Greg Newlands on Why CEOs Need to Train Like Professional Athletes and His Strategic Approach to Peak Performance

Most CEOs sacrifice their health first when business gets demanding, but fitness coach Greg Newlands argues this approach is backwards. In this episode, Greg reveals why successful entrepreneurs need to think like professional athletes and shares his proven system for maintaining peak performance under pressure.

From his strategic break methodology that prevents burnout to the four essential metrics every founder should track daily, Greg breaks down exactly how to build sustainable health habits that actually enhance productivity rather than compete with it.

This conversation offers a practical roadmap for becoming the high-performing leader your business needs, whether you’re struggling with energy crashes, can’t find time for the gym, or keep falling into the hustle culture trap.

Here’s our full conversation.

Mark MacLeod:

I’ve got a different episode for you this time. I’m not speaking with a Startup CEO. If you’ve been following my content on various channels, then you know that I often talk about the importance of health. I talk about CEOs being basically professional athletes. They’ve got the same expectations on their shoulders.

Therefore, to me, the foundation of excellence, the foundation of being a peak CEO and a peak human is health and wellness. And so I’m really pleased to have Greg Newlands on the podcast. Greg is a professional fitness coach. He coaches entrepreneurs that I know and respect. I’m about to start working with him myself.

So we really unpack all the different aspects of health and wellness. The importance of sleep, the importance of exercise, particularly resistance training, sleep, nutrition, supplementation, mindset, creating boundaries. Lots of actionable advice here. I really hope you enjoy this episode, and I hope it inspires you to get healthier.

Greg, welcome to The Startup CEO Show. It’s a true pleasure to have you here. How are you doing today?

Greg Newlands:

Thank you, man. Yeah, I’m really good. Excited to talk about health and fitness and the things that we’ve got in common as well.

Mark MacLeod:

You know, anyone who’s a regular, either a reader of what I post or a listener to the show, will know that I talk about health and fitness a bunch. I deeply believe that health and wellness are the foundation of peak performance and living a peak life. And far too many CEOs come to me when they can’t keep up anymore. A big part of that is actually that health and wellness thing was the first thing to get sacrificed.

And so I know I’m preaching to the converted with you, but I actually think you’re the best person to kind of help unpack this topic and hopefully convert a few more founders to prioritize health and wellness.

Let’s take a step back, tell folks about you. Just tell us about you, your fitness journey, and your focus today.

Greg Newlands:

Yeah, well, thank you for the kind words first and foremost. Basically, I got into exercise with a gym when I was 17. So prior to that, I always played football, as we say in England, you guys, maybe North America, call it soccer. And then naturally that transpired to me getting a job at the gym when I was 17, and I was working with people who were naturally in better shape than me physically.

And I was a really skinny kid, lacked confidence at that time of life. So it was just a natural thing for me to start to dedicate my time and my energy, my focus to the gym, to build my physique. I felt more powerful, more confident in that, and then that transpired to where I’m at now.

So, I’ve literally been into fitness and this world all my life. I’m now 34, used to work for someone, then started my own company, and then here we are now helping high performers, founders, business owners to maintain peak shape whilst having a busy life, whilst traveling, whilst still being able to enjoy dinners out with family and friends. So that’s basically where my journey is and where I’m at now.

Mark MacLeod:

I vaguely remember being 34. I know it happened, but it was a long time ago. What led you to kind of focus specifically on founders, busy entrepreneurs?

Greg Newlands:

Yeah, so when I was in the UK, I built up a fitness company and we had classes such as yoga, strength and conditioning, boxing, HIIT workouts, and that was a general population from my area where I lived, my town.

Mark MacLeod:

Amazing.

Greg Newlands:

Then, when I moved my business online, I wanted to speak to people through my marketing who were the same as me, very driven, very motivated, very goal-focused, high-achieving, because that’s just who I am. And I wanted to help the people who thought and acted and behaved like me.

So it was just a natural transition to start helping people who are like me. And that’s where we’re at now, helping founders, CEOs, just high-performing people who are busy, who are very ambitious, want to achieve a lot, and are juggling lots of things at the same time.

Mark MacLeod:

Love it. I’m curious, when people show up at your virtual door, are they already fit and now they just want to be really fit, or is it more like, hey, I’m breaking down and I need help, or is it a bit of both?

Greg Newlands:

I would say it’s a mix of two things. I always work with people who have been fit and in shape or are exercising. I don’t work with complete beginners. So, it’s either two categories of people. It’s either people who have previously been in really good shape and then gotten out of shape.

Maybe it was a very stressful time with work, very busy periods. Whether it was sickness or whether it was a divorce, something has essentially got them off track and now they want to accountability to get back on track. They know what they need to do, but it’s being consistent with that that is the key.

And then the other bucket of people is people who have always tried and always gone to the gym, been into sports, but have never achieved the abs, the six pack, or the peak performance that they really have desired. Like some of our mutual friends that we spoke about before this.

