Spurling Seven....

We tend to overcomplicate things as humans. 

We try to make things a lot harder than they actually are and that causes analysis paralysis. 

We get stuck. 

The true art is in simplifying things. 

The more you simplify things the more you execute on it and the more people understand it. 

Movement and fitness are actually quite simple. 

We hear it a lot from clients and alike “hey, check out this cool next exercise I saw on the interwebz!”

We are all for variety, but we also don’t want to just do something just for the sake of doing something.

It has to produce a result.

Anyone person or thing can you make you tired, it doesn’t mean it’s making you better.

Although there are thousands of exercises they all fall under seven categories. 

We call them the Spurling 7 Pillars of Movement. 

Today, I felt like taking a break from more the “personal development” stuff and instead, geek out on some exercise science.

1. Squat

Most people are familiar with these. 

You're bending at the knees, a little at the hips, and making the motion like you were sitting down on a chair. 

There are different ways to squat, different pieces of equipment we can hold, and that's where the customization and art of coaching come in.

When we work with a client, unless they have a knee injury, they're squatting. 

It's a foundational movement. 

For some that may be a bodyweight squat. 

For others, it may be holding a dumbbell or a kettlebell.

And for some, they are holding a bar on their back. 

But we're all going to squat. 

2. Lunge

This takes the focus and puts it on one leg. 

Your legs are split out and you're driving primarily through one leg. 

This works more the backside of the leg, compared to a squat which primarily works the quads. 

Again, the art is in choosing what level is appropriate for you. 

Some may be doing a bodyweight lunge others may be holding a pair of kettlebells as they walk in a lunging motion down the turf. 

3. Hinge/Deadlift

This is the third pillar, and the final lower body one. 

The hinge is primarily a hip based movement. 

We're trying to keep the back neutral and move through the hips, while just barely bending the knee. 

This puts the primary focus on the hamstrings and glutes, or the posterior chain as we call it. 

These are exercises like the deadlift, single leg deadlift, and glute bridges.

It's a huge pillar as most people don't know how to activate or move through their hips, and as humans, because we do everything in a forward motion we're generally pretty weak on this movement. 

4. Push

Now we're onto upper body. 

This is where things like pressing movements come in. 

Everything from a push-up to pressing dumbbells overhead. 

These movements work the chest, shoulders, and arms. 

Again, rest assured, in each of these pillars there are hundreds of exercises, and it's important that we as coaches learn where you are and what your goals are so that we can give you the appropriate level, but everything still falls into one of these pillars. 

5. Pull

This is the opposite of the push. 

This is any rowing or pull-up type motion. 

It could be a band row or something as hard as a chin up or pull up. 

These exercises primarily work the back and the arms. 

6. Core

We've all heard of this one. 

This is where we work the midsection. 

It could be things like planks or toe touches. 

However, it can also be things like stabilizing exercises like a Pallof Press. 

Farmers carries also fall into this category. 

Please note: It is scientifically impossible to spot reduce fat. So yes, I too would like to lose weight in my mid section, and although doing core exercises will make your core stronger, it does not spot reduce fat in that area. Sorry, I’m bummed too.

7. Metabolic

Sometimes we forget the heart is a muscle so we need to train it just like we train the arms, legs, and core. 

Under this category is anything done for 30 seconds or longer. 

Special note: This could even be a "strength" exercise, but if it's done for 30 seconds or more it's actually more so going to work your heart than any other muscle.

Why?

If you're doing something for 30+ seconds, you may be able to use some weight, but it's definitely not going to be as much as if I only had you do 8-12 reps of that same exercise. 

When we get moving for that long of a duration it's a cardio workout. 

Also falling into this category is any of your traditional cardio like bikes, rowers, treadmills, sled pushing, medicine ball slams, etc. 

So that's it. 

Name me any exercise and I guarantee it will fall into one of the 7 pillars. 

So, as we look at designing a well put together plan it consists of two pieces:

1. Make sure we have at least one exercise from each pillar

2. Make sure we're doing the appropriate level of exercise at each pillar. 

The second one is the key, and that's where good coaching comes in. 

I may have different goals, I may move differently, and I may have some injuries, so although we both need to be doing a push and a pull exercise, what those are may be different. 

So there you have it...

A simple, yet not so simple, explanation of the Spurling 7 Pillars of Movement. 

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling

The challenge with challenges

A few weeks ago, Doug sent around an email explaining to the team about the 75 Hard challenge that he started this past Monday. In case you missed it, the challenge is that for 75 days in a row, you do the following things:

Workout for 45 minutes twice a day, once outside.

Follow a nutrition plan with no cheat days

No alcohol

Drink a bucket of water

Take a progress picture

Read 10 pages of personal development material per day.

If you forget any of these, you start over again.

My first thought when I read this was…..

No.

The immediate hole I poked in it was the workouts. Aside from the time constraint because of my commute to work, there was also the hard cold fact that I’d hate my life for the next two and a half months. I’m willing to suffer through some workouts, but probably not 90 minutes everyday…

Then there was the fact that this challenge falls during my 20 year college reunion that I’m headed to in late September and I’m certain that we’ll do the middle aged version of the State Street Stagger at some point that weekend (the one that has us going out at 7 and getting home at 10).

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I am in a place now where I’m ready for a sprint. Doug writes about that all of the time – in our training and nutrition approach we go through sprints and jogs. I’m ready to buckle down and do a bit of a sprint.

I often think about challenges like this as all or nothing, and I can get ridiculously competitive with myself and with other people. To a fault. One of the greatest gifts of aging is letting go of certain things.

And in the days leading up to this challenge, I embraced the fact that I didn’t have to do a challenge that had the potential to wreck my already well-abused body with overuse. I’m already prone to overuse injuries and I can’t afford another one. I know myself and I know what’s right for me, even if I struggle to practice it.

So I took a note out of Frank Sinatra’s book and decided that I would do the 75 day challenge – but I’d do it my way.

The only substitution I made is with my workouts – I’ve committed to two workouts a day, for 30 minutes each, one outside. I also added a box for taking my supplements, something that I’ve been trying to do everyday. I customized these 75 days to something that is challenging for me, but that also includes behavior changes that matter to me.

It is so freeing to realize that we don’t have to be beholden other people’s standards. You can modify the couch to 5K program and still run a 5k. You can still run a half-marathon if you miss a few training days. You can still make gains if you miss one workout a week. For those of you doing the MyZone challenge at the gym, you can compete against yourself to workout harder and earn more MEPS than you earned last month.

It’s certainly a balance, but you can fit these types of challenges around your needs. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

I’ll let you know where I’m at with my 75Firm challenge next week. :-)

How Much Are You Willing To Change?

A lot of people hate change. 

I actually crave change. 

Focused change usually means better, and I'm all about getting better. 

1%. Right?

We spend a lot of time talking about change, and I think that's good, but I think we can get caught up in the details too quickly. 

What I mean by that is we're very quick to want to know how many grams of protein we should get or what diet is best, but we haven't even asked the most important question...

How much are you willing to change?

Just like anything else, the bigger the change, the bigger the result. 

There is no right answer. 

Some people are only willing to change a few things, some people want to overhaul everything. 

I think it's important to reflect on what you are willing to change. 

Here's why. 

What you change is a direct reflection of your results. 

Sure, we all want results, but what have you changed?

The same input will always equal the same output. 

We all have this desire to be lean but are you willing to make the necessary changes and sacrifices to get there?

I don't know. 

That's up to you. 

We need to think of it as a spectrum. 

On one side of the spectrum is no change at all. 

No change = No results. 

Pretty simple. 

On the other side is extreme, let's say a bodybuilder or figure competitor. 

Some may want to look like that, but they're not willing to make the necessary sacrifices.

Are you willing to have no alcohol? 

Are you willing to say no to all sweets?

Are you willing to eat three square meals a day, no snacking at all, and each of those meals is just some protein and a vegetable?

