Chris Cornell: The Biggest Comeback
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, rules, low carb, eat, weight, pounds, life, phil, podcast, realize, chris, questions, weight loss, doctor, succeed, book, day, fail, years, lose
SPEAKERS
Jack Heald, Chris Cornell, Dr. Philip Ovadia
Jack Heald
Welcome back, everybody. It's the Stay Off My Operating Table podcast with Dr. Philip Ovadia, I'm your co-host, Jack Heald, I almost introduced a different show, Phil, I tripped into the autopilot mode there and almost introduced this as a different show. We've got a guest today, Chris Cornell. And his story is one that anybody who pays attention to this podcast enjoys hearing. So rather than stealing any thunder… Dr. O, would you like to take over? And let's hear from Chris Cornell.
Dr. Philip Ovadia
Thanks, Jack, really excited to have Chris on this week. I was fortunate to meet Chris a couple of years ago at one of the low carb medical conferences. And Chris is really one of those superstars, I think, behind the scenes of the whole low carb movement, and he's done a lot of great work, both on my platform, and working behind the scenes on my website, as well as a couple of the other low carb doctors, and helps is a great asset to some of the low carb conferences as well. So I'm really excited to have him on this week. And first and foremost, I just want Chris to kind of introduce himself to the audience and tell his story, because he has one of those great stories around metabolic health and coming to realize the importance of it over the last few years, as many of us have.
Chris Cornell
Thank you, Phil. It's a pleasure to be on the podcast and, and nice to talk to you as well, Jack. Yeah, it was great meeting you two years ago in Boca at the low carb USA conference, we think we met in the elevator on the way to a presentation. And it's been it's been great to actually follow your story, Phil, from being at that conference and watching you launch your presence in the low carb community. I'm enjoying your book that you put out, stay off my operating table. And it's really been, it's really been fun to be part of that. The this my story with respect to low carb started, really, in January of 2018. When I read Gary Taubes his book, why we get fat. That was really what got me started.
But the low point for me really was a few years prior in 2015, I stepped on a scale at my mother's house, I was visiting her, and I hadn't stepped on a scale in years. And I was, I knew I had gotten a little out of shape. But when I stepped on the scale and saw 278 pounds, it was a bit eye opening. And I realized that at age 50,51, or 52, I had really let myself go a lot further than I had ever dreamed. And so it took a few years of making some real small improvements. But in 2018, I finally reached out to a friend and asked for a book, and he recommended tabs his book, and I picked it up and I started reading it. And it was actually in the waiting room, the waiting area of a Mexican restaurant on my daughter's 16th birthday, that I read a passage in that book that I realized, for the first time that I thought I understood what I had to do to lose weight. And I actually started like, half an hour later while I was at the dinner table, I didn't need to tortilla. I didn't eat any of the carbs. I just had chicken and cheese. And my low carb diet started.
And within maybe two weeks later, I realized that this was something that I could do. I started losing weight at a rate of about five or six pounds a month. And later that year, I had gotten to my goal weight, and I've really never looked back. I've been I you know at 278 I'm six foot three. I am now right around 200 pounds, and the weight loss triggered a whole bunch of other changes in my life. And so I started getting more fit, introduced a consistent resistance training to my life. I'm now also a runner. So you know my existence is quite a bit more. I enjoy a better-quality life in so many ways compared to with how I was when I weighed 278 pounds. And so that's, that's my low carb story. And I've gotten really involved in the low carb community, I really enjoy. I really enjoy Twitter,
Jack Heald
Hold on, hold on just a minute. You got to realize I'm a marketer, that's what I do for a living. And you haven't, you haven't exposed us to the pain nearly enough yet for us to really appreciate the cessation of pain and the introduction of pleasure in your story. So tell us about the pain. How did you end up 278 pounds? How was your life affected by being that out of shape? What were the things you tried and failed at? How long did you try and fail? Tell us the things that anybody out there who's wanting to make a huge change in their own lives will recognize as similar to their story.
