Vision Statements

How was everyone's weekend? I had a great weekend that was filled with an amazing amount of productivity and just an overall great vibe. When I went to bed last night I looked back on the weekend and was proud of what I was able to get done. It allowed me to go to bed with a great calmness which led to a great night of sleep.

In the book I am reading "10 Rules For Resilience" by Joe De Sena, Rule # 4 "Live Your Values; Find Your True North and Communicate It. This chapter is all about identifying the underlying thoughts and ideas that help make up your true North. The chapter also helps you to create and write a vision statement that will express your true North. You begin by identifying words or phrases that express the vision of how you want to live and express your life and your life's work. I am in the process of writing my own vision statement, which I hope to finish today. This is an exercise that you don't want to rush, but still want to get done sooner than later. What is great about this exercise is that you can expand on it, which is what we started to do as a family this past weekend. I decide that this would be a great idea for my family and more importantly for my kids. Both Quinn and Sarah will be driving in the next year in a half. When this happens the world that they thought they knew will suddenly become much bigger and their freedom of choice will expand much more than they ever actually realized. Having a family vision statement will help guide them when life decisions come into play and they are unsure what they should or should not be doing. Our family vision statement will help remind them and actually all of us what our family values, our vision and our purpose is in life.

I want to expand on this even further by inviting all of you to help create a vision statement for the gym. I think the best way to do this for those who would like to participate is to set up an evening (a Saturday night) and all get together here at the gym (with food and beverages). We can all powwow together and come up with a vision statement that will help guide us all into the future of Big Tree Fitness. Once we come up with our statement I will have it printed off into a banner and have it hung here in the gym to help remind us what we are all about and what our true purpose is. If you are interested in participating please let me know so I can start organizing.

Thanks and please have a great day

Skin in the Game

HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all. I don't know about all of you, but even though it was a great holiday season, I am glad to be moving on and getting the new year started. So that being said all of you should pretty much know how I feel about new year's resolutions. If you don't know, I think resolutions are BS. Someone tells you all these things that they plan on doing this year or their goals for the new year. But then the next time you talk to them and ask them about their goals and all those great things they said they were planning to do is going. Typically the response is "Well they didn't start off so well, but I still plan on getting them done, I just don't know where to start". I am sure we have all had this conversation before and I am willing to bet that at one point and time you were this person. I know for sure that I was definitely this person on more than one occasion.

You want to know how to not be this person ever again? Put some skin into the game. Write it down on the calendar, announce it to everyone, make it public knowledge. When you take these steps you are setting yourself up to be accountable. No one likes to waste money that they have spent. No one likes to look at the calendar and see a goal not met as the date passes by. No one likes to have to tell the world that they did not meet our at least attempt to meet their goals. Accountability is the fuel that helps us all stay on track to meet our goals. Without accountability you just have resolutions and ideas. Without accountability you have no road map to work with and without a road map you are just spinning your wheels and staying in the same place.

For myself, my main goal for the beginning of the new year is to get myself healthy enough to get back out on the trails running ( which I feel I am very close to doing). I have been working hard on recovery work throughout the week as a way to hold myself accountable for this goal. To push myself even harder to get back out there I made a commitment with Adam and we both put our money where our mouths are and we signed up for a Spartan Beast race for this June 18th, 2022. (By the way there is a Big Tree Fitness team for this race. hint, hint, hint). Again it is all about accountability and how far you are willing to go with your own accountability towards your goals. So put your goals down on paper. Announce them to your family and friends. Create a board of directors with the 4 or 5 people you trust the most to help hold you accountable. Put some money in the game and on the calendar. Truly crush your goals and leave those damn resolutions behind and don't look back because you don't have the time for that in your life.

Thanks for reading and as always your thoughts and comments are always welcome,

No BS

One of my favorite things about the books that I choose to read is that they allow me to share my thoughts and ideas as I read with all of you. The chapter I am reading now is titled "Commit To No Bullshit" and the BS the chapter is talking about is our own BS we tell ourselves. When we start to accept our BS we start to accept excuses way too easily. We start to accept inconsistency as part of our daily lives. Once the acceptance of inconsistency enters into our lives, all of the hard fought gains we have made start to slip away. Sure there will be times when we are mentally and emotionally tired and our own BS is an easy acceptance. The key is are you going to let that become a habit or are you going to do the proper rest and recovery so that you can kick the BS excuses or BS narratives to the curb. Here are the favorite thoughts and ideas listed in this chapter to help prevent the BS story from becoming a main fixture in your life. Instead this list helps create the success we are all looking for.

