37 laws to live by
Laws to Live by
If it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no.
Only deal with people that love you back.
Perfect isn’t possible. Excellence is. Chop wood, carry water.
Always be grateful.
Ignore the rules you don’t agree with.
The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself.
If you think it’s impossible, then it is.
Ideas are nothing without action.
The things that matter the most should never be at the mercy of the things that matter the least.
The time is now, not tomorrow.
It’s not what you know, it’s what you consistently do.
Take what is useful, disregard the rest.
Life is happening for us, not to us.
Let learning lead to action.
Sometimes the process is more important than the product.
The limits of my language equal the limits of my world.
Losers have goals. Winners have systems.
Frustration is a matter of expectation.
Life favors the specific ask and punish the league wish.
Finding purpose is greater than searching for happiness.
Discipline equals freedom.
When you say “Yes” to something, you are saying “No” to something else.
Total honesty at all times.
Your choice creates your challenge.
Nothing quells anxiety more than action.
Make choices as the person you want to be would make.
Strength has no detriment.
Productive is different than busy.
It’s not what happens to you, but how you react that matters.
Have integrity. Practice what you preach.
You never get today back.
An addiction to distraction is the end of creative production.
The caliber of your practice determines the quality of your performance.
Take ownership.
Everything you want is on the other side of fear.
Vulnerability is the price the brave must pay to arrive at iconic.
Always love like it’s the last time.
health is an act of rebellion
Albert Camus once said that “the only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” That’s pretty good, but Robb Wolf took that sentiment and mixed it into one more fitting for our current health crisis by saying “the only way to deal with an unhealthy world is to become so absolutely healthy that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” As an armchair rebel and habitual line-stepper, I like both. As a Health & Performance coach, I’m partial to Robb’s take as it fits my narrative on prioritizing health above all else.
The idea of improving health is, and ALWAYS will be an active process. Yet the way this crisis is being handled has left me with no patience, like an out of work doctor. Simply distancing yourself by sitting in your house while Taco Bell gets delivered by DoorDash is not in any way a pursuit towards improving health outcomes because you decided to wear a mask when you answer the door. We are trying to solve the wrong problem. If we’re so worried about the transmission of poor health, why is it legal for someone right next to me to light up a cigarette and blow it in my face.
Personally, I thought this whole ordeal would be a wake up call for health challenged people. I’ve had clients too afraid to leave their house because they might contract the RONA, yet they’re at home in their jammies taking peanut butter shots to the head, thinking they’re going to be safe because they wash their hands and wear a mask. The main problem is still being missed.
Let me lay it out. HEALTH IS CUMULATIVE. It is affected by everything you do — from the way you think, what you put in, on or around your body, and even the environment you find yourself in. Dr. Terry Walhs said it best; “Your genes load the gun, and the environment pulls the trigger.” Meaning you are born healthy (most likely) and you have the power to keep it or destroy it by the choices you make. Whether by food, or alcohol, or poor sleep, or stress, or toxic burdens, or a combination of all.
You would think that because everything we do affects our health, something like a gym would be an essential business. NOPE. People are going to jail for trying to improve themselves….
So you see, it is an act of rebellion to be healthy these days. Take Atilis Gym in New Jersey. In May, they decided to defy the government mandated shutdown and open their doors to the public who wished to get their workouts on. Obviously, Big Brother, doesn’t like blatant acts of defiance so the owners were given citations for every day they remained open until their eventual arrest yesterday. In the interim (between May and the arrest) to deter this rebellious activity, the government went so far as to try to shut the power off to the building, but that didn’t work because the gym owners paid 3 months in advance. Next, the authorities had the plumbing to the gym turned off, which caused the place to flood. The gym closed for a day of clean up and was opened up the next. The following attempt to stop the gainztrain was to hire a locksmith to come in the middle of the night to change the locks on the door. The gym owners found a solution by TAKING THE DOORS OFF the building and making it a 24 hour fitness facility. More gym access is better for everyone right? WRONG! The owners were arrested shortly after this on the ground that they were not operating their business within the proper guidelines for COVID-19 safety.
