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I have the pleasure of welcoming Camille DePutter to the show this week. She is the author of Share Your Story and the brand new Little Poems For Big Hearts. Knowing her affiliations with Precision Nutrition and after being referred to me by some great sources, Camille and I talk about the power of storytelling. While this has less to do with ambitions of being an author, Camille discusses how changing the view on your own story of triumphs and tragedies can help shape how you cope with those circumstances in the framework of your life. You can purchase her books and learn more about her work at http://www.camilledeputter.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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I follow two NFL teams and have for as long as I’ve been interested in the sport (which is a little over a decade.) I am a New England Patriots and Tennessee Titans fan.

However, living in Ohio, I am nothing but a mere spectator to the sadness that is being a Cleveland Browns fan. Cleveland, in general, does not have a spectacular history with winning in professional sports. Over the last few years there have been glimmers of hope with the Cleveland Cavaliers (Thank you, LeBron) and to a slightly lesser extent with the Cleveland Indians.

The Browns are a totally different story.

Last season was particularly painful because the Browns were winless for the entire 2017 season and they only had one win in 2016.

Each year, they get great draft options and never seem to get much luck when it comes to picking the right combination of players, coaching staff, etc. to make much of a difference.

This year got off to a strange start. The Browns opened up the season with a game against our neighboring rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Historically, the Steelers generally have no problem counting on a win against the Browns.

But something seemed different in this game. Either the Browns were playing significantly better or the Steelers were playing a lot worse. Either way, the Browns were doing better than many expected. The game went into overtime and ended in a tie.

On the second game of the season, the Browns held the lead over the competitive New Orleans Saints and watched as the Saints took things over late in the game to win. It was arguably just another reminder of how frustrating being a Browns fan can be.

As I saw one of my friends comment on social media “Same old Browns!”

But there was one comment, on the heels of this second loss of the season that made me stop in my tracks.

I heard someone say “The Browns are doing everything in their power to NOT win.”

And I see this happen with so many of my weight loss clients.

It’s not that they don’t want to win the weight loss game and it’s not that they aren’t trying to win.

They just can’t get enough of the right things happening at the right amount of frequency to win that game.

I know this may seem like something of an apple to oranges comparison but hear me out.

Obviously, when it’s your weight to lose, then YOU are in control. You are the quarterback, the running back, the defensive line, etc. And if you’ve hired someone like me, you’ve at least given the reigns to someone else to be your coach.

But, you have to make the plays. You have to eat (or not eat) the right foods, the right portions, and not self-sabotage.

You have to not “choke” when you hit the field for the real game instead of the scrimmage.

Much like watching the Browns play, as the spectator you see them do several things right but they can’t make a trend out of it. Therefore, they lose game after game after game. Then they change team lineup, coaches, back office staff, etc. It’s a complete upheaval.

Sound familiar?

Those who have been unsuccessful with weight loss keep banging their heads against the wall looking for the next book, the next pill, the next powder, the next tea, the next trend. And what do they get? Little to no success. Just like the Browns.

As I write this post, I am happy to report that just last week the Browns won their first game since 2016. The joke around town is that Cleveland fans reacted as if the Browns had just booked their ticket to the Super Bowl.

So, let me try and give you a formula for success so that the Cleveland Browns approach to weight loss doesn’t affect you:

1. You need the right team to win. In your case, you need a solid support system, people who encourage but promote understanding and guidance. This can include friends, family, co-workers, trainers, dietitians and/or doctors. Just like a quarterback can’t win a game by himself, you would be hard-pressed to work in complete isolation and succeed with weight loss.
2. You have to master the basics. If you watch a football team during their practice each week, there are constant drills on the basics of their game. Agility, throwing, catching, sprints, etc. If the basics aren’t nailed down, they can’t complete the plays during the game. For you, this means being intimately aware of your food portions, caloric needs based on gender, height, current weight, level of daily activity, etc. and putting the time in to see these habits fall into place.
3. You have to believe in yourself. When LeBron was still with the Cleveland Cavaliers during his second tenure with the team, the term “Believeland” started to show up on merchandise around town. Cleveland fans needed to believe the teams that they had shown so much love and support to over the years were capable of winning. You have to believe you’re capable of the same. If your mind continues to run the refrain that you’re nothing but a failure, you’re likely to fulfill that prophecy. Believe that you have what it takes to not only see some weight loss but all of the weight loss you are aiming for, assuming that your goals are realistic respective of your current lifestyle.
4. Accept disappointment as part of your progress. Unlike a team such as the New England Patriots, the Browns don’t have a trend of winning. It’s not been a winning culture. So, as a Patriots fan, I tend to be spoiled by a high frequency of winning. This is normally balanced out by a much less frequent trend of winning by my other favorite team, the Tennessee Titans. For you, this may mean you have more in common with the Browns or the Titans if success has been eluding you. So, the scale may not always tell you nice things (even if you “think” you’ve been good) and some days you have to accept that your best laid plans ended with a pint of ice cream to cap off a stressful day. These things will happen. Accept them, expect them, and move forward.
5. Break the habit of giving up on yourself. If any city were capable of staging mutiny because of their team’s performance, Cleveland would have to be high on the list. Nevertheless, they stay faithful no matter how frustrating it gets. And even if it’s short-lived (let’s hope it’s not), the faithful do get rewarded somewhere along the way. Your weight loss path will be frighteningly similar. You will want to give up, you will have the deck stacked against you and there will be critics (family, friends and that downer Becky who works in your office!) But your success is reliant on your work, your effort, and your resiliency. When you reach your goal (because you didn’t give up on it), you can kindly tell Becky to screw it.

