Fitness LIES social media made you believe

See, now social media makes fitness more

complicated than it has to be, and

extreme behavior is normal. And I'm kind

of tired of it. We're at the point now

where if you scroll for long enough, you

will believe that if your journey

doesn't look like an Instagram reel,

then you're doing something wrong. Well,

I'm here to help you with that. First,

the need to include protein in

everything. protein pasta, protein

pancakes, protein cupcakes, protein gum.

Okay. Okay. I love some protein products

as you can see, but quite frankly, if

I'm being honest, a lot of it tastes

like dirt. The facts are most people

don't get enough protein. It helps keep

you full. It's going to help you build

and preserve muscle, especially if

you're losing weight. But everything

does not have to be high protein. But

anyway, if you start to freak out about

how much protein certain foods have,

you're slightly leaning into the more

unhealthy category. You're allowed to

have a low protein snack. You want a

chip? Eat the chip.

You're human. It's okay. You're allowed

to have a little bit of fun. As long as

your nutrition is mostly balanced,

you're eating enough protein, fiber,

fats, carbs, you're not going to ruin

your progress. If a snack that you eat

only has 2 g of protein, you're fine.

This concept of being optimal is the

most annoying one. As in, every

exercise, every workout, everything that

you do has to be 100% optimized. If this

exercise doesn't help you build 7% more

muscle, then you shouldn't be doing it.

Now, I'm all for science-based lifting.

Fitness is science. But calm down.

Relax. First things first, not

everyone's goal is to build the maximum

amount of muscle. Like, take me. I'm a

basketball player. I have to do athletic

workouts. and hypertrophy and strength

is only one piece of the puzzle. You

also have endurance. Your cardio has to

be on point. Power output. You got to be

able to run fast and jump high. And to

tell you the truth, the average person

on the street doesn't need the most

optimal that's going to get you 1% more

results. They just need efficient, safe,

doable, sustainable. And don't get me

wrong, I love building muscle, but

building muscle, like I said, it's only

one of many results. Now that you've

built the muscle, can you use it? Like

this exercise that I'm doing right here,

I got the muscle. Now you got to be

powerful with it. Can you run fast? Can

you jump high without snapping yourself?

And in some cases, like in sports,

having too much muscle can be a bad

thing, like in sprinting or swimming,

for example. If you have way too much,

it can actually slow you down a bit.

Sorry, not sorry, but I think preworkout

is overrated. I understand the hype

around preworkout, but a lot of people

make it seem like if you don't sniff

this or inject it into your bloodstream,

your workout's going to be trash. And

yeah, no, the truth is for most people,

especially beginners starting out, you

don't really need to spend your money on

preworkout, you should not be pressured

to buy a big ass tub of it. Before you

go breaking bad mode and start sniffing

this on a daily basis, the bulk of your

workout performance is going to be

decided by how well you recover and how

well you fuel your body before and after

your workouts. Sleep well. Make sure

that you're taking enough rest in

between workouts. Fuel your body before

your workouts with carbs first, like

fruit. That's going to give you energy.

Start there. Master the basics first and

then later on, if you need the

preworkout, then hey, go for it. If

you're brand new to fitness, let me help

you out with something, okay? You don't

have to work out every day and you don't

have to destroy your body in the gym

every session. Relax. You work out for

stimulation, not annihilation. And hey,

I get it. I've done it, too. I was a

dumb dumb at one point. I used to think

that if you weren't sore, and you could

still walk out of the gym with your own

legs, then it wasn't a good workout. And

let me tell you, it just led to

injuries. Listen to me carefully. Most

of your gains are going to be made while

you recover. Because what workouts do,

workouts break your body down and your

body needs time to heal itself so that

it can build itself back up stronger. If

you're coming into your next workout

session fatigued, tired, your workout

quality is going to go down, rep quality

goes down, form is going to break down,

chances of injury increases, and because

you believe that every single workout

has to be that hard, you'll most likely

quit at some point, too. One, two,

three. That's all you need. Three days,

four days max. You can get really good

results with just three or four days a

week in the gym. Heck, you can even get

good results with two days a week. The

most important thing is that when you do

work out, you got to make sure that

you're challenging yourself and you're

pushing hard enough so that your body

will actually change. Now, every now and

then, if you want to chase the pump and

push yourself and see what your body can

do, go for it. I'm all about that. But

every single set, every single workout

doesn't have to feel like you're about

to fight a world war. Training to be

part of the Avengers or the Justice

League. When you get used to working out

and you become more experienced and you

understand how to program properly, then

yes, you can increase your frequency,

but you just got to make sure that you

are consistent. Plus, if you're able to

work out every single day and you feel

fresh every single day, your workout

might suck. The intensity might not be

there. This is my new chair. Broke the

last one, so I'll be arranging this

while I tell you about the next thing

about fitness that pisses me off. Bad

diets. I'm going to keep this simple.