It is arguable that they were practicing outside of the guidelines, so there may be precedence. In the two months they fought to be open, they limited the amount of people in the gym at any given time, ask for distancing within the facility, had everyone to clean up after themselves, and DIDN’T REQUIRE MASKS. The funny part was that NO ONE contracted the virus who attended the gym. While their methods were contradictory to what the CDC has been telling everyone, what they did seems to have worked. Maybe the government doesn’t know everything.
As anyone in the Iron Game knows, if you’re waiting for the research you’re behind the curve. It can take as long as 30 years in some cases for certain techniques discovered in the basement of the dirtiest gym to come out in research papers. That aside, we should all have the freedom to choose whether or not we put ourselves at risk. It seems crazy to think that liquor stores, marijuana depots, gun stores, Mc-FUCKING-Donalds are considered ESSENTIAL, yet the once place where you can go to actually improve your health is closed.
Our health has become an act of rebellion, but should it be?
Like many countries, Norway order all gyms to close in March to prevent the spread of the RONA. But unlike every other nation Norway decided to use their free time effectively and not binge on Netflix and Quarantini’s. Norway funded a study to determine whether the closings of gym were really necessary.
The study was a 2 week randomized trial of almost 4000 participants — half had access to the gym, the other half did not. Ages ranged from 18-64, and all were stated to not have any underlying health conditions. Those who were invited back into the gym were met with enhanced safety measures that required hand washing prior to entrance, a minimum distance of 3 feet of separation when doing floor exercises, 6 feet within higher intensity classes like Spin, and NO ONE WAS REQUIRED TO WEAR A MASK. You may think there is going to be an apocryphal ending here, but no. There was no difference in transmission rates between groups. In fact, only one person contracted the virus during the whole study, and he got it from his workplace.
The take away here is that the risk of transmission does not seem to be increased by going to the gym. I guess the argument to this is that most gym goers are relatively more concerned with their health, thus healthier overall. However, isn’t that the point!? Also, comparatively, the obesity rate for Norway vs. the U.S. is 3% to HEAFTY 30%. So again, that may play a part in it all, which just harkens back to my soapbox rantings of the past. Anyway, all this begs the questions, why not let people go to the gym? The risk of infection in the community is seemingly so low that the benefits are outweighed by the advantages. We can’t stay locked down forever. And we are going to be in this for a long while, so why don’t we stop making health so fucking hard to accomplish.
Link to study — https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.24.20138768v2
nothing worth having is easy
Recently, I confronted a client of mine about why her progress had stalled. She confided in me that she broke down, strayed from the nutritional recommendations and eaten A LOT of something we agreed was not on the menu. She wanted to know if she messed up the whole program. I told her no. You took a step backwards, but you didn’t ruin the whole thing. Just continue doing the program as we talked about, as if this didn’t happen. Dwelling on the past will only make the situation worse, and we are both here to make you better. I told her to take this opportunity to transform a breakdown into a breakthrough. The fact that you are interpreting what happened as a mistake shows your desire to change, and that is a positive. Use that energy to propel you forward.
We all fuck up in one way or another. Personally, I think it’s better to do so on your way to success than at the end. There’s nothing like achieving what you want, only to have it taken away after the ceremony. If you can learn along the way, you can make small changes to redirect your resolve. It’s all part of the Hero’s Journey, you start off strong, sometimes you stumble, or even worse you fall, but each time you get up you know a little more than the last time and can get a little further than before.
Nothing worth having is easy.
there are no shortcuts
There are no shortcuts. I don’t want to hear about the new five minute workout you found on Instagram that you can do from the comfort of your own home, it’s bullshit. Any description of a workout with the word “comfort” is a waste of time and doesn’t work. Well… it might work for people who’ve forgotten that turning into a couch potato isn’t the same thing as going vegan. But don’t tell me that you honestly think five minutes of exercise is going to improve your quality of life.
