In the next couple weeks – hordes of guys will sign up for the gym and set a goal to lose weight or get in shape.
The ones who succeed long term are the ones who see results early and often.
Those results confirm you’re moving in the right direction, and serve as firepower to keep you motivated when things get tough.
But the vast majority of guys will fail because they lack the ability to see results quickly.
Does this sound familiar?
You get sore at the gym for a week or two, change your diet around a bit, but you don’t see much change in the mirror.
Life gets busy again, and you stop giving as much effort.
You forget about fitness until the weather starts getting warmer.
Or until next year.
You start again – but further from your goal weight.
And the cycle continues, except each year you get older – which makes it harder.
It’s annoying, it’s frustrating, and it sucks.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
I want to help you get real with yourself.
So you can see real changes.
‘the most important conversation you’ll have in your fucking life is the one with yourself’ – David Goggins
Here’s a strategy that intelligent guys will use to get in shape this year:
The Awareness Advantage.
If you measure your current self against your previous self — and notice the gain you’ve made between yesterday and today — you’ll experience happiness, satisfaction, and confidence. – Benjamin Hardy
When you are aware of the progress you’re making, you’ll continue to make more of it.
Don’t let your efforts go to waste by failing to acknowledge them.
Getting in shape is super simple.
It’s only hard because the changes aren’t instant.
Delayed Gratification
Why are six-pack abs are a desirable goal?
They’re difficult to attain. They require delayed gratification.
You have to put in work today, for a better tomorrow.
It’s a fundamental struggle for human beings – across the board in health, wealth, and relationships.
no pizza pockets today, for abs tomorrow
no overspending today, for healthy portfolio tomorrow
no random trysts today, for a happy relationship in a year
You need a long term vision.
But that’s not enough on it’s own.
When you go to shower and look in the bathroom mirror after your workout, and see no changes – that’s demoralizing.
But it’s not because you’re not making any progress.
It’s because you don’t know what to look for.
You lack awareness.
‘Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know’ – Pema Chodron
Step Into ‘The Magic Changing Room’
Imagine this magical room.
You step in.
All your workouts and nutrition efforts from the previous week are multiplied forwards in time, and it shows you what you would look like after 12 more weeks of effort.
You look in the mirror and see your future self.
But the effects wear off when you leave.
You would have no problem staying on track if you knew how awesome you would look and feel after it all.
Nothing is more motivating than results.
We don’t have a magic changing room, but we have something close.
Success leaves clues.
When you start lifting weights, you’re leaving clues.
When you start eating better, you’re leaving clues.
Reps, sets, steps, and weights are the clues left by your workouts.
Calories, bodyweight, inches, and progress pictures are clues left by your diet.
Pick up on those clues and you’ll get clear on where you’re headed.
You’ll find out whether or not it’s working by the end of the month.
Or if you’re just wasting time, money, and energy in the pursuit of all this.
Otherwise you’ll never know:
You won’t know if you’re not losing weight.
You won’t know if you’re not getting any stronger
You won’t even know if things are working.
I started tracking everything I’m doing with my workouts and nutrition publicly – you can see it all here.
It’s like a turbocharger in an engine.
Here’s what happens:
- The engine emits exhaust gasses.
- Those gasses are captured in a turbocharger
- It forces compressed air into the combustion chambers of the engine.
- This creates violent combustions and potent exhaust gasses.
- That exhaust gas drives the turbine wheel faster and force the intake side to suck in more air.
- And the cycle continues.
Your results are the byproducts (exhaust) of your fitness efforts.
Track your progress to ‘recapture‘ that ‘exhaust‘.
The awareness you gain by witnessing your progress will force you to push harder and more consistently.
You’ll get faster results, due to your turbocharged efforts, and the cycle continues.
It’s not just your results either.
You can surround yourself with other people who are crushing it too.
Just like the guys in 50 For 50. It’s my group coaching program that will help at least 50 guys lose at least 50 lb of fat in a 6 month period in 2024.
Every week, they check in together and share their progress.
People motivate each other to show up.
It’s like if you tell your friend that you’re going to the gym together. It’s easier to sleep in on yourself – but not when someone is waiting for you.
If you’re interested in 50 For 50, just shoot me an email at matteo@marrastrength.com with the word FIFTY in the subject line.
I’ll get you all the details.
(we close intake in a few weeks)
And I get that you don’t want to be neurotic about tracking your progress, and just want to go to the gym to workout for fun.
But progress is exhaust.
It’s just sitting there.
Capture it by stepping on the scale in the morning.
Capture it by pulling out your phone or logbook for 2 seconds after your sets.
Otherwise it’s gone forever.
And you stay spinning your wheels – wondering why nothing ever sticks, and you aren’t making the progress you want.
‘You can’t improve what you can’t measure’
– Lord Kelvin
Maybe you’re only concerned with how your clothes fit and feel.
Or how you look in the mirror.
You’re ‘not worried about the bodyweight’
I hear you.
But you’re in the market for a ‘lag’ variable.
Transforming your body is a lag variable.
It’s a byproduct of all the ‘lead’ variables that contribute to it.
You might have weeks of bodyweight movement before you notice significant changes visually.
You might increase your pushups from 5 to 25 over the course of a month and a half before you see your chest change.
If you’re training properly…
Wouldn’t you like to know that what you’re doing is working sooner?
If your bodyweight isn’t moving…
The antidote is to track it every single day along with journaling what you eat.
10 days from now, there will be no mysteries.
Just like when I was stupid broke.
I started checking my bank account balance and transactions every single morning.
I logged it all in a spreadsheet.
Is that overkill?
Maybe.
But it was a triple dose of awareness every single day.
That awareness slowly shaped my choices over time.
And look – sometimes you need a ‘season of violence’ to make real changes in your life.
Not physical violence.
But deliberate, massive, focused, and unyielding effort.
Here’s what you need to do:
1) Start tracking
Track it all.
Bodyweight. Steps. Food. Workouts. Sleep.
Anything you care about.
You can use my free calorie and bodyweight tracker if you want.
2) Review
Look at how things are moving every Friday when you get my emails.
- Are they moving in the right direction?
- Did you forget to log things?
- Is it stagnant?
Every single one of those provides valuable info.
Learn from yourself.
Use your exhaust.
3) Make it a game
Fitness is a big experiment.
If you want to get leaner and look like Captain America – make it a game.
Bring your bench press from 50 lb for 10 reps to 100 lb for 10 reps.
Nothing in this world will transform your chest like that.
Bring your bodyweight from 250 lb to 200 lb.
Nothing will pull more fat off your body.
It’s all a game.
The sooner you start playing, the better.
– Matteo
