Grahambles

Cheat meals and Holidays are like vacations

You work, save money, and live below your means for 50 weeks out of the year so that 1-2 weeks of the year you can not work, not save money, and live above your means.

This is great and gives a reprieve from the constant grind of life, stress, and work.

BUT it doesn’t work if you:

1) Don’t save money, live below your means, and work the majority of the year

OR 2) Stress and struggle to relax the whole time because you’re worried about spending too much money, or missing something at work, or gaining weight, or not working out on your routine, or missing your weekly TV shows, or not cutting the grass, or trying to make relatives or family happy…

This is the point: The entire reason you life sustainably, diet, and focus on creating a healthy and financial reserve for yourself is to allow space in your life to relax that and not worry.

When you go back to normal life, the money, the weight, the muscle will all settle back to normal, so enjoy it and shut your brain off!

Sure you can never take a vacation and work 24/7 and save money so you can retire comfortably one day, but you’ll be old then and the future isn’t guaranteed. Sprinkle in mini-retirements and vacations along the way to enjoy the journey! Same with cheat meals and planned off periods of your diet.

Stressing about eating releases cortisol, prevents gluconeogenesis/elevates blood glucose.

Stress causes cortisol release.

Cortisol release causes the body to not build muscle, hold onto fat, and keep glucose in the blood.

Elevated cortisol prevents you from sleeping and keeps you sympathetically activated.

Eating less healthy food happens. Whether or not you choose to enjoy it and not freak out about it is your choice. But understand that many times the thing that impacts your health and weight the most is your emotional stress reaction to what you ate!

Understanding that the value comes from the experience, not the quantity or logistics

Eat what you enjoy and what you want – nothing more.

When you buy a dessert, what do you buy? The experience, the taste, the enjoyment and happiness of that moment. But it is a diminishing return that often gives less value after each bite.

If you’re full, don’t want any more, or simply satisfied with what you’ve received, then stop!

By stuffing more food into you out of some “obligation” to not waste food, you’re not getting the value from what you wanted, you’re actually doing the opposite.

Here’s the point: If you don’t really enjoy it, or have reached your desired result, then stop! Simply doing what actually makes you happy and having the self knowledge and control to stop compulsively acting will solve many problems in your life.

I had an excellent opportunity today to speak in front of about 65 young soccer players at a college showcase. One of the big areas I focused on was about helping them prioritize their training. Everyone wants to put their time, energy, and money into sport specific training and special tactics to get an edge without realizing that they are missing the most important principles for success:

What is performance Training – Speed, agility, quickness, power, strength, conditioning

But, more importantly – coordination, control, balance, mobility, stability, and confidence

Spectrum of movement and physical development (0-100%)

3 Layers of Athletic Development:

General Physical, Mental, and Emotional Health

Physical Capacity and Ability

Sport Specific Skill

The Activity Specific Skill is built on top of the previous two layers. And Each layer is limited by the size of the layer below. You can only get as good as your physical strength and capacity allows. And you can only develop your body and strength as much as your health allows.

So this brings me to my point – If you focus on maximizing the thing you like the most at the expense of a more foundational and important element, you will end up limiting your potential.

This is true across all disciplines – work, sports, technical skills, even music.

The most important thing you can do to prepare for success is to build your priorities around principles. Focus on the underlying elements that build systems for long term consistency and success. Looking for the next tactic may give you short term gain but at the ultimate expense of your health or ability.

Here’s the thing, tactics are sexy. They promise quick return and untouched opportunity in the form of hidden secrets. But principles aren’t sexy. They’re boring, available to everyone, and require commitment.

Story about Mom asking me about nutrition help for the kid after talk, and kid asking about eating guidance.

Whether you want to succeed in work, relationships, sports, and life, you have to understand the basic principles that govern any discipline

Weight loss – Don’t snack. Don’t drink your calories, Cut out added Sugar. Boom.

Weight gain – Add 500 extra calories to your normal eating, Don’t skip meals.

Health – Sleep well and consistently, drink enough water, Exercise and move regularly.

Life – Be nice to people, don’t lie, Do what you say you’ll do, treat others how you want to be treated

Find the principles, prioritize those, and be patient. Once you master those, then look at tactics

https://youtu.be/Tgh6MfxTGeY - FOOT/ANKLE EXERCISE ROUTINE!

How shoes impact your ankles/knees/hips/back

-Feet are first point of contact with the ground – Will shift you forward (Leaning tower)

-Raised heel shoes on flat ground mean we rarely get natural dorsiflexion – stiff ankles

-Pronation is a natural thing, when we mess with that we alter the calf, ankle, foot, knee, hip movement. Pronation “Control” alters the foot strike

-Thick cushioned shoes allow you to heel strike when running and actually make it harder to run correctly. This engrains very poor movement patterns.

-Also, thick bottom cushion shoes increase the likelihood of lateral ankle rolling

-Tight shoes prevent the toes from moving well which atrophies muscle and dexterity

Choosing shoes based on Comfort/Functionality/Visual appeal - 3 Types of Shoes:

Aesthetic – Value based on visual appeal

Performance – Value based on improving abilities through technological features

Training/Everyday – Value based on maximizing foot/ankle movement (Functionality)

3 Elements of a good Everyday/training shoe

1) Flat

2) Flexible

3) Wide in the Toe Box

But what about arch support? Shoes and Casts/Crutches. Insoles and Corsets

Should we be barefoot? Talk about transition to more minimal shoes

Importance of training foot and ankle strength

Hand/Glove analogy.

Be barefoot more often

Tip Toe walks, Barefoot jogging after practice, Individual toe movements

Give yourself months to get used to less restrictive shoes and build movement over time

Don’t I need different types of shoes for activity?

Running shoes? And basketball shoes? And lifting shoes, and hiking shoes, and trail running shoes, and tennis shoes…??

-If shoe technology were really improving you should see a subsequent drop in injury

-Marketing pushes you to think about the shoes, not your feet

-Just because a shoe is made by an athletic brand does not make it an athletic shoe

Consistency between different types of shoes

Flip Flops and sandals

Boots – High ankles, stiff midsoles

High heeled shoes – work and dress up

Podcast #17 – How to set up for every lift - 4 Basic Principles you Need to know

Transitioning to free weights can be intimidating. You don’t have the built in restraints of machines and you have the added risk of weights. Plus there is the emotional factor of not wanting to look bad in front of all the “seasoned” gym rats. This is your simple check list to make sure that you are moving correctly and limiting risk.

Divide the body up into 4 levels: Feet, pelvic floor, Diaphragm, and Neck/Shoulders

Keep the knees over the midfoot in any position – Not caving in or pulled too far out

Keep the pelvic floor and hips in neutral – Not Extended or flexed

Keep the Diaphragm and rib cage locked down – Not extended or hunched over

Keep the Neck packed and shoulders neutral – Don’t jut the chin out and protract shoulders

Common Problem with feet – Collapsed arches, knees crashing in.

Fix – Err toward external rotation, abduction – Pushing Knees out

Don’t over correct by abducting so far that toes and knuckles lift off

Keep the entire foot in contact with the ground, that’s the point of your feet.

Common Problem with the hips – Too Extended

Fix – Err toward a more flexed position, bringing the front of the ribs and hips together

Don’t over correct and actually round your spine

Keep your pelvic floor engaged – Gird your loins, hold you pee, Cremaster muscle

Common Problem with Rib Cage – Too Extended

Fix – Err toward locking the rib cage down, exhaling firmly to brace core using diaphragm

Don’t over correct and lose a braced cylinder for the core by rounding the spine

Keep the Core braced with a firm exhale to set the rib cage before starting the movement

Common Problem with Neck/Scapula – Jutted forward head, internally rotated, protracted shoulder

Fix – Pack your neck, retract shoulders, think about pulling back

Don’t over correct by looking up and extending the upper spine artificially

Keep the shoulder blades engaged with the mid and lower traps, when you’re standing hands should be by your side with your thumbs pointing forward.

First thing on Google when you look up sugar is “How bad is sugar for you?”

Why does it get so much blame?

Overindulgence, cavities, disease, weight gain, energy highs, energy lows, addiction….

So if it’s such a villain in the food world, why do we still eat it, crave it, glorify it, and hoard it?

Well, it tastes good!

See the rest of the show notes at https://grahamtuttle.com/podcast

Everything cost something – time, money, energy, emotion, effort, other opportunities. But when you write off taking action on something that you know you need to do based off of any of those excuses, you aren’t looking at the full cost of something.

Letter in mail about insurance benefits – Joseph’s type 2 diabetes cost example

Doctor’s visits, medications, equipment, special arrangements, loss of energy, feeling bad, not being able to do the things you want to do.. These are all very real costs that have very real consequences.

People are twice as likely to move away from Pain as they are towards benefit or pleasure.

You’re more likely to change your diet because of GI problems, health concerns, or allergy than you are to change for more energy, better physique, or better performance.

You’re more likely to go see a doctor to fix an illness, solve a pain, or seek a way out of a health crisis than you are to work with a doctor on preventative measures, work with a trainer to improve your body, or seek out help to improve your diet to feel better, look better, and live better.

So what does it come down to? People will obviously spend the money when problems become “real” but it’s so obvious from the outside that it never needed to get that bad..

How do you make something important to you that just isn’t important to you?

- Actually write out the cost of something in terms of dollars, time, energy, and missed opportunity

- Seek out reminders of things that happened to people around you that could happen to you – preventable illnesses (diabetes, cancer from smoking, hearing loss, brain damage..)

Health loss – Loss of strength, loss of mobility leading to injury (little overuse problems, joint replacements, wheel chair bound, dependent on medication, pacemakers, pain pills…)

Physical size – being obese/overweight, needed extra accommodations for travel, needed extra help in the nursing home, needed wheelchairs to move around…

Work with a professional to reframe these situations and make a system that works for YOU. Far too often we talk down about that which we don’t understand. It’s scary and unknown so we choose to remain ignorant. FIND SOMEONE TO EXPLAIN THINGS TO YOU IN A WAY THAT YOU UNDERSTAND.

Just because investing money, saving for retirement, or budgeting your expenses may seem confusing doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist or isn’t important.

Same with nutrition,

Same with technology…

Next time you find yourself ignoring a problem, putting something off, or downplaying the effect of something negative in your life, stop yourself and take a moment to really consider what the actual cost of inaction is. It’s far more than you think

I do intermittent fasting – I shifted from 4 meals a day to 1 or 2. BUT, the questions is, should you?

Basic Mechanism – Fire burning off of newspaper vs a big log.

Carbs function like newspaper – quick energy which can lead to quick crash

Fats function like a log – long steady energy, but not easy to access.

When you eat, the food is broken down and either immediately used as glycogen in the muscle or is stored as replacement fuel in the muscles or excess as fat (lipogenesis)

After a period of not eating, the body works through the available glucose/glycogen and then switches to a fat based fuel source. In the absence of carbs this will turn into a ketogenic state after a period that varies from individual to individual. You can eat in a way that maintains this state by sticking to a high fat diet, OR you can come out of this state by introducing carbs or high protein amounts.

IF for anti-aging and maximizing health

IF for weight loss

Problems with IF

Most online workout instructors, health models, and fitness gurus look more like they are selling soft core porn than actual trying to deliver valuable information.

I’m not trying to say that there isn’t a place for idealized, beautiful people, but in a marketplace with generally confused consumers there is a lot more being sold than meets the eye.

Physical Health and mental health are intertwined and equally important for overall health and happiness. You need equally healthy halves to have a healthy whole.

If you don’t take care of your body you will suffer with less energy, focus, and probably be less fulfilled. BUT you can’t use the body to do what the brain needs to do - if you punish yourself and beat your body into submission without addressing the deeper questions of who you are and what matters to you, you’ll lack an ability to actually enjoy having “a great body”

When people diet down to minimal body fat and model or compete on stage, they’re generally in a very unhealthy state and it is definitely unsustainable. Everyone wants to look like that 24/7 without understanding that it’s not desirable or attainable.

As corny as it sounds, the journey of improving your health and fitness is truly more about learning to appreciate and love yourself. Because the sad spoiler alert is that if you don’t address that before hand or along the way, you will feel empty and exhausted when you get there.

People use exercise as an excuse to avoid that ALL the time. Some people jump in 110% to stay so busy that they can avoid the difficult work, other people avoid exercise with excuses and procrastination and live a sad story in their head about being too busy or just blaming other people. Unfortunately, your body is the one that takes the hit for all of this stuff.

So you have to ask yourself – “WHY” - Why do I want this? Why is this important for ME? Why now?

Do you really care about looking like that Instagram model you follow or would you really be happy with losing 10 pounds of fat? Do you really want to bench 400 pounds or would you be happy with a strong upper body that doesn’t hurt.

Take the time to think about what you actually want in life – not what someone else wants or thinks is important.  Most choices happen in this order – Feel better if you’re in pain or sick. Look better to stop carrying around baggage and unnecessary weight, then perform and live better to do what you actually want to do.

Find someone to help you get out of your own way, someone who you trust and who has your best interest in mind. Just a heads up, Social media following doesn’t always correlate to coaching ability.

“Dude, wait until you’re my age..” Yeah but wait until YOU’RE 20 years older…

As we age we do have changes in our hormone levels. BUT the biggest changes happen with our daily activity choices, the loss of play, the loss of sports, the loss of challenges.

We figure out what we “like” to do so we stop doing everything else since no one is making us do anything. But as a consequence we also lose the skill acquisition, the diverse movement profile, and the different strains on our body.

People that like to run, run. Same with Yoga, or video games, or lifting. We get boxed into this movement paradigm and don’t realize that we are slowly losing the resiliency to adapt and stay healthy.

Adding plyometrics in to your training can help slow this loss. But first we need to reframe what plyometrics are.

Plyometrics simply mean any movement done that incorporates elasticity and with the intent of speed and quickness.  This can be scaled up or down depending on what 3 things: ability level, experience, and health/injury/pain.

It may not be full effort sprinting. It may not be box jumps. It may not be broad jumps. It may not be max effort agility drills.

But it can definitely start out with Med ball throws, Prowler/sled pushes, skipping patterns, mini hops, speed ladder drills, quick feet step ups, shuffling, backpedalling, and directional change drills.

2 biggest indicators of fall risk – Foot Speed and Leg Strength

Old age doesn’t kill you or put you in a retirement home, that sudden fall one day in the garage does - **Story about my grandmother**

Falling in slow motion – Inability to catch yourself

Why is this important to you now though? You’re not 80! But as we age the hormone profile changes, which means that it becomes harder and harder to put on muscle, learn new skills, and recover quickly.

Remember the three starting indicators? The earlier you start doing this stuff, the easier it is to retain the neuromuscular information, the muscle mass is greater, and the joints/bones are more prepared for the type of training meaning that you can get more reps in and recover better.

If you want to age well, have quality over quantity, not have unnecessary pain, not have to deal with being a burden, then invest in your body NOW.

And if you need help getting started but don’t feel confident doing it alone, find a trainer that will walk at YOUR pace without letting their ego get in the way

What does it mean to be too busy? If you got in a life threatening accident and needed to go to the hospital, would you say you’re too busy?

Time is the most important resource in your life. More than money, energy, and things. You can get make more of all of that or get it back, but you can’t make more time. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.

The problem is that many people are stingier with all of those things than they are with time.

If you’ve ever not solved a problem costing you time and pain because of money…

If you’ve ever taken the easy route that delays an outcome because it takes too much energy..

If you’ve ever held on to old junk or old equipment that no longer serves for sentimental value or being a hoarder…

It’s different for everyone, but the point is that you’ve probably never thought of time as something you need to budget and use wisely.

Two Hard realities

1) You will never “find” time in life to do anything - you have to “Make” time.

2) The reality is that we make time for what is important to us.

The real question you need to ask yourself is WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO ME?

Happiness? Purpose? Community? Safety? Connection?

Finding joy and meaningful goals in life will help you more than anything else.

Striving for these big end goals is great. Without having something to work toward we often struggle to find motivation.

**Story about me starting online coaching helping reframe what I wanted to do with my time**

“Being Happy” “Feeling Safe” “Having a loving community/family/ friends” are huge end goals and can be overwhelming.

Instead of feeling overwhelmed, start with the simplest and most effective part of the process, building skills that develop into the habits that create the outcome.

If you are not proactive in your time allotment you will be Reactive - always be behind. Putting out fires, dealing with “obligations”, just barely meeting deadlines.

In the same way you would budget for retirement or big purchases, or lay out a diet or nutritional plan, take time to plan out where you want to spend your time.

Take a look at your week or day, and MAKE time for the most important things first.

REMEMBER, if it’s not actually important to YOU, you won’t follow through with it.

Make time for things brings you closer to what’s important to you by cutting out the stuff that isn’t.