Useful Links

• Shakeology
• Couch to 5K
• 100 Push-Up Challenge

About Guest

• Kylee Wall
• Janace Tashjian
• Natalie Baker
• David Dean
• Brian LaBelle

Transcript

Zack Arnold: Welcome to the Fitness in Post podcast. What I want to do first is introduce everybody that’s on my call. This is day one of our 90-day test group, and first, in no particular order other than the way that Skype is telling me, I have Kylee Wall. Secondly, we have Brian La Belle. Third is David Dean. Fourth is Janace Tashjian, and fifth is Natalie Baker. So, what I would like to do first is I just want to go around, have each of the members introduce themselves, explain a little bit about what your daily job is in post production, and then I want you to tell me why you’re in the test group and what your goal is. So, let’s just go in the order that I introduced you. Let’s start with Kylee.

Kylee Wall: Okay. Well, I’m an editor, so I am my own assistant. So I’m in a dark room alone a lot, and I occasionally get up to go to the machine room. So that’s my daily exercise. Machine rooms

Zack Arnold: Are dark too. Just for anybody wondering.

Kylee Wall: Yeah, I don’t get a lot of sun, so I try to edit standing up as much as I can, but sometimes I’m doing something and I feel like I need to like be really close to the screen and I have to sit down. So, what was the next question? I’m sorry.

Zack Arnold: Oh, it’s okay. So it’s just who you were, what you do in post, and then I want you to explain why you joined the test group and what your goal is at the end of the 90 days or 90-one days?

Kylee Wall: Okay, in post, I I added a lot of documentary and reality, and I wanted to join the the test group because I’ve been a big advocate for fitness for people that have really sedentary lifestyles, like editors, and I see a lot of other editors in the industry don’t really get out a whole lot. They don’t like like to get outside and and run or take a walk or anything. But when they do, they feel really good. So I wanted to have more motivation for myself to get out every day, or at least every other day, depending on how the the workday is going, and really push myself and see because in the past I’ve done programs and I’ve had a lot of success, but I wanted to be a part of this Fitness In Post thing from the beginning and try to establish something more for people to join in and and have a healthier editor community.

Zack Arnold: Oh, great! And I also I should point out as well that, like you had said, you’ve you know you’ve been an advocate for fitness, and you also you have several articles that I’ve read in the past, which is how I found you. And one of them that I really especially liked was about trying to be a parent and being a mother in post. And that article is actually with Monica Daniel, who’s also in our test group, and will be on part two of the call. So yeah, I’ve been a big big fan of that stuff, and it was actually some of those articles that kind of got the wheels turning in my subconscious as well to get something like this put together. So

Kylee Wall: Oh, that’s awesome. Yeah, yeah, it’s it’s so much like work life balance, and it’s not just about like health as far as like running or eating well, but it’s also health for like you know balancing the way you you conduct your life, like not just being in front of a computer screen all the time. Yeah, it all kind of works together.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, and what I’m trying to do with this program is make it a lot more than just push-ups, crunches, and protein shakes. I really want it to be about just kind of a wellness approach from every single direction because I just I know firsthand, like everybody else does, that in this industry it’s really really difficult to balance everything. And I’m not saying I have the answer at all. I’m just trying to find it with a group of people. So that that’s the idea. Do you have any specific goal? Like at the end of 90 days, I want to be

Kylee Wall: Here. Um. Let’s see. At the end of 90 days, I would like to be running three times a week at least. Again, I was before. I only recently moved to Atlanta, and after I moved, I kind of got you know my my I got all shuffled and everything. So I would like to be out, and I like that. There’s a support group that’ll kind of keep me honest about that, and I guess just overall like better measurements with like muscle tone and weight loss.

Zack Arnold: Okay, great. Well, that’s what we’re here is to to keep you accountable. That’s the whole idea. And you’re you’re now recorded and in the world of podcasts, and now once once you put once you put your goal out into the world, that’s when things start to happen, which is part of the reason I wanted to do this. So, okay, well, let’s go ahead and move on to Brian in my Skype order.

Brian La Belle: Hi, I’m Brian La Bellee. I’m a post supervisor. I’ve you know been in the business post for you know probably the last eight years, and I found that when I when I do get onto certain jobs, you you like like the editors. I’m I’m also in dark rooms or at my desk feverishly on a calendar or spreadsheet of some kind. And you know, I I always wanted to try to balance what I what I can do on hiatus with you know my work. Obviously, when we’re working you know over 12 hours in a given day, that’s difficult. So you know, some of the goals that I’ve you know created for myself is I’ve always kind of an active person. I’m just by energy. If I’m at my desk, I’m standing. I’m not sitting. If I’m on my phone, I’m probably burning a hole in the pavement below me, pacing back and forth. So it’s really easy for me to achieve movement. But defining a pattern, you know, is has been a little more of a challenge, especially also because I’m a single parent, so I have my daughter with me on the weekends, and it’s really easy to kind of plop down on the couch and you know watch movies all day. So my goal was to you know when Zack when you put this program together, I thought it was a perfect opportunity to help me stay motivated, as you do. I I do the the Spartan races as well, and I started doing those because I thought it would be nice to have kind of a goal at the end of the day, this final achievement, and it it’s good for me to have the competition and something ahead of me to make all the the running and the push-ups and the the box jumps pay off. You know, so so that’s kind of it in a nutshell. Okay. Do you have

Zack Arnold: Have any any specific thing your target after the the 91 day test group,

Brian La Belle: You know I think I think my general target is to to be able to beat my you know distance on the last Spartan to beat my time, which is coming up for me in September. I think that to do more of my morning routine, the 30 minutes morning. I’d like to to get out there, and I’m really close to the the beach park here in Santa Monica, where we have the ropes and we have the the pull-ups and the the push-up bars and so on and so forth. And I’d I’d like to be active there at least you know three times a week. So by by the 90 days, I hope that I’ve lost some weight and um more muscle mass than fat mass. And that that’s pretty much

Zack Arnold: It. Okay, that sounds good. Let’s move on to mr. David Dean.

