There Is A Method to the Madness

Breaking the Morning Myth

• Rob Maxwell, M.A.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to there is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell and I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I am the owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs and I've been in business since 1994. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works and, most importantly, why things work. Hence the name. There is a method to the madness. Before I get to today's show, I want to thank Jonathan and Lynn Gildan of the Gildan Group at Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service in home sales. Why don't you give them a shout and figure out what your home is worth? 386-451-2412. Good morning everybody, good afternoon, good day.

Speaker 1:

Whatever time that you are listening to this, I love to talk about fitness and health and all these good things. That's the purpose of this podcast and you know I like to combat all the noise out there, all the misconceptions, all the misinformation. I like to give it to you straight because I feel like I have a lot of experience and you know, education to do so and probably most importantly, the passion, because I believe so much in health and fitness and how. I know it's the one thing we can do and I know, one thing isn't really true, because there's many things in the lifestyle of health and fitness, but health and fitness is the one thing, so to say, the one lifestyle. There's probably others, others that we have a lot of control over. There's just so many things we can do to improve our lives and that's what I think is the essence of what we're trying to do and what I'm trying to do, and basically make it easier for you because it doesn't have to be so damn complicated. That's, you know, the root of what I like to do, which is why I call it the method to the madness, because we do know what works and you know, we know what doesn't work. And we just trying to encourage you to listen to the right people out there, because every day I hear about people getting confused by different things that are going on and essentially, you know you're just getting scammed left and right. I mean, everybody wants a piece of your pocketbook that's the bottom line Free to listen to this show. So I don't know, not for me. But well, it's getting there, got some good sponsorship, but all right, so let's get to it. And you know, speaking of that, I ask you to please hit subscribe. Just let's get to it.

Speaker 1:

And you know, speaking of that, I ask you to please hit subscribe, just go up to the right hand corner of where you're getting your podcast and hit like or hit subscribe and hit automatic downloads, if you would because this thing tracks my downloads and share it with people. Send it to people that you think will help, because I mean, come on, there's so much crap out there, like, I listen to different podcasts and I know when I hear something I really like, I send it to somebody. You know I'm like, hey, you might like this, and it's usually a lot better than listening to the news. Or, you know, listening to some news podcast or watching the news right, anything we hear when somebody sends us is probably a lot better than that. All right, so let's talk a little bit about some of the lies that we tell ourselves. You know, a lot of times people want to hear the next best, greatest diet, next best greatest workout routine and the next best hack. If you just tell me that submerging yourself in an ice bath every day is going to do it and I talk about why I mean, like, people love that stuff. Or if I say, you know, the next diet is the avocado diet. Let's talk about the avocado diet Like if I made that like the teaser headline you know, the miracle avocado diet it would probably get like a hundred downloads in an hour. And you know that's kind of sad really. And you know, and oftentimes people don't want to hear what I like to talk about the most, because I know it's the most useful and helpful, and that is the psychological side of all this training stuff. You know, I taught my students all the time.

Speaker 1:

It's like, for the most part, people know what to do. That's not the problem. The problem is they're not doing it. So what do we do to convince people to do the right thing, the right thing for themselves, which is to eat right and exercise right? I mean, that's the right thing for themselves. And I think everybody knows the right way to eat to an extent. Notice, I said right way, not the perfect way, because there isn't a perfect way, but I guarantee you, anybody off the street will tell you that they know that eating a candy bar is not as good as eating broccoli, right? I mean, everybody knows that. They might say it tastes better, more convenient, blah, blah, blah. But everybody knows the right thing. For the most part, they're just not doing it. So I like to talk about these issues because that's what hopefully sparks some change within people to go out and change their lives so they are living a lifestyle of health and wellness.

Speaker 1:

So I want to talk about some of the lies. One of them is, you know and this has come up a lot lately where people wake up and they just lay in bed or they don't set an alarm to get up early enough and then the next thing they know, their day has gotten away from them. Now I live in central Florida and it's hot and I like to run, and I can tell you right now, if I get out after seven o'clock, I'm going to be way too hot to get in a very effective run. So I have to get out early Now. On top of that, I have clients in the morning that start pretty early, so I've got to get out the door by five Now. I naturally wake up between four and 4.30 and is maybe as late as 5, but usually not. So I'm up and I'm ready to go, but I also go to bed early.

Speaker 1:

So I've heard other podcasters say that if you want to master your morning routine, then master your bedtime routine. So if you have trouble getting up in the morning and you got to get stuff done in the morning morning, like your exercise, maybe you do a little more preparation the night before, get your stuff done. You've got to get done earlier and go to bed. You know, don't doom scroll on your phone and don't be watching news. It's going to upset you and you know. Just whatever it is, figure out a way to maybe get to bed a little bit earlier so you can get up early and attack the day, because I really believe that utilizing the morning hours is a superpower. I mean, you can get so much done in that time frame when a lot of people are still sleeping.

Speaker 1:

Little caveat, you know, if you have sleep issues and you're dealing with that with your doctor or therapist, okay, this isn't for you. I'm talking about the person who has overcome. He says is this what your life is all about? Laying under the covers or don't? I have stuff I've got to get up and do? I mean? But I want to. You know, I think we know that.

Speaker 1:

So what I want to bring up is the big lie. The big lie is that you're actually going to feel better by laying there. And that's just a lie. It's just like the opposite of delaying gratification, like you think you're going to like feel awful if you feel a little groggy and sleepy and you feel like you're going to feel awful if you get up and go to the kitchen or go to the bathroom, whatever you know. Within five minutes you've forgotten about it, you're up, it's good, you've had your cup of coffee, you had a glass of water, you had tea, you did what you had to do. I mean, it's probably not even five minutes before you go now, finally getting over Joe Rogan. But she's got her book called 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. And she talks about that Like if you just understand it and count down from five, and when you hit zero, get up, it's not going to negatively impact you. It's a lie and there's a lot of lies we tell ourselves, like we get too caught up in how we feel.

Speaker 1:

And famous in the recovery circles is something that's said all the time, which is you know, your feelings aren't facts and that's just so true. You got to go against them sometimes. You got to be, I feel, sleepy. Well, you're probably not sleepy. You went to bed by 930. It's five o'clock, got over eight hours sleep. You're probably not sleepy. And if you are sleepy that doesn't mean you're tired, that just means you haven't woken up yet. So you have to go against that. Your feelings aren't facts. It's just like when you think you're hungry but you ate an hour ago. You're probably not hungry, you're bored, or it's a compulsive response. You're nervous, you're anxious, you want to eat because you want to crunch. It's not hunger, your feelings aren't facts. So that's the first lie getting up in the morning, right.

Speaker 1:

Another one is that we need more food than we think we need. I mean, this one happens a lot, and I know these are two separate entities, but they're kind of the same thing. If we can learn one, hopefully we can learn the other. For some reason, people learn the food one pretty good, and so what that basically means is you have your dinner. You had a nice, healthy, moderate dinner. Maybe you had some chicken, maybe you had some fish, maybe you had a grain like a cup of rice, maybe you had some vegetables and you topped it off with a pear or an apple or something like that for dessert. Like that is an ultimately healthy dinner, right. But then your brain says, oh man, I'm still hungry. Now. You just consume, say, 600 calories for dinner, so you're probably not hungry at all, but your brain says I really need a second piece of chicken and I need some more grain. Well, you probably don't need that at all.

Speaker 1:

And again the caveat, just like somebody who might be going through some sleep issues, if you're dealing with some food issues, then this isn't for you yet either. You've got to work some of this out with a therapist or a physician. This is just normal day-to-day people that think they need more food. And the funny thing is, when you're trying to lose weight and you adopt that mindset of you, know, I really think I need more food. I'm hungry. You're not going to lose weight If you know. You just ate a moderate, healthy dinner. You don't need more food. It's those extras, it's those seconds that you eat, that are giving you trouble. They're just additional calories you flat out don't need.

Speaker 1:

In my book, you Can't Outrun a Poor Diet. I talk about that. One of my rules is don't eat seconds. And again the caveat of somebody who's dealing with some other stuff. Or if you're Michael Phelps, who's eating 11,000 calories a day, back when you're training for the Olympics and you have to get enough fuel. Okay, I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to the normal person who just thinks they have to eat a second serving of rice or a second chicken breast with their dinner. You probably don't.

Speaker 1:

It's the lie. And just like the sleep thing, if you just say to yourself, I'm good, I've had enough, I'm really not hungry, I'm just bored, or this eating has triggered some nice dopamine in me and I want more dopamine, so I need more seconds. And in reality, if you just wait it out five, 10 minutes and I say, oh, do you still want seconds? No, I'm good, like you don't want it anymore, it's just the big lie. So that's the theme of today's podcast. What is the lie? You're telling yourself that flat out isn't true.

Speaker 1:

And, like I said, the diet one was seconds or in between meals. It could be the same thing. And if you're trying to lose weight, you're trying to eliminate your snacks. You might think, oh, I'm famished, I really have to have the smoothie right now. And then you don't. You delay the gratification, which is another one of my rules, and you can't outrun a poor diet. Then you delay the gratification and a little bit later you go oh, that's true. I never really needed that. I'm good, I don't need it.

Speaker 1:

A lot of people seem to get it with the dinner and the snack thing, but then, when it comes to getting out of bed, they don't seem to get it. They think, no, you don't understand, I really need more sleep. And I look at them and say, well, are you getting more sleep? Well, no, I just kind of lay there and I play on my phone and then I put my head back down and you know, it turns out I really didn't go back to sleep. It's like right, so get up. It's a lie and it's always going to be a lie. If you wake up, normally, we're going to have a different hormonal response when we wake up, so the adrenaline starts flowing through the bloodstream. You're probably not going to relax enough to go back to sleep, so you might as well just get up.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I just believe it's a great time to get your day started off with exercise. I know it's a great time too, especially if you live in the heat. It's summertime, if you live in Florida, you live in Texas, you live in a lot of these hot states, arizona it's time to get up and get it done If you're training outside, that is, if you're going for your power walk, if you're going for your run, if you're going for your bicycle ride and you're going to ride down at the beautiful Edgewater Trail that we have here locally, you probably want to set your alarm so you can get up early enough to get down there before it gets too hot. All right, so just remember. There's probably other things I'd love to hear from you via social media or you know what. The other day I got fan mail from here. So it's pretty cool.

Speaker 1:

You can go right into the podcast and tell me what you think, send me a note and say oh, this is the lie. I tell myself that keeps me from being my best. I would love to hear about it and then I can talk about it more on other podcasts. So reach out and let me know what is the big lie that, just flat out, isn't working for you. Thank you for listening to today's program. I ask you to please follow the show wherever you get your podcasts and please select automatic download, because that really helps the show. Now I want to thank Overhead Door of Daytona Beach, the area's premier garage door company. They have the best product. They have the best service. I personally vouch for Jeff and Zach Hawk, the owners. They are great people with a great company. If you have any garage door needs, please give them a shout at 386-222-3165.

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Rob Maxwell

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