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Like most households, we have to routinely rummage through our pantry, fridge and freezer to reorganize the items we use the most and separate them from things that have been shifted around over time.

Because Marissa and I both handle cooking duties in the home (she cooks throughout the week and I tend to cook on the weekends), there are the things we frequently use as well as snacks for Sebastian and Jackson, baking staples and other odds and ends.

Ultimately, we come across things that are no longer fresh or are clearly expired and need to be discarded of.

This, in turn, leads us into conversation about what we might be cooking over the next few days and what we may need to get from the grocery store on our next trips.

Of course, like a good “spring cleaning” can do, when you remove the clutter, you can look at things with a fresh set of eyes and see what you’re working with (and. conversely, what’s no longer working).

On that note, I wanted to write this week’s article keeping in mind the readers who are trying to self-correct and get their own food environment to a place that makes sense for them.

1. Is It Time For A Purge? Take some time (30-60 minutes) to remove any foods from the countertop, fridge, freezer, and pantry that you no longer need. This may be expired foods or foods that are counterproductive to your current diet goals. I have certain trigger foods (foods that I can’t moderate the intake of) and Marissa has hers. Periodically, we’ll remind each other what those foods are and every so often, some new snack food appears and we’ll have to make mention: “Oh yeah, I definitely can’t have that in the house right now.” Point noted and that’s typically all it takes to clear the air of problematic foods.
2. But Our Kids Eat That… This is a sensitive one. For the most part, the foods that Sebastian eats (for instance) are not foods that rank high in desirability for Marissa and I. However, like most kids, Sebastian likes chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, pretzels, crackers, etc. Since Marissa is normally the one buying the things that Sebastian eats, she’ll buy variations or brands that are less appealing to her to minimize snacking or grazing on those foods. We try to watch the verbiage we use around Sebastian so that we are less inclined to label foods as good or bad. We might define a food as a treat which could be something that’s eaten after a meal or a special occasion. Ice cream and cookies aren’t frequently in our house (Marissa is lactose-intolerant and cookies are one of my “impossible to moderate” foods).
3. Research “Easy” Recipes. I taught myself how to cook using Scott Baptie’s excellent High Protein Handbook series right after Sebastian was born (he just turned 4.) I also took a few cooking classes with a friend who used to teach them in the area so I could learn better practices with my knife and some basic prep skills. Since then, I’ve learned what recipes I’m good at and I will frequently turn to Google to look up “easy” or “quick” options for making dinner. For instance, Marissa and I both love Asian and Indian cuisine. So, if I’m cooking, I’ll think about my protein base and look up options that coincide with it i.e. “easy Indian chicken recipe” or “easy Asian pork recipe”. Most easy options have short prep time and don’t take long to cook. To save on time and frustration, I’ll chop up my veggies, garlic, meat, etc. so that cooking moves more efficiently and I’ll set aside the measured portions of my spices. Neither of us care for onions and fortunately, almost any recipe can have onions removed and still taste delicious.
4. Get Curious About Spices If you haven’t used a spice in a while (or ever) look up recipes that include it. As referenced above, Indian recipes frequently use a wide range of delicious, aromatic spices like turmeric, cardamom, coriander and garlic. If you’re not a fan of a certain cuisine, search recipes that include a spice. For instance, typing up “chicken recipes with coriander” into Google can lead you down a cool path of options so that you can cook “outside the box”.
5. Simple Carb Strategies Neither Marissa nor I are low carb dieters and I generally will eat higher carb than she will to fuel a comparatively more active day. However, one thing that makes cooking at night easy and helps us control caloric intake without calorie tracking is to generally go low-carb at night. We’ll find a protein base (seafood, poultry or beef) and build our vegetable around it. I mentioned above that we both like Asian and Indian cuisine and both of those feature dishes built around rice. We opt for cauliflower rice as a substitute to reduce overall calories, increase our vegetable intake and add more fiber to the diet. I won’t try to convince you that cauliflower rice and regular rice taste the same. They don’t. But, if you’ve got your broth/sauce and the rest of your dish topping the cauliflower, it’s an easy low carb/calorie substitution to make.
6. Measure Your Alcohol Most of my clients come to me for fat loss and most of those same clients like to partake in an alcoholic beverage. I wrote a much lengthier article about this awhile back but since alcohol is an easy thing to overdo, start measuring your intake. Marissa and I are almost exclusively bourbon/rye/whiskey drinkers and I will normally post our dinner and drink selection each evening on social media. Our alcohol is always measured and helps us stay on top of something that might otherwise be difficult to moderate if we just left it to eyeball portions.
7. Eating Out Is Infrequent I’ll make the comparison between my wife and I. Marissa normally eats 2 meals a day, something light in the morning and then a normal sized dinner (for her needs). That’s 14 meals in a week. Of that 14, she might have 1-2 meals at a restaurant. This is for a few reasons: 1) She has difficulty guesstimating the calories she’s consuming at a restaurant unless it’s listed 2) Most restaurants use butter in cooking and that messes with her digestive system 3) She generally feels better when she’s in control of what’s going in her body. Marissa found an approach which works for her and helped her lose about 35 pounds. By comparison, I eat 3-4 meals a day (21-28 meals in a week) and 5 of them are at a restaurant. I will typically eat out during a work week around my lunch break. I am a creature of habit so I tend to float between the same handful of restaurants and order the same basic thing: it’s predictable and doesn’t take a lot of brain power. Consider yourself in these equations. If you’re eating out more than 20% of the time and you’re struggling with your fat loss goals, think about some of the approaches I referenced above. It’s not impossible to lose weight when you’re at the mercy of restaurants but it is significantly more difficult.

