The Rite Life: Creating A Sustainable Fitness Lifestyle With Alex Concepcion

Your health and fitness all start with you. If you don’t have the right mindset, you will never achieve your fitness goals even with all the tools you may have at your disposal. Joining Mark Yuzuik on the podcast today is registered dietician and personal trainer Alex Concepcion. Alex helps people live “The Rite Life” by cutting through the noise of infobesity and helping them get back to the basics – good nutrition, balanced calories and nutrients, exercise, and water. He talks about the fitness lifestyle, weight management, and bariatric surgery. If you want to live a sustainable fitness lifestyle, you don’t want to miss this episode.

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The Rite Life: Creating A Sustainable Fitness Lifestyle With Alex Concepcion

I’ve got a gentleman on this show and I’ve been trying to get him for some time. Finally, he set aside some time because he’s so busy. Many people are wanting him and I don’t blame you after you read this. You’re going to say, “Now I know why you kept pursuing him and why many people want him.” Please welcome on my show, Alex Concepcion. Alex, how are you doing?

How are you doing, Mark?

I’m doing good. If you can see Alex, you’d be like, “What have you been doing with your body?” He goes, “Nothing. It’s the way it is.” This is a man that cares about many people, how they not just look but how they feel. I have the opportunity to meet with him and do some work with him. What a blessing. If you want to get trimmer, slimmer, sexier, Alex is your man. He developed and created some programs to allow you how to make simple, easy, fast and where everybody can do it. It’s not rocket science. They don’t have to go to college for this. You’ve got a whole program that you enable and you help people to take their life back in ways that they never thought were possible. I help with the mindset but it’s got to be more than a mindset. You have to have strategies and different things. Your strategies along with your mindset, how you coach people, how you lead them. I’ve never seen anything more powerful in this industry than what you’ve created and thank you for that.

Mark, it always starts with the mindset. If you don’t have the right mindset and goal, then you cannot even apply the tools that I gave you afterward. It starts with you. I provide you with a little bit of guidance, accountability and you see the magic happen. It’s not even magic. It’s not rocket science, as you said. The issue that I have is that we live in a society where there’s so much information. I call it infobesity. We get confused. There are documentaries on this that oppose this. They have scientific evidence to support both sides but they’re completely contradictory to each other. What I do is I cut through that noise. Go back to the basics, stick to what got the society or built humanity to what it is. That is the basics. That is good, nutritious food, balance, calories, nutrients, exercise, and water. That’s all it is, cutting through the noise.

I want to get the readers a very clear understanding of what you do for people because I’ve never met anybody who’s cared about people so much and so passionate about giving them their life back physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, intimate with sexually. Taking your life and going, “What a freaking great day to wake up and live. I’ve got a purpose.” You give people that. You work with people that are slightly or way overweight.

It’s everybody on the spectrum. I’m a registered dietician, personal trainer and board-certified. I went to school for Nutrition Science. I did all the clinical stuff. Immediately afterward, I went into the fitness industry and I became a bodybuilder. This is what I strive to be because personally, I’ve wanted the “perfect body.”

You don’t brag about it. What you do is you use as an example that people can have their life back. If we talk about lifestyle fitness, what is lifestyle fitness?

Lifestyle fitness is applying everyday activities of daily living that will apply towards a healthy lifestyle. We have so much money going into marketing for garbage food and junk food. It’s not our fault but it is our fault because there’s a lot going on in front of our face. We choose to or we don’t choose to, it’s just mindset but it’s persuading you to go towards the unhealthy route. There’s so much more money in the unhealthy route than there is in the healthy route. That’s a fitness lifestyle.

Taking your life back starts with you. It always starts with the mindset. Share on X

If you think about it now, I’ll let you know it. They’ve got overeating with the Corona. People are making excuses. Some people are doing the right choice. Now that I have to be home, I’ll learn how to cook. You do have knowledge of what people should eat and what foods to stay away from, is that right? I’ve seen you do some cooking stuff. I think you ought to get a little cooking show. The fact is, would you be willing to do that and do some Facebook Live cooking where people can watch you?

Absolutely.

How would they get ahold of Alex? You want to follow this guy.

You can follow me on Facebook, @RiteLife. You can find me on Instagram, @Alex_RiteLife. You can shoot me an email, Alex@TheRiteLife.com.

Can you give an example of what some of the foods that you stay away from and even go for?

