In this episode, Joe Gamaldi, a full-time patrol Lieutenant with the Houston Police Department and FOP's National Vice President, discusses public safety's importance. He shares personal triumphs and touches on hot-button issues like disparities in sentencing, social security, and border security. Additionally, he provides practical tips for a healthier lifestyle and offers helpful videos through his social media platforms. This episode is a powerful source of motivation and inspiration for anyone looking to make a positive impact.
email us at- bluegrit@tmpa.org
In this episode, Joe Gamaldi, a full-time patrol Lieutenant with the Houston Police Department and FOP's National Vice President, discusses public safety's importance. He shares personal triumphs and touches on hot-button issues like disparities in sentencing, social security, and border security. Additionally, he provides practical tips for a healthier lifestyle and offers helpful videos through his social media platforms. This episode is a powerful source of motivation and inspiration for anyone looking to make a positive impact.
email us at- bluegrit@tmpa.org
Join us for the TNPA and FOP Joint Conference, dallas, texas, july 26th through July 28th. We hope to see you there.
Speaker 2:So when I'm talking about officers getting shot, yes, I am very passionate. I'm never going to apologize for it, because if you haven't been there when someone has been shot, when your best friend has been shot, when you haven't seen the families and the aftermath when an officer has been killed, you try not to be impassioned. Most people were just statistics, but we're actually real people putting our lives on the line every single day.
Speaker 1:Welcome back Blue Grant family watchers, viewers, boyers.
Speaker 3:I'm your host, Tom Rowan and Clint McNeer.
Speaker 1:How you been man.
Speaker 3:I'm good man, I'm good. I'm ready for our three days of winter to move back north and exit Texas.
Speaker 1:For those that don't know. You know, in life we age, and so I just want to remind everybody that during ice storms, we want you to use caution. And so, for those that pray out there, that are on this, that the watch to show, I want to put you on the prayer list. He suffered a prayer or a fall in Fort Worth every day due to the, the ice storm, and you know what's sad is that you, I showed up here at the office, and everybody at the TNPA office was aware of this injury. Everybody, even some other colleagues that don't even talk to Clint on a regular basis, but I was not made aware of this. And so you know, man to man, friend to friend, host to host, I'm deeply, I'm deeply offended.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry about that and I don't want to make you laugh too much tonight, or I'm just kidding today.
Speaker 1:So he's hurting right now.
Speaker 3:It doesn't hurt as bad as the hug that my brother gave me when he came.
Speaker 2:So is this a slip and fall? I mean, where is the ring doorbell footage of you falling on your porch?
Speaker 3:I busted ice and the footwork POA parking lot. I stepped out of my truck and my feet went up on my head and bruised some ribs and I would have rescued you. Oh dude, I don't wish it on anybody. And the guy, the fourth officer, took me to care clinic and hung out with me and he's busting out jokes and freaking, making me crack up and I'm crying and laughing. And good people Getting old socks, good friends, I guess it does.
Speaker 1:Man, we have got a guest on that has. I guess this is your part two. Welcome back, dude. We've been wanting to have you back for a little while and your crazy schedule with you being a full-time patrol lieutenant with Houston PD and man, you've had a. You've had a road this year.
Speaker 3:Lieutenant, houston officer, national vice president of FTP. What all dad husband, what all titles? Model model yeah, model. Underwear model.
Speaker 2:I wear a lot of hats, as you can see. No, thank you for having me back on. You know I'm excited to be here. I'm so glad that we can make it work. I had to catch a plane to get up here just so we could fit it in in time, but it worked out perfectly. I'm excited to be here. Also, I'm just excited about how much this podcast has grown. You guys are doing such a fantastic job. So if you are listening, please make sure and subscribe to this podcast, because they just do an absolutely incredible job.
Speaker 3:Hit the button right here, yeah go ahead and smash that button right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:That means a lot coming from you, man.
Speaker 1:That's the truth. You guys are killing it yeah yeah.
Speaker 3:So what the hell is Joe been up to? I know you don't really. You just kind of hang out and don't really do anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So I've been up to a lot since the last time I've been on got promoted to lieutenant. They put me in charge of the largest night shift in the city of Houston, our West side division. But I'm very fortunate I have an exceptional group of guys and gals going on their patrol. I will put them up against any night shift in the country. They work their asses off. They're just super, super young, like enough young generationally where, like I, make jokes and they don't know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Or they like say an expression that's like hot right now and I'm just completely clueless.
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's when you know you're getting old, when you start hanging out with like people in their early twenties and you don't get the slang and they're just like all right, old man, you know what are the fads right now on patrol?
Speaker 1:You know, when I was, when I was on patrol, I guess the fad was is we had just got the it will? Okay, let me back up. East Texas takes 10 years for shit to get out. So when I was on patrol night shift we had the flashlights which kind of gotten big. So what's the fad right now with is it the red dots? I'm starting to see red dots intermitted with a lot of patrol guys. What's the fad right now?
Speaker 2:A ton of guys have red dots. That is a big thing that's going around right now, just like technology in general, just the things that they're able to use to like make their jobs a little bit easier. They've just gotten really, really sharp with it. And what I will tell people is, like you know, there's a certain amount of people out there. They're like, oh, there's new generation. They're lazy, they don't work hard. That's bullshit, man. These young guys go out there and they kill it, and this is probably the most difficult time it's ever been to be a police officer. And these guys and gals are going out there every day with their body cameras on and they're still operating. And you know what the best part is they're still out there chasing crooks. They're still putting people in jail. They're not discouraged by everything that's going on, and it just goes to show you that.
Speaker 2:But you know what they do want, though. They do want to be appreciated for what they're doing, and there's not enough of that going on in the country right now. It's not just enough to say, hey, thank you for your service, but, like departments themselves need to acknowledge the hard work that these are, because they're damn sure quick to discipline these guys if they do something wrong. But you need to be just as quick to make sure that you're actually applauding them, telling them they're doing a good job, putting them in for commendations. Like it doesn't cost you anything to be nice to your own people. But yet administrators don't seem to get that. So, like I'm constantly writing my guys and gals up for commendations, I almost tell them daily how much I appreciate the work they're doing.
Speaker 2:Because you know, as a night shift police officer, like your existence kind of sucks. You have terrible days off, terrible sleep. You can't get a day off when you need one. You know you're running call to call to call. You hopped up on energy drinks just to get through the shift, which I know I do. But is it so hard for supervisors and chiefs and everybody to just say thank you, we really appreciate the work you're doing? I saw you ran 15 calls last night. I know you haven't had a day off in three weeks. Like, I appreciate you. Like, do you have any idea how much that fuels a young officer to keep going?
Speaker 3:It doesn't cost you anything so yeah, it's what it costs, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and but no. This young generation they're doing a fantastic job really, and I'm proud to be their lieutenant. It's an honor to go to work with them every day.
Speaker 1:What's the climate going on in Houston right now? You know occasionally me living down here in Austin, I'll kind of see some crime waves, that kind of jump out. What's it like working night shifts in Houston, especially where you're working at right now, and being over those guys?
Speaker 2:Well, it's certainly busy. You know a lot of shootings. We're still out there chasing bad guys, still catching people the last two years. We had like historic numbers of murders in Houston ticked down a little bit this past year, which is a good thing, but I think a big part of that is because we got a flock camera system where we were knocking down these suspects now that are riding around and stolen cars and doing crimes and we can get on them very, very quickly.
Speaker 2:And a lot of other cities you know, diet, portland, I mean Austin have decided not to go with flock camera systems. And it's just amazing to me Like we have this amazing crime fighting tool that has shown to be able to reduce crime, reduce violence, reduce murders. But yeah, we don't want to bring that to our city because you're afraid cops are going to spy on you. No, cops are going to try to catch the suspects that are out there killing people in our streets. So let's wake up a little bit and actually care about the hardworking, law abiding people in our communities instead of always catering to the criminals, which goes on way too much in this country.
Speaker 1:I'm really glad you brought that up, because 2020, you know, austin was defunded. We've talked about that in depth on this show and that was one of the things that the Austin, the city of Austin, had had had removed from the city of Austin's police department's budget. They just implemented that today. In fact, today they reinstalled, or began reinstalling, the flock camera system. Talk about you guys recently just had a mayor race in Houston and he's already hit the ground running with his supportive law enforcement. Is there a buzz kind of going on right now with Houston, with the new mayor, with Mayor Whitmire kind of taking the seat?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there absolutely is a buzz. I know officers are really excited about it because we have we have someone who is very supportive of law enforcement, who's very supportive of making safety, public safety, a bedrock of his platform here in Houston, and that's a big deal. You know, it's basically saying and he's saying what everybody already knows that if you want a city to thrive, a neighborhood to thrive, a school to thrive, our community to thrive, you have to have public safety at the bedrock. Otherwise none of that stuff is going to work, because otherwise you're not going to have a robust business community. You're just going to have financial deserts and food deserts, because none of these businesses are going to want to come in if it's not safe. Your schools are not going to be good if it's not a safe community. So, yeah, people are really excited. But I think it also goes to a point too.
Speaker 2:You know, too often we get caught up in the far right, far left type talk. You know John Whitmire is a Democrat. He's fixing stuff on that, yeah, but he's a blue dog Democrat who supports police officers, he supports labor, and I think it just goes to show you that most of us live our lives somewhere in the middle anyway, whether they're center right, center left, and don't get so caught up and you know I'm talking to police officers now don't get so caught up with the R or the D at the end of somebody's name. Look at how they treat us. That's what matters, because you know I'm old enough to remember when there were far right Republicans who said you don't deserve a pension.
Speaker 3:You don't deserve that, it's so it wasn't that long ago, it wasn't that long ago.
Speaker 2:So don't get so caught up with the Rs and these get caught up with how they treat us.
Speaker 3:The beautiful thing about Whitmire is there's a lot of people that run on a campaign and make a bunch of fake promises that they never intend to keep or they can't keep. There's been a friend to law enforcement For 20 years at least, I mean as long as I've been around yeah, he was state rep, kind of going to his background. He was a senator. He was the dean of the Senate the longest serving, I think.
Speaker 2:Longest serving state center yeah.
Speaker 3:Uh, the dean of the Senate over a long time, and whether it was cool or popular not to support the police, Whitmire has always been a friend of law enforcement and never wavered and knowing that that is now your mayor running your city. You know when he makes promise it's not just some empty political. You know, smoke, he means what he says.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And he's a force to be reckoned with man. I would I would not want to oppose him on issues he's, he's a he's, he's got a hell of a background and he's built a reputation and, um, I'm damn glad he's on our side.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're excited. Well, I'm so glad that you mentioned that he was a Democrat cause. I got asked that the other day that TNPA had had supported giving our support for Whitmire. As to the HBOU, I'm not sure about uh FOP. I don't know if they feel P Did or not. They may. They probably don't for a local.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not in that local race, uh but I I to the viewers or listeners out there that are listening to this, I challenge you guys to again, just like you said, look at the person and look at how they treat cops before you judge, uh, these individuals that seek endorsements from law enforcement parties. You and I had a conversation about other organizations that dictate what other other organizations can and who, who, who they can endorse. We don't, we don't do that, and so, uh, I challenge you guys to look at the candidates closely, uh, and look at their track record and look at what they do and what policies they support, and so, uh, anyway, I just wanted to touch on that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'll take common sense over an RAD?
Speaker 2:Hell yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:I'll take a genuine common sense over an RAD. Whatever that, whatever I need common sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah Well uh, you know you, I guess this last year in Vegas, uh, there was kind of a money moment Once again. I heard about the speech. Uh, I wasn't. I wasn't able to make it, uh, but you were reelected as the vice president and I heard it was a mic drop moment again. Uh, and you were reelected. Is it recorded?
Speaker 2:anywhere. Uh, that is recorded. Uh, we may or may not be cutting some commercials with some of the part of that speech, so we're going to be putting out some hype videos on that speech, but uh, yeah, for that what for hype videos.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah Me, no, no.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Dude, it's halftime locker room material. You want to go out and freaking, smash targets yeah.
Speaker 2:We have, uh, we have a marketing team that'll uh, a marketing committee that'll help put that together. That's cool, um, but we're going to be releasing a couple of recruitment commercials. Like, I have a commercial right now on my Instagram. So I encourage you, If you're not, please follow me on Twitter and Instagram. Shameless plug Um at Joe Gamaldi Uh, right here, yeah, yeah, I got a pin to the top too, so you can look at some of those recruitment videos that we have up there to get people to join the FOB. But, yeah, I won reelection with 82% of the vote, which was, uh, it was really a great feeling because it was just kind of uh, affirmation and a and a support to say like, hey, we believe that you're doing a really great job, and that meant an awful lot to me to to be able to get, uh, that kind of overwhelming support.
Speaker 2:But to that speech you know, what I was talking about was the war on cops in this country, and last year, we had 378 police officers shot. That is a 60% increase since 2018. There were 115 ambush attacks last year, resulting in 138 police officers. So, you know, you'll get those in the media and you'll get academics who are, you know who sit their asses safely behind their desk, by the way, they're not out on the streets. When I tell people, oh well, we're going to work with targets on our back, oh, that's just hyperbole. No, that's bullshit. I have the numbers to back it up. There are historic numbers of officers being shot.
Speaker 2:There is a war on cops in this country. That is an embarrassment to the United States. It is a stain on our society and nobody's talking about it. Now, obviously we're talking about it. Law enforcement is the FOP, is TMP, we're all talking about it. But you know what? Where's the president? Where's the president of the United States condemning the violence against law enforcement? It's not like I'm asking for something big here. This is extremely low bar that I'm asking him to set, and he can't even come out and make a statement saying I condemn the violence against law enforcement. And don't think I'm just picking on the Democrats here either, because the Republicans have yet to pass to protect and serve act through the House that would make it a federal crime to knowingly assault the police officer. So for these dirtbags who do shoot cops, they should be looking at federal time Period. End of story. That's just two things that we could do right away to try to help the war on cops in this country. We could also be funding better training for police officers to make sure we can handle ambush attacks on better, and also just change the narrative as a country.
