What if I told you that you were seriously screwing up your ability to get results at the gym by not sleeping enough? Would you actually believe me? Or slough it off and say that you’re one of the few who can get by with 5 hours a night?

We all know that we’re supposed to get 7-9 hours of sleep every night. Whether we take that seriously is another story.

Believe it or not...

I’m not going to pretend like I’m a brain expert, but I’d be willing to bet a million dollars that doing things we’re bad at is good for us.

1️⃣ If you only do things you’re good at for the rest of your life, won’t you get bored?

2️⃣ …

The best way to talk yourself into something being unconquerable is to believe that you’re the only one experiencing it.

Reminding yourself that weight loss is challenging for millions of people actually empowers you to make change because it’s not a ‘you’ problem. Weight loss is challenging for millions of people!

But when we think that this is a ‘me’ problem that no one else in the world can relate to, that’s when the hopelessness sets in. That’s when the motivation wanes and the stagnancy occurs.

When climbing Everest, you stop at each camp to acclimate to the elevation.

When training for a marathon, you gradually work your way up to 26.2 miles to avoid injury.

When starting a fitness routine, you begin with the minimum number of workouts per week that you’re 100% certain is achievable, and add more workouts as consistency is established.

This means you won’t climb Everest unbroken. You won’t run a marathon tomorrow. And you won’t get life-changing fitness results in a week.

“When does this get easier?”

It doesn’t. You either give up, or your learn to enjoy some part of the process.

Coaching CrossFit gives you an unnerving glimpse into people’s first experiences feeling true pain in a workout.

When you’re first starting, it can feel like every single day is the hardest workout you’ve ever done. And the question inevitably comes up: when will this get easier?

An object in motion, stays in motion. An object at rest, stays at rest.

Probably the only thing I remember from AP physics.

Who knew Newton was talking about starting a fitness routine when he discovered the laws of motion?

I don’t need you to start with the perfect fitness routine.

I don’t need you to find the ideal diet for you right now.

I just need you to start moving forward so we can figure out what is right for you.

Once an object (you) is in motion, we can pivot, shift, or fine-tune. As the behavioral psychologists remind us: motivation follows action, not the other way around.

If you want healthy teeth and fresh breath, you’re going to brush and floss every day. 

You know this, and yet, how many of us don’t floss daily? If you want a healthy body, you’re going to exercise and eat well every day. You know this, and yet, how many of us don’t exercise and eat well daily?

You don’t have an information problem. In both of these cases...

I always say to our new members, “the slower you ease your way into creating a habit, the higher the likelihood of that habit sticking.”

But there’s another piece of the puzzle I want to add.

It’s not just about making habits slowly, it’s about making them small enough.

I was in Thailand for two weeks, and for the life of me, I couldn’t make myself meditate.

This is a habit I’ve created for myself that is solid. Every morning I meditate for 20 minutes immediately after I wake up, and every afternoon I meditate for 20 minutes after lunch.

And yet, on this vacation where I literally had nothing else to do, I just couldn’t do it. I wrote it down in the notes section of my phone because it really bothered me. I’d come back to it later.

When I sat down to do a post mortem now two months after the trip, I kept remembering waking up and having this immense urge to check my phone. A large part of this is due to a phone addiction that I’m actively working to diminish, but I have that phone addiction when I’m in the states too, and I’m still able to meditate every day.

Maybe it was that I was on vacation and a little part of me wanted to rebel and self-sabotage from the habits I do every day? Vacation isn’t a time to work hard, it’s a time for leisure and naps. Yes, that makes sense.

At Pridefit we’ve got a motto - get results ASAP.

But our “ASAP” stands for: as SUSTAINABLY as possible.

Because results that aren’t sustainable aren’t results. Results that aren’t maintainable aren’t results. If what you’re seeing in the mirror today isn’t what you think will be realistic in a year—the work, money, and time that you’re putting in right now is a complete waste...

The most common way we see people motivate themselves in fitness is by seeing results. This becomes a little complicated when results materialize in different ways and at different times for all people.

My job would be solved if I could tell you that all of your weight loss, muscle gain, and aesthetic goals would be solved in 30 days, but bodies are complicated. There are a million factors we need to take into account, and there is no one-size-fits-all prescription.

