The Fitness Mistake That Keeps You Starting Over with Stan Browney

So hot take: what do most people get completely wrong about building a healthy routine?

That they only have to eat, go to 100% clean diet, or have to work out every single day. The extreme of things. So it has to be either not fun, almost impossible to maintain, or the other way. There is balance.

I love it. What's the single most underrated habit for someone trying to get healthier?

Making small steps. Actually starting is the most difficult part. So don't set the goal to just start. You only did 10,000 steps a day. 10,000 steps a day is not necessarily the goal. Start with 5,000, build it up to 6,000. Start, do something.

Stan, welcome to Rooted in Wellness.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to just hear about everything.

It was such an honor meeting you in Dubai. My husband just raved about you moderating the speech, the panel that you guys had at the 1B Summit, and I'm so thrilled to connect with you. As I was saying before, half of my audience is men. Who are so inspired by your content and how you approach fitness. And the physical body is such a big part of this. So you're a perfect fit for this show.

I mean, I am so glad to hear that. And we always preach that it's fitness, but it's a lot more than that. It's just— it needs to be fun. It needs to be something consistent. You can be motivated for obviously a few weeks, but it needs to be a lifestyle and then you need to enjoy it. So, yeah, excited.

You're talking my language. All right, so we're going to start off, you know, just— I was mentioning the intention of this podcast, and it's really for our listeners to become more rooted. Rooted in their health, in themselves, and in their lives, and what I believe is the capacity that all of us have to heal our bodies on their own. So can you just tell us, you know, as an icebreaker, I guess, what are 2 or 3 things that help you feel rooted every day?

For me, I mean, I'm very big on routine, so very big on routine. And that is just, you know, same. It already starts in the evening, but, you know, same time going to bed, same time waking up. Second thing would definitely be diet, a good consistent diet. Not, you know, go too crazy or too random. Keep it familiar to the body and working out. For me, for me, it is exercise. If I miss, if I skip any of those 3 in a day, I automatically feel it.

Yeah, that's so good. I love asking that question because whenever there's an expert sitting on the panel, what they say is typically free. Those are all things that we all have access to, right? We can all move our bodies, we can all eat well, we can all choose to have routine.

Yeah, perfect. Yeah, no, that's, that's literally it. It's like for sleep, free, just a normal diet, nothing special, or just like consistent and working out, even if it's running, walking outside, getting daylight in, stuff like that. Yeah, exactly. 100%.

It's so simple. We'll get behind the psychology behind that. On the flip side, you know, we'll get to your healing journey as well. What are 2 or 3 things that cause you to feel uprooted? So you mentioned not working out every day, but do you notice when you feel uprooted when you get off of your routine or rituals every day?

Biggest one has to be sleep. It has to be, uh, uh, just an inconsistency in sleep. I just feel it in, in, uh, energy levels, in the way you can even be excited about certain things. It's just, it sometimes even takes over if you, yeah, if it's just not the same thing, you know, like I feel it very, very much so if my sleep isn't consistent.

Yeah, pays off into everything. Some rapid-fire questions for you. Okay, so whatever comes to mind. What is the biggest myth about getting fit that refuses to die?

You have to skip carbs. Carbs are bad. I would say that is the big one I still hear, and that's definitely not true. Carbs can be a really, really helpful something.

I love you already. Okay, next one. Overrated or underrated? Counting calories.

Oh, I want to say it is— for a lot of people, it could be overrated, but underrated for people that make it way too hard. So they're like, I'm not losing weight. Why am I not losing weight? Try counting calories once, and it might actually work because it's it will work. But for a lot of people, just lifestyle-wise, there's plenty of people that see a lot of results without counting calories. But I like, I mean, I, it has been helpful in my journey.

There's a time and a place, right? It gives you guidance. Yep. A lot of people need to know what they're consuming, right? And that's a great way to, to start tracking. All right. True or false, motivation is what gets people fit.

That's false. Action is action.

You got it. So hot take, what do most people get completely wrong about building a healthy routine?

That they only have to eat, like, go, go to 100% clean diet or have to work out every single day, um, like the extreme of things. So it has to be, it's either not fun, almost impossible to maintain, or the other way. There is balance.

I love it. What's the single most underrated habit for someone trying to get healthier?

Making small steps, actually starting is the most difficult part. So don't set the goal to just start, just do instead of doing the 10,000 steps a day. 10,000 steps a day is not necessarily the goal. Start with 5,000, build it up to 6,000. Just start, do something.

Do something. It all counts. Rate this trend from 0 to 10. Working out every single day. Would you like?

I, I would give it an, uh, an 8 because doing some— I would give it, I'll give it a 10 because doing something every single day, even if it's walking, is really good and it builds habit.

I'm with you. I think too, for someone like you, um, you know, working out is a lifestyle. It's less about, uh, something that you have to force yourself to do. When you fall in love with a certain type of movement, you want it to be a 10 out of 10 because you fall in love with it, right? It's so different, the approach, but it does take some effort getting there. So let's dive right into the things that we all know, and we've all been there. When we think about, you know, a concept that I can't stand is the whole "new year, new you," right? The mirage of illusion that comes with that, that all of a sudden overnight we're going to change. And, you know, in the US, around 67% of gym memberships rarely or never get used. So the problem isn't having access to like going and working out and stuff like that. It's something that's much deeper. And your work is really fascinating because you've coached hundreds of people through like complete body transformations, major body transformations. People who are not athletes, a lot of people who were not fit, a lot of people who were very, very overweight and people who had tried a lot of things but also failed. So what's the one thing that almost all of them had in common before they started with you?

