Pickleball is Here to Stay: A Conversation With Pickleball Pro Andy Peeke
With Pickleball Pro Andy Peeke
Season 12, Episode 24 | April 7, 2026
Pickleball has rapidly evolved from a little-known pastime to the fastest-growing sport in America, cementing its status as a cultural phenomenon with enduring appeal.
In this episode, Andy Peeke, lead pickleball pro for Life Time in New York City, dives into the sport’s meteoric rise. He shares how pickleball’s unique blend of accessibility — easy to pick up, yet challenging to master — makes it irresistible to players of all levels. Beyond the game itself, he highlights the court’s role as a vibrant hub for building friendships, fostering community, and enhancing physical well-being.
Andy Peeke is the lead pickleball pro for Life Time in New York City. He is also a Professional Pickleball Registry (PPR) certified coach.
In this episode, Peeke highlights some of the reasons behind pickleball’s staying power, including the following:
- Pickleball’s popularity surged during the pandemic because it offered a way to stay active and socialize at a distance. Since then, momentum has only accelerated, driving massive court expansions nationwide and new opportunities for competitive and professional players.
- One of the biggest draws of pickleball is its accessibility. Most people can step onto a court and sustain a fun rally on their first day. But while the learning curve is small, mastering the game can be a challenge.
- The Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating (DUPR) system ranks players. Grouping players of similar abilities ensures that matches are competitive and engaging.
- Pickleball naturally builds community. The court is a hub for genuine social connection.
- Everyone starts pickleball as a beginner, but your previous sports experience may influence where your skill level begins. There is room in the sport for all types of players to find their fit and progress at their own pace.
- Because the court is small and the ball stays in play longer than in other racquet sports like tennis, players often enter a highly focused flow state. A fast, immersive tempo naturally keeps people present and engaged.
- As the sport continues to gain attention and financial backing, it’s creating new career paths. High-level athletes are getting drafted into professional leagues and turning pickleball into a full-time livelihood.
- While the United States is the epicenter of the pickleball boom, the sport is becoming more global, with tournaments taking place in several other countries.
- The engaging nature of pickleball helps people stay consistently active. Players may experience improvements in their health simply by playing regularly.

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Transcript: Pickleball is Here to Stay: A Conversation With Pickleball Pro Andy Peeke
Season 12, Episode 24 | April 7, 2026
Jamie Martin
Welcome back to Life Time Talks everyone. I’m Jamie Martin and I’m here today with Andy Peeke He is a lead pickleball pro for Life Time Pickleball in New York City. He’s also a PPR certified coach and he is riding the tsunami of the pickleball phenomenon that is happening everywhere. It seems like it’s been several years now. Andy, how are you?
Andy Peeke
I’m great. Happy to be here. Yeah, so Life Time pickleball NYC. We started out with two courts February 15th, 2023. I remember my first day and now we’re at seven courts with adding three more courts later on this year at Life Time Dumbo in Brooklyn and a very robust healthy membership and a very passionate, passionate New York City pickleball community.
Jamie Martin
That’s awesome. How did you get into pickleball? I mean, it seems like you have some racket sport experience. When did pickleball become the thing that you focused on?
Andy Peeke
So that’s a good question. I actually don’t have a racket sports background. I went to college on a football scholarship and I coached and played semi-pro football in Europe. I got into pickleball. It was 2022-ish. The first time I ever played was 2017. There was like an after Thanksgiving like pickleball like common play thing. I’m like, let me go sign up and play that. And I had fun.
But I was wildly frustrated by how to keep score, because keeping score is a little tricky. But then I played a couple of times, dabbled here and there, and then I’ve been in entertainment for over 20 years now, and my significant other, she said, you know, Andy, you’re just going and playing pickleball every day, and you’re kind of relying on me too much financially here. And I was like, but you’re doing well financially, so I’m fine. I was like, I’m like, good, I’m good with it, I’m good.
Jamie Martin
I’m gonna stick with my hobby over here. Yeah, right?
