November 13, 2023 • 19 mins
Imagine spending less time on your couch and more time living a healthier life without sacrificing your daily commitments. Sound unrealistic? Not at all!
This episode opens your eyes to the alarming amount of time we spend on sedentary activities and their detrimental health impacts.
But fear not. We're not here to scare you. Instead, we help you understand how to manage your time and prioritize health by carving out specific time slots for essential activities - a crucial step to leading a wholesome life.
Have you ever felt that maintaining fitness requires a drastic lifestyle change?
Let's debunk that myth together. We talk about the significance of slowly building strength and endurance, making your fitness commitment manageable.
We also introduce you to CrossFit, an efficient workout routine that can drastically improve your health in merely 15 minutes a day.
But health is not just about physical fitness; we delve into the power of daily personal development through the Whole Life Fitness Power 30.
A mere half an hour every day can yield significant improvements across all spheres of life. Tune in to understand how investing time in yourself can catalyze enormous personal growth.
You'll leave with actionable steps to streamline your life and balance your health within time constraints.
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🌟 AND be sure to JOIN the 2% Collective - a free community where you can connect with like-minded whole health champions and get many free resources, challenges, action guides, and much more. Go to www.2percentcollective.com Â
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter 4.
It's about time.
What we say is the one biggesthurdle to prevent you from
leading a more consistently devlife?
Is it that you're traveling,raising a family, perhaps
working at a busy job?
I've got news for you.
All of these seeminglydifferent excuses are just
versions of one thing A big oldtime crunch.
(00:21):
We're all strapped for time fora million different reasons.
In our Whiplash Pace Society,it's a little wonder that
there's one heck of a widespreadperception that we don't have
time to work out.
Our days are limited to 24hours, of which one third is
spent sleeping, if you're lucky,and for many of us, at least
one third is spent doing a jobthat is often stressful and
(00:43):
largely sedentary.
To make your head spin, here aresome statistics about time.
Number one the American Journalof Epidemiology estimates that
the average American spends 55%of waking time, that's, 7.7
hours per day in sedentarybehaviors such as sitting.
Number two a 13-year long studypublished in 2010 by the
(01:07):
American Cancer Society foundthat women who sat for more than
six hours per day were 37% morelikely to die during the time
period study than those who satfor fewer than six hours per day
.
The study also showed that menwho sat for over six hours a day
were 18% more likely to dieduring the study period.
(01:28):
Those who were long-timesitters and also generally
inactive in their day-to-daylives had even higher mortality
rates during the study period 94and 48% for women and men
respectively.
According to the NielsenCorporation, the average
American watches more than fourhours a TV each day, or 28 hours
(01:50):
per week.
Or two months of nonstop TVwatching per year.
Two months, two months.
In a 65-year life, that personwill have spent nine years glued
to the tube.
Canadians are similar toclocking in a whopping average
of 30 hours of TV viewing perweek.
Compare that to the followingmind-blowing stat the average
(02:11):
time that Canadian parents spendengaged in meaningful
conversation with their child isonly 3.5 minutes per week 3.5
minutes.
Most commercial breaks on a30-minute sickle are longer than
that.
Now number four the WorldHealth Organization published
the following stats of aphysical activity One
insufficient physical activityis one of ten leading risk
(02:33):
factors for death worldwide.
People who are insufficientlyactive have 20 to 30% increased
risk of death compared to peoplewho are sufficiently active.
Insufficient physical activityis a key risk factor for
non-communicable diseases NCDsas they refer to them such as
cardiovascular diseases, cancerand diabetes.
(02:55):
Physical activity hassignificant health benefits and
contributes toward preventingNCDs.
Globally, one in four adultsare not getting the recommended
minimum of 150 minutes ofmoderate intensity or 75 minutes
of vigorous intensity physicalactivity per week.
More than 80% of the world'sadolescent population is
(03:18):
insufficiently physically active.
Wow, as a society, we are movingless and we're eating more.
We live in a culture of instantgratification.
We consume calories onautopilot and get into our cars
to travel two blocksCollectively.
We are getting more and moreout of shape.
Today, a state of poor health,or, as I like to say, unhealthy,
(03:40):
feels more normal to many of usthan being healthy does.
The biggest problem is when youdon't even know what you're
missing.
It's pretty hard to imagine abetter way.
The hard truth is that when wedon't make time for health, we
will ultimately have to maketime for disease or illness
Reminders that time is fleetingaround us.