David Dean: Yes. So I work as an editor and assistant editor for television, most of which the season’s written about 10 months out of the year. So have a lot of sitting at the computer, which I’m actually between jobs right now. I’m starting a new one in two weeks and looking forward to going ahead and requesting the standing desk and establishing a new, just kind of daily routine that I set for myself to try to get out and move. And the Fitbit that I’ve been wearing for the past two weeks is already massively helping with that, because I’m always looking at looking at it and checking to see if I need to get some more numbers or not.

Zack Arnold: Yes, we’ll be having a lengthy discussion about that in a few minutes.

David Dean: Right. So yeah, basically the the reason I was excited to join this test group is I’m very statistically driven as far as working out is concerned, and so I know if I’ve got a group of several several or a dozen people whose stats are racking up next to mine online as as far as workouts and activity are concerned, that’s going to be extremely motivating for me, and I’m-I’m just-I’m starting from a a non-regular workout place and trying to you know step that game up a little bit. So end game is more lean muscle mass and drop about 10 to 20 pounds for the as far as like the 90-day goal.

Zack Arnold: Nice. Okay. Well, just to let you know, as soon as you said you were going to request a standing workstation, I did a silent fist pump because that-that’s actually one of my main ulterior motives and big picture things. Is that I’ve been a standing editor for seven years now, and I’ve always found that it’s just kind of like this little-it’s an anomaly. It’s like this kitschy thing. Like, oh, cool! You stand at your desk like Walter merch which is true but I kind of want it to get to the point where it’s not like oh wow you stand as like oh yeah you stand yeah I know like 10 other editors that stand like I’m trying to really make it something that becomes the norm rather than you know something that’s really really odd or out of place and I’m not saying that everybody has to stand. If people want to sit, that’s completely and totally fine. But as we all know, there’s been just a series of articles coming out over the past year or two talking about how unhealthy it is to be sedentary all day, and I just know a lot of people that are going down that road where you just sit and you sit and you sit and you just slow. Rotting away at your desk, and you know, part of the idea behind this program is I want to really motivate people to start standing because for me, it completely changed my life. Every other editor that I’ve ever talked to that decided to stand has said they’re never going to go back, and for me, it’s it’s just it’s a really good way to just keep yourself active and buck this trend of you know the whole sitting is killing us thing,

David Dean: And I think it can add to injury prevention as well. Like just about a week or two before you contacted me about this group, I had tweaked a nerve in my back, and I was, I was just it was just debilitating for about a week, and I I kind of mock made a stand desk, you know, stacked my keyboard and mouse onto some, on some books so that I didn’t have to sit down, and it was, yeah, it’s pretty rough. And I, it just reminded me, it’s like, oh, I never want to be like this again.

Zack Arnold: Exactly. It doesn’t take long to make that conversion. So yeah. Okay, let’s move on to Janace Tesjin.

Janace Tashjian: Hi, everybody. I’m a producer, and my specialty lies in post for film and television, so I do a lot of work in editorial, picture, color, sound. So I, like the rest of you, often get stuck with long days in places where there’s not a lot of moving around. I am also a single parent. I have a 10-year-old son who’s extremely active, who I would really like to be able to keep up with, and I also have a history of back problems, and I’ve had multiple back surgeries. So it’s been very difficult for me to establish any kind of pattern of self-care and long-term recovery and and consistency in my fitness. So you know, Kylee said something that I think is really important, also, which is just general life balance between our jobs and our families and our other responsibilities, and part of my goal at the end of this 90 days is not only to maybe lose a few pounds, lose some percentage of body fat, but also establish. I want to have an established pattern that I can carry beyond that 90 days. That is something that’s maintainable and not a burden, but something that I look forward to doing.

Zack Arnold: Yes, that is something that I’m going to emphasize heavily in this program, and certainly throughout the next 90 days. Is that I’m not trying to do something where we all kill ourselves for 90 days, we make a change, and then we’re done, and we go back to our lives because that’s a really, really common problem with fitness programs, and it’s a trap that even I’ve fallen into, where you just push and you push and you push, and you’re done, and you raise your arms and you say hooray, and then you open up the bag of Doritos and you start watching TV, and you get fat and lazy again. Absolutely, that’s that’s just my own personal story. So

Janace Tashjian: There’s there’s definitely something about you know with the tracking that brings general awareness to what we’re doing, even if we’re not comparing our stats against others in the group. Even just that sort of self competition where I look down at my phone and I haven’t reached my steps yet, and so maybe I decide to take that extra walk in the evening with the dogs, or you know I get to the weekends now, and if I can avoid it, I don’t get in my car. I walk as much as possible, but just the act of doing it brings an awareness that I think is a really healthy thing for me.

Zack Arnold: Absolutely, and that that’s the whole reason that I make it such a huge part of this program. And again, we’ll once we finish up our introductions and something I want to talk about heavily. So, but before we move forward, we still have Natalie Baker. Hi,

Natalie Baker: I am an assistant editor. I work. I work with Zack right now, and Janace and Brian. And my job is I get to do whatever Zack, Brian, and Janace tell me to do. And I do work the 12-hour long days outputting in a dark room, and I used to be a very active person when I was growing up. I was in cross country and track, and I did. I ran all the time. And last year, I had a job where I could work from home, and I sort of didn’t work the terrible hours. And I was able to run the med train for the LA Marathon. And flash forward a year, I have barely gotten out. You know, I’m lucky to get out once a week and go for a run. And I’ve actually gone into work a couple of times and have told Zack, you know, I haven’t run in two weeks. I haven’t done anything outside in two weeks, and I feel terrible. And by Wednesday, I can’t like, I can’t, I can’t sit at that desk. So I really want to get back into the groove of going on my runs. Similar goal to Kylee’s, just being able to go on a run three times a week and train for races again, and be in that sort of place where I don’t go in on the weekdays and feel like I’ve, you know, I have like all this pent up sort of anxious energy that has to come out somehow. It’s a good stress reliever. It is a good stress reliever too. Just from I don’t know. I find I find it post production can be quite stressful. You don’t want to mess anything up.

