New Year's Resolutions

Tommy: Wait a minute!

Josh: Crossface, the Daily Talk Show, a conversation sometimes worth recording with Josh Janson and Tommy Jackett. It's a Daily Talk Show, episode 167. What's going on, Tommy?

Tommy: As you did that, I yawned, uh, but I'm here. What's cracking?

Josh: I, um, given that it's, uh, September. Yeah, I was thinking we should, um, start talking New Year's resolutions that you won't commit to.

Tommy: Talk about them, get as much life out of them.

Josh: New Year's resolutions and also the biggest failure to them as well. I've had a few in my, uh, in my life.

Tommy: Mate, we're still pretty far off. I usually do them on the day or on the— Yeah, the following day.

Josh: This is where people go wrong because they do their New Year's resolutions right when it's New Year's.

Tommy: Okay.

Josh: Versus having a bit of a lead-up. If you plan it now, you can actually implement it so that by the time it's New Year's Eve, you can actually be doing the habit regularly rather than on the 1st of January needing to do it.

Tommy: Well, I think as Craig Harper always says, it's not about the day that you start. Like, there's new— just because it feels good, it's number one, it's the first day of the year, like, shit still won't change. And I don't think the science or the data's out that says that it is the best day to start anything. And so—

Josh: So September 5th it is.

Tommy: Well, I think if—

Josh: Don't you think?

Tommy: If you went, if you went on an unusual day, like you just went against the grain, started on a Friday as your Christmas party was about to happen, you'd probably— If you can, you know, if you can hold off doing that, say, if, you know, a lot of, a lot of goals are around things that rely on your mental power, resisting something or not indulging in something or not doing something. So you're probably stronger, you're probably building more resilience and power doing it on the day that you really don't want to do it.

Josh: So, so do you think September 5th is a good day then?

Tommy: Have you got something that you don't want to, that you don't want to, you know, do? What's your, what's your resolution?

Josh: You're sounding as if I've got some sort of plan to something that I've just brought up.

Tommy: I don't know.

Josh: It felt like that. No, I'm just saying, I think that I realise that over the years I've always done this at about September. I'll start with New Year's resolutions. So, it's a good, say it's like 3 months or something until Christmas. Is it September, October, November? Yeah, around sort of 3-ish months till Christmas. And so, it's a good— Yeah. And it's a good— Like, I think that, yeah, end of December, January 1 tends to be not a great time to try and get things happening. Whereas if you have started a New Year's resolution in September, by December it— You'll be in party season. I think it's a good thing. Like, if you want to drink less, Like, yes, you could smash a heap of booze at Christmas, or you could actually bring the New Year's resolution forward and make it as if, like, if you're serious about it being a long-term thing, why not start it so that it actually impacts one of the biggest drinking days normally of the year?

Tommy: Have you done something? Have you got a New Year's resolution that you're proud of that you've actually, that you've achieved, or you've put to practise and stuck at it.

Josh: Yeah, I think that like it's hard to, uh, yeah, I don't know.

Tommy: Do you think it's about the amount, like these lit— you, you give them cracks and over 15 years you've done a whole bunch of little stuff and they might not have been successful to the way you painted them, but when you put them all together there's quite a bit of success in that.

Josh: Yeah, I think it's a small incremental improvements every single year. I think that's probably what the reality of what a New Year's resolution ends up being. Things are like, I think definitely habits around drinking water has always been one. Stuff around like, you know, weight, for instance, that my weight journey, if People have gone to my Instagram and seen what I looked like when I was like 12 years old. I've gone on a very slow weight loss journey, which has had so many different sort of incarnations. But yeah, I think that it's, I think it's worthwhile. Like for instance, having a water bottle. We actually got this from an old couple from Georgia in the US, Savannah, Georgia. They just gave us 2 water bottles. Isn't that nice?

Tommy: Is that them in the hotel room? Are you in their hotel room? Have they put something in that water?

Josh: No, they're— we met them in Turkey. They were super lovely. And we were saying that we were going to be going hiking in Slovenia.

Tommy: So, do you know about— I haven't told you this. Amy went on this trip. She went on this trip with this, I think it was this guy and her like sister's her sister's friend wanted to go overseas and she was looking for someone to go overseas with. And then anyway, they booked this tour and it turned out that they had booked a tour group that was like legit old people. Like, she was like 20-something and she was on the oldies tour group and she said they had a great time.

Josh: Bring— and I would love this. We would love that.

Tommy: Like, it was just your trip. I'm sure you would have met Amy on it.

Josh: 100%. We were actually like getting along with the old people. They would have been in their 70s and we were connecting over them having to deal with— They were on a cruise and there were a bunch of rowdy young people drinking. Oh, yeah. Bri and I just shaking our heads, just like, "No, we're not into it." I did think just before I had a bit of a nap.

Tommy: Today. I was just exhausted. But I was thinking as I woke up, I was thinking you would be in trouble if you— I don't think this podcast would— if you were a drinker, this podcast would have, I think, fallen apart. Like travelling overseas, nights out, just boozing on, doing this early mornings. It just, it would not work. So I'm glad that you're part of the oldie club.

Josh: Well, it's a discipline too. I think that, um, I mean, this would be, this would be a massive New Year's resolution if you thought about this. And this was started the 16th of January, but I definitely, um, if you think about it, my New Year's resolution for this year was, um, or sort of idea was creative momentum. And so that creative momentum started off as a doing YouTube videos, and then I thought, you know what, I think I can actually make a bigger impact and do it if I want to do it something daily, doing something that's minimum viable product that's going to take less time than producing a crazy video.

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: And I land like, you know, we landed on this.

Tommy: Yeah, it is good. I think you set the intention of, of what you want to be doing. And for me, I like, I don't find And maybe I should, but I don't find, I don't set specific goals that you could really go, well, you know, you've ended up in that exact place. I always set over my life and then obsess about something that I want to be doing. And I usually end up gravitating towards that because I'm thinking about it. And so I like the momentum, the creative momentum. Because it's like, it's not specific, but your intention when you're doing things and where you're sort of heading has that in mind. So this definitely has got some creative momentum within it.

Josh: How do you think would be a good way to develop a New Year's resolution?

Tommy: Oh, I just don't think— I think when it's wrapped up, Don't do it at New Year's. Have a New Year's resolution, but don't do it at New Year's.

Josh: 'Cause you're almost triggered by New Year's, you're triggered by New Year's resolutions, I can tell. You get the same attitude as if I say I'm gonna join a gym.

Tommy: No, I'm actually happy with that, as long as it's the one I'm at so we can go together. I'm actually all good for that.

Josh: We are gonna start. I told Bri yesterday that you and Tommy D and I are gonna start hashtag lifting.

Tommy: Yeah, yeah.

Josh: Are we gonna go to the same gym, by the way? Are we gonna go to the Fitness First in Richmond?

Tommy: No, Tommy and I will have our AirPods on and you'll be in another gym and we'll just have you on one ear each and you can work out with us, but you're not allowed in the same fucking gym, all right?

Josh: You, I'm really keen to do the every single day changing the different thing, you know, like one day you do arms, one day you do Saturday, you do legs.

Tommy: You just want to be a bodybuilder.

Josh: Or cows. Is that, Like, you don't have to be a bodybuilder to do that, right?

Tommy: No, it's just a split body routine. It's—

Josh: yeah, I— you don't like it though, do you?

Tommy: No, I did it for years. I did only that kind of training for 5 years. Um, it's pretty hard on the body, like, to be able to condition yourself to be able to train just your biceps on one day and then just your back on another.

Josh: It takes a while to lead into the whole Isn't that the whole point though, in the sense of if you're doing it to, um, what did they say? You do it to something. What's the thing you do until you're exhausted?

Tommy: To failure.

Josh: What's— To failure. Yeah. Like if that's the idea, isn't that like the— If you're not doing that, then you're not fully sort of working your muscles.