7 days a week. 

365 days a year. 

No exceptions. 

That's what it takes, not including the exercise portion, to get as lean as what a lot of you see as a bodybuilder or figure competitor. 

Not to mention it probably took ten years of doing that 7 days a week, 365 days a year. 

That's that extreme side of the spectrum. 

Now, I don't know about you, but that's not my goal, and I think there's more to life than chicken and broccoli. 

However, with that mentality, I also can't expect to walk around with a six pack because I'm not willing to make that much change. 

Most of us probably fall somewhere in the middle of no change and the extreme example above. 

If you want to drop 50+ pounds you're going to have to make a lot more changes than the person that just wants to "tone up."

If you like your nightly glass of beer or wine and that dinner out with friends once a week, that's awesome, but we can't expect to drop ten pounds a month doing that. 

Just make sure that the desired result you want matches the change you’re willing to make. 

That's always the biggest disconnect we see. 

People want these grand results but their actions don't match and they are not willing to change as much as they need to. 

So, the question will always be, how much are you willing to change?

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling

#75Hard

Today is day one of the #75Hard Challenge for myself, and some of my team that chose to do it.

It’s 75 straight days of:

1. Two workouts every day, at least 45 minutes, at least one has to be outside

2. Follow calorie limit, track all food, no cheats, no sweets, no alcohol

3. Drink a gallon of water every day

4. Read 10 pages of a personal development book every day

5. Take a progress pic every day

If you miss a day on any of them, you go back to day one. 

Now, let me make something very clear before I go on, I don’t recommend this for many people, especially beginners.

However, I’m sharing it with you as I think there’s some good lessons.

I’m excited for this mental/physical challenge.

I haven’t locked in on something this challenging since Kaden came along. 

I love the discipline this will take, the early mornings, doing things when you don’t want to, all of it.

I’ve written about it in the past, but I think we need to approach this whole personal development/getting better thing like laps around the track.

Sometimes we’re “walking’” just cruising along, usually loving other things like social gatherings, good food, etc, but we’re probably not making a ton of “progress” in our laps around the track.

Other times we’re “jogging,” making good progress, consistently good, and covering some solid ground around the track.

Lastly, every once in awhile we need to “sprint.” A hard push, strict rules, doing things that you don’t want to, and you end up doing a lot of “laps” around the track.

Now this particular challenge is not really a physical challenge.

Although I’m sure I’ll see physical change, it’s about committing to those five things every day, and never missing a day.

This traits will carry over to all aspects of life whether we’re talking physical wellness, vocational wellness, emotional wellness, intellectual wellness, and everything in between.

It’s going to force characteristics like:

• Discipline

• Time Management

• Integrity

• Planning

• Consistency

• Doing things when you don’t want to

• Not making excuses

• Extreme ownership

• Personal responsibility

I’m excited for it, and I’ll do periodic updates on here.

As for you, as summer wraps up, and for most of us, things settle back into a somewhat “normal” routine after Labor Day, maybe it’s worth considering if you want to pick something and go after this fall.

It could be a physical goal, it could be a career or business goal, it could be anything.

I think there’s enormous benefit in picking something super specific, with a deadline, and going after it with laser focus.

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling

Which Path?

Which path do you take?

As humans, we're naturally wired to take that path of least resistance. 

In fact, everything is designed to take the path of least resistance. 

Whether it's water, electricity, or our brains, it will always default to what is easiest, what is the shortest, quickest, or least challenging way. 

Did you know wolves evolved to domesticated dogs because it was easier to scavenge on human trash than track down prey?

The path of least resistance. 

So what's the solution?

Awareness is always number one. 

Whether it's in fitness, nutrition, work, or life, we're always going to default to the easiest way of doing it (or not doing it all because that's actually the easiest). 

So you have to consciously be aware of that, and continually remind yourself that the path of least resistance is not always the best way. 

The people that have success, in any area of life, fitness included, are the ones that don't take the easiest path...

Getting up early is not easy...

Showing up every single day, writing every single day, for 5 straight years is not easy...

Doing the boring hard work every day, sweeping the shed as they say…

But I know those things, amongst others, are my personal competitive advantages. 

I simply know, because it's not easy, most people won't do it.

Because it's a harder path to take, they'll be fewer people on the path, and I'll be farther ahead than most on that path.

Now that's a personal or business example, but you can relate that to any one thing...

Showing up to the gym when you have other things to do is not easy...

Meal prepping is not easy...

Journaling your food is not easy...

Saying no to takeout and instead making a healthy choice is not easy...

And it's why most people won't do it, so if you're looking for results, those are the things you need to do. 

Go against the grain, go against what is normal or status quo, and do what others just are not willing to do. 

With all that being said...

You can also use this to your advantage.

Since we know our brains are naturally going to go with the path of least resistance, we can do things that play to that. 

For example...

Putting the alarm clock across the room so you have to get out of bed to shut it off...

Preparing your gym bag the night before and putting it by the door...

Hiding (or not buying) some of those food goodies (there's actually a company that sells food storage that locks for a certain amount of time)...

Have healthy foods on the counter that is quicker to access...

You get it. 

As you may know by now, this change stuff (fitness, nutrition, or other) is hard, and it's mostly a mental game. 

Just remember, our brains are wired to take the path of least resistance, so you need to use that to your advantage in some circumstances and go against it in others. 

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling

Don’t give away any at bats

Last Wednesday afternoon Sheila and I rolled in to Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati to watch my beloved Pittsburgh Pirates take on the hometown Reds while we were in Ohio. It was a brutally hot mid-western afternoon, and we settled in a few rows behind the dugout only to watch the favorite baseball team lose yet again.

For Pittsburgh fans, this is the time of year when we tend to focus our attention towards football (though I’m listening to the game as we speak). Football preseason has begun, summer is sailing into its final month, and at least for my baseball team, the games matter less in terms of wins and losses, and more in terms of younger players gaining experience and looking to the future.

When I was a softball coach, my team occasionally ended up on the other side of some very lopsided games. But the thing about baseball and softball is that you can’t wait for the clock to run out. You can’t turn the ball over to the other team. You can’t do anything at all but send your hitters up to the plate, one at a time, until you’ve made three outs.

And those at bats are a hell of a lot harder than you might think.

I’ve played in those games, I’ve coached those games, and I’ve watched those games as a fan. And they are hard. I think those are some of the hardest at games to endure.

As a coach, I always implored my players not to give away those at bats though, no matter how futile they might seem. Because even when you’re losing – even when the game is so far out of reach a victory is impossible, there are always two things that matter – taking pride in your effort – and understanding that every moment holds the possibility of something special.

We are right now headed in to the dog days of summer. Maybe you’ve been off-track with your workouts – maybe you’ve fallen off of your nutrition plan. Maybe this summer isn’t going the way you had hoped or planned.

But in life, as in baseball, these two things remain true – that you can take pride in putting forth your 100 percent, whatever that looks like.

And understanding that each moment, no matter how fleeting, no matter how hopeless it might sometimes feel, still holds the possibility of something special

Stop Telling Yourself Stories

You will never speak to anyone more than you speak to yourself in your head. 

Think about that.

We are constantly talking to ourselves, from the time we wake to the time we fall asleep. 

We talk to ourselves, tell ourselves stories...more than we ever talk to anyone else. 

Stop telling yourself stories. 

We're good at making up stories and telling them to ourselves. 

"I won't be able to do that."

"She's mad at me."

Today with e-mail and social media it's even worse. 

You read something on social media...

"Oh, he's talking about me."

Or you get an e-mail from someone and think...

"Damn, she hates us."

We are constantly telling ourselves stories, made up stories. 

We fill our head with negative thoughts, fake stories, and self-limiting thoughts about what we can and can't do. 

But the real truth?

Those stories aren't true, she doesn't hate you, and yes, you can do that. 

That's the truth. 

It's not the story we tell ourselves, but it's the truth. 

