The critical importance of adopting a long-term mindset when it comes to health and wellness is emphasized through the need for goal-setting that spans months or years rather than focusing on short-term results. By committing to gradual lifestyle changes such as reducing sugary drink consumption or establishing a consistent exercise routine individuals can invest in their future well-being. The choices made today significantly impact long-term health, highlighting the necessity of creating a foundation for a healthier life as one ages.

Additionally, the necessity of physical activity and nutrition in maintaining a high quality of life is underscored. The adverse effects of a sedentary lifestyle and the importance of regular exercise for metabolic function, energy levels, and overall health are addressed. Real-life examples illustrate how dietary modifications can lead to remarkable improvements in health and behavior. Ultimately, making daily commitments to wellness can profoundly enhance one’s quality of life and longevity.

Highlights of the Podcast

00:04 – Mindset Differences

01:34 – Long-Term Adherence

02:44 – Investment in Health

03:51 – Gradual Changes

04:54 – Consistency in Exercise

06:18 – Physical Activity Benefits

07:25 – Functional Aging

08:27 – Consequences of Sedentary Lifestyle

09:22 – Creating Order

10:16  – Nutrition and Behavioral Changes

Dr Matt Chalmers [00:00:04] One of the things that we’ve we’ve seen a lot with our athletes and with general people all the way around. Is the is the difference in the mindset of of where are our goal set is or where our our planning is. One of the things that we see a lot is, you know, with our athletes is not the we’re going to be tomorrow. We’re going to be three days from now. It’s, you know, this time next year or, you know, by the end of season or by by the start of next season. So we’re, you know, we’re five, six, seven, ten month timeline, which is great because it shows the the just the assumption that you’re going to be doing a specific task, working out supplement diet, the whole deal for a specific amount of time. And then at the end of that time we’re going to see beneficial function that now I’m going to invest time, energy, effort, money, that whole deal for six months and at the end of six months, then I’ll be ready for the next season. I’ll be better than you think. And that’s really where we need to start, kind of focusing our our generalized health. A lot of these diets, you know, anything is is a diet is a bad diet you can only do for ten weeks. You know, figuring out a way to plan our lives so that we get over the trash we have going on right now, which is usually time intensive.

Dr Matt Chalmers [00:01:34] So we’ve got, you know, a couple of months of hard work to do. But the biggest, the most difficult thing is getting that that all that hard work, the starting to work out, developing those habits, developing the the dietary habits, developing all the functionality. One of the biggest things you got to work into is still adhering to those things long term. And so when we start looking at, you know, there’s a lot of people posting the heart attack at 50 started at 20, That’s hundred percent true. The life you want to have when you’re 60, 70, 80 is dependent upon the life you live right now. So, you know, that’s one of those things that you’ve got to kind of start setting up and being like, okay, where do I want to be 30 or 40 years from now? Which is which is a massive mental mind shift for the vast majority people. You know, a lot of people the investing piece is easier because when they get their check, their W-2 check, certain steps taken out for for one K and for stock purchase plans and all that stuff. And so they just kind of sit back and let that happen. And then over the next ten, 15 years, all of a sudden they have all these assets and that’s great. But it wasn’t something they were working on.

Dr Matt Chalmers [00:02:44] When you when you start talking about your health, you know, these are things where you have to think, okay, what changes today can we make that we’re cool with making for the rest of our lives? You know? So it’s like, well, I’m going to I’m going to decrease the amount of, you know. Coke. I drink whatever, you know. All right. Is this a change that we can make for the rest of your life? Yeah. You know, a case a day is a little bit excessive. Maybe I’ll drink some more water, and I’ll just kind of work into it. You know, that’s a terrible goal. The I’m going to have X amount of day. You know, I was drinking again. Let’s see. You’re doing ten today. Now, when you go from 10 to 8 and then I’m going to stay there for a while and then trying to drop down to six because, you know, you’ve kind of factored in the the couple that you want. I do this a lot with cigarets that people, you know, I always ask them like, you know, how many of those cigarets are really awesome? The one after meals, the ones as soon as you wake up or you know the ones at the end of the day or whatever, right? And you figure out that usually people have 4 or 5 that they can just pull off with each other. Like these are these are the ones I really enjoy, like the time I enjoy the bowl.

Dr Matt Chalmers [00:03:51] All right, great. Well, then let’s do this. You know, let’s make sure we have those 4 or 5, and then we’ll take you out of your pack a day. You’re smoking, We’ll take four out, you’re smoking for less, and then we’ll take making sure we still got the ones we really like, and then we’ll take out another four. And so we get down to where you’re smoking 4 or 5 a day, you know, And sometimes you can start skipping one of those here and there. But if you can break yourself down from 20 to 5, that’s a giant change and that’s a change that will be a significant impact on your long term health. You know, one of the things that we see, you know, is is easy for a lot of people, especially glutens, easy for a lot of people. And they have reactions to it because we we teach them how to get rid of the gluten. We teach what to eat instead of instead of gluten free stuff. And so they stop eating the gluten. And then when they go back and the gluten, they feel like crap for a couple of days and they’re like, maybe I should avoid this more. And so that one’s a little bit easier. But, you know, starting to work out, deciding to make some of these, you know, actual time commitments, things like that. It’s a little bit more difficult for a lot of people.

Dr Matt Chalmers [00:04:54] But it’s one of those things that you’ve got to kind of have to sort of deciding where you want to be and 15, 20, 30 years. Start making those changes now. And some of those changes are small businesses are really hard. Going to the gym a couple of days a week. I think going to the gym every day is easier than going to the gym three days a week because you’re just like, Hey guys, from from X time to y time I’m out. Like, this is where I’m at. I’m at the gym, dumb ass. Things like, you can text me. I’m not going to take you back like that type of thing. So like I tell people know, between 1245 and, you know, left to every weekday I’m out. Like, you can email me, you can send me tax and probably I can respond to you until after I’m done with the gym. And it’s an everyday thing. It’s not a, I forgot on Tuesdays and Thursdays and you’re this time and Wednesdays and Mondays you’re that time and you know that’s what works for me. If you guys have a different schedule and you guys have decided that that’s that’s the life you’ve got to live. But. You know, getting the gym piece is the most important, probably the hardest for a lot of people because it’s a time commitment. It’s a all like, you know, multiple times a week, either every day or, you know, three days a week or whatever it is going to be where you’ve you’ve set aside time to go do that thing for you. But it’s also the very most important.

Dr Matt Chalmers [00:06:18] You want to talk about metabolic function for fat loss. You want to talk about energy? You want to talk about depression issues. You want to talk about, you know, falling down and breaking things. You want to about, you know, having the physical to lift, carry and move stuff. You know, all those things come from physical exercise. And so you’re going to have to have that. The I think it would be beneficial if if you’re ever wondering why is it I should diet right wise and I should exercise. Go hang out at the nursing home for a little bit. Go volunteer for a couple of days, a couple different nursing homes and see how those 70, 89 year old people are feeling and then go out there And I’ve seen numbers of 70, you know, mid early 70s in nursing homes and stuff like that. And 70 is not that old and you should be fully functional at 70. Like, you know, my dad works for me here. He works out every day. My mom works out every day. They’re in their 70s. You know, I’ve got patients I work with who are still, you know, working ten hour days, five days a week and, you know, doing active stuff with kids and grandkids in their 70s. Like, that’s not a number that you should be in a nursing home for.

Dr Matt Chalmers [00:07:25] You know, my father in law’s 85. And, you know, now that we’ve got his health back, we got the testosterone guys die effect and we’ve got he’s moved around the house getting stuff done like, you know he’s 85 so he’s not as strong as I am. So I will go over there and help him move things. But every time I go over there, he’s like, Hey, let’s go do this. Let’s go do that. Let’s go do this, let’s do this. And it’s it’s great because his health is back where it needs to be. But that’s one of those things where we did a lot of work to do Health care is supposed to be, but if you’ll just maintain that function throughout, then it’s a lot easier to maintain and keep going. So you probably the number one thing that you guys, you know, really want to start checking on yourself is, you know, am I working out what’s my what’s my diet? And start making these tweaks that you can live on for the rest of your life. You know, everybody needs to be on stage and everybody needs to, you know, have a six pack. Not everybody needs have big muscles, but you got to have some you have to have some modicum of health of sitting around all the time isn’t going to do anything.

Dr Matt Chalmers [00:08:27] The amount of people I see here do get adjusted because their back hurts because they’ve been sitting in a chair for eight, ten hours a day working for, you know, ten years. And they’re like, I don’t understand. I have herniated disc. I don’t do anything. I don’t lift using my neck. You know, I get these 200, it’s my neck to my herniated disc, my lower back. How did I get these? If you were sitting around like that, Sitting around. Where’s wear and tear on the body to? It’s an isotonic isometric exercise. So you’re going to let yourself break down and decay or you’re going to build yourself back up. So I know modern science has taught us that things evolve into greatness and the order comes from, you know, chaos comes into order If we just let it sit around long enough. And that’s not actually what happens. I hate to say this, but it’s another fallacy that we’re told you have to create order. You have to go push against the decay. You’ve got to do something to make yourself functionally better. And that’s that’s where it is all the way across the line.

Dr Matt Chalmers [00:09:22] Now, you can turn that up to 11 and you can, you know, get big muscles and all the fat and, you know, run a marathon and stuff like that. That’s great. And that’s if that’s on your list, fantastic. I’ll get you back where that needs to be, too. But the end of day, you’ve got to do some stuff and some of the stuff is really easy. Like go to your chiropractor, get a massage, like, you know, limit to a degree the trash you put in your body, the processed foods and things like that. And that’ll that’ll help tremendously. You maybe cook a meal here and there, right? So like these little steps where you have move forward really, really, really start to help, you know, I tell the story all the time of the the mom who mom and dad got divorced. Dad’s not a bad guy. Just, you know, he’s checking the box, right. Got to feed the kids. They want cereal for the cereal. And now they started having A.D.D., ADHD issues. And we came in and changed their diet.

Dr Matt Chalmers [00:10:16] And, you know, I taught him how to make a cookie dough cake. And so these kids are eating cake and cookies and stuff and pie and stuff like that for breakfast, which is, you know, they were like, I get cake, but it’s ten times better than the served sugary cereal they were eating. And so their 80 issues went away. So, you know, that neurologic function in these kids long term is going to make a massive change. So, you know, it’s things like that. If we can just get the chemistry in and get the physical work done, your body and your lives can be much, much better long term because you’ve got to make that commitment. You have to make that mindset of, okay, I’m going to invest every day in my life so that my quality of life is high. It can be for as long as they can get it, which is my definition of wellness. So if you’re looking for that us a call, we’ll help you set it up. But otherwise, thanks for your time.

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Dr. Matt Chalmers

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