May 20, 2026
5 Common Healthy Habits Men Over 40 Are Still Getting Wrong - 108
Dive deep into the health challenges faced by men over 40, particularly those juggling demanding careers and personal lives. Designed for business owners, entrepreneurs, and driven men, this episode offers practical strategies to regain control of your health.
With over 20 years of coaching experience, I share insights on how daily habits like movement, nutrition, and stress management can significantly enhance your performance both at work and in life. We discuss the importance of setting achievable goals, such as aiming for 10,000 steps a day, and understanding the critical role of regular health check-ups.
You'll learn about the triggers that often prompt men to seek change, from a bad doctor's report to the realization that clothes no longer fit. We explore how small, impactful changes can fit seamlessly into your lifestyle, helping you lose belly fat, boost energy, and improve overall well-being.
The episode also covers the significance of blood work and internal health, emphasizing the need to be proactive rather than reactive. We delve into nutrition, focusing on whole foods, calorie awareness, and the balance of protein and fiber.
If you're ready to improve your health and lead with confidence, this episode offers actionable advice to help you achieve your goals. For personalized guidance, reach out about the Health Hot Seat.
I’m looking for a “Health Hot Seat” Guest for my podcast “Driven For Health” to come on and get coached for FREE! That’s right, a clear & simple plan for you to be successful without eating boring restrictive meal plans or sacrificing time from your family with hours at the gym.This is a coaching conversation where I walk you through what’s holding you back, assess your goals & habits, then give you a simple plan you can start right away. If you’ve been struggling with your increasing bodyweight, low energy, or lack of consistency, this is the fastest way to get real clarity. Comment “HOT SEAT” and I’ll send you the details.
Want help applying this to your own health, weight, energy, or lab numbers?
Coach Brian Parana offers Health Hot Seat coaching segments for men who want a clear next step with nutrition, fitness, weight loss, blood pressure, cholesterol, A1C, or daily consistency.
Learn more about The Call To Rise, a 100-day coaching program for driven men over 40 who want to lose weight, improve their health, and rebuild confidence:
To connect with Coach Brian:
brian@brianparana.com
Disclaimer: This podcast is for education and coaching support only. It is not medical advice. Always work with your physician before changing medication, treatment, or medical care.
- Welcome to Driven for Health, episode 108. I was on Go Outliving podcast with Jonathan Brandt. And I wanted to share the conversation that we had. I felt that it would be really resonate with my audience. So, here we go. I'm going to send it right into our episode. Enjoy. In the comments, post what your biggest takeaways are from this episode.
- Hi everyone, Jonathan Brandt, Go Outliving. We have a special guest today. We have Brian Perona. Welcome, Brian. >> Hey, Jonathan. Thanks so much for having me today. Yeah, excited to have you. So, Brian is a health coach for over 20 years, worked with everywhere from Olympians to a businessman over 40 is really what you're working on now.
- Why don't you go ahead and give us a little background into you and how you got into health coaching? This this song, this tune, you you'll know it immediately. Da na na da na na >> [laughter] >> Ready? It's Rocky. That's right. The those those training montages totally got me hooked. And I I was born in '82. So, like the '80s, '90s is Rocky mania, right? And I would watch him and get so excited about the the training and all.
- And that stuck with me. Even now to the ripe young age I want to say I'm young at 43. I'm a 25-year-old mind in a 43-year-old body is is kind of how it's starting to look. I think we all can relate. Since then, the beginning, I was drawn to athletics, wanted to move my body, drawn to training.
- I really just fell in love with it. That ended up landing me into cross country and track in high school with one of my best friends still. I literally saw him yesterday, Dan. I've known this guy since middle school. He's got four kids, I've got four kids. We're busy. And and that's how we bond. We connect through physical exercise because what else you going to do? Hey Dan, let's go out to the bar and let's just go sit and watch basketball games all the time or something.
- Like the gas, I mean, we can watch basketball if we wanted while we work out. But that's when the super easy way for us to connect for literally 15 years that he's been coming over. He got me into track running which led into ultimately running in college, marathons. I had fortune of running Boston. Then I transitioned in I had probably ran a dozen at that point, too.
- I I got into triathlons which then led into CrossFit. And then now in my 40s, I do basic strength training with some cardio and occasionally I'll do a a Metcon they call metabolic conditioning, a CrossFit style workout here and there as well. But I It's been an undertone of my whole life and it's my identity.
