The same is true of fat loss. You aren’t competing against your friends. You don’t need to beat them in order win. You aren’t “behind them” if they are progressing more quickly than you are.
In today’s episode I’m serving up an attitude adjustment about training, competing, comparison and working on weaknesses. Don’t miss it!
What a weekend. I decided to more or less isolate myself for an almost 4-day fast. My last meal was post-workout early Thursday afternoon and I broke the fast this morning (Monday) before my workout.
Why isolate?
It’s best for everyone when I’m fasting 🙂 Just ask Ella.
I tried to use any stressful or difficult moments during this fast to take a walk outside, meditate or journal. I had a couple of great realizations during my fasted meditations that I’m looking forward to sharing with you guys sometime soon. I haven’t decided if I’ll share them on the podcast or if I’ll turn them into workshop ideas for this fall’s transformation weekend.
One of the things I really worked on during this fast was not resisting myself & my choices.
Sometimes, whether it’s fasting, working out or making fat loss friendly food choices, it feels like you’re fighting against yourself. Know what I mean?
You really want to do the hard work but there’s almost an internal battle raging.
Your better intentions versus your desire for “easy”.
During this fast, I tried to be really tuned in to the moments when I was resisting my best intentions or fighting against myself.
I’d take a few deep breaths and remind myself, “This isn’t a battle. There’s only one team here”
I carried that attitude into today’s workout.
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t love to see running in my workouts. Every step feels like I’m running uphill through molasses in the winter.
Today, before the first step I reminded myself, “Hey. This isn’t a battle. You aren’t fighting against yourself. There’s just one you. Everything is in favor of progress & momentum. No battles.”
As I thought that, I looked up and noticed the writing on the back of an athlete’s shirt.
Nil sine labore.
Of course I immediately smiled. I was a Latin major before switching to nutrition, remember? I’m quite a geek & I’m proud of it.
Nothing without labor.
Nothing without effort.
Yes, the fast was hard. But, nothing without effort.
Yes, running is a challenge for me. But, nothing with effort.
If you want great things for your life, your health, your body, your finances, your career or your relationships – you will HAVE to show up & do the hard work.
Nil sine labore. Nothing without effort.
“Clean Slate” 5 Rounds:
9 Power Cleans (85#)
15 Push-ups
21 Squats
200m Run
Can we talk about how tough those push-ups got by just the 2nd round?
But, nothing without effort.
On the food front:
I broke my fast this morning with cauliflower soup. It’s light, fat loss friendly & I think it’s super delicious.
I planned to have that be my single meal before my workout but by the time I got to the gym I was feeling pretty hungry. My Paleo Power Meals had been delivered to the gym so I had enough time to chow down on 2 grilled chicken strips before the workout.
Around 4:30pm I had a big salad and, since I’m coming off a fast, that’s all I’ll have for today. No need to dive right into a bunch of large meals.
My salad was red & green cabbage, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, chicken, avocado and about a tablespoon of sunflower seeds.
Here’s to everyone making it a great day! Nil sine labore!
Yesterday afternoon I kicked off a weekend fast. My plan is to go for 4 days but I’ll make that decision based on how I feel as the days go by.
For me, the first 36 hours of a fast are the hardest. Mentally, I want to eat. Adjusting to not eating takes some time.
When I did my 5-day fast back in March, I was with my girlfriend Ella. We literally were in the same house. It made it much easier to get through the tough moments when we wanted to quit.
Last night, I wanted to quit. I wasn’t particularly hungry but I was bored and really craved the routine of eating.
It got me thinking about what I do when I want to quit, how I behave when I want to quit. Whether it’s a workout, a fast, or just the discipline of eating for health & fat loss – what do I do when no one is looking and I want to quit?
In the past, I’ll tell you exactly what I did: I quit.
I gave up on myself and gave in to excuses.
I’ll tell you what I did last night.
I recognized that my mindset wasn’t in a positive place – I was thinking about what was hard and what I didn’t want to do.
I asked, “Do I have one good choice left in me?” Yes, of course.
I took a hot shower
After the shower I took my time with eye cream & moisturizer
I cleaned the kitchen thoroughly
I poured two large glasses of water & turned out the lights
I pulled up inspiring athlete documentaries and watched a couple of them – I wanted to focus on people who push through hard things and work hard in difficult moments
I went to bed when I felt tired
I had the choice to generate motivation & focus or generate excuses & self pity.
I chose to generate motivation & focus.
We all have that choice all the time.
As I write this, you know what it makes me think of? One of my fave Primal Potential podcast episodes ever: How to bounce back.
Granted, I didn’t need to “bounce back” last night – but I did need a process beyond feeling sorry for myself.
If you haven’t listened to that episode, please do! We struggle when we don’t have a plan in place for the moments that are hard & we want to quit.
It’s what you do when no one is looking and you feel like giving up or giving in that determines how far you go in every area of your life.
What do you do when no one is looking & you feel like giving in?
Today’s workout should be a straight forward one. It is a 17 minute AMRAP which means you do as many rounds as possible in 17 minutes.
“Maya”
AMRAP 17:
20 Calorie Bike
17 Power Snatches (75/55)
20 Box Jumps (24/20″)
17 Wallballs (20/14)
After all the biking yesterday, I wasn’t too excited to get back on the airdyne today but you know what? It makes me better!
On the food front:
Uh, yeah. I’m fasting. 🙂
I was pretty hungry around 7am but it faded quickly. I’m already grateful for this reminder about hunger. I texted my girlfriend that I was hungry a few minutes before 7am and as I write this at 7:13am, I’m not hungry at all.
