Photo by Pickled Stardust on Unsplash

After 30 years of working with clients, I’ve seen many diets, strategies, theories, and ideas about how to lose weight.

A few have stayed around but many have not.

There is one thing that has stood the test time and that is the concept of managing energy (or calorie) balance by tracking your calories.

This process of weight loss (or weight gain) is all about balancing the calories we consume with the calories that we burn.

Not a new concept but it’s one that is often overlooked or pushed aside for a more popular or trendy diet idea.

However, It is the underlying mechanism of how any diet or strategy works.

When you cut carbs, you cut calories. 

If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you lose weight.

When we consume more than our body requires we gain weight, usually in the form of fat (stored energy) or muscle (if there is adequate resistance training).

So even if you don’t always track calories or food intake it is at the core of all bodyweight changes.

That is why it is the most effective way to get results.

Here are 4 more reasons you should track your food intake:

Awareness of what you’re eating

By tracking your food intake, you can gain invaluable insight into your eating habits and identify areas where improvements can be made. You may discover that you are consuming too many processed foods or not getting enough protein. When you notice these as patterns you can make the changes necessary to shift your calorie balance in the right direction. Without tracking, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what needs to change or improve.

Accountability

Tracking what you eat promotes accountability. We tend to improve what we track. When you have a detailed record of everything that goes into your body, it’s easier to make better decisions about food choices. This level of accountability can be helpful when resisting temptation or trying to break bad habits.

Small changes are better

Small changes are key when it comes to achieving short and long-term success. Instead of trying to overhaul all your eating habits (and lifestyle), making small adjustments is less overwhelming and more sustainable. If you swap out soda for water or add a serving of vegetables to each meal you can make significant changes without feeling deprived. Tracking your food helps you identify areas where these small changes can be made.

Faster results

The biggest benefit of tracking your food intake is that it leads to immediate results. Seeing positive changes in body weight can provide instant feedback and keep you motivated to continue making healthy choices. When you manage your calorie balance, it only takes a few days before you start feeling better and seeing a difference on the scale.

In my experience whenever you start a diet or nutrition program it’s important to see quick results. 

There’s always resistance when you first start anything. Seeing the scale change provides that big burst of motivation you need to get things rolling.

Yes, habits and lifestyle are essential but they take longer to develop and you won’t see the benefits right away. 

Tracking calories get’s to the heart of the matter, especially when you want to see changes when you step on the scale.

Put your time and focus balancing your calorie intake and you will see results in no time.

EAT WELL, LIVE BETTER

Edward Scaduto

Photo by Joyce McCown on Unsplash

Back pain is the most common issue that affects our movement, progress, success, and enjoyment.

It can vary in intensity but at some point, most of us have been sidelined by its painful presence.

It’s estimated that 8 out of 10 people at some point will seek help to remedy their back pain.

My hope with this guide is to give you a better understanding of the complexity of back pain and help you take a few steps that can help alleviate or prevent it from happening to you.

Common causes of WHY we get back pain?

If we can understand more about how our back functions, we can start to find ways to move past the pain and disability.

UNKNOWN – A large portion of back pain cases are classified as idiopathic or of unknown origin. There isn’t an apparent reason the pain exists. That doesn’t mean the pain doesn’t exist, it’s just there is no apparent reason for the pain. In contrast, there is a high percentage of persons with structural changes in the spine that would warrant pain or treatment but have no symptoms, they are asymptomatic. This can mean a couple of things. One possible explanation is structural changes alone don’t necessarily lead to pain. There must be a second or third component that must be added to bring about pain. The other is many undiagnosed back conditions may just be one or two movements away from being seriously hurt.

THE AGING SPINE – Our spine and posture will likely go through some changes as we get older. Our head moves forward and our back starts to round. some of this is due to sitting for longer and longer hours. One thing we do know, the spine has the capacity (when healthy) to move in many ways but as we get older we tend to lose this ability. The spine becomes rigid and gets more and more locked into place. This begins to alter posture placing more stress on the joints and muscles that have compensated for the limitation. Eventually, this can cause permanent changes in the structure and movement of your spine and that can contribute to pain.

THE STRAW THAT BROKE THE CAMELS BACK – When it comes to certain conditions in the spine, like disc bulges and herniations. (when the Nucleus of the spine pushes out on the fibrous ring of the discs and interferes with nerves) It often takes years and years of poor posture, poor training, or lifting techniques that weaken the tissue to a breaking point. Then when you pick up a pencil, that little bending forward was enough to hurt your back. It wasn’t the pencil, it was the years leading up to that event that caused the damage.

