Only A Sith Deals In Absolutes!

Hey Motiv8ers!

I've got to share something with you all...

I told myself for the month of November that I would not eat any free sugar.  I had an idea that the absolute removal of free sugar from my diet could jumpstart me back into focusing on my ultramarathon training and healthy eating habits which have both suffered because of my focus on Motiv8 as a business.

So what has happened?  Well some would say I have been UNsuccessful! 

I look at it more fluidly than that.  While I fully support the concept of creating healthy habits and sticking to them, I have come to the realization that my goal, which was grounded in an absolute, was flawed and unreasonable in the first place. 

Why couldn’t I see that I could still be healthy and successful in my training while having a little free sugar (World Health Organization's suggestion is no more than 25g per day) in my diet?  Why did I let myself get caught up in a goal that wasn’t based in any realistic regular habit?  There was no way I would stick to this long term, so what was I proving to myself or even others?

My idea of ZERO free sugar was an absolute and one sure way to fail at things in life is to focus on absolutes which are often developed from an egotistical standpoint.

I let my ego determine my actions, which in my experience in ultramarathons is RARELY a winning strategy.

But we do this all the time:

I will absolutely not eat sugar

I will absolutely not eat anything that doesn’t fit into my diet

I will absolutely only train the way I think is right

I will absolutely never talk to that person again

I will absolutely not allow viewpoints different than mine

I will absolutely disagree with anyone else’s ideas about how to solve a problem

Here’s the problem with absolutes: absolutes create a black and white lense thru which we see the world.  If it doesn’t fit into our philosophy or with our “camp”, more worryingly, it’s wrong.  If it isn’t what we have experienced or want to see it’s wrong.  If we can see it on the surface and don’t like it, we reject it or do the opposite instead of being curious about what value might lie below the surface.

Not only do we do this to ourselves but we let others' idea of absolutes control us into making decisions that may not be best for our unique circumstances!

This looks a lot like another common problem those “OTHER” people have: close-mindedness.  It’s one of the ugliest and least likeable characteristics a person can possibly possess.

Now…before we start to pat ourselves on the back for being open-minded, think about how YOU view the perspectives of others who see the world differently than YOU DO!  Can you accept that a perspective that isn’t the same as yours or your friends’ has merit?  Can you even differentiate between a person’s ideas and their personal character? 

If not, perhaps you aren’t as open-minded as you want to give yourself credit for?

Some of us get so caught up in our idea of the right way to do things that we undermine, mock or even hurt others to assert our point of view.  When we do this we often lack the realization that WE ARE close-minded by failing to see our lives and circumstances from others’ perspectives.  We dismiss what other people say or do as close-minded without even acknowledging that we are being closeminded ourselves for not accepting their reality.  It can be especially dangerous when we refuse to accept that someone other than ourselves could have a life experience that makes them a valuable source of knowledge, wisdom or the prevention of our own future mistakes.

Why would we let our ego allow us to refuse the advice of someone who only wants to see us succeed?

Go forward in life with the understanding that while you may have learned a lot, there is always something you don’t know.  Even experts (with an open-mind) can discover something new, now and again.  Like discovering that a ZERO free-sugar diet is miserable and unrealistic!

Replace your thoughts of what is right or wrong with a true sense of curiosity and watch how quickly you grow!


~Coach Joe

How to Adopt a New Habit.....Breakfast Recipes!

What's Up Motiv8ers,

Coach Ty here with another Motiv8ing blog post.  I have some great stuff here to share with all of you and then some recipes down below.  So check it out!!  =)

First Motiv8ers this week in my SETs I've been talking about how to be successful with our November Motiv8 Challenge.   With our November Challenge under way there are a ton of habits and actions we are trying to adopt.  But it is hard to adopt a new action or habit when our bad habits or addictions are so ingrained into our daily routines.

Even I have been struggling with counting my calories everyday and making my green smoothies.  So I thought this would be a great time to bring up the habit talk again.

So Our topic for today is how to Adopt a New Healthy Habit!!

In order to conquer the bad you have to first adopt the GOOD!  Before I go any farther let me ask you some questions.

 All of you want to be successful right?.....  
-You want to be strong and healthy  
-you want your business to be running smoothly  
-You want your relationships to be strong
-You want to be happy, positive, and so full of awesome energy.
   
We all want those things and many of you might be living your dream already which is so great.  But many times many of us just are not as successful as we fill like we should be.  We know how to be successful but we can't seem to get the work done or adopt the discipline to make our dreams happen.

Why is that?  What is holding us back?

Well Motiv8ers take a moment and watch this video from Bob Proctor that talks about how our results and actions are caused by our daily routines and habits.  If you don't have daily habits and routines that support what you are trying to accomplish then you will not be successful.  Check out the video below:

Ok now that you recognize you might have some bad habits that are not supporting you, lets now talk about how to adopt some new ones.  But doing that is difficult and it takes a lot of mental strength to force yourself to make a new change to your daily routin
Well Crew that is why Motiv8 is here.  Check out this tool. 

Set up Trigger Moments.......
 
Do you know what those are?  If not find 10 minutes in your day today to watch this short video.....

Trigger Moments use an existing habit, an alarm, or an object to remind you to do your new habit.

And The best triggers you could set up are.........Alarms or Reminders on your phone.

Here is an example....Lets say your new habit is to make healthier food choices at lunch time when you go out with work friends.  Set up a daily reminder on your phone that says 'Make a Healthy food choice today' and it goes off 5 minutes before your lunch break.

Sounds simple and silly right but it will work. 

Set up little reminders all throughout your day to help you stay on task.

It is important to your success that you have daily habits that you practice consistently that will help you to reach your dreams!

Motiv8ers take this message to heart because it has helped me so much with my diet and my training for my races.  If you have questions post below.

Alright last thing Crew.  Lets talk about some RECIPES!!!  =)

 Remember each week I am trying to find recipes of dishes that are usually extremely bad for you but find a much more healthier options.  Check this out.

Today I found a meal that everyone loves for breakfast.  PANCAKES!  Now this is definitely a processed food and your green smoothies are a much better choice but if you are going to make them for your family then this recipe is a great option.

Spelt-Blueberry Pancakes

But if you want a meal that is super energizing in the morning check out this quinoa bowl.

Hot Lap Bowl 

Motiv8ers that is all for today.  if you have any recipes that you love please post below.  Also if you are loving these topics post below as well.  If you have any topics you want us to focus on please post below.  Your feedback is so important to us and will only help you grow stronger.  So send us your thoughts!

Alright Crew Stay EPIC and Don't Forget to Be AWESOME!

Coach Ty Out!

P.S....Take these tips to heart and try the RECIPES!! 

Ty's Personal Experience with the Clean Eating Challenge

Motiv8ers,

Today's blog post is a reflection on how I did with October's 28 Day Motiv8 Clean Eating Challenge.   Was it easy for me? NO!! Did I have some struggles? YES!

Am I going to say some embarrassing things in this post?  Embarrassing from my point of few? YES!

Crew check it out. But first.....

How did you do?  Did you do the challenge? Did you try to conquer some bad habits by bringing in some good habits?  If you tried out the challenge please post below and share your experience.  Let us know if it helped you or not?  If you forgot about the challenge, or didn't see it, then check it out here:

28 Day Motiv8 Clean Eating Challenge!

Alright Crew lets get into the dirt.

Note:  Motiv8ers I am going to share some details about my way of living that is a little embarrassing for me but I am definitely not shy to share.  If you feel like commenting on this post please do no matter what you want to say.  Feel free to be as blunt or as open as you want.  We are here to support each other and help each other grow.

Ok lets get started........

Before October hit I new I wanted to start a food challenge with Motiv8.  A challenge that would  push folks to make some positive changes in their eating habits and get people really uncomfortable.  And through this want, I developed the 28 Day Motiv8 Clean Eating Challenge.  I was so excited to launch this challenge with everyone.  It was definitely the biggest challenge we have done with Motiv8 to date.  But, little did I know that this challenge was going to push me as well.  On October 1st I fully excepted the challenge 100% and my struggle began.  And oh was it a struggle!

Ok, before I go any further let me lay out my history for you.  Before the month of October, before the food challenge started, I was not a food prepper.  I lived day to day.  Meaning I would only buy my food for that day and wouldn't prep for the next.  As many of you know I do eat healthy and my diet was good for the most part but, there were a few problems which I didn't really consider were problems at the time.  But through this challenge I found out that they were a problem.  Those problems were....

1. I bought a lot of pre-made food like vegan burritos, stuff from whole foods salad bar, central market salad bar, expensive granola, and canned soups.  These items can be healthy depending what you pick but the problem was that they are crazy expensive and really eat up the checking account.
2. I ate out almost every day after my 7pm Ramsey SET.  I would either go to chipotle, Zens, Casa de Luz, and sometimes Tacodeli in the mornings to get a meal.  These meals are healthy but eating out for at least one meal a day started to really add up in the check book.
3. Almost every day after my 7:30a Ramsey SET I would go to Central Market to grab food for the day.  The problem here is that instead of having food ready to go I would waste some of my day and time by going to the grocery store.  I have learned through this challenge just how valuable food prepping is now on my schedule.
4. I found myself relying on sport energy foods to help keep my energy up through out the day.  Sport food like caffeinated running gels and the Clif Shot bloks, which are gummy chews.  I got in the habit of eating a whole package of the shot bloks once before my 5:30a SET and before my 5p Zilker SET.  Not because I needed it but because it became a habit and eventually an addiction that I developed through using them for my running workouts.  I found myself eating 2 to 3 packages of these things a day.  Not only is that expensive but they aren't the healthiest of things either.  And on top of that I started to get addicted to the caffeine.  When I didn't eat them I found myself getting a small caffeine headache.  
   
   
   
   
   
   So the problems here were time management, spending way to much money on food, not eating as healthy as I should and trying to shake a sugar and caffeine addiction.

Here is how I did.

First Week....EPIC FAIL!.....So that Monday I told all of you at our motiv8 SET that I was taking on the challenge 100%.  But I didn't do any planning or prepping.  I thought I could just go to the store, buy some fruit for the day, and everything would be great.  But as Monday and Tuesday rolled by I just wasn't getting in enough calories because I told myself not to eat the items in problem number one.  By the end of Tuesday I was extremely exhausted from not eating enough and I gave in and went to Chipotle for dinner.  Then the next morning I was still worn out. No energy and not feeling great plus the headaches from no caffeine started sitting in.  Then I did what most do when things get hard I broke the challenge.  I bought some vegan burritos and ate a package of shot bloks.  I said I would get back on the challenge tomorrow and I just needed to eat these things to relieve some stress.  I was stress eating!  WHAT!?!?!  I've never seen myself as a stress eater.  I couldn't believe I did that.

That Wednesday afternoon I realized I had some problems.

So what did I do next?  First I acknowledged what my problems were.  Then I told myself that I had to make some changes.  Lastly, I got out my calendar out and a notebook and started planning.  Here are the steps I took in that moment.

1. I wrote out the foods and meals that I knew I could cook and prepare that would sustain me for at least 3 days. I also made sure that these foods fit into the Clean Eating Challenge guidelines.  The bulk of my diet over these past few weeks consisted of bananas, dates, oranges, strawberries, lemons, sweet potatoes, brown rice, pinto beans, black beans, lentils, Swiss chard, spinach, salsa, raisins, avocados, carrots, and hummus.  Here are some pics of the meals I ate.
   
   
   
   
2.  I then mapped out how much food I would need to buy to sustain me for 3 days.  How many bananas do I need to buy.  How much potatoes, rice, and beans do I need to buy.  I worked hard on the details so I had a plan once I entered into the grocery store.  Note: Crew if you know me I don't count my macros.  But I do count my calories.  I believe that as long as you eat real whole foods with no process junk and you eat enough calories from great nutrient dense foods, all of your macros will fall into place and you will see the results you are looking for.  But the key to this way of eating is you have to take out the junk.  100%. Below is three days of food that I bought on a Sunday. 
   
   
3. I wrote into my calendar and schedule when I was going to go to the grocery store and when I was going to cook my food.  It came down to shopping on Sunday and Thursday.  And I would try to cook either in the afternoon between my Noon SET and my 5pm SET or at night.  Since I didn't have a lot of time in my day I kept cooking to a minimum and simple.  I only used a rice cooker, my ninja blender, and I cooked sweet potatoes in the oven.  This allowed me to keep working without having to watch my food.  It also allowed me to cook in bulk, save me time, and have enough food for one or two days.  But Note: I had to plan it into my day to make this process happen.  If I didn't plan and put it into my schedule I would almost always not make enough time to cook or shop and I would end up going to a restaurant at night which was not what I wanted to do.  But it did happen a few times over the challenge. But I tried my hardest to make a plan and stick to it.

So how did I do with my new plan?  Better.

