Latest / Callum Walker | Figuring It Out / #98: [KETO Marathon Diaries Day 3] - An Army Is Only As Strong As Its Weakest Link

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#98: [KETO Marathon Diaries Day 3] - An Army Is Only As Strong As Its Weakest Link · Callum Walker | Figuring It Out

• 0:03
  Callum Walker: If fear is the only thing stopping us from achieving our dreams and we only fear what we don't understand, then the antidote to fear is knowledge. All we have to do is find out who has the knowledge that we need to conquer our fears and achieve our entrepreneurial dreams. My name is Callum Walker, and welcome to the podcast that will help you figure it out and conquer this lonely entrepreneurial journey. Everyone, and welcome to the podcast. And specifically, welcome to day three of the carb free marathon diaries.
• 0:36
  So what's been happening? I've been a nutritionist for over ten years now. A lot of people always kinda ask me, like, how should I eat? What are the best things that I should eat? What would be the best thing that I could eat to be healthy?
• 0:47
  And I always kinda like ask them. I'm like, well, it depends. Like, what are you trying to achieve? If you're a marathon runner, then you need to eat differently to someone who just wants to lose three or four pounds. If you're looking to build muscle, that's gonna be different to someone who's trying to run as fast as possible.
• 1:02
  So the first thing kinda comes down to, like, what are you trying to achieve? And then it's really interesting. What I don't do when I'm putting a specific way of eating together for someone is go like, right, here's what you need to eat. I actually look at it and go like, okay, what are you trying to achieve? And then specifically look at what are the things that are actually going to get in the way of you being able to have success with that thing.
• 1:26
  So if you look at like classical standard nutrition fueling for a marathon, an ultra endurance exercise, in a carb adapted individual, the main thing that is going to stop them from having success is going to be their availability of muscle glycogen. So effectively the amount of carbohydrate that is stored within someone's muscle that has a limitation. And if that tank runs out in a carb adapted individual, someone who hasn't gone through the keto adapted process, then naturally what happens is the performance is going to be limited. As a performance nutritionist, I would identify that as that is the performance limiting factor. That's the factor that limits performance.
• 2:07
  So my nutritional strategies with a carb adapted individual would not be centered around how can we run the marathon the best. It would actually be what's gonna stop us from being able to run the marathon, and then what do we need to do from a nutritional point of view to address that specific factor that is going to limit our performance? So if you look at most standard nutritional ways of eating that come in with, you know, ultra endurance exercise, it's looking at it and going, well, there is a risk that we're going to completely deplete our muscles of glycogen. So what we need to do is ensure that we can keep that glycogen tank topped up. And we can do that multiple ways.
• 2:45
  We can do that through nailing a shed ton of carbohydrates prior to it and carbo loading. We can then do that through consuming carbohydrates during exercise at a certain cadence. We can also then do that through taking on different types of carbohydrates. So effectively, you find out what's the thing that is going to actually impact and impair your ability to perform, And then how can we get around that? So it's actually kinda interesting because that almost kinda like comes to one of the reasons as to why a ketogenic diet in theory should be absolutely fantastic when it comes to ultra endurance activities.
• 3:22
  Well why? What's one of the performance limiting factors? Muscle glycogen typically has about a two hour sort of time frame, which means that if I'm exercising for more than two hours, I've got to basically make sure that I'm nailing as much carbohydrate as I possibly can during the exercise, which is why people go and have gels, they'll have lots of carbohydrate type drinks during that exercise to make sure that that carbohydrate tank, your glycogen reserves are continually topped up. But there's a problem with that. And one of the problems, which is kind of reported in like forty percent of athletes, it fucks your tummy.
• 3:57
  One of the main challenges is that when you're exercising, when you're running for that long duration of time and you're taking on loads and loads of gels, it can really upset your tummy. And that's one of the beauties of the ketogenic diet because effectively what happens is in theory, in an individual who is adapted to a ketogenic diet, the body isn't reliant on its muscle glycogen so much because what can happen is that the body can adapt and it can start to actually use fat as its source of fuel during exercise. Now it'll still dip into that glycogen reserve, but instead of solely being reliant on a two hour fuel tank, we actually have access to a fuel tank that is fifty, sixty, seventy days, which means that we've got a longer supply of fuel to be able to continue moving forward in terms of our exercise, which also means that I don't need to go and take as many gels and consume a shed ton of carbohydrate during that exercise, which can avoid the performance limiting factor of screwing up my gut. So, again, if I look at day one of the carb free marathon training session, training session, training period.
