Podcast Transcription: Fitness For Entrepreneurs: The Key To Sustainable Fat Loss Success For Busy Professionals with Oliver Anwar

Ted Ryce: Hey, what's up, Oliver? Great to have you back on the show, man. 

Oliver Anwar: Thanks, Ted. I really appreciate you having me back on, man. This is good. 

Ted Ryce: Yeah. And what I love doing is I love having coaches on the show because I try to avoid the health influencers because they typically just say a lot of things like, "Go drive to a spring to get your water because that's going to improve your health," or whatever the case may be. And it puts obstacles in front of people to get healthy. But you and I are both coaches, we try to remove obstacles. And one thing I especially love about you is that you and I, we share a similar lifestyle, a similar love for traveling. So talk to me about where you've been recently. 

Oliver Anwar: Yep. Oh man. So, I've been quite a few places recently, the most recent is actually in Egypt. So, I took my mom and my sister to go visit the pyramids in Egypt, which was amazing for her, I think, it was her 63rd birthday, and we spent some time in Cairo, which was cool. We got to see some of the museums, but also the pyramids as well, which was like, when you see them in real life, man, seriously, they are crazy big. 

It makes you think that like aliens have built them. Like it's, it's like how people thousands of years ago created that is, is crazy. So, we went there, and then we went down south to Luxor, which is a little bit more rural, but it was more around seeing the temples there and the Valley of the Kings to see where Tutankhamun was buried and things like that and where his tomb was found. So that was, yeah, that was the most recent one, man. And it was really interesting going there for sure. 

Ted Ryce: Yeah. And that, I saw the Twitter photos. Also, I follow you on Instagram, and it's just cool to see that you're not only traveling but taking your mother. And it's just great to see that. And one of the things that you promote is staying in shape while you're traveling. 

And it's the thing probably like your clients when they travel for business or for vacation, if they go to Egypt, they really fall off hard. So talk a little bit about your approach. What do you do to travel? 

Cause you have all these photos of you in great shape in different spots around the world, and you're not following a strict diet. You're not eating just chicken breast and broccoli when you're in Egypt, for example. So talk a little bit about your approach to staying in shape while you travel. 

  

Oliver Anwar: Yeah, great question, man. So, I think like with traveling, it's one of those things that like you mentioned, the majority of people just tend to fall off because it's easy when you've got your routine back home, you know, you're sat with all of the food that you need, you've got your gym there, you've got everything that you need, but as soon as you travel, it feels like the routine's gone. And like that makes most people kind of fall apart, right? They kind of take all this takeout food. They have this like, "Fuckt it" mindset. They start drinking loads and they come back like five, 10 pounds heavier, which is like not a good thing. 

I think for me, one of the big things, and I know you're big on this, is just like walking a lot, man. So like, if you're especially going out to visit places, you're in a city, like just walk as much as possible because allowing yourself to walk. Number one is going to keep you busy, so you're not going to worry about food, but it's also going to increase your calorie burn and prevent you from, uh, you know, just gaining lots of weight from actually not moving, which is a big thing. Um, which I really like from, I think one of the big things is like the nutrition piece as well, because.  

Like how do you go and eat when you're not tracking calories? So it's really just about being very, you know, intentional with the food choices that you eat, right? So I really like to stick to a higher protein, lower carbohydrate, lower sources diet and really just keep that as a staple throughout the meals that I have. 

So, for example, in the morning, I might wake up and I'll either skip breakfast or have like a higher protein breakfast to allow me to have food later on in the day because I might be going out for dinner with my mom or with my girlfriend, wherever it may be. So then, the first portion of my day is very high in protein, low in carbs, sorry, low in sources and things like that. And then I basically bank a load of calories and a load of food for the evening. 

So when I go out to dinner in the evening, I can enjoy a pizza with maybe a dessert. And because I've kept active and because I've planned the day well, I can then enjoy that meal while still staying, you know, in relatively good shape because the overall calories are good. And I've got enough protein that allows me to still stay lean. So those would be some of my tips, man, if that kind of makes sense. 

Ted Ryce: Yeah, I remember being in Medellin not too long ago, and I was with two other coaches, and we were at an entrepreneur meetup for the Dynamite Circle, a group of nomadic entrepreneurs, and we all were eating pizza, the three of us, and everyone else was eating salad or trying to eat clean.  