I think they all really wanted to start or they all had this thought at some point they wanted to start. But they just didn't do it. So they saw it as this big roadblock and it's an impossible thing. But again, just starting and starting with the basics, literally food swaps. Instead of the full fat, uh, go for the lower fat and just food swaps for a little bit, like even just, uh, healthier foods. Um, don't go from 0 to 100 real quick. And these people wanted to start, they had this ignite at some point. So I'm with you when it comes to this New Year, New Me. I do think that sometimes it's the spark of motivation at the start can really help someone. So if that is a New Year, New Me, it's not the most— it's not the strongest one, but if someone ignites that motivation and years later they're still fit and that's the one moment that it helped them, sure. But what I really see is that people just see this getting fit as this massive roadblock, but actually it's just about starting.

I totally agree. And I'm curious, will you do an audit? Like, will you go through someone's fridge or pantry or kitchen or stuff like that to kind of see what their roadblocks would be?

I actually, I have done that. I have done it. I've seen like, okay, fun things that I noticed, for example, is I open fridges and I see this guy clearly likes his coffee with syrups, with these things. Like he likes to make his types of coffee. I could see that from the fridge. So you sit down with someone and you don't tell them, stop doing that. You just, you know, let's make a healthier version of that. So you can keep enjoying that. And these are the changes we make with someone. So yeah, we definitely have done that.

I love that. Okay, so there's the first step for listeners. If Stan and Mona Sharma were on your shoulder, go and walk through your kitchen and your pantry right now and look for all the things that you would typically hide. Those are the things that are probably causing a roadblock between you and your desire. When you're working with someone, what I often hear from my clients is that they often come up against a roadblock, or they hit a wall, or the number of the scale stops moving, and they feel like they're putting a lot of output and not getting the result. So, When this happens, what's actually happening in the body at that point? And why does it feel like failure for people when it actually isn't?

This is a very interesting one, especially the weight aspect of it. People thinking, oh, the weight is not going down, and that is the one, like, the single goal that I have is to have that weight go down. And people have to, like, it makes sense, but they have to understand that you're still losing weight. You're still on your journey. And even if today you might not be losing weight or it feels like you're not losing weight, it's this habit that you're building that will 100% get you to that goal. And I think the power of consistency and doing things over a very, very long period of time— people are so obsessed with this moment and can worry about this one thing on the scale. But if you ask them a month later, they probably have forgotten about it because if they push through, they've lost way more weight than a month ago because they pushed through.

So true. Yeah, I'm sure you're probably like me. You hear all the time, "It's been a week, I haven't lost a weight. It's been 2 weeks, I haven't lost a pound." And I think what a lot of people need to remind themselves of is that there's like these neural adaptations that happen when you start doing completely new things. Your body is responding. You might not necessarily see a number on the scale or in your pant size, but all of a sudden, after you get past a certain point, then it's like a— I always call call it a light switch that flips on, right? And then you start seeing results and that motivates you even more.

Yeah, the body works in very interesting ways because the body is— I always keep saying this to everyone— the body's very, very impressive. Like, it is really good at trying to survive. So it is really good at trying to maintain a certain body weight. And eventually, 100%, if you're in a caloric deficit, you will lose weight. But your body might just, you know, try to just for a few days, just try to stay the same and it will try to not necessarily fight back. But like you say, it will adapt and then sometimes you lose a little bit more weight. Obviously people don't think about water weight. Maybe you ate a little, like you had more sodium, stuff like that. So the scale, there are so many things that will reflect on the scale. People just need consistency.

Yeah, I love that you call that out because we're all different, right? We're all gonna achieve our goals in many different ways. You have to respect that. And you mentioned something interesting before. So I'm sure you have people who show up and they want to be healthy and then people who show up and they want really, really big changes, right? What does it take for someone to actually cross that line to feel the difference? And do you notice a difference between the people who want to get healthy versus the one who want to change?

People that want to get healthy, they most of the time have a bigger why. So people, there's someone that I can help that wants to lose their belly and they are motivated to lose a lot of fat. But the— so they want to see a lot of results really fast. But the other person that is very motivated in a different way has a bigger why. So for example, there is a guy that we helped get fit for his wedding and he just became a dad. So he's like, he wants to be there for— he wants to be the fit dad for his son. So there's so much more. He wants to lose that belly. He wants to get fit. But there is also a bigger why. So he wants to not just be able to look good, but he also wants to feel good. He wants to feel fit. He wants to be able to run. He wants to be able to, you know, eventually work out with the sun. And someone that wants to see fast results is not always looking for the healthiest approach, but for the fastest approach, which also, of course, results in the biggest percentage of rebound because they feel like there's an end date to living healthy or working out or diet. And it should turn into a lifestyle, of course, ideally.

It's so true. I can't tell you when I first started out in nutrition, everyone that I saw, you know, would just say, okay, Mona, tell me what to eat, how do I work out? Tell me what supplements to take and I'll do it. And most people are like, they're willing to go— I hate this word— hardcore, hardcore for a couple of weeks, right? And more often than not, everyone would get to the goal, whether it was the number on the scale, fitting into the wedding dress or whatever it was. But then a couple months later they would be back to meeting me, right? So it was like this short-term-lived goal. And something that you said, which I think you and I have the same concept but maybe different languaging, is the power of routine, right? You say routine every day. I think habits come and go, but routine becomes you. I use the word rituals. Whatever your rituals are, they actually become you. And rituals, when they become you, it's less about what you have to force yourself to do every day It becomes you, it becomes part of your lifestyle, like brushing your teeth. Like you said about working out every single day, it's like if you, if you, if you miss a day, there's something that feels off throughout the day, right? And it's a very important distinction. And I love that you shared the power of the, the why. I think for everyone listening, if you develop a why that's greater than those superficial goals, not that those aren't important. Gosh, like we all have them. It's normal. We're all inspired to, to look and feel better. But make it about something so much bigger than yourself, right? I often coach people. I don't know if it's the same where you live, but right now in the US, we're obsessed with longevity and there's this insane fear of dying, but everything's fear-focused. No one's focusing on like living an incredible life every day, feeling your best every single day, and how that could actually make you live longer. But instead of all the things that you have to do or else, right? It's a very different approach to living well.