• 5:01
  If I look at, like, day one, I ran a effectively nearly half a marathon completely fasted. Not just was I in a fasted state in the sense of that I didn't have any carbohydrate in me prior to exercise, but also during. I didn't eat anything during. And that's really quite convenient. So again, like if I kinda look at one of the main reasons why I'm really kinda trialing this out and seeing what happens is if we look at it in terms of endurance exercise, I don't need to carry around a load of food.
• 5:29
  I don't need to go and chug, you know, loads and loads of carbs to keep me going, and that can be incredibly beneficial. Now if we also kinda look at like the performance limiting factors and how this can almost kinda like translate into a life. Like, think it's a really, really, really important thing because like, you know, I was saying this to my group the other day. So all of the guys on the on the elite coach, I've got two programs. I've got my, my next level coach six week course, which is primarily for, personal trainers online coaches who come into my world and I just give them the nutritional education that they should have got from the start.
• 5:59
  Like, they come onto the program and then within six weeks, like, they're just, nutrition is just not a problem. Like, it's one of their strongest skill sets. They've got everything that they ever need to be able to deliver fantastic results. But then I also have my elite coach program, which is my twelve month program, which is really almost like I don't wanna kinda call mentorship, but it's almost kind of a mastermind where effectively, know, personal trainer and online coach goes through the journey of, you know, leaving the identity of someone who's self employed and stepping into the shoes of someone who's an entrepreneur. And it's really about making them the best version of themselves.
• 6:32
  And it's interesting because I was talking to them the other day and we were saying, you know, I was saying that the path to achieving more is not attained by doing more. It's actually attained by doing less. And specifically our task is to identify what are the core things that will actually move the needle forward. What are the main tasks that will actually have an impact and I will remove I will remove everything else that doesn't actually serve me. So away from almost kind of like the fancy physio like, philosophical language there.
• 7:04
  I think that like what we really need to do is go, how can I do less? This world is now kind of like bombarding us with more and more information, more and more tasks. We are more, we are more accessible than ever, and we have so much more on our plate. And I think that the only way that we can keep sanity, the only way that we can be healthy physically, mentally, and emotionally is by removing as much off our plate as we possibly can and just addressing the things that are going to move the needle forward. So that then almost kinda comes down to what I've been talking about today is that in whatever you're actually trying to achieve in your life right now, whether it's a project, whether it's a business, whether it's your health and fitness, don't try and focus on what are gonna be the things that are going to, you know, kinda like make this a success.
• 7:52
  Actually look up, well, what are the things that are going to make it a failure? And then how can I make sure that that weak spot is actually a strong spot? So as an example, if I almost kinda look at like I went through a period where I was solely chasing leads. I was like, need more leads, I need more leads, I need more leads, I need more leads. But actually what I needed wasn't more leads.
• 8:14
  What I needed was that the leads that I was getting, needed to improve their ability to convert and become a customer. Because the problem was that I was having conversations with people, but I kept getting, let me think about it, bad time of year, can't afford it, all of these sorts of things. And actually, the thing that was causing me anxiety and frustration, which was, oh, for fuck's sake, I'm just so like, oh, I'm fed up of people saying, let me think about it. I'm fed up of people saying, you know, I need to get back to you and all of these sorts of things. Like that anxiety, there was wisdom within that anxiety.
• 8:47
  There was wisdom within that failure. And what was the wisdom within the failure? The wisdom in the failure was, well, I need to get better at selling. So we actually did an exercise with all of the guys on the elite program the other day. And they said like, right, okay, you know, let's have a look at specifically like what are you trying to achieve right now?
