Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/

As part of my operation “Revisit the past 15 years of Nerd Fitness,” and after writing about our ​Never 2 in a Row Rule​, I updated one of the most popular posts and ideas I’ve ever put together:

​20 Seconds of Courage​.

What started as an obscure line from an obscure Matt Damon movie, We Bought a Zoo, has since become a rallying cry for the Nerd Fitness Rebellion, our community of nerds.

Feel free to ​read the full article​, but here’s the quote from the movie, where Matt Damon is recounting to his son how he used 20 seconds of courage to meet his wife:

You know, sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage, just literally 20 seconds of embarrassing bravery, and I promise you something great will come of it.

Our lives are made up of a ton of quick actions that often take far less than 20 seconds. Starting a conversation. Walking through a door to the gym. Deciding where to sit in a restaurant.

And because we’ve made so many of these decisions, there’s a ton of inertia and history that might make us think we’re incapable of change.

However, as Alan Watts points out, “you are under no obligation to be who you were five minutes ago.”

And as my friend Tim Urban from Wait But Why shares, the paths behind us might be closed, but we always have choices moving forward:

Use 20 Seconds of Courage to Do Hard Things

Brandon Sanderson gave a great virtual talk during the pandemic about doing hard things. He encourages us to adopt the following mentality rather than just “hope things will work out!”:

“I can do hard things. Doing hard things has intrinsic value, and they will make me a better person, even if I end up failing.”

And sometimes we might need to do a hard thing that’s scary. Whether it’s joining a gym or standing up for yourself at work, or finally setting boundaries with your family…

It’s okay if you’re scared, by the way.

Doing scary things is tough, and we’re wired to trust our fears and avoid scary scenarios, which has kept us alive for hundreds of thousands of years as a species.

But doing hard things is usually a prerequisite for change, and our fear often doesn’t match the reality of the event itself.

As Seneca shares in his letter to Lucilius:

“There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”

Which is where 20 seconds of courage comes in!

The 20 Seconds of Courage Challenge

I think this quote from Jerzy Gregorek paints an interesting picture:

“Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life.”

Change can happen in an instant, and your life’s path can change as a result of any single decision you make.

Here’s how to participate:

• Pick something you want to do but have been too scared to attempt.
• Freak the F out before you do the thing.
• Muster up 20 seconds of courage and take that one action.
• Pee your pants after (optional).

And here are some prompts to get you started:

• Saying yes to something you’d normally say no to.
• Going to ​a part of the gym​ that you’re afraid of.
• Establishing boundaries with your family.
• Having an uncomfortable conversation.
• ​Talking to a complete stranger​.
• Taking more initiative at work.
• Signing up for a new class.
• Standing up for yourself.
• Leading an army of Transformers against the Decepticons.

Try it this week, and let me know how it turns out!

-Steve

The post The 20 Seconds of Courage Challenge first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/

I was talking with a friend recently who said he had hit a bit of a plateau.

We’ve all been there – that uncomfortable place where the scale stops moving, or the strength gainz slow down.

Heck, I’ve even written a whole article about ​busting through a plateau​.

As I’ve been revisiting the last 15 years of Nerd Fitness, I stumbled across an absolute doozy of an old video of me.

It’s baby Steve, from 11 years ago, sitting on a poop-brown couch (Why did I think this was the right color couch to buy?), with helmet hair.

I laughed as I watched this video, but I’m also proud of Past Me for putting this out in the world!

The “Never Two in a Row” Rule

The “Never 2 in a Row” Rule is simple:

• Follow up any “unhealthy” meal with a healthy one.
• If you miss a workout, do it THE NEXT DAY.

In other words, who cares if you “mess up” once? Just don’t “mess up” twice in a row. Because missing two in a row quickly becomes 3 or 5 or 10 or a lost year. But missing once? Fine! Just get right back on track.

Think of it this way: if you followed up every unhealthy meal with a healthy one, then at least 50% of your meals would be healthy! That’s a pretty dang good percent.

