Everyone has their own reason for wanting to get in shape. It could be after a major life event, in anticipation of a special occasion, or sometimes people come to us for help because they are just plain fed up with what they see in the mirror.

The motivation is often rooted in an unhappiness with themselves and what they’ve allowed their physical body to become. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to improve your health so that you are happier with the way that you look. It’s not the answer to fulfillment in life, but it is a noble effort.

The main reason that we want to take people on a journey that results in them changing their physical body is because their lives could potentially count on it.

Being overweight or obese is a life threatening condition.

Our bodies were not made to carry excessive levels of body fat. Buckle your seatbelts because here come some shocking statistics.

According to the CDC (Center for Disease Controls), 72% of adults over 20 years old are overweight. Read that again.

We have news.  Big, exciting, scary news.  We are all in.

How many diamond push-ups can you do in 1:00?

Six weeks into the new ‘YOU’ and your summer vacay hits. You’ve been hitting your workouts consistently, eating well consistently and not giving into the sweet temptations that you used to.

Don’t let a vacation destroy you and cause you to return further behind then when you left.

INSTEAD… vacation like a pro by having a blast all the while using self control along the way.

Think about this…

YOU! A Digital Barbell Client.

What is it like to work with Digital Barbell?

Are you tired of feeling tired? Are you tired of not having the energy to play with your kids or clean out the pantry or walk the dog? Have you had enough of feeling this way?

So much of not feeling like your body is operating at 100% has to do with our nutrition. And not only what we eat but how we eat. Good nutrition starts with energy balance.

Let’s take away all of the excuses.

Let’s not blame our genetics, our schedule, the weather, our gym (or lack of) schedule, the food we have on hand, the food we ‘like’ to eat, the food our friends are eating, eating for comfort, eating socially, not liking to eat the same meal twice in a row, not wanting to count our calories, not wanting to understand how many calories are in a donut, not wanting to stop drinking cokes, not wanting to remove sugar from our coffee....

Instead let’s change our mindset.

Let’s make more good choices more often than bad ones.

Let’s erase the negative self-talk and believe that you can do anything you set your mind to do.

Let’s decide right now that our body and our life matters enough to understand good nutrition.

Not all hard work and hardship is mandatory.

Voluntary hardship is something we do by choice.

These are things we push ourselves to do even though we don’t necessarily have to. Since hardship can be unpleasant at times, especially in the moment, it usually requires some discipline to maintain.

When the sound of the alarm rings in your ear at an hour long before you would normally choose to wake up you’re forced with a decision.  Do you make the short-sighted choice that gives you momentary relief or do you expose yourself to that hardship that refines you?

That’s what voluntary hardship does to us.  It refines us. It strengthens us. It distills the parts of our will and our character that arrive when we encounter self doubt.

Today we’re talking micronutrients.

You already know all about macronutrients (protein, carbohydrate and fat) so if you’ve ever wondered why we say you also need to consider your micronutrients to maintain your health… wonder no more!

We need micronutrients to keep us healthy, to keep our systems functioning properly, and for our body to do a bunch of other tasks that we don’t even know are going on. So sit back, relax, and grab a bowl of liver and mushrooms (you’ll see why in a bit) and read up.

Note: This is just simplified overview of vitamins, the foods they come from, what they do, and what happens if we don’t get enough. Remember that this list isn’t exhaustive and everyone’s needs vary.

Let’s talk about sugar.

The average American can easily consume over 200g of sugar a day. Thats about 150g over the recommended daily dose for a healthy, exercising person. A sedentary and inactive person should actually consume even less. Have you ever looked at your sugar intake in a day? It can be eye opening and worth the effort. Use an app like MyFitnessPal to look up foods that you consume throughout the entire day and keep track of the total grams of sugar. You’ll not only get the number of grams that you ate but from this list you can also identify which foods contain the most sugar should you need to work on eliminating or substituting certain foods.

What happens when we eat too much sugar?

The main issue here is fat storage but not FROM the sugar but BECAUSE OF the sugar.

Here’s why: