In this episode, Steve Fretzin and Paige Fox discuss:
- The importance of mindfulness and wellness in professional life
- The challenges lawyers face with time management and stress
- The impact of meditation on mental health and productivity
- Strategies for lawyers to maintain a balanced lifestyle
Key Takeaways:
- Chronic stress and long work hours often lead to burnout, highlighting the need to integrate mindfulness and wellness into daily routines to maintain mental health and job performance.
- Managing time through delegation, automation, and prioritization is crucial for professionals, especially lawyers, to allocate time for self-care practices like meditation and exercise.
- Incorporating a brief daily meditation practice, even if only for five minutes, can offer substantial benefits by significantly reducing stress levels and enhancing overall emotional resilience and clarity.
- The focus on billable hours and client demands often causes lawyers to neglect their wellness, leading to long-term health issues unless they balance professional and personal well-being.
“Be the energy you want to attract.” — Paige Fox
Read more from Steve at Above the Law: AboveTheLaw.com/tag/Steve-Fretzin/
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Episode References:
Bledsoe Said So podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bledsoe-said-so/id1573038290
About Paige Fox: Paige N. Fox is the founder of Fox Law, LLC, a remote law firm in Illinois, and does of-counsel work for Erwin Law, LLC, and DentCoulson Elder Law. She specializes in estate planning, special needs planning, and elder law. As President of the Illinois Chapter of NAELA and Chair of the CBA’s Young Lawyers Section Serving Our Seniors Committee, Paige is committed to professional development and community service. Recognized as a Rising Star by Super Lawyers since 2022, she received the David C. Hilliard Award in 2023. Paige earned her JD from Chicago-Kent College of Law and enjoys pro bono work, flying trapeze, sports, and dance.
Connect with Paige Fox:
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/attorneypaigefox/
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/paigefox_attorney
Connect with Steve Fretzin:
LinkedIn: Steve Fretzin
Twitter: @stevefretzin
Instagram: @fretzinsteve
Facebook: Fretzin, Inc.
Website: Fretzin.com
Email: [email protected]
Book: Legal Business Development Isn’t Rocket Science and more!
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Call Steve directly at 847-602-6911
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FULL TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] Steve Fretzin: Hey everybody, before we get to the show, I just want to share that I’m now writing for Above the Law. If you enjoy this podcast, you might also enjoy my monthly columns. You can go to Above the Law and type my name into the magnifying glass in the top right corner to read my latest articles. Thanks and enjoy the show.
[00:00:21] Narrator: You’re listening to be that lawyer life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice Each episode your host author and lawyer coach steve fretzin Will take a deeper dive helping you grow your law practice in less time with greater results Now here’s your host steve fretzin
[00:00:42] Steve Fretzin: Hey everybody, welcome back.
[00:00:45] Steve Fretzin: It is steve fretzin and welcome to The be that lawyer podcast. We’ve been doing this show for a long time. I think around five years and I think we’re coming up on 420, 425 episodes, which is quite a rate here. We’re hitting here, Paige. Just two a week, every week to help lawyers, to be that lawyer with Fredson, confident, organized, and the skilled rainmaker.
[00:01:06] Steve Fretzin: How are you doing this morning?
[00:01:07] Paige Fox: I’m doing good. I’m doing great. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
[00:01:10] Steve Fretzin: Yeah. You’re always a fresh, bright face. Like you’re just, every time I see you make me smile. It’s just like, you’re always very. I know that you’ve had some issues we’ll get into in the past, but like seeing you come out the other side and the way that you present yourself and then your smile and just the way you everything.
[00:01:26] Steve Fretzin: It just always makes me feel good.
[00:01:28] Paige Fox: I appreciate that. Thank you. And I mean, be the energy you want to attract, right?
[00:01:32] Steve Fretzin: That’s it. That’s it. Well, maybe that’s a great lead into what we’re going to cover today. So, you know, I’ve had other professionals and lawyers come out and talk about mindfulness and wellness and the importance of it and, you know, it’s not that I want to beat a dead horse, it’s a horse that’s dying slowly and people need to revive the horse and, and that may be a way to twist it around.
[00:01:52] Steve Fretzin: But let’s start off with the quote of the show and then we’ll kind of work back to the, and that’s what you mentioned, be the energy you want to attract. And why is that quote so meaningful to you? And, and, and then we can get into, into the, to the rest of this, but that’s a great, a great entry point.