- I'm an active, healthy, fit person. And you want to relate to that to those that aren't. Correct? You want to try and bring that that strength that you found in fitness to those that are struggling. >> Yeah. Mother nature's best remedy to feeling sad, feeling down, depressed, lonely, any of those type of adjectives or verbs is movement, right? Go out, get some sunshine, breathe some air, get your blood circulating, you get the endorphins going.
- And if I can attach someone to a positive outcome of exercise that they get that connection going where, "Hey, I move my body, I feel better. Hmm, I want to keep doing this." And we don't need to be marathoning, we don't need to I always joke with people. I don't need to send I'm not going to send you for the marathon training program and and we're not doing Arnold's 8-day-a-week exercise program either, right? What's something you enjoy? We're going to start there.
- And oftentimes, it's just getting people to go walk more, literally. Can I get you to get 10k a day and cuz you're getting three to four or five thousand steps? Here's a really quick one, Jonathan. You're moving 5,000 steps and I I like 10,000. It's just a It's a good number that we've always heard.
- I think that dis- defines an active lifestyle. Right? Through whether you're working out or not, but you're just active and you're moving around. 5,000 less a day is 35,000 less steps in a week. 140,000 less steps in a month. That's over 1. I think 2 million steps in a year. That's a lot of steps that you're not moving just through parking farther away, taking the stairs.
- Like, walk your dog another time of the day. Spend time with your partner, your spouse, your friends being active, not just sitting around food and a screen, and and stress eating, something like that. And so, there there's a really positive instant connection that you will literally feel better and be healthier as you start moving.
- >> So, what do you think triggers the moment that somebody knows they need to get help or that they need to get in shape? What is that one trigger that really is catching people? In my world, I meet people who are ready to change. They're not fumbling around and I got to wait on it, think about it. They have decided now is the time for a change.
- And that can run from any large gamut of things from my clothes don't fit. I saw a picture of myself from the wedding I went to last week and wow, I didn't recognize who was standing next to my wife. To the doctor just said I have type 2 diabetes. I've got high cholesterol. Here comes medicine for blood pressure. Uh the scale hits a certain number.
- The clothing hits a certain letter. The I walked upstairs and I can't breathe anymore. My son, this is literally happened, my son challenged me to run a marathon this year. And Brian is ready to go. His [laughter] body is just trying to keep on, but so these are that was a in a challenge in a sense that he put on me.
- There's so many different ways someone else passed away, someone else got sick. The list can go on. You just decide, "Wow, I woke up and I had enough." It literally could just be that. It's say, "I've been living sick and tired of being sick and tired. I have to change." There's a multitude reasons why people change, but the point being is that they have to decide now is the time.
- It can't be a New Year's resolution thing or something like that. It has to be a decision, and decisions can be like this. We don't need a How many days does it take to form a habit, Jonathan? Good question. It's over 30, I know that. Yeah, exactly. I mean, 21, 30, 45, 60 days. We could put any number on it, but here's a a really stark example.
- Go into You've been smoking for 20 years. Go into your lung doctor and they say you have lung cancer. You have a decision. Am I going to stop cold turkey? Am I going to just live it out and have a good time and see how long it lasts or am I going to go back and forth on that? Well, I'm going to start counting how many days I'm not a non-smoker and then have a relapse or something.
- Right? There's three different ways passive we can from that that point in time. But you literally could say, "I'm done smoking." And boom, there you go. You're a non-smoker now. Instantly you can change habits cuz you're a human being and you have power over your decisions and you can make decisions that you can follow through on.
- But again, it's important to make that decision. So, okay, habits {slash} behaviors. Is that really the first place you have to start? >> Totally. I always want to know why someone wants to change. That's the coaching me. That's who has so much exposure working with people. Sure, Jonathan, it's great that you want to have abs at the beach this summer, but why? Is it just for yourself? You want vanity? That's cool. Me, too.
- I want to look good at the beach. Is it for to get the attention of other people? Is it that you have identified that as being a male identification like like an attachment that that is a sign of health. And if I have a six-pack abs or at least a four-pack, that I am at some of my best shape that I can be in because I grew up through the era of action figures and GI Joes too.
- I for when I was playing, it was X-Men and superheroes and they always were right? The superhero model. And so you have identified that in your head as being the look, the feel to have pinnacle or peak health and wellness. So why? It always goes back to the why. Well, and that leads me to actually I had a couple things with that.
