Fast Five Newsletter (My 5 Biggest Lessons from 2023)
Happy Friday!
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Here are 2 fitness tools, 2 dieting tips, and a quote for your mindset this week.
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2 Fitness Tools
2 things to buy for the New Year to help you on your fitness journey...
1. Get a Fitness Watch
I don't care about the brand you buy,
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As long as it counts steps and tracks your heart rate...
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You don't need anything else.
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It's not about "how many calories you burn" while doing exercise, it doesn't matter.
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Tracking calories burned is incredibly inaccurate.
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Not only that but it's more important tracking what you're putting in your mouth.
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Exercise for your health, not for a calorie burn.
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BUT...
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Setting a step goal is a great first step towards a healthier 2024.
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7,500 steps and working up to 10,000 is a amazing for your health.
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Anyone can do it.
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Heart rate is great to pay attention to while doing cardio so you not what zone you are in.
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I aim for 30-40 minute sessions of Zone 2 Cardio at least four times a week for my health.
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You can learn more about cardio for your health and zone 2 here =>?
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2. Get a Digital Scale
Just buy a digital scale on Amazon that comes with an app that you can use on your phone.
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You will be able to track your weight everyday and have it logged automatically on your phone for you.
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Then you can stop stressing the daily ups and downs of your weight and focus on the overall trend of where your weight is heading.
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EVEN IF YOU ATE "PERFECTLY" EVERYDAY YOUR WEIGHT WOULD STILL FLUCTATE.
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Stop beating yourself for a spike in your weight and start being patient and accepting that you are on a longer journey to your goal.
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This shit takes time and that's perfectly okay.
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If you do nothing else buy a digital scale and start using it everyday and track your calories along with it for 2 weeks.
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If you do this and get curious about the reasons why you eat the way you do and adjust your portions accordingly...
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You can make really great progress and learn a lot about your habits to kick off 2024.
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Here's an example scale you can get
2 Dieting Tips
1. 5 Lessons I Learned from 2023
1. Self-awareness and mindfulness are a must
Self-awareness according to the Oxford dictionary is defined as...?
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Conscious knowledge of one's own character, feelings, motives, and desires.
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Meaning how well do you know yourself?
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Your strengths, weaknesses, passions, and what drives you.
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What has happened in your past that shaped you into who you are today?
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What are your tendencies when you're feeling your best and when you're feeling your worst?
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Through therapy, journaling, and a lot self self-reflection I'm continuing to learn more and more about myself.
Things that were subconscious and buried, and things that are apparent at the surface level too.
Armed with more self-awareness you can build your life around what you value most, and make choices in alignment with the person you want to be.
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A part of that is mindfulness: a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.
Meaning that self-awareness is great.
But with mindfulness, you can work through the things that come up in life, and take action based on the person you want to be.
Rather than knee-jerk responding and reacting.
This has been a big shift for me in recognizing how unmindful I was at the time.
Getting back to practicing mindfulness allows you to continue to grow and be at choice with how you act and show up in life.
2. Investing in yourself is always worth it
Whether it's education, coaching, therapy, training, and or anything else you know will benefit you...
It's worth it.
If you're not pouring into your cup you won't be able to pour into anyone else's.
We all are in a state of constant evolution, at least if we choose to be.
When we invest in ourselves we are placing a vote towards the person we want to become.
We are recognizing that there are things that we do not know and that we want to learn so that we can adapt to change and grow.
It can be easy to feel stuck and stay in the same habits, patterns, and behaviors.
Working with an unbiased third party like a coach or therapist allows you to get feedback and access to the blind spots you can't see for yourself.
No matter how much I continue to learn I'm always recognizing how little I do know.
The good news is...
That means so many opportunities and changes are available to all of us!
If we are willing to accept that we don't know what we don't know, and are curious enough to learn more.
3. Your bare minimum health habits better be good
When shit hits the fan and life happens...
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It would be easy to say you're overwhelmed and can't keep up with eating well, making time for yourself, and exercising...
The problem is...
If you let all those things go when life happens...
You end up in just a worse situation.
This was a challenge for me this year.
I was proud of how I responded and stayed committed to taking care of myself no matter what was going on.
This means dialing things back to the bare minimum when you have to.
For me, this was at least 4 workouts at the gym for 20 minutes...
Daily walks and cardio on the treadmill at least 3 days a week...
Eating my 3 square meals even when my appetite was low...
Prioritizing sleep as much as I could even when it was thrown out of whack...
These are baseline habits for myself.
You can build them into your life too.
20-minute workouts...
Daily walks...
Planning meals...
Remembering to set aside 10 minutes even in the morning before work just to get your mind right through journaling, meditation, or just staring at the wall with a hot cup of coffee...
Taking care of you is always worth it.
4. You will never regret taking 100% ownership over your life
You will never be disappointed again if you stop placing expectations on others.
I do the best I can every day.
I assume everyone else is doing the best they can too.
That means there will be mistakes, feelings hurt, and things will go wrong sometimes.
But regardless of what happens...
Life is happening for me.
Not to me.
You will never regret leading with loving kindness towards others.
5. Happiness is a choice and there is no benefit to seeing it otherwise
My happiness is my responsibility.
It's no one else's fault.?
The good the bad and the ugly...
It all just is.
When you take ownership, you take back control of your life and stop being a victim.
That is empowering.
There is no downside to being positive.
I choose to believe that my life is unfolding as it should.
There will be good and bad days, and many ups and downs.
No matter what I will be okay, and I believe that the best is yet to come.
I place faith in God, and myself.
If you choose negativity, anger, and pessimism you may be closing yourself off to opportunities that could change your life.?
Doors can be opened for you, but nothing happens if you don't see them and walk through them.
You co-create all the relationships in your life.
That's with others and yourself.
Meaning when you see your part in everything...
Your choices, thoughts, meanings, and stories you tell yourself.
Then you can begin to CHOOSE and rewrite your story and change how you view the world.
Then you're creating the life you want and allowing good things to happen.
This was a powerful mindset shift for me. I hope you learned as much this past year as I did, and had many blessings.
2. I'm Giving Away $1500
Don't forget that the deadline to apply for my 4 month coaching giveaway is this Sunday.
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I will also be doing some partial scholarships for other people who apply and don't win the grand prize.
GIVEAWAY DETAILS:
Message me, “ALL IN” and I will ask a few questions and send you an application to see if we're a good fit to work together.
From there, I’ll be in touch.
I will review the applications submitted by Sunday, January 1st, and the winner will be announced on Wednesday, January 3rd!
Feel free to forward this email to any friends that you think might be interested in this opportunity.
READY…SET…GO.
Good luck!
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A Quote to Think About Today
"Don't tell people your goals. Instead do it for you. Work in silence and let your accomplishments speak for themselves."
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Have a wonderful and Happy New Year!
Best, Nate Brown
Fast and Swole Training