Interview with Firass El Fateh – A Professional Approach to Fitness and Aging

Video Transcript

Dr. Alibhai: I’m Khalid Alibhai here, Dr. Alibhai from Stuart Chiropractic, and we’re in conversation with Firass from OPEX in Abbotsford. He’s a good friend of mine, and we’re just turning this into a very casual conversation. Uh, Firass, glad that we could have this.

Firass El Fateh: Yeah, I think the last time we spoke, it was a little bit more formal, like an interview-type podcast. At least that was recorded, and we’ve obviously had tons of conversations between now and then. So I just wanted to thank you for having this. I think it’s going to be a lot more casual and comfortable for both of us. It’ll be more of a back-and-forth, so I’m looking forward to the chat, man.

Dr. Alibhai: Absolutely. I was thinking back to how we met in the first place. Do you remember?

Firass El Fateh: Yeah, I do. You met my wife, Yaffa, first or had connected with her first and had come in for some training, essentially. That was the first time I actually met you.

Dr. Alibhai: Yeah, totally. Like, our wives met first. Your wife, Yaffa, Dr. Elseri, is a chiropractor. This was like, I think when our kids were like, we’ve got kids the same age, about eight years old and in grade three right now, but this was probably maybe four years ago when they were just thinking about starting kindergarten at the time.

Dr. Alibhai: So our wives met then, and then I was training and still struggling with my lower back pain, wanting to get into more lifting. That’s when you and I met, and you trained me for the first time. Since then, we’ve been at each other’s kids’ birthday parties, hanging out, and playing soccer on the field with our kids and football. I’m grateful that it’s turned into a friendship. One of the things I remember is when we had our birthday party for our son, Ishan, when you guys came that first time. We had some photos and a couple of people I know were like, “Who’s that guy in the photo? That’s so jacked. Who is that guy?” And it was Firass, like, it’s you that’s there.

Dr. Alibhai: So you own a gym and love to work out. This is part of your lifestyle, part of your routine. I think people want to know, obviously this is kind of a loaded question, but how did you get to look the way you do right now? And obviously, it’s not just about the looks, but I think that’s important as well. It’s an important piece because that also leads to performance and how we feel about our bodies. So, this is kind of an odd question, but what’s your secret?

Firass El Fateh: There’s no secret, but it’s a fair question. I think the majority of people that get into working out at some point or another are looking to look better. I think that’s what it was like for me when I first started working out way back when. But if you were to think about what the secret is, I think it’s honestly consistency for one, and then just solid principles, nothing more than that. Of course, there’s a genetic component for some things as well.

Firass El Fateh: Some people are more apt at building more muscle, some people are going to be generally leaner than others. But that doesn’t mean you need special genetics to look fit. If I were to say what the secret is, it’s consistent weight training for a long period of time and being disciplined with your diet. You don’t have to go over the top, but you can’t overconsume foods, not eat enough protein, not lift weights, and expect to build muscle and look lean. That’s a big part of it. The other part is the lifestyle aspect, like your sleep, water intake, alcohol consumption, and stress levels. Our bodies are not designed to build muscle unless it’s for a specific reason. So, in order to build muscle, you have to put some sort of stress on the body and be able to recover from that stress. So again, weight training consistently with good nutritional principles.

Dr. Alibhai: I think it’s that piece that in order to get stronger, more fit, to get the look you want, like you said, it’s the weight training. We’re almost not doing enough exposure, enough repetitions. And some people don’t even know how to do it. Maybe some do know how, but the consistency piece is there. I see so many people, like in our practice, we’re seeing a lot of baby boomers. Now they’re getting into their late 60s, 70s.

Dr. Alibhai: This idea that your muscle is like your organ of longevity. They’re in pain, have different chronic health issues. For me, it’s easier to motivate my dad to get working out and strength training, but harder to get my mom, who’s female, in her late 60s, higher risk of osteoporosis. And obviously, our muscle mass just starts declining. I’m concerned about the baby boomers and just the lack of like they’re going for walks. I think it’s good but it’s not quite good enough to make us resilient for those last couple of decades of life. One fall and then that’s it, you’ve got a fracture and then you’re trying to heal and get through that. I don’t know what your thoughts are on that.

