Muscle: Your Real Retirement | Caleb Whittle | The Sean Trace Show

In this episode, I sat down with health and fitness coach Caleb Whittle - a former decade-long marketing pro turned coach, to get real about what it actually takes to build a body and a lifestyle that holds up long-term. 

We talked about why movement has to be planned, not hoped for, especially as life gets busier and the stakes get higher. Caleb breaks down how muscle mass is one of the single greatest predictors of longevity and fall prevention as we age, and why your brain fog might disappear faster than you think once you clean up your diet. We got into the truth about sustainable weight loss, the calories-in-versus-calories-out equation, and why most people sabotage themselves by switching things up too soon instead of trusting the process. We also explored what it looks like to protect your personal time as a busy parent and business owner, how to overcome gym anxiety, and why three days a week of strength training is genuinely enough to start seeing results.

If you've been waiting for the "right time" to get serious about your health, Caleb makes it clear: the formula is simple, the timeline just requires more patience than most people give it.

What's the one thing you keep telling yourself you'll start "next week" when it comes to your health, and what's actually stopping you from starting tomorrow?

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I keep going to Muay Thai class because A, I love doing it with my daughter, and B, I feel good afterwards. You know, and I think that that's the thing too, is like we are so goal-oriented that we forget sometimes that the journey is the important thing. Like, I want to have the beach bod, you know? Well, yeah, man, uh that's great. But isn't it great to feel better like than yesterday?

SPEAKER_00 0:21

The the the things that fitness influencers do that drive me absolutely insane is they will say, do this movement to have a body like me, or like this is how I built this body. And it's like the dumbest movement, and they're doing it because people are like, Well, I've never seen that before, and so it gets views and comments, and that's how it goes viral. But that's not how they built that body, they built that body with the fundamentals of strength training over the course of time with proper nutrition, and like 90% of them with the help of steroids, right? You know, that's that's unrealistic, but they're doing it because it gets views and they they shift, you know, they're able to pique the mindset of or the interest of some people that that are watching them, like, oh, that's interesting. I've never seen that before. But you will not get that body with that movement almost ever.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Welcome everybody back to the Sean Trace Show. I've got an awesome guest with me. Would you like to tell people who you are and a little bit about what you do?

SPEAKER_00 1:26

So I'm Caleb Whittle. I am a health and fitness coach uh who made a career change after 10 years in marketing and has had uh a lot of pivots in his life. And so looking forward to uh chatting with you, Sean, and being here today. Yeah, no problem.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

I I'm excited to have this conversation as well, man, because I've always been to the health and fitness. One of the things that's interesting, when you're young, health and fitness is often just part of life. You're moving and you're doing stuff. But as you grow older, I'm not saying get old, I don't like that term. I say as you as we age and as we go through our life development, continuing to have movement, to have um that physical activity is something that people often have to plan, you know. And it's so it's like I'm entering a news period where I'm looking at my parents that are aging and sitting there going, well, if they had have kept up exercise and fitness, they would probably be in a slightly better position than they're at right now, you know. So, how can people integrate that into their daily lives as they go around through life, which is busy, you know?

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Well, uh you actually mentioned a key word there is plan. Um, the the most the the people I work with that have been the most successful with it, plan it into their day, whether it's setting aside time to be active every day and it's the same time every day. Uh oftentimes it's earlier in the morning before the family and kids are awake. That's like their time. Um, other times they they bring their family with them. So walking is one of the best things you can do. And so uh uh pretty much every single one of the people I work with, including myself, we we do uh walks after dinner, and it's a quality family time, and it's just a good time to be with the family, be outside, and you're being active. Um, also making sure that you choose hobbies that can kind of force you to be active a bit as well. But I think it all comes back to planning it, having it be a part of your day, and it's something you do regularly and you make it your own time because then you set aside time to be active. And if it's not, I know for me, if it's not on my calendar, there's a rare chance it's happening. And so setting aside blocking that off, that's how you can stay consistent with it and see progress there and and continue to be active. That's that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

I love that because it's like I uh I was watching this video the other day or movie with my wife, and Jayla was in there dancing, and she looks like she's in great shape, she looks like she's in her 20s still, and that's one of the things that like I know some people that in their 20s look like they're in their 60s, and I know some people in their 60s that look like they're in their 20s. And I I I I wanna like with all of my friends and the people listening, I want to impress upon you that just because you're in a certain space doesn't mean you have to stay there, or you don't have to kind of go down a path that you don't want to. You know, I I had some family members that were starting to deal with some health challenges. And one of it was I had some family members that are starting to deal with uh one family member starting to deal with some vascular dementia, and it's not fun. Um not but when I was looking up some one of the things, it was like get them moving, keep them going, you know, and it's like certainly get on the right treatment protocol from an MD, but like there are ways to do it and like things that you can do to help you can head off heart disease, you can head off different things by having a very active life from an earlier age, and I'm not a doctor, but yet I do know that you can change a lot of your progression of a lot of illnesses and you can promote wellness by getting out and having a simple plan, you know, simple little things have compounding results over time, you know?

