What if your "long-term planning" consisted of sitting down for just 5 minutes every night and writing out how you are going to make tomorrow count?
It's always going to be the little steps - save another dollar, do another rep, read another page - that are going to add up to wealth, health and wisdom.
5 Minutes to get a little better every day.
Make It Happen.
- DC
Another New Year has started, and with it comes one indisputable fact; You, and I, are getting older.
But ask yourself this question.
Do I want to merely get older, or do I want to grow older?
There is an enormous difference.
As long as you are above ground you are going to get older. But growing older is an entirely different animal.
There are a few things I want to grow in as I get older.
Kindness. Wisdom. Grace. Understanding. Compassion.
In the physical realm I want to keep growing as well. It's a well known fact that even older adults can increase their muscle mass and mobility. I want to stay as strong as I can for as long as I can. My training goals in the last 10 years have definitely changed. Sure I still want to look good in the mirror, but it's become more than that. I look around and see people my age (53 - not all that old, unless you are teenager) losing physical abilities and capabilities. And I am not talking about feats of endurance or strength. Losing their ability to stand up straight, or get up and down off the floor, or walk a few flights of stairs. In their fifties!
That's why my goal is to keep my legs strong and my hips mobile for as long as I can. Don't lose your legs! It's why keeping my shoulders intact and my knees healthy is so important.
Here's the rub; As you age you need to work harder at these things than you used to. CONSISTENT strength training and mobility work. Good nutrition and sensible supplementation. You can't stop any of those things, even when it's uncomfortable, you don't feel like it, and it hurts.
The alternative is to just passively atrophy, lose strength and mass, get weaker, and lose basic abilities. Doesn't sound like fun to me.
It's your choice. Get. Or Grow.
Choose Wisely,
Coach Dean
We are excited to announce some "upgrades" to the Cr8 Fitness Family page. Nancy and I were talking about how we can help you get even better this year - More Fit, More Happiness, and More Health. Who couldn't use a little more of those things?
Up to this point we have had a number of Facebook groups addressing the topics of fitness and nutrition, along with the family page. Starting today, we are consolidating all of those into one group, with the goal of growing it to 500 members this year. To do that, we need YOUR HELP! We are asking you to join, and to invite everyone you know (yes, even "him") to join the group. There is going to be some serious magic in there! For starters, every Monday through Friday we will be posting something new for you.
And we promise a lot of "extras" along the way to make it worth your while to come and play!
So here's how you can help us - Join the "Fit, Happy and Healthy" Group, and then invite all your friends, family and co-workers to do the same.
It's super easy - just click this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cr8fitness/ to ask for an invite, and once you are in, click the "invite members" on the right hand side of the page.
Be there or be square (an oldie but goodie).
- DC
I recently watched an interview with Colin Milner, CEO of the International Council on Active Aging, and I was inspired by listening to this really smart and passionate man talk about what he has learned being on the front lines of active aging. I would highly encourage you to watch this short interview included at the end of this article (click the pic). Here are some highlights that really stuck out to me.
1. Active Aging is about "Being Engaged In Life". It doesn't mean you have to climb mountains or run farther. It's about getting off the sidelines and participating in this crazy wonderful thing called life.
2. While government involvement can be important at times, it about "changing lives, not passing a bill". I love that. What can we do personally to stay healthier and help others get active?
3. It's about the individual saying "Me, I want to live a better life, here's what I am going to do to achieve that. Very few people can change your mind without you participating." BOOM!
4. "Start Moving, Don't Stop". Colin cuts through all the confusion about exercise with those four simple words. Get active, stay active. Start small, start big. Doesn't matter. Just start, and never stop.
5. "You Earn Your Health Span". You want to be healthier? You have to work for it. Health is not in a pill or potion. Health is earned with movement, eating nutritious food, and getting good sleep. Those things all take some effort. And you get to control that effort. No really, you do.
Call this a sales pitch if you want, but here's my ask. What are YOU doing as an individual to get and stay engaged in life? Many of you train with us as a part of your efforts, and for that we are grateful. Do you know someone else that needs a little Cr8 Fitness in their life? We would sure appreciate you sharing how we have helped you, and then send 'em our way.
Or maybe you have been on the fence for awhile about getting started with us. NOW is the time to take the leap and get started. 2019 is almost over, 2020 sits wide open in front of us. Take action now and fill out a training registration.
Being Engaged In Life Starts With You. And if you let it, it starts today.
Make It Happen!
- DC
Where DID this year go? I seriously can't believe it's December already. The last few months particularly have flown right by, and life has been busy.
As you know if you train here with us, Nancy and I are building a house. No Duh, right? We decided when we started that we would complete the interior ourselves, and as is usually the case with me, I underestimated the time it would take to complete it. My goal was Thanksgiving (although to be fair I didn't say which YEAR). 🙂 It would be nice to celebrate Christmas in there, but we will see. Right now we are working on door and window trim, and there seems to be a whole lot of it. The electricians are scheduled to finish up today, and there is a little plumbing left to do. I made a list of what we have to finish - it's only a page and half, how long could it take? Yeah.
Anyway, I appreciate all y'alls patience as I have not been in the gym much. I do miss being in there and hope to be back with you soon. I am looking forward to when the house is complete and we can have a party, If you are interested in some kind of Open House, let me know.
December Happenings
Right now Coach Nancy has the "12 Days of Fitmas" Challenge happening, and she has some very festive and creative ways to help you get in here during what we know is a very busy season. But we are ALL busy, and fitness doesn't take a holiday, know what I mean? So get on in here, sweat out some stress, have some fun, and be with people who love you. And you absolutely DO NOT want to miss the world famous "12 Pains of Christmas" coming your way soon. What day? That will be like a wonderful present - you just won't know until you open the gym door one of these days.
Our Winter Recovery Break is the week of December 23 - 29. This is my favorite recovery week, as it gives us some time before Christmas to wrap things up (see what I did there) and prepare for a wonderful day.
Stay tuned for plans the week after Christmas, we are still talking about what we want to do on New Years Eve. We'd love to hear your thoughts!
Stay Happy!
Coach Dean
It's time to stop short term thinking.
The modern American life is built around short term thinking. The latest tweet, or sound byte on the news. The new "it" actor or actress. The new cars coming off the assembly line. What's coming to Netflix this month? And the next day we forget about all that and are looking for the latest "new".
What good is that doing?
I would submit none at all. This way of thinking, of living really, keeps us in this frenzied spin-cycle of trying to keep up and never quite being satisfied with all the blessing we already enjoy.
As I write this we are coming to the end of "Transform in 4", a focused period of building healthy nutrition habits centered around some really tasty food. And the inevitable question is...
"What's Next?"
How about this? Evaluate what you did over the last 4 weeks. What you did well with eating and exercise, and what you struggled with. On the things you did well, why? Was it because you planned and prepped? Was it because you liked the food? Was it because you maintained focus in a structured setting? And the things you didn't do well? Why not? It's not a judgement on your character, discipline or self-worth. It's just an "is". We evaluate, get help where we need it, and keep working at it.
But DON'T think because the 4-week challenge is over that "It's" over.
Because it's never over.
I love, love, love this quote from James Clear:
---
"How long does it take to build a habit?
21 days? 30 days? 66 days?
The honest answer is: forever. Because once you stop doing it, it is no longer a habit.
A habit is a lifestyle to be lived, not a finish line to be crossed. Make small, sustainable changes you can stick with."
---
Did you catch that? "A lifestyle to be lived, not a finish line to be crossed".
It's not that you HAVE to keep working on your health and fitness for the rest of your life.
It's that you GET to.
Because I hate to break it to you. - You'll never get it perfect, all the time. But by sticking with it you'll find new ways to make it work better for the life you are living right now.
So what's the small, sustainable change you can stick with right now?
Do THAT, and don't worry about the rest of it. Because once you do enough of those little "that's", real change starts to happen.
But it doesn't just happen by itself. It's up to you.
To Make It Happen!