There is an old country saying — shit or get off the pot. I think Nike stole it and translated it into Just Do It. Either way, both are an effective way of saying that you have to do the work to get the result. People don’t want to workout because it’s uncomfortable, they don’t want to change their diet because it’s unsatisfying, and they don’t want to improve their lifestyle because its inconvenient. But let me ask you how comfortable, satisfying, and convenient it is when you’re carrying around extra weight, slamming pills for your health problems, and fighting physical degeneration? The majority of discomfort comes from trying to REMAIN comfortable at any cost!
If you’re not willing to put in any effort toward improving your health, I just have to ask why? Is it because making the choices you know will make you better are too hard or uncomfortable? Should you go out to party? Order pizza for dinner? Skip the gym and sleep in? I guess it a much easier way to experience life, but is it really better? If this is you, I’ll never understand your mindset. Please don’t be one of those people who look around at others who have better health and say “I can’t believe how lucky that guy is, I could do that if…” STOP. You could do that if… what? You put in the time and effort? If you commit to whatever is making it work for him? If you’re willing to invest as much time as him? What is he doing that you can’t do? I’m pretty sure you could do the same if you wanted to. So, what stopping you? Please do not provide me with an excuse, because there will ALWAYS be one. and the WORST part about excuses is that they will ALWAYS be valid to you to give you a reason not to start. Shit or get off the pot. Know where you stand because there are no shortcuts to optimizing your life.
take responsibility
Disney World opened up recently. Their guidelines were pretty standard. It required people to wear masks while in the park, UNLESS you were eating. It isn’t hard to tell where this story is going… What happened was everyone at the park said “No problem, I’ll just keep eating all day so I don’t have to wear a mask!”
Has there ever been a better analogy for the current state of American values?! People want to stuff their face all day, so that they don’t have to wear a mask, yet stuffing their face all day makes them more susceptible to a virus that they need to be protected from by wearing a mask. What am I missing? I thought this whole Corona situation would be a wake up call for people, but it seems like they’re just asking for limes. Either way, the hilarity of the situation is only weighed down by the tragic nature of it all.
Disney has since closed the loophole, and instituted “safe zones” for eating without a mask. Alternatively, America has not closed their mouths — neither in opposition to wearing a mask or putting down their hotdogs for healthier options.
While I am not a fan of the mask, I understand that we are all in this together, so I’ll put the mask on while I’m grocery shopping or if I decide to spend my entire unemployment check on a day at Disney. I’ll honor the fact that there is a time and place for wearing a mask, but I IMPLORE you to hone the fact that you should not be a good host for viruses.
Please understand that there are two sides to this equation — viral avoidance (mask wearing) and staying immune strong (healthy lifestyle). We all need to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for both.
choose a leader, not a friend
Today, I had the good fortune of finding a new gym to workout in. For that I am grateful. However, while I was there a Karen came up to me from across the room to ask me if I could cover my nose with my mask. As frustrating as that is, I complied as to not rock the boat too much in this new environment. She looked like one of my clients — middle aged, health challenged, low muscle tone, with a belly. Just generally looked like someone who has been content with counting years instead of reps or calories. She was polite, but seemingly lost as to what really impacts her health. Apparently, my nasal breathing crossed a line.
After our exchange she turned around to address a group that was gathering in another corner of the gym. Turns out Karen was a TRAINER! Disbelief sat in, and I had to shake my head in bewilderment. There are certain things I don’t get, like how grown men can wear jeans with flip-flops or people that use oat milk — how the fuck do you milk an oat? Even more, I’ll never understand how this person could be held to a standard of a teacher. This isn’t coming from a place of disrespect, but how can anyone expect to learn from someone that is just like them. She was training a group of people just like her — middle aged, over-fat and under-muscled.
