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In this episode of Natural Health Matters, I'm talking with Allan Misner. Alan is a certified personal trainer, nutrition coach and a functional aging specialist. He's the host of the 40 Plus fitness podcast. And he's interviewed over 300 guests. And he talks about what we discussed what he's learned personally about health and fitness over the years and what he's picked up from his 300 Plus guests on his podcast. It's a it's a goldmine. Here, he's really shares a lot of great tips, things that we should all be practicing, especially if we're over 40. And we're interested in Aging Gracefully, and maintaining fitness or maybe eating improving our fitness over the years. So this was a great conversation. I think you're gonna enjoy this talk with Alan Meisner. Welcome to the Natural Health Matters podcast where it's all about maximizing your health potential, so that you can look and feel your best at any age. I'm your host, David Sandstrom, naturopathic doctor and biblical health coach, and this is episode number 111. Today, we have on the show, Allan Misner. Allann is a certified personal trainer, nutrition coach, and a functional aging specialist. He helps people over 40 lose weight and get healthy and fit. He's the host of the 40 Plus fitness podcast with more than 500 episodes produced. Alan, Welcome to Natural Health Matters.
Alan Misner 1:21
Thank you, David. I'm excited to be here.
David Sandstrom 1:23
Yeah, I'm looking forward to our conversation. You know, I know we have a similar mindset when it comes to fitness and in wellness. But I'd like to know a little bit about your origin story. How is it that you came about to doing what you're doing today?
Alan Misner 1:36
Well, I was a corporate executive. I was internal audit. So I was the guy everybody hated the most hated guy in the company. Nobody wants internal audit to becoming around. That was my job day in and day out. And I was actually really, really good at it, which made it even worse. But I was really good at it. So I progressed up the career channel, Vice President of a fortune 500 company. Everything's golden, right? You know, I'm making the money. I'm getting the stock options. Everything's cool. But I was freaking miserable. You know, I, I went on vacation actually forced myself to go on a vacation at this timeshare. Bought the timeshare so that I would have this lever to make me take a vacation every year because I would let my vacation time lapse. Because I was too busy working. Yeah. And I'm sitting, I'm sitting there and I come up to this timeshare place, and I'm going to work and then I see they have sand volleyball. And it was really exciting. I'm like, Oh, great, I'm gonna get to play some sand volleyball. And I got there the next morning, 10 o'clock, and I'm excited. And we start playing. And I barely made it through the first game. I literally was close to calling for an ambulance. I didn't think I was going to make it out of that game. And so I subbed out, and I'm sitting there trying to catch my breath. And I'm thinking, Okay, this was this was bad. And the next morning, I'm sitting on the beach, trying to meditate, trying to relax, and I just kept going back to that game. It's like, what, what, what is that, you know, I was an athlete, I was, I was actually really good at volleyball, I enjoy and love the game. And I'm like, I, I have lost something, I've lost something really important. And I didn't even know it was gone. And I just started thinking about all the things that I didn't have. I didn't have my health, I didn't have my fitness. My relationships were soured in and actually not very good at all. I just didn't like, who I was, you know, in all, you know, everybody looking on the outside, it was wonderful. You know, I had all the trappings of someone who has a great job and a great life and but inside I was I was dying.
David Sandstrom 3:46
Well, you know, that's a super, super interesting point is that if we are in a compromised state of health, we're going to be in a compromised state mentally, emotionally in our relationships will suffer, our family connections will suffer. A lot of things suffer. It's, we can't isolate the body in and of itself, can we?