So, each week I’ll be rooting for my two teams but I’ll be keeping an eye on the Browns simply because I live here and they deserve to win just as much as anyone else.

And so do you.

“We Make Great People Greater”

(Here’s Sebastian wearing his Browns gear when Daddy isn’t putting him in a Pats onesie.)

In what can be a polarizing topic to dive into in the health and wellness conversation, I welcome Dr. Tim Jackson to the show this week to discuss detoxes. Dr. Tim talks about the protocols that he sees most effective with his clients and clarifies the differences between his take on detoxifying the system versus what the mainstream media may give credit to. To learn more about Dr. Tim’s work, you can visit his website at http://www.healyourbody.org 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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In 1975, I was born in a little town in Tennessee called Union City.

My father was a Dutch immigrant and my mother was also a native Tennessean who was born in a town even smaller than my hometown.

And I think about my upbringing with all of the foods associated with those places and what my diet was influenced by early on.

From my father’s side of both Dutch and German influence: lots of potatoes, breads, pork and cheese.

From my mother’s Southern side: fried foods (fries, catfish, hush puppies, tater tots), butter, bar-b-que, pork (sausage, country ham, pork rinds), pecan pie, biscuits and gravy.

And when I think further about the foods that make me feel closest to “home”, it would be all of these foods. The foods that give me comfort, the foods that make me feel like I’m with family.

And I love that feeling.

I would argue that any combination of the foods listed above would be among my very, very favorite.

But let’s be honest: is there anyone who’s going to associate biscuits and gravy with a healthy diet?

Not a chance.

As much as I love fried catfish from Boyette’s and a pulled pork sandwich on a white bun from Corner Bar-B-Que, I know I just can’t make them staples of a healthy cuisine.

Which is why I find it puzzling that so many people are unwilling to step away slightly from their heritage to get their food in the place they want it to be.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you need to disassociate with being Italian simply because you can’t control your pasta intake.

But just because you’re Italian, also doesn’t mean that cuisine should be the mainstay if you need to get your eating in order.

I love pasta through and through but it is not a food I can easily control. I can eat massive quantities of it before my body ever registers that I might be full.

And the same goes for all of my favorite foods too.

When I go back down to my hometown, I know it’s going to be a fiasco of pure gluttony. I mentally prepare it and I face the music over it. I know that it will be a couple of days of my favorite foods just the way I have always loved them and I don’t deprive myself.

But that isn’t to say I don’t have consequences.

I get bloated. I feel lethargic. I can’t seem to get in enough water to flush my system out. It’s just one of those situations where once or twice a year I loosen my belt and prepare for all of those foods I don’t normally eat.

Where I find my clients getting in trouble with this is that it’s not a once or twice a year conversation. It’s more like a 3 or 4 or more times a week conversation. It’s really hard to see weight loss progress when your “heritage” foods that you can’t moderate successfully become the cornerstone of your diet plan.

Yes, in a perfect world, we could moderate these foods. As much as I love a good fried catfish filet, I am 100% certain that I could fit it into my calorie plan if I absolutely had to have it more frequently. But there are certain foods that I want to feel as if they are a reward to eat. Something that I can’t get every day or I can’t get them in the circumstances to make them feel special (like sporadic family gatherings.)

And it doesn’t make me less of a Southern boy or have less pride in my Dutch heritage because I don’t indulge at every possible opportunity. I just know my limits so I don’t test them.

If you’re struggling with diet success and you’re letting your heritage stand in your way, you may need to take a couple of steps back and determine HOW you’re going to make what you want to eat fit into the grand scheme of your plans.

