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 Mr. Wizard 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:

Why You Got Fat Video

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.

This video 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 = Bowser evil.

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 Louis CK hilariously points out (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

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Photo source: action figure and sugar pile, beaker, measurement, alternatives, candy wall, frozen food, juice, fruit, candy, sugar spoon, dixie sugar, sugar cafe,opportunity

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 here and there, 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.
• Dumbbell rows 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:

1. Every little bit counts.  That push up, those squats, that extra mile walked…they all add up!
2. 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!
3. 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

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Photo source: cross-eyed owl, taco bell sign, red bull, smoothies, chips, catdog

From Zelda to Mario, Call of Duty to World of Warcraft, video games have discovered fundamental principles that can teach us how to live better, happier lives.  After all, there’s a reason Nerd Fitness’s tagline has always been: “level up your life.”

No, I’m not talking about losing yourself in Sims or Second Life.

I’m talking about happiness IRL.

Does Success Equal Happiness?

How many times have you said to yourself:

• “If I just had more money, I’d be happy.”
• “If I just had a bigger TV/car/house, I’d be happy.”
• “If I just looked more like that guy/girl, I’d be happy.”
• “If I just got that promotion, I’d be happy.”

We oftentimes tie our happiness to our success on what we don’t have. Certainly ambition is important, but are we deluding ourselves by interlocking the two?

Harvard University psychologist Daniel Gilbert’s explains in Stumbling on Happiness that psychologists have “…concluded that wealth increases human happiness when it lifts people out of abject poverty and into the middle class but that it does little to increase happiness thereafter.”

In other words, once we reach a certain threshold of “financial stability,” more money generally means we spend more money on more things we don’t need (our minds quickly rationalize and adjust so that this new FANCY thing becomes normal almost immediately). Soon we’re unsatisfied and “need” something even more fancy/shiny/big…thus continuing our current path to keep up with that level of consumption.

Long story short, science has shown that oftentimes more “things” do not make us happier. But is this really news?

Unfortunately, our economy is predicated on us consuming more, buying more, buying bigger, or buying the newest thing; thus we’re taught we need those things in order to be happy (which is a lie).

Ever heard of the Adaptation Level Principle?

Researchers looked at two groups of people: people who just won the lottery and people who had recently become paraplegics.

Initially, unsurprisingly, the lottery winners experienced extremely high happiness and the paraplegic group was simply devastated. But this soon faded, and one year later both groups were more or less equally happy.

More than that, paraplegics reported being happier in everyday tasks than the lottery winners.

As it turns out, seeking happiness by chasing bigger/better/newer/shinier quickly fades, and our new ‘happy’ from those things quickly becomes our new ‘normal.’  Believe it or not, this mindset can be unproductive and outright dangerous.

So, I’m not supposed to succeed or compete?

I can hear you now: “Well that’s just great Steve, so what am I supposed to do? Start making my own pants and live in a cave?”

Don’t worry, that’s not what I’m suggesting.  And I know exactly what you’re thinking. Hell, one of my life goals is to “buy an island.”  Good luck doing that without trying to be successful, right?

What I AM saying, is that your monetary worth has FAR less of an impact on your happiness than a ton of other factors in your life.

I recently came across a quote from Walt Disney that I’ve truly taken to heart: “We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.”

In layman’s terms: Spending 60 hours a week for 40 years in a job you hate, to buy things you don’t need, to impress people you don’t like…is a shitty (yeah I swore, sorry Grandma!) way to go through life.

We have a finite amount of time on this planet, and we need to decide how and where our time, energy, and attention is spent.

To borrow a quote from the late Senator Paul Tsongas (who quit politics when he found out he had terminal cancer), “ I never met a man on his deathbed who said he wished he had spent more time at work.”

“Well, what do I do then, Steve? Just quit my job and sell all of my stuff? I have a wife/kids/mortgage/etc. Be real.”

While that’s not the worst idea you’ve ever had (quitting my job and selling all of my stuff to go on adventures helped get me where I am today), we can take much smaller steps to work towards a happier life.

The Progress Principle

Have you ever played a role playing game, where you have to grind out hours of killing bad guys to level up?

Or maybe spent wayyy too many hours playing a game long after it was fun just to get that final achievement/trophy?

