Are You Playing YOUR Game Or Theirs?

I want this post to be a thought provoking piece. I want you to take a step back after reading it and just think about why you’re doing what you’re doing.

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Why does an individual’s health get shoved to the back burner? Everything else is more important to society and the status game. Everything except how healthy you are matters to others.

What car do you have? What do you do? Where do you live? How big is your yacht? Where’s your beach house? How much does that pay? These are the topics I hear people speak about first and foremost when catching up.

The last thing I hear someone ask if they ever ask it is, "how is your health?"

That should be everyone's first question!!

I don't give a shit if you have a Bugatti but are withering away so quickly from disease that you aren't able to enjoy it. If you’re so sick that you can’t enjoy the fruits of your labor, you may have missed the point a bit and got caught up in a game. More on that in a second.

I’m going to tell you a story, okay? Okay.

There was a couple I met once through friends and got to know a little bit about. I had agreed to help my friend move some furniture for them. This story is the day we arrived at their home.

I would arrive at a beautiful home on tons of wide open, pristine land in the country. The house, perfectly placed in a backdrop of Midwestern rolling plains, looked as if it were right out of a painted scene.

The yard perfectly manicured, landscaped to the nines, accompanied by beautiful vehicles parked in front. It seemed to be a very comfortable living from the outside and presumably a happy one.

It looked like a successful life by most of society’s standards.

Shortly after pulling up I ventured into the home and would meet its occupants. The entire scene changed from one of success, beauty, and bliss to one of stress, pain, and illness.

I wandered into a home where in front of me was a poor woman who was nothing more than a shell of what I would consider to be a vibrant, healthy human. Dwindling away at an alarming rate from cancer with only a few months to live.

Her husband had been stricken by a different form of cancer and was currently undergoing chemotherapy. BOTH of them had cancer. They were in their early 60's and things were not looking good.

These were not healthy and vibrant people enjoying the material pursuits that they had accumulated over the years.

This gentleman had taken an extended lunch from his job that he had had for 25+ years. He only had a short time to let us in before he had to head back to work and leave his wife in the care of one of their friends.

All of that beautiful land, and the beautiful home, and the new vehicles do not pay for themselves. The bills still stacked up even in their poor health.

“I had a bit of a shift about my perception of success.”

I had a bit of a shift about my perception of success. Previously I thought the more material possessions you accumulate, the more successful you were. If you had a plane, and a luxury car, and nice watches you had made it! You beat the system!!

Not quite. I have met many people who spent their lives doing things they didn’t like solely to acquire shit to keep up with their neighbors.

They had to keep doing the thing they didn’t like until they are too old to travel cause well, there’s a bigger TV and a newer escalade out and they have to get that and keep paying for that shit.

At this point it seemed they were not enjoying the very things they built their life around, possessions because cancer was nipping at their heels.

Okay, I’m going to tell you about the game I mentioned earlier.

 The game goes like this,
1. Work really hard for many years at whatever job pays the most, even if I hate it, so I can get as much expensive shit as I need to make myself feel like I stack up against the Joneses.
2. Buy lots of expensive material items and go into debt and therefore force myself to continue working a job I may hate to pay off the shit I bought.
3. Have no time to enjoy that shit, sacrifice family time, health, and happiness to work to pay off this shit.
4. Drop the fuck dead, sad and confused about why you never let yourself be happy.

That sounds like a pretty shitty game if you ask me!

You don't win a damn thing!

Now, I’m not saying accumulating material possessions is inherently bad. It’s not. Cool shit is awesome! I want people to think about how they are going to get that shit.

I think it’s bad when we must sacrifice everything else in our lives just to get there. This line will differ for everyone. It’s all based on your priorities and the things you find most important.

If you’re just doing it because society brainwashed you and you wake up fucking sick to your stomach at the thought of going to work, that’s when it’s bad. You’re not living a happy life. That’s the situation I want people to think about and avoid.

I don’t want people to get stuck in a cycle of doing something you hate to pay for things you don’t really need.

FREE YOURSELVES!!!

Do what you want. Be true to yourself and understand that maybe you don’t need to make 150K a year to be happy. I know lots of rich people who are miserable. Happiness from materials is fleeting at best You gotta work on you before you’ll ever find true happiness.

I’ll end this post with a quote from Socrates, “Let him that would move world, first move himself.” Before you go out and try to keep up with everybody else and society’s status game, figure out what you really want and what you’re willing to sacrifice to get it.

