Dane Fuller: Is Breakfast Really The Most Important Meal Of The Day? This Health And Fitness Entrepreneur Says Yes
29 Jun 2023 · 49 min
Dane Fuller, founder of Fuller oatmeal, argues that a protein-rich breakfast with fiber helps with weight loss. He shares the 'I'M GAME' framework for sustainable change: identify your why, set mindset and goals, find accountability and community, and educate yourself.
Questions this episode answers
23–26 grams of protein per serve.
About four hours (he calls it a “four hour” breakfast).
Chapters
I do really believe 100% from every part of me that everyone has the capacity to be able to do the things that they want and not to be held back by the mental baggage that's in our head that we want to push through.
Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. In each episode, we get down and personal with people who go after the things they want to make all their wildest dreams come true. Join us as we unveil and dissect a formula for what it takes to do the thing. Here is your host, Stacy Lauren.
Hey, everyone. Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. This is your host, Stacy Lauren. I love connecting with awesome people on a mission to help others live their best lives. And today's guest is doing just that. This guest is passionate about all things wellness and fitness. His dream was to launch a brand to serve people looking to lose weight and improve their health. As he pondered what type of business he should build, he noticed a trend with so many in the weight loss communities. Frequent snacking. But it wasn't out of boredom or habit. They were genuinely hungry. And our guest made it his mission to solve this problem to help them be more successful in their weight loss journeys. In this interview, you'll get to hear from the founder of Fuller, a brand dedicated to creating healthy breakfast foods to keep you fuller for longer. And I can't wait for you to discover how losing weight and taking control of your health follows every step of the do the Thing formula. Please welcome Dane Fuller to the show.
Hi, Stacey. Thanks so much for having me.
Yeah. I'm so excited to be able to dive in because I know you're doing such amazing things.
Thank you. That's fantastic. I'm looking forward to sharing it with you. Good.
And for the listeners, you're in Australia, right?
No, close. Very close to Australia.
New Zealand.
Can you get. Yeah, you got it. Okay. Difficult one to forget sometimes acting as finished settlers. Yeah.
And so it's so neat because we're a day apart. So you're in the future.
Yeah. I can tell you what, I'm not sure whether you call it lotto, you know, when you choose the numbers and win money.
Oh, the lotto.
Yeah.
Huh?
That's right. You want to know? I'll give you the numbers.
Well, I'd love to start off and just hear all about you and your story because I know you're doing amazing things with helping people lose weight, and I'd love to just kind of hear how that got started and more about that specifically.
Yeah, sure, Stacey. That's the Sort of the genesis of my brand. I had to go back a number of years to find what it was that I really wanted my next brand to be about. And when I first found my, my passion in my career, it was helping people to lose weight. And so I left university, qualified as a nutritionist and also an exercise science as well. And then I went ahead and got a certificate in nlp, so Neuro Linguistic Program. And I used those three elements of nutrition, exercise and behavior change to really focus on helping people to change their behavior so they could lose weight and be healthy. And I did that for a number of years. I had a business where we had about 10 or 12 different clinics throughout the country. And it was something that I was really passionate about. And I was also really passionate about building business as well. I had these two things going on. One was health and fitness and the other one was about building business. And it helped me achieve, well, those things, which was help with fitness and weight loss. But in terms of scanning the business to the level I wanted to get it to, it was really difficult because it became sort of more about me and it was difficult to scale. And that brought me to E Commerce and E Commerce allowed me to scale. And I tried some different brands, but they weren't in health and fitness and they just didn't really connect for me. And this latest brand that I've just launched, it's called Fuller, that was something that brought me back to health and fitness. It was something I was passionate about. It was something that was the main thing. The product that I created was the main thing that actually helped people to lose weight. Back when I was consulting, sitting down with them, asking, you know, what, what their diet record was for the week and changes I can make, this was the one thing that I would get them just to change, which was their breakfast.
Yeah, so. So tell us about it, what is it, what does it do and how did you start it?
So breakfast is designed to help people to feel for a longer period of time. And that was the main thing that I found when I was consulting with people to lose weight was that they were eating out of hunger and most of the time was because they didn't start the day well enough, was a really good meal to keep them full. And, and when you are trying to make changes in your health and fitness and lose weight and you're making decisions when you're hungry, your decision is going to be poor decision, you're making those more poor place. If I could help to keep people full for a long period, of time, then I could rely on them to make good decisions and they didn't have to rely on willpower, which was the thing that let them down. So this breakfast was one that I had designed for myself. I was a rower and I was a lightweight rower. So it meant that I had to have a really filling meal which allowed me to train. That kept my weight off and also a really good level of protein and really slow release carbohydrates. And so I researched and tried to find what would be the best breakfast for me. Up until this time, my diet in the morning was pretty much Rice Krispies and canned peaches and it just wasn't good enough. It wasn't keeping me full for a long period of time. And so I found that oatmeal was being researched as one of the most filling breakfasts that you could have. The problem was that I hated it. I tried it and I just couldn't stand it. It was like eating mash. It was tasteless and I just couldn't do it. So I made a number of changes to it over a period of time that allowed me to eat it and then eventually to really enjoy it became my, my favorite meal of the day. And so I recreated that breakfast and I packaged it so that people could create it themselves without the time that it took to create it. And so this blend of oatmeal that I've got, it tastes really good. So it was really important for people to enjoy it. It's got a high level of protein, so we've got like 23 to 26 grams of protein per serve. It's a really large serve, so it's at least 50% larger than a lot of the other single serve oatmeal pouches that you can buy. And it's got loads of fruits in it and I've got about between one and two serves of fruit and that's a half a cup to a cup of fruit in each pouch of oatmeal. And we've got probiotics, seeds, really high fiber, and it's also got milk powder. So what you're going to do is just add water to it, soak it overnight and it's ready to go the next morning.
Wow. Okay. I'm trying that. I really am because I feel like I get so hungry after breakfast and then actually that's what I just did. So it's 11 o' clock here, 11:30 here, and I just grabbed a banana right before our interview because I'm still hungry.
So excited. Yeah. So this type of breakfast that I've just described, then, you know, I say it's a four hour breakfast. So it'll keep people full for four hours, but surely before they feel the need to eat again. And if you can do that, you can have a really filling breakfast that keeps you full for a long period of time. Then all you need to do during the day is just to top it up. And it's like putting this big log on the fire that slowly burns throughout the day and then all you got to do is just top that up to keep all the top ones at hunger. And it's a really good place to make decisions from. And that's the reason that people can lose weight as a result of having a really good breakfast like that. Not just the breakfast itself, because a lot of things within that breakfast that do help with weight loss, but that feeling of fullness which allows them to make better decisions. And it's those good decisions which then result in weight loss.
So when you're helping people lose weight, and now is it just through this product or are you still coaching them and helping them in that way, or do you have supportive stuff through your site to encourage them?
Yeah, that's it. So the product and then we have supportive material as well. So when you buy the product, you get access to our Facebook group, which is called Secrets of the League. And when you get the product, you also have access to a whole lot of material. So I've got a 12 week weight loss program. I developed a 30 day pull up a longer email series. And so every day you get a link for 30 days with information in the email and also a link to a video which describes that one step that you can make to your food that will help you to feel fuller for a longer period of time. And that means that by making these changes, and for example, it could be just the way that you eat your meal or where you are or what you're thinking about, or the things that are going on around you while you're eating that meal. If you can feel fuller, that means you get to eat less and not be hungry. And so naturally, by having less calories, your weight's going to come down without you having to do any extra effort. But just doing some of these things that will help you to feel fuller for a longer period of time.
And so when you're, let's say we're talking to people that are looking to lose weight, what would be. So one step would be that for them to get this oatmeal or something that would help them be fuller in the morning. What would be another step you would recommend?
Well, I think the foundation is nutritional and that's where people should start. So normally what would happen, someone lost their livers, weight, they think about exercise. Well, there's two things actually. They think about exercise and when they think about exercise they go out there and they start to do too much. And so the main category of people that I really enjoy working with and this product was designed for is me. So busy men that are aged, you know, over 40 years old and so they're at that stage in life where if you go out when you're 40s or 50s and exercise like you were when you're in your 20s, they get injured. And then their plan or their strategy of losing weight through exercise, that it's hamstring straight away through injury. And so exercise is not the best place to start. So nutritional is the best place to start. And then with the nutrition, where is the best place to start with the nutrition? Well, it's breakfast. And so we've spoken about that, how we can have a really good breakfast and why that's important to start the day with a really good breakfast. And then outside of that, my next tip is that people eat regularly, don't wait until you're hungry. So the other thing that people really think they need to do is to be hungry and they will eat and then not eat again until they feel hungry and then decide it's time to eat. But like I've said before, it's a really bad strategy because when you're eating and you're hungry, what you tend to do is you overeat and you eat the wrong types of foods, you reach for energy dense foods. And so therefore my second tip is that people eat before they are hungry. So if you felt you were hungry at 11 o' clock when you had that banana, then it would have been better off for you to eat at 10:30 and to choose something that was going to be filling for you and you ate it before you were hungry. So you've got much more control over what you eat and how much fit that you eat.
Yeah, I really like that and I love the idea of noticing what your exercise levels are because I think people automatically assume that you exercise more and then you're going to lose weight. But in fact you could be doing the opposite.
You're just not ready for at the start of a weight loss program. Most people that want to lose weight, they don't have a good foundation of strength and fitness. And it takes about six weeks for your joints and your ligaments and your tendons to strengthen. And people don't give it six weeks before they ramp things up. The men that I spoke about, guys that are in their 40s and get out there gung ho. Normally it's at a change of the season. It could be springtime when summer's coming on and they get out there and they start to run at the heaviest weight. And this is the heaviest that they are in this process of losing weight. Right at the beginning of a program, they're at the heaviest. And so when they go out there and they're running, for example, there's a lot of weight and pressure going through the joints and it just predisposes them to injury. And from the experience that I've had helping people to lose weight, injury is a real killer. And it's, it's often the thing that tips people of this car of changing their behavior is injury. And so we've got to try and prevent that in the beginning. And you can make a lot more progress in terms of the amount of weight that you lose by focusing on nutrition first of all, rather than exercise. Exercise is really important. I love exercise, exercise a lot myself and it's really important. But I invite people to do that after they have made some progress with losing weight from nutrition. They've got a foundation of nutrition. And then once that starts to peter off or the weight loss starts to peter off for the changes they've made to the nutrition as then they can start to ramp up their exercise. And so I advise them in the beginning of a program, focus 80% on nutrition, 20% on exercise. And the 20% on exercise is just about forming the habit of exercise. It doesn't matter what you do. If you just get out there and exercise, walking the 20, 30 minutes three times a day, that's fine. Your focus is just on developing that habit. And then after a few weeks you've been working on nutrition by 80%, 20% for exercise after say six to eight weeks, then you can change that. And so your focus then starts to become more and exercise and you can maintain your nutrition. And then you increase the focus on exercise. At the end of that program, like a 12 week program, for example, your focus will be 80% exercise and 20% nutrition. Just maintaining those changes that you had made while you start to focus more on exercise. And then that's going to continue your weight loss without plateaus. So throughout that 12 week program, people will experience plateaus because they don't change, you're going to be continually changing. That's where this focus on having a really good focus on nutrition at the beginning, getting those really good benefits, the weight loss from nutrition. And you can change that to be more about exercise and then continue to change with exercise. Keep pushing yourself to be more and more calories.
I would love to. This is. I mentioned that when something's coming alive for me, I might go there and. Are you open? I have a Do the Thing formula which I feel like I want to go through with you on helping people lose weight. Is that okay if we kind of go through the acronym? Acronym. Okay. So with the do the Thing formula, it's an acronym and it's I'm game. And then the initials basically stand for. We'll kind of go through each one and I'd love to hear how you help people through your program company to be able to help them do these certain things. So we're starting with the I and I'm game, which is Identify the why. Is there a way that you help people identify the why when it comes to losing the weight or getting healthier and caring more about nutrition and being fuller for longer?
Yeah, I think that's really important, that it's definitely the best place to start identifying the why. So I agree with you 100% there. And then often we jump too much into the how without thinking about why and that's fine to get started, but we forget that the going gets tough and it gets really tough and we can relapse out of our changes if we don't have a strong enough why. And so the beginning of the program, then I think back to when I sat down with my clients. My first session was really digging in to discover what is the why? Why do you want to change? And so I would ask them what life is like now, what are the things that upsets them, what brought them here? And they talk about things like, well, you know, I. I saw a photo of me recently. It was at a function or a family Christmas event and I was the fattest one in the photo and I just couldn't look at myself. I was embarrassed by what it looked like. And then you can start to dig into that a little bit further than what that means and you can find a why as to why do you want to change? Well, I want to lose weight. Well, how would life be different? Well, I would feel more comfortable in that family setting. I wouldn't be so self conscious anymore. And what would that mean? Well, I could feel proud. I mean I might come back to their children. I'd be a good role model to my children. So you need to just keep digging and find why. Why is it that you want to change? And a good question for that is, how will life be different for you when you reach your goal? What will be different? And often people don't think that far ahead. They say, I want to lose 20 pounds. I want to lose 30 pounds. But how will that make your life different? What will you be able to do that you find difficult to do now? What type of person would you have to become to live that type of life?
I've actually been exploring this, identifying the why a lot lately. But I've always put it to identify why do you want to do the thing, meaning whatever the thing is in front of them. But I love the idea of asking, why do you want to make a change? Because that is really doing the thing right? Is making any kind of change.
Yeah, yeah, it's making a change. And I think it's really identifying what is it about your life now that is upsetting or that's uncomfortable, that is holding you back? You need to know exactly what that is, you know what that pain is. And then you need to look at the opposite and to find some pleasure in the future. So how would life be different if that wasn't there anymore? What types of things would you be doing at this weight that's 30 pounds lighter? Because it's not just the weight, it's what you can do at that weight. Just like if you said we wanted more money and wanted to wake up and send a million dollars in our bank account. Well, having a million dollars in the bank account doesn't necessarily immediately make our life better. But what types of things could we do in our life with that million dollars in the bank account? How would that make our life better? What would we do? How would we feel? And so people can have a really good picture. So I ask them to paint a picture of that future in their mind and write it down. And that's really powerful, to pull them forward so they can be pushed forward from the negative state that they are currently in and understand why that is. But also paint this picture of the future to know what it is that's pulling them forward, but also to know when they arrive. Because often people will have this really subjective point of view when it comes to weight loss of, you know, I want these 30 pounds, and then they lose 20 pounds, they lose 30 pounds, and they don't know when to stop. Because that goal that they had. It wasn't really clear enough, but if it was that wanted to wear this dress or the suit I've got in my wardrobe, I want to be able to wear that to my daughter's wedding. I want to be able to walk down the aisle and look great in the photograph and I want to be able to run for 10Ks or whatever. So something is really descriptive. You know, when you've reached that point, your estimation of 30 pounds might have been wrong. Maybe you need to lose 40 pounds to do all those things, or maybe it was only 20. And so that goal of weight loss is an estimation. It's not the end goal in itself. That picture around of all those things you want to be and achieve, that's the goal. So unless you know exactly what that is, what that picture looks like, you never know when you've achieved it. And people get stuck in the cycle of continually losing weight all of their life. Up and down, up and down. They never know exactly what it is that they want. They just think it's a number on the scale.
Okay, so now we're going to the next letter. So we did the I in I'm, which is identify the Y, and now we're moving on to the M in I'm, which is mindset. I'd love to hear how you approach mindset in terms of losing weight and getting healthier.
Well, mindset and in weight loss is typically about one thing, and it's about willpower. That's what people think it's about. They think it's all about willpower. And the thing with willpower is that it's a fantastic thing to have and it's a great thing to get you started. But when you need it most, that will not be there for you. Willpower will let you down. Willpower is a great short term solution and sure, you need some willpower to get moving, but it's not enough in the long term. And so if we're thinking about what type of mindset do you need to lose weight to change your behavior, then it's really about being a different person. And if you can think about your values and beliefs, use those to help you to move forward to be somebody different, then that's the mindset that you need to try and find. It's not enough to to just rely on willpower to get through. You've actually got to be someone different and make choices in your life that force you to be someone different. And so one of those is around integrity. No one likes having their integrity being vulnerable. And you've got to put your integrity on the line by disclosing what it is that you want to achieve. So you can do that to yourself and then you can write it down, you can share it with other people, and then you can make it public. And so by making this public, your integrity goes on the line to what it is that you want to achieve. And often people are really scared to do that because it's frightening. And like I said, you've got one of the most valuable things on the line, it's your integrity. And so they keep it to themselves. They keep their weight loss goals to themselves and then share it with anybody else. And while they do that, they have left the door open slightly ajar for an easy exit when the gun gets tough and willpower lets them down. They had left that door slightly ajar and they slipped out when no one's looking. So when it comes to mindset, for me, it's really about putting your integrity on the line to have to be someone different, be forced to be someone different than what you currently are. Because what you currently are and what you've currently been doing, if this is an ongoing problem for you, then it's just you're being the wrong type of person. You're not being, you're not living a life of a. A healthy, lean person. You are, you're wanting the results of a healthy living person, but you're living a lifestyle of someone who's not.
What would you suggest someone do to be able to live in integrity daily? Is there something when they're feeling weak and they're thinking they need to pull in their willpower, how do they tap into that integrity and be this person that they want to be?
Well, one, you've got to share that with other people. So it's not just you you're letting down, there's other people that are watching you. So it's not easy to escape. And then secondly, you need to be around different people. Take a look around the people that you spend the most of your time with. If they are inactive, if they are overweight, if they are unhealthy, then naturally you are going to be drawn to that type of behavior. When you go out with a group of people socially, you are going to mimic their behavior. You're going to eat the types of foods that they eat and drink as much as they drink and do or don't do the types of things that they do. So to change who you are, you've got to be around different people. And so the best thing that people can do is to join different sports, join a different exercise group of people. And let's say, for example, you joined the gym, but when you join the gym, you joined the, like an aerobics class or some type of group fitness class, or you joined a cycling group that goes out cycling every weekend. When you're around those types of people, then you are going to feel drawn to them, just like you did to your other group of people. But you want to fit in with them. So you're going to wear the same types of clothes as in, you know, when you go cycling with the cycle grid, they're all wearing Lycra and you've got used to wearing, like, you're going to feel a bit weird, but if you turn up and you're not wearing Lycra and everyone else is, then you're going to feel weird. So you change your behavior according to the group norms, and you're going to do the types of exercise that they do. When they talk about food that they're eating, and you might sit down and go to a cafe, and you're going to be learning from them and do the types of things that they do. And some of the most successful clients that I have had, that is what they have done. They have changed who they are and changed how they be by joining different groups, joining cycle groups, or getting into triathlons, getting into an iron man. And so that type of sport that helps them to change their behavior, not just through the exercise that they do, but the people that they are around, that becomes a social norm for them. And it's easy for them to make decisions to fit in line with that group. They're not fighting against nature. They're going with the flow. And so my advice is that people will join. You join a group, a group of people that are different, that are achieving things that you want to achieve, that look the way that you want to look. When it comes to sport and health and fitness, there's so many different types of groups that you could join with the people that you want to be like.