Intermittent fasting, keto, one meal a

day, carnivore are all methods to

achieve a calorie deficit. They are all

methods, but the principle stays the

same. If you want to lose weight, you

need to eat less than you burn. What I

dislike is when you're putting stuff

together and stuff's not labeled

properly. Like, where where Oh, there he

goes. See what I mean? The second thing

I dislike is when you treat the method

like it's a magic pill. The reason why

you lost weight in keto is because you

cut out a whole food group. The reason

why you lost weight during intermittent

fasting is because you chose not to eat

for 20 hours. But the question is, do

you need to do those diets? If you're

healthy, you have no medical issues, and

especially if you don't know what you're

doing, then no. Cuz guess what? Come

here. Come here. You can achieve a

calorie deficit without extreme diets.

Wow. Lean protein, veggies for volume,

and fiber. Relax on the liquid calories

like sauces, oils, and drinks. Find

lower calorie alternatives. Fruits are

fantastic and monitor your carbs. Let me

give you a clue. If you're not as

active, you don't need as much carbs

because carbs are energy. So, no, you

don't have to do the egg diet to get in

shape. Don't you just love when the

holes are not aligned, then you have to

brute force your way through assembly?

Anyway, if you have to cut out whole

food groups, be hungry most of the time,

question your sanity. The chances are

whatever you're doing is too extreme,

it's unsustainable, and you'll most

likely relapse the first time you let

some fries enter your mouth. Eventually,

you'll figure this out, and you're going

to break cycles in your life. If you

have to go extreme to get into shape,

you need to realize the second you stop

whatever diet you're doing, you're going

to go right back to the old habits that

you didn't work through faster than

Usain Bolt can finish a race. Balanced

meals, high protein, and then figure out

your carbs to fat ratio, depending on

your goal, because sustainable is the

key. If you can't maintain it long term,

you most likely shouldn't be doing it.

If you had to go extreme to get it, you

most likely won't keep it. Scroll long

enough on social media and you'll see

someone that lost 30 lbs in 2 weeks. Or

you'll see something even better. You

don't have to lift weights. All I did

was wave my arms around like this for an

hour every day and I lost 10 lbs in 2

days. Be for real. Be very for real.

Real fitness transformations take time.

Anytime you see massive 30 or 60-day

transformations, you need to ask two

questions. What did you do to get that

transformation? And what did you lose?

That's if your goal is weight loss.

Because now with weight loss, you can

either lose weight or you'll lose fat.

When you lose weight, you're losing

everything. You're losing muscle, fat,

and water. If you are losing mostly fat,

this is body recomposition. You're

dropping the fat and hopefully you're

gaining muscle. So, your body shape

changes. Your body composition

completely changes. The reality is

building a good amount of muscle takes

time. Losing fat takes time. You need to

be ready to grind it out for at least 6

to 12 months, depending on your starting

point. If you don't have a solid habit

and behavior base to handle extremes,

don't do them. Because at the end of the

day in fitness, most people overestimate

what they can do in one month and

underestimate what they can achieve in

one year. You have to stop trying to

rush the process. All you're going to do

is you're going to put yourself in a in

shape, out of shape type of cycle. Focus

on the habits that are going to get you

long lasting results over time and focus

on being the type of person that can

maintain those results. That's the key.

Mental. Mental. Now, we got to talk a

little bit about supplements. If you're

just getting started outside of protein,

vitamins if you need them, and creatine,

you don't need 20 to 30 different

supplements to get good results. All you

need to do is master the basics, and

that's going to get you 80 to 98% of the

results you're looking for. Supplements

are exactly that. They are a supplement,

as in they supplement your nutrition.

You should be getting most of what you

need through your nutrition, eating a

well-balanced diet, and staying

consistent with it. When you have your

nutrition dialed in, if you're lacking

in any area, then you can go for the

supplements. So, don't waste your money

getting all those fat burning,

metabolism boosting, cancer solving

supplements. All you're going to get

from that is having less money in your

bank account while staying in the same

shape. Not a good trade-off. And

finally, I dislike a lot get ready with

me type of videos because if you watch a

lot of them, you're going to feel like

you need to have everything figured out

and everything has to be perfect. If you

have any skin in this fitness game, you

know, things don't go perfect all the

time. There are going to be days where

you don't feel like it. You're going to

have days where you're sick. You're

going to have days where your body image

is nice and high. and you look in the

mirror and you're just like, "M, I look

good." And then there's going to be days

where you look in the mirror and you're

just like, "Ew, what the heck is that?"

You're not going to work out at the same

intensity every single session. Some

sessions you're going to feel really

strong. Some sessions you're going to

have no energy. And when life starts to

get in the way now, that's a whole

different ballgame. So, you have a

little bit of growing up that you have

to do. Stop expecting everything to be

perfect. Stop waiting for the perfect

time because there's no such thing. All

you got to do is take action and then

pivot and adjust as life goes on. You

don't have time for an hour workout, do

a 30 minute workout. You had a bad

eating day, so what? One out of 365

days, you have the next meal, you have

the next day. Just reset. The main

difference between people that get

fantastic results versus people that

don't is that the people that get great

results, they roll with those punches.

When things are not perfect, they keep

it moving. They adjust and they keep

stepping forward and they don't quit.

That is the name of the game. You have

to stay in the game to win. As long as

you stay in the game, that's it. You're

good. No problem. I hope that cleared

out a few things for you and I hope that

put you at ease with some of the

craziness that you see on social media.

The only thing you got to be chasing in

fitness, like in life, is progress, not

perfection. As long as you can stay

consistent you