The video explores the transformative approach towards health and fitness rooted in the framework of intergenerational health. The speaker reveals how his earlier methods in the fitness industry contributed to repeated cycles of failure in maintaining health and weight loss. He stresses the importance of values, beliefs, and behaviors shared within families as key components of intergenerational health, akin to how financial values are passed down through generations.

The speaker compares two groups of people he worked with: those seeking quick results and those investing in long-term knowledge and self-sufficiency. The latter group's approach, grounded in education and independence, leads to sustained results and a healthier generational impact. He provides actionable practices in "Move, Mind, Mouth, and Method" that can nurture these assets in individuals and families.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. intergenerational [ˌɪntərˌdʒɛnəˈreɪʃənəl] - (adjective) - Relating to or affecting multiple generations - Synonyms: (multi-generational, cross-generational, transgenerational)

Today's conversation is based around intergenerational health.

2. assets [ˈæˌsɛts] - (noun) - Resources or advantages that are valuable and beneficial - Synonyms: (resources, properties, holdings)

I did inherit intergenerational wealth. It's just that those assets came in the form of values, beliefs, behaviors, systems, family culture.

3. co dependence [ˌkoʊ dɪˈpɛndəns] - (noun) - A psychological condition where two parties are mutually dependent - Synonyms: (mutual reliance, interdependence, symbiosis)

I wasn't really aware that I was actually maintaining this co dependence while group two was actually building independence.

4. beliefs [bɪˈliːfs] - (noun) - Convictions or accepted opinions - Synonyms: (convictions, views, principles)

Values, beliefs, behaviors, systems, family culture, the types of conversations that we have at the dinner table.

5. rekindle [riˈkɪndl] - (verb) - Relight or revive the spark or interest - Synonyms: (revive, rekindle, renew)

And then maybe at the 12 or 18 month mark or something, we would rekindle and start the process all over again.

6. mind journaling [maɪnd ˈdʒɜrnəlɪŋ] - (noun) - The practice of writing down thoughts to process emotions and self-reflect - Synonyms: (self-reflection, diary, thought recording)

Second asset. mind journaling. I get it. I know, right? But journaling, the profound benefits of journaling, once again is free and accessible.

7. resilience [rɪˈzɪl.jəns] - (noun) - The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties - Synonyms: (tenacity, perseverance, robustness)

Most people set out their perfect week, which is great because that's a goal setting type of exercise.

8. nervous system [ˈnɜːrvəs ˈsɪstəm] - (noun) - The network of nerve cells and fibers which transmits signals between different parts of the body - Synonyms: (neural system, neurological network, synaptic system)

When we extend our exhale, we actually calm down our nervous system and slow down our heart rate.

9. perception [pərˈsɛpʃən] - (noun) - The way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted - Synonyms: (understanding, awareness, viewpoint)

It did fundamentally change my perception of life 100%.

10. accessible [əkˈsɛsəbəl] - (adjective) - Easily reached, used, or obtained - Synonyms: (reachable, available, attainable)

Life changing intergenerational information should be free and accessible.

Habits for intergenerational health - Dave Nixon - TEDxCooks Hill

So since 2004, I've had the privilege to work with about 10,000 people in the fitness and health industry. And today I want to share an insight with you that has revolutionized the way that I approach health and fitness forever. And I think the best way that I can do that first is by offering you a confession. And that is that for the first 10 years of my career, I helped people get fit, get strong and lose weight. And then unknowingly, I played a key role in them losing those results and putting the weight back on again. And it gets worse than that because I wasn't aware of the impact that had on their children.

You see, today's conversation is based around intergenerational health. What is it? Why is it important and how do we build it? And to get a good understanding of what I mean when I talk about intergenerational health, I want to share a story with you about intergenerational wealth, starring yours truly. It goes back about 10 years. I was 25, and the business that I'd started three years prior, although having some initial success, had a pretty sharp downturn and it was in a hole. And so was I, like mentally, emotionally, financially. I think I was earning like 30k a year at the time. I remember driving home this particular evening and I remember thinking to myself, right, so I just got paid, so I have to pay rent first. And, and then I paused for a moment and I just was like, wait a second. And I thought, if I'm always paying rent first, when do I pay a mortgage?

And it occurred to me that that wasn't one of my values, that was one of my parents values. You see, I hadn't lived in a house that my family had owned or I'd owned since I was about 10. And from the ages of 10 to 15 I lived in seven different places. So it was actually really normal to pay rent first and bless them, I love them. But I was trying to get wealthy off my parents thinking. And that's when it occurred to me that even though I didn't inherit intergenerational financial wealth, I did inherit intergenerational wealth. It's just that those assets came in the form of values, beliefs, behaviors, systems, family culture, like the types of conversations that you have at the dinner table.

And for me those conversations, they sounded like, well, that's how the other half live, or we don't have that type of money. I remember being at one of my dad's hockey games and asking him for 50 cents to buy some Red Frogs. Some Lollies. And he goes, mate, I've got no money, I'm broke, Stop asking. I'm like eight, right? And I'm like, why am I always broke? This is normal. And I fully, as an adult now, I understand that he's looking at his little 8 year old son being like, buddy, you don't need any more sugar. But at the time I was like, why are we always broke? And what's so interesting is that the assets that form intergenerational wealth are the exact same assets that form intergenerational health. Values, beliefs, behaviors, systems, family culture, the types of conversations that we have at the dinner table.

And so it was around this time, 25, not 8, that I realized that I was working with two groups of people. I feel very fortunate. I've been in the industry from the age of 15, and by this point I probably worked with a few thousand people. And seeing these two groups, I'd have group one, they would come to me and they would say something along the lines of, so I need you to push me through my workout, tell me what to eat, sit me down, make me set my goals, measure me every couple of weeks so that I see progress, that I stay motivated and call me when I don't show up. And I'm like, I'm your boy, absolutely, yes, I can do that. And I would do that and they would do that and we would do that and they would get a result and usually pretty quick.

And then something would happen. Something would always happen. Four, five or maybe six months, it doesn't matter what, move house or move jobs or, I don't know, stub their toe, the dog gets pregnant, something would occur and they would fall off the bandwagon, lose their results, radio silence. And then maybe at the 12 or 18 month mark or something, we would rekindle and start the process all over again. And then there was group two. And group two were very different. They would come to me and they would ask questions. And they would ask questions like, why am I doing this particular exercise? Or how does this exercise relate to what I want to do outside of the gym? Or if it came to food, they would ask questions like, I want to learn more about nutrition. So is there any books or podcasts or weekend courses that you'd recommend for me to learn more?

And if they missed a week of training, they were like, yeah, I'll just get back to it next week. No feeling bad, no punishment, just get back to it next week. And admittedly at the time I was like, you guys are Annoying. But I was like, if you just listen to me, we can get you there faster, I promise. But group two, they knew some things that I didn't. They knew that in five years group one would probably be in the same spot and they knew that they would be further ahead. They also knew the impact that both approaches had on their children. Group two weren't paying me to train them, they were paying me to teach them. And that was the difference that made the difference. Every single week they were putting small investments away into the intergenerational health fund. Right? Group one was chasing the get rich quick scheme, or in this case the get fit quick scheme. And I was selling it to them every single time.

And so when this came online for me, I remember looking at this and being like, this isn't good, this isn't healthy. I don't want to be a part of this anymore. It was almost like, I mean, I was just doing what I was trying to do, but it was almost like that. The fitness industry helps to create these long term psychological issues, provides people with short term physical solutions which creates these repeat customers. And I was like, this isn't healthy. I wasn't really aware that I was actually maintaining this co dependence while group two was actually building independence. And I think it's important to clarify a couple of things here. One of them is that group one's not bad and group two is not good. It's more about if we want to build intergenerational health, we need to move from group one to group two and we do that through education by building assets.

I'm also not of the belief that you need to have a gym membership in order to be healthy. Says a guy that's worked in gym. I get that, but legitimately I'm fully across that in the sense that there's millions of people that don't have gym memberships that are very healthy and active and there are millions of people that probably do have gym memberships that may not be as healthy and active. So gyms can be part of an answer, but not the answer. And so I guess it also begs the question then, well, what is health? So when I talk about health, I define it as mental, social and physical health and well being. From a sustainable approach, I simplify that even further and I put that into four categories. I call them Move mind, mouth and method. Move your body awareness, your skills, your fitness levels, mind, your understanding of self and other mouth, your nutritional knowledge and then method, the systems and approaches you use towards those three other areas.

Now I'M of the belief that life changing intergenerational information should be free and accessible. And so to stay true to that, I'd love to offer you four things. Four practices that if you were to build, would build an asset for you in each one of those categories. And maybe you're already nailing some of this for sure, maybe not. Maybe you are. The point there being is that if we want to move towards intergenerational health that not only benefits us, but benefits those around us and those that follow us. We need to build assets in these four areas. Values, beliefs, behaviors, systems, family, culture. And I know it's the end of the day, but you're welcome to participate in the practices that I offer you and of course with all the other amazing speakers, because all you need is a body and a brain to go through this.

And if you're having a hard time locating it after today, you may ask the person next to you. Otherwise you're welcome to either participate or observe. But I'd love to walk you through four simple practices. I want to show you how simple this is. And I want to start with move. And this is something that is both simple, it is free and accessible. And it's called burpees. No, it's not, it's not burpees. They are free. But yeah, if you don't know what burpees are, then you're ahead already, so don't worry. No, it's called breath work. And there's so many amazing things you can do with move, from strength training to fitness training to martial arts to yoga. I'm just picking something that is literally accessible at any time, anywhere.

And all I want to teach you is what's called an extended exhale, which is where we extend our exhale. I know that sounds very obvious, but it's very, very important. And the reason why it's very important is because when we extend our exhale, we actually calm down our nervous system and slow down our heart rate. And so the powerful thing here is being able to use that at any point, anywhere, anytime. The other thing is that it's actually a really, really good tool if you've got some little people with some big feels, or even some big people with little feels that you can actually use this as a tool with them as well, with what's called coherent breathing. So it's a great tool for that. And so if you're willing to participate, I'm going to talk you through just a couple of cycles. And what's going to happen here is that it's going to be four seconds of breathing in and then eight seconds of breathing out.

Now, it's really important to get a nice big breath in. Otherwise you'll be trying to get those last little bits out. But in order to do this, we first have to sync everyone's breath. Work up or our breathing up. And so what I'd love to see is that when I raise my hands, you're not going to go ooh and ah. But when I raise my hands, we're going to breathe in. And when I lower my hands, we're going to breathe out. Cool. And so when I raise my hands, we're breathing in. This isn't it yet. We're just getting in sync. And then lowering out. Don't laugh. It ruins it. Breathing out. And then breathing in. That's it. Easy. Look at that. And then breathing out. We're going to breathe in one more time. And then I'll get started.

Okay, so we're going to breathe in. Beautiful. And then breathing out. And empty those lungs all the way down. Two, one. And breathing in for four, three, two, one. And then out for eight, seven, six, five, four, three. Keep going. Two, one. And then breathing in for four, three. Beautiful. Good. Two. Big breath. One, and. And then out for eight, seven, six, five, four. Melt into your chair. Well done. As easy as that. You just built your first asset. One of the ways that we can build these assets is simply commit to a practice like that. And I'm talking three minutes, three times a day. You can do it driving, you can do it when you listen to a speaker. You can do it when you're sick of listening to someone talk. Whenever you want to use it, you can use it. That is free and yours.

And that's the beautiful thing about assets is that not only do we get to benefit from it, but so does everyone around us. So that's your first asset for move. Second asset. mind journaling. I get it. I know, right? But journaling, the profound benefits of journaling, once again is free and accessible. And that's the whole goal of this. The profound benefits of journaling is that not only does it help to calm down our brain, it also allows us to process our emotions. And the way it does that is that it allows us to get objective to what's going on for us. So we're starting to see our thoughts rather than seeing as our thoughts. And that is a profound difference. And the way that journaling helps within relationships is that we can only meet people to the level and depth that we've met ourselves.

And so when you journal and you get to meet yourself on a deeper level, you get to show up better for all those around you as well. So journaling has profound benefits for you and those around you. But most people get stuck of like, where do I start? How do I journal? And so I want to offer you two prompts. Really simple. Once again. Based on where you want to be in one to three years, what do you need to stop doing what you need to start doing, what you need to keep doing. Simple. Stop, start, keep. Based on where you want to be in one to three years, what do you need to stop doing what you need to start doing, what you need to keep doing? Easy.

Journal prompt. Every single time. The second journal prompt, I sucked at gratitude. Absolutely sucked at it. And it wasn't until I asked myself this question and it did fundamentally change my perception of life 100%. It did. I asked myself the question, what do you have in your life now that you once wished for? And that for me, opened up a whole bunch of things that I was absolutely fundamentally missing. So two prompts. Stop, start, keep. What are you having in life now that you once wish for? Asset number three, mouth nutrition. Now, some of you might be nailing this, but I want to keep it exceptional, like really, really simple. All I want you to do when looking at a plate, ideally your plate is going, what is a protein, carbohydrate and fat source? Not add source, Sorry, protein source, carbohydrate source and a fat source. That's it.

That's all I want you to do at every single plate to get used to the action of going, what's a protein, carb and fat Simple. I know that's simple, but that's where we start. And some people, I mean everyone at some point doesn't know how to identify those. So I want to offer you this little rhyme. But protein moves around, carbohydrates grow in the ground, fats are oily. It is such an easy way to remember. Protein moves around, carbohydrates grow on the ground, fats are oily. And all you're looking at for every single plate is a protein, carb and fat asset number four method. What I want to offer you here is what's called the perfect repeatable week. The key word there is being repeatable. Most people set out their perfect week, which is great because that's a goal setting type of exercise. What does my perfect week look like? But I'm asking you based on where you want to be in One to three years.

What does your perfect repeatable week look like? What is something that if you were to repeat, would be the building blocks for you to build intergenerational health long term. What's your perfect repeatable week? Now, just stepping back again for a second and looking at these four assets. We've got a very simple breathwork exercise, a very simple journaling exercise, a very simple nutrition exercise, and then your perfect repeatable week. Now, it might be you, or maybe it's someone you know, but imagine for 30 days just repeating this. There's your asset, and doing that month on month on month, you're in charge of it. It's fully up to you. It's your power to build these assets. But not only do you benefit from it, and this is the powerful thing about intergenerational health. Not only do you benefit from it now, so does everyone around you and those that follow you.

I'll share a story about intergenerational health and throw my old man under the bus again, but I was at lunch with my dad a couple weeks back and he hands me his phone and my dad's at the age now where the letters are really big and he's 67. And he handed me his phone. It's an Excel spreadsheet. And I'm like, cool. He's like, yeah. I hand it back to him. He swipes and scrolls and hands it back to me. And it says, over 65 men's hockey tour to Germany. And first thought was like, you got 50 cents, mate. My dad has a goal to play hockey for Australia and there's an over 80s team. And he thinks he's a really good chance because he reckons everyone's either going to be retired, injured or dead. So he wants a jersey. But that I feel so grateful once again because that's the type of thinking and behaviors that I get to inherit intergenerational health.

My dad's an inspiration to me for that reason. And then on the other end of the scale, it's, my daughter turns three months old today and she's magic. Absolute magic. There you go. But she is. She's absolute magic. And this little dribbling, adorable sponge. Health has never been this important to me. And I know that every single decision and, and every single behavior that I choose will absolutely have an impact. She'll be her own person, I get that. But it absolutely will influence her intergenerational health as well. But she's also influencing mine. And so the key thing in that is that you can influence intergenerational. You are. You will. Right. Influence intergenerational health at every single stage and age. And it's worth remembering that.

So I want to leave you with this. The question isn't, will I pass down these values, beliefs, behaviors, these assets? The question is, what are the values, beliefs, behaviors? What are the assets you're passing down? Thank you.

HEALTH, EDUCATION, INSPIRATION, INTERGENERATIONAL HEALTH, FITNESS INDUSTRY, BEHAVIORAL CHANGE, TEDX TALKS