Chris Cornell
Yeah, that's a great, great set of questions there. I 278 pounds walking up a flight of stairs was a chore. I, having met now, scores of people in the low carb community, I realized that my problems are, were not as bad as many however, it definitely affected my life, it affected my ability to go running in the yard, with my kids, going for a hike. It just it made me tired. And so, so weighing that much, it also it does a little bit to your self-esteem when clothes don't fit, right. And the, the frustration of never-ending attempts to lose the weight.
All my life, I had been told eat less, move more. That's, that's the advice. And it's told to people in many different ways. it's not always in those exact words, but it's like you're eating too much. And you're not getting enough exercise. That's the basic, the basic gist of it. And I, I learned that I could restrict my calories and lose weight, I did it successfully. if you want to call it success, the biggest success that I enjoyed was when I got down to about 207 pounds. This was about 12 years ago. So I had lost like 50 pounds in one stretch. And I remember ordering from a mail order place two pairs of pants in size 34, which was about what I wore when I was a senior in high school. And I was thrilled I was thrilled to put those pants on. And by the time that they went through the wash the first time, I'd already started regaining the weight. So those two pairs of pants each got worn either once or twice. And, and never again because I gave him to Goodwill.
When I got back over 250 pounds because I gave up and thought there would be no chance that I was ever going to be debt back that way again. So it's it takes a toll on your esteem. And the way you feel about yourself. And you know I there's so many things in life.
Jack Heald
Drill deeper. What do you mean it takes a toll? Well, give us specifics.
Chris Cornell
Well, there's a lot of things in life that you that we'll talk about myself where I've been good at certain things and have failed at other things. And when you fail at something repeatedly, eventually you, you know you're in if you get kicked enough times you just finally throw in the towel and to fail at something that you want to succeed at it. It hurts your confidence, your pride. And, and it's just it's defeating. Especially when you when you've tried for 3040 years, you've held that that hope alive, and you finally just give it up. And especially when you're not you don't really want to give it up but there's also something defeating about keeping this hope that never gets realized. So, and this. One of the things I I've learned is, is a lot of these feelings, they don't just sit in a box with respect to your weight. When you score a victory in one area of your life, it, it rolls over carries over to how you feel about other areas of your life. And that works in the negative, and in the positive.
And so I think I beat myself up a lot, sometimes after sort of giving up on the weight. And again I at six foot three, I don't compare myself to some people that I know that really were 400 pounds 500 whatever, but, but it's still defeating, and it hurts your, your, your image your pride. So it was it was just I don't even know what exactly what it was it made me think, oh, you know what I do? I have a, I have an adopted brother, his name is John. And he is a type two diabetic. He's 10 years younger than me. So he's 40, he's 48 years old. And he suffers from type two diabetes, his kidneys failed. He's on dialysis. He his situation, his story, which I know is not isolated to just him, but to millions of others. really pisses me off that, that he's never been able to solve his problem. And so I can relate to people that that are not able to figure out the solution, because for me, it was this close to never figuring it out. And it was it was just the fact that a friend recommended this specific book for me to read and something resonated. And I was able to figure it out. So that's, that's kind of that's kind of where I come from? And the I don't know, do you have? Do you want to know any more about the pain?
Jack Heald
Yeah, what's fascinating to me is I went on your website, and the before and after pictures. there really are people who were far heavier than you are, who lose the weight. But what is astonishing to me, with your before and after pictures, is you're not just you didn't just lose weight. You look like you'd look like a wildly fit athlete. After being 80 pounds overweight, and an 80 pounds overweight. I mean, it's horrible to say this, but you just look like a typical 50 American year old, a typical 50-year-old American guy. It was just yeah, there's everywhere I go, I see guys who look exactly like that. Heavy, but not really fat round. Not really. obese, slow and squishy. And you can just we know what they look, we're, they're everywhere. And then that after picture of you. Honest to God, you look like you just finished an Iron Man. It's astonishing. To me. It's really astonishing. Yeah. So that kind of change is the kind of thing that that people get excited about.
