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Mike Collette 0:02
All right, everyone, we are live. We have coach Sam joining us today on the Community Conversation. Sam. Welcome. Thanks so much for being on today.

Sam Hally 0:13
Yeah, thanks for having me. I’m so excited. I listen to it every week so I’m pumped to like, kind of talk too.

Mike Collette 0:18
So Sam Hally, not Sam Russo. So that’s the first thing is you now officially legally change your name you got married in like, the COVID times and all that sort of stuff. So instead of kicking things off, like we normally do with the journey, I just had the idea why don’t we talk a little bit about that? What was it like getting married and now being married during COVID? And that whole thing and how that all went down?

Sam Hally 0:45
That’s a good question. So it’s interesting. So when COVID hit, we like knew by like, probably like, end of April that we were going to change it. I was like, absolutely not. And I think everybody knows, at this point, like, I am crazy about COVID. Like, we’re not, we’re not getting married, we’re not putting everybody in that position to even like, make the call to come to our wedding. So by like, May, we had already, like sent out, like change the date. So we knew that we were changing it, we just were going to do a small ceremony, which if I’m being completely honest, I wanted to do in the first place. But I know like my family wants a big wedding and the whole nine yards. So we just did a small ceremony in October. And to be honest, nothing has changed in my life. In terms of like Matt and I were already living together and like, you know, we’ve been together for like, over eight years. So it’s not like as much has changed, but we do get to do the party in October. So we get to have like the big actual celebration with our family and friends, which we’re super excited for but honestly it’s really stressful even though we’ve already been married.

Mike Collette 1:42
So you did this small ceremony October of 2020. But now like it’s been basically a year and now you’re doing like the big kind of like the

Sam Hally 1:49
big party and it took me almost that whole time to change my name.

Mike Collette 1:53
Yeah, I was just gonna say that he’s taken some time but I know that process Well, I don’t know personally, but I know Erin had to go through the process. It’s kind of a pain in the butt. So yeah, officially congratulations to changing your name and doing all that stuff and as a pain in the butt. Alright, so now we we check that off. I would love for you to try to talk about your your journey into fitness and I know you’ve your background and a lot of folks probably listening to this you’ve coached you coach a lot of the morning classes you’ve been like, just all in on the community here at Prototype and people know you very well you as a coach but not everyone that might be listening to this knows you that you know they might be an evening or whatever they might even know. So we’d love to hear like from you like your journey. How did you find CrossFit? Like what’s your what’s your fitness background fitness journey? Like why did you get into it? Like, let’s start there and just unload.

Sam Hally 2:46
All right, I can feel free to cut me off at any point in time. But like a short version of this is like when I was growing up. I did like just about every sport under the sun. My dad wanted boys he got three girls we ended up doing literally every sport we could possibly get into. And so I started off with like the basics like soccer, gymnastics, and I just like started adding in like field hockey and lacrosse and swimming and diving. Like I think I did just about everything except for softball. And then by the time I got to high school I really was like honed in I like was just doing lacrosse and then swimming and diving. And then I ended up diving in college. And so fitness has just been like a generally very big part of my life of like I was always running from one sports practice to the next and like I never thought anything of it like it was just sports all day every day. And then I went off to college and I dove in college for four years and post college. Then I like launched into like the nutrition side. That’s what I studied in school, but I was doing my dietetic internship and I didn’t have as much time to work out and then I ended up going to grad school. And at that point, while I was in grad school, I was also coaching diving full time. And so I was like coaching sports, but again, like I didn’t set aside time from myself to do it. So while I was in grad school and coaching, I ended up like on a whim, entering a raffle and like won CrossFit as a prize and so I walked through the doors I like did my It was like on-ramp is what they called it there-like our virtuosity. And I like never looked back. I like remember walking in that first day and there was a girl on a rower next to me. And she was a former swimmer, and she was like, Oh my gosh, that’s the best thing I ever did. You’re gonna love it. And she was right. And I did it and I like have done CrossFit ever since. And then shortly after that, I ended up going into coaching CrossFit. And then here I am. I mean I’ve been a bunch of different places I’ve like traveled up and down the entire east coast. But now I’m here working in Westborough. And I absolutely love it.

Mike Collette 4:53
Couple things-I’d love to hear like from like a timeline perspective. So you after high school four years? diving, internship, grad school, raffle, CrossFit, so what was like that?When did you start doing CrossFit?

