EP 33 - Guest-Speaker: Ben Neill

Hey Flex Fam! 

In today’s episode, we’re excited to welcome a special guest, Ben Neill , a highly sought-after performance coach based in Atlanta, who specializes in personalized nutrition and exercise plans for clients ranging from teenagers to elite athletes and high-performance CEOs. 

We dive deep into: 

✅ Ben’s journey from being 75 lbs overweight to becoming a respected coach. 
✅ The harsh realities of unsustainable diets (like his 5-year strict keto experiment) and why sustainability matters most. 
✅ How the health and fitness industry often fails people by prioritizing results over mental well-being. 
✅ Why mindset is key to lasting health transformations. 
✅ His powerful 80/20 principle for balanced, guilt-free nutrition. 
✅ The importance of finding joy in the process, not just chasing outcomes. 

Ben’s straightforward, no-fluff approach to fitness and nutrition aligns perfectly with our philosophy on sustainability and mindset. Plus, he’s dropping some golden nuggets that you can apply today for a healthier and happier life. 

Ben’s approach will make you rethink your relationship with food, your mindset about fitness, and how you define true health. 

Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe! And feel free to reach out to Ben on Instagram (his handle is on the screen and in the description below). 

Ben Neill Instagram
Ben Neill YouTube

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Disclaimer: We’re two coaches—Ghada, a mindset coach, and Lisa, a fitness coach—here to share our thoughts and experiences. But remember, we’re not licensed therapists, doctors, or medical professionals, and this podcast isn’t a substitute for professional advice from a physician, therapist, or other qualified expert. Sound good? Great. Let’s dive into the episode!

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Follow us on Instagram:
@flexandthecity__
@kenyabella
@ghadaodehcoach

Chapters

• 0:00 Introducing Special Guest: Ben Neill
• 2:10 Ben’s Journey: From 75 lbs Overweight to Performance Coach
• 3:45 The 5-Year Keto Experiment & Why It Wasn’t Sustainable
• 6:20 The Misconceptions About Instant Gratification & Fitness
• 10:15 The Power of Mindset in Fitness & Nutrition
• 12:50 Why Most People Overcomplicate Nutrition
• 16:30 Defining Success & The Importance of the Journey
• 18:15 How the Health & Fitness Industry Can Fail You Mentally
• 20:30 The Role of Ego & Asking for Help in Fitness
• 24:45 Finding Balance & Sustainability in Fitness Plans
• 28:10 Ben’s 80/20 Principle: Guilt-Free Nutrition
• 31:05 Building a Healthy Relationship with Food
• 34:00 Supplements vs. Real Food: What Really Matters
• 37:30 Walking as the Holy Grail of Fat Loss
• 40:20 Tailoring Your Fitness Plan to What You Enjoy
• 43:55 Why You Don’t Have to Restrict Everything You Love
• 46:25 The Role of Micronutrients & Supplements
• 49:00 Debunking Myths About Age & Fitness
• 52:15 The Importance of Resilience & Consistency
• 54:45 Creating a Lifestyle You Love
• 1:00:05 Being Mindful About What You Eat & Why It Matters
• 1:15:10 The Importance of Showing Yourself Grace
• 1:18:00 Ben’s Final Message: Don't Be Afraid to Start

Transcript

0:00
hey flex fam welcome back to another episode of flex in the city i'm rada and i'm lisa and this is episode
0:09
33 so if you've been following us for a while now you know that we love diving deep into the fitness world health
0:16
wellness all of that good stuff so we're doing something a little bit different today we have a special guest here with
0:22
us all the way from atlanta yes well i don't know if he's from there but he's based but he's based there right now ben
0:29
neil and i'm going to hand it over to lisa who's going to explain a little bit more about who he is because they go way
0:35
way way way way back way wow you didn't have to say it like that it's not that far back all right go back to high
0:42
school days it's not that far back so here we are i'll introduce him and we'll
0:48
move into the discussion for today okay guys so um as mentioned we have a very
0:54
special guest here with us today mr ben neil
1:00
hello hello i'll give you a brief intro about him but then of course we'll allow him to
1:06
speak about himself as well um so ben and i actually know each other from i
1:11
would say high school but we actually know each other from before high school i think it's like grade right yeah yep
1:17
sixth grade sixth grade back in kenya back in boarding school days i'm not going to talk but i'm gonna talk about
1:24
um what we looked like back then or what high school was like very very much in detail but um it was good times uh ben
1:32
was always one of those really nice guys um i remember ben being an amazing singer actually um incredible voice we
1:40
were both in the choir but he had an exceptional voice opera even like really
1:45
like just very talented so um even though he's here to speak to us about
1:52
fitness and his experience as a coach just know his talents span span across
1:57
far and wide um but um so a little bit about ben and why we reached out to him
2:05
to uh be a guest on our show which he graciously agreed to do um so ben is a
2:11
highly soughtafter performance coach and he helps people take care and control of their health through personalized
2:18
nutrition and exercise and so he's got clients ranging from 16 to 68 year olds
2:23
um including high performance ceos stay-at-home parents elite athletes and everyday individuals as well um what we
2:31
do like about ben is that he has a no fluff high impact approach to coaching um and he wants to ensure that that is
2:38
as sustainable as it is effective and so that's a big part of also what we try to consistently speak to which is
2:45
sustainability and um not environmental but that's important right sustainable
2:51
health sustainable habits things that you can continue for the rest of your life so not just quick fixes and so um
2:57
in terms of that philosophy you know um uh ben's approach is really really quite quite poignant to what we talk about as
3:03
well um at the core of his philosophy is that nutrition is the foundation of health um it has the greatest impact on
3:10
how one feels performs and lives and it's often the most overlooked facts um
3:16
and this is why ben and his clients and every client that he works with starts by dialing in their nutrition and
3:21
unlocking the energy clarity and strength that they didn't even know they were missing so that's also something
3:26
that speaks a lot to um what we talk about holistic health so yes you can train seven days a week you can be
3:32
killing it in the gym but really what are you putting into your body to try and ensure that everything is aligned um
3:40
then believes everyone deserves to experience what it truly feels like to be healthy yes not just physically but
3:46
mentally and emotionally which we also harp on all the time and uh his coaching
3:52
is built around the individual so lifestyle preferences goals there's no guesswork no cookie cookie cutter plans
3:58
just real proven systems that work um and um yeah having said that i think you
4:06
can very very plainly see why um we thought it would be a great value ad to have his expertise his experience and
4:14
his philosophy as part of our show today and also something to share with you
4:19
guys so with that said i will hand over to ben to speak on any further um
4:27
information about himself his experience etc that he wishes to and he is not
4:33
allowed to talk about high school thank you thank you no i really thought you guys were gonna share some anecdotes
4:38
from high school that's not i have one i can share i have one i can share oh boy i have to it might come out in editing
4:46
um do you remember do you remember what we used to call you in high school um
4:52
possibly i don't know if there were multiple nicknames the hesitation the hesitation one
4:59
there was blt do you remember yes that's the one the only one that i knew existed can
5:06
we elaborate on this blt story can i tell the story briefly please please that's a part of the intro as well
5:13
exactly from how this this video was presented you guys are not going to understand the full effect of of ben's
5:20
you know physique and hard work so i will mention that in high school um as
5:26
you do we have nicknames for everyone ben's nickname by the girls how embarrassing
5:33
was blt and it stood for ben's luscious
5:39
tush oh it's true i guess listen ben
5:45
okay okay ben you i i it was there and
5:51
then you used to wear those like you know like slacks like proper pants you know not like like you know like not the
5:57
big baggy stuff yeah he was you know he was yeah but he was dressing like like a like a grown a grown man you know he he
6:05
had like proper pants on and so like the fit was there and it was yeah i was boomdying and you noticed and with
6:13
immense respect to your wife i do say that it was it was something that we we
6:18
spoke about briefly back then and um wow i'll stop the story there but i had no
6:24
idea that was going to come out in public now the world knows you know i think i probably dressed more grown up
6:29
then than i do now you know oh yeah cuz you're feel like i still dress like a you dress like a kid now so that's right
6:35
that's right yeah well thank you for that uh interesting unexpected uh
6:42
introduction i mean it really is a pleasure to be here to speak with you all and to talk um with you and and to
6:50
your audience i mean i don't think there's any more to really kind of say i mean um lisa you did a great job just
6:56
kind of articulating things that are important to me and i know things that'll come out in our conversation today but yeah i think it was just a
7:03
great kind of matchup because so many of the things that you all talk about definitely resonate with me so hopefully
7:10
i'll just be able to give you know a different side of things maybe a different way that they're hearing the
7:16
same thing um but it kind of you know resonates with uh someone maybe in a way that it didn't before so yeah super
7:23
excited to be here thanks for having me excited as well we're excited as well so
7:28
i think we can um just jump in um why don't you tell us ben just kind of like
7:33
how you got into this space like what inspired you to to get in this industry so so i'll
7:41
i'll try to keep it somewhat concise but obviously there's a lot of details so 10
7:47
years ago i was really unhealthy um i was about 75 lbs overweight um
7:55
and you know one day just a a light bulb went off i can't tell you it wasn't
8:00
anything dramatic it wasn't really anything specific it was just something
8:06
inside of me that said "hey you know something has got to change." and um so
8:11
over the course of i would say definitely the next few years um i experimented with a lot of different
8:17
diets um would jump from one thing to the next um some very restrictive some
8:23
less so exercise plans just trying to figure out you know what would work trying to find the hacks right trying to
8:30
find the shortcuts and i was willing to do the work but still kind of wanted the results as quickly as possible so just
8:37
kind of moved that forward you know through all of those experiences and trial and error i i
8:43
learned what worked what didn't work um and i would say what resonated with me
8:50
most what i really enjoyed was just learning about food and learning about
8:55
nutrition and learning about the way that it impacts our health and our well-being again obviously physically
9:03
but mentally and the more that i learned the easier
9:08
it was to see how unfortunately you know their knowledge
9:14
about nutrition is is at an elementary level for for most
9:20
people um and so you're looking at something that has the greatest
9:25
determining factor in how they feel and they just don't know what it means to
9:31
eat well and so just from there a real kind of passion ignited in the hope and
9:40
opportunity to have an impact a positive impact on someone's life through
9:45
education and through their nutrition and so um yeah i would say just you know
9:51
not to sound overly um emotional about it but i it felt it
9:57
did start to feel kind of like a calling you know and um and so it just kind of organically grew into this coaching
10:04
business which i'm thankful to be able to do and to really you know have an impact with people for at various stages
10:12
um but um you know impact their life through improving their health so again
10:18
there's a lot of little stories and stuff we may touch on but that just kind of i guess the why i got into doing what
10:24
i'm doing in a nutshell no i think in a big nutshell but yes yeah i think that's
10:29
such a a great um aspect to look at it from because there's a lot of people who might be doing something and they've not
10:35
actually like walked the walk they've not been through the path that they're then trying to help navigate you through
10:41
so i think that it's so great that you've had this experience where you did struggle and you're like i did try all
10:47
of this crazy stuff and found out what works and what what's the craziest thing
10:53
that you've tried actually oh i know i can um so most of you have
11:01
probably heard of um the ketogenic diet keto um
11:07
so i i could talk a long time about that but suffice to say i did it very
11:14
strictly for about five years so strictly meaning my carbohydrate intake
11:19
was in the single digits most days five years and that came from a green
11:26
supplement that i was taking just to make sure i was getting some of those micronutrients so correct so the key agenda just to
11:33
give people a brief overview of what it is it is very low to no carbohydrates um
11:40
and all of your your calories comes from protein and fat so through the magic of
11:47
science you're able to tell your body to use fat as its primary energy source
11:54
versus glucose which comes from breaking down of protein and carbohydrates um but
11:59
the thing that so that was i don't want to say well i don't want to use the word
12:04
crazy i think not sustainable um because of the level of restriction but the
12:10
piece that made it even more uh i guess kind of specific and you know crazy to
12:15
use that word is that i was taking my uh ketone level through a finger prick
12:21
through my blood using a ketone monitor so think about it like people that have diabetes have a glucose monitor and they
12:27
prick themselves to you know look at their glucose levels they have a similar device that measures your level of
12:33
ketones in your blood to make sure that you are at the level um that you want to
12:39
be so again uh when people talk about the ketogenic diet uh specifically or
12:45
you know similar diets i always just kind of give them a warning of again if
12:50
it's very restrictive probably not not going to be something that you can sustain long term
12:56
so yeah nothing maybe super exciting or or or super um you know exploratory but
13:02
you know definitely something that i think for most people is kind of hard to wrap their head around yeah no i think i
13:09
mean the an extremist with keto at least from what you've said and from what i've known about it um is that yeah it's
13:16
exactly it's our our needs and our energy um requirements are so different from what i guess the origins of what
13:23
the keto the keto diet are so i think it's very much like a caveman diet and it's a different
13:30
lifestyle that's different way of living and it's also a way of living because um
13:35
access to certain kinds of food was scarce and we live in a time that's different and also our energy needs and
13:42
requirements are different and um as is our energy use and so you know i think
13:48
we also have to evolve our nutrition with our lifestyle and the same way even if we're all living in the same time you
13:54
have two different people that have different lifestyles so their requirements for energy and for carbs
14:00
are going to be different you have you know like people famously talk about michael phelps who was consuming 12,000
14:06
calories a day right sick but that's because his energy expulsion his needs were different training person who is
14:14
sedentary consuming half of that but still going to be obese because your
14:19
your use of that energy so i think that the fact that you highlight that it's it's not cook cookie cutter is is a
14:26
really great aspect of of what you do and i think that's important as well um
14:32
to to point out but yeah keto is is i mean there's a lot of people who still do it which to me is just wild well and
14:39
i don't want to get up on a pedestal but you know the biggest problem i have with that is most people aren't doing it
14:45
right um because again to go back to the sustainability what do most people enjoy
14:52
and or indulge in carbohydrates well you can't you can't have a keto diet for 4
14:59
days and then you know go and have a cinnamon bun and expect that you're
15:04
still going to be in ketosis um you you have to be the hardest thing about that
15:10
diet is that you really can't stray because if you were in and i don't want to get too scientific but if you are
15:15
truly in a state of ketosis um which you should be if you're following ketogenic diet if you ingest
15:22
you know that many carbohydrates it might take you two or three days to get back well you can quickly see with this
15:28
cycle you're not really reaping the benefits of a diet that you are working so hard to restrict yourself to adhere
15:35
to so it's just probably just even like hurting yourself
15:40
more than actually benefiting from it you're just restricting yourself basically and the potential that you're
15:46
not getting a fully nutritious diet of those micronutrients that mostly come
15:53
from carbohydrates right so there's just yes there are there are a lot of ways to
15:59
do it wrong and i think if you don't really know what you're doing you could you know again i'm not a doctor i should
16:05
say this i'm not a scientist not trying to practice to be one on the internet but i think you would be have you be
16:13
very careful to make sure that those micronutrients are in the proper level you know through regular blood work um
16:21
but and then and understanding your body and how it responds to things and its needs is is something that we stress as
16:27
well um you mentioned micronutrients i know that we hear a lot about macros and
16:32
like oh i'm tracking my macros and uh this is you know what i need so what's the difference between macronutrients
16:39
and micronutrients sure yeah so macronutrients are going to be
16:45
proteins yeah i pack macros and then people like what are micronutrients i'm like yeah so your macronutrients are
16:51
going to be fall into either one of three categories your proteins your carbohydrates and your fats um and you
16:59
not to delve off to another topic but they're all important um you know no one
17:04
of those macronutrients makes you fatter than others carbohydrates don't make you fat
17:10
however what happens in most diets they restrict carbohydrates that's something we might talk about later um
17:16
micronutrients are going to be um your vitamins so vitamin a what breaks down
17:22
in smaller things again typically thinking about like your vitamins you know but you know calcium zinc vitamin a
17:30
b c um those are things that uh of course are important you know that
17:35
that's what's what's making up the macronutrients of what you're eating so um yeah so just think about it
17:44
it's more of at a granular level than the macro nutrients of those three categories that's probably one of the
17:51
best descriptions i've heard of it because i've always been cloudy as to what it is and i've asked and yeah it's
17:57
never been so succinctly yeah well and again that's where it comes down to you know a calorie is not a calorie right
18:04
like one gram of protein i mean so there's just yeah what makes up that
18:11
that calorie what what makes up that macronutrient what's the the quality of it and that's where you get into the
18:17
micronutrients to determine that um i was wondering if you you touched earlier
18:23
on when you first were starting out on your journey you mentioned you were looking for the quick fixes right and so
18:30
in today's society we're always seeing like what's advertised in terms of you know um get a six-pack within six months
18:38
or lose x amount of kilos within yeah so i'm just wondering like where do you
18:44
think that people started falling into this trap of instant gratification and
18:51
why is it that we're so susceptible to that so to give people a little grace
18:56
and to make them hopefully feel a little bit better about themselves if they feel like they fall into that trap because
19:01
frankly i think all of us on some level do um i honestly think it stems from the
19:08
beginning i mean if you think about it one analogy i always bring up is you've got the hunter gatherer and uh he he
19:15
sees um some he sees uh you know some deer uh go ahead of him and go around
19:22
this mountain well he sees i could go over the mountain or i could go around the mountain well going around the
19:28
mountain is going to be a lot easier than going over it well why would you go over it then it doesn't make any sense
19:35
you're going to go the path of least resistance i mean that makes logical sense and i really think that's
19:42
ultimately where it stems from so i think when we recognize that we say "okay well then we're going to have to
19:47
kind of fight against what is the norm." um for reasons that you know we'll soon
19:54
