Paul J Salter

87 – Paul Salter

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[00:00:00] Tony Winyard: Habits & Health episode 87.

[00:00:15] Tony Winyard: Welcome back to Habits & health. My guest today, Paul Salter, who’s a registered dietician. And sustainable weight loss expert since 2013 he’s personally coached over 1500 women to lose 20 plus pounds and keep it off without feeling like they’re dieting. So we talk about how he’s done that. How his approach is different to most of the weight loss programs that there are. And we talk about weight loss in general. Why the vast majority of the time, why it doesn’t work. And also about his book, the 5% way and the 5% way podcast. So that’s Paul Salter today’s episode. Hope you enjoy it. If you know anyone who would really benefit from some of the value that Paul talks about, and probably they’d really value from his book. Please do share this episode with them

Okay. Habits, &. Health.

My guest today Paul Salter. How are you?

[00:01:12] Paul Salter: I am doing well. How are you?

[00:01:14] Tony Winyard: I’m much better. Much better considering what you’ve been going through over the last sort of recent period. You’re very smiley.

I try to always find the positives. Yes. So that’s my.

[00:01:25] Tony Winyard: Do you wanna explain to our listeners what I mean by that?

Yes. So I’m in Tampa, Florida and we had the pleasure of welcoming Hurricane Ian into our area last week. And fortunately for us in the Tampa area, it ended up taking a last second turn and hitting the coast about two hours or a hundred miles or so. South of us, which was, incredibly devastating for that area, the Fort Myers area.

very sad. And we still got plenty of rain and wind, but came home after evacuating to minimal damage. Couple fences down, but nothing that couldn’t be quickly repaired.

[00:01:58] Tony Winyard: Wow. I imagine it must have been pretty nerve-wracking at one point when you’re not sure if it’s gonna come towards you or.

[00:02:06] Paul Salter: Yes, it’s like this, collective freak out takes place amongst everyone in the area. So the grocery stores are raided, people are fleeing inland or north as far as possible, and it just creates this unnecessary level of panic and chaos. And yes, these storms can absolutely be incredibly devastating, but they usually are best navigated with a sense of calm intention and direction. So some people go that route. Others take a bit more of a chaotic, unpredictable route.

[00:02:33] Tony Winyard: I guess that’s just human nature in general?

[00:02:35] Paul Salter: Exactly what it is.

[00:02:38] Tony Winyard: Okay. So Paul, you are a registered dietician and a sustainable weight loss expert, so tell me more about that.

[00:02:45] Paul Salter: Absolutely. So very fortunate to work in all aspects of the nutrition and diet industry over the years, ranging from those on the brink of bariatric weight loss surgery to those on the brink of an Olympic gold medal. Elite, collegiate professional athletes, and then everyday individuals, men, women, parents, fathers, sons, and in between.

[00:03:04] The Diet Industry

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[00:03:04] Paul Salter: And for me, throughout my life, I have always just been incredibly perplexed how the diet industry really just facilitates yo-yo dieting and diet hopping. And it’s really become clear to me over the last few years in particular that the diet industry. I hate to say this really just does not care about the individual and is much more concerned about the amount of money in their bank account.

And as a result, you can see that’s reflected by the, overarching push. This is a very big generalization. Let me be very clear here. It doesn’t apply to everyone in this industry, but there’s always this push for quick restrictive approaches, promising fast results. basically providing a band-aid over a bullet wound, and it just leads to someone making incredible results in a short period of time.

Not being able to sustain them because of the restrictive and un individualized approach taken. They regain all the weight, if not a little bit more, they find themselves even worse off. So they repeat the process and now the diet industry has a lifelong repeat customer. So I have felt it is my obligation to forge a different path and to help show people that there is a way to achieve significant sustainable weight loss, but it’s not through only overly focusing on nutritional Xs and Os. There is an emotional component, a mindset component, and a behavioral component as well.

[00:04:29] Tony Winyard: There’s so much to dig into to what you’ve just said. And one of the things I would say amazes me is how they’re able to get away with this. Like companies like Weight Watchers they’re all over the world as far as I’m aware and they’re just taking people’s money and people really believe this is gonna work for them.