- One, for that self look or whatever you want to say, we that triggers us to want, okay, in 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, this is what I want to look at. We're not looking at it in a long-term as a healthy lifestyle situation, which people fail, correct? Yeah. I'm always going to come from the aspect of long-term sustainable lifestyle, right? Cuz that's my job.
- You You as a person listening, you start here at A and you want to get to Z. I know you want to get to Z and I understand where you why or how and and when and all the things cuz I've asked you questions and got to know you because any coaching experience that I have with any of my clients is an interactive experience the whole time.
- We have a relationship that we work through and build and and work through your and overcome obstacles and because that's what it is regardless. And my job is just to get you to point B, and that's what I'm even in generally sell them what they want, but give them what they need is is all the the coaching and the sales and the marketing and all that stuff that I've always heard and I truly believe.
- Yes, you want to get to six-pack abs or you want to get to being able to run a marathon or whatever it is, but ultimately it's long-term health. I want to stay in a 5-lb weight range the rest of my life and and not have to be worried about disease, not have to worry about what I need to eat today, not to worry about if I'm going to make it to the gym or not or how many days have I have and I not done it.
- Like that's not it's it's the lifestyle, but I just need to get you to point two. It might be a 30-day chunk of time or 90 days or 6 months that we focus on because humans can only see so far ahead of them. And if you get too far ahead, if I said, "Hey, we're going to develop these these habits and behaviors and it's going to take For someone it might take a year, for someone it might take 6 months, for someone it might take 6 weeks.
- " And neither of us necessarily know that. Certainly the drive and ambition and motivation and the person themselves will shape that experience as a and some people they just need more. Henry, I have worked with a gentleman, he was juggling school and and a bunch of different things else, but school was super important to him.
- Every week for years, 1 lb a week, 1 lb a week, 1 lb a week. Who am I to say that that's not an appropriate level of success for him? All right? He's juggling all these things. And he kept showing up consistent losing a pound. He lost over 100 lbs. It was 110 lbs and he felt significantly different over that time frame.
- Whereas maybe Henry 2.0 version, he might have been able to do it in half the time or 3/4 of the time. Those are more realistic. It's not going to be a third or fourth of the time. That's not realistic to lose that much weight. So, for for Henry, I My job as a coach is to align with the person and what they're what they deem as successful and then help them go through the process to create those outcomes and understand that they can only control the things that they can control.
- Everybody wants to lose weight or get rid of diabetes or get off the cholesterol medications, blood pressure medications, get rid of cancer. All these challenges that humans experience, they want to get rid of that. And yes, we do want that, but the first step isn't going to go from here to there. We need to go, "Okay, what's the next best thing that this person can do for themselves to put them in a better position and situation.
- " So, getting from A to getting to Z and be able to maintain Z as our running analogy, that might be thousands of micro decisions in the next foreseeable future that move them toward that outcome. And that's the only thing that they have control over, not the not whatever happens for say scale weight. We can control how much food we put in our mouth, how much we move, how much we sleep, how we handle stress, how we manage our time, all those type of things, but we can't control what the scale is or isn't going to say.
- And that's >> something that's really We control the behavior aspect of it. >> Exactly. Yeah. Now, okay, you got the six-pack abs, you got you're just looking great. You're the Hulk. But the blood work doesn't say that. In my experience as well, we find out later. We find out in some circumstances too late.
- How do we Okay, you're dealing with people 40 plus that okay, visually they know something's wrong. How do you get them to that step of hey, let's check your blood. Let's check what's underneath because that's as important as the outer if not more important. Regardless if if they're younger. Well, I've had some young 20-year-olds dealing with diabetes or cholesterol issues.
- And it it been a big challenge. A Drake, he was 280 lb, had raging high blood pressure. Someone was sort of doctors said, "You're going on meds." I was like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I actually I really want to change this and we lot I got the guy to lose 80 some pounds. He quit his job. He was doing six figures like 200 quarter million a year in his in his job because of the responsibilities, but it was killing him.
- It literally was so it sounded great on paper, but it was killing him and we we we we quit that. Through prompting, through asking questions, through getting him to think about what's important to him. He sold off his Mustang GT Shelby that he was rolling around in and he's like, "I'm up I'm on up 150 guy. Why am I in this car?" And man, within a week he sold that that sports steering got the truck and man, the next time I talked to him, he was just he's so much more himself.
