Health Improvement Insights

What’s different this time?

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 21:16:49 +0000

Today is the most hope and optimism-filled day of the year.

That’s great!

Whatever goals or resolutions you’ve set for yourself, I’m excited for you!

We’re all trying to better ourselves, and even though things haven’t worked out the way we wanted them to in the past, we hope this time will be different.

Musician Nick Cave describes hope as “optimism with a broken heart,” and I think that’s beautifully accurate. We’re all trying to be different when change is so damn hard.

If you’re trying to build a new workout habit or change the number on the scale this year, I salute you. Setting a goal to change is very commendable.

But to give ourselves the best chance of accomplishing our goal, we must combine the goal with some self-reflection and self-awareness.

Here are TWO questions to ask yourself as we begin 2025…

Question 1: What’s different this time?

I’m proud of you for starting again.

But what’s different about this attempt?

If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.

The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.

If you pick the same goal or strategy that you tried (unsuccessfully) in the past, the end result will be the same: another lost year of “why can’t I get my act together?”

So, be deliberate about what’s different this time!

Don’t just “go on XYZ diet” or “give up all sugar forever” or “train for a marathon” again, especially if you’ve tried those things before and couldn’t stick with them.

Something has to be different this time:

Make fewer changes.
Pick ONE goal and focus on it.
Pick a different workout routine.
Pick a different diet or nutrition change.
Pick a different time of day to work out.
Recruit a friend to join you so you’re not doing it alone.
Make your new desired behavior beneficial or necessary.

Prove to yourself you’ve learned something from your past attempts. Don’t let past failures be in vain – they showed you what doesn’t work for you.

Try something different this time!

Question 2: What are you afraid of?

You’re full of momentum right now, and that’s great.

But three weeks from now, life will happen, and something will go wrong.

What has been your tendency when this happens in the past?

We ask every NF Coaching Client before they start, “What are you most nervous about?”

That answer is something they’re aware of as a result of their past attempts:

Are you going to get busy and decide “to take a break until things slow down?” Great! Now you know when that little voice in your head says this, you can prepare for it, plan to do something differently, and decide that you don’t have to listen to that voice in your head.

Are you going to have one bad day and go totally off the rails? Great! Now you know that when you have one bad day, you can forgive yourself, not look back in anger or guilt, and get right back on track.

Are you going to give up even though you really really really want to push through? Great! This happens to all of us when motivation wanes after a few weeks. Consider adding a Ulysses Pact to guard against your weaknesses or making a bet with a friend to keep you accountable.

NF Coach Matt Myers was recently on the Mental Golf Podcast with Josh Nichols – and at the 24:30 mark in the episode, Matt pointed out something to Josh that surprised him:

“You told me before you started, ‘I know I’m going to come out of the gates HARD, but about 3 weeks in, I’m going to burn out and disappear.’

And I said, ‘Thanks for letting me know,’ and I had all these alarms and alerts ready to check in with you repeatedly around the 21 day mark!”

Josh had the self-awareness to know where he would screw up in the future, he and Coach Matt planned for it, and got over the hump together.

Since then, they’ve worked together for two months (and counting), and Josh has only missed a single day of checking in and missing one day didn’t cause Josh’s normal “all-or-nothing” behavior to kick in!

This time CAN be different

We all set out to change, and even when we’re self-aware…

We often bite off more than we can chew:

Our goals and hopes often exceed the reality that we’re fallible, busy, complicated humans living unpredictable lives.

That’s okay!

If we’re aware of these things, if we can try differently…then even if this next attempt doesn’t work either, we can remove that strategy from the list of potential successful paths, and try again.

That’s all life is anyway: try, fail, adjust, restart.

-Steve

PS: If you don’t want to go on this journey alone, I’d be honored if you check out the NF Coaching Program.

Our coaches are awesome and we’d love to help you reach your goals. We’ve had a TON of sign-ups these past few days, which has me really excited to help so many new people.

The post What’s different this time? first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

Growth over Comfort

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 21:10:49 +0000

Stephen Wilson Jr. was a scientist working for Mars, Inc. (Yeah, the Candy company).

One day, his boss pulled him into an office and said something that changed his life:

“Stephen, you’re about to get promoted.”

Normally a cause for celebration, this was instead meant as a warning by his boss.

In a past life, Stephen had been a guitarist in a small indie rock band. He also spent his evenings writing songs.

His boss knew Stephen was a damn good songwriter, and where he really belonged.

He told Stephen about the golden handcuffs:

“You’re in line for a promotion and they’re grooming you for the next level.

And you’re kind of at a crossroads.

Because if you take [the promotion], like I took it 30 years ago, your dreams of being a songwriter, they’re gonna be gone. This is going to consume every bit of you.

Right now you can write songs and do this job, but 6 months from now I’m not sure you’re gonna be able to. So I just want to give you a warning.”

That tiny voice in Stephen’s head, that had been there for years and years, started to get louder.

6 weeks later, with that inner voice now at a deafening volume, he put in his 2 weeks notice, which confused everyone (except his boss and his wife).

He started bartending and waiting tables to make ends meet while honing his craft, trying to get publishing deals in country music…while getting rejected for not writing “bro country” songs:

He was told, “you write REAL songs. We can’t do nuthin’ with that…”

Years later, after some modest success writing songs for other musicians, he finally worked up the courage and experience and clout to start recording his own songs.

