Taylot

I'm an 80's kid. I was raised on Karate Kid, Top Gun, Star Wars, and the Goonies. Along with those flicks, there's one other movie that my brother Jack and I watched regularly and heavily influenced my upbringing. Ghostbusters! Peter Venkman, Raymond Stantz, Egon Spengler, Winston Zeddemore were four of my childhood heroes. They weren't afraid of no ghosts (cue the !), had killer jump suits, cracked jokes in the face of danger ("aim for the flat top!")....oh and they saved the world from certain doom on multiple occasions. My brother and I would spend countless hours wearing , checking the PKE meter for paranormal activity, and sliding out our ghost trapto capture imaginary ghosts; it was the least we could to help save the world. Here's what I learned from watching these guys take down ghosts, and how you can apply it to your every day life to live better and healthier. Haters gonna hate When the Ghostbusters started their business, they were the laughing stock of New York City. People who didn't believe in ghosts called the Ghostbusters crazy, senile, and delusional. These four bozos were doing things that nobody else thought was possible, so they were constantly insulted and chided for being silly...until the paranormal activity went off the charts and the proverbial sh** hit the fan. Throughout all of this madness, ridicule, and lack of support, the Ghostbusters knew what they were doing was right and they pushed through. They just shut their mouths and quietly went to work. [Well, except for Venkman, but he could never shut up anyway.] If you have tried to get healthy in the past before and failed, you might be surrounded by detractors too. Friends that hold you back (mostly because they're unhealthy and don't want to change themselves), co-workers that will sabotage your efforts with comments or offerings of donuts, or even family members who mean well but actually say things that discourage you. There will always be people who think you're crazy for doing what you're doing (or think that you can't do it). Depending on who they are, they might even go out of their way to tell you so. Screw 'em. As Teddy Roosevelt once said, "speak softly and carry a big stick." Put on your jump suit, strap on your proton pack, and get to work. Start exercising, make small changes to your diet, build small habits, and take care of business. Haters are gonna hate (and slaters gonna slate). Use these haters motivation to prove them wrong. Don't cross the streams Egon: There's something very important I forgot to tell you. Don't cross the streams. Peter: Why? Egon: It would be bad. Peter: I'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, "bad"? Egon: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light. Ray: Total protonic reversal. Peter: Right. That's bad. Okay. All right. Important safety tip. Thanks, Egon. Crossing the streams=bad. I can see you say something like this: "OK Steve, what can a total protonic reversal teach me about fitness?" Quite a bit actually! Does this sound familiar? "I'm trying to lose weight and build some muscle and get more endurance and become a better cook and sleep earlier and run more and go to yoga 5x a week!" Trying to do 20 things all at once is life's equivalent of crossing the streams. Each proton pack only has so much juice, and you only have so much willpower. Not only that, but you'll get diminished returns in your training rather than dominating the one or two things you're focused on. Rather than shooting at anything and everything, ! Concentrate your willpower on ONE goal at a time. Pick ONE habit to fix. When you minimize the number of things you are working on, you can actually focus on completing the few things that you ARE working on. Think back to your list of New Year's Resolutions: How many did you set? Have you completed any of them? Do you even REMEMBER them? Most people suck at resolutions and don't make any progress. But not Nerd Fitness Rebels! They understand the importance of having precision targeting on their goals. So stop being all over the place. Pick something and get good at it - make it a habit. Then move on and dominate the next thing. Now, while training more than one type of exercise simultaneously or doing more than one habit isn't recommended, like the Ghostbusters' use of crossing the streams at the end of the movie, there is a time and a place for everything. However, when you're starting out...keep it simple. Trust me. Replace the bad with the good If I told you to not think of the "StayPuft Marshmallow Man," what's the first thing that pops into your head? The Staypuft Marshmallow Man! He " ." Ray was spending all of his time trying not to think of something...which inevitably lead him to think of something. This works in your world too. If you are trying to break a bad habit, the easiest way to fail is to try and get yourself to not think of that habit: If you are trying to cut back on soda and tell yourself "no soda"...all you can think of is soda. If you are trying to quit smoking and see a NO SMOKING sign, guess what you want to do? If you are eating less of a particular food, and that food is in your house...what are you thinking about? As explained by HowStuffWorks, "habits are easier to make than they are to break. If you repeat a behavior often enough, those synaptic pathways are going to get worn in. Breaking a habit is a lot more complicated, because while parts of those worn-in pathways can weaken without use, they never go away." So, rather than breaking an old habit, replace it with a new one and you'll be far more likely to succeed. If you eat or smoke when you are stressed, try a small bit of exercising instead. Cutting back on soda? Whenever you feel a craving, drink a boatload of water or have some black coffee/green tea to get your caffeine fix. Cutting back on sugar? Eat some fruit or try a piece of dark chocolate. As you are building these new habits, these pathways in your brain get worn in, and these new behaviors become automatic. Each day you complete that habit, it becomes more and more automatic, requires less willpower, less brainpower, and can eventually become part of your routine. Compare this to the alternative: you sitting on your couch, bug-eyed, tapping your foot, driving yourself crazy thinking about the one thing you wish you weren't thinking about. Replace the old with the new. We Got the Tools... Ray: You know, it just occurred to me that we really haven't had a successful test of this equipment. Egon: I blame myself. Venkman: So do I. Ray: Well, no sense in worrying about it now. Peter: Why worry? Each one of us is carrying an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his back. Sure, they had equipment that hadn't been successfully tested. They certainly could have spent another three years perfecting every tiny element of their proton packs, cautiously proceeding through beta tests, government checks, and more. Unfortunately, had they waited that long, they would have missed the party, which would have resulted in real Wrath of God type stuff: http://youtu.be/9S4cldkdCjE?t=2m10s OK, so maybe in the case of unlicensed nuclear accelerators you might want to take some more time. Though fortunately for the city of New York and for Nerd Fitness readers, the Ghostbusters taught us how to be awesome instead. They did the best they could to gear up, and then they got started. Sure, they took some licks (and slime) along the way, but they charted uncharted territory. When it comes to fitness, diet, and many aspects of life, action with partial knowledge is far better than action (WAY) later on. Don't have all of the perfect information? Don't have the perfect diet calculated? Don't know your exactly BMR or how many calories EXACTLY you should eat each day? Welp, no sense in worrying about it now. There's a world to be saved. We Got the Talent! Now, the Ghostbusters didn't build their proton packs and then immediately take on Gozer the Gozerian. That would have been suicide, not to mention a really short movie. Instead, they slowly but surely built up their skills with each successful adventure. Their first trapping of Slimer was anything but textbook, but after the 100th ghost capture, they were pretty damn good. It took each additional attempt to learn a bit more and struggle a bit less. Thankfully, by the time that jerkface Walter Peck came and shut down the Ghost Containment Grid, unleashing all of New York's ghosts back into society, they were ready, willing, and able to take on the challenge. And then they exploded a 50 foot marshmallow man. Confidence and skill can be developed, but nothing gets developed through text books, articles, and research. They get developed through action. Strap on your proton pack, grab your ghost trap, and get out there. Sometimes you need to get into the game. Get started. -Steve ### photo: lego ghostbusters, storm troopers streams, proton pack, stay puft marshmallow man, ECTO-1 car,

Thanks for the note, I'll check this out for the next email and make sure things are in order

Are there any Nerd Fitness redditors out there that would be interested in helping get /r/nerdfitness off the ground? Right now the place is a ghost town - please stop by and say hi! If you are interested in helping get this sub off the ground, are a veteran redditor, or just have an idea on how to get things moving, let me know! As the Rebellion starts to take over the world, it's only natural we make a splash on Reddit too

Works for me!

Crap. Things were going SO well. You had been exercising regularly, eating right, building habits, and building SERIOUS momentum...and then life throws you a curveball: You slip a disc in your back You tear a ligament in your knee You get mono or some other sickness You sprain your ankle Your Although it probably seems like the world is over at this point, fear not, my dear Rebel friend, for there is hope. With the exception of your head falling off (we'll put this in the S.O.L. category), everything else above is something you can work around. Today, I'm going to help you keep the momentum you've worked so hard to build, stay on target, and allow yourself the time to rehab so that you can hit the ground running when your body is ready. Think of this like your emergency "What to do when the wheels fall off" post. NOTE: I am not a doctor (in fact, I'm not even wearing pants right now). This article contains the thoughts and observations from a nerd who has dealt with this stuff and helped thousands of others deal with these things too. Take a Deep breath First and foremost, relax. It is NOT the end of the world. You're reading this, which means you're still alive. This is a good thing. As they say, every day above ground is a good day. So, no freaking out. No complaining. No crying over spilt milk. No worrying about the past, as there's nothing you can do about it, no matter how much it hurts. . What's done is done. Think of it like a video game that suddenly has the difficulty cranked to Legendary. You're still playing, it's just more of a challenge now. You will overcome this obstacle. You will come out the other side a stronger, wiser, and better looking version of yourself. You will level up. Got it? GOOD. Up and at them. Get a proper diagnosis First and foremost, check with your doctor or physical therapist and get a proper diagnosis. I was an idiot and ignored my lower back pain for close to a decade, assuming it was from my posture, sitting too much, or spending too much time traveling. It wasn't until last summer when I finally tweaked it pretty dang good while lifting that I knew something was wrong. So I stopped lifting weights for a few months. Finally a few months later, I went to a doctor and got x-rays. It turns out, I have a spinal condition where my L4 and L5 vertebrae don't line up, and I had to take a few months off from any serious lifting. So, don't do what I did. Get a proper diagnosis from a professional as soon as possible, and find out exactly what's wrong, how long you can expect to be recuperating, and when you will be back to normal. Focus on your diet I get a few emails a week from people who are really worried about gaining a bunch of weight during the rehab process. This is a valid concern, as it happens to the best of us. We stop exercising, we start eating poorly, and the next thing we know, we've gained back all of the weight that we had lost. (to keep that weight off)!!! As we ALL know at Nerd Fitness, our diets account for 80-90% of our success or failure when it comes to weight loss. This means that even if you cannot exercise ONE BIT, you will still be able to maintain your weight or even LOSE weight during your recovery period. Now, the only way this will work is if you actually focus on your diet. If you can't exercise (or have to significantly reduce your amount of exercise), then your diet immediately increases in importance. Don't forget, your body burns a crazy amount calories every day just by existing. So work WITH your body. Minimize liquid calories. Load up on veggies. Eat plenty of protein and healthy fats. Cut out refined carbs and sugar. The more closely you can follow the Paleo Diet with your eating decisions, the less chance you'll have of gaining back weight and pushing you further back on your progress. Yup, easier said then done when you're lying in bed and want to eat ice cream while watching Lord of the Rings. I never said this would be easy - nothing worth doing right IS easy. You need to stay on target. Remember that every meal is an opportunity for you to continue your momentum and progress, or take a step further away. The choice is yours, and yours alone. Stay active any way you can I HIGHLY recommend you check with your doctor or physical therapist and find out what you are capable of while injured: If you can't run, can you use an elliptical or stationary bike? If you can't use one leg or the other, can you still strength train your upper body? If you can't use one arm/shoulder, can you still do lower body exercises like lunges/squats/step ups? If you can't strength train, can you still go for walks? Walking is the best. If your head fell off, how the hell are you reading this? No need to play hero. The WORST thing you can do is try to do something your body isn't capable of and re-injuring yourself (or injuring yourself in another way). So, find out what you're capable of, what you can't do, what hurts and what doesn't, and work with your doctor/therapist to find any way to stay active. I don't care what it is, but find a way to do something active every day. And it's not just because exercise (SPOILER ALERT) is good for you! It's because if you can find a way to exercise every day, your brain will keep thinking "I am healthy" and thus you will be more likely to make eating decisions that KEEP you healthy. Remember, diet is 90% of the battle! I know if I skip a workout or two, I tend to eat much worse on those days because my brain isn't thinking "healthy." So, keep yourself thinking healthy, find a way to be active, and make a game out of it to stay on target. Stuck in bed? See how many arm swings you can do. Can't do jumping jacks? Do karate kicks and punches On cruches? See if you can "walk" a bit farther each day. Or, . Can't strength train? See if you can become a better runner. Yeah, it might be different than how you used to train, or even be a fraction of what you used to be capable of. Who cares? Life is a game, and you just switched up your skill tree, that's all! What if I'm never back to normal!? Unfortunately, sometimes you might get an injury in which your training path is permanently altered. When I found out about my back and that I would probably never be able to lift heavy weights again, I was devastated. Luckily, I came home, turned on Iron Man, and instantly decided to remake myself like Tony Stark. About a month and a half ago I was cleared to start squatting and deadlifting again. Although I had to start at a very humbling beginning weight, I've been adding more and more each week, slowly but surely making progress. I don't know if I'll ever reach my previous personal bests, but I'm excited to find out what I am capable of. I've heard story after story from people who were told they'd never _________ again, only to have them doing those things years later due to their dedication. So if this happens to be you, remember first and foremost that you woke up today, and that we can build on that. Think of it like you were playing a role playing game (RPG) as a Warrior, and suddenly you have to shift your class to Druid, Monk, or Wizard. It's not necessarily any worse or better than before, you're just playing the game in a different way. You might suck at your old skills now, but that just means you can unlock new skills! For my six months after the spinal diagnosis, I shifted my focus from heavy training to gymnastics, handstands, and bodyweight training. The game has just changed a bit, which means you need to change too. Change is good. Set proper expectations This part is all mental. Depending on the severity of your injury, you might get set back a few weeks/months in training. If it's a permanent change, you may have to make permanent adjustments to your routine. You might not be able to lift, run, or stretch in the same ways right away. Even when you come back to full strength, it can be really frustrating. "I used to be able to do this!" "Why can't I ___________ anymore?" Just like comparing yourself against the progress of others is a futile practice, comparing yourself to the old pre-injury version of yourself isn't smart. The ONLY thing you can compare yourself against is who you were yesterday. Think of it like hitting the reset button and starting a new game or rolling a new character. If you went from deadlifting 350 before your injury and now you're back at 150....stop worrying about the 350, and instead next week aim for 155. THAT IS PROGRESS!! If you weighed 200 before the injury and 220 after the injury...getting down to 219 is one pound lost, not playing 19 pounds of catch-up! If you could run a mile in 7 minutes before and now it's 9 minutes, next week's 8:50 mile should be a celebration, not a disappointment. Understand that the process might take time, but also understand that you're a freaking superhero capable of amazing things, even when you're told otherwise. Write your own destiny. Chose to be awesome. This too, shall pass You're gonna be okay, I promise. Hit that reset button, and focus on building up a new version of you starting NOW. I'd love to hear from you. Have you been injured in the past? Are you struggling with this right now? How did you overcome that injury and get back on track? How can I help out? I know a lot of injured Rebels would could benefit from the education, motivation, and inspiration from knowing they're not alone in their frustration and confusion. Get well soon, and rebel on! -Steve PS: In case you missed the announcement last week, we're looking to hire a few part time contractors for work on Nerd Fitness projects! Check out our "Work With Us!" page for more details. ### photo source: Dr. Mario, Sunrise, Expectations, Sad lego, lego workout, breathe, lego stretcher, [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/robbie_v/6723637985/]banana boat

