Ditching Fat Loss Lies & Scams
Article Round-Up: 5.19.24
Enjoy this week’s curated list of articles, podcasts, and more from the web to help you live a healthier, happier life.
Fitness Fortunes: “Good food brings good health and longevity”
How fitting a fortune this is.
Our body is an amazingly complex, functioning machine that performs impressive feats to maintain and sustain us throughout our life.
Food is the fuel that enables these processes.
The quality of the food we eat significantly impacts how we feel, and that's probably the most important part of the conversation about processed vs. unprocessed food, good vs. bad foods, and healthy vs. unhealthy foods.
When it comes to weight loss and body composition, food quality doesn't matter as much because we know that a calorie deficit and time are the key factors.
However, how you feel on a daily basis—whether you feel energetic or lethargic, bloated or light on your feet, whether you're sleeping well or suffering from indigestion, performing well in the gym or feeling weaker—all these elements are influenced by what we fuel our body with.
The discussion about food quality is highly individualistic and personalized.
It's a process of trial and error to figure out which foods agree with your body and which don't. For example, some people feel amazing in the gym after eating pasta, while others just want to take a nap.
It boils down to what works for you.
This is a reminder that good food brings good health and longevity.
We can't ignore our nutrition. Just because we can make certain foods fit calorically and macros-wise doesn't mean we should always do that.
It's like the famous words from Uncle Ben in Spider-Man: "With great power comes great responsibility."
Understanding the interplay of controlling our calories, macros, and getting enough protein for body composition changes is a powerful skill. But with that power comes the responsibility to recognize that just because we can make junk food work, it doesn't mean we should always eat it.
Good food brings good health and longevity. Keep up with good. food habits.
Published This Week
Is Breakfast The Most Important Meal of The Day?
Takeaway: In one scenario, breakfast may be your most important meal. In another, it's irrelevant. This is the nuanced nature of nutrition. In this article we’ll discuss some ways to decipher what matters for you.
Read more about workout specific considerations and breakfast here.
Do Things That Scare You: Special Guest Alex McBrairty [video]
Takeaway: Friend and colleague Phil Dominguez hosted me for a great conversation about coaching, my weight loss journey, and personal growth. We discuss the importance of doing things that make you scared, why Ted Lasso is the greatest TV show ever, and professional wrestling’s impact on both our lives and careers.
Ditch Fat Loss Lies & Scams w/ Carmie Hawkins [video + podcast]
Takeaway: Fellow coaches Carmie Hawkins and Daniel Yores discuss the ways in which influential fitness personalities mislead consumers about results. This is such a important conversation to have when consuming fitness and wellness content.
Definitely a conversation to check out.
Reader Question:
Which should you do first, cardio or weights?
I’ll assume you want to do both strength training and cardio in the same session, or at least on the same day.
I’m also going to assume you’re not training for any competitions but are more focused on improving your body composition and overall health.
With that in mind:
Always do strength training first.
To build muscle, you need to reach a certain level of effort during your strength workout. If you do cardio first and get tired, your strength workout might feel tough but won’t be effective enough to trigger muscle growth.
In other words, being tired before strength training makes it harder to get good results.
Cardio, on the other hand, is more flexible. You can be a bit tired, perform less impressively, and still get health benefits from it. (Unless you’re training for a competitive race.)
So, do strength training when you’re fresh and do cardio afterward. If you want to get the most out of both, try to do them on different days whenever you can.
~ Coach Alex
P.S. Tomorrow is the Food Freedom Webinar! We’ve shut down the registration page online, but if you want access simply reply to this email and I’ll get you added to join us.