To many people, this might seem crazy! How can nerds do this seemingly mechanical, repetitive thing and call it fun!?

The answer?

The Progress Principle. 

The experience bar, the skill tree, the achievement system.

It turns out, we LOVE making progress.

We love making progress so much that we actually enjoy it more than getting the thing we wanted in the first place! It doesn’t need to be big progress, it just needs to be enough that we realize we are moving forward, improving, getting better. So when you see your roommate killing rats and spiders in World of Warcraft, only to return three hours later to find him doing the exact same thing, one thing has changed: he is that much closer to the next level.

Incremental improvement can be addictive.

These short term wins release dopamine, and we want more.

For us nerds, the Progress Principle can be directly and immediately applied to our lives. It tells us that we need to find a way to make small improvements and recognize those small improvements to increase our happiness. After all, if we don’t see our experience bar moving up after spending three hours killing rats, what good did it do?

So how does this apply to real life?

• Fitness – Ensure with each workout you are doing something better, stronger, or faster than the previous workout. Just as importantly, make sure you recognize that you are improving. This might mean writing down each workout and regularly reflecting on how much more awesome you are, sharing your weekly stats with friends or family or in the Woot Room, or even finding a way to fully gamify your experience. The important thing here is that we capture the benefits of the progress principle, get your brain to release that dopamine, and get you HOOKED on working out and becoming better.
• Work/School – We know that workers who are expanding their skill sets and regularly able to find solutions to day to day challenges are far happier and productive than people who don’t. As Teresa Amabile demonstrates in this TED Talk, ensuring that employees are improving is absolutely essential to keeping morale and productivity high. When you feel like you are stuck in status quo, happiness plummets. Are you stuck in a job that’s going nowhere or where your skills aren’t properly utilized? Do you feel like you aren’t learning anything new in school? I’d bet a Master Sword that picking a new skill you enjoy and working to improve it will make you happier.

Find ways to improve, and find ways to reward yourself with things that reward you back.

Find “the zone”

As Jonathan Haidt describes in his book, the Happiness Hypothesis, us mammals have a basic need to “make things happen”:

Harry Harlow, a famous psychologist who studied rhesus monkeys, once took his students to the zoo. They unexpectedly found that the monkeys solved problems simply for fun. Now at the time this confused behaviorists, since they believed that all animals only reacted to positive or negative reinforcements: a prize for doing something good, or punishment for doing something bad.

It turns out, this drive is inherent in us all.

As children we seek out toys to learn more about our world, to solve simple problems and engage with our environment. As adults we love to feel productive, and similarly feel a void when we sit around doing nothing.

When we are productive and happy, Haidt defines this as “flow,” or in “the zone”: a state where you are incredibly immersed in the task at hand while incredibly productive and happy.

So, find what you like to do and be great at it. Work towards finding a job that excites you (instead of the one that pays the most money), a hobby that ignites you, and a workout that immerses you. The goal is to present yourself with challenges that you are capable of overcoming that still challenge and engage all of your attention.

Find something that is ambitious yet achievable.

“But Steve, I’m in a job that I hate and I don’t get to do things that I like or enjoy.”  Quit.  Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But take one step every day to improve your skills that you do enjoy on your own, or take steps to find a job (or create your own) that does allow you to work on things that you enjoy.

“But what if I make less money?”  Just like your brain quickly adjusts to having more and bigger things, your brain will do the same for smaller and less things.  Be ruthless and cut out the crap you don’t need.  The freedom to spend your days working on something that excites you is priceless compared to a job that pays you a lot of money to work on something you hate.

“I just graduated college and I’m looking for my first job, any advice?” Chase the job that inspires you and makes you feel like you’re making an impact.  Don’t chase the dollar signs. Be okay with living with less. Work hard at a job that you love and you’ll have a greater chance of succeeding (and thus eventually making more money) because you actually care about what you’re doing.

To quote the late, great Steve Jobs:  

“I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

Work on your passion daily

Now, I could write books on getting out of jobs that make you unhappy, but James Altucher, one of my blogging heroes, has already written a great article about it.

I know that’s easier said than done (though not as difficult as you might think), but that doesn’t mean you cannot challenge yourself to find “the zone” and “flow” in other parts of your life.