And so their goal is to have accountability, but also a system to enable them to achieve the goal.

Mark MacLeod:

I love it, makes a ton of sense. So what I tell my CEOs and audience generally when I write or speak about health is like, and again, so I only coach CEOs of technology companies that have raised venture capital or private equity and that are at scale. And so when you think about it, especially in these days of AI, right, running a technology company, the world’s just changing fast, you need to move really fast.

And then if you’ve raised venture capital, well, now you have these giant expectations on your shoulders. And what I tell my CEOs is basically you’re a mental athlete, right, like LeBron James. Pick your athlete. I’m not a European football fan. It was traumatic. I was a fat motherfucker when I lived in Scotland, and they stuck me in a net so that I couldn’t run. And so soccer actually is traumatizing for me.

But I tell my CEOs, you have the exact same expectations on your shoulders as a professional athlete. And you look at an athlete, and they have a team around them, right? Like cooking them the perfect macro meals, sports psychologist, physio, whatever they need to be peak performing, they get. And I want my CEOs to take that approach.

So I’m guessing that resonates with you, but I’d love your reaction to that and maybe just talk about how what you do fits into that vision.

Greg Newlands:

Yeah, I resonate with that, and your audience does as well, because I had someone join my program after you spoke about that on Our Mutual Friends and my client, Adrian. You mentioned that on his podcast, on the Exit podcast. And yeah, now my clients saw that and joined. So it shows that these words you speak have impact to people. So well done.

If I just look at my own life, if I’m not sleeping well, if I’m not exercising, if I’m not rested, I just don’t perform the same in life and in business. If I look at now, I feel I have incredible energy every day. I feel sharp mentally, physically. I can work long days. I can then go again the next day.

But also at the same time, finish work and then spend time with my partner, be present, and feel good. If I’m tired, stressed, or exhausted, I’m just not the same person for business or for life. So, I mean, for me, it’s monumentally important to a great life and a great business.

Mark MacLeod:

So, maybe let’s talk about that first pillar, sleep. Again, one of the first things to be sacrificed. And in the startup world, there has historically been this bro hustle culture mentality, this stereotype of a young, often male founder in a hoodie pounding coffee or soft drinks, eating pizza, and then coding through the night. It’s a stereotype, but it exists for a reason.

And what I tell my CEOs all the time is like, today’s performance began last night, depending on your sleep. So, I don’t know, maybe just turn it over to you to talk about the importance of sleep, and maybe some practical tips for how folks can get better sleep in their lives.

Greg Newlands:

A few things that come to mind on this was the fact that I see business as a marathon, not a sprint. And this is something that I’m conscious of all the time myself. If I’m thinking everything has to be done for tomorrow, then I’m going to work longer, and I’m going to put a lot of pressure on myself, I’m going to sleep less as well.

When I realize, okay, if I just take that time and I still work hard every day and I’m going to get to that goal anyway, then I can just sleep a little bit more, and the quality of my life is going to be better as well. And on top of that, I was working a lot. Maybe two months ago, I remember going to my girlfriend’s after working a really full couple of days, and I was with her, and I was so tired, and she was looking at me almost like, come on.

And I just felt as a man, I want to be a leader to my clients, in my life, to my family, to my partner. And if I’m only focused on work and I’m so exhausted that I’m useless or just not a leader to those around me, that moment triggered me, and I thought, come on, prioritize rest and recovery. So, I am that leader to those people, but at the same time, when I’m rested and recovered, I can perform so much better at work.

So, I just feel like, yes, I do work till 12 sometimes, but because of the strategies I have in place, I still rest and sleep well. So, something that really helps me is I have strategic rests through the day, and this is something I recommend to lots of clients. So, I’ll wake up and I’ll do a three-hour work block on the morning. Then I will go to the gym. So the gym for me is a time where I’m going to train my body, but it’s also a breakaway from my computer or my phone, from work.

Then I will do another work block, and I will take another strategic break at 2 pm. Now, there’s so many times where I don’t want to take that break. I’m in it but I realized that if I keep working and I don’t take a break, I will then keep working all day, and I’m so exhausted by the end of the day.

However, if I take that strategic break at 2 pm, then I work again after that, and I take another strategic break at 6 pm, I can then keep working till 8-12 at night. And I feel mentally sharp, energized, and focused. So the quality of my work is actually better. It’s more productive.

And then I will sleep well because I’ll relax before bed for an hour, sleep, wake up the next day, and feel great to go again. So I’m able to keep going day after day with energy, with clarity, with focus, and still show up for the people around me, my clients, my partner, in a good way as well. So that’s just some insight into what works well for me and what I’ve recommended to many clients as well.

Mark MacLeod:

I love it. Let’s go into that strategic break because I think for many folks watching or listening, they’re like, oh my God, I can’t, I just need to grind. I need to go from Zoom meeting to Zoom meeting. Like, how long is your break?

