#75 How to Get Into The BEST Health of Your Life And Stay There

Rachel Denning (00:00.814)
Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the extraordinary family life podcast. Man, I'm fired up today. I've been thinking about this for a while. Actually, that's a gigantic understatement. I've been deeply passionate about this subject since I was 16 years old and man, I'm excited. And it's just been fun. It's been, I love how.

You're going through life, right? And you're thinking about something and you just have all these experiences. You hear things, you see things, you read things and people say stuff, do stuff and it just, it all fits together and you're like, okay, boom, it's time. It's time for this message to be shared. And so the timing of this message is here, my friends, and it is exciting. And we're, you know, we're coming to the end of a year and the end of a decade, which is pretty awesome. It's pretty awesome.

And think about the big transitions that happen in a decade that children become adolescents and adolescents become adults and start their own families in a decade's time. And you know, you move wherever wherever you are in life, you know, you move to having to getting married or to having toddlers to then having teens and just in a decade. And what's going to happen in the next decade and what happened in the last decade? But going into this next year, I want to encourage, challenge, inspire, motivate.

Train you to get in the absolute best health of your life Yes of your life. You heard me. Yes, even after having children moms right get in the best shape of your life and stay there so I I got into health and fitness when I was out on my own and if you listen to the whole the whole podcast you heard some of the story I was out on my own and Man, I just

I steered clear of all the junk and the trouble and drugs and alcohol and garbage all that stuff. I steered clear of all that and so I spent my time exercising. That was my outlet. I just loved lifting weights. I loved working out and I was in the gym, right? And so of course wherever you are, you want to be there and you want to be better at it. And so I was in the gym every day working out and I wanted to be better. I wanted to be bigger and stronger and faster and I wanted to get...

Rachel Denning (02:18.413)
make progress. I wanted to get results. And so I started to study it and just went voraciously into the study and research about the body and how it works and the whole miracle of all the organs and muscle cells and how everything works and how we feed and fuel our bodies. And it was just fun. It just became this passionate, fun thing that I loved and then really got into it, you know, into later teens and twenties all through college. I just got really passionate about fitness and

You know, maximizing, optimizing the body, weaponizing the body, right? Just, it's such a miracle. You guys, you realize that? Do you ever stop and just offer gratitude for your body? Even whatever condition it's in right now, and just stop and like, what a miracle, what a blessing. What a blessing to have a body. And sometimes, I know I used to do this, you kind of, we'd complain about our body when it like, you know.

I got big feet and big toes and hairy hands. I don't like my hair color and I got freckles and I'm kind of flabby over here and round over there. I'm too short, too tall, too skinny. We can get all upset. But what a miracle, what a blessing to have a body. Just the fact that you're alive and listening to this, what a wonderful thing. So I became passionate about it as a hobby, as just fun.

But you guys, I really, I really got going. And now even more so, I want to be healthy because I have learned, and not just healthy, like I want to be the best health possible because here's what I've learned over years of my own experience and working with people all over the earth from people who had, have had diseases, chronic illnesses, even people who had leprosy over in India too.

to people with malnutrition in Guatemala where we worked and set up our nonprofit, like all around the world, I have learned that the condition of your body directly affects the quality of your life. Let that sink in. The condition of your body directly affects the quality of your life. Now some of you might be resisting that idea right now. So just hold on, just let us sit for a minute.

Rachel Denning (04:39.629)
even to the fact of like, when we started studying nutrition, when we were founding Cultiva International in Guatemala, we realized that just a deficiency, obviously a deficiency in food affects the body, but it affects the brain and brain development. And like it literally limits and stunts growth and mental development. Like you can't, your mental capacity is, is affected by your amount of food, but here's what was fascinating. A lot of people are nourished not because they lack food, but because they lack nutritious food.

Let that sink in. When we were living in India, I was with a doctor. He talked about how rice has become the cheapest, most common commodity around the world, and it has almost no nutritional value. And so diabetes is going off the charts and bodies and brains are being affected. And as I've researched and learned all this, you guys, I hope I'm not losing you here by geeking out on a little bit of science, but I realized, you know, the, and I've shared this before, the, the brain is only 3 % of the body's mass, but it,

It consumes over 20 % of what we take in. But what if we take in, what if what we take in has no nutritional value? What's our brain feeding on? What's our body operating on? And so in a very scientific, very mathematical way, the condition of our body is directly affecting the quality of our lives. But we're totally unaware of that. We don't know what we don't know.

And, and so we might be struggling with something or maybe we're not even struggling. You know, that's part of the not knowing. You're like, you don't know you're struggling. You're just like, I'm rolling along, whatever. We're actually living far below our capacities, but we don't know that. We don't realize that our brains could be sharper, better, brighter, faster. If we were eating differently and exercising. And we're going to get into that in a minute. We don't realize that we don't realize that.

the things that are kind of a struggle for us. Maybe we don't sleep well or getting up and getting our work done or, you know, energy levels. We're just going through the day just exhausted and we don't know what we don't know. And so we're like, every day is just exhausting. I guess this is what parenthood is like. When in reality, we're actually doing things, we're neglecting things. We could have way more energy.