If you enjoy what you find on our website, please like us on facebook, follow us on Instagram and Twitter and most of all, please SHARE this with anybody you think needs to see our content. We appreciate the word of mouth marketing more than you guys could ever imagine. THANK YOU all so much.

Much Love, Shae.

Holiday Travel At Home Workouts!

Travleing for the holidays? Worried about losing gains?

Hit these workouts to keep the #GAINZ train rolling! (Demo videos for each)

This is the perfect video and post for this time of the year. If you’re traveling for the holidays, your entire routine is thrown out of whack. You don’t have the gym to go to, they may all even be closed over Christmas. These times are when you need quick, effective workouts. Quick warm up, less than 20-minute workout, and end up a little bit more fit than when you started.

We’re all human and sometimes you just require a day to recover mentally and physically. Nothing wrong with that BUT, here’s where I see people fall off. One day becomes three, then a week, then months. You can’t let daily excuses completely derail your health and wellness.

Maybe you travel for work all the time or are traveling for the holidays. You still gotta get it in though, right!? This is where having a functional body and at home workouts come in super friggin’ handy!

Not having time to hit the gym is no longer a valid excuse, you will not accept it in your life. That’s how you start to see the results you want to see.

As luck would have it, your body is a superb fitness machine all by it’s lonesome. Can you guess where I’m headed with this?  That’s right; at-home workouts! I’m going to give you three at-home workouts that will be 20 minutes or less. So, no excuses that you haven’t the time to crush a workout.

These are going to be workouts that will not only burn fat but will help you build muscle. So no matter what your goals are, these workout will keep headed to the fucking mountain top of success!!

If you enjoy these workouts, you'll love everything inside of our best-selling program Complete Athlete Formula. Take a look at what the program is all about HERE and grab it for yourself to start seeing results and changing your life.

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Let’s dig in!!

Workout #1

10 squats, 8 burpees EMOM 11

In this workout, you will complete 10 bodyweight squats and 8 burpees both inside of one minute. The time remaining will be your rest until you begin round 2 at the top of the next minute. So, every minute you will complete 18 reps. Make sure your squats are below parallel and you open your hips all the way at the top. If you can’t get through all 8 burpees in one minute, reduce the number of burpees until you have 10 seconds of rest at the end of the minute.    This workout is an ass kicker for sure!

Workout #2

Every 2 minutes for 12 minutes (6 sets)

18 V-Ups, 20 reverse lunges, 15 push-ups

So the structure of this one is complete all the prescribed reps within two minutes. The remaining time will serve as your rest. As soon as the two minutes is up, you immediately begin the second round. On the V-Ups you start lying face up on the ground with your arms overhead and feet together. From there you will try to raise your legs and arms up together at the same time and touch your toes. Really fight to get your shoulders off of the ground and not just bring your legs up to your hands. On the push-ups your hands should be directly underneath your shoulders. 

Workout #3

5 rounds for time

12 Bulgarian split squats, 15 lying leg raises, 15 Hindu push-ups, 15 squat jumps

This workout will be done working through the entire round and then immediately starting the next round without rest until 5 complete rounds have been completed. Score your workout with time completed and next time you retry it, see if you can beat your old score! Check this video for the explanation of this workout with movement demos!

Thanks for watching! Good luck with these, if you hit them let me know what you guys think by dropping a comment or hitting me up on facebook or instagram. 

If you know somebody who would enjoy these share this with them and challenge them to beat your score!!

Much Love,

Shae

Thanksgiving Nutrition Damage Control!

What’s up my fellow Enlightened Athletes?!

With thanksgiving coming up tomorrow, I would like to start off by first saying I am thankful for all of you! Anybody who takes the time to read my posts just blows me away. I truly appreciate each and every one of you. So, THANK YOU! One thing I’ve found in my life that increases the quality and my overall happiness is the daily practice of gratitude.

What are you grateful to have in your life? Let me know! Reply to this e-mail or hit me up on Facebook, or Instagram.

It could be as simple as the ability to feel the breeze on your face today, or being lucky enough to experience nature every time you walk outside. It doesn’t have to be grandiose each time you practice this. Taking notice of all the good in your life will turn your mood around quick.

Now, onto T-Day Nutrition Damage Control Tips! I made a video that you can find below, I also wrote out the tips quickly for you to reference.