If you read something of value in this article, please feel free to share it on social.

In our final episode of our 4-part series together, Dr. Allan and I go a slightly different route with our content to focus more on training this week. In this episode, we discuss considerations for training depending on the goals of the individual. Dr. Allan breaks down training sequences for the strength athlete versus a focus on maximizing hypertrophy. We also break down our thoughts on frequency, volume and considerations around injuries. 

To learn more about Dr. Allan’s work: 

http://www.mauiathletics.com

http://www.facebook.com/mauiathletics 

http://www.instagram.com/mauiathletics 

To learn more about your host: 

http://www.jasonleenaarts.com

http://www.revfittherapy.com

http://www.facebook.com/jason.leenaarts

http://www.instagram.com/jasonleenaarts

You can also like our Facebook page at: 

http://www.facebook.com/revolutionaryou 

To purchase my book, “A Revolution A Day”: 

http://www.amzn.to/2R9Larx

Apple Podcasts OR Stitcher OR Player FM OR Podbean

In the early 2000s, I was midway through my decade of drug addiction. I was dating the woman who I would eventually marry and would become Jackson’s mother. We were in New Jersey attending a convention for Beatles fans and while we were standing in line, we would talk to other fans who had their own areas of collecting related to Beatles memorabilia.

One fan collected as many of the first print books that had been written about the Fab Four and, where possible, would get those first print books signed by the author(s). Another fan collected original posters and promotional material. Then we ventured upon a gentleman who said: “I collect everything. Everything I can get my hands on.”

That sounded more in line with what I was about, too. Just buy it all.

It’s a funny thing, collecting Beatles memorabilia. At the time, the band themselves hadn’t been a functioning unit in roughly three decades and most of the more valuable items would have come from the 60s when they were still recording, touring, etc.

The problem was (and likely still is) that if you bought Beatles memorabilia in the 60s, you were going to play it, read it, store it in places it was never meant to be stored and, as you can imagine, ruin the overall quality of the piece. It stands to reason that finding 60s era Beatles items in mint condition is quite the rarity.

So, for someone like me who was just cutting his teeth on a collection, I bought whatever I could, wherever I could, and hoped that what I had actually held some value.

