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In this episode I speak with David Tarr, Chriss Horgan, and Sian Fever, the three top finalists of my most recent Fitness In Post challenge group. We discuss the challenges they face in their jobs as editors and sound editors, what they learned from the challenge group, how they improved, and most importantly…I announce who the grand prize winner of the GeekDesk is!
Zack Arnold: So we’re going to go ahead and introduce our guests. So I’m just going to start in Skype order with David Tarr. Hello, hello. So David, tell us a little bit about yourself, where you started, kind of what brought you into the challenge group, and just kind of walk people through, you know, just a little bit of your journey over the last three or four months, and then we’ll do the same for the other two members as well.
David Tarr: You know, I’ve kind of been trying to get in shape for a long, long time. You know, it seems like I try it for a couple weeks, and then something comes up and gets in my way. You know, and then it takes me a couple more weeks to get back into the swing of things. And so, when you offered this challenge group, I signed up for it because I thought, well, okay, I’ve got somebody, I’ve got you know another team or a team who’s going to be holding me accountable and and kind of do it as a group, and that sounded like it would be a good deal. I thought I’d give it a give it a shot and see if it worked, and you know here we are, it did work. So go ahead and tell people a little bit about what it is that you do for a living. I am the director of post production at a PBS station in Indianapolis, and so basically, I’m I’m kind of senior editor. Plus, I’m also in charge of making sure all the machines work and and everything, and figuring out what we need to buy and all that stuff, and helping out when people have problems with their machines and all that stuff.
Zack Arnold: And when you came to my challenge group, you were of course completely slim and in fantastic shape. Correct?
David Tarr: Yeah. No, I’ve been trying to lose weight for a long time, and so this helped me lose about 15 pounds. So that was great. Wow, it’s a good start.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, that’s fantastic. And what I like is that you’re saying it’s a good start because I’ve really been trying to emphasize with this program, and those that have listened to the show in the past already know this, but I’m really trying to emphasize that these challenge groups are not about setting an ultimate goal, reaching it, and either achieving it and being done, or you know, just giving up on it. It’s about it being a beginning. It’s it’s all about forming new habits and finding new ways to get into this routine because you can’t just jump into a brand new program overnight, change your life, and expect it to stick. You have to make small changes that are going to stick long term. And you know you’ve you’ve already made a lot of really big changes in your life. But tell us about the fact that you are going to be running in some events.
David Tarr: Yeah, yep. About halfway through this, I decided I needed some big challenge to finish this whole thing up, and so I signed up for a half marathon, and that’s going to be in two weeks, so 13.1 miles. So it’s going to be a killer.
Zack Arnold: And and this for everybody that’s listening, this is a guy that’s in post production that works in dark rooms in front of computers all day long, so it can be done.
David Tarr: That’s right. Yeah, yeah. You know, getting back to what you said, this is kind of a lifestyle changer. The things I’ve picked up, trying to be more active, you know, all day long. You know, going for walks at lunch, you know, going the long way to go get a you know drink of water or something. You know, things like that.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, we’ll we’ll we’ll go more into kind of the details of what you guys have done the last three or four months, what you have learned, we’ll definitely kind of go into the nitty gritty. So if somebody is thinking right now, well, how did he actually lose the 15 pounds? We’re going to go into to all that. I just want to make sure that our audience is familiar with all three of my superstars here before we kind of get too deep into the details. What I want to say before we move on to our next guest, I have everybody’s stats in front of me, and as long as we’re talking about David right now, over the course of our challenge group, which was for three months where we actually tabulated stats, he took 1.69 million steps for a total of 791.7 miles. If I were a cartoon character, my eyes would be bugging out of my head right now because that’s kind of nuts. He kicked my butt as far as stats. He was not only the leader in The Incredibles, but he was always in the the top few for the entire Fitness and Post Fitbit leaderboard, and was creaming me. So those those stats are a little nuts. So kudos to you, my friend, for putting in the effort that you did, that’s pretty awesome.
David Tarr: Yeah, thanks for the inspiration.
Zack Arnold: Absolutely.
David Tarr: You know, you kept saying I was kicking your butt, and and I I kept looking at the stats and go, no, I’m not. So the last month I really revved it up. So
Zack Arnold: Yes, you did. And you know, my routine is very very different than a lot of people’s. I’m in a different place with my fitness journey, where I do a lot of very short bursts of very intense activity, so I don’t get out and get as many steps or do as many long walks or whatnot. I just do like really crazy intense bursts for like 20-530, minutes, you know, every day or every other day, and then go out and do hikes. So for some some people that may look at the Fitbit leaderboard and be like, “Hey, this guy’s running this whole thing, and he’s number 12. It’s like, well, it’s because steps are not my top priority right now. But if I had a burpee challenge, I think I’d be pretty high on that list. But anyway, we’re going to move on to Chris Horrigan next, and before we go too deep into her introduction. I actually want to let people know that I did an entire podcast with Chris a few weeks ago, and I will leave a link to in the show notes. But kind of Chris’s entire journey has been all about making really, really small changes and not digging into any of these big exercise programs. But just in case our listeners did not hear the previous show, why don’t you go ahead and give us kind of the the short version of your story, Chris.
Chriss Horgan: Yeah, hi. Short version. I’m a sound editor. Started gaining extra weight about five years or so ago, and then three years ago, I had a serious accident that messed up my back, and that pretty much eliminated any kind of physical activity for about three years, I slowly gained about 40 pounds over the last five years. Which for me, this is the biggest I’ve ever been in my entire life, and I just didn’t even notice. I because working like all everyone else, once I heard your pitch at the meeting, at the Lassie Pug meeting, I just knew I wasn’t even there to look for something about you know fitness. I was there for something entirely different. You were a sneak preview or something, and a really nice surprise, and you caught my attention within the first two minutes for sure. I just everything you said it clicked. It just made perfect sense, and I just knew from that point that this is exactly what I’ve been needing. So jumped on right away, and I know that our our group’s official start was in July, but this was in May. The meeting was like may 28 The very next day, I started. I was so excited. Didn’t have anything yet, but I still started. I took you know all of the information that I could get off of the website. Everything you talked about. Just try to instill some some of those steps starting right away. And I was real excited. My diet is has always been pretty clean, but I used to be quite athletic and very active, and I used to have quite a high protein diet as well to accommodate, you know, my activities and stuff. And the thing about it is that I wasn’t even. It was just for so long, and and has just become part of my daily life routine that I never realized that when I got busy working and I was just sitting and working for 18 hours a day, 20-four hours a day-I don’t know. I just, you know, never got up and moved. It was just working, working, working, and you know the the the food portions and and the the food type was always healthy, but the food portions didn’t change. I was still eating as if I were out there, you know, pounding the pavement and and weights and everything else that I used to do. That just to show you that it doesn’t matter if it’s healthy food or non healthy food, but I would not recommend eating non healthy food. But portion size is very important because you’re getting all those extra calories. You’re not burning. You’re not being active. And I was very sedentary. It’s going to be stored as fat. So I was very excited and started right the very next day. And I immediately downloaded the apps that were suggested to download, and the My Fitness Plan or Pal-that’s the one, right? My Fitness Pal, where you can keep track of your food portions and your food-you know-that you eat all day long. That was that was my start, right there. It made me become very aware of input and output of calories taking in and burning. You know, going out. My portion sizes were all of a sudden in control, and that’s when, from that first day, I went, “Whoa, I’ve been way out of line. I mean, it was like huge differences, and so that’s where I started. And then little by little, as you were in touch with us constantly and guiding us, and we were all starting to, you know, share information amongst each other on our, you know, in our group, our Incredibles group, and and learning about all of the other things that other people had to offer as well. Little by little, you know, it all slowly came together, and then all of our well, I got my Fitbit device and and my heart rate monitor, and then got you know everything started coming, and then there was a program, and then we also. Officially started on in July.
