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Hacking Your Health
Hacking Your Health Podcast with Ben Canning and Dave Kennedy - Two guys setting out to hack body, mind, business and beyond. We are here to provide a single source, bullshit free guide to understanding your body and how you can live better, for longer.
Hacking Your Health
Fitness tips I wish I knew 20 years ago // Dan - Digital Interaction 013
Uncover the secrets to maintaining a fit and healthy lifestyle even amidst life's constant changes with the inspiring story of our guest, Dan. Having started his fitness journey in high school, Dan shares how he transitioned from competitive sports to a home gym during the COVID-19 pandemic, experimenting with intermittent fasting and structured training programs. His experiences reveal the power of mindful eating, protein intake, and workout adaptation, offering listeners practical strategies to stay engaged and motivated on their own fitness paths.
Explore the art of managing hunger and cravings while keeping up with fitness goals. Together with Dan, we discuss inventive ways to maintain a calorie deficit, from enjoying overnight oats with protein to strategically using caffeine. Discover how taking a break from caffeine can improve sleep and rejuvenate its benefits upon reintroduction. Additionally, we delve into the significance of training techniques like tempo and how they can transform your workout routine, providing insights into balancing dietary objectives with lifestyle demands.
Learn how to keep your fitness routine intact while traveling, as we explore effective gym workouts and muscle engagement strategies. With Dan’s insights, we examine advanced techniques such as cluster sets and mechanical drop sets to optimize performance and combat muscle fatigue. This episode also highlights the importance of flexibility and community support in a lifelong health journey, encouraging listeners to embrace healthier choices without excessive restrictions, and to celebrate indulgences mindfully.
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Yo, welcome to Digital Interactions on the Hacking your Health podcast with your host, ben Canning. Yo, what's up? Welcome back to another episode of Digital Interactions. Today we're joined with Dan Dan, we are 67 weeks in.
Speaker 2:Something like that yeah, 67, 68 weeks in.
Speaker 1:You're not counting the weeks up, you're counting the weeks down until we get more calories. But we'll get. We'll get into that, and your story is slightly different in this. Um, whenever you, whenever we had our initial call. You're someone who has trained, you know your entire life, so you have plenty of experience. But I think it's always a good place to start to sort of give us a bit of an idea as to where you were at. And before we had that initial call, what did life look like, where were you at and what was going on?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so to your point, I've been training since high school. I know a lot of people, when they are done playing sports or done high school or college or whatever, they just stop. They're like, all right, I don't have a purpose to train, I'm not playing sports, blah, blah, blah. I started because I was playing football and I just fell in love with it. And then when I was in college, the school I was at there was a professor that started a powerlifting program. I think that's what solidified it for me, to see that, you know, getting stronger and everything and having a program to follow, it was great. So I just I continued on. Even after I graduated college, I still power lifted, not competitively or anything, but it was fun.
Speaker 2:And then, as life happened, my workouts changed and eventually went from power lifting to somewhat maintaining strength. And then family stopped going to the gym but I was working out at home. And then COVID happened. I built a decent home gym and it worked. I followed some online programs and there's a ton of them out there, like we all can find. Built my own, bought some yada yada and then, for whatever reason, I decided I wanted to try intermittent fasting. It was about 215, 220.
Speaker 2:At the time I was like, all right, I don't need this weight, let's give it a try. And it was about a year before I set up the call with you. I dropped that 15, 20 pounds. I was like, hey, this is great. But now what? What do I do? I never really had a trainer. The company I worked for they offered it. It would have been better if I would have been in one of the company's main offices, because I could have done it in person. It was over the phone, video and so on and so forth, so it wasn't that great.
Speaker 2:He put a program together for me. It is what it is, and we've been working together for over a year now, and every time you create a new program for me it's totally different than what it was, because after 12 weeks I'm bored. I need something different. And doing that yourself is like all right, what do I want to do for the next 12 weeks? And having someone that can put it together for you is one less thing I got to deal with. So the other challenge for me was what I was eating. When I did intermittent fasting, I was watching what I ate, but I didn't track it. And then, when you did intermittent fasting, I was watching what I ate, um, but I didn't track it. And then when you said, okay, here's your calories, here's how much protein you need, it was definitely a change in mindset of how to how to eat, um. So that was kind of where I was at before we had our initial call and you know, things have progressed really well since then.
