Sabrina Chevannes: Hi everyone and welcome to this week’s new episode of No Bullshit Talks. I’m joined here today with Julian Hayes II, who is an Executive Health Consultant. So, welcome Julian. I’m going to find out all about you today.

Julian Hayes II: Thank you so much for having me on, Sabrina. I definitely am excited to be here and looking forward to our conversation.

Sabrina Chevannes: Great. And I want to hear more about what that is because Executive Health Consultant is quite a vague term. It could mean so many different things. It could also mean exactly what it says. What is it that you exactly do?

Julian Hayes II: Yeah, so it sort of sounds like what it is, but there’s a lot more nuance to that as well, right?

So, as it sounds — Executive Health. Typically, I do tend to gravitate toward working with more executives and entrepreneurs, but I really think that everyone pretty much is the executive of their own life.

So, it’s kind of the idea of taking a whole systems approach to someone’s health at the cellular level. We’re starting at someone’s DNA and building up from there in terms of looking at things such as the environment and even relationships.

And that’s kind of that in a nutshell.

Sabrina Chevannes: It’s interesting that you mentioned DNA thing because there are so many consultants out there dealing with health, healthy lifestyle kind of stuff. It’s become kind of a buzz term, a buzz category, where everyone’s trying to help you live your best life.

And, you know, get you fitter and healthier and have a better work-life balance and all that kind of stuff. But you’re actually into something that’s called epigenetics, right? You kind of focus on that, and I don’t think I’ve met anyone else who does that.

It’s got to be something that’s a little bit niche for you. And first I want to find, I want you to kind of explain to the audience. I reckon a lot of people are probably like, what on Earth is epigenetics? So first of all, what is epigenetics and why are you interested?

Julian Hayes II: Yeah, so I guess the reason why I’m interested first was because I was curious about my, I had a couple of illnesses that always showed up during my family tree. And then I would look at other families and it didn’t show up. And I have a background, as I went to medical school for a year, then I left.

So I’ve always been just fascinated by different things. And I just, I get a little breadcrumb and I go investigate it on my own. And so, you know, I kind of decipher some things, I find a mentor who’s really skilled in this, and I learn from it, get certified, and still do independent studying.

But what epigenetics is, when you hear the word epi, epi means above, and then of course genetics is the gene itself. So for the longest, most people probably think of when they hear genetics and their genes, that these are just the things I was born with, and it’s set in place.

And that part is true. The genes I have today are the genes I have. The interesting thing is, some of these, it’s the genes we have, we can actually control those, and that’s the epigenetics portion in terms of, is it going to be expressed? Is it going to express itself? Is it going to turn on or is it going to turn off?

And I like to think of this as the hardware of a computer and the software, and then the inputs from that software is going to dictate how that hardware is going to operate.

And in this sense, the hardware is our body. And the inputs, the software, is the food we eat, the thoughts we think, the relationships we have, our vocation, our jobs, the way we exercise, the way we sleep. Nearly every single facet of life that we’re doing, we are interacting dynamically with it, and it is communicating with us on a cellular level of turning on and off certain genes.

And so, when you think about that in the big picture, it’s our genes are just clues to the past, whereas the epigenetics part helps us mold the future to our liking.

And I like this because this gives you power and autonomy because a lot of times we think, oh, this illness runs in my family, or none of us can control our weight, everybody in my family struggles with this. And while you may have genes that give you a higher propensity for that, it’s not set in stone, and that’s the differentiator there.

Sabrina Chevannes: Wow, I think that I’ve said I’ve not heard any other health consultants or health coaches kind of talk about that, and it’s interesting. Like you said, you went to med school for a year, and I think we chatted about this previously, how we both kind of went on the medical school path, felt it wasn’t for us, and kind of left.

It’s different in the US because you do pre-med and you have to go to medical school, and it’s longer, whereas we jump straight in at the age of 18, which is so stupid because who knows what they actually want to do at 18, right?

So, you know, what was medical school like for you and what made you leave and become an entrepreneur? Because there’s not many people who have done that, but it’s not the right path for entrepreneurs, definitely.

Julian Hayes II: Yeah, so medical school was, it’s like drinking out from a fire hose when I talk about the curriculum. It’s so much information. But did I also say though that it wasn’t difficult? It’s just a lot of information thrown at you.

And so when you learn how to navigate that, it’s actually pretty, I’m not going to say easy, but it’s not as hard as people think it is. But really, the biggest highlights for me during medical school was figuring out that I’m not crazy for a lot of my thoughts and just my personality.

Because I’m from Nashville, Tennessee. Going to New York is a completely different thing because I’m from the South, and the South moves at a totally different pace than New York, smack-dab in the city.

