Buying our 1st House, Fitness Goals, Locums Q&A & Tech Choices. #429

I might not even get to 35 summers when you think about how many trips around the sun we got that I will be coherent , cogent , able to like , chase my kids' , kids , I don't know . So I'm like I really got to step up and really challenge myself to this . Folks your exciting new medical career .

It's just been hit with a serious illness or injury that stops you from earning a paycheck just when you need it most . Check out what Jamie Fleissner of Set for Life Insurance said back on episode 176 about having disability insurance early in your career .

All you have to do is show that your income is increased and you can buy more benefits at that time . No medical questions asked .

I'm talking about the things that are going on with the Darkos , with Docs Outside the Box , since you know , we've just been talking about so many different things , including locums , including traveling to Ghana and doing medical mission work , as well as telling the stories of just doctors who are doing extraordinary things outside of medicine , that a lot of times we

forget to keep you guys updated with what's going on with us . So there's a lot . There's a lot going on . There's a lot that I'll be really honest with you , I'm really scared about , and why don't we just jump right into it ? We have finally decided to purchase a home .

As you can see in the bottom ticker below , we've been renting here in New Jersey for close to about five years now . We spent one year renting at one property about five years now . We spent one year renting at one property .

They sold that property and now you know we're four years into another home that we're renting and it's been a great , great situation to rent . You know the way how we rent . You know we try to keep it at least like 20% of what our income is , right , so we try to keep our costs low and you know I what's the best way I can describe it .

I like the neighborhood . Right , the neighborhood is great . It's not the neighborhood that I initially would have gone to , leaving Pennsylvania and coming back to Jersey and we can get into that later on into the show . But this isn't a neighborhood that I ended up really growing . It's grown on me .

Just leave it to you like that , without trying to describe it too much . It's as diverse as I think it can be . It's diverse enough for my kids , I think , to feel comfortable . I think you could always be more diverse , but from that standpoint the ratios I think , are acceptable .

It's a really good school system for how much it's worth to be in this neighborhood . It's a really good school system enough so that they don't have to go to private school and anybody who's sending their kids to private school you know exactly what I'm talking about them . Private school fees are expensive as hell and you know I didn't .

Really I never understood how someone can spend , you know , upwards of $10,000 or $15,000 on their children for school outside of high school , until we had to do it for childcare , specifically for preschool and pre-K .

You know , we , the schools that our kids were in , they're in a normal regular preschool and they were ranging anywhere between like 1400 to 1500 a month . Right , that's crazy . Right , so you multiply that by 12 , you know like this that's a that's , that's crazy . That's like 15 g , 16 g , 17 g's .

I'm not gonna do the exact multiplication , but you know 10 times you know 1400 or 1500 , you're already at 14 . And then you add two more of those . You know 10 times , you know 1400 or 1500 , you're already at 14 . And then you add two more of those .

You know where it's at , and so , yeah , so that being able to be in a school system where the school system is good enough , where , listen , you know property taxes and a tax system , provides a really good educational system that you don't have to pay for , that that's great .

And then you throw on top of that you renting , we're renting , and all we're doing is basically just paying rent . That's it . It was a great win for us . No-transcript . You know it's actually two cities or two towns that have merged together . They're still separate , but they use the same high school or may use the same middle school .

That's the type of neighborhood that we live in , and we live in a small neighborhood that's attached to a larger neighborhood but the school district is all shared between them . But the inventory for houses is really really low in this area . So my big fear is one we have settled into this neighborhood . We like the people in this neighborhood .

It checks so many different boxes . It's just that the inventory for houses is so low that I'm going to be really honest with you . Like I just didn't want to buy a house , and that was my big thing . I didn't want to buy a house in this neighborhood because I felt like the houses are overpriced .

Now it's not just this neighborhood , it's wherever you go in Jersey and I'm sure whoever's listening to this you'll be like yo , like in my neighborhood in West Bubble F , michigan or Iowa , or in Cali or in Atlanta , like housing prices are straight through the roof .

But someone who grew up in Jersey and left and then came back and you know , like I grew up in Jersey in the nineties you know what I'm saying . And these houses are like $150,000 , $200,000 houses that are now going for like 700 , 800,000 , right , all because of the neighborhoods that they're in , right , so we don't live too far from New York .

So what we're finding is , after covid , so many people who are spending , or used to spending , like three stacks , four stacks for an apartment were like , ok , after covid , I don't have to a train line is take the train in whenever I need to because I live right near a train line , and then use that money towards a house , got a backyard , got a school

system that I don't have to put my kid into private school , into Jack , the prices up , inventory goes down . And now these houses that are like , maybe I'm exaggerating , they're not $200,000 , but maybe they're like 350 or,000 or $400,000 . They're going for like $800,000 .

And when you walk into these houses they need work and not just like a paint job , like these are houses that are just regular , one family , starter family houses that are just crazy . And anybody who knows me knows that I'm look , I still drive a Toyota Corolla .

I'm going to keep it to you like that , with no what's the best way to describe it no aspirations for anything more extravagant than that . I like that . I like the gas prices . I know I can always tell that I'm never going to go over $30 to go from E to F .

Let's just leave it to you like that , even when gas prices are at $3 , I'm never going to go over $30 to go from E to F . Let's just be true , like that , even when gas prices are at $3 , I'm never going to go that high .

The most I would probably go up to is maybe like a CRV , honda CRV because we need to be able to put , we just need a little bit more room . I would say that at this point , we probably need a little bit more room , but that's all we need , but that's all we need .

And the Tesla went back and , as y'all know , like that wasn't coming off personal funds , that was coming off , you know , business funds . Now , we use it only for business . I'm serious , we only use it for business .

But like for me , like I don't really need much , so for me , to spend $800,000 on a house that's like $300,000 , that's a problem for me , right , because that mortgage is going to change . That mortgage doesn't change , even though the values can fluctuate at times .

Now , I don't know when the housing market is going to crash , quote , unquote or what's it going to do , but it just keeps rising and rising , and rising , and that's that's the part that frustrates me .

So , overall , though , you know we , we have a son that has some , a little bit of some special needs not too much , but we feel like the school has like everything that he needs . So like we want to be here for the next five , 10 years . Yeah , we want to be here for the next five or 10 years , maybe even longer .