(04:03):
The late Apple founder, steveJobs, stated during his famous
address to the 2005 graduatingclass of Stanford University
Remembering that I'll be deadsoon is the most important tool
I've ever encountered to help memake the big choices in life.
Essentially, jobs was sayingthat accepting the fact that
you're eventually going to dieallows you the mental freedom to
(04:25):
design a life that is awesome.
We can all be the change agentsin our own lives.
Right now, in this moment, youcan choose to stop using lack of
time as an excuse for an action.
Instead of saying time owns me,I'm powerless over my schedule,
try saying hello time, oldfriend, I've decided to get
health.
Try to see time as a positiveforce in your whole life and not
(04:49):
a barrier to it.
Blocking your time.
Sadly, we can't just buy timelike a commodity.
And, by the way, a little aside, if you know a way I can, I'm
very interested.
We can only work with whatwe've got, and that's not always
easy.
I get it.
I've been there myself.
I still deal with it.
(05:10):
You know it's never time'salways going to be there.
We got to learn how to workwith it or we're going to be
working against it.
I came to a major turning pointin my life when I realized that,
although I might not be able tomanage my time minute by minute
, I can manage my commitments byblocking off chunks of time for
the things that matter to me.
If it's not blocked out on mycalendar, the likelihood of it
(05:31):
happening decreases.
Of course, everyone uses acalendar to keep track of
appointments, but I'm talkingabout scheduling those regular
reoccurring commitments, thefiller days, such as working,
running errands, spendingquality time with family.
By visualizing my commitmentsas blocks of time and mapping
them across a weekly agenda, Ican turn time into a tangible
(05:51):
thing that I can see and havegreater control over.
To work fitness into your lifeon a regular basis.
Schedule it and stick to it.
I encourage my clients to printout an agenda every week and
block out all the activitiesthey know they have to commit to
doing, from bringing childrenhome from school to attending a
night school class or volunteersessions.
Be realistic of how long theseactivities or commitments take
(06:15):
and don't forget to include thejourney there in battle.
Add your work commitments again, including your commute, if you
have one.
Once you've blocked out yourcommitments, really look at the
shape of days and week and askyourself where can I fit in my
daily commitment to myself?
And yes, it has to be daily orclose to it.
As you know by now, I'm a bigbeliever in trying to move your
(06:39):
body every day, because body atrest likes to stay at rest.
If you let your body do nothing, it's going to be more than
happy to continue doing nothing.
But let's get one thingstraight that daily time
commitment doesn't have to behuge.
Many people overestimate what'srequired, especially when it
comes to making new year'sresolutions.
Starting January 1st, you seethe resolutionists committing to
(07:01):
grueling 90-minute workouts ofthe gym four times a week and
swearing that this is the yearthey're going to do it.
But the truth is this isprobably too much for most
people to sustain, and theirtrouble may be twofold.
First, it's a shock to thesystem.
Strength and endurance need tobe built gradually, so
propelling yourself from thecouch to an extreme workout
program is not good for you.
Second, it's hard on yourmotivation.
(07:23):
What's more defeating thanfalling at the first hurdle,
failing to keep your date withthe gym come February?
Literally, it's crazy.
Most people that have set a newyear's resolution, by the time
February comes around, they'vealready given up.
The problem comes from themistaken belief that you need to
reinvent your lifestyle to fitthose extra long hours at the
(07:43):
gym.
Resolutionists who try to dothis often don't think about the
extra steps that have to befactored in to make their
promise a reality.
Spending four evenings a weekat the gym likely means they
have to let something else go inorder to fit into their
schedule.
Now there's a reason why itdidn't work before right.
(08:05):
To think that they'remiraculously going to cram it
all in without compromisingother commitments is unrealistic
, and it can be verydiscouraging too.
Crossfit crossover.
Like every parent, my worldchanged when I became a father.
Suddenly, my time was not minealone, but also my daughters.
I wanted to spend every momentwith them.
(08:26):
What's not to love aboutwatching a child's miraculous
development?
I wanted to be with them forevery great milestone, the first
smiles, the first chuckles, thefirst words.
However, I knew I had tobalance this love fest with my
fitness, and at first I didn'thandle it well at all.
What's not to love aboutwatching a child's miraculous
development?
I was in the midst of buildingmy fitness retails, this logging
at 50 to 60 hours per week,trying to maintain a baseline
(08:48):
level of health and fitness and,on top of that, trying to be a
great father and husband,knowing that my health and
fitness was still a priority tome.
I would spend an hour or so atthe gym after work, which is
actually a two hour timecommitment or more after
factoring in the commute andshower time and, of course,
conversations around thewaterfowl.
This wasn't sustainable,because I felt guilty for not
(09:09):
being home with my family and Iwas missing out on important
moments.
Having spoken about this withmy coaching clients, I know that
this is common for many people.
My life was revolutionized atthe age of 30 when I was
introduced to the then newexercise concept called CrossFit
, which showed me how to achieveand maintain a high level of
(09:29):
fitness in very little time.
Typical gym workouts includelong sessions consistently
consisting most of weighttraining with a little bit of
cardio.
My typical split during theweek would see me spend an hour
on my back and chest one day,triceps and biceps next followed
by legs.
This is what my typical gymworkouts look like, with an abs
(09:50):
day thrown in here and there.
Now I'd also have daysdedicated to cardio and core,
spending 45 to 50 minutesfocusing on burning calories,
getting my heart rate elevatedfor sustained periods.
All in all, my gym routineusually took me from seven to 10
hours a week.
It's a lot of time, right?
I mean it's huge.
It's just typically what wasbelieved needed to be done.
(10:11):
At least, that's what I felt.
Now there are many things toconsider when it comes to
exercising, or moving withpurpose, as I like to call it, I
will always recommendincorporating full body workouts
, focusing on aspects such asbalance, agility, coordination
and other skills that round outyour fitness.
But trying to work all of theaspects into your routine
requires a lot of planning andknowledge, which often leads to
(10:32):
routines that are so complicatedthat you spend more time trying
to understand the exerciseactually doing them.
Crossfit is different.
It incorporates the principleof efficient, mindfully done.
That is, instead of lengthyweight and cardio training
circuits, crossfit workoutsintroduced me to training method
known as an AMRAP, which standsfor as many reps as possible or
(10:55):
as many rounds as possible.
It means working out asustained level of intensity for
a set period of time, withoutstopping.
In any given workout you mightonly do a few movements, but
you're constantly in motionuntil your time is up.
As you become healthier andfitter, you can increase your
time limit or keep it the same,but the workload and intensity
will gradually change.
Your capacity will increase andyou'll find that you're doing
(11:18):
more reps or more rounds in thatsame block of time.
I found that this new way ofworking out doing a short and
intense workout every day madegreat sense for my body.
It also made sense for my life,which suffers the same time
crunch that others face.
The principles of CrossFitallow me to take care of my
fitness needs quickly so I candevote adequate time for my
(11:41):
other Fs, family, finances,faith and fun.
In other words, you canaccomplish a lot by doing a
little training every day.
You just need to make sure thatlittle is well designed,
attuned to your goals and powerpacked.
I base all of my programs onthese principles, which is why a
whole life fitness, power 30workouts can be completed in
just 15 minutes.
(12:02):
Might be hard to believe thatthat's all it takes to get fit,
but I find that it is ideal, notonly because it's effective,
but also because it's sustained.
Everybody has 15 minutes.
I don't care who you are, whatyou do, what kind of life you
live.
I can find 15 minutes in yourday for a quick workout.
Once you get going, you'll seehow making your workout
(12:22):
commitment manageable will helpyou to seamlessly integrate
fitness into your life.
For 15 minutes a day, you'regoing to move, no matter what.
This works out to almost 1% ofyour 24 hour day.
Is that a worthwhile way tospend 1% of your time.
If you really want to go forthe gold in your own life, you
might choose to follow yourdaily workout with 15 minutes of
(12:43):
meditation and personaldevelopment, and why not?
That would still amount to only2% of your 24 hour day.
Of course, there's always anopportunity to do more.
I encourage my clients to beactive throughout the day, for
example, by parking as far awayfrom the store as possible,
especially when you're at thegrocery store parking lot, or by
taking the stairs instead ofthe elevator, by doing some
(13:04):
extra movements in the parkwhile your kids are playing, by
clenching your glutes whileyou're sitting at your desk, or
by going for an energetic walkduring your lunch break rather
than shooting the breeze by thewater cooler and all that's up.
This is not a fact, it's alifestyle.
It's a forever habit.
Making this kind of sustainedcommitment to your own health
and well-being will have amassive effect on your entire
(13:25):
life.
That will play out ineverything that you do.
Move Over Time Vampires.
Once you start examining howand where you spend your time,
you'll soon notice a whole rangeof time vampires that rise up
to suck the time right out ofyour day.
Very often, you don't even feelthem doing it.
(13:46):
Maybe watching television is abig time vampire for you, or
catching up on social media,playing video games.
If screens demand a lot of yourattention, you're not alone.
Americans spend more thannothing times as many minutes
watching television or movies asthey do on sports and exercise.
According to research conductedby the University of California
(14:08):
, the Bureau of BroadcastMeasurement Canada reports that
the average Canadian adultwatches 30 hours of TV every
week.
Other time vampires that mightbe sinking their teeth into your
schedule include drinking,gossiping or simply putzing
around aimlessly well, in a way,the time without purpose.
We've all gone our weaknesseswhen it comes to wasting time,
(14:32):
and they show up in manydifferent ways.
The question is just how can yousteal your time back from those
vampires?
It starts with prioritizingyour health and your long-term
happiness.
Maybe your ideal window is inthe morning, afternoon or
evening.
The main thing is to just findthose 15 minutes of physical
activity and 15 minutes forpersonal development.
(14:52):
You don't have to take it fromyour kids, you don't have to
take it from your job.
You don't have to take it fromyour parents, but maybe you can
take it from TV, facebook or anyother activity that drains
hours from your life withoutpaying you back with lasting
well-being.
If you're a hockey, football,master chef fan, I'm not going
to tell you that you shouldn'tindulge in your passion, but
(15:16):
maybe you can find creative waysto allow your pastimes to
support your health rather thanundermine it.
There are always breaks ingameplay, not to mention
commercial breaks during TVshows.
Those can add up to a decentchunk of time over the course of
a game or program.
I challenge you to use thoseminutes to do something physical
in front of the TV.
By dovetailing your fitnessinto another activity that you
(15:39):
already love to do, you set offa positive cascading effect in
which one thing reinforces theother.
Healthy body, healthy mind.
You might have heard of gatewaydrugs, which can trigger the
abuse of harder, even moreaddictive substances.
Let's put a positive spin onthat concept.
(16:01):
Think about the whole lifefitness power 30 as your gateway
fitness plan.
Once you try it, damn you'll behooked.
It will lead to more movement,extra workouts and more active
participation in the worldaround you, perhaps through team
sports or community events.
If you're like many of myclients, you will start to see
(16:21):
your work daily reset.
This is one of the biggestreasons why I love my 15th hit.
Even on days when I can't getto the gym or find time for a
long walk, my quick dailyworkout is always there for me,
an accidental reset button.
I always know that whateverelse is going on in my day, I'll
have a chance to burst somesteam with excess energy and get
(16:43):
focused.
I inevitably feel betterafterward.
Who wouldn't look forward tothat and want it in their
everyday life?
The second half of my whole lifefitness power 30 or two
involving five minutes ofmindfulness, 10 minutes of
personal development is when Ifill my mind with little
positive juice After a brieffive minute meditation.
(17:03):
Sometimes I'll read from aninspiring, other times I'll
spend those minutes journaling.
Documenting your thoughts likethis is a great way to connect
with yourself and anchor yourgoals.
Spend some time reflecting onyour thoughts and write down
what you discover.
What are you doing in yourdaily life that makes you feel
good?
What would you like to do moreof and what would you like to
(17:24):
move away from?
Have you come across anypositive messages in personal
development books that resonatewith you?
Over time, you'll start to seehow the ideas of the great
thinkers in the world can bereflected on your own mental
canvas and applied to youroverview.
Ten minutes of personaldevelopment per day effortlessly
(17:44):
turns into 70 minutes of a weekand 305 hours a month.
And then bam, after a year youwill have clocked two and a half
days.
Two and a half days of personaldevelopment.
Books will be read, journalswill be filled.
You'll have a whole pile ofexpressed words, thoughts better
understood and real insightsgained for your precious time
(18:07):
investment.
Can I get a high five on howawesome that is?
Because the whole life fitnesspower 30 is based on a very
compact chunks of time.
It's always accessible to you,no matter what.
You'll learn to never again usetime as an excuse.
You might not always choose tofollow through with your plan.
I get it, life happens.
But that's really what I wantto hammer home.
(18:28):
You make the choice.
It's up to you to own yoursituation.
Own your choices.
You can't blame time for yourdecisions.
Once you accept that, you'rethe one who chooses what to do
with it.
The result of committing 30minutes each day to my own
well-being is that I always feellike I've accomplished
something.
That time is my win for my day,and I'd love it to be yours too
(18:51):
.
Life can be a journey ofconstant growth and
self-improvement, and thisroutine is a rock solid tool
that you can use to really makethat happen.
Physically, emotionally andpsychologically.
Moment by moment, you will findthat you feel just a little bit
better than you did the daybefore, much better than you did
a month ago, a whole heck of alot better than you did the year
(19:15):
before.
Gradually, the whole lifefitness power 30 will become a
daily ritual that keeps you ontrack in every aspect of your
life, daily ritual you don'teven think twice about, and it
will have you laughing in theface of the words I don't have
time.
Chapter 4.
It's about time.
What we say is the one biggesthurdle to prevent you from
leading a more consistently devlife?
Is it that you're traveling,raising a family, perhaps
working at a busy job?
I've got news for you.
All of these seeminglydifferent excuses are just
versions of one thing A big oldtime crunch.
(00:21):
We're all strapped for time fora million different reasons.
In our Whiplash Pace Society,it's a little wonder that
there's one heck of a widespreadperception that we don't have
time to work out.
Our days are limited to 24hours, of which one third is
spent sleeping, if you're lucky,and for many of us, at least
one third is spent doing a jobthat is often stressful and
(00:43):
largely sedentary.
To make your head spin, here aresome statistics about time.
Number one the American Journalof Epidemiology estimates that
the average American spends 55%of waking time, that's, 7.7
hours per day in sedentarybehaviors such as sitting.
Number two a 13-year long studypublished in 2010 by the
(01:07):
American Cancer Society foundthat women who sat for more than
six hours per day were 37% morelikely to die during the time
period study than those who satfor fewer than six hours per day
.
The study also showed that menwho sat for over six hours a day
were 18% more likely to dieduring the study period.
(01:28):
Those who were long-timesitters and also generally
inactive in their day-to-daylives had even higher mortality
rates during the study period 94and 48% for women and men
respectively.
According to the NielsenCorporation, the average
American watches more than fourhours a TV each day, or 28 hours
(01:50):
per week.
Or two months of nonstop TVwatching per year.
Two months, two months.
In a 65-year life, that personwill have spent nine years glued
to the tube.
Canadians are similar toclocking in a whopping average
of 30 hours of TV viewing perweek.
Compare that to the followingmind-blowing stat the average
(02:11):
time that Canadian parents spendengaged in meaningful
conversation with their child isonly 3.5 minutes per week 3.5
minutes.
Most commercial breaks on a30-minute sickle are longer than
that.
Now number four the WorldHealth Organization published
the following stats of aphysical activity One
insufficient physical activityis one of ten leading risk
(02:33):
factors for death worldwide.
People who are insufficientlyactive have 20 to 30% increased
risk of death compared to peoplewho are sufficiently active.
Insufficient physical activityis a key risk factor for
non-communicable diseases NCDsas they refer to them such as
cardiovascular diseases, cancerand diabetes.
(02:55):
Physical activity hassignificant health benefits and
contributes toward preventingNCDs.
Globally, one in four adultsare not getting the recommended
minimum of 150 minutes ofmoderate intensity or 75 minutes
of vigorous intensity physicalactivity per week.
More than 80% of the world'sadolescent population is
(03:18):
insufficiently physically active.
Wow, as a society, we are movingless and we're eating more.
We live in a culture of instantgratification.
We consume calories onautopilot and get into our cars
to travel two blocksCollectively.
We are getting more and moreout of shape.
Today, a state of poor health,or, as I like to say, unhealthy,
(03:40):
feels more normal to many of usthan being healthy does.
The biggest problem is when youdon't even know what you're
missing.
It's pretty hard to imagine abetter way.
The hard truth is that when wedon't make time for health, we
will ultimately have to maketime for disease or illness
Reminders that time is fleetingaround us.
(04:03):
The late Apple founder, steveJobs, stated during his famous
address to the 2005 graduatingclass of Stanford University
Remembering that I'll be deadsoon is the most important tool
I've ever encountered to help memake the big choices in life.
Essentially, jobs was sayingthat accepting the fact that
you're eventually going to dieallows you the mental freedom to
(04:25):
design a life that is awesome.
