The Subtle Changes Happening Right Now with John WInters

John [00:00:00] Everyone focuses on the first milestones with kids, but you don't realize when the lasts happened until they're not happening anymore. Going through the second time around with the new one, realizing just how many times where we're like, I didn't realize when the last time my son wanted to cuddle was.

John And being able to appreciate that more. So, the big focus is not missing it the second go around, but also realizing that there's more moments with the oldest to take advantage of and not let them go before it's too late.

Speaker [00:01:00] Welcome to the Modern Masculinity Podcast, where we delve into the depths of what it means to be a man in today's world, and we explore the real life challenges and triumphs that you and I face every single day. My name is Hector Sanya Steon, and I come with no answers, only questions for some of the most wise, insightful, and grounded men that I know.

Speaker So get settled in. You're listening to Modern Masculinity.

Hector John, welcome back to the Modern Masculinity Podcast. It was great to have you back again.

John Thanks for having me. It's good to be back. Appreciate the invite.

Hector It's so fun getting to have these conversations again, because I mentioned it before we hopped on that so much has changed and so much has stayed the same.

Hector So I'll sort of throw that question to you. Since our first recording, what's changed for you and what's been the same?

John [00:02:00] I mean, the biggest change at this point would be having a new baby. He'll be 10 months in a couple days. It's been very different this go around, having a baby to deal with in my 40s versus 30s with our oldest.

John In addition to, no two kids are the same, so trying to figure out is it hard 'cause he's different, or is it hard 'cause we're older and have more things on our plate, more expectations of us beyond just parenting? Definitely a big difference there.

John What's the same is we're still working on building up our clientele base in the studio, trying to add more coaches onto my staff to be able to impact more lives.

Hector Yeah, I told them, and I've talked about this much more early on in the show, but it's worth mentioning again that raising one kid is like playing a video game on normal. Back in Madden it would've been like, we went from rookie to pro mode.

Hector It was like you're playing pro and you can win. The score might be close and you're winning some games. Having two kids is like playing on All Madden because you're outnumbered, essentially.

Hector It seems like it's two on two sometimes, but it's not the same, and it is an exponential difference in how much harder it is. It's not a linear progression there.

Hector And also, are you… is being older something worth thinking about and preparing or working around and towards?

John [00:04:00] I mean, in older, I guess there's kind of two aspects to it. One, just obviously being older: the sleepless nights, the constant stress and drain of dealing with a kid who's maybe upset all the time.

John It's harder to bounce back and recover from than what I remember the first go-around when I was in my early 30s.

John But there's also the other aspect, and I've talked with my wife about this, where we each have a lot more going on our plate than what we did the first go around.

John When our oldest was born, pretty much made the decision where I would take my moonlighting training and just go fully independent with that. But I was only working in the evenings, so I was free to deal with everything, raising him and taking care of the house.

John During the day, she'd get off work, I'd go train clients, and it was a pretty easy tag-team effort.

John Whereas now, I've got an entire business, I've got employees that are dependent upon me being able to focus and produce for the business, 'cause otherwise they don't have clients to train and they suffer.

John Meanwhile, I still gotta make sure everything's taken care of at home, but now there's more to take care of 'cause there's two kids, not just the one, and you're trying to give attention to both, but they need different types, so you can't even double it up that much.

Hector [00:05:00] And kids are so different. People can ascribe to whatever sort of personality tests that they identify with, whether it's Myers-Briggs or the Enneagram or whatever, but I was plugging mine into an AI sort of thing because I was just at my wit's end.

Hector We come home from the after school, from Boys & Girls Club, and they are just trying to duke it out in the backyard. They're coming to blows sometimes, and I'm sitting in this and wondering because there's this pattern.

Hector I threw all of it into the AI and sort of their personalities and such, and then it was like, oh yeah, this totally makes sense.

Hector These are two totally different people who operate totally differently, and they've essentially gotta… they're forced into this confined space all the time, every day, and have to deal with each other, whether or not they want to or not.

Hector And I have some compassion for them, and also I was like, "I need solutions," or, "We need to change."

Hector We've had a number of conversations with them: "Guys, you guys gotta figure out a way to coexist. Like, you guys are gonna be…"

Hector I think one of my daughter was like, "I don't want him as my brother anymore."

