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You Are Supposed to Be HungryQuick. Let’s do a check before you start reading this.

How long has it been since you have eaten something?

If it has been almost three hours, or inconceivably, even longer than that, stop reading immediately. Acquire some food. Ingest. Digest. Return later.

I don’t want your blood pressure to crash.

Or your muscles to atrophy and shrivel like worms in the sun after a rainstorm.

Or your hormone levels to become completely unstable.

Or for you to set yourself up to eat way more later because you missed a meal.

Or.

Absolutely worst of all.

I wouldn’t want you to feel, in any way, in the least little bit…hungry.

God forbid.

There we go. You are back and hopefully well fed. Now just try to not get a bit sleepy as you read on.

Hunger. It is actually quite misunderstood. Seriously. It is one of those human biological conditions that seems super easy to understand and totally logical and yet we have very limited understanding of what it actually is and what the mechanisms for making us feel hungry actually are. Think that’s crazy? Next time you feel hungry try drinking a big glass of water. Did your hunger go away? So maybe then, you were actually thirsty? Did you need food or did you need water? What about when you eat something to satisfy your hunger and then you are hungry 10 minutes later? You just ate so why are you hungry now? Why is this different depending on what food you eat? How about when you are hungry at 6pm, when you normally eat dinner but for some reason you can’t eat, and then by 6:15 you aren’t feeling hungry anymore? Did your body suddenly decide, hey man, yo, you know what?! I didn’t really want anything anyway so don’t worry about it.

See? Hungry is not as clear cut as you might have thought. Yet we have allowed ourselves to become completely controlled by the idea of hunger. And it has been leveraged against us. Yes, on purpose. We have been fed a non-stop diet of fear mongering about the dangers of being hungry. At least that is how it began.

Once the fear didn’t work then the tactics changed to appealing to our hedonistic desires. In conjunction with the modern western notion that we should never suffer any form of discomfort ever, hunger has been used as a tactic to stuff more calories down our gullet with more frequency and less nutrition to maximize the growing profits of massive corporations.

And we have swallowed it without question. Because it feels good. It tastes good. And gosh darnit, you deserve to treat yourself!

We should never be hungry. We should never be too hot or too cold. We should always be able to watch the shows we want, when we want, on demand. We should never hear anything offensive. We should never be sad or feel frustrated.

It is a life of never experiencing any type of discomfort.

It has been sold to us as a utopian ideal of the perfect life but instead is a dystopian nightmare that is destroying the very essence of what it means to be human.

Bear with me, I realize this is getting somewhat philosophical but I PROMISE that I am getting somewhere!

Dealing with hard things, being uncomfortable, being too hot, hungry, too cold, waiting for people to arrive, boredom, death, sadness, and the rest of the human experience IS WHAT MAKES US strong, resilient, and capable of achieving great things. Of accomplishing hard things. A life without hardship leads to mediocrity, depression, behaviour issues, and lethargy. The antithesis of what it means to be human.

Holy shit Coach, what the fuck does this have to do with being hungry? You want to lose weight. You want to be healthier. You want to finally stick to a diet.

All of those things are hard. They are hard because they require sacrifice. They are hard because you are going to have to say no. No to family, friends, cake, pastries, sugary drinks from Starbucks, chips, chocolate, beer, wine, cake, cookies, easy prepackaged ‘foods’. They are hard in our modern culture. They are hard because sometimes you are going to feel hungry.

Here is your choice.

Feel hungry sometimes or keep doing what you have always done, which has probably never quite allowed you to realize your goals. Why is hunger the thing I am fixated on here? How will that help with goal attainment?

Because it sucks. Feeling hungry sucks. And that fucking donut would be SO good. And, I mean, you don’t want your blood sugar to crash, right?

Yeah. It does suck. It is uncomfortable. It wont give you that dopamine hit to belay your sadness for 15 minutes.

And that is the point.

That is the thing which will make you stronger. It will build the capacity to say no, to make better decisions, to avoid the donuts mid-afternoon.

One of the hardest parts about eating a healthier diet is confronting hunger. What most people don’t understand is that in modern western culture, ‘hunger’ is more psychologically based than it is physiologically based. So if you don’t get over it you are doomed to remain in this vicious cycle in perpetuity.

What if we changed our perception of hunger to something to wear as a badge of honour vs. something that is indicative of our imminent demise? How could that affect us? Our health? Our life? The choices we make?

What else can this feeling of hunger do for us?

In a culture fixated on the complete and utter elimination of any kind of physical adversity, a new understanding of hunger can give us strength. It can connect us to our bodies. It can strengthen our minds. It can give us tools to learn to say no, to make better decisions, to better deal with boredom, to better handle adversity, to control our emotions, to take control of our minds and bodies.

We can experience hunger and decide that we are okay. And the hunger will dissipate quickly. The power you gain from dealing with it will empower you forever.

What about all of you who get real ‘hangry’ when you get hungry or don’t get fed on your hourly schedule?

First. It’s just hormones. This will dissipate too.

Second.

It’s just you being a total asshole.I am not even sorry to have said that because it’s the truth. Because you are hungry, or tired, or feeling sad, does not give you the right to be an asshole to others. You are a grown ass adult. Despite what you’ve been told since being a kid and probably now say about your kids, ‘I’m just hungry’ (‘they’re just hungry’) is total bullshit. You and them just haven’t learned how to properly regulate your emotions and how to properly treat others. Grow up. Take care of yourself and show some respect for those around you.

Because if you let food dictate your emotional state, not only are you an infant, but you are going to FOREVER be a slave to food, food companies, and every physiological whim that passes by.

Accepting some hunger. Being a grown ass adult about it. Managing it. And getting through hard things. These are the aspects of life which will allow you to achieve success in anything you put your mind to.

Here is some practical advice. 1. 1. 1. Do a 24 hour fast bi-weekly. 2. Do a 36 hour fast once a month.

That’s it. Add those things into your life and it will CHANGE you. It will change your relationship with food. Lastly, understand that 3 hours without food WILL NOT destroy your body. You won’t be lightheaded and get low blood sugar causing you to pass out and die without medical intervention. That is a bunch of bullshit that has been perpetrated on you by a food industry that wants to maximize their profits with no concern for your health, both mental and physical.

You can live for 30 days without food.

Remember that.

You are the descendant of the most successful biological species to have ever existed. Successful because we can endure hardship, care for ourselves, and care for those around us, no matter what it takes. We are WIRED for that. Own it. Accept it. Use it to make you stronger, better, and healthier.

Not only will hunger not kill you, but in actuality it will make you stronger.

-Coach Taylor

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Was It Worth It?Mothers day was just this past weekend. Huge shoutout to all you amazing mom’s out there! I think you’re awesome.

Like clockwork, however, the day after mother’s day was quite predictable. I am using this holiday because it just happened but if you want to insert birthday, anniversary, or any other holiday into this blog it is always the same story.

Message after message from clients and followers: “I fell off the wagon.”

What does that mean? Always the same thing.

Cake, cookies, candy, chips, chocolate, deep fried whatever. You know, ‘celebration food’. All consumed despite the best laid intentions.

In this holiday it is often due to guilt from kids. The kids give all of these things as gifts or want to do activities that somehow include every shit ass food listed above, which somehow seems to have become all activities. That is a story for another day.

Other holidays it is family, or friends, or co-workers, or everyone else at the event. The outcome is the same.

The day after.

When everyone is consumed with regret. Feels bad. Feels out of control. Wishes that they didn’t do it. Feel bloated. Sick. Weight is up 3lbs. Brain fog. Overall, terrible.

Then people notice that their motivation is gone. It is HARD to get back to workouts. Hard to eat well. Easy to let slide a few more things. No problem, I will get back at it tomorrow. Which is then reiterated daily until the New Year. Where we feel even worse.

And then we all wonder, ‘how did I get here?’, ‘how did I let this happen?’ Go reread above. That is how.

So I want to ask you and then I want you to go and ask yourself:

Was it worth it?

Was that piece of cake, that chocolate, that donut, that whatever; was that 2 minutes of dopamine coursing through your brain as you did it worth that feeling you had the day after?

Was it better than the feelings of pride and accomplishment and success that you had just before the holiday?

Oh here we go. I can imagine the modern snowflake response now: ‘but you have to live a little!’, ‘it’s important to treat yourself!’, ‘ice cream and wine is my self care,’ ‘eating fixes my stress!’, ‘I didn’t want to disappoint the kids/friends/family/coworkers.’

Okay. Cool.

Looking back, did pleasing all of them make you feel better the next day when you looked in the mirror or stepped on the scale, or pounded some pepto bismol for the heartburn? Did any of them even remember you eating any of those things? You think if you say no then for the next week everyone will be sitting around talking about what an asshole you were for not eating the cake?

