Ben: 0:07

Welcome to episode 36,. Cut the Noise. Wellness Simplified. I'm Ben.

Lindsay: 0:12

And I'm Lindsay, and we're back again for another week.

Ben: 0:16

Another week, eh, another week. So what are we speaking about today? What are we talking about?

Lindsay: 0:19

We are talking about time.

Ben: 0:23

We don't have enough of it.

Lindsay: 0:24

No, we don't make enough time.

Ben: 0:27

Interesting, interesting.

Lindsay: 0:28

We are going to focus on the concept of time and priorities would you say?

Ben: 0:37

Concept time, I think what we want to talk about and actually, interestingly, linda and I kind of had a conversation earlier this week and then today when we sat down to do it. We're like where was this, where was this? Because it comes up all of the time and I would think I don't know. I think one of the top three or four reasons that we hear for not prioritizing health, probably the top one.

Lindsay: 1:02

I would say top one.

Ben: 1:03

Is I don't have enough time. Right, I don't have enough time, and you know to turn around and say that's BS. I mean, it's tempting to do that and sometimes I want to do that and you want to do that because the reality is there's people busier than you. Prioritizing exercise.

Lindsay: 1:20

It is BS, but this is not what this is about. But, no, no, it is BS, but this is not what this is about.

Ben: 1:23

But I was going to say but it's difficult. It is difficult and it's appreciating with empathy. It's really really hard to find the time, particularly if you haven't been prioritizing health Right. I have a client that often says to me it's a client that's lost over 100 pounds, actually closer to 150 pounds and she often says to me if you had told me four years ago that I was prioritizing working out and fitness, I'd have just said to you I just don't have time, right, right, I just don't have time.

Lindsay: 1:55

But yet here she is.

Ben: 1:56

Fast forward and now you know, over the years, over the months of the years, it's become a staple in her life. In fact, not only does she prioritize working out, she doesn't just do it for her physical benefits. Now, and I'd actually argue now it's probably mentally more important to her well and it's interesting.

Lindsay: 2:14

So I had a client this morning say to me that she got up early, was doing a ton of work for her business and the timer went off because it was time for our session. And she logged in and she said if I didn't have this appointment with you, I would have easily not done it because my time, I thought, would be better spent doing the work for my business.

Ben: 2:37

You hear me say it all the time I love this. I don't even know where I picked it up. In actual fact, I'm going to claim it, but that's but. That's not true. I'm like a magpie, I pick things up over the years.

Lindsay: 2:47

No idea where it comes from, so I just quote it and as far as you're concerned. So if you're listening and it's yours, let us know.

Ben: 2:52

But basically I always say, when you engage us to work with us one-on-one primarily, you're getting lots of things. But I'm going to tell you three things that you're going to get that people don't necessarily appreciate. Number one is support Yep.

Lindsay: 3:06

Number two is accountability, and the third one I love it so much, the third, one is outsourced discipline. Outsourced discipline and it's interesting because you know again we've talked about it and Ben said this term outsourced discipline and I love it so much.

Ben: 3:20

I made it up. From now on, guys.

Lindsay: 3:22

Okay, it's a Ben-ism.

Ben: 3:23

No, a Ben-ism is like if it's a Lindsay-ism. That means something's not quite right. This is 100% right.

Lindsay: 3:29

Okay, that's true, 100% right. So understanding what that means. So explain, explain exactly what that means for those who haven't heard it over and over again, right.

Ben: 3:38

So outsourced discipline is sometimes when we're starting to develop a new habit, right, where we're like a baby. We don't have much strength and much resolve because it's something new and it's a change, and it's difficult and what we're trying to do is we're trying to build the muscle of discipline, to get stronger at showing up for ourselves and doing that thing. So like. Take exercise as an example. I want to exercise consistently but I struggle to show up, right, so you can continue to struggle up. Or you can engage a coach like lindsey ri or a coach, any, any coach where you make an investment. So now you have skin in the game and now you're effectively, because you're lacking the distance, that discipline to be consistent yourself, you're outsourcing the discipline of that coach, showing up on a zoom call in the gym, wherever that you've invested in, and now you're leveraging that yes, and you're showing up because of that right and this is exactly what I can't show up for myself, right, but I'll show up because I know lindsey's gonna be there.