Alan Misner 4:04
No, no. And I think the point is, you actually start absorbing toxins, you almost bring that you must attract them. Yeah, you because you become a magnet. Yeah. Because you're you're you're just basically not caring about yourself. And so as a result, it's almost like you're gonna say self punishing, you know, inviting bad things to happen. And so I was just miserable. And so I kind of made this decision. I said, Okay, I've got to do something, I'm going to do something, change my lifestyle. And over the course of the next eight years, I tried and failed and tried and failed. And I can tell you 100 stories of something great. I tried to do for my health and fitness and then how I fell flat on my face. Sometimes the day after, sometimes weeks after, but it was just this constant roller coaster of try and fail, try and fail try and fail. Yeah, and I found myself
David Sandstrom 4:58
A lot of people can relate to that. A lot of people have been down that road,
Alan Misner 5:01
You, know you gain and lose the same 20-30 pounds over and over again. And it's so frustrating. And so I woke up in a hotel room, I was traveling a lot for work. And I was just again, right back where I was when I was sitting on the beach, except I was on the other side of the world, in a hotel room. And I was hungover. And I was that miserable. And, again, just, I was like, Okay, wait, I said, this makes no sense. everything I've ever wanted to do. Well, I did. I'm like, I don't understand, you know, my career, when I want to do something exceptional. I do something exceptional in school, when I wanted to do something exceptional. I did something exceptional. I've always been a competitor, I've always been someone who could push myself to do the things that were necessary to be successful. Why is this different? What is different about health and fitness, and self care that I'm just not getting. And it was like a pop hit me. And I'm like, well, everything else I've ever been good at every thing I've ever done well, I made the commitment. To do it first, it was a true commitment, like, emotional, just like when I got married, I was in love with the idea I was in love with where that was gonna take me I was in love with myself. I felt like it was attainable and doable. And it was important enough to me that I would do everything in my power to make it happen. And I realized at that moment, I had not done that. For myself. I had not shown myself the love, the self compassion, the all the things you do when you make a commitment to someone. I had not done that for myself. And all the feelings of loathing and hate and anger and misery that I had for myself. It was driven off the fact that I hadn't actually done any of these things out of self love out of self compassion.
David Sandstrom 6:59
So what was your motivation prior to that point?
Alan Misner 7:03
There was not that that was the whole point, I had made a decision, but I really didn't have any basis behind it other than, well, I'm fat, I can't play volleyball, and I've lost something. And so there was a sense of loss, but there really wasn't a sense of love. There wasn't this thing to say, Okay, you deserve this. And you need this, and you're going to do this. And a lot of it was I think one of the other triggers was my daughter had just turned 20. And she become a CrossFit level one coach and all this stuff. So I was looking back at her and I was saying, She's who I was she like literally like as a an image of me at that age of fit and able and pushing myself. And she said something about a CrossFit challenge competition. She's like, Dad, you should come watch me. And I'm like, well, that's a kick in the teeth. Because I didn't want to be a spectator, my daughter's life. I wanted to be a participant. And so he or she was coming and say, Come watch me. And I'm like, No, I should actually be in that competition, too.
David Sandstrom 8:08
Yeah. How old? Were you at that point?
Alan Misner 8:10
I was at that point. I was about 46. Okay. And she was 20. And I was like, yeah, no, I said, No, that's that's not how this plays. That's, that's not my story. That's not how this happens. And so I said, Well, I said, Okay, if I was making a commitment to someone, and I told them, I was going to do this, I would be there. You know, like, if you, if your spouse needs you to be at the airport, they need to be at the airport at five o'clock in the morning. And they say, I need a ride. Where are you at five o'clock in the morning, you're dropping them off at the airport. So if I told myself at five o'clock in the morning, I need to be at the gym, then I should be at the gym. Right? And so I stopped making excuses. Because there were no excuses. And there was no cheating. And there was no any of that all those words went away. It was just like this is this is who I am. And, you know, I've heard it said another way was the be do have, which is if you are the person if you believe you are the person that you want to be. So you're being that person, you're gonna live the way that person lives. So that person doesn't get drunk every night at the hotel bar. You know, they get up in the morning and they do something for their body something for themselves. Yeah, they do a workout. They eat better. They just look for better food choices. Maybe not. Maybe it's not the best because they're traveling all the time. And it's hard, but they're making the best choice that can in the moment. That's how you treat your spouse. That's how you treat your kids. That's how you should treat yourself.
David Sandstrom 9:40
So what would you say to somebody that says Elon, you know I'm with you on all that? I have the desire, but I just don't have the discipline to follow through. I'm not like you. What would you say to that person?