SOMETIMES IT’S NOT THE BACK – Sometimes the back isn’t the culprit but the victim. If you have tight leg muscles or have a knee injury chances are you’re compensating for that lack of range and function. Likely, you’re not bending your knees but instead, you’re rounding your spine when you sit down or pick things up. This extra movement for your back is enough to cause serious issues. You may experience back pain and focus your attention there when in fact it’s coming from the dysfunction of your knees. When you help your knees and return to proper movement you’ll take the stress off your back. So sometimes the back may be the one yelling at you but it’s other areas or situations that are the real cause.

Common Dysfunctions of the Spine

The following are conditions that are often seen with back pain. Keep in mind the mere presence of these dysfunctions doesn’t mean you’ll have pain. We know however that your movement will be impaired and the tissue will be more susceptible to injury.

MUSCLE STRESS – Moving furniture, picking a box up at work, or just twisting and bending, if done incorrectly can easily result in muscle strain.  It’s simply a matter of the muscles are not able to withstand the amount of force placed on it. The tissue reaches a breaking point and this results in tissue damage or back pain.

DISC BULGING OR HERNIATION – These are two of the common disc problems. Your discs sit between your vertebrae and they act as shock absorbers. It has a nucleus center like a jelly donut. A bulge is misshaping without the nucleus breaking through the fibers or the jelly is almost pressing out of the donut. A herniation is when it does break through (the jelly is now outside of the donut) and interferes with nerves and the function of your spine.

SPONDYLOLISTHESIS OR SLIPPED DISC – When you have a fracture in part of the vertebrae. This results in an unstable joint and allows for the forward movement of one to discover the other. There is often pain with a certain range of motion. It’s the condition that you sometimes hear as the “slipped disc”. Avoiding movements that cause pain is crucial with this condition. 

What you can do about your back pain?

Keep in mind that back pain is a multi-factorial sensation. We know that structural changes alone aren’t the sole cause, so there must be other factors. Neural, muscular, emotional, and stress also play a significant role.

This goes without saying but I’ll say it anyways. Always consult your Doctor or Physician and follow through with their recommendations. Then take it upon your shoulders to rehab your back so you can minimize the chance of having these problems in the future.

STOP PICKING THE SCAB – Avoid what causes you pain at all costs. This sounds easy but it’s not. We repeatedly do what we love, making it challenging to identify what’s causing or adding to your back pain. Maybe you’re a runner and you know that your back hurts more after a long run. You can just stop running right? Usually, you try and cut back on the running thinking that it will help. When what you need to do is stop running altogether. That way you can fix the real issue(s), and then slowly rehab back to your running.

SETTING EXPECTATIONS – Take a realistic look at what it’s going to take to get pain-free. We all love overnight success and it’s wonderful when that happens. Knowing that there are so many factors to back pain means It’s going to take time and a lot of work. There’s a good chance you will have to make significant changes both to your lifestyle and especially to how you’re moving or exercising.

BREATHING EXERCISES – Your breath is key to properly using your diaphragm and core muscles. As you learn to control it you’ll also increase your spinal movement and stability. This will help you keep your spine from moving in ways it was not meant to be. 

PAYING ATTENTION TO POSTURE – Your position dictates how much stress is going through your joints at any time. Poor posture limits the use of muscles throwing your body off balance and making it difficult to do simple daily movements including breathing. It’s an absolute must that you become aware and place posture at the top of your priority list. It’s been said that posture is where movement begins and ends, so you want to get as close as you can to ideal posture.

STABILITY AND CORE TRAINING – This is where your movement training should start. The core muscles act as your body’s natural weight-lifting belt. Protecting your spine, helping your breath, and allowing for proper movement. Get this first step wrong and your spine is left unprotected. Without proper support, it will be easier to hurt the back and begin the pain experience once again.

CORRECTIVE EXERCISES HELP – There is a lot you can do to help if you’ve had back pain before and are finding it difficult to get back into the activities you enjoy. With proper guidance, you can correct the compensation patterns caused by the pain and restore the proper function of the body. This will increase your ability to move and improve your resiliency to injury. The movement itself can act as a natural pain killer. It can block the threat signals of your body reducing the pain you experience.

As you can see when it comes to your back problems it’s not a simple problem with a simple solution. It’s very much a complex phenomenon. There are many factors to consider and I hope that this guide can give you a little direction as to what to pursue and work on next.

