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It was all a dream,
I used to read Muscle Magazine,
It had all of Arnold’s tips on how to get lean,
I hung his poster on my wall,
Every Saturday I was lifting, so I wouldn’t be so small…
-Biggie (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:
With a bazillion food products on our grocery store shelves, it’s easy to get caught up in silly marketing nonsense.
Make sure you’re aware of the sneaky tricks food companies use to try to get you to buy their products.
Let me give you an example.
Everyone loves a fudge striped sugar cookie.
Wouldn’t it make sense to eat the “sugar free” version to be a little bit healthier?
One would think, right? Hmmmm… let’s see if that’s a true statement…
Check out the nutritional label from Voortman’s Sugar Free Fudge Striped Shortbread cookies:
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1 of these cookies contains:
130 calories
8 grams of fat
17 grams of carbs
1 gram of protein
But it’s “sugar free”, right?
So surely it has to be healthier than just a normal, fudge striped shortbread cookie?
Let’s contrast these “sugar free” cookies to the OG, Keebler Fudge Striped Cookies.
Here’s the label from the full-sugar version of this popular cookie:
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2 of these cookies contain:
140 calories
7 grams of fat
19 grams of carbs
1 gram of protein
It’s important to note the serving size difference as well (an important part of understanding nutritional labels).
The sugar free cookies have a serving size of 1 cookie, or 27 grams.
The regular cookies have a serving size of 2 cookies, or 28 grams.
It appears the sugar free cookies are about twice as big as the regular cookies.
But the weight is almost identical, so we’re talking about the same amount of cookie in both instances.
Look at how similar the nutritional information is as well:
Sugar Free Cookie: 130 calories
Regular Cookies: 140 calories
Sugar Free Cookie: 8 grams of fat
Regular Cookies: 7 grams of fat
Sugar Free Cookie: 17 grams of carbs
Regular Cookies: 19 grams of carbs
Sugar Free Cookie: 1 gram of protein
Regular Cookies: 1 gram of protein
These two products are virtually identical, even though one says “SUGAR FREE” emblazoned across the front in an attempt to get you to buy it.
Eating whole foods is always your best path to success.
The foods you should be eaten almost never come in a box, or a bag.
If you’re going to eat some processed food or a treat from time to time, go for it.
As long as you’re staying within your calorie limits and working hard in the gym, you’ll be totally fine.
But in most situations, just eat the regular cookie and go about your life.
The fake health food products out there might seem like a healthy swap, but “zero sugar” processed junk is STILL processed junk.
No matter how tricky they try to get with their dubious claims and flashy packaging.
N.W.A. Training Tip Of The Week:
Last week, a client exchange tickled me big time.
Check out Wendy and Daniel, chatting in our client Facebook Group here.
This is the kind of stuff that just fills me with the warm fuzzies:
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There are a ton of benefits to lifting weights, and I won’t list them all here.
But this little exchange you see from Wendy and Daniel shows you just how REAL those benefits are.
If a 67 year old woman has the bone density of a young adult, and a 68 year old man is out there kicking butt in a 55 and up basketball league, that’s proof enough for me…
Lifting weights is the most inclusive, and most *important* fitness skill to learn, and it’s not even close.
Have you ever seen a 70 year old who’s been lifting weights and staying fit their whole life versus a 70 year old who hasn’t?
The differences are striking.
Staying active is the fountain of youth for many reasons.
But perhaps muscle retention and bone density is reason #1 for starting a lifting regimen, and never stopping.
This is one of the wildest comparisons of muscle mass I’ve ever seen:
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To me, the first 2 pictures aren’t exactly shocking.
I would assume a triathlete would have significantly more muscle mass than a sedentary person.
But it’s the comparison of the 1st and 3rd pictures that really blow my mind.
Looking at the picture, a 70 year old triathlete has roughly the same amount of muscle mass as a 40 year old triathlete.
I hope you think that’s as incredible as I do!
Essentially, if you train hard and don’t stop training hard, your body nearly stands still from a biological standpoint!
Increased and maintained muscle mass will boost your metabolism, make it easier to stay lean, allow you to have a high quality of life, and bulletproof you from falls and spills when you get older.
Lifting weights is as close to a ‘magic pill’ as there is in this world.
It may require some effort and consistency over time, but there’s no better way to ensure you live a long, healthy, and happy life than by being as physically fit as you can possibly be.
N.W.A. Attitude/Mindset Tip Of The Week:
The only way to make something that sucks, suck less is to make it a habit.
This is a universal statement, and it’s something I think about a lot.
Think back at how many things in your life you have claimed “suck” to do.
It starts when we’re little kids and we’re told to eat our vegetables.
Or take a shower.
Or brush your teeth.
Heck, even my 9 year old still whines and complains when we tell her to go take a shower, and she’s in 4th grade (don’t tell her I told you that lol).
Any parent can tell you how frustrating it is to hear the same whines and cries every day from their kids regarding the ‘get ready for bed’ rituals.
But something happens as time goes by, and eventually, they stop whining about it.
Not only that, but your children (should) eventually just take care of business on their own, and it no longer “sucks”.
It becomes what they do, and a part of their daily habitry.
And when something is just a part of your daily routine, it stops “sucking”, and it’s not too bad.
I used to hate going to the gym.
I would go out of duty and responsibility, not because I actually wanted to go.
I would grumble and grit my teeth and procrastinate and whine… and about half of the time, I’d end up skipping.
When I got really serious at fitness and I vowed to myself to never miss another training session, over time, the craziest thing happened.
Eventually, I started to enjoy my workouts.
And I actually started looking *forward* to working out, which was a feeling I had never experienced before.
Over time, the workouts I used to hate, and I thought “sucked”… just randomly stopped “sucking” one day…
This scenario plays itself out all over the place in our society.
Your goal should be to make fitness just “something you do”.
When working out and eating right becomes a part of your identity, and it’s something you repeatedly do, eventually, it won’t be that bad.
The only catch is to get to the point where it *doesn’t* suck, you have to stay rock-solid consistent for a long time.
But even though it might take you longer to build the habit than you’d like, once it’s built, you have it for life.
And a habit and routine for you to stay in great shape is one of the most worthwhile things you can possibly do to enhance your life.
One Favorite Social Media Post Of The Week:
Cheers to the Little Guy!
The Bengals are going to the Super Bowl for the first time since I was in kindergarten, and I’m 40 years old.
This is seriously blowing my mind.
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 always wondered if this was a legitimate recipe for crack cocaine… I have no idea if it actually is, for obvious reasons… (NSFW, explicit lyrics)