I'm working on Christmas Eve...

It's 8:15am on Christmas Eve. I'm sitting in Starbucks typing this. This is not where I want to be. By now I'm sure my kids are awake and running around the apartment. I'd like to be home keeping the baby away from the tree and attempting to get the oldest to stop running back & forth through the apartment for maybe 5 minutes. Actually on 2nd thought, Starbucks is a lot more peaceful. Just kidding...kind of. So why am I here in Starbucks? I'm here because I'm committed to running/building my business. This means there are days/holidays where I have to sneak out of the house for a few hours to get some work done.

I'm only trying to pat myself on the back a little here. The main reason I'm telling you this is to show what it means to be committed something. There will be times where you'll have to do some things that you don't necessarily want to do. This is important to realize, especially as you're probably thinking about New Year's resolutions.

With that in mind here's a list of questions you can ask yourself to ensure that you have success with your resolutions. These questions will help you map out when the uncomfortable times are going to show up. This will allow you to prepare for them to make them as comfortable as possible.

• Why?- why is this resolution important to you? Answer that. Now why is that answer important? Repeat this process 3 more times. This should get you to down to your most base motivation. This is what you'll come back to when things get tough.
• What?- what do you have to do to be successful? Physically what do you have to do? Mentally what do you have to do (this might be more important)?
• Who?- who do you need to help you be successful? Do you need to hire a coach or someone else?
• Who?- who do you need to clear this with? Not that you need permission but you have to realize when you change your life it will affect the people who are closest to you. So you need to speak to with your significant other and family members and close friends to get their support.
• Where?- can you do this at home? Do you have to go somewhere? If so how are you going to get there?
• When?- when are you going to do it? Is it always going to be the same time or will it have to change weekly or daily? If it does have to change, have you scheduled in all the changes?

As you can see most of these questions lead to other questions. The thing is the more of these questions you can answer ahead of time the higher the likelihood of success. Answering these questions is like having GPS for a road trip. Good GPS will help avoid traffic slow downs and roadblocks. So take time to ask and answer these questions.

Ok I have to get back home with the kiddos and continue in the Christmas fun. Have a very merry Christmas and enjoy the time with friends and family.

How much do your thoughts cost you?

I've always thought that the time between Thanksgiving and New Year's (aka the holiday season) would be a terrible time to try to lose some weight. We all know the reasons why I should've been right: lots of parties, big family meals and catching up with old friends. I thought the best use of this time would be to maintain your health and fitness. So, to be completely honest, I was a little reluctant to do my 28 day challenge these past four weeks. For all of the reasons that I listed above. To add to the reasons, all but one who participated in this round of the challenge traveled for at least 3 days. The other person had major eye surgery two weeks before the challenge began and couldn't workout until the last week of the challenge.

I'm obviously telling you this because I was prepared for my clients to not get great results this time around. I was hoping that everyone would at least maintain their starting weight.

Boy was I wrong.

These are just a couple of the progress reports that came in Saturday morning. Full disclosure this is Kerry's 2nd round of the challenge and Larry's 3rd. That being said they're both averaging 5 pounds lost each round.

That's really good. Really good.

Now I'm not telling you this to pat myself on the back. Well not only to pat myself in the back (truth be told, the clients are ones doing the work and making the changes, I just provide guidance). I just want to point out that what I was thinking was clearly not the reality.

Our thoughts can be our best friends or or worst enemies. To add to it, you usually can't tell if your thoughts are friends or enemies until after the fact, if at all. I say if at all because a lot of times or thoughts lead us to inactivity. Think how many times you've thought something wouldn't work so you just didn't even attempt it.

Well what if it would've worked? You would never know. In economics this is known as 'opportunity cost'. (I have old high school teachers who can't believe I just typed that sentence.) It basically means you'll never know what you could've gained if you would've decided to try.

Notice I said "gained if you would've decided to try". You don't have to succeed to reap benefits. There's plenty to be learned in the attempts alone. Also if you speak with high achievers from just about any area/arena most of them will tell you they learn more from the failures and defeats.

The point here is when you think you can't do something or things won't work, remember lessons are learned when you at least try. Stop thinking about the outcome. Stop thinking about whether you can or you can't. Stop thinking.

It Should Be Simple

What if your health and fitness was simple? I mean super duper simple. What would that look like? Here's what it would look like for me. I would get 3 workouts a week that are 45-60 minutes long. I would get 7 hours of sleep every night. I would be eating 3-4 well balanced meals everyday.

Those are the big rocks I would focus on from a movement, recovery and nutrition standpoint. This is as simple as I can make it. If I focus hitting these 3 things I know that I will be in really good shape. I haven't mentioned any real specifics about the workouts or the meals (7 hours of sleep is pretty specific). They don't matter...yet.