Shamefully, I admit that I paid for most of my collection with money I made from selling drugs.

By this time, my addiction was well rooted and even though I always managed to hold down a full-time job, that job normally covered the cost of rent, my car, my utilities and little else. If I wanted to consume more drugs, I had to sell more drugs. And if I wanted a lavish Beatles collection, that same drug money afforded me the luxury.

At the time, it was fun. I’ve collected things as long as I can remember and getting my hands on Beatles items of any variety was a way to feed into that incessant need for more.

However, when I got clean, the collection didn’t mean as much to me. And the more distance I put between myself and drugs, the less I wanted to look at it, enjoy and appreciate that collection.

So, I sold off nearly all of it at a fraction of what I spent for it.

I reached a point where every time I looked at all of the things I owned related to that band, it gave me nothing but negative feelings. I knew where the money came from and I knew what dishonest, disingenuous and unsavory things I had to do to buy those items.

The only way I could get rid of that feeling, was to get rid of those pieces.

Getting off drugs solved only certain problems in my life. I had more money, which was nice and I had more mental clarity, which was also nice. But I had done a fair amount of damage to my body from all those years of drugs and I needed to start rebuilding a body and mind that had seen better days.

In addition, being clean meant that I had to start facing a lot of the demons I had tried to smoke, snort, drop and hallucinate myself away from. Like a lot of things in life, if you keep sweeping your problems under the rug, you don’t get rid of the problems, you just have a bigger mess to clean up at a later date.

I share this story and offer a statement from my friend and fellow coach, Dr. Brad Dieter: “You’ll never be able to go back to your old habits and be a new person.”

When I coach change for my clients, many people think that they can continue to cling to most of who they are (and often, who they were) and get these magical results.

That’s rarely the reality, though.

If you want fat loss, you generally have to create significant change. This is why the notions of “eat less, move more” and “lifestyle change” are correct but vastly over-simplified.

Much like I had to do with my drug use and my completely obnoxious Beatles collection, you have to be willing to shed some skin and leave the “former you” well behind.

Please don’t read what I’m not writing. If you’re a good, trustworthy, reliable person in most areas of your life, that doesn’t need to change. You can be all of those things and still have a really shitty way of handling the times of your life that are more stressful, more chaotic and less predictable than you’d like.

The fact of the matter is, I was a drug addict because I didn’t have good coping skills for stress in my life.

Here are some things I’d like you to consider:

–How do I react to stress? If the first thing you do when times get hard is raid the pantry, the fridge or drown your woes in a bottle, that’s a sign that something needs to change. Altering your environment can be a huge step because if you remove temptation from the home, you’re less likely to have that default reaction. It might also help to have a list of things that you enjoy doing that are also stress relievers so that, when the time comes, you can start choosing different outlets.

–Consider an If/Then approach. As an extension of what I referenced above about alternative outlets for stress, start crafting “if/then” solutions for your life. This will take some effort on your end. I’ll use dining at a restaurant as an example. Let’s assume that you’re trying to adhere to a diet plan and your family wants to go to an Italian restaurant, typically a place where you’re more inclined to overindulge.

One example would be:

“If” I go to an Italian restaurant, “then” I’ll order a grilled chicken salad with dressing on the side and light cheese.

Or

“If” I go to an Italian restaurant, “then” I’ll ask the server to refrain from bringing bread as an appetizer and to box up half of my meal so that I eat a smaller portion than normal and can save the rest for another meal.

You’ll have to consider the examples that would be more appropriate to your life and your current obstacles.

–The person you were is not the person you’ve become. I frequently hear clients who are well into their 40s, 50s and 60s share stories with me about the type of training they did in their 20s and the type of diet they succeeded with before they ever had children. Those stories are all fine and good but they are rarely helpful when you consider that everything about that person’s life has changed over the decades. The body doesn’t respond the same because the mind is not the same, the responsibilities are not the same and there may be injuries to consider that weren’t a concern 30 years ago. I can’t train my body the same way at 45 as I did at 25 despite the fact that I’m otherwise healthy and at a reasonable weight for my liking. Clinging to a former you doesn’t appropriately serve who you are now.

