How to Trust the Process

Trust can be a difficult thing to explain.

One of the things I talk about often is trusting the process. Whether it's my audience on Facebook, YouTube, the blog (hey, that's you!) or my clients, I talk about trusting the process and what that may look like for that audience.

I most often bring this up when talking about the health and fitness journey that all of us are on. Similar to many other things in life, a health and fitness journey is a lot like a path in the forest. We're walking along a path, hoping that it leads to the right destination. At times, we lose faith in the path and find a different path to go on. After taking that new path, we lose faith in it once again, and make a change. After doing that over and over, we realize that we've been moving, but we've been moving in a circle and really haven't progressed.

Whether it's building wealth, building relationships, doing well in school, or improving our health and wellness, we've all experienced this cycle that doesn't seem to end.

So, how DO we end that cycle?

Trusting the process, that's how.

As I said, trusting the process can be a difficult thing to wrap our heads around. Trust itself can be hard to explain or define. So what I'd like to do is work through a few different things we can do to make this whole "trust the process" thing a little more tangible.

FIRST, WE NEED A STARTING POINT

I'm sure you're sitting there thinking "Duh, Adam. Of course we need a starting point." You're right. We do need a starting point, but it's not just the starting point that we need. It's really the mark of the starting point on our map that we truly need. If the map is our process, we must know where we're starting.

Here's why. Knowing where we're starting is one thing, but having the ability to look back and see where we started is something really special. I know, looking back isn't something we've been told when it comes to moving towards a goal. We've been told to keep moving forward. "Never look back", they say. In this context, I disagree. Having the ability to look back gives some positive perspective. Marking a starting point gives us the ability to see how far we've come. Whether it's 2 steps, or 100 steps closer to the goal, we can see actual data that shows progression.

One way this plays out with my coaching clients is through progress photos. Regardless of how uncomfortable my clients are about sharing progress photos, I always encourage them to do it. Obstacles arise, down periods are going to come and they are going to get discouraged. However, if they have the ability to look back and see how far they've come, the inspiration comes back and once again they have a fire under their butt to continue taking steps forward.

We must never forget where we came from.

SECOND, WE NEED A PATH

Just a few lines up, I was talking about this path in a forest. In this context, the forest is the world of health and wellness, and the path is what we need to follow to get to our desired destination within the world of health and wellness. As I said, following that one path is extremely difficult at times. It's easy to take turns and go a different direction when hard times come up due to a lack of trust in that path. Put yourself in that situation for a second. If you were on a trail in the middle of a forest, what would make it easier to trust and follow?

A map with a clear path that leads to the destination.

Having a map in the middle of a forest is great. But it's even better if we can have a map that has trails and paths on it. Trails and paths serve as a clear, tangible way to get from the starting point to the destination. Being able to look at a map and say "ok, if we walk this path, it will take us to the final destination. That builds a massive amount of trust.

The reason we have a hard time trusting our health and fitness process is because we don't take the time to clearly map out what we need to do to get to the final destination. Often times, we say that we need to exercise more and eat healthier.

I say no. That is laziness, and a great way to set ourselves up for failure.

We MUST take the time to sit down and create our path in extreme detail. That path must include proper programming (how many days per week? What exercises? How many sets and reps?), proper nutrition tracking (how many grams of protein, carbs, and fats should I be eating?), as well as an extremely realistic idea of what's to come.

There's no doubt about it; when we are along our health and fitness journeys, obstacles will come up.

travel

kids

work

busy schedule

time constraints

When we're walking down our path through the forest without a map, those obstacles will come up and KNOCK US OUT. However, if we prepare for those things ahead of time, we'll feel extremely confident that we can work around them.

A good example of this is travel. Ask yourself, "Are there any trips coming up that will make it harder for me to be at the gym? Will these trips make it harder for me to stay consistent with my training and nutrition?" You'll quickly realize that the answer to those questions is yes, and you'll begin to make adjustments/preparations like purchasing a set of bands to get some resistance training in while traveling. You'll figure out what you can control while traveling, and capitalize on those opportunities when they arise.

