The Insane Cost of "Health"

In this episode, Carissa and Shemar talk about the unbelievable cost of health in today's world. And how much the marketing and messaging are convincing us that we need the latest of every health thing under the sun (most of which doesn't actually contribute to health or wellness at all). Superbowl commercials are on the chopping block, detoxes and maybe even your favorite new hydronating water bottle ;) Most of us need the absolute basics when it comes to health and fitness..,but we are getting duped into the expensive side of fitness. This episode will address the elevating prices in the fitness space, while also reminding you that there truly is no cost to being healthy when you break it down! Being your best self doesn't have to come with a hefty price tag - we promise!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Yeah, I love the bottom.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

What's up, y'all, and welcome back to another episode of Real Talk with Rebel. Woo woo woo woo woo. Got the OG cast here, just me and Carissa today. How you doing, Bows Lady? I'm good. How are you? Pretty good, you know.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Last recording was crazy. Um, you with Parker, which was awesome. That was such a good episode. If you guys are listening to this and you have not gone back and watched that, it was super inspiring. I put this on the post the other day, but you two individually inspiring, you two together, like that was absolutely amazing.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Well, absolutely amazing. Much appreciated. It was a great honor to get to talk to him. Yeah, great guy. Had some great perspective. Love hearing, you know, somebody else's side of coming out of such an extensive injury. You know, you can really take one of two paths. Is it F this I Give Up, why me? Or is it what's the next step? How do I move forward? Right. And just finding your why and moving forward. So yeah, if you haven't seen that episode, great episode, can't plug it enough. But today, we got something a little bit different, you know, coming off some amazing, you know, social events, some great current events. The Super Bowl was awesome, you know. I loved the halftime performance, but I did not love all the commercials.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Yeah. I think half the commercials were AI, probably, which already makes me mad because how many people could have just, you know, had a job working on a Super Bowl commercial that now don't get one? And how is that gonna be moving forward? And then just the content of a lot of the commercials, right? You know, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

You know, it's really interesting that you mentioned that. And I'm gonna just mention this now because I think we'll get off on what I what we know we're gonna talk about, which is the sickening amount of weight loss commercials that were happening during the Super Bowl. Um, and just the bizarre way that they came across. But one of the other commercials, did you see the one that was like all the old school actors? So it was like the guy from Cheers. Yes. So it was like the it was like Ted Dancing from Cheers, it was like the uh, I forget his name from Seinfeld, it was uh Rachel from Friends. Yeah, I can't think of any of their names right now, but so you know which one I'm talking about. Yeah, you know what you're talking about. That commercial was like like I get what they were trying to do. It was like I mean, because there's such a big nostalgia thing, right? Yes, everything's nostalgia right now. And it felt to me even like an anti-aging commercial almost. Like I was just like, this is where we're going with this now.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Remember how beautiful these people used to be?

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Instead of just putting them on, like it was just, I don't know. I that commercial gave me the absolute creep. Yeah. Like I like the creeps. I was like, I don't like that.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Like kind of uncanny valley stuff where like you could tell that they wanted you to think it was real, but it obviously wasn't real, you know.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

And like, what was the purpose of using AI for something like that? You know what I mean? Like, there was another one that I know they were like, um, oh, it was the one about apartment hunting or something like that with Jeff Goldblum. And like, um, and that girl, I can't remember her name, but like they were like going through space or like doing like something obviously AI helps because you can't do that in real life. But then there were ones like that one that I was like, what is the purpose? How much of our freaking planet did we just kill by you guys creating the stupid commercial that creeps everybody out and for what just makes us feel bad for age?

SPEAKER_00 3:50

That was you know, now they can just they can find anybody anywhere with a ring light. Yeah, they can just like, oh, we're we're looking for this person. Ring doorbell. Yeah. And you can like pretty much AI teach ring light or the ring doorbells now, whatever. Yeah. Ring doorbells to look for these people.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

We're looking for our pets.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Yeah, but wait until they put people's faces, wait until they're looking for you know, fugitives.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Anyway, all I know is a lot of good, lot of good stuff on there. There was a lot of stuff that, you know, made me tear up. It always does. There was a lot of stuff that gave me the absolute yuck.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Yeah. Um I think it was just for me the most polarizing year of like Super Bowl commercials where it's always been such a monocultural experience. To like, hey, let's go and talk about the cute Coca-Cola polar bear and whatever. Like everyone comes, like, did you see the Clydesdales this year? Yeah, like it's just always been a monoculture thing of like, hey, we all enjoy, and like, of course, we're being sold to, and it's very corporate, but at least it didn't feel so evil or whatever. It just felt like a monoculture experience. And it just felt it felt very divisive this year, kind of like the world has felt in general. So I just thought it was strange to feel that trickle into the Super Bowl commercials.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

And I think it's interesting because we have a different, we see the weight loss stuff differently. So for us, I think it's even more like ew for all of it. Whereas, like for a lot of, you know, people, which we're gonna talk about.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

That might be the first time they've seen it.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Or they're not even oh, they're not even thinking about it. There's like, oh, it's this commercial again and again and again and again and again, which we're gonna talk about. But it's like they're not even thinking about it as like ew. They're just thinking, oh, this is what it is to live in the United States and have 8,000 GLP 1 commercials shoved down my throat while I eat nachos and watch the Super Bowl.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

Not even just the Super Bowl, right? Like we were talking about you're watching, you know, your favorite show on Hulu, whatever. You might have my housewives boy pop up twice in a row. And it's like, can I at least get two different ads?

SPEAKER_01 5:51

Like literally, I don't think there's another ad that shows up on Hulu. I don't I don't know if anybody else watches. I watch I love Bravo. Um, it's my trash TV to um unclinch my jaw at night. And I literally every single commercial is the GLP one pill. Every single one of them. Or um Serena Williams, right? Isn't she the one? Or Serena Williams dancing around telling everybody how the 34 pounds that she lost using the medicine that her husband is a big time owner of, coincidentally, um, has made her feel like a brand new human being and now she's a better, better person overall. Anyway, it's those two. Yeah. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And it's like crazy. So anyway, I know we'll talk about that here in a second because it's really, you know, it's evil genius marketing. But for sure.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

And some of that's gonna segue, it might seem a little random that we're just ranting right now, but that is gonna kind of segue into what we've been talking about. And the the main topic of today is does health and wellness have a price problem? You know, is it is it being gatekeep or paywalled for people to actually be healthy these days? Right? Because it's all do you have the most organic food? Do you have this water bottle that electrifies your water? Because otherwise your water is dead and has no oxygen in it. Are you taking these four powders because otherwise there's no way you're getting enough fiber and greens, even though you could just eat real greens and get fiber in greens. But you know, there's there's just a way to sell you a quick fix, easy way to do what has always just been available pretty much through eating well, sleeping well, and moving your body. And of course, for different people, it's a different degree of how well you have to eat, how much you have to move, and how much you have to sleep, but it's just no longer being sold to us, I feel, anywhere that I'm seeing, that health can just be mostly a culmination of nutrition, movement, and rest plus recovery.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Oh, 100%. I mean, what is the point of living in this time, era, space, country, like however you want to put it, if we can't sell something.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Yeah, the amount of people that come into the gym now with just no idea how to lose weight because of how much information they're being, you know, just chucked full of all the time. Like people used to be like, I know what to do, I just don't have the discipline, and I need some help. Yeah, right. That's not what people are saying anymore. Now people are like, I just, I really don't know what to do. There's so much information out there. I don't know if I need to be keto or carnivore. I don't know if I need to do powerlifting or Pilates. Like, I just I don't know. Like, please help me. There's so much information, right? And I just feel like that's sending people into this sense of overwhelm, which then leads to people being easily sold to, right? Yeah. We have the solution. Here you go. Don't think. Here you go.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

And that's what I was just gonna say is I think the other part of that is the overwhelm is serious. I also think that it is an issue of the magic pill syndrome. Like we waited forever to find the magic pill. We've essentially found it in GLPs, and and I'm putting air quotes behind that. Um, and again, guys, we want to preface this by saying like we're never demonizing GLPs, we're never demonizing medication that is needed for someone to save their life, to help them come, you know, back from a very serious space of like pre-diabetic or yes, 100%. Um, but when we are speaking about GLP ones, we are speaking of it from a place where it is being 100% weaponized, 100% being overused, 100% being overmarketed, and it's being marketed as the magic pill, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

And the effort-free, quick fix, weight loss.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

The magic bullet that we have waited for our whole lives living in diet culture. Because Slim Fast said it was it, it wasn't it. Um, keto said it was it, it wasn't it. Um, fat burner said they were it, it wasn't it. Like all these things say that they're it, but they're not. GLP ones seem to be that magic thing that is actually going to do it. And again, I feel very much like this is a powder keg that is gonna explode at some point down there. We're kicking the can down the road of this of what's gonna look like. Um, but I think that that's the other half of this is there's overwhelm. And then the other side is we're just always waiting as a society for that, for the magic thing. Yeah. And so if we can't get our hands on GLP one or it's too expensive or we're too scared to take that, don't worry. They're working on some other magic pill or magic injection or magic box that I'm gonna get into and somebody's gonna wave their magic wand and then I'm gonna step out and look like a Kardashian. Like we're always waiting for the next magic thing, um, which is just very disheartening from our side.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Yeah, and you bring up Slimfast. That's kind of one of my main points on this, right? Is that, you know, who's watching TV and who's seeing these commercials, right? The target demographic of people that are severely overweight or in a position where they need this, they are gonna see the ads, but who else is gonna see the ads? The mom that's really busy and just needs to lose 10 pounds and things. Well, I'll just do this instead. The 12 to 14-year-old girl that's being bullied at school because she's a little bit bigger than her classmates is now gonna see this. Because for me growing up, I was pretty athletic. I had some times in my life where I was probably chubbier than my friends, then hit a growth spurt, chubbier than my friends hit a growth spurt. That's just naturally how things go, right? But I would see the Weight Watchers commercials, the Slim Fast commercials, the, you know, the infomercials for all the the equipment. I still remember, you know, the ab circle. You have the handles, your elbows are in the little thing, and you you work in the obliques, you're swinging side to side. Like that's imprinted in my brain because I saw that infomercial so many times. Oh, 12 minutes a day on the ab circle, and you'll have cut abs or whatever, whatever my mom would or my grandma would watch on, like the QVC, right? Oh yeah. All these little things that you can just pick up and oh, the best kitchen appliance, the new best food processor, this is the powder that's going to make you skinny. Like, yep, as a kid, you don't realize how much those things imprint on your brain, the infomercials, the commercials. Like if you are on Instagram or social media at all right now, you see the nostalgia bait everywhere. Sometimes it's just compilations of commercials from when I was growing up, right? It's like, oh, look at these commercials from 2005 to 2008. And it's like, holy crap, like I see that memory unlocked. I didn't even know I remembered that or that that was on the hard drive, but just seeing, you know, puppy monkey baby or whatever that commercial, puppy monkey baby over and over again. It never leaves your brain. So if all these kids, these women, these kids who are overweight, these fathers who think they'd be a better example for their son if they were more fit, these mothers who think that they're not attractive enough to their husbands because they've gained weight, like this is who is seeing those ads. These, this is who the information is imprinting on and going into their brain and giving them that brain worm of like, hey, like, there's the solution. You saw it on TV. There's the solution. You saw it on TV. Just call that number.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Just go to that website. And you have a problem. Yes. You have a problem. You have a problem. We have the solution.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

You have a problem. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

And we're putting solution in air quotes when you're listening to this, because there is no, like, those aren't solutions at the end of the day. Those are resources, those are tools. Some of them are bullshit. Some of them are okay. Like, okay, great. Have an ab wheel. Like, that's awesome if you're gonna move and that's a mobile, like that's a mobility thing at this point that we would probably be um benefiting from. But the the idea that it's like the answer. And I think the other thing, you know, along those lines too is, and this was very true for me, I don't necessarily remember a lot of like, I mean, I do remember some of them. I don't remember the commercials necessarily being the thing that like drove me, and it it probably did. I just don't remember. The magazine ads definitely did. The magazines got me, but I think the thing that really got me, because again, I, you know, if you've not heard my personal story, I started my first diet at 13 years old. And I remember seeing people around me doing these things. And these people were smaller than me.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:15

And so I'm sitting there going, wait, wait, wait, you're doing Slim Fast? Look at you and look at me. Well, then I definitely need to be doing that.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

I'm not on Slim Fast.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

I definitely need to be doing that. Like you're doing, and again, when I was in, you know, middle school, high school, when I was got into high school, it was even worse because it was like, then you're really getting getting into like um, you know, girls restricting and learning. I mean, I remember sitting at lunch um with a friend of mine, and she went for like a month and brought dry ramen for lunch. And she would open up the dry ramen. This was keep in mind, this is the fat-free era. So everything had fat-free on it. So if it said fat-free, we were eating it and we thought we were doing great. So gummies and all the things would have fat-free on it.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Yeah, also.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

And then we would be like, Oh, thank God we're doing the right thing. So she would bring dry ramen, the packets, open them, sprinkle the salt stuff on them, and sit and eat it literally like that. And that we were all like, oh my God, we need to be doing that too.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

She's got it figured out.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Oh my God. We had, I mean, there was a girl that lost so much weight in my high school class, and we were all like, What is she doing? What is she doing? And she was doing cocaine. Like, we were all like, okay, like really considering those things. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 15:28

Like, what else could we do?