Zack Arnold: No, not at all. On the

Natalie Baker: Wrong page or the network, you don’t want to do anything that would like cost the department any money, so I find that working out and running sort of alleviates some of that, you know, anxiety and some of that nervous energy. So I really want to be in a place where I do that regularly and make that a part of my life, as opposed to something that I have to really, you know, set aside or I have to be on hiatus, or I have to have a job that isn’t, you know, that maybe only is eight hours a day, which doesn’t seem to be happening, which seems to be getting fewer and far between the eight-hour workday jobs.

Zack Arnold: Yeah. Well, the the more that you stick with me, the more that yeah,

Natalie Baker: And even the Fitbit thing. I I I love the the Fitbit tracker. I I go I go on walks now at lunchtime. It gets me out into the sunshine during the day. I go on two walks, you know, with the dog. And on Friday, I was actually I wasn’t at my steps, and it was five to midnight, and I was out at a bar, and I had 100 or 200 steps left to go. So I was a weirdo, just like pacing around the bar because I was like, no, I’m at 9,800 steps. I am not gonna not make this goal because I’m at a bar. So my Fitbit has become my new obsession.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, I I knew your personality, and I knew the moment that I introduced it to you that you were gonna just completely get hooked.

Natalie Baker: Yeah.

Zack Arnold: So yeah, as long as we’re talking about that, I want to continue going down that road because this is the thing that really made the difference for me. Because I’ve been athletic and been very, very active in weight training and martial arts and football and baseball and done things for most of my life. And post really kind of destroyed all of that. And I went through a period for several years of yo-yoing, where you would go for six to nine months of doing absolutely nothing, working 14 hours a day, and then during a hiatus, I would start to train like a madman, get in good shape, and then land another job, and I would just fail again and gain all the weight back, and that was kind of the reason that I started the tracking, and that was what made the huge difference for me. I started that about a year ago, and that was the thing that really kept me honest. And I’ve gone in and out of a couple of different programs, but having all of the data in front of me has completely changed the way that I approach things. Because, like I think it was like the David said, it’s it’s like a way to, or no, it was Janace that had said it’s a way to to compete with yourself. So what I’m doing with this program is I’m just trying to step that up another notch, where you’re not only competing against yourself, but you are competing against other people that are all like-minded. So you guys can jump in any time. We don’t have to go in any specific order, but I just want people to understand how quickly the difference was made for you once you started tracking, and just what are some specific things that you’ve noticed in your behavior based on when you were doing no tracking, and now that you’re doing it, this is going to change even more as you start to track during your workouts and use the heart rate monitors. But I just want to discuss just what what the massive differences between not having and having data,

Kylee Wall: I think one of the things for me, Zack, is was the energy level increase by you know just me being more active and and walking more and and kind of watching my diet with the MyFitnessPal. I think I’ve been telling you about that has allowed me to carefully understand what I’m ingesting, and I think I’m just choosing, you know, better making better choices in my my eating habits, and and again with the activity that I’m doing, and the the extra steps in the morning, and the runs on the weekends and the hikings on on the weekends. I try to pack the weekends with as much as I can. I’ve just felt a big difference in my energy level, which is great.

Zack Arnold: And do you find that you’re personally getting addicted to to the numbers? On

Kylee Wall: The numbers, I just was giving Janace a hard time because I thought she wasn’t on the leaderboard, so I’m I’m I’m very happy to to be in the the race and watching the numbers and that that competitive edge is helpful for me. I I love staring at that leaderboard and watching my my steps increase. It’s exciting. Me and

Natalie Baker: Brian had. We were discussing our bad dreams that we had. Oh yeah, either not having our Fitbits, or I had one about losing my charger. Like the one, the one

Kylee Wall: Dream that that the thing that’s been killing me a little bit is I’ve I’ve been obsessed with the sleep tracker or the you know sleep monitoring device, and I keep you know looking at it, and when I toss and turn in the middle of the night, I’m like, oh no, it’s gonna tell me that I’m restless.

Zack Arnold: It’s almost like you’re being punished in the morning when you see all those red lines on your sleep pattern graph. My sleep pattern looks a bit like a very unique Art Deco painting from like you should see see my sleep graph from the last week with bronchitis because I’m just getting over being really really sick and I had one sleep graph that was more red than it was blue and it just meant that I was awake an entire night so yeah it’s but it’s great though because you really get a way to quantitatively and visually see what state your body is in, whether it’s the amount of activity, the lack of activity, the quality of your sleep. Like, you know, it is addictive, and I’ve the days that I don’t have my Fitbit with me. It’s just like I just want to stand in one place. It’s like I don’t even want to move. Like they’re not gonna count. Why would I walk? They don’t count.

Janace Tashjian: There’s another benefit I think to the obvious, which is aside from all of a sudden being aware of everything you’re ingesting food-wise and the amount of activity, but I also find that people ask me about it. They ask me what it is and how it works, and it gives me an opportunity to talk about the program that we’re all doing together, and seeing other people find it interesting and get excited about it, makes me more motivated.

Kylee Wall: Showing how easy it is to integrate all the syncing and stuff is really impressive to people. They’re like, it’s not. It’s that easy to track. Yeah, that’s great. Yeah, don’t talk to Janace about how easy it

Zack Arnold: Is. She’s she’s had a bit of a trouble bit of trouble with the pre production of of fitness in post. Don’t

Janace Tashjian: Don’t don’t don’t give me away, Zack. Come on. I gotta have a little.

Zack Arnold: I’m gonna have a little fun with that. I’m supposed to be

Janace Tashjian: A. I’m supposed to be a high highly technical person.

