Don't Wait Too Long

With some recent health scares among friends, I started thinking about how important it is that we not leave things too long. In particular, if your diet is full of processed foods, stop eating them now, and start eating real food. Don't wait until tomorrow, next week, or after that big celebration, start right now. Eat real food (preferably some kind of primal/paleo diet), limit your carbohydrate intake to your own personal tolerance level and view this as something you will do for the rest of your life, not for a few weeks or months to lose weight. Let this new healthy way of eating become something you do as a matter of course. 

The South Ridge of Gimli 

Start weight training, right now. If you are over about 25, you are losing muscle mass. Do big compound movements like squats, deadlifts, presses. Start with body weight push-ups, pull-ups, squats if that is where you are at, but don't wait until you have no discernible muscle mass. Everyone should be lifting heavy. 

Stop the chronic cardio unless you are at peace with finding yourself 10, 20, or 30 years down the road with cardiac problems, joint issues, hormonal disregulation, and poor muscle mass. Don't be fooled by worthless motivational drivel unsubstantiated by real science – no matter how awesome the photos and videos look. Go to PubMed, read the medical literature on this and make up your own mind. If the long term trade-off in your health is worth the endorphin rush you get from chronic cardio, buy some extra health insurance, try and do everything else right, and then embrace a not so healthy future. 

 Pitch One, South Ridge of Gimli

If you have goals and dreams, now is the time to pursue them. Make a realistic plan and stick to it. It's not about motivation, it's about discipline. Ignore the latest fads and fashions, focus on your own goals regardless of what your friends and/or significant other is doing. Find someone else who shares your passion, or go it alone, which ever works, but don't piss around getting side-tracked because your latest Facebook BFF says doing something else is badass. The only thing that is badass is being the best you can be.