And if you looked at the salads, they were... They had to be around a thousand calories with all the dressing, the avocado, the cheese. And we were sitting next to one guy, and he was saying, "Oh man, you know, I can't believe you guys eat pizza." We're just like, "You don't get it. This is a calorie thing." I know you talk a lot about that on Twitter. What do you have your clients do so you have them track calories? What else do you have them do to get such great results? 

Oliver Anwar: Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the big things is just around like consistency. I think the biggest and most important thing for clients is being consistent with what you do each day. And one of my big mottos is, you know, don't miss twice, right? Don't have two unhealthy meals in a row.  

You know, try not to have two bad night's sleep in a row. Don't miss two workouts in a row. Like try and build a consistent way of doing things because, you know, not every day is going to be perfect, especially if you're running a business or you have a very avid family life or travel life. 

Not every single meal is going to be on point, but I think more important than the diet that you've got more important than the approach that you take is the mindset that you have around. Okay. I'm going to make sure that I'm consistent with the approach that I'm doing and that I'm trying to be as healthy as possible for the majority of the time because if you do that, that is really going to be the key thing. And then what I found to get the best results is really hammering in the consistency of what you're doing. 

Ted Ryce: And what do you find with your clients? What is their main challenge with consistency or challenges with consistency? 

Oliver Anwar: I think one of the biggest things is around stress and busyness, right? So when clients or people, you guys listed are really stressed, what happens is your willpower decreases, but then your cravings increase. Right. So what happens is, as the day goes on, you're putting out fires within the business, you're doing lots of work. You know, your willpower is slowly reducing from making all of these decisions and doing all of this stuff. And then food cravings start to hit around, you know, 5, 6 PM. 

And you could have been good for the whole day, but that bit of stress that pushes you over the edge because you don't have a plan, you end up ordering the Uber Eats. So, you order the, you know, you go with a bad choice of food, you get the takeout, whatever it may be. And that's what holds people back because they're in this vicious cycle of, "Damn, I ate too much last night. Right, let's make up for it today." 

You get super stressed, you don't have a plan, you get to the evening, you end up binging again because your willpower is low. So I really think the key is like having a really good structured plan of when it gets to the evening, this is what I'm eating, or this is what the food is, and this is what my lunch is, this is what my snack is, because that really allows you to remove the decision fatigue when you're under a lot of stress. 

Ted Ryce: And how do you help clients? Cause I know you and I, you posted a photo the other day on Twitter. It was something like high-performance eating. I forgot what it said, but I do similar things where I'm like breakfast at champions and it's a croissant and like a coffee with chocolate in it or something. And how do you coach your clients on how to include their favorite foods while still maintaining that calorie deficit. 

Oliver Anwar: Yeah, absolutely man. So, I think one of the key things is around potentially skipping a meal throughout the course of the day. So, if you're not hungry, potentially in the morning, you know, sometimes it's okay to maybe push that first meal back until later in the day and just reduce your eating window. That's a really simple way of doing things. 

Another thing is to ensure that you have a calorie limit for the snacks that you have. So one of my rules is every single day, I have to eat something that I really enjoy and that I really like. It could be something sweet. It could be chocolate. It could be a snack, wherever it may be. But I say to myself, I'm only going to allow myself three or 400 calories of that snack.  

So it could be a cookie. It could be a chocolate bar, but I know that that's kind of the limit and the restriction of eating that food because it's very easy to have a chocolate bar. And a lot of people do this. It's like I've had a chocolate bar today. I might as well just call it a cheat day. I might as well go have the burger. I might as well go have the pizza. And then you're in this vicious cycle of turning one little bit of food into a terrible day of eating because you know, you don't have like a framework in place. 

So that's one of the things that I really, really like to do. And rewarding yourself is also a good thing. I mean, trying to have a, you know, if you've got kids and you've got a family, a lot of my clients like to have pizza night on a Friday and enjoy that. And I think that should be part of any sustainable fitness plan, right? 