Greg Newlands:

So, at 2 pm, 1 hour, 6 pm, 1 hour. That’s when I eat, and obviously, when I’m in the gym, it’s a 45-minute workout. By the time I’m there, come home, one hour. So key things for me are when I take a strategic break, it’s no phone, it’s no computer. And like I say, there are times when it’s very, very difficult. I have to be very disciplined because I’m wanting to get my phone, send another message, maybe answer a client, maybe a proposal, whatever it is, I have to be very disciplined. But I know the benefit of doing that because I’ve tested this and I can work, like I say, longer with more focus and more energy.

And then also what I do, Mark, is when I’m on that break, I will listen to music, just calm music. So you can go on Spotify and write calming music, spa music, yoga music. And I know you’re into yoga, so you understand this. So, that allows my body to just relax, feel calm, and then I’m ready to go in my next work block.

Sometimes that strategic break involves me sitting on a sofa. Sometimes it’s going for a walk. It’s whatever I feel like I need. I’m very in tune with my body and my mind. Okay, Greg, what do I feel like I need in this moment? Do I just want to sit, or am I going to eat, or am I going to go for a walk? And I’ll do one of those options with the music at the same time.

Mark MacLeod:

What are your thoughts on naps? Are they good?

Greg Newlands:

Yeah, again, that comes back to listening to my body. Sometimes my strategic break is from 2 till 3. Sometimes that will be a 30-minute nap. Sometimes I just feel I need it, and I’ll give my body that. If I go back four or five years ago that would never have been the case. I was someone who wanted to just keep on working and working until I kept on burning out. And I just thought to myself, okay, am I going to learn from this, or am I going to just keep on repeating my same behavior?

And what I do, Mark, is I always put everything to a fitness parallel so I can see it from a different perspective. And if I were going to the gym five days a week and never ever changing, never improving how I looked and felt, I would think, okay, I need to look at my nutrition and my training. I need to change something, otherwise I’m just an idiot for expecting a different outcome.

So it’s the same thing when I kept on burning out and being exhausted. I thought I need to change what I’m doing, otherwise I’m going to repeat this cycle for the rest of my life. I don’t want to do that. I don’t feel empowered. I’m not showing up as a leader to my partner, to my clients. And so that was a change for me. It was a big, insightful moment for me. That’s when things changed. When I last had a big burnout.

Mark MacLeod:

Let’s talk about burnout for a second. It’s certainly very common for the high-charge entrepreneurs that you and I both work with. How did you recognize you were burning out? What did you experience, and how was it that you ended up identifying that as burnout?

Greg Newlands:

I mean, the last time I burnt out, I literally was so exhausted, the thought of working on my computer, on my phone, was overwhelming. And so I took two weeks, literally two weeks of very limited work. And that caused me a lot of stress. And that I want to keep moving forward every day.

And that where I couldn’t work much was very detrimental. So it was the burnout. It was not very, very tired all the time. It was not being able to concentrate. My emotions were more erratic. It wasn’t calm and grounded. Not being able to sleep very well. And generally, the mood was not good.

So tiredness, of course, was the key thing. I just felt tired, and I just felt like I couldn’t; it was very overwhelming, like I said, to just focus on work tasks. So that was the last time that happened. That was the worst burnout I’ve ever had. And that’s when I started to correct things, and I can go into what I did if you want to know what I did.

Mark MacLeod:

Yeah, I’d love to. Yeah, for sure.

Greg Newlands:

The first thing, like I said, was putting in strategic breaks. It was also listening to music in those breaks. It was also going for either a break or a walk. So that would be, do I go for a walk, or do I just sit still with the music? Other things that I realized I was doing was my mind was hyper-occupied by work, by speaking to people. There were also some social things at the weekend. I was also single at the time, so I was trying to liaise dates with girls at the time, talking to them in the gym.

My mind was just constantly bombarded with lots of inputs. So I had to be very disciplined with what is my objective right now, what is moving me forward, and what is not in alignment with that. And anything that was not in alignment, I cut off. So it was speaking to girls, social things, things that just were not aligned with my objectives with business.

So my calendar became a lot clearer, my focus became a lot clearer. I had these external things, inputs, and I was able to just think more clearly, have more time for myself. And that really helped me stay balanced and really helped me just get back to feeling better.

At the same time, I was obviously walking, like I said. I was going to the gym four times a week.

Mark MacLeod:

Okay. It’s like, no wonder you’re burned out.

Greg Newlands:

I know you do yoga. For me, the gym is my meditation. So if I’m now lifting weights, yes, it’s great for my body, but it’s also a time when I’m not thinking about other things. So it’s just me time. And I advise my clients, whether it’s weight training, whether it’s yoga, whether it’s martial arts, we all have something that we enjoy, that’s unique to us, that we can use as a form of meditation. It doesn’t just have to be meditation that makes sense in the kind of sitting there.

