February 3, 2025 • 13 mins
Discover the secrets to a balanced and healthy lifestyle with Lifestyle Strength, where Ariel, an experienced massage therapist, and Lucas, a seasoned fitness coach, share transformative stories and actionable insights. Lucas opens up about his own fitness journey, detailing how shifting his focus from a sports-centric youth to emphasizing nutrition and hydration led to sustainable weight loss. By replacing processed foods with healthier alternatives and swapping soda for water, Lucas achieved remarkable fitness success. Listen in as Ariel and Lucas offer practical tips on how to prioritize dietary changes before exercise, ensuring long-lasting results without the frustration of plateaus.
In this engaging episode, Lucas also shares his newfound passion for Pickleball, highlighting the joy and numerous victories he's found in the sport. Together with Ariel, they explore how proper water intake can curb cravings and sustain energy, providing listeners with the tools to kickstart their wellness journey. From relatable anecdotes to expert advice, Ariel and Lucas promise to inspire and equip you with the steps needed to embrace a more nutritious and active lifestyle. Tune in to gain insights that could redefine your approach to health and fitness, making well-being your top priority amidst daily challenges.
Support Ariel by booking a massage:
https://www.competitorsedgemassage.com/
Support Lucas by booking training:
https://www.hydefitnessconsulting.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Lifestyle Strength, your guide to
mastering health and well-beingin the real world.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm Ariel, a massage therapist with over a decade of
experience in holistic health,and I'm here with Lucas, a
seasoned fitness coach, who'stransformed the lives of
hundreds in Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We're here to share real stories and expert insights
about embracing a healthylifestyle while balancing the
everyday hustle.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Join us as we explore practical ways to achieve
wellness and thrive amidstlife's challenges.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Let's dive in.
Your story so far is inspiredfrom Forrest Gump, or between
the running and the ping pong.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yeah, pretty much it's a lot.
Yeah, it is A lot of running.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
You didn't serve in Vietnam, did you?
No, that's a little before yourtime.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
They tried to get me in there, but my asthma kept me
out.
Oh yeah, no, it's.
My life is sports.
I never really worked out.
All my exercise growing up, youknow, all the way up through
high school was a sports.
That's all I did no liftingweights, no cardio, no, nothing,
(01:14):
just sports.
And that's pretty much how Idid my weight loss.
You know, I did my cardio, butthat's the point where I was
like, all right, well, let's trysome cardio.
Correct, try sports.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I think you went about it in a way that a lot of
people don't nowadays.
You started with the harderthing first, by just being held
accountable with your food.
I think that's something thatso many people they overweight.
The importance of exercise,which, like not, I do exercise.
That's what I teach people allday, so it's important.
(01:54):
But I think a lot of people putso much emphasis on that and
then they don't focus on theirnutrition like they should and
then they get frustrated whentheir results plateau quickly
because, like even for you, youknow, granted, you didn't have a
lot of weight to lose, but itdidn't you didn't plateau till a
year and a half in.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
yeah, yeah, I mean I lost, gradually lost a lot of
weight in a year and a half andI know from experience, you, you
can do cardio or exercise andeverything, but if you eat bad
it doesn't matter at all.
So that's why I did food first.
(02:33):
Yeah, I learned how to eat,learned what to eat.
Replace, you know, the chips,um, vegetables or whatever.
I mean anything.
Anything's better than justsnack the processed food.
Yeah, you know, it's chips,candy, all that stuff.
(02:57):
Right, I mean, I, I, I was, Iwas a soda fanatic, a lot of
diet soda.
And doing this diet.
You know they teach you water.
Drink lots of water, Drink.
It was I can't remember it now,but it was.
(03:21):
You drink so much water a daybased on your weight.
I don't know the ratio Off thetop of my head.
I can't remember it now, but itwas.
You drink so much water a daybased on your weight.
I don't know the ratio, Off thetop of my head.
I can't remember what the ratiowas, but I would do that and
that would help.
It was every day I was like oh,I'm not hungry, Right, Curbing
those cravings.
Yeah, I mean, you learn that alot of the cravings isn't that
(03:43):
you're hungry, it's that you'rethirsty, Right, and if you keep
your body hydrated, you're notas hungry it is.