Most of all, I hope it brings you hope, that the pain you’re feeling right now (or in the past) isn’t permanent. You can heal, improve your movement and strengthen your body so you can feel like you’re back to normal once again.

Move Well, Live Better

Ed Scaduto

Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash

One of the most important aspects of long-term fitness is the ability to create lifelong habits. It’s common thinking that the celebrity training program, the cutting-edge technology, or the fancy gym equipment is what we need to make it ‘work’ this time around.

But it’s not.

What makes it all work is your habits, by a long shot.

That’s because it’s what you do every day that matters most.

You can have the ideal training template personalized for you, with everything laid out based on your specific metrics of age, height, weight, genetics, etc. We can even throw in state-of-the-art training equipment and facility but its effectiveness is only as good as your ability to do it over and over again.

It’s not the great session that’s done once in a while, but the consistently challenging sessions that create progress.

That’s why if there was one gift I could give you it would be the gift of consistency.

WHY HABITS WILL END YOUR STRUGGLES

Habits are the key that makes everything go. We tend to do them without thinking, giving our brain a chance to work on other tasks or higher-level thinking. And because they are automatic there’s no need to build up a huge amount of willpower or motivation to get something done.

Habits over motivation –

Motivation is nice (when you have it) but it comes and goes and rarely stays around for long. So some days you’ll have it but most days you won’t. That’s where your habits step in. They’re something we do without giving it much thought or energy. Like brushing your teeth after a meal. It’s something you pay little attention to, you just do. Like all behaviors, exercise and eating well can become habits too, providing you more consistency than something like motivation.

Process vs results –

Focusing on results doesn’t lend itself to achieving goals. In most cases, we can’t help but feel some disappointment when we don’t get the results we want; when we want them. Part of being processed focus; is spending our time and energy working on things that are under our control. There is so much we don’t have control over (results are one of them) but we can control how hard we work at creating life-changing habits. This is the process we should invest our time and energy in; the creation of habits. You won’t achieve any results (much less great ones) unless all the habits you need are in place.

System for long-term success –

A system is a set of principles or procedures in which something is done; an organized framework or method. When you’re looking for permanent change, you have to put in place the foundation of a healthy lifestyle. That’s best achieved by creating a cohesive combination of habits like a system. Don’t have a system yet? No problem that’s what this guide is all about. It’s my hope that this guide will help you create a system that works for you. Building a network of habits that helps support not only your health but all aspects of your life for the long game.

THE PROCESS OF HABIT CREATION

Your success at creating a habit depends largely on your awareness and intent to do so. If we go through each day doing only what we’ve always done, we get stuck and continue with the same patterns. That’s because anything we do more than once has a chance of being a habit. This means it’s just as easy (if not easier) to pick up bad ones as it is to make new ones. In order to break free from where you are now and end the struggle of starting programs but not getting results to fully commit to creating a system of habits.

This is where all the work is done, this is what you focus on day in and day out. This is how you do it.

Start small –
Break down any large goal/habit into smaller components when possible. If your new habit is to exercise every day, make it an amount you know you can easily do. Don’t start out with a marathon session, start with just 10 minutes or even less if fitness is a new thing for you. It’s common to be too aggressive and over-ambitious with our habits so much so that creating them just isn’t sustainable.

One at a time –
It’s overwhelming to work on more than one habit at a time. Like juggling. It’’s easier to juggle one ball for a while but if you had two it doesn’t take long before you drop one if not both. Focus on the one habit you want to change, so you can dedicate all of your focus and energy in creating it.

Action-oriented –
Habits are a little different than goals. They are usually action based because they get down to our everyday behaviors. Like prepping for good nutrition, shopping, cooking, stretching, sleep, etc. Everything that you do (or need to do) to help you move forward towards your goals. So get specific with what you need to do and list it out in an action statement. For example, My habit is to write daily for at least 10 minutes, etc.

Anchor it –
It’s much easier to establish a new habit when you anchor it to an existing one. If you’re someone who reads the paper each morning (an established habit) you can anchor your new habit to this. Maybe after you read, you try 5-10 minutes of stretching every morning just to get the blood flowing and the joints moving from a long bout of sitting. Whatever the habit you’re trying to create figure out the best sequence (before or after an established habit) that works best for you. Try to keep it at that same time every day. This greatly increases your chance of creating a new habit.