A healthy life is a wonderful thing. A healthy life cannot be handed to you. It cannot be donated. It cannot be purchased, borrowed, or stolen. A healthy life doesn't come from a bottle of pills, surgery, or a machine. A healthy life can't be obtained in "just 15 minutes a day, three times a week!" A healthy life isn't redistributed from those who have one to those who don't. A healthy life must be earned. I'm going to tell you why that is the greatest freaking thing in the entire world. And when you come to this conclusion, the conclusion that you don't need somebody else's permission to get healthy, that you don't need to buy some magic bullet, you suddenly realize that there's nothing stopping you from getting started other than yourself. Yeah, it's going to be a challenge. It won't take just a week of hard work, or even a month. It might take a year, or two, or five. You're going to struggle. You're going to have days where you want to give up. You're going to have days that make you wonder "is this worth it?" Ask Joe if the 10 months was worth it. The smile on his face says yes. Ask Saint how he felt on his wedding day after reaching his goal. Ask Staci how she felt when she deadlifted 315 lbs for the first time. Ask Ryan how he felt when looking in the mirror and saw a new man. It's always worth it. Remember this: the longer it takes you to reach your goal, the more obstacles you have to overcome, the more challenges you face along the way, the more you'll appreciate, respect, and cherish your healthy life. Self-respect doesn't appear out of thin air. Like a healthy body, it has to be earned. As Henry Rollins will tell you, "I have never met a truly strong person who didn’t have self-respect." And you know what? Getting strong isn't easy either; It requires hard work, dedication to the cause, and consistency in your efforts. I love that about exercise: it's the great equalizer. In the gym, on the track, or in the park, our social status, wealth, and level of influence doesn't matter. It makes no difference what kind of car you drive, if you live in your mom's basement, or if you have a level 90 character in World of Warcraft. When you exercise, NONE of that matters. You know what DOES matter? Are you faster than you were last month? Are you stronger than you were last week? Did you set a new personal record? Are you better off today than you were yesterday? No matter how small the improvement, if you can find a way to be better every single day, a few weeks from now you will be a completely different person on the inside. As time goes on, your outward appearance will start to reflect that new inner strength you possess and that new level of self-respect. I get a few hundred emails a week from people who are taking their first steps towards a healthier life. More often than not, I can tell within the first few sentences of an email who is going to be successful and who won't. The people that won't be successful (with their first attempt) say things like: "How long will it take before I (lose 50 pounds/get abs/fit into these pants)?" - They are only interested in the results and aren't really interested in putting in the time and effort to get there. "I know what you said to do, but I can't (strength train/give up this food/make this change/etc)." These are people who are afraid to try new things or make changes, and thus would rather keep doing what they've always done. It's less scary and sounds easier. "I know what I'm supposed to do, but I don't have time to do it." These people have not made their health a priority. "I read what you said, and then I read on these 47 other blogs conflicting ideas, so I'm confused and need to research more." These people will never get started because they're too busy collecting information rather than taking action. When people ask for advice, and then push back after I give it to them, I can't help but think of a quote I read recently: "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got. If what you are doing is not working, do something else." Conversely, these are the emails I LOVE to get: "Hey Steve, I took action today. I cleaned out my cabinets of junk food. I signed up for a gym membership. I started training. I cooked my first healthy meal ever. You'll hear from me in three months with a success story." "I'm doing this for me. Not because my doctor said so. Not because my friends said I was getting fat (in fact, they tell me I'm crazy because I'm already 'too skinny'...relative to them). Not because I'm trying to win some contest. But because I want to respect myself and look in the mirror and be proud of what I see." "Steve, I read what you said to do, and for the past six months I shut up and did it. Here's my success story." This one is my favorite. I'm not saying my advice is infallible, but the people who tend to have success aren't afraid to jump in and figure it out along the way. They have GRIT. They understand that there's no perfect time to start, no perfect diet plan, no perfect workout plan. They understand that getting started is the most important thing. They read articles about strength training and then go to their gym and learn how to deadlift and squat. They see a success story and say to themselves, "Hey, that person was just like me. I can do what they did; I'm going to start." They think back to previous attempts they made to get healthy, realizing that failure is only a failure if nothing is learned from it. They make small adjustments and try again. The people who have success aren't afraid to fail, aren't afraid to step outside of their comfort zone, and aren't afraid to make an investment in themselves. I have a challenge for you. Do ONE thing that scares you. Go to that workout rather than sleeping in. Cook a meal today rather than taking the cheap and unhealthy way out. Make one decision today that's makes your life better in some way. Looking in the mirror with pride at what you see is one of the greatest feelings in the entire world, and I know that self-respect and confidence can carry over to every other aspect of your life. Go to bed proud tonight, knowing that you're on the path to a healthier life. Wake up tomorrow knowing that the day is full of potential and possibilities. And then get started. Nobody will give you permission. Nobody will serve it to you on a silver platter. You are solely responsible for your future. And the future is f***ing bright. -Steve ### photo source: jump

Nerds tend to be on the smarter side of average. We spend hours analyzing, comparing, calculating, and digging deeper into many of the choices we make every day. It's what makes us nerds! And a lot of the time, it's a good thing: we get to make decisions with all sorts of information, leaving us feeling confident that we made the most informed decision possible. Unfortunately, it can also be an incredibly bad thing. Nerds can rationalize a million different scenarios in our mind for any decision we make (and we tend to have really overactive imaginations). It's this rationalization that we use to convince ourselves not to try at all, because of the million different things that could go wrong:The workout plan could not work, and it means I'm a failure. It probably won't work.Trying that diet advice might not work for me because it didn't work for this guy I know. Why even bother?Walking up to that girl and telling her that I think she's cute might get me a funny look. She'll probably just reject me.Why submit that proposal for a new idea at work. What if it bombs and I get fired?Think about the last time you talked yourself out of trying something or fully committing to something. We tell ourselves that it's not worth the effort because we're scared of failing, we try it but don't put the full effort in, or we overanalyze the situation to the point of paralysis... And thus, we do nothing. We come up with every possible way it can all go wrong as an excuse for inaction. I'm here to tell you that us nerds have been approaching this all wrong. There's only one question that really matters: What if it all goes right? What if it all goes right? Over the past few years, I've made plenty of drastic changes to my life: From getting stronger and healthier, changing my diet, building self confidence and self-respect, to quitting an unbelievable day job to focus solely on helping nerds get healthy and . My life is incredibly different than it was tin 2010. I don't think I'm any different or better or smarter than the average bear; I still have the same thoughts, hopes, and fears as every other nerd out there (What if this fails? What if this doesn't work? What if things go wrong? What if that person doesn't want to talk to me?), but I've chosen to rewire my brain to compare those fears and anxieties against the alternative: What if it all goes right?In observing the successes and "failures" of thousands of people in the Nerd Fitness Community, I've come to learn that Rebels who accept the potential for failure along with the potential for success are the ones that end up changing their lives for the better. They see somebody like Joe, who lost 130 pounds in 10 months, and say to themselves: "Hey, if he can do it, maybe I can too!" And then they start. Compare that to somebody who sees Joe's success story and says: "He's so lucky, there's no way I could do that." "Probably not real, no way could that happen." "Why bother? I've tried and failed before." "My situation is different, so it won't work for me."I made a very distinct change with my mindset that got me where I am today: I saw people doing the things that I wanted to be doing and then told myself "if they can do it, so can I." Then I worked every day towards achieving my goals. I understood that small changes can result in monumental results over time (Thanks Optimus Prime!). Fear redefined "Every time we choose safety, we reinforce fear." - Cheri Huber You might be thinking: "Okay Steve, you made some changes, blindly ignored fear, and leveled up your life. Good for you. What about those of us who can't ignore fear and are in [insert different life scenario here]?" Believe it or not, I didn't blindly ignore fear to make these changes. I'm naturally a very risk averse person and would much rather sit on my couch and play video games than take chances. However, I still choose to do things that scare me because I know it makes me a better person. I also have a lot of help from my wildcard. So how did I overcome these hurdles and destroy fear? By defining it. This philosophy from Tim Ferris (one of my Yodas) really helped me define my fears and overcome them. It's absolutely worth five minutes of your time to watch and try: And it make sense; it turns out there's actually an evolutionary reason we tend to overvalue negativity: way back in the day, it was better to lose the meal than get eaten yourself, right? Unfortunately, that "feature" from our brain has become more of a "bug" in the 21st century, as it keeps us complacent. Don't worry about trying to ignore your fear. Define it. First, determine the "worst possible scenario" for the decision you're debating over and how you could get back on your feet should things go wrong. More often than not, you'll realize that the "worst case" is really only a 4 or 5 on a "oh crap" scale...and the "best case" is a completely life changing "10." Suddenly, that "terrifying" decision becomes MUCH easier. How to Accomplish Anything James Altucher, one of the ONLY "self-help" bloggers I read consistently, put out a fantastic article that I think should be required reading: "Nobody told him he couldn't do it." He talked about is process for accomplishing anything, and broke it down into three simple steps. I want to talk about those three steps and how they apply to Nerd Fitness, health, wellness, and success: 1) Don't tell yourself you can't do it. If you see somebody who has accomplished something you want to do, or see a skill you'd like to learn, don't spend time focusing on telling yourself that you can't do it. Making up excuses for yourself like, "but I don't have time," is a big fat lie. "I'm too old" is absolutely not true. I've seen drastic transformations from single mothers, 80 year old men, people who work three jobs, that travel, and so on. Stop using excuses as a crutch and start telling yourself "I can do this." Be your own biggest fan. 2) Surround yourself with supportive people. Negative people suck. They make you second guess yourself, they drag you down rather than pick you up, and say things like "I told you so" rather than "keep going." The less time you spend with these people and the more time you can spend with people who are supportive, the greater chance you'll have for success. They say, "you are the average of the 5 people you associate the most with." If you don't have positive people in your life, I have about 16,000+ online friends that would love to support you. 3) Make it fun. Whatever you're working towards, whether it's weight loss, building a new habit, getting big and strong, or trying to build your own business on the side...have fun with it. We have a finite amount of time on this planet...might as well enjoy it, eh? If you HAVE to work on something that's not fun, make sure it's for a purpose: maybe because doing this un-fun thing is taking you one step closer towards the life you actually want. So, find a way to show yourself that you are progressing, share your successes - no matter how small, and be proud of yourself for improving.No matter what you want, find a way to get a little bit better at it each day. Contact one successful person who has done what you want to do and ask for advice. Take one step towards that business idea you have. Plan that one trip you always wanted to take. Make one change to your diet. Do one more rep or run for one more minute. Remember my friend Saint? After getting in incredible shape, he started wondering what else was possible. About a year ago he told me he was going to learn app development for the hell of it (nobody told him he couldn't, so he did). We partnered up to create Paleo Central. During development, he worked his day job, commuting three hours every day, and then came home and worked every night on the app. Since launching Paleo Central back in December, the app has been a tremendous success, and Saint started calculating his options for further improving his life. The potential for awesome outweighed the temporary setbacks of making a change, so Saint recently quit his day job and has gone into business for himself as a full-time app developer (with clients lining up to hire him). I can almost see the grin on his face through Gchat when we talk every morning. Not bad for a year of hustle. [PS: If you are looking for an App Developer, contact@nerdfitness.com and I can put you in touch with Saint. I cannot recommend him highly enough.] Advanced tactic: If you know the thing you are meant to do but you can't get yourself to commit to doing it, try burning the ships so you're left without any other option but to succeed. (I booked my Round the World trip before I had a chance to talk myself out of it!) There's only one way to find out Yeah, things might go wrong. Things might not work out. On the other hand...The workout plan COULD work, and six months from now you're a complete different person. It worked for these people.Trying that diet advice COULD work, and you could be in the best shape of your life. It worked for Saint.Walking up to that woman/dude and asking them out could lead to a date/love of your life. Only one way to know for sure, right?That proposal could change the company's trajectory, along with your own trajectory. Fortune favors the bold.That app/company/idea COULD work, and you could spend the rest of your life building your own future instead of asking for permission.Nobody can predict the future, but one thing is for certain when you look fear in the eye and bravely continue. Regardless of the outcome, you eliminate the ABSOLUTE WORST CASE SCENARIO: regret. You don't have to spend the rest of your day/week/month/life wondering: "What if I had tried?" I'd love to hear from you. What have you held yourself back from trying due to fear? What's the worst that can happen if it goes wrong (and how can you fix it), and what's the best that can happen if it all goes right? There's only one way to find out... -Steve ### photo source: Scale, Happy owl, Table Mountain Clouds, Mountain Climber, [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/7933170@N03/3092670895/]Red Pill Blue Pill

I've been kind of swamped lately. If someone wants to organize the next shindig, I'm down for any of the weekends that have been thrown out.

Sugar. Highly addictive, horribly debilitating, unfortunately pervasive, and freaking delicious. If I had to point to ONE culprit to our country's expanding waistlines and rapidly deteriorating health, it would be sugar. The amount of havoc sugar and sugar substitutes have wreaked on our nation is horribly depressing. Fear not, as I've come up with the perfect solution! Eat less sugar if you want to live longer. The end. Just kidding, there's so much more to this story than that. I'm sure you probably have a lot of questions about sugar: Is sugar THAT bad for you? Fruit has sugar! Is fruit bad for you? Are certain kinds of sugar better or worse for you? Can you really get addicted to sugar? What about sugar alternatives that are used in drinks like Diet Coke? What about natural sweeteners? Let's nerd out about sugar and find out what you can do to kick your sugar habit and get your life back on track. Fair warning: This post is MASSIVE (over 4,000 words), even for Nerd Fitness standards. American's love affair with sugar Before we get into the biological and physiological stuff relating to sugar and how it affects our body, I want to talk about just how big of a factor sugar plays in our lives. This might be the most telling statistic relating to sugar, especially when that close to 70% of America is overweight with a THIRD of the nation obese: 1822: Americans consume 45 grams of sugar every five days, or the amount of sugar in a can of coke. 2012: Americans consume 756 grams of sugar every five days, or 130 POUNDS of sugar a year. As we have grown as a country (in more ways than one), sugar has continued to play an increasingly more prominent role in our food. It's not just sugary foods like candy and cookies either, but sugar has made its way into practically EVERYTHING we eat. Unfortunately, it's not just sugar that's killing us, but scientifically manufactured "sugar" as well. Now, we all know that correlation does NOT prove causation, so let's dig into the science behind why sugar is ruining our bodies. What is Sugar? Sugar is a carbohydrate. If it ends in a "ose," it's gonna be a sugar. If that's all you'd like to know, feel free to move onto the next section, as I'm about to get all up in here. There are different kinds of sugar, starting with simple sugars (called monosaccarides) like glucose, fructose, and galactose. Then there are also more complex forms (called disaccharides) like sucrose, maltose, and lactose. Here's the cheat sheet to naturally occurring sugars: Let's start with glucose: It occurs naturally in plants and fruits, and is a byproduct of photosynthesis. In our bodies glucose can be burned as energy or converted into glycogen (essentially: liver and muscle fuel). Our bodies can actually produce glucose when needed. Next, fructose! This is fruit sugar, occurring naturally in...you guessed it, fruit! It also occurs naturally in cane sugar and honey, and is incredibly sweet. Onto the more complex sugars, starting with Sucrose. This sugar is found in the stems of sugar cane, the roots of sugar beet, and can be found naturally alongside glucose in certain fruits and other plants. Last but not least, we have lactose, which is essentially milk sugar! This is something that is created as result of a process happening in our bodies: children possess the enzyme necessary to break down the molecule into lactose to be used by the body, while some adults don't. These are the lactose intolerant folks. So, we have a few key types of sugar. But where does sugar actually come from? It is USUALLY created as a result of the processing of one of two types of plants: sugar beets or sugar cane. These plants are harvested, processed, and refined to eventually resemble the white sugar you've come to know and love (or loathe). This sugar has absolutely no nutritional value: it's just pure, refined, sugar. We'll cover other types of laboratory-created-sugar later. What happens in our body when we eat sugar? Hopefully you don't need me to tell you that sugar can cause tooth decay and rot your teeth. Sugar is the lifeblood of the cavity creeps! Beyond that, your body processes sugar in a very specific way. When you consume sugar, your body has two options on how to deal with it: Burn it for energy. WEEEEE! Convert to fat and store it in your fat cells. BOOOOO! Depending on your genetic predisposition, your body might be better equipped to process sugar as energy, or you might be more likely to store it as fat. Think of this like you think of people with faster metabolisms vs. people with slower metabolisms. Problem is, there's a LOT more room for fat storage, and a lot less room to burn the sugar as energy. So, we have this sugar in our body and blood stream. What happens next? When your pancreas detects a rush of sugar, it releases a hormone called insulin to deal with all of that excess sugar. Insulin helps regulate that level of sugar in our blood; the more sugar in the blood stream, the more insulin is released. Insulin helps store all of this glucose in the liver and muscles as glycogen and in fat cells (aka adipocytes stored as triglycerides). Now, oftentimes our body struggles to get that balance right (with us putting way too much sugar in our system very quickly). TOO much insulin is released, which ultimately results in our blood sugar dropping below normal levels. This is called hypoglycemia, essentially a sugar crash: Our bodies respond by telling us: WE WANT SUGAR. So we cram sugar down our throats and the process starts again. Unfortunately, the more often this process takes place (the more sugar you consume), the more severe the blood sugar spike is, and the more insulin is required. This means it becomes easier and easier to skip using sugar as energy, and go straight to extra insulin and fat storage. This is best explained by this three minute video, which is definitely worth watching: Why You Got Fat: Along with making you fat, sugar consumption has been implicated in a litany of crimes, including contributing to an increased chance of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, macular degeneration, renal failure, chronic kidney disease, and high blood pressure. So, I should just eat less sugar? Now, you might be thinking: I'll just eat less sugar and won't have this issue, right? Well, that's a good start, but that's only half of the battle. You see, our bodies actually process certain types of carbohydrates in a very similar way to processing pure sugar. Believe it or not, there is an entire area of scientific research on how our bodies process certain foods. You've probably heard of the Glycemic Index, and its lesser known associate: Glycemic Load. The Glycemic Index is the calculation of how quickly a particular type of food increases one's blood sugar level, on a scale from 1-100 (100 being pure glucose). Harvard researchers have found that things like white bread, french fries, and other simple carbohydrates have nearly identical effects on our blood sugar as glucose. Generally, the more refined (processed) the food, the more likely it'll be to get converted quickly to sugar in our body for processing. What about fruit and fruit sugar? Keep reading! For now, hopefully you're coming to a conclusion with something like this: "Oh, maybe fat isn't making me fat. Maybe it's the sugar and carbohydrates that I'm consuming..." And unfortunately, it's not JUST sugar, but also fake sugar, which I'll get to soon. What surprising foods containing sugar? So, we're learning that sugar is bad for us. That's nothing new, and it's not a shock to companies that manufacture food. For that reason, companies have started to disguise the sugar in their foods, so it's not as apparent how much sugar you are consuming. Here's a quick list of what sugar can be listed as on a label: Agave nectar Brown sugar Cane crystals Cane sugar Corn sweetener Corn syrup Crystalline fructose Dextrose Evaporated cane juice Organic evaporated cane juice Fructose Fruit juice concentrates Glucose High-fructose corn syrup Honey Invert sugar Lactose Maltose Malt syrup Molasses Raw sugar Sucrose Sugar Syrup Why do they change the name of sugar? Because nutritional labels are required by law to list their most prominent ingredients first. By putting two or three different types of sugar in the food (and calling them each a different name), they can spread out the sugar across three ingredients and have it show up much further down the list! Tricky tricky tricky! To be sure, READ THE LABELS OF FOODS THAT YOU CONSUME! If you're curious how much sugar you are consuming, check out SugarStacks.com, which gives you a simple visual aid as to the amount you're pumping into your body through surprising meals. What about fruit sugar? Ahhhh, the great "is fruit sugar bad for you" debate... Honestly, I'm quite torn on fruit and fruit sugar. I'm a big fan of the Paleo Diet, and I know a LOT of fruit can contain a lot of fructose (and thus a lot of sugar). That being said, I believe the consumption of fruit can be beneficial. When you consume fruit, you are not only consuming fructose (in its natural state), but also consuming fiber and lots of vitamins and minerals. Yes, fruit can have an effect on your blood sugar, it IS sugar. But generally fruit will cause less of a blood sugar spike compared to nutrient-void table sugar or high fructose corn syrup. Along with that: Fiber is an important part of a balanced diet (ask your bowels), and fruit can contain a lot of it! Here's my official stance on fruit: Consume fruit that has a low glycemic index/glycemic load to reduce blood sugar spikes and insulin secretion. Consume organic fruit when possible. If your main goal is weight loss, and you need to keep your carb intake low, minimize fruit consumption and instead load up on vegetables. However, if your choice is between processed foods, sugary drinks, candy, or fruit...GO WITH THE FRUIT. What about fruit juices? So, we've established that fruit can be healthy if consumed properly. Unfortunately, fruit juices don't really fit into that bill. Here's why: When you consume fruit juices like orange juice, apple juice, or cranberry juice, the juice is squeezed, giving you all of the juice but very little of the fiber or nutrients that get left behind in the process. For this reason, many fruit juices should probably be called "sugar water." Here is a typical amount of sugar for four popular beverages (stats from DailyBurn): Orange juice - 21g of sugar Apple juice - 28g of sugar Cranberry juice – 37g of sugar Grapejuice - 38g of sugar For reference, a can of teeth-rotting, insulin-spiking, fat-inducing Coca-Cola has 40g of sugar. Want to know an even worse offender? Naked Juices! The "Green Machine" variety, with "NO SUGAR ADDED" and promised to be "ALL NATURAL" has 28 grams per serving...and there are TWO servings in those little tiny bottles. That means when you consume one small bottle of this "healthy" smoothie, you're getting almost 60 GRAMS of sugar. Brutal. Shame on you, Naked. If you're going to eat fruit, get it in FRUIT form, not juice form. If you're going to drink juice, squeeze it yourself, and even then consume it in small quantities. What about sugar alternatives? So, with more research coming out about the dangers of sugar, companies are scrambling to protect their image by promoting "healthy" alternatives so that they can slap on a fancy labels and toot their own horn. There are a few main sugar alternatives that I want to cover, and allow you to make up your own mind: Honey - Is Winnie the Pooh onto something here? Is honey a better alternative than regular sugar? The appeal of honey is that it's not just fructose or glucose, but a mixture of all sorts of compounds, minerals, and more. A study comparing honey to various types of compounds resulted in good results for the sticky stuff: "Overall, honey improved blood lipids, lowered inflammatory markers, and had minimal effect on blood glucose levels." Along with that, honey resulted in a lower blood glucose spike in rats compared to other types of sugar. Agave Nectar: This is the most recent darling of the fake "healthy food industry." Unfortunately, despite the fact that it comes from a cactus (which is natural!), this stuff is so processed and refined, and contains an absurd amount of refined fructose (90% fructose and 10% glucose). Also, the process to create this stuff is similar to the process used to create high fructose corn syrup. Aspartame: So, many people have switched to diet soda because they heard regular soda can be bad for you. I would guess that 90% of diet sodas out there contains