Build A Body You’re Proud Of, Part 5: Action Plan

Putting It All Together

How to Set Up the Trifecta of Transformation for YOUR LIFESTYLE So You Know Exactly What To Do Every Day

If you missed parts 1-4 of this series, I would strongly suggest you read them. Here’s what we’ve covered so far:

To review if you’re in the right place:

If you’re over 35 and you’re ready to say a big FU to aging and the Dad Bod, you’re in the right spot.

If you want to look at yourself in the mirror and say “damn, I feel and look better than I have in a decade,” you’re in the right spot.

If you want to wake up fully energized, ready to crush your client calls or have a fun adventure with your kids, you’re in the right spot.

Today, we’re going to talk about how to put everything together. This is when it starts to get fun. This is also when resistance starts to creep in. You might have some mental chatter of fear or doubt: “Oh shit, what if I fail again? Can I really do this?”

Fear is normal. In fact, fear can be a good thing! It’s what you do with it that matters. If you can structure your days so you have one small daily practice from each of the mental, physical, and nutritional pieces, that’s when the magic happens. That’s the sweet spot where you become a leaner, stronger, and more capable guy, no matter your age or how “busy” your life may be.

That’s when you see yourself in the mirror 20 pounds lighter and say, “damn, I feel and look better than I have in a decade!”
That’s when you wake up fully energized, pain-free, and ready to go on a fun adventure with your kids.
That’s when this newfound confidence spills into every part of your life. You’re crushing it at work, you’re more present and less impatient in relationships, and you can impact the world on a deeper level.

That is what I’m talking about!

Build The Habits And The Body Will Follow

When you implement the Trifecta of Transformation system, you know exactly what to focus on every day. You have clarity around the big actions that will move the needle towards getting more fit and healthy as you age.

You’ll finally be able to shed that belly fat you’ve been trying to lose for the last 5 years.

Step 1: Make a list of all the potential practices you could do in each area.

Step 2: Drill down and start with ONLY one practice from each area (1 mindset, 1 nutrition, 1 movement) and focusing only on those 3 tasks for 1-2 weeks.

Again, and I can’t emphasize this enough: focus on one task from each area to start. The #1 mistake I see is guys trying to do too much, too soon. That is a surefire way to fail.

Warren Buffett famously tells a story about being asked how he’s been able to achieve so much in his life. His keys to success were the following:

Step 1: Write down 25 things you want to do.

Step 2: Circle the 5 most important.

Step 3: (by far the most critical) Circle everything else on the list and put those on a separate list entitled “what not to do.” Do everything in your power NOT TO DO those items.

I love this story because it hammers home the point of focus and attention. Spread your focus and attention too thin and you’ll all but guarantee failure. Focus on the important tasks and put all your energy and effort into executing them, and you have a recipe for success.

Let’s dive into each pillar and see what this can look like.

Mindset

Remember, the mind is all we have. We need to train it and cultivate a practice where we are more present and grounded, and less susceptible to getting emotionally hijacked.

Here are some potential mental action items (remember — start with JUST ONE of these for now):

Take 10-second pauses throughout the day to pay more attention to your surroundings. Without judgement, just notice more.
Take a 30-minute walk
Low-intensity exercise (biking, walking, swimming)
Indulge in daily reading / audio book / podcasts that stimulate your brain
Meditation. Here’s a great app that I’ve been using: Waking Up
Five minutes of breathing drills
Yoga
Morning gratitude practice: write down three things you’re grateful for every morning.
Morning journal practice: write for two minutes first thing in the morning to clear your head.
Start a five-minute stretch routine to get blood flowing and tap into the present moment.

Nutrition

The key here is that you slowly practice mindfulness and awareness around your food choices. You start to understand how certain foods affect your body. Some make you even hungrier two hours later, while others keep you fuller for longer. It’s about finding out what works for your body, your goals, and most importantly, your lifestyle.

Here are some potential nutritional action items (remember — start with JUST ONE of these for now):

Eat a huge salad every day
Cook one extra meal at home this week
Log all calories that come from drinks each week
Replace refined carbs with veggies for one week
Eat protein with each meal
Have one protein / veggie smoothie every day
Eat slowly
Fasting (limit breakfast and only eat from 12pm – 8pm)
Meal Prep (do something in the kitchen to prepare food)

Movement

Remember to get clear on what you want. Losing 20 pounds will require a different course of action than packing on 10 pounds of muscle. The clearer you are about what you want, the easier it is to put together a physical practice to get you to where you want to go.

