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I first hit the gym when I was 20 years old,

And what I loved best, was the lessons it told,

It said, “Excuse me little homie I know you don’t know me, but,

If you lift hard, then, I know you’ll love me, and…”

– Kanye (probably)

You know the drill… if you’re the first person who responds and can tell me which Kanye song this is without Googling – play fair – I’ll send you a free item from our Swag Shop.

If you wish, you can grab the N.W.A. Newsletter Playlist on Spotify here, all of the songs that have been featured in the newsletter are on the playlist.

Happy Friday, Coach J here from Anyman Fitness – and welcome to the latest edition of The N.W.A. Newsletter.

Each week with the N.W.A. Newsletter, I give you the best Nutrition, Weightlifting, and/or Attitude advice for you to start to use in your life today.

Tens of thousands of people have used this exact newsletter to gain muscle, lose fat, and become a better version of themselves…

Without any further ado, let’s get started..

N.W.A. Nutrition, Training, and Mindset Tip Of The Week

We are all dopamine addicts.

All of us.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter and hormone.

It plays a role in many important bodily functions, including movement, memory, pleasurable rewards, and motivation.

Without dopamine, you will have no drive.

No desire to do anything.

You will feel “empty” inside, like life isn’t worth living.

Dopamine is the driving force behind us all.

It lurks in the background, hopefully inspiring us to do good things.

Inherently, dopamine is required if you’re going to take regular, daily steps towards a big goal.

Without dopamine, you will feel listless and unmotivated.

Dopamine is the substance inside of us that makes us feel good when we have done good things that will benefit the Future versions of ourselves.

Finding joy in the small things in life is important.

A nice cup of coffee in the morning, as the sun is coming up.

Watching a Christmas movie snuggled up on the couch with your family.

A walk in the woods in the Fall, with a light jacket on, a breeze in the air, and the sound of leaves crackling beneath your feet.

Dopamine is what causes us to enjoy these simple pleasures.

It’s also the hormone that keeps us going when we’re striving towards something.

If you have a big project at work that will take 6 months to complete, as you start to check action items off your list, dopamine is what makes you feel good about what you’ve accomplished so far.

If you’re in college, getting your Doctorate, dopamine keeps you going as you work on defending your thesis, which often takes a year or longer to complete.

If you’re on a fitness journey, dopamine is what gives you those “warm fuzzies” about the 10 pounds you’ve lost so far, and it gives you the motivation to (yet again) say no to the dessert that’s tempting you.

These are healthy dopamine responses; we should all feel good when we do good things for ourselves.

But we live in a time period of extreme excess and indulgence.

We can easily get cheap hits of dopamine whenever we wish.

It’s all around our current society, staring us in the face, like a drug dealer casing the park, looking for someone to sell the next hit to.

Have you ever had a long week at work, come home, and grabbed an alcoholic drink?

You take a sip, and as it goes down your throat, you feel a euphoric wave rush over you, and you think “Oh, man, I really needed that; I’ve been waiting for that all week…”

You feel that euphoria before the alcohol even takes effect in your bloodstream.

That’s dopamine.

Dopamine doesn’t need to wait for your BAC to rise and for you to feel a “buzz”.

It hits you right away, and washes over you like a flood.

Have you ever been on point with your diet for weeks on end, and you’re offered a slice of cheesecake?

And you take that first bite… and your eyes roll back into your head and you think “Oh… My… God… I have missed you so much…”

That’s dopamine.

It’s an enticing, intoxicating feeling.

And it’s a feeling so intense it makes it difficult to say no to whatever temptation is in front of you.

One of my 1:1 clients emailed me a few weeks back.

He had struggled with his weight in the past, and had been an overindulger.

He was on the right track, though, and was currently smack dab in the middle of his weight loss journey.

He had done an amazing job, losing 20 pounds and making great progress in his first few months of working with me.

His progress was fairly linear; each week, his waist was being whittled away and he had lost 1-3 pounds like clockwork every time we had a check in.

But then, out of nowhere, he started binging at night.

He confided in me that he was struggling.

He felt hopeless.

Unmotivated.

Like a failure.

Each day, he would do great… until the night hit…

And after dinner, he would end up in the pantry making bad dietary decisions.

It was not only stalling his weight loss, but he had gained back a few pounds.

He was upset with himself, and he didn’t know how to get over the hump and back on track.

He admitted to me,

“The thing I don’t get is I’ve actually been doing great this week for the last 3-4 days. But I still just feel like crap. I don’t feel good about myself, even though I’ve been doing much better lately, and I’m not sure why.”

I thanked him for his honesty.

And told him how common this was.

