0 (1s):
Coming up on the get lean, eat clean podcast.
1 (4s):
Let me focus on the 80, 20, 80% eat really good clean, healthy foods, but give myself a little bit of flexibility, 20% of the time. So I don't feel like this constant battle with my willpower. And that was the turning point. It was like, okay, I'm going to eat good stuff. So salad in the past. I'm like, Oh, I don't really like it. Cause I don't like the dressing. And now it's like, I have, my salad is packed with good stuff. I'll have salmon, I'll have different types of greens. I'll have all these great things in it. And maybe the dressing won't like, I love honey mustard. So I'll have a little bit of honey mustard dressing. So like out of the five things for them are really good. And the one is, eh, so it's like 80% good, but at least I'm eating the salad instead of having sandwiches and other things.
1 (49s):
So that's been, that was really the turning point. Then the nutrition just keeping it really simple, reducing the amount of gluten sugar and dairy I have by like 95%.
0 (1m 2s):
Hello and welcome to the get lean, eat clean podcast. I'm Brian grin. And I'm here to give you actionable tips to get your body back to what it wants was five, 10, even 15 years ago. Each week. I'll give you an in-depth interview with a health expert from around the world to cut through the fluff and get you long-term sustainable results. This week I interviewed entrepreneur author and speaker Ryan Lee. He has been in the health and wellness space for over 25 years. And most recently started rewind a healthy greens, super food mix company. We discuss Ryan's health journey of losing over 40 pounds and overcoming arthritis along with his 80 20 health rule.
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How not to yo-yo diet, how to eat healthy without breaking the bank ways to overcome stress, his micro workout keys to being productive and is one tip to get your body back to what it once was. I've known Ryan for a while now and he gets a lot of great actionable advice. I know you'll enjoy this interview and thanks so much for listening. All right. Welcome to the get lean eat clean podcast. My name is Brian grin and I have a guest Ryan Leon. Welcome to the show, Ryan. Hey Don Bryan. I
1 (2m 14s):
Am ready to get lean, eat clean.
0 (2m 17s):
Thanks for coming on. I've known Ryan for gosh. I went to his house in Connecticut. I don't know how many years it was maybe seven, eight years ago. Yeah, it was years ago and he helped me launch some businesses and Ryan's got quite the story. So I, I figured out open it up and you can tell the audience sort of your, your journey through health and, and even, and through starting businesses and things like that.
1 (2m 43s):
Okay. Wow. That's that's a big question. I know. Where do I begin? Well, I'll, I'll kind of cut to the, to the good stuff. I've been an entrepreneur. I started my first online business back in the late nineties. So I was pretty early in the game. My background was health and fitness and I worked for six years in a children's rehab hospital, went to school at night, got my master's in exercise physiology. And I specialize in training young athletes. And I was, I was a college athlete, ran track all four years and was always fit. You know, always in shape, always worked out that my wife and I, we got married in 2000 and then had our first kid 2003, our second, 2005, our third in 2007 fourth in 2009.
1 (3m 32s):
Oh, and what happens is right around 2009 after my fourth was born only about six months later, my mom was diagnosed with cancer and then quickly passed away. And then one of my businesses basically fell apart. So I had all this stress happening with my fourth child losing my mom. She was only 63, all of a sudden financial challenges with the business. We go from making millions of dollars a month to millions of dollars in debt and all these debts to pay off with the company. It affected my health and it affected my nutrition. And I was definitely stress eating. And I remember my, my, my crack, I never did drugs.
1 (4m 15s):
Don't drink. It was P it was M and M's like that. I remember every night I would get like a bowl of M and M's and just eat. I was just eating crap and gluten, I didn't care. I eat everything I gained about. I don't know, 35, 40 pounds. And all of a sudden I started to notice, I w I was trying to play a little tennis. My feet hurt really painful. And I went to the podiatrist. I went to the author or the, the orthopedist. I went to a chiropractor, went to physical therapy. Then all of a sudden I woke up one day and I couldn't even move my hands. I couldn't bend my, my, my hands can bend my fingers and went to more, doctors got more tests. They couldn't figure it out.
1 (4m 55s):
Finally, one of my buddies, who's a doctor said, try a, try this other physician. I know the, Oh, God rheumatologists. And, and in, in two seconds he looked at me. He asked me a couple of questions that, Oh, you have an autoimmune disorder. It's called psoriatic arthritis. They did some blood tests, and it's hard to specifically diagnose, but it's in this general family of these inflammatory diseases. Right. And he said, we need to put you on a, this really powerful drug called methotrexate. I said, well, what does that? And he's like, well, it's kind of like a chemo drug just to make sure you're not around anyone who gets sick. I said, doc, I've got four kids. You know, someone's got a cold. He said, well, we'll just every week, every two weeks you got to come in for blood tests.
1 (5m 37s):
I'm like, there's gotta be another way. He's like, Nope, this is it. We don't know what causes it. So I went on this mission to figure out what can I do to reverse my health. And that was the beginning of kind of figuring it all out, saying, okay, I've got to simplify. I've got to change things. And that was the transformation where everything back on this journey to help.
0 (6m 1s):
Wow. Yeah. You know, you hear about stress eating a lot. And I think it's something that's really common. I'm eating such an emotional thing. And what, when was that in 2009 where you sort of started to yeah,
1 (6m 14s):
2009, 2010. So the, the first thing I did, so then I went to a naturopath after I was diagnosed and he said, no more sugar, no more dairy, no more gluten ever. I'm like, all right, well, that's going to kind of be tight. He's like, take these shakes, these green shakes. And my God, I, I remember I did it for like two days and the shakes were making me, so they was so I couldn't drink them. It was that bad. I would hold my nose. And I still was like gagging after. And the whole, no dairy, no sugar, no gluten. I made it, I dunno, 10 days, it was almost impossible because it's in everything.
0 (6m 60s):
So yeah,
1 (7m 2s):
Between good, you know, sugar, gluten and dairy, and we'd go out to eat and I couldn't eat anything. Even the salad dressing like would have some gluten. So, but I did feel better am like, okay. So there's definitely something to this. So I, you know, for, for another two years back and forth and trying different things and going extreme with one thing and going all carnivores, going paleo, intermittent fasting things would work for a little bit. And then I'd fall back into some old habits until finally I said, let me just give myself a break. Let me do, let me focus on the 80, 20, 80% eat really good clean, healthy foods, but give myself a little bit of flexibility, 20% of the time.
1 (7m 45s):
So I don't feel like this constant battle with my willpower. And that was the turning point. It was like, okay, I'm going to eat good stuff. So salad in the past. I'm like, God, I don't really like it. Cause I don't like the dressing. And now it's like, I have, my salad is packed with good stuff. I'll have salmon, I'll have different types of greens. I'll have all these great things in it. And maybe the dressing, like I love honey mustard. So I have a little bit of honey mustard dressing. So like out of the five things for them are really good. And the one is, eh, so it's like 80% good, but at least I'm eating the salad instead of having sandwiches and other things. So that's been, that was really the turning point. The nutrition just keeping it really simple, reducing the amount of gluten sugar and dairy I have by like 95%, I almost, I rarely have dairy anymore.
1 (8m 36s):
I switched from regular milk. If I do have a latte or something it's oat milk. Even that now have oatmeal, milk ice cream, sugar. I really don't have much either. And gluten, I try to have as little as possible. So that was my nutritional thing. And between that, and then exercise and, and focusing with exercise on workouts, I can do consistently at home, 20 minutes more bang for the buck. I do treadmill high incline as a walk and every two minutes I jump off and do strength exercises, pushups, pull ups, core work, jump back on. I do like a circuit takes 25 minutes tops. I do that five to six days a week, others and my wife and I walk every time.
1 (9m 18s):
It's nice outside. And I try to go to the track. Now I started now that the weather here as we're recording, this is nice and Connecticut. So I've been outside sprinting again. So yeah, it's been, it's been good, just being consistent, knowing that, okay, so I'm not getting the craziest high intensity workout. You know, I used to do CrossFit a little bit. Of course, I always got hurt doing that. So just doing things that feel good now that I'm, I'm going to be 49. You know, I don't need to push myself so hard and I'm back down to the same way that wasn't high school, the same way size. And I feel great. My symptoms are, I wouldn't say a hundred percent gone, I'd say 90%, 95%. I feel I could play every sport again. I can go on the track and sprints, which is the doctor basically said, you're not really gonna be able to do full activity anymore.
1 (10m 5s):
So I'm able to do that stuff. And the only things once in a while, like if I'm, if there's a stressful time going on or maybe the weather's a little humid, I, I might get a little bit of a flare up for a day or so, but otherwise I feel great.
0 (10m 18s):
Yeah. I love that. I love the fact that you just kept it simple. I think that's so important when you're starting any type of diet or food program or whatever it is. And like the 80 20 rule is such a great thing to go by. I think what's happening nowadays is these, all of these different movements, like, you know, carnivores and I have quite a bit of keto and carnival people on the podcast and I'm a proponent of it, but I don't think you need to go extreme one way or the other. It's like anything else. And even for the workouts, when we can talk about that as well. But I love that 80 20 rule when it comes to eating. Yeah.
1 (10m 52s):
Yeah. It, you know, I always say this to cause cause after this I got back into my health. I started a nutrition company called rewind and it's all about rewinding the years, knocking years off your body, we wind the clock we have. As you can see anyone watching the video, we've got the whole fun retro theme here in my space, but everyone's different. And you've got to find what works for you. And we get questions. Well, I do Quito. I said, well, you know what? If that's working for you and you feel great and you stick with it and you love it then great. Like I'm not, I'm not gonna judge you. You know, everyone, everyone follows their own path. But what I found in general is when these, these quote unquote diets are so restrictive, all you're doing is thinking about what you can't eat.
1 (11m 36s):
Like, you know, every diet book and within the first five pages, they have that one page. It says forbidden foods, foods to never eat again, foods to avoid. And it's always the same stuff. Right? You can never have a cookie for the rest of your life. A piece of cake, ice cream, dairy, gluten. Yeah. And now it's like certain types of vegetables you can have. Spinach has oxalate. You can have a night shade. You're down to like two things you can eat. And even that, there's no one that agrees on it. You know, I have one buddy who is co he eats almost his entire diet diet as carnivore all meat. That's it? Meat, beef, pork, that's it, no veggies at all. And then there are, and he says, he feels great.