Chriss Horgan: By that time, I think I had already dropped like something like six or seven pounds or something, and that was by just my food portion control. And I wasn’t. I was walking the neighborhood, but I wasn’t really doing a lot yet, as far as you know, putting on the miles and that sort of thing. So I was pretty happy by the time we started. I was already had already started losing the weight,
Zack Arnold: And at this point, I think you had told me that you’ve lost over 20 pounds. Correct?
Chriss Horgan: Yeah, the last check in on Fitbit, it has me at 22 pounds, and I haven’t checked since about a week. I do it maybe once a week. I check in and see, you know, what the numbers are saying. But the last check in was 22 pounds with like 18 to go, so I was just slightly over the halfway mark, and honestly, there has been no effort. So I’m like cheating. Well, I
Zack Arnold: Don’t know if I would say no effort because I have the quantification of your effort, and you have 1.63 million steps and 697.54 miles. So you over the course of three months, you walked 700 miles. So to say you did it without any effort, I think is I’m going to have to call BS on you right there.
Chriss Horgan: Well, it doesn’t seem like it doesn’t seem like much effort, and I’m I am a little bit surprised. 700 miles. Good heavens! Yeah,
Zack Arnold: It’s kind of nuts, right? You basically, I think that’s about like walking from here to San Francisco. Yeah, well,
Chriss Horgan: In three months, if I can’t make it to San Francisco on three months, then I’m not really doing very well. But, but still, I mean, that’s not really really focusing on like an activity program, you know. I’m just doing stuff every day. I’m doing my everyday stuff, and that I’m really. This is why it’s so perfect for me because with just a few little modifications in my lifestyle, it has changed everything, my whole entire world, and I haven’t really been paying that close of attention, you know. Right.
Zack Arnold: Well, that that’s kind of the design behind it. That’s kind of the way that I wanted it to work, where you didn’t feel like you’re slogging through a workout and you’re just counting the days until the program is done. Because I’ve lived that way, and it doesn’t get you anywhere, and it’s miserable. So that I didn’t I didn’t want this to be this way. I wanted it to be like it is for you. But the other thing I’ll point out for people listening, just to you know, call you on the whole effortless thing. If you did miss the previous podcast, Chris designed a brick fanny pack and tied bricks around her waist to weigh herself down. So let’s let’s just let’s not talk about the effortless thing too much because that’s kind of nuts.
Chriss Horgan: Well, it was just kind of a funny little gag thing I was doing at the time because I was walking around the building, and that’s one of the things that I do during the day. I’m a property manager of the apartment building where I live, so and then by night, I’m you know cutting sound and and mixing sound and that sort of thing. But so I’m doing my usual you know errands and things around the place and stuff. And there’s always a few little rocks or well they’re not little but they’re rocks or bricks or whatever to prop gates open or we just have them. I don’t know where they came from. They were here years ago, and and they’ve always been there. And we had done our first hike, and we were all surprised by you know the little present you had for us of you know each getting to carry a brick on the hike. Yeah, so that’s how where I got the idea, and it was funny because I was doing some things in the back, and I had to prop open a gate, and I turned around, and there’s these bricks, right? And I went, “Oh, bricks! And then I was like, “You know what? I picked them up, and I was just had one in each hand, and I was like, “Huh. And I got distracted by somebody, and I had to turn around and walk away. And I’m carrying these bricks around for about 15 minutes. The gate wasn’t propped up or anything, and I had these bricks in my hand. And I was like, “Gosh, you know, I didn’t even realize. I forgot, other than when I looked at them, that I was even carrying them, and I thought, hmm. So I have these fanny packs. I’ve got probably about five different styles and everything, and I picked two that were a little bit larger. You know, carry would fit bigger things in it, and you can’t zip them all the way up. But I just strapped each. One, I like a you know if I had a six shooter on each hip, and I stuck the bricks in there, and they held it, and I was like, “That’s funny. Right.
Zack Arnold: Well, I I think the fact that you have five different styles of fanny pack-that’s a whole podcast episode in and of itself. Speaking of long distances, I’m going to transition to the third member of this call, who’s Sean Fever, and she is actually a time traveler because she’s way in the future. It’s like 530 in the morning because she is on the other side of the pond, so to speak.
Sian Fever: Absolutely, and it is very five a.m. right now. It’s very five a.m. I’ve I’ve got up early and done all my regular things. I would do, you know, make make the bed, get in the shower, clean your teeth, have your breakfast. But I haven’t seen five a.m. in a while, Zack. So thank you.
Zack Arnold: Well, and thank you for for making the trek out of bed at five a.m. on a Saturday morning to to be on this call.
Sian Fever: Pleasure. It’s so lovely to hear you guys and and to get to know you. And after speaking virtually over the Facebook group for like three four months now, yeah.
Zack Arnold: Well, before we we hit the record button on the podcast, I was mentioning that I’ve met Chris in person a couple of times, but I’ve never actually spoken to or heard your voice or David’s until this very call because everything that we do is via email and via the Facebook group, so I feel like we’re all good friends and could go sit down and have a beer without any problem and be comfortable. But I’ve never actually heard your voices, so this this new world is it’s it’s still crazy. I’m just a simple caveman. Your world frightens and confuses me.
Sian Fever: Well, I thank you, and I thank you for referring to me as a time traveler as well, because
Zack Arnold: Yeah,
Sian Fever: As a Doctor Who fan, that you know tickles me
Zack Arnold: Exactly. So tell us a little bit about your background as far as what you do, where you started, and what your your journey looked like.