Andy Peeke
Yeah. Because I was going to New Jersey and like playing with like like a senior citizens group and I was having so much fun and then she like like two weeks later like seriously talked to me and I was like, well, I was like, you know what? I’m gonna do she wants me to work I’m gonna start coaching pickleball and I’m gonna get so busy. She’s gonna wish I had free time I’m coaching pickleball out of spite. My god honestly this past weekend I was running a tournament all weekend at Life Time Westchester and she was like you didn’t spend any time with me this weekend. Like I got a job lady the job that you told me you wanted me to get so there you go.
Jamie Martin
I love it. Okay, so one of the things you shared with me ahead of time is that your wife is the best most of the time. I feel like this advice for her like pushing you in that direction of pickleball was a good push.
Andy Peeke
You know what sometimes you know, that’s how you know, you have the right person is when they push you in the right places in the right directions and yeah, so.
Jamie Martin
So you’ve been involved with pickleball kind of as it’s been rising in popularity. You’ve seen it go from kind of like this recreational thing that kind of happened honestly. Like my grandparents stayed at this place in Florida where pickleball has been a thing for as long as I can remember. But all of a sudden it’s taking everybody by storm. Right. Like you’ve been riding that wave too. What have you seen? Why do you think it’s happening? I mean, we’ve talked about this before, like with other people in the pickleball space. But what are you seeing here in New York?
Andy Peeke
A lot of questions in there. So like why this like rise of pickleball? And I was on the Today Show one time and they asked me about this and they’re like, it’s like this thing and I’m like, it’s like a tsunami. Yeah, you don’t really see it coming. It’s just like growing and growing and growing and growing and growing. And the question is now why?
So during, you know, COVID, a lot of people were, you know, you got to be certain distance away. So pickleball was one of those things where you’re kind of like, you and I are about this far apart. OK. And then we can be out and move around and be active. OK. So this kind of checks some boxes that we can do at the same time. Pickleball, we say it a lot as coaches: Easy to learn, difficult to master.
So you can get out there day one, day two and if you have some okay hand-eye coordination and athleticism like you can play and it’s one of the most fun things is when like you hit a hard ball at me and I block it and I go it goes back to you and then you hit it again we’re like shocked how many balls we just hit back and forth at each other it’s like hilarious and people just start giggling because we are our consc — our subconscious takes over and we lose consciousness and we’re just having fun but you just get —
Jamie Martin
Just in the moment, right? In the flow of it.
Andy Peeke
Very much so. So flow state, that’s actually part of it. And a friend of mine, James Valentine, the guitarist for Maroon 5, was on a podcast recently talking about, he read a study somewhere saying that when you play pickleball, you find yourself dropping into that flow state more often than a lot of other activities. A good one to compare it to is tennis.
Tennis, first serve often is out second serve and then points don’t last as long. Pickleball serves easier to hit, it often goes in. The rally, the point tends to last longer, it tends to be more interactive. The space is smaller, so everything’s happening at a bit of a faster tempo. it can really, once you just get the hang of it, it can just get very fun. You build this social community around it.
And it’s just fun, you’re in flow, and sometimes when you’re done, you just want to sit there and hang out and watch and hang out with your friends afterwards. And that’s the beauty of it all.
Jamie Martin
It has become very much for people their social life right is on the pickleball court. Yeah, and so what kind of communities have you seen built around it?
Andy Peeke
Fun stuff that we do here at Life Time Pickleball NYC in terms of what we see, like we’ll have a lot of pickleball going away parties. We just had a member shout out to Kareem who’s moving to Seattle and he’s like, hey Andy, you know, bad news, I’m moving to Seattle, but I’d love to do like a pickleball going away party. You know, can you help me schedule that? And so that’s one of the fun things that we do is a lot of pickleball going away parties, pickleball birthday parties, which I’m going to one this Saturday.
So that’s fun in the community and you know outside of Life Time pickleball NYC, you know, people running tournaments and you bump into a lot of the same players at tournaments and it’s fun to see people in different environments all over the place see who’s using what new paddles and who’s playing with who, who used to play together, but like I heard they had like a falling out now they’re those two are playing together. There’s like fun little community inside story. Who’s dating who sometimes. Yeah.