I also was very disciplined with my foods. Like normal. I was eating healthy meals, I wasn’t eating sugar, coffees, and these types of foods, that would heighten my nervous system. So, everything I do is optimized for performance, for calm, for effectiveness towards the goal I want.

Mark MacLeod:

So, CEOs, founders, they’re used to having a dashboard for their business. They got KPIs, metrics they track. Do you have the same thing for yourself? Do your clients have that?

Greg Newlands:

Yes. So, with my clients, the goal is physique and it’s obviously optimal performance. So what we do is the KPIs are steps every day, it’s weigh themselves every day, it’s calories. So, we track their calories, we track their protein intake and they’re the four key ones. So we know if they’re walking, if they’re weighing in, if we’re controlling their calories and we’re controlling their protein, we can ensure that they’re going to lose body fat, they’re going to improve their energy, they’re going to look better, feel better, and also have in the walking time for themselves.

So, those are four critical KPIs that we use. They’re the ones everyone uses. And then obviously, depending on the person, it can be specific. Maybe we can add one more or two more, depending on what they need. But that’s the four core ones that we have, and they’re what we track on a daily basis, especially obviously for physique.

You know, if guys are coming to us, Greg, I want to get into the best shape of my life, then we need to track those four things because getting the physique and shredding body fat is just science. It’s been in a calorie deficit. So as long as we have the right data, we can make…

Mark MacLeod:

Right, consume more calories than you’ve taken.

Greg Newlands:

Yeah. Or do more exercise than what you’re taking. Basically, you’re in a deficit.

Mark MacLeod:

Yeah, that’s what I meant. Sorry, sorry. Burn more calories than you consume.

Greg Newlands:

So we do this, my three pillars. It’s got to be effective. What do I mean by that? It’s got to be the calorie deficit. No, you need that to get the outcome. It’s a fact. So, then it’s got to be simple to someone, and it’s got to be sustainable.

So, for example, if you joined my program and I said, Mark, I know you do CrossFit three times a week, but we’re going to remove that and instead you’ve got to go and run every day. You’re probably going to think, well, I’m not going to do that. It’s not sustainable.

Mark MacLeod:

First of all, CrossFit is a cult and a religion. It’s like the opposite of Fight Club. The first thing you do is talk about CrossFit. So we’ve done that. So, yeah, I’m not getting rid of CrossFit, that’s for sure.

Greg Newlands:

Exactly. What we do on my program, it’s called the Founder Physique System. We just audit what someone likes, what are they currently doing? And then it’s just, we have an effective system with the KPIs for that, with what’s sustainable and enjoyful and simple for that.

So they’re the four KPIs that you would need for optimized performance energy. It’s all a byproduct if you think about it. If we are moving more, we are eating better food, we are naturally going to have better energy, we’re going to feel better. And it spirals from there.

Mark MacLeod:

When I onboard new coaching clients, we talk about fitness and what it is that you do to be fit or not. And you know, a lot of CEOs will tell me I go for a run periodically, or you know, I got a Peloton during COVID. Not a lot of people tell me that they lift weights. And you look at me, I’m not jacked by any way, shape or form, but I lifted weights for a long time, and weights for me are the fountain of youth.

And you know, I’m 54. We naturally lose muscle mass each year unless we work on it. I’ve also come to realize that there’s a decent amount of cardio stimulation that comes from doing weights. If I do a heavy set of back squats, my heart’s pounding. Anyway, maybe just tell folks why they need resistance training in their life.

Greg Newlands:

Yeah, I’m glad that you’re an advocate of it. So, one of my clients recently he was doing hit training three times per week, and then he was running two times per week, and he had no resistance training. And so he was losing just under 1 pound per week. Well, he didn’t realize he was losing fat, and he was losing muscle.

So, from an aesthetic point of view, he wants to have a six pack and look defined, look really, look really good. But he was never going to achieve that because he was losing muscle mass. So, he was going to just be a lighter version of himself on the scales, but with no definition, just blabby. So, that’s reason number one from an aesthetic point of view.

But the most important point, the most important thing I would say is that when you lose muscle mass because you don’t resistance train, it means that your metabolic rate decreases, which therefore means you have to eat less calories. So, to flip that around, the benefit of resistance training is that you keep your metabolic rate high, which means you can eat more food.

So, it’s easier to shred body fat whilst eating more food. And it’s easy to maintain your shape and your physique eating more food. If you don’t resistance train, you have no muscle mass on your body, you have to eat very minimal. Therefore, it’s very easy to gain weight if you are dining out, if you’re on vacation. Whereas someone like myself, I’ve got so much muscle mass from resistance training that I can eat around 3,200 calories each day to maintain my weight.

Mark MacLeod:

Wow. That’s amazing.