[00:02:07] Paige Fox: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:02:08] Paige Fox: So, I mean, that’s just one of those quotes that I have heard my whole life, but I think up until the last two years, I didn’t fully understand what it meant, you know, and how much it really is a fact, a proven fact that your energy, the energy that you put out into the world Is exactly what is going to be returned to you.
[00:02:28] Paige Fox: And so having that mindset of positivity of, I can do this. I want to do this. I want to help people. I want to be the best that I can be, you know, it in turn will help you be the best that you can be, you know, and there’s so much conversation all of the time on the fact that, you know, negative energies and all there, all of these ways that we can, you know, By definition, make ourselves sick, but there’s not as much of a conversation about, okay, well, if we can make ourselves sick, we can also make ourselves better, you know, like we have the capabilities of doing that.
[00:03:01] Paige Fox: And so it’s just all about attitude and energies and, and mindfulness essentially. So. Yeah, that’s that’s really why it’s been so meaningful to me at least the last two years
[00:03:12] Steve Fretzin: and there’s been a lot of of people writing on You know the law of attraction and and if you spend time with the best people then you become better and get rid of negative people in your life and You know, it’s like we want to help negative people and support them, but it’s also, you know, draining and it can really impact us.
[00:03:30] Steve Fretzin: So I think there’s, this is sort of the, you know, the way people are becoming happier and healthier starting by, you know, being the energy you want to attract. So I really love that, that quote. And let’s, let’s, Paige, let’s take a deep dive into your background. Everybody, Paige Fox is the owner of Fox Law a Chicago lawyer focused in elder care.
[00:03:48] Steve Fretzin: And, and for how many years now you’ve been doing that? Yeah.
[00:03:51] Paige Fox: So it’ll be nine in November.
[00:03:54] Steve Fretzin: And say that like, it’s a long time.
[00:03:57] Paige Fox: I mean, I can’t believe it’s been that long.
[00:03:59] Steve Fretzin: You got a runway in front of you too.
[00:04:01] Paige Fox: Yeah.
[00:04:02] Steve Fretzin: So,
[00:04:02] Paige Fox: yeah, it’s, it’ll be nine years in November and I just opened my own firm. It was last year.
[00:04:08] Paige Fox: So June of last year and it’s fully remote. So really great. Really
[00:04:11] Steve Fretzin: great. So give us your background in, in how you either be in addition to becoming a lawyer, how you got into, you know, the, the fitness and the, and the and the mindfulness and the things that we’re going to be talking about today.
[00:04:22] Paige Fox: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:04:23] Paige Fox: So, I mean I really got into the mindfulness in the last two years, especially my, my journey really started in October of 2022. And before that I was an attorney at a small firm in the, the burbs, James Seabrook and associates. And we didn’t have like a bill billable hour requirement or anything. I had a money requirement, but not a billable hour requirement, which is something that a lot of people at big firms, you know, that is what you live by.
[00:04:46] Paige Fox: So when I switched from this small firm out in the burbs. To chew hack downtown. They had, you know, they were a bigger firm. They had the billable hour requirements. And between all of the extracurriculars that I was in and the pro bono work and everything, the billable hour was just crushing me and I was not getting my goal.
[00:05:05] Paige Fox: And then no matter how many hours I worked, no matter, you know. How much I was, it just, it didn’t work and I was essentially working like, like so many hours a week and sleeping maybe four hours a night and after a period of, you know, seven years of not really getting good enough sleep in general as an attorney.
[00:05:24] Paige Fox: And then combined with all of the extra stress that came with learning the new job, essentially, I was sick for like six months straight. And I mean, legitimately sick, like I would, and so it, I hit a point, there was one time at like 3am, my significant other walked out of the bedroom and was like, you’re killing yourself, you know, and it kind of flicked and like, yeah, I am, you know, no matter how much I’m just not sleeping, if I’m not, if I’m not well, how am I going to help my clients, you know?
[00:05:55] Paige Fox: And so at that point, That was when I decided to take a little break from working in general. And at that point, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to even continue doing law. I was so burnt out at that point. But then I realized a couple of months later that I did, I just needed to figure out a way that I could do it and still be a human, you know, because it was just getting to me so much.