- He was in his own identity. Now, getting someone to transition from uh that that is regardless of if you're Hulk I don't I don't usually encounter Hulks. They're just like six-pack ab. Most of the guys that I ever work with are just they just want to be around for their kids, their grandkids. They they don't want to spend all this hard-earned money on assisted living and medicine and insurance when they get older.
- I'm I definitely don't want to do that. I'm working pretty hard over here, so are you. Putting in long days and when I'm hit 60 or 70, I don't want it all go away because I can't care for myself because of my health. And having regular blood panels is important, especially the the that we get.
- And a visible sign that things are not all right are the way you look, the way you feel, the body weight, your your day-to-day activities, your food habits and behaviors will often precede the a bad blood marker, the A1C, the triglycerides, the all those things. So, but it is important to to start making sure you're doing that at least somewhat consistently to have that active conversation with your doctor about what your blood panels are.
- And urging people to do that if they haven't done it a long time is really important so that we can start seeing some underlying situations and issues. I remembered the the whole thing I wanted to say was I remember now, it's reactive. Humans are reactive, not proactive. So many times we're reactive to the situation rather than being proactive.
- Just doing the basics, eating whole foods, moving your body, drinking water, getting adequate sleep. That will keep you out of doctor's office for a very long time, but we get lost in the business of world, the convenience, capitalism, consumerism, all these things that occupy our attention that cause us to not do those basic things and we get unwell as further we get in age.
- Realistically, we're not preventative in any way. You know, and I I'm perfect example of that, you know. I I thought I was fine, but I look back and my behaviors were horrible. They really were, you know, drinking, smoking, but you know, okay, I can I work out 2 hours a day, so that takes care of that. That's not how it works.
- Let's talk about nutrition. How does that enter into the overall health and wellness of your clients? Yeah, that that is a huge percentage of what I cover with anyone. In my experience, no one really understands nutrition to the level or degree that they need to for their particular lifestyle. Okay? It's not that they don't know what is healthy or not or what they should or shouldn't be eating.
- It's so many people say, "I know what to do. I'm not doing it, Brian." Well, that's my job make sure that we actually know what we need to do and then follow through with it. Uh that age-old saying, "You are what you eat." Literally. If you're eating fast food, you you're going to be a walking heart attack soon enough. If you eat whole food, chances are we can push some of those off and and overcome some of the challenges even if you have a genetic background with family history, you might be able to beat some of those odds or push them off
- longer and keep that heart attack from happening in your 40s or 50s and push it out till 70. You're just still going to have a heart attack, it's just your quality of life from 40 to 70 is going to be significantly better. You can spend more time, energy, effort toward the things that you actually want to experience in our life and not just riddled with poor health and the consequences of more money, more time, more energy and effort to take to solve the problems of the heart attack created and it's not ideal. Going back to
- nutrition, a top-down. Most importantly, we have to eat whole foods, right? This isn't shocker, right? We can have tasty things, things with sugar in packages occasionally, but we have to act responsibly. So, whole foods first. Number two is calories. You have to have some level of calorie awareness. There is such a thing as calorie toxicity.
- Now, that's how it was phrased by a mentor and someone that I look up to in my space, but calorie Lane Norton was his name is his name. Calorie toxicity is just you over-consuming calories and you getting fat and unwell as result of it, right? Totally makes sense. But that if we phrase it that way instead of just being overeating, calorie toxicity eats a little bit more What is he saying here? And maybe I should be a little more concerned about how much I eat in terms of calories.
- Even if you ate unwell or unhealthy in quotations, but you kept your calories in check, you inherently are going to be healthier than someone that eats the same way but overeats and consumes that stuff more and gains weight and then gets attracts those unhealthy chronic illnesses faster as a result. So, calories are number two.
- And the basic structure that I have my clients work that is work gain busters for two decades now. We think of this this two-step question. Where's my protein? Where's my fiber? If I can find lean protein and I can find fibrous foods, primarily vegetables, some fruit, a little bit of starch, and healthy fats that have that in it, then I will be eating healthier on a lot more food volume.
- People, you can eat significant amounts of food. I literally have people that say, "Brian, I cannot eat all the calories you want me to eat because it's so filling." Why? Because we pick higher quality, lower volume food that works for our favor of weight maintenance or weight loss and just overall better health. So, we want to think of that.
- So, protein, fibrous foods. We want to be conscious of your carbs because they're everywhere. They're always, right? We want to limit fat. If you ever track your calories, you don't have to track calories to be successful with this, but you need to be calorie aware. When you track your calories, fat disappears.