I just did a expert panel for a startup book challenge that's coming up in March, and one of the experts on the panel had just written a book, it's coming out in June, called My Father's List. And it's basically, she talks about how her father passed away when she was younger and she had just discovered his bucket list of all the things that he wanted to do in his life. And then she basically did all his Bucket list. And she mentioned that what drove her to do this is when she was working at this one job, it was magazine job, I can't remember the name of it, but they were all runners. And so she started running rather than doing happy hours. Sometimes at a company might do happy hours and things like that, but instead they were all runners and she wanted friends, so she started running. And that's how the grief of her pain of her losing her dad and then her being able to almost be set free to start doing this bucket list came up, because she started running. So what's coming to your mind as you're talking is that's even just a starting point too, because once you're around these people, you not only get to be where. Where you want to be, but you get to open yourself up to all these new things that you didn't even know you could do.
Yeah, that's right. And start to be like them. And if it means wearing Lycra and you're uncomfortable wearing Lycra because then you don't like how you look, you're overweight, that's a really good motivation for you to change your behavior, to lose weight. So you lose that discomfort of feeling this sort of social anxiety of wearing Lycra. So some of these things, they're on the background, the things that you might not realize, they're actually working to help you change your behavior. But not just the exercise, but it's all those social norms that we discussed.
Okay, I'd love to keep going. So we have. That was great so far. Now we're on to game. And we have the G in game, which is goals. I'd love to hear how you approach goals in terms of losing weight and getting healthier.
So with goals, then the first thing which we've already discussed so far, is talking about why someone wants to change. And then we would see a vision. So what's the vision that they want to move into? How is their life going to be different? When they can change a behavior and then as a result of that change in behavior, then their weight will come down. And then you can see this. When you think about the vision of what it is that you want your life to be like, the types of things that you can do being feel at this lower weight, then you would set a goal which you think, I would need to be this amount of weight to be able to live that vision out. And so that's a goal, but it's not a fixed goal that can be flexible. And so you know what your vision is going to be and that's the one that keeps you on target. And it's an estimate. Your weight is an estimate of the weight that I would need to be at or the fitness that I would need to achieve to be able to live out that vision. And then you can break that goal down into targets. And so the targets become really important. So targets are much more measurable, and these are measurable regular. So that's important that you can measure these targets. You can measure these targets weekly, and some of them will be monthly. And those targets will keep you on track. You can change your strategy if you need to if it's not working. And these targets could be, for example, you weigh yourself, you might weigh yourself daily, you can weigh yourself weekly and you could do some circumference measurements. And so you measure around your waist, for example, your hips, your chest, could be your biceps or other areas in your body that you want to take these measurements. You'll do a nutrition record and you'd be able to go back and analyze that every week to see how you're going, what types of changes that you're making, Are they in line with the, the goals that you have set for yourself when it comes to nutrition? And then the same for exercise, what it is, you can go back through your exercise record and make sure you're keeping on track. And so they become targets that you can measure yourself against much more regularly. And it's this measurement which is really important that people often don't do. And they don't do because they don't want to hold themselves accountable or they don't think it's important, and then I think it's important. And then they might think it's egotistical to, let's say, for example, at the beginning of this process to stand in front of the mirror and take a photo of yourself to see what you look like and then do the same thing again every month to get this photo. So you will try to gather as much feedback as possible. But people might see it as being egotistical to measure themselves and then to take photos of themselves and to do all this recording. But this is the way that winners achieve their goals. You need to think of this from a mindset of an athlete. An athlete will take as much feedback and measurement as they can to make sure that they are progressing forward. It also gives them reinforcement, positive reinforcement and feedback to know if they need to change their strategy or not to achieve this long term goal. And so we've got These targets, we've got a goal and then we've got this vision. And the underlying is a why I.
Love that idea of just even taking your picture is a target of a goal because you're able to then see the result as you do the thing.
Basically. Yeah. And some of these things that you measure and a photo is a good one, you don't instantly see results. And if we have a target like that, which is from a photo and we can look back out of a time and compare one to the other, then we see the start quadrant and it gives us a really positive feedback of, oh yeah, wow, I have changed a lot. But if we see ourselves every day, the slow change, we don't notice it. Other people might notice and say, oh, well, you've lost weight. But we don't really see it so much. And so we want to have as many different forms of feedback as possible so that it's accurate. If we just rely on one form of feedback, for example, just looking at ourselves and looking at ourselves and using that as our main feedback as to whether the strategy that we're using to lose weight has been successful, that's not enough. We need as many different types of feedback as possible. Some of that is subject of, you know, how do we look and what feel and some of that is very objective. You know, what are these measurements? What's my weight? What's my circumference measurements? We need as many as possible.
We talked about the next letter a little bit. So in game we did goal and now we're doing a, which is accountability. And you had talked about sharing it with other people so then they can help you stay in that integrity. And I was just wondering, what are some other ways that you think you can hold yourself accountable to be able to lose weight and be healthier?
Having a coach can be really important. And again, it's, we want to set ourselves up for the best chances of success. And everything was on the line and we needed to achieve this weight loss goal or something terrible is going to happen. It would make sense that we would give it our best shot. And what's in there would be getting to coach someone to support us and help us. And exactly the same as an athlete, you know, any athlete that really wants to achieve, they're not going to do it without the support of a coach. And so in your weight loss goals and your health and fitness behavior changes, you want to make sure that you get a coach as well. You get a coach in different areas of expertise. So one could be around nutrition. So it could be a dietitian or a nutritional. Another one could be around exercise and that could be a personal trainer. Another one could be around your mindset and behavior and that could be a psychologist that you go and talk to, a counselor that can help you out with changing your behavior. And so I would choose the one, one of those, that one, you can afford, two that you can do regularly, so ideally every week would be much better. And three, an area that you think is going to make the biggest change to your pure life, to your outcome or success, one that you're struggling with the most. For most people it's going to be nutrition. For some people it might be exercise and getting a personal trainer to help to motivate them to start this regular habit of going to the gym. And for other people it might be mindset. You know, they might be dealing with some issues from their childhood or within their own family life, so making it difficult for them to change. And by going to city a counselor or psychologist, then that is going to benefit a whole lot of other areas in life as well that may be impacting the food that they eat, which leads to weight gain.
Okay, so this is cool because we already talked about the next letter, but I'd love to hear if you have any other thoughts because I think I agree with you that this is one of the most important things. So we talked about the G in game, which is goals. We talked about A accountability. M are you ready? M is my people. So my people are what you said. A lot of people talk about like minded people which are supportive and encouraging people. Those are the five people you want to be around. My people are different because if you want to run a marathon and your friends are not runners or you're not with other runners and you just have supportive and encouraging friends, it's going to be really hard for you to be able to run the marathon. So you really need to be around other people that are runners. You can still have your supportive and encouraging friends, but they give you the community and the connectedness. You need to be able to do the thing basically. And I was just wondering, I know you said a lot about that, which I loved, which joining a group and being around other people that want the same thing as you. Just wonder if you have any other thoughts on surrounding yourself with my people in terms of health and fitness.
You know, there's some really good Facebook groups that you can join. So like I said, I've got one which is called Secrets of the and so within that you get direct access to me, where you get to ask questions and access the programs and get my support all totally free. But the good thing about groups like that is that you have a whole range of other people within groups that are working hard to achieve the same goals as you. And so these groups can be really helpful because not only are they supportive, but you get that accountability as well. And so I encourage people to go into these groups and to post what it is that they want to achieve and why. So they put in what their goals are going to be, why they want to achieve those goals, and then what they're prepared to do. You know, so what are the. What are the targets, what are they working on? And then go back into that group and update. So go back in every week or every month and give people an idea of, have you done what you said that you would do and what were the results? So when you do that, you have some form of accountability within this group because it's public and it's got your face there and people can see you progressing. You have been there, you've done the Babe Ruth thing, and you pointed out to the stands and you said, that's where I'm going to go. And so you have this level of accountability to that group. But the really good thing is that you get their support. And even if you've had a tough time and you haven't achieved what you wanted to, then people support you, they pick you up, they motivate you, and you can get advice from that group as well. And the people that have been in that same situation that you had been in, and they had thought of a different way to get around the problem that you're experiencing. And you must. Oh, man. Last night I said that I wasn't going to be eating after my dinner time, and I just was so hungry. And there was a chocolate bar that my wife had bought home and sitting in the cupboard, and I just thought I'd go and have one bite of that. I couldn't stop and I ended up eating the whole thing and I've just blown it for the week now and, you know, I've lost it. And so times like that are really important to have other people around you that can just shed a light on that and say, look, it's. It's nothing, you know, it's just wild and by. You got to get back on track. You can start today and then within a week you're going to forget about that and maybe just have a word to your wife about if she does Buy something like that. Maybe she puts it where you're not going to find it. And so these groups are supportive. They're giving. Giving really good ideas and picking people up when they fall over and then pat them on the back when they do really well. So I'd encourage people to go onto Facebook, search for these types of groups that fit within your niche of weight loss. And so you might be dad in his 40s, for example, and there's lots of groups for people like that.
Yeah, that is great advice. Okay, we're going on to the last letter. So we already talked about in game, we did G for goals, A, accountability, M is my people, and then E is educate. So we talked a little bit about educate in the beginning because you have your product right, where you're giving people information on why it's important to stay fuller. And then also you mentioned you have an email series that you can send when people log onto your website and they'll be able to get access to that. And I was just wondering if you wanted to share some more information about what they could do to educate themselves on losing weight and also being healthier.
Yeah, that's a good one. Stacey. Education around weight loss is, oh, man, it's a minefield. It really is a minefield and it can be really confusing to people. And whatever you type into Google, you're going to find some justification for losing weight based on that type of formula. So it's a challenging one. And my advice to people is just to be educated by professionals, not by people who have lost weight. And you just want to find out how they did it, that you see this image of this person and they look fantastic. You look like that and you want to find out how they did it. And this is often the root that people take when it comes to weight loss. That's to hear the story or to see someone who has made this fantastic change and you just want to do what they did. But just there's a couple of things with that that don't work out. One is that you don't know what the full story is. And you might see them at this point, right? You see this person, you haven't seen them for a couple of years, and you're, oh, my God, you look so different. How did. How did you lose so much weight? You're like 50 pounds lighter than what you were. And so they say, I only ate carrots for bloody breakfast or whatever, you know, some weird thing that they did. So you think, right, that's the solution. I'm Just going to eat carrots for breakfast as well. And so you go ahead and try and do that. It gets boring as hell. It's hard to maintain. And the willpower's the end at the beginning, but you can't keep doing it long term. And so when you see this person, you just see them partway through the journey. This is just their headline in a chapter, but you don't know how their story ends. But I know how their story ends because these are the types of people that would come to see me for weight loss consultations. Their weight has been up and down their whole life. And when they're successful, they are very keen to shout about it, to try and tell everyone that this is the thing that everyone needs to do. But it's not where the story ends. Most these people, their weight, like we know, ends up going back on again. And so the story that they tell you of your story, success, isn't it's just halfway along the way. And it's not, it's not a lifelong change. And so the people that you want to be leaning off are people who've been lean all their life, not that have to go through some dramatic weight loss strategy to lose a whole amount of weight. They're not the people to follow. So I think of it like a get rich quick scheme. You want to become wealthy, then you don't want to just see someone who has a get rich quick scheme and you jump on the back of that because you want to get rich quickly as well. You have to learn how to build wealth over a long period of time. And so you want to be taking advice from someone who's been wealthy for 20, 30 years, for a long time that being near those ride out recessions, they've been up and down and just not a gambler. And so many people that we followed in weight loss are gamblers. They're after a get rich quick scheme. And it doesn't last. We want to do something that we change our behavior. And as a natural consequence of changing our behavior, our weight is going to come down and it stays down over the long term simply because we have a healthy, lean life with great habits and routines. That's it. There's no secret. The only secrets that you're going to find are short term secrets with short term results. And so when it comes to educating yourself, educate yourself on people that have either been lean for life and learn what their habits and routines and rituals are or from respected experts, so experts in nutrition, experts in fitness, experts in behavior change, these are types of people that we want to be learning from, not from the losers.
Yeah, that is really powerful, that's for sure. And then there's another piece of that education, which is getting to educate others. Because when you can educate others, then you're getting to add value to them, which then helps you keep doing the thing. And in this case it's losing weight and being healthy. And I was just wondering, especially with your Facebook group and the different things you do, have you noticed a way that people are able to then give back as they're getting healthier?
Yeah, it's just supporting other people and then it changes. Facebook group, for example, or a group of friends. And you can see someone who is trying was, you know, that they want to make some changes, they've set their goals and it's just supporting that person and encouraging me. You don't have to tell them what to do. You don't have to tell them to eat carrots for breakfast for 12 months, because that's what you do. But they need to be able to find something that fits within their lifestyle that's going to be helpful for them. And your job is just to support and encourage them when they are down, pat them on the back when they go well, and check in with them. You know, I've got one of my customers who he talking about accountability before he has me for his accountability, but he also got an accountability partner from his cycling group. And so he asked someone with me at cycling group like, and do you mind if I just. If I check in with you every week, I want to send you a message of what my weight loss has been for the week and how much times I've been at site. Whatever his targets were for that week, you could check in with that person. So having an accountability partner is really important. And if it's someone that you're supporting, you can be their accountability partner. All they need to do is just check in with you and let you know what they have done for the week. If they've got someone that they need to be accountable for, then when they reach for that chocolate bar that their wife left in the cupboard when it's 8 o' clock at night after dinner, they're going to be thinking they do because they're going to report back into you at the end of that week. And so that's so powerful. It's not just that, the time that you spend with them, but it's the whole week that they know that they're going to be checking back in with you again. That they're going to think twice before they do those things.
And I would love to hear if there's anything that you would have liked me to ask you that I didn't ask you.
I think resources are really important. It's something which I've just shared with my audience in this last week, and it's also something which I have struggled with in my life to make sure that I get the right resources around me to be successful. And those resources can be people, they can be places, or they can be equipment. So if we think about health and fitness, for example, you can struggle away without any of those things. So getting the right people around you and being in the right place. So that might mean you need to go to a gym or, or some environment still be helpful for you to be motivated or having the right equipment that you need. It could be the nursing shoe so that you can go out walking, having exercise equipment. You can get by without those things. You can struggle and get by without them. But if you can get the right resources in place to make your journey more enjoyable and to increase your chances of success, then it makes all the difference. I've always been someone that thinks, well, I can get by with what I've got. That's not really going to make that much difference for me. I don't need that and I can wear these old shoes and it's going to be okay. But as I had got older, I've realized that even if it makes it more enjoyable for me or more comfortable, even though I can get by without it, I can be resilient and get by without it. If it makes it more enjoyable, it's more attractive for me to do it. When the going gets tough and maybe the conditions are quite right for me. I don't really feel like going out. If I've got better equipment, I feel better about going to do, then it's a bit more comfortable, then I'm going to enjoy it more. And if I enjoy it more, I'm more likely to do it and I'm more likely to do it more often for a longer period of time and give it more effort. So I would say to people that think about what resources, when you set your goals, what resources do you need to be successful? What's going to make it easier, more enjoyable, or more comfortable for you? What do you need to get around you before you start? Do you need a gym membership? Do you need to get new shoes? Do you need some more comfortable exercise gear to work in? You're going to work out at home. Do you need some better gym equipment that you can use at home so that you don't have to waste time? By going to the gym, you're going to solve that problem. I don't have time. I'm going to work at home. Well, let's make sure you got all the equipment you need to get started so you have all the resources you need to guarantee your success. Make it easier for yourself, more comfortable, more enjoyable.
Okay, Dane, the time is here. What would be your number one piece of advice for the listeners on doing the thing?
The number one piece of advice is don't hold it to yourself. Be brave and share it with other people. We've all got the thing that we want to do and we've all got this thing that we continue to put off when we don't do it. And it's so easy to put off if no one else knows about it. And we're leaving that door ajar when we just keep it to ourselves. And when we take that exit and no one else knows about it, we think that we can do it and we don't damage our integrity. But we do. Every time we take that exit, even though no one else is looking, we are looking. We can see what we are doing. And what that does is it, it damages your confidence. And over time that confidence erodes. Every time you take that exit, confidence erodes time and time again. And you've got confidence is the one thing that you need to make these changes to be successful. So you need to be able to build your confidence up step by step by step, week by week, by setting yourself goals and taking the actions that you need to achieve that goal that you know that you can achieve every week. And so start off small just with things that you know that you can do to build your confidence. And the more confidence that you can get in yourself, then the bigger those goals that you can set and more confidence that you have to know that you will achieve it. And you don't give up. You give it your best and you don't leave that door ajar because you know you don't need it. You've got confidence in your ability to achieve it. And so my advice to you is to share your goals with other people, get their accountability. And when you do that, I tell you what, it's much harder to open that door and quit. You know that your integrity is on the line and other people are watching you because that's the most valuable thing you have. It's who you are. It's Your ego on the line. It's your integrity. So share it with other people, put it on the line and do that and you make your chances of succeeding teamfold to what they were and you keep it to yourself.
Great advice. I would love you to share where they can find your products and get in touch with your community and be a part of all of the good stuff you've got going on.
Thanks, Stacey. So if you would like to try our breakfast and if you would like to get our support, then you can find a Facebook group. It's called Secrets of the League. So you can search in the Facebook group, Secrets of the link. There's a weight loss group specifically for men, busy men who want to lose their weight. And then if you want to try a product, you can go over to eatfulerfood.com that's eat fuller food.com and you'll see our products there. And you also find them on Amazon. Soon enough, probably about in the next couple of weeks, we're going to be on Amazon, which is March 2023, and you'll find them on Amazon again. Follow eight, follow third.
Do you have other products that you're thinking of starting or is it going to be the oatmeal?
Yeah, I've got lots of other products and they're all based around breakfast products that are going to be fast, healthy and keep people full for a long period of time. And so the idea is that everything that we eat needs to be a really filling food. And so most filling foods, they take a lot to prepare. There's a lot that goes into it. You think about, you know, making a salad, for example. So I want to be able to make these. And so that eliminates speed. So people can make these within 30 seconds and consume it within a minute. And so there's no excuse for skipping breakfast. So it's fast filling, healthy, no sugar added. Now, I've got a whole range of different types of breakfast products that stand in line with that, that I want to keep bringing more.
Yeah, and I like the idea you're starting off with a psychological win because you've started off eating healthy and then you're feeling full. So you've already won the day. Pretty much.
Yeah, exactly. You won the day. You've had a breakfast and it's not like you look back and you look back at your day and think, oh, man, you know, I struggled, I was tired, I was hungry. I had that piece of cake that they bought at the office meeting and I grabbed some impulse of purchase from the snack shop when I shouldn't have done that, and you still look back and you beat yourself up. But a really good way to start the day with a win is by making sure that you get out the door with a really good break inside you. You've got a foundation that you needed to make some good decisions throughout the rest of the day.
Perfect. Thank you so much for coming on, Dane. This has been amazing. I really appreciate you taking the time and going through this with me.
Thank you, Stacey. I really appreciate it. It's. It's fun for me as well. And, and I really enjoyed talking about this. So thanks for giving me the opportunity to share it.
Thanks for listening to the do the Thing podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. But even more, we hope you'll be inspired to do the Thing. Do you have a burning question on doing the Thing that you'd like answered? How about an inspiring do the Thing story of your own that you'd like to share? We'd love to hear all about it. Just leave us a voice message at dothing callcast co or email us@helloothethingpodcast.com.
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