Blake Steller Blake Steller

The Sweet Spot of Cardio

What if I told you there’s a cardio “sweet spot” that can boost your energy, improve your endurance, and strengthen your heart—all without leaving you drenched in sweat or gasping for air?

Sounds too good to be true, right?

Enter Zone 2 Cardio, a game-changer for anyone looking to improve their fitness in a sustainable and enjoyable way.

What Is Zone 2 Cardio?

Zone 2 Cardio is about exercising at a pace that’s challenging yet comfortable. In this zone, your heart rate is slightly elevated, usually about 60-70% of your maximum heart rate. You should be able to hold a conversation without feeling like you're racing to catch your breath.

It’s that perfect middle ground where you’re putting in effort, but not so much that you’re wiped out after the session.

Why Should You Care About Zone 2?

Zone 2 isn’t just about breaking a light sweat—it’s where magic happens for your fitness and health.

Here are some key benefits:

  • Burn fat while maintaining muscle: Zone 2 optimizes fat burning without overloading your body.

  • Boost endurance: It trains your aerobic system to use oxygen more efficiently, which improves stamina.

  • Support heart health: Low-intensity cardio strengthens your cardiovascular system without excessive strain.

  • Gentle on joints: The low-impact nature of Zone 2 makes it perfect for recovery days or as a sustainable addition to your routine.

How to Get Started

Incorporating Zone 2 Cardio into your weekly routine is simple. Here’s how:

1. Find Your Zone 2 Heart Rate

Use this quick formula to estimate your target heart rate:


220 - Your Age = Max Heart Rate.


Then, calculate 60-70% of that number for your Zone 2 range.

For example:


If you’re 40, your estimated max heart rate is 180 beats per minute (bpm). Zone 2 would be around 108-126 bpm.

2. Choose Your Cardio

Zone 2 works for almost any activity you enjoy:

  • Brisk walking

  • Light jogging

  • Cycling

  • Rowing

The key is to pick something you can sustain for 30-60 minutes without feeling overly taxed.

3. Start Small

Begin with one or two 30-minute sessions per week. Gradually build up as you feel more comfortable. Remember, Zone 2 isn’t about going all-out—consistency is what drives results.

4. Monitor and Adjust

Use a heart rate monitor or fitness app to track your progress. A good rule of thumb? If you can hold a conversation while working out, you’re in the right zone.

Your Zone 2 Challenge

This week, try adding a Zone 2 session to your routine. Block out 30 minutes for a brisk walk or light jog, and notice how much more energized you feel throughout the day.

Zone 2 Cardio is proof that improving your fitness doesn’t have to mean grueling workouts. It’s about finding a sustainable pace that works for your body and your goals.

Consistency, not intensity, is what will help you go the distance.

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Blake Steller Blake Steller

Seeking Certainty: How to Stack the Odds in Your Favor

What Do You Think of When You Hear the Word “Certainty”?

Many of us seek certainty as a prerequisite for making decisions. 

As a former engineer, this makes sense to me.

  • When you design a bridge, you need to be certain it won’t collapse.

  • When you design a rocket, you need to be certain it won’t explode in orbit.

  • When you design a skyscraper, you need to be certain it won’t tip over.

You get the point.

But it’s not just engineers who thrive on certainty; most human beings crave it.

We want certainty that we’re making the right decisions.

  • Certainty that our children will be safe when we send them off to school.

  • Certainty that medicines and vaccines are safe.

  • Certainty that nuclear war won’t unfold.

  • Certainty that our jobs are secure.

  • Certainty that when we open up to a partner, they won’t reject or abandon us.

We all want certainty.

But here’s the hard truth: we can rarely, if ever, be certain.

Benjamin Franklin famously said, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

However, just because we can’t guarantee every outcome, we can still strive for clarity and stack the odds in our favor. Here’s how:

1. Establish Clarity

Get crystal clear on what your goal is. You can’t be certain you’ll reach a destination if you don’t know where you’re headed. Spend time defining your goal and understanding why it matters to you. The “why” is important because it will keep you focused when things get tough.

2. Find Someone Who Can Help

Look for someone who has already achieved what you’re aiming for, or a coach who has helped others do the same. If someone has guided hundreds of people toward the same goal, chances are they can help you too.

3. Put Yourself in the Right Environment

We’re like sponges, absorbing what’s around us. One of my favorite quotes is, “You are the sum of the five people you spend the most time with.” If you want to reach a health goal, surround yourself with people who prioritize their health. Create a home environment that supports your goals—stock your kitchen with proteins, fruits, and vegetables, and remove temptations.

I offer a health-related example because at Steller Coaching, we help people achieve their health and wellness goals. But these principles can apply to any area of life.

Gaining More Certainty

To increase the likelihood of success, start by getting clear on what you want, find someone who has already done it, and optimize your environment to make it easier to take action.

There are some things we’ll never be able to predict with certainty—like when the next pandemic will occur, what the weather will be on your vacation, or how someone will respond to your best intentions.

But in many areas of life, you can stack the odds in your favor by following these steps to gain more certainty about your desired outcomes.

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Blake Steller Blake Steller

Should You Lift with High Reps or Low Reps?

If you’re relatively new to strength training, you may be wondering if you should be lifting with high reps or low reps.

Reps — short for repetitions — are the action of one complete strength training exercise. For example, when doing a bicep curl, each time you lift the weight up and bring it back down would count as one rep.

If you choose to lift a heavy weight, you will be forced to do a lower number of reps. 

If you choose to lift a light weight, you will be able to do a higher number of reps. 

So the question becomes, which one should you do? Heavy weight with low reps? Or light weight with high reps?

Research has shown that you build strength and muscle with both high reps and low reps, so the answer is…

You should be lifting with both!

However, there is one caveat…

Whether you are using light weights or heavy weights, you must push your muscles close to their limit. When you lift weights, you are providing your muscles with a stress. Your muscles respond to this stress by building back bigger and stronger so they can handle the same load in the future. If you don’t provide your muscles with a large enough stress, they have no reason to adapt and grow bigger or stronger.