Yeah, I think that approach is, I think it's good that we're talking about it and we're showing it. And I definitely have respect for what, I made a documentary series, like a short episode with Brian Johnson. And he, obviously he is sort of a human guinea pig. And in that sense, it's the extreme version of it, but it gets the conversation going and see what is, you know, what is good, what is bad, what would work, what would not work. But I think it's so fun that you say the basics, like actually taking care of yourself, living happy, stress-free, or at least enjoying things will also make you live longer. Those are great for longevity. Just doing things consistent and actually enjoying life will most likely help you live longer because you're giving your body enough recovery and you're enjoying it.

You got it. And while we're on that topic, like, You looking into the US or seeing what's happening in the US market, is it different where you are? Like when you're traveling and in different parts of the world, is there a different approach?

Well, when it comes to longevity, I would say that's definitely a sort of worldwide thing, but people are approaching health a little bit different. I do have to say, we're talking about this, the, the use of it probably is here, but the use of stuff like Ozempic is definitely not a big thing here, and it's massive in the US, of course. It's— people use it quite often, at least if I have to believe the internet, but where I come from, that's not necessarily what they would use. I would say it's definitely here, but I think that's a major difference is the medicine world and the access to stuff like that.

Well, if we look at the data, you know, outside of the US isn't suffering from the same levels of obesity also. So I think that says a lot in and of itself. I think everything that we're saying so far today is very familiar to anyone who's listening. Something that I love that you say over and over again is that consistency beats intensity every single time. And when most people start off on a healing journey or a weight loss journey or a physical change journey, they go for intensity immediately. Why do you think, knowing this, there's no shortage of information out there around the power of rituals, and I think this languaging around becoming your best self every day, and yet we're still so addictive for extreme challenges and hardcore diets and the Ozempic and the red pill. When the evidence is so clearly against it. Why do you think that still is?

Of course, it doesn't sound sexy to just, you know, you have to do this for a very long time and you have to enjoy it. It sounds like a chore. And I think if it's from a perspective of either you or me, where we're doing it, we are living the life and we're actually, we're enjoying it, like living a healthy life. Like there's no way I would enjoy a life more when I look at a lot of other people and it's like, oh, that unhealthy lifestyle that they are enjoying probably more than this healthy lifestyle. I wouldn't want that. Like, I'm happy with what I'm doing right now. And that is really easy to say in hindsight, at least for, for me. And it's like, I think what got me going was at 15 years old, I saw amazing, crazy YouTube videos of guys being able to control their body weight, doing calisthenics, doing— be able to do one-arm pull-ups. And that intrigued me and that's kind of what got me started. And this motivation, this burst of inspiration got me going and eventually led me to where I am. So this is also something we preach. I have a workout app, it's called the 90-Day Challenge. It sounds like this. We have designed this in a way where people go for a 90-day challenge and it sounds like this burst of motivation. We designed this to turn it into a lifestyle. So you hook people in the 90-day challenge bit of packaging. But our goal, of course, is people to just build habits during these 90 days or build routine and actually turn it into a lifestyle. I think that's where motivation can be a great thing, but it won't get you further than 30 days or sometimes even a week or a day. And that's what I think is beautiful when it comes to— everyone has their own, their own way of getting fit. And I think it's, uh, easy to think like, come on guys, everyone here should just live that healthy lifestyle. You will love it more. But they just don't see it yet. And we just got to get them there in a way with a little bit of motivation, a little bit of cool packaging. And eventually they realize, wow, I actually started enjoying working out. I started enjoying running. And that's what I think is, yeah, is at least what we're trying.

Can you share a little bit about your past when you were younger? Like what was happening before 15 years old that inspired you to start looking for these videos?

Oh, that's a good one. I, I was actually kind of was overweight. I was definitely more the fat kid in high school in the first few grades. And I started making videos, YouTube, 12 years old already. I just loved making videos. Luckily, some of them are not online anymore. But I would say that the, it was, it was It was an interesting just period. I was still in school, I was doing a decent high education, but I was still trying to make videos every day. And then obviously the diet, it was not a healthy lifestyle. I was just sleeping a few hours and I was, uh, but eventually I had a friend, uh, who showed me videos. He was already working out with his body weight and that's how I got into, uh, I got into fitness seeing those videos, seeing him, joining him, and then that's that burst of motivation, that first start.

That's so powerful that you were really young. I hope you get that feedback a lot. It's pretty incredible. And as a practitioner, kind of hearing about your story, I think that what you were introduced to is actually quite unique. So a lot of the videos that you share, like, if I go and look at them, the first thing I see in some ways is how playful it is. It's not like, you know, go grab your insanely heavy weights, focus on body alignment, look as serious as possible, and then give me 20. Right? You're moving your body in ways that most people would, like, dream of, but you're doing it in a way almost like a gymnast, right? And I think by trying those movements out when you were younger probably played a big part in this, like, total mind and body connection, as opposed to someone just thinking they need to be really serious and go do something hard at the gym. So I wanted to give you that reflection because I think it's really powerful. And I think that's part of what you introduce to the communities that you work with and the people that you work with, because a lot of people, when they focus on doing things themselves, there's dropout, right? They drop out after a little while, they quit, they give up. We all stop. We've all been there. But often when we introduce more of a group format or community format, 90% plus, I think was the statistic, 95% plus are more committed to staying. So what type of people are in your community?

In the community that we have online, it is definitely a lot of people that F this motivation. They, they, they, they either know or did not know, but that, that within themselves, they're very interested in working out. But we want to spark that in a very, um, just fun way because there's plenty of that. Like you said, Looking Serious, Give Me 20, there's plenty of those type of videos online, especially already even in 2016, there were already plenty of videos about that. So when I started doing more fitness videos, or workout videos. I like soon realized quite fast that I didn't want to do those serious videos also because I was still 16. And I was more focused on, you know, how many push-ups can I do in 30 seconds? Make it a challenge. Someone that watches that can do push-ups in 30 seconds because he's trying to beat me because he just saw me do this online. And I just got someone off the couch and do push-ups as fast as possible in 30 seconds. And that's kind of has been the philosophy since. So it's a lot of people that they're probably not elite-level athletes, but they are the mainstream audience that is kind of interested in working out, or maybe they didn't know yet that it could actually be fun.

