Mind Muscle with Simon de Veer
Mind Muscle with Simon de Veer
Crafting a Life of Fitness Beyond the Fads
If you've ever felt guilty about sneaking that extra cookie, I've got a game-changing tip that'll let you savor your cravings without derailing your diet. This episode isn't just about what you eat, though; it's about when you eat it, especially when it comes to those post-workout moments. And while we're talking hydration, let's spill on Gatorade's new flavorless electrolyte water. Are sugar-free sports drinks just a fad, or do they hold the key to sustaining your fitness goals? You'll want to stay tuned for some practical tips that'll slide seamlessly into even the most jam-packed of days.
Transitioning from nutrition to the nitty-gritty of workout wisdom, I'm zoning in on Zone 2 cardio training, unraveling the mysteries behind heart rate zones and the '180 Rule'. Despite popular belief, cardio isn't just a fat-burning fiesta; it's the foundation of vascular health, oxygen delivery, and recovery. I'm here to guide you through the fog of fitness fallacies and provide you with strategies that work for real people with real schedules. So, whether you're a corporate warrior or a superhero parent, you're in the right place to boost your health journey with insights that are as empowering as they are enlightening.
As we wind down, we're not just stretching our bodies but also our minds, discussing how mobility work and brief meditative breathers can combat a sedentary lifestyle. Learn why throwing in a little playtime and strengthening personal connections can be the magic ingredient for mental well-being. So, lace-up your sneakers and prep your notepad, because we're about to embark on a ride through the landscape of lifelong fitness where your thoughts fortify your physical strength. Together, let's conquer the training hurdles you face with clear heads and strong hearts.
Producer: Thor Benander
Editor: Luke Morey
Intro Theme: Ajax Benander
Intro: Timothy Durant
For more, visit Simon at The Antagonist
Welcome to the Mind Muscle Podcast. Here's your host, simon DeVere, and welcome back to Mind Muscle, the place where we study the history, science and philosophy behind everything in health and fitness. Today I'm Simon Devere and there's nothing new, except all that has been forgotten. All right, guys, I'm coming back. I had a short little layoff, unplanned. I got a little busy. Not bragging, I just, yeah, I got a little bit busy and I basically wasn't able to manage my workload over the last couple of weeks and didn't get an episode out in time to keep my normal schedule up. So, anyway, apologies for that If I left you hanging on a show not going to make a habit of that. Yeah, I'm back.
Speaker 1:Admittedly, if I sound a little nasally, might have worked myself into a little bit of a cold. So, again, that's why I'm not really bragging about getting busy. Had to get some shit done, probably work myself into a little bit of a cold, but yeah, we worked through it and hopefully I won't be coughing on today's episode too much. I'll keep that under control, but yeah, so basically spent the last week. I had the chance to just talk with a lot of different people as a feature of what I was doing over the week. So today's focus is, admittedly, going to be on a lot of the conversations that I was having in real life last week, but I do believe that if one person has a problem, someone else has the same problem. So in that spirit, we're going to run down.
Speaker 1:You know, today I want to actually look at a nutrition timing hack. It's going to allow you to have some forbidden or less than perfect foods be a part of your nutrition program. No matter what your goal is, we're going to be able to work that in. We're going to talk a little bit about Gatorade's new water. They got a flavorless electrolyte water. We'll talk about how less specifically on the new product, but more about how to actually use sports drinks in your workout best. I want to talk a little on how and why to program Zone 2 work into your training program.
Speaker 1:And last one I want to go on because I did have a relatively busy week but let's talk about some ways that you can improve your fitness by doing nothing, in a sense. Yeah, but we're going to run down some behaviors that aren't really going to take any more time. No matter how busy you get, you're going to find that there's a number of things you can kind of focus on to make sure that you're still making progress, and then, when you get to the other side and you're not as busy, you'll be in great shape and in a place to keep making progress. But anyway, that is the lay of the land today. I do, though, but before I actually dive into the topics I plan to discuss, I did. I had about a week to kind of sit and think I obviously wasn't here sharing my thoughts, so it's a lot of thoughts I've had in the last week that normally would have come out.
Speaker 1:The first thing I wanted to open on today, though, was I'm not really sure how many episodes we have done. I know it's over 50. I don't know if we're to 100 yet, but no, I honestly just wanted to kind of touch base with myself in a sense. Why am I here at all? Why do I do a podcast and one? If you're here listening? That's part of the answer. That's almost good enough for me right there, but, as we've talked about many times, I'm not a huge fan of most of the messaging that is coming out of the fitness space. Yet I myself am a part of the fitness space, again, like a driver complaining about traffic a little bit.
Speaker 1:But the main thing that I actually think I can add to the discourse and it's why I spend any time recording these is that I really do see myself, in a sense, as an anti guru, and though I've also been a fan of a lot of the most popular shows over the years, I generally find that there's a model where the guru types, if you will and I'm not more is the approach where these voices are often pointing to products to try to motivate you to work on the ideas that you want to work on. I, instead, am going to point almost always to a timeless principle that probably has better results than whatever products people are pointing to probably has better results than whatever products people are pointing to. Similarly and I notice an arc with how people create demand for these products is first you create a problem, then you create the solution. So, again, I actually see my approach as slightly different. I'm really not in here creating problems for you guys. I am merely telling you guys the issues and problems people bring my way and, rather than pointing people towards new products to address the problems that they're having, I am again, going to, more often than not point you to timeless principles that actually work.
Speaker 1:In that my intent, I really don't want to be overtly negative, not because that's not in my nature. I've just noticed over the years that people don't really like negative critiques. Even if you are being completely valid in your negative critique, an obvious contention is going to be well okay. Well, what should I do? So it is my intention to not only expose bad ideas but simultaneously give you tools that are actually going to work. Again, like we have today, most of what I share here they are real conversations that I have with real people. So, again, I believe, if one person has a problem, that there is someone else out there with the same problem.
Speaker 1:You know another thing that I'm just a little bit uncomfortable in in the format as right now, it really is just me ostensibly monologuing Um, I, I do not want to present myself and I've said this again, uh many times, but I guess it's worth saying again Um, I actually don't see myself as the expert in these fields or the end-all, be-all in any of this. I just know that these ideas are being discussed because people are discussing them with me and I see my point of view that I share here on the podcast as one that somebody else could use to begin to get acquainted with a discussion or an idea, not as an end unto itself. That being said, I'm aware that I have strong opinions and I'm not going to apologize for expressing my opinions in strong words. That being said, my views are, admittedly, constantly changing. I strive to have strong opinions loosely held meaning. Given enough evidence, I will stop saying the thing I used to say and I will just as strongly say something different in the future, but again, given adequate evidence. But no, I honestly think that this is again. Why I appreciate you spending your time, giving me your attention, is that it's not lost on me that, in a lot of ways, you have a front row seat to my learning, and I just hope that my engaging and learning can help other people in their process of learning. That's it. I actually don't see myself as the expert or the guru, but I do really really think that the shows that we have made are going to be a better place for people to start engaging the ideas that we're talking about here. So, anyway, that's it.
Speaker 1:I had a lot of time to think about what we're doing with the show and I know I have spent some time, kind of you know, breaking down some gurus lately and I just kind of wanted to carve out what my real objection with their approach is. It's not to attack their personalities or their followings, their fan bases. Obviously, anybody who has achieved a great following is clearly doing a lot of things right. I just don't always think, particularly in the fitness space, that what they are doing right is conveying the information that is going to be the most efficacious for the people listening to them. So, anyway, that's where my critiques on all these gurus are really coming from, and it's not that I'm in possession of the truth and they're lacking. I just think we fundamentally approach solving problems for the people that we, uh, that trust us, I guess, in in a different way. So just wanted to reiterate that that is my commitment to you, the audience. I am never going to take your attention and trust for granted, and you know, part of that, I think, is being transparent about who and what I am and where I'm coming from, and the rest I'm fine to let speak for itself. I think that's good.
Speaker 1:But anyway, guys, the first one that I want to talk about was so I want to give you guys a timing hack, if you will so quickly. When I've discussed nutrition in the past, you know that I like to break it down into this idea of quality quantity ratios. That's where I want to spend 90% of the discussion and that's where I point most people's attention, even when they try to get me to talk other aspects. And you know the reason that I've stated I think many times. But why I focus on those things first is just this idea of carrying the big rocks. I don't really want to discuss nutrient timing and advanced topics with somebody who is not eating whole foods, doesn't know how much food they are eating or what their macronutrient ratios are. In that situation, the big rocks are going to be represented not with the timing protocol but with the other three things that they weren't doing. But now you know, let's be honest, some people do get those things all locked in and you still want to push and go a little farther. So this is, you know firmly, what I consider a level four nutrition discussion. But I wanted to give you guys one of my favorite hacks that can kind of allow you to get away with eating some forbidden or less than ideal foods. One more confession Sometimes I feel like I have imposter syndrome talking about nutrition as much as I do, because it puts out this perception like I am this paragon of perfection when it comes to nutrition, and particularly as I now have a child at home, that idea just isn't true.
Speaker 1:I already wasn't really that way before having a kid, but I've really had to relax a lot of things about nutrition now that I have a kid in the house. A lot of foods that I would never eat we now purchase regularly, and my biggest defense against eating foods that I'm not supposed to eat is actually not buying them. I'm actually not great at not eating food that is actually in my house. What I am an expert at is not buying things that are inconsistent with my goals. That's the thing that I'm really good at. So, all that to say, there's a lot of foods in my house now that do not pass Simon's test of acceptability, but admittedly, I eat them every now and again. So I wanted to share with you guys a hack that I use regularly to kind of get away with eating some less than perfect food, and for me, obviously, I can be more descriptive of what I mean.