• When you have the choice between hard and easy, choose hard

• If someone hands you something, you don't want it

• Nothing in life is easy; working hard is crucial to survival

• Respect power and dangerous things, but do not fear them

• When you go to a job interview, always be polite to the receptionist

• Our greatest griefs are those we create ourselves

• You can't do better by practicing against someone who is worse than you

• No matter what others do, keep doing the right thing, and you will come out ahead

These lessons don't come from the author. They come from hundreds of people that the author Joe De Sena has interviewed over the years. He has asked all of them the same question, "Please share the most important lesson you have learned for success". We all have lessons we have learned along the way towards our own successes in life. When you feel your own Bullshit creeping in, draw on your lessons learned. They will bring you back to where you want to be.

As always your thoughts and comments are always welcome,

"10 Rules For Resilience" By; Joe De Sena

Dress for Success

How is everyone doing today? I hope you all had a great weekend and are enjoying the holiday season. I know my kids are happy to be off school for the next two weeks for winter break. I'm pretty sure all the teachers that came to the gym are just as happy as well.

Have you ever heard the phrase "Dresses For Success"? Some people truly believe in this phrase, but the question they should be asking themselves is "Have I done the work in order to dress for success". When I was younger I dealt with a lot of personal insecurities. I would mask those insecurities by dressing the part or trying to dress the part. The problem with it though was those insecurities never went away no matter how much I tried to cover them up with the "Right Look". It wasn't till I understood that in order to get rid of these insecurities I needed to do the work before I could dress for success. I needed to earn the strength to get over my insecurities. I see a lot of this these days. Buy the new shoes or buy the new clothes and go straight to the finishing line and supposedly win. There is no commitment and no true success when you adopt this type of mentality. All you have created is a house of cards that will eventually fall apart all around you. Too often the magic pill syndrome comes into play for far too many people. You can not just dress the part and think all will be good because eventually the lack of true real commitment will show through. You have to do the work in order to earn success.

Thanks for reading and as always your thoughts and comments are always welcome.

Until You Can

How was everyone's weekend? We went hunting for our christmas tree on Saturday and I must say we were quite successful. Once again we have a beautiful Frasier Fir decorated in our living room. The house has a wonderful fresh cut pine scent throughout it. Congratulations to the "Akron Rugby Football Club''. This past Saturday they received a proclamation from the Mayor and the City of Akron that states that henceforth December 4th will be known as "Akron Rugby Football Club Day". A well deserved honor. Akron Rugby Club Football is celebrating 50 years this year. Akron has one of the oldest club teams in America. Fifty years is quite the accomplishment. Congratulations once again.

"You Can't Until You Can"

How many times have you heard someone or even yourself say "Oh there is no way I can do that". I would bet you have heard this statement quite often in your own past. For those of you that have been with Big Tree Fitness for a while probably don't find yourself saying this too often any more. The reason for that is at some point and time whether you realized or not at the time, some part of you decided to add "Until I Can" to the phrase "I can't do that". I know since starting Big Tree Fitness I went through a lot of "I Can't Until I Can" moments and I have witnessed many of them as well with you all. It takes a certain way of thinking and actions to possess this mindset. Some of us have found it and some of us are just starting to find it, but the one thing we all have in common no matter where you are at on this path. It is that we all realize that we must practice and work at cultivating this mindset everyday. Each day that we do the work needed to grow and make this mindset strong within each of us, we create so many more opportunities to say "Now I Can".

I hope you all have a great week and keep this quote in the back of your mind this week "I Can't Until I Can". Thanks and as always your thoughts and comments are always welcome.

Getting Back Up

I hope you all have had a great week so far. I guess as long as we are seeing the green side up, then all is good.

"You Can't be defined by the time you fell; You have to be defined by the time you got up and finished"

How many times growing up did you hear "Get up and rub some dirt on it, you will be fine". I heard that phrase a lot from my parents and you know what, they were right. The pain would go away and you were back off testing your abilities all over again and completely forgetting what had just happened. In some cases you wore that fall like a badge of honor. That's what life is really all about. How many times are you going to be willing to fall and get back up and finish.. How many times are you going to be willing to fail forward in life. For all of you reading this email you have proven to yourself that you can fall and still get back up and finish, otherwise you wouldn't be coming here to practice creating the resilience needed to fail forward every day. You have all found out that you are worth the effort you put in. You have all proven to yourself that to find true success in life you must be willing to fall down and sometimes fall down really hard, but always willing to get back up, dust yourself off, attend to the wounds and then press on. But there are so many people out there that haven't found this missing piece in their lives. It is up to us to help show them what can be done. To be the example that they can look towards. To be the hand that reaches out to them and helps pull them up. To tell them good job, now lets keep going. All of us were there at one point and time in our lives, but there was someone or something there that opened the door to show each of us what was possible. But only if we were willing to fall, learn and get back up and finish. "You Can't be defined by the time you fell; You have to be defined by the time you got up and finished" This is what will define each of us, from here on out. Keep finishing!