Make it a daily thing –
When it’s possible try creating a habit that you can work on every day. If you want to be good at anything, you have to work at it every day. Habits work that way as well. As an example, it’s easier to create an exercise habit if you exercise daily. Even though the exercise itself changes it’s something that can be done consistently. For example, you can alternate walking one day and strength training the next. This way you’re doing your bait every day, shortening the time it takes to make it automatic.

GETTING RESULTS

Now that you have a system for creating goals, your next step is to learn to trust the process. It’s not an overnight type of thing. As you can’t decide to lose weight without the habits that support it. Otherwise, you might get short-term results but you’re completely jeopardizing your future. Many have tried diets with good results short term but fail when it’s extended beyond 6 months. Keep your focus on the process and develop a system of habits that help you sustain your progress. Moving more and eating better will just happen for you without much thought or inhuman willpower. The constant struggle goes away, and the longer you do it the more ingrained the habits become until they are a part of you.

Move Well, Live Better

Edward Scaduto

Past content related to this post:

1. Purpose
2. Goals

“People with goals succeed because they know where they are going.” – Earl Nightingale The goal – is the what

In, 1990 a couple of researchers Locke and Latham conducted an analysis on goal setting studies. They reported their findings in the paper “goals setting and task performance.”

They found that specific and challenging goals led to increased motivation and persistence. Especially when combined with feedback on progress toward the goal.

It even found that goal setting was helpful with creativity and problem solving as the individual was more focused on accomplishing the task.

So how can you set goals that you want to achieve?

HOW TO CREATE GOALS

You have to start with the bigger picture, your purpose, or your vision. Go here if you need more information on purpose.

This is the reason why you’re interested in fitness, health or performance or performance.

It may be a picture of how you physically want to look and feel.

Maybe it’s how well you can function so you can do what you want to do for as long as you want to do it.

Or maybe it’s because you still want to impact your world and being healthy and fit is the best vehicle to accomplish it.

Whatever it may be, successfully setting goals begins with your purpose.

FOCUS ON PURPOSE

Now, let this purpose (vision) give rise to your goals.

This is a crucial and often overlooked step.

If you create a goal without a purpose, then it’s likely something that would be nice to have at the moment but will soon be forgotten.

Your purpose gives you something tangible to hold onto, especially when you need that extra motivation to continue.

REVERSE ENGINEER

Now, take your purpose (vision) and list out all the major steps or all the things that must happen in order for you to reach your purpose.

Start from the very beginning and go all the way to the end.

Imagine you’ve reached your destination, what happens right before? This becomes your final goal.

Now work back from there.

Break it down into however many small steps you need to.

Keep in mind, each major action step, or event that you can identify is a goal for you.

Continue working yourself backward until you end up right where you are today.

Now you know the first goal, the last goal, and all the ones in between.

START SMALL AND BUILD MOMENTUM

One of the best ways to be successful at goal setting is to start with small goals.

Even after you found your first goal in reverse engineering, it may still be too big a task to start with.

So break that goal down if possible.

The idea is to start small and manageable enough that you guarantee success.

One small success leads to a bigger one.

Like a snowball that started as a single flake that rolled down the hill gaining more and more flakes.

By the time you get to the more challenging goals, you’ve built up enough momentum to tackle them.

HELPFUL TIPS

Set action oriented goals –

I recommended that some of your goals be action oriented instead of outcome oriented. These goals are more directly under your control. That’s something you don’t have when it comes to certain outcome oriented goals.

Kenny Eliason via Upsplash

Write your goals down on paper –

There’s something magical that happens when you put your pen to paper and write down what you want. It’s an extra step that shows commitment and it gives your goals some place to live. Place the list some where you can see it. Review it daily.

YOUR TIME, ENERGY, AND HEALTH

I hope this helps you on your journey to reaching your higher purpose.

If you set small goals that align with this idea, you’ll be making constant progress towards living your life with movement and purpose.

I know you can do it!

Move Better, Live Well

Ed Scaduto

Photo by Slav Romanov on Unsplash

In order to create change, having a long-term and sustainable source of motivation is essential.

That’s where purpose steps in.

It’s the big-picture idea or concept that helps you set goals and provides that fire you need for consistent action.

Examples of purpose

Your purpose is usually larger in scope and has an overarching effect on other areas of your life.

Where goals tend to focus on a specific detail.

As an example, my purpose may be to help 100, 000 people live healthier lives. A goal may be to start a business that provides a service that guides people to live in a way that supports health and longevity.