Tip #1- HYDRATION.

Start hydrating now and then through thanksgiving. Being dehydrated is like poison for the body. For this special holiday with lots of sugar and carbs, my recommendation is ½ your bodywiehg tin ounces plus 10 oz. This gets your body in a prime state to burn fat and metabolize all of those calories instead of storing them as fat.

Tip #2- Cut back on carbs and sugars.

You want to head into thanksgiving in a carb depleted state. If your muscles and liver are depleted of glycogen they will be more likely to absorb the sugars from carbs instead of fat cells. We’re looking at mostly fats and proteins today before the big feast.

Tip #3- Digestive enzymes and probiotics.

You’ve gotta get these into your system ASAP. You can buy probiotic products at most stores now in pill form, but I prefer fresher sources. Greek yogurt is a great place to start. My other favorite sources are my greens powder I show in the video and GT’s Kombucha, these are also packed with digestive enzymes so they’re a double whammy!

These will help your gut start digesting that feast much quicker than you would without them. A healthy gut biome has been linked to all sorts of positive behavioral and emotional changes as well, so go get some of these STAT!

Final Tip #4- T-Day Throwdown!

So on thanksgiving day, skip breakfast and hit a fasted workout. We’re looking for a high intensity strength session followed by an interval training session or a typical CrossFit workout. Doing this in a fasted state will further deplete your stored muscle and liver glycogen and actually changes the muscle and fat tissue in your body!!

All those delicious potatoes, pies, desserts, and drinks will be more readily absorbed by your muscle cells instead of your fat cells. For about two hours’ post-workout, your muscles are more readily available to absorb glycogen. Before a workout all the sugar you eat is more easily stored directly into adipose tissue (fat cells).

There you go! Those are some great ways to stay on track this holiday season. So, go enjoy life and keep crushing it in the gym!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Are You Willing To Change To Win?!

Keep your eyes peeled for a new program we have coming out centered all on strengthening your core. A lack of core strength can be the one thing holding you back from breaking through plateaus and getting stronger, relieving back pain, and making you a more functional human being.

This is not conventional core training, this is powerful stuff!

If you haven’t yet, be sure to sign up for the newsletter HERE  using the sign up form to be the first notified of when it goes live

(There will be a solid discount for a very limited time, so you’ll want to act FAST!)

Okay Enlightened Athletes, let’s dig in.

I want to touch on excuses and cop-outs.

I’m assuming there are areas of your life that, after personal assessment, you believe could stand for some improvements. I’m not talking about the attributes or objects you envy when comparing yourself to others. 

I hear a lot about the health goals and changes people want to make. I want to lose 15lbs., I want to squat 400 lbs., or I want to run a marathon.

They tell me they know how they should be eating or that they need to work out and what to avoid. Which is immediately followed up with something along the lines of, “I’m too picky to eat healthy” or “I just don’t like veggies” OR “I just love my bread too much”.

Even worse you tell people it's time to get healthy and you smoke and are not willing to try to quit.

Well, then you don’t fuckin want to make the change that bad do you?!

This drives me nuts! You think losing weight would be nice, as long as you don’t have to do anything.

You’re wasting your time by telling yourself you want this change while knowing you WON”T take the action necessary. You’re engaging in mental masturbation to make yourself feel better by just saying those things.

If you were truly dead set on getting healthier, you’d learn to love vegetables and in a hurry. You’d choke broccoli and spinach down every day if you TRULY want change. This is because you know vegetables will get you to where you want to be.

So, ‘I’m too picky to eat healthy” is a bullshit excuse you will no longer tolerate because it stands in your way.

If you want it, but not really that much, you’ll just keep eating McDonald’s and settling for what’s easy. Making a change is not hard, it’s getting a good enough reason to make the change that’s hard. Decisions happen in a second, once you make your mind up it’s done.

If you’re ok with mediocre results, continue living with mediocre effort.

How much are you willing to sacrifice to achieve success? Can you put aside your distaste for vegetables for a new level of health? Can you stop partying and give up your subscription to spoitfy and netflix, and save it for that shiny new car?

Are you willing make sacrifices to reach your ultimate vision? Are you willing to reach out for help if you’re stuck? Accountability goes a long way.

So now it’s time to put up or shut up in regards to the changes you want to make. I’m not saying give up everything that brings you joy. I merely want you to be aware if what you’re doing regularly lines up with what you say you want. Are your actions bringing you closer to your vision?

