13 Levers of Transformation | Kettlebell Fat Blast

Season 6 | Episode 14 This week's episode I dive in on the variables & foundational habits that I think are key to transformation success; the 13 Levers of Transformation. Understandin Welcome to the platform podcast where we talk to coaches, athletes, experts, and real people to learn about their approaches to training, nutrition, mindset, and much more. I'm your host, Jordan Kunde-Wright, founder and head coach of the Twin Cities Kettlebell Club. And I am on a mission to help others build a sustainable, healthy lifestyle. Before we jump into the episode, I want to remind you that registration is live for the second annual Twin Cities Kettlebell Open on October 22nd, hosted by our friends at the Athlete Lab in Little Canada, Minnesota. And just as we did last year, we'll be including options for video submission for participants who are unable to make the trip in person. You'll be eligible for all of the same prizes as our in-person competitors. Just go to our website, Twin Cities Kettlebell Club.com for details. Now on this week's episode, it is a kettlebell fat blast special. I'm talking through my 13 levers of transformation. Now these are the things that I consider to be the most important factors that we have to think about holistically in a systematic fashion in order to toggle things up and down depending on what your goals are, what phase you're at, and what your lifestyle looks like. These are very important factors in thinking of them and understanding how they interplay with one another is very important and understanding how they relate to a specific goal or a specific outcome is a very important piece of being successful in any transformation. So without further ado, let's dive into the episode. I hope you find it useful. Please contact me if you have any questions, send me comments and I will see you on the platform. All right, welcome in to this week's episode of the platform podcast Kettlebell fat blast edition. Now my topic this week is one that I think is pretty important. It's actually kind of an overview of my approach to how we manage a transformation. So I've actually created a free resource that's called the 13 levers of transformation and it is a framework that I have how I think about manipulating variables to create change because one of the things that is very clear to me is that systems thinking is not something that a lot of people are particularly good at or know a lot about. And what systems thinking is is essentially understanding that for us particularly in complex scenarios in complex situations and complex systems that systems are interconnected with one another and that what you do in one area has ramifications in multiple other areas and that we need to be able to manipulate those things in in a way that shows understanding of how to fix the system as a whole. So you have to be able to take a step back, open the aperture a little bit wider and understand what it is that the system looks like and how you can toggle different parts and influence different variables within the system to get the outcomes that you're looking for to make the changes that you're looking for. So you don't create problems for yourself upstream or downstream or in other in other systems and when we do that when we have that understanding it's it's part of it's very it's how we go about building an appropriate program it's how we it's how we go about building an appropriate approach to nutrition and training right so this particular topic is focused around nutrition in particular, but the 13 levers as I call them are what are what we need to have in place and what we can manipulate in order to make changes so what those are is clarity, commitment, consistency, community, sleep, hydration, energy, balance or calories, macros, microbes, nutrient timing, exercise activity, non exercise activity and supplementation those are the 13 areas that we can. The 13 levers that I look at when I'm when I'm assessing somebody's successor failure and looking at what are the areas that that we can that we that we need to address right now i'll go through them and just spend a little bit of time on on each of them some of them i'll talk about a little bit more in depth, but clarity i've already done a podcast on clarity is about knowing what it is that you want. What are your goals and understanding that performance health and aesthetics are different points on the triangle right we call that the triangle of awareness right you cannot pursue all three of those goals simultaneously you have to index towards one or the other. And focus more on that now you can move directionally towards towards two or three of them, but you can't you there are tradeoffs again systems thinking when you when you optimize for performance, you will have some typically some ramifications for health, and you may have some ramifications for aesthetics. When you optimize for aesthetics you will down regulate on performance and there may be health implications when you optimize for health there, you might not look your best et cetera right so deciding which area you want to focus on is where clarity comes in commitment is knowing. Now that you know what you want are you committed to doing what is necessary to getting what you want right so if you don't have clarity, you can't be committed if you're not committed to what you're clear on. Then you want to achieve it so commitment commitment is is lever number two so we have to we have to get commitment you know and that's the old Heidi Klum are you in or are you out right you have to you have to decide if you're in or you're out you can't be you can't be halfway in where we do everything we do everything with our full ass we have no half ass. Consistency that is number three consistency is incredibly important that is I would say the number one