And, you know, when I got up there, like I said, the moment that I knew I wasn’t going back was when I went to happy hour. So I went to happy hour in the Lower East Side, never forget it, and I just had this conversation with this girl, and she’s combining her passion while being able to make a living from it as well.

So I’m like, wow. Because for the whole time before that, see medical school was something that was secure to me. Like I know I’m going to be guaranteed a job pretty much, you know, if I don’t mess up, with a really good salary because I wanted to be a eye surgeon.

Yeah, yeah, i love ophthalmology. I loved it. So now I have to pass different tests and all that too, matching and all that. That’s a whole different conversation. But that was the safe route for me because all I have to do is show up, take a test, mark some answers, rinse and repeat for a few years. Go to the hospital, walk around, talk to some people, do my job a little bit, and then I’ll be on my own at some point, right?

And everyone will be proud of me too. I’m first generation in my family, so no one in my family graduated college, definitely didn’t go to medical school. So I’m like the golden child at this point, right? My approval rating is through the roof, and so it just feels good to have all this support every day.

But then something inside of me is always feeling like this is not right. And, you know, it may sound weird, but you got these little rumblings at times where you got these little voices like, I don’t know, man. I don’t know. This doesn’t seem right. You just always got this doubt.

And you notice other students are just really passionate about being in medical school, and you’re just like, yeah, I like being in New York, going out, partying and stuff, but it’s okay. It’s not. Just adding all those things up, and I just came back and said, I’m just not going to go back, and I’m going to just figure it out.

I wanted to write as well, and so there’s a couple things I wanted to do to combine it I knew I still wanted to be in health and you just kind of figure it out. Definitely took a lot of steps back to try to figure it out, but I think I’m pretty happy with my decision.

Sabrina Chevannes: Yeah, and then that’s kind of the key thing, isn’t it? Is that you know that you’ll have you’ve made the right decision now but I know that I left further in than you as well so it was obviously a little bit difficult for me. But I think I got massive FOMO when everyone was updating their Facebook page saying, “Doctor so-and-so,” all my friends, my classmates now. It was a difficult decision.
But mine’s the same. I moved to London, and it was like, London’s an amazing city. I love the city, I love the social. And, you know, I started my first company whilst I was at med school and realized that wasn’t for me. I could do that entrepreneurial spirit. I was going to be restricted from everything there, so I totally get it.

And these are the vitamins that, you know, within medicine, you can definitely write. You can get published, but it’s very different. You can’t express yourself, right? It’s totally different thing everyone’s like oh you can still write and you get published you know in the journals and stuff but it’s not the same.

And since you’ve left, you’ve had quite like you know quite a lot of stuff published in really big kind of publications, like you know Entrepreneur and like Business Insider and INC and Success Magazine. That’s pretty impressive list. So how did you kind of get into that?

And, you know, I’m sure lots of potential writers out there are thinking they’d love to do that. So any tips for those people?

Julian Hayes II: Yeah, so I’ll get the boring aspects out of the way first. So I just committed to writing every day, and I committed to writing 500 words every day, and I was just going to build my skill up.

I had a friend who’s a writer. He doesn’t write though, but that’s what he went to school for. It’s weird how degrees work. A lot of times, degrees we get in school are the things we don’t end up doing.

So, it’s kind of like saying ok, you know this 20 and 21 year old that are going to they don’t know anything about life which totally makes sense, but that’s another side tangent.

So, he helped me because my writing was terrible when I first started. I don’t have any formal background. I just knew I wanted to do it. So he’s helping with grammar and everything.

And so I get to a point where I’m semi-competent at writing, and then I get a writing coach to help me. He helped me because I used to write like a very academic person, like you’re reading a journal. So my writing was very stiff, and it’s a very good sedative if you wanted to read something before you go to bed. It would help with that.

And so he helped me learn how to write for the general public because that’s the people that’s going to be reading your information, not other doctors, not other health experts.

So with those things and then I just after I got that infrastructure established, I started really small. So I remember the first outside writing gig I had outside of my blog. I went to my newspaper, my local newspaper here. It’s the biggest one in Tennessee, but it’s the local one as well since I’m in the capital.

And I just walked in there, I researched the newspaper a little bit, and I saw the health information. I was like, you know, this is not that good. I can totally write something better than this.

And so I walked up to her and I just shot my shot, as they say now, and I got the opportunity. I wrote there for a handful of months, and so then I got the courage to start reaching out to other smaller online publications that kind of fit my area that I wanted to talk to.

And then over time, I just kept stacking up those bylines, as they call them. Then I pitched Entrepreneur. The editor, I don’t think he’s there anymore, but he was very beneficial. He sent back a reply that this was one of the worst pitches that he’s ever gotten.

Sabrina Chevannes: No way!

