What’s Making Us Fat — And What Isn’t

It's almost summer! Break out the BBQ, grill too much meat, maybe even (gasp) take your kid for ice cream. Wait, no, sorry.... You shouldn't celebrate anything -- be it a birthday or the change of seasons or any of life's blessings -- with food. And certainly never reward positive behavior with it. "After all, you're not a dog." Can we shelve this glib, condescending, diet coach bullshit? If you...

Lose Fat by Just Trusting the Process

Wow. This is what happens when you "weave" a fitness plan into your busy life (as opposed to just hopping onto a cookie cutter program), and focus on the Big Rocks. We've worked with Mariah McCullough for quite some time and she just refuses to quit -- despite facing more than her share of real life challenges along the way. Among those challenges were the days when the scale didn’t reflect the...

The Best Teacher is Experience

The past few years I've come full circle. When I was a kid through my 20’s, I wanted to be a card-carrying musclehead. I was never too concerned with the competitive side of the sport. What happened on contest day didn’t do much for me. Instead I was far more interested in all the variables that had to be considered leading up to show day, and beyond: Diet Training history Lifestyle Genetics...

When in Doubt … Work Harder.

In training, finding "your working gear" is everything. It's that zone where all the noise drifts away, allowing your brain and body to fully get in sync. Now it's not avoiding all distractions or human interaction like some insufferable asshole. (What's wrong with a pleasant exchange now and then?) It's much deeper than that. More the removal of any physical self doubt, allowing for the...

Your To-Do List Isn’t Enough

Perhaps I’m bass-ackwards… But when I want to quickly improve my own body composition, I don’t kick things off with a laundry list of Fat Loss To-Dos. Instead, I always strike a balance of Ying and Yang, good cop bad cop, strikes and gutters. In other words, I establish a few key positive, actionable tasks that will help me lose fat. And balance it with things I need to STOP doing. A Not To Do...

Thoughts on “Fitspo”

The "build a better body" side of the fitness industry has always tip-toed the delicate line between inspiring people and preying upon insecurity. And while women are expressing frustration at the exploitative nature (and rightfully so), just remember "they" came after the men decades ago -- when Charles Atlas and the "chest expander" was hawked to teenagers to help you A) look like Atlas...

Lose Fat, Get Healthy, and Stop School Shootings

School shootings affect me greatly, privately. Even more so since becoming a father. I’m not alone. My social media feed in the hours (minutes?) following these horrific events is a visceral stream of anguish and demands for change. But while offering sympathy (and thoughts & prayers) is easy, affecting change has proven to be much trickier. Because even before the victims families could be...