90. Hacking Your Environment to Create Better Results

My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Sports Nutritionist, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind. So you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 90 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today I’m talking about hacking your environment to create better results. So when you set out to achieve a big goal, you have to change what you’re doing right, you have to start doing different things. Because if you just keep doing the same things, you’re just gonna keep getting the same results that you have now.

So for example, if your goal is to lose weight, then you should probably change what you’re eating. Simple enough, right? That’s great. We all know this, but what else should you change what other factors are affecting your weight loss goal results? One of the biggest factors affecting your ability to achieve whatever goal it is you’re working on is your environment.

And your environment is more than just the physical space around you at this moment, it’s all the information that’s constantly streaming into your brain. Is this information helping you to feel better and achieve your goals? Or is this information making it next to impossible for you to make any progress. In this episode, I’m going to break it all down and I have a bunch of practical tips for hacking your environment to create better results toward all of your goals.

But first, if you love this podcast, you have to come check out the Running Lean podcast community on Facebook. It’s a fun little community, it goes hand in hand with this podcast. It’s a group of like-minded people who support each other, encourage each other. And we love running. And we love talking about all this stuff that I share here in the podcast.

You know, we love talking about the mindset, and about achieving goals. And about you know, cleaning up our environment and things like that. So come and join us over in the Running Lean community on Facebook, just go to Facebook and search for Running Lean community.

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Thank you very much for posting that Heather. And I appreciate that. And I really love reading these reviews from you guys. So keep them coming. Because here’s the thing, I do this show, I’m talking to this microphone, I have all these ideas in my head, I want to share them with you guys, I want to help you get better results. And when somebody says, Hey, I’m listening to your podcast, and you’re already helping me so much. That means a lot to me, it means that the message is being received, and you guys are taking action and that you want more of this. So I just so appreciate the review. So thank you so much for doing that.

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Okay, I’m excited about talking about this topic because it’s been on my list of topics for a while now. And I finally was like I need to talk about this. My trainer and I were talking about our environment the other day, we’re talking about how we need to, you know, clean up not just you know, the space around us that’s important. But when we start to feel like we’re not getting the results we want we need to look at other factors that are affecting us. Progress.

If we have a big goal, and we’re just we’re feeling like we’re stuck, or we’re not making much progress towards it, then we need to look at what is affecting our ability to achieve this goal. Okay, so here’s what I want you to do. While I’m talking about this, today, I want you to think about something that you want for yourself.

So think about the goal that you’re kind of working on, maybe you have more than one totally fine, but you might have a weight loss goal. Or maybe you have a goal to run a marathon or qualify for Boston or complete an Ironman Triathlon, whatever this goal is that you want for yourself, just be thinking about that, okay.

And then think about what you need to do to achieve that goal. So you know, if you want to lose weight, you got to change your diet, right? If you want to run your fastest marathon, if you want to PR if you want to qualify for Boston, you got to practice running faster, you know, you got to do a bunch of speed work, you got to put in the work, right, you got to put in a lot of time training for that particular event, you got to increase your mileage, you got to do all kinds of stuff, okay.

So these are the things that you have to do. And this is where most people stop, like, okay, I’ve changed my diet, and I’m doing the training, but they still struggled after they, they find themselves, you know, they slide into old behaviors, they self-sabotage.

And the reason for this is not that like you’re a bad person, alright, or the dream capable of making change. The reason for this is that your conscious mind, you know, is on board with your plan. But your subconscious mind is like not anywhere close to being on board with your plan. Okay.

And I want to talk about this for just a minute, because I want you to just kind of grasp this concept of like that we have two minds, basically. Okay, and I’m going to just kind of simplify this, you know, without getting into too many like scientific things. But we basically have two minds, we have a conscious mind and a subconscious mind, we have a conscious mind that’s responsible for what you’re sort of actively doing right now, mostly, and I’ll get into some subconscious behaviors in a minute.

But for the most part, you know, I’m sitting here I’m talking to you right now, I’m doing this very consciously. The conscious mind is logical is the logical thinking, rational part of your brain, you know, it’s the mind that you use to solve a math problem or write your grocery list, right? There’s the consciousness, okay? The conscious mind pays attention to what’s happening around you. Okay? And makes decisions. So anytime you’re making a decision or a choice. For the most part, we’re talking about, you’re using your conscious mind to do these things, okay?

Then we have our subconscious mind. So your subconscious mind is responsible for all the things that you’re not consciously aware of. So your subconscious mind runs your body, it breathes for you, it beats your heart, it keeps your body in homeostasis, it’s, you know, firing different neurons.

And can you imagine having to consciously do all this stuff, like having to consciously operate your body, like you have to consciously tell yourself to beat your heart, or to breathe? Like we’d all be dead. Let’s face it, okay.

So all these things are done by your, you know, subconscious mind, or, you know, it’s called your autonomic nervous system, and but it’s run by your brain, okay? And your brain is like taking care of all these things at the sort of subconscious level, so you don’t have to be thinking about it. Okay.

Another interesting thing about your subconscious mind is that it’s always taking in information. It’s listening, it’s seeing, it’s feeling, it’s taking all this information and storing it away in your memory banks, even though you may not consciously be doing it.

So you might, you know, you’ve probably studied for a test before, right, and you’ve like, consciously sat there and read through all the information. And then purposely, like stored that away in your memory bank, so you can ace the test, right? And that’s one way of taking in information and then storing it away.

But there’s also a subconscious way of taking in information. You don’t always know that it’s happening. You’re not always aware of it happening because it’s below your conscious awareness. But we’re still taking in tons of information all day long. Every day, every second of every day. Your subconscious mind is taking in millions of bits or bytes of information and storing it away in your memory banks. You’re not really aware that this is happening, but I promise you it is happening.

And if you were to try to like consciously take in every bit of information that’s coming in at you just like as you’re driving down the street, like, all the things you’re seeing and hearing, and cars and buildings and trees, and people and birds, and everything that’s going on around you, like it would, your mind would explode! So it’s cool that we have the subconscious that can kind of take all that stuff in and help us to, you know, sort of just put that away in the memory banks and filter things out that way. Okay. So that’s kind of a very high-level kind of description of our two minds, our conscious mind and our subconscious mind.

And then we have this thing called subconscious behaviors. And that’s kind of what I was alluding to earlier, like, so we have behaviors that we do consciously, you know, and then we have behaviors that we do subconsciously, right. So when you get really good at doing something, the act of doing that, when you do something habitually, the act of doing that can become a subconscious behavior.

For example, like driving a car, you used to have to think about everything to do when you drive a car like you’ve got to adjust the mirrors, and you’ve got to put on your turn signal, and you’ve got to look both ways. And you got to put, which foot do you use? And which pedal are you supposed to be pushing on? And how do you use this clutch, you know, and all that stuff, like, you’d have to think about all that stuff is a very conscious act.

And then over time, you get to the point where you can drive all day long. And without much conscious thought at all. You can do it very subconsciously, you just get in the car and you start driving, you’re not thinking about it all. So that’s a good example of how you’ve done something so often that it becomes a subconscious behavior.

All right, this is how habits work to okay, like, you know, brushing your teeth, tying your shoes, or heading straight to the freezer after dinner for that pint of Ben and Jerry’s. These are, these are other habits that we’ve done that we’ve just done so often that just become sort of a subconscious habit, you don’t even know you’re doing it, but you do it anyway.

And, and these are all things that you’ve had to practice a lot like you had to, you have to practice a lot and get good at these things. So that they’ve become subconscious behaviors, you don’t just do it once and all of a sudden, it’s like automatic, no, you got to practice it over and over and over and over again.

I remember when I was a kid, I learned how to play the piano. And I would learn a new song. And I was kind of trying to read music. And it was like a, it was just so, so hard. It’s such a hard process. You know, at the beginning, when you’re like 12 years old, you’re trying to learn how to play the piano. And I would sit there for hours and just like playing the same thing over and over again.

And it got to a point at some point where I could just sit down and play that song that I’ve been practicing. And my poor parents had to listen to me practicing this same thing over and over and over again, poorly. It’s probably terrible. But they were good-natured about it. You know, they finally were like, you know, oh, that sounds pretty good, you know.

But I got to the point where I can play that piece of music without having to look at the music. And without even having to think about it anymore. I had just sort of built that, you know, muscle memory. And that brain memory, I just knew what to do. It became subconscious, right. So this is kind of how subconscious behaviors work. And a lot of people go through their life, living very subconsciously, they’re not even aware of what they’re doing most of the time. They’re not even aware of their thoughts, their feelings, or their actions.