What sort of activities do you enjoy outside of work? Knitting? Karate? Learning a language? Playing a musical instrument? Painting? Hiking?

Find a way to make time for these things as often as possible.  Challenge yourself to make room for them in a busy day, for we all know that “I don’t have time” is a big fat lie.

For example, I’m currently blocking off time to play the piano or guitar for 30 minutes a day; if I don’t make it a priority, I’ll always find some more work to do. And more work isn’t always the better decision.

Who’s in your fellowship?

So, other than exercising more, finding more things you love and spending less time on things you don’t, what else affects our happiness?

For starters: spend more time surrounded by the people you love, and less time surrounded by people who drag you down.

As Christopher McCandless famously quoted before passing away (as noted in Into the Wild): “Happiness is only real when shared.”

Or, as Stanford researchers discovered:

“We know that people with meaningful social connections are happier than those without them.  The more time that individuals spend with their partners, best friends, and close friends, the happier they are. When they spend time with people who they dislike or when they spend time alone, their happiness levels drop. Loneliness is a relatively good predictor of unhappiness.”

There’s also plenty of research that one of the best ways you can stay healthy and live longer is to increase your social connections and spend more time with friends.

How many times recently have you put off spending extra time with your friends, family, or saying yes to an adventure because “I have work to do”?

I used to do this WAY more often than I should have, as there is always something to be done with Nerd Fitness.  I’m learning more and more that I need to practice what I preach, and spend as much time as possible with people who make me happy.

I’ve made a conscious effort to be more social and meet more people over the past three weeks, and I’ve noticed a marked improvement in my happiness.

There will always be work to do.

But we have a limited amount of time to spend time with friends, loved ones, or family.

Mentally level up

Last but not least, we’re giving away a free tool.

This tool will increase your happiness, energy, confidence, emotional balance, fertility, and immunity…while reducing stress, loneliness, inflammation, and risk for disease.

What is this super item?

Viagra.

Ha! Totally kidding.

It’s meditation.

No, I don’t mean putting on a fancy robe and sitting in silence for hours at a time.  Meditation isn’t some fancy trick that requires you to learn an exotic song either.

It is the act of clearing your mind. For newbies, such as myself, it is helpful to focus on a single word or follow your breath.

Hey, if Ron Swanson can do it, so can you.

Why does meditation work? As Mathieu Ricard explains, it is the mind which translates experiences on the outside to either happiness or suffering. In other words, things happen every day, but it is our mind that assigns them the label of “good” or “bad.” And yet, we try so hard to make conditions great on the outside: find the perfect clothes, car, or phone.

Unfortunately, as Ricard explains, “our control on the outer world is limited, temporary, and often illusory.”

When we learn to mediate, we can teach ourselves to ignore the stuff we can’t control and focus instead on the things we CAN control.  We can recognize our negative thoughts for what they are, and focus on the thoughts or lessons learned that make us happier.

Along with that, meditation can improve your attention span and self regulation and can even lead to a longer life.

Leo Babauta, creator of the uber popular Zen Habits, has created a great resource on getting started with meditation.

Weirded out or intimidated about meditation? I was too. So I started with just one minute each day in the morning. Even then, my brain still ran amok in that minute.  However, after a few weeks of focusing on just my breathing, I got better.  One minute became two minutes, which will become three, then four…

Give it a shot.

Be grateful

If beginning your day with clearing your mind can make you happier, what end of day can you take to make you happier?

Be grateful.

Oftentimes we are unhappy because we spend our time wishing we were like somebody else, or had something else, or were doing something else.  Our reality doesn’t match up with the idealized version we had in our minds, and thus our happiness is out of balance.

Rather than complaining about what you don’t have, focus on what you DO have that is awesome.

As Eric Baker points out (in this AWESOME post on happiness), “Bronze medalists are happier than silver medalists. Why? They feel grateful to get a medal at all.”

Be grateful, be thankful (when was the last time you hand-wrote a “thank-you” note?) and remind yourself of it daily.

Try this:

Every night before you go to bed, write down three things that went well that day. Use Evernote, a word doc, or a journal on your nightstand, but keep a record!   Look back on the journal when you are feeling unhappy and reflect on all of the awesome things that have happened recently.

The daily habit of happiness

“Happiness is not a reward, it’s a consequence.” 

Find a way to work on the areas of your life above every day and you’ll find that your outlook and happiness can improve.  This is one of my longer articles (which is saying something), so I’m going to recap it all for you into actionable steps.

Here’s how to build the habit of making yourself happier:

• When you wake up, try meditating before checking your phone or turning on your computer. Even if it’s only for two minutes.
• Do what you can to spend your time on projects you love, and less time doing work that doesn’t make you happy.
• Spend less money on things and instead on experiences.
• Spend time each day in “the zone” on a passion, project, or activity you love. Build something, make something, do something.
• Incrementally improve your health, and reward yourself for it. Pick an activity or exercise to improve your physical wellbeing.  You’re in the right place!
• Spend more time with people you love, and less time with people that drag you down. Don’t have friends or a partner? Work on your skills to find them!
• Be grateful every day for the things that have gone right. Keep a record to remind yourself of these things.

Here is your homework:  Pick ONE thing above to focus on today. That’s already an improvement over yesterday.

As you build the habit for ONE thing above, it can contagiously spread to other aspects of your life, and you can build momentum.

I realize this is a MASSIVE subject, and this is just one humble nerd’s opinion on success and happiness.  

I’d love to hear your thoughts:

What does happiness mean to you?

Are there steps you’ve taken to work on your happiness?

Did I leave something out?

-Steve

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Photo: Pacman Ghost, Woody and the Beach, Cave, Secret of Mana, Space Mountain, Piano, Fellowship, Dhalsim, Handshake, Clay Link

About a month ago, I spent some quality time in San Francisco with my friend Chase Reeves: designer extraordinaire, part of the Fizzle.co team, and one of the funniest goons I’ve ever met.  We sat side by side for a week cracking jokes, making fun of each other, and redesigning Nerd Fitness from the ground up.

That labor of love is what you see before you today!

With Nerd Fitness getting a complete overhaul today, I figured this is a great opportunity to show you around.

While we’re still working on a few bugs, fixing some old pages, and will be rolling out updates to the message boards and social media pages soon, I’m glad you’re here to check it out!

What’s new?

For starters, we now have a brand new, redesigned Home Page at NerdFitness.com.

If you want just the blog, update your bookmark to NerdFitness.com/blog !

This is where you can sign up for the Rebellion, learn what Nerd Fitness is all about, and more.

We’ve also created a page specifically to highlight some of our best success stories, one of the parts of Nerd Fitness I’m so proud of – normal folks like you, me, Joe, Staci, and Saint who have changed their lives and are inspiring others to do the same.

Along with all of that, there’s a page just for our best resources, a page that highlights our fitness guides, and easy access to our apparel (which is getting redesigned too!)

I’d love for you to poke around and tell me what you think!

Dynamic design

If you happen to frequent Nerd Fitness on your mobile device or iPad, you’re finally able to get the full NF experience!  

The site is now optimized for any and all resolutions.

We get over 300,000 visits a month on mobile platforms, and those folks had been poorly neglected for far too long.

Not anymore!

Regardless of what platform you use (iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, iPad, laptop, GIANT computer screen, etc.), this site will always allow you to get everything you need in a stylish manner, find the articles you want, and give you the resources you need.

The NF Six-Week Challenge kicks off today!

The new Six-Week Challenge starts today!  

Simply follow the instructions, pick your three or four goals, join a team, and get started. It’s free, and you’ll have about 16,000 people ready, willing, and able to support you on your quest for a leveled up life.

We have over 1100 people signed up already!

I’ve joined up with the Assassins for this challenge, and here are my goals.

A note on goals: “I will lose ________  pounds in 6 weeks” is an okay goal, putting your focus on building a habit is much more powerful:

• “I will work out three days a week and go for walks on my other three days, even if it’s just for five minutes.”
• “I will cook one healthy meal a day.”
• “I will replace one soda with green tea this week, two next week, etc.”

And remember, the scale can lie; body fat percentage, how you look, and how you FEEL is far more important.

So put your focus on the healthy habit, and your appearance will follow suit.

Hope to see you over there on the Nerd Fitness message boards!

The Nerd Fitness Library!

Last week, I announced that we were hoping to help build a “library” down in Peru by donating 100% of profits from all NF apparel until June 7th.

I’m proud to say that we reached our initial goal in roughly four hours (Ha!)…and then it’s picked up even more momentum since then!  I don’t have an official total amount yet, but let’s just say it’s big.

I freaking love this community.

On a related note, with us selling an obscene amount of apparel, a few items are backordered, and will take an extra week or so to get back in stock.  Feel free to place your order now, and we’ll be shipping out items as SOON as humanly possible when we get them back in stock.

Thanks for your patience, and thanks again for being so awesome.

A little help?

Meet Boozer, my friend Tyler’s dog (he’s the one on the left).  This picture isn’t exactly relevant, but was too funny not to share.

Let us know how the new site looks for you!

Have you spotted a bug? See an old article that needs fixing? Have an idea for the site? Let us know at contact@nerdfitness.com

Also, I’m on the hunt for more success stories!  If you have a success story thanks to Nerd Fitness (with before/afters), PLEASE email me at contact@nerdfitness.com

Last but not least, I’m going to be adding a page for testimonials too!  I’d love if you left a comment on this article that answers the question:

How has Nerd Fitness helped you live a better life?

Thanks again for being part of the journey.

For the Rebellion!

-Steve

Today’s Rebel Hero: Thomas Frank, creator of College Info Geek, dominating Japan in his NF Superhero T-shirt.  

Not gonna lie, Thomas just raised the bar as far as epic NF apparel photos go:

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!

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photo source: storm trooper present, six, scrolls

I was a few weeks away from going on a vacation, and wanted to set some fitness related goals and keep myself accountable. We had just launched the Nerd Fitness message boards, and I thought to myself, “what better way to keep myself accountable than use this epic group of Nerds that are all over the globe!”

And thus, The Nerd Fitness Challenge was born.

Since, then, we’ve gone from a simple challenge of a dozen or so people, to an epic 6-Week Challenge that last hosted over 750 participants!

We’ve now had more than two dozen 6-week challenges here on Nerd Fitness, helped hundreds and hundreds of people build new habits, get started on the path to a healthier life, lose weight, and build some serious momentum.

On Monday, we’ll be starting up another 6-Week Challenge on the Nerd Fitness Message Boards, I thought this would be a great opportunity to explain what the heck it is and how it works so you can join us.

And it’s free! Free stuff is great.

The Six-Week Challenge

Every six weeks (with a week off in between), we launch a new six week challenge on Nerd Fitness.

Through these challenges, you’re encouraged to pick some a few goals that you hope to accomplish over those six weeks.

Most normal people try to pick about a million goals (which we all know is a recipe for disaster), which is why most normal people never actually get anywhere with their progress.

Fortunately, for you, you’re not normal.

You’re a Nerd Fitness Rebel, damnit!

You understand that willpower is a finite resource, that building a small habit and making it permanent is 10 times more important than massive sweeping drastic changes that only last a few weeks.

Which is why you’re only going to pick a few goals (at MOST: 3 diet and fitness goals, and 1 “level up your life” goal), and you’re going to make your goals SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely

Here are some GOOD goals:

• Run a 5k without stopping
• Back Squat 150lbs five times (in one set!)
• Go to the gym four days each week.
• By the end of 6 weeks, cut out soda completely.
• Pay $1000 towards my student loans.

Here are some BAD goals:

• Work out 17 hours per day (not smart)
• Lose weight (not measurable)
• Run a 5k in 12 minutes (not attainable)
• Squat 1,000lbs 5 times (not realistic)
• Pay off ALL $30,000 of my student loan debt (not timely unless you win the lottery)

Here, less is more. The more goals you pick, the less willpower you’ll have to dedicate to each of them, and the more likely you’ll be to abandon all of them.

Join a group, declare your goals, dominate

Now, once you’ve determined your goals, it’s time to join a group.

One of the BEST ways to succeed is to have a support group around you: people to encourage you when you’re down, celebrate your victories with you, and keep you accountable when you feel like slacking.

Don’t just leave it up to yourself to succeed when you have about 15,000 people willing to help out. 

As to which group you join, read this post, “What Is Your Profession?,” and decide which profession resonates most with you.  After that it’s as simple as signing up on the appropriate page, declaring your goals, and getting started!

Staci, NF’s master of deadlifts and community leader has put together a page that explains EVERYTHING in great detail, so simply read up there and join us

Join me!

