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*The title of this post was taken from the Nine Inch Nails song of the same name*

Going clean was easy.

It was not quick.

I ran in waves of eliminating certain drugs in favor of others and watching my tolerance continue to climb for whatever I still allowed into my system.

The most bizarre of which was that the last two drugs I quit on were weed and cocaine; from one of the most socially acceptable to one of the least so.

Without boring you with all of the details, it took ten long years to finally say: I give up.

No more.

That’s the rule.

I find that to be the beauty of things like: veganism.

There are rules.

The rules say: I eat no animal products.

Great! That makes dietary options a bit easier to sift through.

But, if you’re a carnivore like me, there are options aplenty and not a lot of rules.

While I personally and professionally don’t find a lot of value in demonizing foods (or food groups), the reality is that some people just need rules.

If you have celiac disease, the rule is: no gluten. Problem solved.

Since we live in a culture of extremes, rules can work really well. Some personalities (myself included) thrive on a black and white approach to problem solving.

As can be expected, some personalities do NOT thrive on rules. My buddy, Krista Scott-Dixon, wrote an excellent article about that here.

The great thing about these approaches is figuring out where you stand on the spectrum. It’s important to sort out which person you are. It’s also a significant reason why there is a dietary approach for everyone and rarely will you succeed on the same one your neighbor did.

By the way, did they regain that weight or keep it off? That’s helpful to know also.

Ask yourself:

Are there things in my life I’ve lost control over (food, exercise, sleep, hydration, alcohol, medications?)

What can I do to give myself more control so I can get better results with my own health and wellness?

It’s also helpful to know that whatever road you take, may not be the one you stay on. Maybe you need more dietary flexibility to get the first 20 lbs. off and more rigidity for the last 20 lbs.

Rules helped me redefine what my own health should look like. They also helped clients like Rob drop 60lbs in less than a year and keep it off. He set dietary guidelines for himself and didn’t waver until he hit his goal. He knew when it was time to give up certain behaviors so he could get his body in a better place.

Here’s Rob pulling 405 for a new personal record.

Which approach works for you?

 

Patrick Umphrey joins me this week to get a little bit off topic and away from health and fitness to chat about fatherhood. We share the bond of being parents to amazing young boys with autism and we take some time to celebrate being a Dad, the unique traits of our sons and of course, some early Father’s Day camaraderie. This episode is very near and dear to me and I’m so glad Patrick was able to come on and chat. To learn more about Patrick’s work in fitness, check out his incredible group at http://www.facebook.com/eat,train,progress To learn more about your host, visit http://www.jasonleenaarts.com and 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 post was taken from the Chicago song of the same name*

What started as simply a way to spread the good word about client success and a partial glimpse of what we do at RevFit has grown by leaps and bounds.

If I had to give a rough guess at how many of our clients are kind enough to let us post pictures of them on social media I would say 60-70%. I’m actually thrilled about that.

And as helpful as all of these pictures have been to promote the business, there’s been another really great result.

These pictures are inspiring.

They inspire clients to work harder or to even start working on themselves at all.

They inspire the support of our community with every post like, love, or similar emotion.

They’ve inspired trainers and health professionals who have taken the time to contact me from others states, other countries, and other continents to applaud the efforts of our clients.

In many ways, the pictures are a reminder to the clients themselves of how far they’ve come, how hard they work and the people they connect with who are at RevFit for the same reason: to get a little bit better every time they walk through the door.

Granted, we’re not the first personal training facility to post pictures of our clients. We certainly won’t be the last.

We do have a blast celebrating their successes and posting that little reminder that:

“Hey, you hit a PR today!”

or

“Hey, you’re down 20lbs! AMAZING!”

Another somewhat unexpected result has come as well:

Friends of clients will make a remark if they haven’t seen a picture of them training in a while. Even people who don’t train with us are inspired by their friends who do.

Who knows? Maybe they’ll join someday as well.

This post is really just about all of you incredible clients who are kind enough to let us share your successes with the world.

People see you. They are motivated by your results. Your greatness inspires others to achieve the same.

