Five Easy Steps to Awesomeness

I have five things that I try to make a part of my daily life. These things keep me on track nutritionally, keep me healthy, keep me fit, and keep me sane. Try to incorporate these five things into your life for unadulterated awesomeness.

Macros- hit em 

Set macro nutrient goals for yourself (help can be found here) and hit those goals. This allows you to figure out what adjustments to make to your diet if you aren't getting the results you want. You've gotta be honest with yourself though. Record what you actually ate, not what you should have eaten.  If you don't have reliable data, you can't make informed decisions when adjusting your diet. Besides, lying to yourself about what you are is worse than cheating at solitaire.

Move - more if you can

Exercising a few times a week is awesome. Props to you if you are already following a sensible weight training program. But, weight training aside, try to move more. I know that a thousand people have already told you to take stairs, and walk to work, and so on, so I won't repeat it. We are a lazy generation that wants to get everything by doing as little as possible. Get out of this mindset. You know you need to be more active. Don't over-think it, just move more.

Mobility- becausing having hips like your grandmother is not cool

I think that in terms of overall health benefits this might be number one. Get a foam roller, buy this book, and learn how to live in that body of yours. We do a world of damage to ourselves by sitting for hours on end in front of computers. Spending thirty minutes doing self-care is not too much to ask. It feels so good to reclaim proper range of motion in your spine, hips, and shoulders. The actual act of doing mobility work is downright horrid sometimes, but the benefit are immediate and carry over into every part of your life.

Meditate- that's right

I thought this was a little too new age and flaky at first too. I was dead wrong. We spend all this time on our bodies, fixated on the outward stuff when inside is a constant torrent of mayhem. Get that mind of yours under control, and I guarantee the benefits will carry over to every aspect of your life. Take five minutes before you sleep to focus on all the high tension areas in your body, and consciously relax them. This will improve your sleep, help you focus, make you happier, allow your body to heal better after intense workouts...the benefits of meditating are endless, so give it a shot.

Sprint - it's probably as close to feeling like a real athlete as you'll ever get

Sprinting will kick your ass. That's pretty much all there is to it. There are a million ways to include sprinting into your life. Don't over-complicate this! Twice a week go outside, warm up properly, and then move fast. You can run shuttle sprints, suicides, hill sprints, 100m, 200m, 400m sprints, sled sprints, even bike sprints on those rainy days. I can't stress enough the need to not over-think this. Playing ultimate frisbee could be your sprinting. Just move fast, rest until you can breathe semi-normally, and then move fast again.

I think that these five things can make an enormous difference to your life.  They will all teach you to take charge of yourself, and will make you stronger in every way possible. What am I missing here?  Let me know in the comments below or on facebook.

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Week 4 Update

It's funny how quickly one month can pass by. It really doesn't feel like it's been more than two weeks, but nonetheless here we are a month later.  I'm really happy with the progress I have made in a month.  I've lost 5lbs, and shed over an inch from my waist.  The thing that makes me happiest though, is that my energy levels are still super high, my strength has continued to rise, and in general I feel really good.  This is what makes intermittent fasting so great.  On my rest days I do crave more food, but I never even come close to giving in because I know that a huge meal is only around the corner.  Those training day feasts are the best.  I've switched to from rice to sweet potatoes for my carb source, because sweet potatoes are far more filling, and tastier than rice.  Next week I will record exactly what I'm eating, and post a meal by meal outline to show you what I'm doing.  For now, I hope that you are finding some insightful information here, and want to thank you for all your support both here, and on facebook.  Thanks a ton!

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Why Reading is Keeping You Fat

There is so much information on the web that it is really overwhelming. It's so easy to get caught up second guessing yourself and wondering if what you are doing is truly the best and most efficient way.

Over the last three weeks I have been steadily losing weight, and still gaining strength. Everything is working perfectly, and I should be feeling on top of the world. But, for some reason I began convincing myself yesterday that I need to completely change my diet. I have no idea where this idea came from, but it slowly began to turn into paranoia that I'm going about this all wrong. It undoubtedly came from something I stumbled across on the internet, and slowly turned into unfounded doubt and stupidity.

While walking this morning, I cleared my head and realized that I am an idiot. Why would I ever consider changing what I'm doing, when I have had great success so far?

You really do have to be practical when it comes to this stuff.  Look at the results and the factors creating those results, as I mentioned here. If you are losing weight, or losing inches in the places you want, keep on doing what you're doing.  Block out all the noise telling you that there are other ways that are better or faster.  If what you are doing is working, and fits with your lifestyle, keep doing it!  If you have not made any progress for over two weeks, or are obviously taking steps back, change it up.  But make these changes based on your own results, not on something you read or heard.  There are thousands of ways to lose weight or gain muscle, but you have to choose one, and give it time to work.  So stop reading, and get at it!

What do you do to keep yourself on track when trying to achieve your goals? Leave a comment and let us know!  And be sure to follow my progress here, and on facebook

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Be a Fat Loss Scientist

If you want to make any serious changes to your body you need to approach it scientifically, because really that’s all it is.  If you eat more than you need you will gain weight. If you exercise intelligently this weight will be muscle, if not maybe it will be fat. If you eat less than you need, you will lose weight. You want to lose fat, not muscle. So, you must exercise enough to keep muscle, and eat enough to sustain that muscle.

There isn't much more to it than that. So to go about it scientifically what do you need?  Well, like any good scientist, you need variables, and measurable results.

What are measurable result? A measurable result is an outcome of some change in the variables, that can be accurately measured.  So in the science of weight loss, you have.

1.      The scale. Everybody's favorite tool. It is the worst of the three sources of information. It tells you that you have gained or lost weight, but it cannot tell you if this weight is fat, water, or muscle.

2.      The tape measure. The tape measure is better than the scale, because it shows directly where change is happening, and what kind of change it is.  If your goal is to lose fat you want to see your waist measurements dropping, but may not want to see your arms shrivel up into licorice sticks.

3.      Strength levels. Strength is the best indicator of muscle loss or gain. If you are losing strength you are likely losing muscle. So keep track of how much you are lifting to know if you are gaining or losing muscle.

No strength losses going on here.

There is one more source that does not provide measurable feedback, but is still useful. It is the mirror. The mirror is generally pretty reliable. An even better approach would be to take pictures every week or two. By comparing past and present pictures you will have a clear indication of your progress. Pictures do not lie.
What variables does a fat loss scientist have?

1.      Food intake. You absolutely must keep track of what you eat every day. This is the most basic requirement. Only when you have an established baseline can you begin to adjust your diet. I highly recommend getting the app myfitnesspal. It makes keeping track of your food super easy. If your measurements show that you are gaining weight when you want to lose weight, you need to eat less.  If you want to gain weight, but are not gaining, you need to eat more.

2.      Energy out. Adding morning walks has a huge effect on fat loss because of the extra calories being burned. Keep a record of the exercise you are doing, and adjust it as you need to.  The key to losing weight is to exercise only as much as you can recover from.  This is why walking is so great.  No one gets sore from walking, but it is a great way to burn calories.  If you tried to run, or do bodyweight circuits every morning you would burn more calories. The problem is that you would never recover properly due the low food intake during dieting.  You would not be able to move heavy weights in the gym, and would end up losing muscle. Walking is the best option for burning some extra calories.

Don't get crazy, but keep track of what you eat!

Closely watch all measurable results, and adjust the variables as needed. This is the first step to achieving your goals. Intermittent fasting helps you become more efficient at burning fat, and putting energy into muscle growth. It also makes keeping track of what you eat easier, by putting all your eating into an 8 hour window.  Try it out, and keep me posted!

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