And it’s so sad. I’ve got friends now I see on Facebook and at the moment they’re really happy because they’ve been losing all this amount of weight over the last couple of months. One part of me really want to say to them, Yeah, but what’s gonna happen in a few months time And what and how is this gonna be sustained?

And, but I just shut up cuz I know I don’t want to kill their joy that they’ve got in the moment.

[00:05:04] Human Psychology

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[00:05:04] Paul Salter: Yeah, and I think it’s, part of it I will say is just incredible expertise and awareness on human behavior and human psychology by the big diet industry. And part of it comes back to our biology and, we can take the blame in that, we are wired. For laziness, and what I really mean is efficiency, effectiveness, taking the path of least resistance.

So if you tell me, I can just follow this plan blindly to a T for 30 days and drop 30 pounds, and I’m in a place where I am desperate, unhappy, overweight, frustrated, maybe borderline depressed, like you’re selling me quick results, I want nothing more than to get the heck out of my current situation. So absolutely, sign me up.

Here’s my credit card, let’s go. But as you alluded to, That’s very short-term happiness us.

[00:05:52] Tony Winyard: So when was it that you realized the conventional approach just isn’t working and what did you decide to do differently?

[00:06:00] Paul’s journey

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[00:06:00] Paul Salter: Yeah, so I had my own, journey. I was never overweight. Let me just be very clear about that. But I had my journey into natural body building and I became very meticulous with my nutrition, more or less using myself as a Guinea pig I was as I was going through my undergraduate and my graduate studies.

[00:06:17] Natural bodybuilding

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with natural body building, the literal goal is to get down to single digit body fat percentage to be unsustainable and borderline unhealthily. intentionally for a short period of time, and then you come out of it the appropriate way. But I found myself, the leaner I got, I was more obsessive over food.

[00:06:35] Paul Salter: But when I had competed and then turned back to just wanting to resume this, sense of normalcy and I throw that word around loosely. I was absolutely lost. I had no idea what to do. I had just worked so hard for 22 weeks meticulously measuring my food, declining social occasions, controlling every aspect of the controllables, and it wasn’t sustainable.

So what happened? I naturally began to regress to what I knew best, which was, inconsistency out of whack, old eating Habits. And if we take this, there’s immense transferability to the everyday dieter who can do anything for 30, 60 or 90 days when motivation is high and emotions are strong.

But inevitably, when we reach this point of burnout, our body is going to regress to get us back into an area of comfort and familiarity. So we regress to those Habits. Led us to being unhappy or frustrated in the first place. So for me, I went through this meticulous phase of, trying to break up with or quit my Fitness Pal on and off.

Then I would write all my food that I was eating down by hand in a journal every day, and it just became so emotionally and mentally draining trying to measure and manage every macronutrient I ate that I just started taking an approach. Can I eyeball this? Can I actually start to trust myself because I had the insight for whatever great reason. already accumulated, tens of thousands of repetitions of weighing and portioning food. I knew what, six houses of protein looked like, or 50 grams of carbs. I didn’t need to be overly meticulous in, in this, perfectionist at this. So I started to trust myself and as I took one little baby step outside my comfort zone, I learned a little bit and then I would take a little bit more.

And as I slowly took a baby step. Consistently, that consistency bred competency, it bred confidence. And now of a sudden I had created this positive cycle of I’m taking a step out of my comfort zone. I’m reinforcing this new skill, I’m feeling more confident. Therefore, I desire to keep repeating the behavior.

Cause that’s bolstering feelings of confidence. So for me, it really boiled down simplifying how I, attacked and approached managing my portions and doing so in a way that was flexible and didn’t require this, macronutrient, calculus at the end of every day to hit these perfect portion goals.

[00:08:55] Weight Watchers

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Yeah, as you were saying that there’s a couple of clients I’m working with at the moment who. They’ve come to me and they’re on, I suspect they’re working with weight Watchers. They haven’t said who they’re working with, but they’ve been telling me about had they been told that they can only eat this amount of fat and this amount of carbs and this amount of protein, and the carbs is three times the amount of protein and it’s 1300 calories a day.

and it’s, I don’t want to despirit them. Yeah, it’s difficult and they’re so at the moment, there are, in the early stages of working in this company, I’m thinking, if you really believed in this company, why have you come to me? Because I don’t think you really believe in this company.