[00:06:16] Paige Fox: So that has kind of led to. The benefits of physical activity, the benefits of mindfulness meditation has been something that I’ve been told to do by my bosses for like my entire life and that I ignored. And so kind of just getting into that and realizing how helpful it was, was what really started me on this journey.
[00:06:36] Paige Fox: And then my improvements are why I want to now help other attorneys, you know, do the same thing.
[00:06:43] Steve Fretzin: Yeah, and you think about, you know, a professional athlete, right? They have to eat right, sleep right, they have to be training and exercising and really nutrition and everything, you know, mindfulness, it all plays a factor in their success on the field.
[00:06:57] Steve Fretzin: And then you look at lawyers and they have, you know, no regimen. They have no exercise, bad eating, Snickers in the pocket, running around here, running there. I had a lawyer this morning, that’s a client of mine, and he’s in one of my round tables, And I can’t get him to, to like show up. Well, why? Well, because he’s running a thousand miles an hour doing everything.
[00:07:17] Steve Fretzin: And I know that it’s, it’s not going to last. And so I’m, I’m just asked him to have like, Hey, let’s have a one on one because I just want to find out like what’s really going on beneath the service. And is there more that he could be delegating and more that he could be, you know, Figuring out to make sure he doesn’t end up in a, in a, in a negative place.
[00:07:33] Steve Fretzin: But let’s talk about, about just, I want to just take a moment about meditation. Most people, 90 percent or I don’t know if that’s me, that’s a made up stat everybody, but you know, that I believe it’s around 90, probably don’t engage in that. What are you seeing is, is the reasoning for meditation? And, and what it’s done for you.
[00:07:51] Paige Fox: So I will be completely honest. I am still on my meditation journey. I am like focusing on going to like five minutes a day. Just because my attention span has always been lacking, but that is a big thing that I want to push, you know, five minutes a day is a huge. Progress.
[00:08:07] Steve Fretzin: People don’t take it. Not even five.
[00:08:09] Paige Fox: No. And, and I’ve seen over time, the biggest comment I get about why people don’t join the different activities that like have been set up and stuff is because they don’t have time, you know? And so like my goal with that, the week that you were a part of the mindfulness week was to kind of show attorneys why.
[00:08:28] Paige Fox: You know, taking those five minutes a day will improve your work in the long run. You know, it’s an investment that you need to make, but the hardest thing, and it’s been the hardest thing for me too, on my own journey is finding the time, making the time, you know,
[00:08:44] Paige Fox: Exactly. And so you would think five minutes isn’t a huge day, but like you said, when you’re running all day long, when you’re eating in the car, when you’re working 12 hours a day, when you’re trying to meet 1900 hour billable requirement, you know, there is not much time for anything.
[00:08:58] Paige Fox: At least it doesn’t feel that way. So I have just been personally trying to do at least five minutes a day, five to 10 minutes a day. And, you know, I’ve improved greatly since I first started doing it, but I personally still struggle with it.
[00:09:13] Steve Fretzin: Yeah,
[00:09:13] Paige Fox: because it’s sitting still, you know and so
[00:09:17] Steve Fretzin: there’s, and there’s a lot of different types of meditation.
[00:09:19] Steve Fretzin: I was professionally trained in transnatal meditation after hearing Howard Stern talk about it. And my wife and I both went to, and we took her, we took our child at the time too, with ADHD and that did not, did not take for him. And but I think we have like, we’re like lifetime, You know, members in the sense that we could go back anytime for additional training, but I want to share just one quick analogy that I think will be helpful.
[00:09:42] Steve Fretzin: Maybe you’ve heard it. Maybe you haven’t page, but it really impacted me. It’s like, think about a look like you’re on a on a small boat on the top of the ocean and it’s the worst storm you can imagine. You’re being tossed around. You’re grabbing on for dear life. You’re getting wet. You’re just slipping all over the place and you’re just you’re like ready to die.
[00:10:00] Steve Fretzin: And if you go 300 feet below the surface at the bottom of the ocean, there’s seaweed just kind of blowing lightly back and forth. It’s not, there’s no storm 300 feet down, it’s all happening at the surface. And when you can get yourself to meditate, To the point where you’re just you’re getting to total relaxation, even if the world around you is crumbling and going crazy all the time, even once or twice a day, five minutes, they say 20 minutes is really the number.