Dr. Philip Ovadia
Yeah, and just to follow up on that it turns out that our guests last week, and this week last week we had PD Mangum on, and I would put Chris and PD in the category of this is how I want to age. And one of the things that I think is most I enjoy most about the content that Chris puts out there is how open you are about the challenges you're taking on. And you might not always reach your goal. remember, I think last year you had set a certain goal for doing a 5k and you didn't quite get your time, but you still did the 5k and similar you put goals out there around bench pressing and things like that. And I'm just always impressed how open you are, about what your goals are, and how you're not afraid to admit when you don't quite reach them, but that doesn't mean you didn't get a lot better in the process.
Chris Cornell
Yeah, well, I've learned a heck of a lot from social media, from Twitter specifically, and from the people around me. And I've changed a lot as a result of this journey. As I was saying before the feeling of being defeated. And then conversely, when you succeeded a goal, especially one that you kind of gave up on it, it starts to make you believe that you can achieve other goals that you may have some doubts about. And then, and then it also went by making yourself authentic and vulnerable.
I went through cancer after I reached my goal weight, I was diagnosed with head and neck cancer, and I went through chemo and radiation. And I, I had gotten myself into, at the time, the best shape of my life in October of 2018. Like, I was in the best shape I've ever been in, when I got the call from my doctor who said, hey, that lump we took out of your neck is cancer. And, and, and that was, that was actually a strange blessing in disguise, because I, for a long time, had probably taken far too many things for granted. And I went through a period of at least a couple of weeks where I actually thought that my, my diagnosis was going to end up being a terminal cancer because of some things that had happened with respect to a CAT scan in my chest, PET scan in my chest, I had no, I had to wait for a chest biopsy.
My wife and I had some very heavy conversations and, and at that point, I think I'd already benefited from this, this community and from some of the benefits of losing the weight, and I was like what, I you can, you can fail, but you're not going to give up. And, and so I just decided I'm never gonna take another day for granted. And I've held to that I, I get up early, sometimes just to see a gray sunrise, because I can. And so, so my, my thoughts about achieving things have changed drastically. And as you were alluding to, Phil, the fact admitting that you can, that you that you fail at something, just it, it doesn't, it doesn't, it doesn't really matter. Too much whether I get that bench press or not like, I'm going to fail at some things, I'm going to succeed at others, but I'm no longer embarrassed by failing, the failures just lead to successes.
And some of the things that I've I would love to impart some of this, that what I've learned to other people, and I know I have because I have an email that goes out every week. That's another thing that I started in June of 2020. On a whim, I just said Hey, anybody want to hear what I have to say every week, and I had 400 subscribers in less than three days on? And, and that that blew my mind, because that showed me that I wasn't just talking into the wind I know there's people with much bigger audiences. But hey, if 400 people signed up in three days, I'm like, wow, this is I'm kind of getting through to some people. And now I don't have to I get I get emails and direct messages from people that are they, they just want to know is there can you share a link with me or a book, and I don't give out advice because I'm not qualified to give out medical advice. I'm not qualified to give out true fitness advice, but I can say to somebody, hey, this is a, this is a link that really helped me, this is a podcast, this is a book go, go Listen, go read Phil Ovadia’s book or go listen to this podcast.
I have volumes of notes and files and, and papers of people. I hear a podcast that talks, a guy in the fitness community who also struggled with alcoholism. And I see, one of my followers is posting about his struggles with alcohol. I'm like, oh, man here's a, here's a link, just share it. And the feedback that I get from these people is really it keeps me going put it that way. I work as I work for a small firm, and we do public relations and communications and I do a lot of writing. And I have clients outside of the low carb community, but the work that I do inside the low carb community is what really, really gets me out of bed in the morning.
Dr. Philip Ovadia
I want to circle back because You, when you were talking about your story and had how you had lost weight many times before but would always gain it back. And I think that's such a common story. we hear from people and certainly people that know, my background no, I had the same struggles. And quite frankly, it was Gary Taubes as well for me that got me down this path. So talk a little bit, from your perspective what is it about? What Gary talks about? What is it about kind of low carb and metabolic health, that's been so different for you, that here you are five years later, and still having success with it? I'm a little bit ahead of that I'm about six years in, but same thing that we had tried all of the same things before, probably, we had those same short-term successes, and they never really lasted long term. And then Gary, doesn't really say anything new in his books he didn't discover anything, he just kind of I think just has a such a great way of communicating it and kind of really looking at the history and the science objectively. But what has it been about sort of low carb, do you think that has allowed you to continue to be successful now, all these years later?
