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Most who know me know that my oldest son Jackson has autism. Of the challenges that affect him most, he has his greatest difficulties with communication and, to a certain degree, reading.

While Jax has continued to show improvements in what he is able to read, a further challenge has been his ability to comprehend and retain what he reads. Recent evaluations in his school have shown that even though he is equivalent to a fifth grader in age, his reading and comprehension skills are somewhere between a second and third grader.

I have always applauded Jackson’s mom for being able to push against those in the school to make sure that he is getting the appropriate attention and focus he needs. It is our hope that he can make the best strides he can in efforts to eventually transition him into a school with more neuro-typical children (albeit with a full-time aide to assist him.)

This new evaluation brought things to light for both she and I highlighting where his struggles continue to affect him. The reality is that where we thought he could make the transition in line with 6th grade for next year, he will likely have to stay in his special needs school for yet another year to help bring his reading comprehension up to par.

I have always been a voracious reader. My grandmother (who was once a school teacher herself) got me started very early and I never lost my love for it. As both life and business have continued to get busier and more hectic, I still consume a great amount of books but I have had to transition to more audiobooks as opposed to physical ones.

Because I have developed more of an affinity for digesting a high volume of books, I do find that whether they be physical or audio, like Jackson, I struggle to comprehend a lot of what I read. I don’t remember a lot of details but I do try and pull value from everything I read whether the book be for the purposes of business or pleasure.

I’ve learned that my mind wanders a lot and I do get easily distracted. Perhaps a trained individual could compare elements of both my mind and Jackson’s and find some similarities. He is his father’s child after all.

But there is a fascinating parallel between all of this and much of what I see with clients too.

Beyond the ability to comprehend what we read, there’s a deeper issue of reading things that we do understand and not implementing them.

For me, I’ve learned (somewhat painfully) that despite a constant need and urge to improve how my business operates, I have to be mindful of how many business books I read. If I am not careful, I find myself in a situation where I have all of this input and I’m taking action on none of it. This then starts a cycle of reading more, thinking I’m going to find that “perfect” solution for the way to take my business from where it is to the next step, when I know (better than anyone) that there is no perfect step and that I just need to make a move, test it, and continue to experiment.

A similar thing happens with many of my clients. They listen to podcasts, they read books, they read articles, they join groups online, all so they can take in more and more information. One would think that with all of that quality information being digested (no pun intended) that these same clients would, in turn, see tremendous results.

But that’s rarely the case.

I believe they share the same challenge I stumbled on with all of my business books. Lots of information, lots of data, much of it valuable (much of it not), and little to no action to show they’ve implemented any of it.

For me, I had to start cleansing my palette a bit more. I read more fiction (to help me write better), I read more biographies about musicians (for entertainment), and I do still read books about food, psychology, exercise, etc. But I give myself more space between all of them. I find the more distance I put between myself and business books, the more I can focus on what matters…like my business.

To those of you reading who share a similarity with the clients I mentioned above, you may need to remove yourself from the deluge of dietary information you’re consuming. Not because it’s bad information but because you’re not doing what you set out to do with it.

For people like Jackson, the challenge is to not only read but excel at what’s being read. No parent ever wants to see their child fall behind. Rest assured, his mother and I will work to the best of our ability to help him.

For people like you and I, it’s not comprehension that plagues us. It’s taking what we read, applying it, and seeing good information manifest into good results.

Is there really any better outcome than that?

“We Make Great People Greater”

 

 

 

Returning to the show after the extremely successful Episode #99 together, Sumi Singh and Lyle McDonald are back to talk about what their past year of competitive powerlifting training has been like. Since that episode, Sumi has had to deal with both an injury and some medical issues while still finding a way to compete in two separate competitions. Within that time she has continued to dominate her age and weight class in the state of Texas. Lyle talks about the modifications he made in her training program despite the challenges and how they have consistently dominated as coach and competitor. If you remember the former episode, you know that Lyle always over delivers in content and I can assure he doesn’t disappoint this go-round either. To learn more about Lyle’s work check out http://www.bodyrecomposition.com and the Facebook group of the same name. To learn more about Sumi Singh, you can follow her on Instagram at http://www.instagram.com/shailafitness and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sumi.singh.35 To learn more about your host, check out http://www.jasonleenaarts.com and http://www.revfittherapy.com You can also like our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/revolutionaryou Download, subscribe, share with your friends and please take a moment to leave us an iTunes review.

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There is a notion within the health and wellness world that you need more variety, more spice, more special flashy things to get where you want to go with your goals.

