The Carrot or The Stick

Many people don't get started with exercise because they are trying to beat themselves with a stick constantly instead of luring themselves with the carrot (the promise of a future bright).

Most of us spend our time trying to drive ourselves forward with the threat of punishment. I mean, how could we not? We are taught this from an early age.

What will happen if you don't do your homework?

What will people think if you act differently?

What will happen if you don't start exercising?

Are you trying to leverage yourself by threatening yourself with pain?

What if….You flipped that around?

Imagine the lifestyle you could be having once you HAVE created the ideal habits of exercising weekly!

You don't even have to KNOW how to get to your ideal outcome and future, because THAT can always be learned. Anything can be learned.

The health benefits of REAL exercise are insanely beneficial, and I talk about these all the time in my videos for a GOOD REASON.

I want you to all know what's available to you!

Exercise reverses aging on a genetic level and can help mitigate over 37 chronic ailments.

Exercise can save your life in an emergency.

Most of the time most folks seem to be thinking about the worst that can happen, and it's not purposeful, it's just a habit, like everything else.

When the focus shifts from the worst that can happen to the BEST THAT CAN HAPPEN, lives are changed forever.

Your constant focus has a LOT to do with what you're getting as a result.

I may not be able to be PERFECT now, but I can set my mind to look at the perfect outcome and keep my attention on it -

There is power in this.

After all, if you're driving a car and you are looking constantly towards the ditch, chances are you will eventually drive into the ditch.

When our eyes are looking forward on the goal (the carrot) we are seeing the future we desire instead of staring all day at the fearful choice.

And it's always a choice.

Changing habits is part of building and forging a new way forward!

Spend time looking at the future you want and you'll start working towards that future more and more.

Which brings me to my next point -

I recently changed a few habits.

The most important of these has been the habit of consuming 170 grams of protein every day.

Mentally I was making excuses, telling myself that since I don't have insane genetics to grow fast upper body muscle then why give it my all?

Silly, but I can see what my mind was doing there. And it's a habit I recently broke through, making excuses about genetics.

While genetics IS the number one determiner of muscle growth, why was I keeping myself at a biological disadvantage by not eating enough protein? No clue.

"Why we do it" doesn't matter when it comes to self sabotage, only how to break past and move forward.

I can't stress how important protein is when doing strength training.

My target protein intake is set at where my target weight is.

1 gram of protein per day for every 1 pound of your TARGET weight goal.

WHY?

I am in a caloric deficit and currently losing fat WHILE gaining muscle.

I was telling my girlfriend that I should've done a dexa scan at the beginning of this.

Most people are under the assumption that you can't gain muscle WHILE losing fat and that couldn't be further from the truth.

The fat loss that happens during this caloric deficit is going to be steady but slow because remember -

You still NEED to not go under a certain threshold of calories per day, and that threshold is going to be very different for each individual.

Eyeballing this kind of thing can be very challenging for a newbie looking to control their diet while gaining muscle, so a lot of people do count calories and do calculations, which I recommend!

Just keep in mind that the calories in foods are likely more than the packaging says, so ALWAYS calculate on the high side. I even add 10% to each packaging calorie content.

Please understand also, when you do strength training workouts in a calorie deficit the workouts will be much tougher, and that's ok.

Yesterday it would've been SO easy for me to stop short of hitting momentary muscular failure and sometimes I do fall short, I'm certain of it. But not yesterday. It was a great workout.

And still VERY challenging.

As we train and grow muscle consciously we can use momentary muscular failure as a metaphor for life -

We are always stronger than we think!

-Jon Gentry (JG)

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