And last year, he finally put out his debut album, Son of Dad, which Rolling Stone called one of the best albums of 2023.

Recently, Stephen put out a jaw-dropping cover of Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me,” which I have listened to approximately 10,000 times over the past month.

(Seriously, please watch this video. It’ll give you goosebumps!).

Golden Handcuffs vs Uncomfortable Expansion

From 2008-2010, I also lived a dual life.

I had my day job at Sixthman, helping promote and produce floating music festivals. But I also spent my nights and weekends working on a little website helping nerds get fit.

My boss April and my mentor Andy (who owned the business) both knew where my heart was; they encouraged me to chase the uncomfortable future of trying to make Nerd Fitness into my career.

16 years later, we’re still going strong!

In Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks, he encourages us to ask a specific question when making decisions in life:

“Where in your life or your work are you currently pursuing comfort, when what’s called for is a little discomfort?”

Asking ourselves “what would make me happiest” will most likely lead us towards the short term, comfortable, safe option.

Instead, we should be thinking which path will make us GROW as a person, or which version will cause us to SHRINK each week. We probably, deep down inside, know the answer to the question, if we have the courage to ask it.

Burkeman’s advice:

“Choose uncomfortable enlargement over comfortable diminishment whenever you can.”

Yep, sometimes chasing “uncomfortable enlargement” doesn’t result in a songwriting deal, or a successful business. I’ve chosen the uncomfortable path and sometimes things don’t work out. But that’s part of the process, and at least it removes the potential for unhealthy regret!

Which brings me to today’s mission.

Let’s get comfortable with being uncomfortable

Let’s chase uncomfortable expansion in 2025.

When we strength train, we force our muscles to get uncomfortable by lifting heavier and heavier weight – they respond by growing and adapting.
If we use food as a coping mechanism when we’re sad or angry or bored, addressing our relationship with food can be uncomfortable.
When we have uncomfortable conversations, we can finally deepen our relationships or stand up for the things that are important to us.

In 2025, let’s ask the question:

Where in your life are you snugly living in comfort and safety, when deep down you know the path of “uncomfortable enlargement” is what you really need to grow and help you get what you really want?

You might not need to quit your job immediately, or go all-in on a new goal or change…

But it could be worth asking yourself that uncomfortable question.

Life is hard, and change is harder.

Uncomfortable.

Scary.

Messy.

But if you’re willing to say NO to comfort, it might be exactly what you need.

-Steve

PS: We’re doing a free 5-day workshop for people who are looking to build new habits that actually stick in 2025, it starts in a few days!

The post Growth over Comfort first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

Don’t look back in anger

Mon, 23 Dec 2024 21:07:32 +0000

2024 is drawing to a close, so I wanted to hit you with one final newsletter before the chaos of 2025 kicks off.

It’s that time of year where our brains will almost automatically look back on the past year.

What went right, what went wrong.

What we accomplished, what we failed to follow through on.

If you’re anything like me, it’s easy to overindex on the “what went wrong” part, and feel all sorts of negative emotions around those things.

We might look back with guilt at something we did or didn’t do. As I mentioned in an earlier newsletter, I’m somebody who has the most amount of “Catholic guilt” even though I’m not religious.

I stumbled across a story a few months back that I’m still thinking about. Allegedly, there’s no word in the Tibetan language that directly translates to “guilt.” The closest possible translation is something closer to “intelligent regret.”

I don’t speak Tibetan and I haven’t been able to track down a Tibetan speaker to confirm this, but I think it’s a beautiful sentiment that can help us as we move into 2025.

Guilt can be corrosive and unproductive. But as Dan Pink points out in his book The Power of Regret, looking backward with the right kind of regret about things that happened or didn’t happen can actually be powerful and transformative for our future selves.

So, rather than trying to live a life of “no ragrets” (the opposite of intelligence)…

We can apply regret intelligently to how 2024 went.

So, in honor of the band Oasis reuniting for the coming year, don’t look back in anger (still an all-time jam, by the way).

Instead…let’s look back with curiosity.

Look back with curiosity, not judgment.

Take some time today, and look back on your year with curiosity, not judgment.

Did you accomplish the things they wanted to accomplish? Great! I bet you learned something.

Did your life go off the rails and you spent most of the year just trying to stay afloat! Great! I bet you learned something! Did you start and stop and bail on a goal repeatedly? Great! I bet you learned something!

Write these things down. Notice the emotions you feel as you look back. Write down what you learned, and how that can inform future decisions or choices you make.

Maybe you learned that you hate running, or that going Keto was an absolute failure, or that becoming a first-time parent really messed with your life entirely, or that we can’t stick to a morning routine.

These are all things that happened. Now, we must decide what sort of emotion to apply to those things.

Remember, the past isn’t set in stone, and some of these setbacks or failures might be the very lesson you needed to learn for Future You. They might be the catalyst for your next step forward.

Remember, it’s NOT “I screwed up/failed, therefore I’m a lost cause…”

It’s, “I screwed up/failed, and learned this lesson I can apply towards 2025.”

How will 2025 be different?

Next week, we’ll be kicking off our free 5-day challenge with coach Matt from Team NF.

If 2024 didn’t turn out the way you wanted or hoped, I’m sorry.

Life is weird and change is hard.

Let’s make 2025 different! After all, if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.