aspartame, a laboratory-created sugar alternative. NutraSweet also contains aspartame and should be avoided. Studies on this stuff have proven inconclusive and wildly different. Although some studies cite an increased link with aspartame and cancer, I believe more research needs to be done. Even still, I have made the decision to avoid aspartame until more conclusive studies surface. Sucralose is an artificial sweetener that is non-caloric as the body struggles to break it down. Sucralose is approximately 600 times as sweet as sucrose (table sugar), and thus can be consumed in smaller quantities to get the same desired "sweet" effect as sugar. Sucralose is available in things like protein powders, Splenda, and other products reliant upon remaining low-sugar or low-carb. Allegedly, sucralose has a negligible effect on blood glucose levels. Stevia is a naturally occurring sweetener from the Sunflower family. It is approximately 300 times sweeter than table sugar, and allegedly has a lower effect on blood glucose levels. As you can read about here, Stevia has had an interesting history in the United States (for political reasons), but appears to have been used in Japan and South America with minimal adverse effects. Saccharin is another artificial sweetener, created back in the late 1890s, that is much sweeter than table sugar and thus is consumed at lower quantities. It was linked to increased risk of cancer within laboratory rats and labeled as dangerous by the US, though this label was removed in 2000 due to the fact that the results couldn't be replicated in humans. That being said, more studies need to be conducted. This nerd's opinion: If you're going to eat sugar, get it from fruit or naturally occurring sweeteners. With that being said, to minimize the effect on your blood sugar, minimize sugar consumption across the board if your primary goal is weight loss. what about High Fructose Corn Syrup? I'm writing this section while grinding my teeth because it grinds my gears. In an effort to keep family farms alive in the Great Depression, the government started paying farmers NOT to grow food, since crop prices were wildly low. Over 80 years later the program has evolved many times, and today we give almost $5 billion a year to growers of commodity crops, creating cheap corn. Not surprisingly, when given the option to grow a crop with or without a government subsidy, many farmers went the lucrative route. And thus, we ended up with a crazy amount of excess corn, and nothing to use it for! (Un)luckily, science stepped in, and found a use for corn beyond just eating it or feeding it to animals. Scientists discovered by processing and refining the corn, it could be turned into a sugar alternative, called high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Despite the name, high fructose corn syrup is actually composed of equal parts of fructose and equal parts glucose. gives a quick demonstration of how HFCS is produced. As the government continued to subsidize farmers to produce corn, the cheap price of HFCS created a MUCH cheaper alternative for food producers compared to regular sugar. Now, producers of high fructose corn syrup (and producers of food who use it) argue that it is no different on a molecular level from regular sugar, and is thus a safe alternative to sugar in food and drinks. Unfortunately, it turns out that HFCS, despite being molecularly similar to regular sugar, does not affect the body the same way as table sugar. A recent study conducted by Princeton University concluded: Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same. In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides. Two groups of rats were fed the exact same number of calories. One group was fed HFCS, while the other was fed regular table sugar. The rats fed HFCS gained significantly more weight. If this was a movie, you'd see an evil scientist in a laboratory, with lighting flashing in the background as he laughs maniacally while creating his greatest evil creation: HFCS, knowing that it'll soon take over the world. I highly recommend you watch the documentary "King Corn," available for free on Amazon Prime for an interesting look at just how pervasive corn and high fructose corn syrup has become in our nation. Here's a list of all the fast food items out there that contain HFCS. Here's a list of all other types of food that contain HFCS. Here are 8 "healthy" foods (like Special K and Yoplait Yogurt) that contain HFCS. Sugar=bad. High Fructose Corn Syrup= Can you get addicted to sugar? So we've covered natural sugars, sugar alternatives, and the evil HFCS. Is this stuff addictive? Short answer: YES. Long answer: Sugary foods can be as physiologically addictive as many drugs. You can legitimately become addicted to sugar and sugary foods. HOLY CRAP! From another study: In most mammals, including rats and humans, sweet receptors evolved in ancestral environments poor in sugars and are thus not adapted to high concentrations of sweet tastants. The supranormal stimulation of these receptors by sugar-rich diets, such as those now widely available in modern societies, would generate a supranormal reward signal in the brain, with the potential to override self-control mechanisms and thus to lead to addiction. In other words: We are not genetically designed to consume the amount of sugar that we are currently eating. For that reason, our brains get that 'happy feeling' from sugar and it can override the "I've had enough" mechanism. It's why your concentration goes to Hell when you eat a chocolate chip cookie and there is an additional plate of them in front of you. Suddenly it's the only thing you can think about until you've eaten them all! Or you eat a Peanut M&M, and suddenly you've polished off a family-sized bag. Do this repeatedly, and like Pavlov's dog, your brain will start to anticipate this sugar rush and get prepared for it...even when you're merely thinking about food! It's why Cinnabon is usually isolated in malls - away from the food court, it has a better chance of getting its smells into your nostrils from far away...which then triggers that mechanism in your brain if you love sugar: "SUGAR! CINNABON! HUNGRY NOW!" Suddenly you can't think of anything else. It's also why everybody in line for Cinnabon looks so depressed. As (NSFW language): it's like they have no control. I think I'm definitely addicted to sugar. I've already covered food addiction, but I want to talk specifically about sugar. Like with any other addiction, you have two main options: Cold turkey (and suffer through the withdrawal). Slowly ramping down the addiction. I'm a bigger fan of the second option, as I find that most people end up going overboard when they fail on the "cold turkey" and are worse off than before. However, I don't know you personally (which is a shame!), so you'll have to decide for yourself which method is best for you. Like with any habit, it's far easier to build a new habit in place of an old one than just trying to get rid of the old habit, so let's take action: 1) Create your new identity. "I am somebody who is completely in control of the food that I eat." "I only drink soda once a day instead of four times a day." "I don't eat cookies." The more specific and positive and definitive you can make your new identity, the more likely you will be to eventually make that identity your new reality. 2) Be aware of your cravings. When you start to crave sugar, don't just run to get sugar immediately. Take a few minutes and analyze why: is it because you are depressed and unhappy? Bored? Hungry? Sugar creates that happy feeling in your brain, and thus you could be craving sugar for any number of reasons. 3) Once you identify the reason for your sugar craving, decide if there is another activity you can complete to accomplish the intended desire without sugar. Maybe you're bored, so going for a walk or playing a game or talking to a friend could help. If you're unhappy, understand that the quick rush of sugar does not beat out long-term happiness and success. If you're hungry, eat food with lots of fat and protein and fill yourself up. 4) Identify rules for yourself, and stick with them by minimizing willpower required. "Today, I will replace one of my sodas with water." "I drink water with dinner, I don't drink soda." "I don't ________." It's important to use "don't" instead of "can't". Studies have shown that using "don't" results in a much stronger dedication to habit building. 5) Increase the difficulty to continue your bad habit. Don't keep cookies on the counter. Don't keep ice cream stocked in your fridge. If you are trying to eat less sugar, increase the number of steps between you and sugar. If you are on your couch and see a commercial for something sugary, use your own laziness to work for you. Suddenly, getting in the car, driving to the store, and buying something sweet is more effort than its worth. Along with those few steps to get started, here are some other things you can do to help yourself fight the battle and win. Get mad. Like, really mad. I hate not feeling in control, and right now, the sugar and food companies have you under their control. If anything, you're going to kick your sugar addiction to make yourself healthier and happier, but also out of spite. Stick it to the man, and let him know you're taking back your brain. Don't do it alone. Have somebody to talk to through the process. Work with others who have successfully kicked their sugar habits (check the NF boards if you don't have somebody at home). Need SOMETHING sweet? Try dark chocolate or fruit. If you are craving something sweet, aim for alternatives that aren't as bad for you or don't trigger the same blood glucose spike. Eat dark chocolate with a cocoa content above 70% - you still get to feed your sweet tooth, but the sugar content in minimal compared to milk chocolate. Slowly scale it down. I don't care if it takes you a year of slowly changing your habits to kick your sugar habit. Every change counts, and every little bit adds up. If you drink a case of diet coke every day, tomorrow only drink 11. In two weeks, cut it back to 10 per day. And then 9. And then eventually maybe it's "only one on Friday." Keep busy. If you are thinking about sugar, get up and go do something or engage your brain in another way so that you are not stuck with a one-track mind (focusing on the sugar that you're not currently eating). EXERCISE! Sugar raises serotonin and dopamine levels, which can factor into your cravings. Exercise can do the same thing! Try exercising when you have sugar cravings...get that rush (and build your habits around that). Get addicted to the high from exercise. If you have children, save them now! Sugar addiction is built up over time, and yours might have started back when you were a child. Instead of creating a reward system with candy and treats, create a reward system that rewards your kids back with a healthier lifestyle (like in Zelda!). If you have to have sugar, consume it close to a workout. When you consume sugar before or after a workout, you will have a greater chance of burning the sugar/carbs as energy or having it stored as glycogen in your muscles and liver rather than being stored as fat!. At the end of the day, understand that you are in control. If you are going to eat chocolate or something sweet, it's because you made a conscious decision to do so OCCASIONALLY, not because you had to have it. Understand that it will be challenging. Understand that there will be cravings that get better with time. Most importantly, understand that what you really want (a happier, healthier life) can't happen if you keep settling for what you want RIGHT NOW (sugar!). Understand that you can change. Vote with your wallet Every time you buy food, you are casting a ballot. Every time you purchase something with high fructose corn syrup in it, you're sending a message that you don't care about your body, that you are satisfied with food that is making you sick, fat, and unhealthy. Why not cast your vote for a better life? Today's article is educational: without action it's just a pile of underpants. I challenge you to decrease your sugar intake. I challenge you to start eating more real foods and less processed ones. I challenge you to cut back on candy and soda purchases. Are you up to the challenge? I'd love to hear about your personal relationship with sugar. Would you call yourself addicted? Have you kicked an addiction? If so, how did you do it? Share your story below and help out your fellow rebels! -Steve ### Photo source: action figure and sugar pile, beaker, measurement, alternatives, candy wall, frozen food, juice, fruit, candy, sugar spoon, dixie sugar, sugar cafe,opportunity

