Ian Estabrook

Eat Junk Food, Get Healthier?

Ah, Halloween… One of my favorite holidays of the year.

Sure, the costumes are great. Though to be honest, I’m starting to recognize what people are dressing up as less and less each year. Am I getting old? LOL

But as a guy with a massive sweet tooth, I love Halloween for the tradition of trick-or-treating for candy and other sweets.

Ya know, it’s funny… As kids, we’d dive headfirst into our bags and gobble it all up. Nobody would bat an eye.

Now, as adults, suddenly it becomes “junk food,” and we limit ourselves through rules like, “never eat candy – it’s terrible for you!”

But is that really true?

Do you believe you can be healthy and still eat “junk food?”

You know, the foods that are brightly-packaged, highly-refined, and ultra-delicious?

The ones you might’ve been told to remove from your diet?

Well, I’m here to bring ’em back.

That’s because – for some people – junk food can play an important role in overall health, especially when consumed INTENTIONALLY.

In fact, these foods can actually charge other “batteries” for our health – like our social lives or emotional wellbeing.

Yes, junk food can actually be good for you… depending on the context.

Controversial? Maybe.

But there’s more to the story than “junk foods are bad for you — so you should never eat them.”

So today, indulge a little. Have a Snickers. Share a KitKat with a friend. Eat some candy corn, if you’re into that kinda thing.

Just make sure to do it intentionally.

And if someone judges you for it?

Tell ’em Ian sent ya.

Happy Halloween!

Ian

How to Achieve Big Results with Small Changes

Looking to make healthy lifestyle changes?

As someone who has lost 100 pounds and kept it off for over 16 years, here’s my advice:

Don’t make things bigger than they have to be.

Instead, focus on making one small change and building on it.

Let’s say you’re looking to lose body fat.

“I’m gonna go on a diet,” you say to yourself.

Simple.

But in your head, you may actually be thinking…

“I’m gonna go on a diet. Okay. That means I need to start eating less… and probably eating healthier foods. Welp, guess it’s time to give up foods I enjoy. I should probably stop ordering out and start cooking more of my own meals, too. So… I should go to the grocery store and buy healthy foods. How much does that cost? Maybe I should meal prep? When am I gonna find time for that? If I meal prep, does that mean I have to stop having dinners out with my friends? I have to go on a diet for HOW long? Ah, screw this.”

Not so simple.

Thankfully, there’s a less stressful, more sustainable path.

If you want to make healthier choices, all you need to do right now is make one small change to your existing circumstances, and then build on it over time.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say your usual breakfast is a frappuccino and a blueberry muffin from Starbucks, because you commute to work and it’s convenient to grab on the go.

That breakfast is around 550 calories.

If you swapped the blueberry muffin for oatmeal with blueberries on top, you’d save 170 calories and increase your fiber and vitamin intake. If you got a small instead of a large frappuccino, you’d save an additional 150 calories.

Over time, you can build on this small change in other areas of your life.

Maybe by changing your breakfast you begin developing mindfulness around your overall nutrition, and start making healthier choices at lunch, dinner, and for snacks.

Maybe because you’re eating more nutritious foods, you’re more energized and start walking more or taking the stairs at work.

Maybe because you’re moving more often, you’re more mindful of being active and begin exercising twice a week.

Before you know it, you’ve built a foundation of healthy behaviors across nutrition, mindset, and exercise… all from swapping out a blueberry muffin for breakfast.

If you’re feeling worried or overwhelmed about making healthier choices in your life, it’s okay. It’s natural. Change can be scary.

But big changes always start with one small step.

How can you take one for yourself today?

If you want help figuring out what that small change can be, I’d recommend joining my coaching program.

You’ll get a personalized plan covering nutrition, movement, stress management, and healthy lifestyle design, all tailored to your unique circumstances.

As someone who’s helped people around the world lose fat, build muscle, spend more time on what’s important to them, and live healthier lifestyles, I’m confident it will work for you.

Hope this helps.

❤ Ian

Should You Ditch Your Phone During Workouts?

How do you feel about scrolling on social media during workouts?

Personally, I think people would have a better workout if they avoided it.

I’m not talking about intentional use, such as filming for a form check or to look up how to do an exercise. I’m talking about scrolling to fill time in between sets.

I would find it hard to perform a set, scroll on TikTok, perform a set, scroll on Instagram, perform a set, and then finish by scrolling on Facebook. I wouldn’t find that conducive to a focused, productive workout.

Maybe I’m too sensitive, and others are able to do it no problem.

If that’s the case, keep doing whatever helps you stay consistent and train hard.

For me, though, scrolling on social media between sets would be a major distraction. It’s engineered to maximize engagement. Because of that, I’m likely to see content that triggers a chain reaction of thinking about anything BUT my workout.

“Oh, so-and-so got married? Amazing! I haven’t talked to them in a while. When was the last time I messaged them? Lemme check…”

“Damn, look at so-and-so’s new house! That kitchen looks amazing. Lemme check out the other photos…”

“Oh no, there’s breaking news out of X-Y-Z country. That looks terrible. HOW many people?! I should check out the details…”

Before I knew it, five plus minutes may have gone by before I snapped out of a mini-trance and remembered, “Oh, right. Next set.”

Engineering aside, this may also be due to a concept known as “attention residue” – a concept explored through organizational and cognitive research – with studies dating back to the mid-1980s.

In essence, when people switch between different tasks, their performance suffers. A study from the University of Minnesota found that, “…switching attention tends to be difficult for people and subsequent task performance easily suffers.”

Applying this to a workout, scrolling on social media and then immediately switching to do a set of physical exercise could impair your performance because of attention residue. I doubt any of us go to the gym to have subpar workouts or decrease our performance.

To me, a workout is a time to disconnect from the constant stimulus of the world. I want to focus and do something kind for my body and mind, pushing myself and celebrating my efforts and progress.

Social media will still be there when I’m done.

Training is MY time.

What’s your experience with scrolling during workouts? I’m curious to hear your thoughts.

Love you lots. Have a great weekend.

❤️ Ian

Use the Two “B’s” and Get More Done

How can you take action to improve your health while balancing competing priorities?

Use the two “B’s:” “break it down” and “boundaries.”

Let’s take a closer look at how these work together.

Break It Down

Sometimes “life” happens, and you’re not able to stick to your original plans. That’s okay. In fact, it’s normal and expected.

Instead of giving up completely, take what you’d normally do and break it down to the smallest possible action that’ll help you make progress.

Here’s some examples:

Short on time? Break your workout down from 3 sets to 2
Meeting ran over into your break time? 10 minutes of meditation becomes 5 minutes.
Woke up later than anticipated? 30 minutes of yoga becomes 15 minutes.

Keep breaking your desired action down until you feel 9 or 10 out of 10 confident you can accomplish it. Then, do it and celebrate making progress!

Now, let’s look at how to help make this happen with boundaries.

Boundaries

Setting and maintaining boundaries is an important part of your health.

If other people or commitments are constantly overriding your time to exercise, de-stress, and eat well, it not only negatively impacts your health, but it also leaves you feeling like your priorities and values don’t matter. That’s not good.

Given that, it’s worth exploring setting boundaries to protect what’s important to you.

For example, maybe you feel guilty for taking time to exercise because you don’t spend that time with family, partners, or friends.

But what if you reframed things?

Instead of exercise taking time away from loved ones, what if you viewed it as ENHANCING the quality of the time you spend with loved ones?

Exercise improves our physical and mental health, allowing us to show up with more energy, presence, and capability for those we love.

When seen this way, it’s hard not to prioritize setting boundaries to make time for weekly workouts.

To get started, try having a conversation with friends, family, or loved ones about why it’s important to you and how it helps everyone involved.

You can do this with other areas of your life, too: your hobbies, social life, alone time, personal development, etc.

When you pair healthy boundaries with breaking actions down until you’re 9 or 10 out of 10 confident you can do them, you’re on your way to a healthier, more balanced and empowered life.