As we get ready to head into a new year, I want you to remember this: THE SPECIFICS DON'T MATTER...yet. I know that if I can't get to the gym at least 3x a week it doesn't matter if I'm doing Crossfit or powerlifting. Yes something is better than nothing but until you can repeatedly do the simple (whatever your simple is) you're not going to see any real progress.

I've had numerous conversations with people where they explain that they've never prepared their own food on a regular basis. These people always want to talk about what would be the best diet for them. Here's the thing about diets, if you're going to really follow one then you're going have to eventually prepare your own meals (it's the only way to be sure you're eating what you think you're eating). So until you can cook and repeatedly prepare your own meals it doesn't matter what diet you try out. (That's assuming you're not willing to pay a lot of money for someone to prepare food for you.)

So as you start to think about resolutions for 2019, Keep It Simple Stu... I don't want you to think about any specifics. I do want you to spend 10-15 minutes thinking about what life would be if it was simple. Once you're finished doing that, throw it away.

Now spend another 3-5 hours making it even simpler. As simple as possible. Then go do that. Everyday. We'll talk in a couple of months.

Success in 2019 begins today.

It what may have seemed like a blink of the eye, 2018 is pretty much over. Thanksgiving is long gone at this point and Chanukah started last night. So now begins the time when you should be reflecting on how the year went for you. What went well and what didn't. Is there anything that you can improve upon? Is there anything need or can do without? Ok, now that we got that out of the way. What's the plan for 2019?

I'm all for reflecting on the past and all but here's the thing: there's not much you can do about it at this point. So do some reflection and learn as much as you can from the past year but don't linger too long. Use the time that you've spent worrying about that thing from 6 months ago (that no one else remembers) to start coming up with a plan for how you're going to spend the next 6 months.

I feel like what usually happens is New Year's day arrives and people start making resolutions with no clue about how they are going to make them into reality. Other than using grit and resolve. Spoiler alert: that doesn't work. (Which is why half the people reading this are thinking about or even trying to remember what their 2018 resolutions were.)

So instead let's try to make 2019 different. The way to do that is by coming up with an action plan now. Don't wait until January. If you do, you'll lose half of the month just trying to figure out what you want to do and the logistics of how you could possibly do it.

I'd also say if you want to be successful at 2019 resolutions, think beyond 2019. What do you want your life to be like in 2020 or 2025 even? Thinking about and having long term goals (l year plus) gives you something to work toward and a way to measure progress.

The measuring of progress is key. When you only have short term goals, it becomes a "did I" or "didn't I" situation. Either you accomplished the goal or you didn't. If you didn't you that can be stressful psychologically which can affect how you handle the next goal.

Having long term goals allows you to ask if you got closer to accomplishing them. Even if you miss a short term goal you can get closer to long term ones. This relieves some of the stress and allows you to keep momentum. Having a long term goal also allows you to change direction. Meaning you can scrap a short term goal for something else that will get you to your long term goal faster.

All of this is to say that, if you want to be successful with resolutions in 2019 then that process has to start now and you have to consider well beyond 2019. Like I said appreciate all that went well in 2018 and learn from whatever didn't go so well. Just don't let time spent doing that slow down your success in 2019.

#MotivationMonday is dumb

This morning I posted this picture to my instagram. If you spend any time on any social media platform on any Monday then you'll #motivationmonday posts. They are usually quotes or pictures of people/animals doing extraordinary things. Their goal is to give you the extra push you need to get out there and get shit done. They are dumb.

Well the quotes and pictures aren't dumb. The idea of #motivationmonday is dumb.

Looking to social media for motivation to do something in the moment is useless. It's already clear you don't want to do it (or else you wouldn't be on social media) and even if you do muster up the will to do it, it will be lackluster.

I'm purposely saying "it" because it doesn't matter what the "it" is.

I'm not saying that motivation isn't a thing. Motivation is definitely a thing. I'm saying that if you need inspirational quotes or a cheerleader to hype you up then you're not suffering from nothing other than a lack of motivation.

#Motivationmonday might serve a purpose when you're trying to decide if you can/should make a change in your life. Once the decision has been made, you no longer need motivation, what you need is a plan. A good one.

A good plan will eliminate the need for any other motivation. It'll do so by telling you exactly what you need to do, how you need to do it and when you need to do it by. If you have all of those questions answered you won't have the opportunity/need to be actively searching for motivation.

So if you find yourself searching the hashtag "motivation monday" so you can do the damn thing, I say just forget the damn thing. For today anyway. Instead use today to come up with a plan so that you don't end up in the same place tomorrow.

You can only sprint so far...

