Is Personalized Health a Luxury or a Necessity? (Fishbone Diagram) | Ep 381 - Wits & Weights | Fat Loss, Nutrition, & Strength Training for Lifters

Episode Transcript
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Philip Pape (00:00):
You'll spend $200 on a nice dinner out without
thinking twice, but you hesitatefor months before hiring a
trainer or coach.
Or you'll drop $150 a month onorganic groceries and premium
supplements, but investing inyourself feels like too much of
a splurge.
Here's what's happening.
You've been trained to thinkthat spending money directly on
guidance or accountability isindulgent or maybe unnecessary,

(00:23):
while spending spending onproducts or, let's be honest,
the next shiny thing feelsresponsible.
Today, I'm showing you anengineering tool called the
fishbone diagram that flips thisthinking around.
You'll see why the money you'realready spending, the time
you're investing, might besolving the wrong problem
entirely, and how to redirect ittoward what actually creates

(00:44):
results.
Welcome to Wits and Weights, theshow that helps you build a
strong, healthy physique usingevidence, engineering and
efficiency.
I'm your host certifiednutrition coach, philip Pape,

(01:05):
and today we're going to answera question that comes up quite a
bit.
Is personalized health, that is, tracking your data, testing
your blood work, measuring yourprogress really just for people
that have a lot of money toinvest this includes coaching,
hiring a trainer or is itsomething that we all should
prioritize and just find a veryefficient way to do it,

(01:25):
especially with all thetechnology and resources that
are available.
Today, we're going to explorethis through the lens of a tool
that I really like, called thefishbone diagram.
You'll understand why it'scalled that in a second.
It's an engineering tool thatI've used in my career to solve
complex problems systematically,usually to find one or more
root causes or connectionsbetween different things, to

(01:47):
find patterns, and it'ssomething that you can do for
free on a piece of paper, andit's a really helpful, mindful,
intentional thing to see how totransform your health and what
to focus on and where you canput your resources most
efficiently so that the barrierto entry is much lower.
Because the title of thisepisode related to personal
health.
Whether it's a luxury or not,it is an important question.

(02:08):
A lot of you are thinking Idon't really need to hire a
coach, I don't need to hire atrainer.
I'm not here to convince youone way or the other.
Obviously, I have what mightseem like a conflict of interest
, because I myself am a coachand we have a program.
It's more of the perspective ofhow can you best use the
resources that you do have, andthat might not be hiring a coach

(02:28):
.
That's my point Now when,having said that, uh, just to
get the sort of full disclosureout of the way.
We do have something calledphysique university where part
of the process is acceleratingthis for you, and my hope is
that you actually save money andsave time longterm.
And so one of the things I'moffering right now is a free
custom nutrition plan.
Now, normally that's includedas an add on for the mastery

(02:48):
track, but for the basicsignature track I shouldn't say
basic.
It's full of tons of value ofphysique university.
You're going to get it for freeIf you use the special link for
you guys in the show notes.
I have a special code.
It's free plan link in the shownotes.
Go to witsandweightscom slashphysique.
As soon as you join, you'regoing to go into an onboarding
process that gives you the exactsteps to start setting up your

(03:11):
habit systems, learning aboutnutrition, learning about
training, in a very acceleratedway, much more accelerated than
just listening to random podcastepisodes.
And the reason I'm throwing inthe custom nutrition plan for
free and telling you this earlyin the episode again is to make
this as accessible as possible,because that's then going to
give you the roadmap for yourmacros, your meal timing, your
training, your movement, thewhole philosophy of flexible

(03:32):
eating to kind of reduce thatstress and understand what my
next steps are.
Many people who join you knowthey stick around for two or
three months and they get areally clear roadmap of what to
do and then they'll decide.
Okay, you know, do I want tokeep doing this and getting the
accountability and support whichI know is going to keep me
successful long-term, or do Iwant to go it on my own, because
now I have a really good planand direction and either way,

(03:54):
it's up to you to make thatdecision.
But I'm tying that into today'stopic because I think it's
really important to do things asefficiently as you can also
understand when you need toinvest in yourself, just like
when I decided I needed toinvest a little bit more in my
barbell that can handle a littlebit more weight, knowing that
there was a safety issue, right,and we make these decisions all
the time.
Now, something I hear a lot frompeople in the audience, from

(04:15):
you guys as listeners, is thatyou think about these things a
lot, right, you think about okay, should I get blood work?
Should I invest in coaching?
Should I go get a trainer?
Should I join this gym?
Should I buy a food scaleShould I use macro factor right?
And a lot of these things comewith a price tag and I get it.
And there's a whole industryout there.
There's the fitness industrythat is pushing these messages

(04:36):
in your face.
Now I sell as much as the nextguy or man or woman.
I market my services, I do, butI also feel honestly and truly,
that they're aligned with whatI'm telling you.
You're going to get to thepoint where I probably don't
pitch them well enough, becausewhat happens is people will join
my program, kind of hoping andpraying it's going to do what
they think it's going to do,because they follow the podcast

(04:57):
and they're not quite surebecause I didn't message it well
.
Then they join and they're likewhoa, I didn't know it had all
this stuff.
So hopefully we've done abetter job of conveying that
message and showing you thewhole process.
And again, if you go towitsandweightscom slash physique
, you'll actually see a demovideo on there of exactly what's
included.
But people, rightly, are askingthemselves is this necessary?
Is it worth the money?

(05:17):
Does it feel a little bitindulgent?
Am I being selfish?
Should I be putting my physicalhealth before a lot of other
things that I think are alsoimportant in my life, especially
when you might have a littlebit of guilt to realize that
plenty of people you know can'tafford certain things.
Maybe it's a privilege, right.
There's all these narrativesgoing on.
You also see influencers onlinethat are doing all these crazy

(05:37):
things, whether it's hyperbaricchambers, all the peptides.
Now, like you can go down thepeptide rabbit hole, you know.
Obviously there's the GLP ones,things like that.
There's concierge medicine andall the out of pocket healthcare
services that not everybody canafford.
And you're like, well, you knowI can't do all these things.
Do I need all these things?
Do I need the cold plunge andthe red light therapy?
I heard this guy, you know,plugging some red light therapy

(06:00):
thing that goes on your wall butthat's hundreds of dollars
right there, like I'm just goingto spend all my money on this
stuff and it's not going to doanything for me.
And so you know I can't reallybiohack myself to health and so
I'm just going to try to just dowhat I think I need to do
listen to Philip's podcast andbe done with it.
And I want to challenge all ofthese assumptions because I
think the fundamentals ofpersonalized health, the things

(06:22):
that move the needle for you asan individual, understanding
that there's an empiricalscientific basis for what we do
with training, nutrition, etcetera.
But there's also a highlypersonalized piece to it that
makes it optimal for you thatthese things need to be really
accessible.
And I don't mean in a I'm notin a, what am I trying to say?
I'm not getting on a soapboxand saying, like the government

(06:44):
has to make policy, that allthis stuff is cheap and free and
accessible.
What I mean is I thinkinvesting in your health should
be to any of us just asimportant as investing in just
eating food, right, likeinvesting in shelter.
And many of us think of a car asa necessity or, heck, even a
smartphone today as a quote,unquote necessity.

(07:06):
And we invest in those things.
Why are we not investing in ourhealth in the same way?
And I've always wondered aboutthat.
And then I realized well, turnthe mirror on yourself, buddy.
Think of all the times you'vesaid I'm not going to spend
money on that, I'm not going togo hire a trainer because I can
figure it out on my own.
And then I, months or yearslater, I finally said let me pay
for that trainer for an hourand I got a whole bunch of

(07:27):
things fixed and I startedlifting more safely, as, as one
example, right or in my business.
You know not wanting to hirepeople and spend money to make
money, but that's often what youhave to do.
It's not all about money, okay,but I think money is a source
of a lot of this consternation,and we have to separate what
works in the personal healthspace from what the quote

(07:49):
unquote wellness industry istrying to sell you.
There's a lot of junk.
There's a lot of junk.
And how do you separate thewheat from the chaff?
All right, so let's talk aboutwhy personalized health gets
this reputation in the firstplace.
The wellness industry is amarketing machine.
They have done a great job ofconvincing people that, to quote

(08:10):
unquote optimize requires youto buy lots and lots of things.
Now, it may be very expensivethings like an infrared sauna
for $5,000.
It might be the red lighttherapy panel I mentioned for
$500, but it might just be.
You know hiring coaches,spending money on programs,
spending money on supplements,especially functional medicine
clinics.
You know hormone clinics thatare questionable right Versus

(08:34):
the ones that are legitimate,all sorts of products like fat
burners and whatnot that have no, you know, efficacy or
evidence-based support behindthem, and pretty soon you could
be spending several, at leasthundreds, if not thousands, of
dollars a month on things thatare not effective or it looks
like such a barrier to entrythat you just don't do anything

(08:55):
and the evidence for a vastmajority of the stuff you see
pushed, especially if it's an adis weak at best in general.
Right, in general, it dependson who you follow and what kind
of stuff you're seeing, but alot of the most accessible
things are not the stuff that'smarketed on social media, right?
Okay, let's pick a sauna, forexample.
There's a lot of like sauna adsand there's a lot of expensive

(09:15):
things and you know saunas aregreat, but they they they're in
the top, I'll say, 1% or less ofthings that actually move the
needle.
The same thing with like coldplunges and red light therapy
and all this stuff with, I don'twant to say quantum biology,
but like there's a lot ofquestionable products out there
and creams and food supplements,whatever.
Okay, I think the reason, itthe root cause of all this, is

(09:38):
people want shortcuts, right?
You see the laser surgerybillboard and it says you know,
drop all your belly fatliterally with one procedure and
then walk out the door.
That is going to be a much moreappealing than spend six months
to I don't know three or fouryears working on your body
composition by improving yourlifestyle and your nutrition and

(09:58):
your movement, right.
And so the pattern is theindustry sells these
interventions because they'rejust easy to market and they're
very appealing, and peoplearen't getting rich.
Telling you to track yourprotein or beyond, you know
what's what the price is, mygoal being that you have an easy

(10:28):
entry point and then you cancontinue getting the support as
you build this, because I knowit takes time.
I know it takes time, right.
So there's a scale component.
How can I help more and morepeople, how can I afford to even
run that business but also makeit accessible to you?
And I'm talking to you guysfrom a business perspective in
this episode.
I know it's a little differentthan my usual usual thing, but
it's kind of a behind the sceneslook and I hope I haven't lost

(10:50):
you by now because this isimportant.
This is your wallets, right?
This is your pocketbook, thisis your, your checking account
and this is your long-terminvestment.
And all of this biohackingstuff is pretty cool, but you
have to be able to separate theconfusion out and find what
works right.
And this is where I think thehealth as privilege narratives
and some of these come up, whereit's not about personalized

(11:12):
health, it's about expensivewellness theater.
It's theater that ismasquerading as optimization.
You know, I have on my in mynotes that I want to do a whole
episode just about all the junkand the traps and the nonsense
in the wellness industry.
Even the word wellness kind ofmakes me cringe a little bit,
but that's beyond the scope oftoday.
We're not going to go down thatrabbit hole.

(11:32):
I wanted to just kind of giveyou the layout of the issue of
what's making me so heated andpassionate to be able to make
today's episode.
So let's define what I mean bypersonal health so we can jump
from that into using this toolto comparing things and finding
what works.
Now I'm not talking about when Isay personalized health.

(11:54):
I'm not talking about theboutique wellness, the clinics,
functional medicine either.
You know I have nothing againstsome of those folks who are
really good and they're kind oflike play detective at helping
you figure out what works, but alot of them cost thousands per
month, and I know people arespending money on, you know,
chiropractic and lots of thingslike that.
Look, I get massages everymonth.
I do it because it feels greatand there might be a little bit

(12:15):
of a benefit beyond that forrecovery.
But I'm not fooling myself intothinking that if I just did
massages, all my mobility and,you know, flexibility would be
improved.
No, I know that I need to liftweights to do that right.
So I'm talking about somethingmore simple and powerful when I
say personalized health Usingdata, using measurement and

(12:35):
using feedback loops tounderstand your body and
optimize your results.
Ah, okay, simple, right.
That is the essence of wits andweights.
That's our philosophy, and so,at its core, personalized health
is about tracking yourprogression, progression with
whatever you're trying toimprove.
But specifically, that would besomething like your strength,

(12:55):
knowing whether you're actuallygetting stronger or just going
through the motions and workingout and exercising, right.
That's a specific example.
You know, measuring the rightthings.
Measuring your nutrition is avery important piece, where
you're measuring the protein,maybe the macros and calories,
right, there's different levelsof precision.
Not all of them are necessaryfor every person.
We have lots of great technologycoming out now.

(13:16):
In fact, we are working on anapp launching soon that may
actually use AI based, photobased tracking of your food
where you don't even have tothink very much about calories
or macros and I know that soundscrazy coming from me, but
imagine a world where you're notstressed about this stuff.
You're just kind of tracking,lightly tracking and adjusting

(13:37):
and really thinking about theskills themselves and not so
much the data, like gettingobsessed with the data for its
own sake, as much as we love thedata, but it's really not
guessing right, not hoping, butactually knowing.
And that way, whatever you'redoing today, you know how to
nudge next week and then theweek after that.
It's also monitoring your bodyand what's going in and out and

(14:00):
what it's doing, and that's yourbiofeedback, your sleep quality
, recovery markers, your energy,how your body responds to
training, right All thoseimportant things so that you
know you're not overdoing it,that your metabolism is
supported, that you can lose thefat, that you can focus on
dropping belly fat if that'syour goal, that you could build
strength and muscle and feelgreat and energized.
It's also testing, actualtesting with technology that we

(14:24):
have, for example, getting bloodwork to understand what's
happening inside your body in amore complex level than you can
tell just by simple biofeedbackor what you see in the mirror.
And then it's using all of thisdata and that's just scratching
the surface using this data toiterate, to self-experiment, to
treat your body like the uniquesystem.
It is not a special snowflake,and I'm sorry if that's a

(14:46):
trigger phrase for you, butthere's a difference between
being unique because you'recomplex and the way your
variables interact are a littledifferent than the next person,
and being a special snowflakewhere somehow the principles of
physics and nature don't applyto you.
The principles of biology don'tapply to you.
No, if you're an empiricist,like I am, and you believe in
the objective truth and what thescience shows us, we can have a

(15:08):
really good starting point, apremise to say it generally
should work like this and nowI'm gonna try it out for myself
and see how I uniquely fitwithin that range, if that makes
sense, right, and then figureout what works for you.
That's what personalizationmeans.
It doesn't mean you have to havea trainer creating some weird
cockamamie program just for youthat they've never written for

(15:29):
anybody else.
That's super special.
No, you don't need that.
I tell most people they cangrab just about any decent
template online for strengthtraining and follow it and get
great results and then bounceoff of that.
Or I should say, pivot fromthat into a little bit more
customization for yourself.
Or you know where the trainercomes in is they can help

(15:49):
customize that for you, or startwith one of their templates
that they know are veryeffective and then say, okay,
let's work around mobilityissues.
You know injury preferences,equipment, days, days per week,
recovery.
So all of this is I've used theterm physique engineering in
the past.
It's the scientific methodApplied to your physiology, and
the barrier to entry to that isjust a notebook or maybe a food

(16:12):
scale, but tends to be the lessexpensive tools.
Maybe not always right, like ifyou want to have a barbell at
home, you've got to make someinvestments.
But again, this is part ofliving life as a human being and
prioritizing your health.
If you're going to prioritizeyour, if you're going to pay for
a smartphone so that you canwatch Netflix and you're going
to pay for a Netflixsubscription, then you have no
excuses not to pay for yourhealth.

(16:33):
That's kind of where I'm comingfrom.
If, if you are, if someone haslower income.
If we're talking about peoplewho are poor, right, that's a
different situation.
We're not really addressingthat, we're not solving the
problems of the world today, butI do think there's a place for
trainers and coaches and youknow, I hate to call myself an
influencer, but people who havesome, a platform right, like

(16:53):
this podcast, to be able to helpin some way for people who
can't afford these things andmake them more and more and more
and more accessible, right, andI think that I think the future
is bright there because oftechnology, and I think I'm I'm
not a cynic, I'm more of anoptimist in that respect and so
if somebody doesn't have accessto a coach, for example, they
might be able to have access toan ai version of a human coach
that does very similar things.

(17:14):
That'll help you move the ballforward, be consistent and get a
result anyway.
Right, and that's you know Ithat that's where all this stuff
starts to come together now.
Now let's talk about money,because I have done that already
several times and it mightsound crass Money is how we
exchange value in the world.
That is what it is.
So this is where a lot ofpeople get stuck and then they

(17:37):
don't invest in the things theyneed and then they invest in a
lot of junk that they don't.
The average American spendsabout $13,000 per year on
healthcare, and that is afterinsurance.
So that's just out of pocket onanything related to healthcare,
and the vast majority of thataverage spending is to treat

(17:58):
things, to treat preventablechronic conditions diabetes,
heart disease, obesity-relatedcomplications.
So for sure it is biased towardthe older, sicker population
when we look at those averages.
Right, most people in their 20sare not spending 13,000 a year
on healthcare.
I get it, but we are trying tosave ourselves these pains into
the future as we get older.
Right?
These are conditions thatdevelop over years of neglecting

(18:19):
your health and yourfundamentals, and that is a true
cost that also hits your money,your retirement, your, you know
.
You know there's nursing care,what do you call it?
Long-term care involved.
Then it just goes.
It's balloons.
It's a burden on the rest ofyour family, right?
Like, do you want to be aburden on your family?
I don't when I get older.

