I’m not sure what it is but it seems that every year since 2020 has its own elements of being completely surreal. 2023 was no exception just in its own unique ways.
This year, family health took priority over a lot of other things. Both my mother and my wife had circumstances come up which took a great deal of time, attention, travel, prayers and well-wishes, and a total of four surgeries between them.
This required me to be away from work more than I’m used to but it’s great credit to my staff, Coaches David and Nick, for holding the studio down in my absence. It also is credit to a very patient and understanding community who knew that family comes first when it comes to what life throws our way.
Also, in some bittersweet news, Big Rocks Nutrition folded officially this year. Those who followed the work I was doing with that business under the caring eye of Dr. Spencer Nadolsky may know that his Sequence platform was acquired by Weight Watchers earlier this year and that required that we shut down the doors to BRN. It was an absolutely awesome experience and I can’t thank Dr. Spencer enough for the opportunity. He was a great guy to work for and the team of coaches that I got to work side by side with are the cream of the crop. A big loving shout out to Coaches Rachel, Michelle, Alja, Jenny and Sarah and of course, our man behind the scenes, Dan. Much love to you all. I know that Spencer will do great things with WW.
As I pull together my annual list of things you may have missed, here are the Top 5 articles of the year on this blog:
- A Letter To Terry
- Sean’s Song
- Nine Years Later…In Sickness And In Health
- Sympathy For Britney
- Longevity (According To Gram)
I was a featured guest on the Good Vibes Wellness Podcast with host extraordinaire, JD Roberto. You can check that episode out HERE.
This was also a year where I tried to focus more on my continuing education. I picked up two more certifications, both of which through Girls Gone Strong and now hold those certificates as a Menopause Coaching Specialist and Women’s Coaching Specialist. I can’t speak highly enough of this organization.
In addition, I picked up continuing ed in Dr. Jake Linardon’s Binge Eating Essentials For Health Professionals and I worked with Brianna Johnston through her Grow & Scale course for Instagram content and services.
As a result of the latter, I began pushing my online services more this year than in previous years. It allows me to work with people who aren’t geographically close to RevFit and it helps me broaden my own experience as an online coach. That work then led to the release of “Fat Loss Simplified”, an 8-week online group coaching program. I’ll be speaking more about that in next week’s post.
Since there was so much happening with family, continuing education and work, I made a conscious effort to slow down my own book buying because I couldn’t catch up on all the books in my office I still had left to read. I finally conquered that mountain this year. I officially have no more room for books in my office and the picture you see below is nearly all of the 1200+ books I’ve acquired and read/listened to over the last 15 years.
I love the process of reading, to actually hold a book in my hands and go cover to cover, even though I rarely take notes or highlight key passages. I’m just along for the ride and I’ve been that way since I was a kid. Now that all of the books have been read, I can start to buy new ones again and filter out/donate the ones I won’t read a second time.
As I’ve done in previous years, here’s every book I consumed in 2023.
1-The Artist’s Way by Jane Cameron
2-Transforming #1 by Ron Smothermon
3-Corporate Rock Sucks by Jim Ruland
4-In My Own Words by Mother Theresa
5-The Laws Of Thermodynamics by Atkins
6-Stone Of Tears by Terry Goodkind
7-Blood Of The Fold by Terry Goodkind
8-Temple Of The Winds by Terry Goodkind
9-Mark Fisher’s Book Of Fitness Business Secrets by Mark Fisher
10-Soul Of The Fire by Terry Goodkind
11-Faith Of The Fallen by Terry Goodkind
12-A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins
13-The Gloaming by Melanie Finn
14-The Shredded Chef by Michael Matthews
15-The Power Of Positive Fitness by John M. Rowley
16-Not On Our Watch by Don Cheadle and John Pendergrast
17-Resistance, Rebellion and Death by Albert Camus
18-Some New Kind Of Kick by Kid Congo Powers
19-Healthy For Life by Dr. Roy Strand
20-There Was A Light by Rich Tupica
21-The Listening Party Volume 2 by Tim Burgess
22-Several Short Sentences About Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg
23-Lessons In Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
24-In The Garden Of Beasts by Erik Larson
25-You Just Need To Lose Weight by Aubrey Gordon
26-Dawn by Octavia E. Butler
27-Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler
28-Imago by Octavia E. Butler
29-The Producer by Dunstan Prial
30-Faust’s Gold by Steven Ungerleider
31-Anything You Want by Derek Sivers
32-Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck? by Seth Godin
33-Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
34-Zen and the Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
35-The Book Of Stretching by Bob Doto
36-A Very Irregular Head by Rob Chapman
37-The Protein Book by Lyle McDonald
38-Punk Paradox by Greg Graffin
39-Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography by Laurie Woolever
40-Slayer: 66 2/3 by DX Ferris
41-Death March by Edward Yourdon
42-The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien
43-The Vagina Bible by Jen Gunter, MD
44-Just As I Am by Cicely Tyson
45-Natural Solutions For Digestive Health by Jillian Teta and Jeannette Bessinger
46-The Strongest Shall Survive by Bill Starr
47-The Ruined Map by Kobo Abe
48-Life and Death On The New York Dance Floor by Tim Lawrence
49-The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
50-Rational Recovery by Jack Trimpey
51-Menopause Coaching Specialist Certfication Textbook by Girls Gone Strong
52-Kaboom by Matt Gallagher
53-Dead People Don’t Lose Weight by Michael Cruickshank
54-Portfolio Life by Daniel Corbett
55-Woe Is I by Patricia T. O’Conner
56-It Came From Memphis by Robert Gordon
57-The Body In Action by Sarah Key
58-The Afghan Campaign by Steven Pressfield
59-Consolations by David Whyte
60-Anatomy Of A Breakthrough by Adam Alter
61-Immune by Philipp Dettmer
62-How To Write, Speak And Think More Effectively by Rudolf Flesch
63-Why Calories Count by Marion Nestle
64-Drift by Meredith Paige Nejame
65-The Diabetic Muscle & Fitness Guide by Phil Graham
66-Rememberings by Sinead O’Connor
67-GGS-1 Plus by Girls Gone Strong
68-Sweet Soul Music by Peter Guralnick
69-GGS-1 Coaching by Girls Gone Strong
70-Rich As F*ck by Amanda Frances
71-The Menopause Manifesto by Dr. Jen Gunter
72-You Are A Badass At Making Money by Jen Sincero
73-Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist
74-Think Like A Monk by Jay Shetty
75-Twenty Thousand Roads by David N. Meyer
76-No Excuses by Brian Tracy
77-The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy
78-Deskbound by Kelly Starrett
79-Success Is A Choice by John C. Maxwell
80-Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish
81-The Woman In Me by Britney Spears
82-Everything Fat Loss by Ben Carpenter
83-A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Managing Ourselves by Ari Weinzweig
84-Men In My Town by Keith Smith
85-Chop Wood Carry Water by Joshua Medcalf
86-Stay Fanatic, Vol. 3 by Henry Rollins
87-A Good Man Is Hard To Find & Other Stories by Flannery O’Connor
88-Awakening The Heroes Within by Carol S. Pearson
89-The Last Diet by Shahroo Izadi
90-The Teachings Of Buddha
91-Imperium by Ryszard Kapuscinski
92-Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment by Daniel Kahneman, Oliveier Sibony and Cass R. Sunstein
93-The Power Of A Note by Sheena Leedham
94-Bonsai by Alejandro Zambra
95-33 1/3: The Geto Boys by Rolf Potts
96-33 1/3: Uptown Saturday Night by Patrick Rivers and Will Fulton
97-33 1/3: Homogenic by Emily Mackay
98-33 1/3: In On The Kill Taker by Joe Gross
99-33 1/3: Transformer by Ezra Furman
100-Jeff Buckley: In His Own Voice by Mary Guibert & David Browne
101-Maldoror by Comte De Lautreamont
102-Mystery Train by Griel Marcus
103-Grit by Angela Duckworth
104-Start With Why by Simon Sinek
105-Making It Home by Teresa Strasser
106-Long Road by Steven Hyden
107-If Not Dieting, Then What? by Dr. Rick Kausman
108-(R)evolution by Gary Numan
109-Bunnyman by Will Sergeant
110-Constructive Living by David K. Reynolds
111-Getting Better Bite By Bite by Ulrike Schmidt, Janet Treasure, & June Alexander
112-All I Ever Wanted by Kathy Valentine
