Exercise: The Sixth Pillar of THRIVE for Health and Wellness

In this episode of The Erik and Matt Show, Dr. Erik Axene and Matt Ball emphasize the importance of consistent exercise and forming healthy habits tailored for first responders. They delve into practical strategies for breaking through fitness plateaus, building discipline, and leveraging community support to stay motivated and achieve lasting results.

Transcript

Erik: [00:00:00] This, this is the, this is the podcast that really, this is where the rubber meets the road. 

Matt: Ties it all together.

Narrator: You are listening to EMS. With your hosts, Erik Axene and Matt Ball.  

Matt: So we've talked about all through the THRIVE acronym for overall health and wellness. Uh, so if you follow the podcast, you like our page, make sure to subscribe to our page so you can get [00:00:30] notified when we. Have a new podcast come out and hit the like button that helps us out Um, so now yeah, we're going to talk about the rubber meets the road with podcasts and we I have used this term several times throughout these different segments and all of these ideas are health and wellness.

The concept is simple. The application is not easy. We've said that numerous times, right?

Erik:  Simple and easy. Aren't the same thing, correct? It is very simple. Yeah. Not easy. Yeah. Yeah. I [00:01:00] love that. That you said that. Cause that, that really sums it all up. Most of the health that we desire. Uh, is pretty simple, like people, I believe, like to make it more complicated.

Matt: Oh, for sure. 

Erik: You know, cause it 

Matt: makes them look important 

Erik: and it sells more stuff. 

Matt: Exactly. Yes. It goes back to money. 

Erik: Yeah. But I think, I think that the, the, the health that we all desire, that longevity we were shooting for, right? The, the, the ability to thrive in life and enjoy life and, and to live a clean life and, and [00:01:30] to, to feel like you're taking good care of your body.

We don't want to hurt ourselves. Right. Absolutely. Um, if you do want to hurt yourself, you should probably see a psychiatrist, but it's important to talk to somebody. That's a big deal. We're going to actually, you know, as we talk about vitality, but, but I think, I think with what we're talking about today, though, um, this, the simplicity of things, um, it's really, like you said, not easy to do, but what, what, um, what is it though?

You know, people know what healthy food [00:02:00] is. People know what Exercise is, but, um, Americans, most of the time, right, um, aren't, aren't doing those things. Yep. You might be a great, you know, at exercise and you're able to compensate for some of your poor food intake by burning off the calories, you know. But then 

Matt: there's a such thing as you can't outwork a bad diet.

Erik: No, that's true. That's another common saying in 

Matt: the fitness industry is, and it's very true. 

Erik: It is. 

Matt: If you eat like garbage, you can work out like crazy and yeah, you're [00:02:30] probably not going Yep. Be as out of shape as somebody that doesn't work out at all, but 

Erik: you know, for the first three months of the little more than a year now that I've been working out and haven't missed a workout yet, which is, um, pretty awesome.

I'm really, I'm feeling it too. I feel good. Right. Yeah. Um, but the, um, and I'm not working out every day. 

Matt: No. Yeah. 

Erik: Right. Three days a week is what I've committed to. Anyway, long story short, uh, when I started out working out, I actually gained weight. Um, And I, and I was saying [00:03:00] to myself, I'm gaining weight cause I'm gaining muscle.

But when I really was honest with myself, when I was working out, I had this license to eat more. 

Matt: Yeah. Oh, I worked out this morning. I can have a donut. Exactly. 

Erik: Yeah. Yeah. 

Matt: Well, I do think, and, and people in the fitness industry talk about plateaus, right? And I think that's one thing that people should understand that maybe haven't worked out on a consistent basis their entire life is that your body.

We'll get used to doing certain things. So if you just [00:03:30] do like, let's say you're just going to run a marathon, right? You're, you're, you're just going to run for exercise. That's great. That's, that's good. You know, you're doing something right. Something's better than nothing. But know that after running, if you've never run before, you're For the first, and everybody's different, for the first month, two months, six months, you might see a dramatic difference in the way that you feel, right?

And you're losing weight like crazy, all these great things. And then all of a sudden that starts to taper off and you plateau, right? That's very common, [00:04:00] whether you're lifting weights, running marathons, whatever exercise program. So it is important that you change up what you're doing that I long time, not long time ago.

Probably 10 years ago, I got big into the P90X workout program, and I did that religiously for probably a year and a half, and one of the things that I really liked about that program, and kind of like CrossFit or a lot of these modern day programs, they're like multifunctional. It's not just It's weight [00:04:30] training, it's not just cardio, it's not just endurance, it's encompassing all those things, right?