If you want to start improving your health, gain clarity on what matters, and take consistent action on what’s important to you, consider joining my coaching program. In it, we’ll design a custom plan that works with your life – not against it – so you can finally see results.

Love you lots.

❤ Ian

What’s Your “Say:Do” Ratio?

Here’s a powerful concept that can help you get more of what you want done this week: the “Say:Do” ratio, originally taught to me by my own coach.

Here’s the gist:

Your “say:do” ratio is the relationship between the number of things you say you want to do – eat well, exercise, destress, spend time with loved ones, etc. – and how often you actually do it.

My coach told me his job was to improve his client’s “say:do” ratio, getting it as close to 1:1 as possible. As a coach myself, it’s my job to do the same.

This week, think about your own “say:do” ratio as it relates to what’s important to you.

You might be SAYING that eating well, exercising, de-stressing, and spending time with loved ones is important… but are you actually DOING it?

If so – awesome! Keep doing what you’re doing.

If not – that’s okay! How can you take a small step today to change that?

If you’re feeling stuck, use a concept I wrote about previously: break whatever you want to do down into smaller and smaller action steps until you feel 9 or 10 outta 10 confident you can do it.

Still feeling stuck?

Hiring a coach is also a great option to help you build the skills, tools, and mindsets necessary to do more of what matters in your life.

Hope this helps. Have a great rest of your day.

Love you lots.

❤ Ian

How to Quit Less and Win More

The other day, I learned the second Friday in January is known as “quitter’s day” – the day where people are most likely to give up on resolutions they set for themselves.

I can relate. I’ve been a quitter, too.

When I think about goals I’ve given up in the past, most of them were usually 1) too big and 2) too vague.

For example, I’ve set resolutions in the past to “meditate more” and “lose weight.”

Looking at those goals, it’s not surprising I fell short.

What does “meditate more” even mean? How much weight would I have to lose to say I “lost weight?”

In order to avoid becoming another statistic in “quitter’s day” – or any day – and actually reach your goals, it helps to do two things:

Make it simple.
Make it specific and/or time bound.

Here’s how I would rewrite those goals to increase my chances of achieving them:

“Meditate more” → Meditate for 5 minutes every morning after coffee

This is now a simple daily mindfulness practice, paired with a specific part of my everyday routine.

“Lose weight” → Lose 10lbs. by May 1st by maintaining a 500 calorie deficit, eating 3 meals per day, and exercising 3 times per week

This is now much more specific: I have a target amount of weight to lose, a target calorie deficit, a set number of meals to eat per day, and a set number of workouts to complete each week. It’s also simple: I don’t have to rely on crash diets or complex, high intensity workouts that conflict with the rest of my life.

Simple. Specific. Time bound.

Give these elements a shot when you’re planning your next goal, or just want to get something meaningful to you done.

Love you lots.

❤ Ian

Stop “Surviving” and Start “Thriving”

Have you ever found yourself saying “No worries!” as you take on another responsibility, even though there were lots and lots of worries?

It happens to all of us.

We want to be helpful, accommodating, and seen as a “team player,” so we take on more than we’re able to manage in various areas of our lives.

While it may seem noble, doing so disrupts the balance between stress and recovery. That balance is important to maintain, because if we don’t, it has a whole host of negative implications for our overall health. On the flip side, if we respect this balance and get it right, we can thrive.

As the brilliant folks at Precision Nutrition put it…

“The balance between stressors and recovery is what determines our deep health, performance, and quality of life. It also shapes how we function, feel, think, form relationships, and act in the world.”

In other words, balancing stress and recovery is important for our lives in general – not just our workouts.

“But Ian, I can’t just ‘turn off’ the stressors in my life. It’s not something I can control!”

You’re right – we can’t control ALL the stress we experience in our life.

But we CAN control our behaviors, which help shape our responses to stress in more positive ways.

A good place to start is by building awareness, skills, and behaviors in key areas of health:

Sleep
Nutrition
Movement and Exercise
Stress Management

I call these “the basics” because they’re fundamental to good health.

What does that look like in practice?

Here’s a good example you can follow and modify to fit your circumstances:

Sleep: 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night, or a daily nap if that isn’t possible.
Nutrition: Eating mostly whole, minimally-processed foods – including lots of lean protein, veggies, fruits, and wholegrains – with each meal.
Movement and Exercise: Strength training at least two times per week, focusing on getting stronger and/or doing more reps over time. Moving more overall, such as going for walks, stretching, playing sports, or taking the stairs.
Stress Management: Proactive stress management through well-being practices, such as meditation, social connection, hobbies, gratitude, and maintaining healthy boundaries at work and in your social life.

By building awareness of the areas that have the biggest impact on the balance between stress and recovery, and then taking small, consistent actions in those areas, we give ourselves the best chance of moving from “surviving” to “thriving.”

Eventually, when you say, “No worries!”, you might actually mean it.

If you want to chat about how to incorporate or improve these areas in your life, send me a message or apply for coaching. I’m always here to help.

Love you lots.

❤ Ian

“I Just” is Anything But

“I just…”

Has anyone you know ever started an explanation for how they improved their health and fitness with that phrase?

“I just started working out more…”

“I just started eating less…”

“I just started using this app…”

But behind all those “I just…” moments are countless other lifestyle and behavioral changes that added up to big results.

“I just started working out more…” could mean someone has gotten better at planning and prioritizing, having constructive conversations with loved ones about their needs, and balancing trade offs for their health with other obligations.

“I just started eating less…” could mean someone has built better self awareness with their hunger and fullness cues, changed how and what they shop for, and started preparing meals in advance.

“I just started using this app…” could mean someone developed greater awareness around their overall health and lifestyle, and began making targeted adjustments to things like exercise, nutrition, sleep, and recovery.

In short, “I just…” is usually anything but.

There’s a lot of change that occurs and is navigated in the background.

And if change is something you struggle with navigating, coaching is a great resource to help.

Love you lots.

Ian

How to Have Fun and Improve Your Health at the Same Time

The other day, we talked about how to exercise more by keeping it specific and simple.

Today, let’s talk about another key part of exercising consistently: fun.

Yes, fun. Like what kids have.

And while we may be adults, damnit, we deserve to have fun, too.

I think it’s fair to say that the more fun we have doing something, the more likely we are to keep doing it.

That’s true for exercise, too.

Yet many people try to improve their health by starting exercise programs and diets they hate.

They’ll pick an exercise program that conflicts with their schedule, their familiarity, and their ability to recover.

Then, they’ll start a restrictive diet with a bunch of rules that make going to the grocery store or socializing feel like navigating a minefield of temptation.

Here’s the truth: you DON’T have to suffer through things you hate in order to improve your health.

Pushing against constant resistance and temptation is a surefire way to burn out and get stuck in the hamster wheel of training and dieting, leaving you frustrated and stuck.

Now, don’t get me wrong – hard work and consistency still matter.

The key is to work hard and be consistent on the things you enjoy.

Enjoy lifting weights? Lift!

Enjoy going for runs outside? Run outside!

Enjoy eating a balanced diet that includes some pizza and cake? Eat them every once in a while!

Don’t suffer unnecessarily. Find means of exercising and eating well that you enjoy and fit your lifestyle, and do it consistently for as long as you can.

And if you need help finding those things? That’s where coaching programs like mine can help.

Have an amazing day.

Love you lots.

Ian

How to Make Exercise a Habit

“How can I make exercise a more regular part of my routine?”

This is a good question, and a common struggle many of us share.

My advice, as someone who’s exercised consistently for 17 years?

Keep it specific and simple.

Recent research from the journal of Psychology & Health showed that people were more likely to form and stick to an exercise habit when they 1) were specific in what they were going to do and when, and 2) kept the routine simple.

So, instead of trying to “exercise a few times this week,” try instead to, “go to the gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 2 p.m. and train my whole body with a push, a pull, and a leg exercise each session.”

The more specific, simple, and repeatable you can keep your exercise, the more likely you are to make it a regular part of your routine.

As a bonus, you’ll be able to more reliably track progress, which helps you stay motivated and consistent in the long run.

Hope this helps. Love you lots.

Ian