New Year and New Habits with Adam Boyd

This episode features a discussion on transforming New Year’s resolutions into effective, sustainable goals by focusing on long-term vision and habit formation. Adam Boyd emphasizes manageable strategies for personal health and organizational leadership, encouraging listeners to embrace gradual progress toward their objectives.

• Aligning goals with personal values 
• The importance of establishing manageable habits 
• Commitment to a consistent routine for lasting change 
• Breaking down larger organizational goals into smaller steps 
• Setting realistic health expectations based on gradual progress 
• The role of nutrition in sustainable fitness 
• Combining cardio and strength training for overall health

Our show sponsor, Telegenix, offers a 37% discount on all wellness resources for first responders and their spouses. 

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Transcript

Forming Habits for Success

Speaker 1 0:02

Welcome to Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates , where leaders find the insights , advice and encouragement they need to lead courageously .

Travis Yates 0:11

Welcome back to the show . I'm so honored you decided to spend a few minutes with us here today , and it's 2025 , the new year is here and everybody is looking ahead for the goals and purposes of the new year , and I couldn't think of a better guest to have on to launch 2025 than Adam Boyd . Adam has been here before . He's been a guest here before . He's an OG , so to speak , a veteran law enforcement officer and owner of Soleful Training . Adam Boyd , how are you doing , sir ?

Adam Boyd 0:42

I'm doing great Thanks for having me on again , adam Boyd . How are you doing , sir ?

Travis Yates 0:44

I'm doing great Thanks for having me on again . So tell us about the New Year's resolutions , right ? We all know what the research says . People start them , they stop them . It doesn't work very well . Do you believe in the resolutions or do you believe in something else ?

Adam Boyd 0:58

I believe in having your resolutions align with your long-term vision . I think that's one of the missing elements people forget about when they set goals . You know , if I say I want to run a marathon in 2025 , well , why do you want to run a marathon Like ? Why is that significant to you ? And if you can attach some sort of significance to your goal , you're much more likely to stick with it .

Travis Yates 1:21

Yeah , that's one of the things that I've attempted to do . And I don't do the resolutions , adam , but I do take the first of the year to sort of recommit my purpose and some goals . And one of the things I did this year I'm interested to hear your take on this and maybe it helps others is I got one of these 90-day journals and I know why they sell these because it helps you to build habits , right , and it's basically an accountability faith feature with the journal and you can go and you can Google and find a bunch of these out there . But it makes you write these things down and you do these things for 90 days and , of course , you start with an ultimate goal or ultimate goals . Tell us how you do it . If somebody is wanting to start the year . Instead of doing resolutions , let's talk about how do you form habits . What's the best way to do that ?

Adam Boyd 2:10

Well , first start off with something that's not overwhelming . You know if you want to , you know we'll keep using the marathon example You're not going to go out there and run a 10 mile run on your first day . You may do 10 minutes and you want to make it into manageable chunks and have a psychological connection with whatever you're doing , if you can make it enjoyable . So if I say I'm going to run a marathon and I go out there and I bust my hump the very first day and I'm sore , I'm tired and everything hurts , I'm going to have a negative association with that activity . Now , if I can do it on a small level to make me keep wanting more , then you're going to draw back to that activity and you're more likely to complete whatever your goal is if you make it manageable and you make it enjoyable .

Travis Yates 3:02

Yeah , and of course most people are wanting to get fit right . They talk about losing weight and this and that , and we all know the gyms would be really busy for the first couple weeks of the year and then people fall out of that habit . So building a habit , you're saying make it manageable , make it enjoyable . How long do you have to do something on a regular basis to sort of formulate that habit ?

Adam Boyd 3:23

About 90 days , which is right on par with the journal that you have . It takes about that long to kind of connect those new neural pathways into saying like this is what I do now , this is my norm .

Travis Yates 3:37

Yeah , in the middle of winter , when I see the people out running , when there's ice on the street , you have to think that's those neural pathways you just talked about . They have to run just because it's they have to or they don't feel right . You're an ultra runner , adam . I know people know your background . Is that something that ? Am I making sense there ?