Julian Hayes II: Yeah, which is okay. I’m okay with that kind of criticism because, you know, I played athletics and everything, and so I actually respond better to that, right? I’d rather somebody tell me the truth than just try to let me down easy, but you know that they’re holding back.

Sabrina Chevannes: What was it? Did he tell you the reason why it was so bad?

Julian Hayes II: Yeah. Just a lot of things from the intro, just the way the article flowed and a lot of things. So it was actually really beneficial.

So I came back maybe two or three months later, pitched to him again, and it was an immediate yes.

Sabrina Chevannes: That’s cool. And you see that’s it that’s actually beneficial feedback, right? Because they couldn’t like you said they could been really nice about it and just been like, “It’s not the right fit for us at this moment,” and you’d have thought ah I’m a good writer just bad timing, you know? Exactly. And it wouldn’t have done you any good, but actually that helps you so much. And it reminds me of a book. I just met, I don’t know if you’ve ever read a book called Radical Candor by Kim Scott.

Julian Hayes II: I haven’t, no. I have it.

Sabrina Chevannes: I would also recommend it. So it’s Kim Scott. Got a glorious reputation. She’s worked at Twitter, like Google, like all the big tech giants, Apple. And she helps CEOs with different things, but her whole thing is that you need to be radically candid about your feedback, otherwise you’re not going to help them.

And she’s got this kind of quadrant of ways you can be. Obviously you don’t want to be that kind of the dick approach, where you’re just being really rude, but then you don’t want to be too nice. And she calls that ruinous empathy. And she’s like, well, you know, I have a tendency to do that, so I don’t want to offend people, but it’s like that.

I just use that example. You’d say, oh, it’s not the right fit for this time, and it’s like what you’re actually doing is ruining your career by doing that because you’re never actually telling the truth. But with being candid, I don’t know, maybe he crossed over into the position remember how harsh his feedback was, I don’t know.

But you know, that feedback you took it on board and actually used it to improve yourself, and now you’ve managed to land gigs everywhere. It’s probably made you a better writer, right? So that’s only a good thing, that feedback case.

Julian Hayes II: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think those are the little small moments. Even when I remember when I was just getting started and you would have people say things like, I don’t know, like why are you doing that? You’re giving up medical school for this, or why are you making this pivot in health? You should just stick to this avenue of fitness, etc., etc.

And I don’t know, I feed on that. I like that. I really do like it because it’s like fuel, right? It’s like fuel. So I really do like it. So, and it’s also, I think it was just always turning obstacles into opportunities because I think no matter the obstacle, no matter how dire something feels or just how uncomfortable it is, I think in every situation there is something that we can pull out of it that can really help us grow into the next iteration.

Sabrina Chevannes: I love that I think that’s great and I’d say you can. It’s all about how you perceive things. And I think that it’s hard though because no one likes criticism or rejection or anything like that. It’s not easy to take. But if you can somehow see the silver lining from everything, you can spin it to how you want to do it, which is pretty awesome. I think so.

Sabrina Chevannes: But yeah, I’d say like massive congrats for all of those roles and I think that also what I’m learning from that story is that as a writer, there’s no easy way to kind of get yourself out there and land yourself those gigs.

Like again, people hear overnight successes where they just write one piece and everyone just went viral and everyone went after them. It generally doesn’t happen like that. You slog it with your local paper and you build a portfolio. And that’s how most people do it. And it’s great to hear that.

Julian Hayes II: Yeah, I look at it like investing. I mean, sure, there’s some people that maybe get lucky, they just get right and invest in this particular I don’t know crypto or stock and it goes to the moon and they get like a thousand percent gain and they’re a millionaire overnight.

Is it a possibility? Yeah, I believe in possibilities. I believe in miracles. Is it a probability? Not really.

So I’m going to have the mindset that I’m going to be consistent with my work over time. And if something just goes parabolic and shoots out of nowhere and I get this really good opportunity, yeah, I’m pleasantly surprised.

But I’m not going to just bank on that because it’s almost like you’re trying to cheat the process. Because if you looked at all the entrepreneurs before us, all the great writers before us, they had to put their work in. They had to experience the failures, had to face obstacles.

So for me at times I’m like, who am I to try to cheat this process and try to cheat the steps of this yucky, uncomfortable stage? What makes me so greater than the next entrepreneur or media before me? So, it’s almost like a rite of passage getting a knight into it or something.

Sabrina Chevannes: Yeah, I like that. I think it’s great. And then, you know, you’ve obviously established yourself out there as an expert and you do a ton of stuff with different people. But like you said, you’re an executive health coach, so you work mainly with entrepreneurs and business owners. What sort of health problems do they usually come to you with? Like what is the usual sort of concern, how do you help these people?

