It's pretty safe to say that 2020 has been rough. For most of us, rougher than we've ever had it before by a long shot. But from pressure and suffering comes change, and mostly positive change at that... if you have been paying attention and not hiding under a blanket all year.

Today I discuss some of the major lessons and reinforced messages I was hearing loud and clear during our big double (plus time on x 5) lockdown. Truly important lessons that may not have gotten through had we all be rushing around doing the same old stuff we have been doing every other year.

As rough as this year has been, it is time to look at much of what has happened as a gift, not a curse. A gift that if you did have your head up, if you were paying attention, it will help shape a very promising future to come.

The human ego is a fascinating thing. Our ego guides so much of what we do, especially the decisions and behaviours we make that are detrimental to our health, fitness, relationships, work, lifestyle and mental state. It is so powerful that marketing and social media are intentionally designed to play to our ego's. To stroke it, to give us all the good juicy feelings of self worth, affirmation, envy of others, adoration and importance we crave for.

But is it helping? Is serving our ego making us happier or making it all so so much worse?

If you want to learn more about ego, I highly recommend reading 'Ego is the Enemy' by Ryan Holiday, and then exploring topics such as Ancient Stoicism. The positive self growth and contentment in my own life and the evolution of my own version of success have been greatly helped along as a result of the learnings from Ryan Holiday's books and stoicism.

Tyson's story is unique.

Living with FOP (Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva), where the soft tissue in his body regenerates as hard tissue, his condition is so rare that there is zero government funding available to fund research for a cure.

Tyson shares his journey with FOP, detailing the challenges he has to endure. But Tyson has this incredible knack for shining a light on his situation and appreciating all of the opportunities that have come to him as a result.

A truly inspiring chat, I hope you all enjoy listening to Tyso's story.

To learn more about and to support FOP, hit the link below

https://fopaustralia.org/

Don’t eat carbs

No! Eat carbs, but don’t eat fat

Go vegan

Drink this skinny tea

Eat protein, but only from white coloured meat

Don’t eat insert just about anything here because it’s ‘fattening’

Have this shake and this shake only, every meal, every day

You can only eat 1000 calories a day

You must intermittently fast

You must train fasted too

You must eat within a 30 minute window after training

No carbs after 5pm

Train every day as hard as possible at the gym, don’t you dare miss a sesh or your week is wasted

Walking burns more fat

Cardio burns more fat than weightlifting

Actually, lifting weights now burns more fat

Oops! Scrap that… back to cardio, but mainly running

Man... figuring out how fat loss works is f***ing exhausting!

I am here to put this to bed, forever. There are 3 variables and 3 variables only that we need to address when it comes to combatting fat loss, or weight gain, or any change to our body composition...

The COVID life has certainly rocked us and how we were doing life. But were we doing life to our best before all of this happened? Has the COVID struggle taught us some hard lessons and given us all a little wake up call on what is most important in our lives?

How have you managed working and schooling from home this year? Great success? Or epic fail?

The gym has been closed all year, forcing me to spend almost every moment of my day at home since March '20, I have failed A LOT, nailed A LOT and learnt A LOT.

6am Valor legend from across the Tasman, Jared Riesterer, has been in a similar boat. Jared jumps on the podcast and we share all the high and lows of remote life, and discuss all the thoughts, ideas and revelations we have had while working and schooling from home...

Why do we often not achieve our goals? Is it a loss of motivation?

I call bulls**t.

There is a little more to why we fail certain things and never seem to ever learn from them or overcome them. It has a little to do with purpose...

I hope you enjoy episode 1! If you enjoyed the episode, please share it around! Send it to a mate, post it on the socials, scream about it from your balcony. We appreciate every little bit of love and support.

Welcome to Season 1 of The Valor Podcast!

Gym's are great for improving physical and mental health, but it isn't as cut and dry as Do Fitness --> Eat Good --> Get Results = Happy. We need to dig a little deeper if we want true joy and contentment in our lives, which is often somewhere we are resistant to go. If we truly desire to be better and live better, it is going to take some Valor.

Join me each week as I share knowledge, ideas and experiences. As well as chat to others that know far more than me about how we can face adversity, challenge our current habits and beliefs, and overcome our struggles to live a happier, more purposeful, more content life.