- All of a sudden, it's like, "Whoa, where I'm almost at my fat limit for the day. Where did this all come from?" And a lot of food has fat in it, especially if it's in a box or a package. Whole foods have fruits, vegetables, starchy carbs do not have fat. Fatty meats have fat, lean meats don't really.
- They do have fat, but not as much. And then healthy fats, we want to eat them and we want to stay away from excessive amounts of oils and such. And the last thing being is the eliminate simple sugars. I like to call this the simple six. But we have to calories are first, protein, then fiber. Limit fats and eliminate simple sugars.
- And when we eat like that, then tada, you can manage your health and your body weight a lot and your day-to-day energy significantly better without trying too hard. So, sounds easy. Simple is easy, easy get done, but what gets in the way? It's simple, but it's not easy because of life. It's not easy because what's in the grocery store.
- Correct? I mean, here's I laughed at the fiber thing. And the more I look into the, you know, eat whole breads, all that. The problem is most of it's stripped down where you're not actually getting the nutrients. And people don't know that. So, how do you figure that stuff out? Because that's the big question.
- That's what I So, again, I was 60 lb overweight a little over a year ago. I did some blood work, they came back and one thing that stuck with me and they said, "Get fiber." You know, I'm sitting there going, "What?" You know, honestly, okay, that makes sense, but what am I missing here in my life? How am I missing this? Well, turns out I was. I completely missed it.
- I added actually psyllium husk powder to a shake and guess what? I've lost 60 lb. I have not changed a whole lot of my diet other than that. That's how significant this can be on a nutrition level cuz we talk about simple, but it's not that simple unless you do it right. Fiber comes in 2 to 3 g in a serving or cup or a piece of fruit most of the time.
- There are outliers. Avocado has 16 g of fiber. Berries have like blackberries, blueberries, raspberries can have 6 to 8 g of fiber. Then it starts working its way down. The average food that you're going to eat is between 2 to 3 g in a cup or serving for the calories that it has.
- And then there are some that don't have fiber. Rice doesn't really have fiber even if it is brown rice. It might have 1 g. It's not relevant. That's not where you're getting your fiber needs from. So people you don't have to eat brown rice over white rice just because you're trying to get more fiber. You think it's healthier or something. You're stuck in the '90s.
- They literally basically have the same nutrition label. And once you realize that white rice basically equals brown rice and overall issue that we need to do is practice portion control. Then I go I can eat any color rice. I just have to make sure I don't eat too much of it. Exactly. But going back to the fiber you're not we're not trying to get fiber from lots of starchy carbs unless we're eating lots of beans and lentils.
- And then you know what that old song says. The more you eat, the more you toot, the more you toot, the better you eat eat beans beans for every meal. Right? My kids say it that. They're they're definitely in that age. Uh 16 to 10. So fart jokes are still always hilarious in our house right now. Love it. Absolutely love it. But it is difficult though, isn't it when you go to the store because it's Something will say healthy and it's really not even close. Exactly.
- Do you feel like us that we're kind of figuring that out, you know, with I'm going to bring it up. The new food pyramid. >> Yeah. I don't get why it's so it's politicized. It shouldn't be. Because to me and I did a little podcast on it. Yeah, me too. We screwed up for the last 50 years on the old one whether you followed it or not.
- >> [laughter] >> So Well, even if you did follow it, if people actually followed it, they would have been inherently healthier than they are now. It's the problem is that it's the consistent and adherence to something and people don't do that. Why? Because of money, because of power, because of consumerism, capitalism, lobbyists.
- You and I definitely know this. How long, how many years has Tony the Tiger been saying how great processed white oats are when they are literally devoid of fiber and it's just sugar with carbohydrates, simple carbohydrate. And we've been told that, we've been marketed to and and it gets put in front of us because it sells, because it's addictive to humans.
- And we are ultimately digging our own grave in a sense when it comes to health and and food and quality of food. Like there's a lot of things that we could definitely do better as a society that say charges more for sugary processed foods that are colorful and say healthy on the front verse subsidize and create cheaper produce.
- Everyone should be able to get a pepper. Why why is it why am I paying three times more for colored peppers over a green pepper at the grocery store? That it should not be that way, but it is. Like why it just And also just to throw this out there, it's not Yes, in a sense it is in quotations potentially more costly or expensive to eat healthy.