Jamie Martin
The matchmaking that happens probably in the pickleball court. I mean, you’re playing with partners, right? In many cases and maybe switching around depending if it’s an open play event or whatever that looks like.
Andy Peeke
Yeah, this will probably come out a little too late. But tomorrow at Life Time PENN 1, we have single and mingle pickleball with a professional matchmaker from NYC matchmaking, Michelle Frankel. Shout out to her. And this will be our fourth single and mingle pickleball event. So we have an age 45 and under. So 21 to 45 and then age 45 plus single and mingle pickleball. So there’s like another fun community event that we’re throwing in there.
We’ll have Halloween pickleball. I think what’s 65 to 25, 2025, 40 years, 50? Because it’s like the 50 year anniversary, no, 60 years. So pickleball was invented in 1965, we’re now in 2025. So there’s a kind of a national organization saying do a wooden paddle tournament to commemorate 60 years since pickleball has been invented. And so that’s something that’s happening around the country and we’re working on putting one of those together too.
Jamie Martin
So really just embracing all the aspects of the sport, the things that make it fun, that make it enjoyable. I mean, and you said the word earlier, like the joy you see on people’s faces. It feels like there’s just a level of joy that happens just naturally with the sport.
Andy Peeke
Yeah, naturally and often surprisingly. Like I didn’t expect to enjoy this but I’m more fun than I thought.
Jamie Martin
Right, right. OK, so talk to me a little bit. said pickleball is easy to learn, but it’s difficult to master. And there’s a lot of people who it has become way more competitive in the last couple of years. You know, it’s been rising in popularity, but there is a segment of players who are getting on those pickleball courts who are really in that competitive space. Talk a little bit about that community and what’s happened there.
Andy Peeke
As with anything, as it gets more attention, and as money gets involved, and then you can quit your job and become a full-time pickleball pro. Which actually one of our members did that, Kate Fahey, shout out to her, who was working at American Express, was a very high level, often the best pickleball players tend to be former really high level college tennis players, sometimes really high level table tennis players.
So Kate was like, you know, done with college tennis working at Amex and started playing pickleball with some of our like top local pros and was kind of like a hidden gem of talent got seen by some of like really top level pros Anna Bright and Anna Bright said we got a draft Kate Fahey for our professional pickleball team and Kate got drafted, you know. Now lives in North Carolina and is playing pickleball full time. It’s great. It’s a really happy story. One of our former coaches on staff who’s now moved to Austin, Texas, Len Yang, former table tennis player who is one of the tops in the country in youth table tennis and incredible hands I mean you can just hit any hard ball you want at Len and he’s just a wall everything just getting blocked and come back and it’s all coming back to you and you’re like, how can I just not get a ball past this guy?
You know, he’s got some of the pedigree, but he’s also been training a lot to really hone in his skills. And Len’s got a great social media following also and posts some very fun and entertaining stuff. So it’s great to see Len and Kate and so many of these people thrive in an industry that really wasn’t there five, 10 years ago, maybe even three or four years ago. So it’s really great to see those opportunities for young up-and-coming athletes to have this opportunity.
Jamie Martin
Yeah, that’s super exciting. So let’s say you’re an everyday pickleball player like myself. Yes. I’m sure you’ve seen people of all different skills and abilities come through. Do you have any favorite stories of people who like I’m coming in, I’m learning to play the sport and their life has changed, has been transformed? Like what have you seen as you’ve been working with somebody, you know, more an everyday recreational player like myself?
Andy Peeke
Everyday recreational, so those are my favorites actually one of those is my absolute favorite so and that’s my wife who not an athlete doesn’t have a sports background and it’s great that and I mean she started out and she was I remember being like this is a project.
Jamie Martin
Easy to learn, easy to learn.
Andy Peeke
I mean, she knows the rules. But difficult to master. And you know, there’s a rating system, DUPR, and we use that for everything that we do at our facility, because people tend to have the best time when they’re having fun, competitive games.