For the next three weeks I followed my plan almost to the tee.  Shopped for my groceries on Sundays and Thursdays.  Forced myself to put food in the rice cooker and oven when I got home from workouts.  Made sure I had food available at all times to help prevent me from going to restaurants or buying that pre-made junk.  And, I tell you what things really started to turn around for me.  Here are some of the benefits that I felt and saw.

1. I started to feel my energy come back.  Because I had plenty of the right food available to me I was definitely now eating enough calories to support the amount of exercise I was doing and that started to make me feel really good.  My runs started to feel better.  I had more energy to give all of my Motiv8ers. I was having a lot of fun again at the workouts.  My energy felt stable and I felt like I had plenty of it.  Waking up in the morning became a little easier as well and my caffeine headaches only lasted about a week.
2. I still had some big carvings for the bad stuff but as long as I had food available I could stay away.
3. I started to form some new habits that I have never really had before.  I have cooked in the past but never have I ever cooked consistently.  This challenge has forced me to cook and has given me a great new habit.  Also I found that my energy felt better with the food I cooked then the foods I bought at the store.
4. HERE IS THE BIG SHOCKER FOR ME.  I saved a ton of money.  Not just a few dollars but hundreds of dollars.  almost 500 dollars to be exact.  I've been using MINT to help me budget my spending but I haven't been paying attention to it.  But I went back to September and between September and October there was a huge difference in the amount of money I was spending on food.  It was a huge shocker to me.  I never thought that my food spending habit was a problem but eating out and buying pre-made food adds up fast.

So Motiv8ers was this challenge a success for me?  YES!

Did I learn a little bit about myself?  YES! I learned a lot!

Did I grow from this challenge and am I going to continue my new habits?  You better believe I grew and darn straight I am going to continue these habits.  This habit is going to save me a good amount of money. =)

Motiv8ers remember challenges are not just something you do because your friends are doing it.  You want to pick a challenge that will have a positive impact on your life.  Use these challenges as a way to help you form those habits that you know you should have. I have picked a new challenge for this month.  Follow our emails and follow us on Facebook to learn about our new challenge!

Motiv8ers if you have read this whole post and if it has inspired you, then post below and share what you are thinking.  Sharing my problems with you was hard for me but I know by sharing that it will help me keep my new habits going.

Thank you Crew.

That is all for today.  Stay EPIC and Don't Forget to Be AWESOME!

Coach Ty Out!

How to live an EPIC life!

ep·ic
/ˈepik/

informal

particularly impressive or remarkable

We talk so much about establishing routines and making sure that you stay consistent which are definitely the hallmarks to getting into the best shape of your life.

But, is it possible that routines could actually be KEEPING you from living the best, most fulfilled and most adventurous life you can?

A lot of us stray away from adventurous experiences and that's understandable.  Adventures inherently are unpredictable.  They also tend to make anyone who is conservative, a Type A personality or a control freak really uncomfortable.  What will it take away from?  What won't get done?  What about my to-do list?

BUT, think about this.  When you ask most people about their day, week, month or even the most memorable experience they've ever had what do they say?

Do they say, "The moment I marked everything off of my agenda and to-do list for the day".

OF COURSE NOT!

We tend to remember and romanticize the big moments or ADVENTURES in our lives and that's GREAT!  The good, the bad, the unexpected are what living life is all about.  One of the biggest reasons people slow down and deteriorate in health after they retire is that they no longer force themselves into situations with adventure!  They are just going thru the routine, marking everything off of their agenda from day to day.  Their mind slows down, their body slows down and eventually things just stop.

So don't just live life!  Live an EPIC life!

See if the things you'd say are your most memorable moments can be described as E.P.I.C.:


E: Experience

Without experience not only are we naive to what happens in the world outside of our 3 foot bubble but we don't grow.  The secret here is to do NEW THINGS!  The things we do over and over, day after day often aren't even things that propel us forward.  Those are the things that were new, the things that challenged what we thought we knew, the things that gave us insight that we never had before.  It happens all the time, I hear people say, "Well I've never experienced that." as if it can't be true because it didn't pop up in their day-to-day life.  Well did you create an opportunity to experience it?  Or did you just look for it to surprise you somewhere in your agenda?

There are over 6 billion people on this earth living in thousands of cultures in hundreds of countries with dozens of climates.  If you base everything you know off of what you see, hear, touch, taste and smell in your daily agenda and to-do list how can you possibly grow to your true potential?  How do you gain wisdom?  How do you learn how to interact with others who have a different background and perspective than you?  How do you ever know if what you are doing now is the thing with which you can impact the world most?

One of the silliest things I've ever heard someone say is that they didn't think they had any reason to leave their city because they've lived there all their life and it's "not that bad".

NOT THAT BAD?  That's your litmus test for life?


P: People

It took me many years to realize this important fact.  NOT everybody is meant to be friends!  Now I don't mean that in a negative way WHATSOEVER, hear me out.  If you have friendships or relationships with people that are always competing with you, disagreeing with you, talking down to you, giving you the cold shoulder when you have accomplishments or are unsupportive of you during your times of need are you choosing wisely from the 6 billion people on this planet to have friendships/relationships with?  Are THEY choosing wisely?

None of us have time in our short lives to interact with people who make us feel bad about ourselves.  There's really very little time for misunderstandings as well.  If someone is constantly misunderstanding you there's perhaps a reason.  Maybe they don't WANT to understand you.  Do the people in your life continually talk to you about same things?  Do they continually exhibit the same behaviors over and over in your interactions?  If so, what are you really contributing to each other?

The people in your life should lift you up, encourage you to do your best and be there when you fall.  If you can't find those things in the people you interact with, merrily send them on their way and seek out people who respect and love you for who you are.

People should grow wiser, stronger and healthier together just as they do independently.  The people in your life should be just as memorable as your experiences.  Stop wasting your time with each other if they are not!


I: Immersive

When is the last time you gave your FULL attention to an experience?  Did you notice anything unique?

Let's say you go on a hike in the woods.  Typically you take your phone in case someone needs you but one day you forget it or you leave it in the car.  How much more likely are you to notice more during that experience?  You can concentrate on the details of your surroundings.  The leaves have a brighter color, the air smells different, perhaps you meet people on the trail and exchange words.  Think of the innumerable variables that could come from being totally immersed in your surroundings versus rationing out your attention to other things.

Now here's the really important point.  What do those other things have to do with the current moment you're in?  Does answering your phone add to your experience of going for a hike?  Does looking at Instagram while you walk?  In the moment you're in, those things DON'T MATTER!

If you met with a friend for coffee and the entire time they were splitting their attention between you and a dozen other things would you feel that you mattered to them?  Maybe not as much as you thought!

Why can't we give all of our experiences that same respect?


C: Challenge

Reading a fitness blog post you may be inclined to think that I'm going to start going on about running a race, or lifting heavier weights or getting more reps.  But challenges are all around us.  We can be challenged to meet a new friend, we can be challenged to do something that scares us (like public speaking), we can be challenged to accept that someone with a different viewpoint than us COULD have a valuable perspective.  But so often we DON'T do these things.

Living a life constantly rooted in routine and agendas don't challenge us to be different or grow.  They give us the false impression that we've got it all together, like an ostrich with it's head in the sand.  But if all you ever do is what you are familiar with what will you ever become an expert at?  The things on your to-do list?  I hope you thought it out REALLY well!

Without challenges to face we slowly deteriorate or worse become so ingrained in our daily lives that we never seek anything new, unique or memorable.


On my deathbed I'd like to be able to tell stories, not ramble off statistics.  SO what if I have millions of dollars?  Did it enrich anyone's life?  SO what if I lived to 100?  Were those years really LIVED?  And SO what if I always finished my to-do list?  Was I doing anything that really, truly MATTERED?


If all I can point to at the end of the day is that I accomplished some tasks I have failed my mission in life.


If I can point to moments that will be remembered for a lifetime (or multiple lifetimes) though, well I know I have had an EPIC life!


Go live YOUR EPIC life!


-Coach Joe

Standards are someone ELSE'S definition of YOUR success!

Kind of a crazy thought huh?

But it's true.  It seems that we are our best critics.  And it's almost a universal truth that we grow up being taught that we should analyze and critique our actions against "standards" which are really just the expectations of others.  You see it as early as grade school when you are graded on your knowledge of subjects which eventually becomes a precursor to identifying whether you are "fit" to graduate onto the next grade.

Extrapolate this into your daily life as an adult!  We tell ourselves that we aren't successful until we achieve certain accomplishments or make a certain amount of money or reach a certain social status.  The idea of being worthy of certain things in life seems to always come with a caveat that certain prerequisites or "standards" are met first.

WHY???

Isn't it possible that we all learn, grow and progress at different rates and in different ways depending on our experience and circumstances?  Isn't it possible that your talents may not be realized yet and you don't necessarily control all of the variables to identify your true potential in life?

Of course we don't control everything that happens in our lives.  But there are certain variables that we CAN control.


Did you define what is important to YOU today?

Did you illustrate your OWN vision of success so you know what exactly it is you are going after?

These are YOUR definitions NOT someone else's...so FORGET the standards and definitely FORGET the expectations of others!


There are two ways to look at improving your life:


The first is how we are conditioned as children to look at life:

You identify a weakness that is holding you back and determine that this weakness is the reason you aren't succeeding in life.  You make a plan to improve upon this weakness and it gives you hope that if you can just change who you are that you'll be worthy of the life you want to live.

How has that been working for you?  Do you really want to define your life by how and why you are weak?


OR there's a much healthier way:


Focus instead on who you ARE not who you AREN'T! You can concentrate instead on the talents you possess and the strengths that have come from your experience in life.  Instead of focusing on the standards that other people have established to compare the lives of (frankly, very different) people, make your OWN standards!  What is it that you bring to the table that makes you unique or STRONG?  How can you utilize that strength to build the life that you envision for yourself?

My challenge to YOU is to focus on what you CAN control and where you excel!

It's easy to get caught up in what you think is your lot in life, what you think you need to accomplish by a certain age, by a certain standard that your friends (or frenemies) or your heroes have achieved.

But does it make you any less of a person if you don't do so?

OF COURSE NOT!!!

So GO, surprise yourself.  Work toward what you want every day whether the prize is easily in view or not.  Guess what, you MAY not get to what others define as "SUCCESS".  In fact, your eventual realization of success may be what others SEE as failure.  SO WHAT!  They aren't YOU and you aren't THEM!  We all live our OWN lives!

You may struggle or take longer than you expected but it NEVER makes for a wasted effort, a mistake, a wrong path or an unworthy pursuit to be the best you can be!

Just because you don't live up to someone else's standard NEVER means you are less successful, you are less talented, you are less passionate or you don't care!

You make your own success in life and your definition is your own...so DEFINE it and PURSUE it until you ACHIEVE IT!


Stay fit,
Coach Joe

Why Calorie Restriction Diets Don't Work!!

Hi Motiv8ers,

Coach Ty here again with another very important nutrition post that if you take seriously, will change your life forever.

Topic for today: Why Calorie Restriction Diets Don't Work!

Motiv8ers, I have been in the fitness world for a while now and let me tell you, trying to figure out what diet is best for you is crazy confusing.  You have the low-carb diet, Atkins diet, Ketogenic diet, Whole 30, Weight Watchers, Biggest Loser Challenge, flexible dieting, Paleo diet, Vegan diet, and the list goes on.  If you don't have the time to really study each of these diets, you might feel incredibly frustrated and overwhelmed because you don't know who to believe.

Well, Motiv8 is here to help!  My goal today is to simplify things for you so you can start to take action on improving your health!  Then, in the following weeks, I'll give you the tools needed to help you start making healthy changes to your health.  Let's get you thinking!

Let me start with the most frustrating phrase I hear pretty much every day: "In order to lose weight, I just need to eat less and exercise more."

Here are the list of things that pop in my head when I hear that statement:

• If you eat less, how are you going to have the energy to exercise?
• If you eat less, how are you going to get the nutrients you need to support muscle growth?
• Just eat less? Why aren't you focusing on what you are eating?
• If you eat less and exercise more, how are you going to have the energy for your family and work?
• If you eat less, your body will store more fat because of the lack of calories you are feeding it!

Crew, in reality eating less doesn't make sense!  

Motiv8 recommends focussing on the foods you put in your body.  The goal is to eat more whole foods in a plant-based diet and remove processed foods.

• Focus on getting enough calories from real whole foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, starchy vegetables, legumes (like beans), nuts, and grass-fed lean meats.
• When you eat enough you will have the energy to do the work needed to get into great shape and spark muscle growth.
• When eating enough real whole foods, you will probably be surprised by the amount of food you will be eating to hit your calorie needs.  Real whole foods have less calories than processed foods meaning you have to eat a larger amount of food each day to keep your cravings for junk food at bay.
• Once you start eating more and exercising more you will start to see the body fat melt away.  At that point it is important to make sure you don't put the fat back on by eating a lot of processed foods.  You have to keep your new healthy lifestyle going long-term in order to see the benefits.

Crew, the benefits are huge if you follow these simple steps.  Coach Joe's story is the perfect example of this.  All of you know Joe as this crazy fit ultra runner/trainer.  But he wasn't always like this.  He used to have a normal 8 to 5 desk job and exercise was just something he did every once in a while.

Check out his before and after pics and then check out his story!

Before

After

Here is Joe's Story:

"When I started my journey I had a misconception that the way to lose weight was to exercise more while eating less.  So I cut my calories to nearly 1500 per day, well below my requirement then of 2400.  I lost weight at first but soon I hit a plateau at 180 lbs.  Months went by and I was getting stronger but not seeing any weight loss.  No matter what I tried I couldn’t move the needle.  Then, instead of cutting my calories, I focused on the type of foods I was eating.  I removed as much sugar from my diet as possible, replaced processed snacks with fruit and started to eat more fiber while cutting down my intake of meat.  All of a sudden the switch flipped and within a few weeks I could start to see small improvements in my energy level, which lead to improvements in my performance at workouts.  By the end of the summer of 2012 I had resurrected the metabolism I had as a teenager and lost an additional 15 lbs!  It was also the start of my transformation from being just fit to being able to build a body extremely resistant to injuries and sickness, run ultramarathons and become a fitness trainer."

Crew this blog post only scratches the surface on this topic and we hope it has sparked some interest in you.  Over the next few weeks and months we will make sure you have all the tools you need to help you become that Super Human you are looking for and become crazy healthy long-term!

Crew I know you have questions so post below or ask us questions in our Motiv8 SETS!  Keep reading this Blog and I promise you will get the info you need to change your life.

Last thing here is a quick video from NutritionFacts.org about eating more to weigh less!

Crew, Stay EPIC and don't forget to be AWESOME!

We will see you at our Motiv8 SETS!

P.S. Check out more blog posts under the label Nutrition to get more details on what your diet should be looking like!

Coach Ty Out!

Help Others By Including Yourself!

So here it is…

The time of the year when we get "busy"; with school, with work, with family obligations.  This is the time of year we start developing those excuses for why we can't stay on track with our healthy habits.  Usually they start with "I just don't have time".

On one hand I find it honorable that people want to schedule so much of their day with things to do and goals to accomplish.  But at some point we overburden ourselves to the point that what is most important to us becomes a gray area.  Or we just downright remove things that SHOULD be important to us from our priority list.  

It's a recipe for frustration, unhappiness and feeling unfulfilled.  

Maybe you're staying busy?  Maybe you're getting something done?  But is what you are working on really what helps you GROW the most?  Is it even what might help others grow?

Sometimes we can convince ourselves that the conditions just aren't right for us to really pursue what we want in life.  The "busy" excuse is often the condition we focus on and it's usually grounded in wanting to do something for others.  There's a lot of good intent there and that's a righteous feeling to have!

But including yourself in your priorities is often a path to incredible growth and productivity because you feel WHOLE when you do something for yourself!  You feel progress, you feel strength, you feel like you're moving forward rather than putting your own life on the backburner.  It completely transforms your perception of the world around you!  It can also completely change others' perception of what may be possible in their own lives, simply by being an inspiration to those around you!

Run Rabbit Run 100 mile trail race is coming up in a few days.  It's an incredibly long and arduous process to prepare for a race like this and one that meant sacrifices here and there that I truly didn't want to make.

But what I also experienced along the way is it drove people around me to rethink what is possible for THEM!  From acquaintances to neighbors to old friends and new ones alike, I've had innumerable conversations the past few months.  People want to know about nutrition, they want to know how to build the endurance a 100 mile race takes, they want to know how to get back on track to being consistent in their own fitness and health.  

I wouldn't trade these conversations for anything in the world!

  

• Sometimes these conversations are moments that turn people's lives around! 
• Sometimes these conversations are the catalyst for someone to finally make healthy food choices or start a training regimen of their own!  
• Sometimes these conversations are the triggers for someone finally saying enough is enough.  It's time to CHANGE starting TODAY!

So make sure that as we get into these busier months ahead that you leave something on your plate for YOU!  Give yourself time, make one of your passions a high priority and go after a big goal.  And never, ever, ever give up because you never know how your life may impact someone you know!

Reading this blog for the first time? Start your own journey right here!  www.motiv8fitness.net

Stay fit,

Coach Joe