Regardless of the time you’ve got, here’s how to split your time between cardio and strength training.
Assuming that your goal is to feel more energetic, get stronger, live a loooong life and die with your boots on.
50% Strength training
50% Cardio
Split the cardio into:
75-80% moderate pace (can talk, but just)
20-25% higher intensity
-J
Should I do keto? How about Crossfit? Is this supplement any good?
We’re all sometimes guilty of obsessing over tactics without being clear on our bigger goals. Wasting time, energy, and patience in the process.
The first principle of thinking helps us focus on the tactics that matter. The idea is to distill complicated situations into their absolute essence.
This helps us clarify and find solutions to our problems by separating facts from assumptions. Once we know the first principles, we can build a strategy and tactics to support it.
With health and fitness, the first principles boil down to these three:
Goals: What and by when?
Willingness: I.e., I am willing to go to sleep and wake up earlier to fit in a workout. I will not drink a single vegetable smoothie. Unless I can put Gray Goose and Tabasco in it.
Available resources: How much time, money, etc., do I have for this?
Once you’re clear on that, you can build the strategy to get there.
-J
You felt desperate about how your body was feeling. Eating habits had very little consistency. No time for exercise. Low on energy.
You turned to HIIT workouts, strict diets, and even guilt. Choosing punishment to reclaim a sense of control.
It worked for a while. Until it really didn’t.
Because, as Katherine Morgan Schafler writes in The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control, “Feeling in control isn’t a substitute for empowerment.”
And suddenly, it all makes sense.
In my case, it was trying to control my whole being, not just health and fitness.
-J
It happened again. You’ve stretched yourself too thin, playing the role of a superhuman, catering to everyone’s needs but your own.
You can’t give your best to your work, family or friends if you’re constantly surviving on lukewarm coffee, leftover meatloaf, and heartwarming thank yous.
You’re human, not a machine. You’re allowed to have needs. You’re allowed to rest. You’re allowed to look after yourself.
Start small. Say ‘no’ to one thing this week. Take 15 minutes just for you. No interruptions, no to-do lists.
If 15 minutes sounds too ambitious, start with 1 minute.
It’s not selfish. It’s essential.
-J
*The thanks for that headline goes to one of the best TV characters of recent memory, Fleabag.
As challenging as it is, putting in the repetitions of putting yourself first is only a surface-level tactic.
The deeper strategy is to become comfortable with sometimes letting people down. When what they need at that very minute clashes with what’s important for you.
It requires feeling those uncomfortable feelings that come from letting someone down. Feelings that were probably hardwired when you were young. While still being able to do what’s right by you.
It’s only once you can comfortably sit with those feelings that you can say:
“No, I can’t take the kids to the Sudoku-Wrestling practice because I am working out.”
“No, I can’t wash the peanut butter off the dog because I am going for a run.”
“No, I can’t look at that super-important-business-thing-that-you-should’ve-finished-this-morning right now because I have an appointment with my therapist.”
“No, I can’t go to the shops to buy Jell-O for your jelly tower because I am going for dinner with my friends.”
Letting people down is hard. Yet, putting yourself first means that others will sometimes feel disappointed.
-J
You get stronger by putting in the repetitions.
You become a more confident public speaker by practising public speaking.
You become better at prioritising your own needs by prioritising your own needs more often.
It’s challenging to put your needs first when you’re so used to caring for others.
But the more you do it, the easier it becomes.
-J
Eventually, you might not have the energy to see friends, try new hobbies, put in a decent effort at work, or have the patience for your kids and partner.
Reframing it that way often makes it easier to take the time for yourself.
Especially when putting yourself first is an inconvenience to others.
-J
It’s normal to lock your focus on the one thing as the culprit for your low energy.
The unbalanced gut microbiome, a specific nutrient missing in your diet, not taking the right supplement, not doing the right exercise, struggling with your chakra because the moon’s gravitational pull is seven degrees to the east, and the only way to rebalance your energy is to buy Gwyneth’s forehead oil.
Even the most rational of us are occasionally drawn to clear, god-like answers to our problems.
But to save your money and sanity, focus on the basics. Rest, stress, food, exercise.
If you’re still struggling after all that, entertain the more complex answers.
-J
You’re ambitious and tend to set high standards, including your health goals. So you lock your forward-facing nostrils to a big dream and start with so much motivation you don’t know what to do with it.
But when the journey is long, and progress seems slow, it’s easy to question whether the effort is worth the potential long-term gain.
And so, you’ll find your motivation living in the dumpster of dumpsters.
Your brain is wired to seek immediate rewards. When the gratification is delayed, as it always is with health goals, it can feel like you’re putting in a lot of effort for a reward that seems far off and uncertain.
So, how do you dig the motivation out of the dumpster of dumpsters?
Break big goals into smaller, more manageable ones. Smaller goals are more immediate and less daunting. And as you achieve them, you’re more likely to scratch that instant gratification itch.
Achieving smaller, more frequent goals gives you a sense of progress and success, injecting you with motivation to keep going. Instead of trying to jump The Channel, you’re placing small pontoons along the way.
When your big goal is to reclaim your energy and strength, your smaller goals could be to do a 30-minute workout three times a week, get to bed 30 minutes earlier or eat a carrot every time you say “um”.
Pick one and start scratching.
-J
Your motivation dips when you don’t find your health and fitness goals meaningful.
This is why most people who start their fitness journey with the goals of “to lose weight” or “to look good” fail. Those goals are rarely meaningful enough.
Of the three motivation zappers (see yesterday’s post for #1 and tomorrow’s post for #3), this one’s the one I’ve been going on since I started this blog in 2015. As well as in my book.
But previously, I’ve only hammered home how important it is to find meaningful goals when you’re first starting. While completely ignoring the importance of revisiting this exercise whenever you feel your motivation dipping along the way.
With coaching clients, I like to do something called the why conversation when digging for motivation.
Me: Correct me if I’m wrong, but based on our conversation, it sounds like you’d like to feel stronger and have more energy.
Client: Yes, that’s exactly right. You’re a wonderful listener.
Me: Ok, great. Why is feeling stronger and having more energy important to you?
Client: Because this, that and so on and then I have this goal which so and so.
Me: Ok, great. And how is this, that and so on affecting your life now?
Client: Well, so and so and Aunt May and then also the temporarily helical infrastructure of being.
Me: I can definitely understand all that. And why is this important for you?
Client: Ok, so Aunt May, helical infrastructure and unbearable gravity of lightness.
…
I’ll stop here, but you get the idea. I keep digging and asking ‘why’ for as long as it takes to get to the bottom of the real reason why reclaiming her energy and strength is so important.
Sometimes it only takes a few rounds of questions. But most of the time, it’s a longer process. And much of it depends on how much she can trust me (something that’s 100% on me).
Here’s how to play this at home (the third option is very 2023).
1. If you like to talk: Your friend acts as the coach. They keep asking you to drill deeper to find the meaning.
2. If you like to write: Sit down with pen and paper. Ask yourself, ‘why is this important’ and write down the answer. Then repeat that sequence until you hit a truly meaningful reason.
3. If you like tech: Use the ChatGPT for motivational interviewing: here’s the prompt to get you started.
Revisit this exercise whenever your motivation dips. As you do this, you might find that what you previously found meaningful no longer serves you.
-J