Hey all, with the weather (60% chance of thunderstorms), it being Father's Day (call your Dad!), and a bunch of people having to change up some plans last minute, we're gonna cancel and try for next week!

The Nerd Fitness Rebellion is an eclectic group of nerds. From teachers to computer engineers, rocket scientists to brain surgeons (not even kidding), we pretty much have a representative from every field and from background. Now, a lot of these jobs require some crazy hours: Nurses and doctors are often on-call for long stretches or working 12+ hour night shifts, and then have a few days off. Night responders get to work just as everybody else is heading home for the day. Supermarket employees or construction workers are up and done with work before others have had lunch. Rebel Alliance members are on night shifts spying on the Empire, etc. I receive a few emails a week from people who are working these weird hours and are struggling to find a way to stay in shape. Whether you work slightly off hours or have a completely backwards schedule, this article is for you. If you happen to work a more typical 9-5 or set your own hours, keep reading: I promise you'll learn something today too! Weird hours be damned, I'm gonna help get you healthy. Diet is still the most important thing Now, whether you work weird hours or normal hours, diet is still responsible for 80-90% of your success or failure when it comes to staying healthy. 80-90 PERCENT. This is both a blessing and a curse. It means you don't need to freak out if you miss a workout after a long night shift, but it also means you gotta take care of yourself while you are working. I'm still a big supporter of Paleo Diet principles to help people lose weight, but I realize this can be tough:the only thing available late night may be Taco Bell or whatever you can get out of a vending machine. This means you need to become the master of preparation. "But Steve I don't have time to prepare food!" you say. Yeah, I heard you. What you're REALLY saying is, "But Steve, preparing food ahead of time isn't a priority for me." If you are working overnight shifts, you're gonna need to bring in your own food. Want to know how easy it is? Purchase a bunch of chicken breast on Sunday Night (or whatever night you actually have off). Cook them on a tray in the oven, ALL of them. Put them in separate containers or bags in your fridge. Purchase a bunch of $1 steam fresh bags of frozen veggies. Stick them in the fridge at your workplace. Need more calories/carbs in your diet? Buy some sweet potatoes. Microwave one and put it on your plate. In about 3 minutes and minimal effort, you know have a well balanced meal. "But that's boring!" Sheesh, I have to do EVERYTHING, huh? Welp, get creative, sucka! Chop up the chicken and put it in a big salad with whatever you prefer (and keep in your fridge). Make stir fry, put some in containers in your fridge, and then heat it up on your break. Google "chicken paleo marinade" and mix up how you prepare chicken. Or steak. Or pork. Or salmon. YES, this does require effort. YES, this does require preparation. YES, it does work. YES, you will find your rhythm with it. Again, it comes down to two things: priorities and excuses: Do you REALLY not have time? Or are you using "I don't have time" as a crutch to eat poorly and feel sorry for yourself? I'm currently playing the world's smallest violin for you. And it sounds terrible, because I haven't played the violin since second grade. Is your job REALLY stopping you from being healthy? Or is it a convenient excuse to use when you go to Taco Bell or the vending machine? I've seen single mothers who work three jobs find a way to prepare a healthy meal and stay on the ball. If they can do it, so can you. Remember: nobody believes your excuses except for you. Bad liquid calories Let's talk about liquid calories, the good, the bad, the ugly. Whether you're at a desk or up stocking shelves or making your rounds, you probably deal with a few key things: Exhaustion: Let's be honest, when you work a night shift or early shift, you never get as much sleep as if you were sleeping during the night with normal hours. Lack of "time." If you're working long days/nights and trying to raise a family/have a social life, food preparation probably doesn't figure into your schedule. You need convenience, even if you have to pay a bit more for it. Hunger: If you forgot to pack your "meal" or "meals," your only option is to eat what you can find, which is unlikely to be healthy at that time of day. Boredom: If you are making rounds or stuck at a desk during the middle of the night, there may be more periods of down time than if you were working during the day. So you're tired, hungry, bored, and struggle with time management. Where do you turn? Caffeine! Now, I have no problem with Caffeine. I wake up every morning and drink a few cups of green tea while sitting at my desk to write. We've even covered caffeine extensively on this site already. The short version? Don't get caught in bad liquid calorie trap: Empty liquid calories are the devil. If you are drinking soda, energy drinks, or lattes for the caffeine, understand that you are also probably consuming hundreds of calories and 50+ grams of sugar. And sugar is what makes you fat. So read the labels or do the research before you drink six Monster drinks, a case of coke, or a Coffee Coolata. If you're going to get caffeine, get it from a healthy source: Black coffee, green tea, and as a last resort, a no calorie or low-calorie energy drink. Try to wean yourself off the gallons of caffeine and work your way over to black coffee/green tea as time goes on. Hopefully, once you start exercising, you'll have more energy and need less caffeine to survive your shifts. Avoid the drinks that don't give you any nutritional value and are full of sugar. See if you can get your caffeine from better sources. Speaking of better sources of calories... Good liquid calories! Low on time? Need a meal? Make yourself a smoothie! Depending on what you put into it or where it comes from, a smoothie can be an incredibly healthy option for meals during the night or as you're running out the door to your shift. A few tips on making smoothies: Buy yourself a cheap blender(or, a ridiculously nice one). Have one at home, or in the break room at work. Give this recipe a shot: Organic frozen fruit (I usually go with the strawberries or berry medley from Trader Joe's). A cup of unsweetened almond milk or unsweetened coconut milk. A scoop of protein (I use Optimum Nutrition Vanilla, but I hear the Chocolate is delicious). A few ice cubes if you want to 'thicken it up' a bit (Optional) Organic frozen spinach. Doesn't change the taste, but gets you a serving of veggies. (Optional) Tablespoon of raw almond butter. More calories, more healthy fats. I drink a smoothie similar to the one above for a meal almost on a daily basis (though I add in extra carbs and calories because I'm attempting to pack on extra weight). Can't bring a blender to work? Stick a scoop of protein in a shaker bottle, and BAM - there's 25 g of protein prepared in 60 seconds. Add a bag of mixed veggies from the microwave and you've got yourself a really weird meal that is pretty damn easy to prepare and pretty damn good for you. A word of caution: Smoothies from Smoothie King don't count, as they have more sugar than two cans of Coke. Neither do Naked Juices. They might look healthy, but they're not. LOOK AT THE LABEL AND PAY ATTENTION TO THE SUGAR CONTENT! Empty Calories Now, along with empty liquid calories, let's talk about empty food calories. When you are at your desk, are you eating snacks while answering the phone or while on your rounds through the hospital? Personally, I'm a big fan of No Snacking, as I find I tend to eat more calories than I need during the day, simply because I'm not paying attention (check out the research in that snacking article for more). Bring some healthy snacks with you if you're going to be snacking. My personal favorite would be apple slices with almond butter. If you struggle with overeating, look at your snacking at your night job. Are you eating because you are bored? Are you eating because you're not paying attention? Are you eating because you've trained your body to expect food every 5 seconds? If it's any of these things, try the "No eating AND _________" strategy. No eating and surfing the internet. No eating and watching TV shows. No eating AND _____. If you're going to eat, that's the only thing you're going to do. At the end of the day, it comes down to one thing: ACTUALLY taking an active role in your health. As they say, "Don't sacrifice what you really want for what you want RIGHT NOW." That candy bar won't make you feel better long-term. Neither will those chips. If you want to change your life, you need to stand up for yourself and decide that you are going to make better decisions. Exercise: Strength Training Wins. Let's move onto the other 10-20% of the equation: exercise! It's no surprise around these parts that I'm a HUGE proponent of strength training. Guys like Joe (above) travel two weeks a month and yet still manage to have tremendous transformation because they are smart with their time. From an efficiency standpoint, no other type of exercise gives you as much bang for your buck (aka: the most results with the least amount of time spent exercising). You can get an incredible workout that exhausts all of your muscles and burns a crazy number of calories (not just during the workout, but in the hours afterward as your body tries to rebuild all of the muscle). Just reference any Nerd Fitness success story, all built with strength training and healthy eating. So, if your time is limited, and your focus is staying healthy/losing weight, you need to be strength training. When's the best time to work out? When you will actually do it! If you find yourself too exhausted after your 12 hour shift (and I don't blame you), then get your workout done before you go to work, even if you only have twenty minutes! Yeah, it might require you cutting your nap a bit shorter, but you'll actually do it! As far as the workout itself... You don't need to be going to a gym (though if you do, big lifts like squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, and pull ups are going to get you the best results - ask Staci), you can work out at home before your shift starts with a simple workout like the Beginner Bodyweight Circuit. We also have the Rebel Strength Guide which gives you more body weight routines and gym routines if you're looking for specific instruction and exercise demonstrations. If you are somebody that works a few days on (for long shifts) and a few days off, try this: a really intense strength building routine on your first day off from work and again on your last day. Two strength training days combined with walks and proper eating (on your work days) is more than enough to get you quality results. Still no time? Spread out the workout Don't be afraid of simply exercising , when you can. Check out the Angry Birds Workout and split up your workout throughout your shift: Do squats in the supply closet. Weirdo? YUP. Who cares? Push ups and planks in your cubicle. Pull ups on the bus stop overhang waiting to go to work? I've been there. with your desk and briefcase/backpack. Walking up the stairs on your break. Why not. It all adds up, and every little bit is better than nothing. The strength training benefits are key, but there's one other key benefit to exercising throughout the day. Just stay Active Along with strength training, just staying active will help you think healthy. I actually have a timer (FocusBooster) on my laptop that goes off every 15 minutes to remind me to get up, walk around, stretch, do some push ups, etc. Your phone can do the same thing! Technology, amazing. Stand up at your desk if you can - mix up standing and sitting. Go for a walk around the office. If you are a nurse or doctor you are probably already doing a considerable amount of walking to make your rounds, so keep it up. The reason staying active is so important is two-fold: Every little bit counts. That push up, those squats, that extra mile walked...they all add up! Your brain keeps thinking "I am active." Because it has to work more when you move! Remember, diet is 80% of your success or failure. When you exercise and constantly stay active, you are consistently reminding yourself that you are making healthier decisions, and these should carry over to your eating decisions too. Exercising and eating poorly is kind of like paddling a row-boat with one oar - you're just spinning in circles. Work both together and dominate! Exercising can make you smarter and more alert at work. Detailed incredibly well in the book Spark, studies have shown that exercising can increase brain activity and performance. Healthier on the outside, smarter on the inside=NERD FITNESS WIN. Take an active role in your health Remember, it comes down to one thing: taking an active role in your health. 1) Don't use the job as an excuse, and instead remind yourself that you are in control. You don't need anybody's permission to get healthy. 2) It adds up. Every little change. Every meal you switch up. Every minute of exercise. 3) Plan out your day. Spending 5 minutes identifying what you'll eat and when you'll work out makes you WAY more likely to actually follow through with it. Leave a comment and share your story and struggles with the Rebellion. I'd love to hear from you: Do you work a night shift or have funny hours? Have you had success and want to share your tips and tricks? Have a REALLY funky job and need more help (Deathstar operator, daytime student/nighttime superhero)? Post below and I'll see what I can do. Let's get weird with it. -Steve ### Photo source: cross-eyed owl, taco bell sign, red bull, smoothies, chips, [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/mofle/2088197145/sizes/l/in/photostream/]catdog

Hey all, hop on facebook and join the group I just created for this Sunday! I'll PM my cell out to anybody marked as attending for the day of. Feel free to bring a friend or any other gear you want to play with! Redtomato, I might be feeling your pain this Sunday. Played some basketball last night (for the first time in a long time) and might be still recovering from my battle wounds by Sunday. We can form our own team of semi-immobile people

Haha I like where your head is at

Awesome, sounds like the 16th works! Let's shoot for 1:00; I'll create a Facebook event a little closer to. (last time we did it here, but doing it on the Mall might be fun ) Mark your calendars. Recruit your friends! (I will supply some frisbees, but feel free to bring any other ball/disc/thingy)

How does Sunday the 16 or 23rd work for people?

Hey, I'm Steve, and I'm a nerd. When I started Nerd Fitness five years ago, I wanted to help people who identified themselves as Nerds: people who followed hobbies and pursuits outside of the mainstream. I wanted Nerd Fitness and the Rebellion to be like Charles Xavier's "School for the Gifted," except instead of everybody having mutant powers, we'd all have unique nerdy and fitness "powers." We'd get to discuss incredibly nerdy subjects while also learning about healthy eating, proper lifting techniques, and leveling up our lives. Honestly, this place has already become something bigger and better than I ever could have imagined, and we're just getting started. Today, whether or not you identify yourself as a Nerd, I want to tell you my thoughts on why being a Nerd is awesome. I also want to invite you to tell us why you're a Nerd, and be recognized for it. What makes a Nerd a Nerd? Do you have to like Dungeons and Dragons to be a Nerd? How about Star Trek or Star Wars? Computers and video games? In my humble opinion, Nerds are Nerds because they take their knowledge about a subject, "nerdy" or not, beyond the surface and dig into the layers beneath: Where normal people watch Game of Thrones on HBO, Nerds have read all of the books twice, spend hours debating the future of Westeros on message boards, and and have taught themselves High Valyrian. Where normal people might have loathed chemistry or physics class, Nerds fell in love with the endless possibilities of mixtures and experiments that could result from a day's class. Where normal people devote a few minutes a day to Angry Birds on their iPhones at the bus stop, Nerds devote hours upon hours to getting 100% on Dark Souls or maxing out their character in World of Warcraft. Where normal people might spend their evenings watching the latest reality TV show, Nerds might spend their time creating and crafting an epic story for their next table-top adventure. Now, going beyond the norm and fully immersing yourself in an interest or hobby is awesome, but oftentimes get Nerds ridiculed for being different: for not going with the flow or being part of the crowd. Sure, our parents always asked us: "If everybody jumped off a bridge, would you do the same?" to encourage us to think for ourselves, but society really expected us to be like everybody else. In grade school and in high school, being uber passionate about stuff (anything really), oftentimes resulted in bullying, weird looks, and a seat at the 'not cool' kids table. If we had nerdy passions, they would only be shared with our other nerdy friends, behind closed doors, and at night while everybody else was out. Fortunately, thanks to the power of the internet, we've come to learn that we're not alone in these passions. And more importantly, we've come to learn that being a Nerd is freaking awesome. Why being a Nerd is freaking awesome Two weeks ago, I stumbled across a video from a 'nerdy' conference where actor/nerd hero Wil Wheaton was speaking. A woman who plans on raising a nerdy daughter asked Wil to give her young child words of encouragement down the road. Wil did not disappoint. I found myself with a huge grin on my face as I watched Wil explain so succinctly what being a Nerd truly means, and why we need more Nerds in this world. WARNING: This might make you tear up a bit (it's pretty misty over here at NF HQ right now): In Wil's words: Being a Nerd is taking the time to really understand what goes on in the world instead of just riding the planet through space. When I was a little boy, people really teased us about that and made us feel like there was something wrong with us for loving [science, board games, books, etc.]. I think a lot of us have realized that being a nerd or a geek...is not about what you love, but how you love it. So there's going to be a thing in your life: sports, science, reading, fashion design, building things, telling stories, or taking pictures; the way you love that thing, and the way that you find other people that love that thing in the same way you do...that's what makes being a nerd awesome. Don't ever let anybody tell you that the thing that you love is something that you're not allowed to love. Being a Nerd means finding something you love and not being afraid to dig in 100%. It's about feeling connected, finding something that makes us feel alive, that makes life worth living, and then having the confidence to pursue it. Thanks Wil, the world needs more people like you. This is why the aspect of Nerd Fitness that I'm most proud of is the Nerd Fitness Community. I love seeing people with different nerdy passions (Firefly, Cosplay, Star Trek) and different fitness interests (power lifting, running, parkour, yoga) getting to be 100% themselves. Nerd out about our favorite passions and things we love while ALSO learning to be healthier? Hell yes! What kind of Nerd are you? I love getting emails from people saying: "I'm not a Nerd, but I enjoy your site...Though, I do love [something uber nerdy]." Guess what, you're a Nerd! Embrace it. As my friend Mars says, "The world needs you." This would suck without passionate people. I don't care if you nerd out about: sports, sports statistics,Dungeons and Dragons, sewing, knitting, Parkour, video games, science, rock/stamp/fossil collecting, table top games, reading, writing, photography, science fiction, gardening, rock climbing, yoga, LEGOs, MineCraft, cosplay, anime, travel, videography, art, drawing, music, performance, theater, archaeology, philosophy, movies, shows, ancient history, Greek and Roman mythology, whatever! Regardless of how nerdy your interests are, you'll have a home here on Nerd Fitness. I'll start us off: I'm Steve, and I'm a Nerd. I am a bookworm; I've read the Lord of the Rings series multiple times. I've read the Hobbit a half-dozen times. I read The Silmarillion so I could understand more of Middle-earth and its rich history. I love the A Song of Ice and Fire series. I think In the Name of the Wind was phenomenal, and I read Ready Player One in a single sitting. I've read the Harry Potter series probably three or four times, and I honestly can't wait to check out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter the next time I'm in Florida. I love ancient history, mythology, archaeology, and old churches. I love a good conspiracy theory. This is probably why Pillars of the Earth is one of my favorite books and Assassin's Creed II is one of my favorite games: they mix all of these things together so perfectly. I love gaming. I can beat Metroid Prime on GameCube in under three hours, thanks to devoting hours upon hours to watching on YouTube. I recently spent a good 40-50 hours tracking down platinum trophies for God of War I and God of War II, and now I'm playing God of War III and loving the Greek mythology. I've dumped probably 100 days (not hours, DAYS) worth of time into EverQuest and EverQuest II, which is why I'm so excited about building a real life MMO: Rising Heroes. True story: Five years ago, while on a particularly epic raid in EverQuest II, the components in my computer, which I built myself from scratch, fried from overclocking and I didn't have the money to fix it. So, I finally started dumping some serious hours into this crazy idea I had for a website helping Nerds get healthy. I think things worked out What does being a nerd mean to you? What are you passionate about? Leave a comment and be recognized. We're glad you're here. -Steve ### photos: danbo glasses, mario and luigi, Wil Wheaton, [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/dani3l3/1951073350/]Dungeons and Dragons