Rachel Denning (07:07.053)
It's our own fault, but we don't know that we don't know it, right? And so this is why I want to share this message. Like, and hear me out here, roll with me on this. Even if you're skeptical, just roll with me on this. Think about it, try it, put it to the test here and roll with me on, on how it's affecting our lives and our bodies. And let's, let's, let's go after it. Okay. And I am not like, let me just say blatantly upfront here. I am not, that sounds like mean, huh? I am not talking about having a.

Certain body image like you got to look like her you got to look like him. I'm not talking about that I'm talking about your best health. That's what I'm talking about All right. Let me make this real the Let's see two days two or three days after I met my sweetheart Rachel

like we went on our first date like two or three days later her dad got super crazy sick and they took him to the hospital and he had diverticulitis all these problems in his intestines. It was immediately I met the guy two or three days later he's in the hospital they're like man we got to operate it's really bad they go into operate within I think this was in a week within a week or two of meeting her right.

and they go in and they find colon cancer and it's all over. And they have to cut out part of his colon, his intestines, they put a colostomy bag and they gave him three to six months to live.

He went, and we all did, like super crazy healthy because his doctor and surgeon, all the research basically said, well, hey, the reason this is happening is because you ate so poorly. Like you neglected your body for so many years, ate so much junk and didn't exercise enough. Like you created this toxin in your body, this problem, and you're dying.

Rachel Denning (09:15.341)
And so he totally transformed his diet. We all like stepped it way up. Cause like here's this man that we love. He's dying because he wasn't taking care of his body. Wasn't eating well. He ended up living for like two, two and a half years. But he ended up dying to cancer. And that hit home. That hit home for my sweet wife who lost her dad and her siblings, my mother -in -law. It hit home for us.

He lived long enough to see us adopt Kaya, our first child. But I think that was it. And so here are my kids, Kaya's 17. And they don't have him as a grandpa. And he doesn't get to be around here to be grandpa. And largely, from what they tell us, it was because of what he ate.

That's a real gut check, you guys. And it matters so much to us. We want to be healthy. I'm gonna circle back to that. But we wanna be here for our kids and for our grandkids. And it's that serious. It is that serious. We don't think it is, you know, we shove our mouths full of stuff. We're not even thinking about that. But it is that serious. Do you guys realize?

So we're going to have, we're going to have some fun here. We'll have some laughs. We'll get serious, tell them to share all kinds of stuff that we're in for a journey. My friends buckle up. This is getting good. So, I did a bunch of research years ago. and I realized that over 400 ,000 people, that's a lot of people. That's a really good size city.

400 ,000 people die every year in the United States just from the effects of obesity. 400 ,000 people. I did some just interesting research on that. And that was more than like all the troops that had died in like all the wars in the last, you know, six decades or something. It's unbelievable. That's huge. If you took and just try to picture it, picture all these people.

Rachel Denning (11:24.077)
Picture everybody, I don't know where you live, like some of you are in New York City and there's millions of people. Some of you are in a small town where there's only a thousand people. But, you know, take a good sized city, everybody gone. Everyone. Everyone in a good sized city gone. Gone. Because of obesity. You take, I mean, how many football stadiums were filled with human beings? Good people.

brothers and sisters, moms and dads, grandpas and grandmas and children. How many football fields, how many massive stadiums could you fill with 400 ,000 people and they're all gone in one year just in the United States because of the effects of obesity.

It is, and we're going to circle back. I know this is heavy, you guys. I know it's heavy. Roll with me here. And honestly, the vast majority of that is self -inflicted. In other words, it's slow suicide. So what is obesity? The actual definition of obesity is to have a BMI, a body mass index of 30 or above. And they figure about,

30 to 35 % of Americans are obese. And then another 30 to 35 % are overweight. To give you context, a medical site that I was researching on said if you're about 30 pounds overweight or more, that's about a 30 BMI. So if you got 30 pounds extra on you or more, you're obese. And it's literally killing your body. So obviously, you guys were all slowly dying, right? Every one of us is slowly working towards our death.

But some of us are doing it a lot faster than others. And this is one area of life where slower is better, my friends. You do not win an award for getting there faster when you're killing your body. But we're doing it one bite at a time. And I like to say, is life really that bad that we have to commit bite -sized suicide? No way. No.

Rachel Denning (13:36.205)
Now, obviously, this can be a super sensitive and very emotionally charged topic. So I'm going to try to be tactful. If I say something you don't understand, like send me a message because I'm not I'm not trying to be mean or I obviously I'm aware that I can say something and be misunderstood. I'm just trying I'm trying to be open and honest. But may I have your permission to coach you today? May I have your permission to to just be totally honest with you?

and have this super, super important conversation. I think, I think what I've said already, like, is making it clear how important this is, how unbelievably important this is. May I have your permission please to coach and with love kind of get a little bit in your face and let's have an honest talk. Okay. First, let me ask a question. Do you want to be overweight and out of shape? Do you want that?

Answer that honestly. Now, I know some of us like, well, it's where I am, it's okay, and I'm okay with it. All right, you know, this right here, it's okay, these are the conditions. And I'm not asking that. Is it something you actually want? Something you're trying to pursue and achieve? Is it something you, like, when you sit down and say, my dream life, I want that. To this day, traveling all over the world, in 44 countries so far, I've never yet met a person who wanted,

to be or stay overweight or out of shape. Anytime, and here's what happens.

We know we want to be healthy, right? We just have this this inner desire this long. You like, no, we want to be healthy. I want my body being in great condition. We want that. Right. And what's interesting, though, here, it starts to have these effects because any time. Write this down if you can. Anytime and every time we do less than we know we are capable of, it undermines our self -confidence.

Rachel Denning (15:43.149)
And so, like the most consistent thing I see, working with wonderful people around the world, and again, being overweight and out of shape has literally nothing to do with your self -worth and your awesomeness. It's just an outward condition. One of the weaknesses you're working on, and we all have our weaknesses, friends. We all have them. Some of them are not physically visible, but man, they're there, right?

So there I mean we're not shaming anybody. We're not guiltin anybody here. We're just we're just gonna have a good honest conversation But when anytime we do less than we are capable of it undermines our self -confidence and so we start to lose that and it hurts our self -image And I think we all know that we could be in better health So not being in better health starts to undermine that immediately But what's interesting is because this is so sensitive emotionally charged

And there's a lot of social stuff going on, really toxic social stuff that actually puts a bad rap on that. And that's all unhealthy. And we're not talking about that. There's no body shaming or anything, right? We're talking about being in great health. But there's a lot of that there, and so it gets in charge. So what happens is we start, we often spend so much energy defending our current position or our current condition that we don't have energy to actually improve it.

Does that make sense? And that's true with all aspects of life, you guys. We spend so much energy defending our position that we don't have energy to change it and improve it, which is where we should be directing our energy. But we want to, we're trying to protect ourselves, we're trying to defend ourselves, and people are mean and can be attacking, and then we end up spending energy on them and on their stuff and these other issues instead of energy where it could be directed.

But here's the simple reality. Okay, here comes the coaching. You ready? I love you. If I was there, I'd be giving you a big bear hug. Like, please know this coming from a place of love. The simple reality is that you and I are not operating at our very best if we are overweight or out of shape. And yes, my friends, you can be very out of shape and unhealthy, even if you're skinny. So those of you are like,

Rachel Denning (18:04.301)
this isn't for me, whatever. Like, let's hit this home, okay? For all of us.

fat or skinny. We are not operating at our very best. If we are overweight or out of shape, you can be skinny and out of shape and you can be skinny and healthy. Okay. Actually you can be, you can be overweight and unbelievably strong and fast. I mean, look at the guys at the NFL and stuff. I mean, there's some big dudes. So we are decreasing our capacity.

and our probability of reaching our potential when we're overweight and out of shape. Again, that's probably something else worth writing down there. We are in, you know, on our own. We're decreasing our capacity and our probability of reaching our potential. Now, this is huge. Now, some of you, I know red flags are flying like, I don't know, I don't know about that. I don't know, but just hear me out. Hear me out.

If our full potential requires us to operate at our very best beyond our game, and obviously there's tons of other issues, I get it. I hear you say, well, it's not only that, I know it's a lot of things. I know that. But let's just focus in here on this. We're just not. We're not operating at our very best and we're decreasing our capacity and our probability of reaching our potential. We're living below what we are capable of doing.

Let that sink in.

Rachel Denning (19:43.949)
Now, if we tell ourselves and we tell others that the condition of our body doesn't matter and it doesn't make a difference, you guys, that's like believing there's no difference between a Porsche and a Pinto. Like, what are you talking about? Of course there's a difference. It's a gigantic difference. And some of you may not even know what a Pinto is, but it's just a piece of junk car. And...

Okay, here's the real challenge right some of you maybe have never driven a Porsche and that's that right there is a tragedy my friends both literally and Figuratively if you have not driven a Porsche go rent one borrow one test drive one. They are a blast Wow, those things are awesome I used to have one by the way had a had a Midnight blue convertible Porsche with tan leather. It was awesome

and I got such a screaming deal on it, it was less than half of what you paid for your minivan that is chuck full of Cheerios and slime. And I know what that's like because I have seven kids. But honestly, you guys, if we kid ourselves, we're telling ourselves a story and a lie to say that the condition of our body doesn't matter and doesn't affect us. That is no. And if you need to go out and find a pinto and drive that thing and then go drive a Porsche and tell me there's no difference, use a

a brand name power tool and use a junk knockoff one. Do that with any tool, any, any, any technology, try it cheap and then get real and tell me there's not a difference. It's gigantic. What's interesting, and here's a principle here. Most people fail to achieve greatness in many areas of their life, including health and fitness, simply because they've never experienced it or been exposed to it. They don't know what it's like.

