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Four Lessons From Four Years at FFC

Last week, I celebrated my four year work anniversary at Fitness Formula Clubs. For those of you who don’t know, FFC is the gym in downtown Chicago where I train my in-person clients. I spent the week reflecting on all the lessons I’ve learned from my wonderful clients and coworkers. 

When I first moved back to Chicago, I wasn’t sure if I would stay in the fitness industry. My life was in a state of enormous upheaval after leaving the classical music world, quitting grad school, and moving cross country for the third time in five years. I knew I loved fitness, but I didn’t know if I could build a lasting career in the field. However, I decided to continue training while I figured things out.

I interviewed at nearly every gym in the city, but the vibe was different at FFC. I could tell the management team was truly invested in the well-being and education of the training team. The facilities were great (and they’ve only gotten better over the last four years) and the atmosphere felt right. After considering a few other offers, I started work at FFC Union Station on June 18, 2015.

2015 me

Despite my good first impression, the first six months on the job were rough. Although I had coaching experience, I had very little business experience. I probably wouldn’t have stuck it out past the end of 2015 if it weren’t for the support and mentorship of some of my coworkers and managers.

Eventually, I began to find my stride. Constantly learning new things made me a more effective coach and helped my clients obtain better results. As time passed, I also built deep relationships with many of these clients. I ultimately chose to abandon plans to pursue another career and devote myself 100% to a life of coaching. Years later, I still feel this was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Read more: Personal Training as a Second Career

In honor of my work-iversary, I want to share four lessons I’ve learned over the last four years. These are insights I’ve gained by observing my clients’ hard work as they travel the difficult path of lifestyle change. Success leaves clues, and after working with hundreds of people, I’ve observed some key similarities between those clients doing the best.

There’s more to getting in shape than eating right and exercising. 

All my clients (and probably everyone reading this) know they need to eat healthy food and regularly hit the gym to achieve their goals. However, if you’re serious about getting and staying in shape, there are other factors which are arguably even more important.

One thing that sets my most successful clients apart from the rest is their understanding that true health is multifaceted. It involves looking after your body, mind, emotions, and sense of purpose and connection. To truly look, feel, and perform your best, you need all of these:

It’s relatively simple to follow a strict eating and exercise plan for a few months when you don’t have a lot going on. But what happens when life gets in the way? In my experience, clients who pay attention to the second half of the list are much more resilient and better able to take care of themselves even with limited resources or an influx of additional stress.

No one nails this entire list on a daily basis (I certainly don’t). However, if you’re serious about achieving your health and fitness goals, you will have to address all of these issues in time. I’ve seen clients make some truly amazing progress when they start looking beyond the obvious things and get to the root of what’s standing in their way.

Consistency wins. 

My most successful clients are also my most consistent clients. Clients who attend all their scheduled sessions make significantly more progress than clients who frequently miss workouts. Clients who dutifully perform their physical therapy exercises and pay attention to mobility recover faster from injuries and are much more resilient in their daily lives. And clients who follow an eating plan six or seven days per week see much faster results than clients who indulge a little too much on the weekends.

Consistency is the closest thing to a magic bullet when it comes to achieving any health and fitness goal. Do yourself a favor and find a way to do the important things on a more regular basis.

Everyone needs support.

All my clients are smart, successful people. I’m in awe of what some of them do on a daily basis and I would never tell them how to do their jobs or take care of their families.

However, nobody can be an expert in everything. Hiring a trainer is one of the best ways to jump-start progress and bust through plateaus. It’s incredibly helpful to hand over your workouts to someone else you will ensure you make the most of limited time and push yourself in a safe and structured way. This is a lesson I really took to heart a few years ago when I began working with trainers of my own. I’ve seen such great progress that I hope to never write my own workouts or nutrition plans ever again.

Even if you never hire a trainer, you’ll enjoy more success if you have direct support for your fitness goals. Many of my long term clients have built strong friendships with other gym regulars. It’s been fun for me to watch these members interact and support each other in many different areas of their lives. It’s always easier to come to the gym if you know you get to hang out with your friends.

We also need support beyond the gym. It’s important to discuss your efforts with your family or partner to ensure everyone is on the same page. My most successful clients have honest conversations with the people in their lives about why they want to change and what they need to make it happen. Even if family members don’t need or want to make the same choices as my clients at first, they are often inspired to get in shape themselves once they see the results.

Read more: The Power of Accountability and Community

The journey is the destination.

Most people join a gym or hire a trainer because they have specific goals. They want to lose 20 pounds, complete their first marathon, or learn how to train safely after an injury. It’s always fun for me to create the first training program for a new client and help them crush these goals.

However, my most successful clients are the ones who realize that getting and staying in shape is a lifelong process that doesn’t end once you achieve your initial goal. It’s vitally important – and often much more challenging – to sustain your results for weeks, months, and years after you hit your goal. You have to continually recommit to the process and find ways to incorporate your new healthy habits into a lifestyle that’s enjoyable, meaningful, and sustainable. 

In some cases, clients I’ve had for years are still chipping away at their first goal. What helps these clients stave off frustration and keep them coming back? First, 100 percent of the time they experience benefits they weren’t necessarily expecting such as increased energy, more strength, fewer aches and pains, and more confidence in their daily lives. 

Second, they find fulfillment in the act of showing up and doing their best. They like working out, being active outside the gym, and learning to cook healthy meals at home. Rather than obsessing over their destination, they learn to enjoy the journey.

It takes much longer than we’d like to achieve many fitness goals. While we can control our actions and behaviors, we can’t control our outcomes. It’s vital to learn to love the process if you want long-term success.

happy group of runners enjoying the benefits of a healthy lifestyle
What will you be able to do when you are consistent, patient, and dedicated to your health and fitness goals?

I’m taking time this week to reflect and be grateful. My job has difficult aspects like everyone’s, but I’m so lucky to be able to come to work at a great gym every day. Thank you to all the clients who’ve trusted me with your health over the years. I’ve learned as much from training and getting to know you as you’ve hopefully learned from me. I couldn’t ask for a cooler group of people with which to spend my days.

Interested in working with me in Chicago? Send me a message here and I’ll help you set up a complimentary consultation at FFC. If you don’t live in Chicago, you can apply for my online training program here.

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Stress: the silent killer of results

I’ve spent most of my career working with busy urban professionals. Despite superficial differences in demographics, there is a common thread connecting the people I work with: most of them are very stressed out. Sometimes, the inability to properly manage stress is the single biggest factor preventing my clients from achieving their goals at the gym.

Don’t believe me? I understand on a personal level just how devastating excessive stress can be. Recently, my own failure to manage stress created a cascade of negative consequences in my own life.

I started my blog and online training business in 2017 because I loved writing and wanted to share my ideas and experience with a broader audience. In an effort to build my business, I established weekly deadlines for myself. Each week I planned to write a new blog, send two emails to my list, post daily on social media, shoot a new video, and do a Facebook Live. This was in addition to writing programs for all my clients, answering emails, doing administrative work, and training all of my in-person clients. I was cranking out content left and right. If I wasn’t on the floor with a client, I was posted up in a coffee shop writing. I was at the gym 12-14 hours most days, and almost every single second was filled with work.

Over the course of many months, my self-imposed deadlines became more and more suffocating. After a while, I felt completely drained of ideas and creativity. Then, I started dreading my workouts and slacking at the gym. I lost interest in things that used to light me up and experienced near constant anxiety. It was increasingly difficult to sit still, and even harder to relax and unwind. I worried incessantly about nearly everything in my life.

I had taken on too much but refused to admit it. In my head, I had to do all the things if I wanted to be successful. I was running blindfolded toward a cliff ledge, but I still thought I could avoid falling off if I just worked harder. I refused to do anything about my stress levels and was arrogant enough to think I wouldn’t have to face any consequences for the way I was treating myself.

