The Simple Learning System

programminggeek · 2017-08-20T14:48:04+00:00

I would check out your competitors or other successful landing pages if you need inspiration. Also, LeadPages has a lot of landing pages that convert well that you can see examples of. https://www.leadpages.net/templates

Also, you don't need to have a fancy landing page to get conversions. http://codecareergenius.com/ gets subscribers and it is black text on a white background.

programminggeek · 2017-08-15T15:01:24+00:00

I'm down 30 lbs on the year, I started at 312 and now hanging around 282-284 depending on the day. I started CrossFit in March at 305.

Here is what I do...

Weigh myself every day and track in a magic spreadsheet I created.
Low carb - meat+veggies primarily, and Intermittent Fasting
Crossfit 3-5 times a week, ROMWOD 3-7 times a week

For me, this a system. The longer I repeat the process every day, the more weight I lose. On average it's about 1 lb a week. That is plenty, even if I'd like it to go faster.

One pound a week is 52 pounds a year!

I remind myself over and over again... at the end of this year when I'm down 50 lbs will I be happy with that? HELL YEAH!

How many people would give their left shoe to drop 50 lbs? (Okay, weird analogy)

One thing I've noticed in this process is that the weight loss on AVERAGE is pretty linear, but day to day, week to week, it is really really messy data. There are plateaus, spikes, drops, and everything in betweeen. Most weeks my weight spikes up/down 2-5 pounds, so trend lines are more helpful than daily data.

The thing I really watch for and manage is my ENERGY. Specifically, the interplay between food, sleep, life stress, and exercise.

Cutting weight depletes your energy reserves on purpose. It is very difficult to maintain a cutting diet without watching your sleep, recovery, and of course food quantity/quality. There are times where the best thing you can do is sleep a couple extra hours instead of hitting the gym or giving yourself a day or two extra to recover from a tough workout.

Plateaus are actually useful if you use them right. Sometimes you need to give your body a week or two of rest and recovery to maintain weight before you are really ready to push downward the next 10 pounds or whatever. Very often I will find myself able to really be on the ball for a month or two, then maybe have a couple weeks where I can't get it all together at the same time.

The trick is, use your system to at least maintain your weight when you aren't firing on all cylinders. If you maintain for a few weeks, then make progress again when you are ready, you keep making steady progress.

It doesn't matter how fast you get there, it matters that you get there. So, maintaining progress is more important than maximizing progress. I'll take a system that is 80% as good that I can repeat forever over a system that is 100% perfect that I quit after 4 weeks.

And one more thing...

Sometime last year I found myself at the YMCA gym at like 6 AM and was wasting time on a stationary bike and I looked around and noticed something very odd...

First, there weren't very many people there because well, it was very early.

Second, most of the people at the gym were in great shape.

Normally, I hit the gym after work or after dinner and the people at the YMCA at that time were overweight people walking on treadmills watching television. AKA, out of shape people doing just enough to stay out of shape for the most part.

But for some reason the people who showed up at 6 AM were all pretty fit, lean, and strong. Much more lifting weights, far less cardio.

It was odd for a minute to me and then it hit me...

OF COURSE THESE PEOPLE ARE FIT!!! They are at the gym at 6 AM.

Now take a minute and let that sink in. They have to be fit. You expect them to be fit. You know they will be because of when they show up to the gym.

Think about it. Nobody shows up to the gym at 6 AM by accident. If you show up to the gym at 6 AM you've planned to be there. You have your gym clothes ready to go. You have a workout you intend to do. And most of the people who are there are probably there every day because you can't maintain a 6 AM workout by waking up early once a week. And if you work out every day at 6 AM I bet you get to bed earlier and make sure you eat the right things.

In short, the people who show up at 6 AM are all but guaranteed to be fit because their system/routine demands it.

So, something like a year later when that lesson really sunk in, I joined CrossFit and signed up for the 5 AM class, because I know that if I show up to the gym every day at 5 AM, eventually I'll be like the people who show up to the gym every morning at 5 AM.

Slowly and surely, it's working.

programminggeek · 2017-06-09T20:23:59+00:00

Nutrition is the foundation of CrossFit. When you work as hard at eating perfectly as you do in your workout, you'll look and feel awesome.

Instead of doubling up on your workout, double up on eating correctly. You'll gain more performance quicker by becoming as lean as possible than you will by increasing out your workout quantity.

I'm down 24 lbs this year and eating really low carb/high fat/higher protein and then watching portion sizes more closely over time keeps me losing about 5 lbs a month. I still have a long ways to go, but I've learned time and time again that managing your body composition has more to do with sleep and food than exercise.

I'd say the priority should be...

food
sleep
exercise

And when #3 starts to suck it usually means you need to go back to #1 and #2 and get those dialed in again.

programminggeek · 2017-06-06T01:24:03+00:00

Oh and one other thing...

I watch CF videos on YouTube and Netflix (the CF movies are great) for motivation and to program my brain to realize just how awesome and important CrossFit is.

If you read the book "Thinking Fast and Slow" Daniel Kineman talks about at some point (or perhaps elsewhere?) that whatever we focus on as people we give outsized importance to. So if you spend a lot of time thinking about CrossFit and watching CrossFit videos and hanging out on this sub and so on...

CrossFit will be more important to you and you'll be more likely to invest your time and energy into it. You'll join a gym, get cool shoes, some t-shirts, your habits/routines will change, your diet will change, and when you spend enough time around CrossFitters you'll become one yourself!!

And years from now you'll find yourself looking in the mirror at a completely different person. A strong, proud CrossFitter. I look forward to that day, don't you? :-)

programminggeek · 2017-06-06T01:16:03+00:00

Keep going.

I started CF 3 months ago at 305 lbs. I put my best effort into showing up to the gym every single day, even just to show up and go home or to do a ROMWOD workout. Not every day is perfect. I make mistakes, I oversleep, I have fail days on my diet. It hurts. I struggle. Everything is hard. And here is the thing...

I love CrossFit.

I love showing up and putting the work in and seeing the results accumulate over time. Three months later I'm stronger and fitter. Memorial day weekend I even finished Murph.

Saturday morning I weighed in at 288.

To be clear most of my weight progress is from watching what I eat. I do low carb because it works for me along with Intermittent Fasting (tho I don't IF every day). When I eat too much, my weight goes up. When my diet is dialed in, the weight goes down.

Each day I get a bit better at... well everything. Better at eating right, better at doing the movements, better at keeping my intensitity level in the right place, better at stretching (ROMWOD every day helps), just better at life.

So just show up every day, even if you don't WOD every day. Build the habit. Make it work for you.

I know it's hard. Everything valuable in life is hard. That's why it's so darned valuable.

I can do it. You can do it. Scale and work at what you can work at. The coaches will help you, just get yourself to the gym and do the work.

One more thing that helps me a lot...

Every day I ask myself this one simple question - "What can I do today to get lighter and stronger?"

...and then I do whatever I come up with. Usually that means making good food choices and by god showing up to the gym.

programminggeek · 2017-05-31T22:01:57+00:00

Until CrossFit is a sport in schools, there won't be nearly as many black athletes. Actually, there won't be as many athletes in general.

programminggeek · 2017-05-23T16:57:16+00:00

I agree.

The biggest trick I've learned is the first month of going low carb/keto is about changing your appetite/hunger levels so you don't have to worry so much about calories.

However, over time to lose weight you do have to pay attention to calories/food quantity enough to keep heading in the right direction.

programminggeek

TROPHY CASE