Therefore, you must push your muscles close to the point of muscular failure. 

Muscular failure is defined by the point at which you can no longer complete an exercise with good form. This is not the point of complete physical failure — you could probably do even more reps if you got sloppy with your form and allowed other muscles to come into play… However, this is an injury waiting to happen. 

We recommend always leaving “two in the tank.” Whether you are lifting with light weights and high reps or heavy weights and low reps, do as many reps as you can until you feel like you could only do two more reps with good form. This will ensure you push your muscles close to their limit, but prevents you from getting too close to the point of absolute failure in which your form could become sloppy.

Why Do Both Rep Ranges Work? 

Assuming you push your muscles close to their limit, both reps ranges work because they each provide a similar load of volume to your muscles.

Volume is one of the key drivers of muscle growth. 

Volume = Sets x Reps x Weight

For example, if you lifted 50 pounds for 4 sets of 10 reps, that’s a total volume of 2000 pounds. 

You could get the same total volume by lifting 80 pounds for 5 sets of 5 reps. 

Studies have shown that if volume is equated, you will get similar results. 

However, this does not mean that you should stick with your favorite rep range and do it forever. 

If you always lift light weights for high reps, then you should probably do a phase of lifting heavier weights for low reps. 

Your body is a master at adapting to the demands it is faced with, so if you always lift light weights for high reps, it’s likely not providing your body with the same level of stress that it once did and you will eventually hit a plateau. 

Switching to a phase of lifting heavy weight for low reps will provide your body with a new stimulus to adapt to, bringing about new muscle and strength gains. 

Generally, we recommend switching up your rep ranges every 4 weeks. For example, you could do a 4-week phase in which you’re using relatively heavy weight for most exercises for sets of 3-5 reps. Then, you could transition to a 4-week phase in which you’re using a bit lighter weights for most exercises for sets of 8-12 reps. Next, you could transition to a 4-week phase in which you’re using even lighter weight for sets of 15-20 reps. You can repeat this process every 12 weeks.

A final note on rest periods… When you’re lifting heavy weight for low reps, you will need to rest for a longer period of time between sets because you’re taxing your central nervous system a lot more than you do when you’re lifting light weight for high reps. In general as reps decrease, rest times should increase. 

Stay strong!

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Blake Steller Blake Steller

Focus On the Big Rocks

Think about an empty jar…

You have an assortment of big rocks, pebbles, sand, and liquid, and you need to fit it all into the jar.

If you fill the jar with pebbles and sand first, you won’t have enough room for the big rocks.

If you start with the big rocks, however, there will be room for the pebbles, sand, and liquid to fill in the gaps.

This example translates to many aspects of life.

You only have so much time and energy, so you want to make sure you focus on what’s most important first — the big rocks. 

The Big Rocks of Health and Wellness

Protein 

Aim to consume about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight every day.

Plants

Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables every day. 

Movement

Humans are designed to move! Walk as much as you can. Get your heart rate up. Lift heavy weights a few times each week.

Sleep

Strive for 7-9 hours of high-quality sleep each night.

Hydration

Drink at least half your body weight in ounces of fluids every day. 

Stress Management

Build coping mechanisms to be more resilient to life stressors. Eliminate stressors that you can, and create boundaries to better handle the stressors that you cannot eliminate.

Consistency

It takes time to build healthy habits. Be patient with yourself! Pay attention to the small wins. 

These are the seven “big rocks” of health and wellness, and you should make sure they’re all in place before you worry about the pebbles and sand.

Pebbles, Sand, and Liquid

Meal Timing

Will you burn more body fat if you eat breakfast at 8:00 AM or 10:00 AM?

Number of Meals

Should you eat six small meals each day? Or three large meals each day?

Supplements

What pills should you take to burn fat faster?

Juicing

How often should you do a juice cleanse to detox your body?

Workout Split

How many days should you workout for maximal results?

Specific Diets

Which diet is best for fat loss? Keto? Intermittent Fasting? Paleo?

Some of these can make a difference, but I promise you — they won’t matter if the seven big rocks aren’t in place first. 

Focus on the big rocks of health and wellness first, and you’ll be on your way to a healthy and happy body — inside and out!

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Blake Steller Blake Steller

The Most Important Question

The most important question in life that you need to answer is…

What do you want?

It’s a seemingly simple, straightforward question…

But do you know what you really want? 

Not what your parents, significant other, kids, boss, coworkers, friends, or society at large wants for you…

What do you want?

Unfortunately, most people don’t have an answer because they don’t truly know…

There are so many influencing factors in life that get in our mind and tell us what we should want to live a happy life… 

But none of that matters, because only you can take a deep dive inward and figure out what it is that you truly want.

Knowing what you want is the first and most important step in creating a better future. 

So how do you figure out what you want?

First, let us take a look at where wants originate. 

Every human want is backed by an emotional need. Emotional needs are feelings or conditions we need to feel happy, fulfilled, or at peace. Without them, we may feel anxious, unfulfilled, and dissatisfied. 

Everyone has their own unique set of emotional needs, which may be the product of your upbringing, your environment, your genetic predisposition, your identity, and other individual factors.

There are nine “universal needs” that every want or desire can be traced back upon…

Sustenance

These are the foundational needs for survival: shelter, food, water, clothing, etc. 

Safety

We all need a safe environment that enables us to lead our lives without experiencing undue fear and one that allows us to develop our fullest potential. 

Love

The desire for love, and all the forms it comes in— affection, devotion, friendship, attachment, and involvement— runs deep through all of us. 

Understanding

We all want to feel seen, heard, and understood. This need caters toward feelings of empathy, appreciation, warmth, insight, and compassion.

Creation

Deep down, we all want to express our personal creativity, to show the world our true and original selves. 

Recreation

The need for recreation brings fun and joy into life. We all need time to adventure, play, and experience new things, and we also need time to calm down, rest, and find peace. 

