These three words were the response to a question on what advice Michael Pollan has for anyone looking to improve their cooking skills. At first I was surprised, but also thought that would be a great answer to the same question as applied to losing fat, getting stronger, and many other health issues.

Pollan was in Portland doing a speaking event in support of his latest book “Cooked”, which on the surface is about cooking but is really about us, and how activities we choose to engage in play a huge part in our health and happiness, or lack of it judging by current statistics on obesity and life satisfaction. He commented that though he writes about slow food, the perspective is askew and that it is us who are too fast, and that by practicing patience and being present when preparing food we will likely enjoy it more, and make more time to do it. Cooking is one activity which encourage good family interaction and result in a healthier diet vis-a-vis eating food that is less likely to contain large amounts of sugar, salt, and fat.

In a world where so few of us are obliged to cook at all anymore, to choose to do so is to lodge a protest against specialization — against the total rationalization of life. Against the infiltration of commercial interests into every last cranny of our lives. To cook for the pleasure of it, to devote a portion of our leisure to it, is to declare our independence from the corporations seeking to organize our every waking moment into yet another occasion for consumption.

If you have ever spent time on fitness-related internet forums you’ve likely come across dozens of questions about what the best exercise is, what’s the best program, what should I do for x issue, should I eat this and not that etc… all of which are legitimate questions but if the person isn’t already practicing those three words in their exercise and nutrition choices than nothing anyone says will make much of a difference.

And not to get all existential on you that goes for life in general right?

I’ve made it a habit to tell those that come to EFL right off the bat that their bad shoulder, stiff back, or extra 30lbs didn’t happen overnight, so it’s going to take some time and effort to make improvements. And yes we have lost some people who’ve read about some awesome 60 day bootcamp but we owe it our members to be honest and give them the best information and guidance we can.

Who doesn’t want to believe that there is some secret out there that once grasped will restore us to perfect health?! Honestly though, don’t we all know thats not really the case?  There is no “superfood” nor any super exercise. Pollan advocates a balanced diet but one not restricted by ingredients but with quality in mind, similar to exercise and movement specialists such as PT Gray Cook who advocate developing an enjoyment of a variety of exercise while keeping in mind principles of good movement.

Funny how it’s all connected isn’t it?

If you want to lose weight be aware that it will take time and adjustments to your lifestyle, and you’ll succeed by paying real attention to what you eat and how much of it. Do that long enough and chances are it will work. Patience, presence, practice.

Looking to get stronger or improve your cardio? Make changes in your exercise that accurately reflect these goals and if you really follow it (the goal is to keep the goal the goal, as Dan John always says) you’ll progress. Patience, presence, practice.

One final note, I’ve become more intimately familiar with those three words by having a 3 month old infant daughter, which also explains why this is the first article I’ve written in four months! Patience…patience…

If you want to listen to the discussion with Michael Pollan check it out at Oregon Public Radio.

There are many ways to interpret that statement, and many lessons can be drawn from it. Of all the people that come to EFL I estimate that 90% come because they are experiencing some sort of pain or discomfort that negatively affects their life. The other 10% have body composition or performance related goals but tend to also have some movement-related limitations be it chronically tight upper back due to poor posture or nagging injuries related to a chosen sport or hobby.

The commonality is that all are products of lifestyle choice. The person with chronic knee pain may be in that situation because of postural habits combined with too much running, and not enough recovery and rest. The overweight person with low back pain may have chosen to sit for hours every evening in front of the TV rather than engage in an active hobby.

We have trained rock climbers that have experienced chronic elbow and shoulder issues from imbalances in stress and recovery. Competitive cyclists and runners with chronic hamstring injuries resulting from imbalances between training/sitting stress and recovery.

And therein lies the rub. Most of us don’t have a choice whether or not we spend 8 hours a day in front of a computer or at a desk. We are however in control of how often we stand up and stretch, take a little walk, or even choose to work standing.

