The Livy Method Podcast - Maintenance & Mindfulness Live with Andrew Blakey - November 25, 2024

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

In this special edition of Maintenance and Mindfulness Live Gina Livy talks with fitness coach and podcaster Andrew Blakey. This is the live recording from November 25th, 2024. You can find the full video hosted at https://www.facebook.com/groups/ginalivymaintenanceandmindfulnessTopics covered:Intro - Words of wisdom and all things fitness with Andrew Blakey!Andrew shares his journey and what drives his passion.Cardio or strength? Where to focus and the best bang for our buck.Choosing exercises that support your body and unique needs.Which comes first cardio or weights?Measuring and finding the right amount of time and exercise for you.10,000 steps – How goals, intention, and markers serve us well.Andrew shares tips for exercise as we age, adapt, and change.Eating before or after a workout? – Whole foods and a balanced daily nutrition plan.How The Livy Method differs from other weight loss approaches.Time to adapt and support - Tips for navigating injuries and health issues.Why technique matters – Embrace the learning curve.DOMS – Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness – Normal or not? What to do.Metrics – One of many ways to gauge progress.Personal trainers - Maximizing our time and budget.Where to find Andrew on socials and his podcast The Aging Grace.Andrew’s plans for January - We love doing things together!Facebook: Andrew Blakey ✓Instagram: @iamandrewblakeyPodcast: The Aging Grace with Andrew BlakeyTo learn more about The Livy Method, visit www.ginalivy.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Gina Livy and welcome to the Livy Method podcast. This is where you'll have access to all of the live streams from my 91 day weight loss program. With a combination of daily lives, guest expert interviews and member stories, there is something new almost every day. Miss the morning live? Want to re-listen to one of our amazing guest experts? Well, this is the place. This podcast is hosted on Acast, but it's available on all podcast platforms, including the one you're listening to right now, Spotify, Apple,

and Amazon Music. Well, hello. We are back, or I'm back. Andrew actually is back. Joining me today is Andrew Balake. We are talking about fitness. He's been on before sharing his wise words of wisdom. We had an opportunity to get to know him a little bit more, and now he's back to answer a whole list of questions that our members have for you today. Andrew has a background in kinesiology. He's a certified personal trainer and has been working with clients one-on-one in group settings for many years. He believes it's never too late to start and what you do now sets you up for having the functional, healthy future you deserve. In fact, that's your passion, really, beyond just building muscle and being in the gym. You actually want to make a difference in people's lives. Also, hi, hello. Hey, it's good to be back. Well,

I'm happy to be here again and I feel like we've got even more to talk about this time than last time. For anyone who might have missed our conversations with you, maybe just a quick introduction and talk about your passion for helping people. Yeah, I mean, the big passion came from being basically in the same place that everybody else is when they're starting their fitness journey. When I was, you know, maybe about six or seven years ago, I was 40 pounds overweight. And I'll just kind of quickly touch on that part. But I know the frustration, the confusion, the

not knowing exactly where to start. And it can be really frustrating for a lot of people. So I mean, that's how I got into this. And that's why I do what I do is that I don't want it to be as terrible of a journey as it was when I was going through it, it should be something that that's fun and that they get to do for life. Well, I think our perspective on fitness changes, right? Like I was like personal trainer from the age of 14. I was into like hardcore aerobics back in the day, you name it, I did it go hard, go home, type of thing. And a lot of that has changed. Now we're, you know, now, obviously, as we get older, we need to maintain and build muscle mass. A lot of us are stressed out.

