Whey of Life
Whey of Life
#79 - Beyond the Gym: Living a Fit Life
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Fitness isn't a temporary fix or punishment but a mindset shift and way of life that requires looking beyond conventional gym culture. We need to transform our perspective on physical activity from a chore to an integral part of our daily existence, focusing on small, sustainable changes rather than quick fixes.
• American infrastructure isn't designed for naturally active lifestyles, making conscious effort necessary
• Many view fitness as "earning food" or punishment for bad habits—both approaches fail long-term
• Replace one sedentary routine with a movement-based one (taking stairs, standing during calls)
• View food as nourishment rather than restriction
• Add one protein-rich food while cutting something unhealthy from your daily routine
• Speak to yourself with compassion instead of criticism
• Draw inspiration from blue zones, farming practices, martial arts, and other cultural approaches
• Make fitness fun by connecting it to your interests and social connections
• Adapt your approach based on your circumstances—limited gym access doesn't mean you can't be fit
• Focus on being a fit person rather than trying to get fit
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Welcome Back and Podcast Growth
Speaker 1Hey everybody and welcome to another episode of Way of Life . I'm your host , gus Holland . I want to do , per usual , a big shout out to everybody that's been supporting the podcast . It has been growing , even since that last little episode that I put out just as a kind of like a welcome back kind of episode . It is now I know some of the stats are coming from people with VPNs and everything like that , but it's reached over to this date , over 516 cities across the world . Like , I think I'd have to look at the stats , but I think it's like over 50 countries , maybe 60 countries , I'm not sure , but it's really cool .
Speaker 1I'm a very analytical person , so it's really cool for me , or really cool to me , to be able to see all of that stuff . It's pretty wild , but , um , yeah , so we're , we're back with full episodes from here on out , um , every Wednesday , like I said , um , I'm going to try and actually I'm 100% not going to have any type of filler content , fake hype , anything like that , any of the BS you see on TikTok . I love TikTok to a point , but it's kind of gotten out of hand and it might just be from doom scrolling , but it's like you get burnt out with people . It almost feels like people are jerking around like buy this , no , buy this , oh , you need to do this instead of that , and blah , blah , blah , and it's really kind of we've gotten to the peak of consumerism , I believe , to the point where everybody's kind of just getting burnt out on it . There's always like , no matter what you do , there's always something . Or well , within the eyes of those types of communities that have gotten kind of toxic , there's always something you did wrong , like I mean , you could post that you were so excited that you lost 100 pounds over the past year , or two years , or three years , whatever . And there's going to be a bunch of people in there saying how , oh , it would have been faster if you did this . Or , oh well , you did this one thing a certain way and that's unhealthy , or whatever . Anyways , I'm not trying to get on here and rant , um , but my point is is uh , if you're still subscribed , um , I I owe you major , so I'm super grateful .
Speaker 1Um , from here , the show is about lifting weights , obviously , but not just lifting weights . So the point of the show is to kind of lift everyone's spirits in a sense . We want success inside and outside of the gym , of the gym . Eventually , I'd like to just uh strong men and um uh fighters and all kinds of different people , people that own gyms , um to kind of talk about the business aspect of that and also get kind of like a behind the behind the scenes look at either owning a gym or how they got to that point or anything like that . Um , so we're going to have we're definitely going to have a uh mixed martial artists on uh in the upcoming episodes , as well as a um strong performance strong man . He's been on the podcast before John Well . Actually both of he's been on the podcast before John Well . Actually both of those guys have been on the podcast before um John Walsh and um Brian Sherma horn . I hope I said his name correct . I'm sorry about that if I didn't , but um , yeah , yeah , I've also got um been in talks with someone that makes custom lifting implements , such as circus dumbbells and all kinds of stuff like that . I'm excited to get that person on the podcast to also talk about his business . I mean , he does other things , but he's a metal worker , so I'd like to see how he got there , what his plans are in the future . Et cetera are in the future , you know , et cetera .