But rather than think about the takers, I want us to prioritize our focus on the givers—the people who you’re able to be honest with, have effortless dinners with, laugh with, be vulnerable with. These are the people we need to be prioritizing in our lives. I believe one of the most important lessons we can learn in life is

I’ve fallen into a rabbit hole of analyzing Japanese culture. By no means am I an expert, but even scratching the surface of some of their customs has been incredibly enlightening compared to our western beliefs and upbringings. One concept in particular felt like it coincided beautifully with our Pridefit ethos. The concept is called “yūgen.”

Extrapolating yūgen to apply more directly to humans is simple.

It’s been proven time and time again that dieting just doesn’t work. Sure, we can drop a few pounds in the short term, but long-term weight loss relies on sustainable habit change, not an acute, restrictive diet.

Here are 4 ways that you can work to improve your nutrition habits without restriction. They may seem small on their own, but they pack a mighty punch over time.

I get so pissed when people are on their phones between sets at the gym.

And yes, I do it too. I’m mad at myself, not just everyone else.

Multitasking is baked into my life. I know it’s “bad,” but if I didn’t listen to a podcast while walking my dog Meryl, or watch a show while cooking dinner, I may not get to do those things at all.

The problem with multitasking isn’t just doing two things at once—it’s the constant switching. It wrecks focus and slows us down. Getting into a flow state is much more productive than juggling emails, podcasts, writing, and laundry all at once.

But let’s go back to the gym, because that frustration deserves a deeper look...

“Thai people don’t eat a lot of noodles.”

During my food tours of Chiang Mai and Bangkok, I heard this over and over again. The Pad Thai dish that is so popular in the states and “representative” of Thai culture, isn’t a dish commonly eaten by Thai people. Wild.

Instead, I was told that Thai people eat rice at every meal. A rice shortage and a smart pivot from the Thai government to increase tourism in the 1930’s is what led to the creation of Pad Thai, but I can’t talk any more about that before I get hungry.

Thai people eat rice at almost every meal.

Rice.

A carb (gasp!)....

You know how we take mental health days from school and work?

We need those from fitness too. 

If you were a professional athlete like Simone Biles or Coco Gauff, your body would need a few days a week to physically recover. They are training so incredibly hard to be the best athletes in the world, and with that kind of intensity comes immense need for recovery that can take days. 

For us...

The ice baths have got to go.

I don’t mean this literally—there are plenty of people who will still benefit from cold water submersion despite current research showing that it can have the opposite recovery effect than we originally thought.

Yes, you read that right. We now know that icing after a tough workout or an acute injury actually slows down the recovery process by restricting blood flow from the areas of your body that need to repair and regrow.

That’s not my point.

CEO’s, athletes, and biohackers have started using ice baths for another purpose: resetting dopamine and effectively boosting motivation.

The research is quite compelling, really. When we deliberately put ourselves in an uncomfortable or painful situation, there’s an effect on dopamine production that is pretty astounding. In the modern age where social media and cell phones are desensitizing us to any of these dopamine releases—this really matters.

If you’re feeling unmotivated to get your work done, go to the gym, or even clean up around the house, you may have a dopamine problem. You’re getting so much “easy dopamine” from scrolling on Instagram or looking at your comments on TikTok or binge watching Netflix that there’s virtually nothing in the world that can make you feel quite as good—that will produce that much dopamine.

The ice bath - as the biohackers say - is meant to be the foil to our dopamine addiction.

Here's the thing: I absolutely despise training zone 2. Let’s back up a second for context. 

When exercising, our heart rate is within one of five “zones.” 

Zone 1: 50-60% of max HR (heart rate), should feel comfortable and light. Great for warm-ups and cooldowns.
Zone 2: 60-70% of max HR, light and sustainable. You should be able to maintain conversation throughout.
Zone 3: 70-80% of max HR, noticeably exerting, but still sustainable. It’s challenging to maintain conversation.
Zone 4: 80-90% of max HR, generally used for shorter efforts. Unable to converse more than a few words.
Zone 5: 90-100% of max HR, all-out effort. Training at your absolute limit.

The traditional advice when training for any endurance event (over 30 minutes) would be to have 80% of your training in zone 2, with the research showing that even though your race may be in zones 3, 4, or 5, the zone 2 training is gentle enough on your aerobic system while still increasing your capacity in the upper zones. 

My mistake is...