The Thriving Man Podcast David Maxwell

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle over the long term means understanding and dealing with your food. We have some practical tips to help you navigate away from the strange nutrition advice you may hear and focus on what works over the long haul.
Calories are a reality that we must embrace to have a balanced and sustainable approach to nutrition. On today's show, we dive into the reality of the calorie.
Understanding calories and their impact on weight managementCalories are not evil- they are units of energy that our bodies need to function properly.We need calories to fuel daily activities, including breathing, walking, and sleeping.To lose weight, you must create a calorie deficit, which means consuming fewer calories than your body needs daily.To maintain your weight, you must consume roughly the same amount of calories as your body requires.To gain weight, you need to consume more calories than your body needs.
The importance of tracking your daily calorie intakeTracking your daily calorie intake is the most powerful tool for managing your health journey and achieving your health goals.Smartphone apps or online tool that allows you to log your meals and provides you with an estimate of the calories consumed. (Many are free)The habit of paying attention is the real key, we often get unhealthy because we don’t pay attention.When we are intentional about our eating, we can make better choices and choose the foods that we like and that are better for us.
Calculating your daily calorie needsThis can vary depending on age, gender, weight, height, and activity level.Don’t worry about getting everything perfect.The key is to start and have a baseline.
Effective strategies for reducing calorie intakeReducing calorie intake doesn't mean depriving yourself of delicious food. It's about making smarter choices and finding healthier alternatives.
Find your favorite fruits and vegetablesGet more proteinFocus on FiberBe mindful of liquid caloriesCook at home more often
Portion control tips for managing caloriesPortion control is a key ingredient for managing your calorie intake.
Use smaller plates and bowlsMeasure your foodAvoid eating straight from the packagePlan your meals and snacks
By practicing portion control, you can enjoy a wide variety of foods while managing your calorie intake. Remember, it's not about depriving yourself; it's about finding the balance that works for you.
The role of savoring in controlling caloriesFood should be something you savor and enjoy.
Take the time to be present in the moment and fully engage your senses when you eat.
Slow downEliminate distractionsTune into your hunger and fullness cuesUse your sensesBe Thankful for the MomentRecognize emotional eating
When you learn to savor your food, you can develop a greater awareness of your body's needs and make conscious choices that support your long-term health journey. It's not just about the calories you consume; it's also about the quality of your eating experience
Challenge: Find Your Calorie RealityStart tracking - Suck it up if you want to changeMy fitness pal is free (for the calorie-only version)Carbon is more effective for next-level tracking (Calories, Macros, and an algorithm that changes your calorie intake to your needs)Doing what you’ve done hasn’t helped youThis is a key process because you are taking responsibility for your food yourself
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We are continuing our focus on movement when it comes to having a beach-ready body. In this episode, we dive into the practical realities if we want to increase the movement in our lives. Too many of us think it is impossible with our crazy schedule. The truth is it can happen with some specific focus.
Reality One: You’ve Got to PlanThe movement required to live with a beach-ready body does not happen by accident.Planning your exercise time and how you add more movement to your life is something that you have to prioritize.The reality is no one can do this for us. We must take personal responsibility for ourselves and our bodies.We can blame society and our schedules but we make time for what’s important.If we aren’t making time for more movement, we need to be honest and realize we don’t prioritize it enough.
Reality Two: Consistency is KeyLong-term success is something that we can do regularly.We also want to take into account what is fun.We all tend to stick with things we enjoy more than things we hate.We should look for things we enjoy doing or at least, we enjoy the feeling we have afterwards from having done it.
Reality Three: Variety and ChallengesOne of the great things about different types of exercise is it works our bodies in many ways.This keeps things fresh and can help stop the boredom of doing the same thing all the time.We recently challenged men to focus on getting under 30% body fat as a starting point.
Challenge: Beach-Ready Body Movement PlanStep 1: Decide the WhatStarting begins when we decide what we will do to add movement into our lives.The best time might be the early morning or at lunch.We may need to experiment to find the best time and process but avoiding the issue won’t get anything done.The key point is to start with something. Adjustments will come, but if we don’t start we won’t be able to figure the rest out
Step 2: Forget Past Failures & VictoriesTwo biggest mindsets that hurt us.The first one is where we beat ourselves up for getting so out of shape.We also can’t allow our past victories to influence us.The goal of a beach-ready body life is to have a process that we enjoy and can stick with for sustained health.
Step 3: Get HelpSometimes the best thing we can do to develop consistency is to get help.Paid coaching, something online, or a combination of the two.Coaching also helps to bring more fun and confidence to our movement plans. When we know what we are doing from our coaching we can enjoy it more.We have a special course Physical Health 101 that is a deep dive into making fitness a reality in our lives. Find it at www.thrivingman.com
Step 4: Find CommunityOne of the best ways to make movement part of our lives is to join a community.Many people go to a class at a gym because of the sense of community and fun it brings.We could even get a friend to join us in our new plan. This can bring a challenge and a sense of accountability to both of you
Movement-Focused Final ThoughtsThe beach-ready body is something every one of us can have long-term.The key is to develop healthy habits over the long run.This isn’t a quick fix and we cannot expect weight to drop off overnight.Start this week! Don’t wait until things are perfect or you have a perfect plan.You won’t regret it and you will be stronger because of it.