The turning point came when my failure to address my stress and anxiety contributed to the resurfacing of an old eating disorder. I gained weight, felt physically terrible, and stopped being able to show up the way I wanted in my work and my relationships. I could no longer live in denial because stress had clearly affected both my physical and mental health. My body and brain were sending me a strong message that something had to change. Among many other things, I started going to therapy and made drastic changes to the way I worked. Only after addressing my stress problem was I able to fall back in love with the gym and recommit to my health and fitness goals.

working nonstop can create excessive stress, which negatively impacts your life and health

I share this story with you because I want you to see how poorly managed stress can stymie your efforts to look, feel, and perform better. You may think stress is no big deal, but left unchecked it can easily consume your life. If you’re trying to change your body, push performance, or build a healthier lifestyle, it’s absolutely essential to get a handle on your overall stress levels. Failure to do so will continuously sabotage your attempts at change and potentially lead to serious physical and mental health problems.

Below, I describe a few ways stress interferes with your progress in and out of the gym. I also share some of the stress management strategies that have been most helpful for myself and my clients.

How does stress stop me from getting in shape?

The presence of excessive stress hormones can have a direct impact on your physiology. What’s easier to understand, however, are the insidious ways stress affects your overall well being. These things make it hard to lose weight, get stronger, recover from injuries, or build healthier habits.

One of the first side effects of high stress levels is poor sleep. When you’re stressed out, it’s harder to fall asleep and stay asleep. This has negative implications for your entire life because without sleep, your body and brain can’t fully recover from the demands of your workouts, job, and personal life. You’ll feel worn down, beat up, and struggle to keep up with daily activities.

Sleep is especially important for body composition goals like losing fat or building muscle. If a client’s diet and training are on point but they’re struggling to see physical changes, I can often trace it back to a lack of sleep.

It’s tough to stick with a diet or nutrition plan when you’re stressed out. For some people, excessive stress makes it even harder to find the time and energy to plan, shop, and prepare healthy meals. Other people are so stressed they skip breakfast or lunch, only to overeat later in the day.

Sometimes stress itself causes powerful cravings for sweets and other comfort foods. Eating these foods causes a chemical reaction in your brain, releasing “feel good” neurotransmitters and hormones which provide a stress-relieving rush. Unfortunately, this feeling is only temporary and is usually followed by an energy crash and feelings of guilt. Left unchecked, this cycle can eventually spiral into full-blown disordered eating.

In addition to affecting sleep, recovery, and your ability to stick to a diet, excessive stress has a negative impact on your workouts. First, stress reduces your energy levels and performance. You’ll likely move slower, feel sluggish, and have a hard time focusing on technique. Additionally, it’s hard to give your all at the gym (such as attempting new personal records or testing your strength and endurance) when your nervous system is exhausted from a persistent high dose of stress. In fact, too much high intensity training combined with high levels of overall stress from elsewhere in your life is a recipe for disaster (more on this below).

Second, stress can impact your motivation to train. If you have a million things on your plate or feel overwhelmed by life, working out is often the last thing you want to do. Although no one feels motivated all the time, something isn’t right if you find yourself constantly dreading the gym.

Finally, if you’re not careful, unchecked stress can compound and lead to serious physical and mental health problems. These problems require legitimate medical attention and can potentially sideline you from pursuing other goals.

It’s easy to tell yourself this only happens to other people to justify your lack of self-care. However, my story provides a warning that we are all at risk. Because I was in denial and went so long without managing my own stress levels, I’m now knee-deep in the work of recovering from an eating disorder. I know I have to make progress with this before I can recommit to my long term weight loss goals. If I don’t, the problems will only resurface in the future.

If you suspect your stress levels may be negatively impacting your physical and mental health, do yourself a favor and start experimenting with some of the stress management techniques below.

if you're stressed out, it's hard to find motivation to exercise

Ok, so I’m stressed out. What can I do about it?

Just breathe. My favorite in-the-moment stress reduction technique is to focus on slow, deep breathing. Breathe in for a count of five, hold your breath for a count of five, exhale slowly for a count of five, and then hold empty for another count of five before repeating the cycle. Returning to the breath, especially in moments of heightened anxiety and fear, reminds me I’m still alive and everything will be ok. It leaves me feeling calm enough to return to work with a level head. Try it out yourself the next time you find your stress levels building to a crescendo.

Get more sleep. This is one of the easiest things you can do to feel better on a daily basis. Most adults feel best with 7-9 hours of sleep each night. Don’t underestimate the power of short naps to fill in the gaps helps you get through the day if you have trouble getting this much sleep at night.

Read more: Make this one change and everything gets easier

Don’t overdo it at the gym. Your body doesn’t know the difference between work stress, personal stress, and the stress from your workouts. If you’re going through a rough patch, it’s a bad idea to crush yourself with hard workouts every day of the week. This is a guaranteed way to run yourself into the ground, risking burnout and injuries along the way. When in doubt, reduce the intensity and frequency of your training sessions. Skip the high intensity interval training and focus on restorative low intensity cardio like easy walking or cycling. Don’t try to set personal records; you may also consider temporarily removing barbells from your workouts.

Create a daily self-care/stress management practice. We are all extremely busy, but it’s important to make time to do something most days that’s just for you. My practice is simple: I try to meditate for 10-20 minutes and read for at least 10 minutes every day. If I don’t do this, I find myself getting too wrapped up in work or in my own head. Some people like to take a leisurely walk or spend time outside. Others call loved ones to vent or catch up. Some of my friends treat themselves to a face mask or relaxing bath. The key is to pick activities which leave you feeling refreshed and recharged; this shouldn’t feel like a chore. Start small and experiment to see what works best for you.

Manage your time and energy. This is the place where my clients struggle the most with stress management. If you struggle to set boundaries, you will inevitably find yourself pulled in a million directions. Managing your energy levels is crucial because it helps you prevent the accumulation of stress in the first place.

To start this process, get honest about what’s really important to you. Many of us waste tons of time with stressful busywork and tasks which add little value to our work or personal lives. You may benefit from doing an audit of your week to see where you’re really spending your time. Whenever possible, delegate tasks or ask for help from coworkers, friends, and family. Practice saying no to things that don’t serve you or drain your precious mental and emotional energy. If you’re used to constantly capitulating to requests, this can be jarring and scary at first. It’s worth the temporary discomfort, however, if the result is less stress, more time to focus on the things that matter most, and greater respect from the people in your life.

Finally, I encourage you to find ways to do less. It was (and still is) incredibly challenging for me to cut back on my expectations for myself and take on less work. However, I’ve learned that I can’t and don’t need to get everything done. Do the things you have to do and leave the rest. Don’t forget to set aside time for rest, relaxation, connection, and play.

Therapy. There are lots of misconceptions about what therapy is all about; like many people, I used to believe that only people with serious illness or those processing grief or trauma went to therapy. The reality is therapists provide a wide variety of services and support for people in every imaginable life situation. One of the biggest benefits I’ve gotten from going to therapy is learning to better manage stress. I worked with my therapist to take an honest look at how I structured my work day and readjust the expectations I set for myself.

If life feels out of control for any reason, it’s ok to ask for professional help. Having an impartial third party can help you manage your time and energy, improve your communication skills with coworkers and loved ones, and get more in touch with what really matters to you.

going to therapy can help you manage stress

In today’s #hustleandgrind culture, it’s easy to feel like work never ends and there’s no time for rest. But the reality is no one can maintain this nonstop pace indefinitely. Humans are wired to alternate between periods of hard work and focus and periods of down time and relaxation. Pushing through limits for too long can create a host of negative effects in many areas of your life. If you don’t make time to take care of yourself and manage your stress levels, you will have a hard time achieving any health or fitness goal. You owe it to yourself to take an honest look at your stress and figure out a sustainable, healthy path forward.