Belonging

We are social creatures, and our brain is a social organ. We need to feel connected to our tribe. The need for belonging comes in many forms, such as having a sense of belonging in your community, being accepted by others, experiencing friendship, sharing love, being shown affection and intimacy, and feeling connected with who you truly are.

Autonomy

We all have a need to feel like we have the power to exist autonomously and to direct our own lives. No one wants to feel confined, be it physically or mentally. We all desire unfettered experience, independence, and spontaneity.  

Meaning

We all need to have the sense that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. We need to have a coherent set of beliefs about life and what it’s all for. This need caters toward feelings of creation, contribution, hope, inspiration, and purpose.

You may start by looking at the nine “universal needs” and asking yourself if one of your fundamental, basic needs isn’t being met. 

Most people have the first two needs met… In America, most people have access to food, water, shelter, and a relatively safe environment. If you don’t, you definitely want to address these needs first.

However, there’s a good chance that at least one of the remaining seven needs is not being met for you. 

For example, if you feel like your life lacks autonomy, maybe you need to have an honest conversation with your boss, partner, or family about where you need to have more control or clearer boundaries. 

Or maybe you feel like your life lacks connection. In that case, make it a priority to spend time with your friends or even make new ones. Schedule time for connection on your calendar—it takes intentional effort. 

If delving into the nine “universal needs” doesn’t resonate with you, another place to start may be defining what you don’t want. 

Most people have a good idea of what they don’t want in life. We look around and see all the terrible things happening in the world, and we realize we don’t want war, poverty, or sickness. We also know when something doesn’t feel right, such as a nagging boss, an unsupportive spouse, bratty children, or money that always seems to disappear. 

If you can identify the things you don’t want in life, figuring out what you do want is well within your reach. To perceive anything, there must be a contrast between the two states. To know that something is unwanted, we must know that something else is wanted instead. One serves as the reference point for the other. 

For example, we could not identify the wanted state of happiness if we did not know what it was like to experience the unwanted state of being unhappy. The reason you can identify what you don’t want is that you are aware some other, preferable state exists, otherwise you wouldn’t know it was unwanted. You simply have to give more of your attention to the wanted state and give it some clarity.

Once you have identified what you don’t want, ask yourself: What would I like to see instead?

Examples:

  • I don’t want to live in a city.

  • I want to live somewhere with a slower pace, like the country. 

  • I don’t want a partner who doesn’t appreciate me.

  • I want a partner who adores me and treats me with respect. 

  • I don’t want to work at this lousy job.

  • I want a job that stimulates me intellectually and allows me to be creative. 

Another way to determine what you want is to take some time to brainstorm all the things that are important to you. You may take some time to write out a Personal Mission Statement or a set of Personal Core Values. Then, filter all actions through these documents.

It’s important to note that deciding what you want today does not mean that you cannot change your mind tomorrow. Oftentimes, we think we want something, but as we find out more about it, we change our minds. Consider this a success—not a failure—you are one step closer to figuring out what it is that you truly want. 

Also, keep in mind there is no final destination in life. Every time you obtain something you want, you have a new perspective from which to see other possibilities. Choosing something you want doesn’t mean you give up all other possibilities; it means you open the door to possibilities you didn’t know existed.

The bottom line is, figuring out what you want is the best way to gain clarity with regards to your life. Having this figured out will positively influence the decisions you make and the actions you take on a daily basis, and it will ultimately allow you to live a life that feels like it is true to who you really are.

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Blake Steller Blake Steller

How to Boost Your Metabolism

What is Metabolism?

Metabolism is the process through which the food you ingest gets converted into energy. Every time you eat, a set of chemical reactions in your body’s cells breaks down the food and turns it into energy.

Energy Balance

To fully understand how metabolism works, we must begin with the fundamental law of energy balance. Your body needs a certain amount of energy (calories) to stay alive. Your body needs additional energy to move around. You can get this energy from food, or you can retrieve it from stored energy (fat tissue). If you take in more energy than your body expends, you will theoretically gain weight. If you take in less energy than your body expends, you will theoretically lose weight. This is what’s know as the Energy Balance Equation.

When Theory Does Not Match Reality

The Energy Balance Equation is a law of physics, it’s just the way the world works. It can reliably be used to predict how much weight a person will gain or lose over time. However, when it comes to building the body of your dreams, it does not paint the full picture.

The Energy Balance Equation can be used to predict body weight, but it does not address body composition (i.e. the way you look), which is determined by a variety of factors, such as age, genetics, hormonal levels, macronutrient intake (especially protein), exercise style / type / intensity, and medications.

The bottom line is, “energy in vs. energy out” is a lot more complicated than it looks. In short, “energy in” and “energy out” are not mutually exclusive entities. When you change “energy in,” you will affect “energy out” and vice versa. Eating less and moving more is a good start, but it’s not enough. It does not take into account all the additional complex factors that make up “energy in” and “energy out.”

So, let’s take a deeper look at “energy in” and “energy out.”

Energy In

People often estimate the “energy in” part of the Energy Balance Equation by counting calories. This approach does work for many people, but there are a couple of flaws to be aware of…

First of all, food labels are often wrong. The way food manufacturers come up with calorie and nutrient estimates is incredibly complex and often inaccurate. Moreover, the FDA actually allows food labels to be off by as much as 20% in either direction.

The other flaw is, the amount of calories a food contains is often not the same amount of calories your body absorbs, stores, and/or uses. Your body has to break down, digest, and process the food you ingest, and the way your body does this will change depending on the types of foods. For example, you will absorb less calories from whole, natural, minimally processed foods because they’re harder to digest. You will absorb more calories from highly processed foods because they’re easier to digest (the more processed a food is, the less digestion that needs to occur). You will also absorb more calories from foods that are cooked, chopped, soaked, and/or blended because those processes break down plant and animal cells, increasing their bioavailability.

Energy Out

The “energy out” part of the Energy Balance Equation can essentially be thought of as how many calories your body is burning. Remember, your body burns calories to simply stay alive, and it burns additional calories for daily movement.

There are four key components of “energy out.”

Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR): The amount of calories you burn each day at rest, just to breathe, think, and live. This represents roughly 60% of your “energy out” and depends on weight, body composition, sex, age, and genetics.

Thermic Effect of Food (TEF): The calories you burn eating, digesting, and processing food. This represents roughly 5-10% of your “energy out.” You will burn more calories digesting minimally processed whole foods compared to highly processed foods.

Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (EAT): The calories you burn participating in dedicated physical activity.

Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT): The calories you burn through fidgeting, staying upright, and all other physical activities except purposeful exercise

Energy Out = RMR + TEF + EAT + NEAT

As you can see, there are multiple variables that make up “energy in” and “energy out,” thereby making the Energy Balance Equation far more complex than it looks. This makes it difficult to know or control exactly how much energy you’re taking in, absorbing, burning, and storing. Things get even crazier when you recognize that altering any one of the variables causes adjustments in other, seemingly unrelated variables. Typically, when “energy in” goes down, “energy out” will also go down accordingly. Essentially, you will burn fewer calories when you eat less.

What Causes a Slow Metabolism?

The human body is wired for survival. Relatively speaking, it wasn’t that long ago in humans’ existence that food was scarce. People had to hunt and gather their foods and they would often go several days at a time without eating. Therefore, it was beneficial for the human body to burn less calories while at rest and store excess calories as body fat so that they could be used for energy at times when there was not much to eat.

Nowadays, food is plentiful. Thankfully, most people don’t need to worry about starving. However, our bodies are still evolutionarily wired for survival. When you consistently give your body less fuel than it needs to operate, it will revert its evolutionary ways by slowing down many bodily functions in order to preserve fuel. This affects “energy out” by decreasing the thermic effect of food (TEF) because you’re eating less, decreasing your resting metabolic rate (RMR) because you weigh less, decreasing the calories you burn through exercise activity thermogenesis (EAT) since you weigh less, and decreasing the calories you burn through non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) as you eat less.

A slow metabolism is simply the body’s brilliant response to conserve energy by burning fewer calories.

The Effects of Not Eating Enough

If you have repeatedly tried to lose weight by following extremely low-calorie diets, there’s a good chance your metabolism has slowed down. Low-calorie diets may also cause any of the following symptoms: moodiness, low energy, brain fog, poor sleep, low sex drive, chronic fatigue, joint pain, inflammation, digestive issues, intense cravings, stress eating, and occasional binging.

Ultimately, a slow metabolism, combined with the effects above, make weight loss (and life overall) much harder.

How to Boost Your Metabolism

A slow metabolism simply means that your body has adapted to a very low daily intake of energy (calories). A slow metabolism will not allow you to burn fat efficiently, and excess food you consume will likely be stored as body fat. The good news is, your metabolism is not a fixed entity. You can boost your metabolism, allowing you to burn more calories while sitting around doing absolutely nothing. What follows are several tips to boost your metabolism and turn your body into a fat-burning machine!

Prioritize Resistance Training

Prioritizing resistance training is the best thing you can do to boost your metabolism. Resistance training is any form of exercise that increases muscular strength by making your muscles work against a weight or a force. Different forms of resistance training include using free weights, weight machines, resistance bands, and your own body weight. Resistance training involves breaking down muscle tissue by giving your muscles a new stimulus. This sends a “muscle-building signal” to your body so that the muscles can build back bigger and stronger. The muscle-building process requires calories – you cannot build muscle out of nothing. As you break down muscle tissue, your body will need to utilize some of the energy you are consuming for the repair process. As you build muscle, you will indirectly boost your metabolism, because muscle requires much more energy to sustain than fat. The more muscle you have, the more calories you will expend and the more fat you will burn. That is what it means to have a faster metabolism. Ultimately, resistance training allows you to eat more food without gaining body fat.

When incorporating resistance training into your exercise routine, focus on compound movements such as squats, deadlifts, lunges, presses, pulldowns, and rows. These types of movements involve multiple joints of the body. The more joints that are involved, the more muscles that are involved. On the contrary, isolation exercises involve just one joint of the body, and therefore less muscles. For example, a bicep curl involves movement of the elbow joint only. Focus the majority of your time and energy on compound movements, as they will produce the largest “muscle-building signal,” and therefore have the largest metabolism-boosting effect.

In following this approach, your main goal should be to get stronger. Gaining strength will lead to building muscle, which means you’re slowly boosting your metabolism. For those new to resistance training, it’s very common to build muscle while simultaneously burning body fat. Therefore, the number on the scale might not be moving, but you’re definitely making progress if you’re getting stronger.

Aim to complete 2-3 full-body strength training workouts each week. Pick several compound exercises and complete each exercise for 8-12 reps with a weight that is challenging but allows you to maintain good form. Aim for 3 sets of each exercise with 1-2 minutes of rest in between each set. Your goal should be to do a little bit more each workout. For example, if you do barbell squats with 80 pounds for 10 reps one week, try to do 80 pounds for 11 reps the next week. Once you can comfortably do an exercise with a given weight for 12 reps, increase the weight by 5-10 pounds.

Limit Cardio

Cardio is excellent for your overall health and it should absolutely be part of a healthy lifestyle. Cardio, short for cardiovascular exercise, is any movement that increases your heart rate and increases blood circulation through the body. Doing cardio improves your heart health, and your heart is the most important muscle of your body. You burn a lot of calories doing cardio, so one might think it’s a great way to burn fat and lose weight, but think again…

Cardio requires a lot of endurance, little strength, and it requires a lot of energy. Your body is always trying to adapt to the stressors placed upon it, so when you do a lot of cardio, your body will strive to get better at endurance and become more efficient with the calories you give it so you can go longer with less energy. Your body will literally hold on to body fat to make you better at storing calories and it will become better at burning less calories. Cardio also does not require much muscular strength, so as your body strives to adapt to the demands of cardio, you actually send a signal to your body that encourages muscle loss. As you lose muscle, your metabolism will become even slower.

The best form of exercise to boost your metabolism and make fat loss easier is resistance training. Limit high-intensity forms of cardio. Instead, focus on low-intensity modalities like walking, biking, and hiking as your work to build up your metabolism while maintaining your heart health.

Fuel Your Body Adequately

In order to lose weight, you must be eating less calories than your body burns on a daily basis. However, we know that your body is great at adapting to the conditions you place upon it. When you eat too little for too long, your metabolism will slow down to preserve energy for the most important bodily functions like beating your heart, breathing, and regulating body temperature.

We now know that resistance training is one of the best ways to boost your metabolism. However, your body cannot build muscle out of thin air, it needs material to do so. Therefore, you must assure that you’re giving your body enough calories.

If you’re currently eating a very low-calorie diet, the solution is to slowly increase your calories over a period of time. This is known as “reverse dieting.” Increase your daily food intake by 50 to 100 calories at a time, and continue to eat this amount of food until your body is used to the new intake. Then, increase your calories again. Continue this process until you’re at a point in which you are comfortable with the state of your metabolism.

Depending on how much you’re currently eating, this process could take anywhere from several weeks to several months. However, if you do this the right way, slowly increasing your calories over time, your body will be able to adapt to each successive increase in calories and thereby minimize unwanted fat gain. Any weight you do gain in this process will most likely be a combination of muscle and water weight.

Eat Plenty of Protein

Part of fueling your body adequately is ensuring you’re giving your body the right type of fuel. Protein is the most important type of fuel when it comes to building muscle and boosting your metabolism. A high- protein diet maximizes muscular development and minimizes the loss of muscle tissue, both of which lead to more muscle gain.

Protein has the highest thermic effect of food (TEF) compared to the other two macronutrients, carbohydrates and fat. This means that your body burns more calories to digest and process protein. Protein is also the most satiating macronutrient, meaning it will keep you more full and help you better regulate your appetite. Diets high in protein tend to reduce food cravings.

The recommended amount of protein to consume for those with goals of building and maintaining muscle is 0.7 to 1.0 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight per day. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, you should aim for 115 to 150 grams of protein per day.

If you prefer not to track your protein by the gram, you can use your palm to estimate. A palm-size of protein is about 20 grams of protein, so for the above example, you would want to aim for 6-8 palm-sized servings of protein per day.

Some of the best sources of protein are: chicken, turkey, beef, bison, lamb, eggs, tuna, cod, salmon, milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, and whey protein.

Do Not Be Afraid of Carbs or Fat

Although protein is the most important macronutrient, carbohydrates and fats still serve very important roles in the body. Any diet that recommends drastically reducing either of these two macronutrients (such as the keto diet or low-fat diet) will lead to deficiencies and food cravings, and will not be sustainable long-term.

Carbohydrates are the body’s preferred energy source. They will fuel exercise, boost leptin (an important hormone that signals fullness in the body), maintain sex hormones, and prevent feelings of deprivation. The best sources of carbohydrates are whole-grains, rice, potatoes, fruits, and vegetables. Prioritize fruits and vegetables, as they are full of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, water, and fiber to help you fill up during meals, stay full between meals, keep you healthy, and recover from your workouts.

Fats secrete hormones, boost the immune system, prevent excess inflammation, and make food taste great. The best sources of fats are olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, butter, avocado, coconut, nuts, seeds and nut butters.

Sleep

Sleep is the best drug on the market. It is just as important as exercise and nutrition. You could have a perfect diet and fitness plan, but if you neglect sleep, you will not make the progress you are looking for.

Poor sleep has been linked to weight gain and obesity. When you are tired, you tend to make worse decisions, particularly with food choices. Sleep deprivation also affects the appetite hormones by increasing ghrelin (the hunger hormone) and decreasing leptin (the fullness hormone).

Moreover, a lot of the body’s repair processes, including building muscle, occurs during sleep. Therefore, getting plenty of high quality sleep is the ticket to a lean and healthy physique.

The general recommendation is 7-9 hours of high quality, uninterrupted sleep. To ensure you are able to get this amount of sleep, consider adopting an evening routine to get your body ready for sleep. Some things you might do as part of an evening routine could be taking a warm bath, drinking tea, turning off all electronics an hour before bed, and a period of stretching and deep breathing.

Most importantly, try to establish a consistent sleep schedule and stick to it every day, including weekends. When your circadian rhythm is functioning properly, it will be much easier to get consistent, high quality sleep. If you are not consistent with your sleep schedule, you will likely find it hard to fall asleep some nights and may not feel well rested upon waking in the morning.

Manage Stress

Stress is an essential part of life. When managed properly, stress can move us forward and force us to adapt. When we let stress take over our lives, though, things go bad.

Stress can negatively affect your metabolism. When you are in a state of stress, your body will release cortisol to help the body access energy to deal with the stressful event. When cortisol is released too often, cortisol levels may remain elevated. Elevated cortisol levels have been linked to higher levels of visceral fat (belly fat that surrounds your internal organs) and muscle tissue can break down. High stress levels have also been linked to food cravings, decreased motivation to exercise, and emotional eating.

To better deal with stress, consider incorporating any of the following activities: daily activity, getting plenty of high quality sleep, meditation, journaling, prayer, yoga, therapy, improved time management, spending time with loved ones, reducing your intake of caffeine and alcohol, positive affirmations, and acts of self-love.

Hydrate

Approximately 60% of your body weight is water. The body uses water in every single one of its cells, organs, and tissues to help regulate temperature and maintain other bodily functions. It is essential in metabolism, as it assists in the breakdown and digestion of food, nutrient transport and waste removal. Aim to consume at least half your body weight in ounces of water on a daily basis.

Reduce Sugar Intake

Eating too much sugar can cause blood glucose levels to remain chronically high. Over time, this can impair the function of insulin, a hormone that helps to keep your blood sugar in check. If your body becomes resistant to insulin, you will not be able to properly convert food into energy, which will slow down your metabolism and may lead to diabetes. Try to avoid an excessive intake of sugar, particularly added sugars in processed foods.

Limit Alcohol

Your body views alcohol as a toxin. When you consume alcohol, your body will prioritize metabolizing alcohol at the expense of other nutrients. This slows down the breakdown of other nutrients like carbs and fats, increasing the chances that your body stores some of the excess as body fat.

Conclusion

Boosting your metabolism will allow your body to burn more calories at rest. This will allow you to maintain your weight while eating more food and make it much easier for you to burn fat. To boost your metabolism, build an exercise routine that prioritizes resistance training centered around compound movements, and limit how much cardio you do. Make sure you fuel your body adequately with plenty of lean protein, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats, and cut down on your intake of added sugars. Drink a bunch of water, and try to avoid drinking too much alcohol. Make sure you get ample rest and recovery by getting plenty of high-quality sleep every night and managing stress as best as you can.

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Blake Steller Blake Steller

Take Back Your Time

Time is the ultimate equalizer. It is the one thing we all have in common. We all have the same 24 hours in any given day.

You probably have many responsibilities that you must tend to on a daily basis, such as your job, your spouse, your children, and more. You may feel like your calendar is completely full of so many obligations, leaving you little to no time for yourself. This may cause you to feel overwhelmed or trapped, with no time to do the things you truly want to do.

The truth is, you must make time for yourself. When you make time for your dreams and prioritize creating a life you love, it will improve every aspect of your life. When you are at your best, you can give your best to others.

The question becomes, how can you make more time for yourself? How can you optimize the structure of your days to assure that you have enough time to do the things that are most important to you?

Determine What is Important to You

The first step in taking back your time is determining why you need or want the extra time. Think about what matters most to you—not your spouse, not your parents, not your favorite influencer—you. Is it your health and wellness? Spending more time with your loved ones? Traveling? Giving time to your church or community? Building your own business? Only you can answer these questions. Take some time to write down the things that are most important to you.

Build Awareness

The next step is to build awareness around what your current schedule is like. Spend one or two days to write down all the habits, activities, and tasks that make up a normal day for you. During this exercise, do not judge yourself—the goal is to simply build awareness around the current structure of a typical day for you. At the end of doing this, put a + next to any habit, activity, or task that positively serves you, a for anything that negatively serves you, and an o for anything that is neutral.

Create a “Not To Do List”

Next, you want to try to eliminate the activities that are not serving you. A “Not To Do List” is a list of all the habits, activities, and tasks that hold you back from success. For example, not checking your phone before a certain time, not hitting the snooze button, not drinking alcohol before bed, and not wasting hours on social media.

Eat the Frog

The next step is to prioritize the tasks that are most important to you first thing in the day. Mark Twain said, “If you eat a frog for breakfast, chances are that will be the worst thing you have to do all day.” The point of the quote is that if you start your day by tackling your hardest but most important tasks, even if you don’t do that much for the rest of the day, you will still have accomplished a lot. For most people, the morning is a controllable time before the chaos of life ensues. It makes sense to do the things that are most important to you first thing in the morning. You might also consider creating a morning routine to anchor your day. What makes up your routine will depend on what’s most important to you. It could be exercise, journaling, meditating, making a healthy breakfast, or even working on your side hustle—it just needs to be important to you. Put yourself first and do whatever is important to you as early as you can in the day.

The truth is, you will never feel like you have enough time. There will always be something going on in your life that seems to provide a good rationale for putting off your goals. You must make time for what is important to you and make your choices accordingly. That is how you take back your time.

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Blake Steller Blake Steller

“I’ve tried everything to lose weight!”

It all begins with an idea.

Have you ever tried to lose weight?

Have you tried to lose weight multiple times?

Maybe you have tried to lose weight so many times that you finally gave up and said, “That’s it! I’ve tried everything—nothing works!” 

Many people find themselves in a vicious cycle of trying to control what they eat, feeling like a failure because the number on the scale won’t budge, punishing themselves for not being “more in control,” and then manifesting a huge amount of internal stress that causes further havoc on their bodies. Then, they binge or take their diet to an extreme level of unhealthiness and the cycle continues… 

Does this sound like you?

If so, I am here to tell you—do not give up! Try one of the strategies below if your weight loss endeavors have plateaued.

Be Kind to Yourself

I know, this isn’t what you would expect to be the first item on a list about losing weight, but I promise— it’s powerful. You must look at your dieting efforts not as a way to simply lose weight, but as a way to take care of your body and do what’s best for you. When you practice positive thinking, your body will start to work in your favor, and the weight will eventually come off. I promise—there is a way to live without constantly worrying about your weight and watching every single thing that goes into your mouth. Once you have the skills in place to find happiness and psychological well-being, healthy eating habits will follow.  

Be Patient

Are you frustrated that you’ve only lost 3 pounds in one month? Before freaking out and changing your plan or even switching over to another fad diet, think about whether your goal is just to lose as much weight as possible right this second, or to slim down healthily over time, so that you can keep the weight off permanently. America does not have a weight loss problem—we have a weight maintenance problem. 

Eat More

Yes, when it comes to dieting, the obvious thing to do is eat less. Extremely low-calorie diets will lead to quick initial weight loss, but they are never sustainable in the long run. Moreover, when you give your body minimal food, it will go into “starvation mode,” slowing down a lot of the functions that are necessary to burn calories — including your thyroid, metabolism, and blood pressure. These low-calorie diets lead to an inevitable period of overeating (or even binging) that causes the weight to come right back on—potentially even more weight than before—putting your dieting efforts to waste and making each successive diet harder and harder.  

Optimize Your Hormones

If you are finding it hard to lose weight, feeling fatigued, suffering from PMS, or feeling depressed or anxious, you may have a hormonal imbalance. The foods we eat heavily influence the production of hormones in our body. Our hormones essentially dictate how our body functions as a unit. A hormonal imbalance such as insulin resistance, thyroid abnormalities, estrogen dominance, or polycystic ovary syndrome could absolutely be hindering your dieting efforts. Focus on eating healthy fats, as fats promote hormone secretion. You may also consider getting your hormones checked by a doctor and utilizing medications if necessary. 

Change Up Your Exercise Routine

Interestingly enough, the people that over-exercise tend to be the ones that put-on weight easily… We must recognize that exercise is a stressor, so if you’re constantly doing high-intensity activities, your body may be stuck in a chronic state of stress. Consider changing up your routine and substituting some of the high-intensity exercise for activities such as yoga, Pilates, or weight training. 

Improve Your Gut Health

You are not what you eat, you are what you digest and absorb! Your gut health determines your overall well-being. If your digestion is out of whack, your body is not going to want to lose weight. If you constantly have the rumbles, gas, and bloating after meals, there’s a good chance you have some gut dysbiosis going on. Consider an elimination diet to figure out which foods are triggering the gut issues. Dairy, gluten, sugar, and alcohol are common culprits. You might also consider supplementing with digestive enzymes. 

Reduce Stress

Stress impacts us in so many ways. Between being overworked, dealing with dysfunctional relationships, the current state of our world, and a lack of sleep, we are more stressed now than ever. As stress goes up, your body releases more cortisol—often referred to as the “stress hormone.” High levels of cortisol have been linked to blood sugar imbalances and weight gain around the midsection. Find ways to de-stress, such as meditation, prayer, yoga, journaling, leisurely walks in nature, and spending time with loved ones.

Drink More Water

Many studies have found links between water consumption and weight loss results. You should be drinking at least half of your body weight in ounces of water every day. For example, if you weigh 150-lbs, you should be drinking at least 75-oz of water every day. 

Cut Down on Alcohol

No, you do not have to cut out alcohol entirely to achieve the body of your dreams, but you may need to cut down a bit. Alcohol contains empty calories—it does not have any vitamins or minerals that are important for our health. Moreover, the caloric intake of alcohol can grow astronomically high when you start drinking cocktails. Alcohol also changes your relationship with food—people typically eat more when they drink because their appetite is increased, and they stop paying close attention to calorie consumption. I generally recommend drinking alcohol no more than once per week. Personally, my rule is that I never drink alcohol unless I’m in a social situation, such as an occasional dinner with friends. 

Sleep More

Sleep is the ultimate drug. A bunch of wonderful magic happens when you are sleeping. When the body gets the rest it needs, it is able to repair itself and perform as it should. If you are not sleeping at least 7 hours per night, it’s going to be very difficult to see weight loss.

Take Progress Pictures

If you’ve been strength training and the number on the scale isn’t moving, there’s a good chance you’re building muscle while simultaneously losing body fat. If so, your weight will likely remain about the same, but your body is definitely changing for the better! However, you see yourself every day, so you likely are not noticing these subtle changes. Take progress pictures every two weeks to see the changes occurring in your body.

Move More

You may be going to the gym on a regular basis, but in all likelihood, this amounts to just 1-2 hours out the entire day. If you work a desk job and tend to sit for most of the day, your body is really not moving that much in the grand scheme of things. We can drastically increase our caloric burn throughout the day by adding in more movement. If you work at a desk, consider standing for a portion of the day, and maybe even start going for a 5-minute walk every hour.

Eat Less

There’s a reason this item and “move more” are the last two items on this list. Weight loss is much more complex than simply eating less and moving more. However, at the end of the day, the quantity of food you’re consuming absolutely matters. You cannot eat as much healthy food as you like. We must learn to listen to our bodies and stop eating when we are full. If you’re always feeling hungry, consider adding more protein and fiber to your diet, as they will help you to feel fuller. If you aren’t tracking your food, try it out for a few weeks to get a clear picture of how much you are actually eating—most people grossly underestimate the amount of food they’re consuming. 

The only way you lose is if you give up. You can absolutely lose the weight for good—believe in yourself! Make one small change for the better at a time, and I promise the results will come. 

If you need more guidance, please reach out to me!

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Blake Steller Blake Steller

The Seasons of Fat Loss and Muscle Gain

It all begins with an idea.

As we enter the month of March, I’m sure many people are getting excited for the season of spring. The flowers are beginning to bloom, the birds are returning, the days are getting longer, and the temperatures are getting warmer. 

There are aspects of each season that I enjoy, but personally, my favorite season is summer. I love the sunshine, the colorful flowers, the hot weather, barbecues with friends, and the days that you wish would never end. 

But without the seasons of fall, winter, and spring, there would be no summer.

Everything goes through a cycle, and it’s no different with your health and metabolism.

For example, you may enjoy a season of being lean and toned for a beach vacation, but it is not healthy to stay that way. If you want to be healthy inside and out, you must allow your body to restore, reset, and rest.

Many people claim that they would like to improve their body composition by losing body fat and toning up. 

A quick aside, let’s dissolve the misnomer of “tone”. Muscles themselves do not “tone”. When people think of “toning up,” what’s actually happening is an increase in muscle tissue as well as a low enough body fat percentage to see the definition and shape of the muscles and get rid of the “jiggle”.

Now that that’s out of the way, what most people actually want is to lose body fat and build muscle. It is possible for anyone to lose body fat and build muscle, but challenging to do simultaneously. Therefore, if you want both, it is in your best interest to cycle between the goals of fat loss and muscle gain. One of the best ways to do so is to approach these goals from the perspective of seasons.

Post-Season: Fall

The Post-Season phase is all about restoring the body to a state of balance. Most people will want to start in this phase to assure their body is holistically healthy before working toward the goal of fat loss or muscle gain. In this phase, the major focuses are on rest and recovery. You may have heard that to lose weight, you need to “eat less and move more.” This is mostly true, but if you take this too far, you can slow your metabolism down over time. For people with slower metabolisms, the focus may need to be on building up their metabolism by decreasing their activity and increasing their food intake. 

Off-Season: Winter

Once your body is healthy and feeling right, you can transition to the Off-Season phase. In this phase, the focus shall be on building strength and muscle. A wise approach would be to follow a sound strength-training program and assure you’re eating enough to allow for adequate recovery and muscle growth. Focus on building new healthy habits and cultivating an overall healthy mindset. 

