Adam Poehlmann 12/19/17 Adam Poehlmann 12/19/17

Setting Yourself Up For Success: Trust the Process

Learn how building trust in your fitness journey will set you up for success.

It's time for some serious honesty. Being a fitness coach with integrity is really hard sometimes. Do I ever consider sacrificing my integrity in my profession? Absolutely not. But is it hard to keep my integrity and make a big splash in fitness within the first year or so? You freaking bet.

Although it's difficult, I have to trust the process. I have to understand that doing the right things now will pay off later on. There are so many options out there that could make instant money and recognition for me. I could easily photoshop pictures of myself and post them on Instagram saying that my program will get people ripped in 6 weeks or less. I could pay random individuals for pictures of transformations they completed on their own, say that I did that for them, and create a library of false testimonials in no time. I'd make a killing.

But that's just not what sets fire for me. Relationships do. Educating, encouraging, and building community with my clients is what sparks a fire inside of me. I just have to understand that if I want to pursue what gives me purpose inside of an industry like fitness, patience is a must.

I have to understand that choosing the integrity route is going to cost more time, effort, and energy with minimal reward now, but in the end it'll pay off more than anything else would.

The same goes for your fat loss journey.

You can take diuretics, eat nothing but bananas, and take all sorts of pills but if you choose to go that route, you have to understand that your progress is going to die quicker than a middle schooler's self-esteem after his first taste of rejection.

Understand That It's a Process

I talk about state of mind a lot. I did so in my last article about how to crush your resolutions. In that article I talked about how coming to a place of understanding is one of the best things you can do if you want to achieve a goal. This is especially true when it comes to fat loss.

If you hear anyone or anything tell you that fat loss is quick, easy, or simple, they're lying to your face. Or are they? I guess technically, they're right. You could wake up tomorrow and eat nothing but bananas and you'll probably lose weight. But is that the fat loss you're truly after?

The fat loss that you're after is long-term, sustainable fat loss that will enable you to stay leaner year-round. I mean, I guess you could choose to lose 10 pounds, put on 20, lose another 15, and put on 30, continuously gaining more and more fat over the course of your life, but hey. It's your life, not mine. Personally, I think that method is freaking miserable and it makes "health" and "fitness" become two bad words that I'd never want to say again.

Anyway, achieving long-term sustainable fat loss is similar to my story of making a splash in the lives of thousands. It's a looong process. Why? Because it involves doing things the right way. It involves taking the time to build lean muscle tissue that will support a faster metabolism. It involves prioritizing your sleep schedule so your body can rest, recover, and support it's hormone levels. It also involves knowing your body well and learning how it processes and digests certain foods. It's much more than just working out more and eating less. Does that say that it's extremely difficult and nearly impossible?

Of course not.

It just takes more time than you might expect. But if you go into it understanding that:

1. it's going to take some time
and
2. it's going to be more beneficial for you in the long run,

losing fat and staying lean won't bring any negative thoughts to your mind. In fact, you'll go into it with so many more positive feelings because you've already accepted the fact that you're sacrificing the easy way out for a process that is going to benefit your health and body composition for the rest of your life.

Trusting the Process

Understanding the fact that something worthwhile takes time is one thing, but completely surrendering to it and trusting it is a completely different animal.

We can sit here all day long and talk about the different definitions we all have for trust and what it means to us on a deep level. But let's not. Let's keep it simple.

To me, trusting the process involves being educated in the process. It's too difficult to trust something that I know nothing about.

What's easier, fully placing trust in the person you're closest to, or placing your trust in the person you picked off the side of the road? The former, I'd hope.

Perhaps you've never trusted your fat loss journey because you've never fully understood it. What does it mean to build lean muscle tissue? Why does that have an effect on your metabolism? How could sleep possibly play a role in you losing fat? Ask yourself questions like these, and if you don't know the answers, find them.

I believe knowledge builds trust in things.

For me, knowing why it takes time to make a make an impact in the lives of thousands helps me get up in the morning with a fire under my butt to GSD (get sh*t done). If I went into this expecting maximum rewards from minimal effort, I'd be pretty discouraged.

Same thing goes for you. Educating yourself on the requirements of long-term sustainable fat loss will make hitting your goals so much easier. You'll be more motivated, and the chances of you giving up half-way through will be much lower.