Or your purpose may be to enjoy retirement by traveling the world. Your goal may then be to rehab your knee injury so it doesn’t limit your movement or experience.

Your purpose is so important that it often supersedes your goals, given the reason why you have goals in the first place.

Why is it helpful?

Guide post

Your purpose helps you navigate your choices and challenges so you can stay on course.

It’s like a guide post. Helping you make decisions by asking “does this bring me closer to or further from my purpose.”

Think of all the choices you make each day on how you move, sleep, eat, and relate each day.

Did your choices move you closer or further to where you want to be in the future?

Alignment with your Goals

Use your purpose as a guide to help you set and create your goals.

This way each goal not only brings you to your purpose you are also aligned and in coherence with your purpose.

If your purpose and goals are not aligned then you’ll have extra friction when it comes to achieving your goals.

Fuel and motivation

Your purpose is what wakes you up in the morning, ready to go and work on your goals.

Yet anyone who has been on a journey of fitness, health, and personal transformation knows there will be days when you struggle.

Times when it seems impossible to work out or cook another meal.

When you’re in one of these moments, think about your purpose.

It can help you take one small action that moves you forward toward your goals.

Wrapping it up

Your purpose doesn’t have to be something big or extravagant.

It can be as simple as wanting to be healthy and independent as you get older.

As long as it’s important to you, it will powerful.

Use it to help you achieve your goals and to live and move on purpose.

Move Well, Live Better

Ed Scaduto

WHAT IS GOOD NUTRITION?

Everyone has different needs and requirements when it comes to nutrition. Instead of covering what a person needs specifically I want to go over which principles and concepts that are usually found in good nutritional programs. That way you can use it as a guide when you’re creating your own program or deciding on which one to follow.

Here’s some of the characteristics of a good nutrition program:

IT IS SUSTAINABLE – It must be something your willing and capable of doing for the rest of your life. Avoid following extreme diets that you can only do for short time. That includes diets that exclude entire food groups like carbs, or diets that focus on only one or a few foods, like the egg diet. Instead look for something you can incorporate into your lifestyle. Otherwise, it easy to fall in the yo-yo cycle of on a diet to lose weight until you stop the diet and gain it back. Look for habits and behaviors that you can modify or add to your current program so that you benefit from healthy eating for a lifetime.

IT GETS YOU RESULTS – An effective nutrition plan is not only sustainable but it also gives you the results you’re looking for. Whether that is weight loss, muscle gain, performance or any combination. If what your eating is not giving you the results you want then it’s time to make some changes. You’ll have to take an honest look at what you’re consuming and be open to trying some other strategies that may give you more results for the all the work you’re doing.

IT MUST FORTIFY HEALTH – Perhaps the most important thing we can do in terms of health and fitness is being aware of what we eat. In order to have health and vitality, we need to consume a variety of nutrients, plenty fiber, healthy fats and appropriate amount of carbs and proteins. These nutrients are found in abundance in whole natural foods like fruit, vegetables, whole grains and lean protein sources. Making sure that you’re eating all these foods daily is a great way to ensure that your body has what it needs to function and maintain health.

IT SUPPORTS ENERGY LEVELS AND PERFORMANCE – If you are walking around like a zombie with barely enough energy to get up off the couch then it’s time to adjust your calorie intake or your diet all together. A good nutrition program provides your body the nutrients it needs to create energy for all of it’s function, maintenance and performance. You need to be able to work out, do a training session, walk around the neighborhood, meet with family and friends, etc. If you’re exhausted then your exercise and other areas will suffer. And you’re not any healthier even if you’re losing weight. Health and fitness comes from the body adapting to the challenges of exercise, movement and participation. We can’t do that on an empty tank.

WHAT CHANGES DO YOU NEED TO MAKE?

Take a good inventory of your current nutritional intake. How are your energy levels, is your nutritional program supporting your activities? Your training?

Is it something you want to do for long term and most importantly is it making you healthy? How can you improve and make your nutrition plan better?

Keep Moving and Keep Improving,

Ed Scaduto
Precision Fitness

I’m sure you‘re aware of just how important our mindset is.

It can either expand or limit our beliefs and actions.

As an example, If you have a fixed mindset (the belief that if you’re not good at something you never will be) then you’re likely to pass up a on something that may be challenging to you at first.

On the contrary, if you have a growth mindset you’re more likely to struggle with the challenge until you get better. This mindset will have you expanding and enriching your life experience over time.