The truth is that two days later NO ONE REMEMBERS A FUCKING THING.

No one except you.

Who is sitting there wallowing in guilt and feeling like shit about it.

So, was it worth it?

It’s okay to say no. It’s okay to refrain. It’s okay to tell people AND yourself that this small moment of indulgence isn’t something you’re going to partake in at the moment. IT IS OKAY. IT SHOULD BE NORMAL.

When did it become WEIRD and WRONG to not drink? To not eat chemical shit? To not ingest copious amounts of sugar? When did it become weird and wrong to care about our bodies, to focus on our health, to put our physical home on a pedestal and care for it? I have some ideas but that is a whole book.

One more time I am going to ask you:

Was it worth it?

Next time you have to choose, try and keep all of this in mind. Is 2 minutes of stuffing your face with non-food worth everything that will result?

-Coach Taylor

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The Road to 185This is me setting a weight goal. 185lbs. 84kg for those who prefer metric. As a Canadian we end up switching between imperial and metric all the time, it’s whacky. Pounds for your weight, kilometers for your distance. Feet and inches for our height. Celsius for the weather but fahrenheit for the oven. Totally whacky.

I digress…

I have talked about weight and weighing ourselves a lot over the 20 years that I have worked professionally in the field of health and fitness. For much of that time I will admit I was on the bandwagon of getting rid of the scale. I had a video of smashing a scale with a sledgehammer go viral.

Our weight doesn’t define us. It isn’t important. Healthy at any size.

All mantras spouted in the world of health and fitness.

I am sorry. This was wrong for sure.

In fact, I came to this realization over a year ago. I wrote a blog about it!!!! Called, Yeah, You Should Weigh Yourself. Basically, the realization hit me that not knowing your weight is, 1) a fantastic way to avoid the fact you are not taking care of yourself, 2) letting you off the hook that when you weigh too much you don’t feel good, when you’re a healthy weight you feel great, and 3) ignoring that we need SOMETHING to track over time that can show our health status.

It is all well and good to check how your clothes feel but styles change, new clothes get bought, old ones get tossed. It is fine to look in the mirror despite the fact that no one likes looking in the mirror. It is fine to track our steps or our workouts to make sure we’re exercising, which people do and then realize that they aren’t getting in the exercise but don’t do anything about it, or avoid tracking any actual health metrics.

The fact is that our weight IS A LEGIT marker of our health and health risks.

Where people get caught up is in the fact that gross weight across a population is not necessarily accurate. If we have 10 women who are 5’3” tall they won’t all have the same healthy weight. There is a range for sure.

Two of those women could be perfectly healthy, one at 110 lbs another at 135 lbs. We have to look at their blood pressure, heart rate, liver enzymes, hormone levels, VO2 max, strength, and a host of other variables.

But.

If the 110 lbs woman gained a lot of weight, say she went from 110 lbs to 185lbs we can say with some certainty that she would no longer be healthy. Maybe the 135 lbs woman goes from 135 up to 155 lbs, how do we know if she is healthy or not? Generally here we can also assume that this woman would be less healthy (to be fair here…if thie 110 lbs woman went from 110 to 140 lbs she also would most likely be less healthy, I just wanted a REALLY glaring example above).

How can we know the impact on health? The easy way is to redo all of the bloodwork and other health tests listed above. Most likely all markers would indicate poorer health and increased negative health risks. [side note: 100% there are exceptions to this rule…you are probably not one of them. We cannot base our lives on the exceptions unless we are one]. Then we would have some pretty good data on weight.

These women would now know that a healthy weight for them is 110 lbs and 135 lbs.

They could weigh themselves daily or weekly and if the scale started creeping up, make some adjustments and get back to that healthy weight. As an aside, over time this is also a great way to desensitize yourself to the number on the scale.

We do this with our dogs (and cats for you weird people that like cats more than dogs…). Every vet visit starts with a weigh in. The vets give us warnings if their weight gets too high (or low!!) and we put them on a diet to get their weight under control and improve their health. Doctor’s used to do the same thing for humans.

I did a podcast on this that I think is worth listening to [listen HERE].

You can test this for yourself if you really want to. How many people do you know that have gained weight and become healthier? Who slept better? Whose joints stopped aching? Who did more fun things in their life? Whose self esteem improved? What about you? Do you feel better the more weight you gain?

Hmmm.

Something to think about.

Here we are, digress once more.

All of this to say, that I know around 190-200 lbs, I feel pretty great.

So a year ago I wrote this blog about weighing yourself daily, downloaded an app to start tracking and headed off into the world.

Click image to read the blogOne year later I am feeling not that good. So I weighed myself this morning. 225 lbs. Correlation to be sure. I went to check my weight tracking app and it seems I haven’t entered any data since last December, when I weighed in at 205. Then holidays started and life happened, a lot of really amazing ups and some pretty legit downs. I wasn’t really watching my eating and exercise all that much and stopped weighing myself.

Because I knew. I knew it wasn’t the trend line I was looking for.

And don’t we all do exactly this? Stick our heads in the sand. No news is good news.

But my shirts aren’t fitting quite right. Spring hiking pants are really hard to button. I knew. I was just avoiding getting on that scale. When I tried to pull it out a couple of weeks ago the batteries died. I didn’t bother replacing them. Until today.

I bet if I had kept weighing myself daily things wouldn’t have got to here. That daily number showing my gluttony might have changed some things. Because isn’t it funny how we just stop looking at the number when we know it isn’t going to be good vs. do something to stop the number from growing?

I didn’t take my own advice from that blog last year. Weight yourself daily. We should be weighing ourselves daily. We need something to track our health, to monitor where we are at.

Now look, our weight WILL fluctuate. It is supposed to fluctuate. Daily by 1-5 pounds is normal. Seasonally, 5-15 pounds is normal. Our bodies have evolved like this. When it is harvest time and the cold weather sets in we tend to add some weight as fat. We needed this. As winter wanes on and spring begins we were typically leaner as food stores ran out and mother nature is just getting back into her groove.

The key here is to know the weight where you are healthy and FEEL really fucking good and then keep ourselves near to that number most of the time. Tracking our weight then really is an important part of our long term health.

It is a metric we can use that helps us monitor how things are going in realtime and let’s us make adjustments. Ignoring it, well, leads to the inevitable shock 5 or 10 years down the road of what you currently weigh. Usually, because a health issue has popped up so you have to get weighed. Wonder if there is any correlation there?

So I am sitting at 225 and almost all of my health status markers are good. Just had blood work and a full cardiac workup. Resting HR of 52. But. Blood pressure is high. Cholesterol is amazing but some high triglyceride issues. See what’s happening there?

Hint: my weight is too high.

Also noticed that I feel a bit more lethargic. Can’t seem to keep up the jui jitsu stamina. I don’t want to walk up that hill while hiking and instead choose an easier route. Sleep is good but not great. And just in general…I don’t FEEL as good as I did last year around that 205 mark.

Now onto the point of this blog. The road to 185.

This is the target I have set for myself. I haven’t weighed 185 for a very long time. But I remember how good I felt at 185. I want to see if it feels that good again at 44 years old. And I want to see if it drops my blood pressure before the cardiologist puts me on meds. I am not okay with lifetime meds!

1. Then I will keep myself within 10lbs of 185, well, forever. It will be my marker of how my lifestyle is going. Do I need to cut back a bit on indulgences? Do I need to add a bit of exercise? Is my diet on point? This weight marker will be my sign post.

One of my life goals is to make it to 100 years old.

Do you know the ONE thing across human and animal studies that is predictive of living longer?

Weighing below average for the demographic and eating less calories than average. I have yet to find a single dataset that contradicts this. If I am going to make it to 100 years old and be functional in a way to truly enjoy being alive, weighing 225 lbs is not going to be the way to do it.

My other goal is to feel good and love life. I want to do things! Try new things. Travel. Have fun with the kids. Hike in the forests. Ride the motorcycle. Experience all that life has to offer. I need my joints to be healthy. I need my heart to keep working and my other organs to function optimally. Keeping my weight in my healthy range is how I can keep myself on the right trajectory for these goals in life.

What about feeling bad about your weight?

Here comes some controversy.

Frankly, if you keep gaining weight you should feel bad about it. You’re doing it. It is your actions, your choices, and your behaviour that is leading to gain. And. It is 100% damaging your health.

All of this healthy at any size, intuitive eating, you have to enjoy life and do what you want, modern bullshit group of excuses to help you hide from the fact that you aren’t taking care of yourself is a huge detriment to all of us.

We are fully responsible for our own selves.

The choice then becomes: will you let this break you down and destroy you leading to a pizza, bag of chips, milkshake, and box of donuts, or, will you use this information to make better choices and to do something about your health?

Literally, the choice is yours and yours alone.