Regular exercise is an essential part of any self-care practice. If you’re struggling to build a consistent training routine, you should check out my 4C System Course. This free 5-day email course teaches you the tools I use to help my clients become lifelong lovers of exercise.

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Try This to Set New Year’s Resolutions You’ll Actually Keep

It’s that time again: time to pull out the planners and chart a course for the new year.

For many people, setting New Year’s resolutions is an enjoyable process. It can be exhilarating to think of all the big things you plan to achieve. There is a sense of hope and possibility around this time that can difficult to recreate later in the year.

For others, this time of year is full of anxiety, disappointment, and even shame. Maybe you didn’t accomplish everything you wanted to over the past year. Perhaps you’re reminded of a resolution you’ve repeatedly set and failed to keep. You may feel so overwhelmed by your immediate challenges that it’s difficult to take a step back and think about the bigger picture.

Here’s some good news: failing to achieve goals doesn’t mean you are a failure. Setting goals isn’t necessarily something you’re good at right out of the gate; it is a skill you need to be practice and develop. Regardless of your past results, you can use certain strategies to set more realistic and meaningful New Year’s resolutions this time around.

I’ve previously written about finding goals which actually matter to you and the deeper meaning behind the most common health and fitness goals. Today I want to discuss goal setting from another angle: how the types of goals you set affects whether you make lasting changes.

Outcome Goals vs Habit Goals

We are all familiar with outcome goals:

  • I want to lose 70lbs.
  • I want to gain 15lbs of lean muscle.
  • I want to deadlift twice my bodyweight.
  • I want to run a sub 4 hour marathon.

All of these are worthy goals. Unfortunately, we ultimately don’t have much control over whether we achieve them because we cannot control exact numbers or outcomes.

What we can control are our actions and behaviors. That’s why I often work with clients to turn their outcome goals into habit goals.

A habit goal focuses on the actions you take to support your desired outcome. Accomplishing a habit goal is totally within your control because you are the one who decides whether you’ll take positive action every day.

Let’s look at the first goal listed above – wanting to lose 70lbs – and break it down into habit goals. What does it take to lose 70lbs? What habits do I need to develop to make this goal a reality?

These are the “big rocks” you need to move to lose a large amount of weight. But these are still too vague to make much of a difference in your daily life. So the next step is to break these down into a handful of smaller practices.

Let’s just look at the first bullet point, consistently eating in a caloric deficit. I’ll list the two nutrition practices which made the biggest impact on my journey to lose 70 lbs years ago:

  • Logging my food every day to gain an awareness of how much food I was eating and make sure I wasn’t consuming too many calories. (Read more: All About Food Logging Parts 1, 2, and 3)
  • Cooking my own meals at home most of the time so I could control the quantity and quality of my food. (Read more: How I learned to cook and you can too)

Once you’ve broken down your big rocks, your list should consist of things under your direct control. Cooking and logging my food were behaviors I could do every day to move the needle closer to my ultimate weight loss goal.

Instead of focusing on the number of pounds I wanted to lose, I focused on consistently nailing these new habits. Every day I checked those boxes, I could feel good about my choices. Although I couldn’t know exactly how much weight I would lose, I knew I would progress as long as I kept practicing these habits.

habit checklist todo list new year's resolution
Focusing on daily wins creates more long-term success than focusing on numbers and outcomes.

The Power of Daily Practice

The best habit goals are those you can practice every single day. Bonus points for goals like the two I listed above which you do multiple times per day.

It takes practice and patience to build new habits, especially if you’ve been set in your old ways for a long time. The more exposure you have to new positive changes, the more success you will have.

One of the best parts about setting habit goals is learning to love the process of self-improvement. It’s so easy to get hung up on numbers or fall prey to quick fixes when your only goal is to reach a specific outcome. You do whatever it takes to get where you want to go without considering whether your approach is sustainable. Once you reach your goal, it’s easy to fall back into your old ways and ultimately end up back where you started.

On the flip side, practicing habit goals helps you write a new script and make lasting changes. Even if you never reach the exact number or outcome you were hoping for, you will be better off than where you started. You learn what works for you and what doesn’t. You find ways to enjoy training, cooking, and whatever else you’re doing as opposed to just viewing them as means to an end. This is where the magic of lasting change happens.

One of the most powerful habit goals you can set in the new year is to become a more consistent exerciser. Getting in the gym on a regular basis benefits not just your physical health but also your mental health and sense of identity. Now is the best time to figure out how to make exercise a staple of your routine. If you’re struggling, check out my 4C System Course. I created this free 5-day email course to help busy professionals get more consistent with exercise. Sign up using the box below and you’ll receive the first lesson right away.

Have a happy new year and here’s to your good health!

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13 Ways to Find More Time for Exercise

If you’re reading this in December when it’s first published, you likely have a million things on your plate. Between work parties, get togethers with friends, family obligations, gift shopping, and year-end reflection, there never seem to be enough hours in the day. Many people find it incredibly tough to maintain their sanity, get enough sleep, and take care of themselves during the holidays.

One of the first things we drop when times get tough is regular exercise. Unfortunately, when we stop moving every day, we usually feel worse. I know when I stop checking the training box I have less energy, struggle to focus, and I often feel overwhelmed with things I would normally be able to handle with ease.

To help you stay consistent with exercise during this stressful time, I’ve compiled my top 13 ways to find time to train even when your schedule is incredibly full and chaotic. Because not every tip here works for every person, focus on the ones that make the most sense for your lifestyle, goals, and priorities.

Read more: Plan Ahead to Eat Right and Exercise Over the Holidays (Or Any Stressful Period)

1. Schedule workouts like meetings.

A great way to make sure you exercise is to schedule your workouts the same way you schedule a meeting or doctor’s appointment. This is especially important if other people have access to your calendar. If you don’t protect your training time, someone else can snatch it up from under your nose.

I rely on this tip year round because managing my calendar is essential to control my time during the week. If I don’t block off my workouts, that time can quickly disappear. Scheduling my workouts reminds me to keep those times free.

Read more: How to Make Time for Exercise

2. Train in the morning before work.

I’m a huge fan of early morning workouts. Exercising first thing helps me start the day physically and mentally refreshed. People who hit the gym in the morning are often the most consistent exercisers because fewer obstacles interfere with their training. If you leave your workout for the end of the day, a million things can pop up and distract you from the gym. If you get training out of the way first thing in the morning however, you can check the box before you head off to tackle the rest of your daily obligations.

Now, if you absolutely hate mornings or have a hard time getting out of bed, this idea probably won’t help you. However, if you’re already an early riser, consider adding a workout to your morning routine.

3. Train during the work day.

If you have lots of obligations before and after work, training during the day may fit best into your schedule, especially if you belong to a gym right by your workplace. My gym, for example, is located in the heart of downtown Chicago and some of our busiest hours of the day are 11am – 2pm. Many people drop in for a quick workout over the lunch hour and then eat their afternoon meal at their desk. You may need to shorten your workouts to make this work (see tip #8 below).

4. Join a more convenient gym.

Sometimes, it’s tough to work out because we have to travel a long way just to get to the gym. Joining a gym closer to work or home can dramatically cut down on your commute, reducing the total amount of time you have to commit to every workout.

The closest gym will not always be the nicest or the cheapest. However, when time is a valuable or limited resource, changing gyms may be worth the upgrade or downgrade. If you’re incredibly busy, every little bit of saved time makes a difference.

5. Train at home.

What if you still have trouble making it to the gym? Working out at home is a great solution for many people. Home workouts can range from simple bodyweight drills and exercises performed sporadically throughout the day to longer, complete workouts. You can perform some of your workouts at home even if you still hit the gym on a regular basis. Training at home is also a great solution for anyone who needs to work out very early or very late and doesn’t have access to a 24 hour gym.

If you want a complete 4 month home training program, check out my Workout From Home Toolkit.

You don’t need any equipment to train at home. However, purchasing a few small pieces of equipment like bands, kettlebells, and powerblocks can greatly expand your repertoire of possible exercises. Those of you who have extra space or train exclusively at home may want to consider investing in a bigger gym setup (with things like a power rack, benches, full sets of weights, and cardio equipment).

Read more: 6 Cheap Things You Need to Build a Great Home Gym

6. Combine exercise with other activities.

If you’re incredibly short on time, you can do double duty with exercise and other tasks. One of the best examples of this is making your daily commute more active. If possible, walk or bike a portion of your trip to work. In Chicago where I live, it’s often faster to bike to work than to drive or wait for the bus.

Another great way to sneak in extra exercise is to move while you’re watching TV. One of my clients made a deal with himself to only watch sports games while walking or running on the treadmill. If sports aren’t your thing, do something similar with your favorite show, movies, or podcasts. If you’re really into the media you’re consuming, your workout seems to fly by.

One additional idea is to make your home time more active. If you work from home or tend to sit on the couch for hours every evening, set an alarm to remind yourself to get up and do something physical every 30 – 60 minutes. Do a set of pushups, squats, or jumping jacks, or walk up and down a few flights of stairs. It may not seem like much, but every little bit of activity adds up when you’re pressed for time.

7. Train fewer times per week.

It’s not always possible to train as many times as you may like during the course of the week. If you are constantly missing workouts, you may want to dial back your commitment.

There is something powerful about setting ourselves up for success. If you plan to train five times per week but only make it to the gym three times, you view that as failure. But if you only plan to train three times, the same number of workouts is a success. We feel better about ourselves when we meet our expectations and we’re more likely to stick with a realistic and attainable plan.

You can get great results training two or three times per week if you are consistent and follow a well-balanced program. Save the high frequency training for a time of year when you don’t have as much on your plate.

Read more: I Only Have Two Days to Train. What Should I Do?

8. Shorten your workouts.

Similarly, if you constantly struggle to make time for exercise, it may be helpful to focus on shorter workouts. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a full hour of uninterrupted time to have an effective workout. You can get a lot accomplished with short workouts ranging from 15 – 45 minutes.

Sometimes shorter workouts can even lead to better results. When you’re forced to maximize your gym time, you waste less time resting, on your phone, and socializing with your gym buddies. Short workouts force you to come in with a plan, work hard, and then return to your busy life.

9. Utilize circuit training.

If you’re used to long workouts, it’s tough to know what to cut from your routine. The good news is you can cover all your bases with minimal training time using circuit training. I love circuit workouts for people who have 30 minutes or less to train. They are also a great option for people who frequently travel and need some flexibility based on space and availability of equipment.

Here’s how circuit training works:

  • Select a handful of exercises, preferably one from each major movement group (squat, hinge, press, pull, core or loaded carry).
  • Set a timer for however long you have to train and complete as many rounds as possible before the timer goes up.
  • Take as little rest as you can while still using good form and challenging weights.

Read more: Training on the Road

10. Follow a program.

Every day you show up to the gym without a plan, you are wasting precious time. I frequently see gym goers wandering around trying to figure out what to do next. This is not only incredibly inefficient, it keeps you from getting the best possible results.

Following a set training program helps you get the most bang for your buck at the gym. Set clear goals before you start a program. If you want to run faster with less pain, you probably shouldn’t be following a bodybuilding program. If your primary goal is to look and feel better, you likely don’t need to beat up your joints with a punishing crossfit routine.

There are thousands of quality programs available on the internet; doing some research ahead of time will keep you safe and help you make the fastest progress toward your goals.

Looking for a done-for-you workout program? Check out Full45 here.

11. Sign up for an event.

Some people are motivated by external commitments like races or meets. If this sounds like you, sign up for an event to kickstart your training. Once you’ve put money and pride on the line, you may start to take your workouts more seriously.

Be sure you have enough time to adequately prepare for the event you sign up for. If you’ve never run a race before and are struggling to stay consistent, a 5 or 10k is much more realistic than a marathon. If you want to enter a powerlifting meet, pick one at least 12-16 weeks in the future.

12. Recruit a workout buddy.

It’s tough to make changes by yourself. Humans are inherently social animals and we always do better with external support. So when we recruit others to help us in our journey, we are much more likely to see things through.

There are many ways you can enlist the help of an accountability buddy. For example:

  • Work out with a friend or coworker.
  • Check in with another gym regular, even if you don’t actually work out together.
  • Take a group exercise class.
  • Join a running, cycling, or swimming group.
  • Join a Facebook group for people with similar goals and interests.
  • Join a group coaching program.

Read more: The Power of Accountability and Community

13. Hire a trainer.

One of the best things I ever did for my own training was to invest in a coach. Before I started working with my trainer Bryan, I would make all kinds of excuses later in the week for why I didn’t need to work out. Bryan called me on my BS and instructed me to complete five strength training workouts every week. I quickly stopped making excuses and found time to complete those extra workouts. While not everyone needs to train five times per week to see results, the extra accountability and expectation provided by a coach can be a game changer for consistency.

Most commercial gyms have trainers on staff. Often, you can get a complimentary session with a trainer before making a commitment to  ensure the trainer and you are a good fit. If you don’t have access to an in-person trainer or frequently train at home or on the road, online training is a great alternative. You can learn more about my online training program here.

Want to learn more? I created my 4C System for those who want to improve their exercise consistency. If you’ve struggled to stay consistent with exercise, sign up for this totally free 5 day email course using the box below.

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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Grocery Shopping

I didn’t learn to cook until I moved into my first apartment the summer after my freshman year of college. I was incredibly excited to enjoy my newfound independence, which included preparing my own meals. I could no longer rely on my mom or the Northwestern dining hall for food. Around the same time, I decided I wanted to dramatically change my eating habits to lose weight and improve my health. With these two goals in mind, I headed to Jewel for my first solo grocery store trip.

I had been to grocery stores plenty of times before. However, I never had to buy all my own food and so I had no idea what I needed to feed myself for an entire week. During my first time at the store, I spent over an hour wandering around trying to figure out what to buy. I spent way too much money and bought tons of food I didn’t need. I also forgot some essential items and ended up having to return to the store later in the week to fill in the gaps. The whole process was overwhelming, frustrating, and totally inefficient.

Over time, I managed to develop a grocery store routine that was both efficient and enjoyable. Now I actually look forward to going to grocery store. My weekly trips take around 30-45 minutes depending on when I go. I usually spend between $40-60 to feed myself for the entire week and I rarely throw away rotten or unused food. So how did I make the switch from slow, frustrated shopper to grocery store pro? Keep reading to learn the tips, tricks, and strategies that made the biggest difference for me.

Grocery shopping: Much less scary than nuclear war

Have a plan.

If you’re new to grocery shopping, it’s essential to have a plan of attack. Showing up without a shopping list leaves you vulnerable to impulse purchases and almost guarantees you will forget crucial items. You’ll likely waste tons of time making decisions at the store which could have been made more efficiently in the comfort of your kitchen.

Start by making a list of all the ingredients you need for the week. If you’re a novice cook, it’s helpful to do some meal planning ahead of time. Write down exact quantities of fresh produce and meat you need to avoid food waste. If you’re trying out a new recipe, be sure to list the ingredients you don’t have on hand.

As you become more experienced in the kitchen and at the grocery store, you don’t necessarily need to make a detailed list every time you go the store. Instead, you can establish a plan like my current strategy:

  • Each week, I buy more or less the same quantity of fresh fruits and veggies. Since I use meal templates for breakfast and lunch, I know I’ll be able to eat a certain number of each item during the week no matter what. The exact fruits and veggies I buy depend on the season and what’s on sale. For example, although I always buy at least 10 fruits to have with two meals per day, I may buy apples in the fall and berries in the summer. I know I’ll eat about three bell peppers each week, but I buy different colors week to week depending on what’s cheapest.
  • I’ll try to buy proteins that are on sale. Because I rotate between 5-10 different dinner meal templates, I decide what to cook during the week based on what I buy.
  • Before I go to the store each week, I do a quick survey of my fridge and pantry. Do I need to replace any cans I used last week? Am I running low on staples like rice, olive oil, spices, or hot sauce? I’ll jot down the items which need to be replaced so I won’t forget them at the store.