predictor of success is how consistent you are able to be with your behaviors this is why we index more on habits and lifestyle changes. Then we do on short term interventions hacks I you know that's a term that gets thrown around bio hacking what are the what are the tricks right what are the super foods. Super foods. There are no super foods there are some hacks there you know in terms of there are shortcuts there are things that can make life easier but those hacks are our hacks that help you be more consistent hopefully so consistency is super important and that is just the regularity with which you can perform. The behaviors necessary to make the changes that you are seeking to make right again click goes back to that clarity of goal right you have to know what your goals are. And you have to commit to it and then you have to build consistent habits that you can sustainably do consistent behaviors right and we're going to we're going to dive more in on on habit formation in another another podcast because that's something i'm actually pretty obsessed with. Particularly right now habit formation is really really important community that's another one that we've talked about before community is the need for social support right social interaction we are communal beings we need to find our tribe right and I don't mean that in the I don't mean that in the traditional sense. I don't mean that to be pejorative to native American or tribal communities but I we need to find our group of people right who are the people that are on your team who are the people that you choose to interact with community is super important where do you live where do you go. How do those people support you there is a ton of research out there that shows that community is incredibly important I think every one of us probably understands that at a much deeper level post pandemic not that the pandemic is over but for a lot of us it's it's returning to some semblance of normalcy and we're all seeking that community feeling we understand the importance of social interaction and having having a group of people. Having a group of people so community is super important it leads to a lot higher levels again of consistency having a group of people that hold you accountable for your behaviors and also it just leads to better outcomes lower levels of depression higher life satisfaction being involved in your community is super important and there you can have multiple communities there are there are facets. There are different pockets of community work is part of your community your social activities is part of your community your church might be part of your community social social groups you know your bowling team your kettlebell team your whatever there are all sorts of things that can that can toggle to community. Sleep we talked with Nick real about about sleep the importance of sleep is incredibly incredibly big. Sleep is the longest lever that we can pull in my in my opinion right and sleep is one of those baseline habits that you need to have if if you are not if you're not consistently getting. Enough sleep to recover from the activity that you're that you're doing you will find that you're you're spinning your wheels right sacrificing sleep to exercise is very very rarely a good trade off now. Can that be I don't want to I don't want to speak in absolutes because there are times when making making trade offs like sacrificing sleep to get a workout in is is the right decision but it's very very limited. The frequency with which that happens needs to be very very low i'm not saying that you should that you should skip your workout if you're a morning workout person that you should consistently skip your workout to make sure that you you know that you get. eight hours of sleep every time no I would say get to better earlier is the important is the important piece but on occasion it is okay to get a little bit less sleep but you can't do that consistently because if you do that consistently you are going to not get the results that you're looking for you won't get the you won't get the muscular response to weight training you will see increase levels of cortisol you will see decreased levels of recovery. recovery increase muscle soreness higher injury risk lower cognitive performance lower physical performance worse mood more likely to be depressed etc etc etc so again systems thinking right understanding that the trade off for sleep having too little sleep is increased stress levels across your body decreased levels of recovery decrease levels of performance. decrease levels of performance decrease life satisfaction etc etc etc so a lot of people can improve their outcomes in their transformation goals simply by improving their sleep without changing anything else in their in their life just getting more sleep so if you're if you're consistently getting five or six hours of sleep right now. you are one of the very very anomalous people that that does not require more than that physiologically because again by individuality is a thing and I and I so don't come at me and be like I only need six hours of sleep the likelihood that you are one of those people is pretty low because it's I think that I think the percentage is something less than like 3% of the population are actually those people genetically who need who need. less than six hours of sleep but they do exist I understand that they do exist it's not a you know it's not a myth but they're you know they're they're they're pretty rare and the likelihood that you are one of those people is is probably pretty low so if you're consistently sacrificing sleep because you're you're getting up early to work out or you know you've got too many other life demands going on. or the more likely option is because you're stressed out elsewhere in your life maybe you're staying up too late because you're