Sian Fever: Yeah, absolutely. So as you said, I’m based in the UK. I’m based in London, and I’m a short form freelance editor. So. so that’s important because that changes my week quite a lot compared to maybe you zack, where you’re on a show and you’re you know you’ve got your edit suite set up and you’re going to be there five six days a week, whereas I have maybe two or three different clients a week and I will be in and out of different people’s offices, predominantly working in their edit suites, and so that adds a slightly different dimension to the challenge. And I’ve been a freelancer for about two years now, and prior to this, I’d had this fitness epiphany. My whole life, I just hated exercise with a fiery passion. I just couldn’t stand it. It was painful, and it made you sweaty, and it made you tired, and these were all very inconvenient things to me. And I had a bit of a pay rise at work, I think, and realized that I should probably do something to take care of myself, and that that thing I was going to do, I was I was going to find a gym, and I was going to try and make it work, and I was going to hire a hire a personal trainer as well, and I managed to commandeer a gentleman who had been, who had fought in the UFC, and we did weights and we did boxing together, and it was great. It was brilliant, and through this experience, I kind of discovered the joy of exercise, and that it didn’t, it wasn’t lactic acid for the entire workout. Like you would get past that point of pain, and then you would work hard, and it would be great. And then you’d get all these endorphins at the end, and you would feel brilliant, you know, a day or more. And then I went freelance, and this routine that I had built up-you know, getting up at kind of five a.m. and getting into the gym and pumping iron, and then I had all my food laid out, laid out at work, and I have my edit suite, and I have all my things, and I had this kind of, I built this little support network around me to make sure I could get my exercise in, and I was, you know, hitting the right amount of food. My I had portion sizes under control. I was on my fitness pal, all of these things, and then I went freelance, and it all just went, you know, to hell in a handbasket, and I found it very, very difficult. And I’d been struggling this whole time to try and make it work. And I would go through little phases, little bursts of either going for runs in the morning or getting to the gym in the morning. And it would be very short-lived because I would one day, you know, as we all do in post, work till one a.m. or I’d have to get to the other side of town for a new client, and that would be an hour and a half commute all of a sudden, and I wouldn’t have time to get up in the morning. And it was then I heard when I went to NAB this year, and I was hearing murmurs of fitness in post, you know, like a whisper on the wind. What is this thing? What is this? What’s going on? And I think people were very quiet. I think I spoke to both Mike and Monica about it, and they both said, “Oh, you know, yeah, we’re in the air. We’re in the beta group. I thought, “Tell me, tell me about it. Tell me about it. What is it? What is it? Thinking maybe this is the answer. Maybe this is the thing that I’ve been searching for, and they they couldn’t they they wouldn’t giving me any details at the time. I was kind of gently gently. Them and I was so excited, and so I was I was first in line. I think for the first, well, I think I was first in line. I probably wasn’t, but I was laying in wait for Zack.
Zack Arnold: Oh wow! I’m just I’m honored to hear that. I do have to say though that it’s it’s pretty cool that you were hearing whispers and you’re literally 1000s and 1000s of miles away in the in the UK. So that’s that’s cool to me that that this is getting out there. And we actually had a second member of the Incredibles, Linton Davies, who was also in the UK and was practically your neighbor, I believe, because you guys were in pictures together.
Sian Fever: Oh yeah, so yeah, we got we brought it, Team GB. We had to represent, you know, that’s right. The weight of the UK on our shoulders, exactly. And
Zack Arnold: And I do have to mention, just since you guys were both prize winners, that shipping for you guys is a bitch. I’m just saying something I didn’t factor into my program when I designed it. I’m like, oh, this will be great. It’ll get everybody all over the world, and oh, I get to send the prizes, and it’s going to cost how much to send a T-shirt? Seriously,
Sian Fever: I’m so sorry. It’s not
Zack Arnold: Your fault. That’s my fault. It’s poor planning. It was worth it to get it to you guys. You guys are my my walking free advertising in the UK, so wear that T-shirt every day.
Sian Fever: Oh, absolutely, absolutely.
Zack Arnold: So before we move forward, I would be remiss to not mention your stats as well. You were, as far as statistically we are concerned, you were number three with 920-3330-five steps over the course of 420-3.9 miles. So those are not numbers to shrug at either. Those are pretty awesome. And the other thing that I want to mention is that you are a Spartan race compatriot with me.
Sian Fever: Hell yeah, I am.
Zack Arnold: We definitely have to mention that because you, you know, you may not have just you know burned up all the stats, but the fact you you can say and you’ve worn the medal and you’ve gotten through the the Spartan race-that’s you know that that’s just you know an arou from across the pond. So oh
Sian Fever: My goodness, you know Spartan race. I have so much love for Spartan race. When I had this kind of fitness epiphany prior to my freelancing, I signed up for a Spartan sprint, and I didn’t think that I could do it at all. I never thought I would accomplish anything like that. And I remember somebody showing me a video. I think of maybe it was a Spartan race. It was a Warrior Dash, you know, something. It was something like that. And I remember thinking, looking at it, I just don’t get it. I don’t understand why people would do this. Why they would subject themselves to the horror, the pain? It’s wet, it’s cold, it’s muddy, and there’s barbed wire, and this it genuinely looked like torture, and everyone’s smiling giddily. Are you all nuts? Like, what is this? And then you know, a very short time later, I was doing it myself and loving it, and when I finished it, and you know it’s it’s it’s 5k But geez, I’d never run a race before, and I never even run 5k Like the the furthest I’ve run is ever is 10k and that was on a treadmill and under very you know controlled conditions inside a gym. Or you know, I very much wanted this time round when you when you said Zack, you know, everyone, you know, set a goal for yourself. I thought, okay, that’s that’s what I want to do. You know, I want to do the thing that I didn’t think I could do. It was a huge milestone for me the first time round, and so the second time round, the fitness in post time round, it was very special. It was quite it was quite meaningful to me. So, Aru, Aru, back to you.
Zack Arnold: Absolutely, and we’re going to have to get a Kickstarter campaign started to buy you a plane ticket, so we can fly you out to LA and and do our Malibu Spartan Sprint in December. Because I now have a third member that has joined me. That’s in one of my other clean eating Shakeology groups. He’s going to be joining the group, and you know I’m hoping by this time next year that I have at least 10 or 15 people that are equally as insane as me. So that’s the goal: is to just slowly build the level of insanity in our industry. That’s really what this is all
Sian Fever: About. So, so speaking
Zack Arnold: Of the insanity, I just I’m gonna walk through very quickly kind of the very very basics of how these groups work. If somebody’s listening and they’re saying, “Oh, this is kind of one I need too, kind of like Chris was saying, just kind of how the program works, but then more importantly, rather than people hearing about it from me, I want them to hear about it from you and what it was that you guys got out of it. But I’ll walk them through the basics. The basic way that these challenge groups work is that most people can go through the steps of the Fitness Impose program themselves at their own speed. If you want to learn more about the program, I actually just did a Q and A podcast before this one, episode 20, that talks about the steps. So I’m not going to go into them at all. But if you decide that you want accountability and you really want to kind of make a transformation and a lifestyle change, then that’s what these groups are for. Everybody in them is in some form of post production, so we all have the same obstacles, and it’s basically this weekly curriculum where everybody is setting goals, and they’re getting education about exercise, exercise recovery, diet, nutrition, sleep quality, stress management, things like heart rate variability, things about productivity. So all these different components of your life. That you don’t really think factor into quote unquote fitness, but we try to spend a week focusing on each one as a group, asking questions, and then everyone is statistically together on a leaderboard, and we quantify using Fitbit devices. And some people used heart rate monitors. Not everybody did, but most of the group was using heart rate monitors to quantify their more arduous workouts, and we can use that quantifiable data to decide who’s going to win prizes at the end of the month. So there’s always one big prize at the end of each month. There’s always little prizes for different categories in the the Fitbit categories of distance steps and active minutes, and then there’s a big grand prize for the whole thing at the end of it, and the big grand prize is not quantifiable. The stats are part of it, but one thing that I really learned from putting together the the initial test group, the beta group, was that this had to be a group idea. And somebody said, because I had said on one of the first podcasts, if you go way back and listen to like episode two or something, I remember saying I don’t know how to decide the winner because I want it to be about more than numbers. And somebody said, “Well, how about we vote for it? So I decided that was a brilliant idea. And what we do is we put up a voting page for the whole group. And there’s 10 people in this group. I have two current groups going of eight people apiece, so I have 16 people going right now. The Incredibles were 10, and I put up this page, and I will post this publicly for anybody to look at, as long as I have the permission of the three of you, of course, because you’re the ones that are on display. But I was going to put this page up so people can see how this works, because the most important component of this is the journal entry. We have all your stats. Everybody can look at the leaderboards every single day, but you guys kind of write a few paragraphs that say this is who I was and this is now who I am because of the group, and I think that that’s kind of what people are judging this on more than anything because you can do any 90-day workout program and you can say, well, I lost X amount of pounds and X number of inches off of my waist or off of my chest or whatever it is, and those are great, but do those really talk about how you feel about yourself? And do you have more energy? And do you enjoy life more?
Zack Arnold: And that’s really more what I’m trying to get out of this: is just the quality of life, and even more importantly, the higher cognitive function for being good at what we do for a living. That’s that’s the number one goal: is making us better at what we do as editors and sound editors and graphic designers and whatever you do in post production, because until now there really hasn’t been a place to do that as a group. So, do I have everyone’s permission to give the link out publicly if people want to see this process? Time with
Sian Fever: Me. Sure. Going then.
Zack Arnold: All right. So the the public link is just fitnessimpost.com/incredibles, and this is where you’re going to see the stats that I’ve already talked about, and then you’re going to see the journal entries. And I think this is a really good thing for people to see that it’s really about so much more than getting a quote-unquote beach body and losing weight. Yes, losing weight is a side effect, and looking better is going to be a side effect, but that’s not the main thing that this is about. So I’ve gone on my own, you know, little quest here talking about how all this works. But I want to know how it worked for you guys. So other than the things you’ve already talked about, as far as the increased activity and whatnot, give me some specifics. Whether it was podcast or it was a specific week of curriculum, whatever it was that you really kind of honed in on and said, “I never would have learned this, whatever it is, without having been a part of this group. So we’ll start with you, David. We haven’t heard from you in a while. The
David Tarr: Best thing is your steps at the beginning of what to do. You know, start take little steps, be more active, then add in an exercise program and watch your diet. And you know, those are the main things that I grabbed. I think during one of your podcasts, though, you said something about at one point when you were starting to work out, you’re working out so much and you’re eating all the time, and you hadn’t really put the two together-the diet and the exercise-and how the working out all the time was making you hungry all the time. And it’s exactly what happened to me the second month, and so I had to start cutting back on. I think I was running at the same time I was doing Power 90, and it was just too much,
Zack Arnold: Right? Yes, and that that’s very common, and that’s actually why somewhere around the fifth or sixth week we I start really talking about the specifics of diet, because one thing I learned from your group was that I was I was I was throwing too much information in too quickly, and I realized that I kind of just have to throw it in a little bit slower. And I figured the first month everybody’s so overwhelmed just by trying to get activity, and just the fact that they’re sweating and they’re tired and their muscles hurt. Like in post, we just don’t get a lot of activity, so that’s kind of a shock to the system. So really, I start focusing on what to put in your body the second month because I spent years, like the vast majority of my life, being incredibly active and not caring at all what I was putting in my body, and then all of a sudden, my body fought back and said, “I don’t think that’s going to work anymore.” And that’s when I realized that if I was really going to survive, diet had to be my number one focus. I was kind of doing the the exercise part on autopilot for a while, and just focusing on diet. And that’s when things completely transformed. That’s like a a month long component of these challenge groups is just learning about proper diet. And when I say diet, I don’t mean dieting. That’s a term that I absolutely hate. It’s you know the formal definition of diet, which is what you put in your body on a daily basis, not like you know an Atkins diet or this diet or whatever dogma is out there for the day. That’s that’s not what I’m interested in. It’s just about you know learning more about the core components of food and macronutrients and what’s good for you and what isn’t, and trying to dispel just the tons and tons of misinformation that’s out there through the mass media or just through general education.
David Tarr: Yep, and it works
Zack Arnold: Well. I’m glad to hear that. I saw you posted. I think it was a couple of weeks ago now that you have now stepped it up and you’re jumping into P90X.
David Tarr: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I actually I started to go into it, and then I’ve had to cut back because of my my running. And so after november 1, I’m going to jump back into it. And
Zack Arnold: Yeah, P 90x is intense, but it is a commitment, and it is hard. And to to try and do something else on top of it, whether it’s running or cycling or having some other weekly activity, it’s hard. Yeah, because it pretty much consumes your entire life, and that was what I had done to get ready for my first tough mudder a few years ago. And it’s the only thing I did. I wasn’t doing running, I wasn’t doing hiking. It was just P 90x and it was it was really hard, but it was just kind of my gateway to realizing that I could do it and I was capable of it. So we’ll move on to you then, Chris. Give us an idea of one of your one of the things that really stuck out for you from this challenge group.
Chriss Horgan: Well, the thing there’s actually two, but the first the very first thing was to get rid of the chair and to stand while working. I didn’t know if it was going to work if that was going to work for me. I loved the whole idea, but it didn’t. I didn’t know if that was going to be work for me while I’m working because cutting sound is all about sync, and I’ve always been so tense while when I’m cutting, especially if I’m syncing dialog or something like that. You know, and I’m perfectly still. Sometimes I don’t even breathe, you know, while while I’m really getting into the pocket there and doing stuff. That was all just a fallacy because it worked fine, and everybody started modifying their workstations, you know, because we we either went out and bought a standing workstation, or we just tried to make our current workstations. You know, elevated them with cinder blocks and other boxes and things, books, and that’s basically what I’ve done. And got rid of the the chair, and I was actually surprised myself that oh, well, this is like nothing, and you’re constantly you are when you’re standing on your feet, you’re constantly moving around. You have circulation in the whole body, and I mean, I was I felt really better right away within three days. I was like, darn, this is like great. The thing about that is that it changed my life forever, and you did that by that whole idea and concept. And that was because since I’ve done that, my back pain that I thought I was going to end up living with for the rest of my life and just accepted it is gone. I have not had one, not one little twinge in my back since I’ve been standing. I don’t think our bodies are meant to sit all the time like that. We’re a upright, you know, being, and we’re meant to walk. We have two legs feet, and we’re meant to to walk. And oh my gosh, it’s it was it’s like so obvious, but I was totally-if it were a snake in the front of my face, it’d bite my nose off. That’s how obvious this is, and probably anybody listening to this that’s never done this before would probably never have thought of it either. I certainly would never have thought of that, and it has. totally changed my entire life. That is the biggest thing. The other thing is the sleep, that whole sleep cycle app. That’s when it started for me, and I really went into that part of the program really doubting. That was the the main thing that I was really doubting because I’ve never had a normal sleep schedule ever, and oh my goodness! So between the the standing and just keep moving, and the sleeping, my whole quality of life is just. Has changed by leaps and bounds, and I’m so so. I can’t even. I don’t know the words to describe it. It’s just so wonderful, and I’m just so happy, and I’m just, you know, it’s just made the whole attitude. It’s a big, huge attitude adjustment, and even with jobs that I get that are older, you know those ones that used to just like make my good eye water, and I get all frustrated and and and angry about stuff, and it doesn’t even. It’s just everything is fine. It doesn’t matter how bad the the stuff is that comes to me. It’s fine. It’s all good, and we just make it work. And I am just wholly enjoying life. That so it was the standing, you know, that because I don’t have that pain anymore, I don’t even think about it. I totally for forgot about it, and I can’t tell you before that it was so so much on my mind that I don’t even now understand how I could forget about it. That’s how bad it was. Yeah.
Zack Arnold: What one thing I want to make sure to to hit on that I think is a really big part of what you said. You had said thank you because you did this, and as much as I appreciate that, I have to correct you because I think you’re dead wrong because you did it. And if if it were something that I could do, then I could do this with everybody. I could just walk up to them and I could say, “Do this, and make that kind of difference in their lives. But that’s not the way that it works. The first thing that you need in order for any of this to succeed is motivation and just the willpower to decide that you want to make a change in your life, because if you’re in just this place where you’re in denial, or you don’t want to believe that you have health issues, or you believe that everything’s just going to magically be okay, even though you’re you know eating whatever it is that you’re eating that’s unhealthy and you’re 50 pounds overweight, you have to decide in your mind and in your soul, I’m going to make a change and I’m going to do whatever it takes, and that’s what got you to where you are. I just kind of helped provide the bridge to cross over and go down the path you wanted to go. So as much as I appreciate it, I’m not going to take the credit because you did it. All of you guys did it. I didn’t do it.
Chriss Horgan: Well, you presented it to me, so and I grabbed on, and I’m so glad I did.
Zack Arnold: You did grab on. That is an understatement. You grabbed on and then some. So, so let’s move on to you, Sean. And why don’t you walk us through, you know, one or two of the the favorite things that you pull out of this group and how it made a change for you?
Sian Fever: Oh my goodness! Do you know? As Chris and David were talking, I was making the list, and the list started getting bigger and bigger, and it’s way beyond a couple of things. So I’ll try and be brief. But the first one, because it was the first thing that I attacked, because it was just it became glaringly obvious what an obstacle it was was my sleep, and I learnt through the program just how important the sleep thing was off right off the bat before I even started exercising or doing anything else. Looking at my diet, it was trying to make sure I wasn’t sabotaging my own sleep pattern, which I was absolutely doing, and also that eight hours-if it’s not a good eight hours, it’s not going to do much good for you. Five hours, solid five hours after a workout-that’s some great sleep. That’s some really great sleep. So I definitely learned that. I also learned that, and it was from hearing you and Monica talk on a podcast, actually, where you were both confessing to be sugar addicts, and I just felt so relieved when you said that because I’d been long harboring the suspicion that I was too a sugar addict. And hearing you guys say that, I started to deal with that issue. And I think sometimes we kind of say in jest, and we’re like, ah, donuts, you know, ma. You know, oh, we’re such a great expert. But I think there’s a lot of truth in that. And if I don’t have some sugar, you know, in a few days I start to get very strange withdrawal pains across my teeth. Really strange. So that was a thing. Also, Zack, you talking about this program in conjunction with mental health made it okay to talk about mental health as part, you know, as part of this larger conversation, and to consider that. And and quite early on in the program, I now I would never claim I would never claim to suffer from depression, but I do have short spells which make me feel incredibly sad. Make me feel that there’s a lot of distance between myself, you know, where I am and and who I am, and I feel very very disconnected. And very early on in the program, I kind of went through one of these spells for a few days of feeling incredibly disconnected, incredibly sad. And absolutely, the way that I found my way back to myself was getting out and walking, getting out, getting outside, one, and moving around, being active, and I could I could feel myself kind of coming back. That was a huge thing. That was a huge thing for me. And so, and and that was entirely down to hearing you talk about mental health, and that made me consider it and put it. Front of the front of my mind. I also had a bunch of ankle injuries, which I realize again through this through this program. Like I’ve got to start dealing with these. I’ve got to start taking care of those if I want to progress. If I want to be running, if I want to be running Spartan races, which I do, because at Ace, I needed to deal with I need to deal with those and and be patient. Oh, patience! Patience was a huge thing that I like. I learned on this program, and again, stemming from something that you and both you and Monica said about how you’re both very kind of all or nothing people, which I really identified with, and learning patience and acceptance that I didn’t have to do it all at once, and this wasn’t a change overnight. This was a gradual thing, you know, that I could make incremental changes and be okay with that. You know, I think a lot of us have personalities where we’re perfectionists, you know, and we want to do the best, and we want to we want to go to work and we want to rock it, you know, we want to rock it hard, and we we want to do the best job, and that attitude can carry over into your fitness regime, and and that can be wonderful, but it also can be a hindrance. So again, you know, the program and talking about that gave me permission to take a breath, you know, make small changes.
Sian Fever: And the last thing that I would say is that way before the program, I did not consider walking, you know, a valid fitness activity. Not even if you had told me like go do some walking, I would have laughed in your face. I just would not have done it. I would Fitbit. Like I remember, like thinking, why are people logging their steps? That’s so rubbish. Like that’s not exercise. But I was like, you know, I was game. I’ll give it a whirl. I very quickly found how bloody brilliant walking is. I totally fell in love with it, and and and prior to this program, I considered it sort of a productivity faux pas. Why would I walk an hour to work when I could jump on the tube for 10 minutes? Like that makes no sense, except that moving around more, man, it it wakes you up. And I was falling asleep a lot. I was, I was, I’m not entirely ashamed to admit that I was taking naps at work. You know, we’ve
Zack Arnold: All been there. I I had to do that for years, so I get it. Trust me.
Sian Fever: You know, it would get to like you know 1o’clock and you’re looking at the edit suite sofa, thinking, yeah, yeah, squeezing a squeezing 15 minutes or so, and I started walking to work. I walked from my house in Shepherd’s Bush into an office just off Tottenham Court Road. Tottenham Court Road. That’s a 90 minute walk. That is, that is not a short walk at all. You know, and it was great. And I I’d kind of hit this meditative state that people you you hear people talking about when people do running, you know that they do it because they get to kind of disappear out of their mind for a while. And it was like if I walked long enough, I would kind of churn through all the kind of flotsam in my mind, you know, all the issues that I’d be thinking about during the week. Oh, got to do this, got to do that. Oh, you know, or do this, do that, and I’d listen to podcasts as I was walking, you know, through town or through Hyde Park or you know whatever it was, and all of that would kind of eventually clear out, and all of this kind of creativity kind of poured back in. It was really liberating. So walking was big, big, big discovery, and that that’s 100% fitness in post. I think some of these things that we’ve learned we can attribute to these are exercise things. You know, I’ve learned this because I started doing exercise, and I started doing exercise because of fitness and post. But these ideas, you know, learning about walking, considering mental health, conscious eating-oh my goodness! Conscious eating has like has made a huge difference to me, and that was entirely an idea that I was introduced to through Fitness in Post. That you know, before you eat something, look at it, think about how it’s going to make you feel. And in my journal entry, I wrote a little bit about the my relationship with food, which is is a little bit complex, and I and I won’t go into it. But I can’t stop eating biscuits. If you put biscuits in front of me, I will eat the whole plate. I will eat the whole packet. Like my appetite for biscuits is not rivaled, you know, not not in England, not internationally. I can I can eat biscuits. Like yeah, we
Zack Arnold: Should just we should clarify for our audience. Oh, sorry. A biscuit in Britain is very different than a biscuit in the U.S.
Sian Fever: I’m sorry. Yeah. So you’re not having
Zack Arnold: KFC biscuits?
Sian Fever: Goodness no. Goodness no. Which I was introduced to at the editors retreat this year. So I have I have tried a a US biscuit, but no, I mean you know chocolate chip cookies.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, yeah. Oh
Sian Fever: My, chocolate digestives, custard creams, ginger snaps.
Zack Arnold: Chocolate chip cookies are my kryptonite.
Sian Fever: My goodness. So, and and I started looking at packets of biscuits, realizing like an entire packet. If I bought that, I’m going to eat the whole thing. It’s it’s now I have come to realize an inevitability. And so, when I’m looking it on the shelf, I’ll look at it like, do I want to eat that whole packet? Two, how is that going to make me feel? Gross. It’s going to make me feel sick. Like there’s no way around that. And and I, it just stayed there. It just stayed there on the shelf. Huge, huge. It sounds really small, but I, I promise you, that’s a huge step forward for me.
Zack Arnold: Oh, that’s an absolutely huge step forward. And kind of going back to what you were saying a little bit ago to start this conversation about being a sugar addict, saying that oh well you know there’s you know people laugh about it but it’s kind of true. It’s not kind of true. It’s an epidemic worldwide. And if you don’t believe me that it’s an epidemic, watch the movie Fed Up, F E D U P. It’s a new documentary that just came out recently. It is all about the governmental policies behind food and just the absolute addiction that the entire planet has to sugar, and why we all have believed for so long that having this in our diet wasn’t that bad, and why we’ve been told that six to 11 servings of grain every day were the healthy way to go, which is, as you would say, complete rubbish! I’m so excited because I’ve gotten you to say rubbish, bloody brilliant, and biscuits on this podcast. So my my list is knocked off. I’m excited about that bingo.
Sian Fever: Yeah, exactly.
Zack Arnold: My my Brit my British bingo card is full. So that’s awesome.
Sian Fever: And I have a cup of tea as well.
Zack Arnold: Yes. Now, if we could just talk about crumpets, then I would get my my double bonus. How many how many calories does a crumpet have? There we go. That’s how we should talk about
Sian Fever: Loads. It it can’t be anything good. It really no, I’m sure
Zack Arnold: It’s not.
Sian Fever: Do you know what’s better than crumpets? Oh, depend and and depending on where you come from in in the UK, it’s pronounced differently. But scones.
Zack Arnold: Oh, I love scones. I don’t know how different they are in Britain than they are here, but scones are definitely tasty here.
Sian Fever: Oh, scones, clotted cream, and jam. So much happiness, so much sadness at
Zack Arnold: The same time. So before we move on to the the crowning of our grand prize winner, I just have one other thing that I wanted to bring up real quick. Just kind of an anecdotal thing. This is actually something that David had sent me a while back, and I actually have it as a testimonial quote on the the Fitness and Posts website at the program. So I’m just going to read it out loud, and that I just kind of want you to talk about David, just this specific change in your life, because I think this is a really big one for people that are listening and do the work that we do in our industry, so it’s a quick quote. It just says, “Because of this program, I was able to work on a freelance project until after midnight last night, and still get up at seven a.m. to do 30 minutes on the elliptical. Thanks, FIP. Is that something that you were able to do before we got started?
David Tarr: Oh no, I would have slept in. Yeah, no, yeah, it’s great. Once you start doing all this exercise and everything, your your energy levels go up, and you don’t need as much sleep. And just the idea of, gosh, I got to get my steps in, I got to get my exercise in, gets you up in the morning, gets you going.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, and I think it’s important too to to know the reason I’m so excited about this and brought it up is that again, like I said earlier, it’s not a benchmark of oh how many how many inches have I lost or how do I look in the mirror? It’s like hey I was able to work until midnight and wake up the next morning and still feel good because that to me is a giant victory for anybody in our industry because there’s just nothing worse when you have one of those 60 or 70 hour weeks and you’re just a zombie and you just can’t function, and I’ve been there for years. And the thing that made me get through it and be able to handle these with relative ease is diet and exercise. It’s that’s really all there is to it. It’s it’s simple. It’s not easy, but it’s really really simple. And this just kind of personifies that.
David Tarr: Yep, you’re absolutely right. Yeah, that’s the big thing is the energy. That’s that’s the key to everything. So you’re more you’re more aware, you’re more alert. You know, think clear everything
Zack Arnold: Exactly. And that’s why, like when when Sean was saying the whole idea of you know it being anti productive to walk to work because it took less time to go on the tube, which is another thing on my my British bingo card. The tube, awesome. But you know, looking at that, my response is, well, yeah, you can get to work faster, but if you’re just sitting there, you’re not going to have as much energy. So if you’re looking over the course of a 10 or 12 hour day, you might be less productive because you got to work sooner because you didn’t build up the energy and the stamina that you did from walking. And I think that that’s something really important to look at because, like, for me, just today, literally today, I was sitting there almost banging my head against a wall because I had to make this just gigantic change to the way that a scene was structured, and I’m like, I don’t know how to make this work. I just don’t know where to start. I don’t know how to cut it. Like, they’re basically asking me to take a square peg and put it through a round hole, and I don’t know how to do it. And I was sitting there with with Natalie, my assistant. She’s like, “What are you gonna do? And I’m like, “I’m walking out of the room, and I’m gonna go run a bunch of stairs. So I just was doing all these crazy stair drills, like you know, jumping with you know, two feet together up three, four flights of steps, and then doing wide jumps and small jumps, and. Just kind of you know getting away from the room, and I walked back in my office five minutes later, and I looked at it. I’m like, I got it, and I walked in front of my computer for two hours, and I banged out a completely different scene, and it totally worked. But that’s because I got out of the room, and I wasn’t worried about I have to be in front of my computer every second so I can get as much done as possible. It was getting away from the room and getting activity that got my brain firing and solved the problem. So you can be more productive by doing less if you’re getting activity.
Sian Fever: Oh, I’d really like to second that. Really would. I had a job and same same thing. You know, you got something in. Not really sure what I’m going to do with it. I was like, okay, I’m going to take a stair break. And I was working in a building that had 21 flights. Wow! I wish I worked in that building because I only had three
Zack Arnold: Flights, and I was like, “Really, only three? This is just this is rubbish.
Sian Fever: Oh yeah, awesome. Oh yeah, man. I was on the 13th floor. I’d walk up there every morning because it it was quicker. It was quicker to take the stairs than to take the lift, believe it or not. But yeah, one day I ran into a problem. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do about it. I took a quick stair break, walked from the 13th up to the 21st, and back down again. And then by the time I was back, okay, yeah, I know how what I’m going to do with this.
Zack Arnold: And it’s hard to do that too. Like it’s really hard when you’re in that zone and you’re in front of your computer and you literally just don’t want to move because you just you’re saying to yourself, “I’m just I’m not gonna leave or do anything until I solve this problem. But you just have to tear yourself away, and I cannot believe how quickly I came to a solution when I walked away. Literally, it was less than five minutes. Just walk out, did stairs for three and a half minutes, walked back in. I was like, “Bam, got it! And two in the next two hours, has disappeared because I just knocked out the new version of the scene, and I was done. You know, so that that’s why I think this stuff is is so useful and why I’m so excited about spreading it to more people in our industry. Absolutely.
Sian Fever: So that’s and you know what? If you are still kind of not sold on this idea of having more energy through expending more energy, I have this running joke with a promo producer that I work with quite often, and I come in first thing in the morning, and she turns to me and says, “So which Sean do I have today? Do I have the Sharn that went to the gym today, or do I have the Shan that didn’t go to the gym today? You know, and judging by how much I’m bouncing off the walls with energy, you know, the answer’s pretty pretty obvious. It makes a huge difference.
Zack Arnold: Wow! If
Sian Fever: Anyone’s listening and is still on the fence, you know, get out there, go do it.
Zack Arnold: That’s the idea. I’m, I’m really hoping to to build a lot more of these and actually have other people be running them as well, because I I really want this to kind of branch out and get to as many people as possible. And you guys are are alumni now. That’s another big component of this program: is that you’re not in it and then out of it. You’re in it for life. You are stuck with me forever.
Sian Fever: Yeah. So once
Zack Arnold: Once you’re done with your challenge group, you become an alumni member.
Sian Fever: Oh, thank goodness! Because we were all pretty sad once you know hit final week. Yeah. I think we were sheepishly writing on the Facebook group saying, “I’m I’m quite sad, guys. Like that feel that kind of post show feeling, you know. Once you finish a big job, or you finish a big event, or we come back from holiday, or you know that come down. Yeah, we were feeling that. So to have the alumni group there ready to catch us, yeah, you know,
Zack Arnold: And and once once you’re once you’re a participant in one of these, if you decide that you want to run one for yourself and get a bunch of friends and pull one of these groups together and slap the fitness impose a name on it, that’s what I want. So if there are people listening to this saying, “God, it’s not only wouldn’t be fun to kind of be in one of these, but it’d be fun to get my friends together and run one myself, that’s all part of what I want to do. I want this to be a community, like a global small community that that kind of is all about bringing people together to to do this and just have this common goal of realizing that fitness in post is not an oxymoron anymore. Because that’s always the joke when I talk to my sponsors. I say, listen, I’m trying to sell an oxymoron. Like I’ve I’ve I’ve got a tough job here because people just don’t want to believe that it’s possible. And not only is it possible, but I’m not even going to make the statement. I’m going to let you guys answer this question: Were the last four months fun?
Chriss Horgan: Oh yeah! Oh my gosh! Oh yeah! Are you kidding? Yeah, it ended too soon, Zack. That’s what I said. It’s over too soon. At least two more months. Two more months. Can we have two more months? You’re
Zack Arnold: A member of the alumni page now, and you can have as many months as you want.
Chriss Horgan: No, but it was our own little incredible page, our own little incredible world. You know.
David Tarr: Yeah. Oh,
Sian Fever: Absolutely. And I, you know what? I have so much love for these two, you know. Even though we’ve only been kind of messaging over Facebook and the relationships that you build in those groups, yeah. I think because you’re all going through a shared experience that is, you know, it’s quite emotional. I I definitely found it, you know, quite emotional, and and I made a lot of personal discovery along along that journey, and I and I think you know, Chris. And David clearly did too, and and I think the same goes for the rest of the Incredibles, who are all you know bloody incredible. We all became a little
Chriss Horgan: Family, you know, group of people, and that was-I mean-I love this group. I just love this group of people. I’ve learned something from each and every one of the people in that group. I don’t take anything for granted. I just am so grateful for sharing the experience with everyone.
Zack Arnold: Agreed, and I second that. I learned something from everybody too. This is not a one-way street. This is not me saying, “Guess what, guys? I know everything, and you know nothing, and I’m going to teach you. This is about you know I’m I’m instigating it, and I’m sharing the information that I have. But you guys shared tons of information with me that I’m now incorporating into the new groups that I have, and that cycle will just continue. Like I’m constantly learning more, and what I’ve realized is that Chris, you were saying you wanted to be another two months. Well, my challenge group is now indefinite because I’ve painted myself into the largest accountability corner on the planet, because now I just have to keep doing it over and over and over and over. And I actually think that subconsciously that’s part of it, because now now this is no longer a three month goal or a six month goal. This is just my life. This is just what I do on a daily basis, which has made it easier for me when I don’t succeed. And I won’t go too long into this because I know the show is getting long. But like a few years ago, when I was doing this on my own, I would say to myself, “If I don’t do P 90x all six days of the week and I don’t make it through every workout from beginning to end, I have failed. And therefore, if I have failed and I can’t do it, I’m just not going to do it at all, right?
Sian Fever: Oh my goodness! And that’s the
Zack Arnold: Worst thing you can do. And what this whole program has taught me is that I can set a goal, but even if I don’t reach it every single day, I can still continue to work towards it. Because hopefully, if I’m lucky, I’ve got another 50 or 60 years to figure this out. So I don’t have to figure it out overnight. So, for example, for this latest round, like I had started the my new program the same time that you guys started because I have a Spartan race next weekend. It’ll actually be, I think, I think I’ll be racing the day that this comes out. I will, yeah. This comes out the 25th so I might be racing when this actually posts. But I had said I want to get through T 25 and P 90 x3 during this time, and guess what? I didn’t make it through either of them. I did a good deal of both of them, but because of my work schedule and my schedule, building this website and rebuilding this website and doing all the different things I did. I didn’t get in all the exercises exactly as on the calendar, but I still did a lot of them, and I’m still seeing progress. And what I’ve done is I’ve learned how to be okay with doing less, and I realized that you know if if I only did P 90 x3 four days instead of six days during the week. That’s still better than having been on the couch those four days. So I’m. I’ve really learned to just shift my perspective and look at the things that I have done rather than the things I didn’t do perfectly. So that’s really what I’m learning from this more than anything.
Sian Fever: Do you know what? That’s exactly what I meant by practicing patience. Yeah. You know. So I signed up for to do T 25 across the program, and same like before this program, I and I absolutely went in thinking what I will do is I will do T 25 and I will do it every day. And not only that, I’m going to combine it. Do you remember we talked briefly about me combining it with P 90x Yes, doing a
Zack Arnold: Hybrid. Yep.
Sian Fever: Yeah, and I was just going to hit it hard, and you know, burn loads of calories and and lose loads of body fat, and going in like that with such a fluctuating lifestyle, you know, that we all have. I was certainly setting myself up for failure in that mindset because no matter what I did, I would hit a bump eventually. I wouldn’t do a workout because that-that’s sort of inevitability. I’m going to be working at you know till two a.m1. night. It’s going to happen, and I’m going to have to get up at five, six a.m. the next time. And there just might not be enough time, you know. Got to allow for that and forgive that. And if I get five workouts instead of six, I’m still winning. You know that’s not failure. You know, and embracing that because before this, I absolutely would have checked out at that point. I’m a failure. Fine, I won’t do it. Fine, I’m done. And being part of the challenge group, just I help. I could hold onto that thread and find my way back,
Zack Arnold: Right? You know, give
Sian Fever: Yourself time to be disappointed, you know, but then you can find your way back and be like, you know what, I’m okay. I’m still coming out on top.
Zack Arnold: Yep, and that’s the whole idea behind this is taking those baby steps and realizing that it’s it’s a much longer journey than 190 day calendar. So
Sian Fever: Absolutely.
Zack Arnold: But but speaking of patience, you guys have been more than patient with me for the the last hour or so, so I just want to remind people one more time that if they want to see the actual voting page, it is fitnessandpost.com/incredibles So again, basically, I put up everybody’s stats, I put up their journal entry, and everybody in the group gets. Vote so this is a completely democratic process, and I just want to announce that the grand prize winner of the Geek Desk is Chris Horgan.
Chriss Horgan: Wow! All right,
Chriss Horgan: Wait, what? That’s
David Tarr: Awesome. So, so
Zack Arnold: Anybody that that listened to my first podcast about you basically blacking out on your first hike, you’ve gone from not being able to walk up a hill to winning yourself a geek desk.
Chriss Horgan: Oh my gosh, I don’t even know what to say. I I thank you so much. And it was very
Zack Arnold: Very close. It was I was watching the votes as they were coming in, and I was I literally didn’t know until the 11th vote came in. I was like, “Who is going to end up with this thing? So it was not easy, and you saw there were posts that people were putting on Facebook saying, “I don’t know who to vote for. I just want to vote for everybody. So it was not easy, and I had I voted myself, and I had a hard time choosing as well. But but democracy has spoken. It’s the last true democracy in this country. That’s a whole nother soapbox. But yes. yes, you are our winner, Chris.
Chriss Horgan: Oh, thank you so much. I I I that I told you before. I was dumbfounded when you said that I was one of the finalists. I was. This is a mistake. I, you guys are all out there working so hard, and I’m just cruising along here. You’re just
Zack Arnold: Cruising along with bricks strapped to your waist all day long, just doing nothing, just carrying bricks everywhere.
Chriss Horgan: I don’t feel like I was really focused on a a specific, you know, fitness routine, and I just didn’t feel like that. I was in there with everyone else as far as that went. I was just happy doing my thing.
Zack Arnold: Well, you you did your thing, and you did it well, and you inspired enough people in the group that they wanted to wanted to vote. But like I said, it was it was really really close. So, and I just want to point out to anybody that might be listening and they’re, you know, feeling bad for David or Sean. David walked away from this group with the entire Boris Continuum Complete package. He walked away with what else did you walk away with?
David Tarr: I’ve got Vital Fuel, Vital Fuel,
David Tarr: Bulletproof Oil,
Zack Arnold: Bulletproof MCT oil and Sean also walked away with.
Sian Fever: I got some bulletproof coffee.
Zack Arnold: Bulletproof coffee, amazing,
Sian Fever: And some Boris plugins, which I’m very excited about, and then the Colorist Flight School.
Zack Arnold: Colorist Flight School. So as you can see, I can’t tell
Sian Fever: You how excited I am about. It’s not
Zack Arnold: Like these guys killed themselves for four months and walked away with nothing. Chris is our grand prize winner, but you know David walked away with $2,000 of free software, and I think Sean probably walked away with between the Boris software and the Colors Flight School, like between 500 and $1,000 worth of stuff. Doing pretty good at so everybody on this call walked away. You guys all came out way further ahead than me. Trust me. Oh
Sian Fever: My goodness! You know what? Like Chris, like I think, if I may, you totally embodied this program. You know that I think the point of the program is to tailor it to you. Like we’re giving all all these tools and all this information, and you took it and you made it work for you. And the fact that you you know you weren’t doing a t2 105 or you weren’t doing a P 90. You know, like that has nothing to do with it. You know, you carrying bricks, and you were carrying like water up and down loads of stairs. And do you know what I mean? You found all of these really inventive ways to incorporate, you know, all of this different into your lifestyle. So, you know,
Chriss Horgan: Thank you. I appreciate that. So it just really goes to show, and this I say this all the time to everyone who ever asks me about what I’m doing, that don’t think that this program can’t work for you. This program is as individual as you are, and you tether it to you. It’s not a set standard program that you have to go and tailor your lifestyle to. It becomes you whatever fits in your lifestyle, and that if you take it on, that’s the way I looked at it and have accepted it. And if you take it on in that respect, it is all of a sudden. It’s your lifestyle. You’re not even thinking about anymore. It just becomes second nature, and that’s where I feel like I’m at right now. It’s like I don’t even think about most of this stuff that I’m doing anymore. Whereas we were training ourselves, you know, to use these apps and use these these tools and so forth. You know, I tried everything, but I dropped off on some of the stuff that just wasn’t really working into my lifestyle real well. But I found a solution for me, as you found a solution for yourself, Sean, and you, David, and Zack, and anyone else who’s in the program. And I think that. That is the secret. Is that if we know we can do something when it’s so effortless, or seems effortless? Sorry, let me correct that. That’s the whole goal right there, because it is working, and you don’t even think about it anymore. It’s for anybody. You don’t. It doesn’t matter how young, how old you are, if you have physical handicaps corrected my physical handicap, you know, and I was that wasn’t even in the plan. I didn’t even know that it would do that. I am just speechless otherwise. Well,
Zack Arnold: I, I, I. If any of you had won it, I would have said that you deserve it because I think that everybody on this call deserves it, and you certainly do, Chris. And I’m I’m just happy for all of you guys. And I really, really, really want to encourage you guys to continue to be a part of the program, and hopefully decide that you want to try running one of your own groups because I really want this thing to to spread out and be able to to help more people. Because frankly, I just don’t have the time or the resources to to to be able to reach the people that that I want to reach, and I’m I’m going to need a team of people to do it. And you, all three of you, would be great members of the the team to come on long term. And that that’s what I’m trying to do is build a team. So, so on that note, I’m going to let some of us go to sleep, and I’m going to let some of us wake up because we’re literally spread all over the planet, and
Chriss Horgan: Some of us go back to work. Yeah, some of us go back to work. But this is
Zack Arnold: This has been just an absolutely fantastic show, and I really hope that whoever is listening to this is inspired to decide that it’s it’s time to do something, and this is the way to do it. Because that’s why this community exists is for people in our industry to take back their health. So thank you to David, Chris, and Sean for being on the show.
Chriss Horgan: Thank you. Thanks, Zack. Thank you for having us.
This episode was edited by Kristin Martin, and the show was executive produced by Kanen Flowers. We are a member of the THAT STUDIO podcast network.
The music in the opening and closing of the show is courtesy of Dorian Cheah from his brilliant album ARA.
In this episode I speak with sound editor Chriss Horgan, a member of my current challenge group titled "The Incredibles." We discuss Chriss' introduction to Fitness In Post and her journey through the first eight weeks of the program.