You shouldn't have to stay no to that, but you know, it also comes with right Monday through Friday lunchtime doing all the right things and eating properly and sticking to the plan, so I can have that off-plan meal on the Friday and reward myself and enjoy that with my family. I think that that's another thing that we do. And it allows you to look forward to food but ensure that like the work is still getting done within the week to ensure you're in that deficit so you can still lose fat. 

Ted Ryce: Yeah, and I think a good point to mention here is around context. You are what around somewhere in between 10 and 15% body fat all the time. Right. And same here, although when I was in Europe, I kind of probably got closer to 17 or 18, coming back down now. Um, so, so I think it's important for people to understand what you and I do to get down to lean levels of body fat. 

It doesn't have to be, it can be less perfect or less strict if you're just trying to get down to 20 or maybe a little bit under if you're trying to get down to 15 to 10, it's going to require better strategies more self-control. How do you coach your clients on setting appropriate goals based on how much they have to lose or what their goals might be? 

Oliver Anwar: It's a really, really good question. And this is what I love about you Ted. There's a lot of nuanced to what you talk about. And I think that that's really important when we talk about fitness goals and approaches. So, if you're somebody that's maybe obese and you've got a lot of weight to lose, this could be anywhere from like 30 to 50 plus pounds, whatever it may be. Doing a lot more walking and sticking to whole foods and drinking water will actually get you to lose maybe like five to 10 pounds of that straight away. 

Just because the situation that you're probably in at the minute to be in an obese state is probably not the best all around. So if we could just make small improvements to begin with, that will kind of get you into a good spot. And then I think if you're going from, uh, you know, you, maybe you're going from like 30 to 20%, uh, it's just going to be including some more protein into your diet, again, walking a little bit more and maybe getting like three workouts in per week of resistance training too, to just help with building some muscle and strengthen an extra bit of calorie burn. 

  

And it's only really when you go in from like 20% down to, you know, 15, 10%, do you have to be meticulously or not meticulously, but keeping a food log, you know, tracking your calories, being a bit more regimented with, you know, your training and having that to be a bit more structured. Um, so it really does depend on, I guess, where you are at the minute will depend on the commitment level that you have to kind of put towards your nutrition, towards your training and your overall fitness, if that makes sense. 

Ted Ryce: Yeah. And I love having these conversations because I think one of the points of confusion is about people trying to get in shape and then getting information, but it's not appropriate for where they are. It's more appropriate for maybe you or you or me. Like if you want to get that 1% extra, get rid of all the Xenoestrogens that you might be exposed to, but if you're obese, it's not going to move the needle for you. 

You can get rid of all the toxins in your environment and it's, it's not going to do anything for you. Um, and it's even questionable what it will do in a meaningful way, at least in a meaningful, measurable way for guys like us, but certainly, you know, making sure that the information that you're getting is appropriate for where you are on your journey is so important. Hard to do it on Twitter, right? Hard to do a good job. 

Oliver Anwar: Yeah. Yeah, it's really hard. And I find this the same with business advice, right? There's a lot of business advice out there that people give. And, you know, I could be in a position where maybe I'm not ready for that information yet, or, you know, I could be too ahead of that information to actually need it in my life. So the same really applies to fitness as well. 

It's important to find like wherever the person you are at the minute started to get the right advice for where that is, not for the guy that is maybe like, you know, five years ahead or five years maybe past you, whatever it may be. So that's a really good point. 

Ted Ryce: And how do you coach your clients when, okay, so this is a challenge I think we all have, right? You and I both know that the longer a client stays with us in their coaching program, the more automatic, the more cemented their habits are going to be. 

So, when you have a client who loses some weight and starts to feel pretty confident, but you know they're not at that point of automaticity. In other words, they're in that stage of what you might call conscious confidence. They know what to do. They're taking action on it. They're getting results, but if they get a curveball thrown at them, it's going to shake them up and they're going to have a hard time getting back on. Have you had any experiences like that? And if so, what did you do to coach that person through that phase? 

Oliver Anwar: It's a really good question. And I think that this applies specifically for, you know, entrepreneurs because, um, you know, if you're kind of trying to lose weight and, you know, business is going okay, and there's not too much stress going on at this specific time, it could be easy to lose the weight. And then what happens is that maybe it's around the funding or, you know, you get a really, really busy period at work or someone, you have a baby, whatever it may be, like it's so then difficult to actually stick to what you're doing previously because your life situation has kind of, kind of changed.  