If you’re like me, those special foods can come at more infrequent times. No guilt included.

Below is a picture of the Biscuit, who at the ripe age of 13 months old, can eat anything he damn well pleases and not gain an ounce. I remember those days. 🙂

“We Make Great People Greater”

 

 

 

 

 

I tipped my hat to this with the prior release just a few weeks ago (#135) with Dr. Susan Kleiner. As continued build up to her new book “The New Power Eating”, we continue our conversation about the changes she made in this new version. This episode is completely focused on female nutrition. This is one of those episodes where you may want to tune in with a pen and paper so you can make notes on some of the great detail Dr. Susan gives here. We cover a lot of ground from caloric needs, menstrual cycles, macronutrient profiles and more. This is an excellent show! You can order your copy of The New Power Eating directly from Dr. Sue’s website at http://www.drskleiner.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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The title of this article was taken from the very question Hugh asked me during his workout last week. For some great background on him, you may want to read this article first. He had just been getting warmed up with his set of squats when he asked those words “Why Am I Doing This Only To Fail?” 

And I asked him to clarify the question. 

“It seems like we keep getting up to a weight only to see me not be able to do it or not be able to complete all the repetitions. I don’t like knowing that I’ve failed at something. So why do we do it that way?” 

And to be honest, it’s an excellent question. 

Like Hugh, many of us can relate to the fact that no one likes to feel like they can’t do something right or do it proficiently. In strength training, of the myriad ways you can progress, often you have to get to a challenging enough weight or a predetermined set of repetitions to give the body the stimulus it needs to change (get stronger, build/rebuild muscle.) 

As the body continues to adjust to the given stimulus, something has to change in the programming so that the end result shows something favorable as well. 

I also told Hugh that sometimes it isn’t about hitting a new personal record (although they’re pretty great when you hit them.) Sometimes it’s about accumulating more volume at lower weights so you can see the numbers rise that way as well as the confidence in how you’re moving with the exercise. 

I outlined several different rep and set schemes so he could see that there are countless ways to approach an exercise plan to say “I got better.” We have some of our favorites at RevFit because we’ve seen them work time and again over the years we’ve worked with such a variety of individuals. 

But it’s not just about strength. 

Failure, and how we handle it, encompasses weight loss, our social lives, and our work. We are literally surrounded with opportunities to succeed through our ability to fail and learn from why that failure occurred. 

In weight loss, many people get discouraged when they set a goal for themselves only to see that they didn’t hit that goal (or within the time frame they expected.) That point of relative failure can discourage some to the point of just giving up only to repeat the cycle with the next fad diet or trendy supplement. 

But, like strength training, there are so many ways to approach weight loss success that have little to do with the scale. With a record of tape measures, you can see changes in body composition that may not be reflecting in scale weight. You can also use before and after photos to see parts of the body change over time with comparisons. 

Not to mention, I see many people completely miss the boat with diet approaches. They assume that since their neighbor has seen success on “X” diet that the same diet will work for them (HINT: It probably won’t work as well or be as sustainable.) We’re cut from a different cloth, with different motivations, stresses and responsibilities in life. The likelihood that our diet success would match someone else’s isn’t accurate. 

But we can take points of reference from different diets to see how they adhere to our current lifestyle. Rather than treating results as all success or all failure, we continue to modify the playing field so that, no matter what, we can still put a “Win” in our sights. 

Like me, Hugh is a small business owner. So, I also approached the conversation in much like the way we would frame it in business.

You won’t get every sale.

Of the ones you do get, maybe some generate more revenue than others but it doesn’t make the other sales less important. They all contribute to the greater good of the bottom line.

And with your health and your goals, the bottom line still matters.

So rather than treating failure like it’s a death knell to your success, treat like it like a stepping stone.

Because here at RevFit, we don’t treat failure as a black-or-white outcome. It’s just one more data point so we can realign our focus and keep you moving forward. It works for strength, it works for weight loss, it works for life.

Here’s a shot of Hugh pushing around 260lbs across our turf like he’s owning it.

“We Make Great People Greater”

 

Back for her third appearance after two great episodes with me (#66 and #92), Precision Nutrition’s Krista Scott-Dixon returns this week. In this episode we talk about Krista’s experience being the nutrition coach to other coaches in the industry. We compare the similarities and differences between the obstacles someone from the general population struggles with versus an industry professional. Krista and I also compare our thoughts of how the tables have turned for each of us once we assumed the role of client to other coaches as well. You can learn more about Krista’s work at http://www.precisionnutrition.com and http://www.stumptuous.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 saying in the world of small business ownership: evolve or die.