Greg Newlands:

So, this is where my clients obviously strive to be me, and I help them get there. I can go on vacation, I can have food that I enjoy, and I don’t have to worry about gaining weight or getting out of shape. Cause I’ve got that muscle mass. And the benefit of so many founders that don’t resistance train is that their body will respond very fast to just two or three sessions per week because it’s a stimulus their body hasn’t had before.

So many of my clients who haven’t consistently weight trained gain muscle quickly. So that’s a huge benefit to them. And then obviously so many people talk about, Greg, now I’m in my 50s, I’ve noticed that I gain weight faster. Well, it’s because they’ve got less muscle mass. So what’s basically happened, as you just mentioned yourself, as we get older, people decrease muscle mass, so therefore the metabolism drops with that. Therefore, they have to eat less calories, but they don’t eat less calories. They always eat, they always eat what they always have, and that means that they gain weight.

So, as I explain to my clients, cardio in any form, cardiovascular fitness, is a good short-term strategy. You burn calories in the now. But resistance training is a short-term strategy because you burn calories now. But it’s also a long-term strategy because you increase your metabolic rate, which means you keep burning calories 24 hours a day, even whilst we’re talking now, even when you’re sat at your desk, or even when you’re sleeping.

So it’s very effective use of our time. If we look in terms of ROI, it’s a very high ROI type of exercise.

Mark MacLeod:

And I’m guessing you recommend more compound movements, the squats, the cleans, those types of things versus specific bodybuilding, or doesn’t matter, as long as you have resistance?

Greg Newlands:

I like to do everything. Like I said, one of my pillars is simple. So it’s just simple. So, with many of my clients, it’s going to the gym and it’s doing upper and lower-body workouts or full-body workouts, depending on how many times they’re going to go to the gym. Usually it’s three. So it’ll be three full-body workouts.

And yeah, it’s a case of the essential compounds, simple exercises. Squats, pressing exercises, pulling exercises, pull downs, these types of exercises, lunges. So, the boring compound, standard exercises.

But again, when I look at my own training, I have the key exercises, the key compound lifts, and I just rotate through them. I’m not always doing something different, trying to master the technique of new exercises. I do the ones that work best and rotate through them.

So, I’ve mastered the technique, but there’s also some variety in there as well. And that’s what I believe works best for our clients, because they’ve already got headspace on many other things, so when it comes to their training, we want to keep it very simple.

So, do these workouts, these standard, simple exercises with a little bit of variety, and you’re gonna see results.

Mark MacLeod:

Making time to go to the gym, making time for those strategic breaks, requires inserting boundaries. And work expands to fill all available time. If you give 10 hours of your day for work, there’ll be 10 hours of work. If you give it eight, there’ll be eight. So, what have you done to help your clients create these boundaries in their lives?

Greg Newlands:

Yeah, I suppose when it comes to a tactical standpoint, we look at a client who joined last week, so he needs to train on a morning because he hasn’t got time the rest of the day. And he knows that if it comes to booking it in his schedule that he’s going to train on the evening, he knows quite easily just get missed. It’s not going to happen.

So, we identified that he can, realistically, if he’s honest with himself, he can work out on a morning three or four times a week for 30 minutes. So, my advice to my clients, to any founders, is to look at the times of day that are best for you. And for most founders, that’s on the morning.

There’s the highest chance that that workout or that is going to be done. And consistency is what sets the tone for the day ahead. If you exercise in the morning, you’re also probably going to eat better that day. But if you’re consistent with your workouts during the week, you’re going to see progress.

And then from a mindset point of view, honestly, Mark, we have to be honest with ourselves if we want to achieve a result. If you want to have optimal energy, optimal performance, to achieve more, to work longer, to work with a high level of performance in a sustained way, like an athlete, we have to do what’s required. All right?

In my point of view, I burnt out many times doing it my old way, now I’m doing it a new way. And it’s the knowing that because I’ve tested it, it’s the knowing that by taking these breaks and by working out consistently, I can work longer, I can work more sharp, more focused, more productively for longer, and I have the energy for the rest of my life as well, not just on my computer, with no benefit to my loved ones or anyone else. So I think it’s both a tactical and a mindset discipline.

Mark MacLeod:

You said something important related to this earlier. If I’m always focused on the short term or tomorrow, I’m always in the urgent; it’s harder to stop working. Whereas if I’m in the not-urgent, you didn’t say this, but now I’m going there. If you’re not just in the urgent space, it’s probably easier to create those boundaries. Is that a fair statement?

Greg Newlands:

You mean if you are in a state of more ease.

Mark MacLeod:

Yeah, like you’re not in fight or flight. You’re not putting out fires all the time. Like, if I feel like I’m just constantly putting out fires, taking an hour to go to the gym is going to feel like a real luxury, you know? Whereas if I can get past that and, yes, there’s always going to be something, but I’m not constantly putting out fires, then may be a little bit easier to get to the gym.

Greg Newlands:

Yeah, 100%. I realized this from my own life, where I was the most stressed and the most overwhelmed, and everything was in the moment. Every decision, every action, it was just getting to the end of the day and getting through it. Whereas when we act from a place of a grounded standpoint and our mind is clear, of course, it’s easier to think about taking that time.

But when I think about when I was the most stressed and overwhelmed, the key thing for getting through that was by giving myself more time, right? So, in giving myself more time and more rest, I actually got through the burnout. So, now it’s a case of continuing that because it worked to then not burn out or not get too stressed and overwhelmed again.

So, for me, when I do feel stressed or overwhelmed, what do I do? Take a break, stop what I’m doing, and go for a 10 to 20-minute walk if I need it. Just think, process, calm my nervous system so I’m not operating from a place of no reaction, and taking time to actually think. So, I would say that I’m very good now at maintaining a balance.

Of course, there’s days where I get more stressed or something curveball comes out of nowhere. But on the whole, I would say that I’ve structured my day to feel more balanced, and I’ve got strategies in place, like I said with walking, where I can calm myself so I can then think strategically and with clarity as opposed to just reacting.

That’s my thoughts on that based on what’s worked well for me and what we recommend for clients as well.

Mark MacLeod:

With the walking, I meant to ask about that earlier steps were kind of one of your pillars. We always hear the adage of 10,000 steps. Is it as simple as that, or is there more to it?

Greg Newlands:

Well, I mean it comes back to the simple and sustainable pillars of my program. If you were to join my program and you do 4,000 steps each day, let’s call it, and I was to say to you, Mark, tomorrow you’re going to do 10,000. What would your initial reaction be?

Mark MacLeod:

Yeah, it’d be pretty intimidating.

Greg Newlands:

Yeah, it would cause more stress. So it’s a case of, okay, if you’re at 4,000 now, then we start at 4,500, and we just increase the amount strategically to keep it comfortable and easy for you. So that’s the way we do things with everything, whether it’s calories, whether it’s protein intake, whether it’s exercise steps.

Sleep is another one. If you are going to bed at 1 am and I say, no, it’s got to be 10 pm and I think, what? It’s impossible, right? Whereas if I say, okay, Mark, let’s aim for 12:30. We do that for a few weeks, and then we optimize further.

So, yeah, to answer your question, with steps, there’s not a ballpark like 10k. It’s doing more than you were already doing. If we look at a physique standpoint, we want to obviously have a calorie deficit. So if we’re doing more steps, what does that do? It’s more output, it’s more calories burned.

So that means we can shred body fat while still eating a decent amount. That’s essentially what it does. From an energy, recovery, and a mindset point of view, we don’t necessarily need to do 10,000 steps. We just need to get out of the house and walk sometimes when we are feeling stressed and when we are feeling overwhelmed. And that’s going to help with the regulation of the nervous system and just keeping us balanced.

Mark MacLeod:

I’ve heard Zone Two is a very important place to be. Do we get there in walking, or does it need something more vigorous?

Greg Newlands:

Yeah, walking is fine.

Mark MacLeod:

Okay, great. So let’s switch gears and talk about food. Again, if I were to stereotype, many of my clients, hopefully less so now, but certainly when they show up, are not mindful about what they eat. If they eat, it’s during a Zoom meeting because they’re trying to make every moment productive.

If I were to ask them, hey, what did you eat half an hour ago, they might not even know. And so I actually think mindfulness, and paying attention to what goes into your body, is important. But even before that, maybe that’s a second or third step, what should go into our bodies? Like, what do you recommend to your clients?

Greg Newlands:

Whole foods. So, real foods. If we think about the food that’s been around hundreds and hundreds of years, vegetables, fruits, meats, and grains. Things that grow in the ground or on trees. Not the stuff that’s now man-made. Like, we have to be realistic. Let’s not be naive. If something’s created in a factory and it’s processed, is it likely good for the body? Probably not, right? So, I mean, the first place is looking at whole foods.

Something huge for my clients is outsourcing food in terms of meal prep or someone to cook food. So, many of my clients do this. The reason comes down to what’s simple. If we’ve got headspace on building a company, a brand, and then we’ve got to start thinking about, okay, what do I need to cook? Okay, do I need to cook this or this? What do I need to buy, how do I need to make this, and what ingredients? It’s more added headspace.

So, when we outsource, it removes that, and then when we add the bonus of outsourcing it with a plan. So when it’s the right food and it’s outsourced, you can see how we improve our physique, our energy, and we don’t even have to think about it. So this is something that we do with clients a lot, and that’s huge. My big insights on that.

When we look at strategically for physique, if one wants to build more of a defined physique with abs, then the two key things, the two key metrics is calories. Calories dictate our weight. If we’re eating too many, we gain weight. If we eat less calories and we’re in a deficit, we’ll lose body fat, lose weight. That’s number one.

The second thing is protein. Now, a diet high in protein will help speed up fat loss, and it also keeps you feeling full. Protein is the most filling nutrient, so we’re less likely to want to eat, have hunger cravings, which is very beneficial.