Tommy: There's many ways to measure, um, the like the workout, and one of them is to— one of them is to failure. Or if you're being really strategic, you can, you know, have a mapped out strength amount where you have to hit those numbers every single week. So I'm doing 5 reps and I have to hit 5 sets of 5 reps, otherwise I've gone too heavy. And so the point is you don't want to go too heavy because you want to be able to next week progress slightly. And so you're looking at—

Josh: But you still are doing it to failure, right? So you can say, okay, no, I don't think it's to failure because you—

Tommy: the work— the goal of the workout is to do 5 sets of 5 reps on 80 kilos. The next week is 5 sets of 5 reps on 82.5 kilos. And the whole thing is that you're not failing by the end of 5. Sometimes you don't actually— you could go, I could do another 3, but it's not the point of the workout because you, you need to cons— you need to complete 5 sets of it rather than just going, you know, doing 10 on the first, the next set you were doing like 7, and by the end you can hardly do 4 of the— 4 reps of the same weight that, you know. And so you're building up this stamina across 5 sets of something. So there's so many ways of doing it, but we're not doing a split routine, all right, mate? Don't get ahead of yourself.

Josh: That's what I was hoping for. I was hoping for just being able to work on my I've watched a video that Matt D'Avella did, who created minimalism, who we're going to have on the podcast in LA. And he's— One thing that I appreciate about Matt is his bicep level. And is that biceps? Is that the thing? Is that a bicep there?

Tommy: And it's not called level. Are you talking about— Are you referring to size when you say level?

Josh: Yeah. Yeah. I'm just saying the level of his bicep.

Tommy: The level of his bicep, man. Look at, look at the level of that guy.

Josh: Look how, you know what, how level that guy is. But he, in his YouTube video, he was doing those split days.

Tommy: Yeah, and, and I think it is a good workout. The thing is, you can sort of, you can go through the motions. It's hard, man, when you train 5 days a week. If you're actually— it's a lot of time. That's the problem. If you're not working out at the moment and you'll definitely—

Josh: It's only 30 minutes. But don't you think that it's, I reckon it's elevated to be this really scary thing where it's like when he was describing it and when I've heard it described specifically doing those sort of split days or whatever it's called, it's like your focus. I like the idea that you are, where I get anxious at the gym is when you're, going to all different things and fucking around. But the idea of being like, I've got 30 minutes, I just need to smash myself in this specific area. So, I need to know that like rather than— Because I think that being targeted, I can really think about what I'm doing versus I reckon if I just did a general workout, the first thing to hurt would be my back versus making sure that it's my arms or my legs or things like that.

Tommy: The reality is if I put you through a 5-day split workout, you fucking wouldn't be able to walk by the end of the week. In terms like, your body would just ache, and it wouldn't be because I've pushed you too hard. It's just because you're not conditioned to spend 30 minutes working a small muscle group like your biceps, trying to get that level up.

Josh: It's like something you think you're a Pokémon guy by working with a lot of, um, PT— like, you being a PT and working with a lot of people over the years?

Tommy: No, I, uh, not really. I think The reality is you won't stick at it if you start doing it. It's, it's too painful. Like, I hurt if I tried to do it now, I would hurt. I'm not conditioned to do it. So when I say I was doing it, it's because I—

Josh: So how does someone get started then?

Tommy: Well, you do a varied workout a few days a week to start conditioning yourself, and then you start getting used to experiencing pain and experiencing the feeling of having worked out your muscles. And so then when you sort of have a, have not, you don't have an aversion to that because you understand that that's what happens when you are working out. You can then build up your threshold to feeling really uncomfortable because it's not comfortable, um, to feel like that all the time. And so, yeah, I think, I think for you it's just like you need to get clear. You need a understand the workout. I get that. It is, it is, it is really good when all you have to do is do your biceps or do your chest because it's like, it's less load mentally. I've felt that as well when I rock up. It's like, yeah, ah yeah, I know, I've just got 4 exercises on this and that's pretty straightforward. But remember, you're not by yourself and it helps so much when you've got someone there. That's why people paid me. Money. Just, I was literally just handing them dumbbells and telling, okay, now, so, because it is, it's like half the battle is doing it. And if you, um, is rocking up to do it. And so if you've got someone to do something with, that's like this podcast. I've committed to this more than I have committed to exercise over the last 5 years, more, 6 years.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: I don't think I've committed that, that hard to exercise. Um, before I was really trying to get that level up. It's like some game, just like, yeah, look at bicep. It's just, it looks like a, uh, some sort of pie chart. There's the, the level of my biceps, there's the level of my glutes. Oh, I need to raise that up on my Tamagotchi.