If I told you to run as fast as you can, I can guarantee that after 1 minute you will be running slower than you were after 10 seconds (assuming you're giving max effort through out). That's just how sprinting works: the longer you go, the slower you will get. This is why Usain Bolt's fastest 400m time isn't just 4x his 100m time, it's slower than that. This example extends beyond physically sprinting and goes into all areas. I once had a client say "go all out or go home" during a session. I told her I didn't like the saying because most people end up going home. Most people can't handle the all out mentality...for an extended period time anyway.

The times we're living in suggests that the only way to do anything is to "go balls to the wall" and give 100% commitment and effort. I agree with the 100% commitment and effort parts. I take issue with the "balls to the wall" part.

You can only go "balls to the wall" for a week, two max. After that you're going to crash and burn. So I'd rather see you give 100% commitment and effort to less stuff. Instead of trying to change everything all at once, just pick a couple. Actually I'd say pick just one. Commit to doing one thing to the best of your ability. Keep doing it until you master it. Mastery means it takes minimal thought to accomplish. Mastery may take 2 days or 2 months or longer. Do it for as long as it takes. Then commit to something else and master that.

I know that this process will work for everyone. 100%. That being said, most people will opt for the "all out" strategy. The one we know doesn't work. Why?

The main reason is because mastering one thing at a time just isn't that sexy or exciting. It's actually kind of boring. Working out 2hrs a day everyday and doing the carnivore diet (that's a real thing) sounds way more hardcore than "eat 2 more servings of vegetables each day". Remember more is not better; better is better.

Another reason people choose "all out" is (I think) they know it will end and it will end relatively quickly. To go the 100% commitment route requires patience. Patience is one of the things that is in the shortest supply nowadays. You have to be willing to accept progress at whatever rate it comes. Most of us see progress and we want to speed it up. We should stop doing that.

Consistent Actions are the Key to Success

This morning I was talking with a client. Along with training with me in person, he's a member in my 28 Day Online Challenge. We were talking about his results from the last challenge. They weren't as good as they could have been so I mentioned that he had taken a few liberties during the challenge. I know this because a major part of the challenge is to report everything that you eat. So I knew he when he was off the plan simply because those would be the times he wouldn't report what he ate (to be fair, sometimes he would just forget). Anyway, we continued to talk I mentioned how he didn't report anything over the weekend. I don't remember exactly but his answer was along the lines of "we didn't eat as we normally do". To which I replied "yes but you still ate."

See to be successful at the challenge the key is consistently recording what you eat (and doing the workouts...). The act of recording your meals itself won't make you lose weight but if you consistently do it means you're probably doing other healthy things that will help you lose weight.

The consistency is the key. Studies have shown that people who eat breakfast every day or walk 10,000 steps in a day tend to weigh less. Neither one of these alone is the reason the people who do them weigh less. The people who do them usually incorporate other healthy habits into their lives or (perhaps more importantly) avoid bad habits.

For instance, 10,000 steps is about 5 miles on average. If you walk that far in a day that means you have less time to be sitting and being inactive. If you eat breakfast every day, you'll be able to skip the donuts in the break room.

Consistency doesn't just work with the 3 examples that I've given either. You can insert any action and you'll see results. It has to be an action though. The more specific the better. Taking a picture of everything you eat, eating breakfast everyday and walking 10,000 steps are good examples because they tell you exactly what to do and when to do it.

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I have another round of my 28 Day Challenge beginning on 11/19. For more info you can click here you can comment here or email me at dwayne@startinglinefit.com.

Shockingly Simple Math of Weight Management

Did you know there are 8 Mondays left in 2018 (including today)? That means at a conservative estimate you could still lose 8-10lbs in 2018. In order to do so, there is some math required though. Don't worry, the math is only slightly more complex than the math I used to figure out how many more Mondays there are in 2018. The math comes in the form of a little addition and subtraction. It goes like this:

Calories In > Calories Out → surplus = weight gain

Calories In = Calories Out = weight maintenance

Calories In < Calories Out → deficit= weight loss

Ladies and gents that is the shockingly simple math of weight management. In words it says if you want to lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you consume. If you want to gain weight do the opposite. That's it. It has nothing to do with food quality or anything else that isn't calories.

If you want to change your weight you must follow this formula. So if you want to lose weight (if you want to gain weight, just do the opposite), are three ways you can do that: eat less, workout/exercise more or do both eat less & workout more.

• Eat less: this is going to be the most important variable. It's the most important because it is the one you have the most control over. Actually you have all of the (physical) control when it comes to this. Make a meal plan and stick as close to it as possible.

  I know I said food quality doesn't matter but I lied...kind of. Food quality matters in that eating high quality, nutrient dense foods (think fruits, veggies, lean proteins & good fats) will allow you to fill fuller after eating less total calories.