Have you ever read an e-mail or a post from someone and thought they were mad at you, only to realize that you read the tone of the message wrong, and they're not mad at you at all?

That's a story in your head. 

Do you ever think your boss is always pissed off at you, but if you took a second to talk to them face-to-face, you would realize that's not true at all?

That's the story in your head. 

Do you ever think to yourself how out of shape you are, how far you have to go, and how you can't do anything?

That's the story in your head. 

Confront any of the above scenarios, take action, and you'll typically realize it's a fairytale, you were flooding your mind with those negative thoughts for no reason. 

I'm right there with you. 

I always fill my head with stories...

"This client is not happy with their experience or results."

"This team member must really hate me for doing that."

But then I take action and confront it, and it's usually just a story I was making up in my head. 

So, whether it's a story about someone, or a story you're telling yourself about how you can't do something, stop telling yourself stories. 

Take action, face it head on, and you'll quickly realize it's all in your head. 

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling

The Worst Month In Fitness

August. 

Especially if you're in Maine, but really anywhere, August is tough. 

It's the dog days of summer, the beach is calling your name, and the last thing you want to do is a workout. 

It’s the time of year for vacations, BBQ's, maybe some final plans with the family before the kids head back to school next month, it can be the worst month for workout frequency.

Guess what?

That's totally okay. 

Complaining about it, being negative about it, and worst case, not doing anything, is the last thing we want to do. 

This time of year I always remind everyone (myself included) of the laps around a track analogy. 

If our journey is a track, and results or drive is measured by the speed or distance at which we cover the lap, August may be a "walking" month. 

What do I mean?

Certain months of the year we're in a full sprint around the track. 

Things are locked in, we're feeling motivated, attendance is high, and we're going hard. 

For most that works well for January, February, March, September, October, and November. 

Let's call that half the year. 

But you can't be sprinting all the time, you'll burn yourself out. 

There are some months where you're just jogging around the track, you're making progress, but you're also not as dialed in as you would be in "sprint mode."

For most, that tends to fall in April, May, and June.

Finally, we have the "walking" mode.

We're still moving, we're still showing up, but the bar is not set too high. 

For most, those months are July, August, and December. 

Think of anything else in life. 

It's never the same every month. 

There is seasonality. 

Your life has seasonality. 

The most important thing?

We never stop moving. 

We never stop showing up. 

You may only get 3-4 workouts in during a month like August or December, but you're still moving. 

You may get 15-20 workouts in January because you're feeling motivated and ready to kick butt. 

There is no right answer, and there's only one wrong answer...

Doing nothing. 

You see, it's the months where we only "walk" or "jog" the breed the motivation and give us the energy to go hard during the "sprint" months. 

You know how hard it is to get back into something after not having done anything in a long time. 

That's why even a handful of workouts in August can be a win, as long at it gives you the kickstart to dial things in after labor day. 

August is tough. 

I get it. 

But keep the progress going, keep the laps going around the track, and just show up. 

We'll take care of the rest. 

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling

Six-Pointed Hope Star

I am obsessed with all things Zingerman’s.

If you’re not familiar with Zingerman’s it’s a community of businesses in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

I could spend days talking about them.

Basically what they have done in the food business is what we are trying to do in the health, hospitality, and personal/business development spaces.

Either directly or indirectly I have referenced Zingerman’s and their co-founder Ari Weinzwig a plethora of times as his work has changed my life.

They share very similar values, beliefs, and best practices.

Ari has a 4 part book series I would highly recommend, and I’m about halfway through the fourth book.

It’s a book entirely only beliefs and how your beliefs change your action, and how you changing your beliefs can change you, your organization, and the world around you.

It’s deep and powerful stuff, and as you can tell, I’m totally obsessed.

However, I read about the six-pointed hope start this morning and I thought it was worth sharing.

Hope is a powerful things.

Hopeful for change, hopeful for a better future.

We experience hope on our personal lives, in our work lives, everywhere.

If we don’t have hope, we don’t have a purpose.

Whether we’re talking about hope that we can hit a goal, hope that something will change in our life, or hope that we’ll live a meaningful life.

Unfortunately in life, we may be surrounded with people who crush our hope, and when hope is crushed over and over, we lose motivation, we lose drive, and we lose purpose.

In his book, Ari talks about a metaphor where hope is the sun, it helps us grow, and if hope is low, our “sun” is blacked out and energy is exhausted, and our quality of life/work suffers.

I hope that tomorrow can be better than today, that our work will make a difference, and that if we work hard and go after greatness, good things will happen.

I hope that I continue to contribute to my emotional and intellectual improvement and all around us.

Hope is a powerful thing.

So whether we’re talking about hope that you’ll hit a goal, stick with it, or see a change, or hope that life will get better, there is no denying hope is a crucial component to our life and personal development.

In the chapter on hope, Ari outlines the “Six-Pointed Hope Star.”

Think of it as an action plan to instill more hope in your life, or others.

The six pointed star of hope is as follows.

1. Help people see a better future- This is visioning. What makes hope happen is the belief that there’s a real and reasonable shot at successfully doing the work to get where we want to go. Have a really clear vision for what you want and where you want to go.

2. Help people see how they might get to that future-Positive psychologist Rick Snyder, refers to this as “waypower,” which, he says, “reflects the mental plans or roadmaps that guide hopeful thought.” There’s more than one way way to get what we want, but there is always a path to follow to get what we want.

3. Show people how much they matter-As you can tell, these are framed in a context of helping others instill more hope into their lives, but you can adjust it to self advice. You matter. Everything you do matters. You make a difference in this world. Continue to recognize and appreciate that who you are and what you do matters.

4. Help people see how much their work maters-It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about “work” within your organization, “work” in your family, or in any other facet of life. What you do matters, and it’s important to have people (bosses, friends, coaches) in your life to help you recognize that.

5. Help people see how small steps are they to success-Is it not crazy how “1% Better” comes up in literally every facet of life!? “Hope is created moment by moment through small deliberate choices. What most of the world perceives as a powerful bold stroke of genius is nearly always a composite of many thousands of littler things.” Whether we’re talking developing as a person, hitting a fitness goal, or putting more hope into your life, it’s all about small action steps complied on top of each other.

6. Show people how they fit into the larger whole-People’s level of hope tends to increase when they connect-in a meaningful way to something greater than themselves. That’s why being a parent and raising a family is so fulfilling. It becomes less about you, and more about being a part of something bigger. That’s why our gym community has been so successful. Yes, it’s important that you have your personal goals, and grow as a person, but it’s just as much about feeling connected to a community. People want to be a part of things. The more you can foster that for others, and the more you can find versions of that in your life the more hope you’ll have.

I know today was a deep topic, but hopefully (no pun intended) you see how much it matters, in fitness, in business, in life.

How can you fit more hope into your life?

How can you spread more hope to others?

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling

Harder isn't always better

In May of 1998 I boarded a plane for just the second time in my life, a non-stop flight from Pittsburgh to Denver. I packed a pair of suitcases and my guitar, off to spend the summer working in Rocky Mountain National Park. 

Despite growing up in Western Pennsylvania and having never been West of the Mississippi, I was obsessed with going to Colorado and living in the “real” mountains.

In Pennsylvania we said we have mountains, but that's pretty generous. 

For the most part, we have hills.

I spent a few days in Estes Park, which sits at the base of the Rocky Mountains (and is home to scenes from Dumb and Dumber)  before making my first trek into the park. I remember having to put my face face on the dashboard of the car just to see the snow covered peaks as we wove our way up Trail Ridge Road. 

I was lost for words trying to take in the beauty. 

Over the course of that summer I hiked close to 300 miles of trails in the park, taking each day off from my work at Trail Ridge Store to pick a new hike.

It wasn’t until I hiked the mountains of Colorado that I discovered and understood the beauty of the switchback trails. 

A switchback, if you’re not familiar, is described as an 180 degree bend in a road or path, especially one leading up the side of the mountain. Rather than hiking straight up the side of a mountain, you zig zag your way up however many miles of trails until you get above tree line and to the summit.

I thought of switchbacks a few weeks ago when a client came in after a very busy, packed weekend filled with tons of physical activity. The more she described her weekend activities the more I was re-thinking the best workout for her that day. 

“Oh no,” she said, reading my thoughts. “That doesn’t mean I want you to take it easy on me!” 

We haggled back and forth for a bit before meeting in the middle with some active recovery work added at the end of her workout. 

Sometimes we equate hard core suffering with work. We feel that we're only getting results if we're nose down in the turf, sucking wind and drowning in a pool of sweat.

No.

The path to getting results isn't always charging straight up the North Face of a steep mountain. Sure that's one way to do it, but the chances of losing a step and falling backwards increase dramatically when you take that approach. 

You can still get to the top of the mountain using the switchbacks, and hopefully not rolling 200 feet down the mountain when you miss a step. 

I don't recall which hike this was, but once we got above tree-line, the switchbacks ended and we were walking straight up the side of the mountain. Also this was before digital cameras. No need for an instagram filter here...

(As a side thought, aren’t you impressed with anyone who has reached the summit on Mount Everest? Or are you only impressed if they did so without oxygen? Sure doing it with no oxygen is much harder, but I would argue that both are impressive.)

Switchbacks don’t mean that you don’t do the work. They just make the journey more accessible and manageable. Hiking eight miles of trail, switchbacks and all, is plenty of work. But they allow you, hopefully, to slow down every few bends, stop and look around and enjoy the view. And then, after a short rest and a long drink of water, you tighten your backpack and tackle the next part of the trail. 

I hope you're stopping every now and then to appreciate where you are at on your journey. That you can see the good views and truly absorb what you are doing well. 

I know what it feels like to want to make yourself suffer. To punish yourself with a workout because of the self-loathing you feel for yourself. To feel like you're an awful person and that beating the hell out of yourself is justice for everything you hate yourself for. 

No.

You don't have to make everything you do as hard as possible. 

I'm not saying you don't have to work hard. This journey can and will be difficult. 

I'm just saying you don't have to climb Mount Everest without oxygen.

Or a sherpa :-) 

Ok? 

Being good

A few weeks ago, Sheila and I were out to dinner.

One of my favorite things in the whole world is to go out to dinner and try new restaurants and new atmospheres. I can’t really cook all that well, but I’ve become a bit of a foodie and Maine has no shortage of great restaurants to try.

On this particular night we found a good spot in Falmouth and settled in for our meals, when I ordered a Cobb salad.

I’m trying to be good, I’d said to Sheila, who hadn’t asked.

We continued on with our meal, and enjoyed a nice conversation before strolling out to the car, walking slowly and enjoying the warm summer night., We got into the car and before she started the engine, she stopped for a minute and poked at me.

“You know, when you say that you’re trying to be good with your food, it makes me feel like my choices are bad.”

Ohhhhhh suh-nap.

I looked over at her.

“You are so right,”I said. “I am so, so sorry.”

I try so hard to pay attention to language. I try to remind clients every day to not minimize their achievements.

I only did three sets.

No, you did three sets.

It’s just one pushup.

No, it’s one pushup.

The thing about food though, is that I don’t think half of us pay attention to the way we talk about it. It’s not just saying that food is good or bad – I’ve also caught myself saying– upon eating a bowl of ice cream or chocolate snack at work, “good thing I worked out today.”

Or, “I’m going to need to workout now that I’ve eaten this.”

No. We don’t need to earn our food, and we don’t need to punish ourselves for the food we do eat. We also don’t need to talk about our food in a way that shames other people.

I had a conversation with a client last week who was out to breakfast with her friends. One of those friends was on a diet and the way she talked about her food and what she was going to order affected everyone else at the table.

She didn’t just turn down the toast with her eggs – she turned down the toast and offered the commentary that toast had so many carbs.

“It’s a restaurant you go to once a summer,” the client said. “And I was absolutely ordering the stuffed French toast - I’d been looking forward to it. But her commentary affected everyone else at the table and made the whole experience less enjoyable.”

We don’t know what someone else’s struggles are. We don’t know what someone else’s situation is. But when we make unsolicited commentary on everything we eat, it can have unintended results.

Ever since Sheila’s comment to me about “being good,” I’ve caught myself saying that phrase a hundred times. And each time now, I remind myself that my language matters.

Language always matters.

You Good?

“How are you?”

“Good.”

“How’s things?”

“Good.”

“How was the weekend?”

“Good.”

Let me call us all out…

It’s okay that some things in our life are not good right now, and we don’t always have to say “good.”

Every time we ask someone how they’re doing, why does the response always have to be “good?”

We see on social media how lavish someones life looks, they comment on how good things are going, or we see only their highlight reel…

But what we don’t see is how they’re actually hurting, struggling, and maybe crying out for attention.

We all know it deep down, but sometimes we are afraid to admit it when things are not going well.

Whether we’re talking about your fitness journey, your personal growth journey, or just life in general, it’s never this linear line of ever increasing successes and gains.

With any of that, is going to come some down moments, some learning opportunities, some failures, and that’s totally okay.

Now, I’m not here to be negative Nancy today, I just think it’s good to hear every once in awhile that it’s okay if you’re not “good.”

Sometimes I know I come across as go, go, go, rah, rah, rah, and the fact of the matter is I struggle with things too.

Now, hopefully I practice what I preach, have enough supportive people in my life and “tools in the toolbox” to get me out of it, but we’re all dealing with something at any given time.

Coach Kim has been open with her struggle with depression…

I’ve been open about struggling with my weight, and my ability to be present at home…

And you have your stuff.

We all do.

Do I believe that it’s never as bad as we make it and we can usually improve it through changing our mindset, beliefs, and surrounding ourselves with the right people?

You bet.

But that doesn’t change that we’re still dealing with it.

So, whether we’re talking struggles with your fitness, struggles at home, at work, or what have you, it’s okay if you’re not “good.”

We’ll be here for you.

1% Better.

Run Your Own Race

Run your own race. 

Quite often we can catch ourselves trying to either keep up with someone else or trying to run their "race" entirely. 

And I'm not talking just about a 5k here (although I'll see you on August 10th, for our 4th Annual Spurling Charity 5k, right?)...

I'm talking life. 

As you go on this journey of a better you, a stronger you, a more empowered you, it is just that...

YOU. 

Now, you can have supporters and people to lift you up and inspire you, but it's important that you run your own race. 

We can catch ourselves looking at pictures online or comparing ourselves to others in the gym and saying things like "I wish I was like her."

What we don't realize is they may have been putting in the work for years and years, and you're now just seeing the result. 

They've made countless sacrifices, stacked several wins, and you're now just judging how they are now. 

Or, physically they seem great, but maybe they're dealing with mental and emotional things at work or at home that you couldn't even imagine. 

I get it. It can be frustrating...

Run your own race. 

Your journey is unique. 

Make it that way. 

Don't compare yourselves to others, don't try to keep up with people that have been going at it a lot longer than you, and remember this too...

As much as you look up to people, there's always someone looking up to you. 

Maybe it's that lady on day one who is still confused with what a foam roller is. 

Going over, saying hi, and giving her a helping hand can make a big difference. 

Don't compare yourselves to others, focus on your journey and what you need to improve on, but just like in races, if a fellow "runner" needs help, feel free to give them a little push. 

To build off of that...

Don't run someone else's race. 

We all have our own goals, we all have our own battles, our own stories, don't try to live vicariously through someone else's by running their race. 

Set your own goals, pave your own path, and create YOUR story. 

Run your own race. 

It doesn't mean you have to go at it alone, but it does mean that your kind to yourself. 

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling 

&^%^%#$% the scale

Pardon my inference of profanity there.

But seriously.

I’ve been in a sprint mode these past four weeks with my fitness and nutrition - I’ve been really focusing on my anchor habits - eating slowly, eating until I’m 80% full, and hitting at least 100 grams of protein every day.

I’ve been tracking my food, increasing my workouts, and yesterday I came in to the gym feeling pretty darn good about myself.

Then I got on the scale at the gym.

Before I go on about how I almost put a stick of dynamite on the scale and launched it into a 50th anniversary trip to the moon:

I am and have always been fairly lean and I’ve never struggled with my weight. But I still have my own goals with fitness, and I certainly still have body image struggles. I’d love to say that I’m immune, but I’m just not.

So yesterday……

The scale said I’d gained two pounds of fat and lost a pound of muscle.

I was seething. I mean if the scale didn’t cost thousands of dollars, I’d have taken it out to the parking lot and backed my car over it 10 times. Then I’d have taken a sledge hammer to it, danced a &^%$ polka with a moose on it, before throwing it on I95 for all of the summer traffic to drive over.

For the rest of the summer.

Because what the *^%*&?

It was really hard not to let the results ruin my day.

But then, as I was sitting in my corner in the gym lobby (no really, there’s a sign, I have my own corner), stewing on my scale results - I put my elbows on the bar and my head in my hands.

This process takes work.

And I’m not talking about the work it takes to get my nutrition on point or my workouts in for the week. That takes work too.

I’m talking about the work it takes every damn day to shift your perspective.

It is a daily practice to work on your mindset.

Accepting yourself, loving your body, and loving who you are is as much a daily practice as brushing your teeth.

It’s all good and fine for me to run over a scale with my car. And if your curious, I did that with the old scale from the gym - and yes, there is a YouTube video for it - and yes - I also used a sledge hammer on said scale and it was very cathartic.

But it takes daily reminders and practices for me to love and accept myself for who I am now, and not who I will be when I lose more body fat or add more muscle. It’s a daily commitment and a daily job to love ourselves.

And dammit, it’s hard. Really really hard.

But it’s a daily practice, and we have to hold one another accountable to the process. So I’ll hold you accountable, and the next time you see me….

Maybe check to see that I haven’t started a dumpster fire with the scale.

I mean, just in case.

What Will You Be Able To Do?

Right now I’m typing this as I hunch over my kitchen island, cringing in back pain.

Being tall has it’s advantages, but one of the downsides is because your trunk is twice the length of the average human, your spine is usually more at risk for injury, and as most of you read yesterday, I hurt my back pretty hard over the weekend.

It’s happened before, I’ll be fine, but this weeks goals in the gym shifted to…

What do I need to do so that I can move and feel better?

Rolling, stretching, upper body, cardio only, etc.

Sitting around is the worst thing I can do.

As always, it made me think of a great lesson.

Actually two lessons…

One, never skip your warm-up :)

Two, what do you want to be able to do?

We all have these vanity goals of looking better (lose weight, achieve a certain body fat, etc), but what do those goals allow us to do?

Why do you want to lose those 20lbs?

No seriously.

Why?

Do you actually even know why or do you just want to look better?

There's nothing wrong with that, but the clearer you get with your goals the higher success you will have with them. 

For most of us, it's not the 20lbs (just using that number for the sake of example), it's what the 20lbs allows us to do. 

I want to weigh 152lbs. 

Why?

It's a number. 

You don't want to weigh 152lbs. 

You want to fit into your jeans, feel confident around your husband, be able to climb the stairs without getting out of breath, be around and healthy with your grandkids, look good in that bathing suit for your trip, etc, etc, etc.

Does it really matter if you are 152lbs or 162lbs if you can achieve all of that?

You'll hear us preach until the cows come home that the scale is just a measurement of gravity. 

It never tells us the full picture. 

Sure, most of us have some excess weight that we need to shed off, but if you want to have long-term success, you can't focus on the number on the scale but instead focus on what you want behind that number, what you'll be able to do. 

Now, I'm not saying I don't want you to lose the weight if that’s your goal.

Of course I do. 

If you're carrying too much weight we need to work on getting it off. 

But don't dial it down to a specific number on the scale. 

Dial it down to a feeling, a look, or an ability to do things you can't do right now. 

That's ultimately may come down to hitting a certain number on the scale, but it most likely is not the number you think it is. 

I'm going to challenge you again...

Why do you want to lose those 20lbs?

It's not hitting a number on the scale, it's deeper than that. 

Because what happens when you see the number you want?

You smile, pat yourself on the back, and go back to your day. 

What we really want is to be able to do certain things (fit in jeans, have confidence around spouse, gain energy, sleep better, keep up with kids, go on that trip/hike, be injury free, feel comfortable in a bathing suit, etc) that we currently cannot do. 

Focus on what you want to be able to do and use that as your measurement of success, not the number on the scale. 

Because let's face it...if you can do all of the things you want to do, feel the way you want to feel, and have the look you want, does it really matter if you weigh 185lbs or 179lbs?

My final two thoughts...

1. We challenge you not to focus on the scale, not because we don't want to see change, but we know in order to have long-term success you have to have other ways to measure success because you'll go crazy if that's all you focus on :)

2. The number one thing we need to remember is our actions (changes) need to match our desires. If you're not getting results, we can beat around the bush 1000 ways and get into the weeds, but it ultimately comes back to this. The more change you want to see, the more changes you're going to have to make. And from our experience (ourselves included), our desired result is not backed up by the amount of change that is necessary. 

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling

I Was Crying...

Yeah, at 5:30 this morning I leaned against the wall of the shower crying…

I did something so small Saturday morning, but I knew it the moment I did it.

Over the course of the day my back tightened into a knot, and as the day went on the pain got worse.

It progressed all weekend and this morning was the tipping point where I realized I needed help.

I’ve pulled my back a bunch of times, it’s one of the negatives of being so tall, but this might top the pain level.

I’ve tried every stretch I know, I’ve slept on the floor, and I’m waiting until things open up to get some pain medicine and see a chiropractor as my spine is currently the shape of a C.

My point for telling you all of this?

Today’s version of “1% Better” is going to look a lot different compared to what it normally looks like.

I’ll have Mel cancel all my appointments, I’ll rest, maybe go for a light walk, and stretch.

That’s it.

If I can lift my leg or bend over to reach something that dropped without screaming, it’s a win.

We all have things like this that come up, and it’s how we react to it that matters.

You may pull your back, your kids may be home sick, or you may have to shift your focus to another commitment.

And that’s totally okay…

That doesn’t mean we throw in the towel and just give up.

We do what we can with what we have.

Will I hit my workout goal this week?

Probably not.

Will I get all the things done I originally planned on?

Probably not.

But I’ll do what I can today, I’ll give it my best.

Heck, even getting this message out to you is a win.

As always, I try to look at lessons and reminders in everything…

• Things will come up, and it’s how you react to them that matters

• When something does come up, throwing in the towel and doing nothing is the last thing you should do.

• There are people out there in a much worse situation, so I can buck it up.

• 1% Better is all about doing the best you can that day, even if it wasn’t what you had originally planned on.

• There are some non-negotiables that must get done every day, no matter what.

• Don’t beat yourself up and start filling your mind with negative self-talk, action is what moves things forward.

• Make sure you have medical friends in your circle so they can get you in right away :)

Hopefully this came across the way I intended it to, and as always, I write this as a reminder for me, just as much as a reminder for you.

These lessons for you are just as much lessons for me, we’re all human.

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling

The Power Of Beliefs...

What do you believe?

Seriously.

Have you ever taken the time to step back and think about your beliefs.

I’m not just talking spiritual beliefs, I’m talking about all your beliefs.

For me, I never even thought about it until about a month or so ago.

I’m about 3/4 of the way through “The Power of Beliefs In Business” by Ari Weinzweig, co-founder of Zingerman’s.

It’s part 4 of a book series I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, but it’s deep, deep stuff.

I’ve always enjoyed Ari’s stuff, and we’ve learned a lot from Zingerman’s as a company, and his thoughts on beliefs are right up there as some of the best stuff I’ve read about.

So, why am I telling you about this?

Two reasons.

One, it completely opened my eyes to the power of beliefs in our lives.

Two, there are four levels of learning.

The first being reading, the second being reflecting, the third being assimilating or acting, and the fourth is teaching or writing.

So, by teaching/writing this to you, I’m actually forced to learn and retain the information better.

It’s a win, win :)

So, we have beliefs on everything.

We have beliefs of individual people….

We have beliefs about ourselves…

We have beliefs about what certain words mean like “successful, “ “organized, “ “fun,” etc.

Everything starts with a belief that you have.

That belief causes you to take a certain action.

That action produces a certain result.

Because of that result you have a certain belief.

And the circle goes round and round.

Let’s look at a few examples…

Suzie has this belief that she can’t do anything at the gym, that she won’t be able to keep up, and that she’s going to get hurt.

That belief, causes an action.

That action is to not join a gym, to not workout.

That action produces a result, which happens to be weight gain.

That result then reinforces the belief that she can’t do anything, etc, etc.

Until Suzie changes her belief that circle is going to keep going around and around.

On the flip side, let’s say Suzie has a belief, a vision, that she is going to get 10 workouts in July.

She’s positive about, she’s knows it won’t be easy, but she believes she can do it.

That belief causes her to take action and show up to the gym once.

That action builds motivation for her to keep showing up.

Suzie now gets a great result, and her positive belief that she can get results, and it continues to reinforce the positive action.

The difference between the two scenarios?

A different belief.

If you want a different result, you need a different action, and if you want a different action you need a different belief.

Let’s look at a belief about a person…

Let’s say you have a grudge with a co-worker.

You have a belief that they are slacking and not pulling their weight.

That belief is going to cause you to have a different action towards them.

The action may be negative feedback, lack of training/mentoring, or it may just be ignoring the person.

Because you did that it will reinforce the result that they are not pulling their weight and doing their job because that’s all you can see.

That result reinforces your belief that they are not a good team player.

Instead, going into it with a positive belief that this person is doing great work and maybe they’re just having a bad day.

That belief then changes your action to get curious and see how things are going with the person, maybe you grab lunch with them, train them, etc.

That action produces a better result because you had the opportunity to understand each other better and you see that they are actually a great team member.

That result reinforces a belief, which continues to guide your actions towards them, which leads to a certain result.

You can role play this cycle and power of beliefs with anything in life including relationships, parenting, your career/business, financials, fitness….everything.

The important thing to remember is it all starts with your belief.

If you want to change the result you first need to change your belief.

So, how do you change a belief?

In his book, Ari outlines a six-step “recipe” to changing a belief.

1. Identify the issue: self-awareness is always step one, you have to recognize the need to work on it

2. Backtrack to beliefs: Move past frustration and start to look below the surface and tie it back to a belief

3. Do some homework: Face our internal cannons, active reflection.

4. Check the equation: is what you gain from your beliefs worth what they cost you?

5. Mindfully adopt a new belief: You have to make a decision that you’re doing to adopt a new belief

6. Erode the old patterns with new thinking: this is done through time and exercises like visioning, journaling, and lots and lots of practice and reflection.

Most of our beliefs are deep rooted and take years and years to change.

So this stuff is not easy, and this is just the surface.

However, I hope it brings some light to just how powerful beliefs can be, and potentially motivates you to look at your beliefs, and maybe you decide to slowly work on changing some of your beliefs and adopt new ways of thinking.

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling

My personal struggle with depression

Yesterday, Doug told the story of his personal struggle with obesity. And as I read it, it got me thinking about my #spurlingstory. I originally published this post in August of 2016, a few months after I began working at Spurling. Though I have alluded to my battle with depression a number of times in this newsletter, I haven’t shared this post in three years.

****

The first time I understood, and I mean understood in my bones, that something was wrong, I was less than five minutes in to a run.

It was a warm summer day in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and I took off from my house, intent on running what was then a familiar seven-mile route to the Horseshoe Curve. 

Runners will tell you that a run often feels hardest in the first 15 minutes.

My body felt different right from the start this time. My legs felt as though someone had filled them with rocks. My shoulders felt like I was wearing every piece of winter clothing I had. My feet seemed to be moving through mud.  

Runs are often hard.  But this day was different. 

Less than a half-mile later I finally stopped. Standing along the side of the road, hands on my knees, staring at gravel and asphalt, I found myself somewhere between apathy, fatigue, and a growing anxiety.

I turned and walked back to the house. I crawled onto the couch and spent the rest of the day there, battling a tidal wave of feelings:

Fear. I didn’t understand what was happening, but physically, I felt off.

Guilt. I’d set out to run seven miles and didn’t.

Shame. I was drenched in the shame and failure of my poor excuse for a life.

And hopelessness. I didn’t see how anything would get better.

I was 28 years old, working at a camera shop for minimum wage; trying to decide what to do with my life and feeling embarrassed that I hadn’t done more. By then I’d started and left two graduate programs in two different fields, feeling woefully inadequate as a student.

I’d stalled out in my effort as a writer, constantly battling to find motivation and focus.

For most of my twenties, running was the one thing that left me with a sense of accomplishment in my day-to-day life. No, I didn’t have a profession and I wasn’t the writer I’d hoped to be, but I could check off the runs and return to another sleepless night feeling as though I’d done something.

Without running I had precious little to hold onto. That failed run took away the last little bit of hope I had of amounting to anything in my life.

I’d like to say that I did something about my depression that same day. But I didn’t. A few days later, driving along a rural Pennsylvania road I was overcome with a desire to end it all. One quick turn of the steering wheel, a heavy foot on the gas pedal and a run in with a tree and it would all be over. And everyone else would be better off without me.

For a split second I looked down at the steering wheel, unsure of my next move. Something made me pull over to the side of the road, and I sat there in my 1998 Ford Escort, hands shaking, head on the steering wheel, and realized that my funk was a lot more than a funk.

As it turns out, naming my funk for the depression that it really was, was an important step for me.

My battle with depression

If you met me today, I think (hope) there are two truths about me that you’d find surprising.

I’m an introvert. (Honestly. I hid behind my mother’s legs until I was taller than she was. It was awkward).

I’ve been treated for depression for the past 14 years.

I hope the second one is surprising because you experience me as happy. Maybe even fun. But I really hope you see my happiness, because I have worked harder at my happiness than I’ve worked at anything else in my life.

In retrospect, I was depressed for most of my life. In sixth grade we had to make word art - choose a word and animate it. I chose the word depressed. I tried to make it funny, with two big D’s on the end and the rest of the word smaller. But the addition of crying eyes in the capital D’s should have let someone know I was struggling.

High school and college helped mask some of my struggles. I always had sports to keep me focused. I did well enough in school, I worked on the college and high school newspapers.

Late in my senior year of college, I began a downhill slide that would last for well over a year. It began with the personal discovery that I was gay, which happened when I was 21. And that discovery left me feeling so rejected by God and religion and society that I was sure suicide was my only option. I was a devout Catholic; being gay was not an option and pretending I was straight involved a lie I couldn’t live.

But I plodded on. And I thought that my ability to plod on meant that I wasn’t depressed. I knew from other people and the media what depression could look like. And I didn’t think it looked like me.

My mistake through all of these periods of time was thinking that my experience was all there was to life. I had highs and lows, but the lows were really low and the highs were never very high.  

Not long after my failed run, I was diagnosed with dysthymia, also called persistent depressive disorder. The description from the Mayo Clinic is “a continuous long-term (chronic) form of depression. You may lose interest in normal daily activities, feel hopeless, lack productivity, and have low self-esteem and an overall feeling of inadequacy. These feelings last for years and may significantly interfere with your relationships, school, work and daily activities.”

