Maybe it’s crass, and maybe it seems unkind. It’s definitely not appropriate language for a lot of situations, yet I stand by it:
FFIO.
Fucking figure it out.
Imagine this: you’re trying to learn to play chess, or guitar, or how to drive a stick shift car. Where will you start? Maybe lessons. Maybe YouTube videos. Maybe talk to someone who’s good at it. Maybe you’ll buy a book or download an app. But you can’t yet learn Kung Fu via a port in the back of your head, so until then, the rule is FFIO.
Back to learning guitar: to the chagrin of patrons of coffee shops in college towns the world over, learning to play the guitar often takes a simple path…
- Get a guitar
- Pick a song you like
- Strum guitar, badly, attempting to make the same notes as a good guitarist
- Get rudely criticized by friends, dates, and everyone else
- Keep working to FFIO, and eventually, you get criticized less rudely, and with enough effort, maybe even get less criticism
In short, you try, you screw it up, you’re honest about your shortcomings, and then you keep working away at it.
The same is true on your health/fitness/strength/performance journey.
No one is coming to save you. There is no perfect answer. Just imperfect solutions tried with diligence, results assessed, and next steps planned.
Here’s an example: if you’ve trained with us at Wasatch Fitness Academy, odds are good you’ve experienced the exercise we call a Down & Up. It’s simple: take a sandbag, ideally about 1/3 of your body weight, put it on your shoulder; then get on the ground and get back up again. And here’s how you probably got coached the first time: “That bag, pick it up. Put it on your shoulder. Get on the ground, on your back, with your bag. Now, get back up. Cool. Do it again.”
We don’t do this to be unkind. We’re not mean-spirited. We’re simply realists.
Detailed instructions to wrestling with a sandbag don’t work. Watching someone else do the exercise gives you some ideas. Being told how to do it may help you get past a sticking point.
But nothing helps more than simply deciding that you’re going to Fucking Figure it Out.
Once you’ve made that decision, nothing will stop you.
This plays out with nutrition, as well. How many diet books are on the market? Or books that aren’t diet books, but tell you how to eat? And how many underlying themes are there, really? The basic idea of eating for optimal health is kinda simple:
- Eat enough food to support energy needs, maybe a bit more if you need to get bigger, maybe a bit less if you need to get smaller
- Eat some protein at most meals, some fat at most meals, some veggies at most meals, and some carbs at most meals
- Pay attention to digestion: you shouldn’t be gassy or bloated
- Pay attention to libido: you should be interested in sex
- Pay attention to sleep: it should leave you ready to take on the day
- Pay attention to moods: get into a state of flow most of the time; work with sadness when it comes up, anger when it comes up, and express emotion appropriately (ball slams, anyone?)
The root here is the same: try stuff, see how it works, pay close attention to all available data, and adjust your plan. Guitar, fat loss, strength gain, a new job, parenthood, owning a business, carrying a sandbag, or mountain biking.