Transforming Your Health into a Competitive Advantage in Business
A conversation with fitness expert Ted Ryce on why success means nothing if you're exhausted.
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Transforming Your Health into a Competitive Advantage in Business
I collapsed behind the curtain.
It was 2017, the final session of a two-day conference I was hosting, and I was about to do a fireside chat with our closing speaker. Two minutes before we were supposed to go live, my body gave out.
The speaker had to go on alone while I sat in that chair, worried I might pass out again in front of 200 people.
At 36 years old, I couldn't make it through a conference without my body shutting down. That's when I realized something fundamental: your health is your ultimate competitive advantage in business.
This week, I sat down with Ted Ryce, a health and fitness expert who's dedicated his life to helping high-achieving professionals who find themselves successful but exhausted—looking in the mirror and not recognizing the person staring back.
Ted's story will stop you in your tracks. His journey into fitness wasn't born from athletic ambition or vanity. It literally saved his life after an unimaginable family tragedy that would have broken most people.
Connect with Ted Ryce
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ted_ryce/
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The Tragedy That Changed Everything
When Ted was 19, his 9-year-old brother Jimmy was kidnapped and murdered in Miami. It became a high-profile case that anyone living in Miami at the time remembers.
While his parents channeled their grief into advocacy—meeting with presidents and getting laws passed for missing children—Ted was falling apart.
He dropped out of school. Lost direction. Spiraled into a dark place that took years to climb out of.
But here's what's remarkable: Ted found his way back through health and fitness. Not as a distraction, but as a path to genuine healing and transformation.
"Health and fitness saved my life," Ted told me. "It was my path to getting back to a place where there is a light at the end of the tunnel."
Why Your Health Is Your Competitive Edge
Now, you might be thinking, "That's an extreme story. What does that have to do with my business challenges?"
Everything.
Because while most of us won't face that level of tragedy, we all face hard things. And if you're in that 35-50 demographic—the peak earning years—you're likely dealing with:
•Kids who require massive amounts of time, energy, and money
•Aging parents who need increasing care and attention
•Career pressure at its absolute highest
•The physical reality that your body isn't 25 anymore
Ted works primarily with people in this exact situation. Successful professionals who've built something meaningful but feel like they're running on empty.
"A lot of people in their 40s end up having kids that require a lot of money and attention, then have parents that require a lot of attention and sometimes money too," Ted explained. "That's what a lot of people's experience in the 40s are."
Sound familiar?
The Metabolism Myth That's Keeping You Stuck
Here's where Ted dropped some truth bombs that challenge everything you think you know about weight gain in your 40s.
"People love to talk about 'my metabolism is slow,'" Ted said. "It's like, no, you are a caretaker for your dad who has cancer for the second time and your mom who has signs of Alzheimer's."
The real issue isn't your metabolism slowing down. It's that your life circumstances have created a perfect storm of stress, time constraints, and emotional eating.
But here's the thing that gives me hope: Ted has seen countless people in this exact situation transform their health and energy levels. And it's easier than you think.
READ NEXT: Walking-Dead Leadership: Why Most Leaders Stall at 25—and How to Wake Up
The Science Behind Sustainable Change
One of the most eye-opening parts of our conversation was Ted's take on the diet wars. You know the ones—keto vs. vegan, sugar is evil, fat is the devil.
Ted's been on both sides. He was a staunch low-carb advocate for 10 years until he got fat in his mid-30s while "doing everything right."
"I was so frustrated," he admitted. "And now I really get into arguments with the low-carb community all the time because of this."
His conclusion after years of research and working with real clients? The food isn't the problem. Your body fat percentage is.
"You cannot cure diabetes by going low carb. You cure diabetes by losing fat," Ted explained. "What causes diabetes is fat deposits in your pancreas, which is what secretes insulin."
This reframe is huge. Instead of demonizing specific foods, focus on the real metrics that matter:
Body fat percentage (aim for under 20%)
Blood work (hemoglobin A1C, fasting insulin, fasting glucose)
Muscle mass (your muscles are a sink for glucose)
The Experiments That Prove Everything
Ted challenged me (and you) to test these principles yourself. He suggested two simple experiments:
The Potato Hack: Eat nothing but boiled potatoes for three days. Potatoes score incredibly high on satiety—you'll naturally eat fewer calories and lose weight. This proves carbs don't make you fat.
The Juice Cleanse: Drink nothing but juice for three days. Despite consuming pure sugar, you'll lose weight because you're in a calorie deficit. This proves sugar doesn't automatically make you gain weight.
"Test these things and you will see that you can improve metabolic health and lose weight doing things that you wouldn't think were even possible," Ted said.
The point isn't to live on potatoes or juice. It's to prove to yourself that the fundamentals work, regardless of the food fear-mongering you see online.
Modern Tools: The GLP-1 Revolution
We also dove into the elephant in the room: GLP-1 agonists like Ozempic and Mounjaro.
I shared my personal experience with Tirzepatide—how a small weekly dose helped me drop my LDL cholesterol by 45 points and increase HDL by 10 points for the first time in a decade.
Ted's take? These medications work, but not for the reasons people think.
"It didn't come down as a result of the medication. It came down as a side effect of losing weight," he explained. "When your fat stores are full, that's when you see these metabolic improvements."
The medication helps with appetite control, leading to weight loss, which improves all your metabolic markers. It's not magic—it's just making the fundamentals easier to execute.
The Real Work Starts Now
Here's what I want you to take away from this conversation:
Your health isn't separate from your business success—it's foundational to it.
When I finally got serious about my health after that conference collapse, everything improved. My creativity, my energy, my ability to lead my team, my capacity to handle stress.
Ted's right: success means nothing if you're exhausted.
But the good news? You don't need to choose between building something meaningful and taking care of yourself. In fact, you can't build something truly meaningful without taking care of yourself.
Your Next Steps
Get your baseline: Schedule comprehensive blood work. Know your numbers.
Focus on the fundamentals: Body fat percentage, not just weight. Muscle building, not just cardio.
Experiment: Try Ted's potato hack or juice cleanse. Prove to yourself that the basics work.
Think systems, not perfection: Build habits that work with your crazy schedule, not against it.
Remember the long game: This isn't about looking good for summer. It's about having the energy and health to build the life you want for the next 30 years.
Want to dive deeper?
Listen to the full conversation with Ted Ryce where we cover everything from Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to the truth about nicotine, caffeine, and the supplements that actually matter.
This is the way.
Hanley
P.S. What's your biggest health challenge right now?