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
049. Executing Wellness: Turning Knowledge Into Action
Tired of knowing what to do for your health but not actually doing it?
Ben and Lindsay are here to cut through the noise and get you out of the cycle of overthinking and into real action. The truth? You don’t need another diet plan, another fitness app, or more research—you need execution.
In this episode, they break down the mindset shifts and strategies that turn knowledge into results. You’ll learn how to ditch the information overload, build consistency, and finally make progress in your fitness and nutrition without second-guessing every move.
If you're ready to stop spinning your wheels and start seeing results, hit play now and take the first step toward lasting health. 🚀
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Welcome to Cut the Noise. Wellness Simplified. This is episode 49, Lindsay 49. Yes, it is 49. Awesome.
Lindsay:Yeah, I'm excited that's one away from 50. So we are doing really well and really excited and, always as ever, grateful that you're here listening to us.
Ben:Yeah, it's awesome, it really is yeah.
Lindsay:So what are we talking about today?
Ben:What are we talking about? What are we talking about?
Lindsay:So if you've been here long enough, you know that Ben and I come together with ideas and thoughts and things to talk about each week, and sometimes we follow said plan and other times we go completely off the cuff and talk about something else.
Ben:So it's never about no shortage of things to talk about. Never, and I think it's about finding the stuff that you know there's a well wellness simplified right. So there's a ton of stuff we could talk about and there's a ton of stuff that gets talked about and there's a ton of stuff that's important, but you know it's focusing on the stuff that really matters, the big stuff.
Lindsay:Yeah, but you know it's focusing on the stuff that really matters, the big stuff, yeah, and we always want you to take something away, move the needle forward, take steps forward to go towards whatever your own health journey is. And so you know, we often come back to the same thing saying, okay, have we talked about this enough, or have we brought this up too much? Or you know, we don't want to sound preachy or telling, we want to, like I said, have a coffee and sit in a coffee shop with us while we're having a conversation.
Ben:Totally so we should introduce what we're going to talk about, but it's interesting because it kind of is usually prompt by client conversations or just things that we're hearing patterns of with our clients, and I think that what we're going to talk about today is the idea of success, isn't about knowing more, it's about relentless execution, and on top of that, what we're going to talk about is the longevity of that kind of approach.
Lindsay:There's a lot of words and you and I know what we mean by that, but can you just break that down for somebody who I always say what if I was a five-year-old trying?
Ben:to understand what you just said. Yeah, first-year-old.
Lindsay:Yeah, first of all, maybe slow it down. No, just kidding, you're good. I was talking to somebody about your accent the other day and I'm like I understand it all the time, but People don't though they don't. I'm going to slow it down.
Ben:No, so what you've just said is I just became you for a 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Lindsay:People who are listening to this don't, and so let's take it from the absolute, very bare minimum of what the heck did you just say and what it doesn't mean.
Ben:Well, I'm going to take it and break it down, and this isn't meant to be other than clarification, like what Lindsay says. But I said, success isn't about knowing more, right? So what we find is people striving to know more, knowing what to do, knowing how to get there, and the emphasis on the knowing.
Lindsay:Yeah, the do the more, the more, the more.
Ben:Right, but it's really about relentless execution. So it's not about knowing more, it's about actually executing on the stuff that's really important.
Lindsay:Yeah, and I think I'm just going to take it quickly here to something that a lot of people probably understand. So, for example, we were in a business group last summer and the business coach talked to us about all the things that you need to do to build your business, create your program. We wanted you to do a program and some of the people in the group would take the information, ie us execute on the information and come back with questions. Okay, that's something that we do. Other people would be like oh well, I think I should listen to that person about reels and I think I should listen to that person about other things. And and it just got muddled.
Ben:We're in a world where there's no shortage of information.
Lindsay:No shortage.
Ben:And I think, the health space. And again, this is kind of why we came up with this whole idea of the, the podcast in the first place is because I mean Cut the shit, cut the shit, cut the shit. Yeah, cut the shit, cut the bullshit, cut the noise.
Lindsay:I have a client.
Ben:Actually, it was going to be cut the bullshit first of all, I think, wasn't it? I was going to say it felt like it was just a little bit too much to cut the noise. But I think talking about what we're trying to get to with this and we're trying to get to with this and we're going to add a little bit more to that is stop trying to find more information and start executing on the information that you already know.
Lindsay:Right, so I'm going to. I'm going to use this example of a client. I love her to bits and she's amazing, but she constantly is sending me Instagram reels of different exercises and, you know, different pieces of equipment that she should buy and all of this stuff, and I love the enthusiasm. Right, it could be worse. She could be totally ignoring us and we're not talking about it, but every time she sends me a piece of equipment or a new exercise, fancy exercise, off Instagram reels, I always, with love, tell her put your blinders on and don't worry about the fancy piece of equipment you don't need it. Don't worry about the fancy move on Instagram you don't need it. And we get so bombarded by all of this information that it feels like what we're doing right now is not working. So I need to find something else.
Ben:I've heard it said many times and I agree with this that learning too much is a form of procrastination. A hundred percent, A hundred percent. And you think about that in terms of, like, it's sometimes easier to learn about doing the thing than doing the thing.
Lindsay:Totally. And I've got to the point where I almost said to her the other day where I was like you're going to stop, You're going to not be allowed to watch Instagram reels anymore, because then it turns into well, why can't I do that? Or what is she doing that I'm not doing, or why is that happening? And again it's information overload.
Ben:So I think the bottom line is it's like you take action on the things you already know you should be doing, rather than trying to find new things, because you know this from listening to us speak before. There's no novelty in this.
Lindsay:No, it's not fancy dancing stuff, it's boring and repetitive.
Ben:Yeah, boring, boring, boring, and that's why you know you, you, you have to just get going. And that kind of brings me to the point that I think the bigger conversation we wanted to have today was this idea of you know, it's February, so Lindsay and I have spoken to a lot of potential new clients over the last six weeks and we've taken a number of new clients on one-on-one and in our coaching programs. And when you have these conversations you always get the sense that somebody may be saying to you all right, I know I can execute on this for three months or six months and then I'll get where I want to get to, but once I'm there, I'm good, right. And it's trying to get that understanding that the body you have right now, the health you have right now, the health you have right now, the way you eat right now, is all reflected on in your body, in your energy, in just your outlook. So if you think you're going to keep what you have and become what you are not at this moment, you're kind of misguided.
Lindsay:Yeah, you're missing the bigger picture.
Ben:It's a lifestyle change that you're looking at to lose weight, to eat different, to look different to move different, have healthy habits. It's a whole lifestyle shift. So that means it has to change how you eat. It means to change your relationship with food. It means to change how you move your body, the routines you have.
Lindsay:So the person you are today isn't going to get you to become the person that you want to be Right, and that it's harsh.
Ben:It is harsh Because if you like yourself, you're automatically in a conflict situation.
Lindsay:Right, and I think the thing with that is, you know, when you look at what you're currently doing, right and I've said this many, many times before is that we have to do an assessment and awareness of what you're currently doing. Right and I've said this many, many times before is that we have to do an assessment and awareness of what we're doing. So, if you look at what you're currently doing on a day-to-day basis whether it's what habits you're doing, what time you're waking up, you know what you're doing for water, how you're eating, that kind of stuff If you are looking at it and realizing that there are multiple areas for improvement to get to the goal that you want to work on, then you have to make some change. You have to change to make a change.
Ben:And you want to change the things that move you forward. It's kind of like Pareto's law, right, like 20% of the things that you do are going to get you 80% of the results, and there's some big things that you can do, the biggest being how you feed yourself Right. The second biggest is how you move your body Right, and Lindsay and I have always kind of found that often we're tempted to just go for the easy stuff, which is fine. Right, you want to build momentum. We talk about that a lot.
Lindsay:Yeah, easy wins are super, super positive when you're trying to change a lifestyle plan.
Ben:But some of those things out there you can do, thinking that you're doing something for your health and really not going to make a dent in it. Right, I'm drinking more water. I mean, we all need to drink more water.
Lindsay:Water is important.
Ben:Consistently, nobody is disputing the benefits of water. It's massive. But drinking more water isn't going to lose the weight. Drinking more water isn't going to lose the weight.
Lindsay:Drinking more water isn't going to get you to the gym three or four times a week, and what I think is and Ben and I have this conversation often, and both of us with our clients, when we're working one-on-one with them is you know how's it going? How was it? Last time I met, you know, was it a month ago, a week ago, two days ago, yesterday? You know how'd it go? How'd it go? And oftentimes they'll give a little lowdown of what went on and then they finish it up with so, but I don't know why the scale's not moving or I don't know why that happened.
Ben:Can I, can I? I think you know what I'm going to say, right? I? I overheard Lindsay having a conversation a few weeks ago. Am I okay to say this? Okay, I'm just getting permission here, guys, because I mean no, no names, but basically we've all said something like this before.
Lindsay:Oh, absolutely I think this really involved. I think I told her this person that I was speaking to exactly what I had said to Ben like three minutes before this conversation.
Ben:So I heard this particular client turn around to Lindsay and say you know, roughly speaking, I went away for the weekend. I was better than I have ever been, which is great, but you know I still had lots of candy and lots of chips and lots of things, right, that that aren't necessarily immediately consistent with the goals that she has, which is losing weight. So she said these things and then immediately said, like literally without moving a breath, but I'm a little bit frustrated because I don't understand why I'm not losing weight. She said these things and then immediately said, literally without moving a breath, but I'm a little bit frustrated because I don't understand why I'm not losing weight, right. And it was just one of those moments where there's kind of that realization that sometimes we're disconnected from the things that we're doing that aren't in alignment with the places we want to get, that are more like the person we're trying to kind of remove ourselves from being or get away from.
Lindsay:Right, and of course, you know, from a place of love, which is always where I come from, I had that exact conversation and I said, well, you just answered your own question. You just said exactly why you're not losing weight. And of course we brought that back down to the idea of, yes, of course she knows why, because she just told me and it was, you know, off plan and all those things. But there is a big disconnect between what we want, what we think we're doing right, and what we're doing right Right. And in that scenario and as I said, I think I even said this last week I was saying to Ben, a few minutes before this, the call that I had with her where I was like, oh my gosh, I've been working really hard to get my triceps to pop.
Lindsay:It's like a really, really big thing for me. I just don't know why it's not working. And he just looked at me and it was one of those moments where I was just like, oh my God, I just answered all my questions and again, so that's what I'm saying we do this. It is not something that we're not, you know, calling somebody out and be like, oh my gosh, we hear this a, but finding that and realizing that is that awareness piece.
Ben:And it is, and it's not beating yourself up about it. It's just being aware that they're the old patterns that hold you where you currently are today.
Lindsay:Absolutely.
Ben:You need to break down those patterns and we can call it making excuses, we can call it justifying, or we can just be blind to these things sometimes, where they're just so much a part of who we are, our current lifestyle, that we don't, we don't see.
Lindsay:Right.
Ben:You know, I have a client that's doing really well, um, really really well. Uh, I would say now, uh, around about 40, close to 40 pound weight loss since September. Amazing, Absolutely amazing.
Lindsay:And it's a guy right.
Ben:So, like you know, get guys do, um, lose weight differently. That's a fact, and when you look at it, he has been so disciplined in terms of his eating, so very, very disciplined and, you know, just executed on those things and to you know, different foods that you need to be focusing on, which I think is really important. We've talked about protein a lot, and that's certainly something that he has himself has done, but the one thing that I think he's just done really well is he's just executed, yeah done the work Checkmark, checkmark, checkmark and you know what he said a couple of times to me that always kind of resonates.
Ben:He said I've not cut myself too much slack because there was years where I was cutting myself tons of slack and if I want to get to where I need to get to then I have to kind of recalibrate, knowing that at some point when he gets to where he wants to get to, he's probably going to have to figure out how to maintain that, because it isn't going to be the same as what got him there in the first place, right, and I think that's a really, really important thing that Ben just said, and same as what got him there in the first place.
Lindsay:Right, and I think that's a really, really important thing that Ben just said and I'm just going to kind of reiterate it is that you know, in order to get to where you want to be, you have to make a change. We've said that already, but the reality is, in order to get to the next space you want to go, you probably have to make another change, and I think it's really, really important to know that. The dial that we talk about often and we've probably talked about it multiple times on this podcast is that you know you dial it up, you do your thing, you dial it again, and every time you come to a place where you need to dial it again, then you might have to make a change. You might have to change up or get a little bit more dialed into your nutrition, or maybe you need to dial in by adding some heavier weights, Like you just need to make a bit of a change to make a change.
Ben:Changes, adjustments as you go, right, Changes and adjustments as you go. And I think that's the important part, right Is you know what got you the next five or 10 pounds, although the five or 10 pounds you've just achieved might not get you the next five to 10 pounds, so you never really arrive at a point where what you're doing is going to continue. Have you losing weight? You need to dial it up a little bit, much like you need to dial it down if you're sick or if you're away on vacation. Sometimes there's opportunities where you do have to dial it up a little bit to get that next gain, and that's why we do it slowly. You know, we talked last week about did we talk last week about the frog in the water?
Lindsay:I don't know if that was last week, but we talked about it at some point, right.
Ben:So if you think about that is like you know, put simply a 30 or 60 day transformation air quotes air quotes air quotes you know is about dropping you in boiling water, and that's why so many people jump out of that boiling water, because it's just too much, too soon.
Ben:Right, the real strategy is long term and the real strategy is about just slowly turning the temperature up, and those temperature increases are represented by an additional habit here, or a little bit more of that food there, or an increase in your steps on this week, or a little bit more water, or, you know, a slightly smaller portion, or different decisions when you go out to restaurants. And it's this progression and I think you know that's the piece that we have to remember that the reason it doesn't happen overnight is because you're building a new lifestyle, you're building a new way of feeding yourself and you're building a new way of moving your body. And that does not happen overnight because you have to practice that, and I've said it so many times. I've probably said it to the point where you're like, yeah, you've said that so many times, ben, but you know the idea of people want the results, but they need the journey, right.
Lindsay:Right, I mean, I think we did a whole podcast episode on that.
Ben:It is about practicing all of these things. So it's practicing setting the alarm and getting up yeah, showing up for yourself practicing when the alarm goes off getting out of bed. It's practicing when you don't feel like he's still doing that. It's practicing when you're in the kitchen and you're looking around for something to eat. You don't pick up the phone and and get uber eats, or you, you know you don't go to the phone.
Lindsay:Pick up the phone I know right, are you calling them?
Ben:what did you get on the phone? Hey, this is Ben. Is this Uber Eats?
Lindsay:oh my god, our kids right now are like laughing their heads off and being like you guys are so old you know?
Ben:on a side note, I was laughing at something the other day where this mom was saying to the kids like do you know? Do you know why we say hang up when we finish a phone call? And they were like no, I actually don't know why people say hang up. I don't even know why I would say hang up and it's like well, because we used to have to hang the phone on the wall and they were like really anyway, side note, we're old.
Lindsay:Yes, we're not young like our teenagers. Fine, we're not calling Uber Eats.
Ben:It's an app so happy well, technically it is because I typically go hey Linz.
Lindsay:That is true.
Ben:Do you want room for ease that?
Lindsay:is true, that is true. Anyways, back to what we were saying. Yes, you have to make small changes to your daily habits, and I think you know somebody was asking me the other day you know, how do you stay motivated? How do you stay, you know, in that space where you are using your momentum and keeping going? And, um, I was on a podcast I think it was yesterday and the host asked me the same question, and so I had kind of given it some thought, and you know, what he was saying was, every time you do a workout, every time you eat something that's on your on your point plan, all of those things, each time you're, you're actually extending your life. And so, when I think about the reason that really motivates me is I'm looking at my future self, I'm looking at my 60 year old self, my 80 year old self, my a hundred year old self. Yeah, I'm going for it, I'm going to be, as, even if I have to be just a brain in a robot, I'm still going to be here that long.
Lindsay:That's, that's the plan, but I'm looking at my future self. So when I think about what 65 year old Lindsay wants me to do right now, what does that mean? It's the same with. I wish I could have told 25 year old Lindsay what to do.
Ben:And here now, at 48, you know it's interesting that you talk about telling yourself right like what you should have done back in the day. You know I was thinking about how we talk to ourselves a lot and I'm going to jump onto two things here which I think will make sense. My first point is I read a really interesting article that we're going to jump onto sleep quickly, but the context makes sense. That basically said, often when we wake up and we kind of check our watches to see how we slept, even though we know we slept poorly, and the watch reconfirms that we slept poorly, we all know that when we've had that bad night's sleep, once we get going, we typically are not in a bad position, right, we just kind of get on with it and we get going, et cetera. But sometimes what looking at the watch reinforces I had such a shit night's sleep last night. I feel terrible, I'm tired and the perception of your sleep shifts how you feel.
Lindsay:Oh 100%.
Ben:So you know, I didn't get enough REM sleep, I didn't get enough deep sleep. I must have slept poorly. Now you're going off into your day basically telling yourself you've slept poorly.
Lindsay:Yeah.
Ben:Going back to what I wanted to share and the relation to that is I was just thinking about like motivation and discipline and willpower and all of those things that kind of come up in conversations, and I just think to myself how I think the thing that I've got better at and I'm just going to talk generally because I think there's a lesson in this or there's an opportunity in this it's my perception of when I don't do something is far more kind.
Ben:I've just been ill for five days yep, just had the flu, and I worked out on on um once this week, yeah one. I went to the gym once. Now that's not like me at all. There's not one time I've beaten myself up about that, because I know my body needed to heal and I think that's the big perception here is you know you're, you're missing out, and I think when you think about progress, longevity, long term, missing out in two or three days doesn't matter no it's about the consistency right and it's about letting go that life happens sometimes and not beating yourself up about it, because when you beat yourself up about it you feel bad, you feel negative, guilty, less than guess what happens?
Lindsay:yeah, you do other stuff and you probably eat because you feel those ways and all of that. It's interesting. So I'm starting a new YouTube series that is going to be starting at the beginning of March and I had one of the guests on today. I did my recording with her and she's actually a sleep expert and it's really interesting that you brought that article up, because we were talking about similar articles where I read one years ago that basically said if, even if you slept like crap, if you woke up and you said today was a great day, I had an amazing night's sleep. It's a big fat lie, we all know this, but it changes your perspective and she was saying that with you know the aura rings and the Fitbits and all those things. Is that what happens? Is it actually causes often more stress than anything?
Ben:else it's like thanks for telling me. I slept like shit and off my day. That's the same article, the same principle that I read and it was tied to the fact that there's actually a movement of people moving away from wearing fitness watches Aura rings Apple watches for that exact reason, because they find that it's actually negatively, detrimentally affecting their wellbeing.
Lindsay:Well, I have a client that. So on our app we actually have integrations. So one of the integrations that we have is like a Fitbit, a Garmin, an Apple watch to bring the sleep over so I can take a look at her sleep, because it was one of the areas that we were working on and it would stress her out so much that, one wearing something to bed, she didn't Two every time she would check the watch. Either the information she didn't feel was good or it wasn't accurate, and it would stress her out so much that I finally was just like don't do that Right, let's go back to the old fashioned pen and paper.
Lindsay:Did you get up and go to pee in the middle of the night? Did you feel refreshed when you first woke up? And, funny enough, the sleep expert I spoke to today she said you know, with the exception of like the aura ring, which is actually supposedly a really good connector from like a sleep study to an aura ring information, all the other ones are only going to give you so much information. If they cause you stress, they're going to give you so much information. Release them and go back to very simple. Did I pee in the middle of the night Did I get right back to sleep again? And some people may not know all the information, but then in the morning, how did I feel Right? Did I have 16 coffees? Did I need a coffee IV Like? Those type of things are going to give you information, even from a sleep expert who is telling me. Those are the things that you need to know, not what your watch is saying.
Lindsay:You know did you fart then and did you breathe then? And it's too much data, data overload.
Ben:Totally and it really affects the momentum because you feel like you've been punched in the face with the data all the time Totally. I think it's interesting. I mean these are the things we're talking about in terms of the longevity right. You've got a lot of bad habits to kind of release, work through. You're doing a lot of things that are really great, you're doing a lot of things that are going to help you move forward and you're also doing a lot of things that are going to hold you back as well. So that's going to take some time to sort through. It really is going to take time to sort through and it's not going to happen or change in the short term. This is a long term venture, and by long term I mean we've talked about the journey so much. It means an ongoing thing.
Lindsay:Right, an ongoing thing. So to bring it kind of all the way back to where we started, which is where we're going to wrap up, is just, I think, the big thing to keep in mind. First of all, yes, you have to make some changes if you want to make changes. Nobody comes to us and says I don't know what I need to do, I just know I need to change. Most people have a pretty clear idea of some of the things they need to work on, which is cool because we will work with where they're at. We always start where they're at.
Lindsay:But I think the big thing to keep in mind is that focusing on those baby steps, looking at what you need to change, realizing that it is the journey and not, you know, that final destination Cause, air quote, air quote there does not really exist. Because if you do all this hard work and, let's say, weight loss is your goal and you lose 35 pounds, if you go back to your old habits, you are not 35 pounds lost anymore. You've probably gained 35 back plus more, which is why dieting is. You know we're not going to go there.
Ben:It's tough, it's demoralizing when you've been through this journey multiple times. So I think it's like Lindsay says, it's super important to set some realistic expectations, manage your own self expectations, make those small changes that we talk about all the time and just take it easy on yourself. Like adopt some habits, embed them, adopt some more habits, embed and keep it repeat.
Lindsay:yeah repeat, repeat again. Remember boring, boring basics. It's not fancy dancy.
Ben:I hate instagram for that oh, it's so, it's so.
Lindsay:We are going to wrap up, because now we're going to go, we're going to go on a rant.
Lindsay:You know I I love watching, like instagram reels, for, you know, just, it's entertainment. That's how I look at it. It's entertainment and, yes, you know tiktok and Instagram has some educational portions to it. But I promise you, if you're watching some of these fitness influencers, the shit they're showing you on their, in their images and their videos and stuff is not what they're doing on a regular basis. If they followed you around, if they got followed around doing the workouts they do in the gym, the food they ate in the kitchen, you guys would be bored out of your bloody tree, because that's the boring basics Nobody wants to see. Get up, have water, you know, do your workout. Nobody wants to see that. So they create this beautiful vision of what they do, which then makes everybody feel not good enough. And then why can't I do a burpee over a swing under a swim?
Ben:My workouts. I think I must do 12 different exercises and that's it right in the gym.
Lindsay:12 and uh, and that's it right, it's not interesting, it's not exciting. So next time you're watching the instagram reels or the tiktoks and you're just like why and whatever?
Ben:it is, I'll never be able to fill in the blank.
Lindsay:I will never. Or you know, oftentimes I say to my clients when they send me that stuff, I I'm like, neither can I you do?
Ben:I just don't respond. Is that a bad thing?
Lindsay:So don't compare yourself to those things. Just know that you can do what you need to do in baby steps and move forward. And I think we should wrap it up there.
Ben:Yeah, and just have that realistic expectation of how long it's going to take. In other words, ongoing, an ongoing story. Right, an ongoing story. There's a story behind that, as well, we're not going to.
Lindsay:That was something, wasn't it? Yes, anyways, guys, as always, we appreciate you taking the time to listen to us whenever you are a car walking in the kitchen. Have yourself a fantastic week and we'll see you again next week.
Ben:See you soon.
Lindsay:Bye.
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