Again, I’m not here to criticizing so much as to question how people expect to get better at any health metric or improve body composition if they’re taking advice from basically the man in the mirror? IF you wish to improve, why take advice from someone just like you? I understand there may be a certain level of comfort mixed in with this situation — e.g., someone who looks just like you is easier to get along with because they “know” your problems — but do you really think progress is going to happen? What is the point of working out if there is no progress?
We are the sum of the people we keep around us. Just look at your 5 closest friends. Their income, status, weight, eating and exercising habits, lifestyle, etc. are probably close to yours, which is fine if you are happily enjoying your circle. HOWEVER, if you endeavor to improve your life, you are going to have to step outside your circle. When it comes to business or health, we all need to seek out people who are where we want to be or have accomplished something we wish for ourselves.
We all need a mentor or a leader to show us what is possible to achieve and a path that can take us there. That person NEEDS to be someone outside your circle. If your coach looks like the “before” picture, how far do you really think you’ll be able to grow under their tutelage? Worse yet, how could they even begin to provide you with the idea of a different or greater tomorrow? Inevitably, you will have more of the same.
nothing quells anxiety better than action
We don’t procrastinate because we’re too busy, we do it because we’re scared of discomfort. Change that today! Watch inspiration take hold and pave the way toward a new life. You’ll be surprised how far you can go if you stop letting fear dictate your momentum. Embrace the resistance, the challenge, and the change. There is a reason successful people have more opportunities, it’s because they take more chances. Those chances are what harden us against the call to come back inside where it’s safe, and open us up to a new reality.
How do you know when you arrive at the threshold for change? You hear the voice of resistance — the invisible force of self-sabotage, pride, and ego — pleading for your comfort and safety; “it’s too risky, you shouldn’t do it.” But do it anyway, because nothing quells anxiety better than action.
The only better time than now to make a decision to improve your health or your life, was yesterday and you’ll never get that back.
everybody raise your hand
Everybody raise your hand… now raise it a little higher.
If you’re like most people you raised your hand fairly high, but still had something left to give, which gives you the ability to raise it a little higher on the second request. Why not give it everything you have at first?
You’ve never seen a successful author who says “I had a really good line, but I’m going to save it for my next book.” Or a professional bodybuilder who says “I had a few reps left in me, but I’ll save it for the next workout.” Instead, you hear things from the greats like “success is my only motherfuckin option, failure’s not.” The best people give their best effort all the time.
We hold ourselves back by setting up fictitious barriers in our head to stop us from committing to fully engaging in the work that needs to be done so that we can use that as an excuse not to try because we are SURE we are going to fail.
These barriers are all self-made and self-imposed. Fear of failure is never a reason to not give your best effort. At worst you will have to change an opinion, method, or direction. Yet, without fully committing, seeing it through and failing, you never give fate an opportunity to intervene.
There is only one you. Give your best effort at who you want to become because if you’re not living the life you dreamed of, you already failed and haven’t realized it.
choose wisely
Reactions matter. It’s much better to be optimistic and disappointed than pessimistic and right. Being positive or being negative isn’t going to change the situation at hand, but it will change the way you feel about it, and even has the ability to affect future outcomes.
The way you talk and think about your experiences has a major influence on how you perceive them. Your thoughts are tightly linked to your emotions, so thinking subtle things like “that was too hard” or “I’ll never be good enough” can leave you in an anxious state of mind that hinders future performance. You probably think it just affects you in the short term, but your self-talk has the ability to sink deep into your subconscious. If you begin to internalize negative self-talk, if can become a huge roadblock on your path toward reaching the person you want to be.
Think of our reactions as subconscious programming. Dr. Bruce Lipton, found that 95% of what we do every single day is controlled by our subconscious mind**. Your deepest, most unrecognizable, thoughts are driving your performance, and ultimately your life. How you choose to program it is up to you. And in the words of Viktor Frankl, it is “the last of human freedoms is man’s ability to choose his attitude in any given situation.”