Adam Boyd 3:56

Yeah , you're making perfect sense . It becomes like a have to . Like I don't feel like myself unless I'm doing you know this activity or that activity . Like I don't feel like myself unless I'm doing you know this activity or that activity . And that's the point where you want to get to is where , like the activity that's good for you and the one that aligns with your goals and your vision , you have to do it every day or you just don't feel right .

Travis Yates 4:17

Yeah , I'm going to come back to the fitness , sam , but I wanted to transition to leadership in a minute , because you may have leaders out there that have goals for this next year . It has nothing to do with personal goals or fitness goals . It may just be for an organization . Right , I want my organization to do this or do that . Let's attribute and talk about those habits they need to set down and basically write a map of how they're going to get there and have those high points as manageable . Because if you say , hey , I want my department to become accredited , regardless of whatever curse word you put in front of that , whatever it is , I want my department to become accredited Well , you can't just get there tomorrow .

Travis Yates 4:57

You have to form some habits and constructively do some things to get there . So what you're saying is they should set manageable goals along that path and then , at the end , you actually get there . I'll attribute this the other way . If somebody wants to write a book and I've been through this you can't think about the end of the book . You can't . This is too much . You think of it page by page , chapter by chapter , little by little , and by the end of the end of the year , the year into that time period , you've accomplished it right , and so if you look at it this way , that's , you know , we're always trying to improve .

Adam Boyd 5:30

So let's say you want your , uh , your officer , everybody's writing 30 tickets a month . You know , I know , you know we can't do quotas , but you know , for argument's sake here , well , if 30 , 30 exhaust you every month and then you want to improve on that , they're going to look at 35 and be like man , this is just going to wear me out . And then you know , the next month , 40 , 45 , and it keeps going . And you just keep pushing everybody's limits where if you can start at like 10 , and you're like I can do 10 , I can do 15 , right , you know 10 is not a big deal . And you're like I can do 10 , I can do 15 , right , you know 10 is not a big deal . And then all of a sudden you're at 40, . You know , six months down the road , because you slowly build up and make it more manageable and psychologically it just feels more attainable .

Travis Yates 6:16

Yeah , it makes sense Forming the habit , whether it's fitness or whether it's organizational goals , whether it's trying to write a book , whatever it is , whether it's organizational goals , whether it's trying to write a book , whatever it is , you have to first form the productivity and the habit going into that to actually do it , because we could sit here all day long and say I would have done this or I would have done that , but until you actually put it into work and practice it , it's not going to happen . I'll take it back to the book , because I'm familiar with that . I've talked about a book for years , but it wasn't until I wrote down exactly what I had to do every day to accomplish that that that ended up happening . Right , Because you just have to put it as a priority . And I will back up to fitness , because I bet most people listen to us , because most people have these fitness goals or weight loss goals in the first year . Let's back up and talk about that Same thing .

Travis Yates 7:03

You have to form a habit , you have to have manageable goals . Kind of expand on that when it comes to fitness . Adam .

Adam Boyd 7:11

Well , you know , one of the other things I really like to do when it comes to goal setting is right next to my goal , I write down what am I truly willing to give up to get that goal ? So I want to run a marathon , you know . Am I going to give up family time ? Am I giving up friday nights with the boys ? Am I giving up and not ? And not what it sounds good like . What am I willing to give up ? But what are you truly willing to give up to start hitting those goals ? Because the behavior you're exhibiting today needs to be different than what you're going to exhibit tomorrow .

Travis Yates 7:45

Yeah , that's huge . That's huge . You know I'll go back once again . It's not right in the book , but when I got my doctorate I had to really evaluate is this worth what I'm having to give up ? Because I did give up time with family , I did give up time doing recreational activities , and so you have to evaluate , because if you don't and it's competing interest , like if you're constantly competing with other things that's not going to happen right , it's not going to work , and so you have to really evaluate that . So you're saying at the very beginning you have to front load all this information before you start forming that habit yeah , and front load your hurdles .

Adam Boyd 8:21

You know every big goal is going to have , not probably not just one , but a multitude of hurdles you're going to have to get over and to be able to plan for those and and that way , when they show up , you have the ability to execute , because it doesn't blindside you .

