"Glow up. Shine down."

"Glow up. Shine down." This is an idea I came up with while listening to the song Glow by Drake. It's from his "More Life" album. An album that, I hate to admit, has gone from absolutely terrible to at the very least tolerable. Anyway, I'm not here to talk about the merits of Drake music. This idea of glowing up and shining down has been on my mind for a couple of weeks. So what is it? For me "glowing up" is about self promotion. Which I hate. It makes me uncomfortable. I think people should do good work and that work should be recognized/rewarded without having to be blasted all over social media or anywhere else.

That being said, I realize self promotion is a necessary evil. We live in hyper competitive times and for anyone trying to advance in their careers, love lives or anything else they are going to have to sing their own praises.

"Shining down" is all about educating and helping other people get where you are or wherever it they're trying to go. This is my happy place. I love helping people take complex (to them) ideas and breaking them down into simple tasks.

"Shining down" allows me to lead by example. Now calling myself a leader is very self promotional and it's making me squeamish just typing it. The difference here, is that I get to lead by example. I get to say "I did that thing, I did it this way and it totally didn't work; you might want to try it this way."

Like I said this is just something that's been on my mind recently. As I think about it more and more it kind of explains some of the things I like and dislike. I like teaching and mentorship activities. I don't like listing my accomplishments. In sports I always enjoyed participating with friends but I didn't necessarily enjoy the competition of the games/matches.

Do you have any philosophies that, either purposefully or accidentally, explain the actions you take or decisions you make? Let me know in the comments.

Super Bowl Reset

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about how the third week of January is when people fall off the resolution wagon. I imagine Super Bowl Sunday is really the day where people let go of any pretense of a healthy resolution for the year. (If you were at a Super Bowl party  yesterday, did any one bring up New Year resolutions?) Let's be honest, for a lot of people  the food at the party is more important than the game itself. That brings us to today; the day after the Super Bowl. Today can be your reset. I was reminded of this by a Facebook memory. Apparently a few years ago, I made a public proclimation to not drink (adult beverages) for a month after the Super Bowl.

It reminds me of the old Chris Farley Saturday Night Live sketch "Diet Starts Monday". Super Bowl Sunday, like New Year's Eve and Mondays, serve as a great breaking point to start something new or to pick something back up.

There are a lot of these moments throughout the year. They're usually around major holidays and they give us these natural assessment points. For people with kids these might coincide with breaks from school. For the working folks, it could be any of those days where you get a paid day off.

All is not loss if your resolution has fallen by the wayside. You can use today, Super Bowl Monday, to start over (today should be a holiday anyway, it's not like any of us are being that productive). Then check on your progress around Easter/Passover. If you keep it up until then, great keep going. If you don't, reset.

The point here is that starting, stopping and starting again is still progressing. Sure it would be great to start and never stop but life sometimes has other plans. There's no need to concede and wait until the next New Year. You can start over on the next holiday, major event or better yet tomorrow even.

What ONE thing are you going to do to improve your health/fitness?

There are 168 hours in a week. You go to the gym 3x times a week for about an hour. You're committed to eating healthy meals, let's over exaggerate and assume your meals all last an hour. So three hours at the gym and 21 hours eating (breakfast, lunch & dinner for 7 days). That's one day out of the week. That's 52 days out of the year. When people start a new health/fitness journey this is usually what they think they need to commit to. In case you haven't done the math (you definitely didn't do the math), that's 14%. No wonder most people don't achieve their health/fitness goals.

"What ONE thing (non gym related) are you going to do this week to improve your health/fitness?" This is the question I've been emailing clients every Sunday. This gets clients thinking beyond the gym. It helps them to realize that there has to be some commitment beyond their workouts and nutrition habits. There's a reason I end all my social media posts with the hashtags fitness, nutrition and lifestyle.

Lifestyle changes have to be a part of the equation. Lifestyle changes include getting more sleep, being more active outside the gym and improving your mental and social health. These are just some of the ways you can increase your commitment time outside of what you're eating and exercising.

The thing is by improving just a little bit of these things it can have huge affects. The reason being because these are the things that make up the majority of your time. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you shouldn't be exercising or eating healthy. Please keep exercising and eating healthy.

I saying that exercise and eating healthy are (cliché alert) only the tip of the iceberg. I'm also saying that by working on some of the underlying stuff you may find that you achieve your health and fitness goals faster.

So with that, what one non gym related thing are you going to do this week to improve your health/fitness?

Let me know by leaving a comment. Seriously, leave a comment. I want to know.

Never apologize for progress...

Last week one of my clients apologized to me for, get this, losing weight. Ok, it was more for not logging his meals. And he didn't exactly say he was sorry but his tone was very apologetic. Anyway. The point is he was almost apologizing for getting the desired outcome. He thought that I would be upset because he wasn't logging his foods. That's throwing the baby out with the bath water. (Actually I don't know if I'm using that phrase correctly or not; also why would anyone throw away a baby?)

As his coach, I couldn't care any less that he wasn't logging his food because he is getting the results that he's after. My job as the coach is to help clients get results. I definitely come in with a plan but if the client is doing something that's working, good bye plan.

More importantly my client shouldn't care about my plan if, and only if, he's getting the desired results. I think people get caught up in "following the plan" that sometimes they sabotage their own progress.

This isn't me railing against planning. All of my clients will tell you that I love having a plan. I love them making progress even more though. Progress is the key. If progress is being made, as long as no one is getting hurt, I'll help clients do whatever to help clients continue that progress.

Now once/if the progress stops, the client and I will have to reevaluate. Either way we will continue to monitor for progress. Most importantly we will celebrate any and all progress.

Help Yourself to Help Others

Today is Martin Luther King day. Today is about honoring his life and in doing so serving those less fortunate than yourself. So if you had the day off today hopefully you got to spend time with loved ones and help someone out. I don't want to take up too much of your time but I do want to talk about a way you can be of service to others. I've had conversations with more than a few moms concerning their health/fitness. Across the board the biggest obstacle for them was time.

They all site taking care of their kids as their first priority. Obviously kids should be any parents' first priority but does this mean you should skip your workout for them? I would say no.

Hear me out. First off workouts should be planned for times when you have childcare available, if at all possible. If it's not possible you may need to take advantage of nap times or other times when the babies are sleeping (after they go to bed for the night or before they wake up for the day).

Second reason is going to seem selfish but it's actually selfless. In order to take care of others, you have to take care of yourself. You are of no use to anyone if your health and body are in decline. Your workouts help prevent this. Workouts give you the energy needed to help you help your kids and whoever else.

So remember if your goal is to help others you've got to first take care of yourself. Also you can be helping others just by being an example of how to fit in good health/fitness practices.

Actions > Results

The other day on Facebook, I asked "what was the ONE THING you did this week to make your life easier, happier, healthier, more efficient, etc.?" One response a friend posted was that he "lost 2 pounds". After congratulating him on losing some weight, I challenged him a little. His answer was a "result", I had specifically asked for the "action" that lead to the result.

I realize that I sound like one of those jerky people who makes arguments based off of semantics. But semantics are important...at least in this case.

People like results, particularly results in there favor. People like to celebrate good results. People go out of their way to look for good results.

Results only matter if they are reproducible. Results are only reproducible if you know the actions that led to the results.

This goes both ways. Being able to notice actions also prevents bad results.

I'm not trying to be all negative here, you should definitely celebrate when you have good results. Hell, tell me about your good results so that I can celebrate with you.

I'm just saying that you have to find the actions that lead to your successes. That way we can celebrate more together.

2018 Growth

We're already half way through the first day of 2018. How are those resolutions coming along? Just kidding. Hopefully you're enjoying the day. I can tell you that the rest of my day will be spent in front of the TV watching college football.

