The Path to Healthier Living: Exploring Effective Strategies for Long-Term Fitness with Greg Lefever

Jeremy: [00:00:00] You've done it over and over again. You start a new fitness routine, eat clean for a while, track every calorie going in and out of your body, and it goes great for a while.

Zach: But then you take the day off, the kids get sick, or you just lose the motivation to keep going, so you quit. Beat yourself up. Go back to old habits. Today we'll talk about why that keeps happening and why developing your mindset is what you need to do first before you start building muscles. , we'll also have a few tips on how exactly you can do that.

So Jeremy, it'll come as no surprise that I'm a creature of habit and I like my routine and I like things a certain way. When I get outta that routine, I get a little cranky, [00:01:00] but, you know, usually okay. , so I actually went on a trip recently where like I couldn't go to the gym very often. I couldn't, like, I was totally outta my routine.

And, um, I made it through without beating myself up. I made it through and went back to my routine. I made it through and I was still happy with myself. And I don't know what I did.

Jeremy: Okay. Well, I, I was gonna ask you for advice. Maybe you have none because here's where I'm at. I was going gangbusters for the last few months. My entire routine was built around the idea that my kids have to be at the bus stop at seven 20 in the morning. The bus stop is the same location as the gym, so my whole day started with as long as they get to the bus on time, everything else is cake because I'm already at the gym.

I just have to walk in, execute, come back, vitamins, shower, work, boom, , off to the races. Everything's great. Summer break hits. [00:02:00] And, you know, you, you skip a day cuz everybody's gonna sleep in cuz it's the first day of summer vacation and, , the next day comes and, well, I don't, I don't want to, you know, get up and just go to the gym and not tell anybody.

They're gonna worry, they're gonna, you know, it's, they're gonna be nervous that I, that I'm, I'm not there for some reason. So I'm, I'm telling myself all the stories, all the reasons that I,

Zach: is so, I'm sorry, but that's just so not true. You disappear in the morning. Your whole family's gonna be like, oh, great. Dad's not here.

Jeremy: Hopefully, yeah, hopefully. I, I guess I'll find out tomorrow when I test this theory. So I haven't beaten myself up, but what I've done is instead gone, okay, if you're, if you're not gonna get up and go to the gym, you're going to move more. So I, I up to the steps that I have to get in , on non gym days, , trying to still, , eat well, trying to get all the water, do all the other things, but I can tell.

Mentally, I feel it. Like physically, I feel like crap, you know, not terribly out of the ordinary anyways, but mentally . This is one of those situations where the supplement you're taking, when you stop taking it, you notice it. This is that for me, my [00:03:00] brain is a mess. I wake up and my mind is just out of control immediately with all of the thoughts I need to, , deal with problems.

I need to manage work stuff, family stuff. Chaos in my mind all day and then dealing with just day-to-day stuff. And then I go to bed at night, lay down the, my mind just takes over and I, I can equate it to no gym, no, no energy moved. Brain wins the day.

Zach: Yep. But here's the thing. I actually do have some tips for you because I did get through, I, I actually do know what I did.

Jeremy: Okay, good, good. Because I could use all the help I can get right now. Cause I mean, I, listen, we talk about this a ton. Th this idea of you just have to do it right. There's no secret formula, there's no magic tips or tricks. You just gotta make yourself get out the door. But it's so hard to stop telling yourself all the old stories, all the reasons that you can't do the thing you need to do. But I know better.

Zach: Do you really?

Jeremy: I do, I do, but it's, it's that thing where, you know, my why is [00:04:00] enough when there's external motivation, but my why is not enough when it's all up to me.

Zach: I think I've got a really simple solution for you actually.

Jeremy: Yeah.

Zach: Yeah. Get off your ass and

Jeremy: Yeah. Shut the hell up and go to the gym, dummy.

Zach: No, seriously. Yours is a little bit more extended. , and right th there's three types of like, things that get in the way, right? There's the, like the immediate thing like, oh, a kid is sick, right? Right. That's one day you can get back on the wagon really quickly after something like that.

There was my case where it was like two weeks traveling. Right? I can plan for that and I can be okay, and, and I did plan for it to some extent. I didn't. Fulfill everything I wanted to do while I was away. But that's where my self-compassion comes in. He goes, you know what? Like this is, this is okay. I can fail for a little bit.

This is a good reminder of why I do those things in the first place, cuz I'm gonna feel the mental anguish later on. And then there's the third one that you're in, which is like, those kids are home for [00:05:00] months.

Jeremy: Yep.

Zach: See, you really gotta figure like this is, this is an opportunity for you to go, okay, that was my routine.

This is gonna be my new routine for the summer. And figure out what that is. Right? You can make the two week stay that I did like that was a micro adjustment. I knew I was going right back to my old routine. You've got so much time in between getting back to that seven 20, hitting the gym, doing the thing, showering, swallowing your supplements and getting to work.

You gotta figure out a new routine and that. That's the unfortunate part. Right? That's actually the easy fix is going into it and going, okay, I'm gonna get up at this time. I'm gonna go do this. Pretend you're taking your kids to school, man. And be like, I need to be at the bus stop at seven 20 still,

think of how quiet that walk to the bus stop is gonna be.

Jeremy: there is that.

Uh, here's the thing, every day, I 100% agree with you right now. I 100% agree with you. It is on my calendar. The alarm is set, [00:06:00] it goes off. I go back to sleep. The, you know, three in the afternoon, me versus 6:00 AM me. They do not get along right now. They are not seeing eye to eye.

Zach: sounds like you need an accountability partner. What time does your alarm go off?

Jeremy: Uh, I, I would like it to go off at six and,

and have me actually take action and get out of bed.

Zach: Okay, so that's nine o'clock for me, so I'll start texting you at 8 55.

Jeremy: All right. Deal. Because that's, that's, I know this about myself. I've, we have talked about this enough. I have been in this fight long enough to know that I will let myself off the hook at every turn, but if somebody else pushes me, if somebody else needs something from me, I am there five minutes early, ready to go.

Zach: Yep. I actually have, I have a system that I use for text messages to alert me when, , things are going wrong at work. I'm actually gonna, I'm gonna go into that and I'm just gonna blow up your phone.

Jeremy: All right. Do it because that's what it's gonna take.

Zach: [00:07:00] in all of these cases, whether you have one day off the wagon, you've got a short break, or you know, a longer duration break that you need to figure something out for. That self-compassion piece is really, really, really important to know that like, you know what, this is temporary.

This is not me. Yes, I'm slacking. Yes, I'm paying for it. But let me get the good outta this. , let me remember what this feels like so I know why. I need to get out of bed in the morning. I know why I need to move my body. Every time I'm in that situation and I start to feel like shit, I really try and take it all in and just remember it.

Cause that'll keep me going for like six more months of like, I don't wanna get up this morning. But I also don't wanna feel like that.

Jeremy: That's very much where I am right now , , , like , Yesterday was one of those rock bottom lows for me, where I was like, okay, this, that's enough. Like, I, I can't keep living like this. So I'm grateful for you to, to take over the, the helm of being my bus stop and making me get outta bed and actually get my act back together because feeling like this sucks and, [00:08:00] and I need this reminder every now and then that this is the reason I've put myself through that grueling routine all the time so that I don't have to feel like this the rest of the time.

Zach: we all lose motivation and we all feel like shit occasionally, and that's okay. That's being human. But get off your ass tomorrow.

Jeremy: All right. Well stepping in as my, uh, at least getting out of bed. Coach is Zach, That's just one example of how a coach can be really helpful in these situations. So for this episode, we've partnered with Greg Lefever. He's the owner of Empowered Women's Fitness in Orange County, California. There are premier outdoor fitness and fat loss facility, and we started the conversation by talking about how fitness routines are easy to start, but also easy to quit.

So what's a cheat code to staying on track?

Interview Greg LeFever - USB: Well, if you have an opportunity, get with a coach. Let a coach help you and support you. Part of the people are lost cuz they don't know what to do and they go to social media. There's a good place to get really lost. Everybody's the expert when they're really not.

They just heard something from somebody else. Hey, that's a cool post. I'll be like that guy or that girl. So really find a good coach that you bond with. [00:09:00] But aside from that, , don't change everything in one day. They think, okay, I've gotta change my diet. I gotta start exercising an hour and a half a day.