So we're dedicated to being in this community . And it just so happened while we're in Ghana we got an email saying that hey yo .

The landlord said , hey yo , like we are going to sell this house and we just want to give you guys a heads up that you might start to see for sale signs , you might start to see inspectors come by , you might see everything that goes along with putting a house for sale .

All of that stuff is going to be happening and we want to let y'all know this is going to happen . And you throw on top of that inventory's low . On top of that , I don't know what is going to happen with renting in this neighborhood . We decided to say , hey , let's put our hat , let's throw our hat in the ring and go after this house .

So I got a question for y'all .

Before I even go into a further point , I want to know people who are listening right now . I know most of the residents who are listening to this show . Y'all are still renting . But to the attendings out there , to folks who are in different health professions , how many of y'all are still renting right now ? How many of y'all plan to go into home ownership ?

So I'm 46 . I've been practicing for over 12 years now . I had no . Up until I mean up until that email went out like I was like , look , how long can we ride this out ? And there's always that discussion of like , okay , look , you're paying somebody else's rent , right ?

There's always that discussion You're paying somebody else's rent or you're paying somebody else's mortgage . Excuse me , your rent is paying someone else's mortgage . How long is that going to go on ? For You're not building any equity in this .

But yo , we were using that money to invest , whether it was in a health savings account , whether it was in our college account for our kids or even a brokerage account for us , and we were always putting money away three to five years , five and further than that for this type of situation .

It's just that now that we've been saving so much and investing so much , it's like man , do we really want to pop that cork ? Do we want to take the seal off and use that , and the time has arisen right . So this is an opportunity to possibly get this house without using a realtor . So yeah , it just kind of popped on us .

But how many of y'all feel the pressure to buy ? If you're renting right now , do you feel the pressure to purchase right now ?

Or do you look at it like an investment property where it's like , if we don't get a certain amount of return , or we're going to be in this house for a finite period of time , like three years , five years , however long it may be but after that we expect a certain rate of return on this money and we out , and when we out we're doing a 1031 exchange .

Long story short is we're going to sell this property , try to get another investment property and not have to pay too much taxes on it . How many of y'all are in that situation ? Versus , this is our house . If the market is up , this is still our house . If the market is down , this is still our house .

If the kids leave and they're no longer in public school , this is our house . How many of y'all are in that situation ? Are you cool with that ? If the value of your house goes stagnant . Are you cool with that ? So these are the things that now I got to think about . Before I was like look , here's my rent .

We good , there's a problem in the house , fix it . Thanks , we out . Comparing the cost of renting for one year , or your first year versus renting or versus buying a house , right ? So what's the cost of your first year in your house versus the cost of renting , right ?

So if you're buying a home first year , right , and this is going to be in perpetuity as long as you own the home is property taxes ? Right ? You're going to have to pay property taxes , closing costs , insurance and maintenance . So let's take off something real quick .

Actually , I have property taxes , down payment , closing costs , insurance and maintenance , and then also your mortgage . Now , your insurance , your property taxes are going to be put into your mortgage , but , in essence , your first year . Once you get through that first year , you ain't got to worry about closing costs anymore .

As a matter of fact , once you get through closing , that's just a one-time fee and that's it . So closing costs are going to be off after that first month . Insurance , that's however long you're going . That's homeowner's insurance or whatever type of insurance you're going to have .

You may have that for a minute or you may have that for as long as you have the property Maintenance right . Just know that the roof is going to go sometime , or the water heater , all of those things may go at some point .

And then property taxes , which you know , speaking of such in this neighborhood , they're thinking about increasing the property taxes because so many people have moved into this small neighborhood and is taxing the system so much that the classes are starting to become overrun , right , like you're having class sizes of 25 and maybe even more .

Like for on a real , like my son's art class is on is on a cart . Like like it doesn't have a classroom . Like they are like it's mobile art class . Right , because there's not enough classrooms just for regular classes . So you , you know damn sure , like like music or gym or art is going to be on a cart .

And so what they proposed is increasing property taxes so they can actually build a new school . And obviously you know if you don't have a kid in the school system then , and if you're older , you're like , well , why am I paying more for this ?

Possibly , and if you're someone like me and Renee who are going to be using the school system for the next 10 years . We're like , yeah , man , like I don't want my my kids classrooms overrun , raise the prices a little bit , you know . And the thing that I have to think like it's just all these things you just ain't got to think about .

No-transcript , I think you have a stake in this game , whereas if I'm renting , look , the only thing that I got to worry about my first year is the security deposit and first month's rent , and insurance and insurance , depending on what you have in your house , is mad cheap . That's what we do .

So you convert whatever your security deposit is , whatever rent is , and insurance . Convert that for property taxes , insurance , maintenance , as well as a huge down payment . We're talking about something that could be like 9,000 versus 99,000 , 100,000 , maybe even more . So that's that's .

That's something that um is a lot to think about , but in these high cost of living areas , it's something that you may be forced to do .

If you live in a low cost of living area , if you live in the Midwest which , from what I'm hearing , the Midwest is really starting to go up in price , you may have a lot more time to kind of think about this and , as a matter of fact , there's a New York Times article that has been updated that properly delineates we talked about this on a previous episode

. It helps you to determine should you rent versus should you buy . I'll put that link in the show notes so you can take a look at that . But some questions that you guys should ask yourself before you buy is I got my notes right here is how long do you plan to be there ?

So we said we're going to be here at least five to 10 years , probably even longer . But if you are like three years or less , definitely if you're a resident and you're probably going to be going someplace else to do fellowship or you just are here only because you matched in this spot , you probably should be renting .

Same thing , if you're in attending and you just got a job there and you in your first year , second year , third year you know me already I'm just like ah , you never know , you may want to not buy that house yet . Just rent it out , see how things go for a little bit before you purchase . What is the state of the housing market in your local area ?

That's another thing that you need to check out . If it's not very competitive , then you might be able to purchase something for yourself at a really good bid , at a really good cost . If it's really competitive , you know it speaks for itself .

And then , last but not least I kind of mentioned this and how long do you plan to stay there is , what about job security and satisfaction ? If your job is very secure , if you're satisfied with your job , then you may want to consider purchasing . If you're not satisfied , if the job is not very secure , then come on now .

You don't want the one thing that's holding you onto a job that you can't stand . The worst reason why you want to go into a job and talk to people that you can't stand and have to deal with them for 10 hours , 12 hours , 24 hours , depending on what kind of call you take , is if damn , I can't sell my house . I purchased this house .

It's too expensive , right ? So I would say , think about those three things . How long do you plan to be in a neighborhood ? What is the state of the housing market in your local area ? And what about job security and satisfaction ? But yeah , the dark goes . We purchase in a home .

We're doing it , like I said earlier , without a real estate agent , so hopefully we'll save some costs there . But you know , we're doing the , the the usual things . We're getting it inspected and we're also , um , we're getting our own real estate lawyer and we're going to make it work and we're going to make sure that we're doing this the smart way .

Um , but yeah , bro's a little scared about this , but wish us luck and we'll keep you guys updated as to how this goes . So let us know what you think about these questions that I asked for you , like how many of y'all are still renting ? Do you feel the pressure to buy all those different things ?

I'm really interested in Put it in the YouTube comments or an Instagram or email . You know exactly how to let us know . All right , let's take a quick break and we're going to go to our next topic .

No matter where you are in your career , you've seen patients your age or younger get seriously injured , have a long term illness or even have a mental health issue that affects their ability to work . Now , what if that was you ? No , for real . What if that was you Without disability insurance ? How are you going to replace your paycheck insurance ?

How are you going to replace your paycheck ? In episode 176 , jamie Fleissner of Cephalife Insurance explains why the best time to buy disability insurance is during your residency .

Usually you get less healthy over time , so when you're healthy , it's easier to acquire the coverage . Number two it's also less expensive because it's based on your age and your health . You're not getting younger or healthier over time , so you're at the ideal time . The earlier you get it and the younger you are , the less expensive it's going to be .

All right , let's jump into the fitness journey . So I've been kind of talking about it in smatterings here and there on the various podcasts , but now I am on almost year three of my fitness journey , and this started with reading the book Atomic Habits . Yo , I'm just gonna be really honest with you . I ran track in high , you . I ran track in high school .

I ran track and cross country in college and after not getting into medical school medical school I got rejected the first time .

I went back and I did some graduate assistant work with track and cross country at my school and the deal was , as long as I coached , they would help pay for me to get my you know , to take some grad level courses and I would get my application stronger . Once I got into medical school , I was out .

So during those two years of doing grad assistant work , I was , you know , staying in shape also . I was . You know I was an average athlete . I'll leave it to you like that . I was an average track and field division one athlete , right , nothing . I wasn't horrible , but I wasn't great . I was just right in the middle , that's it .

And then , once I got into med school , I , like mentally , was like I don't care what is going on in my life , my job , my lone promissory note is saying that you are a professional student and you got to make this work . So I let everything go , Everything y'all . I'm serious , I let everything go . I didn't work out .

If I did work out , like I would go and run like these crazy things , like I'd say I'd like to see , like what I can do , like on a mile on a treadmill back then , like this is like 2003 , 2004 . You know , I could still run like , like , maybe like a 515 , 530 mile on a treadmill , right , and not like be huffing and puffing .

But I wasn't in shape , if you know what I mean . Like I had the muscle memory , I had the speed , but I wasn't in shape Right , because afterwards , the next day , my hamstrings are sore , my Achilles are sore , everything is really sore , and I'd be sore for several weeks , which means that , yeah , like the speed is there but the conditioning is not there .

And then you throw that and you multiply that by year , by year by year , and in residency what Residency . Bad hours , long hours , stress . Throw on top of that I wasn't eating right , probably was drinking a little too much , drinking Pepsis every day in the morning .

Yeah , we're talking about , you know , close to about 19 years , 18 years of a sedentary lifestyle . So I blew up in weight . So in college I was probably like 145 . By the time I got to , you know , when I decided I wanted to start working out , which was about three and a half years ago , I was about up to like 190 .

So we're talking about a 50 pound difference for someone like me who's five foot 10 . That's a big deal . So that book really helped me to get started on a couple of things One , building a habit and really starting to develop the love for exercising on a daily basis , or at least thinking about being active on a daily basis .

And since then I haven't looked back and you know I've been using this app called Future right , and I'll show it on a phone . They're not sponsoring the show . I wish they would sponsor because I really love this app . But this app has really taken me and my fitness to another level .

Right , and starting in November , it'll be one year that I've been working with this app , so basically it's like virtual slash , private personal training . I communicate with them through an app and that's it , right , like we can do video chatting , but it's like every three months .

We do about 30 minutes on video chat , but the rest is daily communicating by text . They send you workouts , you get your workout on , and it's a great app . But before we get into that , I just want to say real quick that I want to tell you about my why , right , why did I switch from ? So ? What I was using before is I was using like T25 .

I was doing all these beach body workouts Basically if you can think about Richard Simmons , like those type of workouts on steroids , right ? So I got an online subscription . It was like $19 for like every three months and I had access to all these different type of workouts .

But for me , I started off with T25 where , for 25 minutes , I was just being active . For six days a week I was just being active . That was for six months . That was the goal is . I don't want to break the chain and it's high intensity training , right . So we're talking about . You know , like the majority of the workout your heart rate is really like .

For me , I'm assuming it was in the 130s 140s . I didn't have a watch at that time but I was sweating like crazy .

But it was 25 minutes and I knew that if I can get that done , if I can , if I can carve out 25 minutes in my busy day of doing call , of putting chest tubes in , of being with my family you know , being Dr , dad and being the best husband , that I could try to be doing a podcast on top of that that , for 25 minutes I can't just spend time , you

know , for myself to do what I need to do . That was something that was really important for me . And then from there I went to something more intense on Beachbody . It was called Insanity , which was high intensity training , again , right .

And then from there I went to something more intense on Beachbody , it was called Insanity , which was high intensity training again . And then from there I went to something called the Work , where now T25 as well as Insanity , you're not using any weights whatsoever . This is all body weights . This is all high interval , high intensity type training .

And now the work . I'm actually using a pull-up bar , I'm using weights . So I bought a weight set off Amazon . You know I used that and it went from five pounds to 25 pounds and that was it . And what I ended up finding out with that program is it was great , Like it was a combination of high intensity workouts but you're also using weights . I liked it .

But the thing I really didn't like was he would always say hey , get your lightweights , get your medium weights and get your heavyweights . The question is , what does that mean ? Right Like , what's light for me for bicep curls could be , I don't know , five pounds , I don't know 25 pounds , I don't know .

