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Lifestyle Strength
We discuss ideas, principles, and tactics that help people improve their position in life. With a background in fitness, Lucas strives to empower others by sharing amazing stories of challenge, transformation, and growth.
Lifestyle Strength
Mastering Your Monday to Friday (Zach Johannsen Part 2)
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https://www.hydefitnessconsulting.com
Welcome to Lifestyle Strength, your guide to mastering health and well-being in the real world.
Speaker 2:I'm Ariel, a massage therapist with over a decade of experience in holistic health, and I'm here with Lucas, a seasoned fitness coach, who's transformed the lives of hundreds in Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 1:We're here to share real stories and expert insights about embracing a healthy lifestyle while balancing the everyday hustle.
Speaker 2:Join us as we explore practical ways to achieve wellness and thrive amidst life's challenges.
Speaker 1:Let's dive in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's really like what we're talking about here is not rocket science either. Like you don't have to do this perfect.
Speaker 1:We don't do it perfect. None of us do so you know.
Speaker 3:really what we're talking about is just consistency, and you know I talk a lot about my with my clients, about owning your Monday through Friday. If we can own those five days, we're consistently owning the majority of our week, weekend, week out, 365 days a year. And that's where you see, over time, the growth happens. You start stacking years of owning your Monday through Friday. So I encourage anybody if you felt like you're yo-yoing and you can't just stick to a plan, you've got to figure out what works for you on a normal Monday through Friday routine. Everybody's routine is different. Everybody's work routine, his schedule is different. So once you figure that out, then not only do you develop this track record of consistency and what I've seen with my clients, but also your deviations on the weekend tend to get smaller and smaller because you just feel so much better.
Speaker 1:Yeah you care more, you have more invested.
Speaker 1:Therefore, you make a smarter decision when you don't necessarily have to be invested yeah, when you don't necessarily have to be invested.
Speaker 1:I do something similar with my clients I talk a lot about we build systems around the life that they want to live because we all have different schedules. I think, you and I it's really easy to promote resistance training and figuring out how to implement that in many different ways, whether somebody's coming into the gym or working out at home or on the road traveling. But it doesn't always even have to be purely that. Not like you know that we could sit here and spout off all the benefits of why you should resistance train, but like something as simple as going for a walk outside, you know, and then in owning that, you know, because if you can stack up those wins monday through friday, like okay, well, I just proved to myself that I could walk every day for an hour, it's going to make you want to take it further. It's going to make you want to explore more because you're going to feel so much better as a result of just that one decision.
Speaker 3:Sure, yeah, and that's where the 10,000 steps has been so popular in the last decade, right.
Speaker 1:I used to laugh so much at it, and I think part of that was just, you know, I found fitness when I was young. So, you know, at 19, 20 years old, I'm, you know, more active than I'm ever gonna be in my life, you know, in college, right. So you think about 10 000 steps. You're like, oh, my god, that doesn't matter, like. But I found, as I've matured and coached more people, that, uh, you know that that number is so impactful for anyone, I'd say anybody over the age of 25, who's like, okay, you're working now, more than likely at a desk job somewhere, spending a lot of time behind a screen. Yeah, so that 10,000 steps is everything and it's so much more important.
Speaker 3:It's just a good, consistent gauge, right? It's just a gauge of gauge, right? It's just a gauge of where I'm at in the day. Yeah, you're, it's by four o'clock. If you look down and you're like man, I'm only at 2200 steps for the day.
Speaker 3:It's probably a good idea to get the dog and go for a walk after dinner or something. Right, it's just moving your body. You know, I just was talking the other day a whole show about you know, the body, move it or lose it, and isn't that so true though? Yeah, the, the body is meant to move and adapt and grow, and it's such an amazing piece of machinery and you know, frankly, if we just if we don't move it on a regular basis, it it tends to start to shut down or or not give you the feedback that it would be giving you if you were moving in every other machine, every other machine does and you know like a perfect example of it is look at a 70 or 75 year old that retires and they've been working, you know, all their life and look at the life expectancy of of those people who don't find like pleasure, passion and purpose in something else after they retire.
Speaker 3:Their life expectancy is within five to 10 years. They're gone. So you know. That just shows. I mean, I think it was Isaac Newton who actually said a body of motion stays in motion. Um, and it's so true, I mean it's breaking out the laws of physics.
Speaker 1:Man, I like to use that one. Actually I haven't, you know. You know the laws of physics, but tying it to exercise is really good. Yeah, tell me a little bit about like you know. You had a pretty major injury in your life where you didn't have any control over, like what happened. Obviously that had to be like play havoc, havoc, like on your mental health. I know it would have been for me it was tough um for the listeners.
