Do you ever see someone else do something that you'd like to do and it just looks so easy for them? You know that if you tried to follow their lead you wouldn't make it. Or, at the very least, you'd have to work twice as hard to see the same success.
Why is losing weight so easy for some people but so hard for others? Is there a special ingredient you're missing out on, or do you need to look for answers from a different perspective?
Make Your Body Work Podcast: Episode #076
WE RECOMMEND THE VIDEO: What I Eat In A Day | 15 MINUTE HEALTHY MEALS ⏰🥦
What i eat in a day | 15 minute healthy meals ⏰🥦 #15minutemeals #healthywhatieatinaday #whatieatinaday .
Episode Resources:
- Visit Dai's Site and Get Tons of Awesome Fitness Resources
- Get Dai's 99 No-Equipment Workouts [FREE]
- Tony Robbins: Why? [TED Talk]
- Simon Sinek: Start With Why [Get the Book]
- Simon Sinek: Why? [TED Talk]
- Dai Manuel's Whole LIfe Manifesto [Get Dai's Book]
- Check Out Dai's Podcasts: Happiness Simplified and 22 For Life
- Finally, here's Dai's "before and after" photo we talked about on the show. What a change!
Why Is It So Easy For Everyone Else? [Full Text]
Dave: Hey. Thanks so much for joining me in this episode of the Make Your Body Work podcast. As you know, this show is all about helping you live a healthier and happier life. And I just want to say thanks for taking, oh, maybe the next 30 minutes or so out of your day or maybe doing this multitasking while you're driving or exercising to invest in you because that's what we're doing today.
I've got a great guest today, a great question, and some of the things we're going to talk about are gonna help you invest in yourself. I'm excited. I'm excited to hear from you after you listen to this episode. How did you choose to apply what we talked about today? I'm gonna dive right into a great question from Karina.
Karina says, "I've always been the fat one in my family, growing up at school, with my friends, and now as an adult. I've always felt like I'm fighting an unfair battle, one that seems easy for others. While I know that's not entirely true, it is how I feel. I've tried and failed at changing my weight in the past and it's hard to get started again when I know that the results might be the same. I'm not really sure what I'm looking for, maybe just need some motivation to try again. I don't like my body and I want to change it. Help me."
Karina, I want to say, first of all, thank you for being brave and putting yourself out there because sometimes it's tough to admit that we don't like the situation we're in, we're not able to change it, and we need help. So thank you for writing and already just the fact that you said that, I know for a fact that there are listeners listening to this episode right now who when they heard your words, they would say, "Me, too. Me, too."
It's not just you, you're not the only one that feels like it's an unfair battle, and particularly that line when you said, "It seems easy for others." As you're about to hear when I interview my guest for today, it's not. We all go through struggles and there's always a point when we want to give up, you are not the only one.
I'm not going to go on here, I just felt so strongly about your question that you are not the only one, there's tons of us out there that feel the same way. But I have a really amazing guest today who when you look at this guy you would think, "Geez, there's no way that he struggles like this," but then when you hear his story you're gonna realize, even some of these fitness professionals who look like they have it all together, even they go through it, too. I'm really excited to introduce to you, Dai Manuel.
Meet Dai Manuel
Dave: Hey, Dai, thanks so much for joining us on the show today.
Dai: Hey, thank you, Dave, I'm excited for the opportunity, this is really, really cool. Thanks.
Dave: Yeah, I'm excited to have you here. A quick little background for the listeners is you and I we were at a conference just recently here in Vancouver actually, it's called the Canfit, it's a fitness conference, and I caught one of your sessions and thought, you and I had never crossed paths before, and thought, oh, this guy, you're full of energy. You just had a great presence about you, and I thought, you gotta be on this show.
Dai: (laughs) Well, I appreciate that, I always try to bring it. When I present especially I am a bit of a high-energy guy, a lot of squirrel moments, but that's just who I am. Thank you.
Dave: No, it's awesome. Then, actually, I was checking you out online and just seeing your whole story and you have a really neat story, like a personal story about how you got all wrapped up in the fitness industry and I was wondering if you could start off by telling the listeners what that was all about.
It Wasn't Always Easy: Dai, the Overweight Teenager
Dai: Yeah, sure, Dave. Thanks. A lot of people in the fitness industry, they come from sport, right? They played sport, typically, to a fairly high level or they just have a real passion for fitness and moving their body and I didn't come from that, okay? (laughs) In fact, from about the age of nine, ten years old I started to put weight on, I did that all on my own volition, I did the usual.
I ate unhealthy foods, quite a bit of 'em, and I didn't move my body very much, I played a lot of video games. Overtime, by age 14, I was quite overweight and I didn't like that anymore. I hit a certain point where I was like, I want more in life and I'm gonna date myself right now. I didn't have the luxury of Google back then.
(laughs) When I decided I wanted to get a little healthier I went to a library, I got books out, I reached out to people I felt knew what they were doing and, fortunate for me, my parents were very supportive of me wanting to make that transformation, and bought me a mountain bike. My dad, I remember him taking me to pick it up, it was amazing.
I got out on my mountain bike, I'd start riding couple hours every day, I started educating myself about nutrition, and just making smarter choices, but doing that every single day. It's one thing to choose to make some significant changes, but when you actually apply action to those choices, that's where we really start to see good things start to happen.
It's one thing to want to make changes. It's another thing to take action to make it happen. Take action. Start today.
You know how it goes, that first step's always the hardest step, but once you start making some steps and you start to get more comfortable with that feeling that you start to create in yourself, and you start to gain that confidence, the education then takes over and you do intrinsically know what to do.
Fortunately for me, after about 20 months I lost the weight, kick-started my puberty finally, that also helped because I started to put on some muscle mass, I started to grow, I then got into weight training and I just had a real passion for helping others do the same thing. That was really the catalyst that got me interested in health and fitness, especially transformations, and fast forward, I've been doing it now for well over 20 years, earning an income in the fitness industry.
I like to qualify that 'cause I know a lot of people who treat it more like a hobby, which is nothing wrong with that, but I actually support my family doing this and it's been a lot of fun. I've worked in a lot of different capacities in the industry and I just love it. I love it. And meeting you at Canfitpro, it's just another reason why I love that tribe, these health professionals, 'cause we're all on a similar mission. We're looking to change people and to really help them live their life to the fullest.
Dave: Yeah, it's so cool. I appreciate you saying you didn't come from a background of sport because, you're right, a lot of the, even the guests I have on this podcast, do have that sports background. I'm on your website right now and I'm taking a look, you have a great before and after picture and you as a teenager, to be honest, you don't look anything like you look right now. When I met you I thought, this guy, he must've played football or rugby 'cause you're a big, muscular guy, but just like you said, your story is not that at all.
Dai: Yeah, I am fortunate from a genetic standpoint that if I want to put weight on whether it's fat or muscle, I can do it pretty easily. (laughs) So as soon as I started applying some basic nutritional principles, feeding my body what it wanted, and what it needed to fuel me well, then I started to move weight or start moving under load, I really just started to accelerate at that.
And it opened my eyes to a lot of other things. I got into martial arts, I started hiking and rock climbing. Then eventually, in 2007, I got into Crossfit and that's really been my passion ever since, the last 10 years I've been doing that at different levels and competing at it and I really do enjoy that a lot.
Reconnect to "That Feeling"
Dave: It's really cool hearing your story because I think actually you can probably relate a fair bit to Karina's question that we're talking about today where she talks about always feeling a little bit on the outside and feeling like it looks so easy for everyone else but for her she's just not happy with her own fitness, her own body. When you were reading her question, what kind of thoughts went through your head?
Dai: Well, Dave, you and I both know this very well because we work with a lot of different types of people, all walks of life, all shapes, all sizes, all abilities, as trainers, health professionals, personal trainers, whatever.
I always talk about the muscle I've got to work with first is that muscle between the ears. That's the one that tends to be the one that's least developed in a lot of folks, especially when they're starting to think about getting a little healthier, getting a little fitter.
When I read Karina's question, I remember back to my own transformations and I was intimidated. I think we all are because we get lost. We start to go down that rabbit hole of seeking out information to educate ourselves on how to actually make that change happen, before we've started to look internally at why do we want to make those changes happen.
I want to qualify that a little bit, when I say why, and during my presentation I alluded to this a little bit as far as how trainers communicate their message online or offline, and it's that emotional connection we have with the choices we make everyday. What is it intrinsically that motivates us to choose to get up in the morning, 'cause it's hard. When you're out of shape or as I say, in that state of unhealth, everything is difficult.
I always equate it back to remember that last time you had the flu and I'm talking not just a man flu, but a full on flu. (laughs) You want nothing but sitting on the couch, putting on Netflix, and you just want nothing to do with the world because you're sick and you feel like garbage. It's really hard to motivate yourself to move when you're in that state.
You can imagine, if you've got someone with a chronic ailment, that compounds that situation 'cause you're like that everyday. When you've been in that state for a long amount of time, you don't remember what it's like to feel good. You don't know what it feels like to be healthy and to be able to wake up with that hop, skip, and a jump being excited for the day ahead of you. Getting reconnected to that feeling is really, really important.
Dai's Motivation. What's Yours?
Dave: When you were going through your transformation as a young teenager, do you remember that? You talked about your dad giving you a mountain bike, and to be honest, I know you're just sort of glossing over your story, and you said, "I started making healthier eating choices." Were there points where you thought this isn't worth it or I don't want to do this or I just want to go get a McDonald's happy meal?
Dai: Yeah, yeah. (laughs) Well, for me, I was thinking long-term. And listen, let's be honest, I was 14-years-old, I'm prepubescent at that time because I hadn't really started puberty, but I saw the other kids in school, especially the other grade eights, grade nines, and they had girlfriends, girls took them seriously. I was motivated to get a girlfriend. (laughs) And to me, it was like, I've got to get healthy, I've got to be fit, I gotta change how I am now, at least externally.
Finding your own motivation is KEY to your physical transformation. What's YOUR "Why?"
It wasn't until many years later that I really had to deal with the internal side of things. What I mean by that is there was some other emotional stuff I had to work through much later on in life, in my 20s I started to work through that and even into my 30s I was working on some stuff. Working on ourselves psychologically, emotionally, it's an ongoing process.
The physical piece, though, if we're really talking about the physical transformation, it's intimidating. I remember going to the gym for the first time. I was mountain biking everyday, I had been consistent with that for about four months, I had lost a bunch of weight, but now I wanted to start gaining some muscle mass, I wanted to start to fill out.
I remember going to the gym and I was scared man, 'cause I had no idea what the hell this place is, there was all this steel, there were these machines these people were running on, there were these little exercise bikes. They had classes, you know, the step classes were big back then, it was late 80s, early 90s, you can imagine. StairMasters all over the place, Jane Fonda was it. That was it. Now people are probably wondering how old is this dude. (laughs)
How to Overcome Discouragement
I was intimated and it's a scary place to go because you just don't know. You don't know what to do, you don't know how you're gonna do it, and you do have that little bit of a connection with the why, you want to make the change, you know it's important to make the change, but when you don't have a community to plug into or to that supportive network to help you it can be really problematic. And when I say problematic, it will eventually lead to that point where you say, "Is this really worth it? I'm too scared, I'm fearful, I don't think I can do this right now."
It's easier and more fun to work out with a community that encourages you. Don't do it alone!
The community piece, and that's where I was going with that question, was there was days, I want to answer your question, there were days where I would get very discouraged, things weren't happening fast enough, because I wanted it to happen right now. It took 20 months for me to really lose all the weight and to change to the point where I felt more confident in my physicality and my ability.
But there was times, especially after six, seven months, I was like, man, I would much rather just crush a pizza with a buddy, play some video games, and not work out. Just not do that thing that I know I really want to be doing, and I think that's the difference, right? Because a lot of us have that internal dialogue, "Oh, I really should do this." "If I had this I would do that." "Is it really worth it?"
There has to be that shift where it really becomes a lifestyle decision, it becomes the sustainable because it's automatic, you're not really thinking about it anymore, it's like, "I want to do this." Why? Because, 5, 10, 20 years from now I'm hopeful that my kids have their own kids so they can experience what I've been experiencing with them right now (laughs), but so I can be that active granddad with them, right? Or I can travel the world and I can see some sights, go see some amazing places and experience some cultures, but do it firsthand.
Actually go and walk around and touch things and connect with people and not be limited on my physicality because I've put some daily action in place today, tomorrow, for weeks, and months, and years to come that's going to best set me up for that ideal future that I have pictured in my mind. So that's that sort of external motivator even though I'm visualizing it internally.
Dave: I love it. There's a couple key things that I want to point out that you said there. When you talked about going to the gym and it being that scary moment, Karina in her question she says, "I'm fighting an unfair battle, one that seems easy for others." And so I love that you talked about it was hard, it was scary, it was uncomfortable, and as you were talking, Dai, man, that's the exact same story for me.
I remember going to the gym the first time and I sat on a machine bench press and realized I could put basically no weight on and was so embarrassed I walked on the treadmill, jogged for like 10 minutes, and then left and was like I'm never going back there again. (laughs)
Probably the same motivation as you, I probably wanted to impress a girl so I went back to the gym. To Karina's point where she says it's an unfair battle, that's you and I, we're both in the fitness industry and we felt that way. And I know and I'm sure you would say the same thing working with thousands of clients, every single person feels that way.
You are Writing Your Own Story
Dai: I really do believe that, to some extent, just some are better at masking it. I appreciate Karina being open and transparent and honest with how she's feeling. If you tell yourself that story, so if I'm speaking directly to her right now, she's listening, if you continue to tell yourself that story you are writing your story. You can change that. You are going to feel uncomfortable, okay, I'm not going to deny it. It's not going to be fun, fun fun.
I mean, I hope it gets to the point where you're like, "This is fun, I like doing this, I really want to do it, I want to go to the gym everyday or I want to go for that hike with my friends, I want to go to the pool and go for a swim," whatever. But there's going to have to be a point where you have to write a story for yourself and really tie an emotional connection to that why that motivates you.
Once you have that emotional connection, it's different, right? We can talk about the how's and the what's all day long. You and I can talk about, "Oh, this is how you do a proper squat, this is how you do a proper pushup, here's a great way where to position your hands on the bench press machine," we can have those conversations, but that's really just the how and the what.
But for us to tell people, well, here's why you should do this, unless they're emotionally vested in that, it's a hard sell and it's not necessarily a sustainable sell. That's why you see a lot of it happen, look at what we're coming up to, it's going to be New Years soon. The gym's are flocked with people, but by anywhere from the third week to mid-February, it's more than half are gone. (laughs) It's a scary place.
Dave: Well, see, this podcast is actually gonna go live probably midway through January so right now, as we're speaking, the gyms are probably clearing out.
Dai: Yeah, yeah, and it's sad, right? I hate that aspect. Because there was something, somewhere that made them decide that I'm going to set myself a resolution to be healthier in 2017. And I believe that that's truly what they want, but they may be unsure about how they're going to sustain that. And really, why are they making that decision?
Because they think it's a good idea or is it because maybe they have a health condition that they really need to deal with? Well, if that's the case, then when life and death comes into it, we make decisions pretty quickly. A lot of time these health issues that sneak up on us, they do, they take years to manifest themselves and by that point, when they do, we're always like, oh my gosh, now what am I gonna do, and it takes a long time to get back.
Adopting the Long-Term Mindset
Dave: You know another thing that I really like that you emphasize, a couple times you mentioned that your weight loss journey was a 20 month journey. 20 months. Two years of pushing forward toward this goal that maybe at some point seemed out of reach. How did you get yourself into a mindset where you thought long-term? Because you even said that. You said you were in this for the long-term, which blows my mind that you're a 14-year-old boy thinking long-term. How do you get that mindset?
Dai: Well, I wasn't happy with myself . I wasn't diagnosed as being depressed, but I definitely withdrew at times. And you know what was really a tell-tale sign, I think, was the fact, I remember when a number of years ago we decided to be more vocal, based on what, I was in the equipment industry. Selling specialized fitness equipment, accessories, supplements, all that kind of stuff. We decided that we were gonna be a bit more vocal about my background and how I got started. I wasn't sharing this publicly back then.
I remember asking my mom to find some photos of me as a kid, especially when I was overweight. It was hard to find any photos (laughs) and it's not for lack of my parents trying to take photos, it's just I did shy away from photos. I remember purposefully trying to duck out of photos 'cause I didn't want anything, I didn't want to be seen. To get over that it just took a decision to do it and to continue to do it.
Now I joke with people, you know what's even more powerful than just doing it, being able to say you just did it. When you get to that point, you're talking about actually accomplishing it and speaking in that kind of a language is very powerful from a psychological standpoint, as well. I always tell people, even some of my clients that I work with, I'm like, "Just send me a text with 'just did it,' #justdidit." (laughs) That's all I need.
That's your little bit of accountability, just tell me when it's been done. Don't tell me you're going to go to the gym, don't tell me you're gonna do this, you're gonna do that, you're gonna eat better, no, just tell me when you've done it. That is pretty cool. But you gotta also be accountable to yourself, right?
Dave: You know, that idea of "just did it" is so powerful. Sometimes when I send out e-mails, I'll send out research or just new articles I've written, usually about weight loss, to my mailing list. I'll get people that we've never met before and they'll send me back, sometimes it's just a one-liner, I got one yesterday. This girl wrote back and she said, "I lost 2 kgs this week." And that's all she said in the e-mail, didn't even sign it with her name or anything, but I just thought, there is that pride of "Hey, I used to be stuck and now I just did it."
Dai: I love it, man. That is so cool. It's great, right? And it's why we do what we do. It's those little victories, man. I love celebrating every single one of them with anybody that reaches out to me. It's like, "Yeah, man, I'll give you a virtual high-five on that one, keep going!" Because, again, it's creating that community and I really do feel that community's what keeps us engaged and helps us on the days where we're feeling low.
There's times where we have to, we need someone to psychologically pick us back up, dust us off, and tell us it's going to be okay. And it's all right to draw a line in the sand and step over 'cause it's a new day, man, new day.
Dave: And that's a great message again. In Karina's message she talks about how she's failed in the past and just doesn't feel that she can start again. Actually, her question she says, "Maybe I just need some motivation to try again."
Dai: Yeah. Well stated. I never like to be the bad cop, but there comes a point where you just gotta say, "Okay, yeah, I screwed up, I tripped, I made some mistakes, whatever. It already happened, you can't dwell on that anymore." I don't want to hear about it. Done. I acknowledge it, you said it, moving on. All right, so let's figure out how to get to the next part. How do we overcome this, get you back to what you know you want to be doing? I know you want to do this, I know you want to feel better, so what do we need to do to make that happen?
Dave: You talked a lot about finding your why and it sounds like you found your why and that's something that's carried through and now you really enjoy it. I like that piece you said, "Eventually it won't be so hard and you're just going to enjoy doing this stuff." How do you walk someone through finding their why when they don't know what their why is.
Finding Your Reason "Why?"
Dai: There's some great resources. Anthony Robbins, obviously, is a big why guy. He's self-proclaimed "why guy." You can check out some of his TED Talks, he talks about this, especially that intrinsic connection with our why's and how we discover those. Simon Sineck is someone that's very well-known for that, as well, and he's got a book called "Start With Why," and I love his TED Talk, as well, it's about a 20-minute TED Talk. It's one of the top three or four TED Talks most viewed. Those are ones I would highly encourage people to check them out, and if you want more, then go to their websites or get their books.
It talks about this process. It's a marathon, it's not a sprint. It's not something that you can just make up or invent over night, it has to be a process that you live through and you really have to be introspective in that process, but it's really finding out what are you passionate about. I don't like to limit people to one passion. There's multiple passions in people's lives and I'm really big on family, I'm big on entrepreneurship, I'm also big on helping people.
So with me, I've got these three passions and I was always like, "Well, how do I fuel all three of those?" This is me being selfish, too, right? When I help people, I'm doing it to help them, but trust me, I get a lot of value from that, it makes me very happy. Does that make me a bad guy? No, but I'm very much in tune with that and it's what motivates me to continue doing it, because I really love it.
Not necessarily everybody's careers are gonna be in an area they feel that passionate about. But we have lots of time outside of our careers to do things that we are passionate about. What are those things that drive you? Maybe it does get to a point where you're like, "You know what? I really want to be doing more of what I love."
I left my job, my career of 17 years to do what I'm doing now full-time. It got to a point and I left a great career. I got a lot of friends that they're like, "What the hell are you doing, are you crazy?" We gave away all of our stuff, we literally packed what we could into our SUV and we've been on the road just over a year now.
Me, my family, we're homeschooling our kids, it's quite the transition, you know, going from a traditional 17-year career in business to now doing what I'm doing, which is talking to cool people like you and your communities and really just helping people live lives of awesomeness. That's really what I'm trying to do, but it's a night and day difference.
Was I uncomfortable going through that process? Am I still uncomfortable? Hell yeah. (laughs) There's days I wake up I'm like, man, maybe I should get a job. I got some bills. There's a lot of fear, but you know what, and this is the one thing, Dave, anybody who's listening.
Ask yourself, 10 years from now, if you were to look back on some of these hard decisions and you had gone the direction just because you wanted to play it safe, rather than really risking it and trying for something that you knew you really, really wanted, but you didn't do it anyways.
How are you gonna feel about that situation? Are you gonna feel regretful? Are you going to be kicking yourself saying, "Man, I really wish I gave that a go," because I could not answer that question, if I couldn't answer it honestly. And I did answer it honestly to myself, I was like, "Man, I would be kicking myself. I would be really upset. I know I'll be sad, 'cause I'd rather try it and fail at it but then I can look back and say, "Man, I tried and it was awesome, I learned a lot from it," but, you know, so what is the worst that can happen, right? What is the worst that can happen?
It is better to try and fail than to regret you never even tried in the first place
You get up January 1st, you decide to go to the gym, you go get a workout in, you sweat a little bit, you get a little intimidated, sure, but maybe you meet a couple cool friends. There's so many other possibilities. You can write so many different stories. But what's really the worst that's gonna happen?
Dave: And to be patient with that. Because when you're telling your story about leaving your career and jumping into full-time entrepreneurship I'm sure it wasn't that first day or that first week that you were like, "Yes, I've made it, I'm a success." It takes time. Same for Karina. If you get up and say, "Hey, today I'm gonna go back to the gym," you might not make those friends, you might feel awful, it might be intimidating, you might think I never want to go back, but four weeks from now or two months from now, that will change.
Dai: Absolutely and I really believe it. I'm not saying there won't be days where things aren't going your way. Man, that's life, that's what makes it interesting. If it was groundhog's day everyday, it would be too predictable, We'd all be a bunch of lemmings. That's just not how it works. Being okay with the unpredictability of life, that's what makes it interesting. Just be okay with the process and trust in the process. I think that is the biggest thing because sometimes we are very much in a now economy and we are used to getting information faster than we have ever been able to before.
But still when it comes to our fitness and our health, I see so many people buying into the newest fad, the newest hack, and I'm like, "Man, just get back to basics, find something that you can do in your already busy lifestyle." Don't try to reinvent your lifestyle to accommodate some new program versus find something that overlays with what you're already doing because that makes it sustainable for the rest of your life because it's part of your life. It's this whole process. Trust that good things will happen if you start making good decisions every day.
To be sustainable, every change you want to make must somehow fit into your lifestyle
Make Your body Work Takeaway
Dave: Awesome. I love the positivity of that message and it's true, it is true. Now, I like to wrap up this show with something that's called the Make Your Body Work takeaway. Basically, that's just giving Karina and anyone else who's in a similar position to her an action step. What can she do today, and if you had to boil down everything we talked about today and say, do this today, what would it be?
Dai: Well, pay yourself first. I'll qualify that really quickly. What I mean by that is, carve out minimum 30 minutes a day for you. And be selfish. This is your time. Nobody else can infringe on this. It is, this block of time, above and beyond anything else that's on your plate, has to happen. It's unconditional.
You matter. You are important. To be the best version of yourself, to be the best parent, the best friend, the best guardian, the best coworker, you need to have your body, mind, and spirit in alignment. You need to be healthy, you need to be feeling good.
What can you do with 2% of your 24 hours that is going to invest in your body, mind, and spirit? Maybe that's moving a little bit with purpose, practicing meditation, doing some personal development, whatever it might be, make a 30-minute commitment to yourself every day.
Like flossing your teeth. It's something that's gotta happen. (laughs) Every day. If you can carve out that time, good things will happen. It might grow. There might be days you give yourself an hour, but no matter what, 2% of every 24 hours is invested in you.
Dave: I love that and I love the fact that you gave some examples of it doesn't have to be exercise, 'cause I know we talked a lot about exercise today, but there's many different ways you can invest in yourself.
Dai: Absolutely. It's why I wrote the Whole Life Fitness Manifesto, my book, literally, after years and years and years of coaching so many different types of people, I needed to provide them with a gateway program. It's like, you can give me 30 minutes, if you give me 30 minutes I'm going to change your life, but that's the starter point, right? I'm not saying that's the end-all be-all. Is that all you have to do? Well, no, but it's the minimum you have to do.
Dave: Yeah. I love it. All right, Dai, I'm going to put a link in the show notes here to your book, to your website, for the listeners this is MakeYourBodyWork.com/76. I'll also embed a couple TED Talks that you mentioned there, Dai. But if people want to get in touch with you, learn more about you, maybe get some help, what is the best way for them to connect with you?
Learn More About Dai
Dai: Super easy. It's funny, I think back to my name, Dai Manuel. It's a Welsh first name and like a Portuguese last name, it's quite the mix. You can imagine growing up, I'm an overweight kid, I've got a weird name, it's kind of a weird situation. But I believe my parents were visionaries. They knew the internet was coming, they knew Google was coming, 'cause I am SEO juice right now, because my name is so unique.
If you can spell it right, you can find me. Every social media platform that's out there, I have my name. You can reach out, I am super accessible, and I'm an army of one when it comes to managing social, it's just me. If I don't get back to you right away, I have a rule that I always try to get back within 48 hours. Reach out, connect with me, share your victories with me. I'm happy to console you, I'm happy to point you in the right direction to connect with more cool people, like Dave here, and there's a lot of us out there and we just need to continue this conversation.
Dave: Awesome. Dai Manuel. I'll put a link to your website, like I said, so people can use that maybe as a jumping off point. Dai, when I hear you talk about your name, geez, man, my parents were not visionaries. Dave Smith. I'm the most anonymous guy on the internet ever. (laughs)
Dai: Oh, man. Well, you know what you'd love, Dave, I gotta tell you, Dai is Welsh for David. Technically, you are a Dai, as well. If you went to Wales there would be some people that would probably call you Dai. Sort of like Richard versus Dick, it's that sort of pet name, and "Daivid", so they shortened it to Dai. You could change your name, Dai Smith, that would be pretty different.
Dai: Sort of. (laughs)
Dave: Halfway there, but then I'll be infringing on your trademark.
Dai: Aw, it's okay, man, you'll get some Google juice.
Dave: Cool. Dai, thanks again for being here and yeah, awesome, I just really appreciate everything you had to say.
Dai: Anytime, Dave, and thank you a lot for the opportunity.
Dave: Thanks again, Dai, for being such an awesome guest today and sharing a little bit of our own personal story and really motivating us to seek out the changes that we really want to make.
For the listeners, be sure to check out the show notes for this episode, it's MakeYourBodyWork.com/76 and I'll include a link to Dai's workout guide, he's got 99 workouts that require no equipment, and this is a free resource you can download. Then when you're traveling or you're away from the gym for any reason, you've got something you can do, no excuses. We always have some exercise we can do with just our bodies. Dai, thanks for offering that up, as well.
Now, thank you to you the listeners for tuning in, I always say this but it is so true, without you there would be no Make Your Body Work podcast and I just love hearing from you. If you ever have a question that you want answered on this show or you have any questions about something you hear on the show, e-mail me anytime at Dave@MakeYourBodyWork.com.
Next Week’s Episode
Next week, I've got a really awesome podcast that I know is going to impact every single person that's listening right now, myself included. The reason I can say that so confidently is because it's about the aging process, getting older . How has your body changed in the last couple years? Is it changing in a positive way? Or in a way that maybe you would like to change, you'd like to reverse some of that aging process. That's the question that we're going to answer and I have an amazing guest who is, she's the expert when it comes to rolling back the years on your metabolism. So be sure to tune in again next week.
Now, I just want to ask you one quick favor before you leave. If you can go to MakeYourBodyWork.com/iTunes and that'll take you to the show in the iTunes store. As you know, this show is free, it's gonna be free forever, and the only thing that I ask is that you give the show a rating.
If you enjoy it, maybe give a comment, let me know what it is you like about it or what you'd like to see in the future. That's really important for helping other people find the show and hopefully getting something that they can apply to their life, something that they can use to improve their life, hopefully like you have, as well. That's it for today, thanks again for tuning in and I can't wait to see you here again next week.