And that saying has embedded itself in my mind since 2009 when “RevFit” started.

There is not only the feeling that change must occur so that growth (or transformation) can happen but the equal pull of trying to figure out what must stay at the foundation of what we do and who we are.

And there is also that nagging stubbornness of mine that says, “Maybe we need to stay the course on this plan of action and not deviate for awhile.”

In the spring of 2009, I was working with a designer to help me craft our logo, business cards, letterheads, you name it (Hi Lee!) The work he did for me was really great and I still use so much of that initial design work to this day for much of what I do.

I remember he asked me what my tagline would be.

“A tagline? What do you mean? I asked.

Lee replied, “You know, Nike has “Just Do It.” That’s their tagline. What will yours be?”

I had no idea how to respond to that. Here I was building a business from the ground up and a tagline was the furthest thing from my mind.

So, I tried to think about what I envisioned our services to be and what a first impression might come off as to a potential new client.

The tagline I sent to Lee was “Personalized. Privatized. Revolutionized. Welcome to the New You.” (I know, it’s a mouthful.)

So, that’s what we went with.

And I would say it worked okay for about a year or so. There was just something about it that felt off. Not to mention, it seemed way too wordy to me.

In 2010, my father was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer and my oldest son, Jackson was diagnosed with autism. Trying to wrap my head around both of these diagnoses was a lot for me to deal with.

I was working as hard as I could to build my business up, while also trying to take care of my own health, nurture a new relationship with Marissa (which at the time was a long-distance relationship), make sure my mom was doing okay handing my Dad’s prognosis, and try to be the best father I could be to my son. It was so much to handle at one time.

And somewhere in the midst of all of that turmoil, another tagline hit me:

“Be Fit For Generations”

I saw the importance of being healthy and strong to help my mother with my Dad as his health was deteriorating and I saw what obstacles I was going to have to help Jackson overcome throughout his life. Being healthy and fit for my family seemed like not only the right thing for me but something of an overarching concept for my clients too.

I saw how many of my clients were also parents or perhaps transitioning into care-taking roles for parents of their own. It just made sense that our vision of what we do become the next phrase guiding our business model.

I won’t lie, I always liked “Be Fit For Generations” but like my first tagline, there was something missing.

You see, “Be Fit For Generations” really seemed more about me than it was about our clients. Sure, there might be some clients who would appreciate and share the sentiment of mine. I just couldn’t quite see it being a driving force behind how we do our work or even the motivation to keep our clients on the path they want to be on.

And then earlier this year, there was another change.

As we got adjusted to our new and larger location, I got more into posting our work on Instagram. As many know, Instagram posts rely heavily on the use of hashtags to develop a concept of what the posts might signify.

And a line crossed my mind that made me stop and search for it on Google.

“Surely, someone else has used this line before. It’s too simple. It’s too easy for someone else to have already thought about it.”

But I couldn’t find it.

And so, little by little, the tagline propelling my vision for what I believe the business to be is “We Make Great People Greater.”

And it just fit.

No longer was the tagline too wordy. No longer was it driven by my own personal life. This tagline was about our clients. It was about what we have the privilege of seeing 5 and a half days out of every week: great people doing great things and getting better at them.

And this is a very long way of me trying to illustrate a small point:

You Have To Be Willing To Change.

I see clients who talk a good game. They want to lose 40lbs but they don’t really want to do much different with their diet. Or they want to consistently get stronger so they can see more muscle definition and hit a new personal record on a lift but they’re unwilling to get better sleep, better recovery and eat for the goal.

And I get it, change is hard. Change pushes back with an indescribable resistance. Change might tell you: “I bet you can’t”

And stubborn bastards like me say “Try and stop me.”

As a business owner, change is inevitable. It is essential. Change has taken my business towards peaks I never believed we could achieve and beyond the comprehension I had way back in 2009.

For some people, they just don’t believe enough in themselves to think that they can succeed at change. So they offer myriad of reasons/excuses why they are destined to fail.

“I’m too busy.”

“I forgot.”

“I’m such-and-such age.”

“I had to work late.”

“But I’ve been like this for so long…”

But if this post can illustrate anything to you, it’s that sometimes we have to be open to the possibility that the life we’ve created for ourselves is no longer serving our best selves. The person we aim to be is no longer fitting in the cage we’ve trapped ourselves in.

Do I think that RevFit could be where we are today if that original tagline still existed? It’s hard to answer that but I will say that as the tagline changed, the business changed. And as our industry has catapulted to shinier trends and more novelty, we have had to stay more firmly rooted in the basics: great nutrition, great support, great strength progress…and yes, all for the greater good of great people.