Speaker 1:So you weren't. I mean, you had the plenty of experience but didn't necessarily know that you were getting the sort of, I guess, the full benefit of the work that you were putting in. I just had a quick look at your file up here in front of me. I had a quick look like you weren't in bad shape. You know what I mean. Like okay, yes, you maybe had a couple of pound stillies, but you know, overall you weren't about cheap. You definitely had a much larger beard back then as well, which is something that's changed.
Speaker 2:This is summer, this is summer beard. When October rolls around, I'll stop for a minute and it keeps me warm in the winter when I'm sitting in a true stand. So, yeah, it's summer beard. Okay, fair know.
Speaker 2:The one benefit that we can talk about is, like, what has been your experience of going through that sort of extended deficit, going through a surplus myself? I wish I would have known this 20 years ago, especially when I was powerlifting. I really wish I would have known. Yeah, I really need to focus on doing these things in my diet, because I mean, I'd go out in college Thursdays was Thirsty Thursday. We'd go out and drink beers and have wings. That's what we ate and drank.
Speaker 2:It would have not been nice to know that back then, be more mindful of what I was putting into my body. Now I sit back and think like, okay, is what I am about to eat going to help me in my current state? Am I eating too much fat right now, being in this deficit? Or I know we've gone back and forth about carbs. Like my focus in a deficit is hit my protein goal and then whatever calories I have left over, I'll just say eat whatever, but I'll eat something that has more carbs or more fat or whatever to kind of help keep me full. But that's been the biggest thing for me is focusing on the foods I've been putting in my diet, really tracking it.
Speaker 2:One of the things I've done, being in the deficit, is I try and put everything I think I'm going to eat that day into my fitness pal or whatever calorie counter out there people want to use. That really has helped Because then as the day goes on, if I don't eat something that's in there, what I'm going to have later, I can adjust to backfill those calories. Or if I eat more than I thought I was going to earlier in the day, I'll just remove something later in the day. So that's been the biggest learning experience for me is going through this whole process and tracking everything that you ask us to track has been, uh, really helpful. To look back and say, okay, well, I, you know I hit my, hit this goal for food early in a day by eating this. Okay, it's just easier to replicate for the next couple days and then I'll switch things up because I get tired eating the same thing day in and day out, so I know some people can do chicken, broccoli and rice for seven days a week, 365.
Speaker 1:I am not one of them but it's good to have those different options and you know, one of the benefits that I often talk about, especially within the sort of group setting, is we have a resource of, you know, 30 40 other people that have those go-to foods. Um, let's talk about where you're at right now. Um, you and I had a pretty open conversation a few weeks back as to sort of you know, we've been in the deficit for a relatively decent amount of time, um, since probably april, and we're now just at the end of july. Um, and the conversation we sort of had was you know, how how far do you want to take this? And you know, again, I was, I was quite honest with you. Like, we do get to this stage where it becomes almost counterproductive.
Speaker 1:Um, so the stuff that we're doing, it's like is it actually worth the sort of sacrifice you have to go through to to get the like, I guess, the sort of final pounds off or whatever way that you want to frame it? Um, but I also do give the sort of aspect of it's good to just fucking challenge yourself, like it's good to see how far you can actually push it. So we're about two weeks from finishing right, we sort of made the decision that know we're not going to put a specific weight on it or whatever else. I think a timeframe probably works better in this situation Cause, as you said before we hit record, you know you have two weeks to go. Not that you're counting down the hours and minutes, but you know exactly when it's going to be, it's marked in your calendar and we're good to go. What are your biggest?
Speaker 2:struggles whenever you come to this sort of deficit, like what's the biggest struggle, especially being at the tail end of it, like where do you see yourself?
Speaker 1:struggle within, or people potentially struggle on, how do you overcome this? Yeah, so I'm hungry. A lot um, which sucks um, so that is down and I'm hungry. Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah I'm hangry.