If you want things to be different, let’s make that happen.

The Nerd Fitness Rebellion will be with you all the way.

Have a great holiday, and I’ll talk to you next week.

-Steve

PS: Here’s that sign-up one more time for our free 5-day challenge. Cheers!

The post Don’t look back in anger first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

Things are about to get crazy

Mon, 16 Dec 2024 21:03:01 +0000

On December 19th, 2001, The Fellowship of the Ring hit theaters and nerd culture was forever changed.

If you’re like me, you associate these movies with the holidays and are about to rewatch all three films (extended editions obviously).

I was rewatching the Fellowship recently, and I had a funny thought.

While they’re in the Mines of Moria, Gandalf is reading the final entry in the Book of Mazarbul, the diary of Balin and his fellow dwarves and their expeditions – and demise – inside the mines:

We cannot get out:

The end comes soon.

we hear drums drums in the deep.

They are coming…

As I was watching this scene, I couldn’t help but laugh as I thought of current gym-goers worrying about the crowds coming in January:

“They are coming…”

Right now, millions and millions of people are ready for “new year, new me.”

Many of those people – maybe yourself included – have decided January 1st will be the day to get back into the gym, or start your workout routine back up.

I think this is GREAT!

Studies show that having a “fresh start” or picking specific temporal landmarks like January 1st can be beneficial for making changes.

There’s one problem though: “going to the gym regularly” isn’t one decision.

It’s dozens of decisions that must be made:

Which gym are you going to join?
Will you get changed at home or in the locker room?
What’s the parking situation like?
What time of day works best for you?
What level of gym membership will you get?
Will you pick classes or train alone?
Which pieces of equipment will you use?
Do you know how to use that equipment?
Will you shower at the gym or at home?
How many times per week will you work out?
What if your equipment is being used?

If you find gyms intimidating or anxiety inducing, doing ALL of this in January is like playing a video game on Legendary Difficulty:

The equipment you want to use might be occupied.

The parking situation might be a nightmare.

The class you want to take might be full.

You will look for any excuse to tell you why you can’t do something. If you’re intimidated by a gym or flustered because it’s overcrowded, then your brain will beg you to stay home and never join.

I know right now, your brain is telling you “Wait until January 1st…” before you try again.

That’s fine!

However! If you’re willing to take a few steps NOW, Future You will have a much better chance at succeeding.

So here’s the challenge…

Join today, but don’t even work out!

This is the PERFECT opportunity to join without the added pressure of ALL OF HUMANITY:

This allows you to get all the EXTRA decisions out of the way:

which gym, where to park, what time of day you’re going to go, etc.

I’m a fan of Terry Crews’s advice for building a habit of going to the gym:

“Go to the gym, and just sit there, and read a magazine, and then go home. And do this every day. Go to the gym, don’t even work out. Just GO.

Because the habit of going to the gym is more important than the workout. Because it doesn’t matter what you do.

You can have fun — but as long as you’re having fun, you continue to do it.”

Try and think of these next two weeks as a beta test without expectation!

There’s no workout routine to follow.

You’re making sure you know where the equipment is and how it works

You’re doing a dry run of what it would be like to work out in the morning or at night.

You don’t have to beat yourself up for not being perfectly consistent.

Instead, you’re just focused on building the toughest part of the routine now (getting in the car or walking to the gym and opening the door).

Which means you can hit January 1st with momentum. And never underestimate how powerful momentum can be.

I’m NOT above bribing you!

A lot of people will join our Coaching Program in January, which is exciting!

But just like joining a gym early has benefits, joining our coaching before the rush means less waiting, more time to get set up with your coach, and more momentum heading into the new year!

We see this every year… which brings me to my two nudges for you.

NUDGE #1: If you are on the fence about coaching, schedule a time to talk to a Team NF member this week.

While you’re speaking with us, just mention “Fellowship” for $50 off your first month or $100 off our longer prepay plans.

Learn More about Nerd Fitness Coaching

Hopefully this nudge can help make your decision slightly easier, plus it’ll be easier for us to match you with the right coach before things get a bit more crowded in January.

Oh, and if NF Coaching isn’t in the cards for you right now, no worries!

NUDGE #2: To kick off the first week of January, we are running a free 5-day kickstart challenge here at Nerd Fitness, hosted by Head Coach Matt Myers. Simply click on the button below and sign up!

Join the Free 5 Day Kickstart Challenge

Matt will be tackling the number one reason why most people fail to follow through with their fitness and nutrition programs – and what you can do to make 2025 the year that things actually stick.

Okay, back to watching Lord of the Rings!

-Steve

The post Things are about to get crazy first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

The “Yes And” Rule

Mon, 09 Dec 2024 16:43:49 +0000

A few years back, I attended my friend Nick’s blowout 40th birthday party.

As part of the celebration, he hired an improv comic, and we all had to participate in learning improv comedy.

(I just felt the collective shiver of all the introverts reading this newsletter).

We started tossing out fun scenarios and scenes to participate in, and we learned about the most important rule of Improv: “Yes and.”

Two simple words, and the foundation for all of improv comedy:

Whenever somebody comes up with a scene, sentence, or situation, the ONLY acceptable response is: “yes and”

Yes: Acceptance! I accept and acknowledge that whatever the situation is, no matter how absurd, to be true.
And: build! Like a tennis match, after your improv partner hits the ball to you, your job is to hit it back! Building on the situation or scene.

