Anyone who has ever dieted and cut out processed sugars will tell you about the mood changes, irritability, headaches, and other not-so-fun side effects. The fact of the matter is when you consume excess sugar over long periods of time it’s going to uncomfortable when you cut it out.

Not only are you dealing with drug like withdrawal symptoms due to sugar affecting the opioid receptors in the brain, but you’re also dealing with the side effects of detoxification. In short, there are a host of physiological changes going on throughout your body when you start removing this very, very addictive substance.

While there’s no way to avoid all discomfort with beating a sugar addiction, you can most definitely reduce the symptoms with a well thought out strategy and become victorious. In today’s post I’ll provide you with some tips and help you to improve your chances of sticking with it until you see success. 

Over the past twenty plus years I’ve been...

When I’m consulting clients on their fitness and body composition goals the subject of alcohol invariably comes up. In all fairness, it needs to as alcohol is too important of a variable to not address. I’ve found individuals who do consume alcohol will fall into one of three different categories.

The first category are those individuals who tell me upfront about the couple glasses of wine enjoyed each evening at their “happy hour,” which they boldly declare they have no intention of giving up, nor should I even bother to ask them to.

Well, alrighty then and fair enough. I simply let them know they shouldn’t expect to see much in the way of getting leaner and firming up and continue the discussion. No sense dancing around it or teaching someone who doesn’t want to listen.

The second category are the ones who tell me they occasionally have a drink, but they’re open to adjusting consumption or quitting altogether for a period to see the...

I received a great question this morning on cardio that I wanted to share on the blog. I think it addresses one of the biggest misconceptions there is about cardio workouts for weight loss….the faulty belief that more must be better! This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Before we get into why, here is the question I received.

“Shane, I’m doing steady state cardio on the elliptical trainer for thirty minutes and jogging on the treadmill for twenty minutes, each morning, Monday through Friday. After initially seeing a few pounds of weight loss I’m now not seeing any change on the scale or in the mirror. What would you suggest I do differently?”

There’s a lot to unpack here, but the short answer to the question is to stop doing the thing that’s not working! In this case, 50 minutes of steady state cardio, five times a week for the objective of fat loss. If more is not the answer, which it’s not, the only other option is to do...

Would you be surprised if I told you that sleep deprivation is one of most common tell-tale signs of metabolic dysfunction, I look for with individuals who workout and eat healthy, but still find themselves gaining weight? It’s true. While the tendency is to over analyze on the calories burned / calories consumed side of the equation, the opposite is also true. There’s a tendency to underestimate the importance of things like sleep.

Understand that if you’re looking to have a leaner, more toned physique, factors outside of your food choices and workouts will play a significant role as well. Yes, things like resistance training definitely help improve body composition, but working the muscle is just the first step. The rebuilding, recovery, and fat burning processes occur after your workout, mainly while you’re sleeping.

So, to put it bluntly, if you’re not getting adequate sleep you can forget about seeing much of a change in your shape. Well, hold on,...

There’s more and more research coming out all the time on the role Vitamin D plays in metabolic and immune functions. Now let me start by saying I typically don’t read too much into studies where scientists isolate an individual vitamin in attempts to demonstrate a particular benefit. This is what I often refer to as “nutrition-ism” where food manufacturers pay big bucks to have researchers attempt to demonstrate a health benefit with their processed food product.

The whole processed food industry is suspect in my opinion anyways. Just like the whole idea of “fortifying” or enriching foods with vitamins, minerals, and fiber can make low quality food products appear healthy when they’re anything but. They’ve been duping us with food labels for years when it comes to vitamins especially.

Have you ever really studied a food label for something like crackers? Supposedly, we can get 90% of our Vitamin C needs in the example below,...

In today’s post I want to encourage all of you who are parents struggling to raise your children in a time when their “influencers” are less likely to be teachers and coaches and more likely to be people they follow on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. The unfortunate and sad reality is not everyone who is an influencer is influencing in a positive way.

To put in bluntly, when it comes to subjects like morality, discipline, delayed-gratification, selfless acts of service, healthy eating, and physical training, the good role models are few and far between.

No surprises here, as the money is the flushest where promoting the antithesis of a lot of these words is the message. If it seems like an uphill battle, it is, but I’ll boldly declare to you today that it’s NOT one to be surrendered and certainly NOT one where you’re left powerless.

In fact, I’m going to build on the statement I made in the headline of this post and straight out tell you...

One of the biggest controversies in weight loss and wellness is the faulty belief that dietary fat intake is one of the main culprits to obesity and metabolic disease. We need to pump the brakes on this idea.

Now it should be obvious that if you consume excess amounts of dietary fat (regardless of the source), meaning more total energy in calories than your body needs, then well yeah, it’s going to result in body fat increases and negatively impact your health.

However, when you really start examining the evidence, saturated fats from natural sources don’t come out being the evil villain many have labeled it as being over the past forty plus years. And the advocates for this idea weren’t fringe loonies but many of our so called “experts” in government and mainstream medicine.

This shouldn’t come at a surprise to anyone who isn’t sleepwalking, but the low-fat dietary recommendations that started back in the 80’s which led to insanely...

In today's post I want to talk to you a little about the truth regarding discomfort. Now if we're going to be totally honest with ourselves, it should be pretty clear that it's human nature to seek comfort over discomfort. A bit of that is beneficial I reckon as it's healthier to take refuge in comfort under a roof and out of the weather, than say outside without shelter from the elements and marauders.

However, when taken to the extreme, as is true with most anything, what was good at the right dose ends of being destructive with excess. One could make a reasonable argument that the relative ease with finding comfort and lack of significant hardships in Western society since the ending of the second World War has led to an overall weakening of the individuals in those societies.

What's that old adage?

Tough times make strong men, strong men create easy times, easy times create weak men, weak men create tough times.....and the cycle repeats. 

There's little debate about where...

In today's post I want to talk about an old quote from legendary strength coach Dan John that has always resonated with me because it is a simple statement of truth. The saying is that "strength is the glass for your body." Everything hinges on the glass as the qualities of health, function, mobility, and resiliency are all dependent on the size and density of the glass that contains it. 

Think about it this way. Say you've got a small shot glass and next to it a large 16 oz mason jar. Obviously, the large mason jar will hold a lot more liquid than the shot glass. Think about the liquid being qualities like balance, stability, mobility, endurance, power, deceleration, stamina, etc. The size of the glass determines how much these qualities can be developed or maintained. 

Now it's important you understand I'm not talking about muscular size here or the overall bulk or density of a person. When I speak of strength, I'm talking about absolute strength from a work capacity...

In today's post I want to speak to you about some ways you can begin seeing real results with changing how your body looks and feels. I promise you each one of these is a proven strategy and not just random fillers for content. Whatever you read on this blog I want you to get legitimate value from. Without further ado, let's dig in with strategy number one...

1.  Make a clear plan on how you're going to achieve your objectives

The first step of ensuring success with your fitness program is taking the time to sit down and write out a blueprint for what needs to happen. You must be clear with what changes will need to happen in your life and how you’ll accomplish them. What time will you exercise each day? When will you go to the grocery store?

I've found that you really do need to focus on preparation and establishing new routines or things just seem to eventually fizzle out. It has been my experience those individuals who make daily preparation a priority in their lives...