Pre-Season: Spring

Once you’re ready for the Pre-Season phase, you can begin to transition to the demands of fat loss. Recognizing that losing body fat is a stress on the body, you will want to make sure that the rest of your lifestyle is optimized for this upcoming demand (for example, a busy and stressful work season may not be the best time to transition to this phase). It is recommended that you begin to track your food during this phase, specifically paying attention to your calorie and protein intake. You may also want to incorporate a bit of cardio into your routine. 

In-Season: Summer

The In-Season phase is the active pursuit of fat loss. You should have a consistent exercise routine in place, incorporating both strength-training and cardio. You should have your nutrition in check, with a consistent meal plan and meal timing in place to ensure consistency.

The reason why so many popular diets and workout programs fail is because they miss this concept. They may be able to get you to lose weight, but they don’t teach you how to determine if your body is even ready to lose weight, and they don’t teach you what to do afterwards to assure that you’re able to maintain your results.

The body is always striving to maintain a state of balance, so you must give it time to rest and reset if you want long-term, sustainable results. Using the concept of seasons will allow you to do just that.

If you need guidance incorporating the concept of seasons into your fitness and nutrition routine, don’t hesitate to reach out to me!

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Blake Steller Blake Steller

Who did you become?

It all begins with an idea.

Fast forward to the future. 

You have been told that you woke up for the last time this morning. These are your last hours on Earth as a living being. Today is officially your final day of life. 

The story of your life flashes before you. You look back on everything…

Every chapter. Every experience. Everyone you loved. Everything you impacted. Every decision you made. Every decision you did not make. Every success. Every regret.

Who did you become? Did you become the person you wanted to be?

Hopefully you became the best version of yourself. Hopefully you experienced life to the fullest. Hopefully you loved hard. Hopefully you impacted the world in a positive way. Hopefully you lived a life of zero regret.

I believe that living a healthy lifestyle unlocks the best version of oneself.

By taking care of yourself, you can optimize all aspects of your health. By optimizing your health, you will have the physical capacity, energy, and mental clarity to do the things you truly want to do with your life.

Here’s a hypothetical question…

If you could take a pill to achieve your dream body, would you do it?

I bet most everyone would answer with a resounding “yes!”

But consider this analogy…

Let’s say you’re digging a deep hole with a shovel. You dig that shovel into the ground over and over again, tirelessly chipping away at the dirt in your way. Over time, your forearms, shoulders, and back get tired, but you become stronger… You grunt over and over again, frustratingly doing the physical labor… Over time, the hole gets deeper and deeper. The results of your hard work begin to show, and you build mental fortitude as you see what you have done all by yourself.

Now let’s say you dig that same hole with a tractor. It takes a fraction of the time. All you have to do is sit in that tractor, press some buttons, and let the machine do the work for you. You still get the same hole at the end of the day, but you didn’t really change.

So which tool would you use?

I’m sure most people would still choose the tractor—I would too. I mean, it’s just a hole in the ground. Work smarter, not harder, right? 

But let’s apply this analogy to your health and fitness goals.

The shovel is doing the work yourself—going to the gym, eating a diet that is mostly made up of whole, unprocessed foods, getting enough sleep, removing stressors from your life, etc. As you consistently and repetitively do these tasks, you build character. The disciplines you adhere to become habits. You learn the power of delayed gratification, of saying “no” to what’s directly in front of you so that you can have an even greater tomorrow. You learn to accept and love your body. You truly become the person you want to be, not just physically, but holistically—everything about you.

The tractor is taking a pill. You achieve your end goal, but you skip over the entire journey. You’re just the same person in a different body.

So which one would you choose?

Many would still choose to take the pill, and that’s okay.

But I challenge you to commit to doing the work. You will achieve far more than a nice, toned body. 

The good thing is, you don’t have to walk this journey alone… You can hire a coach!

A good coach will walk alongside you throughout the entire journey, helping you stay on track, navigating obstacles, avoiding common pitfalls, and finding happiness along the way. The journey will be much more efficient and enjoyable with an experienced guide at your side.

What is it that you would like to achieve? 

Who do you want to become? 

Will you be proud of yourself on your final day?

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Blake Steller Blake Steller

What do you want to do with your life?

It all begins with an idea.

You are going to die.

Death is one of the few certainties of life.

If we know that death is inevitable— that this is our one and only shot at life— why don’t we all do everything in our power to make our dreams a reality? Why don’t we live with any sense of urgency?

We all have dreams, but unfortunately they get buried by the day-to-day responsibilities that we all have— work, family, social obligations, and even the newest episode of your favorite TV show…

Your dreams should not have to take the back seat to everything else in life. 

I believe that setting small goals is the key to bringing your big dreams to fruition.

Having goals gives us a sense of purpose when we wake up in the morning. They provide us with direction and meaning. They motivate us to take the steps we need in order to accomplish them. 

What do you want to do with your life? 

This is a deep question, so if you don’t really know right now, that’s okay. Set aside an hour of quiet, uninterrupted time, and write down everything you have ever wanted to do. Don’t set any expectations of yourself, just write whatever comes to mind. Try not to be influenced by external inputs that tell you what you should do with your life, like finding a stable job, buying a house, having a family, and so on… 

When you give yourself the time and space to do so, figuring out what you want to do with your life is the easy part.

But how do you actually do the things you want to do? That’s the hard part.

This is where “the process” comes into play. 

The process is the series of action items that you must execute to get to your goals. If reaching the summit of the mountain is the goal, the process is hiking up the mountain.

The process is where the magic really happens. Sure, achieving the end goal is fulfilling, but the process— the planning, the action-taking, the problem-solving, the payoff of seeing your hard work come to fruition— is really the most fulfilling part. 

You must fall in love with the process if you want to make your dreams a reality. 

So, I’ll ask you again…

What do you want to do with your life?

What process do you need to fall in love to make it a reality?

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

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