Finding an Active Passion will make everything easier.

This can be anything physical: tennis, surfing, basketball, yoga, hiking, biking, wrestling, WHATEVER. As long as you love it and enjoy doing it. The more meaningful movement you have every day, the better off you will be.

Here are some potential physical action items (remember — start with JUST ONE of these for now):

Mobility (Stretching / soft tissue work to improve your ankle / hip tightness.)
Conditioning / strength training (lifting weights, cardio training, etc)
Find your Active Passion (tennis, surfing, or other physical activities you enjoy)
Track daily movement (try to get 10,000 steps per day excluding exercise)

It’s About Progress, Not Perfection

Download my Google Doc here

This is my current log. These are the big rocks that I’m focusing on. On any given day, I might hit 5-10 of the possible 15 items. By focusing on making progress instead of striving for perfection, it actually helps me make progress.

Remember, it’s all about starting slow. Your first few weeks might look something like the above picture. You build off of that over time. The idea is to stay focused on that one practice in each area until it becomes habitual.

The timing on when this happens will vary greatly, but I’ve found with my coaching practice, two weeks of daily effort is enough to make the action more automatic. All the guys I work with create something very similar to the above worksheet. You can create your own using a blank sheet of paper. I actually like the tactile satisfaction of busting out a pen and making a giant check mark next to the big rocks I accomplished for the day.

But if you want a digital copy – again, you can steal my google doc here.

Powerful Feedback

The most powerful aspect of tracking like this each week is that it offers great feedback about what needs to be adjusted or tweaked. It also helps you to start connecting the dots between certain environments and behavior.

For example:

“I was traveling for 5 days and my alcoholic drinks doubled from the prior week.” Or, “Damn, I had that stressful work project last week and missed two workouts.”

Once you start linking those behaviors to life events, you can make better choices down the road.

And when you string a few weeks of consistent execution together, and then a few months, it’s straight-up magical what can happen.

Energy goes through the roof
Weight flies off
Muscles grow
Productivity increases
Waist measurements drop
Relationships deepen

You become a better version of yourself. And that’s what it’s all about.

What To Do Next

If you’re ready to put this into practice, you have 2 options.

1) Check out my 1v1 coaching page where I explain how my online program works. You give me 3 to 6 months, I get you in the best shape of your life.

Or if you’re not quite ready for that..

2) I created a free 5-day mini course that helps you practice everything we talk about above. You can get your first lesson in less than 10 seconds here or by clicking below this article.

One Last Point — Doing the Work is the Point

I know we’re living in a world of overnight abs and seven-minute workouts, but you have to shield yourself from all that nonsense. Be skeptical of anyone telling you there’s a quick fix, a short-cut, or some “hack” toward optimal health. You have to be willing to do the work. Tell me what meaningful achievements you’ve had in your life that were easy? None. Exactly…Out of discomfort, we grow stronger. Through adversity, we become more resilient.

If you want to truly transform your body, feel the best you have in decades, play with your kids effortlessly, and wake up before your alarm clock every day, you gotta be willing to do the work.

You have to be in action every single day, INSTEAD of online researching the “best diet.” You have to be willing to experience some discomfort and be OK with it. You have to be committed to the process and play the long-game. Short term setbacks will inevitably happen. It’s those who stay the course and keep going that succeed. You have to break the cycle of always “starting over.” Not on Monday. Or next week. Or next month.

If you’re nodding your head after reading those statements, let’s chat.

So here’s a special offer:

I normally only set aside times to chat with guys after they go through my 5-day course, but if you’re reading this and want some help figuring this stuff out right now, let’s hop on a free phone call.

Click this link and pick a time that works for you.

Answer a few questions and we’ll chat for 30 minutes to sort all this out for you. No strings attached. Full transparency. If I feel like you are a good fit for one of my programs, I will share how that works. If not, we’ll part ways — no hard feelings.

OK, that’s a wrap on my five-part series. I hope you got some value out of it, and I look forward to chatting with those you who are ready to take your health to the next level.

Thanks for reading and we’ll be in touch soon!

Nick