Enjoy this week’s curated round-up of articles, podcasts, and more from the web to help you live a healthier, happier life.
Featured Thoughts: Tip To Reduce Anxiety
I was talking to a member in our program this week who recently finished an improv class.
I’ve always found improv comedy interesting. The performers are tasked with creating stories, skits, and jokes in the moment without much preparation.
The number one rule for performers: keep moving the story forward.
Ending a scene is death for improv. No matter what they’re presented with, improv performers are always asking, “and then what?”
Anxiety is fear about an unknown future. The inability to predict how a situation will conclude.
Our brains go rampant writing stories of worst-case scenarios, with no way to tell if these fears will become true or not.
Most importantly, individuals suffering from anxiety land on a bad outcome and end the story.
I don’t have a tip that allows you to predict which future outcome is guaranteed, but you can take this lesson from improv to reduce your fears:
As your brain writes stories of bad outcomes, ask yourself, “And then what?”
And then what can you do next?
And then what does that mean?
And then what would you have to do if this bad situation actually happened?
Bad situations will come and go. Even so, there are actions you can take to solve these problems and make things better.
Don’t end your story on a bad outcome; Push it forward.
Published This Week:
Tricks To Play on Yourself To Have A Great Day, Every Day [podcast]
Takeaway: Did you know that you’ll feel happier if you smile more—despite whether it’s fake or not. Coach Daniel Yores and I discuss this and other interesting psychological truths that could help you make the lifestyle changes you’ve been struggling with.
2 Core Exercises To Ignite Forgotten Muscles, Improve Posture, & Reduce Pain
Takeaway: Core strength is misunderstood. A heavy focus on the six-pack muscles has left other important muscles ignored. In so doing, we’ve opened ourselves up to pain and disfunction. Do these two movements to reignite the core.
Just For Fun: A Chart That Will Make You LOL
Reader Question:
Is it ok to drink protein powder even if I’m not exercising?
The short answer: Yes.
Protein powders are heavily marketed to the gym-going community, so I can see why this would cause some confusion.
If you’re injured, sick, or otherwise unable to make it to the gym, you might have asked yourself this same question.
This “gym-centric” marketing is correct in that protein powder is an easy, convenient way to get protein to help build muscle. It’s easy to see why you’d have doubts about consuming it when not doing the other half of that muscle-building equation—the workouts.
I hope your takeaway from this discussion is to view protein powder not as a workout-enhancing supplement, but instead as just another form of protein.
You probably don’t ask yourself if you should still eat chicken when you aren’t in the gym.
Or the same for steak, eggs, yogurt, or many of the other good sources of protein.
And so you don’t need to have this concern for protein powders, either.
Protein is protein; How you consume this protein need not be dependent on your gym attendance.
P.S. Want to clear up any other nutrition concerns you may have? Click the button below to register your free seat in the Food Freedom Framework webinar that I’m hosting live on Monday, April 29th, at 7pm EST.
Even if you have a schedule conflict, but are still interested, register for the event anyway. Each registered participant will receive a copy of the recording to view later.