Firass El Fateh: Well, I was going to say like in your practice, if you could wave a magic wand and have someone, like your client base or patient base adopt one thing that will help them, would weight training be one of those top things?

Dr. Alibhai: Number one.

Firass El Fateh: Number one?

Dr. Alibhai: Yeah. Because I mean, that’s it. I mean, you can have a crappy diet, but you can still get strong. It may not look the way that you want to look, but you can still get strong again and more resilient.

Firass El Fateh: Yeah, I think once you understand the benefits of weight training, and it’s becoming a little bit more mainstream. I think you’ve read the book Outlived by Peter Atiyah, you’ve heard about it for sure. That’s becoming a little bit more mainstream. Like we got Oprah talking about this book and, you know, this is a book for the masses. I think a piece of the weight training is the education part.

Firass El Fateh: It’s just harder to get into. So the barrier to entry for weight training is much higher than just doing aerobic training or going for a walk. It’s just more difficult. If you don’t grow up with it and haven’t been exposed to it at a young age, it becomes more and more difficult to get into. When did you start weight training?

Dr. Alibhai: When I was in my adolescence, I was interested. I was keen on looking a certain way, you know?

Firass El Fateh: So that’s the same for me. It’s like, I started when I was 14 years old, 13, 14 years old, going into grade nine, right. And I haven’t stopped. So for me, I enjoyed it. I loved it. I saw the benefits right away. As you get older and further away from that adolescent age, it becomes harder and harder. But not to say you can’t do it, of course you can do it, it’s just more difficult.

Firass El Fateh: So it’s like, do we still continue to educate people on how important it is, or do people know how important it is, but they just still don’t think it’s important enough for them to take action?

Dr. Alibhai: I think it’s like, what are the ways that people can reduce that barrier? Like I think about that YouTube sensation guy, knees over toes, and he’s got his mom doing backward walking on the treadmill.

Dr. Alibhai: And I was thinking about like, how do you like getting a weighted vest and just doing some of that zone two training where your heart rate’s still up a little bit, and you’re still adding in a strength piece as well. But yeah, I think it’s really seeing is more believing. So when you get more people together doing it together, I think there’s a huge thing.

Dr. Alibhai: Like, I can’t just stick a weight vest on my mom and ask her to go for a dog walk. Like how she’s got a dog that she walks and she’s great about and that’s been really good for her. But it’s finding fun and creative ways to get it done. And I think one obviously is for us. We just want to be an example to our family, but it’s really the level of concern is just high for that, you know, 60 to 70-year-old population.

Firass El Fateh: Yeah, I think like most things, you just got to find some internal motivation as well. It’s got to hit you at some point. People around you, community helps, influencers around you help in terms of like your own family and people you look up to perhaps. But at the end of the day, there just has to be that reason internally to like, okay, I gotta do this.

Firass El Fateh: I have no choice. Because one of the things you always ask yourself is what’s the alternative? Right. Okay. What’s the alternative? If I don’t weight train when I’m 50, 60 years old, well, eventually you’re probably going to have some sort of fall or you’re not going to be strong enough to do the things that you like.

Firass El Fateh: And your quality of life is going to deteriorate. That’s just like inevitable. It’s going to happen.

Dr. Alibhai: Yeah.

Firass El Fateh: So is it worth putting the effort in now?

Dr. Alibhai: Is the pain of doing it now greater than what could be the pain of the consequence later in life? And a lot of it comes down to fear, right? You know, we’re scared of the unknown, or we’re scared of staying the same, but the unknown is, like, that’s, it paralyzes us, right?

Dr. Alibhai: So it’s just this idea, like, well, what’s my body going to be like from when I’m 70? Like, people who come in pain in our office all the time, we’re in their 20s, 30s, and they’re concerned about what their future may look like. But then they’ve dealt with this pain for so long already, but it’s sometimes that fear that just paralyzes us from even just taking action in the first place.

Dr. Alibhai: So, um, but speaking of that, I was just, you know, we see some kids in our practice and now that my kids are, you know, they’re still young, but the eldest is eight years old. Um, like we’ll have some kid who come into my office, who’s maybe 12 and he’s got back pain. And I’m like, how could somebody who’s 12 have back pain?

Dr. Alibhai: And if it’s not anything that’s an emergency, then what is creating this pain? And I asked them to do a squat, like do a squat for me, and they just fall right over.