[00:09:32] Tony Winyard: Otherwise, you wouldn’t have come to me in the first place.

[00:09:34] Paul Salter: I agree with that and I encounter similar situations all the time where someone has a coach, but they’re engaging in conversation with me, and I always have to say Hey, you invest in your coach. Like I am not going to go against, like I am defaulting to your coach right now. Should you terminate that relationship, then we can have a deeper discussion.

So once you realized, what you were saying just a few minutes ago, and how then did you go about creating something that would help other people how were people receptive when you started working with.

[00:10:04] Structure

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[00:10:04] Paul Salter: Yes. So the way I like to explain it is, I am someone who still very much believes in the value of structure. So although I was able to transition away from reliance on measuring every bite of food I eat, I recognize that structure is an essential component to success in every aspect of life, whether that’s nutritionally, financially, career wise, whatever it may be.

really recognizing that the biggest challenge. So many people face when trying to improve their health, whether it’s the diet or the exercise realm is adherence to a plan. But if we can prioritize adherence, that’s what breeds consistency. And you and I both know it’s consistency over the long term that leads to the significant sustainable results.

[00:10:46] Paul Salter: So I had to do a really good job articulating, what are the. Most important factors to prioritize, to put adherence at the top of the list and through, tons of trial and error. Millions of conversations just repeating and fine tuning it ultimately boiled down to building an approach, not trying to find it, really creating it and taking ownership and empowerment that was unique to individuals.

Did they want to eat three times per day or six times per day? Do they want breakfast as soon as they wake up, or do they wanna wait four hours? It’s gotta be. It has to be simple. You don’t have to live in an app or write your food down every single day for the rest of your life. And it’s gotta be flexible because, you and I both work with parents, so sometimes the little ones make life unpredictable.

So there has to be a very strong element of flexibility. And what I realized over the years that is that from day one, not day 90, after they’ve lost weight, if we prioritize an approach that is. Is simple and is flexible that prioritizes adherence, which fuels those long-term sustainable results.

And if we do that from day one, we get better results and we get lasting results. And we’re able to break those down, of course, into further details about how we go about portioning food and measuring, daily allotments for whether it’s protein, carb spots cetera, but it’s all unique, simple, and.

[00:12:04] Handling expectations

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[00:12:04] Tony Winyard: And so how do you handle people’s expectations? Cuz people have this expect. And they’re gonna lose 20 pounds in the first week.

[00:12:11] Paul Salter: Yes.

[00:12:11] Tony Winyard: these crazy figures.

[00:12:13] Paul Salter: I can tell you that has probably been the hardest part of my job over the years, especially, I used, so I used to be a consultant for a company and a coach for a company called Renaissance Periodization. And I’ve had the privilege of working one on one and personally coaching over 1500 people over the last decade or so.

And I used to have this. Email that was like a drafted template that I would keep like fine tuning and improving every couple of weeks. But it was basically an email that shared like, Hey, Tony, for example, if you came to me with a goal of losing 30 pounds and 30 days and you’re eating 1200 calories per day, you’re eating Habits are shit, you’re inconsistent.

I would do a really good job articulating, here’s where you are, here’s where you want to be. In order to get to where you want to be we can’t just dive headfirst into a diet phase. That’s actually gonna prolong success and make things much more of an uphill battle. So I was really able to circumnavigate the conversation towards focusing on what I ended up calling the pre diet maintenance phase and dive into education about what you know physiological and psychological adaptations happen as a result of either chronic dieting, yo-yo dieting, or chronic restriction, and help them see the light that if we can put a pause on restriction.

[00:13:29] Paul Salter: Gradually begin eating more, we put ourselves in a better position to lose significant sustainable weight down the road. So naturally that’s a tough sell when you’re paying a coach to help you lose weight. And they’re telling you, we’re not gonna diet for one, two, maybe even three months, depending on the individual.