It can also help us avoid an “all-or-nothing” mindset.

Now, I wanted to update my philosophy around plateaus and this rule, so let’s get weird.

A plateau doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

A plateau is often frustrating, because we humans love progress.

Here’s the thing: when the alternative is “moving in the wrong direction,” a plateau IS progress, especially if you’re used to losing weight and then backsliding.

If we’re not losing weight, and we’re not gaining weight, then we’re eating roughly the same number of calories that our body burns daily. That’s it. This is neither good nor bad, it’s just math.

In other words, a plateau can be a really really good thing. It can mean you’ve chosen to just tread water for a bit, or you’re taking a strategic pause.

If you’re not getting stronger in the gym, there’s still a benefit to keeping your muscles warmed-up with a basic workout, even if it’s not an improvement over the past workout.

When life is a dumpster fire, a “plateau” can be a HUGE win.

Next, let’s talk about “Never two in a row,” and how I would update my language these days.

Healthy vs Unhealthy

In my video above, I say, “follow up an unhealthy meal with a healthy one.”

15 years later, I don’t love using the word “healthy” vs. “unhealthy,” because it assigns some morality to the foods we eat.

(I realize most of us know roughly what we mean by healthy, so I don’t eliminate the word completely from my vocab!)

Instead, let’s talk about a reframing of “healthy vs unhealthy”:

Sometimes, we eat fast food because our kids want to eat it (or because we’re traveling and it’s the only option at the airport). We don’t have to always optimize for weight loss or calories. Sometimes we optimize for convenience, or family, or sustenance.

This is neither morally good nor bad. It’s simply a meal we chose to eat.

If we have a goal that requires a calorie deficit, great! We can follow up a high-calorie meal with a lower-calorie meal. No morality or shame or judgment required. Just math and progress.

Because a “calorie” is just a unit of measure, not an indication of its quality!

This is how a professor famously lost weight on ​the “Twinkie Diet,”​ specifically to show the math of weight loss does come down to calories:

On his “convenience store diet,” he shed 27 pounds in two months.

For a class project, Haub limited himself to less than 1,800 calories a day. A man of Haub’s pre-dieting size usually consumes about 2,600 calories daily. So he followed a basic principle of weight loss: He consumed significantly fewer calories than he burned.

His body mass index went from 28.8, considered overweight, to 24.9, which is normal.

Two-thirds of his total intake came from junk food. He also took a multivitamin pill and drank a protein shake daily. And he ate vegetables, typically a can of green beans or three to four celery stalks.

As I talked about in my ​5 Beliefs I’ve Changed My Mind On​, I’ve cut way back on my fear mongering around certain foods – we beat ourselves up enough, and our weight is unbelievably complicated and nuanced.

So where does that leave us?

We are adults and we can make our own choices. We can choose to follow up a high calorie meal with a more nutrient dense, low calorie meal. We can mix and match.

It’s NOT all or nothing, and it’s not immoral to eat chips or ice cream. It is what it is!

In our ​“Guide to healthy eating,”​ we point out which foods are nutritionally-light and higher-calorie (processed foods, snack foods, candy, soda, etc.), and which foods are nutritionally-dense and lower-calorie (fruits and vegetables, lean protein, whole grains).

You can decide what “healthy” means to you, and what “unhealthy” means. You can also decide to switch your language to “higher calorie vs. lower calorie.”

And then apply the Never 2 in a Row Rule!

Missing a workout

Sometimes, we miss a workout.

This also doesn’t need to be a source of shame or guilt.

Nor does it mean “I suck and I’ll try again next year.”

It’s just a thing that happened.

Instead of saying “I didn’t have time to work out today,” which brings up feelings of guilt and shame and sadness….

Instead we can say, “Working out today was not a priority.” Strategic! Sure, we might need to do some compassionate inner work on why it wasn’t a priority, but sometimes it’s just because life was an absolute dumpster fire that day!