I think honestly, it's, um, it's something that makes you really, really unique. Watching a lot of the videos inspires you to want to move and be kind of in that playful attitude. So I think that says a lot. We take ourselves way too seriously in this world. So it's powerful. And With that said, you know, I shared with you after I became a nutritionist, I noticed so much was within the mind. Everyone's obstacles were in the mind, stories that they would tell themselves, beliefs that they would have about themselves. I'm sure you've met with a lot of people who might even think they may never be fit or could never get toned abs or lean legs or whatever it is. So from what you see, how much is— how much of getting healthy is actually in the mind versus the physical body?

It's the way you look at it, because if you look at the physiological aspect of it and really the body, you would say, oh, if you followed the right bullet points and the right things, you would definitely get fit. So it would be obviously mainly physical. But I think if you look at it from a perspective of actually doing the right things, making the right choices, not overthinking, yeah, it's a 50-50 because you have to make these decisions. You have to not get in your head, not 'Cause people can also talk about them when it comes to even cheat meals or bad foods. People talk to themselves like, oh, I actually need this, or I actually deserve this every single day. And this is how you get into a spiral where you're in a cycle that doesn't end. And that's how you, you know what you have to do. You have the bullet points right in front of you, but you prevent yourselves mentally from getting fit because of an example like that. So yeah, it's the way you look at it, but it's a big thing.

And do people ask you if you have cheat meals? Do you have cheat meals?

People definitely ask me. I, uh, honestly, I, I, I definitely do. Cause it's just like, that's the thing. It's part of it. If you have, um, for me, it just shouldn't be in the, in the routine. So, um, if I, if, if I routinely plan something in, then you sort of already plan. So I'm super happy with the diet I have, which is really clean. But if I then yesterday, I, uh, took my entire team out for dinner and I definitely had dessert, you know, like I shared dessert with my girlfriend. So again, like it's part of it, but I wouldn't put it in my ideal routine. But even then, it's possible. It's all fine.

I'm sensing you're like me. Like if I have this, I don't call it a cheat meal. It doesn't feel like cheating. When you become so kind of falling in love with feeling yourself, feeling your best every day with how you eat, how you move, how you show up, when you fall off plan, there's no falling off. Like, I hate the expression falling off the wagon. There's no wagon. It's, it's life. You're going to have moments of high, moments of low, and you have to just simply move through it. It doesn't have to define you. In your 90-day community, do you have people who want to give up after missing a day? What's your languaging around that?

That's a really fun one. That is such a big thing, and I think that's why the expression you just used, as the falling off the wagon, is the bad way to look at it, because that means you kind of you can only fall off the wagon once, so you can get back up, but like, you still fell off the wagon. And if you just never approach it like that, it's just part of the— you just took a little bit of a different route, but you're still on the wagon. That is obviously the approach you have to take. So there's plenty of people that want to quit and will quit and do quit after just skipping one day. But the messaging behind that should obviously be continue, consistency. Look at— if you look back even next week, you probably already forgot about it. It's just the fact that you continued for these next 7 days in order to just be able to say, oh wait, actually last week I had a day off or skipped a day or whatever. But you know, it happened. It's part of it. It's life. It's like I— and then you continue for another year and you completely forgot about that day and it literally made zero impact. But it would have made a lot of impact if that one day would have defined you and stopped you from working out or getting healthy for an entire year.

I love it. It's almost like we need to break up with that way of being, right? Media and society tell us that falling off the wagon is something that's going to happen, and it's almost like a sales pitch, right? To want to make you feel bad enough about yourself so that you find something else to do. But instead, you just accept it, and this is just a way of life. We have to stop that languaging altogether. I'm going to keep going back to your 90-day program. One, I'm a very A-type person. Like, when I see some sort of a challenge or something like that, I really want to commit and show up, especially things around around movement. And I wasn't always that way, but like you, I went through a phase in my life where I trained for something. I trained for a 3-day marathon, and it changed the way that I felt within my body. It showed me what I was capable of. So, are you noticing some trends in your community? Like, is there a journey that people go on in the 90 days of being really excited and then wanting to fail and thinking they can't do it, and then getting excited and motivated? Do you notice?

100%. Yeah, 100%. The trend that I would see from the— well, definitely first, it actually already starts in the first week. So after a week is within this first week, people have to stay consistent because that's how you build that routine. A little bit of that routine, it starts creeping in, which is good. So if they— it's so easy to say You know what, this is not for me. I just tried 3 workouts and it's not for me. But you gotta keep going. And we see that a lot of people are starting really high and then they, they go down a little bit, but then they can also, they can either give up or they actually continue. And then once they continue, you can see that they kind of push, they push to the day 30 mark. And then the, the 30-day mark is sort of a revelation for them. It's, it's something where they notice, wait, I actually made a lot of progress by just being consistent in, in only 30 30 days, and my body is responding. And that's what, what is a big eye-opener. And that's where people can really, um, yeah, just keep a consistent wave to day 90. Obviously, uh, is that's where sometimes it can get a little bit hard depending on someone's journey. If they go on holiday or if they have something in between, that's where they are challenged, obviously, because it's the first time encountering that while living this sort of new lifestyle. Um, but then anything towards day 90 is excitement again, and that's where you Always the goal is to keep going.

And do you have any specific tricks, like, or are you an advocate for moving in the morning versus at night? Like, are there— when you talk about routine, are you trying to instill it at certain times throughout the day? Do you encourage people to get outside? What has really worked?

