About Episode
In this episode, Zack speaks with Monica Daniel, Adam Bedford, Liam Johnson, Mike Nichols, and Daniel Bérubé. They continue discussing the challenges we all face in our post-production jobs everyday, the goals each member has for our 91 day test group, the exercise programs everyone will be using to reach their goals, and the different nutritional supplements we’re using to get nutritious things into our body and fuel our exercise programs.
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Transcript
Zack Arnold: All right, so here we are. This is part two of our continuation of part one, and we are discussing the Fitness in Post program. And I have the other half of my test group. I’m actually missing a couple of members, but I have the majority of them. So I’m going to go ahead and introduce everybody in the order that Skype is telling me to introduce them. We have Monica Daniel, we have Dan Berube, we have Adam Bedford, Liam Johnson, and Mike Nichols, also known as the Edit Doctor. So everybody, say hello, introduce yourselves. Hello, hello.
Monica Daniel: How come Mike gets a or Twitter handle? The hell.
Zack Arnold: I don’t know. Okay, so Monica Daniel, who’s also known as Monica Daniel. Oh,
Adam Bedford: Don’t you’ll be here all day. Yeah, I know. No
Zack Arnold: Way. We won’t go down that rabbit hole. So what I want to do is I just want you guys to start out by introducing yourselves. And I know that the the post production podcast world is probably familiar with most of you, but just in case they’re not, I want you to introduce yourself, explain what you do on a daily basis in the world of post production, and then I want you to explain what specifically is your goal getting out of this test group and why you joined in the first place. So we’ll just go ahead and let’s start in Skype order.
Monica Daniel: Okay, I’m Monica. I am a I am an editor in mostly television. I work on some indie projects, but I spend many hours sitting in a dark room at a desk that is not built for my body type. It’s meant for much bigger people, so my body’s all out of whack. And so, I really wanted to be part of this program because ever since I had my first kid. I have two kids now. I’ve pretty much felt like a lazy, low energy slug for the last five years, and part of that is being at a desk that is not ergonomically does not ergonomically fit my body. So I’m also dealing with constant pain and readjustments, and trying to work through that, as well as just not having time to work out or move around because I now have two kids, and I haven’t exercised yet since before I I got pregnant, and I used to be really active. You know, I was a gymnast as a kid. I was color guard, so I had really strong arms for a short while in high school, and you know I was a dancer. And then once I started my career, I I actually trained with alongside Stuttman at a performance martial arts facility. So I’ve always been active in some way, and I have not been active for the past five years, like pretty much not at all. So I want to get active again, get my energy levels back up, and also, I also have some health issues. I had gestational diabetes with my first child, so I really have to watch my weight as well because I’m in higher risk for getting diabetes, and weight is a big factor in getting that.
Zack Arnold: What is your specific target goal at the end of 90 days? And obviously, you know, you don’t have to give like the most personal actual information, but just like in a nutshell, what are you hoping to achieve at the end of 90 days?
Monica Daniel: Well, I just I want to have more energy and. And just feel better overall, and just change some of my bad, lazy habits and some of my eating habits as well.
Zack Arnold: Let’s go ahead and move on to Adam.
Adam Bedford: Okay, I am an editor in film and television here in LA, mostly television in the reality space, my my goal for this is to to more or less get back on track. I was on track for a long time. In fact, I was quite overweight as a child and lost most of that. And I’ve been maintaining pretty much ever since. But I’ve noticed, especially since moving to America in the last few years, that if I don’t watch watch it, I can I can especially with my job, which is quite sedentary, sitting in a in a desk all day, I’m noticing trends that need to sort of I need to sort of correct the course, so to speak. So that’s why I’m here. Ideally, at the end of the 90 days, if I’m all about getting more energy. I have two kids, so which means I need as much energy as I can get. And if I can lose 10 to 15 pounds while I’m at it, that would be great.
Zack Arnold: Okay, that sounds just about right. Moving on to mr. Dan Berube.
Daniel Bérubé: Hello, everyone. Today I’m Dan, and I’m here in Boston. I’m an editor, filmmaker, and also run a large user group in Boston called the Boston Creative Pro User Group. I am a man of leisure, people. But all my life, except for the ’80s, when I actually have a twin brother, Don. We were both working out very. Very well, we actually were highly inspired by Star Wars. We used to call each other Jedi in training, and but we were doing it very well on our own the way that we know and how to do it. Now I am type two diabetic. My brother is also diabetic, but I was in October of last year, highly overweight, having problems with my A1C level. I was actually at 13, which is ungodly bad for for that index, and overweight. I was close to 240 pounds, and you know, I just miserable. You know, just you know, the the medicine wasn’t working. The the you know, my lifestyle was such that I I was very tired. I’m using a CPAP because you know I’m a hoser, a fellow hoser. So you know that was my saving grace. That that was getting energy from just having a CPAP at night, but I was constantly snoring and you know and just not having enough. It wasn’t the lifestyle I was leading, and there was some problems that were sure signs that I needed to change my ways. My eyesight was pretty bad. I actually had a corneal heart attack in one of my on my left eye, and had to wear a patch for a while, and that coupled with a couple of other health problems, really, you know, including my mental state. You know, just it was time for me to make some significant changes in my life, and that I did. And I, the biggest part about me being a man of leisure, which I hate going to the gym. I hate having to get into a car and drive and leave my comfortable surroundings and go and and work out. I used to do it in the ’80s and it was fun, but nowadays, I you know, with the lives that we lead, and it’s just tough to try to make that a regular thing. At least for me, because I, I, for some reason, I like to do a lot in my life. But I actually, to sum it up in short, we can talk about it more. I lost 40 pounds since since going on in November, I had some friends who supported me. My wife Katie supported me. She was already on Fitbit and using myfitnesspal.com, and I went to go see a nutritionist. I changed my whole health system. I went to Harvard Vanguard in Boston, which is they are wonderful. Everything was in one place. You know that was part of the problem. I had to go to this doctor in one part of the town, to that another doctor, another part of the town, and it just you know wasn’t it wasn’t unified. And so having changing my system, changing my primary care doctor, my you know everything, my diabetes doctor just helped me to make that change, and then I bought a Fitbit. I bought the Fitbit Force, and and then I started using that very slowly, and was overjoyed by by how easy it was to really put it into use, especially with the the pats on the back that you get just from it vibrating when you reach your goal. Started out very slowly, and then I attached, I linked it to myfitnessbal.com, and between that and my my new program of health with my primary care physician and whatnot at Harvard Vanguard, and and just my desire to really be moving forward to a new me. I also bought a mustered up some money and bought a treadmill in December for Christmas, and I already have a standing desk, so I do that. But I put the and I did contemplate getting a standing treadmill, but I decided to get a treadmill that I put in my edit suite right next to me, and I just chose to do you know start out slow. Was doing one mile a day, two miles a day. I’m up to eight miles a day now. Wow! And between and between that and Fitbit, and even removing all the health, all the exercise and routine. Just seeing a nutritionist and understanding that eating well is not rocket science; that it’s the proper balance of eating carbs, starches, and proteins, and eating three balanced meals a day with the right portions and a couple of snacks a day, and getting off all sugars. Deciding that I wanted to lower my intake of fat, and then just tracking it on MyFitnessPal.com, and that coupled with my exercise, with when your Fitbit’s linked or any health tracker that you can do, it all works together. And then suddenly, my gym was within me. And and it really was a fantastic. I look forward to it. My whole you know was actually a little depressed back then, and that’s gone because when you when you do this, there’s no medicine that can replace your desire to to do this and to and to improve your life. And when you take these basic steps, getting on the treadmill is is my chance to meditate and think about things and think through an email, think through an edit, think through a scene, think through whatever I’m going on in my edit suite that day. And I get off, go and do it, and get back on, and it’s it’s it’s great. And now I’m, you know, I went from a size 40. Well, I don’t want to monopolize the conversation here, but I, you know, we can talk about it more. But I, I, I’m in. I’m a new me. I’m less Dan Berube. Less is more. I fit in size 38 as opposed to size 44, and and now my goal, Zack, is now to. I wanted something. I’d say my whole primary focus was drop the pounds to get to NAB and wear something nice on stage when you do the super meet. And now that I’m past that, I wanted like a second phase to start doing upper body exercises, to do take my my fitness to a new level, and actually incorporate not just you know treadmill, but actually more active exercises and whatnot. Because I want to I want to body shape my body, and I know I can do it. And I kept saying it. It might sound stereotypical, but if Bruce Springsteen could have changed his body at at age 50, I’m 52 now. I can do it too.
Zack Arnold: Nice. Well, that’s that’s a fantastic story, and it actually sounds like you’re on rather than day one, you’re on like day 150 already. So you’ve, but it’s key
Adam Bedford: That you invited me, Zack, and it’s key that I’m part of this because being part of a community and people that you know they help you. My wife helped me, and now it’s great to be in this position. Now we can encourage each other.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, accountability is a huge, huge, huge part of this program. I’d like, you know, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: where I’m not a fitness expert, and I’m not designing some brand new, newfangled fitness program just for editors to do in front of their desks. Like, there are a million places you can go online and learn all about that. What I’m trying to put together that does not exist is a community for people in our industry because we all have the same goals, which is to just stop feeling like garbage in front of our computer all the time. So that’s that’s what this is all about is the accountability. And I’m your your story is very very inspiring, and I’m hoping in 90 days that we’re going to have something equally as inspiring from your journey over the next three months, so that’s awesome. So let’s bring it to Liam next.
Liam Johnson: My name is Liam Johnson. This is my 10th year working in post production. The first eight years or so, I was mainly corporate video and web video, and over the last couple years, I’ve been working to make my way in television a lot more. I am a single father as well. I have a three-year-old daughter. Beyond that, it’s my goal with the program is more motivation. I don’t really have the motivation to go out and do things completely on my own half the time, so I want to work more with people and get out and go and walk and talk and, or at least have the same cohesive set of goals that everybody is working towards. So the idea here is that everybody’s going to be doing this at the same time, and hopefully I can use that as a motivating factor towards actually becoming a lot more healthy in my lifestyle.
Zack Arnold: And do you have any specific goal, like an event or a size or an activity or something that you want to hit after 90 days?
Liam Johnson: 90 days, I see that as too short in the long term. I hope to more so get this on a a track of consistency, so that when 90 days comes and I’ve been consistent over the 90 days, that I can take that and continue on that track beyond the 90 days. So at the moment, no, I don’t have any goal for 90 days from now, other than to still be doing it.
Zack Arnold: Great, and that’s something that we talked about at length in the the previous part of the podcast, where you know 90 days is a really good amount of time to get started and build habits and change habits. But at the same time, what I don’t want to do is have a program that people do for 90 days and then they’ve reached their goal and then they stop and then they go back to their old habits and they lose all the progress they’ve made and they start over. This is really all about creating lasting habits and finding ways to kind of hack through all the issues that we have in this industry, figure out how to solve them, and then just continue to do them as we go on and on and on. But the 90 days is really just kind of like a jump start. But I’m really glad that you mentioned that because it’s it’s not. About just 90 days. It’s about just changing things for the long term for all of us. And I really, really want to start a trend where people don’t feel overwhelmed by the fact that they’re working really long hours, and you’re working in post, and you don’t get any sunlight, and you can’t eat well. Like I’ve been spending years trying to figure out how to solve this problem, and I think I’m getting closer to doing that. And with the test group, I’m hoping that we can all figure it out together. So that’s the idea. So now we’re moving on to last but not least, mr. Mike J. Nichols.
Mike Nichols: Well, a little over 10 years ago, when I moved here, I was working on a lot of post production, and when you don’t know anybody, you tend to sort of volunteer to work on everything. I think after about a year and a half, I was really felt both mentally and physically just destroyed, and you’re around a group that really weren’t the best support. So I decided to use money I’d saved, and I got a personal trainer, and I went to that. So I, for the one main reason, was for accountability. There was just no denying that if I left it up to myself, I would pass off some days where I really wasn’t feeling it, but knowing somebody’s there waiting on you on that time, I showed up, and very quickly I couldn’t believe how much better I felt. Everything I like, it changed so much, and I loved it. And then after that, I managed to maintain that for a while, and then I got on a two-year film, and in that process started getting destroyed again. It’s just because of time and and lack of that. And since that’s happened, as I’m sure it happens to all of us, you bounce around from different things, and that steadiness of working out or eating right, everything it bounces so much that your body’s not friendly. And the older you get, you’re less resilient to bouncing back, so I I have been doing things lately, going to the gym previous to this, and I always just felt like I think Zack, I made a joke to you that I was calling it every time I worked on a film. You feel like you gain so many pounds. I have to fix it from post. That’s what I just kept saying. Well, got to hit the gym and fix it from post again, and then that was when you mentioned your program, and we started talking about that.
Zack Arnold: And actually, the the two members of our our group that cannot be on today are Canaan Flowers, as everybody knows, the host of that post show, and Norman Holland, who runs the editing track at USC. And I have to give credit where credit is due. I had called Canaan probably a couple of months ago now when I had the first brainstorm for putting something like this together, because I knew he could help me find an audience for it, and he was the one that that popped the name out. So I can’t take full credit for the name. This is something that that Canaan popped out there. So I just want to make sure that that’s out into the into the the cyber world, and people have heard that I’m I’m giving Kanan credit where credit is due because he was the one that had thrown out the idea for the the name. I had something that was not quite as good, so I’ll give him credit there. So what I want to talk about now is I want to talk about the way that your mentality changes when you start to track what you’re doing on a daily basis, and I believe everybody here is tracking now. But this is the thing that I really found changed everything about the way that I stuck to what I was doing. So I want you guys to talk about how your view of activity changed once you started tracking with Fitbit or Jawbone or Fitness Pal or whatever it is. I just want to get an idea of how that’s changed things for you because this is step two of the program, and in my opinion, other than setting your goal, this is the most important step.
Mike Nichols: Your request for us to, you know, have one of these trackers, as, and I’m saying this to other people who be listening this as well, is it has made a difference. Huge difference. The whole idea. The whole idea that if I’m sitting behind the desk, you know, for all day long, but there are things you have to do. I have to go to the grocery store and get stuff. So I end up finding myself parking at the very end, and walking in, so I can get steps. And how I’ve changed also is, I’ll walk all the way into some place and realize I left my wall in the car. And usually it’d be like, “Damn it, but now it’s like, “Ooh, more steps.
Zack Arnold: Yep, it’s very addictive.
Mike Nichols: And so even just that little start for anybody, it’s a piece of rubber, some plastic, and stuff. But what a difference it makes!
Zack Arnold: Yeah, absolutely. And the the way that I design the program, and this is kind of subconscious, but the way that it’s designed and the steps is that I have it’s from most important to least important, and that’s why I have it as number two because I think you can’t go anywhere without a goal, and setting a goal is number one. But then, if you decide, you know what, I don’t want to do this whole program. I’m just going to do the first two steps. So your goal is to, you know, whatever it is, and then step two is you track everything. You’re already making a huge difference. You go to step three, and now you’re making small changes, like you said, parking far away, or not taking an elevator, or you know, not drinking sugary soda. You start going one step at a time, and you’re making a difference even before you decide that you’re going to start a fitness program and join a fitness group. So I kind of subconsciously designed it in a way that if you give up after step two. Three, you’ve still made a huge difference in your daily activity.
Adam Bedford: I think for me, Zack, just having it on my arm all day is a constant reminder that I that I need to sort of get up and do things, get up and move. Like if I’m on a job and I can, I look at my Fitbit numbers and it’s like, okay, I’ve got three stars today. It’s like, okay, I need to get off my ass and go and do something, get out of the bay for a while. So that I find that’s helped me already. So in in so many ways.
Monica Daniel: Well, I started with the jawbone up, and I switched the Fitbit because it’s more comfortable on my wrist. But when I first started tracking, I don’t know, maybe less than a year ago, it just made me feel really pathetic and sad because my numbers were I took 300 steps in one day, and that’s really bad.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, I took even more than that when I was sick with bronchitis. So that that that’s a feat to to get that few in a day. Yeah, I was
Monica Daniel: Just you know I spend an hour hour and a half in traffic twice a day. So it’s basically getting up, walking to the bathroom, walking to my dresser drawer, walking to the car, you know, walking into work, and that’s pretty much where the steps would come from. And I would not move the rest of the day, and you know, I didn’t realize how little I moved, and that was why I felt like crap that whole time. It just really just eye opening to start tracking. I’ve done a little better.
Zack Arnold: Well, you’re gonna do a lot better in the next 90 days. That’s why you’re here.
Mike Nichols: For me, I I bought the fitness. Excuse me, the Fitbit Force, which weirdly I bought it because it was called the Force, and like I said, I’m a Star Wars geek. So, but I figured that was
Zack Arnold: Why.
Mike Nichols: Yeah, but what’s funny is that they don’t make. They took it off the market, and they’re apparently coming out with something better. And then we can get divergent to that why they probably did. But the for me, it was really cool to now. I’m measuring where I go in steps now, and it’s it’s neat to hear what Adam and both both Monica and Adam said about steps and whatnot because now I know where my usual routine is. It takes me 2000 steps to get there. It takes me 500 steps to get there, or different. You know, my now you can track where you go, and you can sort of guesstimate, and it can help you to set your goals or increase your goals to challenge yourself for your steps, and don’t forget that these steps are also stairs, because that’s what these trackers do. But now I, you know, I never took stairs. I would take the elevator, the escalator all the time. I don’t do that anymore. It’s it’s it’s great because I you I want to see that that that pat on the back that vibration on my wrist that really makes me feel good about myself to know that I achieve my daily goal. The other thing about talking about myfitnesspal.com is when you set your goal, and you how many pounds you want to lose, and then you get to the point where it tells you your calorie intake. When I started that, I and this is actually the biggest problem I had in my life, being feeling full or the fear of feeling full. Don’t be afraid to eat those calories and and to eat because you need your body to have that fuel, and you don’t want to get into a routine where you’re staying under your calorie intake because you think it’s good, and especially don’t want to do something where you’re going to put your body into into conservation mode because then it becomes increasingly difficult to lose any weight because your body’s in starvation mode. I should say, and actually, my Fitness Pal helps you with that when you have a fewer than the required calories per day. It actually gives you a warning. So you want to eat your basic calories, and it gives you at least a minimum calories a day to do. So that was the thing that that that was difficult for me, and I got over that. And now I’m, you know, again the nutrition and the and the measured steps, and then the eating those calories a day. It’s not rocket science. You will lose if you do the if you do your part, you will lose weight. I did it, so. But I’m very encouraged by this whole tracking and and quantified. They call it quantified lifestyle now.
Zack Arnold: Right, the quantified self. Yep.
Mike Nichols: Right, right. Life hacking. You know, a friend of mine, Paul Michaels, came up with. You know, he that was how he termed it, life hacking. But it’s you know so that’s my input on on talking about the you know the how it started and the steps and whatnot
Zack Arnold: Right and my fitness pal is one thing that I had mentioned in the previous show and I’ve mentioned to you guys as part of the test group that I think it’s really important to track everything for at least 30 days. And it’s not just about the amount, but it’s also about the quality and the makeup of what you’re putting into your system. Because just saying, “Oh, I ate 3000 calories today, well, that doesn’t mean much if you don’t understand the nutritional makeup. But especially if you look at your your pie chart and you feel you see that 80% of it is blue, which is carbs. Well, now you know you have to start making some changes if you’re not getting enough protein or enough healthy fats, so it’s it’s really about finding that information. And I’m not a tracker anymore, just because I’ve done it enough and I understand the the basic makeup of what it is that I’m eating. Because I, for the most part, eat the same thing just about every day. I’m not terribly fancy with my diet, but I think it’s really important if you haven’t done it before. You you really need to do it for 30 days because a week just isn’t enough. You do it for 30 days, see what the makeup is, and then at that point, if you get hooked and you keep doing it, great. If not, at least you understand the makeup of what you’re eating and how it affects the way that you feel, which is the most important part.
Monica Daniel: Well, I find the the little diagram that it creates for your like carbs versus fat versus protein is really helpful because I have a hard time balancing kind of the calories and the kind of calories I eat because either it’s mine has mine is pretty much the minimum for women is how much I have to eat so I’m in danger of eating not enough because I’m not a big eater and I don’t eat fancy foods, so it’s either I eat way too much or I don’t eat enough. And if I eat like those healthier vegetables or low calorie foods, it I need to eat more to keep those calories up, and I get really full really fast. So I’m I’m having a hard time balancing that. But I mean the the my fitness pills helping, and then once I start exercising, I’m going to have to eat even more. So it’s going to be actually a tough balance for me trying to eat enough food because I get full so fast.
Mike Nichols: What what helped me was just spending an hour with a nutritionist and having her explain what makes up a balanced nutrition per day, and portions, and I I do encourage people if you have the opportunity to, or if you know a friend or a life coach, to talk to them because they can explain it to you. I like that
Mike Nichols: Idea.
Monica Daniel: Well, I I actually had to when I had gestational diabetes, it was required. I had to go to a nutritionist, and what really helped for me is, I don’t know what program it is, but it’s basically it’s like you have two servings of protein for this meal, like that’s how you counted it, and that made it really easy for me to to figure out how much I should be eating per day because I was on a diet management for the diabetes, and that made it really easy for me because they had a whole chart and there was like just eat two servings of protein for this meal, three servings of carbs, and you know three servings of this, and I was able to balance it throughout the day. I I I don’t know exactly what that program is called.
Mike Nichols: Yeah, there’s different there’s you know there’s different programs that that you can reference you know Weight Watchers you know other other programs but again it comes down to the basic hierarchy of needs for you what your body needs per day and you know you can brand it all day long, but it’s the right again. It’s the right portions of starches, carbohydrates, and proteins. And if you can understand that, it really becomes easy. The other thing is to drink eight ounces, eight glasses of water a day. Don’t don’t forget to drink your water. What what I’m really
Monica Daniel: Bad at. Yeah, that
Zack Arnold: That that’s one of the biggest things that I’m gonna just continue to emphasize on Twitter and on the website and everywhere else is don’t drink your calories unless it’s like a healthy protein shake or some kind of you know whatever it is. If it’s some healthy supplement that’s different, or if you’re using a Nutribullet and blending vegetables and fruits, that’s not what I’m talking about. Do not drink sugar. It is the worst possible thing you can do for your health is to ingest sugar in the form of sodas and fruit juices and fruit drinks, and it’s it’s just the the slipperiest slope that’s going to send you so far backwards. So that that’s a big thing that I emphasize a lot.
Adam Bedford: I’ve done that for I’ve done that for a while, but the one thing I can’t get rid of, I’ve reduced it, but I’ve got to have at least one sugar in a cup of tea. That’s that’s that’s my one guilty thing. I’ve got to do that,
Zack Arnold: And that’s not so bad. It’s because at least then you know you have everything in it. You know what’s going in there. You know the type of sugar, and tea is relatively healthy otherwise. As opposed to if you’re talking about a manufactured sugar drink, there’s so many things in there, including the sugar that are bad for you, so I would say that that that’s a vast vast improvement over you know sitting down with a coke every morning.
Adam Bedford: It’s funny I gave I gave those up years ago when I when I lost my weight as a kid, and then I I tried one a few years later, and the actual taste of it made me sick. I just was not used to the sugar, and you you find by getting into that you you don’t. Realize your body doesn’t miss it at all.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, I tried drinking a Coke a little while ago just because I haven’t had Coke for years. I don’t drink any soda whatsoever, and I think I had to spit it out because it just tasted so vile. Because I’m just not used to to carbonation. I’m not used to all the sugar and all the additives, and it just tasted disgusting. I don’t know how people can drink it every single.
Mike Nichols: What do you normally drink? Just as yeah,
Zack Arnold: I either drink water or I have protein shakes or NutriBullets with like fruits and vegetables and almond milk and stuff like that. So
Monica Daniel: I drink water and milk. That’s pretty much all I drink.
Zack Arnold: But I I probably have at least three quarters of a gallon to a gallon of water a day.
Adam Bedford: I’ll do water, but yeah, I’ll occasionally do seltzer if I want something else, just for a little bit of fizz. And it’s
Mike Nichols: There’s nothing wrong with that, though. Yeah, that’s it.
Adam Bedford: Yeah.
Mike Nichols: What I was, I got caught up in drinking Snapple, you know, last year, and that was just not good because you know the the the the sugar that’s in there, or the the medical the the scientific sugar, if you will, whatever it is,
Adam Bedford: High fructose corn syrup.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, that’s the just the worst.
Mike Nichols: And when when I stopped doing that and stopped doing sodas, that was the first significant sign that I was losing weight when I did that. And it’s okay to have sugar. And and honestly, between my fitness pal, and with with what information is on all the foods now, there is a lot of information for you to understand and learn from, and it can really help you. Well, to
Mike Nichols: Comment on our our jobs, a lot of times we are going to a place that does supply us one. Usually, they order out food to keep you there and working, and then they have supplied drinks, and everything you just said not to drink is stocked all over the place. It’s
Zack Arnold: Everywhere,
Mike Nichols: And usually, even if it’s just at the front desk or near you, is some sort of tray of bite-sized candies. Yeah, that’s the worst. Bowl of
Zack Arnold: M&Ms was is my that was my complete kryptonite for years. Just a bowl of M and M’s. I could go through it all day long,
Mike Nichols: And so I find like bringing something yourself to replace any of those. Like, oh, I could just eat something right now. It’s not going to be as M and M’s or that’s something else. Do you have? You got to
Zack Arnold: Have a way to replace it because if you just try to use willpower, you will lose. It just it doesn’t work. Or
Mike Nichols: Even the people just going, “Oh, come on, come on! Just eat some.
Zack Arnold: Exactly. Which is actually going to bring me to my next topic, which is using some type. And I’m going a little bit out of order, but that’s fine. But I wanted to talk about supplements at some point because I feel that this is a really big thing that helped me in trying to curb cravings and get away from the snack wall and all the things that you just talked about, and I know that you just sent me an email, Monica, because you I got you started on the Shakeology train, and it’s obviously working for you.
Monica Daniel: Yes, I’m a huge snacker, and I’m not sure who is the biggest sugar junkie, me or you. I will. I am. Trust me, I
Zack Arnold: Am.
Monica Daniel: And eat instead of eating the cake, I will eat the frosting off the whole cake.
Zack Arnold: I could do that and enjoy. Oh,
Monica Daniel: It’s so good! And and the and it’s the worst is I love getting the Baskin Robbins ice cream cakes for my birthday. I can eat that whole cake in three days by myself. It’s absolutely delicious. You should
Adam Bedford: Meet my wife, Monica.
Monica Daniel: So that actually, my husband has forbidden me from getting those basket and wrapping cakes for my birthday anymore. But yeah, I have horrible sugar cravings. I actually at work there’s a deli downstairs that fresh bakes delicious chocolate chip cookies every day, and I used to have about three or four a day. And when I go into work, I’ve got it down to about one every two or three days.
Zack Arnold: And that’s that’s great improvement. I know I’ve I’ve been through that myself.
Monica Daniel: And yeah, I have horrible sugar cravings, but yeah, I drank the Shakeology through NAB, and it was disgusting because I just drank it with water and I was-I mean, Adam was witness to me like gagging it down. Yeah,
Zack Arnold: I still gag it down if it’s water. I can’t drink it with just water. You need some kind of base. But it got me
Monica Daniel: Through the days.
Adam Bedford: Yeah, that’s right. I hadn’t tried it yet, so she was really selling it to me. That whole shakeology. Yeah,
Zack Arnold: Thanks for that, Monica.
Monica Daniel: No, but no, I warned him that he, you know, he shouldn’t be drinking it with water. Basically, tasted like vanilla cardboard. But I was like, screw it! I’d rather eat this than feel like crap, crappy, and bloated on like gross hot dogs or burgers or whatever they served at the convention center. And then all this last week, I’ve been drinking Shakeology with milk, and I actually felt like I’ve been awake for the first time in five years.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, that’s amazing. I always feel
Monica Daniel: Sleepy, and I was like, I forgot what it felt like to feel like a person.
Mike Nichols: Right,
Adam Bedford: You even had time, Monica. NAB, I’m amazed you even had time.
Monica Daniel: Exactly, which the Shakeology was great because I just pulled it out of the side of my bag, and as I was walking, I was just like forcing it down my throat. And and I’m terrible with drinking water. Like I will literally, if I’m good, I’ll drink one bottle of water in a day. I just forget, and I have to force it down. It’s like my body is rejecting it. I try to force more water down, and so that forced me to drink more water because I was drinking it with the Shakeology.
Mike Nichols: Can I ask a question about that? And that’s that is is that just a meal replacement?
Zack Arnold: Yeah, basically, what Shakeology is, it’s a meal replacement. It’s you know, like a lot of people like to say, oh, it’s a protein powder, and it is a protein powder per se in that it has 16 grams of protein, which is like a third of what you need for your whole day, but it basically is loaded with a bunch of different vegetables and superfoods and nutrients and you know different powders and maca root and like I mean literally I’m looking at the ingredients and there’s probably over 100 of them, but the the analogy is it’s basically like taking a big gigantic salad and blending it up and putting it into the juicer.
Mike Nichols: I see. That’s what’s so different about that and every other protein powder. Yes, because there
Zack Arnold: You can buy protein powders anywhere-Whole Foods, Ralphs, wherever it is-and it’s mostly going to be a bunch of additives and then some form of protein, whether it’s dairy protein or you know some type of animal protein, plant protein, but there it’s basically protein and additives, and this is just a complete list of all these different super nutrients. So basically, it can be used as a meal replacement, but the biggest thing that it does that Monica had mentioned, and it did the same for me, is it completely kills your cravings for bad carbohydrates. So if you like, for example, a lot of times I’ll have it like for a mid-morning snack, and that’s all I have. I’ll have a big breakfast. I’ll have Shakeology at about 1030 and then I’ll eat at one or 130 And I don’t really crave anything the rest of the day, and I’m really not hungry. Like I, the the biggest problem that I always have as an editor, my window is from like 230 to 530 where I fall apart, or where I used to fall apart, where I’m really good until about 230 and then I would just eat nothing but shit for the rest of the day because I would I couldn’t get full, so I would have chocolate covered pretzels, and I would have you know peanut butter pretzels, and I would have M and M’s, and whatever it was that the you know the PA brought in and stocked on our our cabinet. I would just go through it because I was always hungry. But then when I started supplementing with Shakeology, that was it. I just didn’t crave anything because I was full. It just filled me up, and it’s I think that the amount of calories in one packet or one scoop is about it’s about 101 30.
Monica Daniel: It’s 131 60 for the chocolate.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, and if you’re adding in, like I use almond milk or coconut milk as my base, and then I’ll usually add one frozen fruit, and then I add a bunch of greens. Like I’ll get a big handful of kale and spinach and whatever comes in, you know, the the green packets that you get at the the supermarket. But that’s basically it for me. And then I’m covered the rest of the day, and I never really get hungry, and it made a huge difference for me.
Mike Nichols: I would stay away from juices that you would typically see in the stores because a lot of that has a lot of the sugars that you don’t really. Oh yeah,
Zack Arnold: Like I somebody had had sent me a Twitter at some point, being like, “Oh yeah, I think I’m gonna have a naked juice today or an odd wall, and I’m like, “Stay away because those are so full of sugar, even if it’s just natural sugar. The problem with juicers that a lot of people don’t know is that when you put food into a juicer, it’s eliminating all the fiber and all of the actual heft that’s in that fruit or that vegetable, and all you’re getting is the sugary juice that comes out of it. So you’re basically just going to spike your blood sugar, and then you’re going to have a massive crash because I tried doing the juicer for a while. I’d done it when I was in really really bad health working on a feature film that would have been about seven or eight years ago, and I literally was almost at the point where I was incapacitated. It’s the unhealthiest I’ve ever been, and I was doing these juicers thinking that I was being healthy, and they were making it worse because I would just have the worst afternoon blood sugar crash that I’ve ever had in my life because you need the fiber that’s in the fruit and the vegetable to help curb that. So that’s why you know getting these naked juices and whatever is just nothing but bad for you. That’s why I think Shakeology is a really really good thing to to supplement, especially in our industry, because we don’t have buffets of all these great fresh salads. You know, we basically just have a bunch of processed crap that’s available to
Mike Nichols: Us. You know, I I must say that the nutritionist, at least the one that I went to, they’re not up to what we’re doing, this quantified lifestyle, and they. I wouldn’t say that they were she was questioning what I was doing, but this is new territory that we’re doing. So feel feel like you’re mavericks or warriors, if you will, because, and and I think that we’re ahead of the curve. But you know, this is slowly being adopted into into these programs of health. You know that. Your doctor would recommend there, you know, everything that when I told her what I was doing with with tracking and my fitness bell, they knew nothing of that.
Zack Arnold: And I think I think that’s going to change. It’s they’re going to have to catch on because the people that are catching on, it’s making a huge difference in their lives. So well,
Monica Daniel: I think they might still be stuck in analog because when I went to a nutritionist, she basically I had to fill out a paper food diary, and they checked my yeah food intake. It was all paper. It wasn’t done through the digital. I think having
Adam Bedford: The the the accessing my fitness power adds to that level of accountability because you you think twice about eating something. It’s oh, if I check the calories on that, do I really need that right now? Do you know what I mean?
Mike Nichols: My Fitness Pal. I will say this: abusing Fitbits, you know, your accountability for your food-that’s awful database. But when Zack, you mentioned about using My Fitness Pal, and there’s so many things in there. It actually doesn’t. It is as annoying as it is if you use the Fitbit nutrition tracker,
Zack Arnold: Right? Yeah, I’m not a big fan. Has
Mike Nichols: Nothing, you know.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, we actually had a conversation about that because one of the members in the last group actually preferred the the Fitbit tracker to MyFitnessPal, which is fine. I just feel that the the the the way that you use it and the database of information you have is so much more robust than MyFitnessPal, which is why I made it a required part of the program.
Mike Nichols: To add to that, when when you use it, it does sync back and report it onto the Fitbit. Right. Yeah, they all talk to each other, which is
Zack Arnold: Great.
Mike Nichols: But if you’re, you know, I mean, MyFitnessPal has the best database for recording food and whatnot. That it’s really encouraging to use because they’ve got the iPhone and Android app, so you can bar bar scan your foods, and it shows up, and it it helps you to educate yourself on what you’re eating. But I mean, and then you can save all your favorites so that your normal foods that you typically eat, it’s not it’s not doesn’t take lots. One or two clicks to add that to your daily when you’re recording your meals,
Adam Bedford: And also too, if you’re going a little bit off book, and you’re say, for instance, you’re cooking something that’s not in the database, like you can actually go in per ingredient, you can make a meal up and submit it to the database, so someone else can find it. Right.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, and I love the recipe function where if I make something, because I, if I cook, I usually do it in bulk. Like I’m fine eating the same leftovers for five days in a row because I’m cheap and I just it’s so much easier to keep track of. So I’ll just make one big batch and then it’ll say, okay, well the total volume is 2500 calories and then how many servings are you having one of five? Okay, so it’s 500 calories. I love the way that it does that. So what I want to do now is I want to segue a little bit and start talking about specific programs, I personally, I’m I’m not going to be at day one. I’m already in week nine of where I am, but I’m using P90X2. But what I wanted to do is know are what specifically is everybody using, whether it’s Beachbody, whether it’s treadmill. I just want to understand your fitness routine and what it is that you want to stick to for the next 90 days.
Mike Nichols: Zack, I want, as I said before, I I I’m really excited to be part of this because it’s like my next phase of what I want to do post NAB, and I I really do want to take it beyond the level that I’m at. I am a man of leisure, but I want to start exercising exercising healthy. My wife does my Fitness Glow, or FitnessGlow.com, where it’s actually on online videos, it’s like you know of health instructors at different varying levels, fitness instructors. So you can do upper body, lower body, you know, you name it, whatever exercise you want to do. There’s a tutorial for that, and there’s different levels of experience. You can start off basic and work your way up. That is that I’m thinking of of doing now, and I bought some. You know, actually, my wife bought a lot of kettlebells and stuff and body bars, so I want to start doing that. But I really want to investigate what you mentioned, P90X and and Beachbody.
Zack Arnold: Beachbody has a lot of really good stuff, and what I love about them is that they do everything for you other than the actual workout, because the biggest trap that I’ve fallen into, that I know a lot of other people do as well, is that if you don’t have a really regimented, specific program, you think, oh well, maybe today I’ll do this, and then maybe tomorrow I’ll do this, but then you don’t really have a scientific approach at doing it, so you’re not seeing your progress, and then you don’t stick to it, and then you’re like, “Well, I don’t really know what I want to do today, so I’m just going to sit in front of the TV instead. And I’m saying all this from personal experience, and Beachbody does everything. I’ve been completely addicted to their programs for years, and I love them.
Mike Nichols: Then I’m going to take your lead, lead, you know, and follow your example. And I, I’m saying now I’m going to start with Beachbody, and we’ll awesome. Well, then
Zack Arnold: We’ll we’ll talk offline, and we’ll see what makes the most sense for you. But I’m just completely addicted to their stuff, and it’s made a huge difference. So
Mike Nichols: Can’t wait to have the George Hamilton tan in my six pack abs.
Zack Arnold: There you go. The George Hamilton Tan. Just disclaimer is not part of the Fitness in Post program.
Adam Bedford: Like I’m, I’ve been looking at Beachbody, and I see all the different workouts, and I’m there’s just so many there, and I’m, I’m a little confused as to which is the right one for me, and I’m thinking ahead at the end of 90 days, what happens then? Do I, do I? I’m looking for something that I can sort of keep going,
Zack Arnold: Absolutely,
Adam Bedford: And working on. So I think to start off, I’m going to design my own program, and I’ve got a friend who’s a personal trainer who’s going to help me sort of get that get that together. Yeah, and then if that doesn’t work, I’ll track that closely, and then we’ll we’ll reevaluate the the Beachbody thing. But I’m loving the Shakeology. I just made my first order, and I think that’s that’s going to be a big part of it for me.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, the the really big thing that I noticed too, on top of everything we talked about, is that I have more energy when I exercise. And the biggest thing that I’ve learned, and this is from a lot of doing this the wrong way, the mindset that a lot of people get into when they start exercising regularly is thinking, “Oh, well, I just burned 600 calories. I’m going to go have a couple of donuts as a reward, and so what they’ve done not only is negated the work they’ve done, but they put shit back into their body, and they start feeling worse when they’re exercising because they don’t have the right nutrition. And the exercise that I do is much more extreme. Like I’ve gotten past the you know the beginning, the intermediate workouts, and I’m doing workouts that sometimes are like 800 to 1000 calories in an hour, and lots of strength training and balance, and like I’ll go hiking for four hours. If I haven’t eaten properly for two or three days before that, I am miserable, completely, totally miserable. So just by force, I have to eat well so I can make it through exercise, and I feel that exercise is the best way to teach your body how to fuel properly because your exercise feels awful if you ate crap before it. So that that’s a really really big thing for me. But you know, if if your personal trainer can get you on something, great. Like I am not trying to get everybody doing the exact same thing. I want people to do lasting things that work and that they can continue doing past 90 days. So that’s super super important. But if you decide that you want to take a look at a program, just let me know because there’s a lot of different options, and I can definitely answer the “What do you do after 90 days? question because I’ve had that question myself several times.
Adam Bedford: Okay, I’ve even found in the last what week and a half to two weeks since I’ve started exercising on a regular basis that I’ve made time for it out of my schedule, and I feel so much better already.
Zack Arnold: All right, so who’s next?
Liam Johnson: Well, kind of like Adam, I’m I’m kind of in the bose where I want to do something that’s consistent, but I also don’t have the the investment funds to go and pick up something like Beachbody or Shakeology or P90X and stuff. So I’m kind of looking at some of the being consistent, like I said earlier. I take my daughter to school every day, but she’s right at one mile away from my house. So I walk there and I walk back, and I go back to walk her there to pick up, and walk back to pick up. I have a treadmill that I picked up just before NAB that was meant to start getting me in the NAB workload mindset of being used to walking that much more, and that paid off tremendously during my time there. And it’s also eventually meant to be for a standing desk when I’m actually when I actually get the desk to go on top of it. But in the meantime, I don’t really have a program that’s consistent. I guess that would to that that that can point to and say I’m progressing at this level or this level. You know what I mean?
Zack Arnold: Well, like I said, I’m looking for people that have very very different experiences and approaches to this because part of being a test group is testing it, and we’ll we can see whose is working and whose isn’t. And what I really want to emphasize, both to the test group but just to anybody that’s listening, is that you may not make the right choice the first time, and that doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with that. The worst thing you can do is say, “Well, this is what I’m going to do for 90 days, and it’s not working for me. But I’m just going to push through. Like, if something’s not working, change it. So that that’s what we’re here to to do. So if if you can find something that works for you, awesome. And if not, then we’re gonna figure out something that does. So we have Monica and Mike.
Mike Nichols: As you know, I started lifting weights three days a week, and I’ll do the total body thing. We do legs, back, and arms all the different days, and then I incorporate usually about 30 minutes of cardio as much as I can every day, but I am noticing that as much as the you know you get these endorphins from the weightlifting and you feel really great. When you look at the scale, you’ll notice that you know you lose four pounds and then very quickly you put four pounds back on, and that seems so discouraging because I’m just gaining muscle. But I’m noticing that where I’m lacking more is the the cardio. I just don’t think the cardio that I’m doing is good enough. So I’m changing that up with. I think I’m gonna do the T25.
Zack Arnold: Oh, nice. Yeah, that’s that’s definitely gonna give you cardio, my friend. You’re probably not even gonna need to lift the weights anymore because there’s a lot of total body strength in that too.
Mike Nichols: Because it’s a lot of push-ups and things like that, right?
Zack Arnold: Push-ups, burpees, jumping, plyometrics. Yeah, it’s it’s there’s a lot of that in there. Those are that’s my kind of stuff. That’s the stuff I really enjoy.
Mike Nichols: And I know doing this, I’m going to be completely awful at it at first.
Zack Arnold: Everybody is. You should have seen me when I started. It’s it’s embarrassing, but everybody starts somewhere.
Mike Nichols: And that is the plus. You do these at home, so so no one really has to suffer through your exactly.
Zack Arnold: And that’s a big thing that I’m really trying to advocate. Like I’ve I don’t have anything against people that want to go to the gym. There’s nothing wrong with it. I just I’ve never been a gym person. I grew up on a farm where they didn’t even have gyms. Like my gym was just my farm and working, I had a gym membership for maybe two years of my life, and I hated it. So for me, being able to do something at home is so much easier. And given the lack of time that we have in our industry to do anything, by far it’s the best solution because I don’t have to say, “Oh, I’m gonna have to drive for 20 minutes and park and blah blah blah. Like I just go downstairs, do it, and I’m done. You know, like that. That’s all there is to it. So I find that it’s a really, really good solution.
Monica Daniel: On your recommendation, I purchased the Power 90 Challenge Kit, and I, I, I looked at it. I haven’t done it yet. That’s that’s. I have to take baby steps, or I will fail. I’ve, I’ve done that before, so it’s like I have to take it kind of one day at a time. But I just to kind of get a feel for how it was going to work out because usually workout DVDs annoy me because the music so bad or something about it. But I really like how they had a timer and they had the notes at the bottom, like you know how to fix your techniques, and so I’m gonna try that as well as with my dance background. I I’ve done some barre workout classes, and I really enjoy them because I’ve tried doing dance classes, and I just can’t do them anymore because there are professional dancers in those dance classes, and it’s just no fun. But there are, you know, the the ballet bar workout classes, and so I’m gonna try to integrate at least once a week. I have Extend Bar, which is a ballet bar workout DVD that I actually quite like. To put that in there as well, the workouts I tend to like. I’m not a big. I don’t like lifting weights. I never have. I like workouts that use my own body weight and forces me to have balance and coordination, and it actually causes me to. I like the focus, and I think that just comes from participating in you know gymnastics and dance when I was younger. I want that focus, and it relaxes me, and I I like gaining muscle that way versus lifting weights. And just as important as my energy levels and health and getting stronger is my flexibility, which no one has talked about. But my flexibility is really really important to me as well.
Zack Arnold: Absolutely, and flexibility is a big thing that they emphasize in most Beachbody programs, and my my sport for years and years was martial arts, so I’m the same way. Where I don’t like lifting heavy weights and doing bench presses and leg squats, and I did all that stuff in high school. I did a lot of strength training, and it just wasn’t my thing. So for me, it’s all about you know using your own body weight and balance, and that’s where I like to find my strength too. Which is why I think that you’re really, really gonna like Beachbody because they-it’s all about really small amounts of weight and just using balance in your own your own body. Well, we have several people that are doing Power 90 simultaneously, so I may just end up getting everybody together that’s doing that for one week and discussing that specific program because that was my gateway too. That’s where I started because I had failed P90X massively, like just so embarrassingly bad, and then decided to get Power 90 to see if I could at least do that. And after a month of doing that, I jumped into P90X and did the whole program. So it worked really, really well for me
Mike Nichols: Because I was one of those people too, Zack. Like trying to do the P90. Yeah, it’s
Zack Arnold: Really, really, and it’s not even just like one or two hard workouts. It’s six days a week, and keeping up with it, and your body is just like no more. I
Mike Nichols: Felt so good because I could get through 40-five minutes, and then it felt like he’d look at the screen and go, “Okay, we’re ready for part two, and I’d be like, “What?
Zack Arnold: Yeah, yeah, it’s it’s really discouraging when you’re on your last leg, and you’re like, okay, that’s it. We’ve got 30 more minutes, and you’re like, oh, bite me, I’m done.
Mike Nichols: So, Power 90 is a
Zack Arnold: Power 90 is the first program that Tony Horton did. Tony Horton is the the fitness guy that does P90X one, two, and three. Um, and Power 90 is what he did before he did P90X and got famous, and it’s kind of like a much lighter version of P90X, and he has much shorter shorts. So I always warn people about the shorts.
Mike Nichols: How does that compare with this Sean T T25 thing?
Zack Arnold: T25 is pretty intense. P90X is definitely more of a if you’re not really in good shape, haven’t done a whole bunch of extra. Power 90 is a good place for just about anyone to start. Like I don’t think there’s any person that unless you have, you know, like some kind of major injury or something that you couldn’t do power 90. T 25 is going to be a little bit more intense. But if you’ve been working out and doing cardio and already getting in shape, then you could probably get into T 25
Monica Daniel: You know, one thing I wanted to bring up too is I’m also one of those people. I like to work towards something; otherwise, I lose track of my goals. And so, at the end of this program, when is it going? July 20-six.
Zack Arnold: Something like that. There’s a calendar set up, but it’s the end of July, I believe.
Monica Daniel: Falls right around Comic Con, and there’s a Walking Dead zombie obstacle course that I actually ran last year, but last year I was not in shape. I was not taking care of myself. I was wearing Converse. Bad idea. But I pretty much had to walk through most of it. I was in so much pain. My chest was hurting. I actually had to stop for about 10 minutes because I couldn’t breathe. I was able to finish, but just barely. I had to. I barely got through, and I was in so much pain. So this year, it’s. I want to be able to get through that without walking and without having to stop because my chest feels like it’s going to burst.
Zack Arnold: So your goal is to conquer. Last year you finished. This year you’re going to conquer.
Monica Daniel: Yes.
Zack Arnold: Well, those are good goals to have. Running from zombies is always a good goal to have.
Mike Nichols: Cardio or die.
Zack Arnold: That’s right.
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.