–Change is painful. I recently read a book that shared the sentiment: Pain is mandatory, suffering is optional. (Apologies for not remembering who to credit that to). If you need to change your body to get stronger or you need to change your diet to get any degree leaner, it will be profoundly uncomfortable. This is not synonymous with impossible and it doesn’t equate to “no pain, no gain”. However, we (as people) generally don’t like discomfort. We like pleasant things, we like fun things, we like things that make us feel good. By and large, the things that matter most to us: a stable job, a functional marriage (or long term relationship), a better moving body or even a lasting friendship require work and will often have moments of stress and friction. Accept that discomfort and be willing to sit with it. Not every negative feeling or uncomfortable circumstance needs to be numbed or avoided.

–Shed the skin. My fellow addicts know that we will always be addicts (albeit with different vices). This has to be managed in as realistic a manner as possible. That being said, the man I was in my 20s is dead and I have removed nearly all signs of him from my life. I’ve replaced that man with someone who is generally more responsible, healthier, and better for all those around me. I’m far from perfect and what I can’t fix on my own has taken therapy to help with. Akin to what my friend, Dr. Dieter said, I can’t go back to that person and have or deserve all the good things in my life today. It was skin I had to shed, a persona that no longer served a greater good in my life and my only regret, is the people I hurt back then. You may have some skin to shed as well if you want a different life than the one you’re current living. Famed professor Joseph Campbell is known for a quote that is similar to the sentiments I’ve shared above: We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.

Pictured below is one of my only remaining pieces from my original collection, a piece of artwork from a Lennon art exhibit that now hangs in my office at the Rev. I paid for this with drug money too and while I probably could get rid of it, I think I swept away most of the negative sentiments from that collection. This is a reminder of how far I’ve come and that change was not only difficult but necessary.

I had to establish enough self-worth to remind myself of that.

That remains a work in progress for me.

In Part 3 of our 4-part series together, Dr. Allan Bacon and I continue our conversations in fat loss by tailoring this episode to emotional eating and overcoming cravings. Just like the first two episodes in this series, there’s a lot to soak in within a relatively short time so you may want to listen back to this one more than once. 

To learn more about Dr. Allan’s work: 

http://www.mauiathletics.com

http://www.facebook.com/mauiathletics

http://www.instagram.com/mauiathletics

To learn more about your host: 

http://www.jasonleenaarts.com

http://www.revfittherapy.com

http://www.facebook.com/jason.leenaarts

http://www.instagram.com/jasonleenaarts

You can also like our Facebook page at: 

http://www.facebook.com/revolutionaryou

To purchase my book, “A Revolution A Day”: 

http://www.amzn.to/2R9Larx

Apple Podcasts OR Stitcher OR Podchaser OR Podbean

I was sitting at my desk in my first location of RevFit when you called me. As memory serves, you were driving back to work after leaving the doctor’s office.

“Are you busy?”, you asked.

“No, I’m just sitting here in the office at work. What’s going on?”

“Well, I just left the doctor’s office. They told me I have multiple myeloma.”

And I did what any person would (and oftentimes shouldn’t) do, I got on Google to look it up as I hear your voice on the phone.

“It’s bone marrow cancer,” you said. “Which would explain why I’ve been having all of this pain in my hips and why I haven’t been recovering from the carpal tunnal surgery the way I would have normally.”

I saw the symptoms and I read the prognosis. Neither of which were positive.

“Dad, this isn’t good.”

“I know. Don’t tell your mother yet. She’s at work and I don’t want to bother her with this until she’s done working.”

“Ok, but what are you going to do?”

“Well, we’ll have to talk to a few more doctors who specialize in this type of cancer and see how they want to treat it.”

You were ever the optimist and you continued to hold out hope that we had the right doctors to help and the right course of action to treat the cancer.

The hope was that you would have stem cell procedures done that would give you more time.

But nine more months was all there would be. None of the protocols the doctors used would save you.

You passed in the evening of March 23 of 2011. Coincidentally, it was on Gram’s birthday, just a few weeks before Mom’s birthday and well before you’d turn 60.

You would be turning 70 this week.

Each year, as I write things about you (normally around the anniversary of your passing or your birthday), I have to dig deep: one, to remember circumstances and write about them so that I don’t forget and can keep them for posterity and two, to work through the emotions of losing someone who meant so much to me (and Mom).

I wanted to approach this article from a slightly different place.

As I’ve watched Mom get older each year, with her own set of health challenges, it’s hard not to consider what you would be like had you lived.

I know, and I believe, that your personality would not have changed. You would have been the same kind, compassionate, loving father, husband, father-in-law, grandfather and brother that you had always been.

I believe you would have retired from Goodyear, where you worked for all of my life and where you were employed up until your passing.

However, I don’t know that you would have been able to just be a retiree. You would have needed things to stimulate your mind, things that could occupy your time and give you a sense of accomplishment and productivity. I believe I got those attributes in equal measure from you and from Mom.

You would have remained in awe and admiration of your grandsons: Jackson and Sebastian. Likewise, you would have loved to see what Mom has accomplished with Savoir-Faire Event Planning and what I’ve been so fortunate to do with RevFit.

I believe you would have maintained the weight I helped you lose when I moved back here to start this business. I remember how good you said that you felt and it was one of my proudest moments ever as a coach to help you lose that weight.

I think you would have been a constant reminder of the type of husband I should be. This year will mark 47 years that you and Mom would be married. No one has ever or will ever love Mom the way you did. Believe me when I tell you that she knows that too.

I think you’d still enjoy watching car races on television, you’d still love being on a boat, you’d still love the beach and maybe I’d get you to join Marissa and I for bourbon from time to time (you know, beyond the Jack and Coke you would have every so often).

Much of what I’ve written about you since you passed has been from a place of sadness and emptiness. I can’t ever fill those holes. I wanted to write something that didn’t reduce me to tears this time. I wanted to think (or wish) about you being here, being full of life, being everything that you’ve missed out on over the last 10+ years.

Selfishly, I wish I could see you celebrate 70 years with us. I’d like your grandsons to be there to see it. Turns out, I may have been the first American born under our name but the onus is on Sebastian now to carry it further.

I’ve never been more proud than now to be your son and maybe, just maybe, after nearly 46 years on this earth, I might be fulfilling the man you wanted me to be.

Happy Birthday, Dad. Play a song up there for us, okay?

Dr. Allan Bacon and I are back this week in Part 2 of our 4-Part series together. In this episode, we talk about expectations around hunger and how to manage it, as well as the criticism and influence someone might be subject to while dieting and what to expect from our body’s responses to dieting while doing so. Just like our first episode in this series, this episode is full of insight and Dr. Allan has a ton of information to help. 

To learn more about Dr. Allan’s work: 

http://www.mauiathletics.com

http://www.facebook.com/mauiathletics

http://www.instagram.com/mauiathletics

To learn more about your host: 

http://www.jasonleenaarts.com

http://www.revfittherapy.com

http://www.facebook.com/jason.leenaarts

http://www.instagram.com/jasonleenaarts

You can also like our Facebook page at: 

http://www.facebook.com/revolutionaryou 

To purchase my book, “A Revolution A Day”: 

http://www.amzn.to/2R9Larx

Apple Podcasts OR Stitcher OR Podbean OR Podchaser

Several years ago, I was working with a weight loss client (Hi, J!) and when he started he didn’t see a great deal of fat loss success.

Of course, during our initial consultation, I would have spoken with him about his current eating behaviors, potential calorie goals to shoot for and some thoughts on how exercise and food would work together to help him succeed.

