Shawn Phillips | Start Strong Monday

It’s December, in the event you’ve been away from earth. Yes, the lauded and dreaded holiday season is here, which means that average person is about to pack on an extra 5, 7, 10 or 12 pounds—depending on which source you listen to.

Personally, I think it’s a bunch of over-hyped phooeee intended to drive hysteria in preparation for the annual “diet season” of January. And of course, the assault of holiday diet tips has begun—the sort of silliness like, “eat yams over mash potatoes, as their orange color is from a cartinoid pigment known to up regulate metabolism and reduce appetite.”

I made up that story about yams, so you can put down the yam recipes now. I did so to provide an example of the drivel that is invading your mental space this time of year.

My advice is simple: Stop reacting or over-reacting to it all. Relax and enjoy the season. Spend quality time with the people you love, and love the people you’re with. Don’t beat yourself up with fearful, contracted dieting advice.

And don’t be a damned fool either. How do you not be a fool? Well, here’s my personal, and unique list of The 5 Most Damaging Health & Fitness Mistakes People Will Make This Month.

5. No Snowballing

No, that’s not a hazing ritual at Santa’s workshop. It’s something I talked about in Strength for LIFE, all too common during Transformations and when people are in the holiday cheer. Picture a small ball of snow rolling down hill, gaining size and speed with each turn.

Snowballing is when a slip turn into a slide and you wind up stumbling about in a gravy induced haze, mouth full of buttered rolls. It’s the slice that becomes the whole pie and then a license to unleash the hounds.

At the root of snowballing is guilt and self-sabotage. We feel bad so we decide we just as well “Go Big.” We’ve all done it but you’re not going to do it this year, right? Because you know better.

Accept that you’re going to go big now and then. And leave it. learn from it. Feel the discomfort of overeating and remind yourself why you don’t. When you slip a little, know you’re allowed to. It’s not like you’re on a diet any way, right?

When you indulge, name it, feel it and move on. Done. No big thing. Next.

4. Never “Too Busy” to Train

Ho, ho, ho… this is the month of go, go, go!

You’re busier than ever. Stressed, running, moving, on the go, making up for lost time.

This is no time for working out. Right? Wrong! I hate to be one of the hard liners but fact is someone needs to bust your ass to make sure you are busting your ass this month.

You don’t have to be on a peaking phase or setting any bench press PR’s, but you damned well better be training with focus and intensity, regularly. If ever there was time that you need some attention, when your body needs some release, this is it.

The stress alone is enough to bring down a full grown grizzly bear. Respect yourself and your body—get in the gym, on the bike, crank out some P90. Whatever it takes. Work out the energy, the food, the stress.

This is no time to be off and you’re not getting off the hook. Train! Be the ONE this year who enters the year going strong.

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3. No Skipping Meals

In my experience this is one of the most common mistakes people make during this time of year—in part because it’s tricky because it will seem logical. Skipping meals can seem like a masterful strategy when in you’re actually setting yourself up for major failure here.

The thinking is that since you know you’re going to over eat later, just as well skip breakfast and just snack around lunch. The result is you jumble up your system, stock pile cravings and justification, and get your blood sugar tanking. You’ve created a perfect storm for a nutritional train wreck, which hits you after you’ve eaten the ginger bread house only to realize it was Styrofoam.

The holidays are a time of tradition. Stick with that theme and follow your nutritional rituals. Eat well 80% of time. I encourage you to start your day, every day, with a sound, complete nutrition shake—for me and many others it’s Full Strength. It helps up regulate your metabolism, provides hours of high energy satiety, stabilizes your blood sugar all day long, and nourishes your body and mind.

And eat a sound, balanced lunch. Basically, stick to what you would most normally do. Hold the ritual. A well nourished body-mind is going to have loads more willpower and freedom when it comes time for the parties and such.

2. Why The Hot Toddy is Not

I’m not sure when booze got all mixed up in love and celebration but based on the strength of connection I imagine it dates back to the first distillation of alcohol.

‘Tis the season for cheer, and a drink and a drink and another… drink. Seems it’s every where we go. And you know what, that’s fine and dandy so long as we can keep our wits about us—and face it, some won’t.

I don’t want to nag or scare you, or suggest you should never have a glass of cabernet. Fact is, it’s not going to kill most of us. But a few too many can lead to some very disastrous consequences—ones that make obesity look like a picnic.

So, in the interest of encouraging sobriety I offer a few logical motivators: Alcohol is one of the worst things you can consume when it comes to fat loss. Unlike carbs which are 4 calories per gram, alcohol is 7 calories—nearer to fat which is 9. And alcohol doesn’t have to be digested. Unlike most foods, it passes straight through the stomach into the blood, causing a steep and rapid rise in blood sugar and an equally aggressive insulin response. The result is turbo-charged fat-storage.

