Author: Jason Leenaarts

How To Use Your Scale

I know this might seem a bit simplified for many of my readers but because scale habits come up with so much frequency in my conversations with clients, I thought I might pull together some of my best tips for using yours. Before I go to far with this, I do want to give the […]

Number One

Around seven or eight years ago, I drew up a Top Five board for our strongest lifters. We’re not a “powerlifting gym” by most accounts (none of our current members compete), but we tracked the best of the best in our roster for trapbar deadlift, squat, bench press, and deadlift. Once records were set, there […]

A Trajectory For Fat Loss

224, 223.2, 222.7, 222.7, 220.6, 218.3, 219.4 This is a week’s worth of weigh-ins from an online client of mine. Let’s call her “Shannon” (not her real name.) As you can see, Shannon lost over 5 lbs in one week but the progress is not linear. Let’s talk about that. We estimated her maintenance calorie […]

You Don’t Need Perfect, You Need Better

One of the more frustrating things you’ll encounter as you’re trying to improve any aspect of your life is how much motivation will ebb and flow, how often you’ll feel uninspired to do the work, and how easy it will be to talk yourself out of making progress. And that’s because nothing about progress is […]

Eleven Years

Eleven years… Marissa and I will be celebrating eleven years of marriage this week. Several months ago, we were invited to join two other couples (shout out to Audrey, Sean, Keon and Rachel) for a photo shoot at a restaurant. The photos were going to be among a selection of shots to be used for […]

Good For The Gut…Unless It’s Not

I saw a post on Instagram recently, offering “Eights Snacks Nutritionists Swear By For Gut Health.” It was a post that went viral and I do have to give it credit because each of the snacks had a reasonable amount of calories, some protein and some fiber in them. You’ve heard me say a lot […]

Space To Breathe

As we’ve nestled comfortably into fall temperatures in Northeast Ohio, my wife and I have been making our way through many of the hikes and trails the state has to offer. In 2023, around the time of our wedding anniversary (and her birthday), we took a trip to Hocking Hills with our youngest, Sebastian, to […]

A World Without Hate

I’d like to share with you a little bit about where I “come from.” I am the son of a father who was a Dutch immigrant. I am the son of a mother who was born in the south (Tennessee, to be exact.) My father’s father was Dutch and my father’s mother was born a […]

Protein Thoughts

I was responding to someone on social media last week about protein intake and it reminded me of some obstacles that people may encounter when they’re trying to figure out how much to consume, where to fit it into the diet and possible troubleshooting along the way. Without getting too far into the science with […]

You’re Not Optimized Enough

Does anyone else feel like it’s a mind-numbing exercise in trying to get your health in a better place by trying to optimize every-single-solitary-thing in your life? It’s not just that you need to drink more water, you need to optimize your hydration: cue more electrolytes, high pH water, hydrogen tabs (for extra hydrogen), a […]