However, not everyone uses those tools at the beginning and sometimes throughout our working relationship, we have to revisit things we spoke about early on.

One day, J came in and said: “Hey, by the way, I’m down eight pounds.”

“No kidding?” I asked, “What changed?”

“Well, I cut out potatoes.”

If you don’t know me, I have a terrible poker face and I’m not sure I did a very good job of hiding my surprise or opportunity to make a sarcastic comment. I did manage to ask: “Do you typically eat a lot of potatoes?”

“Oh yes,” he replied. “You know, hash browns for breakfast, chips or fries with a sandwich at lunch and mashed potatoes or a baked potato at dinner.”

*wellillbedamned*

In J’s case, he not only made a sweeping change to his diet, he found one area where abundance occurred, stripped it away completely and dropped a good chunk of weight.

One point of interest was that, J didn’t reference all of the potato consumption during our initial consult. If he had, it might have sparked an avenue to travel to make some small changes and see more immediate results on the scale.

And J wouldn’t be alone in that regard.

It’s not uncommon for a potential client to not completely unveil what their diet looks like in reality during a consult. Sometimes, they simply forget and sometimes, an individual might feel some degree of shame or embarrassment that a certain food (or behavior) is in greater abundance than they care to admit.

It’s not just food either, clients might not mention how much they drink, how poorly they sleep or even remember all of the pre-existing injuries they may have before getting started with an exercise regimen.

Part of this is just human nature. If we don’t meticulously track our food intake, it’s easy to forget what our “normal” is. This is similar to how it might be difficult to say how many drafts and charges occur in our bank accounts when we don’t look at our statements regularly.

On another occasion, I was working with a gentleman who ate “pretty well” but wasn’t seeing the scale move. We got on the subject of what he drank throughout the day and he remarked that he drank a low calorie drink.

“Which one would that be?” I asked.

“Oh, I drink the Arnold Palmer Lite from Arizona. I love that stuff. I’m so glad it’s low in calories.”

I looked up the drink he referenced and each serving size (12 oz) was 80 calories.

“That looks good,” I said, “How much of it do you drink?”

“I can finish a jug of it every couple of days…” he replied.

One jug, at 12 oz per serving, was 880 calories. So, he was consuming approximately 400+ calories per day with his “Lite” drink. Once we brought that to his attention, he switched to unsweetened tea with some lemon and diet ginger ale and the scale started moving the direction that he wanted.

While on the subject of liquid calories, I was working with a woman once who could give me the calorie breakdown of every meal and snack she consumed. Every food selection was “healthy”, minimally processed, and practical for her busy lifestyle. She was within an appropriate calorie range where she should have seen weight loss occur. I asked her what she drank each day.

“Water and a lot of coffee.” she said.

“Ok, cool, is the coffee black?” I asked.

“No, I put some low calorie creamer and a little bit of sugar in it.”

“Have you tried measuring those?” I asked her.

“No, never. I just eyeball it.”

I told her to try measuring the creamer and the sugar on the next day.

Her rough approximation: over 500 calories (throughout the course of the day) from her “low calorie” creamer and her sugar. They certainly add up!

“The tale of the potato” isn’t uncommon and while the potato was J’s area of abundance, for someone else it’s snacking, or it’s liquid calories (creamers, juices, alcohol), or it’s added fats (cooking with oils, avocado on toast, nut butters, nuts).

Look for the areas that appear in abundance in your diet. Keep a skeptical eye.

As always: the details matter.

*Coach Sebastian below modeling a good-sized potato.*

Dr. Allan Bacon makes his second appearance on the show after a great first episode with his wife, Beth (#244) in April of 2020. We kick off the first of our 4-part series with a massive conversation about breaking through diet and exercise plateaus. We know they are nearly inevitable during any path towards self-improvement so this episode is jam-packed full of tips to get you moving in the direction you want to be. 

