The Chivalry Chronicles
We discuss topics such as Brotherhood, Masculinity, and Fatherhood. A modern manly approach to chivalry.
Or better yet, Guys Stuff that Guys Do, Cuz We're Guys.
The Chivalry Chronicles
Episode 014 - "New Year's Resolutions & Tips for Success"
David, Dr. DLH, and Jaime discuss New Year's Resolutions and how we can sustain them.
- Things you hate about New Year's Resolutions
- Research Data
- How Many People Actually Set Resolutions?
- Who is more likely to Participate (Gen Z or Baby Boomers)?
- How Long Do Resolutions Last?
- When is Quitter's Day?
- What is the Percentage of People Fail?
- What is the overall success rate?
- Motivations based on age?
- Defining S.M.A.R.T. Goals
- Issue a Verdict.
If by some chance, some stroke of luck, or some act of God, you have stumbled upon this broadcast, you are listening to The Chivalry Chronicles with your host, DLH, David and me, Jaime. I hope you're ready, because I know we are. So let's get into it.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah. Perfect. Yeah. That was
SPEAKER_00:great. It's still good. Hey. Yeah, we already started. Who is that? It's your New Year's resolution. We're getting to the end of the year, and they're here, guys, and they're knocking on the door. And I'd like to ask you guys, do you do New Year's resolutions every year, or do you leave that to the rest of the population? And we'll discuss when Quitter's Day and all that stuff, but do you do New Year's resolutions as an every year thing? David, do you?
SPEAKER_02:Not typically. Typically. I have spurts where I do New Year's resolution type stuff, but not typically.
SPEAKER_01:Why not?
SPEAKER_00:Well, no, no. We'll get to that. But do you do? Because, I mean, I know this episode is kind of set up to where I want to hear all the statistics. I want all that. But do you do one, just as a general question?
SPEAKER_01:You know, I think for me, it's... If I'm going to acknowledge it outwardly, no. Okay. But I think inwardly, like myself, I wind up thinking about something that should be a New Year's
SPEAKER_00:resolution. Okay. Do you have one now?
SPEAKER_01:I haven't fully developed it for 2025, but I am thinking about it. And I do have, I think, a rationale why I think I do that. So you just have an idea.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's exactly what it is. Just an idea. I
SPEAKER_01:do have... Yes, I have an idea. But I also don't know where life is going in the next year. So I have a reason for only having an idea at this point. Anyway, I wonder if maybe my outward no New Year's resolution... is maybe my way of saving myself from outward failure in that resolution? If I'm analyzing myself. Anyway, I don't know how you feel. Do you set resolutions,
SPEAKER_00:Jaime? No, I think I'm with you. I kind of treat it as a... What did the incoming president say about his plan for affordable care? He said it was... I have an idea. Or no,
SPEAKER_01:I have a...
SPEAKER_00:Ah, anyway. Yeah, I have an
SPEAKER_01:idea of a plan. It was something like that, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:A concept. I have concepts. I have concepts. A concept of a plan, yeah. But I think I treat it just like... So I'm Catholic, right? Or... My wife is Catholic, therefore it makes me Catholic. Just give it up for Lent. Yeah, I treat it just like Lent. I don't give anything up. Like, come on now. Oh yeah, I don't give anything up for Lent. And some people do, and I respect it. Cool. But I treat it with that same kind of... I mean, if there's something... Actually, this year I do have something that I want to do that I want to get back to, because I used to read a lot more than I do now. And I do want to start doing that. And I think I... What I want to do is, you know, to hold myself accountable is introduce a book. And then if it's really, really good, maybe bring it to the podcast and discuss it. But that's– it's not so much a– that's just something I want to start doing more. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. But
SPEAKER_01:then that puts it on us too.
SPEAKER_00:No. I mean, I'm going to be really, like, specific about– Which book or... And I'm not going to talk about the book, but I think the material can be podcast material. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01:Well, but we're on the podcast, so that means that you would subject us to whatever book that is.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, all I'm saying is... All I'm saying is I come up with all the topics anyway.
SPEAKER_01:Which is cool, but if you're going to come up with this topic, just don't make it a bullshit book and it will be fine.
SPEAKER_00:No, no, no. No, they're going to be strategic. Like, all the books that I read are all awesome books. So, you know, Malcolm Gladwell, I've read... like six of his books. Those are all great. And we could discuss any one of those.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:You know, that type of stuff. All right. I'm down with
SPEAKER_01:that.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. So anyway, you know, we were talking about this at our alumni meeting, and I think you took it upon yourself, DLH, to kind of go and research, do a bit of research for the first time in your life.
SPEAKER_01:Nope.
UNKNOWN:Get out of here.
SPEAKER_02:Research is what I do. I'm surprised we got it within this time frame. I know. What is it, like three years? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:For what? What are you talking about
SPEAKER_01:specifically
SPEAKER_00:here? For you to do research. Yeah, to finish your
SPEAKER_01:doctorate. Oh, no, that was more like 10 years.
SPEAKER_00:No,
SPEAKER_01:but tell us
SPEAKER_00:what you came up with. But
SPEAKER_01:research I do all the time.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but not for this show.
SPEAKER_01:Not for this show.
SPEAKER_00:Not an idea of research. Not for this show. Concepts of research. But I do. I want to hear it. I want to hear what you have. I have some questions, and I want to discuss along the same line of New Year's resolutions. Maybe if we touch upon what things that you hate about them. You know what I'm saying? I'm pretty sure you're a fitness professional, right? You get an influx. You know, at Lifetime, at the gym, you get an influx of people in January. You're like, oh, man, it's going to be packed now on Monday. It's going to be packed for the next couple of weeks. You won't be able to get a machine or the bench. And it sucks, you know, because you're like. One
SPEAKER_02:step above that is usually the younger folks are filming themselves. Oh, my God. So they're taking a heck of a lot longer on the equipment. Cause they're filming them. Yeah. And then you're in the background looking all angry.