Speaker 1My point is is that the episodes are going to be really cool and we're going to get back to interviewing some people that are very , very interesting individuals . Anyways , to start off , start this episode and get to the actual
The Toxicity of Online Fitness Culture
Speaker 1meat of it . We're going to be talking about training beyond the gym . So a lot of people have reached out over the years and they've said , oh well , what if I don't have this type of equipment ? What if I don't have access to a gym ? What if I'm limited on time ? There's a million what ifs and everything like that .
Speaker 1And if someone's reaching out , those aren't excuses . That's actually things that are in their way and they're actually trying to better themselves . It's different if you talk to a buddy that's out of shape and he's got a million excuses and you brought it up . But if people are reaching out to me or to others and asking for some sort of guidance or maybe a tip or a trick or something like that , they're actively seeking a solution , a solution , um . But my point , what I'm getting to is , uh , that fitness isn't a hobby . Um , it's not a punishment . It's not about getting a six pack , um , it's . It's a whole different like perspective and it's a way of life you know , it's a way of existing in the world , so it's kind of it's an every single day type of thing .
Speaker 1Basically , if you took away gym memberships and all the special clothing , special supplements , um , any of the hype that you're seeing on TikTok where they're pushing you in certain directions or well , you know one way or the other , would you still be ? Would you still be living a fit lifestyle , like a healthy lifestyle ? So the goal , the overall goal of this podcast , is to make a massive overall change to the culture . Whether that's worldwide , or it's just America or the United States , or if it's just Texas you know what have you but or even if it's just my local community , there needs to be a big perspective shift around how fitness is perceived . People , in America at least , see it as a chore for the most part . I mean , there's avid gym goers , don't get me wrong , or anything , but overall people are like oh , I need to lose weight , I've got to go work out , I've got to do this , blah , blah , blah . And it's seen as like a massive temporary imposition that is just gonna like be negative for them . But in reality it's like you just need to like focus on eating a little bit better and focus on being a little bit more active and everything .
Speaker 1I mean everywhere I , everywhere I've lived in Texas it is not Walker friendly , like you can't walk to , you can't really walk to the store , you can't really walk to work , you know things like that . You can't . There's not a lot of , uh , bicycle lanes , there's not a lot of infrastructure built around , that Like , if you go to go to um so I've been to scotland as an example you go to scotland . Uh , at least in the cities you can walk pretty much everywhere , um , and everything's kind of within a you know a reasonable distance . Um , their public transportation is is massive over there . So there's , you get too tired of walking . You can hop on a bus or you know whatever . There's a , there's a lot of options and so it's a little bit more conducive to a healthier
Future Guests and Show Direction
Speaker 1lifestyle . So at least in Texas , uh , we drive everywhere . You , if you're , if you have a long driveway , you drive down to check the mail and you drive back .
Speaker 1You know like it's , it's crazy , but um , so really like , as far as fitness goes , it's just that mindset shift of oh , this isn't that mindset shift of oh , this isn't like a pain for me . This is something that's going to like change my life for the better and I just need to change like a couple small aspects here and there . You know , instead of , oh , I got to go to the gym every day for five or six or seven days and I need to follow this exact certain diet , and blah , blah , blah , and then you either burn yourself out or you get upset about it because maybe you're not seeing results right away or it's overcomplicated . There's a lot of different reasons . But we need to get that shift going , like whatever . Whatever it takes you , whatever it takes for you to like make that shift in your mind . Like maybe you just need to sit down and just think about it .
Speaker 1Like , to be honest , is we're kind of like overstimulated with like bullshit knowledge on social media . That's just people talking . You know they're just talking and talking and talking and nobody's ever really like making any progress for , uh , for themselves or anybody else on social media . It's kind of like , by my course , uh , do this , here's some tips and tricks to blah , blah , and like it's always steering you in a certain way . But , um , I mean , I've , I've been as far as fitness goes .