Chris Cornell
I know that Gary is a controversial figure because of his proposition that the, that his model works on the basis of the carbohydrate insulin model. And that's a big argument, and there's a lot of science involved. And I don't really think that I paid much attention to that. But there were things in, in what he wrote how he explained how there's something that happens when you eat carbohydrates, and specifically certain kinds of carbohydrates, that, that causes your body to consume more, because your body, your body remains hungry, your, your body is not getting I, I, sometimes I hesitate to try to explain this to people, because I don't completely understand a lot of it. And when I see people with PhDs, arguing as if they don't understand the mechanisms, I separate the mechanism from the reality. But the way Gary explained it was that if I were to get off the carbohydrates, my body could be nourished could receive what it needs to do what it needs. With without being overweight, without driving those calories into fat stores. So exactly the mechanism, I don't know. But you're right, he, he, he explained it in a way. He sold me on the on the concept, but better yet, he didn't just sell me when I tried what he did what he said, it actually worked. And it worked in a way that I could never have imagined. I believe that the foundational element to weight loss is figuring out how to achieve satiety in an effective way how to use that as a lever, and
Jack Heald
Define "satiety."
Chris Cornell
Well, for me, satiety is, it's, it's not it's not just a feeling of fullness. It's a feeling of sadness, satisfaction. Sometimes I was actually amazed a few times early on during this process, it's sometimes it's a euphoric feeling, a feeling of complete almost euphoria about what you've eaten, something that I never experienced before. It a feeling of satisfaction, that but with without any of the without any of the pains associated with eating that I used to experience when I go out to eat at a buffet and I'd sometimes I'd have to race home to get to the bathroom before you know and now eat like something with protein and fat healthy, healthy fats and protein. It's just, it's a feeling of contentment about what you've eaten, and it can last for hours. So actually…
Jack Heald
I've never struggled with weight. How does that feeling - that euphoric satisfaction that you're describing now - with food compared to the before picture? How is that different for you?
Chris Cornell
When you say the before picture, you mean what I felt at that point?
Jack Heald
Before you were able to make this - get a hold of your weight problem and fix it. What was it like to not? When you were when you were eighty pounds overweight? What was your relationship with food then?
Chris Cornell
Oh, I Yeah, it was it was dramatically different, and it was dysfunctional without me really realizing it. I really did not realize what a what a waste of money and time. In addition to sabotaging my own physique, or whatever, I used to go stop into convenience stores. Every time I passed one, to buy another, like three, four or $5 worth of food, I would be I would eat all the time. And, and not huge quantities. But like, if I was working at a desk job, which I did for a number of years, I also ran a business where I was on my feet a lot. there'd always be a bag, or to open, there'd always be chips and in, in candy and soft drinks. And that would alternate between times when I was dieting where I was trying to restrict and maybe it looked a little different. But there was always the opposite of that euphoria I described. It was always like, either I'm eating or I'm hungry, was like an adversarial relationship with food, a love hate relationship. I mean, was it just, well, food was a good word.
I think “adversarial” is probably accurate, I just didn't realize it at the time like, food sabotage to me, in so many ways. I could see it in a smoker who's standing outside of his office on a 12-degree day, smoking a cigarette right outside the front door of his office in the bitter cold and I'd see that as, how can you be so crazy, to be harming your life, while standing out in the freezing cold and smoking a cigarette. But I was essentially doing the same thing, only they allowed me to bring the food into the work eating, eating at your desk all day long. It's costing you money, both in the end time that you're spending wasting to go get it and bring it back.