SPEAKER_00:Just shaking your angry fist, you know, just really quick. My son wanted to go to lifetime. Right. So I was like, God, you know what, let's go. So we went on a random Wednesday and I hadn't been on a random Wednesday at like six o'clock in a long time. I used to go during lunch and my, I mean, it was just like, people creating content at every corner of the gym. And it was ridiculous. And I hadn't been back around that time since COVID, right? And it was just more prevalent now. And I'm like, God, how do these... There's cameras everywhere. Everybody's filming each other or filming themselves. And it just... Oh, my God. I was like, how can you do this?
SPEAKER_01:Not every workout needs to be filmed. Or be okay with... recording content when someone is working a set in with you. Or
SPEAKER_00:go at 5 a.m. when nobody's there.
SPEAKER_01:Something like that, but you can't just take up things at peak hours and keep going.
SPEAKER_00:But I've taken enough of your air time. Go ahead, DLH. Take it away.
SPEAKER_01:What am I
SPEAKER_00:doing? New Year's resolutions.
SPEAKER_01:New Year's resolutions. Okay, we're going to start with general statistics. In the event that anyone out there is going to set a New Year's resolution, or I was looking up, I guess, the resolutions in general, how many people actually set resolutions? resolutions. And the research that I looked up is specific to North America, right? But 44% of Americans set New Year's resolutions, with the younger adults more likely to participate. So this is 92% of Gen Z compared to 52% of baby boomers. And then later on in here, it actually shows the types of resolutions that those two generations set, which I think is really interesting and worth discussing. But anyway, how long do the resolutions last? On average, they last about two to three months before 43% of people quit those resolutions. Wow. So that's how this Quitter's Day came about. Mid-January is when it is, right? January 17th.
SPEAKER_00:Second Friday in January.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, which is usually when people quit their resolutions. 43% of people quit by the end of January, I will say that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So if
SPEAKER_01:that means
SPEAKER_02:you were... trying to stop smoking. Do you quit on that?
SPEAKER_00:Bro, okay. Where's that sound? End it right there. Two
SPEAKER_01:shots to the dome. And then in general, over the course of whatever that given year is, 80% of people, it says fail. Fail may be a little harsh. Maybe they give up on the resolution overall. Well, I guess that is failure, right? Giving
SPEAKER_00:up is failure. Well, I think part of it is because you know, you miss one day and then you start feeling bad about it, you know, and then the next day stuff comes up. And I think if you roll through that, if you say, you know, I missed yesterday, but I'm going to go today. And if you don't go today, just go the next day. Like, you know, it has to be, it has to be consistent and stuff is going to come up. Like I go, you know, Tuesdays and Thursdays to, to the gym. And sometimes my meetings run long. Right. And then other times I'll end up going to the gym at two o'clock out, You know, I made a deal with my boss and said, look, I need to go. You just have to roll with it. Like, I'm sorry, but I need this. And he was cool. Yeah, I do whatever. But sometimes I go there at 11, sometimes at noon, sometimes at two. And it screws up the day. But if you just keep going, it does become a, you know. It does become a habit, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Consistency is going to be a part of it. And I think we'll talk a little bit more about that when we get into SMART goals, right? SMART as an acronym. But overall, before we move it on to your thoughts right here, the overall success rate for people who hold on to their New Year's resolution for the entire year is 9%.
SPEAKER_00:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:Damn. Thoughts now? That's low.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:That's really low. Yeah, I wouldn't think– I would have thought it would be in the teens to 20. Yeah, something like that as far as success rate. But I also think, you know, based on– you were saying that it's the younger population that is doing that. It almost reminds me– I don't know if you've ever seen this exercise where they're like, okay, when you were six years old and you were asked, are you– Do you think you're an artist? So let's say some kids just paint a picture or draw something, and then all the kids, all the six-year-olds raise their hand like they're proud of their work. Their parents are telling them it's great, and everybody's telling them it's great. But then reality starts kicking in as you get older and people are dogging it. So I'm wondering if that's why the baby boomers and us older populations start getting– Basically kicked. Kicked while you're... Well, not while you're down.
SPEAKER_01:They kick you down?
SPEAKER_02:Well, yeah. We fail. We know we fail. We feel that stigma coming in from whether it's... directly imposed by individuals or just indirectly, you just kind of feel a sense of guilt. And then as you get older, you're like, F this, I'm not doing it anymore because I've done failed already five years in a row. I'm kind of, I'm done. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, as part of your research, did you come up of, you said smart. I'm kind of, that just stuck with me. What does that mean? Okay. Well, because if we're talking about failure, well, let's give our listeners like, here's what you can do to like, Well, maybe
SPEAKER_02:save that a little bit more to provide those tips here in the end.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Okay. Well, I mean, I do have tips for that. But if we talk about, before we get to the SMART goals and why you even need SMART goals, it's because of the reasons for failure.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Most of the people quit on their resolutions because of lack of tracking. 33% forget their resolutions because they don't monitor progress. Then the second is unrealistic goal setting. They set too many or are overly ambitious in their resolutions, and that's what leads to failure. And then the third is loss of motivation. Excitement fades after early January with most quitting by the second Friday of the month, known as Quitter's Day. That is what leads to failure. the SMART goals. Now, there's more to talk about here, but when we talk about lack of tracking, unrealistic goals, loss of motivation, that's because when people set New Year's resolutions as something very vague or general, right? So in the top 10 resolutions, number one is exercise more. But if that's the extent of the resolution, exercise more What does that mean? How do you track it? What does that look like? How do you know?