understand if we if we haven't already so to make it you know more relevant to
20:00
today we do i'm sure everyone listening to this lives in an environment
20:06
where almost everything is at our fingertips you know instant gratification through endless choice of
20:14
entertainment through our streaming services um food delivery at a moment's
20:20
notice groceries just everything is available to us now and so it's hard to
20:26
separate that from our expectations around our health and our fitness um but
20:34
statistically and i think i'm thankful for this um the quicker something is accomplished
20:42
with regards to whether it's weight loss uh i would say as it's most relatable
20:48
here talking about weight loss um the more assured you can be that it's not going to be long term um and so you know
20:56
if you can get people away from just chasing a target chasing a goal and understand that look to do it the right
21:03
way takes time um i think is is vital plus i think you know one of
21:10
the point and then i'll shut up is that um most well many people like myself i'm
21:17
sure like you all are very goal oriented and it's hard to take your focus off of
21:23
that target and just accept that you really need to focus on the process and
21:29
enjoying the steps that hopefully will get you to where you want to be and i do
21:35
think that if you don't one most people will never reach that goal uh but if
21:41
they do back to my earlier point it will be short-lived because the reality is
21:46
the harder it is for them to get to where they want to be the less likely they're going to be able to stay there
21:52
you know once they get there so i love that you i love that you said that and i
21:58
think also what needs to happen then is that people kind of redefine what success is you know like so most people
22:04
like you said are goal oriented so to them they're they've succeeded when they've lost those x amount of kilos but
22:10
i think if they can really look at it as oh you know in the process i've you know attained new habits um sustainable you
22:18
know nutrition um my mindset i've strengthened my mindset in the process and i would look at that as then that's
22:25
that is what is the success and and i think people are so our brains are
22:30
almost wired for this immediate reward yeah and so it's hard for us to to stop
22:37
and take a moment and think no and savor the journey and savor savor that process and i think there's even a lot of
22:43
philosophies that say that the obstacle is the way that it's you know the thing that is the hardest you know we talk
22:49
about you know whatever scares you like jump into it do it face scared yeah exactly yeah and so like it's kind of
22:56
the same thing you know it's it's at the root of it it's going to be fear that that fuels your lack of motivation or
23:02
your lack of um desire to be consistent and at the end of the day you do it anyway
23:08
so um yeah i think just sort of like shifting our focus to enjoying the the
23:14
journey and i'm totally guilty of of not doing that as well i think it's so it's definitely not preaching but yeah it's
23:20
it's blind leading the blind but certainly something that we're working towards as well just um on a personal
23:26
level but yeah you're absolutely right we live in a world where everything is like no there's an easy quicker faster
23:32
way to get it done so why shouldn't the same apply for fitness you know and i think you can accomplish both
23:40
um because something else i think is very relatable is there's nothing wrong with being happy with where you are and
23:47
still wanting more and i think similar with a goal especially because you know
23:54
i live in the us well you know 75 to 80% of people are overweight that doesn't
24:00
mean they're obese but they're overweight so most of my clients work with me because they need and want to
24:07
lose weight so again i don't expect people to not have some sort of goal in
24:12
mind but you can have that goal but also understand the importance of each daily
24:18
step uh that you are doing to be able to achieve that goal and be able to sustain
24:25
once you get there so again it doesn't have to be an either war but i think refocusing and the more you can
24:31
understand that the process yes really is um what you should fall in love with
24:36
and if you can something else i talk about too is again all with the idea of
24:41
it being sustainable you have to enjoy it can you make it a part of your lifestyle and the more that you can
24:48
control your environment to work towards a lifestyle that you want um the easier
24:55
that's going to be so again you know making sure that it's something you enjoy that you will sustain that doesn't
25:00
feel hard every day is is crucial so motivation gets you through the door but
25:06
it's the discipline that's going to keep you keep you there keep you there or you
25:12
know so it's just kind of like that's finding that yeah yeah difficult what is
25:18
um something that you face or come across quite a bit with your clients that is aside from um obviously you know
25:26
maybe people initially coming and saying i want a quick fix but then you move into um you know the coaching process
25:33
what's something that you find is is a really common thread in terms of what might destabilize that coaching process
25:40
yeah so there's a i would say there's a lot of things but yet they are somewhat
25:46
consistent and and they do repeat fairly often one of them is what we just talked about so i won't repeat all that but
25:52
just breaking someone from this idea of instant gratification and that they can have results quicker than is fair um and
26:01
quicker than is reasonably possible if it's something that you want to maintain
26:06
you know i'll say you know what's the point of losing 10 pounds in 2 months if
26:12
you put 15 back on four months later fortunately i've never had someone try
26:17
to argue that point once i make that comment i i could see how someone would argue and saying "well i only care about
26:23
losing these 10 pounds for bathing suit season once that's over." already like formulating the argument i was like
26:28
"well yes." but this goes back to my desire and i don't i don't say i'll only
26:34
work with someone if this is the case but my desire and the people that i i
26:40
would say enjoy working with and hope to work with more consistently are people that have a deep why um that care about
26:48
improving their health um for whatever reason that may be like that is the core of why they're wanting to make a change
26:55
i don't think there's anything wrong with caring about the way you look um as i'm sure you all know better than me and
27:01
can come from a more experienced and educated place um you know feeling good
27:07
about the way we look obviously is is vital to our mental health now again
27:12
being happy with the way you look is a whole another very complicated under uh topic but again i don't think there's
27:17
anything wrong with caring about your your aesthetics um but to get back to
27:22
the question kind of challenges again aside from the instant gratification and just the timing and being fair with
27:29
expectations i think would be that people just assume that it's going to be so hard um that making a change is going
27:37
to be uncomfortable you know no pain no gain just this it's not really applicable to say
27:44
this hustle mentality but it's just this that it's going to be a grind that it's going to be restrictive and i think so
27:49
much of that comes back to something we sort of already talked about and that's so prevalent in the industry um
27:57
something i say a lot of is that you know the health and fitness industry
28:02
doesn't care if it breaks you mentally as long as it changes you physically
28:08
and i would say that is one of the biggest reasons why i do what i
28:14
do and what you know gets me out of bed uh to a full day of coaching even when
28:21
maybe i feel run down is that man there's just so many misconceptions that people have and to do it the right way
28:29
whether it's with me or it's not to say that i'm the only person that that does it well um it it can't be too hard it
28:38
can't be too uncomfortable too often because again if this is something that you're going to sustain who's going to
28:44
go to crossfit class every day when you know the workout's going to be 200
28:49
burpees for time like holy crap i mean yeah lisa might do it for longer than i
28:55
might but at some point at some point burpee day i used to see the work be it
29:00
was burpie day no at some point you're going to say "no i'm not going to keep
29:06
doing this every time i do this it's horrible it's unenjoyable it's painful
29:11
you're only going to sustain for so long." and similar similarly with a diet or anything that you do if it's too hard
29:18
too often you're just not going to do it you're going to give up and your ability to reach whatever goal you're trying to
29:24
achieve comes down to how often can you be consistent and you can only be as
29:30
consistent as long as what you're doing is sustainable so um yeah so instant gratification um
29:38
being fearful that it's going to be harder than it should be because of just misconceptions and
29:44
misinformation um i think those
29:49
are i think those are the two biggest things i mean you could tie in just fear
29:55
of change right i mean people are afraid to change um but that's that could be a
30:00
whole another conversation so yeah i i would say that those are the the main ones i mean even when we started this
30:07
podcast i was in the depths and in the midst of my six months of i don't want
30:12
to do anything and it was literally that what that point that you made which is the fear that it's going to be harder than it is because yeah especially
30:19
coming from having been fit yeah and reliving how hard those those workouts
30:25
were and i was like "oh but i was younger back then too and it was still hard." and i was fitter back then and it was still hard and now i'm like on the
30:32
on the other side of two kids like it's going to be way too hard it's never going to happen and i'm going to work hard and nothing's going to change like
30:39
i foresaw it being so much more than it really would have been or really was and
30:47
it was enough for me to say "i don't even want to start because i can finish." yeah but um but it took a
30:53
really really long time and i think the patience aspect was hard too like
30:58
understanding which is hard for me patience the understanding that yeah it it will take
31:04
time you're going to work hard you're going to for me what i call break myself in
31:10
the gym that really put in 100% and walk away and still not feel a change
31:15
physically still not necessarily see any change for a while and then even when
31:21