I gotta do all of these things. Massive overwhelm recipe for disaster. 99% of the times I'd be like one person ever change a whole bunch of things at once. So the best advice I'd give you is choose one thing. One thing in a day and start it. So if that one thing could be your water intake could be done, I mean, it's the simple stuff.

Carry a water bottle with you. Start carrying that with you. Get the water intake up. Start today. Do it a couple of days in a row, then take the next baby step. Okay? I've not been eating a enough vegetables. Find one you like again, don't make it rocket science. Find the one you like. Start adding that once or twice a day.

Now you've got that going for you. So the little tiny victories and the little tiny wins start adding up. Uh, and what some of my business coaches say are, you know, 1% better every day. If you're 1% better every day, end of the year, you're 365% better. That's an amazing place to be. And you know, we fall off the wagon and everything all the time.

So [00:10:00] day forward, a day back, a day forward and then get the head straight on that. You're gonna have backwards days. Know it. I, I don't say expected Expectations is another word for disaster, but know they're coming and just know how to deal with them and shrug them off, and then fix where you messed up.

And then another small step the next day. So, small steps. Small steps small. So keep 'em small. You didn't get where you were today, all in one day. You're not gonna fix it all in one day either. So that's my first thing with my clients. Like, let's pick one thing and let's go there. And then accountability.

Find somebody. You asked me for one thing, I just answered like six of them, but, uh, sorry. Off.

Jeremy: worries. worries. No there, there's so much. Right? There's so much, and, and that's the trick is that it's never one thing. It's all of the things a little bit at a time.

Interview Greg LeFever - USB: And that's the key is you got, you nailed it right there. It's a little bit at a time. So choose the one that you like. Choose the one that you feel you can do to get yourself out of the gate, cuz you want the victory, you want the daily victory. I have ladies that show up at , 5 30 in the morning, . , it's [00:11:00] still dark, but their verse victory is I showed up. My whole system is about 30 minutes.

It's about the convenience of training and whatever it is, cuz they don't have time. Uh, we'll get into that in a little bit, but it's, it's the convenience. But they show up and I can only the complains every single day, five days in a row. Every day, every week, every month. Now we're into Every year she still complains.

You know what, she still shows up, which is the amazing part. I tell her, I say, I brag on you all the time. She's like, I don't like this exercise, but she does it. Oh my God, I'm so tired. I've been up for like seven minutes and then we're online. I've been up on for, I've been up for seven minutes.

I'm like, but you're still here. You hit the go button. You know that's a victory. Whatever the rest of your day is. That's a victory. Celebrate it. Go with it. You know, be proud of yourself for that.

Zach: When you said five 30, I kind of waved my hand a little bit, only because saw that I'm at the gym every day at five 15.

So, um, 15 minutes early. So those

Interview Greg LeFever - USB: five 30 people, are they, they're way late.

Zach: Yeah, they are. And I actually have to drive to the gym. So [00:12:00] I'm up at four 30 and it's a whole thing. Jeremy thinks I'm

Jeremy: this this interview has not been enough about Zach is the problem, so he is trying to make it

Zach: Okay. I,

I, I do, but no, no, I do, I do have a, I do have a question I kind of wanna drill in , onto one of the things you said. Totally agree. Pick one thing, keep it small, something manageable. I know for me, like when I'm looking at that thing, like I'm going, okay. Great. I'm gonna pick the one thing, one small thing.

This is great. Okay. My options are about 1.5 million things. Yes. To pick. Yes. And I could do a hundred thousand of 'em. And these ones I like and those ones I like. How do you pick just one to start with , cuz I'm that guy who goes, I'm gonna do 35 things all at once. How do you temper that?

How do you go through the process of figuring out which one is the right one to start

Interview Greg LeFever - USB: with? Great question that that's exactly the point. There's a million things I Jeremy said the same. Oh, not to take the spotlight from you, but you guys are both saying the same. We're having some fun here. The not you guys are both saying the same thing, which I [00:13:00] totally agree with.