An aspiring cyclist or climber has to dedicate many hours in order to get good, but how the athlete chooses to balance training and life stress with recovery is critical to success, and perhaps not pissing off a spouse. Time spent stretching, planning good nutrition, getting a massage and all other methods of recovery are a choice, and one that often ends up being the real roadblock rather than not training enough.

So how do we develop a balance between that and all of the other demands on our time and energy in order to maintain health? Do we just need to spend more time in the gym exercising?

That depends. We’ve all seen gym rats whose chosen hobby is to hit the gym everyday for crushing workouts and guess what, they often have injuries or pain caused by that lifestyle choice too. My friend Nate Green from Precision Nutrition was one of those gym rats, but recently has not only written about the need to get out of the gym, but he lives it too by trying different sports and branching out in his own training instead of doing the same old bench press, squat, deadlift-centered workouts. And guess what, he feels and moves better.

My own journey in health and fitness has resulted in a number of injuries along the way, some from lifting too much while being focused on numbers, and at times practicing certain martial arts movements too much without a balance in variety and recovery. Too much bench pressing because that is what signifies strength, or so we are lead to believe in fitness media.

Ok great, so now that you know everything you’ve done was wrong (joke) now what? Here is a bit of advice on what has helped those I’ve worked with in these areas:

1. 2-3 gym workouts per week using a program structured to address weak points, imbalances, mobility deficits and so on. This is sufficient for most people for most goals. Don’t do hard workouts 3 days in a row in order to balance recovery. If crunched for time a 15 minute can work wonders.

2. A nutrition plan that will aid in recovery, enhance performance, address deficiencies, and otherwise enable fat loss, muscle gain or other goals.

3. Find an active hobby or sport you enjoy doing, and preferably one that does not place a lot of stress on the body in one plane of motion (running comes to mind here). If you are a runner or cyclist that is perfectly fine, but just be aware that the volume of steps or pedal strokes can create imbalances and so other modes of activity will help reduce the potential for injury. I highly suggest activities that use the entire body in multiple planes of motion such as martial arts or rock climbing.

4. A daily walk and or stretching/foam rolling any time of day does wonders for not only reducing stress but improving mobility, joint health and burning a few calories. Essentially low stress activity provides a great balance to higher stress activities.

It’s safe to say this topic could cover volumes so for those curious to read more here are a few resources.

Dr. John Berardi talks about efficient nutrition strategies and the idea of how to stay fit doing a couple short workouts per week.

Patrick Ward, a performance coach & massage therapist, has a number of articles on the subject of balancing stress and recovery and related topics on his blog.

Physical therapist Gray Cook on balancing movement patterns and stress.

But first what is stress as relates to health and exercise?

Stress can be broken down into many facets, but for our purposes it’s easier if we think of it as stimulus acting upon our body and brain, including the nervous system and muscle tissue/fascia among other structures. It can be positive or negative, depending on the type and amount.

The goal of exercise, massage, physical therapy etc… is ultimately to provide just enough positive stress in order to cause improvement.

• Adopting good posture while sitting at your desk is better stimulus to your brain and body than slumping forward (negative input).
• Getting up every 20 minutes and moving provides positive input and mitigates stress caused by prolonged sitting.
• Prolonged soreness or achy joints produced by working out is negative stress. You should feel energized after training, not beaten down.
• Good nutrition helps us recover from exercise and improves results. Unhealthy food will prevent progress and make you feel worse.

We improve fitness or become stronger by doing enough to force our body (as a whole, including the brain) to adapt. This is where the role of a good trainer comes into play – and why a program must be designed with the individual’s physical state and lifestyle taken into account. And also why consistent results will typically not be attained from bootcamp type programs or group classes that by definition require a cookie cutter approach and cannot take into account the needs and current stated of readiness of each individual.

This is why doing 5 “hardcore” workouts per week is a recipe for failure for most people. It’s also why training to failure on a regular basis will not only not make you stronger, but often leads to injury. Type A personality individuals and athletes often have trouble with this one. More often than not I look for ways to put in more rest, mobility and positive stress into the training of these people, and purposefully not beat them up. Just enough hard work to produce results but not a bit more. This is also why we have many reformed Crossfitters who stick with us. They get individually applied training that produces results without constantly beating them up.

