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Carlee
Many of us hit the gym when we want to lose weight. But how many of us hit the gym when we want a mood boost? Hi, I'm Carlee Myers, your friendly stress management expert. And this month, we are talking about physical health. And I've brought on who better than Nick Deacon, an old friend, a health expert. He's a holistic transformation coach who helps people build better relationships with their bodies through education and empowerment. He completes he competes in natural bodybuilding, plays multiple, multiple instruments, and is a total nerd, especially for all things health and functional medicine. I can attest to that so much. We've had so many conversations over different meals, over around fires. I'm just excited to have this conversation with the world. Now. Welcome to the show.
Nick
Thank you, Carlee. It's awesome to be here sharing space with you.
Carlee
Awesome. So I'm curious, you know, this has been probably your second, your second or third time. I'm losing count at this point coming on the show. But for those of us that are listening that don't know you, they don't know how you got here. Do you mind just sharing a little bit of your background and why you're so passionate about what you do?
Nick
Sure. So, I mean, I started off just a skinny kid who was bad sports and didn't really have a healthy family or like with healthy eating habits or like a good physical relationship with our bodies and stuff. When I was a kid and I kind of had like a victim mentality most of my life. And somewhere along the way, I realized that I could actually change my body and I didn't have to. I wasn't like me like doomed for the rest of my life. So I started working out when I was in high school and I dove in, dove in hard, constantly, wanted more. Started reading books, following all kinds of people as much as I could online because this was actually back like little over 15 years ago now when the Internet wasn't what it was today.
Carlee
Yeah.
Nick
But yeah. So I dove in hard. I got into bodybuilding and then learning about all kinds of stuff went through my share of like body dysmorphia and like eating weird physique, disordered eating type stuff and like working out too hard, getting injured just. Going through the gamut of being an angry young man who wanted to change my body at any cost really.
Carlee
I love it and I appreciate your vulnerability and your realness because I think not enough. Like we we talk about, like health coaches. And, you know, like people in in the realm of nutrition and fitness and all of this. There's not a lot of honesty about like what's behind the curtain.
Nick
Yeah, I've totally noticed that, especially with the rise of Instagram, where people are just simply gaining attention for something that's on the surface like what they look like or, you know, people follow a guy or a girl just because, like, they want to look like that or they aspire to have their, you know, glamorous life. And and you can't see what's going on behind the scenes. And now that what they're showing is now the model for almost the scorecard for which the the audience will base their own life on. And that only leads to issues.
Carlee
Yeah. And
Nick
It's not real
Carlee
encourages like it. Let's say those people are engaging in unhealthy, whether they're over exercising, under eating, overeat, like whatever the situation is, it's like encouraging those behaviors. So, yeah, I appreciate your realness. So I'm curious, you know, we we decided we were going to talk about physical health. We're talking about how that kind of links into the mind and everything that's going on. So I know you prepared some really like honed in tips that people could implement today where they can appreciate the real ness, acknowledge what's going on in their life, but also get shit done, work on shit.
Nick
Sure, absolutely. So, you know, I think there's a there's a really major concept, you know, along my journey that was kind of like a light bulb moment for me, where, as I said, like I was in bodybuilding and like, really aggressive, like meat head type of stuff to change my body. And I think a lot of people, you know, we we believe that working out is this thing that we do to be healthy. And so the more you work out it, the better it is. And that working out is just a way to burn calories or something like that. And as I started diversifying my learning, I guess like I got into Eastern philosophy and like traditional Chinese medicine, stuff like that. And just this very simple concept they have of yin yang. And this this idea of balance came before me. And when I started learning how I could apply this to my my, my working out, my movement practice, this really became a big game changer. And I think that, you know, we all kind of strive for balance, but we don't really, like, talk like what it is, what it actually is. Right. And so it just becomes this nebulous thing that's like the sound bite type of thing, which I always just hate. It doesn't actually mean anything.
Carlee
Yeah.
Nick
But so, you know, if you just think about, like, your own spending, for example, you know, you have you're not going to spend all kinds of money without any sort of regard for when where the money is coming in. Right. It has to be in balance of this inflow outflow. Right. Not just getting rid of something we have to bringing something in. And the more we can bring in, the more we can put out. And it's really like the size of the cycle. And so with working out, the purpose of working out isn't to just burn calories. It's really like it's an opportunity to upgrade your body and stimulate it, to do something more, to be stronger, to lift more weight, to run faster, to know upgrade. And those are the things that actually make you healthier. Right. So. If if in the yin yang concept, that becomes the yang, this output of energy. And, you know, working out should be hard, right? Like, make no mistake, like working out is stressful to the body and really should be. That's the whole point. The problem is in our, in our, fast paced, modern world. Most of us are already stressed out and short on time and energy. Like, our our, tanks are just empty. And so that's where instead of working out, we go back to the concept of bringing in and working in. I think adding these types of activities to our weekly exercise regime are movement, practice, whatever can really help not only make our selves feel better. Add to our health, but also make our our workouts better as well.
Carlee
So tell me when you say like work in what do you mean.
Nick
So with a working in type of activity, you think I'm working out like working out is kind of easy to understand. It's anything that pushes your intensity to the edge. Anything that leaves your face red. Those are the workouts that are stimulatory to make you stronger, faster. Whatever. So those would be so again, working out would be something like, you know, high volume, muscle building workout. Like high intensity interval training. Like power lifting or Olympic weightlifting style sessions. You know, if you're if you like Crossfit like to be like the Met Conn's and like,
Carlee
like a Bootcamp class.
Nick
Yeah
Carlee
spin class you know stuff like that.
Nick
The way that you would know is like check your energy after the work. out like, is it less than when you began and did you get some serious work done. Right. And so that's working out right on the working in side. These would be things that restore you and actually give you more energy on the back end than when you began.
Carlee
Mm hmm.
Nick
So these could be something as simple as just taking a long walk. Right. It could be a hot tub or sauna work. Right. Just like getting in the sauna for, you know, 20 to 30 minutes or something like that. It could be a hike through nature. It could be an easy vinyasa yoga flow type session. It could be something as simple as like having sex with your partner, laughing more or like just easy play. Not like, like hard like football type situation. Where you're like being competitive, but just like playing around with, like your kids, your friends, something like that. Breathing, massage work, eat. And some of those things are really easy, right. Like having sex is like hell Yeah. That's that's really going to
Carlee
Don't have to think twice yeah.
Nick
Right. Exactly right. But it doesn't just have to be easy. It's compared like working out being hard. It could be a little difficult, but that would be more something like 20 minutes like short athletic run jump road drills with low reps and plenty of rest.
Carlee
Yeah.
Nick
But the real key here is it's something it's something indiv- that individually brings more energy to you after than when you began. And it helps stimulate recovery in that in that way.
Carlee
I love that. And I think subconsciously, I think I've been doing that during this whole quarantine practice. I've been doing my, you know, long walks and yoga with Adriene. I feel like she is like you so popular right now. But, yeah, I love this concept that it doesn't have to always be so hard. We don't have to always work out. We can work in when we're drained. So I'm curious, you know, for the listeners at home, for those of you who are listening, what ideas are coming up for you right now? Like, how can you work in? Is it, you know, a Vinyasa yoga practice? Is it a walk? Like, what is coming up for you? We really want to know. We'd love to hear your ideas. Now, guys, this concludes this episode of The Stress Less Show. If you've enjoyed this week's episode, let us know by giving us a big old thumbs up and hitting that follow or subscribe button. Thanks for listening. And we'll see you next week.