Choose wisely.
book summary: Sacred Cow
Sacred Cow by Diana Rodgers & Robb Wolf
4 out of 5
TL;DR Eating meat isn't killing the planet, however if we want to thrive it would BEHOOVE (get it, ha!) us to implement sustainable farming practices.
Do #vegetarians live longer than meat eaters?
No. However due to confounding factors around health, non-vegetarians are more likely to smoke or excessive drink, ultimately leading to earlier death therefore skewing results.
Are we eating too much #meat?
Our consumption has declined since the 70's — from 2.7oz per person/per day to 1.8oz as of 2016. We've made up the difference by increasing our intake of calories from sweeteners, grains & seed oils.
How much protein should we eat?
The RDA (aka MINIMUM WAGE OF #NUTRITION) states 0.8g per kg of bodyweight. This recommendation is only enough to keep you alive, not optimize your life. The AMDR (acceptable macronutrient distribution range) has a better grasp at 10-35% of calories coming from protein. Largely comes down to your goal.
Is grass-fed healthier than regular #beef?
Marginally yes. Perhaps not worth the money from a nutrient perspective, however if we look at sustainability, ethically raised meat will have less environmental impact overall.
Isn’t it possible for me to get all my nutrients from plants?
Yes, but only if you want to look like a pile of hashbrowns. Most people cannot thrive on a meatless diet because nutrients in plants are not as bioavaliable & most contain antinutrients causing multiple issues. Plus, you would get fat trying to match nutrient profiles: You'd need to eat 600 calories of beans & rice to get the same amount of protein you can get from only 160 calories of beef (3.5oz), not to mention B12 & heme iron.
Are cow farts killing the atmosphere?
No. Methane from cows is natural, whereas fossil fuels are not. Fossil fuels come from “ancient” carbon that has been locked underground for millions of years, and when extracted, adds new carbon to the atmosphere. Cows transform existing carbon, in the form of grass into methane as part of their digestive process. Methane is then farted out, broken down into H2O & CO2 molecules which are cycled back to grow more grass & the cycle continues.
more exercise isn’t the answer
Why do most people choose to exercise? I assume it’s deeper than simply making an attempt at being healthy, and more along the lines of wanting to lose weight to look good naked. That’s fair, I TOO want to look good naked. HOWEVER, I am here to tell you not to fall prey to the simplistic mantra of “calories in, calories out.”
More exercise isn;t the answer in your quest for a sexy body. Multiple studies carried out by health and fitness experts have concluding that exercise doesn’t really result in much weight loss(1,2). A study from Harvard University, reported that exercise alone was not adequate for preventing weight gain in people who are already overweight(3). Furthermore, after 8 weeks of your favorite aerobic exercise, you’ll hit a plateau, where continuous work will not bring you any further progress AND may even cause you to lose muscle while storing more fat.
None of this is to say that we shouldn’t be exercising, but relying on it to get you the body you want without addressing all other aspects of your lifestyle is misguided. The reason why certain exercise protocols — specifically, resistance training — are implemented when it comes to transforming your turnip shaped body into one made for selfies is that it helps RETAIN MUSCLE while cleaning up the diet is largely responsible for the reduction in fat mass. Both are necessary for the best results, but neither will give you the best results on their own.
References in link
why can’t we get better info
Why is it that the only thing we hear about how to protect our health during this pandemic revolve around external precautions? Social distancing, masks, quarantining. There’s no ethical reason behind the lack of advice regarding diet and lifestyle. Unfortunately, it all comes down to the financial interests of large corporations who DO NOT have your health, or best interests in mind.