For example, if your improv partner says, “I’m a space pirate” your response could be:

“Yes, and I’m the space police, you’re under arrest!”
“Yes, and I’m a first mate looking for a new crew, this is perfect!”
“Yes, and my name is Captain Hook, welcome to Pirates Anonymous.”

The “yes and” rule is so crucial, because there’s nothing worse than a bad improv partner!

Kind of like Liam Neeson in this short sketch with Ricky Gervais, (I laugh every time):

The Yes And Rule for Life

As a former overachieving “gifted child” who has quite the negative inner critic, I’ve worked hard on incorporating “yes and” into my life.

The “yes” part is built around acceptance, which is something I’ve spent the past two years working to embrace.

Check out my past essays on Acceptance and Wabi Sabi for more.

It’s the “and” part I’ve focused on lately.

As Dr. Kristen Neff points out on in her book Self-compassion, life is complex and so are humans:

“Judgment defines people as bad versus good and tries to capture their essential nature with simplistic labels.

Discriminating wisdom recognizes complexity and ambiguity.”

Nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Things are never as good or bad as our brains think they are either.

So despite the voice in our heads that wants to judge everything in black-or-white, yes-or-no, good-or-bad terms… We must remember that life is a beautifully complicated mess.

Author F. Scott Fitzgerald once said:

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.

One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.

This is my task for you today.

Is there a part of your life that feels black-or-white, and instead could use a bit of complexity?

Change is hard, AND I am capable of making progress.
I failed at some goals in 2024, AND I learned lessons to apply in 2025.
I might be starting over, AND I never start at square one.

Nothing is as simple as it seems.

Life is hard, and change is hard. AND you’re a good person who’s trying.

Which means there’s hope. And hope is the warrior emotion.

Also, please go watch that Liam Neeson skit.

You’re welcome.

-Steve

PS: Need guidance and accountability to reach your fitness goals? Nerd Fitness has helped 10,000+ humans over the last 8 years with 1-on-1 online fitness coaching. Click here for more details.

The post The “Yes And” Rule first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

Closed Paths, Open Futures

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 16:38:36 +0000

I’m a huge Stephen King fan.

I’ve read the whole Dark Tower Series, It, The Shining, Doctor Sleep, and my favorite movie ever is based on his novella, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.

So, at the behest of multiple friends who told me it’s their favorite book, I finally started reading 11/22/63.

Here’s the head-exploding premise:

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed.

What if you could change it back?

Stephen King’s heart-stoppingly dramatic new novel is about a man who travels back in time to prevent the JFK assassination—a thousand page tour de force.

Like every good nerd, I’ve dedicated way too much brainpower to hypothetical time-travel, the butterfly effect, and changing the past. I bet you have too.

Time-travel is such an alluring idea because our brains can’t help but think about “the road less traveled” and “what if I had done X instead of Y?”

Which brings me to today’s newsletter topic.

Accepting that some paths are closed is incredibly freeing.

Some Paths are Closed

My friend Tim Urban over at WaitButWhy.com put out this graph about the life choices we’ve made up until today, and the branching paths open to us tomorrow:

It’s really easy for our brains to hyperfocus on all the black lines in our past: the paths closed to us, the decisions we didn’t make, the decisions we made and how our life often feels “determined” right now.

“Because of how I did this in the past, that’s just how things are.”

“It’s a shame I never did XYZ, now it’s too late. I have so much regret!”

“I don’t deserve to be happy because of this mistake I made”

We often forget that it’s only possible to connect the dots of our life looking backward, in which we made every decision with the best information we had at the time.

(If you’re looking for a solid read, Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library is a thought-provoking fictional story about alternate life paths and acceptance. Haig draws from a past decision to almost take his own life.)

So let’s talk a bit about those black lines and green possibilities.

Maybe Some Paths ARE Closed!

I bring all of this stuff up to make two points.

Author Chris Guillbeau, who heavily inspired my love of travel and influenced how I built Nerd Fitness, put out an essay recently about celebrating closed doors.

We’ve all heard the stories about people who start certain careers later in life.

An example would be, “It’s never too late! Samuel L. Jackson didn’t get his breakthrough role in “Pulp Fiction” until age 46.”

And Chris points out that sometimes…it IS too late:

While these stories are inspiring, the “it’s not too late” lesson is not universal. Sometimes it IS too late! To believe otherwise is to believe in a fantasy.

Some things in life have real deadlines—not all, but some.

In other words, sometimes we often hold onto something that we know we’ll eventually do “some day,” and maybe we are refusing to accept the reality that…yeah, it IS too late.

Maybe we keep holding onto hope that we’ll eventually run a marathon…even though we hate running.

Maybe we keep holding onto hope that we’re going to write that cookbook…even though we don’t actually like cooking anymore.

Maybe we can decide that a few paths ARE closed to us. We can accept this.

The Future isn’t Set in Stone either

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how The Past isn’t Set in Stone, because our perception of the story changes.

It’s okay to accept that maybe a dream we had when we were in our 20s is okay to die.

However, it’s equally tragic to assume that “it’s too late” to make any changes in our future, and that it’s already determined.

Betrand Russel once said “You’re under no obligation to be who you were five minutes ago.”

As Chris says:

“It’s not too late” for lots of things, and that’s great. But sometimes it is, and that’s okay.