To learn more about Dr. Allan’s work: 

http://www.mauiathletics

http://www.facebook.com/mauiathletics

http://www.instagram.com/mauiathletics

To learn more about your host: 

http://www.jasonleenaarts.com

http://www.revfittherapy.com

http://www.facebook.com/jason.leenaarts

http://www.instagram.com/jasonleenaarts

You can also like our Facebook page at: 

http://www.facebook.com/revolutionaryou 

To purchase my book, “A Revolution A Day”: 

http://www.amzn.to/2R9Larx

Apple Podcasts OR Stitcher OR Podchaser OR Podbean

Our son, Sebastian, a.k.a. The Biscuit a.k.a. Homie McDudeButt, turns 4 today.

Over the last year of his life, his mother and I have seen, in grand fashion, what it’s been like to live with a “threenager”.

Much like every other toddler parent over the last year, having a child spend the majority of his time inside due to a pandemic and not be able to go to some type of daycare or socialize as most kids would typically do came at a cost.

We were not alone in coming face-to-face with that cost.

However, in the same year, Sebastian got to partake in tee-ball, karate, superhero classes and gymnastics. He transitioned his fascination with vacuum cleaners and home appliances to fire alarms, fireworks, Port-A-Potties, urinals, and science experiments. He normally had colossal meltdowns if we did not give him immediate access to fire alarms, fireworks, Port-A-Potties, urinals and science experiments. Our apologies to anyone who got to witness that!

Anyone who knows me knows that I have some undiagnosed OCD issues and a nagging history of collecting things which are traits that not one, but both of my boys have. (You’re welcome!)

I recently taught Sebastian how to put records (safely) on a turntable and it was a whole new world for him. Now, we have frequent “record parties” where he/we pick out a handful of records to listen to and Sebastian does his best at forming a one-man mosh pit.

It’s entertaining to say the least.

Suffice to say, he’s had his first experience “digging through the crates” at record stores and starting his own collection of vinyl. Upon displaying all 7 of his first records, he stood back to admire his handiwork and my wife looked at me to say: That’s YOUR child.

She’s right.

Our little bundle of sunshine is now frequently found listening to songs by: Journey, Twisted Sister, Van Halen, Ramones, The Dirty Nil, Beastie Boys, Sciatic Nerve, The Charlatans and….the soundtrack to Hamilton. Some of these he came upon through the handy algorithm of YouTube and some were definitely inspired by his parents.

Sebastian still absolutely adores his big brother Jackson but, to be candid, he loves just being around other children in general.

He frequents the gym with Marissa as she is consistently training 3x/week and Sebastian is always in tow with her. Sometimes he elects to work out with his mama and sometimes he’s back in my office waiting for her to finish up.

All in all, Sebastian is carefully crafting a world that we all simply pass through and it’s going to be interesting to see if he manages to beat my timeline of thinking he might be in jail by time he turns 5. (He is my child, after all….)

This week’s post is just a little celebration to our favorite 4 year old. Sebastian, life is never a dull moment with you…even when you go nuclear because you can’t find a urinal (even though you don’t have to pee, you just want to hear how loud the flush is!)

We love you, buddy. Happy Birthday!

Ruby Cherie and I conclude our 4-part series this week diving into our thoughts on motivation. We talk about how the evolution of motivation in our lives and within health and fitness can and should adapt on a given spectrum, why gratitude and mindfulness matter and what it looks like in real life to have competing interests and priorities continue to change. 

To learn more about Ruby’s work: 

http://www.facebook.com/Rubyreneecherie

http://www.instagram.com/rubycherie.coachingspecialist

To learn more about your host: 

http://www.jasonleenaarts.com

http://www.revfittherapy.com

http://www.facebook.com/jason.leenaarts

http://www.instagram.com/jasonleenaarts

You can also like our Facebook page at: 

http://www.facebook.com/revolutionaryou

To purchase my book, “A Revolution A Day”: 

http://www.amzn.to/2R9Larx

Apple Podcasts OR Stitcher OR Podchaser OR Podbean