773: Mastery Your Weight, Fitness, and Health in 12 Weeks with Health and Wellness Expert Richard Fast

announcer 0:00 Marketer of the day. Episode, 773 master your weight, fitness and health in 12 weeks with health and wellness expert Richard fast. Hey

Robert Plank 0:14 everyone, and welcome back to the marketer of the day podcast. We are here with Richard fast, a student of human behavior for over 35 years. We are going to talk today about how to design and master your ideal lifestyle, how to not just lose the weight, but keep it off, how to maximize your health and how to win that, that never ending war with your own mind. Richard, glad to be talking to you.

Speaker 1 0:37 Robert, thank you for having me, man. So

Robert Plank 0:41 I mean, what's up? What is your passion these days? What has you excited these last six to 12 months?

Richard Fast 0:47 Well, I would have to say that it's, you know, even more than that, if I've been a student of trying to unravel the riddle of human behavior for 35 years, and that, to me, is, is just an endlessly fascinating topic. And I find, of course, you can apply to anything, and I've written a variety of books on different things, but my latest passion, Robert, is really focusing on on our health. Now that you know I'm, you know, getting into my 60s, it becomes high priority. So that's really my focus right now. How do we maximize our health? Because, you know, it just seems like when we enter the world of fitness and health, it's just this bizarre world of contradictions and mass confusion. And you know, Robert, I spend hours reading research papers and things like that. I can sort through it, but I wonder, like I empathize with the average person, how do you how do you untangle all this stuff one day, this is the thing to do. The next day, that's the thing to do. And everybody's contradicting. And these are science people. So how in the hell do you make sense of it all? So that's, that's kind of what I'm thinking. Okay, you know what we somebody needs to unravel this and really help somebody. You know how to navigate this? Because what is the most important thing that we have? It's our health. Yeah,

Robert Plank 2:17 without it, you're dead. And and I can relate to, I can relate to so much of that, because it seems like there's maybe, like, there's like, four or five buckets, right? There's like the common sense bucket that says things like, well, drink water instead of soda, don't eat fast food, take a walk every day, do all the simple things, which that alone is hard to do. And then there, but there's also, like, you see people that, like you said, the science always changes, like, eggs are good for you and then eggs are bad for you and they're good for you again. And then you see people doing, like, the the keto diet and the intermittent fasting, and they'll lose, like, 100 pounds, and they'll say, all I did was I just shaped, I began eating just in this window. And it's like, like you said, like it's a fire hose of information, and it seems like it seems like we're always falling behind. It's just a mess of a confusion of where to even begin. So where do we begin with all all this new information every single day? Where do we begin to to fix our health and make it the best it can be?