SPEAKER_00 5:15

Yeah, and I both my grandparents uh who passed away over, let's see, grandpa passed away beginning this year, grandma I think five years ago, both of them pass away from you know dementia, Alzheimer's, um, and it typically went really downhill really fast after a fall. And so the the biggest thing that prevents falls is having good solid muscle mass, especially on your lower extremities, that can help stabilize you as you're getting older. And so having that that muscle mass into your 70s, 80s, and 90s, uh, that has massive effects on your mental well-being. And I think it's because of twofold. Number one, you need to be active to build muscle mass and to have muscle mass to keep it. But number two, uh, just having that on your frame helps balance out, pun intended, uh the things around your uh your lifestyle, your joints, your your health, promotes good blood flow. Um, all of that plays into effect as you get older and older. And I'm a huge believer in it's never too late to build muscle. Right now, I I've been working with my dad, who just turned 60 this year over the last year, and that's what we're doing is is strength and muscle building. And we're doing that. He's been a runner his entire life, an ultra runner. And so he has the cardiovascular stuff, but he's like, Oh, I think I need some more uh some more muscle mass on my body. So, because he saw what happened in his parents, and so one of the biggest, you know, preventative ways is to have increased muscle mass on your body.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

That's awesome. It's awesome because one of the things that I just love that you said is you can change it. You know, it's like as I looked at this family member that was dealing with this stuff, I was like, Well, what are the things that I can do? And it's like cardio, weightlifting, and saunas. It was like, you want to work out for your you know vasculature, jump in the sauna. And I was like, Well, I don't have a sauna, but I was like, Well, we've got these little like in Asia, they sell these little like tent saunas. It's like, I don't know how much it is, it's like $15. And you put a little like boiling pot in there, you zip it up, and you're in a little mini sauna. And I was just like, I wish more people knew about those because so many people, it's prohibitively expensive to buy a sauna, but this there's ways to do it, you know. But one of the things, like, I wanted to ask you this too, because you know, you coach high performance, you know, high performers on fitness. What's the one habit most people skip that changes everything?

SPEAKER_02 7:53

Ooh.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Um, I would just say movement throughout the day. Most if they're if they're a high performer in their job, most of the time they're in meetings all day, they're sitting down a lot, they aren't moving throughout the day. And so having the habit of whether it is getting a standing desk and putting a you know, walking pad underneath it, or blocking times to take a quick walk around the block or taking walking meetings, um, that habit is the biggest habit you can have when getting into fitness and becoming healthier. Um often I would say it's on the same level as your diet. Those two go hand in hand. And so if we're talking about habits, usually you can um plan a bit better and and have maybe better nutritional habits. And so what takes the most amount of time is how do I get activity in my day? And so it is just moving. Um, you know, the those high performers, they're they're head down in their work all day. And so, how do we break that almost break that momentum in a way to then get some movement and understand that it actually benefits your work as well? I think having that reward system is very important for high performers because that's what they thrive on. They're always chasing that next goal. And so, how do we tie it back to what they're already experiencing at work? It's this will actually make you a better performer at work because you will get more blood flow to your brain. You'll be able to decrease any mental fog you may have. You'll be able to increase your energy throughout the day just by moving. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Yeah, and it's one of the things too that I think people forget. And, you know, as I've grown, as I've grown my company, uh, one of the things I've noticed is that I move less. And I don't like that, you know. People require me to do this, I'm required to check in and do this, and you know, it's like I have all these responsibilities I gotta go through. Yeah, but yet I'm like trying to figure out like how can I keep moving in that process? You know, can I run off to the gym for an hour? Can I, you know, do this or that? And it's hard. One of the things that I I started to do, and it was a non-negotiable change I had to make, was that I started blocking into my schedule an hour every morning to go to the gym, to run, to do something. And I wanted to do podcast appointments. I had a bunch of podcasts scheduled at that time, but I said, you know what? There will be time out of the times of the day to do podcasts. That's my non-negotiable time. And it was something that was super important to me. And then I'm trying to, I I got a couple, I got a couple kettlebells in here just around the room. So that, you know, every 10 minutes I set a 15-minute timer and I stand up and I start doing some movements, whether it be kettlebell deadlifts or you know, kettlebell swings, just to get the blood flowing. Because you don't realize, I read recently, so I've been flying a lot recently, and um 17-hour flights. We just had a 17-hour flight from uh San Francisco to Singapore. Brutal, absolutely brutal. But one of the things that you notice, I had to start putting on like I wore some compression leggings and socks just because you don't realize the damage that is done to your body by sitting all day until you sit for a 17-hour flight. When you sit for 17 hours, you look at your feet, everything starts to swell, you know, like you look at your your ankles hurt, your knees hurt. And I my wife was like, Well, you know, isn't your blood supposed to pump? And I said, The venous system is based on movement. The venous system moves blood when the muscles contract and move, and there's a system of valves. Now, if you're not moving, those valves are not flowing it, and like you start getting all this stagnation, and that stagnation ain't a good thing, which is where that basic movement is magical, but people don't think about it, you know, because also again, it goes back to my other point. Like, a lot of people don't think they have time to work out, you know, and yet what would you say to that?

SPEAKER_00 12:03

You do right all always have, you know, as part of kind of the onboarding with the people I work with is okay, what's the biggest reason you aren't doing the things you want to do now and you feel like you need a coach? And it's always time. That's that's always the number one. Um, there's there's no getting around that. And it's everyone has the same 24 hours in the day, and you make priorities and trade-offs on what you do with those 24 hours. Now, sleep is arguably the most important time you have, so you want to safeguard your sleep. So we don't want to, you know, dive into your sleep in order to get things done if you aren't sleeping well. Uh, that's what we address. Um, so it's okay, where do you have time? What are you spending your time on? How can you trade off? Uh, I have one guy who works 14-hour days right now. Oh my goodness. And his his trade-off is okay, uh, instead of relaxing and watching Netflix for an hour before I go to bed, I'm going to hit the gym. That's gonna be what I that's gonna be my my relaxing time, even though people may not see the gym as relaxing. For him, it's a stress reliever after a crazy 14-hour day. Uh that has become his personal time. And, you know, instead of watching uh an hour or an hour and a half of a show, he puts on 20 minutes of a show on the treadmill at the gym. Perfect. You still can combine some of that, you know, relaxing time um while uh still getting done the things he would like to do. And I think it's it's deciding between good, better, and best throughout the day. Uh, there are certain things where you don't have control over. Maybe it's certain meetings, uh, maybe it's uh family time. Sometimes you don't have control over because maybe it's a kid's sports game. You don't want to miss that to go to the gym. That's nope, you want to prioritize family. Uh, but you know, maybe if you're someone who wakes up and you just kind of take an hour to wake up, okay. Set your alarm an hour earlier and go to the gym instead of just lounging around for the first little bit. Um it's it's it's the trade-offs, and that's what we walk through. I say, walk me through your day. Walk me through from the moment your alarm goes off in the morning. What does your day look like? And let's find some time. It doesn't have to be an everyday thing either. Uh, I I have several people where it's three days a week and they're like, that's all I have time for. And I'm like, fantastic. That's what we're gonna work with because three days a week is is good enough for building some muscle and building some strength. And then we integrate the activity, the movement into their actual life every day. But in terms of just dedicated time for strength training, that's where you have to start to make some trade-offs and start to figure out, okay, where can I block some time? Uh, but I I have yet to find someone who can't do that.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

My daughter runs a very has a very busy schedule. She goes to school today. She comes home, 5 p.m. She has piano class. After that, she has um, what do you call it? Uh extra class with a Vietnamese tutor and a math tutor. And then tomorrow she'll come home and we go to Muay Thai at 6 p.m. She comes home, she has another tutor. And then on the weekends, she's doing dance class, she's doing art class, she's doing like she's she's moving. And part of the reason is because and like my in-laws were giving me crap for it. She loves it. Like, don't think she absolutely loves all her classes, and I have given her the option do you want to stop this or stop that? She says, No, I love it. She likes to do this stuff. And when we don't have the class, she goes up to grandpa and grandma's room and jumps on the tablet. And I'm like, you know, we don't we have a you know a no-device policy, and yet, you know, I can't have to completely enforce what happens to with grandpa and grandma in their apartment upstairs, you know. It's like, hmm, it's a challenge, but yet, you know, one of the things is like there's a big like, and this is not like different cultures by country, but different family cultures between my family and my wife's family. You know, love my father-in-law to pieces, but he lounges a lot during the day. Very industrious man can make things, but then he just chills. And I'm bringing that up and throwing him under the bus because he of late has had a doctor tell him he needs to be moving more. And the doctor specifically said, You need to get up and you need to be active, you need to be moving, you gotta exercise. And you know, and then here it but I when he was complaining about my daughter having all these things that she was doing, I was like, We have to inside ourselves, we have these two voices. We got, you know, I've got every one of us has my father-in-law up there going, Come on, let's take it easy. You can do it tomorrow. You know, you ask him about exercise. Hey, are you gonna exercise? Yeah, I'll get to it. I'll get to it becomes never, you know. And so I think one of the things that you have to do is I want to start running again. Tomorrow morning, I've got a podcast early. That was one of the things that was a compromise. I moved it earlier, but I actually make sure I block out two hours of nap time in the afternoon when I have early stuff. And I feel rested and I feel good. So I spread my sleep around and it works out. I read this one study, I read this one study on this really interesting study, and I don't know if I was right or not, but this guy was talking about um splitting up sleep times. And one of the things he said is like, as long as you're getting because I came from you know, the US, where no one naps, but when I moved to Asia, everyone naps. And you know, they stay up really late, but they're all sleeping from like 12 to 1. And you know, and I noticed my my my my business, everyone rests from 12 to 1. I give everyone an hour nap time, and you know what? Performance is much higher than if they don't. If the if they don't nap, everyone's dragging at 4 p.m. You know, instead, it's like the second wind. But you know, it's interesting because tomorrow morning after my podcast, I'm taking my daughter to school, then I go to the gym, and it was like something that I planned. But like if you plan it, you can get there, but you have to figure out like one of my questions is once I start working out, I want to ask you about this too, like strength, growth, or endurance. Like, how does someone figure out which one they should be training for?

SPEAKER_00 18:29

You know, it depends on goals. Uh, so I love training for something. So I I was a runner, I always had a race I was training for. That's what motivated me to like get in the runs, get in the speed work, all that stuff because I was training for a race. Um, when I shifted into strength training, uh it was a bodybuilding show. And I was like, okay, that's that's what I'm going for. I don't want to miss a session because I don't want to, you know, have I don't want to go up against someone who didn't miss a session and you know, now they they they're gonna win, you know. That's it's the competitive mindset. So some people are motivated by competition, and that'll determine, you know. Obviously, I depre de pre oh my gosh, deprioritized the uh the running side of things because running is kind of an antithesis to strength training and and muscle building. Your body wants to not retain as much mass as possible when running. So my cardio became walking and a bit of cycling. Um, because my goal shifted it. Now, for just your average person who wants to get into shape, it's a bit of both. And I say, you know, the type of cardio matters a bit less as long as your heart rate is getting elevated. So um, if your heart rate is getting up kind of into that zone two-ish area, which heart rate zones vary by person, um, but you know, elevating your heart rate a bit, not going crazy where you're completely out of breath, but zone two, you can visualize it as you can carry on a conversation with someone next to you without running out of breath. Still, you know, you're you're elevated, you're moving, but you can still have a conversation. Um, that can be walking on a treadmill at an incline, that can be on a bike, that can be on an elliptical. The the type of cardio doesn't quite matter. Your goal may dictate the cardio, but then every program should have some sort of strength training because the the muscle building activities matter a whole lot in the long term. And so whether it's two to three days a week, whether it's six days a week, that doesn't matter too much. Again, your goal may shift, but for your average person, three days a week is more than enough, you know, 40 to 50 minutes per session. And what matters is kind of your effort and your nutrition, too. You want to make sure you have enough protein to build that muscle that you're putting the effort into uh in the gym. And so the combo is what matters for your average person. If you're a competitive person, then obviously your goal dictates kind of what you deprioritize. But for your average person, you want a nice healthy combo of of all of the above.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

I love that it's like when you can get a good mix of everything, it's just always better. Like, you know, I think about it with food. When you get one meal, it ain't that great. But when you can kind of get a little bit of all this stuff, you know, it balances everything out, you know. So I I love the idea of having it really mixed because you see this with um different athletes too. The um some of the like long distance runners will be really thin, but they'll have great cardio. You know, you wonder about that person when they get older, are they gonna be too thin, you know? But then you get the guys that are just like, you know, muscled out. Are they gonna be able to are they gonna be able to run from a leopard if it shows up on the scene? You know, I have no I don't know if you could run from a leopard, anyways, you know. So I mean, might be a losing battle on that one, but. You know, I would want to try. I would want to try. Might fail, but I would want to try. I mean, I mean, and I'm joking, but I'm not. I remember this video about a mom that was a little bit on the large side. And I'm there's no judgment on anyone's size or shape. But what I want to talk about is what happens in the story. It was a real video before all the AI generated sh like shit that goes out. Uh, this was a real video, and it was on CCTV, and the mom fell down while pushing a stroller. And the stroller started rolling toward the street. And she, it was the most painful thing I've ever seen. She was struggling to stand up, but couldn't. And she was desperately, and luckily, a person ran up and grabbed the stroller. She's in tears. The the absolute desperation about not being able to stand up to stop your stroller from running into the street. And I mean, it must have been heartbreaking for her. But I guarantee you, or at least I hope, that was motivation to help her see maybe there's something you need to do. I go to the gym, and this sounds crazy, but like I try to think if there was like some type of disaster or thing that happened, I still train Muay Thai because I want to be the guy who can protect my family, you know, and just sit there. And I train with my daughter because I want her to be at some point in time, get when she's older, be the person who can protect herself, you know. And I'll tell you this, she's trained for two and a half years. Kid can pack a punch. I did not realize that. I was sparring with her and I was like, let's go with swack. I was like, damn, that was that was a that was that was amazing. It's like I don't think it used to be. But I wanted to ask you this because for people that are trying like that lady that was trying to lose weight, what does sustainable weight loss actually look like day to day? Not not the highlight reel, but like the real thing.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

It's uh it's uh one-two punch uh of of nutrition and and movement. We've already hit the movement side of things, so let's you know, on nutrition, it's finding things that you can eat all the time that you don't get bored of and that are low in calories, high in protein. Um that's typically the the goal. Nutrition is where people think they know a lot of, but they actually know nothing of. They underestimate a ton of things there. And so um your body's a pretty it's actually a pretty complicated system, but if you visualize it in a simple way, um calories in versus calories out, that's two sides of the equation. The activity increases your calories out, but if your calories in still outweighs your calories out, you will be in a weight gain mode over the course of time. It may be very small, but it's still there. If they're equal, then you'll just kind of hang out at maintenance. You won't really gain or lose fat. We'll we'll use that caveat. Um, and then if it's more than what you're bringing in, then you will be in more of a fat loss mode. And so with that equation in your mind, then you have two things to play with your activity side of things. You can move more. Uh for people who historically have maybe higher propensity to just snack and eat throughout the day, and they have the time to move more throughout the day. We'll we will focus on steps and they'll be more of a high-step person. They'll be in like the 14 to 15,000 steps a day because I know it will be easier for them to do that than it will be to restrict their calories more. And so someone who's doing 15,000 steps a day can eat more than someone who's doing 8,000 steps a day just because they're moving more. Um, for someone who maybe has a bit more control over their nutrition, that's where that's where we'll focus more. And maybe it's okay if their steps are only like 10,000 a day. You know, movement is still a part of the equation, but to make nutrition into a sustainable way of living, you want to focus on things that people enjoy. So then it's not a drag to be like, oh man, I if they're not looking forward to a meal, then it's gonna be really hard to stick to that, and they're gonna choose to just have an entire pizza instead. Um, I say that because I've been there. Um, so having that is is important, and so I work with people and and even people aren't my clients, they come to me with questions and meal ideas, and um I think having the sustainable approach to nutrition is important. And if you pick around at least 80% of your nutrition is come coming from whole nutrient-dense foods. I like to say if it grows on the tree or in the ground or has a mom and dad, then it's uh, you know, new whole nutritiously dense food. And so if you focus on that for at least 80% of your diet, there is a really good chance that you will be uh lower in calories than if you didn't do that. And you will train your body to realize, hey, having a steak with some potatoes is actually delicious because it is. Like, who doesn't love a steak? Um, so having something that's good, that you enjoy, that you look forward to, and that's maybe a bit lower in calories, perfect. That's that's how you make it sustainable.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