Speaker 1I've been like up down and all around , um , I've played sports when I was a kid and I've went through a phase in childhood like teenager years and all that where I didn't play sports . But I've always had massive interest in weightlifting because of growing up with my dad being a bodybuilder and all that stuff . A bodybuilder and all that stuff Um , but I've kind of I went through that to being in such a , you know , tight financial spot where , like , I couldn't afford a gym , couldn't afford good , uh good food or clothes or or anything like that . It it was . It was super rough and kind of like .
Speaker 1That's also a perspective thing . It's like , oh , now I've got to just focus on , you know , either getting a better job or getting a better living situation or , you know , whatever that takes to be able to , you know , feel like I'm not just surviving anymore so I can actually , um , focus , you know , do things that I like , like lift weights , you know , like , if you're not , if you're , it's kind of kind of like those survival shows where they're like they're trying to survive out in the wilderness and everything , you're not going to be out there just working out on camera while everybody's like , no , you're , it's , it adapts to the situation you're in . So if you can't afford food , you know , focus on the job . Obviously , don't focus on the gym . You know , like I don't know if that's that's . You know like I don't know if that's that's . If you like going to the gym and you can afford it , go , obviously I'm .
Speaker 1One of my point is that different situations call for different perspectives . You know , um , you know that I . But anyways , back back to to my stories . Like I started being got to a point where I could afford , uh , regular meals and things like that , and then I was like , oh well , I still can't afford a gym membership . So what if I ? You know , the next place I rent , I'll try and see . You know , get a place that's in my budget , but try and try and get one that has a gym . You know that I can have access to , and that's that's what I did .
Speaker 1You know , for like two or three years I had an apartment that had , within the complex , had a very crappy but a very crappy gym , but it had a gym and it was better than nothing . So , um , yeah , I spammed lat pull downs a lot because , you know , you can . There's only so much you can do with all that . But , um , given my knowledge now , there's a whole bunch you can do with just body weight exercises and stuff like that . But anyways , but yeah , and so then I got , went through a phase recently or it's called a phase , you know , whatever .
Speaker 1It's basically that , that time period
Training Beyond the Gym
Speaker 1where I was doing Amateur Strongman . That was literally just because I like it sounds crappy , but because I've always wanted to try and stay lean and muscular and I didn't have for a time period I had an interest in being a bodybuilder . I thought it was so cool , cool and it was mainly because of my dad and everything , and I like thought about competing and all this and that I decided later on that I didn't want to do that . Um , I , you know , like I support , support all of that , but like that's not something that I want to do with my body . And so , um , went through through that kind of phase and then got to where I was working way way too much , um , and putting myself and my family in a in a big like tight spot , not not financially but just as far as my time goes , and just working so many hours . You just come home , go to sleep and then go back to work , you know , then obviously you can't , can't gym and do all that stuff then either .
Speaker 1So , anyways , I ended up gaining a lot of weight and I was like , well , I've always been curious about strongman and here's this strongman competition that kind of fell into my lap and all that . And so I went and competed my first amateur strongman competition at the Ronnie Coleman Classic , and that did not go well , but I was the most amateur of amateurs . I have a lot of lifting experience , so I'd never touched a strongman implement and so when I signed up as a novice , I was a very , very true novice . I hadn't even seen a competition , except for what was on ESPN , but I've never , had never , been to one in person , which . So if anybody's interested in that training , training strongman or anything like that go , go watch some competitions in person , go , put your hands on the actual implements and everything , and you'll have much , much greater success than I did . Um , I placed last , obviously , um , but I , I wasn't ashamed of my performance , uh , but I did not like how it turned out . And um , yeah , it was . It was all right , you know , but it's a learning , a learning moment , and I , it was something that I'm , I'm happy that I , you know . You know , like , in hindsight , I'm happy that I did um , but anyways , um but anyways .
Speaker 1But fitness in general , it just needs to be a lifestyle . It's not a 12 week program or an 8 week program or whatever they try and sell you online . Like you . Still , whatever it's like your diet , you know you need to form it to what you can comfortably , what you can do and what you can enjoy while still being healthy . You know now , where the discomfort comes in is because of that . That's what I was trying to get to back when I was talking about , uh , certain environments not being conducive to , uh , naturally healthy lifestyles and everything .
Speaker 1Um , so the the reason that working out or or going out of your way to be fit seems like a big deal and it's frustrating and , you know , potentially scary for you or whatever , is because it's , um , it's not something that feels natural , because you , in your situation , you're not like set up for that to be a natural thing for you . You know , maybe , maybe you grew up with , you know like , nobody that you knew worked out , you know . So it's actually a weird , kind of a weird thing for you and you feel you might feel uncomfortable or you know you , who knows it's I . I can definitely see how it could be , um , intimidating for sure , either either the gym or just like changing your lifestyle in that direction and at all you know . Um , so , anyways , I'm always here . Uh , if you're , if you're a listener of the podcast , you can always reach out to me . Um , I best bets is the comments . Um , I'll always do my best to to help you or to motivate you and steer you in the right direction . Obviously , I'm not a doctor . I don't sell any training courses or dietitian framework or anything like that , but I can at least give you , give you a push somewhere .
Speaker 1But a lot of people ,
Fitness as a Lifestyle, Not a Chore
Speaker 1as far as the view of fitness goes , there's a lot of people that that see fitness as like their grind to earn food . They almost see it as like oh well , I spent 30 minutes on the treadmill , so yeah , I can eat this ice cream or whatever and whatever . You know , it's kind of one of those deals where it's like whatever works for you . But I wouldn't necessarily say that that's like a healthy mindset , you know , like you can definitely reward yourself , but sometimes it's kind of like if the reward is bad , like , say it's bad for you , then it's . If you're burning 400 calories doing cardio and then you come eat 1,000 calories of ice cream , you're probably better off just not eating the ice cream and not working out , you know ?
Speaker 1Um , so it needs to be obviously proportional , or maybe you can even find some , something that's healthy or or good for you , that is , that you set up as your reward Um's like food , food wise , or I mean , you're , you're not a dog , like you don't need to be rewarded with a treat , like a damn , like a dog , like with a piece of food . Um , you're , you're a human and you need to just sometimes do the work . You know , like the , the gym is there to replicate the fitness that you're supposed to like naturally accumulate , but because of the way society is set up , currently , almost nobody actually naturally gets fit , so it's also not a quick fix for aesthetics . Um , maybe , I mean , unless you're , unless you live like a super , like healthy lifestyle already , and you're like I just need to lose . You know , I want to lose five pounds for the beach or whatever , like yeah , then okay , ramp it up or whatever , but the uh and that you know that would be a quick fix . But as far as like if you're trying to go from 30 pounds overweight to having a six-pack . If you're trying to go from 30 pounds overweight to having a six-pack , it's unreasonable to do in a super quick amount of time . But I see that every day , all day , is people selling courses to gullible people or people in denial that want to have these quick changes . It's like the whole get rich quick schemes . It's all the same . It's just either out of denial or desperation or laziness , you're wanting a quick fix and that's not what the fitness is .
Speaker 1And then some other people , they actually see it as a punishment for bad habits . So that is not . I guess , technically that would get you in the gym more often , you know , because everybody has bad habits or bad things you do in life or whatever , but it fails a long time . All of these things fail a long time . But the punishment for bad habits , one that's like , I guess , like subconsciously , almost allowing yourself to do the bad thing because you're going to get punished for it later . It's like just don't do the bad thing . You know , if you're in a constant cycle of like I mean eating junk food every time I eat a cheeseburger , I got to go to the gym because I need to burn it off and blah , blah , blah . It's like , yeah , you can just not eat the cheeseburger , I mean , you know , or whatever , you know , whatever it is . Not eat the fast food and just go to the gym , or don't go to the gym , you know whatever .