I choose to do something about it. I know where I feel good and will get myself to that point. I owe it to myself and to my family.

The road to 185. Here we go.

Go get it.

-Coach Taylor

PS. Will be posting about this process on instagram and in my weekly email. Follow along, you might learn things that will help you in your own journey.

If you want to make some legit health and fitness changes….maybe even to gasp lose weight…..

You can join me on the road to 185.

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Setting Goals is Destroying Your GoalsI was on a call with a client the other day and in the middle of a typical Coach Taylor rant when I stopped mid-sentence. Made my client grab a pen and paper to write down my thoughts (I was hiking with the dog during the call…a typical Coach Taylor coaching call…) and make a couple of notes to send me later so this thought didn’t escape my mind.

Is setting health and fitness goals actually ruining your health and fitness goals?

Seems a bit antithetical.

It stemmed from the conversation we were having about my clients goals. I work on a long timeline with people. Usually, I won’t take on a new client without a commitment to a full year for training.

Why?

Because things change as you work towards your goals. You find exercise you love, some you hate. You find scheduling things that work or don’t work at all. You try different dietary strategies. You experiment. Then, as things change, what you like, what you can commit to, how you go about the process changes as well.

That is why those premade, generic programs rarely work. They don’t change with you. Yet, as you progress towards your goals, YOU change. Things have to be adjusted accordingly.

This is the process going on with my client right now.

They want to adjust the workout strategy because it isn’t working exactly as they want.

I said, that is okay. We can adjust the workouts and workout methodology AND we can adjust the diet and nutrition strategies.

BUT.

And here is the crux of this blog post…..DO NOT ADJUST THE OUTCOME GOAL.

We need to continue driving to the goal we set out at the beginning of our training time together.

And this right here is where I think people are stuck.

This is how setting your health goals is actually keeping you away from achieving your goals.

You decide you want to change. Improve your health. Lose some weight. Get back into working out. Go to the next level at something you already do.

So you set a goal.

It feels exciting!

That positive dopamine reward smacks your brain and you feel GOOD getting started.

For the next couple of weeks you are ON FIRE. New diet. New workouts. Sleeping better. Getting outside.

Then life happens and you miss a couple of workouts. You have an event with friends and some family visits so you’re not QUITE following the diet. You realize that goal you set isn’t going to happen.

So you, smartly, reassess. You think it through and set a new goal. One that you’re more likely to obtain. You get excited. You make some diet choices. You do a ‘reset’ [listen to my podcast on how to do a health reseat]. You reinvigorate the workout strategy.

Dopamine hit.

You feel good. You’re doing something for your health. You are taking care of yourself.

Couple of weeks go by. Life happens. Things slip a little. Dopamine wears off.

You decide that what you need is a new goal. To hit this goal you just need to make a couple of different dietary changes. You need to try this other workout program. That is it!

Dopamine hit. Make some changes. Feel good. You’re going to get there this time. Feel’s like you’re taking care of your health.

There is a pattern here. And not a pattern you are probably seeing. What is happening above is an addiction to the dopamine hit cycle.

The constant feeling that you are doing something about your health is actually disguising the fact that you are doing nothing for your health.

The constant setting and resetting of goals is leaving you feeling on a regular basis that you are making positive changes towards better health.

Yet. You’re not.

You are no better off than all of the people who are not doing much at all for their health.

You have been there before. The above cycle for the winter and then summer hits and your clothes still don’t fit and you still don’t want to go out in public in a bathing suit. That is how you can know that it didn’t work. But so much of the time you really felt good about making those healthy changes.

This is the danger of constant goal setting.

Goal setting and STARTING programs is NOT actually DOING the work that is needed.

You are hiding your complete lack of progress behind the delusion that you are making forward progress.

Modern culture would have us believe that we should coddle you. Tell you it’s okay. That life is hard and you’re doing your best. That we need to be kinder to ourselves.

I, however, do not believe that.

For the simple fact that it simply plays into this same cycle. Constantly letting ourselves off the hook for failing just leads to future failing. It is time that we started to own our success or lack thereof. We need to feel bad about it, to recognize that we failed, and to live with that.

Then…

We have to recommit ourselves to the same goal. We can’t let go of our goal just because we have failed to get there the first time or even few times. The goals you have set for yourself you set for a reason. They are hard to achieve so we can’t let ourselves fall into a trap of never achieving our goals by convincing ourselves that we are working hard towards our goals.

If you were working hard towards your goals then you would be hitting your goals.

Months and years of effort and you’re still not at your goals?

Then have you really been putting in the effort?

That feeling you have put in the effort despite never getting to your goals is the main sign that you are not actually putting in the effort. That you are stuck in this cycle of feeling good about feeling good.

Time to change.

You need to get back to your original goal. To that dream you had about what you wanted to accomplish for yourself. THAT is the goal you are supposed to be working towards.

Now is the time to adjust the strategy – exercise, diet, sleep, whatever it is that is missing – to focus on that goal. If you don’t get there. You failed. We don’t change the goal. We adjust the approach.

When failure occurs we accept it. Live with it. Then redouble our efforts.

This shit is hard. And it will go on for the rest of your life. The only end to it is your death bed.

Until then. You have to work hard and commit to your health. Day in. Day out. Regular, consistent effort.

Anyone that tells you otherwise is selling you your next failure.

-Coach Taylor

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Why I Don't Have a 6-pack...and Never WillThe number of times I have been accused of being a shitty personal trainer and health coach because of my body are too numerous to count. I have been teased, called out, made fun of, and had people rip me apart on more occasions than I can remember.

Personally, I don’t really care. I live by the mantra, ‘sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me.’ (Something our entire society could REALLY benefit from remembering…that blog is for another day.) But seeing as the entire fitness industry seems to rely on what we look like as a metric of success I thought I should address this issue.

First. It is 100% okay to want to lose weight and fat to look different. I also engage in this behaviour! I don’t want to be fat. I don’t want to feel the need to wear a shirt on the boat in the summer. I also want to live another 50 or 60 years and know that having less fat on my body is definitely a precursor for that.

However, I don’t have a set of 6-pack abs. Can’t actually see my abs.

I’m not fat. I am strong as fuck. Old man strength my jiu-jitsu friends keep telling me, lol.

But I don’t have that ‘he must know what he is talking about’ 6-pack. Why?

It is really fucking simple.

I am not willing to to what it takes to have a 6-pack. I don’t want to. I like ice cream. I like a beer with friends when we get together. I like the home made sourdough bread I make. I don’t want to exercise 2 hours a day.

I DO want to live a long time and minimize my negative health outcome risks. I DO want to be really damn strong. I DO want to stay mobile, have energy, remain flexible, and sleep well as I push into my mid-40’s and beyond.

Those are my goals and I am well on my way to all of them.

I attend jiu-jitsu classes 3-5 times a week. I do strength based workouts 2-3 times a week. I walk 1-2 hours a day with my dog. 90% of my food I cook myself from single ingredients. I rarely drink alcohol. I don’t smoke or do any drugs. I am in bed almost every night by 9pm and sleep well.

All of that.

I bet that is WAY more than most of you reading this article does for your health.

And I still don’t have a 6-pack.

How the fuck do you expect to get that lean?

Because the truth is that for most people, even all of that I listed above, is not enough to get a 6-pack.

Yet you spend all your time on social media staring at all these 6-pack, flat stomach sporting, people and feeling bad about yourself. You sign up for the next program, buy the next diet book, make your next commitment to finally ‘getting there.’

How is that working out for you?

Most people who sport flat stomachs and 6-pack abs fall into a few categories:

-they are under 30

-they workout and exercise as a profession

-they are just genetically like that

(Blog continues below) I recently released a podcast on this topic. If you want a deeper dive, this is where to go!Be Under 30Yeah. Shit works differently when you are under 30. Your body heals faster. Your hormones are flying high. You build muscle more easily. Your metabolism is faster. You can eat, drink, and be merry until 3am and head to work in the morning.

Workout and exercise as a professionYou have kids. A career. A spouse. Family. Friends. Responsibilities. You don’t LOVE working out. You don’t want to eat chicken breast and salad most of the time while getting SUPER excited for your ONE meal a week where you can ‘be free’ and ‘eat whatever you want!’. How fucking sad is that.

All those online influencers and magazine cover peeps DO THIS FOR A LIVING. Even if they don’t get paid for it. Those people at the gym you want to look like…notice they are always there when you are there? Guess what? They are always there when you AREN’T THERE too. And you know those people out running in the snow? Who plan vacations around where they can workout? Who skip events because they need to train? Who bring their own food to parties or order weird ass shit the few times they might agree to come out for dinner?

This is what they do. Fitness and exercise IS THEIR main priority.

Nothing wrong with that! You just need to be aware of it.