Read More: Master Meal Prep

Strategy inside the store

Once you’ve created your list (or plan), it’s time to go the store. Two important tricks can help you buy only what you need and avoid overwhelm:

First, don’t go to the grocery store on an empty stomach. This is especially important if you’re prone to buying junk food. Instead,  schedule your shopping tips right after a meal. If you haven’t eaten in a while, grab a small snack to take the edge off your hunger before you head to the store.

Second, stick to the perimeter of the store. Almost all of the healthy foods, including fresh fruits and veggies, meat and fish, eggs, and dairy products, are located around the outside edges of the store. When you do venture into the aisles, make sure it’s only for items on your list or to replace pantry staples. Avoid any aisles that house problem foods for you, such as the chip and candy aisles.

grocery store healthy eating

Develop a routine.

In addition to planning what to buy at the store, it’s helpful to plan when you’ll do your shopping. It’s easier to build new habits when you keep as many variables the same as possible. We are much more likely to make changes when they fit within the context of our existing routines. 

If you’re struggling to go to the grocery store on a regular basis, try setting aside a designated day and time for shopping. Weekends work best for most people, but pick whatever time makes the most sense with your schedule. There are definitely advantages to going to the store at off hours: it will be less crowded and you may find extra discounts on meat and produce.

You may also experience more success if you make several smaller trips per week. This can help reduce food waste, especially if you’re only shopping for one or two people. I typically do one big grocery store run on Sundays and one smaller run Friday night to fill in any gaps for the weekend. Experiment to find what works best for you, then stick with it for several weeks to build the habit.

If your biggest concern is time, pick the grocery store most convenient to where you live or work. If you have more time but want to save money or find the best quality food, do some research and try out different stores in your area. You can read more about how switching grocery stores helped me save thousands of dollars on food every year at this link.

Know when to outsource.

Even if you utilize all of the above tips and tricks, you may still dislike grocery shopping or find it simply doesn’t fit in your busy schedule. There’s nothing wrong with hiring a meal or grocery delivery service as opposed to going to the store yourself. Outsourcing your shopping is a great option if you value your time more than your money.

For a small extra fee, you can hire a company like Peapod or Instacart to delivery your weekly grocery haul directly to your house. If you want to do even less work, a meal delivery service (like Sun Basket, Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, or Green Chef) will send you recipes and the exact quantities of ingredients you need for your meals. Meal delivery services range from sending raw ingredients you assemble and cook, to sending you fully cooked meals you can just pop in the microwave.

Ask your friends which services they’ve tried and shop around for different options online. If you’re unsure whether a service is a good option for you, start with just a few meals per week. Plenty of my friends and clients outsource some of their weekly meals and do a small grocery store trip for everything else.

meal delivery service
You can get a big box of fresh food delivered directly to your door.

Putting it all together

Learning to cook for myself was one of the best things I ever did for my overall health and wellbeing. But in order to prepare healthy meals at home, I had to go to the grocery store. Once I learned how to reduce waste, spend less money, and get in and out of the store in less time, grocery shopping became a much more enjoyable experience. You can experience a similar change if you follow the steps outlined above.

If you want more help figuring out how to put together easy home cooked meals, you should grab your free copy of Eleven Easy Meal Templates. I put together this PDF guide to share my go-to meals and demonstrate just how easy it can be to prepare healthy and delicious meals even with minimal cooking experience. Sign up using the box below.

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Plan Ahead to Exercise and Eat Right Over the Holidays (Or Any Stressful Period)

The last few months of the year are anything but relaxing for many people. Despite the bombardment of seasonal advertisements promising joy, togetherness, and peace, this is the time of year when many of us feel the most unhappy, overwhelmed, and stressed.

As the days get shorter and the temperatures drop, many people start to feel down in the dumps. Motivation to exercise and eat healthy wanes accordingly.

Additionally, holiday events and family time can create tons of extra stress. Even if you adore the holidays, you may still worry about purchasing gifts for your list, managing seasonal obligations, and making healthier choices amidst a never ending supply of drinks, sweets, and fried foods.

Regular exercise and healthy eating are often the first things to go when you’re stressed and short on time. The good news is, since you’re already aware of this risk, you can take steps ahead of time to make your life easier as you move into the fourth quarter.

Here are three steps I recommend you take now, before things get crazy:

  • Adjust priorities. For most people, the last quarter is a bad time to chase a fat loss goal. You will drive yourself crazy trying to avoid every tasty treat that crosses your path between October and December. Rather than setting yourself up to fail with too much restriction, change course and try to maintain your physique or use extra holiday calories to build strength or muscle.

Read more: Seasons of Lifting

  • Ask, “What does success look like for me?” We all have different struggles. For me, success during the holidays means avoiding binging. For you, it may mean staying consistent with your exercise regimen, even when you’re traveling. Yet another person’s vision of holiday success includes keeping their drinking under control. Determine what is most important to you so you can prioritize the behaviors and strategies that get you where you want to go.
  • Manage your minimums. I learned this phrase from Precision Nutrition and I think it’s especially relevant in this context. What are the bare essentials you must do to keep yourself on track? Once you’ve figured these out, direct most of your effort into knocking them out consistently. Everything else you do is just an added bonus.

Below, I share specific strategies for managing training and healthy eating during the fourth quarter (or any other period when you’re under a lot of stress). Just remember to focus on the things that matter most to you. You don’t need to do everything I’m suggesting here to stay on track this holiday season.

stressed out holidays
Don’t let this be you come October, November, and December!

How to exercise over the holidays

Do less, but do it consistently.

I’ve written about this over and over and over, but it bears repeating here: you do not need to spend hours and hours each week exercising. This is especially true if you’re just trying to maintain your current level of fitness during a period of stress. You’ll see better results by being consistent through the end of the year than you will by occasionally following the “perfect” workout plan and giving up by December.

You also don’t need a full hour for a great workout. If you only have 30, 20 or even 15 minutes to exercise, you can still do something worthwhile. When you release yourself from the need to train for long periods of time, you may actually find more time during the week for exercise.

Plan ahead.

Sit down with your calendar for the remainder of the year and determine how many workouts you can realistically commit to every single week. For most of you this will be just two or three workouts.

You should also consider the length of time that works best with your schedule. For example, if you have to train over your lunch break but can’t be away for more than an hour, you’ll do better with 20-30 minute workouts than 45 minute workouts.

Whenever possible, schedule your workouts into your calendar the same way you do with any other obligation. This helps protect your time and demonstrates to yourself you’re committed to training.

Read more: 13 ways to find more time for exercise

Get creative when you’re away from the gym.

Many people struggle to come up with workout ideas and inspiration when they’re away from their regular gyms. I wrote an entire article about training on the road. Check it out for lots of ideas about modifying your workouts when you’re traveling this holiday season.

How to eat healthy over the holidays

Plan ahead.

When you’re overwhelmed and stressed out, the last thing you want to do is spend precious time cooking food every single day. If you’re not already batch-cooking some of your weekly meals, now is a good time to start. Here are two approaches you can use:

  1. Set aside a few hours on the weekend to prepare as many full meals as possible.
  2. Prepare some items to use in multiple dishes. Make a batch of shredded chicken in the slow cooker, roast a pan of veggies, hard boil a dozen eggs, prepare a bunch of quinoa in the instant pot, etc. You could also chop up raw veggies to throw into soups, eggs, salads, and stir frys throughout the week.