watching Netflix or drinking or doing other things working on puzzles or reading a book or whatever like people have all sorts of escapes but in all in all likelihood a lot of people too much time with their decompression slash escapist behavior in the evening don't have don't have a good sleep hygiene don't have a good sleep routine don't get to bet on time don't go to bed at the same time every night don't wake up at the same time every day and as a result they get they have big variability in their sleep patterns right some people also have physiological reasons that they're having sleep difficulty right you might also have psychological reasons stress anxiety hyperactivity or ADHD right there are a number of number of reasons but I would say that is one of the longest levers we have so you should definitely address sleep first and foremost that would be that would be a huge huge piece if you're going to make any physical changes to your to your pad to your behaviors to your to your patterns start with your sleep routine. Number six hydration how much water should you drink general rule of thumb is like an ounce per kilo of body weight right so you know for if you're a 300 pound person that would mean roughly 150 ounces of water per day right so and that's that's a bear that's a bare minimum threshold by the way that is not necessarily what's optimal but hydration super super important if you're drinking if you weigh more than 200 pounds and you're drinking less than a hundred ounces of water a day you're probably not getting enough right if you're a little bit lighter you can probably go you can you can go less but hydration is actually one of those things the body is is pretty is pretty good at self regulating through thirst and you can monitor it through the color of your urination right that's a pretty that's a pretty easy feedback mechanism now you should be generally being fairly clear most of the day you know in particularly you need to be well hydrated prior to any physical activity and then you need to make sure that you replenish both water and electrolytes electrolyte balance is super important that's part of the hydration equation well we can deep dive on that a little bit more on another episode but hydration is you know very very important magnesium sodium potassium calcium your for primary electrolytes right so it's very important that you that you stay hydrated both from a performance standpoint as well as from a weight loss standpoint because the body is mostly water or from a fat loss standpoint the body is mostly water and the cells require a lot of water to function appropriately if you're not hydrated your metabolism isn't going to function optimally so hydration super important one of the easiest things to change is your hydration behaviors that is an easy habit that is a low hanging that is a low hanging fruit for a lot of people drink more water right that's an additive habit we're not taking away things we don't have to take away things and I will say as I sit here and sit my coffee that coffee and other liquids do help with hydration don't they have a diuretic effect which means that they make you excrete they make you excrete water more that doesn't mean that the water that's in in coffee because you know coffee is obviously like 95 percent water that that doesn't count it does count that counts towards your consumption of fluids right if you do nothing but drink coffee all day and you drink a whole bunch of coffee you will still be clear your body is pretty good at getting what it needs out of things food also helps with your hydration levels right so eating eating food definitely helps as well you'll hear people say well maybe you're not actually hungry maybe you're maybe you're thirsty that's I haven't found that to typically be the case but your body does get fluid from the food that you consume so hydration hydration again is multifaceted right but making sure that you're getting enough fluid and biasing your hydration towards water and calorie free drinks right we don't want to consume calories liquid in a liquid form very often because it makes it a lot harder to then hit our caloric targets which is number seven calories calories in calories out right you've heard that trope a thousand times or more probably a million times you've been exposed to it at this point it's important that's why you hear about it so much calories matter when you look at the clinical research over and over and over again calories comes out to be king it is still the most important factor when we're talking about maintaining a healthy body composition a healthy body weight calories is still the number one thing of course there are there are different approaches to maintaining calories guess what every single diet that has ever been successful it controls calories right I don't care if it's keto you eliminate carbs guess what you do you you've you've put a cap on calories you've reduced calories by eliminating basically an entire macronutrient category same thing with same thing with a Mediterranean diet right it's going to opt more for calorically nutrient dense calorically light foods you know the south beach that yeah yeah yeah in almost every diet that's out there unless they're telling you that you can just eat unlimited calories of a particular food I've got news for you that's not a diet that's bullshit calories matter right you know that's like the the thing that always drove me crazy on the the people that are zealots for keto is like oh you can I can eat as much as I want if it just so long as I don't have any carbs like really you think you can eat that deep fried bacon wrapped avocado because it's a keto bomb and it doesn't matter no if you consume 4,000 calories and you only burn 3,000 calories you're going to gain weight you're going you're going to gain weight if you do that consistently longitudinally right so calories still matter now it's not just calories in it's the calories that you absorb so your body has to actually be able to absorb what you bring in that's a super important distinction the calories in calories out equation is much more complex than what people think and that's where we're talking about again systems because the calories out component is a product of activity as well as metabolic function which starts getting into hormones and hormones are super important right so calories need to be appropriately tuned for your goals right and this is one of those that people tend to get wrong because of course what we've heard over and over again when you simplify it down to calories in calories out what are your doctors say if they if they say oh you're you're overweight and you need to we need you to lose some weight well what should I do eat less and move more okay well that lacks some context what if you're what if you're only eating 1500 calories a day and you're already working out five six days a week but you're still not losing weight or you're still overweight why would that possibly be is eating less really possible for you what are you going to do drop to a thousand calories a day and then and then you lose some weight and then what you're going to go down to 500 you're going to stop eating and what together no because at a certain point it becomes untenable so calories in calories out is is a bit too simple you have to eat enough calories to support proper metabolic function and in order to do that you have to understand what your body composition looks like what you're training what you're training volume looks like the implications that caloric intake has and macronutrient profile has on on your hormones right because your hormones are what dictate how your energy systems actually function the storage the storage or or the storage or or burning of the energy that comes in which that's all calories are calories are simply units of energy right so the calories that come in are very standard it's a standard unit of measurement so when when somebody says all calories are not created equal that's not true that's like saying all miles are not created equal or all all pound pounds are not created equal all kilos are not created equal no they are because by their very definition they're a unit of measurement now what they probably mean when they say that is that the composition of those calories has other effects on other systems that means that they're affect on the body is not equal or they're affect on the metabolism is not equal that I will agree with the effect in composition of calories is not equal but calories all calories are calories calories are equal all calories are created equal in that they are units of measurement if you haven't already be sure to leave a rating and review of the platform podcasts in your app of choice and support my work by supporting our sponsors who's affiliate links you'll find in episode notes and of course if you want help reaching your goals without wasting time please fill out the coaching interest form linked in the show notes I help athletes of all levels using my integrated coaching approach you can follow me on Instagram Facebook and YouTube at Twin Cities kettlebell club or email me at Twin Cities kettlebell club at gmail.com now let's get back to the episode but that dovetails into the next two macros and microbes right now what are macronutrients most people already know this protein carbs fat and alcohol those are the four macro nutrients carbs and protein four calories program fat nine calories program alcohol seven calories program your body can't use alcohol as fuel it views it as a poison it prioritizes it flushes it from the body it actually shuts down other metabolic function in order to prioritize detoxification of the system so it's generally not included in macro nutrient prescriptions from coaches because we don't want to encourage you to consume something that is viewed by your body as a poison because that's what it is. so you'll typically hear proteins fats carbohydrates prescribed in particular proportion now you can go down you can go down a rabbit hole here on what are the best what are the best macro nutrient profiles for different goals what's the best approach you know again keto low carb high carb high protein low fat high fat you know et cetera et cetera but in general if calories are held constant across control groups in clinical experiments we find that the macro nutrient prescriptions don't matter nearly as much as the calories so when you control for calories what the splits of the macros are typically don't matter that much for weight loss and that's typically what people are looking at and we start talking about changes in body composition which is a combination of building and or maintaining muscle mass and lean tissue and reducing body fat macro nutrient profile makes up a much bigger mix of the results. it's a much bigger proportion of the results generally you want to consume you want to consume a gram of protein per pound of body weight is generally the guideline people give and then from there my approach to prescribing macros is we determine protein intake first and we want to make sure that we start with that and this is well we prescribe calories first and then we and then we and then we prescribe macros we start with protein determined how many how many grams of protein do you need to support your lean tissue goals then from there go with a percentage of fat because fats support your hormone health and that's very important and then from there we use the remaining calories from carbohydrates but one thing that I tell my clients is they're getting as they're learning how to manage their macronutrients is the two guardrails I say calories first and foremost let's stay within our calorie targets then hit your protein goal and then we can interchange fats and carbohydrates based on preference because people's preferences matter again for consistency you have to enjoy the prescription that you're eating you have to enjoy the foods that you're eating or you're not going to enjoy the food to be as consistent or you have to be somebody who can simply view food as fuel and and really be divorced from from how it makes you feel there are not many people that are very successful with that approach long term there are some though some people just treat food as fuel and they they can just eat for that purpose right but macros incredibly important and tying those things together you can manipulate those variables depending on where somebody's at in their journey and it's first and foremost to make sure that they can be consistent and if they're being consistent with the macros then we start toggling and tweaking things to improve performance or improve aesthetics or improve health depending on where they're at again clarity to goal we can adjust we can adjust macros we can adjust calories right micro nutrients is another one that doesn't get a ton of attention and that is all of the vitamins minerals the things that you don't see listed in like my fitness pal you know the macronutrients microse are very very important to all of vitamins and minerals are very important for their contributions to a healthy metabolic function but one of the downsides of caloric restriction is that by rule when you're eating fewer calories you're going to get fewer micronutrients because you're just consuming less less total food which makes it a lot less likely that you're going to get all of the micronutrients that you need that's why that's why it becomes more challenging to keep your metabolic health where it needs to be when you're in caloric restriction for extended periods of time not just the effect that it has on load and and your other systems but because those things are an outgrowth of micronutrient deficiencies that that can come up when you are restricting calories right so it's important that we understand micronutrients and making sure that we're getting those micronutrients in and so this is where food quality comes in this is where food choice comes in lifestyle decisions right all things being equal calories and macros if we eat 2000 calories worth of twinkies that's going to give us a very different micronutrient profile than if we eat 2000 calories of lean proteins whole grains and healthy fat choices right the nutrient density is much greater in the second choice even if calories are held equal that's why you can see people will do these experiments while they'll be like well can you lose weight eating nothing but garbage food yes you can you can lose weight and if that's all you care about more power to you but you're going to feel like dog shit and you're not going to be as healthy and you'll see there are other markers of health decline even as they're hitting their weight loss goals or even as they're proving the hypothesis that you can lose weight even when you're eating junk food this is where the if it fits your macros the dark side of the if it fits your macros approach right is that you can create micronutrient deficiencies and you can do a lot of harm to your overall health and wellness if you're not making good food choices food choices and choosing nutrient dense micronutrient dense foods right that's when we say nutrient dense foods what we're talking about is micronutrients micronutrient dense foods right so fruits veggies unprocessed fats and lean meats unprocessed grains unrefined grains I should say right so those are important choices because the micronutrient profile will be much much higher so when we're looking at transformation if we know that we're hitting calories and we know we're hitting macros we need to look at macros as well are we we're getting good food quality are we getting good food diversity right because if if the only vegetable you eat is green beans green beans are great but your body needs diversity be otherwise you're going to again get micronutrient deficiencies you need different sources of different fruits and vegetables right different carbohydrates different proteins your body thrives on variety and it needs it in order to be optimized right because those things affect the ability to absorb the calories that come in metabolic function the rate at which you burn keeping your hormone levels optimized those things matter all of those things matter calories micro calories macros micro hydration sleep all matter for your metabolic function right what about nutrient timing that's number 10 this is one that this is one that people get pretty hung up on I got to give the the bros the body building bros a big a big credit for this right this this got a little overblown you know the metabolic window you got to get your protein you got to get your protein in within 27 seconds of finishing your last set otherwise you're missing your metabolic when you're anabolic window right timing is actually more about understanding performance and health implications of hormone profiles right so understanding that when you when you have just worked out and you've done an intense workout carbohydrates get stored in the muscles first they replenish glycogen stores carbohydrate energy stored within the muscles for the muscles in the liver for tapping into during your body you know use this glycogen right but it's always using a mix of fat and sugars during during exercise or even at rest but understanding that post workout is a really good time to consume carbohydrates depending on the goal depending on your response in the morning if you're someone who is overweight and 10 and tends to have more body fat in the morning consuming carbohydrates might be one of the worst things that you can do because