So, we want to focus on every meal that you eat, whether it’s two meals a day, like most people, or three, focus on protein in each meal. So that can be fish, that can be chicken, that can be meats, something in protein on your plate, and then you add to that your vegetables, and you can snack there on in the day on fruit. That’s the gold standard. Like I say for busy founders, outsourcing is just something that I highly recommend for consistency and sustainability.

Mark MacLeod:

How much protein should the average person have? Let’s take a 170-pound six-foot person, which is me. So totally selfish question.

Greg Newlands:

So, for your 170 pounds, you need 170 grams of protein, one gram of protein per pound of body weight. In all the founders that I help, I would say 90% are eating less protein than their recommended daily intake when it comes to performance and physique goals.

So, the strategy here again is increasing it strategically and in an easy way. So with one of my clients recently, he was eating two meals per day, and he was eating a smoothie and a snack. So what we did was his breakfast was always eggs, so we added two more eggs to increase the protein. His dinner was always chicken or fish. This is when he eats at home. So we increased the portion size of chicken or fish. And his smoothie was always a like fruit blended smoothie with some granola, I believe. So he added a scoop of protein powder to that.

So straight away, I think it was 50 grams of protein increased in his current meals that he was already eating. So it was simple and it was sustainable for him to do that because we did not change his routine, we didn’t add complexity. So that’s just simple ways for you to do it.

Look at what you’re already eating and then increase it in those meals. And protein powder is just a simple way, and it’s a very high ROI food in terms of protein, because for 150 calories, you will get 25 grams of protein.

If we compare that to something else, for example, let’s say you have a handful of nuts, that might be 150 calories, but 5 grams of protein. So you can see how we always want to optimize for the foods that are the highest in protein.

Mark MacLeod:

I feel like there are some myths out there that carbs are bad and fats make you fat. My take, and I’m not an expert at all, is that carbs provide the fuel for your body. It’s what the muscles burn to contract. And fats are essential for our brain, and everything working smoothly. Anything else you want to say about carbs and fat?

Greg Newlands:

What you said is what you said is true. Like I said, when it comes to physique, calories is number one for your weight control. That protein will control how you look, your definition, the abs that you want. Carbohydrates and fats are therefore the nutrients, and after that, they both provide energy.

Carbohydrates, typically it’s faster energy. Fats are, like you said, good for the brain. So we need those foods in the diet as well. What is easiest, in my opinion, that we recommend to clients, I do myself, is I optimize for calories and protein, and then the remainder is what I enjoy. So, I prefer to eat more of a higher carbohydrate diet, whether that’s potatoes or rice, or lots of fruit.

Mark MacLeod:

Of course, you’re British, of course you would have to be potatoes. I say that as a Brit, I’ve lost my accent, but I’ve had no shortage of potatoes.

Greg Newlands:

Yeah, I mean, oats as well, and fruit. So, naturally, I feel I have more energy, more focus, and I’m sharper physically and mentally when I eat carbohydrates. If I were to eat lots of nuts or avocado, these types of foods, it’s more tiring fat. I just feel like my energy is not as good, not as powerful, when I have a higher-fat diet.

So this is just me through my own testing and trialing over the past 17 years. So, to answer your question, there’s no enemy. Carbs and fats are not the enemy. Both are needed, and depending on what you typically enjoy more is going to determine which is higher in your day. But the key things to simplify and focus on is calories and protein when we’re looking at physique for optimization of how we look and feel.

And then I would just say it just comes down to enjoyment. If we look at diet, people has a connotation of I’ve got to eat very disciplined, strict, like a bodybuilder, like I used to. But it’s not about being on a diet. It’s about finding a way of eating that we can sustain for life.

And this is why if we can just eat two or three meals a day, base it around protein, have some carbohydrates and fats with that, some snacks, fruits in there, and things that we enjoy, it’s sustainable for life.

Mark MacLeod:

Love it, sounds simple.

Greg Newlands:

That’s my job. When I think about my purpose or what I’m very good at, it’s taking things in fitness and health and just simplifying it to what’s the simplest thing that has the highest leverage? So, when we audit clients in our first week, it’s okay, what’s going to allow this person to get the biggest ROI from their time and energy in the simplest way? That may be reducing alcohol, slightly increasing sleep, slightly increasing protein, adding resistance. It’s always going to be unique to their situation, but it has to be simple.

Mark MacLeod:

Let’s talk about alcohol for a second. So, you come from England where there’s a pub on every corner. Like, what are your thoughts on alcohol?

Greg Newlands:

I mean, for me, I rarely drink now. The reason is that you like to talk about your CEOs, your clients as athletes, and I resonate with that. I often speak to my clients about seeing myself as a high-performance Formula One car. So I want to have great energy, great focus, feel productive every single day for my work. But I also want to have the energy outside of that for my partner to have a great life, to enjoy the weekend.

When I drink alcohol, I feel sluggish, I feel tired, I don’t feel mentally sharp. Sometimes I feel a little bit more depressed now. Not everyone is like this. This is just me. And now I’ve told myself this so many times. The ego will make this true. So it’s now a circle feedback loop. But that’s for me, and I know lots of clients, when they cut alcohol out or reduce it significantly, they feel more energized, more productive, and so really enjoy that. And it’s less calories. So shock, they lose body fat faster as well.

Mark MacLeod:

Yeah, yeah. If wine had protein, I’d be on…

Greg Newlands:

Oh, wow, you’d be on stage.

Mark MacLeod:

That’s right.

Greg Newlands:

We had a client start two weeks ago. Basically, he’d lost weight, he’d been in a plateau for two months, and he was stuck. And as we went through our performance audits for the week, he was just drinking a lot. So, we didn’t say, okay, you’ve got to cut this out. Because he enjoys it, he winds down with alcohol, or it’s something that he does with friends. And again, it comes down to what is sustainable. We want someone to be able to continue this forever.

So we just said, okay, you need to just reduce the alcohol. And straight away, he’s burst through that plateau. He’s feeling good, he feels more energized to work, and he works for Amazon, so yeah, it’s benefited him in just two weeks. So that’s my insight on that one.

Mark MacLeod:

Love it. Final question, Greg, a lot of what you’ve talked about here, just your observations about yourself, require a lot of self-awareness. And so I’m curious how you build that, how you get your, because you’re not with them all the time, to get these observations in order to go through these loops and optimize and figure out what works and get better.

Greg Newlands:

I mean, the way we do things is we have daily check-ins, so we’re constantly in communication with clients, and we have strategic calls as well. So if a client needs something, we can jump on a call to work through these patterns and these loops. And I posted about this, I think last week on my LinkedIn, a great coach isn’t just someone who gives information and accountability.

It’s someone who understands that person’s needs in that moment, what needs to be said in that moment to help undo the loops, to help them become more aware, to break the patterns from the past, to see things from a different perspective. So, like I said, we have calls with our clients to myself, my performance coaches, to work through these things and to shine the light on them so they see things from a different perspective.

One of my clients recently started a divorce with his ex-wife, and they have two children. And then a few weeks ago this, she had a new partner now, and they started to introduce the two children to the new partner. This hit him very hard, and he took it bad. So he was, therefore, drinking more, and he was snacking, just comforting himself. It’s natural.

And I spoke to him on the phone, and I said, look, you are human. This is normal, it’s fine. Many of us would be in the same state as you. And I got him to see that he will also find a new partner, he will. It’s inevitable, he’s looking for that.

He’s got two options. Does he want to feel bad and comfort, eat and drink, or does he want to make him the best version of himself so he finds that new partner faster and he’s in the happiest, vibrant version of himself. So that’s just an example of how we speak to our clients because it’s reframing a different perspective that helps people move forward.

When it comes to myself, I’m just naturally someone who’s always very self-aware. I don’t know, I just like to understand why I think the way that I think, why I operate the way that I do. And something that was massively beneficial for me was doing what’s called the human design. So, it’s not for everyone because it takes ancient wisdom that some people dismiss. But I’m open to that, I listen to that.

And it also takes modern science and it’s a blend of both, and basically it gives us a blueprint of how we operate best as humans because we are all unique. So, there’s a coach here where I live in Mexico that took me through it and told me what my blueprint was for me. And it basically allows me to understand how I operate best when I make decisions, how my energy is best served, and how I live in alignment with me.

And it’s very, very in-depth. But now, because I’ve got that information, I plug that into ChatGPT, and then when I’m taking actions, making decisions with business, with life, I can run it through that lens. So it’s insanely powerful for a self-awareness tool, and having that.

So, the human design, that’s something that I did use. It’s highly recommended to any founder to just understand how their energy is going to operate best.

Mark MacLeod:

Very cool, huh? Yeah, I’m gonna have to check it out. I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never really checked it out.

Greg Newlands:

I would certainly say check it out, yeah.

Mark MacLeod:

Well, it’s been great, Greg. I really hope that it inspires some folks to get on a fitness journey. If people want to, how do they find you?

Greg Newlands:

Yeah, so my LinkedIn is best. And also on my LinkedIn, there’s my website there.

Mark MacLeod:

Perfect. Good stuff. Well, thank you so much for making the time, Greg. I really enjoyed our conversation.

Greg Newlands:

Awesome, man. Have a great day. Speak to you soon.

Mark MacLeod:

Thank you.

Hey, thanks for listening to the Startup CEO Show. If you’d like to connect with me, be sure to visit my website at markmacLeod.me, or follow me on LinkedIn at The Mark MacLeod, or X account @markmacleod_, and if you want to tune in again next week, be sure to subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. We’ll see you next time!