Hector And I'm like, "You're stuck. You are…"

Hector stuck.

John Yeah. I mean, I would say that's probably the one benefit of having such a big age gap between the two. We haven't hit major sibling squabbles, rivalries like that.

John I would say the big challenge that's always more apparent to me is having the younger one now, realizing everyone focuses on the first milestones with kids, but you don't realize when the lasts happened until they're not happening anymore.

John Going through the second time around with the new one, realizing just how many times where we're like, I didn't realize when the last time my son wanted to cuddle was.

John And being able to appreciate that more. So, the big focus is not missing it the second go around, but also realizing that there's more moments with the oldest to take advantage of and not let them go before it's too late.

Hector [00:07:00] Yeah, that saying of like the days are long, but the years are short has been really… I've been really relating to that, mostly because the house is a mess and I felt like the whole weekend all we did was just clean and then on Monday it was like, did anything happen here?

Hector And so I've gotta find grace and also realize that there are seasons to it as well, and finding and appreciating the beauty amidst all of the dishes perhaps. But it is an active process that doesn't happen on its own.

Hector Talk to me about longevity, 'cause I think one of the things I was excited about talking to you, and it's sort of a… I think you're getting put through the wringer yourself, I would imagine, so that you can help your clients in the future.

Hector But longevity has been this sort of maybe it's a buzzword, but I would imagine that as people are getting older and they're getting into their 50s or 60s, nobody thought about health span, right?

Hector Nobody thought about how you're living into it. But I would imagine that's something that you're dealing a lot with. What are your thoughts on that and how you're having to live that again, being a dad and sleepless nights and all the things?

John [00:08:00] Yeah. Definitely more on my mind for two aspects of it. One, the here and now, and being able to stay healthy and fit enough to recover as effectively as possible on nights where I'm only getting two to four hours of sleep because what's going on with the baby.

John But also in the aspect of, I'm 42 and I have a 10-month-old.

John If he doesn't have a baby until when he was my age when I had my first, I am gonna be 72, 73 when he has his first kid.

John So being able to not just last, but actually function—and that's the key aspect—where our lifespans have gone up, but our health spans have stayed relatively the same, if not decreased.

John And what I mean by that is modern medicine allows you to live longer because you don't die from whatever ailment or disease that comes up.

John But the problem is everyone's still developing a lot of these diseases at around the same point in time, which tends to be somewhere between 40 to 60, depending upon how severe the causes are, either because of genetics, lifestyle choices, environmental exposure, what have you.

John So what we try and emphasize and focus on is: how can we compress that health span to match lifespan as much as possible so we're not just living longer, but in basic misery of coping through disease that extra one, two, three decades of life that medicine gives us.

John And being able to actually function, do the things that we wanna do, maintain our independence rather than being stuck in a home, and actually participate in our children and grandchildren's lives.

Hector [00:10:00] Yeah. What's interesting is that as you're talking about it, it's something that is very easy to sort of put out into the future and go, "Oh, I will deal with it then."

Hector But I think that's exactly the opposite of what is the reality, because when you get to then, it's almost too late to start dealing with it, and the stuff we do now is actually what's gonna make then better, easier, or even possible.

John Exactly. And that's one of the real challenges: there's not enough education that most of the diseases that we're dealing with in old age now are metabolic-related diseases.

John The groundwork is being laid in our late 20s, our 30s, and early 40s.

John And if you're not being proactive, by the time you get a diagnosis, you're behind the ball and trying to play catch up rather than actually being preventative at that point.

John It's a much harder game to win versus being preventative, being mindful, and taking care of your body and your health from the get-go to lay a better groundwork for your future.

Hector [00:11:00] Yeah, it's always interesting that—my parents' generation… it's nice to see them coming around.

Hector My mom used to be someone who the concept of what she ate and that affecting how she felt was just… there was a total disconnect there.

Hector It's weird that they were able to get the hood drawn over them so quickly because it's like, what did you think was gonna happen by shoving all of this crazy stuff down your… where did you think it went?

Hector But it's nice to see them sort of coming around, and also I think there is the next step because it's okay, we are what we eat.

Hector People used to think that was like an old saying, but no, that's true.

Hector Okay, great—eat healthier. That's helpful. Got it.

Hector But I think a lot of people are like, "Okay, what does that mean?" Or, "How do I do that?" Or, "How do I do that in a practical sense?"

Hector 'Cause when you talk about mitochondria and all these sort of things, I think there's another bit of nuance that is really important to the conversation so that people understand it's not just: yes, eat your vegetables; yes, cut out processed food.

Hector That's sort of the basics—getting us to ground level. If we really wanna be optimal, there are some other things that can get us there.

John [00:13:00] There are, but there's a lot to be said for: if you're eating primarily whole food ingredient nutrition, doing strength training two to three days a week, and then moving your body in another form every day for at least 30 cumulative minutes, that's gonna set you up for pretty good health well into your late life.

John Without having to get overly obsessive with a lot of the other sciences, extremes, spa-type techniques and things of that nature.

John Those things can help, those things can optimize, but just those basics go a long way in getting people on the right track with it. And unfortunately, those basics are highly ignored.

Hector As I'm thinking about the question, it's like: A, they're sort of sexy, but then also it's really just ignoring the basics.

Hector It's trying to allow people to cheat, right? If I do all these things, can I still eat my Oreos? If I do all these things, can I still go out on the weekends and drink whatever?

Hector When, to your point, just getting back to the basics is probably gonna fix most of the issues that we're running into.

John [00:14:00] 100%. That's definitely been one of the big things I've seen the past couple years with the introduction of the GLP-1s into the market.

John People mistakenly look at it as an easy button cheat code, not understanding that you still need to do the foundational habits to get the most supreme benefit out of it, and to mitigate the potential hazards that people see with it.

John I know there's a lot of scare information about people's hair falling out, bone density issues, muscle loss, things of that nature.

John Whereas if you're focusing on a protein-forward, heavy vegetable diet for your nutrients, you're strength training two to three days a week, and you're moving your body every day, we don't see those negative effects come with it.

John And you're actually losing just fat instead of fat and muscle as part of your weight loss journey, making you more metabolically effective to keep the weight off and less dependent upon the medication to do it for you.

Hector Yeah. What has been your experience and what are your thoughts on all of the peptides? I guess that's a large enough branch to have a whole episode, but what's been your thoughts and perspective on those?

John [00:15:00] They're all good, effective tools, but the base work has to be there first.

John What these are meant to do is help amplify what's going on, or in the case like GLP-1s, to make it easier to make the decisions that you need to make.

John And what I mean by that is everyone focuses on the GLP-1 and the aspect of appetite suppression, which is phenomenal for a lot of people who have struggled with that with their dieting.

John The idea though isn't that you just let it make you eat less of whatever junk you were eating before; it's that you use it to make it easier to make good choices in your nutrition, to create healthier habits as a foundation for your life going forward.

John So when it's time to come off of it, you've already laid the groundwork to be successful with these new habits, with the new nutrition things.

John So even though your appetite increases, you're used to eating better foods, so the likelihood of overeating to a point where you're gaining weight again becomes marginalized.

John 'Cause it's harder to overconsume whole ingredient natural foods at a point where you're gonna put on massive amounts of weight.

Hector It seems like with anything, with any sort of modality or technique, you're trying to fix something and you're trying to put this Band-Aid over whatever.

Hector But in any sort of change, there has to be a change at the root—an identity shift that people go through that's going to make it sustainable.

Hector Because time, Father Time or whatever the saying is, undefeated.

Hector Eventually our identity is gonna catch up with us, and if we don't shift and augment that, then at some point inevitably we're gonna end up either where we were or there's gonna be some sort of side effects created because our choices are leading us into an unideal direction.

John [00:18:00] For sure. And I think that's the misnomer that a lot of people don't get enough of the information on.

John The peptides, GLP-1s, they're great tools, but you need to be doing the right basics first.

John Otherwise, it's like a high school athlete buying shoes to run faster when they don't do enough running training to begin with.

John The shoes really don't matter if you're not doing the basic work to improve your speed and improve your performance to begin with.

John These are meant to optimize the good decisions you're already doing in order to further advance results. They're not meant to replace the foundational work that starts it.

Hector Yeah, and I'm not speaking from any place of knowing. This is simply an assumption.

