- in guest/interview , health by allan
Health hacking with TJ Anderson
TJ Anderson, the author of The Art of Health Hacking is the guest for episode 326 of the 40+ Fitness Podcast. We discuss the 5 Ps of health hacking, the essential health tracking you should be doing, and a really cool model to practice being present.
Allan (0:46): Our guest today is a clinical health coach, self-proclaimed health hacker, and founder of Elevate Your State – a growing community of health conscious leaders dedicated to optimizing their health and performance. He is TJ Anderson. TJ, welcome to 40+ Fitness.
TJ (1:04): It’s an honor to be here.
Allan (1:05): I always am hesitant when I’m talking to my clients. I say health hacking is a good thing to consider. Biohacking is the more common term. I think you’re coining more of the health side of it. So many biohackers get into these little crevices of health of, “Let’s take a biopsy of our leg, and let’s see if I take this particular supplement, is it going to change the cellular structure of my muscle?” Or someone will come across and say, “You should take intravenous vitamin C. That’s the key to life, that’s the key to health.” And I try to explain to them, until you’ve taken care of those bigger rocks of health and fitness, where you’re actually eating right and you’re trying to get good sleep and you’re trying to de-stress and you do have a movement practice of some sort – some of these little things are not worth your time at this point.
You get into that in the book, where we’re taking the quantified self, and then we’re also taking this health hacking and they’re merging into a field of study that a lot of people are really engaged with. I really liked your quote, because I think this sums it up in the way that I like to think about it. You say, “Health data are not the finish line; they are the starting block.” I think that’s one of the core things. If you’ve got something else wrong with you, like diabetes or heart disease or something like that – you’ve got other things you might want to focus on. But if you’re in generally good health and you want to improve your 5K time, or you want to just feel a little bit more energized in the morning, or you want to sleep just a little bit better – there’s a lot in this book to help us out.
TJ (2:48): Rock and roll. You bet. To your point, the biohacking space, any sort of space – health, fitness, and the whole self-improvement movement, as I like to call it, can focus a lot on the finer details, the finer points, which can be of value, depending on context. And at the end of the day, addressing the whole – so holistic, and also the fundamentals of optimal health and happiness are top priority. When it comes to taking inventory on our lifestyle, in my opinion and my experience, it’s much easier and more fun when we set our priorities and focus on what matters. As the subtitle suggests, it’s a personal guide to elevate your state of health and performance, stress less and build healthy habits that matter. It’s all about asking ourselves, “What matters to me? What are the highest levers that I can pull in my lifestyle that can generate the biggest impact?” I’m glad you brought that up. That quote was not just one I espouse and promote others to embody. That realization in my own lifestyle is what brought a lot of ease and less angst around the perfection mindset, which can creep up in the quantified self world. So yeah, health data is not the finish line; it’s the starting block. There’s so much more beyond the quantitative. So yes, a big aspect of the book is exploring the qualitative self, those things that are tougher to measure.
Allan (4:45): I’m glad you said that. And I want to take one step back, because I think some folks might not actually understand when we’re talking about quantified self, biohacking and those types of things, exactly what that is. In a general sense, the quantified self is where you’re measuring things about yourself. So, maybe you wake up each morning and you check your blood pressure, your heart rate variability, your pulse rate. Maybe you do some blood sugar testing, check your ketones. You wear a Fitbit so you know what your heart rate is throughout the day, you also know how many steps you took. People are collecting more and more data as technology has made it easier for us to collect that data. And that’s the quantified self, where people are measuring what’s going on in their lives. A biohacker is in my mind defined as someone who is looking for ways to enhance their health or fitness through some technology means.
So that might be that they’re now taking a different supplement, or it may be that they’re doing something in their room with the sounds or the light. I know that you are a big fan of the blue blocker glasses that block out the blue light, so that basically your body knows to start creating melatonin when it’s supposed to. That’s bio or health hacking, where you’re trying to look for ways that technology can protect us from maybe what we’re already doing – getting away from blue light, or it can at least give us opportunities to enhance what we already have. So those are the two definitions, but I like how you put that it’s really about the quality, not the quantity. It’s not about me getting more steps tomorrow than I got today. It’s about making those steps have more quality to them. Having my sleep have more quality to it, not the fact that I just got more sleep. I liked that aspect of it.