SPEAKER_01 15:30

That's how wild it was. And so I think that's another thing is like all this market has to do is influence a couple people. Well, it's just the normalization, right? And then it influences another person, then I influence, and then you, and it's like, it's just truly evil genius how they do the do-do-do. Like, I'm repeating the GLP one ad over and over and over again until I finally convince Debbie that she needs to get on it. And then Debbie's got a child who's like, oh my gosh, like my mom's doing that. Like, I need to lose weight too. And then her friend is doing the same thing. How many times do we hear in the gym every day? All I see is all my friends losing all this weight. And this person is looking skinny. And I just went and had lunch with this person, and she's definitely not a GLP one because she looks like a scarecrow, and I'm over here eating a whole hamburger for lunch and nobody else can eat anything.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

Yeah, everyone else is splitting a salad.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

It's the influence that's just it goes so deep that it's absolutely crazy.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

Yeah. And this behind that influence, too, is like you said, like, what if you just can't afford the influence, right? Like the GLP ones are not free, right? All these healthy food, these super like supplements that you have to have. These things are not free. These things are not most of the time covered by insurance, right? If you want to have pre-workout in creatine and B vitamin and D3, and like that's out of pocket. If you think you're gonna supplement yourself into a healthy body, you're you're gonna pay for it, you know? So a lot.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

I mean, the amount of times that we talk about how much it actually costs, like what is the cost to lose weight right now, is crazy. Because if you think about a GOP one on the very low end being $200 a month, I'm being kind with that.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

That's low dose.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

Um that is a very low, um, especially priced. And then over, I don't know, six months, you lose 20, 30 pounds. What are you paying to lose? So it's like, and again, at the end of the day, when we walk that back, what are we actually paying to do? Because you're paying to lose weight, which you could do that on your own. That that rate of weight loss is like less than a pound a week. That's what you should be doing anyway, with a very, very small calorie restriction. So if you can't do that, most likely it's a mental thing. Yeah. So you have the food noise, you have the overeating, you have the binging and restricting. So you're paying for something to just shut that up for six months because the second you come off of that, guess who's back?

SPEAKER_00 18:05

Oh, yes. This what what are the the results are like like 60% or 60 to 70 percent of people gain back at least 50% of the weight within six months? And like most people are gaining 60 to 80 percent of the weight back if they stop after two years, right? It's yeah, some crazy stats.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

Yeah, 100%. So the cost again is like it's it's not only like the cost that I'm paying out of pocket to pay two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, twelve hundred dollars to lose 20 pounds. But then it's the cost of like, then when I go off of that and then I gain it all back, then I'm actually having to like be like, oh, you know what? I actually probably do need to go to therapy. And then the cost of that, and then the cost, it's like this residual cost that creates all kinds of other costs for you, which is it's wild. It's like start invoicing the diet industry and just see what that looks like for you. Cause I guarantee if you went back, if I went back and looked at, we've talked about it on here, the amount of money I spent on detoxes alone is criminal. It's criminal and for what? For what? For them to convince me that I regenerated some cells, bullshit. That is absolute crap. But like really, it was for me to starve myself for a handful of time, get a high from the from getting on the scale and seeing that I lost some weight. And then I spent the cost of that, which was probably $70 to $150 on one of those detoxes for three days. And then the second I came off of that, my ass was at, you know, the Mexican restaurant getting double the margaritas and whatever. So that cost me another $30. And for the scale to go right back up again.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

And it's all packaged right as health. It's not even being just packaged as weight loss. But the thing is, it really isn't health. It is weight loss. Sometimes there's health benefits, sometimes there's not. But what they're seeing is that there are people that lose weight and have no improvements to their vitals because they're not actually doing the work, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:10

100%.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

And on the offside, there's people that are adding these health promoting activities that are going on walks, that are improving their protein intake, that are just watching what they eat, seeing little to no weight change, but they're seeing changes in their blood pressure, in their heart rate, in their, you know, proximity to diabetes or prediabetes, right? So why does it matter if you're having weight loss, if that weight loss is separate from actual health goals? I would I would much rather stay the same weight and improve my health than wither away with no improvements. And like you're saying, then I still have to get the vitamins afterwards. I still have to go to therapy afterwards. Now I have to buy all these different supplements to rebuild all the muscle I lost because I didn't realize what was actually going on. So it's it's not a health solution. It is simply a you will be smaller, you you might be healthier. Well, you know, you'll you'll see a smaller number on the scale, and hopefully then you can do more. But it's it's not actually health promoting, which is the thing that I find just kind of despicable, right? That it's really like, hey, this is the health solution, but this is really just a you will be smaller solution, what will you do with being smaller?

SPEAKER_01 21:23

Yep. Amen. Period.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Period. That's it's just it's it's a rough thing to watch. And I just don't think people are uh educated enough to understand, like it really is just a calorie deficit, like you're saying, right? If we have a 3,500 calorie deficit throughout the entire week, we will lose a pound a week approximately. There's gonna be a little bit of give and take depending on the person, depending on metabolism, depending on the level of activity. But if you can maintain a 3,500 calorie deficit throughout a week, which is divided over the week, not a thousand. Calorie deficit on three days out of the week and a 500 calorie deficit on one day, but just a small, maintainable, consistent deficit would do more for you than any of these supplements, any of these fad diets, any of these, you know, exercises that you're seeing online as the exercise to burn love handles, to to cook, you know, arm fat. There's you can't spot reduce. You can just get healthier, y'all. And it's yeah, it's not being sold to us anymore that way. And that's 100%. It's being packaged as here's the the arm fat solution with a price tag. Here's the the gut biome solution with a price tag where you could just eat better. Yeah. You could just be healthier.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

Yeah, it's guilty until proven innocent. And it's almost the opposite. Like, if you see a zero price tag on something, then in this industry, most likely it is the magic bullet. Like, that's the thing. Like, go for that. If it's if it costs you zero dollars, get your ass outside and take a walk. Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

That's it.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

That's the thing. That's the thing. You know, so it costs nothing to get your steps in every week. Yeah. It costs nothing to set a timer on your phone and get up and walk every hour on the hour. Yeah. It costs nothing to go up and down the steps at work every day or in the parking garage every day instead of taking the elevator. Right.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Get off social media. All of these things just go to bed on time.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

Yeah, that'll lower your stress and your cortisol, which also will just help you out in general. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

So, and you know, yeah, I I think I think that that's so again, we say this all the time in here. And I think it's really, it's just one of those things that once you get it, you get it. Until then, it's really tough because we again, the marketing is so devious. The just constantly pounding on us that there is something else out there. There is this thing. You're broken, and there's something that we have that's gonna fix you. And there's again, this just this idea of like, you want to stop feeling like you're broken. You want to stop blaming yourself for something, you wanna be able to get finally to this other side. We always talk about like, you know, getting to the vacation destination, and we're always so focused. And again, the market is gonna be so focused on that. Um, so anytime they're trying to focus on the journey, anytime they're trying to focus on, you know, that process, and anytime they're trying to focus on something very simple, like again, making food out of fruits and vegetables that you would get in the front of the grocery store and not the $400, 400 calorie protein Pop Tart bullshit that we're dealing with. Like it's just not necessary. Yeah. It's just not necessary.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Like what you're saying is, you know, real foods over processed foods, right? But we don't have to fully demonize processed foods like the Mike Tyson ad at the commercial or at the Super Bowl commercial, right? This is partially why we were talking about the Super Bowl commercials. Yeah, because this one was disgusting. Boo! If you didn't see the Mike Tyson Super Bowl ad, it was pretty much demonizing, guilting, and shaming anyone who's ever been overweight or struggled with food noise or struggled with overeating, binge eating, anything along those lines. And Mike Tyson's exact words were I used to be fat and nasty. I used to be fat and nasty.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

I was gonna say, I'm gonna keep my mouth shut because of what I said earlier.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

If if you're somebody that's struggling with your weight, first of all, you still have worth. Second of all, you're not nasty. Second of all, you can have body fat. That's okay. That doesn't mean that you are fat because having body fat does not, you know, establish what or who you are. You can be a great person who's still a little bit overweight. None of these things change your value as a person. They don't change who should want to be around you, they don't change the access that you should have to life. And for someone to come up there and be backed by the the government, essentially, by the food administration, to get up there and someone greenlit the line, fat and nasty, to go in front of the largest audience possible, which is makes me want to backhand somebody. They paid eight to ten million dollars to call you fat and nasty on national TV.

SPEAKER_01 26:22

And let Mike Tyson do it. Yeah. He used to be a monster. Are we okay? Like, yo, are we okay? I I just there's nothing else to say about it. Like, it's it was horrifying.

SPEAKER_00 26:34

It was But just a prime example of if they are ever shaming you, if they're weaponizing it against you, like oh, I used to just eat ice cream all the time. What's wrong with eating ice cream, Mike Tyson? Like, hey, that's fine. You got a little bit overweight and now you did something and changed that. Yeah, there's somebody else that's done something completely different and also changed their weight loss situation. So just don't listen to these ads that are making you feel less than. Don't let any ad make you feel like if you're not doing this, that you're not good enough. The the biggest thing is just figure out the health outcomes that you want and find a healthy way to get them and find a team of people, a support system that will help you get to those goals. Do not listen to these bullshit ads.

SPEAKER_01 27:19

Yeah, 100%. And I know sometimes it's a hot take. Um, and that's okay. I believe it is, you know, that you will never hate yourself enough to get to where you want to be. And I truly believe that. That's coming from my mental health background, is because a lot of people will argue this. You know, you've got your um, you know, your David Goggins and whatever your types that are like, well, I did hate myself enough to get myself strong and ripped and carry the boats and whatever, and now my brothers can count on me to go to war and whatever else. Um, you know, all the chicks dig me, which is a lie. But, you know, those types um will always argue that point. But the end of the day, from a mental health background, the hate is the hate. So it's like if you hate yourself and then you get to the point where you're, you know, shredded and you've got 15% body fat, and now all of a sudden you don't hate yourself, like the math doesn't math on that. So those are things that I think people like you're hitting the nail on the head. If watching Mike Tyson try to insult other human beings about anything on this planet, Mike Tyson, and if that elicits a feeling of shame or guilt or anything in you, then boo, turn it off. Absolutely not. We are unsubscribing to that absolute bullshit because that is not health. That is not how you help people change, that is not how you help people find a why. That is not how you help somebody like grab somebody and pull them up from where they're at. That shit doesn't work. And if it worked, we would all be healthier than ever because that's all this industry does. That's all this industry does. It's a huge catalyst for us starting Rebel and turning it into Rebel and calling it rebel because we were sick of the crap that comes from this industry. And just literally, we were taught to shame people enough and make people hate themselves enough to want to change. Again, if we just thought about that for two seconds, it's the craziest shit ever. But a lot of time it is fueled by capitalism, it's fueled by the cost. We want to be able to charge for something, and the best way to get people to opt in is to get them to hate themselves because hate is a very powerful feeling, and people will pay just about anything to get rid of that feeling. They won't pay for therapy, yeah, but they'll pay for a pill, they'll pay for an injection, they'll pay for, you know, a rocket ship to go to the moon.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

But I mean, I think the misconception comes from the fact that hate can be a motivator, right? But it's just a very powerful short-term motivator. So if you've used hate to get results, we're not saying that's not true. I'm just saying that if you loved yourself enough to want more for yourself instead of trying to hate yourself out of what you used to be, I think you'd go further. 100%. Because hating yourself out of what you used to be only takes you three or four steps out before you're like, Whew, not a fat piece of shit anymore. Yep. How far can you go is a much better question, in my opinion. How hard can I love myself to achieve incredible things? And that's that's all it really boils down to. If you've hated yourself into a goal, I'm not saying that's not true, but I would love to see how much you could accomplish with some actual love and encouragement and you know, just self-belief. Period. Period. I love it. And yeah, going into the second portion of this kind of same idea of why is movement, why is health, why is exercise so gatekeep and expensive, but we're coming down to the kids' side of things. So the children and youth sports industry is now a $40 billion industry on a yearly basis due to all of these costs of AAU teams, the equipment, the uniforms, the fees to be on the subscription to be on an AAU team is like $26 a month, plus you have to pay for your team costs, which if you're on a local team, it's one to five hundred dollars. If you're on a team that travels the nation to compete and get real recognition, it can be up to $3,000 a season. The financial stress that that puts on families, on parents, on children to perform at such a high level because their parents are putting thousands of dollars into them becoming the next superstar, the next breadwinner, the next big thing, the fact that middle school and high school kids are being offered thousands, if not millions, of dollars for deals with NIL and endorsements and ads when they should really still just be learning how to one, love themselves, but two, love the game that they're playing. I just have been appalled by doing some research at what youth sports and youth activities have become.

SPEAKER_01 32:31

Yeah, I 100% agree. It's really, really sad. Um and again, but it's just really, it's not surprising. No. It's just the trend of where we're at. And you know, we're in late stage capitalism.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

We really are everything is being capitalized on.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:48

But it's just it's sad to see. You know, like what kids used to want to go to the Little League World Series, and now it's more Cooperstown because that's the big AAU tournament that gets you seen by, you know, all the big college guys, because it's not even the same. Like playing local sports doesn't matter like it used to. Like Little League Baseball is still a big deal, but it's not everything like it used to be. You know, like and the average age that kids are quitting sports these days is between 11 and 13. Most girls are closer to the 11, 12. A lot of boys make it 13 to 14, but 13 years old is when the average kid stops playing sports because it's either no longer fun, because of how competitive it's gotten, because of how much everyone's putting into it all the time. You can't be on a baseball team without having $150 pitching lessons and having a T with a net at the house so you can get swings in every single night. It's just become almost it's almost just a gatekeep situation where if you can't pay for the team and pay for the equipment and pay for the access to facilities and pay for the access to coaches, why would you even try to play this sport? You're just gonna suck.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

Yeah. Absolutely. I know when I was coaching volleyball, we had, you know, back when I first started coaching, there were a couple like travel AAU type um, you know, programs that kids could get into. And then slowly but surely the smaller ones started like shutting down. And then there was just one left. And the cost of it was insane. And the amount of parents, and you know, I was coaching at a private school. Yeah. Like it and the amount of parents who were going, she really wants to play, but like we can't afford that. Like it was absolutely heartbreaking. And at a private school. At a private school. And with being said, low income.

SPEAKER_00 34:41

Low-income kids are three to six times more likely to either never start a sport or to quit the team simply because of the financial stress it puts on their family, and then the stress that that in turn puts on them. Because there's like there's all these NBA stories, right? Of kids that are like, man, like my mom sent me to this tournament and she couldn't turn the lights on, right? Like, how much more normalized is that now? Like, how do those guys ever get a chance? Right? Like, yeah, there's NBA guys with that story. Like, she literally sent me to this tournament and like stayed at home with the lights off for two days. So I could go play, right? And like shit makes you want to tear up, but that's not a thing anymore.

SPEAKER_01 35:21

Like, yep, 100%. And it well, I think it gets to, you know, and I won't I won't go hard into this because I could go forever, but it is very much, I feel like we go more in this direction that is less community, it's less village, right?

SPEAKER_00 35:38

It was so community, it was so character building. Like it was just that's where you made your friends when I was growing up.

SPEAKER_01 35:45

And then the parents, like the parents were all a part of the community, all a part of the tribe. And now it's yeah, it's like what what does your kid need? Like, we'll make that happen. Like, do they need a ride? Do they need help with the uniform? Do they need whatever? Like, do they need fees, dues? Again, when I was younger, it was not nearly as expensive to plan on AAU team or whatever. But we would help, like we would raise money, we would do whatever we needed. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 36:09

Like, make it happen for the team.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

It was a village situation. It was like, you know, like, okay, little Susie wants to play, but they can't because whatever. All the parents are getting together and we're figuring out how to make that happen. I feel like it's so individualistic right now. It's it's more, and again, this is a gross generalization, but it's becoming a thing with what we're talking about, like it's a big deal, but it's becoming more like, oh, great. Well, Susie can't play, so that means better chance for my kid to get playing time and be the best. And no, no, no. Like the whole thing has shifted and it's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 36:39

It's not it's not team focused anymore. I mean, it's the same thing that's happened with it's it's just been a trickle-down effect, right? We've seen it with how frequent trades got in professional sports, and then with the the trade portal in college sports.

SPEAKER_01 36:53

Freaking an eye out is crazy.

SPEAKER_00 36:54

Now it's it's no longer about teams or development. You don't get to love teams the way that you used to. Every guy is every guy for himself because he has to get the biggest bag and the most playing time, which you can't fault them for. But it it just takes a lot out of what used to just make the games a game, right? And with the increased prices of college tuition, right? There's so many more parents that are like, okay, well, maybe I have to invest this into my kid right now. But if they get the exposure and the playtime and the skill set that these coaches are promising, and my son can go play D2 or D1 baseball or basketball, then it all happens, right? It's all it's all paid for, it's all covered. But yeah, 5% of high school athletes play after high school.

unknown 37:41

That part.

SPEAKER_00 37:42

That's it. Right. Doesn't matter how much you paid, that number has not gone up with more AAU teams. That number has not gone up with more expensive facilities that you can have access to. It's still the best 5% of high school players get to play college and professional sports. And that professional sports is one to 0.5%, whatever it is, depending on your sport. But now that's it's paywall. You can't even be in that top 5% if you're not in a certain tax bracket, it doesn't feel like.

SPEAKER_01 38:12

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

And then that just makes it it it feels unnecessary or just like you shouldn't even focus on moving. I'm not a sports kid. I'll just be a video games kid. I'm not a I was gonna say I'm not a sports kid, I'm this. I'm not a sports kid, I'm that. So not only are these kids stopping sports at 11 to 13, a lot of kids stop moving substantially at 11 to 13. And we wonder why we have this trickle down of obesity. Yeah and it's it's in our kids, it's in our children just as bad as it's in our adults, but they they don't have a reason to move and they're being told that they honestly shouldn't. Oh, you're an out-of-shape kid, that's probably just how you are. Like, oh, you're you're still chubby while you're 12. I mean, it's pretty late, it's pretty late for you. You know, every everybody's already great and on their travel ball team and doing their thing. If you're not really good by 14, you should just give it up.

SPEAKER_01 38:59

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that, you know, I know like we'll like getting ready to segue into this anyway, but it's like something that I am very vocal about, like in that, and how do we like mitigate this, right? Like, how do you combat this situation, especially with kids and movement? Um, and something that we talk about a lot in the gym in general is, and I've talked about, you know, with PE coaches and stuff like that in the area, is like not demonizing movement, number one. So, like you think about since we were little, oh yeah, like how we would restrict recess when a kid is bad. Yep. Or as a punishment, make a kid run. Yep. Well, it's like all these really bizarre psychological things. It's like over here it's a punishment, over here it's not a punishment, over here, it's good, over here, it's being taken away.

SPEAKER_00 39:56

Over here for kids, right? Running was both the best thing, the most fun ever, and it was a punishment. Exactly. If you're just running and playing the game, it's so much fun. But if you have to sit there and run suicides, it's the worst thing ever. So why is it the most fun thing what kids naturally want to do when they run out the door is to go and run in the grass, but it's also what they're forced to do when they're bad.

SPEAKER_01 40:18

Right. You know, it's so like thinking about that as like if you're a coach, if you're a PE person, if you're a parent, like thinking about that stuff, I think being intentional about the movement part of it. That's like, okay, how can we combat this, you know, crisis of our kids just not moving and being gamers? Number one, you know, getting them off electronics obviously is a huge part of this. Hashtag touch some grass kids. Yes, a hundred percent. But like also as parents, just you know, getting kids involved in as much as humanly possible, um, helping them understand the joy of movement again.

SPEAKER_00 40:54

It's a value of like rec basketball. You don't have to be an AAU guy. Like me and all my friends were baseball guys and still looked forward to the two months of rec league basketball every year because it was just so fun. And we could get out there and push ourselves and be competitive in a different way and talk about it the next day at school. But none of us were basketball players. It was just something that was fun. Yep, you know, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 41:18

And I think again, that's it. Is like it doesn't have to like be, I think the pressure to, you know, something I told my kids from a young age because they're both of their parents were athletes. And so there was always, everybody was always in our ears, like, oh, she's tall, she's gonna play this or she's whatever. And I told my kids from a very young age, I will never force you to play anything. If you don't want to play sports, you don't have to play sports. I'm gonna open the options up to you to do whatever you want to, but I want you to do what feels good and what you enjoy because I think the idea of that pressure will automatically be a turnoff to a lot of kids. Like my kids don't love the pressure. I hindsight didn't love the pressure, but I love sports enough that I shoved it down all the time and kept it moving, even though it made me crazy inside a lot of the time, the pressure of it. But I don't want that to happen to my kids. And so that is one of those things that it's like they all kind of went their own direction with things, but they love it. Guess what? I don't what I don't have to do. Shove a screaming kid into a car and kick a screaming kid onto a field or into a dance class or whatever, into a gymnastics class, because yes, if we pay for it, we're gonna finish it. But if my kids are absolutely hating something, like when I tell you Lola hated dance, hated it, but she wanted to do it because all her freaking friends did it and I knew she was gonna hate it. But I was like, okay, we're gonna do it. And again, talk about pay. Dance is so stupid expensive. The shoes are expensive, the tights are expensive, the little leotards are expensive, the bun holders are expensive, they gotta wear these freaking things over their ballet shoes so the kids that the ballet shoes can't touch the ground, expensive. The bag that they have to have is expensive. To be in the concert was another feat.

SPEAKER_02 43:02

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:03

To quit early because we couldn't finish one year was like a whole nother payment. The costumes for like everything was so stupid expensive, and she hated it. And I just remember sitting there and being like looking at my bank account, like, I cannot believe I just shelled out this amount of money for something that I knew this kid was gonna hate. She hated it. And and so reconciling that. So, like, how do we reconcile that as parents? Like, okay, are we forcing our kids to do this? And then she hated it, but in my head, I'm going, you gotta finish this because I wrote a check for this amount of money. Like, how do I reconcile that? Or do I say, hey, you're listening to what your body wants to do and doesn't want to do? You don't enjoy this, you're not finding I'm hating it because I have to kick you into this class every day, kicking and screaming and crying. So, like, like, what's not evening out in there? You know what I'm saying? Like, as parents, assessing that from like stepping back a little bit and being Like, okay, would I be forcing them into this if it wasn't like a money situation? Would I be forcing them into it if it wasn't I'm living vicariously through you? Would I be forcing them into this? And I think a lot of times as parents, that's a difficult thing to do, but it's mandatory. It's absolutely mandatory because I think it leads to a lot of disorder and a lot of feelings and a lot of stress for these kids that they don't need or want, especially when you're giving those freaking numbers.

SPEAKER_02 44:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:29

If you have a kid who is 0.5, 1%, 2%, 3% likely to play after high school, the amount of pressure and crap and mean things that you've said to them as they're bowling on the way to Pratt or whatever, like, is any of that worth it?

SPEAKER_00 44:45

And I think that's, you know, what deters so many people from movement as well. Like I had a really good friend of mine who went from like being a really, really good athlete to like having some weight problems in college, and he just didn't want to move in college because his father was such a dick all the time. Like if he got out, if he didn't do good at football practice, if he didn't perform specifically how he wanted him to on the mound, whatever it was, like you could just like when he did something bad, he would come back to the dugout and just look destroyed because he knew that either verbally or a lot of us assumed physically, he was going to get it when he got home.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:25

And he went from somebody who loved all sports with us growing up who did not want to move after high school.

SPEAKER_01 45:32

That's so crazy.

SPEAKER_00 45:33

And it's it's it's terrible. You can take the joy completely out of it. And we talk about coaches doing this, but you can do the same thing as a parent.

SPEAKER_01 45:41

Yeah, 100%. And I think again, that's another way to combat it, right? Is like take that part out of it. Take it's okay to fail. It's okay to be terrible. It's okay. Like again with Lola and the dancing situation. It's like she didn't love it. So then that equaled her not being good at it because she doesn't want to be a part of it. So then it's like, how as a parent can I make this into a situation where it's like, okay, like we can figure this out, we can move through this, we can educate about it and make it into a good learning experience instead of it being like something that's like really terrible. And then we both have a bad taste in our mouths because I don't want her to hate dance, right? Like she might come back around to that later on in life. Like, I didn't play volleyball, I didn't start playing volleyball for real till I was in eighth grade. And a lot of people were really shocked. Like, you didn't start playing on like an AAU team at eight and a half, and you know what I mean? Like, start going to camps at seven. Like, no, I fell in love with the sport in eighth grade, and that was it. And I didn't need to be in all of these other stupid camps and all this other stuff. Like, I practiced at home, I did a couple extra camps, it wasn't that serious, and I think that those are things that we've got to keep in mind with that too.

SPEAKER_00 46:52

News flash, they're still gonna find the six foot nine Sudanese kid at 17 anyway, and they will teach him how to play basketball much faster than they teach your 5'11 white son, no matter how much you yelled at him. And I apologize for that, and I hope that doesn't hurt your feelings. But they are gonna find a Greek freak. You know, Giannis didn't play basketball until he was 17 or 18. But guess what? He had every single tool. Yep. You can't teach height, you can't yell at your son and make him six foot eight. So go ahead and stop trying. You can't yell at your son and make him 250 with a barrel chest. You know, like if he wants to do that, maybe, but you probably didn't give him the jeans for that, dad, or else you'd look like that too. So such a mess up.

SPEAKER_01 47:33

That part, that part. And with that, you know, we need to be encouraging. We need to be like encouraging people in general.

SPEAKER_00 47:41

Um you were talking about how do we combat this. One of my main points was a double-sided point, right? Yeah. One, we have to be okay with failing and sucking at things. The the reason that so many people that I talk to don't have hobbies or don't like to try things is because they don't like not being good at stuff. Like the amount of people I've heard, like, well, have you tried? They're like, well, I'm just not good at that. I'm like, well, how many times did you try? Yeah. Once? Yeah. Why the fuck would you be good at it? Right? Like, exactly. What were you good at the first time you ever tried? And if you were, you were a savant or you were just young and didn't realize that you actually weren't good at it, but you just kept doing it because you enjoyed it, not because you were good at it. The first time you swung a baseball bat, I bet you looked dumb. But you probably liked it, so you kept doing it. The first time you shot a basketball, I bet you didn't make your first shot. You probably weren't good, and that's why you kept doing it. Right. And then second of all, we have to encourage others. Like if you're at a pickup gym, if you're somewhere playing frisbee golf, if you're somewhere playing pickleball and it's obviously somebody's first time, don't be like, oh, this might not be for you, pal. Like be like, hey, I'm glad to see you out here. Have you played very much? Is this, you know, are you newer to the sport? Maybe don't even ask that because that could be assumed as offensive if they're not newer, right? But just try to encourage others more than you're like, I don't know if that's for you, man. Because something doesn't have to be for somebody for them to find joy in it. Yeah, you don't have to be built like a jockey to like riding horses. You don't have to be six foot four to enjoy hitting the volleyball around with your friends.

SPEAKER_01 49:15

That's right. So I mean, pickleball is a perfect example of this. It is like, you know, 60s, 70s, 80s.

SPEAKER_00 49:22

7 to 70.

SPEAKER_01 49:23

You're like that. Is the sport. And again, it's not because anybody's gonna go into this looking for a college scholarship or a, you know, a deal with a pick they just put some joy back in moving.

SPEAKER_00 49:35

Yeah, or it's okay to also find joy in competition, right? Yes, being a competitive person is not wrong. Letting competition run your life can be wrong. Yeah. Having somebody that finds joy and that gets, you know, a little high that really gets a hit from that solid competition. Like I love playing pickup basketball and like banging into a guy and like really going at it and then just shaking hands at the end, right? Just like, hey, I'm glad you played hard. I'm glad I played hard. That was fun. Let's do it again, right? It doesn't have to be aggressive, but competing is a good thing, especially I think for young men, learning how to compete and control your emotions while you compete is one of the greatest lessons you can learn. Because how many guys will just get popped in the chin on accident and want to just throw hands at somebody? Like it helps you with emotional regulation, it helps you with character development. There's so many things that come from sports just at a recreational or a pickup level that I feel like kids are just no longer getting.

SPEAKER_01 50:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:33

And that's that's all I got for that.

SPEAKER_01 50:35

It's a tragedy.

SPEAKER_00 50:36

It's really, really rough. Yep. And then how do you how do you actually go into this in a you know, a realistic way? How do you actually start your health journey in a way that's not so expensive, so overwhelming, feel like there's just 50 things on your plate. And it's just a realistic and actionable game plan. If you have a realistic and actionable game plan, this is something we talked about closer to New Year's, but that's really all it takes. Like if you have a goal of going on a hike in six months, you can make an actionable plan to do said thing. That doesn't mean you're gonna have to go on runs every single day until that hike. That doesn't mean you have to achieve a 225-pound bench press before you can do that hike. You can just say, okay, I probably need to do some incline walks. I probably need to lose X amount of weight, maybe be able to walk X amount of steps on the stairmaster to improve my endurance. But none of that has to make you hate your life, make you feel like you're less than, make you feel like you have to compare yourself to anybody else, right? You can just decide something that you want to achieve, make a realistic and actionable plan, and start adding slowly but surely. That's our main thing at the gym. It's just adding slowly but surely. If you're having nutrition problems, we're not gonna give you a menu of perfect meals. We're not gonna give you a thesaurus of what every single, you know, this is a carb, this is a protein. We're gonna say, hey, let's try to hit 80 grams of protein this week. Let's see how we feel after that, and we'll go from there. Cool. 80 grams of protein is doable. Now let's do 80 grams of protein while watching our fat content. And as you slowly but surely add on, it just makes sense. As anybody can probably tell you, learning one thing at a time is much easier than trying to pick up three, four, five new things all at once. So why would that be any different in your fitness and nutrition, you know, informational journey?

SPEAKER_01 52:36

Absolutely. Compound is always the way to go. Um step by step, brick by brick. It's so serious and it's so it's just seems too simple. And that's why, again, people just don't want to buy into it because it's not the magic pill. Yeah, but the compound effect, you guys, is it it's it's the way to go, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 52:55

Yeah, and there's there's gonna be a certain need for discipline or a very strong desire that doesn't change, right? I think for some people, that's what these supplements or these big paydays, they kind of try to give themselves that discipline, right? Because money is a great motivator. If you've paid for something, you're probably gonna get it done. But is there a way that you can find to motivate yourself just because you want to get it done? Just because you love yourself enough to change, not because you hate the idea of how much you paid not to get it done. You know? True. And that's just such a big difference, right? That's it, it'll just take you that extra step. Hate is only gonna get you outside of the box. Love keeps you walking.

SPEAKER_01 53:40

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 53:41

Not political, but the only thing more powerful than hate is love. I don't know who said that. Some guy, some pretty cool, handsome guy, but you know.

SPEAKER_01 53:48

It wasn't Mike Tyson.

SPEAKER_00 53:49

It wasn't Mike Tyson. It was not Mike Tyson. And then an appreciation of daily movement and a basic understanding of what's going into your body. Daily movement can be anything. It can be when you get out of bed in the morning and you have a five-minute mobility routine. It can be that you go on a walk every day after lunch and after dinner, but you have to have daily movement. If you miss a day, does that throw you all the way off? No. But that just means you're right back to it the next day because you do it every day anyway. So missing one day is gonna feel weird and make you want to do it even more. Don't allow that one day to throw you off. Just say, huh, that was a blip on my schedule. I do this every day. I didn't do it one day, but that doesn't change who I am as a person. I'm right back to it tomorrow. Same thing with the eating. If you understand at at least a basic level what's going into your body, it becomes degrees harder to overeat, right? If you understand at least moderately the amount of calories in a Big Mac, in one egg, in one chicken breast, it automatically gets easier for you to understand how close you are to your deficit, if you're in your deficit, if you're pushing past your deficit. And that's not going into every single micronutrient. How much vitamin K is in a chicken breast? Just have a general understanding of the calories in something, if that's what you're working on, and the main macronutrient that it provides.

SPEAKER_01 55:23

I love that. I think I would just piggyback off that one too and say, you know, the basic understanding too, like being intentional about paying attention to how food makes you feel also. Because I think a lot of people just underestimate or they just they just get so used to feeling like shit.

SPEAKER_00 55:41

Yeah, that they it couldn't be just that I don't sleep.

SPEAKER_01 55:43

Yeah, it couldn't be that my nutrition is terrible. Yeah, or like, you know, like the Big Mac that you said. There is there anything inherently wrong with the Big Mac? No. But a lot of times people will find if you eat something like that, your body will give you cues to like, uh that's not great.

SPEAKER_00 56:00

Like, I mean, that wasn't the right fuel. I'm gonna run for you today. Like, I don't know. You might put her a few times.

SPEAKER_01 56:05

Yeah, like I one thing that I found a lot with my clients is um the breakfast. Breakfast is a huge, I tell people be really, really cognizant of when you eat certain foods, pay attention to how you feel after that.

SPEAKER_00 56:16

Especially at like noon, right? How's your crash?

SPEAKER_01 56:19

It was like, how long does that take you? Do you feel more sluggish? Do you feel like you have more energy? Because there is so much truth. Like, people just a lot of times just underestimate the power of food. Um, and how when we say fueling your body, we truly mean that. We truly mean that. That's like if you go put, you know, shit gas or whatever in your car when it needs the higher level gas. It's like there's a reason for that. And your body is the same way. So it's again, if you put the shit gas in there, can you go on it? 100%. But are you gonna run as efficiently and you're gonna feel great? No, it's the same thing with food. Just be cognizant, pay attention. When I eat the fast food, how does it make me feel? Do I have the energy? Do I have the brain power? All of those things are connected. Food is 100% gonna go into how your metabolism runs. And your metabolism literally is the key to every single thing that you do. Every single thing that you do, from your eyes blinking to your body temperature regulating to how your brain functions or doesn't function, it's all metabolics. And so paying attention to those things, I think, is really helpful too, on top of just having the basic understanding, pay attention. Your body is so freaking smart. Let it tell you.

SPEAKER_00 57:31

Yeah, it's a it's a masterpiece of a machine.

SPEAKER_01 57:34

It is a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_00 57:35

And then just based off kind of all that we've said today, it does not have to be anything more than what we've been talking about, right? Daily movement, proper nutrition, getting your sleep in. If you figure out there's certain supplementation, certain vitamins and minerals that you really need, add those things in. But that is all it truly takes. There's so many people that are living a healthy life in a body that they enjoy and can do what they want to do in without a gym membership, without being on steroids, without being on GLP once, without working out six or seven times a week. There's people with some at-home equipment, some moderately weighted dumbbells, maybe one or two heavy kettlebells, that understand nutrition, that work out three times a week at home for 45 minutes, go for multiple walks a week, eat right, don't have any extra commodities, extra amenities, and they're just fine. They're in great shape. That is all it takes. Right. But if we were gonna offer a few recommendations for things that we think truly help you and are worth the investment when you're going into your health journey, a coach andor personal trainer, just to expedite the process to make sure that you're doing everything right, not taking one step forward, two steps back by having an injury, by you know, having poor technique, a gym membership, andor basic at-home equipment. Strength training is just shown to improve your life, improve your cognitive function, improve your mood, improve your longevity. You do need to strength train. It can be at home holding your chubby corgi. That's fine. It really doesn't matter, but you have to do some level, some degree of strength training. Some very specific supplements or vitamins that go towards your needs are good. Do you need protein and collagen and creatine and greens? And no, most likely not. If you struggle with protein intake and hate vegetables, get a high quality protein powder and a good greens powder and eat the rest of your nourishment, right? If you need to wake up early and you need to perform well throughout the day, a pre-workout creatine combination is probably great for you. And then you can just eat your protein throughout the day. Protein powder is not needed if you can eat your protein. Pre-workout is not needed if you have natural energy or you're fine going off a piece of watermelon or a banana and some honey. These things are all supplements because they need to just be adding to what you need. They do not have to be part of the routine.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:09

Absolutely. And when looking at protein powders, just a quick little insert here. Um, when a lot of people are struggling with, you know, do I invest in something like that or not? I always say, you know, is it gonna replace something? So, like if you're getting a protein powder and it's gonna replace a snack or you're gonna make it into a meal. Number one, not all proteins are made as meal replacements. So please know that too. If you're adding a bunch of stuff, like you're adding half a banana and a bunch of spinach and two scoops of peanut butter or whatever, then it can become a meal replacement. Um, but if it's gonna replace that, then like, yeah, the protein powder might be something that's not necessarily a pay barrier. It might actually help you to make like a decision that you're like, oh, that's a meal I don't have to think about. That used to be me back in the day with breakfast. It is I love to shake for breakfast because it replaced a meal. So it balanced out the payment. But if you're just buying protein powder, just to buy protein powder because again, you think it's gonna be some magic thing, yeah, then don't bother doing that. Like that's just crazy. Or you're gonna try to add it to all kinds of crazy things. If you're gonna add it to something, some good stuff and it's gonna help you hit your goal, awesome. Otherwise, it's not something that you need to spend money on.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:15

Yeah. And then going right into the having a basic knowledge of what's going into your body. If you need to be working with a nutritionist or a dietitian because you have some pre-existing issues with food, you just have bad habits from the way you grew up eating, or you really just don't know what's in what. I think working with a dietitian or a nutritionist for even a short amount of time can be a wonderful investment, just so you have that knowledge, that baseline. And after that, it's really just some quality cookware.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:45

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:46

That's a great investment. A walk, a cast iron pan, something you can stir-fry in, something you can cook. Like I think a rice cooker is one of the best investments I ever made for my fitness journey because I can just throw rice in there, go take a shower, go play games, go do whatever. I come back. It might have been done for 20 minutes. It doesn't matter. It just turns on to the warm setting. So if something that can just take thought out of it for you would make a big deal, I think that's another great investment. A crock pot, a rice cooker, a slow cooker, uh an air fryer, whatever that would be, just different, absolutely, high quality either cooking pans or cooking appliances that make your life easier and make the foods you're eating inherently healthier.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:29

Preach. Love it. That's simple, guys. It's simple. It's simple, it's not easy. Okay. We know that. Um, but hopefully this was helpful. Like hopefully, this kind of nailed down some stuff. Again, we like to do, um we have like a process in this, like the rant, because the rant is real. We got to get some of the stuff out. We got to normalize some of this stuff. A lot of times, you guys, the feedback we're getting is like, I felt that, but I just didn't know what I was feeling. And you guys put words to it. You're welcome. Okay. Next, you're welcome. Is then we're gonna process through how to actually take all of that bullshit, make it actionable, get it out of here, make it make it actionable. And so I hope that that was helpful for people today. I think it should be.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:05

Yeah, no, I think that was a great talk. Obviously, if you have any further questions, feel free to reach out to us at the gym, come in, set up a consultation. We'd be happy to work with you. We obviously think that we're a worthwhile investment in your fitness, you know, journey. If you feel like you need that community, that support, that level of coaching, we're always here. We're not a necessity to you getting in shape, but we would love to have you as part of our gym family. Absolutely. And outside of that, thank y'all for watching. Make sure to go back and watch the first couple episodes of this second season. We'll see y'all again soon and peace. Bye. Woo! Woo! Okay, that was serious.