Firass El Fateh: Wow.

Dr. Alibhai: You know, like they’ve forgotten how to squat. And it’s not their fault because now they go into the school system where they’re sitting all day. And then they come home, maybe they eat something while sitting in a chair, and then if they have recreational activities, great. If they don’t, then it’s usually some sort of screen time or like gaming is just out of this world right now. So they’ll game for three hours or two hours and then go to bed, not enough sleep or hydration, wake up again and do the same thing Monday to Friday.

Dr. Alibhai: I think it’s tough on parents, obviously, who have full-time jobs and, you know, like, how do you like, it’s different nowadays. But I’m seeing this at an earlier age where, you know, we were at my son’s hockey practice early in the morning, I think it was like a Thursday and we come out at, they’re finished at eight in the morning and there’s the next team that’s coming onto the ice. And it’s a bunch of 14-year-olds and they’re all gathered around sitting at the table in a big circle. There’s probably like 15 of them and they all had their head down like this. And every single one of them was on their phone. Every single one. There was no talking. It was completely silent and sure it’s early in the morning and stuff, but it’s the environment that shapes who we are.

Dr. Alibhai: And I think this is why we’re seeing not only early diabetes, but we’re seeing early arthritis in kids. So, um, not just in their back, but in their neck, it’s just like, how do we design environments for them to thrive? Because the stuff isn’t going away. Um, like I have a standup desk at home, but why don’t we do that for kids? You know?

Firass El Fateh: It’s a good point. It’s a very good point. It’s the priorities of the society. Right? What are the priorities of the society and the people around you and your grownups? You mentioned, you know, the child that came in that was 12 years old. I would be surprised if his or her parents were very active people and that was a big priority for them in their family. Like for you, you take your kids out almost every weekend. More than every weekend. Every weekend during the week, they’re physically active. We get together. What are we doing? We’re going out. We’re playing. This is how we do things. You know, in the Alibai household, it’s just the way it is. So you grow up with that compared to the alternative, which is, oh, you can just sit, play video games after school, and there’s no physical activity.

Firass El Fateh: So it’s the environment, but it’s also the parents. Your family.

Dr. Alibhai: I mean, I went through a phase where I was watching Netflix back-to-back episodes or something. We all have our moments where we just need to escape. But it’s this idea that things aren’t taught, they’re caught. We’ve heard that living as a role model for our kids, but my, Rahel, our youngest, picked up on the phrase, “monkey see, monkey do.” I’m sorry you said that.

Firass El Fateh: It’s so true though, right?

Dr. Alibhai: I was on my phone and my son said, “Hey, it’s not good to look at your phone when you’re walking on the street.” We were just walking down our hill from our house and I’m like, you know, you’re right. I think the only thing to tell our kids more often is, you know, when that’s the case is you’re right and they kind of feel empowered by it.

Dr. Alibhai: But yeah, I think it comes back into just being able to govern yourself and having the self-awareness and it comes down to mental health. And not only is there mental health, but just emotional health. This idea that like Dr. Shahana, my wife, Shahana, who’s a big speaker now and talking about how emotions are neither good nor bad is how we interpret them to this idea of emotional fitness. This idea that no matter how bad things are and things can get really bad in life, you can still handle it. Having that sense of grit, I think is just something that personally I’m working on and hoping to instill in my own kids.

Firass El Fateh: Yeah, and that’s part of it. I know we talked about weight training a little bit, but I mean, there are many challenges that you’re giving yourself throughout the days and you’re right. It’s a sense of accomplishment.

Dr. Alibhai: We’re back. We got cut off for a moment, so it’s all good. I understand that you had an event, body composition analysis, helping people analyze and interpret and make some recommendations based on their current body composition, what it means and how it’s related to their goals.

Dr. Alibhai: So, how did it go and what are some key points you want to share because I’m curious.

Firass El Fateh: Yeah, so we did this body composition seminar, I guess, three weeks back. We had about 30, 35 people come in. This was just a free seminar at OPEX. Some of our current clients, but the majority were just people that want to learn more about their body composition, how they can improve it.

Firass El Fateh: We’ll be doing another one on December 6th as well. The key thing that people wanted to know was their body composition. For most people, body composition is body fat percentage is an easy way to think about it or like how you look naked. Really, that’s what it is.

Firass El Fateh: So we got everyone to hop on our InBody machine, and it measured their body fat percentage, muscle mass, fat mass, basal metabolic rate. Those are the big numbers that we were able to measure with people. The big one for most people is that body fat percentage. Obviously, the leaner you are, the lower your body fat percentage.

Firass El Fateh: There are a couple of misconceptions there. Sometimes people think, well, I’m skinny, so I’m going to have low body fat percentage, but body fat percentage is determined by the amount of muscle mass you have compared to your weight and conversely, the amount of fat that you have compared to your weight. If someone’s 200 pounds and they have a ton of muscle, then they’re going to have a low body fat percentage. But if someone’s 150 pounds and they don’t have that much muscle, they’re not going to have a very good body fat percentage. Good is obviously a relative term, but it’s not going to be that lean look that people are looking for.

Firass El Fateh: So after doing that, then we went into some of the nuts and bolts. How do you improve your body fat percentage? It’s basically two things. It’s increasing muscle mass and decreasing fat mass. That’s essentially what it is.

Dr. Alibhai: So what’s the fastest way? Can you focus on one versus the other? Is increasing your muscle mass just going to naturally bring down your body fat percentage?

Firass El Fateh: The answer to that is yes, it will. What do you want to prioritize for a beginner and even up to an intermediate? You can do both at the same time. As you become more advanced, it becomes harder and harder to do both at the same time.

Dr. Alibhai: So weight training plus restricting your calories?

Firass El Fateh: Yeah, so with a beginner, they could be in a caloric deficit and still gain muscle because their bodies have just never had that stress at all.

Firass El Fateh: Their bodies have to really adapt to that stress, and they create muscle faster than someone who’s been training for a while at a faster rate. As a beginner, you can gain more muscle as a ratio until a certain point. It’s like the law of diminishing returns, right? Once you get better at something, it’s harder and harder to get better at it.

Dr. Alibhai: Yeah.

Firass El Fateh: So if you were to say, what’s the most efficient way to decrease your body fat percentage, it’s gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time. For some people, the losing fat part will be more important. Let’s say someone’s overweight is 350 pounds and is 35-40 percent body fat, losing fat is going to be your best way to become leaner.

Firass El Fateh: It’s not going to be adding more muscle.

You don’t need to add any more muscle. You probably have a lot of muscle. You just got to lose the fat. But if someone’s 100 pounds, gaining muscle is going to be the most efficient way to decrease that body fat percentage. And that’s more important for their health anyway as well.

Dr. Alibhai: Interesting. I’m going to go back to that baby boomer example. Sometimes we think that because someone’s in their 60s and 70s, they’re less concerned about the way they look. I’m actually not surprised, but I think I’m fascinated by the fact that, yeah, there are a lot of people who still want to look their best.

Dr. Alibhai: They’re coming to us in pain, but they can’t unload the dishwasher. They can’t put their socks on. Helping them get through this pain is important, but then the moment that they try and do those things again, their back flares up again. Part of the root of it is actually, I want to get back to looking better.

Dr. Alibhai: I just had somebody come in and tell me the same thing today. It wasn’t about being able to do the dishes. That’s not their goal. Right. So it was how they look.

Firass El Fateh: Oh, they came in and said they wanted to look better?

Dr. Alibhai: Yeah, I mean, of course, they want to be able to unload the dishwasher, but really it was, their focus was, I want to lose this weight. This is a 69-year-old woman. So I have to, like, personally, it’s, I can help connect what her goal is with some of the care I’m recommending, but then what would you say to somebody like that, in that age group, who wants to drop 20 pounds, 30?

Dr. Alibhai: Obviously there’s a muscle mass issue as well.

Firass El Fateh: The good news for her is there, I mean, they’re not mutually exclusive, right? That’s one thing to think about is when you have some of the things in your lifestyle and diet and you start to exercise, it’s going to help with your pain as well.

Firass El Fateh: So that’s the thing. Her motivation might be different. Potentially she wants to lose the weight and that’s her number one goal, even though she’s in a little bit of pain. But for her, I would start with lifestyle first, sleep, water, steps throughout the day, all that sort of stuff.

