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When it comes to food, the trainer in me thinks nutrients first, convenience second and flavour third. But, I can’t get away with eating beans, spinach and chilli seven days a week. For a few very good reasons.

First, my wife’s a chef by trade. She thrives on variety, flavours, texture, and all that. (And after 15 years, I admit that she’s onto something.)

Two, kids don’t love chilli. If it’d be up to them we’d be eating pasta, tomato sauce and occasional broccoli (“I am a giraffe.”) on most days.

So our weekly meal planning has all the potential to turn into an all-out war. And, let’s not forget that I eat mostly plant-based. The rest of the family doesn’t.

Somehow we’re able to pull through most weeks and end up with a variety of delicious, mostly nutritious meals that are simple enough to cook. And we all win.

Yet it does take a bit of an effort to plan, shop and cook. At least with my unpolished grocery planning, shopping and cooking skills.

But we have a secret weapon.

We’ve been using the Paprika app for years to plan our weekly meals. We also use the meals –> shopping list function in it to do our weekly online grocery orders.

And as we’ve populated the app with recipes over the years, it took me about 30 minutes to plan and order our weekly meals this morning.

If your current weekly meal planning sits somewhere between chaos and not planning, check out Paprika. I get nothing out of recommending it. I just think it’s an awesome app that makes healthy eating that little bit easier.

-J

There are certain aspects of health and fitness that tend to get less focus than they deserve. With that in mind, I created a quick movement and health checklist for you to run through at home.

It’ll take around five minutes and you don’t need any equipment to get it done. Some of it is stuff that you’re well aware of, and some might be new to you.

I wanted to make it simple, quick and somewhat effortless to complete. So there were certain things I left out because, although important, they didn’t fit into those three descriptions.

Either way, I’d love to hear what you get out of it.

Here you go.

-J

Adding an extra 45-minute workout each week might not be possible right now.

But most of us can find a minute here and another five there throughout the day.

Strip away some, or parts, of the modern conveniences.

Find ways to make your everyday life more physically demanding than it needs to be.

Burn fat, not oil, whenever possible.

Find ways to sprinkle more physically demanding tasks into your days.

-J

The level of strength and fitness you need obviously depends on what you’re training for. What you need for day-to-day living is usually less than what you need to climb one of the Everest Base camps.

No surprises there.

But as with money, you want to have a bit more than what you need. You want to feel you don’t have to spend everything you’ve got to just get through the day. And it doesn’t hurt to have some reserves, for those just-in-case moments.

When the neighbour needs help moving the grand piano. When the only way to avoid a public meltdown is to carry the tired kids or grandkids through the airport. When Robin’s too tired and Batman can’t be bothered. And you’re definitely not going to call Spiderman. Because laaaaaaaaame.

And if you are climbing the base camp, I’d say you don’t want to feel completely wiped out before heading back down.

It’s easy to get caught up in doing more for the sake of doing more.

But it’s just as easy to deceive yourself into thinking that you’ve got enough.

-J

When I was in the prime of my youth, a twenty-something whippersnapper, my approach to training was a steam train running on obsessive-compulsive behaviour. I had my training days set and would jump through any steam train-sized hoops to not have to miss a workout.

And whenever the inevitable would happen and I couldn’t do a workout, I’d bathe in misery. Obsessing over how missing a workout would put a major chip on my overall progress.

Fast forward to today, and I still carry part of that attitude with me. I still cast my training times in stone. But I no longer shower myself with guilt when I miss a workout.

If I would, unhappiness would be my constant companion in life. With kids and other grownup-sounding things that come with trying to be an adult, it’s impossible to tick all three weekly workout boxes every single week.

Honestly, it’s a miracle if I get in three weeks of consistent training each month. Two and a bit seems to be the standard for now.

And as annoying as it is, after a certain point I realised that no matter how much I hate having to miss workouts, it’s going to keep happening. I had to lower my expectations. To move away from perfection.

On the upside, all of this made me realise how little those missed workouts or even a week matter. As long as I am being consistent when I can.

I might not be the strongest or fittest version of myself right now. But considering how often I have to miss workouts, I’m doing alright. And I’m still happy with what I see in the mirror.

That’s a characteristically long-winded way of saying that good enough is enough. Especially if striving for perfection stops you from showing up.

-J

Here’s the first post in this series on over-breathing / low carbon dioxide tolerance.

And here’s the second.

Reducing, and eventually getting rid of over-breathing, is all about teaching your body to tolerate more carbon dioxide.

First, if you’re currently mouth-breathing, it’s time to stop.

Done? Swe’heet. You win.

Then, here are two other breathing exercises that’ll help. Courtesy of Patrick McKeown of the Oxygen Advantage fame. I’ve listed them here with the easiest first.

With both exercises, start by doing them when you’re sitting or lying down. Once you feel ready, practice them when moving around. And eventually try doing them while exercising.

1. Try taking in less air with each breath. A tad shorter inhales, while still keeping exhales normal.
2. Breath pauses. Breathe normal, pitch nose for 5 seconds, breathe normal for 15 seconds, repeat.

I recommend tracking your progress with McKeown’s BOLT screen. Unlike the name, the screen itself isn’t baked with intensity. It’s quick and simple for anyone to do. Even me.

Obvious warning here. Breathing exercises are money for most people. But if you have a serious health condition, or happen to be in the first trimester of pregnancy (go you!), they’re not for you. Talk to your doctor. They know.

Even more obvious warning. Don’t mess around with the breath when driving, swimming, having a bath, controlling a hot air balloon or handling a chainsaw, etc. I know you know this. But some people…

-J

Here’s the previous post for some context.

About those downsides of over-breathing.

When the muscles, joints and stuff are not getting enough oxygen they’ll have a lower stress tolerance. Which is not great for resiliency.

This same lack of oxygen reduces how much energy you have available for demanding physical and cognitive tasks. Making it harder to keep up on the tango floor (it’s about the body and the mind).

Over-breathing also leads to a continuous loop where your body thinks it’s in constant danger. Heightening the sense of anxiety and reducing psychological stress tolerance.

It’s no surprise then that there’s an established link between eating disorders and obsessive-compulsive behaviour and over-breathing.

How to not over-breathe? That’s coming up tomorrow.

-J

Our carbon dioxide levels, not oxygen, regulate our breathing. We need a certain level of Co2 in our body to release oxygen from the blood and into the cell. Where it’s then used for creating energy for both physical and mental tasks.

For this system to work well, we need to tolerate a certain amount of Co2 in the body. When our Co2 tolerance is low, it leads to over-breathing and a feeling of breathlessness. Simply because we can’t release the oxygen we’re inhaling.

This can have all kinds of yucky mental and physical reverberations. From anxiety to low energy in training. And everything in between.

More on this next week.

– J

There is no true end goal for our strength and fitness. As much as we’d like to think otherwise.

There are stops and milestones along the way. But we never get to that place.

At times, we mistake a stop or a milestone as a sign we’ve arrived. But then, we get older. The body changes.

And what worked before now needs tweaking. Recalibrating. We need to unlearn old habits to make room for strategies and tactics that work with this new version of us.

It’s a continuous, unescapable cycle that keeps repeating until we’re all pushing daisies.

Here’s the good news. When you build a strong foundation of training and health principles that work for you, the heavier you can rely on those throughout the changes you face.

-J

The higher your training stress tolerance, the more you’ll get out of the time you put into your workouts. But it’s not the training that makes you fitter and stronger. It’s how your body responds to the training.

You want the stress from training to be high, but within the limits of what the body can handle.

Two great ways to increase your training stress tolerance: improve your work capacity (or in less dickish terms, improve your aerobic conditioning), prioritise sleep, eat real food, and stay cool. As in, find ways to manage your life stress.

Your overall health mirrors the progress you’ll see.

-J