The blog of Live For Today Fitness.
The Fitness Lifestyle,
Simplified.
I just shared the audio version of The Obstacle is The Way by Ryan Holiday with a couple of friends tonight, so I thought I would post a few of my favourite quotes here.
In any circumstance your mindset (whether you choose good or bad) has the power to build you up to conquer your circumstance or break you down and destroy you.
It's like the story I recently heard re-told in the movie Tomorrowland...
Well, it's the Tuesday after Thanksgiving here in Canada and we're just getting into the cool fall weather here in Cambridge, Ontario.
Rach and I went on a walk this morning through a trail by our house and had a good conversation about where we are at in our own fitness journeys.
At times, because fitness is our business and because we have such high expectations of ourselves, we don't notice how far we've come.
This past month has been one full of indulgences and opportunities to get off track, yet as we sit here, after 3 weeks of family vacation, a ridiculously busy two weeks after getting home and a turkey filled thanksgiving weekend, both of us are looking and feeling better than ever!
For us Canadians, this weekend is Thanksgiving. (Sorry American's you'll have to wait a month to get your piece of pumpkin and apple pie!)
With thanksgiving comes many things. Cooler weather, the changing of leaves, time with family & friends, hockey (or football) and of course food.
Delicious, enticing, calorie-rich food.
...and lest we forget, with that food comes one less welcome addition: That extra 5lbs of holiday weight.
Ugh!
Now if it was just about avoiding gaining weight it would be easy.
You'd just stop eating when you got full, skip out on dessert and drinks and workout the way you normally do. Easy peasy.
The problem is that most of us are not ready to sacrifice the enjoyment that comes with thanksgiving dinner. It holds a special place for us sentimentally, and to be honest it's just nice to have nice feast once in a while!
So with that as our context, we have a problem to solve:
"How can you avoid gaining weight during the holidays when there is abundance of delicious, tasty food, and more importantly, how can we do it without hating our life and missing out on the enjoyment of our beloved thanksgiving feast with friends or family?"
What if I told you there was something you could tell yourself every time you had a temptation that would completely change your outlook? What if I could give you a tool that would stop that weekend long binge in it's tracks? What if you could stop after the buns and spend the rest of the weekend making progress?
What if instead of eating something you shouldn't, sitting at home instead of working out or making any other decision that runs counter to your goals, you had a tool that you could use to stop the damage or prevent it from even happening in the first place?
You may be able to keep up deprivation through sheer willpower for weeks, months or even years at a time, but at some point losing control is inevitable. Feelings of deprivation are simply not part of a sustainable fat loss system.
So… the question is, how do we fix this? Obviously we can’t just eat whatever we want to eliminate deprivation – that doesn’t work for fat loss. Likewise, simply using willpower to avoid eating anything “bad” doesn’t work either because the deprivation created by this method inevitably results in a rebound.
What we need is a solution that eliminates deprivation WHILE still allowing fat loss.
The solution is gratitude.
Below are several strategies that can be used to reduce stress. Not all strategies will work equally well for every person, but you should be able to find one or two here that work for you.
1. Minimize commitments that can cause any kind of deadline etc. - As soon as you put a deadline on yourself you are creating a stressor. If you're reasonable and only schedule a few deadlines this isn't an issue, but if you're like most people you'll inevitably take on too much and end up overstressed if you're not careful. Make commitments only for the most important items and let the rest wait.
2. Set bedtime schedule for sleep to get 7-10 hours of sleep - The more sleep you get, the more stress you'll be able to handle without cracking. For some people getting up to 7 hours is an accomplishment...
Learning to critically analyze articles as you read them is becoming an essential skill. There are so many extreme articles and blog posts shared on Facebook that it is very easy to become overwhelmed and confused about what the actual truth is.
Instead of throwing your hands up and giving up on being healthy, read on below to get a few tips on how to sort through the mess. By the end of this post you should be able to dismiss about 90% of these seemingly contradictory articles.
Whether it’s Crossfit, vaccinations, veganism, Paleo or any number of other topics there are always a myriad of biased articles from both sides.
Hey Everyone, Derek here.
Unfortunately this week I don't have a whole lot to post. I started a post on how to critically analyze research studies, but quickly realized that to do the post justice I will have to put some serious time into organizing it. There is simply a LOT of components to cover.
At first I felt bad about this, like I was letting myself, our business and anyone who reads our blog down. Then I remembered this post by Tim Ferriss. It's titled The Art of Letting Bad Things Happen.
In it, Tim reminds his readers that sometimes it's ok to let little bad things happen. You don't always have to be perfect. Sometimes you just have to let the little things go wrong so that you can take care of the big things. As long as those big things are taken care of, who cares if you screw up a little thing?
This workout was focused on Lower Body Strength sets:
- Sumo deadlifts 3x3 superset with power kettle bell swings
- Hip Thrusts 3x5 superset with power kettle bell swings
**I normally use a step for hip thrusts, but that was MIA ... so I resorted to hip bridging...I much prefer hip thrusts though.**
Mindset may just be the most critical aspect to successful fat loss. Heck, it may be the most critical aspect to success at anything. If you can’t control what goes on between your ears you’re bound to get discouraged by failures, put down by criticism and fall apart in the face of difficult circumstances.
For every factor that contributes to health and fitness, a good mindset is critical. Trying to stick to proper food choices? I hope you have a good mindset!. Want to make progress at the gym or stick to a healthy sleep schedule? Again, you’d better check your mindset.
