Stanley's Four-Part Framework: Transforming Lives Through Walking

In this episode of Brian's Run Pod, I, Brian Patterson, continue my conversation with walking enthusiast Stanley Bronstein. We dive into Stanley's transformative journey through his four-part framework: willingness, belief, discipline, and commitment. Stanley shares his personal experiences of losing weight, adopting healthier habits, and the profound impact these changes have had on his life. Our discussion highlights the power of self-discipline, the importance of permanent lifestyle changes, and the potential within each of us to achieve more than we ever imagined.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So you're thinking about running, but not sure how to take the first step? My name is Brian Patterson, and I'm here to help. Welcome to Brian's ROM pod. Now, in the second part of my discussion with walking aficionado Stanley Bronsteing, we talk about some of the systems he has in place. So we begin this week's conversation talking about his four-part framework: willingness, belief, discipline, and commitment. So if you've listened to the first part of our chat, you will know that walking has literally changed his life. Anyway, let's get into the second part of our discussion. So now, without further ado, over to you, Stanley. So I know we've talked about the benefits in terms of your walking. But I know you have this Stanley's four-part framework. Is that correct? Willingness, belief, discipline, and commitment. Is that correct? Yes, sir. Right here. Yeah. Willingness to be able to do it. Can you get into that a little bit more?

SPEAKER_02 1:30

Yes, absolutely. Okay. Let me give you a little background to get to it. You get there, okay? I'm a very confident man. I've had a very successful business career, and I've done very well. But would you believe me if I told you the experience of losing as much weight as I did, getting in shape the way I am, and doing all the walking that I've done blew my mind. It I far surpassed what I thought was possible for me. So that taught me three things. And the third one applies to your listeners. First thing it taught me was that I am more powerful than I ever imagined. I am. The second thing it taught me was that if I'm capable of doing this much, what else am I capable of doing that I haven't done yet? So it got me to expand my horizons and say, what else am I supposed to do? That's why I haven't retired. I'm 60, I have no debt, I've made a living. I could retire right now, take 10 trips a year, and do whatever I wanted to do. But that's not what I want to do because I have a purpose. And that purpose is to help teach other people what I've learned. Because I want this world to be a better place. I want the people in this world to be healthier than they are. So the third thing I learned, and this is what applies to all your listeners, is that if I am more powerful than I ever imagined, so are you. Yes. We are all more powerful than we ever imagined. I am no more special than you are. You are no more special than I am. We are all special. Every single one of us. I don't care what race, color, creed, country you're from, whatever. We are all special. We are all capable of more than we ever imagined. So that's the background. Now, here's the four factors. The first one, now you see it's numbered 16, 17, 18, and 19. That's because my system, this this is my system called The Way of Excellence, which is on the website when you'll tell people about it. Yeah. These are 16, 17, 18, and 19 in the system that's on this chart. That's why they're labeled like that. It's it's it's it's not that I don't know how to tell numbers. Or what was that? Code count. You know, what was that? Um, what was it? I think. Did you ever watch Patrick McGuhan's show the prisoner? Yeah. I think one, two, and C. Yeah. You know, they did something like that. Um okay, so willingness. Everything I've told you doesn't mean a thing if you are not willing to make permanent, lasting changes in your life. And I mean permanent. And you know why I say permanent? Because this is what I've learned. Temporary changes are going to give you temporary results. Permanent changes are going to give you permanent results. If you want to permanently change your life, if you want to permanently make this world a better place, if you want to permanently improve your relationships, you need to make permanent changes. It really is so simple. Because if you make temporary ones, you're going to go right back to where you were before. So you have to be willing. The next one is belief. Belief. I just told you, you're more powerful than you ever imagined. Start believing it. Believe in yourself, believe in your abilities, believe in your talents, believe in your ideas, believe in yourself. And while you're at it, believe in other people too. Have some faith in your fellow man and woman. Have faith in your dogs and your cats and everything else. Have faith that we all can do better and that we all are working toward doing better, and then we are all more powerful than we ever imagined. Then this applies to your audience big time. Discipline. Discipline.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

By that I mean self-discipline. I don't mean punishment. I mean the discipline to identify all of your negative habits. With me, I was drinking too much. I cut out that habit. I was eating too much crap. Cut out that habit. I was drinking soda pop. Cut out that habit. I was going to Chinese buffets and pigging out with way too much food. Cut out the habit. And some people, it depends on your personality. You might be able to reduce what you're doing and be fine. And it might be a gradual process, but me, I have what you call an addictive personality. I tend to do things all in. So for me, it was easier to just totally quit drinking than it was to say, I'll only have a drink once a week or twice a week. Okay, yeah. It was easier to just say, don't drink.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Don't do it.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

Same thing, same thing with the soda. No drink. When I'm on an airplane and they want to give you soda, I ask for water. I might want that soda. It might taste good. I yeah, I'll tell you right now, if I had one, it wouldn't kill me. But I don't need it. It does not serve me. I'm done with it. And to be quite frank with you, I've already had my lifetime share of sodas. And I and I've had your lifetime share and probably 20 other people's lifetime share. You know, I didn't get to be like this without a lot of hard work to get that big in the first place. It was hard work getting that big. Now, so got rid of the negative habits. Then forming positive habits, I said, I need to start eating healthy lunch at work. So I started bringing my own food. And in the beginning, what my definition of healthy was would not pass my definition of healthy today. I mean, what I started eating was healthier, I would eat things like those frozen entrees. They're loaded with sodium, but they're portion control. So I learned portion control by doing those things. Plus, I did some things like I used to wake up in the middle of the night and want to eat a full meal. I would go to the freezer, I would go to the freezer, I would pull the entree out, I would look at the picture on the box, I would imagine what it tasted like. And I said, that was delicious. And then I would put the box back in the freezer and I would go back. That was one of the neat trick. And like now to this day, my wife goes to a party and there's some food or something out there, or there was pizza or something that, you know, I might have wanted to eat. She's got it on her plate. I said, let me smell it. And I sit there and I smell it and I go, okay, that was good. And then I don't want to eat it. I'm done because I can I've had it. I've had those foods so many times in my lifetime. I can just smell it. I know what it tastes like. It's just like if I'm in the presence of it.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

So you've kind of satisfied the senses, and then that's it.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

Yeah. And also, but also some things I don't even want them anymore, like sodium. There's food. You go somewhere where the food is loaded with sodium, I can smell it. I don't even have to get near the food and I know it's in there. And I don't even want it anymore. Because what happens is your body gets so clean. When you eat a healthy diet, your body gets so clean that you don't want these things anymore. Your cravings disappear. Then the lat then the last thing on the chart, and then after I finish the chart, I'm going to tell you a way to make all of this easier.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Yeah. Commitment.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Number 19 is commitment. When you become 100% committed to something, it becomes easier.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Is there a time frame when it does become easier?

SPEAKER_02 9:41

Time frame is okay, the minute you become 100% committed. If you're having difficulties, you're not 100% yet. And that's okay if you're not 100%. It is a process. For me, it took me many years to become 100% committed.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

I mean, I just told you it took me, it took me 10 years to go vegan. You know, it took me five years to go vegan, it took me five years to go vegetarian, five more years to go vegan. And I did it because I wanted to, because I thought that there were going to be, I perceived that there would be benefits to me nutritionally if I did that. And the fact that I can exercise the way I do and do what I do at the age of 66, I know it's attributable to my to my nutritional habits.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Yeah, without a doubt, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

It absolutely is. I mean, Brian, I over the last 17 years, and this, I think your walker, your runners will appreciate this because you have a lot of marathon runners who listen to this too, correct? Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Yeah, we have a few, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Okay, a few. Well, these are all unofficial marathons because I walk so slowly, I can't enter a marathon because they close the course after five, six, seven hours, and it takes me 11 or 12 hours. So I can't walk an official marathon. But over the last 17 years, I have walked 100.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Yeah. I did have someone on the other day who prided herself on being the last person.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

I think she'd done a hundred marathons. And she said if she'd run every single one of those, she her body would be in pieces. But she does like a warplane.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

Yeah, yeah. You can tell her I'm very proud of her. That's good. And and you know what's interesting, this whole story. I was at a party one night, and I had someone come up to me and said, Stanley, you need to go meet this woman over here. Go introduce yourself to her. And they told me why. And I went up to her and I said, I understand you're a member, a fellow member of the 200 club. Yes. She said, What? And I said, My understanding is you've lost 200 pounds, and so have I. And I shook her hand.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

Brilliant. Excellent.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

And it was interesting to meet someone else who'd been through that. So you've got willingness, belief, discipline, commitment. The reason why commitment is so powerful is that until you're 100% committed, you're always questioning what you're doing. For example, over Christmas time, a lawyer I worked with gave me some cookies and delivered cookies to me. He obviously didn't know the way I eat. So he delivered cookies. I took them and I said thank you. Now, if I would have asked myself, would it be okay to eat one of these cookies? There's a chance I might have said yes. Well, let me tell you about eating cookies. Many years earlier, and I'm talking like 40 years ago, I had lost 75 pounds, and I was on a road trip with some friends of mine, and they had cookies in the back seat. And I ate one cookie that turned into five cookies, that turned into the whole bag of cookies, that turned into more cookies later, more. And I not only put that 75 pounds on, I put a lot more on. Remember, I told you about the addictive personality? Yes. Cookies do not belong in my diet. They just don't. So I did not even ask myself if I can eat these. I said, I'm gonna take these. I gave them to my neighbor. She appreciated them. She's skinny and she likes them. And she put them in the freezer and ate, you know, like one every two or three days. You know, that's that's why she's skinny. And I didn't eat them. That is because I am 100% committed that no unhealthy food will enter my mouth. I would rather go hungry than eat something that is unhealthy. When we went to Europe, we were there for nine days. We went to London and Paris. I said, for the trip, I am not going to eat any unhealthy food. And there were a couple of times my wife ate in restaurants. I didn't eat in restaurants. I didn't. I would get my food, I'd go to the grocery store, I would um, I you know, I'd go to the market, I'd buy what I wanted, and I'd eat something healthy. I'd get some fruit, I'd get whatever. So I purposely, I was committed to doing that. And I also said, I'm gonna do my walking every day. I was committed to doing that. And it's been, I mean, the over the last, it's been about 400, almost 400 days, I have walked a half marathon or more every single day for the last four.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

My gosh, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

Yeah, and because it doesn't tear me up. I can come back the next day and do it. If you told me today, Stanley, I want you to walk a marathon tomorrow, I'll say, okay. And I'll do it. And then if you came the next day and said, I want you to do it again, I'd go, okay, and I'd do it again. And it would, it would take me about 10 or 15 days to tire up. I know because many years ago, I did 20 marathons in 20 days in a row. I did 20 marathons in 20 days. Wow. Many years ago. And just because and at the end of 20 days, I was pooped. I was pretty tired. You know, I said, Am I gonna do one more day? And I said, No, I'm not. I'm done. So, but but now all of this seems really hard.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

You notice I kept saying, you need to do this, you have to do this, you need to do this, you have to do that. Well, I got news for you. You don't need to do anything. You don't have to do anything. If you are breathing and you're alive and you are physically able, you get to do these things. It is not your obligation, it is not something you have to do, it is your privilege. It is something you get to do. That's one of the reasons I would walk like I do every day, because I can. Plain and simple. I do it because I can. And it makes me stronger, it makes me healthier, and it makes me tougher.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Yeah. I suppose it goes back to the lady you uh seeing. Yeah, it does. Yeah, a lot of a lot of these I can see principles come from that.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

And that we have a choice. We have a choice.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

We have many choices, and the choice is ours. And are you gonna live an unconscious life or a conscious life? Yes. And you you're capable of so much, all of us. And if we would all start doing these things, you know how much better the world would be? We would start caring about each other. Yeah, we would start being nicer to each other. I mean, I you you know what my goal is? I'll tell you what my goal is. I'll make it as simple as it can be. My goal is for everyone to eat a little bit healthier, just a little bit, to walk 20 minutes a day or more, and to stop eating at 6 or 7 p.m. at night. Don't take your food to bed with you. So eat a little healthier, walk 20 minutes a day, and stop eating late at night. And what do you think would happen if everyone in the world started doing those three things? You know, healthcare costs would go down like that. Yeah. People wouldn't need to go to the doctor nearly as much. They'd be a lot healthier, they'd be a lot happier. And that's all I'm telling people.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

I mean, if they say in this country, the healthiest we were was post-war when there was rationing.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

When you look at the film or photographs of people at that time, they were all, I'm just putting one finger up, they're all very, very thin. Yeah, I believe. And also we were growing, I think a lot of us were growing our own stuff as well.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

Which that's one of the things I'm doing now. And you see this over here, it's lit. That's a hydroponic garden I started. Oh, okay. Trying that out to see if I can grow my own vegetables.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Yes. Well, we have uh my my wife has an allotment. So we grow um potatoes, run a bean, broccoli, that kind of thing. That sounds great. And it's the thing and it's the thing is that when you're growing things in season and you're growing them, it you know, it's miles in terms of taste compared to what you're buying in the grocery. I know not everyone has that luxury, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

And it's more nutritious, too. Oh, yeah, without a doubt. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 18:34

All of this is simple.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

It's just a matter of doing it. I that's well, that's why I haven't retired. And that's why I'm doing what I'm doing because I want to tell people how simple it is. I want to help people. You know, I had I had the other day, I had some uh some guy who I didn't even know sent me an email and says, Stanley, I went to the hospital with liver failure in July. Uh since that time, I started doing everything you're talking about on your website, and I've now lost 60 pounds and my kidney, my liver problems have gone away. Actually, it was kidney problems, I think it was kidney pill. And he said, My kidney problems have gone away and I feel so much better. And how good that made me feel. And I didn't make any money from him, but it's still, it made I mean I ran to my life. I said, look at this email, look at this email.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

That made you feel great.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Yeah, that's that's part of it.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

Because it's two-way you made him feel better.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

And he made me feel better.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

I mean feel good. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

And then I asked him for his permission, and I took his story and I emailed it out to 4,000 people who were on my email list and said, look what this guy did. And it was right, it was right before Christmas. And I said, This is the holiday season. These are the things to look for. You know, and the holiday season, people get depressed, people are run all this food, and they think they have to eat it. I told them, you don't have to eat it. You that that was one of the things when I first started on this thing, my mother-in-law used to take the whole family out to dinner late at night, and she would take us to fancy restaurants. And I told her, I'm gonna go, but I don't want to eat. And she was like, What do you mean you don't want to eat? And she thought I was crazy. And and I told her, look, this is what's going on inside my head. Don't let it go on inside your head, too. Um and don't let my craziness be your craziness.

unknown 20:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

And I don't be offended.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

Yeah. And it and it took her, it took her, and I'd go to dinner and I'd sit there and I'd talk to everybody. And I told her, think of me as a cheaty date. I'm saving you money. Yeah. Now, it took her about four or five years. But after four or five years, she finally got used to the idea of what I was doing, and she said, I'm proud of you, and you look so much better.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

Brilliant, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:57

But it but it but it took her a long time. Because people get insulted if you don't eat their food. No, I know. That's okay. But I'm sorry. I just there is such a thing as healthy selfishness. That day I told my wife, I'm going to make these changes, and if you don't like them, I don't care. That was being very selfish. But that was healthy selfishness. You know, there is such a thing. It's just like when you're on an airplane, they tell you if you're flying with an infant to put your oxygen mask on first. That's selfish. But that's but that's healthy selfishness. Because you need to put your oxygen mask on so you can then care for your infant.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

So you have any questions? I just want to say that I've really enjoyed talking to you. We're coming up to nearly an hour and I could have talked to you for ages. But I think it's But I before we close, is there any one thing you'd like to piece of advice you'd like to give my audience? So as they can get put one foot in front of the other to get onto this journey.

SPEAKER_03 22:06

Yes. Four words.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:10

This is your time.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

Yeah. That's excellent.

SPEAKER_03 22:14

This is your time. Go for it. You've got that.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

And before we go, where you said you have a website. I I two websites. Two websites.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

Thewayoflexcellence.com. It has my entire system. It has videos and it has seven of my books. All they're all there digital for free. You go there, you can download them. Just if you go to that page, it has a way it takes you to the website. You can do that. And then million poundweight loss challenge.com. That's if you want to lose weight. Yes. And I suspect most of your runners aren't necessarily doing it to lose weight. But if they but if they care about that, on that on the million pounds website, I have a lot of information about healthy nutrition.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

Because so much of the information that is out there is not good. Yes. It's horrible information. And nutrition, it's so important. More let let thy food be medicine and let medicine be thy food. You know, that's it's true.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

Yeah. And I and I always think that the quickest way to make changes in terms of if you're looking to lose weight is to first, it's it's all to do with the nutrition first.

SPEAKER_02 23:33

It absolutely is. You can't exercise your way out of a poor diet. Exactly. I saw an article the other day. It said, How much walking should you do to lose 20 pounds? And I was going to say that's a crappy article. Yeah. What nutritional habits should you should you change in addition to walking to lose 20 pounds?

SPEAKER_00 23:56

Because it takes like maybe 20 seconds to eat 300 calories as they say, maybe a chocolate bar. Yeah. But to burn that 300 calories in terms of walking or running or exercise takes longer.

SPEAKER_02 24:15

Yeah. And that's the map.

SPEAKER_03 24:17

And you know what's funny? When you said chocolate bar, you know what went through my mind? I instantly said chocolate bar. I said, hmm, sounds good, tastes good. I know what it tastes like. And that's it.

SPEAKER_02 24:30

And then I said I didn't want to.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

Very good.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

But I tasted it. And the minute you said chocolate bar, I tasted it. Well. And you know, but it was a calorie-free way to taste it.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

So you say that's right. I'd just like to say thank you very much for coming on the podcast. I've really, really enjoyed our discussion. And it hasn't just been about walking, it's about a belief. And I think you've given our audience some things to really think about. So I think that's that's great. You're more powerful than you ever imagined. Yeah. Thank you very much. Um, if you'd just like to just stick around for a little bit afterwards, and then but I want to say goodbye from Stanley. Thank you very much for coming on. And it's goodbye from me, Brian. And uh I look forward to um you listening to us next week. Goodbye. Thank you.