You hear it every day on TV: "The Perfect Workout Plan!" You read about it in every magazine: "The one secret you need to lose weight!" You find it on every fitness website: "Why this plan works and why that plan doesn't." It can be confusing, and it can be intimidating. Don't you worry though, as I've come up with a solution to determine the PERFECT workout plan that will get you the results you want and allow you to have success. Where did I find it? Trekking through the Amazonian jungle, I stumbled across an ancient training plan, written in hieroglyphics on the wall of an temple from a long lost civilization. Nope, that's not it. How about...Mad scientists created the world's most scientific 7-minute workout! Hmmm, nope. that's not it either. Here's how I really discovered the PERFECT WORKOUT PLAN. The Perfect Workout Plan I get a few emails a day from people asking me advice on what plan to train with. They want to know if the Rebel Fitness Guide is the perfect workout plan, or if they should be doing P90x, Insanity, a gymnastics routine, Couch To 5K, Yoga Strength, a bodybuilding routine, 7-Minute Abs, etc... Unfortunately, all routines tend to present different information, require different diets, and make an effort to present themselves as superior to all other training routines. So, I reply with something they probably don't want to hear, but need to hear: The BEST workout and diet plan is the plan that you actually follow through with. The best coaching, training plan, and/or diet plan based on your dietary needs doesn't mean ANYTHING if you don't actually follow through with it! I'm proud to say that the Rebel Fitness Guide has helped a ton of people (like Joe, Ryan, Veronica, and Bronwyn) get healthy, but it's not because it's the best plan in the entire world. It worked for them because they tried it out and it WORKED FOR THEM! The plan helped those people succeed because it lined up with the Triforce of Awesome of Nerd Fitness: Happy - You enjoy what you are doing; you can wake up with a smile on your face. Healthy - You can do the things you want to do without your body slowing you down, and you get a clean bill of health from your doctor. Feel great and look good naked - You feel comfortable in your own skin, you have confidence, and you don't think badly about yourself. Now, here's the thing: there are almost an infinite number of ways to accomplish those three goals, and every single person will have a different definition of what each of those things means. If you are a marathon runner, your ideal "look good naked" will certainly be different than somebody who wants to be a bodybuilder. If you hate lifting weights in a gym, your "happy" might be outdoor gymnastics or Parkour. "Healthy" might be running a mile in less than 6 minutes, being able to do 10 pull ups, or having low cholesterol. You know what? That is AWESOME. That's what makes us different, special, and weird. I once wrote an article called "What is Your Profession?", creating different character classes based on your fitness goals. This is one of Nerd Fitness's most popular and discussed articles (450+ comments). It was one of my favorite articles to write, and the start of Rising Heroes, a project that is currently in beta testing as we speak (Sign up for the email list if you'd like to learn more, as we'll be making another announcement on this really soon). The reason that article has resonated so well with Nerd Fitness Rebels is that WE ARE ALL DIFFERENT. Some of us are Warriors, others are Scouts or Monks, or Assassins or Druids. This is what makes the Nerd Fitness community so freaking great. Uh, so how do I pick which plan is right for me? "Thanks for nothing Steve, you just told me all options can work. What the heck do I do then?" For starters, your first step is to determine what your primary goals are, and what the most important thing is to you: If you want to run faster or improve your 5k time, then a running training program could work. If you just want to lose weight and get stronger, something like the Rebel Fitness Guide could work. If your goal is primarily to look good, a body building routine might work best for you. Now, I already know what your next response is going to be, because I get this ten times a day too: "Well, I want to lose some weight, build some muscle, and also build up more endurance." Here's the truth: your body can only do so many things at once, and the three goals above will pull your body in three completely separate directions. Although there are some people with crazy genetics that are exceptions, more often than not: If you want to build muscle: You need to eat more calories than you burn, which means you won't be losing weight or fat. These are two separate physiological processes, as building muscle requires fast twitch muscles, and you build those by doing fast-twitch activities. Building up your endurance with lots of long distance running puts more emphasis on your slow twitch muscles and makes building muscle way more difficult. If you want to lose weight, you need to eat a caloric deficit. Remember, you can't outrun your fork. And while strength training CERTAINLY helps you keep the muscle you have and allows you to get stronger, don't expect to put 20 lbs of muscle while losing 20 lbs of fat. If you want to get better at endurance, don't expect to also build a ton of muscle! Your body is going to use all of your excess calories to fuel your endurance instead of fueling the muscle building process. If you try to do all three at once, you'll never make true progress in any direction and get discouraged. Instead, pick one main focus for the next few months and build your training around that. Make that goal your primary focus, and then identify a plan that works around that. For example, my friend Ryan from Gold Medal Bodies wanted to perform a one-handed handstand, so he spent 14 WEEKS focusing on just that ONE movement. All other exercise was supplemental. His endurance probably suffered, he probably didn't build as much muscle as he could have following a bodybuilding routine, but he didn't care. He found something that he wanted to accomplish and built his training around it. These days, my goal is primarily focused on muscle and strength building, so I follow a routine that focuses on those things. I spend too much time traveling, I can't squat and deadlift much these days, and I play basketball on Tuesday nights: all of these things are taking away from my potential, but I'm happy (which means it's a routine I'm going to continue following through!). Find a routine that lines up with your goals, and as long as they make you happy and keep you healthy, you have my full support. I know what I want - what now? "Well, I have my goals, but how do I pick the right plan for that goal?" Do enough research to make you feel comfortable about starting that plan for your goals. Watch youtube tutorials, read up on basic workouts, and try to find somebody in your situation that has succeeded with that plan before (if possible). And then start. Like, now. Today. Don't become an underpants gnome. Pick a plan, and try it out for 30-60 days. Follow it to a T. Do exactly what they recommend, and then reevaluate. Here's the truth: ANY halfway decent plan will produce results, as long as you are consistent. How will you know if it's working? Remember: "That which gets measured, gets improved." You need to become your own guinea pig. Every two weeks, take more measurements or new photos and track your progress.Take notes on your workouts. Ask yourself: Am I feeling better? Am I looking better? Am I happy? If so, GREAT. KEEP DOING IT! If not, identify why you're not seeing results: Are you actually following the plan? Or are you cheating? Are there small adjustments you can make to improve your process? Are you trying to do too much? Are you trying to accomplish 30 goals at the same time instead of focusing on dominating just one or two? If after 6-8 weeks you don't see ANY results in any way (weight loss, strength increase, endurance improvement) - which I would highly doubt - Congrats! Cross it off your list, and move on to another one. Take the lessons you learned from your previous effort ("this worked, that didn't" or "I could NEVER stick with that"), and make an informed decision moving forward. Just don't keep trying to succeed in the same way that lead to no success last time, or you'll continue to get the same lackluster results. As long as you are tracking your progress with more than one metric, you should be able to tell if you are moving in the right direction! What if I don't fit in? "You will be judged...or you will be ignored" - Seth Godin I think it's important to have convictions in this world. I am a firm believer in these ideals, and I have built the programs and products at Nerd Fitness based around what I believe will help the greatest number of people have the greatest chance for success at the three goals above (happiness, healthiness, and looking-good-nakedness). That being said, I know there are a million and one ways for people to get healthy, and I love that. It's why our message board is segmented into guilds and classes: because everybody is different! Embrace your differences. Be thankful that we're not all clones of one another. We might be a tight-knit group, but we're a tight-knit group of misfits and weirdos, of oddballs and outsiders. Nothing makes me happier! If you want to focus on bodybuilding, more power to you. If you want to be a powerlifter, that's awesome. If you are a vegan (or paleo), there's no reason we all can't coexist! As long as you are happy AND healthy, keep doing what you are doing, and let others do the same. Just like in any quality MMO group, we need people of all different classes here at Nerd Fitness and in the Game of Life! Tell me what your goals are. I'd love to hear about what you're working on. What program are you following? Do you have a question on what to pick? Leave a comment and share your story with your fellow rebels! -Steve ### Today's Rebel Hero: Guillermo from south of the border, Mexico! Guillermo is a third year internal medical student, and has retaken control of his life, both in school and his training. He sent along this picture of him climbing a mountain down in Mexico on a recent adventure. Thanks for sharing Guillermo, and thanks for inspiring the Rebellion! Want to be the next Rebel Hero? Take a photo of you doing something epic in your Nerd Fitness gear and send it to contact@nerdfitness.com so we can feature you on the site! photo sources: beach, road split, egg, runner

Again this Sunday! Check this link for the details!