This past week, my workout schedule was thrown off, and I didn’t work out on my regular workout days.

It wasn’t because I didn’t have time to work out…but because working out wasn’t a priority for me…I had other things going on that were more important to me.

At the same time, I knew my mental health would benefit from me doing something, so I did my two half-assed workouts, went for a quick walk on the other days, and that’s it.

Never Two in a Row

To recap: If you miss a workout, who cares! Just do whatever you can to not miss two workouts in a row. This can help us from losing too much momentum.

If you eat a high-calorie meal, great! I hope it was delicious. Follow it up with a lower-calorie meal, hopefully one that’s satiating and nutritionally full.

All-or-nothing doesn’t work. And we don’t have to be perfect.

And if we overeat at one meal, adjust the next one.

If we miss a workout, get the next one.

Just, don’t miss two in a row, and you’ll be surprised how much progress you can make!

Even if that progress is a plateau…it’s better than going in the wrong direction.

-Steve

The post The “Never Two in a Row” Rule first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/

I bet you feel burned out right now.

Overworked, underpaid, anxious, stretched too thin.

All of those fun things!

I also bet you’re frustrated you can’t lose weight the way you’d hoped, you wish you had more energy to get your job done, and you wish you could be a better partner and parent.

You’re struggling, and you wish you could just get your sh** together.

Have no fear, self-care is here!

The solution to all of our problems can be found with your credit card: a better skin-care routine. A more optimized schedule. A new journal. $75 sushi delivery. A 2-hour massage. A vacation to a tropical island.

Treat. Yo. Self!

There’s just one question: does self-care actually help us the way we think?

Anne Helen Peterson would argue hell no!!

What is Faux Self-Care?

In her book, ​Can’t Even​, Peterson puts it perfectly:

“You don’t fix burnout by going on vacation. You don’t fix it through “life hacks,” like inbox zero, or by using a meditation app for five minutes in the morning, or doing Sunday meal prep for the entire family, or starting a bullet journal. You don’t fix it by reading a book on how to “unfu*k yourself.”

You don’t fix it with vacation, or an adult coloring book, or “anxiety baking,” or the Pomodoro Technique, or overnight f***ing oats.”

We’re all desperate for self-care, but we’re looking in all the wrong places. This is the junk-food version of self-care, and it’s leaving us empty and disappointed.

Dr. Pooja Lakshmin, psychiatrist and author of ​Real Self-Care​, presents a pretty damn compelling critique of consumptive self care too. As she explains, “faux self-care” usually comes in one of three alluring flavors:

• Escape: We just need a massage! Or a 10-day meditation retreat! Or a yoga class! Or a vacation to Bali! Or bottomless mimosas at brunch! Insidiously, “according to [wellness dogma], when you don’t find time for these ‘solutions,’ it’s your fault for not keeping up with one more task on your to-do list.”
• Achievement: We just need to dedicate ourselves even MORE to work! Or to work harder in the gym! Or make sure our kids are more successful! And then our problems will be solved. “Life can feel like a series of races, each of which must be won in order to prove our worth. In this context, faux self-care becomes another activity to excel at, an endeavor to be conquered just like everything else in life.”
• Optimization: We just need to be more optimized! More efficient! THEN we’ll solve burnout. This solution “promises us that someday we can reach a pinnacle of productivity and efficiency such that our life will finally feel like it’s fully under our control. But the problem is that we never actually arrive, because we haven’t been taught the critical step of identifying the principles.”

As Dr Lakshmin correctly points out, none of these self-care tactics or purchases are inherently bad. Heck most of these things are fun, might make us more successful or financially secure, and many can provide joy.

The problem is that none of them address the root cause of our burnout:

We think a Yoga retreat will provide us with the hard reset we need, but it doesn’t address the fact that we are overworked at work and do 95% of the caregiver load for our entire household.

We convince ourselves that if we were just a BIT more optimized or efficient or successful, then all of our problems would be solved.