1 (12m 17s):
Then there's other people who were vegan and no meat, obviously no meat products and they feel great. And each side is going to say the other one is the worst thing for you. So there's nothing that people agree. I think maybe if there's one thing, everyone agrees on every single side of the argument, no matter what, I can't think of a diet that encourages processed crappy carbs. I can't think of a diet that says, you know what? You should eat cookies. Not you can, but you should eat cookies and cake and pasta and bread. Like, that's the best thing for you. I don't know of a diet that says that. So I think everyone could agree that just eliminating or reducing those overly processed carbs.
1 (13m 0s):
There's real. There's no nutritional benefit. There's nothing. There's no protein. There's nothing really good for it. It doesn't enter. It's just, that's the stuff we start reducing that. And obviously soda, right? There's no diet that says drink all the soda. You can, you start reducing that. And you'll probably feel better right away. And obviously look the other biggies too. If you're having a lot of alcohol at night, you're having three, four drinks, all those empty calories, obviously smoking, you know, please don't smoke. That's not good for you, but there's no smoking diet. Yeah. There's no smoking diet. Although I w I mean, the, my, so my mom passed away from lung cancer. She used to be, you know, she grew up in the, in the fifties and sixties when everyone smoked and that it would suppress their appetite.
1 (13m 44s):
Right. So when I was young, well, she's, she smoked all through my pregnancy. And even growing up, she, she smoked two to three packs a day, but she stopped in the mid eighties and never smoked again for like another, you know, 25 years. But it's still, you know, still ended up, still ended up getting lung cancer, but she definitely would always say, Oh, I was thinner when I was smoking. Yeah. So maybe there was a smoking diet, although you'll be thinner, but you'll die a lot earlier, which probably is not the best trade off. Yeah. But just a lot of common sense stuff. So you've got to do what feels right for your body and figure out what, what I recommend is people do 24 hours, just try to eliminate one thing.
1 (14m 29s):
So in our, in our Facebook group, we'll do 24 hour challenges. Okay. Let's all go 24 hours and have no gluten. And then see if you feel any difference. We've done that with dairy. And it's incredible how some people will say, wow, I went 24 hours without dairy. And I feel amazing. I mean, I, when I started reducing dairy, I felt better almost instantly because I was so used to drinking so much milk. I grew up on cereal and I'm a kid of the eighties that I was so used to always feeling bloated and gassy. That felt like the norm. I'm like, that's how I always feel. And then when I stopped having it, I'm like, Oh my God, I don't have stomach aches anymore.
1 (15m 10s):
I don't feel like I have to run to the bathroom every 20 minutes.
0 (15m 13s):
Yeah. I used to be a big time cereal eater and just cutting out there. I mean, this was years ago, but like I used to like have at least a two to three bowls a day back. Oh yeah. Back in the day. Yep.
1 (15m 25s):
Oh my God. I had it all the time. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Two to three bowls in the morning bowl for snacks. Sometimes I have cereal for dinner. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was easy. Right. It's something I could always make by myself. So I loved it. But yeah, I, I ha I, I mean, I never had cereal anymore every once in a while. I'll do like, like gluten-free without milk, which tastes just as good, but
0 (15m 50s):
Yeah. Yeah, no. And, and you talked about it, like, there's all these like elimination, diets, you know, you talk about carnivores. And I think that what might be a good idea for most people is if they are having some symptoms like autoimmune or arthritis or things like that, perhaps to do an elimination diet, like you mentioned, and see what foods are sort of hampering them and react, they're reacting bad to cause some people can handle plants and some people can not, and they get psoriasis and things like this are skin. Right. So I think that's the most important thing is you can always add back in, you know?
1 (16m 25s):
Yeah. And what's, what's really important if you're doing an elimination diet is you have to do one thing at a time, right. Because if, if tomorrow you eliminate gluten and dairy and then you feel better. Well, you don't know if it was one of the other, right. It might've been the gluten that you stopped, that you feel better. It might've been the dairy. We are all different and our bodies do respond differently. So you have to do what feels right to you and what feels good to you. But I, again, coming back to that theme of, if it's so restrictive where you wake up in the morning and you're just playing defense all day, all day and all you're thinking of the things you can't eat, I can't have this, I can't have this. Like you can't go out now, all of a sudden, you can't go out with your friends, you know, they're going to have pizza and you can't go out for PE.
1 (17m 11s):
Like now you're miserable. And then to me, I say, well, what's the point of that too. Right? Right.
0 (17m 18s):
You want that balance for sure. Yeah.
1 (17m 21s):
And I know like I plan ahead. So
0 (17m 24s):
If
1 (17m 26s):
We're going out with another family and it's like at a pizza place, I know they just have pizza. I'm thinking ahead. I'm like, well, okay, there's that tonight? So, and there's maybe there's no gluten-free option or there's no other salad or whatever. There's one, there's one place that we've gone to with, they don't even have salad. They have salad pizza. So I'll plan ahead. Say, okay, well I know dinner's not going to be the greatest. So me eat a hundred percent clean all day. Let me get a workout in and let me drink extra water. Let me just make sure I have a really good clean salad for lunch. So that dinner, I can give myself a little bit of a break and say, you know what, that'll be my 20% tonight. I'm not going to Gorge myself. I'm not going to have an entire pie myself, but I'll have a slicer too and have water.