Bolstering health is relatively simple. Eat whole, unprocessed foods. Get outside in the sun. Move as much as you can. Sleep like you’re on vacation. And connect as much as you can with the people you love. Yet, none of this is talked about. Instead, we have things happening like governments deciding the best choice for our health is to CLOSE NATURE (beaches) while they leave McDonald’s open.
We were in a health crisis before this pandemic came around — obesity, heart disease, diabetes. It seems to me that if we had been having the correct conversations about health PRIOR to this, it wouldn’t be as bad. Wearing a mask is not going to make everything okay because all you have to do is remove it and shove some waffles in your mouth. What ever happened to wanting to be resilient in mind and body?
Part of this is taking ownership of the issues at hand, but I understand that most people only listen to headlines. Unfortunately, headlines are driven by corporate interests, not the wellbeing of the public.
The financial health of large industries, is more important than your individual health or longevity. As a matter of fact, the food industry directly objects calls for healthier guidelines. An example of this can be seen in a health report by the World Health Organization — composed by a panel of 30 experts from 22 countries. The conclusions were commonsensical: too much sugar and fast food are unhealthy. NO SHIT!! However, despite this obviously being sensible advice, a protest against these findings arose within the food industry. Actions by the Snack Food Association, Wheat Foods Council, Corn Refiners Association, International Dairy Foods Association, the Sugar Association, and many others, called for ceasing all financial support of the WHO by the United States. This was based on the grounds that the report was garbage science, not founded on any concrete scientific consensus.
There’s a reason we aren’t getting quality information regarding health and it’s because the narrative is directed by those who seek profit.
the present moment is all we have
In nature, animals fight or chase one-another because someone is hungry. After the confrontation (or dinner) everyone goes their separate ways, carrying on with life instead of dwelling on what just happened for the next few hours or days. Nature flows simultaneously with time.
In the modern world, we encounter things like arguments, getting cut off in traffic, or Karen trying to ruin the cookout. Afterwards, we rarely go on with our lives, instead we relive the past situation and experiencing the same emotions allowing it to affect us long after the event happened. As humans we spend too much time stuck in the past.
The present moment is all we have. Everything that happened to you, every encounter, every decision and subsequent outcome made you who you are. This is not to say that we need to be happy about everything but we are the product of our experiences — good and bad. So live your life right now, and never look back because it’s all working out how it was meant to be.
people will say you’ve changed, but isn’t that the point
As a habitual line-stepper, I often challenge people on things they say. My intention is not to be a dick, but to figure out if they even know why they believe the thing they’re saying. Generally, when I pose the question, “why do you believe that?”, people get flustered. I think they get this way because they’ve adopted certain premises — from teachers, mentors, and family — without independently challenging that line of thought to clearly develop their own philosophy. We’re all guilty (even me) of carrying on with a line of thought that doesn’t serve us, but it shouldn’t be a matter of contention when someone asks why. It should be a moment of reflection.
Perhaps, the reason why such inquires seem maligned is that our beliefs are directly tied to our identity. When people challenge our beliefs, it can feel like they are attacking us for being who we are. That isn’t always the case, and we should know and be able to explain why we believe the things we do. If we can’t explain why we believe in something it is time to sit back and wonder if that belief we hold so dearly is really beneficial. These premises, ideologies, thoughts, philosophies, and beliefs all have the ability to drive our lives, either in a good direction because they are accurate and aligned to the right purpose, or toward a negative place because they are inaccurate and contradictory to what we are trying to achieve.
We’re all allowed to hold differing opinions but I don’t think that a belief has any merit if you can’t explain why you hold on to it. I think people are scared to change because their identity is tied to a certain belief system, and if they change they will have to admit to themselves that they were wrong. I can tell you first hand, that hurts, but if it gives way to a new belief you can stand behind, it’s a painful transition worth taking because it will lead to a better version of you.