It’s not too late to learn something new. It’s not too late to try new things.

But it might be too late for specific paths, and that’s perfectly fine.

In fact, it’s worth celebrating.

Letting go of certain paths, or accepting that some paths might be closed to us can clear the space to make a different decision for life moving forward.

You can decide that later today to:

start powerlifting
take an online class for a new career.
try a new hobby.
talk with your doctor about weight loss help.

We can’t travel back in time to stop the Kennedy assassination.

Some of life’s paths are now closed to us.

That might be okay!

Instead of spending more brainpower regretting our closed black paths, we can get to work on deciding which green path we’re going to take next.

-Steve

PS: Need guidance and accountability to reach your fitness goals? Nerd Fitness has helped 10,000+ humans over the last 8 years with 1-on-1 online fitness coaching. Click here for more details.

The post Closed Paths, Open Futures first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

Train for your Old Person Body

Mon, 18 Nov 2024 16:29:12 +0000

Last December, I sheepishly admitted there was a huge hole in my Nerd cred.

I grew up drawing cartoons, took AP art in high school, and was always fascinated by hand-drawn animation…

But I had never seen a single second of any Studio Ghibli cartoon!

Studio Ghibli is the Japanese equivalent of Disney, with Hayao Miyazaki as the Japanese Walt: the studio has won multiple Academy Awards for their beautifully hand-drawn animated films, and Miyazaki has reached legendary status for making these films over the past 40+ years.

Luckily, the amazing community over on Threads gave me hundreds of comments of support and helped me decide which movie I should start with!

Since making that announcement, I’ve watched all 20+ Studio Ghibli films, fell in love with Japan, and became endlessly fascinated with Hayao Miyazaki.

(My favorites are Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Whisper of the Heart, and The Wind Rises.).

After watching every film, I moved on to watching documentaries about Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli because I needed to know more.

Thanks to these documentaries, I got a fascinating look at Miyazaki’s creative style and experiences in making these films alongside his coworkers.

The running joke has been that Miyazaki is the “Never-ending man” and can’t seem to retire.

There was something that stood out to me in each documentary:

In The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, at one point all employees at Studio Ghibli stood up and moved through a series of mobility drills and calisthenics, including Miyazaki.

Later in the doc, I observed Miyazaki demonstrating a very deep squat with perfect form and no assistance. How many people do you know in their mid-late 70s who can perform an unassisted deep squat!?

In Never-ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki, Miyazaki is filmed multiple times chopping wood with an ax in the backyard of his studio.

And in Hayao Miyazaki and The Heron, Miya-san (his nickname), now in his 80s, is still out chopping wood, going for walks in the woods, climbing over fallen trees, doing his office exercises, and hard at work on the film that would culminate his life’s work.

(Yes, I know. Miyazaki also has a cigarette in his mouth for nearly every minute of every documentary! He’s lucky that he hasn’t developed lung cancer yet, and I’m reminded he’s not the perfect picture of health!).

I bring this up because I think it shows a different side of exercise than we might normally consider.

Train for your Old Person Body

Watching this doc of Hayao Miyazaki staying active and keeping his brain sharp into his 80s…

I was reminded of this amazing post from Elizabeth (@ThisGirlLifts on Instagram):

As we get older, it’s easier for us to move less, which gives us less energy, and makes it more difficult to find the momentum and mobility to keep moving. This might keep us from spending time with our family or our friends because we’re unable to muster up the energy.

Teddy Roosevelt once said “let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.”

In other words: use it or lose it, bub.

It’s not a stretch for me to imagine Miyazaki’s ability to be a “never-ending man” is not only due to good genetics (and luck), but also because he has actively chosen to wear out rather than rust out.

Reflecting on why he chose to push himself to complete yet another animated film into his 8th decade on this planet, he simply replied that this was all he knew how to do: “I’d rather die doing this than die doing nothing.”

Fitness is more than weight loss

At Nerd Fitness, we encourage all Rebels to think about their “Big Why:”

Why bother exercising and building new habits and pushing yourself to level up your life when the couch beckons?

What’s the point of exerting yourself and learning to deal with discomfort when retreating to comfort is easier and so damn alluring?

A really strong “Big Why” can help us stay on target especially when life turns into a dumpster fire or we want to give up.

For Miyazaki, he’s decided that “getting out what’s inside me” is a worthy use of his time. He’s found peace and fulfillment through creating things rather than consuming them, which means he needs to take care of his body enough to stay alive long enough to get these things done!

For my gramma (who I visited in the hospital last month), her purpose is to support her community and help those around her. Staying active allowed her to do this well into her 90s!

If you’re struggling to come up with a reason for why to do something…

You can do worse than “Training for my old person body.” This is the only body you get, and the only life you get, so today is as good a day as any to start treating your body with a bit more respect.

It doesn’t need to be dramatic either. We can start simple:

We can go for a short daily walk.
We can stand up throughout the day and do mobility work like squats and arm swings.
We can start strength training to build strong bones and stave off needing assistance for as long as possible.

It’s on us to keep our bodies active, and wearing out is better than rusting out through lack of use.

As a chaotic creator who spends a lot of time in my own head, Hayao Miyazaki has given me plenty to think about:

I hope when I’m in my 80s, I am still writing this newsletter and helping people, chopping wood and going for walks and spending time with loved ones.