Sam Hally 5:16
Yeah, so my college years were 2011 to 2015. I graduated undergrad in 2015. And then to be a dietitian, you have to do a year long, like 1200 hours of like supervised practice. And so like you take some graduate courses, and then you’re basically like working 40 hours a week. But it’s like educational in a bunch of different settings. So I did that for the year for 2016. And then 2016, through 2018 was when I was in grad school. And it was like, early on, I think, actually might have been like, May of 2017 is when I joined CrossFit for the first time. And then I was like coaching before I graduated in 2018.

Mike Collette 6:02
Awesome, what made you get into like coaching? Why? Like what? Well, first, before I even ask that question is probably related is like, what was the thing that hooked you into? CrossFit? You may you mentioned that you did a class, you met someone that like had a background that you did that did dive into that you’re gonna love it, and then you love it. Like what was the drug what hooked you in?

Sam Hally 6:24
It’s funny because I mentioned this to someone last week in class. I feel like CrossFit is like team sports, but only the fun part of it. It’s like, you don’t have to be particularly good. Like, there’s no pressure of competition, you just like to get to show up, someone tells you exactly what to do. It’s big, like the it focuses around like the community and the social aspect. That’s a big piece for me is like knowing that every time I come to the gym, I’m gonna see people I enjoy being around and I like get to talk to my friends every single day. And so I just like fell in love. Like, I tried to convince my entire family to do CrossFit. And they’re like, Sam, chill out, you’re turning into one of those crazy CrossFit people. Um, but I’m like, No, you don’t understand. It’s like, remember when we played soccer and we were eight years old, and like, we just got to run around and like chase the ball, and no one was any good at it. But it was fun. Like, that’s what CrossFit feels like every single day. So that’s why I love it. I don’t know. Like I couldn’t do anything else I don’t think.

Mike Collette 7:25
I’ve never heard anyone describe that the way you just described it with as much passion as you described it, but you said was I feel I think I think there’s a way you said I feel like CrossFit the teams is that as a team sport, but only the fun parts.

Sam Hally 7:40
Yeah.

Mike Collette 7:41
That’s an awesome way to talk about that I’ve never even thought about like, I completely agree with you. You’re in like a team environment. You’re not one-on-one with yourself. While you I guess you are one on one with yourself. You’re in a team environment. And it’s all the fun stuff, the camaraderie you don’t need to necessarily be good. There’s no starting team and you know, bench team, it’s just everyone gets to do it and participate and work hard and and all that sorts of I totally understand that. What a awesome way to put that. So you got you got hooked into it. And then what drew you to like, the coaching side of things, because not everyone does CrossFit and wants to become a coach, right?

Sam Hally 8:19
I totally didn’t even get to that part yet. Yeah, so I it’s interesting. So like, I was like immediately hooked like I said, and so at the time, I’ve done it for probably like six months in the gym I was worth like going to was like hiring new coaches. And so I had a long conversation with one of the owners one day and I was like, honestly, I love this place. I love everything about it. I’m like, totally bought in. I coach for a living right now. Like, this is what I do. It’s diving. So it’s like something I’m more well versed in. But like I know you’re looking for coaches like can I learn to coach and so then they kind of put me through this little internship program there where they taught me like the ins and outs of coaching, I did a lot of shadowing just like Jack’s been doing. I’m like I was at classes like waking up, I really knew the members. So just like learning how to coach CrossFit. And so a couple of months of that, and then I like jumped right into coaching classes. And so I had to leave there because I moved out. Like once I finished grad school I moved up here to mass and then I like immediately found another gym and I was working there for a while and then that shut during COVID and then Matt and I moved not near Boston. And so then I ended up here and honestly, this is my favorite of all the gyms I’ve been at like by far.

Mike Collette 9:39
Oh, you’re not just saying that because you’re talking to me, right?

Sam Hally 9:41
I’m not just saying that and so great. Like it feels like home like Matt’s from Westboro like Matt and Erin went to school together. This is like kind of home. I don’t know if everybody knows that. But yes, my husband and Mike’s wife went to school together, they graduated, they did not talk to each other and was way too cool for math.

Mike Collette 9:58
I bet you she would disagree. With that, but yeah, that’s that’s like a one of those small world things. It’s like totally random. And I feel like there was another small world thing has something to do with like Connecticut. And there was someone that like,

Sam Hally 10:12
Oh yeah, I used to dive with Erin’s cousin, Kelsey.