You won’t hear about it on the internet, or social media, because you only see the highlight reels on those places.

But millions of people struggle with this exact same thing.

My client’s actions were dopamine-seeking.

They were 100% related to him searching for that “hit” of dopamine that he had been depriving himself of for so long.

Earlier in his life, when he was overweight and struggling, eating was his way of “checking out” and going into that euphoric state of overindulgence.

When he “cracked” for the first time, and raided his pantry, he felt the euphoria that comes with a large dose of fat and sugar.

And that euphoric feeling was so powerful and intoxicating, that he continued to chase that “high”.

That’s the funny thing about dopamine.

The first “hit” causes a euphoric wave.

But each additional “hit” gives you less and less dopamine.

So you keep chasing that high… hoping for the euphoric wave to hit again (even though it won’t).

So, the snacking continues.

Here’s another thing about dopamine…

When you flood your system with cheap sources of dopamine, there’s always a “come down” after your “high”.

You will feel awful in the morning.

Like you’ve failed.

You’ll feel guilty.

You’ll feel borderline depressed, and upset with yourself.

A bit of that will be because you did something unhealthy to your body.

But a bigger chunk of that awful, self-loathing feeling is because you flooded your body with cheap dopamine, and now, your body is no longer producing dopamine in small, steady amounts, making you feel alive and good about yourself.

This is important to understand.

Remember the cause-and-effect of dopamine discussed earlier in this article.

Do good things => Healthy dopamine response

Healthy dopamine response => Feel good about yourself and your actions

Feel good about yourself => Increased motivation to do good things

This is the cycle you want to see in your daily life.

Contrast this to what was happening to my client.

Do unhealthy things => Cheap dopamine hit

Cheap dopamine hit => Continued chasing of the “high” of dopamine flooding your system

Continued chasing of cheap dopamine => Stunted, natural dopamine production, and you feel “low” as your body no longer naturally produces dopamine in the proper amounts

This is the cycle you want to avoid at all costs.

It’s counterproductive to your goals, and it’s a trap millions of us across the world fall into every day.

I told my client the reason he wasn’t feeling good about himself, even though he had been back on track for a few days was because his dopamine system hadn’t reset yet.

It can take a few weeks (or longer in some instances like hard drug use or alcoholism) for that to happen.

He would have to “grind it out” for a bit.

But eventually, his dopamine system would reset, and he’d start to feel healthy dopamine responses to doing good things for himself yet again.

I used to scoff at the claims on the internet that “sugar is as addictive as heroin”.

Because clearly that’s hyperbole and a bit of a crazy comparison.

Someone who stops eating sugar doesn’t end up dopesick with their skin crawling, a fever, and flu like symptoms for weeks.

But the dopamine responses in the brain are similar.

That much cannot be denied.

That can be a powerful thing to overcome.

There are lots of sources of cheap dopamine in our society.

Alcohol.

Decadent food.

Marijuana (legal in many places) and other hard drugs.

Pornography.

Social media (yep, I said it).

Indulgence in these areas will negatively effect your dopamine production, and make your life seem less vibrant and joyous.

Abstinence in these areas will give you more energy, and help to reset the dopamine receptors in your brain, and allow you to get more joy out of your life.

My message to you is simple:

Find your dopamine sources in actions that align with your goals.

If you want to be healthy, strong, and active, reject overindulging in alcohol and unhealthy foods.

Lift weights and get your steps in.

Find a healthy dopamine response in feeling good when you do good things for yourself.

If you want to have a healthy and active sex life, reject overstimulating yourself with pornography and pixels on the screen.

Focus your attention on your partner and give her/him the energy you used to give to adult media.

Find a healthy dopamine response in connecting with your partner physically (and emotionally), and strengthen your relationship.

If you want to have better mental health and less anxiety, reject marijuana and other substances that give you a false sense of euphoria.

Focus your attention on making positive changes in your life, and give your energy to improving yourself and having a closer relationship with your friends and family.

Find a healthy dopamine response in being the best version of yourself you can be.

If you’d like to dig deeper into dopamine and how it affects us – both positively and negatively – I highly recommend reading Dopamine Nation, by Dr. Anna Lembke.

It was a great read, and eye opening.

It’s borderline required reading for all of us in this day and age.

If you need some help and you’d like to start making positive steps to improve your life, you can apply for a spot on my 1:1 coaching roster here.

12-22-2023

N.W.A. Nutrition, Training, and Mindset Tip Of The Week

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12-22-2023

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N.W.A. Nutrition, Training, and Mindset Tip Of The Week

More AF Content From Around the Web:

Site Links

Coaching

Social