Not all hard work and hardship is mandatory.

Voluntary hardship is something we do by choice.

These are things we push ourselves to do even though we don’t necessarily have to. Since hardship can be unpleasant at times, especially in the moment, it usually requires some discipline to maintain.

When the sound of the alarm rings in your ear at an hour long before you would normally choose to wake up you’re forced with a decision.  Do you make the short-sighted choice that gives you momentary relief or do you expose yourself to that hardship that refines you?

That’s what voluntary hardship does to us.  It refines us. It strengthens us. It distills the parts of our will and our character that arrive when we encounter self doubt.

Today we’re talking micronutrients.

You already know all about macronutrients (protein, carbohydrate and fat) so if you’ve ever wondered why we say you also need to consider your micronutrients to maintain your health… wonder no more!

We need micronutrients to keep us healthy, to keep our systems functioning properly, and for our body to do a bunch of other tasks that we don’t even know are going on. So sit back, relax, and grab a bowl of liver and mushrooms (you’ll see why in a bit) and read up.

Note: This is just simplified overview of vitamins, the foods they come from, what they do, and what happens if we don’t get enough. Remember that this list isn’t exhaustive and everyone’s needs vary.

Let’s talk about sugar.

The average American can easily consume over 200g of sugar a day. Thats about 150g over the recommended daily dose for a healthy, exercising person. A sedentary and inactive person should actually consume even less. Have you ever looked at your sugar intake in a day? It can be eye opening and worth the effort. Use an app like MyFitnessPal to look up foods that you consume throughout the entire day and keep track of the total grams of sugar. You’ll not only get the number of grams that you ate but from this list you can also identify which foods contain the most sugar should you need to work on eliminating or substituting certain foods.

What happens when we eat too much sugar?

The main issue here is fat storage but not FROM the sugar but BECAUSE OF the sugar.

Here’s why:

Our body is always adapting. To what we do, what we eat, what time we wake up or go to sleep, the environment around us… the list goes on.

As we exercise, our body tries to adapt and make us better at exercising.

For this reason alone, we cannot just do the same thing over and over and over. Not only will we get bored but our body will no longer become stressed and need to adapt, recover, and grow.

Let’s really break this process down:

Moving makes you body and your brain function better.

You know what moving also helps? Your metabolism!

If you’re over 25… your metabolic power is decreasing by about 3-5% every decade. The main reason for this is the loss of lean body mass. Bone and muscle are so metabolically active that a drop is your metabolism could largely be due to a drop in your lean body mass as you age.

We don’t want that to happen!

If you keep, or even improve, your lean body mass from the age of 25 to 35 to 45… guess what your metabolism doesn’t do as much of… drop!

Today we attack several of the questions that have been sent in by YOU, yes YOU!

We received several really good questions so grab a cup of joe and settle in as we take on your questions from our favorite little coffee spot and Bellaire Texas.

Let’s GO!

In the past weeks we learned what food is, what happens when food enters our body (through our mouth), so now let’s talk about exactly how our body uses this food for energy.

There's really no reason to label foods as "good" or "bad", but there are some foods that are particularly high in calories and are incredibly easy to overeat.  For many people it's best to not have them in the house since moderating them can be tough.

Last week we defined FOOD and it wasn’t as simple as you thought. We learned that food is our energy source, it is our medicine, it is information to our body and it is a way in which we communicate our culture and love to others. In the end we learned that FOOD MATTERS. The food we eat matters to our bodies and should matter to you.

This week, let’s continue down that path and begin to discuss how our body uses the food we eat.