OK, if you have three good players and one bad player, it’s not that fun. If you have one really good player and three bad players. It’s not really that fun. get every all four players right around the same level like they’re all really going for it that’s when it becomes really fun and competitive.
And gosh, yeah my wife. Yeah. She I remember when she started I was like, boy this is gonna be a journey, but she recently crossed over 4.0 which is kind of a big threshold to cross over like if you’re a 4.0 player a lot of people are like, okay, so you’re pretty legit, like you know how to play and you’re pretty good.
And then she’s like, she told me she goes, Andy, I’m going to take a break from playing any DUPR matches for a while. I’m going to sit on this 4.0 rating, start, you know, keep training the way I’m training and then maybe in like six months play another tournament. She’s, yeah. And her and I have played in some tournaments before together too. Last one we got, we had quite the heated exchange on the court.
Jamie Martin
I bet that happens from time to time.
Andy Peeke (13:56)
It does and the day after she comes up, you know, just don’t feel good about what happened on the court yesterday. Don’t you feel the same way? No, I had totally moved on She’s like really? Yeah, but we it was you know, I said to her I could have I see how I could have done better. And next time.
Jamie Martin
Always something to learn. Always learning, right? Let’s go back to the DUPR score for a second for somebody who doesn’t know what that scale is. What is a four? Where does it start? What’s considered like, you’re the best pickleball players out there. You’re getting rated.
Andy Peeke (14:31)
Great. So DUPER stands for Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating. D-U-P-R. The lowest you can be as a 2-0 and the highest you can be as an 8-0. To give some points of reference here, the top players in the world tend to be in the low 7s. And I think there’s like probably 5 to 10 of those.
And most notably, Ben John’s the number one male player in the world. And then Annalee Waters is the number one female player in the world. I don’t know what her DUPR is right now, but she’s probably around like a 6.5. I can look it up really quick. Got it. OK. And then somebody like my wife I mentioned is a 4-0. Len Yang, who I mentioned earlier, I think he’s probably around like a 6.5.
Jamie Martin
Got it. What about people coming into a Life Time location? The majority of people kind of in that two to four range? Are you finding more and more people are crossing like that 4.0 threshold?
Andy Peeke
So most people, you know, people come in from all different backgrounds. If again, a lot of times I have a very strong opinion on how a lot of facilities run their programming. There’s only one word I should be, I believe should be used to describe a skill level and that’s beginner. Because that means it doesn’t even describe a skill level, just is where you are in your pickleball journey. Because a beginner, okay, somebody, you know, somebody in their middle age who doesn’t have any sports background versus a former college tennis player in their mid 20s. OK, they’re both beginners on day one, but that former college tennis player is starting out in that four or five range, probably because they’re back, their sports background and their pedigree, whereas a, you know, somebody who’s middle aged and never played any sports, they’re going to be starting out.
They’re both beginners, but the skill levels where they’re starting are very different. And then after beginner, I always like to refer to everybody just based on the number of what they are. And there’s no good or bad or right or wrong. There just is that number. As opposed to the words intermediate, advanced, advanced beginner, advanced intermediate. I just think that’s all.
Jamie Martin
It’s super nuanced, right?
Andy Peeke
It’s all gray area, it’s a huge gray area. Whereas if you just apply a number to it, such as a duper rating, it just becomes very objective and clear for everyone. And I always tell our members and other players, your rating is under your control. Your hands are on the steering wheel. So, choose your partners wisely. Go play in competitive events and play more DUPR matches.
And if you think you’re underrated, then you should be winning against these players that are at your same skill level. Yeah, so, you know, what should somebody be when they start out? That’s really all over the board. Depends on, you know, your background, your sports background, first of all, and your athleticism and hand-eye coordination. And then really how much you put into it, just like anything. You get out of it what you put into it.
Jamie Martin
Yeah, the more reps the more time you get on the court like that’s gonna affect that.
