The Slow-Moving Plague

Consider some of the following information from the CDC:

“More than one-third (36.5%) of U.S. adults have obesity.

Over 70% of U.S. adults over the age of 20 are overweight.

Approximately 84 million American adults—more than 1 out of 3—have prediabetes. Prediabetes is a serious health condition where blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough yet to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes. Of those with prediabetes, 90% don’t know they have it. Prediabetes puts you at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.”

The good news is that if you are prediabetic, or are overweight or obese, we know what lifestyle changes need to be made to prevent, delay, or even reverse these conditions.

The bad news is that SO DO YOU. The problem we are facing is not a lack of information. In fact, you could argue that we have way too much information. The amount of information practically freezes us. And it changes on a daily basis.

Carbs are good…no, carbs are bad.

Fat is good…no, fat is bad.

You should do more cardio…no, you should do more strength training.

This diet is the best…no, THIS diet is the best.

These conflicting statements that are thrown in our faces all the time confuse us, and freeze us in our tracks. We aren’t sure if we have the PERFECT diet or exercise plan, and so we just stay put and continue deeper and deeper into this hole.

That is until something we see on Facebook, or someone tells us about something that convinces us we have found the perfect plan. And we follow it for a little while, but that idea was such a significant overhaul of our current lifestyle that we started to slip a little.

We gave into some cravings.

We skipped a workout.

We just don’t feel like this plan is the one for us. 

But Monday is coming right around the corner, so let’s try again next week!

And we make it a couple of days into the new week before inevitably slipping again. Before you know it, this cycle brings us back to where we were before the plan, and we give it up. Only to fall out of shape even worse than we were before the miracle plan tried to save us.

But it’s okay because a NEW YEAR is coming up!!!

On this magical day, January 1, everything will change. I will overhaul my life and finally be the person I want to be. Even though nothing makes this day any different than any other day, the difference is now the New Year motivates me.

Well, we all know how that works too, don’t we? Eventually motivation from the new year will be gone.

So, let’s not fool ourselves this year.

Try something a little different this year: I want you to take your time and write out 26 habits that you think are the most important for you to change your life. Just to get you started, think of some things like:

Eat slowly and enjoy your food.

Stop eating before you are stuffed.

Exercise daily, but make it something you love.

Eat a few servings of vegetables every day.

Eat REAL food.

Take 5 minutes to meditate every day.

And so on and so forth. With all of the information you have available to you, what habits would you pick? Now, lay them out in a logical sequence, where one habit builds into the next one whenever possible. What order would it make the most sense to learn all of these habits?

Now plot them on your calendar, and spend 2 weeks working on each one for the next 52 weeks (year), and tell me where you land this time next year.

Our problem is not a lack of information, it is understanding how to make change happen. One habit at a time is the way to do it!

This is the way Precision Nutrition (PN) has built their nutrition and lifestyle coaching program. We teach our students that martial arts training is a "Way of Life," and that means you should integrate things like healthy lifestyle habits, nutrition, yoga, meditation, fitness, etc. into your life. The Precision Nutrition platform has powered our ability to offer nutrition and lifestyle coaching to our students, and we couldn't be happier with it. 

We can only open up a few spots in the program at a time because we just don't have enough time to coach a ton of people. We'd love for all of our adult students at Progressive Martial Arts Academy to go through this program because it lines up so beautifully with the "Martial Arts Way of Life." It is the missing link we were looking for for so many years. Unfortunately, we cannot take everyone on at the same time.

We will be accepting a small group of men and women that wish to embark on a year-long program to build the habits and skills necessary to reach and then maintain the healthiest version of themselves. This program with either myself or PMA instructor and certified PN coach, Kristie Fox, as your coach will begin Monday, January 1, 2018.

If you are interested, please email me at dcorrigan@pmaoakridge.com to reserve a spot and get more information.

Changing your nutrition and lifestyle doesn't have to be complicated, boring, or ineffective. If you are sick of trying new diets and exercise programs year in and year out, this is a 1-year program that will help you slowly change your habits to live the healthy lifestyle that you want.

Through PN's ProCoach software, we will provide the nutrition and lifestyle portion of coaching online with daily habits, lessons, and assignments. We’ll get to see your progress, provide feedback on a regular basis to your assignments and progress, and answer any questions you may have along the way. This program can be done 100% online! So wherever you are in the world, don't hesitate to email me.

