Chad Davis – Achieving a Healthy Lifestyle and Sticking with it

Derek: Welcome to another episode of the Outsource Accelerator podcast. This is episode 89 my name is Derek Gallimore and I am joined again today by Chad Davis. He is the founder of Primed for Your Life. He is a health and wellness coach and is on a mission to improve the health and lifestyle of the Filipinos. He’s been living 17 years. Today in this episode, we talk about his challenge and how he finds possibly the bigger organisation resisting change and resisting sensibility even hospitals, even the health professionals so it’s an interesting conversation I did interview Chad previously on episode 59 and 74 so if you want to get the backstory to Chad please listen to this episodes, they’re great episodes and if you want any of the show notes please go to outsourceaccelerator.com/89.

Derek: Joined again by Chad Davis, Hi Chad.

Chad: Hello great to be here.

Derek: Yeah and I really recommend people to go back and listen to the earlier episodes to catch up on his back story. Chad is really achieving amazing things by preaching good health, sensible health, sensible diet, sensible sun exposure and lifestyle and really changing people’s lives. Just as a backstory, he is an Australian in the Philippines been living here 17 years now so it’s incredible how he is so ingrained into society but really making a difference here.

So today, I want to talk to you, you are achieving incredible results with individuals and you are achieving credible results with teams but funny enough you’re maybe preaching something a little bit like trying to convince people the world is round and yet there are people out there still thinking it’s flat and you’re getting a bit of resistance so what are some of your experiences funny enough you know the individuals in the teams you’re in there making change but there’s resistance right on the top of the ladder isn’t that right.

Chad: There is, there is I’m making sure I stand up for this because I get fired up about this one. I won’t name names or companies but I used to work for a 5 star hotel and I went to the GM and iI explained to him look I can help every single one of your staff. I can help your security guard, I can help you, your wife and I said clearly your staff need help because they’re obese, they’re sick, they’re skin is bad and their environment is a not such a great one. It’s a 5 star hotel, yes, but it’s not an environment that’s really conducive because of some of the night shift. They’re indoors all the time but there’s easy solutions so he virtually just brushed me off so I went back and I really persist, I’m like a dog with a bone because I’m not just fighting to try get this guy the GM healthy, I have friends that I see have deteriorated in their health of course to earn their money but I really believe as a boss, as a CEO your core value should be the health of your staff because your organization is only as strong as the staff

Derek: Or at least preserve and protect them

Chad: Well yeah, exactly, I mean at the end of the day human resources or the big boss you’re always saying how can we get be more productive, how can we have our staff to be healthy, to be happy, to be on a good mood to smile. What we’re talking about this principles, that’s what it does because if a staff member is healthier well they’re going to smile more. If they are not as hungry because they ate well in a good environment where they are not going to be thinking about food and they can be more mindful of their job or their guest or their colleague so yeah I’m very passionate.

Derek: So you got kicked back by the GM

Chad: I did but I persisted and I sent him an email then another email and eventually I was able to present to the Excom so to the big bosses there and the other big bosses and ultimately they rejected me again but I don’t mind that because at least then they have the courtesy to say thank you but we don’t want it but I’m still persisting because again I really believe in fighting for the little guy because again the big boss they can really influence by one simple program, by one simple seminar at least the people have the knowledge.

Derek: And the people of the Philippines they do need a lot of protect, they need fighting for don’t they because they don’t value themselves enough foremost.

Chad: I agree and they’re so happy people. We see that. they smile

Derek: They will go along with what they’re told whether it’s good for them or not.

Chad: Right, So I really think that they need a protector almost. I’m not putting myself there as that but I believe that the people in power have a responsibility to help themselves absolutely, but to help the others and why are they earning money to help their family but if they’re sick from their job they can’t help their family, you know so that’s why some call center agent have stroke at the age of 40 they die at 36 even in hospitality I’ve seen it and it really breaks my heart because we’re earning this money we deserve to have an old age, we deserve to spend our money well and to help our family and now the children unfortunately their teeth are getting rotten and attention deficit disorder all of these obesity for our children are shocking so I really see it is my job is to help the parents, to help their children but of course then I really believe that CEO’s this bosses, HR Directors you know they can really make a big difference.

Derek: So you have contacted with a lot of these significant, you’ve been in touch with the medical community and also top CEOs of top corporates and how are you going with that generally this is a loaded question but generally there is a lot of resistance.

Chad: There is but what I could say is that they’re some fantastic people,there’s an export company in Davao all 600 employees went primed mining companies, hospitality groups so there are a lot of fantastic ones but there are a lot perhaps I don’t know why but maybe their brain is a little bit closed they don’t think of this paradigm yet but it’s happening because the quality of your work really relies in the quality of your employee and if your employee’s body is healthy they can perform better but when their body is not healthy then maybe they’re not even at work if their body is unhealthy then they are having unhealthy thoughts their brain is not optimal they can’t be so I think I’m really trying to get these great models these companies CEOs like just for example the wholesome table the owners there Juan and Bianca Elizalde every employee of theirs is primed.

Derek: And so just for backstory that is a trendy healthy organic restaurant in Manila

Chad: And because their owners care so much the PR director’s wife has already halved her blood sugar level lost 30 pounds and improved her cholesterol result 100% and that’s the wife of one of the employees  

Derek: And that’s great isn’t it, it’s great that this company takes on their I suppose corporate social responsibilities so seriously so that brings you back to the hospital system and the Doctors and like you have had conversations with them why do you think the medical community is so slow to adopt change and do you think that they, is it brainwashing, do you think that they can’t face another truth?

Chad: Yeah great question I think that they have, they are very smart people they’ve been taught the wrong thing to prescribe and to cure is a medication then of course there’s some brilliant Doctors out there who are following this line and really curing reversing conditions but unfortunately for some of the Doctors their money is in the prescriptions, their money is in doing the operations where is if they really follow their hippocratic oath to do no harm and to help they would look for alternative solutions so there’s some doctors out there who say my job is to not operate is to do everything i can so you can fix yourself naturally so and again that’s the type of person that we should be looking at.  There was one Doctor from Airline here who said to me point blank, Chad, you’re going to take my business, you’re going to take away, I said I already am and I wasn’t being arrogant because.

Derek: Did you say that with a smile or was he quite worried

Chad: He said legitimately and I’m not trying to be arrogant or say anything but people search on the internet how can I reverse my hypertension or gout and my name will come up or somebody else’s name but it won’t say St Luke’s because they are one of the other hospital because they will prescribe you medication and they will make you which will ultimately not fix the root cause of the problem and must make you worse, unfortunately and I don’t think it’s fair, I think we need to help educate people and help the doctors.

Derek: Do you think it is changing? Is it are we getting better? because I mean you’re maybe up against a harder job here where education or awareness level are lower and even in the west in an inverted commerce there’s still a long way to go isn’t there in terms of educating people as to what a healthy lifestyle is.

Chad: Absolutely, I guess what i’ve tried to do is to really want to help every single filipino, so even the ones in the province, so my goal is like every single Filipino in it could be a simple ways as the President mandating please eat more eggs, you know why not avoid using your umbrella in the sun.  Too simple things that would help more people to have more energy because an egg has more energy than bread and the sun is energy so it’s possible, and I think it is changing but I guess what just had to do it one person at a time and that’s why my philosophy is really once you help yourself you must pay it forward, help your family, help your colleagues and that is really written in my guiding principles that my clients this is what they need to do because you will be healthy it works but have you got the, I guess where with all the Lord the gumption to help other people you know stop being a sheep, be a leader and everybody can be a leader whether you’ve the title or not.

Derek: Fantastic and so there is a lot of misguided knowledge in the Philippines and maybe sort of education needs to be ramped up if anyone listening has a team here is looking at building a team how can you help them with their team building a healthier workplace produces less sick leave and more productive staff

Chad: Great, it’s actually quite easy actually it starts with education and I would start with the CEO and the management team but it has to go right down to everybody security guard we do not leave anybody behind so one of my proudest achievement is that the mining company executive that I mention, his wife and two children are thriving but his house help reverse dysmenorrhea, bad skin, she lost 20 lbs she is thriving so that’s really a great achievement.  I think because it’s not just the CEO we’re concentrating on we want to ripple down and affect everybody so ones we educate and we teach them the right way then we actually need to go in and do needs analysis so we could see what’s your environment how can we improve that and it can be as simple as stocking boiled eggs into the pantry, having a fridge where people can bring their lunch boxes, do not have a vending machine with coca cola that would be very simple and then lots of other simple habits that you could really incorporate into the workplace and it works and then once you do that you could continually motivate and then check have you helped yourself have you told your mom your dad your brother we’ve done family days where we have incorporated the family of the staff.

Derek: And they appreciate that because it’s a very strong community drive isn’t it?

Chad: They love it, actually one anecdote is the company nurse for any age Philippines in Davao.  I met her she started work at the company for 2 weeks, I hadn’t met her to explain primed yet but because of the culture of the employees because of their system and the food that they provided by the time I met her after 2 weeks starting at any age, she lost 5 kilograms without exercise so it’s just by coming into a company that’s embracing healthy living had some principles and basic framework of this is how we do things we don’t allow donuts or soft drinks in our office it’s banned but we have this available and some other lifestyle adjustments not just food, 5 kilograms so it’s really quite amazing so again it’s not about the weight she had better energy, she was a more confident person, her brain was working better already she write her report faster and then she could then help educate the others as well.   

Derek: Fantastic, So I have personally have seen the office environment and I have been quite shocked by the diets and lifestyle of people and it that really is just about knowing better and I share that with a lot of western bosses they can be quite surprised when they come over here though if you are building a team in the Philippines I really recommend that you reach out to Chad.

Chad: Well yeah I think like we’re saying is the Philippines is a great place to be it got the sun, you can go to the beach, you’ve got people who speak english, people who are happy to see you but again if you come here well maybe it’s your responsibility to send the elevator back down, help yourself but help those people to elevate their life not just in terms of money but to maybe they can spend their time in a better way.

Derek: Creating a stronger society

Chad: Yeah, the community base and we can really make a big difference.

Derek: Fantastic thank you Chad and how can people reach out you and I’ll have all of the contact detail in the show notes

Chad: I think one of the easiest way is primedforyourlife.com but I have a facebook page Chad Davis, instagram, twitter all of those type of things but also maybe you want to email me [email protected]

Derek: Great, Thank you.      

Derek: A big thank you to Chad for that episode I really learned a lot.  I’m really behind Chad and his mission to change the health of the Philippines.  If you want any of the show notes, please go to outsourceaccelerator.com/89 and I encourage you to listen to the previous episodes with Chad which is 59 and 74.  If you want to get in touch with us or ask us anything just email us at [email protected]