Life Trade Offs

I’ve written about trade offs before. It was a good article too. (Shameless plug: read it here).

John Paul loves to say that the line “all things being equal” is the most trash and useless line in the English language. In day to day life, there are little to no contexts in which you can change one variable and not see a change elsewhere in response to that.

“I want to read for an hour per day”, “I want to go to the gym three times per week”, “I want to prepare more nutritious meals” — okay great. What are you going to give up one hour of in order to do so? You don’t just get an extra hour in your day for nothing. Something else has to give: time with your family, time with your partner, sleep, training, household chores, total relax time. There has to be a trade off.

Trade offs need to be discussed more, particularly so at this time of year when we’re evaluating our lives, setting goals, making changes for the year ahead. Your time and energy is finite. In order to do more of something, you have to do less of something else.

One more time for emphasis: in order to do more of something, you have to do less of something else.

When I’ve spoken about trade offs previously, and realistically when anyone in health and fitness talks about trade offs, they do so through the lens of achieving some sort of health/fitness goal. If you want to lose weight, you need to trade off some take out meals. If you want to get stronger, you need to pass on some time with friends to spend more time in the gym, etc etc.

I want to talk about trade offs through an alternate lens. This is where I’m at in my life right now.

In order to pursue more leisure, more travel, more adventure, more experience — I need to be willing to trade off on some investment in to my other goals.

And contrary to fitness wisdom, capitalism and hustle culture — I am allowed to pursue other things that bring me joy, at the detriment of my training goals.

I’m not ignorant to the fact that people will view my life with the lens they have available to them, and many will think that I’ve got it all going on right now. I’m having my cake and eating it too. And while I do not for a moment disregard the privilege, good fortune, and the total fucking bewilderment that is my current circumstances, there are certainly concessions being made here for me to be able to live my life like this.

Here are some of the trade offs I’m making right now.

Training for the next little while is going to be very subpar.

I love hiking, I love the ocean, I have wanted to learn to kite surf for a very long time. I am still working while travelling. I coach online, I manage parts of TSF, I have regular meetings. So despite being away, I do still have commitments. That is to say I don’t just have infinite time nor energy for leisure activities. I’m choosing to trade off on lifting here. I love lifting, but I did not invest all this time/effort/money/emotion to come all the way to Tenerife, to spend my days in a dark, sweaty, over-crowded commercial gym. That is not why I’m here. Furthermore, hiking is very hard after pendulum squats.

I am not going to stop lifting altogether. Again, I love it and I’ve worked hard for the muscle and strength that I have. But 2x lifting sessions per week this far in to my lifting career is absolutely not going to propel me forward in my athletic career. And that is okay. I am happy to not progress in my lifting for a little while to be able to explore a part of the world I’ve only ever dreamed of. A trade off I’m willing to make.

My nutrition is not great.

Most of you know I’m vegetarian. It’s easy to be a well-nourished vegetarian in Melbourne/any city full of hipsters. It is much less easy to be a well-nourished (and trained/athletic) vegetarian living on an island, without a car, and only able to access small convenience store type supermarkets. This week I’ve eaten veggie schnitzels at literally every meal, yielding a whopping 12g of protein per serve. I’m probably getting 60g of protein in per day (in an ideal world, should be around 130g).

To best support my training/aesthetic/performance goals, staying in a metro area with well-stocked supermarkets would serve me well. I cannot tell you though how much that idea bores me. I am at peace with losing some muscle while I’m away because I am unable to train hard enough/eat well enough to retain all of my muscle mass. I am not willing to do what it takes to fuel myself optimally. That is a trade off I am willing to make.

My lifestyle in general is look, not optimal.

Some nights I sleep about four hours. I like to go out to dance. I like to go out to drink. I like to meet new people and find my way home at whatever time in the morning I make my way back. I’ll eat Pringles in the kitchen at 3am if I’m feeling snacky when I get home. Optimal for my performance? Of course not. But I didn’t come all the way to Spain to eat three meals and two snacks daily and get 10h of sleep per night.

Financially, this trip is an awful decision.

Worth mentioning, even if not my usual domain. Over the last decade I’ve made more money each year than the year before it. I have invested extremely heavily in my career throughout my 20s. I love my work and my career is extremely meaningful to me. This trip has cost a stack of money, and in increasing expenses at TSF by a lot in the way of staffing, I have traded off on a lot of my income (over 50%). Again, this is okay and a trade off I am willing (and extremely fortunate) to be able to make.

Capitalism and hustle culture (and admittedly the rising cost of living / interest rates / retirement age) really have us feeling as though we can never take a break from 100% investment in to our work. I am in the prime of my career; I may never have the earning capacity that I have right now. But I can live off the money I’m making right now, even if it’s tight. And I back myself to be able to recoup some costs in the years to come so that my retirement is bright. Again, a very fortunate position to be in, I entirely recognise that. But this is a trade off I am willing to make. I am willing to pass on money, nice clothes, investments, my car, sell everything I own, in order to be able to have this experience.

So all of this is to say that while training is important, your heart is important, your musculoskeletal health is important, sport is valuable, athletic pursuits are fulfilling, you should always eat your fruit and vegetables — they are not the only important things. And you are permitted and entirely have my blessing to make concessions on these things to pursue other things that are meaningful.

• You’re allowed to skip training to spend time with your daughter

• You’re allowed to exceed your calorie target to have ice cream with your husband

• A cocktail day with your girlfriends is a great idea

• You don’t have to train on your two week holiday

• Don’t track your calories over Christmas

• Training two days per week over your exam period is a smart move

• Taking a deload while you build a back deck is a respectable decision

• You are allowed to get lit and sleep until midday.

Yes sure, some of your goals might suffer a little. But is it worth it? If you think so, then hell yeah it is. You’re not lazy and these aren’t shameful decisions. Much the opposite in fact. I admire you for knowing your values and living in alignment with them — even in the face of all of the external pressures telling you otherwise.