[00:10:27] Steve Fretzin: Think about that type of calm that you’re not having and to be able to get to that level where you’re feeling calm and relaxed and what that can do for your body and your mind together to have that kind of relief. So I want people to just consider that story that if you’re on that top of that ocean.
[00:10:42] Steve Fretzin: You know, you need to figure out a way to get to get out of that storm. And this is one way to do it.
[00:10:47] Paige Fox: Absolutely. And it’s a way that you can do it. And that’s the big thing about meditation. It’s something that you can do anywhere, anytime on your own, without, you know, an expense without the need to travel.
[00:11:00] Paige Fox: It’s just with you all of the time. And so using your own abilities, your own resources to help yourself is not only going to help you, but that in turn is helping those around you by fixing yourself, you know? And so, yeah. And you said 20 minutes. Meditation is absolutely great, but. My big thing with attorneys is I don’t, I mean, I’m, it’s a uphill battle, you know, like if I know if I’m not going to find 20 minutes a day to meditate and I personally already know so many benefits of it and I’m going to struggle to get attorneys to do 20 minutes on a day, you know,
[00:11:39] Steve Fretzin: part of the problem though, too, is like this, like mindfulness and, and and, and meditation and physical activity, they’re all important.
[00:11:46] Steve Fretzin: And they’re also not taught. Like they’re not taught in law school. They’re not taught. People have to like have an experience like you had, or they have to run into someone that kind of talks to them about it and convinces them or, or, you know, gives them enough value for them to say. But the reality is we all have time.
[00:12:01] Steve Fretzin: We all can do whatever we want. It’s just choices that we make. And one thing I’ll add is I spent a lot of my time working with lawyers on time management for the very reason that they’re spinning their wheels going every direction. So what can you delegate? What can you automate? What can you say no to?
[00:12:17] Steve Fretzin: There’s lots of options to exercise and meditate and eat right. And cook as opposed to fast food, but people maybe don’t have a system for how to do it. And so therefore their time is always strained.
[00:12:30] Paige Fox: Absolutely. Yeah. And, and then when you have all of these deadlines and 150 files with clients who are waiting on you and everything else, it’s easy to push your wellness.
[00:12:41] Paige Fox: back, you know, and then focus on that. But in reality, you are not going to be as good of an attorney as you can possibly be for those clients. If you are not first working on yourself. And I mean, you know, just five minutes a day shows that it increases overall productivity. You know, if you can just do five minutes a day.
[00:13:00] Paige Fox: And, and if not meditation, there’s different vert, you know, like
[00:13:03] Steve Fretzin: taking a walk, And breathing and exercise, right? I mean, that’s not meditation, but it is a form of meditation in the sense that you’re clearing your head. You’re not thinking about the, the storm, as I mentioned talk a little bit about that.
[00:13:18] Paige Fox: The talk about, wait, can you review that?
[00:13:21] Steve Fretzin: Just talk a little bit about, about meditation, exercise, mindfulness. Like what is mindfulness? How do people hear mindfulness all the time? But what’s, what’s kind of your definition of mindfulness?
[00:13:32] Paige Fox: My definition of mindfulness is just taking a step back to see what’s going on.
[00:13:38] Paige Fox: You know, like people in general right now are just go, go, go, go, go. And I’ve been like that my entire life too, you know, and then you move specifically to attorneys and they are, The top of that go, go, go, go, go. So it’s hard. Sometimes you get caught, so caught up in your life and what you’re doing in your client’s lives.
[00:13:56] Paige Fox: Like you forget to take a step back and just look at what’s going on. Be mindful of why am I feeling this way? Okay. Why am I tired? Why am I on my fifth cup of coffee? Why haven’t I been able to sleep in a week? You know, taking a step back and realizing that this is why it’s happening and being mindful of it.
[00:14:17] Paige Fox: And. being mindful of fixing it. Because once you realize that we’re able to actually do that, you know, then you, you realize you have more control on your own life than sometimes it’ll feel like. So that’s how I see mindfulness. And And just an overall understanding of, again, how you feel, why you’re feeling that way, you know, cause it’s so hard or so easy to ignore those types of things when you’re sick, you know, like I said, I was sick for six months straight and it took my significant other walking out at 3 a.
[00:14:48] Paige Fox: m. To tell me that I’m killing myself to be like, you’re right. I am, you know, like and you take a step back and I haven’t been sick since March of 2023, you know, and I used to consistently get sick, but Every year, like clockwork with walking pneumonia. And I haven’t gotten any of that in the last year and a half.
[00:15:06] Paige Fox: And so, you know, that me to me has like shown me that it’s possible, but being able to push that out into the world is kind of the next step and goal. But looking into that stuff, I will say I started doing a little bit of research into like some of the meditation benefits. And so there was one. A study that said a Detroit study.
[00:15:26] Paige Fox: This was back in like 2004, but it said meditation improved productivity in the workplace, finding that absenteeism fall by 85 percent and productivity rose by 120 percent with injuries dropping 70%.
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[00:17:43] Steve Fretzin: It’s like, Oh, I’ve been meditating. I don’t see any benefit. No, no, there’s, I mean, even if it’s just 20 minutes for yourself where you’re not thinking about work or not thinking about, I mean, there’s benefit, but the way your brain works and the way it it’s, you know, taking that oxygen mask in the airplane and putting it on yourself first, That’s all that’s all connected to eating and exercise and meditation and sleep.
[00:18:05] Steve Fretzin: They’re all they’re all connected. Like this is your, this is your home. Your body is your home. Your mind is your home. And you’re basically letting it go. You know, a stray, you’re going to have floods. You’re going to have, you know, things breaking down. You’re going to have, you know, collapsing roofs and all that stuff.
[00:18:21] Steve Fretzin: If you’re not taking care of, of your, of your mind and your body.
[00:18:25] Paige Fox: Absolutely. And yeah, I mean, it’s, we forget a lot of times that like, you know, we’re in this physical body, but it’s just like a vessel, like our mind is, is still what matters. And that is going to then in turn, How our physical body is feeling and acting and what it’s doing.
[00:18:42] Paige Fox: And you know, this is not like, it’s, it’s not really anything new because if you look at all of these big corporations, you know, the biggest corporations, the Google is a big one. Brand corporation is a big one. They all have had these mindfulness, you know, programs in for their employees for years now.
[00:18:59] Paige Fox: And there’s a reason for that because there’s obviously an increase in productivity. So. You know having these statistics and I think a lot of people just don’t realize it I didn’t realize it until two years ago despite how many people told me to focus in it, you know because I was like Crazy all the time, just calm down.
[00:19:17] Paige Fox: And, but yeah, once you start looking into it, there’s just no denying it. So even just taking the five minutes, I think five to 20, that’s all you need. You know? And there’s, like I said, there’s yoga, there’s Tai Chi, there’s ways of doing similar things as meditation that can fit you and your personality and your schedule and your work.
[00:19:38] Paige Fox: So yeah.
[00:19:39] Steve Fretzin: I mean, I, I’ve also found that exercise. In many different forms, even something like fishing, I’m just going to give a quick fishing thing. Like when I’m fishing, I’m not thinking about my clients. I’m not thinking about my family. What I’m thinking about is where am I casting? What am I using?
[00:19:57] Steve Fretzin: What am I looking for in the water to see that there might be some movement? What, what, how am I making changes to, to improve my results on the water? And I’m not thinking about anything else. And that that’s a form of meditation for me. And people think fishing is just sitting there on a chair and putting a line in the water and drinking a beer Not the way most people do it, you know when you’re actually like actively searching for fish and trying to catch something Pilates I do pilates now coming up on two years I wrote an article about it and really I’m not thinking about anything except breathing and the moves and my, my body and my position.
[00:20:33] Steve Fretzin: Can you talk a little bit about what you found in exercise and Zumba and Trapeze? I know you do flying trapeze, like you do a lot of crazy stuff, fun stuff, but talk about that and how that’s impacted your. Life in your brain and the way that you function.
[00:20:47] Paige Fox: I mean, it has honestly been life changing. I will say that.
[00:20:50] Paige Fox: So I started really doing Zumba back probably a year into being an attorney, mostly because I Prior to that, I was, I was really active. I was always physically active and walking was a thing, but then all of a sudden I went from not having a full time job to having a full time job and sitting at a desk for eight to 10 to 12 hours a day, you know, and so I was already feeling the impacts of not just walking around as much.
[00:21:14] Paige Fox: So I started doing the 10 minute, you know, like every hour I’ll walk around for 10 minutes, you know, and stuff. And that just wasn’t cutting it. So then I found Zuma class and. I found it started at seven o’clock. So one, it gave me an out. At work, you know, like it was like, okay, a hard stop. I’m going to leave work now and go to Zumba.