- But when we look it is a big butt like you got the Babadook behind you. But when we look at consumerism and behaviors around food and the advent of DoorDash and all and eating out and all this stuff, you're actually paying a lot more in time and money and potential future illness than it's worth to just buy healthier food now.
- So going back to all this is I get my clients to get into the weeds, to dig in the dirt, to learn. I make them go through the process. A good example this morning, someone messaged me, "Is granola okay?" That's the question. That was the text that I got. I engage in text with my clients all the time. "Okay, do you have a nutrition label?" So, I'm making this person actively get the information for me so that she learns the process of understanding why this is or is not a good food source.
- So, she then sent me a label and she said it has a lot more fat in it than protein. Well, yes, I know that. You would know that, too, right? It's granola is a high-calorie, high-fat, high-carb, high-sugar, low-fiber, low-protein, low-filling food. By the word, the name itself. If you synonymously, you should be thinking, the listener should think, "Granola equals high calories.
- I need to portion control this." But, that's not what we think. This tastes good. I should eat more. That's what you think because it says healthy on the product. It's a healthy snack. No, that's not what it is. So, I'm making her do the math. Okay, how much of a percentage of fat is inside this container? There are 15 g of fat.
- 15 * 9 is what, 141 calories? And say there's I can't think off the top of my head, but say there's 170 total calories. That doesn't leave much of carbs and protein. That's primarily a fat source when you look at this granola if that were to be the case. And then, let's look at the portion control. Oh, it's only a quarter cup. Wait a minute here.
- Why in the world is 170 calories for a quarter cup ever deemed healthy? It's not. So, I'm making this person, this client, do the work to understand what it is and why it is that I see granola this way so that she can see it her way. I am not telling her she should not eat it. I am telling her that she's needs to make a better educated choice on if she's eating granola or not.
- and then also even more importantly the context of the day. If she absolutely loves this granola and she must have it for breakfast, and she eats a cup of it, which would be literally 400 calories, then that is going to define how the rest of the day looks. Meaning lunch and dinner are going to be primarily, for easiest example, a chicken salad.
- Lots of vegetables, lean protein, and that's what she's going to eat to consolidate for the goals that she wants to hit as terms of fat loss, but also enjoy the granola. So, this goes with any word. Doesn't have to be granola, it could be pancakes, it could be cookies, it could be having more fruit than maybe you should. And I usually tell people eat one, two, three piece of fruit is fine, but some I've literally had a guy who he would eat a whole watermelon at one time.
- That's a 1,300 calories, man. That is not in the healthy bucket anymore. That is overeating watermelon. And so, it's all contextual, but if we learn what's on the label, what the context is of the portions and the calories and the impact that it has with protein, carbs, and fats, and then on your meal, but also your day, then we're putting pieces of the puzzle together that you're like, "Wow, I started the day, but now because I got educated in the first 2 weeks, I'm already at G or H or I instead of on B or C trying to figure it out myself."
- And that's where getting help and support and the right guidance in this process is exponential for you to be successful. You brought up a a big word to me, education. It's lacking. Huge. I mean, if we think of it right when you said it, I thought of my 17-year-old, my 19-year-old compared to my 6-year-old.
- My 6-year-old sits there and goes, "Oh, Daddy, there's too much sugar." Where the other two are going, "Yeah, get me a monster. Get me the chips and all that stuff." XL size, right? Yeah, how did we miss it so bad? I mean, and I know like I said, super size probably goes like 50. Just even the difference between your age range there, the super size culture, right? Cuz the 19, they may have experienced that where bigger is better and it's cheaper and it's and it's delicious and it's why would you not super size? And whereas we don't have
- that anymore. But we we should never have had it. Not appropriate. Right. Well, that goes back to the TV dinners and the microwavable stuff. I mean, I had mentioned that all in the podcast. We started it 50 years ago at least on the wrong track and it's it it starts with education, too.
- You know, we got to get more of it in the schools. Go ahead. With with education, we think of even finances. At the end of the day, we're just on a calorie budget just as we are in a financial monetary budget in the day. And humans are notorious for underestimating how much they eat or spend, over consuming, and not abiding by basics of financial law and and rules and regulations and guidelines and food as well.
- If you have $100 to spend today, you can spend however which way you want as long as we end day at 100. But humans like to charge 120 the card and then I'm just going to do 80 tomorrow. Well, that's that's not human behavior. And all of a sudden we start to accumulate this this interest, this extra debt and in the food world, that is the extra debt is showing up in your waistline.
