One of the toughest things I’ve learned in my short 30 years on this planet is that I’m usually wrong.

For the better part of the first 22 years of my life, I would claim the sky was red without actually opening my eyes and facing the fact that it’s blue. I didn’t care so much for whether the answer or opinion I had was factually correct. Rather, I cared about not accepting that I might be wrong. In other words, I’m a guy.

Accepting My Stupidity

Surprising as it may seem, it wasn’t until I was out of college that I started to fully accept that my position in life was misplaced.

Up until graduating from college, I sat with those folks that spoke loud, but listened little. Those folks are not the people any of us fellow Beasts should strive to be.

Once I stopped trying to defend simply for stubborn beliefs, I started to see major gains throughout my life.

There wasn’t a specific day that I fully accepted my own stupidity. It was a two to three year transformation to the point where I started speaking less and listening more. I started just doing instead of defending why. Once I stopped trying to defend simply for stubborn beliefs, I started to see major gains throughout my life.

Learning from Ignorance

Fitness has always been a major part of my life. Even during my ignorant years, I loved moving. Whether it be basketball, track and field, football, bodyboarding, running, or just playing tag as a kid, I loved being the fastest and fittest there was on the playground.

My approach was always do everything the better than the next kid. This held me back from achieving more.

I compared my efforts throughout my young life. My beliefs focused on being just good enough to beat out my competitors. However, I was looking outside for my competition when the true competition should have been in the mirror.

Today, I look back and wonder how much more I could have achieved athletically had I focused more on me and not everyone battling me. This applies to life as well. My stubbornness prevented me from learning how to become a better me whether that be on the field, the court or just out in the real world.

Ignorance is defined as the lack of knowledge, information or education. I was so focused on being right and beating everyone else that such ignorance prevented personal growth.

Once I was able to accept my ignorance, I could build upon the bits of knowledge I had and mold those into a well-rounded, researched practice. I was able to put aside indifference to learn from those who had the knowledge and experience that could help me make strides towards higher standards.

It took moving beyond comparing myself to others to fully achieve the potential that I had.

15 Diet, Fitness & Lifestyle Lessons that Propelled My Gains

Learning from my ignorance started with acknowledging my faults.

I began stopping the chaotic meandering and defense that rattled in my head and started questioning whether I was truly right about what I claimed to be self-evident. Needless to say, I rarely factually backed up my positions. Once I allowed myself to be wrong, I could start correcting and/or building.

The following are a few of the ways my diet, fitness, and lifestyle were falsely applied to my life. I’ll begin with my younger, more ignorant position followed by what I learned once opening my mind.

Diet

I can eat whatever I want | For all of my high school and college years, I would pound food. I’d eat whatever I wanted. I worked out enough that I was able to maintain relatively decent health, but my inside’s had to look fairly disgusting. I might have gotten away with poor dietary habits then, but I was giving back endless gains because I was foolish enough to think what I fueled my body with didn’t matter. If I would have even cut the crap in half during these years, I would have had a phenomenal body and had much better physical and mental performance.
I do fine without a food journal | As much as I like to think I track everything that goes into my body, I don’t. I don’t always keep a food journal, but when I do my success rate drastically increases. No, I don’t food journal down to the single calorie. Rather, I round up (that’s key) to what the rough caloric count would be for what I’m eating. No, calories aren’t the best food aspect to track, but it’s something and works for most people.
There’s only one way to build a diet | I preach the One Ingredient Diet, but that doesn’t mean other diets don’t work. Whether vegan or all-meat-and-potatoes-all-day-all-night or somewhere in-between, there are those that excel at a daily diet in there own ways. There are countless similarities between many of those that work. Primarily that they originate from a simple, natural ingredients.
Juices and dairy don’t effect me | I used to drink endless orange or fruit juices straight from the carton. Not only were they not supplementing my physical growth, they were deteriorating my teeth as all of the sugar in fluid form just found every crevice in my teeth and gums. Dairy took a lot longer to realize that I didn’t need it for any developmental purpose and that it contributed to me being more uncomfortable and “flemmy”. Sure, I’ll still have some ice cream from time to time, but I don’t even have milk in the house like I did when I was a kid.
I can control my cravings | One of my favorite stories to share is my 10% licorice rule. When I was in full on training mode in 2008 with 2 workouts per day, I figured I could give myself a few treats. I love licorice so I would buy the big bag of licorice because there were no other sizes, take about 10% of the licorice out and before I’d head upstairs to my apartment, I’d toss the rest of the bag in the big trash in the parking lot. Why? I couldn’t control my cravings if I brought it into my apartment. Sad? Maybe. Who cares though as I was able to satisfy my sweet tooth without killing my diet.

Fitness

I don’t have to train | I ran my first marathon back in 2006. I was in good shape (not great), but I rarely ran further than 6 miles and my longest training run was 15 shitty miles. Yes, I finished that marathon, but it was not impressive at 4 hours and 7 minutes and I was out of commission for weeks. I didn’t build a proper training plan or focus on the necessary exercises and strength building for running that distance. Just because I was in shape didn’t mean I was prepared for what I signed up for.
It’s winter so I don’t have to train as hard | There are these signs that say something like, “Summer abs are earned in February.” This couldn’t be truer. I hate the cold. I despise it. That’s why I lived in Arizona for 6 years. The harder I train in the winter, the easier it comes when it starts to warm up again. Now living in Denver, Colorado, I’ve had to try to give myself a kick in the tail every single day I wake up to 0 degree temperatures. More power to the people I see running around town when it’s snowing out. Whether I like it or not, I make it a priority to hit the gym harder than ever each time the sun starts to set earlier and earlier.
Stretching is for people that are putting their workouts off | I hated stretching when I was young. Now 30, I stretch as often as I can. Watching a sitcom. Stretch. Waiting to flip the burgers on the grill. Stretch. Sitting at the computer too long. Stretch. I stretch all of the time now. The looser and more flexible I am when I am not working out and more sedentary, the better I perform when I go to workout. By no means am I flexible right now. It’s just that it could be much worse.
Identical training to others equals identical results | Every single human has a different body chemistry and structure. We could both be 6 feet tall, 185 pounds, eat the same thing and lift the same weights, but how are body processes these factors leads to different results. Some people have strong legs naturally and other can run 6 minute miles without taking a deep breath. Everyone is different. I used to try and copy my idols, but for similar results, I’d often have to travel a distant path then theirs to reach similar results.
I’m a man so I can train through injuries | Overtraining leads to injuries. That is a fact. It is inevitable. Being a new dad, I’d love to train more than time allows, but that doesn’t mean that even if I could do three workouts per day, I would. The body needs rest and recovery. One injury leads to poor form which leads to another injury and so on. When I feel an injury coming on these days, I stop all workouts and focus on healing. Without the proper tools, the building will either never be completed or tumble once he has.

Lifestyle

I can perform on less sleep | Back in 2008, I was going about extreme ways to achieve my fitness and health goals. No, it wasn’t steroids. No, it wasn’t a random weird ass diet. It was sleep deprivation. I tried to teach my body to do 2-3 workouts per day along with an 8 hour work shift on only 5 hours of sleep per night. I failed. Then failed some more. My body wouldn’t heal. My pace times fell. Worst of all, my friends noticed I was a grumpy jerk. Sleep is necessary for full recovery. The more you can get, the better.
Lifehacks are the best way to excel at life, fitness and diet | I love lifehacks. However, they are not the starting point. They are what help you once you feel you have reached full potential. Lifehacks are there to help you get over the small speedbumps. Start with the major aspects that should be addressed and stop trying to take shortcuts.
This study must be right | For every study that says only males born on Tuesdays become successful, there’s a study that says only males not born on Tuesdays succeed. I am all about data and study’s and research and everything else in-between, but take it all with a grain of salt. Do your own testing. See what works for you. Don’t believe a study simply because you want to. Also, don’t discount a study because you don’t want to believe it. Do the testing yourself.
I can’t do that with my body-type | I’m a 6’1 (6’2″ on a good day) marathon runner that generally walks around at 190 pounds. I’m not supposed to be a marathon runner, but I am. This applies to everything in life. I’m not supposed to be able to do a lot of the things I do, but I still do them because of and despite my body-type.
Big goals are more important than the small ones | The big goals are always fun to build, but the true growth comes from achieving 100 small goals that lead or accumulate to achieving the big goal. Big goals are a distraction. Focus primarily on the smalls goals and the big goals will take care of themselves.

I hope you enjoyed this brief rundown of my ignorances. I have a learned a lot about my body and health and hope to continue to learn from the everyday failures.