We chase these strategies, and either feel guilty when we can’t execute them, or get depressed when they don’t magically fix everything.

So, what are we supposed to do instead?

If we’re actually going to take care of ourselves, it’s not going to come from an Instagram ad for scented candles or bath bombs.

The system is broken on the outside, which means the only meaningful work we can do is on the inside.

Let’s Talk about Well-Being

Why are we trying all these different self-care strategies? Simply put, we hope they will make us feel less bad, and more good.

Dr. Lakshmin explains two different approaches to well being:

1. Hedonic well-being focuses on the feeling states of happiness and pleasure (think of the 3 fake self-care coping mechanisms above).
2. Eudaimonic well-being emphasizes personal growth, acceptance of your authentic self, and connection to meaning.

Although there’s a time and place for Hedonic well-being (purely focusing on pleasure), long-term wellness is going to require way more of the second one.

I realize “Eudaimonic well-being” sounds a bit woo-woo, but it really just means “being honest about your needs, accepting your current life situation, and working within those boundaries without guilt.”

I have one more important term to throw at you: “Dialectical thinking,” which just means holding two conflicting thoughts in our head at the same time.

Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, said it best:

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.

Here’s how this works for us:

“The system is broken, the deck is stacked against me, my life is a mess” AND “working on myself is a worthy endeavor and I’m capable of making progress.”

So let’s get to work on these things with real self-care.

4 Principles of Real Self-care

In order to start making changes that stick, we need the right kind of self-care.

If faux-self care is prescribed from the outside (buying stuff), real self-care comes from within (doing work on ourselves).

If faux self-care is a noun describing an activity or product, real self-care is a verb describing our internal decision making process.

(This is just like changing our definition of ​hope from a noun to a verb​.”)

Dr. Lakshmin points out 4 rules for real self-care:

1. Learn to set boundaries with others (and yourself). “This often means balancing the needs of people close to you, like your partner’s preference or your children’s needs, with your own desires and needs. In this process, you must learn to stop being controlled by feelings of guilt, which are inevitable but can be managed.” This means developing the ability to say no (tough for us people pleasers). In other words, guilt shouldn’t be your compass for decision-making.
2. Turn up your Inner-Friend. Have a conversation with yourself the way you’d talk to a best friend who is struggling. Self-compassion for the win! “Practicing real self-care means looking honestly and unflinchingly at what you need (and what you want) and giving yourself permission to have it.” This means toning down the inner-critic and turning up the inner-friend. “This is hard, life is messy right now, and it’s okay to have needs.” This includes caregivers and moms!
3. Bring in what matters most to you. “Real self-care brings you closer to the most authentic version of yourself. It’s a process of getting to know yourself—your real self—including your core values, beliefs, and desires.” This could be through therapy, journaling, and conversations with friends. It requires uncomfortable work, and taking the time to process what’s actually happening in our lives. Remember, we’re already trapped in ​Pandora’s box with the monsters​ – cramming down our feelings doesn’t work.
4. Do what you can to enact change for others! Real self-care is about making yourself bigger and standing up for your needs. When you start to take care of yourself, it’s possible this can give support or courage to others too. If you have the capacity, this can include helping other people who are hurting, speaking up for yourself at work or in your relationships, and making decisions that align with your personal values.

I’ll conclude with the quote from Real Self-Care that jumped out at me:

“To practice real self-care, you must be willing to make yourself vulnerable

— whether that means having uncomfortable conversations to set boundaries or making the clear and deliberate choice to prioritize one aspect of your life over another.”

As a life-long conflict-avoidant people pleaser, this is something I certainly struggle with:

What can we do today?

“Okay Steve, where does this leave me? I’m still burned out and frustrated! HALP!”

I got you, my dear rebel friend. Along with having some grace for yourself and remembering that this stuff is hard, here are a few practical steps you can start to take today:

Step one: Start to dive into your personal values and needs as a human. Have an honest conversation with yourself whether or not you’ve actively enforced boundaries in your life that respect those values or needs. ​Acceptance of reality​ is required.

