Beyond Fit

“My friend the philosopher and martial artist Daniele Bolelli once gave me a helpful metaphor. He explained that training was like sweeping the floor. Just because we’ve done it once, doesn’t mean the floor is clean forever. Every day the dust comes back. Every day we must sweep.” -Ryan Holiday, The Ego is The Enemy

Ryan Holiday first introduced the concept of sweeping the floor to me in his book "The Ego is the Enemy" this phrase: "Sweep the Floor" has become one of my main mantras and a phrase I have written down so that I see it everyday. Sweeping the floor can apply to your diet and exercise routine (you can't get fit from one healthy meal/good workout and you can't get out of shape from one unhealthy meal/skipped workout) to relationships with your significant other, friends, or family. Sweeping the floor is about creating healthy habits.

“The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” -Warren Buffett

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” -Aristotle

Today I talked about meditation. Meditation has been a huge catalyst for positive change in my life and has many benefits including reducing stress, increasing focus and attention span, and improving your relationship with yourself.

I highly recommend using an app for meditation, my three favorites in no order are:

https://wakingup.com

https://www.tenpercent.com

https://www.headspace.com

Recently my friend Shane has been posting calorie deficit tips. I've had Shane on the podcast a couple times and he always brings the knowledge and a willingness to help my listeners! In addition to talking calorie deficits (the only way to lose fat) we discussed: eating enough protein (why protein supplements are useful here), the relative ease with which you can maintain a healthy body once you invest in your own education, the 80/20 principle as it relates to health, and some tips on easily upping calories (this is important at times too- find out why)! We even got to discussing comfort zones as it relates to your nutrition and trying new things with your fitness. Diet pop and Doritos even made it into the discussion, we covered a lot in a short time!

Shane's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1Te3FuWfmtACxAvZWsA1tA

Shane's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shanehubbardfit/

Shane's Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/shanehubbardfit

On this episode I discussed a strategy I use when deciding whether or not to treat myself to foods outside of my normal diet (For me things like desserts & beer). I ask myself "is it worth it?" to see if the thing will truly enhance my experience or not.

This podcast encompassed a lot. These three concepts have been at the top of mind for me recently and I wanted to clarify and get my thoughts out on them. It is my hope that you will find value in the things I have to say here as far as opinions, explanations, and advice. Major topics covered were the difference between an abundance mentality and a zero sum mentality, loving everyone with no strings attached and how selfishness plays into this paradoxically, and how to be spiritually healthy in important yet overlooked ways like focusing on what is under your control or doing what you say.

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Quotes I mentioned (and a couple I didn't mention that apply):

Today I talked about 3 ways where eating "healthy" doesn't work including overeating, binging, and not knowing what constitutes a healthy food.

My podcast with Matt McLeod where we had a good discussion about macros:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beyond-fit/id1456684420?i=1000463172754

Jay Vincent is a fitness model, and gym owner. He specializes in High Intensity Training (HIT) which is a very unique topic I've been interested in lately. In relation to talking about HIT we talked about recovery time, genetics, frequency of workouts (Jay actually only works out once a week), and many other topics! 

Heres the breakdown:

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Unfortunately, you won't always feel motivated to go to the gym and exercise, work on improving yourself, or get work done. This is why we need to remember James Clear's quote: “We do not rise to the level of our goals we fall to the level of our systems.” Motivation can be a helpful tool just like a supplement, but when it comes down to it, what is going to make the difference is consistent, hard work and not something as fleeting as feeling motivated.

"When your vision is powerful enough, everything else falls into place: how you live your life, your workouts, what friends you choose to hang out with, how you eat, what you do for fun." -Arnold Schwarzenegger

Today on the podcast my guest was Matt McLeod who is a former professional natural bodybuilder, Registered Dietician, and a very open-minded and intellectual thinker like myself! We found ourselves talking about a lot of meta life philosophy that led me to reflect on the above quote. Matt and I share a vision of wanting to help others live a better life while being the best version of ourselves we can.

Among the many things we talked about was why the podcast format is unique, how your outlook on life determines your course, how to "escape competition through authenticity" and a good discussion to wrap up about the benefit of tracking macros even if for a short period of time!

Matt's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattmcleod6/

Matt's Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-more-than-fitness-podcast-with-matt-mcleod/id1454414707

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