As I sit here, NOT running my first training sessions of 2021 this morning due to a gout attack (something which is, thankfully, quite rare for me these days, but this one was particularly ill-timed), I find myself reflecting on what I plan to do with myself this year, and the challenges I may face.
I have set myself four main tasks to work on this year to help me become a better coach and leader, and in particular to aid me in leading by example with those over whom I have some influence (however small):
Practice and improve my craft as a Nutrition Coach.
Explore my limits as a Multi-Disciplinary Athlete.
Further develop my skills as a Cook and Baker.
Practice and improve my craft as a fitness, nutrition and lifestyle Content Creator.
Practice and improve my craft as a Nutrition Coach
Despite having been certified as a nutrition coach since 2011, having success “informally” practicing the craft with many folks and speaking / presenting on the topic on many occasions over that time, my primary focus in my career in the health and fitness industry has been on the physical training side of things. This year, I’ve set myself the task of putting in the work to practice and improve my craft as a Nutrition Coach to bring that side of my professional identity up to the same level as the physical training side.
I will continue to work on encouraging our training clients, who work HARD in the gym, to also tackle the crucial nutrition component in their health and fitness journey with the same persistence and determination. I hope to eventually get about half of them (or more) working on their nutrition with me as part of their memberships at The BTG.
In addition, my sole marketing focus, at least for the first half of the year, will be on promoting the nutrition coaching side of the business so that I can bring on board a diverse range of nutrition coaching clients to work with, 1-on-1, beyond our in-person training community. This will allow me to broaden my experience in this realm, and make me more effective at helping people address their own unique challenges when it comes to eating better and practicing better habits to achieve and maintain their health and physique goals.
The main challenge I will face in this task is that, while I have some valuable experience coaching people with their nutrition 1-on-1 over the years, I have never attempted to work with more than a couple of them at a time, so I have no established workflow or routine for managing multiple clients on this side of the business. To help with that, I’m going to lean on some of the resources I have access to as a Precision Nutrition certified coach, including the excellent, recently revised ProCoach platform.
Explore my limits as a Multi-Disciplinary Athlete
Though in “theory” I have always espoused a balanced, broad-spectrum approach to physical training, my experience in my first Spartan Race Beast back in 2015 really brought home to me the reality of what that balanced, broad-spectrum fitness should and could look like.
In the years since, I’ve developed what I believe to be a very effective approach to training people for the challenges of a Spartan Race, and by extension, for that balanced, broad-spectrum fitness. The problem is, I haven’t been consistently practicing it in my OWN training.
Before the 2015 Spartan Race Sun Peaks Beast, I nearly exclusively trained myself for strength, explosive power and high-intensity intervals, leaving aside endurance training. I gravitated towards those things because they were what I was good at. It’s what, in the PN coaching world, we call “Difficult - Easy” - an approach that many take, because it is more comfortable to do things you’re good at, even if you push those things hard. As a result, you continue to be good at those things, but to the detriment of the stuff you’re ignoring. So I was good at a lot of things, but, frankly, sucked at endurance.
After that Beast, I over-corrected and swung the other way in my own training, focusing a LOT on endurance. This was and still is definitely a “Difficult - Difficult” realm for me, particularly because my endurance focus has been on mountain trail running to tackle the challenging terrain of the types of Spartan Races we like to go after. As a barrel-chested, short-limbed, somewhat densely-muscled 205+ pound, late-40’s, historical non-runner, I am definitely NOT built for it. Don’t get me wrong - I have VASTLY improved on this end of things, and I have really come to enjoy trail running, but it doesn’t come naturally at all, and it has come at the expense of my training in other areas.
My capability in those areas hasn’t dropped off a whole lot because they are where my natural talents lie, but they have dropped off, and I could certainly be better. I’ve also found that with less emphasis on those areas, I have felt somewhat less resilient, especially in my back, hips and shoulders. Where, for years, the dodgy back and hips I suffered in my late 20’s and early 30’s had become nearly bulletproof, I find I’ve been getting those little “tweaks” more frequently again in the last couple of years. I also found that the climbing and hanging obstacles I encountered on Spartan Races were actually taking more of a toll on my shoulders than they had in previous years.
While some of those issues could be put down to aging and other excuses, I don’t really buy it. The real root cause is the reduced training in those areas as I focused on becoming more proficient at covering ground in the mountains.
Now, you may find it odd given what I do for a living and the fact that my gym is in my home, but often the LAST thing I want to do these days is get in the gym and work out. I love what I do as a personal trainer, and feel so privileged to have been able to transition to doing this full-time back in 2018, but spending several hours per day in there running training sessions for other people means that at the end of the day, I just want to get out of there and be “done” in the gym.
This is what’s going to be the biggest challenge for me with this task - motivating myself to put in the work in the gym to properly complement my training on the trails, and regain that resilience and strength that has started to fade over the last several seasons. My usual recommendation to others would be to find a ‘workout buddy’ or to join a group of like-minded people to train together, like our clients do at The BTG, but it’s unlikely I’ll find a training partner who can work with my schedule since the bulk of my “free time” is midday on weekdays, or is too late in the evening.
I know that once I establish a consistent routine it will be easier to continue with it, but I’m honestly not sure what it’s going to take to get me to that point. I have no excuses, because I have all the knowledge, facilities/equipment and opportunity/time I need to get it done, but those factors alone haven’t been enough for me in the past few years.
Further develop my skills as a Cook and Baker
Many of you will know of my professional training and experience as a cook, and my love for food in general. I also have a diverse range of cuisines to draw from in my culinary history, but it was a bit surprising for me to realize over the past couple of years that I have become quite shallow in my depth of exploration of each of those cuisines. I have a few dishes that I do (and do fairly well), but have become too comfortable with doing the same-old things all the time.
Strangely, I’ve also found that once I transitioned to working full-time in my own personal training business, despite having more control of my own time, I’ve actually begun to cook LESS often, and been much less organized with getting meals planned and made for my family during the week. I’m not sure if it’s the reduced structure to my afternoon, or that combined with the fact that I don’t eat dinner with my family from Monday to Thursday that has caused my interest to wane in that regard, but it’s something I’d like to change.
Getting back to being more consistent with meal planning / prep and diversifying my culinary repertoire are also important to me both in leading my nutrition clients by example by making most meals myself, and to highlight the fact that eating real, healthy food doesn’t have to be boring!
The big challenge here will be time management / organization, particularly combined with the additional demands my other major undertakings will put on my schedule. One possible saving grace here is that, since I won’t be able to make the Mon-Thu dinners to order anyway since I’ll be training, there’s less pressure on myself to have them prepared on that day at all. I.E. I can focus more on things I can prepare ahead of time and have my family reheat or finish off with one or two simple things on the night, like stews, casseroles, and the like, and can set aside time on Sundays to get that stuff ready.
For the more creative, exploratory side of my culinary year, I’ll focus on the three evenings where I CAN eat with my family - Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. I have some awesome cookbooks focusing on different cuisines that I’ve collected over the years that I can explore more in-depth instead of just flipping to the same handful of pages every time. I’m sure some kitchen disasters will occur, but many more delicious meals are bound to come out of this adventure!
Practice and improve my craft as a fitness, nutrition and lifestyle Content Creator
This post is really the start of my journey with this task I have set myself. My intention is to document my experiences in the pursuit of the other tasks here, in written, video or other forms to share with all of you, and to do so consistently for this entire year.
When I’ve attempted to do this in the past, I’ve found myself paralyzed, unable to finish an article or a video, because I didn’t feel like it was polished or “perfect enough” to put out there for fear of criticism or ridicule. I’ve also worried that having my numerous small mistakes along the way be documented and displayed for posterity would make me seem like a fool or incompetent, not worthy of speaking about the things that I love or enjoy because I may not be “expert enough” to do so.
I’ve also worried that I am simply not one of those “inspiring” people, and that nobody would really be interested in what I have to say. If nobody’s reading / watching, then what’s the point? So…better not to “waste my time” and put in the work.
The thing is that you just can’t tell what will inspire someone, and it may be better in the long run for me to be myself, flaws and all, and be RELATABLE. That may give more people motivation and hope than a single, flash-in-the-pan bit of inspiration.
As this epic novel of a blog post amply demonstrates, I also tend to be very wordy - perhaps overly so, and I have often worried that would detract from whatever message I was trying to convey, despite my certainty that the written word is where I am the strongest communicator. I can be cripplingly anxious and nervous when it comes to live speaking or video, and hyper-critical of myself in those formats when recording them in advance, which is something I also have to work on.
One thing that 2020 gave me was lots of time to reflect on my life thus far, and to realize that I have let that fear of other people’s judgement or opinion prevent me from really exploring my potential in a number of areas, and I have resolved to get past that this year, and, as Gary Vee says, just “do”.
So, this is me “DO-ing”, and is the start of the ride. We’ll see where it ends up a year from now!