your goals creates the reality in your mind that you WILL. Get rid of temptation! The best way to keep you motivated is to remove the energy-expending need to overcome temptation. Having to dig deep into your willpower to stop yourself from having that jalapeno and cheddar bacon cheeseburger with extra BBQ sauce can wear you down to the point that, eventually, you just give in. Don’t even put yourself in those situations. Keep junk food, alcohol, candy, and any other devices that will cause you to stray, out of the house and out of your life. You need motivation to succeed. Without it, the best laid out plan will be doomed to failure. Which leads me to the final thing that you NEED to succeed…
3. Preparation – Set your main goal; the ultimate achievement that you’re striving to attain (in this case being STRONG and SHREDDED). Set up the motivational cues that you’ll need to achieve that goal. Now, set smaller goals that get you a little closer to that ultimate goal. Because it’s going to take time to get there and there will be many obstacles along the way, but if you focus on the smaller goals, you’ll get the satisfaction of achievement which is a huge mental boost to motivating you onward. It doesn’t work to just have a mental “idea” of what you’re working toward. Write your goals down and the steps it will take to get there. By writing it down you manifest your goal into reality, something that you can and WILL achieve. Dreams are something that occur in your consciousness; keep your goals there and they will never be more than a dream.
These may not be the things you were looking for, but I believe the reason you’ve put this contest out to the public was to bring about the vast knowledge that so many people have on these boards, and to assist those who want to achieve the goal of being STRONG and SHREDDED. These are the aspects of achievement that have allowed me to grow as an individual and ultimately remove myself from a life of misery, to one of absolute happiness. Hopefully I’m able to give something back to the community with my ideas and help people to achieve ANY goal they set out to achieve.