Dan John: Wandering Weights, Issue # 36
Just settling in after a quick trip to Providence and Orlando. I will be in Munich, Germany this weekend and then have a couple of quiet(er) weeks. Even though it's sometimes hard to train on these trips, it is easy to focus on better nutrition.
Marc Halpern has been on a roll lately. This article sums the importance of using your brain to deal with weight-loss goals. Marc does a nice job here.
“Scripting how you will react is essential for dealing with roadblocks. Here are some examples:
- If I have a party to attend, I will have two drinks and one plate of whatever I want.
- If I had a terrible eating day, I will think about why it happened and learn from it.
- I expect to lose two pounds, but if the scale doesn’t agree, I’ll wait another week and then assess my program.
"By rehearsing your actions, you can avoid “cheating” and instead feel successful. Formerly, eating a brownie at a party would be a failure. But if you said in advance that it would be okay to have it, then you successfully followed through with your plans.
"Long term, little wins like this will keep you going as opposed to painting your nutrition only in terms of being “bad” or “good.” Emotions can ruin a great plan. Rehearsing adversity in advance will help take the emotion out of moment.”
Listen to Marc on the Super Strength Show, too.
I try to follow Kinobody fairly closely. Greg wrote this a while ago and I still think it holds up. This advice and article are just so sound and clean.
Wisdom:
“The fourth key to achieving effortless fat loss is to learn to become a minimalist in the gym. What most people don’t understand is that a high level of exercise can drive up appetite.
"This can make dieting a miserable experience. My suggestion is to limit your training down to three intense 45 minute strength training sessions per week. And to go for a 40-60 minute walk on your non lifting days.
"This is the optimal amount. Adding intervals, crossfit, p90x, circuits, high volume strength training sessions, 4-6 lifts per week…. All that training just makes dieting harder as it ramps up appetite, depletes will power reserves and destroys confidence when you can’t sustain it.
"And for what purpose? Building a great physique is tied to hitting a calorie deficit (through proper to nutrition) to reach a low body fat, and progressing on key lifts."
True or false? I don’t know, but it’s worth considering. As a thrower, we live in these issues.
Greg also had a nice piece on goal setting. Thinking is underrated. Well, I think so.His point here is valuable:
“Step 1 – Get out of your daily pattern. Go somewhere new, fresh and alive. Maybe a park, a coffee shop or a library. Take a moment to reflect.
"How do you want your life to look? Your fitness life, business/career, finances, dating/social life, hobbies/interest, lifestyle…
:Where do you live? What car do you drive? Who do you hangout with? Strongly visualize what you want knowing full well that you can achieve it.”
This next article is a short little piece explaining an injury that comes from technique issues. True or false, I don’t know, but I found it fascinating.
Want to live long and stay hot? This is a fun little piece. Quoting:
10. Be spontaneous. When you do something out of the ordinary and on barely a moment’s notice, this can make you feel alive and young. She was known to announce unexpected trips and excursions to the beach.
11. Don’t ever feel sorry about yourself. It is a waste of time and a waste of your life. And it also bores people to tears. Never once in all of my years did I ever hear my grandmother complain about her life.
12. Take the time to be beautiful. You can’t feel both depressed and fabulous at the same time. She got her hair done every week; it was dyed a beautiful shade of blonde with perfect flips and fragrant hairspray.
Pope Francis is someone I would like to have coffee with someday. I loved this little list from the piece:
3. “Proceed calmly” in life. The pope, who used to teach high school literature, used an image from an Argentine novel by Ricardo Guiraldes, in which the protagonist — gaucho Don Segundo Sombra — looks back on how he lived his life.
4. A healthy sense of leisure. The Pope said “consumerism has brought us anxiety”, and told parents to set aside time to play with their children and turn of the TV when they sit down to eat.
Josh Hillis has been working hard on his blog again. I liked this article a lot. Have you read it yet? Not yet?
“Just because you’ve tried things in the past and it hasn’t worked out the way you wanted, doesn’t mean “that’s how it is” or “that’s who you are.”
"It just means “not yet.”
"In fact, usually it just means that the approach you took last time, didn’t work last time. You may need a more reasonable approach to workout and/or nutrition. You may need more structure, accountability, or coaching. You may just need to look at it from a different perspective.”
I need to detox after all the traveling. Oh, wait.
“The pages of women's magazines are filled with diets and products that supposedly help you "cleanse your body," from clarifying shampoo to detoxifying salads and juices, and — at the more extreme end — supplements, enemas, and even colon cleanses. A recent issue of Women's World suggested that drinking detox tea could help readers lose 70 pounds, while Self featured Shakira's abs and a seven-day detox plan.
"These types of incredibly persistent claims should be familiar to any avid magazine reader. But before you succumb to them, you should know that the idea of using some product to "detox" is gobbledygook.”
A proper way to cleanse: squat for 100 straight days.
“I started this experiment because my squat was the weak link in my chain.
"The biggest issue with my squat was a technique flaw, and the best way to get better at something is to practice it. During the 100 days of squatting I performed approximately 3,000 back squats.
"That's the equivalent of two years of squatting volume if you squat heavy once a week. While my squat is still far from perfect, it's a million times better than it was 100 days ago.
"Caveat: If you want the reps and high volume to ingrain better movement patterns, you'd damn well better be performing the best reps you can. Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.”
Lots of lists this week, but let me tell you why I like lists.
One: they keep things simple and to the point!
Until next time, enjoy your week and training.
Dan
DanJohn.net
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Yep, he did! And if you've never tried Audible, you can get it for free.
Here's the Can You Go? Audible link.