• Workout/Exercise more: ever heard the phrase you can't out train a bad diet? You're not a gym geek so probably not. I swear though it's a phrase that get thrown around. The reason being because it's almost impossible to know how many calories you're burning during a workout without being in a laboratory setting. Yeah I know you have an Apple watch and a phone app that tell you how many calories you burned during Zumba. They're probably, most likely, wrong.

  The point here is for you to be more active. That means get more total workouts and also more intense workouts in gym. It also means be more active in your regular life outside the gym. Going to the gym for an hour a day and spending the rest of your awake time on your butt probably isn't going to help your cause.

• Do Both: this is one of those instances where burning the candle on both ends is a good thing. And doing both (depending on the type of workouts you do) may take you from just losing weight to actually burning fat also. (I'm willing to say the majority of people who say they want to lose weight, are actually looking to burn fat.) What's the difference? I'll answer that with a question of my own: would you rather see the number on the scale go down or would rather your clothes fit/feel better? If you chose the clothes option, you want to burn fat.

  You have to be careful when choose to eat less and workout more though. If you're working out more & more intensely and you're drastically less you could be sabotaging yourself. You're going to be hungry and eventually something will have to give. So you have to be careful that you're not going too far out of balance.

If you're someone who's a numbers person here's another (simple) formula you can use to figure out how many calories you should be eating:

Bodyweight (lbs) x 14 = maintenance calories

Bodyweight (lbs) x 10-12 = weight/fat loss calories

Bodyweight (lbs) x 16-18 = weight/muscle gain calories

So there it is. The shockingly simple math of weight management.

The Best (& boringest?) Advice I Can Give

Yesterday a friend hit me up on Facebook. She has two kids under 5 years old and hasn't worked out regularly since before the first one. She says she does Zumba about once a week. She wanted to know what she should do to start getting back into shape. In my head I was like, well she needs to start lifting immediately. Also she's certainly going to have to get to Zumba or some other high intensity type class at least 3x/week. And then she would need to add in 1-2 days of low intensity cardio. You know for recovery and stuff. And obviously she's going to need to become a keto-vegan.

This would be an excellent plan for her provided she either quits her job or gives up her children. (They're cute and all but....GAINS!!! Know what I'm saying.) This is the price to pay to get back into shape.

Hopefully it's clear I'm being facetious.

This is not the advice that I gave her. The advice I gave her was to try to make her way to Zumba 2-3x/week. I told her if she could consistently do that for a month or two then she could start thinking about adding in some lifting weights. That's it.

That's it?

Yep.  Oh you want to why? Got it.

The reason for ditching the plan I came up with in my head isn't because it isn't a good plan (maybe except for the keto-vegan diet, I'm not sure that's actually a thing). I ditched it because it's probably to good for her (right now anyway). This is a case of more isn't better. It would've been too overwhelming and I'm pretty sure she needs her job and loves her children.

Suggesting she just up her Zumba gives her a chance to get used to working out more. This will be good for her physical well-being but also her life well-being. Working out more means giving less time to something else. You need to prepare for this.

What if just two extra Zumba workout sessions is too easy? Well it's easy to add stuff on. It's much harder to take things away. Taking stuff away from people is psychologically difficult for them. You're basically telling them they weren't good enough for all they were given. On the other hand, adding on stuff is a reward. Who doesn't like a reward.

So basically my advice for most people (after I go over the super plan in my head) is to just do a little be more than you were doing before. This is super boring. Whenever I give this advice people are like "that's it?" (like you did above.) People expect it to be more complicated. Here's the thing though, it's not. Most long term success is super boring.

So if you're just getting started again, do a little more than you've been doing. Once you've done that consistently, add a little bit more. Then rinse and repeat.

Mattresses & Your Fitness Go Hand in Hand

You probably don't know this but I listen to a lot of podcasts. I listen on podcasts on just about every topic. There's a podcast about Halloween (the Michael Myers horror movies) that I'm listening to. Before the podcast started I could say I'd seen the first couple of movies (apparently there are like 8, who knew?) but for some reason I've listened to over 5 hours of content about this series of movies. Anyway, this morning I was listening to the How I Built This podcast. This is a podcast where the host interviews the founders of successful companies and talks to them about what made them and their companies successful. This week it was the founder Tempur-Pedic, Bobby Trussell. Yes the mattress company. The company is worth a lot of money and Trussell is the man who brought those comfy foam mattresses to America.

The thing that stood out about this episode is that in most instances Trussell probably wouldn't have made it on to the show. See Trussell failed a lot at a couple of different things. To the point where he was up to a million dollars in debt. The thing that makes Trussell different from most people is that he kept showing up to work.

When Trussell got the deal to distribute Tempur-Pedic in the US, the contract stated that he had to sell 10,000 mattresses in the first year in order to maintain exclusivity. He sold 70. Most of us would have given up after missing the mark by so much. Trussell kept going and as recently as 2013 his annual income was about 75 million dollars (based on a quick Google search).