• 9:04
  And then get super, super clear on the goal that you're trying to achieve. And then ask yourself the question like, what is the feeling? What is the feeling of anxiety that you currently experience? And what I mean by that is ask yourself the question, what does your mind give you when you say, I couldn't achieve that because So ask yourself the question, like, what is that statement to you? Like, okay, wanna do this, but I couldn't achieve that because.
• 9:31
  So for me, I was like, right. Okay. You know, I wanna take my business to 6 figures, but I just don't feel like I can achieve it because even when I get someone on a call, they never actually want to become a customer. So within that, that actually meant that there was wisdom there because I went like, right. Okay.
• 9:45
  Now I know what I need to address because I could get more and more and more and more leads to come into my world. But if every time that I actually had someone come into my world, they didn't then go and become a customer. It's pointless. So I need to actually address. I can do loads of things, but actually the thing that I need to address is how can I actually improve my ability to convert that person from follower to customer?
• 10:06
  And that's when I then went on a journey of going like, right, okay, who is it that has done what I want to achieve? And specifically, I go through the process of modeling, which is you wanna go and do something, find someone who's done what you wanna do and learn what they did. So I went and found a mentor, and that mentor was in the form of someone in a book. I learned from a guy called Zig Ziglar. I learned from Jordan Belfort.
• 10:27
  I learned from a guy called Brian Tracy, specifically on how to get better at selling. And what happened was that that obstacle, that thing that was causing me anxiety, frustration, fear, annoyance, it no longer served as an obstacle anymore. It actually became one of my greatest skill sets, which was I then improved my ability to actually sell my program. And off the back of that, I got one step closer to achieving my thing. And then the same kinda came down to, again, like, you know, I was selling, I was selling, I was selling, which was great.
• 10:56
  But the problem was that I didn't have predictability in my business. I didn't have certainty of outcome. I didn't know how much money I was gonna get. Why? Because I kept having clients drop off.
• 11:05
  I'd sign people up, which is the hardest thing to do in business. And then what would happen three, four, five months down the line, they would then drop off and I was constantly on this treadmill of never feeling like I was making progress because I was constantly signing people up just to fill the holes of the clients that leave me. And that caused me the anxiety, that caused me the stress, the frustration, the annoyance. And I was just like, this is so annoying. Like, I feel like I'm no longer making any progress.
• 11:27
  Why do you not feel like you're making you're not making progress? I feel like I'm not making progress because, like, my income's just not increasing. Okay. Well, why is your income not increasing? Because my clients keep dropping off.
• 11:37
  Why are your clients dropping off? Because they're not getting great results. Bingo. That's exactly what I need to go and address, and I needed to then go and become a better coach. I needed to level up my nutrition game.
• 11:46
  Because, again, in terms of what was actually causing their results to not be particularly impressive to keep them on the program, it was because nutritionally, I was just using a standard sort of model of eating in terms of calories in calories out model, and it was only taking them so far. So I needed to go and expand my learning beyond that. So I went and found someone who's done what I want to do, and I learned from them. So then off the back of that, I leveled up my nutritional game, my clients then got better results, they stayed for a longer period of time, my income then started to increase. Does that make sense?
• 12:16
  So effectively, the way that we need to look at this is we need to identify what am I trying to achieve and what is in my way, What is stopping me from being able to actually achieve this thing? And one way that really kind of helps me identify that is first of all, as I've already kind of articulated is looking at it by going like, what's the anxiety? What's the frustration? What does your mind conjure up when it says I couldn't do that because. So when you have the answer of I couldn't do that because, and then flip it on the other side where you then go, well, if only I had this or only I could do this, then I'd be successful.
• 12:49
  And in there is the nugget of the thing that I actually need to address. And again, there's so many things that we can do in life, but we can't do everything. So actually, we need to focus on what are the specific things that we can do that are going to move the needle forward and actually be effective. And when we're looking at what's effective, it's actually looking at what's ineffective. What about weak spots?
• 13:08
  And how can we address those weak spots? How can we address the obstacles that are in our way? The challenges that are actually kind of presenting us. Alex Wormozi refers to these as the constraints. But how can we address those and see what is the bottleneck?