What has really worked is building on top of already existing routine habit. So if someone really likes basketball, I'm not going to make you walk the treadmill a lot. Like, well, I'm not going to make you walk the treadmill every single day. I'm going to ask you, hey, you're liking basketball a lot. Let's play for like, let's play 3 times a week or let's try to get some, you know, friends who try to practice more. And then you get some really easy, we call it sometimes free cardio where it just is effortless. So that's one of those things where it builds, it builds health, it burns calories, it's great and it just feels effortless. The same applies to diet. If someone is skipping breakfast and they really don't like making breakfast, I'm not going to force you to eat breakfast if you already skip breakfast. Well, let's build on top of your current diet and make sure you have a, you know, your first meal is a nutritious meal. It's a good meal. And after that, you can plan your workout so that goes hand in hand so you have enough energy for the workout. So we try to build on top of a current and an existing Uh, yeah, habits, routine.

Here's why I love that so much. I think that the future of healthcare, how everyone feels, how we age, has to be about personalization. And for everyone listening, I think that's something that Stan is also mentioning, is that you have to make it your own. Like, you have to look at your life, look at the things that you love doing, look at the way that you love moving, and make it your own. You have to become an advocate for yourself. And although, like, having a coach or a trainer is always going to be insanely powerful, we We all benefit from having a coach or someone cheer us on. But ultimately, if you can figure out kind of like what your physical body, this amazing vessel that you have, needs every day because it makes you feel good, you're going to be more inspired and committed to stay that path, right? And for listeners thinking that they need to go and spend a lot of money on a gym membership or spend a lot of money on expensive equipment, do you have a message for them? What do they need?

I mean, the, the fun, the easy answer, the honest answer there is you can literally start in any way. Like getting fit. If you start walking outside, if you start doing push-ups at home, like try to at least build some routine, try to teach yourself or like that's why we also have the app that we have as well is there's, there's a lot of free stuff. So it's like people can join entire programs for free. So it's like, see what you can do at home. Um, there's so many things you can do. Obviously outside is completely free. There's parks, there's so many things. And for diet, yeah, I mean, um, most of the time eating less but still healthy stuff is still cheaper than if people get takeout or McDonald's every single day. So I don't think the budget for diet has to be— that has to break the bank at all. It's all about finding just not too, too crazy processed foods. Just keep it as natural as possible in that sense. And don't— yeah, you don't need to break the bank.

It's actually so much cheaper, honestly. Like, if we just focus on buying real food, it's so much cheaper than buying all the ultra-processed stuff that exists out there. Yeah, people need to understand, like, CPG is such a big profit-based industry that it's also not out for our highest health as well. So it's like reconditioning. We just have to break up with a lot of those things and go back to basics one more time. What's the name of your app?

Called 90 Day Challenge, literally 90 Day Challenge. And that's based, funny enough, on that story is the first 90-day challenge I ever did was with my sister. She gained a lot of weight. She was obese. And obviously the heart problem does not help with that and the medicine. So I helped her get fit in 90 days. And that story just resonated with so many people that it turned into helping my brother even get fit, then best, like, some of my friends. And that turned into other YouTubers, celebrities, streamers, where we help people or just help them get fit in 90 days. And that series was so popular, people wanted to join. And we were like, all right, let's launch something. So we launched something. It was a success. And they were like, all right, we want this to be an app so we can actually provide the most value. 'cause if you have a website, it's really hard to update and stuff like that. So we wanted to have just an entire app with everything, with a lot of free stuff as well. And that's how that 90-day challenge started.

It's so powerful, yeah. So Stan was sharing with me before we were recording around his sister having the same heart surgery as me. And she's had a pacemaker, unfortunately, for a structural issue from a really young age. So it's for everyone, right? And I wanted to point that out about your sister because a lot of people will identify with stories And I remember when I was overweight, when I was on a prescription medication, when I had my heart condition, I identified with being sick. "Oh, this is me. I can't ever do those things. I'm never going to be able to do a triadventure." And what I didn't tell you is that my brother, who's 10 years older than me, so my brother, like your sister with you, was the one who looked at me one day. He's like, "How's that story working out for you?" because he asked me to join him on a triadventure. And I— it's like when someone you love says it to you, you feel it with the love, but you also take it very seriously. And it was him that inspired me to start training. And then I got a personal trainer and then someone taught me how to run. I found a cardiologist who would support me in that. And then my life changed and I did the first triadventure with him. So family is everything. Enroll someone that cares about you deeply to get fit with. They obviously have your best interest in mind.

Yeah, that's so impressive.

Yeah.

Even makes that 3-day marathon more impressive.

Yeah. It was a doozy. It was a good one. All right, let's put a bit of an ancient wisdom spin on this, right? So ancient wisdom has told us for centuries how we treat our body is going to have a direct impact on how we feel every day, how we show up, and it reflects on how we feel on the outside but also on the inside. Does that resonate with how you've seen people get fit, that there's a transition that happens when it starts with the physical body, but then there's something intrinsic that happens?

100%. It's a lot of people that, especially that lose a lot of weight, they just feel like, for me at least what I've noticed is they feel in a way that they never thought they would feel or they could feel.

Feel.

So it's the possibility of ever feeling the way they're feeling healthy, fit, agile. That is the biggest notice and the biggest thing I've noticed and the most inspiring thing that I see when someone— there's literally someone that we've helped over more than a year to lose 100 pounds and he just, he moves completely different and he feels so different. And that is mentally also very noticeable.

So cool. It must feel so good to get that feedback from so many people. Like you're witnessing transformation in front of you all the time. It's so cool.

Yeah, it's amazing. I love it. It's literally, it's, it's, yeah, it's so cool. It's my favorite series as well. It's so, yeah, it's so cool to work on.

I love hearing the stories because, you know, we become addicted, especially from social media these days, to thinking that we need to invest in a protocol or a pill or a product in order to feel better. But movement, it shifts our hormones, it shifts our energy, it shifts our metabolism, it shifts our mood. Benefits our sleep, like every single bucket, but you just have to have the consistency. It's so key.

Yeah, every single point. And that's— people underestimate a lot of basic things when they look at, oh, how do I get fit? I need to get to this gym with this equipment or this diet. But it's just try getting your steps in outside and you already feel different. But obviously Really resistance training, I will never, never say no to.

Yeah, good point. And I can imagine too, like you, like all of us, we see so many trends that come and go, whether it's a product or a type of movement or biohack for crying out loud. Is there a trend that you're seeing right now or that you have seen that, you know, isn't really worth it? Can you think of any?

I have a hot take in that, in that sense. When um, but it will make sense to a lot of people. But if you take it out of context, it might be a bit weird. But I think a very overrated, uh, uh, way of working out right now is to overanalyze movement, especially for the ones that don't need it. Because 90% of people would still benefit from just actually don't overcomplicate working out. Do the basic movements, progress at those, get— start lifting heavier. Obviously keep the form right. But if you do it at a 45 or 44 4-degree angle, that does not matter for you right now, for most people in the gym right now. So people are worried about if they do the lift, not the form, the form is very important, but if they do the most optimal lift, but they actually just started working out for, you know, 3, 6 months, maybe a year, that they should be focused on actually just progressive overload on the basic movements.

So good. So true. And what about, you know, we're seeing a movement away from cold plunging here. Do you cold plunge over there?

Oh, cold plunging. I have, yeah, I actually made also a day documentary with Wim Hof. Oh, cool. It was a very fun day and it was a, it was also sort of eye-opening, but it was also more a mental eye-opener because it was just, it just proved that I could definitely stay way longer in the cold than I expected to stay. And it was just, it pushed myself, but I like conscious therapy just as a challenge for the body. But interesting to hear that it's moving away from it, that there's a trend moving away from it.

Yeah, I think that, you know, it might be good for someone temporarily, but consistency every single day, I think it's just another one of those things you have to tune in. One, how does it feel? And is it supporting you? Is it improving your performance? Is it improving your mood, your energy and stuff like that? A big part of that is for women as well to not be cold plunging as well. Or not cold plunging full body, but like you, I went on a retreat where we went to Minnesota, and we had to watch people drill holes into ice for hours before we had to walk outside and like mentally prepare to go into— Crazy. It's crazy, but you'll probably agree there's something that happens when you're in the cold that feels so therapeutic where you kind of get to this baseline of feeling a bit of bliss even, right? Yeah, I remember somebody had to tell me to get out of the water. It's like, okay, time's up. You gotta get out of here.

I personally, yeah, I do kind of, I like it. And if I would be building a new studio, I would definitely be adding a sauna and cold plunge, but just for the sake of, I really enjoy it.

Yeah, I get it. And how do you see recovery? What are you doing for recovery?

For me, again, the basic answer, but really simple. Sleep. Sleep is the most important thing basically in life, but that is the way I approach it. But obviously the proper diet. You need to hit your protein. If you want to perform, you should not underestimate the use of carbs and listening to the body. If you feel like you're getting injured, if your lifts are going down, if it's not feeling right, allow your body to recover in a sense, even by just waiting longer. You don't need to necessarily go and go to a retreat or resort to right away recover, but listening to the body.

Yeah. And I know listeners are gonna wanna know, you probably get this question all the time, everybody wants to know what you eat. But in that, can you really define the types of carbs that you encourage people to eat?

Oh yeah, of course. So I start my day off with, with eggs, egg whites, with beans as a more complex carb and adds a little bit extra protein. But it's a really good carb source to start the day off just to make sure that there's not too, too much glucose going into the bloodstream right away or creating a spike. It's really good for that. And there's obviously the fats from the, from the eggs that all make the digestion a little bit slower, which is great for the start of the day., and there's a little bit of lean chicken in there. So besides that, uh, so that's the carb source right there. Then in the carb source later, uh, as lunch, it could be something very similar, uh, or it would be, uh, a sort of bread with avocado and eggs and, and either chicken. Uh, again, um, besides that, so again, that's a, those are all a little bit slower carbs. When I go for performance carbs, you will definitely see me, uh, uh, sometimes even add, uh, obviously honey to certain things, or it's a rice cake with some of those honey, a little bit of salt. Or you will get the electrolyte gels, which have 30g carbs, um, and fruits. I love myself bananas, mangoes, uh, just as a little bit more faster carbs. And these are my pre-workout, basically. Uh, post-workout, got my low-fat yogurts with some blueberries, uh, and Then as dinner, there will be a, it will be some pasta with, or rice with a protein source, fish or again, beef, chicken, anything, and lots of veggies, like a lot of veggies there, which is sort of sums up the style of my diet.

So let me reframe it from a nutritionist lens. Good quality protein, really great quality carbohydrates that come from the earth, good quality fats. And I think the biggest thing that I want people to hear about your diet it is variety and diversity. You're getting like a pretty big variety of foods into your gut. And from what we're learning around everything with the gut microbiome, there's specific microbes within the gut that support your metabolism and your cravings and your energy throughout the day. So variety is key. I love that you threw beans in there. I love that you talked about the leafy greens and the berries and stuff like that. It's so, it's so key.

Yeah. And obviously a lot of water, but that's, yeah, lots of water. I, I, I sweat a decent amount. I have, at some point I did a sweat test where you could see how much you actually, like how much salt you, I am not afraid for, uh, supplementing with, uh, with some extra salt. It actually helped me a lot because I work out a lot with, uh, with cramps. So I add some, uh, sea salt sometimes to certain things or just plain salt, or there's the electrolytes that I supplement with. But those are, uh, Um, there's already plenty of research on those, but it helped me actually just adding a little bit of salt right before a workout to not get cramps. And for example, if I do pull day, my forearms would just literally cramp up at the end of the, it would, it would be crazy. And now that is all gone. So I'm happy, but it's, the diet is playing a big role for my performance.

So good. And what about fruit? Do people ask you about fruit all the time? That's one of the questions that I get. They think that they need to avoid fruit.

That they need to avoid fruit.

Yeah, it's not wild.