GeneticsYeah, some people just genetically sport lower bodyfat and have a morphology that makes it easier to have a flat stomach and see those abs.

Technically, this is really a genetic challenge. Those of us who can store a lot of fat easily are the genetic gift!!!! We just happen to live in a time of such prosperity of calories that this genetic gift is no longer necessary.

Yep. Some people have it ‘easier’ in this aesthetic regard. Get over it.

That is why I don’t have a 6-pack. I have decided that there are aspects of life I am not willing to sacrifice. I do not LOVE exercising enough to make it my life. I want some ice cream.

So I am not willing to do what it takes to have a 6-pack.

And honestly, you probably aren’t either.

As a coach, it doesn’t matter if I have those abs or not, I can still get people there. The same way an NFL coach can coach the quarterback to achieve their goals despite not being able to do what the quarterback does themself. I know what it takes to get there.

It is a choice on my end. To design my life the way I want my life to be.

You have to make the same choice. You have to decide what outcome goal you want and how hard you are willing to achieve that goal.

If those things are not in alignment you will struggle constantly and be unhappy. THAT is the issue you have to sort out. Those are the pieces that you have to match together. Until you do you WILL NEVER ACHIEVE success.

Can you get a flat stomach or a 6-pack?

Sure you can.

Are you willing to do what it takes to achieve that? -Coach Taylor

Reglar exercise is mandatory and you are probably not doing it. So I made a little program designed to establish your base fitness. I cannot make this any simpler and you cannot afford to keep delaying a regular exercise program.

Click the image below to learn more.

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Fitness or Diet

Abs are made in the kitchen.

You can’t out-train a bad diet.

What you eat is more important than what you lift.

I have said all of these things. I have believed all of these things.

I was dead fucking wrong. The controversy between what is more important – diet or exercise – for your health has been around and going for a long time. People can get pretty heated about it!

For the majority of my career I have been on the diet side. What you eat is more important than anything else. The number of times I have stated that focusing on your diet is more important than focusing on your health are innumerable. I bet there are more than a dozen instances in the 164 episodes of my podcast alone!

Walking through the forest with my dog Heisenberg yesterday I had an epiphany moment.

It’s all wrong.The focus for everyone needs to be on FITNESS first. Diet second. It was one of those moments where everything just snapped together in my head. As the pieces organized themselves I also realized that this is what I have been doing with my clients for years now. Focusing on fitness first. Diet second.

Making any change to your lifestyle is hard. From lazy couch potatoes wanting to take better care of themselves to athletes that want to increase their performance to a new level, the process is the same. We have to understand our current routine and habits, know what our eventual outcome should be, and then DO THINGS to get from here to there.

What is the best way to do this?

One thing at a time. One step. One change. One focus. One movement.What is the mistake everyone makes when they want to start? Trying to do it all at once. New diet. New lifestyle. New fitness program. New sleep habits. So. Many. Things.

In a busy world filled with the demands of family, friends, work, and a million other demands, our solution is to add more complexity. No fucking wonder everyone fails. If you’re already overwhelmed, underslept, and overscheduled, how are you supposed to also change your entire diet, start an intensive exercise program, do some mediation, and join a new club? If you could do all of that, don’t you think you would already be doing that?

The catch to it all is that, actually, when you are more disciplined, when you eat a healthier diet, and when you regularly exercise, everything DOES become easier to accomplish.

How can we bridge the period in between? How can we make changes that seem impossible within our lives that will eventually make our lives better, while still managing and functioning within our life? By trying to completely change your diet, add an intensive fitness program, and devote hours to all new ‘mindfulness’ activities? How the hell will you make that work?

No wonder 98% of people who attempt to make actual life changes are never successful. (That stat is merely observational from my 20+ years as a professional).

Going hard at your diet is not going to work. It is extremely time intensive. No one will like you anymore. Your family will disown you. Invites to parties and dinners with friends will disappear. You will get depressed missing all your favourite foods. And within a week, MAYYYBBEEEEE two, you will be ‘off the wagon’, or will have ‘cheated a bit.’ Never. Going. To. Work.

I have seen this over and over and over again. With hundreds of clients. Over. And. Over. And. Over. Again. On the wagon. Off the wagon. And once the ‘diet’ fails then everything else follows suit. Workouts are gone. Sleep habits get fucked. It all becomes a mess.

So I will spare you the agony and fix your diet right now.

Stop eating ultra processed food. Cook the majority of your own food. Done. Healthy diet is accounted for. Still won’t work will it?

And this is why focusing on the diet is the WRONG STRATEGY.

To change your diet is hard, complicated (lifestyle wise, not the things that need to be changed), and requires a ton of discipline, habits, and willpower. All things we have recognized that the majority of us are severely lacking. Yet everyone diligently plows forward incessantly trying to improve their health by ‘eating a little bit better.’ It isn’t working.

Time for a different strategy.

Fitness first. We need to focus on fitness first. If you want to have long term success to a healthier and happier version of yourself, the first step is to focus on fitness.

Let’s dive into 10 reasons why. Then I will follow-up by giving you all the fitness advice you need to get started.

#1Diet is easy – Fitness is HardCooking some veggies, not eating that ice cream tonight, and missing a donut from the batch your coworker brought in is easy. Physically easy…maybe not psychologically easy. That is another blog.

But it doesn’t take much prep, or time, or effort.

Fitness, on the other hand, needs a lot of setup, learning, and a bit of space.

PLUS.

It’s hard. Your muscles hurt, you sweat, your heart rate goes up, you breathe heavy, and it’s uncomfortable. You have to WORK to do fitness.

No wonder everyone focuses on diet despite the fact that changing your diet very rarely lasts long term. There is an entire industry out there trying to convince you that making some new dietary choices is the best way to improve your health. Meanwhile, there are some lame ass government guidelines that don’t tell you anything, trying to add in some fitness. Either that or all the hardcore fitness people are telling you that you have to crush it daily to the point of barfing.

It is WAY harder to add in regular fitness than make an attempt at sacrificing a couple of diet things.

#2Building Routines and HabitsCutting out certain foods or adding in other foods does nothing to build new habits or new routines. And what you actually need to do in life is build new habits and routines. You have to change.

When your focus is on deprivation, which can be calorie reduction, eating food you don’t want to, or not eating foods you love, your mindset is not on growth. It is in a state of stress and anxiety.

This will not lead to forward growth.

On the flip side, when we begin to add exercise into our life we ARE building new habits. Of course, the medicine is in the dose. Going from no exercise to 6 days a week for an hour WILL NOT accomplish anything useful. But when we add in manageable exercise, say 10 minutes 4 days a week, or one additional workout to your regular schedule, or a weekly sport practice, as examples, we begin to build a new habit.

This leads to feelings of fulfillment and accomplishment. This in turn leads us to feeling GOOD and making it much more likely that we are going to continue. And guess what happens if you continue to exercise…

3Increased Fitness = Improved DietWhen you go on a diet or decide to make some changes to your diet it feels exciting! Not long after you hate it. Plus you feel like you are doing a LOT for your health and fitness. I have never, in 20+ years of being a coach and trainer, observed anyone staying so excited with the changes that they then also want to add in a new exercise regiment!

Never. Once.

However, I have seen that almost 100% of the time, people who add a regular exercise routine to their life that makes it longer than a couple of months, ALL start to make positive changes to their diets. Cooking more, eating less snacks, making better choices at restaurants, etc.

When we start being more active we start making better overall life decisions. So it only makes sense to focus on the fitness first.

4You Feel Better FasterI mean this from a psychological perspective. The good feeling of saying no to the bag of chips is fleeting and you’re right back at it tomorrow. Often it feels good in the moment and then tomorrow you ‘reward’ yourself by having some chips because you didn’t have them yesterday!

Exercise is different. You don’t feel god in the moment…but then you feel good for a LONG time afterward. The sense of accomplishment is sitting right there for you and it stays with you. And tomorrow, you still feel it, even if you don’t exercise again. And you haven’t sacrificed anything so that need to ‘reward’ yourself or ‘treat’ yourself is gone.

Yes. You have to make yourself do it again (dozens of times actually) before you really get into the habit of it but I promise that you will feel better about yourself faster by adding exercise than you will dieting. And success begets success.

#5Hit Goals Faster See above.

Not weight loss. Not muscle gain. But the goal of DOING something regularly to improve your health. You will more quickly and easily build habits, which are the cornerstone of long term positive change.

It takes a LONG time to truly revamp your diet. You are dealing with yourself, a lifetime of eating preferences, your family, your friends, where you work, and your schedule. All of which you have little control over.

But getting in 10 minutes of exercise a few times a week in your own house can be accomplished easily without interfering in ANY OTHER part of your life.