Sometimes I have staring contests with giant iguanas. Sometimes, I join 6-week challenges.

This is one of those challenges.  

These are my goals:

Put on 10 lbs of mostly healthy weight: As of this morning, I weigh 174 pounds. I’m hopeful that at the end of my 6 week challenge, I’m 10 pounds heavier, which I’ll be doing by following the eating advice laid out in the Rebel Strength Guide (mixing in some intermittent fasting) and a custom routine that mixes gymnastics and strength training. I know not all of this weight will be muscle, but I’m confident a majority of it will be.

Increase my handstand balance time by 50%: I’ve been working on freestanding handstand balancing for a while now, and I’d like to increase my balance time by 50%.  I’ll record a video of my best attempt on Monday, and then will be working on developing this skill over the next six weeks.

Meditate 5 days a week, for 1 minute. Increasing by 1 minute each week.  This habit has been brutally difficult for me to build, so I’m going to keep it freaking simple.  First week, mediate for 1 minute each day. Second week, 2 minutes. Third week, 3 minutes. And so on.

Seems simple, right? Eat more and pick up heavy things, do more handstands, think more.

WHICH IS THE WAY IT SHOULD BE!

Join me in the community, and join me in this challenge.  It’s free, and you have the support of every Rebel around the world.

If you have any questions on anything, we have set up a F.A.Q. page where you can ask anything you want!

The challenge officially starts on Monday, but you can sign up and get set up today!

For the Rebellion!

-Steve

PS: Speaking of Monday…keep an eye out for another announcement and make sure you visit the site!

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photo sources: Batman Lego, Big Six, Lego Party

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or hiding in the attic, you’re aware that one of the world’s greatest comedies returned to “television” on Sunday!  Arrested Development has more inside jokes, hilarious references, and obscure humor than you will find in probably any other show ever.

(If you haven’t seen Arrested Development yet, shame on you. Go rent seasons 1-3 or pay like the 7 bucks for a month of Netflix and stream them).  

Anyhoo, with new episodes available this week, I wanted to present you with the life lessons and workout plan that I’ve learned from spending far too many hours watching Michael Bluth and his family destroy themselves and everything around them.

[Obviously some minor plot spoilers for people that haven't seen the original 3 seasons...fair warning!]

Have a theme song, believe in yourself

It’s impossible to think of GOB Bluth without thinking of his theme song: Europe’s “The Final Countdown“:

GOB Bluth’s Magic Intro Video

This is the song that GOB walks out to every time he goes to perform a magic trick an Illusion.  It gets him in the right frame of mind, gets him pumped up, and allows him to kick it up a notch or two.

Unfortunately, GOB is a horrible magician (still, where did the lighter fluid come from?) and more often than not makes things worse with each additional trick.

That being said, GOB is one of the most self-confident people you will come across:  It’s this confidence that once allowed him to make an entire boat disappear! (spoiler alert: he just sunk it).

Now, I’m not saying you need to be full of yourself like GOB. Instead, I’m asking you to understand the importance of believing in yourself, and that some confidence (even if it’s faked) can go a long way.

I mean, if Maebe, a high school student, can fake her way into a movie studio executive position (“marry me!”), then surely you can muster up 20 seconds of courage and build some confidence. 

Do it for GOB!

Supplements don’t cure your problems

“There’s no I in Teamocil…at least not where you think…”

Now, before you start your workout, you’re probably wondering, “What about supplements?  I’ve heard good things about supplements, pills, powders, etc, including those promoted by Dr. Funke’s 100% Natural Good-Time Family Band Solution”.

Their two most famous supplements are Teamocil and Euphorazine, created by the Natural Life Food Company (a division of ChemGrow, an Allyn-Crane Acquisition, and part of the Squimm Group, who’s motto was simple: “We keep you alive.”)

[Side note: Natural Life Food Company was the same company that 'acquired Nerd Fitness on April Fools Day.]  

Unfortunately, like most supplements out there, Teamocil and Euphorazine have some rough side effects without actually doing what they’re supposed to:

• Teamocil: studies prove the feeling of wellness it gives the user in relationships is simply a precursor to total shutdown of the pituitary gland. The drug may also decrease your sex drive.
• Euphorazine: This supplement was an anti-depressant, but unfortunately only delayed irritability.

There’s no substitute for hard work, healthy choices, and exercise.  Other than maybe whey protein (if you can’t eat enough protein through regular food) and a fish oil supplement (to help you get enough Omega 3 in your diet), supplements aren’t worth the hassle.

You won’t find Healthy and Happy in a bottle or in a pill or powder.  Come on!

So stick with real food, and just focus on making healthier decisions.  

The Arrested Development Workout Plan

Okay, so you’ve got your eating under control, you’ve got your theme song prepped, and now you’re ready to exercise.

Here’s a routine I created that will work out your entire body, inspired by the greatest show on TV.  All you need is some things around your house and a set of dumbbells or things you can use as dumbbells (like milk jugs).   

Complete the following circuit three times without stopping:

1) The Stair Car Stair Workout (Up and down twice). Hop on to the first step, and then run up to the top of a flight of stairs and back down. Repeat for a second set of stairs.

2) The Buster Bluth One-Arm Row (10 reps each arm). In honor of Buster losing his arm to a loose seal with a yellow bowtie, perform 10 dumbbell rows.

3) The “Way to Plant, Ann!” wall sit (30-60 seconds). Her?  Simply find a wall, and sit down as if you were planting yourself into an invisible chair. Which makes sense, because Ann is the type of person who appears invisible anyways. You couldn’t pick her out of a lineup of one!

4) The Steve Holt Overhead Press (10 reps).  Grab two dumbbells, hold them above your head and raise them to the heavens while shouting “Steve Holt!”  Man that guy is cool.

5) The Tobais Funkee “Oh my God we’re having a fire…sale” army crawl (30 seconds) Imagine there is a fire…sale…and you need to army crawl to the door while singing “Amazing Grace.”  Army crawl through your house for 30-60 seconds, staying as low to the ground as possible.

6) George Sitwell/Lucille 2 Standpoor Squats (10 Reps). Oh, that Sitwell…Stand in front of your couch or a chair, and attempt to…sit well. If you can stand back up WITHOUT having to lean forward, your form is good.  Stick your butt way back and drop into the sitwell squat.

7) The Bluth Family Chicken Dance (30 seconds). Feel free to pick which one you most resonate with.  I’m partial to Lindsay’s chicken impersonation, personally.

8) The Kitty Sanchez “Say goodbye to these” Dumbbell High Pull (10 reps).   As if you were lifting your shirt (“Say goodbye to these Michael!”), stand upright and raise your two dumbbells (not a euphemism) upwards towards your chin.

9)  The Nevernude Burpee (10 reps).  As if you were dropping your pants to show your cutoffs (don’t worry, they effectively hide your thunder), drop your hands to the ground in a squat, kick your legs back, perform a pushup, kick your legs back in, and then explode back up, pulling your imaginary pants back on.   

Complete this circuit three times as quickly as possible while maintaining good form.    COME ON!

-Steve

On the next Nerd Fitness… We’ll be talking about a new six week challenge over on the NF community!

PS: 

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photo source: GOB

I met Megan on the second day of college and we’ve been great friends ever since.  Over the years, Megan has served as a great inspiration to me and my Epic Quest of Awesome: after we graduated from school, she randomly packed up and moved to St. Thomas for a year, and since then has lived in Spain, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand, and Peru in between semesters as a grade school teacher.

She is the queen of spontaneity, and more often than not I get a phone call from her asking me to do something completely random and ridiculous.

More often than not I say “yes,” because life is all about making great stories.

Now, when she’s not traveling or teaching, Megan loves to help make kids lives better.

I need your help making these kids’ lives better too

Seeds of Hope

In November 2011, Megan spent six weeks volunteering at an after-school program in Huarez, Peru, where she met some of the nicest, happiest, most grateful children ever.

At this program, children receive help with their homework, to do educational activities, have a meal, brush their teeth, and have the opportunity to play.

These awesome kids come from very poor families. Most live in houses without running water and/or electricity; Seeds of Hope pays for their school uniforms, school fees, provides them with at least one meal a day, and really emphasizes hygiene – they buy toothbrushes for each kid and make them brush their teeth before leaving Seeds so that they get to brush at least once a day.

