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- Blocking & Tackling, Chewing 30x, You Can't Lose if You Don't Quit
Blocking & Tackling, Chewing 30x, You Can't Lose if You Don't Quit
FTF #106
Hey there - it’s Don.
Happy Friday!
If you are new to the newsletter, my name is Don LaTorre and I own Layman’s Fitness, which is a business that helps Christian guys lose weight and build strength all at home.
This is last Friday in September, which means it’s the last Friday in the 3rd quarter.
I’m a huge proponent of quarterly goal setting, especially when it comes to fitness. Having a quarterly goal gives me clarity on how I’m marshaling my time, resources, and energy. It provides focus.
So for this next quarter, if you’re a Christian guy who wants to lose weight and build strength for your family without spending hours away from them, just click here to learn how we can work together.
Let’s jump into this week’s Fit Tip Friday!
🔎 In This Fit Tip Friday
Inside you’ll find:
Blocking & tackling
Chewing 30x
You can’t lose if you don’t quit
How to build functional mass with kettlebells…. (and more finds)
Start slow in the beginning
First time reading? Sign-up here.
Tip #1: Blocking & Tackling
A few years ago, I worked at an industrial site with 1,000+ employees with all kinds of cultural, procedural, and safety challenges.
This was no small leadership task for the site leaders… and one mantra the leaders regularly returned to was this:
“Focus on the basic blocking and tackling”
Regardless of the challenge, whether it was procedural, safety, cultural, etc… this worked. This pithy saying was a regular reminder just to focus on the fundamentals. And do them extraordinarily well.
This works for fitness.
Focusing on the fundamentals, the “blocking and tackling” of fitness has helped me simplify fitness and just focus on the basics that work.
So here have been the “blocking and tackling” fitness fundamentals that have worked for me:
Pick 3-5 movements you like and focus on improving strength in those
Walk 9k+ steps per day
Get 7-8 hours of sleep per night
Eat mostly whole foods
Limit ultra-processed foods
Drink mostly water
Tip #2: Chewing 30x
This is one of my challenges. I scarf down my food.
This bad habit was probably formed when I was a kid… I’m the oldest of five, and the first to clear their plate was the first to get seconds.
But there are so many benefits of slowing down when you eat and chewing your food. Here are 5.
It will help you reduce overeating.
It will help you feel full sooner.
It will help your digestive system.
It will help you enjoy your food more.
It will help you practice self-control.
Tip #3: You Can’t Lose if You Don’t Quit
Making progress with fitness is slow.
For instance, with losing weight there are a lot of variables to account for… like your metabolism, what kind of food you are eating, how much food you are eating, how many steps you’re getting, your stress levels, your current exercise routine, how much you’re sleeping, etc…
Unravelling each of these and making changes to them takes a lot of time.
And once you start the unravelling process and you start making changes, results seem slow at first.
The most tempting thing in the world is to quit when you don’t see results. This is the hardest and most discouraging part of the process.
But don’t quit. Keep going.
If you quit, you are guaranteeing that it won’t work.
But if you don’t quit… you won’t lose.
🔎 Finds/Resources This Week
Here are some of my favorite finds/resources this week.
Nutrition/Weight Loss
Training
What’s New from Layman’s Fitness
🏁 Start Slow in the Beginning
One of the biggest mistakes I see with guys starting a fitness plan is that they do too much, too fast.
Whether it’s going full throttle into a 6 day a week workout program, or vowing to cut out all processed food for a month, there’s high octane energy on the front end of a plan.
But within a week the energy level is gone… within two weeks the plan is stopped… and within three weeks the plan is forgotten altogether.
And this is a frustrating cycle.
I think this type of hastiness is exactly what Proverbs 21:5 is talking about -
The plans of the diligent lead to abundance, but whoever is hasty comes only to poverty
After working with a lot of guys on this, here are three ways I’ve learned to avoid this mistake, so you can too.
1) Have a plan that lasts for months, not weeks
Results are not obtained in hours… days… or even weeks. It takes months.
Having a plan to follow accounts for this process. And having a good plan will have a roadmap that lasts for months (not weeks) with milestones to hit along the way.
2) Have patience with learning new skills
Fitness is a composite of skills… whether it’s eating healthy, getting enough rest, or doing resistance training, all those different activities require a base-level of skill.
And learning a skill requires the patience to make mistakes and to fail along the way. The trick with patience is just not to stop doing the plan. Make adjustments, but don’t quit.
3) Dial up the intensity every 3-4 weeks
Once a plan is mapped out and a foundational level of skills is developed, then start dialing up the intensity.
I think this depends on the guy, but I would say dial it up about every 3-4 weeks. Add more resistance, more reps, be more strict with eating, get more rest, etc…
👍 Thanks for reading!
I’ll see you next week.
Be strong,
Don
P.S… On a personal note, today my family and I are on day 2 of a roadtrip to Colorado to spend the weekend with some friends.
And here’s how I feel about that.
