Day of the Shred 5: Why I don’t meal prep, transitions, lack of motivation, falling in love with weights again, and training chicks, bro!

Sometimes I forget that the work I do on this site makes a connection with people. I get caught up in trying to put out helpful, quality content that I sometimes overlook the fact the number of views on my site aren’t just random statistics, but actual people. People who matter. People who are looking for direction.  I’m hoping this post will help me revive that interpersonal connection feeling as this is going to be more of a ‘shoot from the hip’ type of post.

I’m not too big on journal or “blog” styles of writing, mostly because I find it a bit self-involved and narcissistic.  That’s actually the same reason I haven’t transitioned into making YouTube videos and vlogs (but maybe I will?)
But today I thought I’d try something a little different and go with an actual blog post. 
​
*Disclaimer- it’s going to be all about me, so if you don’t find me interesting and appealing at all then go ahead and hit that little X button at the top right of your screen. Otherwise, sit back and be enthralled about the wonderful and exciting life that is Craven’s! (But for real, it’s really nothing glamorous or exciting ha.)

​Excuse the randomness of topics that are going to be discussed in this blog, but fuck it, its shit I want to talk about right now. And if you see a little bit more swearing and F-bombs in this, it’s because I’m typing this the way I would talk, and sometimes when I start talking I get a lil bit over excited and words just come out. So let’s fucking continue. 

---

WHY I DON’T MEAL PREP
I’m going to paint a little picture of my life for you from about 9 years back up until about 2 years ago.  Most mornings I was up at 6am just so I could scarf down a meal of eggs and oats that I didn’t even enjoy, prepare and pack up my 8 meals for the day, then bounce out the door with my 3 big ass bags in hand. My neighbors probably thought I was going out of town every god damn morning.

If you see something like this, you might think “fuck that guys doing what’s necessary to be a good bodybuilder.”  But the truth is, it doesn’t make you any better.  It may look “hardcore”, but it’s actually a lot more trouble than it’s worth. Because looking back on it, I didn’t even look fantastic. Hell, I didn’t even look above average.

This was a time before I knew anything about calories and tracking macros.  I just thought “well if I eat all this clean food, it’ll make me look better. It’s part of the game and I’ll do what’s necessary to win.”
And honestly dudes, I wasted soooo much of my life living this way.  I remember I passed on hanging out with friends, traveling and taking trips, and probably making some memorable life experiences because I was too concerned about not having the proper foods around whenever I got to where I was going.  My life was plagued with anxiety.  And it all stemmed from this need to look better, which is a completely different rabbit hole to go down sometime.

So that’s partially why I don’t bother doing the whole meal prep game.  Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t.  It can help you save some cash if you want to avoid eating out and it helps you stay on track when you’re new to dieting.  It has its benefits.  But just know when you’re taking it too far and it starts to become more of a burden than a blessing.

And while I’m on the subject of eating 8 meals a day, there really was no need for that. I was naïve and thought that’s what was necessary.  The truth is you can have 3 meals or 14 meals a day if you’d like. It’s about personal preference and making sure you’re within your calorie ranges.  Obviously 14 meals a day will be some pretty fucking small meals and it would be pretty miserable, but 3 tends to work well with more people’s schedules.  Even 2 larger meals is pretty adequate for most.  You get to eat more at those meals and it keeps you full for longer periods.  That’s my take on that. 

So what’s my plan now?  I track calories and macros. No, I don’t do it obsessively.  But I do keep a running tab of what I put in my face most days.  And honestly, most days I eat the same meals which makes it stupidly easy to track and count.  This allows me to eat when I’m not home, enjoy a variety of foods If I feel like it, and not having to lug around an arsenal of Tupperware. I won’t make my pitch on why you should make tracking calories a life-skill, but I’ll tell you it really does help simplify your life tremendously.
​
 So why don’t I meal prep? Because I got more important things to do, dammit. 
​

2010 vs 2016

​TRANSITIONS
Moving on is never easy, but it’s something we all have to deal with. When you find a groove and you’re comfortable coasting through it you feel safe and secure. But that shit doesn’t last forever man.  And it’s scary. It’s scary to think about what you’re next move might be. It’s scary to think about what may happen if something goes wrong. But there’s a really fine line between scary and exciting. It’s a matter of perspective. I’m only mentioning transitions because I’m in a major one of my own.  It’s a time I like to refer to as the snow globe: someone just came and shook the fuck out of it and now shit’s different.  How eloquent, right?  Things can’t stay the same forever, though.  Change is inevitable. Changes are happening every second. Change will happen. But progress is a choice. I can sit here and pout about how shit’s changed so rapidly, and I have, or I can choose to go with the flow and make some progress in my life.  I think I’ll take the latter right now. 