- It's showing up on your bad blood panels that is and it takes a lot to pay off. It's we're not doing 30 lb in 30 days, people. We're talking about 1 to 2 lb a week is sustainable and maintainable. Three is amazing before or more is overreaching. And then we go to your expectations. As long as they are in alignment with that, then we have a good experience.
- You're like, why am I not When I did keto, I lost 8 lb in a week. Well, you're coming to me heavier than you've ever been in your life with multiple health issues. You ran the wrong playbook, my friend. I'm really sorry, but you are in a worse condition but then before you started the keto in a sense. And so we go back to your credit card debt, it takes a while to pay that off if you get into it.
- Same thing with calorie debt on your waistline and losing weight. It takes longer than you want it to. And it's so much easier to get overeat and overspend. Right, exactly. Well, and okay, here's the other thing. Again, we know the crash diets don't work for long anyway. They're not sustainable. Pretty much everything out there.
- There's no 30, 60, 90 day. Okay, you get that quick fix. Great, then what? The other side they don't we don't seem to talk about with all of it, health, fitness, nutrition, what whatever you're we're talking about is the mental health side of it. And that might be a little you know, that's a tough one because I feel like we don't talk about it.
- >> I'm I'm focusing a lot more on men these days because we don't talk about it. Aging from going back 50 years, dad never stopped at the gas station ask for directions, right? That just was unheard of. Men don't ask for help. Men don't cry. Men don't show emotion. These things are bred into us for years of uh decades, generations, thousands of years and we're certainly see some change now with mental health and men's focusing and being more open and aware and acknowledging things.
- But there's still a huge gap. And for a man to admit that he's wrong or in in error or he needs to change his ways can be really challenging because of the societal norms that we have set up. And this goes for women, too, and ultimately our lives are way too busy for the human life and human design. And that in and of itself is a challenge because we are literally can't keep up with the lifestyle that we've created for ourselves.
- And I feel that pressure myself, and that's what I'm getting stuck in that rat race, too. But you look at all creatures living on the world, they have very significant rest cycles and then small amounts of activity. And we could have totally set that up in our culture. Like there used to be siestas. I don't know if they have siestas anymore.
- [laughter] Because you got to make money and you got to pay your bills and you got to pay for the thing that you shouldn't have bought, in a sense. So then you are stressed and you don't have time and then you make fast judgments and you don't have skill sets around how to cook or prepare or even grocery shop the right foods because you weren't educated or made aware that this thing that says it's healthy on it actually isn't that good for you.
- It's only healthy if you eat a quarter cup of it, but that they don't want you to eat a quarter cup. They want you to eat out the bag every time you go so you can go buy it again. It's taking responsibility for yourself. And a lot of people don't want to do that, either. No. That's the thing. It We sit there and we can talk about all this in a simple manner, but we also know it it is very complex. That's huge.
- Yep. How do we change all this for everybody? How do we change it for those that are over 40 that have been doing it wrong 40 years? From a nutrition, from a fitness, from the mental health side of it, how do we change it? >> Number one is you have to be your own advocate. You know that, right? You experienced that quite a bit.
- And you have to advocate for yourself and you have to start to understand the situations that you are in to learn and understand and develop skill sets to be able to change the outcome. You control the things that you control over to change the outcomes that you want. So, that's the first step. Then if enough of us get fed up, we can just stop buying the things in the crinkly wrappers and then what happens? A massive shift in the way we do things as a society almost instantaneously.
- If everyone stopped or Ubering, Uber eating, and DoorDashing, and stopped going out to eat, then and grew gardens, and and did all this stuff, slowed down, and ate wholesome [snorts] foods and meals that worked for their health, toward a better lifestyle, then our economic system, our consumerism is going to change behaviors because the market is speaking louder than the marketing.
- And when we can finally get to that point, then we will actually have real change, not just what an administration changes or not what they they flipped the pyramid, food pyramid upside down, basically is what they did. If you look at it, now it's a it's a right side triangle. But it's basically in general it says the basic same things.
- There're there're subtle things that are different, of course, but not by a tremendous amount in the overall construct of nutrition is still eating whole foods, eating balanced, moderation, managing your overall calorie intake, having lots of vegetables. That's going to lean proteins. That's going to keep you healthy long for as a human. Right.