And many of you. And this is where all of us every one of like whether you're overweight or not. Many of you have never experienced what it's like to be really, really healthy, like unbelievably healthy. So when I was 1617, I cut out all like sugars, junk food, treats, carbonation, caffeine, all of it. Then I cut out like white like drastically decreased.

Rachel Denning (22:03.533)
all sugars and white flowers and salts. I'm like, I went, and it was a filtration system. I think probably took me about two years to get my body just really clean and optimized. Right. And then just to just train, I got into triathlons and I trained and trained and trained. And, and most people, including myself at that time, I had never experienced what it's like. And it wasn't until I got in just phenomenal shape and eight.

really well for a long time where my body reset to I think it's natural setting of like, holy cow, this is how it's supposed to feel to be alive. This is awesome. Like, I didn't know there was a muscle there. And now it responds when I'm when I lose my balance and I catch myself like, I didn't know I had that muscle. Right. And, and you're able to do things. It's it's unbelievable. But our bodies some of us we were raised that way I was raised in a home that was just we ate

Horrendously, it's a miracle that I'm even alive from what I consumed as a kid Like that's another testament to the miracle of body like it survived that we ate Horribly and didn't exercise is just a really really unhealthy environment So I was raising that and so some of you were born into that situation and you have never experienced what it's like to enjoy phenomenal world -class health And I want to challenge you to get there

I want to challenge you to experience that and pass that on to your children and your grandchildren as a legacy of being unbelievably healthy because you are so grateful for your body and you have so much self respect that you just care for this thing like you would a $20 million racehorse, which there are such things, right? Like we've got to do that.

So here, here's some of the other big negative effects. And I just want to get clear on this. So we have a big picture of like what it causes, what it does, where you are, where to go. Some of the negative effects are just having extra weight. Again, we, we, we often, we tell ourselves, so that's not making a difference. So I, I work out, I love to work out with a 20 pound vest. I'll put on the vest and I'll go for a run. I'll do some pushups and squats and chin ups, and then go for another run. That's called a Murph. That's a training or you just throw it on. I'll do some.

Rachel Denning (24:26.573)
Lap poles. I'll just throw on 20 pounds If you just put on a 20 -pound 20 -pound vest and just did your day just do your day do your normal stuff with a 20 -pound vest on I Guarantee you by the end of day. You're gonna feel it You're gonna feel it in your ankles and your knees and your hips and your back. You're gonna feel your abs You're gonna feel the strain on your shoulders. You will feel it It has an effect and some of us are just carrying around this extra weight and so

Everything the littlest things like getting going out of the car going to grocery store running your errands come back working sitting moving sleeping It's it's affecting you So, please don't ever think it's not it is definitely affecting you You just get used to it and if we were that 20 pound vest every day, we'd get used to it Okay, whatever it has an effect, right? It wears on you Obviously, we talked a little bit about this, but it definitely affects your self -image

Everyone I've talked to, even when they're, even when they're, people who are comfortable in their own skin, they're okay with it. When you have them just honest, heart to heart, open conversation, no masks, no facades, no walls, just all in honesty, yeah, it affects the self -image. They don't, they don't like it. They might not like the way a certain area looks or feels. They don't like the judgment that comes from others, which is an outside issue. I mean, social problem, I get that. But they don't like it.

And it affects every area of their life. Even their intimate life. It's affecting that. And it can put you in embarrassing situations like trying to fit into a tight seat or being in a tight space with other people. And it definitely prevents you from doing things that you would like to do like hiking or biking or participating in other activities. There's things that you just cannot do if you're out of shape. Now, this is true to me.

This is true to me. There are things that I cannot participate in right now because I'm not in good enough shape. Right? Some of those things I'm like, I'm okay if I don't. Other things I'm like, no, man, that's unacceptable. I want to be able to do that. And so I set some standards for myself and here's a little side principle here. I set some standards for myself to, you know, like one of mine is like at any time of my life, I want to be able to walk out the door and run a five K.

Rachel Denning (26:53.421)
So that's about three miles at any time in my life. I want to be able to do that right now. I can't, I injured my foot and so I haven't run. And then I went out and did a run just a couple of days ago and I was, I was hurting and you know, in a healthy way, I get mad at myself. I have this little talk like, come on, Greg, get on it. Let's go. And I've been training and pushing hard to try to get back in shape. So could I go do a big old hike right now? Nope. Can I go do a triathlon right now? Nope. You run? Nope. My buddy's called my dude. We've had an opening.

We're going to go climb Cotopaxi. You want in? I'm like, yeah, I would go. I would still go, but man, I would suffer. Right. And, and there's just things we miss out on. There's a lot in life we miss out on and we may not even know we're missing out on it because we can't do it. And so we don't even try. good friend of mine, like love this guy. Love this guy. He lost 90 pounds, 90 pounds just by changing what he ate. He still eats well, eats healthy. All he did was change.