Alan Misner 9:52
Well, it wasn't a like me. I again, I just take it back to the Okay. Do you have the discipline to be faithful to Your wife? Or maybe it's religion, it's so so you've dedicated yourself to your religion and you believe it and your whole heart into it? Is that something that you're just gonna sit there on a Saturday and say, Screw it? I'm out? No, because you just wouldn't do that. And so it's really just a question of saying, Okay, how important, am I? How important is my future? And the fact that my daughter was looking at me in a way that she knew I wasn't capable of being any more than a spectator in her life going forward. Well, that's a kick in the teeth, but it's a wake up call to say, Okay, I'm not living the full life. I was brought here to live. There's, you know, there's more to life than being the best internal auditor in the world. Yeah. And so, you know, I would say, if you're struggling with it, you really should go back to why you're doing this. So again, for me, I was looking at my daughter, and saying, Okay, this is a young woman who needs still needs her father, you know, a lot of people think, okay, She's 20, she's on her own. She's in college, other than the check to pay for the, you know, the university fees, and the room and board, she needs a lot more than that from her father. And she's gonna continue to need that for her whole life. And so it was like, what, what am I doing? Now? I'm married, remarried. And so I have four kids now. And I'm thinking, Okay, I have to be responsible, as a part of the family to be there for them and for my wife, and I don't know what my grandchildren are going to be doing in 1520 years. But I don't want to be a spectator then either. Yeah. With that. And I also, you know, the other side of it, thinking about outcome. I'm 56. I watched my grandfather, he was, you know, going into his 80s. He loved golf, just loved golf. He actually had a house on the golf course. And he was 80 years old, I was riding on the golf cart with him. And I said, Okay, you said, you're gonna, you're gonna play with the guys today, golf. And he said, No, no, no, I can't. And I said, So what's going on? He says, My balance is off. Who said I would fall? Like, okay, I said, What do you want to go to hitting range? And maybe we can work on that a little bit? And he was like, no, no, I just, I don't. And so he had lost golf. Yeah, at 80. And here he was, he was almost 90. And he lost a lot of function. And he wasn't able to take care of himself. And as a result, he didn't want to leave the house, he didn't leave his apartment, he was a little assisted care apartment. Didn't want to leave the house. And then eventually, he wouldn't let us come over because he couldn't take care of himself enough that he was afraid that if he were sitting there, and he couldn't get up to go the bathroom, he would just go. Okay, and so I say it, and people get a chuckle out of it. But I want to be able to wipe my own butt when I'm 105. Okay. The last 15 years of my grandfather's life were miserable. People had to take care of him. And my only person who would allow over was my, my uncle, his middle son. And because they had a special bond, but he wouldn't let me over. He didn't want me over. Because he didn't feel comfortable. And I don't want to be the burden. I don't want to I don't want to live the last 15 years of my life that way,
David Sandstrom 13:26
I'm totally with you. And my mom is 90 years old as well. And she's in assisted living right now in her quality of life over the last 10 years has been pitiful. It's been really, really poor. And I have made that decision even before she turned 80. But I want to be active and vibrant and mentally alert, you know, well into my 80s and 90s. If I can. And yeah, you know, I don't think we we should expect that dementia and Alzheimer's and heart attacks are a normal part of the aging process. They're not we should be able to enjoy our vitality well into our later years, then we should we should rapidly decline and pass in our sleep one night. That's that's the way it's supposed to go. So yeah, I'm totally with you on that. So as long as we're on the topic of aging here, so you specialize with helping people over 40 years old. So what is special about what does somebody over 40 Do Differently from somebody, let's say in their 20s? Yeah.
Alan Misner 14:25
So if you go into a big, big box gym today, a young kid is going to walk up to you and say how you doing and you want to sign up when I have some personal training? And they'll say you'll say sure. And I'm like, Okay, what are your goals and they'll listen to you and then they'll reach in a file cabinet behind them and pull the same workout that they're going to get a 20 year old that walk in the door. Yeah, it's the same workout. It's no different. And if you say something about well, I want to work on my balance and my mobility and those types of things. Then they do have another workout over here is the one they use for people who are over 70 Yeah, they'll hand you that workout. And the reality is that that's not who you are, in either case. And so, you know, what I found was, I was over 40. I was traveling all the time. And there was nothing. There was nothing out there. Okay, this was seven years ago, but I couldn't find a resource. I couldn't find anybody that understood how to train someone who was not 20. I'll tell you a story. I bought the insanity workout. With Shaun T. It's a Beachbody thing. Yeah, series of DVDs. Okay, so morning, Sunday mornings, this used to be the thing was infomercial, and you'd go in there and do the Beachbody and you download, you buy these DVDs. So I buy the DVDs. And I'm sitting there I diligently over the course of the three days I was home, I'm ripping these DVDs and putting them on my iPad. And so I'm like, Okay, well, I'm about to go on a trip and a couple days. So I'm gonna do the benchmark workouts. It's just a little 20 minute little benchmark workout to see where you are. And that the deal would be you do the 90 days, and then you do this thing again. Well, I did this workout. And I thought, Okay, I'm not going to sandbag this, I really want to see if I get improvement. So I pushed myself through that workout. I couldn't do everything they were doing. And I definitely wasn't smiling the way they were smiling when they were doing it. They're more than actors there.
