Cantrell Coaching LLC

Don’t Jump To Conclusions

Science has undoubtedly propelled our knowledge to a great degree. It seems each day we awake to a new study that has been published that promises great findings. This interests me deeply, even when I was younger I remember how captivated I was by science at large. I dreamed of how they could tweeze out the minor details that make such a massive difference in our existence. From elements discovered in materials to differences in DNA telomere lengths, what a compelling phenomenon-understanding cause and effect. However, the major flaw that often arises due to the fast flowing river of research is the errors in interpretation of studies which paradoxically lead to misinformation.

I’ve got a great friend of mine, Ali, who recently began working as an interpreter. He mentioned how confusing interpreting can be because there are several different dialects. Even though Ali grew up speaking Arabic he still has a hard time getting the messages translated to English from time to time. This same problem arises in scientific research. The language barrier is the first obstacle to overcome. The research papers follow a specific format that is easy for researchers, but proves to be challenging to the lay individual. In fact there are specific college level courses that are devoted just to learning how to understand research studies, not to mention the separate courses on statistics as well. Many of you likely haven’t taken these classes, so when you come across a new study the likelihood of you misinterpreting the information is high. This problem is elevated when you consider that research is made public, which is an amazing thing indeed, but proves problematic if you are untrained to interpret the information properly. Once science is released publicly, the internet gets the messages out fast, a long host of unqualified “interpreters” are lined up to post about it. They decode the messages in ways that are not necessarily true, making headliners rather than facts. This makes for an odd game of telephone, as more headliners appear the messages make a further dissociation to the raw study itself. This leads us to a valley of misinformed people.

Perhaps you’re the fraction of the population who has taken the appropriate classes to understand these studies. We are still not problem free. The next thing to consider while evaluating a studies draw is to look into who contributed to funding the study. This special interest between company and researcher is linked to money. In sales of any kind, we want to educate people about why our product/service works or why it is necessary. This feature-benefit presentation provides the consumer with a vital education promise that persuades him/her to take action and spend money. What better way to convince someone to buy something than to have a study produced that shows that your product is efficacious. Here is where we find many companies “donating” money to research to produce compelling results in search of specific data that will hype the companies claims. Believe it or not, the most notorious area of research that is swayed by company investment is the diet/nutrition/supplement industry. For example, a New York Times investigation unfolded that Coca-Cola had been quietly funding researchers and organizations (totaling 118.6 million dollars) that diverted the conversation about obesity away from calorie control and instead pushed the argument that we just need to move more. They pay a pretty penny to keep their poison selling, but it is nothing compared to their 2018 earnings totaling at 31.9 billion. Investing 0.4% of the earnings to keep profits high and consumers misinformed is a no brainer to a CEO, as it’s costing him near nothing, yet it is wreaking havoc on the health of our society at large. When a study comes out that can allow you to see that exercise is the only issue, we let our diet decisions dwindle in the importance it deserves. This expands to every major brand.

As the company continues to grow in size, the money they can use to manipulate grows as well. These companies then hire researchers to search for a particular outcome that will strengthen the companies agenda rather than letting the outcome be provided based upon the reasonable scientific method. This is often seen by something termed as p-hacking. Coined by Regina Nuzzo, she describes p-hacking as the conscious or subconscious manipulation of data in a way that produces a desirable p-value or better understood as a desired percentage (95% or above). Studies have to have a minimum accuracy rate of 95% to be considered true and publishable. For example, let’s say we preformed a study that was observing if whether or not children who had a past cavity in the last year were more likely to have a cavity in the future. You would gather a large group of children together. These children would have different genders, ages, and ethnicity of course so you would document that and categorize them appropriately based upon the demographic. Perhaps then we observe and find that with each demographic, other than the females, got cavities in the future. Let’s assume that equated to a 65% accuracy. This would not be able to publish due to its insignificant p-value (65%). However, with p-hacking you may exclude all females, then the accuracy would be above 95% and you could publish the study. Unfortunately, p-hacking occurs without informing anyone, leaving only the scientist aware of the facts behind the evidence and the public majorly misinformed.