What do you eat? And I'm not, I'm not a fan of diets. I'm not a fan of like, get on a diet, lose weight, and then get back on your regular routine. No way. I'm a fan of changing your eating lifestyle, changing your relationship with food. We'll talk about that in a minute. 90 pounds. And so first time like in his married life, he went out and got on the trampoline and was jumping and having fun.

Like, think about that. Think how awesome that is. Think how awesome that is! Just to go out and jump on the trampoline.

And like, there's little things, there's little things we miss out on. Another negative effect is, like it or not, if you and I are unhealthy, we are training our children to be unhealthy. Done. Done. Like it or not, we can say what we want to say, whatever. Like it or not, if we are unhealthy, we are training our children to be unhealthy. And grandchildren, and very often, my friends, this gets passed down for generations.

Rachel Denning (28:54.669)
And what they do is they blame it on genetics, but it most cases has nothing to do with genetics. It is not nature. It is nurture. And they learned it and they keep passing it on. And it's sad. Okay, I also want to address a misconception, a couple of big misconceptions. Actually, just one major one. The biggest misconception here is like, Okay, yeah, all right, Greg, I get it. I get it. Like you're killing me here. I get it.

I want to lose weight, I want to get in shape, but it takes too much time. I'm too busy. I just don't have time. Right. And that right there, my friends is one of the greatest misconceptions about getting in shape and losing weight and often prevents so many people are like, yeah, I would totally do it, but I just don't have time. I'm too busy. Like I'm so crazy busy. I just can't do it. And so they, they tell themselves that story. They believe that because they've been told that, right? So they believe it. And so they don't do anything about it. And they, they continue on the same course.

Not true. It's a lie. So let's talk about food. It doesn't take any more time to eat better food. Right? Because whether you eat a box of Oreos, or a bag of chips, or you have some really yummy, I don't know, hummus or vegetable dip or something that doesn't take any time like what you eat, you eat. And here's here's the irony.

It takes less time to eat less food. You guys gotcha. It takes less time to eat less food. And for the vast majority of people, being overweight is it's simply a matter of eating quality food in the right quantity. And so my invitation today is just improve the quality. Even if you just do it by increments, just a little bit.

Improve the quality of what you're eating like I mean eating more vegetables more fresh food and less processed food in fact Get rid of your microwave. Don't use microwaves ever again. My friends. That's this has been a thought from Greg Denning No more microwaves. No more processed food. Just healthier food and then less The vast majority of people just need to eat a little bit less and I'm not talking a ton less I'm just saying a little bit less

Rachel Denning (31:14.189)
If you cut it back by 25 % or 30%, so let's say on your plate, you have four fistfuls of food and just get three and be done with it and walk away and be satisfied and go occupy your mind with something else. Go do, get back on your stuff and do your thing and watch your, your stomach will shrink back in and you'll be good. And you will drop a lot of weight with that. Just, just from that one thing. the major problem you guys in here, this is so cool. I love this idea in this whole concept. When I learned it, it blew my mind.

The major problem is that we have an unhealthy relationship with food.

Check that out. Like, hands down, the vast majority of people, these wonderful, good people, I love you guys. I'd be fist pumping, you hugging, you're like, awesome. There's no guilt or shame here or anything. You're not bad people. It's just one thing. We all have a relationship with money. We all have a relationship with ourselves. We all have a relationship with society and nature. We all have these relationships. Some of us have just picked up unhealthy ones. And...

The vast majority of time being overweight and out of shape is just we have a relationship with food. And so we have to change that. Most of that relationship is attached to some kind of emotional eating. I gave a presentation recently and I asked the room, it was like 125, mostly moms, few dads in there, 150 even. And I said, I just had a curiosity, raise your hand if you do some kind of emotional eating.

man 70 to 80 percent of the room raise their hand and I'm like whoa okay what for what are the emotions and every conceivable emotion came out like I eat a ton when I'm happy when I'm sad when I'm angry when I'm depressed when I'm discouraged when I'm giddy but I mean we went every emotion and they had attached an emotion to food.

Rachel Denning (33:10.477)
And so every time they were feeling that emotion, they went for food. And so they'd created a relationship with food that was unhealthy. It was interesting. I recently heard a mom who was like, she like, was like wholeheartedly believe this. Like couldn't believe there wasn't a mom on earth. She said, every mom has an unhealthy snack that she keeps hidden for when she's having a bad day. And, my daughter was like, well, my mom doesn't do that.

Because Rachel doesn't do that. And she's like, no way. No, no, she must have something. It can't be. It can't be that there's not a woman that has some unhealthy thing hiding for when she's having a bad day. And I just had to chuckle. It's funny. And I get it, right? It's like it can be comfort food. But here's here's what's interesting, you guys. When we when we eat for emotional reasons, like.

Here's, here's a frame set we have to work on if we're going to be super healthy and maintain health for our whole lives. Food is fuel. Food is fuel. It is not some kind of emotional reaction. Food is fuel. That's it. Just drill that into your mindset. Just every time you eat, remember food is fuel. Now it can be delicious. I'm a foodie. I traveled this whole world for food. Rachel and I one time bought round trip tickets to Lima, Peru, just to go eat. And we spent the whole week just.

visiting restaurants, you know, three, three meals a day at restaurants in Lima, because Peruvian food is amazing. We go to Europe and pick, you know, specific restaurants to like all of our trips, our trip to Thailand here that we're going on for a couple of strip over, over Valentine's. Like we pick the restaurant, like we will travel this earth for food. We love it. But we always remember food is fuel. Food is fuel.

