F Cubed: Fitness, Finance, and Faith

During any lengthy battle of physique transformation, which is harder, the mental battle or the physical battle? My knee-jerk reaction, which I think most would agree with, is that on any given day, the mental battle is more challenging. However, drawing on my experience with competition prep, I suggested that the physical battle might actually be harder at two very distinct points - the beginning and the end.

FOMO is real. And FOMO when it comes to faith might be the realest it gets. I know firsthand how it feels to wonder if going all in on Jesus might leave you feeling like you're "missing out". Make no mistake, I still struggle with this now - today. But the growth in my faith and my walk with God has revealed an important truth to me. The more you push towards Jesus, not only do you not miss out, but He unlocks doors in your heart you never even knew were there, let alone locked.

Man, you guys are in for a treat today! My man Angelo Liloc from MOD3RN NUTRITION joined the podcast today, and this dude has been on an incredible journey. He holds nothing back and shares an inspirational story of overcoming adversity that highlights his own path that lead him to an intersection of fitness and faith, where he came face-to-face with his One, True Identity. Lastly, he leaves all of us beginners out there, trying to find the motivation to finally make it happen, with a truth about the whole process of getting in shape that I had never realized before! You guys do not want to miss this one.

Everyone is always so focused on how much money they make. Everyone is so fixated on making more and more money that they so often forget one key thing: how much money you make doesn't matter...how much money you keep does. If you make a bunch of money, but you spend it all, then you won't move any closer to any of your financial goals. In today's society, with all the glitz and glamour on getting more stuff, saving money is no small feat - but it's the only way.

The image of Jesus as a Shepherd is pretty well-known within the Christian faith, as it's directly in Scripture...a few different times, I think. Well, thanks to Priscilla Shirer's Voice of God study, I learned a whole bunch about the relationship that shepherds had with their sheep back in the early days. This special bond has all kinds of interesting nuances and important implications for us today, and I share a few of the things I learned from Priscilla Shirer and a couple of ideas that spawned from that new knowledge.

I definitely thought it was episode #9 in this podcast, but it's clearly only episode #8. Nevertheless, here's an episode I was excited to do from the instant that the idea of a podcast popped into my head. With no shortage of options available to us, when it comes to nutritional strategies, why do I choose to track macros? In this episode, I share two detailed reasons why (it's what's happening inside of us anyway, and it better controls binges), and I lob some playful jabs at our keto and IF friends, while doing so.

Tonight, I'm shooting from the hip..! I recently made a discovery in my faith journey that lead me to viewing my day-to-day application of the gospel as a "circle" of sorts. It begins with the Word of God (although, as you'll hear in this episode, I didn't originally think it should start here.) You then submit your requests/dreams/aspirations to God, you do your best, you release yourself from any worry or anxiety over the outcome, and you finish by resubmitting that same prayer back to God. The re-submission part at the end was the piece of the puzzle that I just recently discovered, with the help of my wife, Autumn. Needless to say, it has had a powerful impact on me in a very short time, and it has helped to reshape how I view the "do your best" point on the circle.

Here in episode #6 of the podcast, we bring in our first guest - Flip Aguilera of Sweat Nation! And man, what an interesting guy Flip is. His holistic view of training and nutrition opened my eyes to some things I hadn't really considered before. We talk about training and nutrition, and Flip shares his thoughts on working with clients on fat loss, his views towards calorie counting, and his recent emphasis on "instinctual training". Oh, and we talk a little about when I just met Flip, we trained together, and he single-handedly buried me with his Downward Dog/Upward Dog superset that he sneakily labeled as a "warm-up".

In this first finance only episode of the podcast, I wanted to work through a powerful illustration that showcases just how valuable time is inside of the investment puzzle. To make this point, we start with the tiniest little seed: a penny.

The reality is, if you are in your 20s or 30s, then you have so much time on your side, that you need to start putting that to work for you immediately! If you are a little further along in life, then you've still likely got a "double" or two left in your portfolio, so you need to take today's message, run with it, and not wait another second!

Let's be honest - losing a lot of weight or shedding a ton of fat is hard. It's really hard. And to make it all the more difficult, I think people all too often feel pressure to continually grind lower each and every day. The reality is, however, even when we do everything perfectly, our day-to-day body weight can do some pretty wacky things. So instead of trying to move the scale lower every 24 hours, I offer up a strategic approach to using your lowest body weight each week as your new benchmark.