That came from change.

Of not allowing ourselves to be so firmly stuck in the past that we could no longer associate with a future.

It’s also my open invitation to you to be more willing to adopt change in your life. It is not without struggle and it is not without pain. Hell, I think some of the biggest changes we’ve made with our business were both temporarily painful and a legitimate struggle.

They’ve also been what’s allowed us to see greener pastures on the other side.

It’s about more than taglines though, as I’m sure you can imagine.

It’s about changing the narrative that no longer tells us the right story.

Below is our “King” Richard. At 78 years of age and nearly three years training with us, he’s still breaking his own personal records, still progressing, still evolving. It’s been an honor to serve him.

“We Make Great People Greater”

 

I am joined this week by Dr. Quinn Henoch as we dive into the nuance and considerations of how, why and when to stretch. We talk about some contraindications for doing so and also his thoughts on effective warm-ups before exercise. Quinn also chats with me about ways to recover from injuries to still see progress even if one is unable to push with the same intensity as before. To learn more about Dr. Quinn’s work, visit http://www.clinicalathlete.com and check out his Instagram page at http://www.instagram.com/quinn.henochdpt 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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Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve had to completely change the way I train.

The decision was based on the fact that as my business continues to grow at RevFit, my available time to get in my own workout diminishes. I’m not the type who can work out simply for the sake of moving my body around either. I actually need to see some quantifiable progress to feel good about what I’ve done.

So, running counter to almost any workout regimen I’ve ever followed in my life, I am lifting 5 days a week, Monday through Friday and I do two lifts each day. One day will be a series of squats followed by a series of isolated hamstring work, the next day will be a series of bench presses followed by a variation of back work.

That’s it.

And every day I go after those lifts, I find some way to increase weights, reps, or sets depending on how much time I have.

Would I recommend this approach to my clients? Probably not unless they were in the same situation as me; crunched for time but still needing to find the time to progress and move forward.

As for the results, well I’m under no illusion that I will completely transform my body with this regimen. I probably won’t see that type of progress but I can feel good about what I’ve done so that the rest of my energy can be spent on taking care of my client’s needs.

I also know that there is a chance this method is only temporary. It’s something I can do until I find a reasonable way to add more into the mix.

Mentally and physically, this is all that I can do right now.

It is my “minimum effective dose” of exercise.

And it’s this minimum effective dose that I wanted to discuss in greater detail to you.

To make a case for doing the bare minimum of anything and seeing a benefit from it, we have to look at the positive. Does that dose keep you consistent in your efforts and are you seeing progress in any measurable way? In my personal example above, I can say that for the time being, I can answer “Yes” across the board.

I see people who put a lot of effort into their exercise (showing up, working hard, etc.) but put little into their diet and wonder why weight loss isn’t happening at the rate they desire.

I see others who can seemingly white-knuckle their way through both diet and exercise, but exist on poor or little sleep. Believe me when I say that this will catch up negatively at some point for both diet adherence and a quality workout. Your body will finally betray you if you don’t give it the recovery it needs.

Sometimes (actually maybe more often than not), I have clients who believe they’ve made enough changes to see the scale reward their efforts. And while it may be true that they have improved from where they were when they started with me, it just isn’t enough or it isn’t consistently on point long enough.

And that is a very frustrating reality indeed.

As I alluded to when I wrote this article about knowing when to put the brakes temporarily on dieting, I think it’s important to note when the minimum effective dose needs to be part of your plan.

-If life is currently more stressful than you initially anticipated when you set out to make a positive change in your health, you may need to dial down the intensity or frequency of your workouts. Do so until you can add more of the appropriate habits and see faster results.

-If you can forgive yourself for not putting 100% of your efforts in all the time and be comfortable putting in 50% just to stay consistent, do so. Be able to quantify that some progress is better than none, even if it isn’t ideal or as effective at getting you towards your goals.

-Realize that the minimum effective dose may show no reflection on the scale if you’re using it during a weight loss phase. That’s not necessarily a negative. Sometimes, being mindful of things like drinking more water and eating more protein may not give you the caloric outcome you need to drop weight. Focus on the “dieting” aspect when you feel that it’s mentally easier to execute.

-Be aware that falling back to the minimum effective dose does not mean you failed. It means you had a shift in priorities and other things in your life had to take place for the time being. Utilizing this tactic is always an option to keep the needle of progress moving across the board (albeit at a much slower pace.)

Below is a picture of our Erin hitting a 165lb squat PR. She’s been a bright light around the studio with her support of others, her camaraderie, her ability to expect the best from those around her, and her commitment to her own self-improvement.

“We Make Great People Greater”