Picture this: you're on the volleyball court, and suddenly, your body doesn't cooperate. That's exactly what happened to Allan Misner, and it was his wake-up call to regain control of his fitness journey. Join us as we sit down with Allan, who bravely shares his story of transformation, proving that age is just a number when it comes to reclaiming your health. We delve into the mental and physical resilience it takes to prioritize fitness, illustrating that the journey towards wellness is as much about mindset as it is about muscle.
We've all seen it, someone we love losing their spark as they age, their independence slipping away as health takes a backseat. This episode sheds light on why maintaining strength and balance isn't just about looking good; it's about living life to its fullest, whether that’s swinging a golf club or chasing after grandkids. Through heartfelt discussions and personal anecdotes, we underscore the critical concept of 'fitness fit for task'—the idea that being in shape means being able to handle the curveballs daily life throws at us with grace and vigor.
As we wrap up, accountability takes center stage. Learn how involving your tribe—be it family or friends—can magnify your motivation and help cement a health-first mindset that benefits everyone. We share insights into time management strategies that honor both your busy schedule and your commitment to health, such as integrating family meal prep or scheduling morning workouts. It's not just about individual transformation; it's about fostering a family culture where fitness is a shared value. So, rally your loved ones and let's take this journey together, because when one of us grows stronger, we all do.
Picture this: you're on the volleyball court, and suddenly, your body doesn't cooperate. That's exactly what happened to Allan Misner, and it was his wake-up call to regain control of his fitness journey. Join us as we sit down with Allan, who bravely shares his story of transformation, proving that age is just a number when it comes to reclaiming your health. We delve into the mental and physical resilience it takes to prioritize fitness, illustrating that the journey towards wellness is as much about mindset as it is about muscle.
We've all seen it, someone we love losing their spark as they age, their independence slipping away as health takes a backseat. This episode sheds light on why maintaining strength and balance isn't just about looking good; it's about living life to its fullest, whether that’s swinging a golf club or chasing after grandkids. Through heartfelt discussions and personal anecdotes, we underscore the critical concept of 'fitness fit for task'—the idea that being in shape means being able to handle the curveballs daily life throws at us with grace and vigor.
As we wrap up, accountability takes center stage. Learn how involving your tribe—be it family or friends—can magnify your motivation and help cement a health-first mindset that benefits everyone. We share insights into time management strategies that honor both your busy schedule and your commitment to health, such as integrating family meal prep or scheduling morning workouts. It's not just about individual transformation; it's about fostering a family culture where fitness is a shared value. So, rally your loved ones and let's take this journey together, because when one of us grows stronger, we all do.
Hello and welcome to Health Fitness Redefined. I'm your host, anthony. Amen and welcome to another fabulous week. Today, guys, we're going to be talking to everybody who feels like they're old, but they're not Above. 40 is not old. I can tell you that for a fact. But anyway, we're going to figure out how to feel better, live longer, with coach Alan Meisner. Alan, it's a pleasure to have you on today.
Speaker 2:I'm happy to be here, anthony. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:I just wanted to start and practice that 40 is not old, so I think I'm getting really close to that number. So I just I'm going to say 40 is the new 20.
Speaker 2:Okay, then 50 is the new 30. Thank, you.
Speaker 1:Before we get into everything we're going to talk about today, we just want to learn a little bit more about you and how you became a coach and why you started teaching people above the age of 40.
Speaker 2:So take it away. Yeah, so I was in my late 30s and I was hugely successful with my career. I made it to C-suite. I was a vice president executive vice president of a Fortune 500 company. I was making the money, I had the office, I had the stuff. I forced myself to take a vacation because I hadn't taken one in over three years and I saw a volleyball court a sand volleyball court and I was so excited this is great, right, I'm going to get to play sand volleyball. I haven't played in 15 years. So I get on on the volleyball court and it's six on six. There's a lot of people playing, so it's you know, it should be easy.
Speaker 2:I barely made it through the first game. I was so tired. I actually felt like my heart race and racing and my breathing. I was like I might be having a heart attack and I subbed out. I would have never have done that before and I sat down and I was thinking I might have to go to the emergency room. I might be dying right here and I didn't obviously die that day, or this would be a whole different show, zombies but the point being is I sat there the next day and I'm like what happened? What happened?
Speaker 2:I used to play volleyball all day long. I played twos. I played, you know, at a high level and I'd always be going. And I'm like I literally just walked out there and just almost died and I'm like that's not who I'm supposed to be. So I made this decision, okay, this decision that I was going to fix myself. Now I was in an all inclusive resort. It was only day two, so, yes, I continued to drink my ass off for the rest of the week. I'll fix this when I get home.
Speaker 2:And so for eight years I tried I would do a diet, I would do some exercise, and I'd either stop doing it or I'd hurt myself or this and that. And so I went through the first half of eight years, basically just the struggle, and I'm like, why is it so hard? It can't just be because I'm over 40, because in my head I still feel like I'm 20. It's just how we guys are. I'm not growing up, I'm Peter Pan, but here I am. I'm like, what's going on? And then it hit me one morning.
Speaker 2:A couple things that happened. My daughter had messaged me. She was now in her early. She just turned 20. She had become a level one CrossFit coach and she was doing the CrossFit and the mud runs and all this kind of stuff. And she called me up and she said Daddy, I want you to come watch me in this CrossFit competition. And I'm thinking to myself what. I was never supposed to be a spectator in my daughter's life, I was supposed to be a participant. I don't want to be a spectator in my daughter's life, I want to be a participant.
Speaker 2:And so that's when I got the wild idea that I was going to train my body, I was going to repair myself and I was going to do a Tough Mudder with my daughter. And so I messaged her and I said, hey, what do you think about doing a Tough Mudder? In November this is only eight months later I started trying to do some things, so I was moving but I wasn't going far. I said, hey, let's do a Tough Mudder in November. She was like, okay, so Tough Mudder is like a 12 to 13 mile run in the mud, in the swamp, all this stuff and all these obstacles. So it's extremely difficult and at the time it was the only civilian run obstacle course like that and actually Marine had died doing it. So I was like this was not like a simple little 5K thing I was doing. This was a big deal.
Speaker 2:So I started training, but what I realized was what was different between this and everything else I'd ever done was I had not committed to this. I had done some really really hard things in my life, especially around my career. And why couldn't I do this? Well, because I didn't put myself 100% committed to it. You've got that poster behind you about when you want this more than you want to breathe, it's going to happen, and I wanted this more than I wanted to breathe, basically. So I committed, I fully committed, all in. So there was no turning back.
Speaker 2:But I also understood that I didn't know what I was doing, and so I started working on certifications because I was traveling 90% of the time, and people will hear that they're like oh, he's traveling 80%. 90% of the time means I was only home three days a month. Wow, okay. Really hard to hire a personal trainer when you're only going to be there three times a month. Really hard to deal with the nutritionist at the time because they didn't do telephone calls. You had to be in their office so, and most of the time when I was home. It was over a weekend, so this was just. You know, those were obstacles. I could have said, oh, I can't do this, oh, you know it's not going to work. But I was committed. So I went and got my certified personal trainer corrective exercise, a functional aging specialist fitness nutrition. I got the certifications I needed to fix me and that's what I did. I lost 66 pounds of fat. I gained 11 pounds of muscle.
Speaker 2:If you go to my website, 40plusfitnesscom, start looking around, you'll find the before and after pictures of me and it's like looking at a different guy. You can just look at my face. You don't even look at the bloated body I had before and the body I had after. You just look at my face and notice that something fundamental changed in me and I was able to complete that tough mutter, not only complete it. I kept up with my daughter, I didn't slow her down and we crossed that finish line together. Now there's three times in my life that I had special, special moments like this with my daughter. The first one was when she was born and she was laying on the table and I reached down and she wrapped her fingers around my pinky Okay. The second time was 30, some odd years, 30 years later, when I'm walking her down the aisle and we're arm and arm and then the third one is holding her hand, crossing the finish line at this tough mutter, I was participating in my daughter's life. In each of those instances I was not a spectator, and that's the difference, the commitment difference that got me doing what I was doing and then realizing that this should be available to everybody.
Speaker 2:There was not a podcast for people over 40 in the fitness and health field. I started one. There was not a trainer doing online training for people over 40. Actually, weren't many online trainers at all. That she went to bodybuilding or powerlifting or something, but there weren't many online personal trainers either.
Speaker 2:So I started doing that because, like, what did I need? What did I when I was traveling, if I had had access to an online personal trainer spot, I'm on it. They didn't exist. So I started things that weren't there because I knew people needed this and they absolutely do, and so that's what I do. I'm an online personal trainer now. When I got laid off from that corporate job that, while I love the money, I hated the people and the work, and so I just said, okay, I'm done. I'm not going back, and that's led me to make a lot of other decisions along the way that have also been hugely beneficial for me, and that's the way I look at it now. If it's not something that's going to bring more joy to my life, probably not going to do it.
Speaker 1:I love that and I think this all starts from a lot of trainers and I've said this before, but people usually have that oh shit moment in their life and they get into the health and fitness realm and they're the ones that are really the most impactful, because they said, wow, my life was in shambles. And then I found this into the health and fitness thing and was able to overcome me feeling like shit, and now I want to show the people how not feel like shit.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, and it was. You know, I think we all do this, you know, especially guys was like Okay, it's the job, you know what, who are you? And then you know, at the time I would have said I'm going to count it, you know, I'm vice president, this and that. Now someone asked me who I am and I'm like I'm chill, I'm fun, I'm enjoying my life and I help people. I help a lot of people, and so it's a whole different math when you're able to sit down and say I like what I do and I like who I am and I like the life I'm living. And if you can't say that about those three things, you got some work to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's me talking about owning gyms. Why do you own gyms? Gym owners make literally no money. Yeah, I could have gone to real estate, but that wasn't fun. That wasn't who I am. That wasn't giving capability to help people. That doesn't give me the capability to go into work. I don't even call it work, I call it fun. I get to go have fun every day and watch people do better.
Speaker 2:There you go, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's the little extra enjoyment in your life you get out of finding your passion and truly helping others. And I want to go back to you playing volleyball on the beach on vacation, because a lot of people I've personally seen have been in those situations, but they don't make the decision to change. They just say, oh, this is the new me now and I'm gonna just sit out and never play volleyball again. So can you talk to those people?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so volleyball in this sense it was an actual thing, so it was not like I made the volleyball up. That's a true story. But I want you to think of it as a metaphor, because it could be anything. It could be your children are on the floor playing and you don't feel confident that you can get down on the floor with them and get back up. You are a spectator in your child's life. It could be you take your kids to the zoo or later take your grandkids to the zoo, and you don't have the stamina to keep up with them. So you're the grandpa or the grandma sitting on the bench near the entrance while they're doing the zoo, and then you're gonna see them on the way out. You're gonna see all the excitement on them, you're gonna see the sticky faces from the cotton candy and you're not gonna have experienced any of that because you didn't have the stamina to keep up with them. So we could talk about well, that's what it is, but is that really what you want? And I'll tell you another story. It goes on and then you're starting young. This is the time to fix it, because when it gets to this point, it's probably not fixable.
Speaker 2:My grandfather was 80 years old. We're sitting in a golf cart and usually around this time all the guys are gonna go out and golf. I'm not a golfer, but they lived on golf courses and they loved golf. He'd been golfing his whole life and he didn't go out with them. I'm like, okay, grandpa, what's going on? You didn't go golfing with the guys. He's like, well, I can't do it anymore, I don't have the balance, can't swing the club. I'm like, okay, well, do you wanna go to the range and just hit some balls? He's like, no, I really can't, can't even swing the club. So something this man loved he lost at the age of 80, and somebody was like, oh, so what, it's? He's 80, right, he's done. He lived to 95. So the last 15 years of his life he couldn't do the thing he loved. All of his friends were golfers, his children were golfers. He wasn't able to do it.
Speaker 2:Now, flash forward to when he's 90, he's starting to have trouble taking care of himself, like just basic stuff. So it got to a point where he wouldn't even see me. He wouldn't let me come over and visit. So I'd come into town, I'd wanna visit him. He didn't want me to come over and what I found out was the reason he didn't want me to come over was that he couldn't make it to the bathroom from his couch, so he would accident on himself. He couldn't, so for the last five years of his life I didn't even get to see him, so he wasn't even a spectator in my life anymore.
Speaker 2:Now I wanna be able to wipe my own, but when I'm 105. Okay, and some people will giggle with that, but this is a pretty deep thing. One, I wanna live to 105, which means I gotta do the things necessary to take care of myself and keep me alive. And then, two, I'm gonna have to have the capacity to stand up from the couch after watching Jeopardy, because that's 48 years from now, but they'll still have Jeopardy. It'll still be on 48 years from now, mark, that's right. Yeah, it'll be a Jeopardy.
Speaker 2:It probably won't be the same guy, but there'll be a guy or a girl and they'll be doing Jeopardy and I'll be sitting there watching it. I'll be able to get up from the couch. I mean, I got the leg strength to do that squat rise. I'm gonna be able to have the speed of dexterity to move through my house, my apartment, to make it to the bathroom, drop the pants, be able to squat down, have the dexterity, mobility, strength, balance to be able to do the paperwork, stand back up, pull up my pants and flush the toilet and go back to Jeopardy. Those are all fitness, those are all fitness modalities that you have. Today You're like, oh, I got it today I can wipe my own butt, I'm good. But if you're not doing the training to maintain that strength, to maintain that balance, just maintain that stamina and speed, then what's gonna happen? Well, you're gonna lose it, and so I think people will lose it first with stairs.
Speaker 1:I mean they see it all the time where they move from Colonials, victorians, down to ranches, or they just stop using their basement. So they just stop using the second floor. They move the bedroom downstairs, the sitting on the couch more, because they can't make it up the stairs and they're afraid to do that.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly, it's strength, it's balance, it's fitness. It's called I call it fitness fit for task. And so it's not that you have to be like a crossfit athlete and feel like you've got to look and do that part If you're young and you want to by all means do that stuff, but when you get older, it's about being able to carry your child around, it's about being able to keep up with them at the zoo. Then at some point, it's about opening your own damn pickle jar. Because if you're sitting there and can't open a pickle jar, guess what? You don't get Pickles, you don't get pickles. And then, beyond that, now someone else comes in. It's like hey, son, would you open that pickle jar for me? Well, now you're no longer independent. You're either dependent on your son or you're seeing that cool because Facebook's gonna know.
Speaker 2:As soon as you sit there struggling with that jar, suddenly you're gonna start seeing all these ads for assistant jar opener things, the tools and the gadgets. They're gonna be all over your Facebook or all over your Instagram, because they're listening. It's like that guy's having trouble with a jar. Let's swim some ads for how to open a jar. You don't have to say anything. God damn pickles. And here you are with all those ads. Okay, but you're not independent anymore. And that's the start. That's where you don't have the grip strength. Then there are other capabilities you're not gonna have and there are actually studies out there that have correlated grip strength with all cause mortality. If you have weak grip strength, you're early grave relative to someone who has stronger grip strength. And how do you get grip strength? Resistance training, holding bars, holding dumbbells, holding yourself the stuff we do in gyms.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm gonna put down a myth right now and then we're gonna go over some actionable steps for people that are looking to kind of get started with things they can do at home. And myth which we've been proven time and time again. I mean it only takes years for people to agree with me. We're here. So strength training is better than cardio period, especially as you age, because it gives you more functionality, it helps with bone density, it helps with osteoarthritis, it helps with cause your muscles will deteriorate over time. So it helps build back strength. It helps keep me metabolism higher. Yes, you need cardio. That doesn't mean I'm never gonna get cardio ever again in my life. But if you are limited on time and you have one option and if you're this person's, fine, go do some kind of strength training exercise. Lift up a dumbbell, even if it's two pounds, something.
Speaker 2:Yes, resistance training is non-negotiable.
Speaker 1:You do your shit, while it's non-negotiable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wait, not yet. You have to do it. It's something you have to do, unless you just wanna just die slow, even faster, I mean, cause you're just gonna go. It's just, you're gonna lose this battle if you're not doing resistance training. That's a given. Most of us do need to do some cardio, but I prefer to call it stamina work because it really fits more with. What do you need? Well, I need to be able to keep up with that grandson, cause he's gonna run from the lion to the monkeys and I don't wanna be just calling out to him. He's not listening, he's monkeys, he's not listening. I gotta keep up with him. If I'm responsible for him and I wanna be a participant in his life and not a spectator, I gotta keep up with him. So that's some stamina work. So there is some stamina work that needs to be done. But yes, I totally agree with you the resistance. If you only have an hour this week to lift, to do anything, go lift some weights.
Speaker 1:And just do it back and forth with the weights, go from one to the other, to the other, and then you get your cardio in. Anyway, it'll help you float right up. Yeah, and you get older.
Speaker 2:I will well, I will say this when you're older. When you're older, I'm not a fan of dynamic movement and weight. That's kind of for us it can be kind of a double-edged sword. It's easier to hurt yourself when you're trying to move weight dynamically and potentially quickly to get your heart rate up. You will have to go over the way. I meant more super setting.
Speaker 1:Show the press, chest press pull squat.
Speaker 2:Exactly, Exactly.
Speaker 1:I wanna go back to your Zooming sample. I wanna say you're watching the Lions and your kid's really tiny and needs to be picked up, so you need to be able to squat, grab your kid, deadlift that kid up and then shoulder press them up to put him on top of the bar so they can see the Lions.
Speaker 2:And then you have to be able to why are you feeding your kids to the Lions, dude? He, just he's going to the men he just got him.
Speaker 1:He just go with the Lions. But you then bring them down and then they're running to the monkeys. So then you need to be able to follow your kid and run over to the monkeys, get back to them, reach out, grab them because they're about to steal another kid's ice cream, because my kids are idiots. And then you grab them away from those kids so you're pulling them into you and then you're saying no, you're the monkeys, and you show the person the back up to the monkeys.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's the whole point that's fit for task. It's like you literally just name something that would be a part of being a good father taking your kid to the zoo and join that quality time with them. They're ooing and awing, they're really having a good time and they're going to remember this as being you, whereas if the family's going and you're not able to keep up with them and you're sitting on a bench and they're having new things, so just sit down for a little while. We'll get to the monkeys before the zoo closes. I promise it's a whole different experience, and so it's just being fit for task and capable of doing the things that matter, which are being you and being the you you deserve to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I totally agree. So what are some actionable steps that somebody who is in that similar situation is just looking to get started and doesn't want to yoyo for eight years?
Speaker 2:Okay, how can they get started? Okay, the core of it is this Most of us do motivation wrong, and what I mean by that is we sit and wait. I'm waiting for motivation. I'll be motivated on Monday. I'll be motivated January 1st. You know my birthday is coming up. I'm gonna be motivated the day after my birthday. I'm gonna get drunk on my birthday, but I'm gonna be motivated the next day, for sure, right?
Speaker 1:Which is I've been drunk. You're never motivated the next day.
Speaker 2:True story. But the whole point is that you go at it like I'm gonna enjoy my party, my birthday party, and then, boom, I'm on it the next day. Okay, that's, that's what I'm gonna do. Sure, if you wait for motivation, it will never show. Or if it does show, it won't be consistent, it won't be long term. You get motivation by doing.
Speaker 2:Now I don't have time to go into the whole model that I have for this, but I want you to think about there's extrinsic motivators and there's intrinsic motor. So there's external motivators and there's internal motivators. The extrinsic are the people that you can have around you, that are gonna help you, that are gonna keep you focused. That's a coach, that's a, that's a personal trainer, that's the, the class you join, the people in the class that you, you don't want to let down. You just show up. You know your team 5 am, let's go do this thing. You're the, you're the spin class. You know this time, you, you, you have these social things around you, the coach and the social things that keep you going. That's accountability, which is a motivator. The other one is the intrinsic, or internal, and this is where you start self-managing, where you're saying, look, I do want to be the best dad I can be and I do need to build stamina and I do need to build strength. So I'm gonna go to the gym tomorrow, I'm gonna set my alarm for half an hour earlier and I'm gonna go get this thing done. So setting your alarm, that's a management function in your head self-management I set my alarm. Second, I didn't hit snooze Three. I packed my gym bag the night before, so it's sitting by the door ready to go. I did those things to make sure I would be successful. That self-management, it's intrinsic motivation. It's harder than having a coach, because you know the coach is there, 5 am. You're gonna be there, but here you're doing it a lot of this yourself.
Speaker 2:And then the final bit, which is the strongest, is when you identify as that person. So this is, this is your values, these are habits. So you can see this, the most commonest is in runners. So someone starts out and they just say, okay, I'm gonna do this little run walk thing, maybe do a couch to 5k. They do their first 5k, they join a run club, they've got all this stuff going. Now they're running. And that instant they start to say I'm a runner, they identify as a runner. There's no question that they're gonna go for a run in the morning. There's let's what? Who doesn't get up and go for a run before work them a runner. That's what I do. That identifying is is basically your internal, and so now we're talking self-efficacy. So you have accountability. That's the extrinsic. You have the intrinsic, which is Self-efficacy, and when you can have both of those working for you, there's not a moment of your life that you don't have motivation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I talked in detail about this and my first Podcast of the year of 2024, so go listen to that. I'm still waiting to be canceled on YouTube for some of the things I said on there, because I was very In your face about a lot of it. That's the no filter, no bullshit. Stop doing motivation wrong and do these things. And I'll point out a couple key points that you mentioned that Reiterate some points I mentioned. So one the extremes of motivation factors, where you were talking about Telling others and getting others involved.
Speaker 1:I'm a firm believer if you want to do something, go tell five people two of them close, three of them they're not really close to what your plans are and make them keep you accountable. So, if you don't want to pay for a trainer, you don't want to pay for a coach. When you just want that motivation, say hey, friend, text me every Monday to make sure that I worked out three days last week and Did XYZ on my diet. Don't miss a text, fred's gonna text you. You're gonna feel like shit if you can't ask your friend for upper league, because that's somebody that is now holding you accountable to what you do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's a huge one, another big one for people you know your spouse, your significant other, somebody you live with Because if you get them on board, they're not gonna sabotage you and I don't mean sabotage you in a way Of they're gonna purposely do what they might. But who knows, yeah, more likely than not, it's not intentional but unintentionally they're gonna go out and buy sweets. They're gonna go buy out things that are harder to resist, women in your face, where you're motivated, but now you're seeing it because it's something another bought it. So if you get them on board, huge win. And Then the intrinsic part yeah, it's all right.
Speaker 2:Well, the thing is that those individuals are probably a big part of why you're doing this in the first place. So if I sat then I told you like look, this is important to me, I'm doing this so I can be here for you and the kids. I Need to be strong and need to be capable. I need to be healthy. They don't need me visiting me in the hospital because I just had a heart attack at 53. So this is important and I need your assistance. I need your help. They're gonna help you and look, 100, who's gonna not. I mean, if they did not help and you, then that's, you got something to work on With relationship. But but beyond that, just realize that they are your, why you know they're, they're, they're a part of that whole thing.
Speaker 2:When I first started this, I wasn't married, but I can tell you right now, if I sat down and said why do I do what I do? My wife is a big part of that. Why so, as my daughter. So now are my other three kids from her side, and so that's my family now, and that's why I want to be strong and fit and I want to be independent. I don't want them to have to be the ones wiping my butt. I Am sorry, but that's. That's not how I want to live my life.
Speaker 1:Tell your wife that so you don't have to wipe my ass. See, that's her calling.
Speaker 2:It actually is. It actually is, you're right.
Speaker 1:We should together. No, but I love that. And then even I want you to just add one little porno streams. And then I move back to the intrinsic part. But the Kid excuse is something I hear all the time, which I've ripped into a few times.
Speaker 1:I'll say it again because I don't care. Stop using your freaking kids as excuses about why you need to have sweets in the house and have all the sugar and all the Soda and all the candy and all the bad food, and because you're giving it to your kids. One. What the hell are you only feeding your kids that? You're just teaching them bad habits? I understand treats. I understand your kid wants McDonald's because their friends are going to want someone who gives a shit. Go have fun, go enjoy, but don't have it constantly around Because you're gonna sabotage yourself. You're gonna give your kids shit nutrition. So when they're your age they're not gonna know how to eat healthy because they were never taught and they never learned through habits. And it's just a win-win for everybody if you just start getting a.
Speaker 1:Let's all have a family Healthy plan together. Let's all go have salad. What's your favorite ingredient in the salad? And ever Intest the favorite ingredients to put in the salad. If you make it, throw some grilled chicken on it and give it out. I don't have kids. So yeah, full disclosure. So what do you think?
Speaker 2:No, no, that's. That's a very important concept because it really goes to mindset. Where you feel like you're the caregiver, you feel like you have to do these things for your kids, you start putting everybody else's needs ahead of your own. You're not taking care of the caregiver, you're taking, you think you're taking care of them and Unfortunately, that's. That's a recipe for disaster. Now you can turn that into a superpower and we wait.
Speaker 2:You do that is you actually solicit their help, like you said. It was like okay, we're gonna do this. And I'll tell you a story about a client that was just like this. She's like I don't have time to work out, I don't have time to do this. I got these kids, I got to feed them. By the time I feed them, I've been nibbling off of their stuff while I was preparing it. Then I fix it. They don't eat all of it. I don't want to waste the food. I ate their food. I had my dinner, their dinner, plus all the snacking before, oh, and the two glasses of wine that I had while I was cooking dinner. You know that's that's. Their life is like I'm taking care of others and I'm not. In their night. They know they're not taking care of themselves. So the way you turn around.
Speaker 2:She actually told her kids it's like look, we need to be more prepared, more planned. You're starting activities in school, like you're doing the soccer and the basketball and the stuff, and so she's like we're doing all this stuff, so we need to be prepared, so we have dinner ready and we don't have to be worrying about what we're gonna do for dinner after practice or after this and on Saturdays between games. So she started doing meal prep and on Sunday she enlisted in this at them it's okay. So what do you want for lunches next week? What do you want for dinners next week? And we'll start planning. And Her daughter came forward and says mom, you know, those breakfast bowls we used to make were actually really healthy, weren't they?
Speaker 2:She said, yeah, they were. So why don't we just make a bunch of those? And Then we can warm those up ourselves, because we know how to do that, and Then you have time to go work out and you don't have to worry about making us breakfast. And Then our husband chipped in and said look, I can make sure they're dressed for school. So, yes, you can go on down and get your workout done each morning While I'm checking out, the kids are dressed. Okay, they're not gonna get sent home and they can. They can have a good breakfast because it's already been made. They just pull it out and they warm it up. And so this whole family came together behind her need, her needs, and that became her superpower. She had a whole team in her family right there. They were her why. She engaged them in this and they turned into caretakers when she needed care and Allowed her the time to take care of herself.
Speaker 1:I Love that that's a great story.
Speaker 2:It just.
Speaker 1:It really just shows, like if you get other people involved like back to the example of telling people, like maybe if you reach out to those five people and one of them is like Shit, alan, you know I'm gonna do this with you, let's text each other Like you might motivate somebody else and I love the family unit aspect of it the most, but that's Just a different example of it. And then, going into like the intrinsic part of it, it's super important to be prepped and ready and planned accordingly. I am a firm believer and I hate mornings and on the first ever say this but working out before you start your day is the best way to make sure you get it in. Because what ends up happening nine times that of ten is I go to work and I say I'm gonna work that after work I had a bad day. I'm super stressed. Now I don't want to go.
Speaker 1:My boss asked me to stay late. My wife said the kids and he picked up from school early one of them sick. The Dinner is. We're having issues, the house, the steak burned down, whatever, I don't know. I'm making it full bullshit, but what point is? Things happen because everyone's now awake and Everyone is now piling things on your plate as we get into later in the day, whereas, opposed to if you switch the gym to the morning, it's now priority number one. Nobody has time to put things on your plate and you can just get it out of the way and then it doesn't matter what the day brings after that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So when I was doing the whole tough matter training, I still had this this job thing going on and they expecting me to be there if they're gonna pay my salary. And so what I did was I I put my lunch hour I blocked out on my calendar each day of the week at two o'clock in the afternoon. So I would, I would get up in the morning, I do some some stamina work, some cardio, nothing intense, but I do, you know, do maybe 45 minutes an hour cardio in the morning and then in the afternoon from two to three. That was my weightlifting, that was my resistance training, and it was blocked out on my calendar so no one could make a meeting. And Maybe twice, I think, in the whole time that I was doing this, my boss would call my office. It was bizarre. Like right at two o'clock I had just changed into my gym clothes One of those times I one time he caught me right before and I literally was had my gym back in my hand.
Speaker 2:I went up to his office and hold my gym bag and he's like what's going on? I'm like why do my lunch hour from two to three? Because there's no one in the gym and I, you know I don't have any meetings this time of day. I don't know, people don't usually schedule meetings at two or three in the afternoon. I don't know why, but it works out great. But he would call me. And then one time he called me, I was actually already dressed for Jim. So I'm walking through the C-suite and In shorts, the t-shirt and tennis shoes, and I walked into his office like what, what's this? I told you I go to the gym from two to three. That's my lunch hour. He's like oh, he tells me what he needs. I'm like do you need this before four o'clock? He's like no, okay, I'll have it to you by four. Walked over to the gym, got my, did my workout.
Speaker 2:Sometimes I go to my workout. Yes, I'd be stressed, I'd be angry. I just throw around more weight. Okay, you know, screw you, john, screw you. Okay, I put more weight on the bar. I'm going, you know, and, and that's how I'd burn off some stress. It's like I'm gonna get a PR on squat today, so I can leave today.
Speaker 2:No one, I did something valuable, it was just that. That was the mindset, because, again, remember, I started with the, with the why, my daughter and wanting to be a persistent and not a spectator. And then there was the commitment of I'm doing this thing. This is gonna be hard, but I'm gonna do this hard thing. And then it was the two of days where I'm literally getting up in the morning early enough to do some Some long cardio out 45 minutes to an hour, and then in the afternoon I have that blocked dedicated time. This is my time. This is not anybody else's time.
Speaker 2:The only person I would answer the phone for, the only person I respond to, was my boss, or my boss's boss, or the board of directors one of those guys but it was a handful of people that I would stop what I was doing. If it was anyone else, screw it. I'll talk to you when I get back from the gym. Leave a message, you know, and that's that's how you have to approach this. You have to be number one. I know that sounds weird. I love you. Well, that's kind of so selfish. I'm like well, it's not selfish when you're doing it for the right reasons.
Speaker 1:And that was my dog to help other people like help your daughter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, your wife, wipe your ass like this. You're right, exactly, exactly with them right.
Speaker 1:Is there anything else you want to add for people listening to this podcast is actual tips. You can wrap this up.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, I love, I love, love, love the name of this podcast redefine fitness. And and I think that's the message would be Fitness is what you need your fitness to be. It's not what anyone else tells you. It's not about your body fat percentage. It's not about how much you can bench press. It's not about how many toes to bar you can do nonstop. It's none of that stuff.
Speaker 2:And while CrossFit will say they're the fittest man or woman on earth, you just want to be the fittest you need to be, to be the best you can be on this earth. So it's really going to be about okay, right now, I'm 58 years old. What do I need to be able to do? And I have to do some things that a lot of other people can't, that wouldn't have to do carrying water bottles around the bed and breakfast, climbing ladders, climbing down, doing different things, carrying stuff. My wife wants this in there and that in there, I can do that without hurting myself.
Speaker 2:Later on, it's going to be the simple stuff of being able to open jars. I'm still the guy around the house that opens jars, you know that's. That's my job. I lift. I'm a bell hop when people arrive. I've got to carry their luggage upstairs, put it in the rooms, get them checked in. That's my lifestyle today, and I plan on doing that for a while. Later on, my lifestyle might be a little different as I age, but I'm not going to age out like most people. I'm going to live the life that I'm supposed to live. I'm going to be fit for task for who I need to be, and that's the way you should look at it too.
Speaker 1:I love that, Alan, Thank you. And then, how do people find you? Get ahold of you, learn more and work with you?
Speaker 2:Okay, well, you can go to 40 plus fitness. That's 40 PLUS fitnesscom forward slash, anthony, and that's going to take you to not Tony, anthony. So a lot more letters. But, anthony, you know they want your. They want your URL to be short as possible, but, anthony, 40 plus fitnesscom forward slash, anthony. That'll take you to my website. There'll be links to various things like my training, my book, my podcast and all that, and then just a you know, a shout out to Anthony here for having me on the podcast. There's going to be a dedicated page for him from my website so you can go there. Everything will be there. It'll be pretty simple and that's where anyone I'm talking to about this. That's where I'm going to send them. So you can go to 40 plus fitnesscom forward slash, anthony, and find everything that I'm about there.
Speaker 1:Thank you, alan. I appreciate you coming on. Thank you, guys, for listening to this week's episode of health and fitness redefined. Don't forget, hit that subscribe button, leave a review, share this with a friend. We really appreciate it. And also don't forget, this is medicine. Until next time.