Zack Arnold: You are well. Just just for people that are listening that maybe haven’t looked at the the site in depth yet, the three tracking mechanisms that we are using in this program are the Fitbits, a site called DigiFit, and MyFitnessPal, and we’ll have all have links to the the tracking information in the show notes, but basically Fitbit is you know the the most popular version right now of just something that you either clip on your belt or put on your wrist, and it tracks your steps, tracks the number of floors that you go up and down, it can track your sleep, and then DigiFit is a much more comprehensive fitness site where you can integrate your stats from from Fitbit, but you can also track your workouts with a heart rate monitor, and this is the area where you can get really highly technical and the part that I enjoy the most because you can break down your heart rate zones and your distances. And if you’ve ever used any type of an app like Run Meter or Map My run basically with GPS enabled, you can look at the entire map of where it was that you did your run or your hike or your bike or whatever it is. But the great thing about DigiFit is you can actually see a map of your heart rate. So I can look at a map of a hike that I did over the course of maybe five or six miles, and I know what specific zones and which heart rates I was in during specific parts, so I can see here’s where I was really exhausted, here’s where I wasn’t breathing too heavy, and you can really analyze all of it and compare workouts to each other. So it’s really a way to just go that next level and you know really start to analyze, and then the the self competition really comes out because instead of just saying oh I just want to go for a run today, it’s I want to go for a run, but last week’s time I went from here to here, and it was 1.7 miles, and this is how many heartbeats I had, and this is how long it took me. So this time I’m going to get more heartbeats, and I’m going to do it in less time. So it really becomes addictive, and you push further and further and further, and it’s something that I really, really get into. And then the other tracker that I think is so important is My Fitness Pal, and that is the one that tracks your food. And there’s nothing worse than the first time you sit down and plot a day’s worth of the food that you eat, and you were just completely horrified at what you actually eat. Like I just remember the first time I tracked with my fitness pal, and I thought that I ate a decent diet, and I just did not realize how much crap I was eating. So what what I’ve done is I’ve asked the group to stick with it for at least 30 days. It’s not something that I think you have to do for the rest of your life. And we’re going to do several podcasts on just the idea of nutrition and the debate of calories in versus calories out, and what is a calorie and all that. So. Not going to go into any of that in detail now, but I advocate using it for 30 days because it really forces you to be aware of what you’re putting into your system. But more importantly, it educates you about the makeup of the food that you’re putting into your system because you really can’t make changes until you understand on a quantitative level what it is that you’re eating and drinking. So that’s why I’ve advocated it for at least 30 days, and then beyond that, it’s self-preference. And I find that I only use it if I’m going to make a fairly significant change in my diet, and I want to see what a day’s worth of calories looks like, or what it looks like over the course of a week. But I don’t do it personally on a daily basis anymore because I eat almost the same thing every day, and I have a pretty good idea of what it is. But everybody’s using MyFitnessPal now, right?

Natalie Baker: Yes.

Janace Tashjian: I. I. I. Is this a good time to ask a question?

Zack Arnold: Is it how to set up MyFitnessPal?

Janace Tashjian: No. I have it set up, but I have found that I’m mostly just using the Fitbit calorie tracker. The haunting

Kylee Wall: Thing about MyFitnessPal that, as far as that, for calculating your calories is Zack looking at that that graph that pie chart was telling you about, and you see like how often you eat carbs that just dominate the the the grid.

Natalie Baker: Yeah, I stopped tracking during week zero. I was like, I’m gonna track my food too, and then at some point I stopped, and I said, “I’m gonna binge eat this week and stop, and then I’m going to, and then I’m going to do better when it starts. I’m just gonna get it all out this week.

Zack Arnold: I will scold you for that, Natalie, but that’s exactly the way that I do. I

Natalie Baker: Was like, “I’m gonna eat all my cheeseburgers and grilled cheeses this week, and then no more. You know what? No more, but better. Eat better.

Janace Tashjian: Two two weeks ago is when I got my Fitbit, and I just kind of jumped in right away. I wasn’t. I didn’t do a week zero countdown. I I kind of got started right away, and so I I feel like I I gave myself an opportunity to get a little bit ahead of the game.

David Dean: Week week zero is working out pretty well timing wise for me because I’m at home in North Carolina for a sister’s wedding, and so I don’t have to say no to any of the casseroles. Nice.

Zack Arnold: Yes, the timing is perfect. I planned everything around David Dean’s schedule. Yeah,

David Dean: And I appreciate you doing that.

Zack Arnold: Absolutely, that that was the whole idea of the program is make it work for David Dean. That was actually an alternate name for the program. I went with Fitness at Post, but originally it was make it work for David Dean.

Janace Tashjian: You know, Zack said Zack said something to me a week ago, David, on the note of what you’re talking about. There’s always going to be some kind of special occasion, someone’s graduation, a birthday party, you know, a weekend out of town, what have you. And and Zack and I were sort of chatting about this, and and he mentioned to me, you know, if you set a goal for yourself that is too aggressive and not attainable, then you’re you’re automatically setting yourself up for a failure, and I think part of the whole purpose of this program, at least for me, is is finding something that is reasonably maintainable on an ongoing basis, but I I have to accept in advance that I’ll not necessarily be able to maintain it 100% and I have to give myself a little bit of space to be human and be normal. And it’s you know when you chop off the highs and the lows, and we look at what we’re doing in the middle every day for ourselves. I think that’s the zone that that really counts.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, I I could not agree with that more. And that’s actually the the very first precept of this program is adaptability, and I found that that is the the biggest thing that made a difference for me is that you have to give up on the idea of absolutes, and I’m going to cut 100% of this out of my diet, and I’m going to work out every single day, or I’m going to do this or that, no matter my schedule. And if you try the all-or-nothing approach, it just leads to massive, massive failure. And I speak from complete personal experience. And the whole idea of this is you have to learn to adapt and work around the lifestyle that we have, and I feel that’s one of the biggest traps. Is oh well, oh it’s just I have to work 14 hours today, and I have to work 12 tomorrow, and I’m just exhausted. I’m just not going to do anything. But if you get yourself into a specific kind of rhythm, and you you’re able to adapt and expand and contract based on your schedule, you’re able to weather those storms, and you still keep yourself in a rhythm where you continue your program, even if you have to contract it for a few weeks. Like the one of the biggest things that really got me moving on designing this program is, as several of you know on this call, the months of January and February were just a complete and absolute nightmare for. Me, where I was in the middle of working on multiple episodes of our show at once and working 14 and 16 hour days, and everything that I had worked for physically, diet wise, has completely crashed. And that was when I said to myself, “Enough is enough. I’m not going to go through the cycle anymore, and I need to create something that lasts, that I can adapt, and I can get through whatever the storm is, and that’s what I’ve been working on. And so far, I haven’t haven’t hit another one of those 90-hour week storms yet. But I feel like I’m I’m poised and in a position where I could take it on now because I built much more of a an adaptable program, which is actually what I want to continue to talk about. Is the program? So what I want to know next is what everybody is doing specifically. Like myself, my I’m already eight or nine weeks into my program now, but I’m doing P90X2 at the moment, which is a Beachbody fitness program, and then I’m going to be doing a Spartan Beast in June, which is a half marathon obstacle course. So that’s like that’s my goal that’s coming up, but my calendar is a little bit different than everybody else’s because I’m having my own personal test group before you guys are a part of this test group. But then I’m going to continue to do other programs. But what I want to know is what each of you specifically is going to be doing for the test group as far as fitness.

David Dean: Well, I’ll I’ll jump in. I’m doing the Power 90, I believe.

Zack Arnold: Oh, nice!

David Dean: I’m gonna I’m gonna do day one later this afternoon.

Zack Arnold: Is that something that you owned already, or something that you just got?

David Dean: No, I got it in the mail right before I got out here, so I threw it in the suitcase, and you know I’m gonna start it here. Nice. So yeah, and in the past I’ve had the I got the Insanity DVDs a couple years ago.

Zack Arnold: Yeah,

David Dean: And I had never been able to do the the the calendar on that more than five or six consecutive days before it all just falling apart. That one’s really

Zack Arnold: Yeah

David Dean: Challenging.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, that that one’s on the expert level. So if anybody’s going to the the Fitness In Post site and looking at the programs, if you are not in shape, do not get insanity because you’re going to fail.

David Dean: It’s fun though. It is.

Zack Arnold: That that’s probably the one that I’m going to go to next after P90X too. But that that’s the same experience I had with P90X as I bought it right when I came out. I was like, oh my god, finally a fitness program that looks like it works for what I do, which is a lot of cross training and martial arts and strength and cardio and like everything. And the first three times I tried. It was just embarrassing. It was just bad because I just wasn’t no place to start. And Power 90 was actually my gateway. That was where I started. Yeah, I couldn’t say

David Dean: That. So I thought I would give that one a shot. Have a higher chance of success.

Zack Arnold: Who’s next?

Natalie Baker: I can go. I have. So I want to start running races again, which would mean which would require me to start running often and also going to the gym. So I’m starting with three days a week. A good friend of mine helped train me through my marathon last year, so I have her workout plan still, and I’m going to take it and adapt it to something that’s scaled back a little bit more. So I have this sort of like 10k training plan as opposed to a marathon training plan, which I’ll eventually use once I’m back in shape, which will take longer than 90 days. But but once it’s a couple, I mean 10k is attainable in 90 days. A 10k with a decent a 10k with a time that I will be proud of is attainable in 90 days, but you know maybe a half marathon after that is worth it. But I have her workout and I’m going to adapt it to that.

Zack Arnold: Okay, terrific. How about you, Janace?

Janace Tashjian: I’m also going to do Power 90, which I just got in the mail, and I. I’m probably going to attempt to follow their 90-day program, which I’m going to start tomorrow. The issue for me with some of their other-I’ve tried a couple of their other things, but aside from just a very low fitness level in general, I also have issue with with impact because of my spinal fusion, so I have to see if I’ll be able to tolerate the workout and what kind of modifications I might have to to make. But I’m gonna go for the Power 90 starting. Wow! And Power 90

Zack Arnold: Is for the. From what I remember, it’s been a couple years since I did it, but I remember being very low impact. I remember when I started it, it was difficult, but it wasn’t something that it was insurmountable or scary or intimidating. It was just, wow, this isn’t so bad. And I’m realizing how badly in shape I really am, and this is good for me, but it was there was never a point where I was like, “This is just too much. It’s too hard. I really felt that it was a good way to to get into it, and I don’t feel that it’s intimidating. I would love. I can’t wait to hear what other people think as we start to get into it. But just based on the amount of time, the number of days a week, and the exercises, I think it’s the kind of thing that works for just a. Anybody that’s serious, but kind of is you know having a little bit of a hard time starting, so I think that it’s it’s a really good choice. So so then let’s go to Kylee next.

Kylee Wall: Well, I am doing the one of the things I’m doing is the Couch to 5K program, which gets you to run a 5K in I think nine weeks. I did it once before, and I had success with it. I was able to run a 5K, but I found that between moving, I kind of haven’t been running so much, so my stamina has gone down, and I was slow to begin with. So I want to be faster, and then also I lived very in a very flat area, and in Atlanta everything’s hilly, so I can’t run a 5K here because there’s so many freaking hills. So it’s kind of like a combination of leg strength and stamina all together. So I’m doing that again because it was a really good program. I couldn’t believe how well it worked to get you from running like I couldn’t even run 30 seconds before all the way to running a full 3.1 so I’m doing that, and I’m also going to try this 100 push up challenge because I can’t even do like two push ups. So it seemed like a pretty simple way to try to get into doing 100 push ups, and they say six weeks. We’ll see. What

Zack Arnold: Is the 100 push-up challenge. I’ve never heard of that before.

Kylee Wall: It’s just another kind of building program that gets you from doing no push-ups at first to 100 in six weeks, kind of like an incremental training. Now, does that mean 100

Zack Arnold: Push-ups at once or 100 Yeah, continuous.

Kylee Wall: No, 100 continuous push-ups.

Zack Arnold: I can’t. That’s what that’s going to be

Natalie Baker: Fun to track. Yeah, yeah. Like

Kylee Wall: 60. I could. I

Zack Arnold: Could do 100 in a day. Yeah, they say

Kylee Wall: Consecutive push-ups, and I have my arm strength is really terrible. It’s like one of my main focuses is like upper body strength because I I did a warrior dash a couple years ago and I did pretty I kept up pretty well. I was slow but I could not do the rope climb thing. Yeah, those are rough. I couldn’t I couldn’t even get up it at all. So I guess that would be one of my main goals. I I would like to do another Warrior Dash. I just missed the one in Atlanta. Like it was a couple weeks ago, like right after NAB. So no way. But I’d like to do another one of those mud run type things that has all the obstacles. So I’ll have to find one. But that is a goal to be able to use my arms for things.