SPEAKER_00:Okay. So, so you're saying be more specific. Like I'm going to start running more two miles, half a mile. a week, a day. Yes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And it's not even enough to say like, I'm going to run more. Yes. You have to do that specifically. And then even if you can get more specific than that, the more specific you can get with the goal, the better off you're going to be. Yeah. Right. So I'm going to run, uh, if you know that your schedule allows it, I'm going to run two miles every Monday and Wednesday for the next three weeks.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:No, no, no. Let me, let me ask you this. And this is probably a question you don't even know the answer. So I'm, I'm, visually looking at, at that list. Now in this top 10, do you think they just had to categorize? So maybe these individuals did make it into a smart goal, but the categorization is exercise more, right? So then they put it in there as that top 10 list. I would imagine that the smart goal is not tied to it for, for most people, but in looking at this top 10, maybe even, maybe even share what this top 10 is. Cause I think it's, It's kind of interesting just to hear. It is. Some of them are very, you know they're out there. You hear them all the time. All the morning shows and so forth are going to kick off the new year
SPEAKER_01:talking about all this stuff. And these are all ones that I think everybody listening would have heard from someone at some point. Top 10 resolutions. Number one is exercise more. Number two, save money. Three, eat healthier. Four, lose weight. Five, Improve mental health. Six, spend more time with family and friends. Seven, reduce stress. Eight, quit smoking. Nine, reduce alcohol consumption. Nonsense. Ten, learn a new skill or hobby. Those are it. Now, I do have percentages of people that make those resolutions attached to this, but I don't know that that's as relevant.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I mean, I think those... pretty much cover mostly everything they all make sense right when
SPEAKER_01:you hear them all it's like oh yeah i know i know people that
SPEAKER_00:made one of those resolutions i know the last uh the last episode we did about gifts we talked about gifts that kind of get you into one of these goals right if you want to learn a new a new trade or you want to get that's the master's class or you know gym memberships you know like that type of stuff uh like a subscription to a like a book club or something like that to where it gets you going. Um, but those, those are pretty much everything I've heard, you know, it's, and, and most of them that, that I've tried, you know, you do want to, man, we need to say every year, you need to say more, you know, but it's, I guess you're right. If you track it a little bit better, the ones that have stuck are the ones that I, even when, when my son started, uh, kind of working out with me, we wrote down all his workouts, uh, for the first year. I mean, we have him written down. And every once in a while when he gets a little, you know, he's upset that he didn't make that, you know, didn't finish his set or, you know, get that one rep, I'll say, you know, look, this is what you started off with. You were benching 95 pounds. You're benching 225 now. You know what I'm saying? And I think that gets him going. You're like, it's been... You are progressing. This is just a little small blip, but I think those are really good is to track it. So I didn't think about it like that. I just did it because it's easy to, when you write stuff down, it's just easy to remember. We have a list.
SPEAKER_02:I think when DLH breaks down SMART goals, it starts making a lot more sense as to why you will more likely succeed if you have a SMART goal. Because it's very defined.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I mean, by tracking. But before, again, before I get into the smart goals, another element that I found really interesting was, I guess, the motivation based on age category.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Right. So younger individuals, we're talking people 18 to 34, are more likely to set resolutions and their goals often focus on health and fitness. Really? Yeah. I guess so. Okay, so it gets a little more interesting for me given our current age, right? So older individuals, 55 plus, are likely to make resolutions but tend to focus on long-term goals like financial stability. Now, if you hear those two particular age categories, 18 to 34 and then 55 plus, that doesn't account for us. What about the people that are 35 to 54?
SPEAKER_00:But I would think you would flip them. You know, I would think that, well, to make more sense, you would think younger people would be more focused on financial stability and older people more on health. Because, you know, if you're working all this time, like I remember when I kind of said, you know what, I need to just start being consistent about working out. I was around 38, 40. You know what I'm saying? Well, I was like, you know what, I'm tired of jacking around. Let's start going every week, every day. And then you make that decision. And it's because you're getting older and testosterone starts going down. You can't build enough muscle anymore. You know what I'm saying? So you start working out more. See,
SPEAKER_02:to me, those stats do make sense to me because as a young person, really what you're prioritizing is you're– a younger demographic is seeking a partner and
SPEAKER_00:they want to look good. No, it tracks because Joaquin's all about working out right
SPEAKER_02:now. Image means a lot to them. They do. And money wise, money wise. Yes. They, they need to be able to take care of their day to day needs, but they're not really looking at, they're looking at a long
SPEAKER_00:runway. What I meant is it would make sense if you flip them. because it would yes yeah because because like the 401k you know if you started when you graduate from college you'd be set right now yeah but most people don't because shit comes up you buy a house you have kids and you're constantly you know bleeding out money you know it's like yeah
SPEAKER_01:and then also by the time you pass the age of 30 you're also losing you're declining in your musculature right unless you were specifically working on it absolutely every single year so i get i Both points. I do think that younger people, they are more about-
SPEAKER_00:Choose a side.
SPEAKER_01:Well, see, but I think that they're motivated differently. The younger people, they do want to focus on health and fitness, but they're focused on the aesthetics of it. When you get into the older crowd, they want health and fitness too, but they're looking for longevity. Am I going to be able to
SPEAKER_00:play with my grandkids? Movement,
SPEAKER_01:yeah. Will I be able to play with my grandkids? Will I be able to be in full range of motion?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that one commercial where the old man is doing the kettlebell. Yeah, the
SPEAKER_01:kettlebell. That's an awesome commercial. But in finances, again, it's the motivation. Young people, they want to have their finances in order so that they can go clubbing and do the things.
SPEAKER_00:No, they don't have their finances in order. They just go clubbing.
SPEAKER_01:Well, whatever. Whatever they do. But when you're also young, you You have a lot of time in your... Well,
SPEAKER_00:I think when you graduate from college, you probably are making the most money you've ever made. So you're blowing it on
SPEAKER_01:crap. But you're invincible and I'm going to go out and I'm still going to work and I'm going to do all
SPEAKER_00:these things. And they do. And they go out Friday and Saturday.
SPEAKER_01:And we can't do that or I can't do that anymore. Not since we were in our 20s. But when you get older, then you start thinking about now retirement age. And especially now, will Social Security be there when we retire? Who the hell knows? Yes. So... We need to know whether that 401k is going to be enough or do I need to retire and then find a supplemental job to bring in more money.
SPEAKER_02:So there wasn't anything for that middle
SPEAKER_01:gap? There's nothing in there for that middle gap.
SPEAKER_00:It's probably all over the place.
SPEAKER_01:I'm not going to say that it's not in there. This is more surface research stuff. It's not like I went in-depth for all the peer
SPEAKER_00:reviews. No, we need a doctorate-type research, sir.
SPEAKER_01:I just wasn't given the amount of time necessary to do that sort of deep dive into this sort of stuff. But what I will tell you is that success by age. Data suggests that younger age groups show better commitment early on. They have more time. But they may also be more likely to abandon resolutions over time due to broader distractions. Okay. Marriage, kids, jobs. And now social media and all the other things that are going on in their lives. So that brings us to, if y'all are ready, SMART goals. How do we become more successful? So SMART, in this case, is an acronym. S is for specific. M is for measurable. A is for achievable. R is for relevant. T is for time bound. Now, if you need to pause this episode, rewind a little bit, and write that down. This is how you are going to be successful in whatever resolution you set.
SPEAKER_00:Repeat
SPEAKER_01:them. It needs to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. Right? So, as an example... For somebody who is setting a fitness goal, let's say for running, you want to run a 5K. You can find a lot of programs out there that are usually labeled something like couch to 5K. And they'll give you a running program, but if no one's there to help you push you into that, how do you keep yourself accountable? You have to create a smart goal. So this one would be like run a 5K in under 30 minutes by the end of summer. you can be more specific by adding specific days of the week that you're going to run. You can be more specific by saying how many miles you're going to run on each one of those days. The more specific you get, the more successful you'll be.
SPEAKER_00:I also heard, like if you heard it, read it somewhere, that if you tell other people what you're doing, then it helps to make you more accountable.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I'm really glad that you... that you pointed that out because I've taught smart goals specifically in the finance piece of it. And you can define all this stuff, but it really does help to have accountability. Now, you can be accountable to yourself, and some people have that drive. Yeah, some people are that strong. But for the majority, they need somebody that's going to say, hey, how do you come along with this strategy? Absolutely. Right? And just like the example that you were giving with Joaquin, yes, he's seen his progress, but I think what layers it on more is that you're telling them that. Yeah. So that accountability piece, like, look, you've gone from 95 pounds to 200 or whatever. Yeah, 225. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Don't dock him.
SPEAKER_02:That's a huge go. When you're doing that, that accountability partner... is the one that is just kind of surfacing that, maybe providing some encouragement. But overall, they're holding you accountable.
SPEAKER_01:That's if that works for you. For those that are self-reliant... you still need to be specific in your goal, and you need a way to track it in order to do that. For somebody who knows that they will not be self-reliant, then part of that SMART goal means finding an accountability buddy, somebody who will check in with you. Maybe it's somebody who has similar
SPEAKER_00:goals and is doing it with
SPEAKER_01:you. Somebody who's going to the gym with you,
SPEAKER_00:or even if you're working at each other's house. I think that that that lends itself to be more okay. Cause it's hard to find someone to work out with. And then it's hard to find someone that is going to actually do it. Cause now you're adding variables. Like what if they can't make it, do you still go like, so it, Oh my God, it's so hard to find someone to go to the gym with you at the time that you can go.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Now I will say this. I, I, um, I'm not specifically just trying to, plug the business i work for but the where i do work i work they don't sponsor us which is over there in hemisphere if you find a place that teaches group fitness classes and it becomes part of your smart goal yeah to go to a specific class every tuesday and thursday right that's where you begin with that and then throughout the year it even though it's your your resolution to do something uh health and fitness wise it doesn't mean you can't modify your goal you can modify your goal especially if you say uh that to begin with i need to start with working out two times a week in a structured way yeah and i'm going to take it to three and then i'm going to take it to four
SPEAKER_00:now i will agree with that like i'll speak speaking specifically like if you're have your own workout routine now if you join orange theory or your whatever energy x whatever it is you will find people there Right. And that already go at that time. There's an accountability community. So my wife goes to Orange Theory and then she met a group of ladies that go and they will call each other. Are you going to this class? Yeah. Because if you're going, I'm going, ah, you know, our favorite trainer is not doing it. Is this one? Let's move it. Let's go tomorrow at this time because he'll be there or she'll be there. So I think it's easier when you go to a community type workout like Orange Theory or that. But I was specifically talking about like Our routine is just me and Joaquin doing this routine. That's hard to do. But that I completely agree because I see it in my wife. Like they will call each other. I'm going tomorrow at 10 a.m. Are you going? And when somebody calls you, you're more apt to go rather than, you know, just kind of like. Because if you have
SPEAKER_02:nothing else, you oblige yourself
SPEAKER_00:to that.
SPEAKER_02:And I will even extend it. So that's optimal. Somebody that says, hey, I'm going to be there. And now you've got to meet them there or you're going to disappoint them, right? Correct. But I could even say whenever you create a SMART goal and you share that with somebody that's going to hold you accountable. So let's say it's somebody that can't work out for whatever reason or can't be with you or maybe they're not even physically able to go, right? I think just having that person say, hey, David, you know, How's your progress going? I agree. Oh, you said you were going to do this? Oh, okay. So are you going to go tomorrow then? Just that little piece of it. Get off my ass, man. Literally, it does do a lot. It shines
SPEAKER_00:a light on it. Absolutely. At the meeting, we were talking, and I was talking to Miguel Torres, and he does cycling. I was like, well, Miguel does cycling, right? And he's like, ah, man, I got to get back to that. And so, yeah. So when you post about it, right. I know we hate people posting about stuff, but I think it does help other people asking, Hey, how's it going? Like, Aurelius, for example, one of our brothers, is posting a lot of stuff about work, and I'm like, that's awesome. That's an accountability
SPEAKER_01:post,
SPEAKER_02:which can be useful. He's taking up that time in the gym with that exercise machine recording. I don't
SPEAKER_01:need all those exercise videos. You don't need them all, but I will say this. Given the generation that we're in right now that likes Celine a lot on social media and videoing, right?
SPEAKER_00:By the way, we put out a video every week or so for our So be on the lookout for that. Hold us accountable if we don't.
SPEAKER_01:So if you look at these videos for Aurelius, or whoever does this, right? Yeah, I think they're awesome. And you can see progress in him, which, good for you, Aurelius. Congratulations on all that work you put in.
SPEAKER_00:And everyone else that posts videos about your progress. Good job.
SPEAKER_01:Well, the ones who were actually doing it for that reason. Here's the
SPEAKER_02:thing, and he specifically, or maybe even others, didn't necessarily ask for us to check in on him, right, on that task. But let's say three, four months from now, now he's not posting videos. Yeah, we're going to ask. Me, as somebody that cares about his– cares about his progress as a person and a well-being, I'm probably going to say, hey, bro, are you still working out? I haven't seen a post in a
SPEAKER_03:while.
SPEAKER_02:And it could be something, or maybe he transferred that and he's telling me, so I'm not going to ask him that. But once again, it's that accountability and usually the ones that care about you the most or that are invested in your progress.
SPEAKER_00:Even people that you haven't talked to, like when I was, so I run twice a maybe sometimes three times a week. And I used to post my times. And I get a text or an instant message from somebody from high school. I was like, I haven't talked to these people. They're like, you're a runner now? I said, no, I'm not a runner. I'm just running. You kind of notice that running is the biggest bang for the buck as far as burning calories and the shortest amount of time. It's just a good exercise. I hate it. but it's a good exercise. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Well, you know, and I think one of the, one of the cool parts of being a part of the, professional fitness community
SPEAKER_00:for me too. Okay. All right. Sorry, David, let's walk out. I'm just saying. It's
SPEAKER_01:professionals
SPEAKER_02:now.
SPEAKER_01:Give me
SPEAKER_02:a dollar, I'll give you a
SPEAKER_01:dollar. This is one of the best things for me as being a fitness professional is whenever one of the clients who is a regular at the studio, but they set a goal, right? Whether it's for rowing or the amount of muscle that they wanted to gain or whatever it is. But whenever they are doing an accountability post and they ask me to be a part of that photo so that they can log that in
SPEAKER_00:whatever way they choose to.
SPEAKER_01:Most of the time for these people that do that for me is because I've been the coach whose class they prefer to go to. Oh,
SPEAKER_00:so you're leading the class, so they want to– it's like taking a picture with your favorite teacher, right? Right, exactly. That's exactly what it is
SPEAKER_01:because I help them
SPEAKER_00:on that journey. Yeah, Letty does that with her trainer, and she's like, I love her. So I get it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I love that part, being a part of– All of that stuff. You're
SPEAKER_00:sitting there like a proud dad.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's what you do that for. That's when you feel the best about what you do is when somebody wants to include you in that sort of accountability.
SPEAKER_00:Do they challenge you? Because my son challenges me all the time. And I'm like, bro, I'm not trying to make varsity.
SPEAKER_01:I just want to maintain. No, I challenge
SPEAKER_00:them. Yeah, because Joaquin's like, Dad, are you going to go up in weight or what's going on? And I was like, no, bro. Like, I don't need to go up in weight. I'm fine right here. Like, I don't need a freaking bench 310 or whatever. You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't need to do that. 225 is fine. And he's like, well, you know, you stayed at 225 for like two years. I'm like. Get off my ass. Been there, done that. Playtime's over, dog. We're just trying to
SPEAKER_01:maintain. I want to take a quick second now to address. There's one of our other fraternity brothers. I won't name him specifically.
SPEAKER_00:Why not? Where about naming names, dog? I don't
SPEAKER_01:know if he would want me to.
SPEAKER_00:He does. He specifically... Wait, hold on. Let me check my phone. Yeah, he just texted me. He said, go ahead. Get out of
SPEAKER_01:here. He specifically talked about... when you want to do health and fitness things at home um and be accountable to yourself i think largely maybe because i don't know you you maybe you don't feel comfortable going to a gym or yeah you gotta you gotta work out at home so you can go to the gym okay yes and and maybe that's his motivation um what i would say is is that initially in the fitness realm uh health and fitness people put so much pressure on themselves about trying to automatically uh fit a specific ideal that they've put in their mind right like if i'm gonna go if i'm gonna go work out it needs to be at whatever intensity for at least 30 minutes 30 to 40 minutes none of that is true right if your smart goal starts out with let me get three to four weeks or through the month of january showing up three to four times a week for five minutes, right? That's something. It's progress. It's progress. You show up four times a week for five minutes, and you go walk or jog or whatever your ability level is, and you use that as a success rate and don't judge yourself for it. And then after January, you try and move that five minutes to 10. And then in March, you move that 10 to 15.
SPEAKER_00:Are you then going to tell them like the– The biggest lie, or no, it's not the biggest lie, but the biggest truth that health people don't tell you that if you start running two miles, you feel great and you get all this, you know. Euphoria. Yeah, the runner's high. Yeah, which doesn't. It doesn't happen for me. But let's say you run the two miles, right?
SPEAKER_01:No, there is a runner's high.
SPEAKER_00:There is, but I've never felt it. I need
SPEAKER_02:the Snoop Dogg version because it had hit me.
SPEAKER_00:No, I felt it. So you run the two miles, but then your body adjusts to the two miles. And now you're not getting as much as you. So now you got to run three miles and then four miles. So I want you to talk to the people like myself that have been running for 15 freaking years and capped out at four miles. I don't want to run anymore. What do you do then? When now you're running three miles, now you're running... You know what I'm saying? Because I don't want to run a marathon. I don't want to do that. But you're not getting what you used to get because your body has adjusted. I
SPEAKER_02:have an idea on that, but...
SPEAKER_00:I mean, I've switched over to basically the HIIT training, right? To where you sprint, jog, sprint, jog, sprint, jog, sprint, jog.
SPEAKER_01:But why?
SPEAKER_00:Because I don't want to run four miles anymore. You know, it's just... It's too time consuming. It's, you know. Okay. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01:You're asking a fairly broad question.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I'm saying that's what they don't tell you. Nobody talks about that.
SPEAKER_01:All right. And I would, while trying to simplify it as much as possible, because this is almost its own topic. Right. But if you have reached a point where you're at the end of your motivation for doing one particular thing. Right. You need to redefine your goal. And then your plan needs to be modified to fit that goal. So for instance, let's say that you have reached four miles of running and you have no interest in running any further than four miles. However, what you do want to do is get either faster or more powerful in your running. Okay. Then you modify the plan to incorporate like sprint intervals in your training. Right.
SPEAKER_00:Which is what I've, Switched over to,
SPEAKER_01:yeah. Running against resistance, either bands or one of those little parachute things if you're going to run out in the open. Don't do that.
SPEAKER_00:No, that's crazy. I do have one, though. You brought it out to Legacy. I know you
SPEAKER_01:do. You got a singlet, too. You did. I did because when I was a power lifter, but I think Miguel had that last.
SPEAKER_00:No, I think it burned. I think they burned it.
SPEAKER_01:wherever it is. So anyway, there are ways for you to modify. I would say in general, you're going to need a condition change in the direction of what you want to
SPEAKER_00:achieve. And it's because your body adjusts to it. And the same thing with weightlifting. You have to either increase the reps, increase the weight, do something to kind of shock.
SPEAKER_02:So going on that shock, the thing... I definitely haven't done any research on this, but the thing that I believe helps is just adding diversity. So if you've been doing running and that's your cardio, I mean, at the underlying day, if you're not trying to improve your running, because I fall in the category, I could care less. I hate running too. Couldn't care less. I couldn't care less. I don't give a damn about running. I'll run and I do it as part of I need to to maintain health, that type of stuff. So the other things that I find when I switch to just create that diversity. So I'll switch to the, what's it, the stair climber thing. I
SPEAKER_01:don't do elliptical. I don't believe in elliptical. That one's boring. So let me address this in the real fitness realm. If you don't, if your only goal is to keep moving, then diversify it by all means. Do whatever is going to keep you interested in movement because movement is ultimately the entry level. You need to move, right? If you are looking to progress in any certain way, you need to repeat the workout that you're doing because that is considered specificity.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and then modifying it. And especially if you enjoy it. So like if I enjoyed running, yeah, then I would... take a lot of the different scenarios that you suggested and apply those because I'm trying to improve at something that I enjoy or whatever. And obviously, if you're doing competitive, if you're in the competitive realm, then you really hone
SPEAKER_00:in. Yeah, if you start doing... One year, we did four half marathons. We did a relay race. I mean, that year, I don't know what the hell got into us, but my wife and I were signing up for the one in Corpus or... You know, when you run over the bridge and shit. Yeah, and we did one here. I mean, we just were like all about it for that year. And then the next year, she's like, hey, I'm going to do the rock and roll marathon. And I was like, you're good. I've done that. I will make a sign. Been there, done that. Completed it. I'll make a sign for you. But
SPEAKER_01:in the health and fitness realm, I'm going to leave you with two words. You can Google them. It's going to tell you what you need to know. Specificity. is the thing that you are going to need most. It's going to be specific to what it is that you want to improve in. And the second thing is going to be progressive overload. And progressive overload just means you are trying to do more of that thing over time. Whether it's weightlifting or running or whatever.
SPEAKER_00:What I wanted to get to is that there's going to come a time when
SPEAKER_02:you plateau.
SPEAKER_00:So that's what brings me what I wanted to bring. After I read that You should take a break after eight weeks of training just for your body to like kind of, you know, you don't want to overtrain. You know, you want to get crazy. So every eight weeks, you should just kind of take some time off and then start back up. That's the other thing that I that I read.