These facts need to be known because today’s society is strongly swayed by the influence of science and the studies that are being produced. I don’t suggest that we throw the studies out of the picture because there is quality research being produced. Rather, I believe we need to be slow to jump to conclusions based upon studies. Too often I see articles that are misinterpretations of quite well done studies. The article will instead take a snapshot of the abstract (summary) and conclude the most “catchy” headliner to attract attention. Each study should be reviewed with a keen eye focused on how the study was preformed, who funded it, and how is it being interpreted. If your enjoying my blog, you’ll love my podcast check it out if your looking to upgrade your health and wellness.

Technique Is King

Life presents us with many options. Your free to choice how you do just about everything, you get to decide what the right choice is for you. However, when it comes to exercise there are specific biomechanical needs that have to be met in order to produce the safest and most effective outcomes. Biomechanics refers to the study of the mechanical laws relating to the movement/structure of living organisms. It is through biomechanics that we are able to define the optimal range of motion in joints, better understand injury prevention, and it serves as the fundamental basis for improving movement quality at large.

Probably some Biomechanics Professor somewhere getting pumped up that were talking science today 😉

You may be asking yourself, doesn’t everybody move the same way since we all have the same bones, ligaments, tendons, and muscles?

The question arises commonly, as most people assume that just because everyone has the tools to move well, that they should inherently move well. If I gave you the tools to build a house, would you be able to do it to a professional contractor’s standard? Probably not, although we may understand the basics, like how to hammer a nail. We haven’t had the years of on-site and off-site training to establish prowess with these tools to create the orchestra that is the magnificent construction of a home. The human body has the potential for great movement, yet many of us are unable to capture that potential due to life. Think about how well a young toddler can move, usually without any effort at all, and it becomes crystal clear.

Life has us placed in common positions like sitting for example that disrupt our hips, spine and shoulders to a great degree. Children ages 5-22 (depending on college attendance) are subjected to sit for 5-8 hours a day including perhaps additional time spent on homework as well. This has major consequences both above and below the hip joint and it negatively impacts our gross movement quality as a whole. This example emphasizes the likelihood for a joint to become locked up due to our consistent movement habits. Other examples that show the same disruption include high-heels, standing for long periods of time, work with repetitive movement, constant texting or computer use, and even those who are bed ridden.

Many of the problems that we incur are due to stagnant positions held for extreme durations. When a joint is subjected to such stress it has no other choice but to lock up in order to provide “safety”. This artificial safety is laid down by the CNS, a division of the nervous system that consists of the brain and spinal cord. All messages relayed in your body are transmitted via the nervous system, but the CNS has specific interest in the integration of sensory information and the development of the appropriate responds to that stimuli. So when your body is set into a position for an extended period of time the CNS gets that feedback. When the feedback is integrated, the response from the CNS is “We must stay within this minimal range of motion, because we have no experience outside of it, we must therefore protect ourselves by locking up that joint inside the current limited range to avoid getting outside of what I’m comfortable with”.

This causes muscles around the joint (and sometimes even the joint capsule itself) to become hyperresponsive, resulting in muscular imbalances that will cause dysfunctional movement when compared to the optimal biomechanics. This can lead to a cascade of problems from pain to serious injury. Much before I was into the science of lifting, I sprained my sacroiliac joint (the joint the connects the base of your spine to your hips). How? By inefficient movement quality while squatting which was caused by muscular imbalances in my hips due to sitting for long periods of time. Unfortunately, I learned this information later, but having experienced it, I am more empathetic and aware of the potential it has to destroy us structurally. At that time I was 18 but this injury peaked my interest in biomechanics and muscular imbalances and has made me invest more time into movement quality both as an individual and as a Coach.

Muscular imbalances are just like a misfiring car engine. The engine requires precise levels of oxygen and fuel, and then a generous spark to create a smooth revolution of each cylinder. These revolutions provide your car with the power needed to propel your vehicle along with help of the drivetrain, and transmission (as well as many other things). A misfire can happen due to either inadequate levels or timing of oxygen, fuel, or even the spark itself. This can severely wear down your engine overtime if not solved. The body is no different. The muscles can be misfiring, although your attempting your hardest to move effectively just like the engines cylinders, your muscles are not activating at the appropriate times to create the quality of movement that is desired. Movements may look like they are depicted on popular machines in a “start” and “finish” position, but it is much more complex than A to B. It is much more like A-Z, as you must consider the movement at every inch demands quality attention to provide you with the correct stimulus to produce the results you’re after while mitigating the likelihood of injury.