Andy Peeke
And aside from, you know, the whole skill level idea, the relationships, the community, you know, a lot of those things that you get out are the thing, those are the hidden gems. That’s the silver lining.
Jamie Martin
That’s amazing. I think that we talk all the time at Life Time about the importance of community and how it fits into a healthy way of life as a whole. We know it’s critical. How have you experienced that firsthand? As somebody who’s there and witnessing it every day, how does it contribute to your own quality of life?
Andy Peeke
Obviously, I work at Life Time, but I find myself often my like my wife will be playing pickleball and I’m just like I don’t want to go home. I just I’ll just hang here. Yeah, it’s over there on the court playing I’m just chatting with some members and like hanging out and you know I call it my member relations time. Yeah so you know that that’s and I’m genuinely just happy just to be there and hanging out sometimes when I’m when I’m not playing and and to actively involved in any work projects.
And then birthday parties. I’m fortunate enough I have a birthday next week and my wife coordinated a whole birthday party for us with about a thousand pickleball players coming. I get to back the courts. Yeah, yeah. Fortunately I get invited to a lot of members’ birthdays in and around town, which is lot of fun. And just other social events.
I’ve been fortunate enough I’ve gotten to travel the world playing pickleball. One of our other coaches, her and I went to India to play in a tournament together. And one of our members at the time was living in India. So we got to hang out with him a lot. And then while we were in India, we met a group of people from Tanzania and they invited us to come play in their tournament in Tanzania. So six months later, we went to Tanzania and played in a tournament there and met a lot of other people and the pickleball community just keeps growing from there.
Jamie Martin
I was going say, it’s a global phenomenon. It’s not like it’s just limited to the U.S. or North America. It’s everywhere.
Andy Peeke
Yeah, very concentrated in the U.S. Canada has some Pickleball growth, Vietnam. It’s really big Australia. India is pretty big. China. It’s growing. Where else — Grand Cayman, I was in Grand Cayman the Cayman Islands recently and they have a very nice facility down there at Pickleball Cayman and I’d recommend anyone go if they can because the facility is great. The beaches are great. The Cayman Islands are great. Yeah.
Jamie Martin
Okay, I’m gonna switch gears for a second because I keep you know We think of when we think of pickleball we often think of doubles right? But there is a growing like wave of people playing more singles. Tell us a little bit about that because I mean I think you know I’m definitely I prefer doubles for myself. Tell us about like what you’re seeing with that shift or maybe not a shift but just like more of a balance maybe with more singles and doubles.
Andy Peeke
Yeah, singles, it’s all you get a lot of former tennis players and singles. They love to play singles because it’s kind of like they’re playing a version of tennis out there. Yeah. Single I tend to prefer doubles. I do play singles once in a while. And but oftentimes a lot of those singles are against former college tennis players that are in their mid 20s. And that can be a lot to deal with sometimes in singles pickleball.
But singles is a fun, fast, furious game. That’s exciting. I know, know, Bahram Akradi is a big fan of singles and Pickleball too.
Jamie Martin
Our founder and CEO. Yeah, he’s a big fan. And know he it’s exciting to watch, you know, or it’s fun to watch doubles, too. I mean, you’re seeing all those paddles going like the back and forth, but it just changes the game when it’s like one on one.
Andy Peeke
Yeah, yeah, and you see some fascinating shots, fascinating athleticism and the pro watching pro singles. It’s, you’re seeing like the best of the best really go out there and compete and really hit some incredible shots. And it’s fun having some of them come into New York City. I know Connor Garnett, one of the top singles players in the world. He’s come in here doing clinics with us in New York City in mid-October.
And we’ve had a few other of the top singles players in the world come through here. So it’s always great having them here at our facility and doing lessons and clinics with our members and the New York City community.
Jamie Martin
Let’s talk a little bit about that because I mean, know pickleball is big just in this city. What have you seen with Life Time’s pickleball growth since you’ve been involved in this area?