Firass El Fateh: And then obviously the exercise program that she’s doing. She should be doing some sort of weight training, some personalized weight training. And I feel very strongly about that, especially as you get older, it has to be somewhat personalized. You can’t have people doing deadlifts when their hinge patterns are not grooved.

Firass El Fateh: And you would agree with me there, right?

Dr. Alibhai: Oh, absolutely. I mean, they’re just throwing their back out every other day. By throwing their back out, it means like it’s sparking pain. Which is limiting them for the day, you know, may not be like, they can’t move at all, but it’s affecting them. I think that’s the thing.

Dr. Alibhai: I think we need to, like, you can do a better job of something that I think is on my agenda as being able to, um, walk somebody through the patterns that they need, whether it’s learning how to squat properly again, or pick something off the ground, to give it in a way, deliver it in a way where it’s, they can still learn it at home.

Dr. Alibhai: You know, the thing is that it’s so difficult though, right? Like I was a kinesiologist for a while, just having that hands-on approach is huge, but the access to care for people is limited. And time. It’s just time.

Firass El Fateh: Yeah, it’s a little bit different in our gym for sure because all we focus on is personalized fitness, right? That’s all we do. But for the person that might not necessarily have access to coaching and things of that nature, I would just start super small, super basic with some things that you can execute on.

Firass El Fateh: So as an example, three days a week, maybe you’re just doing wall sits and body weight squats and some tall planks just to start the routine. You get proficient at that. And then maybe you get one other thing or one other exercise or look up a video on YouTube that you might want to try because you might not have the luxury of a professional helping you, but you can do your own research as well, right?

Firass El Fateh: I think that’s part of it. It’s on you. Like you should be the one that’s the most invested in your own health. Sure, we can have someone like yourself and a coach helping, but at the end of the day, you gotta be able to take care of yourself too. There has to be some accountability there on your own.

Firass El Fateh: So I would recommend starting super basic, groove the pattern, do it consistently for a month or two, then add something else before going into anything too technical. And when you’re ready, maybe get a couple of personal training sessions. Just something small. People can say, well, it’s time and money. Yeah, for sure. But you got to prioritize. I’m sure you spent money on other things. And I’m sure that you’ve spent your time in other ways.

Dr. Alibhai: This idea of prioritizing things and, fortunately, people have so much on their plate, whether it’s young kids or aging parents or life that happens, but tell me, we still find a way to go to Disneyland or eating out or whatever.

Firass El Fateh: Yeah, one of the things you can figure out a lot about a person is to see how they spend their money. See how they’re spending their money and, of course, their time, but their money too, because their money will tell you what their priorities are.

Dr. Alibhai: And how clean their car is.

Firass El Fateh: Yeah, that’s a big one too.

Dr. Alibhai: No, I think you’re right. It’s just like, what do you do with your environment? How do you spend your money? And I think, you know, I’ve talked to Shahana about this. We all have money dials, meaning we all have something that we might splurge on a little bit more. Like for me, it might be fitness equipment or a cool health foodie kind of restaurant that we want to try out that we’ll spend a little bit more there. When avocados were skyrocket price, I still bought them because I loved them that much.

Dr. Alibhai: Someone might think I’m crazy. How could you pay that much for an avocado? But we all have that thing. Someone might be like a cashmere sweater or a watch. They just love certain watches or cars, like yourself. So, what would you say your top three money dials are? Top three things that you invest your money in for yourself?

Firass El Fateh: I’m relatively cheap, to be honest. I’d say my wife’s probably more of the spender. Tennis is a big one for me. I’ll splurge on tennis or going on certain trips for sure. But, you know, as I’ve gotten older, I just, and when I was younger, I spent money on stupid stuff all the time.

Firass El Fateh: But now I think as I get older, I am way more careful with how I’m spending my money because I think it’s a big reflection of what I value. When I was younger, I would spend money on designer clothes. I’m not interested in that at all anymore. Like just not even remotely interested.

Firass El Fateh: So my money dial has changed dramatically as I’ve gotten older, for sure. But I’m more about the experience now than things, I would say, for the most part, overall.

Dr. Alibhai: Absolutely, right? It’s the moments that we have, the relationships that we have with people, experiences over things, or the things that we remember.

Firass El Fateh: Yeah.

Dr. Alibhai: You know, I think that’s probably why you decided to take the kids to Disneyland. Even though, you know, personally, I went as a kid, but my perspective of having everything so mass commercialized and my perception of it is just a lot of overconsumption and a lot of, you know, supersized everything.

Dr. Alibhai: And that can be a good thing, you know, supersized cars, amusement parks, things like that, but it comes with all these other things. But I think it’s like when you’re, I don’t know if it’s like this Western world, Eastern world thing. It was just even with our own health, it’s having a little bit of a contrarian mindset as to like, what are the masses doing?

Dr. Alibhai: What’s everybody doing? And then versus like, what do you need to do that aligns with your goals and your beliefs and your values? And I think sometimes we don’t even know what our values are, right? And can you ask somebody, what are your values? Can you identify them? Because then I think you can make better decisions for yourself.

Dr. Alibhai: So, what are your thoughts on that?

Firass El Fateh: It’s getting harder to stick out now. I mean, it’s more of a copycat world now, especially with social media and the internet. Obviously, the internet’s done a ton of good, but there’s also some negative behind it and that’s part of it. People are starting to copy each other too much and they’re starting to compare themselves too much and they have access to all this stuff that they never would have had access to before. So, it’s harder to be a genuine person that sticks out, has their own

values, and kind of goes against the grain.

Firass El Fateh: That’s why a lot of people are drawn to those who are more genuine and not normal, not the norm. You mentioned something about, well, like what are some values that you have that you would say are outside of the norm or even not necessarily outside the norm, but some things that you’ve been very intentionally ingraining within yourself and your family?

Dr. Alibhai: I think for us, just to place a lot of value on our health. I did it before, you know, like I’d injured my lower back. I herniated the disc in my back.

Dr. Alibhai: I had to go see a surgeon. I’ve been rehabbing. I still rehab this thing to this day. Even as I’m sitting here, I can feel some of that leg pain come on if I’m sitting for too long. But I can run again. I played basketball for the last six months for the first time in 10 years. But how long did it take me to get there? Like a decade? And sometimes I think you go through those moments in your life where it’s like the worst thing that you think has happened to you and then it turns out later that it’s one of the best things. So, because of that, I don’t want to go back there. I just really worked hard because I know how it felt to feel that way and the consequences of not placing value on it.

Dr. Alibhai: Unfortunately, I think that happens for a lot of people. We get that wake-up call. At the end of the day, it’s the experiences that we have that allow us to form our value. Otherwise, you can’t just tell somebody, like, go value that. That’s important. No, it’s because you experienced something.

Dr. Alibhai: The same thing with our kids, right? You can’t just tell them. You gotta let them experience what it’s like. So yeah, I think that’s one of the things that’s important. But I think it’s also not being fixated on health, but just for me, it’s like, what gives me juice and energy is when I’ve worked out five days a week, when I’ve gotten enough sleep, when I’ve got some sunlight on me. To me, it’s like, what’s the perfect recipe for me to perform at my best? When I’m performing at my best, I’m better for my family and better for our patients.

Dr. Alibhai: Just the other day I was telling somebody that I deleted YouTube off of my phone and think, oh, I’m not wasting as much time. It’s not about the time now, which I’m grateful for now, but actually I just have more of a clear mind. I just feel more focused, more motivated. We get the dopamine hit from going on those things, but then actually it’s sucking our focus.

Dr. Alibhai: Our mental energy and then we go back and try to focus on something else. So, I found that I just feel like I’m a little bit more on purpose than deleting that one app off of my phone. And then I realized I went on my computer and you can see who’s tracking you, all your cookies, we call it.

Right. And it’s like this list of like 200 different websites tracking what I’m exactly clicking on and moving with my cursor, every move. And I was telling Shahana, yeah, we seem to be okay with that nowadays. I think it’s a whole other topic, but it’s just like, I don’t even know where to go with it.

Firass El Fateh: You think about it and you’re a mature professional who’s, we’re not going to say older, but you’re not a young buck anymore. You’re a mature person. Right. And you think about it like a child or a teenager or an adolescent or someone in their early twenties trying to find themselves and figuring it all out.

Firass El Fateh: We’re lucky we grew up without this stuff. Right. So we can like, let go of it. But even for us, it’s difficult sometimes. For us, there’s some people under our age bracket that can’t let go. So imagine a kid. It’s tough. Imagine a kid. I can’t imagine it. I honestly can’t.

Dr. Alibhai: Even a three, 4-year-old doesn’t even have a prefrontal cortex, you know, like, so you’re, or it’s just like the size of an element. So just how we’re bombarded with different messaging. It’s unfortunate and scary. But I think, you know, as you said, we’re more mature now, and I think we all go through different stages. You just hope that everybody goes through that stage where they can start to realize that.

Dr. Alibhai: Every person that comes into you, like, whether it’s at your gym or in our office, you just try and leave them with that little extra little bit of inspiration, especially the younger kids. Like, I’m always just things I love to gift the most are books, you know? Gifted you a book the last time, right? And a handwritten note, you know, we just get bills in the mail or flyers and stuff.

Dr. Alibhai: So being able to step forward and be that person that is different because you’re doing things different. You’re spending the money that you’ve made and investing into other people and giving them resources, showing that you care other than just a gift card or whatever it is. Right now at our office, we’re doing this really cool 90-day goal.

Dr. Alibhai: We’re doing random acts of kindness, and we’re not telling anybody. For three months, every day, everyone has to do two random acts of kindness. Every time you do it, you write on a sticky note and put it on the back kitchen wall. You don’t put it in front of the office for everybody to see. You put it on the kitchen wall. Right now, I think we’re at over 200 sticky notes. Our goal is 520. I don’t know if we’ll get there by the end of the year. But we’ve got 14 members, and so you can see everyone’s got their own color sticky note. The whole wall is filling up now. It reminds us to do the little things in life. We do it already, but being very intentional, we talk about it’s not about good intentions, it’s about intentional living, so actually living with actions. Just the other day, I saw this lady fall down, this senior, she hit her head, she’s bleeding, of course, there’s already lots of people around her helping her, but I just stayed a little bit longer.

Dr. Alibhai: One lady helped her up, and for whatever reason, everyone else left because they thought this lady was cared for. I was like, you know, let me just stay a little bit longer. And it turns out it was the lady that was helping her out, plus me that was there, helping get her first aid. So it was just one of those moments where I was like, looks like everything’s under control, but hey, I’ll just stay a little bit longer.

Dr. Alibhai: That was my random act of kindness, just helping that lady, going the extra distance. So that’s something that we’re doing right now. We’ll see how it goes. And personally, it worked out well. Yeah. It’s a mindset shift.

Firass El Fateh: Yeah. It’s nice to have that. You’re big on having the right culture and team and values, and it’s inspiring to see. For us, to have that conversation on the business side, it’s like, okay, what is going on? Because I know you’re always thinking of improving and tweaking things and doing things in a more customer-oriented way, client-oriented way. So it’s good to see that it’s very well aligned with the person that you are.

Firass El Fateh: Because I know I’ll tell you guys, it’s very genuine. Khaled’s a very kind giving person. And I’m not surprised that he’s doing something like this with the initiative at his clinic.

Dr. Alibhai: Thanks, buddy. I appreciate it. And not to do like a back-and-forth thing, but every time I went to your gym, people knew who I was, and they were so friendly and joking around. When you’re the leader of a place, you don’t need a title to be a leader, obviously, but when you’re a leader, who you select and bring on your team is a direct reflection of yourself and your values. Especially in the workplace, 40 percent of our life is at work and then nurturing those people. But making sure that we have the hard conversations with people to make sure that they’re still the right fit and that we’re growing them. If they’re not the right fit, then somewhere else might be, which is what I’ve had a hard lesson in learning over the last year. But I’m grateful to have the team that we have right now.

Dr. Alibhai: So I know we’re getting up to time. This has been so cool. I love this casual conversation. I think personally, I’m getting a lot out of it just from talking to you, just for my own benefit.

Firass El Fateh: You know, I’d love to do it again. And I think this is a good scenario for us because it’s more casual and not as robotic as a formal podcast interview. Nothing wrong with that, we can do that maybe another time too, but this is definitely something different that I enjoyed. Hopefully, we can do it again soon.

Dr. Alibhai: Absolutely. Okay, buddy. Thanks. I guess we’ll meet on the soccer field with the kids.

Firass El Fateh: Oh yeah.

Dr. Alibhai: Yeah. See you soon. Have a good day.

Firass El Fateh: All right.