The education system down there is unfortunately quite poor as well. Oftentimes, these children’s homework is to simply copy text from a textbook into their notebooks. Consequently, there are major skill gaps, and reading comprehension is especially low.

Right now, their current “library” consists of donated books that are in English (these kids speak Spanish) and on too high of a reading level.

The education system isn’t preparing the kids with the tools they’d need to break the poverty cycle.

If there was a library full of books on every level for students of all ages, Seeds of Hope volunteers could work with students on their level to develop their reading comprehension, which is the best way to help them break out and get a job that could change their life.

Megan asked if I could help get these kids some books that they actually can read and allow them to live better. She let me know that her students here in Tennessee have already raised the first $400 of the $2500 required to supply Seeds of Hope with the proper reading materials to help these children develop their education properly.

That’s where we come in.

Support a good cause, get a shirt, be a hero

For the next two weeks, Nerd Fitness will be donating 100% of profits from every single item in the Nerd Fitness apparel store towards helping these kids get a library.

The way I see it, you end up with a cool t-shirt (that you will do something epic in and send me photographic proof!), and these great kids get books to further their education, learn more about the world (which is what nerds do), and grow up to be superheroes.

If you ever planned on picking up a t-shirt, sweatshirt, sweatpants, hat, tank top or whatever, you’d be MY hero if you picked up in the next two weeks to help these kids out!

On top of that, with Summer right around the corner, I figure we should do some spring cleaning!

For the next two weeks, we’re having a sale on our colder gear stuff:

• Hoodies are $7.00 less ($37.99)
• Sweatpants are $7.00 less ($22.99)
• Long sleeve thermals are $5.00 less ($24.99)

A QUICK NOTE: If an item is “BACK ORDERED”, it means we sold out of our current stock but are replenishing ASAP! We’re ready to place orders  for new items the second it looks like we’re heading towards running out of them, so feel free to still place your order even if it’s back ordered to make sure the money goes to the kids.  It might take a few extra days for you to get your shirt, but we’ll do so as soon as humanly possible!

Thanks for your understanding

What if I just want to donate?

Now, if you’d like to make a donation to the cause but aren’t interested in any apparel, first of all: thank you.

You can donate as little as you’d like, but For a minimum donation of $10, we’ll send you two NF stickers to show your support of the Rebellion. (one Red, one White)!

On top of that, Campus Customs (our apparel partner) and Team Nerd Fitness have joined forces to match every dollar donated (for the first $500 donated).

You get some bad-ass stickers (each piece of apparel comes with stickers as well), you get to feel good, and the library gets double the donation.  That’s a win-win-win.

Donate Here!

Thank you!

For the Rebellion!

I just wanted to take a quick opportunity to say thanks again for being part of Nerd Fitness.

I’m honored to level up alongside you, and I’m happy to be able to be a part of something that makes people’s lives better, in many more ways than one.

Moving forward, I’m excited to see where this community goes and find out just how many different ways we’re capable of putting a dent in the universe.

Thanks again.  Now, let’s get these kids a library

The goal is $2100 to get these kids the books they need.  

If we happen to raise more than that, we can actually send Megan down there to help set the bookshelves up properly and make sure these kids get started on the right foot.  

Think we can do it?

For the Rebellion!

-Steve

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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):

“Why being a Nerd is Awesome video”

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 speed runs on YouTube. I recently spent a good 40 hours tracking down platinum trophies for God of War I and God of War II, and I’m working on the same for God of War III.

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

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photos: danbo glasses, mario and luigi, Wil Wheaton, Dungeons and Dragons

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 bigger muscles and add mass: You need to eat more calories than you burn, which means you won’t be losing fat. These are two separate physiological processes, as building bigger more explosive 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 bigger muscle and mass 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 bigger muscles! Your body is going to use all of your excess calories to fuel your endurance instead of fueling the muscle building process.  You can run sprints while eating to build bigger muscles, which can help add to your endurance capabilities, but if you want to be the best runner possible, you gotta be running!

If you try to do all three at once, you’ll most likely 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 be satisfied with minimal/incremental gains in other areas as a side effect:

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

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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

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?

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Check out Lindsay on Twitter @RellimYasdnil or send questions/comments at LoveAndDatingAdvice@gmail.com.

photo source:  lego small talk, happy, thoughtful, imprecise, quirky, storm trooper