Read Man 2.0 Engineering the Alpha Online
Authors: John Romaniello
Man 2.0 Engineering the Alpha (5 page)
Even the USDA screws up its recommendations. It suggests about 200 to 300 grams of carbohydrates per day. While we're all about the occasional carb binge, it's not good to eat like this every day. And here's why: the insulin spikes will become more pronounced, and it will take less food to achieve them. It's sort of like being an alcoholic. But instead of needing more alcohol to feel drunk, you need fewer carbs to achieve the same insulin spike. This is why so many people fear carbs. When you eat too many carbs consistently, it makes each and every carbohydrate you eat worse for your body. And that's exactly what we want to avoid.
Insulin resistance isn't just inconvenient; it's downright dangerous. Obviously we're worried about fat loss and muscle. But there's also a direct relationship between insulin and failing healthâincluding obesity and diabetes. Do you want to be fat, ugly, and diabetic? Of course not. No one does. We want you to be fit, lean, and awesome.
And that starts with establishing a smarter baseline of carbohydrate consumption. We don't want you all over the map. Not only is eating high carbs every day bad for you but so is cycling between high and low carbs consistentlyâthat's exactly what many diet books get wrong. It's not all or none. It's about finding the sweet spot where you're still eating and enjoying carbs but not doing it at a level that drives your insulin insane. And at the same time, you want to control insulin in a way that allows you to indulge in cheat meals that will use a temporary insulin spike to improve your body and your health. We can help.
You'll see that when you time your bagels . . . or pizza . . . or ice cream correctly, you can increase your insulin sensitivity, build more muscle, and even strip off fat.
6. Lack of Confidence
Having high testosterone isn't about being an asshole. It's about not being a little bitch. (Write that down, and tweet it while you're at it.)
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Here's what we mean. Testosterone is your body's life force. It directly impacts your energy, your mood, and your drive. Low testosterone makes you less assertive. And this rears its head in all the wrong placesâin your decision making, in conversations, and at work. Even when you know you're right or when you're the expert, you justify your lack of assertiveness by telling yourself that being obsequious and showing acquiescence is beneficial, that you shouldn't make waves. That's ridiculous.
In life, success is achieved by the confident, the bold, and the aggressive. No one wants to promote a little bitch. No one even wants to be around one. Having an opinion is the foundation of greatness. Followers don't become leaders and rise to the top. It's the people who are willing to voice their ideasâeven when they are unusual or radicalâwho get heard.
Confidence is what allows you to step out of your comfort zone and take risks, whether it's speaking up at work or starting your own business or going after the girl you want. Confidence is what helps you develop the courage. If you're never willing to take a risk, you have almost no shot of building anything worth mentioning. There are no statues built of those who lived lives of mediocrity, and on the tomb of no heroes will you find the words, “He played it safe.”
Lacking confidence? A boost in your natural testosterone production is what you need. More testosterone literally changes your mind-set from a physiological standpoint. You'll believe in yourself. You'll have confidence. And you'll find that you have a harder time not voicing your opinions and stepping up. And that's why we're going to show you every single way to naturally elevate your testosterone levels, so you can walk through life brazenly, like an Alpha should.
7. Boobs Instead of Pecs
Listen, you produce estrogen. There's nothing wrong with it. It's a part of life. Estrogen is the yin to your testosterone's yang.
The real issue is that you're probably producing much more estrogen than you should be. And that extra estrogen can have some pretty depressing side effects. How depressing? How about man-boobs?
Men love boobsâjust not on their own body.
And while we wish push-ups and bench presses would fix the problem, they won't. Trust us. They're what every guy with “moobs” is trying right now, and they're not working.
You can grow a beard or a manly mustache, but if you have moobs, it's hard to feel like a guy when you look like a chick.
In the mildest of cases, moobs are simply localized fat storage influenced by your estrogen. In the worst cases, you'll end up with something called gynecomastia. This is where your problem goes beyond fat that can be lost. With gynecomastia, it's a change in tissue. The fat attaches itself to your mammary glands and can only be removed by surgery. You obviously don't want that.
This is not meant to be depressing. It's a useful realization because you can kill the problem while it's still mild. Your fix is the training and diet that you'll find in part 3. These programs will minimize your estrogen production and boost testosterone to ward off any unwanted side effects. Combine that with dietary changes that will keep you away from estrogen-producing foods, and you'll be feeling and looking like more of a man.
8. Men Turned into Boys
The negative effects of high estrogen aren't just limited to confidence and appearance. Let's take it a step farther. A lack of testosterone or a surplus of estrogen can strongly impact your general psychological and emotional states.