But even more importantly, I then had to convince them, plenty of positive change can still happen, and then having to help them understand and recognise. We can look for progress here, See results here. That has absolutely nothing to do with this scale. Though as a result of prioritizing adherence, like we just talked about.

The scale often did trickle down a little bit as well as an additional level of progress in results.

[00:14:09] Tony Winyard: I can imagine when one part of what you just said initially, you’re gonna eat more, There must been horrified.

[00:14:16] Paul Salter: Yes. And I had to even in started including the end,I fully respect your decision. If you wanna refund, now is the time for it. But, this is my professional opinion after having worked with X number of people. And, it’s really up to me in the coach in that position, that’s your moment to really build trust, position yourself as the credible expert and more important.

Show them a path with a why and an explanation every step of the way. If you can share the why behind everything that you’re doing with your client, both in the short and the long term, they understand why we’re doing something which helps them navigate the tough out of comfort zone experiences that are inevitable with change.

so you started working with people and how long ago was it, you started this plan or this way of working with.

oh man. I guess technically it’s been since 2011, so

[00:15:02] Tony Winyard: in the last 10, 11 years, actually, you’ve clearly, you’ve worked with a lot of people since then, so I imagine you must have so many testimonials and so on to how this has been working for people.

[00:15:13] Paul Salter: absolutely.

[00:15:14] Tony Winyard: So apart from just helping them lose weight, they’re almost certainly gonna be getting healthier as well.

[00:15:22] Regaining health, not just losing weight

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[00:15:22] Paul Salter: Absolutely. And not even in just, predominantly physical health. And one of the big teaching points I try to harp on is my priority with any new client or community members. Yeah. So we’re gonna take care of their nutrition, just how I outlined and get them a nutrition framework up and running.

But it’s gonna be so unique, simple and flexible, and we’re gonna prioritize how to understand and comfortably and confidently execute it early on, that ultimately in a very short time, we free up both mental and emotional energy to be able to do some of the deeper work. looking into what does your self talk sound like?

What are what? What is your word choice on a daily basis look like? What beliefs do you have about yourself? What stories are you telling yourself? And really through that type deep work, emotional intelligence, awareness, and management. We’re able to help these individuals truly accelerate, their growth in the level of confidence, trust, and love they have for themselves.

And that naturally reinforces the positive diet and exercise changes that they were technically working for as a priority number one when they first started. Because when you begin to feel really good and speak kindly to yourself, Both consciously and subconsciously, you seek out more behaviors that reinforce that, such as eating well and exercising regularly.

[00:16:41] Tony Winyard: Wow, this is so much more than just losing weight. Isn’t it

[00:16:44] Paul Salter: A hundred percent. a thousand percent.

[00:16:46] Tony Winyard: I wanna go back to something you said about 10 minutes ago. So you talked about natural body building. I think it was. So can you expand on.

[00:16:54] Paul Salter: Yes. So this was, for me, this was between 2011, 2012, and maybe even 2013. So natural body building just means, simply for every, competition, you are drug tested polygraphed. There’s no performance enhancing drugs whatsoever. It’s just. the combination of someone’s work ethic, genetics, of course, their diet, their exercise consistency, and very much consistency over the long haul.

So for me, I competed at a weight class that was probably about 20 pounds lower than I traditionally was sitting at that point in my life. So it required me to really tackle an arduous diet and to really push those extra few pounds off to get to that level of leanness. Is an entirely separate mental and emotional and physical beast.

Then the dieting that you and I are predominantly speaking.

[00:17:45] Tony Winyard: So when people come to, for this program that you’re helping people with now, and I presume exercise is an element of this or a component of this, do you. I guess it depends on what the person prefers as to what you recommend them to do or how do you go about the exercise component.

[00:18:02] Paul Salter: So that’s a great question. I actually don’t do any individualized exercise program. I will work with that individual to make sure they have found an approach that a, they enjoy, cuz that’s the most sustainable form out there. And I’ll give big picture feedback. So for example, if someone has some very strong physique or body recomposition goals, , but doesn’t have any resistance training in their routine.