Ben: 4:44

How many times do you hear?

Lindsay: 4:44

that so many times and my client literally said that this morning she was like I was deep in it. I could have worked for another two hours. I knew where our session was at, you know whatever time, and I just knew that if I had to do this on my own, or if I had to walk you know, drive to the gym or if I had to present my opportunity, I would not have taken it. The only reason I showed up was because she knew I was going to be there.

Ben: 5:05

So when we go back to the beginning, this is where it ties in super, super nice, right, I don't have time right, versus I need to make time Right, and when you think about what that outsourced discipline does and there's other ways to do it. So it's not always just about engaging a coach, but once you've got that, you're making time for it, because in your particular client's case, she struggles to put herself first in those situations.

Lindsay: 5:32

Her business was and is very important, and you could also make the argument.

Ben: 5:37

Let's say, you make the argument Now. In her particular case, it's critical that she gets those activities done On very critical activities, and if her kids had called and needed picking up from school, that would have been critical as well. Right, so here you are. Every single time something comes up, you could make the argument that her choice is well, I can do this later. Right, and you know what happens with later it never happens.

Lindsay: 5:54

It never happens to be fair. It doesn't never happen. But we already know how much more success you'll successful you'll be if you put it at the beginning of the day and whatever that means for you doesn't have to be five in. Put it at the beginning of the day and whatever that means for you, it doesn't have to be five in the morning. Whatever the beginning of the day is for you.

Ben: 6:07

Right, and we talked about something similar in a few episodes ago where this idea is be to have Right. Right, and you think about this, when you think about what we're trying to do is we don't have enough time, so we're starting with a have. That's the perfect example of the opposite way around you can't prioritize it until you have time, or you're never going to have time, never going to have time. So that's why you have to make time, right, and I think you know Lindsay and I were just talking about this before we switched on and it's super easy. Right, we are busy. We do have lots of things going on. There's busy. We do have lots of things going on. There's lots of competing priorities.

Ben: 6:47

We do have to make time and we have to commit to that time like we would any other appointment, but I think the super important thing is you might only have 10 minutes but, that's fine and 10 minutes is 10 if you are not working out and you are investing 10 minutes three or four times a week to start working out, then that is amazing because I can guarantee, like my client who didn't have time as she started to shop, she started to prioritize the time that she spent exercising and then, all of a sudden, 30 minutes three times a week became something that was just something that she did, it became part of her routine.

Ben: 7:24

And I think that's the big thing is, you know, if we try and jump too quickly into not exercising, to try to dedicate masses amounts of times and that's another thing as well. I'm going to call it out now, and we just spoke about this before we started this idea that we have to put a shitload of time in. You know, like you hear it all the time, I hear it all the time. I hear it all the time I went to the gym for an hour and a half.

Lindsay: 7:46

It's like three hours, two hours, and it's like if you don't have an hour and a half or three hours or two hours, which most of us don't 10 minutes.

Ben: 7:53

Well, let's be clear, you don't need an hour and a half two hours. I have never worked out at a gym for an hour and a half two hours. There's very, very few people that I'm not even going to say need to, I would say are wanting to, and the wants come when somebody is looking to do some kind of bodybuilding, a bodybuilding program or an event or something like that, and by the way.

Lindsay: 8:15

That doesn't happen by accident. So you're putting in the time to find those things the average, not even the average, not even the average.

Ben: 8:22

Like a regular joe schmoe that's exercising and really fit or starting to exercise. You can accomplish these sorts of things in 30 minutes if you are efficient with your time and you target particular types of workouts that are time efficient.

Lindsay: 8:40

Right. And if I said to somebody who's brand new that they need to find 10 minutes in their day three times a week, it feels much more reasonable than turning around and saying you need to find three one hour sessions a week, which is three hours, right. So it just. It changes the game and how we think and perceive time is also a lot to do with our perception, right? So what does that mean? It means that if you think fitness has to be ours, then of course you're not going to get started.