Right Like , you kind of decide what is heavy for you , what's light for you and that basically was the theme of the entire workout is you're doing these great workouts , you're finishing these workouts . I was getting my butt whooped but you know , in terms of the weights , I really wasn't able to challenge myself in the way that I wanted to .

So by the time I got to , by the time I got to the work we're talking about close to a year and a half now of consistently working out , and that's even why I gave myself the permission to get the weight set .

So , just so y'all know , y'all like I was not playing , like I was , like I know myself , I start and stop things on a whim and I'm not going to give myself an excuse by purchasing equipment and saying , getting all souped up off of getting the equipment and at the last minute saying I won't do this anymore .

Right , and now I got this like expensive ass , whatever it may be , and it's becoming a hanger for clothes or whatever it is and is collecting dust . So I said , yo , bump that I am , I'm going to be working out for I'm going to prove to myself that I deserve this equipment , whatever it may be . I'm going to prove to myself that I deserve a pull-up bar .

I'm going to prove to myself that I need you know the uh , the gloves and all that stuff . And after a year and a half , my wife was like yo , like , why don't you just , why don't you get yourself , like you know , some weights ? Why don't you get yourself some bench and all that ?

And I was like , all right , but before I did that , I signed up , one of my friends from med school put me up on the future app and , um , I'll tell you right now , like the future app was amazing , like it's I'm going to see if I can show you know , the screen here .

But basically , you have a coach and you meet with this coach , you talk about your goals and the goals for me were . You know , I just want to get bigger . Like you know , I've lost the weight . I'm down to 175 , which I think that's pretty good weight for me , right , and I've shown that I can exercise consistently .

Like it'd be nice to have someone who can help me lift , you know , five pounds and then , the next week , help push me to get to 10 pounds and then have a little bit of some accountability also .

So I decided to leave the videos alone because I think it was time for a higher sense of accountability , right , like you , you reach a steady state where the videos can only give you so much . And now it's like , okay , listen . Like you prove to yourself that , like you can watch videos and you can do the exercises .

Like when are you going to take the next step ? And that was part of the why for me . Like I just felt like by the time we're starting future , I'm like 44 , 45 . And I'm like , look , I'm starting to believe the thing that's limiting me is my age .

But now I'm realizing the thing that's limiting me is my brain , because this app has really allowed me to be almost in the best shape of my life . And the question is what exactly is the best shape of my life mean ?

Right , does the best shape of my life mean that , you know , I could go and run like 10 miles and then come back and do X , y and Z and all that stuff that I used to do when I was in high school or in college ? Or does the best shape of your life mean that , like you , can bench 250 pounds and break 20 minutes in a 5k at 46 ?

Now I can't do that yet , but that's my goal . So that's what I'm talking about . Like , what does the best shape in your life mean ? So I don't know . That's . That's what that was . The thought process of using this app was okay , let's , let's , let's increase the , let's make the stakes go up . It's expensive . We'll get into that later .

But the other thing I was thinking about is , like yo , I only have like 35 summers left to really enjoy On the real right . Like I am 46 , like by the time I'm 30 , 35 summers later would put me at what ?

81 , right , and I might not even get to 35 summers , right , like when you think about how many trips around the sun we got or at least I have that I will be coherent , cogent , able to like chase my kids you know kids , right , like I don't know .

So I'm like I gotta like really , I really gotta step up and really challenge myself to this , and that's why I decided to get the future app and I felt like , even though the videos were great and I was really diligent in it , I felt like I was still leaving . There was a lot left in the tank . I'll just leave it to you like that .

There's a lot left in the tank . Even to this point . With the future app , I feel like there's so much more I can do , but it's tough , right , because in order to do more , right , the workouts are about an hour and that's what I want .

I don't want to work out more than an hour because if I'm at home , it's like well , I want to spend time with my kids , I want to spend time with my wife , I want to spend time podcasting , I want to spend time with my family .

I don't want to spend like endless hours just working out and then sacrificing some of the things that are just as important to me . So I think an hour , an hour and 10 minutes , maybe even an hour and 20 to 30 minutes , is enough time for me to get to whatever fitness that I can get to . And , if it , whatever I can get to that point , that's it .

That's all you get from me . That's it . You know from me . That's it . And the other reason with the videos , and definitely with the future app , is they create the workouts for you After you talk to them and you let them know what your goals are . And I told you my goals were I just want to get bigger . I want to appear that I'm more muscular .

I don't want to be like a bodybuilder , but I want to be like diesel . If you're from the 80s and the 90s , you know what I'm talking about . I wanted to look diesel , you know what I'm saying and I wanted to add on some muscle weight . And I didn't want to create the workouts because I don't want to do that .

I don't want to spend my entire day thinking about okay , well , today's Wednesday , so it should be leg day and I should do like piston squats and then I should do like dead rows . But is that really like I don't want to do all that ? Where I thrive is you tell me what you think I should do and then I will just do it . That's it .

That's where I thrive , because I get a lot of analysis , paralysis . So if you tell me this is the workout , I'll do it . So , for example , like yesterday was a was a lower type workout , right , and I'll take a video of this so you can see on the screen .

But basically , like we're doing deadlifts , we're doing dumbbell lunges , you know we're doing , you know , a whole bunch down , depending on how you're doing , right . So you know , my coach is a woman . She's amazing . Uh , is Nicole ? You know she works the hell out of me . You know Nicole shout out to you . Y'all you amazing .

Yeah , um , my first coach coach was Antoine . He was dope also , um , but uh , me and Nicole , you know we got a thing going on and stuff , yeah , Renee don't be tripping about this .

It's just the workout thing and , um , you know like we'll start off like with deadlifts , right , like we'll start off at we're starting out at 60 pounds , eight reps of 60 pound deadlifts , right , like .

And I don't do like I haven't decided to buy a barbell yet because I just I'm not , I don't want to get a barbell yet , so I'm just using dumbbells and I'll tell you , I'll put in a video so you guys can see right here where you can see what I use . I use an adjustable system called newer bells , which are amazing , right .

But yeah , like , we're starting off at 60 pounds , but I have the ability to go up to the next rep , to 65 . Then I go up to 70 pounds , right . And what this does is it does the calculation so that next week maybe you start at 65 , but then you so , instead of starting at 60 , you start next week at 65 , so that you end up at like 80 , right ?

So it's like this progressive overload system and then it's already programmed in that after four to five weeks you go through a deload week and you know , the next day after that you may either have off or maybe upper body or maybe cardio , but I don't have to think about it . All I have to do is open up the app

. There's an amazing message from my coach . Check out this message . This is from the workout . I just did Check this out .

We want to make sure the muscles are completely lengthened and that's when we want to provide the most tension . So holding a little bit longer in the deadlift at the end , with elevated split squats , pausing at the bottom for a moment , that's a great way just to stimulate great muscle growth . All right , have an awesome session today and let's rock and roll .

And then there's times where she has messages like halfway through the workout , saying like come on , don't . You know , this is the toughest part of the workout . Keep it going , Make sure you remember your , your , your form . It's a great app .

And then , like I said , like I'm texting her through today , she's texting me in the morning hey , got a workout today . You know , I left you a message . These are the things that I want you to focus on . Or she's leaving a message about how I did the night before on my workout . It's really good , it's really good .

Like yesterday , I sent her a message saying like , maybe , like hypertrophy and trying to get bigger is not the goal for me , maybe I really need to change things up and do um , maybe I need to try to like get my max up really high , because I really do want to hit 250 . So maybe we should really be hitting like shorter reps .

And she's like well , you know , we went back and forth in a really nice conversation but we ended up just saying , nii , just chill , trust the system , you're going up in weight . But if you really want to change , just finish this year off , which will be in November , and then let's change things up . I was like I bet Cool , so it's a great app .

It's a great app , I love it , I love it . So you know , I'm going to quickly talk about the equipment that I'm using . Let's start off with this . If you can't see on video , these are the Nike Metcon fives . No , you do not have to get this color . Yes , I am eccentric like that with my shoes .

I don't know what kind of color this is like some type of . This is definitely yellow or high yellow and fuchsia and aqua or I don't know whatever it is . But yeah , I'd be standing out in a gym with these and I love it . Right , these shoes are great . These are called Metcon 5s by Nike . These are last year's model .

I love these shoes for a couple of reasons .

So , normally when I work out , when I was doing the videos , I was using regular running shoes , and what I found out is when I'm doing a HIIT training and I'm going from side to side and doing all these different types of moves that , like , I felt like I didn't have the greatest like ankle stability and I felt like like I would always kind of tip over a

little bit . But when I go for a run , it's great , right , the running shoes are great and narrow , they're great for a run . Right , I can go out and bust out like five miles and feel great afterwards .

But with , you know , hiit training , as well as with the Future app , a lot of these , at least with my goals , you know , since I'm hitting the weights , I need the stability .

I need the stability to like , make sure that if I'm using , if I'm doing squats or if I'm doing dead presses and so forth , right , that you know , like I'm not going to tilt from side to side . And I just didn't want to buy , I didn't want to get two shoes .

So I did a lot of YouTube , youtubing , and I read a lot of blogs and found out that , like , there's these hybrid type shoes and I came upon this and this shoe is really great for lifting , it's really great for running and everything in between .

And this shoe is really great for lifting , it's really great for running and everything in between , and that's what I use it for . So I think for running it's really good , for , I'd say , up to about three miles , I think is really good .

Once I get past three miles , it's very uncomfortable , and mainly because this right here , like this boot in the back here , is really big and thick . This right here , like this boot in the back here , is really big and thick .

And then also here you see how wide it is Like it just feels like I'm almost like wearing almost like a boot , almost , but it doesn't feel like a boot , but it's as wide as a boot . So I could run in these .

I'm not going to get fast times in these , but these allow me to , you know , do squats and do deadlifts and to do split squats or whatever I would do in the gym and get the great support that I need without having to change sneakers , and I can still run , you know , a couple of miles .

And then , obviously , these are really good for sprints , right , like if you want to do sprints or if you want to do some type of like suicides , where you have to run really fast , stop and then kind of change direction and go back . I like these . So these are awesome . These are the shoes that I use .

Um , alfred , if you could put a video up of the newer bell adjustable weights that I use . So some of you all may be familiar with the bow flex . Bow flex kind of started this . These are like adjustable weights . This is basically a dumbbell rack and you twist the knob or you turn the knob and basically the weights change right .

And I didn't want to get a whole rack of weights because that's one hella expensive Two we rented at the time and I didn't want to like I didn't have the space for it . Let's leave it to you like that . So I just got these adjustable weights and I love them and they go anywhere from five pounds to 80 pounds and they save a lot of space . I love them .

Hella expensive , but not as expensive as buying individual dumbbells of five pounds all up to 80 pounds . I'll tell you that right now I wasn't going to spend that much . Your bro ain't going to do it . And then I have a pull-up bar . Got that off Amazon . If I find it , I'll put the links in the show notes . And then I got a pair of gloves Yo gloves .

Nobody told me this , but investing in a pair of gloves as a surgeon high key are . It's the shit . Like I was working out for several weeks and I would get these crazy calluses and you're trying to move the laparoscopic equipment and like your feet , my fingers and my grip is like damn equipment and like your feet , my fingers and my grip is like damn .

And then people were like , yeah , why don't you just get some ? You know gloves , and I was like gloves , I thought those are for , like professional lifters , are like no dumb ass , like everybody uses them . And since then , like you know , I'm carrying heavy weights and I don't have calluses anymore and it's been great . So definitely gloves are great .

And then I got this um rep fitness bench , um , and that's what I use when I do my dumbbell bench press or my triceps or my split squats and that's what I do . And then I use the future app and if anybody's interested , if you want to hit me up , I can get you a free month . This runs anywhere between like $175 to $199 a month .

It's expensive , I think , but compared to one-on-one private coaching , where it's personal and you're meeting with the person , that could run you like $300 , $400 a month . So the fact that it's half the cost , if not even more than that , and I'm getting the same results . I think it's worth it for me .

So you look at not working out and how much that's going to cost you in terms of , you know , not being in shape , you know um , you know being sedentary , not being happy with yourself and the after effects of that being on medications and so forth . For me , this is an investment . It's an investment , an investment in myself .

So I ended up buying in six month packages , and when you buy in six month packages , it brings it down to like $175 a month . So for me , it's worth it . And I don't spend much money on anything else .

So for me , it's like okay , well , I spent the money on the sneakers , I spent the money on these things , but I don't go to a gym , so I don't have to spend money on a gym . I'm here at my house and I'm working out , so that money to me is well spent .

There's nobody , there's no way that you can convince me that what I'm paying for is not worth it . Now there are other competitors out there with apps that may be a little bit cheaper , but the relationship that I have with my coach , the ability to text them all the time . I think is worth it .

So if you're interested in it , just hit me up and I can get you a month for free . I can do like these free guest passes and so forth . So let me know and you can get a month for free and sign up . But they're not sponsoring the show but it's dope . All right , listen , we're going to go take a quick break . We'll be right back .

All right , we are back . One of my favorite parts of doing a podcast is so many people ask us questions and it's been a lot trying to answer all of your questions in a timely fashion . But I've seen them all , I read them all , I think about them all .

I just may not type them all back , I may not respond to you back in a timely fashion , but I know that you guys are asking these questions . I love to answer them and I know everything , just so you guys know . I know everything now , so keep asking away .

So this is from Elizabeth Edion , I think , and this was on YouTube , and it says I want to be a part-time doctor . Can I be that in EM , emergency medicine , pediatrics and radiology ? These are the specialties I'm interested in . Also , I want to make good money but working lesser days . Also , please can I locum as a consultant ?

Absolutely , so , yeah , so this is a really good question , elizabeth . So basically , can you be a part-time doctor , being EM pediatrics radiology ? So the question is , what is part-time ?

Part-time , in essence , is so basically you have full-time employee where you're working Listen for those who aren't doctors doctors work more than and professionals work more than , 40 hours a week , right ? We're talking about like close to about 80 hours a week , right ?

And then you know you multiply that by how many weeks in a month , and then you multiply that by the year and you go from there and that's how you determine if you're full-time and then part-time is going to be half of that or some semblance of some type of fraction of full-time .

You know , definitely in EM you can do that right , because in EM I think it's very acceptable for a locum's type of lifestyle or independent type of lifestyle , and in that type of lifestyle , nobody's keeping track of when you work , how you work . Basically , it's you work and then you get paid .

And you can look at it in two ways , which is , hey , like I'm just going to keep working , right , because I can keep working and I'm going to keep getting paid . Or you could just be like , look , I'm going to work until I get the certain amount of money that I want to reach and then after that I can take some time off .

So that can be anywhere from some people , you know they only work six months out of the year Right , we had a we did an article once from a guy who a urologist , who works half the year and makes 400 grand a year . Right , if you're really smart with your money , like that is a great way to live .

The question is , you know , when you're young in your career , do you want to work like that ? If you're old in your career , do you want to work like that ?

Like you have to decide what you want to do and how you want to work , because this ain't residency anymore , baby , this ain't residency , this ain't fellowship , there's nobody keeping track , it's up to you be part-time .

So , yes , absolutely , you can do locums radiology , you can do locums pediatrics , you can do locums EM and , yeah , you can make really good money working lesser days . So you can . It's all there for you . It's just that you have to be very smart in making sure that I'll leave it to you like this .

Before I even get to that point , there are sacrifices that need to be made . In order for you to even get to that point , first of all , you've got to be able to play the game right . To play the game is you've got to be able to make sure you finish residency , you finish fellowship .

Whatever is after that point , like getting boards done you've got to finish all of that stuff . Then the next thing after that is the next sacrifice you've got to make is what are you going to do about your loans ? Right , like , what are you going to do to make sure that nobody can tell you what to do , how to work when you want to work ?

And if some of those motivations might be a couple of things one , how are you going to pay off your loan debt ? And or how are you going to pay off credit card debt ? And or if it's going to be paying off a really hella mortgage that you can't afford , that's going to change your mathematics a little bit right .

Even kids , that might change your mathematics a little bit right . But the question is , is , what kind of lifestyle do you want ? It's not going to be perfect , but if the ultimate goal is to have complete control of your life and how you work and when you work and how much you work .

There's going to have to be some type of sacrifice is going to have to be made .

The question is is that sacrifice that you're making enough to stop you from going forward with this type of lifestyle that you want , which is work when you want , make as much as you want , possibly get a significant amount of time off that's the way I look at it and that's how I talk about with folks is in order to get whatever you want .

Just know that there's always a cost benefit type of ratio . It's never going to be a perfect world , but if you know me , you know that I say everybody should do locums in some portion . Right , you ain't got to do it 100% of the time , but you should , at you , at least get the taste of it .

Because I think if you got the taste of it , you're like , yeah , I like this and I don't want to go back . So , after doing residency and fellowship , I decided that I was going to do locums . So , like all of my fellows , my co-fellows were interviewing , you know , for academic positions . This is when I was at Miami .

They were interviewing for academic positions and I was interviewing . I was just trying to get back home to Jersey , but I was interviewing at places . My father had prostate cancer , so I was trying to get back and the interviews were great , but the negotiations were less than stellar . Let's leave it to you like that .

There are a lot of places that would say you'd be on call and when you get the contract they didn't want to properly delineate how often you'd be on call . A lot of places didn't want to delineate , well , if you are on call and you go past a certain threshold , how much you would get paid . And that's important .

And I think that one of the biggest disservices that attendings folks who've kind of done the process before us one of the biggest things that I think they do to us is they don't tell you how important it is for lifestyle as well , in essence , how you're going to finance your life .

Right , if you're going to finance your life through working and you know by being a doctor for the rest of your life like it's important for you to understand how you're going to do that , and a lot of that has to do with how you negotiate . How will you get paid for call , how you get paid for call , how you get paid for doing operations .

If you believe in that you know RVUs or you know procedures or how many patients you see , that's very important . And if you don't know much about that as an attending , you should at least give your opinion to your residents and say , hey look , I wish I knew more about RVUs .

Or I wish I knew more about locums , or I wish I knew more about X , y and Z , so that I can make these type of decisions now , as opposed to yeah , I don't know anything about that , and if you go into locums , you're killing your career . Or I don't know anything about private practice , but if you go into private practice , you're killing your career .

I think that's a big disservice to folks who are training and yeah , I know you're scared as an attending , but it doesn't mean that you should pass it down to your residents . And even young attendings . So that's what I would say is a big disservice .

Definitely , I would say that's a big disservice and um , to be honest , I forgot what the bigger point of what I was trying to make um is , but it doesn't matter . Uh , I think we , we , we the decisions , like , I think one of the really interesting things about medicine is the path to becoming a doctor is extremely unique .

It's different than the corporate world . It's different than sports , it's very different . But the things that affect everybody else in their job in terms of corporate , you know , the corporate things that happen in job , middle management , all that stuff that stuff still exists in medicine and healthcare , just so you know .

So , if you go in thinking , oh , my life is going to be different , yeah , I mean , like , how you do your day , your day-to-day operations , is different than how someone , than 99% of people who work right , right , 99% of people don't get a chance to talk to patients and let patients a patient will let you know about things that they don't even tell their

partner or be able to , you know , put a chest tube in someone or save someone's life , like those are things that it's extremely unique to what we do , right , but , yeah , there's middle management . There are people who have like degrees that are less than what you have like degrees that are less than what you have , no shade .

But they might get paid more than you or they have control over you than what you thought you would have when you first started , and that could be a problem . And if you are willing to do some work in the beginning which is what me and Renee did that kind of leads you down a path of kind of being able to do what you want to do .

I don't know who's texting me during this time , don't they know that I'm doing a podcast . But yeah , that's kind of how I look at it . You know , if you're going to want to be a part-time doctor , just understand that you're going to play the game for a little bit and then you have to decide is it going to be the red pill or the blue pill ?

That's what Renee says all the time . And if you take the red pill which may be , you know , the prototypical traditional pathway just be something completely different , and it could be locums , it could be private practice , it could be social media , it could be whatever it may be .

Just know that it comes with a whole host of other issues that you should be prepared for , but I can tell you right now , as a locums doc , if I don't have to go back , I won't go back , no siree . If I can fight it , I won't do it . So that's my thoughts on that

. Good question , though , elizabeth , and I'm glad you appreciate our videos on YouTube . Guys , also make sure we're on YouTube . Check us out on YouTube . All right , we'll be right back . All right , I'm gonna keep this short . I'm gonna keep this sweet , because , in general , I know there's not that many people who use Android who are listening to the show .

Right , I know overseas there are a lot of people who use Android as an operating system , who listen to our show . But I'm going to tell you right now when I grew up , I had a Commodore 64 . Then I had some version of an IBM compatible PC . I never rocked with Mac .

The only time I rocked with Mac was at school , and it was like the Sierra Canyon or whatever . I forgot what it was , but nobody messed with Macs . I don't know if you guys remember back in the eighties and nineties like Macs were corny back in the day , and then you know when the new wave of new Macs came out in the late 1990s and so forth .

I fought all that stuff off , but I am . I use a Mac book right now . I love it . The chip is great , but for cell phones I'm not switching to iOS . I don't like it . I think Android is the best and this phone , I think , is finally the phone that is going to make a lot of people be like hmm , google's not playing .

So I know people who are listening right now and they have an iPhone . I know you may want to just fast forward this point because I know there's absolutely nothing that I can tell you right now to make you switch from your whack iPhone to a Google or a Samsung phone .

But for those Samsung folks right now who are listening , they're like yo , this Samsung S24 is great , but I don't want to pay like S24 prices of like $1,300 and so forth . Listen , this phone right here , uno Nuno right here this phone right here is amazing . Pixel 9 XL I love it . The build quality is amazing . Pixel 9 XL I love it .

The build quality is amazing . It looks like an iPhone to me . I ain't gonna front Like . The other Pixels that I've had in the past have been okay . The build quality has been okay , has never been on par with a iPhone , and I've always had iPhone jealousy in terms of how well it's built . I've also had Samsung S Samsung jealousy of how well it's built .

I've also had , you know , samsung S . You know Samsung jealousy of how well they're built . But for the first time , this phone is well built . This is an amazing build and it's great . I love it and I'll be honest with you .

The reason why I've had pixels is because the picture quality on a pixel and if you are an iPhone user , you know what I'm talking about there's times where you see someone with a Samsung or you see someone with a Google Pixel and you're like yo , I love my phone , but I need them to take the picture Right .

If you haven't check out a Pixel picture , it is amazing .

And having little kids , I just wanted a phone , like I didn't want to get a camera because I knew it was going to be too much to carry a camera and to carry my phone , so to have a dedicated camera I was like this is not going to work for me , so I just needed a camera or I need a phone that took really good pictures and I was willing to sacrifice

everything else . Plus , the phones were always cheaper , right , so I could get a Google Pixel phone for like $300 , $400 . And I knew spending that amount of money , the phone would last me three years and I'd have the best pictures . The video quality is not that great , but I know at that price point that I have the best pictures . The shutter speed is great .

No matter what my kids are doing , it's a great picture . It's gonna do that computational photography and all that stuff . It's better than any phone out there . Everybody knows that . If you don't now , you know . But the build quality wasn't up there .

The battery life for the Pixel wasn't up there and like the processor speed you know was you know , after about a year and a half you can tell like the phone was . Like it's taking a long time , like I need to reset this phone . But I mean , you could say that about an iPhone also .

It's just that because you're an iPhone user , you just don't want to admit that and you spend a lot of money on it . Right , my line . And then you had iMessage and the Apple ecosystem is no joke . Right , like they're . They've done think pieces .

There's podcasts , there's YouTube channels that are dedicated specifically on the ecosystem of Apple and how it keeps you locked in , and you know , there's like the way how I describe it is . I think Android makers make better phones , but the experience is better on an iPhone . Right , and I didn't really understand this until I had a Tesla .

Right , and when I had a Tesla , the Tesla is the car is not the greatest , but the ability to just go to a Tesla charger and plug in and not have to swipe a card it just automatically starts working .

And then you have , like all of this , like like secondary end user , like you know , equipment that you can buy like a um , you know a charger specifically for Tesla that Tesla didn't make but someone made for Tesla .

Or like car seats or car covers or seat warmers , or you know all of these different things that you can buy off of different websites that are products that are made specifically for Tesla that make your experience better . Right , because nobody else was really dedicating the time to EVs like Tesla . That's amazing .

And that's when I really started to realize like , oh man , like the iPhone ecosystem is amazing . Apple's ecosystem is amazing because it has everything . Right , but I still wasn't trying to switch over . I used Android , right . So for me , the biggest thing is the battery life . Battery life has to be really big .

So I'm going to tell you right now , with this phone , right here , battery life is amazing , all day battery life . So I'm talking about when I'm at work , because this is the big thing . Like , can I go to work without taking a charger with me ?

Because if my day , if my call starts at seven o'clock in the morning and then I'm done at 7 pm , right , like , let's really do what's the real life , right , I'm charging until 5 15 in the morning , I take it off the charger . I'm listening to a podcast , I'm watching a YouTube video .

You know I get to work by seven o'clock and then you know , basically from 5 45 until midnight , I don't have to charge my phone . I'm from 5 45 at a hundred percent .

With this phone I'm getting all the way to like 10 o'clock , 11 o'clock , with like 20% left , and that's still doing a workout afterwards , right , that's doing a workout within that , excuse me . So the battery life on this phone is amazing , right , um , and during the day , like , I'm getting a mad calls .

I'm getting mad different hospitals calling me to transfer patients in . I'm getting calls from all the different hospitalists about X , y and Z I'm getting calls from . I'm calling neurosurgeons , I'm calling orthopedic surgeons , I'm calling , you know , the OR . You know , I'm on YouTube in between stuff , right . I'm on WhatsApp , right .

I'm doing video chat with the kids , all this stuff , and I'm finishing the day with like 20% , 15% , which is definitely not what I was getting with my Pixel 7 .

Like , by the time 6.45 comes , seven o'clock comes , I'm like at 15% , and then , in order to work out , I got to charge my phone to get like that extra , like 15% , so that you know when I'm working out , the phone doesn't die on me . So this is great , you know , I love it .

Video , the video is great , right . So , look , if you look at the tiers , right , the best video is iPhone on a phone video . Second would be the Samsung's and then third , I think , would be pixel , but like , the difference is like it's not night and day , but you know for a fact , like people are filming movies or portions of movies with their iPhones .

So that's how good the quality of the video on an iPhone is . Would you do that on this phone ? Hell , no , I'm going to do that , but for me , for the average person who just wants to film their kids and make sure that it's not blurry or to make sure that I have the memories of , like you know , my kids .

You know meeting me at the door when I come home from locums or , you know , taking them to the park or , like you know , beating them in basketball or chasing them down the block and using that video and it works so quickly . It's like better , it's amazing , like the ecosystem , I think , for Google is great .

The ability for me to upload all my stuff and have it available for me my pictures and videos to the Google Cloud is amazing . The AI I'll be honest with y'all , whether it's AI on Apple or AI on Google or AI whatever it is . To me , ai at this point is like 3D right , remember 3D glasses and 3D TVs ? It's just a , it's a novelty .

I think there's a lot more work that needs to be done in order for us all , as people , to really decide that we're going to use or to really feel that that oomph , that yeah , that tipping point , that yeah , you should really be using AI in what you do on an everyday basis .

Now you may hear about AI and you may hear about how AI is going to change the world in the future and AI is doing things to affect your you know , your job and so forth .

But like I'd be very hard pressed and you guys can write in and let me know , I'd be very hard pressed to find out if you're using tell me , if you're using AI on a daily basis , right , like the x-ray machines now are using AI to tell us , like , how far the endotracheal tube is from the carina .

Like that's great and all , but even that I don't even trust .

I'm like , let me look and check and make sure , cause I don't know right , some of these computers be making , or these AI things be making , some big mistakes and stuff , right , like you can't trust all of that stuff and , as a result , like I look at it , like the 3D TVs , like there was like this huge rush for everybody to get a 3D TV and ESPN made

like a separate 3D you know channel for this and it's gone , because I think that like there's just too much of a , there's too much friction , really , right , you have to put glasses on and you have to sit there and not get dizzy , and then you had to make sure that that movie was actually in 3D , and I think the same thing with these AI things that

they're talking about on this is like the stuff that they want you to do AI on , which is to change the picture and to have AI do it . Like who wants to do that consistently , like you're not going to use that . A lot of this stuff is gimmicky type stuff .

So I'll be very honest with you Like the AI that they have here is very gimmicky and I think those who are waiting for AI to show up on your iPhone , you're going to be disappointed . Also because I just don't think AI is there on a mass appeal standpoint for you guys to really be swayed by it . That's my thoughts on it .

And then I got real quick here a Pixel Watch 3 . This is an amazing watch . The battery life is great . I can get a day and a half if I don't work out . Um , you know , the screen is great , the tracking is great , there's a great web . There's a great um youtube channel that is able to compare and contrast .

Like really expensive smart watches we we're talking about smartwatches that are like $600 , $700 , like the Garmin's and stuff and their ability to track heart rates compared to like Apple watches and a pixel watch and you know Fitbits and things like that , and this and the Apple watch are really high up there .

So I'm part of the Google ecosystem and that's part of the reason why I'm bringing this up is that , as much as I'm talking about the Apple ecosystem ecosystem , keeping you walled in like I'm getting walled in myself with the , the , the Google ecosystem and this uh watch is really great .

I can get through the entire day of working , um , and I got the LTE version , which means that , like you know , my phone doesn't have to be nearby .

I can still get phone calls off of this , and the reason I like that is there are times when I'm in the operating room and my phone is on you know the table and I can't hear it , but at least my watch will start buzzing and I can tell someone hey , go answer my phone , go answer my phone .

Or , you know , even through my scrubs and through my sterile stuff , I can tap it and I can have a phone call if someone wants to transfer a patient or if someone wants to get a consult , a consultation . It's very useful . Is it perfect ? No , um , but it's . I like it a lot . It's really great . So I would definitely recommend it .

If anybody's out there and they're thinking about you know what kind of watch would they get for an Android ? Definitely would recommend it and that's pretty much it . Y'all . That's it . That's the updates here with Docs Outside the Box , with the Darkos .

So , yeah , we're purchasing a home and you're learning a bit about my fitness journey and , yeah , you know how I feel about Pixel watches compared to Apples and Samsungs . But , yeah , let us know what you think about these episodes and or an episode like this , anywhere that you want to . Let us know . We'll see it YouTube wherever we'll find it .

Listen , guys , I'm going to catch y'all on the next episode of Docs Outside the Box . Hopefully by then Dr Rene will be back . Catch you , guys on the next one , y'all Peace .