We can't touch our toes. We start to have aches and pains as we're aging. So how we thought about fitness when we were 20, I think, changes over the years. Yeah, I think it completely changes. I mean, just like you said, when we're younger, we're training for one thing. And as we kind of go up in age, our needs change, the way that we're training might change, and our wants at the end of the day, those all change, right? And I think that our training needs to reflect that, right? It needs to change as we do. Well, speaking of wants, our members want answers from you. So these are

a list of questions that our members want asked. And I think even if, you know, you didn't ask this particular question, I think these, these questions are going to resonate. So let's, let's see what we can get through in the timeframe that we have. Okay. If you are short on time, what should you focus on cardio exercise or strength training? So my, my perspective on this, and some people might disagree is that if you're short on time, do, do something, right? But I mean, if we're're if we really want to go into it, I would say that and you know, pick one or the other, I would say I would say the strength training, just when we look at longevity, when we look at active aging, when it look when we look at what's going to have

the best bang for our buck or best amount of rewards based on the amount of time that we're putting into it. I think that I believe that everybody should be doing strength training. Cardio is something that we can do and fit into our days to to help to help us get better progress than just doing strength training alone. I don't think that it's a one or the other. I think that if you're at work, and you've got a an hour lunch break, you know, perhaps you probably don't have time to get to a gym and do a full workout, or maybe you don't want to come back to the office all sweaty and gross, then go for a walk. Right. I think that when it comes to sustainable change, when it comes to sustainable habits, I think it's about doing it in a way

that's going to fit your schedule, your routine. And I think that if you can just do 20 or 30 minute walk, that's a huge win, right? I don't think that we should be saying, okay, Hey, one or the other, but, but at the end of the day, do what you can and do it in a way that, that resonates with your lifestyle. Okay. So this next question is not on the list. This is my own personal question. Do you think that there's, there's something going on in the, the fitness world right now, or an exercise that's overrated that you're like, just like, don't buy into that? Oh, you're putting me on the spot here. I love it. An exercise that's overrated. Um, I'm going to go with not necessarily, I'm going to say that there isn't one that I think, Hey, this one is one that

I've seen and everybody should be doing it or, or nobody should be doing it. I think it's really unique to each individual. Um, because for example, some person, they might really need to squat in their life and other people that might be damaging to the knees or that might be painful for them. Um, and I don't think that that squats equal knee pain. I think that that squats are something that can really help to build our body in ways that are going to help us function outside of the gym. But I think it really comes down to the individual and what their body reacts best with. So again, you know, I'm going to go back to an example. There's there's somebody in my life, I talked about my mom a lot, but she was having knee pain, right. And, and one of the things for her was that lunges were really

painful for those were painful for her knees. And she always knew that they were painful for her knees. But then all of a sudden, when she went and got it checked out, it turned out that she had osteoarthritis in her knee, right. So it was it was that particular exercise isn't good for for her or wasn't good for her so i think it's about understanding our different aches and pains that inevitably come with life and adjusting and adapting your training in a way that's going to support you and not feeling like you need to force yourself through it so i don't know if there's an exercise that i necessarily think is overrated but i think it really comes down to how does a certain exercise, how does it place stresses on

your body and is it going to help you or is it going to help or hinder you? Okay. This is another question that's not on the list and I promise I'm going to get to the questions on the list, but Risa, who's joining us now, just brought it up. There's the great debate, cardio, then weights or weights, then cardio. What are your thoughts on this? Okay, that's a really, really great question. And I'm gonna I'm gonna quote something from a book, there's actually a book, and it's called cardio or weights first, or something like that. I forget what it's exactly called. But I mean, I highly recommend this book, because it breaks down a ton of different questions, again, based on science, which we love, explained it in a way that, that people are going to be able to understand and how it's going to work for them. But basically how I like to break

that specific question down also, hello, Risa, um, is that it really depends on what you're training for. I mean, if you're somebody who's working on, on improving your cardio and that's an area that, that, you know, that you need to work on, then I think it comes down to the individual session itself. So if you know that you're working on cardio, then do that one first, right? Because otherwise, we're going to have those diminishing gains, because we're already fatigued going into it. Whereas on the other hand, if you're trying to, you know, get a good workout in and work all those different muscles and increase strength, then you want to do that one first, again, because if you do the cardio first, then you're going to have the diminished gains because you're already fatigued going into

it. So I think it really comes down to what is it that you're actually trying to train in that specific day or that specific session. Okay. Makes sense. All right. Back to the questions. Does the length of workouts matter? Is, always better. Okay. So good one. Um, so for that one, I, I don't like to use length of workouts as a measure of effectiveness. Um, reason being is because, you know, I've got, I've got clients who, who, you know, there's one person that comes to mind right away and he's, he's 72 years old and he, I mean, he hardly takes any breaks during his sessions. Like I'm like, Hey, let's let's take a 30 second break. We've done three exercises.