Speaker 1 3:20 Yeah, there is a wonderful question. Um, okay, so what I, what I really, what I really focus on is, if we look at that, if we look at that weight and health industry, okay, everyone's selling a diet, everybody's, you know, pushing latest exercise contraption and stuff like that. But those, to me, are effects, the real cause of overweight, the real cause of poor health, or maybe we can't get ourselves to exercise. It really goes it's actually quite simple, but it's much deeper than what what all the fluff is. For example, let me begin by saying this exercise is completely unnatural. It is. It goes against the very grains, the very programming of survival. For example, could you imagine a line or a zebra or kangaroo, or anybody just saying, Well, I think I'm going to go for a run today. Well, that would be ludicrous. It would be equivalent to US taking our savings and just burning it for the hell of it. So we have to understand that there's a difference between physical activity and exercise. Exercise is deliberate physical activity. It happens because of survival. So here we find ourselves in this paradoxical world where we don't have to do shit, and we can have all the nutrients we want, and therein lies a real problem. So people say, Why am I lazy? Am i What's wrong with. Me, why can't I get off the coach? Hey, listen, you're programmed. You are programmed not to get off the coach. So in other words, in order to actually begin to exercise, you have to, you have to understand what's going on there and what you need to do in order to get yourself to exercise. And I want to say that if exercise is something you hate to do, it's not going to be a benefit. It's going to be worse, because now you're stressed out about it. But what I do is I take people through a process whereby you can learn to actually enjoy it. In fact, you must enjoy it. And I can say that, and I'm sure Robert, you can relate to this, that when I first started exercising years ago, I hated it, but eventually I learned to completely, in fact, it's my favorite time of the day, and I'm not unique. Millions of people do exercise, and those people have have bridged that gap, so they've gotten over their their natural instincts not to exercise. And of course, we can go the same route with weight. When people say, you know, I mean, I maybe I can take a pill to help me, you know, to overcome my my hunger cravings, and say, well, listen, that is a perfectly natural, healthy body. Your body is supposed to hoard. We've been programmed to hoard calories, to conserve it, because we don't know when our next meal is coming from. Once again, we find ourselves in this paradoxical world. So I so what I really focus on is helping people to to understand what is really going on. Because, you know, when people think, gee, I can't I can't seem to control myself. Well, that's because 95% of what drives us happens below our conscious awareness. So if we don't understand these drivers, and we horse around with one nonsensical diet after another, they all work. But the thing is, that's just the that's fluff. Whether the diet you follow doesn't it is irrelevant. You've got to get your head straight. You've got to understand what's really going on. And when you do, you have, you have what I call mastery.

Robert Plank 7:03 And it seems like a lot of what you're explaining here is that whole concept of our brains are running outdated software, right? It's like, you have a modern day computer, but it's still running Windows 95 we're still like, we're like, there are things that that are working for us, and they're kind of unnatural at first, but they become enjoyable, like you said, the the regular exercise, but you also make me think of like the things we do even throughout the day, right? Like I sit at a at a chair and a desk at a computer, and I do programming, and I think about abstract concepts, and none of that was part of the game in caveman times, just like we weren't supposed to be running from the zebra from 5am to 6am every morning. And so the way that you described this, it seems like you said that there's like the initial state is to hate it, to resist it, for it to be unnatural. And you said that you kind of cracked the code, and you found a way for you to enjoy it, and you found the way for others to enjoy it by kind of dealing with all the all that kind of subconscious patterns, habits, sabotage. So I How do you do it? Like when you help people go from hating exercise to loving it, or, you know, loving whatever the beneficial activity is for them. How what's even the process? Where do you even begin?

Speaker 1 8:22 Yeah, okay, good. Well, okay, first of all, we have to understand that exercise, physical activity, if you will, is critical to our health. So let's take that as as Okay, that's a given. So how do we get ourselves to do it? And again, I said, you have to enjoy it. Well, you're going to need a modicum of willpower to begin but it doesn't take long before that willpower, our goal is to slide from willpower into forming a habit. And how do we do that? Well, a lot of times what happens is that in order to get into a habit, we have to go through a little period of, perhaps discomfort. There's million things we'd rather do with our time. So in order to establish habit, as I said, we need that. We need a modicum willpower to get going. But if you notice, what happens when we we've all heard of runners high. We've all heard of, you know, like people that exercise, if you all of a sudden take them out of exercise, if they get injured or something for a few days, well, they're walking around like a caged animal that they can't wait to get back. But even exercisers, on many given days will wake up and go, Oh, I don't feel like doing it, but they do it anyway. Why? Because they've established a habit. But more than that, they are addicted. I can tell you, 100% I am totally addicted to exercise. And what does that mean? Well, see, our bodies have set us up where we receive shots of dopamine, serotonin, various endorphins. But the problem is that doesn't happen. Until you get exercising into a regular part of your life. It takes a few weeks and maybe even a month or two before you get that that high. So if you're right now not exercising, you're out of shape, you won't, all of a sudden, start and get that runner's high. But the fact is, that's the carrot that when you get there, you'll have it for life. You will be completely addicted to exercise for life. So I, I, that's what my programs do, is I help people. I take them kind of by the hand, and I walk them through those first few critical weeks where you can ease into, become, into becoming a habit, and then ultimately, once it becomes an addiction, you're off and running, but, but that's the most healthy addiction you can get. And believe me, it is very real