Yeah, because there's sugars in them, right? That's what people say. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I love myself fruit. So actually, in the morning, I also have either, right now I'm in a more of a deficit preparing for something, but normally I would have a pear, like a, so, cause I try to get a variety of food, right? So I have a pear in the morning, but then right before the workout, I could have a banana. Uh, I could have a bit of mango. Um, I like grapes, but then in my post-workout, I enjoy, uh, blueberries. So stuff like that, a variety of fruits. But fruits are amazing because, uh, especially for sometimes a, a banana will give you a little bit quicker, um, carbs. And those help me during my performance for the workout. But they are not scary at all. They are amazing, an amazing source from nature.

Honestly, I feel like some people are just so addicted, or they know that they can just go after clickbait, and they— the second they say fruit is the cause of you not being able to lose weight, people just believe it. And it's wild. If a food doesn't have an ingredient label on it, it comes from nature, and you're balancing that with protein and fiber like you had mentioned, then you're great to go. Notice how it makes you feel better. For most of my clients, do you know that when they consume maybe 2 to 3 fruits a day or like a high focus on berries, their sugar cravings at night actually dissipate. It goes away because your body feels satiated, right? We have a, a taste bud for sweetness for a reason. So trust that. I think it's key.

That's cool. Yeah, that's so cool. And I know, I think it's funny, people that do that, it's 100% has to be clickbait cuz I've never experienced someone that, uh, I don't think there's a lot of cases of people, uh, overdoing fruit and that's the reason they gained weight. It's probably another part of their diet.

Or no sleep, right? Something else that they're doing. All right, so for everyone listening, is there a single habit, if someone did nothing else, what do you think from your experience, what would move the needle the most?

Oh, the single most important part of the routine That's a, that's a, that's a tricky one because if I would say sleep, there's so many people that get great sleep and they are still not very healthy because they just enjoy their 9 hours of sleep and maybe they, uh, I don't know. Yeah, if you have plenty of time and, but I think feel great and look decent is probably diet, but that's a very, very big big thing to do. So besides that, what could move the needle is actually walking outside after each meal for 10 minutes. That could be a good start, a good starting habit too, with not an insane amount of effort. Diet might still be an insane effort, but diet will move obviously the biggest part of results for most people. Oh, that's such— it's such a hard question. I don't want to pin it down, but you kind of got my answer. So for a super small habit, it is walking outside probably for 10 minutes after every single meal. But besides that, diet will give you the biggest results.

I'm with you. Yeah, look, food is information, right? Food is going to tell your body how to act, how to behave, how to age well as well. But I think something that's really unique, and let's— this is probably how you started the conversation as well, is the power of your routine, right? So if routine every day governs our behavior and governs how we show up every day and governs our outcome and governs our weight and governs how we age, I think you said it best. It's really looking at what your routines are. Do you have routines in place that are driving the outcome that you want to feel and achieve? Or are those routines working against you? It's awareness.

And I think that last part, if a routine is working against you, that is 90% or 99% of the time the case, and people don't even realize it because they have these habits that they don't understand or don't want to acknowledge or bad and they are literally sabotaging anything that might, like, I can tell you to walk for 10 minutes after each meal, but if your habits or your routine is so sabotaged or so bad, basically these habits that you created, it can't undo it. It's about really rewiring that routine to still, to a degree, make it effortless. And it will get effortless because that's what I also mentioned in this conversation, of course, how The body is impressive in adaptability, and I think people underestimate that, or maybe overestimate how hard it is. If they stick to a new routine, within 2 to 3 weeks, your body sees it as the new routine. If you've done it very consistently, you won't be craving that McDonald's anymore or that, that fast food. It's actually— it, for some, it might take longer, for some it might take shorter, but it doesn't feel as like you, you're not craving anything else anymore. It's just your body adapted. And people have to understand that that's literally just part of the superpower that your body has.

Oh, good word, superpower. Yeah, I think what, um, a way that I'm hearing you say that is like, if you're— I think anyone can build a new habit. Anyone can do anything for 2 weeks or 21 days or 28 days or whatever it is. But we keep going back to this concept of what becomes you, right? So maybe a reframe for listeners would be, you know, a habit is something when you wake up, you're like, what do I have do today? Do you have to move? Do you have to eat well? It's like these things that feel like have-tos. But when you think about the power of the ritual or the routine, it's like, "How do I want to feel today? How do I want to show up? What do I need to do in order to show up that way?" And it's a slightly different shift, but it feels different in your body. Something that you have to do versus a way that you want to feel, I think, is really going to drive positive outcomes. And I promise you, And gosh, the stories that you shared today as well, it's like you've got the proof. People are inspired to become that once they feel the difference. You just need the ignition, right? You track everything. You've mentioned, you know, your workouts, your progress, you know, whether it's something that you've— you're training for, a stack that you're shifting because you need to show up in a different way. What's the best way for someone to start doing that if that's a new concept to them? Like, how does somebody know how to shift their routine if they need to train? A lot of people— let's put this through the lens of like spring and summer, right? A lot of people wanna train for their summer body, but how do they start tracking to get noticeable changes?