Mike Collette 10:18
Yeah, like how random is that? Like, just? Totally, totally random. Yeah, that’s just the way life is now. But yeah, that’s so you, you apply to a gym in westborough? Which, did you know the time your husband is from Wedtborough? Or do you just like, Oh, yeah, I got this job in Westborough?

Sam Hally 10:36
Yeah no, I had driven by it; my in laws live like two miles down the road. So I driven by it a couple times and tried to convince him to drop in when we visited for holidays, which obviously didn’t happen, but I was like, Oh, I know where that is. I’ve seen that before.

Mike Collette 10:50
It’s awesome. And so you so you kind of went down the coaching route, because you’re so passionate about it. But you also have this like, nutrition background, which you’ve been using a lot at Prototype. And like, the knowledge you have taken from like, from college and then like applied it into your like, shadowing intern internship while you’re getting your degree like you are working, if I remember correctly, like you were working within that. And in that capacity dietetics working with like special populations and that sort of thing. Is that right? Like what’s been like, what’s that been? Like, I guess kind of taking that knowledge and now using it to help people just, you know, just general population, as opposed to like working in more of like a working in a clinical setting. I forgot.

Sam Hally 11:40
Yeah, so it’s kind of confusing. So I’ve worked in a bunch of different settings, the way the dietetic internship works is like, you’re not allowed to become a dietitian until you work with different parts of the population. So you have to do a rotation, like in a community setting. So like at a WIC, which is like, um, women, infants, children, it’s similar to like a food stamp program, but it’s only for that subset of the population. And so like they come in, they get like vouchers, and then they can purchase food. Women’s infants and children are the population, you have to do a little setting working with students, you did a, I did a rotation in Long Term Care Center. So I like worked with the elderly population, I did like a big chunk of my internship in the hospital in a clinical setting, like working on different units and floors in there. And then I also worked in a private practice where I like did part of my internship, but then I also ended up working there. So it was honestly kind of similar to this, the private practice of like, I saw patients that like would come in, to see us we call the patients instead of clients, but same kind of concept is what I do here. So I’ve kind of seen it all. And so obviously, nutrition is what I love to do, I went to school for it for a lot of years. And like I’m very happy doing it. And so it’s I think nutrition is important. And like I think more important, and hopefully more people are seeing that as like preventative medicine of like, right now the healthcare system really caters for people when they’re sick, like you go to the hospital when you’re sick, like I see it. So many times people don’t even go for their yearly physical because they’re like, Oh, I’m not sick, I don’t need to go see a doctor. And so I think there’s a shift kind of in the medical field of now, like let’s work preventative medicine, which is exactly what we do here in the fitness world of like exercising regularly eating healthy, like making sure his sleep and de stress and drink water and like do all those things. So you don’t get to the point of having to be on medication or end up in the hospital. Because medicine is just so much more useful if you use it as a preventative measure as opposed to like a reactive measure.

Mike Collette 13:52
It’s so important, like the, the notion that and you’re seeing it, you know, with some like benefits and different things that companies are doing surance companies or even like just companies in general to put a bigger emphasis on health, fitness, wellness, whatever you want to refer to it as, as that preventative maintenance or preventative thing, so you don’t end up on that like sickness. I don’t know, if you remember like and, you know, talking about CrossFit. And like the level one talks about like the sickness wellness fitness continuum, you remember, do you remember that? And like what that looks like? Um, I can explain it, but if you know, you want to explain it?

Sam Hally 14:39
It’s like a fuel gauge in the car. So there’s like, the empty side is sickness. There’s the middle, which is wellness and then the full is fitness. And so the goal is to be always in fitness. So even if you do, like, acquire some illness, right, so like if you come down with COVID, right, it doesn’t bring you to sickness, that just brings you to wellness, right? Am I getting that right?

Mike Collette 15:02
Further along the continuum. Yeah, you got it.

Sam Hally 15:05
Exactly. And that way, like you’re still in like a healthy state. But it’s not pretty new all the way down to like where you’re going to be hospitalized. And obviously, like COVID doesn’t exactly work like that. But like, that’s just an example, right? You come down with me on this, like, you want to be closer to fitness. But even if something does happen, you’re not necessarily in direct.