Step two: Give yourself compassion when you realize you haven’t put boundaries in place or stood up for your values or needs in the past. If you’ve never given yourself permission to include your own personal feelings, that’s okay. This stuff is hard!

Step three: Begin the process of putting boundaries in place in your life. This might include more conversations with friends, your partner, and/or therapy. It’s time to be your biggest advocate and be honest with what you’re willing to tolerate, what you need, and learn to say “no.” Start small. Remember guilt shouldn’t be a compass for the decisions you make!

So, treat yo’ self!… to self-compassion for having uncomfortable conversations, establishing boundaries, and speaking up for yourself!

And then you can go get a massage or buy expensive sushi.

-Steve

The post The Big Problem with Self-Care first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/

In 2009, I was an enthusiastic, optimistic, and slightly (very) naive nerd who started NerdFitness.com to help other nerds level up their lives and live a tiny bit better.

Since then, I’ve done my best to build an identity as a lifelong learner who isn’t tied to a specific ideology or philosophy. This meant I got plenty of things right, and I also managed to get plenty of things wrong.

Certain views I held in the past were factually incorrect. While others were “correct,” but turned out to be ineffective and unhelpful.

As I continue my 15th year of Nerd Fitness, I wanted to revisit 5 viewpoints or philosophies I’ve changed my mind on.

I’m hoping this might give you permission and 20 Seconds of Courage to update your personal philosophy when presented with new facts or experiences.

(Steve’s Note: if any of these give you a viscerally negative reaction, take this as a learning experience! Reflect on why! More on this in the conclusion.)

5 core fitness beliefs I no longer have:

• “We all have the same 24 hours in the day.”
• “Going low carb is crucial for weight loss.”
• “Free weights are superior to weight machines.”
• “Diet Coke is bad for you.”
• “Obesity is due to lack of discipline.”

#1: “We all have the same 24 hours in the day.”

As a naive 25-year old single dude, this was probably the most cringe-worthy philosophy I held. I loved productivity/hustle culture.

I believed everybody had the same amount of time, everybody had the same opportunities, and successful, fit, organized people were simply those who were more disciplined and managed their time better than the rest of us.

Now, as I approach forty, I realize just how naive and unhelpful this perspective was.

Yes, a 25-year old single dude, a 45-year old mom working two jobs, and a person with chronic pain caring for an elderly parent technically “have the same 24 hours in the day.”

Of course single moms working two jobs, or people who also have to be full-time caregivers, don’t have the same opportunities or time to dedicate to themselves every day as a single 25 year old dude. There’s unbelievable privilege that comes with that perspective, and it’s really unhelpful to the majority of people these days.

I failed to recognize how instrumental ​luck and privilege have been for me​:

Rather than telling people it’s their fault for not being more disciplined, a far better starting point is acknowledging and accepting the truth: people have different starting points and different life situations.

We can then do our best to find a path through this broken system, as flawed humans, to carve out a tiny bit of progress and fulfillment each day.

#2: “Going low carb is crucial for weight loss.”

In 2009, I wrote the article on ​The Paleo Diet​.

It was read by tens of millions of people. I was invited to speak at Paleo Conferences. I got to be part of the cool kid club who eschewed conventional wisdom about nutrition. I found the answer to all of modern society’s health problems.

The problem was that I was wrong.

Many years ago, I read Marion Nestle’s ​Why Calories Count​. I learned about Metabolic Chambers. I discovered properly funded, properly tracked ​studies about carbs and fat​, which revealed the following:

“Strong data indicate that energy balance is not materially changed

during isocaloric substitution of dietary fats for carbohydrates.

Results from a number of sources refute both the theory and effectiveness of the carbohydrate-insulin hypothesis. Instead, risk for obesity is primarily determined by total calorie intake.”

In other words, it’s not the “​carb-insulin hypothesis​.” It’s the fact that we’re eating too many calories without realizing it.

(This is why ​intermittent fasting​ can feel like effortless weight loss for some. It works, but not because of some fancy physiological adaptation or magic fat-burning protocol. It’s because it removes some of our daily opportunities to unconsciously overeat).

My nuanced take on nutrition in 2024:

A calorie IS a calorie, just like a mile is a mile or a pound is a pound. It’s a unit of measure. At the same time, what we eat can affect how much we eat, how full we feel, how much energy we have to complete our workouts, and more.

This is why so many people have found success on so many different types of diets. Because they found a set of guidelines that helped them maintain a caloric deficit, not because there was any magic in that specific protocol.

Personally, ​I got as lean as possible​ while eating a proportionally large amount of carbs and low fat. Here’s how I did it: I was meticulous with my calorie tracking, ensuring I consumed enough protein and was in a caloric deficit.

I bring all of this up to make a point:

By all means, feel free to go low carb! Or low fat! Some people will feel differently on a low carb diet or a low fat diet. It’s unique to each person and their particular situation. If you ​eat enough protein​ and consume the right calories for your goal, ​either can work for weight loss​.

Just remember weight loss comes down to behavior change, compliance, consistency, and math.

If you’re wondering, here’s the most consistent way we’ve found to do so: Eating less processed foods that are easy to overconsume, prioritizing nutrient-dense whole foods, and balancing your total energy intake. We cover all this in our ​guide to “healthy” eating​.

#3: “Free weights are superior to weight machines.”

I’m a huge fan of free weights, and I used to say “weight machines are bad compared to free weights.” It made me feel old-school and primal, and fit into the narrative of “modern society is terrible compared to old school” (aka Paleo + strength training).

There was a big problem with this perspective:

I was acting like a fitness gatekeeper:

“You aren’t training correctly unless you do it this way.”

This is how I feel about that perspective now:

I never reflected on the idea of how demotivating it would feel to hear a specific type of exercise isn’t good enough. Ugh. My job isn’t to give you the BEST or ONLY way to work out. It’s to help you overcome any hurdle, internal or external, that’s keeping you from exercise.

Luckily, I updated this perspective years ago.

As far as I’m concerned, ​any exercise is good exercise​. In fact: an exercise is only as good as its relevance towards any specific goal. Which means, for some goals (rehab, aesthetics, and even some strength training) there are times when machines are SUPERIOR to free weights.

Specific types of exercise can help for certain physique goals, but gatekeeping around what types of exercise is best isn’t helpful, especially when my job is to inspire beginners to get started!

I personally believe everybody, no matter their shape, gender, age, size, will improve their life by strength training. And for that reason, ANY kind of strength training is okay in my book.

If you’re ​new to a gym​, use wherever you feel most comfortable with – machines or free weights. Over time, you can try all of the different options out and see what floats your boat.

Strength training of any variety teaches your muscles how they should be getting stronger, and it gets you moving and building confidence.

#4: “Diet Coke is bad for you.”

As part of my Paleo past, I would have told you that non-calorie sweetened beverages were scientific monstrosities and bad for you.

Here’s really what happens when you drink a diet soda instead of its full-calorie alternative:

You consume fewer calories. That’s about it.

As this ​study points out​:

“There were no statistically significant associations of reported diet soda and NAS consumption with fasting insulin, fasting glucose, or incident diabetes.”

As this ​researched article​ from Precision Nutrition points out:

• Does diet soda cause us to want to eat MORE sugary foods? “The conclusion of those studies: Among those who consumed the high-intensity sweetener, the desire to eat sweet foods was slightly lower.”
• Does diet soda spike insulin and promote weight gain? “Overall, human studies show these insulin spikes are so small they’re hard to detect and very short-lived. Which makes it unlikely they impact weight loss at all, given what we know now.”
• Does diet soda cause health problems? Every governmental body that has reviewed [artificial sweeteners]—they’ve done it extensively in the United States, Australia, Europe, Japan, and Canada—concludes that when used in reasonable amounts, they’re not harmful.” (studies that show adverse effects are often done on rats, and in daily quantities no human consumes.)

