Muscle For Life with Mike Matthews

If you're having trouble losing weight and keeping it off… If you're battling hunger and cravings… If you want to "reset" your system after a period of poor health habits… Or if you generally just feel like crap… You might find yourself seriously considering some sort of "detox diet." The yoga girl swears by a 3-day water cleanse. The smiley doctor guy says a juice diet can give you a shiny new liver. The raw food weirdo gushes about the wonders of eating everything uncooked. And don't get me started about the Instagram "models" smugly posing with their green smoothies and kale chips. The more you look, the more cleanses and detox programs you find, with each one apparently better than the last. The problem, however, is all of them are missing the forest for the trees. While it's true your body is regularly exposed to a wide variety of toxic substances, and while some of them are particularly nasty and can accumulate in body fat, there's no evidence that trendy "cleanses" and "detox diets" help mitigate the damage or rid the body of toxins. That is, yes, your body has a certain amount of harmful chemicals deposited in its fat stores, but no, drinking a bunch of lemonade for a week isn't going to do anything about it. If you want to feel and look great for the rest of your life, you need to commit to several things: - Exercising your body several hours per week (resistance training is particularly important). - Eating a lot of high-quality food with special emphasis on plenty of fruits and vegetables. - Not smoking. - Consuming alcohol in moderation. - Avoiding dependencies on drugs and medicines. - Maintaining good sleep hygiene. So, if you want to know why you should stop trying to detox your body, listen to this episode! --- Timestamps 5:42 - Do toxins cause weight gain? What causes weight gain? 23:31 - What are toxins and how does the body process them? 29:02 - Do detox diets help with rapid weight loss? --- Mentioned on The Show: Shop Legion Supplements Here: legionathletics.com/shop/ --- Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: www.legionathletics.com/signup/

Poke around online for weight loss tips, and you'll invariably come across the idea that you shouldn't eat at night. Why? Proponents of this idea usually claim that your metabolism doesn't work as well at night, and thus any calories you eat are more likely to be stored as fat instead of being burned for energy. Sounds ... kind of scien-y-ish ... but is it true? Does your metabolism really slow down as the day drags on? Are calories eaten in the evening inherently more fattening than calories eaten in the morning? Can eating more calories in the morning and fewer calories in the evening really help you lose weight? You'll learn the answers to all of these questions in this podcast. You'll learn exactly why people think eating at night makes you gain weight, what really causes weight gain (hint: it's not eating at night), and what science actually says about how late-night eating affects your metabolism. Let's get to it! the morning? 9:15 - Does intermittent fasting help you lose body fat? 19:41 - Does eating at night reduce your quality of sleep? --- Mentioned on The Show: Books by Mike Matthews: https://legionathletics.com/products/books/ --- Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: https://www.legionathletics.com/signup/

"My Life-Changing 30-Day Digital Detox" "10 Signs You're a Smartphone Zombie" These are headlines you might see if you search the interwebz for digital "addiction." It's no secret that people use their smartphones, social media, and various apps more than ever before. The benefits of this technology are obvious, but there's also a downside. We end up distracted, spending too much time on things that don't matter, with less time for things that are important to us, like our health, families, and life goals. But are these modern technologies really a new, unique problem? How can we navigate a world filled with limitless distractions? To help shed some light on the topic, I invited Nir Eyal onto the podcast. Nir knows both sides of this coin intimately. His first book, Hooked, is all about how to build habit-forming products. He's helped numerous companies (including the New York Times) build "addictive" products that can do good in your life and he's even taught a course on the subject at Stanford Graduate School of Business. But by being so intertwined with the inner workings of habit-formation, Nir also knows how to break habits and make these apps and services serve us rather than the other way around. That's why Nir wrote his latest book, Indistractable, which is what this podcast is all about. In this interview, Nir helps us understand ... - The root causes of distraction and how productive tasks can still be distractions - Why you shouldn't try to be satisfied or happy all of the time - How to "surf the urge" and supercharge your willpower - Why you should timebox your day - How to discover your values and find what resonates with you - And more ... So if you want to take back your life and not feel so addicted to apps and services, listen to this podcast. 8:13 - You went from writing a book about getting people hooked on products, to a book that is intended to help people avoid that. How did that happen? 16:38 - What is the difference between external and internal triggers? 22:20 - How do we get better at embracing discomfort? 49:33 - How does time boxing work and how do you use it? 53:04 - What are your thoughts on finding your personal values? --- Mentioned on The Show: Indistractable by Nir Eyal: NirAndFar.com/Indistractable Schedule Maker Tool: nirandfar.com/schedule-maker/ Summary Article: www.nirandfar.com/skill-of-the-future/ Distraction Guide here: www.nirandfar.com/distractions/ Habits vs routines article here: www.nirandfar.com/habits/ Nir's Instagram: www.instagram.com/neyal99/ Books by Mike Matthews: legionathletics.com/products/books/ --- Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: www.legionathletics.com/signup/

This episode is part of a weekly series that I have dubbed "Motivation Monday." (Yes, I know, very creative of me. What can I say, I'm a genius…) Seriously though, the idea here is simple: Every Monday morning, I'm going to post a short and punchy episode that I hope gets you fired up to tackle the workouts, work, and everything else that you have planned for the week ahead. As we all know, it's one thing to know what you want to do, but it's something else altogether to actually make yourself do it, and I hope that this series gives you a jolt of inspiration, energy, and encouragement to get at it. So, if you like what you hear, then make sure to check back every Monday morning for the latest and greatest installment. --- Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

I've churned through over 150,000 emails, social media comments and messages, and blog comments in the last 6 years. And that means I've fielded a ton of questions. As you can imagine, some questions pop up more often than others, and I thought it might be helpful to take a little time every month to choose a few and record and share my answers. So, in this round, I answer the following three questions: - What is positive nitrogen balance? - How bad is sitting? - How can you lose muscle from specific body parts? If you have a question you'd like me to answer, leave a comment below or if you want a faster response, send an email to [email protected]. Recommended reading for this episode: legionathletics.com/sitting-is-the-new-smoking/ legionathletics.com/energy-balance/ Timestamps: 3:36 - Can you lose fat and build muscle at the same time if you maintain a positive nitrogen balance? 14:57 - How do I lose muscle from a specific body part? 26:24 - How detrimental is sitting? --- Mentioned on The Show: Legion VIP One-on-One Coaching: legionathletics.com/coaching/ --- Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: www.legionathletics.com/signup/