Mike Collette 15:29
Yeah, it’s like it’s a very simplistic or simple way to take this complicated idea or process of all these things, I’m going to put it into this, like this continuum that like listen, like CrossFit, like we want to strive for fitness, we want to strive for better, you know, better blood pressure than what you know that 120 over 80, we want better than that, we want better than the normal or healthy triglycerides, we want better than just the normal range, BMI, body fat percentage, like, the further you are on the fitness side, the harder it is to move towards the sickness side. And like, from your background, in working in clinical settings, and seeing people that are like, you know, that are sick, and like need to like work on their health, like now or it’s like, you know, they’re not, they’re going into even worse direction. COVID I think is the biggest should be hopefully, like the silver lining should be a wake up call for a lot of people. But the hard thing about COVID is that it’s it’s you know, a lot of people were isolated and and then stayed inside and all that sort of stuff as well. And now we’re seeing people kind of coming back, you know, wanting to get back into shape because they know how important is they just weren’t able to weren’t able to do it. So yeah, I just I always loved that the sickness wellness fitness continuum. But let’s keep talking about talking about you. In on the nutrition side of things. I bet you a lot of people that are listening right now are like, wow, Sam gives good like nutrition tidbits. And I’ll throw a little shameless plug in here. Every Thursday, there’s a prototype nutrition podcast that comes out that you guys are should should check out if you haven’t checked it out with Sam and john, they talk about all the nutrition stuff. So shout out to Sam and john for putting that together every Thursday. But just like I had when I had john on here a few few weeks ago, a few months ago. We talked a little bit about nutrition. You know, let’s let’s just talk about that. So like from from a from a dieticians perspective, you worked in all these different settings. Now, what have you seen just from like, I guess the best bang for your buck, if someone’s listening to this right now, like, I’d like to take something away from this as it relates to nutrition. Like what is your like, general guidance? I’m sure you go to like, parties, and people are like, Oh, you’re a dietician. Oh, like, Can I eat this? Is this good? Like, yeah, I mean, like, have you? I’m sure you’ve had those. Those are always fun. What’s like, what’s your like, general guidance, and then maybe we can kind of like branch off from there.

Sam Hally 18:08
Yeah. So it, the general guidance thing is hard. So by like, I have a lot of strong opinions about nutrition. And I also don’t give my strong opinions a lot of times because like, I like to give science and evidence based information. The thing I will say that is pretty much opinion based, but also based in science that if anybody is giving you nutrition books, and it is a blanket statement, it is probably wrong. That like no matter what you see on the internet, if you see that carbs are bad, if you see that you shouldn’t eat after 6pm. If you see that, like eating a handful of cherries is like the best thing for burning fat. Anytime you see a blanket statement is wrong, don’t trust it. And so like I stay away from giving just like super generalize nutrition advice, because like every single person needs something different. Right? So like, if I have someone coming into me, that needs to lose weight, like we’ll work through what they specifically need. Sometimes I have a client coming to me telling me they want to lose weight. And in actuality, like we actually have to work on body image and not on weight loss, or I have someone coming in and telling me they want to lose weight. And like they’re actually like, in need of losing a little bit of weight that’ll help them like bring down their high blood pressure. But like it’s not necessarily like the weight loss. That’s a challenge. It’s like, their work is way too stressful. They sleep four hours a night like there’s things other than food that can be changed in someone’s life. So I feel like if I’m giving one general piece of nutrition advice, it’s like, okay, it’s maybe like free fitness. Don’t trust everything you see on the internet, too. You need to do what feels best for your body, no matter what. And then three, come find an expert. Come talk to me or come talk to john because like we really do know like the ins and outs of nutrition that you’re not getting Get from like, General blanket of us. So I know that’s not the exact answer to your question. But like that is, that is my, my blanket statement advice for everyone.

Mike Collette 20:09
Those are three good pieces of advice. And I feel like the first one, which is don’t trust the internet. Um, I feel like you could apply that piece of advice to basically almost anywhere. Um, you know, I mean, it’s like, my forearm hurts, oh, you look up forearm pain on the internet. And it’s like, you know, forearm cancer, and then you start going into this, like, Oh, my God, I think I formed cancer, dude. You know, you know, more more than likely. But I also think the problem is that people, human beings in general want results, immediate results. And so the idea of, let’s let me try this new thing, or let me do this thing that’s different that all these people say I should do insert, fad diet, insert, you know, whatever, some sort of strange modality or whatever. Um, if I do that, that will solve my problem. Yeah, right. But the bigger problem is that you don’t do anything long enough for it to see if it actually helps your problem. Right. Right. And, and I know that we’ve talked about before, like the power of like, of habits and the power of like changing and doing things for longer, sustainable period of time, and that impact there. So for people that are listening, and that might be struggling with something like nutrition or whatever. How do you like, have you, like work with people? Or what are the conversations or maybe some examples of conversation without using anyone’s name or conversations or strategies you’ve given people to help them with, you know, with just improving their overall habits of doing things more consistently, to get better long term results?

Sam Hally 22:09
Yeah, habits is a perfect word, like habits are the big thing. So if I have someone come in and say, I want to lose weight, which is honestly like in the setting that we’re in probably, I would say, like nine times out of 10, why someone’s coming in to do nutrition here. I want people to know, that’s not all we do. There’s much more that we can do. But for the most part, I feel like that’s what we’ve had people come in the past, like, that’s example of money. If someone comes in and says, I want to lose weight, we’re gonna like talk about what you eat on a normal day, like, what is your breakfast look like? What is your lunch look like? What is your dinner look like? Or do you not eat breakfast, lunch and dinner? Are you eating? Like randomly when you have time in the day? Are you like snacking on something as you get in the car to work in the morning? And then you just kind of like phrasing on things all day long. Like, do you have a routine in your day. Because a lot of times what it comes down to is, someone might come in to see me to lose weight. But it’s like, they don’t even know what they’re eating. You know, and I think like, we all do this if like, if you’re not really like taking inventory of what you’re doing in your day, like you don’t know what your habits already are. I’m sure we all do little things that are kind of like maybe obscure that were like, Oh, I didn’t realize I was doing that. And so like, the first step is noticing what’s going on. And then then you can change the habits. So I have someone who comes in and it’s like, I don’t eat until 12. Like that’s like a really long time from the time you wake up until the time you first eat. Like you’re probably really hungry by the time it’s launched. Like we got to work on like regaining hunger, hunger cues, and eating, you know, they can sense when your body’s hungry so that the first time you’re eating is not like, let’s just put everything in the mouth because I’m starving. For some people, it’s just general overeating, or snacking late at night, or consuming a lot of alcohol or like calorie dense beverages. So it’s like really taking out like, myopic view of what the day to day looks like. And then kind of narrowing down small changes that happen that are like very specific to the individual.

Mike Collette 24:11
Yeah, that’s so true. I mean, a lot of things add up. Right? And so what’s the so the idea of like, you know, using like, exercise as like an excuse, I don’t want to say an excuse, but it’s almost like the reward. Right? Like so. I worked out today, I’ve earned insert like 2000 calorie, you know, fried onion thing from Outback Steakhouse, right? Like, yeah, yeah, the bloomin I mean, which at this point, I think everyone in the world knows is like, the worst thing for anyone. I shouldn’t say that because you can eat it I guess but if you could fit it in, but I don’t really know what the nutritional value to that is really feel great. If You eat the whole bloomin onion? Seriously. But like, the idea of like that, like the reward, right, like, I feel like that would be something hard to change. What is that? What is your approach there? Because I would assume people that somebody’s listening to that, Oh man, I do that like that workout today I’m eat like a little bit more, I’m going to do this. And so it’s like, do they really? Are they really balanced each other out? Like what’s the, what’s been your kind of approach for folks that you may have? Like? Are they work with their talk with when you when that kind of comes up? Or is it something that you, you know, just kind of strategize around or? Well, I guess, it’s very general question of asking, but I hope you know what I’m saying.

Sam Hally 25:42
Yeah, no there’s like, kind of like two ways to address that. And so like, one is like the very like technical, I guess, like analytical way of like, if you are eating like, say you’re a bodybuilder, right. And so you have to eat like a very specific amount of macros based off of what you’re exercising. So you need to like, accurately track what your exercise is, and like what your macros will be. So there’s like that analytical side of like, if you exercise you gotta fuel appropriately for what you’re doing. Now, fitness trackers are like notoriously terrible at telling you like how many calories you actually burn based off like what you’re doing. So I truly believe in the whole like, like, making up the calories you’ve burned. Because one, I don’t like that mentality on food, but to like, it’s also not accurate. Also, we’re not bodybuilders, no one really needs to worry about that. At least probably the people listening to this podcast, if you want to be a bodybuilder, I don’t know, come talk to me and Mike will work that out with you.

Mike Collette 26:39
Don’t talk to me.

Sam Hally 26:41
But that’s like, right, the analytical route of if you work out, you burn this much, you have to eat this many proteins, fats, and carbs to replenish what you’ve learned. The other route is like the more social emotional, like mental side of it all, which I think is like the hardest part for people when it comes to food. Like, you could know exactly what to eat for your body, like every specific macro, but at the end of the day, like, that’s not the hard part. Like the hard part is like dealing with the stress of life. like not having a consistent schedule. Like there’s a lot of emotions tied to eating, I think that people don’t realize, and so the second you already go like, oh, I’ve exercise now. And I’d like earned my food for the day, or I’m gonna like make up the calories that I’ve burned. That’s already like a what’s the word I’m looking for? It’s like, it’s a thought. It’s just not. It kind of feeds into diet culture, right? And so like, if you’re thinking that way, you’re re feeding into diet culture. And so there actually might be like, more emotions around food in your life than you thought. So like, I would love to pick that apart and say, Well, why do you feel like you have to work out before you eat? or Why do you feel like you have to, like, do it as a reward, you know, so there’s like, a lot more tied to eating than just simply eating. So yeah, it’s like definitely stuff I like to explore with people. And it’s like a very long process. And my clients who are working through this now probably know that I say it all the time. I’m like, it’s not easy. It’s not easy to just keep up. But that’s just because we’ve been taught like, the wrong way for so long. that eventually we have to kind of shift focus and like ignore all the diet culture, ignore the things on Instagram and Tiktok, like ignore the idea of like, trying to look a certain way or eat a certain way and like exercise because it feels good eat because you enjoy the food and like really, truly just like look at food as because like you want your body to feel as good as possible for as long as possible.

Mike Collette 28:50
So basically, what you’re saying is that if you focus on, like, the process and doing things consistently focus on the enjoyment of it, or the enjoyment or the feeling or whatever, that like the results you’re you are going to come if you over focus on the results are good, too and heavily involved in like diet culture that can sometimes be a negative. Is that what you’re saying?

Sam Hally 29:20
Yeah, pretty much. It’s like once food no longer becomes enjoyable to you. You have to kind of dive down deep and figure out like, where that’s coming from, like food should be fun. We shouldn’t be a stressor. Food shouldn’t be something you have to earn. Food is just food. It’s fuel, its energy, its nutrients, like great things in our life, but feel like more often than not. There’s a lot of things out there in the world that kind of like push people away from food just being food.

Mike Collette 29:48
Yeah, no, I totally understand that. Here’s a question for you, in your opinion, like what’s what’s the most underrated component to health and fitness. So we’re like, we’ve been talking about working out, we’ve been talking about nutrition, like in your, your perspective, like what is the most underrated element of like this the whole idea of like, fitness and health and all that sort of stuff?

Sam Hally 30:15
Stress. Yeah. What’s your answer? Would you say the same? Or would you say something different?

Mike Collette 30:21
I don’t know. There’s no, this is not my question, this is my question for you, though, is stress. So what like, in when you say stress, you mean, like, like stress that, like we put on ourselves or like external stress and the impact of that plays on our overall health, mood? All that stuff?

Sam Hally 30:42
Yeah. I think all of it together.

Mike Collette 30:45
So what are the what are some common strategies you may have, like implemented or help people work with that are like, high stress, and maybe here’s a dig, make that more specific, maybe someone that’s just just stresses themself out about the idea of like doing things, right, or like, you know, adding stuff, putting stuff on their plate, or like maybe the idea of like, paying attention to what they’re eating or, you know, whatever that like, those sorts of things. And that might be like a negative thing, because like you said, not everyone can treat everyone the same, right? Everyone’s different.

Sam Hally 31:16
Yeah, no, stress is like, I think it’s a big one. Because it can affect so much like, if you’re stressed out, like your heart rate is already out. Like, if you’re stressed out, you might not make time to exercise, if you’re stressed out, you might not make the best food choices, like stress prevents you from like doing the things that help you live a healthy life. And I’m sure you’re like, very much well read in this, but there’s the concept of like, I’m, like, only focusing on the things you can control, you have like your circle of influence, and then your circle of control. You know, I’m talking about Mike, I forget who this comes from. Um, this is like one of the things of like, you realize that there are things in your life that you can control, and there’s things in your life that you can’t control. And so like, the first thing to do for stress is like, recognize when the things that you can’t control come up. Like, if you’re stuck in traffic, like at that very moment, like you can not control that, like, the best thing you can do is send attacks and be like, Hey, I’m stuck in traffic, I’m gonna be like, that’s what you can control. But otherwise, like, there’s no sense in getting stressed about being stuck in traffic, because at that point, like, there’s nothing in your control, that’ll change. Next time, like you can leave five minutes earlier, or like, you can communicate with whoever you’re trying to meet. But like, traffic is not in your control. Like, you shouldn’t worry about it. Like, letting little things like that building your life is where like the stress comes from. So the more we can get rid of those stressors, the better. And like there’s always going to be work stress, I’m sure there’s gonna be family stress, like there’s general life stress that like, is probably crept in. But the things that are in your circle of influence, those are the things that I think are like worth worrying about, and everything else, you have to let it roll off your back.

