Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1917: Ten Common Traits of Fit & Healthy People

Episode Date: October 6, 2022

In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin cover ten traits the most fit and healthy people possess. People who can maintain health & fitness for their entire lives often have commonalities and common traits. (1:32)   Ten Common Traits of Fit and Healthy People.    #1 - Their workouts are scheduled at the same time, same day, each week. (5:36) #2 - They respect fitness goals but don’t obsess over them. (8:28) #3 - They have learned to enjoy healthy eating. (12:29) #4 - They value the mental/emotional/health effects of fitness more than the physical effects. (17:35) #5 - They accept aging. (20:19) #6 - Their workouts change based on their life circumstances. (22:36) #7 - They don’t waste time in the gym. (26:22) #8 - They don’t waste time on new diet fads. (28:13) #9 - They learned to enjoy cooking. (33:54) #10 - They don’t overdo it. (36:50) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit Drink LMNT for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! October Promotion: MAPS Symmetry or MAPS Strong HALF OFF! **Promo code OCTOBER50 at checkout** Relationship of Consistency in Timing of Exercise Performance and Exercise Levels Among Successful Weight Loss Maintainers Mind Pump #1050: Mark Manson- The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*Ck Mind Pump #1890: How To Get Jacked In 20 Minutes A Day Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Mark Manson (@markmansonnet) Instagram Stan “Rhino” Efferding (@stanefferding) Instagram

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind, pop, mind, pop with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness health and entertainment podcast in the world. This is Mind Pump, right? Today's episode, ten common traits of fit and healthy people

who do it for the rest of their life. So if you want to figure out how to do this and not stop, you want to figure out how to make this a lifelong pursuit, listen to this episode. Now this episode is brought to you by one of our sponsors, LMNT. This is an electrolyte powder you put in your water, gives you the right amount of sodium

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with any element T order. Just go to drinklmt.com forward slash Mind Pump. We also have a sale going on this month to workout programs that are very, very popular are both on sale for 50% off. So the first one is maps symmetry. This is a program designed to develop symmetry and aesthetics in the body. And then the second program is maps strong. This is a strong man inspired workout program. Both of them 50% off. You can find both of them at maps fitness products.com. You just have to use the code October 50 for the 50% off discount. All right, here comes a show. People that are able to maintain good health and fitness for their entire lives often have

commonalities, common traits. In today's episode we're going to talk about some of those commonalities that we've observed in the decades that we've worked in gyms and train clients. So I want to list out and kind of talk about some of the common traits of fit and healthy people because when people get into the fitness space or start working out and try to improve their health and their fitness, it's important to look at the people who've been able to figure out how to do it long-term. Yes, use those examples. Why is that going well for you?

What's sticking? What are your habits? When you sent over the list, the first thing that I thought that would be an interesting thing to do is actually to do some sort of a survey where anybody who considers them a lifelong health and fitness person, how many of these would you check off about yourself

to see just how true this is? I definitely think that of the 10 things that you listed, you're gonna have some of those, if not all of them, right? And so what would be the common number? It's like, oh, someone who considers himself a fit healthy person for long term, for life, this will be a part of their life. Checked at least seven of these 10 boxes or five of these 10 boxes, right?

That's good. Because I do think that there's probably five. Yeah, there's, I think most of these, when I go through them, like, you know, my clients that had figured this out and, uh, and, or my trainers that I worked with, these, these ones, like had at least five to seven of these on the list for sure. Yeah, I mean, these were just ones that we observed in people and then you observe in yourself, right?

Like when I talk about looking at someone who's kind of figured it out, this is somebody who's been doing it for like more than five years, six years, maybe more than 10 years, because most people will fall off within a year. But then there's a chunk of people that'll do it for two or three years, six years, maybe more than 10 years. Because, you know, most people will fall off within a year. But then there's a chunk of people that'll do it for two or three years, but then fall off.

Very few people will do it for five plus years. And we had those members, right? That would come in super consistent. In fact, we've talked about members that we knew, even though I didn't work in the same gyms as you guys, I worked in some of those gyms before you guys, for example, and then we talk about that, oh, you know that one member like, oh, yeah, they used to come in and work out at the same time when I was there. And you see these traits in these people.

Yeah, I was always paying attention to any of those things, like, who's the strongest in the gym, like, who's the most consistent in the gym? Like, you know, you look at that and you look for commonalities all the time. And it's just, I think it's just something to pay attention to, you know, in general. And I did that even when my career as a personal trainer, who's the best? I want to emulate whatever, like, you know, they're doing with their clients

or I can be closer towards them. So what's the number? Five years, you think? You think five? I think a decade. I think you're probably closer to 10. Yeah, because I think a lot of people have, well, not a lot, but there's a good chunk of people

I've done it for five years, you know, maybe they were in a sport or something like that. Yeah, in school. And so they have these, have these this what the reason why I say a decade I know that now it's just a made up number right? Maybe it's seven and a half who cares, but I feel like you need to have gone through At least one like major life altering shit, which you know crisis or something Yeah, you know, that can even include you know getting married and having it starting a family that can include Moving across the country or into another country. Just getting older. Yeah, you know, it just or a major shift in careers

Where you know one career you did you were very physical and active with something very dramatic that has that that you've really How to now Build this into your life, and it's no longer convenient, because you could be convenient for three to five years. Like I always say, if you're in school, if you're in college and you have gym class and your friends all, it work out in a place. So you work out for four years?

Yeah, I see you work out, right? But it's not like, you're like, this is gonna be a lifelong pursuit. I feel like, so I feel like a decade you have. I agree with you, I 100% agree with you because I know people who are like, yeah, when it worked at that one place for five years, they had a gym and I worked out all the time

and I stopped because my new job doesn't have a gym, you know, so they weren't able to figure it out. Yeah. One of the first things that I noticed with some of the most consistent members in the gyms that I managed was their workouts were scheduled at the same time in the same days every week. I could count on them, like the sun rising,

that at Monday, 6 a.m. John was gonna be here. There would be a group of people that I would always see and they would always come, same time, same days. And what does that mean? Does it mean that they're neurotic? No, not necessarily. What it meant was that they've put it,

it's become one of the rocks in the schedule. Just like they probably brushed their teeth at the same time every day. Just like they eat dinner at the same time. It was just, these people had created the schedule and it was just a super, now does that mean they didn't miss workouts? No, I'm sure they miss workouts here and there, but regularly they worked out and it was always the same time same days. It was just something that I saw on all the days.

Now, this is something that's not exclusive to training, right? I mean, I think there's research to support this, right? Just creating any sort of a habit or a teen, making it consistent on the day and the time. It's like one of the basic strategies, right? So it's not even just exercise. If you want to create a new habit into your life, having a day and a time that you consistently do it, I think that it's, we've already proven that you're going to have way more success. So even though I think life does happen, you also want to be able to on the fly, hey, I

could still get up early and go do it tomorrow or hey, I can do it later on. I think there's value to that, but I think as far as building it into your life, you know, having this time that's like a non-negotiable. I mean, I think of everyone here, I think you've done the best of that. I mean, it is a non-negotiable that I mean, I think of everyone here, I think you've done the best of that salary. I mean, it is a non-negotiable that you're gonna get your workout in the morning regardless of what we do.

And this time has changed for me. It used to be noon. For years, I'd workout around noon or one o'clock because I use that. I would train clients in the morning and I would have clients that would like to train at six or seven a.m. So I'd have like a seven a.m., eight a.m., nine a.m.,

10 a.m., 11. Then I'd have a break usually at six or seven a.m. So I'd have like a seven a.m., eight a.m., nine a.m., 10 a.m., 11. Then I'd have a break usually for two or three hours. And then I trained three or four more clients. So it was always noon. And I did that for, I don't know, 15 years. And also when you run gyms, right? When you're managing gyms, the dead time is the middle of the day.

It's busy at night, busy in the early morning. So I did that for years. And then we started doing this. And then my kids got to school age and have to take them school in the early morning. So I did that for years and then you know we started doing this and then my kids got you know to school age and have to take them school in the morning and it just you get busier with kids and it's like okay middle of the day just doesn't work. So it became the first thing in the morning thing for me but it's always the same time. It's always something that I keep as consistent as possible and like I said you know those regulars that you guys used to see in the gym

you could always count on them being there at a specific time, specific day. Yeah, and you'd notice it was early in the morning a lot of times. A lot of times. Mainly because things just interrupt your day. And it's just, you know, those are a lot of the variables that kind of come in and you see where that becomes an excuse to then kind of like roll it over to the next day and then it you lose that sort of consistency of pattern. You know another reason why I think this is a 10 year thing is because of your next point too because I think about yeah and your second point is the respect for fitness but don't

over obsessed over the goals right so you know I've met people that become obsessed with you know bodybuilding at the time or something like that. And so for a period of their life, three to five years, they're like obsessive about saying that I've competed or winning a trophy or whatever like that. But then they get done with that and they reach that goal and they completely fall off the wagon. And so I think that's another point to the why

I think it has to be longer than like just five years is because this is common. You see somebody gets a major goal. Wedding's coming up or, you know, I want to say that I've competed for the first time. Marathon. Yeah, anything, right? And then they become very obsessive and that's how they've had success in their life is to, you know, completely put the blinders on and then obsess about this one goal.

And the problem with that is, you know, when you reach that goal, then what? And if you haven't built a good relationship around exercise, and it's only attached to this thing that you were obsessed about, that you've now reached, what's going to keep you going forward? Yeah, I learned as a gym manager that one of the questions I like to ask members was, hey, what are your goals right now? Now, why would I ask that question? Well, first off, it's a great way to open a conversation about fitness. It also opened up potential conversations about hiring a trainer or new equipment in the gym or maybe some products that we had.

So it was also a good sales question. But generally, just what are your goals? It sounds like a pretty general good fitness question. And I remember that I would ask some of the older members that I had that were like super fit and super consistent. Like these were people who were over the age of 60 that I used to watch and respect and see that they were fit and I used to love watching them work out

and I would go up to them and say, hey, what are your goals? And they would be like, well, I don't really have any goals. Like, what do you mean by that? Oh, I just like doing this. Now, would hear that enough and go, that's kind of interesting. Like the younger people, they always had a goal.

I wanna build my back. Oh, I wanna get stronger. I wanna get faster. But then the people have been doing it for long, long periods of time, they just like working out. And they would have maybe many goals, like yeah, I'm trying to improve my flexibility here, yeah, my knee hurts a little bit, yeah.

But really, they didn't obsess over the goals. It was all about doing it for the sake of doing it. So there's a lot of value in having fitness goals, but when that becomes the sole motivator and inspiration for your workouts, you tend to run into trouble and you end up running into this problem of, you know, hyper motivation and then stopping. Stop your workout. Yeah, it's still a bit surface in terms of what you can get out of fitness. And I do feel

that I do tend to navigate towards, you know, those, those older members because again, if you're looking for real wisdom, a lot of times you've got to have the life experience to back it up, right? And so not to say that there's not young people crushing it and killing it and like applying a lot of these disciplines and like you recognize it and you can take from that. But I just feel like a lot of times you notice that right away from some of the more mature older members in the gym that they've figured out, like how to really just enjoy the process of being there and making their body feel good and doing things that just benefit their body in general.

Well, isn't there a term or isn't there some sort of a phenomenon Doug where you have somebody who said, like, we talked to think with Mark Manson talked about. Yes, Mark Manson talked about with his book, right? You said, you said a massive goal, and then you reach that goal, and then also, athletes go through depression after work. Yeah, Olympic athletes will go through it because they train, because you know, it's every four years, right? You compete in your sport.

And so they'll train their entire lives, make it to the Olympics, win a gold medal, and then many of them go through a period of depression or a period where they just don't want to Training more because they've lost that wake. What do I do this for you? You know and because they were so obsessed with a goal Yeah, instead of probably being focused on the journey and the process of trying to reach that goal Mm-hmm and actually enjoying that. There's a term now. Is there I mean the word I'm seeing is a rival fallacy Rival fallacy I've never heard that before interesting. Yeah, I don't know if I've heard that before but hmm It The rival fallacy. I've never heard that before. Interesting. I don't know if I've heard that before, but interesting. It's a thing though.

I know that. Oh no, for sure. This next one is, you know, I had, I remember having lunch with one of my client who hired me and he was already, I think he was 65 when he hired me. And he'd already been working out for, I want to save almost 40 years consistently.

Like this guy used to swim every day. He would cycle, he would run, for I want to save almost 40 years consistently. Like, this guy used to swim every day. He would cycle, he would run, and then he picked up strength training three years prior to meeting with me. So he had picked up strength training because he thought his doctor told him strength training would also benefit him.

And then he incorporated strength training. So his name is Jim, good friend of mine. I, you know, in fact, he helped me film the first MAP Santa Balli program with Doug. Pretty funny, but I of mine. I, you know, in fact, he helped me film the first Maps Antibolic program with Doug. Pretty funny, but I remember going to lunch with the sky and he would eat, like he would always make these really healthy food choices. And I remember I said to him, I said,

Jim, I said, you're so like obsessive and he goes obsessive, what do you mean? And he go, like, why don't you just have a burger or whatever? And he goes, I like eating this way. I really enjoy the flavor and how it makes me feel. And I thought, well, yeah, you know, that makes a lot of sense.

If you've been doing it as long as he has, he's learned, and here's the key here. He's learned to enjoy healthy eating. Because I think the reason why I communicate that way is because if we identify what we enjoy from food is it's pure hedonistic value, just the taste, then it'll be very hard for you to really fully enjoy healthy eating,

because it's hard for whole natural foods to compete with either ultra-processed or these prepared meals that are just so palatable. But if you start to really value food for all the things that it provides you, you actually start to learn to enjoy healthy eating. And this is why, as an adult, I enjoy eating things like vegetables when I was a kid. I hated them. Why do I enjoy them? Because they taste super good. No, I just enjoy the way they make me feel. And so I actually enjoy eating them. How powerful do you think that feedback loop is? Like, I tell myself, this is good for me. I tell myself, I'm an enjoy. I tell myself, I like it. I kind of like it. I eat it. Okay. Not so bad. The next time I really like this, it makes me feel good every time I do this. Okay. Like a little, I mean, how much do you think that's going on too?

And it's a situation. It can be very powerful. I think it can be very powerful when you identify what it does for you. Not that you're lying to yourself. Like I like this. Oh, I think I like it. More like, huh, I notice my joints feel better

on eighth this way or my digestion feels better. Wow, this really affects my skin and I have more energy. Once you start to identify that stuff, then you start to find that you crave those foods. And St. Vice versa, you went to identify the bad ways that other foods make you feel, even though they taste good, you actually stop enjoying them.

Yeah, I mean, for the most part, that's how I see people having that sticking point is it just stops at the flavor, it just stops at the texture. It's like all of those initials, sort of a cues and experience of like eating a vegetable. It's like, oh, it's not a twinkie, so therefore, it's not as good.

But yeah, in terms of it, like helping with your digestion, in terms of like adding more energy and like helping you feel like, you know, you have some vitality from just eating more vegetables in general. Like you got to start associating all these other factors that your body's providing feedback towards. I feel like this was a very powerful moment in my journey

was making this connection, was really starting to highlight the things to myself, right? Of, you have to make yourself aware? Yeah, and that's what I mean, that's why I think when I was asking about the feedback, Luke, of how important is to kind of tell yourself that. Like, maybe the first time I was, you know, getting consistent with eating broccoli,

it wasn't my favorite thing in the world. But if I noticed, like, oh, my stool was better, oh, my energy level's better, oh, I didn't have, I didn't have much bloat from that. Like, I felt good, like a slept good, I woke up feeling lean, like, and I'm saying that and reminding myself that as I'm eating it, and I feel like that happened enough times. And then to your point, and then not doing it going like, ah, fucking, I'm going to have this anyways. And then eating the five slices of pizza and then being like

booh afterwards and then reminding myself, oh my God, stool was off. I didn't sleep well. Like I woke up the next day, feeling bloated with thargic. And so I really think the more you practice that and force yourself to be aware of how these foods are, if I do the better the relationship with it and the easier it will be to be consistent with it, because it's no longer, oh, I can't have that. It's like, I want to. Yeah, your example, like, oh, man, I want to eat this way because it makes me feel great.

It's funny because obviously we started working together later in our careers, but when we would go travel, we used to do a lot of traveling, we first started Mind Pump to get on to the shows and stuff. And you would eat out a lot, right? Because you're traveling or in a hotel room, like you can't cook. And all of us by the end of the trip were always like,

oh man, I can't wait to get home and eat a big bowl of vegetables and some meat and some gravy. Isn't that funny? Right. So you can, by the way, food manufacturers know this. This is why advertisers always connect food to like fun and excitement and, you know, activities because they know that they can make those associations. You can do that yourself. And so people who eat healthy life long, they don't do it because they white knuckle at the whole time. They do it because they've learned to enjoy healthy eating. And once you really start to enjoy it, well, of course, and it's pretty easy. This next part is an interesting one to me, but I'll challenge anybody if they disagree. Go up to somebody who's been working out consistently for more than 10

or 15 years, okay? And ask them, what's your number one reason for being so consistent in the gym or so consistent with your workouts? And I bet you most of them will not say anything that has to do with their physical body. Most of them will say it's the mental or the emotional or the health effects. I do this for my brain. Yes. For my mind. Some people call it church.

Yeah. Like some people go into the gym. Yeah, it's a really Get in that headspace where they can Step away from a lot of these these sort of stressors from work and from relationships and everything else and just and and focus like on your own needs too It's it's almost like You don't take a whole lot of time to really just acknowledge like your own personal needs and like in the gym, it like really provides that and it gives you that sort of, you know, mental aspect as to it as well.

You know, when I first read this point, this was another thing that reminded me of the, you know, this has got to be like 10 years in because... Yeah, you're right. This takes a long time. Yeah, this took this, because I was not this person. I was I used to say all show no go. I used to like make these comments all the time about looking in certain way.

Like I was all about doing what I needed to do in the gym to maintain this this look that I was, you know, driving towards all the time. And it wasn't until much later and it had to been north of 10 years that that kind of come full circle. So what's neat about this one is, even if it's not your motivation right now, it will become eventually.

If you stick with it long enough? Yeah, if you stick with it long enough, eventually, you will make the connection to it. And I think that's key because, especially when you do something, like I did in my, in this case, where I took my body to probably the best it will ever, ever be. I just, there's the reality of me ever peaking beyond that physique that I built in that

time is very, very highly unlikely. So I have to accept that. I have to accept that. I'm going to keep doing this for 10, 20, 30 more years. And if I'm constantly thinking back to what I could look like, it's gonna drive me crazy. And so you have to definitely at one point except that you may not have this physical look that you've attained before.

And it's like, I do it for a whole host of other reasons besides that. I 100% work out for the mental effects. 100% that's the number, I love the physical part. So that's a great added benefit. But if my physical health was deteriorating for some reason or what I'd still do it because of the mental effects,

I've just found that to be much more valuable. And it's also something that sticks with you much longer than the physical stuff. And now you mentioned accepting, that's the next point, which is people who have done this long term, they accept aging. Now why is this such an important factor? Because I don't care who you are,

I don't care how awesome you think you are. At some point, no matter how consistent you are, your fitness, physical performance, your muscle, your strength, how much you could lift, is gonna decline, just because you're getting older. Just because you're getting older. Now you could do what some people do where they just fight it so hard that they hurt their bodies, they use drugs,

they do crazy things to keep, they're trying to keep pushing the limit, but it just you'll still lose. At some point, things decline. So the people who do this long-term, they accept the aging process along with everything else, and the fitness is just the part of that. We were hanging out with Stan Efforting yesterday,

and I think in today's time with social media and stuff, and we're all probably guilty of this, of posting our best lives, posting only when we feel great about ourselves. And so everybody has this image or idea about what they see on there and they're like, oh man, this guy is invincible. Or they use him as an example, point to like, look how strong and how hard

he's still pushing. And he's this whole, it's like, yeah, but if you could have heard him talking off air when we were hanging out about like, when nobody gets to see is after I do that 600 pound deadlift, how I get out of bed the next day. I was saying, let me just feel. Yeah. Nobody's video in you a video in him and telling people that, but it's true. I mean, it, uh, father time is undefeated.

And, and eventually it And eventually, those things will have to change. Your priorities will have to change. And if not, what in my experience, what happens is the body ends up winning. You don't listen. You ignore, you still chase those PRs. You still chase that look, and then your body revolts on you. Yeah, and you sort of realize, okay, I have to be a little more intentional now. Like there's like this bit of a shift as you age where there's, maybe there's more of a process, more of a ritual you have to apply to get your,

even your joints to respond better and to do things more optimally. It's like you could be applying these when you're younger and have like a lot of success with that, but you just don't consider those as much until your buy really provides that feedback. Like, hey, man, they start talking to you within the lifts and you have to acknowledge it. It's a reality. Which takes us the next one, which is a part of that, which is that people who are consistent forever with fitness, their workouts change based on their life circumstances, meaning, you know, right now I feel good,

I'm getting good sleep, everything's great, I'm working out hard, and then, oh my God, I lost my job, I'm really depressed, or I'm sad, or I'm not getting good sleep. Now I'm gonna work out differently, I'm gonna work out to improve the quality of my life regardless of the context of what's happening, or I get injured, you know, some people,

when they get so obsessed with working out with their physical bodies and hit and PRs, when they get injured, they don't go to the gym. Like, forget it, what's the use? If I can't squat because my knee is hurt, I'm not gonna work out. Well, the person who does this long term,

they go anyway and they work other things and they focus on other things. So this is a really, really important one is that your workouts change based on your life circumstances because your life circumstances will change One of them is aging, but there's so many life circumstances that change that if your workouts don't change To and modify to match those life circumstances You'll either over train or become injured or become disenfranchised and lose your lose your your inspiration motivation to work out Well anybody who's had

Children absolutely had to have this happen and lose your inspiration motivation to work out? Well, anybody who's had children, absolutely had to have this happen. Both husband and wife, I don't care what you want, which is obviously the wife who's gone through, way, way more in that situation and is physically forced in a direction of having to change the way she trains. But even the dad, I mean, if you're,

especially if you're involved dad, if you're an involved dad with the raising of your kid, you know, how you were, if you're, especially if you're involved at, if you're an involved at with the raising of your kid, you know, how you train, when you train, what time you train, how long you get to train for, the perfect rest periods between, I mean, all that stuff gets disrupted. And if the attitude is to throw your hands up and be like, ah, I can't do my maps and a ball of routine,

fuck it, I'm not doing anything. It's like, no, this is a great time to adapt to just. Now you're gonna do things that, I mean, we talked on a podcast the other day about how, this is how I like to use all these tools, like the circuit training or supersets or drop sets or things that condense the workout in a smaller window. It's like, instead of me,

like, we always get asked is the the value of them, like in comparison, you know, our drop sets better than these, or our drop sets a great way to build muscle, it's like, yeah, it's a tool, it's awesome, but you know what I like to use it, is when life naturally pulls me in the direction that this is gonna be advantageous, it's like, oh look, I only have 15 minutes,

this is a great time to cut them short rest periods and do more of a circuit style. And yeah, is it gonna be as good as my five by five training when it comes to building my squad up? Like, no, but that's the goal right now is to maintain this healthy lifestyle that I've worked so hard to keep. And knowing that I have this uncontrollable

that's happened in my life. And so you just adjust. The bottom line is your workouts need to improve the quality of your life. Okay, that's the bottom line. And if they don't, then you're doing something wrong. So as your life changes, your workouts have to necessarily change in order to continue

to keep the quality of life at its best. That doesn't mean your quality life's always gonna be high by the way, you know, like I got a baby coming here in five or six weeks or so. And my quality of life is going to change. Uh, in some ways it's going to go up. I got his new baby. It's just amazing, uh, blessing. And I'm at my heart is going to just grow and my love is going to grow. My sleep is going to go to the crapper, meaning my diet's probably going to go in the

crapper. My workouts are not going to as intense, or as exciting, or fun. So I gotta change them so I can maintain or keep a higher quality of life. And so that's what this basically means, is you change your routine, you change your diet, you change these practices to improve the quality of life regardless of what that quality, what that life looks like in that moment.

This next one is also another important one. And this is what you'll find. People who work out for long periods of time consistently, when they go to the gym, it's precise, it's methodical, they're there, they're doing what they're supposed to do. They're not messing around. They're not wasting time in the gym. It's like, this is what I do, this is what I'm here to do,

and then I'm outta here. Now that doesn't mean you can't go to the gym and enjoy yourself and talk to people and stuff, but that usually happens with these people after the workout. If you ever watch somebody who's super consistent and they do like to hang out in the gym, it's when they're done.

They don't do it in the middle of their workouts where they're kind of wasting their time. Well, I think that's because they, you know, Justin made a point that earlier, and I definitely was somebody who used to refer to the gym as church, is there's, it's sacred to these, if you, if you have put it together and you have connected the dots on all these things on how much it makes you a better version of yourself and

how important it is, this time becomes sacred. And you know, you allowing anybody to disrupt that or you to fuck it off yourself is doing a disservice to yourself. And so I think that's why you see this as a common trait in these people that have built that is because this time has now become very sacred to them. It's like, because many people have very, very busy lives and they go, hey, I've been able to carve out this 30 or 60 minute window. So you're a lot to acquire that. It took a lot to acquire that and be consistent with that.

I want to respect it by getting the work done that I know pays me the most dividends and flapping my gums with my friend or getting on social media and scrolling around is not paying me back that way. And so I'll save that for when I'm on the toilet or doing something else. Right now I'm getting to work. It's basically it's intentional. Everything's very intentional and they know what they're there to do and they do it and then they're usually out.

And like I said, the most consistent people tend to be this way with their workouts. Another one is that they don't waste their time with fat diets. Now I do want to be clear, this doesn't mean they don't try different methods of eating different ways of eating to see how it affects their body or use different methods or ways of eating To improve the quality of life depending on what they're looking for But what they don't do is waste their time on fat diets like oh, there's that new diet They came out that says it's supposed to be I'm gonna switch to that or oh, there's that other diet I'm gonna switch to that you don't see them doing that. Yeah, or you know

Maybe they've had enough time where they've seen a full cycle of how all of these sort of repeat and resurface. And it's like, you know, maybe they have self-experimented down the road. And so it's like they've built up a lot of this experience going in to be able to see these patterns. And like, oh, okay, now we're focused on getting rid of carbs. And that's like most of the diets out there now,

I see that this is the entire focus. And then, you know, so it's, I think a lot of times, the more time you put in, the more you start to really see a lot of these patterns emerge. Yeah, I would say, a fat diet slash, fat workout toll slash fat, you know, for sure, a modality of training, right? They just don't fall into the trap of like,

oh, there's this new tool, or there's new diet, or there's this new tool, or there's new diet, or there's this new workout program that is, it's not, they don't fall into that trap of this is going to be so, so special compared to other ones. I'm glad you made that point to us up because I did see, I actually used to do this with clients. And this is later in my career after I've come full circle from being a bad trainer to a much, or a less bad trainer.

And I, I would actually take my clients through a lot of these quote unquote fat diets. And but when we go through it, the coaching would be, I want you to give me feedback. I want you to, when we're eating all vegan right now, tell me how's your energy, how's your strength, how's your mood, how's your digestion feel, how's your skin, like I'm asking these questions.

Okay, cool, now we're gonna move over into a more paleo or carnivore type of diet. Okay, now tell me or ketoish, right? Tell me how you feel, and I'm asking you. And so, and that's really what I'm trying to help them connect the dots to of like how these types of foods are making them feel so that when we build a plan for you that's life long, that it includes the things

that you enjoy and you like, but then also is centered around the things that make you feel the best. You know what's funny? As I have, so through doing this, and I'd love to see if you guys have any, have you identified this for yourselves? I've identified diets for me for different,

I guess lifestyle goals or specific goals. Like for me, if I want mental sharpness and acuity and verbal fluency, I go keto and or fasting. So keto and or fasting for mental sharpness. If I want physical strength and mass and pumps in the gym, well now I'm bumping my carbs up and I don't go too high, but I'm about 200, 250, maybe 300 grams, starchy carbohydrates will do that for me.

If I'm looking for more kind of flexibility, maybe I'm highly inflamed, then I tend to bring my total calories down, I tend to eat more fibrous vegetables, less starches, and even my protein intake drops a little bit. Those are kind of the three diet cycles that I'll go through. Yeah, and I think that's the whole idea of when you look at all these different fat diets instead of one, demonizing it or two, falling in love with it, you take it, you utilize some of the things, you learn about yourself, you maybe make connections on, oh, okay, yeah, this is not something I don't want to do all the time, but I could see where this would

be valuable if this is going on. Yeah, like do you guys know like what foods to remove or add when you like your digestions off? 100%. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah sort of reduction immediately and it helps substantially. And the same with reducing all fast if I want more mental clarity, that really helps

me in terms of like if I'm in a season of trying to build or what not, beef my calories and breakfast up substantially and that helps me out and add carbs. Now these are all individual things. I'm sorry we're giving people substantially, and that helps me out and add carbs. Now these are all individual things, so I don't want, I'm sorry, we're giving people advice, but that's what the lifelong people have identified is they identified a change or diet to make themselves feel better, depending on what they're looking to do. They don't fall for fat diets like,

oh, it's the next cool thing that's gonna help me lose weight, or this is the next cool thing, I'm gonna follow this thing. By the way, here's a little industry secret. The members that gyms make the least money off of, or the members that gyms are like, ugh, I don't know if we wanna track these types of members because they use up the equipment,

they get our equipment to, or they use up the upholstery, they use up all the weights, they're super consistent, and they never buy anything, are the super consistent fitness people that we're talking about. Why?

They don't buy anything. They don't buy diets, they don't buy diets, they don't buy supplements, they don't buy products, they don't buy new fitness tools that are popping out. They show up, these are barbells and dumbbells and some machine. They actually use everything. And they leave, and they're there five days a week.

It's funny in this industry secret, but it's true, gyms that focus on the most consistent members. They either have to charge a shit ton per month or they have to have like lots of personal training. So hands-by, the number one chain right now is plan of fitness. That's true. They did, they went to the most extreme version

of what you're describing right now. Is there like, forget all the, you know, chalk, totem, power, lifting, grut, and bodybuilding, seven times a week, training people. We don't want a cater then. We're going to cater to the extreme opposite of that. All the facts. Because those are the people that will buy all of our then. We're going to cater to the extreme opposite of that. All the facts. Because those are the people that will buy

all of our stuff, they're the people that will rarely use our stuff, will make the greatest margins on. Isn't that funny? That's interesting. Here's another one that I've identified. And that is that people who have really developed a good lifelong relationship with health

have also learned to enjoy cooking. Now this doesn't mean that they enjoy learned to enjoy cooking. Now this doesn't mean that they enjoy necessarily like elaborate cooking, like they become chefs or bakers, but what I mean by that they enjoy cooking is they actually enjoy preparing their food because they like to see what's in their food. They like to see how they made it. They evolved. Exactly. And I noticed this with people like really fit healthy people like to just prepare their meals. They find the value in taking that 10, 15, 20 minutes and preparing things and putting together

just as much as they enjoy eating the food itself. Not only that, this is Katrina talks about this because she wasn't really a big cooker at all like before we got together. Like she ate out a lot, she didn't really cook her own meals. And then we get together and then of, I go down the competitive road. And so we cooked every... Every...