And I want you to start to just think about this for a second because the subconscious mind is very powerful. It’s a very powerful part of who you are. And most people just don’t even know it exists or ignore it completely. Okay.

When we start to put our focus on the subconscious mind and start to bring a lot of that subconscious thoughts, feelings, and actions into our consciousness, this is where we start to make powerful changes in our lives. Okay?

Why am I explaining all this? I’m talking about this because I want to help you understand the power of the subconscious mind that it’s always taking in information, processing that information, storing that information. It’s using that information to determine what you think, how you feel, and even helping you to do what you do. And so that subconscious mind is a powerful, powerful thing and we want to like just start to kind of tap into how are we programming that subconscious mind what is the information that keeps coming in to the subconscious mind.

So when I start talking about your environment, and how to hack your environment to create better results, I’m really talking about changing the information. About changing the stream of information that you are constantly sending to your not just your constant your conscious mind, but your subconscious mind as well. So that you can get both minds in sync and working towards the same end result.

Because here’s the thing, if you have some conscious thought, like, hey, I want to lose weight, but you have this subconscious thought of like, you know, you, you can lose weight, and the Ben and Jerry’s is right there, and like you just constantly sending these conflicting signals to your brain into your body, then you’re gonna have a really hard time, it’s gonna be hard for you, you’re going to struggle, you’re going to self-sabotage, you’re not going to move towards your goals, you’re gonna feel stuck.

But if you get both of those minds in sync, and on the same page, and we start sending the same sort of information to both places, boom, you’re going to start to have great results, okay, you’re going to start to feel better, you’re going to start to make good progress, you’ll stop the self-sabotage.

Okay, so let’s get into what your environment actually is. So when we talk about the environment, it’s not just what you see around you, it’s not just the physical space around you, that’s part of it. You know, for example, if you want a better work environment, keep your desk clean and tidy. You know, if you’re trying to stick to your diet, clean the junk food out of your pantry, these are a couple of packs, and I’m gonna talk about a bunch of these things here in a minute. But these are examples of how to make changes to your physical environment, right. But your environment is more than just the physical space around you. Right?

It’s what you expose yourself to on a daily basis. And what I mean by exposing yourself to I mean, like, expose yourself in what you see, what you hear, what you’re watching, what you’re reading, all these things matter, right? And all this constant stream of information and messages that are coming into you can have a profound impact on you. It can impact how you think and how you feel and what you do.

So I’m going to talk about all these different areas of your environment and how to make positive changes in these areas. And I’m just kind of using like hacking your environment, well, just means we’re going to make positive changes to all these different areas of your environment, to get you in line with your goals, so you can start getting better results. Cool.

The first is your physical space, right? This is the most common area we think about when we want to, you know, hack our environment. We’re like, oh, we’ve got to change the space around us. Okay. So this can be like the physical areas that you’re that you live in. Right? There’s some here that I’m going to talk about that you may not really think of.

But here’s kind of a list of some things that we can start to change. Okay, so number one, and I talked to all my clients about this is the kitchen like you have to change your kitchen. If you’re trying to lose weight, you’re trying to change the way you’re eating. You gotta like, go in the kitchen and start addressing everything that’s, that’s going to thwart your progress. Alright.

There are a lot of like automatic triggers in the kitchen. Right? Just seeing a bag of potato chips, every time you open up the pantry can cause you to start craving potato chips. And then when you’re creating potato chips, and they’re just right there, like what usually happens, right? You eat the potato chips, right?

So I suggest for you if your goal is to lose weight and you want to change your diet, get rid of all the junk, clean out your fridge, clean out your freezer, clean out the pantry, right get rid of anything that is not on your plan. Get rid of all that stuff. Because if it’s causing you to like have cravings, mental cravings, and just like get rid of it. And if it’s just a bunch of junk anyway, you just don’t need it around anymore. So give it away, throw it away, whatever you need to do.

But especially at the beginning of a dietary change, like if you’re changing the way you’re eating, like at the beginning, it’s much harder if you have all these temptations around you. Okay, now, when you go into your kitchen after you’ve made all these changes, what do you have? What are you seeing, you’re seeing good healthy choices all around you, your pantry every time you open it. Good stuff in there, your freezer, awesome, your fridge all the stuff that you want. There’s no soda, there’s no doughnuts, there’s no ice cream. So you just hacked your physical environment you just hacked your kitchen environment. We stay on your plan.

But there’s something else cool that’s happening here. So every time you venture into the kitchen, your subconscious mind is only seeing the healthy stuff, you’re only seeing healthy choices, you’re surrounding yourself now, with healthy food, and these healthy food options become the normal and you become more, you know acclimatized to the normal healthy foods, because now your subconscious mind is getting on board with this whole plan of yours. Okay?

So one of the most obvious things you can do is is hack your kitchen environment, just get rid of all the junk, it’s just a bunch of junk, you know it and you’re not going to be missing out on anything if you throw that stuff away. Okay.

Another area that a lot of people don’t really think about is your bedroom. So one way that you can hack your bedroom environment is to get rid of the TV. I don’t know if you have a TV in your bedroom. But I know a lot of people like to fall asleep to the TV, I even know some people that like to leave the TV on all night while they’re sleeping.

And here’s the problem with that you are just constantly receiving these messages into your brain, whether you are awake or asleep, even during your sleep, you’re taking in a lot of that information. And if you just got the TV on to like, I don’t know, the news, or something like that, while you’re sleeping, what kind of subconscious messages are you sending into your brain, you know, you’re processing all these messages while you sleep, okay?

So get rid of the TV, your bedroom should be a place where you sleep, you know, it should be like, okay, I’ll watch TV out here in the living room, I turn off the TV, and then I go into the bedroom and start my sort of bedtime routine, maybe dim the lights, you know, turn down the air. So it’s a little cooler in the house, do a little bit of reading or something like that, right?

So just like just be aware of, of your bedroom environment. Is it dark enough so that you can sleep? Is it cool enough, you know, so you get a good night’s sleep like these things are important, okay. And then here’s something that you may not want to hear. But like having your phone right next to you, and having your phone be the very last thing that you see before you fall asleep. And the very first thing that you see when you wake up. I don’t know that this is serving you.

Because this again, we’re like sending these messages into our brain. And so what messages do you want to get right before you go to sleep? You know, and if you’re, if you’re like reading texts and emails and scrolling through social media, and then immediately just falling asleep, this is like the last thing you do to end your day.

And then as soon as you wake up in the morning, you’re looking at these same like text messages and emails from work and, you know, scrolling through social media and checking WhatsApp and all these other things and all this information, all these messages are being pushed onto you. Right? This is not you controlling the narrative here. These are messages from outside that you are taking in, right, you’re not in control of these, you’re just like, at the whim of whoever sending these messages, okay, they might be positive, but they may not be if you’re the kind of person that has to check email right before you go to bed and right when you wake up in the morning, is that how you want to finish and start each day? I don’t know, probably not the best way to start your day or end your day.

So here’s a hack you can do just like leave something by your bed that makes you feel good and read it every night before you go to sleep. And then make that the first thing you see and read each morning. So this could be something as simple as, you know, a favorite quote written on a piece of paper, or a book, a book of quotes, or a mantra, you know, that you have for yourself.

Like right now I’m reading a book called meditations by Marcus Aurelius. And this is giving me something meaningful to ponder when I end my day, you know, before I go to sleep, I can kind of think about these one or two-line meditations, and then when I wake up in the morning is the first thing I see so I don’t turn on my phone and start checking messages right away, and I don’t look at my phone after a certain time each night I give myself a little bit of time to do a little bit of reading and then fall asleep. So just think about that.

You know, think about how your bedroom environment is affecting your mood and whether you’re getting your results or not, okay? And then I kind of added this one in as like your whole house like I think it would be a fun idea to like write positive messages to yourself and post them all over the place, you know, put them in the kitchen, put them in the bathroom mirror, put them next to your computer, you can even put them like in your car, like this way, you control the messages that you’re receiving, right? You’re hacking your environment to produce like a positive message everywhere you look. And when you do that, that stuff just starts to really sink in. Okay.

And if it’s something like you’re trying to stay on your plan, you know, it could be like, hey, you got this, stick to the plan. Everything is working at a great time. You know, focus on how you feel anything like this, anything that’s meaningful and positive for you post these messages all over the place. Right, you’re surrounding yourself with positive information coming on, it’s going to help you achieve your goals.

You can do something similar like at your office, or your desk, maybe you work from home. Listen, we spend most of the time at work sitting in front of a computer, most people do anyway, clean up that area, make it nice and tidy and neat. And post some of these messages around you and pictures of kids or, you know, if you have a goal, like let’s say you have a goal to you know, finish an Ironman, you know, post a picture of, of someone crossing the finish line and an Ironman, you know, this is something that I did that was super helpful for me.

I actually changed the lock screen on my iPhone to be the finish line of Louisville Iron Man. And every time I looked at my phone for the better part of a year, I saw that finish line. And I just imagined it was me running across that finish line. There’s a cool little environment hack right there. You know, change the desk, the lock screen on your phone, your car, you spend a lot of time in your car, it should be clean and organized. And not just a stressful place.

You know, and I listened to, and we’ll talk about this in just a minute. But I listen to books in the car, I listen to audiobooks, I listen to podcasts, and sometimes I just listen to fun uplifting music while I’m in the car. And we’ll talk more about what you’re listening to in just a minute. But the last sort of physical space I’m going to talk about is like the places you go, the restaurants you go to the bars you go to. Are you spending more time at Dunkin Donuts, are you spending more time at the gym, this is going to affect how you stick to your plan, right?

I love my gym, and I love spending time there. And it just feels good to be there. You know. So the places that you go, the restaurants you hang out at, and things like that, if they’re not serving you, if they’re not part of your plan, find a different place. You know, see, these are all little hacks that we can do. These are changes that we can make, to get on board with everything that we do and all the information that’s coming in and all the places hanging out everything we’re reading, listening to should be supporting us in our goals, whatever those goals are, okay?

One of my favorite environment hacks, physical environment hacks is to get out into nature, go for a nice walk in the park, go run some trails out in the woods, get out of your normal everyday environment, whether it’s you know, the office or your house or whatever and get into nature. This is going to do wonders for your mental and emotional state.

Okay, the next area of environment that I want to talk about is what’s your reading, right? So what books are you reading? What blog posts, what articles, you know, is what you’re reading something that is helping you and supporting you and your goals. And this does not mean that you have to like always be reading, you know, nonfiction stuff, like, you know, boring, you know, diet books or something like that. But there’s a space for that.

And I think it’s important that we, we do that as well. But it’s okay to read for fun. I was one of these people that every time I was reading, it was purposeful, and to learn something, but then over the last few months, I’ve just started reading for fun, and I enjoy it so much now, but I do both. So I spent some time reading books on different nutrition regimens, and, you know, books on running and, you know, books on personal development, I’m always reading about emotional reading things that helped me to develop and grow as a person.

But now I’m also reading books like just fantasy books and fun stuff. Like I’m kind of a nerd in that way. And it kind of just takes me on a little bit of a, a little bit of an adventure, you know, in my brain and it’s kind of fun to read that way too. But all the stuff I’m reading is all positive. It’s supporting me and what I’m doing is supporting me and my goals.

I read about that. Diet and exercise, you know, I want to always be on the cutting edge of like new science and new research and stuff like that. So read things that are helping you and supporting you with your goals. You know, I’m always reading books and articles about the low carb diet and running and how these things work together and how different people have had all these amazing experiences, getting fat-adapted and running ultra marathons.

And when I was training for my Ironman, I’m gonna use this example because I changed all these different things in my environment when I was training for this thing, because it was a huge, huge goal for me, and a scary, very scary goal. And I’m like, I need to change what I’m reading change when I’m listening to change what I’m looking at change who I’m hanging around with, like, all these things had to change for me.

So registering for Ironman, I started reading all these different books about the triathlon and just started surrounding myself with more good information I was reading blog posts and articles and following all these people online. And I’ve got some recommended reading for you guys.

So here are some books that I sort of recommend that, that just help with understanding, you know, sort of some diet stuff and some personal growth stuff and some writing stuff. So here’s a couple of things. And just so you know, I’m gonna list all of these books and recommendations that I have in the show notes for this episode, which you can find at runningleanpodcast.com/90. So just go there. And then you can like, click the links and find all this stuff.

So here are some books that I recommend: The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung. He lays out, you know, what’s going on in your body, why we gain weight, and what we need to do to lose weight. And this applies to all human beings.

Another book I love, love, love is Mindful Running by McKenzie Havey. And she just talks about how running can be a more mindful experience and how to really just get into the moment when you’re running. It’s a great book, I highly recommend it.

The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Ty Schultz and she just talks about why fat was villainized. So, so much and how it’s was just it’s wrong, you know, villainizing fat as the main cause of like obesity is not correct. And so that was a very eye-opening book for me.

And then one that I read three times now, I love listening to the audio version of this book because the guy that reads it is pretty funny. But it’s the Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck by Mark Manson, and this book is just like, it’s just really just the title itself is awesome. But it’s good information and super fun.

So that’s some books I recommend, again, surround yourself, your whole environment should be supporting you and helping you to feel good about your goals and helping you to achieve your goals. Like what are you listening to? That’s the next area of environment that we can hack, right.

But podcasts or listening to podcasts can be one of the best ways to learn about a topic. I mean, here we are, you’re listening to this right now, right? You’re learning about becoming a fat-adapted runner, you’re learning about how to change your environment for better results, right. Podcasts can be very motivating can be very inspiring, they can teach you so much stuff, they can help you stay on track and keep you moving towards your goals. They can also be fun and funny and entertaining. And, you know, they’re they can just be like, they don’t all have to be about learning.

But, you know, I would just encourage you to be focused on listening to some podcasts that make you feel good and that help you support you in the goals, right? I’m going to add audiobooks to this category too. You know, just like what books are you listening to? Some people love, biographies, mysteries, and I listened to a lot of personal development-type books while I’m out walking and running. And it just gives me stuff to think about. Makes me feel good. Love it.

What else you’re listening to? What about music? Are you listening to music that gets you all pumped up and feeling good? Because it should. I had this friend who listened to the certain type of rap music and I love all kinds of music. I really do. I can tolerate just about everything. This particular type of rap music always made me feel icky. Can’t see was like, nasty stuff. And I was like, I don’t know. I mean, I’m pretty open to just about anything, but I was like, I don’t feel good listening to this, you know, and can we change the station or whatever.

And, and so anyway, I when I’m listening to music, it’s stuff that makes me feel good, you know? I’ll just be honest, like, you know, I love the 80s. 80s were my jam sort of this 80s Alternative music you know, I love me some Siouxsie and the Banshees, you know, I love XTC. I listen to some Depeche Mode, you know, and also while I’m working a lot of times I’ll listen to just electronic music that doesn’t have any words it just I get a good beat going. And it just makes me feel good. I find myself just like, tap on my toes, whatever.

So what are you listening to, what audio information is coming into your subconscious mind? You know, is it stuff that’s helping you and you know, are you getting on board with, you know, your weight loss goals or your running goals? Again, when I was training for Ironman, I started listening to these Ironman podcasts all about you know, all ofthe intricacies and the complications that go along with completing an event like that. And it really helped a lot. It made me feel so much more confident about what I was doing.

You know, and here’s some recommended podcasts I have for you guys. First one is Impact Theory with Tom Bill and he interviews some amazing people. And some of these people are like, they have some really cutting edge sort of like concepts, they talk about the science of the mind. How to, you know, like, change your thoughts and feelings to create what you want in your life. And just like all these amazing people that inspire me so much, I’ve learned so much from listening to Impact Theory.

Radio Lab, one of the OG podcasts like they’ve been around forever, I can’t recommend that enough. Another one that’s specific to like low carb running and endurance running and ultra running is human performance outliers with Zach Bitter. Zach Bitter, as you know, I’ve talked about him a lot love him. He’s a low-carb, ultra runner, one of the best in the world. And, you know, he recently, a couple of years ago, he set the world record for the 100 miles. And it was recently broken by somebody else. But Zack is just a cool guy, and any interviews all kinds of people, and they have great conversations about running and diet and things like that.

And then the last podcast I’ll recommend is The Diet Doctor Podcast with Dr. Brett Sure. And you know, he interviews other doctors and they talk about, you know, the effects of eating a low carbohydrate diet and how impactful it can be for good health. And they talk about all the science behind it. And when I hear doctors talking about this stuff, it is it just really solidifies in my mind that I’m on the right track. And that what I’m doing what I’m sharing with you guys is, is good information, you know, and solid. I feel super solid and super confident and sharing this stuff with you guys.

Because, you know, I hear other doctors and stuff sharing the same stuff with you guys. Right? All right, what other areas of your environment can we hack? How about what you’re watching? Like what are you watching on TV? You know? Are you watching documentaries about running? Or are you just watching the news all day long, right? One of these is going to fill you with inspiration and get you motivated and get you out there pushing yourself. The other is going to make you feel like crap. Full of fear, worry, and anxiety and negativity. That’s the news. That’s what it does.