On behalf of Megan, Julie and myself, we are honored to be with you for the ride.

Registered dietitian, Brenda Murdock joins me this week as we take a new angle in the discussion of disordered eating. I used 5 scenarios from current clients (taken anonymously) to get Brenda’s take on effective strategies to help them. The catch with this episode is that Brenda has no knowledge ahead of time about the individuals and has no idea what I’ll be presenting her with. This is one you won’t want to miss as we try to cover a wide range of different perspectives with regard to dietary strategies. To learn more about Brenda, visit http://www.brendmurdock.com To learn more about your host, check out http://www.jasonleenaarts.com and 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 post was taken from the Bayside song of the same name*

Imagine for a moment that you’ve walked into an attic.

You’re surrounded by old trunks, clothing, and miscellaneous boxes that haven’t been opened in years.

In the corner of the attic is what appears to be a covered painting.

You move over to the painting and remove the sheet that’s obscuring it.

Beneath a film of dust is a remarkable work of art, what many might consider a masterpiece.

Now, imagine the artwork is you.

And you’ve managed to stuff some pretty important parts of you back into a neglected corner somewhere.

Maybe you assumed that if no one saw those parts of you, that maybe they wouldn’t exist.

Or maybe you thought that by pushing them away they would fix themselves.

My kind advice for you is to consider yourself a masterpiece.

You’re already beautiful (or handsome.)

You’re already worthy of recognition.

You have, by all accounts, already arrived.

Your charm.

Your sense of humor.

Your compassion.

Your selflessness.

They are the colors, the texture and the canvas of the painting: those are the parts of you that matter.

Now…

You may have weight to lose. That’s “dust.”

You may have strength/lean muscle to gain. That’s “dust.”

You may have pre-exisiting health issues that need your direct attention. That is also “dust.”

Those factors are not YOU.

And once you’ve removed that film of dust from the painting, what’s left is still remarkably, uniquely, and undeniably you.

A word of caution: spend too much time working away at the dust and you might find yourself removing the colors of that precious art beneath it.

The masterpiece.

At the risk of writing a message that may be a little too “woo” or “frilly” for some tastes, you have everything you need to realize your own perfection.

Don’t let the “dust” determine your worth.

Take care to clean off those unpolished edges, remove the sheet that’s kept you hidden for how ever many years you’ve allowed, and show the world the you that was meant to be.

 

I have the great pleasure of speaking with Dr. Sarah Ellis Duvall this week. Dr. Sarah is a physical therapist who has done an incredible amount of work putting out material regarding the pelvic floor, post-partum core work and our topic this week, diastasis recti. You can learn more about Dr. Sarah’s work at http://www.coreexercisesolutions.com To learn more about your host, please visit http://www.jasonleenaarts.com and 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 post was taken from the Dionne Warwick song of the same name*

There are a small handful of clients who have been with me nearly since the beginning. Some have started, left for a time, and returned but I have a few who have been with me with hardly a break at all.

One such client would be Mike.

When Mike started with me, he had some weight to lose (approximately 30lbs) and a good amount of motivation to get started (a medical diagnosis he wanted to see if he could reverse through diet and exercise.)

Fortunately for Mike, he lost the weight he needed to within a handful of months. We experimented with a diet plan that I had suggested to him at the time and it worked like a charm.

Mike kept getting stronger and sure enough, he was able to reverse the conditions that had led him to my door initially.

Looking back over the nearly 7 years that we’ve been working together, Mike and I have seen each other through a lot. He was there for me when I lost my father and there for Marissa and I when we got married. When Mike’s own father passed away, I was there for him too. Like so many of my clients, Mike is as good as family to me.

As far as his training regimen, Mike has run the gamut. He has focused mostly on full body workouts throughout his time with me. Many times there was a set program to follow and, more recently, programming at random depending on how he’s feeling. Over the years, his passion for long distance cycling has increased and he’s become more and more of a fan of getting his mileage and endurance work in that way.

We even went through a cycle of powerlifting where Mike got to focus on pushing his numbers up in the squat, deadlift, bench press and overhead press. When he hit the peak of where he wanted those numbers to go, we scaled it back and transitioned over to the full-body workouts again.