- DC
P.S. - If you are not a Modernmeal Subscriber you are missing out on a whole lot of easy. It's a measly 50 cents a day, for crying out loud. Get It Here Now!
It's almost unbelievable that the Holidays are upon us, and for me they really start with Thanksgiving. I just love everything about it. Food, family and football about sums it up!
Just a heads up on our schedule for next week. I know y'all are busy (so are we), but you'll want to make plans for your training. Yes, it IS that important. 🙂
Training Schedule Thanksgiving Week:
Mon, Tue, Wed: Regular Training Schedule All Classes
Thu, Fri: No Training
Sat: World Famous "Pies Off Thighs" Post-Thanksgiving Day All Family Training at 8:00am
If you have never been to Pies Off Thighs, you don't want to miss it!
Nancy and I are so grateful for you being part of our fitness family. You have been patient with us as the house is being built and I have no been in the gym as much, so thank-you. I feel very inadequate when trying to express how much it means that you put your trust in us and choose to train here.
I've been reading the board of all the things YOU are thankful for, and I am reminded we need to count our blessings more often!
On November 11, 1919 President Woodrow Wilson spoke these words on the first Armistice Day, now known as Veterans Day:
"A year ago today our enemies laid down their arms in accordance with an armistice which rendered them impotent to renew hostilities, and gave to the world an assured opportunity to reconstruct its shattered order and to work out in peace a new and juster set of international relations. The soldiers and people of the European Allies had fought and endured for more than four years to uphold the barrier of civilization against the aggressions of armed force. We ourselves had been in the conflict something more than a year and a half.
With splendid forgetfulness of mere personal concerns, we remodeled our industries, concentrated our financial resources, increased our agricultural output, and assembled a great army, so that at the last our power was a decisive factor in the victory. We were able to bring the vast resources, material and moral, of a great and free people to the assistance of our associates in Europe who had suffered and sacrificed without limit in the cause for which we fought.
Out of this victory there arose new possibilities of political freedom and economic concert. The war showed us the strength of great nations acting together for high purposes, and the victory of arms foretells the enduring conquests which can be made in peace when nations act justly and in furtherance of the common interests of men.
To us in America the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service, and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of nations."
100 years later let us never forget the sacrifices that have been made and are still being made in service to our country by the men and women who serve in our Armed Forces.
For this service is not only the engagement of enemy in combat, as crucial and terrible as it must be.
It is the hundreds and thousands of hours of training, day after day, which brings many dangers of its own.
It's the families left behind during long deployments, which are still going on by the way. Time away that can never be reclaimed.
It is the wounds, yes physical, but often more damaging, emotional and psychological. Damage that may never really "go away".
It is careers interrupted, birthdays and anniversaries missed, funerals unattended.
I am happy there are Veterans, but "Happy Veterans Day" hardly seems appropriate. There is too much there to reduce to a generic and trite saying.
It is no small thing to serve one's country in the military.
Let's give Honor Where Honor Is Due.
Today and every day.
- DC
The picture below from our friends at Growing Bolder made me laugh. A geriatric Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker is just not a pretty picture, right?
I've never really been one to "pace myself" very much. The alternative approach I prefer is to "work hard...rest hard(er). And when I neglect the second part of that for too long, there are consequences. Recovery is important, and as you age you need more rest and recovery.
BUT...
You have to consistently do something to rest and recover from. As we age FREQUENCY of exercise is actually shown to be more important than INTENSITY of exercise. In other words how often we exercise is more important than how much weight we lift. As we get into our fifties and beyond the whole "use it or lose it" concept is heightened. Missing workouts is very counterproductive; strength and mobility start to be lost after only a couple weeks. And we all know how hard it is (and how sore we are) when we miss time and then try to get started again.
So here's my encouragement to you. The holidays are coming. You are going to be busy - you already know this. DON'T miss your training. YOU are as important as anything else that is tugging at you. My goal is as that as we age together, we defy the "normal" and do what it takes to stay active, mind, spirit and body.
Never stop climbing (and smashing through) walls.
Keep Making It Happen!
- DC