And that has helped a lot, yeah, Throughout that first year and
a half.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, I carry my half-gallon jug with me
everywhere.
Yeah, so having that water,that was when I lost weight when
I was young.
That's what it was wasreplacing the soda with the
water.
And that one change I sawresults.
So that's really powerful.
That's, I think, the thing I'dhave my clients do first.
Yeah, it's fix their waterintake.
(04:18):
So you found Pickleball, ordiscovered Pickleball a couple
years ago?
Yeah, and I take it.
You picked it up pretty quickly.
Yeah, just found a heavyinterest in it, because how many
tournaments have you won now?
No, I can't.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Too many to count.
I mean, I have a bucket full ofmedals First, second, third I
mean I don't know, I know thislast one we won Me and my
partner won 3-5.
We won gold.
So we're actually signing upfor another one in the beginning
(05:01):
of the year january 17th Ithink and we're going to go to
4-0.
So we're going to move up justthe ranking system.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Let's take a bowl, right, right, okay, okay, I'm
still new to all the things.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Yeah, you start out at 2-5.
Okay, a beginner, he's young,you need to do it.
And then just the more youlearn, the better you get.
You just move up.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
I think someone was saying to me that a professional
is like right around, it's like6, like 5, 5.5, 5.6.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Something like that.
Yeah, I know a few that areabout five, five, six, oh, some
that are like six one, andthey're playing we can play yeah
, see them play, play with themlike oh, there's no chance.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah not with that attitude.
Well, you didn't think therewas any chance to lose the
weight until you got hungry andwanted it.
Yeah, not right now, I can no,but someday do you feel like
you're limited from the previousinjury at all when you're
playing, or have you pretty muchgot it fully dealt with and you
can play your your heart out,if, so to speak, um, yeah yeah
(06:17):
mean a lot of it is.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
I'm still not where I should be physically.
I mean, I still have someweight to lose.
I mean I'm at about 230 rightnow.
What do you want to get to?
Probably like 210.
(06:40):
What do you want to get to?
Uh, probably like 210, I mean,but it's kind of kind of been
plateau for a little bit.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, but it is what it is.
It's holiday, yeah, does thenumber matter not?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
really it's right now .
It's more of how I feel, and Ifeel good and physically I mean,
I'm sore all the time.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
I do way too much now you gotta get leaning into the
recovery side of things.
Yeah, I gotta learn what thatis we should have had a day
aerial could have come on.
That's her space.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
I gotta figure out how to do that.
I just do a lot.
Now that I've learned what I'velearned to play tennis and all
these other sports, I do a lot.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
So you play tennis, you pickleball obviously still
break your route.
What other sports do you play?
Paddle I have no idea what's.
What's.
Is that like racquetball kindof?
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Um, actually it is, it's all.
It's kind of like a mix ofracquetball and tennis, okay
yeah, and the place I work outat is, um, they have a
professional paddle team, ohokay, and they just started it
last year.
This is the second year andthey just brought it to America.
(08:03):
I mean it's huge in the otherstates, countries, it's big in
Spain, europe and South America.
I mean it's big, okay, andthey're bringing it here, but
it's it's.
(08:25):
It's a lot of fun, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
I have to play it sometime.
I've never played racquetballeither, so oh god, you might
have.
If you beat me as bad as you,probably beat me worse than you
beat me in pickleball the otherday.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Yeah, I mean, if you haven't played racquetball it
might feel a little tough tolearn.
The ball coming off the wallsyeah, I mean it's about the size
of a pickleball court butthere's walls, okay, and you
just play the ball off the wall.
You have to hit the ball overit hits the ground and then off
the wall.
The wall, and you have to hitthe ball over, hits the ground
(09:02):
and off the wall.
So you kind of learn angles,you know where the ball is going
, where it's gonna be, and thenjust fine, I mean playing
racquetball and kind of pickedit up easy, alright, well, the
ball's gonna hit this corner,that corner, it's gonna be right
here.
So I've been playing that forprobably a year and a half.
(09:23):
Why do you?
Speaker 1 (09:25):
think you like sports so much Outside of just having
a competitive personality,because obviously you like to
compete.
But it's obviously played arole in your life from the time
you were young to not having itpit of despair, rock bottom,
like you said, To then kind ofchallenging yourself and then
(09:45):
finding those sports again onthe other side more grown up.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
I think I picked it up more of this now is just,
it's, it's a soul, the socialpart, um, I think at first I
picked it out just because youknow it's your childhood, I
believe, and I did this one, mydad right, you know, and it's
(10:13):
like, oh, it's bringing back thememories and just how much fun
you had growing up.
You know it's like, oh, let's goto courts yeah, and a little
bit of nostalgia there, yeah,yeah you know Heather, she
played with me when we playedpickleball one time at Osage,
(10:34):
when it first opened, and we'rejust like, oh, this is, this is
fun.
Yeah, let's, let's do it.
You know we had the cheapWalmart.
You know paddles, yeah, and itwas.
I think it was like a June orJuly and playing outside was not
(10:55):
a good idea, so hot here inArkansas, yeah.
And then we tried to.
So we tried to find a placeinside and that's.
You know, when we found Matrixand went there and we got
demolished, what they callpickled, pickled, yeah, 11-0.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I think we maybe scored two points the first time
we got there, but it was funeither way.
Oh yeah, yeah, that's whenwe're two points the whole the
first time we got there, but,but it was fun either way.
Oh yeah, yes, that's when we'relike all right, this is where
we need to be right, right.
But that's the thing I thinkyou know, even if you don't win
just having that fun doing itand being active and for all the
(11:38):
right reasons, not necessarilylike just to.
I'm gonna do this because Iwant to look a certain way or
because I want this.
It's more of like I'm justgonna do this because you want
to, because it's fun, yeah, andyou find the fun in it yeah,
yeah, we found a lot of fun onthat.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
You know it helped.
It helps.
You know, relationship.
I mean a lot of people say, oh,you can't play pickleball
together.
You know you fight a lot.
I mean the first two years, youknow, we were just having fun.
It was just all right, let's goplay pickleball.
So we played, and just now it'sjust habit.
(12:21):
Yeah, it's weird how whenyou're first working out, you
first do that first mile andyou're just like, oh, I feel
like four Right.
It's like, oh, why do I do this?
Yeah, and now it's oh, if Imiss it, I'm like kind of drag
(12:42):
it, kind of drag a little.
It's like you miss it.
It's like kind of drag it, youknow, kind of drag a little, and
it's like you miss it and it'slike why didn't I play Right?
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Thank you so much for listening to today's episode.
We want to invite you back nextweek as we continue the
conversation and be sure tofollow us on social media to get
all of our content and clipsand anything you might've missed
.
Again, thanks for listening andwe'll see you next week.
Welcome to Lifestyle Strength, your guide to
mastering health and well-beingin the real world.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm Ariel, a massage therapist with over a decade of
experience in holistic health,and I'm here with Lucas, a
seasoned fitness coach, who'stransformed the lives of
hundreds in Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We're here to share real stories and expert insights
about embracing a healthylifestyle while balancing the
everyday hustle.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Join us as we explore practical ways to achieve
wellness and thrive amidstlife's challenges.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Let's dive in.
Your story so far is inspiredfrom Forrest Gump, or between
the running and the ping pong.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yeah, pretty much it's a lot.
Yeah, it is A lot of running.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
You didn't serve in Vietnam, did you?
No, that's a little before yourtime.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
They tried to get me in there, but my asthma kept me
out.
Oh yeah, no, it's.
My life is sports.
I never really worked out.
All my exercise growing up, youknow, all the way up through
high school was a sports.
That's all I did no liftingweights, no cardio, no, nothing,
(01:14):
just sports.
And that's pretty much how Idid my weight loss.
You know, I did my cardio, butthat's the point where I was
like, all right, well, let's trysome cardio.
Correct, try sports.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I think you went about it in a way that a lot of
people don't nowadays.
You started with the harderthing first, by just being held
accountable with your food.
I think that's something thatso many people they overweight.
The importance of exercise,which, like not, I do exercise.
That's what I teach people allday, so it's important.
(01:54):
But I think a lot of people putso much emphasis on that and
then they don't focus on theirnutrition like they should and
then they get frustrated whentheir results plateau quickly
because, like even for you, youknow, granted, you didn't have a
lot of weight to lose, but itdidn't you didn't plateau till a
year and a half in.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
yeah, yeah, I mean I lost, gradually lost a lot of
weight in a year and a half andI know from experience, you, you
can do cardio or exercise andeverything, but if you eat bad
it doesn't matter at all.
So that's why I did food first.
(02:33):
Yeah, I learned how to eat,learned what to eat.
Replace, you know, the chips,um, vegetables or whatever.
I mean anything.
Anything's better than justsnack the processed food.
Yeah, you know, it's chips,candy, all that stuff.
(02:57):
Right, I mean, I, I, I was, Iwas a soda fanatic, a lot of
diet soda.
And doing this diet.
You know they teach you water.
Drink lots of water, Drink.
It was I can't remember it now,but it was.
(03:21):
You drink so much water a daybased on your weight.
I don't know the ratio Off thetop of my head.
I can't remember it now, but itwas.
You drink so much water a daybased on your weight.
I don't know the ratio, Off thetop of my head.
I can't remember what the ratiowas, but I would do that and
that would help.
It was every day I was like oh,I'm not hungry, Right, Curbing
those cravings.
Yeah, I mean, you learn that alot of the cravings isn't that
(03:43):
you're hungry, it's that you'rethirsty, Right, and if you keep
your body hydrated, you're notas hungry it is.
And that has helped a lot, yeah, Throughout that first year and
a half.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, I carry my half-gallon jug with me
everywhere.
Yeah, so having that water,that was when I lost weight when
I was young.
That's what it was wasreplacing the soda with the
water.
And that one change I sawresults.
So that's really powerful.
That's, I think, the thing I'dhave my clients do first.
Yeah, it's fix their waterintake.
(04:18):
So you found Pickleball, ordiscovered Pickleball a couple
years ago?
Yeah, and I take it.
You picked it up pretty quickly.
Yeah, just found a heavyinterest in it, because how many
tournaments have you won now?
No, I can't.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Too many to count.
I mean, I have a bucket full ofmedals First, second, third I
mean I don't know, I know thislast one we won Me and my
partner won 3-5.
We won gold.
So we're actually signing upfor another one in the beginning
(05:01):
of the year january 17th Ithink and we're going to go to
4-0.
So we're going to move up justthe ranking system.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Let's take a bowl, right, right, okay, okay, I'm
still new to all the things.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Yeah, you start out at 2-5.
Okay, a beginner, he's young,you need to do it.
And then just the more youlearn, the better you get.
You just move up.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
I think someone was saying to me that a professional
is like right around, it's like6, like 5, 5.5, 5.6.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Something like that.
Yeah, I know a few that areabout five, five, six, oh, some
that are like six one, andthey're playing we can play yeah
, see them play, play with themlike oh, there's no chance.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah not with that attitude.
Well, you didn't think therewas any chance to lose the
weight until you got hungry andwanted it.
Yeah, not right now, I can no,but someday do you feel like
you're limited from the previousinjury at all when you're
playing, or have you pretty muchgot it fully dealt with and you
can play your your heart out,if, so to speak, um, yeah yeah
(06:17):
mean a lot of it is.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
I'm still not where I should be physically.
I mean, I still have someweight to lose.
I mean I'm at about 230 rightnow.
What do you want to get to?
Probably like 210.
(06:40):
What do you want to get to?
Uh, probably like 210, I mean,but it's kind of kind of been
plateau for a little bit.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, but it is what it is.
It's holiday, yeah, does thenumber matter not?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
really it's right now .
It's more of how I feel, and Ifeel good and physically I mean,
I'm sore all the time.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
I do way too much now you gotta get leaning into the
recovery side of things.
Yeah, I gotta learn what thatis we should have had a day
aerial could have come on.
That's her space.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
I gotta figure out how to do that.
I just do a lot.
Now that I've learned what I'velearned to play tennis and all
these other sports, I do a lot.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
So you play tennis, you pickleball obviously still
break your route.
What other sports do you play?