Zack Arnold: Exactly. And one thing that I want to point out too that we’ll I’ll talk about more in depth later. But I at least want to bring up a little bit is that a lot of women, especially, are very hesitant to do any kind of strength training because they just automatically think that if they touch a weight or do a push-up, they’re going to just magically bulk up and become this big muscular Hulk. But doing strength training is actually really, really vital to boosting your metabolism and actually leaning out and losing weight. So I just want to make sure if there’s anybody listening to this, especially females, could be males as well. But if you’re really hesitant about just doing strength training and you want to do only cardio, I just want you to be very cautious about that. And there’s a lot of research online, and I’m hoping to build up our resources page to to show that as well. But really, really do not shy away from doing strength training because that’s where you lose weight. Cardio is going to is going to improve your heart. But that’s Zack.

Janace Tashjian: I’m going to I’m going to add to that as someone who is possibly racking up more you than the rest of you that the strength training and the resistance training is also really important as we get older for for bone mass.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, absolutely. And

Natalie Baker: Injury prevention. Yeah, doing you have to do it concurrently with your cardio because otherwise, that’s if you don’t strengthen the muscles around your knee, that’s when your knee is going to give out, and that’s when, you know. So that’s part of my program includes running, and then also doing strength training, or like alternating between strength training and physical therapy sort of training. So stuff that’s a little bit lighter on you, but still keeps up the the hip flexors and all of those sort of muscles that that tend to give out if you don’t have any strength training that goes that goes with your cardio, especially if you’re running and like all the pounding and all of the impact. It’s you need it.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, yeah. I cannot emphasize enough that if you’re going to do something that’s you know using the elliptical a lot or the treadmill or running or whatever it is, doing one thing three or four days a week is not going to give you nearly the results as changing it up and adding in some form of strength and resistance training. Which again is why I’m such a huge advocate of the Beachbody programs. Is that they kind of give you everything on a silver platter, and you just do what they tell you. They’ve already done the science. They’ve done the research, so you just kind of do it. Because I used to try to design my own programs, and I used to have a gym membership years ago, and I would go on the elliptical, and go in the treadmill, and go in the stair climber, and I would just I never found that I was getting lasting results and making progress because I just I didn’t have it organized in front of me, and I wasn’t balancing the right amount of strength with the right amount of cardio, so that’s why I just became such a lover of the the Beachbody programs and every single one that I do. Number one, they’re fun, but number two, they’re I just get great great results. So, so yeah, just wanted to say that we still have you to go, Brian. Yeah, yeah,

Kylee Wall: Yeah. I I’m training for the Spartan as well coming up, it’s it’s not the the beast that you’re going to be running in Monterey, but it’s it’s in Temecula in June, and I mean I’m sorry in September. So a lot of what I do, I learn from the Spartan because of the explosive exercise behavior that you need to have on that on that trail and climbing those walls, so I’m you know about a mile of a of a good fast paced walk or run to the CrossFit course out here by the pier in in Santa Monica, and and I’d like to get out there. My goal is to get out there four times a week and and hit that rope and and do the pull-ups and the push-ups. I already do push-ups here in the morning before I go to work. I like to do them in you know sets of 20 just to get started. You know when I’m out of whack. By then, you know I can just push it as far as I can to like maybe 40, and then you know, take a 10-second breather, and then keep going. But you know, that’s my plan for the exercise, and of course, the running is something that I really enjoy. So, and the walking, I do a lot of walking on the weekends in general. I have to raise my my challenge on the Fitbit because I’m smoking 10,000 no problem, just by the amount of walking that I’m doing. So I gotta, you know, keep that up. But

Natalie Baker: 10,000 steps. Yeah, smoking 10,000 10,000

Kylee Wall: Steps, exactly.

Zack Arnold: Yeah. So if anybody misheard that, smoking is not part of the Fitness In Post. We’re a non-smoking fitness program.

Kylee Wall: Yeah. So those, you know, outdoor activities are are what I like. I don’t do well in a gym. I don’t do well in front of my TV set. I can’t. I got to be outside, so I have to. You know, I mean, I’m in an ideal environment every morning to to be outside, so that’s my plan.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, if if I had a CrossFit obstacle course outside my back door, I wouldn’t need Beachbody either.

Kylee Wall: There’s a rope that would

Zack Arnold: Be awesome, and that

Kylee Wall: Rope is a scary, very tall rope. Granted, that rope is tethered to the ground. It’s it’s a little easier than what you have out there on those courses, but it’s enough of a challenge for me. Trust me.

Zack Arnold: Well, I may have to come out and visit that with you some some weekend because I didn’t know that existed, and I would love to love to do one of those. There’s

Kylee Wall: A there’s kind of a shorter one that’s like I think maybe I think there’s like a 12 feet, and then there’s like 20 feet. It’s it’s huge.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, I bought myself a rope and hung it off of the the our back porch, so I can I can practice here. But it’s only only so high, so I would love to to be able. Yeah, absolutely.

Kylee Wall: Anytime, let me know because I’m always looking for somebody to push me there.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, I may have to do that some weekend.