David Sandstrom 16:20
I can relate to that as well. I'm 60 years old, and I can't do what I used to do, either.
Alan Misner 16:26
And so I do the workout. And I'm like, Okay, that was that was super hard. That was really hard. But I was proud of myself for having done it. You know, I was like, Okay, I did something good. And I kept that in me until I woke up the next morning. And I literally felt like someone had beat me with a baseball bat. I mean, I literally like I was laying there someone had just beat every bone in my body, every muscle in my body with a baseball bat. Yeah, I couldn't even I couldn't even reach over, I had a hard time reaching over and grabbing my phone to call my boss to tell him I wasn't going to make it the work to call in sick because I did the benchmark workout. And, you know, it was good.
David Sandstrom 17:07
I was actually it's amusing now that it wasn't so amusing at the time, right?
Alan Misner 17:11
No, I was in my early 40s. And I'm just trying to do this DVD set. And I'm like, I can't even do the benchmark workout without killing myself. Yeah. And I'm like, and I have nobody to call nobody to talk to nothing online. It was there were no articles, there was nothing. And so I was like, you know, we need this. We need someone some information out there that helps us understand how to, you know, sometimes it's getting past ego, sometimes it's pushing ourselves a little harder than maybe we would think we could. It's the belief and the possibility. It's all the things that make us different. You know, we treated our body like crap for 25-30 years, maybe longer. And so how are we going to live? How are we going to get ourselves back? How are we going to at least somewhere back to what we call a semblance of a healthy adult. I took,
David Sandstrom 18:04
I want to go back to something you said earlier, you talking about the 20 year old personal trainer at the gym, and he reaches out and gives you a 20 year old workout and you're in your 50 that is very, very common in the health and wellness world. And I've seen people do that over and over again, with nutrition. I personally believe that there's no such thing as a one size fits all diet, you know, there's a reason why a lot of different eating programs out there is because there's a lot of different people. And each person has a unique set of requirements as to what they should be eating. And you know, you have this nutritional counselor or dietitian or you name it, they found something that works for them personally. And they prescribe that to everyone. And then if you ask them about it, they say, Well, you know how your results? Well, a lot of people don't get the results I got, why not? Well, they're you know, they're just not implementing, they just don't have the discipline. You know, I don't know what they're doing on the weekends. You know, and sometimes I might even know that person is, you know, I know this person is strickly, strictly adhering to the recommendations, but it's not working for them. So it's it's very common problem in the health and wellness world in general.
Alan Misner 19:10
Yeah. Well, we, we love simple right? Human beings love some give me give me one rule. Just give me one rule. Okay. Just tell me what I need to know. Yeah. So it's, it's eat less and move more.
David Sandstrom 19:24
How's that working for you?
Alan Misner 19:25
Yeah, what the heck does that even mean? You know, okay, so I'll eat one less Cheeto and I'll, I'll park my car, half, you know, half the parking lot back and walked and walked into the Walmart and back. And you don't see change. And if you don't see even a little bit of change, or at least have some pride of ownership with what you did, then you won't do it again. And that's what that's what's so difficult with this is we've built ruts. You know, that's the other thing that's very different from a 40 year old or 50 year old from a 20 year old is they haven't had time to build ruts. They're still to Developing, there's still stuff going on in their bodies, they're still getting stronger and bigger and faster. And, you know, they keep training, they get amazing things can happen for 20. We've built in dug deep, deep ruts about habits and, and the things we do and the things we like, and the things we don't like. And, you know, so as the result changed for us can be a little bit more problematic. But that doesn't mean you can't change, it just means you have to be a little bit more aware of the habit and the trigger and the reaction and all the things that happen, that make you do the things that you do, because we automate almost everything we do. If we can automate it, and make ourselves automatically do something, we do that because that's a survival mechanism of the human race, yes, to learn from the past, and then don't do that again. You know, we're building these habits over time. And we've done that our whole lives. And so if you walk in, and every afternoon, you get home and you go to the pantry, and you've been doing that for years. That's a really hard habit to break. Yeah. So you know, you can look at strategies and tactics. But if you know, the first thing you're going to do when you walk in, is walk over to that pantry. You got to break that habit, and it's gonna take some work. And that's the challenge is that we're not as we're malleable, don't get me wrong, that neuroplasticity is still there to change. It's just,
David Sandstrom 21:25
we have to be a little bit more intentional about it. Yeah.