This is a guest post from my good friend/relationship & dating expert Lindsay Miller. With Nerd Fitness's tagline being "level up your life," I thought it was important for us to level up on the inside as well as the outside. We can change our outer appearance through strength training and better eating decisions, but oftentimes we forget about leveling up other parts of our lives too. Believe it or not, some of us nerds struggle with social skills (okay, a lot of us do, myself included), but it is something that can be learned. Take it away Lindsay! Do you wish you were better at talking to people? Did you use your 20 seconds of courage and then run out of steam? Once you learned how to approach people, did you struggle with what to say? Have you ever found yourself standing in the corner at a party? Maybe you didn’t even go to the party? Small talk, for better or worse, is a big part of social interaction. It’s the way we navigate the exciting uncertainty of new friendships and relationships. It greases the wheels of our interactions with other people and primes us for the deeper connections that follow. It’s the foundation of water cooler conversation, yes, but it’s far from frivolous—if you shy away from small talk, you may find that you have difficulty feeling connected to people, since it’s nearly impossible to skip right to the big stuff. Fortunately, it’s easy to get better at it! “Oof,” you might be thinking. Retract your oof, I say! It’s actually remarkably easy to level up your small talk skills. “So,” you’re now saying (since you kindly retracted your oof), “If it doesn't take tons of time and energy to improve, then what does it take?” Thankfully my dear rebel friend, it just takes the desire to improve (you’re reading this article: check), the willingness to try (you’re a member of the Rebellion: double check), and four simple keys to keep in mind. What are these keys? Every person and every conversation is different, but all good small talk has four things in common... Key #1: Good small talk is happy The main reason we human folk seek to connect with one another is that it scratches a social itch. Our social needs are just like hunger and thirst—we eat, drink, and talk to people because there’s a gap between our actual state (hungry/thirsty/lonely) and our ideal state (satiated/quenched/connected). Your brain is saying, “Dude, mind helping me out a little? I’m not where I want to be.” The whole idea here is to feel better after than we did before. You ever talk to people who are in a super sour mood? It’s kind of contagious, isn’t it? Unless you happen to be friends with people who can make crankiness charming (such as professional comedians and/or giant puppies woken up from deep slumber), it’s usually a bit of a bummer. Let’s not be bummers! Let’s be those other kind of people, the ones who leave our conversational partners in good moods after they talk to us. Engaging in happy small talk isn't just good for the people we talk to, by the way—it helps us as well. “Fake it ‘til you make it” is more than just a catchy rhyme. The idea that acting a certain way encourages us to be that way has been around since Aristotle’s time. Take a look at his quote (from over 2,300 years ago!): “Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way. We become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.” Turns out the man knew what he was talking about. A team led by Fritz Strack showed in 1988 showed that simply holding a pen in your mouth in a way that simulates the muscle movements of smiling makes cartoons seem funnier than when you hold it between your lips like a straw; other studies have shown that merely crossing your arms can make you more persistent! So the next time you’re feeling surly and looking for a change, challenge yourself to talk to someone in a more upbeat way and see if that helps shake it off. I’m not suggesting you bop around like sunshine and fairy dust, but isn't it powerful to realize that by simply chatting with another person in a positive way, you can walk away from the conversation with both you and them feeling better off? (Feel free to give a little mental fist bump to Aristotle when you see how well this works.) Key #2: Good small talk is thoughtful Good small talk adapts in real-time, thoughtfully and attentively applying to whatever is happening in the moment. This may sound overwhelming at first, especially if you like to plan things to say out in advance. The trick is to take a step back and pick one thing, any thing, on which to focus your attention. There’s a finite list of what this thing will be: Whether it’s sunny, rainy, or snowy, that’s weather. Whether it’s a street parade, an art exhibit, or a hot tub limousine driving by, that’s scenery. Whether it’s someone with crazy shoes, a guy doing back handsprings, or a woman swinging from a chandelier, that’s people. Whether it’s a cute baby, a fluffy puppy, or a cool book, that’s belongings. See how all of a sudden you can imagine having one or two prepared responses that can still perfectly apply to even the most novel of situations? Now, this may only get you as far as your first or second line within a conversation, after which you may need to start coming up with stuff in the moment. But the same logic of “step back/pick one thing” applies here too, and will help you keep from getting overwhelmed or panicking about what to say. Here’s an example: You: “I think I literally saw a cat and a dog raining down from the sky today.” Them: “Ha! I know, right? I thought it was supposed to be spring.” You: “It must be really tough to be a weatherman. You’re either stating the obvious or you’re a liar.” Them: “My cousin is a weatherman.” Curveball! You haven’t prepared anything about weatherman cousins! But this is interesting and novel enough to justify a conversational tangent all its own (and could fall under the category of jobs, if you wanted to add it to your earlier list). Try a simple question. You: “Oh, interesting. How’d he or she get into that?” Before you know it, you’re having a unique conversation, not banal "small talk". You’re also learning things about your conversational partner (and they about you), which will help you build from one-off conversations with strangers to consistent friendships and relationships with people. Challenge yourself to identify these “one things” (weather, books, back handsprings) as you’re out interacting with people. Use the comfort of a prepared line to open with if you like, but with the goal of finding something interesting that’s happening in that moment to comment on. Your conversations will instantly be more thoughtful, and the people you’re talking to will feel it, too. Key #3: Good small talk is quirky My cousin Kim met my fiancé for the first time a few months ago. As soon as we all sat down, she said to him, “Tell me every single thing about yourself, starting from birth, and ending with right now.” I thought it was just about the greatest thing I’ve ever heard. If my friend Jess is at someone’s house for the first time, she’ll say, “If I were the bathroom, where would I be?” She gets the answer-- and a chuckle. My friend David struck up a conversation with a cute girl in Jiffy Lube by asking her if she thought the guy in the waiting room looked like a beagle. He called me to thank me for introducing him to his girlfriend. These examples all have in common the theme of turning awkwardness into awesomeness. They’re about being confident, not being smooth. Sometimes dialing up the awkward dial can be just what everyone needs to loosen up a little, like when my friend Mike starts his presentations at work by saying, “If I seem incredibly nervous, it’s because I am indeed incredibly nervous.” It’s a bold strategy, to be sure, but it can be incredibly refreshing. There’s something undeniably fun about someone who says, “I’m hugely overcaffeinated right now, so I may pass out at some point. How was your weekend?” In short, don’t feel pressure to rigidly adhere to some abstract notion of what small talk should be, losing all of your own delightful personality in the process. You’re a member of the Rebellion, after all! You challenge conventional wisdom and embrace the weird every day-- let small talk be no exception. Key #4: Good small talk is imprecise Remembering the little things? Sweet. Remembering every little thing? Creepy. I happen to be in possession of a frighteningly good memory; I remember specific conversations (as well as where they took place, and what we were wearing) with people who couldn’t pick me out of a lineup. I’m absolutely the person who goes up to people and says, “You’re a chiropractor? We sat next to each other on a plane from L.A. to San Francisco about a year ago, right?” Yes, right… but it didn’t matter. The dude was thoroughly creeped out, and I couldn’t blame him! I’ve had to learn to hold back a little (okay, a lot) and not spew forth with every single thing I remember about my last conversation with someone the next time I see them. Instead of saying: “Hey, how was that conference you went to in Phoenix?” go with, “You were going out of town when I saw you last, right? “Is your upper left molar feeling any better?” go with, “Hey, how’s it going?” Like a good hairdo or pocket square, it sometimes takes a bit of effort in conversation to make it seem effortless, but it’s far preferable to freaking people out. Take your time. With each conversation, you’re watering a healthy plant, not dousing a fire. In fact, leaving a bit unsaid is probably the best way to ensure future conversations, and give you something to talk about next time! Besides, when you're imprecise, you allow the other person to narrow in on a topic that they are comfortable with, rather than forcing them to talk about their upper left molar! Start talkin' With these four keys in mind, you’re ready to start small talkin’. Challenge yourself to approach one person a day and strike up a conversation, even if it’s brief. Like everything else we do in life, good social skills can be learned, developed, honed, and improved. Though, it's really tough to practice unless you commit to TRYING it out. And who cares if the conversation goes poorly? Failure is awesome. Odds are you will NEVER see that person again in your life, and your life is no different now than it was 5 minutes before the conversation. Of course the opposite could be true: you could meet somebody awesome. And there's only one way to find out which outcome you're gonna get. If you’re feeling really rusty, give it a shot with a friend or family member and ask for a little feedback afterward. If you’re feeling bold, approach someone you wouldn't normally talk to. If you draw a blank, ask a question. Breathe, smile, listen. Most of all, remember why you’re doing this, and remind yourself that you’re not imposing on someone by having a pleasant conversation with them—you’re making their day a bit brighter, and you should never be made to feel bad about that. As always, I’m very interested to hear what you think, and how these lessons feel when you take them out for a spin. We all crave regular social interaction; you might be surprised by how easy being good at small talk really is! What are your major hangups with small talk? Where do you plan to give these tricks a try? ### Check out Lindsay on Twitter @RellimYasdnilor send questions/comments at loveanddatingadvice@gmail.com. photo source: lego small talk, happy, thoughtful, imprecise, quirky, storm trooper

"These aren't the droids you're looking for." With one sentence and a simple waving of his hand, Obi Wan Kenobi became the coolest guy in the world to 5-year-old Steve. I couldn't help but wonder how great it would be to possess the powers of the Force like this Jedi master, getting in or out of situations that I couldn't normally, simply through the powers of persuasion. Now, unfortunately the Force has yet to be officially discovered in this Galaxy (or has it?), but it doesn't mean we can't actually use Jedi mind tricks on OURSELVES to live healthier lives. Although you'll hear everywhere that "eating less and moving more is the key to losing weight," I would argue that conquering the mental battle before the physical one is the real key to weight loss and healthy living. Here's what I mean: our brains are incredible pieces of technology, and they tend to get in the way of our quest to get healthy. Whether it's eating too much accidentally, or tricking ourselves into rationalizing and justifying unhealthy behavior, our brains have the ability to move us towards a better life, or closer to the dark side. Here are 5 of my favorite tactics you can use to Jedi mind-trick yourself into living better. Use smaller glasses, plates, and bowls Yup, I realize this sounds absolutely crazy. The problem with that argument is that this actually works. Back in February I was down in Brazil for Carnival (crossing a few things off the Epic Quest) staying in hotels in a few different spots throughout the country, and realized something peculiar: all of their plates, bowls, and cups were TINY! They had breakfast buffets, like we do in the US, (with a lot of the same unhealthy foods that we have) but there was a few key differences: The glasses that you could use for drinking juice? Maybe 4 ounces. The plates to get your food? The size of a side plate. The bowls for cereal? Smaller than our soup bowls. Compare this to a typical American setup: massive plates designed to allow you to stack your food sky high, bowls so large you could fit an Ewok in them, and glasses/cups that will hold massive amounts of your favorite beverage. Right now, you're thinking "Steve, that's ridiculous. If they are smaller plates, I'd just get two or make an extra trip." Or maybe, "Here in America, the plate size doesn't matter, I eat until I'm full." To that, I reply, " " It turns out, we are pretty bad at being consciously aware of the food we eat -- by simply tinkering with your plate or cup, you will eat more or less and not even know it! "Prove it, Kamb!" you might be saying. Sure. Researchers at Cornell University wanted to test serving size and overconsumption of movie theater popcorn. They told movie goers they wanted to ask them questions about the m0vie afterwards, and they would be given free popcorn before. Some people were given a medium or large size tubs of fresh popcorn, while others were given a medium or large size tubs of 14-day old stale popcorn. What happened? People with large tubs of fresh popcorn ate 45.3% more than people with medium sized tubs. People with large tubs of STALE popcorn? They ate 33.6% more than those with medium sized tubs. IT WAS 14 DAY OLD POPCORN!!! It looks like size does matter. If you struggle with portion control, shrink the size of the serving devices you use when feeding yourself. Not only that, but I believe this study has shown us something else as well: Practice Mindful Eating Think back to yesterday: how many times did you eat a meal or snack while doing something else? I bet it went something like this: Ate breakfast while watching the news and checking email Ate a snack at my desk while checking email and working on a project Ate lunch during a meeting and listened to Jim talk about TPS reports. Ate some candy at Carol's desk while taking a break Ate dinner in front of the TV watching Duck Dynasty Late night snack while playing Bioshock: Infinite Notice a pattern? We have become so indoctrinated with multitasking and doing so many things at once that it's crept into our eating habits. Don't pull a Homer Simpson. Now, as you've seen from the previous research study about mindless eating while at a movie, where moviegoers ate buckets of 14-day old stale popcorn, eating while also performing another task is a great way to overeat yourself to extra calories. In another experiment, researchers gave soup to two groups of people. The catch? One of the groups' bowls were secretly being refilled as they ate! The people who ate from the rigged bowls ate 73% more soup, and didn't rate themselves as being more full! The best part? They didn't even notice they ate almost twice as much! As the author put it, "In effect, people use their eyes to count calories and not their stomachs." Plus, it turns out, distracted eaters actually do consume more calories than people who are focused on eating. I challenge you this: today, you are only allowed to EAT. You cannot "Eat and ________." You can have a conversation with the people at your table if you're eating a meal with your family or friends, but that's it: No eating at your desk while working. No eating while watching TV. No eating while checking email on your phone. No eating while gaming (besides, you're mucking up the controller. Stop that!) If you are going to eat something you need to be focused on JUST EATING. Think about what you're putting into your body, and enjoy each bite. Speaking of bites... Advanced food tactics Another batsh** crazy idea that doesn't make a lot of sense, until you think about it: According to results published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, chewing food 40 times instead of a typical 15 times caused study participants to eat nearly 12 percent fewer calories. Now, I take every "study" I read with a major amount of skepticism: after all, I don't believe there's any physiological change that results from chewing food more often. At least not directly. Instead, I believe this tactic works because it forces you to do a few important things: Enjoy/savor your food. Rather than engulfing your meal in five minutes and moving on as quickly as possible, you're actually taking the time to enjoy each bite of it. Eat slowly. It is said that it takes around 20 minutes or so for our brain to get the message from our stomach that it's full. When you eat a meal in five minutes, your brain never gets that message! If you SLOW down, and lengthen the time it takes you to eat, your brain gets that message sooner and you'll feel full sooner. Now, this tactic is predicated on not changing what you eat, but rather the quantity of food you're consuming. Although not all calories are created equal, we're huge fans of small changes, and adjusting quantity of food is a great first step. Another tactic that works for this? Putting your fork down between every bite. A challenge, for sure, but it makes you stop and think, "do I really need to eat this whole thing? Am I full?" Create a trigger for change My friend Derek Halpern wanted to kick his horribly addicting soda habit. Derek is one of the most driven, successful, and intelligent people I know, and yet he couldn't get healthy. Sound like anybody you know? Really smart, but can't seem to break an unhealthy habit or cycle? Fortunately for Derek, he's a student of psychology, and understood the importance of making a trigger for himself. He simply made one tiny change to his life that lead him to dropping high calorie drinks and losing fifteen pounds. What was the change? He put his scale in front of his refrigerator. Every time he went to the fridge to get another soda, he had a subtle reminder that he was trying to lose weight, and that he probably didn't need that extra soda. It reminded him that he was working towards something. He'd go to open the fridge, see the scale, and ask himself, "do I REALLY need another one?" What sort of trigger can you add to the habit you're trying to break or build? Because we are constructed of our habits, creating a change requires us to be mindful of that habit for the first 30 days or else the habit won't stick. We use up willpower when we make a new habit, so we need to be reminded of that habit constantly with a trigger or mental switch of sorts. I use post-it notes as my triggers. I post them them EVERYWHERE: Bathroom mirrors - "I FLOSS AFTER BRUSHING MY TEETH" Counter tops- "I AM NEVERY LATE TO ANYTHING" Laptop - "I WALK AROUND EVERY 15 MINUTES" Desk - "DO IT NOW" When I'm building a new habit, I use these post it notes to remind myself of the habit I'm trying to create. You can do the same: create a reminder (post-it notes, a calendar reminder, an app with pop-up notifications, whatever!) that allows you to stay on target. Increase the steps between you and a bad habit This one might be my favorite. Instead of trying to outsmart yourself with Jedi mind tricks, use your own laziness to your advantage. A friend of mine felt like he was addicted to television and watched WAY too much of it. Want to know what his solution was? He put his TV in his closet. When he came home from work and wanted to plop down on the couch to watch some mindless reality show, he had to ask himself: "Do I care enough about this show to get up, open the closet, take out the TV, plug it back in, set it up, and then turn it on?" For many occasions, the answer to that was "hell no, that's a lot of work, I'll just read a book or do ANYTHING ELSE instead." If you are trying to break a bad habit, increase the number of steps between you and that task: Don't keep cookies on the counter. Put them in a container, in the closet, or downstairs. Out of sight, out of mind. Perform a great purge. Chuck all of the bad food in your house. Tough to cheat by eating bad foods when you have to get into your car and drive to the store just to get them. Less willpower required when they're not in your cabinets! Cancel your cable. If you want to watch your favorite shows, purchase them for 2 bucks on iTunes or watch on Hulu or Netflix. Tough to spend extra time watching crappy shows on TV when you are legitimately unable to do so, or have to fork over cash each time! Turn on Self-Control. Addicted to going to Facebook, Twitter, and Perez Hilton at work? Being less than productive? Turn on Self-Control so you are locked out of those sites until your work is done. This is the tactic I've used to increase my productivity by 100000% (approximately). Don't turn off your targeting computer until you're ready Young Jedi, there are still things you must learn before you can save the Galaxy. We're damn smart creatures, and unfortunately we allow our brains to drift when it should be mindful. We allow our brains to rationalize the irrational and justify the unjustifiable. We need to use our targeting computer during the first month of building a new habit, until that habit becomes automatic and we can turn it off. For that reason, I recommend only picking one or two tactics from above to implement at once for the next thirty days. REMEMBER: our goal isn't to drop a bunch of weight quickly and miserably, only to put it all back on two months later. Our goal is to have life long success, happiness, and bring balance to the Force. What are your favorite mind-tricks to help keep yourself on task? Which ones did I miss out on? Leave a comment with your answers, and may the Force be with you, always. -Steve ### Today's Rebel Hero: Maniacal Mitch from the land down under!! Running in The Great Tribal Chase around Sydney, Mitch dominated the competition, obliterating the course record by two hours. Unfortunately, after the race it was determined that his Nerd Fitness shirt qualified as a performance enhancer, and Mitch was disqualified. Not that I'm surprised, my shirt gave me the power of levitation... Okay, so maybe none of those things happened. But Mitch did kick some serious ass in the Great Tribal Chase! Want to be the next Rebel Hero? Take a photo of you doing something epic in your Nerd Fitness gear and send it to contact@nerdfitness.com so we can feature you on the site! photo source: R2D2 and C3p0, xwing, eating, kiwi, button, stairs