The following research illustrates how this applies to athletes. A year long university study in Norway (Journal of Strength & Conditioning 26(10)/2705) took a high level cyclist and reduced the volume of cycling training by 60%, and in place applied smaller doses of higher intensity training which produced 15% increased performance in time trial competition.

With our competitive cyclocross racers as we entered competition season I reduced gym training volume an extra 30% and prescribed even more mobility, foam rolling, and other methods to improve recovery than we had previously done. In addition I suggested reduced cycling volume in general, and depending on the individual programmed lower volume of high intensity intervals than they were used to, and more time off the bike resting.

What happened was this season we had no recurring injuries that had plagued these individuals, and better results in the races. They have felt stronger and fresh.

These principles apply to everyone, whether athlete or person wanting to lose fat and feel better. Here are some tips for dealing with the stress of the holidays.

1. Stay on a regular exercise schedule. Block off time for yourself, and don’t be afraid to shorten workouts if necessary. 20 minutes 3x a week is much better than skipping workouts and doing a single 60 minute workout.
2. When in doubt, or if you have been sick, then reduce the volume of exercise. For example do two sets instead of 3 and use the extra time to do more foam rolling and mobility.
3. Be selfish with your eating and sleep habits. Don’t sacrifice eating healthy – anyone that makes fun of you at the office party secretly envies your progress. And who gives a shit anyway right? We are in control of our health and are responsible for our decisions.
4. Massage, foam rolling, ART etc… become even more important in times of higher life stress. Treat yourself to a massage or 30 minutes on the foam roller at home.
5. Make the time to go grocery shopping and prepare healthy meals that you can bring to work. There will be more sweets around the office, and nothing wrong with having a piece of pumpkin pie, but having good food handy will help take the stress out of food choices.

Portland being a foodie town it is way to easy to eat out and including one of our delicious local brews easily go north of 1500 calories in a meal. So this strategy is one way we adjust to particular needs of our environment. We currently have EFL members that are vegetarian, paleo, gluten free, doing the Velocity diet, intermittent fasting etc… but that matters less than adhering to common nutritional principles of taking in enough key quality nutrients but not too much of them. All of them have lost fat and increased muscle.

What we advocate above all, similar to Precision Nutrition is, finding what works best for an individual and building a plan around that. There is a bit of trial and error to be sure, and results are not always quick but over time we figure it out.  It’s simple and is not restrictive, which increases the odds of success and sustainability. It doesn’t matter if you are vegan, paleo, or whatever. I’ve trained plenty of overweight vegetarians and paleo followers who struggled to lose fat. It’s not the particular diet that matters but having a sustainable plan in place that aids in controlling portions and quality.

Homemade Shogayaki (ginger chicken and cabbage over rice)

The picture above is a meal my wife prepared last week. It includes chicken (local organic farm), veggies, rice, tofu, and miso. We don’t restrict ourselves from eating meat, grains, or soy and frankly any diet that insists you should is B.S. And since she is pregnant and getting regular blood work done along with other medical tests we are quite sure that it is healthy and safe. Not to mention that these ingredients have nourished many generations. In the past 6 months I’ve dropped around 12 pounds in preparation for cycling races yet have not restricted meat, grains or any other food but simply adjusted amounts and training. Too simple I know… I’ll never make that million $$ pushing that approach to eating.

So if you are currently struggling with weight loss consider how to plan your shopping and meals to fix the vast majority of them at home. I encourage you to choose a good cookbook or two and experiment with some new healthy meals. Finding ways to enjoy new foods is a joy. We have a couple of copies of the Gourmet Nutrition Cookbook on our shelves that members are free to borrow and everyone has discovered some new favorite recipes.

Nate went on at length about how much the whole process sucked, yet how cool it was at the same time. Now, he is normally a self-deprecating guy but I thought he was playing it all up a bit until I heard that he gained 21 pounds in twenty eight days, then tried to lose it all through weight cutting methods in 5 days, then gain as much of it back as possible in 1 day.

Yeah, that would suck. I’ve seen firsthand how drained and mentally/physically fatigued athletes are who have to undergo drastic weight cuts. Yet one more reason why I’m more than happy to have not competed in wrestling.

This past week Nate told me his “book”, which is really a website, launched. And now you can read it for FREE right here.

Not excited about your book Nate, or just bloated?

I dug in right away not knowing exactly what to expect, and was pleasantly surprised at the wealth of tips and knowledge everyone can use for their own purposes.  So while the take home lessons are cool I kept reading because Nate is an entertaining writer. He has a way of putting rather complex nutrition and physiological processes into language that is not only simple to understand, but entertaining. The accompanying layout of his diet and workouts are pretty cool too, and the photos give you a real idea of just how much or how little he had to eat to make it happen.

But I’m not writing this just to hype Nate’s book, but after reading it realized there are many gems that can help EFL members and anyone else reading this. So I’m going to boil down some of those points into action steps that you can use.

1. Have a plan. No matter your goal I can’t overestimate the importance of having a realistic plan. Many people attempt to lose weight but quickly give up many times because they didn’t know what to do when they went off the plan for a day – which is why its a good idea to develop your plan together with a good coach. This person will likely provide a framework and steps that you wouldn’t know to take. Case in point is that Nate had two coaches for his experiment, Dr. John Berardi who designed and monitored the nutrition componenent, and Martin Rooney who handled the physical training portion. Despite that fact that Nate has trained other people, and writes about nutrition and training for a living he knew he needed others more knowledgeable than himself to design a safe, effective plan.

2. Develop a support network. We all know everything is easier with support from others, and the same holds true for losing fat, gaining muscle, training for a race or whatever the goal. We are more likely to follow through when we are accountable to others, especially those who might be putting an effort in to help.

3. Organization. Planning out your meals for the day is one thing, but how do you plan out your meals for the week? And what do you do when shit happens? This is where organization becomes crucial. Through trial and error Nate discovered how much advance planning it took to eat all his meals when he was supposed to. Most of us will never have to get to that level of planning, but if you are trying to make a change, say lose fat, then you will have better results by planning meals in advance and putting together a shopping list, then taking the time to shop and prepare those meals.

4. Commitment. We all know following through is key, but many fail to grasp that changing your body means changing your lifestyle, which is hard. And it takes time. More time than many initially have patience for. So it’s best to be aware in advance that creating lasting change is not a 21 or even 60 day event. It will take longer and entail some commitment. But hey, it’s either that or yo yo like everyone else out there.

5. Discipline is a skill. The mental fortitude to stick to a plan and see it through is not something that some have and some don’t. We can all do it, but developing the discipline is a skill that is gained over time. I learned it through martial arts, as did Nate. Many people learn it through lifting weights and over time accomplishing things they never thought they could by showing up day after day. In part this relates to the psychology of habit building – in other words the more you stick to doing an activity and see it through the easier it is to apply that skill to another activity.

Even if you read the book and don’t come away with some valuable tips and strategies at least hopefully you’ll have empathy for Nate’s girlfriend Richelle, who had the limits of her tolerance tested!

Am I not as an effective trainer as I thought I was?

It is for these reasons the vast majority of trainers never attend conferences such as Perform Better Summit. The city I live in probably has more than 100 gyms, and I’d guess well over a thousand trainers. Counting myself there were exactly three in attendance who live near Portland at the largest educational conference on the west coast. And those two others live well outside of Portland. So what education are those other 999 trainers getting… I hear about what people see at other gyms all the time. Scary stuff.

I truly enjoy going and having my feathers ruffled, and coming away with new perspectives, and hopefully refined skill sets that allow me to help others more effectively. Looking back at programs I wrote 8 years ago causes a deep shudder, as well it should.

Are you doing the same exercises you did 10 years ago? Can you honestly assess what has or hasn’t worked with your own workouts or those of your clients?

Recently I began reading Mark Singleton’s book “Yoga Body: The origins of Modern Posture Practice” which calls into question the very roots of the most Westerners believe about yoga. His research, which was for his Doctoral dissertation, turned up a historical trail whereby he traces the roots of asana (postures such as downdog) in yoga to surprising roots.

Is this what the ancients did?

It turns out that the sequences of postures most of us assume are steeped in tradition are in reality a relatively recent 20th Century innovation. Modern major schools of yoga such as Ashtanga Vinyasa “stands in a complex relationship to history, and the influence of (European) pedagogical gymnastics is just one (major) element in its composition.

Essentially Singleton found that most of us have been sold a bill of goods when it comes to the spiritual or ancient associations with yoga postures. In fact it owes more to European bodybuilding and gymnastic influences than what yogis 200 years ago were actually practicing.

This is not to say there is less value in practicing yoga because of it. If it works it works. But lets look deeper into the how’s and why’s of what movements/exercises/stretches work. Of course this should apply to every aspect of fitness, from conditioning methods – Tabata everything and 7 minutes of burpee nonsense, to lifting weights.

Do you know why the bench press or back squat became thought of as must do exercises for guys wanting to build muscle?  Were those movements promoted in order to sell equipment or help market a brand? Or do those movements really work that much better than other exercises that require less expensive, simple equipment?

Might this then lead us to question the wisdom of doing classes based around one piece of equipment? Are we looking to get better at using a TRX or are our members looking to just move and look better period? If the answer is the latter then… You get the drift.

Back to my struggle in maintaining a “beginner’s mind”.

So these days when I do have time to write it’s usually reserved for sources of information useful for reference. In my opinion learning more about the history of health and physical culture, and Dr. Ed Thomas is an absolute treasure. So without further ado here is video of a lecture he gave to Gray Cook’s university class.

Gray is recognized as an excellent physical therapist and sought after by pro athletic organizations, so when he says we calls Dr. Thomas a mentor and expert on physical culture well…

In the first two parts Dr. Thomas goes into the early history of physical training methods brought to American by Europeans, who themselves learned from Persian, Indian, and Asian sources. The second two lecture segments go into the changes (devolution) of physical training and standards in the 20th Century until we ended up with the fattest and worst moving population on earth.

Essentially Dr. Thomas points out that to work our way out of this sorry state we only need to learn what was done a century ago and integrate those methods into our current fitness and health models. Some might think that overly simplistic but I disagree.

Dig in and enjoy!

This past week a friend provided just such a shift for myself and members of Elemental Fitness Lab. Cirque Du Soleil has been performing in Portland, and my friend Gana was hired to do a contortion and hand balancing piece in the second act. Now, I know when people hear the word contortion they think of someone with freaky joints and possibly abnormal genetics. This of course is not true. Just as any other athlete she has trained very hard for many years in order to reach this level. And to be perfectly honest though I’ve known her for a few years I didn’t know much about her approach to training.  Being fortunate enough to learn a bit more I’ve come to realize that it was my perspective that needed changing in order to better understand her craft.

This is a warm-up stretch from her perspective

Gana was kind enough to come guest teach our mobility/flexibility class, and I wondered what people’s reaction would be, what her approach to teaching would be as our members come from a vastly different background than the dancers/gymnasts/acrobats she normally teaches. Not surprisingly Gana is a perceptive person, and was able to alter her usual structure in order to effectively provide us with some lessons. But the real lessons for me came later during conversation regarding what is normal from her persepctive in relation to what I see day to day.

She was quite honest in admitting that when she saw the flexibility and mobility levels of most people she was at a bit of a loss at what to do, since nobody could get into what she considers basic beginning stretches such as this. And to ‘fess up I can’t do that either!