Speaker 2:Try not to get hangry. Uh, that that's one. Drink a lot of water. Keep myself occupied. If I'm doing something, um, the time will fly by. I don't feel as hungry, um, eating foods to help keep me. That keep me full. So I um, usually on the weekends I'm out doing dog training, so I'll have uh notes overnight, which is pretty filling, and I'll sometimes throw a scoop of protein in with it just to have a whole pile of calories, carbs and protein at once and it'll keep me full for a while.
Speaker 2:If I'm out in the field doing field work or whatever, working with people, and my mind's off of being hungry, I'm good. Or if I'm away from the food, you know the food's like oh man, I got to go. It's a pain in the ass to go get something to eat. All right, I'm not going to eat, so that's helped. But yeah, being hungry is a challenge. The cravings to not just go eat a whole pile of something, especially chocolate, that is something I love, and though you say the chocolate ofica is garbage compared to what you have, I'm still waiting on care package to see if that's actually true.
Speaker 1:So I will. You know what. I will get that sent. I will write that down and I'll get that sent to you to celebrate the end of your deficit.
Speaker 2:I'll make sure there, we go there, we go, there, we go, um, but no it, it's been a good challenge, um, to push myself to the the measly 1800 calories that I have. I tell people I'm doing that and they're like you're fucking crazy. I'm like, look, it's one month, that is not a lot of time. I have a wife and kids and month just it flies by in a heartbeat. You're like, oh, that's almost, I'm halfway there. You know so it. But there's challenges. I put it on my check and I'm hungry, I have cravings, but you know, and I it may or may not be affecting my sleep. Um, I guess we'll see when I get out of this. Uh, and I have put caffeine back into my diet to kind of help lose hunger cravings. I think it helps and keeps me a little more awake. I know I did. I cut that out and it was fine, except for the first few days. Talked to my wife about that, how cranky I was for two or three days and a few people's heads off.
Speaker 1:But you know, it is what it is I think that that's, I guess that's a topic that I hadn't hadn't time to talk about. So we decided, um, due to decided, due to just struggling to sleep and whatever else, that we would try and take caffeine out. So talk me through that process or sort of, I guess, your lessons from that I know you've added it back in now, but sort of the time that you hadn't had the caffeine in.
Speaker 2:Sure. So I kind of weaned myself off because I was concerned about getting headaches. I did it before one time and the headaches were awful. But I did it before one time and the headaches were awful, but it wasn't that bad, except being cranky. I did it. I stopped on Friday so I would have a weekend and not, hopefully, affect work Though, like I said, I did jump down some people's throats over the weekend with my wife and kids but after that it wasn't really bad for the month or so that I cut it out.
Speaker 2:It was. It wasn't really bad, to be honest with you. But I did get liquid IVs so I had. They have their own benefits, but something flavored. You get tired. I get tired just drinking plain water, so I would have a liquid IV here and there, usually one a day. I went to a non-STEM pre-workout and it actually still felt like I was getting some benefits without the caffeine. I felt when I took it before I worked out I had better blood flow and better concentration. Maybe it was psychological, who the hell really knows but having something flavored to drink without caffeine was very beneficial.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Did you notice? When you reintroduced caffeine, you actually felt the benefit of it again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did yeah.
Speaker 1:I think I felt like I got all this energy now, so I think that that's the important thing and you know I've done this time and time again myself where I just stopped drinking caffeine and I, you know I know especially the nature of the people that I work with. Like caffeine gets abused on myself too, like I do sometimes find myself overstimulated. So sometimes for anybody, the system like it is worth as difficult it can be for those initial couple of days. Once you get over that, like it's not actually that bad and the benefits of whenever you start to reintroduce it, like actually feeling okay, this is what caffeine should do, this is how I should actually feel, instead of just like always having that sort of subconscious, um, that feeling of like always being tired and like it's not actually working anymore, right?
Speaker 1:Um, talk to me, then, about training. So obviously, as you said, you know you're pretty experienced in training. Um, you do your whole person that whenever it comes up to 12 weeks, you're like right and you train on block, which is absolutely fine. Um, biggest lessons from training over the last 60 some weeks, things that you get. Like I said, you have had training experience, but what has changed in terms of your training over the past year in a bit?
Speaker 2:tempo. Yeah, I never had done tempo, uh, strength training before, and holy, eye-opener and humbling experience. Is it like all right, doing 85 90 pound dumbbell bench press? Nope, nope, nope. You're like two reps, three reps, you're like fuck, I'm done, I can't. I can't do eight to twelve reps.