We can all be the change agentsin our own lives.
Right now, in this moment, youcan choose to stop using lack of
time as an excuse for an action.
Instead of saying time owns me,I'm powerless over my schedule,
try saying hello time, oldfriend, I've decided to get
health.
Try to see time as a positiveforce in your whole life and not
(04:49):
a barrier to it.
Blocking your time.
Sadly, we can't just buy timelike a commodity.
And, by the way, a little aside, if you know a way I can, I'm
very interested.
We can only work with whatwe've got, and that's not always
easy.
I get it.
I've been there myself.
I still deal with it.
(05:10):
You know it's never time'salways going to be there.
We got to learn how to workwith it or we're going to be
working against it.
I came to a major turning pointin my life when I realized that,
although I might not be able tomanage my time minute by minute
, I can manage my commitments byblocking off chunks of time for
the things that matter to me.
If it's not blocked out on mycalendar, the likelihood of it
(05:31):
happening decreases.
Of course, everyone uses acalendar to keep track of
appointments, but I'm talkingabout scheduling those regular
reoccurring commitments, thefiller days, such as working,
running errands, spendingquality time with family.
By visualizing my commitmentsas blocks of time and mapping
them across a weekly agenda, Ican turn time into a tangible
(05:51):
thing that I can see and havegreater control over.
To work fitness into your lifeon a regular basis.
Schedule it and stick to it.
I encourage my clients to printout an agenda every week and
block out all the activitiesthey know they have to commit to
doing, from bringing childrenhome from school to attending a
night school class or volunteersessions.
Be realistic of how long theseactivities or commitments take
(06:15):
and don't forget to include thejourney there in battle.
Add your work commitments again, including your commute, if you
have one.
Once you've blocked out yourcommitments, really look at the
shape of days and week and askyourself where can I fit in my
daily commitment to myself?
And yes, it has to be daily orclose to it.
As you know by now, I'm a bigbeliever in trying to move your
(06:39):
body every day, because body atrest likes to stay at rest.
If you let your body do nothing, it's going to be more than
happy to continue doing nothing.
But let's get one thingstraight that daily time
commitment doesn't have to behuge.
Many people overestimate what'srequired, especially when it
comes to making new year'sresolutions.
Starting January 1st, you seethe resolutionists committing to
(07:01):
grueling 90-minute workouts ofthe gym four times a week and
swearing that this is the yearthey're going to do it.
But the truth is this isprobably too much for most
people to sustain, and theirtrouble may be twofold.
First, it's a shock to thesystem.
Strength and endurance need tobe built gradually, so
propelling yourself from thecouch to an extreme workout
program is not good for you.
Second, it's hard on yourmotivation.
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What's more defeating thanfalling at the first hurdle,
failing to keep your date withthe gym come February?
Literally, it's crazy.
Most people that have set a newyear's resolution, by the time
February comes around, they'vealready given up.
The problem comes from themistaken belief that you need to
reinvent your lifestyle to fitthose extra long hours at the
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gym.
Resolutionists who try to dothis often don't think about the
extra steps that have to befactored in to make their
promise a reality.
Spending four evenings a weekat the gym likely means they
have to let something else go inorder to fit into their
schedule.
Now there's a reason why itdidn't work before right.
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To think that they'remiraculously going to cram it
all in without compromisingother commitments is unrealistic
, and it can be verydiscouraging too.
Crossfit crossover.
Like every parent, my worldchanged when I became a father.
Suddenly, my time was not minealone, but also my daughters.
I wanted to spend every momentwith them.
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What's not to love aboutwatching a child's miraculous
development?
I wanted to be with them forevery great milestone, the first
smiles, the first chuckles, thefirst words.
However, I knew I had tobalance this love fest with my
fitness, and at first I didn'thandle it well at all.
What's not to love aboutwatching a child's miraculous
development?
I was in the midst of buildingmy fitness retails, this logging
at 50 to 60 hours per week,trying to maintain a baseline
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level of health and fitness and,on top of that, trying to be a
great father and husband,knowing that my health and
fitness was still a priority tome.
I would spend an hour or so atthe gym after work, which is
actually a two hour timecommitment or more after
factoring in the commute andshower time and, of course,
conversations around thewaterfowl.
This wasn't sustainable,because I felt guilty for not
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being home with my family and Iwas missing out on important
moments.
Having spoken about this withmy coaching clients, I know that
this is common for many people.