Julian Hayes II: Yeah, I think probably only if you look at the overarching view of it, of course they’re still going to have their weight problems at times. You’re still going to have maybe some lab numbers that are off. They’re human just like everybody else.

But I think the method and the reasoning why they have their problems, those are the big things. Because I sometimes hear, “Oh, you’re just lazy, that’s why your health is not good. You just need to get motivated and go work out more.”

These people are not really lazy. They wouldn’t have the success and everything that they have if they were lazy. So we can go ahead and throw that advice out of the window, of just, “Hey, just get off the couch, just go run or walk.” So it’s a little more nuanced than that.

So I like to just box it up in something I call the success paradox. And so as you build your career up, as your growing business, or even if you’re an entrepreneur, you’re moving up the ranks in corporate. What comes along with that is more responsibility, as it should. Revenue is increasing as well.

But as you are getting these extra responsibilities, you still have the daily things to attend to. So you still have your relationships, but you probably also still have this added pressure and obligation and feeling now that you want to continue to succeed, and you don’t want to go back to day one because day one kind of sucked when you didn’t have anything.

So nobody wants to go back there. I don’t blame them. So you add all these different pressures up, and I think that gets left out typically in their health. And health doesn’t get left out because of negligence, it gets left out just because of structure and organization.

And they’re just so preoccupied with all these other factors that if they have time, then they’ll slip in their health.

Sabrina Chevannes: And it’s the same with entrepreneurs. Like you said, there’s not a lot of lazy entrepreneurs. But like you said, if they’re successful, you cannot be lazy. Running your own business is so difficult. And you know you are working nonstop around the clock. And most of the time I would say that’s probably where the health concerns come from though.

It’s the fact that they’re over working and they’re experiencing burnout, and they are putting everything on the line because they want to see success in their business.

So how do you help? I think that’s for me, any of the entrepreneurs that I know, the health problems is around burnout and definitely overworking. There’s so much narrative at the moment in the media about work-life balance, but that’s so different for everyone. Like whether you have kids or not, or just how many hours of sleep you need. Like you know, everyone’s different with between how they function.

What advice can you give entrepreneurs in order to create their perfect work-life balance? Whatever that perfect balance is, what advice can you give entrepreneurs for that?

Julian Hayes II: Yeah. So work-life balance, that means so many different things to so many different people, as you’ve mentioned. Because some of my friends, once Friday gets here, they’re checked out. They don’t want to deal with it. And then other people are different.

So I think the first thing to do is actually establish what does work-life balance look like to you? What does it feel like? What’s ideal for you?

I know for me, one of the key things is to have time to just get lost in my runs, endurance running, and then swimming as well, and then some lifting too. So that’s a pretty big chunk of time, and that’s one of the key blocks for me.

So I block off all my workouts every week, every different session, so it’s all blocked off in my calendar. So the first thing I do before anything else is I schedule my exercise time. And then I schedule any other important events that are meaningful to me. So I’ll schedule probably a dinner too on Saturday and Sunday.

Then I will go and schedule my actual work times and different times for calls and that stuff. And then anything left is probably just miscellaneous stuff, buffer time for extra fires I need to put out or external emails that come through where I need to take care of something. You just never know, life happens. So I have that extra time for that. And of course I have time blocked off for sleep.

So I’m creating a calendar. I’m essentially running my body like I’m running a business. In this instance, I’m scheduling these appointments with myself. So they’re on there. And if I ever send my calendar to people or they see it, it’s going to show I’m not available at that time because it’s already blocked in there. So that’s an organizational tip.

I think if we look at something like nutrition, I think have some type of templates—some nutritional templates—so maybe three to five go-to meals that you can make easy without even having to think about it too much. Very minimal ingredients, but also very healthy.

Now if you like to cook, that’s a different story. I usually use dinner time to cook as a way for me to slow down because the rest of the time I’m usually just way too high energy. So I need to calm down. Cooking with music allows me to slow down. But if you don’t like to cook, then you can meal prep for a few days. If a week is too much, you can just make meals for two or three days.

Another thing is breakfast. I have the same breakfast every morning. It’s good though. If that sounds bad, it’s the same thing. It’s a smoothie with a bunch of different things in it, and then I have some oatmeal as well.

But the thing is, whether you have the smoothie or not, I’m reducing my mental cognitive energy that I’m using here. A lot of times nutrition gets difficult for people, especially entrepreneurs, and they just grab what’s convenient because they don’t want to think about it. You’re thinking about enough things already.

And then the next thing you want to think about is, “Oh man, how am I going to put this meal together?” or “What am I going to eat?” You just want to get on with your day.

And if you think about it, our brain is essentially like an iPhone battery or android, I want to be equal opportunities here. So, you started 100 percent, right? I don’t know the android color battery I know the iPhone, it’s a green. So, we’re going to use the iPhone green battery. So, we’re going to say you got a good night’s sleep, you’re at 100%. Every decision you make always having to think in everything that’s slowly bringing that battery down.