Speaker 1:So the best time for you to eat higher glycemic carbohydrates, which are, you know, oftentimes going to be those that maybe contain added sugars or perhaps are processed, and the types of foods that I do tell you very often to avoid or, at the very least, not make the basis of your diet. So one of those for me is cereal. I really, really like cereal. One of the issues for me with cereal, though, is I am incapable of eating a serving size of cereal, so sometimes it's just easier for me to just get rid of it, particularly if fat loss is a goal probably not worth me including, but when fat loss is not my goal. Oftentimes and I've been doing this a lot lately but the best time of day for your worst air quotes meal, because they're great meals, they taste great, they're super fun, but the best time to have that quote unquote bad meal is in that window after your training. So you know roughly 60 to 90 minutes that this is not written in stone, by the way, I used to think it was and really focus on post-workout nutrition down to the second, but there weren't a lot of gains with being that precise with timing.
Speaker 1:That being said, though, here's why you can get away with eating some less than perfect food after your workouts. Your insulin sensitivity post-workout is entirely different than, say, when you're getting ready to go to bed. So if you want to have a big ass bowl of cereal that time to do it would be right after your workout and it would certainly be better than pretty much any other time in the day. Doesn't have to be cereal, by the way, that's just one of my favorites so. But in general, if I'm ever going to have a meal that is less than perfect, the time that I'm going to do it is going to be post-workout. My body actually needs to replenish the carbohydrates that I just burned up in my workout. My insulin sensitivity is going to be improved, so I don't have to worry about spikes in insulin nearly as much. And so slight little bit of caution that I want to give with this, though, because in reality, whenever I co-sign doing anything bad in quotes, people go over the top with it and then use it to justify making bad choices that I didn't co-sign. So just some caution whenever I tell people that they can get away with eating some less than perfect food. Again, remember we said post-workout that this is kind of. One prerequisite is that you did a workout prior. So don't stretch those definitions and go for like a five-minute walk and say that Simon said it's cool to go have some ice cream. Now, that's not what we're talking about.
Speaker 1:But I do actually think that a much larger problem, at least in what I see maybe this isn't the national problem, but people who come and talk to me. They tend to be actually concerned with their health and fitness and I think it's far more likely they get into overly restrictive patterns than ones that actually allow them to periodically have some normal or less than perfect or even forbidden foods. This is a great way for those people, if you've gone through a time of being overly restrictive, for you to kind of get back to the real world in a sense. And you know one of my favorite books and I know I've recommended it before, but Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food I'll still recommend again and again, because I actually think that eating real food has actually gotten a little bit controversial. A lot of people think that these things are toxic and bad, and yeah, so anyway, use this point to inject some sanity more than anything else. Don't use this to rationalize making a whole bunch of bad choices and saying that Simon said it's cool. No, if you're an overly restrictive type, bring some sanity back into your life and, post-workout, let yourself have some things that you've maybe given up on. You're going to find it's not going to be as bad as you're probably thinking.
Speaker 1:All right, so, coming down the line, I actually just learned last week that Gatorade is rolling out a brand new water just what the market needed. There are not enough water choices. I say that all the time. Yeah, I just you know. I walked down the aisle in the grocery store and, yeah, we could probably use like at least 30 more different varieties of water, but new variation is no sugar, just electrolytes.
Speaker 1:So, honestly, this was actually just brought up to me by somebody and, admittedly, my first thought was who is this product for? Who is this product for, and what I mean by that, is that a sugar-free sports drink, which, again, I'm not advocating for sugar, but the only type of person who really should be drinking a sports drink is somebody who's working out pretty hard, and if you're working out pretty hard, then the concern on sugar certainly wouldn't be the same. So this, to me, did tie into the first point that we made today, but part of me thinks this is a little bit the market reflecting that sugar phobia has gone a little bit too far. And now again the second. I say that people are going to think I'm, you know, sponsored by somebody who sells a sugary product, shilling for the sugar industry or, you know, allowing people to rationalize bad choices. That's not it. I actually just think people have swung way too far with the whole sugar is toxic thing.
Speaker 1:So many of the upfront I'm not actually that interested or bothered by Gatorade water One. I just think that this is really going to keep confusing people on what we actually need for effective hydration in workouts. So, in a way, whether you get the Gatorade water or not, I don't really care. Just its mere existence made me think that maybe we need to run down when and why to use a sports drink at all. So screw the sugar-free aspect for a second.
Speaker 1:Let's just even talk about just the classic old school Gatorade with sugar and electrolytes. At least when I was coming up this is like in the 90s just to date myself Michael Jordan was the most popular athlete, probably person on the planet for most of my childhood and he drank lemon, lime, gatorade and those commercials were awesome. So every kid in my generation, growing up, just drank Gatorade, thinking like it was just going to make us better at sports. And the truth was most of us weren't working hard enough to actually need sports drinks. We were young, so our metabolisms could handle it, but again, I think growing up I probably consumed way too many sports drinks.
