 One of the key aspects of life that I think all of us should care about or should care more about is our own physical Well-being and fitness because if we aren't well physically It is hard to You know be productive in our in our work So today I'm going to interview a client of mine Dan when he is a fitness and mindset coach And he's going to tell us about the mind muscle connection and how do we motivate ourselves in a positive way to achieve whatever Wellness goals that that we have whether it's a particular fitness or a particular diet So let me let me share with you Dan's background and then I'll bring him on So Dan when is a fitness and mindless coach? He teaches people mindful techniques to exchange unhealthy habits for healthy ones Allowing people to achieve long-lasting Fitness and wellness results Dan has stayed in the top levels of fitness for 20 years using this approach So Dan and Dan's website should mention is www.fitnessandmindset.com Dan welcome to this interview Thanks, thanks George. Also. Thanks coach. Yeah excited to Come on and just share some information to hopefully make a difference and you know in People's life when it comes to their health and wellness. Yeah, totally. Yeah, and I want to mention you are prolific with your content as well some congratulations and You're on Facebook of course and you're also on instagram where I've seen photos of Of the results of your work and it's amazing, you know, you're staying staying in the top levels of fitness So folks do check out Dan on Instagram as well. So let's talk. Let's talk about how how you're able to get this done I mean also Part of I want to say the reason why I mentioned that you're prolific and how does that relate to fitness is because well It's the fact that you're doing this 5 a.m. Video blog every day now for 75 days. Is that right? It's yeah, it's been 75 days today. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's also a Testament to your physical fitness and your and your mindset here is exactly what you coach people on so Where do you I want to ask you this question like what what do you Where where do people usually? Kind of fall down when it comes to trying to keep themselves physically fit Yeah, the biggest thing is it always comes down to mindset. That's the reason why you know, I call it company fitness and mindset because Unfortunately people when it comes to like getting in shape and you know, creating that ultimate dream body, right? It's like everyone's focusing on the exercise or the diet and to me, this is like, yeah, this is a great start And it's just the this is just the external stuff and the really true transformation Comes down to the foundation the mindset How do we motivate ourselves because when it comes to health and wellness? Either you know how to motivate yourself or you procrastinate and getting back to your your question george is like That's the biggest thing is it's not to me. I say this very humbly. It's not about the diet and exercise out there, but sometime with just This media and just different marketing companies like, you know, raw raw raw do this certain diet certain exercise and you get abs in six a week and we live in age where we can Google we can you too. We could do we could search for information that quickly, right? But majority of the time people are still not creating the result they want So it's not more information. It's like what do you do with the information in here to um stay consistent and Yeah, I want to also give kudos to you because also You started off like saying hey, this is my 75th video 5am video blog and I want to tie this into The mindset right because for me it was like Back in the days. I was kind of like hiding right when it comes to health and wellness. I was like trying to like walk that line of like You know hiding myself and I just And that comes out to the the self-talk and all these things about you know Judgment is like But I'm in the health and wellness industry. It's like, how do I find that balance where I can share the information and just do it with my heart and Kudos to you. I watch a lot of your video. I think that's how I mentioned that's not became your clients It's just really speaking from the heart. So now it's just like now just 5am video blog I just I don't even think about it Because I'm able to show that mindset where I'm just sharing information Right and we can tie into like why mindset is important for You know health and wellness if you want to but yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, let's let's talk about that You know, one of the things you uh, you talk with your clients about is Sort of the pain versus pleasure motivation So what do you mean by that and let's kind of let's discuss how that how we can apply that Yeah, so there's The pain and pleasure motivation when I talk about that's like the carrot versus the stick, right? Are you Moving toward your goal because of pain. So what I mean by that is here's an example usually when people find me is A couple things they want to get out of like prescription medication Right, they want to move away from a certain pain, you know They maybe just they wake up and they look themselves in the mirror And They don't like the way they look so that's painful for them So in order for them to move away from that pain They have to Do a certain diet and exercise and we see this all the time after a year After, you know, January comes around people put on weight during the holidays They wake up and January they look themselves in the mirror Hey belt doesn't fit anymore my clothing fit and It's just they want to move away from that how they look that pain Right, so that creates that motivation And that what happened people joined the gym and began to do these exercises and get on a fitness program Well, what I share is pain motivation is great. It gets it gets the momentum going it gets the fire In your butt to get moving But what happens as like, you know, as people began to start their journey they lose the weight Right, they lose the weight. They their belt began to look, you know, they fit them and then they they look comfortable in the mirror guess what Then that when that pain motivation is not there anymore The motivation is going like that So this is what we talked about the yoyo diet, right? It's like lose the weight and then no more pain no more motivation And it comes back So can I and I want to share also what I do is in the beginning when I share with my clients. It's like Okay pain motivation is what got you into seeing is that you're sticking out information getting help Right, but as as we work together as the clients are beginning to lose the weight I began to have them shift their mindset instead of moving away from the pain Okay, let's begin to focus on pleasure What does that look like to have the healthy lifestyle? What does that feel like to wake up every morning and have the energy to do what you want to do? You know, um, because you help a lot of entrepreneurs What does that feel like to be an entrepreneur that has a lot of energy to go out there and and change and help people So by just shifting that mindset of like going from pain to pleasure That create like lasting result to me So that's yeah, despite doing that that simple shift that mindset shift Then it's just then there's no no more that yo-yo diet you're able to create, you know result to be able to sustain that That's a really really good point. I've I've experienced that myself You know, you'd call it yo-yo diet or the yo-yo weight. It's like, ah, you know Um, I way too much. I gotta do something about it and I try to try to exercise or or diet To get back down and then ah, it's good weight now and then like, you know Go go and visit family or whatever and then Wake us up. So so let's come let's let's spend a bit a bit more time on this pleasure motivation. How do we actually Sustain that what what does it mean? What does it really mean to to have pleasure and motivation? so the pleasure motivation for What I want to share for me Is right now The reason why like you you read my body the reason why i'm able to sustain, you know My health and wellness and stay in shape for like 20 years Is because i'm able to tap into that pleasure motivation I now every time um when I wake up I just focus on how good I feel After I after I exercise and now it just becomes like this becomes unconscious I don't think about it, but this is what I share with clients is the Focus on that everything comes down george everything that we do as you me Comes down to our emotion everything that we do and what I mean by that is so when the emotion happens Focus on how good it feels After you get done working out So when I when I work with clients and when we're done doing a group class You know what I do I just have them I just like hey guys close your eyes for a moment And just notice one good sensation one good feeling your body And by doing that they're able to just lock in that chemistry at willing So anytime in the future they're like they just think about that and that create momentum that create motivation for them Yeah, that's awesome. That's really you know and actually reminds me of I I I may have stumbled upon this a little bit for myself in that I have been Trying to what trying to get into a habit of doing push-ups sit-ups in the plank just that that kind of routine every day and You know in the past when I did push-ups. It's like Kind of get it over with you know like get a certain number of push-ups But now when I do push-ups Every time I I push up I go I think I think joy I actually think joy like this is this is joy, you know, this is like this is And it's so weird. It's my own mantra, but it really has helped me to well enjoy the process more and and now I'm I've I've I'm two weeks. I'm two weeks consistently every every day doing doing my exercise routine now So it's uh, yeah, I think that's a that's a yeah I I encourage everybody to you know, you know Do what dan is uh suggesting here is try to find that that pleasure Or joyful motivation. Yeah, and can I share also what you said is is now like when you do the push-up You think of like you say just for joy and it shifts your whole mindset I want to tell you something that I learned from neural linguistic program and lp is really What we call the language of our mind how we language team So I I talk about v a k which is everything we do We either make a picture inside our mind as a visual these are visual and it happened really quickly The a is the auditory the self-talk and that's what you did you do self-talk the joy, right? And you language it differently V a k so the k is a kinesthetic and I talk about the kinesthetic how we feel and by combining by tap into The language of our mind how we motivate ourselves with v a k We're able to create the result that we want to be able to create the momentum And I share this I always say this is that going back that v a k The v a k is inside of us. It's not it's not the external, right? So as we're filming this the weather is getting warmer now. It's like summertime, right? so what happened is what typically what happened during the summer is External stuff. The weather is changing People use external stuff to motivate themselves, right? Because oh, I want to go to the beach and I want to look great Well, when you use external stuff, what happened when the weather changed? What happened when during the winter come around? People use external they put on the weight. Yeah, exactly and by just using the the language of our mind v a k Realize it's not It's not the external stuff. It comes down to the visual The auditory and then the kinesthetic that we make and it comes from inside and because the cool things because it comes from the inside Now that we know that we're in charge of You know changing that create the picture create the self talk like you Enjoy by doing that. You're able to create the result create the shift in the mindset Yeah, uh, can you give give us an example of what of the of the v so What does it mean to have the visual? Yeah, of course So I want to share a little bit for me before I learn about these tools. I was like the you know, one of these like procrastinator I would like set the alarm in the morning, right and The alarm comes on I was a snooze king what happened the alarm comes on happened really quickly. I see the v the visual I make a picture inside my mind of how comfortable my bed is And by doing that snooze and then pretty soon the alarm comes on again I make a different picture how come in my bed and I snooze that's that v I talk about and Pretty soon it was too late to go to the gym It was like eight o'clock and I have to and then we run the cycle Right and then same thing get to work and then come home at five. I'm like, okay after work I'm gonna go go to the gym Come home and then I see the picture how comfortable my couch is and then pretty soon we run that cycle over and over So to answer your question is now in the beginning When the alarm comes on once I discover this I just see myself at the gym that visual I see in my mind Of how amazing I feel I see my body's changing And george it happens so quickly we make this picture that pops in and out so quickly but these pictures create either Momentum or not and in the beginning yes, I have I have to like consciously when when I press the Along this news button I see that picture of how how amazing I feel and then that creates a momentum and Now it just now it just becomes Unconscious, I don't you know, it doesn't I don't need to think it consciously now the alarm comes on I get up at Right this I get up at 340 every morning Wow, and I was I was this news king george, but now I've been doing it I didn't realize I've been doing it even more than 75 days. I've been doing this for a while 340 I get up and the alarm comes on Just turn off I sit up I do a quick meditation and then I I get to the gym get to the gym around 4 15 and then once I'm done and I pop on and the inspire me to get on a share information And I get on around 5 30 and I just do a 5 day video blog So that's amazing. Um, this is very helpful To that example of of of that v that you shifted a picture and you're right It is so it's like so it's so quick and we are most most people are completely unconscious of their mental pictures And you're right if we if we become conscious of the mental pictures and if we choose the mental pictures Seeing ourselves do the thing we want to be doing and how good we feel doing it Of course, it's going to be much easier to go and do it and if we tie that that picture to the action That's even more powerful So this is the thing you talk about with your clients that the mind muscle Connection is this what we're talking about. Is there anything else you want to share about that? Um, yeah another thing I wanted to try that's yeah the mind muscle connections are whole thing and then also When also here's what I want to share with that is So there is a commercial gym that I go to and I I kind of like watch people right So when people go to the gym There's no mind muscle connection. What they do is they're just going through the motion So for example for me I remember I I would get on the elliptical machine. It's a gliding machine doing my cardio There was a lady to my left. She was reading a book Right She was going through the motion. Guess what her focus was she was reading a book And I look at it. I just I just smile and I see her and then the guy to my right Was watching like sport channel something on a football thing and he was so now he was going through the motion That's what I mean by mind muscle connection when people are going through the motion So for me right before I got on I just closed my eyes to see myself With every step that I take I see the body fat nothing So I get on the machine. I do for 15 minutes only get off my tank tops on wet and now wave by to The lady and the guy to my right And what happened is here's the reason why people do that they read a book or they watch tv here's the thing is They're doing it to kill time But when you're doing that to kill time, you're not you're just going through the the motion you're not connected into your body And these are the same people that I say this very humbly say this for my heart These are the same people that you see at the gym six seven days a week year after year There's no changes because there's no connection. They're just so this is powerful, man And and essentially you're the time you're exercising is a much shorter Yeah, and yet you're getting more of the results you're getting more of the result It's from yeah from there from their perspective. It's like I'm watching tv To kill time But by watching the tv you're not connected. You're not focused. You're just going for the motion And they're you know, the guy was like probably watching tv for 45 minutes and you know But I share this I'm glad I'm able to come on and just share some information and I share this because People know what they know. They don't know what they don't know and it's just yeah, so yeah, that's amazing Yeah, it's kind of like and there really is Our bodies respond so much to what our minds are doing and what our minds are telling our bodies to do And so when you're visualizing this, you know fat, you know melting off while you're exercising It's kind of like super charges your exercise and your body says, okay, great. I'll let go of the fat. That's me. That's That's powerful So we've got maybe just a few minutes left. Is there anything else you definitely want to share with with our uh with our people today No, I think that's it. I think everything comes down. I yeah, I guess what I want to leave is just to share some information What people realize that When it comes to health from a while in this right, no matter where you are right now on your path of Creating that, you know, healthy whatever that means for you get to define that realize that diet and exercise program is only the surface layers that start And true transformation comes from really what's between your ear. It comes from what you know, like I said The the visual all toward the camera center that we make right and just by being able to realize that You're in charge of your outcome. You're in charge of this picture. You're in charge of the self-talk You're in charge of the emotion Means that you know, you can create your outcome by just using these these simple tools That's awesome and so if people want to see more of your you know video blogs and Get more of your information. They can go to your website, of course www.fitnessand mindset.com They can find you on facebook On instagram, uh, and of course your website will have everything all the information Do you currently work with clients, uh, virtually? I do I do, um, I'm able to Just hop on this like, you know, see it virtually through a video conference and Help them with the mindset and then also cater a program, you know, like Dine exercise based on what they need, but to me it's like It's get that once you have the foundation It's it's easy to create the results that you want. So yeah, I think my program is Yeah, there's something that really incorporate all three aspects of health and wellness Awesome Dan, thank you so much for the work that you do and for doing this interview Yeah, thanks for your help George. I mean just like thanks for all your video and I think that's how I came in contact with you just like You know and just now it's just like It's just again, you know a cool thing is when you say something five days of 5a and be the blog I'm like, wow, it's been 75 days. Guess what it becomes a happy now. It's like no matter what I do it Yeah, I just be myself sharing information and this is I give kudos to you. I appreciate it Thank you, Dan. Well, keep keep up the good work man. Keep up the good work. You are you are a living embodiment of the kind of You know Wisdom that you share with your clients. So keep keep up the good work Thanks George. I appreciate it