Find that vision and reverse engineer the steps you need to get there. 

Marketing companies sell you an idea of success and happiness. Friends and family judge your actions and tell you what THEY want. Acquaintances will tell you how bad your idea is and how you need to do things.

Only you can know what will truly fulfill you and help you leave a positive mark on the world. If you don’t know what those things are this is where the WORK starts.

Some of us may not consciously know what our true goals are. The only way to discover our personal truths is to know ourselves. This takes effort. Massive effort.

It’s time to do some soul searching and figure out what you actually want. Imagine the scenario of your happy fulfilled life and what that looks like. You must know what your vision is. Nobody can tell you this or sell you this, only you can find out though self-examination.

This is not enjoyable and it will probably be uncomfortable. This is taking a ruthless look at yourself and deciding who you are and what you want. Things that will make you thrive and give you energy.

This is not what your parents told you to do years ago. This is not what your wife or husband wants you to do. This is not what friends think is cool. These are some real, close to your heart reasons.

Strip away all the preconceived notions, and labels placed on you b others and decide what situations are acceptable in your life.

You should spend time with yourself thinking deeply about your goals. This might make you squirm and immediately reach for your phone for distraction. Don’t give into the distractions, sit with the discomfort and fight through it.

Some things I do to be alone with my thoughts include, isolation tanks, long solo hikes or walks, yoga, meditation, or intentional self-reflection post brutal training session when my body is flooded with endorphins.

Is it leaving a legacy behind? Is it being the best in the world at something? Is it amassing a fortune? Is it starting a company? Is it being the best father or mother in the world?

Maybe it’s as simple as exercising regularly, creating healthy relationships, or traveling.

The possibilities are literally endless and it’s going to be different for every single person. That’s what makes this place exciting. If everybody was the same we’d be living in the movie Equilibrium.

Now it’s time to take a look at things you’ve been telling yourself and other people. Do you REALLY want what you say you want?

Badass Breakfast Casserole: Recipe & Step-by-Step Guide

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See what benefits you’ll get from incorporating an effective training program in your life.  If you’re eating the right foods while using the most effective training methods you will undoubtedly experience results like never before. Our training program is the perfect tool to get you to where you want to be.

Check out our extremely effective training program, Complete Athlete Formula 

Now onto Breakfast!

Don’t have time to cook breakfast every single morning? Don’t feel like getting up early enough for the time that it takes to cook before work every day? Don’t sweat it, here at Enlightened Athlete we have your back.

Life happens, and there are days when you just do not have the time to prepare a nutrient dense breakfast for yourself. This can put you at a disadvantage because you’re forced to pick something out of the dreaded vending machines, or go out to grab some processed bar from the gas station or store.

Enter: Badass Paleo Breakfast Casserole.

Here’s a step by step recipe with ingredients and detailed pictures. This is super quick and easy and will have you set for breakfast all week.

Here’s what you need:

• 1lb. lean ground beef
• 2 Tbsp. coconut oil
• 6-8 eggs (preferably free-range)
• 1 green bell pepper
• 2 medium sweet potatoes (previously cooked)
• 1/2 red onion
• 8-9 cherry tomatoes
• 4-5 small mushrooms
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 Tsp. paprika
• 1 Tsp. cayenne pepper
• pink Himalayan sea salt to taste
• Black pepper to taste

---Preheat the oven to 350---

Step 1. Heat up 2 Tbsp. of coconut oil in skillet

Step 2

Step 2. Chop up mushrooms into small pieces. Do the same with the bell pepper and onion.

Step 3

3. Place all three in skillet and cook for 5 minutes.

Step 4

4. Add 1lb. lean ground beef and cook until browned. This is where you add in the chopped up sweet potato.

Step 5

5. Add in sliced cherry tomatoes, paprika, ground cayenne pepper and mix together.

6. Add Himalayan sea salt and pepper to taste.

Step 7

7. Transfer mixture from skillet to baking dish, crack 6-8 eggs over mixture and then bake in oven for 30 minutes.

Step 8

8. Pull the casserole out of the oven and let cool.

9. Transfer into individual containers for the week and then top with sliced avocado and some salsa verde!

Voila! 

Now you have prepared yourself nutrient dense fuel for breakfast that is going to turn you into a high performing machine!!