If you are going to take any piece of advice from me to heart, and actually apply it, then here it is.
The most powerful leverage we have in influencing our health, wellness, and fitness is our ability to repeatedly adjust our habits based off of what works and what doesn’t for ourselves. Adjust, measure, learn. Adjust, measure, learn, Adjust, measure, learn. Having that feedback loop as part of your framework will help you avoid all the silly bullshit that prevails by allowing you to see what actually works for you, in your situation, in your life.
Now, instead of going into some esoteric ramble like I often do, I’ll keep it simple and list out things that I’ve learned over the years on what does and doesn’t work for me personally using the “adjust, measure, learn” idea. Perhaps it will give you some ideas on things to test out and see if they work for you.
Things that I’ve discovered that work for me:
- Track macros at least 4-5 days a week so that I can continually improve lean muscle mass and strength while keeping body fat in check. I focus on this heavily because of this.
- My body doesn’t like deadlifting. More specifically, my L5 vertebrae doesn’t like it. So I don’t do them often. Not worth it.
- I skip breakfast and just have some black coffee in the morning. I eat mostly protein and fat till around 3-4 and then mostly protein and carbs for the rest of the day. I’m not overly stringent with this – more of a guideline. I like this because it allows for a somewhat normal social life and heightens serotonin in the evening for better sleep.
- My body loves squatting heavy, overhead presses, and pull-ups – so they are staples all year long.
- I can eat ice cream and other sorts of processed sugar and keep insulin sensitivity and body fat in a healthy range as long as I don’t go over around 80g a day. This allows for almost daily indulgences while keeping good body composition and maintains a healthy relationship with food.
- 2 cups of coffee is the perfect amount of caffeine a day… But I wish it was more.
- I need to lift heavy things at least 3 days a week otherwise, I get grumpy.
- My body responds better to a high volume of structured weightlifting rather than high volume work capacity and endurance work.
- I’ve been at 6% body fat multiple times. Being that lean is way overrated. Being strong with a good hormonal profile and a healthy relationship with food is much more fun and sustainable.
- I’m finding Art De Vany’s thought process on the ‘X-look‘ resonates well with me and there is a lot of genius in it that isn’t immediately seen. There is a lot to learn from this man and I wish he put more of his insights out there.
- I no longer subscribe to one certain paradigm or dogma. I can’t be called a cross-trainingter, powerlifter, bodybuilder, or oly lifter. I also don’t eat paleo, zone, iifym, or intermittent fast. I’ve done all these. I look at those all as experiments and have adopted what worked and no longer practice what didn’t. By not identifying you open yourself to making rational decisions with your health rather than decisions based on a predetermined framework and social influence.