And while I do think some variation may keep you from wanting to put your head through a wall I’d like to offer a slightly contradictory take as well.

I think you just need to get boring with your plan.

Let’s start with diet.

All too often, I see clients look for myriad of ways to get fancy with their meals. They look for skinny versions of less healthy meals, they search for lower calorie options of desserts, and they’ve even found ways to get vegetables to replace starches (cauliflower pizza, anyone?)

And it’s not that I think those are bad ideas. I just don’t think a lot of people struggling to lose weight should start there.

I’ve found that initially clients seem to do better when they strip their diets down to some bare essentials and just get painfully consistent with them.

This was something I discussed with Rob Dionne on our podcast together released just a few weeks ago. You can listen to that episode HERE.

Rob took it a step further and believes you can get really great results with about 10 different meals. I completely agree even though you might be able to do it with slightly less or just a pinch more.

When I sit down with new clients during consultations, I find that many people are simply creatures of habit. They tend to work within a small template of meals for at least 1-2 meals each day anyway. So, someone might have basically the same breakfast Monday through Friday. Or maybe the lunch rotates between one to two different options. Where things get sideways is at dinner and beyond.

This is where I find that too much variety can make things messy when it comes to portion control and just having variety for the sake of having it.

I would encourage you to make things simpler.

Find one to two options you can rotate out for breakfast and lunch. Add a third option for dinner.

What does this look like in practice?

Maybe something like this:

Breakfast Option One: 1 serving oatmeal with 2-3 eggs

Breakfast Option Two: Protein smoothie (1 serving protein powder, 1 serving fruit, 1 serving milk or dairy alternative)

Lunch Option One: 1 serving turkey breast on low carb tortilla with veggies of choice

Lunch Option Two: Grilled chicken salad over spinach with strawberries and low-cal vinaigrette

Dinner Option One: Grilled chicken with 1 serving veggie of choice and small baked potato

Dinner Option Two: Slow cooker chili

Dinner Option Three: Shrimp Stir Fry with broccoli and 1 serving rice

With your dinner options, find a meal that you could reasonably eat leftovers of (slow cooker options tend to work well due to portion sizes.)

The goal here is simplicity. Get predictable enough that your meals are not surprises and plot them out over a given week. If you’re heading into your next week and you can’t stand the thought of eating oatmeal that week, simply switch it out for a whole grain toast or something else that would be roughly the same in terms of calories. The same goes for any other meal that you have picked. You want just enough variety to stay to the plan and as few deviations as possible.

Stick to this until you have some good momentum with weight loss and determine if you’re in a good place to add more variety as you see fit.

The same principle applies to your exercise.

There are some basics that apply to strength training and assuming that your body will allow you to perform them, they’ll give you a well-rounded approach to training: squat, hinge, push, pull, carry.

You’ll notice there may be some things missing like: curls, dips, crunches, etc. It’s not because they aren’t effective but if you want the bang-for-your-buck exercises, they will generally come from the first list instead of the second.

Next, find a training program that incorporates most (if not all) of those principles. They don’t have to all be represented in each workout but you do want to see them throughout a given week of training. Most of these principles are adhered to with the way we structure workouts for our clients.

When you can nail the basics and get really good at them, you’ll find that they complement the accessory lifts well also. If we can keep those 5 basic lifting principles in a given client’s program, then we add more variation with their supplemental exercises.

And to be fair, I’ve heard it before that some people say: “But it sounds boring, I feel like I need more variety to stay engaged with my exercise or to stay on plan with my diet.”

To which my response is: But are you seeing progress?

Typically the answer is “No.”

When you have variety for the sake of variety, you run the risk of having no quantitative data to show progress. You just have a hodge-podge of meals or exercises that have just been thrown out with no rhyme or reason.

That’s all fine and good if you have no goals.

But if you want weight loss, I’d encourage you to get just boring enough with your meals.

And if you want strength, I’d encourage you to get just boring enough with your training.

Get the meals in, get the reps in, get boring and get the results that have eluded you thus far.

Once you’ve locked the basics down, you can determine how much style, flair and flash you want to add later on.

For now, there’s plenty of beauty in simplicity.