cortisol which is your body's storage it it it indicates a need to store energy it's a it's a stimulating hormone that stimulates storage of energy and it also is one of the things that increases when you're stressed right your body naturally produces cortisol to wake you up it's called cortisol waking response so in the morning your cortisol levels are actually probably the highest there'll be all day for a lot of people and so if you wake up in the morning and consume a bowl of you know lucky charms and you're trying to lose weight that is maybe the worst possible time that you could be consuming carbohydrates and this is where the if it fits your macros approach again might be falling short a little bit because we'll be like well it's just my carbs for the day like I can I can eat my carbs first thing in the morning or even at night it doesn't matter to me right like so long as I stay under my hundred grams of carbohydrates or 200 grams of carbohydrates for the day it shouldn't matter now it does it does matter is much as going over on your calories no if you stay within those guidelines calories right if you stay within those calorie guidelines and you stay within your macro prescriptions will you still make progress towards your goals yeah probably right but but timing does matter right so again if we're talking about what are the levers that we can pull on to make the changes that we need right timing is one of those things not a little higher level I'm not going to worry about timing nutrient timing with somebody who's not consistently getting enough sleep who's not being not hydrated who's who's not hitting their calorie numbers who's not hitting their macro prescriptions who's not making good food quality choices right I'm not going to even worry about nutrient timing with people when you start talking about athletic performance or somebody who's not trying to lose weight anymore or they're they're just focused on their athletic performance we might have conversations about when should you be consuming your carbohydrates as much as how many carbohydrates should you be consuming how how many grams of protein should you be consuming right when should you be consuming those things protein in general you should spread out evenly throughout your throughout your your feeding windows right so whenever it is that you eat generally spread your protein out fairly evenly right post workout is a great time to get to get protein in because your body wants it your body will stimulate new muscle protein synthesis but carbohydrates also helps stimulate that IGF one is produced which stimulates muscle protein synthesis that's insulin like growth factor that is something that your body uses as a signal to build new muscle tissue right and to build new muscle tissue so you can store carbohydrate energy in the muscles so one of the best things you can do to improve your improve your insulin sensitivity is strength train to build new muscle right again systems thinking understanding that there are multiple implications here so it's not so simple as to say you should just eat low carb right that's that is a that is an all too simple message if you're overweight you should eat low carb well no that's not necessarily true there are a lot of things that need to be considered timing your your carbs might be more important for somebody who is trying to lose weight right timing your carbs the right way I'm understanding the difference between between timing for fat loss as opposed to timing your carbs for performance different timing parameters right takes 24 to 36 hours for carbohydrates to shuttle into functioning muscles so carb loading for your workout you know three hours before your workout guess what the only thing the only thing that's going to be available to you in that workout is whatever's in your bloodstream at that point the rest of that ain't getting to your working muscles it's going to be the carbs that you ate yesterday or two days ago that your body has had time to digest breakdown and shuttle to the muscles as glycogen right so timing matters a lot depending on what your goals are but you have to be consistent with the other pieces first the foundational habits have to be there in order for timing to really make a huge difference all right number 11 exercise that is your training volume that is the things that you do outside of your normal activity these are things that you do intentionally for the purpose of exercise it is intentional training right that is something that we can manipulate when you are needing to repair and recover your metabolism exercise intensity should decrease when you are looking to lose body fat you might need to increase exercise activity because we need to improve your metabolic function exercise choice matters right if you're looking to lose body fat the first thing I would the first thing I would look at is are you lifting weights are you doing some type of strength training because strength training has better outcomes for improving your metabolic rate and changing your body composition then cardiovascular training does cardiovascular training has much more benefit for benefits for health right and then you need a blend of the two if your focus is purely aesthetic right that's why bodybuilders do fasted cardio in the morning and then they'll do strength training when they're fed they'll do that later in the day and then they will try and get you know as much sleep as their schedule allows right again exercise activity prescribed based on goal right so exercise volume activity frequency duration et cetera needs to be tuned to the goal and needs to be tuned to your life right and it needs to go hand in hand with the caloric and metabolic caloric and macronutrient prescription that supports metabolic health and if you're over training and under eating you are diminishing returns you