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Is your Macro Counting Jeopardizing your Health?

Is your Macro Counting Jeopardizing your Health?

Published by on October 26, 2017 | Leave a response

These days, there seems to be a lot of talk about the importance of tracking your macronutrients. For those who don’t know, macronutrients are your proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Macro trackers keep a daily count of their protein, fat and carbohydrate intake to ensure they meet their daily caloric requirement to reach their fitness goal.

That goal may be fat loss, hypertrophy or general health. In order to meet those goals, tracking your macronutrient profile is an absolute must.

It’s what needs to be done in order to have a successful meal plan.

Certain things that need to be considered when conducting an adequate macronutrient profile are the person’s daily activity level, if they play a sport, how often they practice or play, training frequency, training age, lean body mass etc.

Based on the above factors we will then come up with what that person’s daily caloric intake should be, and then total up the amount of proteins, fats and carbs that person should be eating on a daily basis.

However what needs to be considered more than anything is health. Your health should be priority number one with physique transformation occurring as a side effect to eating for better overall health.

And that is what gets lost in all of the social media hype of “counting my macros bro”.

You see, your health and longevity should not be secondary to physique transformation by incorporating shit foods into your diet to complete your macro profile.

For example, you may see someone adding one pound of cheese to their salad because it helps meet their fat intake for the day.

Or, someone may drink a low quality protein powder with complete disregard to all of the artificial chemicals it has.

Sure, you can certainly make some physique changes that way, but you’ll be doing it at the expense of your health. That is where people need to recognize the issue in the message they’re spreading.

And here’s how to change that…

For just a moment, start thinking of the MICRONUTRIENT profile in your foods rather than just the macronutrients.

I’ll elaborate…

Micronutrients are the nutrients that make up your foods, like vitamins and minerals. Rather than solely focusing on your protein, fat and carb content focus on WHERE these macros are coming from.

Let’s play a game so you can get a better idea of what I’m talking about.

Choose the foods with the better micronutrient profile.

  • White bread or Quinoa
  • Spaghetti or blueberries
  • Big Macs or Organic free range chicken
  • Cheese or coconut oil

If you guessed quinoa, blueberries, chicken and coconut oil, congrats! If you guessed bread, spaghetti, Big Macs and cheese then I pray for your mental well-being.

You can meet your daily caloric requirement by eating shitty foods but the inflammation they cause will certainly be at detriment to your health.

When you dial in your micros along with your macros that is when real, sustainable results occur. And, more importantly, that is when you will see the most improvement in your blood work.

Once you start eating REAL FOODS with a quality micronutrient profile your body starts to improve in many ways. Your immune system improves, your cognitive ability improves, your energy improves, your digestive system and gut health improve. Your body becomes enhanced down to a cellular level.

If you’re functioning better at a cellular level that means that fat loss, strength gains and hypertrophy, as well as improved performance, comes at a much faster pace.

However the best key indicator if a diet is optimizing your health is a complete blood panel. I recommend getting blood work done every 6 months to see where you stand.  I suggest getting an extensive blood test at places like the Nutrition Treatment Center rather than just a routine CBC. But I understand that insurance can be an issue so for now, just get what you can afford.

Remember that your health is your top priority. Once you focus on the quality of your food rather than just your macros, everything changes for the better.

Including your physique and performance.

If you are only concerned with your macros you may be eating foods that are causing a fuck-ton of inflammation and wrecking your digestive system. These two things are directly linked to disease so keep that in consideration.

I really hope this article helps clear up a foggy topic. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to comment below.

Thanks for reading, guys.

 

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Need and Want: Know the Difference

Need and Want: Know the Difference

Published by on October 18, 2017 | Leave a response

Over the years I have worked with many different people. Often enough, many of them have told me the things they “need” and why they are being held back from achieving their goals.

They say they can’t get 8 hours of sleep because they “need” to unwind. Which really means they want to stay up and watch mindless TV rather than rest.

They say they need to eat fast food because they don’t have time to meal prep. Which really means they don’t feel like meal prepping and would rather eat shit food, rather than spending the extra hour per week cooking.

They have also said that they don’t have time to train because they need to… fill in the blank.

Most people describe their “wants” as their “needs” which, in reality, are two totally different things.

Here are some of the things you need:

  • Water
  • Sleep
  • Quality food
  • Exercise
  • Shelter

Here are some of the things you want:

  • Pop-tarts
  • French fries
  • Ice cream
  • Pizza
  • Hookers

See the subtle difference?

Consider that your wants and needs are very different, and sometimes you may not want to do the things you need most. But it’s when we push through our weak moments and do these things anyway that we gain some momentum. Once we gain momentum these actions turn to habit. Once good habits are created then things are consistently getting done and you have just made a hell of a lot of progress.

What’s funny about what I do is that most people already know what they have to do. They just need someone like me to guide them the right way and hold them accountable. Sure, there is more complexity to certain things. Whether it be program design or understanding the human body and human behavior, but most people know that broccoli is a better choice than Cheese Whiz. Most know that a piece of grilled salmon is better than a fatty steak fried in butter.

It comes down to making choices.

And for most people their “wants” dictate their decisions, regardless of the negative impact it makes on their lives.

If you ever want to get anywhere in life, you have to get a handle on that shit. Otherwise, you make bad choice after bad choice, which leads you to just going through the motions and not getting the most out of your life.

People that live this way typically have no hobbies, hate their jobs, have bad relationships, are overweight, unhealthy and don’t spend enough time with their friends and family.

And when I ask why they don’t work out, start a new job etc. the usual reply is “I just don’t have enough time”.

Really? You don’t have 3 hours per week? Ok how about 2 hours per week, can you manage that?

Can you wake up one hour earlier? No, ok 20 minutes earlier?

If you wake up just one hour earlier per day that is an extra 7 hours per week, 28 hours per month and 336 hours per year that you can invest in your goals!

You see it’s not that they don’t have the time, they just don’t manage their time wisely.

We all have the same 24 hours per day as The Rock, and he gets WAY MORE done than most can even imagine. And that’s because he manages his time better than anyone. He knows exactly what he has going on each day, and honors his schedule.

Most people simply let life happen to them rather than taking life by the balls and fucking owning it.

Get to bed earlier, get up earlier, create a schedule, honor your schedule, take MASSIVE ACTION, read fucking books and learn to CREATE the life you want.

Because it ain’t gonna change if YOU don’t change.

You don’t need to watch Game of Thrones, you want to. Which is cool but make sure you schedule it at a time that allows you to get your most important work done first. Don’t sabotage yourself and tell yourself that you’ll do it later, because you won’t.

We are simply a product of the people we spend our time with and the choices we make.

Not our life’s circumstances, not the president, but by our choices.

Once you accept that and start living like you are in charge of your own fucking journey you will get much more done and will be shocked at how much your life will change.

I speak from my own personal experience. I was once overweight, unhealthy, mentally weak and controlled by my inability to make good choices. I drank too often, ate shitty food and went to bed at 5AM every day.

As a result I got nothing done.

It wasn’t until I DECIDED to make a change that my life actually changed.

You are no different from me and can create the life that you want. But no one is going to give you discipline and structure. You need to create those things for yourself.

Whether your goal is to make more money, pack on more muscle or lose 100 lbs. of fat, you won’t get there by giving in to your “wants” all the time.

Recognize that you don’t “need” the bullshit you’re telling yourself you do, like alcohol and ice cream.

The instant gratification you receive will only be satisfying for a moment. Then you’ll realize you have only set yourself further away from the things you wish to achieve.

I know that if you start to live your life this way you WILL create the life you have always wanted. I am living, breathing proof of it.

You just need to do it.

If you have any questions feel free to drop a comment below or simply reply to this email.

I look forward to hearing from you.

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