Catacombs Fitness Collective | First Things First

tracie.holcomb@gmail.com

•

August 21, 2019

Hey Catacombs Squad--

I’ve got some things on my mind that I’d like to share with you today. I’ll try to stay off my soapbox, but sometimes I get a little impassioned. Lately I’ve been thinking about how we have a tendency to get buried in the details or the minutiae of things and completely miss the big picture. Call it missing the forest for the trees or whatever clever little saying or meme you want to insert. This happens generally in life but it happens A LOT in the fitness and nutrition space. There are so many angles and shortcuts and programs and plans, but the reality is that none of those things matter if we don’t get the foundation right. And the foundation is much simpler than you think. So, here we go…

Let’s put first things first.

Do something everyday. Get your blood flowing, your heart rate up, and your muscles firing. Every. Single Day. It doesn’t need to be an epic workout. You don’t have to come to the gym, but it certainly counts if you do. At a minimum, go outside and walk for 20 minutes at a relatively fast pace. That’s it.
Go to bed. Sleep at least 7 hours every night. More is better. You might be the 1% that can function just fine on less than that, but the vast majority of us are lying to ourselves when we tell ourselves we are just fine on 4 or 5 or 6 hours. If your caffeine, alcohol, or screen time is interfering with your sleep, fix that too.
Stop fueling your body with sludge. It is not helping your cause. Plan your meals. Include protein, fruits and vegetables, and fats in every meal. Avoid meal replacement concoctions, artificial and heavily processed foods, and sugar. Don’t worry about intermittent fasting, keto, or supplements until you have this piece nailed.

Once you are consistently crushing those three things, then we can move to the next level. The reality is that many people would rather talk about the nuance of power cleans vs power snatches than just doing the work of 100 burpees a day. Complexity is a trap that robs us of consistency. And consistency is the most important variable in the equation.

Thanks for reading!

And as a reminder, Sweat! classes are offered three times a day at 7:30, 1 PM, and 4:15 PM as as of August 26th. These are a great place to make some progress on the “do something every day” front. Learn more about Sweat! here.