An idiot in motion moves faster than a genius at rest

Why overthinking is keeping you stuck, 4 rules for fat loss, and a quick update from my digital detox.

Good morning and happy Saturday! 🙂

I’m writing this newsletter right before I head out on my monthly seven-day digital detox, so if you’ve submitted some questions to be answered for the newsletter, I will be sure to answer them and include them in next week’s newsletter.

Let’s jump into this week’s newsletter:

In case you don’t know how my brain works, I’m ALWAYS thinking about how I can help others. When I learn something new that I find helpful, I always think to myself: “How can I share this with our community to help them?”

I always make sure that I implement it for myself before I share it so that I can know its real value and if it’s tangible and realistic.

When I think of sharing something in my newsletter, I always break it down into two types of people that would be reading it:

1. The people who aren’t doing much in terms of fitness and monitoring their food for the purpose of their goal and/or who aren’t eating plant-based whole foods. Those people need to get started; they need to DECIDE to commit to moving forward and start the process.

2. Then there are the people who are “exercising,” moving their bodies, eating plant-based whole food, and making good decisions, but they are simply not seeing the results they want because they are missing the proper structure and blueprint to get the goal they want.

They think that the method that got them to lose 20, 30, or even 40+ lbs in the first place is the same method that will get them to lose those last 5-15 lbs of fat... it’s not.

So today I thought I’d share a lesson for each of these two scenarios, because I’m sure at this point you’ve identified with one of those two.

1. The people who need to get started and commit.

The other day I saw online this great quote that someone had written that made me laugh. And here I’ll compare fat loss, muscle building, and eating healthier to starting a business, because they evoke very similar emotions.

It’s scary, you don’t know where to start, you’re afraid to fail, afraid to look stupid, and it will require a ton of work and resilience. If you know, you know.

I have one of my best childhood friends in the world that wants to start his construction business (which I had a small one in Alberta, Canada many years ago... fun fact).

I keep telling him if I can do it, you can do it too. We come from the same neighborhood and grew up together. I told him he’s way smarter than me; the only difference is that I was dumb enough to start.

Again, I’m saying this in a joking way, but there is truth to it. Read the following quote I saw (disregard the word idiot, as he likes to swear a lot when he writes, so I modified it a bit to remove those words).

Here’s the quote I read:

”An idiot in motion moves faster than a genius at rest. The genius at rest has the idea, the knowledge, the skill, and the plan.

They also have seventeen reasons why the timing isn’t quite right yet. So they wait, prepare, and optimize.

And guess what? Nothing moves.

The idiot in motion has half the idea and none of the plan. But they start anyway.

They ship the ugly version, send the awkward email, and post the imperfect thing. And every day they move, they get less like an idiot.”

The same goes for your health journey, fat loss journey, or whatever it is you want to improve in that area of your life.

In this context, I’ve been an “idiot” over and over again 😅 Because I know that I can’t start something from scratch and immediately be good at it. I’ve also learned that I learn way more of the right things by just starting.

Versus trying to figure out the millions of different combinations that my path could go on ahead of time, I just start so that I can figure out the path ahead of me, if that makes sense.

So some of you need to be that “person” that just starts the motion, because it gets you ahead of all the overthinkers EVERY SINGLE TIME.

I hope that makes sense.

2. Now onto my action-takers reading this.

For you, you are already in motion; you’ve learned through getting started, through moving, through education, etc.

Now for you comes the second level that goes beyond action... we graduate into the optimization phase.

Because if you are in step 1, you can’t optimize something you aren’t consistent with.

So for you, if your goal is to optimize your body composition, you need to look at the people who are the best in the world at body composition and learn from their strategies.

Let’s look at bodybuilders.

I’m not saying you want to be a bodybuilder, but they are the best in the world when it comes to being able to manipulate their bodies like that.

So here are the core things they do:

1. Calorie deficit is mandatory; there is no overruling this. If you eat 1,000 calories more than you burn and it comes from grains, dark leafy greens, and fruits, you will still put on fat. Eating healthy doesn’t guarantee you a shift in body composition.

If you are in a deficit and aren’t losing weight, you aren’t in a deficit anymore; your body got used to it, and you have to go lower. Your body is doing its job at adapting to what you’ve been giving it.

If you are unsustainably low, consider doing our reverse dieting phase first. You can learn more about it in my book.

2. Protein matters up to a certain point. We like to aim for 1.6g per kg of IDEAL body weight, especially if you are over 50 and are going into a calorie deficit to improve your body composition.

3. Strength training combined with progressive overload is an ABSOLUTE must. If not, you will just be asking of your body to do what it’s able to do, and you will stay stuck in a plateau for months and maybe even years.

4. Cardiovascular exercise is a must and DOES NOT replace strength training. They don’t serve the same goal. Use cardiovascular exercise as a tool to induce more calorie deficit so you don’t always have to lower your food intake.

Those are going to be your basic fundamentals to implement so that you can see progression. There are obviously other factors you can optimize like rest, NEAT, pace, etc. But if you do those 4 things properly, your body will start to change again.

I hope this helps, and for those of you who want to move faster, eliminate the mistakes made, and shorten your timeline to reaching your goal by having a proven system created for you, I invite you to book your introductory call with our team to learn more.

Whether you want to join our Mavy Wellness University, take our Forever Fit Over 50 course, or work with our 1:1 coaching team, it all starts with a call.

Book it here → https://mavywellness.com/

*The call is free; it’s there to coach you and educate you so that you can make the best decision for your future.

That is all I have for you today.

By the time you are reading this, I will have two days left of my digital detox, and I’ll be back online leading incredible trainings for our community and hosting our Las Vegas Workshop for all our clients flying into town.

I look forward to connecting with everyone.

Have a fantastic weekend,

Sincerely,

Maxime Sigouin