We Are What We Repeatedly Do!

Hello all!  I wanted to shoot off a quick blog post this week because A) I need to build some blogging momentum (more on that later in this post) and B) I wanted to pimp out the new name and look for the blog.  I've changed the blog to Norse By Nature and also changed the look and feel of the blog.  One of the concepts I came back from Paleo f(x) with was this concept of everyone being different based on their genetics and therefore their ancestral lineage.  There is no one optimal diet for everyone...  There's a basic template that involves eating mostly whole unprocessed foods, but what's actually optimal will vary from person to person.  As the awesome Nate Miyaki put it, "I am of Asian descent so I can eat rice all day and not get fat, but if I had a small bit of dairy last night, I'd be clearing out this room today with my farts."  We're all a little different diet-wise and part of that has to do with what our ancestors ate.

Another concept I came away from Paleo f(x) with was the idea that if I truly want to be successful in this business and make real change I am going to need to find my voice.  I went there feeling like I didn't really have anything unique or novel to say.  I am an intelligent dude who retains information well, but virtually none of the advice I dispense is really my own... I'm just repackaging what others have said.  If I'm going to make a career for myself in this industry and if I'm going to make real change, I'm going to need to find the thing(s) that are truly me.  I need to distill the essence of Timdog and turn that into my unique view on the world.

As I flew home from Austin a couple weeks ago, with both of these concepts (and many more) swirling around in my noggin, I started to put together the pieces of what makes me unique.  I am a red-bearded dude of Norwegian decent, who loves live music, cooking, and picking up heavy things...  That seems relatively unique to me!  While I have a lot to learn about my ancestral heritage, I know that I do well with dairy and that's probably because my ancestors have been eating dairy for centuries.  That's just one example of how my ancestral heritage affects what I eat on a daily basis.

So the new name for the blog is an attempt to embrace my heritage and find my voice.  I intend to write more blogs about pillaging weight rooms, raiding food markets, and cooking viking food (I started my research in that area this week)!  Norse By Nature will be focused on how this modern day viking gets along in the world on a path to lift heavier weights, find better health, and help others in doing the same.  Please let me know how you like the new name and look/feel of the blog.  Also, as always, let me know what topics you want me to write about.

Now to the short blog for today...

I put a post on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TimsTrainerTalk (don't worry it will get renamed at some point too) earlier this week that said:

Remember, making improvements to health and fitness is about consistency! One day of fasting won't make you skinny, just like one brutal workout won't make you ripped. Build habits and build momentum one workout or meal at a time!

After talking with some folks this week who are trying to make a change in their diets, this topic was on my mind and I think it's worth thinking about.

Don't get caught up thinking about one workout or one meal in a vacuum.  The fact is health is about more than one meal or workout!  Health is simply the distillation of what we do every day!

In terms of exercise, this means that you shouldn't be crushed in a pool of sweat every time you exercise.  As the impeccable Jim Laird said in his Paleo f(x) talk:

"Moving every day is the key to health, not beating the shit out of yourself."

This is one of the problems I have with the programming at some crossfit gyms...  You shouldn't be laying on the floor crushed at the end of your workout all the time!  The same goes for the woman eating 1200 calories and doing spinning class four nights a week!  Those kinds of crushing workouts have their place in an effective strength and conditioning program, but even for the best athletes in the world with the loftiest of goals, they should only come up to twice per week.  And I'm guessing if you're reading this blog, you're not a professional athlete, so those kinds of workouts should come even less often!

Similarly, from a dietary perspective, your health is a result of what you eat every day.  If you are trying to make a change I'm okay with baby steps (I know some folks hate baby steps, but I'm good with them), but whatever the size of the change, you need to start doing it EVERY DAY!

With both diet and exercise, we need to keep a long-term view and try to win the war, not the battle.  If you go in the gym and add only 3 pounds to the bar every time you do an exercise, you can make nice steady progress.  If you decide to make one change to your diet but you do it every day, you can make nice, steady progress.  Maybe more importantly, those things you do every day quickly turn into some great forward momentum.  Like a snowball slowly rolling down hill, small consistent incremental changes quickly add up to big life altering changes.

Aristotle said "we are what we repeatedly do," and I believe in that notion.  Turns out if you are constantly telling yourself that it's okay to have that cake because you ate some vegetables earlier, then you'll have the health of someone who constantly says "yes" to cake.  It turns out of you're constantly crushing your body in workouts, you'll have the fitness of someone who's crushed all the time.  We should be working to build forward momentum with consistent dietary habits and slow steady progress in fitness.

Thanks for checking out the blog...  Let me know what you think!  Talk soon!