Speaker 2:Very humbling, but the benefits I are noticeable. I'm a lot leaner than I was and that obviously is part losing the weight. But the style of training your body, your muscles are under tension a lot longer than just sitting there cranking them out. And it's interesting when I go to the gym now I see people there just flinging weights around. I'm like I'm not gonna say anything, but it's like dude, slow down, take your time.
Speaker 2:Some people there are a couple people at the gym you can tell they're really. They're going really deep on squat, they're really going slow on on lat raises and they're reaping the benefits. And there's people just in there. They're just, I feel like they're just going through the motions. It's a social, social event. They're going through the motions.
Speaker 2:They're not really benefiting as much as they could. I mean, they're benefiting some, but maybe not as much as they could be if they were doing slower reps, going full extension and really getting that burn. They do their 12 reps like, hey, that's what's in the program 12 reps all right, I'm done. So that's pushing's in the program 12 reps all right, I'm done. So that's, you know, pushing closer to failure. I know we had a call when our team call last week. We're talking about things that we're not doing, and one of them for me was maybe not pushing myself to failure or close to maybe a couple uh reps left in the tank it's a difficult one, especially whenever you're in the sort of the depths of the deficit now, like for me.
Speaker 1:You know, if I'm in your situation, I'm not too focused on on going to failure because your body's not in a really in a position to handle it. Maybe in about six weeks time, whenever calories are back up, then you know, as you know, the shift in what we focus on is you'll go from focusing on the metrics in terms of the measurements and your weight and how you look while you're in the deficit and that sort of changing on a weekly basis to shifting back to your performance in the gym and what's happening here and make sure you're improving in that. So the intensity needs to go up, the sort of pushing that a little bit closer to failure because you have the fuel, you have the energy, your body's able to cope and sort of handle it. So you know it's understanding what you need to focus on and when you need to focus on it. But tempo for me, like the biggest benefit is number one and I've said this time and time again like it's about getting strong in the muscle, not in the movement.
Speaker 1:Like you said, it's a dumbbell bench press.
Speaker 1:You could rep out 90 pounds all day long, but it's almost just the momentum that you're using.
Speaker 1:So, yes, you can do the movement and that looks cool, but to actually be able to control it on the way down, pause and actually contract the muscle out, you're going to get so much more from it. So it's like it's about, if you're going to spend the time doing the thing you want, to be as efficient, as effective with it as possible and, yes, okay, maybe the sets take a little bit longer, but you get more benefit from them longer term. And then there's the benefit on the other side of you know, there's not as much like pressure through your joints and your ligaments and your tendons and stuff like that. So you can actually get more longevity, like the longer term, out of the workouts that you're doing. And then gradually, yes, you take the ego hit and drop the weights initially, but you do start to build it back up again and it feels for me anyway, it feels a lot better to actually contract the muscle and go fucking out like I was you know I was in charge there versus the weight just fucking throwing me about.
Speaker 2:Essentially, right, right, and you threw, you know, cluster sets in which was I don't know if people ever watch me do those, they're probably like what in the world is this guy doing? And then the mechanical drop sets, that's, that's. Uh, that was a new one.
Speaker 1:That was a hell of a special. You can thank him for that one. That is, uh, his, uh, almost like his final boss card that he threw in at the end. But they definitely like effective. If there's something that is effective in terms of making sure that you feel fucked the next day, it for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I haven't gone up on weight doing those. The first couple sets like, hey, this isn't bad. And then you're like, oh my god.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you do for sure. Start to feel it Travel. You travel quite a bit for work.
Speaker 2:It varies. At the end of this month, I got to our global sales conference in Vegas, so that's one of the reasons I wanted to be out of the deficit by them. So I'm not, you know, like, hey, let's go out to dinner. Like, yeah, I don't have the calories, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go protein house vegas and have dinner, practice, lunch and dinner.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so um so talk about how you navigate it, because a lot of people listening will travel before work and I know everybody has their own sort of tactics and, like I said, you know we've been able to manage it quite well. So what's your sort of go-to tips of you know, making sure you stay on track with your work rights, your nutrition and other bits and pieces?
Speaker 2:so I'll. I I always try and find a good gym. Um, vegas is easy, the dragon's lair, um. I go to maryland every now and then and there I found a. Our office down there has a very small gym. It's's okay, but I found a decent gym there. That's something I'll try and do is find a good place to work out. New York City is a challenge. The building our office is in. I was like, hey, I went to the gym that's in there and said, hey, how much for a day pass. It's like 100 bucks. Like wait, wait, hold on a second.
Speaker 1:I had to ask twice because I didn't believe the person I was like no, I can't, I'm not doing it yeah.
Speaker 2:So I worked out the hotel gym, which was whatever, um, but then just when you go out to eat and you only have to travel is looking at what you're eating. Uh, if you're going to get a salad, everybody said you know, double the protein that's on there. I have really cut back on my desserts. Appetizers don't necessarily need them, just find that one good meal on there and you feel that comfortable eating that is. I know. Dave said it's easy to track if you're going to track that meal.
Speaker 2:But on the flip side of that splurge every now and then, even if you're in a deficit, you know, just bank some calories or take the hit. Know that, hey, the tomorrow you're going to probably wake up regretting it. But don't don't go. Uh, hey, I can't go out to eat, you know, don't, don't say that to your friends, you know, because they're gonna be like what the hell is wrong with this person. But, um, I mean, like saturday I went out, my sister was in town, we all went out to dinner to a, uh, a german beer house. I knew I was gonna. I was like, whatever, I'm just gonna eat whatever, and if I pay for it tomorrow such is life, just get back on the horse and I'll deal with that in your check-in tomorrow, then yeah, probably.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you'll see. You'll see when I ate too much. But I was like whatever, um, I don't, I don't try and stress about that too much, but, like when I go to vegas or I'm away from home a lot, I'll. I won't track what I eat, but I'll just be mindful of it. Yeah, um, and try not to snack too much. That's that's the one thing. It's easy to fall into. Is like, especially when you fly, I mean I get bored. I eat when I'm bored. And when you're sitting on an airplane for six hours like, hmm, I got this beef jerky or this protein bar, I'll try and at least make them a healthier snack. And and cashews, or uh, or whatever, um, but I'll try not to. It's a mental thing, that's. That's the other, that's the big part. Is like just gotta tell yourself, no, don't, don't eat that whole bag of pistachios or cashews. And you look at the back of like holy crap, that was 600 calories.
Speaker 1:Yeah, look at the look at the pack first. Look at the pack first before you don't have that oh shit moment. But I think, yeah, again, you know that's important and I think you know I've said this again time and time like it needs to be something. Like we know that we're not in 1800 calories forever, you know, right, I also want you to be able to live your life. So if you do make the decision that you're, you know, with family or whatever, like it's not fucking life or death, do you know what I mean? Like we're, we're not, you know we don't have, we're not doing a photo shoot or prepping for anything and none of the. You know, in the grand scheme of things, that one meal, because you're so regimented and on the ball with everything else, then you can get away with it.
Speaker 1:So it's like I mean not to quote our Lord and savior Jocko a fuck up moment like that's okay, just as long as the fucking moments aren't 95 percent of the time and the good stuff's the five percent of the time.
Speaker 2:So it's just a bit balanced in it yeah, and that's where people, I think, struggle is they have that one, maybe two days where they fall off the horse and they're like oh, I've screwed this all up, I'm not gonna, I'm done, I'm just gonna fall back in my old habits and they gain all their weight back that they've lost and and that's it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're back to where they started yeah, yeah, I agree um what is the most unexpected thing you've gained in the past 67 weeks hmm, unexpected thing.
Speaker 2:Uh, I guess the two things, uh, the knowledge of how to handle being in a deficit, that has been great, and I talk to people about what I've been doing, that's helpful. And then I guess, on the other side, the benefit of that is I'm probably in better shape now than I was in high school and in college. I weighed in this morning at 173. I mean, that was probably my sophomore year in high school, maybe my junior year, because I was 185 when I graduated. But those two benefits, they kind of come hand in hand.
Speaker 1:I agree and day to day I often find and I don't know if you were on the call with Ali Gilbert when she was talking about almost like people who are in shape are not normal. So day to day, like, how do you feel as someone who walks about, like feeling good about their shape and their body composition?
Speaker 2:yeah, I, I don't really think about it. I mean it's great that I am in this shape. Um, I don't really tend to think about that much. And you see yourself in the mirror every day and maybe every now, and then you're like I don't remember that vein popping out recently or whatever you know. But uh, I I kind of I know people have approached me, you know my, my priest. He's like are you've lost weight? Kind of like are you okay? I'm like I'm fine, I'm doing this, I'm not sick, I don't have cancer. I don't think about it that much. I mean just the health benefits, what the scale says and everything I mean. Last year, when I went and saw my primary care physician for my yearly checkup, he actually studied sports medicine in college. That's why I love going to him. He's like you look great. He's just kind of like what have you been doing? And everything. I told him he's like that's great, I love it, keep it up. So that's just kind of how it's been for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good. So it's good to have that reminder from another professional in terms of you're doing the right thing, you're on the right track. Yeah, cool, right, we'll run through the quickfire questions. I don't know if this was a thing. Actually, I know this was not a thing whenever you first started, so you probably didn't. But you've seen the question, so now it's your turn to answer them. Avocados or no? No, no, not at all, not even guacamole. Nah, tough one. Okay, air Fryer. What brand of Air Fryer do you have?
Speaker 2:We have two of the Ninja Double Baskets. Nice Good, and they get used a lot Good.
Speaker 1:I laugh at this because I'm finding a lot of people I just assume everyone else. So I'm glad that you have two. So that's good. Yeah, Cooked or uncooked oats the most important question yes, both.
Speaker 2:So, like I said earlier in the conversation, we have an oats overnight subscription. Okay, so they're cold oats, you just mix with whatever milk you want. Um side note I actually saw someone uses them in the ninja creamy nice yeah, so I was like that's something new to try, so that's frozen, so you got three ways now. So you got three ways to ask that question, okay.
Speaker 1:I know, maybe I'll try that in an instant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I want to try that as well. But the Protein Chef anybody listening to this go to the Protein Chef's website Fantastic recipes. If you have an unhealthy recipe you want to make healthy. He's probably already done it, but he has a really good baked chocolate oats recipe that is delicious. I mean, most people eat oats for breakfast. I'll make that for dinner some nights. I have tweaked it, though, because it's a little dry the way he has the recipe. I add a little more Greek yogurt, I use a Fairlife instead of milk or almond milk or whatever, and it's just a little bit. It's not as dry as he has has in the recipe.
Speaker 1:So okay, good, goodbye, pull the site up there, so I'll have a look at it after. Um, what is the most, what is the most absurd health and fitness related advice you've ever heard or received?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I don't really listen to the naysayers, um naysayers, um. Good I I have heard from people like oh, what you're doing is crazy, I can't believe you're doing these 1800 calories. That's not. You know advice. But I always tell it's temporary. So you know we only get one body. You got to eat, right, if not?
Speaker 1:I think I mean you don't need to get into this, but I'd be curious to know like what sort of life these people live that are giving you shit for eating 1800 calories yeah, most of them don't exercise.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, though I you know one of my friends. She says, like well, if I don't work out every day, I'm gonna stop working out. It's like well, you gotta, you gotta recover, your body's got to rest. Yeah, that's almost as important, as important, if not more important, than doing the actual workouts yeah, yeah, yeah, true, true, true.
Speaker 1:Um, if you could do one, only one exercise for the rest of your life, what would you pick? Squats interesting. That maybe leads on to this would you prefer to do 100 push-ups, 100 squats or 100 burpees, 100 squats rough, I'll put that in your next program, if you had 100 push-ups in it before. I'm like that's it so you know, you know what you're getting next. You get the 100 squats and you're gonna regret.
Speaker 2:You have immediate regret, yeah I, I'd rather do 100 squats anything fair enough.
Speaker 1:Um, if you're describing WeHackHealth to someone, what do you say?
Speaker 2:How much time you got Elevator pitch. It's a community of like-minded individuals that have the goal to live a healthier lifestyle.
Speaker 1:Good Nailed it.
Speaker 2:If they're on Discord here, let me invite you to the public Discord server and hop on. Just start asking questions. Yeah fair, fair and if you're getting interested, reach out to Ben, schedule a call. It doesn't cost you anything.
Speaker 1:Simple as that. What one thing do you know now that you wish you had known sooner? And I feel like you've answered this, but just sort of summarize it.
Speaker 2:What and how to eat. Yeah, and keeping an eye on it, really tracking to a certain extent. So cool, yeah, whole foods or processed foods too I think I'm.
Speaker 1:This is a sort of additional question like how does this translate to like with the kids? Because I, you know, I have a big sort of. My thought process is like, you know, the habits and behaviors that we have sort of come to us generationally because the generation before us didn't necessarily have the education or knowledge that we have. So I feel like responsibility we have to change that. So how does that translate down the line for you?
Speaker 2:So we manage what they eat. Some nights it's maybe not the greatest, but that's just how it goes. They eat a lot of whole foods, a lot of chicken. We're not a big fish family, but a lot of chicken. I hunt deer so when we have venison in the freezer we eat that. I mean that's about one of the best meats you could eat. So you know they eat whole foods. I mean they have a sweet tooth like I do. It runs in the family on both sides. But our rule is, if you don't eat your dinner, there's no dessert, and I mean that's a rule I think a lot of parents have. That's what I grew up with, but it's a lot. We're not eating heavy pastas or potatoes. We do eat potatoes, but I actually have a fry press. I will buy the big bags of potatoes from Costco, put them through there and air fry them. They're so delicious compared to the extruded fries you get in a frozen bag.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, we're constantly teaching it to our children. They both play sports. They play soccer, they play soccer, they play basketball. So they play sports almost year-round and they have to eat the right foods or they're going to not have energy. They're going to be tired. Now, granted, they're young, so they do sleep quite a bit, that's just normal. But being sure they have the right foods in their diet Agree Good. I feel like it's good. I think I feel like it's you know, it's good to be able to transfer that diet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a different, it's a different philosophy when what my parents had, yeah, so I agree, agree, agree, um, any time.
Speaker 2:Any final thoughts or words from you for anybody listening if you're thinking about losing weight, doing an exercise program, just do it. I know people say there's not time in the day there's always time and I think a lot of people struggle with they go, they send it, they're like I'm going to do these 20 things, make these 20 changes in my life, and they do it well for two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, and then they start, like I said earlier, they fall off the horse and then they can't get back on. Yeah, my start. Like I said earlier, they fall off the horse and then they can't get back on. Yeah, my suggestion if you don't want to use a trainer, you know, or whatever just pick three things, change those for the next month or however long, and then, once you make that a habit or make those changes, pick a few more things and just go slow, because you're trying to do it all at once.
Speaker 1:It doesn't work yeah, it becomes a headache, for sure it's for sure it's tough it really is tough.
Speaker 2:It is tough and it's a community having having a community really helps agree.
Speaker 1:Agree, it's tough in many ways and it's you know, for me it's not a start and end thing, it's just a continued progression. Do you know what I mean? I think that people sort of go into it being like, when I get to this and I'm like that, that immediately is, you know, it's a wrong mindset to go in. It's like, how can I build this into my life? Like, how do I become, how does this become part of my life? And that sort of identity shift that comes in. That Right, cool.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks for joining me. Thanks for, um, always being a part of the calls and showing up and asking questions, uh, even allowing me to put you on the spot, um, thanks for being someone who allows me to continue to challenge them. I know, obviously we have the conversations about how far to push, but you're always willing to do a little bit more just to push, and I respect the work and the discipline that goes into what you do. And in two weeks time we'll have more calories and I'll celebrate by sending you a chocolate curd package, but you'll have to ration us because you can't.
Speaker 2:I will. I can ration. I've gotten good. That's can ration. I've gotten good. That's the other thing I've gotten good as rationing I have. I have some. My sister made homemade chocolate fudge. It sits in the freezer. I know where it is. I just get a little hankering for something really chocolatey. I'll just take a bite, put it back in the freezer and forget about it. So out of sight, out of mind, works well okay, okay, cool.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, I'll get that sent across, um, but yeah, thanks for joining us. I'll see you in a bit. Yep, good chatting, yep, good chatting.