And if I have to waste a lot of time thinking about food, workouts, and organizational things like what am I going to work out? and all this stuff that’s taking a lot of energy from that battery that could be better allocated toward building some relationships, networking, working on pitches to send the publications or doing client work, or anything other than that.

So that’s organization. Yes. But it’s also a way to really streamline your nutrition, at least Monday through Friday. On the weekend, I still work, but just not as much as it is during the week, so I’m a little more lenient with my nutrition during the weekend.

Sabrina Chevannes: So that makes sense to me. I think like you know having set recipes is good because I definitely relate to not wanting to think as much when I already have so many things in my head. Even deciding what to eat for lunch most days is incredibly stressful because it’s just another thing to think about. So I totally get it.

If you had a set system for you, that would be great. But I think where I know I fail as an entrepreneur is time. And yes, I can block out things in my diary, which is something I also highly recommend—blocking out stuff you just time for yourself like I even because I have a calendar that I send out and you know everyone does it’s easy, but because your days are so like you know free people block put book in really quickly. And so I started blocking out breaks and like you know I don’t have a bath during this time but that would bother me like reading time just to like actually do that but the problem is if I know that say if I block out a workout time so people can’t book in the diary but I have
and someone emails me, like a potential client or current client who needs something like oh please can you talk at midday and I should be working at them, yeah it’s fine I’ll do that and I’ll prioritize them over my workout. I’m very guilty of that.

I am guessing you’re going to say what
what is your priority or how do you overcome that? Don’t do that or something, but it’s so difficult to do.

Julian Hayyes II: Well, I think that’s a natural thing. I have that pull as well. Like even two days ago, I was 30 to 60 minutes late with my workout just because I really wanted to finish an article I was writing. So I get it.

And I think that’s part of the pull of the success paradox. A lot of times when you do client work, you’re a very giving, benevolent person, so we oftentimes do put others before us.

So yes, I could say you need to be more selfish, and when you’re more selfish you fill your bucket first and then you’re better able to serve others. We’ve heard that before.

But I would say just give yourself some grace and give yourself some time to break free from that. Because a lot of times you think about it as potential business and revenue. And if you remember how I was on day one going back to that again, you oftentimes dream that these days that you would have people in boxing you to potentially work with you or just to inbox with different clients asking you different things and you’re busy, you got clients now, you’re working. So, you remember when you were just sitting here and you had all the time in the world because
So I totally get it because you didn’t have any clients or anything like that.

So, I totally get it because you don’t want to go back to that. There’s a kind for me speaking that there’s a fear there of going back. You don’t want to go back to that feeling. So, I totally get it, it’s something that you wrestle with and I think typically if they wanted to work with you when they sent the email I don’t think you waiting for maybe 90 minutes after you get back to the place your workout, I think they’ll still want to work with you.

Sabrina Chevannes: Straight away. But, I guess it’s that you know safe, for example we’re a creative agency—we do design, build websites, digital marketing—and someone says, “We’ve got a project coming up, when can you chat?” My diary is usually already packed.

I can’t find any space to put them in the next
week or two, so I have to replace like a workout or something for me or something like that to be able to slot them in. Otherwise I miss out on the opportunity and it’s not that they wait because they will go to someone else and I guess that could be a bigger picture thing and there’s other people listening here form a branding perspective and saying well if they go with someone else then you’re not planning yourself, like you know exclusive enough or leashing down maybe but the point is in this day and age people move quickly and make decisions super quickly and I also even with current clients if they’ve got an issue I wouldn’t be able to tend to it super quickly just because that’s how I and so I feel like I would you know put them in my diary over anything that comes to me because clients come first that’s always how we’ve been and that’s our motto —clients come first.

So, you know if something’s there personally but a client has an issue we would put that in the diary. And I think I’ve been guilty of that. I don’t know what the balance is. I don’t know whether I should be like actually I don’t have anything in the diary and this space and actually just or like you said you had like contingency slots, maybe I have to block out contingency slots where I can put them in there as opposed to like other places I don’t know but this is definitely something I’m not very good at.

Julian Hayes II: Well, I think it’s something we all deal with. There’s no blanket answer because everyone’s going to have their way of handling that because all of our businesses are different a little bit. I don’t necessarily have to put out fires as rapidly or someone can just call me and we can just do it there so they have my number they can just call me so I’ve been called just like on a run it’s fine – that’s fine, you know.

I don’t necessarily have to attend choosing a computer because I don’t necessarily I like being away for a while I get it. I get antsy if I sit or if I’m just on a computer for a while, I get really antsy. So, I gonna move and get up.