I know I can’t control what happens and accidents happen and so much of life is outside of my control, but I’m going to do my best to give myself the best chance to keep creating and wear out rather than rust out!

I’ll leave you with the final curmudgeonly quote from Miyazaki that closes out the documentary Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron:

“Stop whining and get moving.”

Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for me to train for my old man body!

-Steve

PS: The original Japanese title for The Boy and the Heron is How Do You Live?. This is a far more interesting (and apt) title for the film; it’s truly the encapsulation of his life’s work, those that have influenced him, and his deepest thoughts on the meaning of life.

PPS: Need guidance and accountability to reach your fitness goals? Nerd Fitness has helped 10,000+ humans over the last 8 years with 1-on-1 online fitness coaching. Click here for more details.

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The most important skill for getting (and staying) healthy

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 20:50:56 +0000

In 1933, an overwhelmed and frustrated woman named Frau sent a letter to psychologist Carl Jung, asking “how to live.”

(She didn’t have any Instagram influencers to yell motivational platitudes at her, I guess)

Jung replied:

“Your questions are unanswerable, because you want to know how one ought to live. One lives as one can.

…if you do with conviction the next and most necessary thing, you are always doing something meaningful and intended by fate.”

He was sharing the key to life.

It’s part of recovery communities like Alcoholics Anonymous.

It was even the title of a song in Disney’s Frozen 2.

“The next right thing.”

Revisiting this story caused me to reflect on how much my thoughts on success and progress have changed over the years.

“Success” Redefined

I’ve been doing this Nerd Fitness stuff for 15+ years.

Millions of people visit the site every year, 50,000+ customers have bought stuff through NF, and our coaches have served 15,000+ 1-on-1 clients.

In that time, I’ve changed my perspective quite a bit on “success” and “living well.”

I used to think that the only path to success required militant discipline following a specific plan. I never missed a workout, and was unbelievably proud of this.

It didn’t occur to me just how much of a privileged and simple life I lived, where I was 100% in control of my time.

(Apologies to all the parents and caregivers who read my 25-year old perspective!).

Now that I’m 40, and I can see the types of people we actually help with Nerd Fitness, I’ve changed my perspective on success and “living well” fairly dramatically.

Success happens not when we learn how to do everything perfectly, but instead when we get better at staying afloat even when things go poorly.

In other words, success is learning to be inconsistently consistent. Learning to be good enough for long enough.

And that means, when life seems chaotic, narrowing our focus down to “the next right thing.”

Do the Next Right Thing

A recent newsletter from author Oliver Burkeman talked about how he’s chosen to retain a tiny bit of sanity in an overwhelming world.

It led me to these sentences from author Eckert Tolle:

“What you refer to as your “life” should more accurately be called your “life situation.” It is psychological time: past and future.

…Forget about your life situation for a while and pay attention to your life.

Find the “narrow gate that leads to life.” It is called the Now.

Narrow your life down to this moment. Your life situation may be full of problems — most life situations are — but find out if you have any problem at this moment. Not tomorrow or in ten minutes, but now.

Do you have a problem now?

When we ruminate on what already happened, and we freak out about all the things that could happen or need to happen in the future…

It’s easy to feel out of control and overwhelmed.

Which brings us back to that cliché solution: “the next right thing.”

It’s a cliché only because it’s true.

We can zoom wayyyyyy in, and narrow our focus to something that is still in our control. In some situations, yes, there is a problem right now. And we can just focus on that one thing.

But in many other situations, it’s often us worrying about all the problems that might be, or the problems outside of our control, that keeps us from taking action on the actual things we can control.

Burkeman continues:

As for telling myself I only needed to do the very next thing… you always only can do the very next thing, then the next, whether you like it or not.

It’s a little strange, actually, to refer to any of these techniques as “narrowing your horizons”, as if they involved somehow artificially limiting yourself.

Really, you’re just consciously recognizing how limited you always already were.

We all know how easy it is for us to overcomplicate things.

And when the world feels like a dumpster fire, it can help to zoom way into that next decision, the tiniest goal, and just do the next right thing.

It might involve a workout or a walk, focusing on the next meal, calling up our therapist, or finally saying no to a commitment.

If “now” is the only time that exists, then “the next right thing” is the only thing that we can really do.

I’m gonna go do the next right thing for me: take a walk.

-Steve

PS: Maria Popova has a great writeup about “the next right thing” as it pertains to her life as a writer that inspired this piece.

PPS: Nerd Fitness is hiring a few remote, part-time humans (especially with flexible nights and weekends) to take inbound, scheduled calls from potential clients interested about our 1-on-1 coaching. Click here to learn more.

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The post The most important skill for getting (and staying) healthy first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

The Past Isn’t Set In Stone

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 15:48:55 +0000

I’m currently reading The Tainted Cup, a fantasy detective novel.

Think “Sherlock Holmes set in Westeros.”

The main character has this augmentation that allows him to absorb every single detail of every interaction, crime scene, and then recite back these exact details at a later date.

I remember a horrifying Black Mirror episode about this very thing: being able to recall every fact of every interaction in the past.

Here’s the thing: in all of these scenarios, the facts might be true, but the analysis of these facts still leaves plenty of room for improvement.

