MOMENTUM
Learn how little, but consistently implemented strategies lead to big, sustainable results!
My Story:
My dad, nicknamed "Daddio" around the gym, had quintuple heat bypass surgery. From that experience, we both started eating healthier.
I was always active growing up through high school paying every sport, but starting in college and the beginning of my real-world job as a project manager for an IT company, my "activities" were just happy hours. I grew up eating nothing but fast food. I did this though about age 25. After my dad's surgery, I started working out and eating “better,” but eating better back then was eating fast food, but without the soda and fries... I also still had epic cheat days typically filled pizza, ice cream, and cookies.
Just like my fitness journey, my own health journey has been long with a lot of trial and error and research. I hope to share my experiences with you and what I have learned along the way, not just with what has worked so well for my wife and I, but what I have learned from owning and operating a gym for 10+ years and coaching people through their fitness and wellness journeys.
The MOMENTUM program is the fast track to learning what took me 15+ years to understand through many highs and lows. I worked hard figuring out what works to get to where I am today, but these days, day-to-day, because of the habits I’ve created, it is extremly easy to stay on track. The battles have been fought and won. I spend almost 0% of my life worrying about my body and am on auto-pilot when it comes to implementing my healthy lifestyle. I never would have and could have imagined it, but it is simply not a challenge anymore. Most people have a hard time imagining what their life is going to look like when they start integrating healthier lifestyle choices, but that goes both ways...at this point I cannot imagine going back to my old ways. The benefits are more than just superficial, they will spill over into every aspect of your life.
The MOMENTUM program is designed to help you find a sustainable solution that works for you and your unique circumstances. I can't wait to continue this journey with you!
Where Does the Typical American Diet, Lifestyle, and Perspective Take You?
Certain societal norms have created an epidemic of preventable chronic diseases and decreases in mental and physical capacities that are holding people back in all aspects of their lives. I want to have a profound and positive impact for those looking to maximize what they get out of this one life by being a resource that cuts through common misconceptions, and industry fads and normalizes and supports implementing true healthy lifestyles.
As a species, we humans are at an interesting crossroads as our technologies out pace our physiology. Certain luxuries that we have created to make our lives easier are actually a detriment to our health and destroying the environment. Our economy is designed around huge factory farms for animals, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds, plastics, carbon fuel emissions, processed foods, pharmaceutical companies, among many others as our culture always seems to look outside for solutions to our issues instead of within. There are many ways we can achieve more of a balance of convenience, health, and sustainability for both our own health and the planet, but it is a large slow turning ship. It starts with us.
Although the big companies could operate under values that do not prioritize profits over their impact in the world, they are not the only ones to blame. Let’s look at how most Americans live. Americans demand cheap and easily accessible food and don’t tend to focus on the quality, just the taste, so processed foods with added sugars and other ingredients are everywhere. Processed foods are made in laboratories by some of the smartest people on the planet to be habit forming. We know what triggers humans to consume more and more and it’s by leveraging sugar, fat, salt, and meat flavors. Now, marketing teams with access to millions of dollars and highly palatable “foods” (I put it in quotes as it is not real food, real food was once alive.) and access to big data know exactly how to market it to us. They are great at making food seem healthy and hiding the added sugar. There are 60+ ingredients that are all effectively sugar that may show up on a label and with no real definition of healthy food, companies will literally write “Healthy” on their lab created processed food that includes added sugars. Added sugar and fake sugars are not only habit forming, great for profits, but they act as preservatives extending the shelf-life of their processed foods, also great for profits. It’s no wonder sugar is almost all processed foods, it’s highly profitable and we keep buying it.
24-hour light sources have a more sneaky impact on our health. Our body’s functions and hormones are highly controlled by our circadian rhythm - our sleep and wake cycles controlled by our bodies internal clocks. Sleep habits may be the easiest and most vital in relation to health and when our circadian rhythm is out of sync, quality sleep is hard to come by leaving us with an out of whack central nervous system (CNS), low immune function, low brain power, low energy, an inability to repair tissue and joints, and hormone imbalances causing inaccurate feelings of hunger and loneliness. Some Americans have a strange pride in not sleeping wearing it on their sleeve as proof of how hard they work or how difficult their life is. But, we know productivity is not about time, but about actually being productive and without sleep, the brain is not firing on all cylinders.
Americans tend to sit at desks, in cars, and on couches for most of the day, on average 12-hours (not including sleep). Research suggests that no amount of exercise can reverse negative effects of living a sedentary lifestyle like this.
With our lack of being outdoors, there is a staggering deficiency of Vitamin D among Americans. Vitamin D is critical in immune function with virtually every cell in our body having a Vitamin D receptor and it being able to influence over 200 genes. Upwards of 70% of Americans are deficient.
Additionally, many Americans are also allowing their lives to stress them out all the time. Our bodies simply have not evolved fast enough to keep pace. According to the CDC, genetics contribute to only about 14% of what causes chronic diseases (Autoimmune disorders, heart disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, depression, cancer, asthma, arthritis, etc.) while behavioral and environmental factors contribute the other 86%. So what do these American societal norms lead to?
If your habits look like the typical American, these are your co-workers, family, friends, etc., you are are going to be part of the American statistics below.
According to the 2013 statistics provided by the CDC (Center of Disease Control and Prevention)
70% of Americans are overweight.
50% of Americans have a chronic disease (Autoimmune disorders, heart disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, depression, cancer, asthma, arthritis, etc.).
25% of Americans have multiple chronic diseases.
30% of kids have a chronic disease.
30% of Americans have diabetes or pre-diabetes.
88% who have pre-diabetes don’t know they have it. Pre-diabetes means if environmental and behavioral factors remain the same, they will likely have diabetes within 5 years.
40% of Americans are obese.
Almost 20% of children are obese.
Previously thought of as an alcoholic’s disease, more and more kids are showing up with fatty liver disease.
Also according the to CDC, about 14% of chronic disease is determined by genetics. The other 86% is influenced by environmental and behavioral conditions. To treat these chronic diseases, instead of fixing the root of the issues, most Americans take medication to simply treat symptoms. 55% of Americans take prescription medication. But medications come with side effects. So now, Americans must also treat both the symptoms of bad lifestyle and the symptoms of medications prescribed to fix the symptom of bad lifestyle. To treat these side effects, they take even more medication. Americans who do take prescriptions, take on average 4 different medications.
Average Americans seem to be always looking for the "magic pill" solution that let's them continue to do whatever they want. They seem to be happy ignoring some of the realities of life, which is there are non-negotiable and achievable things that humans need to be healthy and that every choice we make has consequences. People show up to doctors and expect a pill, a massage, or a surgery to fix their problems. They are unwilling to take ownership of their problems. They don’t realize that it is their lifestyle choices that are at the root of their symptoms and problems and is exponentially amplifying all of their issues. People are looking for supplements to solve deficiencies, but the first step should be modifying the diet to include healthy foods. Once that is in place, then it's time to look at vitamin deficiencies and determine if new foods or supplementation is appropriate. Like food supplementation, your workouts should be a supplement for your lifestyle.
Once we understand the realities of what it takes to be a healthy human being, we can come up with an actionable plan to get the results we are looking for. The tools and strategies we have discussed along the way will make sure that your plan is in place, the efforts to sustain your results are as minimal as possible, and we hope that the plan will actually make your day-to-day life easier and more productive.
Keep it up! We do not follow the herd simply to follow the herd and we do not stray simply to be different. We take an honest look at what we need to do to improve our lives and we experiment as we figure out the best way to make progress.
Exercise is extremly important and I’m sure you know nutrition is going to play a big role too, but there is more low-hanging fruit that can supercharge it all and even make exercise and sticking to a diet easier!
That is the end of the sample discussions at the beginning of the MOMENTUM Lifestyle Course. If you are interested in the program, check out the online course link below or check-out the in-person and remote options.