Take for example a common fundamental movement like a squat. The squat demands recruitment of all lower body muscles (as well as a good handful of upper body musculature), but the timing of the muscles recruitment is the true breadwinner in a great squat. Most people butcher the squat while coming out of the bottom position. Remember this isn’t include in the A (start) to B (finish) model that we all think about, but rather represent the middle and in my opinion most crucial part of the movement. The lack of appropriate muscle activation timing is commonly the problem, yet this problem can be caused by so many things, the primary thing being what we talked about before-muscular imbalances caused by locked up joints. An efficient squat activation, upon standing up from the bottom position, will first use the glutes (butt muscle), then the quads (front of the thighs), and lastly the quadratus lumborum and erectors (low back muscles). These muscles will only fire in this sequence if your body is free of muscular imbalances. However, the common activation sequence I see as a trainer is usually the reverse and causes overuse of the low back muscles. If someone continues to squat in this manner it is likely they will either soon run into a weight where they can no longer progress quickly, or they will get injured due to excessive stress on the segments of the low back. Just like I did when I was in high school with my low back injury.

The other complex thing to consider is that techniques at large should be followed, however individual variance does exist. We all may have the same bones, ligaments, muscles, but we may have different limb lengths, Q-angles (bone angles), and hip widths that will change our movement habits. This individuality is why going on YouTube to search something as basic as “squat technique” will bring up over 200 pages of results talking about high bar, low bar, overhead, Olympic style, and so many more things. The information availability is not the problem here just like I mentioned in my latest article “Traversing The Grocery Store In Today’s State”. The problem is the filtration of the information to make a decision that is right for you the individual. The study of biomechanics has made it easy to give general tips, but just like all sciences they cannot study everyone, and the studies that they run are commonly not done long enough to see the bodies reaction to said stimuli years down the road.

This is where an experienced eye of a professional comes into play. You can look up as many videos as you want and you can attempt to replicate those videos instructions. But the sad fact is many times it only leads to worse techniques because you lack proprioception, the awareness to know exactly what position your body is in relative to space. I’ve seen this too often as a trainer in the industry for years, you watch people preform an exercise and they bastardize it because they put faith on their interpretation of the information (which may have been wrong in the first place…YouTube pays for views not accuracy). Proprioception is the a major key to achieving great technique, yet it is the main root cause of poor technique. When someone is confident that they are moving in the right way they will continue to do so, but if your technique is flawed then your perception of “the right way” is in fact wrong. More often than not the technique is wrong regardless of all the information you’ve gathered because you likely have muscular imbalances that disrupt the body from moving in an efficient and safe way. The cure all to this is to get connected with a Fitness Professional who has experience, knowledge, and the results to back his/her claims from past clients. Here is a offer to get you started if you’re in the Colorado Springs Area, come get the help you deserve. With the help of a Fitness Professional’s cues, coaching, and programming you are able to reestablish your body to the correct movement patterns. This takes flawless repetitions of movements, mobility work, and appropriate recovery interventions to integrate the CNS in a conducive way. I hope you get this encouraged you to think more about what your movement quality looks like and consider improving it, for the secret to being strong is to remain injury free consistently. If this information has peaked your intrest, check out my podcast for another way to upgrade your health and wellness!

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Traversing The Grocery Store In Today’s State

Chances are you go to the grocery store a least once a week, unless your fortunate enough to afford to have someone do your shopping for you or you buy meal preparation kits shipped directly to your home. Nonetheless, you will want to be better informed about the foods you are choosing. As the ancient phrase (1826) quoted by the author Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin in his book “The Physiology of Taste” he stated “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are”. Today you’re more likely to hear “You are what you eat”, in either case the necessity to pay attention to your nutrition is vital for your health and this has been understood for centuries. Jean, thought much deeper about this subject, in a slightly philosophical way, he understood that the influence of food extended beyond health but it can make contributions to change your mood, choices, livelihood and even future potential.