As always your thoughts and comments are always welcome

Stress Can Be Good

I hope all of you are waking up well this morning. I want to thank everyone who sent comments or started conversations with me here at the gym about yesterday's gym email. It was great seeing people really engaging and wanting to expand on yesterday's topic of "Something is Better Than Nothing". Julie Fields sent me a great piece from

Dr. Kelly McGonigal's book "The UpSide of Stress" .

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From Placebo to Mindset

One way to think about Crum’s stress study is that it demonstrated a placebo effect. The positive stress video changed participants’ expectations of how stress would affect them and, like a sugar pill, produced the expected response.

The placebo effect is a powerful phenomenon, but it’s also a manipulation. Someone is telling you how to think about something. Often, they are giving you something you don’t have any preconceived notions about. They hand you a pill and say, “This will help,” so you believe them. But when it comes to stress, everyone already has a point of view. Every time you experience stress, your beliefs about it come to mind. Think about how many moments of your day you would describe as stressful. How often do you say, “This is so stressful” or “I’m so stressed”? In each of these moments, how you think about stress can alter your biochemistry and, ultimately, how you respond to whatever has triggered the stress.

A belief with this kind of power goes beyond a placebo effect. This is a mindset effect. Unlike a placebo, which tends to have a short-lived impact on a highly specific outcome, the consequences of a mindset snowball over time, increasing in influence and long-term impact.

As we’ve seen, a mindset is a belief that biases how you think, feel, and act. It’s like a filter that you see everything through. Not every belief can become a mindset. Some beliefs simply aren’t that important. You might believe that chocolate is better than vanilla, that it’s rude to ask somebody’s age, and that the world is round, not flat. Those beliefs, no matter how strongly you hold them, have relatively little consequence for how you think about your life.

The beliefs that become mindsets transcend preferences, learned facts, or intellectual opinions. They are core beliefs that reflect your philosophy of life. A mindset is usually based on a theory about how the world works. For example, that the world is getting less safe, that money will make you happy, that everything happens for a reason, or that people cannot change. All of these beliefs have the potential to shape how you interpret experiences and make decisions. When a mindset gets activated—by a memory, a situation you find yourself in, or a remark someone makes—it sets off a cascade of thoughts, emotions, and goals that shape how you respond to life. This, in turn, can influence long-term outcomes, including health, happiness, and even longevity.

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It turns out that how you think about stress is also one of those core beliefs that can affect your health, happiness, and success. As we’ll see, your stress mindset shapes everything from the emotions you feel during a stressful situation to the way you cope with stressful events. That, in turn, can determine whether you thrive under stress or end up burned out and depressed. The good news is, even if you are firmly convinced that stress is harmful, you can still cultivate a mindset that helps you thrive.

What Is Your Stress Mindset?

Psychologist Alia Crum and her colleagues developed the Stress Mindset Measure to assess people’s views of stress. Take a moment to look at the two stress mindsets below and consider which set of statements you agree with more strongly—or, at least, would have agreed with before you picked up this book:

• Mindset 1: Stress Is Harmful.

  • Experiencing stress depletes my health and vitality.

  • Experiencing stress debilitates my performance and productivity.

  • Experiencing stress inhibits my learning and growth.

  • The effects of stress are negative and should be avoided.

• Mindset 2: Stress Is Enhancing.

  • Experiencing stress enhances my performance and productivity.

  • Experiencing stress improves my health and vitality.

  • Experiencing stress facilitates my learning and growth.

  • The effects of stress are positive and should be utilized.

Of these two mindsets, “stress is harmful” is by far the most common. Crum and her colleagues have found that while most people can see some truth in both mindsets, they still view stress as more harmful than helpful. Men and women do not differ, and age does not predict mindset.

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Stress mindsets are powerful because they affect not just how you think but also how you act. When you view stress as harmful, it is something to be avoided. Feeling stressed becomes a signal to try to escape or reduce the stress. And indeed, people who endorse a stress-is-harmful mindset are more likely to say that they cope with stress by trying to avoid it. For example, they are more likely to:

• Try to distract themselves from the cause of the stress instead of dealing with it.

• Focus on getting rid of their feelings of stress instead of taking steps to address its source.

• Turn to alcohol or other substances or addictions to escape the stress.

•  Withdraw their energy and attention from whatever relationship, role, or goal is causing the stress.

In contrast, people who believe that stress can be helpful are more likely to say that they cope with stress proactively. For example, they are more likely to:

• Accept the fact that the stressful event has occurred and is real.

• Plan a strategy for dealing with the source of stress.

• Seek information, help, or advice.

• Take steps to overcome, remove, or change the source of stress.

• Try to make the best of the situation by viewing it in a more positive way or by using it as an opportunity to grow.

