Flashback 2014: Fitness is awkward AF.

I really hoped I didn’t swallow a pillbug. Or a spider. Or any one of the many-legged tenants of our basement, scuttling across the carpet.

Triceps burning, I tried not to inhale too hard whenever my face hit the floor.

One more rep.

Seven mornings a week, I was down here fighting pillbugs and my own gross sweat to bang out pushups or wobble through home yoga. The alarm would go off at 4:43 AM — (I had an early train to catch) — and I’d throw on a pair of gym shorts and a sports bra, knowing that I…

Alright, 2021. Who’s ready for something beyond the standard, “Eat Less, Move More” ideology?

Outside my window, silver-haired runners are shuffling to Riverside Park in their fleece and sweatbands the way they’ve been doing since the 50s, and all I can think is — dang, son. That’s the kind of motivation they write books about.

I see it, too, when working with younger generations — fandom folk in particular. …

One day, I might stop harping on how important protein is for ALL aspects of mental and physical health. But since I’m writing this article for you now, we can correctly assume that day hasn’t come yet.

It will, though! Just as soon as folks figure out HOW to get in this magical macronutrient.

Let’s refer back to the previous article, wherein we figured out how to eyeball a functional 30+- gram serving size of lean protein. (As opposed to a commercial serving size, which is usually tiny. Just take a look at the miniscule smattering of chicken breast on…

This is the hardest part of the nutritional consultation:

“Zir/Sir/Ma’am, if we’re going to get you started on regenerating your body and improving your mental health, you have to get in at least one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight.”

And that’s when their eyes get super, super wide.

I can empathize. Especially since I tend to work with creative individuals —the Upper West Side is a veritable and non-appropriating Mecca for generations of writers, dancers, musicians, and artists — the idea of “protein = bodyweight” can lead to all sorts of knee-jerked images.

Par exemple, if those words…

With all the home exercise options out there, it can be a little overwhelming. YouTube, Instagram, ZOOM classes… But what if you just want to do your own thing?

For the past few months, I started us off with the Train Like A WLF podcasts to familiarize you with — from the breath to the burn — how home workouts should really work.

But now we need to get into specifics, because otherwise, one of us is going to run into educated tangents. (Spoiler: it’s probably me.)

I want you to stock your home fitness locker with useful mental gear…

Dairy, if you can tolerate it, can be pretty awesome. Jarlsberg cheese, for example, contains the vital vitamin K2, which is more essential for bone formation than calcium, since it signals the osteoblasts (aka, your little bone cells) to start doing their job to increase skeletal strength and density.

However, dairy doesn’t always treat us well.

Lactose intolerance purportedly affects 65% of the human population, much more than it did in days past.

Thus, nut milks! Oat milks! Coconut milks! Nondairy milk options are flooding the market, with no sign of stopping anytime soon.

But which ones are actually good for you? Anything that contains added ingredients…

Protein is a pretty magical macronutrient.

(Who’s mama’s favorite macro? You are! Yes, you are. You adorable, cell-regenerating peptide complex, you.)

Protein is responsible for the most amazing foundational practices in the human body, simply because it forms our cellular building blocks.

Just a few examples, all backed up by science:

• Wound healing. Pretty self-explanatory there. If our own building blocks (aka tissue) are ruptured, the best thing to fix it would be replacing the broken building blocks (aka ingesting similar tissue).
• Memory retention, mental clarity, and cognition. Which makes sense — if you don’t have the literal building blocks…

Hello! Welcome to the fifth Train Like A WLF podcast. This is going to be the next installment in the How To Own Your Home Workout program, and super excited about this because obviously we’re all at home, so we want to own this experience as best we can.

The way you’re gonna do that is —

(drumroll, as you please)

I mentioned in a previous video (or rather, podcast) that I would teach you how to find the YouTube workout of your dreams.

Now, I can’t tell you exaaaaaaaaactly how to find the YouTube video of your dreams…