Life Update and the Power of Abbreviated Training

Life is crazy right now. Being efficient in my work, my writing, my lifting, cardio, nutrition, and getting my primary residence ready to sell (finish up a few projects and get everything packed, orderly, and in tip-top shape) is literally of the ut-most importance.

I seem to move A LOT. Sometimes by choice, sometimes for work or family obligations, sometimes for a short term/temporary assignment, and sometimes just across town because we found a good deal on a good house.

5 years ago at this time, I was in the process of another big move, and 3 months away from moving across the country – from Alabama to Idaho. It was a move based off my wife's and my own desires, and, while it was stressful (moving always is... especially when you're crossing 8 states and 32 hours drive time), it was an exciting time. We were excited to explore the great mountain west and live, work, and play in my favorite city in the country.

We had the flexibility to make the move because it was dark days of COVID years, and my wife was able to work remotely while maintaining her position – which was and still is based in Huntsville, Alabama.

I was looking forward to the challenge of rebuilding a personal training business in a new city – especially a city that was so much more health oriented than anywhere I've ever lived in my life. 

Over the last 5 years, I've built the most fulfilling, enjoyable personal training business of my career. My clients are amazing. They're my type of people and they work hard and they've blessed me with the pleasure of training most of them long term. My colleagues and the owner of the gym where I train are incredible. They've become my best friends and, realizing I have to leave this amazing work situation and amazing city to go back to where we moved from 5 years ago is a tough pill to swallow. Not necessarily due to any fault of Huntsville, Alabama – a fine city where I have many great friends, as well. But, my work situation here in Boise is – dare I say – ideal.

It's not all bad. As with all things in life, there's always pros and cons. 

Moving back to Alabama is necessary for my wife's job. We also have lots of family and most of our best [non-work] friends live there. We're familiar with the area and it's a great place to live. We are also going to be much closer to my brothers and their families – all of whom live in the Southeast. While Boise is truly the best place I've lived (and I've lived quite a few places) and it's idealistic nature and lifestyle, per my wife's and my personal preferences, moving back south is more practical. The biggest challenge living out west was the necessity of traveling back to the southeast so frequently to see family and friends. It became expensive and time consuming, and those trips throw a wrench into my personal training schedule and, to a lesser extent, interrupts the general flow of my own training. But I can always work around that with a can-do attitude and a bit of gumption. 

We're under contract to sell one of our houses – the first house we lived in upon moving to Boise and we later rented it out to tenents the last 3 years. That sale should close in a couple weeks which is a big relief. 

Now we're finishing up some projects and preparing to get the current house we're living in ready to sell. All of this is being done while looking at houses – virtually – across the country. The good news is, my wife and I – again – are very familiar with the area in Alabama and we go back frequently, so there's no question from us about specific neighborhoods or even the places we'd prefer to live.

Giving up my current, wonderful personal training business is tough. It's going to be difficult for awhile as I rebuild a training cleintele all over again. The good thing is I've lived in Huntsville before, for the better part of 4 years. But it's still tough starting over from – effectively – square 1.

But, things will get easier over time and I've done this "build-a-personal-training-business-from-scratch" game like....5 times now? So it's nothing new to me. 

Yet....

I say on this to give an update while also sharing a real life example of why being time efficient with training and nutrition is super important! Busy times do NOT mean you allow health, fitness, and nutrition to scuttle away down the gutter. In fact, I believe busy periods of life require a greater commitment to maintaining healthy fitness and nutrition practices.

You must adapt your training – if you haven't already – to being time efficient. 3-4 sessions per week and 30-40 minutes per session is the way to go. This mindset forces you to become better at exercise because you cut the fluff and prioritize the good stuff. Not so dissimilar to writing. 

Over the next few months, you can bet your bottom dollar I'll continue training and eating simple healthy meals – just like I did 5 years ago when I was in the process of moving across the country out here. 

The good news for me?

This is easy. 

At least, it's easy for me, because I've been training with a simplified, productive, time efficient manner for the better part of the last decade. Nothing changes for me. I adapted this way of training so that I would never allow myself the excuse to allow my fitness to slack. I have goals and those goals involve continual progress over time. Fitness is non-negotiable for me. Rather than moaning and complaining and allowing myself to decline – even temporarily – I've developed a system of training that allows me to stay on track with my goals no matter what.

If my writing frequency falls off over the next few months – forgive me. With that said, I'm going to try to maintain consistency writing brief articles and keeping you all posted on my training (for those interested), progress, along with continuing to share my general thoughts around fitness, sculpting an aesthetic physique, and any life lessons I accumulate during this busy period of time.

Thanks for reading.