Your perspective on whatever governmental body might influence how you feel about diet soda, so by all means, make your personal decision on this. You’re an adult, and you can choose what to eat and drink.

But here’s some zero-calorie food for thought:

Let’s start with some light cognitive dissonance: If you’re reading this and thinking, “things from nature are good, unnatural things are BAD!” I get it. I felt similarly.

There are major industries built around these “​Naturalistic fallacies​” and “​appeals to nature​:” modern life is bad, nature is good. (Weirdly, these people who appeal to nature often have processed “natural” supplements to sell us!)

What’s the actual science say? Everything is made from chemicals. Just because something is “natural” doesn’t mean it’s automatically healthy (hellooooo, hemlock!). And just because something is modern or “created” doesn’t mean it’s automatically unhealthy.

We can be smarter than this, and evaluate things with facts instead of our feelings.

Which can include diet soda.

And I do believe this requires nuance too.

In 2023, ​aspartame was classified as a 2b carcinogen​, which means “possibly carcinogenic to humans.”

I understand why this would give you pause, and could be a reason you choose to not consume beverages with aspartame. That’s 100% your call.

I’ll explain my thoughts on this below, but we must first take a quick detour:

Did you know what’s on the Type 1 list for carcinogens?

​Alcohol​!

In fact, the ​World Health Organization​ states:

“Alcohol causes at least seven types of cancer, including the most common cancer types, such as bowel cancer and female breast cancer. Ethanol (alcohol) causes cancer through biological mechanisms as the compound breaks down in the body, which means that any beverage containing alcohol, regardless of its price and quality, poses a risk of developing cancer.”

“We cannot talk about a so-called safe level of alcohol use. It doesn’t matter how much you drink – the risk to the drinker’s health starts from the first drop of any alcoholic beverage. The only thing that we can say for sure is that the more you drink, the more harmful it is – or, in other words, the less you drink, the safer it is.”

While aspartame is “possibly carcinogenic,” alcohol is definitely carcinogenic to humans.

Despite this, many of us still choose to consume alcohol (hopefully in moderation). Cured meats, including bacon (often described by wellness gurus as “nature’s candy”) is also on that Type 1 carcinogen list.

Remember this when you see a health influencer telling you diet coke is poison, followed by their “natural” margarita cocktail recipe. They are using the very same “appeal to nature” fallacy while cherry picking the things that fit their narrative.

So, where does this leave us?

Every day, we all have to choose what’s important to us, what we choose to optimize, what we consume and in what quantity, what indulgences we allow, and more.

And we all have different goals, and are in different life stages.

If you personally decide to NOT consume diet soda, or you’re allergic to a specific non-calorie sweetener, great!

If you decide that drinking Diet Coke provides you with some daily joy, who am I to take that from you?

My nuanced perspective on diet soda, as of April 2024:

Life is a series of trade-offs.

Is drinking water better than diet soda? Possibly!

Is diet soda better than full calorie soda, especially for weight loss (which ​reduces risk for all-cause mortality​)? Most likely!

For many people who struggle with obesity-related health conditions, reducing calories is an important step for their health, and doing so by switching to diet soda might be the most successful strategy for them right now.

Should people consume diet beverages in moderation, like pretty much everything else in life? Probably!

Is it possible new studies and information will change my perspective on this? Of course.

#5: “Obesity is due to lack of discipline.”

Obesity is a complex topic that I’ve changed my perspective on pretty dramatically.

Let me start with a quick caveat:

Yes, data shows that maintaining a healthy weight significantly decreases risks for a plethora of diseases and health conditions.