Josh: We, we tried to do an episode, um, uh, earlier in the day, 6 AM, and the, uh, the internet fucked up. But we were speaking about industries that have lost trust and we're talking about real estate agents, we talked about dentists, we didn't speak about PTs at all.

Tommy: Oh yeah.

Josh: And I'm sure that people could relate because we would have a bit of Harpreet's audience bleed over from being on his podcast. Yeah. And I think that there, I get dismayed, like the conversations that you and I have around health, I'm always triggered by because I feel like From day one, there's a limiting belief or like, I feel like I want to be able to be in control of my destiny. And I think that sometimes personal trainers can put their own baggage of what they expect from you, or I've seen this before and all that sort of thing. I don't like, I know what's going to happen. Versus, you know, most of this stuff is psychological. Like, what's the difference between, like, if that is the approach that I want to take and I'm going to be happy about it? And it's like, I feel like that's been the biggest struggle in my sort of gym PT sort of life over the different years and going to different ones is PTs trying to prescribe what they want me to do versus maybe what I want to do that will potentially get the similar results.

Tommy: Yeah, well, the trust's not there for the PT because you're not— you're telling— you don't go to a PT to tell them what you want to do half the time. In terms of, you tell them what your goals are and they're the expert to get you there the way that they think it'll work for you. So there is a bit of that, like you have to satisfy the customer in terms of sending them in the direction of their goals, but you help them get there the way that you know it will work. Oh, 100% you'll do, you'll get, you'll reach, you know, success by doing a split 5-day-a-week routine. But then there's the knowledge base. You've never done it. It's like, uh, half the battle with exercise is mental, as you kind of said. It's like, well, if, if I know that it's mental and that that's a sure way to really screw with you, it's probably not the way to go. Yeah, I don't know. I think, but I think you're a shit client. I would have fired you because you're annoying.

Josh: Well, I'm sad that most people are like you. I think that most people within, especially with misinformation and with, you know, people reading books like, uh, you know, stuff that say Tim Ferriss puts out there. People are seeing themselves as self-experimenters and know-it-alls. They read a book and all that sort of thing. But I think that, um, what it probably also shines light on is, uh, people who might not know their shit or that might be You know, it might question someone else's. It's like the thing of, you know, I remember a dermatologist telling me when I was a kid that like diet has nothing to do with like having acne and stuff like that. And I still think about that and like it doesn't completely make sense because the food that we— like, we are what we eat in the sense of like the food that we consume is going to have some sort of impact on our body, isn't it?

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: And so I think that even like there's these, um, I think it's interesting that thing of, you know, questioning people within these industries that have gone to school and they've spent a lot of time, you know, on these types of approaches. Would a nutritionist suggest people do fasting to lose weight. Yeah, I don't know, probably not.

Tommy: And it depends on, um, I think, yeah, the dermatologist one, that's, that's an interesting one because he's got a point in, in respect to if you're a pubescent young child, there's— you're already fucked. You're probably getting pimples because you're going through, um, your puberty and the hormones are going mad. But if you're also eating quarter pounders every night, it's probably going to make that worse. So that's it.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: So he's taking the wrong approach there because it's like you, you should be doing anything and everything to assist in some kind of a reduction of, of the thing that you've got the problem with. But PTs, there's plenty of people who've got no fucking clue. And I was probably one of them. I was young, but then it's like I had success with some clients. That just stuck at what I was prescribing them and suggesting that they do outside of the sessions, and they got results. And so it is this fine thing.

Josh: What most things get— like Bree and I were talking about, she's looking at going to F45, um, when we get back to Melbourne. Won't you get results basically if you do some movement and you watch your diet? You're going to get results.

Tommy: Yeah, 100%.

Josh: Yeah, I mean, and so that, that's where I think the barrier is in some regards, is it's like there's the over-intellectualization of the thing that you're trying to do versus doing the thing. So it becomes this debate of, ah, like, you know, it's like, it's like a fat fuck on a bike who is counting all the grammes on his bike to make sure that he's got like, you know, the best sort of power-to-weight ratio. When he could easily lose 40 kilos. So it's like, yeah, it seems like you're a bit misaligned in a sense of what you're— in the sense of what you're focusing on.

Tommy: F45 works if you stick at it, but if you do it constantly and it becomes normal for you, you need to change something about it. And, you know, you can only work yourself so hard. So then it's like, after time, maybe you switch to CrossFit. CrossFit works. All these things work, but they— if it becomes really like, your results will diminish if you're doing the exact same thing and not changing it up. And so that's where it's like, it's a, it's a slippery slope in the space of exercise because like, it— what if you start achieving success It's like, have you— are they actually in line with actual goals that you've set out? You look at bodybuilders, it's like they consistently are working towards something, but they don't know where that end is a lot of the time unless they're competing. Because it's like, then you get to this competition, you need to— that's the one day that you have to look unbelievable, and then it starts getting unhealthy. It's, um, it's hard. That's why for me, I've, I've been down those paths., and I end up just going, my goal ends up being just go so I can, because I know it's healthy for me, which, then it's like sticking on that. But I do like, and I'd like to do it with you, is actually trying to get some results because it does, you start being more thoughtful and you're sticking to something, you keep, you know, tracking your progress. And I just want, I actually, my goal is for you. Like, I'll go to the gym and I'll get results, but I just want to, I want to stack at least 5 to 6, maybe 7 kilos of muscle onto you, onto your little skinny frame. Um, as much as you are thinking it's the next step, right?

Josh: It's the sense of, um, for me it's been, um, yeah, about that weight loss thing for— and I feel like I've nailed that down and now it's time to upgrade to alpha mode, baby. Yeah, well, I think that it'll be interesting. I think that there's definitely a, um, I have done— the funny thing is that in my whole life I've done so many different versions of an extreme diet that the idea of doing a bit of fucking chicken and salad and veggies is not a worry at all. Like, to me, that's like, that's fine, that's normal eating.

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: So, um, But it's always integrating those things together.

Tommy: And until you actually do this stuff, like I know, like you don't have data from history of sticking to this stuff. I've started to, and like, I don't do the thing that I fucking know I should be doing right in terms of the weight training and stuff. Like I've got some photos of different stages of me committing to like low carb and lots of weight training and lots of protein. And like what I look like there compared to the next thing. It's like, so that's what I'm looking forward to, working this shit out with you.

Josh: What worked best for you?

Tommy: Oh man, I looked so fucked. I think having, I think low carb, like cutting out bread, rice, like in terms of what my body looked like. And I remember how I felt and I felt light. And I think that was, and I was training You know, I was doing what I was doing all the other times, pretty much just training hard and making sure that I was changing up the workouts and stuff. Anyway, that definitely is what I need to do. I'm eating too many carbs, far out. But it's, um, but the problem is I can actually get away with eating carbs. It doesn't make me feel sick. Um, yeah. And yeah, and so that's, that's the thing. I, it's, um, I I can just, I eat bread and nothing really happens.

Josh: Well, there's the other thing, which is the faux gluten intolerance and shit like that, that people apply to themselves as a way to lose weight, right? They're like, I can't eat gluten, all that sort of thing. It doesn't really sort of sit well. But I wonder how many of those experiences, like I went through, Italy eating, you know, pizza and pasta all the time, and, um, I felt fine. Yeah, I was all good and my body was ready for it.

Tommy: Yeah, no reaction.

Josh: No.

Tommy: Did you— like, I even got heartburn from eating too much pizza. Like, I felt like, it's like, fuck, I just need a piece of green vegetable with no salt on it because that's— everything just feels— tastes salty. Meats My insides were cured meat.

Josh: Yeah, the cured meat stuff worries me a little bit with the sort of research around, you know, giving you cancer and stuff like that.

Tommy: Oh yeah, super processed stuff.

Josh: Yeah, I do, um, that's one area that I've never been great at is the, um, I don't actually mind the taste of vegetables, but it's just, um, making it a priority.

Tommy: Yeah, yeah. Everyone could easily increase their vegetable intake. I don't think it'd hurt them.

Josh: If you had to put a New Year's resolution right now, put something that you've been thinking about or that you're not happy with, and then a habit that you can implement that will, you know, help counter that, what would it be?

Tommy: Yeah, I think it's around the exercise stuff. See, here's the problem, right? I get, I, I get more people talking to me about my body when I have stopped training because I become like a fucking— I get skinny and it really stings. People point it out. Um, oh, you look so thin. It's like, that's, that's a compliment for most, but I, yeah, I'm just like not optimal at the moment as I, as I could be. Like I just, if I start weight training, I just look thicker and I feel better, both actually mentally and physically. So I think, yeah, and I've got you on board for this one, so I'm already doing it. Don't worry, I'm getting to the gym.

Josh: So what's the habit? What's the change then? What's the actual implementable step?

Tommy: Yeah, split body routine, back to the old days. I've actually done a U-turn on that. You're on the split body routine as soon as you get back, Josh.

Josh: I want people, like, given we have so many PT health professionals who listen to the podcast, hi@thedailytalkshow.com. What would, like, am I completely crazy about this split routine thing? I bought the Arnold Schwarzenegger book a few years ago. I reckon if I just lifted that with the weight that that Book has. I could probably make some progress.

Tommy: No, you know what, let's give it a crack if that's what you want to do. We'll ease into it. You will be sore, but we'll ease, we'll ease through. Start with the 3-day, start with a 4-day split.

Josh: But being sore is okay, isn't it? Isn't that like the thing? Like, if I feel sore, then I know that I'm making progress. Nah, but versus like the— what makes me feel shit is when you go to the gym and you don't feel anything.

Tommy: Yeah, I know, but I think it's just when you haven't done it, when you haven't done it ever, it is so painful. Like, I— it was a strategy of mine not to do that to clients that were, that were just freshly starting out. They will never come back. It is, it is that annoying. Remember, you've got jobs and you're holding cameras up and it's like, you can be smart about it or you can just be silly and try to You know, yeah, you won't.

Josh: The thing I can never get into is the protein shakes. I tried that. I did. I went to Virgin Active for, I think, about 2 months, paid for a membership for a year. But, um, yeah, the thing was that the, the guy I was training with, he had a completely different body type. So he was skinny trying to build muscle. Yeah. And here I was, probably could lose a couple of kg but also wanted to build muscle. I think that probably the thing that's also happened is I've— it's impossible to, like, I think, to be doing some sort of calorically restricted diet and putting on muscle mass. So, sort of like, you gotta pick one, right? So, I think that I'll be lean enough or, you know, I'll have low enough fat in the sense of, for me, to be able to say, actually, I can have, I can do 2,500 calories or whatever a day and do a weight routine or whatever. A routine, is that what you call it? You can call it routine, like, just like you can call bicep size level. Yeah, it's a level. Yeah, I can work on my bicep level with a routine.

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: Yeah. I feel like you've come around. I feel like you've softened since the start of this conversation. I just wear people down, which is great.

Tommy: It's The Daily Talk Show.

Josh: Yeah. It's Wednesday. Have a good day. And yeah, hi@thedailytalkshow.com. Oh, we did, we did have an email, a couple of emails. We had one from Michelle, who had a logline for us, which was Two Guys, No Beer, I think was the title, which maybe it could be Two Guys and a Dumbbell. Two guys, two blokes minus the beer was what she said.

Tommy: Oh, that's right, that's right.

Josh: Close enough. But there was also her advice too. Yesterday I was talking about, secure Wi-Fi, she was saying even with all of that there's still a bit of a risk. And just to, um, the best thing you can do is use your, um, mobile data, which, um, makes sense. But when you're using as much data as old mate JJ uses, yeah, downloading podcasts and YouTube. And the way I said YouTube, I sounded old then.

Tommy: But, um, there we go, mate.

Josh: You're on the DailyTalkShow.com.

Tommy: You're on the oldies, um, Tour bus travelling the world.

Josh: Got me. Every, every mouthful I take of this, uh, drink bottle, I'm getting a little bit older. So it's The Daily Talk Show, everyone. We'll see you tomorrow. Have a good one. See you guys.