Alan Misner 21:28
A little bit deeper work, which is, again, why I think it's so critical for us to have that commitment, and that self love. So that we will put the work in. Yeah, we won't get mad at ourselves, if we don't do it consistently all the time, particularly in the beginning.
David Sandstrom 21:45
So that person that wants to go to the gym, and they had a similar experience to what you had and you got so sore, you couldn't move the next day. Another Another concern is when you're over 40, maybe you haven't worked out in a while, is getting injured while you're trying to get fit. So how does somebody avoid both of those?
Alan Misner 22:03
Well, the first one that well, okay, the first one is you do need some movement pattern, you need something and you need to do it. The way I like to see it is this, okay? If you, if you had an overall vision and objective of what you want, it's let's say, there was a particular car you wanted to buy. And you knew that car cost a certain amount of money. And you started looking at your budget and said, Okay, I don't want to have a car note. But I want to own that car, by this time next year. Then you would sit down, say, okay, that means I've got a budget and each paycheck, I need to put this amount into this account and not touch it. And then at the end of the year, I would have the amount of money I need to walk down to the dealership and make the deal. You would just do it. That's how you would think about the goal. You'd be like, Okay, this is the goal each week that this is a step you kind of need to do something very similar for your health and fitness and say, Where am I right now? And where do I want to be? So, you know, I one of the things I did with my daughter, you know, I told you she she was getting and all this stuff, and I did not want to be a spectator. So what I told her was we did we did a little mud run was a little thing. And I said let's let's do a Tough Mudder together. And a Tough Mudder is like a 12 to 13 mile run with 12 obstacles is pretty tough. Okay, water. And so I said, Let's do that in November, it's just like eight months later. And so she's like, really, I'm like, Yeah, let's do this. And so I had the car, you know, I had an object, the thing I wanted, was to be able to do that Mudder, one without wrecking myself. But to also just not holding my daughter back, I didn't want her to be standing around watching me finish an obstacle or breathing and not being able to run and so I said, Okay, I need to be in a physical condition to be able to do this with her not holding her back. So it was it was a tall order was okay. So very, very expensive car. Okay. But it gave me the reason to be in the gym. It gave me that because I knew I needed to be stronger. I needed more stamina, I needed grip strength. So I knew the things that I needed elements I needed. So the amount of budget I had for each month to make this thing real. And I started working toward it. And so that part was the easy part because I had the vision and the goals that got me going in that direction. So the motivation was there because the vision was important enough to me during that race with my daughter and having a good time doing it was the prize. And I can tell you crossing that finish line holding her hand. I'm gonna treasure that moment for the rest of my life. Yeah, that's really awesome. Okay, so put those things in your head. This is what I get. This is this is the reward the will reward is this. You know, the reward is getting off your medications. The reward is your insurance premiums going down and you know reward is, you know, all these different things that you can look forward to when you're healthy and more healthy and more fit. Okay, yeah, that's the end stuff. So you start doing that that's, that's the front end to get your butt in the gym. Okay, the second part is to realize that you're not 20. And I would say for guys, this ego problem can, it's a thing. Definitely, definitely a thing for me, because I kept finding myself wanting to push boundaries. And so yeah, I, I would hurt myself occasionally doing what I would call silly stuff. Because in the end, it didn't get me towards my end vision. It didn't get me towards my short term vision, it was just kind of a tangent, where I said, Oh, I want to see how much I can deadlift. Or oh, I want to, you know, here I am overhead pressing way more weight with dumbbells than I should. And I'm not being smart about it. I'm kind of being lax, lackadaisical about it. And yeah, so there's an injury. When you're over 40, an injury is a huge setback. Yeah, it's not something you're going to bounce back, you know, I was 20, I would have bounced back for most of these things, and been right back in the gym the next day, not even thinking about it. But we got a lot of wear and tear. I know I did into. And so I have to be a little bit smarter, I have to set those incremental goals. And then what I do is I call it gentle nudges. So my progression toward the end goal has to be gentle, has to be just a little bit. So you know, I'm doing a certain amount now and I got comfortable with it, just do it just a little bit more just little gentle nudge, not this huge push of 1015 20% of more weight, or, you know, this many more miles today than I did yesterday, it's just this, what's a gentle nudge this week, or this workout, that's going to make me a little bit stronger, a little bit better.
David Sandstrom 26:54
Yeah, that reminds me, one of the things I tell people about goal setting is make your goals, baby steps, make them small enough to where failure is impossible. You know, it might seem ridiculously small. But when you conquer that, you will gain confidence and momentum towards larger and larger goals. But when you're starting out, it needs to be baby steps. If you're trying to get fit, you might say hey, you know what, I'm gonna drink more water. Just do that for a week, right? Just start to consume more water. And then you might say, Okay, this week, I'm going to stop eating after 7pm. You know, and then I mean, you know, used to, you know, have snacks up to, you know, 10 or 11 or midnight. So he's okay, 7pm I'm gonna stop eating, you know, and then next week is going to be 6pm. And then maybe four, you know, and, you know, if you're if your goal is to, you know, shrink your eating window, which I think everyone should do, it's a good thing to do and intermittent fasting and compress that eating window a little bit throughout the day. It's a healthy thing to do. But anyway, so yeah, so goal setting is huge. So so find, look at the goals you want, get a clearer vision of that. And then say to yourself, Okay, what do people that have already reached that goal? What have they done, or what do they do? Okay, so here's my roadmap. And here's the goals that I'm going to set along the way, and they're going to be manageable. Does that sound right?
Alan Misner 28:16
Yeah. So I was driving through Colorado one time. And I don't know if you've ever driven through that state, but it's flat, and it's long. And it's straight, the highways look, literally just straight highway credit, right across Colorado, right? And I'm doing like 75-85. And you're looking at the mountains, and it feels like you're sitting still. Yeah, you know, I'm driving like, I know, I know, I'm driving, I have my foot on the gas that the speedometer says 85. But I don't even feel like I'm moving. And so I started focusing on the mile markers. But about every 40 some odd 50 some odd seconds were coming by. And I'm like, I just need to know and see those mile markers going by to know that there's progress. And so I got this from Tony Horton who was big back in the 90s with the p90x stuff. Yeah. And what he does is he he recommends that people buy the paper calendar. And what he says is, okay, so say you want to make sure you're working out every day or maybe you want to say okay, I'm eating within my eating window, or I'm drinking enough water or a certain amount of water. Okay? So each day write a write an X on your calendar, and at the end of the month, you can look at that calendar and see how successful you are. And each x is just like one of those little mile mark, I made a goal push pushing you to the next one. You know, the next one you you want that streak you want that thing. I have a client. Her name is Anne and she she took that and she decided to buy these little heart stickers. So She put heart stickers because she wanted to walk at least 30 minutes each day. And so she put heart stickers on her November calendar. And she started last month or last month in November. And she started going through it. And after she got like the first four or five, she was like, I want to do this every day. Yeah, I I want a heart sticker on this calendar every day. And so then she went through it, she just kept going and kept going. And now she's, you know, into December. And she's still putting heart stickers on her calendar. Every day
David Sandstrom 30:35
Good for her. That's, that's really cool. So you take by doing that sounds so simple. But you take the intangible you have up here in your mind's like, Yeah, I did that yesterday. And you make it tangible. Now you can see it, you're experiencing the kinetic touch feel of the sticker itself, the calendar, you put it on, and now you can see it. And, you know, it makes the what's the intangible tangible and that that's helpful when it comes to reach your goals? So another thing I wanted to ask you, Alan is you've you've had a podcast for a while, and you've you've done hundreds of episodes. And I'm sure a lot of those were fitness experts or health and wellness experts. So what are some of the highlights? Just share with us some of the highlights you've learned over doing 500 Plus podcasts?
Alan Misner 31:19
Yeah, I've interviewed well over 360 experts. And one of the things that I do is I read their book, you know, that is kind of a unique thing in this industry, as I do take the time to read, read the whole book and have the conversation about the book. Now. I've had vegans, I've had carnivore, I've had paleo. I've had vegetarian, everything, you know, I've talked to all of these different people. And I've even talked to vegan keto people. So, you know, it's not just this or that's the one right, there it is. And we had a great conversation about it. And so I've had all these great conversations. And it's funny because there'll be so diametrically opposed to what they think is the other side, the polar opposite of who they are. And what they don't realize is they're saying the same thing. Yeah. The reason my diet is better than your diet is because I'm eating whole food. You know, and that's, that's where the disconnect. Other than that every, every single one of them talks about whole food.
David Sandstrom 32:27
Yeah, I was listening to Dr. Mercola, on the take control of your health podcast, Dr. Joseph Mercola. And he was talking about this, and he had great conversation with this guy who was MD and he had a holistic practice, he was helping people with specializing in cancer. And at the end of the interview, the guy mentioned that Yeah, I like to tell people to eat vegetarian. And Joe Mercola goes, Oh, no, you're not one of those are you?
Alan Misner 32:53
But yeah, but you can, you can eat vegetarian, and get almost all the nutrients you need. Particularly if you are eat, including eggs, you get all the nutrients you need. It's harder, when you're going to exclude certain foods, it just makes it harder and more of a challenge. Like I said, vegan keto, when I say those two things together, we don't think they go together. It can. If you're disciplined and diligent and paying attention, you can do it and get full nutrition out of it. But that said, they go back to whole food. And so I'd say if it comes in a bag box jar , or can just be leery of it, read the ingredients. And if it has more than one or two ingredients, consider whether that's the best choice you have.
David Sandstrom 33:38
That's good advice. And that's that's universal. There's anybody that knows something about nutrition, but doesn't believe that, right? Yeah. And that's that's the reason why a lot of you know, you can you can roll out success stories on a vegan diet. You can roll out success stories on Pritikin or Mediterranean or Atkins, or keto these days. Everyone has their success stories. But one of the things they all do, is they eat clean food. They focus on you know, clean foods, single ingredient food the way God made it in nature.
Alan Misner 34:10
Yeah. And that's, that's kind of the funny thing is like so, you know, whole food whole food whole. Okay, let's, yeah, that's, that's the common denominator. And then another common denominator is we were designed to move. Yes. Okay. What kind of movement you do doesn't really matter in the long run, except to you. Okay, so I could tell you, you need to lift weights. And you could say, I don't want to lift weights and we're like, Okay, well, your bones need you to lift weights, your muscles need you to lift weights and sarcopenia and osteopenia will beat you if you don't do some resistance training. Right? So I could tell you to do it, but you're not going to do it unless you start to look at your vision and say, Okay, what does my vision require? And if your vision doesn't require you to have dense bones doesn't require you to have any strength. And you're okay with other people opening your pickle jar, and you're okay with not being able to stand up from a toilet, then by all means, don't do resistance training and stick to the cardio, because you like it. And so we need movement. But we need functional movement, we need movement that makes us better at being ourselves. So, you know, I define fitness as, as basically being fit for Task. Right? Are you fit for the task of who you should be? Are you fit for the task of who you're going to be? And every workout you do, should be designed or set up to push you in that direction.
David Sandstrom 35:43
Love it. Any other highlights? I'm thinking about sleep? I mean, yeah, getting good getting good sleep. It's pretty universal as well.
Alan Misner 35:50
It is I lump a lot of things into self care only because I think it makes it easier to have a conversation because there's so many things out there, you know, should I avoid toxins? Yes, I, you know, manage stress? Yes. Should I sleep better? Yes. Should I manage self talk? Yes. You know, and so there's a lot of things. So the base point, I would say is in the way I wrap all of that. So sleep stress, all that is love yourself. Be your own best friend. You know, the things you want for your best best friend, like your very best friend in the world, the person, the people that you love the most? Treat yourself that way?
David Sandstrom 36:32
Yeah, that's really good advice. You know, we all do this, we're all guilty. And that is, we treat ourselves much more harshly than we would treat a friend or a neighbor. Yeah. We would never say the kinds of things to a neighbor or relative, or especially your spouse, that you say to yourself, in your mind throughout the day. Oh, I'm so stupid. You know, we're such a jerk,
Alan Misner 36:57
You know, if if your spouse said, I'll never lose this weight? Are you going to agree with them? Of course not. But you believe yourself, say to ourselves, all the time, it's like, I'll never lose this weight. I can't do this. You know, I lack the motivation. You know, we just constantly there's, you know, I've read studies, I don't, I don't know how they even know this, but they say we have so many thoughts in our head every day. And a certain percentage of them are negative. I know in my head, there's more negative than there should be. And I'm fighting that every single day with affirmations and gratitude. And I have a morning practice where I literally sit back and I tell myself, why I'm here and what I'm here to do and why it's important and that I can in fact, get it done.
David Sandstrom 37:52
Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, that reminds me of really, the tagline for the show is that is we maximize our health potential by aligning our lives more fully with God's natural design for spirit, mind and body that encompasses a lot. But when it comes to the mind, the three components that I want to focus on are the your proper mindset, like, like you were talking about earlier, you know, get the goal clear, get your get your why established, identify and correct unhealthy thinking patterns, which is super, super helpful, because we all have them, they all have to be dealt with. And it just it gets to be so routine. So familiar, because we've been thinking these thoughts for so long, this inner Narrator might be very, very limiting might be blocking our progress. And the other one is practice emotional intelligence, and be able to process your emotions, you know, we all get frustrated or angry once in a while. But we need to let those emotions go. We need to ask ourselves, you know, what is this emotion telling me about this situation? What can I learn from it, and then we let it go. When it comes to emotions, like love, joy and peace and bring it on? Not, you know, let those linger as long as you want. But when it comes to the negative stuff, we've got to let it go. We can't afford to get most emotionally constipated.
Alan Misner 39:07
Yeah, because you can't you can't serve anybody when you're in that state of mind.
David Sandstrom 39:11
Right? That is exactly right. And you know what you were saying earlier about self love. A lot of people might hear that and say, Well, isn't that a little selfish? No, not at all. Because when you take care of yourself, that's the only way you can be in a position to love on and help others. It's the most selfless thing to do is to take care of yourself.
Alan Misner 39:32
Well, it's like, you know, David, I were talking before it's like you have four daughters. You love all of them. Of course. So loving yourself doesn't mean you have less love to give to someone else. It might actually mean you have more love. Yeah, you know it might be multiplying, because you have this capacity to care and deeply love multiple people like that. And if you have a self love that puts you in a great frame of mind to treat yourself and others better.
David Sandstrom 40:02
Excellent. I think that's a great place to wrap it up. But last thing I want to ask you about Alan is, you have a lot of challenges on your website. Can you talk to us a little bit about those?
Alan Misner 40:11
Yeah, I like to, I like to find like just those, like we talked about those small wins. So I do have a couple of challenges on the website that you can go check out. One of them is a functional fitness challenge. And I tried to make that fun. So it's me doing some of the exercises to teach you. And then timed workouts, I have a sugar challenge, because what I found is, for most people that are wanting to lose weight, and they're in the very beginning stages of this sugar tends to be enemy number one that they have to conquer. And so those are the two that I have out there. As far as challenges. I do some other things seasonally. But there's nothing going on there. But I also have this quiz. And the value of the quizzes This is it really gets into your mindset and what's driving you to maybe not do the right things for yourself. But every one of these mindsets, if you if you can figure it out, is also a superpower that can help you be successful. So if you have the self awareness, then you can pick the right strategies and tactics because so often, we will just throw strategies and tactics against the wall to see what sticks. You know, oh, I'm going to drink more water, I'm going to exercise every day, I'm going to eat more vegetables, I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna, and I'm gonna, and we just keep throwing these things. And we we wonder why they're not sticking? Well, if you have more self awareness, you might see the key for which which of these strategies and tactics are actually the right ones for you. So you can go to 40plus fitness.com/quiz. It's a free quiz. It'll take you about a minute. And it's just a start. It'll give you kind of a key insight into what your what's your primary mindset right now. And if you can kind of get into that it's going to tell you the next step to take.
David Sandstrom 42:02
Okay, great. Is your website. The best way to get a hold you Alan?
Alan Misner 42:05
Yeah, yeah, you can go to 40plusfitness.com.
David Sandstrom 42:08
All right. And 40 p l u s fitness.com. Yes.
Alan Misner 42:13
Thank you. All right. Alan,
David Sandstrom 42:15
thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with an explanation today. Thank you, David. For more, go to the show notes page at davidsandstrom.com/111. There you can find an audio as well as a video version of the podcast. We always put links to all the resources that we mentioned. And you can also find a free downloadable transcript and some type of a content upgrade as well. I appreciate you. Thank you for listening, and I'll talk with you next time. Be blessed.