So figure out what that looks like for you. Maybe you need to learn more from a coach. Maybe you know quite a bit and you just need to remind yourself of that. Whatever it is, find someone or something to help you build trust.

Then, GSD and crush your goals.

Thanks For Reading!

Thank you for taking time out of your day to hear what I have to say. I truly appreciate it. No matter where you're at along your health and fitness journey, remember that you've got a guy. I'm here to help you take that next step, regardless of what that might look like. From a simple note of encouragement to completely tailored coaching, I'm here for ya. God bless.

About the Author

Adam is a fitness professional, Chipotle fanatic, and cookie enthusiast based in Fort Collins, CO. After hanging up the baseball cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere.

As an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, he's constantly moved to helped people improve in all walks of life. If you're interested in hiring Adam as your coach, fill out an application here.

Adam Poehlmann 12/12/17 Adam Poehlmann 12/12/17

How to Finally Crush Your Resolutions

Having success with your resolutions isn't complicated, and it's not difficult. Find out the simple approach that will bring you success no matter what you aim to achieve.

Yesterday I had a conversation with one of my clients. Her job demands a lot from her, and she's traveling a bunch. As you know, traveling doesn't make adhering to a plan any easier.

We were catching up and I was asking her how the previous week was. She responded, telling me how frustrated she was with herself. While expressing that frustration she said things like "I slacked off so hard while I was gone", "I can't wait to get back to the gym this week", "I can't wait to get back on the wagon", and "I'm motivated as hell to get back into it". Not surprised by her frustration, (as I usually coach most of my clients through this) I asked her this:

"Do you honestly expect yourself to follow everything perfectly to a T?"

She responded: "Yeah, I do."

I then asked her "Why, though?"

"I don't know, I just do. I know it seems insane, but I do", she replied.

I then ended the conversation by saying one thing: "No but seriously, I want you to take the time to think through that and answer the question. I want you to seriously reflect on why you expect those things from yourself, and get back to me."

It's been a day and she hasn't replied to me. Which is good. I want her to take the time to deeply reflect. And I want you to do the same.

The Reason Resolutions Die Quick

When we go into the new year, we have all of these goals that we want to accomplish. Whether it's fitness/health related, career related, or even relationship related, there is almost always one thing that you set out to accomplish when the new year begins.

As great as those goals may be, and as much as they may enhance our lives, they die quick. An interesting study looked at 200 resolutioners and the longevity of their behavioral changes. It was discovered that 77% of the participants maintained their pledges for 1 week, and only 19% of those 200 individuals maintained their pledges for 2 years (1). We don't know how many of those people didn't keep their pledges for 6, 9 or 12 months, but with the above data as well as anecdote, we know that there's a steep decline in success when it comes to maintaining pledges or resolutions.

There may be a lot of different reasons that people end up quitting such as lack of will power, or a lack of accountability, but I believe theres a much bigger piece the the puzzle, especially when it comes to health and fitness resolutions.

I strongly believe that most people quite their resolutions for two reasons. The first being a lack of acceptance at the beginning, and the second being the influence they've had from their environment. I also believe that both of these feed off each other.

Our Environment Expects Too Much

How many times have you heard the following?

"Go Hard or Go Home"
"No Days Off"
"I'll Sleep When I Die"

I'm guessing you've either read or heard someone say each of those things more times than you can count. It's a plague and it's setting you up for failure.

I am extremely proud of the mentality that our country, culture, and society was built on. It was built on hard work, and I do believe that there is no substitute for hard work. But somewhere along the way, we took this "hard work" mentality and put it on a steroid cycle for the ages.

This appreciation and value for hard work has turned into a mutated message. It's no longer the hard-worker that's praised, but rather the person who has become a slave to their work. There's a big difference.

It's all or nothing.

This all or nothing mindset has also made itself at home in the health and fitness industry. We've been brainwashed to believe that if we're not working out 6 days a week, we're not doing anything beneficial for our bodies. If we eat one donut, we've officially ruined everything we've worked so hard for.

Let me ask you this:

If you have $300,000 in your IRA, and you forget to invest your usual monthly amount of $500, do you think you're going to wake up the next day and see a big fat ZERO in that account? Of course not.

