Ep. #886: Don’t Make These (Funny) Fitness Mistakes

Hey there, and welcome to another episode of Muscle for Life. I’m Mike Matthews. Thank you for joining me today for a different type of episode, a short episode, a fun episode, and if I sound a little bit congested, it’s because I finally got sick after two years or so. I was on a good run. I hadn’t really gotten sick for about two years, even when I got Covid a year or whatever ago, yeah, I was technically sick, but I barely even noticed it.

I was just, Mildly congested for a few days, but now I have a bit of a cold. I’m feeling okay now, but you know, I didn’t feel so good for a day or two, and I sound a little bit more nasally than normal, but I figured it doesn’t sound so bad that it is not worth recording. So here I am recording a new episode, and this episode comes from some work that I’m doing on my next book, which, hmm.

I will talk more about the project as I get closer to completing it. I hope to have the manuscript done oh, by the end of this year. I think I can do that. I would like to get it done sooner than that, but these types of things always take longer than we anticipate, even when we try to. Envision a worst case scenario there.

There’s been research on this that has been done with students, for example, working on papers, you know, big papers that they have to produce, uh, to get a degree. And most students are unable to complete those projects in the timeframes that they envision under worst case scenario circumstances. And unfortunately, That’s not because students are prone to that.

That’s just because us humans are prone to that, especially with more complex tasks that can take many different turns. When you’re writing a book, what seems to be fairly straightforward, Forward can take a lot longer than you anticipate because you might go into a chapter, for example, let’s say you’ve done enough work to put together an outline.

Now you are working on one chapter and it seems pretty straightforward based on your outline. But then you get into the work of it and you start having more thoughts and doing more research and asking more questions, and you might realize. That the chapter is going to require five times the amount of work than you thought to really do it justice.

Or you might realize that it shouldn’t even be in the book actually, and something else should be in its place. And then that of course adds a lot of time anyway. So I, I do hope to have this manuscript done by the end of the year and have the book out next year. And I’ll talk more about it probably in the summer or so as I am getting closer to the completion at least of, uh, a first.

Draft. But in today’s episode, I wanna share a little bit of material from the book and it’s just for fun, but I think you will learn a little bit. I hope you will laugh a little bit, and it is just some, some fitness analogies. Eating and exercising according to your blood or your body type is about as effective as eating or exercising according to your.

Zodiac sign and taking a greens supplement instead of actually eating green foods. Well, that’s like watering your plants with Brando because it’s got electrolytes and starving yourself throughout the week so you can gorge on the weekends. Well, that’s like wearing a seatbelt so you can drive like a maniac.

And what about avoiding an individual food or a macronutrient like carbs because it makes you fat? Well, that’s like avoiding the snow because it causes hypothermia. And trying to out exercise an out of control diet. That’s like trying to shovel sand against the tide, taking BCAAs in addition to eating plenty of protein, that’s like watering your lawn after a storm.

And by the way, I wish that weren’t true because then I could sell BCAAs. I get people asking almost every day at this point over at Legion for us too. Sell BCAAs. I wish I could do it. I wish I could make a pitch that is stronger than, well. It’ll make your water really tasty. And some people, they would actually buy BCAAs just for tastier water, but many people wouldn’t.

And that’s not a very exciting product. I like to sell stuff that actually helps us get fitter and healthier faster. And you could say, well, taste your water helps people drink more water. Therefore, it is helping. Uh, that’s a, that’s a bit too weak, A bit too tenuous for me. Alright, let’s keep going here.

Sacrificing sleep to have more time for just about anything that’s like trying to cure dandruff with a guillotine and forcing yourself to follow a diet that doesn’t allow you to eat foods you actually like is like forcing yourself to go for a run in a cocktail dress. Taking a multivitamin supplement instead of eating a at nutritious diet.

That’s like comparing a finger painting to a Rembrandt, relying solely on caffeine for energy. That’s like trying to borrow your way out of debt and avoiding plant foods because you don’t like them is like staring at the sun because you don’t like the shade and not lifting heavy weights for fear of getting bulky.

