Episode 38-Strong Not Sorry: Ditching Guilt, Gaining Health with Erin Rourke 💪🧠✨

00:01
Hello everyone, welcome to the War on Dad Bods podcast. Today we're here with Erin Rourke and the big question is, why is it that so many busy people, men and women alike, know they need to take care of their health but still struggle to stay consistent?

00:18
What's really getting in the way? Me and Erin are going to talk about this today. So this is Erin Rourke. I have long admired Erin and her husband for their ability to have three kids, two full time jobs, stay very healthy and have a very active social life.

00:34
Erin is a health and wellness coach, a full time engineer and a mom of three who understands the challenge of busy work, family and self care. She empowers women to build sustainable health habits through practical strategies that fit into their busy lives.

00:47
With a no nonsense approach, Erin is committed to helping women feel strong, capable and valued. Erin, how are you doing? Welcome to the podcast. Thank you. I'm great. How are you? I'm good. I'm good.

00:59
Happy to be here. Looking forward to some of your insight here. The part that most people face in health and fitness is that most people want to be healthier and feel better in their body, but between work and relationships and their general life, it always seems to take a backseat.

01:15
What do you think is the number one reason people struggle to stay consistent? They think they don't have time and they don't prioritize their health, especially women with all the things that we have to do.

01:29
There's excuses everywhere. And for women, there's actually guilt. A lot of my clients feel guilty putting that time in for themselves and taking away from their families. So that is the number one reason.

01:46
So women aren't so this is the psychological problem and habits. They feel guilty like they're, they should be investing more into their families. Instead, they're being selfish and working out. Yes.

01:57
It's a real problem. I mean, I would, I would say like, wouldn't they be more like a focused energized? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I tell them all the time, you're actually a better person if you give yourself and it's just 30, 40 minutes a day.

02:13
I'm not asking for two, three hours. It's something doable, but they don't realize it at first. They obviously start to feel it after a while. Once they do try. But the initial gut reaction is, I don't have time for that.

02:30
You know, I've got too many things on my plate. Yeah, and that's the kind of the gut story. Now, after you work with them, and you get results, do they say, Oh, I'm actually better with the kids. No, I'm actually better with my family now.

02:44
100%. And I'm, I mean, I'm a walking example of that. You can ask Michael, you know, Michael, he, you're, you're, you're agitated, you're, you feel good in your own skin. in, so you're energized, you feel confident, you know, you can take things in stride where if you don't give yourself that time, your anxiety is higher.

03:07
And you know, you're, you're literally just living, you know, on this very thin piece of ice. Um, well, I just your history working with men, have you noticed that their challenge is any different? Um, they, I don't feel like they have that guilt, they definitely don't have that.

03:28
Men are that all the men that I know have always they've never had an issue of just leaving the household going to the gym, doing their thing and then coming home. They don't, the women we walk around with a to do list in our head, men don't have that.

03:43
And that's just the way we're wired. There's nothing against, you know, husbands or anything like that. It's just the wiring of men and women and men can compartmentalize things better than women can.

03:56
So we are to do list, we feel that we can't give to ourselves. And men don't have that. Got it. Um, I want to hear a little bit about how you made this transition. You've been healthy for many, many years.

04:10
What led you to get into coaching? And what made you realize this is the work you wanted to do? So, I mean, I you can say I was healthy, I worked out. I don't know if I was healthy. I was as far as working out, I was healthy, but my nutrition side was not I was doing horrible things to my metabolism.

04:31
I was binging in, you know, on the weekends and then detoxing every Monday through Friday, basically starving myself. So wasn't doing it appropriately. And I was pushing 40 and found this program and it was the perfect balance of everything.

04:50
It was the workouts were short and sweet under 30 minutes. The nutrition was huge. It was easy. It was a lot of food, so I never felt restricted and I felt so great. I've never seen changes like this before and so I just wanted to share it with everyone in my community.

05:10
I mean, I realized a mom of three, 40 years old, you don't have to give up and that's where I was in my life. I was giving up, just not stopping anything, just saying, oh, this is my body. I guess this is what it is.

05:25
I have three kids. I'm 40 years old. I'm just going to be this look the rest of my life. When I realized it didn't have to be that way, I was like, oh my gosh, I want to give it back to people. It's always the moment we realize that we can actually take control and we can actually influence things and we have control.

05:45
That's what really helped you get healthy. Now you started working with people, you started coaching, but what got you excited about coaching? The I've always been my love language has always been helping other people.

06:00
And when I first started coaching, it was on a whim, my friends actually told me that you need to go do this. So I got certified. And my first group, their feedback of how great they felt, how much better they were sleeping, losing inches and just improvements in their overall lifestyle is what kept me going because I was like, Oh my gosh, sleep.

06:22
And it just it feels great. You know, as a as a coach, when someone texts you, just, oh, man, I feel awesome today. Like, thanks for that. You know, that reward and I loved getting those messages. And that's what keeps me going is just those kind of things.

06:38
When people keep transforming, and then you get to be a part of that transformation. It's like you just getting all day every day with these different people. I know. And I love hearing, you know, I get texts to on bad days, like, hey, I messed up, you know, and I love being able to coach them through that, where it's not, you know, an all or nothing lifestyle, I get to help them day to day with their struggles.

07:00
It's, it's a great place to be. Well, there's different struggles, right? Like, for example, some people might say they just need more motivation. But like, is that actually the issue? Why don't people really stuck struggle to be consistent?

07:14
So I think it's just not setting a good scheduling is key to me for consistency. So motivation is going to come and go. I can promise you every morning when I wake up at 5am, I am not jumping out of bed thrilled every day, some days are better than others.

07:32
So your motivation is always going to come and go, but your consistency is what needs to stay. And the way to get consistent is to start small habits start, you know, I don't like to tell people, okay, on Monday, you're going to start working at six days a week, start eating healthy, start doing all these things.

07:50
That's too much for people. Um, because then as soon as they miss one workout on Wednesday maybe, now in their head they failed and they get frustrated. So you've got to start with small habits. Maybe it's a 20 minute walk.

08:06
Maybe it's meal prepping or maybe it's a workout. Pick one or two things to start with and then build from there. And as you create those habits, this consistency is going to come. And some days you'll be more motivated than others.

08:20
But if you have that consistency and those habits, that's what keeps you going. Well, working with these moms and specifically about like their lifestyle, their timing and their schedule, when do most moms, what time of day would you guess most moms work out?

08:39
Oh, that varies. I promote morning. If someone asks me when I should work out, I tell them to create their morning routine and to do that in the morning, to give them that time by themselves. Because But there are moms, I have some clients that work out at 10 o'clock at night, because that's their free time.

08:58
And that works for them. I go to bed a lot earlier than that. But um, like 5am, 9am. Oh, I, I promote before the kids are up 530. Because that gives you and even if it's not working out, I've got some people, they're just reading at that time in the morning.

09:17
If you give yourself just some time to yourself in the morning, your day is set up a lot better. You're at least for moms, your anxiety, you're not waking up immediately taking care of other people. If you wake up to a kid tugging on your sheets, you're instant.

09:35
Okay, the day is now all about someone else. But if you give yourself just 30 minutes in the morning, it doesn't have to be two hours, just give yourself some time. You know, ideally, a workout is great.

09:48
But if you're not there yet, again, start small, set your alarm a little earlier, start small, try to create those habits. Start small, do it early. Yes. Pretty consistent with what I've experienced.

10:01
Yes. Um, what is the worst fitness or diet advice that people still believe? That you have to run for hours and eat nothing. I still the first comment I get from all my clients is, are you sure I'm supposed to eat all this food?

10:18
Because in their head, they're trying to lose weight. And I'm telling them to eat 1800 calories a day. You know, so calorie restriction and intense cardio is two very bad combinations. You're over training and you're under eating so that stress.

10:35
Yes, a lot of stress on the body. And you're setting yourself up for failure. No, not much sleep. Um, so you coach a lot of women, I coach a lot of men, what are the biggest differences in how men and women approach this health and fitness game?

10:53
Well, you go first. What about the men? In my experience, men are less social about it. They they're less inclined to like chat with each other and talk to each other and support each other. I like to compete a little bit more.

11:11
They still don't want to compete that much. So they rather compete with themselves. But it's, it's more of like a solace for guys to go and do their own thing where I think women might have more of a community feel to it.

11:21
What do you think? I agree with that. Um, but for women too, like we deal with a lot like so we've got our life balance a lot like the community. Um, you know, personally, for me, I do love the community feel, but I love kind of an online program like you've got going to because it reduces my stress to not be restricted to a time.

11:43
So if I oversleep by 20 minutes, I can still wake up and do my workout because it's, you know, it's in an app is there where there are a lot of my clients that still love the, you know, going to a place and having that community feel.

11:57
But I think also for women, what we deal with is it's a lot of like body image and like we have the hormonal fluctuations. We've got a lot of emotional side of our struggles. So it's not just for us of like, oh, we want to go build, you know, get awesome legs and let's go do leg day.

12:16
Like we're not going for the same approach that men are for. Like we're going for like an internal feeling of how do we feel from the inside out? You know, I don't think men have that. Like I know Michael's made fun of me before.

12:30
Like I'm like, oh my god, I'm so like inflamed. And he's like, what do you like guys? I don't feel like they feel inflammation, but women, we, we can feel just kind of like in our bodies of like, you know, what we've eaten and how it affects us if we did a workout and how it affects us.

12:47
So we have more of an emotional tie to all of that. How can men better understand women's emotional experience with exercise? I don't know if they ever will be able to. Can men understand women? I mean, obviously men can just be supportive, you know.

13:12
So if you're in a relationship with someone, what's, what's the best way you can support your partner's health without being pushy and annoying? Okay. Be supportive for like first in the kitchen. Okay.

13:28
I would say, you know, bodies, what do they say? Bodies start in the kitchen or whatever. The abs start in the kitchen, whatever. The abs are made in the kitchen. Abs are made. That's the phrase I'm trying to think of.

13:39
So start there. You know, if she comes home and says, I want to cook this. I want to try this healthy thing. Don't make something separate. Don't go and eat a brownie in front of her, you know, for a long time.

13:52
dessert like try to be supportive in the kitchen to start and then you know give her the time give her that alone time so if you have kids and there's sports or whatnot you know if it's let's say baseball practice suggest like hey why don't you go walk during baseball I'll handle getting dinner going or something like that you know or give them the opportunity to go out don't don't make them feel guilty because I promise you the women are already guilty in their head okay so be supportive there and then if you start to notice changes whether it's energy whether it's mood if it's physical definitely call that out because that's what keeps them going okay so definitely reinforce anything positive that we notice yes it goes for both sides I think we have to reinforce what we know is And I think there's something about like,

14:53
you know, one partner will be the one that says, hey, you want to get some ice cream. One partner will be the one that says, hey, you want to go work out. Let's get something healthy. So I think you have to reinforce the tone.

15:04
Don't be the weak link in the marriage that makes unhealthy. So communicate that and be like, you're not reinforcing the tone here, you know. Yeah, and set your, like, and express your goals to your partner.

15:17
Tell them, my goal is to do X, Y, and Z by the end of the year, whatever it might be. You know, and that way they know, and you're not just coming home randomly, you know, trying to make something different that's never been in the house before, you know, as far as dinner goes.

15:34
Yeah, and like communicate with your spouse about what time am I going to work out, what time of year? And like, keep reviewing that, going over that, updating that as much as you need to. Communicate, communicate, communicate.

15:47
Our last conversation of every night is, what are you doing tomorrow morning? Cause I want to know, are you sleeping in? So I need to set my alarm. You know, it's like, it's just, that's my first question.

15:59
That's my last question every day. So what are you doing in the morning? What is, excuse me, what's the most common excuse that we have from people? I don't have enough time, you said. Yeah. I don't have enough time.

16:12
I get, I don't have enough accountability. I don't know what to do. Sorry, go ahead. No, no, no. Time is my biggest, the biggest excuse I have that I hear. And again, with, you know, whatever time you work out, I don't care, you know, pick your day, pick your time, but be specific with your time.