Speaker 3:I was in a head-on collision. An 18 year old kid was passing someone around a corner and um hit me head on and um messed me up pretty good. But the main thing it did from a fitness standpoint was it tore my pectoral muscle off of my humerus bone, so it completely detached pectoral muscle. So I had to have surgery to have that reattached and had to go through rehab. So there was no upper body workouts for a period of time, you know. But I'll say that I've always had like, okay, if I can't do that, what can I do? Type mentality, yeah. And so I just focused on other things and tried to really work on leg strength, tried to really work on my hiking, my walking, cycling, things like that that I could do, things like that that I could do, and that kind of got me through that period of time that there was obviously no push pull, you know, or you know anything, upper body.
Speaker 1:You didn't have any moments where you were like man, like I don't.
Speaker 3:Oh, no, I did. Yeah, I mean, you know, truth be told, I mean there was tears and there was frustration and you know, especially, my wife helped me through a lot of that and, um, she's so awesome when it comes to just being a support for me and and coaching me through things. Yeah, so, uh, but, yeah, I mean, truth be told, yeah, there was, there was tears and frustration and, you know, again, like a why me? Type situation, but, um, those are always brief in comparison to the nitty gritty, like we got work to do, right, you know, you tell me I'm never going to bench press again. I'm going to prove you wrong. Yeah, watch, sit back and watch.
Speaker 3:So, um, and I documented a lot of that through my social media and stuff along the way, and I tried to use it as a way to encourage others. Like, look, we all have trials, we all have baggage, we all have things that we're dealing with and that no human is immune to that, especially in the day, day and age we live in now and I, and that's why I think conversations like these and and what you do, uh, as a coach, is, you know, it's so important to help people to just push through adversity and push through when you're not feeling it. And you're not feeling this nutrition thing, you're not feeling this gym thing. Dig your feet down and find your inner motivation of why am I doing this? And again it goes back to that like who do I want to be in five years, where do I want to be and what short-term things can I look at right now to just keep motivating me to keep going.
Speaker 1:I think it's really easy to get stuck in that hole because that it's much easier once you've been beaten down just to like kind of stay there. You have to be willing to look for it. I guess you have to be willing to look for a way to get absolutely and then be willing to not have found it, like you might have to try a few things, you might have to give it a little bit of time, but continuing to search for it, because ultimately you know, if you lost your keys or you lost your wallet, you're only going to find it if you keep looking for it. You might look 10, 20 places before you find it, but eventually, once you find it, you're like, ah, good, like I can go now.
Speaker 3:That's a really good point, and I use that same kind of line of reasoning when dealing with women who deal with weight loss resistance. That's a hard one. I'm like keep turning over rocks, don't stop, because you're going to flip over one rock and then you're going to find the answer. And whether it's hormones or thyroid or gut or this or that or wherever it is, just keep flipping over rocks, don't give up, because we only really fail is if we give up and we stop trying. Yeah Right, you're not failing until you do that.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, I always talk about failing forward. Like you know, like you said, you can try a hundred hundred different ways, but you only need one to make it work. Yep um to to have everything change for you. And you know, we, I think, as humans, you, you pick a bunch of fruit off the tree and you get a sour, sour apple nine times out of ten, looking for a sweet one. But then when you find that sweet one, you're like man, that tastes so good, you know. So, I think, to your point, it's really important for people to, to be willing to experience that, because that's what ultimately teaches us to identify like this is the right rock.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know and do it in more, more ways than one Right, not just health and fitness. Do it in finance. Do right Right. Do it in business, do it in, you know, whatever music, art, creativity, whatever it is, art, creativity, whatever it is. You know, I guess I'm just I'm easily trending towards one of those people that I get super passionate on a certain topic and I want to learn all about that and invest time and energy into learning that Right. And you don't have to go to school for that. There's so many resources, there's so much knowledge and information now available at our grasp. Don't limit yourself on what you can do and learn. Uh, when it comes to any, any genre have you found with your clients?
Speaker 1:I know that we are a source of information that they tend to rely on because of the service that that we're providing to them. But, you know, I often get people who it's like paralysis by analysis because there is so much. Yeah, I tend to use the things that people already are using in their daily life. So, like you know, we talk about like discipline. We talk about just executing what's critical. You know, even if it's very simple things.
Speaker 1:It's like you're going to show up for work, right, like you do well at your job because you get paid, so you're motivated because you get paid, and so there's this outcome. You're looking for that. You know you're going to get, as long as you show up and you do the work and you make time to do it. So why wouldn't that be the same for your exercise and your fitness? You have this outcome if you believe wholeheartedly that you're going to get there. You're just going to show up for it, and then that's what gets us like 85% of the results. Sure, yeah, right. So have you found like any tactics like that or things that you know help people get over that paralysis? Because there is just so much, it's overwhelming.
Speaker 3:Well, I used to to be I was really enthusiastic about coaching and fitness and nutrition and I used to give people meal plans and I would give people extensive, you know, like information blocks full of stuff. And I quit all that. And then, you know, in the last three to five years, I've realized, like, how do we, how do we make this as simple as possible for people? And one of the things that, uh, we just talk about these core principles is, like, you know, owning your Monday to Friday. So important Be consistent in the gym, try to get three days a week in the gym, try to get three days a week outside. So, whether that's a bike, a hike, a walk, uh, whatever, 10,000 steps a day, you know, outside of the gym. And I prefer to be not on a piece of equipment like a treadmill or an elliptical. Like, get outside, it's so crucial for our mental health.
Speaker 3:And then we talk a lot about smoothie, salad, roasted, and for me, that's not actually telling people to have a smoothie and a salad and a roasted meal. It's like, hey, fine, this is what works for me. These three things to keep it really simple, as I start my day with a smoothie, some sort of protein shake, smoothie, I have a salad for lunch and then I have some sort of roasted dinner, and it just makes owning my Monday through Friday really easy. And so the less I could complicate things for clients and just make it really palatable and that's what I've tried to do with my show is just make it short, bite-sized pieces of information that are super palatable and that people can take in and it doesn't feel like, oh my gosh, this daunting thing that I have to learn and take on.
Speaker 3:I'm already taking on all these other things in my life, and isn't it true that that's why a lot of people hire us as coaches is because they're already overloaded in all these other things in my life. And isn't it true that that's why a lot of people hire us as coaches is because they're already overloaded in all these other areas and they just want to come into the gym and be told just do this, this, this, this, you know. So I think the less complication the better, especially in the day and age we live in. So any coach that you're listening to or that you find, try to find one that um, one that uncomplicates things and makes it just really simple and easy to take in that are causing us problems.
Speaker 1:It's because there are these like it's a very quick, very palatable things that taste really good or, like you know, even like shorts on instagram. It's a quick dopamine hit. You found a way to make something that's really healthy, uh, that that people can benefit massively from, super palatable and easy to consume, and you can just take it, apply it and start reaping the benefits yeah, I'll give you a perfect example of that.
Speaker 3:So I had some friends who I'm close to. They were like you know, just give me one thing. You know we were eating dinner and they're like give me one thing that I can do. This is super, you know, it's, it's. It's like the low hanging fruit, the easy thing, right, I'm like stop eating after 7 pm. It's like the most simple thing in the world right, but really hard but it really is like you sleep better.
Speaker 3:You, you don't eat calories up into the point of your digestion is the slowest in the day. At the end of the day you have a longer fast from, you know, 6 37 pm until whenever you break your fast for breakfast. Um, there's all these reasons why you wake up with a flatter stomach. You know your digestion gets a longer break in between. You could go over all the reasons, right, but really it's just that simple, like, yeah, I'm just gonna have tea or water or a sparkly drink after 7 pm. And lo and behold, my friends tried it for like six or eight weeks. They both lost 10 pounds. They were sleeping better, didn't change anything else, nothing else. They, they literally ate and did the exact same thing. Yeah, but that one thing was just something so simple and palatable that they could say I can do that, yeah, and then it's lifestyle change.
Speaker 1:Well, I can't think of a better way to wrap it up without like one of the best tips that you could have. I found that sparkly drinks are my friend after 7 o'clock, so that's what.
Speaker 3:I use Definitely.
Speaker 1:Zevia is root beer. Zevia is my jam. After 7 pm. Root beer is a thing you know, like among fitness people, like I've noticed. I, we did. We have root beer in the house, yeah and uh. Yeah, I found I've noticed that it's like a trend. I don't know, maybe it's just my friends like and in the winter.
Speaker 3:In the winter maybe, like last night, I did an elderberry lemon balm tea, uh, because it's colder. Maybe I don't want a cold drink, um, but yeah, I mean it's I.
Speaker 1:I still enjoy something after 7 pm, and that's you still get your treat, you still can look forward to it. I think it's just shifting that mindset of it doesn't have to be like chocolate, cake or cookies or baked goods or yep. So awesome man. Thanks for coming on. I appreciate you. We'll have you back. I think there's more conversation to be had. Definitely, yeah, let's do it. Come on. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you next one. See ya.
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