Fitness is something I rarely think about anymore.
Which is pretty weird to say since a large portion of my life is writing about fitness and selling workout programs but the days of thinking about my workout and diet are gone.
Don’t get me wrong.
I still enjoy training and lifting heavy weights.
I still watch my diet and eat well for both my health and body composition.
But my days of spending 6 times per week in the gym, labeling myself as the "guy who lifts weights" and just constantly thinking about fitness are over.
Here’s why I’m done with the “fitness lifestyle:”
1) Talking and reading about fitness online is exhausting and makes me feel stupid.
Obviously I’m not talking all fitness content.
I'm talking about the spew of mis-information about training and nutrition that people blindly regurgitate because it sounds scienec-y.
I’m also talking about watching fitness Youtube videos and feeling like I’m losing 10 IQ points every time because the comment sections are filled with racist 14 year olds.
I don’t need that crap in my life.
These days I just read what I need and take action.
2) I don’t obsess about my looks anymore “Ugh my shoulders aren’t wide enough.”
“All I need is one more inch on my biceps and my body will be perfect.”
“Maybe…just maybe if I’m 8% body fat instead of 10% I’ll be happy.”
Believe me, no one that’s worth knowing gives a shit if you’re 8% body fat vs. 10% body fat.
And once you hit a certain muscular threshold (typically your first 20-25 pounds), the only people you’re going to impress is more dudes. Trust me, chix aren't digging the weight you add to the bar.
If you ever do want to go from 10% body fat to 8% or gain an extra inch in your arms, do it for yourself, not because you think it’ll attract hotter women or more respect and power.
3) I get more time to do other, more enjoyable stuff. I never quite understand how some guys spend close to 2 hours in the gym and just “hang out.” If I wanted to hang out with friends I would do it outside the gym where everyone doesn’t smell like sweat and bodily fluids.
What I’ve found is that you get so much more free time to do literally anything you want when you’re not obsessed about planning your next workout or diet and doing “meal prep.”
I get more time to:
- Build my businesses
- Study
- Read books
- Think about the future
- Hang out with family and friends
- Skateboard
- Play some baseball with my buds
- Spend time talking to and hanging out with family
Ask yourself, what would you do if you stopped obsessing over fitness?
4) I get to enjoy eating again
You know the saying, “Eat to live, don’t eat to live.”
Yeah…screw that.
But there’s too much damn good food in this world to simply “eat to live.”
While I like to eat for my health and mental and physical performance, I also like to eat for fun.
Nothing wrong with that in my book.
5) Dieting becomes effortless. I view food as simply food.
Don’t get me wrong, I love eating and trying new foods but I don’t obsess over “clean” or “dirty” foods and I definitely don’t put a label on the way I eat (e.g. Oh I’m paleo, bro).
I keep a rough count of calories in my head and loosely track protein, carbs, and fats.
While I recommend beginners to closely track their food intake at the start with a notebook or app, you should be able to get to a point (within a few months) where you’re able to ‘eyeball’ and track your intake in your head.
Knowing your numbers is essential but I don’t recommend stressing over them.
For example, if I know I ate a ton of fats one day, I”ll simply go lower on fats the next day, but I won’t obsess over the exact gram amount.
6) My body hurts a heckuvalot less. Every single time I went on a 5-7 day workout split, my body would hate me.
My lower back would ache, my knees make this weird snapping sound every time walked, and worst of all, I just felt really really tired.
Hammering my body with heavy weights almost every day would just fry my CNS and I would never feel motivated to lift for the long run.
Now, realize I’m just talking about heavy lifting here. I have no problem lifting 3-4x per week and doing some extra cardio/conditioning work or even play sports on off days.
7) I actually look forward to my workouts again. I had a 3 month period where I did a 6 day per week bodybuilder split.
The first week went well since it was still a new routine.
But after that everything went to hell.
The exhaustion of lifting 5 days in a row is enough to make you want to kill yourself
These past few months, I’ve been training 2-3 days per week using a super simple upper/lower split.
This makes everything much easier to manage and with the extra rest days I’m actually excited to train hard and have enough energy to go to the gym, not to mention feel good enough to accomplish the rest of my daily tasks.
If you love to daydream about your next session to the gym, then more power to ya.
If you love spending your nights tweaking your carb and fat ratios, then that’s awesome. Whatever makes you happy…
But personally, I've had a bit too much of the “fitness lifestyle” and the hardcore, “balls to the walls” attitude that so many guys have with fitness.