By now we've all heard of the tragic passing of NBA legend Kobe Bryant. Most of us knew him as a tremendous basketball talent, one of the best players to ever step foot on the hardwood. More than that though he was a husband, a father, a son, a brother, and a philanthropist. He wowed and dazzled us with many highlights and there will be many things that will define his legacy. 

One of those being the Mamba Mentality. The black mamba is one of the most venomous, one of the most dangerous snakes known to the world. Kobe adopted this philosophy, even has a book about it, for his approach on the court. For how he practiced, for how he played, for how he attacked his opponents. 

This mentality, was a drive to be the absolute best version of himself. To approach any task with a relentless passion and level of commitment. That's what the Mamba Mentality is. 

And that is an approach will have to take in our spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical fitness journey. That we take every single day and maximize it. That every single breath we are given, we strive to be the best version of ourselves. That when we lay our head down to sleep, we can look back on the day, and say that we were the best version of ourself today. 

That is a mentality I think we can all get behind. Let's be the best version of ourself today. Tomorrow. And the day after.

​Be Greater!

Do I love me some food! I'm sure you do also. And let me tell you, there is nothing wrong with loving food. 

But...we have to be careful with how we approach food. I want to talk about how food affects our pockets. 

​You may be asking yourself (or maybe not), what does food have to do with my money?

A lot actually, when it comes to dining out. 

Matter of fact, I'll show you. To do so we'll use everyone's favorite school subject: math. 

Let's look at this: Imagine you buy a cup of coffee on your way to work for maybe $6. Then you buy lunch for, I don't know, $12, 5 days a week. 

You don't have to do the math, I'll do it for you. That comes out to:

$18/day
$90/week (Monday-Friday)
$360/month
$4,320/year

Crazy right! And that's using modest numbers. If we're not careful, we can end up wasting a lot of money dining out, and also affect our health if we're eating nothing but junk. 

We have to be aware of what we're eating, and how much we spend on it. Chances are we're spending way much more than we should be. 

So how do we change that? 

Start by tracking your expenses and how much you spend dining out a week. If you find that you do spend too much, start by cutting out one meal a day that you dine out and instead bring your lunch. 

Go a step further and set a budget for the amount you'll spend dining out each month. Make sure to update and review it every week to stay within that number. 

Over the course of a couple of months, your body, and your wallet, will thank you. 

2020! 

It's a new year, it's a new decade, and that means new goals and new resolutions. New workout goals, new nutrition goals. 

We're going to eat better, we're going to workout more, on and on and on. 

We look for the latest workout trend, the latest food trend. We want to follow what everyone else is doing. 

Speaking of trends, let's take a trip down memory lane. There was Paleo, Atkins, low-carb, low-fat, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers. Now the Keto Diet and the Winnie the Pooh Honey Diet. 

There aren't anything necessarily wrong with these different diets in and of itself. The problem is most of the time we're on these diets for a few days, maybe a few weeks, then we stop. We may have achieved some weight loss only to gain the weight back, if not more. 

But I want to talk about the one diet that really works. The one diet that guarantees results. 

It's the diet that you're going to stick with. 

It's the diet that works for you. Just as with exercise, there is no one size fits all. Sometimes you have to try different things to see what works for you. And that's okay. 

As long as you're trying, as long as you're putting in the effort, that's what counts. That effort won't go in vain. Keep after it. There aren't any shortcuts. It doesn't work that way. Just continue to put in effort, be consist. 

​And I'm with you every step of the way.