And it's constantly keeping your muscle confusion, right? Your body doesn't know what you're doing today. It doesn't know that, okay, we're going to do curls today. Okay, I'm over that. And keeping that confused and that muscle confusion is a really good way to keep those plateaus from going on forever. And you're like, well, I keep running, I'm not losing any weight anymore.

Do something different. Do something different. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

Erik: Yeah, that's good. You know, [00:05:00] um, one thing I would like to talk about, which I think in my experience in seeing, you know, working with patients and trying to help promote behavior change, not just in the clinic or with patients in the hospital or in the health and wellness, you know, industry.

Um, one of the biggest obstacles to, to behavior change, um, it might surprise you. It might surprise you. I, I really believe it's the way we set goals. Sure. I think it's one of the biggest [00:05:30] obstacles we have, um, which I think is related to some of this American idea of quick and easy. I mean, you want information, pull your phone out, go on Google, right?

You, you wanna, you know, get this, go to Amazon and it's in your doorstep today, right? I mean, but the things that we value in health don't do that. And, and I think back to the goal setting, I think this is so important is that when we set a goal, we've got to set something [00:06:00] small, a small thing that you can do.

So yeah, it's something really just a bite size, small step, something you can have success today. You won't see the benefits of it, but you can, you can do something and achieve something and, and build it into your life and make it. Like Russell said, consistent, consistent, consistent. And those little steps add up over time.

And so over time you look back at your, you know, your progress that you've made and, and [00:06:30] you've seen some significant life changes, you know, it's like, it's silly. And we talked about this before, but if you just, if you just eat healthy one time, you don't arrive. If you just have one workout, you don't. You don't gain all that strength and fitness you're hoping to gain.

It's when you've implemented something over the long term. So over a year ago when I started exercising, and we talked about this, I just, I just wanted to put out my workout clothes in the morning, set my alarm, and get out of bed, [00:07:00] and I wanted to just go to the gym. Yep, be consistent. So the first thing I did was to prepare.

I just put out the workout clothes and set my alarm. Basically, and I found that when I did those little things, it was easier to go to the gym and sometimes, honestly, I just go to the gym and I didn't have much of a workout, but I went to the gym. 

Matt: You started to create a habit. 

Erik: Yes, and then it builds, you build, you build, and over time things start to add up.

Yes, it's kind of like investing money. [00:07:30] 

Matt: You're not going to take ten bucks, throw it in the stock market, and all of a sudden become a millionaire. Right. It doesn't work that way. 

Erik: No, and there are some stories of get rich quick, you know, guy wins the lottery, or he invested in this thing at just the right time.

That's not the way it usually works. The way that it usually works is that compound interest idea of little bits growing over time. Yep. And that's the same thing, I think, with health and wellness. It's just getting those. Big concepts, the simple concepts [00:08:00] and then implementing them into your life. Um, you know, start today of, of minimizing the processed foods that you eat.

I eat anything I want, right? But I minimize the processed foods. Yeah. And I try to eat a lot of, like we talked about in the intake. Healthy, clean. Clean, natural foods, lots of color. I try to avoid the processed foods. I try to avoid the artificial colors and flavors. Because that's, that's where all those cancer causing foods come from.

Food [00:08:30] additives are right. So by implementing those little things, you know, don't worry about the 40 pounds you want to lose or don't worry about the, um, you know, the strength you want to gain or the cardiovascular fitness you want to attain, uh, whatever it is. Yeah. You know, cause oftentimes what we do, and this is I think the biggest obstacle getting back to goals is that we set this big goal of I'm going to become a vegan, or I am going to go carnivore or plant based, or whatever.

Those aren't life, realistic, [00:09:00] lifelong changes. Now, some people it is, but, 

Matt: yep. 

Erik: But my challenge to people listening, to you and I, to the people that I get to, to, to help. With their health care, whether I'm at the doctor or with, with health and wellness, whatever it is, is to choose something that you can do today, something small that you could implement into your life.

Yeah. In, in these six pillars that we talked about. 

Matt: Yep. 

Erik: Because all six pillars, you know, people are at different places. 

Matt: Absolutely. 

Erik: And, and the optimum [00:09:30] function within each of those pillars is really difficult to attain, and I don't think anybody really can. But we get as close to 

Matt: that, 

Erik: that best as we possibly can, right?

And, and so, you know, if you pick any of the letters, like we've been talking about intake food, right? Um, just, just try, like you said in the podcast, just try to, when you're shopping for food, shop toward the walls. 

Matt: Yeah, cut out 

Erik: sugar. 

Matt: Stop drinking sodas. Like, maybe don't drink soda every day. You [00:10:00] know, say I'm going to limit myself to one soda a week, whatever you can do, just make 

Erik: that change now.

Yes. 

Matt: Do it. And I think find something that you like to. I've talked to a lot of guys that are fitness guys and you know, I kind of go back and forth on my fitness journey. I've, I've always, I've been lucky. My, my dad was always kind of a runner and fitness. We talked about that. Um, and I enjoy working out.

It's always kind of been a part of my life. And I go back and forth between doing like a lot of endurance stuff and then some weight training stuff. I was never [00:10:30] really a weight lifter, like you lifted a lot of heavy weight when you were in college and stuff. When I was in high school and stuff, I was a gymnast, wrestler, 

Erik: and 

Matt: it was more like pull ups and push ups.

Bodyweight 

Erik: stuff. 

Matt: Bodyweight stuff, and I love that kind of stuff, right? But sometimes I get a little bit bored with doing that. Pull ups and push ups all the time, right? So sometimes I like doing like a 5x5 workout where I just go in. What's 5x5? There's actually an app, it's called StrongLifts, and I highly recommend it.

You know there's, and you know this, you're a big strong guy and you've lifted weights. The compound [00:11:00] movements are really what generate real, real strength. That's right. Right? Bench press, deadlifts, squats, overhead press, rows, those barbell cleans. Well, yeah, I mean, Olympic lifts, you can throw Olympic lifts in there, but then you get into some injury territory.

But the compound lifts with barbells, and I'm not saying that if you have never lifted a weight in your life, I'm not suggesting 225 pounds. Lift the bar. Yeah, right. Start. And that's what this strong lifts does because [00:11:30] I hadn't lifted, really lifted, lifted like that. So I got this app and it's, uh, you do it, you can do it however you want to do it.

Yeah. But basically there's two workouts. There's a squat bench. And, uh, overhead press day, and then there's a squat because squat is kind of the foundation of all natural, of all strength. Squat is not just a leg workout. You know this. Squat is encompassing everything. Yeah, everything. Bearing weight on your shoulders.

So then there's squat, row, and deadlift, right? So those are [00:12:00] basically the movements. The five. And you do, well, the three movements, and then you do five reps for five rounds. Oh, okay. I 

Erik: see. Five 

Matt: sets for five reps each. So you start at a very low weight, and you punch all your numbers in. Listen, fitness and nutrition, even there are so many apps out there that will tell you exactly how many calories to take, whether you're doing macro tracking or you're doing caloric intake and you're working in a deficit, or if you're doing intermittent fasting, if you don't know how to work out, there's [00:12:30] a million apps out there that will show you this stuff.

So my point is, is that find something that you like, right? If you like running, go run, right? If you like lifting heavy weights, Go lift heavy weights, find something that you like. If you like eating healthy, right? Start with that, right? If you're mental health, if you're good, start with something that's going to be easy for you to start the process, right?

Something small. Exactly. Small and easy that you know you're going to do. Start there. I think too often [00:13:00] people set these massive goals and they're just, like you said, unattainable. Right? Well, that's why we fail. Exactly. January 1st, stop eating, you 

Erik: know. No, just do something small. Exactly. Do something really simple.

And, and it might be, uh, you know, with the food intake for me, I knew every day in the Two in the morning, I'd go grab a Diet Coke or a Diet Pepsi or a Diet Dr. Pep or whatever was in the fridge in the EMS bay. Yeah. Stealing our 

Matt: snacks again, dang doctors. 

Erik: Well, nobody cared, right? [00:13:30] Yeah. 

Matt: Well, as long as they weren't in there.

Now they know. 

Erik: But it was a Uh, a little thing I enjoyed in the middle of my night shift, a little caffeine, a little break, um, but, um, and I, and it turned into me ordering Diet Coke every time we went out to eat. And then I started stocking the fridge with it. And I, you know, aspartame causes cancer. I mean, it is, it is what it is.

It just does. It's not good for us. Um, and so I decided that would be my first step. I just, and, but I didn't [00:14:00] stop it. I just switched things. I started drinking carbonated water. Uh, Topo Chico was my drug of choice and, and to me it was, it, I learned to love it and it became very refreshing. Um, but that was just a little change, right?

Something attainable and you build on it. You know, what other area of my life can I find that needs to be improved or cleaned up a little bit? Right? Just do one thing at a time. Yep. I would encourage you to back up a little bit. Um, you know, if, if [00:14:30] you came to me and said, what should I do to be more healthy?

It's like, look at those different pillars and decide which one of them you're hurting the most in, and just try to tackle one and then find something small within that one thing you can do today. 

Matt: Yes. 

Erik: And it will build over time. Absolutely. The sustainable life changing change that we all want is something that is key.

It's cumulative over time and it starts with those little things, those little things. 

Matt: Another thing is I think a lot of people is they're comparing their journey with [00:15:00] somebody else's journey, right? Or they go on social media and they see a Russell Krasinski who's 55 years old and built like a Greek God and has the engine of a 20 year old.

Like the guy's just amazing. Right. 

Erik: Freaking nature, really. I mean, it's Well, 

Matt: and he is. He obviously has He's worked 

Erik: hard to get 

Matt: there. That's what I was going to say. He has tremendous genetics. 

Erik: Yeah. 

Matt: But I have worked with Russell, and that dude is in the gym, and he is working his tail off every single day.

So, yes, he definitely has some genetic [00:15:30] predisposition to some of his stuff. For sure. But he has taken advantage of those predispositions. So don't compare yourself to him. with somebody else's journey. Don't go online and all these fitness influence and all that stuff. You don't know what they're anyway, 

Erik: who knows?

Matt: Don't. Yeah. Who knows? Your journey is your journey, right? Focus on you. I guarantee you, you, this is a known fact. If you are consistent. with what you're doing. You're consistent with change. You will 100 percent get results. [00:16:00] It might take you a little bit longer. Some people it might not take as long. But I guarantee you, if you stick to these tenets of health and wellness, there's no question you will become healthier.

Erik: Well, that's the question. People don't stick with it. Exactly. Have you heard of brain hacks before? Well, it's, it's pretty cool and it's not important you know what they are, but a brain hack is something that we can do to kind of outsmart a brain. Because our brain is really the problem here. We, as a human, our [00:16:30] brains are programmed with the limbic system to avoid change because change is danger.

Really we are. 

Matt: Yeah. So when we 

Erik: notice change, the limbic system actually through the amygdala alerts you. The, the tones go off in your brain. 

Matt: Exactly. 

Erik: Really. It's truly what happens. That's what all firemen change. 

Matt: Cause they, there's two things that all firemen hate change in the way things are. 

Erik: What's your feeling as a fireman with that change in the way things are, that is not unique to the fire service.

That's [00:17:00] actually a human condition. We are, we are conditioned to avoid change. And that's why it's so difficult for us as humans to break the change of what we're doing. I do this all the time in the hospital. I do this, uh, when I'm speaking to groups of people about health and wellness. Um, is changing behavior.

That is very, very difficult. But here's a brain hack. And this brain hack for me worked like, you know, It was amazing. Now, not all people need this brain hack. Sure. Some people have the self discipline [00:17:30] to make these changes. I want to make a change, I make the change. Yeah, I'm going to stop 

Matt: smoking. Right, right.

Erik: Most of us can't do that. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: And within the fire service, I think we have a higher degree of ADHD, kind of that, Spontaneous personality type a 

Matt: hundred percent 

Erik: and I think that um this brain hack though is It's actually shown in the literature, too And we talked about it with team is if you decide right now, I want to lose weight You're all you're that's about a [00:18:00] 10 percent success rate when you've just done Okay, I wanna lose weight.

Yep. Great. Okay. Well, whatcha gonna do about it, right? When you set a goal, it goes up to 25%. You actually start to make a a, a plan. It gets up to 50%. We talked about this, remember it? Mm-Hmm. . Yep. And then what was really cool, and here's the brain hack, is, is the team aspect of life is that when you, when you actually hold yourself accountable and hold someone else accountable, and you're checking in on each other, on a goal that you've set, [00:18:30] 95% of people.

Yep. Are successful. 

Matt: Yep. 

Erik: And I'll tell you for working out, my friend Connor and I, we work out together and, and I don't want him to show up alone with me not there. So I go to the gym. 

Matt: Right. 

Erik: That accountability. Um, when I have the weekly weigh ins with, with Devin, um, I, those weekly weigh ins, I need to make weight.

Matt: Yep. 

Erik: Because I know if I don't make weight, he gets punished. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: That's the way we set it up. 

Matt: Yep. 

Erik: And that [00:19:00] accountability, that team has helped me. To leverage my brain and forcing me into change. I'll tell you when I wake up at 4 30 in the morning to go to the gym, I would rather go to sleep. My brain is telling me to sleep.

Right. But I get up and I go, 

Matt: yeah, 

Erik: my brain wants that Twinkie. My brain sees the donut on the counter of the doctor's office. I want to have a donut, but I don't have the donut. Right. Why? Because of the accountability. I know I got to weigh in. And I know that I'm going to [00:19:30] potentially cause a friend harm if I don't make weed.

Matt: Isn't that amazing that naturally we are more prone to make changes for somebody else than we are for ourselves? It's true. Like we know eating that donut is bad for us or we know drinking that alcoholic drink, if we have an issue with alcohol. Is bad for us, right? But that's where I would think groups like AA or Narcotics Anonymous are so effective because you have accountability, right?

And I know, well, okay, if I do this, it affects somebody else. You [00:20:00] don't, people don't think about, and to me that's kind of a good thing. That we almost care more about other people than we do ourselves, right? And so, uh, that's an interesting thing. Thought. I'm just thinking of that. As you say it, like, we're not going to, a lot of people won't do it for their own health.

They know they shouldn't, but it's like, I'll suffer, but they don't want somebody else to suffer. 

Erik: If you're listening to this and you have ADHD tendencies, leveraging team into your life will help you to be more successful and to overcome a lot of [00:20:30] the neuro, um, yeah, the, the, neurologically their problems, the ADHD that we have to overcome.

Matt: Oh yeah. 

Erik: Um, and we compensate for them, but one of the best brain hacks, especially for an ADHD individual or somebody who tends to be kind of spontaneous and kind of all over the place is, is the team aspect. It's finding somebody to team up with. So that if you want to make a life change, I think we all know what to do.

But if you want to make a life change, the [00:21:00] first thing I would do is to try to target something that you want to change in your life and understand it's going to require patience and consistency. It's not going to change overnight. Just don't know that right off the bat. But that journey of losing weight or that journey of improving mental health or sleep or whatever it might be, um, is so fulfilling when you start down that road.

But the first thing you got to do is you got to make a decision, target something you want to improve in your life. And then I would find somebody. I would find somebody to team up with [00:21:30] to say, Hey, you know what I, I've been wanting to lose weight. And I heard you talking about the fact that you might want to lose some weight too.

Do you want to team up and, and, uh, try to actually do something about it together? 

Matt: Yeah. I mean, it 

Erik: sounds cheesy, but I think there's something about the camaraderie of, of teamwork and the fire station. It's camaraderie, right? I mean, you're working together, nothing's done alone. And I don't think that life change can be done alone.

Hmm. Effectively either in most cases. Yeah. And so that would be the second thing I would [00:22:00] do is I would team up. It's not just good enough though to do that. target and then team up. Um, I think the, the other part is to develop some sort of a strategy or a plan. Sure. You've got to. And, uh, you know, we had, we had fun developing, uh, our punishment system.

Um, I call it a punishment system, but it's kind of goofy and kind of fun, but, but still it's a punishment, you know, certain things that we'd have to do, but we also have positive rewards to every [00:22:30] 25 pounds that we lose, maybe every five pounds for you, you know, more slender folks who were in shape, right?

If you wanted to lose some weight. But set a goal and, and, uh, as a marker and celebrate it and have fun doing it. 

Matt: Or, and it doesn't even have to be a weight goal. Let's say you're fit, but you have a fitness goal. You want to run a marathon, right? Then you get a training partner, like, okay, I'm going to, they're going to hold me accountable.

I want to show up for this run. We got to go do this thing, whatever it is, find some accountability partners to do it with you. [00:23:00] 

Erik: You know, with mental health, for example, which I think is a huge underserved sort of a problem. We have a lot of mental health issues in society right now, and I think a lot of it goes undiagnosed.

But if you want to improve something like your mental health, I mean, teaming up with somebody, targeted mental health, you team up with somebody, go to a conference, read a book together, do, you know, discuss the book over coffee as you go through chapter at a time, and battle through these things together.

And, you know, whatever it is [00:23:30] in your life, relationships you want to improve. There are so many ways to be more healthy and, and to, uh, it's almost daunting though. When you think about all the things you have to do, avoid the temptation to do that. Just find something 

Matt: small and just know that you're doing something positive.

Yeah. Like every day, this is a journey. This is a process. It's going to take time and patience. Right. So be. I'm happy with the fact that, hey, I didn't drink a soda today. Good for you. That's a win. Great [00:24:00] job. Hey, I exercised for 30 minutes today. Good for you. Now, you know, to mental health, I think, and I say this from my point of view as a first responder and, um, we recently had, um, A company come into our department with our police department and fire department, and I, we've talked about this, but I think it's good for everybody to know.

I think a lot of times as firefighters, as first responders, military, people that deal with some of the trauma that we see, a lot of times we don't see, [00:24:30] just like getting into shape or these things take time. These little traumatic events that we experience over time, they take their toll and we don't see the changes in ourselves over time.

Right? So this company came in and we were in a group of probably 60 firefighters and police officers. And they said, write down on a piece of paper in one word there. They said, think about the person that knows you the best and write down on a piece of paper [00:25:00] how that, how you've changed since you became a first responder.

So we all wrote down a word and then we passed the paper around. So it was anonymous. Nobody knew who is saying what, right? And then they went person to person. What is your paper say? What is your paper say? And then they were writing them on the board. And it's, I'll be honest, as they were sitting there writing him on the board, I was thinking to myself, I thought I was the only one that thought that way.

I thought I was the only one that had this worldview, so to speak. [00:25:30] And I'm seeing every time they're reading off another piece of paper, like, yep, I can identify with that guy. Yep. I know that feeling. Yep. I know that feeling. And to me, it was kind of, and I, so I think that a lot of first responders think they're alone in they're angry.

They're mad at the world. They hate everybody in the world. And you're not. Most first responders, people in the military, I was listening to a podcast the other day, a guy that was a military guy and he was talking about how he had this issue and he goes, I hated everybody in the world. I didn't want to talk to [00:26:00] anybody.

And I'm like, I can relate to that because I have felt that way. Like I'm so irritated with people in the world. Right? And then once you start to hear that, A lot of other people that experience what you experience feel the same way. At least to me, I think that kind of reinforces like, okay, I'm not crazy.

I'm not a nut job. You're not alone. Exactly. 

Erik: That's a huge thing. And I think that's why the most important of all the pillars we've talked about over the last several weeks, I guess seven weeks, eight, whatever it's been. Um, the most [00:26:30] important pillar, I think to have really figured out as best you can, or at least maybe if you don't know what to do, do this.

Matt: Yes. 

Erik: It's not food, it's not exercise, it's not sleep. All these things are very important. It's it's this team. It's building that community of people who support you and care about you That's the most it's the first one we talked about in our series And that's I think the place I would start because once you have that support network of people that are connected that know you and that [00:27:00] You're not isolated from that.

I think it's a powerful place to begin that foundation. I think that's, yeah, when 

Matt: you lack the motivation to go do something, your accountability partner is going to say, no, we're going to go do this. Well, okay. Right. You know, so, and, and a lot of people, people say this all the time. It's not about motivation.

It's about discipline. 

Erik: Yeah. 

Matt: And that's really true is that to meet these goals. 

Erik: But I, I, You know, and something else we haven't talked about with this. It's really more kind of related to our vitality talk Is is the [00:27:30] the need for us as men and women to be known? We really need that and you can't be known in isolation.

That's 

Matt: true 

Erik: And being authentic and honest about the way you feel, honest about your struggles, honest about what you want and where you want to be and your goals. That, that, um, that, that being known and to know others, uh, that, that, um, that transparency is a very powerful, powerful tool to [00:28:00] behavior change.

Some of the most powerful behavior change I've seen in friends who have done all sorts of amazing health improvement journeys and totally transform their lives. So inspiring. Um, but of all the ones I know, it was not done in isolation. Yeah. Even the ones that have said I didn't need a workout partner or I didn't need an accountability partner to lose weight.

There was a community of reasons why. Yeah. Yeah. I love [00:28:30] doing this with my family and I couldn't do this. It was a motivation for me to make changes. Um, you know, I was alone, isolated, divorce, all of these, these life tragedies, motivated change. And it was all about community. It was all about the relationships about being known.

And I think if you find yourself so discouraged about, you know, I've tried every diet and I can't do it. Yeah. Well, build up a team, build up that, that, uh, accountability, [00:29:00] take a small step and do it. 

Matt: That's probably the best way to close it out, is it small steps and just start, start doing something. 

Erik: And don't be alone.

Isolation will kill the changes you want to make. That's right. Yeah. So that's a good life hack. 

Matt: See you on the next one.

Narrator: Thank you for listening to EMS, the Erik and Matt [00:29:30] Show.