Ben: 9:09

Well, you're going to be in a situation where I don't have time. And you're right, you probably don't at that particular point and that's why we're trying to. You know, you could argue that this. Well, number one the perception of what's needed is incorrect, and number two, you're. I started working with a new client in the last four or five weeks and when I started with them, the question often comes up excitement, of course, starting a new kind of commitment.

Ben: 9:43

The question came up in terms of you know, what are we going to be doing in these first few weeks? And I said you're going to practice showing up. And they were like, what do you mean practice showing up? And I was like, well, that's something you've not been able to do for yourself, right? So, right now, if you show up, then the workouts will look after themselves, right? So don't worry about what we're going to do, just worry about showing up totally. And then, all of a sudden, when you get good at showing up, you've proven to yourself you can show up. Then we can worry about the workout. Now, of course, I'm worried about what's happening in the workout. I want them to worry about showing up right, and at some point they understand that the reality is that the beauty of working with a coach also is you don't have to think about that. You can just be led by the nose.

Lindsay: 10:27

All I have to do is show up and do as I'm told yeah, exactly, and I think too, you know, when it comes to coaching in general with our clients, you know I've had clients that you know our session is from 6 30 am to 7 am and something has caught them up and now they're just there and I always get this is it worth 20 minutes, 15 minutes? And my argument is always yes, just show up, because the thing is, within that time we can adjust, we can create, we can make, and I remember one client once years ago turning around and being like I hate your 10 minute workouts, you know, because it's adjusting what we have available to us but, at the same time, understanding that you don't need the hours. 30 minutes, even 15, if that's all you can give me today, that is going to be a great workout to show up to.

Ben: 11:16

Right. When you first start working out and you don't have a routine or you've never been consistent working out, you work in two muscles, right. The first muscle is the showing up muscle, and that is a muscle, right. The more you show up, the stronger that muscle gets, the more inconsistent you are right the more inconsistent the work that you do on building the muscle of showing up. You're all over the place. So first, the first muscle you start to build is the showing up muscle and, of course, once you build that muscle, by default you're also building the I'm actually working out muscles as well.

Lindsay: 11:50

Right, they go hand in hand and it's interesting when you're talking to somebody who's brand new or, you know, hasn't figured out where they want to stand, whether it's with a coach or not. The big thing is we often say, especially with me, I work with a lot of business, women who have their own business, or leaders or CEOs is the learning curve. The putting together all the information saves so much time if you go to a professional.

Ben: 12:16

Right.

Lindsay: 12:16

Right, if you go to a professional who? Shows up does the work, gets the workout done tells you what to do versus trying to mishmash all these different things. I had a client talk to me about biohacking, she's like, oh, I was a deep dive into this like crazy hole of two hours worth of this and all she had to do was ask me.

Ben: 12:35

Right, whole of two hours worth of this and all she had to do was ask me right, you're, you're outsourcing expertise in that particular example, right? I mean, that's that's, that's also the reality. But I think that's that's the big thing. You know, I was thinking about that same client and I I said to them, and after four weeks I mean obviously I've been talking a lot more than just once, but typically after four weeks, you know, the big open-ended question is like how's it going? How are you feeling about things?

Ben: 12:58

And I would say 99.9% of people that I asked this question to are going to turn around and say something different to probably what they thought they would have said if I told them I'm going to ask that question of you. After four weeks, they would expect to turn around and say I feel I'm getting myself stronger, I feel like I'm improving, I feel like I'm really getting this. That is true, those things are happening, but more often than not they come out with I'm so proud of myself for showing up so consistently over the last four weeks or five weeks. I've never been able to do that before.

Lindsay: 13:32

Right, and that's. I mean, that's huge and for anybody who's ever been there or any of our clients who are listening, you are, you should be proud, because it is such a massive, massive accomplishment to show up four weeks, eight weeks, 10 weeks, 12 weeks right, it doesn't matter, showing up is the best.

Ben: 13:50

I'm struggling right now. I mean, obviously, if you're listening to this in some form of like chronological order, you know I'm obviously not running at this particular time because of injury which you'll have heard all about Yawn, yawn, yawn. I'm so over it.

Lindsay: 14:03

He's so tired of talking about it. Hence why we didn't give you an update.

