What Value do you bring to the World?

A colleague of mine recently tragically passed away, and while I didn’t really know him that well except as a teacher, he definitely gave me one of those “A-ha!” moments in my life and put me onto a different path.  He was also one of those remarkable human beings that just brought real value to everyone and everything that he did.  His passing was very sad to my community and the world in general as was obvious from the amount of people who mourned his passing.  Then recently I have had other examples of people in my world who bring very little value to anyone except for themselves because they don’t care to.  Totally self focused, narcissistic; “look at me!” type of behaviour that I know deep down has some rooted issues and is just the result of past circumstances.  Almost an example of yin versus yang – opposite sides of the same coin.

There are many different definitions of value, but the one I am talking here about speaks to personal integrity and something of worth to another person.  My colleagues passing made me think about what value that I bring every day to my clients and even just the people I encounter on a daily basis.  I have often said that my mission in life is to heal people, one way or another.  Through strength and various other ways I have managed to find a way to do that every day as my career, which I am very grateful for.  But the question I’m posing to myself (and you can pose to yourself of course) is do I bring value to people every day?  Do I carry myself in a way that is positive and uplifting to people and do my best to be at least congenial and helpful?  Not every day of course, we all have our days where things are slipping or we are simply not being mindful of these things.  But do I do it most of the time?

The other part of this is that if you aren’t bringing value to either yourself or others, then why are you doing what you’re doing every day?  Are you trapped in a job because of money and family and are unable to change?  Maybe just getting one hour a week where you can give to others would make a difference not only in your life but in someone else’s life as well.  I’m lucky that I get to help people every day, but it was a conscious choice made many years ago and has been a struggle many times.  I found my calling and I can only hope that you’re lucky enough to have found yours.  But every day from now on when I wake up I’m going to think about “how can I bring more value to the people I meet today” and really try to emulate that.  I think it will help to make the world a better place as a whole and if I can change just one life, then it is worth it to me.  Really take a look at yourself and figure out why you’re here on this planet, and then if you’re not heading there, just go do it.  Find a way to get there, even if it takes a long time and a lot of struggle because at the end it will be worth it.

When my grandfather passed away years ago, the church was standing room only.  He was a orthopaedic surgeon who helped people walk again, and the amount of grateful people in that room that he had an impact on overwhelmed me and partially shaped what I do today.  Every now and then we lose sight of things, and I’m really glad that this weekend helped me open my eyes again.  Rest in peace Peter.  Your work will live on in the people that you influenced like me.

 

Pain is not a Mistake!

Just going through my blogs and sites that I read on a fairly regular basis and happened upon this quote from one of my colleagues in Toronto in an interview that he was doing about CrossFit from a client who he helped after she had severely injured herself lifting during a CrossFit workout.  During most of my days I am in some capacity helping people who have injured themselves, more often than not through every day general living but also as the result of athletic movement.  Part of my mission as a trainer is to get people feeling less pain and stronger from a whole body and joint perspective so that they can get back to doing what they want to do, or do things that they didn’t think they could do with their body.  But a lot of this starts with a simple question – why does this hurt?  If I’m feeling pain, what should I do?  How do I stop the pain and prevent this from happening again?

To give a general description of what happens when you experience pain, your body has receptors in it that indicate when something is damaged or something is wrong.  This is relayed through your spinal cord to your brain, which is essentially your body saying “stop it” or “something isn’t right here”.  There are two classifications, those being acute pain (like I just fell down) or chronic pain (like your back hurting).  What I mostly deal with is chronic pain, but often this is the result of an acute pain episode where the person did something their body didn’t like and then decided it didn’t want to move that particular thing anymore.  When your body doesn’t want to move something or something is damaged, it causes inflammation in the area.  This is actually a protective mechanism designed to remove whatever is hurting it and initiate healing.

Chronic pain is the mantra of some gym warriors.  They hurt all the time and take it as a badge of courage.  They would rather wrap their knees in order to lift another 50 pounds on a squat, or wear a lifting belt to try to support their back when they have no business lifting the weight they are.  Some people do things too fast and don’t have any concept of shear force or momentum, not realizing that a 200 pound bench press can quickly become 400 pounds if it is lowered fast enough.  Then in ten years when they are wrapped up like a mummy or have arthritis everywhere they would give anything to go back and do things properly rather than loading their body with scar tissue and joint replacements.

My point there is that when something hurts, many people think it is something that they can ignore or push through and everything will be fine.  Well, it’s not.  This is your body telling you that if you don’t stop what you are doing or change it, then it is going to do something worse or shut something down.  Think of it as the check engine light in your car – when it goes on, you know there is something wrong.  You can choose to ignore it, but then your engine falls apart and you have to deal with a very long term, expensive problem rather than correcting what was wrong in the first place and possibly saving yourself a lot of grief, pain and expense.  So when your body says, “ow, quit it!” – listen to it.  I often see people in the gym doing a set of something like a bench press, and then grabbing their shoulder afterwards – because it hurts.  They stretch it hard (which ironically enough makes it worse) and then go right back doing what they did before because they don’t want to be seen as a wimp.  Let me ask you something.  Would you rather deload 25% right now, or change an angle 30 degrees and save your shoulder tendon possibly snapping and having to deal with a four month layoff?  99% of the people I ask that would of course say yes, and the other 1% are too stupid to be lifting anything anyway.

Part of my philosophy is that you deal with the person and what they can handle at the time, set by set and rep by rep.  Your body doesn’t care if you’re trying to max out on bench.  If it doesn’t have it – today – then it doesn’t have it.  Pushing it beyond a certain point is not only ignoring a very blatant signal, but it can also put you in serious jeopardy, when often a simple adjustment can prevent this pain and keep you moving forward.  Always remember, train smarter, not harder.  Pain is not a mistake.  I can’t be any clearer than that.

 

Why is Nutrition so Complicated?

In my line of work one of the things that probably guides the results of people more than anything else is proper eating habits.  Just like exercise, this means eating in a way that your body will respond towards reaching your goals of changes in body composition, whether that be losing bodyfat, gaining weight, gaining lean mass, or growing a vestigial tail.  For the vast majority of people they think this means scale weight.  First of all, here’s a tip – throw your bloody scale out of the window.  Right now.  Scale weight literally means very little in the world of body composition.  For health reasons like obesity, you can certainly consider it but for most of the general population who just want to lose some body fat and look better naked it is a useless tool.  So let’s talk about eating in a way that will help you get healthy first.

The general goal of my clients is to increase their lean mass and reduce their level of body fat.  However, usually what I try to start with is simply getting them healthier and feeling better and 99% of the time, the body composition changes as a nice side effect.  There are a few key things that basically anyone can do in order to accomplish this that I try to get my clients to do, and they are actually quite simple but require a bit of discipline and time management.  And don’t worry; this isn’t your typical “eat 6 times a day and get 1 gram of protein per pound” crap.  Let’s take it from the beginning:

1)      Track your intake.  There are so many free tracking programs out there right now there is really no excuse not to be doing this.  I have two free apps downloaded on my phone I can update anytime, and there are probably dozens of free web sites that will allow you to simply track your calories and macronutrient ratios every day.  It takes ten minutes a day once you know what you are doing and this is absolutely vital to your long-term success in body composition.  Do you know how many times I hear “I don’t have time” or “I need to start doing this”?  Garbage.  If you can’t do this every day and your body composition is a priority then you’re lying to yourself or you are a terrible time manager.

2)      Figure out what your body reacts to.  I’m a believer that we all have food insensitivities, and some of us have full blow allergies as well.  With the amount of evidence out there right now about people’s reactions to things like gluten you can’t help but think that most people have a bad reaction to it.  So if you’re following point #1, all you have to do is make a note on how what you eat makes you feel.  If you eat something, and you immediately feel sleepy, or an hour later you are bloated, or (to be more extreme) something gives you bad gas or bowel movements odds are that your body didn’t like it.  So stop eating it and see if that goes away.  Pretty simple, right?  This might mean you have to give up eggs, or gluten – but you will feel a lot better, and this leads to more energy, which means your body can deal with other things, like getting fitter.

3)      Clean everything up.  When my wife was ill we for a time went on a fully non-inflammatory diet.  This meant no sugar, wheat, dairy, soy, nightshade vegetables, tomatoes, eggs or red meat.  So basically you’re eating lean protein, lots of fruits and veggies, and things without any processing or chemicals.  Things that once came from the earth and were good quality bioavailable foods.  Amazingly enough, after about two weeks we both felt amazing, slept better and had more energy – plus I dropped a few pounds and shed some body fat.  For most people you certainly don’t have to be this extreme, but if you simply start with cutting out sugar and anything else that makes your body react in an adverse way then you’re doing well.  If you are following point #1 and #2 you will hopefully know what you need to get rid of and where your bad habits are so it makes it easier.  You just need a bit of discipline.  Often once you cut something out you don’t even notice it’s gone.

4)      Hit your numbers consistently.  This means getting more consistent with your calorie numbers and macronutrient numbers every day for at least 2 weeks, and then finding out if you are heading in the right direction or not.  Most people eat barely at all during the week because they skip breakfast, barely eat lunch and then have a massive dinner because they are starving.  Then they are home on weekends and have a couple of days where they increase their calories by 50% or more and add things like alcohol.  No wonder they can’t lose weight or gain it.  Many of my clients when I tell them how much I want them to eat claim they simply can’t eat that much or don’t have time.  Again, I go back to point #1 – poor time management and priorities.  If this is something you really want, then just put the habits in place.  This is also just a good general health tip to not stress your digestive system.  If you can do this for a period of weeks (not days) you will be able to see if your body is reacting and then tweak things in order to head in the right direction.

5)      Be real about your habits.  If you drink too much, stop drinking for a while.  If you snack at night, find a new habit that prevents it.  There are TONS of food addicts out there who actually have a serious problem because food can trigger emotions through hormonal response.  This requires more than just tracking and cleaning up – it requires changing the way you think about food and how you deal with situations in everyday life.  Change your patterns and get yourself thinking about food as fuel and energy – not a warm hug when your partner is ignoring you or a stress reliever when you have had a rough day.  Get some other strategies in place.  Once in a while, it’s fine – and won’t completely derail your goals.  But if your choices are bad, have a serious conversation with yourself about why, or find a partner that will help you out.

6)      Don’t stress about what you’re eating.  If you are tracking, eating real good quality bioavailable foods, not eating things your body doesn’t like and hitting your goal numbers then believe it or not, what you eat doesn’t really matter in the long run.  Eat things you enjoy.  Eat things that make your body feel alive, because at the end of the day, food is energy and forms the basis for your body to produce great things or feel crappy.  The choice is up to you.  100 calories of broccoli isn’t the same as 100 calories of Frosted Flakes.  And you will notice that by the way your body reacts to it.  However, if you indulge one day, don’t beat yourself up.  Get back on track right away and just start again.  You’re still better off than where you were before.

Please, please, please don’t ask your trainer for a “diet”.  Your trainer is not a dietician.  If you have health issues or want a specific food outline, go to the people who have taken many years of education about it, not somebody who got their knowledge from a diet they were given themselves by someone and thinks it applies to everyone or got it out of the latest magazine.  I can almost guarantee you if your trainer gave you a diet that this is precisely the case.  Plus, if you follow something for a little while and then go back to the way you were before, you’re going to go back to the way you were before.  To make a change, it has to be permanent and consistent, just like your exercise program.  Remember, we want long term permanent change – not a quick fix.  The reason so many people fail on “diets” is because they never put into place the good habits that will move them towards their goals, just like with exercise.  People want results immediately, and aren’t willing to give their body the time it needs in order to get healthier.  Stop being one of those people and resolve to do better for a period of 4-6 months.  I guarantee at the end of that period you will look and feel remarkably different.

