Have you ever felt overwhelmed by all of the different articles and pinterest fads on fitness? There are so many options and everything seems to contradict itself. And every stranger on the planet wants to give you their opinion on how you should treat your body. It’s confusing and annoying. Don’t you wish it could be a bit more simple?

Today, I interview one of my biggest inspirations in wellness, business, and personal growth – Connor McCreesh. Connor and I met on Remote Year and quickly bonded over our nerdy obsession with personal development. He also spent the year sharing his knowledge with anyone in the group who asked for it. He has become my trainer in the gym and my coach for my business. Honestly, he’s taught me an awful lot in the past year.

“Self reflection is the most important thing you can do, and it can be as simple as journaling for five minutes in the morning.” – Connor McCreesh

We are breaking this into a two part series, as he has a lot of knowledge and I want to make sure we take the time to get through the important bits. Today’s interview covers a variety of wellness topics, including:

The mindset of a healthy lifestyle
The science of full body workouts and intermittent fasting
Connor’s top tips for getting in shape
Depression and the importance of self reflection

I ensure you, Connor knows what he has been talking about. Having studied fitness and health for over a decade, he created a successful online business teaching women how to transform their bodies and lifestyles. My favorite part? He makes it simple!

Don’t forget to tune in next week for more information on business and lifestyle!

Full Body Workouts and Intermittent Fasting

On simplifying fitness, Connor suggests programs that get the best results in the least amount of time, like trying a full body workout.

Eat right and work out right, but how do you do both of those to get the best hormonal advantage that you can… If you’re doing a full body workout, then you know, kind of by definition, you’re tearing up all of your muscles. Also, doing exercises like deadlifts, squats, bench press. These release the most amount of testosterone into your body, which again is good. You’re going to build muscle and lose fat.

Also, really craving something naughty to eat today? Connor suggests eating the worst food directly after your workout, rather than any other time of the day. Of course, eat as best as you can, but don’t stress so much when you crave some carbs after the gym.

Book suggestions? Tim Ferris’s best seller, The 4-Hour Body, because he focuses on the best results in the least amount of time. One of the tricks both Connor and Tim talk about is intermittent fasting, which has similar hormonal advantages to the Keto diet. Intermittent fasting is reducing the window of time that you eat each day, aiming for 14-18 hours of fasting each day. {Check out the video to learn more on how this works.}

What does our Full Body workout look like?

We do series of two sets (usually 8-12 reps) for each of the muscles listed below, pairing two together. For example, if we do chest and biceps together, we would do 10 reps of chest press, 10 reps of bicep curls, 10 reps of chest press, and 10 reps of biceps curls. Then, we would move to the next pair. Of course, these are just a few of each, but here are some examples:

Chest: Bench Press, Incline Bench Press, Dumbbell Press
Biceps: Bicep Curls with dumbells or EZ-Bar, Low Cable Rope Curls
Triceps: High Cable Tricep extensions, Dumbbell Tricep Extensions, Tricep Dips
Back: Bent-Over Rows, Pull Downs, Pull Ups
Shoulders: Shoulder Press, Upright Rows, Lateral Raises
Calfs: Machine Calf Raises – seated or standing
Abs: Ab machines, Decline Sit Ups, Leg Lifts, Cable Crunches
Glutes: Donkey Kicks, Hip Thrusters, Bulgarian Split Squats, Squats
Quads: Leg Press, Squats, Lunges
Hamstrings: Dumbbell Single-Leg Dead Lifts, Leg Curls
Intensity: We ALWAYS end with a heavy squat or variation of dead lift

Depending on how crowded the gym is and how quickly we feel like moving, these workout can be done in just 30-60 minutes. We suggest doing this about 3 times a week for awesome results.

Connor’s Four Fitness Tips

Again, it is hard to keep up with ALL of the advice that is out there on fitness. However, Connor swears by these four tips to get you moving in the right direction:

Try to skip breakfast: In order to get the right hormonal advantage of the body, try making the window of time you eat each day smaller. Even if you end up eating two larger meals in that window, you will most likely consume less calories overall. Try coffee or tea instead.
Don’t eat carbs and fats at the same time: Not that either are bad, but they don’t work well together. When you eat them together, insulin will shuttle fats into your fat stores. Instead, eat proteins with carbs or protein with fats, just don’t combine them.
Go to the gym: Really make the full-body workout an important part of your exercise routine for the most efficient results. Try using the Smith Machine if you are feeling intimidated by the free weights.
Consume Protein: Connor didn’t mention this in the video, but he asked me to add it after. If you are looking to get in shape, add a protein shake to your daily habits. This is an easy thing to add, but often easy to miss.

For the full explanation of each of these, check out the full interview below.

On Self Reflection and Managing Depression

Connor shares his full story on how depression crept into his life, wreaked havoc, and eventually turned his life around for the better. Connor’s depression was brought on situationally by feeling trapped and stressed out in his life. However, he says we gain power over it the more we can understand depression.

“It doesn’t have to run your life, you can start detecting the warning signs and construct your life in ways where you are less likely to experience it. Where if you do experience bouts of it, you can deal with it… I think the most important things is talking about it, being open about it, and getting the conversation going about it, and admitting to myself that I was dealing with it… Understanding it felt like I had a control over it.”

As unpleasant as depression can be, Connor and I both agree that we are glad it has made us who we are. There is an increase in empathy for others and it motivated us to make change in our life.

“If you’re feeling heavy or panicked or you feel like your underwater or you feel like a dull ringing in your ears or that you’re wading through tar, you might be depressed… maybe you need to speak with someone about it.”

The biggest step: admitting that you’re depressed. That can help you to have more power over the beast.

Interview with Connor McCreesh: pt. 1

Don’t forget to tune in next week for more information on business and lifestyle!

We cover a lot in the video and are happy to continue the conversation with you.

Questions for Connor or me? Comment below and we will get back to you on it. This whole fitness thing is hard and we want to help.

Want a more private conversation? Email me at taryn@theremoteyogi.com and I would be happy to share questions with Connor or help you in any way I can, especially if you are battling mental illness.

Sending you so much love and warmth!