Inputs vs. Outputs: What matters in your nutrition, fitness, and health?

Wearable technology, Usage apps, live time streaming, and even food and nutrition apps all have categories that itemize and register your projected exercise outputs. As all of these avenue’s have become more and more popular (what up, COVID) I’ve noticed a dramatic shift in the attention to what these devices and platforms are telling you.

“Why was my calorie output lower today from the same workout I had last week when it was 150 calories higher?”

“{insert nutrition logging app here} told me my 40 minute workout burned 300 calories, should I eat extra today?”

“My apple watch had my highest movement score, but why is the scale not moving?”

The above are examples of questions I get, from friends, family, clients, and social media acquaintances alike. Don’t get me wrong when I say this, they’re all awesome questions, and I want these questions. But the answer typically pisses people off.

A Birthday List: 32 Lessons in Fitness and Nutrition

Normally I’m not a birthday guy. However, since the birth of my daughter, I now have a 2 and a half year old cheerleader who hypes me up for any and every holiday or event that happens.

Shout out to Sauce… it’s nice having a cheerleader…

So NOW I’m a birthday guy. In honor of turning the big 3-2, I wanted to create a list of 32 thoughts geared towards fitness and nutrition. Some are short, some are long. Some are factual with real science behind them, and some are anecdotal n=1 from 32 years of life.

Without further adieu…

New Years Resolutions Are AWESOME. Let Me Tell You Why

In my 10 years as a Personal Trainer, I’ve never understood why those in my industry knock New Year's Resolutions and the Resolutioners that come with them.

Change is fickle S.O.B. in that some days you want it, and others, you want to beat it away with a stick (probably when you want to change most).

The five stages of change are precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance.They’re important to know, even more important to understand, but for the purpose of this newsletter, and from what I gather about the audience that reads this, you're probably either at the contemplation or preparation stage.

Let's take a quick sidebar to see what those two stages look like...

Getting Started with a Fitness Program? Read this.

Growing up, my Dad, a General Contractor by trade, always told me “Bud, there is more than one way to skin a cat”. Always referring that there is more than one way to get to an end result.

Fast forward a few decades and I am knee deep into this lovely world of fitness and my Dad’s classic quote has never been more true. Sure, the choices you make along the way dramatically speed up or slow down the path to get there, but all in all, there is more than one way to skin a cat.

The missing link in your fitness program

I spent some time last night hanging out with Google.

I do this on occasion, probably once a quarter. I just sit down with my laptop and start searching for various key terms and phrases related to health, wellness, fitness, and nutrition. Sometimes it’s the buzzwords I’ve been hearing from clients and other times it’s just me typing in the classics to see what shows up on the first results page.

Last night I tried the phrase “Fitness for beginners”, just curious to see what would show up.

A casual 291,000,000 answers popped up.

Client Conversations Worth Sharing

Colleagues who write publicly have always told me the best writing topics are right under your nose.

Your own struggles and/or successes.

Interests you may have within the scope of your writing.

And the one that brings the best gems, the questions the people you work with ask.

I had a couple conversations last week that were 1) amazing questions from my clients and 2) questions that often get asked and I think a lot of people who read this newsletter would like the answers to.

So without much more, here we go…