Good morning, it's Friday. It's just another day though, just don't go mental tonight and then Saturday you couldn't change your complete personality because it's Saturday and Sunday that's not gonna help you if you want them to get stronger, healthier, stuff like that. That's the main thing I wanna get you over today, but I'm talk about a few studies actually that are gonna drive this point home. So in terms of studies, one of the most important ones I think is in 2012. We wanted to see, so researchers and stuff come out like there's an obesity problem, they're like what's the main problem?

They're like well, is eating out the main problem? Like are people just eating out and it's just impossible to lose weight if you eat out? So what they did was they did a study, they did an intervention and basically right let's do a study on a few people and see if we can educate people on tracking their macros and calories, give them a few pieces of homework to be like you know guess the calories in this meal and this meal. And for example I always use this example Bernando's large chips eleven fifty calories. Every time I say it, it blows my mind.

Just getting regular times two from Nando's is eleven fifty calories plus the chicken, plus maybe have a drink or dessert. Some people's calorie allowance especially if you're a female and you're shorter and you haven't got much weight to lose, it might be 1,500. So it nearly takes everything up and you think it's just chips though. So having us practicing mindful eating, they wanted to see in a study of being mindful when you're eating out the restaurants and pre planning is going right, I'm going to go here tonight, let's have a look at the menu and let me just ideally I want something nice I want to enjoy anyway. Let's have something high protein, let's pick this and I'll still enjoy this in restaurant but I've worked out that's the best one for me, some menus now have calories, just doing that.

Study showed, all the study wanted to do is see if they could maintain their weight. So these people who were obese didn't see if they maintained weight. What happened in the study was sixty nine percent of people lost 1.7 kilograms during the six weeks. So that's about three pounds in six weeks. So it's a decent amount to lose and they didn't reduce the amount of times they ate out.

And these are people that have had problems with losing weight for a while and the calorie difference on average is like 357 calories lower over the week. So just this like small tweak of actually saying to yourself, you know what I deserve to be a bit more mindful on my weekends because if I just do that small effort, I can not just hold on to the progress I've made throughout Monday to Friday, but actually still make some progress. You don't have to be in a deficit on weekends. You can be in a deficit in a week and go maintenance weekends. You don't have to always be in a deficit, but you deserve to be putting yourself in this position, putting all the hard work in the week and don't let weekends ruin all the work you've done.

And I always say, we say this in Turtle all the time, I don't know why in Britain but we think you either have to get lathered on weekend and eat everything, all the chips, the kebabs, or you're not living your life. Like there's no in between. It's like, you're a loser. It's like, well, no, no, I'll have a few pints made and I'll have some nice to eat, but I don't have to get wrecked because you want me to. And that doesn't make me, that doesn't mean I'm not enjoying my life.

I'm enjoying more by actually saying no to the shit you're trying to get me to drink and eat. And this is something that Socrates says, he says that there's more pleasure, I think it's Seneca, it says more pleasure in actually abstaining from something. There's more joy in saying no to something than the pleasure you get from just going along with it. And I think that's 100% true. The next day how much relief do you have?

You can still go out. You can still go out and drink. You can still do all these things. There's even studies that have shown they got men to drink two pints a day and they got women to drink one pint a day and they put them on a fitness plan. And it had no impact, zero impact on their fat loss and their performance or muscle gain, nothing having the moderate drink every day by the way and I was like a one pint whatever.

But when it comes to weekends, you can have a few what happens is the problem with alcohol is that, know, it's it's a toxin poison, whatever. It's when you go too far with it, then it can impair muscle recovery. You know, we did I did a study with rugby players over 4,000. Once people started drinking over a certain thresholds on the weekends would be as the injury rate flew up, their strength was lower, all the performance markers were lower, right, they were heavier and it's like it's just been too much, it's just always going too much and how many more weekends can you afford to go too much and too much and too much? How many more Mondays can you afford to be feeling 50% of who you are?

Just because John, we've probably run out of John's these days, are we? I don't know. Maybe it's because Mark, not Mark, my brother listening, could be a Gary telling you, go on Scott, have 10 no, no, what would you say? What would the boys say now? Yeah, go on, have a shot, shot, shot.

Okay, I'll have a shot. Yeah, I'll do one, yeah. No, make don't have pint, get another pint. Before you know it, you're like three or four extra pints down, three shots down and you're leathered, right, because I don't know why because someone's just told me to do it. And you think why have I just done that?

Do you know I mean? And I think I don't want you all to be thinking, I don't want you all to be wasting the work. So the first thing is, it is absolutely % possible, studies have shown it to lose weight and still eat out and enjoy yourself. Also, think of this as well. You go out to a restaurant, yeah, and there's someone on the menu you go, oh, yeah, like, that's a nice meal.

But should I have a dessert? I don't know. I really want that, but it's like the worst thing, you know, calories, but I do like that option as well. Let me tell you something. The next day you're never gonna think, oh shit I wish I had the worst option there for me and I wish I had the dessert and I wish I had like those three extra drinks.

