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“Wake up, jumped out my bed,
I’m heading to the gym with my homie Lil’ Half Dead,
Squattin’ is the move Coach J gave me,
I won’t die, but I’mma crush this workout, baby…”
– Snoop Dogg (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:
If you want to lose fat, it’s a simple endeavor: Be in a consistent calorie deficit.
However, if you want to optimize your fat loss, there is more to it than just decreasing your calories.
One of the most overlooked aspects of fat loss is how your amount and quality of sleep affects how you feel and how difficult fat loss is for you.
We all know we should be getting at least 7-8 hours of sleep per night, but it’s often times difficult to achieve.
I’m no different – I’ve struggled with sleep myself.
I find it difficult to turn my mind off, put my head down, and fall asleep.
But I still try my best to do everything I can to get solid, high quality sleep on a regular basis.
Not getting enough sleep can drastically affect your hunger cues.
Simply put, if you don’t get enough sleep, you’re going to be hungrier throughout the course of the day.
Have you ever had a flight at 7 am? The alarm goes off at roughly 4 am on those days.
Whenever I have a super early flight and I only get 4-5 hours of sleep, I’m ravenous by the time I get to the airport at 5 am.
Usually, at 5 am, I’m still sleeping, so it’s easy to see how a lack of sleep can make it extremely difficult to stick to any sort of a fat loss diet.
High quality sleep also affects your workout recovery.
When you train hard in the gym, there’s a few things you need in order to recover properly and be ready to go for the next session.
You need to eat high quality, nutritious foods, re-hydrate yourself properly, and of course, get good, solid sleep.
Many bodybuilders and performance athletes know this, and they often take naps after their training sessions.
While you may not be able to take a nap with your busy schedule, the point stands – sleep is needed in order to perform at your highest possible level.
Here’s a few tips for you if you’re struggling with getting enough sleep.
First, you need to have the lights off, and be in bed with your eyes closed.
Sounds simple enough, but if you want to sleep you need to be… well… in a situation that promotes proper sleep!
You can’t sleep if you haven’t gone to bed yet, ya know?
Second, keep your room colder – humans sleep best at around 66-68 degrees Farenheit.
That’s pretty darn cool. We keep our thermostat at 66 at night, but upstairs (where our bedroom is), it’s more like 70-72 degrees.
So, it’s not exactly optimal, but I wouldn’t want to see the air conditioning bill if we dropped our AC down to 60 degrees at night so our bedroom was actually 66 degrees…
Third, use black out curtains to keep your room as dark as humanly possible. This really helps you get into ‘sleep mode’.
Another suggestion is to use a sleep mask.
They take a bit to get used to, but once you do, they’re legitimate game changers.
I use one every night and it truly helps me fall asleep, and stay asleep.
Fourth, (and this is the toughest one for me), 30 minutes before bed, turn off all your electronics and lights.
Use only soft lighting to read a book. Or better yet – use candlelight only.
This will help put you in tune with your natural circadian rhythm and you’ll doze off much easier this way.
With our busy and crazy lives, it’s no wonder sleep often gets tossed aside.
But if you’re on #teamnosleep, it’s time to change that.
Sleep can be your best friend in the battle of the bulge if you take it seriously, and I suggest you do just that.
N.W.A. Training Tip Of The Week:
For years, I’ve avoided “quantified tech” when it comes to fitness.
By “quantified tech”, I mean things like FitBits or Apple Watches that track your health metrics.
I recently bit the bullet and bought a FitBit, and I must admit, it’s pretty nice to get daily reminders to move more and be more active.
I’ve been aiming each day for 10,000 steps, and doing my best to hit that number, even on the weekends and days when I don’t lift.
I gotta tell you… by simply getting 10,000 steps in each day, my metabolism has skyrocketed.
I used to walk for an hour 3-4 times per week.
But since I got that silly little watch, I see it as a personal challenge to hit that number every day.
And the amount of food I’ve been able to eat has jumped up significantly!
There’s something special that happens to your body and metabolism when you truly make it a point to move and be active every single day, without off days.
That doesn’t mean you need to lift weights or put yourself through grueling workouts every day.
You need time off to recover and rejuvenate after exercise sessions that tax your central nervous system.
But walking can be done every day.
Inside on a treadmill, or outside in the sun when the weather permits.
It’s not overly difficult and almost everyone can do it.
I swear, the change in my metabolism isn’t linear – it’s exponential.
I can eat around 1,000 calories more per day now than I used to be able to when I was spotty with my cardio.
Of course, I’m a huge dude (6’8″, 230 currently), so you probably won’t see as big of an effect.
BUT, it’s certainly worth it.
A one-hour, daily walk (which is around 10k steps) is far and away the simplest and easiest way to drastically improve your health.
Combine it with a solid diet, and you’re bound to lose the extra weight if you can keep this simple habit up.
N.W.A. Attitude/Mindset Tip Of The Week:
Mental health is one, tricky beast.
I’ve never truly had mental health issues until only recently.
After quitting THC, I had a bit of an ‘episode’ and I ended up being hospitalized for 8 days.
I’ll tell you more about that in the future; I’m writing a first hand, personal account of what happened to me, and it should come out in a month or so.
I’ve posted and tweeted many times about your First Lines Of Defense when it comes to mental health.
And for the first time in my life, I’ve had to religiously follow my own advice on how to stay even keel and level headed.
On the days where I sleep well, eat good, high quality food, lift weights, get my cardio in, and spend a few minutes in the sauna, I feel calm, relaxed, and in control for hours afterwards.
On days when I eat junk/garbage, I don’t work out, sleep like crap, eat junk food, and sit around being lazy, I feel anxious and a bit off for most of the day.
It’s striking the difference.
I’m glad I wasn’t just spouting some nonsense when I posted about how to naturally improve your mental health!
In fact, I was spot on.
It does wonders for my mental state to put my body through rigorous exercise and practice proper self care.
If you’re finding yourself anxious or dealing with depression or mental health issues, the way you treat your body will make all the difference in the world.
Be sure you take care of business – mental health issues aren’t to be scoffed at or minimized.
They’re very real, and I know that first hand now.
Treat your body well, and your mind will follow.
Trust me. 🙂
One Favorite Social Media Post Of The Week:
You don’t stop lifting because you get old.
You get old because you stop lifting.
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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Nothing like some old school Snoop Dogg to end your week on a good note. (NSFW – lyrics)