Is sustainable weight loss really a spiritual awakening disguised as fitness?

Josh Trent welcomes Dan Go, High Performance Fitness Coach, to the Wellness + Wisdom Podcast, episode 779, to reveal why true transformation doesn't start in the gym but inside the mind, how food becomes a coping mechanism for childhood wounds, why identity change is the missing link in every fitness journey, and how emotional debt and generational trauma keep us stuck in cycles of sabotage.

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In This Episode, Dan Go Uncovers: [01:20] Fitness Fuels Spirituality

How physical growth fuels spiritual growth.
Why food addiction is the hardest addiction to break.
What benefit we get from eating unhealthy food.
How food became a coping mechanism for Dan when he was a child.
The importance of identifying the root cause of our habits in order to remove them.

Resources:

[07:55] Healing Generational Curses

Why generational curses follow us.
How Dan and his family had to leave China and moved to Canada.
Why he anger helped him achieve his goals.
How he tried to channel his anger into exercise but it didn't solve the problem.
The importance of learning how to label our emotions.

Resources:

Parental olfactory experience influences behavior and neural structure in subsequent generations

[14:20] What's Really Stopping You From Losing Weight

Why weight loss that is tied to actions is not sustainable long-term.
How many people don't feel like they deserve to be healthy.
Why weight loss and staying fit are a lifelong process.
How we can change how we look through what we say.

Resources:

411 Gay Hendricks | The Genius Zone: The Breakthrough Process to End Negative Thinking and Live in True Creativity

[21:45] You Can't Stay Fit Without an Identity Change

The difference between people who are able to maintain their weight loss and the ones who don't.
Why we can't surround ourselves with people who allow our bad habits.
How the process of identity change is uncomfortable.
Why we need to change our identity in order to lose weight.

Resources:

[27:15] Stop Trying to Escape

How we're trying to escape something through our bad habits.
Why we need to uncover the layers to get to the root cause.
How we usually replace one bad habit with another until we fix the real issue.

[30:25] How You Create Emotional Debt

Why we don't allow ourselves to feel the feelings.
The importance of sitting and befriending our feelings.
How emotional debt is created.
Why we can only start healing once we become aware of the root cause of our behavior.

Resources:

Letting Go by David Hawkins

[33:35] What Motivates Change

Why the transformation of the body starts in the mind.
How some people need to hit rock bottom in order to begin their transformation.
Why our children can be the strongest driver for healing and change.
How Dan realized he was recreating his childhood with his children.

[39:10] Transformation Is Painful

Why we need to experience pain in order to change.
How we can manufacture the pain without actually going through it.
Why the process of transformation is painful.
How pain can become the signal for change.

[42:15] Circadian Meal Timing

How 90 minutes per week can get us in shape.
Why emotional healing is an essential part of body transformation.
The importance of meal timing.
Why the body is a machine and we need to understand how it works.
How we should naturally stop eating 2 to 3 hours before sleep.
Why we're not supposed to eat when we're hungry.

[49:20] Follow Your Digestive Rhythm

How digestive rhythm changes throughout the day.
Why we digest more slowly at night.
How hunger is the biggest struggle in weight loss.
Why we need to allow ourselves to feel hunger.

Resources:

Han Dynasty

[53:20] The Importance of Sleep

Why we eat more calories when we don't sleep well.
How good quality sleep can make us less hungry.
Why tracking our sleep can help us create a better sleep routine.

Resources:

734 Kirk Parsley MD | Sleep As Medicine: How To Sleep Like Royalty + Stop Being Sick

[56:45] Are You Truly Healthy? Only Tests Can Tell

The importance of hormone regulation and nutrition intake.
Why most people who come to Dan lack vitamin D3 and magnesium.
How blood testing tells us the truth about our health.

Resources:

SiPhox - 15% off with code JOSH
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[59:10] How to Change The Source Code

How too much belly fat takes away blood flow to the brain.
Why fat creates a blockage for intuition to work properly.
How most of the world's population is not metabolically healthy.
Why getting in shape will transform our entire lives.
What self-love truly means.

Resources:

The surprisingly dramatic role of nutrition in mental health | Julia Rucklidge

"When you start to get your body in shape, you will take the steps to transform your entire life. It becomes a spiritual process. You heal the parts that you need to heal. You shed your old skin and you have to turn into a different person." — Dan Go

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About Dan Go

Dan Go is a fitness coach who specializes in body transformation for entrepreneurs and high-performers, combining over 18 years of coaching experience with a unique understanding of professional burnout.

His client roster includes startup founders and executives seeking to optimize health without compromising business performance.

Unlike traditional coaches, Dan focuses on mental clarity, sleep quality, and metabolic health as levers for success. He promotes structured routines that build energy and cognitive sharpness.

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