Yeah. I love that the the joy in exercise and fitness because one of the things um that I'm thinking about is like when we were kids, exercise was easy. Like we would go out and just do it. How we didn't die, I don't know. I'm I'm I'm an ex annial. My mom bought us BB guns, bows and arrows, and rollerblades, and we went and we fucked around and we found out like quite a bit, quite a bit, you know. We did stuff that was pretty stupid, and the matter of fact is at the end of the day, um, it was fun, you know. I broke both of my arms rollerblading, but you know what I did right after they healed up or got my cast on? I went back out and did it, you know, and because it was it was stuff that was really fun for us, and I think one of the best things that my mom ever did for me was that I got to um one summer, she took us out and she let us try all the sports. Like, what does that mean? Like, she signed us up for everything, everything you could imagine, she signed us up for, and it was pretty cool because at the end of the summer, um, I learned something really interesting. I learned what I didn't like, I learned that there was a lot of stuff that I was not a fan of, and beyond that, not really that great at. But you know what I did find? There were sports that I loved. Martial arts, I loved it, and not just that, I was good at it. I was good at doing this activity, and that passion allowed me to keep showing up, you know. So when I got to college, I found a great martial arts teacher, and I just started studying judo and I would go every day. And it was interesting because I also played volleyball, I played competitive volleyball, I played for my college's team, and you know, I it it got to the point where it just wasn't fun, and I stopped doing it because it was so competitive and so stressful at times that I just was like, I wanted to have fun with it, you know, and so what I found though is that I was able to do a mix. I played some volleyball, I went to the gym. I found like I didn't grow up training in the gym, but then when I started to, I realized, man, this is a lot of fun. I wish I'd have done this a lot longer. But I had to kind of get over a mental hurdle of the people that were in the gym because the people that were in there were one of the biggest obstacles for me. And I'm explaining what I'm gonna say there. So often we have this culture in the fitness community, and I would say I'm part of it at times, that is not very welcoming to people that are not. Like, I still see videos of people like fit fluencers that are posting people shaming people for doing things wrong in the gym, or maybe you walked into someone's shot, like God forbid that they walk in the background while you're trying to film, you know. But one of the things I think is like we have to make like getting into fitness more welcoming for people.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

Yeah, that I I've worked with a couple people where that was a big barrier. Uh, and uh, I have been the person who films in the gym. I'm much nicer, I could care less. Like it's their gym too, so who cares? That's that's awesome, though, right? Yeah, yeah. But um, that's a real thing. The the gym anxiety of of what will other people think of me? Um, am I doing this right? Are yeah, and unfortunately, there are a very, very it's a tiny percentage of people who maybe do like judge other people, like, oh, they they don't know what they're doing. But I would say 99.9% of people want you to be there. Yep. Yeah, they want you to be there. Like, I celebrate people who it's obvious it's their first day there. Um, and sometimes I'll I'll walk up and be like, hey, awesome you're here. Let me know if you have any questions because I I'm I'm a coach and so I can help you walk through anything. Um, I've had a few people take me up on that. It's been really cool. That the key thing that I think helps some people is it may seem like a difficult culture to be a part of because it's somewhat selfish, right? Everyone's there to focus on themselves, and that can be freeing in a way where okay, no one is paying attention because they're they're they're paying attention themselves, they're trying to improve themselves. Um, so no one cares, but also we've we've all been there, we've all been the newest person in the gym. That's how you get started. Um, and I think having going with a friend is is huge. Someone who already is going to the gym, that's a big one for a lot of people. Um, another one is even just finding it, can be any program. You don't need don't pay for any program because you don't need to nowadays. You can ask Chat GPT to write one up, but like find something that at least walks you through, okay, here's our here are some movements that you can do in the gym. Here's what they look like. You can find some videos, and that way you at least have somewhat of a plan. You're not just showing up to the gym saying, Okay, what do I do? Um I always recommend people do that. Uh, I I've even given people prompts of like, go put this in the chat GPT or Claude or whatever. This will spit out of something specific for you, and just start with that. Uh, I started with a program that I think I saw some influencer do on, they did a video on, and I just like took notes of like, okay, this is what they're doing, and then I just watched that video in the gym and like, okay, this is what it looks like. Okay, that feels that feels like I'm hitting something. Cool. Um, and then you progress from there. The what you do in the first month of going to the gym, the goal is to get consistent. The goal isn't to perfect the movement yet. You're not there. Your goal is to get consistent to the point where it becomes a habit of going. And you mentioned earlier that okay, you you drop your daughter off at school and then you go to the gym. To become consistent, tying it to something like that, where you're it's just already something you're doing during the day is big. And it's hugely important when you're just getting started because you'll the motivation will run out eventually. And so, what keeps you going to the gym when there's no motivation to go to the gym? When you wake up early and you're like, huh, it's cold out. I don't really want to get out of the bed. I don't really want to do okay. Well, what keeps you going? Um, and I think seeing the progress in the gym over time is one of those things that is kind of motivating internally, um, or having a friend who motivates you or a coach or whatever it is. Getting consistent is what matters the most when you're first going to the gym.

SPEAKER_01 34:40

One of the things I think is hard is the in-between stage where you're not seeing the results. My daughter, I've had her with a very challenging piano teacher.

SPEAKER_00 34:49

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 34:49

And she was just making her do these chords or like progressions. But today, she says, Okay, you've done both of these activities so much. Uh now we're gonna put them together. And she had done these so many times that it was like second nature. She knew them both instinctively. And when she put them together, suddenly she realized she was playing a song. And it wasn't just a basic song, it was an extremely intricate song. But because the teacher had worked both of them piece by piece by piece, my daughter didn't even see what was being put together. And then suddenly it was this oh my goodness, that that's amazing. But it was amazing because she had been working on it so long and didn't see the progress coming along. And that that's one of the things that I think is really interesting because as we're on this journey of health, most people overcomplicate health, you know. And I want to ask you this like, what's the simplest version of the formula that actually works? What do people really just need to be doing?

SPEAKER_00 35:50

Uh, activity plus nutrition. That's that that's it in its simplest form. Um, you know, you you mentioned she was doing those chords over and over and over and maybe not seeing progress. There was probably minuscule progress every single time. It's so minuscule that where she didn't realize it, right? The thing that kind of sucks about getting into fitness and getting in shape is you're doing a lot of the same things over the course of a really long time. Um you're you're not going to you know see massive muscle progress from week one to week two. That's just not how it's gonna happen. But from month one to month three or four, you will see quite a bit. From month one to month 12, you will be unrecognizable. Yeah, here's a really long time to do the same thing week in and week out, even day in and day out. And I've even had, you know, some people will comment on working with me, like, I've kind of done the same exercises for the last few months. And I like, do we switch it up at any point? And I'm like, Well, do you enjoy the movements? I'm like, Yeah, yeah, they're good. And I show them the chart of their progress over time and their increase in in in weights that they're able to move. I'm like, you're still progressing. There's there's no reason to to mix it up right now because you're still building muscle, you enjoy the movements, and this just takes time. And that's something that people severely underestimate is that that quantifier, right? So you have the the activity plus nutrition, but then it's multiplied by time. So the the time part is what people underestimate. So the simplicity part is important, but they underestimate that this takes time. And I think that's what people get get wrong, and that's what they overcomplicate is after a couple weeks, they switch something up and it may completely mess up their progress, or it stalls their progress on what they were working on, and then they start over progress and something else. And so that that time factor is I think what messes people up.

SPEAKER_01 38:07

I was like, I think that you know social media doesn't help because people start looking at all of these the gains that people are getting online, they don't realize like those people might have personal trainers, they might have everything set up for them, you know. And I mean, certainly you can get the tools that they can get, but the reality is it's like you have to set reasonable expectations, you know, and to have the vision and the goals that keep you showing up. You know, for me, um, I keep going to Muay Thai class because A, I love doing it with my daughter, and B I feel good afterwards, you know, and I think that that's the thing too, is like you we are so goal-oriented that we forget sometimes that the journey is the important thing. Like, I want to have the beach bod, you know. Yeah, man, uh that's great, but isn't it great to feel better like from yesterday?

SPEAKER_00 39:02

You know, yeah, yeah. Well, and I'll I'll interrupt you there for a second because the the things that fitness influencers do that drive me absolutely insane is they will say, do this movement to have a body like me, or like this is how I built this body, and it's like the dumbest movement, and they're doing it because people are like, Oh, I've never seen that before, and so it gets views and comments, and that's how it goes viral. But that's not how they built that body, they built that body with the fundamentals of strength training over the course of time with proper nutrition, and like 90% of them with the help of steroids, so right. So, you know, that's that's unrealistic, but they're doing it because it gets views and they they shift, you know, they're able to pique the mindset of or the interest of some people that that are watching them, like, oh, that's interesting. I've never seen that before. But you will not get that body with that movement almost ever.

SPEAKER_01 40:04

I think that we also have to learn about what works for us, right? I'm um uh a 40-something year old dad, and when I go to Muay Thai class, I'm not training with the pro fighters, man. We have a bunch of them in my gym. I I love and respect those guys, but they're like, hey, you want to spar? I'm like, fuck no, no, I do not, because you'll beat the shit out of me. I want to be here, I want to get a great workout, I want to go home feeling better than when I came. I don't want any, you know, CTE. I don't need to be getting head in the head a lot, but I do want to like sit there, put some pads on, and spar with some guys, you know, and and understand that like to each their own, but you'd you gotta know where you're at. Like, I I you see those videos of people, pictures of people they're like, I didn't work out in five years, or like I had the one this one video that I was watching this guy, and he was like decided he wanted to go run in a race. He's like, I used to run, now I'm 45, but you know, I haven't run in a while, and then he tries to run away, race, pulls a hammy, and then he's not he's laid up for forever. When my wife was coming back after getting back in shape after she had our daughter, she went to work with this one trainer, nice guy, really cool person. Well, one of the challenges was that he kept pushing her way too hard. He would work out squats, squats, squats, you know. And it's interesting because he created this mindset that she was just miserable. She couldn't walk for four days afterwards, didn't want to go back to the gym. And I finally told her, I finally found a different coach that met her where she was at, pushed her, yes, but didn't take her to this point of like severe burnout and exhaustion. And what she was able to do is she was able to keep it up and enjoy it. And and that person was a dance teacher, also, and she incorporated more dance than anything. Um, so it was interesting because you know, when you can again find something that makes it fun, and my wife loves dance, it was something that she could keep up and continue. But I wanted to ask you this because we are in the same boat in a little a lot of ways. You're a dad running a business, and you know, I'm with you on that, man. Like, how do you protect your physical and mental energy? You know, I I I'm juggling a lot of things, you know, and then you know, I I was looking for a lot of work, you know, and before I founded my company, it's just this being a dad, there's a lot. You got a lot in your play. How do you balance all the stuff that you go through, all the mental energy, physical energy while life is in chaos, you know, and keep your own wellness in a place that is balanced?