SPEAKER_02:Now, is that not do I do it? I don't do it. I was going to say, is it at a Christian McCaffrey level? of type training or,
SPEAKER_00:well, some people can overdo it. Some people can, I mean, that's where he fell. When you don't, what, when you over try to overdo it is that's when you start getting injuries. That's an injuries. Oh my God. They're the worst thing that can happen. Growing injuries take four to six weeks, you know, like, you know what I'm saying? Like, and so you don't want to over train. So you do should take some time off. Um, you know, maybe a couple of days, maybe it's okay to miss, you know, a couple of days and then get back on it. But I know I've, I've gotten injuries, you know, and then the older I've gotten, the more that they kind of, you know, like dislocated my shoulder. I frigging popped a frigging, uh, uh, a disc, you know, a slip disc. Cause I was, you know, uh, doing too much weight on a military press that, that type of stuff. And it took me out for like three or four months. So I, Just be careful with that. Like, we all want to be gung-ho, but it sucks when you get injured and you can't do it and you want to do it. Right, yeah. And the doctor's like, no movement. Like, I think I played two more flag football games after my shoulder was separated just because I was like, but it's not tackle. It's just moving around. It's just like, I promise you. It's still bad for you. Yeah, it's still bad for you, but that's the worst thing. And what I've gotten to as I've gotten older, we did a Spartan race one year. And then we did it on a Sunday, and I went to work out on a Monday, right? And I was still a little sore, so I was like, okay. I went through it, and I went, okay. Wednesday, I was doing squats, and I felt a little pull, you know, and I stopped. I was like, okay, we're done. I re-racked the weight, took the weights off, and I left because... I was like, if I continue, something's up. You know what I'm saying? So just listen to your body and stop. That's the important part. All right.
SPEAKER_01:Because you got into a bunch of different things here. Now, when you were talking about every eight weeks or so, this is called periodization or block training, right? When you're into something like that, if you're doing specificity training, progressive overload- Which is weight training. You're going to do any of this for eight to 12 weeks. That's your periodization, right? Or block training. You're going to do that for 8 to 12 weeks and then you don't need to take days off. You just switch your training up. Yeah, you just, all you do is trade out one movement for another in order to make sure that you are being optimal
SPEAKER_00:in what
SPEAKER_01:your body is being doing. It's the active rest that professionals call it. Yeah, you're not going to
SPEAKER_00:lose muscle in a
SPEAKER_01:week. You can do that if your main motivation is moving and you don't have goals outside of that. Even if you do have goals outside of that, you can change the movement but stay in the same muscle group and you still get it achieved.
SPEAKER_00:Did you answer the brother's question about working out without
SPEAKER_01:equipment? Well, the best I can tell him, I'd say that if more specific movement selection is needed, I could always give that. But whatever it is that you're going to follow, what I would say is... what I said before, and it's just to start out in whatever amount you think is realistic, right? Because it's too general, if I say, to go and do the movement until you are not motivated to do the movement anymore. Right. But that's totally okay. But for some people, that's as low as five minutes, and for some people, that might be 35 minutes. Well,
SPEAKER_02:I think just looking back on... my weight loss journey back in the day uh and what i did uh i basically had reached 225 pounds and got on the scale i wasn't concerned whenever it said 220 but as soon as it hit that 225 something in me just was like i gotta do something i don't know what it is but i gotta do something yeah so the first thing i did was just say okay i'm not gonna eat as much as i used to So from that point forward– Portions, yeah. Yeah. I basically said, okay, I normally eat this full plate. I'm going to cut it in half. And I simplified. I still ate all the desserts and all that other stuff that I normally did. I just essentially cut it down to half. Okay. Whenever I went out to eat, it was like, okay, now we're going to split a plate or whatever or– just bring me out half of it and box the other half and doing stuff like that. And I went down pretty dang fast. So within a matter of a couple of months, I was already trending down to calorie deficit to right around 200. And then once I reached the 200 mark, I got motivated from that. And it's like, okay, now I got to do some exercises. And I wasn't working out. I wasn't doing anything specific. So all I did was go outside and freaking walk. And I just walked for a little bit. And then one day I'm walking and it's like, I'm going to try running. And yeah, it was just a little, little half block or something like that, that I ran. And then it was just too much, but every day was just, just trying to prove one, just trying to one up the day before one up the last time. Right. Absolutely. And Then it got to the point where I dropped so much weight and dipped down to 155. And then whenever I was at 155, it was like, oh, now I'm scrawny. Now you've got to strength train. Yeah, now I've got to do some type of workout. And I knew that by signing up for the gym and knowing that I was going to have to invest.
SPEAKER_00:You're paying.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. It was like, now I'm going to stick to it. So what I would do. share with that brother is just simplify it to the things that you know you'll one-up yourself.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, but
SPEAKER_02:be specific. Exactly. Smart goals. You still
SPEAKER_01:have to set your
SPEAKER_02:smart
SPEAKER_01:goals. That worked for you, right? So now if I'm going to give a few more examples before I think we need to move on to a different topic other than health and fitness, right? But just to give a couple more examples of smart goals and what they might sound like in the beginning. Increase strength by adding five pounds to my squat max or bench max or whatever within eight weeks. Yeah, five pounds is good. Eat five servings of vegetables daily for the next month. Somebody who's got a health goal. Frijoles. Sleep seven hours per night consistently for two weeks because we know that for most of us that are in this 40s age group, that becomes harder to do. If
SPEAKER_00:you can sleep seven. If you can't, yes, but that's the
SPEAKER_01:thing is because you need that sleep
SPEAKER_00:to try and get there. Because there's some people that only need six
SPEAKER_01:hours. I don't know that they only need six, but that's what they operate off of. So you try to reach seven.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Practice yoga for 30 minutes three times a week to improve flexibility. Now, for anyone out there who's going to say yoga's not for you, I will tell you this. It's hard. It's hard. It's really hard. It is hard. Yeah. But especially if you are strength training, it's going to improve your range of motion, and you need that so that you have strength within the full range of motion.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you don't need to get crazy and go to ballet like Hershel Walker or anything, but
SPEAKER_01:yoga's hard. It's hard enough. But just take yoga every now and then and do your thing. Okay. Okay. Now, before we close it up here, I wanted to just pivot into– for some of those people that either are more concerned with the financial stuff or anyone who is 55 or older who might be more concerned with those financial things, smart goals for– Finances, right, is like if you're trying to build an emergency fund, your specific goal might be to save$5,000 for emergency expenses. The measurable piece of that would be to contribute$500 per month to a dedicated savings account. Correct. You can alter this as you need if you don't make the amount of money you need to make to save$500 because that's a lot. Right. But you can scale that down as you need. And take longer if you need to. But achievable is allocate funds by cutting non-essential spending like dining out
SPEAKER_00:or other things. Like podcasting. Or other things
SPEAKER_01:that you consider. You're going to have to be real, but what is superfluous suspending, right? And then you cut that stuff down.