I did want to take a minute and wish everyone a healthy and happy New Year.

Last night we out to dinner and Alli asked if I made resolutions. She knows I usually put down a few goals for the year.

Honestly I hadn't given it much thought this year (or technically last year at this point). But she got me thinking. The thing that immediately popped into was growth.

If you follow me on social media then you know or family is growing and we'll be welcoming new Baby Brown in March.

Also the main goal for business this year is growth: more clients, more readers/followers and produce more content.

I also want to grow socially. A lot of our friends aren't as close, physically, as they used to be. So it can be somewhat difficult to get together. It would be nice to have a few more friends around that we can call up spur of the moment.

So that's where my head is for 2018. What's your plan for the New Year?

Merry day after Christmas. I hope you got to spend the weekend the way I did, surrounded by family and food. In this case I was with my Alli's family. This goes to strengthen my point. I've been spending Christmas with wife's side of the family basically for the past 10 years.

We hosted our first Christmas this year. Other than location, not much changed though. The food was pretty much the exact same; there was the addition of a delicious apple crisp.

This happens on my side of the family too (we do Thanksgiving with my side). People may bring a new food but the traditional foods never get replaced. People even take over recipes when family members pass away. Alli makes her grandmother's "knot" cookies every year.

This brings me to my point. As we come up to the new year, lots of you will have weight loss goals. In the search for advice some of you may come across memes or (even worse) nutritional/fitness experts who say things like "food is only fuel" or "food is just for nourishment".

Don't listen to them. People who say things like this suffer from one of two things:

1. they've unfortunately never spent any time with friends and family surrounding a table full of food and laughing their asses off
2. they're stupid.

I guess there's a third possibility in which they check both boxes. The point is if you want to lose weight and, more importantly, keep it off then you need to have a good relationship with food.

Treating food as simply a fuel source means you'll skip out on hanging out with friends or you'll be the miserable, hungry cousin at the next family function. Neither of these situations lead to weight loss. As a matter of fact they usually lead to you alone eating a pint of ice cream and hating yourself.  Again, this doesn't lead to weight loss.

So if weight loss is one of your goals for the new year, then you need to learn to enjoy food without over doing it. You need to learn be around food without being tempted by it. You need to learn to appreciate food for what it is (fuel) and the experiences and enjoyment that it provides.

What are the foods you look forward to at every family event?

2017 Reading List, 2018 Goals

Here's a pic of the books that I've read over the course of the year. Usually a common thread jumps out immediately. The common thread usually represents whatever I deem to be the most pressing thing I need/want to learn for that particular year. In the past that thread has been things like coaching techniques, the psychology of behavior change and exercise techniques.

This year was a bit of a mixed bag for me. I'm not really sure why. Topics included this year are social issues (can't really avoid those these days), psychology (always a mainstay), stress and it's affects on the body, various business topics and personal finance.

Looking back at the list, it represents what 2017 has been about for me. This year has been all about learning how to run a business and the stress that goes with it.

The picture doesn't include all the reading from yearlong Precision Nutrition level 2 certification that I finished back in May. (It also doesn't include the 100's of times I've read Horton Hears a Who and other children's books.) The course was about coaching more than nutrition and it probably had the biggest affect on any and everything I've done this year.

I write this not to (only) pat myself on the back but also as a way to identify what I need/want to focus on in 2018. Some things I'll be focusing on:

• Exercise Technique/Programming: this is the heart of what I do and if I don't keep  getting better at this, then the rest doesn't matter.
• Business Growth/Marketing: I've made it through a full year, I want to make it through at least a bunch more
• Personal Finance: if things go well all the business reading will produce more income, this is about learning how to best use that hard earned income

Looking ahead these are the major topics I'm going to be diving into in 2018. What will you be diving into?

PS: If you have any book suggestions for me just let me know. Thanks in advance.

FREE HOLIDAY WORKOUTS

I've been talking about the holiday season a lot over the past couple of weeks. For good reason. With all the social, professional and family events that get scheduled things can get super stressful. It's when things get super stressful that health and fitness go by the wayside. This doesn't have to be the case.

Before I tell you how to make sure you're not in this situation, let's talk about why it works out this way. Us (modern day) humans are kind of strange in that we err toward complicated solutions for simple problems. We've forgotten about Occam's Razor (the simplest solution is the usually the best; shoutout to Google for the spelling of "Occam").

I've often heard people say "I've got to work out more because I've got all these parties to go to". I'm all for people working out more but this doesn't make any sense. The parties are already taking up more time/energy and you want to combat this by demanding more time/energy of your body. Again it doesn't make any sense.

So what to do? First thing is just make sure you're doing enough. If you've been going to the gym twice/week, make sure you keep going twice a week. This may mean rescheduling gym appointments (by the way, the gym should be a scheduled appointment) or finding different ways to get workouts in outside the gym.

The second thing I'll suggest is shortening your workout. Stick with me here. You're going to shorten the workout but you're going to do more. Just saying you're only going to be in the gym for 30 minutes versus your normal hour is going to make your workout more efficient.

(Let's be honest, most of us spend way too much time standing around/talking to people and not working out during our workouts.)

Shorter workouts tend to be more intense workouts. This means you can get more bang for your buck and still make it to the all the parties.

I've put together a 4 workout plan that you can use to hit all the major body parts. To get this free workout plan all you have to click this link. Fill out the form and then the workout plan will be delivered to your inbox.

You get your workouts in and you still get to party. Best of both worlds.

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Holiday Party Survival Tips

It’s the most wonderful time of year. You’ve got your office holiday party. You’ve got your significant other’s office holiday party. Then there is your family holiday party. Can’t forget about the in-laws’ party. Oh and this is the one time of year all of your friends will surely get together for some merriment. Also you can’t miss little Timmy’s holiday pageant which will be followed by the parents’ reception. With your calendar as booked as it is, it’s easy to let your exercise/fitness regime fall by the way side. All of a sudden you’ll be canceling trips to the gym so that you can make it to the next event. I still haven’t even mentioned Aunt Betty’s homemade Christmas cookies and all the passed hors d’oeuvres and the drinks.

If you let it things can get out of control very quickly. So here’s a few tips and tricks that you can use to get through the next few weeks without sacrificing all of the year’s hard work or to help you get the new year off to a great start.

1. ENJOY YOURSELF: it’s easy to read those first two paragraphs and have anxiety start rushing in and make you resent having to go to all these parties. Listen, the holidays are about celebrating life and enjoying time with friends and family. Do that. If you’ve spent the whole year practicing good habits and consistently working out then enjoying yourself at a few parties is not going to undo that. The stress relief may even lead to some positive changes.
2. BE PROACTIVE: you’re probably already receiving invites to all of these parties. You also probably know what your gym schedule is. Plan accordingly. The company holiday party is the same time as your favorite kickboxing class? Well when else does the instructor teach the class? If you usually work out in the evening, you may have to get up early to hit the gym in the morning.
3. EAT AHEAD: if you’re hungry you’re not going to be able to turn down that bacon wrapped scallop or that bacon wrapped asparagus or that bacon wrapped anything anything else. Avoid bacon and other temptations, by eating you’re normal healthy meal before you get to the party. This will also help you to not get as drunk as quickly if you choose to drink.
4. KEEP A DRINK IN HAND: just not an alcoholic one. If you don't want to drink, or drink excessively, keep a glass of water with lemon in your hand. Here’s the trick though, ask the bartender to put the water in a tumbler glass (for some reason bartenders like to shame those who are drinking water by putting it in a different glass). Why is this a good idea? Because at parties a common icebreaker is to ask “do you need a drink?”. Well water looks exactly like vodka. Now you don’t have to be in the awkward position of turning people down or explaining why you’re not drinking.
5. SCHEDULE DEPARTURE: don’t walk in the party without knowing exactly when you’re going to leave. Then stick to that time. The longer you’re at the party, the longer you’ll have to fight the food and booze temptations. Eventually you will lose. Having a departure time will make sure you speak to whoever you want and need to in a timely fashion. When you know you have 20 minutes before you have to leave and you still have to search out your boss, you’ll skip the long wait at the bar.

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Benefits of Kettlebells

Kettlebells have become so popular that I have multiple clients who have sets of them in their apartment building gyms. Now if you've ever spent any time in an apartment building gym you know that they aren't necessarily recognized as being "state of the art". However, the kettlebell isn't a "state of the art" piece of workout equipment. Kettlebells (not "kettleballs" or "cattle bells") have been around for hundreds of years. In the last 5-10 years they've made a huge resurgence. Difference between a kettlebell & dumbbell

The obvious difference is the shape. A dumbbell has equal weights on the end of a bar/handle that can be held in one hand. In the simplest terms, a kettlebell is a weighted ball (traditionally iron) with a handle. The different shapes make for different functionality and use. Without having to consult my 11th grade physics textbook, the center of mass of a dumbbell sits in your palm (when holding by the handle); with a kettlebell the center of mass sits outside the hand more on the back of the wrist.

I only mention this because these differences will change how "heavy" a kettlebell and dumbbell of equal weight feels, even when doing the same exercise. The different shapes also will change how you move and what you can do with each tool.

Benefits of using kettlebells

• Versatility: KBs can be used for any type of exercise: power, strength, cardio or corrective. KBs can be used to do just about every movement type: push, pull, squat, hinge and carry.
• Portability: other than having a KB or two you don't need to have any other equipment to get a great workout in. This means you can take KBs anywhere and you don't have to be confined to a gym. You can take bells out to a park or keep a few at home for quick and not so easy workouts.

These are just a couple of the big picture benefits that training with KBs can offer. Here's a video showing how you can use a KB to string together a bunch of different exercises. The video shows how a KB can be used to perform strength exercises and also how it can be used to get a cardiovascular workout.

Kettlebells do have a learning curve. You need to get coaching before trying some the ballistic movements, namely the clean and the snatch. If you have any questions or would like to set up some coaching let me know.

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Benefits of resistance bands

Today I want to talk about some of my favorite band. Not the musical kind, the exercise kind. (Cheers to the cheesiest intro ever.) Seriously though, I’m going to explain some of the benefits of using resistance bands and some of the different types of resistance bands that are out there. Let's start with some of the benefits of resistance bands.

• Versatility- bands can be used just about anywhere and you can do just about any exercise with them. You can do full body workouts or isolate body parts or muscle groups. Really the only thing limiting what you can do with a band is your imagination.
• Storage- unlike other  exercise equipment, bands don't take up space in your house. All you need is a bag to keep your bands in one place and a spot in a closet to keep that bag out of sight. Also because they're easy to store, bands are great option for traveling. This way you can still get workouts in while on work trips (let's be honest you're not exercising while on vacation).
• Inexpensive- a set of dumbbells or kettlebells can cost well into the hundreds if not thousands of dollars and that's not even including the shipping and handling. You can get a good durable set of bands, of various tensions, with various attachments for about $40. You can't beat that.
• Two-way tension- bands provide tension during the "up" portion (concentric) of an exercise just like any other weight or resistance tool. However, bands force you to also control the "down" portion (eccentric) of the exercise also or the band will snap back possibly hitting you or someone else. This allows for more time under tension (trust me this is a good thing).
• 360° motion- most free weights force you to either move them straight up and down or side to side. Bands allow you to move them at any angle you desire because they can be securely attached to doors, walls or poles. This freedom of movement allows you to challenge your body a variety of new ways.

These are just some of the benefits that you can get from using resistance bands. When you're using bands there are some things that you need to remember. First off, bands are elastic. Which means when you pull on them they want to and will snap back. You have to be able to control that snap back and the potential effect it can have on either your body or those around you.

Also along these lines, the more you pull a resistance band the more resistance (and coincidentally the more "snap back") there will be. This comes in handy say if you only have one band. You can increase the intensity of your workout just by applying more tension to your band. However, keep in mind you can only apply so much tension to band before it pops so be careful.

Lastly, if you have a resistance band that has tears or rips throw it away immediately. Every time you pull on a band with a tear you are taking a chance that the band will pop. Trust me when I tell you it does not feel good to get "snapped" with a resistance band that has popped mid exercise.

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Go to Sleep...

It's 1:16am on Sunday night/Monday morning. Personally I don't think it becomes morning until you've slept, unless you make it to sunrise. Anyway, I'm up watching arguably one of the best World Series games ever. I'm starting the blog now because tomorrow is a crazy busy day and I'm not going to have the normal amount of time I would have to write. So I figure I might as well take advantage of this time. This is going to be a "do as I say, not as I do" post. I'm a parent so I feel like I can play that card. So with that, you should get 7-9 hours of sleep per night. (Said with the alarm set to go off in 4.5 hours.) Sleep is important. Sleep resets our bodily systems and while we build muscle and burn fat while we sleep.

(It's 1:40am, the baseball game just ended, I'm going to bed.)

(It’s 1:30pm, on my home for a quick break before my last session.)

Also hormone regulation occurs while we sleep. I think we can agree that these are some important topics. That being said most of us don’t get enough sleep (clearly myself included). A quick Google search showed that on average 40% of adults don't get the recommended amount of sleep (this stat is from a old 2013 gallop poll; I'm fairly confident this number has stayed the same if not gone up).

The obvious question is "what should we do?" The obvious answer is "sleep more...duh."

The better question is "how can I get more sleep?" The answer to this question isn't as obvious but I'm going lay out some tips to help get you some extra zzz's.

• Same time...every time: this is one I could stand to work on myself. You want to go to bed and get up at the same time everyday. Yes this includes weekends. Your sleep/wake cycles are rhythms (ever heard the word circadian?). By going to bed and getting up at the same time you make sure your body goes  through all the necessary sleep cycles in order to be fully rested.
• Set the mood: at least an hour before your scheduled bed time, start turning off/dimming lights (especially flourescent ones)  in your home. As you get closer to bed time eliminate electronic "blue light": this includes computers and cell phones among other things. Also set the thermostat in your bedroom a few degrees cooler than the rest of your home if possible.
• Get in the routine: change into your pj's, brush your teeth, lay out your clothes for the next day and then maybe read for a few minutes. Your routine can be whatever you'd like as long as it relaxes you and you can repeat the process nightly. A nightly routine lets the body/brain know that sleepy time is coming and will allow you to fall asleep faster.
• Exercise: I'm not just saying this because I make people exercise for a living. Exercise promotes sleepiness and helps you to fall asleep faster. The caveat here is you want to get your workout in early in the day. Like before 2pm if you can. If you wait too late (like after 8pm) and your workout is too intense it can actually make it harder to fall asleep. So you have to find the right balance here.
• Your bed is for sleeping...: You shouldn't watch TV or read or hang out or anything else in bed. When you do things, that aren't sleep, in bed it promotes wakefulness. Your brain then associates your bed as a place where you should be awake. So only get into bed when you plan on sleeping. If for some reason you can't fall asleep in 20 minutes or less, get out of the bed. Go read or do some other relaxing activity in another room for a few minutes. Then go back to bed.

These are a just a few tips you can try out to consistently get a good night's sleep.  Also you probably shouldn't stay up watching sporting events that really have no bearing on your life (unless you can honestly say if was one of the best games ever).

If you say you can't...you can't

Here’s a common way for one of my sessions to start:

Client: what are we going to do today?

Me: we’re going to do some squats and pull-ups...

Client (incredulously): i can’t do pull-ups!

Me: not with that attitude you can’t.

My response is only half joking. The joking half is because I like to tease and bust my clients’ chops a little. I believe the other half to be 100% percent true. The moment you tell yourself you can’t do something is the moment it becomes the truth.

I’ve literally had clients walk away from a exercise if they go into it saying “I can’t...” or “I don’t think...”. I’ll have them do a different exercise or just wait a minute or two. Then I’ll tell them (or ask them why they think) why I switched the exercise. Then I’ll have them rephrase and try to do the exercise.

To be clear, I don’t have a problem with “negative talk” because I know my clients can do every exercise I give them. I say “try to do the exercise” because there are times when I’m not sure if they can do the exercise or not. My problem with “negative talk” is that it’s usually a cop out.

What I mean is that people use “negative talk” when they aren’t sure if they can do something or when they don’t want to do something. For example, pull-ups. The exchange above happens just about every time I introduce pull-ups into a new client’s program. The majority of my new clients are new exercisers, so it’s conceivable that they have never attempted to do a pull up in their life. Here lies the problem with “I can’t”: it becomes an excuse to not even try.

When you try something new there are two possible outcomes: either you can or you can’t. If you can’t, that’s great. It’s great because when you learn you can’t do something, you gain insight into what it takes to do that thing. The insight is what you use to get better at the thing. Then you try the thing again. You get the point.

If you can, that’s great too. Keep trying things until you can’t. Just don’t say you can’t.

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Using momentum to keep moving toward goals ...

This is a cop out post. I know it is and I'm telling you up front. I'm not telling you so you can get out quick. I'm telling you so that you can know where my head is as I write this.  Normally, at the very least I'd have an idea of what I was going to write about if not have some of it written already. Not the case today. I've got nothing written and no fully thought out ideas. What to do then? The first step was to simply open up my laptop. I'd be lying if I said that was all it took. There was definitely procrastinating on Facebook and Instagram. I unnecessarily checked email and took a break to eat lunch (can you take a break if you haven't started?). That said here I am writing this post. More importantly, I'm going to finish writing this post.

I know I'm going to finish it because I've started it. Starting gave me the momentum needed to finish. Just like opening my laptop gave me the momentum to, eventually, start writing. The momentum was necessary to get me started and (soon to be) finished.

So where did the original momentum come from? Why even open the laptop in the first place? I'm not sure what the original impetus was but back in June I said I was going to post at least one blog a week. I haven't missed a week. They haven't always come out on Mondays like planned but they always come out. So today when it came down to opening the laptop today I had the momentum of 14 consecutive weeks pushing me.

The point of all this is to say that it's not always going to be easy. When it's not easy, use previous successes to keep you going. We are loss adverse. So if  you know you have a streak, the streak itself propels you to keep going. This is where a log/record can come in handy. Momentum.

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The Best Diet?

At this point it’s widely accepted that a training program is only as good as the food choices that go with it. Also, at this point it’s widely accepted that nutrition is one of the most confusing topics this side of quantum physics. Vegan? Paleo? Organic? Ketogenic? IIFMM? (That last one is a real thing, it stands for If It Fits My Macros; natural follow up, what are my macros). I haven’t even mentioned Atkins, Mediterranean or South Beach. People ask me about these things all the time. My response is you should definitely go to the Mediterranean and/or South Beach they’re both beautiful. (I’ll be here all week, be sure to tip your waitress and bartender). Seriously, which one of these diets should you follow?

The answer is the one that YOU can follow everyday for the rest of your life. Two things about this answer. First, “you” is emphasized. You have to figure out what works for you. Got moral objections to eating meat? Paleo probably isn’t going to work for you. Your body will react differently to the things you put in it. You need to know these differences and make food choices based off that knowledge.

The second thing is the follow everyday for the rest of your life part. Here’s the thing, if your diet has a name you’re probably not going to follow it everyday; especially not for the rest of your life. (Barring a complete lifestyle change, ie going vegetarian/vegan and even then the odds are stacked against you.) Think of all the diets you’ve tried. They’ve all had names and they’ve all come to an end. This is not to say they didn’t work while you were doing them. The problem with most diets isn’t that they don’t work, the problem is that they can’t be sustained.

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Year's worth of lessons

This week makes it a year since I left Equinox and went out on my own. I can honestly say I haven't looked back. I don't say that because I've been super successful. I haven't been...super successful, that is. I've done well enough. Our bills are paid, food is on the table and we're able to put a little into savings each month. Do I think I can do better? Absolutely. And I will...do better that is. Let's take a look at some of the things I've learned and how they might relate to making changes and/or reaching goals.

1. The Nike Rule: just do it- it's been a year since I've been in business. What most people don't know is that I registered my LLC in August 2015. More than a full year before I officially started working for myself. Why? I've probably asked myself that question everyday for the last year. All I got from waiting a year is a loss of income and a year's worth of opportunities to learn how to run a business.

   I've had people tell me they want to get into better shape before working with a trainer. This doesn't make any sense. The trainer's job is literally to help you get into better shape. Stop wasting time. As the saying goes: the best time to improve yourself was yesterday, the next best time is right now.

2. Perfect doesn't exist- I'm a paralysis by analysis type of person. I will go out of my way to find the perfect solution when the "good enough" is right in front of me. For instance, I spent (literally) hours on Saturday looking for an app that would allow be to make "pretty" forms for clients to fill out. After all that time, I ended up going with Google forms, the same Google forms I've been using for years, and it took me about 10 minutes to complete.

   Searching for perfection is just another form of procrastination. It doesn't matter if you're looking for the perfect workout or diet or anything else. Pick something and do it (see #1).

3. Wrong leads to right- part of the reason people don't start or get stuck looking for the perfect solution is because they don't want to do anything "wrong". I'm willing to say over the last year I've done 10x more things wrong than I've done right. Thank goodness for that. Without being so wrong, I would never learn what I shouldn't be doing.

   In the words of George W. Bush, "fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice....can't be fooled again." Make mistakes, lots of them. Learn from them. Don't make the same mistakes over and over again.

4. Journey>outcome- this is cliché at this point. That doesn't make it any less true though. Once you reach a outcome (favorable or not) you start chasing the next one.  Celebrating (or sulking over) a outcome for too long just makes the next one that much harder to reach. So you had better learn how to enjoy what it takes to get to each outcome.

   You've reached your goal weight? Now what? You should've had that question answered before you got to your goal weight. If you want to stay at your goal weight, now you're on a different journey. Don't waste time trying to figure out the path.

5. Finish- I just talked about journeys over outcomes and all that good stuff. That doesn't mean outcomes aren't important however. Outcomes tell us what we're doing right and what we're not doing right yet. Outcomes inform the journey you're on and the one you're going to be on. So in order to get outcomes, you have to finish what you start. It's that simple. (Remember simple≠easy.)

   Ever quit a workout or diet plan before it was supposed to be over? If you're like lots of people then you probably said the workout/diet didn't work. How would you know? You didn't see it through until the end. If it calls for six weeks, then give it six weeks. That's the only way you can give/get an honest assessment of the plan.

These are just some of the things I've observed over the last year. As I thought about this over the weekend, I couldn't help but be amazed at how similar my struggles have been to my clients. The main thing I tell clients, and now myself, is that any action is better than no action and progress is better than perfection.

With that here's to another year. If you have any questions about how you can start taking progressive actions, let me know at dwayne@startinglinefit.com.