I am fasting this weekend. I’ve talked about fasting & my experience with it on the podcast – I even did a 5 day fast a couple months ago. I was incredibly unsure of my desire and ability to complete a 5-day fast but it was one of the best experiences I’ve had in any health pursuit.
It gave me a valuable new perspective on hunger and taught me important lessons about sleep, rest and hydration. I felt absolutely amazing after the 5 days.
I won’t be doing a 5-day fast this time, in fact, I’m not quite sure how many days it will be (but not 5).
I’m starting this afternoon, after lunch, and I’m doing it for a few reasons:
I feel like it (this is really the most important one)
it’s a rare weekend without obligations, which makes it easier
I want to work through my stored muscle & liver glycogen (more on this on Saturday’s podcast, episode 331)
to reduce inflammation
I ate breakfast this morning (balsamic glazed chicken with cherry tomatoes) and I’ll eat again after my workout.
Once the fast begins, I’ll stick to a SMALL amount of black coffee and lots of water. I won’t have any MCT oil or bone broth. That is simply my preference.
Today’s workout is pure endurance – I much prefer strength but I’m grateful for diversity and opportunity to work on areas of weakness.
It was pretty dang exhausting:
105 cals on the airdyne bike
2000m row
105 cals on the airdyne bike
The lactic acid burn in my quads during those bike rides was INTENSE. I am really glad that one is over but I’m psyched that it kicked off my fast because I sure tapped into that muscle glycogen!
(Glycogen is the storage form of sugar in your muscles. Your muscles have a limited storage space for dietary sugar. Once that storage space is full, and your limited liver storage is also full, any excess sugar gets converted to & stored as fat. Once in the muscle, however, glucose can’t leave the muscle. It has to be used by the muscle tissue. Your muscles lack the enzyme to release the sugar from the muscle tissue. It can only be used to fuel activity.)
On the food front:
I shared with you guys that I had grilled balsamic glazed chicken & cherry tomatoes this morning and my last pre-fasting meal after my workout. As tempting as it is to “eat all the things” before a fast, that would make the fast much more challenging as cravings would be through the roof and hunger would be less stable.
So, I made myself a super huge salad with grilled salmon, avocado and some macadamia nuts.
I spent the rest of the afternoon drinking lots & lots of filtered water.
That will be my last meal until I break my fast. Stay tuned!
Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve had nightmares. Creepy, violent nightmares.
Until recently, I’d wake up from a horrifying nightmare and be haunted by it.
I’d see the images, think about the scenes & focus on the fear. One short nightmare would disrupt an entire night of sleep because I just “couldn’t” shake it.
Last night, I had a nightmare. I woke up from it startled and afraid.
Within seconds, I found my thoughts returning to the nightmare and going back to the pictures & scenes.
I smiled as the automatic thought interjected the drama:
I control my thoughts, my thoughts don’t control me.
I get to direct my focus.
It’s just as true in the middle of the night as it is in the middle of the day.
And it works.
I redirected my thoughts to good things that had happened that day, things I’m grateful for and things I am looking forward to in the next few weeks.
The nightmare faded away. By choice.
Today’s workout was another chance to practice controlling my thoughts instead of letting my thoughts control me.
“Big Clean Complex” 6 Sets of the Following Complex:
High Hang Squat Clean + Hang Squat Clean + Squat Clean + Push Press
High Hang Squat Clean + Hang Squat Clean + Squat Clean + Push Jerk
High Hang Squat Clean + Hang Squat Clean + Squat Clean + Split Jerk *Goal is to build in weight each set
Let me explain this. It’s okay if you don’t know exactly what these moves are. You can always Google them if you’re curious.
One “set” is completed without putting the barbell down. So you deadlift the barbell and then, without putting it down, you do:
a high hang squat clean
a hang squat clean
a squat clean
a push jerk
a high hang squat clean
a hang squat clean
a squat clean
a push press
a high hang squat clean
a hang squat clean
a squat clean
a split jerk
That makes 1 set and you’re doing 6 with rest in between each. Since you don’t put the barbell down for all 12 lifts, it’s taxing on your grip, on your glutes, on basically everything!
When I saw the workout, I was instantly worried about two things: my grip and my strength.
I worried that my grip would fatigue as the weights got heavier and I worried that I wouldn’t be able to get progressively heavier with each set.
Within seconds of those thoughts of worry, I reminded myself:
I control my thoughts, my thoughts don’t control me.
I started thinking: I love barbell workouts! Plus, 1 set is done in less than a minute and then I can rest for a few minutes before loading weight for the next set. It’s the best of both worlds, metabolic and heavy!
Each time I approached the barbell I thought: I’m the lightening! I’m strong, fast & powerful!
I have it in me to bring my best effort for the next 40 seconds or so!
Someone commented on social media yesterday that I sometimes seem super human.
Oh friends, I am SO not super human. I lose my temper, I feel self-conscious, I make choices I later wish I hadn’t made.
But if I have any super power at all, it’s the same one you have too, whether you exercise it or not:
I know I’m in control of my thoughts and if I don’t like how I feel, it’s time to change my thoughts.
I know that I’m just one or two choices away from a good mood at any moment in time.
I think that’s one hellof an attractive super power!
On the food front:
I ate a couple hours before my workout today. I had a delish cobb salad.
After the workout I had another Paleo Power Meals speciality: steak strips and sweet potato fries. Why carbs before dinner? After a heavy lifting workout, it was the right call for my body today.
For that reason, dinner will be light on the carbs, including those from veggies. I’m sticking with grilled chicken and a small amount of pickled brussels sprouts.