1 (18m 11s):
So you could still have know, I guess the, you could still have your quote unquote cake and eat it too. But yeah, when you go into the hole, you can never have this again for the rest of your life. You're you, you start freaking out and then, and then you eventually crash. And then that, you know, this cycle continues.
0 (18m 30s):
Right. And you talked about, that's like, yo-yo dieting, right? Oh my God,
1 (18m 33s):
God. I mean, I've been a health guide for 25 years and it's it. It never changes. Someone goes on something. They go, they say, I'm quote unquote, going on a diet that whenever someone says that it never works. It never lasts because going saying, I'm going on a diet is like this temporary, like I'm going on a rollercoaster. It's no, you don't go on a diet. Say I'm going to change my life. And let me just make some small tweaks, some small little habits, but unless you do a program and you said, this is it. This is, I feel great that it's working for me. And then you stick with it. But most often you'll try something it's ultra restrictive. Then you start eating something else.
1 (19m 14s):
You fall off the wagon, you gain back all the weight you lost plus more. And then, you know, a couple of months later, you're looking for the next thing. I mean, how many, how many diets have we seen over the years come and go? The fads
0 (19m 28s):
Quite a bit. And one thing that I'm a big proponent of is fasting. When I first heard about fasting, I was like, Oh, you know, all I know about fasting is for the Jewish holiday, but, and I do that every year. Yeah. Right. Exactly. And so, but what I do like about fasting is yes, it's restrictive. Obviously you're not eating, but it also keeps it simple too. And the fact that I tell people, even if you don't want to skip a meal, you know, just don't snack throughout the day and just give your body time and, and sort of to heal and give yourself a break between meals. Do you incorporate any type of fasting in your life?
1 (20m 10s):
You know, it's funny. I tried for a while. I tried intermittent fasting and I wouldn't eat, you know, I would have my last meal at six at night and then I wouldn't eat again til I don't remember.
0 (20m 22s):
I am 10:00 AM or noon. Well, if you, it depends how you got it.
1 (20m 26s):
Yeah. I think I was going long and I was getting too hungry, but I kind of in a way, almost intermittent fast ish. I mean, I have my last meal. We usually eat pretty early in my house, you know, five 30 and then I don't, I don't, I never have breakfast anyway anymore, but I'll usually have either, either a glass of my greens hot or, or a coffee or something, but I kind of fast anyway, and then I'll eat an early lunch at like, usually around 11:00 AM my time. So,
0 (20m 59s):
So you're having two meals a day.
1 (21m 1s):
Yeah. Yeah. I have two meals a day. I have, I have lunch and I have dinner and lunch. It's pretty much always the same. It's usually a salad with some kind of protein. And the protein is, is usually seafood Bay. Like I love salmon and my, one of my favorites, which is the healthiest food in the world. And very few people eat it because they think it's going to be disgusting. Although it's not sardines. I do. I do the boneless sardines. So you don't have the fish eyes and spoons and all that stuff, even though there's, I know there's extra nutrients in that, but I get the salmon filets packed in olive oil. So I use the olive oil as the dressing, you know, I, I opened the, can put the sardines on it, use the olive oil and mix it all around and the greens and it's quick, it's easy.
1 (21m 47s):
It's not expensive. Get a can of sardines for like two bucks. Right. Everyone talks about, Oh, it's so expensive to eat healthy. Right? You go to McDonald's and you get whatever the meal is. It's probably like six or $7 anyway. A can of sardines and a serving of greens is probably three, three to four bucks. If that, you know, it's cheaper and it's better for you and you get, you get the protein, you get the good Omega is just, you've got just everything right there and it takes 30 seconds to put together. So that's, that's usually my lunch and dinner. It depends like if I, if I feel, if I'm not feeling great, if I feel like I'm getting, you know, some symptoms coming back, then I go another salad for dinner.
1 (22m 30s):
But otherwise it's usually, again, protein veggies. I try to just simple, simple works.
0 (22m 37s):
Yeah. And you talk, yeah, no, that's a good point because a lot of people say, Oh, it's so, you know, to eat healthy. You know, I mean, obviously if you're buying grass fed grass finished rib-eyes every night, it's probably going to add up, but you know, sardines even like sometimes I'll get these muscles that are at whole foods and these little packages it's packed with protein and B vitamins and things like that, that, you know, you don't have to S you know, you're spending four or five bucks on one of those things. You're not like breaking the bank.
1 (23m 7s):
Right. And, and even, you know, while it's, it's better to have the wild caught salmon, you can get packaged salmon too, or canned salmon, and you throw it together with some veggies. And you've got a quick meal, again, a F a few bucks get, they ha they have the stuff at Walmart can of sardines at Walmart is a dollar 99. Right. I mean, you and I, there are times when I'm just, I, I need a quick meal and I'll just open up the can and just eat it right out of the, can. There you go. It's, you know, you've got everything you need. And, and the bottom of the bottom of the food chain too. So you don't have the, the potential mercury too, right?
0 (23m 46s):
Exactly. You're not having, like, I eat tuna every night. Right? Exactly. Now you talked back about stress eating, what other things, and how you changed your diet and things. What other things did you do to sort of overcome and help yourself with stress and, and, and, you know, and to do that, you do this day as well,
1 (24m 6s):
Just starting every day with gratitude, you know, writing down what I'm grateful for. And it's always my family. So is my wife and my kids. And just trying to appreciate everything I have really, it's, it's a, it's a mindset thing. You know, you can't, because in life we can't control all the other outside circle. Like we can't control that the world got COVID or who's president or your tax rate. Like there's a lot of stuff just, Oh, you can't control. If a jerk just cut you off in traffic, the only thing you can control is how you, how you respond to it. And we, the minute you realize we're in 100% control of how we respond to the world and other people, you're just like, I'm good.
1 (24m 51s):
You know, you're able to handle it better. Stress is just such a mental thing, making sure also that I'm getting in my workouts each day and at least trying to get outside and walking and just getting time off offline to when I go home, I shut my phone off, shut everything off I'm with my kids. I'm present with them and giving yourself permission to unplug your, you know, literal batteries, like your, your, your body, your mind, your brain, and doing things that relax you and finding hobbies and whatever it is. Right. And you know, I'm, I'm an entrepreneur.
1 (25m 31s):
So in the world of entrepreneurship, now, everyone talks about hustle, hustle, grind, work 24 seven. If you're not grinding, you're just dying, like all this stuff. And you know what I like coming home. And then after the kids go to sleep, going downstairs, turning on the TV and watching an hour of TV, like mindless TV. I don't have to think of things. I'm not building my business. I'm just, that's my downtime. And I'm okay with that. Right. And you should be okay with it. Now, if you're watching nine hours of TV a day, then you're not getting anything done. And you complain, you have no time. Well, then you're probably a little bit out of whack.
0 (26m 7s):
Yeah. And I love, you know, like going for walks, such a simple thing. I mean, I have two dogs and just getting out in the morning, getting some sun. I mean, these are simple things, but they go a long way. And you talk about unplugging. I mean, like I actually, I was on a walk this morning and I see the same guy walking his dog, please walking his dog with his phone. And he's looking down at his phone and I think the dog just walking him and I'm thinking to myself, I mean, come on a 20 minute walk, do you have to really be tied down to your,
1 (26m 34s):
I know like, leave your phone at home. I don't, I don't sleep with the phone in my room. You were just so it's so addictive. It really is. And we feel like we're always on, and there's always this constant stress. And I'm just, I'm really trying hard to be more mindful of just leaving the phone at home and not having it. Even when we have dinner with our family, no phones at the table, just unplug. You've got to, because you're going to lose your mind. So just simple, simple. And, and that's why, you know, maybe I feel so good with the whole eighties stuff was back before we had the internet before we had mobile phones. I miss those times, you know?
1 (27m 15s):
Yeah. It's pager. I had a pager. Oh, I did too. In the, in the mid nineties, I had one. Yeah.
0 (27m 23s):
That was nice because you got, you know, you got your alert, but you know, I remember getting him my be on the golf course. All right. I'll call him when I'm done. Sort of, you know, like, you know, I need to pick it up right now.
1 (27m 33s):
Yeah. I looked at, of course, there's incredible things with technology. I mean, what we're doing right now, right. And you could look up any fact and you could buy movie tickets. Like there's so much stuff you can do that. It's great. But there's something to be said about having to work for something. Like when we were younger, we wanted to go see our friends. You'd try to call around. And if they picked up, they did. And if not, you didn't know. And then we get on our bikes and ride around the block and knock on doors till we found our friends. Right? Oh, we were older in high school. We would all meet at the gas station. Right. The amp. And we call it an album. Let's all meet an app at nine o'clock. And then we figure out where we're going.
1 (28m 13s):
There's something to be said about that. Yeah. Or waiting each week for the Saturday morning cartoons. So I, I always try to instill some of the, the, the old school stuff in my kids too. They love it.
0 (28m 27s):
I'm sure they do. And how have you instilled some, some eating good eating habits with your kids? I know that can be tough. Yeah, yeah,
1 (28m 33s):
Yeah. Yeah. We, they all cook now. Even, you know, even my 11 year old last night made himself dinner. There's always vegetables at meals. We always have fruit, whether it's apples, bananas, pears, peaches that we, Oh, there's always fresh fruit and vegetables in the house. And we always try to have balanced meals, you know, look, do, do we get them some fast food sometimes. Yeah. It's everything in moderation, including moderation. And I think if you grew up in a house where there's no fast food ever, you've never had a nugget. You never, this, if your kids go to college, the minute they go, they could lose their minds. So we just teach them responsibility and trying to eat.
1 (29m 16s):
Right. And, and, and they all like cooking and baking. So it's fun. Yeah. So we definitely, and the other thing we've instilled in them too, is you've got to try all different types of food. Right. Which is something that when I was a kid, my, my dad still has like, no palette at all. Zero. He, he wants chicken, every meal. And he says, make it as, as right as possible. He says, he says it every time he goes, I want it extra well done. And he was really, Oh yeah. He goes, run it over with a truck. Like he wants it like that. I mean, we had, we had no flavor, nothing.
1 (29m 57s):
I didn't have any Mexican food growing up. I remember when I started dating my, my now wife, when she was my girlfriend, I was 23. We went to like a Wendy. She said, Oh, I'm going to get chilly. I'm like, Oh, I've never had chili. It was like, what? 23? You never Chile. We don't have any of that stuff. So my kids have everything. We've tried everything. They're not going to be the kids who go to a party and be like, Oh, I only have chicken fingers and Mac and cheese. They're the ones ordering all the, all the different stuff. And even my oldest, she, my oldest daughter, my 17 year old and my 13 year old love hot sauce. Well, I, my oldest one puts hot sauce on everything. I think that's cool. I'm like, all right, go. Yeah, go for it. I can't handle that. But yeah. You know, I didn't have any heat at all.
1 (30m 38s):
I don't want to sweat when I'm eating. No, although now, now I appreciate a little bit, I don't put hot sauce on, but if we go out to a nice meal and it has a little bit of heat, like a little, I like it. It gives it a little bit more flavor. I feel now I never thought that way in the past, but now I like it a little bit.
0 (30m 54s):
I wanted to touch back on what you mentioned earlier regarding like your, your workouts. And I think it's so key. And this is something that I've sort of grasped onto during the whole quarantine was, you know, I used to go to the, go to the gym and be there for like an hour and a half. And it's like, now with the quarantine, I actually just do like, literally, like you said, I do 20, 30 minute workouts and I'm done. Yeah. I actually do more volume during the week. I'm not working out. I used to work out maybe three, four times a week. Cause it took so long. Now I'm working out like probably almost six days a week, but I'm just doing these quick little workouts and getting it done. And I love it because there's really no excuses when you got it. Who can't fit in a 20 minute workout.
1 (31m 32s):
Yeah. I, I mean, I like it. I like the consistency of it. Right. I mean, I, I go through spurts where I'll join a gym, I'll go for a few months. And then, well, this was in the past right before the pandemic, I would go for a few months. And then I'm like, well, why am I doing this driving, having to shower, change your clothes. It's like just a pain because my, my office here is two and a half miles from my house. Right. Like I could just go home and we have a treadmill in our room. I have a couple of dumbbells and kettlebells. That's all I need. So I like keeping it simple. And I figured if I'm going to work out, all I need is 20, 25 minutes anyway. And let me do work as to give me the most bang for my buck. What are the most important things at, you know, when you start getting older, our cardiovascular health, right?
1 (32m 17s):
We want to maintain strength, right? Endurance, flexibility, joint mobility. So how do I combine all that stuff? And that's where I found. I figured I'm like, all right, well, if I do the treadmill at the high end Klein, high incline walk for a couple of minutes and make it like little mini circuits, then I pause it, jump off. I usually do. Pull-ups push-ups core come back on. And I do that for eight circuits. So it's a full mile of walking and it's eight sets of exercise. So the end of the day, you do decent volume and it takes, I think it's like 24 minutes is the whole workout and I'm done. And I know like, all right, I'm getting home at 11 o'clock in the morning. I'm done and showered by like 1130.
1 (32m 60s):
And I feel great. I don't, everyone has different priorities. You know, some, some guys want to be like big bodybuilder dudes and all this stuff. But the way I look at it is as you S if you really, really think about it, unless you live, I guess in Miami beach, and you're a single guy or girl always out, you know, on the prowl, how many times in public do you really have your shirt off? Anyway, I, I mean a handful of times, you know, when you're swimming a little, but we have our shirt on 99%. So if you look good in a shirt like you, don't what, what people don't realize is when you see the fitness models, the people on the cover of men's health and men's fitness.
1 (33m 41s):
I know a lot of those guys, a lot of them are my friends and colleagues. It is insane how much they have to train for bill they'll know. They're like, all right, in two months I have a cover shoot. They torture themselves. And when they take the shoot, they are so they're at the unhealthiest. You know, 4% body fat is really, really hard to maintain, really hard to maintain. You have to be dedicated to it. You have to watch everything. You eat. One of my, one of my best clients and a good friend of mine for 15 years, Jeff cavalier has a company called athlete X. He's probably the number one fitness utuber now. And he's to rent space for me here in new Canaan.
1 (34m 21s):
So we have launched together. And I remember a couple of years ago, we're sitting there having lunch and he is ripped like rip to the core, adds all this stuff. And he's mid forties. And we were talking about dessert. I said, you've just got to be dessert. You love Jeff. He goes, Oh yeah, I love carrot cake. I'm like, Oh man, how often do you have that? That thought he was going to say, you know, I only have it once a week. He goes, Oh, I have it. Like once. Yeah. Maybe like once a year, that's it. I mean, that's how, that's how focused you have to be to look like that. Three 65. It's hard. It's really hard. And to do it for three or four times a year, you take your shirt off to me.
1 (35m 3s):
It's not worth it. It's not, I, you could probably, you could see a little bit of my ads coming through and I'm good with that. But, you know, I could wear a pair of jeans. I feel good. I'm happy. Right?
0 (35m 15s):
No, I agree. And especially as you get, like, I'm 40, right? So like, I think the big key, and this is what I actually found through working out at home was I started using something called an X three X, three bar. I don't know if you've heard of it. I had the CEO on, and it's, it's all bands. It's resistance bands, but it's tough. It's not easy, but you just go, you know, go hard and you're done. And just like, it's so much easier on my joints because you know, you spend an hour, hour and a half in the gym after a while, especially as you get older, I used to have elbow, some elbow issues, some knee issues. Yeah. So now I think the key is, and I'm sure you would agree is okay when you do anything. Like I stopped playing basketball. I don't want to get hurt when I do.
1 (35m 57s):
It's not worth it. And you know, growing up in this, in the fitness industry and I had the world's first strength and conditioning membership site, I knew all the strength and conditioning guys from, you know, 23, 24 years ago. Yeah. There's not one, not one that I know from all those years ago that did heavy lifting, like heavy squats, heavy bench, all that heavy stuff. Every single one without exception have had over the past years, really bad injuries where they need surgery, knees back elbow, shoulder, because it's, they do high, you know, high intensity, high risk for so many years. Right. It builds muscle, but it also, you know, it's,
0 (36m 38s):
You gotta find that balance. You do.
1 (36m 40s):
So I'm, I'm all about staying lean and having longevity, as opposed to trying to bulk up, you know, if you're trying to bulk up different story, but just be prepared, you're going to have those pains that creep up. And when you start hitting your late forties, fifties, sixties, what seemed like a good time in your twenties and thirties, you're like, Oh man, I shouldn't have done it because now I can't even like, you know, I can't move mine.
0 (37m 6s):
I wanted to ask you this. I mean, you've been in the health and wellness industry for a while. You also are an entrepreneur. And have you have freedom owner freedom and a rewind, which is green supplements. What would you say? Like if you were telling some of that, I know we're not, this is sort of off the topic a little bit, but he's the productivity in any area, but you know, in business and things like that and, and having sort of a balance between family and business. Well,
1 (37m 35s):
The mind shift for me with my business is just building the business around my family. That's it? Everything I do, I run it through that filter. Is it, you know, hype? What's the profit and what's the hassle. If it's high hassle, I don't care if it's high profit, I'm not doing it. So it's gotta be, for me, it's gotta be low hassle high profit. So everything has to run through that filter. And how much time is this going to take away from me and my family? If it's taking time away, I I'm not going to do it. So I build my, my life around my family, the way I do it. Tactically is first thing in the morning, I do the things that are going to move my business forward. The most, the biggest levers, which is not sitting around and, and reading Facebook for two hours or just answering emails all day.
1 (38m 20s):
That's not going to be the best use of my time. The best use of my time for my business is our ads and our email newsletters. So that's the first thing I do. I go, I get focused. I shut off all other instant messages, all the, all the stuff that's going to distract me. And I do the big things. So by 10 11 in the morning, I'm pretty much done with my day. I can end it there and be good. And everything's going to maintain and even grow a little bit as opposed to all this other stuff. I mean, that's it, it's that big, that big, big thing doing that first at, but figuring out what it is and each business is going to be different. And what's the most important thing in your life. Making that, making that is just, what's your goal, you know, is this is what I'm doing.
1 (39m 3s):
Everything you do is either moving you closer to your goal or further away from your goal. If you want to build your, you know, your company to X amount of dollars, and you're faced with this, this other opportunity, is that moving you closer to it or further away. And if it's moving you further away, you don't do it.
0 (39m 20s):
Yeah. I love that. Cause like, I, I don't know if have you read the book called the one?
1 (39m 25s):
Of course I've read it. Like every time I feel distressed. It's it's so funny. You bring that up, Ryan. It re it really is funny because this morning that's a great book I was faced with, with another opportunity. And ah, it's, I mean, it's, it's a big one, but is it? And I'm, I'm going through that, man. It's gonna move me though. It might move me further away from my goal. So on the way, so I went to the coffee shop this morning on the way back to my office to record this, I started listening to the one thing again for like the, like the ninth or 10th time. I just, I just started, it's so funny that you bring that up because that's my, that's like my reset.
1 (40m 6s):
Whenever I feel like I'm getting off track, I listened to that book and it brings me right back.
0 (40m 10s):
Yeah, because you started talking, I'm like, God, I'm like, I have that book like next to my dresser, you know, on my dresser. And I go, I go back to that because it's so important. I'm like you, like, if I don't get it done in the morning, things start to slip a little bit. Yeah. I think it's so important to find those times where you're most productive and do the things that will move you, you know, in the, you know, the biggest possible way. Right.
1 (40m 33s):
Especially that one, like the book, the one thing, like what's that one thing. And you know, if you have, my sister has a real estate company, I said, well, what's the most important thing she said, getting, you know, the building, getting these sluices with the landlords. I says, okay, so every morning you should have a list of the 10 landlords. You're going to reach out to like, that's the one thing. That's the thing. Yeah. And every, every business is going to be different and whatever your job is, like, whatever your lifestyle, figure that thing out and then do that first. Right? Yeah. That's, that's the key avoid all the other little distractions. Cause there are plenty of them,
0 (41m 8s):
Plenty of them. And you know, I noticed even for myself, I'll write a, to do list, but these are like mine. A lot of the things you get them done, but they're sort of mindless things, save those things for like later, at least for me like the mindless stuff I'd like to save for the afternoon. And I try to do the most productive things. First thing, at least for me, that's how I work the best. Yeah.
1 (41m 26s):
Yeah. No, me too. And there's some people who have the opposite though. I remember Brian, Tracy, I read a book years ago called eat the frog where you find those things you don't want to do when you do those first and get it over with. But I don't know. I feel like when I'm at my best brain power, I want to do the big stuff first. And the other things could just fade away. One of my buddies was writing on his Facebook wall. This was a couple of months ago. He said, you know, people ask me all the time, how do I deal with this? And how do I deal with that? And, and all these different things, like one was, you know, how do you, how do you reply to every email? And then, and he goes, I don't, you know, how do you reply to people who did this? He goes, I don't like, he just chooses not to.
1 (42m 9s):
I'm like, man, that's pretty freeing.
0 (42m 12s):
Yeah, no, I love that. And this is a question I like to ask all my guests is what would you say? What would be like one tip you'd give to an individual middle-aged individual looking to get maybe like, almost like rewind, right? Looking to get their body back to what it once was 10, 15 years ago.
1 (42m 32s):
I would say nutrition is the biggest factor. You can't, you can't out work out, you know, a bad diet. You can't out supplement a bad diet, but it doesn't eating better. It's simple. It's not always easy, but it's simple. But if you focus there, like with me, I don't have breakfast. I have a good salad for lunch. So it's like, I'm almost there, right? I've I've gotten to and you have so much good and positive momentum going. You don't want to blow it on a crappy dinner.
1 (43m 12s):
Just, I would say focus on the nutrition for your health and, and the stuff we talked about earlier. The one thing that every health and diet and doctor will agree with is the process carbs. Reduce that as much as possible. You, you start lowering that and getting rid of that. And you're going to start seeing results too. It's not about being ultra restrictive and saying, I can never have a cookie again. The rest of my life. Just about making smarter.
0 (43m 39s):
Yeah, no, I love that. And before we end, why don't you tell people where the best place I know you got freedom and rewind. Where's the best place to find you and learn about your company.
1 (43m 50s):
Just visit, visit a rewind co like rewind company, re R E w I N D C o.com and check out. We've created the world's best tasting greens by far check out thousands of reviews, flavors like pineapple. We have cherry. We have.
0 (44m 9s):
So do you mix those with anything? You mix some yeah.
1 (44m 12s):
I mean, they, they taste incredible just in water. You guys, I promise you guys you'll be shocked. You know what I'm doing? I'll create a, I'll create a special coupon code. What should I use Brian? Like, so then we'll know we came from the podcast. What coupon code should we use something? I dunno. Lean. Okay. Get lean typing, get lean a checkout. And we'll give you 20% off your, your, your order. So it'll, you'll apply the discount code 20% off everything, but try the greens and see how you feel. And you would love the taste I haven't called. I also have a hot, so I'll add it to a mug of hot water Sturt.
1 (44m 52s):
And it's like, it tastes better than coffee. It's it's the greatest. It has 50 superfoods. It has all the great seaweeds like kelp and spirulina and chlorella has berries. We've jammed everything in there and no artificial flavors, no artificial sweeteners and has nine grams of protein as well. So give it a shot. Rewind co and use get lean at checkout. Yeah.
0 (45m 18s):
I appreciate that. I'll put that in the show notes and I know you won't say, but I also I'll just say you're owner of freedom. If you are looking to become an entrepreneur, I noticed you're, you're having, it's just a free membership. It's a,
1 (45m 31s):
I'll actually have them have them go to Ryan lee.com. Cause I'm going to be doing more stuff there. Go to Ryan. R Y a N L E e.com. If I talk in business because I'm working on my next book. Oh, check that out. I think you guys are going to like that. Okay.
0 (45m 43s):
Okay. Yeah. Well, a lot of great info, Ryan. I appreciate you coming on the podcast.
1 (45m 49s):
Well thank you for having me and I, and I wish you continued success and everyone watching this, keep it simple, small steps and celebrate every win.
0 (45m 60s):
I agree. I agree. Well, thanks again, Ryan. And we will definitely be in touch. I appreciate it. Thanks Brian. Hey, get lean. Clean nation. Are you a man between the ages of 40 and 60 years old looking to lose inches around your waist have significantly more energy throughout the day and gain muscle all while minimizing the risk of injuries? Well, I'm looking for three to five people to work one-on-one with in my fat burner blueprint signature program, which I've developed by utilizing my 15 years experience in the health and fitness space. This program is designed specifically for those committed, to making serious progress towards our health goals.
0 (46m 40s):
Over the next six months, we will focus on sleep, stress, nutrition, meal, timing, and building lean muscle. If this sounds like a fit for you, email me@bryanatbriangrin.com with the subject line blueprint. That's brian@briangrin.com with the subject line blueprint. Thanks for listening to the get lean eat clean podcast. I understand there are millions of other podcasts out there and you've chosen to listen to mine. And I appreciate that. Check out the show notes@briangrin.com for everything that was mentioned in this episode, feel free to subscribe to the podcast and share it with a friend or family member.
0 (47m 22s):
That's looking to get their body back to what it once was. Thanks again, and have a great day.
