January 2019 Links and Review

Every week, my newsletter subscribers get links to some of the goodies that I’ve come across on the internets.

Here were the goodies that my peeps got their learn on in January.

If you want to get a copy of my weekend learning goodies every Friday, fill out the form below.  That way you can brag to all your friends about the cool things you’ve learned over the weekend.

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Meditation is Powerful – Biggest Lesson of the Month

With the combination of working my face off and personal struggles the last couple months, things were getting in a challenging and not so good spot for me.

To make matters worse, when stress is high my bloat is real. So I be looking like I’m preggers all day errday, and not in the cool, Arnold Schwarzenegger in Junior way.

While I’ve been making many positive health changes, perhaps the most impactful has been upping my meditation. Normally, I try to get 10 minutes a day or so if I’m lucky, but I’ve bumped my daily amount to anywhere from 25-45 minutes a day! I’ve been amazed at how much calmer I’ve been, my stress has melted away, and I deal with high pressure/high stress situations with so much more ease. Oh, and my bloating has went WAY down.

My go-to app for meditating has been a combo of Brain.fm and Insight Timer. I use the former for background noise, and the latter as a timer. The results have been legit.

As for specific meditation, I like the breathing/mantra meditation advocated in the book “Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It” (which is a great little read if you haven’t checked it out). With that, you simply focus on deep breathing with a small caveat: say “I love myself” on inhales. If you find your mind wandering, simply smile. Incredibly effective.

How has meditation helped you? What strategy do you use? Comment below and let us know!

Rehabilitation

Want to get into training after an injury? Look at bodybuilders?!?!

My boi Lance Goyke (finally back to blogging) just put out a dope article on how to improve form, train post-injury/post-pain, and the fix is actually quite simple.

So, what exactly is movement variability?

Lot’s of peeps claim they are restoring variability, but what do they actually mean by that? If you want a great overview, you’ll want to check out this article, which elucidates what exactly we are talking about with this buzzword…and what we are not. Who knew a PT journal could actually come out with good content? #shotsfired

How your tongue impacts breathing

I recently had a frenuloplasty done to see if I could get some improvements on breathing and sleep, and so far I’ve liked the results.

My surgeon, Dr. Zaghi, is the go-to guy on this, and he did a q&a on why impacting the oral airway is so important, and how it can improve a myriad amount of health problems.

If you want to see a cool video on why nasal breathing is important, check this video out.

Touch your toes for once will ya?

I got this great toe touch variation from Daddy-O Pops Bill Hartman, that emphasizes restoring normal pelvic dynamics to allow for better toe touch skills.

After a few rounds, i was touching my toes like it was nobody’s bidness. Give it a shot!

Personal Development

Who hugs longer, you or others?

I got recommended this book that explains the dynamics between people who are overly loving and those who are overly distant, and how attracted these people are to one another. If you fall into either camp, this book is an essential read. It gets a bit psychobabble at times, but the ways to execute changing the way you relate to others are gold.

Want an impactful life? Eliminate the BS

I’ve been a big fan of implementing Essentialist principles, but this podcast that Greg McKeown did with Tim Ferris was incredibly practical. I loved how he dissected some of Tim’s own extraneous problems. Seeing the practical application of the principles was insightful for some of the areas I need to focus on. I hope it does the same for you.

Well, taxes suck, but here’s how you can maximize your returns

No one likes taxes, but this helpful guide  and this one shows you all the wild and crazy ways you can maximize your tax return on 2018.

When you get that big refund you didn’t expect, I welcome any donations 😉

It’s ok to be wrong, but how wrong should you be?

We’ve all taken easy classes, and we’ve all been over our head in a topic, but is there a sweet spot for learning? Enter this article, which gives a pragmatic approach to tackling topics to learn.

Big point: you shouldn’t be crushing all the time, fam!

How much would you pay to relive old experiences?

What’s worth more, watching your favorite team win the championship, or reliving your first kiss? This post outlines what people would pay to relive past experiences, and I think you would be surprised at the results.

Who knows, you might even spend less time on your phone afterwards 😉

A Must-Read for Milleneals

Feeling burned out? You are not alone. This article saliently highlights just how bad the millennials have it: overworked, underpaid, hyperfocused, and pulled in so many directions.

While the cure is hard to find, my hope is that as you read this article, it pushes you to strive for a better life, to find anyway possible to get out of the rat race. I know that’s my goal.

Health and Wellness

The most important meal of the day is…

There is some controversy surrounding the importance of breakfast. You have those advocates of intermittent fasting suggesting it’s cool to skip it, others saying it’s the key meal of the day. Who is right?

Well, if you want to see how breakfast impacts your exercise performance in the evening, you may want to check out this infographic from my boi Yann Le Meur.

Could YOU be the future of healthcare?

With all the wild crazy things going on in the world, you can often at times feel hopeless. But what if you could impact your local community in a favorable way? That and so much more came from this interview that Lucy “The Holistic Fitness Connector Herself” Hendricks did with Terry Wahls. Yes, the Terry Wahls that recovered from MS.

In this, you’ll be exposed to how policy gets healthcare wrong, and what you can do to make an impact in healthcare.

Are you a nightowl and have to live in the real world? You probably want to check out this guide

The world is simply not built for nightowls. Alarm clocks, early morning buses, 8am starts. WTF?

That’s where this guide comes in handy. If you are a night owl who is forced into the lark life (aka me), then following these steps ought to drop the stress-load of the shift change.

Take care of your mind…on your phone

We do tons of stuff to take care of our physical health, but how much effort do we focus on our mental health? Especially when it’s hard to find a good therapist. That’s where Talkspace comes in.

Talkspace is an app on your phone where you can get one-on-one time with a qualified mental health practitioner, going as little as daily text to as much as a weekly phone call, and the process has been convenient, affordable, and effective.

The best part? If you don’t jive with your current therapist, you can switch to someone else as often as you want, no consequence.

Is fasting all it’s cracked up to be?

Seems like everyone is IF’ing these days, but this article takes an honest appraisal of the science, or lack thereof, when it comes to fasting.

A couple years ago I got super lean experimenting with some fasting, but there were also some not-so-friendly consequences that happened while I did it. Big thing – jury is still out currently, be safe, fam.

Depression goes much deeper than you’d think

I listened to this podcast which goes way deep into depression science, and provides some interesting potential treatments.

If you are feeling down and want to buy that sauna, here’s your justification.

How heart rate impacts your sleep

The Oura Ring website has been a treasure trove of sleep info, and I really liked this post on heart rate patterns during a sleep cycle. It will give you some insights in terms of all the wild and crazy things that can impact your sleep quality.

Miscellaneous