Speaker 2:Stop treating police officers like shit in this country and instead and you know what, I'm not saying that we deserve respect, because I don't I don't like using the word deserve. We've damn sure earned it, though. Every single day we go out there and we protect our communities. We're willing to put our lives on the line to protect complete strangers. So yeah, we have earned a bit of respect.
Speaker 2:And yet you'll see articles wrote. We were just talking about this before we started. Usa Today does a headline cops killed more people last year than than they had in in years past. In a little blurb about seven paragraphs down, they mentioned the historic violence against law enforcement last year. Nowhere in that article, nowhere does a person who is a criminal, nowhere does it say, oh, by the way, that consistently over the last few years it has been the high 90s like 98. 99% of the people we shoot are armed of the weapon, and that doesn't excuse the other 1%, because we know damn sure that if someone is beating the hell out of an officer and, on top of them, about to kill him with their bare hands, they're justified to use lethal force. There's no mention of that at all.
Speaker 3:They'll fit their agenda.
Speaker 2:No, of course not, it doesn't. And then the Washington Post will make sure to point out that officers disproportionately shoot black suspects compared to white suspects, compared to white people, but they will not mention that black individuals can commit more crimes per capita than white individuals. So the whole point of all of this folks is, people who commit violent crimes are, like, more likely to be shot by police officers, and people who are shooting at cops are more likely to be shot by police officers. And oh, by the way, of the 378, that's just who were shot. When I talk about officer shot Doesn't mean how many times we got shot at and missed, doesn't talk about how many times that we got stabbed or beaten or anything of those sorts. But they leave out all those details and they just got the nice clickbait headline for everybody to consume.
Speaker 3:One, two things you just said. Supporting the police in the military shouldn't be a freaking partisan issue. I don't care if you're green, with a penis growing out of your forehead and whatever initial you want to put after your name R or D. You should support our military and our law enforcement. Yeah, I don't care. The other thing is is we're talking about the media.
Speaker 3:Earlier the hit piece media topic you you were referencing where they talk about with all of these armed people it puts in, it instills the mindset of cops that they have to shoot people or whatever the perverted truth in that sentence was. But it goes back to what we were saying offline before we got on here. That's the reason people are tuning into podcast. That's the reason people are tuning into any very any other form of media than the media. They're not watching MSNBC, they're not reading, you know, new York Times or any of those, because they've lost all credibility and hit pieces just like you referenced. Yeah, clickbait, I don't. You know when you read it it's not true. So why do I click on it when I can go watch something online where it's something like this, where you're going to hear facts from somebody on the ground in in mainstream media can't repeatedly, can't figure out why they've lost all credibility.
Speaker 2:Yeah, zero. And they don't mention the article either that you know we've had historic violence to in our communities as well, just in general. But I always love how they get these academics to comment on these stories and it's like some nut at Harvard yeah.
Speaker 2:So let me get this straight the academic who sits in an ivory tower in a gated community is going to tell the public about number one, the violence against law enforcement, dr Carl, yeah, or talk about the strife in these communities. They don't live in those communities, they don't go out there. They're not out there every day like we are, and it's the same people that push the revolving door, criminal justice system and bail reform and these rogue DA's to let people out over and over again. You don't have to deal with the consequences, or sure it's? It's so easy, you know, to put up your, your compassionate flag and show how much you care when you don't have to deal with any of those consequences.
Speaker 2:And you know what the consequences have been over the last few years, when they told us we were doing bail reform and these prosecutors that were not prosecuting crimes. Well, we want to help our minority communities. How's that working out now? Because the homicide rate for black males is 12 times the homicide rate of everybody else over the last few years. So you're really helping them out. You don't. You don't have to suffer any of these consequences. So you just continue to push these horrific policies just to make yourself feel better, and all the while the real people in our communities are suffering.
Speaker 3:Well, the people commenting on the out of control police and the violence and all of that tweeting that from behind the White House with a wall out front being protected by guns or from their mansion in their gated community. It's like tweeting about the climate change while you're on your private jets for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, don't worry, though, they bought carbon offsets, so they're allowed to fly on the private jets, if you didn't know that there is so much rules for the. Clint, not for me. Okay, you have to follow the rule. I don't have to. I'm going to lead us. I can do what I want.
Speaker 3:But common sense, reasonable American people need to see the hypocrisy in that, the hypocrisy in it. It's insane.
Speaker 1:Speaking about hypocrites, a couple of weeks ago, me and Clint and several people at TMP a invited a activist here in Austin to participate in law enforcement training. Mm hmm, he was basically his organization was responsible for the defund movement with Austin and his reaction after the fact, after we put him through several scenarios of use simulation rounds nice shot.
Speaker 1:It was mind blowing and in his words, he had changed his mindset. And I think we didn't change his mind. Yeah, but I think we changed his approach and I think we changed his approach to law enforcement moving forward. And let's not let me let me say this to he has a base, mm hmm Okay, and he has to serve that base to an extent. But, moving forward, he knows that we're going to be there to call him out and call his bullshit. We need to call it out, yeah, and I and I do respect the man for coming on here and I do respect him for coming out there but that's the kind of stuff that we in law enforcement associations, leadership, fop we have been doing, but we need to do a better job of and do more of it, because that's what it needs to happen.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I think also too, you know, while we're on the topic of hypocrites, because you brought it up, um, thank you, yeah, no problem. Uh, I mean, maybe Greg Kassar wants to come on the podcast because, you know, an interesting thing happened. I don't know if you guys saw this about a month ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Greg Kassar, who, if you don't know, is a congressman here in Austin, lead helped lead the defund. The police movement basically says all Austin police officers are racist. He hates police departments. But an interesting thing happened he requested additional patrols in his neighborhood because he was worried about crime. So let me get this straight, greg you want more police officers in your neighborhood because you're worried about crime, but you were willing to defund the police department in Austin and also you believe they're all racist thugs, so you want the racist thugs to come into your neighborhood and police more.
Speaker 2:Dude. You are a hypocrite. Let's just put it out there. And another thing too anybody who really believes that police officers are just out there indiscriminately killing people left and right, then why are we still getting called to scenes at all, like just logically? Uh, if you really believed we were just coming out there to kill people, why are our calls for service higher than they've ever been? Just just stop, okay, because the truth is nobody really believes that. It's just a nice talking point for you to use. But yeah, great, because ours is complete hypocrite. What a joke.
Speaker 3:That's the one time I was praying that I was the police chief in Austin, because I would have asked him will you please name which neighborhoods you would like me to pull police from to not protect, so that we can come make sure that you are? You're very well taken. Name those neighborhoods publicly, please, yep.
Speaker 2:And it's no different than the members of the squad who, uh, who will have private security forces for themselves but at the same time want to defund the police departments in their neighborhoods. And it's basically saying I don't give a shit about you and your family in our community, but I'm damn sure going to protect myself, set me amide. I mean, it's just like it boggles the mind how these people can actually go out there with a straight face and say these things. But you know, I do have to give it to Corey Bush because she's just like well, I'm important, I need to be protected.
Speaker 2:She just like outright said it I mean I gotta give you credit there, At least you're being honest, you don't believe that your constituents should be protected, but you're so important, you should be.
Speaker 3:That's awesome, and they keep getting reelected.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they do, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, what's going on at the national level with FOP right now, speaking of the protective, the uh bill that we're trying to get passed, yeah, so something we're really pushing right now is the Protect and Serve Act and, uh, as I talked about earlier, we really believe this is important and I'll tell folks why.
Speaker 2:You know, obviously the crime associated with it is making it a federal crime so that if somebody were to knowingly assault the police officer, looking at federal time and for those who don't know, that's like day for day, like they're actually going to go to jail and spend time in jail. But, more importantly than that, it takes these cases out of the hands of the rogue prosecutors that we are seeing across this country. You know, the ones that have been funded by George Soros, who continue to let criminals out over and over again, so that there needs to be a deterrent effect there that that if a suspect shoots at an officer, whether they hit him or not, whatever, you're going to federal prison for decades. And if you think these turds don't think about that, they do.
Speaker 2:They absolutely do, if they knew they were looking at federal time with federal prosecutors and those of you who don't know, like when the feds take a case they win. I think they're. I think the conviction rates like 98% or 99%, they won't strap on the case.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:So I mean the most important thing, though, is getting it out of the hands of these rogue DAs, so that they can't cut a sweetheart deal for somebody. They they can't allow them to bumble these cases and just allow them to to fall to the wayside. And another thing that we're working on the national level is a Social Security win-fall elimination, so that people who did work and are entitled to a Social Security benefit will get their full benefit. We are up over 300 co-sponsors. You know we've never been that high before. We are anticipating this year to get a vote on it in the house, so we are cautiously optimistic, and we're going to keep beating that drum so that everybody gets a fair shake.
Speaker 3:For non-cop listeners out there. We have a lot of civilian listeners and others. What Joe's referencing about sentencing? If Tyler gets sentenced to 20 years on a state charge, he's probably going to do three to five. Yeah, maybe If.
Speaker 1:You think three, three or four? Yeah, depends on the crime.
Speaker 3:He'll probably do three or four. Realistically, If Tyler is sentenced to 20 years Fedtime, he's going to do about 19 years, eight months. Yeah, I mean literally, it may shave a month or two off because he sat. He sat waiting to go to trial. But when you start talking about the difference on a 20 year sentence, between three years and 19 and a half years, that's big deal. Fedtime, Fedtime's good.
Speaker 1:Well, it's definitely the answer for the rogue DA's, because God knows what. We've got them here in Texas with Garza Gonzales and the rest of the way. Garza Gonzales, you've got your Kim Oggan Houston and you've got the Brazil and Dallas.
Speaker 3:We were recently told something really funny that it wasn't their fault that Soros funds them.
Speaker 2:You didn't have to take the money. What the hell are you talking about?
Speaker 1:That's their fault. Their Soros funded.
Speaker 2:Seriously. Oh my God, that's rich. It's not my fault. I mean, I just took the money. You could not take the money, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, oh, and that he could donate it to the, just because he could have donated it to the ATO if he didn't want it. Exactly just because that the donation was there, it doesn't mean that there are any ties.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay. However you look at the ties, I got a bridge in Brooklyn I can sell you to if you believe that shit yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there, all the crime rates are pretty much similar. Everyone that took money from Soros it's anyway, that's a whole, that's a whole separate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 3:So when fall elimination, um, feel like, feel like we're getting traction, maybe better than before I for those that don't understand public safety, we don't automatically get social security like every member of my family. That's not law enforcement.
Speaker 2:Even though they've paid into it just like everybody else.
Speaker 3:When they retire. It's not just law enforcement.
Speaker 2:It's firefighters too, it's teachers, um, there's a whole swath of the population that doesn't get their full social security benefit. So the idea behind this is just fairness, just making sure that people get what they should get, based on what they paid in, just like every other citizen, and, uh, what we're working on that. Right now we are closer than we've ever been before, but you know we're going to keep pushing. We want to punch it over the goal on what can people do that are watching or listening?
Speaker 1:What can they do to help out?
Speaker 2:Reach out to your state representatives, reach out to your congressman, reach out to your senators and just tell them hey, you know, we want secure windfall elimination. We want to make sure that uh, you know, we want to make sure it's repealed so that police officers, firefighters, teachers can get their full social security benefit. And it's just a fairness issue. It's just getting what everybody else. We're not asking for anything extra, anything like that. It's just if somebody is paid into social security just like everyone else, they should be entitled to a benefit just like anyone else, is there a website that can go to sign?
Speaker 2:Yeah, then go to a FOPnet. We have a bunch of stuff up there that they can go on there and sign up.
Speaker 3:And surely if people entering our country illegally can get a bunch of funds from the government, surely retired teachers and public safety people are at least entitled to what they're due. You would think we don't have to and we wouldn't. With the windfall elimination, we wouldn't have to move to a sanctuary city to get.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, you wouldn't have to do that. Yeah, so I didn't.
Speaker 1:I didn't have it. Yeah, are you trying to piss the president? Are you trying to be mean?
Speaker 3:No, I was just trying to figure it out. I was just I don't understand some of these things.
Speaker 1:We were down to the border. I don't know if you do this or not, joe, that's a. It's a situation down there going on, god bless. I'm not sure how close FOP and the National Border Patrol Union their relationship there, but, man, those guys are going through hell.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we even have a committee that's. You know, specifically about the border. You know we're, we're in constant communication. I mean it's, it's an absolute mess.
Speaker 3:God bless the men and women on all sides. Yeah, yeah it is.
Speaker 2:You know, I have a brother-in-law that's in border patrol. I mean, it's just a porous border. It's completely open right now. And you know, I don't think the public also understands too that, like, when you see these big surges, right, that's what makes the news. You know, there's huge surge of people that are coming in. What you don't see is, while all the resources are applied to that surge, there's nobody watching over here and you'll just you know truckloads of fentanyl coming over and a whole bunch of other shit because we're so full. It's, it's all a strategy, folks. For those of you don't know, this is like a new business for the cartels is human smuggling, and it's actually more profitable and easier for them to smuggle humans because it's not illegal to have a human in a car and just bring them over the border. But there's, it's all a strategy Surge at the border in one spot, bring people over at the other, and they're making money on both ends, I mean.
Speaker 1:I think the cartels in the VRBO business. And hear me out, and hear me out, clint. We go down to the border with LAT and we did not know that our executive director was going to be taking care of something else. So, clint, because it's fiscally more responsible and you know, you travel a lot.
Speaker 1:So for our members out there, it's fist and we've said this before it's it's more responsible financially for us to rent a house for several days rather than you and I get a separate hotel room. For sure, it was significantly cheaper. So Clint is just, he is super excited. In fact he's like it's almost scary excited about this house that he got. It says pictures and the way they staged it, and I was like wow, like this is in McAllen. He's like yeah, man, it's, it's got a nice hot tub, or even I can. I'm like okay, so, so, uh, it's all set up Like we take one, we take one truck. Right, we're down here one day on a podcast.
Speaker 3:It's like a honeymoon.
Speaker 1:It's like a honeymoon, that's exactly how it is.
Speaker 3:It's supposed to have rose petals on the bottom of the champagne chair.
Speaker 2:It's not really weird.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So who made breakfast in the morning?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so, uh, we get down there and, uh, we're like maybe a half mile from the border and it was a bit scary.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean I will say that they did a phenomenal job of choosing the filters for the photos that they posted at the home, cause it looked decent it looked like a really nice house. Turns out, when the cops down there picked us up to take us to the border, we were in the ghetto. And, lucky we did, we were live yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I found so. So for you guys that have worked dope, I found sacri and cellophane in the garage. Oh, and the couch was wrapped in plastic and the doors were numbered.
Speaker 3:Okay, all the bedroom, seriously yeah.
Speaker 1:Wow, we were half a mile from the border. Anyway, it was such an interesting trip and shout out to DPS, border Patrol, all the border communities that have local law enforcement, because, man, it is such, they are just being trampled on right now yeah.
Speaker 1:And the resources. I read an article the other day and I think it was in California or Arizona, I can't remember. It might have been in Texas. It was a fire department. $4,000 a day is what the fire department is being utilized to respond to illegal immigrants that are coming across, to basically do the EMS calls, and so this isn't law enforcement, doesn't have a a. We're not going to take sides on ours or these. It's a humanitarian crisis, yeah, and our resources are being wasted.
Speaker 3:It's a national defense issue. Yeah, it's a national security issue.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know I'm sympathetic to people who and empathetic to people who want to come here for a better life, but we need to make sure that we have a secure border, that we are vetting the people that are coming through and we need to make sure that, you know, criminals aren't just coming over the border and coming over.
Speaker 2:And another thing, too, is like we need to do a better job as a country of making legal immigration easier and better for people to come over, because right now, it takes somebody like you know a decade and tens of thousands of dollars to try to become a citizen, and it's like that's causing an issue too, because now there's people that are just like, well, screw that, I won't do it the legal way, I'll just do it illegal. And it's not fair to the people that are doing it the legal way, because they're going through the process, doing it the way they should, and people are just pouring over the border. It's not fair to anybody and the only way to fix it is to secure the border and stop the flow and start over with a better system. But you can't institute a new system while you're still allowing people to come over. It's crazy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you got to turn the faucet off. It's the same analogy ever you don't leave the water running, dripping, leaking, while you're trying to patch the whole. Hey, I've used that analogy that you can't no no, we've all used it, but it's like it's like you're mopping on the floor while the pipe is still leaking.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You have to stop the pipe, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:You realize, Clint was riding in the helicopter Actually the same helicopter that just recently went down in the crash and they were flying around there. They're okay, but they were flying around and the pilot said I want you guys to look over to your right and there was this huge wall. A citizen took it upon himself to do a GoFundMe and funded his own border wall for five million, had a huge ranch and he put his own wall.
Speaker 1:GoFundMe. He got the wall, built his own wall. The county came in and taxed him on the wall the price of the wall and he lost his property. You are shitting me.
Speaker 3:Lost his property because they can't afford it. Wow, they changed the value. Bureaucracy, folks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're going to win one way or another, aren't they? Yeah, anyway.
Speaker 3:And to your point about who's coming across our listeners and we try to make it clear when we're on the border. When you have families with children and they're trying to come across and they want to assimilate into our culture and find a way to work and make a better life and set a better example for their kids, I respect that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, when you have large groups of military-aged Chinese males coming across with no women or children and no identification and they're trying to ensure that they're not captured or identified, I doubt they're coming here to you. Know, pick cantaloupes in the spring.
Speaker 2:Started business. Yeah, you know started business.
Speaker 3:That's the people that worry me, that's the national security issue. And we had a guy told Tyler that he came from Guatemala and he said coming from Mexico to the United States was very easy. Coming from Guatemala into Mexico is extremely difficult because Mexico doesn't want people in their country. Yep, imagine that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, we've been on the board.
Speaker 3:It's a hot topic All right, moving along.
Speaker 1:Man you have. You've shifted gears probably the last six months. I'll be honest with you. I was a fan of Joke of Maldives before, but then I started noticing a lot of and we've had this conversation.
Speaker 3:Now you're a fan boy.
Speaker 1:Well, I am a fan boy because I started noticing a lot of selfies and a lot of tone fit photos and you and I have had this conversation. That's not Get a drink of water. Yeah for those that know Joe uh, he is very loud and very proud, but he's not that guy Like we all know what I'm talking about. The guys that take the selfies and they flex their arms and they flex their legs.
Speaker 1:Joe's not that kind of guy, and so, uh, I called you one day and I said, okay, who are you working for?
Speaker 1:Cause there was something going on with Joe Gimaldi, and so we had this discussion about physical fitness and what it means to you, and not only what it means to you, but what it means to your fellow officers, your brothers and sisters out there with FOP and across this nation. So we wanted to also bring you on and discuss about uh, really, your new commitment, not just uh. You got FOP and you got everything's going on, but now you took it on another role with spreading the word about physical fitness and how important it is to you. We've always been fit.
Speaker 3:Yes, what changed, what shifted to make you this, this new passion about trying to get the word out?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I would say like the last few years are like really dialed it in, and you can call it a midlife crisis if you want, whatever, whatever. But you know I started doing like a little bit more research and I've always, you know, I've always worked out. I really started like watching my nutrition and what I eat the last couple of years. But I really started dialing in when I understood that the average lifespan for a police officer is 58 or 59 years old and that we are 50% more likely to commit suicide than everybody else. And I just really decided that number one I wanted to get in the best shape that I possibly could and I talk about like find your why, well, my why is my kids Like? I want to make sure, like what is the last couple of decades of my life going to look like? And I just made a decision that I wanted those last few decades to be me spending as much time with my kids grandkids possibly and being active and being able to do those types of things, being able to walk around Disneyland or Disney World all day long and get down on the floor and play with them. I really started thinking about that. So I decided to dial things in. But then, when I really started paying more attention, I noticed on Instagram there's a lot of like retired officers or officers who have resigned from police departments and they're selling like an ebook or a fitness coaching plan or this, that and the other thing. And their whole angle is like hey, you, police officer, you're a fat piece of shit and you're going to die and your partner is going to die and you're going to let your family down and like shaming guys. And I got upset about it because not only are you shaming them, you want them to buy your stuff too. And like number one, like I don't think shaming people is going to get them to suddenly decide like, oh, I'm going to start working out and get from physically fit.
Speaker 2:And not only that, there's a lot of guys who just don't know how to. They don't know about nutrition. Because I'll tell you, up until a few years ago I thought, well, you just got to work out and you'll be all right. That's all bullshit. 85% of it is nutrition, the other 15% is working out. You cannot outwork a bad diet. You just can't. You, unless you're an Olympic athlete, you cannot outwork a bad diet, so you have to dial in what you're eating, and I can talk about that a little bit more here in a second. But so I was just like you know what, screw this. I'm just going to start putting this information out for free and I'm going to do little quick hit videos and just kind of give out tips to guys completely free and just overall try to promote, you know, wellness and fitness. So, like the shirtless pictures that you'll see on Instagram, like it's way out of my comfort zone, for those who don't know me.
Speaker 2:But I was like, if I'm going to tell people like, hey, this is how you get fit, I kind of have to show them that I am. Otherwise it's like are you really an authority on the topic? You just kind of look skinny. You know what I mean. So I kind of had to put myself out there and, like I said, it is. It's very uncomfortable because I'm super confident speaking, obviously public speaking I do. I've done hundreds of national news interviews, but it's a whole different ball game.
Speaker 1:When you take your shirt off, you know what I mean. It's just a whole different game.
Speaker 2:I'm off to the same thing. So it's it can. It can be very intimidating and off-putting, but, man, I've gotten such amazing feedback from officers Not so much publicly, though, like some of them will comment, but a lot of them on the back end, like, thank you so much for posting this. Do you think I should be doing this too? I think I should be doing that Blah blah. So like if, if I have time here, I'd love to just kind of speak to guys and just give them some tips. All right, all right.
Speaker 2:So when we talk about nutrition, right, if you want to lose fit, if you want to lose weight and lose body fat, the way you're going to do that is being at a calorie deficit. And I'm sure you're going to ask well, how do I figure out if I can be at a calorie deficit? You're going to go online and you're going to use a basal metabolic calculator that's going to spit out a number. You're going to put how much you weigh, how tall you are, how old you are. That number is going to be, let's just say, 2000 calories. Okay, you also have to take into account what you burn in a day, meaning how much you walk around. You can track it on your Apple watch how much you work out and figure out what that number is.
Speaker 2:So let's just say it's 2,500 calories. You going to want to be about 500 underneath that, because if you are at a 500 calorie deficit per day, you will lose a pound of fat per week, because a pound of fat is 3,500 calories. Now, and keep in mind everybody who wants to come to me and be like, oh, should I do the fat diet? Should I do intermittent fasting? Should I do Akin? Should I do Paleo? Should I do carnivore, whatever? First of all, if whatever you can stick to is the diet you should be on, but not every Realistically stick to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, realistically, not everybody can stick with those diets, so they've end up falling off, and studies have shown that restrictive diets ultimately, for most people, fail because you're restricting yourself from the things that you want to eat by being in a calorie deficit. You can eat whatever you want, as long as it stays in those calories. Now I will caution you, though If you pick like I don't know donuts, you can have donuts if you want, but if you eat 2,000 calories worth of donuts, that's it for the day. You can't eat anymore and you're not going to be super full for a long time. So what you want to do is prioritize protein in your diet, in every meal, and the reason why you want to do that is protein is much more satiating. It's going to make you feel fuller for longer. Also, your body, the way it digests protein, actually burns more calories than it does when it digests carbohydrates or fat, also by keeping protein, and ideally you want to get one gram of protein per pound of body weight. So if you weigh 200 pounds, you want to get 200 grams of protein a day, and the reason why is, as I said, you're going to feel fuller. But also, while you're in that calorie deficit. By fueling your body with protein, you're going to keep the muscle that you already have on your body and instead you're going to shed fat.
Speaker 2:So and a lot of people say well, you know, I don't have time to work out, I don't have time to do this, I don't have time to do that. Okay, hold on, just get 10,000 steps, please. If nothing else, if you just stay at a calorie deficit and you get 10,000 steps, you're gonna lose weight. Now, in the long run, you really want to add some sort of resistance training, whether it's body weight exercises and I actually have a video pinned on my Instagram, just body weight exercises you can do in a half hour or if you want to lift weights, that's fine too. And, by the way, this advice is just for your general novice person. I'm sure there's some officers who are bodybuilders right now and power lifters are like that's wrong Guys.
Speaker 3:I'm just talking General every day Calm down, I'm sourcing that yeah yeah, general, everyday folks.
Speaker 2:And then another thing too is like I'll get from a lot of people. They'll say well, you know, I just don't I don't have the drive or I don't have the discipline, or I, you know, I can't get in the right mindset. And it's just like you have to figure out what motivates you and you have to figure out what's gonna move the needle for you. Is it spending time with your kids? Is it having you're gonna be ultimately more present with your children because you're gonna have more energy to do those types of things. And I'll share a story because this helps motivate me.
Speaker 2:Heard a story when I was a kid about this soldier in World War II. He was a soldier for Italy and when they switched sides, you know, and they came over to the American side and we're fighting, he was captured by the Nazis. He was put in a concentration camp, right. The only way he survived is by cooking meals for the Nazi soldiers. They had him in a group with like six other people that would all cook. They all spoke different languages so they couldn't work together to try to escape and he could only eat potato peels. That's all they had the skin on the potatoes. That's how he survived.
Speaker 2:Then, towards the end of the war, the Americans came to free them and he ended up getting shot in the shoulder while they were trying to get them escaped from the prison. Well, at the end of World War II like there's no planes to take you home or like anything like that. So this tough son of a bitch walked home from Germany to Italy. Took him a year. He had to work side jobs as he went. Took him one year to get back home and when he got back home to his village everybody was like holy shit, we thought you were dead. Imagine the discipline and drive that it takes to get through a concentration camp to cook for Nazi soldiers to get shot at the end of the war after you survived all that point up to then and then to have to walk home from Germany to Italy. That man was my grandfather.
Speaker 3:Really? Yes, well, that just gave me.
Speaker 2:So when you talk about where do I find the motivation or where do I find the discipline, every now and again I'll think of that man and he's long since passed, but I'll think of those stories he told me.
Speaker 2:And if he can do that, well, surely I can get my ass up and I can go get a workout in, or I can watch what I eat for the future of my family, because he put in all that work and otherwise I wouldn't be here, my family wouldn't be here, and his blood still runs through my veins, runs through my kids veins, so you know. Perfect example this morning I knew I was coming here, so I made sure to get up extra early and get a workout in. It's not nearly any comparison to that story, folks. I'm just I'm using it as an example of there are all these things that you can do to motivate yourself, to get yourself in the right mindset and make sure that this is the lifestyle that you want to keep, and you're going to see the benefits. I mean, clint, haven't you seen the benefits of working out over the years?
Speaker 3:Yep, yep, and in the long, the lines of people trying to figure out how to get motivated, I promise you it's easy to go. Well, I'll go tomorrow. Well, I'll go tomorrow. I promise you, once you get maybe two days under your belt, you're going to be like damn, I feel good, I got to get. I have to go today.
Speaker 3:And my personal motivation is is my family medical history. Most people over about 50 in my family are on seven different medications for blood pressure and cholesterol and everything under the sun. And I'm like I'm not carrying a damn pharmacy around with me for the rest of my life. I'm not. I'm going to try and break the cycle, yeah, and I don't want to be. I don't want to have to carry shit around with me and be on medicine my whole life. And that's my, that's literally my motivation. And to his point about diets is man. There's been, there's a different fad every week and the best thing I ever heard of a friend of mine says everybody quit using the word damn diet. And you said it while ago. It's a lifestyle.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And if you know the latest fad is not sustainable from now through next year, for the rest of my life, oh well, you can only eat two sugar cubes and you know four cups of cornmeal and you know whatever crazy crap comes out, you know you're not going to do that more than a few weeks and generally when people lose on a fad diet, they put on more than they were before. So just find something realistic. You don't set the world on fire. You don't have to be the Arnold Schwarzenegger that probably you all know in your department, but do something so you can live in retirement and be and be physically fit and enjoy. How old are you, joe? Now I'm 40. 40. Yep. Find something where, when you're 40, you still look 30 like Joe who does Um. And if you don't, do I love what he just said if you can't do it for you, do it for your freaking family. Yeah, yeah, if your family yeah, and it's just like.