Andy Peeke
I don’t know. Oh, Life Time’s Pickleball growth in this area. So, yeah, nationally, I’m not as plugged in, but New York City regionally wise, I’m very, very plugged in. Oh, man. I mean, when we started, I was the lead pro at Life Time Sky with two courts. OK. Just like figuring out what I needed to do. And now I feel like I’ve really, you know, me and Max Green over there, we’re co-lead pros.
I’ve really hit our stride in terms of you knowing what we’re doing and executing on programming, running tournaments, running leagues, putting together social events, know, Halloween pickleball and other stuff that we have to help connect the whole community. It’s been an adventure. Sometimes it’s just like we jumped out of a plane and had to build the parachute as we’re falling from the sky. Now it feels like we’re not
Like, we know what we’re doing, we know what direction we’re going in. And, you know, we put a lot of time and effort into just the quality control of every open play and every session that we have. I’ve often said this, and I know it sounds like we’re tooting our own horn, but this is the most quality-controlled pickleball facility on earth. I actually was just playing with a guy from Florida this morning, and he’s like, there’s nothing like this in Florida. Like, you can’t go to an open play and be guaranteed you’re going to get players of your skill level. I I’ve traveled, I’ve played pickleball all over the world and you sign up for something and you’re hoping there’s going to be good players, but a lot of times they’ll just let people just decide which skill level they want to play in.
We’re fanatics about making sure you, if you want to play in a 5.0 plus open play, you must be 5.0 plus. A 4.99 is not a 5.0 plus if you want to get there that 4.99 player needs to play one more game and win it and get up to 5.0 plus.
Jamie Martin
Yeah. I love that quality control. All the assurance. Okay. So how would you suggest if somebody’s thinking, hey, I’m going to play pickleball for the first time. I mean, we want people to take care of themselves. What, what do people need to do? What are a few things you would suggest for them if they’re thinking about getting on the pickleball court, just to make sure they’re out there and are ready, preparing their bodies and just taking good care of themselves.
Andy Peeke
Well first I would do what you did, Jamie. And that is get a pickleball skirt.
Jamie Martin
I did just say that before we started recording. I just got my first pickleball outfit.
Andy Peeke
That’s a step in the right direction You know I wouldn’t, for a lot of people out there if you’re thinking hmm, okay? All right you two maybe I’ll go try this sport ask a friend ask a neighbor ask a family member, hey, you know you want to go play pickleball? Like don’t go out and like buy the best paddle and buy you know don’t you know spend a lot of money.
Just go play somewhere find a local facility and say hey, you know, contact them and say, you know, is there you know something where I can get I’m interested in getting started playing pickleball. I’m sure they get those inquiries all the time and you can go in and start playing pickleball and see how you like it. You know try to do it with people that you enjoy being around that’ll tend to help to improve your experience. And then kind of as you go along try to find you know, the more you do it the more you’ll kind of like get in where you fit in kind of thing.
You’ll find the people you enjoy playing with you kind of want to avoid and you’ll start having a lot of fun. I’m pretty confident in that. And it’s great, you you mentioned the fitness journeys and, you know, aside from like some of the pros, like, you know, my wife who now plays, I think she plays more pickleball than me now. You know, but I made a number of friends through the community that I’ve gone to weddings with, traveled to Africa with that are members here at Life Time and it’s great to make those connections and see people who are obese and then lose a lot of weight or are kind of shy and then they start coming out of their shell or looking for love in all the wrong places and they find their significant other on the pickleball court. We have all of those stories and it’s great to see.
Jamie Martin
Yeah, that’s really interesting in a time when so often we’re connecting with people via our devices, right? Like this is one of those ways like get people back together in a really fun way where it doesn’t have to be high pressure, right? You can kind of get out there. Hopefully be with people at your skill level, right? But just to connect with people in another way, you know, where we’re looking up, we’re seeing each other, we’re being really present because you have to be present on a pickleball court.
Andy Peeke
You’re not out there on your smartphone. That’s for sure. I’ve got a good story on that. So one time my friend Ross, we were in Miami and he had the hots for this one girl. And then this this girl, she’s like, we need two more for our game. And Ross looked at me. like, let’s go. And so I’m like, I’m like, why don’t you two play together? OK. And then a ball came to me and I just went. Boop.