16:36
Don't just say, I'm going to work out this afternoon because guess what, it's not going to happen, but say I'm going to work out at 3.30, then it's scheduled. It's on, you know, make it a meeting of your day to where everyone has to work around you working out at 3.30.

16:52
But I think if you specifically identify a time like statistically you're more likely to do it if you identify a more specific time Yeah, yeah, and if you're again back to motivation if you're not motivated that day Use the nine-minute rule.

17:07
I love the nine-minute rule. I do it for everything Do it for nine minutes go walk for nine minutes start your press play and start your workout and commit to nine minutes And if you're still Not happy, you know not feeling it after nine minutes then fine You've at least done something for nine minutes, but get pretty much.

17:25
You're probably keep going after nine minutes But I agree. Um, I always tell people that why nine minutes one at ten minutes. I listen to forget her name right now, but there's a book about the nine-minute rule and I listened to her a talk that she did and That was kind of the average like human commitment was like between seven and ten minutes So like she picked nine like that was just you know And I do it a lot around the house,

17:51
especially. I'm like, I don't feel like cleaning this. I don't feel like doing the laundry. I commit, just do it for nine minutes and, you know. Hi, can you tell me about these 30 minute workouts? What kind of stuff are you doing in 30 minutes?

18:03
What's the best way to use 30 minutes for fitness? So my stuff varies. I do two days of hit and then three days of strength. So I do five days a week, 30 minutes. And then I walk, you know, I try to get seven to 10,000 steps a day.

18:19
Which that takes 45 minutes if you do like, but as moms, we're getting those steps just by living mom life. So I do recommend at least a 15 minute walk a day just for sunshine and, you know, anxiety reduction.

18:36
But if you can't get outside, if you look at a tracker and you're a mom, you probably have that many steps. That's really close to the dosage we have the guys doing in the morning. They're doing five half hours a week.

18:49
They'll do half an hour of yoga. Oh, yeah, we, our rest days, we promote yoga and Pilates and stuff like that. But they can't workouts and do you have, well, your dad's, are they on a nutrition regimen too?

19:06
Yeah, it's pretty simple. It's like, let's eat clean food that's really high in protein. Yes, yes. So we do the same except we do carb cycling and that's where the hit is paired with a low carb day. So your body's looking for, it goes to your fat cells for energy.

19:25
Oh, really? So they do that, they go hit with a little carb day and that just depletes all the glycogen out of your body. It does, exactly. And then, so for a lot of women, we have, you know, kind of that midsection of fat from having babies or whatnot hormones.

19:41
And so it attacks the first place if my clients loses their waste. Carb cycling, tell me about like one week. carb cycle and what that looks like. So your protein is the same every day. That never changes.

19:56
But how many grams per pound is that? So it's about, I start people out about 0.75, maximum one gram per pound, but for someone who is coming from just a typical life, I mean, if you bump them to one gram per pound, that's an insane amount of protein for someone who's not used to eating a lot of protein.

20:18
So I kind of like to build them up to it. But so right now I do one gram per pound because now I have different goals. But anywho, so your low carb days for women is no more than 50 grams, and for men it's 100 grams of carbs.

20:37
And then your fat is about double of what it is a regular day. So we track macros, not calories, which is a scary thought, but it's. it's easy once you get into it and that's what that's what I coach them on is how to how to do all that um so yeah so we do two low carb days and then the rest of the week is a regular day and so you've you increase your carbs which terrifies every female in the United States because carbs are supposedly bad but they're actually wonderful things um but obviously it's it's not refined sugar carbs it's you know from the ground so your rice and your potatoes and things like that all right well so you said two low carb days are these back to back days are these no back to back okay so so you're really it's a two hit workouts in a row yep so you're really depleting your glycogen to burn that fat all right so it's kind of like wow and then you're kind of getting into autophagy more really that's when you're like eating up like cancerous cells and like all this all this stuff you're just processing all that in two days and you're kind of breaking things down but then you're immediately building them right back up with the cycle and then we do the strength training on the carb days so you have carbs to feel strong yep that's an interesting pairing i could see how that makes sense and you really get to like take things to the edge and then restore and like exactly and it's i've never once and it's fun i love i love low carb days i mean that's my eggs and bacon and avocado days so i love a monday now it's it's you know people would argue like it's not consistent and it's not moderating but like life is it and we all like to go intense and we and we like to go eat and we like to cycle like that naturally anyway that's an interesting a lot of people naturally carb cycling without even realizing that that's what they're doing um but they're not doing it in the appropriate way obviously how much alcohol is allowed on this diet it's not a diet it's a lifestyle so i'm glad you saw it said that.

22:51
I mean, to be honest, I never stopped drinking when I first started. Now I, I don't drink during the week. Like I used to, I think when you first started training me, it was COVID time. So I was probably living a different life back then.

23:04
But I don't drink during the week. And so I limit, you know, one or two nights during the weekend. And but it's, I teach my clients, it's an 8020 rule, you know, like, you can't live in a restricted style your entire life.

23:22
So find the balance. And even if that's on a Wednesday, you want to have a brownie for your kid's birthday, have the brownie. But if you're tracking macros, log it and see where it falls, you know, either a few things happen when people do that when they log something, a treat, they either realize it's not that bad.

23:42
So the guilt goes away. Or they realize like, Holy crap, like, that was really bad. So maybe next time I'll pick something a little different, you know, instead of getting the Starbucks drink in the morning and eating a brownie, I'll just have, you know, like you, you kind of start to see the true colors of processed foods and you don't really want them anymore.

24:05
Oh, and I think that's, that can be a game changer is tracking, uh, bad behavior, I guess we can call it. I, I love it. I challenge my people like, especially on a holiday. I'm like, I want you to log every single thing you put in your mouth today.

24:19
Like just for fun. Like, because a lot of challenging, there's a big hurdle there, but when you do it, you know, you get to see what the reality of the numbers really are. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's eye-opening.

24:35
All right. Let me, let me see if I can pull something out of you here. What is, what is one thing you've seen in clients who completely transformed the health that other people just don't realize? Um, wait, what's one thing that you're seeing?

24:51
So some people that completely transformed their, their health, these people that like other people just don't see or don't get, or don't understand. Oh, okay. Um, I think they just realized like, it's not a quick fix that it's a, it's, there's a light, this is something that we're going to do for the rest of our lives, um, not this, you know, maybe not this program specifically, but we're going to live intentionally and,

25:17
and pay attention to our healthy habits and do this for the rest of our life. So, you know, when they realize, and they shift that mindset from quick fix to sustainable lifestyle, they become a happier person because it's kind of like, did you ever read the book, the gap and the gain?

25:37
Yes, I did. Okay. So that, that's a huge mind shift if you can get out of that. So, you know, a lot of people when, especially when they're first starting a health journey, they're in. And they're in the gap.

25:49
So they're like, I need to lose 30 pounds. I need to lose 30 pounds. And they're not happy until the scale says they're down 30 pounds. But if you realize along the way, you're gained, so maybe your skin's clearer, maybe you're lifting heavier, maybe your jeans are fitting looser, things like that.

26:08
So when my clients start to realize the scale might not have moved, but I've lost five inches in my waist, like that's huge because you're losing fat by gaining muscle. So when you get into that gain mentality and start noticing your small wins, that's when you've made that shift of, you know, yeah, I'll always notice that when, because I work with these high performers and they're always feeling like I'm not good enough or like we're not there yet.

26:37
Or like, it's like, I'm like, all right, well, let's say with them, it's like this with money. Yeah. They never make enough money. No matter how much money they made last year, it wasn't enough. So it's like, you have to define like, what is success?

26:51
Like, if you made $500,000 last year, but it's not 600, like, can you be happy with $500,000 that you made? Absolutely. If you got everywhere. Yeah. I got in five workouts, and you lost a pound last week, like, so the whole idea is when you find yourself in that space is to go back and say, Okay, where was I when I started?