The simple-truth is that drinking is bad, bad, bad for your body, your mind and it packs on fat. Sure, a drink now and then is fine and dandy but I really encourage you to be incredibly mindful this holiday season. This is the time of year when there are more accidents, more domestic issues, more stress, more legal issues are created in this one month than any other.

Please, don’t be a statistic. Drink wisely and eat in abundance if you think you might be prone to have a few. Eating more will lessen the effect of alcohol and likely slow the desire to drink.

Here’s to your safe and sober holiday season. And remember, nothing good happens after three drinks. Never has, never will.

1. Skip “The Mistletoe Diet”

Have you heard of the Mistletoe—kiss your fat goodbye—Diet?

No? That’s because I just made it up. Ah… but it does sound like something you’d hear about on the radio, right?

There is a diet for every season, and every reason but while I’m no fan of diets for the other 11 months of the year, I’m even less so in December.

Dieting in December is like dragging your feet, Fred Flintstone style, to stop a top fuel dragster. It’s not gonna work but it is gonna leave a mark. Instead of setting yourself up for an emotional tug-of-war with food, follow the other four tips in this list, hold your rituals in regard, eat well, drink light, train regularly, don’t let a slip turn into a slide and enjoy a healthy, happy holiday season.

Wishing You and Yours Family All The Best of Life,




Shawn

Start 2012 Strong

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Meet The Author, Shawn

Known as "The Fitness Philosopher," for his deep, clear approach to the cutting through the fitness conundrum, Shawn is a 20+ year veteran in the field of Lifestyle Fitness and Peak Performance. Author of several best-selling book, with one of the most photographed physiques in history, Shawn, with his brother, Bill Phillips (Body for LIFE) catapulted EAS sports nutrition into the world leader and Muscle Media magazine and the documentary movie, Body of Work. He created the first computerized training system in PowerBuilding and the popular Variable Split System for Muscle Mass. Now, in his 40's, a husband and father of two young children, Shawn is passionate about helping busy, high-achieving "men in the middle" enjoy vibrant, energized, amazing, Full Strength lives! He has recently created the World’s 1st and only true premium nutrition shake for men, Full Strength — clinically proven to build muscle, burn fat and boost energy. His most recent book, Strength for LIFE is the "how to" guide to a Lifestyle of Fitness Freedom.

Ever look back on yourself a decade and some past… and wonder what the hell were you thinking? From the perspective I have today, when I look back like this I’m humbled by the things I didn’t know. I thought I had so much figured out. I was wrong.

I was having one of these moments recently, so I started a list of things I wish I knew in my 30’s. Here’s my list, The Top-10 Things I Wish I Knew then, (beginning here with the first 4).

If you’ve got any that come up, please share them below.

1. Healthy joints are vital for a strong body:

When you’re living active and strength training daily your joints take a beating. Of course exercising and strength training are vital for joint health, within reason, but even a good things have limits. And eventually life and training wears on your joints. You can’t prevent this but you can make informed decisions.

When I was in my 30’s I didn’t think much about my joints—because they rarely hurt. And when they did, it was mostly irritating. Pain here and there, occasionally it’d get worse, and eventually it would go away.

In my 40’s I’ve come to know, love and respect my joints. Every day I deal with pains and injury, most of which can be tracked back to the decades of training. Not that I would or could trade the training but given the wisdom of today, I would be more respectful and take better care of my joints.

In Summary:

There are simply some lifts I would not do; like overhead shoulder pressing. I’ve also come to know the cost of decades of heavy squatting on the lower back. I would not eliminate squats but I’d be more reasonable about weight. Once your back goes, it’s gone for life.

2. On “the other side” of complexity is more complexity.

I appreciate the quote:

“I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.”
– Oliver Wendell Holmes

If you don’t quite get it, it may be that you’ve not crossed to the far side (pun intended, Mr. Larsen) of complexity.

From you 20’s on, life is a steady incline of complexity. So much so, that by your mid-30’s arrive, things have generally become so complex you’re required to believe this is it–that it can’t possibly get any more insane, right? Life has got to be getting simpler soon.

In Summary:

Life doesn’t get simpler. There. Now you know. I wish I knew it a decade ago too. It’s more complex, confusing and challenging with more sweet, sour and sadistic texture than you can imagine. Get used to it. Stop waiting for simpler. Embrace it all. It’s all part of the glorious journey.

3. Those little “glitches” can grow into deadly relationship “tumors:”

I’ve seen this one more times than I care to admit—and I’ve experienced more than my fair share of the struggles myself—where seemingly little issues up and into your 30’s grow into debilitating, relationship killers.

From my experience, most people in their 20’s assume they have relationships either all figured out or they simply “is who they is.” Come our 30’s hopefully we begin to get that we’re involved and there are just some things we do that aren’t helpful to relationships.

Unfortunately, although awareness is nice but it’s rarely enough. It may be the beginning of change but a lot of work must precede the end. Thus, we mean well. We’re going to get around to breaking down the wall, the resistance to true intimacy, or whatever it is. But we’re busy and we’re getting by now.

Come 40’s these things we could get away with, the seeming minor flaws, amplify in our own behaviors and in the eyes of those who love us, to the point they’re no longer cute, or “a little difficult.” They’ve become intolerable emotional “tumors” to those around us.

In Summary:

Get clear on what’s working, and what’s not in your 30s and take it serious. Do what it takes to be a better you, now. Before the glitches become tumors and the price of failure sky-rockets to become your life.

4. Diet matters, more and more each year:

I’ve always been active and fit—and been mastering my nutrition since my teens. While I certainly have learned how to manage a diet to get photo-shoot lean, for the most part I could eat the way I eat. Largely because I trained, was in shape and eat well any way.

To be honest, I quietly assumed that when I turned 40 it wouldn’t be that big-a-deal. My body would just do what it’s done. Perhaps a little less effectively but no big thing. And for the most part, that’s true.

But like most everyone else I know in their 40’s getting lean and staying lean is harder—yes, that means it gets harder to get hard. Had to say it.

I find my body less tolerant of excess carbs, more likely to be exhausted and stressed by foods the spike insulin. And given that insulin spiking sugar can drive testosterone down by 25%, safe to say it’s about more the calories and carbs.

It’s this significantly increasing importance on quality nutrition over quantity as we grow less young that inspired the creation of Full Strength. Nutrient rich, insulin stabilizing, energy sustaining, Full Strength can turn your body on and your appetite off.

It’s got more total nutrition than many people get in a full day. And Full Strength sustains your energy and freedom from hunger longer than an 800 calorie breakfast for only 300 perfectly integrated, protein dense calories.

In Summary:

This one is both the toughest in some ways, and the easiest. It’s tough to change the way you eat, if you’re not mastering it already. But it’s a hell of lot tougher on your longer if you don’t. How? Elevate your Nutritional Freedom, apply the practices and rituals from Strength for LIFE, where I show you the way.

And the easy way? Get yourself some Full Strength and begin each day with it, for 14 days and then a life time. I say this because for most men, it takes only 14 days of Full Strength, daily, to really feel how great nutrition can feel–and once you feel it, you don’t want to go back to the way things were before.

Next, #5, #6 and #7…

In part-II, numbers 5-6-7, be ready for insights about speed, skin and the four letter word…

Meet The Author, Shawn

Known as "The Fitness Philosopher," for his deep, clear approach to the cutting through the fitness conundrum, Shawn is a 20+ year veteran in the field of Lifestyle Fitness and Peak Performance. Author of several best-selling book, with one of the most photographed physiques in history, Shawn, with his brother, Bill Phillips (Body for LIFE) catapulted EAS sports nutrition into the world leader and Muscle Media magazine and the documentary movie, Body of Work. He created the first computerized training system in PowerBuilding and the popular Variable Split System for Muscle Mass. Now, in his 40's, a husband and father of two young children, Shawn is passionate about helping busy, high-achieving "men in the middle" enjoy vibrant, energized, amazing, Full Strength lives! He has recently created the World’s 1st and only true premium nutrition shake for men, Full Strength — clinically proven to build muscle, burn fat and boost energy. His most recent book, Strength for LIFE is the "how to" guide to a Lifestyle of Fitness Freedom.

The economy sucks!

You can put a positive spin on it but that’s the plain and simple truth.

Obesity sucks! Healthcare sucks. Fast-food sucks. Cancer triple-quadruple x1000 sucks. Divorce sucks. Hurting children sucks!

I’m sure you can agree that there’s entirely too much sucking in this world.

Well, on that note… I say it’s time to stop the sucking!

Yes, You Too Can Stop Sucking

No, I don’t mean to suggest that YOU SUCK. No, that’s not it at all. Of course, maybe you do—lord knows I’ve got more than a couple places that “suck” might be a good spin on my abilities—but that is not at all my intent here.

I believe there’s a virus in our culture, a hidden agreement we’ve made with the world around us to turn a blind eye to things, places, business, products that suck. And that many of us have come to accept this suck as a given, a fact of the evolving world.

Service Sucks

For one example of sucking, we took the kids to JumpStreet this past Sunday. And as I try to forget each time, we were greeted by the giant sucking sound of the “good enough” service. The service and entry experience is text book “suck.” The place is simply broken.

But it’s fun for the kids. So we go, I complain a little about it and then we move on. Granted, it certainly limits the times we go. I’m completely over ever having a b-day party there. But what else can we do?

You see, as long as you, I or we are tolerant of suck, for as long as we turn our thinking, discerning mind off (or on low), we are keeping “suck” alive. We’ve essentially kept a co-dependent relationship with it.

So, in the case of JumpStreet, I’m clear that I am not in a position nor would I be able to inspire better service from the bottom on, from the staff. So, it’s about not going, making the drive to places like Xtreme Challenge Arena , where real people own it, care and manage it. Where they care about your experience. A place where you feel good about sharing your money.

There’s also places you can share reviews, be social about the negative experience. That helps these days, I think.

Why Sucking is Personal to Me

As I mentioned, my inspiration for this call to “Stop Sucking” comes from an excerpt of Seth Godin’s book, Free Prize Inside, and a passage about Panera Bread (below).

But first the point of this part of the book is that, The problem lays with…

[This is from Seth's book, but written by a food critique writer]

“Panera’s products are remarkable, though, in that they’re developed an entirely new style of sucking. Their products don’t suck in any usual ways; they’re a fresh take on suckiness built from scratch. Since nothing sucks familiarly, Panera’s stuff can fool you at first if you don’t play close attention.”

“Marketers who don’t bother to make truly great stuff at the same time that they build the facade that makes people expect great stuff. The incremental cost of making a truly great pineapple upside-down cake (like the incremental cost of Starbucks making truly great coffee) is tiny.

What separates a product that grows the the ages from one that just grows and crashes is the ability to appeal to both worlds–the folks that want the fortune and the ones who want the cookie.”

Now, that is well said. It’s not enough, truly, to make the story that you make a premium beer–you must actually make the great product. And yet, so few get that. For there are still a large enough majority who don’t attend to the experience. They assume the story and let the product fill their expectation regardless of the actual experience.

And this my friends is how sucking survives,, and even thrives, like “The Thing” creating a life and energy of its own.

How I Put a Stop to the Sucking

I recall how this passage inspired me years ago when I started this crazy idea that became the Full Strength nutrition shake. How I set out not to just make “another” product, another protein shake, but to make a difference. To make a total nutrition integrated “nutritious & fast food” that would simplify and amplify my life and the lives of all those who would take the step up.

Step-up to incremental cost, as mentioned in Seth’s book. For Full Strength the true premium nutrition shake, that step-up is functionally a leap–for it’s created with more intention and intelligence than any protein shake or MRP’s. It’s a different sort of animal, in a entirely different zip code of quality. We improve on every small, hand-created batch produced fresh every three months. And for all that, the incremental “step-up” is about a dollar per meal.

When you’ve been trained to believe that the only difference between Met-Rx and Myoplex is packaging and price, it’s price that you learn to buy on. The thought of experience, of feeling a difference from the inside out, seems like fiction. So, price becomes the grade. And so goes the agreement with sucking.

You forget to expect more, you don’t know you can have more, so you unknowingly settle for crap that sucks. And so the suck goes on.

The Choice to Go Suck-Free

Your choice is simple, accept the mediocrity and continue to tolerate the suck or invest in the incremental cost of great, of Full Strength. Maybe you’re not discerning enough…Yet. Maybe you don’t yet know what great nutrition really feels like. But maybe you do. But you can’t find out what swimming in the ocean is like by standing on the beach.

That’s why I start every one of the faithful Full Strength Inner Circle members with the 14-Day Challenge. It’s as simple as it gets. One great Full Strength a day for 14 Days… and you open you mind and tune in and feel the difference. The difference in energy, in attention, in quality of life. The way you eat all day long, the way you sleep. Even the way you attend to the people around you.

If it sounds like I’m challenging you, you’re right. I am.

Because I believe that the SUCK has to STOP somewhere. And when you’re making the conscious choice to step it up, from the inside out, when you’re elevating your energy and awareness, awakening your mind and Strength, you’ve resourced what you need to begin making the choice elsewhere in your life.

I believe you’ve got the desire to be better, stronger and more empowered. No matter how absolutely great you are now, we all have that drive. And I know that the better, stronger and more awake you are the faster we will rise up to conquer SUCKING, and the sooner we and our children will live in a world free from the suckiness that pervades our world today.

Here’s to the End of Sucking one Great Shake at a Time.