At the same time, many people have no plans or desire to lose weight. Great! Everybody deserves the opportunity to live the life they want, with the goals they choose, free of public shame or guilt as a result. So, people who shame others or make fun of them for their size or any physical attribute can go pound sand.

With that said…

I want to focus on people who are trying to lose weight for any reason (aesthetic, health, or performance)…and are struggling to find success.

I used to believe they simply needed more discipline and structure to eat fewer calories. (See #1 for how naive this perspective is)

15 years later, I now know there’s something far greater at work here, at a deeply physiological and psychological level.

We humans have prehistoric bodies and brains, equipped to survive in times of scarcity, and yet most of us live in an scenario of overabundance. We’re all surrounded by readily available hyperpalatable foods, we have social relationships structured around food, we have biological and historical relationships with food, and we have individual genetic differences in hunger.

Which brings me to one of the fascinating things about recent weight loss medicine research (GLP-1 Agonists like Wegovy or Ozempic). Although more studies are coming out regularly, and our understanding of these drugs continues to evolve, one of the primary factors they seem to alter is “food noise.” For many, having thoughts of food all day every day is a fact of life.

And these drugs seem to allow many to finally quiet that noise and allow them to eat fewer calories without the typical physiological response of “we need to eat more!”

I reserve the right to change my opinion as more research and studies come out, but I believe my philosophy is consistent across all areas including weight loss medication or surgery: Here at Nerd Fitness, I want to help people live better and find whatever joy they can with their limited time in the Arcade of Life.

And many people are trying to lose weight and get healthier. The path they get there will be varied:

• For some, reducing caloric intake and strength training is enough to change habits and get healthy.
• For others, they might use weight loss medication or surgery as a tool to alter their behavior.

Does weight loss medication and surgery have side-effects? Yep! Are those side-effects going to be the same for everybody? Nope. Are those side-effects worth the tradeoff for the consistent reduction of body weight? For many (but not all), the answer to that is a resounding YES.

Each human is different. Each path to health and happiness thus should be different too.

You might be asking, “Why don’t people just get more disciplined and eat less instead of ‘cheating’ with weight loss drugs?”

That question isn’t helpful (and is a symptom of #1 above!) The better question is:

“Which tools are available to help each individual person get healthier?”

For many, it’s education around calories and making slightly healthier choices. For some, it’s weight loss medicine and therapy. For others, it’s all of the above.

We’re most interested in the end result (a healthy, happy life), and we’re open to the infinite paths to get there.

Final Thought: I reserve the right to be wrong.

If any of the above gave you a visceral response, reflecting on why is a great place to start.

It’s important to interrogate our own beliefs regularly, and ask if we’re falling into dogmatic cheerleading for “our team,” or if we’re doing the hard work to understand why we think what we think.

Nuance is in short supply on the internet, and we’re bombarded regularly with people who love to provide black-or-white explanations to all the world’s problems. Be wary of people who say they have it ALL figured out, and know exactly who the villains (or scapegoats) and heroes (or superfoods) are.

We can do better, and this is my attempt at trying to do better too.

After all, life is a series of tradeoffs.

We make choices every day, and we’re not always optimizing for the same thing. What works for one person might not work for the next person, and that doesn’t mean one person’s choices are morally superior, because we’re all playing a different game with a different scorecard.

Alan Watts once said:

“You are under no obligation to be the same person you were 5 minutes ago.”

I’m personally glad I’m not under any obligation to be who I was 15 years ago, because I’ve learned a lot and lived a lot of life between then and now.

I reserve the right to update my nuanced perspective on all the above, and I encourage you to do the same.

Build your identity around “I want to learn more,” and update your personal philosophy as you live more life.

I’ll be over here, picking up heavy weights, enjoying carbs, going for walks, drinking a diet Ginger Ale, occasionally enjoying a bourbon on the rocks, and not judging others for how they choose to live.

-Steve

The post 5 fitness beliefs I’ve changed my mind on: first appeared on Nerd Fitness.