But more importantly, it's just continuing the cycle of being overweight and being out of shape and harming yourself. So, so the satiety thing for me. It's possible that I, my experience was easier and far better than many. But for me, once I figured out to I, there's so many angles on this. Sure. Eventually, I set up a set of rules, which I keep on a business card sized piece of paper, it's got six bullet points. And those are my nutrition rules. And when I say six points, I mean, they are very concise. It's basically I eat 200 grams of protein a day. I eat 50 to 90 grams of carbohydrates per day. I don't eat after 9pm and I don't eat before 12 Noon. And I do not eat LSE I shouldn't say do not I, I very drastically have reduced my consumption of added sugar, grains and seed oils. So and then the final step is just to always keep nutritious foods available on hand so that I don't have to succumb to the cravings or hunger that would happen if I went out and was like five hours away where I didn't have access to food and I might eat a bunch of junk food so just always having something Good. So those rules are very quick.
Jack Heald
You're describing the kind of rules that I hear people who have dealt with addiction, some sort of addiction, build for themselves in order to protect themselves from their own worst habits. That's what it sounds like to me.
Chris Cornell
Well number one, it's very important to me that I maintain this lifestyle for the rest of my life. And four years in, I have no doubt that that's going to happen, but it is very important. And those rules serve me. Well. The reason why I first created him was because for like, the 20th time on Twitter, someone said, what is it that you do? Can you tell me can you share with me? And I realized that every time someone asked me, I had to think about what it is that I do. And I said this is stupid, I, I should just write them down. And then I can just literally, at this point, now I have the images right on my computer. And if somebody sends a tweet that says what do you do, I literally just cut and paste. And, and I don't care it's not, it's not even sometimes people get bothered by getting asked the same question over and over. Every time I share it, every single time. Other new people get something out of it, because like, they give me feedback it gets feedback,
I don't even sometimes it's just a response, it might get like 510 likes and a couple of comments. But if I post, every, maybe every month or so I'll post it fresh in the Twitter feed. And it gets tons of engagement. And I've had people, people subsequently send me their rules that they created as a result of seeing my rules. And one point that I always try to make is, those are my rules don't, you can look at my rules, you can use them, you can share them, you can make them your own if you want to, but they're not meant as anybody else's rules. Everybody has to figure something out for themselves. But one other thing I learned was, one, when I make the rules, I can then hold myself accountable. And I can measure my progress or my maintenance. And if things continue to go well, then I just stay the course. But if the way if I started…
Jack Heald
He said something really powerful - actually said a couple of really powerful things there that I want to highlight. What you discovered that if you made the rules, you can hold yourself accountable for following them. Did I hear that right?
Chris Cornell
Absolutely.
Jack Heald
That seems like a really powerful insight. Is it possible that the reason you were unable to follow through in the past is because it was somebody else's rules?
Chris Cornell
I wish that were the case. Well, if the rules aren't working, there's two reasons, two potential reasons or a combination of the two. It's either one, you're not following them. Or two, there's something wrong with them. And so and so you just have to be honest with yourself and say, is the reason why they're not having the results that I want. Because I'm not following them. And I'm pretty honest with myself, I know, I have I've developed rules for my fitness, and I've started some rules for other areas in my life. But I'm pretty honest with myself, I think most of the time, I've become a lot more honest with myself, the more the more you enjoy success, the more you realize what you're capable of. You can afford to be more honest you just know that lying to yourself.
Jack Heald
I just keep hearing these gyms. I'm glad this is recorded because I go back and listen to it. The more you excuse me, the more you succeed, the more you feel like you can succeed. I think that's basically what I heard you say? There's no doubt about it, the more you believe in your own success, the success
Dr. Philip Ovadia
and definitely I think one of the other things that kind of stands out about what Chris is saying is what resonates with me as well. And, and I tried to communicate in the book is that I can't tell you even as a physician when I'm working with my patients I always say I'm not here to tell you what to do. I'm here to help you figure out what's going to work for you. And again, when I wrote the book I didn't give Dr. Ovadia’s 28 Day Diet Plan, because Dr. Ovadia’s plan only works for Dr. Vt I tried to set up a framework that people can within that framework, find what's going to work for them? And that's what I do.
Jack Heald
Isn't that kind of a different approach? I mean, you understand what I'm asking? And
Dr. Philip Ovadia
it's very, I think it is different than what the medical system traditionally strives to do where we have this view, that you need someone to tell you what to do I need those rules the, the US Dietary Guidelines whatever they are, but what I find works best for most people, and I think this is what Chris is getting at, is that you need to find what works for you. But there is those, I guess the kind of metal rules that we know that eating processed food is not going to work for anyone pretty much. But within I think the health, the metabolic health space there is a lot of different things that may work. And ultimately everyone needs to find what works for them. And but there are sort of commonalities that work for most people or a lot of people.
Jack Heald
That's, that's what I'm hearing, that's what I'm driving out at is, is what is it that happens inside a person that, that transforms them internally, that then cascades into that external trend for transformation? And it sounds to me like, that's really the pivot point. I know your story, doctor, oh, and Chris, hearing your story, something happened. Something and it wasn't just I got it up and forced myself through. And to finally be caught through sheer willpower, willed myself into this transformation. It's almost always something almost an aha moment and epiphany. I didn't realize this. And now I know it. That's, that's what I'm hearing.
Chris Cornell
Yeah, well, wait, you asked a question a few moments ago about, about the rules. And if it was, that I wrote them, if that made the difference, I think it comes back to those two points that I that I was talking about. It's, um, if the rules are wrong, it doesn't really matter who wrote them. If they can't work, they're not going to work for anybody. And unfortunately, millions of us have tried to lose weight using a set of rules that simply don't work for us. Now, just because there are people out there that claim that they can, and I'm, maybe I'm sounding a little too cynical, that the if you if you lose weight by counting calories, and that works for you, that is fine. I have no qualms with that for someone else. But it never worked for me. And I'm gathering it never worked for Phil, and it never worked for. I mean, I've met now, I mean, scores of people who have lost 40 5080 pounds or more. And for most of them, it didn't work for them either.
So the rules have to be workable. And then you can deal with the adherence part. And, and there's nothing more debilitating than being told that the reason why you're failing is because you just don't have enough discipline or enough willpower. Because you're, you're trying you're and here's people who, in this world who are incredibly successful at doing the most high pressure, complicated, difficult things, and yet they're 100 pounds overweight. How do you explain that? Like, why is it that that's the one thing that they don't have any sort of discipline or self-control like, like, do they have control or not it's like, they just don't know, the right way to do it. And I do believe I know that the journey is more difficult for some people than others. But I do believe that there is a path, a set of rules that would work for most people. I guess the definition of you know how well, some people are going to struggle more than others, but And I and I don't, this set of rules, this this process is literally keeps me up at night sometimes trying to figure out how I can get better at sharing this process with other people.
And that's why I like working with some of these practitioners who have figured it out. Because I anytime that I help a practitioner who's helping people, especially when they're doing it at scale, like helping people get this knowledge, it makes me feel good. It makes me feel like my life has purpose. I, I just enjoy helping push this community forward. But I also, I'm always asked, I do a lot of interviews, I write a lot of articles. And I talked to a lot of people that have a lot of knowledge, like I've interviewed Phil, I've interviewed a lot of these doctors, nurse practitioners, dieticians. And every time that I talked to a practitioner, I asked them, how, how would you get through? What information would you use to, to turn that switch in somebody that can't figure it out, because it's not a one size fits all set of rules, but there's got to be some sort of uniform, underlying principles that we can use to, to make help people get those changes.
But I've also learned from this whole process of weight loss, for me, has spilled over into the fitness, you mentioned my fitness earlier, I used a lot of the same principles that I that I learned in my weight loss journey. And I've just kind of moved over into the fitness part. And instead of asking a obesity medicine doctor, his thoughts, I'll ask a trainer or somebody that's a bodybuilder or somebody that that has succeeded in I've, I've gotten I've gotten help from marathon runners, ultra-marathon runners, have gotten advice that has been incredibly valuable. And, and so that's sort of what led to my, my little 5k journey last year, but I've already signed up for my first half marathon in October. So I would love to be, I would love to be able to, say run a half marathon in a respectable time for 58-year-old man, which because that's how old I'll be. And bench-press 300 pounds in the same month, that would be a goal for me for this fall.
Jack Heald
What would 49-year-old you have thought if they could see 58-year-old you?
Chris Cornell
He would have been pretty surprised maybe even disbelieving in a lot of ways. Honestly, 49-year-old me wouldn't have even been able to carry on this conversation without a great deal of hardship. Um, I had a definite fear of public speaking, I realized that here, I'm just really talking to you guys directly. But I wouldn't have felt that way about getting on a podcast, I would have definitely imagined the 1000s of people that that listen to this podcast, and it would have, it would have struck fear into my heart. So and a lot of the progress that I've made in terms of my ability to communicate my ideas, both in terms of my weekly email and coming on this podcast, have been a direct result of the improvements that I've made that started with that book four years ago.
Jack Heald
Well, I do think it's important, we'll make sure that we link Gary Taubes book “Good Calories, Bad Calories.”
Dr. Philip Ovadia
So it's actually kind of the same book why we get fat, calories, bad calories, good calories, bad calories was sort of the, the in-depth science scientific tome on the subject, and then he kind of condensed it down into why we get fat.
Jack Heald
Okay, we'll make sure we link that in the show notes. I'm fascinated with the kinds of mental psychological, emotional, spiritual transformations that inevitably seem to result when people make these kinds of physical changes. Talk about the other kinds of, of transformations aside from the physical aside from the self-perception. Where else did you see positive transformation
Chris Cornell
Oh, well physical and the weight of the, my I writing is my is a large part of my, of my career, I've, I've used some of the same strategies that I've learned from the fitness and the weight loss to, to set up rules to make myself a better writer putting that weekly email together that I've pretty much I had one three week hiatus last summer, but I've put out 90 weekly emails. And it's just a rule that I have. It's, it's helped me immensely it helped me. It's sort of like a journal for me. But I share it with 1000 people. And I get feedback. Feedback is incredible.
For personal growth sharing being authentic in all aspects of your life. And then you, you get people to make suggestions to ask questions, questions are the probably the most valuable thing that that I used to shy away from questions, but questions? Are this the best tool that you can have people ask you why you do something? And either you explain it to him easily because or you don't know, and now you've got to stop for a minute and say, why am I doing that? And, and the more times I answer questions about what I'm doing, the more I learn, number one, what I might have been doing wrong, because a lot of times a simple question yields a discovery on my part that, that I didn't really know why I was doing something, the way I was doing it. And somebody says why are you eating that much protein? If I don't know the answer, I better figure it out. And it's, it's just, it's just endless. It, this, it's just really this idea that that you that there's really no limitations, some people, some people may me never, never felt those limitations that I felt, but I'm at age 51, 50 53, I'd say I a certain thing went off in my head, like that said I've, I've been limiting myself and, and there really shouldn't be any boundaries.
And some of that also went with the with the whole mortality thing, when you get a cancer diagnosis, and you a lot of people are afraid of failure, afraid of fear. Like, that's a limiter for them. And what most of most, most of that is from like, a fear of embarrassment, a fear of rejection, a fear of other people knowing that you didn't succeed at something, once you put it out there, and you make yourself vulnerable. It's over, it's, I mean, in a good way, it's like, okay, I just got over that hurdle, I've just embarrassed myself now, forget about it, let's, let's go succeed. That's, that's my attitude. So I'm no longer worried about, about that your, your days are numbered, here, you've got a certain number of, of sunsets and sunrises left in your life, you don't know how many, but make the most of it and try to score as many successes as you can. And also it causes you to shift your priorities quite a bit things like family and friends, and your faith become more important and superficial, things become less important. But a lot of the things that I that I chase are related to those things anyway.
Dr. Philip Ovadia
Yeah, talk a little bit more about what the influence has been of your journey on your family on those close to you the more and more I've worked with the individual patients that I work with, but also working now with businesses and organizations as a whole, as I do you really see how this spreads this is infectious, it's very rare that I help just one person. And more commonly what I see is I'm helping the patient that I'm taking care of, and then they're coming back and say my kid is now doing this or my wife is now doing this, or my siblings are now doing this. So what has the influence been of your journey on your family, your friends, those close to you?
Chris Cornell
Ah, it's all it's been incredibly positive. I gotta say, my wife Like really, really helped me through the cancer in a huge way. She like, usually like if somebody, if you get cancer, you ask a lot of questions of your doctor and you do a lot of Google searches and stuff like that. I didn't have to google anything. Because I would have just been wasting my time my wife Googled, every single thing you could imagine about my cancer, she asked questions, she told me what questions I should consider asking my doctor. And she was immensely helpful and supportive through it. And then I remember the first day after treatment the two of us had been running before my cancer diagnosis and went for a run with my wife. And I couldn't run a mile. And she offered to wait. And I told her to go, go run ahead, and I was kind of bummed out. But then I told myself that barring some unforeseen thing, I would never ever decline to go out for a run with her when she asked if I wanted to go for a run I'm never gonna turn down that opportunity.
Again, the two of us went running three times a week until, not only could I run a mile, but I was able to run five, six miles. I mean, I was pretty wiped out after that cancer, the radiation and chemo. But anyway, this is a long way of getting around to the, to your question, Phil, about family. It's, it's , it's so incredibly important to have the support of your family. And it also makes you at the same time realize how important it is to be supportive. And I have heard practitioner, say so many times that, especially when it comes to weight loss, that the lack of support, or, or worse, antagonism around weight loss from family members is one of the determinants of success. It's really hard to succeed at losing weight, if you have other people in your family that are that are not supportive, or actually antagonizing your efforts. And it's pretty common. I've talked to a lot of people who do not have the blessing of the support that I've had. My, my wife is supportive. My kids have been nothing but encouraging during my journey, both with the cancer and the weight loss. And I don't know, I did I did I answer your question adequately? Phil?
Dr. Philip Ovadia
Yeah, I think that was a great answer. And I think it largely matches up with what I see the people who are successful, certainly has the support of those around them, and usually end up influencing those around them as well. And unfortunately, for some people the people around them kind of tend to sabotage them. And that's really hard to overcome.
Jack Heald
Wow. Well, it's so I, I try to take a theme from every episode. And youth. On the one hand, it's going to sound cliche, but on the other hand, you embody it. And I think the theme is, you can do it. If you make the rules, because with you with your own rules, you can stick to the rules you make for yourself. I, I didn't say that well, but, but that resonates with me, a completely different area in my life. I made some rules for myself 10 years ago, 11 years ago. And because they were rules I made for myself, I almost never don't follow those rules. And we're not we're talking about something that's challenging. That was challenging for me a lifetime of following the rules I've made for myself make it easier every day. But yeah, and I think that I think that was a profound insight.
Dr. Philip Ovadia
I think so. And I think it fits in with one of the themes of this podcast, which has been that everyone has the power within themselves to make these changes to take back control of their health and to guide themselves to better health and better life. So I think that's, that sums it up. Well Chris, let us know, let everyone know where they can follow you. I certainly encourage everyone to sign up for your newsletter. It's a great weekly read I enjoy, and I look forward to receiving it each week. So please let everyone know you know best place to find you best place to follow you and how they can sign up for the newsletter.
Chris Cornell
It's pretty easy I'm on Twitter a lot and my handle is BIGGEST COMEBACK. And the link to subscribe to my email is right in my Twitter bio. And anybody that subscribes to my email will receive emails from my personal email account and you're free to reach me sending email to that address. So that is a very easy way for anybody to get in touch with me and follow me but also ask questions or whatever they wish
Jack Heald
I have a suspicion you're going to get a lot of traffic here in the next couple of weeks after this podcast lands. Chris really good conversation thank you for your time and sharing those things. That's good stuff. Doctor O, anything you want to finish with?
Dr. Philip Ovadia
No, just I just want to take another chance to thank the audience out there we've really been making some great strides with this podcast I really excited to see you know how it's grown, and I really value that so many people are taking the time to listen to it each week.
Jack Heald
And you guys are making a difference. You guys are really making a difference
All right. Well, that's Chris Cornell at... I'm sorry, BIGGEST COMEBACK DOT COM and on Twitter @BIGGESTCOMEBACK. And for Dr. Ovadia you can follow him @Ifixhearts. His website is OvadiaHeartHealth.com.
I'm Jack Heald for the Stay Off My Operating Table podcast, and we will talk to you next week.