[00:21:35] Paige Fox: And it not only got my physical activity, but it got my mind off of work. And I was networking. I wasn’t unintentionally networking with all of these people who I was meeting in Zumba, who to this day, I’m still very close with a lot of them. But it was, I realized it was a networking opportunity, you know, and so
[00:21:52] Steve Fretzin: multiple benefits out of something like that.
[00:21:54] Steve Fretzin: Yeah,
[00:21:54] Paige Fox: absolutely. And there’s a lot of studies out there on the benefits of dance in general. But physical activity, you know, just there’s so many types of physical activity that are available that you can definitely find something that fits you. And I personally have never liked going to the gym. I don’t like, I don’t even like working out.
[00:22:13] Paige Fox: So that’s why I found Zumba. And then I found like the circus arts. So I’m flying trapeze is like my life now. I love it. And, but once again, I mean, it’s a networking opportunity. I’ve gotten clients from going to these classes. I’ve learned so much from these people and it’s just in general, it has improved my overall mood and my overall physical like self.
[00:22:36] Paige Fox: Yeah.
[00:22:37] Steve Fretzin: But an important takeaway too is you’re enjoying it and you’re enjoying the people there. And I think if you go to the gym by yourself and you work out and you’re miserable doing it every day, you have to consider that there are alternatives that will get you there with people you enjoy or with an exercise or a type of workout that you’re going to enjoy.
[00:22:57] Steve Fretzin: Maybe it’s playing basketball, maybe it’s, it’s flying trapeze, maybe it’s Pilates. I do not want to go to Pilates by the way. I second guess before I go. But I know, I always remember what I say to myself when I’m leaving the class, and it’s always the same thing I say, I’m happy I went. This really was, this really felt good.
[00:23:16] Steve Fretzin: I feel stronger. Maybe I even clench up my butt cheeks and go, Hey, there’s actually some muscle in there. That’s kind of personal. I do that sometimes. Just say it. Just say it. Put it out there. You know, Hey, I actually have, you know, a rear end, you know, and if I didn’t do Pilates, guess what? I wouldn’t, you know, I play tennis, I play pickle, I play paddle and all social and all good exercise.
[00:23:34] Steve Fretzin: And I always feel exhausted after, and I know, wow, I just burned it, you know, 7, 800, 900 calories. And I love
[00:23:40] Paige Fox: absolutely. Yeah. And exactly. And if people are the biggest thing that I found in physical activity is the same with meditation and everything else. I don’t have time. I don’t have time. Well, but we can make time for it.
[00:23:53] Paige Fox: And that’s one of the things with like the wellness week that I wanted to start, you know, was like, yeah. showing all of these different types of workouts that we can do and also different ways to fit them into your schedule. And if, you know, if you’re networking while you’re working out, if you’re meeting people that you wouldn’t have otherwise met going to a, you know, a dance class or a Pilates class, you’re networking and it’s just healthier networking than going to a bar.
[00:24:20] Paige Fox: And drinking with a bunch of other lawyers, you know, and that’s like the main networking that’s kind of been introduced to us since day one of law school. When in reality, you know, meeting non lawyers is a good networking opportunity too, and it can be in ways that are healthy. And that will make you feel better moving forward.
[00:24:39] Paige Fox: Yeah, I mean, in, in one of the studies that I looked into from February 2024 for that week said that engaging in regular exercise has been shown to have a positive impact on cognitive function, including memory, attention, and decision making abilities. This can significantly impact work performance by reducing the risk of burnout, increasing resilience and fostering a positive mindset.
[00:25:00] Paige Fox: So basically, if you are enjoying what you’re doing, you are 10 times more likely to continue doing it and to not get burnt out. And so finding an act and exercise or some sort of physical activity that you enjoy that you can go to with friends that you can network at is definitely a better idea than, you know, Just going to networking in a bar.
[00:25:23] Steve Fretzin: Yeah. Yeah. I mean we have we have a few minutes left Let’s let’s take a moment to just talk about eating and you how long have you been doing intermittent fasting by the way?
[00:25:33] Paige Fox: So that is one thing that my significant other is more into like he but probably on and off for the last year
[00:25:40] Steve Fretzin: Okay, just started
[00:25:40] Paige Fox: doing yeah, so But I would love, yeah, go.
[00:25:44] Steve Fretzin: No, I was just going to say, so my wife and I just finished a month we’re on our like month and a week now stop eating at 7 p. m. And we start eating again the next day around 11 or 1130. So it’s not, you know, a serious, you know, fast, but it’s, it’s giving up my, you know, giving us, you know, eight hours to eat.
[00:26:00] Steve Fretzin: And then the rest of the time is, is off. And my wife had been trying to lose weight for, you know, the last couple of years. She’s menopausal and the whole thing. Got a lot of personal stuff today, but she doesn’t listen to this podcast. So I’m okay. But the, but she lost like four and a half pounds, which for her might as well have been 20.
[00:26:17] Steve Fretzin: I mean, she was that sort of crazy about, you know, I just can’t lose weight. I can’t. The, but the bigger benefit is I’m not going to bed full and I’m, and here’s the thing, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I’ve been taught that my whole life. It’s been pushed on me my whole life. What a load of crap.
[00:26:32] Steve Fretzin: I drink my coffee in the morning. I don’t need to eat jack squat until 11 or 12 o’clock. And I thought I’m not going to have energy for the morning if I don’t eat. I was convinced of that. I used to tell people used to tell my teenager, you got to have breakfast. All right. So that all being said, yeah, you, you obviously are agreeing, agreeing with me.
[00:26:53] Paige Fox: Yeah. It’s, it’s wild. I brought up that same thing. Like when Johnny first wanted me to start the fasting, I was like, no, I had the first thing I do every morning is I get up and I, I don’t know what, you know, I eat something. And it, because again, that’s what we’ve been taught our whole lives, but I assume we’ve been taught.
[00:27:11] Paige Fox: That by like the cereal companies or something who decided to put that out there But what we’ve been using and you should look into this is coconut oil. Have you done a coconut oil? It is no, I mean, it’s incredible. It’s incredible for everything like coconut oil is amazing But if you blend it with your coffee So you put like a teaspoon of it with your coffee and blend it and essentially turns into like this creamy, like nice coffee drink and it is an appetite suppressant to the point where like we, he got the idea from somebody who was doing the fasting thing and they were wanting to eat until like, I think it was like noon or something.
[00:27:52] Paige Fox: And So I started doing that because again, you can’t for 33 years of my life. I was eating breakfast like right away, you know, and then not going to that. So this, the coconut oil is. Amazing. And I highly recommend it because we just put one teaspoon in, blend it with plain coffee. I personally add creamer and honey to it.
[00:28:13] Paige Fox: But it’s, it tastes good. And so it’s, it’s highly recommended. Tell your wife that too, for her coffee in the morning. It helps.
[00:28:20] Steve Fretzin: Okay. Okay. I mean, we’re not feeling, An appetite anymore we’re past the point where that’s an issue but if we went longer like if i had to sustain this let’s say through the day and i want to just go to straight to dinner and really do a longer fast like maybe some decaf in the afternoon with something like that might be the way to go.
[00:28:38] Steve Fretzin: But i just to wrap things up with a tight little bow and then we’ve got we’ve got a kind of get to the end here but. Processed foods, since you mentioned the cereal companies, you know, I think eating whole foods, eating real food, not doing fast food, big, also big change, you know, not having big amounts of sugar at night.
[00:28:56] Steve Fretzin: These are the kinds of things that are allowing me to not only sleep better, but also just have more energy and keep my weight down. And I think there’s just so many benefits. To just being smart about it and intermittent fasting really helps to to kind of bring it all together I found
[00:29:11] Paige Fox: yeah, absolutely and and on more on with the eating stuff if you have the yuca app Have you ever heard of that?
[00:29:16] Paige Fox: Y u k a?
[00:29:17] Steve Fretzin: No,
[00:29:18] Paige Fox: you can basically scan anything in the store for the most part like cereals and everything else and it rates it zero to 100 And it lists all of the ingredients. Yeah It kind of, by the way,
[00:29:29] Steve Fretzin: they do that in Europe on the packages. And of course, in the U. S., you know, people are able to sell us crap every day and not have any responsibility for it.
[00:29:38] Steve Fretzin: I went to Paris. I was like looking for fat people and there’s no one that’s fat in Paris, like nobody. They’re just in the reading bread and they’re eating wine, drinking wine and having, you know, whatever. But I just know that we’re being poisoned and it’s all being, you know, but, but that’s a whole different show.
[00:29:54] Steve Fretzin: All right, Paige,
[00:29:54] Paige Fox: let’s
[00:29:56] Steve Fretzin: wrap up with your game changing podcast. Bledsoe said. So now I’ve heard that twice now in the last week. What is Bledsoe said? So,
[00:30:05] Paige Fox: oh man, it’s one of my absolute favorite podcasts. So he is the son of Chris Bledsoe. And if you look up Chris Bledsoe, there is, a lot on him and like the biology world and spirituality and everything like that.
[00:30:18] Paige Fox: So it’s his son who basically grew up in an environment that involved like his dad being in, not investigated, but like studied essentially by like the CIA and FBI and all of these NASA and all of these different people. And so he grew up in this crazy environment. And it’s just his podcast with a friend of his two friends of his, and they just go through different, you know, situations that they’ve seen.
[00:30:45] Paige Fox: Like right now, one of my favorite episodes is So I
[00:30:48] Steve Fretzin: say that one more time
[00:30:49] Paige Fox: sound
[00:30:50] Steve Fretzin: science sound science. Okay.
[00:30:52] Paige Fox: Yeah, it’s let me look It is my absolute favorite episode it’s called spirit science and there’s part one and part two and it talks about the frequencies and the the benefits of like sound frequencies and and it goes into double blind studies that have been done on like your attitude and if you’re happy, what like your blood cells look like and what they do versus when you’re sad.
[00:31:15] Paige Fox: And it just goes into like all of these amazing studies. But that just wanted it what various topics, very spiritual all the way to meditation type things. Like I’m listening to one on the Monroe Institute right now,
[00:31:26] Steve Fretzin: which
[00:31:26] Paige Fox: is really into, you know, meditation and stuff too.
[00:31:29] Steve Fretzin: Okay.
[00:31:29] Paige Fox: But it’s incredible.
[00:31:30] Paige Fox: It’s episode one 23 and one 24 are my favorites. That’s the one done. Spirit science. Yeah, if you listen to it, I would love to hear your opinion because
[00:31:39] Steve Fretzin: I’m going to check it out. I’m always up. That’s why one of the, I mean, greet, you know, selfishly, that’s one of the reasons I ask about people’s favorite podcasts because I’m always looking for myself, but I think it’s also fun to share.
[00:31:48] Steve Fretzin: Hey, we got to wrap up with our thinking of our, of our sponsors, of course, law Maddox get staffed up and rankings IO also doing the PIM con conference for the personal injury attorney. So check that out, everybody. And page of people want to get in touch with you. They can check out the show notes, but what’s any, any direct ways for them to reach you?
[00:32:06] Steve Fretzin: They want to hear more about your practice, about your life.
[00:32:09] Paige Fox: Yeah, absolutely. They can email me at page P I G E at Fox elder law. org.
[00:32:16] Steve Fretzin: Yeah.
[00:32:16] Paige Fox: That’s my email address. That’s the best way to contact me. And yeah, I’m happy to talk with anybody about this or anything related to elder law, anything. Thank you so much for having me though.
[00:32:27] Steve Fretzin: Yeah. Thank you. This was fun. And again, you know, we talked about a lot of different categories of health and wellness for meditation, eating right, exercise, and giving people examples and things to think about. So You know, again, if, if we change one life of someone that starts exercising or starts doing something different tomorrow because of this conversation, then, then we did a good job for, for for everybody anyway.
[00:32:48] Paige Fox: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks. And I don’t have I mean, I don’t have time to talk about all this, but I can send you all of my notes and like the research that I have too, if you wanted to link that in any of the show. Yeah. And if you
[00:32:57] Steve Fretzin: have a link or something you want us to put in the show notes, we’re happy to do that.
[00:33:00] Paige Fox: Absolutely.
[00:33:01] Steve Fretzin: All right. Thank you, Paige. And thank you everybody for spending time on the Be That Lawyer with fretzin podcast, helping you to be that lawyer, confident, organized, and a skilled rainmaker. Take care, everybody. Be safe. Be well. We’ll talk again soon.
[00:33:16] Narrator: Thanks for listening to Be That Lawyer, life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Visit Steve’s website, fretzin. com for additional information and to stay up to date on the latest legal business development and marketing trends. For more information and important legal Check out today’s show notes.