One of the things I say to my clients is try and stick to like a few non-negotiables during this time when kind of the curveball comes. So, this could just be a case of, okay, making sure that I try and get as much sleep as possible during this time because having good sleep is then going to allow me to get through whatever I've got to get through throughout the course of this period and help me make better decisions with food, help my workouts go well, stick into like a minimum effective dose of training. So try to reduce whatever. 

You know, if they're, they're training a little bit more, reduce that down to the minimal amount, maybe some full-body workouts that allow them to hit all of their muscle groups but in less time during a busy period. Um, and then from a nutrition aspect, if they're too busy to kind of, uh, you know, monitor and track their food, just being intuitive with the foods that they're eating. So it could be sticking to a higher protein approach. It could be having two meals a day as opposed to three. It could be pushing their first meal a little bit further, just putting some small things in place that will kind of be a bit of like damage limitation for any bad habits but also ensuring that they can still kind of stay on track if that makes sense. 

Ted Ryce: Yeah, for sure. And, um, yeah, I love what you said there. So instead of just giving up everything, let's say you have a client tracking their nutrition and it starts to get a bit too much just because they can't focus. And even though it only takes a couple of minutes to plug in what you're eating, it's just, it just feels like so much effort. As you mentioned earlier, the willpower goes down, the cravings go up, and then switching to habits and trying to maybe raise the floor instead of the ceiling. And it brings up an interesting question. 

You and I, we both work with high achievers, entrepreneurs, executives. Obviously, they can afford our coaching fees because we're not the $200 a month or $50 a month app, right? It's high-touch coaching. 

Oliver Anwar: That's absolutely right. Yep. 

Ted Ryce: Why else do you specifically focus on working with entrepreneurs? 

Oliver Anwar: It's a really good question. And I've throughout my kind of journey of being a health coach, I started working with people, you know, that were at university when I started, right? So, kind of young students, I then started working with professionals. So, guys that were more in like the kind of nine to five corporate world and, you know, the busy city, people. And then, uh, I transitioned them to move into entrepreneurs. And what I've done throughout my, I guess, coaching career is work with people who I understand because. 

I'm living maybe their life. So, when I was a student, I coach students because I understood what the pains and the struggles of a student was when I started working corporate in central London, I started working with corporate guys, mainly because I was around them. Yes. But secondly, like I understood what their life was like. I understood the commute on the train. 

You know, I understand that sometimes I have to squeeze in a lunchtime workout. You know, I understand people are going to be going out for drinks, maybe two, three times a week with their colleagues. So how do we fit all of this in? And then what happened when I became a full-time business owner, I was like, well, I'm now an entrepreneur.  

And I kind of resonate with the life and the mindset of an entrepreneur. So I'm going to coach these guys because it gives me a good understanding, I guess, of, you know, what their pains are and their challenges. So what I love about entrepreneurs specifically, and why I think I'm going to hopefully stay with working with these guys for a long period is number one, I just like the mindset of an entrepreneur. You know, an entrepreneur is relentless. You know, they take a lot of risks. 

You know, they put themselves, sometimes they put themselves last because they want to ensure that everything else goes well in their life, you know, their family life goes well, they want their company to work well, and they take a lot of responsibility on their shoulders. And that's something that I very much, uh, you know, aspire to within my value system too. So that was just a lot of crossovers. I really liked with that. And I think as well, one of the people that struggle the most with their health is entrepreneurs, right? It can be very lonely to be running a business. It can be very lonely to have all of these challenges and 

Usually the first thing that goes, you know, put to the back seat is your health, right? Because you're doing all of these things. So actually trying to help people that are in a very bad position, potentially. And also people that I relate to a lot is a big reason as to why I think I'm working with entrepreneurs now. 

Ted Ryce: Yeah, yeah, interesting journey. I have a different journey because I was young and dumb at 22 years old in Miami Beach. And then these guys just hired me because I was in shape and I was around them. And then it kind of dawned on me later. And one other thing, I mean, I don't want to get into this too much, but one other thing is, and I say this on the podcast.  

One of the, in my opinion, one of the things that is causing the obesity issue in a place like the United States., I don't know about the UK or Canada, or even though I've had some clients from there, but if you have a lot of financial stress on you and you're trying to get in shape. Maybe this isn't the podcast to listen to. Do you have any thoughts on that? 

Oliver Anwar: Yeah, I think when under financial, you could say stress, it's very difficult to, you know, make healthy decisions. Cause I think the first, your first priority is survival. And, you know, you just want to ensure you've got enough money coming in and health kind of gets taken to the wayside. Right. And another thing with that is, is around education. 

So there's always, there's also not enough sometimes access to people that maybe not got the finances to get the education, to understand a lot of the things that are happening in regards to nutrition, in regards to, you know, fitness, and you might be following like the mainstream news when it comes to health, right? Which we all know is absolutely terrible if you've, you know, listened to the government say over the past few years and, you know, some of their kind of health advice, right? So, no, I can relate to that. I think that it can be definitely challenging. 

Ted Ryce: Yeah, it's a major stressor. And if it's something that you don't have a lot of control over and it's you're always focused on it. That was a big issue for me when I was, when I started my online business, I was hired a personal training and it was super stressful. And I ended up stress eating and I got a little chunky in my mid-thirties. 

It was a great experience. Had to, I ended up learning a lot from the experience, but one of the re one of the things was that it's like you, again, it goes back to that conversation we were having earlier, making sure, you know, should you be, if you're struggling to pay the bills, should you be shooting for 15% body fat and getting jacked, probably not the best idea, best goal for you, um, although it could work, but just for the people who I think end up tuning in who, you know, I say, Hey, this is for entrepreneurs, high achievers, but inevitably people of all types come to listen. So just, I think it's a good message just to reiterate and say, make sure you're targeting the source of your stress. 

And if it is financial in nature, then maybe listening to Ramit Sethi or, you know, someone like that might be a better fit for you, and then come back to bigger health goals. And I mean, you should care about your health and focus on your health because it'll help you solve your financial problems.  

Certainly, that helped me, and I know it helped you too. In fact, I want to ask you about that next, but just being more clear about what your source of stress is, what your triggers are for eating, and if it's financial in nature, you can't just listen to a guy like Oliver or me and expect the strategies to work in the context of a really stressful life. So back to you, Oliver, you have this great story that you've told multiple times. In fact, you've showed a photo of yourself stocking vending machines in the UK and then getting into fitness. Tell us the story of that transition you made. 

Oliver Anwar: Yeah, great. This is an interesting story. So I was, uh, as I mentioned now, I was working in central London for a big corporation, and, uh, I was at the point where I was actually miserable of doing it because I was kind of doing a 12-hour day, I was then commuting back, um, working on what I have now, which is my business. I just actually started it because, uh, you know, I wanted to begin, uh, you know, running a business and what happened was I was just drinking too much alcohol. I was really stressed. I wasn't sleeping well. 

And because I was so busy, I was really just shutting myself off from a lot of intimate relationships as well. Uh, you can say I was probably quite lonely at this point. And there was one kind of scenario that I remember where I was looking over like the London and, uh, on my balcony and had a few drinks and I just put my head on my hands and I was just miserable. Like I said to myself, I'm miserable. What am I doing? Right.  

So. I was miserable, but I was also young and naive. And what I said to myself was, I don't want to do this anymore. I'm sick of this situation. So I handed my notice in, and like two, three months later, I left my kind of corporate job to basically go out on my own and build a business and start freelancing because I knew the corporate life wasn't where I wanted to be.  

So fast forward about three months after this, I didn't progress as fast as I could with my business, and the freelance work actually started drying up. And I got to the point where I was basically broke. My next month of rent, I was struggling to pay because I wasn't having enough money coming in. 

At this point, luckily, one of my friends had a vending machine business, and he was like, "Hey man, you know, if you need some cash, I can help you out. All you need to do is, you know, you pick up this van at 4 am and you drive it around the south of London to all the warehouses, all the bus stations. And you basically just put chocolate bars and crisps into vending machines and coffees. And, you know, I'll pay you a day rate for that." 

The exact opposite of what I do now. Right. So, I mean, at the time, unfortunately, I was, I was broken. I needed the money. So, so I did it. And this was a really transformational period, right? Because I was waking up at like 3.45 in the morning, doing 12 hours of driving a van around and filling vendor machines, finishing up at 4 p.m., going to the gym training because I wanted to be fit and healthy and then running my business until like the early hours of the morning, then waking up after four hours sleep and then kind of doing this again. And man, it just built so much character in me to do that for the time that I did. And... 

Luckily, what happened after I'd kind of stuck at it for a while is my business started picking up, I started getting some traction, and I was unable to leave the vendor machine kind of role as much as I obviously loved doing that and all that kind of stuff. And then, uh, you know, ended up being able to run my business. And I think this is just a good lesson in perseverance, sticking at it, putting in the reps, you know, going through adversity and having a really strong North star to say whatever challenges that I'm going to go through, I'm going to get through it. 

And I've got the character and determination to do that because the future is going to be more prosperous. And it has seemed to work out quite well now, now that I'm doing what I love, helping people with their health and things like that. So yeah, that's like the interesting story of the vending machine that happened. 

Ted Ryce: Yeah, thanks for sharing. And I have an interesting story that I've shared, and I won't go into the full details, but when I was a personal trainer and struggling with growing my business on the side, my online business, I was listening to the War of Art by Steven Pressfield, just like professional sit down and do the work. They don't care how they feel. They sit down and do the work. They do what they need to.  

And I just had to brainwash myself into making the shift from, I was going to all these seminars for trying to get better at training and nutrition, but I really struggled with the business aspect and maybe still do in some ways. And what I wanted to ask you is what helped you get through that period? Were you listening to books? Did you have a coach? Who or what helped you to get through the four hours of sleep and long days of working and spending that extra time growing your business. 

Oliver Anwar: It's a really good question. No one's ever asked me this. And one of the things that I was doing whilst I was, you know, driving these vending machines is, you know, I'd have like headphones in as I was driving, listening to podcasts. And there was one guy who has a podcast called Mark Coles, and he's a, like a coach to personal trainers and online coaches in the UK. He's, he's quite well renowned, and every single day I would put on one of his podcasts. 

I think he's got like hundreds of episodes, and I'd be listening to this, these podcasts while I was driving from site to site on how to build your online training business, right? Every single day I would put this in and I would listen to it. And like when I was underslept and I was feeling like shit and I hated doing what I was doing, I would listen to his podcast and keep giving me this fire every day to be like, look, like this isn't what you're going to be doing long-term. This is temporary. We know what your goal is long-term. It's to be a health coach and an online trainer. And that really got me through it, which is quite interesting. 

Ted Ryce: Yeah. And I think the big lesson here, and maybe other people do it differently, but for me, and I'm hearing the same thing from you, if you want to make a big change in your life, you need a big investment. And if you're not able to hire a coach, I mean, I work with a business coach now. I know you've worked with coaches, business coaches as well, but you have to invest. 

 You have to brainwash yourself for success. And you talk about this a lot on Twitter, as do I. It's like, if you have to look at the messages that are coming in and is this helping you? Is the viral rage video or the political talk or your favorite team winning, is that, it's not that you can't do any of it, but what I hear from you and the same thing happened with me, I really had to just brainwash myself to get to that next level. And I, in my case, and I'm curious about what you feel, I would have never made it. Because I feel like I had these habits in mind, I had this habit, or this mindset, and these habits that went along with it. And for me to become a different person, it was I had to be relentless. What are your thoughts on that? 

Oliver Anwar: I love that. And I share exactly the same mindset. And you mentioned the word relentless. I love that book by Tim Grover. If no one's read that or listened to it, it's really good. But man, I was obsessed, right? I was obsessed. I was filling the vending machines. When I wasn't filling the vending machines, I was listening to podcasts. 

And you know, when I got home, I was going straight to the gym to work on my craft of building my body. And then what I would do is I'd go and I'd put out content and I'd do all of that kind of stuff. I also had a podcast at the time as well, which isn't currently running, but I was interviewing people on the podcast as well, after a 12-hour day to try and get my name out there, to market myself. I was just like, there was no way in my mind that I was not going to be in the position that I'm in today. That's the way that I looked at it.  

There was no way that I was going to let that happen. And I think if you've got a big enough drive and like you, you're willing to just be completely obsessed with it, you'll pave your own way for success. I do truly believe that. And that applies to business. I think that also applies to your body as well. If you're willing to persevere as hard as possible. Like there is no doubt that that's probably going to happen. Yes, there could be some luck involved. Don't get me wrong, but I think the biggest thing is having that drive to really want to make it happen.  

Ted Ryce: agreed. In fact, you and I, we both hop on calls with potential clients to assess that because if someone really wants it, but they're not willing to do the work to get it because you know, it's like, Oh, it would be nice to be a millionaire or have an eight-figure business or to whatever the goal might be. 

We all have wants, but what are you willing? Like, do you have that fire that this needs to be done? Because if it's just I feel like the clients who really create the biggest transformations. And I think I should do a better job of sharing this because you know, you and I, I feel like the whole coaching industry, we put up our best transformations and it's hard to get into the nuance on something like Twitter or Instagram, but on this podcast, we can get into the nuances.  

And for me, the people, I'm thinking of, one client right now, he listened to my podcast for five years and then joined and crushed it. Lost 50 pounds in a year. He is 52 years old, never been as lean as he is now in his entire life. But if you're, if people ask me sometimes like well, what's the secret and I'm like, well look at all the checks, right? He's tracking his calories. He's hitting his workouts, he's doing all that.  

And then they ask a level deeper, well, you know, where does he find the motivation for that? And the answer was he was sick and tired and fed up. So my question to you, Oliver, in your experience of coaching, how do you see the results of the clients versus their motivation level? What do you have to offer in terms of insight into that? 

Oliver Anwar: It's a really, really good question. And I think the most important thing here is understanding, and this is what we do, is understanding the why of the reason a client wants to make a change. So this is one of the first things that we do and it has to be an emotional thing. It has to be a why because as much as people say they need to be in shape, not really. Right? Everything is a one, right? 

You want to be in shape because you want to be healthy for your family, or you want to not feel embarrassed when you take your shirt off or, you know, you want to be able to be there for your kids, right? 

You might say, okay, we need that, but from a need survival point of view, that's not really it. It's all about what you want and why you want it. And I think when we dial into that with a client and a prospect, we get a really good idea of what is going to be driving them. And when kind of obstacles come in the way, it's all about rerouting everything, not back to how they feel, not back to the stress that's going on today because we all have stuff going on and stress. It's about why you're doing this. You're doing it. 

When your kid comes up to you and says, I don't want a belly like that. He never says that again. Or, you know, when you get older, you don't have to go and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in hospital bills because, you know, you're in completely terrible health, right? That's a thing that you really don't. That's your why.  

Or maybe it's you being at your son's wedding because that is going to be one of the most important things for you in 10 to 20 years, and you know, if you're not in good health, you're not going to get there, right. And you're not going to see that day. So, the why with our clients is really important.  

And we really dial into that because when times get tough, we bring that up to the client and say, well, this is why you're doing it. Come on, man. This is why we're doing it and why you're doing it. So, let's keep that as a focus point. And you don't need any more discipline. You don't need any more motivation because that why should be strong enough for you to push through with obviously our help. 

Ted Ryce: And what if they don't feel like it is strong enough? Have you ever had a case where you helped them go through that? 

Oliver Anwar: Yeah, I mean, yeah, so it takes a lot of digging. And I think what we kind of do, and this is through a lot of the prospects that we do and like the onboarding is getting like a real good sense of a why for people. And sometimes it doesn't come out straight away, right? Sometimes it doesn't happen and we have to dig a little bit deeper into that. And that's why we try to show that we really care about our clients and we really give a damn about their results. 

But also it's about showing them that we care, like caring about a prospect is going to allow them to open up more. And that sometimes means that we have to be really honest with our clients, right? So if they're messing up themselves and they know that they're doing it, sometimes part of love is being really tough with them and saying like, listen, man, like you're not doing the right things. 

You're not following it. This isn't why it's working. And that's on you. We're willing to support you, but this is on you to basically get your get your act together, right? And having a lot of people have not been spoken to in that kind of way before, right? They've not been told directly that they're not doing the right thing. And if prospects hear that, they're actually like, shit, this is what I needed. This is what I needed to actually kind of get me going along with the why. So yeah, I hope that's going to answer your question. 

Ted Ryce: Yeah, so you break out the tough love. Can you give an example of like, if you can remember a time, like what did you say to them? What were they saying? What did you say to them? 

Oliver Anwar: Yeah. So we've had a couple of scenarios where clients will come to us, and they'll be like, "Hey man, I'm just, I'm not getting the results that I want." So they might have a body composition goal and they're not losing their weight. You know, they're not dropping the weight. And, you know, they're like, "I really wanted to see the results, but it's not happening." So I say, "Okay, cool. So let's, let's break down like exactly what you're doing." And they'll be maybe tracking their food correctly. They'll be doing their workouts, but it comes to fruition that the weekends are a time when they fall off, right? So they go out and they end up drinking, and they're like, "Well, I followed the plan properly. I've done all of the workouts, you know, your plan obviously doesn't work." And I'm like, "Well, hang on a minute. Like you've been going out on the weekend. 

You've just mentioned that in the past three weekends, you've been drinking alcohol. Do you know how many calories that is and how that will impact your fat loss goal that you want to achieve, right? Because, you know, this guy had the goal to get very, very lean, and he was like, 'Well, yeah, I've been going out and drinking.' So it was highlighting the fact that because he was going out and drinking, he was doing all the great stuff." 

"It didn't matter because that was the thing that was scuppering his progress. And he felt it was the plan, but really he had to look internally and needed someone to tell him that it was the nights out and the drinking that was affecting his progress. So that was a bit of an interesting one that we had to address. 

Ted Ryce: Was he not tracking the alcohol when he was out?  

Oliver Anwar: Yeah. So, he was drinking a bit more than he thought that he was. So, he said that he would only have a few drinks, but we went specifically into, okay. It was a few beers, but then it was going out and having a bit of this and a bit of that. And a few extra drinks, a bit of cocktails and all of that really does add up. So, we broke that down, and then he understood that it was his drinking habits that were causing him to not lose the body fat.  

Ted Ryce: Yeah, and I think an important point here, and this goes with alcohol, but also with stress too, you think you're doing everything right, but you don't remember, that's the problem with alcohol. And it also happens with stress. I had a client who was telling me, "Oh, I'm doing, oh man, I'm eating right, I'm doing this, I'm doing that, I'm doing everything right." I'm like, "Great, I don't see you tracking though. So, tell me, what did you eat three nights ago for dinner?" 

"I don't remember." So, you're telling me that you're doing everything right because you remember everything that you're doing. But then I just asked you what you ate for dinner three nights ago and you don't remember. So, do you see the problem there? And he was like, "And I think the same thing is true with alcohol. I'm sure you have a client you drink, Oliver, and I'll have a couple of drinks. I started drinking more when I went to Europe.  

It's really if you have this habit of drinking, you have to be extra on the ball when you're on top of your calories because it can easily turn into, 'Well, how many drinks down? I'm pretty sure it was only three, right?' No, it was five or and then there were some chicken wings or pizza or something else. So great. Great point there. Thanks for sharing.  

We're coming up on time, but I really enjoyed this conversation with you because it's about how we're working with people instead of, you know, a listicle of cool-sounding health hacks that are, you know, going viral on social media, but they're not really creating the 80% of results based on what our habits should be.  

So if you're interested in learning more about Oliver and his coaching, go to www.fitnessforentrepreneurs.com/book    

Oliver, what are you hoping that? Someone listening right now will take away from you being on the show today? 

Oliver Anwar: Great question. So, I think the big takeaway here is when things aren't working, look at yourself. Look at every single habit and be as self-aware as you can around what's going on because I think the answer to your problem is going to be the majority of the time within you, especially with your health and something that you may not have picked up on or you're not always aware of that's causing you to not get the results that you want and maybe holding you back. So that would be my take for today. 

Ted Ryce: Thanks so much, Oliver. Appreciate you. Appreciate your time. And it's always fun to talk to a fellow coach on the show. 

Oliver Anwar: You too, man. Appreciate you having me on again. 

Ted Ryce: Absolutely.