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*The title of this post was taken from the Simon & Garfunkel song of the same name*

When Casey Robinson and I first connected, it was a phone call with her inquiring about my services. We have some mutual friends who were clients at the time and Casey thought I might be the right fit for her needs.

Even in that call there were several things I picked up on. I could sense a fair amount of self-doubt, apprehension, concern over whether or not she would feel comfortable exercising here, etc.

And while Casey has been with us for a little over a year, we’ve watched little bits of progress move her across the spectrum.

She lost some weight initially, plateaued and then was in something of a holding pattern for several months. Along the way, she was gathering little bits of information and strategies from all of the videos I post in our Facebook closed community and from many of the articles I’ve written.

From time to time, she would ask specifically about certain strategies and methodologies and go back to the drawing board piecing together things she felt would work best for her.

And then a shift happened.

We reconvened on her goals and where she wanted to put her focus. She wanted to spend time working on a heavier traplift and start putting some different dietary philosophies to work.

Next thing you know, her strength is coming up and her body weight is coming down.

The fact that she is getting stronger is not a big surprise.

Truth be told, neither is the fact that she broke past her weight loss plateau.

The real magic behind the shift in Casey’s results has come from her changed mindset.

“What’s that you say, Mrs. Robinson?”

I asked her: What’s been working?

Her response: I track every single thing I eat. I was tracking before but I wouldn’t track something if it wasn’t a full serving size. I also wouldn’t always track alcohol. Now, I track it all. If it goes in my mouth and it has a calorie, I track it.

I even give myself room to splurge a little on the weekends. Sometimes I’ll be going through a week and remind myself “Oh, I get to have that (insert food reward here) on Saturday so I can wait until then.” Many times, I’ll get to the weekend and even though I have enough calories left in my day to have the treat, sometimes I just choose not to.

(And this is the best part)

“It’s not that I can’t have that [food], it’s that I choose not to.” 

For Casey, fine-tuning her diet mentality to what fits and what doesn’t has given her an improved understanding of where she can be flexible and where not to.

Having watched Casey inch further along the spectrum from where she started to where she will eventually be has been just as much of an education for me as it has likely been for her.

But it seems to me, that she has the toughest part conquered now: her mind.

“Here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson.”

Back on episode #58 of our show, Christian Finn made his debut with us and for a long time it was our most downloaded show ever. He is still comfortably in the top three so I had to bring him back on because the listening audience loves him. We pick a handful of myths from his 2017 book “Sugar Makes You Fat & Other Diet Myths Debunked” to discuss but there is so much more to read once you order your copy. To learn more about Christian’s work and to get your copy of the aforementioned book, visit http://www.muscleevo.net 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 band of the same name*

When this post is released, it will be the day before my son Jackson’s tenth birthday.

10 years.

It’s such a milestone that I haven’t quite wrapped my head around what the last decade has been like.

I know it’s been a whirlwind and I wrote about much of it when I dedicated this post to him last year on his 9th birthday.

So, what’s so different in the past year?

Well, as many of you know, Jackson has autism and we gauge progress in a very different way as one might with a typical child.

He does speak more, which is one of his greater challenges.

He might even routinely say a full sentence if he feels the need to get his point across to you.

He’s still one of the happiest children I’ve ever known and he still loves to dance and sing (more on that later.)

Ah yes, he is now a big brother to Sebastian.

And much like his mother and I assumed, he’s mostly indifferent to having a baby around. Jackson tends to work in his own world and doesn’t worry too much about what is going on with those around him.

But when Marissa and I ask him to engage with Sebastian, he’s always very loving, very affectionate and very kind.

I credit his mother, Megan, for raising him to be this sweet boy who knows how to be a caring big brother.

And while there have been some adventures in seeing if Jackson would take to sports, it would seem he’s more like me than we thought. He favors music over most anything else. Over the last month, he’s been taking voice and piano lessons which he seems (at least for now) to be very much attentive to.

He does have his moments of being very shy around people until he sees his reflection in a window or mirror. Then, all bets are off. He’s probably going to start dancing or scripting some moves from a video or movie he’s seen somewhere. He is quite the little ham.

And this is just a small tribute to my little king.

Jackson, I write these words in hopes that some day you might not only read them but understand them. You have always been this unerringly bright light in a world that tends to forget what that can be.

To see your growth and progress year after year makes me so proud to say “I’m HIS Dad.”

I love you big boy. Happy 10th birthday.

 

Mike Howard returns after his immensely popular episode (#64) and we continue our conversation about mindset success. Mike has a phenomenal attitude towards getting the psychology of progress right for you. Rest assured, this will not be the last time he is on the show and I have no doubt this episode will make you a fan if you weren’t one to begin with. To learn more about Mike’s work, check out http://www.leanminded.com 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 Ramones song of the same name*

When Donna started working with me, we had a conversation about her weight loss goals. It was roughly the same amount of weight that kept coming off and on for years.

Donna isn’t new to fitness either. She loves spinning and being active and she even spent some time doing CrossFit before she came to us.

Like many of my clients, the conversation comes back to: What can you do long term?

Can you crash diet indefinitely? No.

Can you always rely on high intensity training? No.

So, what’s a realistic approach?

It was questions like that which allowed Donna to look at her lifestyle currently and her past and ask herself: Why do I keep repeating the patterns that weren’t working (or weren’t sustainable?)

And Donna remains one of my many clients who I find the continuing dialogue very fascinating to hear.

She has managed to slow down her expectations of what weight loss should be and instead is paying closer attention to how food and drink affect her body.

A couple of weeks ago, she said: “I realize that when I eat an apple it doesn’t satisfy me and I end up hungrier than I would normally be.”

And where one might be inclined to associate an apple as a healthy snack, Donna determined it could screw up the intake of her next meal if she ate it.

It’s this type of self-exploration that many people don’t take the time to do.

More recently, Donna has been experimenting with how her body reacts to different types of alcohol. What she has found is that certain drinks drive her hunger up (white wine) and some don’t (gin and tonic.)

Sometimes, it’s important to step outside of the weight loss conversation and forget about calories in/calories out for a moment.

When you take Donna’s approach, there’s a lot to be said about listening to your body and trying to isolate certain food/drinks to get a better understanding of how your body reacts.

It’s also important to note that rather than throw the baby out with the bath water and give up drinking altogether, Donna is trying to pay close attention to how her former favorite drinks would lead to overeating in some cases.

Recently, I was telling our client Mary about an experience I once had with bread.

I had purchased a fairly popular line of whole wheat bread and found that every time I consumed it, within an hour I would be ready for a nap.

Not being one who would assume gluten intolerance having never suffered from this issue before, I switched to a sprouted grain option and never had a problem again.

Donna is exploring these possibilities for herself as well.

In effect, rather than chasing weight loss furiously only to be discouraged by the rebound, Donna is taking time to learn more about herself, her body, her results and ultimately, her plan of attack.

How will you learn to listen to yourself like Donna?

 

We return to our diet primer series this week and welcome Julieanna Hever, RD to the show. She is the best-selling author of several books based on plant-based diets including the brand new second edition of her Plant-Based Nutrition now available on Amazon. As we have done with previous episodes in this series, Julieanna and I delve into the pros and cons of embarking on this diet plan and how to make it work best for you. To learn more about Julieanna’s work, please visit http://www.plantbaseddietitian.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 Jane’s Addiction song of the same name*

Some time in late 2010/early 2011, I was dealing with two very different situations.

My oldest son, Jackson, was in the middle of a series of tests to diagnose some challenges he was having verbally and behaviorally. Those tests led to a diagnosis of high-functioning autism.

My father had been diagnosed in the summer of 2010 with multiple myeloma (bone marrow cancer) and was quickly losing his battle having not been successful with chemotherapy treatments.

Jackson was approximately 3 years of age. My father, 59.

Watching from an outsider’s perspective of what each of my loved ones were dealing with helped me shape a mantra that stuck with me for several years and remains with me to this day: For Your Father, For Your Son.

I knew that everything I needed to do mentally, monetarily, and physically was bigger than myself.

I knew that I had to make this business successful because providing for my son would be a lifelong endeavor.

I knew that being physically and emotionally strong would be crucial because my father would be leaving my mother and I behind.

And I don’t say this lightly when I say that my ability to deadlift well beyond my bodyweight was a huge help when I had to pick my father up from the floor or from a bed.

There was nothing that was going to stand in the way of me accomplishing these things.

Here we are 7+ years later and I find myself similarly motivated to succeed, to progress and to inspire others how to do the same even though my own life has changed dramatically since then.

And to be fair, the stakes are higher for me now too: I have a wife and another little boy. I have more than 3x the clientele that I did back then and 3x the space for business operations. The times have changed but the motivation has not.

When you hear people say “Find Your Why”, this is what they mean.

And that “Why” can mean very different things to different people.

It can relate to your obligations to family (as mine are.)

It can relate to being a better role model to others.

It can be about fitting into a size of pants you haven’t fit into in years.

And it is 100% okay for you to be selfish with your “Why.”

Because YOU will have to put in the work, YOU will have to make the food plan successful and realistic, YOU will have to get yourself back on track when your environment will fight to keep you the way you were. Even with trainers like us to help you and guide you, it is YOU who makes the decisions.

So, I believe your right to selfishness is what will help you succeed.

It is selfishness for self-care and self-preservation.

It is to determine your “Why.”

We are fortunate to have a community of clients who are diving into their “Why” as well.

Will you be one of them?

 

It is a milestone episode for the show and a legendary guest to celebrate it with me. I welcome Dan John to the show for the first time and definitely not the last. We discuss keys to diet and exercise longevity and Dan brings decades of successful experience as both athlete and coach to the table. To learn more about Dan’s work, check out http://www.danjohn.net and order his books at http://www.otpbooks.com/otpbooks-authors/dan-john To learn more about your host, check out http://www.jasonleenaarts.com Download, subscribe, share with your friends and please take a moment to leave us an iTunes review.  And THANK YOU to everyone who made the journey to 100 episodes such a blast so far. I greatly appreciate you.

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*The title of this post was taken from the Linkin Park song of the same name*

A while back I was reading an article from a coach in my industry who I look up to and he was discussing his path towards learning to play guitar.

I’ll paraphrase the article but this coach researched different types of guitars and finally decided on the one he wanted. He made the purchase, picked up some instructional manuals and courses and told himself he would commit roughly 30 minutes a day to playing.

But he just couldn’t get started.

Based on everything happening in his life, 30 minutes was too much of a time commitment. So he broke it down even further: to about 10-15 minutes a day.

This gave him a sustainable approach and a foundation to build on so he could make strides in learning to play his new instrument.

In last week’s article, I gave my list of all the books I read in 2017. There were 110 books on that list. I love to read but I wanted to conquer some larger books in 2018.

The first on my list was J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic “The Lord of the Rings.”

If you haven’t seen it, it’s the collection of all three stories that saw a resurgence in popularity by film several years ago. Having seen the films, I was acclimated to the stories but really wanted to read the collection.

It’s approximately 1200 pages not including appendices and that would make it the largest book I’ve ever read.

Since I frequently have to read books in a time sensitive manner so that I can interview different authors for my podcast, I needed a better strategy for reading this massive collection and still be able to shift other books in and out of the regimen.

So, I took the aforementioned coach’s tip and decided to break it down.

I’d give myself a minimum of 10 pages every day to take in Lord of the Rings.

On the long side, it will take me 120 days to read the book plus I’ll have plenty of time to read other books along the way if need be. Knowing myself, I’ll probably overcompensate somewhere along the way and have Tolkien’s book done long before then.

What does this have to do with you and your fitness goals?

We are at the beginning of the year where people have the inclination and motivation to make big changes to their diet and exercise plans. More often than not, those best intentions get thrown by the wayside because life has that funny way of interrupting our plans.

Consider the person who makes a plan to do 60 minutes of cardio three times a week. Motivation is high in January and things get off to a rocking start. Then February (or sooner) rolls around and it sure is hard to fit that 60 minutes in when you’re strapped with work commitments, family life, and every other nuance of life.

This same person then finds it hard to fit 60 minutes in once a week and then ditches the exercise plan ready for the next great hope in dietary paradise or high intensity silver bullets (which don’t exist, by the way.)

Many people tend to forget that slow and steady still wins the race. Take a cue from the stories above and you may find it easier to fit in 2 separate bouts of 15 minute workouts in your day. Or maybe you can only do one bout of 15 minutes and you find a way to build on that as you let the habit nestle its way into your lifestyle.

The same can be said for diet changes. Rather than deplete food groups and embark on 7/14/21-day fixes and resets, you can find one meal to improve on for a couple of weeks. Lock that meal down, make it the new norm and then shift to the next dietary tweak.

Lasting progress doesn’t need to be fast despite our emotional pull to the contrary. If you’re not in a rush for a vacation, high school reunion or to become the cover model on the next issue of Shape magazine, then why hurry?

Lasting change comes from making small steps getting you “one step closer” to your goals.

And here’s our resident “Mama Pat”, ringing in the New Year with a bang.

Lyle McDonald returns to the show after his wildly successful episode #76 and this time he is joined by Sumi Singh who is making her debut with us. These two have teamed up in person so that Lyle could coach Sumi to world record status in her weight class for powerlifting. For the trainers, Lyle shares incredible detail about his set and rep schemes plus how he has helped Sumi gauge her recovery during training. Both Sumi and Lyle also dive into how her physique does not lend itself to what theoretically should make her as successful as she is as a competitor and how they have worked together to give her every advantage possible. I can’t credit the support of these two enough for being a part of this show’s success and I know you’ll love the information we discuss here. To learn more about Lyle, check out http://www.bodyrecomposition.com and to learn more about Sumi, you can follow her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sumi.singh.35 and at http://www.shailafitness.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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