It’s always strange, fun, and a bit weird when Nerd Fitness gets featured in big publications.
This past week, one of our NF Coaching Clients, Jason Crow, was part of a full feature in Men’s Journal about Nerd Fitness:
So, I thought it would be fun to dive into this story. Specifically, what made it in, and what didn’t.
(Quick note: I had no idea this was going to be published! Men’s Journal reached out to us months ago, and then we never heard back…until BAM there the story was!)
Jason’s Success Story – Behind the Scenes
Obviously, I love Jason’s Origin Story:
“While walking around [Comic Con], Crow spotted someone wearing a Nerd Fitness t-shirt. Instantly intrigued, he began researching the company on the spot. He found that Nerd Fitness is targeted toward “nerds and average Joes” to help them lose weight, gain strength, and live better and healthier lives overall. And according to Crow, that sounded just like what he needed.”
Change can happen at any moment, and it usually requires you to put yourself in uncomfortable situations.
For Jason, that was using 20 seconds of courage to attend a convention, and then using another 20 seconds of courage to find Nerd Fitness!
Here’s the honest truth: Jason’s story with Nerd Fitness began 7 years ago. This is no overnight success.
Sustainable, long-term success never happens overnight. It almost always involves multiple starts, stops, and stumbles.
Next, I loved that Jason had given serious thought to his Big Why:
“I was worried about how my physical health is affecting my mental and cognitive health, and I want to change that,” he said. “I felt my physical health deteriorating, my memory, my thought speed, and my creativity. I look down or look in the mirror and my self-esteem tanks.
If I change this for me, then I can give my wife a better version of me, and I love the thought of that more than anything else.”
Having a “Big Why” can be so helpful to get us to do the very thing we know will help Future Us.
The rest of the story covers Jason’s journey from self-education, to NF Prime, to NF Coaching. It details his workout (dedicated, consistent, persistent).
There is one part I want to expand upon because I think it’s important:
“I was surprised to ultimately discover that it truly was just about calories in calories out, lift heavy, and sleep,” Crow says.
At the surface level, Jason’s reply here is 100% correct. This is for a national publication, so not all quotes can be expanded upon. They also love quick/simple powerful takeaways.
So yes, weight management is “simple:”
Our bodies obey the laws of thermodynamics. If we aren’t losing weight, we’re consuming too many calories and/or not burning enough calories.
If we want to preserve muscle mass, we need to lift heavy weights to signal to our body “rebuild stronger!” Sleep is really really important for recovery.
At the same time, food is a complicated issue.
Hormones, busy lives, disordered eating, our relationship with food, how our parents raised us, stress from work, and more all contribute to how challenging it is to just “eat less and move more.”
The math may seem simple. But the behavior change and factors that go in to that equation are anything but.
Here’s another thing that doesn’t fit into a short article:
Even when we lose weight, that doesn’t automatically make us happy and healthy. As Jason tracked his food and started to lose weight, it unlocked a part of his brain he didn’t know would become a problem.
He developed a fear of eating outside of his goals. This is from our personal interview with Jason:
“I grew anxious if I couldn’t weigh my food or when I could not find the perfect match for what I was eating in a calorie-counting database (like MyFitnessPal).
I could be at a restaurant with friends, stressing over the correct proportion of ingredients in a cobb salad…WHAT IF I GOT IT WRONG!?!
Then my calories for the day would be off.”
This is a condition called “orthorexia nervosa:” disordered eating with an obsession around only eating “healthy foods.”
If you feel guilty about eating a piece of candy, or you find yourself avoiding certain situations because you can’t perfectly track your food, this might be something for you to discuss with a mental health professional.
Thanks to social media, orthorexia nervosa is becoming a larger problem.
Spend 5 minutes with toxic diet culture on Instagram, and you’ll find videos of people standing in a grocery store, pointing out all of the ingredients you MUST avoid to be healthy. They tell you to avoid certain foods, or certain macros (probably carbs), or certain ingredients.
I’ve recently written about staying sane online, but here’s the gist: for your mental health, please unfollow these people. They are doing more harm than good, and will soon be selling you a useless supplement!
Here’s what we believe here at Nerd Fitness:
Foods are not good or bad.
They are a combination of molecules in a certain form. That’s it.
Based on your unique goals and food preferences, there will be some foods you enjoy regularly and others you enjoy occasionally.
In our philosophy, no food is “off limits”. We just understand how it all fits into the big picture.
Luckily, NF Coach Taylor and John worked through this experience, treating every part of his journey like a giant experiment:
“No food or movement, or lack of either, was out of bounds,” he says. “We would try something and assess it later.” Taylor wouldn’t make commandments as a coach, but encourage pathways with accountability through shared exploration. This helped Crow to invest confidently in the process.”
I want to leave you with one important point about success stories in general:
I am SO PROUD of Jason’s success story, and I’m glad he found the Nerd Fitness Coaching program a worthwhile investment.
But I also don’t want you to feel bad if you read this story and you’re like “wait I started at Nerd Fitness 7 years ago, why don’t I look like Jason!” You are a different person, with different life circumstances.
Jason trains 6 days a week at home, measures his food, prioritizes sleep. If you’re a new parent, or a caregiver of elderly parents, or have kids who are picky eaters, you might not be in a place where you can dedicate 1/10th of the time that Jason can.
That’s okay!
We are all on our own journey. We are all moving at our own pace, facing our own demons, and struggling with our own baggage.
The basics apply to all of us: weight loss is math and behavior change, not magic. Going for walks is good for mental and physical health. Strength training is great for myriad reasons.
Personally, my struggles are tougher to see, because they’re all on the inside.
How we get to where we want to go is distinctly unique to us!
That’s why the NF Community rules. It’s a bunch of wildly different people all working towards their own version of a leveled-up life.
-Steve
PS: If you’ll allow me 3 sentences of bragging…I am unbelievably proud of our Coaching Program and the results we’ve been able to get for people like Jason. Our NF Coaches are really, really good at meeting people where they are, and helping them in their unique way.
