Heroic Nation Podcast
The ONLY podcast addressing Physical Health and Mental Health for First Responders.
Host:
Anthony Shefferly
-Full time Police/SWAT (16+ years)
-Master's in Science: Psychology
-Tactical Strength & Conditioning
Owner Heroic Fitness/CrossFit Tactical Strength
College Football/CrossFit Regionals/BJJ/Kettlebells
Heroic Nation Podcast
21 Day Challenge: Kickstart Your Fitness and Stress Management
Craving more tools for your stress management arsenal? We expand our conversation beyond combat breathing to include the benefits of cold exposure and various breathing techniques like nasal breathing and double inhales with slow exhales. These methods train your body to better handle the fight-or-flight response, essential for first responders facing high-pressure situations. Whether you're handling an emergency or a routine traffic stop, these practices will help you maintain control and achieve a balanced state, enhancing your overall performance without succumbing to overwhelming stress.
Ready to take your fitness journey to the next level? Join our Heroic Industries community and participate in our upcoming 21-day challenge. It's designed to kickstart your fitness journey with effective strategies like deficit cycling for weight loss and structured mini cycles to keep you on track. Learn the importance of consistency, clear goal-setting, and periodic breaks in your nutrition plan to avoid burnout. This episode is packed with actionable tips and a supportive network to ensure continuous improvement and long-term success in your physical and mental health. Get involved and start your transformation today!
All right, welcome back to the Heroic Nation podcast, the greatest podcast of all time. I don't think I'm understating that or overselling it. It's just facts here, people, just facts, as my kids would say. Facts, no printer. It's literally the dumbest thing I've ever said on recording and one of the dumbest things I've ever heard stated by a human being. Anyway, that's my kids for you. All right, gen Z, shit. Okay, here's what kind of like my notes are. You can see them right here If you were looking on the YouTube.
Speaker 1:Not a ton of stuff to go over, but some questions that were asked. Based on the last, I went into a little bit more depth than I kind of planned on as far as breathing and I had some people that reached out and were just like right, um, basically I just box breathe, right, when you're talking about like, uh, like the gear system, aerobic work, breath work and the technicality of it, like you can really nerd out in it and box breathing is is totally fine, like that is a style of of breathing, but what? What bothers me, what annoys me, is when, um, when, especially, like you know, like cops, we do this all the time where it's like there's there's a, there's an idea that we need to learn, right, there's, there's a, there's a concept that we need to learn, but we dumb it down, like we, we dumb it down for ourselves and it pisses me off. It's like the whole notion of excited delirium, right? Um, like I, if you are not aware, I'm not trying to like, like, oh look how smart I am, like Lane Norton, um, but, uh, always mentioning I'm a, I'm a doctor, I'm a doc. Yeah, we all fucking know you're a doctor, lane. Everybody in the world knows who you are and that you're a doctor and that, if you're not a doctor, you're a dipshit. All right, everybody's clear on that.
Speaker 1:Watching your channel, you only talk to doctors, you only talk to people that are, you feel are, are an educational equivalent to you, right? I'm not trying to do that, but I do have a background in psychology and I and I, I have a master's in psych, right, which isn't like a doctorate or anything crazy, but it is an advanced degree. So, anyway, point being, excited delirium, excited delirium, is not a diagnosable thing, it is not a recognizable thing inside of psychology. Last I checked right. So, like we, what we do is we take these ideas of like psychosis and drug induced psychosis and substance abuse and and schizophrenia and and like all those different things, and we just throw it into a catch all term and it's, it is excited delirium, like that's not like a thing that that is recognizable, but we do it because it is, we dumb it down for ourselves and I don't think we have to point being like we're not morons, like we're police officers, you know, but we're not idiots. So, like, don't treat us like idiots, right, treat us like educational peers, right. You have information I need. I need to be able to understand these concepts in ways that like, but you can't just create like, oh hey, here's a term for smart people and here's a term for all you other idiots out there. Like, that's not, that's not. That bothers me, me anyway, why'd I go into that?
Speaker 1:All right, so combat breathing Okay. So what is combat breathing? Combat breathing is a style of box breathing. Typically, we're talking about, like you do a four second inhale, four second hold, four second exhale, four second hold, okay. So that's like a combat breath, that's a box breath pattern and you can make that box breathing any type of way that you want. It can be five in five hold five, five X five hold, right, so you can increase that by 10 seconds and do 10, 10, 10, 10. But so what we're looking at is like, like what is that? Okay, so it is combat breathing, right, is box breathing. They just put it into combat terms, you know, to a way that that will keep your attention and just repackage it Right. That's what we always do with everything you know, to be fair.
Speaker 1:But I think that we can handle understanding like, hey, there's stuff you do to, to to bring your central nervous system down, parasympathetic, rest and digest, and we can breathe specifically to harness it and ramp it up, sympathetic fight or flight. Okay, we can do that and we can do it on purpose and you can. You can understand that there's these parts of your nervous system and and how they work and how they operate. So if you don't understand those components, then it doesn't matter what you call it, it's not going to be as effective, right as it, as it could be or should be. So, like, what we are talking about is state management, and that's the big thing to understand.
Speaker 1:Right Is state management. What state am I in currently and how do I use that to my advantage or change it so that I can be in an advantageous position, all right. So this is my if you're watching on YouTube, this is my nasty ass Red Wings hat All right, it's been around for generations. All right, it's been around for generations. Um, all right. So, like, understanding your state, understanding whether you want to be in that state or not, and then understanding how to change it If you don't want to be there, and then how to leverage it if you are like that is the thing that needs to happen, right, and am I freaking out? Do I need to freak out? Yes, okay, cool, I'm fighting bear, All right. So, freak out when fight the bear, okay, and then if you're freaking out when you're not fighting the bear, that's a problem, all right. So then you need to understand, like I'm freaking out, uh, there's no bear here, there's no person here, that I'm not in a gunfight, I'm not in, you know, a life or death, like you know situation. I don't need to be here, okay, so what do I do to harness that box breathing pattern? Um, is is something you can do to do that, right, that's.
Speaker 1:That's why we use those style of of breathing patterns is to harness our nervous system and bring it down, right, uh, another style you can do is a double inhale with a slow exhale. Typically, if you, if you exhale for longer than like I've heard it seven seconds, but if you exhale for longer than you know, I would say, I would say anywhere in the realm of a five, five to 10 second exhale, slow exhale, especially nasal only you're going to automatically start to crash out and access your parasympathetic nervous system, which is typically what we want to do Like. Very rarely do we want to, and in specific instances do we want to access our sympathetic nervous system on purpose. You know, before a lift, before we were going into like a planned fight, you know something like that, like where you're really. You want to. You want to like start working on superventilating and hyperventilating and getting that ramped up like that. That has its place Right, but it's for a very specific thing Typically.
Speaker 1:Typically it just kind of happens on its own and and and we need to be able to to control it and keep it in check, make sure that it's, you know like the, the train's not on a runaway. You know like we, we have control, we have brakes on it, we know how to access brakes to that system, cause if we don't, it's going to derail, right, and it just just matters when it could be. In that moment, it could be down the line. It could be all of a sudden like you can't sleep and you don't understand why. Your anxiety is just like taking over, right, and this is something that that we, you know, like I don't have really planned today, but you talk about, like PTSD and lack of sleep and and like, oh man, that becomes like a feedback loop. Negative feedback loop, I believe, is where it's like I can't, I have anxiety.
Speaker 1:I go to sleep, but I wake up early, right. This is typically what happens to me when I can't sleep and my anxiety kicks in. So I get sleep, okay, but I wake up at like two in the morning, three in the morning, and I'm wired and my mind is racing, I'm ruminating, I can't, I can't, I've got all these things that need to get done, I'm worried about everything under the sun and I cannot get back to sleep. So what do I have to do? I have to harness that nervous system which is on a runaway path to hell. Okay, uh, and if I sit there and I let it go, then it's going to continue to spiral and these thoughts and stories are going to continue to escalate. And and I'm done, man, I'm done.
Speaker 1:And then you do that for, like you know, two, three, four days, or two, three, four weeks, let's say, with like very broken two, three hours of sleep a night and, uh, what do you think is going to happen to your mental health, physical health, immune system? It's broken, like you're going to break from the inside out and starting right here between the ears. So if you do things like box breathing, slow exhales, uh, what I have here is like double inhale as slow exhale, okay, so that that looks and sounds something like this where you go, okay, so it's like two sniffs, like sniff, sniff, hold for a brief second and then slow exhale on the way down Right. This is something that I use in, uh, in sniper training. Okay, so, when I really want to get like a cleansing breath, you know, and find that respiratory pausing right, double inhale and then exhale, hold, boom, pull the trigger, okay. So that's a specific use for this in order to calm down in a specific moment.
Speaker 1:But you can also do it just to harness things as they start to get out of control, like if you feel like, oh shit, things are going crazy, I'm starting to panic, I'm starting to ruminate, I can't sleep, like blah, blah, blah, whatever. Whatever your symptoms are then, then, uh, double inhale, quick hold and exhale for five to 10 seconds. Double inhale, quick hold, exhale five to 10 seconds. Right, even just doing that two, three times will regulate your state. It'll control your state. It'll just put some, put some brakes on right. You'll start to apply the brakes, you'll actually find where the brakes are and then, once you do that, then you're like all right, cool, I can kind of control this, I can pull some levers. I feel more in charge.
Speaker 1:That internal locus of control starts to kick in versus the external right, where it's like, oh no, I got some, I got some pull in this, I got a dog in this bite. Uh, this just happening to me, I can, I can control it right, or I can start to control it. And even that little bit of control like puts you back in the driver's seat and you're like no, no, I got this, okay. So that's, that's really really important to understand. And it's it's.
Speaker 1:It's more than just combat breathing right, cause, like combat breathing just knowing combat breathing is only going to take you so far. It's more than just combat breathing, right? Because, like combat breathing, just knowing combat breathing is only going to take you so far. It's going to, it's not going to really move the needle in a, in a grand scheme, in a big picture, it won't. It might help you in a specific moment, for a brief second, but it's not going to. It's not going to move the needle. I really don't think so. You have to understand a little bit more and the, the, the kick to me is always like hey, we are a smart enough population to understand this shit. Don't talk to me like I'm a dummy or I'm a kid, like give me the full picture. Okay, so I can understand it and I can, I can do what I need to do, right, um, so, all right.
Speaker 1:Last thing I'm gonna say about this is cold exposure. Okay, so. So cold exposures are fantastic for a bunch of things, right, both, both psychologically, physiologically, all of it, right. But where I think that we missed the mark and we are so worried about the physiological effects of dopamine and and neurotransmitters and all that stuff which it does have amazing effects on that, but to me that's secondary. You know like you can listen to Andrew Huberman and find all that stuff out right. He goes into depth on that right. He's got numerous podcasts. Numerous times he talks about cold exposures. Some great stuff on there right, very beneficial.
Speaker 1:Where it's more important, my opinion, is for state management, Because when you get into an ice bath, when you jump into cold water, when you are exposed to that, that cold uh, on that level, your body goes straight, sympathetic, it goes straight to fight or flight and you cannot stop that. You can't write. Your body Doesn't want to be there. It recognizes the fact that it is a massive threat. Freezing to death is a massive threat to your survival. So it is going to shift you into fight or flight. That's what will happen every single time, every time. That's why you don't want to do it. If you've done cold exposures regularly, you know that they're never fun, it's never exciting to get into. You never want to do it, right, because you know that that's going to be a terrifying, awful feeling.
Speaker 1:Okay, but we're doing it on purpose, all right, and that's the thing. Like you do it, it kicks you into that overdrive, that sympathetic state, and then you get to learn to harness your state. And that is where all of this really kind of comes together, in my opinion, is you put yourself sympathetic on purpose, in a state that you're not going to die, right, you have control over it. You can get out of that thing anytime you want, but you are choosing to stay there and you are choosing to navigate that and learning to calm down quickly. All right, that is exactly like work. That is exactly like doing a traffic stop. I'm choosing to do this. I could leave anytime I want, I can shut these lights off and drive away, but I am choosing to do this. I'm choosing to put myself in this state in this moment, at this time, and I'm going to navigate this. Okay, I'm choosing it. Now I need to learn how to how to control that sympathetic state. I need to learn if I want it, how I want to use it and when to back it down.
Speaker 1:Okay, so get into the ice and start to work on double inhale, slow exhale, box breathing, nasal breathing, like that's a. That's a first thing to do. Get into the ice, nasal breathe, all right, try to keep just nasal breathing, and then you try to count your breaths and slow down. Okay, you spend, say you spend. You know I typically do three minutes. Okay, so if I'm three minutes. I'm shooting for 10 to 20 breaths total. That's including the when I get in. When it's like there's three, okay, all nasal breathing. Calm yourself down as quickly as you can. Now, if you can do that, then when you get a hot run, you get a call, then it's, you know, nasal breathe, double inhale, exhale, box breathe.
Speaker 1:Whatever the technique is that you decide that you like the best right that you know can control your nervous system, the best you can take yourself down and you can control yourself and keep yourself out of condition black, you know and put it into a more usable area of uh, of of sympathetic state. Right Cause you don't want to be gone, you don't want to be out of like sympathetic state. It's not going to happen anyway. Um, you know when you're in that environment, but you do need to control it, right Cause maybe you need it. You know, if, if we're talking about like, like a scale of one to 10, remember, this is a spectrum, it's not a uh, it's, it's not a like a light switch, like on off, okay, you're not like all sympathetic, all parasympathetic, like, it's not like that, you are always some of both.
Speaker 1:So if you think of it on like a scale of one to 10, let's say right, and it's like all right, you get a call to a run and it's a shooting and you need it to be a five Right, you don't need it to be a one because you're not going to, you're not going to be on your game enough to navigate the stressful drive there. You need the sympathetic state, you need the things that that gives you. So you don't want to be a one or a zero, right, you don't want that. But you also don't want to be an 11, where it's like you are just like can't, you, can't, you're out of control. Okay, um.
Speaker 1:Or you can't move right because fight, flight or freeze all right, that happens too you know, we see that on the job a lot too where it's like why didn't, why didn't you especially new guys like why didn't you do anything? Uh, during the headlights moment, man, like that's what that is. That's like your nervous system is pegged and you can't move, okay, um, that's really maladaptive for what we do, obviously. But um, yeah, so like you need some of it. So you have to be able to harness it, control it, bring it down to where it needs to be and leave it there, all right.
Speaker 1:And then maybe you show up on scene and it's like, oh, this shooting is still going on and it's like, okay, I'm about to engage in a gunfight or something to that effect. It's like, okay, now you need like an eight, nine, 10, you know, and and deal with that very acute problem immediately. And then you need to harness it and pull it back down Right Once you survive that incident. So that's where you know, understanding all of these things together collectively, like that's where it's going to, it's going to help. And then on the back end of that, that's so it's like, say, you get through that incident Right, like you know these things that we do don't go.
Speaker 1:You're not coming out unscathed physically, mentally, emotionally, whatever, like it leaves marks, um, and that's just to be expected. Uh, that's a whole nother conversation, too, is expectations on this job. But, um, like understanding what your nervous system is doing on the back end of that. So, again, like if you're not in the gunfight, you don't need to be responding like you are. And if you notice that you are, like there's nothing wrong with you. It's just your nervous system is kind of like out of whack, so just suck it back in right. Figure it out. Like what's happening? What state am I in? Do I want to be here and then you know how to fix it. Like that solves a lot of problems.
Speaker 1:Right there there's not too many people that have been like man, I wish I didn't know how to calm down when I was feeling out of control, you know, or I was feeling like too ramped up. I wish I didn't know how to do that. That doesn't happen, okay. So, like you know, no one's made worse decisions by being more calm. So learning how to calm yourself is like calm yourself, like calm.
Speaker 1:When I say that, I mean calm your nervous system, calm your nervous system down, because that's like our nervous system is. It just dictates so much to us that we don't even really understand, and so much that I don't understand, you know. And then it changes over time, which is like a constant puzzle. That's that's. You know. You're always putting together.
Speaker 1:But but yeah, when you talk about mental health, like a lot of it is just understanding your nervous system, I feel like, and then how you can operate better based on on just understanding how to operate your nervous system. Right. And same thing goes of training, and this is something that I wish I would have understood with when I was doing CrossFit. You know so, so, so many years ago, like a lifetime ago, like I would have understood with when I was doing CrossFit you know so, so, so many years ago, like a lifetime ago like I would have managed to gain two to three years of competitive CrossFit. I feel like if I would have understood this, this, this, this information about nervous system and adaptation and where I want to be and where I was, and versus where I thought I was, and burning stuff down and like training too hard and and you know like how to, how to actually train hard without burning yourself down OK, that is possible, right, and people are getting a lot better about that now. So, anyway, that's another talk. All right, 21 day challenge info, right Before we move on.
Speaker 1:If you got more questions on state management, nervous system, stuff like that, like just message me, we can go into specifics and then or post on school right, post questions on school, even better and then, and then you know I'll go over it right there, I'll put looms up, I'll put classroom stuff up, so, and that'll help develop content too. Develop content too, if you're interested in getting into the greatest platform that's ever been on school, our community heroic industries, uh, to go along with the greatest podcasts of all time. Then, uh, just click the link somewhere on this. If you're watching on YouTube, um, then, uh, or just search on on school for heroic industries go to. You can search on school for Heroic Industries Go to. You can go to school, download the app You're going to need it anyway to get in and then just look for Heroic Industries, free community, and it's going to have all this information on there, more stuff for me and the rest of the people that are in the community, like all based on physical training, physical health, mental training, mental health for first responders specifically, and then this, like you can tell, this information is good for anybody as well. So, if you've got anybody that you think would be interested or is real high stress and needs to recover or needs to work out like that kind of stuff injury prevention or recovery from injury surgeries I've had plenty of those Then yeah, it's all covered in there. So, join, love to have you join. Join, please. All right.
Speaker 1:Also in school, 21 day challenge that starts on Monday. So just about a week. We're about six days out from that. So 617 at 1200 hours. It'll be a live, just like we're doing here. That'll be our kickoff.
Speaker 1:Here's the structure. Structure is going to be a mini, progressive cut three-day mini cycles, okay so into a 20% deficit. So it's not going to be an absolute just slash and burn, right. This is going to be a quick, progressive attack, right? Three, three mini cycle, three day mini cycle for three weeks, okay, um, and that'll make more sense once you get into it. I'm not going to go over all the details in it right now, uh, but that will be inside the group. So if, uh, if you are interested in that, it's totally free. I'd love to have you right.
Speaker 1:21 days, three weeks, and this thing has been proven time and again, time and again, to be very effective with quick control of diet and weight loss and, like, usually, seven to 13 pounds people are losing and, honestly, most of it's not body fat necessarily, but uh, you know, people are losing like one to three pounds of body fat per week and, uh, gaining some muscle with the workouts at the same time. So we're keeping protein high and uh, again, not going into any of the details here because that's not what I want to do today, but, yeah, so keeping protein high and cutting calories progressively, that tends to lend itself to really good body fat loss and really effective keeping muscle if not gaining a little bit of muscle, which is always bonus points. Right, get shredded and gain some muscle, all right, okay, so there's that. That's the structure, how to navigate a cut. Okay, so this is something that we'll talk about more in there, but I was listening to a podcast and Jordan Peterson's podcast 454.
Speaker 1:John Spencer, an, an expert in urban warfare, and a really cool episode talks about a lot of urban warfare and he he mentioned something that that you know I was trying to look for universal truths, okay, so, as much as this doesn't really connect, it does. At the same time, um, and he talked about, like, when in in war, you attack quick and win before public opinion destroys you, especially in today's, like social media, market and stuff like that, or you know, like psyops and shit are just everywhere, okay, and propaganda and how quickly and easily it is to disseminate and absorb and not even understand what's going on, right, so, like, like, public opinion will destroy your war efforts. So you want to get in, smash them, get done, hit the objective and get out right, before this victim, victimizer narrative starts to flip. Okay, because that's what will happen, and this works on an internal level as well, right, so I'm listening to that. I'm like, oh, that's, that's exactly how we talk about, like, dealing with a deficit. All right, how do how do we lose weight? Well, you get in, you have a huge fight with it and then you get the fuck out.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you smash a deficit quick for like two to three weeks, okay, um, there's, there's different ways you can effectively do this too. You know, there's the Matador study, I believe is like two days in maintenance, you know, like something like that. Or two days, two weeks, something like that, but it was, it was similar, where it's like you get into a deficit, stay there, you get out, you go to maintenance and then you dip back and forth Right, so you can do that on a daily level, on a weekly level, and and forth Right, so you can do that on a daily level, on a weekly level, and that's going to be effective. Right, that's going to be effective, okay, assuming, right, once you get out of that deficit, so you get in, you smash it two to three weeks. That's what we're doing, right, two to three weeks. So we say two to three weeks in a deficit and we're looking at 21 days, so like again, details to come but roughly like three weeks in deficit. And then you get out. You spend a week to two weeks in maintenance, not surplus maintenance and this is where understanding numbers gets into it and then we'll go over that in the program in the 21 day challenge.
Speaker 1:You stay in maintenance, right, and so you're not gaining, you're not losing, right, but it's a lot more manageable. Okay, maintenance is a lot nicer than a deficit. Deficits hurt, deficits suck, and that's okay, but that just is what it is right. But at the same time you're in maintenance, you're continuing to focus on increasing lifestyle and sleep and food quality rather than, like you know, just gut check, grind it out, don't eat, like, because that wears you out, okay, but you focus on being healthy without being in a deficit, and that's still going to make changes okay, especially if you've got inflammation, water, weight, stuff like that just hanging on Like if you work on cleaning things up, that's going to do a whole lot to your body composition, just that okay. So there's stuff that you can work on not being in a deficit. That will help you lose weight, okay, and so you don't always have to be looking at like, reducing calories, reducing calories, reducing calories maybe you do, but usually it's.
Speaker 1:It's like you do that for a little bit, you get out, you work on lifestyle, you improve lifestyle, you clean things up, and then, uh, and then you get back into a deficit, right, if you still have weight to lose. Um, so two, three weeks in, smash it, get to a deficit, and then one to two weeks out, focusing on lifestyle, food quality, clean things up and then back in a deficit, smash it again, right, and then you do this basically up, down, up, down, up down, for a series of time, right, see where it gets you and then decide on, like, what you want to do from there as far as goals. Right, see where it gets you and then decide on, like, what you want to do from there as far as goals, ok. On the back end of this is like further down the road. Like you know, most people don't have a weight loss issue. They have a consistency issue with their entire life. So it's like you have no problem losing weight, you have problem keeping it off because it usually comes back. So it's like why does it come back? Like okay, well, it's not the issue of like being able to get into a deficit, stay there and lose weight, right, that's happened several times. But it's the issue of, like, how do I stay in maintenance, how do I set goals for future, stuff Like you can't just like set a goal, hit a goal and then just like, cool, I'm done, like you're not done.
Speaker 1:That's not how it works. Uh, you have to continue to set goals and be progressive with it, right, regardless of what that is, or you're going to wind up in the same same boat that you currently are. Okay, um, so, anyway, that's like how to set goals, stuff like that which we also talk about. Um, all right. So here's what's going to happen. If you stay in a deficit too long, all right. Like, if you're worried, like well, that's not going to be long enough, well, maybe not.
Speaker 1:That's why you do these cycles, right, that's where you do things in like two, three weeks at a time and then, and then one or two weeks out, and then two, three weeks at a time, then one to two weeks out, right, and then you just like cycle like that deficit, right, um, here, here's the things that's going to happen, right, the, amongst other things. Here's some things that just jumped to my mind and things that I've seen and experienced myself, as well as, uh, clients, right, and athletes that I've coached and taught uh, you start to feel sorry for yourself. So you're talking about that, like going back to that public opinion, like, and how the victim, victimizer mindset shifts. You're like, oh man, this is so hard, I'm so tired, I'm so hungry, so, and you start feeling sorry for yourself, like, hey, uh, you didn't feel sorry for yourself when you started. You were on fire about it. So what's changed? Okay, well, you've been in it too long, right, it's, it's kind of worn you out, all right, and depending on on your level of, like you know, like discipline or willpower, whatever you want to call it, like, that's a muscle too. You have to train that. That just doesn't happen. Uh, people aren't born with like, super impressive, like powers of will. You know, um, that's created over time and and and and worked on, okay, um, so you start to feel sorry for yourself and you start to give up. Okay, I'm too tired to continue to fight. Okay, that happens. And then it's like and how how does that look? It looks like man, I'm so sick of being in this fricking place where I'm hungry all the time, I'm not happy, uh, mad, you know, about a million things there's a million little irritating things are now like really irritating because I'm fucking hungry. A million things there's a million little irritating things are now like really irritating because I'm fucking hungry. And uh, and I've been hungry for a month, all right. And then how many times in that state that you're in again, state right, can you walk by the cookies at the office or the outpost? Or you know, have somebody like giving you food on, like wherever right, dropping off, uh, you know, like chocolates, to to the station and saying like, hey, thanks for your help. Like, how many times can you walk by that tray and say no, two, three, you know, as you get worn down, it's going to be one, and then you can be like, screw it, these are mine. And uh, I'm off the wagon. All right, uh, to go along with that.
Speaker 1:Like the idea and concept that you deserve to have a cheat, okay, like you deserve it. You don't deserve it, you didn't earn it. You know it's not a cheat, whatever, man, like you know, like being an adult, right, you made a decision to have this. Like you didn't like, you just decided like, and it does have a consequence, good, bad or otherwise right. And then understanding like when is a good time to put that stuff in? How do you navigate? Having less quality, not cheating, but like having a lower quality food item Like can you fit it in?
Speaker 1:Should you fit it in? Where should you fit it in? Right, choosing it specifically for a purpose and a reason, whether it's mental, you know, emotional, physical, because all those components are important when we talk about nutrition, training, all that kind of stuff. Like it's not just the physical, that's not, that's not just that, it's like emotionally and psychologically, I need a freaking cookie. Like well, do you for one? We can have that conversation. But all right, maybe you know like where can we put it? That's going to make sense, and like it's.
Speaker 1:It's like taking a deload week. You know like, all right, do you need a deload week? At some point you're gonna. You know like you're going to need to take a break from what you're doing and do something different. Like that looks different for everybody, based on training and stuff, but like you're going to need it. You know you can't just do the same thing forever. That's why sports have seasons, stuff like that. That's why baseball players that play all year round have Tommy John surgery, right. So like, that's that's why those things happen. This is again natural laws and universal rules, right? Universal things that are all common. Okay, you need a break, you got to break. You got to do something different.
Speaker 1:Like, where can you put in a cookie or you know, a lower quality meal or a pizza or whatever man, like, you can do it, it is possible, I do it, okay. So, like, you know where can you put it? All right. So I deserve something. Like, no, go, screw off. Like you don't deserve it. You know, nobody deserves anything. Um, but the idea of like, yeah, you don't deserve it, but you need, you do need a break and you have worked hard, you know. So, like, where can you put it? That's going to make sense, um, for reinforcement. But the idea that you deserve something just because you've worked hard, like, no, that's not, that's not. Like a, like a real thing. That just leads to like all kinds of bad stuff, right, all right.
Speaker 1:So last couple of things losing focus and losing interest. This is where we talk about motivation. Motivation is really high at the beginning of a journey and it's really low at the end, like not even at the end, like in the middle. Typically, this is where we start looking at the problem of the middle. So, like in this, I guarantee this will happen. We start this 21 day challenge and it'll go gangbusters for a week, right Seven to 10 days. When we hit that 10 day point, there'll be like a like people just crap out and fall off. It is the problem of the middle. So it doesn't matter if it's a 21 day program or a 21 week program or a 21 year program.
Speaker 1:When you hit that midway point, people freak Okay, just what we do. All, right, think about a workout that you've done. Right, this used to happen in CrossFit to me all the time. Right, it's an eight minute AMRAP. Eight minutes, as many rounds of reps as possible in eight minutes of whatever Pick. Movement Doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:Okay, when I hit the four minute mark, you're like oh geez, I'm too far away from the beginning for it to be really fun anymore. It now burns and hurts and I'm too far, far away from the end to really see the light at the end of the tunnel. So I got to just continue to hurt. Right, you can't lose focus. Okay, so if you stay in a deficit for too long, the middle becomes, you know, it becomes very hard to navigate because you don't see an end and you don't understand a bigger picture. It's like, oh, I just need to keep working and keep going, like there's you know, and with that, there's probably no plan either. Ok, so what happens then?
Speaker 1:What happens then is you pick up your phone and you start looking at things and all of a sudden you're getting advertised to by all kinds of other shit and then you're like, oh, this looks good, this guy looks good, this good looks good, this program looks nice. Like maybe that'll help me, maybe that'll be the thing I do it. And I and I don't even realize I'm doing it, and I'm like no, I need to punch the clock, finish what I said. Right, that's where it goes back to goal setting and knowing what the purpose is, knowing what the duration is, knowing what the all these details, right About it. So if we just like head into something where it's like, man, let's see how it goes, like it's probably going to suck, you know what I mean. Like it'll be fun at first, no-transcript, you start something different and then you're like I don't know why I can't find results, like can't find results because you never fucking finish anything. Okay, so, finish it, right, whatever the duration is, finish it.
Speaker 1:And that's where these two to three weeks, two to three week mini cycles, like that's where it's like all right, now we're starting to develop some consistency in out maintenance. Back in, deal with it, get out maintenance, okay. And then, and then it tends to, it tends to go pretty good until you get to where you want to go. And then you set another goal, okay, so, without doing that, like you're just a lost ball bouncing around, okay, and uh, that's no fun. Like, well, sometimes that's fun, but it's, but it's fun for a short period of time until you get lost.
Speaker 1:And then you're like I don't know how to get out of this man. Um, so, anyway, all right, that is it. Uh, I think that's all I got. Yeah, that's just a blank page, okay. So if you got questions on any of this, get into school, Post the questions in school in the general forum, right, that'll be even better, that'll be the best way to do it. And then we kick this thing off on the 17th. Can't wait to have you guys in and until then look around, all right, later.
