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Episode 4a: From Burnout Cycles to Longevity: A Smarter Approach to Health
12 Plays1 month ago
In this episode of the Body Evolution Podcast, we explore what longevity really means — and why it’s not just about living longer, but living better for longer.
Most people focus on short-term goals: getting fit for summer, losing weight for an event, or pushing hard for quick results. Over time, this leads to burnout cycles, constant restarts, and frustration. In this conversation, we break down why those cycles are not only unsustainable, but harmful to long-term health — and what to focus on instead.
We introduce the concept of health span, the number of quality years you get to live with strength, energy, confidence, and freedom. From there, we explore how consistency, adaptability, environment, and identity shape whether health actually lasts.
In this episode, we explore:
- The difference between lifespan and health span
- Why quality of life matters more than just living longer
- How restart cycles undermine long-term health
- Why extreme dieting and training backfire over time
- The role of consistency in sustainable health
- How seasons of life require different rhythms and habits
- Why discipline and willpower work short-term but fail long-term
- How identity shapes sustainable behavior
- Why adaptability is more important than perfection
- How environment design reduces reliance on willpower
- Using the 80/20 principle to support longevity
- What long-term health feels like emotionally and mentally
This episode is an invitation to step out of urgency and into a long-term perspective. When health becomes something you live — not something you restart — it creates calm, confidence, and a body that supports the life you want to experience for years to come.
Resources Mentioned in This Episode
The following tools, concepts, and practices were explicitly referenced in the conversation and may help you explore these ideas further:
Health Span vs Lifespan
- Harvard Health — “What Is Healthspan?” https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/what-is-healthspan-2020101321082Explains the difference between simply living longer and living better — a central theme of the episode.
🔹 Longevity & Lifestyle Factors
- National Institute on Aging — “Healthy Aging” https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/healthy-agingCovers how lifestyle choices influence long-term health, function, and quality of life.
🔹 Consistency Over Intensity
- Harvard T.H. Chan — “The Truth About Habits and Health” https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-habits/Supports the episode’s message that sustainable habits matter more than short-term extremes.
🔹 Stress, Burnout, and Long-Term Health
- American Psychological Association — Chronic Stress https://www.apa.org/topics/stress/chronicAligns with the discussion on why constant restart cycles and urgency undermine longevity.
🔹 The 80/20 Principle (Lifestyle Application)
- Harvard Business Review — “How to Focus on What Matters Most” https://hbr.org/2015/06/how-to-focus-on-what-matters-mostSupports the idea of prioritizing what creates the biggest long-term impact without perfection.
🔗 Linktree (all links)
https://linktr.ee/body_evolution
Follow us, join the conversation, and continue evolving with us.
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Transcript
Introduction to Body Evolution Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to a space for movement, mindset, and sustainable rhythm. This is Body Evolution.
00:00:13
Speaker
Hi, and welcome to the Body Evolution podcast, where health becomes simple, sustainable, and human. Hi, I'm Corey Repp. And I am Eli Berenguer. We break down fitness, nutrition, habits, and energy through one lens, what actually works in real life.
00:00:31
Speaker
Let's do this.
Redefining Longevity: Health Span vs. Life Span
00:00:33
Speaker
So in today's episode, well, lastly, we were talking about health and the different areas of health and pillars ah like nutrition and fitness and sleep and recovery. So today what we want to do is have a conversation how this look through the lens of longevity and health span.
00:00:54
Speaker
So now I wanted to ask you, Corey, a little bit question to begin to dig into this topic. When we talk about longevity, what do we really mean beyond just living longer?
00:01:11
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good question because we should really should define this because lot of people have different ideas about what longevity does mean. And again, For us and for most people we deal with, longevity is much more than just living longer.
00:01:26
Speaker
In fact, you know it may not be living longer span of life, but it's about increasing the quality within your life. And so we call it, and a better word might be health span than lifespan. So you have the number of healthy years we're adding to your life, adding youth to your years rather than years to your life.
00:01:47
Speaker
So, quality of life really matters so much more than years you lived. Like, what can you do? What can you accomplish? How can you enjoy and experience this life better and longer and accomplish more and be more? That's really, really what it what it means. So, what we talk about when we, you know, are promoting longevity, we're promoting a lifestyle that's sustainable ah along your whole path of life.
00:02:17
Speaker
That's beautiful and love it because it's the best way to to really reframe it is
Healthcare System and Longevity Perspectives
00:02:24
Speaker
the quality. now i think that actually right now our healthcare system that is for curing sickness and disease and any health issue is already doing a very good job for longevity, you know like making us live longer.
00:02:41
Speaker
But it's not focused... For lifespan, but not necessarily longevity and how we're we' seeing it. Exactly. It's like, it's expanding the years you live, but not the quality.
00:02:52
Speaker
And that's the most important part of our longevity is not only living longer, but living with the right quality, feeling great with your years. And let's say in some way to push away the decay when we are aging, like to expand those years where you're still more strong and you're still more feeling more vitality.
Eli's Journey: From Short-term to Long-term Health Goals
00:03:17
Speaker
And this this makes me remember that I was focused so much for a long time in just how to look good for the summer or how to get a little bit more fit and like very short term, but I was not addressing the long term, the health.
00:03:36
Speaker
And This keeps me in the cycle every year, not restarting and restarting to to do all the process again and at the end of the year feeling bad, inflammation bloated and everything. But once I began to feel like I want to be healthy, I want to feel like this, not only for the summer, I want to feel like this long term.
00:03:59
Speaker
ah So when I changed my perspective, of what I wanted to really enjoy in life, the question shift too, no? Like, hey, I want to look good in summer or what I would like to do. Oh, I want to live adventures and experience different aspects in life. And for that, I need a body that supports those dreams, no? Those things that I want to to allow. But I don't like looking your grandfather or your mother or fathers and everything. Well, some of them are very good shape. They take really good. So you said like, I would like to be like that guy when I'm 60, 70 or 80.
00:04:42
Speaker
but it was not like that exactly in my family. So I was like, I don't want to have those issues my parents are having at their age and being less strong or not good cardiovascular or everything because now it's harder for them to experience like, hey, let's go walk the whole day. they cannot afford that. Hey, let's go have a trip. Let's do this adventure. And I want to feel that and feel good in those years. that usually our body begins to, let's say, decay in some way.
00:05:18
Speaker
Right. And so, yeah, what you're saying is you have these examples in your life of what longevity means or what it doesn't mean. Like you have that counter example of, and I have the same thing with my mother's and in poor health and it's and it's hard for me to deal with sometimes.
00:05:33
Speaker
But it's it's certainly example of saying, I want to live my life in a way where I can get beyond that, where I don't have to have that type of decline. Obviously, we're all going to decline. You can't outguess nature. And youre you know you're probably we're probably all going to decline at some point. But to add add those quality years to your life and in the way you said it was about how you didn't like just like this temporary feeling of just getting fit ah for the short term or is any kind of specific short term outcome that we might be looking for turned into
00:06:13
Speaker
temporary, you know, the temporary effort turns into temporary results. And we need that consistency of effort for that consistency long-term result, which really is creates that hearty, you know body that we can live that life that we're meant to live with. And so on that same mode that you were talking about, why do you think so many people feel stuck in restart cycles?
00:06:39
Speaker
Well, exactly. I feel that was happening to me for a long time is what's happened to a lot of people.
Sustainability in Fitness: Moving Beyond Temporary Goals
00:06:47
Speaker
ah There is a part that we have this more short-term approach you know to to things in life. Like, I want to feel like this for the summer. I want to look good for this event. i i Oh, I'm going to do a marathon, so I train hard for doing a marathon.
00:07:06
Speaker
But we don't have those perspectives like long-term, how we want to feel. So sometimes because of this, we take this approach, I want to feel good for this specific moment or event or situation. And sometimes we take an approach that is very unsustainable because it's drastic. I need to lose this amount of weight and I have to do this and this and prepare like this and train hard for this and do this diet.