27:12
Now and focus on these gains that are behind you that you've achieved in the confidence you can build, instead of focusing on what you haven't gotten yet, and what you haven't done yet, you want to stay positive, you want to stay happy inside yourself.

27:25
Absolutely. Look, find the joy in this moment today, not, you know, at the finish line, because, like you said, even with money, okay, you make 600,000 this year, are you really going to be happy? Or are you going to want more next year?

27:38
Yeah. So find the joy today, not in your future. Yeah. All right. If I said you've got to do one workout for the rest of your life every day, which workout would you pick? full body strength? I love I love a full body day.

27:55
I love leg day. But I think the shift I used to hate working out my arms because I just never saw a change. But now that I've, I've seen that change in that shift. I love a full body strength. Nice. What if you had to pick one exercise to do for the rest of your life?

28:12
What one exercise would that be? Can I pick like an upper and a lower? Um, I'm glad I'm glutton for punishment. Like I love okay. Um, it's like the what is it called like an angled squat like we're like 45 degree angle and squat.

28:36
No, just regular but just it's um, why am I blanking on the name of it anyway, kind of like a Bulgarian split squat but without the bench. So Like a reverse lunge but a 45 degree angle reverse lunge is basically what it is so it's it's painful and it's hard but I love it.

29:02
What is your go to healthy meal when you're short on time? I okay so I love a bowl like give me rice like my quick go to meal is shrimp or chicken with Trader Joe's chili lime seasoning black beans and rice in a bowl and the reason I love bowls is because I'm always in the car.

29:28
And so it's something I can eat on the go without, you know, like with carpools and stuff, I always find myself eating dinner in the car. So that's my, my go to. Is there a favorite hype song. So when you're working out favorite number songs.

29:47
And you're gonna you're gonna hate this. I don't listen to music. Yes, it's early in the morning. And my gym is right next to my kid's bedroom. So I try to be as quiet as possible. I'm a freak of nature.

30:07
Oh, you also get to enjoy some peace and quiet for one. Some people don't don't don't get much of that in their life. I do. Oh, are you using AI across your life across your health across your fitness in any way?

30:20
That's interesting right now. Just in general, what's exciting about AI in your world right now? So I okay, so I track my macros. And, you know, I have recipes that are built into the app that are easy one click ads.

30:33
My favorite part about AI though, is if you find a recipe online, you can copy the ingredients and put into chat GPT, give me the protein, fiber, fat and carb content of these ingredients. And then it spits out the macros for you.

30:50
So that's my favorite thing. I've taught all my clients how to do it. Because, you know, sometimes the recipes will have all that broken out for you. But sometimes it doesn't. So, or if you're removing an ingredient, that's, you know, that's kind of where it gets tricky, because we, I try to stay gluten free, dairy free.

31:10
And so, you know, for recipe calls for cheese, or something like that, and you got to pull it out, you can easily pull the rest of the ingredients and grab your macros from it. Yeah, I'll do like weird stuff, like I'll put in these weird restrictions, like I need a ketogenic diet, and it's got to be all plants.

31:25
And like, you know, they get like really challenging, you know, and like walk this thin wire or give me a really high protein vegan diet. This many grams of protein, it's like, I'll give them the macros and make it really hard.

31:38
And it's amazing what it can do. You know, and what you can say, I hate these foods, I like these foods, I need a week long diet with two days, I want a carb cycle. So you can just punch all this stuff in and get all the info.

31:51
Absolutely. Yeah, you can put I mean, I've created weekly meal plans for, you know, clients that just struggle with their kids as like kid friendly, you know, macro, and I give them the macros for the parents, but make it kid friendly.

32:04
So you can do a lot of stuff. I'm wondering what's gonna happen in my job and AI starts to get good at accountability and like seeing the big picture. Ah, I feel like, you know, you can go the way I feel about it, because I've thought about that to my people like, oh, I can just go and chat GPT and make me a weekly meal plan.

32:23
But, you know, you can go on Pinterest everywhere and download recipes all day long. But are you really gonna follow it, you know, having that human connection and that person that they, you know, I know your clients can text you and reach out if they're having an issue.

32:39
Like, I think people are still gonna like that human interaction. Yeah, it's it's one of the few places I like we actually can like hire somebody and like get good quality feedback and change. I mean, I still hire a coach.

32:54
I still have a trainer. I still have physical therapists. Yeah, I mean, my coach is still still coaches me. Yeah. So just because you're a coach doesn't mean you don't have coaches. Alright, how about your top 1234 supplements that you like?

33:13
So creatine, BCAAs, I don't use collagen too much. I'm taking a mushroom powder right now for like immune support. But my go to is like, oh, and my electrolytes. So those are my BCAAs creatine and electrolytes are my non negotiable for the each day.

33:40
Wow, so those are really healthy muscles. I mean, you tried on those hydration packets, they like, they're insanely good. And they just, they give me energy. So I'm addicted to them. Yeah, you're gonna have great workouts.

33:55
You take those three supplements every day. I feel good. So it's a good plan. Alright, how about health books or fitness books or inspired you or really got you or really gripped you've made you excited.

34:13
Um, okay, so funny you bring that up. I just started reading January 1 this year. I mean, obviously, I've read in my life before, but consistently every day, at minimum 10 pages a day in the mornings after my workout.

34:28
So my most inspirational books that I've read this year are The Gap and the Gain, which we talked about and then the slight edge. The slight edge. Yes. That is just about, you know, finding your your path and just it's very similar to the gap in the game of just recognizing you know that doing small habits build on themselves and recognizing when you're winning at those habits.

35:00
So the slight edge is just saying you know if start small again it's all about starting small and building on habits. So start with 10 minutes start you know then add five minutes the next day and if you do these things consistently in a year from now you're not gonna recognize yourself.

35:19
And how do people stay excited? How do they stay pumped up? How do they stay focused on their big outcomes? Check in with yourself. The worst thing you can do is okay first off you have to throw away the scale as far as checking you know getting excited about your health I would get rid of scales but You know, take pictures, take measurements, check in.

35:44
If you're not checking in with yourself, then you have no data of what you've done and where you're going, so you can't get excited. Um, you know, if, if my clothes still fit the same, cause I just don't realize that, you know, maybe they were slightly whatever, like you just, you're not going to get excited if you don't see some sort of results and if you're depending solely on the scale, especially in this program where you're losing fat and gaining muscle,

36:11
you're going to get frustrated and you're going to give up. So I tell everyone, take measurements and take pictures, because you will see the difference in those, and not be excited. Do you recommend anything for like sleep or recovery?

36:24
What do you like? No, um, just, just to do sleep and recovery. Um, the biggest thing is put your phone away at night. That's my biggest thing for sleep is don't scroll, falling asleep. Cause that's just all that does is disrupt your sleep.

36:44
And personally for me, I don't look at my phone for the first hour that I'm awake because I don't want that anxiety rush of text messages and group meetings and emails. So my first hour of my day is for me.

37:00
And that's, um, so between nighttime routine and that it keeps me pretty, pretty level. Um, well, there's, there's some busy dads out there and, um, maybe them or their, their wives are struggling with their health.

37:16
Where can they start? How can people work with you? Where can they find you? So like, find me on Instagram, um, faster way, NOLA way, like New Orleans and NOLA, um, and I mean, or email me at faster way, NOLA way at Gmail.

37:33
But, and you can share that in the notes if you want. Um, but you know, I coach women mainly. and Matt, you coach men, but I can, you know, I don't mind doing working with couples if they need it. But obviously, you got the dad bot thing going.

37:51
Yeah, well, we're gonna share this probably with both of our groups. But I do deal with the guys in the morning. And there's a whole system built around that. And we have recordings that these guys can can can do as well.

38:02
So if any of these women have husbands that are trying to lose the dad bot and need a system that they can trust. And yeah, in my program, it's all virtual, you know, so it is adaptable to your lifestyle and your time.

38:16
But I do a lot of one on one coaching with them throughout the program to keep them accountable. Awesome. All right. But to wrap it up. Any final words? No, I think I think this is fun. Thanks for having me.

38:32
And we might do it again. Thanks for coming on. We'll see All right. Talk to you later.