I’m gonna be the one that says, Hey, I recommend at least a minimum of two resistance training workouts a week, focusing on, compound lists, these set and rep ranges, et cetera. And I give a lot of guidance and general feedback, but I don’t do any of the individualized prescription and plan building anymore, even though I used to.

[00:18:42] Paul Salter: It’s just not quite as exciting to me as it once was compared to more of the mindset, the belief work, the emotional work, and of course the nutritional.

[00:18:52] Tony Winyard: So the question I’m gonna ask you now is a bit like how long is a piece of string, but when you’re working with people, is there a typical timeframe this will take?

[00:19:02] Paul Salter: For that kind of total transformation. I would say it happens in stages, so II would break it down into four phases.

[00:19:10] The 4 Phases

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[00:19:10] Paul Salter: The first is that if someone truly is all in and surrenders and is open-minded to being coachable and doing things differently, they’ll begin not to recognize themselves in 30 days.

Their self-talk will be drastically changing. they’re just awareness about the beliefs and stories that have been holding them. Will be drastically different. Then of course some of their behaviors will be different. Come three months. That’s usually the time between month two and month three, where someone has spent enough time away from dieting and made so many mindset and emotional and behavioral changes will begin to dive into a diet phase.

So at that point, there may be a month into or just beginning a diet at the three month mark, they’re physically feeling and seeing a difference, whereas about the six month mark at that. They have likely completed a pre diet maintenance phase, an actual diet phase in our, in what we like to call their post diet maintenance phase.

And they are just a drastically different woman. And then you just compound that another six months so that by a year later you don’t recognize that person. The way they carry themselves, the way they speak with confidence, clarity, energy, and enthusiasm is all in a night and day difference from the time that we met them.

So there’s, like I said, four key phases there where we see the biggest amount of change.

[00:20:27] Tony Winyard: And is it mostly just women you’re working with or guys as well?

[00:20:31] The clients Paul works with

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[00:20:31] Paul Salter: So my primary area of focus called the 5% community is 100% with women. I do work with a couple men in a one on one capacity, but most of what I do is with women.

was there a reason behind that?.

the weight loss industry is primarily composed of women for, a multitude of reasons. And that, as I looked at my stats way back when I was so heavily involved in the one-on-one coaching, I had about 90% of it my clients who wore women. So I was fortunate enough to be incredibly studious myself and learned a tremendous amount from these women began to fully understand their pain points, their frustrations, their challenges, and I just, through so many repetitions in so many years have really developed a way of communicating, relating, coaching, and articulating and holding accountable women.

[00:21:19] Tony Winyard: So are you doing this just on your own or have you got people working with you? How does it often work?

[00:21:25] Paul Salter: Yeah, so I have a small team behind me consisting of, our community success and happiness manager and a couple other key pillars within our community itself. And. We’re able to really make sure that we give every single community member the utmost individualized attention, accountability, coaching calls, et cetera.

we really take the approach of never wanting someone to feel lost in a sea of many, despite having a technically one to many or one to community model. Because I’ve been there before, I’ve been part of coaching communities and groups where I just feel lost. My voice isn’t heard, my needs aren’t concerns.

[00:22:00] Paul Salter: If I have a problem, I, I’ve never, you. Never really informed about what the answer is or how to solve it. And we do an excellent job between, there’s the four of us really working hard to serve our community on making sure everyone’s needs are met.

[00:22:13] Tony Winyard: Community is so important in doing something like this, isn’t it? And so could you, I’m thinking how to word this in the way that you, your community runs. I’m wondering how different it, it is from something like the way a Weight Watchers community would work if you are familiar with how that works.

I don’t know.

[00:22:31] The importance of community

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[00:22:31] Paul Salter: I have a little bit of knowledge, but I can share, more about ours of course. So what I, where I find the biggest value in community is when we are attacking a goal by ourselves. It’s very easy to succumb to feelings of isolation, loneliness, and hopelessness, and if we lose hope we’re a lost cause.

Whereas when we surround ourselves, in this case with like-minded women who can relate to our challenges, diet histories, and frustrations, we immediately can replace those feelings with hope, with inspiration, with relatability and support, and that is a potent combination to begin accelerating commitment, action, and ultimately results.