Paddle I have no idea what's.
What's.
Is that like racquetball kindof?
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Um, actually it is, it's all.
It's kind of like a mix ofracquetball and tennis, okay
yeah, and the place I work outat is, um, they have a
professional paddle team, ohokay, and they just started it
last year.
This is the second year andthey just brought it to America.
(08:03):
I mean it's huge in the otherstates, countries, it's big in
Spain, europe and South America.
I mean it's big, okay, andthey're bringing it here, but
it's it's.
(08:25):
It's a lot of fun, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
I have to play it sometime.
I've never played racquetballeither, so oh god, you might
have.
If you beat me as bad as you,probably beat me worse than you
beat me in pickleball the otherday.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Yeah, I mean, if you haven't played racquetball it
might feel a little tough tolearn.
The ball coming off the wallsyeah, I mean it's about the size
of a pickleball court butthere's walls, okay, and you
just play the ball off the wall.
You have to hit the ball overit hits the ground and then off
the wall.
The wall, and you have to hitthe ball over, hits the ground
(09:02):
and off the wall.
So you kind of learn angles,you know where the ball is going
, where it's gonna be, and thenjust fine, I mean playing
racquetball and kind of pickedit up easy, alright, well, the
ball's gonna hit this corner,that corner, it's gonna be right
here.
So I've been playing that forprobably a year and a half.
(09:23):
Why do you?
Speaker 1 (09:25):
think you like sports so much Outside of just having
a competitive personality,because obviously you like to
compete.
But it's obviously played arole in your life from the time
you were young to not having itpit of despair, rock bottom,
like you said, To then kind ofchallenging yourself and then
(09:45):
finding those sports again onthe other side more grown up.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
I think I picked it up more of this now is just,
it's, it's a soul, the socialpart, um, I think at first I
picked it out just because youknow it's your childhood, I
believe, and I did this one, mydad right, you know, and it's
(10:13):
like, oh, it's bringing back thememories and just how much fun
you had growing up.
You know it's like, oh, let's goto courts yeah, and a little
bit of nostalgia there, yeah,yeah you know Heather, she
played with me when we playedpickleball one time at Osage,
(10:34):
when it first opened, and we'rejust like, oh, this is, this is
fun.
Yeah, let's, let's do it.
You know we had the cheapWalmart.
You know paddles, yeah, and itwas.
I think it was like a June orJuly and playing outside was not
(10:55):
a good idea, so hot here inArkansas, yeah.
And then we tried to.
So we tried to find a placeinside and that's.
You know, when we found Matrixand went there and we got
demolished, what they callpickled, pickled, yeah, 11-0.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I think we maybe scored two points the first time
we got there, but it was funeither way.
Oh yeah, yeah, that's whenwe're two points the whole the
first time we got there, but,but it was fun either way.
Oh yeah, yes, that's when we'relike all right, this is where
we need to be right, right.
But that's the thing I thinkyou know, even if you don't win
just having that fun doing itand being active and for all the
(11:38):
right reasons, not necessarilylike just to.
I'm gonna do this because Iwant to look a certain way or
because I want this.
It's more of like I'm justgonna do this because you want
to, because it's fun, yeah, andyou find the fun in it yeah,
yeah, we found a lot of fun onthat.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
You know it helped.
It helps.
You know, relationship.
I mean a lot of people say, oh,you can't play pickleball
together.
You know you fight a lot.
I mean the first two years, youknow, we were just having fun.
It was just all right, let's goplay pickleball.
So we played, and just now it'sjust habit.
(12:21):
Yeah, it's weird how whenyou're first working out, you
first do that first mile andyou're just like, oh, I feel
like four Right.
It's like, oh, why do I do this?
Yeah, and now it's oh, if Imiss it, I'm like kind of drag
(12:42):
it, kind of drag a little.
It's like you miss it.
It's like kind of drag it, youknow, kind of drag a little, and
it's like you miss it and it'slike why didn't I play Right?
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Thank you so much for listening to today's episode.
We want to invite you back nextweek as we continue the
conversation and be sure tofollow us on social media to get
all of our content and clipsand anything you might've missed
.
Again, thanks for listening andwe'll see you next week.
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