FOUNDER ATHLETE BRIEFING
My thoughts don't matter.
End of a coaching call this week. Everything's covered, we're saying our goodbyes. Then the client sneaks in one more question. "What are your thoughts on my progress so far? Weight, strength, and why?" Fair question. I refused to answer it. "My thoughts don't matter." And no, not because the answer was bad. The answer was easy. His workouts feel strong. His weight is moving. He just came through a week that blew up on him, unplanned travel, none of his usual routine, and gave nothing back....
Shirtless selfie. Another discipline sermon.
My initial plan for this newsletter was to tell you about the fitness app I built for clients. How it consumed my life for an entire week, and how my training and nutrition still held up. Half way through it, I changed my mind. Not because you wouldn't find it useful. Because it wouldn't challenge your thinking. It wouldn't challenge your perception of fitness, and what social media, and the people in your circle, led you to believe about it. The trigger. I was scrolling through my LinkedIn...
Ten seconds in the office kitchen.
10pm, still at the office. He walks into the kitchen and the snacks are right there. Out in the open. "Right, I'm getting some chips. I don't care." The decision was made. Then he stopped. Ten seconds, just looking at them, running it in his head. And it flipped: "You don't need chips." He took a Greek yogurt out of the fridge, stirred in a little honey, grabbed an apple, and went back to his desk. A client told me this on our call last week - happy with the choice, and honestly surprised he...
"I freaking hate lifting."
A client of mine had a motorcycle accident a while back. Messed up his hips and knees. A month of barely moving, and for now he's only cleared to train his upper body. He's still down about 12 pounds, but on our call this week something was off. He tells me he's been eating 1,500 calories a day. That's too low for a guy his age and size. So I start asking questions. "How sure are you that it's exactly 1,500?" Fairly sure, he says. So we walk through a real day. No breakfast. A small lunch....
We finished a year ago.
Adrian stopped being my client over a year ago. Then, one morning, a message from him landed on my phone. Sent from a vacation in Thailand. It's waiting at the bottom of this email. First, the story. Adrian is a CFO. Late forties, three kids. Basketball in college, then twenty years to the business. Golf was the only sport he had left. Here's the first message he ever sent me: "I know your primary focus is to help executives lose weight and build muscle. I'm more interested in improving my...
Fridge fully stocked. Another panic attack.
He came home to an empty house. Fridge full. Eggs, vegetables, yogurt, everything there. And he froze. Full panic. A grown man who built a company, standing in his kitchen, no idea what to eat. He told me this on our first call. Then he said the line I keep coming back to. "I think about food way too much. It feels like something a 16-year-old girl worries about." He said it like a confession. Like something's wrong with him. Nothing is. He's sharp. Understands calories, protein and fiber....
When your life eats every fitness plan.
You're in Italy with your kid. It's been her dream ever since she was little. You've been working nonstop leading up to this. So you make it all about her. You go where she wants to go. And you eat the way she wants to eat. That iconic slice of pizza on the way to the Colosseum. Pasta every night. Not a single day where you watch what you eat. The only thing you watch is your presence - and the pace you're at. No more anxiety-filled "Let me fucking have that." No more "Let's rush it and cross...
Nobody wants to be huge anymore.
Remember Fight Club? Back in the 90s, Brad Pitt in that movie was THE physique. Then, things started changing. Fast-forward to the 2010s, The Rock and Chris Hemsworth as Thor took over. Yoked became the goal. Now you open Instagram and even the teenagers are roided up. Jacked men in their 40s and 50s? TRT'd so hard their faces look like they're about to explode. But the standards are changing back. People are getting more educated. Tom Hiddleston in The Night Manager is bringing back the...
I just turned 40.
I just turned 40. I spent the last year or so adding size. Bulk, then maintenance, building muscle. And honestly, I'm happy with the size of everything I have. So I started leaning out again. Two things showed up that weren't there before. The leaning out is slower than it used to be. And being in a deficit leaves me more gassed in my training sessions. I could ignore both and push harder. But that's the body talking. I'm at the point where my training has to evolve, so I'm changing it now....
Why your weight comes back when life gets hard.
Last year a guy showed up on a call with me. I bet you've been where he was more than once. He came prepared. Knew exactly what he wanted, knew how to track calories, had even worked with a nutritionist and done the metabolic test. Knowledge wasn't the problem. Discipline wasn't either. The year before, he'd done it the right way. Tracked everything, got from the mid-220s down to 217. Felt good. Then his mom got sick, and between hospital visits he was eating whatever was around. It all came...