There's a million things to do. I always like to like, okay. One of the most important things people don't do enough is just simply water . What are we drinking? Coffee all day. Drinking sodas all day if you're down that ugly road. But what's your water intake? Your body's 70% water. If you wanna start with one thing to get your health back on track, start with the water.

Get yourself, you know, 60, 70, 80 ounces of water. They say one ounce per body weight. So it depends if you can drink that much water or not, don't overdo it. Don't make yourself sick, but you know, drink more than you did yesterday. I got a 40 ounce water bottle cuz okay, I've been doing this a long time.

Guess who's deficient A water me. So I went and got the really cool water machine, so it's got the nine five on it. But now I carry the 40 ounce bottle. My goal is to drink three of those a day. If I miss three, at least make sure I made two. Still a victory. Absolutely. Cuz before I was barely one. Mm-hmm.

So yeah, add two's, better. Three's even better. So start with the water and then you gotta step back. This is where your coach can kind of help you too. It's like, okay, some people say, oh, I eat really great. [00:14:00] Mm, okay, I hear that a lot. Then go look at what they're really eating. Write down for me, let's take a peek.

But if somebody in the professional realm can kinda look at your whole scope and say, This is where you are. Cause like you said, every single person is different. You may have a health issue, you may have a disease, you're fighting, you may be pre-disease, you may be weight loss. You may be weight gain. I have a client that's weight gain.

She's like, I don't, I don't think I eat enough. I got digestive stuff and she was training more and she's like, yeah, I'm doing more cardio. I'm like, stop. Stop with that. Immediately get the weight training in. So for her, she needs to be lifting weights. She's a very, very tiny lady, but she needs to weight train to strengthen cuz she's got, you know, my ankles are kind of weak, my bones are weak.

So she, in her instance, needs to be strength training. You gotta have muscle on this body to, to carry you through all the other activities. So that's her thing. I already know she eats well. I've seen her diet, so that's not her issue. So we need to find out really, it's, that's again, go back to the coach and say, just even if it's a consult that your people can, your group audience, [00:15:00] you're welcome to consult with me.

I'll offer a free consult for anybody on the show. Just tell 'em that, uh, that, that they were watching your show and I'll help 'em out. But you get that consult to say where are you and what's gonna, what's your top three? So usually it's water. Usually it's protein. For the women, we'll stick with the women.

The subject, it's protein. Women are almost always deficient in protein. Oh, here. Oh, I had chicken today On, in what? Oh, on. Had some on my salad. Okay. And what else? Oh, that was it. Then I had a little of this and a little of that and you know, a few sprigs of lettuce and some broccoli. Like that's not gonna cut it either.

I always tell 'em You like your fingernails to be strong. Oh yeah, yeah. You like your hair and when it's all shiny and long and your lashes, oh, it's all great. I'm like, that's all protein, like Oh really? Yeah. Every cell of your body. Protein. So you need to feed that. So let's get it in there. Had a lady, quick, quick example.

I had a lady, she was stuck. She's like, I need to drop five more pounds. She was stuck on the number, so, okay. We, we all know that it's not always the number. Um, cuz on the height weight chart, I'm like six one. On the height weight chart, [00:16:00] I'm really five eight. So according to the chart, I'm just not tall enough.

Um, wait, I'm weighing an inch strong though, but, okay. But yeah, I'm, I'm weighing in. Perfect. But for her, she wanted to hit the number. I said, fine, let me see your diet. I looked at her diet and she was a little deficient in the proteins. I said, add, I said, add just a serving. Don't overdo it. Just add a serving here and here, just two specific spots.

She comes back a week and a half later. Week and a half. She's like, you're not gonna believe this. I'm probably am. Uh, she's like, I dropped the weight. I said, what did you change? She said, I followed what you said. I just added the protein in and it kept eating everything else that helps control her blood sugar a little bit.

Added the protein her body needed, cuz she's doing some form of training every night. Not hard training. When I say training, I mean she's doing a Pilates class, she's doing some yoga, she's doing some fitness with me. It's like one here, one here, one here. But she's so, she's so active that she wasn't, she wasn't repairing and restoring her body.