TJ (6:31): Cool. I appreciate it.
Allan (6:34): In the book you go through the five Ps of health hacking, and I think that’s a really good parameter for someone to understand what are the steps that someone would go through if they’re looking for these opportunities to enhance their health.
TJ (6:50): You bet. Yes, exactly. The five Ps of health hacking are a chance for people to take inventory on the different aspects and relationships with their health that make a big difference. So I start the book off with a little vulnerable story, with my own visit to the emergency room. The first chapter is titled Goodbye Sick Care, Hello Self-Care: Your Health Is in Your Hands. The reason I bring that up is at the end of that first chapter and in that first act I really have people take inventory, scoring themselves on a scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 10, in terms of macro areas of health – physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, as well as the micro areas, like nutrition, nature, technology, movement, etcetera. That’s a way to look at specific areas, but when approaching our health holistically, the 5 Ps provide a way for us to connect the dots between how we are focused on our health. I’ll just share what those 5 Ps are, and it could really help to fuel progress and action and mindfulness around your overall approach.
So P number one – preparation; how well do you prepare during your day, during your week, with your health as a priority? So, are you cooking multiple meals early in the week so it’s easier to consume them throughout the week? Are you making it to the grocery store on a day that’s convenient and works for you, so that you don’t eat out as much, for example? How can you prepare, and really connect the dots between your preparation and your health?
Next one is prevention – connecting the dots between your thoughts, actions, behaviors, environment, and how all that impacts your overall health. So preventing the things that we don’t want to happen – poor health, poor energy, disease, sickness, etcetera, down the road, is one of the Ps that I find is key for overall health hacking.
Next one is performance – connecting the dots between how your health impacts your performance in the present day. That’s really a big one. Honestly, I work with a lot of high performers, business leaders, etcetera. And one of the objections that people often share is, “I don’t have enough time. I’ve got so many work responsibilities or family responsibilities.” And maybe that’s often what goes on in the minds of your listeners and those that you serve, Allan. But what I found is that when you synergize health with performance, it takes on a different meaning, and your approach with work and health all blends. If you listen to your body more and realize how your self-care strategy, your healthy habits can really fuel better energy, better mental clarity and less stress and less sick days – your performance can shine.
The next one is progress. Focusing on progress over prevention is a big part of my own personal journey. I was a model in South Beach about four years ago, which was the impetus of the book. My six pack wasn’t good enough for the cameras, and I fell into perfection mindset. I was focusing on the physical body and trying to achieve the perfect six pack and working out like crazy. Thankfully I healed from that experience and realized the importance of both approaching your health holistically, as well as focusing on progress, not perfection.
And then the final P – last but not least – presence. I love ending with that one, because it’s my favorite one. It’s super powerful in my life. The more I can intentionally cultivate present moment awareness inside of my life, the less stress, the more happiness and ease I have with things that could have brought me stress in the past.
Allan (11:19): I do want to circle back around and talk about presence, but I think one of the cores of all this is when we use terms like “performance” and “progress”, those can sound like sports words at times. I think a lot of people will equate those, and I would put it forward to say, this is about life. Your grandchild might weigh 25 pounds today, and in a year from now she’s very likely to weigh 35 pounds. So, if you want to be able to still lift your granddaughter next year when she goes from being two to three, you’re going to have to do some things to build some strength. If you want to continue to be able to open a jar for yourself when you’re 85 years old, you’re going to have to continue to focus on progress and strength. There’s also the mobility and the balance and all the other areas. So when we’re talking about performance, I like how you put that it’s normal life. It’s being ready for the things that are happening to you. If you happen to be an athlete, if you happen to be doing those other things, then by all means, you’re measuring that performance, you’re getting the data and you’re trying to find those things that are going to give you that advantage. But in everyday life we also need to be looking for ways to get an advantage when it’s the right thing to do.