Recently, Mike decided he wanted to re-engineer his diet as well. So, after some studies on his own, he made the choice to go plant-based with his diet. While that was never a focus of mine, part of any client’s journey is discovering what is the best food plan for their own life in the most sustainable way possible.

Mike is the type of person you really want in your business: kind, motivated, personable, and supportive to others. He may not know this but I’ve learned my fair share about being a father, being a son and being a husband just through watching his actions and throughout our conversations.

I guess the other thing about having Mike with me for as long as he’s been here is that he has watched me try (and sometimes fail) to keep this business evolving. He’s patient, understanding and always knows the right way and the right time to give some advice along the way. Mike, to his credit, is also a small business owner. He’s the guy we turn to when we have computer issues: viruses, bad hard drives, etc. There isn’t any one else I would trust with that kind of work so I tell everyone I can about him.

So, to Mike directly: I love you, buddy. Thanks for sticking with me for all these years and trusting me to take care of you too. It has been an honor and I look forward to many years of health, friendship and continued strength together.

Maybe even a piece of chicken…(sorry, I had to.) 🙂

 

 

 

Internationally hailed researcher, James Krieger, joins me this week to discuss his stance on metabolic damage. We talk about the theory that repeated bouts of dieting can slow your metabolism down and affect future weight loss efforts. James has spent over two decades uncovering the research and studies related to fitness and nutrition so that more people can have access to evidence based information. He is the founder of Weightology and is arguably one of the most respected people in the fitness industry. To learn more about James, please visit http://www.weightology.net To learn more about your host, check out http://www.jasonleenaarts.com and visit 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 post was taken from the Soundgarden song of the same name*

Last week, when the news reported that Chris Cornell had passed away, it shook me up.

When further reports came out that it was an apparent suicide, it hit me a little bit more.

Some very thought provoking articles have come out since then reminding us that we never really know what may have been going through Chris’s mind when it happened.

Was it simply the case of a medication he took too much of that pushed him too far?

When I met Chris backstage at a solo show of his in 1999, I never thought I’d be writing something like this about him nearly 18 years later. My memory of him and this news don’t mix well.

As a die-hard music lover, I got to see the reactions of friends and family who also took Cornell’s death really hard.

I guess it’s because suicide leaves such a raw feeling behind for anyone who has ever been close to it.

I don’t know how I survived any of my suicide attempts. Nor do I know how I survived a decade of hard drug use when I know so many others who didn’t.

When we see adages about how we never know the struggles people go through or someone’s fighting a battle we’ll never know about, it’s all true.

Some people are so good at internalizing that struggle and smiling through it.

We’ve been told to be tough or maybe that we shouldn’t emote so openly.

And this can cause a horribly debilitating effect on anyone who doesn’t have an outlet.

It’s not just about suicide.

And it’s not just about internal struggles.

I sometimes sit in amazement at the clients who come through our door who are barely keeping their lives together…but they’re here.

For the outlet.

For the distraction.

For something else aside from their own minds to put their focus into.

Something that might give them 30 or so minutes of release.

And if we get to be that small amount of sunlight in someone’s otherwise chaotic life, so be it.

Do I feel lucky that I lived to tell a story that others didn’t?

Yes.

Honestly, I feel luckier that we’ve created a place for people to open up and feel welcome; a place for people to turn to when they felt they couldn’t succeed at much or were just convinced they were better at being failures.

So, to all of you fighting a fight that no one knows about. Don’t give up.

 

In closing, I’d like to dedicate this post to a former client who sadly is no longer with us.

Rest in peace, Christa Jackson. We miss you.

 

 

 

 

On the heels of her awesome new book, Why Me Want Eat?, Krista Scott-Dixon of Precision Nutrition fame comes on the show to talk about this new project. Krista has not only delivered an excellent read for those struggling on their weight loss journey, it is honestly one of the most unique books of its kind. You can order the book now on Amazon and learn more about her incredible wealth of work at http://www.stumptuous.com To learn more about your host, check out http://www.jasonleenaarts.com and our new 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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