I thought about this a lot recently when I stumbled across two stories I want to share:

“The Past is Not True” from Derek Sivers:

When I was 17, I was driving recklessly and crashed into an oncoming car. I found out that I broke the other driver’s spine, and she’ll never walk again.

I carried that burden with me everywhere, and felt so horrible about it for so many years that at age 35 I decided to find this woman to apologize. I found her name and address, went to her house, knocked on the door, and a middle-aged woman answered. As soon as I said, “I’m the teenager that hit your car eighteen years ago and broke your spine”, I started sobbing – a big ugly cry, surfacing years of regret.

She was so sweet, and hugged me saying, “Oh sweetie, sweetie! Don’t worry. I’m fine!” Then she walked me into her living room. Walked.

Turns out I had misunderstood.

Yes she fractured a couple vertebrae but it never stopped her from walking. She said “that little accident” helped her pay more attention to her fitness, and since then has been in better health than ever.

Then she apologized for causing the accident in the first place. Apologized.

And this story about “the good ole days” from author Morgan Housel:

A few months ago I reminisced to my wife about how awesome [life was in our early 20s]. We were 23, gainfully employed, living in our version of the Taj Mahal. This was before kids, so we slept in until 10am on the weekends, went for a walk, had brunch, took a nap, and went out for dinner. That was our life. For years.

“That was peak living, as good as it gets,” I told her.

“What are you talking about?” she said. “You were more anxious, scared, and probably depressed then than you’ve ever been.”

…In my head, today, I look back and think, “I must have been so happy then. Those were my best years.”

But in reality, at the time, I was thinking, “I can’t wait for these years to end.”

It has me thinking a lot about the past, and our future. It turns out, neither one is set in stone!

Which Past Story can you rewrite?

As the cliché goes, it’s easier to connect the dots looking backward than it is looking forward.

Is there a story from your past about a particular moment you’re still carrying with you?

Maybe it’s one full of shame about something that happened, but it led to something even better for you.

Maybe it’s longing for a past life that never actually existed.

The past already happened, but that doesn’t mean it’s set in stone!

Returning to Sivers:

“You can change your history.

The actual factual events are such a small part of it. Everything else is perspective, open for re-interpretation.

The past is never done.”

I’d love to know which story you’re telling yourself about the past, good or bad, that you’re deciding to rewrite?

-Steve

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The post The Past Isn’t Set In Stone first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

Wasted Effort

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 14:43:30 +0000

I remember racing up the down escalator in Macy’s at the Cape Cod Mall.

My mom, calmly riding the Up escalator like a regular human, would say I was going to hurt myself (possible) or I was making a scene (correct) or interrupting the people trying to get down the escalation (also correct).

Sometimes I would be able to get to the top, exhausted and out of breath, while my mom would arrive at the same time laughing at how hard I had to work.

Spend enough time in an airport (or travel with young kids), and within a few minutes you’ll see kids trying to run on a People Mover moving in the other direction. Exhaustion for them, entertainment for us.

See where I’m going with this?

My friend Mark Manson put the following in his newsletter this week:

“All the grit, persistence, and motivation in the world won’t do you any good if you’re working on the wrong thing. In fact, it will do the opposite.”

Which brings me to today’s question…

Where are you running UP the DOWN escalator?

Earlier this year, I remember having a conversation with Coach Matt from Team NF about coaching clients who succeed and who struggle.

Those who find success: they identify the escalator moving in the right direction, and work hard to get on that one. Each step actually magnifies their efforts.
Those who struggle: they continue to spend their energy, willpower, and effort on changes that don’t move the needle.

I bet you’ve had moments where you wondered if all the effort was ACTUALLY worth it, or why progress seemed harder than normal.

Here are a few examples of trying to run up the down escalator:

Spending lots of money on expensive supplements (not prescribed by a medical professional).
Switching to organic, gluten free, or low carb keto snacks based solely on the latest trend.
Trying complicated diets that don’t actually reduce how much food you eat.
Doing exercise you hate exclusively for weight loss reasons.

Running (and anything else considered cardio) is great for heart and lung health. But running and cardio is far less effective for weight loss than we think (unless we ALSO adjust our nutrition strategy too).

My guess is you want to look more “toned,” which means you don’t just want to “lose weight,” but rather keep the muscle you have and lose the fat on top of it.

If these are our goals, then putting on our focus on the right escalator is key.

Here are examples of walking up the up escalator:

Finding ways to eat fewer calories without feeling restricted.
Prioritizing strength training a few times per week.
Making “more protein” a focus for each meal.
Being okay with accepting all the tools available for health.

Show me somebody that eats mostly protein, fruits and vegetables, and strength trains (with progressive overload) for 30 minutes a few times per week, and I’ll show you somebody who is moving UP the right escalator.

Here’s the thing: humans aren’t wired to love exercise. We’re also not designed to thrive in a world in which high calorie, nutritionally-empty delicious foods are always available.

Which means if we’re going to spend valuable brain power and energy on doing something, we might as well pick the right things to trick ourselves into doing.

Yep, there’s a whole “life vs behavior” change component to this too (which I covered in a previous newsletter about Manageable vs Meaningful). But deciding “how quickly do I want to implement these meaningful steps” is a better question to be asking than “Why am I not making progress despite working so hard?”

Get off the wrong escalator, and get on the right one.

Might as well put that effort to good use!