Yeah, food prep. So we went from not really cooking our food to we cooked every single thing that we consumed. And of course, so she didn't get bored to death eating chicken rice and broccoli every single day, we'd have to get creative. And one of the things that she talks about that she absolutely loved about that process

was realizing how many things that we could make taste really good that did not carry all the excess calories that a lot of these dishes. I mean, that's like, and good, by the way, good chefs will tell you this, like that, that's such a cheat code, like salted up, fatted up, sugar it up, like, it'll taste good. Like, you just pile a bunch of that on there. It's like, it's a pretty easy hack to make like almost anything taste pretty damn good.

But there's a lot of things just paired properly together or added a little bit of spice or the right things to mix it, that tastes phenomenal. And I think going through that process taught us a lot about, you know, we have this dish that we eat almost every week and it's like this kind of, it's a quinoa pasta dish. It reminds me of my mom's lasagna.

Now, what she uses to make it is very different in the calories and macros or extremely, but it gives me that same taste and sensation of mom's old lasagna that I loved, I grew up on that, but my mom used to layer it with three different layers of cheeses and the sauce was crazy and like the sausage that was in it. I mean, it's just, you can make something taste

really good like that and still enjoy eating it. And I think this is a, and it doesn't feel like a chore, you start to enjoy it. It's a hurdle that a lot of people that are, that are, you know, on the fence of, do I wanna make this a life long pursuit for myself or do I really wanna go all in on this thing because I don't know, I'm kinda happy eating this way

and doing that. They don't realize that there are a lot of really healthy, good alternatives. Which, it just doesn't get a lot of, a facetime. Now people aren't making it popular or talking a lot about it. And so you just assume that healthy foods taste shitty

and is no good and no fun. Yeah, here's another one that I, this one I noticed immediately with the members that worked out on my gems that were like super consistent, especially the ones that were older, like I said, over 55, over 60. And that was when I'd watched them work out, they were deliberate, they were intentional,

they were consistent, but they almost never overdid it. In other words, I don't watch them work out and see them beat the shit themselves in the gym. They would have workouts and they would have an appropriate level of intensity, but more often than not, the workout looked moderate. It looked for them, moderate intensity. And this is really an app, this is for life.

If you do this for life, you're not gonna be able to do beast mode workouts all the time. In fact, 80% of your workouts are not gonna be beast mode. 80% of them are gonna be these kind of moderate intensity, practice the technique, practice the moves, practice the form, type workouts. Overdoing it is a very fast way to stopping this pursuit. And this is such a discipline of its own.

Like everybody thinks about like fitness as beings like this big discipline of having to be able to ramp up enough intensity to crush your workout and just just keep this really high level of intensity going the whole time. But to be able to, you know, because that's that's an easy trap to fall into as well as like I just want to go as hard as possible And to be able to find that Perfect range where you're gonna get to receive the benefit of it

You're gonna be able to adequately recover you're gonna be able to come back with more energy You know finding that sweet spot and then staying in that sweet spot without like you know moving past there and when you're feeling good You really want to get after it and you know it's going to tarnish your next workout after that. That's a discipline of its own. Well, when you're talking about nutrition and anatomy, physiology and a lifelong pursuit or long around health, like this is really a dance. It's not totally, it's not a race.

It's not the sprint. It's not a sport. It's like, it's not about the more you put in, the more you're going to get out, it's not, it's just really fine dance that you have to do with your body, because how you're feeding your body, how you're taking care of it recovery wise, how hard you're pushing it, how you're pulling all these levers really makes a huge difference on your results and how you feel and how long you stick to this. And the sooner you figure out that it's more of a dance and it's less of a competitive thing with yourself, the easier it's going to be and the more likely you're going to do it for the rest of your

life. So look, when I was a kid and I first started working out, I was always sore. I was always sore from my workouts and I made sure to always get sore. Do you know how often I get sore now? Maybe once a month, I swear to God, maybe once a month I'll get sore from a workout. I'm almost never sore from my workouts. Now you might think, well, you could get results faster if you push yourself harder.

I don't know, maybe in a short period of time, but I've been doing this now for almost 30 years. I wouldn't be able to do this for 30 years if I always over did it, no way. So it's really about the appropriate intensity and thinking long-term. Is this something I'm gonna do for the rest of my life? It is, well, let me train with the appropriate level

intensity and let me not overdo it. Look, if you like Mind Pump, head over to MindPumpFree.com and check out some of our guides. These guides cost nothing, they're free, and we have many, many guides, most of which can help most fitness and health goals. You can also find all of us on social media. So Justin is on Instagram at MindPump Justin. Adam is on Instagram at MindPump Adam, anded RGB Superbundle at MindPumpMedia.com.

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