We’re not meant to be the same person all our lives. We’re meant to grow, search for happiness, share our love, explore passions, and change the world. Challenging your beliefs will make you different. People are going to say “you’ve changed”, but isn’t that the point?
from what the body looks like to what it can do
We need to change the narrative from what our body looks like to what it can do. When we say we want to get fit, what we really mean is that we want to look good naked. There’s no reason we can’t excel at both, but we need to be honest with ourselves. Mistakenly putting aesthetics before function makes exercise joyless. It serves as punishment for who we’ve allowed ourselves to become. It’s an unhealthy relationship, fraught with anxiety, only carried out because we think we look fat.
We scroll through instagram for inspiration from perfect looking people for tips to lose belly fat or build a butt, as if aesthetics are all that matter. We have it all backwards. We need to embrace the joy and freedom of moving well. It shouldn’t always be about working out on behalf of your abdominals muscles. They should be working for you by moving with purpose.
facts don’t matter
There are a core set of human drives we care about, but we don’t respond if what is being offered is a direct change to one of those drives. That is why I can tell you exactly what you need to do to get the result you desire, but if it doesn’t resonate its disregarded. Simply stating facts on what needs to be done often fails because they lack an emotional connection. If we distrust a fact, we discount it.
If facts were enough to change minds, everyone who needs to lose weight or get healthy would only ever have to read one diet book. On the other hand, stories provide an invitation for change. We respond to them because they inherently offer a new way of being, providing us with the ability to change the mundane into the marvelous.
Most people think that to change your story, you have to completely adopt a new line of thinking, rather than create a life that makes what you seek self-evident. You only relive a past story because past experiences have made it evident to you. Therefore, if you want to change your life, you have to create a new story through new experiences that will solidify the narrative and make you the person you wish to become.
think outside the box
When I ask people what they’re doing to create a healthier lifestyle, most respond with some variation of “moving more and eating less.” While that’s helpful, it largely misses the point. Health isn’t only about finding ways to incorporate exercise into our lives, just as it isn’t all about cutting calories. This line of thought only seeks to change our appearance, as how we look on the outside is how we’re judged.
To genuinely improve our quality of life and overall health, we have to go beyond the current narrative — “move more, eat less.” We need to start thinking about things like fixings our sleep habits, starting a grateful journal to mitigate stress, finding a healthy recipe to cook and enjoy with someone close, buying house plants to improve the air quality in our homes, or go for a walk after a meal to help with your digestion and get some sun.
Health is cumulative. Choosing only to battle with the symptoms of a poor lifestyle — e.g., the expansion of your midsection — will never lead to an optimal life.
what’s more important — diet or exercise?
What is more important — diet or exercise? Should you prioritize diet at the expense of exercise, or eat whatever you want and move as much as you can?
If you want to be healthy, lean, strong, live a long time, and continue to do the things you love throughout your life, then a foundational focus on nutrition is the best choice. We’ve all heard that you can’t out exercise a poor diet, and it’s true. Everything we shove into our mouth eventually becomes part of us. The macronutrients — protein, fat, carbs — and micronutrients — vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals — are the building blocks for our muscles, bones, tissues, and organs. Poor choices in nutrition, lead to poor structures in our body, ultimately giving way to degeneration.
But wait… I thought exercise is supposed to fight against the aging and degeneration process!? Yes, you would be right by thinking that, but again our bodies are made of what we put into our mouth. While you can eat like shit and exercise those extra calories off to give the outward impression of healthy body, your internal processes are not able to keep up with the demand as they don’t have the necessary nutrients to elicit proper repair and recover of all the exercising you’re doing. By trying to out exercise your poor dietary choices, you are effectively burning the candle at both ends. And because I’m fancy, I’ll quote Lao Tzu by saying “the flame that burns twice as bright, burns half as long.” In other words, you’re not doing yourself any favors by going off the rails with your diet and trying to make it up with exercising more.
So what should you eat?
Nutrition should be individualized to the person and unique to their goals. If you want to know more reach out. To get you started here are a few tips everyone can agree with and incorporate:
Eat whole foods (you don’t have to shop there, just stop buying processed foods)
Eliminate all vegetable oils from your diet (Soybean, Corn, Cottonseed, Canola, Rapeseed, Sunflower, Sesame, Grapeseed oil)
Shop on the perimeter of the grocery store (the center is full of deception disguised as food)
If it comes in a box and you can’t pronounce ALL the ingredients don’t buy it (this is the deceptive fuckery)
it’s too late to get your shit together if it’s already in the fan
Strictly speaking from a health and disease standpoint, it’s generally too late to get your shit together once it’s hit the fan. The sad part is that the disease process doesn’t come without warning, nor does it happen overnight. You basically have to ignore all the warning signs that you’re approaching the edge of a cliff. And as you go over the edge, your prescriptions allow you to think you’re flying, until you’re not.
Working with clients, and personally overcoming hardships, I figured out firsthand that no one is going to be able to save us from ourselves. We have to want to change before we can expect it to happen. The first step is bringing awareness to the effect our mindset and lifestyle is having on our health and longevity. Only then can we expect change to happen.
Think about the following questions. If you’re not able to answer them with positivity, you may be heading toward a cliff.
Are you having issues managing your food addictions? Confused about what you should be eating? Or unhappy with what the mirror is telling you?
Are you under-exercising, or perhaps worse, over-exercising?
Are you not getting enough sleep, but haven’t been able to mange yourself to get the sleep you need and know it’s costing you?
Are you doing what you love to do everyday and can truly say you’re happy right now?
Are you living the life you’d live if money weren’t an objective?
healthspan > lifespan
As a society we’re living longer, but at what cost. There are more years to our life, but less life in our years. We need to understand that there is a difference between lifespan and healthspan. Lifespan is how many years you’re able to accumulate, whereas healthspan is how long you’re able to live with vibrant health and without limitations.
One way to achieve a significant healthspan is to focus on acquiring and maintaining muscle mass as you age.
Muscle is the organ of longevity. It provides you with the strength to do the things you want — walk, hike, climb, lift weights, swim, bike, and get up off the ground when you fall or better yet, save you from falling. It is largely responsible for your metabolic rate — the more muscle mass you’re able to maintain throughout your life the greater amount of calories you’re able to burn at rest, and because of this there is a greater likelihood of staving off the metabolic pathologies of obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, Alzheimer’s (Type 3 Diabetes), and cardiovascular disease. And, lastly, muscle serves as a reservoir of amino acids that the body can utilized to repair the body in times of need — e.g., when you’re laid up in the hospital.
None of this is meant to say that you need to look like a body builder to live a long and vibrant life. The point is that we need to change the conversation. It has always been about adiposity and losing weight. Never has it been about the importance of muscle. The problem with this, is that when you go on a diet in an effort to lose weight, yes you burn some fat but you’re actually losing muscle at the same time (unless you’re actively resistance training concurrently). By making the conversation fat centric and only focused on losing, we are exacerbating the problem of muscle loss.
There are only two way to stimulate muscle building, the first is prioritizing dietary protein (which is a big deal). Eating high quality protein OF ANIMAL ORIGIN will be the best option from a nutritional perspective. Adversely trying to achieve the same protein intake via plant sources is calorically devastating because you need 2 to 5 times more to elicit the same response for muscle building — e.g., 6 cups of Quinoa at 1300 calories holds the same amount of protein as 8oz of Chicken Breast at 300 calories. And that is not even going into the difference in amino acid profiles between the two (we’ll save that for another time).
The other way to stimulate muscle building is actually using your muscles. While, I am way less strict than I used to be, I think it would benefit everyone to incorporate some type of resistance training into their life. You can never go wrong with learning how to properly deadlift, squat, pull-up and overhead press. But at the end of the day, find something you love to do and keep doing it. Your body will thank you down the road for not forgetting about your muscles.
Stay strong.