00:07:35
Speaker
So It's a short term of perspective ah instead of looking in the long term. ah I think there is a part of psychology address here that is very usual that as humans we are very impatient. We want things like fast but we don't ah prepare our life like for long term and sometimes ah we don't understand that we have to take step by step and it's better sometimes to
00:08:06
Speaker
let's say lose weight in a way that is more natural. And when you get to the point you like, then sustain it over there, that doing a very drastic way. And yes, you will get to that weight, but the way was not unsustainable. So it's gonna kick you again to do restart because once you finish that very stressful moment, like a stream diet or a super extreme exercise to get fit for one thing After that, you just want to relax and you go back to what you were doing before.
00:08:42
Speaker
And this keeps you in a cycle that you have to restart or maybe every year, every every X months, and or maybe you get fit and you're good for one year and something and then back again. So it will change the cycles, but usually we keep in these cycles.
00:09:01
Speaker
ah And it's usually more because our approach is not sustainable. ah So we have this approach of the year cycle. Everyone can relate. There are like two specific moments of the year.
00:09:15
Speaker
Like all the people wants to lose weight. One is before the summer. We want to get fit before the summer. And the other one is the part of guiltiness after the, you know, December, November, December, October, with all these festivities and candy, you gain a lot and everything. So...
00:09:35
Speaker
After that, we are always like, oh, I have gained a lot. I should i should try to push to to lower. So we have those cycles that are aligned too with culture, now like with what happens in in the year and year going through.
00:09:52
Speaker
And this just keeps on making that you do peaks of extreme things and then it crash. It crash because... ah you cannot sustain a a diet that is super low calorie for a very long term.
00:10:10
Speaker
And it even not only because it's very stressful for you, but because the body is going to adapt. And once the body adapts, you will say, I'm not losing any more weight. Well, because the body have to reset and adapt his system. So, hey, you are eating less. I have to spend less energy. you So the idea for people should be to look how to create something that is steady, that is aligned, that it keeps you moving in in in rhythm. It doesn't have to be perfect. It can be accompanied by the seasons of the year or seasons of life, you know, but it has to be a rhythm that we go through. So we don't have to go again through the restarting point because these are like what you will feel like this kind of symptoms of
00:11:02
Speaker
It's so hard every year. Like imagine you lose every year eight kilos and every year you gain those eight kilos. a Again, what you have to do is like, it's painful to think to do again all that process. ah And is it's like again an extreme diet. Again, to put yourself into pain through one or two months, super hard.
00:11:27
Speaker
So the truth is that for longevity, yes, we have, disharmony that can go up and down but not going to those extremes. The idea instead of being here is close at the gap and fluctuate between extremes that are more soft and more sustainable because it's normal. we will gain it was normal natural life now that in winter, before winter you needed to back up energy to survive the winter and then during the part of a spring entering the summer you began to lose that weight during winter and spring and in summer and fall you needed to back up again energy to survive again the other. or So it's normal to go up and down in your weight, in your strength and everything and it's going to be aligned with with the cycle of of the seasons, with seasons of your life and everything but what we require is to have in that little threshold that we can create that is more gentle
00:12:31
Speaker
and sustainable. So we don't have to go to those extremes every year. And for me, ah it was for a long time. i I could say that if friends of mine talk right now, they will laugh because I was up and down, up and down, up and down. And if it was a little bit extreme. i was going between up and down.
00:12:56
Speaker
The time that was the highest, I was 105 kilos. but I never could go down from 85, 83. That was like my top in the bottom.
00:13:10
Speaker
But we were talking that my normal for a long time was between 83 and 97. We're talking a ah big chunk of difference. So maybe one year I was nice and then on a whole year I was completely bulk and big and heavy and because of my back problems and everything.
00:13:30
Speaker
It was a cycle that it was painful. Yes, when I was losing weight, I was happy, but then i could stay for a long time, a little bit lacking confidence, affecting my way of moving in life with pain in my lower back and everything. And it didn't change until I have this perspective of healthspan, of gaining quality in my years and feeling good more in the long term. and now it's easier. i can still go up, but now I don't allow myself to go to the extreme up. I can set up, oh, I'm going up, okay, I'm going to do the changes, and now my margin is lower.
00:14:10
Speaker
And once I behave like that, I could break that threshold of 83, and I went down to 75 even, and now I'm more between that a threshold that is more gentle and is more aligned almost near the 8380 is more gentle for my daily life. Still, there are moments in life I go a little bit crazy, but I try to keep it over a there.
00:14:37
Speaker
So that's important. It's important. Yeah, the the consistency becomes important. And and you also mentioned that the stress and the how hard it is to like attack this thing once again every year, and always restart.
00:14:53
Speaker
It's not only difficult, it's harmful to longevity to go through extremes like that.
Consistent and Moderate Approaches to Health
00:15:00
Speaker
Not that cycling your body through a little bit of fat loss and a little bit of strength gain up and down, like you said, in in gentle, in a gentle flow.
00:15:07
Speaker
That's not harmful for your for your longevity. It's actually sometimes, you know, recoverable stress is always good for your longevity. But these consistent like periods of self-loathing and then big push that go that you're fighting against and it's all about stress and and pressure, those are not healthy things to go through in your life and to to then have that way up and down. And and when the when the you know the weight goes up, you're gaining likely a lot more fat than muscle. And the weight goes down, I've mentioned this before, you're losing fat and muscle. And so as you that big yo-yo for most people and the way they go about it, especially with mostly just dieting and extreme diets and they don't state have a consistent strength and protein protocol,
00:16:02
Speaker
They end up losing their body shape and their helpp muscle, which is there's so much and we can get into longevity later in later episodes about how muscle is so important for longevity.
00:16:14
Speaker
That is something that we really need to keep in in mind. And so these restart cycles actually anti-longevity. And so something people should keep in mind is like we want that consistency, that smoother curve of ups and downs. And in it with seasonal, yes, like you said, it can go up and down for seasons a little bit, but you you have some consistency in your life. You have a direction, you have a flow and a rhythm that you keep.
00:16:43
Speaker
Yeah. And it makes it easier when you want to oh, I'm going up a little bit. Okay, now I have to do this. Now you don't have to think i have to lose 15 kilos because I let it go too much.
00:16:58
Speaker
And now I don't have to go to the gym and kill myself to regain all the muscle I lose because you are in a consistent way. And the the truth is that longevity is is is really not living our life forever. now But it's for For longevity, we have to get out from that cycles of burnout when we go up and down with those big peaks and crashes and restarting and restarting.
00:17:27
Speaker
Because as you say, it creates a lot of imbalance so each time we create those extreme points. And this this brings me the question that is so important and is what do you think about that?
00:17:45
Speaker
What happens to people in real life that they cannot sustain the changes? Why why is it so hard for some people to sustain these changes long-term and keep that threshold smaller?
00:18:00
Speaker
And we, and this is a ah drumbeat we keep, we keep hitting with this, with our podcast and with our message in general is about the sustainable change and why, why certain things are anti-sustainable change and in the things that you can do that are sustainable, but people, the reasons why they can't keep up this, these, this and sustain change in their life is they have, lot of people have this all or nothing identity sort where they're, they either I've got to be perfect at it, I got to do it all at once, or it's not worth doing it all. So if I'm going to do it, I'm going to dive all in.
00:18:36
Speaker
And that's, you know it feels good in the moment when you're motivated and everything else, but that motivation doesn't last if it's not part of who you are. And so you can't do all or nothing because that your body's going to up fighting. We talked to previously about how your nervous system just sort of rejects that kind of change.
00:18:55
Speaker
some people just have unrealistic expectations. We're all built differently. We're all our, my ideal body is different from your ideal body is different from certainly like, you know, Arnold Schwarzenegger's our ideal body in the seventies kind of thing to where I'm never going to be a bodybuilder. I'm never going to be six feet, seven inches tall. You know, sorry for you to do the the metric. I'm not sure how much that is. like I'm never going to be two meters tall. Um,
00:19:26
Speaker
But we have to accept what our best body is and and live toward that and and be happy and love that. So these unrealistic expectations that people have is like, I want to look like that person.
00:19:40
Speaker
You're not going to be that person. You're not that person. Thank God you're not that person. So you need you need to have expectations that fit you and yourself. And so that stuff with the all or nothing and the unrealistic expectations creates this nervous system overload that people can't they can't sustain. They just, your body will reject it.
00:20:01
Speaker
And when your nervous system is overloaded, you come into stress, distress you you reject this new and different and uncomfortable way of life And you fight it completely and you you fall back into comfort, you fall back into what you used to be.
00:20:17
Speaker
So when you're obsessed with these specific outcomes, then you're you're always going to be like, you you can't predict how things going to turn out exactly. you You don't want to be obsessed with specific outcomes. You want to be looking for consistent change and consistent improvement.
00:20:36
Speaker
And so when you're ah tied to these things, again, you just, it ends up leading to lack of self-trust and in nervous system overload and you can't really keep it. So these people that try all of that,
00:20:52
Speaker
they they're not seeing themselves as the kind of person who can sustain this. They're not seeing, we've talked about identity a lot, and it's so important that if you see yourself as somebody who can sustain this, if you have in your mind, this is something I can live with for my life in terms of the lifestyle changes you're doing, then that's better. But when it's when it's not you, when it's like,
00:21:18
Speaker
I'm not that type of person. this is This is a temporary thing in the back of my mind. Then you're misaligned with your identity and that creates the doubt, the inconsistency, and you fall off. And so that's why people go through those cycles.
Patience and Individual Progress in Fitness
00:21:35
Speaker
Yes. And I love the way you are expressing it, that you were talking and I was remembering what happens to a lot of people is that in that process that you were explaining,
00:21:47
Speaker
it's very easy to fail. When you are looking like Schwarzenegger or just saying, oh, I saw this movie and this guy, I want to be like that. And then you try to go to the gym and we were talking about the the rush. We want to get all the things. Oh, I have been going to the gym one month and a half and nothing is changing and I don't see myself like that and book and strong and everything. And that,
00:22:16
Speaker
lowers their motivation, it lowers their self-trust, they think they they cannot do it, they stop believing in themselves, being able to do those things. and This is very similar that people, for for having to get to a point, we need to em invest time and and be patient and do it steady, you know, step by step, and we have to practice, and it takes a little bit of time. ah In the industry of health and wellness, we have seen how everybody wants to get to point A to point B so fast, like like this. And yes, you can do changes that can take you fast, but to you have to remember your body has to adapt.
00:23:00
Speaker
This is like, for example, in the school. i always was seeing a struggle with people with drawing. They sit down to draw,
00:23:10
Speaker
They are drawing and they see the picture of the one who are next to them, who maybe was more talented and was drawing a more beautiful, oh, they look there, I like that, I don't know how to draw.
00:23:25
Speaker
And then they stay for the whole life saying, i don't know how to draw. Did you really put the time? Did you really put the effort to learn to draw? do you Did you do the practices? And I'm saying this because we're talking about dirt about talent.
00:23:40
Speaker
But there is a thing about body too. We have people who is fast adapters and overall all that are slow adapters and it's because of their metabolism and their body. So we don't have the same body. Even we do the same diet, maybe we don't lose the same weight fast, the same. And this happens for a lot of people that, oh, my friend is doing this and he's getting all these results in one month. I am not giving up and they give up.
00:24:08
Speaker
And it's because sometimes we are lacking that patience of going through the process and your body is different. And there is going to be a moment that it pops and it begins to transform. But for some people it's very fast, for other people it's a little bit slower. ah And I wanted to say that because I'm happily, I have more ah fast adapting system. So when I began to do changes, I began to see changes faster than other friends.
