Monday Motivation - Episode 2

Welcome back to the Daily Dumbbell, the newsletter that promises to be more consistent. You’ve had to wake up without us too often recently. Luckily we’re just a newsletter and not a deadbeat partner…

Today we’ve gathered the best studies of last week to break down for your hungry mind and we talk about how to avoid the trap of relying on motivation to take you where you want to go.

We jam packed this edition with memes to try to win you back.

Let’s dive in!

Ya Don’t Say…

This study out of Canada

A diet high in fruit, vegetables, nuts & legumes, and… drumroll please…high fat dairy & unprocessed meats!! led to better health outcomes.

Researchers gave one point each to hitting the below milestones:

1. 2-3 servings of fruit/day

2. 2-3 servings of veg/day

3. 2 servings of full fat dairy/day (not including butter or cream)

4. 3-4 servings of legumes/week

5. 7 servings of nuts/week

Their takeaway? Prioritize protective foods such as nuts, fish and full fat dairy.

Our take? This is silly. The average American consumed 670lbs of dairy products in 2020. The majority of which are high fat. We aren’t under eating dairy.

People who are conscious enough about their diet that they are eating 4-6 serves of fruits and veg each day along with legumes, nuts, and unprocessed meat are going to be healthier. High fat foods aren’t protective any more than they are destructive. They’re fine.

Healthy fats are good. Eat em up. Low/no fat products are a useful tool to get your calories where you want em. Don’t overthink it.

Our long held belief that fruit and veg is healthy and nearly everything else is neutral continues to be undefeated.

More AI Excitement

Another day, another AI Model proves to be way better than Doctors at detecting heart abnormalities from X Rays.

Taking human error out of healthcare is incredibly exciting. Most importantly, this will free up Doctors to make mistakes in other areas.

Jk jk. We love Doctors. These developments will allow for an improved healthcare process and a better quality of life for Doctors & patients everywhere.

Exciting Cancer Breakthrough

Treating cancer is difficult for numerous reasons. Namely because every type of cancer is different. They behave differently and require different treatments.

One of the hardest things to do is to develop a drug or treatment that effectively targets only the cancer cells without harming the cells we need to keep living. What we really need is someone with a special set of skills…

Here's the scoop: Researchers discovered years ago that many types of cancer cells have extra chromosomes. What’s more, those sneaky cancer cells with extra chromosomes appear to be dependent on one of those chromosomes in particular to drive tumor growth.

So what if we could target those specific Chromosomes? A drug that only targeted cells with more than 23 chromosomes could theoretically be a game changer.

With the help of our good friend CRISPR, basically the Liam Neeson of our cancer fighting arsenal. He’s got a unique set of skills baby and boy did he use em. Liam was able to edit the genes of these cancer cells to delete the chromosome they thought responsible for the extra growth. And it worked! Stopped em in their tracks. No more malignancy, no more ability to grow tumors.

We haven’t seen the microscopic fight scenes yet but we can only imagine how badass it was.

Now, don't get too carried away just yet. We're not ready to unleash this discovery in the clinic. But Professor Sheltzer and his team are fired up and ready to take things to the next level. The next step? Testing a few different drugs in animal models.

Motivation. That sweet sweet drug.

When you’re high on motivation anything is possible. Days turn into weeks turn into months of progress and absolutely crushing your goals.

Few things feel better in this life. As though you’re seeing everything through your very own Insta filter.

But then one day you wake up and the world looks a little different. You’re not feeling it today. That’s ok. You’ll get back at it tomorrow. But all of a sudden it’s been 2 weeks and your goals have turned into a Little Orphan Annie refrain.

What happened?

You’ve just learned the most important lesson on your health and fitness journey. Motivation is fickle. Fleeting. Fugacious!

We’re feeling good about that last one. What a vocabulary!

You’ve made the cardinal mistake in working out. You relied on motivation to carry you on a journey that it isn’t capable of making. Much like how Tesla’s aren’t the best choice for a cross country trip, motivation just doesn’t have the staying power you need to accomplish audacious, years long goals.

Ok, so what does? What can you do to keep going when motivation fails? We’re glad you asked. For the answer we’re turning the clocks back to 2006 and bringing in our good friend DJ Unk to explain the 2 Step process.

First: Understand motivation isn’t enough.

• You can’t wait for motivation to get started.

• You can’t rely on motivation to carry you.

• And you can’t blame your lack of motivation for quitting.

To change your trajectory, you’ll have to change your perspective.

• Getting to the gym x times per week,

• Hitting your protein goal

• Getting the sleep you need each night

These are parts of your routine. No different than brushing your teeth, showing up to work, or doing the dishes.

Eating a meal? Make sure you’re getting 20g+ of protein and a vegetable.

It’s leg day on your calendar but you don’t feel like it? Do you not feel like doing legs or do you not feel like reaching your goals? Because in this instance they’re one in the same.

Second: Build the necessary habits

All too often we try and create a routine around what we aspire to be on our best days. And that is admirable but it’s doomed to fail.

Instead, figure out what you can manage on your worst days. That is the starting line for this race.

A Tesla might scorch your Prius in a race. But consistency will take you places that intensity just can’t.

On The Rock’s worst day, he’s crushing his workout and nailing his macros. But we aren’t The Rock. So be realistic. Meet yourself where you are. What habits do you already have that serve you? You can use those as an anchor to build better ones.

Once they’re ingrained and easy to accomplish each day, you can add.

If you want something badly enough, don’t leave it up to chance. Treat it like you would any other commitment.

Hope the first half of your Monday was fantastic. Let’s make the 2nd half even better and get Jiggy with it. Shoutout Unk.

See you back here on Wednesday for a deep dive you won’t want to miss!