https://www.facebook.com/events/410822879017064/ Invite friends

Haven't heard anything yet so I haven't thrown up the meetup yet on fb!

Let's shoot for 2:00 this Sunday? Anyone need to +/- that by an hour? Will post meetup information tomorrow on facebook (and bring along a frisbee or soccer ball as well).

This is a guest post from Khaled Allen. Imagine that you are Spider-Man. You're reading Nerd Fitness, so I'm guessing this isn't too much of a challenge. What's the first thing you would do with your new powers? Probably something like webslinging around your city, scaling the side of a building, and hanging upside down just for the hell of it, right? You're not alone: after all, it's these scenes in the Spider-Man movies that are . We want to BE Spider-Man in those moments, playfully exploring new powers, free of danger and full of creativity. Essentially, it's like a kid on Christmas morning. Wouldn’t it be great if workouts could feel like that (and not something that you have to suffer through)? Spider-Man’s big appeal is that he’s playful. He seems to genuinely enjoy climbing walls, swinging from skyscrapers, and popping flips around the bad guys. He even cracks jokes in the middle of fights. Spider-Man is having fun, and this playfulness characterizes the way he moves, fights, and trains. I’m here to tell you that you can use play to explore your abilities in ways more creative and empowering than the limited, controlled movements of a standard workout. It's okay to act like a kid, and it can be incredibly beneficial! Let’s learn how. Benefits of Play Play workouts (or playouts) have a number of benefits over traditional workouts. First and most importantly, a playout isn’t about building muscle, losing weight, or perfecting a routine - A playout is about figuring out the best way to interact with the environment in order to meet your goals. It shifts your focus from internal to external. It is about solving problems and having fun. Watch any (a real life Spider-Man?) and you'll want to go outside and roll around. A playout integrates multiple movement patterns to overcome an obstacle - For example, Spider-Man’s web swing requires accurate aim, powerful jumping, swinging, and climbing. Excelling at these skills individually wouldn’t help, since Spider-Man needs to transition between them seamlessly to make the move work. In the gym you might train pullups and dips separately, but if you need to climb a tree, you’ll use both in sequence, as well as weird variations of each that blur the lines. This is the basis of Parkour. Playouts involve more exploration and improvisation than traditional workouts. There is no ‘right’ way to do anything when you’re playing. There are only more and less efficient ways. Which you choose will depend on your skill and level of fitness. If a regular workout is like building a model with instructions, playouts can be thought of as using a giant box of LEGOs: there will be many ways to build the same object, and your model’s complexity depends on how comfortable you are with the blocks. Designing Your Perfect Playout Having a good playout requires that we think differently about exercise. Remember, rule #9 of the Rebellion: We Question Everything. 1. Find a play area In his latest cinematic adventure, Peter Parker goes to a shipyard to play with his skateboard, but he co-opts the ramp and chains in the dry dock to start practicing his spidey swings. Nothing he interacts with in that scene was meant to be used for spidey training, but he thinks outside the box and finds his own challenges, seeing how far he can push his abilities. The first step to a successful playout is to identify a problem you’d like to solve. This requires that you learn how to see situations creatively. The more varied the environment, the better, but you can get pretty creative with just a park bench if you know how to view it. Good places to start include: Playgrounds Parks with benches, rocks, and fences Skate parks Sculpture gardens The wilderness 2. Explore your options Once Peter started playing with the shipyard chains, he spent some time figuring out different ways to interact with them. He climbed them but found that swinging worked better, and later discovered that he could swing from one to the other. Once you have your problem, discover different with ways to interact with it. Start with the obvious, but don’t stop there. This is where you can get creative, be silly and try things that may not work. Make an effort to try movements that are unusual or novel, or even unnecessarily elaborate For example, dealing with a park bench, you could: Crawl over or under it (break it down further: bear crawl, military crawl, shrimp, crab walk) Jump over it Jump on top and down Dive and roll over Vault it Move it Simply go around it Climb the overhanging tree and swing over You don't have to be as acrobatic as , but every little bit counts! 3. Groove the individual movements Spend 5-10 minutes with each element in your play area and work on your form. Good form here means the move starts to feel more natural and less effortful. Focus on efficiency and comfort, and figure out what feels best for you. If you get bored, move on to another element. The goal is to maintain a high level of mental and emotional engagement, so you learn faster and stay alert, thus avoiding sloppiness and injury. 4. Start building movement combos Once you have experimented with different ways to approach each segment of your play area, start putting them together and moving through the environment. Start with two obstacles and one transition and go slowly, focusing on smoothness of execution. This can be as simple as crawling across a field to a bench, transitioning to your feet, and jumping onto the bench. Once you have drilled that a few times, it will feel more natural and you’ll hesitate less. At this point, you can start adding additional pieces to the front or back of your combo. Try jumping off the bench Then add a roll to the landing Then try to smoothly transition to a sprint after the roll If there are objects around, make them part of the game; do a relay with rocks or logs, carrying them through your course. As you start to get a feel for the pattern, it will go faster naturally, so don’t rush. Conditioning will come after sufficient skill and strength for safety. 5. Check for mistakes The first time the (soon to be) Amazing Spider-Man used his webslinger to make an escape, he ended up swinging right into a bus. Ow. Clearly, he needed to spend some time refining that move. Here are some things to look out for that can alert you to the need to go back and refine your form: If you keep banging one spot of your body every time you do a move, make adjustments: check your posture, be sure you are staying tight, or slow it down or find a simpler variation. If a movement is generally jarring or jerks you around, refine your movement pattern until it feels smoother. Again, change the speed of the movement or try a variation. Look out for this on landings especially. Jarring is also an indicator of fatigue and might be a sign that it is time to wrap up your play session. If you find it difficult to maintain balance or stick your landings when you rush into an element of a playout, slow down on that segment and spend some more time drilling precision and balance. Fatigue also affects these abilities. 6. Make it social No matter how much he practiced on his own, Spider-Man could never really develop the skill necessary to save New York until he went out and tested his powers with villains. While I don’t suggest you go out and try to break up muggings, having a partner to challenge and encourage you can make a huge difference in your training, and play lends itself very well to social workouts. There are some things you can do with a partner that you simply can’t do alone. The options are endless, but here are some ideas to get you started: Toss sticks back and forth while running or balancing Have them throw (light) stuff at you while you go through your course Race each other Create cooperative rules: try running through the course with the rule that a move cannot be used more than once by either person Make a game out of it. This is play, after all. Tips and Tricks The first time you to playout, it may be stilted and awkward. It’s very hard to think outside the box we’ve become accustomed to. Most people stop playing long before they become adults; the wild, free creativity of youth gives way to organized sports as early as elementary school. You'll probably get funny looks. That's great. Embrace the weird! Luckily, we can take some pointers from Peter Parker and inject the same sense of joyful exuberance Spider-Man brings to everything he does: Always warm up. Just because it’s play doesn’t mean it’s not intense, and varied movements can take you by surprise. You can warm up with low-intensity play, like crawling, low walking, and balancing. Give yourself plenty of time. Play is creative and suffers under pressure, just like any other creative endeavor. If you feel even a little rushed, you will default to movements you are familiar with in an attempt to get through the challenge as quickly as possible. Repetition will help you see more options. You will actually get more creative with successive iterations. Let a problem stew for a few days, and revisit the same play area more than once, so that you can elaborate upon your previous movements. Don’t try to get a workout. If you approach play with the intention of conditioning, you may unconsciously restrict yourself to movements you associate with traditional workouts. Don’t worry so much about whether a movement is good exercise or if you know the ‘right’ way to deal with something. Everyday spidey play When you’re training to be a superhero, there are no off days. Spider-Man knew this, but he also genuinely had fun with his powers, like doing his homework hanging upside down in his room. In the same way, you can use the mindset of playfulness to add some extra movement and practice into your everyday life, and more movement is always a good thing. With a bit of creativity, you don’t even have to go out of your way. Walking down the street, try balancing on curbs or precision jumps between paving tiles. While waiting for a bus, practice single-leg balancing. Use squats to get stuff out of your refrigerator. Jump and down stairs, challenging yourself to cover more steps. The more options you can see, the more freedom you have. Fighting crime is serious business, but even superheroes should get to enjoy their powers every now and then...without worrying about the fate of the world. So try adding a playout or two to your weekly routine in between strength training or running. Where do you plan to try your first playout? Khaled teaches MovNat in Boulder, CO, and writes about living with integrity, embodying excellence, and overcoming fear on his blog, Warrior Spirit. ### photo source: spider-man job, mosiac, kids, jungle gym

Cool, let's do that. I'll also post on facebook and maybe we can grab some Rebels who aren't on the boards.