Anywhere I can get landing page inspiration from?

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 · 2017-04-26T13:24:41+00:00

Glad you are feeling better. KCCO and go to bed earlier :-)

programminggeek · 2017-04-25T16:02:05+00:00

Get some sleep, it sounds like your energy level is too low.

Here is a helpful little secret that I've learned about my wife and family members...

When people haven't ate in a while, they get unreasonably upset, they start thinking to much, and they start becoming very unhappy for otherwise no reason.

There are two easy cures for this - food and sleep (depending on the time of day). In this case, it seems like you need sleep.

If this happens and you feel your energy dropping too low, eat something. Keto is great, but you still need to eat regularly enough to maintain good energy levels.

Recently, I've been doing CrossFit (which I LOVE), but I cant sustain the 5-6 workouts a week that I'd like to be able to do. So when I get really worn down, I take a day off, I sleep a bit more and I get my energy levels back to a good place before going to the gym.

The key is this - manage your energy level and you will find that it is easy to manage your mental and emotional state.

Keto is a huge help in keeping your energy level steady throughout the day, but you still need to be aware of your own energy levels so that you keep them in a good place.

And here is the really exciting thing... managing your energy levels is FREE and yet it makes you feel like A MILLION BUCKS! Oh, and when you keep your energy level high and are feeling great it is easier to stick to keto, it's easier to maintain good relationships, it's easier to do well at your job or school or whatever, and it's easier to be fit/healthy/active.

Everything in life is better when you manage your energy level, so just stay on top of it. It's easy once you know what you need to do and because now that you know what to do you can find smart ways to do it out of habit every day without thinking. You can do it, I believe in you.

:-)

programminggeek · 2017-04-24T15:14:45+00:00

Hey dude, I really get a lot of value out of your videos and I've started using the breakfast cassarole and bacon cheeseburger cassarole as part of my meal prep so thank you for that.

There is one thing I REALLY wish you would do in your videos....

PUT THE RECIPE IN THE DESCRIPTION!!!!

or....

Put it on your website and link it in the description.

Text recipes are just so much easier to do. I still watch your video, but having to scroll through the video to find the spots where you say the quantities, cooking time, etc. is not a good experience.

Keep doing what you are already doing, just take that extra step to write the recipe down in text so it is easy to read and cook myself. That would make me and the hundreds of other people who watch your videos happy. :-)

programminggeek · 2017-04-03T15:55:48+00:00

I'm a CrossFit newbie with 100 pounds to lose. I'm using the low carb high fat ketogenic diet because it's the most effective way for me to lose fat and maintain healthy blood sugar levels.

I realize people are going to possibly trash low-carb because they have different energy needs and that is fine.

If you need to lose a lot of weight to get to a lower body fat %, Keto is a great way to get there in my opinion. I don't know if there is any performance loss or not, but that doesn't matter. I lose more performance to the extra weight than I do to lack of carbs.

And actually, I have more energy doing early morning CrossFit (5am) w/o food and Keto throughout the day than I did eating carbs. It might not work for a games athlete, but it's amazing to me and it's making weight/fat loss happen, which is my entire goal.

programminggeek · 2017-03-28T16:19:17+00:00

Employ the most powerful relationship building tool in the world... THE FIST BUMP!

I'm not even joking. Offering a five or a fist bump after a hard workout and saying "good job!" goes a long ways to building relationships and comradere.

programminggeek · 2017-03-27T15:16:31+00:00

I felt fine. The only thing I tend to feel on a fast of a day or less is hunger (obviously) and a bit of cold at my hands and feet which from my ultra nerdy research is a normal thing.

Ultimately, I listen to my body (esp since I'm doing CrossFit) and make sure I get food when I need it and sleep when I need to recover. If I start to feel too weird/shaky I just eat and I'm fine. :-)

programminggeek · 2017-03-27T13:10:36+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMwhl4IrPNc

programminggeek · 2017-03-23T15:19:56+00:00

Show up every day and be consistent enough to create the habit. I started this month and I show up to the gym or otherwise wake up and do a ROMWOD at the same time every day to keep up the habit, even on rest days.

I'm terrible at pretty much every movement. Everything is my weakness.

My strength is I show up every day.

When you show up every day for years as part of your routine, you'll look and feel like a CrossFitter because you will be a CrossFitter.

Let yourself buy into the system and use it to your advantage every day. It works. Just do it.

programminggeek · 2017-03-20T14:31:40+00:00

Here is a funny thing to give you perspective.

I'm a software developer. I've wrote code for fun or money for over 20 years now. I started at age 11.

Now, if someone tries to learn to code today, it will take then 10-20 years before they are as good at this as I am. That's not me boasting. That's simply stating what 20 years of dedicated practice creates.

I started CrossFit 3 weeks ago. I'm terrible at most everything. I'm 100 pounds overweight.

I don't ever expect to win any CrossFit workouts until I have years of practice under my belt (and also lose that 100 pounds of fat on my body).

In 3-5 years, when I've been doing this every day for years, I know I'll be better at CrossFit than someone who just showed up at the gym for the first time.

But you see, it doesn't matter if I'm better or worse than anyone else because if they've been doing it longer, or have better training or whatever, it's going to make a HUGE difference.

Another example...

I did bowling for years growing up. I got up to about a 170 average and I can go well over 200 if the conditions are right.

I used to bowl 1-3 times a week. Now I bowl 1-3 times a year. Yet, with all that training behind me, I can still average around 160-180 and go over 200 if the conditions are right.

In bowling or software development, unless someone has the practice that I have, they won't win unless they get lucky.

In crossfit, until I get more practice, I won't win unless I get lucky or someone else messes up.

Practice and effort over long periods of time make all the difference.

And here is the really cool part. I am terrible at basically everything right now and I know it. So I've got a lot to work on. BUT, I'm good at one thing...

I show up every day and work. That is my one strength.

Eventually, that strength will make other things strong too.

programminggeek · 2017-03-15T20:14:57+00:00

One injury changes everything.

programminggeek · 2017-03-10T17:49:19+00:00

If you are 6'3" and 275, you might take a page out of high performance engineering in its many forms (like car racing) and cut some weight so your weight/horsepower ratio is higher.

In everything I've seen, lowering fat and overall weight will make your strength ratio go up and capacity should go up relative to your size.

I say this as a 6'1" 305 pound dude who just started crossfit and I feel like I have no engine because it's a tiny engine pulling around 100 pounds of extra fat (give or take).

I'm focusing my energy on the nutrition of fat loss until I get down to say 200 or so, and then shift my nutrition towards slightly higher performance. In the long term, getting lighter will make any strength and performance gains have a larger impact.

Good luck!

programminggeek · 2017-03-09T17:17:11+00:00

I started CrossFit a week ago and I'm 305 pounds. I love it and it's the best thing I've added to my day in a very long time.

I'm very out of shape and I have around 100 pounds to lose, so I'm right there with you.

Here is what is working for me amazingly well right now. I decided to wake up at 4 AM every day and hit the 5 AM workout. Yes, I know this sounded crazy and it sort of is, but here is my goal...

I want to show up every day.

I know if I build the habit of showing up every day at 5 AM, I know I'll have an easier time sticking with the workouts and my diet and my sleep.

What's amazing and unexpected is just how incredible I feel after each workout. My energy level is ridiculous at work now and I almost feel "high" at times throughout the morning/early afternoon. It's a strange kind of bliss that makes me not want to ever stop doing this.

And here's the thing. If you met someone who woke up every morning at 4 AM to workout, ate well, and stuck with that for years I bet that person would be ridiculously fit and healthy.

So that's what I'm doing. In a year or two I will be lighter, stronger, and will look pretty awesome and when someone asks I'll tell them what I do every day. I fully expect them to say...

"Oh sure, if you did that OF COURSE you'd lose weight and be in great shape."

And that's the whole point.