We must be aware of potential obstacles. We must prepare in order to win.

LASTLY, WE NEED A DESTINATION

Before I get into the last part of our process that we're building, I want to make something clear. Once a destination is reached, the process is not over. The destination your reach at the end will simply become your new starting point.

Just like business, if you're not growing, you're dying. There will ALWAYS be something to work toward. Big or small, there will always be something you can improve and build on.

The destination is an extremely important piece of the puzzle. Whether it's 50 pounds lighter or 2 pull-ups stronger, we MUST have a destination to work toward. If we don't, we're simply walking up a mountain for giggles with no hope that we're making progress.

That's stupid.

Notice how I gave concrete goals as destinations. Although I love concrete goals, they're not the entire destination. When obstacles come up along the path, it'll be easier to give up when the going gets tough, because goals that have no depth really don't mean much. Goals like losing 50 pounds are child's play.

BUT... there are things we can do to make our destination have more depth.

Want to be able to 2 pull-ups? Fantastic, but WHY?! Why do you want to do 2 pull-ups? Why do you want to lose 50 pounds?

Is it because you're insecure about your image? Is it because you're afraid of your health ending your life earlier that you'd like?

Good. Now we're getting somewhere.

We all have a "why", but only a few of us have what it takes to dig deep and bring it to the surface. Those of us who do, are the ones that succeed 99% of the time. Why is that?

When we discover our "why" we discover that we have a deeper purpose on this earth that must be fulfilled. Bringing the "why" to the surface attaches meaning to the goal. The "why" allows us to fight not for the goal, but rather for the future self that we are building.

Our destination must have depth.

THE PROCESS

Trusting the process can be difficult, but only when it's not constructed properly. If you want to create a process that can truly be trusted, you'll need to create the following:

1. A starting point

2. A path

3. A destination

And all of them must be taken seriously. Approach these three steps with an open mind and an open heart. Be realistic, and prepare.

You'll trust, and you'll win.

THANKS FOR READING!

I love you guys. Thank you for taking the time to read.

Spread the love by sharing this with friends and family. I know it sounds crazy, but making a small touch in their life can create a ripple that may positively impact them for years to come.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the 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 is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life. If you’re interested in hiring Adam as your coach, fill out an application here.

Be A Mediator

Balls to the wall, no days off, I'll rest when I'm dead. We've all said things like this, or heard someone say it before.

But why?

Why do we feel like we shouldn't take any days off? Why do we feel like we have to give 110% effort every time when we go to the gym? Why do we feel like we have to give 110% 6 days/week, and only rest one? Why do we need 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight? WHY?!?!?!

Well, that's what we've been told. That's why.

The fitness industry kinda reminds me of school these days (just a heads up, don't read any further if you're easily offended). I'm not sure if you remember your school days and what they were like, but I'm willing to bet that it included a lot of doing things you didn't want to. It included a lot of things you were told would be useful in your life, and it included a lot of things that you found to be the exact opposite. It was probably an environment where the question "why?" was forbidden. Asking "why?" got you in trouble, so you just did what you were asked to do because, well, that's "just the way it is." I found the same thing to be true in my education, especially when I got to college. Believe it or not, I found college (a place of higher learning) to be one of the most dogmatic environments I have ever been in. Critical thinking wasn't encouraged. Challenging educators was absolutely forbidden. Professors weren't interested in truth, facts, observations, and findings. All they cared about was being right. Now, I obviously can't assume that everyone's experience was the same as mine, and it's not fair for me to say that all professors are like that, but I have seen that same thing play out in the education of current students. A student I know walked into her first class at her new college and the first thing that came out of the professor's mouth was "Here are 5 reasons that God doesn't exist and why it would be stupid to believe that he does."

Now, I'm not here to get into some sort of theological debate, I'm just using this as an example. The point I'm making here is that when we are taking in information in a educational setting, it is extremely rare that we have the opportunity to be a mediator. It's rare that we get to be challenged. It's rare that we have the opportunity to challenge already existing thought. It's just rare that we get to be a mediator. What I mean by saying that is that it's rare to have the opportunity to sit down, hear multiple viewpoints, assess and analyze facts, take in data, and come to a conclusion based on the provided information. It seems that if we want to have that experience in an educational setting, we need to go out of our way and create that for ourselves.

Believe me, I am NOT going to sit here and point fingers without looking back and confessing my own mistakes. When I first began my career as a fitness coach at 19, I did the same exact thing. I told people that they needed to eat 6 small meals a day in order to keep their metabolism running. I told people they needed to lift one body part per week in order to build muscle and burn fat. I told people that they needed a protein shake immediately after a workout or else their entire workout would go to waste. I was a dogmatic individual. I wanted to be right and I didn't want to be challenged, because my insecurities lead me to believe that not knowing was a sign of inferiority; a sign of stupidity.

I DIDN'T take the time to be a mediator.

As my obsession for health and fitness grew, I came to understand that growth and knowledge doesn't come from being right, it comes from a desire to find truth. Upon implementing that into my life more and more, I began to challenge what I had previously thought was right. Throughout that process, I found the fitness industry to be dogmatic, telling the masses that x, y, and z is right, so you should buy this product.

"Train one body part per week, because that's what the big guys on stage do. They also drink this pre-workout so you should, too."

"Drink our post-workout shake in order to reap all the benefits of your workout. If you don't, your workout will go to waste."

Statement after statement, I found most of what I thought to be true, to be a bunch of marketing gimmicks to try to get me on their side (to purchase their product).

Now, there's nothing wrong with trying to get someone to see what you believe because you believe it's true. Nothing wrong with that at all. But I will argue that it's wrong to use someone's insecurities to sway them into purchasing a product or buying into a concept, especially when you're not going to give them all of the information, and let them make a decision of their own.

So, maybe the fitness industry isn't too far off track, since they're providing some information.

But, they are.

Companies should be giving out information that is not biased, or dogmatic. Biased and dogmatic information shows that they care about their product more than they care about their customer.

I shouldn't have told people to eat 6 meals per day without looking into it. But, I was too concerned with wanting to be "right", and "an expert".

All of the blame can't fall on big companies trying to sell us stuff. We need to look in the mirror, too.

Whenever we're told something, I believe we shouldn't just accept it to be true for two reasons:

1. If we don't look into it ourselves, how will we really know if it's true?

2. If and when we find out it's true, it'll resonate with us more because we took the time to really understand the underlying concepts.

Here's an example:

If you've been following me for a while, you know that I tend to bash diets quite a bit. I find them to be restricting, dogmatic, and life-sucking. However, when I create content that expresses that opinion, I always give my best effort to explain why. I make sure to give the big rocks, the big underlying truths that I use to believe what I believe. I give my best effort to explain why a certain diet isn't the magical answer to fat loss by providing the big rocks that truly matter. In a nutshell, instead of saying "diets suck, they don't do anything magical for fat loss", I try to make it a point to educate my audience on why I believe that without using their insecurities to sway them. So rather, I'd say something like "diets aren't the answer to fat loss, because there are lot of factors that come into play with fat loss, such as lean muscle tissue, training style, calories in vs. calories out, and more. The ketogenic diet isn't magical. What the ketogenic diet usually does is cause people to eat less processed, calorie-dense foods which allows them to burn more than they're eating in a day, causing them to lose body fat." That is more tangible information that the audience can look into, or ask me more about. Sure, I may not always be the best at doing that, but I do care about my audience so I go out of my way to provide all kinds of information because I want my audience and clients to be empowered. I want them to be self-sufficient. They shouldn't have to always rely on an "expert" because I claim to know everything. Should I build trust with them so they can reach out and ask for my insight? Of course! But ultimately my answers, responses, content, advice, and insight should serve to educate and empower, not to be "right."

Understand what I'm getting at? I hope so.

Look, here's all I'm trying to say:

Take the time to learn. Take the time to understand.

Ask "why?" often. Challenge your own thought process often.

Humble yourself, and never be afraid to use the words "I don't know."

Most of the time, acknowledging the fact that you don't know, and taking the time to admit that to yourself leads you down a path that allows you to grow, and eventually, know.

I love you guys. Thanks for reading. :)

If you got something out of this, please share it with your friends and family!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the 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 is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life. If you’re interested in hiring Adam as your coach, fill out an application here.

Eating Clean Made Me Fat

Eating clean made me fat, while eating cookies and Chipotle made me lean...

wink wink ;)

Ok fine, you got me. Eating cookies and Chipotle didn't make me lean. Cookies and Chipotle aren't anything special. They're not made from unicorns, containing magical ingredients that allowed me to lose body fat for the first time.

However, the mindset I had while eating those things certainly did help with that.

A BIT ABOUT MY JOURNEY

If you don't know my story, there's a lot to it. But for the sake of time (knowing that you have a life and most likely don't want to sit down and read what I have to say all day long), I'm going to skip most of it and start with my fitness journey. I found my love for health and fitness after college ball. Once baseball was done, I spent a lot of time in the gym. I needed something to distract me from the fact that I wasn't a baseball player anymore.

My dad competed in bodybuilding back in the day, so weight training had always been a staple in his routine. He brought me along and lifted with me as I was trying to get out of my post-baseball depression.

If you know me, you know I don't really have much of an on/off switch when it comes to anything active or physical. Ask me to play against you in any sort of physical sport or activity, and I'm going to give it my all. I may suck, but I'm going to give you everything I have. It was the same thing with resistance training. I didn't have the best form, and my mind-muscle connection was far non-existent. But I tell you what, when I was in that gym, I gave each rep my all.

After a while, I actually began to see a change in my body. It's not the reason I was in the gym in the first place, but there were definitely changes in my body that I could see as a result of simply working hard. So because of that, I obviously asked myself what could happen if I took things seriously. And right before your eyes, I became your typical bro-like gym rat.

I started listening to what all of the Olympia and instagram guys were doing (being too much of an idiot to even take into consideration that those dudes are the 1% of the 1% of genetic freaks, and take a good serving of anabolics each day). I trained one muscle group per week, and I went to absolute failure on every single set. I completely killed my body in the gym. On top of that, I ate A TOOONNNNNNN of food. But hey don't worry, it was "clean" most of the time so I wouldn't get fat. Or so I thought..

Over time, I got pretty freaking huge. I reached a whopping 240 pounds while eating anywhere between 4,500 and 5,000 calories each day. I did have a ton of lean mass, but my body fat was at an all time high. I believe it was around 25%. At first, I didn't give a crap about my body fat. Why? Because it was bulk season all year, baby. Needless to say, I kept shoveling food down my throat to put on more and more "muscle". As you could imagine, I just got fatter and fatter, and finally hit a point where I started caring about my body composition and wanted to make a change.

Once I reached the point of feeling too heavy, I decided it was time to cut down. Gotta look good for the beach at some point, right?

The cut consisted of a little less food (because all hell would break loose if I lost muscle mass), and some cardio when I felt like it. I figured that if I kept eating around 4,000 calories of clean food and added in some cardio every now and then, I'd easily lose weight!

Yeah... that didn't happen.

Months later, I found myself in the same spot. 235ish pounds, tons of fat on me. I thought to myself "HOW IN THE WORLD IS THIS FREAKING POSSIBLE? I'm eating clean, how could I not be losing fat?"

Here's what I'd say to my younger self: "You didn't pay attention to the real science, you idiot!"

WHAT I FAILED TO SEE

The present me is right. The old me wasn't paying attention to anything but what the 290-pound Olympia competitors were doing. I was doing what THEY did for THEIR body to succeed. I missed the biggest piece.

I WASN'T A 290-POUND OLYMPIA COMPETITOR.

It didn't matter if I was eating clean. I was ignoring the facts. The 2 big things that I failed to acknowledge were the following:

1. Gaining/Losing weight is about calories in vs. calories out. Simple math.

2. I was a 20-year-old ex-baseball player. I failed to do what was right for ME. I did what THEY did because it worked for THEM.

I didn't take the time to understand how the human body works. I simply accepted the fact that eating clean is just what you're supposed to do to lose weight. The first time I heard it, I accepted it as truth and I went on with my life.

So what's so wrong with eating clean?

Nothing really, it's just that I placed eating clean on a pedestal above the most basic understanding of weight loss: calories in vs. calories out.

Here's the truth: Weight loss and weight gain comes down to calories in vs. calories out.

Since I was eating more calories than I burned in a day (even though they were "clean" calories) I gained a ton of body fat. Whether I was eating chicken and broccoli or donuts, I would've gained weight. Same thing goes for fat loss, I could eat nothing but Hostess snacks all day long and lose weight, as long as I'm burning more calories than I eat in a day. In fact, a Kansas State professor did just this to prove the point. Don't believe me? Google "Twinkie Professor."

Now don't be that person that just closes the browser and decides they're going to eat nothing but Twinkies all day long because Adam said it's good for fat loss. That's not what I'm saying. You don't need to have a PhD in nutrition to understand that eating nothing but Hostess snacks is unhealthy. All I'm saying is that weight gain and weight loss comes down to calories in vs. calories out.

And that's what I was missing.

I didn't take the time to figure out how many calories I burn in a day. I didn't take the time to figure out how many calories I'd need to eat in order to lose fat and build muscle.

Not wanting to continue this hellish cycle of gaining 10 pounds and losing 2, I began to track my intake in order to figure out what the problem was. Once I began tracking my intake, I slowly began to see what and how much of it I was actually putting into my body. I also found two big rocks (they kinda go hand-in-hand) that needed to be addressed.

1. Being "strict" while allowing myself cheat meals

2. No moderation whatsoever

The lack of moderation in my diet absolutely killed me. I would eat clean all week long, and then allow myself a cheat meal or a cheat day where I'd eat an extra 1,500 calories in a meal, or an extra 4,000-5,000 calories in a day. Once I saw that, it all made sense. My weekly caloric intake was through the roof because I binged and went completely out of control.

Moving forward, I allowed myself to enjoy the things I wanted when I felt like it. I'd have some Reeses or a cookie here and there. I noticed that my cravings went down a ton, I didn't feel guilty about eating those foods, and my weekly caloric intake dropped tremendously. I FINALLY STARTED TO LOSE BODY FAT!

Did the cookies allow me to lose body fat? No, of course not. But moderation did.

Once I began to fully understand the concept of calories in vs. calories out, I learned a ton about MY body and what I needed to do for MY body, given MY history, MY genetics, and MY goals. Hitting those goals slowly became a LOT easier. I learned how to adjust my caloric intake to build muscle and to burn fat. I learned how to treat my boy well by eating natural whole food sources while treating myself when I felt like it.

With time and effort, I went from a place of unconscious incompetence to conscious competence.

THE TAKEAWAY

Managing your nutrition and learning how food works with your body is a lot like managing money. If you were to invest your money in some sort of stock, you would (I hope) study its history, its habits, and see how it reacts to certain changes in the market. The same thinking applies to your body. Before you invest your calories, time, and attention to your goals, figure out how your body will best use them, that way you can develop a plan that works best for YOUR body, allowing you to trust the process as you're climbing toward your goals.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the 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 is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life. If you’re interested in hiring Adam as your coach, fill out an application here.