you feel changes it's not going to be stuff that's noticeable it's not going to be things that maybe you can you know
31:27
measure yourself or weigh yourself and see a change but it's happening and so staying strong throughout that was
31:33
really is the hardest part for me well something you touched on that i want to just quickly comment on is i think
31:41
another big hurdle for most people is pride it's ego right it's they feel like
31:48
asking for help is a sign of weakness um and i think there are few things no i
31:54
pointed it to me and you like i think yeah i think there are few things more detrimental to someone's success than
32:02
having that mindset because i tell people you know well once they've come to me of course they're already kind of
32:07
over that hurdle but um taking that step for some people is harder than it is for
32:12
others and i say look at the most successful people in the world almost regardless of what industry or field
32:20
they have help they have coaches whether it's a life coach whether it's someone that helps them with their nutrition
32:25
their fitness you know their business they recognize that to be the best at something it's going to take a tribe
32:32
it's going to take other people and um so i think again you know putting that
32:38
misconception aside and asking for help and understanding that that actually shows your strength um and checking that
32:47
ego because again we all have it some it's more of a thorn than than others certainly for myself it's a huge
32:53
struggle um but i think recognizing that and trying to move past that is is huge
33:00
so but you're fine what is it like you're like what.1% body
33:05
fat.1 not that low i would be dead i would be dead
33:11
but um yeah he's like actually yes hash goals
33:19
um have you ever had to turn any clients away and if so what why would you turn
33:27
them away so everyone that works with me and i don't think this will ever change i
33:33
don't know that i want it to kind of has an interview process and i tell them i
33:40
mean in a nice way you know you think you're picking me but i'm also picking you right because i do and i think this
33:48
is to their benefit i'm not just looking to get as many clients as possible um
33:54
not care about their success as long as i'm getting paid um if i don't feel like
33:59
i can help someone um because of their situation um or because they have unrealistic
34:08
expectations that one i'm not going to be able to meet nor do i think it's in their best interest to try to meet them
34:14
then we won't work together um so i definitely do some you know due
34:20
diligence on the front to try to make sure if there are
34:25
any quote unquote red flags like that that i can identify them so yeah there's people who have had that conversation
34:32
with me that haven't end up working with me i would say from the ones that i know
34:41
um they either didn't work with anyone or it was because i just wasn't telling
34:47
them what they wanted to hear and that comes with the quick results because i tell people like look i know what sells
34:55
i know what people want to hear but fortunately for them i care more about
35:00
their best interest than maybe they do um and so i just you know i just won't
35:07
go i won't go down that road i tell people i will never promise you a certain amount of weight loss but what i
35:13
will promise is that your mindset around eating around being healthy will be
35:19
changed forever and and once you have that information and that knowledge well then you're responsible for it right so
35:28
um so yeah that's the gift that keeps on giving because even after they finish the coaching with you they can take that
35:33
with them and that is actually what gives them the ability to be sustainable so it's actually you're giving them like
35:40
more than their money's worth really it's such a that's such a beautiful thing and i really feel like i mean i
35:46
myself i'm a mindset coach so i think and i originally studied to be a holistic health coach but i think in my
35:53
what i understood was okay we can put in all of the right foods in our body and
35:58
we can move the right way but if we're still constantly battling ourselves and you know that that's always going to be
36:05
a struggle for us like until you get your mind right i feel like it's always going to be something that you're going
36:11
to it's always going to be an uphill battle you know 100% and that's why sorry i apologize no go ahead no go
36:18
ahead please well and that is why i think i was more attracted to focusing
36:24
on helping people with their nutrition than writing an exercise plan because
36:31
for people who have put on a lot of weight and are trying to lose it and
36:36
according to you know the literature that's 60 plus pounds there are so many
36:42
more demons associated with food than there are with exercise um it's not to
36:47
take away from someone making the decision that they're going to re that they're going to exercise regularly if
36:53
that's not been a part of their life maybe ever but the food piece is is harder for most people um you know it's
37:01
it's more it's the cookie cutter approach just doesn't work you really do have to figure out what works for that
37:07
individual so back to your point of figuring out why uh why did you put on
37:14
100 pounds if you don't if you don't get to the core of what caused that um then
37:20
just because you lose it it may not fix everything and so that's why some of my clients who have had a real challenge um
37:28
also are you know in therapy to try to get to that core again to to heal the
37:33
the mental um aspect of it because yes i agree that's it's hugely important yeah
37:38
i think simultaneously when you're working on your nutrition you're working on what's happening up here because and
37:44
especially maybe i don't know if there's a difference between men and women but i can say as women like we are emotional
37:50
eaters and you know stress we carry stress also differently so and when we're stressed out you know we might
37:56
resort to eating a lot more to you know for whatever reason even your body
38:01
metabolizes differently when you're hormones like will make you actually want to eat certain things but it also
38:07
will process things differently so so when you work on that relationship with food you're working on that up here as
38:13
well and that's such an absolutely that's so important and i think that's that's that's amazing that that's what
38:18
you've taken on with your clients as well so well and i'm not a mental health coach so i don't but but you're doing
38:24
that a lot of what i do right a lot of what i do is helping them shift their
38:29
mentality uh which in most cases has been broken oftentimes to no fault of
38:35
their own because of society and so again yes that is an important piece that i i try to work in you know when i
38:43
can at an appropriate you know level that i think i'm qualified for yeah yeah and i think we even talked about this in
38:49
a previous episode where we said like the the fitness industry is moving probably towards when we talked about
38:54
like ai having a hand in it we talked about the future of the future of health yeah that you're probably going to have
39:01
like a fitness a fitness trainer or coach some ai robot that's going to also
39:06
have like a psychology degree because the two are so inexplicably i can't talk even last week
39:13
i couldn't talk inex inexplicably linked um you really can't have one without the
39:19
other you really really really can and so like this correlation between mind and body and and treating the two in
39:26
tandem i think is such a a great step that we're moving towards i think that we're moving towards that that even you
39:33
have fitness experts and coaches saying "yeah you know what i think it's great that you're in therapy i think it's great that you're dealing with the
39:39
things that cause you to be unhealthy in the first place so that even if your body is healthier you're holistically
39:46
healthy at the end of this journey um and yeah i think i think that's it's so
39:51
nice i love it i love it um uh one of the things that um i think
39:58
we touched on earlier when we asked you about sustainability was uh you know you
40:03
you mentioned doing something that is not going to be basically so hard that
40:08
it's impossible for you to wake up every day and and stick to and so is there an
40:14
approach or a ratio that in your opinion kind of seems to make a bit more sense with regards to sustainability of 50/50
40:22
is it a you all or nothing approach like just cut everything out and try and just firm it
40:27
or is it like you know what what do you think in your opinion is is a sustainable reasonable approach when it
40:34
comes to that yeah so i'll quickly answer your question and then i'll expand uh if it makes sense so my goal
40:43
for every client um and i think every individual would be an 8020 principle and what that means is
40:51
80% of the time i think we should eat real whole nutritious foods that are if
40:57
at all very minimally processed um and then the other 20% is for everything
41:04
else because the reality is again for it to be sustainable it has to work within
41:09
your life and to go back to you know earlier conversation we had most diets
41:16
are restrictive and there's only so much discipline that we have uh it's funny
41:23
you know i heard this articulated a few years back but it's kind of stuck with me and that is that you know again
41:28
discipline is a finite resource and if you have a very difficult job and you
41:33
have a busy household and you're required to use 90% of your discipline over here for that stuff well that only
41:40
gives you 10% left for your nutrition for your exercise it doesn't you don't
41:45
have you know 100% here and 100% there and so for it to be sustainable it it
41:51
can't be you know all that difficult and all that hard so making sure that you're being
41:57
inclusive you know maybe one of the things that you really enjoy is ice cream well if you also attribute that as
42:06
something that you shouldn't eat well then what's going to happen like okay this week i had a slight craving for ice
42:12
cream nope i can't eat that it's not good for me and the second week goes by same thing nope nope can't eat that well then a month goes by
42:19
exactly and in a moment of weakness because you have restricted yourself for so long and you've convinced yourself
42:26
that craving is wrong and you've denied it now instead of having you know a
42:31
scoop each week you go and probably not a woman but i'll say a man you know as a
42:37
generalization goes and eats you know half a gallon of ice cream so you have to allow yourself those
42:46
indulgences obviously you know you can't flip it around and and 80% of the time is things that are not nutritious uh and
42:53
20% are and i think another important component and something that i do see
42:59
trending in a positive direction is i try although i don't do it perfectly um
43:04
to not even use the term junk food i think demonizing food is is a bad thing
43:10
overall um obviously as we've already talked about some foods are more
43:16
nutrientdense are more nutritious than others um but the reality is unless you
43:21
are an olympian unless you are a professional athlete that really has to
43:27
you know manage every last little thing that goes in the body even them i think there's still got to be some balance
43:32
maybe it's 9010 you know but i think again for the average person to create a
43:38
sustainable approach i think the 8020 is the best place to start yeah i think
43:45
that's that sounds totally reasonable because yeah even from experience the
43:50
full restriction it's just not sustainable and then the moments when
43:55
you do break you're so hard on yourself because you're like "oh my god i had
44:00
this streak of like perfection and then i broke." and when you break because of the restriction it's a big break it's
44:07
not like a oops slipped and fell but caught myself a little bit and so yeah i
44:12
think just having a realistic sort of um pattern to it makes so much more sense going to say because you know that guilt
44:18
is you know accompanied with like guilt and stress like and stress causes those spikes of cortisol in your body so like
44:25
every time you eat something that technically like if we were to if you kept that label of junk food on there
44:31
and every time you eat it you're going to feel guilty and then that in itself like the cortisol is going to like
44:36
causes inflammation you're going to feel like you're gaining weight every time you eat something and then you'll be more depressed about it or depressed
44:43
about it for an emotional so it's just like if you like what you're talking about with your 8020 like if you just
44:48
approach it like i'm going to enjoy this ice cream or i'm going to enjoy this cupcake you know and not feel guilty
44:54
about it like there's you definitely for have a different approach to it and i think your
44:59
body receives that differently as well i really like that like yeah not calling
45:04
it junk food because we have so i that's like a aha moment yeah really i'm gonna start doing that that is not good i'm
45:12
going to start also doing that because yeah food has been demonized and like we all generally live in a world where our
45:19
relationship a moment on the lips forever like it's just like that's
45:25
something that's ingrained in my head forever so like you said it's a bad thing like hips is not bad
45:33
that's awesome well and a couple things that i think i kind of tie into that philosophy is
45:39
um well let me actually go back real quick because something you said that i i didn't want to forget to mention i
45:46
heard this articulated recently so i'm not going to take credit for the analogy but they said that think about a bucket of water
45:54
that's full well our progress comes in drops of water but our
46:01
regression comes in buckets so to their point you know lisa it's unfortunately
46:08
so easy to undo the hard work that we've put in mindset it goes back to again
46:15
you're hearing you're hearing this recurring theme but it comes back to
46:20
well that's because the way that you're doing it isn't sustainable if it's sustainable then you're not going to be
46:27
you're not going to have the likelihood of binging you're not going to have the likelihood of burnout so it allows you
46:34
to be more consistent and so you know consist consistency doesn't mean perfection it doesn't mean never missing
46:40
a workout it means don't put yourself in a situation where your diet's been so restrictive your workout routine has
46:46
been so hard that you get to a point where you're like enough and then you you know overeat for a week and then
46:53
undo the two months of work that you had previously done so um so yeah i think
47:00
that's hugely important and you know something else you said which is that
47:06
stress is huge and it comes back to managing that stress because life is stressful okay there are certain
47:11
stresses that you're probably not going to be able to control and so how can we minimize stress by again creating a
47:17
sustainable plan for you as it relates to what you eat and how you exercise so
47:24
yeah it's all it's all intertwined it's all connected for sure you know one of the thing that i try to instill in my clients as early as possible is being
47:32
mindful of everything they eat so i say
47:37
train yourself to ask the following question you know with what i'm about to eat or drink is this putting me one step
47:44
closer to my goal but what surprises them is that the answer doesn't always
47:49
have to be yes but in forcing yourself to ask that question you're at least being mindful of what it is you're about
47:55
to do and i use the example of we go back to the ice cream analogy and the
48:00
craving and you know going out with your kids on a friday night to the local ice
48:07
cream shop and having a scoop or two of ice cream is different
48:12
than not giving in to that craving or that treat if you will for a month and
48:18
then again in a moment of weakness it's 11 o'clock at night and always under under the darkness you're
48:26
eating you know what you know late at night too why is that yeah i don't know
48:33
but you know because that's something that i'm not saying that you should beat yourself up about if it happens you know
48:39
but still like that is a moment of weakness that you could have avoided had you allowed yourself something before it
48:46
got you know to that level so and yeah that mindfulness is a really great thing because it also practices it also allows
48:53
you to practice sort of listening to yourself and just having that moment of like calm before right before you go
48:59
ahead and make a decision and i think that's something great to practice even across across the board just sort of saying okay well is this the reaction or
49:07
the step that's going to take me closer to the objective the goal whatever it is i want to accomplish and i think that's
49:13
a a great tool to apply even across the board i think it also allows you to practice a little bit of self-compassion
49:20
like if you need it you need it if you want it in that moment then like just listen to what your body's telling you
49:25
if you are tired and you don't want to work out for a week like your body's sending you signals hey just take it
49:30
easy you know what i mean so just giving yourself a little bit of grace and not attaching that guilt to it um and i
49:37
think the more you listen to your body the the more coherent or the more
49:42
discerning you get in understanding what your body is telling you so the more that you're aware of you know what this
49:48
is how i feel when i'm i'm doing something good for my body this is what my body tells me and the more you listen
49:53
to it the more you realize all right you know what today me not get going to the gym isn't actually yeah yeah it's not me
50:00
being lazy it's just me needing a rest and it allows you to be discerning enough to know the difference between that day and a day when you're like "h
50:08
just don't feel like going." yeah and be like "i'm just being lazy let me get my ass up." um and so yeah i think it's
50:14
always a great a great a graceful thing to do to be able to listen to your body
50:19
because we don't want to just survive either we want to thrive and i think that's what comes with us listening to our bodies and i'm sure you then have
50:26
also told your clients like on a day that you just don't feel like i mean i'm assuming you give them like a workout
50:31
plan and whatever so on a day that you really don't feel like lifting those weights or doing that you know cardio
50:37
like just telling them at least show up to the mat you know even if you just sit on the mat and you stretch do something
50:44
just to show up and just to kind of get your body into that habit into that routine of of you know so i think it's
50:52
just tweaking it on those moments where you're just not feeling it like being able to
50:58
i think it's great to have someone that kind of tells you that because having i
51:04
can definitely say for myself having a history of not being gracious to self um
51:11
that even on the days where i'll say i'm not going to go what's going to happen is it's going to be two three days of me
51:18
not going and instead beating myself up and being like you see weren't consistent you know you're a lazy bum
51:24
you should have done this and and which is just counterproductive to me being able to wake up the next day and say all right i missed yesterday that's fine i'm
51:31
rested now let me go and get back to it and so having someone i think the importance of the coach is not always
51:37
just someone to be there and you know to push you but to also understand how to to allow you to speak to yourself
51:44
correctly to get you motivated and consistent so um yeah i think having
51:49
perspective i mean yes first off everything we talked about as far as showing yourself grace i think is hugely
51:55
important and you know you could touch on that which could branch to a much bigger conversation but and just being
52:01
honest with yourself right like looking yourself in the mirror and being honest
52:08
okay do i really think that i don't want to work out today because my body's just telling me it
52:15
needs rest or or it's just just a moment where you know i lack that motivation
52:22
that i'm still hoping is always going to be there um you know only you really
52:28
know that and i think the more you can learn to discern between you know the
52:35
other thing that people i think sometimes well fall into one of two camps they either classify everything as
52:42
a reason um or they classify everything as an excuse and it's like you know they are two separate things you know some
52:48
are in your control and others are not but again it goes back to like being honest with yourself like you know um
52:56
showing yourself some grace um but then the comment i made about having perspective like look look at the big
53:02
picture so you missed one meal so you blew one day so you blew a week big deal
53:10
get back on the horse and get back on you know the path of where you want to be yeah yeah and i think that's the the
53:16
resilience ultimately is what allows someone to be consistent is
53:22
understanding that again i mean these phrases like everyone's heard but it's like hopefully some of them it won't
53:28
just go in one ear out the other like you'll really just let it resonate but progress over perfection and again i
53:35
think we probably share a lot of similar traits um the three of us um obviously
53:41
for people that are type a that are highly driven competitive some of these things are very difficult um very hard
53:50
to to overcome um but it's still i think vital for longevity uh as it relates to
53:58
achieving your goal and and then being able to you know maintain whatever is whatever it is you're trying to achieve
54:05
speaking to a fellow type a what would you tell yourself 10 years ago now with
54:13
the knowledge and the experience that you have if you ben 10 years ago came to you and said
54:19
listen i don't sort of know what to do but i want a change to happen what would
54:25
you what would you say to yourself
54:31
you know i i as i say this i'm already recognizing that i i haven't achieved it
54:36
now um but that would be to try to that's the type yeah i mean to try to
54:41
find a sense of balance and what do i mean as that relates to this conversation so
54:48
it's not all or nothing you know it doesn't mean that if your diet's not perfect if your exercise
54:54
routine's not perfect then well then screw it i guess i just won't even try to be exceptional at whatever i'm doing
55:01
it doesn't have to be that way like you can care about your health you can be healthy um and still you know not be in
55:08
the gym seven days a week you can still be healthy and care about what you're eating and your health and not you know
55:14
track every last little thing that goes into your body um it's not all or nothing and again i think for people
55:21
like myself like it's very hard to acknowledge that it doesn't mean that
55:26
you're slacking it doesn't mean that you're not fully committed um and so i i
55:32
think i would say again as early as possible like recognize that it's a
55:38
struggle but recognize that it does exist and i think the ability to find it comes from again finding a plan a
55:46
lifestyle that is sustainable because it's what you enjoy so i tell people like you know how many people do we know
55:53
that decide "oh i got to lose weight guess i'm going to start running." and they hate running yes well i mean i see
56:01
running all the time too and i'm just like you know what i think we can talk about that later but i know a little
56:07
marathon this morning on the weekends i think um you know one i love to tell
56:12
people like okay if you don't enjoy it stop doing it because it's not even the best way to lose fat um but again it
56:19
kind of goes back to how long are you going to keep doing that it's not even the best way to lose fat yeah yeah yeah
56:25
we can if you want to like save that little topic about run yeah i mean yeah
56:31
so just steady state cardio is good for one thing and that's building aerobic endurance and i guess you could say two
56:37
things it is healthy from a cardiovascular standpoint but long state
56:42
steady cardio won't impact steady state it doesn't have like you can be walking on an burning the same amount of
56:50
calories and get your heart rate up as as high as if there is a hack if there is a holy grail to fat loss truly it's
56:58
walking i'm a walker i do my i do my speed walking what is your goal per day
57:05
do you do the 10,000 steps no i that used to it stressed me out so much when
57:10
i didn't get to the 10,000 so now it's just like i just want to make sure that i walk at least so it was not
57:15
sustainable yeah so just like walk at least maybe half an hour a day or just do something where i'm moving around you
57:21
know well no i mean i'm a man i can't focus anyway so to back before i totally
57:27
forget my train of thought but i do think i do think the walking in the steady state could be a little like
57:32
micro conversation but um find what you enjoy doing as it relates to
57:38
contributing to your health so is it a sport is it you know again you don't like running well hey do you like
57:44
playing tennis hey that's very active you know do you like similarly yeah
57:49
whatever it is like try things and find things that you enjoy that allow you to
57:55
be active on a regular basis um because for everyone it's not you know crossfit
58:02
for everyone it's not you know running um and you have to figure out what you enjoy because again otherwise you're not
58:08
going to sustain it um so i i think i would really you know that coupled with this i tell people at an early age of
58:16
course you have typically you have greater control over this than as you get older and things just maybe get more
58:21
complex maybe you you know you have a partner you have kids and you know moving quickly can be more difficult not
58:28
impossible not impossible but it can just be more challenging if you can put yourself in an environment that allows
58:37
you to just naturally be more active well i don't think i have to tell you all but you know the united states for
58:44
the most part is not conducive to just walking unless you are in a very
58:50
fortunate small percentage of places um again those are very hard and normally
58:57
expensive to come by so um but as much as you can control your environment that
59:02
allows you hey yeah i can walk out the front door and go down and get my groceries i can walk out the front door and go to you know a handful of
59:08
restaurants um that's why we always love one of the reasons we always love traveling you know to europe and abroad
59:13
and just how much we're minded how wonderful it is to be able to walk to places yeah no that's something that we
59:19
have because you guys travel in the summertime that's why we have these beautiful cities that are walking but
59:24
they're cold like eight months of the year yes in the plan
59:30
but yeah no i mean europeans walk regardless that's one thing that you notice especially germans it will be
59:35
snowing out and people will be on their bikes and they'll be walking they'll be walking the dog they'll be walking for fun without hesitation which is still
59:42
crazy to me like it'll be literally snowing and likeus 10 and you'll see people like on a sunday like yeah we're
59:47
just going for a walk so yeah it's definitely something that i think um is great when like you said you work it
59:53
into your lifestyle and then it just becomes something that you do and it changes your identity right and the more
1:00:00
you can change your identity as someone who isn't healthy to someone who is healthy the more you're likely to
1:00:06
maintain that you know forever so you know there's so many again
1:00:12
misconceptions but assumptions that i think one of the biggest ones is age right well the older we get it's just
1:00:18
natural that i'm going to feel more run down that things are going to ache that i'm going to have one well but you know
1:00:27
fits when we're older econom is a major misconception yeah and
1:00:32
i'll be honest just full transparency it would be easier for me to i guess fairly
1:00:40
articulate the difference if i had been in the shape that i'm in now 20 years
1:00:45
ago right i wasn't now it wasn't to say that i mean 20 years ago i wasn't you know 75
1:00:52
pounds overweight um so all i can say so keeping that you know in mind i do feel
1:00:59
better now than i can ever remember i mean i don't like every year
1:01:06
i still feel either as good if not better now yes i'm you know 43 not 53 or
1:01:14
63 but i know people 10 years younger than me that i hear complain about oh
1:01:19
gosh i guess now that i hit 30 i should you know expect this backachche every morning when i get up and i'm like what
1:01:25
are you talking about you know so again i think so many of those factors are in
1:01:32
our control um and they do come down to
1:01:38
what we put into our bodies they do come down to how often do we exercise um so so again i think they're surprised
1:01:46
at almost how immediately people will feel better a lot quicker than maybe
1:01:51
they will see the you know visible signs of their change but as we know the
1:01:57
sooner someone can experience those improvements that does kind of reinvigorate right and it does naturally
1:02:04
kind of keep you motivated um so i think everyone is surprised that not to change
1:02:11
the subject but that it's easier than they thought it would be um that it's not as hard um that it's not you know
1:02:17
life that it's not lifealtering they don't have to like totally just flip their life upside down you know to
1:02:24
suddenly care about you know their health um so i know that kind of roundabout way answers your question
1:02:31
yeah no absolutely yeah it does but i think um it's it's amazing to me to hear
1:02:37
someone yeah like in your 40s say that i feel better than i ever have in my life because one thing that we always tend to
1:02:42
do is reminisce on what we were say oh i wish i could go back to how i was in my 20s i wish i could and what i found
1:02:49
myself like when i was crossfiting a lot and i was quite fit i always kept saying and i wish i found crossfit when i was
1:02:56
like 17 or 18 yeah because i would have just been it would have been a whole different ball game right but like
1:03:03
instead of just sort of celebrating where i am now i think that's um a really good point you make that you can
1:03:09
actually still have your fittest happiest healthiest moments still in front of you it's not always
1:03:16
retrospective and being like "oh i wish i was like this or you know it's downhill i'm over the hump." like
1:03:21
there's people who are badasses in their 50s and 60s also these grandmas i don't
1:03:26
know why it keeps coming up on my algorithm but i keep seeing these like 60 62 year older women who are lifting
1:03:32
crazy and ripped and i'm like okay i get it i get it i think and i love that for us also because i feel like we're in a
1:03:38
time where we can say you know we can you know we've always heard you know age gracefully or whatever but now like
1:03:44
we're actually seeing it and women are women i'm talking from women's perspective now because men always age
1:03:51
grace yeah like we've we've already been told that once we hit a certain age once we hit per menopause or menopause or
1:03:57
whatever like that's it like it's over the hill and we're done with but i think now also like you're seeing like women
1:04:02
in their 50s and their 60s and even men you know like you can be strong if if
1:04:07
not stronger um as you age and i think it's just also changing how we perceive the concept of
1:04:15
aging like we're not getting old and we're frail and you know like we're we can do something about that we can do
1:04:21
something about that right now to to keep us strong and fit once we get to
1:04:26
that age you know and i think it's just how you how you approach it how you perceive it exactly because there's
1:04:32
calendar age versus metabolic metabolic yeah and you know so like how you treat your body as you're growing older can
1:04:39
determine what really how old you are inside like in my head i'm still 25
1:04:45
yeah i'm still 25 until i i try to dance and then i try to drop down you're 40 you're
1:04:51
41 i get stuck i go back up yeah the body reminds me i'm not 25 but yeah like
1:04:56
but there's a lot about how we live our lives that makes us much younger than we were if you look at like our parents'
1:05:02
generation or our grandparents generation when they were our age they do look significantly older because look at the golden girls we are golden girls
1:05:09
age right now do you realize right now and me like that's not what we i don't
1:05:14
scary we're blanch de age yeah we are definitely
1:05:20
oh man yeah so we're doing all right i think i think we're okay i think we're doing all right um actually this is a
1:05:27
bit of a wild card um so i don't know if you've heard of what's his name brian
1:05:33
johnson brian johnson the man who wants to live no i'm not actually better than
1:05:38
i am so there's this guy who basically has um he's got a documentary about his
1:05:43
lifestyle that is essentially built entirely on um extreme measures that
1:05:49
he's taken to prolong his life um what he considers to be healthy but at this stage it's still quite a lot of the the
1:05:57
measures he takes are quite um he's like a test subject yeah are still like um
1:06:03
but they're based on science but really they haven't been tested in anyway what he does is you know he has his sunlight
1:06:10
his infrared treatment his workouts obviously he only eats like a really really really strict regimented diet he
1:06:17
i think takes upwards of 150 different pills every day supplementing he has
1:06:24
also now started or towards the end of the documentary at that time had started
1:06:30
injecting himself with like his younger son's blood because there's some study that shows that he can sort of like
1:06:37
it'll regenerate something anyway and now he's also been giving his blood to his father so that his father can also
1:06:45
anyway so a lot of it is not wildly controversial but a little bit out there but makes for good or moderately good
1:06:55
entertainment i mean on by netflix documentary standards anyway so i just
1:07:00
found it really interesting that there's this guy who and what he does is he measures his aging at the end of every
1:07:06
12 months he measures what percentage he's aged by and so what he's trying to do is basically slow down his aging
1:07:13
process that's his ultimate objective um and apparently he's slowed it down
1:07:21
significantly yeah significantly over the course of all these treatments and so obviously you know people we're
1:07:28
obsessed with fountain of youth type type of stuff but um what is your take on
1:07:37
um something that extreme that obviously
1:07:42
he's an aberration but that a man like that manages to obviously be sustainable
1:07:49
with the help of millions of dollars and his team and all of these doctors but he
1:07:55
manages to make that sustainable for him um because i know i have i have an
1:08:01
opinion on it but um i was just curious to think or to see what you think about
1:08:06
it um something that's extreme i know you haven't seen it but yeah no i mean
1:08:12
the the first thing that jumps out to me is well two things one something we've already talked about is just someone
1:08:19
looking for some quick fix right oh yeah if i did this then i would get x y or z so but i think the bigger point you know
1:08:28
to discuss is people getting too stuck on the
1:08:33
details and and not not focusing on the things that have the greatest impact on
1:08:40
their health um because supplements are sexy but eating you know chicken broccoli and sweet potatoes for dinner
1:08:47
that's just boring and it's this mentality that like well the sexy exciting shiny stuff is the stuff that
1:08:53
works but the boring stuff ah that can't be effective it sounds too it sounds too
1:08:59
simple um so you know an analogy i
1:09:05
analogy i use i know a lot of people don't like it but you can make it what's that they don't like what i said chicken and broccoli is good i don't know why a
1:09:12
lot of people don't like it my favorite a lot of people find it unexciting i'm like you can you can make it slap you
1:09:17
can make it really good yeah and obviously just an example but i think but no no but i understand a lot of people are like ill yeah you know people
1:09:24
will ask me hey you know what what fish oil supplement do you take when i know and they know that they're eating a very
1:09:31
unhealthy diet and it's like let's focus on you know if you look at like think about a traditional food pyramid right
1:09:38
so not that everything he was doing falls into the supplement category but i believe that supplements so things that
1:09:45
you are supplementing your regular diet make up about
1:09:50
1% well so you know why would you focus on supplementation when you're not
1:09:56
eating you know a nutritious balanced diet you know that's really at the
1:10:01
bottom is i think lifestyle but right at the second level of the pyramid is what you eat and so again focusing on the
1:10:09
things that have the greatest impact on your health uh and all these other
1:10:14
things it's not to say that i don't believe supplementation is valuable but again it's like let's make sure
1:10:21
everything else is in line first before we grab at something that doesn't have
1:10:26
no impact but has a less uh important impact than the other pieces yeah i
1:10:32
agree with that entirely and it's in the name it's supplementing it's literally meant to be like helping something else
1:10:38
that's there and so yeah i think he does all of these things where he's like "oh you know i don't go out in the sun and
1:10:44
you know i i stand in front of this light and i have this like hair growth thing that like keeps me from going."
1:10:49
like he does all of these other things but yeah the supplementation is such a big part of it and even if he is eating
1:10:55
healthy you're absolutely right that's something i hadn't really thought about is that he's not put the focus of his
1:11:02
health on his food intake it's on his supplement intake and that's what you get largely from that from that
1:11:09
documentary but right really everything you need and a supplement is mirroring what you get from food anyway yeah and i
1:11:16
and i'll touch on that you know quickly we don't have to do a deep dive but i i do believe that supplementation is
1:11:22
important because the reality is because one of the points that you didn't make but almost made and if i had been able
1:11:29
to complete your sentence you almost got there but everything that we need we can just get from food well the unfortunate
1:11:35
thing is that's not true now depending upon where you live like being in europe being nutrient you have a better quality
1:11:43
i think overall of like produce than we have i mean you know i know and i i won't i don't want to speak incorrectly
1:11:50
so maybe germany doesn't isn't this way but i know in some countries in europe that i've been to it's like well it's
1:11:55
all organic there's not like a hey do you want the organic or do you want the non-organic no it's all organic we're here there's still in most cases there
1:12:02
are two choices there's whole foods and there's affordable food well no but even but yeah but even like well the whole
1:12:09
foods store for example there are organic bell peppers and there are non-organic bell peppers and i don't
1:12:14
have to tell you which one is more expensive and in some cases three or four times as expensive really let's
1:12:21
just so but let's just go back to my point which was that food is not as nutrientdense as it was
1:12:29
100 years ago y whether it's organic or not it just isn't and so for certain
1:12:34
micronutrients for certain vitamins it is all but impossible to get the
1:12:39
recommended dose by just getting it from food that isn't true to all vitamins and
1:12:45
micronutrients but some and so that's where i think the supplementation again you're doing everything with your food
1:12:51
that you can but you realize that for some of these things you just need more and that's why like if someone asked me
1:12:59
you know what is if you could only take one supplement what would it be that's a good question
1:13:05
i would probably say um a high quality greens supplement
1:13:11
because so many of the things in those greens supplements the level of micronutrients that they provide is just
1:13:17
all but impossible for someone to consistently get in their diet um so
1:13:23
you're just you're just filling in the gaps you're not looking you're not like someone is like "well i don't eat vegetables and i don't have to because
1:13:28
i've got this powder replace that." um still try to do your diet right but just
1:13:34
know that you're kind of filling in some of the gaps with uh with a supplement so it's like it's an add-on yeah absolutely
1:13:42
that's the that's the term that that's how true as a replacement i certainly
1:13:48
i've certainly been guilty of that in particularly with greens just because i'm like h i don't find anything that i
1:13:54
really like and there's nothing that that tastes like like what i know is i know really really good but yeah you
1:14:01
should well not to not to pick on lisa but i heard i heard this doctor actually use this analogy to the point of how
1:14:08
important it is for something to taste good and he said you know and this is this is meant to be somewhat comical so
1:14:14
i don't want anyone to take offense to this but they were like you could create a drink that would cure cancer but if it
1:14:19
tasted like gasoline nobody's going to drink it no and so you know i don't
1:14:25
going back to my sustainable belief like i do think that you know there needs to be a a marginal element of discomfort or
1:14:34
of a lack of enjoyment but i also like to tell my clients who are all adults you know you're not a 5-year-old you
1:14:40
don't have to get excited about everything that you eat you know true now it doesn't mean hopefully that
1:14:46
you're like "this tastes horrible and i'm going to gag." but it just means that okay just throw the green
1:14:53
supplement back and it's it's over in 30 seconds you know what i mean so
1:14:58
i'm i'm finding that because i'm a foodie so i really like we are you know like my my relationship with food is not
1:15:06
just that obviously i need it to survive but it's it's it's it's my love language
1:15:11
but it's also my it's also my um you know it's an experience for me so i
1:15:17
really love great tasting food and i like sort of the whole process of it and
1:15:22
like having different flavors so but that's where you should be able to take any greens and i can mess it up but
1:15:30
that's why i need the greens that i can't get here what about i mean you're you're in germany you have amazon can't
1:15:37
they ship stuff for i know it's not like everything that's in the us gets shipped internationally but
1:15:42
amazon for rent from see i'm ignorant yeah it's y'all can get anything from
1:15:48
anywhere at any time like for us it's i don't know it's just a bit different well even though i didn't grow up you
1:15:55
know in the states uh i mean in well yeah so i moved to africa now when i was nine so from all my formative years were
1:16:02
you know in kenya and tanzania um i've never lived anywhere else internationally so yes i've been very
1:16:09
fortunate enough to travel to many countries all around the world but from living there no so i i'm very much i do
1:16:16
recognize as americans you know we we do have an extreme amount of convenience
1:16:21
and that's a blessing and a curse but um but no it's it's a good point yeah no
1:16:27
you guys have all a lot of the good stuff still pretty and a lot of bad stuff hey listen a lot of that i mean
1:16:32
also comes with also this especially currently but i won't get into a yeah conversation but no to your point i
1:16:39
think it's very important to identify hey i love cooking that's my love language that's something that i enjoy
1:16:45
with my husband my family like i can't like stop doing that because you know i've got to now eat you know chicken
1:16:51
broccoli and sweet potatoes six nights a week no that's not you know regardless of what your goal is for the most part
1:16:58
like we can get you there by eating almost anything now again if we know
1:17:03
that 8020 is the goal well okay maybe you're not eating pasta god forbid like
1:17:08
seven nights a week right um doesn't mean you can't have pasta doesn't mean that oh i can't eat bread it doesn't
1:17:13
mean like get away from those traps like those are that's the demonizing you know part of the industry
1:17:20
that i absolutely abhore and you know fight tooth and nail to fix people's
1:17:25
psyche you know around so you don't have to give up alcohol all together yes food
1:17:32
is not the enemy no and something i say i don't think i said it already although it was in my head is i believe that the
1:17:40
demon is in the dose you know a couple glasses of wine kids at dinner is is one
1:17:47
thing you know two bottles every night with half a bottle of bourbon that's a
1:17:54
very different but but no my point is that yeah you got you got to think about like you know an
1:18:00
occasional coca-cola big deal well four a day well that's probably not good so
1:18:06
it's just don't demonize exactly yeah i think that's important uh but again be
1:18:12
honest you know with yourself about it like don't use it as a justification but yes it you you can't just give up
1:18:19
everything that you enjoy and think that agree that's and i think that's going to be really really valuable to our
1:18:26
listeners so um that's that's been amazing um is there anything that we
1:18:32
haven't mentioned asked or um touched on that you would want to
1:18:39
like say um at this point or so yeah i
1:18:44
mean i think a message that i found right now just so relevant and i know
1:18:50
you all saw it because i i shared it um and that is one of
1:18:57
just stop being afraid to start um again i don't want to get too like emotional
1:19:05
or i was going to say that made me emotional already get emotional that like that hit home i guess i guess i
1:19:12
don't also want to i think it's too important of a message to sugar coat and that is you know we all know i'm sure
1:19:17
everyone that listens to this knows someone or multiple people who you know
1:19:23
have left us too soon um
1:19:29
and there will always be randomness to disease so it's not my intent for someone to
1:19:36
hear what i'm saying as well they could have changed the outcome that's not fair
1:19:42
and i don't feel that way um however more and more research is coming to
1:19:49
light that we do have more control over the outcome than less so we have the
1:19:56
ability to control our longevity and certainly the quality of our life more than the
1:20:04
randomness to it and so if you know that you're in a place
1:20:11
where something needs to change from a health standpoint don't be arrogant enough to
1:20:18
think that you have time because you might but no one knows exactly what that
1:20:24
timeline is going to look like and you know i think so many times we think that we're going to get some sort of warning
1:20:31
some sort of heads up um and often times our bodies and our health will give us
1:20:37
that but not every time i mean how many times have we known someone who had
1:20:43
their first heart attack and that was it not everyone gets those again those
1:20:49
warning signs that maybe something's not right and so you know it's it's your health it's it's
1:20:55
the it's the most should be the most important thing i think in your life and
1:21:01
so many times it's just kind of a second thought if that so yeah i would just say
1:21:08
you know don't take it for granted um you know when you have it it's great
1:21:14
when you don't there's nothing kind of that you want more so um yeah i guess
1:21:19
that would be kind of my my lasting message then ultimately that's why i love doing what i do because listen i'm
1:21:25
not here to change the world but um if there's someone that sees something i share if there's someone that i have the
1:21:31
unique opportunity to actually speak to one on- one um even if it's someone
1:21:37
that's working with me or just in a friendly conversation i can feel confident that i've given them good
1:21:43
sound advice that comes from a genuine real and caring place um and that isn't
1:21:49
manipulative and i just hope that i've kind of helped educate them further to make you know some sort of positive
1:21:55
change kind of in their life so um i can testify that certainly you've you've
1:22:00
done that for us today i've never met you but i can feel that you have that energy and i think that everyone who
1:22:06
works with you definitely can also attest to that and so i thank you for doing what you're doing and for being
1:22:12
here with us today and you know sharing your message and your wisdom and your experiences and i just i love i love
1:22:18
that and i love that you ended with that last bit where you said you know we can we are in control like we can control um
1:22:27
and so to be proactive rather than reactive um just to kind of really pull
1:22:32
on that longevity and sustainable health and all of that so that was beautiful
1:22:38
thank you all yeah no it was a pleasure i um and if anyone you know wants to find me you know i'm on instagram that's
1:22:45
probably where you could see most we'll share your info in the description so in the description but we'll also put it on
1:22:51
the screen so yeah i apologize if there's any crazy people that start to
1:22:57
know you but it will no no no out of love all out of love goodness like i
1:23:02
said i genuinely love just any opportunity to talk to anyone whether it's an instagram message or someone
1:23:09
that reaches out you know again like not in a not from a sales angle but um you
1:23:15
know generally i mean everyone that i work with is is virtual and that's the great thing about you know this day and age and um but yeah anyone that just if
1:23:23
they have a question i mean i just i genuinely love talking about this stuff and answering questions and and
1:23:29
enlightening people you know when i can so yeah anyone just feel free to contact me anytime about about anything so well
1:23:37
you guys so feel free and we'll certainly be reaching out at some point again as well i think this is um a
1:23:44
really great opportunity and um if you're open to it at some point we will maybe do this again yeah round two so
1:23:53
yeah yeah i think it's nice it's a nice little series um so thank you so much um
1:23:59
it was nice to also connect with you again after i won't say how many years since high school let's not do the math
1:24:06
ben left the country on graduation day he was like i'm done i'm out
1:24:13
hasn't been vaccinated and then started college you know probably like most people like you know not too many weeks
1:24:18
later so yeah we didn't do gap year at our school no we're like no we we're already just on to the next so yeah felt
1:24:26
that but um so it's been really amazing to be able to connect with you again and to see you grow from strength to
1:24:32
strength as well as through your social media and the stuff that you um that you post so really inspiring even for me as
1:24:39
someone who's passionate about this stuff to see someone doing it in a way that resonates so well oh yeah no i i
1:24:45
appreciate you know reaching out and i'm glad that we're able to kind of yeah reconnect and i love the message that you guys share and so let's definitely
1:24:52
stay stay in touch and stay connected and yeah any any anytime i can help with
1:24:58
anything similar like i said i i think hopefully you can see i am very passionate about it and it's it's fun so
1:25:06
um just think of me so thank you oh we'll let you go and let get get all of
1:25:13
your day that the day um that you started very early to be able to to sort of meet us on our time difference so
1:25:20
again appreciate that absolutely i'll let you guys go i know you got more to do too and i'm going to get out for a
1:25:26
run before it starts to rain so a i know i know you're jealous like it's
1:25:33
about to rain here and i'm like no i'm like i'm like i don't even want to go pick up my baby right now from to go
1:25:40
take the train i know it's not fun that's why i could never live in a place where it rains a
1:25:47
lot because as much as i like to believe i'm the sort of person was like don't let things you can't control affect you
1:25:53
well we're all human right and so the weather definitely affects me and um so
1:26:00
anyway all right i'll let you guys go thank you thanks a lot have a good day all right bye talk soon byebye um thank
1:26:07
you again to ben for being with us today and for sharing all of your experience
1:26:12
and your wisdom and your knowledge i think it definitely a lot of it resonated with us and i think we even
1:26:17
had our own aha moments today as well um i think if for anyone that's listening
1:26:24
to this today as well if this really resonated with you follow share like
1:26:30
comment we love to hear what really uh struck you the most yeah and ben said
1:26:35
feel free to reach out to him too if you have questions that come out of the discussion today or any interest in you
1:26:41
know some of the things that he touched on he's he's open for you to reach out to him as well so his contacts have also
1:26:48
been shared and we'll share them again here so until next time bye