This is still a blog about health and fitness. So I'm telling you this because Bobby Trussell practiced the one thing that you need to in order to be successful in your health/fitness journey. Consistency.

I'm going to assume it was never Trussell's intent to be a million dollars in debt. However  he kept at it. Because he kept at it he came across memory foam mattresses. Then he believed in those mattresses so much that after missing his sales goal by 9,930 mattresses he kept going back to work.

So the next time you step on the scale and the numbers don't go the way you want, think about Trussell's million dollar debt. You'll never get to where you want to go unless you keep doing the work to get there.

Logic Your Way to Answers

Over the weekend I was introduced to Logic Puzzles. At first I thought it was "logic puzzles" which included things like Ken-Ken and Sudokus. Turns out Logic Puzzles are there own thing. Being the nerd that I am, I looked them up and was immediately hooked. Logic Puzzles are puzzles where you have to figure out groups of things correlate with each other. The thing about the puzzles is that you're given all the information that you need to solve the puzzle. There's no need to make any guesses, the clues given are enough. So you would think these puzzles are easy. They're not.

I haven't progressed past the easy 3x4 puzzles yet and of the puzzles I've solved I've been ranked "very slow".

Anyway I'm telling you about me doing Logic Puzzles because they're a good representation for what it can be like trying to find answers to fitness on the internet. The right answers are definitely on the internet. You just have to use logic to find it.

The difference between the internet and Logic Puzzles is that the internet will definitely give you some wrong info too. That being said you can/have to use the same logic to figure out what's good info and what's not.

The first thing you need to do is consider the source. If it's coming from a magazine or newspaper with a crazy headline, you should probably be a little skeptical. The more sensational the headline the more untrue the info probably is. I don't have empirical data on that outside of the number of links I've clicked on.

Another thing to look for is if there is a specific product mentioned. If the product gets mentioned multiple times you can be sure the article is biased. The article is either trying to sell the product or discredit it.

On the other end of the spectrum, the article you're checking out could come from a scientific journal or university. You can (usually) be sure info from these sources is true and biased. The thing you have to consider with these sources is that the info is presented without context. Or at least without context beyond the measures that were actually studied.

These are just a few ways you can use logic to figure out if the info you're reading can be trusted. So the next time you're searching the internet for health/fitness answers try them out. Then you'll have more time for doing the stuff that really matters...like doing Logic Puzzles.

The 2 Areas of Change

When it comes to make a change- diet, exercise, lifestyle, any kind of change- there are two areas that you have to be in control of. I'll get to the two areas in a second but before I do, a couple of thoughts. The first thought is that there are millions of steps a person can take to make a change. I'm not saying there are only two things that you have to do to make a change. I'm saying the millions of steps usually fall into one of these two areas.

The next thought is that simple always trumps complicated. If change were easy I wouldn't need to write a blog about making changes. So I'm not sure why people always seem to choose the craziest options. (Actually it's probably because people don't believe the simple answer is the best answer: spoiler alert it usually is.) The thing to remember about simple trumps complicated is that simple for me may not be simple for you.

So when it comes to the millions of possible steps you can take to make a change, choose the simplest one. So let's talk about the two areas all of these steps mostly fall into. The areas are awareness and mindfulness.

The first area you have to tackle is awareness. Most people have no idea how bad their problem is. For instance, when you ask someone how many calories they eat in a day they'll say something like 2500. Then when you have them actually track the calories it's more like 3500. This same person wonders why they aren't losing weight but gaining.

So the first steps to change usually revolve around becoming more aware of what it is you're trying to change. How big is the problem for you? When does the problem come up for you? How does the problem present itself for you? Who are the people that bring this problem out for you.

These are all awareness questions. In order to have a long lasting change (i.e forever) you have to answer as many awareness questions as possible.

Once you've answered the awareness questions you have to be mindful (the second area) enough to recognize when you're entering situations in which the problem may arise. So the next change steps you take will usually deal with how to deal with those situations.

For instance take the person who was eating too much without realizing it. Let's imagine this person is going out to eat with friends. A situation where he/she may usually overindulge. They know this now because it was an answer to an awareness question. A couple of mindfulness steps he/she could take is possibly decide a healthy option before getting to the restaurant. Or they could challenge themselves to put their fork down between each bite (doing so allows you to actually chew and realize how full you actually are).

Mindfulness steps fix the problems that the answers to the awareness questions represent. This is where the simple trumps complicated comes into play. It is at this point you want to pick the simplest step.

Timetables might be stressing you out

This morning as I was getting to the subway the digital arrival board said the next train would be arriving in 4 minutes. As I got about half way down the steps, I realized that there was actually a train in the station that I was about to miss. No big deal, the board said the next train would be arriving in 4 minutes. Except when I actually got into the station, the 3 digital boards all displayed different arrival times for 2 different trains. None of which matched the outside board. So which one to believe?

Ultimately, it didn't matter which was right because none of the wait times were so long that I would've considered an alternate route. So I did what I would've have done any other morning: I stood there and waited.

The only difference is that I was upset this morning. I was mad because the stupid board told me there would be a train in 4 minutes. Then the subsequent boards played with my emotions by saying it could be as long as 7 minutes or as short as 1 minute. I would've been better off if all of the digital boards were turned off (which has happened before). That way I wouldn't have had any expectations and I would've just waited.

That's what I used to do before station improvements that included digital arrival boards. It was the good ol' days of playing subway roulette: you get to the station and hope to god you won't be waiting longer than 5-10 minutes.

Now I'd be lying if I said I wasn't impressed when I saw the arrival boards at my local station. It would no longer be a guessing game, I would know exactly when the train was going to arrive.

Here's the thing though, on average I still wait the same 5-10 minutes. There are those lucky times when I get there and the boards say "1 min" and I feel great about myself (as though I had anything to do with it). Then there are mornings like today when the boards are just completely wrong. It really screws up the whole commute.

The arrival boards took a situation where I would've been content with just waiting it out and literally added a time expectation to it. The problem with the time expectation is that I have no control over it. There's nothing I can do except wait. Now my mood gets affected by this thing I can't control.

Now I'm only telling you about this because this is what I see a lot of people do when it comes to their fitness. They want to know how long it will take to see results. The general answer is probably in the neighborhood of 4-6 weeks. If I tell you less than that you'll get excited but those results probably won't last. If I tell you more than that you'll want shortcuts to make it go faster.

The fact is most of us would be better off just worrying about the things that we can control. Things like making better food choices, being more active and getting more sleep. After that it's about making sure you're continually making progress.

Simple vs. Best

The other day I was going to get on the subway, and there was a man staring blankly at a subway map. I was clear that map might as well been written as hieroglyphics to this guy. He looked up and asked for directions. Now I thought he was asking me but there happened to be a woman that thought he was asking her. We each offered completely different sets of directions. The NYC subway works that way, there's like 8 ways to get everywhere. It's important to note that we each gave directions that would've gotten him to his destination.

The lady gave directions that required transferring trains. I gave directions that required him just taking one train. There is no doubt that the lady's directions would have got him to his destination faster than mine. There is also no doubt my directions would've been easier to follow.

As a seasoned subway rider, I know the lady's directions were "technically" better than mine (assuming getting to the destination faster is better) and had it been me asking for directions, I would have really appreciated her directions. From where we were standing she definitely gave the "best" option. On the other hand, I gave the simplest directions: get on this train, get off at your stop.

Which is actually better?

Clearly I'm going to say my advice was better. (That lady can write her own blog to prop herself up.) Aside from self promotion, her directions were just more complicated. While transferring one train isn't super complex, when you don't know the system it can be a daunting task. Like I said, the map could've been upside down and this guy wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.

So in this case the simple would've been better for this guy. He would've needed to just get on a train and look for his stop. I'm sure he would've made it.

The way the situation played out, I'm not sure if he did. The lady shot my advice down as taking too long and began to give her advice. She said she would show him the way but it turned out he didn't have a Metrocard yet. The scene ended as the guy went to buy one. The lady and I walked through the turnstile. Annoyed that her train was arriving (and the guy was still at the machine), she gave me a "I tried to help him" sort of look and turned to walk toward her train. I shrugged and continued on my way.

Beauty in the Struggle

"There's beauty in the struggle, ugliness in the success." That's a line from the J. Cole song Love Yours. The line was the ear worm I had this morning when I woke up. I don't know why, I don't remember listening to the song recently. Anyway there it was playing on repeat in my head as I showered this morning. So I started thinking about the line. It's just a play on the various "it's the journey, not the destination" quotes. I'm sure you've heard some version of those quotes but when was the last time you thought about it?

People are all about quick results. "I lifted on Monday and did a HIIT class on Tuesday, I should be #jacked by Friday." We all know that's not how it works but still our expectations get the best of us.

Have you ever had quick success that a) lasted and b) you took a real life lesson from? I would venture to guess that you remember the wins that you had to work for in a lot more detail.

I would also question what you had to do to get your quick success. For instance, I can guarantee that if you only ate one meal of 8oz of boiled chicken and a cup of steamed veggies every day for two weeks that you will lose weight. Your friends and family probably won't want to be around after a couple of days but hey. There's ugliness in the success.

I've listened to tons of interviews of successful athletes and even gamblers. One thing that seems to come up in all of these interviews is that they always remember the losses that helped shaped their careers. Professional poker players can explain bad beats in painstaking detail. Basketball players remember everything from where other players were on the court down to the mechanics of the shot they missed in that big game.

The thing is, even though they remember them, they don't dwell on these losses. They learn from them and then they apply what they learned in other situations. There's beauty in the struggle.

I think this is what separates successful professional athletes (actually successful anythings) from the average joe. First off they finish. Most people start something, then it gets hard and then they stop. Then to make it worst when asked about the experience all they say was that it was hard. Meaning they didn't get anything else out of it that can be used at a later time.

So next time you feel like you're looking for a quick win or you feel like giving up, remember the beauty and lessons are in the struggle and that quick success comes with ugliness in the form of hidden problems.

All Systems Go

What systems do you have in place? Do you have systems? What are systems? I would say that systems are to groups what habits are to individuals. We all have our own habits that get triggered and cause us to do something relatively automatically with very little thought. Well whether you realize it or not you are a part of various systems in your life. As a part of these various systems, there times when situations will dictate a certain action from you and you take that action in order to keep the system moving.

For instance, when you drive you (should) obey traffic laws. If you don't, then you're risking your safety and the safety of other commuters. By obeying traffic laws you are a part of the system.

I think most people can see themselves as a part of a system when it comes to their work lives. They realize that they have tasks to complete in order to keep whole organization moving. People may not realize they are part of a system at home and in their social circles also.

Think about your closest friends. What role do you play in the group? How many times have you had plans with the group and you've been able to say how the night was going to play out before it even started? That's because you and your friends are a part of a system.

If you live with other people, whether they be family or roommates, then you're in a system at home also. I'm sure each member of the household has some chores or expectations.

This brings up some questions. We know system itself is working because it continues to repeat. So the question becomes is the system working for you? Does it make you happy or does it stress you out. If it stresses you out is there any way to change it?

Another question that this raises for me is, what happens when you change the system? What if you add a new person or take someone away? (This made me think about that Seinfeld episode where George & Elaine try to hang out without Jerry.)

I bring this up because I think people don't take the systems they are a part of into consideration enough. I've seen plenty of people who make plans, only to have those plans derailed because of things that have nothing to do with them individually but everything to do with the systems they are a part of.

This is why I encourage people to talk with the people closest to them as they begin to make plans to change something (it doesn't matter what it is). It's not that you need to get permission. It's that the people closest to you know the effect your role plays on the system. They'll be able to point out flaws in the plan that you may have missed. More importantly, they'll be able either help you fix flaws or work around them.

"Start Before You're Ready"

The other day I was on Facebook and I clicked a on a video that a friend posted. This blog isn't about that video, I don't even remember what that video was. Anyway, Facebook did that annoying thing it does now where it goes right into another video. The second is the one I'm going to talk about. That video was by Kevonstage (I don't know his actual name).  He's a comedian that usually posts videos from some room in his house or in his car. Anyway, I like Kev so I let the video play (also probably because he was talking about his personal training session). This particular was in his car and it was titled "Start Before You're Ready". I quickly realized that the video wasn't going to be funny but I kept watching. He talked about how people wait for the perfect time before they begin something. He basically says there is no perfect time and you need to just start. I'll link to the video at the end of this.

Well this video reminded me of a couple of things. The first being all the times people in  the gym have told me they need to get in shape before they could start training with me. This has happened multiple times. And it's not like these are people that I was putting on a full court press on to buy training sessions. These people would come up to me unsolicited and tell me once they worked out more they would then pay me to work them out more.

The other thing was something I do during sessions. In between sets I'll ask the client if they are ready? When the client is a newbie they may say they're not ready to get started exercising yet. That's when I quickly explain that "are you ready" isn't really a question, it's my way of saying it's time to get going again whether or not you're ready. (Written out that sounds mean; I promise it doesn't come off that way in person...I think.)

These things, even though it probably doesn't seem like it, have something in common. Excuses. The person telling me they have to get into shape before they start training is making an excuse. In the case of my training sessions, I'm taking away the excuse of the client saying "I'm not ready yet".

You definitely need to make preparations to do stuff. I'm not saying you should be jumping into things completely unprepared. I'm saying that if you find yourself repeatedly saying "I'm not ready yet" then it might be time to ask yourself if you're making excuses. If you're waiting for every detail to be perfect you're probably going to be waiting for a long time.

Starting is often the hardest part. And the longer you wait, the harder it will be to start. So take Kev's advice and start before you're ready.

Here's a link to the video: https://www.facebook.com/KevOnStage/videos/242642343059263/

It's kind of long but the first few minutes are definitely worth it.