The list of foods that I want you to stay away from is a lot longer than the foods that I want you to consume. Let’s switch that.

It’s a mindset. I should have caught that, “What should we do?” instead of, “What shouldn’t we do?” Now you know why I love the guy.

At the very basics, what I want are protein and non-starchy veggies. We want protein for the amino acids to help with building muscle. When you exercise, it’s going to help with cellular repair. It’s a foundation and the building blocks. For non-starchy vegetables, we’re talking about green, leafy vegetables, spinach, kale, broccoli, asparagus, mustard greens, cabbage, Brussel sprouts. You can eat to your heart’s desires. It’s not going to be a problem and that’s the beauty of it. When I say protein, you can do animal proteins or plant-based proteins as well. Animal proteins, we’re talking about steak, beef, chicken, lamb, pork, what have you. It seems limited but you have so much variety because within those few ingredients, you can make 100 different dishes when it comes to the flavor profile, types of cooking, baking, sautéing, and grilling. You have Asian flavors, Indian flavors, Mexican flavors, American flavors or simply salt and pepper. That would be the tip of what I want you to have.

The Rite Life: A fitness lifestyle is applying everyday activities of daily living that will apply towards a healthy lifestyle.

People say, “I can’t lose weight because I can’t be on a diet.” You don’t tell anybody better than that. You’re against diet. You’re about eating the right foods to fuel your body so you move more, you feel better and have the energy to do the things you want to do in life with the people you want to do with. That’s your message. People get obese because they’ve fallen into the trap of, “Let me go to a drive-through and eat the things I shouldn’t eat because it’s easier and simpler.” It’s not. This is simple and easy. You don’t have to be on this vegan diet. If you choose to be, that’s great. You don’t have to be on this know-this-that. It’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle.

Making sure you’re getting the basics like water, exercise and your body will.

I’m not a guy that likes to go to the gym. How can I get exercise without going to the gym?

Being able to walk, you have to get pets.

I’ve got two beautiful Maltese dogs.

You can take your dogs for walks. You can go to the park. You can even do some basic exercises to get your blood flowing throughout the day. One of the strategies that I use is simply doing body squats and air squats. As a modification if you can’t, sit down on your chair, stand up, sit down on your chair, stand up. You’re doing squats right there. That is the compound exercise. That’s going to utilize your entire body. I say do that. Can you do ten of those? Yes, most likely. Do that ten times a day. You knocked out 100 squats.

I heard somebody one time say, and I never forgot this, “If you’re going to watch TV, you couch potatoes out there, and you don’t want to look like a potato. As you’re watching the potato chip commercials, do squats, sit-ups or something during the commercial and then go back. It will make a difference.” That’s brilliant.

I use that same strategy. In my pursuit of the perfect body, I incorporated 1,000 crunches a day. I would do them during the commercials. Opposite of that, if you can go to the gym, one of the strategies that I use is jumping on the treadmill, elliptical or stair stepper and getting into a show but for the most part, there are not many people I know that don’t have Netflix, Hulu or what have you. Only watch that chill on the treadmill, you are focusing on hitting that next episode rather than the actual workout. That workout will go like this because you’re engaged mentally into the show. That’s the mindset. You’re still not depriving yourself and you’re still able to get the exercise that you need.

There's so much more money in the unhealthy route than there is in the healthy route. Share on X

You specialize in helping people before their surgery. Tell me about that.

We didn’t talk about this. In terms of lifestyle, weight management and transformation, I work with all types from competition to getting a healthy lifestyle needing or having a chronic illness related to weight but specifically now, which my business is driving towards is a surgical weight loss. The lifestyle changes that you need to for surgical weight loss, we’re talking bariatric surgery, gastric sleeve, vertical sleeve and gastric bypass. Ask your question again with that being said.

You specialize in helping men and women before and after they get to the bariatric surgery. You’re getting their mindset and their body ready for that. They think once the surgery is done, the work is done, they’re healed.

That’s the misconception. That’s the problem that people see is that they assume that this is a fix-all absolute solution, but it’s not. It’s a tool to help you stay consistent because that’s what we need. We need consistency and fewer calories but you still have to make the right choice because then you still do the work.

That’s where you come in and you coach people. If somebody wants to coach, let’s say, “I need Alex’s help. I need to get through this,” whether they need to lose 200, 300, 400 pounds or 50 pounds, you’ve got the coaching program for them. You have the strategies and techniques to help them through that even after the surgery. Most people need that more before the surgery.