Hector But I would imagine that the people that are prescribing these things are just handing them out like it's Halloween. They're seeing an opportunity to make some money on the back end of it, and there's not a thorough enough…

Hector I would imagine a lot of people need it, so that's not what it is.

Hector But to your point, a coaching and an education of this is not just a magic pill. This is a path—an accelerated path—that requires doing the right things and some of the foundational elements.

Hector And correct me if I'm wrong, but that hasn't been our society's MO to have those conversations when there is a money-making opportunity in front of them.

John [00:19:00] Unfortunately, not for the majority of it. Most companies are out to try and optimize what the market wants right now, and figuring the easiest way possible to deliver it.

John And unfortunately, coaching, working with people—that takes time. It takes compensation for whoever's doing the coaching.

John So it's hard for companies to optimize and scale that. So they just focus on how quickly and effectively can we get product to the customer, and then put the onus on that person to figure out how to do it right.

John That's one of the areas where we've really optimized for that, because we were already doing the coaching and the workout programming to begin with.

John So we've partnered with a lot of key groups that offer the GLP-1s, offer the peptides, but we provide the coaching and support, so they're doing the proper groundwork to get the most effect out of it for their clientele and for ours.

Hector Yeah, I would imagine that if someone is paying attention or they're using society as their influence on their decisions, it's not going to lead them down the right path.

Hector It's interesting that steroids and peptides and all this sort of stuff has become trendy.

Hector I grew up and came of age in the '90s where someone like Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire were like the devil because they took steroids and then hit a baseball.

Hector And now it's like there's YouTubers and 16-year-olds and all these people being praised and getting all this attention—positive attention—because they are…

Hector It's trendy to inject their butt. It's interesting that it's popular in mainstream culture.

John [00:21:00] Yeah. The looks maxing community is definitely at a concerning component of social media now. I've heard a lot of people comment on it.

John They're pursuing this because they don't wanna go through the difficult phase of the teenage transition, not understanding that you were going to get to that look and that point relatively naturally if you would've just waited for your 20s.

John But instead, they're choosing to try and rush there by overexposing their body to exogenous hormones that have a huge amount of health risks that come with it, especially starting that young, to achieve something that would've happened with time and proper habits to begin with.

John People underestimate the impact of consistent training over years or decades and what it can do for someone's health and physique.

Hector Yeah. The popular YouTuber… I don't even know how to properly say his name, Clavicular, I think is how you say it.

Hector He was notorious for doing exactly what you did: got onto all of these steroids at a really young age.

Hector I think he's 23, 24, something like that, maybe younger.

Hector But now he says he wants to start having to try to start having kids.

Hector So now he's taking all these other hormones and injecting himself with all these other things just to get his reproductive system going and back up again.

Hector There are some really long-term implications, and it's scary that he's at such an early stage of his life.

John [00:23:00] And I think the scarier thing is that he was able to find a doctor willing to provide him with the steroids and testosterone replacements without the education of these are the risks that come with it in the long term.

John It's unfortunate that not enough of that is being discussed.

John Testosterone replacement's a big thing. More and more men that are younger are trying to get on it for obvious reasons: what it has the impact on physique, mental clarity, energy. It is beneficial.

John As someone who found out their testosterone was too low, and that was the reason why my back was falling apart, it can be life-changing.

John But you need to understand all of the potential risks and effects with it, and make an educated decision from there with your doctor, not just because of what an influencer is doing on YouTube.

Hector Correct me if I'm wrong, and push back on this perspective and mindset that I hold if you disagree with it, but it seems like with testosterone specifically…

Hector We'll restrict the conversation to that hormone specifically.

Hector It seems like it's probably worth trying all of the other holistic, natural ways to sort of generate it, before we start pumping ourselves with endogenous testosterone.

Hector Not that's a choice that you don't wanna consider, but it seems like once you make that choice that you're stuck with that choice, or you have to live with that choice—and all of the things that come along with it.

John [00:25:00] Yeah. And that's the challenge because people don't understand that our hormones are a cascade of different signals until the final stage, and testosterone lands somewhere in the middle of that communication pathway.

John So if we're fluxing an external source into it, it disrupts every signal prior to that, and those signals influence other things beyond just testosterone.