Adam Boyd 8:35

It's just like any . It's like a tactical plan as well . Right , if you're planning for like a several contingencies , you're like all right , we're going to make entry into the east , the East , and then you get there and you realize that the there's something you didn't account for on the East end of that house , but you got to reevaluate on the West end . Well , if you've already planned for both entries , you're just going to smoothly transition . It's going to be the same thing when it comes to your fitness goals . Understand , you're not going to be motivated some mornings to get up and go for the workout . You may not be motivated to eat , right , you may not be motivated after a long shift to do the thing . But if you can plan , have a contingency plan for how , those , how you're going to overcome those feelings , you'll be much more successful .

Speaker 1 9:19

One of the other things that go ahead .

Travis Yates 9:23

Well , that's huge when you talk about hurdles , because there's going to be hurdles in anything . I'll give you an example . You know , let's say you're on a weight loss journey or you're working out and you're in a habit and then all of a sudden you get sick . Or all of a sudden , one week you weigh and you didn't lose weight . You gain weight or you go on a vacation and it throws your schedule off .

Travis Yates 9:43

Those hurdles are going to always happen and that's a huge thing to be concerned about , because if you break that cycle , that habit you're trying to build , that's why you see people that first two weeks of January they're going after it and then maybe they don't go a day or two , then it's a week , then it's two weeks . Everybody I think can listen to this , can kind of identify with this . You get out of that habit . That's why in the first 90 days , like you said , plan for the hiccups , plan for the obstacles and overcome the obstacles . Hey , if you miss a day , get up earlier the next morning and go , or go twice the next day , or whatever it is and be flexible with yourself .

Adam Boyd 10:26

You know law enforcement schedule is not easy . You know you may work a homicide or a fatal for 20 24 hours . Uh , give yourself some grace , prioritize some rest as well , and then just get back on it the next day , or maybe it's two or three days later , um , and just give yourself some grace and some flexibility , but always get back to the I gotta do the thing . I got to do the thing I have to do , whatever it is . And I remember when I first ran my first 100 miler I was about mile 80 or so I was completely broken down . I mean , my ears hurt everything , I mean my fingernails hurt , everything hurts .

Adam Boyd 11:01

And I remember I think it was a buddy of mine now , you know , I'm sitting in the chair and I'm all kind of broke down he said , uh , he signed up to do something hard . I said , yeah . He said , well , this is what hard feels like . And I think most people , um , romanticize doing difficult things when they really get into the weeds . They have to understand what it actually feels like to do something difficult . And you know it doesn't have to be an ultra and you know it doesn't have to be an ultra marathon . Changing your diet is difficult .

Speaker 1 11:30

Starting a workout regimen is difficult .

Adam Boyd 11:33

You know , the nervous system always prefers a familiar hell over a familiar heaven or an unfamiliar heaven . And the most minor change in your routine could throw your nervous system off and makes you a little uncomfortable .

Travis Yates 11:49

Yeah , that's a great point . I'm not sure how many people can identify with the 80 miles , but they can obviously identify with trying to do something that's hard , right , I'm a big believer in trying to do hard things , you know , and keep it up . You know I've in years past I've started jujitsu , I've started trying to play the guitar , All these things that are hard not 80 miles , not 100 miles but things often get in the way when you're trying to do things hard , because I think your natural inclination is to pull back from that , is it not ?

Adam Boyd 12:19

It is because you want to go back to that comfort zone I promised myself , no matter what , I would get 20 minutes in a day . I don't care if I had a 20 mile run schedule . If life got in the way I would do 20 minutes of jumping jacks , it doesn't matter . Like I made sure that the non-negotiable for me was just 20 minutes on a training day and I hit it more times than not . I mean , sometimes life really gets in the way and you have to adjust . But if you don't have to make sure to give yourself some flexibility and what you're supposed to do too , um , you know , I don't really feel like doing a 20 mile run today . Well , maybe your body , your mind's not up for it . Maybe that's a new lifting day , or maybe you do a five miler instead , um , and then you'll start to learn over time , like when you need it versus like when you , when you just want a break and you're just not mentally up for a big day .

Travis Yates 13:11

So I think we've covered sort of the foundational . You've got to build habits , you've got to build in you know the obstacles . You've got to sort of overcome that . Writing things down it's for the

Healthy Eating and Weight Management

Travis Yates 13:24

long term . Let's let's transition to what a lot of people are probably thinking , which is health and fitness . So we talk about diet . We obviously I know you and I both don't believe in diets . We don't believe in fad diets . We believe in a lifestyle . So somebody has to truly get healthier and I think hopefully they want to . Um , there's a bunch of miss misinformation out there . Everywhere you look there's somebody trying to tell you the easy way and the quick fix . What are just some top items they could be doing immediately to try to help them get healthier .

Adam Boyd 13:52

Immediately . Add protein and fiber into your diet and make your snacks accessible . You know , if you got grapes or nuts out in a bowl or you have candy out in a bowl , we're inevitably going to graze when we're in our house . Right , You're back and what are you going ?

Adam Boyd 14:08

to do . You're going to reach your hand in the candy dish or the cookie jar , or you can make it something a little bit more healthy . You can put uh , you know walnuts out there , you can put grapes out there , and the same thing for our patrol guys when they're inside their cars . You know , have a . You can get , like a , ready protein shakes that , like Costco or Sam's Club , have those available protein bar . You know something that's reasonably healthy and that's going to fill you up . Have some . I like to pair my protein with a fruit , so I get some fiber , I get some micronutrients and I get my protein and that's a great snack to help keep you full for a little while to get you through to your next meal .

Travis Yates 14:50

Yeah , and just like you talked about with goal setting has to be manageable . So if somebody is listening and they got to lose 50 pounds , you're going to have to manage those expectations . So maybe instead of saying I want to lose 50 pounds tomorrow , you go , you know what . Let's try to lose five pounds a month . Let's do what it takes to lose one pound a week . Right , and that's not actually that difficult by doing a few things . What you just said on the diet add water . I believe you know 64 plus ounces on water . It's probably a way to calculate that based on weight . I've always heard every pound is an ounce , but start with . Start with several glasses of water a day and that's going to keep you from being hungry . And then adding that protein , I mean . And then just moving , not having to go do a bunch of crazy HIIT workouts and all cross-fitted out , I mean just moving with that probably gets you on your way to that one pound a week does it not ?

Adam Boyd 15:46

Yeah , there's some extra movement you could probably add in . Change your diet a little bit and start adding in after dinner walks and you'll probably get there . You know , you'll lose that pound a week . Uh , just by making some minor changes . You don't have to do anything crazy . Uh , in the reality of it , if you get a good workout program , they're boring . Great , great workout programs for performance , weight loss , whatever it is . It's boring because you're doing the same stuff day in and day out . And if you can mentally wrap your mind around that in the beginning that it's gonna suck , it's gonna be boring . I just need to make minor changes and look at , look at the long game . You , you'll be successful .

Travis Yates 16:26

I mean , I think everybody listening to this Adam would say I'll take that deal one pound a week . But we have such a short-term memory , we want it fast , we want it now , right . And so you'll see people jump out of a chute . I mean , they'll lose 15 , 20 pounds in six weeks and then something happens and they go right back to the old habits , right . That's why it's really important , if you're serious about this , take it slow to go fast , right . Which is , build out exactly what you have to do . Make it manageable . Don't , like you said , don't keep yourself from enjoyment , right . If you want to have Mexican food once a week , have Mexican food once a week , right . I think you talk about the 80 20 rule . That's a really great ideology . Kind of explain what that is , adam .

Adam Boyd 17:12

I try to make 80 to 90% of my food intake good quality protein , good fats , quality carbohydrates , and then allow that other 10 , 20% . Allow myself some flexibility and it may not be all at once . It's not like I , monday through Friday , I eat 100% clean and then Saturday I go off the rails and then Sunday I'm back on it . It may be , you know , dinner on Thursday is a burger and fries , but breakfast and lunch was a good quality meal , and then Sunday I may have pizza , or I may have a cookie on Monday night and I sprinkle it in . So it's never something that grabs a hold of me where I'm like I have to have this and I just . I just kind of crush those cravings before they start and have just a little bit of indulgence food throughout the week and then focus mainly on the good quality food majority of the time .

Travis Yates 18:07

I kind of laugh at some of these so-called gurus out there that will say things like calories don't matter , which is really crazy , because they do matter . Let's talk about the best way to sort of track those calories . And how do you lose weight ? Right , because I know we all know it's I believe it's thirty five hundred calories a pound . You could actually do some simple math and figure this out yourself . You don't want to lose too much weight at once because you'll lose muscle mass , right ?

Travis Yates 18:33

We'll kind of talk to people how , uh , if we've got them thinking on the long-term goal and managing those goals and kind of doing some small things , what's the best way to track what you're eating and sort of even anticipating . I actually have an app that literally tells me , if I eat this way , this is how long it will take to lose this much weight , and it's pretty darn accurate . Uh , sort of even anticipating . I actually have an app that literally tells me , if I eat this way , this is how long it will take to lose this much weight , and it's pretty darn accurate .

Adam Boyd 18:59

There's all kinds of that technology out there . Let's talk about calories in calories out . As far as what can help them get more fit ? Well , calories in calories out . I mean I could eat nothing but Twinkies and lose weight if I'm in a caloric deficit .

Adam Boyd 19:15

Uh , the problem you run into long-term is that you're not getting the , the macro and the micronutrients to help your body run efficiently .

Adam Boyd 19:17

So it may be you could do it in the short term , but in the longterm , you know you're you're going to cause yourself to lose muscle mass . You can cause yourself a whole host of health conditions because you don't have the vitamins and minerals to help your body run the way it's supposed to . And a good way to go about it is either get an app to track . You can get a coach to help you out . You know there's a lot of qualified , you know nutrition specialists out there , and a good rule of thumb is about a two to 300 calorie deficit per day will get you about your pound a week . That will also put you in a space where you're not so hungry that you're going to overindulge , but you're not going to lose the weight fast . It's just going to be a little bit and then a little bit and if you do two , three hundred calories a day for 30 days , you're looking at what nine thousand calories or something .

Adam Boyd 20:11

I didn't do the math in my head well , that , yeah , about we could be talking about .

Travis Yates 20:16

We could be talking about eliminating a two cokes a day , eliminating that candy bar day , right , I mean , and so . But it's important that people know what they're eating . So , just like it's good to write down your monetary spending , to know where you're spending money , it'd be really helpful to write down what you're eating so you can then take a look each week and see , maybe , where the holes were Right .

Adam Boyd 20:39

Yeah , it's great to get a baseline . I kind of eat more intuitively where I've learned my body over time . But if you're just starting out , write it down because you don't know where you're at . As far as a baseline goes , what are you eating on a daily basis ? Lunch , dinner and snacks but some people may just not have . They just go through the day , you know , throwing food and , um , you know , energy drinks down their throat and have no idea how many calories they're consuming . And most people grossly underestimate how much they're actually eating throughout a day .

Travis Yates 21:17

Yeah , that was one thing I figured out . Um , you know , I was tracking this several years ago . I was tracking when I was eating and I figured out that this milkshake that I had was like 900 calories . I'm like that's crazy . You had no idea that I was just throwing down 900 calories like it was nothing right . And , of course , those sugary things that people probably understand they don't quench your hunger , they just give you pleasure . So it wasn't like I was taking the 900 calories and I wasn't hungry anymore . So it's really important to understand that and realize that . And you don't have to go without things . You just have to do , as Adam said , that 80-20 rule .

Effective Fitness Strategies for Longevity

Travis Yates 21:54

Let's switch over to the workout stuff because we deal . I know in law enforcement , a bunch of type A personalities that it's always the macho , macho , macho and they want to run the ultra marathon in a week and this and that . But when we're talking about just getting healthy , sometimes just moving and walking , and you know , doing things like that can be very beneficial if you're just starting out , could it not ?

Adam Boyd 22:16

Yeah , I think walking is probably one of the most underrated activities that's out there . You know , if you're already very fit , it's probably not going to add a ton of value to you , but if you're not doing something already , that is the easiest and the most effective way to start improving your health is just get out for a walk 20 , 30 minutes every day .

Travis Yates 22:38

Yeah , and one of the things that I figured out and I figured it out I took a DNA test and it's very interesting . I don't want to go too deep into it , but they do these DNA tests that sort of tell you what type of fitness , what type of workouts you need to be doing . It sort of honestly predicts how you're going to die . It tries to DNA test and it says you need to be doing this and this . And what it did tell me was I need to be lifting five days a week because I'm prone to losing muscle mass , which is weird . I have over 200 pounds of muscle mass in my body right now , but apparently the next 10 years are going to be doom and gloom for me , according to the DNA gods . And so I've actually lived . I've increased my weightlifting and what I found out was I'm burning calories .

Travis Yates 23:20

I didn't really realize , and cutting back on cardio didn't really hurt me that much . The weight lifting itself was sort of the best of both worlds . It was cardio and it was obviously lifting weights . So talk about that mixture people starting out because they may not have access to a bunch of equipment . Right , because you don't want to neglect everybody has seen the sort of not you , Adam , but the marathon . It looks like they're on death's door now . Right , because they're just skin and bones . It's really important as you get older to pay attention to your muscle mass , right , because you lose muscle mass every year past 30 , essentially . So you've got to continue to build that up . If you don't , everybody knows what I'm talking about . Kind of talk to them about a realistic way to look at working out when it talks about cardio and weight lifting yeah , so the data is pretty clear on this .

Adam Boyd 24:11

Vo2 max and muscle mass are one of the best predictors of longevity . Um , we know , we know your vo2 max tied to your health , so you have lower risk of stroke , heart attack . And when you start hitting about 55 years old , like you said , we lose muscle mass after 30 through a process called sarcopenia . Once 55 sets in , we see a big increase in deaths from falls because we've lost some muscle mass . So we want to make sure that we're training our heart , we're training our lungs , because respiratory illness is another way that can really cause us some harm when we get older . If our diaphragm and our lungs aren't strong enough to handle like a COVID or a respiratory infection , we could be in serious trouble .

Adam Boyd 24:58

But we also want to make sure that we're not taking a fall out of the bathtub or down the stairs or you know whatever it is , and that's going to come with building some muscle mass and having strength at an older age . So if we start combining our training modalities to include cardio , which I know everybody hates , you don't have to be a runner , you know , you can cycle , you can swim , you can play basketball , you can do hit workout . There's a million different ways we can get cardio in uh , but making sure that we're coupling that with a good strength and hypertrophy routine to make sure that we have the muscle mass and strength when we get older to function at a high level well and I want to be realistic with people you don't have to go out and buy a bunch of equipment .

Travis Yates 25:39

I mean you could do do pushups and use these uh , these workout bands . I mean I've seen some folks get incredible uh workout with bands alone , right , yeah , you don't .

Adam Boyd 25:51

you can do a ton of stuff with just body weight . I mean , I have whole programs , uh , just based on your own body weight uh bands .

Adam Boyd 25:58

you can , I would , I like . I don't have a gym in here , cause I live in a really small town . We don't have a local gym , so I've just accumulated equipment . You know , one month I'll buy a kettlebell , a couple months later I'll buy a sandbag . So you don't have to spend an absorbent amount of money on machines and you know Olympic weight sets . Just get creative with what you're doing . I bought a 100-pound sandball . It's the most awkward piece of equipment , but you can do I mean so many different things with it to help build your strength routine and my cardio routine that I don't need to go to a gym . I just started accumulating equipment over time .

Travis Yates 26:37

Sounds like you're on your way to opening the first gym in that community there , adam . So , uh , man , you know we could go on and on , and obviously there's people listening that maybe you don't . You're sort of beyond this basic stuff , but I think for most people it's just going to be very beneficial to listen to what Adam said here . They can obviously contact you for more advanced things . How can they contact you , adam ?

Adam Boyd 27:05

Uh , you can email me at soulfultraining at gmail or give us a shout out on our website , wwwsoulfultrainingcom . You know I'm always happy to answer any questions anybody has .

Travis Yates 27:13

Adam Boyd , you are the man when it comes to this stuff . We can't thank you enough . You're out there helping law enforcement each and every day . Thanks for being here , thanks for the encouragement . Think of us on your next 100 mile run . If you've been listening , if you've been watching , thank you for doing that . Thank you , adam . Just remember , lead on and stay courageous .

Adam Boyd 27:32

Thank you very much .

Speaker 1 27:35

Thank you for listening to Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates . We invite you to join other courageous leaders at www . travisyates . org .