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Lifter, lifter, that’s what they yellin’!
It’s not about the weights, you see, it’s to improve your reality.
– N.W.A. (probably)
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 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
Last week, I was in the sauna after my workout, and I received some… “interesting” advice from a fellow sauna goer.
He said to me, “If you want to lose fat, you can eat carbs, or you can eat fats, but you can never eat fats together…”
That alone caused my red flag to go up and my bullshit detector to go hog wild.
Then, he continued… “As soon as you combine carbs and fats together, you’ll start to gain weight.
You can put all the butter you want on a ribeye and you’ll lose fat, but when you put butter on your baked potato, you’ll start to put on body fat.”
Good Lord.. where do people come up with this stuff?
It wasn’t my first rodeo, so I just nodded and said, “Good tip” and moved on with my life. If it was a young kid, maybe I’d try to help him, but this guy was in his 70’s.
He wasn’t going to listen to me anyways.
Bad nutrition information is everywhere.
I think one of the reasons for this is because everyone eats.
Everyone eats food… and most of us have tried to lose weight in the past.
And when we try to lose weight and we have even a modest amount of success, our biases take over and we think whatever we did in that moment is the key to fat loss.
I’ve been there before myself.
When I first had success losing weight, I stopped eating carbs entirely.
I went “Keto” before going Keto was even a thing (back in 2011).
It worked great! I lost a ton of weight. And I also killed my testosterone, my immune system went belly up, and my libido was non-existent.
(Please, don’t try diets like Keto, they are not long term solutions…)
After I realized I needed to eat more carbs, or else I would be miserable, I started using intermittent fasting.
And again, it worked great!
I continued to lose body fat… but eventually I stopped doing that, too, as it was spiking my cortisol in the morning and making me feel anxious.
And after I switched to a standard, 3 meal per day approach, guess what?
I continued to lose body fat and make progress.
It was at that point where I thought to myself, “Hmm… it’s not the carbs… it’s not fasting… maybe it really does boil down to your calorie intake…”
It would have been easy to stay caught up in my own biases regarding nutrition.
It would have been simple for me to double and triple down on “the carbs” or on “fasting” and swear those are the “secrets” to fat loss.
But I’ve seen clients of ours lose weight in fasting scenarios, low carb scenarios, high carb scenarios, and by eating 6 meals per day.
If you keep your protein intake high, and you stay in a consistent calorie deficit, you’ll lose plenty of body fat, bar none.
Sure there are details, but that’s the main gist of it.
So, what about the infamous “sauna protein/carb combo bro”?
The real answer is pretty boring…
The combination of carbohydrates and fats combines 2 things our bodies crave when hungry: sugar and fats.
Not only that, but there is an absence of protein.
Emerging evidence is showing if we don’t get enough protein, we are never satisfied, and we will overeat until we get the protein our bodies require.
Also, the carb/fat combo is notoriously in junk food.
Chips, chocolate, baked goods, ice cream, pizza, etc are all loaded with both macronutrients (and virtually protein free).
But just because something is tasty doesn’t mean it causes fat gain.
The only thing that truly causes fat gain is eating too many calories.
Of course, it’s not a good idea to eat large amounts of carbs and fats, without protein, if you’re trying to lose weight.
But the fat gain doesn’t come from the combo itself, it comes from the excess calories you consume.
Maybe I’ll fill Sauna Bro in one day…
But probably not… 🙂
N.W.A. Workout Tip Of The Week
Someone asked me on social media what my current fitness routine was.
I answered with the following:
“It’s pretty straight forward…
- 4 strength training sessions per week (2 upper, 2 lower)
- High protein, moderate carbs/fats diet in a calorie deficit
- 10k steps on weekdays, a bit less on weekends
- Plenty of water
- Sleep 8 hours per night, minimum
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That’s about it…”
As a matter of fact, most of my colleagues have a gameplan that’s similar.
Sure, there’s always a handful of 25 year old young pups who kill themselves every day in an attempt to be “hardcore”.
But I’m 42 years old… I don’t have the time, or the desire to kill myself with my training every day.
I’m trying to do a few things with my fitness – here are my main goals:
- To be strong enough to be useful and independent (aka, relatively strong, I don’t need to be a powerlifter, but I want to be stronger than most)
- To be lean enough to not have a gut (and maybe have some visible abs during the summer months… just for fun!)
- To have enough of a cardiovascular base that I’m not winded by doing ordinary things
- To set a healthy example for my family and daughters
- To set myself up for a long, healthy, and active life in the future (so as to not be a burden for my family)
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Notice I don’t have any goals about bodybuilding shows.
Or running ultra-marathons.
Or competing in Strongman competitions.
I just have no desire for those things.
And neither do most of the clients we serve at Anyman Fitness.
After all, my entire vision with the business was to help normal people learn how to make fitness a reality.
Not to train the “hardcore” men and women out there; that just isn’t what I’m passionate about.
If you look at my routine, it doesn’t take a ton of time.
The strength training sessions are around 45 minutes apiece.
I’m using the Machine Muscle Madness program from Full Access: Anyman Fitness currently, and loving it.
The 10k steps do take around an hour or so to accomplish.
You could do a 30 minute walk in the morning, and a 30 minute walk after dinner.
Or you could get a treadmill desk for your work, and get your steps in there.
That one would take a bit of strategy to take care of, but ultimately it’s doable.
And the rest? Staying hydrated, sleeping well, and eating a good diet?
Takes pretty much no time.
Just a little bit of planning.
And of course, some consistency and execution.
Being in great shape isn’t as complicated as people make it out to be.
You do have to change your lifestyle, though.
Nobody who goes through a dramatic change and maintains it does so without changing their lifestyle.
I can tell you from experience, though, it’s the single best thing you can do for yourself.
You deserve to go through life knowing what it feels like to eat healthy, and be healthy every day.
It’s like a drug, only it’s the best kind of drug – it’s good for you, and there are no negative side effects.
N.W.A. Mindset Tip Of The Week
My daughter Brooklyn is on a travel volleyball team.
It’s the first time she’s played “travel sports”.
She’s a pretty good player for her age, but the team is full of pretty good players.
She’s had to learn the hard way that on a travel/select team, you have to earn your playing time – it’s never just given to you.
Brooklyn is excellent around the net.
But she struggles on her serves a little bit.
(I’ve tried to get her to lift weights, but she’s pretty inconsistent with it… but then again, she’s 12, and I suppose that comes with the territory…)
A month ago, her coach started subbing out for her when it was her turn to serve, and then subbing her back in when her spot was about to hit the front row by the net.
This means she went from playing every point, to only playing about half the time.
She was understandably frustrated.
We encouraged her to practice, and to take matters into her own hands.
My comment was “Brooklyn, you need to get better at serving so your coach has no option but to play you. Be SO GOOD that your coach HAS to have you in the game to give your team the best shot at winning.”
Brooklyn attended serving camps, she practiced non-stop, and she worked on her form every day.
But the stinking serves still were inconsistent.
She was pretty frustrated, and honestly, we all were.
It’s hard to watch your kid try so hard and still not get better at the rate they want to.
I was discussing this with a family friend, and I was telling the friend how Brooklyn was working on her form, and the friend said this to me:
“Tell Brooklyn when she’s in the game, stop thinking about form, and just go up there and hit the shit out of the ball.
Never think in the game – that’s for practice.
She’s strong enough, just get out there and smack that thing.”
I relayed the advice to Brooklyn.
And last weekend, she had another tournament…
The coach put her in to serve, and she promptly hit 7 serves over the net and went on a huge streak, scoring a load of points for her team.
And she played pretty much the entire tournament after that.
She was elated, as were we.
Even the other parents were high fiving us and fist bumping us, saying “That was the best Brooklyn has ever played!”
Pretty cool parenting moment for sure.
So, what’s your take away?
Simple.
Sometimes you need to get into the nitty gritty details when it comes to your fitness.
But usually you just need to try harder.
Often times, results boil down to effort.
We like to think we can “hack our metabolism” or have the “perfect set/rep scheme”.
But often times, the rewards go to the person who simply tries the hardest.
And Brooklyn learned to just get up there and RIP, and smack the shit out of that ball!
Save your “form” for the practice, during the game, it’s go time, baby, and give it all you’ve got.
On a side note, one of these days we’ll get our weekends back… every weekend is sports, sports, sports…
And I won’t lie… I LOVE it!
It’s exactly what we signed up for, and we’re having a blast watching our kids grow and become athletes in front of our eyes.
One Favorite Social Media Post Of The Week:
80% of people fail to maintain weight losses longer than a year.
I’ve maintained mine for 12 years.
Here’s X tips for you to be a part of the 20% who get lean and keep it off forever.
A short thread…
(Tap here to read 5 tips to help you maintain your weight loss forever…)
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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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If some dork ever says “rapping isn’t a skill”, just forward them this video and tell them to watch it… it’s crazy the lyrical genius these guys and gals have… (NSFW – language)