Nobody in the world ever says that, they always go thank God I was moderate, thank God I didn't just like give in and over consume. Do you mean? That's what we say. Like people, you have to think of the next day, think of the next day and think, will I regret this? And go with your gut without because you got to say you will regret it, don't do it.

And then you have to have the guts to follow through with that decision. Okay, so that's one. Another interesting thing is about studies as well. It was a study, this is unbelievable where they showed that if you sit and you can see a bar, you drink more, like three drinks more on extra just because you're more in proximity of a bar versus when you're further away. They also showed that people who sit in by windows, yeah, eat less calories than people who sit in booths.

Do you know why this is? And this is obviously the human condition. Because when you buy the windows of a restaurant, you'd know some Sally might walk around the corner and see, oh, look who's there. Brenda's inside, what's she eating? Oh my god, she's on the big one, she's on the ribs, she's on the dessert, I can't wait to tell everyone.

And that people think, better eat to what people think I should, looks acceptable. So they're just doing their behaviors based on what they think someone's gonna, but when you're in the booth no one sees and they eat more calories. Study on it, crazy. We think we're so clever, are influenced by environment, by people so much more than we think. Another study in a hospital, they removed a bit of the sodas, they added more water bottles for sale in the fridges, they put more water baskets on the way to the till.

What happened after six months was water intake and sales went up 25.8% and the soda sales went down 11%. And they didn't tell anyone. They didn't tell anyone of these changes. They probably didn't even notice that their behavior was changed because the environment changed. They didn't know.

So when we think about these things, we're why don't we try and design an environment that is going to be more beneficial to us? One of the main things to do is the people we spend time with. The people we spend time with have a massive impact on what we do. It's mimetic behaviour. So you go to the bar, go, yeah, have a diet coke please, mate.

Your mate next to you goes, I'll have an espresso martini, please. And you go, yeah, actually I'll have an espresso martini. Happens all the time, happens all the time. So you have to, I think, I'm not saying be a saint on the weekends stuff because I'm not a saint on weekends. But I just want you to start being more aware of these things that happen because I want you to be in control of your life and not other people.

Do you know I mean? And I think looking at these things is important. And in terms of the behaviour stuff, obviously, when it goes to weekends, let's have a look at what we can do. We can make sure that we say no, and we act with moderation, make sure that we do still enjoy our weekends and not suffocate ourselves away from the world because that's not going to work because you end up spinging home. That's not going to work and understand that alcohol consumption, what's moderate to you, what is moderate in the studies is not bad.

It's what we do after we drink, we get lathered then we have kebab but then we wake up the next day consume 2,000 calories. If you are going out, the environment the next morning is important. Is there no food in the fridge for you to eat? Because if there isn't you're going go and deliveroo. And I got bad news for you, delivery has got a massive amount of calories for you and a massive bill that you're going to regret paying.

So what you want to do is go to the shop before you go out, fill your fridge with fruits, know, those local ice creams and ice, you know, like any meals you 're gonna prep ready, just have the food ready so you know exactly and I'll be fine. So we're gonna start building our lives to be easier for ourselves because we are dictated so much by other people and we have to sort it out. And the last thing I'm gonna cover is a study on sleep, okay. And this is important. So we talk about sleep, yeah you gotta get sleep and la la la, okay you gotta sleep eight hours a day, seven hours a day, right.

How the hell are we gonna do with Scotland? You keep saying I've got a husband next to me throwing his head off. Yeah. What I'm gonna do, well, first of all, kick him out of bed, obviously, get him out. But the next thing I'm gonna do is look at actually what's gonna impact our sleep, but actually behavior.

So the first thing is do not consume coffee like after three or 4PM because this stays in your system for like six to eight hours and it's gonna impact your sleep. Okay. That's simple but some people will do it. Even go just don't have coffee after 1PM. Just keep it safe so it doesn't impact you.

Okay. It's very simple. A lot of people break that rule. Reduce long naps, something I need to do like a thirty minute nap or less has been shown to actually increase or enhance brain function, give you a little bit of rest, a little siesta that's fine but if you go over that you start messing up with your rhythm and then you might struggle to sleep at night. So make sure if you're gonna nap stay around the twenty to thirty minute zone that's gonna help you.

The next one is interesting in this study was increase bright light exposure during the day. Go for your walks midday like go and go to the sun, okay, it's important. So it showed in a study in people with insomnia daytime bright light exposure improved sleep quality and duration, it also reduced the time it took to fall asleep by 83%. Another study in older adults found that two hours of bright light exposure during the day increased the amount of sleep by two hours and sleep efficiency by 80%. That's mental.

So are you look. The winter's coming as well. And there's there's some places in Norway. Yeah. There's, like, literally no daylight for, like, it's like an hour or something and people are depressed.

Of course, are. Not seeing the sun. So, guys, make sure that in the middle of the day, if you got your if you work, you go outside. Make sure the office is bright. I don't know.

Like, get that bright light in your life because it's that's those are huge numbers. If we're gonna ignore those numbers, what are we doing? So those numbers are huge. If you're struggling to fall asleep make sure in the middle of the day, hour, walk, get your windows open, get sun in, try and get your place nicer and brighter and let's see if that helps because what it does is it helps keep your, circadian rhythm healthy. That's what it's doing so it's like okay it's bright light, sun, peak of the day cool, I'm awake, I'm awake and then his nose later on it's gonna be sleep time.

So if we can get that going, I'm not confused, the brain actually is really dark, should I be sleeping? You know what I mean? If I stay in too much in the mornings I do end up napping but if I go out more I feel like I'm more alive and this just obviously makes sense but artificial bright lights and stuff can also happen in this scenario. Improve your bedroom environment of course. Numerous studies point out that external noise often from traffic can cause poor sleep and long term health issues.

In one study on the bedroom environment of women around fifty percent of participants noticed improved sleep quality when noise and light decreased. So blackout curtains, earbuds, headphones, whatever, put them relaxing, comfortable. Simple, but are you doing it? Do you have blackout curtains if not buy some? Another thing take a relaxing bath or shower about ninety minutes before bed.

When a study showed taking a hot bath before improved sleep quality and how people get more deep sleep. Obviously we know this so shower before bed maybe is the answer ninety minutes before. Exercise regularly is important. One study in older adults determined that exercise nearly half the amount of time it took to fall asleep and provided forty one more minutes of sleep a night. In people with severe insomnia exercise offers more benefits than most drugs.

Exercise reduced time to fall asleep by 55%, total night wakefulness by 30% and anxiety by 15%. That's a lot of numbers, yes, whilst increasing total sleep by 18%. Mad numbers. So exercise, exercise in the day ideally in the peak of light, maybe the dual combo. Relax and clear your mind and even in one study a relaxing massage improves sleep quality in people who are ill.

I mean, I'd love a massage every night before bed but I don't think it's gonna be possible. One study looked at the benefits of new mattress for twenty eight days revealing the it reduced back pain by 57%, shoulder pain by 60% and back stiffness by 59% and the sleep quality improved it by 60%. Guys I'm throwing some numbers at you but what I'm saying is this, weekends coming. First weekend of challenge. If you're not on this challenge, don't worry.

First weekend's coming. You can absolutely eat out, have fun, enjoy yourself. Moderation is key. As Celine says, remember moderation is sexy. Don't let other people dictate you and push you to the edges where you don't wanna Simple as stand up for yourself, enjoy, drink, eat, but don't go nuts.

Simple as. If you are going out, make sure you plan for your defeat because your defeat might be that you do go over the top, the next day you're hungover and you don't want be hungover going for delivery. So salt the morning out the next day with the foods you can eat at a low calorie nutrient dense water get that salted. Drinking in moderation is fine don't panic about it don't try and worry and second guess yourself all the time, it's just bad. Enjoy yourself, be more relaxed more often than not.

Turning on the stress response is more damaging than actually the stressor like drinking. Say for example, I didn't want to drink tomorrow and I went out and I had a drink but I stressed loads about it because I didn't want to drink, that stress response is actually more damaging than the point to me. You just don't stress about it too much. And then when it comes to sleep, maybe it's time to start investing yourself, sort of blackout curtains, earbuds if possible. Try a relaxing bath this Sunday before bed see if it helps.

Get exercising, always helps even if it's a long walk or little jogs whatever. Make sure you are out in the peak of daylight if as much as possible this weekend, so you can have better sleep. And start thinking about these small tweaks you can make that's going to make your life healthier and better. Because sleep is important I think like people overlook it all the time but because it's boring and we all sleep. I'll sleep more yeah whatever no.

Really take it seriously because there's so much more to it, I'll cover it in more in other voice notes but all I want you to do is on this weekend, don't panic. Oh, the weekend hasn't even come yet. So the first thing I want you to do is focus on today. It's Friday. We're living one day at a time.

Obviously, podcast is all about that. So what are you doing today? What's your one big thing that's gonna move you closer to your goal? Get that done. That's the most important thing is to build momentum and just start.

If you still haven't started the challenge, fine pick something to do, just track your macros today, do exercise, go for a walk, do some meal prep, go on musclefood.com and order some food ready, take some actions, don't like keep planning, do something. Do something today. And remember if you could do it today, could do it tomorrow. It is as simple as that and we break it down. And well done for completing your first week in this new challenge for everybody that's new to Turtle and all the Turtle members of course who are listening.

They're always doing the challenges but yeah it's good to get going on a challenge. It will get harder the workouts I promise you and it's all about progressing every week. So it doesn't matter if we started like this week, next week we go a bit heavier, bit more sets and reps then a bit more, more, more, that's what matters is the bit more, bit more, bit more that causes adoption of muscle growth as opposed to going all out this week as heavily as we can. There's nothing to improve next week. We're not adapting and we're not going to get stronger.

That's how it works. So it works better to be slow and steady. And that's all, enjoy your week. I will see you back here on Monday.