Soon as she did that, her body was able to recover and operate better. So now she obviously more muscle burns, more fat. [00:17:00] She just proved it. She's like, I just dropped the weight. I'm like, awesome. Next time I saw her, I'm like, dang, you can see it even. She's like,

man, she's, she's tighter. So that, so I would say water and protein.

The first top two things. Make sure you're getting enough of those.

Jeremy: One of the things that gets so much attention, and, and you touched on it here, is the, the physical activity. Everyone feels like I've gotta hit the gym for an hour a day and I've gotta run six miles after that. And if I don't do that, then I'm never gonna drop these 5, 10, 20 pounds, whatever it is. And of course, it's specific to everybody. Everyone's goals are different, their body types, the, all the stuff that's going on inside is very different. Does it need to be an hour at the gym? Can it just be more walking? What, what do people need to do physically to get, uh, to get their bodies where they're hoping to get them to go? And I guess we'd probably be mostly focusing on weight loss since that seems to be sort of the dominant, uh, concern for most people in our culture.

Interview Greg LeFever - USB: Sure. Great question. Yeah. The, the old stigma of that many hours in the gym and well, that's what throws this women group particularly off. It's like, well, I don't have time. I, if I had a dollar for I don't have time, [00:18:00] we'd be talking and I'd be on the beach in Maui, um, during our interview. , because it's always, I don't have time.

I don't have time. So that's my book. Making time for You is all about that. We train here 30 minutes. I do train men cause I'm at my house, but it's primarily women. 30 minutes, you come in, you come flying in the dark quick warmup. I've got a strength full body calorie burning program that if you're working it for the 30, you're done.

Um, I've had a couple pro roller hockey guys come in 30 minutes. People are like roller hockey, like pro guys. I'm like, yeah, 30 minutes. You train 'em, right? They're done. Now they just still go do stuff the rest of the day. It's not wreck your day, but for that 30 minutes you are ramping the whole thing up.

So like these ladies, they come in and these ladies are like, they, they are getting after it. They know what they're gonna do. They come here for a reason. Nobody comes here for an easy day. I always go, it's an easy day. They always look at me like, There's no easy day. I'm like, that's right, I like to hear.

But the 30 minute mark is enough to burn the calories. Set your metabolism again, set your mind space, right? So all of those [00:19:00] things are firing for you, but that gets it done cuz you get the heart rate up, the muscles work in. Again, we work on a lot of full body stuff or multi-joint movements. So again, it's not, we don't stand there and do curls very often or single muscle things.

You know, you're, if you're doing a a row, usually it's a squat row together kind of thing. And anybody at any level can do this stuff. It's not, oh, I'm not an athlete. I can't do that. You don't need to be. I've trained women that are older with a group of just like varying ages in a group, and we're all doing this thing together, but it's based on your level of where you're at.

So yeah, 30 minutes seems to be the mark. It's, you can find 30 minutes in your day. You can get it done in 30 minutes. Uh, personally, I'm training around the 12 to 15 minute mark. A couple times I, I split it up cuz again, you know the business and you're doing other things, but okay, I got a break. So like after this I'm gonna go train, I'll go hit train for, or I heavy hit train for like 15, 15 minutes.

Done.

Uh, and again, too much. You get to a point in life too where you go too much, [00:20:00] you're gonna hurt just cuz you train too much and that's not the point.

I say, you come here to train better, to live better when you're out there. That's the point. Train hard here. Live better out there. I said if you want me to, if you want me to train you to be sore, I can.

I've done that whole, I've done that a few times in my day. You guys know how to do it, but most people are like, no, no, I'm good. So we trained to not be sore, but to be effective. So 30 minutes. Higher intensity, definitely strength training. And you're done, you're done for the day. You're gonna burn the, you know, excess post oxygen consumption.

It's a fancy thing. So, but you're gonna, basically, for your listeners, you're gonna burn calories longer, you said? Yeah, but I just, I just did the treadmill for an hour. Yeah, but you're gonna stop burning calories within minutes of that. You're burning sugar calories there, that's just a steady, slow, steady sugar burn unless you're up, down, up, down, up, down.

