#42: Three Things Slowing Down Your Progress

Hey Friends,

I’ve talked multiple times in this newsletter about trying to simplify your fitness routine.

People always ask me: “Ben, if I should change one thing, what would have the biggest impact?”

This week, I’m answering that question by giving you the three things that will make a huge difference in reaching (or not reaching) your fitness goals.

In the name of keeping things simple, if you follow these three things I talk about today and do nothing else, there’s a good chance you’ll see improvements in your physique.

Weekly Action Point

🙏 We’re going to implement a nightly moment of gratitude this week 🙏 

Every night before bed, I want you to think about one thing from that day you’re grateful for, and one thing you did that day that you are proud of.

These can be small things, they don’t have to be anything crazy.

And thinking about them each night before bed should take you no longer than 60 seconds.

It might sound silly, but there are a variety of studies that show how a simple practice like this can have a huge impact on our mental health.

So this week, take 60 seconds each night before bed to be conscious and remind yourself that you are doing awesome.

Three things killing your fitness goals

In my opinion, there are three things I see all the time that are huge barriers for people in their fitness goals:

1. Eating out too frequently

2. Drinking too much alcohol

3. Not sleeping enough

Let’s start by breaking down the first one: eating out too frequently.

Believe me, I get it.

Food that you eat out often tastes much better than what you can cook at home.

There’s also a huge social component to eating meals out with friends and family.

Not to mention, when you eat out, you don’t have to grocery shop, prepare food, or do the dishes. It’s extremely convenient and delicious to eat meals out of the house.

I asked ChatGPT to give me some statistics about eating out in America, and I thought they were interesting, so here they are:

• Americans dine out approximately 4.3 times per week on average

• About 65% of Americans dine out or order takeout at least once per week

• Around 32% of adults dine out daily

• The average American spends around $3,000 on dining out per year

The fact of the matter is, eating out isn’t as healthy as preparing food yourself.

While yes, it’s true that there are healthier options to choose from when you are eating out, restaurants make money by making their food taste good. Not by helping you reach your fitness goals.

How do they make it taste good? Adding a bunch of calories or with ultraprocessed ingredients.

Take, for instance, the following screenshot of the Sweetgreen menu I took from their website:

The point here isn’t to demonize Sweetgreen, because they have higher-quality ingredients than 95% of the restaurants out there.

Rather, my point is that everyone thinks of them as being healthy, when in reality most of the options on their menu are high in calories. The same is true for other “healthy” restaurant options like Crisp&Green, Chipotle, or when ordering the healthy option on a menu at a restaurant.

I’m of the belief that making food yourself is the number 1 healthiest way you can be eating. Especially when you are trying to prioritize whole foods and protein when preparing your meals.

Am I saying you should never eat out?

Of course not. There are tons of benefits to eating out that I mentioned above, independent of how they impact your health and fitness goals.

But if you are serious about trying to see change in your body, you should probably reduce how often you are eating meals out. In my opinion, one meal per week is a good spot to be.

What about #2 on my list, drinking too much alcohol?

I’m going to assume most of you reading this are aware that alcohol doesn’t exactly fall into the “health food” category.

Like eating out, there are tons of benefits to alcohol that make it enticing.

Again, there’s a big social component to going out and getting drinks with friends, coworkers, or family.

Some would even argue that the social benefits of drinking alcohol outweigh any negative health effects of alcohol.

Alcohol can allow you to loosen up and have a good time.

With that said, if you have muscle-building or fat loss goals, alcohol is not your friend.

It’s extremely calorically dense, making fat loss difficult when you only look at that component.

However, when you go beyond calories, it also negatively impacts sleep, recovery, and mood in the following days (yes, days) after drinking.

Trying to lose fat or build muscle while consistently drinking alcohol is like walking up an escalator that is going down. Could you make it to the top? Yes, of course. But it’s going to be a hell of a lot harder than just going on the escalator that’s going up or taking the stairs.

You don’t have to give up drinking completely, but you should definitely moderate your intake. Here are some simple rules of thumb to follow:

• Don’t drink alone. Only enjoy alcohol when there is a social component to it.

• Try to limit your drinking to one day per week (or even better, once per month)

• When you do drink, avoid the extremely sugary options. Mix with diet pop, order the skinny marg, etc.

And finally on the list is #3: Not sleeping enough.

This really should be number one, because honestly, I think that sleep is a bigger deal than either eating out or drinking.

Sleep is really where our body makes changes. It’s where we lose fat or actually build muscle, so not prioritizing sleep is doing yourself a disservice.

If you are only sleeping 6 or 7 hours per night, you are going to make it real difficult on yourself to see any change at all.

In my opinion, 8 hours should be a minimum. Not a once in a while “hey I happened to sleep great last night”.

Do some backwards math. Get in bed 9 hours before your alarm is going to go off. If you wanna scroll on your phone for a little bit, go for it (it’s not ideal, but we’re picking our battles here).

Phone should be off or book should be down 8 ½ hours before your alarm. Then taking into account the time it takes to fall asleep, you set yourself up for success to get that 8 hour minimum of sleep.

Sorry that this week’s newsletter got a little bit longer.

Candidly, I could probably do 10 individual newsletters on each of these three topics.

Eat out less, drink less, and sleep more. If you focus on that and do nothing else, I’m extremely confident that you will be happy with your results.

Ben’s Best

Here’s a meal I came across this week that I thought looked amazing.

It’s a little bit more effort, so maybe it’s more of a weekend meal than something you are pulling together quickly after work. But it’s a great example that you can make great tasting food at home, it just takes a little bit more effort :)

ice.karimcooks

2M followers

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Also, here is a great meal prep recipe. Easy way to add a ton of flavor and make meals for the week. (Meal prepping is an awesome way to cut down on how often you are eating out)

stealth_health_life

4M followers

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Have a great week everyone!

Remember to tell yourself that you are doing awesome.

If you ever have any questions about health/fitness, feel free to reach out to me. I’m always open to helping or providing guidance in any way that I can.

Ben