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When it comes to our health, it is easy to look for the “one trick” to bring a beach-ready body, but there isn’t a trick. There isn’t some “magic formula” that fixes our health and keeps us in shape. It always comes down to the little daily decisions in our life.
The idea for this series came from a quote that Dr. Layne Norton put on X:
"STOP stressing over every single health topic. The majority of ‘optimal’ health can be achieved through
Regular exerciseControlling caloriesEating enough protein & fiberPsychological stress managementAdequate sleepDon’t smoke or drinkThe amount of stress you spend on individual ingredients in food, meal timing, fasting windows, fad diets, special exercises, etc is killing you faster than getting these small things ‘wrong’"
Implementing these priorities is the key to having a beach-ready body year-round. Plus they aren’t weird or super complicated. On today’s show, we are covering the first of two parts about Movement and its importance in our lives
Beach-Ready vs SedentaryWe are a sedentary society.Most jobs today involve sitting in front of a computer.Even jobs that don’t involve an office often involve a lot of sitting. This is a reality that we have to understand and work with.
The Sitting NormMany of us sit at work and look at screens most of the day.When we get home, we often find ourselves sitting (with our feet propped up of course) and watching something.Sitting is not evil, but the truth we have to recognize is how much sitting we do is excessive.When we go from a sitting job to sitting at home, that can cause us to get used to the sedentary lifestyle.Walking is something we don’t do often and our bodies begin to lose their muscle tone. If we don’t use muscles, they get weak.A sedentary life won’t help us be beach-ready it only helps us be couch-ready.
Watching vs DoingWe have a spectator society and that is a bad thing for our health.Instead of doing something or trying something new, we often sit and watch the “experts” do it online.Armchair quarterbacks are a classic example of this.
Trained SedationMany of us have grown up and live in a sedentary environment and we need to recognize this and fight against it.As kids, many of us grew up with all kinds of digital games and devices where we could spend hours playing but never move.This gives us a sense of activity while not doing anything active.Our devices don’t help us because at any time we can watch videos and be mentally stimulated.We can’t let the digital world consume us and force us to become sedentary.
Mental Fatigue ReactionThe digital world we live in often drives us to end the day with a lot of mental fatigue.This is real and we do want to learn how to deal with it but we often confuse mental fatigue with physical fatigue.We can be tired mentally, but our bodies will often still need some type of movement.The amazing thing is as we work our bodies, it often stimulates our minds and energizes us mentally.
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Is there an ideal body type? Body types and ideal body types are always changing. Standards of beauty vary from time period to time period. We even see that today. Different countries will often have different standards of beauty and looks.
The problem with these types of standards is that for many of us, they aren’t possible so we don’t even try. What is the use of being in shape if we will never reach a “standard” of perfection? We have to change our minds when it comes to this and it starts with us having the right attitude.
We are using the term “Beach Ready Body” and we want to explain what that means on today’s show.
A beach-ready body isn’t an ideal of perfection, as much as it is an individual goal for a person. It is a term we are using to focus on being healthy all the time and not just going on vacation when people will see us at the beach. We want to focus on living a lifestyle of healthiness which means at any time we could go to the beach. Our health should not be about an event but about a lifestyle journey.
Health Journey vs Health TargetThe process of living healthy starts with us seeing the process as a journey and not just a target.Everyday habits and choices are the key to sustained success in health
The Journey of IdentityThe journey of health is a journey of identity.Too many of us struggle to see ourselves as a “healthy” person.We see our flaws and screw-ups and often give up before the payoff happensOur identity has to change if we are going to see long-term sustained success.
Healthy Doesn’t Mean Health NutOne thing that turns many of us off from health is the health nutsPeople who act like that are just wanting the attention.We want to walk the health journey because it’s what is best for us and our familyWe want to be good stewards of our bodies.
The Biggest Battle of Having a Beach-Ready BodyThe top thing that stops us from the body and health we want: Giving Up.People often give up because they have “tried” through the years.We start excusing our unhealthiness and justifying our lack of effortWe can’t expect short-term fixes to solve long-term problems.
Can I Still Enjoy Food?This is a big part of why so many of us don’t build healthy habits. We think it means we can’t enjoy our food anymore.Living healthy can help us enjoy our food more.We don’t just accept anything to eat. We learn to enjoy food that is really good instead of whatever is available.We don’t have to be obsessed with food to enjoy food. We can enjoy it and still live a healthy life. We just have to keep food in its proper place.Food doesn’t fix things and shouldn’t be a source of comfort.We should enjoy food but not expect our food to fix emotional issues in our lives.
The Upfront MovementWe have to be honest: Getting started will be hard!Mindsets take time to change.We have to focus on the reality of why being healthy matters.It is an uphill battle
Personal Grace for the Beach-Ready BodyWhen we decide to go on a journey toward healthiness, remember that it takes time.Health isn’t a streak you maintain. Messing up once doesn’t end your healthy life!We will go through different seasons where we focus on physical health and some seasons where we are looking at other areas.
Mental Tip: Look for the Best OptionThere are times when we go to an event and there isn’t anything super healthy that is offered to us, so what do we do? Binge Out???Try to go with the best options that is there and don’t give yourself an excuse to binge out.We don’t live in a perfect world and we

Life often never goes as we planned. Many of us had dreams as kids of what we wanted to be when we grew up. Most of us change those many times before we become adults. No one’s life goes according to their first initial plan.
Why is this? Because we all make adjustments as we grow. We learn about ourselves and we mature in our values. Adjusting to life is part of living life well. We adjust to things like jobs and relationships. Having confidence doesn’t mean we get everything right. It means we have an attitude of adjustment.
On today’s show, we talk through 3 key ways to ensure adjusting is part of building a confident life.
Pick a Direction
- You can’t adjust your direction if you have no direction.
- Why are you here? What does a great life look like in a normal week?
- A lot of guys never answer that question.
- Survival mode is the path of least resistance.
- You can only behave beyond your current standard when you look beyond your current reality.
- Picking a direction is part of living a confident life
- When you don’t pick a direction, you’ll wander from fad to fad.
- Not choosing is a choice. When you don’t pick your direction it is picked for you (listening to music, watching streaming vs TV channels)
- When we don’t pick, we are giving control of our lives to others
- Key Idea: Choices aren’t permanent- they’re tests for feedback
Set Up Boundaries
- Gardens flourish within the right conditions, grass looks lush and green when taken care of
- Too often we don’t work on the boundaries of our lives so we can’t flourish
- Boundaries Focus our Work and Energy
- Boundaries Make Decisions Easier
- It is deciding before you have to make the decision.
- Boundaries Protect Us, even from ourselves
- The simplicity of the concept of boundaries doesn’t mean they are easy

Make Micro Adjustments
- Making adjustments is a good part of living our lives
- Flights adjust constantly as they travel to get to their destination
- We do the same thing as we figure out what works in our life
- We prototype things and then drop it or adjust it
- Don’t always adjust everything- have a planning, executing, and evaluating rhythm.
- These are all micro adjustments and they are a part of life
- You won’t be perfect and shouldn’t expect to be, but if you don’t try you won’t know

CHALLENGE
- Quit waiting for Perfection to pick a direction
- What are the core 4 to 5 things you value most in life?
- What doesn’t a lifestyle that supports those things look like on an average day?
- What does the schedule look like in an average week?
- Where do you live and who are you with?
- Boundaries
- What boundaries do you need to start living that way today?
- Read Boundaries by Henry Cloud & John Townsend
- Go to www.boundaries.me
- Embrace adjustments and look for ways to improve
- Make a plan/prototype.
- Set a start and end date.
- At the end date ask yourself:
- What worked well?
- What made it difficult?
- What did I learn about myself in the process?
- How can I adjust to fit the future I desire? (could even mean stopping something)
- Understand that change isn’t always better
- You don’t have to constantly be changing everything
- Sometimes maintaining what you’re doing is best.
- Be wise in your adjustments. Be selective. Only work on 1-3 areas at a time. NO MORE THAN 3. Preferably 2 or less.
- Sometimes the best adjustment is to stick to the original plan and focus on it
Watch and Enjoy!
David & Reese Maxwell...

Being the main character of your own life and building confidence only happens when you have focus. Our focus on the why behind our lives really does matter. Too often we are so busy living life that we never think about why.
We call this survivor mode. A way of life for too many of us
We have to start living with purpose in the face of the busyness of life
Busyness is a distraction and deception for too many of us
We want to escape the survivor mode by focusing our lives and we do that by recognizing some key mental traps that we can get caught up in
Trap #1: Activity = Success
- Everyone is busy today
- Busyness isn’t evil
- Busyness isn’t evil, but busyness isn’t necessarily success either
- The problem comes when we allow ourselves to take on the activity = success mindset

Trap #2: Riding vs Driving
- The reality of the “Victim Mentality” and how it has permeated our society today
- Question “Is life moving you are, or are you moving you”
- Many of us act like we are on a roller coaster instead of driving a car
- **Decide Your Destination**
- **Evaluate Your Every Day**
- The calendar is the greatest mirror of what your priorities really are
- “Desires without discipline will only be dreams”
- Use the Word No
- We have to learn to say no to ourselves first
- Men who can’t control their own appetites can’t control their life
- We have to learn to say no to others
- We have to say no to the urgent and unimportant
- This is simple but not easy

Trap #3: The “One Day” Dream
- Our society pushes and showcases the “one-day” dream
- One day will never happen if we aren’t ready for it
- The lottery mentality - dreaming of how you’ll spend the millions but not doing anything to earn money now
- Are you a good steward of what you have now?

CHALLENGE
- Ask yourself, “Why am I so busy”
- Am I choosing what I do or allowing it to be selected for me?
- Do this in the reality of your life.
- Write out everything you are committed to, and how much time that takes each week, and look at that list. Are you setting yourself up for stress and overcommitment?
- You can’t control everything but what CAN you control
- Start with the little daily decisions
- Are you choosing how you live or just surviving in the little things of everyday life?
- The “one-day” mentality comes from feeling overwhelmed with all the stuff life throws at us
- Do you need all the decisions you have to make?
- Start fixing the small areas and you will build up strength for the big areas

Watch and Enjoy!
David & Reese Maxwell

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