• 13:22
  What is slowing this specific thing down and then addressing that? So again, if I almost kinda look at one of the main reasons why ketogenic diet in theory should be so fantastic for ultra endurance exercise, one of the main things that stops someone from being able to have success in ultra endurance activity is the fear of something called bonking. And bonking is when someone hits the wall where fuel flow to the brain goes down. In the last episode, which was day two of the carb free marathon diaries, I ran through specifically oh, no. Sorry.
• 13:54
  Actually, was day one. So in day one, I actually ran through specifically what happens is in a carb adapted individual, the brain has to get a 100% of its energy from glucose, which means that it solely relies on muscle glycogen and blood glucose, and that has a limit. And what happens is that after two hours, if someone isn't actually fueling themselves from a carbohydrate point of view, the brain is gonna hit a wall and effectively it's gonna shut everything down. Basically, go, hold on. If we carry on right now, we're gonna die because we're gonna run out of fuel.
• 14:22
  But that only happens in a carb adapted individual. However, when you have someone who goes on a ketogenic diet, what happens is that the brain can no longer be greedy. Effectively, the brain and the body are two separate things. K? And they're separated by something called the blood brain barrier.
• 14:37
  And the reason why I'm doing this is because the blood brain barrier effectively separates things that should stay in the body from things that happen in the brain. And what happens is that when you get into the fat adapted state, you go through the keto adaptation process, which typically will take at least two to three weeks in a normal individual. What happens is that when you remove carbohydrate from the diet for a lengthy period of time, two to three weeks, the body then starts to adapt. And effectively, everything below the neck, I. E, below the brain can actually get up to a 100% of its energy in the form of fat.
• 15:12
  So your heart can run on fat. Your muscles can run on fat. The rest of your organs can run on fat. But the brain is a bit of a stubborn bugger. It's the only organ in the body that still has to get an element of fuel from glucose.
• 15:24
  But what happens is that the brain flicks over and it gets away from being a 100% dominant of utilizing carbohydrates as its primary source of fuel, and, actually, it can get up to two thirds of its energy in the form of ketones. And a ketone is just a fancy word for like fat in a disguise because fat itself can't cross the blood brain barrier. K? But what fat can do is change up its structure slightly, become this thing called a ketone, which inadvertently was once fat, but it's fat in a form that the brain can use. So what happens is that your your fear of bonking, your fear of hitting the wall, the fear of the brain running out of fuel, it basically kinda goes down because the brain gets away from, oh my god, we're solely reliant on this two hour fuel tanks worth of carbohydrate.
• 16:11
  And actually, it can start to become reliant on, our fat reserves. So instead of the brain going like, oh my god, we can only exercise for two hours or we've gotta keep like fueling, effectively, you've got a fire which is being fueled by newspaper and you've gotta keep fueling it, keep fueling it. What happens is that the brain gets away from being reliant on a two hour tank worth of fuel to a fifty day tank. So instead of fueling this fire by throwing newspaper onto it, what can happen is that we can actually fuel this fire by sticking a big fat log on it. And that's effectively, again, we look at the performance limiting factor of ultra endurance exercise is a fear of bonking.
• 16:49
  How we can get around that is by getting into a keto adapted state. And that is what I'm hoping to be doing. I mean, like I said, it's day day three. I'm normally low carb anyway. So I'm very low carb.
• 17:02
  So again, I don't really kind of feel in too much of a transition state. But I'm gonna I'm just gonna go to the gym now because I need to go and do some resistance exercise. Because again, look at my personal performance limiting factors, hip flexors, fatiguing. So I need to go and make myself stronger and more durable in my lower half. Probably comes from years of skipping leg day.
• 17:26
  But hey, we crack on, don't we? Anyway, never forget, if every one of your clients gave you one new client, you've doubled your business. If you got a client who isn't losing weight right now and you have absolutely no idea why, and maybe you're worrying that if nothing changes, they could drop off at any moment. Well, I've got a free nutrition masterclass for you where I reveal the secret nutrition strategy that guarantees that that stuck client loses two to four pounds in the next seven days without lowering their calories, upping their cardio, or even tracking macros. Click the link in the description to get access to the free elite nutrition secrets masterclass and get your client moving in the right direction, stopping them dropping off today.