And just the synergy created when you know you can quickly feel someone understands where you’ve been. you’re a mother of two who is just getting back into your job after giving birth to your second child and you feel lost. You haven’t lost all the baby weight. And to quickly hear that five other women are right there with you, or a handful of others were just there six or 12 months ago.

Again, it helps reinstore that sense of hope. And whenever hope is present, anything is possible and a community really helps ensure that hope is always about.

[00:23:47] Tony Winyard: So is that community, online, physical? Both. How is it?

[00:23:51] Paul Salter: It’s online. We use the application called Slack, but we’re actually hosting our first ever in person event here in about two weeks and two days.

[00:23:59] Tony Winyard: Wow. What sort of numbers are you expecting?

[00:24:02] Paul Salter: So this will be a small, intimate turnout. There will be 12 of us here down in Tampa, Florida, and we are incredibly excited.

[00:24:09] Tony Winyard: Wow. I can imagine. So how do you see this developing in, in the near future, long term?

[00:24:15] Paul Salter: Yeah, we’re absolutely gonna continue to grow with the right people, and that’s been something that’s been a priority me for all the times. our investment and our expectations all are aligned. those people who are willing to really commit, do the work, are open for coachability and readiness.

Their readiness to change is a 10 out of 10. So continuing to grow with the right people is absolutely the goal here. And as we move forward and get bigger and bigger, it’s just, me trying to lead the charge of this movement that there is a better way to not only achieve sustainable weight loss, but to truly help every.

Feel, look, and be their best. But it starts with kind of a non-traditional backward approach compared to what the diet industry has taught us, and that is starting from the inside out with our mindset, self-talk beliefs, and our emotional intelligence.

[00:25:04] Apps and technology

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[00:25:04] Tony Winyard: So do you think there is any room for apps, wearables, technology? In helping people with these situations.

[00:25:12] Paul Salter: I think they can be great pieces of feedback, but they should be taken lightly, utilizing them more for their trends versus one off data points. for example, I wear an Oura ring. I absolutely love it for many reasons, but for those who do wear wearable fitness, you have to make sure that there’s a healthy amount of detachment from it.

So for instance, whether it’s the Whoop band, the Oura ring, like if you’re checking your score constantly, the very first second you wake up and you have, a bad score and that ruins your day. It sets the tone for your day. That’s, it’s not serving you well. So little tips and tricks, like waiting four to six hours before you review yesterday’s data can go a long way.

Maintaining control and detachment from the technology.

[00:25:58] Tony Winyard: So in your community, would you be able to estimate what kind of percentage of people are using any kind of wearable.

[00:26:06] Paul Salter: If I had to estimate not many, maybe between 33 and 50%.

Okay. And would that typically be the whoop in your, Fitbit, probably the Apple Watch or the Fitbit and I would even say maybe a higher number of people have some form, probably a watch variation, but outside of using it for steps and the occasional check in on sleep, I would say most people aren’t, someone like me who’s so detail oriented, aren’t using it for its full capability.

[00:26:36] Tony Winyard: So when people are, I forget these horrendous stats for people who are on a yo-yo diet. I think it’s 90% of me, I forget

[00:26:45] Paul Salter: 95% regain the weight within three years.

what do you think is the biggest mistake most of them are making?

[00:26:52] Paul Salter: Oh, if I had to boil it down to one,

[00:26:55] Tony Winyard: Or maybe a couple.

[00:26:57] The biggest mistakes people make when trying to lose weight

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[00:26:57] Paul Salter: Yeah. I think, so first and foremost, we’ve been conditioned and misled that we have to take these quick fix, unsustainable, restrictive approaches. part of it is just the social conditioning that we’ve been exposed to over the last couple of decades with, the diet industry.

But I think we’re all guilty of outsourcing some of the hard work rather than doing it ourselves. So like I mentioned earlier, human beings incredibly resilient, committed, and gritty when the right motivation is in place. But we both know motivation comes and goes, but it’s much easier just to blindly follow something for a short period of time.

Whereas if we stop. Slow down and look inward. That type of work is messy, uncomfortable, and chaotic, but it’s the most fulfilling and rewarding if we make it a priority. So I think we’re just all collectively guilty of trying to find an easy way out and a quick fix that continues to perpetuate this cycle of yoyo dieting and diet hopping.

[00:27:53] First Order Consequences – Ray Dalio

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[00:27:53] Tony Winyard: So I dunno if you’re familiar with Ray Dalio. So he’s got this quotation. In his book called Principles, and I’ll read this out and I’ll include this in the show notes cause it’s quite a long quotation, but "Principle 1.8; weight second and third order consequences by recognizing the higher level consequences nature optimizes for. I see that people who over-weigh the first order consequences of their decisions and ignore the effects of second and subsequent order consequences ,rarely reach their goals. This is because first order consequences often have opposite desirabilities from second order consequences. Resulting in big mistakes in decision making.

For example, the first order consequences of exercise () pain, and time spent) are commonly considered undesirable. While the second order consequences better health and more attractive appearance are desirable. Similarly, food that tastes good is often bad for you and vice versa. Often the first order consequences are the temptations that cost us what we really want.

And sometimes they are the barriers that stand in our way. It’s almost as though nature sorts us by throwing us trick choices that have both types of consequences and penalizing those who make their decisions based on the first order consequences alone. People who choose what they really want, and avoid the temptations and get over the pains that drive them away from what they really want, are much more likely to have successful lives."

And I realize that was an extremely long quotation and probably way too long for people to take all that in, which is why I’ll put that in the show notes. But I dunno if you’ve come across this before, but what are your thoughts?

I think he’s absolutely right. That’s an incredibly well articulated point. Yes, a bit lengthy, but I understand exactly what he means. You’re right, like it all comes down to what are we willing to sacrifice? What are we willing, what are we willing to be? Un how or how long are we willing to be uncomfortable for this, ultimate prize leveling up or destination?

[00:29:54] Paul Salter: And if it seems that you’re right or he’s absolutely correct that. Focus on the right consequences, and if we could reframe our thinking and ultimately adjust our reality of the timeline to complete or attain our goals, it would serve us all incredibly well.

[00:30:12] Being uncomfortable

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[00:30:12] Tony Winyard: But that usually involves being uncomfortable, and that’s not what people like.

we’re not wired for that. our whole body’s nervous system in particular is wired for homeostasis. So the minute we go outta whack, like just like when we diet, the moment we start dieting and restricting calories, our body begins fighting back to restore that sense of homeostasis.

So I mean you, you’ve got such a different approach, which is clearly working and. So much better than most of the, or 95, 99% of the models are around. Have you thought about putting this down into a book or anything along those lines,

[00:30:47] Paul Salter: I have recently started writing a book yes, that will very minimally touch on the nutritional aspect of what it takes to achieve sustainable weight loss and feel and look your best. So yes, you’re spot on there.

[00:31:01] Tony Winyard: and how long do you think this process is gonna take?

[00:31:04] Paul Salter: That’s probably 12 months out from that.

[00:31:07] Tony Winyard: And have you got like a publishing deal or anything?

[00:31:10] Paul Salter: No, not yet. I’m not sure what direction I’ll go. I’ve published two books previously, one self-published, and one with the company I was consulting for. And that, the self-publishing route is very easy, very cost friendly, minimal barrier to entry. So I’ll explore as the time gets closer, but I’m definitely going to send the pitch, the proposal out to multiple companies and see if there are any, biters.

And well, staying with the topic of books, is there a book that’s really moved you in any way?

[00:31:39] Paul’s recommended book

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[00:31:39] Paul Salter: So many, but I can tell you one of my most gifted books that had a very big positive impact on my life is called The Code of the Extraordinary Mind by Vishen Lakhiani and that one just really opened my eyes to how much I was getting in my own way. How much society had conditioned me to get into my own way, and really empowered me with a sense of awareness and, tangible tools to create my own life rather than just trying to hope I find it or stumble into it.

[00:32:11] Tony Winyard: And when did you read that?