That’s like avoiding sugar for fear of getting addicted. Taking a hydration supplement instead of just drinking enough water. Well, that’s like greasing the engines on the Hindenburg. Or to use a more tired analogy, rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Another fact that I wish were not true because I could sell a hydration supplement and make a lot of money, I get a lot of people asking.

Why I don’t sell an electrolyte supplement or a hydration supplement, and I’m going to be recording a podcast on that soon explaining in detail why I don’t believe in those supplements and that’s why I don’t sell one. Okay. The next analogy is avoiding foods that you like in pursuit of health or wellness is like wearing a straight jacket in pursuit of flexibility.

And following a fad diet to lose fat, instead of just controlling how many calories and how much protein you eat, that’s like using a busted compass to navigate instead of g p s. And last viewing exercise mostly as a way to burn calories is like viewing marriage mostly as a way to get laid. If you like what I’m doing here on the podcast and want 125 of my favorite, quick, easy, and delicious fitness friendly recipes, you want to get a copy of my Flexible Dieting Cookbook, the Shredded Chef, because here’s the deal, you don’t need to follow.

A bland, boring, bodybuilder diet To get into the best shape of your life, you can eat delicious home-cooked meals you love without living in the kitchen, struggling with hard to prepare recipes or overspending on expensive ingredients. And the shredded chef is the shortcut because it has. 13, delicious and easy to make.

Breakfast Recipes like B L T Eggs, Benedict Voss, rancheros high protein, banana oat cakes, and Morat has 11 mouth watering salads and dressings like a spicy Santa Fe taco salad. Grilled Mediterranean salad with sun dried tomato vinegarette, creamy jalapeno cilantro dressing, and more. It also has 14 low calorie snacks that you’ll actually want to eat, like blueberry, coconut pancake batter smoothie.

Maple walnut protein muffins, peanut butter protein, swirl brownies and more. There are also 16 succulent beef and pork recipes for savory lunches and dinners like beef stroganoff. One of my personal favorites, beef Lomain Parmesan crusted pork chops and more. And then there are 18 tasty poultry dishes that you will love again and again like curry chicken, Mexican meatloaf, which is killer polo fajitas.

And more. There are eight flavorful seafood recipes like creamy fettuccine with scallops. Graham cracker crusted tilapia, seared cod with no cooked mustard, caper sauce, and more. There are 11 appetizing side dishes like crispy squash fries. Squash fries are so good if you’ve never had them before. You’re in for a treat.

Sweet potato chips, roasted garlic, twice. Baked potato. And more. And finally, there are 10 delectable and macro friendly desserts that you can enjoy guilt free, like peach cobbler, maple raisin, bread, pudding, triple berry, crisp, and more. I also give for all of those recipes, cooked time, prep time, servings, calories, protein, carbs, and fat.

Which makes meal planning a breeze. And I even went further and put all of that information into a spreadsheet, which makes it even easier to build out your meal plan, and you can get that as a free download when you get the book part of the free bonus material. And so all of that is why the shredded chef has sold well over 300,000 copies, has received over 3,304 and five star reviews on Amazon, and has helped that I know of thousands of people build their best.

Body ever, and you can find it on all major online retailers, wherever you like to buy books, Amazon, iTunes, Cobo, Google Play, bn.com, even Audible. There is an audiobook. And yes, some people do buy cookbooks as audiobooks. Who knew? And you can also find the Schroder Cheff in Select Barnes and Noble stores.

Well, I hope you liked this episode. I hope you found it helpful, and if you did subscribe to the show because it makes sure that you don’t miss new episodes. And it also helps me because it increases the rankings of the show a little bit, which of course then makes it a little bit more easily found by other people who may like it just as much as you.

And if you didn’t like something about this episode or about the show in general, or if you have. Uh, ideas or suggestions or just feedback to share? Shoot me an email, [email protected], muscle f o r life.com and let me know what I could do better or just, uh, what your thoughts are about maybe what you’d like to see me do in the future.

I read everything myself. I’m always looking for new ideas and constructive feedback. So thanks again for listening to this episode, and I hope to hear from you soon.