And I know people who watch the news, like all day long, they just leave it on all day. They work from home and they’ve got the news going all day. And they think they’re just like staying in the know like they just want to be you know, on top of all the current events and things like that, but they’re just constantly being filled with this stream of negativity all day long. Your subconscious mind is taking it all in remember that okay?

So, I mean, some people will tell you like turn off the TV, you should never watch the TV just don’t ever turn it on. And that’s not really my opinion. I don’t share that opinion. I watch some Netflix I enjoy it. I watch documentaries on food on nutrition on running. I also watch just some fun shows I love you know, some series and some things like that. Like I’ve always got a show going. If you guys want a great show to watch on TV right now. Watch Ted Lasso. It is amazing. It just feels it’s like one of those things where you feel good after each episode. It’s just so much fun. Seriously.

Some other things that I recommend watching a documentary called That Sugar Film. You can find this for free on YouTube as well. Another documentary that I loved was Free Solo. If you guys haven’t seen this, oh my god, Alex Honnold, he climbs a free solo climbs El Capitan, 3000 feet, granite rock face, without any ropes. It’s bananas. It is absolutely bananas. I’m not a big fan of heights and watching this thing makes me feel very uncomfortable. But at the same time, I’m just fascinated. I can’t turn away I just can’t believe this guy is doing what he does. Like the the human body what we are capable of. I’m just always fascinated, right?

Another great documentary to watch on Netflix is the Barkley Marathon if you haven’t seen it, just go watch it. Just do it. Now, if you have seen it, you know what I’m talking about. Another good one on running is Desert Runners. And this chronicles, people who do this crazy thing where they run all the major deserts on each continent within a calendar year. And wow, pretty, pretty crazy.

And then the last sort of like documentary type of thing I would recommend is a documentary about Killian Jornais, who’s an ultra runner, he’s like a sky runner, like he runs all these mountains, in the Alps and stuff and this particular documentary is called Kilian Jornais: Path to Everest. And he basically summits Everest twice within what’s the timeframe, like a week, maybe which is just unheard of. And he does it without oxygen. So most people are up there with oxygen tanks and stuff, and he just does it without it. This guy is nuts, and super fun to watch.

Alright, another area of your environment that you can hack is social media, right? So like, how are you using social media, who are you following on social media? Are you following BS celebrities? Like the Kardashians? You know, do you find yourself scrolling and comparing yourself to others and always coming out on the bottom end of that comparison? If so, just stop doing that. Like, my Instagram feed now is nothing but inspiring messages.

You know, I’m learning things, it’s knowledge, it’s positivity. It’s supportive of my lifestyle. You know, I follow doctors and runners, I follow experts in the field of health and fitness. And all these people hold, you know, similar values. To me, they have similar beliefs as me, and I get inspired. And I feel good about what I’m doing. Because I keep seeing all these like pro athletes and people that I look up to and doctors and their message to me is like, yes, Patrick, what you’re doing is right, you’re on track, keep up the good work.

This is kind of like the messages that I get when I’m scrolling through Instagram. So it’s supporting me in my goals. It’s supporting me in my running goals, and in my health and fitness goals, right. And, you know, I’ve just like stopped scrolling through Facebook, just because I would see all these friends of mine and they’re posting all these amazing vacation pictures with their gorgeous wives and their perfect lives. And I would just start to compare to, you know, all maybe, you know, I’m not doing it right, or I’m not as good as them or I started to get jealous and wonder why my life isn’t as awesome and why don’t I have a gorgeous wife like that?

You know, and, and so I’ve just like stopped to scroll pretty much all right. Social media is great. It can help us stay connected, it can help us reach more people can be fun, it can be positive. But it can also be very negative and toxic and it can leave you feeling bad about yourself. And if you are scrolling through social media and feeling bad about yourself, you got to stop doing that, okay? It’s just not a good way to spend your time.

Again, this is part of your environment. These messages are coming in they’re affecting your subconscious mind. They’re affecting whether you stick to your goals or not, you know, unfollow the type of people unfollow the negative people. I do this all the time. You know, I have friends even people I know that that post a lot of negative stuff and I just unfollow them. I just don’t want to see that stuff anymore. Because it affects me profoundly. Right.

So now like when I scroll through social media like you know, I’ll scroll through Instagram a little bit. It’s pictures of runners, it’s like positive quotes. It’s people lifting weights, it’s doctors sharing information about, you know, how, you know, sugar is bad and how you know, sunlight is good for you. And it’s pictures of cool tattoos. It’s funny memes like when I scroll through Instagram, it’s something I feel good about, you know, I feel good afterward. Right?

So I got a few people that I would suggest you follow on Instagram if you do Instagram, just like because they’re positive messages and I think you’re gonna get a lot of good information from it. One of them is Jocko Willink, if you don’t know who Jocko is. Just type in Jocko and you’ll find him. David Goggins, love David Goggins? Right? If you don’t mind the language, some people get put off by his language. I think it’s awesome. It cracks me up. Zach Bitter. He’s just cool, dude. He’s like one of the nicest people in the world really. And then there’s one doctor that I love following. It’s Dr. James De Nicola Antonio.

And again, I’m going to post the links to all this in the show notes for this episode. And then lastly, as Michelle Hearn. Michelle is really cool. She wrote the book, The Dieticians’ Dilemma. And she’s a dietitian, and what she was being taught, and what she was pushing on her patients, she just didn’t feel good about it. And so she, you know, stopped doing that. And she wrote a book all about that experience. So super cool.

So use social media in a way that feels good. Okay. And then the last part of your environment that I want to talk about is the people you’re hanging around with. Your environment does include the people you spend your time with, you know, are you spending time with people who are in support of you and your goals? And you feel good about hanging around these people? Or are you hanging around people that are negative and pulling you down?

You know, when you start to make changes, like, like if you want to lose weight, so you change your diet, maybe you cut out sugar, you stopped drinking, and you have some friends that you go out with, like, maybe you guys go do drinks after work or something like that. You go to Olive Garden with all you can eat breadsticks, you know, it’s gonna be hard for you to stay on track when you’re in that environment.

We’re at that restaurant with those people, and everybody around you is drinking and eating. All you can eat breadsticks, like that may be hard for you to stick to your plan, right? So, I’m not saying you got to like, choose new friends, but you might have to like not do some of those same things with those same people, okay?

Sometimes even our spouses are not always on the same page. When we change our diet or start exercising or something like that. Some spouses are super supportive, they’ll even go along with whatever you’re doing. Like, I know, some people who change their eating habits, they go like low carb, and then their husbands or wives are like, I’m just gonna do this with you. And they do it together. Like that’s awesome. But that’s not always the case. Right?

Some continue to eat the junk food right in front of you. I’m gonna I gotta do a whole other episode, another podcast episode about how to handle that sort of unsupportive spouse because I hear about this all the time. Unfortunately, it’s a real problem for a lot of people. So what do you do with the unsupportive spouse, I need to do a long-form podcast about that.

And listen, I’m not saying you got to leave your husband if he eats pizza in front of you. But you might want to have a conversation about how you need your environment to be at least for the while, especially the beginning. Right? How can you both make changes, maybe you guys can come to a compromise. So you both win. You know, I talked about cleaning up the kitchen earlier, what if you have somebody that lives with you who still eats all that junk food, you know, maybe you dedicate a special, you know, part of the pantry just for that person, a cabinet that you don’t open typically that only this person has access to? I don’t know. But we have to make changes to all these different areas of our environment, including who we’re spending time with.

Okay. Jim Rohn said that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Now, I don’t necessarily agree with this 100%. I don’t think we become the average of other people. But I do agree that the people you spend the most time with, especially the people that are closest to you, will have an impact on you, they will have an impact on who it is that you are becoming okay. So it’s important to choose your friends wisely.

Okay, make sure that the people you’re hanging around with are supportive of you, and your goals. And yeah, sometimes you might have to choose some different friends, which is cool, because, you know, you don’t want those friends who are unsupportive. Anyway, maybe they weren’t real friends after all.

Okay, again, I’m gonna have links to all the books and movies and podcasts and social media accounts and stuff that I talked about in this episode, over in the show notes. So you can just go to runningleanpodcast.com/90. And then you can just click on all the links and stuff so you don’t have to remember it all okay.

And then also, if you ever feel like jumping into the Running Lean coaching group, you can join anytime we’re in the middle of our four weeks to fat-adapted running, and we’re having fun doing it and everything’s recorded so you’re not going to really miss anything. So anytime you want to join, just go to runningleanpodcast.com/join. And I hope you got something out of this episode today. I had a lot of fun doing this one. It was super fun. And if you did get something out of it, please consider sharing it with a friend. Love you all keep on Running Lean. I’ll talk to you soon.

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