[00:32:14] Paul Salter: I believe the first time I read that book, Was probably 2018 or 2019. 2019 maybe.

[00:32:23] Tony Winyard: And so when did you reread it?

[00:32:26] Paul Salter: Probably once a year. Ever since

[00:32:29] Tony Winyard: And it’s when there is a book that it moves us so much, you have to reread it, don’t you? It’s just, Yeah. And it’s fascinating when you go back and you start seeing, think, I don’t remember seeing this the first time I read this, because you were just in a whole different place, aren’t you? It’s.

[00:32:47] Paul Salter: Yeah. Yes. And that’s why, just like you said, I encourage people to reread books because you’re in different chapters or of your journey, so some things aren’t gonna stick, some things are gonna miss altogether, some things won’t make sense. But when you’re, six months or 12 months further into your journey, things will hit differently.

you’ll be able to better absorb and be open to them.

[00:33:04] Paul’s contact details

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[00:33:04] Tony Winyard: So if people wanna find out more about your 5% approach?

[00:33:07] Paul Salter: Yep. The 5% community.

[00:33:09] Tony Winyard: 5% community. So people wanna find out more about that and your social media website. So on where would they go?

[00:33:14] Paul Salter: Yeah, Instagram is the best place to connect with me at Paul Salter coaching. I’m there almost every day, and that’s the best way to really just get to know me, my personality, who I am as a human being, what I stand for, and I just invite you to come say hi.

[00:33:29] Tony Winyard: And finally, Paul, is there, have you got a quote that you like?

[00:33:33] Paul’s fave quote

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[00:33:33] Paul Salter: I’ve got many quotes, the one I’m really trying to dig into. Now I’m reading it right off My whiteboard above my computer is; Quality time off leads to quality time on. And I love that quote for many reasons. For me in particular, having a history of so much go and do, never slowing down to be and enjoy.

But I also think there is a sneaky, transferability to the diet industry. If you’re constantly, on diet, diet. You can never expect to fully reach your potential of achieving significant sustainable weight loss. So it’s the breaks the time off from dieting that allow you to truly achieve the physique you desire, the feelings you desire.

[00:34:11] Tony Winyard: So I’m wondering, when you first came across that, were you in a situation where you were just work, work,work? Is that, or how did that,

[00:34:18] Paul Salter: You know,this quote came across to mean only pretty recently, maybe within six to nine months. And it’s funny, for years from 2015 to 2021, I was working more or less probably 70 ish hours a week most of the time, and. I declared 2022 would really be a year about slowing down, and I already made some good strides in 2021, now I’ve almost reduced the time and amount I work by half and continuing just to really try to step into more being versus doing more playing versus trying to be productive for the sake of looking busy or being product.

Paul, this has been, I think this is gonna be so useful for many people that there is. There’s an approach that works when it comes to, to sustainable weight loss. So yeah, I, I urge people to go and check out Paul’s information and yeah, give Paul a call.

[00:35:10] Paul Salter: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. Take two was, even better than our first one, like we joked about, so I’m just grateful for this opportunity and the opportunity to just share this with all of your listeners. So thank you again.

[00:35:21] Tony Winyard: Thanks Paul.

Next week on Habits & health episode 88. Is with Shari Eberts and Gael Hannan. And we delve into the world of hearing. Shari is a passionate hearing health advocate. She’s an author and speaker on hearing loss issues. She’s the founder of living with hearing loss.com. which is a popular blog And an online community for people with hearing loss while Gael is also a hearing health advocate, she’s a writer and speaker performer who lives with profound hearing loss. She creates award-winning awareness projects that help people live more successfully with hearing challenges. So we get into some of the things about a hearing loss that. Most of the, I suppose you could say general public who don’t have hearing loss. Aren’t aware of the problems that, that people go through when they do have hearing loss, they’re wearing hearing aids and, many of the issues that people wouldn’t be aware of. And it’s also surprising how many people do have hearing loss. It’s quite astounding really. So that’s next week’s episode, Shari Eberts and Gael Hannan. Episode 88. If you know anyone who would get some value from this week’s episode, with Paul Salter please do share the episode with them. And hope you have a great week