The biggest problem facing us today is that we are strongly swayed by science. Science and technology have exploded over the past 50 years and has greatly influenced our daily decisions. You don’t need a scientific study to prove this, just look up and observe how many people are fixed on their smart phones. Much before nutrition science was available to the masses we knew that there were staple things to include in your diet that provided vigor and strength. These choices are the fundamentals that will serve as a compass to guide us through our supermarkets. Not the next diet book, fab or bible.

A 2015 Nielsen Book Scan report surveyed the total number of diet and nutrition books sold in just the U.S. that year and the total is astonishing-over 5 million. The number of people who were considered obese in 2015 was estimated around 128 million, according to the CDC. Information can help sure, but misinformation can leave the obese person stuck in a cycle of loses and gains, never finding that optimal balance to be healthy and happy for the long term. The largest error of them all is the faith that a diet will be your cure, this is a fallacy, the only cure will be monitoring your intuition. Something many of us have lost due to trusting science and forgetting about our deep biological experience that is living. We must fix our mindset as well, a healthy optimistic lifestyle will provide your with wellness, not Keto, Vegetarianism, or another ideology that suffocates your intuition.

So before we enter the grocery store we must prepare our mind to accept that this journey for health will bring us to answers internally, through our bodies wisdom we can learn and accept the signs and symptoms of poor nutritional choices. Once we identify that we don’t feel our best when eating a Pop-Tart versus some berries and nuts, then and only then will you know what “diet” is optimal for your success. You see this is going to take much more effort than someone writing a book and telling you what to eat. However, in return you learn to understand how you individually react to foods and your able to modify your intake accordingly. It’s a self-regulation process that involves effort, attention, and patience. Refer to my article I wrote “Sprinting Before The Marathon” to get jump started on this process, because if you’re like the majority of people-you don’t know what health or true wellness feels like as you’ve drowned that signal with sweets, junk food, food additives and chemicals that blunt the intuition that is inside you. Don’t believe me, here is a super simple test. Take a bite of a strawberry, did it taste sweet, exploding with flavor as it’s juice spurted into your mouth? Or did you simple just taste it and find a meaningless reaction? Most likely you’re not impressed because you had that pint of Ben and Jerry’s last night and the huge bowl of Fruit Loops this morning. A strawberry is no contest compared to these wildly sugary foods when comparing on taste alone. But you know what, that strawberry has so much more value nutritionally and will offer your body that sweet flavor without the bloating, indigestion, ache breakouts, headaches, anxiety, water retention, foggy head, irritability, diarrhea, flushed appearance, gas, or puffy look. These side effects are already happening and you have not yet become aware because they seem common. Common is not correlative to health.

Go sprint before this upcoming marathon to allow yourself the chance to fix your intuitive antenna that has been broken for so long.

Let’s go shopping. The first and most apparent thing to realize it that we need variety. This is seen true when you look at growth patterns of plants, there are seasons in which some flourish and others cannot survive. If you think back before we had shipping that could carry thousands of food products across miles of land to arrive at your supermarket, you’ll find it apparent that you would rotate foods regularly based upon your findings local in your region. So when you go to the grocery store it is an excellent idea to swap out foods each time you visit. For example, perhaps last week your choice of vegetables was cauliflower, broccoli, and zucchini. Next time you visit, abstain from choosing those same foods. This is not just restricted to veggies alone. You should rotate all your choices from fats, meats, fruits, vegetables, grains and nuts, ideally everything you eat (with minor acceptations) should be rotated weekly to provide your body with an ample amount of vitamins, minerals, and macro-nutrients. The practice of food rotation will also help you be more aware of what foods you may not react to as well. Often times the foods that we choose to eat the most often are the ones that we build immune responses to (intolerances). These foods, once identified, should be removed for a minimum of 4 weeks and closely observed in the future when you add them back in. Always add back in the sensitive foods in small doses. Your body having an immune response is not healthy. It’s an internal war that you cannot see, don’t inflict these immune response or you’re likely to find yourself in fighting a chronic illness or disease in you’re future due to your lack of responsibility.