(18:39):
And compare that to investingtoday in something like a gym
membership and tracking yournutrition and getting the
occasional blood work to checkyour hormones, to check your
other markers, maybe 2,000 to 3to 3000 a year, maybe on the top
end.
Okay, now if you have aone-on-one nutrition coach like
me and you work with me for sixmonths or a year or I have some

(19:07):
that go longer Now you'retalking anywhere between, say,
250 and 500 a month, and that isinaccessible to a lot of people
.
Right, it is.
That's why I have physiqueuniversity.
It's a group program.
Now it drops to as low as 27 amonth.
So do the math.
You know.
You know what it costs to havea planet fitness or whatever
your gym membership is.
You know what it costsgenerally to hire a trainer.
Actually, it's usually quiteexpensive to hire a trainer
versus doing like an onlineprogram where you can get form

(19:27):
checks and work with, say, acoach like myself, or in a
program like ours, which isagain technology online scaling.
A coach like myself or in aprogram like ours, which is
again technology, online scalingthe ability to do these things
in the modern environment ispretty cool.
It's pretty cool.
It actually saves you a lot ofmoney.
But you still have to make thatchoice and pick the thing that's
going to actually help you andI get it because you don't want
to throw money away, right?

(19:47):
If a coach is coming to yousaying join my program and pay
ahead for six months or 12months already, to me it's a red
flag.
It's why I do month to monthonly, unless somebody begs to
pay me more money to get along-term contract, I will
potentially negotiate withsomebody who is, you know,
completely in their own volitionabout it and for the right
reasons, but I don't offer it.
I don't offer it If coaches outthere are saying we only have

(20:09):
six month packages.
It's a money grab.
You've got to be careful,because then what if you do pay
and then it doesn't work outlike you expected?
Right?
This is just smart managing ofyour money.
So maybe $2,000 to $3,000 a yearfor most people, and that's
once you've invested in, say, ahome gym, if you even need it
Many of you don't you just go tothe gym.
But even investing in a homegym is a one-time thing and

(20:35):
every dollar spent on preventionis probably going to save five
to 10 X at least in futurehealthcare costs.
And and it probably doesn'teven cover the whole picture, to
be honest, right, because whatis the cost of?
What is the intangible or theopportunity costs.
Or if you had to convert yourown life into money, what is the
cost of having low energy everyday, feeling like you're
operating at 60% capacity?

(20:56):
How does that affect yourcareer, your relationships?
How does that affect yourability excuse me to show up for
your family?
Right?
When you think about health asa massive investment in you as a
person, as a human, in yourmental health, in your physical
health and, yes, in the savingsof future dollars because of the
decline into rapid sickness anda long lifespan.

(21:17):
Without a long health span,right, the math then changes
completely because you're reallynot just spending money.
You're buying back tons andtons hours, weeks, months, years
of productivity, longevity andquality of life.
And here's what's important.
The fundamentals that create80% of these results are pretty

(21:38):
close to free or highlyaccessible to anyone who chooses
to prioritize them, and there'salways a creative way to do it.
There is always a creative way.
I want to get to a point in mybusiness where I'm scaled enough
to be able to offer a donationtype service, right, like.
I don't want to sayscholarships, because those have
a bad rap in this industry.
There's this whole scholarshipbracket that people use to

(21:59):
basically make everybody.
It's kind of like a rafflesystem.
I'm not talking about that.
I'm talking about legit charity, right, either nonprofit or
donating to a nonprofit.
But I'd rather have somecontrol over how the money is
spent to help people.
I would love to get there oneday, but I have to.
I have to make sure thefundamentals are healthy in my
business first.
Anyway, enough about me.

(22:22):
The question I think you shouldbe asking is not, you know, can
I afford it?
It's, can I afford not toprioritize this?
And remember the wordprioritize doesn't imply
spending lots of money.
It doesn't have to applyspending a lot.
I'm not going to be the personthat that 25 year old coach.
It's like just put it on yourcredit card.
Of course not.
Please don't do that.
I really do care.
I've been in debt in the past.
I've made some terriblemistakes when I was younger.
That took me a long time toclaw out of and I don't want

(22:44):
anybody to do that.
Okay, so I get.
I get the financial stresspiece of this.
So, having said all that, theteaser, or the spoiler, of this
episode was about a fishbonediagram.
You're like Philip, you haven'teven talked about it.
Where does this come in.
I'm going to show you how canyou approach this systematically
and make an equalizer here sothat your resources go to where

(23:08):
they need to go.
So in engineering, qualitycontrol, root cause analysis, we
use something called a fishbonediagram.
It's also called an Ishikawadiagram.
A lot of these tools come fromJapan.
There's a book called theToyota Way, where you learned
about Six Sigma.
They had some amazinglyefficient manufacturing
processes that we've learnedfrom.
So it's called the Ishikawadiagram or the fishbone diagram,

(23:28):
and it's to identify rootcauses of problems.
Now you're like oh, philip,you've been talking a lot about
constraints and root causes.
It's because it's reallyimportant.
All right.
Now what is a fish bone diagram?
Picture a fish skeleton.
All right, a big fillet of fish, an entire fish that's been
filleted, and all you have leftis the skeleton.
Kind of like.
Kind of like in cartoons, whenthey represent a bunch of trash
and there's like a bunch of fishbones in there.

(23:50):
Okay, you have the head, andthen you have the spine.
You have all the.
I don't even know if it'scalled a spine.
No, it must be, because it'svertebrate.
You have all the bones stickingout of the spine, right?
So the head is like the mainproblem or symptom that we're
trying to diagnose, and then thebones branching off represent
different categories ofpotential causes.

(24:11):
And why I say categories isbecause what you're going to do
we're going to talk details iseach bone is a category and then
off that bone you can havesmall labels with actual causes
within that category.
So the reason I like thefishbone diagram is it, instead
of just treating symptoms,you're forced to think
systematically about themultiple things that could be

(24:32):
driving your issues.
You know, we just talked I justdid an episode on performance
blood work about how the bloodwork itself can be analyzed in
that way via patterns andcorrelations and relationships.
Well, you're kind of doing thisyourself, manually in a simple,
accessible way.
So let's say, your main systemis you're constantly tired, you
have constant, persistentfatigue, right, and a lot of

(24:59):
times when we do that, we say,okay, I need, I need to take a
break from my training, or Ineed more coffee, or maybe I'm
gonna start drinking more energydrinks.
I mean, a lot of people willjust put a bandaid on it in that
way, right, it's like well,every day at 3 PM I have a crash
.
I'm going to go grab that dietsoda or that coffee going to
perk me up and you kind ofsuppress what's really going on.
Well, that's treating the headof the fish that's the symptom
right, without understandingwhat's feeding into it.
And I say fatigue and energybecause that is a problem with a

(25:22):
lot of people, especially forthose of us in our forties and
fifties with the kind of liveswe have, how hectic things are.
Now, if you map this out using afishbone diagram, you're going
to have the different bonescoming off the center spine and
you're going to write indifferent categories.
And if you listen to Wits andWeights or you reach out to me
on Instagram at Wits and Weights, I'm happy to give you a list
of the big categories that wecare about, but those would be

(25:43):
nutrition, sleep training,stress, and then maybe something
like hormones If that's, let'ssay, you're pre-menopausal woman
in your 40s or 50s, maybehormones is.
If that's, let's say, you'repre-menopausal woman in your 40s
or 50s, maybe hormones is a bigone.
But even men it could be.
And maybe environment, right,those are just some examples.
I'm sure you can come up withothers.
And then, under or next to eachbone, which is a category,

(26:04):
you're going to list specificfactors so you can draw little
lines that go off of them, oryou can just write them next to
the bone.
So maybe under the nutritionbone, you write them next to the
bone.
So maybe under the nutritionbone you would say protein and
meal timing.
And you could be very specific.
You could say like insufficientprotein, right, and erratic
meal timing Under sleep.
You might say, you know, get upthree times a night and late

(26:26):
night screen time.
And then, if you had a hormoneone, you might say vitamin D
deficiency or low testosterone.
If you know specifically what itis, maybe you don't, maybe it's
lack of blood work and youdon't know.
Okay, and now, granted, that'snot necessarily a root cause per
se, but it can help you get tothe root cause.
So the power here is it canhelp you reveal potential
bottlenecks, the singleimmediate constraint that

(26:49):
creates cascading improvementsacross the entire system.
Right, and yes, there might bemultiple things that seem
important, but it's up to youand it's your privilege to be
able to prioritize them the wayyou need to.
And, of course, this is wheretracking and measuring and data
and all the things we alreadytalked about, as well as blood

(27:10):
work, can help you pinpointwhere to start that, and so you
don't need any tests to do this.
You don't need to take a DEXA ordo an InBody, you don't have to
take my intake assessment oranything like that, although we
do have a free two-minute quizthat might help.
If you go to witsandweightscomslash quiz I think it is or
quizwitsandweightscom I orquizwitsandweightscom I think

(27:31):
you could use eitherwitsandweightscom slash quiz or
you can go to witsandweightscom.
Click the button in the top formetabolic quiz.
That actually will help youidentify some things that are
important.
That then can feed back to yourfishbone diagram.
If you just want some moreideas, it all comes to you
automatically.
There's a PDF report.
It's like a 15-page reportabout all the important things
you might want to do.
That quizwitsandweightscom,totally free, takes two minutes.

(27:54):
Okay, but you don't need tospend a dime to do this exercise
and start pointing yourself inthe right direction.
Now, most of the time, you needsome time spent with some basic
tracking and self-monitoringfirst, like you can do the
fishbone.
Right now.
It's going to seem kind ofmysterious because you'll have
all these potential reasons butyou have no idea where to start.

(28:15):
I would say that's fine, butyou also want to be tracking,
use something like just a basiclog or notebook or journal.
Obviously, if you're willing toinvest a little bit and you
want to try Macrofactor for acouple weeks, it's free for two
weeks.
Use my code, wits and Weights.
It's free for two weeks andthen it's a paid app, but
there's lots of ways you can dothis without paying for things.
So that's the basic fishbonediagram, just to kind of put it

(28:38):
on paper and help you visualizeit.
And the challenge here and Ithink also the biggest
opportunity is that everyone'sfishbone diagram looks different
.
Right, I could give you atemplate fishbone, but it's
going to be so complicatedbecause it's going to have 50
potential categories and 500root causes.
I mean, I have diagrams likethis.
You're like yeah, I know you do, philip, I know you have it.

(29:00):
I can show you a spreadsheet Ihave that has this massive what
would you call it Decision treefor fat loss.
Right, I don't even use itanymore because it's so
personalized that it makes moresense to just deal with the
person individually and kind ofnarrow it down from there, and a
fishbone is a nice tool to dothat.

(29:20):
So what's causing my fatiguemight be completely different
from what's causing your fatigue, right.
If I'm drinking caffeine at 6pm every day and you're not
drinking any caffeine, thencaffeine is not going to be an
issue for you in, you know, interms of, let's say, disrupting
your sleep and then making youtired the next day and causing
your fatigue, right.
But if I have an autoimmunecondition and you don't right

(29:41):
that again that's a differentpotential constraint that's
involved there.
You know, my constraint mightbe I'm not recovering enough
between training sessionsbecause I'm in fat loss.
You just might have amicronutrient deficiency,
someone else it might be chronicstress and their cortisol is
always elevated.
And that is where thepersonalization piece comes in,

(30:02):
not as a luxury but a necessityto be efficient.
I'd rather be efficient becauseto me that saves more time and
money down the road anyway, evenif it requires a little bit of
investment upfront.
I can't tell you how many toolsI've invested in for my
business that another coachwould say, oh, I can't spend 50

(30:23):
bucks on that.
And it's like you goimmediately to thinking about
the cost rather than thinkingabout the return.
Right, thinking about thereturn, now you have to have the
money first, or the time, orthe resource or whatever.
So, pick the thing that youhave.
That's my point.
Pick the thing that you do have.
Okay, now, if you don't do this,you're just guessing and you're
going to spend monthsoptimizing something that isn't
the issue, if you optimize it atall, and it might actually make

(30:43):
it worse, or it's simply justnot going to produce a result
and you're going to befrustrated and then think none
of this stuff works.
Or you do something silly likecutting carbs when you probably
need more carbs.
Okay, just, you know carbs area boogeyman of mine.
Cutting carbs is, I should say,just you know carbs are a

(31:03):
boogeyman of mine.
Cutting carbs is, I should say,you know you end up solving for
the wrong variable, and thenthat wastes time and money.
And now I want you to be honestwith yourself right now.
Think about your history.
Okay, if you're 45, if you're40, if you're 60 right now and
you're listening to the show,it's because you want to learn
something and you want to getbetter when it comes to your
health and fitness.
It also probably, it's alsoprobably true that you've
struggled your whole life insome way with the health and
fitness, and there's a reasonfor that, and usually that is

(31:23):
because you're not sure what todo.
And, of course, if you do knowwhat to do, you're not applying
it consistently right.
And there's a root cause.
There's a constraint somewhere.
The constraint could have to dowith your mindset and your
system for making yourself do itand I say making normally I
don't use that word, butsometimes getting a habit going

(31:44):
does require us to put in placesome mistake-proofing elements
that it's inevitable that we doit right.
It kind of it forces you into it, no matter what right.
And it could be a little thinglike packing your gym bag before
the night, before you go to thegym in the morning.
So it's one less piece offriction, right?
Little things like that.
So it requires intentionalityand attention.

(32:05):
Not just intention, butattention.
You have to pay attention tothis stuff, folks.
You can't just binge my podcastand move on with your day.
Now.
Maybe if you listen to me overand over and over and over again
, it'll suck in your brainthrough osmosis, through your
cerebral spinal fluid, and thenyou'll like like an automaton.
You'll just start doing thisand you'll get jacked and
swollen.
You know lean and strong, but Idoubt it.

(32:25):
It requires some volition onyour part and obviously I'm
being sarcastic but seriously,some people go about their life
that way, thinking that just theinformation coming in is enough
to get them going.
It's not.
You have to take the action,you have to be intentional.
Most people can just do that bystarting tracking the basics
your training performance, yournutrition intake, your

(32:46):
subjective levels of whateveryou care about energy recovery.
Is your digestion not great?
I tried taking fiber gummiesrecently.
I stopped taking them andthere's a reason I did because
I'm tracking my digestion andhow I feel and because of that
alone I knew I should not betaking these gummies let's just
put it that way, okay, and it'sprobably some other ingredient

(33:07):
in there besides the fiber.
That's not so great for me.
And these things cost nothing.
Tracking things cost nothing alittle bit of time.
But the time is going to payback immediately because if a
pattern emerges, great.
If not, then great too, becauseyou know it's not in that data.
Right, that data is not goingto tell you what you need to
know.
And there's something else thatdoes, and this is where you can
go into higher levels of returnon investment activities, like,

(33:31):
like I mentioned, macro factorbefore.
Right, that's a paid app.
You can get very precise.
You can get workout apps.
You can hire a coach.
You can hire a trainer.
You can get targeted precise.
You can get workout apps.
You can hire a coach.
You can hire a trainer.
You can get targeted blood workany of those things.
I don't want you to do all ofthem right now.
I want you to pick kind ofnarrow in with the fishbone on
the thing that would make themost sense.
If you're not sure, send me amessage on Instagram at what's
in wait, say hey, philip, Ilistened to your fishbone
diagram is a really powerfultool.

(34:02):
It works no matter what yourbudget is.
It's a universal method.
It's find the constraint,address it, move to the next one
and what changes is just howmuch data you have to work with
and how quickly you can identifythat bottleneck.
So, given that, what are thehigh ROI or the high return on
investment interventions that Iwould say constitute the real

(34:24):
meat of personalized health?
Okay, and I'm going to give youfive.
I'm going to give you fiveinterventions.
The first one is, of course,strength training, strength
training with progressiveoverload, where you are tracking
your lifts, you're writing themdown or putting them in a log.
I personally use Boost Campright now.
Obviously, we're developing anapp and it may have workout
tracking.
I'm not 100% sure yet if itmakes sense, but you're going to

(34:47):
make sure that the weight orthe reps are increasing over
time primarily those twovariables.
There's other, more complicated,periodized approaches to
training.
Don't worry about it.
If you're getting started withthis, it's the weight going up
and or the reps.
This single practice, trackingyour progression in the gym, is
probably more valuable than anyother supplement or recovery

(35:07):
modality and really justrequires your attention.
You can do this in a physicalnotebook and, of course, you
have to go to the gym and workout.
Okay, that goes without saying,but seriously, that's more
accessible than ever today.
That's the first one.
The second high ROI is eatingplenty of protein.
Now you're like oh no, philip,I know what you're doing.

(35:28):
Now You're just going to listthe normal things you talk about
all the time.
Yeah, you know why.
Because they work, and Ialready said earlier that I'm
not trying to sell you someamazing shiny object secret to
everything you know lose 20pounds in 20 days, cockamamie,
bs.
I'm just trying to sell youwhat actually works, based on
the evidence that you can findfor free, and hopefully just
reinforce these things so youdon't go off on a different path

(35:50):
.
Don't listen to the gym brotalking about the latest and
greatest weird intervention orsupplement.
Okay, so protein requires thatyou track, measure and or weigh
your food in some way, and again, we have new technology like AI
doing it with a photo.
That can make it super, supereasy.
It might not be perfectlyaccurate, but you know what it
doesn't really have to be.

(36:11):
It just needs to be in theballpark.
10 to 30%, close enough isactually close enough, versus
not tracking at all.
And then you say, okay, this iswhat I am doing, this is where
I'd like to be.
Here's the gap.
Okay, here's what I've measuredas the gap.
Really, the only investment isprobably a food scale at that
point, which is like 10 bucks,five bucks, 10 bucks.

(36:32):
You know, lightning deal onAmazon, seven bucks, whatever.
That'll last you the next five,10 years and that's it.
Okay, that's so.
The second one is protein.
So I think protein is super,super important, along with
training.
Third is monitoring your sleep.
Now here's where you're like oh, no, I need to get an aura ring
or whoop or something like that.
No, just track when you go tobed and wake up, on average, how

(36:52):
long is your sleep and how doyou feel, and then notice the
patterns between that and stuffyou're doing in your routine.
And come on, you guys know someof this right.
I know that when I'm watchingTV before I go to sleep, I have
way worse sleep than when Idon't, even if the hours are the
same.
I mean, lately I've been doinga great job of just reading a
book in bed with my blueblockers on.

(37:14):
I naturally just get kind ofyou know, tired.
I fall asleep and I feel greatthe next morning.
In fact, sometimes I wake up ahalf hour earlier than I
intended to because I'm just sowell rested and it yes, it shows
in my aura ring and my sleepstages.
But it doesn't mean you have totrack that, those levels.
I'm sorry.
You know wearable device makers, I love technology as much as
the next person, but you don'thave to do that.

(37:35):
How long when you go to bed andwake up?
How do you feel?
What is the pattern?
All right, number four out offive.
High intervention, high ROIinventions Okay, and I'm a big
fan of this right now, and thatis strategic labs blood work at
the appropriate intervals andthe right kind of blood work for
you.
This topic gets a little bitcomplicated.

(37:56):
I just came out with an episodeabout performance blood work.
Go listen to that.
It's specifically on this topic.
You don't need every hormonepanel.
You don't need every autoimmunelab marker lab.
You don't need hundreds andhundreds of markers.
You need the ones that areimportant to inform your
training and nutrition decisions.
So I'm not necessarily talkingabout your normal physical labs,

(38:19):
although those tend to come forthe ride right Blood count and
lipids and things like that.
I'm talking about hormones andvitamins and nutrient
deficiencies.
You know albumin, like.
There's a whole bunch ofmarkers.
I'm not going to actually listthem here, but there's some
things a lot of people are justdeficient in generally, like
vitamin D or magnesium.
Some people have thyroiddysfunction and it's just nice

(38:41):
to know that.
You know everything's prettyoptimal, so I'm good, I don't
have to worry about that.
Or hey, you know what thesethings are sticking out.
Let me see what theinterventions are for them and,
of course, full disclosure.
We offer a performance bloodwork analysis Now.
If you go to witsandweightscomslash blood work, you can get
that analysis Now.
Again, I will file this under.

(39:01):
It's going to cost more than atypical intervention because
it's a performance-based lab andit's out of pocket.
It's not covered by insurance.
Insurance won't cover thesesorts of things unless you can
somehow convince your doctorthat you have all these
potential issues.
Therefore, you need to checkthese exact labs.
Even then, all you're going toget are the numbers.
What we do is take thosenumbers, compare them against

(39:22):
20,000 plus calculations, 4,000plus patterns to identify the
relationships between them andwhat that means for your root
causes.
Those exact labels in the fishbone that are causing the head
of the fish to express thoseblood values for you, based on
performance ranges, not sicknessranges, not population or

(39:44):
normal ranges, but performanceor optimal ranges.
And this could honestly be yourbiggest single expense this
year if you do it.
I'm going to be totally honest,right, but we're talking about
information that could save youyears and years and years of
figuring it out, and you onlyhave to do it once, or maybe
twice if you want a follow-up,you know, and then it's up to
you as far as you see howvaluable it is to you.
So go to whatsaweightscom.
Slash bloodwork.

(40:05):
I do think bloodwork is veryhigh ROI because of how
scientific and objective it is.
It's incredible to be able todo that.
And then the fifth thing hereis, as far as high ROI
inventions.
It's kind of a trick question.
It's kind of a what am I tryingto say?
It's kind of a tricky item, andthat is the feedback loop.

(40:25):
Okay, the feedback loop itself,where you test, you measure,
you iterate,self-experimentation.
It costs you nothing.
It does cost a little bit ofdiscipline and intention.
It does, but that is actuallyone of the biggest ROI
interventions you can do.
And notice again, it's not acop-out, because that will then

(40:45):
lead to all the other thingsthat might work for you as a
person.
Okay, and I added up thenumbers for all these things, if
you do them efficiently, itcosts less than what you spend
for your streaming services andfor your coffee at Starbucks on
an annualized basis.
But think about what the returnis.
That's all I'm going to sayabout that, okay.
So again, out of all thesethings, the one we can help with

(41:06):
that you have to throw a littlemoolah at is probably the
performance, blood work,analysis.
And I don't get most of thatmoney.
Most of that goes toward thelab, because the lab is included
and they do great work and youknow I have.
I had this done myself at a labcorp.
Go to witsandweightscom slashblood work to find out what
constraint potentially isholding you back.
I want to address somethingdirectly as we close out here.

(41:27):
Right, Maybe you're someone whocan afford a lot of these
things the blood work, thecoaching, very high quality
nutrition.
Maybe you can't afford all this.
Maybe you're listening You'relike, yeah, phillip, why do you
keep talking about money?
It's fine, you know I get it,and I don't know how many of you
listening are in that categoryversus.
You know it's a tough decisionthat you have to figure out.
Or even you know you're gettingby paycheck to paycheck.

(41:49):
I don't know, you know, I don'tknow.
I think health is important toeveryone and everyone has to
approach it from where they aretoday.
But some of you feel like thisis self-indulgent, selfish, Like
why am I prioritizing all thisstuff when I've got a family to
take care of?
And should I be going to thegym?
Should I be doing all thesethings?
I've got my kids' retirement.
I'm trying to save for kids'activities throughout the week.

(42:11):
This is my brain going ahead ofmyself.
Maybe you are saving forretirement.
Maybe you are helping otherfamily members and you're like
should I be spending this kindof money on myself for this
stuff?
All right, and what I want youto understand is that investing
in your health is not selfish.
It's not it's in yourself-interest, but it's also in

(42:36):
the interest of everyone aroundyou everyone you support,
everyone you love for you to bethe best version of yourself.
Everyone around you, everyoneyou support, everyone you love
for you to be the best versionof yourself.
And it could also be extremelyselfless to future versions of
these people who would otherwisehave to take care of you and
spend money on you becauseyou've gotten very sick and
diseased in old age, which youdon't have to do.
When you have more energy today, you show up better for your

(42:56):
family.
When you're strong and healthy,you're more productive at work
and you're confident.
When you feel good in your body, you're more present in your
relationships.
Taking care of yourself is nottaking away from others.
It's what allows you to givemore to others.
The alternative is ignoringyour health until you're forced
to deal with it reactively, andthat is way more expensive.

(43:17):
You know it is.
How many times have you had anissue that came up because you
neglected something over theyears and now it costs way more
expensive to deal with it andthis goes for physical things
too, like not taking care ofyour car or your house or you
know whatever and then it's farmore disruptive.
It's annoying at a minimum,it's highly disruptive and
costly to you and other peopleat its worst worse sorry, not

(43:41):
worst.
So if, if you've been holdingback on some of these
investments that you can affordright and it feels like a luxury
, you've got the permissionright now to reframe it, however
, you need to reframe it.
That this is me maintainingmyself.
This has been preventing, youknow, sickness in the future.
It's preventative care.
This is investing in theinfrastructure and the system
that supports everything else Iwant to do in life.

(44:04):
Now, when we talk about makingpersonalized health accessible,
I do want to be clear aboutsomething important.
Accessibility does not meancompromising on quality or
effectiveness.
It doesn't mean cheap, cheapand ineffective.
It means removing theartificial barriers that this
industry fitness industry,wellness industry, whatever you
want to call it has erected.

(44:25):
They've put up these hugebarriers around something that
should be very straightforward.
How do I know this?
Well, not only do I see itonline.
I talk to real people every daywhose friends and family
members are telling them crazystuff.
So I don't swear on thispodcast.
I'm sorry, guys, but justimagine what I would have said.
Crazy stuff every day.
They send me messages likeso-and-so, said well, they're,

(44:47):
you know, they're just going tocook carbs now and go on
carnivore or whatever to getthat because it's not working
for them.
And they're like I wish theycould just listen to your show
or I wish I could just connectthem with you.
And you know what?
I'm not going to be the one toreach out to them and say hey,
this, your, your friend, saidthey're concerned about you
because you decided to cut carbs.
You know how great carbs are.
Of course I'm not going to dothat.
How do I?
I'm not going to convincepeople right, they need to be

(45:09):
ready to make that choice andunfortunately the wellness
industry has just put out ofsmoke.
But the evidence-based approachto optimizing your health is
naturally more accessiblebecause it focuses on what works
, per science, per cause andeffect.
It's not profitable, at leastit's not the most profitable.
It can be profitable if you'rea really good provider who is

(45:30):
helpful to people and providesvalue and the people get a
result.
Of course people are willing topay for that.
I pay really good money for thebusiness coaches that really
help me with my business and I'mhappy to do it because the
return is there.
It's not about the cost, it'sabout the return right, and we
can dumb this down, not dumbthis down.
We can reduce this down tolittle day to day decisions.

(45:50):
When someone says, oh yes, I geta lot of my protein through
collagen supplements, I'm likemy first question is assuming
they've given me permission toask them questions is why are
you taking collagen?
And they're like wondering whyI asked.
But I have a legitimate reasonand they say, well, I'm taking
it because I don't know.
It's a way to get proteinthrough supplements.
Or they say I like it becauseof skin, hair, nails, the fact

(46:14):
that collagen protein is veryinefficient and it's expensive.
So you're kind of wasting yourmoney and you're not getting
very much protein.
You're better off eating foodor using whey protein and those
little decisions will actuallysave you money, even though you
think you're doing somethingthat is helping right.
Or same thing with EAAs.
If you're not training fasted,you don't need EAAs essential
amino acids they're a waste ofmoney.

(46:35):
Stop taking them, right, ifyou're taking 20 supplements,
maybe five or 10 of those areunnecessary for you right now.
I don't know.
We'd have to look at them.
You know people invest in likereally fancy equipment and I
have nothing against things liketonal or Bowflex or whatever.
But I had a Bowflex years agoand I did it just because of the
fancy infomercial.
It really made me think, oh,this is like the easy way to get
jacked, you know, in a smallfootprint, and it's not that

(46:57):
money, it's only, you know, forthe low, low price of whatever.
But what's more important isthe principle of progressive
overload.
Even if you have mediocreequipment and gym access, you
can actually make really goodprogress.
You know sleep, going to bedand waking up at the same time
is going to matter far more thanany biohacking or measurement
device for sleep until you'vedialed that in.

(47:24):
So the tools that move theneedle are pretty much free
Tracking measurement.
Some tools are a little moreexpensive that also move the
needle, like blood work, likecertain apps that you have to
pay for, like trainers andcoaches.
So it depends on what's withinreach.
But if you focus on the rightthing, you can then decide what
to prioritize right, and this iswhy structured coaching at a
reasonable price point can existright, and it's why something
like the blood work service weprovide I think it saves money

(47:47):
in the long run when it comes tohealthcare and lab work.
I really do, because you're ableto address the things that
actually matter rather thanwondering, and so it's not so
much a compromise or trade-off,it's focusing on the best signal
right now and going after that,and whatever decisions you can
make today, those are going tocompound over time.
Better health leads to betterdecisions, better decisions lead
to better outcomes, and thatleads to more opportunities in

(48:10):
all these other things outsideof your health as well.
It's not linear, it'sexponential, it's abundance, and
to me that's not elitist, thatis not self-indulgent, that's
just very, very smart, veryintelligent.
So if you're intelligent, whichI think you are you're
listening to this podcast Go outand do the fishbone diagram To
find out some of yourconstraints that you might focus
on, to think about it, at leastbe intentional about it, and

(48:32):
then take the next step and, ofcourse, if you're ready, to
start building a Very systematicdata-driven approach and build
that system together with helpand you can afford it and it
makes sense for you as aninvestment.
Come check us out at PhysiqueUniversity.
Don't even join until you'vechecked it out.
Go to winstonweightscom slashphysique.
We have a lot of information onthere, including a demo video
of me walking through theplatform, which keeps getting

(48:53):
better and better every day.
I can't even keep up with it.
I need to make these demos likeevery other week because we
keep adding new features.
Use my code free plan all oneword free plan and you're going
to get the custom nutrition planincluded.
So when you go to checkout,check the box that says add the
nutrition plan for $97, put thecode free plan and it's going to
drop to zero.

(49:13):
All right, go, take advantageof that.
That structured coaching,evidence-based training, support
, accountability, accelerationVery accessible, very affordable
.
All right, until next time.
Keep using your wits whilelifting those weights and
remember your health isn't aluxury.
It is the foundation ofeverything else you want to
build.
Talk to you next time here onWits and Weights.

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Is Personalized Health a Luxury or a Necessity? (Fishbone Diagram) | Ep 381

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Is Personalized Health a Luxury or a Necessity? (Fishbone Diagram) | Ep 381