Mike Collette 33:04
Yeah, that’s like what stoicism is all about. is like focusing on what you can draw. This is like what you said, it’s like, it’s easier. It’s easier said than done. It’s, you know, it’s not easy, right? Let’s see, the big advice is like, it’s not easy. So from my, from my perspective, it’s like, if you can focus on or if you can make, create some small wins, and do that consistently. And then you talk about tying it together with habits and building good habits around how you manage stress, because I think that and something I’ve learned, I don’t know, your your thoughts are is that like, the idea of like habits and you’re like, I let’s develop better habits, I think people’s minds go to, okay, preparing my food, the habit of preparing my food, or the habit of getting up at 5am 6am to do the workout like that. But there’s also the habit of like, you’re changing your mental state. So the habit of Okay, when I get cut off in traffic, I normally flip the other person off, yell, scream, get really mad, that takes you know 30 seconds 45 seconds of my energy and I’m fired up for the next 10 minutes. The habit of recognizing that like stimulus or that external thing that’s causing you stress having the awareness of it and the awareness to like okay, like revert to some other emotion the habit of like identifying triggers the emotions and and like that’s like the habit as it relates to that in itself. So, like kind of like what you’re what you’re saying like you were talking about earlier, like habits are the big thing that ended up itself is creating good habits. And I agree with you now that you’ve kind of like talked about this. I think stress is probably The biggest underrated component because you Eve you know, the idea idea we talked about like our training a poor diet. Well, it’s like your stress, okay, well, I’ll just work it out, I’ll work off the stress, or I’ll sleep off the stress. And that’s not necessarily true. Like, yeah, we’re all going to get stressed. However, the things that we’re that might stress us out that we can actually control to some capacity by like developing better, like habits or emotions around those things can be a longer term, the longer term effect there is, like less stress over time. Right? So

Sam Hally 35:36
Yeah you’re so good, Mike at just putting all my ramblings into nice, coherent sentences.

Mike Collette 35:42
Making it all condensing, tying all the good stuff together. It’s good. This is so for anyone that’s listening right now. This is like just a lot of good stuff that Sam’s has just talked about that hope that we’re that we’re thinking about. So maybe no one else says, Sam, you can give people one action point based on the stuff that we’re talking about right now. What would what would that be?

Sam Hally 36:02
Oh my gosh. I don’t know. It is a hard question. One action. Set aside 10 minutes in your day for yourself.

Mike Collette 36:11
10 minutes a day for yourself? Done. You guys hear that? 10 minutes, 10 minutes a day for yourself? What can I do in those 10 days, those 10 minutes.

Sam Hally 36:21
My favorite is just to go out for a walk on your own. Because I feel like 95% of the members here are like either busy with families or like work. And so to take 10 minutes to just like do their own thing. This is like probably the first thing I recommend most of my clients like take 10 minutes a day. So for some people, it’s going out for a walk some people it’s drawing or painting doing something like artistic or creative. For some people, it’s like making a meal. Like some people use meal prep as a stress relief. And that’s great for some people just coming into the gym. So no matter what it is, it’s like that thing that you love to do. Do it for 10 minutes a day.

Mike Collette 37:00
I like that. That’s great. That’s great. actionable advice. Now you got to build the habit around doing that. So put it in your calendar. Do you want you know, one day a week the startup is really really hard for you then build the two and stack those habits and do more and more and more of that. And then you’ll start doing it every single day. Things will feel better takes time. It’s not there’s no there’s no like magic. Snap your fingers and things just work doesn’t work like that. Don’t don’t don’t believe the internet right? No, don’t believe the internet. Alright, we’re gonna get into this a bit fire around because I feel like everyone’s heads are gonna explode with all the knowledge that just got so Spitfire and you should know these questions. So hopefully you prepare. Haven’t changed them. I’m going to go out of order though. Favorite musician, band or artist of all time. And if you can listen to one song, the rest your life what would it be? I stole that question from plenty of questions of the day.

Sam Hally 37:55
So I don’t think it’s a secret. I love Taylor Swift. Do you like her older stuff better? Yeah, the new stuff is it’s good. It’s just a little little sad. Sometimes. I like the Pepe Taylor Swift. And my favorite song is landslide by Fleetwood Mac, like hands down favorite song ever.

Mike Collette 38:16
It’s like I think that’s an Erin’s like top three.

Sam Hally 38:19
Yeah, I asked that question. And she was like, Oh my gosh, I love that too. I was like, wow.

Mike Collette 38:25
Pretty sure she danced to that song with her dad.

Sam Hally 38:27
Really?

Mike Collette 38:30
I think it was landslide. And then from landslide, I went to a friend of the devil by the Grateful Dead, who’d like to start again, feels like it was nice, nice, nice, slow song. You know, I’m sure Ken was crying Erin’s mom and then went into the Grateful Dead and they’re all singing dancing. It got fun.

Sam Hally 38:49
Aw, I love that.

Mike Collette 38:50
Yeah. Favorite TV show and movie of all time, and what are you currently binge watching?

Sam Hally 38:56
Okay, I’m not gonna go into it. I don’t watch movies. Every time I try to watch a movie, I fall asleep like 20 minutes. And I couldn’t even tell you Mike the last time I watched a movie. It doesn’t end well for me. So I don’t I don’t have a favorite movie but I do have to say if I’m picking a favorite rom-com, it would be 500 Days of Summer. Not like the notebook. So like that is not my style. But 500 Days of Summer would be favorite rom-com for going that direction. I’m not really binge watching anything. The thing I’m watching on TV right now is big brother. But I’m a couple episodes behind so I gotta catch up. So I will be binge watching that this weekend. And my favorite TV show of all time is survivor. I’m like embarrassingly like a super fan. so obsessed with it. Like my dream is to be on the show. So yeah, that’s my thing.

Mike Collette 39:51
That’s awesome. Big Brother, survivor. You like the reality shows. It sounds like

Sam Hally 39:56
but like only those two.

Mike Collette 39:57
Only those two, okay.

Sam Hally 39:58
Yeah, no, like bachelor Anything like that for me, but like survivor? Is it? I don’t know. fascinating to me.

Mike Collette 40:05
Good show. It’s been around for, like 20 years. 20 plus years now.

Sam Hally 40:10
Yeah, they’re starting season 41 on September 22.

Mike Collette 40:13
41 years, maybe not

Sam Hally 40:16
Two every year.

Mike Collette 40:18
Yeah. So it’s like, yeah, about 20 years. Um, okay, last question is a favorite thing to do outside of the gym. What is your favorite hobby?

Sam Hally 40:31
So I don’t really have hobbies either. But I do when I’m not here. I’m at the pool. Like, I like to teach them lessons. That’s like my thing. When I’m not here is like, life at the pool. Is it for me? Like never not there?

Mike Collette 40:45
Like a fish. So cool. So cool. So full time, so it’s not bad.

Sam Hally 40:50
Yeah, no, it’s a good thing. I like it.

Mike Collette 40:52
It’s your thing. That’s awesome.

Sam Hally 40:53
Couldn’t imagine like not doing it.

Mike Collette 40:54
You got to do I mean, you got you how long you’ve been swimming for? I didn’t even ask that question.

Sam Hally 40:59
I started swimming when I was seven and then diving when I was nine, so over 20 years.

Mike Collette 41:05
Wow. Yeah, you can’t give that up. That’s awesome. Awesome. Well, Sam, we’ve talked for a while and this is a lot of great stuff.

Sam Hally 41:13
I know, I’m sorry I went pretty long.

Mike Collette 41:14
No, don’t be sorry. This is what we do. This is great. The longer the better. So Sam, I really appreciate you being on the committee conversation today. Everyone that is listening. I appreciate you tuning in. Remember, every Monday we we have a new Community Conversation to get your week started. So make sure you guys check us out on our YouTube page on our Spotify platform all all streaming platforms, we have these on so again, until next time, Sam, appreciate you being on again. And thank you so much.

Sam Hally 41:45
Thank you. That’s great.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai