Abs at 50 Episode 3 Gamify Your Workout

[00:00:05] Speaker A: Don't mouth. Three, two, one. Oh, wait, that was me. [00:00:08] Speaker B: Three, two, one. [00:00:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:11] Speaker B: Cue the generic intro music. [00:00:16] Speaker A: I have the generic intro music. You want me to play it right over that? You saying cue the generic intro music? I could, I could make that happen. You know, I have skills. Mad, mad editing skills. [00:00:25] Speaker B: I was trying to see is it the exact same as Funny Book Forensics? [00:00:29] Speaker A: No, it is not the exact same. Funny Book Forensics, by the way, is my sister. Podcast with our good friend Greg Smith, co owner of the Retro Emporium in Kent, Washington. We're going to get the plugs in early today. If you want to relive your childhood, you can go to Kent, Washington and go to Meeker street and visit the Retro Emporium. Actually, this podcast is going to come out right before Christmas. So, you know, you've got Monday. I think after this podcast out, you can visit the Retro Emporium on Monday. That's it. They are not going to be open on Tuesday. You know why they're not going to be open on Tuesday? Do you know they are actually coming to game night coming too? Yeah. None of the people listening to this podcast get to come to game night, but yeah, there's game night. We're having game night on Christmas Eve. Very unworkout like of us. But that's okay because game night fits our theme today. [00:01:20] Speaker B: Yes. When you're talking about gamifying your workouts and how to make it interesting so you actually, you know, want to do your workout, I think that's probably the number one indicator of whether or not you're going to have success. If you actually get some sort of enjoyment out of it. [00:01:38] Speaker A: If you don't go to the gym, things won't happen. If you don't go outside, things won't happen. If you don't move heavy things, things won't happen. If you don't ride a bike or a run or whatever your choices, things are not going to happen or just walk. We're, we're, we're both big fans of walking. Walking is a great thing. Uh, I actually heard somebody once say every 30 minutes you walk, It's a trade off with other time. You could be lifting or doing other workouts. And I'm like, yeah, I'm not the high level athlete. That means that talk, walking is a great thing, especially if you can put some hills in there and things like that, you know, because walking is the foundational movement that humans do. So we like walking. [00:02:18] Speaker B: Yeah. It's also something that's gonna persist like through Whatever your marginal decade is. So however old you're going to be, you should be training in mind to be ambulatory and be able to walk. Like walk is the one thing that you want to be able to do at 90. I think one of the coolest things was like, you know, Dick Van Dyke just had his, what, 99th birthday. He's still dancing around like, you want to be like Dick Van Dyke. Like if you're going to reach 99, that's how you want to be. [00:02:53] Speaker A: You want to be moving. And I think. And by the way, this is not funny. Book forensics. This is ABS at 50. I'm Dan, that's Paul and we're here, we're going to do this weekly as much as possible. Talking about my journey to try to get ABs at 50. And before we get into the main topic today, probably, probably good time for an update. I've got my cool certified jiu jitsu hoodie on today. By the way. This is for Paul's Gym, Jackson and Slash, Bridgeport Way and 27th in University Place, Slash, Tacoma, Washington. There's a lot of slashes involved whenever I describe where your business is. Slash, slash, slash, slash. But if you, we don't really slash slash things there. But if you want to. Well, I guess you could do striking on Saturday morning at 9:00am dot, would you slash, slash or punch? Punch or kick? Kick. [00:03:43] Speaker B: We do technically have swords upstairs. [00:03:47] Speaker A: Yeah. No you don't. [00:03:50] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, we do. [00:03:53] Speaker A: No, no, no, I told you to get rid of the swords. Like, yeah, there's no swords there. But you don't want people breaking through your, your business, stealing your swords. I wouldn't advertise the swords. [00:04:05] Speaker B: They are not, they are not stealing worthy. [00:04:07] Speaker A: For the dozens of listeners listening to this, we want to make sure that dozens and dozens for the millions of. [00:04:13] Speaker B: People around the world. [00:04:15] Speaker A: That's what Mick Foley used to say. Remember for my dozens and dozens of fans, when the Rock would say his millions, Mick Foley would say for the dozens and dozens. Yeah, I think, I think, you know, I'd be happy with dozens and dozens of people taking on this journey with us. But yeah, I mean, but we are going to give a quick update. So, uh, started this journey, as you'll remember, at 211 pounds and 29.8% body fat. Uh, last week I was at 26.9% body fat and, and I was 198 pounds. And this week we weighed in today at 196.3 pounds and 26.4% body fat. So Continuing to move down. Uh, so whenever we do these updates, I'm always gonna have a question of the week for Paul. 1. Last week we were talking about like muscle mass on the scale and making sure I maintain that. And this week I told Paul, for the first time yesterday, I felt like I wanted to eat everything. Uh, I have had no problems with this. In fact, I've had trouble getting enough calories in a few days. And I shouldn't say, it's not that I wanted to eat anything. I just feel, feel exhausted. And then today I did the big Friday sandbag workout, which is move heavy sandbags around the gym. And I came home and actually did grab a little bit of food. And man, Paul, I have hit a wall in the last couple hours. I am, I feel exhausted. I don't even know if it's just, I want to eat everything. I am just beat. Okay, so what's going on? Like, what are, what and what do I need to, what do I need to update here and change a little bit? [00:06:00] Speaker B: Well, several things that are going on. Number one, you have some overarching neural activity going on in your brain that is going to be counteracting you. Especially now that we've made a significant process progress rather, you know, you, you're gonna run into some psychological barriers and that, you know, your own body, out of its own preservation, doesn't like giving up that weight. Right. And it, it's, it's like an asymptote. The closer and closer you get to extremely low body weight, the harder and harder it is going to be both psychologically and, and physically. And it's not necessarily that you're doing anything wrong whatsoever. In fact, you know, it's plausibly because you're doing, we're accomplishing the goals that we want. Um, and so you just, you have some built in neural mechanisms where your body's going to try to give you some resistance in general. So anyone who's feeling that way should know that a lot of that is gonna be like, there are gonna be days like that. Um, and that there, there are gonna be days when you're tired. You know, I mean, it's not to put too fine a point on it, but if this is abs over 50, you know, know you're not 20. You know, I work with kids in jitsu and stuff, and, you know, I always say, you know, if I could just, you know, bottle their energy up and sell it, I would be a billionaire. Right. It's just like your body just doesn't have the Same level of output without any kind of consequence. So, you know, it would be foolhardy to think that you're going to do all these things and you know, you're not going to have some fatigue. So I would say as a backdrop, that's not necessarily a byproduct of anything we're doing. Um, of course we want to make sure that, you know, you are hitting those macros and if you are too far under, we want to make sure that, you know, again, my biggest concern is just making sure you're hitting your protein goals as long as you're getting the right amount of nitrogen. You know, I mean the, the formula I learned early on, I think I heard this from Jeff Cavalier for the first time. It was like you want to have a positive nitrogen balance and you want to be in a hypocaloric state. And Dan's always like, what, what does that mean? [00:08:18] Speaker A: I know what hypocaloric means. Now let's talk if that's less calories than you, you in. Than you output or. [00:08:26] Speaker B: That's right, that's right. So that's the second part of the formula. The first one I've gotten that part. [00:08:31] Speaker A: Now the, the first part I understand involves eating things I don't like partially. [00:08:37] Speaker B: But most of your protein is gonna like animal protein is rich in nitrogen based. Especially if like chicken eating a lot of like spinach and greens and leafy greens is gonna give you nitrogen. So things that are more. Not that I'm promoting per se, a ketogenic style diet. That's not what we're doing though. I, I have done something similar to that in the past. But yeah, things that are gonna be more plant based, you know, just having nitrogen rich foods and you're, you're gonna want to keep that balance high. And so that's just, that's the problem that we're running into is making sure that you're. And we talked about that before, right? It's like hitting that protein goal without overshooting your calories is always a balance. Um, and that's why, that's why you're tracking is cuz now you're more. We talked about. Give a recap of what we talked about last time, right? Being more in tune with how your body reacts to what you're eating. Right. So now you're getting some feedback of like, okay, we've done really well up until this point. And so I think that's good, right? The fact that it's taken this long for you to have like that's the. The second thing that I was gonna say is your body's also going through a metabolic change in and of itself. Off. Right. So it's the same thing. We've talked about the. You know, because you have done keto in the past. We've both done keto in the past. And some people refer to it as what, the keto flu. Right. [00:10:04] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [00:10:05] Speaker B: I don't think it's quite kind of. [00:10:06] Speaker A: What this feels like. Not as bad, but it kind of feels like it. [00:10:10] Speaker B: Um, also, another thing that it's important to note is that it is the middle of December in Washington and I don't know the last time you spent 30 minutes in the sun. [00:10:24] Speaker A: So to. Well, yeah, I guess not today, cuz I walked the dogs in the dark today both times. So. Yeah. And I had to go into Seattle for work today, so I didn't get back out in the sun, like in the daytime. So. Yeah, that's. That's a fair point, I think. Also, I would add. Yeah, this doesn't feel like I. I don't have like brain fog or anything either. Like, my work times when I've sat down and focused on stuff was really productive. So now I was gonna sit down and focus on some stuff this evening, and that was not happening. That resulted in television show instead and snuggling with the dogs as opposed to getting. Being very productive. But it. Which, which is fine. I. I don't think. I also don't think it's bad to have some downtime or some rest time after you've worked all day and you lifted and walked the dogs and done different things. People should probably rest. There are insane people that never rest. Good for them. I am definitely not one of those folks. I need some brain shutdown time too. And honestly, here's the joke. My brain never shuts down, right? But I've got this curse, but I can distract it. So unfortunately, I get distracted without medication. So that's a positive thing. I know I don't need. I don't need Adderall to distract my brain. Fortunately, other people do. Good for them. Like, I'm not attacking Adderall or anything, but we've managed to distract my brain in other ways, and I think that's probably what we're. And I think that the reason I bring that up is I think it's a good transition to our topic today too, because there are some days, man, when you just. Well, I don't know that you ever don't want to work out, which is insane. But you've gamified your whole life of workouts and by playing a game. So tell them. Like, I want to get into this topic. Let's just start first, right? Like you started out bodybuilding and lifting weights and then you got into jiu jitsu and you were pretty dedicated to your weightlifting, but not nearly as dedicated as you are to jiu jitsu. Let, let's explain what we can. I guess, I don't know, I can do a rough definition of gamification. Right. I would just argue gamification is anything where you are playing a contest, right. So whether that contest in my case today is moving the sandbags across the gym, or in your case, you know, choking somebody else out on the mats. Talk to us what that. Talk to us about why you got into Jiu jitsu and what kept you going back over and over and over again. [00:13:13] Speaker B: Yeah, well, that's a pretty expansive topic, so I'll try to keep it within a reasonable limit. [00:13:21] Speaker A: Um, but you got, you got two. Two. You got five sentences. [00:13:25] Speaker B: Yeah, five sentences. Um, I originally got into shape as a, as a, you know, just a long term investment into myself during grad school. So that's when I started doing. What I was telling people is I did bodybuilding style workouts. I never did like a bodybuilding competition. Mainly because you learn that like 99% of the people you follow in the bodybuilding world are all taking performance enhancing drugs. And I wasn't in a position to do that. Cause I felt like it was counterintuitive to why I wanted to get back into shape. But I did a lot of lifting. So I was like lifting two to three hours, like five to six days a week throughout the entire time I was in, in law school. I was like the only person in law school that lost weight in law school. Like, you hear about the freshman 15, there's like the first year law school 30. Like everybody gained weight. Um, and I also lived in Kansas, which was not conducive to being super healthy. And I, so I was, I did that through graduation and moving here and getting my job. And then when I was part of it was happenstance. Part of it is, you know, I myself kind of hit that lull, you know, is I, I had been kind of doing the same style of workouts and I gotten into pretty good shape. Um, but I didn't have an external driving factor, right? Like I wasn't doing a bodybuilding competition. Like, if I had signed up to do a bodybuilding competition, I might have like re. Doubled My efforts and been much more honed in because, you know, I'm, I'm a person that likes competition, as you can imagine. And so I think I got introduced to jiu jitsu by happenstance because the firm that I was working at, one of the partners that I worked for, his next door neighbor is Brian, the guy who owns the other gym that I'm the head coach at. And so it, we. It was a conversation that came up in passing and I originally went in there for kickboxing. I was like, you know, I should probably learn a little bit of self defense. Um, not that I'm doing anything crazy, but there's a general animus in society towards lawyers in many contexts. And I felt like it might be useful that some, especially in today's day and age, to know how to protect myself, really. [00:15:45] Speaker A: Like, I understand that lawyers are extremely popular, that people like them a lot. Uh, in, in general, we, we put them up on a pedestal and, and fear for them. [00:15:55] Speaker B: It's a venerated and esteemed profession that I have that gets much public derision, sometimes for good reason. There are a lot of jerks out there, so I will remain them nameless. They mostly work for insurance companies, though. [00:16:10] Speaker A: What if we just called you a solicitor? [00:16:12] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, A barrister maybe. [00:16:15] Speaker A: Yeah, I. Anyway, not to derail you here, but yeah, yeah, so self defense and yeah. [00:16:22] Speaker B: I wanted to learn self defense and I, it kind of hit a plateau in my, in my lifting phase of my life. And so, yeah, I just started doing jiu jitsu a couple nights a week. Like, literally like two nights a week. And you know, it, it's. It's everything that people talk about and more. It is, you know, my original. The guy who was like, you know, my coach for the first little bit of my career was a really small guy. He, he wrestled a lot. And so it's like, it's this really confounding thing where someone who is older than you, at least in theory, less athletic than you, smaller than you, is like beating you up all the time. And it was like the first. He kept hitting me with a damn head and arm triangle for like four months straight. Like, kept hitting the same move over and over again. And like, my brain just couldn't handle it. And so like, I went down this rabbit hole of like, can't let this happen to me anymore. And I think that's what makes Jiu jitsu special, is jiu jitsu is all about. It's a problem solving endeavor. You know, it's a, it's a physical activity. So it does have a lot of physical characteristics to it. And you have to learn how to control your body and control your breathing. Once you get past kind of the first anxiety of like people are trying to beat you up and, you know, choke you unconscious. Once you kind of come to terms with that, then it becomes a problem solving game. Like it is. It is 100%. It's a thought, it's a real time thought experiment where you're trying to solve the mutual problem of simulating someone either breaking a limb or getting choked unconscious. So it's a very interesting psychological endeavor and it always changes, especially when you go against better and better people, because there's always better people out there. Like, that's why one of the themes of our school is like Dragon Ball Z. So if you know anything about Dragon Ball Z, like they're always trying to level up and like that's how Jiu Jitsu works, is like there's always like someone out there, another universe of good people whom you haven't met. Like, you think you're good at something and then they're even better than you are and you're like, oh, well, guess I gotta keep training. [00:18:38] Speaker A: I think you make a really good point though, on something that's cross applicable to anyone. So I want to get back into Jiu Jitsu a little bit. But one of the things you got into is, is learning something new. So when you're bodybuilding, you were learning something new doing those workouts, you were researching that you were going back, you were trying different things. You help. You were teaching me at one point, right, and training me to do the lifts properly, keep my body motion properly, especially with my knee, with, with any lower body workouts, I have to be really well, well, had not as much anymore because I built up muscle in my legs, right, which helps the knee, but had to stay on point with the workouts. At different parts of our life, we were, we were both competitive in different things too. You played football, you did debate and college forensics. I did that as well and was a coach. So competitive. We both had a competitive nature for those things. I, I, in college I learned racquetball from a friend and similar to you in Jiu jitsu, got beat over and over, beat like a drum for months. But I kept going back because I was learning the sport. And finally, finally the first time I won a game against Sean, that was fantastic. I was super excited. Still my buddy to this day because we bonded over that learning experience, right? Besides just being Friends and on the debate team and things like that. Together we bonded over those experiences and you know, him getting to teach me and then me getting to learn. And now you're doing the training as well. So you're getting the teaching to go back to. And you also go against, you just went to Brazil and trained against really high level people. [00:20:20] Speaker B: Yeah, I, you know, going back to what I said at the beginning is, you know, I think your, your success is going to be directly correlated with, you know, doing, trying to find something that you enjoy. And that's not to say that every workout you should do should necessarily be enjoyable. In fact, I, I don't think it should. Going back to like the weightlifting stuff, I, you know, in my, in my heart of hearts, I, I was and am and still will always be a, you know, an iron addict. I love lifting weights. I could spend four hours a day just lifting weights and be probably pretty content with that. But, you know, talking about trade offs is that, you know, I don't have infinite time. I still have to, you know, manage and run businesses and teach and coach and train and do all the things that I have to do. And so there, you know, I have limited amounts of time that I can try to accomplish all of the things. So I'm a bit more strategic with my lifting these days, though. I still do lift quite regularly, just not in the same volume. But there's also, you know, going back to like what you said before, especially when I'm in like very, very heavy training camps and you know, getting ready for like when I'm doing worlds or you know, doing the, the ADCC trials, which is like, you know, it's like our Olympic trials for the grappling world. There are a lot of days, a lot of days where I, I don't feel like I have it, you know, where I don't want to do it. And all of that is just your, you know, your flexing, your suck muscle, as I like to say. What was the, the Huberman? Let's see if I have it right. The super chiasmatic nucleus, that's your, like your suck button in your brain. [00:22:16] Speaker A: I don't even know if we need to go that far though. I just, just know that you're not, you can be excited when you get there, but you don't always have to be excited on the way, as I would. Is how I would phrase it. Right. [00:22:27] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. When, here's what I always tell people is, especially for jiu jitsu, but almost any workout I've ever had Is, you know, it's the. It's the mental friction of getting there is literally the hardest part. It's not going to be the workout that's gonna be the hardest part. Like, unless you're doing a massive PR. You know, you're trying to, like, deadlift £500 or something crazy like that, which shouldn't be doing if you're, you know, a newbie at it. But it's the mental friction of getting there is the hardest part. Especially if you're early days, right. And. And, you know, you. We can debate over, you know, what the actual dates are or whatever, but I think it is a good heuristic that. Where it's like, you know, it can take up to, you know, 60, 67 days or whatever number that they. That they articulate is, like, however many days of consistency that it takes to try to form a habit. Um, yeah. So just know that, like, that's the thing you're gonna struggle with is, like, that getting over that friction of, like, making it a routine. Because once you make it a routine, then it becomes much simpler. [00:23:27] Speaker A: Um, yeah. But also, just remember too, you can make other things a routine very quickly, too. I mean, that's the thing, too. You can make not going to the gym and doing something else a routine. Routine. Right? So one of the things I've done is banked in a very specific time to do my workouts each day or each with you at least three times a week. And then, you know, other times of the day, too. And when I'm by myself, I'm more likely to miss. But if I'm going to your gym to meet with you at a set time, I'm more likely to go. I think one of the ways, too, to trigger that habit is to work with somebody. It's very intimidating to go into, like, a big corporate gym with weights and just go in there by yourself and start. I know. And especially this day and age here, I have the big headphones on, but you go in and everybody has their headphones in and they're just paying attention to themselves, right? When I. I mean, I'm old, so when I started lifting, like in college, that wasn't the case. And you could go into a gym and, you know, if you needed somebody to spot you or if you wanted to just know what they were doing, right? Like, you see them do something and you're like, what is that? What does that do? And you can still get people in the gym to talk to you sometimes, but it's more difficult because they're all in their sort of zone in space. And that's kind of how society is now. [00:24:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:50] Speaker A: So if you're gonna go in, I, I would highly recommend, you know, getting a personal trainer or get in your case, it was just a buddy that you were did it. You, you train me. But to help you now I pay you, I pay Paul to train me and I also get access to all his other gym classes if I want them. So like, it's not like just paying for one thing, but I pay Paul for training a lot as an accountability piece for myself to make sure I'm actually doing the thing. And then I also don't mind paying Paul for his advice. Right. Because it's good. But I think we're not saying you have to go out and buy a personal trainer right away, but I know you will be more successful if you successful if you set times and if you have a workout partner or workout buddy with you that can do the thing, or you can just go full in and hold yourself accountable in front of the whole world by saying you're gonna get abs at 50 in one year. [00:25:49] Speaker B: Yes. Go off the deep end. Nothing in moderation. [00:25:52] Speaker A: Only talk about the ultimate way. Well, we were talking about gamification too. And talk about the ultimate way to gamify it. I've got a big chart in front of me each week and I'm reporting it back to you. And I look at the numbers going up and down and if I see the numbers going up, I don't like it. And if I see them going down, I like it. So unless that, unless that number is my muscle mass. Right. I like that. So, but you know, kind of thinking about that. That's one way to gamify it. But there are some others. And let's, let's talk about some of the things we've done recently and we can talk about some of the other habit building or brain tricking things you can do to get yourself in the habit. One thing you did with me a couple weeks ago, well, it's about four weeks ago now, is you laid out a bunch of sandbags in the gym. And you just looked at me and said, figure out how to move them across the gym. Yeah. And you're just like, yep. [00:26:51] Speaker B: Why? [00:26:53] Speaker A: Why? But yeah, you know, so I had lifted the sandbags a little bit before that. It's not like I'd ever, never touched them before. But why would you challenge me in that way? Why wouldn't you just show me how to move each sandbag and then do that. Why did you say, you know, there they are, Move them however you can. [00:27:13] Speaker B: Well, there, there's actually a lot of psychology underlying that because number one is. I know. I know Dan. I know Dan really well. And part of Dan's problem in life is I don't have any problems. All right. No, I remember that. I will remember you said that. No problems in life. [00:27:36] Speaker A: Zero problems, perfect everything. [00:27:38] Speaker B: One of Dan's problems in life is, well, legitimately, Dan has, has at least some mild form of dyslexia. So he does the. Tends to do things backwards anytime I. [00:27:49] Speaker A: Demonstrate what I don't know. [00:27:52] Speaker B: And the. But the other thing is, is that if I. You're. You're either going to be undisciplined and forget how to do it or you're going to try to do something because you're also a creature of habit. You're going to try and do something exactly the same way every single time. [00:28:08] Speaker A: Yep. [00:28:09] Speaker B: And damn the consequences. Right. And the other aspect of it was I knew how the workout was going to go with a progressive overload and increased fatigue. So I knew you wouldn't be able to lift the bags a certain way each and every time. And by way of context, for the Internet that hasn't seen my gym and doesn't know, like, we're not talking about like 10 or 20 pounds sandbags. We're talking sandbags that are ranging from the low end to £150 to the high end to our 300 or 200. Let me not get it wrong because Zach will throw me through the ceiling. [00:28:49] Speaker A: That'd be Zach. That'd be. [00:28:51] Speaker B: It's a 273 pound. Yeah, yeah. [00:28:55] Speaker A: Vegan legend on Instagram. [00:28:57] Speaker B: You bought me this shirt for Christmas. Things break. Yeah, he, he, he, he brought in his fish weight and measured it and was very upset when it was only 273 pounds. And I told him it was 300 pounds but he since rectified that problem. He bought his own sandbag, bigger sandbag. That's like £320 and now he picks it up. Zach style the su style this way. Which is an insane feat of strength for those of you who don't know. I challenge you to get a 300 pound bag and don't pick it up like this. Pick it up at the ends, squeezing it to your chest and standing straight up. I challenge the Internet to do that. [00:29:37] Speaker A: Well, I don't know if we need to challenge our listeners to do that, but that's, that's, I know it is And I think too so. And today you were talking about my stubbornness and a little bit and how I do things. A few weeks ago, I was moving sandbags however I could. Uh, today I lifted them all exactly the same way. I have a pattern now, and I know exactly what to do. So how long do I get to keep doing the sandbags? Because I guess next would be move them across back and forth across the gym three times instead of two times. But yeah, I. That's the thing. Here's the reason you work with somebody. Paul will change it up so he'll. He'll have some. I don't know what that torturous thing will be next time, but there'll be something, and it will be. And when I say torturous, I don't mean in a bad way. Right. Like, yeah, you're tired. Because you were saying, you know, workouts should be uncomfortable. They should be uncomfortable, but they should still be. You should. They shouldn't be enjoyable. I disagree with that. I think workouts should be enjoyable. The enjoyment comes from the accomplishment of doing the thing. [00:30:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:38] Speaker A: Right. Your muscles are gonna hurt. Like it's. Something's gonna be sore, but it's that sense of accomplishment you get when you do something for the first time or you figure out something different or you figure out a new trick. That is the. That's the enjoyable piece. Right. [00:30:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, so I, I just want to say this so you'll recall. I, I distinctly remember him posting this. So our. One of our students and competitors, Ben. You'll remember Ben. Um, I remember he posted because Ben was significantly overweight. And I remember after a few years, after I knew him, he posted and said, it's all true. I've dedicated my life to fitness, and all of the positive things that people said it was. Was true, and it is true. Um, so speaking to people who might be completely untrained. Right. So this is ABS at 50, and you might have made it all the way to the age of 50 and have never trained. You know that, that. I wouldn't say that that would be necessarily unheard of. But you don't. Maybe you're not 50. Maybe you're just someone who is. Is just completely untrained. And that's why you're looking at, at this, to see, well, if someone in their 50s can do it, hopefully I can do it too. That's kind of, you know, that's kind of the, the, the ethos that we were hoping to promote. And so there is going. If you are completely untrained there is going to be a period of time and it's usually about two to three weeks where everything is just going to be bad, like all of it. And I've, I've been there, you know, when I dan knew me then, you know, my, my senior year of college, I got really out of shape. I just, I'm not eating well. We were traveling all the time for competition. Like there was like, like seven weeks in a row or something my last semester, something crazy. We were gone like two weeks and every weekend and we're eating like McDonald's every single weekend because that's all the school would pay for. [00:32:47] Speaker A: Are you saying the hotels we stayed at didn't have fine gyms? Like, I picked really good hotels for the team. [00:32:54] Speaker B: Yeah, right, yeah. Yes. Cameron University had a high budget for the, the Ritz Carlton at every place that we went. [00:33:01] Speaker A: Oh yeah. I mean the Super 8 has, you know, a lobby to do pushups in. I mean. [00:33:07] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and I, I'm not making excuses as to say that it was definitely live choices and commitments that, that I hadn't made or not made to myself. So I'm definitely not trying to shirk personal responsibility. I'm just saying as a matter of fact, like there was a time in my life where I was completely outta shape. Cause I hadn't worked out in like almost a year. And yeah, I just had added body weight and was not happy with my body composition. And you know, that's part of what started me on this journey is just. I knew I'd reached a crossroad in my life where a lot of the men in my mo. Almost all the men in my family have had heart disease and problems with their health and faced obesity. And so I knew that was the path that I was facing. So I decided to dedicate, you know, my life to at least a certain proportion of fitness. I never knew kind of the level that it would grow to. But you know that for those people who are just starting out, like you know, games, no games, whatever you have to do to make it somewhat enjoyable. Just know that it's like, you know, when does the enjoyment kick in? That there is going to be a two to three week period where everything's going to suck, you're going to be super sore, everything's going to be hard, you're going to be huffing and puffing. You know, you might feel some sort of embarrassment or what, or you think you're facing embarrassment, you know, because you think other people at the gym are judging you or whatever. And maybe they are. And if they are, fuck those people. [00:34:33] Speaker A: But yeah, but they're usually not. [00:34:35] Speaker B: They're usually. [00:34:36] Speaker A: Or if they are, they're keeping it to themselves. Like they're not like, no, nobody's at the gym. I've never, I have never. I, I'm sure high school, but we're, we're not in high school anymore. Right? This is grown up gyms. Like nobody is seeing the gym going, ha, look at that. Right? [00:34:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:52] Speaker A: And if they do do it, they're doing it away from you, so don't worry about it. [00:34:57] Speaker B: Yeah. And I don't want to put that. I mean there's some people that do some pretty egregious things. Another reason why you might want to have at least just an introductory thing because you might just use a machine wrong, you might hurt yourself, so please don't do that. But you know, going back to what you were talking about, kind of like the old school, it's kind of why, you know, uh, I think we both still somewhat miss our old meathead gym that we trained at. Um, but I think that used to be kind of more of the culture where you know, there might be loud music playing, but it's like everyone's kind of like lifting together and talking more. Um, I think when I had a. [00:35:31] Speaker A: Gary, we had a Gary. Don't forget we had a Gary. Look, if there's a guy walking around cleaning the gym and walks over to you and wants to adjust your lift, uh, listen. [00:35:43] Speaker B: Yeah, she probably will. [00:35:44] Speaker A: Like, like he would literally just come move my hands a quarter inch and be Dan. If you do it right here, it's gonna feel a lot better on your shoulder. Okay, cool. Let me. Oh yeah. Uh huh. Yeah. But yeah, not every gym has a Gary. [00:36:00] Speaker B: But, but I, I think that what you would also find too is exactly like you're saying, people are kind of in their own space. Um, but if you approach people, actually most people will probably help you. Actually, they probably want to help you. I think most people would be like, I don't want to intercede and kind of like overstep my bounds because yeah, of course it's easy for me cause I'm in shape or you know, they, they're like, maybe they think that you'll think that you're being condescending to them or not. But most people at the gym will probably help you out too. Like they'll give you a spot. You have to be a little more aggressive. And I don't mean like in a negative way, but you just like, you have to get their attention because again, they're probably spaced off in their own headphones or whatever. But I think part of the gamification is literally just you will have more success with either a personal trainer or a training partner. I think statistically that's provable. [00:36:54] Speaker A: Yeah. And where you set goals and they can be small goals. Like your goals can start by being go three times a week. [00:37:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:02] Speaker A: Like literally your first goal could be, you know, walk five days a week and go to the gym three times. And on one day do bi. Biceps and chest. I'm just gonna mess this up. Totally. So just ignore my workout. But one day do biceps and chest, another day do back. No, it's. Sorry. Triceps and chest. Let me get it right back and buys on another day and legs on another day. And you know, but your abs in there and just plan that. Right. And then you do that and you start going for a while and Paul's right, it's gonna hurt at first. I would say too, you know, when you're working with a trainer, you may not always find the right one the first time. That doesn't mean give up. I ended up doing that at the Meathead Gym before you moved back to Washington. Remember I told you about that trainer who burned my chest out so bad on the first workout. I couldn't, you know, it hurt for three days and I couldn't go back and train and didn't want to train because I didn't feel like that trainer was listening to me or working with my body where it was at that time. They were working with their body and what would work for them. But with you or with Dylan hall, who we'd love to get on. I gotta ask Dylan if he'll come on the show sometime because he is a fantastic functional trainer and track coach and trains football players. I mean, you know, similar to what Paul does, but. And Dylan also keeps himself in phenomenal shape. [00:38:26] Speaker B: Right. [00:38:27] Speaker A: I think one of the things too. I'm not saying a trainer has to be in phenomenal shape. Like they don't have to be in perfect shape. But I don't want to train with an out of shape trainer either. That's just my bias. I, I could be wrong. You may be telling me I'm an idiot there, but in general, I want to see that a trainer is doing the things that they would have me. [00:38:46] Speaker B: You. Yeah. Again, it's basic rhetoric, right. Logos, pathos and ethos. Like if you want to establish credibility, it, you know, it needs to come from. I I, I think I was. I was just watching a video on that where it was like. I don't know. I don't think it was one of Muhammad Ali trainers, but it was like one of like the OG original, like, boxing coaches. And he's like in his 90s running, you know, and he's like, the reason that I'm in shape is because I always did what my athletes did, you know, And I was like, that's why, you know, when they were, when they were running, I was running. When they were lifting, I was lifting. Right. And of course, he's probably not going to be doing it at the same clip, but, yeah, I think that's, that's just a. You see the same thing in the jiu jitsu world, right, where it's like, what was it? Was it Enzo? Was it Henzo that was giving people guff about, like, you know, it's like if you, if you're completely out of shape and you're a black belt, it's like you're not a black belt anymore. Like, you, you know, you're in the wrong industry. Like, you're in a martial art committed to discipline industry. And at a certain extent, you have to be committed to that. Of course, there are outliers and, you know, all of that is. Is centered in context, but. [00:40:08] Speaker A: Well, you gotta be continuously learning, though. I mean, when I was coaching debate, I granted, it's easy when you're a college professor because you have an outlet where you can speak often. But I didn't just speak in the classroom. I wrote positions with the team. I did public events and I did public address. I would do big presentations. Like, I would continue to hone what I did because I needed to feel what you all felt to make sure I could still coach it. Like, it doesn't matter what the competitive endeavor is. You should constantly be learning in that thing if you're coaching. If you're not constantly learning in that thing, you're dead. I, I couldn't go back to coaching college forensics right now without some research again, because I'm, you know, what, eight years out of this, out of the sport right now. I still train myself, though. Actually, I probably could go back. You know why? Because I still do presentations on a regular basis. I haven't given that up. Yeah, but it would. There would be a learning curve on other tricks and different things because you step out of something. I just like debate, I couldn't go back into right away. I wouldn't know all the tricks that they're Engaging in right now. I'd have to go figure that out in the same way. I. And we see it all the time. You see an old football coach come back in and try to coach and they were great before and then it doesn't work. And if they're like, oh, well, that football coach really good before, like, what happened? Well, the games passed them. Right. I think a great example is the. Well, I don't even want to bring him up because I don't want to platform him. But the current senator from Alabama, who was a terrible football coach at the end of the career and a great football coach at the beginning because the game passed them and they never seem to evolve and improve. And then we elect them to Senate because that makes sense, right? We. It's always good to get senators in office that showed a propensity not to learn through their original career. [00:41:58] Speaker B: Football conquers all. This is amazing. [00:42:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, that's, that's definitely the, the, the, the way we'd want to bring that in. But yeah, I mean, you see coaches, it happens all the time. And so you're going to want to coach. Consequently, you're going to want to coach or work part. If it's a workout partner, great. But they're engaging with you constantly. Right. They're doing the same thing as a coach. You want to know they can do the same things. And there are exceptions, right? Like, you know, Nikki, no legs. I would let him train me. Obviously, Nick no longer. Like, we'll often put a link to his Facebook. But yeah, like, yeah, obviously, since Nick lost his legs doing freaking. What are those events? What are those crazy marathon things? But they're not marathons. [00:42:43] Speaker B: The ultra marathons. [00:42:44] Speaker A: Yeah, it wasn't even ultra. I have to look at it. But it's. Yeah, it's those like, assault course type things. What's the, what's the name for that? I'm totally blanking right in the middle of the podcast. But yeah, after. Yeah, Spartan. A spartan race. Yeah. But yeah, that guy. I'd let him train me even though he's not gonna be able to do everything I can do. So. But he's out there training himself. I mean, he also can probably, you know, he probably can squat more than I can with no legs. So, you know, I'm probably going to let him coach me. Right. But I think, you know, there are exceptions to the rule, like you said. But then again, I would be getting the most inspirational freaking coach in the country. So, you know, you know, there's advantages to that too. Right. Nick was one of my students, too, way back. Did you know that? He was one of my students in, like, 2002. [00:43:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:38] Speaker A: I'm old. Yeah. But just, I mean, so I've seen inspirational, cool people, but even, like, my buddy Lane, who does the bicycle trekking with folks, he does career coaching and life coaching, and he takes people on these bicycle trips and changes their lives. He's out there cycling. He hosts cyclers at his house. He's doing it all the time. He's not just giving up on the cycling to do life coaching. Right. Like, can you imagine getting out in the middle of Norway or in the middle of Patagonia and being like, yeah, I'm not gonna be able to make this ride. You all keep going. [00:44:11] Speaker B: Yeah. No way. [00:44:12] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, so, I mean, I can think of numerous examples, but we know a lot of people. And I think, too, I would say look around your life, too, and look for those folks that are continuing to do the thing and look for those habits. I do want to talk a little bit about before we get out of here today about some other ways you can keep yourself going into the gym too. And I'm gonna start out with the really unconventional one that we started out with way back in. Was it around 2011 where Dan got a hamburger every time I lost five pounds. Now, I'm not saying this is the best way, but you remember this one? You endorsed this behavior. How did you feel about the hamburger getting after I lost five pounds. Now, I weighed 241 pounds when we started. Right. [00:45:02] Speaker B: Dan does love whataburger. [00:45:04] Speaker A: I do love whataburger. Look, if you need that motivation to go, man, when I. So we just happened to go to a 24 Hour Fitness that was across the street from a whataburger. Not necessarily the best layout, but it was great for me. Now, the other thing, too, is when we did this challenge, did I get fries? No. [00:45:27] Speaker B: No fries. [00:45:28] Speaker A: So if I lost five pounds, I got to go and get a whataburger with any toppings I wanted on it. Didn't matter what they were. And I did get to eat the buns at that point because we weren't doing keto, but I got a whataburger. Was it gonna hurt me every time I lost five pounds to get a whataburger? [00:45:48] Speaker B: No. [00:45:49] Speaker A: Especially at the weight I was at. Right. Like, probably wouldn't honestly hurt anyone if you were. But is that the best training technique? No. [00:45:59] Speaker B: No. [00:46:00] Speaker A: But did it get me to the gym? [00:46:02] Speaker B: Yeah. And there are, you know, there There are my. The biggest thing that I could recommend to people, especially if they've tried and, you know, quote unquote, failed before to do anything is. Is you have to diversify. You have to figure out, like, the levers that work best for you. You know, what was the ultimate. The ultimate gamification of physical activity in human history. Right. Like when Pokemon Go came out. Oh, yeah. And then you saw people who, you know, didn't really get the memo on how it's supposed to function. They're like. Right. They're riding in their cars and stuff around to try to collect all the Pokemon. And it's like, the idea is to go out and be active Pokemon Go and meet people. [00:46:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:50] Speaker B: Meet people. Yeah, yeah. Be part of a community. And that's a big one, you know, is finding a way to be a part of a community. And there's just so, you know, if it can be in person and physical, now that we're, you know, moving past the COVID age, you know, there's more opportunities for that. So that's good. So that's a new thing that you're gonna have to try to go out and do. And for younger generations, might be the first time you're going out and doing something like that on that kind of scale. But finding a community. That's why Jiu Jitsu has always been, you know, super consistent. For me, I talk about that a lot where, you know, Jiu Jitsu fills a lot of the holes and voids that I had left over from my life when I walked away from the debate community. Right. Like feeding the competition side, but also the preparation as a team and having a shared goal and how that, you know, I'm building teams and building to try to win championships and trying to win championships as teams and individuals and helping people set their goals and doing things of that nature. Jiu Jitsu kind of fills that. That gap in that void. And it's all. Honestly, you know, I. So I tell people is, I. Until I had done Jiu Jitsu, I never known that I was a grappler. But it's like, you know, you get part of that from being, like, a football player. And that's another thing that overlapped with that. You know, what I learned from football and how to train through adversity and. And. And pain and, you know, being part of a cohesive team and trying to, you know, achieve a goal together as a unit. You know, all of those are skills that are, you know, I mean, they. They are primal. That's a That's a, a primal tribalism thing that you're engaging in and it's why people succeed, you know, better together as opposed to alone. It's just, sorry, just rewatching Lost. Right. Live together, die alone. Live together alone. It's very true as far as, and there's a lot of research and science that backs it up for longevity's sake. Right. When people are involved in communities that live longer, you know, they have, you have lower blood pressure, you, you're a member of a community. When you feel self actualized, when you feel like you have a place in the world and you can do that through a lot of different communities and there's a lot of in person communities and online communities. You know, there are people, there are apps and different, there are a lot of different ways for you to try to be a member of a, you know, a running community or, or a cycling community or whatever, whatever the thing is. [00:49:33] Speaker A: Well, and there, there are great apps. Let's, let's name some of them. Like Strava is great for the cycling community. We started using this fat secret app for the tracker and people are posting on there constantly about their progress and. [00:49:47] Speaker B: Recipes and stuff like that too. [00:49:48] Speaker A: Yeah, there are all sorts of groups obviously on Facebook we, you got me a Ninja creamy ice cream maker which we make all sorts of fairly healthy ice creams instead of the pint of Ben and Jerry as I was eating before. And they're not even really ice creams. It's usually like frozen yogurt or something to that effect. But some of them are really good. I mean sometimes we'll just take a thing of yogurt that's really good and freeze it and spin it and it comes out even better. So but you know, there are communities about that, you know, engaging with this. There's all sorts of communities. And I was going to say too, uh, I do want to say too, what if it's always funny because nobody believes that I'm an introvert. So am I going to sell that fact? Uh, but I am a bit of an introvert. I like to do stuff on my own too. And I think there are ways to motivate yourself. Paul's like, stay with the community online you don't have to do a live community. Like you can do an online community. Like the other things too is there's other brain tricks to get you in there. One when you first start out tracking, I think is, is good. Grab yourself a piece of paper and track each day and track your progress and mark your Weights down and just draw yourself a little chart. I mean you can do it online, you can do it in a Google sheet, however it is you want to do it. But just each time you do a thing, you know, you, you mark it down so you know what you're doing and you move progress. Another way to go by yourself is if you need the alone time. Let's say you're in a community at work and you're constantly in a community and when you're going to work out, you're just really wanting to be by yourself. Like that is your downtime. Well that's fine. To encourage you to work out instead of doing something else, there are a couple double up things you can do. I mean one thing, you know, just throw your favorite music or a podcast on or whatever that is. Go for a walk. I have dogs that bug me to go for walks so that makes it really easy. Especially one of them that is constantly up at 5:45 in the morning and starts crying in the hallway at 6:15 if I haven't gotten up and taken him for a walk. So you know, there's that then. The other thing too is if you love television or love media, well, bring your show with you. If you're doing cardio indoors, pick a show that you like and only watch that show when you're working out and that's over time you get to do that thing. [00:52:11] Speaker B: There's a lot of people that have had pretty big success where yeah, condition of, you know, watching your favorite show or maybe, maybe you, you know, you doom scroll too much and you just can't give it up. Or maybe you're a, you know, a phone app, game player or something like that. It's just you make preconditions that that has to happen, you know, either while probably not while you're walking outside, but you can do pretty much anything on your phone or with a book or a TV show while you're on a treadmill or a stationary bike at the gym. And so I know a lot of people use that. There is one app that I wanted to mention too that I have no familiarity with but I have, I have heard about it in the past and it is one of my all time favorite ploys to get people. It's essentially, I think it's called Stick and that's Stick and then another big K. Do you know about this app? [00:53:13] Speaker A: No. [00:53:14] Speaker B: It's one of my favorites. This is like, it's like the best. It's an app where you essentially put a significant, a non Insignificant sum of money, maybe $500, $1,000, $1,500. And you put it into an account and it's kind of like an escrow account. And what happens is you do weekly or monthly check ins and if you're not meeting your goals, what it does is gives that money to a cause that you hate. So it's like if you hate like some sort of political party or like when, let's say you're like anti vegan or whatever, it's like it will donate your money periodically to the vegan cause or to whatever the cause is. And so you assign, you assign your money to be donated to something. It's like a, it's a, an anti charity app. And I really love the psychology of it. Like it really, it's like every time you're not successful, those bastards get your money. And I really love that. [00:54:18] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and, and the last thing I'll say is, as far as motivation, I also get anxiety is a real thing. Some people have that going to the gym. Paul mentioned it really early on. We set up, well, I set up, we set up a home gym during COVID in the garage. You actually would like the garage back for your car. I'm not giving it back for the gym. I actually get very anxious in the gym. I will sit there and. Cause I'm very patterned. Paul was saying it, I'll give myself away. I get better at times, sometimes not. But when I go to the gym, I'm like, okay, I have these eight things to do. And I'll literally be looking at the next machine or the next bench while I'm doing something out there. And I'd be like, that person's gotta move or I won't be able to do the next thing. And then I can't do this. And some days that will cascade on me. And that's just not a good thing. A good space for me. Paul's seen me do it and laughed at me. It's nice. That's why it's nice to have a gym buddy. Because Paul can be like, stop it. You know, like it's okay if you do exercise one and then exercise three and then go back to exercise two. But I get very patterned and I'm like, I want to do 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. We've done things to help with that, like doing two types of exercises in a set circuit or things like that. Like doing multiple things. But the thing is have a home gym. So I just throw a television in the home gym. Shoot. You can Buy them for nothing. Now used, like would I get it for an estate sale for like 80 bucks or whatever. All right. [00:55:48] Speaker B: The extra TV. [00:55:49] Speaker A: Yeah, the extra TV. Well, we threw it in the gym and so I'll watch a television show out there during the workout. So I'll just throw it on and that's the only time I watch that thing. So I've got that out there if I need it. And honestly, our home gym setup has evolved over time, but the initial setup was only a couple hundred bucks and that was enough to do less than that actually. Well, I think it's cause you stole weights for me, but I appropriated weights. Nobody wanted the 1 inch weights. Yeah, I mean we started out with an old school 1 inch bar and nobody wanted that. And. But you know, and then I slowly built it up over time, like I didn't have everything at once. But if, you know, going to the gym is really too intimidating or causes too much anxiety, you know, message us on any of our platforms. You can get us on Facebook, Instagram, X Blue sky or on YouTube. Message us and we can give you some ideas on how to start an initial setup. Right. It's honestly not that expensive and a lot of times you can look around for gym equipment on Facebook, Marketplace and different places to, to get starter stuff too. I have a rack in the garage that was a starter rack that somebody got in a rid of. Well, we have a really low roof in the garage so I can't fit a full size rack in there. So that was a perfect rack for me. But they were getting rid of it to. Because they bought a taller rack to put in their garage. I. So you can find people that are getting rid of things and to upgrade their equipment. But it's perfectly great equipment for you so you can kind of look for that too. [00:57:26] Speaker B: All in all, I mean our, our gym setup is probably less than 500 bucks. Maybe. I mean it's not, it's not super, super in depth. [00:57:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't think if you leave out the, the mats. Yeah, it was less than 500 bucks. [00:57:45] Speaker B: Yeah. And in the mats I got for relatively cheap too. So they were. If you're going to get mats, it might be a bit more expensive because I just know people who have mats because I'm in the space. But yeah, I mean it's just, you know, and we don't have. I mean, I still keep my. Mainly because it's such a killer deal, but I still keep my membership to, you know, LA Fitness and I own a gym, you know, I mean I have most of the stuff that I need here but at the end of the day they have just a lot of big pieces of equipment that, that is not that it's not practical for me to think that I'm ever going to get on my own. [00:58:30] Speaker A: Right. [00:58:30] Speaker B: Like the big, like having four big stair steppers. I like doing that as extra cardio. Right. Or like the rowing machines. I mean I could get a rowing machine but it's just easier to have it there. And plus what I always tell Dan is, you know, I, I like having access to a pool and sauna and for me it's a very low cost method to have access to those. You know, if you have unlimited resources and you can have your own pool and sauna and, or you know, whatever that's different but you know, and I'm not going to name names and I don't agree with a lot of their business practices but there are very low level entry pay, very insignificant purpley sins of sums of money. Yes, very purple onomatopoeia based. One new one that just opened up around here. But there's a lot of low cost barriers to entry to get started. But here's what I would say to people. I want you to take your fitness seriously. As bright and glib and cliche as it is to say, you want to get to a space where fitness is part of your life. You know, it doesn't have to be a way of life where it's all that you do, but it should be a, you should make it a non insignificant portion of your life. You're going to live a better life like that if you have kids and care about grandkids, you're going to be able to do things with those grandkids when you commit now. And so know that wherever you're going, it should be seen as a stepping stone. So if you're not seeing like crazy massive transformation because you go into a gym that costs you 9 99, it's because you're not investing in enough, you're not spending enough money one to maybe be committed. But two, you're just not in the right space yet. And you maybe you're in the right space for that moment. Right. So like the first six months. [01:00:34] Speaker A: Yep. [01:00:34] Speaker B: Just know that you should outgrow those spaces. Like you should, like it should be your plan to spend more money to get better results to do something else that you enjoy. Right. Like if you're gonna do cycling, you know, at some point you should spend the money on a really good bike. [01:00:52] Speaker A: You know, and good shoes, but you don't need one to start out. Remember I had that little green Trek commuter bike for a long time and then got the 29er that, that Nolan had me get. And but I grew into it. I, I feel like I needed to establish that I would ride the bike for first before. And I rode that commuter bike all over everywhere for a long time before I upgraded my bike because I wasn't up doing bike racing. Right. Like I just wanted to use it to move around and, and that's fine. I also the gym too. I think people go crazy with equipment. They try to buy everything right at once. Like when I started, what I had like 45 pounds worth of plate worth, well, I guess 90 pounds worth of plates of various plates, one bar, a bench and some, the old school dumbbell screw on bars. Right. And, and a kettlebell. [01:01:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:01:47] Speaker A: I mean that was it. Like, but you can do a lot like with that. You don't need to buy the next set of things until you outgrow that. So we didn't buy more things for me until I outgrew that. Right. And then, and oh, we had the over door ch. Pull up bar. [01:02:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Which I hate those things, but they're better than. [01:02:09] Speaker A: It was a good start. [01:02:11] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:02:12] Speaker A: It ruined the tour. [01:02:13] Speaker B: That's the thing is you, you should, you know, you should view your fitness journey, especially at the beginning, as an experiment. It's, you're, you're, it's an experimentation. You're trying to find what is both challenging and you enjoy doing and something you're going to be persistent with and maybe you get lucky. Right. But I think it'd be kind of crazy, especially if you've never done any of the things like if you've never been a runner or been a hiker, you know, or been a swimmer or been, you know, you haven't tried any of those things. You know, you, you won't know until you try. And so like, yeah, you should invest in some good running shoes and maybe some good gym clothes or whatever. But you know, you start small and then spread your money around to try a bunch of different things. Try you know, personal training or a Zumba class or a Pilates class or whatever it is. You know, whenever, you know, I, I, I always go to the LA Fitness and, and it's like the ladies like dance Zumba class. I think it's always packed, you know, and good for them, you know. It's not, it's not for me. That's not, I, that's Not what I would like. Um, but it makes me happy seeing them do it. Cause I'm like, you know, they. They found something that they like to go to every week, and it looks like they're having a good time. [01:03:35] Speaker A: I can do the Zumba class and knock the people over like dominoes when I go the wrong direction each time. That would be like the most fantastic Zumba class class ever. [01:03:45] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, but, you know, expect that you're gonna. You're gonna experiment, and then once you find something, be willing to. Yeah. Again, don't. Don't. Don't be reckless. Don't go crazy. But view it as an investment. I talked about this previously is you should be viewing these things. You know, Dan. Dan pays money to me, and oftentimes he says, I think you're just trying to kill me. And I'm like, no. Everything that I've done is. Has taken steps to increase his lifespan, not decrease it, even though some days he doesn't feel that way. And so you view it as that investment where it's like, the more that Dan does these things today, the more he. Dan's saving and moving up in the world and preparing hopefully someday to retire in the manner that he desires. Right. Like, whatever retirement looks like for him. [01:04:44] Speaker A: Lifting giant, heavy sandbags, that's retirement. [01:04:48] Speaker B: But, you know, like, I. I remember Dan, when Dan was overseas, and he messaged me from the mountains in Germany. Right. And I'm sure that he would like to go back to that part of the world and be able to do those kind of things or climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower or, you know, whatever. Whatever you want to do. [01:05:09] Speaker A: Well, I think the point is you. You don't want to get old and not be able to do the things because you're not in shape. Right. Like, I didn't work, so I didn't work so hard. My. I didn't work so hard my whole life to save money and then be completely out of shape because all I did was work and then not be able to enjoy said money, I think is your point. [01:05:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:05:27] Speaker A: And I would, too, to sum. To kind of summarize this and end this, too. I just want to give a message out to everybody. Low barrier of entry. Right? Let's get. Let's go. The lowest barrier of entry. Get a dog. Wait, that's not the lowest barrier of entry. Dogs can be quite expensive. Yeah, but. I'm joking. But no, seriously, get a dog. Get a friend's dog, whatever. They're going to want to Walk all the time or get a friend. You know, when I used to walk with Mrs. Moore in Longview, we would pace ourselves and try to go faster around the lake each time, but we were also enjoying a chat and a walk. Right. You know, the, that those are good things. But even if you're by yourself, go for a walk, work yourself up to a mile, ish. Or a mile and a third or whatever. I walk about a mile and a third right up and down hills, and I go out with the dogs. But if you want to gamify it, build yourself up, quarter mile, half mile, mile, right? And then start timing how fast you can walk it. You know, that's the easiest, simplest way to gamify it and build it up. And if you want to play Pokemon, go along the way. Awesome. Do that too. How many Pokemon can I catch on that mile? And how far can I go? Cause how much, you know, do it just to Paul's point. And that's it. It's the low barrier of entry that's free. Put your shoes on that you already got, put a pair of shorts on, put a hoodie on and go for a walk. Right? That's it. It's, it's, it's. So you don't have to have a big investment to do it initially, but move, get out and move. And if you can do that, you're gonna be well on way to setting your own goals, just like we're doing here. It doesn't have to be these crazy extreme, get ABs at 50, but set a goal for yourself and, and move. And so in the last two weeks, we've talked about calorie intake, input and outputs, right? And this whole mantra of, you know, you can eat anything, just not everything. And here gamifying your workout, like, you know, you can get your mind in the mindset of wanting to do something, but what we're saying is do something. So if you got anything out of our first three podcasts, it's like, figure out what you want to do, set that goal, start figuring out how your food is going to build in with your energy and what you need to get to those goals. And then do it, get out, walk whatever it is, and make it fun for yourself. And let me tell you, when a dog's bugging you, I would say it's a lot more fun to walk toa the dog than listen to him whine in the hallway. So definitively. It's fun for. It's fun for him and it's fun for me. And yeah, any Anything, any, any more inspiration you want to send good vibes before we wrap this one up here in a minute. [01:08:21] Speaker B: Yeah, just think about the, you know, the ultimate hiker's motto. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. So if you want to start fast, just start doing it, whatever it is. You know, get a, get a fitness pal, get a whoop or a Samsung watch or a Apple watch or you know, whatever, whatever. You can start tracking, gamifying, doing a little bit more every single time. And you know, it's like I said last time, you can do more. Whatever you're doing, you can do more. And you just gotta believe that and know that that's the truth. And you're gonna be successful if you can find what is intellectually challenging and fulfilling. So if you can find a community along the way, find a group of people, find an online space, whatever it is. But you know, get started, go fast. [01:09:19] Speaker A: Go far, go together and start. And I'll say, you know, if you want to. Obviously I pay Paul for services. This wasn't supposed to be an advertisement for Paul. But if you want Paul to build you a work workout plan or come to the gym and workout like I said, hit him up and you can hit us up and, and then for free. We're happy to share whatever I'm doing with the diet. So I'm happy to share any of my, what I've eaten for the week, why we chose those, we've already told you why we chose those calories. But I'm happy to share all of that with you. So. And heck, you know, I probably we should throw up my workouts at some point. Like what does look at in a week so people don't think it's crazy. You're, you're not going to see me working out like Paul does, right? Like you're going to see some third a walk in a 30 minute workout. Some days you're going to see a walk in an hour long workout. Some days, some days you won't see anything because I rested that day. That's all. Okay, uh, just do your thing, move forward. All right, let's wrap this thing up. And we will come back next week with another progress update and another fun fitness topic for you. So if you want to follow along the journey, come back next week and join us and ultimately start your own. Like we said.