John For example, with the fertility aspect, you're disrupting that 'cause you're telling the body, "We have enough testosterone. You don't need to tell the testicles to increase your sperm count."

John There's other areas that it impacts that need to be understood before someone makes choices with this if they've got other things that they want to do in their life.

John For me at the time it was: I'm essentially at risk of not being able to function because of how much my back was falling apart.

John So it was like even if I had kids, I couldn't do anything to help take care of them at the time, which was a major issue with our firstborn and reason why I went ahead with the therapy to get better.

John You should look at some of the other options that naturally you can do it if your body allows you to do it. Not everyone's does, and that's the reason why the therapy's there.

Hector Yeah. It's an interesting phenomenon that's happening as all of these options—medicine, technology, whatever you wanna call it—become available to people.

Hector There's just as much education that's necessary as well.

Hector It used to be: go to the doctor, they'll give you the answer. They have all the answers.

Hector Mostly because we couldn't have the answers—it was impossible for us to get or to have the answers.

Hector But I hear a lot of doctors talking about how they're upset now because patients are coming to their appointments with knowledge and information, and so that's basically on par with what the doctor has.

Hector A lot of doctors are not enjoying that they're having to raise their game. I think the best ones are enjoying it.

Hector But it seems like now there's this need to inform ourselves or educate ourselves that wasn't the norm before. It was just trust the medicine and trust the doctors and listen to the experts.

John [00:27:00] Yeah. There is a certain aspect of responsibility to be informed about your own health.

John Obviously there's good sources and bad sources on the internet that can lead you astray or get you better prepared for that discussion with your doctor.

John But also understanding that most doctors don't have a full understanding of the impact of nutrition and what it can do for our health.

John And understanding that even a lot of aspects of mainstream nutrition has a slightly different skewed focus from what other areas of holistic and naturopathic may have, because a lot of medicine and nutrition looks at what's the minimum needed to not get sick versus what's needed to actually be optimized.

John One example is protein recommendations. You'll hear for people who are focused on trying to build muscle, influence strength, and optimize performance, the protein intake tends to be much higher than what the RDA is.

John And the pushback would be like, "Well, you don't need that much protein to maintain basic health."

John It's like, well, I'm not trying to maintain basic health, I'm trying to optimize other areas and components.

John One of my pushbacks with that is: the RDA for vitamin C is extremely low 'cause it was based on what is needed to prevent scurvy.

Hector Yeah, it's like: what do you need to get across the Atlantic Ocean?

Hector No.

John [00:29:00] Yeah. But we know that taking higher doses of vitamin C up into the 1,000% RDA has major impacts on our immune health, other aspects of wellbeing, and it's understood the impact that it has.

John So there's a difference between what is normal versus what is optimal.

John Same thing in aspects of monitoring your blood work.

John I recommend you should be going to the doctor to get basic evaluations when you're well, so you can actually compare later if you're unwell what's actually gone differently and what's truly wrong versus what's actually outside of the margins.

John 'Cause there are some times where you may come in what's considered normal, but it's low normal, whereas optimal for you was at high normal.

John 'Cause some of the ideal ranges are very broad.

Hector One of the things that I'm glad that I'm coming around onto… and it's great to see people that I care about and love who—

Hector I don't ever try and be the zealot who tries to convince people to go vegan or eat more protein or whatever.

Hector I tried to do that and I'm too weird that I try too much stuff that to try and convince all the people of the things that I'm doing, I would lose too many people and relationships.

Hector But I say all that because creatine has been something that even what I would call the normies are coming around to the value of creatine.

Hector I remember growing up thinking, "Oh, it's just to make my muscles bigger, but it's just all water weight," and there were all these negative connotations about it.

Hector Even once I got past and started learning about the health benefits that it has on the brain and also on things like sleep deprivation, it seems like one of those things that like, why not?

Hector And I'm sure we'll look up in five to 10 years and it'll be like people will be treating creatine like how people take their daily multivitamin.

Hector But I think that's one of those supplements that a small input can make a really big impact.

John [00:31:00] For sure. For sure. New developments come up with that all the time because there's so many aspects of the body, the different chemicals involved in it, and the impacts that they have that we just don't even know yet.

John For example, the GLP-1 pathway was a happy accident of diabetes medication that we discovered had a huge impact on weight, and now that's blowing up.

John So there's always new developments, new research coming out. And that's a good thing, but it's also important to stay informed so you understand how whatever you're taking works, what the impact of it's going to be—benefits and consequences.

Hector Yeah. I don't think I can get in trouble for giving creatine to my kids, but I've even been throwing it in their shake. I don't tell them because if I tell them, they'd think that it's yucky.

Hector But I've gone a couple of months with them because I think that we have to be proactive with our health.

Hector It's not something that can just happen on its own, 'cause otherwise if we just go with what society's doing or with what's easy or convenient, I don't think that we're set up to… that's not set up to be longevity minded.

John Yeah. I like the saying where one way or another, health is gonna become a priority for you, either 'cause you make it a priority preventatively or because it's the only thing that matters now because you're trying to not die.

Hector Right. Probably better to think about it when it's coming up early.

Hector Are there any other modalities, techniques, technology, certain machines even, that you find are working well with your clients or that your clients are enjoying?

John [00:33:00] The different trackers and things are definitely a big component now.

John I always tell clients, whether it's food journaling, activity tracking, sleep tracking: the more information I have, the better recommendations I can make if we hit some sort of snag—whether it be I'm not losing weight anymore, or I'm exhausted and tired, or I'm not recovering well.

John The more information I have, the easier it is for me to identify what changes need to be made either in their nutrition, in their sleep routines, in the training in general, 'cause there's different variables that impact that.

John And if I don't know what's going on in those, I'm really only guessing at that point.

John Whereas if I know exactly what and how much you're eating, I know what the quality of sleep is that you're getting, I know how much movement and steps you're getting outside of the gym, and obviously I know what your workout protocol is, it's much easier to pinpoint what we need to change if there's an issue.

Hector [00:34:00] Yeah. Tracking has made it a lot easier.

Hector To your point, though, it's an internal decision, 'cause even I find myself not wanting to know.

Hector I don't wanna know how many calories the Oreos were, especially when I think I start with one mini pack, but that ends up as two mini packs, and it's like there's an internal battle that I need to fight.

Hector So anyways, they do help, and I've recently enjoyed utilizing AI to tell me the amount of calories and macros and all that sort of stuff.

Hector 'Cause there was so much friction before in having that information, but now there isn't, and so now it's just whether or not we wanna look ourselves in the mirror or not.

John [00:35:00] Yeah. And it's really great 'cause there's other components of physiology that people don't appreciate when we're trying to do major weight loss.

John If we're really cutting calories, we're really trying to push our movement through formal workouts, the body will start adapting by not making you move as much as you would have during your day-to-day practices.

John So having the step counters, the heart rate trackers, things of that nature so we can really see what's going on during your workday.

John Are you lethargically sagging in your chair when you used to be up and bouncing, maybe going to the water cooler four or five times a shift, but now you're not moving at all?

John That's a big difference-maker metabolically that we have to address.

Hector [00:36:00] Yeah. One of the things that I've noticed is: okay, you want to start working out and eating better or eating less, usually what it starts out as—eating less calories and more workouts.

Hector But then my body is not given the right nutrients, both from a macro level, but then also the micronutrients.

Hector I'm not paying attention to those, and I'm depleting and running out of all those, so my body ends up breaking down.

Hector Three, four weeks into a program, I end up getting sick and exhausted and worn out, and then it takes another X amount of weeks to even get up the courage to try again.

Hector And so it goes through this feast or famine cycle in terms of health that I would imagine other people go through if they don't have the support and education around them.

John 100%. One of the biggest challenges in a weight loss program is managing what we call systemic fatigue, because cutting your calories creates systemic fatigue 'cause there's not enough to truly energize the body for the day.

John That's really how we're losing weight, because we're forcing the body to go into its reserves to provide that energy source.

John But now we're also adding more movement and physical demands on it that have the demand during the action, but also the recovery aspect of it.

John So all those come together and compound where we want it to be just enough that we're seeing weight loss, but not so much that it's compounding so heavily that it's impacting our day-to-day.

John All of a sudden we're struggling to get out of bed, we're avoiding activities during work or home when we would be up and about, we're choosing to just lounge in our chair, and we're starting to get burnt out with our food.

John None of that is conducive to being able to be successful with the program and seeing the goals achieved with your weight loss pursuit.

Hector [00:38:00] Yeah. It's coming back to the value of education and support and community.

Hector When I do it on my own, I have my own challenges with having a coach or a trainer that I have yet to get over.

Hector But for me, when I go out there, the first couple days I go balls to the walls, and I'm gung-ho, and it feels good in the moment.

Hector And then the next day—or really, it's the two days after—is when I feel it.

Hector I would imagine having a coach or a trainer, someone to sort of walk through, can help maintain or ease into some of those things, because that's a big part of sustaining it too: not crapping out, and being able to continue on.

John Yeah, and that's one of the areas that we really try and focus on with our programming and coaching.

John A lot of programs out there are set up on a 30, 60, 90-day hardcore transformation challenge to make your body change.

John And they work, but the problem is that the demands of that aren't conducive long term to keep up.

John So you have two modes to basically operate: this super challenging hard mode that's difficult to keep going, and the mode that got you in trouble in the first place.

John And people struggle after that transition on, "What am I supposed to do now? 'Cause I can't keep doing this 'cause I'll kill myself, or something will get hurt, or I'll get sick because it's too demanding on the body and systems start suffering. But what I was doing before wasn't good for me either. What am I supposed to do now?"

John So what we focus on for people is: rather than having them completely alter everything and go super intense, we look at kind of the minimum effective dose of change.

John What can we change to still see progress with your weight loss and your physique changes, but small enough that you can keep doing it for a very extended period of time, if not forever.

John So two to three days a week of strength training—30 minutes is more than enough to start seeing physical changes in your muscle structure.

John Daily movement, whatever type of movement you wanna do, whether it's step tracking, formalized cardio, dancing—doesn't matter, your choice. Let's build on that little by little.

John And then nutritional changes: optimizing better choices, starting with your proteins, then your vegetables, and then we can pick what your carbohydrate is, rather than going carbs first and filling up on that and missing out on the other nourishment.

John But we provide the information and we have the client pick: what are the two or three things you can put into action this week?

John We start with those. They master those. Then we pick the next two or three things, or we coach on what the obstacles are in being successful with those.

Hector [00:41:00] Yeah. I think for me, the biggest challenge that I've had is the timeline for results, right?

Hector You put in a lot of effort and the systemic demands are really high, so there's not a lot of sustainability there.

Hector So you see fast results, but they don't sustain themselves.

Hector Or you push the timeline out a little bit and it takes a little longer, so you've gotta be in it, engage a little longer.

Hector But it seems like when I've been able to do that, the results are a little more sustainable too.

John Yeah. And that's the idea: we wanna make changes that can actually stick.

John Rather than be so severe and so rapid that yes, we see progress, but it's not in a way that we can keep doing, where the slightest challenge in life is gonna completely disrupt it and take us off the rails with it.

John Whereas if you just work on basic habits with the minimum amount of time needed for your workouts to see change, moderate leveraging of your nutrition that is gonna set you up better and better, we stack one success after the other.

John That sees progress, but keeping them in charge of the choices of what they change makes it more sustainable 'cause there's no resistance of like, "Well, I have to do this, but I don't want to do it."

John It's: "These are gonna be the best options. What do you wanna do right now?"

Hector Yeah. Great stuff, John. Appreciate you coming back.

Hector I've got two questions. First is if people wanna find out about you, come hang out with you in Arizona, or whatever, where's the best place for people to connect and find out more?

John [00:42:00] Website: lifestyleperformancetraining.com. We do both in-person work in Tempe, Arizona, but we do have online programs as well. You can find out more there.

John Follow us on our social. We're on Facebook and Instagram primarily, and then I do a weekly Q&A. I do it live on Facebook, and then I upload the recordings to YouTube every week.

Hector Amazing. We'll link all that up for you guys as well.

Hector And last question, John. I asked you it last time, but I'll ask you again, and maybe it's the same answer.

Hector But in your opinion, what is the definition of modern masculinity?

John [00:43:00] Modern masculinity to me is maturity, selflessness, and being able to pursue goals, but also appreciate the people that are helping you get there along the way rather than using…