Systems For Founder Fitness w/ Akash Vaghela | RNT Fitness

00:00
Akash Vaghela
Collapsed again. Then the ambulance came and they said, is everything okay? Isaid, yeah, I don't think I was dehydrated. I think I was just stressed. It'sstrange. This is a guy who runs a fitness company and yet is collapsing fromburnout.

00:11
Amardeep Parmar
That's Akash, founder of RNT Fitness, which specialises in helping highperformers. Like founders.

00:17
Akash Vaghela
We've actually built our own unique technology platform for our members. It'sbeen a scary journey doing this kind of bootstrapped with my own money. I havea book out called Transform Your Body, Transform Your Life published. It'll befive years this year.

00:28
Amardeep Parmar
He dropped clear, practical advice.

00:31
Akash Vaghela
Take your notebook out, artificially gamify it, because again, founders lovegames. Basically you're just looking for a way to eliminate the decision aroundthe food and automate that into your life. Yeah. So I said three, 30 minutes isthe bare minimum. Now what do you include? I would probably just go full body.When you have high volume foods, it's going to take a lot of space in your gut,so you're going to feel full. So either walk in, meeting in live, or if youjust have a few meetings where you don't really need to show your video, youcan just take it on the go.

00:53
Amardeep Parmar
Find more in the full episode. Fitness and health is such a big problem for somany founders because they get so obsessed with what they're doing.

01:05
Akash Vaghela
Right.

01:06
Amardeep Parmar
And you're super up to many founders. What do you see the challenges of foundermindset and staying healthy and fit?

01:12
Akash Vaghela
I think the biggest challenge founders have is they put their health andfitness last. They put themselves last. Their business is their number one.They've got family, there's, they've got a couple of babies that they'rejuggling. But generally speaking, the business is number one and everythingelse kind of falls to the wayside, typically until they have some sort of oh,shit moment. I don't know if we're allowed to say we can spare. But until thatsort of thing happens, usually when, you know, a blood test goes wrong, theirdoctors are like, you've got certain amount of years to live, which we hearquite often. Or they feel embarrassed by what they see in their pictures or howtheir clothes feel. Until that sort of moment happens, they just keep going,going, going.

01:49
Akash Vaghela
And then they're like, I need to actually do something about my health. So Isay the biggest one is health is not even on the radar. It's just business.

01:55
Akash Vaghela
That's it.

01:55
Akash Vaghela
I just need to make this thing work. And I need to keep growing it. And I wouldsay along the way, what we see a lot of founders do is they'll try little quickthings, like, they'll see something really easy like, oh, let me try this, Idon't know, keto. I'll try a bit of that. I'll try this juice diet, I'll trythis detox. And they're always looking for very quick, quick things. So they'lljump on these quick things. A couple weeks later, they'll be off andcompletely, you know, back to square one. And we see a lot of founders gothrough that pendulum swing where they're either all in or they're all out. Andthey don't really do that with their business, because their business, they'rejust all in.

02:28
Akash Vaghela
But with everything else, especially with their health and fitness, is just thependulum just swinging on and off, on and off, and usually more towards theoffside.

02:34
Amardeep Parmar
And how big a role of stress is there in that too? Because is that stoppingthem from being healthy? Is it their barrier or is it time? What's the bigblocker there?

02:42
Akash Vaghela
Yeah, I mean, time is the most obvious one. When we think about founders, wethink they're time poor. So when we think about health and fitness, we need todo training, we need to prepare our meals, we need to prioritise sleep, we needto go for walks and all these things. When you're looking at this list ofthings, I haven't got time for this, right. I'd rather spend that time on mybusiness. Now, the paradoxical thing is, if you actually do these things,you'll be more productive in your business. Like when you do sleep better. Haveyou, have you ever had, like, days where you slept for three, four hours andtell me how productive you are? The next exit.

03:13
Amardeep Parmar
So, you know, what I've done is I've just. I stopped wearing my whoop and thenit can't tell me off. So if I don't know how long I slept and it's fine.

03:19
Amardeep Parmar
Right.

03:19
Amardeep Parmar
So it's like. It's denial, right?

03:21
Akash Vaghela
Yeah, that's another. So deny on that. So when you sleep less, you're going tobe less productive. When you don't walk or you don't move around, you're justgoing to be less productive. And what tends to happen with a lot of founders isthey don't even realise how unproductive they become. They are. And what theyuse for energy becomes things like caffeine. You know, were discussing before,like, how in the U.S. Adderall and things like that are a massive thing. Sostimulants become big part of this founder's diet, so to speak. Caffeine. Andthen there's also food where whether it's used in two ways, one is as an energysource that you just think, I just have another snack to get my two of the day.Another cookie, another biscuit.

03:53
Akash Vaghela
Let's say you've probably gone through a whole packet by the end of the day. Orit's on the other side where founders use it as a way to take the edge off.They had a hard day. They're finally at a moment to think all the stress andhave that kind of just relax now. What do you do? You reach for something easy.You reach something that's going to make you feel good. It gives you thatdopamine spike in the evening. And I think. So we've got the time issue, butwe've kind of got the food and the stress eating and it all kind of links intogether. Because most founders, just because they haven't got a system inplace, they're just all over the place.

