Hey Folks,
I’m back with another edition of Life Ingredients. This is the newsletter where we nourish the body and mind with exercise, healthy food, and positive thoughts. I write it because I want you to look after every aspect of your physical and mental health and create a life you love.
We’re going to kick things off as we always do, with a good and hard workout.
Now let’s get to work!
LIFE INGREDIENTS FITNESS The Countdown Workout One of the overlooked aspects of training consistently over a long period of time is that, well, it can get boring. With my own training, I’m as old-school as they come, and for years I dutifully went to the gym, hitting my Schwarzenegger-style body-part splits without ever complaining. But even I, after a point, need to shake things up, and not just to keep things interesting mentally. Your body is an adaptation machine. Hit it with the same exact stimulus for a long enough period of time, and it stops having a significant impact. Taking on new physical challenges is necessary to break through plateaus, and it has the added bonus of keeping you interested, and shifting your perception of what you’re really capable of. My trainer Steve Wrona cooked up something he’s calling The Countdown Workout. It starts with a long jog on a treadmill and is followed by a few bodyweight exercises for 20 reps each. As the rounds go on, the reps and the time on the treadmill decrease, while the speed and intensity increase. He put me through it the other day and I hated him all throughout the session. Then I loved him in the end.
Click the video here to see him explain it, then go get after it. You’re gonna hate and love him, too!
View Complete Workout LIFE INGREDIENTS FOOD French Onion Soup I’m British, so I know a thing or two about dreary fall weather, as it’s something we experience 12 months out of the year. That’s not true. I saw the sun at least a dozen times growing up. Very exciting stuff! Seriously, though, part of why I love pub comfort food so much is because it’s the perfect cure for those chilly, rainy days. The king of these foods, in my mind, is French Onion soup. But you don’t have to go sit at a pub to get it. It’s easy and fun to make. Follow my recipe below to see how true that is. I can guarantee you it’s gonna be one of those recipes you come back to again and again.
View Complete Recipe I don’t know how that quote hits you, but it packed a wallop for me. After all, I’ve made no secret of how packed my schedule always is, and has been, going on 20-something years now. I’m always traveling, oftentimes over 300 days out of the year, and it’s not unusual for me to wake up from a mid-flight nap and need a minute or two to remember which city I’m headed to next.
Your schedule may not look exactly like that, but if you’re like most working adults, especially the ones with kids, then I know that every moment of your life is probably accounted for by some obligation or another. When we don’t have a minute to breathe, we can become slaves to our schedules, obeying its dictates and ignoring the things we wish we could do, if only we had a break in that damned schedule. Well, as Mr. Covey so eloquently put it, you’d better find a way to schedule your priorities, or before you know it, years will have passed before you realize you’re not really living; you’re just a passenger on a runaway train, serving everyone else’s needs but your own.
I take this lesson to heart by giving my own mental health and wellbeing equal footing with all my other obligations. That means my workouts and my date nights with my wife are all on the schedule, treated with the same immovable priority as a meeting with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or a CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
Why? Because if I don't, I know that way lies.
After missing a couple of workouts for a few days or not having any quality time with my wife, I know I’d start to become irritable. If I made it a habit, I’d get out of shape and soon feel depressed. I wouldn’t be the best version of myself, and all the other obligations I have, and people around me who count on me, would suffer as a result. Does any of this sound familiar? And if you have been failing to prioritize your own needs and mental health, did you do it because going to the gym or getting a massage or practicing your art, or going on a date felt selfish in light of all the other things you needed to do and people you needed to take care of? It’s a common problem. Luckily, the solution is rather simple. Don’t wait until you have enough time to take care of yourself. Make the time. Today.
And if it seems too hard, remember the words I live by:
NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE.