That is a very good one. The most simplistic version of this would probably be to, um, to try and iterate. So you calculate your maintenance calories if you really want to see results. I am a big fan of just doing it the most productive way, and that is exactly knowing what you can change. Because if you're doing it on feeling and don't want to calculate calories, it becomes a little bit difficult because then you would do a— you have to change foods and swap foods and see what works. But if you want to do the easiest way, in my opinion, it will just take a little bit of tracking your food. Then you calculate maintenance calories. So let's say that would be 2,500 calories for for someone, and you try to sit below that 300 calories, eat 2,200 calories if you want to lose a little bit faster, 2,100 calories, and you eat that for at least 7 to 10 days. You track your food in a tracking app and you, um, really try to track it. So weigh things. You will learn so much about tracking food. I've learned a lot, uh, about tracking food over the past years, but already in the the first 30 days that I started tracking, I learned most of the things where I, I was like, wait, does this already weigh so much? Or wait, is there so many calories in these dressings or sauces? Like, wow, you're learning. It's a, it's an eye-opener and that's great new info that you can, that you can take with you now for the rest of your life. So this is what you're doing. And then after 10 days you can see, hey, I'm losing weight. I still feel it's, it's a bit of a challenge, but I still feel good. Then you're on the right track. If you're not losing weight, you might be having— you need to lower your calories by a little bit more to see a weight loss, or you need to track your calories a little bit stricter. It's either one of the two, and you will probably see results. And try that again for 7 to 10 days, and then you're probably— when it's summer, I would not recommend to start before summer a few days, but start before, you know, give yourself probably, I don't know, 60 days. And so you have— you don't have— you don't feel too stressed, so you don't feel like you need to to you, maybe 90 days. That's why it's the 90-Day Challenge, so you don't feel too stressed. You— so I need to get fit in 30 days, I need to eat 1,000 calories a day. Yes, then you're gonna build bad habits for yourself, for your body. Your body's not gonna like it, just gonna struggle. Um, give yourself enough time. But yeah, be honest with yourself, track the calories, and, uh, iterate, learn from that.

Yeah. And if anyone's brain just shut down from that and the word restriction, maybe that's going to be inspiration for you to move a little bit more. And this is where You and I would make a great team. So a lot of people that I work with, um, when you've lived in your body for so long, you aren't always aware of your bad habits, right? Or of the calories that sneak in or the excess sugar or fats or processed foods. So I often get my clients to write down a 3-day food journal. No sugarcoating anything, just write down everything that you consume— drinks, beverages, foods, snacks, all of it— for 3 days. And then they, more often than not, they don't even need me to go through it. They're like, "Oh, look at how many snacks I had here. I crave sugar here. I put, you know, those sugary creamers into my coffee 4 times that day." And it's like they can witness themselves where all of those excess, call them, you know, calories that just don't serve you. They don't serve your energy, your mood, or your output at all. It's just excess garbage that you're putting in. So try a 3-day food journal, but just like witness, witness what you're consuming every single day. Just by doing that, you're going to be inspired to have change. So it's a good one.

That's so good. That's really good. Because if you ask someone to write down what they ate yesterday, instead of doing what they're going to eat today, they will write down so much less because they sugarcoat it even for themselves. They think they're writing down the truth, but their brain is just sugarcoating it. And that's just a funny way how the human brain works. And I think that's If someone is watching, like, they're not alone, or listening, they're not alone in that. But that's why it's so much better to actually write down 100% of what you're taking in of the current day, not yesterday.

You got it. So beautiful. All right, we're getting to wrapping things up, but I want to share some fun stories. You've met with some fun celebrities online. You and I both share Will Smith in common. You got to work out with him. He, a while back, I don't know if you know this, but we worked on a TV series together where it was the best shape of his life. Life, and he wanted to get into the best shape and wanted to have a variety of movements and stuff like that. And it was really fun. But what was it like being with him? And maybe there's another story you can share with everyone.

That was so fun. We actually have the video dropping, uh, it, it's going live this Saturday. And we, uh, we worked out, uh, and he is such a fun character where we— he's actually really fit, uh, so, uh, he's really fit, especially looks great for 57 as well. Like, it was just impressive being there. It's like, wow, this guy is, is so fit still, and he's seriously working out. But that, um, was so unique. I talked about with him about how important food was, and it's also fun to hear that as like food and working out, and he takes it seriously. But also, of course, even Will Smith with all the connections and all, all the fame, he's still struggling sometimes with diet. And that was fun to, to also talk about and get into the, uh, get into the conversation. But it was an amazing I love that.

Yeah, I spent a lot of time teaching him yoga. So it turned into a little bit more of the spiritual side of things, but he's human, right? All of these people that you see out there in the world, they're human. Gosh, he travels so much. But yeah, he is a strong man. He's super, super fit. Stan, tell us something about what you're excited about for the future. What's to come? What are you looking forward to?

For me, I am always excited about just exploring new ways to get working out or just healthy lifestyle so much more mainstream. Because I still think there's such a— the way we talk about, um, lifestyle, working out, health, diet, I think everyone would benefit off just at least being aware of how good someone can feel, how much progress you can make, what type of lifestyle you can live and, and feel amazing. And I think that's what I'm really always trying to push mainstream in the most, uh, fun way possible. And I'm just excited to what we're gonna be coming up with myself and the team over the next, well, years to actually make that happen and get that message across. And of course, 90-day challenges, helping people get fit is just, yeah, that's the favorite thing to do.

I love it. I guess to close off, you know, what's one takeaway that you can leave our listeners with for the person who's overcomplicated it, for the person who feels so far from their goal? What could you say to them?

If anything that you should take away from listening to this, it is what you got in your mind right now and you want to do, do it. Just the smallest thing, just don't do it right now. It's just literally the hardest thing is probably getting off the couch and actually getting in movement of doing that thing. Just shut off that, like, should I do it or not? Just do it right now. See what happens. That's the most important I think just do it.

Can you give us a quick shout out then where to find you, the 90-day program as well?

You can find the 90-day challenge on every single platform. You can download it on every app store. And you can find me on @StemBrownie on Instagram and Brownie on YouTube. Recently we hit 11 million subscribers, which we're celebrating. So that's massive. And yeah, those are the two main platforms. I am on TikTok, I am on other platforms, but I really care more about— we make big video documentaries, very high quality, and also fun experiences there. So we're really focused on long-form video.

They are so fun.

You can find me there.

Stan, it's been so fun just like learning about you and being inspired by you as well. Thank you so much for, for speaking to my community. And I think you're living proof, right? Like, you were somebody who was told that your body was the problem, and you've built this incredible career showing other people that it's not your body and that you can actually move so, so far beyond that. Your body is never the problem. So thanks for joining me. To be continued. I wish you all the success.

This was such a fun, fun conversation. I really enjoyed it. Thank you so much for having me.