And you know, coming right out of Thanksgiving and going into the holidays, a lot of people like throw off any ideals, any standards, and they just gorge themselves on unhealthy food and way too much food. And even in the holidays, you guys, you don't have to. There's nobody forcing you just because everyone else is eating it. Just because it's there doesn't mean you have to eat it. Like there is constantly in front of my face unhealthy foods in large quantities, and I don't touch it because food is fuel and I'm fueling my body.

Rachel Denning (35:34.445)
You with me on that? Powerful. So let's, let's keep going with this thing. When we eat unhealthy foods, we overeat, especially when we emotionally eat, it is an act of self -sabotage and treason.

Let that sink in. Putting any unhealthy food in our bodies, anything that is harmful or addictive.

Anything that's just not fueling us is an act of self -sabotage and treason against ourselves. And that, I know some of you are like, come on Greg, that's being really extreme. But think about it. Think about it in the context of being alive, being alive for your kids. Do you want to, I'm gonna come back to that.

Rachel Denning (36:29.709)
My father -in -law is not here. He's not here to be a father -in -law to me and father to my daughter, my wife and grandpa to my kids. And I'm not faulting him. I love the guy.

You with me? You sense the seriousness here? And we're living below our potential and below our capacities. So eating unhealthy stuff and overeating is an act of self -sabotage and treason. Now, I'm not guilt tripping anyone. Please, please, please. I am not guilt tripping you. I'm just being a coach right now and giving it like a new perspective of like, wait a minute. Yeah, that donut is going to taste good. But like, if I put that donut in my body, that's an act of treason against myself.

I'm trying to live a fantastic life here, right? And when we tolerate it even for a moment, let me ask a question. Would you tolerate, would you tolerate even for a moment if somebody was slowly administering poison to someone you love? Never. And yet we're often doing it to ourselves, which is a manifestation of a lack of self -respect.

Rachel Denning (37:45.741)
that powerful, isn't it? Isn't this powerful idea? I know, I know it's kind of heavy here. Woo. It's kind of heavy, but like roll with me. It's so eating unhealthy food is an act of lack of self respect. Just kind of a new perspective. Just kind of look at it like, think about that for a minute. Just kind of set it there. If it rubs you wrong, just set it aside and just think about it for a little bit. So as a coach here and as a friend and love you, man, I want to invite you to stop telling yourself those stories.

and to stop using food to assuage your emotional issues. Because food does not solve them or resolve them and it actually decreases your health and energy, which you should be using to improve your life. So I want to invite you to actually learn how to manage, control, direct and process your emotions in a healthy way. Okay, so let me just repeat that. Not only does food not help you solve your emotional issues,

It actually just adds to the problem of dropping your energy levels and harming your body. So, and again, not your fault. Nobody ever probably ever taught you how to process your emotions and how to heal. But now that I've told you about it, you guys, it will be your fault if you don't do anything about it. And I've got podcasts about it. I've got resources on my websites about it. Like learn how to process your emotion in super healthy ways. So you don't have to turn to food. One of my clients, every time she'd get upset, her marriage was tough.

And so every time she got upset with her husband, she'd go eat, just binge eat. And I was like, well, okay, let's just come up with a new, let's come up with a new way to process that. And it was like, what do you do? And she's like, well, I get angry and I walk, I walked to the kitchen. I'm like, what are you passing away? The kitchen. She's like, why pass by the stairs? I'm like, done right there. Why don't you, every time you get angry, you'll walk up and down the stairs instead of going to the kitchen, like cut yourself off before you get the kitchen. And she was doing it and she was like, this is amazing. Not only am I not overeating, I'm actually getting exercise is fantastic, right?

So just switch that and learn how to process and handle those emotions differently. All right. That was just the first misconception about food. The second one's about exercise. We tell ourselves all the time that we don't have time to exercise, right? I don't have time. I'm too busy. I've used this excuse. We all do this. Like it just takes time. The reality is that you and I cannot afford to not exercise. And we're actually check this out. Roll with me here on this.

Rachel Denning (40:07.245)
we're actually losing more time by not exercising. Perhaps you've heard the story Richard Branson. He started like the Virgin Group, Virgin Air, Virgin Music. He has like 40 businesses or something. I mean, just Sir Richard Branson. He's just like uber, uber successful guy. Somebody asked him one time, they were on a boat with him going out to his private island. And they're like, man, Richard, how do you, like, how do you get so much done? How are you running so many businesses so successfully?