00:24:39
Speaker
But at the same time, I have seen how that can affect the motivation or the mentality of other person who is doing the same than me and I'm getting some results and they are not getting them as fast. now And then they quit. This doesn't work for me.
00:24:59
Speaker
So I feel that sometimes we need those things. because it happened to me. I was comparing to two to people. and the arch is so far He did these all this.
00:25:09
Speaker
What about me? I'm not getting there. When I began to learn to be patient, it only took a little bit more time for me. And if I stay in the correct rhythm, but I was failing for a long time and for years because I was lacking trust in myself.
00:25:27
Speaker
I cannot do that. I cannot get there. I don't have the energy, i don't have the motivation, I don't have the discipline, i don't I don't know how to do it. All that was missing in me. So it was really hard.
00:25:41
Speaker
Yeah. And the self-trust piece is important that it's like you're looking at yourself and trusting that changes will come at your pace so that's part of that self-trust is that you have your own pace and you maybe you have your own little techniques so you have to feel out that what worked for that person may not work for me but i gotta i gotta trust that i'm gonna find what works for me so that's that's great so when we talk about people sticking to changes and making them sustainable people often think like i just need more discipline
00:26:15
Speaker
If I was one of those type A people who was so disciplined and just did everything the way I intend to do it, then then I'll just make it happen.
Discipline, Identity, and Long-term Habit Formation
00:26:23
Speaker
So why don't you think that discipline alone is going to help that kind of sustainability?
00:26:32
Speaker
Well, that's a big topic. It's a big topic. It's one of the things we keep on saying to ourselves, I need more discipline.
00:26:43
Speaker
The funny thing is that sometimes we are looking people and say, oh, they're so disciplined. They go to the gym every day and everything. ah And we call it discipline.
00:26:54
Speaker
ah But then that person who goes to the gym every day and takes care of their feet and everything, they go to see you at your home and, oh, this guy is so disciplined. Everything is so tight, so organized, so perfect. you have everything He everything. And when he works, oh, my God.
00:27:12
Speaker
how he does to concentrate for so long periods of time. So there is that misalignment when we talk about discipline. Now, ah is discipline important?
00:27:25
Speaker
Yes, I'm not going to say discipline is not important. Discipline is super important and willpower is super important when we are starting something new. Because we are just starting and it's new for us, it's unknown, It's a challenge that you have to do at the beginning. It's a little challenge. I'm going to change the habit. I'm going to start doing this. Anything, you're going to start learning something. At the beginning, we need that part of discipline. We need that part of willpower. But they are just to start.
00:28:02
Speaker
And that person that you were seeing in the gym, that you say is so disciplined. No, he was disciplined at the beginning. That was the truth. At the beginning, he was disciplined.
00:28:12
Speaker
Once it becomes part of him, of who he is, there's no more discipline. is that You will ask that person, don't go to the gym and say like, oh no, I don't see myself not going to the gym. is part of my It's part of me. I like it. If I don't go for several days, I feel bad.
00:28:32
Speaker
It's funny when we hear about these things, but other people have it for reading books and you will say, oh, how disciplined they are. No, they love to read books. They don't need discipline to sit down and read the book. You know, the one who needs the discipline is the one who is not used to read the book. And now he wants to start reading books. So for sure, at the beginning, creating the habit takes time.
00:28:55
Speaker
There you need the discipline. There you need the willpower. Oh, let's take the book. Let's open. Let's read at least 10 pages or five pages or one page, whatever. It takes the discipline, but it's not sustainable. So discipline,
00:29:11
Speaker
fails long term. It only works very short term and it only works to start. So for me, the foundation cannot be relying on discipline and willpower because those ones that are going to fade out.