These different ways of dealing with stress lead to very different outcomes. When you face difficulties head-on, instead of trying to avoid or deny them, you build your resources for dealing with stressful experiences. You become more confident in your ability to handle life’s challenges. You create a strong network of social support. Problems that can be managed get taken care of, instead of spiraling out of control. Situations that you can’t control become opportunities to grow. In this way, as with many mindsets, the belief that stress is helpful becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Giving Something, Not Nothing

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend and enjoyed the time with family and friends. Our Thanksgiving weekend at the Meeker household was fun and filled with the right amount of adventure and chill time. There are a lot of things that I want to write about, so you will probably see a few emails this week.

Today is all about the right mindset. So now that Thanksgiving is over and the big holiday season push is upon us, life can sometimes feel like it is getting out of control. There will be so many different things, people and events pulling us in so many different directions. That is why it is so important that we prioritize what is important to each of us as individuals. Not what's important to everyone else, but what is important to you. The holiday's can cause some of us to go off the rails and lose sight of what is good for us. Quite often I see people fall off their workout schedule because of so many other things and or people vying for your time and energy. Because I know that this is a reality for a lot of us, I want to remind you all that "something is better than nothing".

So before you start cancelling your workout class time because of outside pressures. I want you to stop, pivot your mindset and think "Something is Better Than Nothing". If you know that you don't have the normal amount of time that you usually need to complete your workout, we can make the necessary adjustments and shorten up your workout time. Skipping and canceling your workouts does absolutely nothing for you. All it does is set you back and make you feel like shit inside. Remember something is better than nothing. A 30 minute workout is better than a 0 min workout physically and more importantly emotionally and mentally. DON'T CANCEL, ADJUST AND PIVOT!!! You are allowed to have your time and no one or no thing should make you feel guilty for your own self needs.

Resiliance

We talk a lot about Resilience in these emails and here in the gym. Today I was reminded of something about resilience and that I thought I should share with you. "The resilience that you work to cultivate is equal to the limitations you put upon yourself." This is a really good lesson to learn and also a really good lesson to face. So if you think about the fact that you really only have control over two things in life. Those are, how you choose to live your life and how you choose to react to life around you. If you accept this as a truth then that means you have the control to set the limitations upon yourself. Yes there are some who are playing with a pretty loaded deck of cards against them and I imagine a lot of us have possibly been in that type of situation throughout our lives. But ultimately we still have the control of accepting limitations and creating limitations.

Every time each one of us has decided to let go of the limitations that were holding us back, great things happen in our lives. We each probably achieved something we did think was possible because of those perceived limitations. The other great thing that happened throughout each of these journey's was letting go of limitations became easier and the strength we gained each time stayed with us. It is this strength that keeps pushing us to reflect on our lives and take on the challenges to build a better life and a better version of ourselves.

The hard reset that I did last week allowed for the time needed to do this type of reflection. Though I am proud of what was able to be accomplished over the past two years in the tearing down of limitations in my own life, there is a lot to still be done. I imagine that there will always be something that needs to be worked on. For some people this seems like a task that never ends, but for some this represents living life and trying to live life to the fullest. Maybe it's time to look inward again at the limitations that you have set upon yourself and see which ones needs to go next.

Thanks for reading and as always your thoughts and comments are welcome

Daily Surprises

How was everyone's weekend? I hope all went well for each of you. I need to give a shout out to the Akron Men's Rugby Team and especially to Big Tree Fitness members, Coach Dom, Ben Ott and Dave Kauffman. Akron Men's Rugby beat Bremer County 40 to 17 in the Division III Championship this past weekend. Well played gentlemen.

So a weird and wonderful thing happened today while out trail hiking today. Yes I said hiking. I recently decided that it was time for me to give my body a break away from working out, so I am taking this week and heading off into the woods to do a "Hard Reset" both physically and mentally. This hard reset is meant to let my body heal and give me time to reflect on this past year and a half. I recently stopped and thought about how since Mothers Day 2020 I have taken somewhere between 8 to 10 days off from working out out of 556 days. Obviously that formula can only go on for so long until stuff starts to break down.

When I left the gym for this hike I was still debating with myself where to hike. I was almost as if I was arguing with myself internally. It was kind of stupid to be honest. I finally decided to go hike my original thought which was the Perkins Loop in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. I love running and hiking this trail because very few people ever go past the Covered Bridge and even fewer this time of year. Plus there are also quite a bit of fond memories with my family at the Covered Bridge. For those who have hiked the Perkins Trail you know the first section of the trail takes you straight up to a ridge line plateau and the trail skirts right along the ridgeline. It is a beautiful view back down into the valley below. A short time after reaching the top and hiking along the trail, I thought I heard voices. It was hard to tell because of the wind blowing through the tops of the tree's, but soon enough I heard voices again. I end up coming upon a couple hiking in the opposite direction. I startled them slightly and so I apologized for not speaking up sooner. I told them I normally don't see people hiking up here and they said the same in return. We all had a little laugh, siad have a great day and continued on our hikes. I didn't get more than 10 yards down the path before I heard the lady yell out "Big Tree Fitness". I turned around smiling and said yes. The lady looked at me and said "I used to cut your mom's hair. I still wear the heart necklace she gave me before she passed away" pulling the necklace out to show. I looked at her and paused for a moment and siad "Thank you for sharing that with me, that was awesome". My mom passed away back in May of 2019.

Daily life can be full of surprises. Sometimes when we get caught up in our own head space that we can miss out on truly something amazing. I was so determined to pick the right trail to start my "Hard Reset" that I was getting to the point of paralysis through analysis. When all was said and done I went back and followed my first thought and it led to something beautiful. It led to this story that I get to share with you. It led to a great story that I can share with my family on Thanksgiving. I just finished the book "The Joy of Movement" today and if it wasn't for my own joy of movement and my own joy of finding that movement in the woods, today's surprise would have gone unfulfilled. Keep your eyes up, your ears open, your mind clear, your heart willing to accept so that great and amazing things happen for you.

As always your thoughts and comments are welcome.

Recharging

How is your week going so far? This has been a good week so far. Feeling a little recharge this week. It is always really cool when you get those mental, emotional and physical recharge feelings. You can actually physically feel it happening. It's hard to explain or put words to it, but it's a deep physical feeling that goes all the way through you. To the core of you.

"Without regular time spent outdoors, we can lose touch with the default state of open awareness. By reconnecting with nature, we familiarize ourselves with this other aspect of what it means to be human. This is a big part of what draws people to green exercise. Outdoors, it is possible to rediscover a self that is not solely defined by your roles and relationships with others, or by your past. You are free to be a self that is in motion, attuned to the present moment, and open to what the world has to offer." The Joy of Movement, Kelly McGonical, PhD

When I read this paragraph I was so happy that I re-read it two more times. This is exactly what happens to me when I am trail running in the woods. All three phases of emotional, mental and physical all become one. All the trials and tribulations that I carry throughout the day kind of disappear for a while. They do not completely disappear, but they become quieter and less obtrusive. This allows for a calmer way of thinking and reflecting. Trail running within nature's surroundings allows for me to change my point of reference. I have a clearer vision of what is really going on around me and within me. I start to realize that nothing is as bad or great as I may think it is. It allows the thoughts that can control me to slip away, at the same time allowing the self control over those thoughts to become stronger. It is a freedom from the perceived me to allow the freedom of the real me to come through.

This has become a purposeful need in my life and my hope is that everyone of you can find this same feeling outside in the place you find your recharge.

As always your thoughts and comments are always welcome.

The Match

This weekend was filled with a ton of positive things happening. This turned out to be a great weekend to celebrate Halloween. We had perfect weather Saturday for all things Halloween. I got to enjoy seeing my twins Quinn and Sarah go from being the little kids going out trick or treating throughout the neighborhood to now being the big kids in the neighborhood running around carefree and experiencing their freedom. The experience of hanging out with their friends and running the neighborhood is now more important than the actual trick or treating. It was awesome to see that kind of growing up and maturity blossom right in front of your eyes.

The most impressive thing I witnessed this past weekend was watching the Men's Akron Rugby Club Team play Queen City (Cincinnati) in the quarterfinals of the playoffs. Last Friday I sent out an email about living life large. That you give whatever 100% is for you each day, you give that 100%. Well the men's rugby team gave every bit of 100% plus. The effort and energy that they gave out on the field this past Saturday was nothing short of absolutely amazing. I think I have only seen this kind of physical, mental and emotional effort one other time in person. The only other time was when I got to go see the Cavaliers play the Golden State Warriors in game three of the finals. The Cavs had lost Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving due to injuries which led to the Cavaliers being severely under manned, but point guard Matthew Dellavedova and Lebron James sacrificed everything they had themselves to help secure the win. Both Lebron and Dellavedova laid everything out on the line, to the point that Dellavedova spent the night in the hospital due to severe dehydration and severe cramping. The Akron Men's Rugby team fought tooth and nail and had to fight back constantly throughout the Match. It wasn't looking good a little over half way through the second half, but then something happened. One of the Queen City players who had been running his mouth all game pulled a cheap shot just after momentum had shifted big time towards Queen City. I thought to myself this is either going to be the final straw and Akron was going to have to accept defeat or this was going to flip the switch. It was, flip the switch. For the next 15 min of regulation and two sudden death overtimes, Akron would not stop; they dug so deep and found energy where there was none. They found strength when the muscle glycogen (Energy) was completely gone. They found speed when the dehydration levels in legs were so high that cramping would start just from standing. The players on that field Saturday searched, found, and used the 20% that is left in the tank when you feel like there is no way I have 20 more percent. This match wasn't just about winning and going onto the semi finals. This match was about each one of those players finding how much they can give of themselves to their fellow team mates. Each one of them could walk away on Saturday knowing that they each found something very special inside themselves. Something that is rare and can only be found through the kind of effort, resilience, and willingness that they displayed on Saturday afternoon. Congratulations gentlemen and thank you, that was awesome.

As always your thoughts and comments are always welcome.

Rememberance

How has everyone’s week been? Like all weeks they probably had their ups and downs. It probably had its fun moments and not so fun moments, but that is life. For some of you out there this weekend is your favorite holiday weekend. Well one thing is for sure, the weather is perfect for a Halloween weekend.

Yesterday while out trail running I ran upon a newly installed park bench on the Adam's Run trail at Hampton Hills. I love these park benches that the Summit County Metro Parks install through various parts of the trails. Everyone of these benches have a memorial plaque attached to them. Typically these plaques will have a quote that has some special meaning for the person or couple that is being memorialized. This plaque's quote said "Live as large as you can, for as long as you can". The only way this can happen is if you choose to make it happen and it looks as if Edward and Mary did exactly that. Most people will look at this quote and say, "yeah that's all fine and dandy, but life isn't just a good time all the time". You are right, life isn't a good time all the time and I do not believe that this is what this quote means. What it means is to go at life with everything you have in the good times and in the bad times. It means that not every day will be a 100% day, but what is important is that you give the 100% you have for each day. When we choose to live life large we create the possibility for great things to happen. When we choose to live life large through the hard times we end up taking charge and coming out stronger for it on the other side. When we live life large we can look back and smile and know that we poured ourselves into life and made life as best as possible each and every day. I know some people will scoff at this ideal, that's ok, let them. Unfortunately for them they will never truly know what it means to live your life large and find the true JOY that life has to offer. So live your life large and be the example that shows what is possible.

Thanks for reading and as always your thoughts and comments are always welcome,

Mornings

Welcome to another end of the week Friday Morning, that is if you are up yet. My day starts at 4:00am Monday through Friday, 5:00am on Saturdays and typically 6:30 on Sundays. I give myself a little more sleep in time on Sundays sometimes. The one thing that is consistent with these different wake up times, it's that It does not matter what time I wake up in the morning, It's still F-ing hard to get out of bed. I am sure there are a couple people that pop up out of bed and are raring to go right away, but for the majority of us it is still hard to get out from under the covers and lift your head off the comfortable pillows. So my question is this. If it is pretty much equally as hard to wake up at 4am and 5am and 6:30am why do we choose to cancel or not show up. Why do we decide not to have the resilience to get our asses out of bed early and show up. We can get up and cancel, but we can't take the extra couple minutes needed to clear our minds of the cobwebs and put our feet on the ground and stand up and take the first steps of the morning that put us moving in a forward direction. Yes, sometimes there are legitimate reasons such as a scheduling conflict with work or kids not feeling well or you yourself not feeling well ect...., but these issues are really few and far between. We need to create the resilience to get up and take charge of our day and stop trying to convince ourselves that our excuses are valid, because your best excuse is still just an excuse. We have one life and we only get one chance at this, don't make excuses and don't accept your excuses. Take charge and own your life. Get up everyday and find a way to kick ass and take the excuse trash bag out to the curb.

Thanks for reading and as always your thoughts and comments are always welcome,

Rituals

Our daily lives are filled with rituals. We use little rituals to help us transition from one thing to the next. The reason we use these rituals is to help us prepare ourselves mentally and emotionally for the next task, event or whatever it may be. When we don't have strong rituals to help us prepare we allow the negative excuses to get in the way These excuses cause us to procrastinate or even worse just cancel all together The biggest problem with this is it makes it easier and easier each time to make the excuses and find the reasons not to do what is needed. Remember your best excuse is still just an excuse.

Sometimes life does get in the way. You may have a job issue or a family issue that arises, but you need to be honest with yourself, does every life issue mean I should procrastinate or cancel? We all know the answer to that question and the answer is NO. But why do we allow life's trials and tribulations to become the piece that stops us in our tracks. It is because we lack the resiliency and self determination to fight back against these urges to take the easy path. Remember positive growth comes from fighting and pushing through life's daily issues. It is about embracing the hard work that comes from the process of positive growth. Even on the days that seem to be the hardest days to get motivated, unless you are truly sick or your body (not your mind) is completely run down you need to kick yourself in the ass and get moving.

So make up some rituals that will help you stay focused and on the right path. I believe having a solid morning ritual is key to a successful day. You can't just roll out of bed and throw some clothes on and say "Ok let's get going". That simply won't work in the long run. Wake up with a purpose. Do things in the morning that help create meaning and purpose to what you want to accomplish each day.

As always your thoughts and comments are always welcome

Accomplishment

Over the past two days I listened to a podcast on the Joe Defranco Industrial Strength show. Joe was interviewing Christian Thibaudeau. Christian has been training athletes for over two decades. He has written for books and written over 700 articles, many of which you can find on the website T-Nation. The interview was 1:34:00 long and I spent almost 3 hours listening to it. There was so much great information that I had to re-listen to sections 2 and 3 times just to get the most out of it. What it boiled down to was two things. What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to build muscle and strength or are you trying to build strength and longevity. Based on our weight lifting and workout programs that we do here at Big Tree Fitness either one of these goals can be accomplished. But where the big difference lies in two areas.

The first is your willingness to amp up your intensity level during your workouts. This means taking less breaks in between exercise movements. Pushing yourself to lift heavier weights for strength building. All this means being willing to keep your heart rate elevated during the workout and not let yourself drop into the resting heart range. Most gains that are missed in the gym are because the things listed above are not done. Too often we underestimate the effort we are putting into our workouts. This is usually caused by a mental barrier when we feel fatigued, meaning we don't want to work as hard or push ourselves when we feel fatigued. You must push past this mental barrier.

The second piece and probably most important for most of us is how we choose to eat and what we choose to eat and drink. It comes down to how many calories are being consumed throughout the week, not during each day. The reason for this is that most of us without realizing it will fluctuate our daily caloric intake throughout the week. Combined with your workout program and your weekly caloric intake will determine whether you are losing weight or gaining weight. If you want to gain muscle weight you need to eat at a slight caloric surplus per week and when I say slight, that would be an average of an extra 150 to 200 calories per day which equals 1000 to 1400 per week. This is based on doing 3 days of lifting and a couple days of steady state cardio. If you are looking to get lean and build strength you will need to do the reverse and eat at a caloric deficit throughout the week by about the same amount that you would do muscle weight gaining. When we eat and workout to get lean and strong we increase our life longevity because we are doing cellular recycling at a higher rate which promotes fat loss and cellular regeneration.

For those of you who are looking for more information on this, talk to me during your next scheduled workout. In the meantime check out this article on High or Low carb diets. This article helps solve a lot of the myths behind carb intake. https://www.spartan.com/blogs/unbreakable-nutrition/low-carb-vs-high-carb-diet

Tunes and Jams

How is everyone doing today? For myself, I am doing pretty well after feeling a bit under the weather yesterday. Sometimes for me it's not so much of having a flu bug or cold. It is more my body saying "Dude enough can we just stop for a day and let's rest". I personally am not that good at taking a day off, but yesterday that day came and I feel much better for it.

The power of music while working out is undeniable. There are actual scientific studies that prove this theory. In a review in the "Annals of Sports Medicine and Research" they determined that music is a legal performance - enhancing drug. This finding forced the US governing body for running competitions in 2007 to bar the use of personal listening devices at official races. In 1998 Ethiopian athlete and 2,000 meter specialist Haile Gebrselassie managed to convince event organizers to play the song "Scatman" over the sound system during the indoor 2000-meter race. Haile had practiced with this song and knew it was the perfect song to match his running cadence and stride. He ended up breaking the world record at that race. There is even a sports psychologist at Brunel University named Costa Karageoghis. He works with elite athletes all over the world to help create custom playlists for training and competitions. Costa's music algorithms are even used to create a large portion of the workout playlist on several of your music streaming services that you will find yourself listening to while at the gym.

We all probably have our favorite songs we like to listen to while we are working out. Some of us will even go so far as to skip songs to find that perceived perfect song to amp ourselves up just before a big lift or a hard part of the workout. What is your go to song? I have quite a few go to songs when I am working out. They are usually within the punk music genre. I will typically use these songs when I am needing to dig deep prior to a big lift. But my favorite songs are the songs I listen to when I am doing a hard trail run or when I am running in a race. I like to finish these hard trail runs with one song in particular. When I am spent and I know that I have to dig deeper and find energy to finish I will always turn to "Walk" by the "Foo Fighters". This song will always pour all my emotions out of me. I first used this song when I did my first 1/2 marathon and I needed everything I could find in me so I could cross the finishing line running. This song served as a catalyst to remind me of where I had come back from in life and where I was heading to. I hope each of you have that powerful song in your lives that will always lift you up and send you across each finishing line. If not, find it because the power of music is undeniable.

https://open.spotify.com/track/76Je5Wklky23mVoxiRszcN?si=9f3f3cb9815444c6

Thanks for reading and as always your thoughts and comments are always welcome.

Checking In on Ourselves

How is everyone doing? I like to ask that question first because even though you can't physically or verbally respond to me at the moment, it still forces you to answer that question for yourself. It is always good to stop every so often and answer that question for ourselves. This simple act allows us to check in ourselves. I believe that is a good thing and something that we all should probably do more often.

"The miracle isn't that I finished, it's that I had the courage to start!" This quote comes from Nora Haefele in the book "The Joy of Movement by Kelly McGonigal, PhD". Nora has competed in over 200 running events and has 85 marathons under her belt. As Nora says "I'm not the fastest. Usually I'm alone on the course within 5 minutes". Nora typically finishes at or near the bottom in every race. But what is truly unique about Nora is that she did not get started doing race or working out in general until her mid fifties. Nora is not 62 years young and still kicking ass!

The reason I used Nora and her quote is that sometimes I don't think we celebrate that a lot of us have found the courage to start and the courage to keep on going. We cross numerous finishing lines, only to find another starting line so that we can find that courage to start once again. These past two weekends I got to witness that kind of courage. The pure happiness and joy that only movement and collective movement can bring to people's lives. The kind of happiness and joy that fuels that courage to start. I got to be a part of Adam Gaskins' first marathon ever. I got to be a part of Tyler Dowler's first marathon relay and 10 mile Tough Mudder. I got to be a part of Mike Shantery's first 10 mile Tough Mudder. I got to witness Julie Fields' 20 mile Mamath March through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. All these people found the courage to start and all of them now want to keep on feeling that courage, that happiness and that joy that only movement and collective movement can bring.

Would you do it different?

I hope you all had a great weekend and a great start to the week. We had an awesome weekend, full of good times and a lot of productive time. It was a great blend of work and reward. Those are my favorite kinds of weekends. They align with my belief system of earning your good times by doing the work that you know needs to be done first. When you do the work first, it makes the fun time that much more rewarding and fulfilling.

Last night driving home from my son's cross country practice, Quinn asked me if I had a chance to do something over when I was younger what would I have done differently and it made me think of a quote that I read recently.

A writer - and, I believe, generally all persons - must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art. Jorge Luis Borges

I told Quinn that I wouldn't have done anything different. Quinn asked why and my answer to him was. If I had that opportunity to go back and do something different, there is a good chance that this conversation we are having would not ever have happened. That the possibilities of me being your dad would probably have changed dramatically and why would I have wanted that to happen. I told Quinn that I don't like to think about "what if's". I told Quinn that I am right where I am supposed to be because of the choices that I have made throughout my life. Looking back is great for learning from mistakes or taking stock in how far you have come, but it is never good to live by wondering what would be different if. We own our decisions and we make the best out of these decisions. We take all that has happened throughout our lives and we use it to the best of our abilities. We use what has happened in our lives and the decisions that we have made along the way to shape ourselves so that we can make the best life we can have today and hopefully tomorrow.

Thanks for reading and as always your thoughts and comments are always welcome.

Time to move

I hope all of you are having a great week and doing well. I hope everyone who has kids that have gone back to school are staying safe and enjoying the start of the new school year. I know that my twins Quinn and Sarah are truly enjoying being back in school and seeing all their friends. As well as participating in Fall sports (Cross Country and Volleyball). They are starting to feel a sense of normalcy in their lives again.

Yesterday I posted a video on my Instagram page about "The Joy of Movement" book that I am reading by Dr. Kelly McGonigal, PhD. I spoke about how physical movement such as trail running or really any kind of exercise increases a happier state of mind. More importantly, how movement helps lower anxiety and helps with levels of depression. This feeling of happiness you get from movement does not take the problems away that can cause anxiety or forms of depression, but what movement really does is allows us to get our mental and emotional states of mind in a better place to deal with and confront these problems that can plague our everyday life. Any of us who exercise on a regular basis and have had a rough day or even a rough patch of life can always look back and say "That workout made me feel so much better". Right there is the joy of movement. We know it, we see it and we feel it.

Too often though I see so many people who know that physical movement equals happiness to be true, but still will not recognize it when they need it most in their lives. As soon as something in life gets in the way or causes a slight disruption in their lives, the first thing they do is cancel their gym class time or whatever exercise was in the plans for that day. I think it has to do with the idea that every time this happens we feel we just don't have the energy to put forth and completely forget that every time we put forth this needed energy we create an amazing amount of positive energy that allows us to really deal with the problems of daily life in a much more productive and positive manner. Our problem solving outcomes are so much better when we come at them from a happier state of mind. So the lesson here is. You want to be happy and deal with life's daily obstacles? Then don't cancel or walk away from the one medicine we know for certain that works. Find a way to make your body move and exert energy that makes you sweat and release the negative to gain the positive. We all deserve to be happy and movement makes that happen.

As always your thoughts and comments are always welcome