Same goes for your health and fitness. If you spend 3 weeks adhering to your program, and you skip the gym three days in a row, and eat too much junk, you haven't ruined everything and burned it to the ground. Will it be a little harder to work hard in the gym the next time? Sure. But by no means have you ruined anything.

There Is No Freaking Wagon

It drives me nuts when people say they've been falling off the wagon, or they're completely off the wagon. It even gets me crazy when people tell me they're back on the wagon.

WHAT WAGON ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT?

This whole wagon thing never made sense to me, and I don't want it to make sense for you either, because I want you to completely forget about it. Why is it that we have a wagon for fitness and health, but it's rarely discussed with anything else?

When's the last time you heard someone say "yeah, I forgot to brush my teeth this morning. I need to get back on the wagon"? Never, because that's ridiculous. Their teeth are fine, and so is your health if you've given it the attention in needs.

Rather than thinking in terms of wagons, we need to begin thinking in terms of a sidewalk. It's pretty hard to stray away from a sidewalk. If you're walking on one, keeping yourself on it is fairly easy. In this scenario, the sidewalk is your health and keeping your health in line is pretty easy too.

Think of the last time you were on a sidewalk, and there's a massive lip on the next slab of concrete. You don't see it, and you trip. You stumble for a couple steps, and everyone has a good laugh. Then what?

You keep walking.

When's the last time you tripped on that lip, laid down on the sidewalk, and decided that your walk was over, and you had to go back to the beginning and start over without tripping? NOT ONCE. So stop thinking that way with your fitness.

I bet there's been a period in your life where you've worked out consistently and treated your body with healthy foods. Then, your friend invites you out for pizza and you decide to go out with them and have some delicious slices of 'za. Did you wake up the next morning to find yourself 20 pounds overweight thinking that getting out of bed was far too difficult? NO!

Because that's not what happens, and you know that full well. So why is it that you still give up on your aspirations once you trip on the lip of the sidewalk?

It's a Mental Thing

Crushing your resolutions isn't a matter of having an incredible amount of will power. It isn't a matter of having all the tools and resources available to you. It's not a matter of having the best coach, trainer, or supportive figure there for you.

It's a mental thing.

It's not complicated, though. It's quite simple.

Buckle up. Here's how you crush your resolutions... *drumroll*

Understand, and ACCEPT that you are going to trip on the lip of the side walk. Then, understand and ACCEPT that you are going to continue walking.

That's it!

If you go into the new year with clear expectations that you WILL slip (because you're not perfect), you WILL stumble, but after you stumble you WILL continue to to take the next step, you'll succeed.

If you go into the new year with a new meal plan, and new training protocol, and expect yourself to follow every single thing perfectly, good freaking luck. Life happens, and it'll throw you into a poo storm when you least expect it. It's not a matter of remaining perfect during the poo storm, its a matter of taking another step, no matter how big or small.

Crushing your goals isn't going to come down to you perfectly sticking to a plan. There's no wagon. Don't expect yourself to perfect anything, and don't tell yourself you've failed and it's over. It's never over.

No matter how big or small, take another step. And then another, then another.

References

1) Norcross, J C, and D J Vangarelli. “The Resolution Solution: Longitudinal Examination of New Year's Change Attempts.” Journal of Substance Abuse., U.S. National Library of Medicine, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2980864.

Thanks For Reading!

Adam Poehlmann 11/4/17 Adam Poehlmann 11/4/17

How I Get Clients to Eat More and Get Leaner

Find out how to eat more, get leaner, and be happier.

I get it, the title doesn't make any sense. It seems like a paradox. It seems like the two concepts of eating more, and getting leaner contradict each other.

Why is this the case? It's so simple, I'll answer for you.

You've been lied to.

As you've heard before, misery loves company. This plays out in the health and fitness industry all the time. Everyone who is miserable wants you to be miserable with them. Your friend Jane who is on the 500 Calorie Diet (where she idiotically eats 500 calories per day) wants you to eat 500 calories per day, too. And you're just sitting there like.. "You know what? Screw you and your 500 calories, Jane. I'm perfectly happy enjoying Ben n Jerry's, delicious salads, and Pizza Fridays."

And you should be. Getting lean, burning fat, building muscle, and catching looks on the beach doesn't require you to suffer. It doesn't require you to cut anything out. It doesn't require you to live at the gym.

Heck, that's the case for all of the clients at Poehlmann Fitness. I love seeing the reactions at first.

"Wait, you want me to add food?"

"Wait, you're going to start taking my cardio down?"

"Wait, I can eat foods that I enjoy?"

The looks on their faces are even better. Especially when Holiday season rolls around and they slowly turn their confused face into a joyous smile, jump, and cheer saying "I CAN ENJOY THE HOLIDAYS!!!"

Once they get over their confusion and shock, most all of them come back to me with the same question:

"Can you explain how that's supposed to work"

So that's what I'm going to do for you today. I'm going to explain to you how I make all of my clients' lives more enjoyable as they get closer and closer to their goals.

The Foundation

All of the clients that I work with come from a wide range of starting points. Some of them have been working out for years and have a good amount of muscle mass. Some fiddle with different training programs every month and can't figure out what's best for them, and some haven't been active in the last 10 years of their life. Regardless of where the individual is coming from, a foundation needs to be build that is going to enable them to have a sustainably healthy body and lean physique.

If we're talking in terms of building and maintaining a lean and sexy physique that doesn't require the endless demand of intense activity every day in order to maintain it, weight training and eating to increase lean muscle tissue is going to be the best way to set yourself up for success.

I know that this is going to trigger all of those cardio-heads out there, so I'll say this:

Cardio isn't bad, and I'm not against it. A lot of my clients do cardio on the side because they enjoy it. However, I do not believe that cardio is the best way to build a lean body with a well-working metabolism and I'll explain why.

Metabolic Rate and Muscle

It is known without a doubt that having more muscle on your body is going to increase resting metabolic rate (the amount of energy required to maintain weight while sedentary). This has been shown in numerous studies (specifically using this one for this article) (1) over a long period of time. It is irrefutable. My body is going to require much more energy to maintain its weight than a 180 lb male with 20% body fat. Therefore, I can get away with eating more calories than the other individual (remember weight gain comes from eating more calories than you burn). Sure, there are most definitely some genetic aspects that play a role in metabolic rate, but there is no doubt that you can increase it by putting more lean mass on your body. So at this moment the questions is now "how can I increase muscle mass on my body?"

Resistance Training

Resistance is the answer to the question above. Before I continue on I want to make sure that you completely understand by the term "resistance". Any type of resistance can help your body adapt in order to build more muscle. Bands, machines, and free weights are all great examples of resistance training. Heck, even bodyweight movements involve resistance because gravity pulls agains you during the movement. Although there are a few different types of resistance training, working with free weights is one of the best ways to increase lean muscle tissue because of the volume, intensity, angles, and other things you can apply to it without being restricted. For example. You can only move so much weight (your bodyweight) during a pushup, but more resistance can be applied in a dumbbell bench press because of the availability of different weights. Anyway, the point of resistance training is to send a signal to our bodies that's going to cause it to adapt to the load by increasing its strength and muscle mass.

Along with resistance training, eating an adequate amount of protein, carbohydrates, and fats in a caloric surplus is important when it comes to building muscle.

Don't be mistaken. It doesn't require a significant change in muscle mass in order to increase your resting metabolic rate. Even a few pounds of lean muscle can make a big difference. Having said that, ladies, you don't need to worry about looking like a shemale (is that PC?) on gear from lifting weights. In fact, you'll look lean, toned, and sexy instead. I promise.

Cardio and Adaptations

I'm sure at this point you've asked where cardio plays a role in all of this, and I'll explain. But before I do so, I'd like to talk to you about what happens with your body when you are performing cardio so you understand some of the simple science.

Remember just a minute or two ago when you were reading about the body adapting to resistance training by increasing strength and muscle mass? Good. It's the same concept when you perform cardio for a period of time. When you perform cardio (especially low intensity, steady state cardio) you're sending a signal to your body that's going to cause it to adapt. This time, the adaptation is different. Your body now knows that in order for it to be better at that cardiovascular exercise, it needs to get rid of weight (including muscle) in order for it to be more efficient. It asks your metabolism to be more efficient too. Not only does a decrease in muscle lead to a slower resting metabolic rate, but a more efficient metabolism is going to hold onto calories better. In short, cardio is telling your body to be more efficient, and your body can be more efficient by decreasing it's lean muscle mass and decreasing resting metabolic rate.

Ever thought about the differences the body of a long distance runner vs. a sprinter?

"So does that mean I shouldn't be doing cardio at all?"

Meh. That's my answer and I'm sticking with it. It just depends. If your goal is to run a marathon and absolutely kick tail, then yes you should be doing cardio. If your goal is to be lean, strong, fit, sexy, and healthy for your entire life, I recommend that resistance training is the staple in your programming, and you sprinkle in cardio if you enjoy it or want to use it to burn some more calories here and there. If your weight training is extremely lackadaisical and your heart rate isn't increasing at all either, cardio would be great just for the health benefits alone.

Thus far, you've learned this much:

1. Resting metabolic rate increases with more muscle mass.

2. Muscle mass can be increased through resistance training as well as a caloric surplus

3. Cardio shouldn't be the staple when seeking to build a sustainably lean and fit physique, but it should definitely be sprinkled in.

Now that we know these things, we need to put it all together and develop a takeaway that you can use along your fitness journey.

The Solution: Eat More, Work Less

I know that this sounds crazy and absolutely too good to be true. This is one of those cases where it's real. It's real because in some ways it's a paradox.

The reason my clients love working with Poehlmann Fitness is because one of the first things we do to their nutrition is ADD food. Yes, ADD food.

I do this in order to build a solid foundation. A foundation that has lean muscle tissue and can maintain it's weight at a high amount of calories is going to have the most potential for success when starting the fat loss process.

I'd like you walk you through one of the cases with a new client I picked up not too long ago. This young lady came to me looking for a solution just like everyone else. She was at a plateau forever and she was absolutely sick of it. She kept working harder, taking more and more intense classes, and eating less in order to try to lose weight. All she was doing was repeatedly running into a brick wall that would never cease to knock her right back down.

My job as her coach is to fix that and give her the opportunity to enjoy life again. So the first thing I did was evaluated her nutrition and training for a week. I saw that she was eating around 1100-1300 calories (which is really low), while taking high intensity bootcamp classes up to 5 days/week. Why do you think this is? Because she's been doing an hour straight of cardio, while in a caloric deficit for a long period of time.

So the first move here is to start over and build her a solid foundation. As I explain earlier, I do this by slowing down her cardiovascular activity slowly over time and reintroduce her to resistance training in order to increase her resting metabolic rate. I also add calories to her daily intake during this time.

Over time, I continually add volume (weights x sets x reps) to her training regimen and calories to her daily intake as long as she maintains her weight.

Once she gets to a point where she's eating a lot more and maintaining weight, I'll begin the process of SLOWLY eliminating calories. So with this specific client, we got to a point where she was maintaining her weight at 2300-2400 calories at the same weight she first started at. Keep in mind this is over 1000 calories more than she was eating at the start. Crazy, right? Now she's in a place where we can keep her activity pretty similar and slowly take down those calories. Now that her body is used to maintaining at 2300-2400 calories, a drop to 2000 calories caused her to lose body fat. And it did. So wrap your mind around that. After a while, this client was losing body fat eating 2000 calories as opposed to her 1300 calories before.

Mind.

Blown.

Although this approach is much more enjoyable, much safer, healthier, and more sustainable than most, others, it does take a good amount of time for this to happen.

But by the time this client was done with this process, her lean muscle mass increased, her body fat decreased, her scale weight increased (another reason to not care about the scale), and her relationship with her weight, appearance, and self-worth improved. And, she had the freedom to eat more food.

War won.

Closing

After reading this, I hope that you can leave with some knowledge on how your body adapts to the different signals you're sending it. I also hope that you understand that getting fit and reaching your goals doesn't require you to suffer. It only requires some dedication and consistency.

Speaking of those two things, the Holidays are approaching and it seems to me that this is the time of the year where people think health and happiness can't live in harmony.

As explained in this article, they can. And if you're interested on making those two things take precedence at the same time in your life, apply for coaching from Poehlmann Fitness to get a head start.

Thanks for reading!

References

1. Zurlo, F, et al. “Skeletal Muscle Metabolism Is a Major Determinant of Resting Energy Expenditure.” Journal of Clinical Investigation, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Nov. 1990, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC296885/.

Adam is an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist. His years of experience in fat loss, muscle hypertrophy, and sports performance training have helped people improve in all walks of life. If you're interested in hiring Adam as your coach, fill out an application here.