“We Make Great People Greater”

(Here’s our Katie with a grinder of a PR for 305×1)

 

It has taken me far too long to get Travis Pollen on the show for the first time and I am resolving that this week! Travis and I discuss considerations for learning how to fit exercises to the needs of the individual and our thoughts on vilifying exercises. Travis dives into his background as well which will provide some excellent context to why there is and will never be a one size fits all approach to progress. To learn more about Travis’s work you can follow him on Facebook at www.faceboook.com/travis.pollen and via his website at www.fitnesspollenator.com To learn more about your host, check out www.jasonleenaarts.com and www.revfittherapy.com You can also like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/revolutionaryou Download, subscribe, share with your friends and please take a moment to leave us an iTunes review.

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I’ve lost touch with most of my old addict friends. Twelve years is a long time to be away from that playground and those playmates.

Of the friends I do still see, we seem to have traded the drug addictions for other addictions. Some arguably as harmful, some possibly less so.

Some went clean but not sober. Some went sober but found other vices. Either way, the addict never vanished. The vices just changed.

And I guess I never thought that when I gave the drugs up after ten years of devotion to them, that other vices would fill their place.

Where I no longer have the consolation of a drug to numb me or help me cope with life when I just didn’t want to face it, I’ve found myself chasing other dragons just to feel high.

Sometimes, being lost in my work can consume me in a similar way.

Or there’s the social media feedback loop of checking email, Facebook, Instagram, etc. (especially when you market your business as aggressively as I do.)

Sometimes, massive consumption of books via physical or audio means can give me a  rush. This odd aching thrill of volume upon volume of words and information that I can devour for a hole that knows not how to be filled.

And I think most would agree that trading cocaine for books isn’t such a bad deal.

They wouldn’t be incorrect but I am still chasing that high.

Much like weight loss when people are eating to satisfy an urge that goes beyond hunger, we’ve all got holes we haven’t determined how to fill.

Many of my longstanding clients may remember that I sobered up for about four years. Since alcohol was never a big vice of mine, it was an easy thing to let go of.

But when Marissa and I were on our honeymoon, we celebrated with some French champagne almost every night we were in Paris.

Since then, I have a drink almost daily.

But only one.

This is one place where I do find that I look forward to the drink at the end of a long day but it’s always just one. One measured shot of bourbon or one bottle of beer, etc. Alcohol is a dicey proposition for me. I don’t trust what it does to my body so I have to keep my limits in line.

If I were to ever need to cut my calories or be on point with tracking, alcohol would likely be the first thing to go. I don’t need it but I find this odd comfort in knowing it’s there. The addict in me stays tested.

Something I’ve mentioned before when I talk about cleaning up is that, I wish I would have known that the addict would always be a part of me.

That there would always be a part that doesn’t know the meaning of moderation.

It’s that same part of me that likely thrives as what many would consider to be a workaholic.

I’ve found that having routines and daily/weekly rituals help keep the addict with some semblance of control.

And I thrive on that control.

So, when I work with people who are struggling with their eating habits, I do understand the struggle.

I’ve had to reshape the person I am and navigate him clear away from the person I was just 12 years ago. And while I can argue that I have changed for the better, those demons don’t stay asleep. They just have other outlets.

I hear clients talk about the food habits they can’t control. I hear them talk about the lure of foods that they eat uncontrollably. I understand those things.

Maybe you don’t associate with drug addiction but you do believe you have food patterns that share a similarity. My advice would be to remove the temptations until you have a better handle on them. This might include throwing out the hyper-palatable foods from the fridge and the pantry. Or it may mean that you need to stop watching TV at night because every time you “Netflix and Chill” you devour a bag of chips, a pint of ice cream or anything else that wasn’t nailed down.

Be mindful that many people close to you are not fighting your battle and they are not aligned with your goals. This is not uncommon.

YOU have your battle.

YOUR battle matters.

If I can give you any wisdom after being clean for all these years: you will always struggle with this. The struggles will ebb and flow and sometimes it will feel like they’ve vanished.

But they don’t.

And the sooner you can accept that reality and prepare for it, the less surprised you’ll be when you find that “Hey, I’m still fighting the same war I used to…just less frequently and with less severity.”

And that’s a victory.

A big victory.

“We Make Great People Greater”

 

 

 

This week, strength coach and Pilates instructor, Nikki Naab-Levy joins me on the show. In this episode, we talk about our respective paths navigating injuries through fitness and how to not feel broken in the process. Nikki talks about some of her philosophies which have not only helped her but her clients as well, see progress despite challenges that may have come from previous fitness endeavors. Nikki has some awesome wisdom to share! You can find out more about her work at http://www.naablevy.com To learn more about your host, check out http://www.jasonleenaarts.com and http://www.revfittherapy.com You can also like our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/revolutionaryou Download, subscribe, share with your friends and please take a moment to leave us an iTunes review.

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There’s a story that my wife has been kind enough to let me tell all of the years we’ve been together. Some day, I’m sure I’d get a kick out of hearing it all from her perspective.

As you’re reading this, we are days removed from Marissa’s birthday and a couple of days shy of our wedding anniversary. As a couple we have been together almost nine years and this year, we celebrate four years of marriage.

I started my business in May of 2009. In April of that year, I had found the location where I wanted to open up which was inside a small commercial plaza in Hudson, Ohio.

I went around to my neighboring businesses to introduce myself and let those around me know that I was opening up in case they, or someone they knew, wanted to start training with me. At the time, I knew no one in the area so I was truly starting from the ground up.

There was a glass company in the plaza, owned and operated by Al and Amanda Montigney. I went in to introduce myself to them and noticed all of these pictures up around their shop of a rather striking young woman throughout different stage performances (most of which at Disney.) And as I like to tell the story, I remember looking at those pictures and thinking “Wow, she’s really hot.”

After some short conversation with the Montigney’s, Amanda said she’d love to be my first client.

I would come to find out, that Marissa was their only child. She was raised and groomed to be an actress from a time when she was not much older than Sebastian is now. She danced, she sang, she acted (what they call a “triple threat” in the musical theatre world.) And while she did attend a local university seeking a degree in musical theatre, she got her big break when she received a contract to be a full-time performer at Walt Disney World.

At the time, I was in the last stages of my dissolution with Jackson’s mom. All of those things would finalize by summer of 2009. Marissa had been in a long-term relationship with a guy down in Florida who her parents were not pleased to see her with. She happened to come up for the summer for a short visit and I got a chance to shake her hand, introduce myself as simply her mom’s trainer and that was that.

Shortly after my dissolution, I was back in the dating world but was hesitant to bring anyone into Jackson’s life. He would have been a little over a year old and I just didn’t feel comfortable introducing him to every person I had an interest in if it wasn’t going to be a long-term commitment.

That Christmas, Marissa came back up to Ohio to spend the holiday with her parents. She had split from the boyfriend that no one liked and she had just started talking to another guy before she came back up here.

I got to see her again and we said a quick hello before parting ways. Mandy came in to train with me the week of Christmas and she was a little bit frazzled.

“Marissa just wants to come and go and do all these things right now but we just don’t have the time. Al and I both have to work and it’s just too much to be out and about with her at the same time.”

So, I said “Mandy, I’d be happy to take her to the mall, or out for coffee or a glass of wine or something if that helps.”

And she relayed the message to Marissa, who in turn reached out to see if we could set something up.

That night, we decided to meet at a local wine bar and shoot the breeze. It was not a date per se because in my mind, I saw several things standing in my way: 1) She lived in another state 2) She was talking to another guy 3) I probably wasn’t her type.

Well, I was partially right on #3.

I was everything counter to who Marissa would normally be attracted to. I was much older (there’s a nine year difference in age between us), I was divorced, I had a child, I was not an actor, I had a shaved head, I had facial hair, you name it. I did not really have the deck stacked in my favor if I thought something could happen between us.

And, as memory serves, we just spent the evening talking. I even gave her some tips on things she might buy the guy she had just started talking to for Christmas. We parted ways for the evening, shook hands and I assumed that was basically it.

But, for her, she must have seen things a little bit differently.

The next day, I was at work and I got a text from her: “I’m going to Starbucks. Can I get you something?”

And folks, I was hooked right there.

“Yes, you can!”

She stopped by the studio and dropped off my drink and we had some more time to chat. All I could think was “How do I NOT screw this up?”

And over that Christmas weekend there would be more conversation, and a first kiss, and more conversation and then the ultimate thought of “How does this progress?”

I also made a big leap on my part and said “My son is going to be over for Christmas. If you’re up for it, I’d like you to meet him.” This was a big deal to me. No one had met Jackson, he was sacred ground as far as I was concerned. There was the feeling I had if Jackson gave the slightest notion that he wasn’t feeling Marissa that maybe we shouldn’t pursue any further. That wasn’t fair on my part but I also didn’t know how a long-distance relationship would work if it went that path.

It became little to worry over because Jackson warmed up to Marissa just fine.

So, over that weekend, I decided to unload all of my dirty laundry onto Marissa. Basically the conversation of “this is my past, can you accept it?” I knew I didn’t have to go down that road but basing all of my past experiences as perpetual failures, I knew that I needed to treat this relationship differently. Marissa listened attentively, asked the questions she felt were necessary to get answers to and accepted my claim that I was different from the person I used to be.

By the end of the holiday weekend, Marissa asked “Normally, my parents would be driving me back down to Florida. Would you like to drive me down instead?”

And we did. We drove 17 hours and 1000 miles to get her back home. I stayed the night at her place and drove back the next day.

When you’re cooped up in a vehicle with only one other person for 17 hours, you learn a lot. And I knew then, I was going to drop everything else to focus on building a relationship with her.

We maintained that long distance for the first 16 months of our relationship. We only saw each other once a month for about 3-4 days each time. Either she came to Ohio or I went to Florida. This lasted until her contract expired at Disney at which point, she moved back to here.

In the nearly nine years that we have been together, she watched me lose my father to cancer, I watched her parents go through a lengthy and difficult divorce, we had to put both my dog and her dog down within a couple of years of each other, we got married, have lived at separate times with both my mother and her mother and of course, we had a baby.

Our life has been anything but ordinary. And what the hell does ordinary look like any way?

Sometimes, when things get tense between us, it’s easy to look at other relationships and ask “Why is it not like their life?”

And the answer is always “Because no one lives the life that we’ve lived.”

If you follow me on social media, you know that I have no problem posting all sorts of things out there; some professional, some personal but it’s almost always the bright spots. That is intentional. I don’t believe in using social media as a platform for negativity.

But to give you a small glimpse of a part of our life that is not a highlight it would be our conflicts. Marissa and I have basically always ever had disagreements about two things: quantity of time together and disagreements about money.

We do not fight often, but there are fights. Ultimately, we know that the only person we want standing by our side through the disagreements is each other. That makes it at least a bit easier to sift through the chaos when it hits.

There is also that underlying feeling of change. As in, she and I not being the same people we were back then. And if you’ve been with someone for any lengthy period of time, I feel the only constant is change. It’s all in how you evolve with it.

I don’t spend a great deal of time waxing nostalgic but Marissa does. Her ability to remember things in her past has always amazed me. She can damn near tell me the meal she had on a vacation we took seven years ago and she could probably tell me what she was wearing then. I don’t have that gift. However, ask her where she put her car keys five minutes ago and she doesn’t have a clue. I, on the other hand, always put my keys in the same place because I am a creature of habit. This is a small illustration of the always entertaining and rarely boring life in the Leenaarts household.

I am reminded of a line I said when we were speaking to the pastor who married us on October 11, 2014. He was asking us questions about what attracted us to one another. And in my response I said “I am basically just a rough sketch. Marissa is the color to all of that.” He repeated that sentiment on our wedding day.

It holds true today.

I will side step from you faithful readers to address my wife directly.

Marissa, I love you. Thank you for every day of this journey you have committed to us and to this family. I am in your debt.

And I will slightly modify my tagline from it’s usual comment of “We Make Great People Greater” to something more appropriate while on this subject:

“We Make Each Other Greater”

 

I’m joined this week by Dr. Brad Dieter as we dive into a topic that I was really intrigued to discuss. In this show, we talk about the importance of self-care, redefining our “Why” and how these things can evolve over time. Having listened to him many times on other podcasts, it was awesome to hear Brad chat about things he normally doesn’t cover in as much depth as he does here. To learn more about Brad’s work, check out http://www.eattoperform.com and http://www.sciencedrivennutrition.com To learn more about your host, please visit http://www.jasonleenaarts.com and http://www.revfittherapy.com You can also like our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/revolutionaryou Download, subscribe, share with your friends and please take a moment to leave us an iTunes review.

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In the first episode of it’s kind since I started the show, I am releasing this bonus episode in conjunction with Rob Dionne, host of Open Sky Fitness. Since his regularly scheduled shows come out on Tuesdays, I am releasing this on the same day and we will resume our regular episode this Thursday. In this show, Rob and I each select our Top 10 Habits For Burning Fat and Building Muscle. Neither of us knows the other’s list heading into the recording, so the beauty is in the spontaneity. I absolutely loved this show. Rob was excellent and he will be returning in the future so I can feature him as a solo guest. To learn more about his work and to tune into his show, visit http://www.openskyfitness.com There you can link with his podcast and social media channels to see more of what Rob is up to. To learn more about your host, check out http://www.jasonleenaarts.com and http://www.revfittherapy.com You can also like our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/revolutionaryou Download, subscribe, share with your friends and please take a moment to leave us an iTunes review.

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I love cookies.

And I don’t mean cheap Chips Ahoy or something similar. I love a fresh-baked, not too crunchy cookie.

If I had to be partial, it would probably be a chocolate chip variation over, say an oatmeal raisin or peanut butter cookie.

However, I have realized (somewhat painfully) that cookies are NOT a food I can moderate.

So, when I do treat myself to a cookie, it might be once a week and I only buy one.

Enter: my wife.

Now, before I get accosted by my better half, I have to say: Marissa does a great job of normally keeping cookies out of the house. While she probably won’t claim to have the same cookie problem that I do, I think they’re tough for her to control as well.

A couple of weeks ago, she brought home some pumpkin cookies. These wouldn’t have  been on my radar BUT because they were easily accessible, I found myself indulging anyway. Thankfully, there wasn’t much about these cookies that had me beside myself thinking about them on the ride home from work. And when they were gone, I didn’t miss them.

No sooner did the pumpkin cookies vanish, but I came home one night to see an entire box of Sam’s Club chocolate cookies on top of the fridge. I looked at my wife like she just grew two heads.

“Why on earth would you buy these??”

She said “I didn’t. We got them for free.”

SHIT!

So, of course, me of the weak constitution had to try one.

And what do you know, they didn’t even taste good.

“Sweet!” I told myself “Crisis averted!”

But it wasn’t.

Not an hour later, I grabbed another one.

And the next day, that stupid, no-good, worthless box was STILL THERE.

And what did your favorite bald man do?

Well, he ate two of those terrible cookies for no.damn.reason.at.all.

This is the moment where I should tell you I did what any reasonable human being would do and I threw the box away and watched those nasty cookies disappear into a trash can with Sebastian’s diapers, uneaten food and other trash.

Nope.

My wife and I whittled away on those cookies until they were gone. Yes, I’m more to blame than she was.

And what boggles my mind is that despite the fact that I know I have an un-diagnosed problem with cookies, despite the fact that the cookies didn’t even taste good, despite the fact that it’s something of a prerequisite that the work I do require a modicum of self restraint, I buckled.

The problem is two-fold.

First, when we have these hyper-palatable (easy to overeat) foods that are easy to access, easy to view and have little barrier standing between us and them, the food will almost always win the battle.

Not us, not at the end of a stressful day, not when the willpower got flushed down the toilet by 5pm.

If we want our circumstances with food to change, we have to change the environment in which we have access to the food.

In my case, I know without a doubt, that I cannot have a box of cookies in the house. It doesn’t matter that I’m not actively trying to lose weight. It matters that I can’t control my intake when they’re around. All the justifications I could make will be wrong.

If you are anything like me and you have foods you can’t keep your hands off of, you have to change your access point.

Second, there’s just something about a shitty cookie that is altogether heartbreaking. By and large, what do we tend to overeat? Shitty chips, shitty crackers, shitty white bread, shitty candy bars because we forgot to pack our lunch and that stupid hum of the vending machine in the breakroom calls out to say “Aren’t you hungry, dumbass???”

When was the last time you heard someone overeat salad or steak or black beans or a damn bowl of broccoli?

“Well, you know, my sister’s boyfriend’s cousin Phillip was really lean when he was younger but he couldn’t control the garbanzo beans!”

If you want help with your food habits, you have to control your food environment. It won’t design itself to fit your will and your goals.

If, like me, you’re married or with a significant other, your better half needs to be 100% on board with these environment changes OR you run the risk of that same person wandering home with something like a Sam’s Club box of not-even-tasty chocolate chip cookies.

Last time I checked, it was really only the first couple of bites of a given food weakness that tasted good anyway. Yet we relentlessly punish ourselves because who on earth can keep it to just the first couple of bites anyway? Can we clone these people?

This article is less about shaming you for eating things that don’t align with the goal. It’s more about reminding you that moderation only works for some people. For the rest of us yahoos it’s some degree of long-term or short-term abstinence until we’ve reigned in the foods that we just haven’t yet mastered the control over.

And while I don’t float so far to one side of the food spectrum to preach that you should only ever eat whole, unprocessed foods indefinitely (although it wouldn’t be a bad idea if you incorporated more of them), you just need to draw greater distance between yourself and those hyper-palatable treats and snacks that are getting in the way of you and your goals.

At the very least, if you’re going to go for one of these delicacies, don’t let it be some cheap, poor excuse for a home-baked or better quality option.

Life’s too short for shitty cookies.

“We Make Great People Greater”

(Here’s our Malik tearing 405 off the floor like it was nothing.)