Monday Motivation 4/1/24

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One of the best parts of having a fitness newsletter and the Pump app is listening to all of you.

Because I see your questions in the app and the replies to this email, I can keep my ear to the ground and see what’s getting you going and holding you back.

One thing I know holding you back is that so many gurus and influencers share conflicting information, and you get into the weeds and end up frozen with analysis paralysis.

I love pranks, so I thought about doing an April Fool’s Day email.

But going through “wellness” social media for an hour is better than any joke I could ever write.

Here are some actual posts you might find:

• Eat raw bull testicles to optimize your hormones.
• Detox your body with this $200 package of juices.
• Eat bacon instead of using sunscreen.
• Green Coffee Beans/Raspberry Ketones/Whatever is the new $35.99 product is the fastest way to lose fat.
• Don’t drink coffee until you’ve been awake long enough you don’t need it anymore.
• Tan your anus for more energy.
• Not a single one of these is an April Fool’s joke. They’re all real. But don’t confuse real with true.

Many are meant to sell you something — the shortcut you “need” to finally discover fitness.

I am sure some of these influencers mean well. But the result of all of this information is a lot of people who don’t know where to get started.

Even when they’re sharing good information, it’s often the information that would help you to perfect the last 10 percent of your results.

That’s a fancy way to say you don’t need to worry about timing your morning coffee and whether to sun your butt if you haven’t mastered the basics yet. (For the record, I always start my day with my cup of coffee, and I will never sun my butt. I once ate a turkey testicle to be a good sport on James Corden’s show , but I’d never do it again).

The basics are simple, but they aren’t easy. That’s why people end up going down 3 or 4 or 50 dead-end shortcuts before they commit to what we know works.

We cover the basics in this newsletter every day, but just in case you need a quick guide, here are the things I would worry about before I’d worry about anything that has the word “optimize” in it:

• Sleep 6-8 hours
• Eat mostly food that your grandparents would recognize (not ultra-processed food)
• Eat enough protein (0.7-1 gram per pound of goal body weight)
• Eat vegetables
• Drink water
• Do some resistance training with your body weight or weights
• Move throughout the day, not just in your workout
• Be a part of something (whether a community, a hobby, or anything that brings you together with other people)

That’s a good start. If you can’t check those boxes, you don’t need to worry about whether the algae powder or the coconut fat is what you need. You need the basics.

It’s actually the only shortcut because you don’t waste your time on all of the shortcuts that lead you to a dead end.

It looks like this:

You don't need to get into the weeds if you do a little better with the basics daily. Focus on getting 1% better a day. If you sat all day yesterday, walk around the block today. If you only ate fried food last week, throw in some vegetables this week.

Just do something that you KNOW is good for you, and forget about the things that MIGHT be good for you.

It won’t be easy. But it is simple.?

Look at the bright side: you don’t have to eat animal testicles, and you can keep starting your day with coffee.?