Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz posit “executives can perform successfully even if they smoke, drink and weigh too much, or lack emotional skills or a higher purpose for working. But they cannot perform to their full potential or without a cost over time—to themselves, to their families, and to the corporations for which they work.”

Welcome to family feud. I’m your host SDA. We surveyed 100 people, the top 2 answers are on the board:

Question: What do you eat the night before the big race?

The number one answer (with 95 out of 100 answers): pasta.

Number 2: it doesn't matter.

This, right here, is offensive.

Demonstrably false.

I take it personally.

You should too.

If exercise were a drug it would be the most widely prescribed one in existence; and It’s not even close.

Now for the tricky part. How much of this drug should you take? Drugs present a risk of overdose. Same is true of exercise. The world is littered with injured bodies that ran too far, that lifted too much too soon.

That OD'd on exercise.

How do we safely increase the amount of exercise we’re doing?

Fitness is chalk full of hacks: simple things anyone can do to instantly improve their workouts.

Today we’re going to hack stretching. Without further ado here are two hacks for a better stretch.

We’re eating wrong.

Too many portions.

Too many calories.

Of nonnutrtitive, overly processed food.

And now a recent alarming study on intermittent fastingsuggests not eating is bad too.

So eat? Don’t eat?

Definitely eat.

What to eat, then?

Confidence is a drug.

In the beginning… every time I stepped in the gym I hit some new milestone. The weights went up, and up, and up; and my confidence went up, and up.

And up.

Kinda like when I started running pretty seriously: the times came down, confidence went up.

Or like when I immersed myself in yoga: I hit new poses; my confidence soared.

It’s the honeymoon phase: You start working out; you improve indefinitely; you feel amazing; and then it’s over. You peak. You could work a little harder to find that next level of fitness, but the amount of work it takes to continue improving is more than you can realistically invest. You have kids, a job, a life.

You keep working out; but the electricity, the buzz of confidence that came with improvement is more and more illusive.

My friend, who recommended I try intermittent fasting, sent me a study linking intermittent fasting to early death.

Don’t worry… it’s one study.

But “People who followed a pattern of eating all of their food across less than 8 hours per day had a 91% higher risk of death due to cardiovascular disease.”

Yikes.

Top questions Trainers hear (complete w quick answers):

Q: What's the best exercise for… A:(All exercises are good (for someone). All of them are bad (for someone). The answer depends on who you're talking to and what they’re trying to accomplish.)

Q: What do you think of [insert fad diet or exercise]? A: (It's interesting; but the best stuff has been around for awhile. Yoga, running, boxing, kettlebells, martial arts and eating like an adult have withstood the test of time.)

Q: What should I do on my own?

‘Listening to Kenny G’ is a documentary on HBO that made me love Kenny G. The Man is inspirational.

Kenny, like Baltimore’s famed stick up man Omar Little, has a code.

‘I don’t think there’s anything wrong with hard work, putting in the reps, and then reaping the reward.’

And now you’re asking, what does Kenny G have to do with fitness?

Just as you can relearn a language you can relearn movement.

I’ve done literally thousands of hours of yoga, and my hips refuse to open. The rest of my body has unwound (to a degree), but my hips stay stubbornly tight.

For years I’ve dreamed of performing a standing split. One foot is on the ground, the other pointed straight into the air. It’s been on my vision board.

And still my standing split remains a 90-100 degree angle (105 on a good day).

I was convinced that I was close to a breakthrough. A small adjustment, a new routine, a month’s work and I’m there.

Phantom pain? Chronic soreness? Low energy? Lack of focus? Could it be a fueling problem?

All of these very general symptoms above can be the result of lack of oxygen. Your body receives oxygen from ⁹two primary resources: nutrition and breathing. Let’s just ignore the nutrition aspect for a minute and focus on your breathing.

Is there a way to assess whether or not we’re breathing optimally? Yes. It’s easy.

Go with your gut. Stick with your gut. What does your gut tell you?

We’ve collectively decided that intuition lives in the gut. Turns out there is scientific rationale explaining this.

“Although it can’t compose poetry or solve equations, this extensive network uses the same chemicals and cells as the brain to help us digest and to alert the brain when something is amiss. Gut and brain are in constant communication.”

“A troubled intestine can send signals to the brain, just as a troubled brain can send signals to the gut. Therefore, a person's stomach or intestinal distress can be the cause or the product of anxiety, stress, or depression.”

The right foods invigorate your gut, and the wrong ones will destroy it. It's intensly individual. How will we know which foods do what?

I ate almost 0 processed sugar for 110 days because I wrote about it in this newsletter. When i was tempted to eat something sugary I declined bc it would be embarrassing to fail in front of an audience. So thank you, Dear reader, for holding me accountable.

Why is the need to prove to myself to an audience of (mostly) strangers so strong?

Had I kept the goal to myself my mission would have likely succumbed to Halloween candy or Christmas cookies.

Is the embarrassment of public failure stronger than the merits of living a healthy lifestyle? There has to be a better way, right?

3 missed calls.

Who the hell calls anyone these days?

They are all from Dad; on behalf of my Sister Lyndsey. Her back is out. She’s on the floor, scared, the slightest movement could send a lightning bolt of pain down her spine. God forbid she sneeze.

They say we may have 99 Problems until we get sick (or hurt). Then we have 1.

What can I do, over the phone, to help someone who is lying immobile, on the floor, fearing the slightest bit of movement?

Sit back. Relax. Let's have a look at why professional experience matters.

Economy of movement.  Don’t move any more or any further than you need to.  The right amount of movement at just the right time.

Graceful.

This is what we aspire to.

‘So I’ve been thinking about this shot (above) for 15 years and finally I had a chance to do it. So I go to the safety guy and I go, here’s what I’m gonna do. Safety guy goes, ‘you can’t do that.’

So I get another safety guy...’ -Tom Cruise (as told by Matt Damon)

The second Friday of January day is officially known as quitter’s day.

What are we quitting? New Years resolutions.

It’s the day where we throw our hands up and admit we just didn't have it this year. Our intentions were pure but life just kept getting in the way.

I get it. I never work out as much as a I set out to, and I own a gym.

My name is the Running Man and I am a sugarholic.

For as long as I can remember I have LOVED sweets.  Cookies.  Sodas.  Brownies.  Ice Cream.  Dairy Queen!

It is this addiction that has been at the heart of my professional hypocrisy.

A trainer/nutrition coach who can polish off a pint of Ben & Jerry’s in a single setting= Authentic.

It’s late in the race.  You’re exhausted.  Finish line’s in sight.  Goal time within reach.  This is a defining moment but you’re redlining.  You need something extra.

This is where music comes on in the movies.  The score to ‘Rocky’, to ‘Chariots of fire’, to ‘8 mile’.  If I could just hear the right song right now, you think, it would give me what I need.  It would push me through.

I’ve been here.  I’ve heard the music and I’ve won the race, beaten the time.

But the songs that cane weren’t the one I expected.

Let’s have a listen  shall we?