Read more: How I learned to cook (and you can too)

Use a delivery service.

Not everyone has the time or desire to grocery shop or cook all of their meals. If this sounds like you and you have the means to hire a delivery service, you’ll save a ton of time and hassle. You can find services that send you raw ingredients, fully cooked meals, and everything in between. Do some research to decide which option makes the most sense for you.

healthy eating thanksgiving holidays christmas

Make healthier choices when eating out.

It’s unrealistic to expect to eat only healthy home-cooked meals this time of year. If you’re eating out at a restaurant, attending an event, or simply navigating the buffet at family Thanksgiving, try following these tips:

  1. Prioritize protein and veggies and be sure to eat some with every meal.
  2. Take just one plate of food, and try to use smaller dishes when possible.
  3. Eat slowly and stop when you’re 80% full (not stuffed).
  4. If you’re going to eat junkier foods (sweets, fried foods, etc.), make sure it’s something you really enjoy. Don’t eat the store-bought cookies just because they’re there.

Read more: How to eat healthy when you’re eating out

Be mindful of alcohol.

It’s common to reach for a drink when you’re feeling stressed. However, some people lean more heavily on alcohol during the holidays than the rest of the year. Alcohol flows freely at holiday parties and family gatherings, and it’s tough to say no.

If you know you have a tendency to drink more than you’d like, try following one of these strategies:

  1. Decide ahead of time how many drinks you’re going to have and stop once you hit this number. Recruit an accountability buddy at the same event to help keep you honest.
  2. Drink a virgin drink (like soda water with lemon or coke zero) to make it seem as if you’re drinking. Some of my clients feel peer pressure to drink at work gatherings, and this strategy makes it easier to fit in with the crowd.
  3. If you’re drinking as a response to stress, try to find alternative releases. Go for a walk, take some deep breaths, converse with a friend or loved one, read a book, exercise, meditate, take a bath, journal…the list goes on and on. Experiment to find what works for you.

Read more: 3 Strategies to Successfully Navigate Holiday Eating

With everything else, do your best.

You can’t do everything all at once. When dealing with lots of stress, your exercise and eating routines can easily fall by the wayside. It’s important to focus on the most important things and forget about anything not essential to your success.

Adjust your priorities and figure out what success looks like for you. Determine the one or two things which will make the biggest difference. Nail these as consistently as you can and do what you can to manage stress in the rest of your life, then try to relax and enjoy the season. If you prepare ahead of time, it’s much easier to thrive through a stressful period.

If you’re worried about staying in shape through the end of the year, I’ve got your back. Fill out an application for my online training program and we’ll work together to create a plan to keep you on track without losing your mind.

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Do Less to Do More

As someone who’s made a living helping people, I’ve spent a lot of time pondering why some people are able to change and others are not. My most successful clients have a few things in common:

  • They take ownership of their situation and truly believe in their ability to change it.
  • They work hard and are consistent with their training and healthy eating.
  •  They all make small changes and transform themselves gradually.

I haven’t had a single client who attempted to make multiple major changes at once and was successful long term. Yet much of the general public still assumes this is the best and only way to lose weight, build muscle, get stronger, and improve their health.

If I’ve learned anything about the psychology of change during my five years in the fitness industry, it’s that slow and steady really does win the race. Doing less initially can actually help you do much more overall.

Why We Aren’t Good at Dramatic Changes

Many of us think we can successfully quit something cold turkey or overhaul our entire lifestyle in a matter of weeks. Unfortunately, we are almost always setting ourselves up for failure with this approach.

We can only manage a finite amount of stress at any given time. Stress comes from many different sources including your job, relationships, travel, physical activity, and health issues. Unless your work and personal lives are totally chill (and whose are), you only have a limited amount of brain power left to devote to making lifestyle changes. If you overload yourself with difficult changes, it’s only a matter of time before you burn out and quit. All of the willpower in the world will not help you if you take on more than you can handle.

I’ve also found that every restrictive diet or grueling exercise plan is accompanied by an equal reaction in the opposite direction. A couple years ago, I went on a fairly strict diet for three months. I wanted to see fast, dramatic results, and I got them. However, after I decided to relax a bit, I went through several months of near-uncontrollable binge eating. I couldn’t sustain my strict eating plan and demanding training regimen when the rest of my life became busier, and I rebounded from months of restriction and built-up stress with months of overindulgence. I ended up gaining much of my lost weight back, which was a frustrating and embarrassing experience.

One Thing at a Time

There’s a better way to move forward and improve your life, no matter what goals you’re chasing. Instead of trying to do everything all at once, focus on making just one small change at a time.

If you have a list of many changes you want to make, start by picking the one you know you can manage right now. The best changes require you to take action in some small way every single day.

You’re also better off picking pro-habits instead of anti-habits, at least at first. This means instead of saying “I won’t eat sweets after dinner,” say “I’ll eat a piece of fruit after dinner to quell my sweet tooth.” Pro-habits are more empowering than anti-habits because they give you practical tools to make better decisions.

Before you decide on a change, ask yourself how confident you are you can make this change on a scale of 1-10 (1 = no way I can do this, 10 = I can do this in my sleep). If your answer is 7 or lower, consider breaking the change down into smaller, more manageable pieces. Pick something you can actually do and don’t stretch beyond your current capabilities.

I recommend focusing on just one habit for two weeks. For fourteen days in a row, devote all your focus and energy to making this one change. Only consider adding a new habit after the two weeks are up. If after two weeks you’re still struggling with the initial habit, you have two options: keep working at it until you can nail the habit at least five days per week, or scale back the habit to something you can manage. When done correctly, over the course of many months you will successfully make multiple positive changes to your lifestyle.

1% Better

In the beginning, it may seem like making one small change at a time does very little to get you where you want to go. And it’s true that you probably won’t see tremendous progress over the course of two to four weeks. You may not even see a dramatic transformation after three months. Over the long term, however, you are much more likely to see lasting and profound changes.

If you focus on getting just 1% better every day, by the end of the year you will be 365% ahead of where you’re at right now. Think of how much better your life could be if you followed this approach consistently and trusted the process Instead of riding the neverending roller coaster of crash dieting and re-gaining weight, you’d make changes that stick. Rather than dragging yourself kicking and screaming into a new restrictive routine, you’d find ways to gradually make positive changes work with your existing lifestyle and values.  

Racking up small wins is a powerful motivator for continued progress. Nailing your one habit day after day builds confidence in your ability to change. Trying to change everything about your life all at once has the opposite effect; when you inevitably get overwhelmed and have to stop your mad dash for results, you feel discouraged and start to mistakenly believe nothing you do will ever work. In reality, you need to do less in order to do more. Making fewer changes at once ultimately lets you experience more success.

If you want additional help tackling your goals, sign up for my email list using the box below. When you sign up I’ll send you my 4C System, a free 5-day email course teaching you to become a more consistent exerciser. I also send out regular tools, tips, articles, and recipes to my email list that I don’t share anywhere else.

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4 Ways You’re Sabotaging Your Progress

“I feel like I’m working hard and not seeing any results. What am I doing wrong?”

I’m asked some version of this question on a regular basis. It’s heartbreaking to hear stories of people who’ve been riding a never ending roller coaster of progress without getting much farther along than where they started.

I can also relate because for a long time, this was me. Before I got really serious about losing weight, I made a lot of half-hearted attempts to change my eating and start exercising. None of these attempts were ever successful. I either tried to do way too much at once and burnt myself out or I didn’t work very hard and ultimately gave up because I was impatient and expected more dramatic results. It took a serious health scare for me to take an honest look at what I was doing and make the necessary changes to actually move forward.

If you’ve been working hard for a long time with little to show for it, you may be sabotaging your progress like I was. Keep reading to learn the top four mistakes I see people make that interfere with achieving positive results.

Lack of Consistency

I put together an entire email course on consistency because it’s one of the biggest mistakes I see people making in and out of the gym. Losing weight, building muscle, getting stronger, or performing better don’t happen on accident. It takes months and years of repeated efforts to take you from point A to points B, C, D, and beyond. You don’t have to be perfect, but if you aren’t consistently exercising, eating well, and managing sleep and stress, you will have a very hard time achieving any health or fitness goal.

How consistent do you have to be to see results? This depends on your goals and experience. As a general rule of thumb, I recommend everyone do some type of exercise at least 2 to 3 days per week. Certain goals, like building muscle and strength or training for an event, may require more frequent training. If you’re trying to lose weight, you likely need to watch what you’re eating beyond just Monday through Friday. It’s depressingly easy to wipe out a hard-earned caloric deficit with just a few cheat meals on the weekend. In my experience, if you can consistently eat well 6 or 7 days per week, you’ll start to see much faster progress.

In order to become more consistent, it helps to have some semblance of routine. You don’t need to map out every hour of every day; if you’re like me, this level of planning is suffocating. However, you should have some idea of how you’re going to spend your time and energy. Schedule in the most important obligations including your training sessions. Decide when you’re going to go to the grocery store or place your online grocery delivery order. Make sure you get enough sleep, preferably getting up and going to bed at the same time every day. When you have daily routines, it’s much easier to build in time for exercise, cooking, and stress management.

Lack of Patience

Another big mistake people frequently make is giving up too soon because they aren’t seeing results as fast as they’d like. Everyone wants immediate, dramatic results. I know I’ve been guilty of this myself on numerous occasions. Unfortunately, most fitness goals take a loooooong time to achieve. The sooner you accept that you’re in it for the long haul and learn to embrace the process of change, the more likely you are to see real results.

One thing I’ve learned in my own fitness journey is the power of riding out plateaus. It can be super frustrating to step on the scale day after day and see little to no progress, especially when you think you’re doing everything right. This is when we are most vulnerable to quitting because it seems like our hard work isn’t paying off. However, if you are patient and ride out the plateau, you often make dramatic progress very quickly. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve held the same weight for 5 to 7 days and then dropped 3 or 4 lbs seemingly all of a sudden. If your progress seems to have stalled, wait it out and keep doing what you’re doing. You will often see a similar leap forward. If you go a few weeks and still haven’t made any progress, then you should consider changing some part of your approach.

Constantly stopping and restarting leads to slow progress at best. As mentioned in the previous point, if you can try to keep exercising and eating well on the weekends, you’ll be less prone to weekend binges and the accompanying setbacks, guilt, and frustration. Do your best to keep moving forward in some small way. If you’re working with a coach or following a program (which you should be), be patient and work through your entire program before looking for something else to do. Jumping from program to program is a surefire way to waste time in the gym.

Exercising too much

This seems counterintuitive, but hear me out. Some people are simply doing way too much work in and out of the gym. Our bodies need time to recover and adapt to the stresses placed on them during exercise. If you’re constantly training, you can run yourself into the ground and actually end up worse off than when you started. More is not always better; sometimes more is just more.

To avoid reaching a point of diminishing returns with your training, make sure everything you’re doing has a purpose. This is especially true of taxing activities like heavy strength training, high intensity interval training, and long cardio sessions. You don’t need to do these activities every single day to see results. If you’re feeling burnt out, beat up, overwhelmed by how much exercise you think you need to do each week, or frustrated by your lack of progress despite tons of effort, scale back your training. Do the most important things, take some days off of training, and cut everything else out for a while. Give your body time to rest and recover.

As a member of Strength Faction, I’ve seen the value of organizing my training week along the neurometabolic continuum. This is a fancy term that basically means you perform your most neurologically taxing activities at the start of the week and your most metabolically taxing activities at the end of the week. The first half of the week is a great time to lift really heavy weights, perform sprints, and do high intensity interval training. During the latter half of the week, get your pump on, perform higher rep sets, and do some low intensity recovery cardio. Since I started organizing my weeks like this, I’ve felt less burnt out and more capable of really pushing myself at appropriate times. Try this out to help you recover better and get more out of your training.

Not working hard enough

On the flip side of the previous point, many people aren’t seeing results because they aren’t working very hard. I’m not big on “tough love,” but I do think some people could benefit from taking an honest look at how much they’re truly pushing themselves. If you want to disrupt your current equilibrium and achieve a health and fitness goal, you need to test your limits and get out of your comfort zone.

There are many types of discomfort you can expect as you chase different goals. Building muscle requires enduring burning pain to eek out a few more good reps beyond what you thought you could do. Getting strong requires a similar kind of discomfort and focus to crush a new PR with great form. If you want to lose weight, you will certainly have to get comfortable with being a little bit hungry much of the time. The opposite is true if you want to gain weight; you’ll need to eat past the point of fullness to give your body the fuel it needs to build new tissue.

Few people want to experience these feelings for their own sake. But if you’re serious about your goals, you have to learn to embrace them. If you never feel uncomfortable, you likely need to kick your efforts up a notch. An absence of any of these feelings is a clue that you’re probably not doing the things you need to do to make progress.

 

If you want to receive more tools, tips, and strategies to help you get strong and feel great despite your crazy schedule, sign up for my email list here.

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You Got Hurt. Now What?

When I was a junior in college, I fell and broke my wrist while skiing. My family would drive to Colorado every year to ski on the beautiful Rocky Mountain slopes and over the course of decades, none of us ever had a serious fall or sustained any injuries. Unfortunately, in late December 2012, my luck ran out.

broken wrist family skiing colorado
The day after the injury. I may be smiling, but I was in a lot of pain.

This injury was quite severe. My hand and wrist swelled up bigger than a softball; there was a huge fracture line and the upper corner of my ulna was shattered into tiny pieces. I needed surgery to repair the damaged bones and secure my wrist with a 2-inch titanium plate. I’ll never forget how I felt when I came out from anesthesia. I was so confused and overwhelmed that I started bawling in the recovery room!

broken wrist xray injury
My bionic arm

After surgery, I began a long recovery process to heal and regain normal use of my arm and hand. At the time I was still studying music and I needed my left arm and wrist to support my trombone. I was also well into my second year of powerlifting and anxious to get back into the gym. So I can relate the feelings of frustration many of my clients feel when dealing with injuries. I hated not being able to do the things I loved and felt like all my progress both in music and in the gym was slipping away as I worked through physical therapy.

broken wrist scar musician injury
I was so happy when I could finally hold my trombone again.

Ultimately, I was lucky to make a full recovery. I owe a lot to my talented surgeon and physical therapist. But I also followed a series of steps to ensure I was truly ready to return to my normal life without any additional setbacks.

Many of my in-person clients come to me after an injury to help them get back into the gym with a smarter, safer approach. Below are the three most important considerations I make to help these clients transition smoothly.

Make sure you’ve been fully cleared to work out.

Just because you’re itching to get back in the gym doesn’t mean you’re ready. Certain injuries, especially broken bones or anything requiring surgery, can take a long time to heal. If you return to the gym before you’re fully recovered, you risk re-injuring yourself.

If you’re still undergoing treatment or therapy, you can ensure a faster and more complete recovery by diligently performing any additional exercises assigned to you. When I broke my wrist I found this “homework” incredibly dull and annoying. But by doing it anyway, I breezed through therapy and regained full range of motion in my fingers, hand, and wrist.

On a related note, please take care of yourself and get the care you need if you think you may be injured. I’ve met with several new members at my gym who were dealing with consistent pain or limitations but for whatever reason, refused to see a doctor. I won’t work with clients like this because it’s not fair to me or to them. Your future self will thank you if you get checked out!

You can ask your doctor and/or physical therapist when they think you’ll be ready to train. When they give you the green light, you can safely return to the gym following the guidelines I’ll discuss below. If not, it’s best to wait until you’ve been fully cleared.

Train smarter

Even when you’ve been cleared for exercise, you should not jump right back into your old training regimen. This is especially true if you injured yourself working out.

Start slow and do less than you think you can in your initial workouts. Back off your weights and reduce your workout time. Don’t do anything that causes pain or has been specifically forbidden by your doctor or physical therapist. You may need to find alternative exercises for your old standbys.

For example, I work with many clients recovering from shoulder injuries. Direct overhead pressing is out of the question for these clients. However, they can still train their shoulders and use pressing movements. I work with them to master proper shoulder mechanics using rows and horizontal pushing. Next, I teach them to safely press using a landmine. You can get a great training effect using landmine pressing without the risk of pressing directly overhead. Workarounds like this exist for every conceivable injury; you just need to be smart and get creative.

Although it’s tough to generalize since injuries vary so widely, it’s usually wise to avoid barbell lifts for a while. Instead, use bodyweight exercises or load movements with bands, cables, dumbbells, and kettlebells. If after a month of training you’re feeling pretty good, then you can start adding back in your favorite barbell lifts.

Note – I wrote a whole series of blog posts about training around specific injuries, including my favorite workarounds and preventative exercises for each injury. Check them out here: Low back Part 1 and Part 2, Knees Part 1 and Part 2, Shoulders Part 1 and Part 2.

Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself.

Don’t be the person who spends all their gym time foam rolling and performing physical therapy exercises. Once you’ve been cleared to train, you will benefit more from a structured challenge than from babying yourself. Find safe opportunities within your limits to push your body and mind.

With a good training program, an eye for form, and patience, you can potentially regain much of your lost strength, mobility, and resiliency (depending, of course, on your age, the severity of your injury and the quality of the treatment you received). But if you’re perpetually scared of re-injuring yourself, you will stagnate and never get any better.

I recommend working with a qualified in-person trainer as you work your way back to full strength. It’s helpful to have a trained eye watching your form who can tell you when to push and when to pull back to avoid dangerous compensations. If you live in Chicago, please reach out to me here. If you live elsewhere, you can reach out anyway and I will try to recommend someone from my professional network.

broken wrist injury scar tattoo healing
I made the most of my injury, and you can too.

Injuries, even serious ones, aren’t a death sentence for your health and fitness goals. If you prioritize recovery and follow a structured, smart, and appropriately challenging training plan when you’re ready to return to the gym, you will still be able to push yourself and improve your life through exercise.

Want to work on squats and deadlifts without exacerbating pain and injuries? Download your free copy of my ebook Squat and Deadlift School below. I share the exact progressions and exercises I use to help clients feel strong and confident with these exercises, including ways to modify your training if you’re recovering from an injury.

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Chasing Perfection? Do This Instead.

My name is Caroline, and I am a recovering perfectionist.

Growing up, I always felt pressure to excel at everything I did. I was the kid who always needed to set the curve on exams, win first chair in every audition, and get all A+’s in every class. If I couldn’t be the best at something, I usually gave up and quit.

Sports were a perfect example. Although I was a swimmer for most of my life, I was never the fastest. I grew to hate practice and resented the faster swimmers. Eventually I quit swim team and exercise altogether, which contributed in no small part to me gaining weight through the end of high school and my freshman year of college.

My perfectionist tendencies became even more problematic in my early twenties. When I started losing weight my sophomore year of college, I subscribed to several problematic nutritional dogmas. These diet plans restricted entire food groups and forbade me from eating outside narrow windows.

I was never able to stick with these plans for long. Each time I broke a rule, even if my infraction was small, I decided I might as well eat whatever I wanted the rest of the day. After a while, these binges started getting more and more destructive. Something had to change for the sake of my physical and mental health.

If you’re struggling with your weight, your eating or training, or your sense of self-worth, there’s a good chance you’re holding yourself up to the same impossibly high standards I once was. I encourage you to stop chasing perfection. Only by relinquishing some control and accepting that there’s no perfect plan can you finally make real progress toward your health and fitness goals.

Perfection is unattainable.

The first step to moving forward is to realize nobody’s perfect. We all know this on some level, but to truly accept and embrace it is extremely powerful.

There are many ways we chase perfection with our health and fitness goals, such as:

  • Attempting to follow a hardcore, 5-7 day per week training program that doesn’t work with your busy schedule.
  • Forcing yourself to perform the same heavy barbell lifts with the same loads you used to do as a teenager, but which leave you feeling beat up and exhausted now.
  • Following an ultra-strict diet with no wiggle room to navigate social situations or other contingencies.
  • Believing there is one best diet or training program and every other plan will give you such lackluster results they aren’t worth considering.

I hope you can see how all these approaches are problematic. It’s easy for elite athletes to build their lives around the most scientifically-optimized plan. For the rest of us, plans that demand perfection don’t work. We have unusually busy days at work, family emergencies, unexpected obligations, and active social lives. We need plans which give us space to navigate these situations and still be successful.

The most optimal diet or training plan for you is the one you can follow consistently while maintaining your energy, performance, and sanity. This means the way you eat and train has to be flexible and not overly restrictive. It’s better to do less but stick with it than to try and do too much and burn out.

Read more: You Don’t Need an Extreme Diet or Program

your eating and exercise plans should be realistic

Chasing perfection leads to all-or-nothing behavior.

When you’re chasing perfection, it’s easy to use “screw ups” as an excuse to go off the rails. Perfectionists get triggered by failure and overreact with harmful behaviors.

My struggles with binging and restricting are a great example. I ate a bit of forbidden food and then said “screw it” and jumped face-first into a pile of junk food I often didn’t even want. These binges did way more harm than the initial mistake ever did.

Instead of living and dying by a long list of strict rules, reduce your focus to just one or two behaviors at a time. I recommend picking things you’re confident you can manage. Once you’ve identified your current focus, let everything else go. You can always tackle more things once you’ve nailed your initial commitment.

If this freaks you out, take a deep breath and realize you have plenty of time to get to where you want to go. Breaking your goals into smaller pieces and getting rid of strict rules keeps you moving forward and prevents overwhelm and all-or-nothing behaviors.

Read more: Do Less to Do More

Active acceptance and self-compassion

If you’re anything like me, you may have a tendency to be overly hard on yourself. This is a hallmark of being a perfectionist – you beat yourself up when you don’t live up to your impossibly high standards. You may feel bad about yourself all the time, wondering why you’re unable to stick with your strict diet and workout routine. You think something is wrong with you, when the real problem is your perception and expectations.

A crucial part of moving away from perfectionism is to practice self-compassion. Just as you accepted that nobody’s perfect, accept that you can’t get everything right all the time. You’re going to screw up. The important thing is to learn from your struggles and keep taking positive action. Don’t use your slip-ups as an excuse to binge or skip the gym for weeks at a time.

Just because you’re practicing self-compassion doesn’t mean you have to love everything about your life just the way it is. My mentor Jill Coleman talks about “active acceptance.” This means you accept where you’re at right now – flaws and all – without judgement, but you’re still trying to move forward and improve. This is a great place to be if you’re trying to change your body or improve your health.

when we aim for perfect, like a bullseye, we set ourselves up for dissapointment
You don’t need to hit a bullseye to see progress.

If you’ve been chasing perfection in the gym and kitchen with little to show for it, consider another way. Chasing perfection sets you up for failure and keeps you from achieving your goals. Instead, choose a few manageable changes to tackle right now. Accept that everything else will stay the way it is for now, and that’s ok. You’ll experience much more long term success making small changes that stick rather than aiming to be perfect and always falling short.

Looking for a way to become a more consistent exerciser? Sign up for my 4C System course below. Once you sign up, you’ll receive five days of free lessons sharing the strategies I’ve used to help hundreds of clients exercise more without losing their sanity.