#6Easier to Make Changes You have family, friends, coworkers, parties, vacations, events, and on and on and on. Most involve food and eating. It is REALLY fucking hard to make big dietary changes.

Like #5 above, however, it is really really easy to make exercise changes. 10 minutes a few times a week. Stairs instead of elevators. Parking further away. I could list all sorts of things here. The point is that you can do a fuckton of stuff for exercise that doesn’t require changing vast swaths of your life.

And each of these things WILL add up to make you feel accomplished, which is 100% necessary to adhere to anything long term. That is pretty hard to do with a diet.

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Promo plug: not sure what to do for your 4x per week 10 minutes of exercise? Come have a quickie with me! I put out a new workout every week. All you have to do….is do it.Get to it. Learn More HERE.

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#7One Thing Actually Makes a Difference Want to improve your diet to enhance your health? You need to cut out ultra processed foods, start cooking, pre-plan meals, cut out all your fav snacks, confer with your family how it will happen, say no to all the snacks at friends and at the office, and spend a lot of time grocery shopping. Not to mention all the scheduling changes.

Good luck with that.

Why do you think that most diets fail?

If you want to improve your diet it is a lot.

Your fitness though?

Do 20 pushups and 20 squats a day for the next 6 months. 4 Minute commitment. You will have built a new healthy habit. You’ll be stronger. Fitter. Feel better.

Try it.

#8Fitness Improves Diet…Improved Diet Rarely Improves FitnessYes, this is essentially point #3 over again. But a different twist.

Most of today’s diet interventions are completely asinine. Take the ‘miracle drug’ ozempic. What a total catastrophe. Take a drug that wasn’t intended for weight loss but that has a side effect of weight loss, which hasn’t been tested for this, every single month. Forever. For the rest of your life.

Why?

Because it doesn’t actually change your habits OR build any new habits. It is a band-aid fix AND MARK MY WORDS, in 10 years or less we will see just what a dumb fucking idea this was. The goal of lifestyle change has to be to change and improve our lifestyle, NOT to mask our ails.

It is like all the heartburn medications. You take them so you don’t get heartburn from the shitty diet you’re eating. And it works. You don’t get heartburn. But you are still eating a shitty diet and ruining your body and health. How about eating better, exercising, and not needing the heartburn meds?

#9Increasing Muscle and Improving HormonesExercise builds muscle. Exercise balances your hormones. Exercise increases the production of positive hormones. Exercise helps you sleep better. Exercise decreases anxiety. Exercise decreases depression. Exercise helps you have better sex. Exercise helps you look better. Exercise improves your mood.

Dieting does NONE of these things.

Especially as we age, the above listed things are vital to living a long and healthy life. Dieting can’t accomplish any of them.

Doesn’t it stand to reason then that we need to be focused on ensuring we are doing regular exercise and movement?

#10SO MANY Positive Health ImprovementsPhysically. Mentally. Emotionally.

Your body works better.
Your mind works better.
You build habits better.
You look better.
You are stronger.
You live longer.
You are healthier.
You can do more things.

The list goes on.

Changes to your diet affects some of these things to be sure…but not all of them! And not nearly as powerfully.

The EndYou need to start. You have to just fucking do something.

Exercise. 10 minutes. 4x a week. That is it. If you’re already active then you can focus on just adding a little bit more. But everytime you want to make positive changes to your health, life, and future, start with the exercise component.

What you eat IS VERY important. Do not take this out of context. I work to get people moving forward To building new habits. Escaping old habits. Moving forward on a path to better health and to better lives diet, exercise, and many other factors play a significant role in this.

But when you are starting.

Fitness first. Diet second. -Coach Taylor

Want to dive a bit deeper? Episode 166 of my podcast is based on this blog!!! Click image below or search for The Coach Taylor Podcast on itunes and spotify!Plus there are 165 more episodes to catch up on if you’re really bored.

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If You're Overfat...It's Your FaultSigh, the world today.

I am not going to rant away about the modern woke agenda and the complete lack of any form of personal accountability driving the current narrative of self-care. You read enough of that.

I am simply going to tell you the absolute truth.

No one is coming to save you.

In fact, very few people even give a shit about you.

Canada has this completely insane day called ‘Bell Let’s Talk Day’, which is supposed to change the mental health of our population through a day dedicated to opening up publically about our personal issues. I can’t fucking stand it.

It is a fabricated pile of bullshit created by a TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANY to gain market share and get free publicity. In reality it is one of the largest virtue signaling scams going and people buy into it!

Argh.

What does this have to do with your health and fitness?

You can read all the memes you want, post all the photos you want, cry and complain about how hard things are all you want…NOTHING is going to come from it. NOONE is coming to save you.

Bell isn’t coming to help you. They are trying to sell you services. Period. Bell does not care about your mental health.

No one cares that you didn’t workout yesterday.

No one cares that you ate 8 cookies at the staff lunch.

No one cares that you only got 4 hours of sleep last night.

No one cares that you cry in the mirror looking at yourself.

No. One. Cares. Holy shit Coach….what the literal fuck. I am not in the slightest bit sorry about this. Because this is simply the absolute truth.

Only YOU care about you. Only YOU live with the results of the decisions you make. Only you. You. You. You. You. You.

So you can sit around and cry about food deserts, the unjustness of society, the influx of media messaging that crushed our self esteem, big companies pushing unhealthy food, not having enough time, not having enough support, or whatever else you keep telling yourself when you’re sad about your fitness and health.

The truth is…if you’re reading this you have the ability, capacity, and means to take better care of yourself.

Period. YOU choose what you eat.

YOU choose to doom scroll vs. fit in 5 minutes of movement and exercise.

YOU choose when to go to bed and when to set your alarm.

YOU choose your life.

Until you recognize that and internalize that you are truly and royally fucked.

Health companies and books on the shelf do not care about your fitness. Most of the fitness industry RELIES on you FAILING. Don’t worry…they have ANOTHER product for that! Over and over again.

If you are unhappy with your weight. If you are unhappy with your body. If you are unhappy with your cardiovascular health. If you are unhappy with your fitness program. If you are unhappy about how you feel. If you are unhappy about being tired all the time. ALL OF THIS. Is on you. At the end of the day it is you that must live in your body. It is you who will feel tired. It is you that will be overfat. It is you that has to look in the mirror, go out in public in a bathing suit, feel bad shopping for clothes, getting bad health results from doctors, suffering from a myriad of physical ailments. You. Only you have to sit with that on the inside.

There is hope.

Because YOU can also do something about it.

It is 100% within you and within your control.

You can set your alarm 10 minutes earlier tomorrow and get some exercise.

You can NOT eat those cookies or that bag of chips tonight.

You can read a great book instead of opening Instagram for the 35th time today.

You can do any of these things.

It is your choice.

Your life.

Your life will be determined by your actions. -Coach Taylor

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An apple a day keeps the doctor away.Has there ever been a more true idiom?

In the same way that the story of the tortoise and the hare is rarely given the significance that it deserves, I think An Apple a Day is just as overlooked.

Originally phrased: Eat an apple on going to bed, and you’ll keep the doctor from earning his bread (written record from 1866), the idea was a simple one that even people in the mid-1800’s understood. Eating healthy food gives us better health and means we will see the doctor less.

Does it hold up though?

A computer modeling research study in 2013 came to the conclusion that for people over 50, including an apple a day in the diet could have the same effect of lowering cardiac events as giving a statin to the same population; without the negative side effects of long term prescription meds and for about the same cost.

Coach. Why the fuck are you writing about this?

Because it’s important!

There is so much to unpack here.

There is wisdom from the pastYes. Medical advancements have been wonderous the last 100 years. No, bloodletting, smoke enemas, and ingesting mercury, were not good medicine from the past. They didn’t get it all right. In the same way that modern medicine also does not get it all correct.

An apple a day became popular because people inherently knew the truth; there is an undeniable correlation between a healthful diet of good food and the health of our body.

How the hell has this been forgotten?

We spend so much time arguing about access to healthy food and environmental issues surrounding real food [which are important things to discuss for sure, BUT make NO MISTAKE…there are JUST as many issues, if not more, with the ultra processed and mass produced food industries!!!] that somehow it has almost become a negative to talk about a healthy real food diet.

Fucking insane.

WHAT you eat WILL determine your health. Period. End of story.

An apple a day is basically our ancestors telling us to eat real food regularly to ensure we are as healthy as we possibly can.

Your Doctor’s Are Letting You DownAnd they have been for a very long time.

Nothing against doctor’s, I love them and think they deserve our respect. That doesn’t mean that they are god’s and can do no wrong.

And the medical community IS committing a wrong against us.

Pills, prescriptions, procedures, and outdated basic nutrition knowledge. More than 66% of people are on at least one prescription. Sound familiar? I don’t blame individual physicians for this; it is the way they are trained and they are forced to work within a system that gives no significance to nutrition and diet.

I mean, donut shops in hospitals? Ensure drinks for the ailing elderly? WTF.

An apple a day. Real, whole food. Consistently. Keeps the doctor away because your health will be better.

Why isn’t the medical community focused on healthy nutrition? (That is a topic requiring several books).

Medicine has its place but not above focusing on healthy diet as our frontline defense.

Daily Habits###### Sick of me talking about this yet?

Round and round we go. Daily habits are everything. No program, no pill, no routine, no coach, NOTHING, means anything or will have any effect if it is not repeated regularly forever.

The highest praise I give my clients is when they do things habitually. No matter how seemingly insignificant they may appear. Because if I can get people to actually DO the things regularly it will build a habit.

When I start most clients we spend the first couple of months doing this. One or two habits to do daily. When they have become routine then we add one more. I have a current client who for 6 weeks we have only focused on adding 10 minutes of exercise during her lunch. I prescribed nothing else. In that time she has begun doing regular workouts with her son and has changed many aspects of her diet, which has led to her kids also eating healthier…even through the Christma holidays! Now, two months later we are just starting to talk about nutrition.

What happened?

When we establish a healthy habit it starts to spread out to other parts of our lives without any effort from us. This is why IT IS SO IMPORTANT to start simply. AND. To think about think on a long timeline. A year. Two years. A lifetime.

Enrolling in a 6 or 8 week ‘program’ where you start exercising, revamp your diet, give up everything you really enjoy, and requires a total reorganization of your daily life WILL NEVER WORK. You are wasting your time.

An apple a day. Seems simple.

Try it.

Literally, start eating an apple a day as a way to better health. Watch what happens over the next 3-5 months. I bet it will surprise you.

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Humans have garnered a wealth of wisdom over thousands of years. We are fools to ignore it.

You have heard the phrase An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away since childhood. It is far more significant than you have probably ever realized. Take some time today to truly think about. Then go buy some apples!

If you want to keep the doctor away and give yourself the best shot at a healthy life this is the secret.

Real food. Simple habits. Done regularly.

It really is that simple.

-Coach Taylor

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Simon Sinek describes the difference between intensity and consistency like this:

“Intensity is like going to the dentist––it’s fixed in time, we know exactly what date we’re going, we know how long we’re going to be there, and we know that when we come out our teeth will feel smooth and look pearly. But if that’s all we do, all of our teeth will fall out.

In other words, intensity is not enough.

So we’re also supposed to brush our teeth twice a day for two minutes in the morning and two minutes in the evening.

What does brushing our teeth do for two minutes?

Nothing. It does absolutely nothing. Unless you do it Every. Single. Day. Can you leave out a day? Sure. How many days can you leave out? I don’t really know. How many times do you have to brush your teeth before it works? I don’t know that either.

And this is why companies don’t do it. […] We love intensity for the simple reason that it’s easy to measure. We can calculate the day and we can calculate the time. It’s highly predictable. But it’s consistency that is the human part.

What does it take to fall in love? Buy her flowers. Remember her birthday. Important. But if that’s all that you do, it won’t work.

It’s the little things, like when you wake up in the morning, you say “good morning” to her before you check your phone. When you get up to get a drink, you bring her one, even if she doesn’t ask. Either one of those things does nothing. But it’s the accumulation of those things done repeatedly over time that one day somebody will wake up and say, “oh my God, I love you.”

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I think I am done.

I have tried for years now to make fitness easier. To make it more ‘achievable’. To find innovative ways to fit it into peoples ‘lifestyle’.

To what end?

I ask people to train 2x a week, for a half hour, at their house. Nooone does it. Like literally…almost no one.

And the truth of it all is that this isn’t even the best for your body. This isn’t enough. Your body was, it IS designed to do physical work every. Single. Day.

A lot of it.

We have grown complacent from this non-stop barrage of messaging that we should workout three times a week.

But, like, and then what?

No, seriously. Then what?

The rest of the time we are supposed to sit around, watch Netflix, baking shows, and stuff our mouths with whatever new snack category item Nestle has created for us? It is completely asinine.

Not to get too political but this is literally what large companies and multinational corporations are pushing us to do. Sit around, be happy little consumers, that require medicine, food, and entertainment, all delivered right to us.

I will avoid heading down that rabbit hole for the moment.

Here is the absolute truth.

Physiologically, your body was designed to do work every single day. As such, it works the best when…you guessed it…it does work every single day.

Why then are you being told that three workouts a week are all you need?

It is a mixture of two things.

#1

First: the research is based on the minimum. Go ahead and catch up on the 20 years of research I have read if you want to verify what I am about to say. Most research is looking for the minimal necessary work to have an effect. In fact most research isn’t even searching for a particular effect. Most of the time research is looking at what the outcome of a particular protocol is, not what particular protocol might have the most efficacious outcome.

Adding to that we have to understand that most research in this field is done on already fit populations or cohorts under 30. AND adding to THAT we have to understand that it is really, really, really hard to get people to participate in a research study.

So we are left with a lot of recommendations based on research that tells us what is minimally needed to have an effect based on the very small subset of people that actually finish a study and most likely are not related to your particular demographic.

#2

Second: you’re lazy.

Not the you, as in the person reading this right now, but this statement is more directed at the you as in you as a human. Humans are lazy. We strive to do the minimum necessary for survival. It is actually an evolutionary benefit. It lets us preserve energy and have a better chance at survival.

The problem is that when we evolved this attitude there was no choice but to do a lot of work. Getting food, building and maintaining shelter, and caring for our tribe required a LOT of physical work everyday. This is no longer the case.

Our food gets delivered to the house, most of it we don’t even have to cook. Stairs move on their own, energy, heat, and cooling get pumped into our shelters that require basically no work, everyone these days has a service to shovel the snow and cut the grass, and between school and the internet our tribe mates are pretty well taken care of.

Some studies have found that many urban people go through their days taking less than 200 steps. If you are aghast by that take a look around and think about it. We literally barely have to do anything at all.

Check out this episode of my podcast, where I do a much deeper dive into this topic AND you can hear my charming rant voice!!!!

Click HERE to listen
Also on spotify, itunes, and everywhere else!

Where does this leave us?

It leaves most of us living inside of a biological entity that was designed to move and do stuff that is, in fact, barely moving and basically doing no stuff.

No. Three times a week for thirty minutes is NOT enough to optimize the health and functioning of your body. Period. End of story.

In an effort not to overwhelm people and now in the Age of Anxiety, in an effort not to stress people out and ‘make them feel bad’, the entire fitness machine has dumbed itself down to the base level of easy. What is the minimum.

I am feeling a bit sick and tired of this.

I have also worked with people for two decades trying to get them to do the minimum. Guess what I have found? Those who seek the minimum rarely hit their goals and usually end up on the yo yo cycle fo dieting and eating like shit, or working out for a month here and there and the rest of the time ‘falling off the wagon.’

Who is successful?

The people that strive for the optimum. Those who organize their schedules and thought processes around trying to do more. Who make the time for it. Who begin to treat their bodies as of just as much impor,t as Netflix shows.

Yeah. It is harder.

At first.

But when you start to treat your body the way it was meant to be treated it is amazing what happens.

You start to sleep better. You start to feel better. You have more energy. You have better sex. You are in a better mood. You are better able to handle all the shit life throws at you.

What’s the catch?

You have to prioritize the effort.

Not the result. Not the outcome. Not the goal.

One more time for the kids in the back……

You have to prioritize the effort.
NOT the outcome.

Begin to recognize it is the act of doing the work that is giving you the benefit. It is not the outcome or result that gives you the benefit. And the effort is more than two workouts a week.

Here is the optimal fitness program:

3x/week strength training

5x/week low intensity aerobic training

2x/week mobility work

4x/week walking

Uh-huh. I know. That adds up to more than seven things a week. So you guessed it, often more than one thing per day.

You are throwing your hands up in exasperation already.

–> Cool. Keep doing what you’re doing then. <–

The truth is that there are many, many, many people out there who are far busier than you getting in all of that work despite also having careers, family, and everything else going on in life. In fact, one of the reasons they can do all of this is because they are able to do all of this.

You can cry about it or you can decide to do something about it.

The choice is yours.

Sit around and bitch and moan that you don’t have the time, you don’t have the energy, there is no way YOU can do that, it is impossible.

In 20 years, drop me a line and let me know how your body is doing. Here is my prediction: you will hurt more, you will be able to do less, you will have less energy, you won’t have had sex for years, you will be on at least 4 different medications, you will be under a constant state of anxiety, and all of the things you wish you could do will still be things you wish you could do.

The alternative?

Take this fucking shit seriously.

Understand that this chunk of biomass you are currently inhabiting is the only one you have. There is no way around that. AI and technology isn’t going to sweep in and fix it all for you. You have your body and the quality of your life 10, 20, 30, and 40 years from now will 100% be completely and totally determined by how you treat it.

Netflix, Kelllogs, Facebook, Pfizer, and Nestle give absolutely zero fucks about the quality of your life. In fact, the worse you feel and the less you are able to do for yourself, the more money they make.

You.

You alone.

You have to live in your body.

Take care of it. Or suffer the consequences.

-Coach Taylor

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Shhhh. It’s okay. I know.

I know what you’re really thinking.

Spring has sprung, weather is getting warmer, summer is coming.

Shit.

Bathing suits. Tank tops. Shorts. Less clothes. Can’t hide under those bulky sweaters, baggy pants, and other body concealing winter wear.

We’re not supposed to talk about though. That’s fat shaming. That isn’t body positive. Oh coach, you can’t say these things anymore.

Fuck. That. Shit.

Let’s talk about the absolute fucking truth.

Within the last 24 hours YOU have thought about losing weight. YOU have looked in a mirror (or avoided mirrors altogether) and felt unhappy. You have avoided the scale because you’re scared. You have thought about getting rid of those smaller clothes you’ve been hanging onto because they just keep making you feel bad. Those 5 outfits you rotate through, despite having 8,000 clothing items, are getting worn out because you think you look fat in anything else.

That’s the truth.

I have never been accused of being too politically correct.

You want to change what your body looks like. You want people to look at you and think you look sexy. YOU want to look in the mirror and think YOU look sexy.

The spring weather is often a kickstart for many to ‘get in shape,’ or what they really mean is, ‘lose some of this damn fat and look better.’

For over 20 years I have coached people in fitness. THOUSANDS of clients from professional athletes, to rockstars, to your grandma. Guess what? Every. Single. Fucking. Client. I. Have. Ever. Coached. Wants. To. Lose. Weight. And. Look. Better.

Period.

I am a sociologist at heart and could dive deep into the ‘why do people want to lose weight’ rhetoric. But as a fitness and health coach I don’t give a shit. I don’t care WHY you want to look different. I know about societal pressures and bullshit tormenting from your mom when you were a teenager.

Who cares.

I don’t.

Why?

Because for the vast majority of our population, losing some weight, adding in exercise, and eating healthier is a really, really, fucking good idea. Most of us are unfit, overfat, and unhealthy. I don’t care WHY you want to make changes, I just care that you are ready and willing to make changes.

Plus. It’s okay that you want to take some pride in your appearance. There IS a reason we celebrate fit bodies. They represent far more than a version of beauty. Fit bodies are outward displays of commitment, hard work, and pride in oneself.

Where is all of this going besides another long winded Coach Taylor rant?

Spring is here. You want to be less Pillsbury Doughboy and more ‘who’s that sexy beast?’

How are you going to get there.

8 Weeks to Hotter Body

(or read heading: to more confidence; to higher self esteem; to better health etc.)

This isn’t going to be easy. If you want some QUICK TIPS AND TRICKS!!!! that are supposed to somehow counteract all the bullshit that got you where you are, wrong blog, wrong coach.

You want something to be proud of? You’re going to have to put in some work.

Yeah, you are going to have to make sacrifices. You’re going to have to say no to some things you want.

#1

Morning! You’re an adult.

You have to train in the morning. If you don’t do any regular exercise, no problem, that is coming in the next few points. For now, we are going to focus on the importance of the morning.

I am not going to hold back here. I am going to deliver you some really hard truth. You have to get up and get shit done. Period. THE most successful people in the world leverage the power of the morning. If you don’t believe me, reach out and I will share some resources.

Life is busy. Every single day brings something new to it. There are ALWAYS unpredictable events. You can have the best of intentions to get in some fitness after work or when the kids go to bed but we both know that is not going to last. By the afternoon, or even worse, the evening, you’re exhausted, tired, and needing some relaxation after a day of dealing with life.

Bedtime would be idyllic as a set time. Our culture won’t allow that and you know it.

The only way you can 100% for sure commit to anything is the morning. Because the rest of the world hasn’t woken up yet, you don’t have to check your email, the kids are asleep, and you wisely haven’t scrolled the internet.

You can always set the alarm a half hour early. You can always be sure of dedicating some time to yourself in the morning.

Yeah. Sometimes it just fucking sucks and you don’t want to.

Cool.

It’s up to you. Like I mentioned above, you’re a grown ass adult. Totally up to you what you want your life to look like.

All I can tell you is that after coaching thousands of clients over 20 years the people who are the most successful get their fitness done in the morning.

#2

Sleep

You need sleep.

But coach! You JUST said I need to get up earlier.

Yeah. Another quick note: life isn’t fair.

The truth is that you need 7-8 hours of sleep for your body to function optimally. If you want to shed some fat, you need your body to be functioning optimally. If you aren’t getting enough sleep you are not going to hit your goals.

Sorry.

There are a million strategies out there for getting better sleep and would require a full book to share here. If you have difficulty sleeping you need to figure out why. If you simply are watching TV or scrolling social apps, you know what to do.

3

Eat

You will look like how you eat.

Period.

I am not a subscriber to any particular diet plan. Vegan, keto, carnivore, mediterranean, whatever. All of these diets have pros and cons and all of them. You do you.

What I am going to share here is the guaranteed way to lose a bunch of body fat in 8 weeks. Do these things and you will reshape your body in a noticeable way.

Are these all sustainable for life? Some are. Some people can. You can for 8 weeks of your life. What about after that? Why don’t you stop worrying about what to do AFTER and put all of your focus on to doing things as best you can now?

Here we go.

1. Cut out all flour
2. No deep fried foods
3. Zero ultra-processed foods
4. Vegetables = good
5. Fruit = good
6. Meat, eggs, lactose free dairy = good
7. Nuts = good
8. Fermented foods DAILY

There you go.

Do those 8 things, for 8 weeks, watch what happens.

You’re welcome.

4

Train

Yeah, you’re going to have to exercise. Guess what? Your body was LITERALLY built to move. If you don’t move it, move it well, and move it often, you will keep losing muscle and piling on fat.

That is just how it works. Love it or hate it, it is the way it is.

WHAT is the best thing to do if you are looking to make changes in 8 weeks?

HIIT. High intensity interval training. 30 minutes of intervals working at the highest intensity you can, alternated with intervals of rest to prep for the next high intensity set. These high intensity sets should be no longer than a minute and a half with rest not exceeding the length of the working set.

You then also need to add in some specific heavy strength training work AND some lower intensity cardio activity. Uh-huh. All three things.

What exercise to do?

Kettlebells. Jump Rope. Calisthenics. Sprinting, honestly I can think of one million things to add here.

Those are the best for this purpose.

Here is the necessary schedule

3 times a week, 30 minutes of HIIT.

3 times a week, get your cardio.

2 times a week, do some heavy shit.

What if you are woefully out of shape? You’re going to have to go a bit easier to get started. But don’t worry; dropping body fat is WAY more about diet than it is about exercise!!!!! So you can still crush it.

The End.

Summary:

You want to lose weight and change what your body looks like. That’s okay, so does everyone else. And most likely, this will also improve your health. Win-win.

It won’t be easy. It isn’t easy. That’s why you’re not currently happy getting in swimsuit at your friend’s backyard pool party.

If you do not do everything I listed above…you will be exactly the same 8 weeks from now as you are right now. PERIOD.

The path to get there is simple.

The work to get there is hard.

-Coach Taylor

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Running fucking sucks.

Seriously.

Look, if you’re one of those few people who truly get off on the thrill of running, all the power to you. Go for it. Pound your little feet as much as you want. Lace up those fancy shoes, belt on a gel pack, and open up your tracking app. En. Joy.

¨Since the 1970’s ‘jogging’ has been second only to veganism for its culturally significant, moral superiority, based on dubious claims and a disregard for evolution and science. Both, however, are equal in their capacity for ruining dinner parties and backyard barbeques with equal veracity.

Running became ubiquitous with ‘health and fitness.’ No one bats an eye at those cute little spandex clad figures hopping from one foot to the other, keeping loose, while waiting for the light to turn green and continuing on their little shuffle over the next block.

Yes. I get that ‘running’ is a super broad term and already 15.68% of those identifying as runners are penning me responses to shred my article. Good for you little runner!

What I am talking about is jogging. An endeavour and physical activity no humans engaged in prior to the mid-20th century.

People RAN. We sprinted. We raced. But we never spent hours and hour and hours lightly shuffling along, barely out of breath, not breaking a sweat, in some weird little gait that is neither a run or a walk.

It is an activity filled with so much misinformation and mystical lore that even hinting it might be a stupid AF activity for your health and fitness is met with woke level abandon. Want an example?

No, the Olympics did NOT start with a marathon. No. The marathon was not built around Pheidippides journey to warn of the Persian invasion before dropping dead. In fact, the marathon wasn’t introduced to the Olympics until 1896 and the distance was set in 1908 as the distance from Windsor Castle to White City Stadium in the London games. The ACTUAL story is that the first Olympics, around 776 BC, was a 600ft sprint race as the only event and remained that way for the first 13 Olympics.

We were never meant to run a lot of distance.

Christopher McDougall’s book, Born to Run, popularized the mythology that humans were somehow born to run long distances. The book highlighted the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico who compete in a social bonding events that include running distances of over 300km. These runners outperform many modern ultra marathoners.

What gets missed in this narrative is that these ‘runners’ don’t actually train to run. While McDougall spins a great tale, he is a journalist, not a scientist, and the confirmation bias present in his work is…important to note. Daniel Lieberman, a Harvard paleoanthropologist, recently released an amazing book called, Exercised. (I highly recommend you read it). He clears up the notion of humans and running, demonstrating that the Tarahumara ‘runners’ actually train for running through a mixture of dance and games. Not a fartlek amongst them.

Why am I bringing all of this up? Merely to highlight that what you believe about running is just that, a belief. It is not based on evidence or observation.

The Mythology You Believe

Running is good for your cardio. Don’t even get me started on what the fuck ‘cardio’ even means! But no, running is not good for your cardio. If you want to strengthen your cardiovascular system you need to work it hard. Breathing normally, having a chat, and barely sweating is not enough work to make significant improvements to your cardiovascular system. Read the data. Short bouts of high intensity work is what is needed to improve your cardiac health.

Running keeps you fit as you age. Nope. Low intensity, prolonged activity, decreases muscle mass, in particular, your fast twitch muscle. You will definitely get some improvement to your endurance, Type I muscles at first, but you are missing out on what is the most important part of aging…maintaining muscle mass. Type II muscle fibres. Those big strong muscles that help you do things like get up stairs, sit on a toilet, get into your car, go to the grocery store, and play with your grandkids. Strength is king.

Running is good for your body. No. No it is NOT. Beyond the muscle issues above, a lot of repetitive motion will wreak havoc on your movement. Running doesn’t move your body through full ranges of motion and over time will decrease your joint range of motion. Tight hips. Stiff back. Shoulder issues. Knee pain. All included with your regular jogging program.

Running is good for your bone mass. Nope. It really isn’t. You need high loads and high impact to really build bone mass. Low-impact, high repetition, activity has a very minimal impact on bone growth, in fact, some studies show a decrease in muscle mass in runners. Hmmm.

5.

The runners cycle. This one I coined myself. You run until you hurt. Like, what person that ‘runs’ that you know doesn’t have one of the following: i. Plantar fasciitis, ii. tight IT bands, iii. Sore knees, iv. a stiff lower back? PROBABLY at least two of those. You run until you are hurt, then you rehab, either with a professional or you just stop running until things don’t hurt anymore (which often is NEVER), and then go back to running again. Same pain comes back. Rehab. Run again. Pain again. Rest again. Pain again. See it? See the cycle? Not a runner on earth who doesn’t follow this patter,

That is all the physiology. What about the psychology?

Running a marathon, or half marathon, or 5km, or a 2km, or a 5k walk/jog/run/get snacks, race is supposed to be motivating right? Sure. That’s why you did that 5k, 8 years ago, and still tell people about it. About how you’re a runner! About how it helped you achieve all of your goals (just joking, they never do)!

How’s that going for you now?

Oh, I see. You stopped doing any activity at all and are now planning another 5k this summer because you really, really, miss running.

Guess what? You’re going to do the same thing again. Because if you truly loved going out for a run you never would have stopped. So instead you are going to head out running

Even if you do train, avoid injury, and complete that race/walk/charity/corporate propaganda event, what happens afterwards? People need a break. Because all running programs are stupid and do too much, well, running. So afterwards you need a break. Just for a bit though. I mean, come on, you EARNED a break.

Except, fitness never stops. When you cease the activity your body starts to break down. We were meant to do activity every single day for our entire lives. When you beat the shit out of your body for months on end and then stop doing anything, your body breaks down. You do it again, now starting from a worse state, and do the same thing, ending up even more broken down than the first time. Hey, wait, I think I found another cycle.

Plus, you have a life. A family. Friends. A career. Who has the time to dedicate to 4-7 days a week of training an hour, two hours, or more? There has not yet been a potential client that has complained they have SO much time to spare for their health and fitness, could I PLEASE help them fill it?!

Modern running programs are all dumb.

Like messed up dumb. And yeah, I have trained a lot of runners. Ultra marathoners, marathoners, triathletes, and Ironman athletes. I drop their run training by 50-70% and still make them all better, faster, more resilient runners. It is possible.

Unless you really, really, really, fucking love running, like, I mean, it gets you off and feels like an orgasm, you’re never going to put in the work to do it properly.

Period. Done. End of story.

Why DO People Run Then?

Humans want to be included. They want to identify as something. People love to identify as a runner. Same as all the vegans love telling you they are a vegan. It helps people to feel included and to feel like they are doing the right thing for their health.

You want to be included. You want support. Meeting another ‘runner’ at a party, who also ‘did a half’ creates camaraderie and connection. Even if you don’t do shit for your fitness currently, this is how you FEEL like you are.

People also don’t know what else they should be doing.

We have been slammed with the ‘go for a run’ mantra for so long it is just simply synonymous with health. I get it. Most people can’t build a comprehensive workout program. Most trainers can’t build a comprehensive workout program.

The world at large doesn’t understand that doing the right exercise (which doesn’t even require any equipment), 15 minutes, two or three times a week, will keep them stronger, healthier, and fitter than ANY running program out there. But that is the reality of it.

Look, jogging is easy. Maybe not the first few times but very, very quickly it gets easy. Don’t believe me? I will take ANY runner and challenge them to spend 15 minutes training with me. Will see how their ‘fitness’ stacks up then.

Jumping, lunges, pull-ups, pushups, static work, and the other staples of truly great programming is hard. But I guarantee, you don’t know a single runner who can do 10 pullups, and anyone you know that can do 10 pullups is in better shape than all of the runners you know.

What does that tell you?

What SHOULD You DO Then?

This is the question. And, unfortunately, there is no easy, or simple answer.

I will give you the basics.

You need to move your body the way it was designed to move. You are a beautiful thing. Your body is a highly refined machine that evolved over millions of years into one of the most complicated and sophisticated biological machines that has ever existed.

The best part though, is that it is actually extremely simple to do this. It isn’t exciting, or flashy, or cutting edge. It is basic. Simple.

And hard.

Hard work. Hard to maintain. Hard to force yourself to do.

Here you go:

Move through full ranges of motion

Squat, lunge, pull yourself up, carry things, push things. Lift things up. Get down on the floor and then back up.

Keep strong

Lift weights, right? Nah. Sure, you can but there are better ways. Pushups and pullups for example. Yes, you have to do squats but not with a barbell on your back.

Sprint.

Uh huh. No, this isn’t ‘running’. I am talking 100m at a time, sprint as fast as you can, then rest until your breathing returns to normal. Repeat.

Calisthenics is a completely forgotten but 100% amazing way to train. In fact, for the last 4000 years it has been a component of all human fitness programs, well, until the advent of the modern gym in the 1970’s….

Move daily

Every. Single. Day. You have to do some of the above work. No, you do not need an hour in the gym 4 days a week. This is bullshit. You are best served with 10-15 of purposeful exercise (based on the above recommendations) daily.

Eat well

Get rid of ultra-processed food. If you can’t make it out of ingredients in your house, it isn’t food. Keep that to less than 10% of your diet. Seriously. Diet is THAT simple.

Sleep

Yeah, you’re busy. Cool. The fact is that if you are getting 7-9 hours of sleep every night you are damaging your body. You need to assess your life and find a way improve your overall quality of sleep.

This can include naps! 10-15 minute naps everyday are a huge boon to your health. And everyone bitching they don’t have time for this is a liar. I bet you 100% if I looked at your screentime report I could find you 10-15 for a brief nap.

Socialize

Have friends. Family. Co-workers. A yoga class. Whatever it takes. This modern cultural bullshit of ‘I hate everyone, people suck, I want to go live by myself in a cabin in the woods’ is one of the most asinine and destructive modern cultural trends. Humans are social creatures. We NEED social connection. Period.

Get rid of anyone in your life who doesn’t make you feel good and you don’t LOVE hanging out with, yep, even if that means getting rid of your spouse. We need connection with people who we love and respect and who give us back as much as we give them.

There we go.

Running sucks. Don’t do it. I have told you why and given you the alternatives.

The rest is up to you.

-Coach Taylor

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