Ben: 14:06

But now I'm going to the gym and I'm lifting weights, which is great in the sense of I want to do it. So I just said it's great in the sense that I want to do it, and I also say it's great in the sense that I want to do it and I have goals. But I'm kind of finding it tough. I am Like every morning I wake up and I'm like I just really can't be bothered. Today, I really just can't be bothered. So everyone would turn around and say but you show up, you run all the time, you commit to your exercise. True, I have, and I have so consistently. But this is different. So sometimes showing up differently is hard.

Lindsay: 14:40

Yes, and let me just put it out there, he has gone to the gym consistently this week as well.

Ben: 14:45

So what we're saying is that what your mind tells you sometimes and what you actually do, because the thing with what Ben's- just describing is his show-up muscle is strong for running, for running actually for a lot of things, for a lot of things, but I think that's part of it right.

Lindsay: 15:00

So even though he wakes up and he's like I don't want to go, his show-up muscle for himself is strong.

Ben: 15:05

Therefore he still goes, even though he's complaining about it a lot in his head I've been sore, not like crazy sore, because I I'm not a big fan of crazy sore. It's not necessary. And if ever I hear a coach or a client of a coach talk about how sore they are, like it's a badge of honor. I hate it. If you're getting super sore in your workouts, it's not fun.

Lindsay: 15:29

It's not fun the next day. The intensity is just a little too high.

Ben: 15:32

And guess what happens? When it's not fun, you don't show up again, we start to dread it. So in some respects it should be actually super easy when you first start, Because if it's super easy you're like this isn't that bad Right? And then you show up again.

Lindsay: 15:50

Well, and to be fair, for this week, for example, if you're doing chest and hasn't been doing weights for very long in the gym, for example, he was like I'm just gonna see what weights I need, and then the next day, when it was back, I'm just gonna see what weights I need. So this is the thing too when you think about time, it doesn't have to be the most productive time, you just have to show up and keep showing up.

Ben: 16:15

Right. So you've got to. You've got to make that time and don't have these preconceived notions of how much time that needs I have. I actually, this particular person is is not a client of ours, it's a friend of mine from way way back when and she had, you know, she's had some health challenges and she has decided to set herself a big goal and and she was telling me that she'd been to the gym for like, in my opinion, excessive amount of hours and it's hard to imagine that sustaining that long term.

Ben: 16:44

Because, if you think about it, if you're starting something new, just doing a few minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes at first, and then doing it a couple of times a week, is you just. You just you're laying down the very basic, simple foundation, and then the second week you might go for a few minutes longer and then the third week. Right, that's how you build in by yourself. That's a really good way of building in. If you want to do it by yourself, like, walk through the doors of the gym, walk into the changing room, put your bag in the gym, lock the door, walk out, survey the gym and then get your bag and leave, then you're starting it sounds ridiculous, but it's absolutely the way to start and and that is the key to not quitting after two weeks because the irony is, if you've gone to the effort of showing up, you're going to be like I'm kind of here now.

Lindsay: 17:31

It's kind of like putting your shoes on to go for a walk and turn around and saying you only need to walk for two minutes. Right, If you ever read Atomic Habits or any of the tiny habit books they talk about, you know, do it in small doses. Well, once you're out there and you already have your shoes on.

Ben: 17:50

You probably are going to go longer, but guess what? If you only go two minutes, you've already done what you need to do. You're making the time. It's actually funny. You just I had a massive flashback then, so it would be maybe 14, 15, six years ago. 16 years ago, lindsay and I were. We were training for and racing triathlons long distance Ironman triathlons and I used to swim a lot and I learned to love swimming a lot, but we lived in canada at the time.

Ben: 18:11

Typically, training started for racing in january and would run through to the races in june, july, august in the summer, and it was so cold so we'd have I'd have to get out of bed, drive in a cold car, usually covered in snow, go to a pool that's freezing cold in this particular place that I went to this recreation center, they had a hot tub and I often used to think to myself I'm going to get in the hot tub, I'm going to heat my body up and then when I jump in the pool it's not going to be as so bad. And I would say I did that maybe 50 of the time, and of that 50 of the time, 80 of the time I'd then get in the pool and do the workout. So it worked for me. But very occasionally I just sit in that pool and I'd be like, not today, thank you, but that the whole point is that we're still showing up, showing up, and sometimes, you know, I'd like to say in that case it was me listening to my body.

Ben: 19:06

But I think the thing is here is sometimes it's our expectation that weighs heavily on us. The expectation is oh my god, I need to go and work out for 45 minutes or an hour. It's going to be really hard. Yeah, set the expectation differently, which is I need to make time to work out, but I'm just going to do five or 10 minutes to start off with. And then I'm confident that when I build a consistent routine that five and 10 minutes might be 10 and 15 minutes, and then 15 and 20 minutes, and eventually I'll realize, as I get better and as I build knowledge or as I work with my coach, I actually don't need to put hours and hours in the gym.

Lindsay: 19:46

Well, and it's interesting. Expectations is such an interesting one because one of the things I work with my clients a lot with is our limiting beliefs, and our limiting beliefs are all of this time it takes to.

Ben: 19:57

Limiting beliefs. Yeah, do people have limiting beliefs? So?

Lindsay: 20:00

many, but one of the big ones I hear a lot of is you know, I'm always thinking about food, I'm always prepping food, I'm always doing that. Now, again, if you listen to any of these and you know anything about me, I am the laziest, laziest person in the kitchen, so I don't necessarily love that. However, when you have that perception of that, that idea that you're going to spend hours and hours and hours and doing these things, one of the things I get you to do is actually take a look at the actual amount. So I had a client who we did this and she was like I'm spending all this time, I'm doing all these things. And I said, okay, let's talk about it, let's break it down.

Lindsay: 20:32

What? How often do you go to the grocery store? What are you doing with your meal prepping? How often do you cook? And her I'm spending all this time, or all my time is put together for, you know, for meal prepping and planning. In reality it was about four hours a week, so it wasn't nearly as much as she thought, but in her head, that expectation of all the time, all the time, all the time. We brought it right down. So it's important to also understand that not just making time, but also the perception of how much time you are spending the perception right.

Ben: 21:00

You don't know until you start to track. That it's interesting. We will take this whole idea to food for a moment because obviously, as you know, food is food's critical right. I mean, you've heard us say multiple times 80 of body transformation is food, it's nutrition, it's what you put in your mouth. 20 of exercise contributes. But exercise contributes lots of other incredible things quality of life, longevity of life, mental health, right, just your ability to master your environment. But when I think about using the same analogy of just showing up or making time right Versus having time, you start simple again. You maybe chop some carrots up, right, that's your meal prep, and that's it. Because you know what I hate?

Ben: 21:45

I hate a strong word Hate, a strong word, but I know where you're going with it, and I kind of agree, because if I were to turn around and say I hate this about the health and fitness industry you'd be on point yeah, you know what I'm hating on and I'm hating on it passively because I don't really hate anything, but it's this idea of when you show up on Instagram, instagram or Facebook and you've got this beautiful fitness professional or whomever that's the influencer the influencer, the Tupperwares and they're like.

Ben: 22:13

All you have to do is dedicate six hours on a Sunday to prep in all your meals for your week and then you know you've got matching Tupperwares and they look so beautiful, it's so beautiful and the fridge is immaculate and it's perfect 17 hours to clean the kitchen and you hate life and you and you throw everything out meanwhile, your kid is like looking like some kind of like street urchin at the same time, because they've been neglected for the last six hours and yeah it's.

Ben: 22:39

There's not one way, and but that's the thing is like we have never done that never never, never, I would say, I would. We've come close, we've done, and, by the way, that would have been one or two times yeah we've done some meal prepping.

Lindsay: 22:52

And again, don't get me wrong, some meal prepping, but never like that.

Ben: 22:56

Right.

Lindsay: 22:57

So in the last 23 years, basically, we have gone against the grain to say that meal prepping is the only way.

Ben: 23:07

It's not, no, I mean it's like all things, if, if, that if you love the kitchen. If you love the kitchen, then it's going to knock yourself out with it.

Lindsay: 23:11

But ben has a client who often is like I made eight, seven, eight thousand muffins today.

Ben: 23:16

My first question is oh my god, that sounds well, I also have people have turned around to me and said I've, I've, I spent all day on sunday in the kitchen cooking my dinners and lunches for the day and I'm like, well, how, how has that gone for you? And they're like, every time I open them, I just didn't fancy them so I didn't eat them. So it's one of those things is you can prep too much in advance and we're kind of getting off topic.

Lindsay: 23:38

But if you think about it, you know you don't have to.

Ben: 23:42

you could. You could cook eight chicken breasts, that's it, right, then you don't have to cook them, so you're saving that time during the week. Or you could cook some ground beef in advance, or you could chop some vegetables up, but the idea being is you just make some time five minutes to do whatever you can, set the clock stop, and then you'll get better at it. You'll build that muscle of prepping to the point whereby you get to a point that you're happy with. Right, I don't, you don't prep, I don't.

Ben: 24:11

Beyond, I'll have vegetables that have been chopped up sometimes. I'll have fruit that's been chopped up sometimes, so I can bring them into the food that I'm making. But I am, I feel very proud occasionally when I do that. But I don't need to do that. We don't need to do that to be healthy, and that's not the end goal, and I think that's much like the three hours in the gym. The end goal isn't the Instagram influencer. The end goal is just making your life a little bit easier and a little bit more convenient by showing up, doing a little bit and then maybe getting better at it as you go, without any expectation of being that influencer, or even halfway halfway yeah, so I mean, we always try to bring actionable items to this podcast.

Lindsay: 24:53

If you're listening to it and I think that's a really, really big thing in this case is looking at where you spend your time. That's the first thing, right? Because?

Ben: 25:01

what's it? What's that? It's called a time. Uh, what's the word when you do a?

Lindsay: 25:08

Like a time audit.

Ben: 25:10

Why did you let me struggle when you knew the word I was looking for? I wasn't sure if that's what you were A time audit, a time audit.

Lindsay: 25:15

And again, that might sound like a lot of things, but it doesn't have to be perfect, but look at what you're doing and how you're spending your time. That's the first thing. And secondly, if there is anywhere like if you're spending hours in the gym, or if you find yourself spending hours in the kitchen and you hate it, Remember if you love it cool, keep at it. We appreciate that.

Ben: 25:43

But if you hate it, then maybe looking at how you can change it so that it's not ours and that your time becomes more efficient and effective. We should do. We'll do an episode on some cheats and some shortcuts and some hacks all words that we despise, but really what we're saying is making life simpler, right, in terms of food prepping and meal prepping, but when you look at what we're talking about today, it's very much around. Don't overwhelm yourself with some huge expectation of what you think you need to do. Make time and make it so small that it's impossible not to accomplish, which is again another one of those atomic habits.

Lindsay: 26:13

Right, absolutely make it so small. Exactly one squat like it's so small that you it does not matter because you can get it done. It doesn't feel hard, and I think that's a really, really important part of the takeaway for today.

Ben: 26:42

Once you start doing that and then come back and say, okay, I'm now working out for five minutes five times a week, and I say to you well, do you think you have a little bit more time?

Lindsay: 26:52

You have seven minutes in there, right?

Ben: 26:53

you'll probably be like to be honest with you. I can actually, right, and that's how it grows from there.

Lindsay: 26:57

So as much as bad habits creep into our life we can also creep good habits into our life as well. Absolutely well, guys. Another week, another episode. If you are listening to this and you're like holy smokes, this all sounds really, really great, but I just don't know where to start. Or I don't have the accountability, I don't have the outsourced discipline.

Lindsay: 27:21

You know where to find us. I mean, we're here to support you, we're here to help you, to answer your questions, and if you are looking to do some coaching, reach out to either ben or myself and you can.

Ben: 27:29

We can talk to you about what those are absolutely, and also follow us on socials, if you are not already doing that, because we share a lot of this stuff on there as well. So that might be a good first step for you, and if you feel like you need more help, then we're here for you absolutely.

Lindsay: 27:44

Have yourself a fantastic week and we'll see you in the next episode yes, we will bye.