Space is extremely limited, so please do not wait to email - dcorrigan@pmaoakridge.com.

I recently heard someone on a podcast I was listening to refer to what’s happening with health in this country as a “slow-moving plague.” I view this element of what we do at Progressive Martial Arts Academy as maybe one of the most important. We’ve always been able to make a large impact on people’s lives through martial arts training, and we are so excited to now be able to help with nutrition and lifestyle coaching too.

I hope you have a great 2018! Even if you don’t go through our coaching program, I hope you will take the advice above and give it a shot. Let me know how it works out. Remember, one habit at a time!

How Brittany Lost 38 Pounds and 8% Body Fat This Year

Today, I want to brag on one of our students. I'm a little biased obviously, but very proud, so I'd like to take a minute to brag about my wife, Brittany Corrigan.

For those that don't know, earlier this year she was selected to test for her Black Belt in Kenpo and is now in the preparation phase, but the story I want to tell goes back to last summer.

One year ago, my wife came back to PMA to get back to training after giving birth to our second child, Auggie. Without going too far off on a tangent, let me just give so much credit to women for what they have to go through with pregnancy, childbirth, and the recovery afterward. I know we see some stories about some women snapping right back, but I've seen first hand how difficult it can be (twice!), and all I can say is WOW.

So one year ago, Brittany returned to training at 212 pounds, and at 6 feet tall her body fat was at 38% (yes, she's approved of me giving you all of these numbers!). Today, she is at 174 pounds, and 29% body fat- officially in the first level of healthy body fat percentage for women (read more about the different levels here - http://www.precisionnutrition.com/cost-of-getting-lean-infographic). Best of all, she has done it in what I consider the best possible way - slowly and sustainably.

Brittany didn't go on a diet. In fact, we just finished eating at Chuy's for our date night, and I watched her eat a burrito (slowly and mindfully - more on that later!).

Being a personal trainer and nutrition/lifestyle coach, I could've designed an exercise program and meal plan for her that would have helped her lose the weight and body fat even faster. But since becoming a Precision Nutrition coach a couple of years ago, I know that is not the ideal way.

I've seen it play out so many times, and surely you have too. I look in the mirror and realize I'm not quite in as good of shape as I'd like to be and decide to do something about it. Well, I've heard a lot lately about the ________ diet or this new _____________ workout that people seem to really get great results with. So, I think I'll try that!

A few weeks or months later, assuming I stick with the program, voila! I've lost weight and have gotten in great shape! Well good, I'm glad that's done with, that diet sucked! Or you know, I was getting sick of that workout!

A few months pass by...

I look in the mirror, and huh? I seem to be getting out of shape (maybe even a little worse than last time this happened). But you know what? That program I did last time worked! Let's get back on it!

And repeat...

Most of us have gone through this process, and depending on your age, you may have done it over and over again throughout your life!

So what did Brittany do?

1. Martial Arts Training (2-4x per week)

Last year she got back to her martial arts training 2-4 times per week. This part is essential because finding a hobby like this can help give you a little extra motivation in the nutrition and fitness areas of your life because they will help your performance with your hobby/sport! I say 2-4 because we have two small children and sometimes life interrupts your ideal schedule for the day. It's critical that you consider this, or you can end up letting your whole plan be derailed by your normal life. If you plan a routine to get in shape that doesn't fit into the context of your real life, then it is not going to work. If you just make it work for the short term (90-day program just to get in shape, etc.), then you will go back to where you started before the program when it's finished.

2. Strength Training (3x per week) & Running (1-3x per week)

She does a simple strength training workout I've put together for her that includes body weight, cinder block, and TRX exercises. She does this 3x/week and does a shorter modified version at home if she can't squeeze in the whole thing. In addition to this, she runs 1-3x/week.

3. Nutrition & Lifestyle Habits

She has gone through a year of PN coaching learning habits one at a time that change key areas of her lifestyle but don't require her to adapt something that she cannot maintain.   These habits are things like eating slowly, stopping eating before she's stuffed, balancing her meals correctly, de-stressing, creating a good sleep routine, planning meals, and food prepping for the week. In the coaching program, she's learned about each habit, and built the skills to put them to practice. Best of all, she still gets to enjoy foods that she likes (like that burrito tonight)!