But I understand some businesses need to do that and that’s where it’s finding kind of what works for you and you’re gonna take a lot of trial and error.

But, as long as you realized that once again giving yourself grace but then also remembering though that long-term I need to put my health first.

Because a lot of times these people they’ll build up massive success at the expense of their health and now they have this massive success and all this revenue and profit now they’re trying to buy back their health.

But, like I said, I never want to lecture people say stop doing that put yourself first because that’s not being practical. You know, that’s living in a like a test tube or test lab or something right there. Right? This is the real world in reality.

Business moves fast it moves really fast now. A lot o of times when people want to buy they want to buy now and sometimes if you wait they don’t want to buy because they’re practical, they start thinking more logically and more fear-based and they’re like oh ok maybe I’ll wait it’s not that big of a deal or I could do this so I get that, one thing is maybe I don’t know, maybe do it first thing in the morning before everyone is vying for your attention.

You go ahead and get your workout done no matter what happens during the day, I’ve already got my workout done.

Sabrina Chevannes: That is a very good solution. Very logical solution. I just know how grumpy I can get though.

Julian Hayes II: The good thing is you probably don’t have to talk to anyone while you’re exercising. Even if you’re in a bad mood, it’s fine because moving your body actually improves your mood.

And a lot of times I’m not exactly thrilled to go run or work out. But 10 to 15 minutes in, I get into it. And I start thinking I’ve got work to do, projects to finish, outreach to do.

I don’t want to be here, I just want to sit and work. But I know that by working out, I become more efficient at my job because I’m training my brain. So even when I’m not working, I’m training my mind and my brain.

Sabrina Chevannes: Yeah, I think, you know you’re right and the problem is with all this stuff is that all the positive things like working out and doing all that sort of stuff, in an instant and that’s the problem is that you don’t see that instant effect you do I guess in terms of like the endorphins, it does feel good.

But you also feel shattered, you also feel like achy and you know feel like you’ve wasted time because you know you should be doing other stuff. And that’s the problem. Even though we know it’s right and time I think is the biggest thing for entrepreneurs. And you mentioned meal prep earlier, and meal prep is so good for so many reasons—you know, it saves you money, it saves time.

But again, it’s like that thought of when can you prepare so many meals in a row? Like how do you practically actually do meal prep? Because there’s a lot of companies that offer it now, which I think is a great idea—they ship you prepared meals, it’s frozen but its great. But quite expensive really, so it’s not even that good value for money.

But in terms of like, if you were to meal prep, what would you recommend? Because I know you have the same breakfast each day but a lot of people don’t like to eat the same thing two days in a row. So how do you in a practical basis actually meal prep? It’s not just the same meal every day.

Julian Hayes II: Yeah. So if someone was going to meal prep, what I generally recommend is there are two approaches. Like you mentioned, there are those services that deliver you food. There’s a hybrid approach.

So say for instance breakfast is okay with you, and say for instance dinner is okay with you, but you really struggle during the middle of the day. You don’t want to stop and go cook or go get food somewhere, you just want to keep working along.

So what I would recommend then is to use one of those services and just get enough for five days, Monday to Friday. I like to have my head down and just work through it. So maybe order just five meals for that week, Monday to Friday, and it’s taken care of—you’ve got your breakfast, you’ve got your dinner, you’ve got your lunch, and maybe a snack as well.

The other option is, if you want to do it yourself, maybe take Sunday and cook a couple packs of chicken. You cook that up. You can cut it up however you like different ways. I don’t like chicken breast—they don’t have a lot of flavor. I’m very picky with chicken breast. When I first got started in fitness, I ate a bunch of bland grilled chicken breast, so I can’t eat those anymore. Like chicken breast and tuna? I can’t even look at them now.

So if you like chicken breast and you season it well, by all means go do it. But chicken thighs, chicken strips, things like that—you can cook those up. You can make a little stir fry, or you can cook some potatoes, and then divide those up and have them for a couple of days.

And you can do the same with carbs and proteins—potatoes and some kind of protein shake, or chicken. Chicken will probably last longer. I don’t know about fish for a couple of days, I wouldn’t risk that.

Sabrina Chevannes: It’s so difficult. Yeah, I would say Sunday is a great day to do it. Most people take Sundays easy day. Even I’m a workaholic, but I still like a slower Sunday. But the rest of the days, I think that’s a great idea—just meal prep.

But again, is it going to last the whole week? But then you need to put in in freezer and have defrost it. That’s where it gets confusing. But I guess like I think that’s something I’m going to try and do it’s definitely a thing that I think would be great like it takes your decisions away it takes the time it saves money, like doing all that kind of stuff. So, I think meal prep is a good idea.