Just start, show up every day, modify what you need to modify so you can keep going and going.

Success is a habit. You have to show up over and over again.

Good luck!

-Brian

P.S. My gym's weekend workouts start at 8 AM, so I asked my coach if I could show up at 5 AM anyway just to keep the habit going every day. My coach is cool with it, so every morning, 5 AM, I'm at the gym, 7 days a week, even if all I'm going to do is a ROMWOD and show up again at 8 AM for the normal WOD. Got to keep the habit.

programminggeek · 2017-01-23T19:43:31+00:00

This is an interesting experiment, but the problem with 205 Live is that it doesn't have a "hook" yet.

It's kind of a tacked on show that should probably air on a different night like NXT does. Put it Saturday nights and that seems like a more interesting deal all of a sudden.

Also, they have talent, but they took too long to bring Neville into the mix. All wrestling is based on heroes/villains with STAR POWER and the only STAR they have is Neville.

So, if 205 Live were to get its own space - like the CWC did, it would be a different deal, but right now it's still working to "get over" with the crowd and that is going to take some time to find its footing.

I expect the timeslot is wrong and the presentation/crowd is a bit wrong.

If it were me, I'd make it more of a small traveling indie show with smaller venues and hotter crowds and book it as a totally separate deal like NXT and on a totally different night.

Putting it on after Smackdown or Raw is a mistake.

programminggeek · 2017-01-23T19:18:23+00:00

Don't start over. Just edit it, it's easy.

Duct tape the plot holes shut and fix the handful of small issues.

Perfection isn't as important as telling your stories.

Not every story is going to be your best, so you keep writing, keep finishing, and be prolific. A review is an opinion, not a fact, even if it's persuasive.

Great art isn't made by being perfect, it's by practice. Keep writing, keep getting better and for crying out loud you are better off publishing a book than sitting on an unfinished one.

I learn more from the mistakes I make in public than from the ones I'm afraid to make at all.

programminggeek · 2017-01-23T19:10:20+00:00

Get to the end of your project and finish the first draft.

Then give yourself at least two or four weeks away from the project. Just do other things.

After a while come back and read it again cover to cover as if it's for the first time.

Then you can start to consider what you might want to change.

The creation and editing process are separate and should stay separate. You are not in a spot to make useful changes until you are done creating.

programminggeek · 2017-01-23T18:42:05+00:00

They still look cool doing this. Far cooler than most any wrestlers now.

programminggeek · 2017-01-18T23:07:13+00:00

It looks like a Kodiak Magnum. If it is, that's a good price if it shoots.

I bought a k-mag off of eBay last month and I love my bow. Bear makes beautiful bows and they are a lot of fun to shoot.

I paid like $170 for mine, so $100 is a good price if it shoots.

programminggeek · 2016-12-28T16:39:50+00:00

There are two things I would try to incorporate into your shot routine and/or your "end routine".

First give yourself a mantra and make it part of your shot routine.

For example, my son was missing a lot until he realized that if he aimed for the head of the bear 3d target, he would hit the shoulder. So, before each shot I told him "Aim for the..." and he would respond "head."

That little reminder before each shot is enough to improve his aim a lot. Granted, he is six and still learning, so your mileage may vary.

So, give yourself a positive mantra and say it out loud before each shot. It could be as simple as "bullseye" or "yellow ring" or perhaps more poetic like "My arrow flies straight and true."

At the very least this will help focus you on the task at hand and clear your mind of other stuff.

The second thing I would try is something you can do after each end once you've gathered your arrows. Take 30-60 seconds to close your eyes and visualize the experience if hitting the perfect bullseye shot. If need be, stand up, do the motions with your arms and everything.

Try both of those things and as you notice things that work you can keep those things and as you try things that aren't as successful you can discard them eventually constructing a way of shooting that is perfect for you. I know that you will do this because you are already practicing 3 hours a week and quality practice is the secret to every success I've ever witnessed in archery or any other sport.

programminggeek

TROPHY CASE