There’s a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation about food and metabolism. Every couple of months I want to devote an episode to misunderstandings about fat, misunderstandings about protein and misunderstandings about carbohydrates.
In today’s episode, we are tackling some major misunderstandings about carbs and blood sugar. We’ll also talk about specific changes you can make to improve your carbohydrate choices without drastic dieting choices and cutting out carbs.
So much wisdom coming from my Masters Club this morning! I logged in to our group this morning, like I always do and there was a clear theme coming through…
We spend so much time thinking and not nearly enough doing. We’re thinking about what we did wrong, what we should have done differently, what we didn’t do and what we can do tomorrow to make up for it all. All of that thinking generates a lot of emotion & tension.
Action, however, saves energy & creates peace. Plus, it moves you forward towards your goals while generating motivation and momentum.
Here’s what 3 different clients in my Masters Club have posted in the last 24 hours:
Bogged down in the thinking for way too long and then realized I could be DONE with one of the items if I had just been doing it instead of over analyzing the choice. I think I was trying to ‘pause’ but on a task that didn’t require pausing. I realized that I get bogged down in making the perfect choice on things that don’t really matter as a means of avoiding thinking about and making decision on what does. Definitely reaffirmed my goal of getting the baseline systems in place, get the mundane automated if not actually than practically.
As I said a few times to them this week: the magic is in the mundane!
And another:
Action is calming, over thinking is not. It seems the less tightly I hold onto the outcome, the more open my eyes, heart and mind become. This is a giant shift from my very calculated and very controlled planning self.
Action is calming, over thinking is not. So good. When we find ourselves caught in the thinking, how can we move from thinking to doing?
Last one:
The tough part of the journaling was how to manifest it when I feel in a slump. I kept circling back to action. Calm action. Either the action itself brings me joy and excitement (a road trip to the river with a friend) or the end result of the action brings me joy (the feeling of having a really clean house). Calm action as a bounceback strategy.
I keep repeating the words calm action in my journal. Over and over, I see it appear in my entries. Calm. Action. One thing at a time. Make the next move. Don’t worry about the one after that. Create joy with action. Stay calm. Take action. Be a tsunami of joy.
I feel like there’s so more I haven’t journaled about when it comes to joy. I’m cracking my world wide open. There’s so much joy and excitement coming my way that I haven’t even imagined yet, and action gets me farther down that path.
Wisdom, right? This is why I freakin’ adore the Masters Club.
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I took today off from the gym today, which I rarely do during the week but here’s why: due to my knee injury, I’ve been doing much more upper body training – strict press, push-ups, pull-ups. Upper body typically doesn’t recover as quickly as lower body and my upper body volume has been much higher than normal. I was feeling very sore (good sore) this morning and since I’m not traveling this weekend, I can get to the gym tomorrow (Saturday). So, Friday is an active rest day and I’ll get in a solid workout tomorrow.
On the food front:
Two things are making today’s food choices a bit different from normal. First, I’m not working out today so I’ll stay away from any starch. You won’t see sweet potatoes in my diet on a day that I’m not training. Second, I’m heading up to Maine with my mom & sister this afternoon so I’ll be sitting in the car for much of the afternoon & evening. Lots of time on my butt, less of a need for fuel.
This morning is all about the work hustle. I had a huge plate of cooked shredded cabbage this morning (sautéed with ghee & coconut aminos) and 2 eggs.
I had a couple ounces of macadamia nuts on the car ride along with coffee. All the coffee today.
I’m writing this before I head out so my guess is that I’ll have dinner with my mom & sister and it will be my largest meal of the day – starch free, focusing on protein, fat & veggies. Maybe a burger without the bun and a side salad or a piece of salmon and some veggies.
I hope you have a great weekend and remember: action creates peace! Consciously redirect yourself from thought to action.
We all have those days when we feel frustrated. Maybe we had a setback or we aren’t seeing the results we think we should. How do you react to frustration?
You expected to lose weight but you didn’t. How do you react?
You thought you’d crush the workout and you struggled the whole way through. How do you react?
You planned to eat clean and you overindulged instead. How do you react?
You’re stuck in traffic. How do you react?
You can choose a reaction that accelerates or decelerates your progress. Which do you choose?
How you react in moments of frustration determines the trajectory of your progress and represents a huge opportunity for improvement for most of us.
For most of my life, if the scale didn’t show the weight loss I thought it would, I’d throw my hands in the air and spend the rest of the day, weekend or week overeating. I’d have a big ‘ol pity party that was completely counterproductive.
No wonder I didn’t make much progress.
If I thought I’d crush a workout and instead found myself struggling to complete each rep, I’d leave the gym pouting and wondering why I even try. I’d sell myself this story about how it’s not even worth it, I’m just a loser and I might as well eat ice cream & Mexican food.
See the trend?
How we respond to frustration is a MASSIVE opportunity for most of us to improve.
These days, I use moments of frustration as an opportunity to get more focused.
My internal dialogue goes something like this: “Let’s focus. What does my best effort look like today? How can I work more efficiently or apply more discipline? What can I do?”
I have these opportunities to redirect every single day.
I get frustrated with my body. I get frustrated with my work. I get frustrated with relationships.
In those moments, you can go one of two ways: you can narrow your focus and move with more determination towards your goals or you can get dramatic & emotional and move further from them.
How we react to frustration is a huge opportunity for improvement. How can you improve your reaction to frustration?
Today’s workout totally smoked me in the best way!
27-21-15-9
KB swings
Heavy med ball slam
30 cal airdyne bike after each round
It took me a good long while to catch my breath after that one! Then I worked on my kip swing technique for a bit before heading to the chiropractor.
On the food front:
I had a big breakfast this morning: scrambled eggs with broccoli and leftover salmon from last night. So good! I enjoyed it after my workout and it made me smile. I love good food!
I took a bag of beet chips and some grilled chicken with me on my errands this afternoon and had more salmon and cauli rice for dinner when I got home.
Make today a great day & practice those responses to frustration!
Ben Bergeron released his first book a couple weeks ago: Chasing Excellence. I ordered it the day it was released, read it the following day and re-read it over the weekend. I then bought 21 more copies and will probably buy more.
I strongly recommend you get a copy and read it with your journal nearby.
In his book, he talks about the mindset required to be excellent. He trains some of the best athletes in the world and his primary focus is how they think.
He focuses first on the person: their character, mindset and mental toughness. Only with that solid foundation can he maximize their abilities.
In today’s episode, we’re talking about some of my favorite parts of the book and his principles can be applied to help you reach your goals.
Before we dive into this whole dancing business, let me tell you how these blog ideas come about. Typically, something happens in my day and I have a flash of thought: I need to write about this!
I make a note to myself in my phone and that’s all there is to it.
Yesterday I made the note: things I’ve learned from my sister. It was her birthday, so that makes sense.
Then this morning at the gym, I was warming up while the earlier class was in the middle of their workout. Calabria, Firebeatz Remix came on loud throughout the gym. Of course I wanted to dance. But I didn’t….
Why do we stop dancing? When do we start creating stories in our heads about what is appropriate and what isn’t? When do you stop doing what we want because of what other people might think? When did we put a silencer on our own joy and fun?
The narrative goes something like this:
I shouldn’t
People are watching
I’ll embarrass myself
I don’t know how to dance
I’ll look stupid
I don’t want to be the center of attention
Now, I realize not everyone is like this. If my mom is in the middle of the grocery store and hears a good song, she starts dancing. And singing. In fact, I would imagine that if my mom went to my gym (she doesn’t), she might go so far as to put down her barbell in a workout and just start dancing. That’s who she is. She has dancing in her heart.
However, I am sure there are things she does avoid because of fear of judgement from others. In fact, I know there are.
Whether it’s what you wear, when you dance, if you dance, if you act silly, or anything in between: just go for it. As one of my clients said in her journal the other day: be a tsunami of joy.
Here’s what I know would have happened if I had started dancing in the gym earlier: I would have smiled. Endorphins would have been released throughout my body. Other people might have danced, too. People would have smiled. Birds would chip and the sun would lift higher in the sky (okay…maybe not that part, but you just never know).
All this ties back to my sister, interestingly enough.
Debi is almost 2 years older than me. When she graduated from the 8th grade, I sang “I Hope You Dance” to her graduating class at their senior banquet.
On this day after her birthday I’ll say it again: Debi, I hope you dance. I hope you live out loud and choose to be a tsunami of joy.
I hope that for myself and I hope that for all of you.
Even though I didn’t dance, I sure as heck performed during my workout! I had to modify the hell out of it (re-write it all together) because of my knee, but I still got it done!
Slowly workup to a heavy single strict press
Slowly workup to a heavy single deadlift
AMRAP 7
Deadlift
EMOM 7
5 pushups
So basically for the AMRAP, it was as many deadlifts as possible in 7 minutes, stopping every minute on the minute to do 5 pushups. It got me good.
Full disclosure: it got me so good I came home and took a 1 hour nap!
On the food front:
Ah, all the food! Right after my workout I had a cobb salad with chicken, avocado, egg, tomato & bacon.
Around noon I had a mini meal of grilled chicken and a couple hours after that I had steak and sweet potato.
Dinner was homemade (rare occasion) a beautiful wild caught salmon filet (crispy skin for the win) and cauliflower rice.
Make today amazing! Choose to be a tsunami of joy!