My life was revolutionized atthe age of 30 when I was
introduced to the then newexercise concept called CrossFit
, which showed me how to achieveand maintain a high level of
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fitness in very little time.
Typical gym workouts includelong sessions consistently
consisting most of weighttraining with a little bit of
cardio.
My typical split during theweek would see me spend an hour
on my back and chest one day,triceps and biceps next followed
by legs.
This is what my typical gymworkouts look like, with an abs
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day thrown in here and there.
Now I'd also have daysdedicated to cardio and core,
spending 45 to 50 minutesfocusing on burning calories,
getting my heart rate elevatedfor sustained periods.
All in all, my gym routineusually took me from seven to 10
hours a week.
It's a lot of time, right?
I mean it's huge.
It's just typically what wasbelieved needed to be done.
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At least, that's what I felt.
Now there are many things toconsider when it comes to
exercising, or moving withpurpose, as I like to call it, I
will always recommendincorporating full body workouts
, focusing on aspects such asbalance, agility, coordination
and other skills that round outyour fitness.
But trying to work all of theaspects into your routine
requires a lot of planning andknowledge, which often leads to
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routines that are so complicatedthat you spend more time trying
to understand the exerciseactually doing them.
Crossfit is different.
It incorporates the principleof efficient, mindfully done.
That is, instead of lengthyweight and cardio training
circuits, crossfit workoutsintroduced me to training method
known as an AMRAP, which standsfor as many reps as possible or
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as many rounds as possible.
It means working out asustained level of intensity for
a set period of time, withoutstopping.
In any given workout you mightonly do a few movements, but
you're constantly in motionuntil your time is up.
As you become healthier andfitter, you can increase your
time limit or keep it the same,but the workload and intensity
will gradually change.
Your capacity will increase andyou'll find that you're doing
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more reps or more rounds in thatsame block of time.
I found that this new way ofworking out doing a short and
intense workout every day madegreat sense for my body.
It also made sense for my life,which suffers the same time
crunch that others face.
The principles of CrossFitallow me to take care of my
fitness needs quickly so I candevote adequate time for my
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other Fs, family, finances,faith and fun.
In other words, you canaccomplish a lot by doing a
little training every day.
You just need to make sure thatlittle is well designed,
attuned to your goals and powerpacked.
I base all of my programs onthese principles, which is why a
whole life fitness, power 30workouts can be completed in
just 15 minutes.
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Might be hard to believe thatthat's all it takes to get fit,
but I find that it is ideal, notonly because it's effective,
but also because it's sustained.
Everybody has 15 minutes.
I don't care who you are, whatyou do, what kind of life you
live.
I can find 15 minutes in yourday for a quick workout.
Once you get going, you'll seehow making your workout
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commitment manageable will helpyou to seamlessly integrate
fitness into your life.
For 15 minutes a day, you'regoing to move, no matter what.
This works out to almost 1% ofyour 24 hour day.
Is that a worthwhile way tospend 1% of your time.
If you really want to go forthe gold in your own life, you
might choose to follow yourdaily workout with 15 minutes of
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meditation and personaldevelopment, and why not?
That would still amount to only2% of your 24 hour day.
Of course, there's always anopportunity to do more.
I encourage my clients to beactive throughout the day, for
example, by parking as far awayfrom the store as possible,
especially when you're at thegrocery store parking lot, or by
taking the stairs instead ofthe elevator, by doing some
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extra movements in the parkwhile your kids are playing, by
clenching your glutes whileyou're sitting at your desk, or
by going for an energetic walkduring your lunch break rather
than shooting the breeze by thewater cooler and all that's up.
This is not a fact, it's alifestyle.
It's a forever habit.
Making this kind of sustainedcommitment to your own health
and well-being will have amassive effect on your entire
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life.
That will play out ineverything that you do.
Move Over Time Vampires.
Once you start examining howand where you spend your time,
you'll soon notice a whole rangeof time vampires that rise up
to suck the time right out ofyour day.
Very often, you don't even feelthem doing it.
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Maybe watching television is abig time vampire for you, or
catching up on social media,playing video games.
If screens demand a lot of yourattention, you're not alone.
Americans spend more thannothing times as many minutes
watching television or movies asthey do on sports and exercise.
According to research conductedby the University of California
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, the Bureau of BroadcastMeasurement Canada reports that
the average Canadian adultwatches 30 hours of TV every
week.