The above paragraph described my life, but it had been that way for so long, I thought it was normal. It was my normal.

It wasn’t until that day, that failed run, that I finally had to acknowledge that while I was functioning and showing up for life, I was hanging by a thread. Yes, I was functioning. But just barely.

And for the first time I admitted that it wasn’t just a question of pulling myself up by my bootstraps. I needed help doing that.

Seeking help

I’d had a therapist for a little while in my twenties, but I’d been denying that anything was really wrong. I was in therapy to help unclog my creativity, but I was certain that depression wasn’t a part of it.

Once I scared myself with the impulse to wrap my car around a tree, I was finally a little more honest. And as I mentioned in a previous post, I came face to face with the real answer to the question, “how’s that working for you?”

The big hurdle for me was to try anti-depressants. They are not for everyone. They do not fix everything. And it takes awhile to find the right one. In my case, it took over six months to even begin coming out of the fog. But once I did, I made the big changes that I hadn’t been able to make before.

I picked up my life and moved to Boston. I finally went back to graduate school and finished. I found the person with whom I’ll spend the rest of my life. And after years of struggle to focus and persist, I have not just a job, but a career.

I can say with confidence that these things would not have happened if I hadn’t treated my depression. And continue to treat it. Medication doesn’t eliminate the depressive episodes. A therapist doesn’t eliminate them either; but the combination of the right support network is crucial to surviving a disease that can be so debilitating.

If I had one message to share with anyone reading this, it’s that you’re not alone, even though it feels that way. It can feel as if no one understands. It can feel hopeless. According to the CDC, as many as 1 in 10 adults report symptoms of depression, and I imagine a number of you reading this have probably suffered from depression at some point in your lives. 

And if you need a lifeline, there is one.  The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a 24-hour resource; call, chat, or text at 1-800-273-TALK, and http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/.  The Lifeline can also refer you to resources and counseling in your area. 

There is help. There is hope. And there is a light that can shine through that darkness.

My Personal Struggle With Obesity...

We always encourage our clients to share their #SpurlingStory.

We all have our own story, and story is how we connect.

I share this in hopes that you’ll share your #spurlingstory…

So, you read my posts, you check out the Spurling website, maybe you see the words “we change lives” in the lobby, and you might think “Yeah right, what do you know about changing lives?  You’re clearly young and in shape…

How could you possibly understand how hard it would be to change my life?”

Well, I kind of do understand. It hasn't always been the way you might think...

Believe it or not, there was a time where I’d never set foot in a gym and I hated exercise.  

I was too busy shoving cosmic brownies down my throat. 

If you’ve met me or seen my picture on our website or Facebook page, you can see I’m a big guy.  Well, I was always a big guy – I weighed nearly 11 pounds at birth – in a big family. I had genetics working against me from the start.   

I was born into a very unhealthy family.  A loving family, but an unhealthy one.

Of course I didn't know how unhealthy our lives were.  I just did what they did, which was sit around a lot, eat lots of pasta dishes (we’re part Italian) and watch a lot of TV. I don't remember any physical activity, no weekend hikes, no sledding in the winter, nothing that broke a sweat. 

It’s ok though, I can't be mad about it. In hindsight, it taught me many valuable lessons about what not to do and how not to live. 

I went into middle school tipping the scales at almost 300lbs. Yes, you read that right, middle school. I was the "big kid" that everybody wanted to be friends with, just in case they needed a sidekick in a recess fight, but not really anything outside of that. I was bullied, made fun of, and I didn’t feel good about myself.  So much for middle school fun, right?

Going into high school, not much changed. I was feeling depressed, never had a social life, and was living a life that I had no clue what to do with. I went through my first two years of high school weighing on the other side of 350lbs; I believe my heaviest was 386lbs.

Always the brunt of jokes, breaking chairs, and laughing to hide my embarrassment.

I don't blame anyone for my weight.  I certainly don’t blame my parents.  They raised me the best way they knew how.  My mom showed love by making sure there was food (and a lot of it) on the table and in the house. No one ever said “just one, you’ve had plenty”.

I don't even blame myself, because back then, I didn’t know any different. It’s what I saw around me, what I thought was “normal”. Wake up, eat, go to school, eat, come home, eat, watch TV, eat, go to bed and repeat. Life revolved around eating and no activity. 

At 14, I was able to get a work permit and a job.  Having my hard-working parents as role models, they instilled in me a very strong New England work ethic. Today, good or bad, I'll outwork anybody. In fact, it's something I'm trying to balance better today, telling myself that “no Doug, you don't need to work 18 hours a day, every day.”

My family was also not wealthy so there was much to be gained by getting a job.  But what kind of job could I get?  Other kids were all going to work at our local grocery store but I knew I wanted something different. 

I decided to write a letter to the local hospital to see if they had any openings. I was expecting one of two things to happen:

1. No response at all.

2. They'd stick me in the kitchen or laundry to do a bunch of not-so-fun work. 

You know how you can look back at life and there are a handful of moments where now, it’s so clear that if the road hadn’t taken you a certain direction, you have no idea where you’d be today? 

This was one of those moments.

I received an invitation to interview to be a "Physical Therapist Aide Trainee." I didn't know what a Physical Therapist was or how I’d be aiding them, but man, to a 14 year old, that job title sounded sweet!

I got the job, and began working there during my freshman year in high school. I would go to school from 7:00 am – 2:00 pm and then take the bus to the hospital to work 2:30 – 7:00 pm. 

I wish I’d stayed in touch with that group of people I worked with, as I’d love to be able to tell them now, 16 years later, how much they changed my life.

After I was trained, I worked along therapists, helping people walk for the first time in a long time, seeing people return to functionality from traumatic life-altering events, and gaining invaluable life experience. In fact, for the first time, the fact I was a big guy had some advantages.  I could help stabilize patients, help the PT’s transfer patients, etc. 

The experiences I gained in that job began to create the spark of the passion I have today, to change people’s lives.  I just didn’t know it yet.

Despite the fact I was bearing witness to other people’s life-changing events, none of it resonated yet as a reason to change myself.  I was only 14 after all.  

I went to a vocational high school, one of those schools where you can focus on a trade vs. academics and college prep. Most of the guys chose automotive, carpentry, electrical, etc. I chose health occupations. 

Life changer moment # 2...

Because of the course work, I was able to train and become a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) at age 16.

After receiving that certification, I left my job at the hospital and took a job in a nursing home.

Looking back at it, I'm 16, I had no clue. I was still just living in the moment. 

But that job changed my life. From sophomore year until the day I left for college, I worked in a nursing home taking care of Alzheimer's residents. I would go to school from 7:00 am – 2:00 pm and then drive over to the nursing home and work second shift, 3:00 – 11:00 pm, bathing, dressing and feeding someone’s wife, husband, mother, father, sister, or brother.

I had no idea at the time the effect this experience was having on me but today I can confidently say it was one of the top three things that changed my life. 

But still, I was pushing 400lbs. How could I be working in the health field and be so unhealthy myself?

Remember my physical therapy job? At the time I was leaving to go be a CNA, they had hired a new therapist, a woman who’d just graduated from this school up in Maine nobody heard of. The University of New England.  For some reason that stuck with me...

Senior year.  Graduation was looming.  I didn't know what I wanted to do.  I went back in my head to that physical therapy job, and thought to myself "I'd love to do that." 

So I applied to one school, the University of New England. Luckily, I got in, and was accepted into their pre-physical therapy program. 

That spark I’d started as a PT Aide was growing into a real flame of passion for changing people’s lives, but I realized if I was going to do anything with it, I needed to change my own life first. I woke up one morning and realized how could I possibly be preaching healthy habits to my patients when there I stood, the big fat kid?  What a hypocrite I was.

The summer after graduation, I got serious about making that change.   

Knowing what I know today, I would kill my old self for the way I went about it. I would never recommend this to anyone, but somehow I managed to make it work.

The entire summer, I lived off tuna fish sandwiches and bananas. That's it. A banana for breakfast, a tuna sandwich for lunch, and a tuna sandwich for dinner. 

I don't know how I did it. But it worked...

Going from eating 5000+ calories a day, to maybe 1000, the weight came off fast. 

When college started in the fall, I was less than 300 pounds, for the first time since I was 12. I lost 75 pounds in 3 months. 

Again, absolutely not the way I recommend anyone accomplish this but I was an 18 year old kid with no guidance of what the right way was. 

Banana and tuna sandwiches continued, I kept losing weight and I moved to Maine and started attending UNE. 

Another life changer...

I met my mentor and good friend, Heath. 

Heath was a part of the Exercise Science program. I don't know why, but he took me under his wing, and showed me all the great opportunities that exist in Exercise Science. 

I quickly developed a passion for exercise. Heath taught me everything he could about the field and it really fueled my fire for changing people’s lives. 

I switched majors in order to continue under his mentorship. 

Now, instead of just eating tuna and bananas, I gained some solid nutritional knowledge and learned to combine that with my newfound love of exercise. 

I noticed the profound effect exercise had on me not just physically, but mentally.  By my sophomore year at UNE, I was 260lbs, which was about 115 lbs less than my heaviest weight. 

All of the sudden, I started making friends, gaining confidence, hanging out with girls, you know, typical college stuff. And how crazy - it took exercise before any of this happened. 

Through all of this, the feeling of having a calling continued to grow stronger.  In addition to wanting to change other people’s lives, I was about to change my own.

My original plan of a career as a PT was sound but if you’ve ever gone to physical therapy, it’s pretty clear that many people being treated are there because they have to be, insurance makes them, or they can’t go back to work until they’ve gone, and so forth.  Often not in the best mood or mindset to hear advice about making life changes, I wasn’t sure it was the right long term career decision.

The nursing home experience totally changed my life. I got exposed to more by the time I was 18 than many people have seen in their entire life.

But I knew I couldn't work with that population every day for the rest of my life. I give extreme credit to those (including my wife, Megan) who choose to work in the medical field, especially those who are really "in the trenches" involved in meeting patients’ most basic needs such as bathing, feeding, and dressing. It is draining. 

When Heath told me one day that there were actually jobs where I could do what I dreamed of - change lives – every single day for the rest of my life - I just about fell over. 

Call it what you want: personal training, strength and conditioning, I call it changing lives for a living. 

I had changed my life. 

I had lost over 100lbs. 

I was on cloud 9...

I was all of age 20 and I thought I had it all. 

On a random Saturday in October, I drove home from UNE to have dinner with my parents. I walked into their house and a chill just came across my shoulders. I knew something was up. 

I sat down at the dining room table and my mom started crying. After fighting back the tears, she spit out...

"I have cancer."

The next six months were hell. I was trying to wrap up my degree at UNE, head down to Massachusetts to see her in the hospital, and do everything I could to help her, my dad and my younger brother.

Talk about another life changing point in life...

On June 14, 2010, in a hospice house, I held my mom’s hand and watched her take her last breath. 

At the age of 52, she had died from stage four lung cancer. 

I was 21 years old, and thought I had the world by the balls. 

Boy was I wrong...

As devastating as losing my mom was, it furthered my passion for changing people’s lives. 

I began to exercise even more. I knew too many people that used food as their stress reliever, and they reverted back to their old habits quickly. I used the gym as my stress reliever. 

Ironically, I was in the best shape of my life six months after my mom died. I had my own life experience that proved that through healthy eating, good exercise, and some accountability, people could change their lives.

Shortly after graduating, I used the urgency that was created by my moms passing, and knowing that life is short, to open what you now know as Spurling Fitness.

Since then it’s been a fun filled eight years with lots ups and a few downs…

The up of having double digit growth at Spurling every year since opening, and we’re changing lots of lives..

The down of losing my dad last year…

The up of becoming a leader to an incredible team that run the operations at Spurling Fitness and changes so many lives…

The down of having to move the business (turned out to be an up) and cycle through a few employees before finding the right ones…

The up of getting married, buying a house, having our Kaden, traveling a bunch, and now Megan is Pregnant with baby # 2.

The down of being shot down as a business coach because “you’re too young to help me.”

But it’s all good…

The ups and downs are what make life fun, and what make it such a fun story to tell.

At 30, I'm not here to tell you I've experienced everything.

I still struggle every single day with my weight, my nutrition, and my “old habits” that I had when I was close to 400lbs

I still have years to live, and hundreds of lessons to learn.

However, I am quite confident in saying I've been through some dramatic changes, negative and positive, and I live my life with one goal, to change the lives of as many people as possible. 

Spurling exists for one reason, and for one reason only, to change lives.

We get to now do that through multiple avenues including our fitness community that some call a gym, our charitable work where we’ve raised tens of thousands of dollars and donated our time to those in need, and through our business coaching where I get to help business owners scale their business and show them how to have a big impact on their customers while creating a life they love.

We’re just getting started, and you have not seen the last of the Spurling Community and all the ways we can help inspire positive change in YOU…

but it’s been quite the story already.

Everybody has a story.

Every person.

Every organization.

Everybody starts somewhere.

What’s your #spurlingstory?

I’d love to hear it.

If you’re a member share it in our private Facebook Group, Spurling 165, using the hashtag #SpurlingStory.

If you’re not yet a member, just reply to this e-mail and I’d love to read it.

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling

5 Steps To Change

When we look to change something what typically happens?

We complain about it, fill our mind with negative beliefs, and instill fear that we’ll never be able to do it.

However, deep down, we know that’s simple not true.

We can do anything we want if we’re willing to put in the work, change our behaviors, and change.

If you're looking to improve or change something here are the five steps you can follow for ultimate success. 

Really what we’re talking about where is behavior change.

It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to lose 20lbs, save more money, or grow your business.

Currently, if you’re not where you want to be at in something, it is because of the behaviors and beliefs that you have done, or currently do.

But, the good news?

You can change anything you don’t like.

Here are the five steps…

1. Recognize The Need to Change: I've always said that being self-aware is one of highest skills we can learn as humans. Being self-aware of what motivates us, how we come across to people, and just generally being aware of how everything effects us and how we effect others. That being said, if you're looking to change you first need to recognize that you need to change. 

2. What Does Success Look Like: If you could wave a magic wand and you're living the perfect version of what you want to change is, what does that look like. Write down a clear picture of what success looks like so that you have a visual target to go after. 

3. The One Thing: What is one thing you can do today to start moving towards that picture you painted above. The biggest hurdle people face in change is they try to conquer it all, get overwhelmed, and end up not doing anything to help them progress closer to what success looks like to them. The one thing. It could be filling out an inquiry form on a gym's website, it could be setting up the bank account that you're going to automatically transfer savings to, it could be hiring that coach, or it could be going into your schedule and blocking off from 6 pm on so that you can be home with your family. The one thing is important not because of what it is, it's going to be tied to your goal, it's important because it's only one thing. 

4. Set Mini Milestones: Depending on what you're trying to change, it's going to be a long-term journey filled with ups and downs. In order to keep you motivated and on track it's important to break it down to mini milestones. For example, on your journey of losing 50lbs, maybe it's showing up at the gym 10x this month. For your journey of growing your business, maybe it’s one new customer this week.

5. Show up daily: 1% Better. I have yet to find anyone that shows up daily and does not see progress in whatever they're working on changing and improving. It doesn't matter if it's fitness, business, or life, it's about showing up daily and doing the best you can with the cards you're dealt that day. There is no magic pill, there is no shortcut, there is no secret, it's just showing up consistently, day after day, month after month, year after year. That's the secret. 

Change is hard. 

Follow these five steps and hopefully, it gives you some guidance as you go through the journey. 

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling