The ConverSAYtion
The ConverSAYtion is simply a couple of middle aged men sharing company and conversation. Psych and K take their time sorting through so much to say about society, culture, relationships, education, finance, technology, health, and more. Inspired to find engaging ways to entertain and enrich the lives of their listeners is their primary pursuit. Join them as they invest themselves in providing value to their audience. Welcome to The ConverSAYtion.
The ConverSAYtion
Laughter and Lessons in Health and Wellness
What if you could revolutionize your health journey with just a sprinkle of humor and a dash of personal anecdotes? Join us as we kick off the episode with a fun-filled chat about our podcast production adventures, peppered with light-hearted debates on the calorie content of our favorite boozy elixirs like tequila and vodka. Spoiler alert: they're not as different calorie-wise as you might think! Our conversation veers into family tales over New Year’s Eve dinner and a shared love for sparkling water, setting a delightful tone for what's to come.
We then tackle the crunchy topic of fast food and food delivery services, which are burning a hole in both our wallets and health. Armed with personal stories, we make a compelling case for the joys of home cooking as a healthy, cost-effective alternative. Touching on the importance of exercise for aging bodies, we share lessons gleaned from a Jay Leno podcast about maintaining muscle mass and bone density. There’s even a fun side quest where we clear up the phrase “move it or lose it” for anyone who’s been using it wrong!
As we shift to the art of goal setting, we unveil the power of progressive fitness goals that build toward lasting health. You'll discover how easy it is to keep the momentum going by setting compound goals that evolve over time, ensuring you never hit a plateau. We emphasize that meaningful, adaptable goals are the secret sauce to lifelong well-being. So buckle up as we serve a flavorful mix of insights, laughs, and motivation to help you embark on a healthier, happier lifestyle journey!
You don't gotta do it if you don't want to. You don't gotta do it if you don't want to. You don't gotta do it if you don't want to. It's just a suggestion. Come on, and that was in every episode.
Psych:Oh, okay, that was my next question.
Letter K:Well, I produced it all by myself. Yeah, so I edited all the episodes. Okay, so it was a joke. I have actually seen them all, cheers. Okay, so it was a joke, I have actually seen them all.
Psych:Cheers, welcome. Welcome back to The ConverSAYtion. I am Psych, and joining me, as always, is once again still the 11th letter of the alphabet Letter K, Letter K, Letter K and K. We didn't get to this last time. We didn't share with the masses what are what is currently in our chalices? Is this water that we're drinking?
Letter K:So we talked about it. The first episode. It's this special Milagro Castellano Aneal. It's an aged white tequila.
Psych:It makes it healthier.
Letter K:So we didn't actually talk about why I chose this bottle, and I did because tequila is has marginally fewer calories than other alcohols of the same proof. It's not significant, but it is the lowest of the uh of the hard alcohols even lower than vodka, yeah yeah, really, vodka, whiskeys, those all, what is it? Seven calories per gram, or something like that.
Psych:I don't know, but I think in one serving of vodka, I think there's 100 calories, if I'm not mistaken. We will look that up for you people at home. Right now we want to know's that's what everybody's thinking about. Well, actually, I have a staff member in my class and if she ever finds our channel, yeah, it's seven. And usually there's 75 milliliters in a shot, which is about 75 grams.
Letter K:So an ounce and a half whatever that is Something like that.
Psych:Anyway, a staff member in my classroom is in favor and likes vodka, and her reasoning is conserving calories and so it's, it's not true.
Letter K:So so tequila has an average of 96 calories per shot. All right, which, uh?
Psych:um ounce and a half of 80 proof. Ounce and a half of 80 proof.
Letter K:So that is, from what I remember, less than vodka so, and then for a, for an 80 proof vodka, it's actually the same, it's 96 calories, oh, okay. So yeah, you know what ticker tag. So don't wait, wait, wait, wait. A way to blow the first three minutes of our podcast anyhow, thank you for joining us.
Psych:Please like comment. Share. Not what I wanted to talk about today.
Letter K:So, anyway, yes, that's why. So I bought the tequila, because I had heard that tequila has less calories than other hard liquors and I believe that, yeah, I would say most.
Psych:It seems to be marginal at best. Yes, you're still drinking. You're trading one healthier choice in an unhealthy arena.
Letter K:It's not a healthier choice in an unhealthy arena. It's not a healthier choice, though you know, calories do not indicate the the health of an item but if you're attempting to conserve or cut calories well, yes, stop drinking for starters.
Letter K:Yes, you know the first. The first thing if you want to lose weight, cut out all the hollow calories of alcohol. I mean, how many? How many calories? I mean, look this here a shot and then we poured about a shot into these glasses is 100 calories. Yes, and and so we're having. There's 15 and a half shots in a one liter bottle of liquor. So that's 1500 calories in a bottle of liquor, and they're all hollow calories. How many calories is in a beer? How many beers can you?
Psych:drink in a sitting.
Letter K:Wait, not 15. This is a 750 bottle. This is not a liter bottle okay, but that's.
Psych:It's 20 to 25 point. Something ounces right 25.4, 25.6 divided by 1.5 I don't know it's. It's done by milliliters, it's 750 milliliters. There's 16 shots in here, 16 shots I. I would say there's 16 maybe I I'm wrong about that A liter would have more. But be that as it may, I know with tequila, one of the ways I like to enjoy it is with a margarita, a spicy margarita, and yeah, so all the other sugar and all the other mixtures and contents in there.
Letter K:So you seven, 17 shots it says okay and then the 750. So I'm way off with the one liter thing yeah, one liter has more.
Psych:But speaking of so we had new year. Speaking of spicy, spicy drinks, I I kind of I got you. You know I like to schedule and memorialize and mark the calendar every time my wife and I have a disagreement.
Psych:So we had one New Year's Eve, of all days and at the dinner table with the boys, and so I'm preparing dinner and I'm offering drinks, and I'm getting some sparkling water prepared, which is an exceptional choice for those of you who are looking to cut your calories. Drink water and if you want fizzy water, it helps fill you up. You're fuller, you're more satisfied.
Letter K:Soda stream excellent choice and I just get the cans, the eight pack cans of fuzzy waters.
Psych:I love them yeah, so uh, tangent, quick tangent. Uh. Took my oldest to san francisco, we went out to morton's and we got pellegrino and pours the water oldest tastes. The water is like this is some weak water, these are weak bubbles, these are some weak bubbles.
Letter K:That's because you turned your SodaStream on too extreme. Yes, you found the 11 setting.
Psych:Some weak bubbles. That's what he said. Weak bubbles, that's all I'm talking about. So we're having the SodaStream in the kitchen and I was like, hey, I had some ginger ale mixture. I also had some lemon, lime and the blueberry we have the different flavors. I was like, hey, it was a Mexican themed meal and I was slicing up some.
Psych:I was going to have a margarita and I got one of those cocktails in a can things. No, actually it was a pre-made, in a glass bottle margarita. I was like I'm gonna make it spicy. One put some jalapenos in there. So after the same as the boys do you want us, would you like a spicy ginger ale? Would you like a spicy lemon? And both accepted and one rejected. After they got it I was like no, but he was making such a big deal about it and was just like laying it on so thick, I was like, no, okay, so it was a battle of wills. At that point, yeah, and I, I pushed the envelope and and my other half did not appreciate that, especially given the timing, as we were just about to enjoy board games and just a night, you know, staying up late and enjoying family and I, I really did yeah, what?
Letter K:but? But honestly, what better way to, to precursor the, the, the whole idea of competitive board gaming, than by getting all mad at each other first? You know monopoly is a lot more fun when you really want to screw the people around you, yeah, yeah, no.
Psych:Anyway, we've all made up since and it'll be nice to memorialize and have our anniversary of this argument next.
Letter K:That's a terrible day to anniversary something like that on a day that is generally a special occasion, but you do you so such stream works yeah it's good. Yeah, you don't get weak ass bubbles? No, you do not.
Letter K:So last time we were talking about about the cost, cost fallacy of better health and we went on or I went on a bit of a mini rant about fast food and such, and you, you know I helped yeah, uh, and I don't want to continue that too, too deeply, but I will say I want to tell a story about a friend of mine who is who's got it, who's got an adult daughter who seems to be perpetually broke, even though she's got a pretty good job. She's a shift leader for a retail outfit, makes good money Full time, always broke, and we were talking about why he always broke or why she's always broke. I wasn't talking to the daughter and my friend was saying that all she does is Uber and DoorDash, and so there are many ways that that lifestyle is going to cost you money, and it's not just immediately, it's down the road too, and I'll get into both of these things, but DoorDash. So I took DoorDash off of my phone. What was it? Two years ago?
Psych:I had to do the same and I know it was something. It was a means to an end during the pandemic and the world's coming to an end. And how do you get food? You want to go out.
Letter K:But I was using DoorDash even before then and I liked it. I still think it's cool. As long as you're okay with your food coming cold half the time, no big deal, yeah, not a fan.
Letter K:But the costs kept increasing to where? One week I got something that we always get and I don't remember what it was, but it was something that we were always getting. It was always Subway sandwiches. You know what? It was Subway. So I got this, we door dashed the order and then the next week I went and got it myself and it was like a 40% markup to get sandwiches from a mile down the street. So I deleted it from my phone and I was like you know, if I'm not going to go out and get it, I don't need it. I don't want it, I don't want it.
Psych:But I mean, think about the expense of somebody who door dashes basically all of their meals it's an incredible amount of waste when it comes to the money that you have at your disposal that you could be using for a variety of other things, and to know that you're paying surcharge after fee, after tax, after whatever is in somebody's particular locale, in addition to what they're buying, knowing that what you're already purchasing is marked up to begin with and there's that's untenable.
Letter K:At that point I couldn't do it, no and if you, and if you just, and if you're telling yourself that you're saving time by doing this, I would actually argue that you are wasting time by door dashing because now you're just sitting there waiting for food, when you could be. You could spend the same amount of time cooking yourself a healthy meal, or you know what, if you're door dashing all your meals, maybe start an exercise program, and every time you door dash you got to work out until they show up.
Psych:No, anybody who makes the argument.
Psych:Well, when I go to work, I earn this amount per hour, and so if I use my time for this relatively trivial or meaningless task to them at the time usually it's not, it's just something that they don't want to do Then they are, in fact, losing that money.
Psych:The thing is, in order to have that, in order to for that to be true, you have to have the ability to make that amount of money in that time that you're in. So if you are not in front of a computer, working remotely or doing something that is commanding that, that needs your full attention, that you are in command of something, you're orchestrating something in front of you right now and you cannot be bothered with bringing substance to you. It has to come to you, it has to be delivered. And if you're not going to get on, even make it easier use siri, use use google, use, use alexa, and have your order already, your quick order, already ready, and then you just say it and it arrives in 30 minutes or less and you're fine. But if you're not in, if you're not actually earning money, then that argument doesn't hold any water yeah, and and and.
Letter K:to segue away from the the fast food aspect of it, I wanted I would say that would say that, uh, or the cost of the fast food. Actually, I would say that your long-term costs are also there, because anybody who's living off of fast food is hurting themselves down the road. You're going to have health problems. Somebody who's in their 20s or 30s and are living off of fast food when they get to our age, or in their 50s or in their 60s, that's going to come back to bite them in the ass.
Psych:The same is true for people that do not exercise now If you're not moving your body later.
Psych:There is some truth to that adage If you move it or lose it, right, if you don't move enough, you're not going to build muscle at all and you're definitely going to be less likely to retain muscle and you're going to lose a certain percentage of your body mass as you age, into your senior years. I was watching a podcast recently and Jay Leno was on it and he quoted I didn check fact check him on this yet, but he quoted that after a certain age or in your senior years, you lose two percent of your body body mass, body mass, muscle mass per year and in essence, that's why we see elderly people and it kind of appears like they're shrinking. Many of them are getting smaller, but as they lose strength and as they lose mobility, they're going to lose the ability to complete daily tasks. Daily tasks, the things that people take for granted, are going to be feats of strength for them when they, when they reach those years if they are not taking care of their bodies now so it says.
Letter K:Studies show that after the age of 30, muscle mass tends to decline at a rate of about three to eight percent per decade, and then increases after age 60.
Psych:Oh, per decade. Yes, he might have said decade.
Letter K:And then bone mass decreases, especially in women, as you get even older.
Psych:So it happens, but maybe not at the rate that Jay Leno was saying he had the right idea. I may have misquoted what he was saying. He was also on a podcast that was serving drinks, although he wasn't drinking. He is an extremely healthy person and he's not a vegetables guy. He doesn't eat vegetables, apparently, for the most part, maybe potatoes. He strikes me as a meat and potatoes guy, but he said he had vegetables when he was seven and decided he didn't like them and so he yeah.
Letter K:So first move it or lose it. You're using that wrong. That literally means move your ass or I'm going to take it.
Psych:That's a totally different use of that phrase Really Okay, I haven't heard of that context that's what it is, you know it's.
Letter K:It's uh, when you're, when you're, when you're sitting on the, when you're sitting in the driver's seat of your dad's pickup truck, and he's, he's coming out, coming coming back from the, from the store and getting ready to leave, and he opens the car door, he's like all right, all right, kid, move it or lose it. You know, tell you to get your ass over so you can get in the driver's seat. No, I've never heard it. I'm interested to hear what context you have heard that the one I just described.
Psych:Oh man, Moving one's physical body.
Letter K:You lived a sweet heart of a childhood, if that's how you have heard that phrase. Anyhow, yes, so talking about the health aspects of it, yes, you mentioned the cost, and these costs are not monetary. They are the cost to your health and well-being that you will pay for later.
Letter K:That you will pay for later. I think that people, you know, when you're in your 20s and 30s and even you get people in their 40s they're either like no, I'm fine, because this is my body, this is who I am, and I think that's great. And then you've got this body positivity movement that's convincing people to stay stuck in their unhealthy bodies, and then the unfortunate thing is, many of those influencers are passing away.
Letter K:Yeah, but they've created this movement. It's beyond a group of people now Now it's bigger than them, yes, but we're going to find that now these people are going to get into, they're going to get our age, they're going to get 50s, they're going to get 60s, hopefully, and they're going to be that whole swath of americans who just constantly complain. They're the. They're the ones that joke about how it's hard to get up, you know, in the morning, and how, how your body doesn't work like it used to, when it doesn't have to be like that. You just have to invest in yourself earlier, and I wish I would have spent more time in my 20s and 30s exercising. I didn't.
Psych:No, I didn't either. I found other distractions and stretching. I started stretching this week. I started taking your advice Stretch every day. Amazing, it wasn't. It wasn't. It wasn't the fact that I got to the end of the stretching session and it was just like it, but it was oh, I'm, I'm loose, I'm moving. Good things. Not that things were bothering me, not that I already had ailments that I was trying to alleviate, but I just feel good. And so, with with that, and if it's going to help me gain flexibility, which is it ultimately well, if I do it consistently, that that that is well worth it yeah, I uh.
Letter K:So you know. So you know my, my body is my left side of my body is underdeveloped compared to my right side. I mean, it's not noticeable unless it is. But the problem that I have is, as I got older, the way that I stand and carry myself, my hips started to shift right and I always, always, constantly had sciatic pain. I mean I actually take pills for my nerve pain, oh wow. But it was perpetual, it was constant, it was every day. I lived with it.
Letter K:I went to see a physical therapist and this was years ago. They were like you need to stretch. So I learned a stretching routine. That's why I started doing it and I stretch every single day and after about you know, four or six weeks of doing it regularly, I don't have the back pain anymore. I don't have the joint tightness. I don't have those things and it's and it's even even when I even if, say, I injure my shoulder and I don't work out for six weeks, I still stretch every day, and just stretching has changed my life. I would like to get into like full-on mobility training, which is I'm trying to find out how to fit that into my life Because it's extra. It would be beyond what I do right now, but I've read and I've seen and I've heard that mobility training makes you kind of superhuman, and so I really should probably redouble that. But yes, stretching every day changed my life, and I'm not speaking in hyperbole, it literally changed my life.
Psych:I'll have to check back in with everybody as I continue this journey 12 minutes a day I spend stretching.
Letter K:I have a whole routine. It takes me 12 minutes. I went for 30,.
Psych:I think that's fine.
Letter K:That's fine. I used to do the stretching. Every workout video series that you have has a supplemental stretching video. They all do, and they're usually the same length as the rest of the videos. So if you're doing a 25-minute or a 30-minute workout routine series, the stretching video is 25, 30 minutes.
Psych:I think I'm doing too much. I think I'm doing more than enough.
Letter K:So I did learn.
Psych:As far as the time.
Letter K:Because I was going to the physical therapist right up until the pandemic. In fact, they had to start canceling my appointments because of the pandemic, sure. And he told me, because I would be like, yeah, you know, my flexibility is starting down, he would. He told me to slow down. He said I was stretching too much. You know, part of the problem is, you know, with me, my nerves are underdeveloped. They're not as long as my muscle structure and that was my problem. That's where I get the tightness. All right, and you can only stretch. You can only stretch your muscles. Your nerves don't stretch. You can't stretch them. So, like I will never be able to stretch my legs out all the way and present to my toes. I physically can't do it. But I was getting more and more stretch in you and he was concerned that I was going to start snapping my nerves, basically Snapping your nerves. Wow, that's extreme. But yes, you can stretch too much. You totally can stretch too much. It doesn't take much. I stretched my full body.
Psych:Yeah, I had a physician I had a physician order me to start stretching recently from an injury I suffered at work and when I went in and told him the amount of stretching I was doing, he was just like. Nobody does that at least I'm the only person who says it.
Letter K:So listen to your doctor if you don't listen to me that is too much. Yeah, that's okay, that's great, that's great without knowing the particulars, I could already tell you I agree with your doctor so but yeah, but back to the cost.
Psych:I wanted to kind of chime in on this. Points maybe individually or in a group, that once they, once they reach a certain point in time, there's cash incentives or payouts, or you can go in with a health screen specifically where you go in and, hey, come in and get screened today and we'll give you a 50 gift card or 100 gift card or something like that. Have you? Do you know about those?
Letter K:So I've never been incentivized in that way. The lab has tried a couple of things over the years. I am a part of a couple of research programs, like health programs. Hearing is mandatory for me at work, so I do annual hearing screening and they keep track of all my data, and I'm also in the asbestos screening program because, because we do deal with old buildings and walls and there's some asbestos in the mastic and stuff like that.
Letter K:It's not not crazy. It's not like we're dealing with the, with the old, the old pipes that have the asbestos wrapped around the pipes and doing stuff like that. But but I have and and doing stuff like that, but but, um, I have and and I've I've been a part of the, the blood work program. At work they have a thing called one and done. Where they come in you they pick your finger and then they give you all kinds of results, kind of fun. But I have never done anything that that offered some kind of an incentive like hey, hey, if you do this for a year, we're going to give you a gift card to Jamba Juice.
Psych:Yeah, so I've participated in them. When I worked in the Bay Area they had them just about every year Sounds like a Bay Area thing Just about every year where Kaiser would come in and they would have their representatives there. They'd have people come in and they'd weigh you, they'd take your blood pressure, I think they'd uh, I don't know if I don't know if they took blood for anything.
Psych:I don't think that they did, but they just kind of went over your, your health history basics and and took some, took some vitals, and after you, after you did that, they're like here, here's your, here's your 50 bucks or here's your 100 bucks, and if you want earn more, then follow this program for six weeks, do so many activities in this thing and just document it. I think it was on your honor, right? If you say you did this and you did this and there was competition built in. The thing was I was always a little leery about it. And the thing was I was always a little leery about it and in the back of my mind I was kind of thinking all right, is this leading to a place and a point in time where your health insurance is going to rise based upon a person's individual health? I always thought that.
Letter K:Yeah, and I think that is a viable concern. I think that over the years they've tried to do pre-screenings for health to try and determine your, your insurability. Uh, it's, it's largely illegal, I mean, if not exclusively illegal, but but you do have. You do see, like you watch ads on tv, a for medical insurance and they say nope, nope, no, pre-screening, that kind of stuff. So, uh, I'm sure that there are, there's things, that there are situations where, like, if you have a pre-existing condition or you're over 55 or something, they can legally mess with your premiums. Okay, so, yeah, I mean, but as far as like, hey, come do this, this, this health, health assessment, and we're going to, we're going to determine how much to charge you based on that, I don't think that they can do that, or at least if it has come up.
Psych:I haven't noticed it and I haven't participated since, but I know early on in my career as an educator not making quite as much money as I am now it was an attractive offer and it did get my attention and it was something that I was happy to take their gift card in those moments.
Letter K:And sometimes I needed it.
Psych:Wow so insurance companies can require health exams as part of the underwriting process to determine your premium costs. Damn, that's an individual's health care. Yeah, that's not a a group.
Letter K:This is talking about you paying out of pocket. Yes, yeah, okay.
Psych:So yeah, if you have kaiser or a ppo with your work or something like that, probably not, as you're paying the same as everybody else but I was in this room, this big room, big conference room, and I was divided in sections and you would kind of travel your way around and all these people that I worked with it would come through a district wide. They had appointments. I was like, okay, I know how many people work in this district. Hundreds and thousands of people are coming through here. Where is all this information going? It's one big data, mine.
Letter K:Stanford's using it. That's how you end up. All these studies I'm always quoting it's coming from shit like that.
Psych:People pulling all the metadata? Yeah, totally no, no, no, I'm sorry I misspoke. What's the term for researching other people's research, data mining? No, no, it'll come to me. Meta's in there somewhere.
Letter K:Researching other people's. I think it's researching other people's research.
Psych:Meta research papers. You worry too much about the term here. I know. That's why I'm here.
Letter K:So to rein it in. To rein it in, there's so many cost benefits from being healthy.
Psych:Meta-analysis. There we go. It just came to me Sorry.
Letter K:From being healthy. There's so many cost benefits and it's a lot like investing. We talked about investing and how people need to spend all their money. Now they don't see the benefit of setting some of it aside and watching it grow over time. But it's the same with health. You put in the time now. Eating better, exercising all of these things are going to have a benefit throughout your life, and you may not see them today or tomorrow, or in your 30s or in your 40s, but I guarantee you you're going to see them in your 70s.
Psych:Yes, I know my mother. When she chose to change her lifestyle in regards to health and fitness and change the way she physically appeared and how much she was able to do physically, her motivation at the time was I want to be able to get on the floor with my grandchildren and play, and I want to be able to get off the floor when we're done right, just getting getting up and down and to be able to do that at that age if you want to do those things with them in the future which they didn't exist yet, right. So she was forward thinking, thinking ahead those those sorts of things. I know dr peter atia.
Psych:He's got this whole test that he has devised I forget what, what name he has assigned to, but basically he runs through a variety of tasks and movements and skills that one should be able to have when they reach their senior years, such as simply lifting 30 pounds over your head right, being able to balance yourself on one foot and the other, being able to to open tight, tight lids, tight jars, being there.
Psych:There's so many things and they're they're related to things that you would do in everyday life or you might encounter if you, if there's something heavy overhead and you want and you want it or need it, or if you're taking a flight across country during the holidays to go visit family, you're putting your carry-on baggage into the overhead bin. Just simple, simple things. He definitely gave a lot of value and weighted heavily balance and mobility, mobility and strength those balance. Balance is probably the top of the list because, as if you have less, less coordination and balance, you're more likely to fall and if you're aging, you have less bone mass and things can go, go wrong, and there's plenty of elderly people that fall and that's it.
Letter K:I don't know how many times I have encountered a situation where an elderly person in my life, whether directly or fringe people, were like oh yeah, grandma fell in the bathroom and broke her hip. It's like the casual way with which people always present this information makes it sound like they expect it.
Psych:But it doesn't have to be like that. No, my grandmother happened to her years ago. She fell in the shower and I think it was her knee, Her knee and her hip, and she was in the shower for hours. My great-grandfather happened to him too. My realtor although this was more of a freak accident slipped and fell while going to get the morning paper, I think it was, and I see walkway and she hit her head and she died on the spot.
Letter K:Wow, that is kind of a freak accident. I mean you or could could fall victim to a similar circumstance.
Psych:I don't think that's the same as no, no no, that is an extreme case, but one could argue if she were more coordinated and coordinated and had more balance and was more able to adjust herself mid-fall I mean you might not be able to prevent the fall, but how you fall, if you can move your body she might have been able to have a different outcome.
Letter K:Perhaps, perhaps, so the I lost my train of thought Wow okay.
Psych:Well, we were just talking about about the expenditures that you will have inevitably. It's, it's, and I think in my mind it almost balances out and you might even come out ahead because you're either going to invest the time and money now to save you the time and money later or you're not. So when are you going to pay this, and which time of your life is it going to feel the best? Is it going to be the most inconvenient? Are there going to be other unwanted outcomes attached to one period of time versus another? I know we have a. We have a friend who, well, we think we have a friend who we were just talking about recently and he's not, he's not necessarily on board with. Okay, like he's still young, I can do this later kind of mindset. Right, I'm still relatively young, fit and healthy, and what you guys are doing, I don't necessarily want to partake in because he doesn't see the value in it right now yeah but getting someone to the point where they can see the value in it later.
Psych:I mean you have to have that, that, that mindset. Yeah, that's what I thought was going. This is going to help later. You have to have that frame of mind now.
Letter K:Yes, most people need a motivational driver, like with your mother. You need to have a driver, something that motivates you. So now the question is so the person in their 20s and 30s who thinks that they've got plenty of time doesn't have that driver, and what we're talking about with investing in your future maybe isn't motivation enough for them to do that, so we'll leave them over here. But you, me, your mother we found a motivation, we found a driver and we pursued it. And here we are. So now what happens when you reach that goal and your motivation to continue is no longer sustainable because you've won, you've beaten the game. How do you start writing the sequel? How do you change your motivation?
Psych:You have to present another challenge. There has to be another problem to solve. You have to find. What is that going to be for you? Okay, so for somebody initially, if their initial why was I want to lose 30 pounds? Okay, all right, great, let's figure out how to lose the 30 pounds, and I'm presuming this is 30 pounds of unwanted fat. Okay, nobody wants to lose 30 pounds of muscle, or they shouldn't, except for david bautista, yeah, yeah, he's. He's frunk down, hasn't he? Hasn't he considered considerably? And uh, and john cena too, he's.
Letter K:he's a less, uh, a little bit more petite now, well, you can't, you can't, it's unsustainable, you can't do and you can't do all the the action movie stuff when you can't clap your hands yeah, and you have to eat any.
Psych:But them aside, yes, you want it. Somebody wants to drop some weight? Great, all right, they then they do it. Well, then, there's got to be the next goal. Okay, you're at this weight. You like what you weigh. Would you like to be stronger? Yeah, I think I'd like to be a little bit stronger, or would you like to? Okay, so, let's, let's do that. Let's build some strength in there, all right, build some strength, build a little bit of muscle, all right. All right, I've done it. Okay, however long it's, you know, regardless of the timeline.
Psych:Okay, well, maybe the next goal could possibly be mobility. Right, you're, you're at the weight you want to be and you have the strength you want to be. Can you move with your new body and your new strength? Okay, well, maybe not Okay, stretching, mobility training and so on and so forth. And then, okay, well, do you want to be fast? Do mobility training and so on and so forth? And then, okay, well, do you want to be fast? Do you want to be faster in certain things? You want to be able to? To run faster, walk faster, or run and walk for longer sessions, for longer distances to your site, whatever it may be, there's, there's always something else. Maybe it's after all of that, maybe it's really taking a deep dive into their nutrition and how their body reacts to food and how they're feeling. Maybe they can make how they feel after a meal even better than what it has been.
Psych:So I think the pursuit of that next goal, having that future goal in mind, is paramount. Your goal in mind is is paramount, and anybody who's ever had a trainer or anybody who's ever paid for a program always knows, or or has known, that the, the goals, the goals dictate the program and the programs don't last forever. Usually it's about 12 weeks, right for most, for most things. Okay, we're going to do this for 12 weeks. We're going to see where we are, we're at, and then we're going to take all of that information in and we're going to make decisions after that. And whatever we decide, the new goals are maybe we have the same goal for another 12 weeks, maybe we have a new goal for the next 12 weeks, maybe we redraft our current goal and we take it back to the drawing board and we tweak it a little bit, and it's mostly the same, but with this and this and this changed, and we do that for another 12 weeks.
Psych:But there has to be something else. It cannot be. I'm here, I've arrived, I, with the exception that some, if they get to the point where they just purely want to sustain and they're happy with their habits and they've already proven to themselves that they can sustain their current level of activity and they can maintain their diet, they've got that locked in, it's second nature. They don't really need to do anything else and they're satisfied, with the exception of those people. For those that need some extra motivation to keep going, well then you have to create something else to do yeah, yeah, don't worry about that.
Letter K:we're not gonna worry about the people who have the discipline, who've successfully incorporated that into life. That's me. That's that's what you know. I just do that. But it took me a long time to get there and I needed all those motivations, I needed the help and I needed the guidance and I needed, I needed the goals. So here's my, here's my idea.
Letter K:We already know that that one of the big reasons why people stop is their goals are unattainable. They're too lofty. So, yes, trying to do all this stuff all at once not going to work. You're going to get frustrated, you're going to quit, you're not going to see the results fast enough, you can't do it. But then you've got so many people and you've probably encountered this plenty in your life You've got so many people who are like I want to short-term goals, I want to lose this weight for this thing.
Letter K:I want to lose this weight for this thing. I want to lose 10 pounds for the high school reunion, I want to lose 30 pounds for my wedding, that kind of stuff. And when they get there, then it all goes away. My idea is a concept which I will call compound goals, compound goals, compound goals. You need to have attainable, bite-sized goals that all compound on on one another in a row. It starts with losing 10 pounds, and it's then it starts with starting a weight program and sticking with it for 12 weeks, and it starts with you know, and so you leapfrog these concepts, and so you have to constantly be evolving your fitness plan and your health goals so that when you reach this goal, there's another one waiting and you turn the corner, and there's another one down the road.
Psych:So start at the end and work your way backwards. I want a perfect physique, perfect health, perfect fitness, and then okay, before that, and then before that, and then before that, and work your way all the way back to. You want to properly sequence those.
Letter K:Yes, and it's like playing the game of life. You roll the dice and you move that number of squares and you've got to go navigate through the board. And so don't set yourself one goal. Set yourself one very attainable, very digestible goal and the goal beyond it and the goal beyond that, and you don't have to decide your whole plot right now, but know what's going to happen after you reach that first goal. Yes, you want to lose 20 pounds so you could go to your sister's wedding. That's great. But after your sister's wedding, have something else, have the next thing, and then that thing has another thing, and you're going to find that eventually, you're just doing life better.
Psych:The A in SMART goals. The attainable part is arguably one of it's probably the most important, because if your goal is not attainable, well then you should cease everything else. You don't need to plan or plot out whether something is specific and measurable and and relevant and time based, and all. You don't have to do all of that other stuff. If the goal isn't attainable, well then just stop. Just stop. You have to go back to the drawing board. You have to figure out a new idea. You really want a goal. We get that, okay, well, this goal at least. Maybe not never, but not now. Okay, so let's figure out what you can get.
Letter K:You got to figure out what you can achieve and I think that, and I also think that there is a detriment to setting a timeframe for things like this. Like the whole, I need to lose 10 pounds by February so I can go to this thing. I think that that kind of shoots you in the foot too. I think you, you, we need to go back to what we were saying originally about, about making it, finding ways to incorporate this into your life, taking a little bit out here and inserting this in its place, and don't make it about deadlines.
Psych:Make it about a continuance, you know, a perpetual cycle of better health a lifelong lifelong learning, I mean in the world of education, lifelong lifting, which I and I completely subscribe to, the whole lifelong learning philosophy. Right, it doesn't matter if somebody stops school at high school, well, they should continue to learn. If somebody goes to college for four years and then they're done with their formal schooling, their education, so to speak, they should be continually learning. And I think with our education maybe, I mean, if I were to step in and just read you everything, it wouldn't be as time-based like you were saying, oh, you would cut out the time element of your life. That's a surprise.
Letter K:It wouldn't be as time-based like you were saying where, oh, you would cut out the time element of your life. That's a surprise.
Psych:Yes, I would completely remove it. It's not a Time, is nothing Meaningless.
Letter K:Meaningless Okay.
Psych:But I mean, take high school, high school's four years, right, and somebody can go all four years and then they're done with high school. Yeah, but you can have someone who goes all four years and they learned 90% of the material and they retained it. And then this person, they only got 60% of the material and we passed them. And this person, they got 51% and we're like, okay, you know, that's good enough, you're out of here, right? So schooling or learning, it was just like anything. If I want to learn something here on my computer, I don't stop after. I'm going to learn this for 10 minutes, ok, and regardless of whether I learned it or not, 10 minutes is all I'm going to spend. Right? That would be ridiculous, right. And high school it's well, you spend this, you spend these four years and you're out of here. As opposed to gauging whether or not they should progress and move on based on what they actually learned and what they actually achieved.
Letter K:Okay, now write me an essay that equates that monologue to better health.
Psych:Well, because, with what you were just saying, with what you were just saying, with the goals and the goals, let's lose the 10 pounds. Okay, great. Well, 10 pounds in 10 weeks. Okay, don't make it about the 10 weeks, let's just maybe that could. I mean, maybe that's a safe we know that that's a safe period of time to lose that 10 pounds. But just lose the 10 pounds. All right If it's 10 weeks, if it's 20 weeks, if it's 10 weeks, if it's 20 weeks, if it's just just follow that process all the way through. I think many people, when they get to the end of the time, they go all right, I failed when those are failure.
Psych:You're done I failed and I'm not doing this again.
Letter K:I'm too defeated yes, yes, just just. I mean yes, having a goal, have something, have a motivation. I like your mother's goal better than a time crunch to lose weight. Yes, because her goal has a continuance and it requires continuous care. Yeah, I didn't tell her.
Psych:I'm having kids tomorrow, get after it.
Letter K:But so her goal has a lifelong learning aspect to it. She has to continue it forever. There you go, she had.
Psych:She was required, in order to meet that goal, to find a way to incorporate the better health into her life yeah, especially with grandchildren, because as they age, children get more active, they get, they get stronger, faster, right, and if you want to keep up with them, then you are also going to have to be at least at the minimum level where they're going to continue to want to interact with you and with as being a parent. Same way, my kids are growing up and they're involving themselves in things that are more physical and if I want to participate with them, I am going to have to stay at a certain at least a the a base level, fitness level, where they're going to receive enough enjoyment and positive reinforcement to allow me to continue to have the privilege of participating with them.
Letter K:Yeah, if you, if, if, if you're, if you're winded and need to go back inside and all your kid wanted to do was go play catch in the yard, you got to reevaluate your life. But you know, I mean you don't have to, you don't have to run cross country with your kid, let them.
Letter K:Let them do that by themselves Actually, but if you are setting that goal, it's meaningful, it has a long-term purpose and even if you eventually can't do it. That's why compound goals are a good idea. Say you don't lose that 10 pounds in 10 weeks. You get to the 10 weeks. You only lost 6 pounds, but you already have a goal beyond that. Just keep going New goal, lose 4 pounds, keep going, you know, don't, don't make it about this, make it about this.
Psych:Yeah, you know you gotta, I was waiting for a thunder and lightning. Yes, it's. It's being consistent in setting new goals and if I mean think about it, if somebody ceases to replace their goals, if, just as a thought experiment, imagine somebody with no goals. Maybe they had them and they've exhausted them all, and now they're goalless. They're at the end, okay, so. So then, what then? What?
Letter K:you always have to have something to strive to. It's what gets you up in the morning. Yeah, humans do. Mostly it's money. Yeah, you get up and go to work because you need money. Life's expensive and it seems, and it seems rather natural that we do that. But that's, it's a driving force, it's a goal. Your goal is to get paid, survive, survive. You just have to survive, you just have to survive. But you don't just have to survive, you have to do better than survive. You, you have to thrive. And that was the whole point of this whole series was that so many people in this world are just existing when, with very little effort and very little change in the way that they are existing, they can thrive.
Psych:So I'm reminded of a recent conversation I had with an employee at work and they do not have that mindset, and even when I presented many of their own thoughts and notions differently and offered avenues to consider or explore possible solutions, solutions, no, it was just. It was the conversation just ended just before they said no, I don't want to hear anything more from you. Stop talking to me about this. Yeah, like it didn't rise to that level, but it was not going anywhere. That was positive. It was really negative and it was. I was defeated for them. Yeah, I've. I felt terrible that they felt that way that sounds.
Psych:That sounds like we're encroaching into mental health perhaps, uh and we do know that mental health is. I mean, you can't, you can't do anything that we're suggesting or prescribing as far as one's physical being, one's physical body being maintained and one's health and fitness getting to a level where it's thriving, unless you have taken care of your mind.
Letter K:Yeah, maybe that's what we lead into for our next discussion. Just get into mental health. I don't know.
Psych:Although there are those that think people that we see every day on our, on our streams and on the socials they're working out to an extent that is absolutely insane. They must be out of their mind to be engaging in those things. Maybe some of them are they could.
Letter K:Yeah, there's obviously. There's obviously a mental health crisis tied to social media yeah, um, mental health.
Psych:I'm not against continuing this conversation with a little bit of a little bit of mental health, I think, as far as all of the physical health, as far as providing well or removing excuses and an ex explanations that could prevent somebody from embarking on this journey, we're sold.
Letter K:It's giving it try. I think we solved it, yeah, so sounds like we will know for sure, but it sounds like we're going to continue next time with, uh, mental health, uh, which I can definitely speak uh to that. I think it's a. I think it's a good topic. It's, it's a. I think it's a touchy subject. I think it might be a be a little dark. Yeah, it's a dark topic, but you know we're here. We're here. We're here to help ourselves and others. We're not here to make people laugh. It's just a byproduct of how charming I am but we do make people laugh.
Psych:Yeah, we do totally. Thank you again for joining us for this episode of The ConverSAYtion and we hope you'll join us next time.
Letter K:Hope you'll join us this time. Sure, see you next time. We did it.