Speaker 1At that point , um , my point is is that the punishment for bad habits does not last long term because you're uh , it's a vicious cycle of doing good and then doing bad , and then doing good and doing bad , and you're typically with that kind of uh , lifestyle or perspective or whatever . You end up not seeing any change , or maybe you're still drifting toward the negative repercussions of those actions . Maybe you're still gaining weight , but you're only gaining like half a pound every month . So then you don't realize that you know you're out of shape by at the end of the year and all you did was beat yourself up . Um , but basically , back to that fitness as a culture or a way of life or a way of being , that framework um of life or way of being that framework um .
Speaker 1You is like a good way to look at it is like movement . Everyone has daily rituals , you know , like maybe it's coffee or , I would say most people use some form of caffeine during the day because they think it gives them energy , and it really doesn't give you energy . It just kind of like forces your body to start spending it faster . Um , but anyway , anyways , I digress . But , um , forming fitness into being like a piece of your culture or , like your , your core ideology is key . So , like movement , um , as a daily ritual . So , instead of like cardio being a punishment , you're like , oh well , um , from anytime I go to this store to get you know , to stock up on my makeup or whatever's close to you , maybe it's to buy a gallon of milk or whatever . I'm just going to walk there . Yeah , it's two miles , but I'm just going to walk there , and obviously do it during daylight , as long as it's safe , and all that stuff . But just introducing little things into your life that become rituals
Changing Your Mindset About Fitness
Speaker 1, preferably daily rituals , that's like the best way to do it .
Speaker 1I hate cardio like a hundred percent , and it's it is tied to bad experiences , experiences I've had in sports that are also it's also tied that you know , it's all tied to my lung issues , um , and so I was like , well , what's a good way that I can like quit looking at cardio as like a punishment or having to do something . I hate and blah , blah , blah . And I really don't have to do cardio , but it's a great way to burn fat and it's a great way to burn uh , stress and you name it . You know there's a , it's it helps , so I'm going to do it . So I have a stationary bike in the garage and I just say , hey , well , here's a perfect window where my kids are asleep and my wife loves to read I love to read too , but she really loves to read and so here's a perfect window , the kids will be asleep , she can read .
Speaker 1I can go out into the garage and I'm going to do like a HIIT style , you know , high intensity , interval training style workout on the stationary bike and while varying the resistance . And so while I'm out there , I'll watch something on my phone you know , some episode of something that my wife isn't interested in or listen to an audio book that I have downloaded , or some music or whatever and just knock out 30 minutes of like hit cardio and why , why overcomplicate it as far as like scheduling and all that , just for me personally , I'm like I'm going to do this every night , every night , like seven days a week , I'm going to go do 30 minutes of that , no matter , I mean , unless I'm sick or something , but like no matter what else , like no matter of my weight training schedule , no matter of anything that's at nighttime I'm always home at night now , so do that and that's your ritual , and it's really not that bad . I get to enjoy some , uh , you know , a , uh , a show that I like , or audio book or music or whatever . That's actually the plus . It's like , oh you , you get some extra time , uh , to enjoy some media that you , you like or whatever .
Speaker 1Um , you can also look at food as nourishment instead of like a restriction . So you're saying , oh well , I hear a lot like with the keto and everything , I can't eat bread , I can't , blah , blah , blah . And like they're saying it like it's a punishment or like they're like some prisoner to their diet or something like that . And one if you don't , I mean and it works for people for sure Like I'm not knocking it at all , but it's like if you don't have a gluten intolerance or celiac disease or some very immediate issue with your heart health or you know something like that , like bread here and there is not going heart health or you know something like that , like like bread here and there is not going to kill you , you know it's , but , um , it needs to be seen as nourishment , you know . So you need to . You need to form a diet that you love and that and that is also good for you . So , obviously , if you feel like way better when you don't have bread , maybe don't do bread , you know , uh , whatever that is , or maybe it's just everything in moderation .