TJ (12:35): Of course, yes. I’m glad you brought that up. There’s value in looking at performance, in terms of how well you might perform in your workouts, in your fitness, and your performance outside of fitness – so how well you sleep, your relationship with technology and nature and your fundamental way of how you walk and how you get out of bed, how you get in and out of the shower, the muscles you activate in your patterns. Those small things impact your actual performance in fitness so much more. That’s one of the things I’ve personally learned in my own lifestyle. For instance, I’ve had some right hip issues, kind of popping. So for me, small things like crossing my legs was an unconscious pattern while I sat down that I would always do in that unconscious way of just existing, and crossing my foot over my left knee for instance. My right hip was just conditioned to open up a lot. So, it’s the small things that can make a big impact when it comes to our overall physical health and our performance.
Allan (13:54): Yeah. And I like how it all really comes back to data. You can observe yourself and see, “My hip’s got a problem. There’s an imbalance there” – that’s a data point. Someone can measure their weight – that’s a data point. They can measure some other things, like their blood work and whatnot. You’re really focused on four categories that you say are essential if we really want to have optimal health; the four areas that we should be at least getting some data from and tracking and then trying to improve. Can you get into those four?
TJ (14:29): You bet. So you mentioned aspects earlier that people can track, such as blood pressure, resting heart rate, ketone levels, fasting blood sugar and all that. Those are all great. What I explored in the book was a little bit more non-traditional, more advanced, if you will, that I find is very essential for longevity, for true health. Those other ones are great, and these are some other new ones that I explored. Number one for me was blood work – advanced biochemistry blood work to really understand. Beyond what Western medicine tells us with their access to blood testing, there’s so much more that exists out there. The direct-to-consumer healthcare movement – being able to, for instance, order labs on your own through WellnessFX, and be able to get access to advanced blood testing through companies like that, really paves the way for us to take our health into our own hands. But actually making sense of that is the next step, and then taking action on it.
For me the advanced blood work was a big aspect of my lifestyle, because for instance, I used to just look at HDL and LDL and think that was the end all, be all. And then I read a book called Cholesterol Clarity and heard about a company called WellnessFX to see how advanced blood testing can really show you what’s your true lipid panel and true overall risk of potential heart disease and looking at things like particle sizes and apo, and all these different aspects that are not talked about in traditional healthcare. So, advanced blood work – number one.
Number two for me was getting full-scale genetic testing, and then specific understanding around those perhaps more important mutations. For instance, I walk people through how I did it for myself, but 23andMe, as a lot of people have probably heard of, is one great resource to get your full raw genetic data. And I say “raw” because it’s a lot of data points; you need to make sense of it. So, guiding people in the book around, after you get your raw data, what’s next? You need a third-party app to make sense of that. For instance, Genetic Genie and MTHFRSupport.com were a few for me.
Those are a couple of key aspects, and then nutrients would be number three. What’s cool is that you can really start to connect the dots between all of these. So you can understand what’s going on inside of your body through these health tracking categories, and then they connect. They tell a story when you’re able to lay them all out and understand what’s going on individually and how they impact each other. For instance, for me, I had a genetic mutation for my Vitamin D, my ability to receive and properly synthesize and process Vitamin D – I had a mutation for that. That connected the dots with my micronutrient deficiency test, which showed me my Vitamin D levels were low. I think there are only two companies; maybe there are more now but there were two when I wrote the book, that offer a micronutrient deficiency test, which measures on an intra-cellular level your reserves, if you will, in terms of these really essential, important, key micronutrients. For me, Vitamin D was one that was low, so I connected that with my genetic mutation.
So those are the first three, and then the last one is stress, for instance, and HRV. So you mentioned HRV – heart rate variability, earlier on in the show. That was a definite big one for me, that I would spend time in my breath and in my body going through HRV training. Heart Math is a great organization that makes a great tool called The Inner Balance. If people haven’t heard of that, The Inner Balance is a beautiful tool that you can actually sync and connect with your iPhone, or whatever smartphone you might have. And then you connect on the other end of this a sensor that is attached to your ear lobe. So instead of simply measuring heart rate, they are able to measure heart rate variability. HRV is a key overall metric; it’s getting more and more respect, in terms of overall mortality rates. It’s a key aspect of health. So building coherence through HRV training, focusing on the breath, of course heart-centered breathing, as well as positive thoughts, can actually build more emotional resilience in your life. So those are four core topics that I explore.
Allan (19:49): And they do overlap. I think that’s one of the cool things about it, is you’ll start seeing how this all plays out. I also have a low sodium and low potassium level as a base. When I don’t eat right, then I see my potassium and sodium go down in my blood work. I also know that I’m a very good caffeine synthesizer, so I beat down my caffeine pretty fast. But even then I know I probably shouldn’t have caffeine after noon. So I can kind of watch my nutrition. And as far as the stress, mine has been up there from time to time. If you’re looking at your blood test and your rested cortisol level in the morning, and then you’re also looking at how your HRV is working, you can actually see those correlations over time. If you’re checking it regularly and you’re looking at your blood work, you’re finding out, ”Things that I do to improve my stress reduction help me with my cortisol, which also helps me lose weight, which helps me do a lot of these other things better.” So it really is an overlapping system here that you’ve got, that where we put all that data together, it gives us a really good mapping to know, “This is why this is happening.” Not just what to do, but, “This is why it’s going to be good for me, or it won’t matter to me.” So, I do appreciate each of those as data points to start your journey.
TJ (21:14): Yeah, you bet. As you said, they can each have a trickledown effect in the different aspects of your health and your lifestyle.
Allan (21:25): Okay. Now, we talked about presence. And right now I think more than any other time in my life, this has become my year of, or period of time of really focusing on being present in the moment. In the past I’ve been very engaged in work, and the project that’s coming up, or the trip I have to take, or the things that are going on in the future. And I’m getting better and better of saying, “What’s going on right now? What is Allan feeling right now? What state am I in, and is that a helpful state? Is that putting me further down the path of feeling better tomorrow or being better tomorrow?” You put a very interesting feedback loop that I guess I’d never really thought through as a tool, that someone can use to really get into a solid presence, to really be present in the moment. Do you mind going through your feedback loop, because I do think for me that’s probably the most incredible thing from the book that I enjoyed, that I got the most out of, is this feedback loop that you have for presence?
TJ (22:33): That’s great. Yeah, of course. First off, I appreciate and I’m grateful that that was of value for you. This book took three years to write, by the way. I didn’t write this overnight, so I had a chance to get a bit creative. First and foremost I want to take a step back and take a breath, and get back into my body here a little bit. So, presence for me – I learned the biggest lesson through reading a book called The Presence Process by Michael Brown. If anyone ever wants to read a book on presence, this is at the top of my list. It’s in the top five books I recommend to everyone. So, in that journey, what I learned was through a quote that the author offered up – that it’s not about feeling better; it’s about getting better at feeling. And that mindset shift, that 180 there is a complete game-changer, or at least it was for me, in terms of how I relate to myself and to the world around me.
And it was a beautiful realization that brought a lot of healing and unraveling in my life, and a good unraveling. And so, not trying to feel better, but getting better at feeling. Even often in the health space, I sometimes get an urge to, for instance, go to a certain food or a certain supplement, and really enjoy that, and think that that’s what I need. And at the end of the day, it could be of value. Perhaps what’s even more important is getting into the reflection, the ability to hit “Pause” and really reflect on your current state, get into your breath and your body and see how you really feel. And so this feedback loop you mentioned I created, has five points, and it’s breathe, feel, ask, listen, and choose.
So breathe, feel, ask, listen, and choose are what came up for me when I asked myself what does this process look like? So, how am I able to consciously check in with myself, with my body? What does this process look like, of responding to that, as opposed to reacting, and how can I choose to move forward? How can I truly have a lifestyle filled with ease? This idea of starting with the breath and checking in with ourselves, spending some time – it can be anywhere from five seconds to 5 to 10 minutes or longer – and to really just breathe and notice what you’re noticing, and moving on to making sense of, what are some feelings maybe that are popping up? What am I noticing here, in terms of my physical body, my emotional body? And then we can ask ourselves questions as well. A big aspect of the book is really empowering people to become their own health coach in a way. A bit about my background is in health coaching, so the book is ultimately a self-coaching tool, and empowering people with the courage and the skillsets to ask themselves the right questions at the right time. That can really go a long way.
Ask is next, step three in that feedback loop. And that’s followed by listen. So listen to what comes up as the answer that your body, that your soul is sharing with you. And then you can choose a path, and you can choose to respond in a certain way. It’s a nice little reminder for people and if they want to follow it specifically, it can be a nice tool to guide them daily or whenever they want to use the practice, or they can just hear those five words once – breathe, feel, ask, listen and choose, and those are in the back of their mind, and so allowing themselves to maybe tap into those every now and then, throughout their days.
Allan (27:05): I think one of the reasons that this really resonated with me was I had had a conversation with Dr. Michael Galitzer. He wrote the book Outstanding Health. In his book, one of the things he talked about, and when we were talking he got into a little bit more detail, is that in his mind the root of all stress is our failure to accept what’s happening to us as just something that’s there. We react to it because we don’t want it, and because it’s something that we don’t want to happen but we still can’t affect it, we bring that inside instead of letting that go. So your cycle here, your feedback loop, really gives someone a tool to actually do what he said, which is to just let it go. It is what it is, accept what’s going on. It’s raining. Yes, you wanted to have a picnic, but it’s raining. Just breathe, feel. Yes, that frustrates you because you did all that preparation for the picnic. Listen to what your body’s telling you. It’s like, “This is an opportunity for me to go read a book, this is an opportunity for me to do all these other things that I needed to do or wanted to do.” And then you listen to it and say, “Okay, I guess I’ll go read that book.” You make that choice.
So I really like how this slows you down in the moment, where you can really take inventory of why you’re feeling what you’re feeling. Go ahead and be okay with that, but then choose the path that you’re going to take, because you know you want to take a path that’s going to lead to less stress, to a better life. So, you can make better choices regardless. That’s why I like your loop, because I think it gives someone a tool to very easily manage a situation that is giving them stress, to understand that stress, to understand what their body’s telling them about it, and then to properly respond, rather than continue to bury that and hold that in.
TJ (28:55): Amen. Yeah, exactly. You talk about, what’s the root cause of this? And often times it’s the presence of feelings that we don’t want to feel, or experiences that are not what we want. At the end of the day, I see a lot of those experiences as messages or messengers for us to learn from and explore. It’s okay that you don’t feel okay. That’s okay. And another core topic that connects with this is the power of self-compassion. I find that can really help to support someone with their deepening of presence and acknowledging and appreciating their feelings for what they are – just feelings. So, self-compassion is a topic I also explore in the book for people to deepen their relationship with themselves. I’m grateful we’re having this conversation – it’s life stuff. It’s a very important conversation, and work for people to explore in their own life.
Allan (30:12): I couldn’t agree more. I think one of the cores of this is, we have control of our own health to some extent. Things are going to happen that we don’t have a say over, but we can make the choices and we can work with our medical professionals to make better choices for our health and what we do. The more we understand what the data’s telling us, the more we’re going to be in a position to set our feet down and say, “This is a time to fight, or this is the time to accept. I’m not going to be able to play in the NFL like I wanted to when I was in high school. Not going to happen, but I can accept that, and there’s no reason for me to be frustrated about it. Let it go.” Or I can be frustrated that it’s raining on a picnic, and let that bother my life and mess with my life when it shouldn’t.
Again, I think you’ve got lots of great tools in here. You were very vulnerable in the book. You shared a lot of yourself that I think a lot of people would have probably not said, but I thank you for taking the time to actually do that. I went through, not a modeling career, but an illness that put me in an emergency room for the very same reason, so I could really relate with that story. And I could relate with the position you were in as you were going through your modeling things, because it was real, and it was a moment where you found yourself on a treadmill, trying to accomplish something that really was not necessarily beyond you, but it wasn’t congruent with who you were. I think that’s the way I read it. So I think the stories that you shared in the book were really, really good in helping someone understand that we all have a place where we’re not perfect, and accepting that and turning that around and saying, “But what can I do with the tools that I have? What can I do with the mind that I have? What can I do with the body that I have” puts you into a better place. Now you’re a health coach, now you’re helping others. And this book, which is The Art of Health Hacking, is also helping people. So TJ, thank you so much for sharing this book with me.
TJ (32:10): Of course. To add one more key point, if people are wondering what’s the thesis of this, how’s it different? What I fully embody in the book and believe in my life is that we don’t lack the science, information or technology to live healthy. We lack the art to know how to use those things effectively and properly. That kind of shift, that opening, allows for people to realize how much is possible in terms of becoming more artful and creative in our own approach towards health. That’s our greatest opportunity, I firmly and wholeheartedly believe. So, it’s much more empowering-based. And being creative allows for more fun, I find. I end the book with, I think the title of the last chapter is Nature, Music, and Enjoying the Ride. At the end of the day, if we don’t enjoy the ride we’re on, then we’re missing out of what’s truly possible.
Allan (33:18): Big time. TJ, if you wanted me to send people somewhere to learn more about you and about the book, where would you like for me to send them?
TJ (33:28): HealthHackerBook.com is where people can pick up a copy – free shipping, $19.95, right there at HealthHackerBook.com. You can also read more about the book, and read some of the quotes from people I interviewed for the book, like Dave Asprey, Ben Greenfield, JJ Virgin, to name a few. I’m also over at ThisIsTJ.com. For everyone that’s listening, if you are interested in the copy – great, awesome. We also have a free book club. My big thing is, I didn’t write this book just to write a book or try to become a best seller. It was to truly make an impact. And if this episode wasn’t enough reason to realize that, do know that there is a free book club. We have a great Facebook group rocking – Health Hacker Book Club on Facebook for people to get access to and book-club the book together with other like-minded, like-hearted health-conscious leaders in the life, going through the book.
Allan (34:34): And I am in the book club too. I’m there. Go to 40PlusFitnessPodcast.com/326, and I’ll make sure to have all the links there. TJ, thank you so much for being a part of the 40+ Fitness podcast.
TJ (34:49): It was an honor. Thanks, Allan.
Allan (34:55): I hope you enjoyed that conversation with TJ. I certainly did. I’m making a slight change in the format of the podcast. You may have noticed that, in that now we’re having a little bit more of a conversation. I’m moving that to the end. I used to have a little bit of this at the front end. Due to some listener feedback and whatnot, I’ve decided I’m going to push that back here. If you just want to hear the interviews, the interviews will be upfront, and then when you’re done, you’re done. That’s cool. But if you want to know more about what’s going on with me, what’s going on with the podcast, other opportunities and things like that, that’s what I’m going to put here. Another change in the format is I’m not going to do sponsors anymore. I’ve found that it’s a little too stressful for me in the long run, it’s taking me away from what I want to do, which is help you. Even though it does generate some revenue for the podcast, in my mind – and I’ve had a lot of time to think about this and meditate on this – it’s not core to what I want to do for you. So I’m doing away with the sponsorships and now I’m just going to focus on what I do, which is this podcast and my personal training. So, you will notice that difference. I want to share a lot more with you here. If you’re listening after the interview, then obviously you care. And that’s what I want to know, is that I’m talking to the people that actually want to hear what I have to say.
It’s interesting. I got back from vacation and I’m trying to get myself back into a cycle. You’ve been on vacation and then you get back and you’re just trying to get back into that circle, that way things were, that pattern. And I got a certified letter that one of my properties up in North Florida, I’d let it kind of decline, and they wanted me to clean it up, which meant four days of beating down the bush. I had let it go because someone had stolen my mower and I really didn’t want to invest in another mower at that time. So I let it go. I have bought another mower, and I was able to get out there with the sling blade and the mower and beat that down. It was four days of not so much fun, because bumblebees nest under the ground and when you run over them with a mower, they are not too happy about it. So I got some stings, I got quite a few ant bites and mosquito bites.
So it was not a pleasant four days, but it did reinforce to me that for the life I want to have, I do need to have a good general fitness level. If I didn’t have a good general fitness level, I would not have been able to do that myself. I would have hired it out, which is not a problem, but it’s just that recognition that if there are things that you used to be able to do and you can’t do them today – that’s something you really want to think about. Is it something you should do, something you should be considering as a part of your lifestyle, the things that you used to do, particularly if it’s something that you used to enjoy? And I’m not going to say I ever really enjoyed landscaping or yard work or beating down the bush, which I had plenty of when I was younger, but it is one of those things.
And another one for me, and I’ve shared this with you before, is I love volleyball. I went on vacation and part of what I was really looking forward to during my vacation was the week in Mexico, because the resort we stay at has a daily volleyball game. But this time, because it was June and it was so hot and humid, nobody wanted to play. So for the entire week, there was no volleyball. And then when I got back, the league I’m in had a bye week. So it’s been three weeks since I’ve played volleyball. I’m a little frustrated with that but happy to say this week, we have two games. They’ve moved one of our games up. We’re having one Wednesday and then Thursday. So I’m going to get to play a good bit more volleyball than I have. I’m really excited about that, and that’s what I want to share with you today.
I want you to come onto our Facebook group at 40PlusFitnessPodcast.com/group, and share your joy. What is your hobby, what is your sport, what is the thing that you really enjoy doing, and what are you doing in your health and fitness to improve at that sport or to continue to be able to do that sport? For me, volleyball involves so many different fitness modalities. There’s balance, mobility, agility, speed, hand-eye coordination. It’s just a really fun way for me to get a full body experience of being fit. And so I work out to be better at volleyball and I enjoy volleyball because it’s somewhat of a workout. So please, do go to our Facebook group and share what your fun thing is. What is the one thing that you really enjoy doing as a hobby or a sport that you believe improves your health and fitness?
And then I’m really happy to announce that I will be a speaker and the personal trainer at Ketofest. This runs from July 20th to the 22nd. It’s in New London, Connecticut. So if you’re in the Northeast or you want to get up to the Northeast because it’s going to be a little bit cooler there than where you are, please do come up to Ketofest. You can go to Ketofest.com and learn more. It’s a really cool thing because of the 2 Keto Dudes. There is podcast with Carl Franklin and Richard Morris – really cool guys. They’re preaching the keto lifestyle, they interview a lot of keto people. They’re bringing a lot of those keto people to New London. The whole town pretty much goes keto-crazy, in that they have cooking classes, they have walking tours. A lot of the restaurants will serve keto dishes. If you get in on the VIP, which may or may not be available, they have a dinner the first night, typically over at Carl’s house. And then on Sunday, there are all these different speakers. So it runs from Friday to Sunday and there’s a lot going on during that period of time. I’ll be speaking, I’ll be putting on some personal fitness classes. So it’s really, really cool. I hope you will go check it out – Ketofest.com.
And then finally, I did want to remind you that I have openings in my personal training. So if you’re sitting on the fence or you’re wondering or thinking you might want to improve your fitness and you just need a little boost, I’d strongly encourage you to go check out my personal training. You can go to the main page, 40+ Fitness Podcast. I’ve got most of the information there. If you have any questions, you can hit me up on the chat. When you’re on that page, you’ll see the little “Chat” button. I try to be on chat all day each day. I do take breaks, so sometimes you’ll miss me, but I get your email address, I email you right back. So, if you have any questions or any doubts, please do reach out and let me know, because I want to talk to you about it and make sure you understand what I’m trying to accomplish here. The reality of what I do with my clients is, I don’t give you a cookie cutter, “This is what everybody does, this is the program everybody’s doing.” I sit down and listen to you and talk to you about what your goals are, what you’re trying to accomplish, and then I help put together the bits and pieces to help guide you down that road. So if you’re looking for just a little boost, a little bit more – now is the time. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the second best time is right now. You don’t want to get six months down the line and say, “Gee, I should have done that”, and you didn’t. So please go to 40PlusFitnessPodcast.com and check out my personal training services. Thank you.