Robert Plank 10:46 better than eating junk food or smoking cigarettes and and so, yeah, I can, I can relate to that. And like that lesson there. That's something that I think I forgot about it for a number of years, and maybe just remembered maybe three or four years ago, just in general, that idea of it will be awkward at first for a few weeks, and there will be some days, even within those few weeks, where you just don't feel like doing it. And I mean, again, it applies to so many things, right? It applies to through writing that email. It applies to making that web page. It doesn't necessarily have to be the running but like just that's it's such a simple lesson, but it's easy to forget that we don't have to wait for the motivation or the inspiration to to show up, and then we take action, like you said, it sometimes take up, takes a modicum of willpower, just a little bit of a push. And then even on those down days, even on those bad days, you can still make it happen. And so when you help out these people, is it, is it always running? Or do they want to do swimming or walking, or like, what's the what's kind of the ballpark here,

Speaker 1 11:55 whatever brings you joy that that is the key. So it doesn't matter what you do, but what I do in my programs, the thing is, it's all science based, first of all, and it's about really getting people understand, okay, this is something that you have to do. You can't just choose to do it. If you want help, you have to do it. But, but the point is, it's, it doesn't matter what you do, you just have to get your heart rate up and get going, because it's whatever moves you. And of course, I say that with, you know, in parenthesis, but it is whatever moves you. Everything works, you know, like they've done. I think the most valuable thing we can do is look at the studies of modern day hunters and gatherers. And again, I put that in parenthesis, but, but if you look at modern day hunters and gatherers, I'm going to use the pods people. And even there, we're losing that now, but, but we're going to go back to say some studies that they did even 1020, years ago. What they found was that hunters and gatherers, they sit for 910, hours a day. So they're not they're not unlike us, we sit 910, 10 hours a day at our computers, but the difference between them and us is that they move for maybe two to three hours a day, hunting and gathering, and that's all you need. And those people are massively healthy, but the point is they aren't exercising. They're just they move because they have to do to survive, and that's what we so we have to understand that's our that's our inherent programming. So it's natural for us to sit all day. That's cool, but you can't not get up and do something, and so we have to, we have to to really cognitively understand that that's the hurdle that we have to get over. But of course, when you get that addiction, oh man, it is. You'll never give it up. So that's what I really try to that's where I really try to walk people through that big chasm from, you know, not getting off the coach, because that's what our programming tells us to saying, you know, what? If I can exercise, I don't mind missing it for a day or two, but, oh shit, I can't live my life without getting up. And you can do that till the day you die, well into your 90s.

Robert Plank 14:11 And I've been hearing from, maybe from more and more people who are more advanced in the years that once you get into your 70s and 80s, like you kind of have to exercise like, if you're in, you know, 20s, 30s, 40s, maybe you can go without it. But once you get to a certain age, like, in order to just stay alive, nor, like you said in your bio, something about what's the point of being the richest person in the nursing home, right? So you need to, once you get to a certain age, you kind of have to do this. And there are, and I don't run every day. But on the days when I do start the day running, man, that that's almost guaranteed to be a good day, it feels my brain is like a super bright light bulb. But then even on those days I don't run, like, I make sure to, like, get lots of little walks in throughout the day, to, like, stop and think and unplug and, you know, kind of just slow down and change this. And all that good stuff and so, so I'm right there with you as far as just all the all these benefits, both physical and mental, of getting out and doing this. But I imagine that your students maybe stumble a little bit right. Like, it's easy to have, like, the initial excitement of something new and like, get the get the habit in there, turn it into addiction. But I imagine that maybe after a few weeks or a few months, there might be some maybe difficulties, or maybe a little bit of resistance. Am I Am I right there? Am I wrong? There? Are there? Is there trouble down the road, or is it all just easy?

Speaker 1 15:32 Well, Robert, life gets in the way. There's no doubt. I mean, hey, what happens when you get injured? What happens like you, you have a new child, I guess. And and so there you're, you know, you're going along, you got your schedule and and then something like that happens. One of the things that I really do in my programs, and it's not something that I set up, but I set the table for for people, and whether it's me or anybody else, but I think it's so important. A lot of times you read a book by an author that says, you know, you should do this. You should do that. Well, who the hell are they talking to? You know, a 25 year old bachelor has a massively different life than a 35 year old mother of a three versus, you know, somebody who's six years old and maybe looking at retirement. So there's no one thing fits all, but there are some basic fundamentals that you can't escape it, ie, you, you know, what are the rules to good health? Well, you got to get proper sleep, you got to get some physical activity, you got to eat a good diet. I mean, that's pretty much basic stuff. But, you know, I guess the devil's in the details. How do we get ourselves to apply that so, so that's, that's really to me, I always believe that if we really want to make behavioral change, it starts between our own ears, all the other stuff, all the fluff that we see. Well, that's just secondary stuff, but we got to get it in our heads first, and that's the key to long term success.

Robert Plank 17:02 I agree with you that. I mean, you can have all the information, you can have all the tools, but if your your brain is not focused right and doing the right things, and what's the point? I mean, I think we all have that at least a friend or two with a book shelf full of all the different diet books, right? All the ones that come out every month, and the ones that say, well, bread is good for you, but then this other one says that meat is good for you. And it's like, well, you keep on buying the books and starting the new diets, but not finishing. You already have your addiction. Why not replace it with something else? And as we're starting to wind down, starting to get near the end here, I'm really curious about like you personally, because I wonder if, if you personally have come across some of these struggles with yourself, like with your own health and staying motivated, even if it was like so many years ago and you've come such a long way since then, is there anything like that that comes to mind, any of your own personal like struggles that you've had to Maybe use these tools to overcome Oh,

Speaker 1 18:02 hell yeah. You know, I saw a picture of myself. We have this gorgeous pool, and we were holding, we hold a lot of pool parties. And I was looking at some pictures. I was 55 years old, and I looked at this picture. Who the hell is that? So I kind of zoomed in because I noticed this fat, chubby guy wearing my bathing suit. Who is that? I wouldn't land out my bathing suit, and it's like, holy crap. That's me. So I was at 55 years old. I was 205 pounds, and it just happened. And I was still exercising regularly, but it just happened and I thought, holy shit, this is nuts. So i i I said, That's it. I'm going to start losing weight. Well, four months later, I was still 205 pounds, and all of a sudden I realized, okay, maybe this isn't quite so straightforward as I thought. So that's when I started trying to unravel this mystery, which I did, and I really, like we touched on a little bit earlier, but, but really, Age has nothing to do with fitness. And I can attest this that, you know, at 60 I could do things that I could not do at 25 by a long shot, and at 62 I can do stuff that I could not do it at 60. So, you know, the beauty is, we can really transform our health at any age. But I stress this. I stress mastery, mastery of weight, mastery of health, mastery of fitness. And what is mastery? Well, if we look at any master, whether it's a brew masters, a woodworking master, anybody they know. They're not looking for shortcuts. They're not looking for quick fixes. They know a process takes time. If you're going to brew a great beer, it takes x amount of time. You can't rush it. Well, the same thing happens when it comes to our health. It's not where we are two weeks from now, it's not where we are two months from now, but where are we? Where will we be a year from now? And you know, it's amazing what you. Do in one year. I know I've lived through this. It's amazing, but you have to look at it in a greater in a greater time perspective. And if you do, you'll look back a year from now and go, Holy shit, I cannot believe the difference. And that's but that all begins between your ears. It's, it's not, it's, it's nothing quick, but when you look back and it all happens pretty quickly,

Robert Plank 20:22 I love it the big picture and that these small, consistent habits adding up to a lot, and and, yeah, so this has been a lot of interesting things to think about, because we will all get old. We will if we let things fall by the wayside, we will all let our health fall into decline unless we kind of be more aware of things and and make sure to improve ourselves. So where do you come in with this? If people are are listening or watching this podcast, and they say, you know, I'm a I'm a busy business owner, I'm sitting at home, or I know I need to make my health a priority, and I know, and a lot of the things that Richard said made sense. What's the next step is the next step? Like a website, a book, personal coaching discovery call what can and what should people do, and what should they go and rush to do after listening to our conversation today? Okay,

Speaker 1 21:15 well, thanks, Robert, what I would recommend is I write a lot on health and fitness. I do you know videos. I'm starting to very regular videos on LinkedIn. So check me out on LinkedIn, read some of my articles, watch some of my videos, see if they're catching something of interest. You're going to learn a lot right then. And there, I offer programs which I will, which are detailed there, but, but that's what I would recommend. I mean, I'm not about I'm really about trying to help people do what I believe is the most important thing is that is Get, get the right headspace. And when you get that, it's, you know, I'm not going to get into that right now, but, but when you get that, you're off and running.

Robert Plank 22:05 Okay, well, fantastic. Well, Richard fast on LinkedIn. And is there a URL, a website, or just go on LinkedIn, find Richard fast, watch those videos. No, I'm

Speaker 1 22:13 going to leave you there for now, because there's lots there. Okay, that's a good place to start. LinkedIn, you'll find, you'll let you'll get some answers to some questions that, how do I get myself over that, that crazy gap, the information, you'll find it there. And then, of course, I have the ability to take your hand if you want that. We can do that together, because that's what we do. We focus on creating a lifestyle, not short term, but a long term lifestyle that you will just fall into nice

Robert Plank 22:44 and that is exactly on brand with you, right? The whole idea of develop mastery, which, to me, mastery doesn't mean just studying or doesn't also doesn't mean like learning the whole entire thing before you take action. It's like getting very deep in the knowledge, but also from, like, a practical sense, like you mentioned about, if you're a master brewer, well, you've, you've experimented, you've you've, like, played around with the process tons of times from start to finish. And so that's why I love, I love that term you threw out their mastery, because to me, it means that you've actually done some practical things, and you've actually taken some action. You're not just studying and so yeah, Link Richard fast on LinkedIn, and don't just think about it. Go there right now. Log on, even if it's been a while since you've been on LinkedIn, go and search Richard fast and watch some of his videos, and don't just watch a couple of videos. If something that Richard said really made a lot of sense to you, even if it was so simple that you hadn't thought of it before yourself. And click like on some of those videos, leave a comment and even go and add Richard as a connection and send them a message and tell them how much you enjoyed his videos, and if there's one in particular that helped you, I mean, so few people take the time to tell somebody that a video helped them. So go and find Richard fast on LinkedIn. And is there anything that comes to mind as we close the book on our conversation here, Richard, any lasting final words of advice for people out there?

Speaker 1 24:14 Um, you know what? Remember this the you touched on it earlier. I said a lot of times we don't do what we do because we're so busy, we're making a living and things like that. And obviously those things are really super important. But I think I really want to stress that the most valuable thing we own, whether it's physical, mental or whatever, is our health you're no good to anybody else, and you're certainly no good to yourself without that. So let's make that a priority, and it doesn't mean that anything else takes a back seat. But let's never take our health for granted, because the day will come when we're going to be very, very sorry about doing that. And the point is exercise and fitness. In health is not for some far off way. When we're 7080, 90, you enjoy. It's the one thing that you can cash in, and it pays interest, starting immediately, just that daily health and vitality that you will get. It's the most amazing investment you can make. So that's what I want to say, invest in your health. It's the best you can do.

Robert Plank 25:26 Thank you for listening to marketer of the day. Subscribe and listen to other shows at marketer of the day.com/episodes, you.