Chill out, relax. And he's like, no, no, no, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to go. And so, I mean, he can get he can get through what normally somebody might take an hour to do in like half an hour because he's like he's going, going, going. And I mean, I do have to encourage him to like, OK, slow down, you know, chill out. But I think I think a better way of measuring it is rather than the length of a workout, whether it's 30 minutes or 60 minutes, I think that there's ways that you can have an extremely

effective workout in 30 minutes. I think it really comes down to the number of exercises and the number of sets that you're doing in a given workout. So again, you know, you could take an hour to do seven, seven exercises, or where you could take 30 minutes to do seven exercises. And it comes down to, you know, how are you structuring your workouts, right? But as I want them to have something that they can take can take from this, I would say that if you can do six to eight exercises in a workout, then that's a better, a better, um, approach than,

than using time instead. Does that make sense? Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. So this next question, um, I'm sticking to the plan, but also improvising. Someone asks, is walking really enough exercise? And I'm going to add Judy's question that she just asked here. She said, I've really upped my workout since hitting my goal and working out regularly, about 30 to 45 minutes a day, alternating between resistance and cardio. I hate walking in the cold. So I find that in the fall, I don't get a lot of steps in, but I still do my cardio in the gym. How important is it to get those 10,000 steps a day? So let's talk about those 10,000 steps. Is that enough? And if you're already getting the cardio in, do you still need to do your steps?

Yeah, I would say that 10,000 steps is, is, is it's a great goal for us to have, right? I think that when it comes to sustainable exercise, we need to have, we need to have things that we're aiming for. We need to have, um, specific markers, such as the amount of steps in a day to, to aim for, because otherwise we're, we're kind of just doing stuff at random. Right. Um, and, and that's not to say, you know, if, again, if we're on our lunch and we're like, Hey, I'm going to go for a walk. That's not to say you can't just go for a walk for, to enjoy it. And because you're getting those extra steps in but i think that it's important to to break down a bigger goal of of 10 000 steps and break it down into okay how am i getting that into my day each each day so it's about having a plan in place rather than i don't

sorry i kind of lost my train of thought they're going to be honest um i will follow up with this because it's interesting because i've been getting my 10,000 steps a day. I'm not wearing my Apple Watch now. And my good friend, also getting her 10,000 steps a day. But when she's out there, if she's getting her heart rate up, she's actually counting her exercise. So when I get my 10,000 steps, I'm getting my 10,000 steps. I don't actually count that as exercise because I'm under the assumption that the 10,000 steps was the fact that we are such an inactive sedentary society, that that is

problematic for our health, physical health and mental health. And that exercise is something completely separate from that. That, what do you think? Yeah. I mean, going back to the question itself, I mean, I think that you, you do need to do more than just walking, right? Because, again, there's benefits that we get from walking and there's a whole separate host of benefits that we get from doing an actual workout. So, I mean, I think that we can't say one or the other. I think it needs to come down to how do we get both. But doing one or the other is always going to be better than, than doing neither one of them. Right. So even though both of them have different benefits, they're both, they're both,

there's a spot in our life for, for all of it. Yeah. So just walking is great. Wearing a weighted vest is fine, but that's not really building up muscle. It's not working on flexibility. It is not working on your heart. It's not, I mean, it is a little bit, but it's not like taxing your heart or, okay. Next one. What is your favorite style of exercise? Weightlifting, HIIT, Pilates, and why?

And how does this change as we age? So- It's a loaded question. It is, it is. And there's a lot of interpretation and, and ways that we can go for my own personal style of exercise. I mean, I love doing a mix of weight training and and kind of higher intensity exercises, because I love the way that I feel after I love, you know, going home and having a good sweat and knowing that I worked out. But it is something that I think that

that changes as we age. Just because again, as we go through eight, or as we go through life, you know, we're going to have different injuries that come up. I think it's inevitable. I don't think that any of us go through life without without some, you know, some scars and some bruising along the way. But I think that it comes down to knowing what your body is capable of now and having an honest kind of conversation with yourself about that. Because at the end of the day, exercise and working out is something that is meant to support you. And if you're doing exercises that could potentially put you at risk, then I think that kind of goes against everything that

we're trying to get out of exercise and out of out of working out. I mean, some people say, you know, at this age, you shouldn't be doing, you know, jumping or that sort of thing. And and I personally don't agree with that. I think that it comes down to again, knowing what you're capable of knowing what your body likes and doesn't like. And if you know, if you know that your knees start aching during a certain exercise, and then don't do them, there's there's hundreds of other exercises you can do to replace, you know, one one given exercise that might bother your body. Let's talk about jumping for a second, because that's really interesting. There's a lot of science now starting to back that jumping is really great for bone density. And you might take a woman my age and be like, well, when I jump,

I pee my pants, but that probably has to do with some pelvic health issues that I need to address. And so we think, oh, well, I can't jump. I'm old. No, there's probably some pelvic health issues that you need to address. This is why you can't jump. And then jumping actually as hard as the thought of jumping right now would be for me, It's actually quite beneficial. So I hear what you're saying. Okay. This is an interesting one. Now keep in mind, we are having this conversation in the maintenance group. So this is a bit more nuanced in the weight loss program. We know that when it comes to energy for workouts, it's really what you're eating and making sure you're getting what you need throughout the day rather than, you know, what you're eating before or after a workout, but this can be nuanced. So what,

what, what do you think about eating before and after workouts and suggestions for what's a good choice to be making and timing when it comes to eating before and after a workout? Yeah, I mean, I think that it's, it's a really big topic. Because when you look at older research, you know, you've probably heard, you know, people saying, Oh, you need to eat this much protein within 30 minutes of a workout, right? Otherwise, otherwise, you know, you're not going to get the results you're looking for. But I would say the more recent research kind of supports more along the lines of spreading out your protein throughout the day, right? And I think that that's kind of a part that's in the main group as well, is that you should have a plan for your day, right? It doesn't come down to just one meal or to doing one thing after a workout. I think it's about overall shaping your nutrition in a way that supports these goals.

Ideally, yeah, after a workout, you wanna make sure that you're having a well-balanced meal, right? Which that doesn't even just apply, after a workout, you want to make sure that you're having, you know, a well balanced meal, right, which that that doesn't even just apply for after workout, I feel like that applies to all of our different meals, having, you know, balanced meals and stuff. But to say, okay, you need to have this much protein within, you know, x amount of minutes, I think that it comes down to to having your nutrition in a way where it's balanced, it's, you know, it's spread out, it's it um including all these different healthy foods healthy fats um all those different things that are going to help to support you but protein is a huge huge component

of that right so i mean ideally after a workout you do want to get some protein in um i don't know what your your personal philosophy is on this but but when it comes to like shakes and that sort of stuff i prefer people try to get it from, you know, whole foods, but, but if the difference is in getting it in versus not, then I mean, use it if you need to. Right. Yeah. Same, I same, I'm not opposed to shakes. I find liquid nutrients are difficult because of, um, portion wise, it's very easy to have too much of a good thing. Also, people tend to load them up with fruits, liquid fruit can be problematic. So, you know, natural protein powders, add good fats, be mindful of fruits, be mindful of portion sizes, no one needs a giant two liter shake

after workout. But I want to ask you this, because I find that a lot of the way we skew diet information or nutritional or fitness information is based off of the assumption that everyone is starving and depriving themselves. Like this whole conversation for making sure you're getting enough protein or what you're eating before and after a workout, I think has come about because traditionally when people diet, they are starving and depriving themselves and not getting the nutrients they need. And that's where the living method is really about dieting differently, I think. What's your thoughts? Yeah, I mean, I think I agree on that one in that in that a lot of the nutrition stuff that I've seen is much more about don't eat this, or you need to eat, eat, eat less and less and less. And I mean, that's, that's

something that I see all the time with with clients come to me is they're like, hey, you know, I'm not, I'm not losing weight. How come? But then, you know, you look at it and their, their, their, their nutrition is just so out of whack and that it's actually more about not getting all the other things that you need versus, you know, you know, eating too much. Like that's actually one that, I mean, again, you know, liquid calories, things, you know, having too much, you know, certain dressings and stuff. Those are always something that I see a lot of as well. But I think that it really comes down into, um, having the, the foods that are supporting you and, and going to help you thrive in, in all the areas of your life and not just, not just one. Okay. So this next question, um, I'm going to combine it to the next two. So this one, someone said, I was delighted to

meet Andrew at the National Women's Show. Yes, he's a lovely guy. I want I'm wanting to add more strength training into my movement. However, I am nervous to start. I have osteoporosis and have a broken pelvis, back, hip and collarbone. A personal trainer isn't in the budget. I have been doing online workouts with an app would love some ideas. Thanks in advance. I would also combine this with the next question. I start a program then hurt myself first off, discouraged to continue. So maybe some tips. Yeah, I think, I think it comes down to, I mean, again, you know, meet with a physio, something like that. Who's like that, who's going to be able to tell you, you know, very specific advice. Because a lot of times when you go to a physio, you can ask them for specific exercises to deal with a certain issue. And based on that, you'll have an idea of what muscles that you really need to hone in on and focus more in on, right? Great tip. to hone in on and focus, focus more in on, right. So from there, I mean, if you get,

if you know that you went to a physio and they say, Hey, make sure you're doing this exercise. Well, if you know what muscle that that exercise works, I mean, you can look up other exercises to get more inspiration from that are, that again, is going to help with the variety of things. Another thing that I really want to touch on based on this question is that starting too fast, too quickly. I mean, that that's I feel like that's a recipe for disaster um a lot of people like when I when I start working with them you know sometimes in the first week or two they're like hey you know what like I could be doing more I could be I could be doing more of this and and sometimes what we need to do is we just need to

make sure that we're taking a step back not trying to do too much too quickly because again when you're first starting out with working working, there's something that I like to call and something that's called in the industry, which is initial adaptations. And this is a chance for not just your muscles to get used to working out, but your ligaments, your joints, your all these other supporting structures that we really need to make sure are strong so that when you do start to push a little bit more, you've got that, you know, that almost like scaffolding that's going to help to support you, right? And if you try to go too much too quick, then not only, you know, do you run the risk of, you know, pulling a muscle or whatever, but also, you know, potentially damaging, you know, essential structures for our, for our everyday workouts.

Yeah. That's what we call building a foundation, building a strong foundation around here. What is your, again, this is my own question. Um, and I know what you're going to say here, but like how important is technique? Cause I find I was a real, when I was personal training, my clients, less is more technique is everything. It's not how heavy you lift. If you're lifting with the bat with bad technique, it's not how fast you're doing the exercise. If it's with bad technique. Um, I think this sort of fits in line with this question is that, you know, understand I'm hearing what you say is understand what you got going on. Like, where are your limitations? What, what's the problem areas? What do you maybe want to avoid doing? And then I think any exercises can be done as long as it's

done with good technique. So can you maybe like add your 10 cents to that? Yeah, two cents, 10 cents. I would say that yeah, yeah, like technique is is massive, right? I mean, there's really nothing more important than technique, right? If you're doing an exercise, and you know, you're banging it out super fast, and you've got, you know, now you're starting to lift heavy weights. I mean, you add, you add a heavy weight and you add a lot of speed and you add the point that you're not doing it correctly. And same thing, you're, you're, you're setting yourself up for some sort of injury, which can be extremely demotivating. I mean, especially if, if you're somebody who started to work out now and you, you have an injury within the first month or so, then, I mean, it's just a really hard situation to be in because