One of the biggest mindsets that I find myself struggling with recently and I know it can limit my actions is “I’m getting too old for this”.

Thinking this and even saying this once and a while kind of makes sense.

As I get older it’s easier to get sore, takes a little longer to recover, injuries (both major and minor) creep up and sometimes I’m just flat out of energy and need to rest.

That’s all part of the territory and it’s expected to a certain degree. But that doesn’t mean I have to give up on the things I enjoy or want to pursue.

I just have to be more tactical. Use shorter training sessions, pay more attention to recovery and listen to my body. This way I’ll continue my journey, I just take little detours here and there depending on how I’m feeling.

If I buy into the “I’m too old” mindset I’ll start to limit my experiences. I’ll avoid trying new things and I’ll likely give up on the things I can still do.

I’ll basically make it worse than it really is.

So I’ve worked on shifting my mindset from “I’m too old” to “I welcome the challenge.”

I know things will be more difficult as I get older. It’s going to take longer to prepare and recover and I may not be my best all the time. 

But I won’t give up, I’ll show up and face the challenge.

That is best done by letting go of the comparison of how I was when I was younger or the expectations I have for the future. I’ll be open to what is happening in that moment and have no expectation of myself other than to try my best.

It’s this small but important shift that helps me continue doing what I love.

Do you have any mindsets that limit your fitness or health?

Anything that you may need to shift?

Keep Moving,

Ed Scaduto

Photo by kylie De Guia on Unsplash

I had this belief that “more is better.” I approached my fitness and physical activity with this mindset. Every time I worked out, I wasn’t satisfied with the number of reps I completed or the number of exercises I finished. For me, I wanted to do more. I raced against the clock to do finish in less time or lift more weights than the time before.

With this mindset, I quickly became frustrated and burnout soon followed. I even struggled to find the motivation or willpower to work out. The aches, pains, and injuries piled up and after suffering for so long, I finally made a change.

I searched for a better approach and found that it was my mindset that was my biggest challenge. I had to let go of my ego (Bye – Bye “More is Better” belief) and embarked on a journey towards a mindset that supported my fitness goals and, more importantly, my health.

Changing my mindset may seem simple but it proved to be quite difficult. My process can be your gain. By bringing awareness to what is holding you back, you can take the necessary steps to move forward – physically and mentally.

Three Mindsets to Avoid:

1. No Pain, No Gain

This is where you exercise to failure to force your body to get quicker results.

The danger when applied for long periods of time is that it’s too much for your body. Going all out, all the time, depletes your energy and motivation. This makes being consistent more and more of a challenge. with out consistency you’re not going to get the results you want.

Did you know that when you’re ignoring your body’s cues during exercise, you’re conditioning your body to associate pain with exercise? If exercise is not enjoyable, fulfilling and positive, your motivation or consistency in the long run will suffer and you’re not likely to meet your fitness goals.

2. More is Better

There is a saying that “more isn’t always better, more is often just more.”

What this means is there is a sweet spot of training where the time you spend provides you the greatest amount of benefit in return. On the other hand, you can double your time and effort in training but only get a fraction of the benefit since your body can only tolerate so much work. If you continue to do more, this can lead to degrading the body and eventually injury.

3 – All or Nothing

Rarely does the “all in” effort match your expectations. When this happens, you quit. You may give 100% for 8 weeks with the goal to lose 15 pounds only to lose much less. As a result, you lose motivation and stop training all together.

When you don’t meet your goals in your time-frame, it’s a big blow. You may bounce between different programs in an effort to find the one that works because of this “all or nothing” mindset. Being at the two extremes of “all or nothing” instead of the middle ground will only lead to failure. You need to recognize that meeting your goals is a process that you need to trust.

How do you address these problematic mindsets?

Though these mindsets start with good intention, they inherently fail. Fitness doesn’t have to be binary, where it’s “all or nothing” and an “on again and off again” approach. It doesn’t have to be about working out to the point failure or ignoring pain. It also doesn’t have to be about doing more and more, until you’ve exhausted yourself mentally and physically.

Training is great for your mind, body and spirit. With correct planning and the right mindset, it can be sustainable and enrich your life while transforming your body. If you can see fitness through the lens of the long term benefits in health, body and mind, you will be on the right path to change.

My approach to fitness looks at all these aspects for optimal well-being. The “MOVEMENT” FIRST mindset is a unique and different approach to fitness that I can’t wait to share in following blog posts.

Stay tuned and keep moving,

Ed Scaduto