I hope that this helps you think more about what you are doing and if you have any questions, feel free to contact me.  Comments and questions are also welcome.        

What about the other sides of health?

My job mostly deals with physical health and structure.  Every day I spend time with people who are trying to move better and without pain, move faster, or be able to move more resistance.  However, over the years I have found that this is only one component of wellness, and I wanted to take the time not only to acknowledge the other sides of this whole thing we call “being” but take a look at ways that you can help yourself achieve a higher level of potential in your day to day living.

I want you to think of the whole thing as a square structure.  In one corner there is your physical health, which incorporates all of the things in the physical realm you can control.  Your strength, nutrition and sleep fall under this category.  These are the things I talk about all of the time.  But what about the other three corners?  These corners are your mental health, your emotional health and your spiritual health.  Let’s break these down and see if you are really paying attention to them like you should be.  So many people walk through their daily lives not even thinking about what is going on inside them and what fuels their desire to perform in other areas of their life.  Try to increase awareness and focus on these things that may have been long neglected can really help to enhance your overall being.  I’m of the opinion that everything is linked, and what we think really determines what we do and how we act, towards ourselves, and each other.

Life has energy, and your thoughts do as well.  How we think determines a large part of how we act and react to things around us every minute of every day.  Therefore mental health can be a large part of your overall being, and one that many people struggle with on a daily basis.  Think about it – how many people do you know with a “defined” mental illness?  I put defined in quotations only because it is my belief that people who are simply outside of the norms get put into a box and labelled as different because they think in a different way.  I’m by no means saying that there are not real diseases, but sometimes we as a society need to not be so quick to rush into labelling someone as mentally ill, especially our children and young adults who are just developing into their ways of thinking.  Our mental health is a huge part of how we approach every day and the people that we interact with.  It can control the decisions that you make and steps either forward or backwards in your existence.  Learning also falls under this envelope.  I try to learn something every day – do you?  Even if it is just reading an actual newspaper about world events or a magazine article about gardening, this goes a long way into keeping our brain active and working well.  Keeping your brain fresh can help you be more physically able to react and deal with everyday situations.

How do you deal with emotions?  Do you bottle them up and then vent all over somebody who doesn’t deserve it?  Do you expose them to anyone who will listen only to find that they stop listening after a while?  Learning to control and manage the emotions that we deal with daily is another component – your emotional health.  Sometimes we all need a good venting session, or to just sit and be sad, but we also need to open ourselves up to truly being happy and joyful about the things in our life we are grateful for.  Tony Robbins calls this the “hour of power” where you take time first thing in the morning to think about and acknowledge all of the things that you are blessed with in your life.  Often when I’m walking my dogs in the morning I’ll just go through the list and realize how lucky I am to have a great family, a beautiful place to live, and a job that I love to go to in the mornings, even at 5am.  If you have a hard time with this, friends and family are good ways to express how you are feeling (hopefully) without judgement and let you explore how you are feeling.  Some people need direct counselling help for this type of thing, but it is still important just like the other two for overall well being and healthy living.  When you’re angry – be angry.  But make sure that it doesn’t detract from your overall health by causing you to have stress and be mentally unstable.

Which brings us to the final cornerstone of this equation – spiritual health.  Whatever higher power you believe in really doesn’t matter to me, and if you don’t believe in one then that’s fine too.  What you should have though is a set of principles and beliefs that you follow that fulfills you as a person.  In a nutshell, I think that one can be spiritual in many ways, even if it is something as simple as being good to others.  Giving to others can be a big part of this, and if you don’t have something like that in your life I encourage you to create it.  I’m a believer that what we put out there is what we get back, which is one reason I do what I do every day.

So there we have it.  Body, mind, heart and spirit all form the cornerstones of a healthy being that is able to go through life in a fulfilling way, conquer their goals and attain a higher state of being.  What steps can you take today in order to shore up some of these cornerstones?  Even a small step can make a difference and I encourage you to start right away.  Feel free to comment and let me know what you have done today to help yourself.