And he turns to him and he says, he's like, what do you do? Like, how do you do it to get so much done to be so effective and so efficient? And Richard Branson, again, check this out. He turns to me, he says, I exercise. That was it. That was his answer. I exercise. Boom. And you're like, what? And the truth is, and the science to back it up is that when we exercise, it actually makes you more efficient and more effective and.

more intelligent. There's two great books on this one book is called spark. Highly recommend that they do all this research and realize that if you exercise first getting your heart rate up to a certain level for a certain amount of time, it actually activates all kinds of stuff and it really increases learning and retention. Like you're actually more intelligent and your brain functions better. If you exercise there is just direct science behind this. My friends, you are more effective, more efficient, even you can study better.

learn better, think better, work better. If you exercise first. Another great books called the power of full engagement. And there's all kinds of research in there about everything we've been talking about, from what we put in our bodies to our routines, rituals, energy levels. Whoa, right. And of course, you know, intense exercise dramatically increases your energy. Now you're like, what are you talking about, Greg? I worked out one time and I was so exhausted for days.

Right? We have to get back in shape and get into rhythm, but intense exercise actually increases our energy levels. But think about this. What would each of your tasks and responsibilities be like if you had five to times, five to 10 times more energy? Let me repeat that. What would each of your tasks and responsibilities and roles be like if you had five to 10 times more energy?

Rachel Denning (42:34.413)
How would you show up as a spouse, as a parent, as a worker, as a business owner, as a friend, as a neighbor, as a disciple?

What effect would that much more energy have in what you're doing in life?

ton. And we can get those energy levels by eating better and exercising vigorously. Right. So the reality is you've been telling yourself a story. But the truth is opposite of your story. You have time. In fact, you have to make time. The absolute best thing you can do for you with your time is to exercise vigorously. Now, here's a little here's a little hack here. Don't drag it out. Like I have one of my clients.

I put him on this exercise challenge and he was rocking it. He just nailed it. And he got up to, it was a push -up challenge specifically, one area, and he got up to where he could do more consecutive push -ups than he's ever done in his life. But I realized he was dragging it way out. And so doing is just, his routine was taking him an hour and I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm like, no, like that should be 20 minutes max. And there's ways you guys, you can capitalize and optimize this where I get a phenomenal body workout in 20 to 30 minutes.

I can get in there and I go after intensely. I love it. And I get things done. And again, you guys with all I'm not a doctor, right? And so with all this with how you train and how you eat, like consult medical professionals, I have to put a disclaimer in here, like do what you need to do. I don't want anybody getting sick or harmed or hurt or whatever, but like good vigorous exercise and eating healthy food helps. Okay, so let's let's talk about a couple reasons why people fail.

Rachel Denning (44:18.477)
One of the reasons we fail is poor mental management. we just aren't managing our minds. Well, our mindset about exercise, our mindset about food, and, and to maintain good health, we have to get a healthy mindset about it for the long run. We have to manage our thoughts better around all this for good. Like we're, we're literally changing our ideology. We're changing our philosophy. We're changing the way we view food and exercise.

for the long haul. That's how you're going to maintain resilience and like you're going to have long term success and results. Many of us have become these expert excusers, man. We put so much creative energy into our excuses and our stories. I mean, some of you could be extremely successful authors if you put that much creativity into like some kind of fantasy novel because you're living in some kind of fantasy world.

We have all kinds of crazy stories we're telling ourselves and excuses of why we can or shouldn't or won't. Like, like it's just, it's poor mental management. The other thing that where most people fail is they have poor systems. They, they have a pantry full of trash and they're like, it's cause every time I go to the kitchen, I just eat, I just eat so many and M's. I'm like, Whoa, what the heck? Why do you have and M's in the house? Well, it's just cause you know, I have a

huge jar of them in the pantry. I'm like, well, what are you, what are you, what are you doing with a huge jar of &Ms in your pantry? You can't eat it if it's not in the house. And so we set up these systems that actually make it really hard for us. So don't allow any of that stuff in your house. Don't you buy it. Don't you allow anyone to bring it in. Right. My son, he'll try to sneak, he has a sweet tooth. He'll try to sneak some candy in every once in a while. And then my little ones will go steal it from him. That's kind of funny.

But as a general rule, we don't allow that stuff in our house and neither I nor my wife will buy that stuff. Like just don't let it in the house. Set yourself up to succeed. Set up every kind of system for food and exercise. Set up all your systems to make it really easy. Like it's hard to go work out if you can't find your shoes. Right? It's hard to get things going if you stay up late and then you get up late and then you mope around your sweats without actually working out in your sweats.

Rachel Denning (46:43.341)
And we make it hard for ourselves. And then we go pay for this expensive membership, but we hate to drive over there. And we hate all the people that are in there watching us. And we buy some fancy, smancy monitor screen program, whatever, thinking that that'll be the solution to our problems when reality, just a simple system of do exercise that you like, do it vigorously, and eat well. And some days you'll feel like doing it, and some days you won't, my friends. That is called discipline.

And I want you to have like this phrase from Chet Holmes, pig headed discipline and determination. Like set some goals and make them happen day in, day out. My friends, life was never meant to be easy. So don't try to make it easy. Like you do yourself and your kids a huge disservice if you're trying to make it easy. It's hard, it's tough. There's days you don't feel like it. Do it anyways. It's called being an adult. It's like step it up.