Julian Hayes II: I think I wouldn’t do it for the whole week—that seems overwhelming. And I don’t know how it tastes five or six days later. So maybe just see how it is for two days or three days.

Sabrina Chevannes: Yeah, a good idea what I was trying to do which I might try and do again is that like a cook dinner in the evening and I like cooking like you say like that escape thing if you cook a big dinner you’ve always got leftovers and if you don’t like using the same food in the next day, you’d have that leftover for the day after lunch and then you do that every day so then you have like say your dinner on Tuesday night dinner become Thursday lunch, so then on Wednesday you’d have your Monday night dinner as leftovers and then you kind of do that and therefore you’re never eating the same meal two days in a row as well but you’re actually saving time because you’re just making one meal like it’s dinner but you’re safe making enough that you’ve got leftovers for two days time.

Julian Hayes II: I’ve never done anything like that. It sounds interesting and probably useful for a lot of people. Because I don’t leave leftovers—I eat everything.

Yeah, I have a crazy appetite. I eat a lot.

Sabrina Chevannes: So if you make too much you just eat all of it and then that should actually be bad for you.

Julian Hayes II: Well the thing now is that I know exactly since I’ve been doing it for so long I know exactly the amount I cook for each meal. So, I know this is the amount I want for this meal. You know etc.. calories and all that so this is what I cook and I’m just going to eat it because I’m pretty much hungry all the time.

Sabrina Chevannes: I guess that comes from working out and you’re actually scheduling it in so that’s good.

Julian Hayes II:
Yeah, the running getting in the water all that stuff the box, yeah. So, the more activity you do it does ramp up your appetite as well.

So, that’s something people have to get used to as well. Because, you tell them to I want you to start eating more and they’re like I’m not hungry yet. Now, like you will be as you start working out and then sometimes you’re drinking a lot of caffeine that kind of blunts your appetite so you don’t realize you’re actually hungry because you have the caffeine, the coffee that’s taking the place of that.

Sabrina Chevannes: Exactly. Well, I’ll let you know how my meal prep ideas go and see if it actually works. It could be a good share. I’m going to try it.

Julian Hayes II: Yeah. For people who like variety, it absolutely could work. See, I’m okay being a robot, mostly.

Sabrina Chevannes: I definitely like variety. Yeah, definitely kind of miss a meal two days in a row car wearing the same outfits.

Julian Hayes II: Yeah, I even have rotation with clothes. I have a line of different blazers, and then if it’s summer time I have different colored t-shirts you just throw those on and then if it’s cooler fall or winter, I have a line of button-downs.

Sabrina Chevannes: That is the opposite of how I’d like to lived. No, I couldn’t do that so okay everyone is really different I feel like that’s my worst nightmare.

Julian Hayes II: But yeah, see right there actually is a very important point when it comes to health as well is that one of the best things you can do for your health before jumping into any diet or exercise regimen is to really understand your psychology and accept it.

Because most different types of nutrition strategies and methods they are all the same essentially. It’s just different methods of how you get to your destination.

So some diets allow more carbohydrates, some allow for none, some are more meat-based, some are higher fats. So, really think about what do I enjoy.

I really enjoy carbohydrates, stir-fries, rice, potatoes. I would never do a diet where I have to eliminate those completely.

And I think that’s something forgotten, big time. I think a lot of problems happen between your business and your life because you have this fitness diet, that you have this diet in this regimen that you’re on but it’s not really congruent with your lifestyle.

I like to move and go about and so you stick with it for a week or two and then you start to get really annoyed by you’re like I got to this again, I’m so tired of this because it goes so against your everyday business and just personal life. So, really find something that meshes with all those things together and they seamlessly integrate.

Sabrina Chevannes: I love that, I think exactly it like as soon as something becomes a chore or becomes something that puts you off, then you probably shouldn’t be doing it. And yeah, it’s time for a change.

Julian Hayes II: Exactly. That’s why I like having the rotations of clothes because I like the feeling of control. So a lot of times throughout the day there are certain feelings that we gravitate to and crave more than others. And for me, I like the feeling of control.

Even if I don’t always have it. People say, “Well, you can’t really control a lot.” And it’s like, look, I don’t care. I like the illusion of control. Let’s go with that.

So there’s a reason why I have this band on me, why I keep up with my health data. I’m into genetics, I’m into all these different tests because I like control.

Sabrina Chevannes: I like freedom. So, I’m just like oh it’s spontaneity freedom, creativity. So, it’s different all the time.

Julian Hayes II: I think some people said that discipline equals freedom though to a certain extent.

Sabrina Chevannes: I guess so like because it depends okay I guess there’s everything in moderation right it’s a balance and everything like you have too much control that you’re controlling and it’s just too much.

Julian Hayes II: Yeah, I’m not good with moderation. So like I like treats so I’m either going to eat them all or I’m going to give them away but they’re never going to just sit there to where because some people could be like oh I just have one today.

Sabrina Chevannes: Yeah, I like that. I just have one today yeah I like that I’ve got a good self-control, I’ll have like one or two on my night that’s it.

Julian Hayes II: I eat the all or I give the rest away but they did not sit there because I know I just, I can’t do that so it’s more extreme of the other.

Sabrina Chevannes: That’s exactly why you need to know who you are, what you like because otherwise it’s just not going to work.

Julian Hayes II: Absolutely.

Sabrina Chevannes: We’re going to clearly need to have the opposite sort of plan our personalities just won’t adapt to it which is quite interesting.

Julian Hayes II: Absolutely.

Sabrina Chevannes: And there’s one last thing I’ll be able to ask you because I’ve seen that you’ve been writing about it and everything, and it’s about the correlation between elite sports personalities and entrepreneurs, and how you can learn from those guys in business.

And I wanted to talk about that because I find that fascinating. So what do you learn from elite sporting legends, and how can entrepreneurs learn from that?

Julian Hayes II: Yeah, it kind of ties into what we talked about earlier with burnout. It’s to not overlook recovery and to take your foot off the gas, and to slow down so you can speed up.

Because if you think about it, if we look at athletes in, let’s say football—we’ll use football, the real football as they say, right?

Sabrina Chevannes: Real football.

Julian Hayes II: Real football. I’m not in love with American football anyway.

You get no resistance from me. So this is football, right? And these guys are running up and down the field for 90-plus minutes, right? And the training is a lot. It’s very intense.

But what they also do is, as hard as they train and perform on game day, they put that same amount into their recovery. So they build their bodies back so they can perform even more.

Whereas a lot of times with entrepreneurs, it’s go, go, go, go, go. Because in business, if you throw more resources at something, more into the ad budget, typically you bring in more revenue and more sales.

And so you think about this with your health—that if I just do more and keep pushing, then I’m going to get quicker and better results. And that’s not the case because the body is like scales. It needs balance.

Now, your body can really build itself up to do some amazing things, but it needs time to be able to do that. Just like I probably would not be able to last as long as those guys on the football field right now.

Sabrina Chevannes: I’m like what did you say.

Julian Hayes II: I’ve gotten better at that I’ve gotten better ahead. So, yeah. I wouldn’t be able to last as good as those guys on the football field.

But over time, I could probably build myself up to be able to run up and down like that. So it’s the same thing with our health and fitness. Don’t dismiss the recovery aspect.

And recovery is, yes, sleep as well. But recovery can also just be taking a five to ten minute break during the day just to gather your thoughts and assess how the first half of the day is going.

And recovery could be going out to dinner with your friends or scheduling time just to do something different, just to break that pattern and bring some balance—your definition of balance—into the equation.

Sabrina Chevannes: Yeah, I like that definitely. You always want to define whatever that means to you. That’s great.

But one of the things—not stop football field, here it’s football pitch.

Julian Hayes II: Football pitch?

Sabrina Chevannes: Yeah, the pitch.

Julian Hayes II: So you don’t just say football field?

Sabrina Chevannes: We say football. I’m saying it’s not a field.

Julian Hayes II: Ah, it’s a pitch. Okay.

Sabrina Chevannes: Just to get more accurate like football field is the one that you play Americans on that you guys call another field we say a pitch over here.

Julian Hayes II: Oh Wow. No, that’s important because when I go back to Europe again I’m going , I need to have the right vocabulary so I can blend in as best as I can, but soon they’ll be like okay he’s American, okay It’ll come out at some point.

Sabrina Chevannes: But pitch, It’s not field. Just have to say it.

Julian Hayes II: Okay, I appreciate that. I love that. That’s not even criticism, that’s helping me.

Sabrina Chevannes: Exactly. I don’t mean so particular about football not soccer, soccer field fine football pitch.

Julian Hayes II: I was combining the best. I was talking to all audiences—people who say field and people who say pitch. I was covering all my bases.

Sabrina Chevannes: But thank you so much, It’s been an amazing conversation today and I just want to ask where can people get in touch with you if they were asking more about epigenetics and all this stuff and staying healthy?

Julian Hayes II: Yeah, all my information will be at my home base, the Art of Fitness and Life. com.

Sabrina Chevannes: Perfect. So I will put a link to that in the show notes. And if you want to hit you up they can do and I’m sure they’ll have lots of questions because It’s been super interesting.

So thank you so much for being on today’s show.

Julian Hayes II: Thank you so much again, and thank you for the pitch correction actually.

Sabrina Chevannes: Thank you, no problem. My pleasure and thanks everyone for tuning in and I’ll see you guys next week for another episode of No Bullsh*t Talks.