Just another basic stretch

From her perspective it is we, the ones not able to achieve full splits, are the abnormal people.  After all, most toddlers can do the splits.  If you think about one can walk into any gymnastic, dance, or martial arts school and you’ll see people of all ages who can do the splits. Hell, I’ve seen 400 pound Sumo wrestlers do perfect full splits, so none of us are too big. It’s simply a matter of practice, as with anything.

That’s when it hit me! I had gotten too used to my own flexibility limitations, and perhaps haven’t been advocating enough that our members work more on higher levels of flexibility, mobility, and overall movement abilities. This is all within reason of course. None of us will, or necessarily want to be contortionists. But the same applies to strength training too in that reaching elite levels in weightlifting, running, cycling etc… all have risks and downsides. If the goal is better general health and body composition then finding a good balance is important. Lift heavy all the time and your joints will pay a price. Only cycle or run and your joints, strength, and connective tissue will pay a price. Only do yoga or pilates and you will get weaker and lose fitness.

And though over the past few years I’ve come to realize that mobility/flexibility is crucial, Gana, her boyfriend, and other athletes I met at Cirque enlightened me to the fact that I was probably setting bar too low and not striking a better balance in some cases.

Yes it is true that all of the artists performing at Cirque are firmly in what strength coach Dan John calls quadrant four – which refers to the specialists and elite athletes. They all however started out in quadrants I and II by developing a broad range of skills and movement abilities. After all, the great majority of people that come into my gym with injuries or dysfunction developed those issues over long periods of time due to lifestyle which as resulted in considerable mobility and flexibility limitations. These people need to work on a fairly broad range of mobility, stability, flexibility, and strength all applied in the proper order to the proper places.

If a person has a history of back issues and cannot maintain good spinal and hip position through a range of motion then working on their strength at the expense of mobility will likely worsen the issue. It’s a hard pill for many to swallow at first, but as with anything persistence pays off. And this stuff takes time. Years perhaps, but what better to spend your time and effort on? If you are going to exercise you might as well do what produces real results?

And maybe what is considered “results” at 24 Hour Fitness or tabloid media is not all that healthy…..? Uh oh, there is that perspective thing again.

Of course, the perspective shift can be applied to just about anything, including nutrition. This program on NPR accompanies a new documentary on HBO concerning obesity and the many factors involved, and consequences of a slow shift to where being overweight is normal.

We all need wake up calls from time to time to remind us that our old comfortable normals may have slipped into unhealthy territory, or it could be our ideas were never really normal at all. And at the risk of sounding presumptuous it is better for us to realize it before ending up in the doctor’s office due to an issue that is completely under our control.

You are the only one that can decide to change your habits, so from time to time get out there and challenge yourself by being around others that are at a higher level in various aspects of health and personal growth.

Frequently I’m asked to recommend books or programs for people who for one reason or another don’t have access to a good trainer, and a lot of times it is a struggle when the person has some movement limitations, needs to work on posture, or isn’t at a place where they can even start doing pull-ups and barbell front squats. That description probably fits a majority of the public, so it’s great to have NROL4L come along and fill that gap.

It appears to come with a kettlebell handle. Genius!

The first few chapters of the book are something I’d like to photocopy and hand out to everyone I meet that wants to lose weight/get back in shape, but don’t have a good grasp of what to do, and more importantly the reasons why strength training is an important component of that process. If everyone understood Lou’s New Rules of Fitness he lays out in this book I truly believe there would be some impact on obesity stats.

Common sense statements such as “the older you are the more important it is to train” is something many doctors may tell their patients but here you get it from someone who has been practicing what they preach for probably more years than he cares to remember.  Better yet Lou and Alwyn are not afraid to change, and each book reflects the fact that both authors are constantly learning and refining their craft – so here you get the accompanying science to go with Alwyn’s excellent programs that can take someone from day 1 in the gym all the way through some pretty advanced stages.

As with the other NROL books each exercise is described together with photos, but this time Alwyn came up with a sort of build your own workout structure based on where someone is in their fitness journey, and includes ways to self-assess so you can start with the appropriate exercise choices. Pretty damn smart!  And honestly these programs are the closest thing I’ve seen to what I do with my clients who are acing their mid (and later life) exams.

More attention is also paid this time around to the importance of mobility, flexibility, and tissue quality, which in a world where we spend more hours hunched over a computer than anything else is a big, big deal.  Kudos to these guys for putting together an intelligent warm-up structure that will addresses the major points most people need to work on.

Of course no good fitness book would be complete without some nutrition information, and Lou really did his homework on this on. Personally I got the most out of this section, and have already incorporated some knowledge nuggets into my work with clients.  In particular the strategies Lou lays out for losing weight while exercising, and the different skill set needed for maintaining weight while exercising are crucial, and a big stumbling block for many people. He follows it up with solid nutrition information that simplifies what to eat, and when. There is even a section of recipes provided by Galya Denzel that look pretty damn good. Having been forunate enough to taste her cooking I can vouch for her talent.

If you know someone that wants to get in shape but is overwhelmed by all the conflicting information we see on TV, or if this person is you, then NROL4L is in my opinion the best book out there for you. If you are a trainer then you would be wise to keep up on the latest information – it will be required reading for trainers at my gym!

It’s probably because juggling multiple thoughts and actions is stressful, and likely means we’ll do a poorer job. Yeah yeah… try telling that to your boss I know. But it’s a fact. Recent books on efficiency that I’ve seen all seem to touch on the subject of setting aside chunks of time to do only e-mail, then a time for filling out the TPS reports, of whatever it might be. Point being they figured out what your Grandmother considered plan ‘ol common sense.

In the nutrition field many of the most effective coaches, such as Dr. John Berardi, have incorporated knowledge from behavioral psychology and experts in neurological sciences. And the consensus is that habit is a big deal.  In the case of food we tend to eat the same things week after week and get accustomed to certain things, and when we alter that pattern what happens? We crave.

So what happens when what we are used to, what we habitually eat, makes us fat and unhealthy?

Some time back I came across an interview with Charles Duhigg, a writer that just published a book called The Power of Habit. His work centers mostly on exploring the science of how habits are formed and how to alter them for success in business.  In the book he references studies regarding how people turned their lives around by altering only one habit,  such as smoking, and other bad habits began to fall like dominos.

Among other things neurologists noted in studying the brain activity of subjects that you can apply to nutrition and fitness is this:

1. Changing one habit makes it easier for the brain to accommodate other subsequent changes.  In other words quitting smoking will make it likelier that next month you’ll have better success at stopping the nightly oreo binge.

2. Change one habit at a time.  Attempting to change more will decrease the chance of it sticking, as the brain will want to fall back into old stable patterns – which demands less energy from the brain.

3. Our brains like to bundle actions together, which is known as “chunking”.  These chunks of actions quickly become routine, then habit.  If you come home from work everyday tired and reach for the cookies or wine your brain, partly in an effort to save energy, will group those actions together so that pretty soon you will crave that wine every night. Then before long you notice your pants are fitting a little tighter.

Not the Chunk You Should Seek

If we want to reverse habits such as snacking at night, according to science and my own experience, it’s best to alter one thing at a time. Say for example deliberately stopping having wine each night but not changing what you eat or anything else, for now. Just focus on not having wine and having water or tea instead during the week.  After a few weeks it will get easier and pretty soon you won’t miss it as much. You might still want it, and science shows that urge might never completely go away, but keep your attention on that one thing until it’s not a big deal. Then focus on the next thing.

The same lessons apply to fitness of course in that everyone who has ever spent time on an online fitness forum has seen dozens of questions from people who are trying to improve their running while improving strength while wanting to do Olympic lifting. If you need to improve your strength then do that. Later on you may be ready to work on endurance and so on.  Whether or not they know what will really work to improve each quality is another matter, and why smart people read this blog and hire me to help them

None of this is new of course. A couple thousand years ago Lao Tzu famously said “A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.”