And do these things because that's who you are and that's how you want to do life. You want to live, you want to live well and you want to live long and you want to have energy and you want to be on your A game. You want to be living up here potential. So show up, do it even and especially when you don't feel like it. All right, here's some simple steps. Ready? I want you to make a menu or purchase one. we bought a menu is like 30 bucks for the year and all healthy food and

We take all it is so cool. All the ingredients, you just click them and they automatically put all of them in your shopping cart. And then you just glance over them real quick. If you already have some of the grants, you unclick them and then you hit go and somebody delivers the groceries to your house and you hand the recipe to one of your children and say, will you please make that for lunch and other child, will you please make that for dinner? And we have outsourced and boom, we have healthy meals done. Awesome. So make a menu.

decide what you're going to eat beforehand and only eat that. That is like a huge hack right there. You guys write that down. Decide what you're going to eat beforehand and only eat that. That will save you so much. You don't have to be like, there's a diet and counting calories and blah, blah, blah. Just eat healthy food. Look at it. But like, is this good for me? If it's not, don't put it in your body. If it is, eat a little bit and decide how much and what you're going to eat. That's it. And write it down.

Rachel Denning (49:06.605)
If this is an area where you struggle, if you have an unhealthy relationship with food, then literally write this down and do it quickly. Don't, I don't want this to be time consuming. Like, I have to spend 14 hours planning my menu and then writing everything down like super fast in 30 seconds. Just jot down where you're going to eat. And then the next day eat only that there it is done. Boom. And so when you're like, Ooh, look at that. And you want to eat it. It's not on the list friend. Don't touch it. Don't touch it.

and have healthy snacks in your house, have healthy snacks in your office and include a snack, right? If it's on there, like, okay, I'm going to have a protein bar, a little bit of chocolate on there. It's yummy, little, little something, but it's on my list. And so I get to have it. If it's not on the list, don't touch it. That man, huge hack right there. So my friends, do yourself a gigantic favor and get in the

best health of your life. For those of you who are already pretty healthy, this is for you too. I hope you seriously level up. Clean up your eating, level up your exercise. If you're already a runner, do a marathon. If you're already a marathoner, do an ultra marathon. Try a full triathlon, an Ironman. Like go gangbusters, get in the best health of your life.

And obviously you do this for yourself, but I want you to do it for the people who need you to be at your very best. Who is that for you? Who needs you not only to be around, but to be at your best. Do it for your spouse. Be sexy for your spouse. Be healthy, be energized for your spouse. Do it for your children. They need you and you know how much children suck energy.

You know how much energy you need to bring it to be a great mom and a great dad. Do it for them. Do it for your grandkids. You guys, I exercise hard. For grandkids, I don't have yet. And for great grandkids, I don't have yet.

Rachel Denning (51:21.581)
Because if we don't, if we are unhealthy, we're literally removing years from our life. Let that sink in. If you and I are unhealthy, we are literally removing years from our life. Do you want to be there when your kid gets married? I do. I don't want somebody else to be there for my kids. I want to be there.

Do you want to be a part of your grandchild's life or would you rather they only know you by that little three by five picture on the shelf?

Let that sink in. Do you want to be the little picture on the shelf or do you want to be there for them? Give yourself a reason to show up. Fascinating stuff here you guys and you're like, well, no life's just the way it is. You know, we can't control when we die and God's in charge of that and, and life's in charge. I can't control a renowned world renowned researcher recently said that living for a

very long time. He was throwing out the number 120 years old. He said living for a very long time and the quality of our life in those later years is only about 10 to 20 % genetic. That means that 80 % or more of that is determined by us, by our eating and our exercise habits and our training. It's up to you. A little extra effort in preparing healthy foods.

and exercising daily can add not only years to your life, but quality to your entire life.

Rachel Denning (53:03.885)
Love it, you guys. I love you. I hope you receive this in the love that I'm sharing it. And thanks for letting me coach you and be blunt and direct here. I love this stuff. And I love you guys. And I want all of us to be in our very best health so that we can operate our very best and reach for our full potential. Awesome is always an option. Train for greatness. And reach upward.

Rachel Denning (53:37.517)
Hey everybody, thanks so much for listening to this episode. I hope you got a lot of value out of it and found some things that you can apply to your life right away. Hey, I'm being totally sincere when I say I live to help you live your extraordinary life. So I hope you'll reach out to me if you have any questions or let me know how I can help you in any important area of your life. And in fact, you know, this, this podcast is brought to you by the school of awesome sauce monthly coaching program. Take advantage of that. Get in there. If it's the,

best way to get a breakthrough to the next level so you can level up your health, your spirituality, your emotions, your mind, your relationships, your finances, business, every part of your life. Just get in there where you have a coach and a mentor, you have a supportive community to make things happen. So jump in there, take advantage of this, try it out, get in there with us and level up your life. See you on the inside. Reach upward.