The next thing to note is that we didn’t have processed foods long ago and we survived with a good level of fitness. Unfortunately, today there is an abundance of these foods. While you are in the grocery store it is very common to see more than twice the amount of aisles filled with boxed, bagged, and canned processed foods when compared to fresh whole foods. These foods we should think about limiting as they have several things that whole foods don’t. This list includes food additives, preservatives, and chemicals that are used to extend the shelf life, not your health. We are aware that chemicals in our water is a major cause for concern like here in Southern Colorado Springs years ago, but for some reason we forget that foods contain just as many and usually in higher amounts.

So we are limiting our food selection from those middles aisles, your now going to find yourself in the produce ally. Here the key is to look for organic, which means clean and high in nutrition. These foods undergo more strict regulation to limit the amount of fungicides, pesticides, and many more chemicals that are apply to keep the produce stable. This usually translates to a shortened life span on a shelf, this is a good thing. You want to pick produce and eat it quickly as this increase the micro-nutrient content. You wouldn’t want a four month old potato would you? This also may mean increasing the amount of times your visit the grocery store, which will help improve the variety in your diet as well.

After gathering your produce, the next in line is dairy/meat. In this aisle you want to focus on Grass Fed, antibiotic free, hormone free, cage free, organic or wild caught. This will ensure that the animals you are consuming have been properly treated with the right diet and lifestyle, which has a major impact on your health. The phrase “you are what you eat” doesn’t just apply to humans. When fed improperly that animal becomes sick and then is given antibiotic which blunt the harm, yet both increase the harm to us, the consumer. Take for example an extreme case like Celiac Disease (a mean intolerance to gluten). The cattle who is not “Grass Fed” is instead fed corn, wheat, and many other unnatural things that a cow would never eat, but is forced to because they increase the fat content and flavor of the finished beef. The individual who has Celiac Disease consumes the non-grass-fed beef may potentially find themselves in a gluten reaction quickly after eating the beef.

So now you got a plan of action, however you’re likely to find that following these recommendations will increase your typical grocery bill. This is a fact, although it won’t be as high as your future medical bills you’ll receive from mistreating your body. The best area to spend your money on is investing in your health, not the next purse, product, or promise for something grand because if you develop a chronic illness then whats the point? When you choose to take responsibility for your health you become the leader in your life. You are granted with a chance to live longer with greater vitality and overall wellness-this is priceless.

I hope you found this information useful, if so you’ll want to check out my podcast as it offers a chance to get more information to upgrade your health and wellness in the car, treadmill, or where ever you decide to tune in!

Sprinting Before the Marathon

The all too common phrase “life’s a marathon not a sprint” we know it and embody it, popular figures such as Tony Robbins, Aubrey Graham (Drake), and Philip C. McGraw (Dr. Phil) have established this message that we have digested to be true. It is extremely popular in the Fitness Industry as you hear everyone talk about it, their journey is long, slow, and steady. This creates a devisable plan that will break down your large goal into chucks which allows you to chug along the journey with adequate progress and steady results. However, is it possible that this could be holding us back from our true potential?

Think of Newton’s First Law- an object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an external force. This describes the principal of inertia, and I believe this inertia must be overcome by tremendous force. Let’s relate this back to fitness and set the stage. When we take on the proclamation to change we are met with inertia, a force that is resisting our ability to be different. Everything we do in our life consistently eventually becomes a habit. These habits are bounded to us like the gauze on a mummy. It takes a tremendous amount of deliberate effort to change them, here is where we must sprint.

This increase in velocity of progress, or sprint, will do several powerful things.

First, it will allow you to delve deeper into your goal. Most people when they take the marathon approach are stuck with the bad habits for ultimately months, maybe even years. These bad habits could include overeating, binging/purging, sweet addictions, and many more. The fact is these habits are not being changed effectively because the person whose got the marathon mentality is typically someone who isn’t fully committed. In my experience, those who only dip their toes into the water of fitness end up with the worst relationships to exercise, food, and commonly find themselves yo-yo dieting. The lack of commitment is the greatest concern, for it leads to a couple days of consistency followed by a celebratory binge session to top off the week. This decreases the amount of results achieved, and by sabotaging yourself you later find that your guilty, ashamed, and thus begin creating negative self-talk. This negative self-talk then feeds back into the poor relationships with diet and exercise again like a revolving door. Instead increase your velocity by delving deeper into your goals, understand what your “why” for doing this is, commit to that why, and treat yourself like you love yourself. This sprint will establish your connection to the goal which increases adherence and purpose behind what you’re doing. When things have a deeper purpose, we tend to be more invested in them and stay behind them longer.

Second, by sprinting you will see more results in this short term burst. Let’s face it everyone gets happy and motivated when they see any positive change in their bodies. This small sprint in the beginning will allow you to see the momentum of your choices as it relates to your goal. This will reinforce the positive behaviors that you are establishing. Remember, our habits can hold us back in the beginning, yet they take us to the finish line in the end. It’s all about getting the good habits established, and diminishing the bad ones. By seeing these results you are compelled to believe in the process, and when we believe amazing things happen.

As this picture from mensdatingmastery.com on The Self Fulfilling Prophecy displays our beliefs influence our expectations, these expectations influence our behavior, and our behavior influences our results. These results then restart the process over again by reinforcing those beliefs. This sprint that your going to do will pay dividends because it will set the stage for long term success by hacking into your psychological state, and if my experience in the industry has taught me anything its that a weight issue isn’t a weight issue, it’s what’s going on upstairs.

Now you’re fired up ready to sprint, but wait. The most important thing is how long should you sprint? Our body physically can only maintain a maximum effort sprint from 5-8 seconds, this is analogous for our rate of exertion in the course of our fitness journey. There are limits that we have to establish or else we sacrifice a much worse fate than taking it slow and calculated. As we discussed the increase in velocity will get us to understand our “why” at a deeper level to have a purpose behind what we are doing, and only after doing so, will we then be begin to apply some gas to create an energized current of growth. The journey starts upstairs-a mental sprint to chase our purpose. Develop your reason why you are doing this, refer to my article I wrote “Why Get Healthy” for help. After you have established a connection to a deeper meaning, you will then begin your sprint.

The sprint in our fitness journey should be one week or less. It should include trying to have each meal full of whole natural foods, high quality meats, and void of foods that come in packages, bags, cans, or wrappers. In addition to these vibrant foods aim to walk after your meals just 5-10 minutes, that is the only additional exercise you’ll need at this point. This allows us adequate time to see results in the mirror and feel the changes from the increase in nutrient dense foods, which supercharge our mood. After cessation of the sprint we kick our pace down to moderate those foods we had previously voided. Most people find that they have one of two feelings after this. One, they are so connected to their goal that they don’t want to reintroduce those voided foods. Or perhaps, they will feel that they want to overeat on those foods that “they have been deprived of”. Regardless of your feeling, here is where portion control becomes your best friend, because we cannot expect anyone to never touch these foods again. I recommend you reintroduce these foods with a high amount of attention on how they make you feel. After eating a well portion meal that may include these foods seek to feel the effects they have on you. Maybe it’s bloating, foggy thinking, mild sadness/anxiety, disturbed gut, or even skin reactions. Searching for these signs and symptoms are the marathon along with eating in proportion to your bodies needs, it’s about finding foods that you can digest well and have no adverse side effects from. That, in conjunction with finding a Fitness Professional who will systematically provide your body with the appropriate amount of exercise stimulus to induce slow progressive change is the long marathon ahead. So yes, life may be a marathon, but sprint a little to overcome the inertia of change and enjoy the road ahead.

I hope you’ve deeply enjoyed and learned from the posts I’ve created, it is a passion of mine to be able to influence as many people as I can so please share this and spread the love! Also I would love for you to check out my podcast “RWYS” it covers similar topics as well as Freestyle Friday’s where I deliver easy to implement tips to help you grow your wellness instantly!

We Think Like Robots. Use It To Your Advantage To Improve Your Health.

Are you familiar with code, you know that 1’s and 0’s gibberish that you hear computer scientist talking about? It’s okay if you’re not an expert because I’m not really either, but I do understand the fundamentals. These fundamentals we will review because we are just like the computers, in that we are programmed by what we tell ourselves. So let’s take a look in a fast track overview fashion to get up to speed.

Coding is how you program a computer, the old coding methods did involve just that, a series of 1’s and 0’s mashed together in a set of eight to create an action for the computer to perform. This was coined “Binary Code” where “1” meant “on” and “0” meant “off”. Once strung into a complete series of eight such as “10010100” it was called a “Byte“. Now computers contain several millions of these bytes that control what functions the computer can do.