Speaker 1:Um, there was, you know, obviously, in the context of sports is pretty much the only time that I've actually needed sports drinks. Even when I'm training hard, like you know, with weights and in the weight room, if there's no athletic component to my training, if it's aesthetic training, um, it's rare that I really would ever need a sports drink to get through a workout, just the way those workouts are programmed and designed, not not a big need of mine. Um, obviously, playing basketball as I did as a kid and as a young man, yeah, there's going to be benefits within a game to drinking some Gatorade, but again, in that context we really wouldn't be concerned about the sugar. So even when I'm running it back at the times in my life that I would have actually needed or used a sports drink, I don't know when a no sugar sports drink would have been useful for me. One place I can tell you it really wouldn't have helped me was in my triathlon, where I'm burning so much energy I have to put calories back in while I'm moving.
Speaker 1:But no, anyway, just some hard and easy rules of thumb. If you will, generally you're not going to need a sports drink unless you are doing hard training that lasts over an hour Definitely sports where performance is important. We're not going to worry about being low-cal at that time. You're going to put calories back in and you're going to put those right back into the game. My friend, yeah, so go in low-carb with sports, as popular as it is, if you like winning. I don't recommend that Someone else is going to come into that competition carbo-loaded and kick your ass. So it's just not time to be cute or keto. If you're competing in endurance events and I personally know some people who compete in endurance and like to do it while in ketosis, or they do it with low carb approaches it's going to sound mean and blunt, but they don't win any races. So unless that's really big to you to tell people after the race that you finished and you were in ketosis while finishing in the I don't know the bottom 60% Congrats, that's cool. That's not what people showed up at the race for dude.
Speaker 1:But anyway, basic, simple rules of thumb with hydration, um, another thing that I learned in athletic competition is one hydrate before. Um, they've really only been two contexts in my life where um, that you know, or where that really became sorry, that became like a big deal and I felt it. But basically, if you're thirsty in the middle of competition, it's too late. When I go to my boxing gym, I'm not a professional boxer but I'll get in and I'll spar. And when you go to the corner between rounds, the gym I'm in. There are real professional fighters and the trainers train real professional fighters. So even when you just have random dudes like me got a minute in the corner before they run back in for another three minutes of boxing, there's always a guy squirting water in my face and nobody asks me if I'm thirsty and the reason is that hydrate before you need it. If I don't take that drink in the one minute break and then I go out there for the next round and a minute in, I start to fatigue, it's going to get a whole lot worse for me.
Speaker 1:So anyway, when you go to your corner, you drink, no matter how you feel. You don't wait until you feel thirsty. Other domain again I felt that, but I mentioned triathlon. Don't wait until you're thirsty. Don't wait until you're hungry to start pouring calories back in. If you wait that long, you're going to be behind the eight ball. You're going to bonk, and that's charitable. If you're an endurance race, if you're boxing, someone's going to do more than bonk you.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I just don't think that if we're actually doing hard sports competition, that a sugar-free electrolyte beverage would be of any use to anybody. That being said, there's a few contexts where like again, if you like the way it tastes or you like the bottle, go get it. That doesn't bother me. Some good spots to use it though. Pre-exercise, that's a good idea. Go ahead and get your electrolyte balance up. Like I said, hydrate before you need it Always a great idea During exercise, whether you got the sugar or not. We're just talking the electrolytes. You probably aren't going to need it, unless that workout is going over an hour it's crazy hot out or you're training really hard.
Speaker 1:For the vast majority of workouts that people are doing, just eating a good post-workout meal is going to be the best way to get those electrolytes back. You could totally do that with a banana and some nuts with salt on it. So you're certainly not restricted, if you're not doing challenging workouts or sports, to having to refuel with a drink because you could go eat something. I, you know, take the water in the corner and I keep drinking on my bike because I don't have any other options to refuel. Give me other options and probably going to go eat some real food, I hey, I like eating. So that that's me.
Speaker 1:Um, last spot that you're actually going to find getting some electrolytes down is a good thing after a workout, and this I would actually say, even if it's not a super challenging workout. But, um, caveat that we mentioned, it's going to be best to do it with food. So if you're not doing a crazy tough workout, I don't know why you wouldn't be just getting into a post-workout meal that could take care of that for you. But maybe you're busy, maybe you're running to another spot. Obviously throwing down some electrolytes post-workout, that's going to be great for improving recovery, no problem with that. Again, I would just have a bias towards food if I wasn't still working out or training when I needed the electrolytes. But that's just me. That's kind of what I think that the best practices for sports drinks are.
Speaker 1:No opinion on the new Gatorade water other than I'm so happy that we have another option in hydration. That's, it's really been killing me. So yeah, next one I want to touch on with you guys. This actually came from a client of mine who was wanting me to fire up a fitness intervention for someone that he knows and cares about, and he asked me hey, when you see that person, make sure you get in the ear about doing some cardio. And the main concern being discussed was weight loss. So I actually had to flip it around and have an intervention with my client trying to have an intervention for his friend, and I just reminded him that there are a lot of great reasons to do some cardio.