04:24
Akash Vaghela
And as a result, if it's not a quick fix or if it's not something that's goingto make them feel instantly good, it's not going to happen.

04:31
Amardeep Parmar
Maintain about systems, right? And it's just the amount of time that I've toldmyself, okay, this week we work at basics o' clock in the morning and we go tothe gym before work, and the amount of times actually happen, it's very low. Sohow do you design a system to make work for you?

04:43
Akash Vaghela
So I think the reality is every founder knows health and fitness is important.Like, I don't think there's anyone out there thinking, you know what, this isnot something I need to pay attention to. Everyone listening to this isprobably one of the wrong things. I know this is important. I know I need to doit. To be honest, I don't think any founder would do anything about it untilsomething bad happens. Now, whether it is that health check I mentioned orwhether they just feel embarrassed in how they look in a picture or how theyfit in a suit or whatever it may be, until that happens, nothing's going tochange. So that's the first thing. When that trigger moment happens, that'swhen you got to take action and that's when you got to think, all right, why isthis important to me?

05:11
Akash Vaghela
Why have I felt triggered by whatever's happened? And you kind of formulateyour why right from there's a couple of things you need to do to build thesystem. Now the first thing is what do you actually need to do? So you don'tneed to train every day. Okay. So I would suggest the founder can do reallywell on three 30 minute workouts a week. Okay. So that's the first thing theyneed to have some sort of nutrition system. So the way I like think about it isthe more you can limit decision fatigue when it comes to your nutrition, thebetter. Now most people think when they, when I say to them, right, I think Ineed to eat the same thing every single day for the next 14 days.

05:47
Akash Vaghela
They're like, no, I love variety, I'm a foodie, all these sorts of things. Butif you look at the average person's supermarket shop, they're probably eating alot. I think there's actual research on this that they're only eating like 13foods anyway. They're already eating the same thing every day. But when youtell them you need to eat these things, they feel, I feel restricted. But whatwe found is after a few weeks of doing this, people feel so much lighter intheir mind, but also in their body because now they've got, they've taken awaythe decisions around their food and the foods they're eating are A, easy toprep.

06:15
Akash Vaghela
So we're not asking for gourmet meals, but something they can just prep in acouple minutes or it can be something where they know they're going to Mark& Spencer's for example, and they're going to pick XYZ every single day. Orthey may be using a meal prep company that's giving them XYZ. Basically you'relooking for a way to eliminate the decision around food and automate that intoyour life. I think that's probably one of the biggest levers a founder can pullto feel better immediately, to improve their digestive system and most of allto improve their energy. And after doing that for two weeks, you will find you,you build a habit of your nutrition and then it becomes, you know, momentumsnowball from there. So we discussed training three times 30 minutes.

06:52
Akash Vaghela
We've discussed nutrition, finding some sort of automation and then save theflexibility for when you have more time. So that could be the weekends, thatcould be the evenings, depending on when that is. And then the third thing isfinding ways to integrate movement into your day. So if you're a founder whoworks on a laptop or a computer, which is, I'd say everyone listening to this,the chances are you could go days where your step count's only 23,000. And I'dbe willing to bet if anyone doesn't pay attention to their step count, itprobably is going to be that. So there's a couple of things you can do whichmake it very easy to interange day. The first is taking more walking calls.

07:26
Akash Vaghela
So either walk in meeting in life or if you just have a few meetings where youdon't really need to show your video, you can just take it on the go. That's areally good one. The second one, I think this has been one of the biggest gamechangers if you have the space at home is get a wallpad. Don't know if you'veseen these but gotten a home if you got no. It's absolute game changer forthings like admin zoom calls and you don't need to walk super fast on this, butit just gives you a little bit of activity, feel a bit better. There's nothingworse than sitting there going through like tedious job stuff for yourbusiness. And you're sitting there, your energy's getting lower and lowerwhereas when you walk in you'll feel a bit better.

07:58
Akash Vaghela
And then the third thing is combining it with your meals. So one thing I reallylike is 10 minute walks. Everyone can do a 10 minute walk, right? When you sayI'll go for an hour walk, it feels hard, I haven't got time for that. But a 10minute walk straight after your meal, hey, you can feel better from a digestionperspective but B you're just going to get them in. If you eat three times aday, you've got a 30 minute across the day. So walking in general movement donein those three ways can be really way an easy way for founders to get extraactivity in.

08:21
Amardeep Parmar
Now it's really useful. I'm going to add bit more into each of those bitsthere.

08:24
Akash Vaghela
Yeah, go for it.

08:25
Amardeep Parmar
So you mentioned about the free 30 minute workouts, right?

08:27
Akash Vaghela
Yeah.

08:28
Amardeep Parmar
And one of the things I think holds a lot of people back is that they overcomplicate what to do in those 30 minutes, right?

08:34
Akash Vaghela
Yeah.

08:34
Amardeep Parmar
So how should they think about that? Was there a certain split you'd recommendor how. What are those three 30 minute workouts?

08:40
Akash Vaghela
Yeah, so I said three 30 minutes is the bare minimum. Firstly if you have ahome set up great, you don't need to go to a gym because that's. That gets ridof another objection. And a pair of dumbbells is completely fine. It doesn'tneed to be any Sophisticated. Now what do you include? I would probably just gofull body. I would go if I just give like a general sort of workout, I wouldpick an upper body push exercise. So anything that works, any sort of pressing,I'd pick a pull exercise. So some sort of row movement or a chin up if you havethat at home, I pick some sort of a quad fake focus lift. So like a squat or asplit squat or a lunge and then something that works the posterior chain. Solike a deadlift variation.

09:15
Akash Vaghela
The now though, that covers all your major muscle groups. Do pick one exerciseof each. Do two to three sets, eight to 12 reps and you can either positionthem in like a, antagonistic fashion where you pick opposing muscle groups. Soit could be upper body push with lower body pull and then upper body pull withlower body push. And going between the two will A, save time and B, becausethey're non competing muscle groups, it will allow you to still perform each ofthem at a really good way. Now the idea of pairing exercises can work reallywell when you're in your time strap because you can literally just go back andforth, back and forth without resting too much, which feels like a waste oftime, but also without reducing the performance of the lift.

09:53
Akash Vaghela
So you're not going to get extra fatigue because they don't compete. So thosefour exercises and you have extra time, you can do things like arms, abs andall that fun stuff, but that will cover your basis and build a pretty good bodyas well.

10:03
Amardeep Parmar
And then looking at nutrition as well. So I actually use like Simmer myself. SoSimmer's been on the podcast and the challenge is sometimes is that like Isaid, when it comes down to stress is that I'm like, I know that's fairlybalanced and healthy isn't maybe it's not the best view, but it's not going tobe too bad. But then I'm like, well, I'm stressed. I'm going to get some in themarket. And like, how do you juggle that? Where they said people feel like it'sboring, the food which is healthy for them. How do you as a founder not justkind of still go out and get the food that's bad for you? How do you help to?

10:35
Akash Vaghela
So it's great that you've got a meal prep system in there. What you're reallylooking for in that moment is you're looking for a dopamine hit. You're lookingfor something fun. Your meals are probably because you use a meal prep company.It probably has to taste pretty good, right? I mean, you're going to say.You're not going to say, no, I'm sure they taste pretty good. But what you'researching for in that moment.

10:49
Amardeep Parmar
He might be watching this is.

10:51
Akash Vaghela
Something to relieve the stress. One of the. One of the things we say with alot of people work with is weight management. Weight loss, depending on thegoal, is only actually 10% training. Like, training is not actually that big ofa thing. Like, we think it's got about all the way into the gym. It's actuallynot. When it comes to weight management, it's about 40% nutrition, about 50%managing your stress and emotions, which is kind of what you alluded to. Andone of the biggest growth hacks a founder can do. And anyone who's, like, verybusy and juggling a lot is try and change the way they deal with stress inthose moments.

11:23
Akash Vaghela
Because if you don't get to the root cause of why you keep having to needing togo to Costa Coffee and grab those dark chocolate rice cakes or whatever theyare, that's just gonna keep happening. The calories are gonna keep coming inand you're just gonna keep piling on the pounds and it will happen by. It willhappen slowly, like, you'll be a death by a thousand cuts. It won't be likeovernight, you're just gonna go, oh, wow, what happened? It's gonna be like sixmonths later. You look at yourself and think, what the fuck happened? Right?And you realise you added all these extra calories on top of your nutritiousmeals. So really, you've got to get to the root of, how do I deal with thisstress? And then, I mean, that's a deeper question here.

11:56
Akash Vaghela
It's like, you know, do we need to use different mechanisms or do you need tofix something in the business that's, you know, in, in in need of it, or is ita habitual thing? You know, have you just got a habit around this now? I thinka lot of founders have a lot of. Have vices, right? Everyone's got their thing.Sometimes it's literally just the work itself that you would just work till youdrop. Sometimes it will be drugs. We talked about, like, Adderall and thingslike that. But also it could be harder. Drugs, alcohol, gambling, porn, allthese things are effectively vices that a lot of founders use to take the edgeoff. Because life in the business is so stressful, they need something on theother side to counteract it. But there's a.

12:37
Akash Vaghela
I mean, we're kind of discussing this off air beforehand of like when you'reoperating in that state of like pain and like how much suffering can I take?That's when these vices come into play. But when you're playing, when you'reoperating in a state of like, you know what, like I'm playing this game out offun, you probably find that you have less of these vices. I find more of thesevices come earlier on in your founder career than then later on depending onthe person.

12:57
Amardeep Parmar
Hello.

12:57
Amardeep Parmar
Hello.

12:58
Amardeep Parmar
Quick interruption to let you know a bit more about BAE HQ. We're the communityfor high growth Asian heritage entrepreneurs, operators and investors in theUK. You can join us totally free@thebaehq.com/join. There, you'll get our CEOstructure in your inbox every week, which is content, events and opportunities.You can also get access to a free startup fundamentals course by joining. Let'sget back to the show. I meant that about sugar for example.

13:31
Amardeep Parmar
Right.

13:31
Amardeep Parmar
For me that's a big one, is that cookies is my big weakness is that I'm prettygood at like not drinking and don't take drugs, all that stuff. But sugar isthat element and obviously be from an Asian background, very heavily, the riskof diabetes, all these problems are there as well and I guess in particularsugar. Have you got any advice there of how do you train yourself or how do youmanage the systems to avoid using those as outlets?

13:58
Akash Vaghela
Yeah, one of the best things I think you can do is implement a 14 day periodcalled we call it cleaning the palate. And it's basically a 14 day period whereyou eat, we kind of mentioned, I eat the same three or four meals a day butthey are all whole food, nutrient dense and high volume. So what you'll find isif you take this approach and what I mean by this is everything's basicallysingle ingredient. So example is broccoli is a single ingredient. A pack ofcookies has loads. Right. So just the kind of. But if you think about highvolume, nutrient dense foods, when it's in your gut and in your sort ofstomach, just speaking very simply here, when you have high volume foods, itcan take up a lot of space in your gut.

14:35
Akash Vaghela
So you're going to feel full when you have cookies in your gut, you're goingto, it takes up, it takes less space up. Now I'm speaking very simplisticallyhere, so don't quote me on the side, but I'm trying to illustrate the point oflike satiety is a massive thing. When you eat the wrong meals at breakfast,lunch, dinner, and you are eating those more sugar based meals, simple foods,you find yourself getting more hungry or more in that snacky mindset. Whereaswhat we find is view, implement the system of cleaning the pallet where youfocus on single ingredient foods, whole foods, nutrient dense. People actuallyfeel really full and they actually struggle to finish the food. And that's oneof the best ways to sort of reset the palate and reduce that sort of urgencyand desire for sugar on a constant basis.

15:17
Akash Vaghela
That's a difficult thing to do because you've got to get your head around theidea of I'm going to eat pretty much the same food each day. But if you canjust create a set of meals that you can agree to. Like for example, you've gotmeal prep. It's already there. Get the calories right, get the macros right. Somake sure there's a protein target and that's a big part of it. Like make sureyou're having enough protein in there. And then as long as they're all nutrientdense and whole foods, you'll find yourself actually feeling really full.

15:39
Amardeep Parmar
One of the things which I find is, I can sometimes use an excuse.

15:42
Amardeep Parmar
Right.

15:42
Amardeep Parmar
Is that you're supposed to eat a varied diet.

15:44
Amardeep Parmar
Right.

15:44
Amardeep Parmar
You're supposed to have different types of foods and we're talking about thereabout having similar foods all the time. Like how do you manage that to makesure you are getting all the nutrients you need even if you aren't necessarilyeating that many different types of food.

15:56
Akash Vaghela
Yeah. So this is not, you don't necessarily need to eat like this for the restof your life. But I think as a reset of your system, I think it's a really goodway to do so. Also, as I mentioned before, most people are already eating thesame things by sort of habit or default, whether it's where they live next toor what their local store is. So it's already kind of happening. But you've gotvariety across three or four meals. I don't worry too much about thesenutrient, they're like ticking all the boxes because it's a short period ofjust trying. What we're trying to do here is rewire the brain to A wantdifferent types of foods, but B also just build a healthy system into your dayto day.

16:29
Akash Vaghela
So then when you do feel stressed or you do feel like you're going out for ameal or whatever, you go for the healthier option. Like for example now becauseI'm so far into this journey now, I don't sit there and think, oh yeah, I toldyou I went to that. Was it farmhouse?

16:43
Amardeep Parmar
Yes.

16:44
Akash Vaghela
I just went for a tofu salad and rice. It's like. But I didn't go there andraid the cakes there and this and that. It's just like, yeah, cool, that lookspretty healthy. I'll get that. So what we're trying to get out of is having nosystem. So we need to go kind of extreme, lock something in and then find theflexibility later. And what I find is founders like, they like systems and theykind of like something a bit extreme which will then evolve into someflexibility later on.

17:09
Amardeep Parmar
Yeah. And then the other beam into there too is about the walking element andgetting in bits of exercise where you can. And one of the things I do is Iintentionally get off a stage, a start early essentially. So I'm walking 20minutes to the office every day and 20 minutes back set gives me 40 minutesevery day of walking. So I do on average 12,000 steps a day. So easy eventhough I've been crap with the gym and crap all the stuff and I eat too manycookies. If walking 12,000 steps a day is some level of balance andcounteracting in some element. And is there another like little tips like thatyou mentioned?

17:39
Amardeep Parmar
So you mentioned about having walking pad at home or how do you try to get inthat lower intensity exercise? I guess is outside of your half an hours.

17:47
Akash Vaghela
Yeah, what you mentioned there, like getting off, getting the train stopearlier, taking the elevators, walking up the elevators rather than standing onthe elevators. Walking calls 30 minute walk first thing in the morning and thenmaybe in the evening as well. And then it's the walkpad. So those are like the.All those things add up if you're getting 12,000 steps. I find people that workin the city, find it really easy. Like you know, we're in central London rightnow. Just that commute makes it so easy to get into. I think the challenge ismore when they're working from home. That's when you need to be moreintentional about. I actually need to get out of the house, otherwise I'm goingto have the house for three days. You know, that sort of scenario can veryeasily happen if you're not careful.

18:21
Amardeep Parmar
I think for me the walking as well as productive procrastination.

18:24
Amardeep Parmar
Right.

18:24
Amardeep Parmar
Because I usually tend to be listening to podcasts and it's not my own podcast.I'm not that vain. But it's where I listen to American podcasts, for example,I'm trying to understand about different parts of the ecosystem. So we're goingto think sometimes that guilt, right? So if you're not at your desk, you're notworking. But because I'm listening to podcasts, I can still feel like, okay,I'm learning stuff that's going to then inform my content, it's going to informother things. So that's another thing I try to use of how to take that timeout.

18:50
Akash Vaghela
One of the best things I did when I started an online business in 2017 was Irealised that I was always on. I was always, as in digitally, just always on.So a few months in, I. I started to like, just go for these walks where I woulddo. I would listen to nothing. I listened to no podcasts, no audio and didn'tuse my phone either. So I'd actually had like 30 minutes each day, which I wasjust unplugged, walking. I found that it was one of the best things for mymental health, but also just from a productivity, creativity perspective, itallowed me to kind of see the wood for the trees. Because when you're alwayspounding on your keyboard or you're always plugged into a podcast, you can findyourself just always distracting your thoughts.

19:27
Akash Vaghela
So you're never actually understanding, like, what are the big problems I'mtrying to solve? Because if you think about how problems are solved, most ofthe time you're aware of the problem, you kind of load it up and yoursubconscious solves it when you know, when you're in the shower or whatever.But why is it happening in the shower? Because you've actually got no inputs.So this is why I implemented this thing once. I did it a few times by accident.I think I must have just forgotten my phone or whatever. And then I was like,you know what? This is actually? And it's been a habit I've kept in allthroughout the year. So I try and do my exercise unplugged. So whether it's inthe gym, running, walking, I'll do at least 30 minutes a day where I don'tlisten to anything.

20:00
Akash Vaghela
That can actually be one of the most productive periods for the stuff I'mdoing. Because my idea is just going through, going through the roof.

20:08
Amardeep Parmar
Right at the start you mentioned about leaving a trigger to change your habits,right?

20:11
Akash Vaghela
Yeah.

20:11
Amardeep Parmar
And I guess for some people who maybe they're like, okay, I already know that.I don't like how I look, I already know these things, but it's still not makingthem change.

20:19
Amardeep Parmar
Right.

20:20
Amardeep Parmar
Is there any way to try to artificially trigger that? And what were thetriggers for you? Or have you always been quite good with fitness?

20:26
Akash Vaghela
Yeah, I'll cover the first bit. And this kind of links to you said about thesugar, like, how do you actually stop this? I know I said a few things aroundhaving high protein, whole foods, all this, but how do you still stop going tothe cooking? I think it's accountability. Now. The accountability can becreated in many different ways. You can, you can even just have a couple offounders who decide together that, all right, guys, we're going to now for thenext 28 days, because founders love a little challenge to get things going. Atleast get things going when we're not going to have any snacks, we're not goingto have any sugar, we're not. We're going to drink three litres of water a day.We're going to have 10,000 steps.

20:56
Akash Vaghela
That can be a good way to then build the momentum for you got to keep it onafterwards. But I think some sort of peer level accountability can be reallypowerful and I think founders thrive off that, like that competitive edge. Sothat would be one way to sort of artificially gamify it because again, founderslove games. Anything that spikes the dopamine hit. And then the second part waslike, how. What would be my triggers? So I've had like multiple different onesacross the years. I'd say my first fitness journey started when I was 17. I wasa skinny fat kid with boobs in a pot belly. Probably very similar to what youwere, kind of Gujarati. Look, where we had no muscle mass. And one of my bestfriends, I was actually destined for a career in law.

21:37
Akash Vaghela
I wanted to follow my father's footsteps, you know, be a lawyer. And then I gotdragged into my, into the gym and by my best friend. And he said, look, it'sgoing to help you get girls. I said, all right, let's give it a shot. Parents.I got no confidence right now. This might help. You know, I went to the gym andit just changed my life. I got completely bitten by the bug and I never lookedback. And it was through that journey over the next couple of months afterwhere I was applying for a person, a law, a career in law. And my same bestfriend saw me reading a nutrition article and he said, dude, why don't you justdo something in this? And I didn't. This is 2008. So 2008, there was no realfitness industry that was.

22:11
Akash Vaghela
I didn't know what was going on, what I could do with it. But that first sortof transformation sparked the journey for me. And it kind of came out of thatinsecure, skinny, fat kid. But I'd say over the years where that evolved towas, I say that why kind of stayed the same for a long time. Then when I feltsecure in my body, it just kind of became a lifestyle. And then when I became afounder, something changed again. Because I think you said earlier on, like,founders then take their own advice. We were laughing about this before, andhere I was a founder of a fitness company. So I'm the fitness guy, right? AndI'm thinking, right, I'm fitness guy. I've been doing this for eight years.I've competed in bodybuilding shows, I've won bodyboarding shows.

22:53
Akash Vaghela
You know, I know the deal here. And I think it was very vivid period betweenlike end of 2018 to early 2019. And the business started growing just a bitquicker than I expected and a bit quicker than I was probably prepared for. AndI still hadn't hired enough team. I was just spread, like, completely thin. Andthere was a period of like three months of every day was start a fight, wake upand start a five. I was single. You wake up, you see, you wake up, 15 minuteslater, you're at the sofa drinking coffee like pounding a laptop every day tillabout 10, 11. My step counts started going from like the usual 10 to like 3.The gym sessions went from like 4 a week to 1 2. Started skipping more andmore.

23:36
Akash Vaghela
My nutrition was here, there, or thereabouts, but I started eating less. Andthen three months later, in February 14th, Valentine's Day, I. I wake up around4, 4:30, and I'm heading to the bathroom. My mom was already awake and she. SoI was living at home and I was going for a piss, and just before I went for apiss, I collapsed to the side. And luckily I missed the. The, the head of thetoilet seat fell to the side. My mom walked in and she had to pick me up, driveme into our room. She's like, what happened? I was like, I don't know. And thenI walk out the door. I just saw one off walk out the door. And then she like,I'm about to go down the stairs, and she's like pushing me to the side. Icollapsed again.

24:22
Akash Vaghela
And then the ambulance came and they said, you know, is everything okay? Isaid, yeah, just. They almost push tired or whatever. They're like, oh, itLooks like you're. They took me in for bloods and all this. So it looks likeyou're chronically dehydrated. I don't think I was dehydrated, I.

24:34
Akash Vaghela
Think I was just overstressed.

24:35
Akash Vaghela
And what I realised that year I, I battled with this quite a bit and what I wasfinding is every time I was overworked, basically burnt out, I'd getchronically dehydrated. So I'd be drinking like 5, 6 litres of water a day andyet pissing yellow. So when that happened I'd be like, fuck, this is going tohappen. I start getting sweats, I was getting. My hair would start falling outof the back and I'm getting like scabs and it was, all this was stress responseand it got to the end of the year and I was like, something needs to change.Like the systems I built before that helped me when I was a personal trainer inthe city and just before running a business aren't going to save me anymorebecause I need to revamp what I'm doing.

25:13
Akash Vaghela
And that's when I started integrating some of the things I've talked about. Sothe walking, making the gym sessions non negotiable. I started going in themorning just because if I went in a day it was not going to happen. And I juststarted setting myself mini goals and basically what you said, like gamifyingit and just to get myself back in the game. And it's quite, it's strange butthis is a guy who runs a fitness company and yet is collapsing from burnout.But it was a strong reminder that, you know, that it can happen to the best ofus. And I tell that story to a lot of founders because we don't think it'sgoing to happen until it happens.

25:42
Amardeep Parmar
No, it's so important. Like you said, it's always. It's the thing I hear aswell. I know, I do it myself. It's like, well, you should have balance, youshould make sure you have work life balance. Well, I just completely break allmy rules and is that thing. I think accountability really helps that. Right.Because if you had a friend as well who both of you were keeping each otheraccountable, that maybe would have stopped your worst successes.

26:01
Akash Vaghela
Another good way of accountability, just to interrupt, there is selfaccountability. So if. Have you ever taken a picture of yourself in underwear?

26:08
Amardeep Parmar
SWell, not that I'm going to admit on the podcast anyway. Yeah, sorry.

26:12
Akash Vaghela
Well, I mean that's just a really interesting way of taking selfaccountability. Of, you know, checking your body weight, checking your healthstats. You know, have you ever taken on. Have you done a blood test recently?

26:22
Amardeep Parmar
Yeah, so I have the. The health insurance. So you get that done every year.

26:25
Akash Vaghela
Okay, so you've done the blood test, checking your body weight and then lookingat your body composition. Like, are you proud of what you see in the mirror?I'll ask you. This is. Oh, just a rhetorical question. You can answer if youwant.

26:35
Amardeep Parmar
No, I can say honestly. So what happened to me? So before COVID I used to bedoing obstacle course races around the world.

26:42
Akash Vaghela
Right.

26:43
Amardeep Parmar
So. So walking six pack, 14 body fat, 13 body fat, just like every day kind ofthing. The pandemic. Then just at the end of that, I tore my knee. And thensoon after that, my dad passed away. So I could. I didn't have that sameoutline you had before or been able to use sports as my way to, like, deal withstress. So then I turned to sugar. I turned to, like, all the kind of vicesand, like, junk food and stuff. So I went from, say, 14% body fat to about,like, 24% body fat within space of like, a year. And then now I'm the way downagain. But then as my stress has gone up again this year, I can see thosehabits creeping in again that I was able to cut out.

27:21
Amardeep Parmar
So I'm now in a position again of where I'm. I don't know, I'm probably like 9,18, 90% body fat. But I know that I can get back to the level I once was. Andthat's my thing at the moment of just cutting out bits and pieces. And like yousaid, it's the small changes I know I need to make. But this conversation rightnow has helped me.

27:37
Akash Vaghela
Yeah.

27:38
Amardeep Parmar
In certain things that. Okay, I'm going to apply that myself now as well.

27:41
Akash Vaghela
Well, something for you then. And this is something, actually now that you saidit reminds me of a lot of founders who have been successful in maintainingtheir. Their health is they find something that outside of just liftingweights, or it could just be. Or it could be that element of lifting weightsthat really excites them. So, for example, I did bodyboarding for a decade, andthen I stopped in 2022 and I started doing Muay Thai as my main focus. I did afight. I went all in. I flew to Thailand. That typical mentality of just goingall in. And now I'm obsessed with running. I just came back from Kenya. I wentto run with the Kenyans in Iten. I got no business going there. Right.

28:18
Amardeep Parmar
Got a run club tomorrow morning, come on over.

28:20
Akash Vaghela
Yeah, yeah, Amazing. So this is one thing I found is, and this is kind of abuilding movement around founders who are kind of going all in on like a sportor like a side project which is activity based because like you said, insteadof the sugar you're doing, you're channelling into something that's positive.And what you'll also find is it gives you, if you're working towards like,let's say my goal right now is to run a sub three hour marathon in the nextyear. Just by default, I'm going to channel my energy in the right way and Iwon't reach for certain things or I won't do certain things, but it's not goingto align with that goal that also aligns with my business goal, et cetera.

28:54
Akash Vaghela
So that can be a really useful thing is if you found like for example, funnyrunning, really enjoying, enjoyable. That could be a thing to take up a notchto avoid reaching for sugar, for example.

29:05
Amardeep Parmar
The other thing you mentioned as well about when you had the period of burnoutis that you were single at that point.

29:10
Amardeep Parmar
Right.

29:10
Amardeep Parmar
And you're no longer single. You've got a child yourself. How does that changeyour relationship with fitness as well? And because now you've got the bothbusiness, you've got the family and you've got your health. And how does thatchange the picture?

29:22
Akash Vaghela
Yeah. Just in case my wife's listening to that. I was actually, I was with herfor like five months. So on that Valentine's Day, okay. I came out from that, Icame out from the hospital and my mom's like, are you still going to meet Chanitonight? I was like, yeah, I think she would be pretty disappointed if Ididn't. So. But it was a different life though. You're living, I was living athome. And like you said, a lot of the advice is out there is for 20 year oldswho haven't got any responsibilities. And the one thing I, so I've alwaysstruggled with work addiction for many years. And the, when my daughter arrivedwas probably the only thing that's helped me solve it. I think a lot of peoplehave like these experiences of like I now have.

29:58
Akash Vaghela
I know now I know my why, I know my purpose. I didn't, I didn't really havethat sort of experience. I, for me it was more, I'm more than my business. Ikind of, I, ever since my daughter's been born, I've been able to kind of havean Identity of I'm Akash who has a business, has a daughter, has these projectson the side rather than I am my business. That was the biggest thing thathappened with my daughter is it just kind of just pulled me away and made melook at it or actually I'm not that thing. I think maybe it's because that's myfirst business. So it's like there's a lot of that emotional identity wrappedup into it. But I think there was something deeper in that.

30:35
Akash Vaghela
I was very deliberate in wanting to spend more time with her and it's actuallyone of the reasons why I wanted a digital business all along because when I wasan in person gym for personal trainer I used to see my colleagues havingchildren. But as a personal trainer in the city you're working, you're out ofthe house at 4:35, you're back home at 10, you do that six days a week andSunday you're exhausted. So these people were having kids and they went and Iused to say how's a kid doing? He's like, yeah, it's all right. I only reallyseen them once a week and I remember seeing this was my big trigger moment ofthinking I want to go digital because I don't want to live that life but Idon't want to leave the industry.

31:06
Akash Vaghela
So that was always my wife starting an online business in the first place. Sowhen my daughter arrived, it,  I was able to be an active dad and havesomething that's just outside of business. That was a massive shift for me. Butlike you said, the productivity things were out the window. I used to be a guywho woke up at 5, I'll be at my desk at 5:15 and I would just crank, you know,the typical three, four hours deep work in the morning. I don't do thatanymore. Like that's not possible.

31:30
Akash Vaghela
Right.

31:30
Akash Vaghela
You wake up because your daughter work out, not because you wanted to wake upand then you're with her playing in the morning and I start working out like8:39 but whereas before it I could do that but then I'd be, I wouldn't be withmy daughter and that's not something I want to do.

31:44
Amardeep Parmar
So we enjoyed this chat. We're going to go to a quick fire questions now.

31:47
Akash Vaghela
Yeah, go.

31:48
Amardeep Parmar
So first one is who are free British, Asians or Asians in Britain you think aredoing incredible work? Do you want to shout them out?

31:54
Akash Vaghela
First one is Kavit Haria. He's a good friend of mine. He recently moved toDubai but he was born and bred in Britain. So he's been in Britain most of hislife. He is the co founder of Jay Shetty Certification school. But the reason Imentioned him is I really admire him as an entrepreneur in the way he operates.He lives a life with intention, life by design and he's building somethingspecial. And a really good friend of mine, I love the way he operates. He'ssomeone who definitely check out. Second is Shaz Memon. He runs..

32:24
Amardeep Parmar
Real estate guy?

32:27
Akash Vaghela
No, he runs a dental marketing agency called Digimax Dental. Really impressive,really impressive company. Again I just love the way he operates. Great brand,great branding, great marketing but also just a great.

32:40
Akash Vaghela
He's a great dad as well and also doing a lot of work with his humanitarianprojects. Definitely worth checking out. And the third is my mom, DivyaVaghela. I'm going to give her a shout out. She, she's the reason I believe I'man entrepreneur as well. I think it's in the blood. My grandfather, he came, sothey were from Uganda, they came from in 1972 and my mom tells me that he usedto sell stuff in refugee camps and you know, have many businesses in there.She's an entrepreneur, her sister's an entrepreneur and then I've been one, mycousins are and I think and I look at what she's built over the last 25, 30years and how resilient she did. She started when we were kids, the nurserybusiness.

33:24
Akash Vaghela
She never really had any mentors or any access to education that we have nowand just kind of figured out along the way and I've just seen her go throughall the ups and downs and I, I respect her as a businesswoman as much aseverything else, really highly. So I'm going to give her a shout out.

33:37
Amardeep Parmar
That's lovely. And then if you want to find.

33:40
Amardeep Parmar
out more about you, what you're up.

33:41
Amardeep Parmar
to, where should they go to?

33:42
Akash Vaghela
Yeah, you can find me on Instagram at Akash Vaghela, LinkedIn, Akash Vaghelaand my company RNT Fitness. You can go to the website rntfitness.com I have abook out called transform your body, transform your life published. It'll befive years this year so you can check that out. If you're interested inlearning more about the methodology behind the madness, is there.

33:59
Amardeep Parmar
Any way that the audience could help you?

34:01
Akash Vaghela
Yeah. So one interesting project we've been working on for the last couple ofyears is we've actually built our own unique technology platform for ourmembers and we get to the point. And we bootstrapped the whole thing and we getto the point now where we're potentially looking at licencing it as a separatesort of spin off business because it's been really successful in helping ourclients. We built it from scratch because all the different white labelofferings out there didn't really hit what we wanted to hit. So we wanted tobuild something really unique. It's been a scary journey doing this kind ofbootstrapped with my own money. And we're now looking at thinking, actually,because now that we've looked around the market, we've actually got somethingunique here.

34:39
Akash Vaghela
And this could be speaking to a lot of trainers and there's a lot of problemsthat they're having with other softwares and it could be an interestingbusiness place. Anyone who's done anything in licencing or that sort of SaaSarea would be. I'd love to speak to more about because could be something hereinteresting on cards.

34:56
Amardeep Parmar
Awesome. And any final words for audience?

35:00
Akash Vaghela
Prioritise your health. Now. If you're a founder listening to this, you'renodding along thinking, yeah, I've had the steps, I've had the nutrition, Iknow I should be in the gym. Why aren't you doing it? If you listen to this andyou can handle, say you're prioritising your health, great, but if you know youcould be doing a little bit better, then do it now. Because what you might notrealise is, yeah, you might feel like you're being productive now, you mightfeel like you're crushing it, but imagine how much further you'd be able totake it if you are firing all cylinders.

35:27
Akash Vaghela
I just think when you finally take control of your health and you get intogreat shape, you start seeing life in full colour, you start seeing the worldin full colour and your productivity goes up, your energy goes up, yourconfidence goes up and all those things have an immeasurable impact on yourbusiness and it can be one of the most ROI activity in your diary. So don'ttreat training and walking as a waste of time. Treat it as genuine businessdevelopment time, because if you treat it seriously, it'll pay massive amountsof dividends in the future.

35:52
Amardeep Parmar
Thank you for watching. Don't forget to subscribe. See you next time.

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