Cut The Noise | Wellness Simplified
"Cut the Noise - Wellness Simplified" is a weekly podcast where fitness experts Ben and Lindsay Hack leverage their two decades of experience to empower women over 40 in building healthier lifestyles. Unlike typical health shows, this podcast cuts through industry hype, focusing on sustainable fitness, mindful eating habits, and positive mindset cultivation for holistic well-being. With their signature no-fads, no-shortcuts philosophy, Ben and Lindsay offer refreshingly real talk, actionable advice, and occasional hard truths – all served with a generous dose of humor. Tune in for straightforward, science-backed wellness guidance simplifying the path to genuine health and happiness.
Cut The Noise | Wellness Simplified
041. Do It Anyway! Even When You Don’t Feel Like It
Feeling stuck in your health journey? Are you struggling to progress because you “just don’t feel like it”? You’re not alone.
In Episode 41, we cut through the noise and dig into the power of small, consistent actions. Lindsay shares her transformation—losing 24 pounds and building muscle—not through flashy diets or lengthy time-consuming workouts, but by mastering the basics: strength training, balanced nutrition, hydration, and showing up even when motivation was nowhere to be found.
We explore how simple habits (and a “fuck your feelings” mindset) can create life-changing results over time. Plus, we tackle real-life obstacles like balancing busy schedules, avoiding kitchen burnout, and overcoming the mental roadblocks that keep you stuck.
This episode is your wake-up call to ditch the all-or-nothing mentality, embrace the boring basics, and transform your health—no matter how busy or overwhelmed you feel.
Listen now and discover how doing the hard things today leads to a healthier, more confident tomorrow.
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Welcome to Cut the Noise. Wellness Simplified. I am.
Ben:Lindsay and I am Ben, and no doubt we're going to celebrate another episode.
Lindsay:Yeah, what number are we now? 41.
Ben:We are.
Lindsay:Wow, we are celebrating. I think it's okay to celebrate. We tell our clients all the time to celebrate all the small changes after every single week, so why can't we celebrate? I think we?
Ben:can? Okay, I think we do we do, whether we whatever we like to accept it or not, whether you want to hear it or not, we are celebrating, guys. We're just super proud of ourselves. All right, like pat on the back. What episode is this? 41?
Lindsay:41. I mean that's amazing, and but again, we also do want to make sure that you the listener you know coming in here saying this is my time to listen to you guys, so we appreciate you, you know just sharing something.
Ben:That's quite funny. We um, we obviously have an idea of what we want to talk about in advance. We have an ongoing kind of list of episodes that we feel like we need to cover and and it's kind of like sometimes we show up and we're like, yeah, you know, none of those are really doing it for us, like we just don't feel like we can get passionate about it and it's. They're interesting and they're important, but just for some reason they don't sit right especially just some days, some days we could have one conversation and it's very exciting, very passionate.
Lindsay:Nowadays we're both just like eh.
Ben:Totally. And what's really interesting is I mean, I don't know if we mentioned this is episode 41, but obviously, when you start out doing something like this, it's pretty clear right, you've got smooth sailing, there is, there's nothing, you've done nothing, so you can basically do whatever you want. Well, believe me, after 41, you start to say, like we do, we'll set upset. All the time we have to start to think about all right, what are we going to prioritize? What do people need to hear? And, like we always say, wellness, simplified.
Ben:Right, there's these boring basics that we need to focus on, and Lindsay and I were just having a conversation about clients that we're working with in groups and one-on-one, and we just always come back to the people that are having the most success, are doing the basic stuff consistently. Yeah, and and I can't reinforce that enough there's no magic, there's no secret. You know, you see all of these taglines in social media and articles about the five best and the six best and try to grab you in, you know and and sometimes you know you look through the podcast and we've we've used similar things, but not not in the same way, I would hope.
Ben:And what I mean by that is it really is simple, like I just saying to lindsey and I'm off on one now, so I'm going to give you a moment wow, but it's like the like, the idea. It's like the idea you've heard me say this so many times. I bought myself and it is, you know, we, we feel like we have challenges with exercise right, showing up consistently to exercise, prioritize strength training, prioritize some form of, like cardiovascular movement, walking, whatever and we feel like we have an issue with food, like controlling our emotional eating and, you know, eating the right foods and making the time to do some preparation. Whatever that mean might mean to you, and they are all very, very true, but I always come back to, and we always come back to, your body. Your actions follow the mind.
Lindsay:Absolutely. It's interesting. I ran into a friend here in town a few days ago and the very first thing she said to me was like holy shit, lindsay. Like where are you going? Like you've obviously lost some weight. So, first of all, I think it's important to understand that you know, commenting on other people's bodies may or may not be the best thing. That is something that I think is is one of those, you know, comments that we had to. But she was like what are you doing? And I was starting to think in my head like what, what have I done? I've lost, you know, 24 pounds at this point. I've gained a bunch of muscle.
Lindsay:My body composition is recomposition, it's changed, and Ben and I were just having this conversation, and I mean from September to today, this has been, this has been what I've been working on and there's nothing spectacularly like oh my gosh, I can't believe it. I've been focusing on my protein, lots of protein. I've been focusing on my sleep, my water. Water has been a huge part of this strength training, going for walks, like there's nothing mind blowingly different that we can say to you or I could say to my, my friend that I ran into.
Lindsay:That was like that's what made the difference, and what I would say is that I made a decision. I was so sick and tired of my own beepity, beepity bullshit that I was just like this is it. I'm gonna do it this time. I want to go into my 50s the best shape of my life. I'm tired of listening to my own crap. And that mindset shift was the key that pushed it all forward. But it was the boring basics that I did every single day, and Ben loves this quote and I'll get him to say it because I think it's such an important one. I did it even when I didn't want to.
Ben:Oh, so Lindsay's trying to lead me on. I have a saying, and I will say it to certain clients that can take it but it's like fuck your feelings, I don't care whether you want to do this or not. You your future self, you want to do it for yourself. And if we waited to feel like doing the things that we need to do, that never happened.
Lindsay:No, and they never really would, and I think it's really important to understand that. You know people who show up for our sessions together, or people who go into the do their work, or even Ben doing his rehab and then going for his runs, me going to the gym, which is a whole other story. It doesn't really. I never jump up and down for joy, for any of that.
Lindsay:I'm not like yeah, I get to drink another liter of water today. Like, it's not about that, it's about doing it because I know it will get me results.
Ben:So observations, I mean obviously I went through my own transformation and lost 20-odd pounds earlier this year and still very much. Oh, my body's changing a bit because I'm now lifting heavy weights, so I'm starting to put on some pounds. But what I've noticed with you in particular and it's not really noticing anything new, so it's more of a reminder is that, without undermining the work that you've been doing, nothing has been spectacular.
Lindsay:Nothing. It's not this massive holy shit moment where it's like that thing, that one thing. No, it was a collection of five or six things that we talk about as our pillars over and over and over again every day.
Ben:You know, what's really interesting about that is nothing that you have done. This is dangerous, but nothing you have done has been time-consuming either.
Lindsay:No, and so this is but like just hold that for a moment.
Ben:It hasn't. You've definitely had to find time to work out. But your workouts are what? 30 minutes, 30 minutes? How many times? Three or four times a week? I 30 minutes, yeah, how many times?
Lindsay:three or four times a week. I do four. Yes, you do four. Okay, how many times have you walked? Maybe once or twice a week.
Ben:It's not not top priority, but so your cardiovascular work has been walking for about how long 30 45 minutes right so basically, your workouts have been 30 minutes.
Ben:You've been doing four of them. You're walking twice a week has been 30 to 45 minutes. That's that kind of sums up the time that you've had to find, yeah, right. So if you think about that, here we go. So two hours of strength training and an hour and a half of of cardio. So that's three and a half hours that you've had to find yep, right, yep, over the course of the week yeah, and I think it's really important.
Lindsay:And I know I, I know, I know you're listening and being like, yeah, but and I know you're saying that because I would say that too yeah, but you know, what about food? Or yeah, but what about this? And there's always going to be reasons. I was just having this conversation with my client this morning. There's always going to be reasons that we can justify why we aren't doing something. And I do it, ben does it, we all do it. It's human nature. That's all part of it. But if you come back to and I don't even know, maybe uh, episode two, where we talk about this idea of the dial versus a switch right, and I'm bringing it back in because I'll promise you this, this is how I have been so successful over the last three months, because there are times when I have to dial it back because of whatever. Maybe you know what's going on with the kids, maybe somebody what do you mean by dial it back?
Ben:just in case somebody's not necessarily aware.
Lindsay:So if you think of wanting to do my workout at 100%. Not every time I can do that, so I dial it back and my 100% that day might only be 50% but you don't just quit it but I don't just stop it.
Ben:So you do something, I do something. The idea of having no zero days, right, right and and.
Lindsay:And that doesn't mean I'm exercising seven days a week. That means that I am looking at my food or I'm drinking my water or I'm, you know, focusing on my sleep every single day. And when you look at the time like ben just did that example where you know for three hours a week, I have to find time to lift some weights, and do I do? I love doing it. No, I can tell you multiple times where I've gone and hopefully gotten permission from Ben to say, yeah, I don't do it today and of course he never gives it to me, but it's not that I'm jumping up and down to do these things, even my water.
Ben:It's not like I'm like, oh, I love my water.
Lindsay:It's just doing it because I want to do something. I wanted to lose weight, I want to gain muscle and I still have things I want to do, but it's focusing on that and it's all boring stuff.
Ben:Right, so the exercise is very quantifiable. Like I said, where did you find the time? How did you make the time? It just is prioritizing it. It's something I'm doing today.
Lindsay:You put it in your schedule, like you do a meeting with a client or a doctor's appointment or whatever it's in your schedule, right, and sometimes you have to move those things around. I mean, we've had a few times where we've had to pick up the girls from school, where it wasn't, you know, my day to do it, or something's happened or a client had to go over in terms of time. As long as there's some flexibility in there there, that's where the dial and switch comes in. I change things up if I need to right, I don't just turn it off and say, oh, I can't do that today or, you know, knock on wood.
Lindsay:I have not been sick, so I haven't had a chance to have to worry about that. But here's the thing if you turn it off which is the switch, the concept of the switch you turn it off.
Ben:It is so much harder to get back on so here's a question for you like how many hours have you been dedicating to food prep?
Lindsay:I don't do a lot you don't do any.
Ben:Let's be quite honest, and I'm not even saying that I do it because I don't food prep either. So just putting it out there neva lindsey ri, food prep. Food prepping is a hugely valuable tool and it is really, really successful for a lot of people. What you have to do, what you have to do, is find your level of that yeah, at most I might boil some eggs to have for a few days.
Lindsay:Um, you know, at most I might cut some vegetables up just to make it easy. But those of you who know me, I don't love being in the kitchen. I don't love cooking, coffee chopping, doing any of those things. So I tend to buy already cut up vegetables. I tend to buy meat that doesn't need to be cut because I don't like that either. So it's not finding the time, it's using what I can do in that time to do it. I think it's interesting as well.
Ben:I mean, you know food preparation or food making is a skill. It takes practice right. So you know you're not going to be great at it at first no-transcript.
Lindsay:you know their two, five, seven hours on a Sunday and all of that stuff you know hats off to you. I love that. I think it's amazing if that's what you want to do, but oftentimes one of the things we get pushed back on from our clients and from potential people who want to work with us is I hate cooking. I don't want to be in the kitchen that long. I don't have time for that stuff and we just say okay, neither do we.
Ben:Yeah, you don't need to be Funny story. I mean, our oldest daughter is going to Madrid for Christmas and New Year, yeah, so we're doing Christmas early for her with her. And we asked what would you like to eat and what would you want on that kind of Christmas day, non-traditional, we make our own thing up. And she turned around and said shepherd's pie.
Lindsay:Yes, she loves mashed potatoes. She loves mashed potatoes, she loves shepherd's pie.
Ben:It's not something we make very often a couple of times a year, and both Lindsay and I immediately were like I don't want to do that, and Lindsay was like I don't want to do that and the reason I don't want to do it.
Ben:And everybody knows that I actually really enjoy being in the kitchen not for long periods of time, but I enjoy the creativity of putting things together and preparation et cetera. That's like 45 minutes to an hour of my time in the kitchen and this guy has got zero interest in that style of cooking ever.
Lindsay:I was going to say. I would say honestly, that's more my style of cooking when I do things.
Ben:So that's a yes, you're going to do it, I am going to do it because she wants it, and I really do enjoy shepherd's pie. But again.
Lindsay:I go and I look at OK, what do I need for shepherd's pie? What can I do to make this easier for me and again finding things that are already?
Ben:chopped. So if you think about what we just talked about, like in terms of the exercise piece I mean we belabor this point so much and talk about it Like you don't need to spend hours and hours and hours and hours in the gym and the same with hours and hours in the kitchen. You can, you know, eliminate prepping or you can have prepping that's appropriate for your life and your time availability. That's a big thing. On a side note, I just want to say that we we do work with clients that love the kitchen and they seem to love being in the kitchen making complicated recipes, if that's your hobby, and sometimes that's what it is like foodies right, that's your hobby and sometimes that's what it is like foodies, right, that's great, knock yourself out.
Ben:But that isn't the way, necessarily the only way, to eat and prepare healthy food.
Lindsay:Yeah, and I think the hard part is is that the nutrition and fitness industry has placed it in us for years and years and years, and I actually was. I'm starting with a new client this week and one of the things she said was during our call was I have to and then she listed off spend hours in the gym, hours in the kitchen. Da, da, da, da da. Because that's what the fitness and diet industry has told us. And the truth of the matter is that's why we created this podcast. That's why our beliefs are so strong, because we want to turn around and say absolutely not. First of all, both Ben and I have lost over 20 pounds each over the last few months without doing those things. So it's not a case of you can't right Quote unquote you can't be healthy, you can't lose weight without it.
Ben:No, you just have to find what works best for you and fuck your feelings, because the reality is that is a big piece. It's a massive piece. Of course it's so much easier not to do the things, and of course it's so much easier to skip the workout and of course it's so much easier to basically eat the food that's convenient, that isn't necessarily healthy. That's kind of what gets us into those spots in the first place.
Lindsay:Oh, absolutely, I was just laughing. I was saying to Ben the other day both our kids love going to school. They're very, very dedicated to school. I going to school, they're very, very dedicated to school. I don't know, they definitely didn't get it from me. I can tell you that much.
Lindsay:But my new favorite thing is walking in and they're super tired and I'm like, hey, it's time to go to school. And they're like, oh, I'm so tired. And the first thing I say to them is, well, don't go. Then. And instantly they're like shut up and they get out of bed, right, I'm like, yeah, then, just, you know, go eat chips and sit on the sofa and it'll be much better and it's that idea. Of course that would be easier. You know, when your feelings are telling you something, yeah, it's so much easier to sit in bed and scroll on Netflix or you do nothing. Of course that's easier. But when you stop listening to the feelings that, oh, I'm so tired, or oh, this is happening, or oh, I don't feel like it, or my emotions are saying I need to eat this, then we're able to do so much more.
Ben:I think you've got to accept, like we all have to accept, right, like you have a choice, you take the easy path. Now Now or you take the hard path now and what I mean by that is.
Ben:you know we're working with a number of clients and we know, obviously, in our own personal life a number of people have aging parents right that are in their 70s and 80s and if you think the easy option now is going to lead you to the easy option in your 60s and 70s relatives that haven't necessarily looked after themselves and you look at the amount of doctor's appointments they go to, the time that they spend they're struggling getting in and out of chairs, or the drugs that they're taking, or the pain that they're in with problems with knees and backs and hips and just generally their poor health, that's where you're. That's what you're trading easy for now that in the future. So doing the hard thing now is going to get you not only the results that you're looking for, but it's also going to lead you to. You're going to be more mobile, You're going to be more independent, You're going to be more able to look after yourself and live healthier longer. Your health expectancy is going to be better.
Lindsay:Yeah, and one of the clients that I work with currently. She came back from visiting her mom and she's not doing great, and it's one of those things where the first thing she said to me is that everything I'm doing right now is so that I don't become like that.
Ben:I would just say I mean, obviously it depends on your situation and these aren't black and white rules, but they're pretty hard and fast on the whole. You know, if you're truly trying to work on your health and fitness and lose weight and just live a healthier life, take a look at your older relatives in your family, take a look at your parents if you're still fortunate enough to have parents around or take a look at what they lived like in their latter years and if you don't make a change, ultimately that's kind of a good indicator of what your future might look like. And if that scares the shit out of you, then that's the fuel that you have to use on the days where you don't want to.
Lindsay:Yeah, exactly. And again, coming back to if that scares the shit out of you or if you don't feel like it, you know I often say like, oh, I don't feel like drinking my water, feel like it. You know I often say like, oh, I don't feel like drinking my water, I don't feel like going to the gym, and and the reality is is that's what stops you from moving forward. But if you're like you know what, I don't feel like going in, but do it anyways. I don't feel like drinking water, but do it anyways. And I we are making it seem less, less challenging than it is. We understand, I understand, ben understands that it is sometimes really hard to fuck your feelings. However, the more.
Lindsay:You can do it 80% of the time, 60% of the time, is still better than you were, you know, a week ago, two months ago, two years ago.
Ben:And that's kind of tongue in cheek in some respects. I mean, it's not and it is tongue in cheek. But if you think about what you're trying to say is you know, you know where following your feelings has got you Right. So you know where following your feelings has got you right. So you know where that path leads. So you've got to recognize that you don't want to do it, but you're just going to do it anyway. So that's where that idea comes from. It's like I know where that path leads. I've been down that path. It leads nowhere good. So I want to follow the path where I know that it's going to put me in a better position long term right.
Lindsay:I hear typically usually like. These are words that come out especially this time of year, as new year's resolutions come up and again. If you need to go back and listen to last week so you don't understand my feelings about new year's resolutions, but typically I did this or usually I do that. The question I always ask that is well, how did that work?
Ben:out. That's such a bitchy question. I don't mean that in the sense of otherwise. It's like, you know, when someone says, when someone says well, how's that going for you? And you're like oh my God, it's going really bad, really terrible, really bad.
Lindsay:And I think that's the big thing, right. It's kind of like what Ben just said about you know, we know that not doing something because we don't feel like it is so much easier than doing the things, Right.
Lindsay:It doesn't matter if you're talking health, if you're talking business, if you're talking relationships, it is easier to not do anything. We know this. But in order to have a good relationship, a good financial plan, a good business plan, a good health plan, you do have to make some choices and do some things, even when you don't feel like it.
Ben:So you know you got to lean into it, but again, you don't want to overwhelm yourself because
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