She has done it all in a way that is sustainable, and while she still has high goals for herself over the next few months preparing for her Black Belt test in December, she has adopted the habits that will prepare her for a lifetime of health and happiness.

I am incredibly proud of her, and can't wait to see where she ends up in December, and afterward. After all, Black Belt is just the beginning!

Becoming a Martial Artist

A few years ago, I wrote a post titled “Martial Artist or a Student of the Martial Arts?”

I posed the question to my students trying to determine how they saw themselves. There were a variety of opinions on the topic, but today I want to discuss one way of looking at this. I had multiple people tell me that while they were training martial arts, they did not yet consider themselves martial artists because they were not living all aspects of their life like a martial artist would.

The next logical question would be: "How does a martial artist live?"

For this, let’s take a look at the eight aspects of the martial arts way of life that we have outlined for our students at Progressive Martial Arts Academy:

1. Fitness - Are you living your life in such a way that you are a healthy and fit individual? Does your body function the way that it should?
2. Health & Nutrition - Have you adopted healthy eating habits? Sleeping habits? Most of us know what we should be eating, and how we should be living our lives, but are we following that? This one can be tough.
3. Meditation - Have you brought a little bit of meditation into your life? Again, you don’t need to be sitting on top of a mountain cross-legged to say you meditate. At this point, if you have not at least brought it into your life in small ways like taking a few deep breaths and living in the moment, you are ignoring so many studies that have proven its effectiveness.
4. Yoga and Stretching - Unless you've been living under a rock, surely you've heard that this stuff is excellent! And you don’t need to be a yogi to benefit from it. A martial artist has to have some yoga or good stretching/mobility routines in their life to recover properly from their training and maintain a level of flexibility and body control that allows them to perform their techniques.
5. Philosophy - Being a martial artist also means living your life with the philosophy of a martial artist. That means bringing kindness, humility, respect, and love to all aspects of your life and all people in your life. This philosophy includes things like avoiding fights and confrontations. Do you have road rage? Then you still have some work to do here.
6. Striking Arts - Keep those tools sharpened. A good martial artist has something in their life that keeps their striking sharp. For some this is heavy bag work, for others, it might be traditional forms. These are two great methods for keeping your tools ready to go.
7. Grappling Arts - You can’t ignore the groundwork either. You may not have taken the full fledge jump into a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class yet (if not, what are you waiting for!?), but you need to know how to defend yourself on the ground. Something like Jiu Jitsu takes many years to master, so the sooner you start, the better.
8. Self Defense - Being able to walk around the world with confidence that you can protect yourself is what enables the martial artist to carry themselves the way they do. You need to be training with a focus on self-defense.

If you have 15 minutes, take a look at this TED talk below. Dr. Chang is discussing how to make hard choices, but she lays out a way of approaching life that can help lay the framework for becoming who you want to be - in our case today, a martial artist.

So, I'll ask you again - Are you a student of the martial arts or a martial artist? If you are still having difficulty labeling yourself as a martial artist, is there an area of your life that you can work on aligning your lifestyle with the items listed above?

Most importantly, keep training!

---

Do you need help "becoming a martial artist"?

Some of you may have a few of the items above taken care of because you have begun training in martial arts, but may still be struggling with the elements outside of the academy such as your nutrition and lifestyle. 

Most people know that regular movement, eating well, sleep, and stress management are important for looking and feeling better, yet they need help applying that knowledge in the context of their busy, sometimes stressful lives.

That’s why I became a Precision Nutrition certified coach - to help PMA students lose fat, get stronger, and improve their health…no matter what challenges they’re dealing with. I accepted my first group of students last summer, and recently had certified PMA instructor, Kristie Fox, get her PN certification so that we can take more students in the program. 

We are planning to accept a group of students to begin their program on Monday, July 31st with Coach Kristie.

Interested in starting this one year program this summer? 

You can find more information about our nutrition and lifestyle coaching program here:

http://www.pmaoakridge.com/nutrition

Then, send me an email to join the presale list; you’ll save up to 45% and secure a spot in the program. We like to reward the most interested and motivated people because they always make the best clients. 

And, you’re more likely to get a spot. To give clients the personal care and attention they deserve, we plan to only open up the program twice a year. In the end, if you’re ready to change your body, and your life, with help from the world’s best habit changing program, this is your chance.

If you're ready to join the presale list now, you can do that here: