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The kid that pulled that,
Deserves that jacked back,
So many weights in my basement,
I’m working on my spaceship…
-Kanye West (probably)
Happy Friday, Coach J here from Anyman Fitness – and welcome to the latest edition of The N.W.A. Newsletter.
Each Friday’s N.W.A. Newsletter will have 3 parts:
- A Nutritional Tip to help make your diet healthier and easier to stick to.
- A Workout Tip to help make your training sessions more effective and fun.
- An Attitude/Mindset tip to help you strengthen your greatest asset – your mental toughness.
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I will also give you my single favorite piece of social media content from AF over the past week and link to it on either Instagram or Twitter.
Without any further ado… let’s get started, shall we?
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N.W.A. Nutrition Tip Of The Week:
While looking at calories is always a good idea when you’re trying to lose weight, it’s also helpful to be sure to choose the right kind of calories.
Whole foods are always an excellent idea – that shouldn’t come as a surprise for most people.
But even whole foods can be calorie dense.
There are a lot of foods that have a “health halo” on them, and yet they’re still calorie bombs.
Usually those foods have a large amount of fat in them, considering “fat is good” and “carbs are bad” or whatever fake nutritional news is going around these days…
Take a look at this picture.
This picture was posted in our community last week and it’s a great comparison (thanks, Judi – hope ya don’t mind me sharing it!).
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Both of these pictures contain 100 calories’ worth of food.
But those 100 calories are VERY different.
Popcorn has some excellent nutritional benefits. It’s chock full of fiber and it also has a myriad of other nutrients (iron, magnesium, and zinc, to name a few).
While those nutritional benefits are nice, likely the biggest reason why popcorn is a great snack choice while on a diet is due to its large food volume.
And food volume is EVERYTHING when you’re trying to lose weight.
The bowl of popcorn on the left will take you 30 minutes or more to eat and will leave you feeling full and satisfied.
The 5 Tootsie Rolls on the left will take you less than 5 minutes to eat and will leave you heading right back to the bag to grab another handful.
I’ve been there more times than I can possibly count…
Everyone has their preferences for foods that hit the trifecta:
- Healthy for you
- Taste good (enough)
- High food volume
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If you search for foods that nail all 3 of these characteristics and start using them extensively in your diets, it will benefit you big time.
I made these switches a long time ago myself, and they make life easy.
On Mexican night, it’s rice instead of a burrito.
On burger night, it’s a baked potato instead of french fries.
Small changes to your diet like this will cause you to be less hungry, less bloated in general, better digestion, and you will naturally lower your calorie intake without needing to do too much else.
It works like a charm – always focus on the food volume and make intelligent decisions if you want your diet to be as hunger free as possible.
N.W.A. Training Tip Of The Week:
A new study recently came out that highlighted just how important step counts are for your health.
The study was a meta-analysis of over 21,000 men and women.
- Rates of all cause mortality decline 12% for every 1,000 steps you are getting each day.
- Walking 16,000 steps per day caused a 66% decrease in all cause mortality versus walking 2,700 steps per day.
- Smoking cigarettes relates to ~70-80% higher rates of all cause mortality; walking 2,700 steps/day vs 16,000 steps per day relates to 200% higher rates of all cause mortality
- Having a BMI of over 40 relates to a 74% increase of all cause mortality
- The last pieces of data tell you… that smoking is actually *healthier* than being sedentary or obese!
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What an incredible statement; that’s shocking to me, if I’m being real.
If you’re sitting on your couch doing nothing, you’re being significantly more risky than you would be if you were a regular smoker who exercised.
Of course I’m not telling you to take up cigarettes.
But if you’re not moving – as much as possible – each day, you’re setting yourself up for a myriad of health issues in the future.
N.W.A. Attitude/Mindset Tip Of The Week:
If you want to have an extraordinary result, you have to put in extraordinary work.
There’s no way around it – it’s a fact.
And getting into proper shape and maintaining usually takes an extraordinary amount of work.
What is an extraordinary amount of work?
Perhaps it’s maintaining a 3 day per week strength training routine and going on an hour walk on all of your off days.
I would imagine less than 1% of humans put in work like that, so yes, I would call that “extraordinary”.
Maybe an extraordinary amount of work could be getting in 3, short strength training workouts, and diligently watching your diet for your fat loss.
Being consistent with your diet over the long haul is definitely extraordinary – not many people have the discipline to make that happen for a long period of time.
Or perhaps an extraordinary amount of work just means you refuse to quit or stop.
That’s a massive part of fitness – the simple act of not stopping your routine and allowing fitness to become a part of your identity.
If you ever need a bit of motivation, just turn to Kanye West…
His documentary “Jeeen-yus” has been released on Netflix (episodes 1 and 2 are currently out) and I’ve been loving every minute of it.
Episode 2 was fantastic.
It highlighted his struggle with getting signed as a rapper.
He had been a producer of some of the biggest names in hip hop (Jay-Z, Ludacris, Alicia Keys, etc).
But he desperately wanted to be taken seriously as a rap artist.
He did what he had to do… he pretty much worked non-stop with a relentless obsession until there was no other option but to win.
He spit a few bars about this in the song “Spaceship” on his debut album, College Dropout.
“Lock yourself in a room doing 5 beats a day for 3 summers…
I deserve to do these numbers…
The kid that made that…
deserves that Maybach…
I have so many records in my basement…
I’m just waiting on my spaceship…”
Perhaps you don’t need to lock yourself in your room to succeed at fitness, or at life.
But the point stands.
Want to do something special?
Then you have to take action that’s above and beyond what most people are willing to do.
Here’s a great picture of Kanye during those summers in his basement… and then him now underneath it:
One Favorite Social Media Post Of The Week:
You don’t get fat from eating one donut.
You don’t become fit from working out one time.
You don’t become broke from buying Starbucks coffee once.
You don’t become wealthy by investing $1k once.
Small choices repeated daily over time is what creates life changing outcomes.
I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Anyman Fitness N.W.A. Newsletter.
I’ll be back next week.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Best,
Coach J
Anyman Fitness
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I hope you find your spaceship and you get to fly away one day…. (NSFW – lyrics)