The idea of being weepy, whiny, or wussy probably isn't appealing to you. And we're not talking about how you feel when you watch
Brian's Song
. (If you don't well up during that, you have no heart.) But if, like most guys, you don't have your estrogen under control, you're headed toward a life of tears.
Your high estrogen will affect you emotionally, screwing with you on every level. Joking aside, this isn't about crying at Hallmark commercialsâit's about a serious hormonal imbalance that can affect things from basic decision making to depression and thoughts of suicide. In fact, according to researchers in Australia, men with low testosterone and high estrogen are
three times
more likely to suffer from depression.
9. Fertility Issues
Legacy.
As humans, procreation is one of our strongest drives. It's a point of pride: you are not only the sum of your life's workâyou are also reflected by your offspring. And you directly impact and influence the lives of the humans you create.
But what if you couldn't produce children because of a problem you could easily prevent? That's the reality for any man who suffers from low testosterone.
At this point in your life, having children might not be a great concern. Or maybe you're not interested at all. But whether you have children should be a conscious decision, not one that is thrust on you by a hormonal imbalance that you could easily avoid.
Research has found that men with low testosterone are more likely to suffer from varicocelesâa medical condition in which the veins in your testicles are enlarged. While having big balls might sound like a good thing, in reality this condition is linked to infertility.
One of the reasons you could suffer from low testosterone is because you have a lack of something called luteinizing hormone. This hormone affects the production of both testosterone and sperm. While this is reversible with treatment, even temporary sterility is frighteningly serious. With hormonal adjustment, you can right the ship quickly.
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BECOME THE HERO . . . NOW
We're going to go out on a limb and say that nothing we just shared sounds appealing to you. But this is just the beginning of how you've been misled by the fitness industry and why the advice you've been given is directly leading to some of the problems we mentioned. And in the next chapter, you'll learn exactly how to make sense of all the misinformation and to identify the myths that are corrupting your body and your hormones.
THE SEVEN TRAITS OF THE ALPHA
“Leadership consists not in degrees of techniques but in traits of character . . . and it imposes on both leader and follower alike the burdens of self-restraint.”
â
LEWIS H. LAPHAM
B
efore you move any farther in this book, it's important that you understand what's on the table. As we've mentioned before, our goal is to
completely
redefine what it means to be the Alpha. We want to strip away all the negative connotations about the Alpha being cocky, the associations with meatheads, and the belief that Alphas are primarily pickup artists.
When people think of the Alpha, they generally think of someone along the lines of
Fight Club
's Tyler Durden, who is a quintessential embodiment of the traditional concept. Existing as the alter ego of the narrator, Tyler embodies all the best qualities that the narrator believes don't exist within him. Durden manifests himself as all the best parts but brings with him the absolute worst: he is attractive, strong, intelligent, and clever;
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however, he's also destructive, anarchistic, narcissistic, and detached. While he is an exaggeration, Durden lives as what our society considers Alphas to be. He is confident, but arrogant. Self-assured, but self-involved. He is charismatic, but dangerous.
Whether or not Chuck Palahniuk (author of
Fight Club
) was intending to make Tyler a representation of the Alpha is not an issue; the reality is, he came pretty close to embodying the polluted idea of the Alpha. In the zeitgeist, an Alpha isn't ideal. It's completely flawed.
Society has Alphas pegged wrong; they are not the strongest guy or the one who makes the most money or has the most confidence. If you read the dictionary, the Alpha is the top of any group. He's the captain, the quarterback, the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. The Alpha is success. But more importantly, it's a persona dependent on individual progress and success. It's about attaining the highest level of self-mastery and always trying to improve.
The nutrition information, the training, and the hormonal optimization in this bookâall that stuff is tremendously important. But we could have written that information like any other fitness book. We didn't do that because we have higher ambitions: we want to change minds as well as bodies. We want to change lives. And part of that is taking ownership of the word
Alpha
âreshaping it from the ground up, giving it a new definition, and adorning it with new connotations.
The first step on the path to harnessing your inner Alpha is attaining a higher level of physical prowess. That's the foundation of what we'll teach you. But from that physical transformation, other positive traits will follow, such as leadership, kindness, intelligence, and success. Throughout this book, we'll share the fundamental lessons that will help you become the Alpha who embodies and masters these traits. This is a guide that will not only show you how to become a more efficient and powerful human but also how to live a more fulfilling and prosperous life.
We understand the Alpha has some connotations that are hard to break. That's why we want to define the traits so you understand what it really means to be the Alpha. Your evolution will depend on remembering that the poison is in the dose. We've identified the traits, but ultimately the Alpha understands when to turn these traits on and off, and when pushing too far leads down a path that is harmful to you and others. We'll show you those barriers, but it's up to you to draw the line and stay the path.
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ALPHA TRAIT #1
HelpfulâBut Not Condescending
The drive to become successful isn't simply a means to a narcissistic and individualistic end. The Alpha understands that taking care of his primary goals is only part of creating the life he wants; the other half is influencing and shaping the world he lives in. It's taking what you've learnedâthe good and the badâand being able to pay that knowledge forward and make the world a better place. That is the foundation of this entire book: take the lessons we have learned about how to create an unreal life, combine them with your own life lessons to create your own version, and share them.
But being helpful has its limits. The Alpha gives advice and encourages others, but he does not look to do things for them. He understands that they need to do things on their own, and while they sometimes may need assistanceâwhether with advice or guidanceâthe Alpha realizes that if he were to overstep his bounds and solve the problems for them, they wouldn't learn. The Alpha doesn't micromanage the people in his life. That's not being helpful; that's being condescending. That is assuming that his own ability to solve problems supersedes that of everyone else.
Believing that you are the only one who can fix things is the height of egotism, the proverbial, “If you want something done right, just do it yourself.” This mind-set is one of the most damaging opinions you can have. By doing tasks for others, you're removing their ability to help themselves advance, limiting their growth potential, and imposing your will on them in a way that is not helpful but damaging.
While being helpful is important, trying to be too helpful can go too far. If you are trying to do everything for everyone, you're not saying, “I want you to succeed.” What you really mean is, “I don't think you can do it.” It's an insult wrapped in a facade of kindness. The Alpha is a leader and a motivator but always in the context of letting the people you're helping blaze their own path.
That applies to us, and this book, as well. We don't think we have all the answers, but we know we have some of them. We've discovered certain traits, characteristics, and triggers that can serve as guidelines to help you master the circumstances that dictate your life. And so the purpose of this book is not to solve all your problems for youâit's to give you the tools to solve them yourself.
We'll show you the elements that will make you stronger, smarter, and more confident. These attributes will improve how you look, help you at your job, and boost your sex lifeâbut only when you take those lessons and apply them in your own manner. Keep that in mind for everything you learn; you must apply knowledge in a way that works for you.
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ALPHA TRAIT #2
ConfidentâBut Not Cocky
The previous incarnation of the Alpha was always thought of as cocky. As we already stated, you know the alpha male as the guy who put others down to elevate himself. The redefined Alpha is not characterized by some overt cockiness that is projected to hide deeper insecurities but rather by a true confidence, an honest assessment of his strengths and weaknesses as well as what he can immediately achieve and what he needs to work on. The true Alpha doesn't need to put others down to feel better. His assessment of self isn't defined by a comparative analysis. It's an internal drive that fuels motivation and success.
Therefore, the Alpha
elevates
others to display his confidence in his ability to share thoughts, ideas, and plans that can positively influence the world around him and the people in it. If you have good ideas, you should share them. If you think you can help people, then you should take action. If you think you're the right guy for a woman, then you should prove it to her. This is what confidence enablesâtaking action in every form possible. But that action should never be used to denigrate another individual. When you accept who you are and appreciate who you can be, your confidence immediately becomes much more genuine, your insecurities become less potent, you create more control, and you experience more success.
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ALPHA TRAIT #3
VainâBut Not Conceited
Listen, there should be an understanding that good-looking people can go a little farther in this world. It's not a hard-line rule, but it is a general observation that has been proven over and over again. English researchers found that men who are rated as more attractive also happen to make more money in their jobs and have higher positions. This is just a correlation, but it's not the only study that has recognized the relationship.
A little bit of vanity is a good thing because it's really just a manifestation of wanting to take care of yourself. When you look good, you feel good. When you feel good, you exude an energy that improves your world and the world of the people you interact with.
Just like extreme cockiness is the bad side of confidence, the downside of vanity is when it progresses to conceit. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be ridiculously good-looking. The problems only begin when you start believing that because you're good-lookingâor more muscular or leaner or smarter or wealthierâthat you're better than everyone else. That's conceit.
The Alpha understands this differentiation. He doesn't want to improve his body to be better than others. Instead, the focus is about the feelings of achievement that go along with reshaping his body. The process of self-improvement makes him feel better as a means of inspiring his confidence and building a precedent of success. As you'll find out later in the book, creating
physical
success is a gateway to generating success in every other aspect of your life.
The Alpha knows this and realizes that while looks or brains or money or muscles may give him an edge, they don't make him a better person. His value is determined by his actions and what he does for other people and the world.
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ALPHA TRAIT #4
PridefulâBut Not Arrogant
The difference between pride and arrogance is a fine line but one that separates those men who inspire from those considered assholes. Everything depends on how you react to your success. Do you share your successes as a means to promote more creative and progressive thoughtâor do you expect things to happen because of what you've already accomplished?