SPEAKER_00:I know we're going to close it out, but here's something that has worked for me is I'm married, right? And I have my own account. My wife has her own account and we have a joint account. And that I've been trying to move to that for so many years. And my wife is like, why, why, why? And now it's, you know, I move over my quote unquote salary that pays for all the bills. And then, so we divvied up, you know, of course we don't make the same amount of money. So we just kind of do a percentage of whatever the, your, your salary is. So I have, we have the bills in the separate account. So it's the joint account that handles all the bills. And my account has whatever's left over that I use as my just spending for whatever dumb shit I want to buy. And she has her own account that handles that. But the bills are paid for. And then that's how you know how much you have and then how much you can put away. Now, my salary is this much. But, you know, because a couple of years ago or like say eight years ago, this was my salary. I kept it at that. And so our budget runs on my salary from 10 years ago. And so any increase goes into savings or vacations or stuff like that. So that worked for me as separate accounts.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and I would agree with that. I think with any New Year's resolution, I think the key is make it a smart goal and then simplify or automate as much as possible. Whenever it comes to money, there's a lot of tools out there where you can automate a lot of things. There was a... Well, not an app, but a company that had an app. It was called Digit at the time, and now it's called Opportune. And essentially what they're doing is they're looking at my overall spending habits. And then from that, they're stealing money. from my account and putting it in a savings for me. And what they do is they see those spinning patterns. So one day they may deduct 50 bucks from me. Another day it may just be$5. Another day it may be$200 from me. But that algorithm does it. And doing those kinds of things, now I have some money sitting over the side that I'm not even really paying attention to. Even doing, okay, through your workplace, a lot of times you can separate, okay, I want 80% of my check to go to this account and I want 20% to go. You can simplify a lot of things where it forces you to win. It forces you to meet that goal. Just like you did with saying, okay, my salary was this. If we can live off this, everything else is gravy.
SPEAKER_00:And
SPEAKER_02:what do we want that gravy to be poured on at this time?
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It simplifies
SPEAKER_01:it. Gravy boats. Okay. Now, let me get these last couple of financial ones in here before we end this right now. For anybody who wants to pay off credit card debt, an example here, and you can scale this up or down as your pay allows, but let's say specifically the goal is to eliminate$3,000 in credit card debt. The measurable piece would be to pay$300 extra towards the balance each month. Achievable is you Using a combination of a tighter budget and the debt snowball method. Google that. You'll see what that is. Relevant is it improves your credit score and reduces interest payments. And then your time-bound goal would be to become debt-free in 10 months. You have the same sort of thing for retirement. Increase your 401k by 15%. Raise contributions by 2%. Every quarter until you reach 15, which it will equal 16, but you know what I mean. Achievable, reduce discretionary spending to afford higher savings. So that's always going to be in the achievable area. Relevant is to secure a comfortable retirement, right? And then time-bound is to reach the target rate within 12 months. So you're trying to do this within a year. And then after that, you can pretty much name it. Save for a down payment, create a monthly budget, like whatever it is. You just need to be specific about the amount of money that you can put towards that endeavor. Do things like snowballing or the amount of money that you save by paying off a bill. And contribute to that until you start reaching the amount of money that you want to contribute in a way that helps you reach that goal. Along the way, be specific. Smart goals. Right.
SPEAKER_00:So is that our... That's our board-approved SMART goals. SMART meaning specifics.
SPEAKER_02:SMART
SPEAKER_01:goals are smart.
SPEAKER_02:I would make the motion that we accept SMART goals. Gravy bowls?
SPEAKER_00:Gravyboats. Sorry. Wow, you just derailed the whole podcast. Sorry, guys. Forget everything we said. It's all bullshit. Set those SMART goals. To
SPEAKER_02:achieve success in your New Year's resolution. Gravy boat.
SPEAKER_03:Get on
SPEAKER_00:that gravy chain. Being specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound, I guess is one word.
SPEAKER_01:Time bound, yes, it's a hyphenated word.
SPEAKER_00:It's smart-a-b. Well, you'll
SPEAKER_01:find different variations. No, because
SPEAKER_02:it's
SPEAKER_01:a hyphenated
SPEAKER_02:word. You
SPEAKER_01:only use the
SPEAKER_02:first letter. You'll find different variations on smart goals, but it's along all the same lines.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so there you go. Board approved. Board approved. Smart goals. We
SPEAKER_01:need the gavel. Nice.
SPEAKER_00:Done. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media or leave a rating and review. To catch all the latest from us, you can follow us on Instagram and Twitter. Thanks again and we'll see you next time.