Speaker 1You know just a simple basic principle of uh , controlling your eating habits and everything . Just say , hey , well , yeah , okay , I'm not eating this healthy thing . The big thing is overeating . You're like , well , I'm not overeating , but now , because I'm controlling this , I'm not feeling as bloated or I'm not getting as sick as often . You name it . Whatever the benefit is , you can see it as the bonus and how . It's not either a restriction or something to be upset about .
Speaker 1But that's all part of the mindset shift that I'm kind of getting at is to be a fit person , versus trying to get fit or trying to be better or trying to eat better or whatever . Just know you're a fit person , you're a person that takes care of themselves and you're happy about taking care of yourself . So that's kind of like a self-love thing . It's the same as like talking to . So I used to have , I mean , I still struggle with , you know , body image issues and all that or whatever , like most people do , but like I used to , just in my head I wouldn't say it out loud , but , like you know , walk past , get out of the shower , walk past the mirror and , when I was overweight , be like , oh you fat piece of shit , like this is fucking gross . You know , like this is fucking gross . You know , like what are you doing ? You know , and just be super . I mean I would talk to myself internally worse than I would talk to almost any person in the world , you know , and that's not the way you should go about taking care of yourself .
Speaker 1So , anyways , the other thing , if you're , if you're interested in , in learning about diet and exercise and everything . I know I've touched a lot about exercise in this podcast and not so much about diets . It's mainly because , um , not not that it doesn't interest me , it's just I am less versed in , uh , in the nutrition side of things . I would say I eat a pretty healthy diet , but I'm not as comfortable giving nutritional advice . But , anyways , something really interesting that you can look into are things like blue zones or farming practices , even martial arts rituals , like different real-world examples of different types of cultures and individuals who embody some form of like fit lifestyle or have some sort of outlier that really sticks out from normal society . And you can even like , make it fun , like , oh well , yeah , you know , on Wednesdays I do jujitsu and I go hang out with these guys at this jujitsu gym and blah , blah , blah , and then on Friday I have a little free time during work and I study about jujitsu or study about or we watch old kung fu movies or what you know . Like you can do . You know , just , you need to make it fun for yourself .
Speaker 1Basically , um but um , as far as like actionable takeaways from this , I mean you can ,
Daily Rituals and Actionable Tips
Speaker 1you could replace one sedentary routine that you have with a movement-based one . So like when you wake up in the morning and you're all groggy and stuff and you go get coffee and you're like , oh well , I'm just going to do a little bit of stretching while my coffee brews . Or , instead of taking the elevator at work , I'm going to take the stairs from now on , or each time I take a phone call , I'm going to stand or I'm gonna maybe pace a little bit instead of sitting there at my desk all day . Things like that is it's like super small and you . It won't maybe won't necessarily make you lose a bunch of weight or anything like that , but it's going to slowly start shifting your mindset to where , if you keep doing little things like that , by a year or two from now , you'll be like a whole different person person .
Speaker 1But another thing is you could add , you know , pick one protein rich food and try to start adding it to your meals while cutting something unhealthy out from your day . So if you , maybe every day when you come home from work , you grab a bag of chips and you're like , well , it's not that bad they're , you know , zero trans fat . You know whatever the trickery is on the labeling that gets you to justify it , or whatever you say , well , instead of eating the chips every day , when I come home , I'm going to eat this certain portion of beef jerky , or I'll get some healthy nonfat Greek yogurt and add some honey to it , or whatever you need to do . But little things like that are going to be massive in the long run . But fitness is not something that you just start and stop . It's who you are . It's what you like to do every single day .
Speaker 1Now , to wrap all this up , I want to give you so much love and appreciation once again for supporting this podcast . Like I said , next week we should be having one of those guests on the podcast , and I'm super excited to talk with them and see what's new that's going on with them and pick their brain about their past , present and future . Basically , if you enjoyed this podcast , the number one way to help is to share it with a friend , and the second best , and probably equally good
Episode Wrap-up and Call to Action
Speaker 1option is to rate and review it . All of those things really help the podcast . And yeah , I guess that's about it . Thank you all so much If you stuck through the episode . I love you and I'll talk to you later . All right , bye .
