Progress over perfection.
I am nearly finished with our Spring Check-ins and I am so excited by what I'm hearing from almost everyone. It seems our gym is filled with happy people who care more about consistency, community and effort rather than perfection, ego and outcomes. I can tell you that hearing our athletes say that they want to focus on consistency before all else makes us Coaches want to do backflips! Consistency always trumps perfection. Consistency is more than just the daily grind. It's realizing that one missed gym day, one non-macro balanced meal, one too many beers, or a crappy night of sleep is not going to derail you and send you down the, "Oh What the Hell" rabbit hole. Consistency is making a series of small decisions that continue to push the needle in the direction of your goal. Consistency is knowing that you can always make a different choice for your next meal, your next day, your next anything! Consistency creates momentum and momentum creates motivation. Lots of people erroneously believe that motivation must precede success. It's actually the other way around. Success creates motivation. Think about it, when you are starting something new, a small success feels so good that you want to continue. This is true for everything in life. All you need is one small win, then another, then another, string together a bunch of consistent small wins and you're on your way baby! Sure the perfect day is alluring and something for which we all occasionally strive. However, you're much more likely to achieve that perfect day after you've achieved a string of 80% consistent days. It's #foodiefriday and I have an excellent recipe for you from The Splendid Table. Spring greens are in full production from our local farms and eggs are readily available. Enjoy this fabulous salad that makes a great quick weeknight dinner or a delicious side dish to a bigger Sunday meal. Celebrate spring!
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No is a complete sentence.I was having lunch with Coach Audy the other day and we were talking about handling all of life's demands. Now that we're coming out of our Covid cocoon everyone wants some of our time. All of us have only so much time in which we try to stuff so many things. We have only so much energy we can give to others.
I was sharing with her a situation in which I was asked to do something I did not want to, and instead of politely replying, "No," I got angry and relayed to my requestor all of the things I already had on my plate and how I just couldn't add another. I responded with anger, intensity, and unloaded all of my worries and anxieties on the unsuspecting person standing before me. She didn't deserve my response. After telling my story, Audy looked at me and said, "You know, 'No' is a complete sentence and you don't owe anyone an explanation for why you don't want to do something." I looked at her with gratitude that I have such a smart friend and chagrin knowing that I was an ass to another friend. Indeed, "No" is a complete sentence. When someone asks you to do something it's a reflection of their desire and values and it's completely acceptable for you to not share those values. By responding in anger I violated one of the Four Agreements, e.g. I took her request personally. I violated a second of the Four Agreements by assuming she already knew how stressed I was and that I couldn't possibly add another thing to my schedule. Have you every responded to someone with, "How can you possibly ask that of me? Don't you know how stressed I am already?" Well, you are assuming that person has some kind of telepathic link with your emotions. If you're anything like me, I didn't even know I was on the brink of being an ass until I became one. If I had just taken a deep breath and said, "No" or even, "No, thank you" I could have avoided the drama my lack of self awareness created. The problem wasn't being asked to something, the problem was my attitude about being asked to do something. The Four Agreements serve as a foundation for being a reasonable human: 1. Take nothing personally 2. Make no assumptions 3. Be impeccable with your word 4. Do your best When someone says something to you that fires up your emotions, take a deep breath and remember these agreements and take solace in the fact that "No" is a complete sentence. As the rate of COVID-19 infection increases exponentially, again, in our county, it's a matter of time before someone close to you acquires the virus. As our COVID free circle shrinks around us, it's even more vital that we manage our risk and reduce our chance of infection.
