Stubborn Belly Fat & Better Travel Photos
Article Round-Up: 3.3.24
Enjoy this week’s curated round-up of articles, podcasts, and more from the web to help you live a healthier, happier life.
Coaching Conversations: The Jet Ski Strategy For Embracing New Opportunities
Takeaway: During a recent conversation, I was speaking with someone who was excited at the prospects of a new job opportunity she had applied for. The only downside, as she was awaiting to hear if she got the new job, she felt an overwhelming sense of senioritis and it was negatively impacting her current responsibilities.
In this clip, you’ll here the Jet Ski analogy for how to embrace new opportunities while avoiding the trap of “decommitting” to current responsibilities too soon.
Published This Week:
The Anatomy of Motive: The Hidden Reasons Why You Do What You Do
Takeaway: When you understand a person’s motives, all behavior makes sense.
Read about how a book on catching serial killers inspired me to think about behavior differently, and ultimately led me to become a more compassionate person and coach.
9 Lessons From A Business Retreat
Takeaway: “If you want to think bigger, get in bigger spaces.”
The role of environment in shaping achievement and success is so profound, but also overlooked. The spaces you’re in, the people you’re around, and the ideas you gain access to will decide your level of achievement. This is true for your career, your relationships, and your health.
Read the article for eight more lessons to ponder.
How To Take Better Travel Photos With Your Phone
Takeaway: Even if you’re not doing it for the ‘Gram, most people would love to return home with great photos to reminisce about their adventures. This article will give you a few tips to help your photos be more National Geographic-worthy.
While this article mostly goes into the technical aspects of your phone’s camera settings, I’ll add this tip of my own:
Take your time to get the photo you want.
I’ve seen it everywhere I’ve traveled, and am even guilty of it myself: feeling like I have to quickly get the photo in seconds with only one shot at gold.
You’re on vacation, don’t feel rushed. Some photos will be great on the first take, others you might have to work on for a few minutes to get what you want.
It’s perfectly reasonable to spend time taking photos.
And if you feel bad asking strangers to take one of you and your partner/family, just ask different people for each take. You might feel bad cornering one individual for more than a moment, but taking a moment from five different people doesn’t leave any of them worse off than only asking one.
Reader Question:
Why is it so hard to lose fat from my midsection? Is there anything I can do to speed up the process?
You’re not alone in wanting to tone and flatten your midsection. In fact, this is the number one, most common goal of anyone beginning a fitness program.
This leads to the question: If that’s the most common complaint/goal of everyone, why is it such a common problem?
To answer this, we’ll have to think about how the body works for a moment. Before we get into things, consider this:
Have you ever worn a weighted vest? If yes, then imagine putting on a twenty-pound vest. You definitely feel its weight, but it doesn’t prevent you from doing most things.
Now imagine separating that same twenty pounds into two ten-pound dumbbells, held out at arm's length. How long could you last before your arms gave out from exhaustion? Thirty seconds? One minute?
That twenty pounds clearly feels different on your midsection via the vest than when outstretched via the dumbbells.
This highlights an important physiological truth: It is more energy conservative to keep extra body fat on your midsection than anywhere else.
This comes with both good and bad news.
The bad news is that, due to this reality, you will gain fat in the midsection first and lose body fat in your midsection last. Bummer.
Now for the good news: you don’t have to do anything special to lose this stubborn belly fat.
Because this fat isn’t actually stubborn at all.
Losing belly fat is just a product of time.
Once you begin to lose fat, you will first lose it in your face and extremities. Eventually, there is no other place for it to come than your midsection.
At this point, everything you do (and have already been doing) will burn fat from your midsection. Now we’re talkin’.
So, in reality, nothing is a fat-burning exercise until everything becomes a fat-burning exercise.
Life is weird like that.
If you find that you’re losing weight but don’t notice it coming from the areas where you want it to disappear, the only advice is to stay the course.
You’re already doing the right things. You just need to give it its due time.
~ Coach Alex
P.S. If you’re struggling with stubborn fat and getting frustrated, respond to this email or click below to book a free consultation before it’s too late. We’re standing by to lend a hand.