Still with me?

Let’s start comparing what we have learned to humans to bring us back to earth.

Humans create thoughts which lead to our decisions, these decisions then lead to actions which in turn delivers our results. The thoughts we can call 1’s (positive thoughts) and 0’s (negative thoughts). The effect of positive thoughts and negative thoughts is as clear as our 1’s and 0’s for our computer, with a different input comes a different output. A positive thought ultimately will lead to a much different result than a negative thought.

For example when your thinking about how “fat” or “unattractive” you are, you instantly are influencing the decisions you will make like starving yourself, or deciding to go without water because the scale drops as does your bloat. These decisions, later acted upon, will not result in your goal of getting healthy. The end result will most likely be more negative emotions, like guilt when you overeat because your body’s crying for nutrition. Taken to the extreme these negative actions could result in bone mineral density loss, cardiac dysfunction, indigestion, and much worse.

Now on the other hand, if you were thinking positively, such as “I want to treat my body like it’s my own child, nurture it, love it, and bring it to a state of health and well-being” this would result in a diametrically opposed approach in your actions. You’d be more likely to choose whole natural foods, drink plenty of high quality water, and of course gradually beginning an exercise program designed for your needs. The results from this approach would be much more positive, in fact you would probably reach your goal within six months or less. On top of reaching your goal, you’d also learn to enjoy the process as a growth opportunity rather than an obstacle.

Let’s get back to the programming because there is one more thing we are missing here. The “Binary Code” we spoke about is old school. It would take decades to program a computer that way, remember it takes several millions of those bytes (compiled series of eight “1’s” and “0’s” strung together) to make a complete computer work properly. Could you imagine sitting there plugging in 1’s and 0’s till your eyes are fried like overcooked sausage patties? Instead, to code in our modern day we use “programming languages” that are short-cuts to accelerate the amount of time spent programming by stacking together several bytes into one easy to type word, like “MOV”.

Why does this matter?

Well take a look at the language you use to speak or think to yourself like “I’m fat” or “I can’t do this”. In these examples, these languages we speak to ourselves would carry a large amount of “0’s” (negative programming) along with them similar to the “programming languages” we described that are compounded coding. So the impact is much greater than just one singular “0” it’s compounded by the emotion we feed these words. They are charged with hate, neglect, and sadness. This is the essential piece to understand-the way you talk to yourself will set you up for your future results, just like a computer.

The great part is that this is totally reversible. Just like you can convince yourself that your worthless, you can convince yourself that your indispensable. Words like this are charged with greatness, influence, and power. The computer scientist will write code with their “programming languages”, we will use our own positive programming languages to effectively change our physiology at it’s core. Just like those codes translate to automatic actions and results for a computer, our “codes” will automatically set us up for a positive result as long as we think positively.

It all starts with what you think. Robert Merton coined the term “Self-Fulfilling Prophecy”, in which a false definition of the situation at hand will evoke new behaviors that ultimately makes the false definition into a reality. This concept is going to work regardless if your thoughts are 1’s (positive) or 0’s (negative). So, the most important thing for you to do is to choice positive definitions of the situation at hand. I don’t care how bad things are, you must learn to be positive and use language that reinforces an optimistic, loving attitude on life. I was kicked out at 16, after being kicked out I could have been bitter, pissed off, and frustrated. Instead, I got hyper focused on what I wanted and used every ounce of my energy to remain positive. I continued to think to myself, “you are capable of anything”. This is a mantra- a statement or slogan repeated frequently. A mantra can take a while to figure out, but once you’ve established a mantra it’s easy. You just repeat, repeat, repeat until it becomes your new reality. The key to a good mantra is it must be authentic and have a positive demeanor. This will allow you to reprogram the human computer-our brain in a positive life changing way. I hope you enjoyed reading this, if you did please check out my podcast RWYS, Remember Why You Started. It is available on iTunes, Google Play Store, Stitcher, and Spotify.

Why Should You Get Healthy?

Health-It’s something you first remember as your parent’s probably nagging you about when you were younger-brush your teeth, go get a shower, finish your dinner. However, we are adults now and the parents job is no longer to micromanage your health. It is now your full responsibility to take ownership and participate fully in being a healthy individual. Often times when I get a client they are aware that they need to improve their health, but they still don’t grasp the full ownership that they must have to encourage sustainable lasting results. How could this be? They haven’t yet found their “why”.

As Friedrich Nietzsche stated, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”

Of course this is an intense statement, much like the German Philosopher Nietzsche himself, but it holds the key to understand how we can withstand the metaphorical storms that are approaching us as we set out on our sea of goals. I had a client, Steven, of whom I met 6 months prior to moving to Colorado Springs. When I met him he had a vision and purpose, he was 252 pounds of full-steam-ahead determination to change. Why? Because he went into his doctors office and was told “If you don’t lose weight and change your lifestyle, YOUR GOING TO HAVE A STROKE”. He had a strong enough why in the beginning–he demanded to return to good health in order to avoid the crisis of death. Over the next six months we achieved 60 pounds of fat loss, these kind of results only come from you (the participant) taking full responsibility and ownership of your health, and when times get tough remember why you started.

So your convinced finding your “why” matters, however, you could be asking yourself at this point-I haven’t received dramatic life changing news like a chance of death, how do I find my why? Good Question. The first thing you must do is assess your first impulsive answer, maybe you said “I want to be healthy because I want to have higher energy levels.” You must ask “why?” a minimum of five times after your first impulsive answer. Often times these impulsive answers are just symptoms not the root cause. The root cause is the one thing that will compel you to stick with the new changes in your life, symptoms won’t. So ask why, why, why, why, and why again. You’ll sound like a little kid doing this, but that child-like curiosity is what will allow you to explore yourself enough to find why your really doing all this for.

Let’s look at an example to understand better how to put this into practice:

“I want to get healthy because I want to have higher energy levels”

Why?

“Because I would like to be able to do more than I currently am now”

Why?

“Because I come home from work exhausted and cannot give my kids the full attention that kids their age need”

Why?

“Because I want the best for my kids and I know they deserve more than what I’m able to give”

Why?

“Because I need to provide for my family”

This process has diluted the symptoms to the root cause: You really want to get healthy to provide for you family, not to have higher energy. The “5 why method” is taken from Six Sigma, a technique developed by a Motorola engineer Bill Smith, who created a problem solving method to fix machinery. The brain is a complex piece of machinery as it has various amounts of information floating around each second. However, if you can extract your concrete “why” you are able to understand your motive to change. This motive will be something your going to want to repeat in your head and feel deeply in your heart when things get hard.

Maybe this technique didn’t work for you, that is okay we’ve got two more to help you find it. The book “Believe it to Achieve it” speaks about how we have two major motivations in life-the desire for gain and the fear of loss. Interestingly you are two and a half times more likely to be influenced by the fear of loss. The concept of loss aversion, a cognitive psychology term, refers to people’s propensity to prefer to avoid losses rather than gains even when the odds are equivalent. That means if you were to either win 5,000$ for getting in the best shape of your life, OR you were to lose 5,000$ if you didnt get into the best shape of your life, you’d would be much more motivated to change to avoid the loss rather than the gain. In fact, heatlhywages.com is a website that plays directly with this idea. I had a client, Dottie, who participated in the “healthywage” and it was enough for her to lose over 30lbs!! This can be a great motivator, but it can also lead you straight to your “why”. Reflecting on my client Steven, he wanted to avoid the strongest loss of all-death. So this may be a technique you can use in order to pinpoint your why if the first exercise didn’t work.

The last shortcut to finding your why is to look at what you would gain from this endeavor. That could be something like gaining a better mindset in absence of depression, anxiety, self-consciousness, self-pity, ect. The only pitfall with both of these shortcuts is it often will lead to several symptoms rather than the root cause. So it may require that you use all three techniques discussed in order to have a list of things you will gain as well as a list of things you want to avoid losing. Once you have this list, understand the deeper meanings to these things by asking why you would want to gain this/avoid losing that. If these techniques help, please let me know! I am excited to hear from each of you, I write this blog to help others as it is my passion! If you haven’t had a chance to listen to my podcast yet, I highly recommend it as it talks on these points as well in our first season. Find it on iTunes and Google play; podcast name: RWYS, Remember Why You Started.