Afterward is huge, I want to say in the 90th percentile mindset. I want to say even 90% of the consults that I have are talking on mindset. Speaking on mindset but then also strategy. The 10% is going to be the strategy because you have a tool now that’s extremely effective. You have to let it work. When you spend money and you do something like this, we also want instant results and also we see other people’s success. We have forums that we go on to. We see people who have gone through the same surgeries or procedures and they’re like, “Why did they lose 100 pounds and I’ve only lost 50? I must be doing something wrong.” That’s not the case. You’re two different people, weights, ages, metabolic rates, lifestyles before the surgery and lifestyles after the surgery. You’ve got to understand that everybody is different and this tool is only to help you so much.

If somebody is getting ready for bariatric surgery, you’re the man they need to go to. You’re the man who’s going to help them before, during, and after.

For the most part, wherever they go, what clinic or hospital that they go to will have their pre-surgery protocol and whatever they need to do because every clinic is a little bit different in what they need. Afterward, a lot of clinics don’t have the support that I’m able to give you. Going back to that example of mindset, getting extremely frustrated, and pulling out your hair assuming that you’re doing something wrong. Maybe you are but that’s where I make sure that you don’t fall off track but more so, keeping you on track mentally and physically.

The Rite Life: People assume that bariatric surgery is a fix-all absolute solution, but it’s not. It’s a tool to help you stay consistent.

Everybody needs a coach. I have coaches in my life. Every successful person I know is successful and wants to grow consistently because as we grow, we can share our knowledge, information, and experience with somebody else. This is something that needs to have a coach. Not be told what to do but supporting on how do we get through, get the end result, and come out. Most people that go through the surgery don’t have the result that’s final. They get the result, they want long-term, and they go back to the weight. Accessible with your case, you have extremely high success rate because you’re there with them and they’re doing what they get to do, what they want to do with support and love and not, “Don’t do this. Don’t do that.” You’re the guy that says, “What can we do? How do we make this simple, easy and fun?” This is the solution. I’m even going to call this conquering bariatric surgery with success.

This statistic for success is high across the board short-term. What I do is help you long-term, no matter where you are on your journey. If you happen to call me within your first year of surgery then we will be able to have an impactful long-term and utilize the tool to the best of its abilities as opposed afterward. Even though you still have it, you are still restricted, you are still able to lose the weight and hit your goal a lot easier than somebody who doesn’t. You are still at a place physically that is less restricted because you can test your limits so you may go back to a mindset before surgery and still mess it up. That’s the battle that we have to work with and making sure that we overcome.

The surgery isn’t permission to be bad and go back to old habits, it’s the influence of making the right choices and do the right thing. This is a tool that gets you on the right track to make sure that you deserve it. I do a lot of lose weight seminars. The first thing I do is I get there and I go, “I’m not even overweight. I’m not one of you.” They’re overweight, trust me. They look at me like, “We’re at a lose weight seminar.” I go, “You have excess weight that doesn’t belong to you. You bought it. It’s time to give it back. The perfect ideal sculpture is already within you. Let’s get rid of the things that don’t exist.” That’s what you do. You help people get rid of the negative things that don’t exist. The things that made them who they were, you got them to be who they truly are, and deserve all the love that they want. Everything they have in life is based on what we feel we deserve. You give them that. You don’t give them hope, you give them results. I love that about you. How do they get ahold of you, Alex?

On Facebook, @RiteLife. You can shoot me an email at Alex@TheRiteLife.com or you can jump on the website, TheRiteLife.com.

Before we go, give somebody three tips. You can give somebody to improve their lifestyle, give them energy and feel better every day.

Get a goal, plan and get up off your ass. That’s what it is.

Alex, thank you for your time. I know you’re busy. You said you’re going to do some Facebook Live where you’re going to show some cooking episodes where we can join you.

Yes, I will. Thank you, Mark. It was great talking to you. I look forward to the next one.

Remember, GetYourMindsetWithMark.com, email me and give me your feedback. You want to get ahold of that, let me know, I’ll hook you up with him. He gave me his cell phone number. Read other episodes. Subscribe to be notified to a new episode. Remember, go to my website and you get the book for free. I’m Mark Yuzuik. Thank you for being here. Let’s make a difference in somebody else’s life as well as yourself. God bless you. I’ll talk to you next time.