00:29:28
Speaker
Even it cannot only rely on motivation because even motivated you don't feel motivated every day you start to do everything. You don't feel motivated all the time. Even if you like to dance, to party and everything, you don't feel the whole day. You are, oh, let's go. No,
00:29:48
Speaker
There are moments that motivation trades too in our life. So it's very useful, definitely at the beginning, but not to help us go through the whole journey.
00:30:02
Speaker
It doesn't help us to really sustain things and make things happen for a long term. Um, One of the best examples, if you see military, at the beginning is pure discipline. They push them hard and they, you you you come from a style of life and now they like wake up at this hour, you go back there.
00:30:26
Speaker
After a period of time using the discipline, they begin to behave like that. Once they even quit, when once not they quit, they finish their presentation everything for military,
00:30:38
Speaker
They're more organized. It becomes part of who they are and it's easier. But even there, you can throw everything away if you begin to adapt other kinds of behaviors. So that's the part when ah we need that is aligned with identity.
00:30:58
Speaker
Because even if you create the discipline, then you become that person doing that. But there is misalignment with identity. really who you want to be and the things you want in life, even that is going to be longer than only discipline and you're going to do it for a longer period of time. But even that is going to, in some moment, go down.
00:31:20
Speaker
So I just will say that discipline is not a villain. is Discipline and willpower are not bad. They are good, but they are not the heroes of the story.
00:31:33
Speaker
at all They are not the heroes for a long term for your health, for your health span, for your life. And I don't know if you have one of these situations in your life or something like that that has happened to you.
00:31:49
Speaker
Yeah, of course. I mean, I think we all have to where we try to start something through, know, I'm going to do this every day, but if if if it's not something that's aligned or embodied with us, it it just doesn't last. It falls away for almost everybody.
00:32:04
Speaker
And i like how you say that, you know, discipline's not the villain. It's it's just not the hero to the story, to you to your journey. and it's It's a useful tool, though. Like you say, even...
00:32:17
Speaker
Beyond just the beginning, like I am a healthy, fit person. I go to the gym a lot. But there are those days where I just don't i don't feel motivated. I don't feel as eh. But I need to get that little bit of a willpower, that little bit of discipline.
00:32:31
Speaker
and need to make those things happen. So it does take that mental strength and force yourself just over that little hump to get to get going again. And so it's it's ah it's a little restart tool as well as that, you know, at the beginning. It's it's a lot at the beginning, but it's a little restart as well.
00:32:50
Speaker
Yes, and I love that, how you reframe it. I love it because it's true. Each time that ah even if we are aligned in either that identity, ah there are going to be days, no motivation and everything, and those moments, but the difference is the amount that you need to use.
00:33:10
Speaker
The amount. Like at the beginning, you need a lot of willpower, a lot of discipline, but when it becomes part of how what you're doing and you like, There are gonna be days that you don't need to use at all, it just flows, but there are gonna be days that if it's raining and everything, I don't want, I would love to stay at bed, but okay, come on, we're doing this for ourselves, let's do, and you have to push, but the amount is very little in comparison.
00:33:42
Speaker
Definitely is very little. So, What actually makes health sustainable long-term? Right. Yeah. Okay. So sustainable health isn't built on willpower. It's actually built on alignment.
00:33:59
Speaker
So with that, we have to have an identity that reinforces our... behavior rather than consistent motivation, right? So we can't ever have that constant motivation. But if our identity and who we choose to be is aligned with those things, that's what makes the sustainable thing long term. So what what in you know what healthy things lead to that, right?
00:34:30
Speaker
Health that matches your lifestyle, these little habits that that fit you, not some formula that and somebody else has used specifically.
00:34:41
Speaker
Sir, there are tools that work for almost everybody and there are really good tools out there that this person might be using this, this person might be using that, but you've got to create your own mix, your own formula. You're ah your own unique person. Not only is your biology unique, but your life is unique.
00:34:59
Speaker
And your lifestyle needs to fit with you with the way you want to be. So you find the healthy parts that matches who you are. You find these small little daily rituals that that you can integrate sort of seamlessly into your life that take just a little bit of willpower to get started and say, oh, this feels good. I can do this for my life. This feels good for who I want to be.
00:35:24
Speaker
and then you incorporate more and more of those. You don't do these big resets that that, again, just create that big resistance and create too much reliance on willpower and discipline.
00:35:38
Speaker
So you find these systems, you create these systems that fit your real life. So you're really looking for sustainability without without that constant stress because honestly the constant stress doesn't allow sustainability.
00:35:57
Speaker
ah It actually fights it. For me, one of the things that I do that just sort of a subtle little thing that really started helping me with I've been fit all my life, but I've had some injuries.
Corey's Daily Routine for Sustainable Health
00:36:14
Speaker
I've had aches and pains. I've had some mobility issues because i sort of succumb to the, oh, it hurts when I do this, so I don't do that. so then I lose mobility in a certain area like my lower back and things like that I've had problems with.
00:36:28
Speaker
I know you've had your own problems with those as well. um But so I started something that was really easy for me. I started like a 10 minute morning routine just to get sort some mobility work, just to get my body through ah specific ranges of motion and a little bit of like body weight strength in, you know through ah extreme range of motion, just to get my my body moving and and those joints in the full mobility that I wanted them. And it wasn't hard at all. It was just like, it just takes 10 minutes.
00:37:02
Speaker
I got 10 minutes in the morning. I can i can either wake up 10 minutes early if I got someplace to be or I can you know squeeze it in in between this and that. But it's not about you know every day. I don't do it every day.
00:37:17
Speaker
But it was like something that that feels good. And now my morning routine, actually my my full one will take about 20 minutes. But that's because it felt good to naturally build on that. It didn't – it wasn't something that I started – if I started with that full 20-minute routine, it had fallen away early on.
00:37:39
Speaker
it would have been too much to kind of fit in and feel too big of a, too big of a thing to bite off and chew. And so it's like, you got to find those little, those little bites and they lead to the bigger stuff.
00:37:51
Speaker
Yes, it's true. And, and as you were saying, for me building different habits have been like that. Uh, when I wanted to start reading more books, uh,
00:38:05
Speaker
Trust me, I tried to start the big way. now I'm going to read 50 pages a day and everything. and It never worked.
00:38:17
Speaker
And then I realized learning about habits, the best way is to start small and building up. And I start, okay, let's go very small. I'm going to start with ah maybe five pages.
00:38:33
Speaker
Even that didn't work. I cannot do it every day. So I lowered it, one page. I get to the point of one sentence. One sentence.
00:38:44
Speaker
But that was sustainable. I had my win, the victory of the day, and I began from there. And then I began, and I was like, until a point I was just opening the book and reading.
00:38:57
Speaker
Any kind of amount was feeling good. But at the beginning, was hard. ah The same for the gym. ah I started, i'm going instead at the beginning, you go five days and do this and do that.
00:39:12
Speaker
And then I changed it, said like, look, I'm gonna put two times a week. And that's what I'm gonna set up, two times a week. I'm gonna do this routine.
00:39:22
Speaker
and I don't want to stay more than X amount. And I was doing some days, I did the small routine, 15, 20 minutes, done. I go happy far for home, victory.
00:39:36
Speaker
Other days, I was so pumped up and so into the situation that I will stay longer because I wanted in that moment already being there. So those little rituals, if you put those small steps, they can build up in time but I was not pushing to make them bigger until I was feeling I want more.
00:40:00
Speaker
Not because of pressure, i need more. No, like, damn, I just read one sentence, but I want to read more. So then I keep on reading, you know? And some days it will be like, ah I got my sentence of today. I'm not in the mood. i gonna ah But I was always doing the small ritual, that small step.
00:40:24
Speaker
Right? Yeah, that's good. And that's what keeps that consistency and when it feels good. When it feels good to add. When it's not pressure. When it's not, I should. Yeah. This episode is going a little bit longer than we expected. So we're going to split it into two so it doesn't take up too much of your day. We'd love you for you to join us on the second half of this episode in the next one.