-Steve

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The post Wasted Effort first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

Doggie Not Down With Human Doing Yoga

Thu, 07 Sep 2017 00:16:45 +0000

Upstaging yoga-practicing humans is doggie de rigueur on the Internets but somehow it just does. not. get. old. Note to self: wipe down yoga mat before and after each use. Also: use a yoga mat. You may also like… What Happens In Dog Yoga Class Pets Interrupting Yoga is Adorable, Hilarious, and So, So True […]

10 Ways To Resist As A Yogi

Fri, 25 Aug 2017 19:29:24 +0000

In the wake of the recent domestic terrorism attack in Charlottesville, many are wondering what can be done to fight oppression. Oppression and systemic racism have always had a strong hold on our nation, but with the circus that is the current presidency, blatant racism is on the rise.

Reflections On Michael Stone, Mental Health And Yoga’s Cult Of Positivity

Thu, 24 Aug 2017 07:01:06 +0000

It's over a month now that Michael Stone is gone. What a strange word that is: gone. Gone, Gone, Gone beyond Gone utterly beyond

Are You Ready For The Eclipse? Warnings, Rituals And Other Fascinating Tidbits

Sat, 19 Aug 2017 22:49:12 +0000

Eclipses have always been ripe for radical change, according to astrology. This upcoming “Great American Eclipse,” as it’s so been dubbed, could very well be just the perfectly timed cosmic catalyst this country needs to cause even more disruption to our already fragile state. Is it good? Is it bad? That’s for us to find […]

Stop Outsourcing Your Self-Care

Wed, 16 Aug 2017 07:33:26 +0000

Self-care is all the rage and along with this surge in popularity, a certain watering down has also occurred. I’m not knocking the move to mainstream. We ALL need to prioritize care for ourselves in the hustle and bustle of daily lif

Want To Be An Expert Yoga Teacher?

Thu, 10 Aug 2017 07:23:11 +0000

Here it is, the video you’ve been waiting for! Phew…we could use a laugh, huh? While the world’s kundalini is coiled tighter than a handbasket to hell, JP Sears is here to bring us what we can only describe as…wait, are those skin-tight yoga pants or is this man just half cheetah? JP Sears, well-known […]

More People Are Doing Yoga To Survive In Trump’s America—Let Us Not Retreat

Tue, 25 Jul 2017 19:42:32 +0000

While our national healthcare hangs in the balance, some people are taking wellness into their own hands—a lot of them out of sheer necessity, and for some, maybe even a little desperation? (Serenity NOW.) But it doesn’t go unwarranted. We are living in a brand new era, one the likes of which we have never […]

Chicken Nugget Yoga Takes Wing

Fri, 21 Jul 2017 10:51:20 +0000

The zen-est thing to happen to fast food since Subway’s yoga mat bread. It’s so ridiculous it could be true. Chicken Nugget Yoga has taken wing! That’s a terrible pun. We’re very sorry. But not as sorry as we are about this new yoga blend. Chicken Nugget Yoga* is, of course, a joke (we think!) created […]

Finally, A Yoga Emoji!

Thu, 20 Jul 2017 10:18:50 +0000

Here’s some fun and silly…uh, we mean VERY serious news. Apple debuted new emojis and guess what? We’re finally getting a yogi! For when the prayer hands and om symbol just won’t cut it. World Emoji Day was July 17th (you knew that, right?) and the iPhone overlords at Apple celebrated by announcing some fun […]

Check In To Check Out

Wed, 19 Jul 2017 15:05:32 +0000

by Tiffany Holmes “Go inside,” the Iyengar teacher at my home studio likes to say. This is where we check our business without worrying about how the shape we’re in looks, but rather how it feels. When I started teaching yoga, I took cues from all over the place, including the mobility/recovery, and CrossFit world. […]

Best Air Purifier for Dust Removal Reviews

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Thu, 20 Aug 2015 21:03:23 +0000

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Health Improvement Insights

What’s different this time?

Question 1: What’s different this time?

Question 2: What are you afraid of?

This time CAN be different

Growth over Comfort

Golden Handcuffs vs Uncomfortable Expansion

Let’s get comfortable with being uncomfortable

Don’t look back in anger

Look back with curiosity, not judgment.

How will 2025 be different?

Things are about to get crazy

“They are coming…”

Join today, but don’t even work out!

I’m NOT above bribing you!

The “Yes And” Rule

The Yes And Rule for Life

Closed Paths, Open Futures

Some Paths are Closed

Maybe Some Paths ARE Closed!

The Future isn’t Set in Stone either

Train for your Old Person Body

Train for your Old Person Body

Fitness is more than weight loss

The most important skill for getting (and staying) healthy

“Success” Redefined

Do the Next Right Thing

The Past Isn’t Set In Stone

Which Past Story can you rewrite?

Wasted Effort

Where are you running UP the DOWN escalator?

Doggie Not Down With Human Doing Yoga

10 Ways To Resist As A Yogi

Reflections On Michael Stone, Mental Health And Yoga’s Cult Of Positivity

Are You Ready For The Eclipse? Warnings, Rituals And Other Fascinating Tidbits

Stop Outsourcing Your Self-Care

Want To Be An Expert Yoga Teacher?

More People Are Doing Yoga To Survive In Trump’s America—Let Us Not Retreat

Chicken Nugget Yoga Takes Wing

Finally, A Yoga Emoji!

Check In To Check Out

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