Other time vampires that mightbe sinking their teeth into your
schedule include drinking,gossiping or simply putzing
around aimlessly well, in a way,the time without purpose.
We've all gone our weaknesseswhen it comes to wasting time,
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and they show up in manydifferent ways.
The question is just how can yousteal your time back from those
vampires?
It starts with prioritizingyour health and your long-term
happiness.
Maybe your ideal window is inthe morning, afternoon or
evening.
The main thing is to just findthose 15 minutes of physical
activity and 15 minutes forpersonal development.
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You don't have to take it fromyour kids, you don't have to
take it from your job.
You don't have to take it fromyour parents, but maybe you can
take it from TV, facebook or anyother activity that drains
hours from your life withoutpaying you back with lasting
well-being.
If you're a hockey, football,master chef fan, I'm not going
to tell you that you shouldn'tindulge in your passion, but
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maybe you can find creative waysto allow your pastimes to
support your health rather thanundermine it.
There are always breaks ingameplay, not to mention
commercial breaks during TVshows.
Those can add up to a decentchunk of time over the course of
a game or program.
I challenge you to use thoseminutes to do something physical
in front of the TV.
By dovetailing your fitnessinto another activity that you
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already love to do, you set offa positive cascading effect in
which one thing reinforces theother.
Healthy body, healthy mind.
You might have heard of gatewaydrugs, which can trigger the
abuse of harder, even moreaddictive substances.
Let's put a positive spin onthat concept.
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Think about the whole lifefitness power 30 as your gateway
fitness plan.
Once you try it, damn you'll behooked.
It will lead to more movement,extra workouts and more active
participation in the worldaround you, perhaps through team
sports or community events.
If you're like many of myclients, you will start to see
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your work daily reset.
This is one of the biggestreasons why I love my 15th hit.
Even on days when I can't getto the gym or find time for a
long walk, my quick dailyworkout is always there for me,
an accidental reset button.
I always know that whateverelse is going on in my day, I'll
have a chance to burst somesteam with excess energy and get
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focused.
I inevitably feel betterafterward.
Who wouldn't look forward tothat and want it in their
everyday life?
The second half of my whole lifefitness power 30 or two
involving five minutes ofmindfulness, 10 minutes of
personal development is when Ifill my mind with little
positive juice After a brieffive minute meditation.
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Sometimes I'll read from aninspiring, other times I'll
spend those minutes journaling.
Documenting your thoughts likethis is a great way to connect
with yourself and anchor yourgoals.
Spend some time reflecting onyour thoughts and write down
what you discover.
What are you doing in yourdaily life that makes you feel
good?
What would you like to do moreof and what would you like to
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move away from?
Have you come across anypositive messages in personal
development books that resonatewith you?
Over time, you'll start to seehow the ideas of the great
thinkers in the world can bereflected on your own mental
canvas and applied to youroverview.
Ten minutes of personaldevelopment per day effortlessly
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turns into 70 minutes of a weekand 305 hours a month.
And then bam, after a year youwill have clocked two and a half
days.
Two and a half days of personaldevelopment.
Books will be read, journalswill be filled.
You'll have a whole pile ofexpressed words, thoughts better
understood and real insightsgained for your precious time
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investment.
Can I get a high five on howawesome that is?
Because the whole life fitnesspower 30 is based on a very
compact chunks of time.
It's always accessible to you,no matter what.
You'll learn to never again usetime as an excuse.
You might not always choose tofollow through with your plan.
I get it, life happens.
But that's really what I wantto hammer home.
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You make the choice.
It's up to you to own yoursituation.
Own your choices.
You can't blame time for yourdecisions.
Once you accept that, you'rethe one who chooses what to do
with it.
The result of committing 30minutes each day to my own
well-being is that I always feellike I've accomplished
something.
That time is my win for my day,and I'd love it to be yours too
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.
Life can be a journey ofconstant growth and
self-improvement, and thisroutine is a rock solid tool
that you can use to really makethat happen.
Physically, emotionally andpsychologically.
Moment by moment, you will findthat you feel just a little bit
better than you did the daybefore, much better than you did
a month ago, a whole heck of alot better than you did the year
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before.
Gradually, the whole lifefitness power 30 will become a
daily ritual that keeps you ontrack in every aspect of your
life, daily ritual you don'teven think twice about, and it
will have you laughing in theface of the words I don't have
time.
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