Free Man 2.0 Engineering the Alpha by John Romaniello

for something more: “How will this person improve my quality of life?” It takes a special flair to make changes that dramatic. I did my research and stumbled upon Roman’s blog. I read every blog post, and I knew I had found my coach. John Romaniello fit the bill perfectly and would be the guy to offer something different—new ideas and results.

    A LPHA S TATUS
    After the program, my body weight dropped as low as 192 pounds at 8 percent body fat. Once I had “reset” my body, Roman geared my training toward gaining muscle mass. To my amazement, I ended my transformation weighing 206 pounds and still 8 percent body fat. This is the biggest and leanest I have ever been simultaneously, hands down. Despite not being my primary goal, Roman also got me much, much stronger.
    It’s hard to put into perspective how much Roman has done for me with his program. He freed me from the confines of conventional thinking and broadened my training horizons by encouraging me to not always follow the most worn path. I’ll never look at training or eating the same way again, and that’s a great thing. Roman’s selflessness, dedication, and attention to detail has done more than just change my body—it’s changed my life.

CHAPTER 3
    The Truth About the Truth
    BREAKING BARRIERS, AVOIDING STAGNATION, AND THE FORCES ALLIED AGAINST YOU
    â€œThe most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue.”
    â€” ANTISTHENES, GREEK PHILOSOPHER OF ATHENS, DISCIPLE OF SOCRATES, 445–365 BC
    H ere’s the question every guy should be asking right now: When I try to change my body, why am I so often stuck with the same results no matter what I do?
    The answer is that you have two powerful factors working against you: misinformation and a lack of focus. So we created this book to solve both problems. While you can certainly find some good information from other resources, there’s also a lot of double-talk out there. Trust us—we’ve had to sift through it for the past decade.
    But here’s the thing: all of the best information is in here. And your ability to abandon all your previous frustration and confusion and leave it in the past can occur if you take one simple step—you leave the Ordinary World.
    Your Ordinary World, like any that Campbell has written about, is not comfortable, but it is familiar. Stepping outside of it and rejecting what everyone else is doing is scary, but staying in it should be even scarier.
    As with any hero who sees the promise of stepping beyond the Threshold, once you have seen the potential for something greater—what is captured by Campbell in mythic structure and known as the Special World—you should be unwilling to settle for something less than what is possible.
    If you are tempted to read on and make changes—then this book, these words, and these pages will drive you to a life-changing experience. If you’ve learned anything, it’s that you know your life could be better.
    To paraphrase Campbell, we believe that all men were meant to be heroes of their own tale. To go a bit beyond him, we also believe that men should look and act like heroes: that they should look strong and be confident, look great and be great.
    But in order to get there, you need to take the next step in the journey. And if you cannot bear the thought of not taking that step, then you have heard—as all heroes do—the most important sound a man can ever hear: the Call to Adventure.
    Â 
    RING . . . RING . . .
    The hardest part about this entire book won’t be the workouts, the diet, or finding a way to make time for all the sex you’ll be having. It’s going to be letting go of ideas that you “know” are facts. After all, in order to make room for what is right, you must first purge what is wrong.
    Like a quarterback learning a new playbook, you have to forget your old coaches and