SPEAKER_00 42:48

I'm not the perfect person at this because I'm still figuring it out. It's our first daughter and she's nine months old. So I'm still like, okay, what's what's working, what's not working. Um, you know, what can we control, what can't we control? Obviously, we can't control our daughter, you know, waking up in the middle of the night because uh, you know, maybe she's not feeling well or something. Can't control that. Yeah. Um what I found that has helped me is I wake up at the same time every day, regardless of how my daughter slept. Some days, wonderful. Some days it's a drag to get out of bed, and that's just that's just life. But that's that's the anchor to my day because getting up at the same time. For me, I work out in the morning first thing, I wake up early. Um, before my my you know, wife and daughter are awake. Hopefully, my daughter, hopefully, she's still asleep. Um, and that is that is my time. Um, that that was the biggest shift for me is all of a sudden my time was gone. And it was okay, I need I need some of that back because that helps me bring sanity. And so it is you know, our daughters sometimes you know just. Based on her nap schedule, maybe she wakes up from a nap late. And so then it cuts into the evening time. And I realize very quickly, okay, my time may not be in the evening because there are certain things I can't control to where maybe it overlaps and then it's gone. So morning was that time. You know, you want to have that important conversation with your spouse to say, okay, let's figure out our days. When is your time? When is my time? Make sure we have that. So we decided mine is first thing in the morning. And I use that to go to the gym. Um, but because I do it every day, I go to the gym five days a week. So on the other two days, I use that. Uh I'm I'm a gamer, so I use it to play some video games first thing in the morning like this. Fine. Like, okay, great. Um, so then then it's still my time, but I get to choose what I do with it. Obviously, you'd hope it skews towards activity and and and being in shape and and exercise. Um so I think that's been the biggest factor to it. So then the chaos of the day doesn't disrupt improving yourself or dedicating some time to yourself. Um, because the day will be chaos, as I've quickly found out over the last nine months. There's very little you can control during the day. There's a lot you can, and it's important to do that, but I think that's that's the important part is finding however much time you can. Uh for me, it's an hour. That's that's what is kind of the anchor in your day, regardless of where it's at.

SPEAKER_01 45:34

I love that. You there's two things there that you're you're talking, speaking my language. First of all, is uh dichotomy of control, control what you can and let go of the rest. Um it is, and because it's like and in life, you know, you can you can't control everything, but you can figure out the parts that are important to you and then kind of show up for the rest, you know? One of the things too, like I I found that the better that I take care of myself, the better my body performs, you know, and my my employees are always sick, like always sick. And I'm trying to figure out what are you guys doing? Like, I I asked them, I was like, and it's like I don't know, they're not taking days off, but they're just nose running, coughing, sneezing. And I'm I rarely get sick. And I was asking him, I was like, what are you guys doing? That's and they're like, I they point out they're like, Mr. Sean, you eat really healthy. And I said, Yeah. And like they're like, you go to the gym. And I said, Are you guys not eating healthy? They're like, No, I snack a lot, I don't, and and none of them work out. And I think that that's one of the things that I would say is a big uh difference is that they're just not exercising. And I think that it is really a problem, you know. And it but that's leads to my question like, what's the relationship between how you treat your body and performance in business and other areas?

SPEAKER_00 47:00

Oh, it's it's night and day. Um, I I vividly remember my friend that I worked with, uh, he where was he at? I think he was weighing in at about 285 pounds. And he came to me saying, I want to be able to play with my kids, but he's also a business owner, had a couple businesses, and he's like, I feel like crap at work all the time. I just feel bad. Like, help me clear up brain fog, help me feel better at work, help me be able to play with my kids. That's that was the the the big motivator. But he's like, I feel like crap during the day. So help help me do that. And unfortunately, a lot of the fitness industry will immediately turn to supplements. And with him, it was all right, let's dive into your diet. Let's let's fix that. And within two weeks of fixing his diet and moving, he he didn't really move throughout the day and he was hitting 10,000 this steps a day every day. Um, he came back to me after two weeks without any prompt from me. He just you know kicked off our weekly call with Caleb, I feel uh like the brain fog is gone. Like I was expecting you to come to me, like, okay, here are the supplements you're gonna take. Do this, do it. He's like, What how is it gone? And I'm like, because you're eating right again, you're feeding your body the nutrients it so desperately needs. And so, yeah, your brain fog is gonna clear up pretty quickly because you're not drowning it with things it doesn't need and things it has to, you know, overly process and get rid of. And it you're you're doing that, and you're moving more, so you're promoting good blood flow through your brain, and that's gonna, that's what helps. Um, and he yeah, it was it was pretty cool to see that because I hadn't really ever dealt too much with that before. I or at least I didn't notice it, but to to to see that change in in him that quickly just hit home, like yeah, your nutrition plays the biggest part to how you feel throughout the day. And so if you're snacking on chips and going out to drink every night and just not taking care of your body, your body's gonna reward you with with the uh brain fog and not feeling good during the day. And so, therefore, you won't be a good performer at work. It's so true.