Kylee Wall: Cool. I would be all to do that. That’d be fun. Yeah. Well, what

Zack Arnold: What I’m hoping to do sometime very very soon is start putting together hiking groups because I go out hiking is the way that I train outside of Beachbody just so I get used to the actual hills and the terrain and the rocks and whatnot for the getting ready for the Spartan race and I was gonna put together a group to start doing that but one weekend we could go out and meet in Santa Monica as well that’s another great idea I don’t want it to be the same thing every week, so I like that

Kylee Wall: Idea. So we may do that. All right. So

Zack Arnold: The the last question that I kind of want to do as a roundtable before I let everybody go for the day is we’ve we’ve talked about what your goals are, which is step one of the program. We’ve talked about tracking your movements, which is step two. We’ve kind of talked about the the programs that you guys are are using, exercise programs, how you’re getting out, changing your lifestyles, which is pretty much steps three through five. Step six of the plan is creating a group, which has already been done for all of us because we’re all part of the test group. But the the last big question I’m wondering is what are you guys using in addition to just the programs, as far as any kind of supplementation, and I think I had heard Janace bring up Shakeology, but I’m wondering if there’s anything that that anybody is using just as like a supplement or just something else that they’re bringing to the program to to help kind of boost their performance.

David Dean: I’m a big fan of the the NutriBullet. Thing in the morning, and for for about two weeks, I I would start every day with a blend of spinach and a carrot, whatever fruits I had lying around, a couple scoops of yogurt and some flaxseed, and having that for breakfast for two weeks, I lost 10 pounds without much of it. Wow!

David Dean: So that was a that was a pretty good good thing. So I try to. I still do that probably like five or six mornings a week.

Zack Arnold: That’s great. And anybody that works with me knows how addicted I am to the NutriBullet. I have two of them.

Natalie Baker: I have two. Well,

David Dean: I’m a supporter.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, I love it, and I’m I’m a huge advocate of it, especially in our industry, because it’s so impossible to actually find the time to sit down and make healthy meals and stick with a meal plan like that’s by far the hardest part of this whole process for me. And as soon as I discover the NutriBullet, man, I just I I drink everything. I love

David Dean: It. Oh yeah, yeah, it’s great.

Zack Arnold: So Janace, you mentioned Shakeology. What made that change for you?

Janace Tashjian: Well, when I ordered the the Power 90, I decided to get the Shakeology as well. One because of my lifestyle, which is similar to all of yours. There’s a convenience factor in having the individual packets that I can throw a couple in my bag, you know, to make when I get to work, or if I get jammed up in the afternoon and there winds up being a long period of time between lunch and dinner. If I need a snack or something, there, you know. But I’ve, I’ve right now I’m you know I’m not doing breakfast I’m doing, I’m doing a Shakeology shake with some added fruit. Sometimes I actually throw my you know my coffee in there along with it, and I got a NutriBullet also for home.

Zack Arnold: Nice, I’m an enabler. I love

Natalie Baker: It. Yeah.

Zack Arnold: NutriBullet’s gonna owe me a buttload of money by the time this is over.

Janace Tashjian: And I will tell you that it’s it’s very very scary with the accuracy and and the immediate reporting. But I also got the Wi-Fi scale that Fitbit makes, the Aria. So, but the but the scale thing is pretty good because you know you can’t undo it. You step on the scale and it syncs to your account, and like that’s it. So if if you have a weight goal, you know, which which is a goal on my list of goals, secondary, but but still there, you know, it’s it’s also right there for you to see for yourself every day, alongside your steps and your calories and your water and and and and what you know what the community is is also accomplishing. So right,

Zack Arnold: And more importantly than your weight, it’s also calculating your lean body mass, which I think is really important because a lot of people when they’re you know getting into some kind of diet program, it’s all about the weight, and that’s the big number, and that’s actually a very misleading number, and there are so many factors that can contribute to it. But if you have a scale that’s also calculating your body fat percentage and your lean fat percentage, those are the ones that really make a difference. Because for me, that’s the number that I’m always trying to get down, the weight you know can fluctuate based on your muscle mass, which means that if you’re doing something like P90X, P90X2, or some other strength regimen, you may actually start gaining weight, especially if you’re doing protein shakes and doing supplementation. But that doesn’t mean that you’re getting fatter; it just means you’re gaining more muscle because muscle weighs more than fat. But if you’re watching your body fat percentage, that’s the number that you really want to start to see go down because it means that you have less body fat on your body.

Janace Tashjian: Yeah, you know, actually, now that we’re talking about that, it’s very strange for me because as my ounces are going down. my the body fat percentage has gone up.

Zack Arnold: It’s gone up.

Janace Tashjian: Yeah.

Zack Arnold: Hmm, that’s interesting.

Janace Tashjian: And I that’s scaring me. Well, I don’t

Zack Arnold: I don’t think you’re getting fatter.

Janace Tashjian: Well, I don’t know.

Zack Arnold: I’ve I’ve had that same experience as well when I first started too, but when you first start a fitness program, your body is actually under more stress than it’s used to, which means that your cortisol levels, which is the stress hormone in your body, can actually go up. So for the first few weeks of starting your program, if you’re doing things that are more rigorous than you’re used to, it can actually raise cortisol, which can raise fluid levels, and that could be something that’s causing the the body fat percentage amount to go up slightly. It’s actually something that I’ve experienced a couple of times when I’ve started programs, but I’m not a doctor, so I don’t know if that is the reason. But I would suspect it has something to do with

Janace Tashjian: It, right? Well, but I’ve

Zack Arnold: I’ve experienced that too, where it’s gone up three and four percentage points. But I’ve I found that. The Fitbit scale at least is not completely accurate when it comes to body fat percentage. For example, I’ve stepped on it one day, had one number, and then stepped on the next morning less than 12 hours later, and it’s gone up like 2% And I don’t think that I got 2% fatter overnight. I could be wrong, but I don’t think that they’re quite as accurate as the way it is. I’ve probably tried out three or four different scales that do body fat percentage, and they’re all approximate, but nothing is as accurate as actually using one of those, you know, like body caliper things and doing it the way that it’s been done for many, many years. So it’s certainly helpful, and it’s great to have over time. But as far as like from a Monday to a Tuesday, you’re not going to get numbers that are quite as accurate as weight is going to be. So for me, for me, it’s it’s a longer term thing where I can look at what my body fat percentage was like nine months ago, as opposed to now. But if you’re looking at it over the course of a couple of days, it’s not. I don’t find that it’s as accurate as as it could be yet. So, so who else do we have on the the supplementation conversation?

Kylee Wall: I’ve been doing a supplement. I just started. It’s just the raw protein packets that I’ve gotten my hands on, and kind of the reason I’ve done so is they’re they’re completely raw, and organic gluten free packets. They’re dairy free, they’re lactose free. There’s there’s no fillers. There’s there’s no synthetics whatsoever. So you know I’ve been using the NutriBullet as well, and these packets I just started literally you know two days ago, and I usually do wine in the morning with almond milk, the unsweetened, and then a banana, and and that’s as far as I go, and that’s just you know usually my breakfast, and then I have coffee, but that that’s as far as I’ve taken it, other than watching my calories and intake, and making better choices using the MyFitnessPal app, and just being careful about what I’m eating, and getting away from a lot of the heavier breads, and not making mistakes, and thinking, well, just because it it looks like a healthy, you know, thing that you know. Checking first. Janace and I were surprised when we went to to eat at that that vegan place, and we we got hit with like almost you know 700 calories.

Janace Tashjian: Yeah, that was that was

Natalie Baker: All sugar.

Janace Tashjian: Yeah, I think it’s their. I really think it’s their sauces. I’m. not sure, but that forced me to only eat half of half of what I ordered.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, that that that’s an entire podcast that I could have about the just the misinformation about veganism and vegetarianism, and those are gigantic debates in their entire worlds of information. Yes, but just because you’re eating vegan or vegetarian doesn’t mean you’re eating healthy at all.

Janace Tashjian: Yeah, absolutely. So that that’s something that

Zack Arnold: People just automatically assume is, oh, if you’re vegetarian, you must be healthy. Well, guess what? You can like sit there and eat cheese and Velveeta and potato chips and all this other stuff, and guess what? You’re vegetarian because you’re not eating animals, but your diet is still atrocious. Absolutely. So this is a soapbox that I do not want to allow myself to get on. I just want to make sure that anybody that that isn’t a part of this conversation just knows that when you hear vegan and vegetarian, those do not automatically equal healthy. They absolutely can mean that, but they do not automatically. So I just I want to take that aside right there. So then that leaves Kylee.

Kylee Wall: I’m not doing any supplements right now, although I’m interested in the protein packets that don’t have any of the synthetics. I was thinking about trying Shakeology since you all are so advocating it so much. But I used to use protein powder and mix it with Greek yogurt, but I kind of got more into just eating like regular, just eating regular food. I will say that I am cutting meat a lot throughout the week. I’m trying to eat mostly vegan, actually the good vegan. Like I’m, I’m looking at labels. I’m not just eating French fries or whatever.

Zack Arnold: Good.

Kylee Wall: So I’m I’m cut meat, which has helped a lot just with health. So I’m not currently doing any supplements other than just a multivitamin, but

Zack Arnold: I’m interested in learning more. Well, especially if you’re cutting out meat and trying to go vegan, which means that you have a lot less protein on your diet. Obviously, Shakeology is I would say even a better option because they have a vegan option available, and it’s not just like having a protein powder. It’s like literally, it’s like eating a big gigantic salad with a bunch of crazy stuff in it that you probably don’t even eat normally, like really healthy stuff. It’s the kind of thing that people are very skeptical about, and then they try it and they’re like, “Oh, wait a second.” I get it now, because it was something that it was not pushed on me. It was just I did the research and I tried it out, and it’s something that I’ve been hooked to ever since. Because I just don’t have the time to make a gigantic big salad and eat vegetables all day every day and make healthy meals. And this is I’m not saying you should automatically replace those things, but if you don’t have any other choice. Like this is the next best thing because it’s it’s pretty pretty amazing. So especially if you’re cutting out meat, this is a really good way to get healthy, natural protein into your system. And like I said, they have a vegan option. And it’s it’s not a requirement. It’s just something that I found that in our industry, with the amount of time that we have, it’s a great, great way to avoid garbage and junk. Because, as we all know, and as David knows especially, I became addicted to the snack wall over at Glee, and I think I gained like 10 pounds in a month. And I was like, I gotta do something about the snacking because all the candy, like

David Dean: We have candy and clear canisters.

Natalie Baker: When they have everything, you can’t do it. They had that at once. We had just a ridiculous snack wall. It’s it is

Zack Arnold: Yeah yeah sandwich

Kylee Wall: From red vines, and

Zack Arnold: It’s like that everywhere. Chocolate

Natalie Baker: Covered pretzels. That’s a really big

Zack Arnold: Thing. In in post, that’s a really big thing to always have a big room with snacks, and you sit in front of your computer all day, and your brain is working really hard, and you just having a bowl of M and M’s is just like it’s so easy, so easy to do, and that that’s where I found that Shakeology worked the most. Is I would take it at different times a day, depending on whatever you know was going on that day, and it really killed my cravings for junk. And now I don’t even really crave anything. I’ll have something once in a while, but I’m not craving or thinking, oh, I just have to have a snack. So for me, that’s been the big difference with it. So the the last thing that I want to mention, we’ve kind of talked about everything that I want to talk about. But for those that have been on the site but may not have known, for our first 90 day test group, the winner of our test group is going to get a free geek desk, and if you’re unaware of what a geek desk is, it’s basically a height adjustable workstation that editors can use. That you just push a button and it goes up and down. And as you know, one of my ulterior motives is to get a lot more editors and visual effects artists and all the people in post to be standing more. So if this works out well, and we can get enough people to get into this program and get on the site. Then Geek Desk might start giving us more of those. So I just want to mention that. So something you’re interested in, we can put together more more groups in the future. But for sure, 100% the winner of this group is going to get a Geek Desk. All right. Well, on that note, I’m going to let everybody go, and I want to thank all of you for for joining me, and I wish all of you luck on day one of the next 91 days. And there will be further communications with all of you throughout the the test group phase. But I’m very excited about this, and I very much appreciate that everybody is is joining in this journey to create this with me. So thank you very much.

Episode Credits

This episode was edited by Joseph D. Rivera, show notes were written by Maciek Kaliski (@MaciekKaliski), and the show was executive produced by Kanen Flowers (@iamkanen). We are a member of the THAT STUDIO podcast network.