F.O.C.U.S

Starting things is hard to do. So when we do start something it feels good. As humans we like things that make us feel good. The problem is, when the task is difficult, that good feeling only lasts for so long. So even if the task isn't finished, we want that good feeling back. Let's start something else. Repeat the process. Eventually you've started a bunch of stuff and you've finished none of it. The thing is finishing something will multiply that initial good feeling. The reason being because you overcome more. When the good feeling wears off, you're faced with choices: start something new (to get the good feeling back) or push through the (potentially difficult) task to the finish (prolong feeling good). If you can push through you're potentially compounding the "feel good".

In order to do this you have to focus. More specifically you have to F.O.C.U.S:

Follow

One

Course

Until

Successful

I didn't come up with this, a friend posted it on Facebook. From this point on though, I'm going to pretend it's mine (that's how stealing works). Now this sounds good and makes a good acronym but the question is how do you stay focused.

I've got a few suggestions. First off keep the end in mind. Next anticipate the potential roadblocks. Finally break the task up into smaller tasks. By keeping the end in mind it's actually a reminder of why you started in the first place. Thinking of the end keeps the benefits of finishing fresh in your mind.

Thinking  of the end also helps you to think of the potential roadblocks you may encounter. If/when you think of roadblocks ahead of time, you can prepare for them. If you're prepared for them then you can possibly avoid them all together. This happens because you become attuned to the signs that a roadblock is ahead. When you're prepared for roadblocks, or you can avoid them all together, your progress towards the end goal doesn't slow as much. So you won't be tempted to change toward a different task.

Think of potential roadblocks will help with the last suggestion also. Roadblocks make for good break points. Getting to and through these points will help keep you motivated to get to the next one. Another way you can break a task into chunks is to break out the steps. What I mean is, if there a particular order to complete your task then simply write out the steps, like an instruction manual or recipe. Then follow the steps.

These are a just a few suggestions. I'm sure there are tons more out there. Actually if you can think of or know of any let me know in the comments. The more the merrier. The point here is that by concentrating on finishing one thing you actually get more accomplished in the long run. Also as much of an accomplishment as it is to start something, it is a much bigger accomplishment to finish something. So stay FOCUSed.

Your Group Fitness Class Isn't Helping You Lose Fat (pt 2)

Last week I wrote about how most group fitness classes aren't doing the thing most people are going to them to do: fat loss. Check it out here. I won't say that I was bashing group fitness classes but I did point out the limitations group fitness classes face when it comes to fat loss. I've had a few people ask what they should do instead of group fitness classes then. Makes sense since I didn't really give many solutions. So then it makes sense that I should give some solutions now. So that's what I'll do. So I'm going to give 3 suggestions that you can use. Before that though, I'll say that any fat loss strategy is only as good as the way you eat while you're doing it. This is where the phrase "you can't out train a bad diet" comes from.

1. I'm not saying you should forgo group fitness classes forever. If you are a person who likes group fitness classes and you're looking to burn fat, then find a short High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) class. By short I mean 30-45 minutes. If it's a 45 minute class, then about 10 minutes of that should be devoted to warmup/cool down. A shorter class will ensure that you'll be able to reach the (really) high intensities that are needed to burn fat.
2. Start lifting. Or better yet, start lifting heavy. I'm talking about doing compound movements like squats, deadlifts, bench presses and overhead presses. These are big bang for your buck exercises that will help you build muscle. Building more muscle will help you to raise your resting metabolism. This will allow you to burn more fat as you're sitting around doing nothing.

   Let me take a minute to define heavy lifting. To really be lifting heavy you're going to at least know your 5 rep max and even better would be your 1 rep max. Your max is the maximum amount of weight you can lift. A rep max is your max for a given number of reps. So when I'm talking about "lifting heavy", you're going to be at at least 80% of your 1 rep max. (If your max is 100lb, then you'll be using at least 80lbs.) The reps you use will depend on how heavy you go beyond 80%. Generally speaking you're going to be working in the 4-6 rep range.

   When you're lifting heavy, you're form is going to need to be perfect. So you're going to need to take the time to learn how to lift. Find a certified trainer in your area and make the investment to get coached.

3. My final suggestion is go the long slow distance route. This is also known as "traditional" cardio. Go on a run, hit the elliptical or the exercise bike for 30-60 minutes. The trend is definitely towards HIIT but cardio stills works. A good cardio session will burn a lot of calories, with the majority of those calories burned coming from fat.

The three suggestions aren't any in particular order of importance. So in conclusion, let's put these in order. First off, you should be on a lifting program. Your lifting program should cycle between heavier periods and lighter periods (of lifting). So when you're in a heavy cycle you'd be better off adding a couple of days of "traditional" cardio. This will help with recovery. When you're in a light cycle this is when you can go to you're HIIT classes. This is a really basic suggestion of a workout structure. If you want to get more specific, this is where investing in a good trainer will come in handy.