they want to be doing something beneficial for themselves. They think that they're doing something beneficial for themselves and then they hurt themselves. And I mean, these injuries could be minor. They could be, they could be major, right? We don't, we don't really know. So, I mean, it really comes down to, to learning proper technique and investing the time and knowing that exercise and working out it's, it's a journey. It's a, it's a it's a big learning

curve for a lot of people a lot of people they're not going to step into a gym or step into their first workout and and have all the techniques that we need to to know because i mean even with one given exercise there there could be seven eight ten different things that you need to focus on whether it's you know keeping your shoulders back shoulders back, flat back, right breathing. I mean, there's so many different things that even just go into one exercise, and they're not going to learn it in a single day. It's something that just like everything else, it requires practice, it requires, you know, consistent effort and being intentional with it. Yeah, for all the exercise videos out there, there are not enough videos on technique and

proper technique. I do recognize it's nuanced, but I think we're talking for a lot of people, it's really the basics. Just a reminder of the importance of it. Can we just talk, again, this is my own question, but can we talk about how sore someone could expect? Like, you know, when I start to get back, my neck is sore, my shoulders are sore. I can't really get away with that, even though I'm using good technique. Like today I started back at shoulders again, and I was just like, Oh my God, it's going to give me sore shoulders, which is going to feel like a sore neck. But after a couple of days, it's going to get better. It's just getting back into it. So what is the expectation there? Is it, you're going to get worse before you get better.

Where's the line? What's our expectation for how we're going to feel? Yeah. So the, the word that we use is the delayed onset of muscle soreness, right? A lot of people that refer to it as DOMS, right? And it's, it's completely normal after a workout, especially for people who are, who are new to working out, they're going to be much sore than, than when you're even, even a couple of weeks or months into it. Right. Um, again, our muscles need time to adapt, but a little bit of soreness is, is completely normal. But I mean, we don't want to be working out to the point and I say this as a generalization, but it's that, you know, we don't want to be working out to a point where it's like

you can't walk or move the next day. Right. I mean, we all, we all have life. We all have stuff that we need to do. We need to go to work. We need to, for a lot of people in this group, you need to get your kids ready for school the next day. And, and how do you do that? If you, you know, even just sitting up or getting up off the couches is tough to do. So, I mean, if you're at that point where it's like, okay, I can't move the next day, then I would probably say, okay, maybe, maybe take a step back a little bit and remember why, why you're doing this in the first place, right? We want to get stronger and you don't necessarily need to be sore in order to get progress, right. So one thing that I like to really focus on is focusing on the numbers. I'm a big metrics guy. So I mean, if you know that in certain

exercises, that your reps are increasing week over week, or that your weight lifted is is going up, then that's a that's a great sign of progress. And it doesn't necessarily mean that you're sore afterwards. So, I mean, there's definitely room where, where again, when we're starting out, we're going to be much more sore, but using soreness as a definitive metric of progress, I don't think is the right, the right approach. It's, it's one approach, but I think there's a lot of other ways that we can measure progress as well okay i also want to ask it occurred to me because you're you're a personal trainer i've been a personal trainer i think a lot of times people are intimidated by personal trainers i mean it's hard i've worked in gyms the reality is and i'm not knocking them but you sign

up for the gym the person calls you get a free assessment we all know that free assessment is to sell you into buying 25 personal training sessions that you probably don't need that high pressure sales, because I was trained in all the rebuttals, all the high pressure sales, all of that. It's very difficult. So, you know, although I would love to go and get my personal assessment, see where I am. I don't feel like dealing with someone who's going to try to sell me into doing personal training, even if it would be good for me. And so do you have, and I'm not knocking all personal trainers, but when it comes to gyms, that can be how it is. There are also a lot of trainers that will come to your home.

I mean, trainers are running a business, y'all. So I'm not going to fault them for trying to sell more sessions that would benefit you. But that pressure is there. Financially, it can be an issue for somebody. So what do you have? What do you have suggestions to how to utilize the personal training profession to your benefit? I know everyone's a little individual. Yeah, I mean, I think I think one of the strategies that you can follow is, is knowing exactly what it is that you're hoping to get out of it. If you're if

you're going into it, and you're like, listen, I'm just really trying to work on my technique, then if you're looking for a personal trainer, just let them know that at the beginning and be like, listen, I want to do eight sessions. I just want to focus on technique. You know, kind of end of story. Kind of help me out. You know, like, you know, give a girl or give a guy a hand. You know, like, like, I just want to learn how to do it properly. Right.

And just set that expectation. Right. And, and just set that expectation, right? Because if you're going into it and it's kind of like, oh, I don't really know what I'm trying to get out of this, then that actually makes it more difficult for your trainer as start my routine, I'm trying to learn technique, I'm trying to work on this specific thing, like maybe you, you know, maybe you're seated at a desk a lot, and you want to work, you know, more of your back, and you just want to learn more back exercises you can do. I think going into it with that approach is one going to make it so that you've got a better a better routine in place, your your trainer is going to be able to create a much more effective program for you. And also knowing what it's going to be financially for you as well so that you can plan and you can include that into your budget. Oh, that's great. I love that because personal trainers sign up because they actually want to help people and not knowing

whether it's I just want to learn some exercise so I can feel comfortable at the gym or I want to learn some exercise that I can do at home with proper technique. It's almost like going to your hairdresser or any other profession and being like, I don't know what I want. Just figure it out. Right? Like you end up walking out with purple short hair. It's good to know what you need out of your personal trainer to utilize the best with them. Okay. I love that. Finally, are you planning on doing any more podcasts? Our member says I've enjoyed all the ones you have done and look forward to more. You, your podcast is the aging grace with Andrew Blakey. Do you, are you doing more? What's the plan? What can we look forward to?

Yeah, that's the plan. I mean, I think probably, as you know, in the fitness industry, you know, at the end of December, typically things start to slow down a little bit. Everybody's everybody's away. Everybody's going on vacation. I'm trying to plan a vacation right now as well, actually. But that I come January, I want to start doing more and more podcasts again. I love doing them. I love getting the feedback from people. And, and, you know, it's one of those ways where, you know, I can spend some time doing something and knowing that it's going to help, it's going to help a bunch of people with it, right. With whatever topic it's about. And, you know, I, I love to talk. Some might argue I talk too much, but it's something that I love to do. And come January, there's more coming. That's all I'll say. Well, I love that. My life goal was to be able to talk

for a living. I was like, I want to be able to talk for a living. And now I'm talking all the time. So I'm all about, I'm all about the talking. You can, in the meantime, follow Andrew on Instagram. I am Andrew Blakey, also on Facebook, Andrew Blakey. Again, his podcast is The Aging Grace with Andrew Blakey. Well, let's say someone does want to work with you. Do you have any, do you have any, like, are you open to clients? Are you running any group program sessions? Do we have anything that we can look forward to or seek out from you? Yeah, you know what? I'm actually I'm working on something behind the scenes right now. I know I've gotten a little bit of feedback from from people who have reached out to me directly, kind of asking that kind of question. But come January, I'm going to be running a group program where it's much more about the accountability, the support, answering these kinds of questions, which, again, I love to do.

I was listening to one year at Wayne Wednesdays, and I think it was Odette that called me a little bit of a nerd with this stuff. And that's completely accurate. So come January, there's going to be a more of a group program where it's much more for people to, to get started, get going and, and be able to, to stick with it for hopefully for life. That's the, that's the goal. That's the plan. Well, I love that. You know, I love a good group program. So I'm all about it. Andrew Blakey, thank you so much. I have a feeling we'll be chatting again soon. If I don't see you before the holidays, how an amazing holiday get, get booked that vacation. You're like us, us in the service in the, you know,

fitness and lifestyle and weight loss service. And our big times are, are the fall or January or the spring. And that's why we run the programs when we do run the programs. But of course, taking care of your health and wellness never stops. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today. Always a pleasure. Thanks, everyone.