Speaker 1:I like the term zone two better these days, but losing fat isn't really one of them. I am fine recommending cardio, but typically not for that reason. Typically not for that reason. We've touched on this a bunch, but cardio is still not the best choice for fat loss. It has many health benefits and it should be in a program for health, but it is still not the most direct way to simply lose fat. That's still walking and anything that's going to occur in the oxidative energy pathway and you know, kind of by definition, your zone two cardio is not going to be occurring in that place.
Speaker 1:So you know the real definition of zone two cardio. That's going to be at roughly 60 to 70% of max heart rate. There's obviously a lot of variance in that and so I've already explained this in the past. This is not a perfect rule, but I like the 180 rule better 180 minus your age, minus 20. That's your little zone. I could do better than that, obviously, if I knew you and we, you know, were able to go run some tests, but without knowing people. That's a really really great rule to work from and that's going to be roughly roughly 60 to 7% of your max heart rate. But you know, again, not exactly the benefits of cardio. So one, building an aerobic base, really, really important. That's going to increase your the ability of your body to deliver oxygen to your muscles. That's good, obviously. That's going to increase your endurance, that's going to increase your performance in a lot of things. Um, zone two cardio is also going to increase the number and efficiency of mitochondria in your muscle cells.
Speaker 1:So my latest, uh, pseudoscientific thing I can't prove, but I did catch myself starting to you know around two, three in the afternoon and say, oh my God, I'm tired, I just don't know what's going on. And rather than accept that and just say, oh well, that's father time, this is what everybody said your whole life, you're finally there. No, whenever I start sounding like that and no, whenever I start sounding like that, I actually start doubting my choices and my actions, and I had fallen back into that team. No sweat, just keeping my body fat low, not doing any cardio, added the zone two back and magically I don't feel as tired in the afternoon. So I think there can be some benefits to making sure that your mitochondria are functioning well. Let's not stretch that too far, though, so that I don't turn myself into a guru accidentally.
Speaker 1:Some other benefits, though, from your zone two. It is similarly going to facilitate recovery from other sessions. So, like when I have a tough weightlifting session, say on a Monday, tuesday might be a great time to just go out and do like a nice recovery run. And recovery runs you know, I'm not going to be hitting sprints over at the Santa Monica stairs. That was actually doing today. No, like that. That is is a different, you know, focus. Today I was not trying to get a recovery run in. I wanted to work on some speed, but maybe tomorrow that'd be a good play to do is, instead of going back for more sprints, slow it down a little bit, be mindful of my heart rate. Keep myself in that zone where I can recover a little bit more efficiently from the work I'm doing. That's a great use of your zone to work, you know.
Speaker 1:Again, it's going to just carry over to a lot of health benefits, because zone two work is going to reduce your, your heart rate, just generally increasing vascular health and efficiency, also going to improve insulin sensitivity, you know possibly improve mental health. You're going to get your endorphin rush much healthier way to get dopamine than scrolling or looking at a screen, which is everybody's favorite, but it's not that good for you. So obviously, though, I did say right at the beginning that it's not the most direct way to lose fat. That's still technically true. Oxidation is the most direct way to lose fat, but when we run down all those benefits, this is why you'll generally notice that people who do regular zone two work tend to not have a lot of extra fat. There is going to be obviously some correlation with people who do zone two and being at healthy body weights, but again, not the most direct way to lose fat. It should be included in your program for health reasons more than anything else, and then slight benefit, but I just don't want to oversell it because it doesn't always occur. If that's the basis of your fat loss strategies, you could get some fat loss. That's certainly possible. But there's also a lot of ways that if you're focused on fat loss, that's certainly possible. But there's also a lot of ways that if you're you know you focused on your, your cardio, that that that might not connect. Um, but anyway, I will absolutely be encouraging my guy to get into some, uh, some zone two work. But admittedly, fat loss is is not going to be, the focus of what we are talking about when we're saying why Favorite strategies.
Speaker 1:Before I move on, steady state is still probably the best. Throw on a heart rate monitor of some kind. Get in your zone and move however fast you need to. That can be a jog, that can be a walk, that can be a hike. All of that is going to depend on your fitness level and where your heart rate zone is, no shit could also be a bike ride and then, in a sense, you know, cross training works great too. Sometimes, when I have zone two in mind as my goal for the session, I'll go in my backyard 10 minutes on the rower watching my heart rate. Maybe I don't feel like being on the rover anymore. Hop on the assault bike. Um, feel free to cross train and move around.
Speaker 1:If you're doing zone two, the main thing that you are going to be adhering to is obviously heart rate. So who gives a shit what modality you're on If your heart rate is in the right zone, you're doing your zone to work correctly. Um, so, yeah, last week busy week for me I did manage to get my workouts in, had to, uh, kind of focus on some other things, though, is that none of these were going to be any personal best workouts, and and I guess the last show that I did get to sit and you know talk about here was, uh, we were talking about Bianchul Han burnout society, and so obviously he focuses a lot on kind of reintroducing negativity, and, in a sense, these strategies are going to be somewhat in that vein reintroducing negativity, but we could also use other words that I think are more available. Addition by subtraction. Less is more. You know stuff like that. But how can we get fit doing nothing? I had to focus on this a lot last week.
Speaker 1:So number one eat better. If you're eating well, you simply don't need to train as much, particularly to maintain your physique. Specifically what that looked like for me last week there was lots of tasty food around the places I was at and I just made it my mission to eat fruit. Anytime I got hungry. I would just go grab fruit. Fruit tastes good to me, so I didn't feel like I was denying myself. Grab fruit Fruit tastes good to me, so I didn't feel like I was denying myself. But that was a way that I was actually able to navigate that situation where just being around lots and lots of tasty food having. I don't want this to make it like a pity party about how I was working, but when you got over 12 hours on your day and you're surrounded by terrible food, it tastes really good. You need a strategy. I knew that if I ate the food that, that certainly wasn't going to sync up well with all my sitting down and editing videos, so I just simply focused on eating better.
Speaker 1:One that also helped me do that was actually by drinking water. I love coffee and it's easy for me to just kind of caffeinate all day long when I get really bogged down in work like that. I also do shift my focus, though, back to hydrating a little bit by staying hydrated, not going to be as hungry, and then, honestly, a lot of times when you're doing you know no disrespect to the work I was doing, but when you're doing kind of tedious, you know long projects, a lot of times just boredom and other things creep in and you might try to get some novelty in you today Other ways. Drinking water can be a good way to run down those cravings. Stay hydrated. You won't think you're as hungry as often as you will if you're not hydrated.
Speaker 1:Meditation Obviously it can seem indulgent because we're framing this under. You're busy. A lot of my meditations. To be honest, I don't need a lot of time. I actually just need to stop the noise for a little bit, turn things off, get back in touch with what I am thinking, feeling, doing a body scan, I'm honestly talking like two to five minutes of mindfulness work, just kind of peppered in throughout the day, particularly when you maybe feel like you're getting overwhelmed or bored, annoyed, want to do something else, whatever. Stop, take a break, meditate, get back. That was a strategy that was actually helping me grind and get through it all.
Speaker 1:Honestly, I had a lot of time for planning and reflection. So again, a lot of times I am thinking about what am I going to do next week when I'm not as busy, instead of putting that pressure on myself to get something in today. Maybe other people don't feel this, but for me, if I go through a day and I don't do what I said I was going to do or what I wanted to do, I really don't feel great about myself. Some people are really really good at self-talk. I don't have one of those nice voices in my head. I only got the devil guy that just talks shit to me.
Speaker 1:For me, it can really help to do planning and reflection when I am busy, because my inner monologue is not going to tell me that I'm doing a good job, that this is appropriate or any of that. So, just to kind of shut that devil up, I need to have some plans or some answers for next week, otherwise that guy is absolutely going to eat me alive while I am being non-active or just not living up to the things I say. There's nothing that drives me crazier than I say a lot of stuff, and I realize that. So if I don't get my ass in line and get my actions lined up with those words, to me that is nearly akin to insanity. Why am I saying what I am not doing and then saying it again and again and again? So, as I admit, often I'm not perfect, but I really try to hold myself to that, and when I'm busy and I can't do the best and what my mind wants me to do, I'm at least planning for my next victories, when I'm not going to feel terrible. But yeah, planning a reflection was something I was able to do last week and what that specifically looked like. Yeah, so I was already thinking about the next phase of my workout, how I might be able to carry some of the progress that I've made into the next phase, and just coming up with those ideas while I had the time and space to think about it.
Speaker 1:Mobility work this was a big one, because I was spending time at a desk way more than I normally have. Mobility breaks are great, for every hour you put down in the chair, you're gonna need to have something to unwind what you've been doing there and again. These don't have to be workouts. I, I'm a weirdo and I call a movement snacks, but I just drop down on the floor, have a little snack, mobilize your hips and then get back to work. Doesn't take long.
Speaker 1:And one other one that I'm actually going to finish this little section on, too, though, was play, and silly one. I know you're busy, but life still goes on, and I'm a father. Sometimes my daughter would come in, or I'm back in my office working and I hear her come home from school, come home from school. I don't keep working. In that moment I hang it up for a second, I stop, I check in, we have a little bit of fun, and mentally I don't have that much time. I don't need to tell her that. I just go and get involved with my kid, have some fun, get back into work. But those little play breaks, particularly for me to stop and connect with my daughter, those, those are the ones that actually really keep me going, cause it reminds me why I'm doing all this shit anyway. Um, so, yeah, if I was uh, you know going 5am to midnight all week and I didn't care about anybody or anything around me, it would have felt pretty damn empty and pretty crappy. So anyway, guys, just whatever I know this happens in everybody's endeavors when you hit one of those periods where you're just genuinely jammed up, really busy, keep in mind there's a number of things that you can still do to keep the ball moving forward while not taking too much time away from the obligations that you still have to meet. Last one I didn't even tell you guys, we were going to do this, but this, I think this is the thing that has kind of grinded my gears the most right now. So we're just going to finish on a rant. Finish on a rant.
Speaker 1:But I don't know if you guys have seen the TikTok trend saying that Gen Z or Zoomers are aging fast, and so these people are actually talking about physical appearance. And it's funny because, like, when I think about this, I don't know if I actually even agree with the fact that that's happening. I don't know if it's just me, but, like, if I go, look at a picture of the 1970s and you show me like 20 year olds in the 1970s, they just look old. I don't know if it's just the sepia tones or the styles or whatever, but but typically when I go back and look at the past, actually like like a 30 year old from the 60s looks like a 60 year old today, today, and yeah, hey, if you're in your 60s, there you go, there's your compliment for the day. But no, I honestly mean it. Go back and look at pictures of people in the past.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure how the trend on TikTok got started that 18 to 25-year-olds are aging faster today, when to me it looks like the people in the early 20th century were aging way faster than anyone today. But there is one instance where I am in a throw where, at least to me, it does sound like some aging is going on, and actually it's mostly in. It's not physical, it's a psychological trait that I'm noticing, and it is generally these critiques of gen alpha, the youngest generation on the planet, that actually makes me think that, uh, zoomers are, are perhaps aging a little bit fast and, uh, most of this is meant in somewhat jest, but uh, it's also very serious. The first bit of inherent irony I notice is that the popular framing of Gen Alpha is iPad kids. So I'd probably have words on this, even if you were a baby boomer, calling today's kids iPad kids, but particularly if you grew up with an iPad. You know why I just settle on that term. Yeah, I just don't know why 20 somethings would be knocking children for using iPads. That one doesn't make a lot of sense to me. But also, you know, I want to be really honest.
Speaker 1:I actually go onto the Gen Z Reddit board where I see a lot of this stuff and one of my favorite uses of it is I actually like to read the comments to my daughter the same way that I'll see. You know comedians read like mean tweets at a celebrity that's on their show. Um, I actually like, for my own entertainment, to read the mean comments that people write about my daughter's generation to her. It's funny to me. But also I actually think it's great training for my daughter to know that no matter what you do in life, people are going to criticize you. I think exposing her to some baseless and contextless insults is kind of a way that I'm teaching her to not really care what strangers think, quite frankly. But no, she had a great retort to one.
Speaker 1:I can't remember what comment I was reading, but it had to do with kids and their phones and then she starts laughing and interrupts me and she's like dad, kids don't have phones. And then again I get it that all of this is going to be subjective to an extent, because I'm going to say what I'm going to say and then you're going to think of a kid with a phone. But admittedly, I don't know that person. That's somebody in your world, so maybe have a conversation with them. But yeah, I talk with a lot of parents, I'm around the school a lot and I don't actually know any Gen Alpha kids with phones. So anyway, I am aware, because I've literally found zero people in real life who agree with me on this. So this may be one of my most unpopular opinions, of which I certainly have many.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it doesn't really matter how often this is repeated or how many anecdotes of people at your dinner parties or at a restaurant you were at. To fill that description, I could counter with anecdotes of people your age doing parties, or at a restaurant you were at. To fill that description, I could counter with anecdotes of people your age doing the exact same thing. Until none of us have any time left today. So I get it. Technology's out there and people are obnoxious when they use it. Not sure that that's just a kid thing though, in all fairness. And then here's the difference, too that I see If a kid has a phone, that's a parenting issue, not a childhood issue. They can't actually go and get wireless plans on their own. So, yeah, I just think that that's a little disingenuous. I'm pretty sure adults and people with their own money and autonomy have a lot more ability to go get technological devices.
Speaker 1:Here's one that I will actually slightly defend. So I'm at a park and there's a mother that I'm talking with. She's really, really concerned about the weekend coming up because she has to work. She's a lawyer. Her ex-husband is in Bali and he clearly can't help, so she's already worried about the weekend ahead because she's like, oh my God, my kids are going to be on the tablet too much and this is so terrible and I'm awful. And and she does she starts internalizing all of the things that everybody makes her feel as a mother for not putting in that time when her kid is on the iPad. And in spite of all these conversations I've had with people in real life about what a horrible person she is no-transcript, you clearly care. You're here talking and you're worried about this, and I just want to tell you that it's going to be okay, because if, well, human beings, in my opinion, we're incredibly malleable. Um, we're actually quite strong, and if we weren't, we wouldn't be here. So I don't think that this mother thought that her kids having a bunch of time on the iPad was a great way to spend the weekend. I don't think it is either.
Speaker 1:But again, if you're one of those people that I see dropping into comment threads and critiquing people like this woman I spoke with slow down, I don't know if you actually know what you're talking about. And I don't know if you actually know why people are putting their kids on iPads. Sure, some because they're lazy. I know that, but you also know a bunch of lazy people your age. So let's not pretend like that's going to be unique to any generation cohort, anything. Come off it.
Speaker 1:And secondly, the real parents that I talk with. Nobody thinks that putting their kid on a screen is a good idea. People are trying to get their work done. People have a lot of demands on their life. That's kind of the theme of today's episode. We're all busy, I get it, but this is the real reason why parents are actually putting their kids on technology. So this is just my piece.
Speaker 1:If you're one of those people that isn't raising a kid right now, sitting back judging these really narrow, superficial interactions that you have with people, sometimes pump the brakes, I really don't think that you know what you're talking about and you're also having absolutely no empathy for people who, even though we're all busy, they're busier than you dog, they're working harder than you man, and if you're young, maybe you'll get there one day. If you're old, congrats, you're done with it. But everybody relax, people are trying their best, and yeah, so just particularly to this whole idea that you know Gen Alpha I even saw this at LA Times they're feral, they're illiterate. Yeah, actually here's the way I really want to frame this. Actually here's the way I really want to frame this.
Speaker 1:If you're saying allched into those walls, because the stuff you guys are saying is getting a little bit repetitive, admittedly, and there's even some dialogues in pre-classical Greece, you might be able to find some better arguments on kids these days actually from some of the classical literature. So for all you people who want to spew a decadence narrative about how awful kids are today, I would just again recommend reading some stuff in the past. You guys might strengthen your arguments, even though they've been said as long as forever. All this stuff is just getting stale and a bit repetitive. You'll find some interesting ideas in the past that you could maybe interject just to make the arguments a little fresher every now and again. And then you know also, you just sound old. You're literally saying one of the oldest things in history People have said kids these days in every time and again.
Speaker 1:I honestly think that most people are just speaking out of a compulsion, because I think if you actually cared, you might have some actions to point to, and without being too sanctimonious, like just in the last week that I said I was really busy, I did a beach cleanup, I donated some time and money to a food bank, I led a community workout with a bunch of children in it and I actually didn't have time to go on to any of your guys' favorite platforms and have any. None of my critiques on the youth today are out there because it's other people writing them. The people writing them are, in my opinion, people who aren't really actually involved with children and you know, obviously, in fairness, there's going to be some people out there that have things they want to say and they actually have some experience to fall back on. That's great, but for the vast majority of what I am seeing online, here's my hope. It's not a challenge. I hope that after you get done you know crapping on kids today, that you're not done for the day that you are actively involved in your community or in the lives of young people in some way, because if you aren't and now back to my Zoomers and perhaps aging quickly you just sound old and yeah again, I just hope that if you say these things are important and you're worried about the young people of today, that you're actually doing something to bring about the future that you say you value.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure I see a lot of that going on. So you know, last I'll say in generations. You know, I'm not even a fan of the proxy proxy, but I don't know. I think I came to it easier because I didn't really like high school full disclosure, shocker. So no, when millennial bashing became a thing 20 years ago, I kind of hated most millennials because I was in high school and that was all I was around, so so it never really felt like something I had to do, like to defend my generation um in in any sense. But so now I do find, now that I'm seeing my daughter's so-called generation being attacked, and in my opinion, they're like the only generation on the planet that isn't botched and ruined yet.
Speaker 1:My generation, millennials, zoomers, you guys under me, boomers, gen X, all of us, we're all ready. Be honest, we've already made our mistakes. We've already been botched. Stop lying, stop reinventing alternate versions of your childhood For my millennials I was there. You weren't that good. For my boomers, I heard your stories. I heard the stuff we brag about. You weren't that good. Zoomers, I was your coach and mentor and your biggest fan. Everybody cut the shit. It wasn't great in your day and we're all just trying to do a little bit better.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, guys, my main thing there is if you want to complain about the kids, make sure that you're actually doing something. If you guys want to shit on a generation, just keep shitting on millennials. I don't care, I'm already used to it. Avocado toast, we're so cringe, ick, whatever, it doesn't bother me and, frankly, it seems everybody hates us. So, just in a sense of unity, keep shitting on millennials. Just leave my daughter's generation out of it as far as I'm concerned, because then you're going to catch some smoke you probably can't handle. Anyway, I actually meant that in jest or in good fun. That's not a threat Just back off on my daughter's generation, huh. Anyway, guys, I'm back in rhythm, feeling good. Didn't have too many coughs today, so anyway, let's get back to it. I am here, send me some comments, let me know what the problems you guys are engaging in your training, and I want to answer them right here. Anyway, remember, answer them right here. Anyway, remember, mind and muscle are inseparably intertwined. There are no gains without brains. Keep lifting and learning. I'll do the same.