" It’s a time I like to refer to as the snow globe: someone just came and shook the fuck out of it and now shit’s different.  ​"

A LACK OF MOTIVATION
Some days you just don’t feel like doing shit.  I’ve had a lot of these lately. And it’s so uncharacteristic of me because the last year I’ve made some remarkable progress in staying motivated and motivating everyone around me.  I saw a lot of my friends go out and achieve lots of great things after sitting down and having a few motivational chats. That made me feel pretty damn phenomenal. But lately I haven’t felt this way.  The one thing I know about motivation is it isn’t permanent. It’s a lot like bathing, you gotta do it pretty frequently.  Maybe it’s because there’s no end goal at the moment?  Not a specific one anyway.  The goals always going to be “be successful, help a lot of people, make some cash.” But that’s so general.  The question now is HOW am I going to do all of those things? And that’s what I’ve kind of lost sight of.  A lot of it has to do with this transitional period I’m in. A lot of my friends have moved on, are engulfed in their jobs, or are married with kids. All of that confuses me haha.  But they’ve moved on, and I need to as well.  The motivations coming back. Believe me, it took a hell of a lot of motivation to sit down and type this shit out.  Hopefully that builds some momentum. Momentum is key. I’ll be sure to remember that. 

FALLING IN LOVE WITH THE WEIGHTS, AGAIN.
Contradictory to what the previous 2 sections were about not wanting to do much and feeling a bit lost, I’ve actually re-kindled my love for weight training.  I guess when things are a bit turbulent, the weights provide a sense of comfort because I know they’ll always be there. When I was 16 years old is the first time I fell in love with weight training, and it’s been a long time since I’ve remembered how that felt.  I hated being a scrawny kid man. I got teased for it and I made it a point to do everything in my power to not be a scrawny guy.  I had an agenda, and somewhere within the first few weeks of being consistent with my training, I was infatuated with lifting weights. It was an escape from reality. Not that I ever had a rough life or anything, but the weights were just always there for me.  Since then I’ve had my flings with the weights on and off, and there’s been times where my heart just really wasn’t in it but I’d push on through.  I’d still enjoy lifting weights, but sometimes it seemed more like a chore and something I had to do rather than what I wanted to do.  But now it’s different. Now I WANT to be in the gym everyday moving weight.  Its my one constant in life that I can go to when everything else seems to be a cluster-fuck of confusion, transitions, and emotion.  Fuck I sound like a 15 year old girl sometimes.  But right now I love training my clients, but I love training myself even more.  I don’t have anything to prove to anyone, if anything I’ve done that all ready. Now it’s for me, again.  
​

TRAINING CHICKS, BRO!
Chicks. I dig em. Who doesn’t, right? Even chicks dig chicks! Working with dozens of different young ladies as clients over the last year has given me some insight into the female perspective on training.  Guys, if you’re reading this and you want to get your girl involved in training or you’re training female clients, take my advice- don’t put them through your workouts. They’re not little versions of men and they probably won’t enjoy doing 4 sets of 10-12 reps on bench press. Some might. Most won’t.  If you want to take your girl through a workout, specialize it for her. Show her how to perform a good squat, proper deadlifts, and lots of leg and booty work and do it in a way that’s fun.  Once she’s found it enjoyable, add some structure to the workouts so she can really make some physical progress.  Girls also have the ability to work really hard in the gym. In my experience, harder than most guys.  I won’t pretend to act like I know why, but they do.  That’s a great trait to harness and apply.  This all might sound pretty obvious, but it surprises me how often I see “professional trainers” at the gym put their female clients through workouts that don’t compliment their physiques or will help them reach their goals.  Sure, it’s activity and they’re getting off the couch. But don’t confuse activity with accomplishment.  3 sets of hip thrusts to build the booty will feel way more rewarding than 3 sets of bench press.  So just remember, chicks aren’t bros, bros. 
​

And well…that’s all I have to say about that right now.
If you made it through all my whining and are still here with me, thanks for the time and the support.  I’ve made it a point to connect more with the people I’m looking to help, so I hope this will show you that I’m human too and not some automated workout dude who’s always on the grind. 
Sometimes I’m lost, sometimes I screw up, sometimes I don’t have it all figured out.  But I’m working on that. Everyday. Even on the days I feel like not doing it, I’ll do it. 
Happy living, guys. Craven out.