The Matrix premiered 27 years ago today, on March 31st, 1999. I didn’t know that at the time because, also on this date in 1999, I was tore up on Bud Light down in Panama City Beach with a couple of buddies and an unrivaled beachfront view of the Gulf’s sugar-white sands from our third-floor balcony. We were paying under 99 cents a gallon at the pump. Living in 1999 was like fantasy island, wasn’t it? I watched The Matrix with my girls a couple months ago and it stuck out to me when Agent Smith told Morpheus that the machines built the simulation at the peak of our civilization. Around the time the movie came out a lot of us heard that and thought, huh? This is the peak? We’re going to space, bro! In 2026, hoo boy does Smith’s line go hard. What’s this got to do with getting in shape and losing fat? Not one blessed thing. It is, however, a warning about getting too comfy in your happy routine, assuming you’ve got it all figured out, and expecting the good parts of life to last forever with roses and cakes from now on. Age is coming for all of us. And with things getting shakier than ever out there in the world, I often find myself confused and a little sad at how people are so ready to outsource everything about life. I mean the most basic, essential, and personal things you have, like your health. The health-care system looks a lot like a pipeline from your GP to a treasure-chest of drugs that you must use in perpetuity to be “healthy”. There are use-cases for certain pills, no doubt. But the overwhelming urge is to medicate everything, to treat every complaint as a problem that needs solving like a broken machine, even down to easily-fixable lifestyle illnesses. If you need a lifetime subscription to a drug which depends on the economics of complex supply chains just to maintain a healthy weight, what are you even doing with yourself? Folks will shell out 30 grand for a year of this stuff and turn up their noses at a $50/month gym membership… or even doing some calisthenics at home while not shoving Doritos and Mt Dew into their faces.

A rookie mistake: Believing that you have to be 100%, full-throttle, every day, all the time, or you fail. This attitude is the equal and opposite of the lazy couch-slug who won’t do nothing if it involves the slightest uncomfortable expense of energy. You’re all in, or you’re out. Few beliefs are more harmful when it comes to skill-building and learning, which includes body-transforming. Give yourself a little grace. There’s a whole lot of healthy, happy, productive space in between those two extremes. Extremism by its nature is false to the facts and rarely hits the target. Small changes, layered in with time, create big changes. If you’re a total beginner, a step so simple as writing down what you ate in a day is a victory. Could be that you showed up at the gym three days this week. It doesn’t matter what you did. It matters that you showed up. No big deal? For a guy who is 42 and never exercised in his life or paid attention to his diet, that may be the biggest win he’s made yet for his health and appearance. The simplest steps should not be ignored because they are simple or even trivial. They’re the foundations and basic building blocks of bigger moves. Easy to forget that, when you’re on the other side of a few decades. In my world everything comes back to simplicity and small moves. Yes, even squatting daily. What is simpler than training often to lift a foundational movement with heavy weights? You work up to that, sure. But there’s nothing to it but basics plus the will to do it. Once you’re at it awhile, then you can start talking about how small moves add up to big shifts of energy and tiredness and so forth. Blasting and cruising are the key ideas beyond the beginner’s stage. But there isn’t much point talking about long-game strategy if you’re still getting the key pieces in place — or if you never stop being a beginner. Some people can “train” for 5, 10, 20 years and never get past “beginner”. Heck, even I benefit from turning attention back to the essential moves. Am I getting my protein? Am I inside my calorie ceiling? Am I showing up for the damn workouts?

Got a question or a problem with training, diet and nutrition, or the existential angst of your own existence? Drop it here and let's see if I can help.

Margaret Wheatley, who writes about systems thinking, says that communities need agreements about who we are and what matters. What are we doing here? When I started this place, I had ideas more than "here's your workout and diet, go do it" of the usual fitness chatter. The question on my mind: 👉 Why is it that you can give people a workout and diet and then they don't do it and say "lol sorry" when you follow up? - Why do people not do what they say they want to do? - Why don't people keep their promises? - Why do they sabotage their own progress by lying to themselves? The main reason? Their environment is rigged against them. When I started making my own changes 2 years ago, it was because my wife and I got on the same page and supported each other. You can't have your household and lifestyles out of sync and expect the waves to harmonize. And we're people with long histories of active living. Imagine how it is for somebody 35+ trying to make a total lifestyle overhaul from nothing, when everything from their home routine to their job to their social life pushes against the changes they see for themselves. There's a whole background of skills and experiences that fitpro gurus take for granted, which people who want and need to change do not have. This can be changed. But it has to begin with identity. 👉Who are you and what matters to you? 👉What do you agree is important and non-negotiable? If you can't keep agreements with yourself, you're done. It doesn't matter how great my workouts are if you won't do them. I have to clarify this because I'm still attracting a lot of "hOw Do I wOrKoUt" questions. If you want a workout, go back to your doomscrolling or ask ChatGPT. This isn't the place for it. We're rebuilding lives here, and that starts with changing your behaviors. Small steps done consistently = big changes. We aren't worker-outers. We're taking our best shot against age, entropy, and decay. Strength training, interval work, solid nutrition, and all the stress-beating energy-managing recovery secret-weapons I haven't even talked about are how we do it.

This week: - I did not derail my diet plans too badly over the holiday stretch from Christmas to NYD and my birthday - I recovered from my Christmas, New Year's, and birthday derailments without turning it into a full-on bender - Training's been as consistent as I can keep it. How about you? What did you get done that you're proud of this week? Over to you 👇