Whereas here, you're gonna rest. You're gonna go up, getting down your, now you're fat burning, you bring the furnace into play and then you burn a lot longer. So 30 minutes seems to be the magical mark. Uh, not just, not just physically, but mentally as well. They're like, oh, I got 30 minutes. That's why this lady's [00:21:00] come here at 5:00 AM 5:30 AM They're like, I'm in, I'm out.

I go take care of my kids. Everybody else take care of the husband. I'm off the work, whatever it is, 30 you're in. Get after it and then get out.

Zach: All right, let's bring the spotlight back to me. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Just kidding. No, I, I, I do, I do love that. Like I, I personally love the, you guys are funny.

Go in, you do what the coach tells you to do, and you get out. Like there's no thinking involved. It's just there. But, How much of this and how much of your work is not the physical workout and the controlling of what people are eating, but really helping them with their mindset. , you go into something like this looking for a change because your mindset's off.

Mm-hmm. How important is mindset and how do you help people navigate the change in their mindset in order to complete something like this? Because it is life altering to make these changes.

Interview Greg LeFever - USB: Right. It, it absolutely is. And most people do the whole yo-yo thing because their mindset's not right. , Jeremy, you said it earlier, you know, people going back and forth, back and forth and just stumbling, falling, whatever, cuz something back there has set you up to fail [00:22:00] again now.

Well, I've never been able to do it. Oh, I've never lost this much weight. Oh, I've never weighed that. Or I used to weigh that in high school. That was 40 years ago. So when they come in, when they come in and have a a just a general open discussion with, with me when we start. That's what I'm kind of listening to what they're saying.

I'm listening for those key things that you were just talking about. Say, well, I used to this and I've never been that. So we start eliminating. I said, let's start taking all of those negative words outta your vocabulary. When you feel your mind start to say, I never stop it. Acknowledge it. Say, oops, I said it again, but take it out.

Switch your verbiage to maybe I haven't in the past, but today. I'm moving towards that. So today I'm moving towards that new size. Today I'm moving towards eating better. Today I'm doing these things yesterday, doesn't matter. It's gone. So a lot of it's getting that mindset to today eliminating the old ones that got you.

There's some people need a deeper conversation to say, what? What got you here? It's almost always something in your childhood with your parents. That's just how life is and, but I've had a lot of these tons of discussions. [00:23:00] I have a nonprofit, I teach kids to high school age kids, and a lot of it's like that stuff right now with them.

It's like, Hey, okay, let's reframe that mindset of yours. You can do this. You can be what you choose to be. So with these ladies, it's like not what your husband says. It's not what the social media says. Where are you today? What's realistic for you? How do you want to feel? Let's make you feel strong about yourself.

Um, I like to use the words I am, you'll notice the spelling of the, the empowered fitness , starts with a, I starts with a i on purpose. It's intentional. So empowered is I am empowered. It's like the saying I am, I am as a state of being.

I am what I am. Here I am. You know, causing a victory for myself today. I am empowered, I am courageous. Some of these ladies are, I am a cancer fighter. I am a, I am a survivor. Like, you know what, you take those. It gets strong with 'em. You are this, what are you today? So you get that in your mindset and when you start feeling that back pedal, stop, go.

Okay, wait, wait, no, that's old. If we can acknowledge where it came from, recognize it, and then move [00:24:00] on to today. So to your question, how much of it's mindset, man? Huge percentage. Huge percentage of that. Just cuz I gotta keep showing up. Some of are like, well, I'll start and stop again. Well, okay. Why. What's caused you to stop, I'll have that discussion with 'em right from the get-go, so I can get in it with them and say, okay, that's again, that's the past.

Let's erase that. What are you, what are your new habits gonna be? So the mindset is huge. It's, it is way in the high percentages. I had a lady that just started and she was kind of like that, and I said, okay. I said, I'm, I hear you.

I acknowledge what you're saying. Now let's start reframing. And she started, okay. She started talking a little bit of different, and then when they leave, I make sure their mindset is straight when they leave. Look at what you just did today. , Again, the small victory, erase the past negativities, celebrate that little victory before you leave.

Jeremy: That reminds me. It's, uh, there's a quote from Alex Hermo that I'm gonna butcher, but it's something to the effect of you don't get confident by shouting affirmations in the mirror. You do it by building, uh, an undeniable stack of evidence that you can do hard things. It's something to that effect, but I mean, that's where it comes from.

You know, you can tell yourself all the flowery things all day [00:25:00] long, but until you can show yourself the proof that you're worth it, it's really hard to adopt that mindset and from mindset

Let's shift while we're in the head. Let's talk about mental health. I know for Zach and for myself, , we like the way that it makes our body feel.

We like the way that it makes our body, , look to go to the gym and, and all of that. But the way that it impacts our mental health, it is really for, I think both of us, the foundation of managing, you know, depression, anxiety, all kinds of mental health issues. Do you experience the same thing with your clients?

Is that the, the, is that a similar story for, from what you ex have experienced?

Interview Greg LeFever - USB: Absolutely. Uh, the conversation yesterday with the lady, she's coach, I need to start coming back more. I just don't feel as good when I'm not here. I don't think it physically, my and her mind starts, she's the lady that will go start spinning backwards on her mindset. I said, remember where we were?

Remember where we've been now? Where we've gone together? She's like, oh yeah, yeah, okay. I remember where I was now. And so part of that is, is yeah, but she starts to feel bad and then it starts to drop down. That hole worse. She was bedridden at one point, like, why are you bedridden? Oh my back. And it wasn't her back.[00:26:00]

Her back may have been sore. But it wasn't her back, it was her head space where she felt like that. And sh yeah, she started kind of going backwards and down. Uh, same, same for me. If I don't train, I don't, again, I don't have to train hard. I'm, I'm 55 years old. I don't train, like I'm 20 anymore. It'll kill me.

But just training outside my son's 13. However, I had to keep up with him this week. We had to push some heavy weights. I'm like, my wife's just shakes her head. She's like, you're gonna pay for that. I'm like, I know, I know, but I still have to. But you know what? When I was done, I'm like, oh man, if I had to, I still got it. And that made me feel good. That okay? Yeah. I still got it. And my son's, we were kind of betting, we were having some guy fun betting, and he's like, and he, he refused to bet with me and his final comment was, I, I did way more than, than we'll tell what we did, but way more than we talked about.

He said, that's why I don't bet with you. Like, there we go, we're bet against you. I'm like, but there we go. It's, but my mindset was, oh yeah, I'm gonna pull this off. I know I've done it. I know I've been there. I can do this, I can do it without hurting myself. I'm gonna feel good when then I did it and I'm like, oh man, it just felt so good.

[00:27:00] I'm like, yeah, it was great. So yeah, the just, just the mindset of, and it was me and him together. So there's a lot of good things that happen right there. Um, yeah, I have people that come together, ladies bring their daughters when they're back from colleges or even late in high school. They're training together.

It's a bonding time too. So again, there's mental, emotional. Goes with that. So there's all the, again, there's all the different things that can be mental, emotional, that tie together on that. So mental health, absolutely exercise. The oxygen, the basic science of it. Oxygen, blood flow. It's in my book too. Is the part of the mental fight is it is just get up and walk around.

Get up and move, get up and be social. So I said we're creating c a community here. It's not my community, it's the community of ladies. I got six of 'em that'll come together. They come, if you're not here, they're like, Hey, where's so-and-so today? They could be. Then they're on a group text too, which is great, and not great at the same time.

Cause I'm like, ding, ding. Now they're having a con. These ladies go train and then later in the afternoon they go play pickleball now. So now, but they didn't all know each other when they got here, but now they're like, Hey, yeah, let's go play together. So it's the [00:28:00] community, it's the goodness, it's the they, she said the mental thing.

They're not necessarily like that close friends, but they're doing things and being social. The social element is, is important.

And that's, and that's uplifting for the mental health. A hundred percent.

Yeah,

Zach: totally agree. Um, you know, the gym that I go to, it's, it's not just because of , the physical work.

I mean, yes, I, I'm sore a lot of the times because of the physical work. Mm-hmm. But, you know, the community is great. You know, the friends that I have there are great, , the outpouring of support of that gym is fantastic. And, you know, like I was just texting with somebody from the gym mm-hmm. You know, six hours after we worked out.

Nice. And, you know, so it's, I totally get you like, I feel better when I work out. But that community is like even more like it, it just gives you that, that, that upper limit of, of the mental health foundation. , we're running short on time though, so you've mentioned your book a couple of times, so I'd love for you to tell everyone about that and.

, the, a program that you've got going on as well?

Interview Greg LeFever - USB: Yes. [00:29:00] Thank you very much. The book is called Making Time for You. It's a 30 Minute Solutions to Good Habits and Being Healthy. It's on Amazon, so you can look up Greg Lafe by name. It'll pop right up or making time for you. It'll pop up. Like I said, we hit number one bestseller.

That wasn't because of me, it was because of my client my, it was because of my community. Again, the community thing was amazing support. They're like, oh, we can't ready to get it. They were excited, which is, which to me, that was the overwhelming part, not that I got a book, was the community. , the second piece is our fat loss program, uh, which you can sh uh, hit me up on the website, which is empowered fitness.com.

It's, it's part of the fat method, which is the little bit of a fasting element, but an easy fasting element, , guaranteed to change your whole lifestyle. It's something you can implement forever and a day. There's education to it. It's an eight week program. Super simple. Again, I don't like the rocket science.

I like keeping things simple for people. Simple to understand, simple to implement, simple to work. Um, I'm doing it with my clients too, like you said. You know, they gotta lead from the front. So I did. I'm four pounds down in three days. So, you know, a few small changes. [00:30:00] I just made the few small changes. Am I training more?

No, not at all. Am I doing all these? Well, you live in a gym. No, I don't. I don't. That's a misnomer. We, I don't want to see it half the time. But again, following the program and that program has a Facebook community with it. So you're in our private Facebook community. You're there with the like-minded people supporting each other.

So just to your point right there, it's all about that. It's the community, it's the support. I'll show you how to do it, but it's the community of support that gets you there. So if they're interested, they can reach out to, uh, shoot me an email as well.

Zach: Thanks to Greg Lafe, owner of Empowered Women's Fitness. You can find links to him and his work in the show notes for this episode@thefitmess.com. And one of the things that he mentioned was, you know, surrounding yourself with the supportive community and I, I, I cannot say if, if anyone is ever in the Albany, New York area, you can come to the gym I go to because.

That's probably 90% of the reason why I go to that gym is because of the community there. , the coaches walk around and say Good job and offer you tips and this and that, but, [00:31:00] Most of the time, , if there are people who have finished a workout and I'm still working on it, other members of the gym are like, you know, rooting you on and like you clap for other people. It's just, it's such a fantastic, , community for me and there's friends there.

That's important to really find. If you can find that, if you, and trust me, it takes time to find, but like finding those people can really help you along in your journey There.

Jeremy: Plus, I'm pretty sure Zach will text you at six o'clock in the morning too. So just ask just to just reach out and let him know. Uh, one of the other keys there that, that. Greg talked about is consistency, and this is a lesson that I struggle to own, and it's that consistency doesn't necessarily mean every single day.

If you get in most days compared to maybe where you started, where you did no days, that is consistency. And if you can build it into your schedule, you can build upon it. So if zero days a week becomes two or three days a week, that can easily become four or five or six or seven days a week. The key is to just start and to start trying to build it into a schedule that is easy to [00:32:00] repeat so you don't fall into the trap that I've fallen into where you're looking at the calendar every day, wondering how you're actually gonna get outta bed on time.

Zach: , and also when you do get outta bed tomorrow, celebrate that milestone every little milestone. , , it's really important to recognize the wins. I was talking to a friend earlier today and he was using the analogy of like getting, you know, a kid getting a report card and it's got like six A on it and a b, and everyone focuses on the B and why wasn't that an a? What about the other a's like, celebrate the wins.

Like really focus on those. Know that you can turn that B into an A

Jeremy: All right. So a lot of great takeaways there. And there are also a ton of myths about the best physical fitness routines and strategies. So for this week's bonus clip, we asked Greg which fitness myth he would like to see die in a fire. Here's a hint. It's all about cardio. So you can find his take on that by subscribing to our newsletter.

The link to that is on our website, the fit mess.com, and that's where you'll find another new episode from us in just a few days. Thanks for listening.

Zach: See everyone.[00:33:00]