- Well, and it's doing it with a friend, with a community to change society, to ultimately change how we're doing everything, isn't it? It's we have to do it one step at a time. We got to get up to a change in the society to change the government. However you want to look at it. >> It's how the money's managed and and where it moves and all.
- If your 6-year-old when they turn 19, uh just goes to the farmers market all the time, has the most delicious, amazing home-cooked meals that are just wonderful. You can't wait for them to invite you over for dinner cuz their food is amazing and it's and it you feel good leaving that that that to space that dinner and the environment and the social setting and all these things.
- Instead of where your your 19-year-olds are now, hey, let's go to the gas station and get the the big Polar Pop in the Styrofoam cup thing for a dollar or less. That should be $3. And the apple should be 25 cents. Exactly. We need to stop subsidizing Yeah, stop subsidizing corn. Let's get the fruits and vegetables.
- >> sugar. Exactly. No, I agree 100%. You know, and I think another way that, you know, there's a lot of us out there that are trying to get the word out and we don't know it all. We know that. >> No, I don't know it all. I know the things that I know and I know the things that I talk a lot about to people, but I still I'm only human and there's only finite amount of information that I know.
- Even with our ever-expanding AI, I've learned a lot lately. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, exactly. A significant amount of information real quick in the last 2 years. But still, I still don't know it all. I'm not going to. I need to find reliable, credible, science-backed, evidence-based information that I can lean on to then form my decision to change my future with the choices that I make today for 1 day from now, 10 days from now, 2 years, 10 years from now.
- 100% agree. Well, and I think a lot of people can learn from you as well. What is You got a podcast, Driven for Health Podcast, that Yeah, everybody is needs to go listen to that as well. >> I speak It says it's it's for mental health and that's the undertone of of who I'm talking to and out of shape Brian, a driven guy that's got a lot of kids and struggling the day-to-day life.
- That's that's the undertone of the message. But anything I talk about is about humans making better choices. I had a how to read a nutrition label. It's it's not binary. It's not male, female. It's humans. Right? It's This is how you look at a nutrition label and see. I think it was episode 74 if I remember correctly.
- I'm on 82, so I don't even remember. I know how that feels. There's certain episodes that people can listen to. The nutrition pyramid, inspect information episodes 5 through 11. Strength pyramid with 17 through 23 have a significant amount of testimonials, people sharing their real life experience sprinkled in throughout. Eating on the go, how to do that with some more recent episodes in the 70s.
- Five healthy high-protein breakfasts that'll keep your weight in check. That was episode 74 or so and same thing with the reading nutrition labels. Those were in the 70s. All three of those were very recent that I did that are super informational that allow for people to educate themselves on what the best decisions are for them.
- And at the end of the day, that's what I do is I'm advocating for my client, the person I'm working with, to make better choices for their health goals. It doesn't matter what if they want to lose 10 lb, 100 lb, they want to run a marathon, they don't. The inherent underlying rules are things that we talked about. Having good nutritional education, understanding, and application.
- Moving your body, drinking plenty of water, getting your sleep. These are basics that people just don't do. Episode 60, I talk about how three guys did the basics in my 100-day, I call it the call to rise 100-day fat loss challenge. They lost 98 lb between the three of them in 100 days during the holidays, October, November, December.
- They were with me and they all lost that weight. They were doing things subtly different from each other. So, it wasn't this Brian comes in, I just follow his cookie-cutter plate. No, I educate you and I help you understand so you make better choices because one person traveled a lot and had two kids.
- Another one, two kids but stayed at home. Another one didn't have any kids and he was a younger guy. And but they were all were slowly dying because they were overweight, out of shape, and they needed some understanding on how to manage it better. Consistent. >> that simple. It can be that simple if you acknowledge it, really. I love it.
- Well, Brian, it has been a pleasure. Unfortunately, we're out of time, but please catch Brian on Driven for Health Podcast. And again, I'll post all of Brian's stuff on the blog. Again, really loved having you. I really appreciate it. >> is great. I appreciate our time together, too. Uh thank you. All right, everybody.
- As you know, One more thing. For anyone listening in, here's the takeaway. The question is, what is the next best thing I can do for myself to move toward the healthier version of myself? That's the question you always want to ask yourself because you have control of right now, not tomorrow. Tomorrow's never comes.
- It's a figment of your imagination. Agree 100%. >> There's the summary. >> Love it. All right, guys. Find the attitude, keep the attitude. Go out and live it.
