MB #018: Proper Deadlifts, Natural Flavors, and Playing The Long Game

May 15, 2023

Welcome to The Mission Briefing, a weekly newsletter where I provide actionable insights, food for thought, curated recommendations from both personal experience and from the web, and more.

Today at a glance:

  • Food for thought: A healthy contrast

  • A quote from Matthew Kelly in his book The Long View

  • Natural flavors, eating slowly, and deadlifting (w/ video)

  • Garden City by JMC

  • Dr. James DiNicolantonio’s thoughts on protein

  • Wise Women Build Homes by Scott Hubbard

🧠 Food For Thought:

Living a healthy lifestyle is not…

  • A diet

  • Living in fear

  • Being extreme

  • An all-or-nothing kind of thing

Living a healthy lifestyle is:

  • Nourishing your body - focused on adding good rather than restricting bad

  • Living in faith

  • Getting educated about health science and learning to regulate your own moderation.

  • Valuing your body as much as God does and being consistent and faithful with it for many many years.

✍️ Quote Of The Week:

“Most people overestimate what they can do in a day, and underestimate what they can do in a month. We overestimate what we can do in a year, and underestimate what we can accomplish in a decade." -Matthew Kelly from the book The Long View

After 10+ years of coaching others in health and fitness, I would say this miscalculation plagues humanity the most. We make this mistake in business, finances, child-rearing, fitness, spiritual formation, and everywhere in between. We want immediate results and that’s just not how things that last are built.

Are there exceptions to every rule? Of course. But if they’re exceptions, then we should expect and anticipate the rule, not the exceptions. I’m not special. You’re not special. We’re human, and we need to have patience and perseverance.

Put in hard work on your health over a decade. I promise your ROI will blow your mind.

💪 Health & Fitness Tips:

1. Stay was from Natural Flavors (and artificial ones too).

There can be as many as 100 chemicals that go into the production of natural flavorings, so when you pick up that La Croix (essence) or any other drink that has natural or artificial flavors you’re exposing yourself as they’re not required to list the things that are bound up in the recipe of the “natural flavor”.

If you’re looking for a low or zero-calorie drink, I recommend SpinDrift. We’ve been drinking it for years. They have BPA-free cans, and they flavor their pure sparkling water with a tiny amount of 100% fruit juice. So a single can of sparkling water is about 20 calories.

2. Eat slowly.

I can already hear some of you “Come on Chris, that might be the most basic and silly suggestion I’ve ever heard.”

Eating slowly has many benefits such as better digestion, hydration, weight loss/maintenance, and overall meal satisfaction. Eating quickly can lead to poor digestion, weight gain, and lower satisfaction as we don't give our bodies enough time to recognize fullness. Eating slowly can help us recognize fullness, as it takes the brain about 20 minutes to signal satiety, which can prevent weight gain by avoiding extra calories.

My challenge to anyone is if you haven’t mastered it - done it successfully for years - don’t dismiss how valuable this tip is. You just need to be prepared to delay gratification, both during a meal, and when you step on the scale. But it does work well.

3. Do deadlifts (safely).

Deadlifts are one of the best exercises to incorporate into your routine. They require you to use the most muscle groups of any exercise, great for core stability, and incredible for hormone balance and production, as well as the fact that there is a correlation between grip strength and longevity. Science has proven that those who can hold heavy things live longer. So why not pick up heavy things? (safely…with good form) If you’re new to deadlifting, or not 1000% sure you’re doing it perfectly, check out this video for step-by-step instructions.

📚 Book Recommendation:

Garden City - John Mark examines work and rest in light of Scripture, focusing on the Garden of Eden and the New Jerusalem. He highlights the interconnectedness of the "sacred" and the "secular," using Jesus' life as an example. John Mark encourages readers to find their vocational calling and reminds them of the importance of rest. This book offers a relatable and biblically-based perspective on work, rest, and calling.

📱 Social Media Favorites:

Dr. James DiNicolantonio, Author of The Obesity Fix, highlighted here in a recent post on IG how most people don’t get anywhere near the amount of protein that they need and highlighted a few simple high-protein recipes. I couldn’t agree more with him on how important protein is, and how seldom people get enough. That’s exactly why I have an entire recipe book of 52 high-protein meals so you simplify things even more.

📰 Articles To Read:

Wise Women Build Homes by Scott Hubbard - On this day when we get to honor, highlight, encourage, and thank the amazing mothers in our lives, this article (which is also in audio format) shares some beautiful thoughts about how a mother is so critical to the cultivation of wisdom in the home as couples raise their children.

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That’s a wrap - Please drop your comments and questions and we’ll keep the conversation going!

-Chris