I popped it up and then like she smacked it right back at me really hard and Ross just looked at me and he was just like he knew I did that on me I just wanted to make her look good and then the two of them him high-fiver and all that stuff and yeah We still we still joke about that and he actually he went on a couple dates with that girl, too.
Jamie Martin
That’s so funny. You never know what you might find on the pickleball court. Anything else Andy you want to add or before we get ready to sign off here?
Andy Peeke
Gee, willikers, that’s a great question. Anything I want to —
Jamie Martin
Gee willikers, haven’t heard that one in a while.
Andy Peeke
Just showing off my old, wholesome, all-American roots here. You know, there’s a lot of, you know, I know a lot of former tennis. It doesn’t look like, oh, pickleball. I would just encourage people to try it. If you don’t like it, you don’t like it. Fine. You know, and if you’re coming from another sport or if you’ve never played a sport, you know go out there and give it a try. Try it one or two or three times. And if it’s not your thing, it’s not your thing, that’s fine.
But if it is, you get into the right community, I’ve made a number of connections and relationships, and I’ve coached people for the first time ever that have, one of them has become one of the top juniors in the country now. his mom texts me after every tournament and sends me a photo. And it’s really great to see those stories so but you don’t know until you try so want to just for anyone out there thing is on the fence about it go out there try it have some fun. If it’s not fun, well at least you tried.
Jamie Martin
All right, always have kind of one final question at the end, not related to this, but this is a very easy one. We’re a healthy way of life company at Life Time. What is one or two of your non-negotiable health habits?
Andy Peeke
Gee willikers. One or two non-negotiable health habits. Well, non-negotiable sounds very rigid. So I’ll add, I’m going to massage those words a little bit, mold them into the clay that I think it is. So I’m very, very strict. I read food ingredient labels a lot. Added sugars are really, really bad.
So I really do a lot to avoid things with added sugars. If it does have added sugars, usually if it’s five grams or under, I’m like, okay, it’s like pollution. I’m going to breathe in some of the exhaust from that car that just drove by me. But I try to keep that on the light side. So avoid added sugars.
And then just stay active. I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job my whole life. I turned 46 next week. Just staying active my whole life. Avoiding added sugars, generally eating pretty healthy and staying active are some things. But I think the key to staying fit really, a lot of fitness people have even said this, it’s 70, 80% just your diet and what you’re eating and the rest is working out. Calories in, calories out, there’s better calories and there’s not so better calories. You know, 100 calories of Twinkies isn’t as good as 100 calories of broccoli. So make some smart choices there.
Jamie Martin
I love that there we go back down to the some of the foundational healthy habits —
Andy Peeke
I got a question for you now. What are some of your non-negotiable health habits?
Jamie Martin
For me, it’s morning movement is one of mine. Like if I don’t get up and get going in the morning, it’s like my whole day is set, right? Like it’ll mess with my day. So I am a 5:30 a.m. riser. I like to be moving by six. Yeah, and just getting some movement in because that for me and getting sunshine on my face as often as I possibly can.
Like getting out and that’s it, can be really hard in Minnesota, but there are, you know, I even have like one of those lights that, you know, you have like getting some just to take care of it. Cause I know how critical that. It’s yeah. And so I’d get some of that vitamin D, you know, on your skin. So for me, it’s getting as much time in nature and getting up early in the mornings. Those are two of my non-negotiables.
Andy Peeke
Well let’s get out of this studio and go get some sunlight on our block.
Jamie Martin
Well, Andy, thank you for joining me. It’s been a pleasure.
Andy Peeke
Yeah, thanks.
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The information in this podcast is intended to provide broad understanding and knowledge of healthcare topics. This information is for educational purposes only and should not be considered complete and should not be used in place of advice from your physician or healthcare provider. We recommend you consult your physician or healthcare professional before beginning or altering your personal exercise, diet or supplementation program.