are making it harder and harder and harder to lose body fat and hit your goals the longer you do that and that's why at a certain point it is damn near impossible for people to actually continue losing body fat if they continue to follow the eat less move more prescription that they got from a doctor that didn't study anything about metabolic health or they got one semester on nutrition but they don't know anything about exercise right a lot of doctors are specialized in a particular area but not particularly well-versed in systems thinking they might know a particular system like the endocrine system or you know the liver or some you know whatever but they might not have a ton of training on the holistic system of the human body right so exercise activity that is a toggle that we have that is the that is another level another lever excuse me number 12 is non exercise activity known as neat non exercise activity thermogenesis that is the amount of calories that you burn during the day doing anything that is not intentional exercise that is fidgeting that is walking that is doing the dishes that is having sex that is you know all of all of the other things that you do are sitting at your desk you know et cetera et cetera those are all non exercise activities obviously that is something that we want to toggle or change based on what your goals are right I rarely I rarely have tell people that they should do less during the day but there are times when you want to be decreasing exercise and decreasing non exercise right and that is when you are trying to repair recover right but in general we try and hold non exercise activity fairly constant or to be increasing it during periods when we are trying to change our body composition if we are trying to drop body fat one of the easiest ways you can start is to increase your steps to walk go for a walk go for multiple walks increase from 5,000 steps to 7,000 steps a day go from 7,000 to 9,000 9,000 to 12,000 right but at a certain point you can't crank up your non exercise activity any further in the same way that you can't increase your exercise indefinitely exercise intensity right so at a certain point you need to stabilize or you might need to back off right but non exercise activity is another is another toggle another lever that we can pull on right we might include we might intentionally increase your steps right intentionally increase your non exercise activity and then last and least is supplementation now supplements I have come around a lot on I used to be I used to be way into supplements I thought they were fantastic you know I worked in a supplement store that was actually kind of my my transition into getting into the health and fitness space it was it started as a part time job then I got laid off from my full time job and then it became my full time job and then I became a personal trainer but that's a story for another time but supplementation is useful if you are getting enough sleep if you are hydrated if you're getting the right amount of calories if you're taking care of your macros right it can help with micronutrient deficiencies it can help round things out it can help with sports performance there are only a couple of supplements that actually that actually help with sports performance but there there are some but supplements in general are really really helpful for very specific interventions they can be very helpful for specific interventions and but that's that's usually needs to be handled by someone who has training in that and is knowledgeable and then also the supplements need to be quality because unfortunately they're unregulated and there's not a ton of emphasis on on quality for some companies they would rather focus on their profitability then on meeting the promises that they're putting out there right so supplementation can be very useful though so and for general health to like vitamin D is super important fish oils really well researched very safe very effective very helpful for a lot of things right there there are a few there are a handful of supplements that are safe efficacious and cheap for a lot of them right supplementation can be very useful I'll do a separate episode on you know the supplements that I kind of consider essentials the so the ones that I the ones that I recommend and the ones that are optional but have you know have potentially a lot of benefit or might might benefit particular particular use cases or particular situations so Anyways there you have it the 13 levers of transformation and a little bit about each of them clarity commitment consistency consistency community sleep hydration calories macros micro timing exercise non exercise activity and supplementation those are the 13 levers of transformation that I tend to work with there are some other pieces that go into this as well but those are the ones that we can really We can really manipulate from from a coaching from a coaching standpoint so hopefully that was useful let me know if you have questions let me know if you want to get your hands on this on this resource I'll try and have this ready is a as a downloadable PDF soon it's not there yet I just started working on it but I want to I want to put something I wanted to put this out there because I think it's I think it's super important And it really ties into how I approach transformation and the things that I that I work with my clients on so I wish you all the best keep cranking make the last one your best one and I will see you next time thank you for listening to this episode of the platform podcast will be back with a new episode soon please be sure to leave a rating and review of the platform podcast in your app of choice support our work by supporting our affiliates and of course if you have questions or you want help reaching your goals reach out to me until next time thanks for listening