We continue to do all things at the gym to help reduce our risk. We monitor the carbon dioxide levels, we ensure adequate air circulation and ventilation, we sanitize after every class, and we keep everyone more than 6 feet apart. We also have a majority of our members and nearly all of our coaches who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. By the beginning of May we will reach herd immunity amongst our TSCF community. YAY! We know that healthy people have less severe symptoms. I have previously explored how high body-fat increases symptom severity and how adequate Vitamin D levels decrease symptom severity. Now, there is a growing body of evidence that wearable technology such as Whoop, FitBits, Apple and Garmin watches can be important for early symptom detection. All of these wearable technology devices measure heart rate, respiratory rate, and sleep. These three biometrics are showing to be reliable early indicators of symptom onset. They do this by alerting you to abnormal rates compare to your baseline. A scientific paper published in Nature last month explores how "consumer wearable devices are an accurate and widely deployed technology to establish individual baseline parameters of health, which may be used to detect substantial deviations from baseline physiology at the onset of infection." The research team looked at thousands of folks who wear FitBits, Apple and Garmin watches and found that abnormally high resting heart rate is a reliable early indicator of COVID infection. They found that some folks showed an elevated resting heart rate as early as 14 days before symptom onset and some as few as 2 days before symptom onset. An elevated resting heart rate could be a great impetus for getting a COVID test. The research team found that sleep increased at symptom onset. This is no surprise as fatigue is one of the primary COVID symptoms. Whoop straps were not included in the study published in Nature. Whoop has its own research team and has participated in several independent studies. Their research indicates that elevated respiratory rates as early as 1 day prior to symptom onset provides reliable early indication of COVID infection. This is a great year to tp start wearable technology. Not only will it provide an early indicator of COVID infection, it will help you make healthy lifestyle choices. I have been wearing my Whoop since July and have posted a bunch of blogs on how to use the data it provides. You can use my WHOOP affiliate link and get your first month free. Just click on the image below to sign up! How to Level UpFor the past few #transformationtuesdays I have been sharing strategies and tactics to help us make significant, meaningful and sustainable changes in our lives.
Change is hard, yet it is the only constant in our life. How ironic is that? The very things that is certain, change, is the very thing most of us have trouble accepting. As I explored in a recent post, making big audacious goals and changes can be seductive and alluring, yet big sweeping changes are often doomed to failure. You can reframe your goals by "leveling up" on habits you already do to create a healthy and happy life. Leveling up means using small, gradual steps to work toward your goals. Let's say your goal is to run a 10k or do a multi-day backpacking trip through the Beartooth Mountains this summer. You probably think you need to start running a 5K every day NOW. NOPE! Instead, level up a daily habit you already have. Let's say you take your dog for a daily walk. Level up your walks by wearing a small backpack with a 20# bag of rice. You've just leveled up your daily habit. Your heart rate will be higher and you'll increase your endurance. In a few weeks, when that becomes easy, add 5 mins to your walk. Or do an easy jog for 10 paces and walk for 20 paces. Level up again when it becomes easy and automatic. The idea behind leveling up is to break down your goal into steps that are so ridiculously easy you can’t fail. I did this last Friday when I was doing the Hotshots 19 workout. I'm not fan of running, and usually for my CrossFit runs I create little goals, "get to the fire hydrant," "get to the trees," etc. Last Friday I had to shrink the change. My steering marks were much shorter, "get to the white Tundra, make it to the 2nd car past that, go to the third truck past that." I literally dissected each 400m run into more than a dozen very small achievable milestones. I have written many times on the habits of successful people. It's momentum and consistency that create success. Success creates motivation. It's a positive feedback loop. Start small. Succeed. Increase motivation. Keep going. I have heard from many of you in our Check-ins that you want to improve your mobility. Or, as someone in my noon class said, "I want to be more bendy." GREAT! I want you to be more bendy, too. Start small. Start with 2 mins (yes, just TWO minutes.) Sit on the floor and reach for your toes for 2 mins. When that becomes easy, and it will, try for 3 minutes. Or level up by adding another pose for 2 mins. Start small and easy and then level up. It's sexy to create big and exciting goals. A goal without consistency is doomed to failure. All too often we try to jump into achieving our goal with big and exciting changes. That is why we fail. Start small. Succeed. Level Up. Keep Going. Achieve Goal. That's it. |
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