SPEAKER_01 49:17

If you're you're caught up in all the little things and you're not one of the things, too. I'm reading this great book, it's called The One Thing, and the guy really talks about focusing in on the things that are actually gonna get you there because we do all this stuff, but really you don't need to do as much, but you do need to focus on the things that are really gonna help you because it's like a high performer. It's interesting we talk about that high performer and we think that it's a person who does more, but the reality is is we need to shift it to be a person who does the right things, you know, like because maybe you're busy, but you're not actually getting done everything you need to, you know, like your exercise and sleeping well, you know. So, you know, a high performer comes to you completely burned out. Where do you start?

SPEAKER_00 50:02

Who I'll typically have them walk through their day. Uh, usually I'll just say, tell me what your day was like yesterday. Uh, like walk me through every little thing, uh, from the moment you wake up to the moment you you went to sleep. Um going through that exercise themselves sometimes you know turns on in their brain, like, oh, I did this and I didn't really need to. Um bringing that awareness to that, I think, is is key. I didn't do anything. All I did was just prompt them, like, give me every intricate detail of everything you did. And then through that activity, they're like, huh, yeah, I did this. I probably didn't need to. Or I did this, and yeah, that took two hours, but the results of that were nothing. Um, and we also typically uncover, you know, a spot where they can get out and go for a walk real quick because they were spending time on something that really didn't matter at all. And then they could take that 15 minutes and just walk around their neighborhood or walk around the block. Um, but and then that would have more impact on their day than what they were spending that time with. So I think uh, you know, it's the same with like tracking your calories. People are oftentimes not uh, they're they're a little apprehensive to doing that, but that's something I encourage people to do at least for a couple of weeks, because then it brings awareness to holy cow, I didn't think this was this many calories and I'm eating it every day. Okay, maybe something needs to change. So just bringing awareness, whether it's to your day as a high performer and seeing how to better optimize your day or nutrition or even your exercise, like just writing it down and keeping track and then bringing awareness to what are you actually doing that then you know dovetails into okay, I can maybe spend my time a bit better.

SPEAKER_01 52:01

I love that. I wanted to ask you another question because it's got me thinking, like, you know, if someone comes to you and they really want to make a change, but they could start changing one thing starting tomorrow to feel better in 30 days, what would you tell them to do first?

SPEAKER_00 52:16

First, I yeah, I would have them track what they eat. And then it would be make those shifts. Yeah. Um make the shifts to eat healthier, to eat more whole foods, uh, more single ingredient foods or you know, things that don't have a nutrition label. Um to feel better in 30 days, I think that has the biggest impact on how you feel.

SPEAKER_01 52:42

I think so. I I love this too, because it's like I had a doctor that was working with me, and he's like, What is the one thing that you're complaining about most? And for me, you know, it was I had an achy back, you know, I had this sore spot from an old injury. And so he says, All right, well, one thing that you can do is to start lifting to strengthen your back. And I was going in, and it was just like it was like magic how it was able to shift that, you know. Oh, I want to have better cardio. What's the one thing you can start walking today? You know, start start moving. I think you got to identify some of the things that are important to you to shift, and then you don't start with like, I want to run a marathon. Well, that's that's great, but like, how can we get there? You know, all right, well, I want to I want to be a runner. Okay, that's a good starting point. That's something that we can actually look at and figure out. Let's see how we can get you to be more into running, you know, and it's like here start down that path. But I think, but why do you want to be a runner? I think getting down and and really hammering on the why is so important. But like, I want to ask you this last question. And I I appreciate you take it all this time. If you had to give your younger self one piece of advice, what advice would you give your younger self?

SPEAKER_00 53:57

Go to the gym and fall in love with it. I didn't start my lifting journey until about three and a half years ago, and I'm 35 uh 34. So I didn't start until I was in my 30s, and so I regret not going when I was younger because it does take time to get where you want to go. You know, if I had an extra 10 years under my belt, I I would it'd be very different story right now. Um, but I was I was I don't know, I was, I didn't do that. And so knowing what I know now, that would be what I would tell my younger self. You know, nutrition is what it is, and I yeah, sure, eat healthier as a young kid, sure. But I think seeing the the impacts of that, I think would have changed a lot of my habits over the course of of my life so far. So I think that that would be what I would tell my younger self.

SPEAKER_01 54:56

I love that. It's those little things that have big impacts, you know, those little little things that you don't necessarily um think about, you know. You don't think about how they're gonna add up, you know. It's like people, I add my growing money podcast, and I, you know, people they tell them put you know, a little bit of money aside every day. And that little bit of money that you're putting aside every day might seem small, you know, but it turns into something really big over time. And I think that's one of the things I would tell people is get get in there, get into doing that thing that you love, and then just keep showing up. And you'll your future self is gonna be really happy you did. Where can people go to find out more about you and what you do?

SPEAKER_00 55:46

Honestly, LinkedIn is the uh the best platform. Um, I'm most active there. Uh, just my name, Caleb Whittle. There, you'll you'll look for a guy with a stash. Um that's that's where you can find me. I connect with almost everyone. I respond to DMs there. Um, that's probably the best spot.