Speaker 2:And all those diets, clinton, like they're just designed to keep you in a calorie deficit. They just don't say it and they got to have like a hook to get you. That's they're trying to sell their new thing. But really it's just the law of thermodynamics if you take in less calories than you burn, you will lose weight, I assure you. You just have to stay consistent and like.
Speaker 2:Another thing, too, is people are like well, I don't even know where to start like I put a ton of stuff on Instagram of just different sandwich ideas. Or you know, eggs and and ground turkey, just all these alternatives are super high in protein, low in calories, and the protein game has come so long. The protein snack game has come so far. They have protein pop tarts now, cinnamon rolls, a protein bars, like all this stuff. And like protein shakes. Remember back in the day you had, you set to squeeze your nose to drink them because they're so bad. Now They've like sinna bun flavored, they're fruity flavors. They have everything, all sorts of low calorie protein options. So there's a bunch of stuff out there, but just try to be consistent with it. You will lose weight. And another thing, too, is like if you fall off a day or two? No big deal, just get back on, because thirty five you would have to overeat by thirty five hundred calories in a day to put on a pound of Fat, so don't stress about it.
Speaker 2:And another important thing and I full disclosure, I'm going to be a hundred percent a hypocrite right now sleep. So it's like kind of like the. The three most important things are nutrition, working out, sleep. Now, once again, nutrition is the biggest thing. That's what's gonna help you lose weight. But sleep is a big deal too, and ideally you want to get seven to eight hours. I'm a hypocrite, I don't like it, like six, but ideally you want to get seven to eight hours because that's gonna keep your hunger hormones in check. Also, what nobody thinks about is it's less hours in the day you have available to eat, because if you only sleep five hours, that's an extra three hours. Now that you want to snack, you want to eat something that you're awake and that you may eat. So please try to prioritize sleep.
Speaker 2:Try to keep caffeine at least like six, seven hours before you're gonna go to sleep. And another thing on caffeine and again I Am a hypocrite, I just down like an energy drink this morning and I just had another one before I came on the podcast. I didn't get hyped up. But uh, 400 milligrams in a day to give you a reference, that's like two energy drinks or four to five cups of coffee in a day. You should not exceed that. I exceeded frequently.
Speaker 2:Again, I'm being a hypocrite. I'm not saying I'm perfect, but you're gonna want to make sure to limit a little bit of that caffeine because that can lead to hypertension. It can also lead to anxiety if you're having too much of it. Plus, if you're getting better sleep, you should need a little bit less caffeine. But just try to keep it within reason. I'm not saying don't drink energy drinks. I should take out stock in, you know, ghost energy and rise fuel, because I drink those things all the time. But, um, just try to be aware of that and limit it.
Speaker 2:But I'm telling you folks, you stay at that calorie deficit. You get your 10,000 steps, get a little light workout in and you know, just focus on those whole nutritious foods and like there's little things you can do too. Just, if you drink coke now, drink coke zero you just saved 150 calories. If you buy the 8010 ground beef. Now you're gonna buy the 93 7 ground beef. You buy, you know, ground turkey by the extra lean ground, so you're saving calories everywhere you go with that.
Speaker 2:If you buy, if you like bread, they have low calorie bread now. I mean there's low calorie options for everything. So just spend a little extra time at the grocery store. You may be able to eat everything you're eating and still cut out like 500 calories a day by just comparing those. I mean they have low calorie ice cream at this point. I mean they have Knicks and Yasso bars. There's all sorts of options out there. So it's not as difficult as it once was to adhere to your diet. And another thing too, folks, is like I'm not preaching this as like a religion where you should never go outside of your calories. If you're going out to eat with your family, have a meal with your family and enjoy that. That's a bonding time and doing those things. But even if you wanted to, you could still look at the menu beforehand and say, wow, I'm gonna pick this, you know, chicken fajitas with no tortillas and just help like that, or still meal or split them.
Speaker 2:There's all sorts of don't get an appetizer. You know there's all sorts of different things you can do, but mostly I just want to preach to people like get up, get moving. It doesn't have to be overly complicated, but You're just you're buying that time on the back end. And not only that. You're gonna feel better about yourself when you're following your nutrition plan. You know there's there's a whole mental side of this. Like I'm, I Suffer from anxiety. Like I just I'm like a go-getter and there's always something. My mind is always other stuff.
Speaker 2:Working out a Race is that, and it's part of the reason I work out so hard and I do so much cardio, because it's just, it burns off all that Excess energy that I have. So for me I need to do those intense cardio sessions, but that doesn't need to be for everybody, but but it's huge help mental health wise. It clears all that stuff up. You're gonna feel better about yourself, you're gonna have less anxiety, and only that, you know. Side note, you're gonna look better, you're gonna feel better about yourself and you're gonna perform better in all aspects. You know it, you're gonna. You're gonna perform better at work. You're gonna perform better as a husband or as a wife, you're gonna perform better as that. Every aspect of your life is going to get better Because you've chosen to lose weight, lose body fat and be a better shape one thing too through the years, you've always heard excuses.
Speaker 3:Well, in our line of work in health is impossible. There is so many options now instead of whipping through the fast-food restaurant now. Chipotle whip through Chipotle or smoothie king rather than whipping through getting the double bacon cheeseburger Used to. It was difficult to granted, but there are so many options now to get a healthy option of course.
Speaker 2:That, that excuse is going you could go to Chick-fil-A, just do two 12 count nuggets with no fries. That's okay, it's a ton of protein. You could even do, if you're really feeling ambitious, you could do the grilled nuggets and once again you're saving cat, you're saving calories. But you could go to Chick-fil-A. You get two 12 count nuggets, no fries, with a Coke zero. It's like 750 calories and you just got, like I don't know, 80 grams of protein. You could do the 30 count nugget. Listen to me, folks, the 30 count nugget 900 calories, 100 grams of protein. Like I mean, you can still have fun and eat some of this stuff. I mean, obviously Chipotle is a great option for guys that are out on patrol salado, which is, you know, salads and that type of stuff. Watch the dressing. You could even and like, oh for cuz. I'm right now I know there's a night shift guy like just sitting there waiting to comment, being like, yeah, you didn't say about night shift, there's nowhere to eat.
Speaker 2:All right, first of all, you could prepare your meal beforehand. Takes five minutes. I bring sandwiches to work, folks, the co-cut sandwiches, powdered peanut butter. You can sub out regular peanut butter and get powdered peanut butter, super low in calories, and you can load up on that. Shit Tastes good. I'm not gonna say that it tastes good, I'm not gonna do that. But it's pretty close to where you can still enjoy a peanut butter sandwich. So make your sandwiches beforehand, but if not, let's say you don't even want to do that.
Speaker 2:Okay, go to Denny's, and I'm not saying, get in the grand slam. You get eggs, you get egg whites. They now have, like turkey sausages that they have all sorts of healthy options at Denny's. You just need to be a little bit intentional about what you're gonna eat. Um, you know? Another nice substitution for folks, totally simple instead of getting regular pancakes at the store, you buy the Kodiak protein pancakes that are lowering calories and higher protein Syrup. You could sub out the full sugar syrup for sugar-free syrup and, by the way, sugar-free syrup tastes just as good. Regular syrup 100 calories, or two tablespoons sugar-free syrup five calories. Once again, I have all this on my Instagram. Please give me a follow. You can see all this stuff that I put out for suggestions.
Speaker 3:I have a very serious addiction that I'll openly will admit to a Fast-food chain that begins with a W and is very popular in Texas, and I have a hard time staying away from it. It's like a crack code when I yeah, yeah, yeah, that's me in movie theater popcorn yeah smoothie King has helped me overcome my addiction, but I have a splurge day every once in a while, yeah, but instead of five days a week, it's one time every couple of months. Do you got a smoothie King?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 3:I was. I was funding. I was funding our local hamburger restaurant personally and Smoothie King helped me break the habit and it's it was intentional and it's not.
Speaker 1:It doesn't taste like my favorite hamburger does, but you do realize that you are looking at the 2001 smoothie king, smoothie champion of Irving Texas.
Speaker 2:How am I just hearing about?
Speaker 3:this since 2001?.
Speaker 2:Wait, were you like the barista making it or were you the one drinking it? No, I was like the one making it.
Speaker 1:I was a smoothie king. How am I just knowing this?
Speaker 2:But also, why didn't you make me a smoothie today?
Speaker 1:I didn't have it here, I did not know this. I got fired, but I worked this smoothie. I think about nine months after you got the award. Wait, wait. I got the award when I worked there.
Speaker 2:Do I dare ask why you got fired?
Speaker 1:So I was hell on wheels in high school. Really I didn't know that.
Speaker 2:I would have never guessed that about you.
Speaker 1:We actually threw a rave party at the smoothie king, and we had taped trash bags on the front window and used the smoothie blenders for the margaritas. Oh my God, this is great, and the money bag came up missing because the party is still there. So they didn't appreciate that the owner didn't appreciate that I was told him I was going to split the money that we took in for the cover charge of the place, and that was good.
Speaker 2:That's another thing too, is folks try not to try not to drink your calories? You know focus on the alcohol is a big one.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying don't drink, I'm not being a puritan, but like alcohol can be a serious detriment to losing weight. Try to find the lower calorie options of what you want to drink. You know light beer or whatever. Or you know, if you like mixed drinks, try to find the lowest calorie mixed drink that you can. Also, the creamer that you put in your coffee. Be very, very careful about the creamer that you put in your coffee, because you think you're having coffee which is basically zero calories, but then you glug, glug that creamer in there and before you know it that's 150 calories. Another thing too Starbucks. Like, if you go to Starbucks and you get the venti mocha frappe, that's just a milkshake. Like. Be very aware and cognizant. Be intentional of the calories that you're taking in. Count those calories and you'll understand where you need to cut.
Speaker 1:Great book is eat this, not that. Yeah, get it at the Barnes Noble. I think you can pick it up there. My wife's got several of them, yeah.
Speaker 3:One thing on alcohol that's really interesting, and I've said it before learning. A lot of people think, well, I'm going to have two or three drinks and it's going to help me sleep, something that people don't understand. Alcohol metabolizes into sugar, so the relaxed feeling you have lasts for about two hours. Two to three hours that is the timeframe that your body is metabolizing alcohol into sugar. So when you have two or 10 drinks and you think, oh man, I'm drowsy now and I'm going to go to sleep, good, you say two or 10?
Speaker 1:Two or 10.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, but you wake up the next morning and realize you slept horribly. Yeah, because you woke up all night. It's because alcohol metabolizes a sugar in two to three hours after you go to bed. You sleep restless or you're up most of the night and you wake up feeling worse than normal. Yeah, because alcohol is not actually a, it's more of a stimulant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and studies have shown repeatedly like a certain amount of alcohol before bed, like even just like it's like a little amount, will really impact your sleep as a result. So it's certainly not helping.
Speaker 1:I don't use this the other day. Now I was talking to Janet or asking her about it, I noticed when I drink and I say a lot of beer I didn't even know you drink, yeah.
Speaker 2:At least at this movie game At a race. No, no, no. This is where the game is.
Speaker 1:But when I drink like let's just say we go like the cowboy game I had six or whatever beer, six or seven beers. It was that before or after they lost. It was more of a depression.
Speaker 1:But go Texan, I got slept like shit that night, like I did not sleep good. But then Tuesday night we were watching suits. Shout out to Netflix suits. My God, that is most addicting show I've ever watched in my life. We had two, two or three glasses of wine and it I was. I slept so good. But I think it depends on the alcohol as well. But I wouldn't sure, yeah you know.
Speaker 2:and another thing two guys is like there's a lot of snake oil salesman out there about supplements Like this is the supplement that's going to help you lose weight. This is the supplement that's going to help you.
Speaker 3:You don't have to do anything. You don't have to do anything, you just have to take this stuff.
Speaker 2:It's all bullshit. Okay, like studies have been done. It's all BS.
Speaker 2:There are certain supplements that will help you. One people would consider protein. So like a protein shake is a supplement your multivitamin. That would be concerned that those things are okay. And the other supplement that I would really recommend anybody taking is creatine. It has been widely studied. It will help you put on muscle. It will also help with brain health. It'll also help with recovery. So creatine is that, and no, it doesn't make you lose your hair. That has been disproven. So creatine is absolutely a safe supplement and if you're working out hard, you should definitely be using it. I highly recommend.
Speaker 2:But otherwise, don't get caught up with these supplements. There's no shortcuts. You just got to put in the work and you know I want to leave. You know, guys, with this on the fitness conversation is like for those people out there. They're like shaming people to try to get them into shape, specifically shaming police officers. Like, first of all, our job is hard enough. You don't need to meet me, make people feel bad about ourselves, and you know we already are having an issue with wellness in our in our profession. You don't need to make people feel bad. Not only that, it doesn't work. Studies have been done that when you try to shame people into getting into shape, it just leads them to less motivation to work out. It causes overeating because they're stress eating and they're, you know, sympathy eating because they're upset that they're not achieving the things that they want to achieve.
Speaker 3:They already know they're not in shape. We don't have to tell them that.
Speaker 2:And ultimately they have poor health outcomes. So, although that shaming may work on a small segment of the population to get them in shape, let's instead focus on all the positive things that will happen. If you get yourself into shape, like we've talked about more energy, live longer, spend more quality time with your family Just everything in your life is going to improve. So I don't think calling people you know a fat piece of shit or you're you're, you know you're going to get everybody killed just because you're not in shape, like that's not the way to motivate people. Let's instead be positive and like what people don't know about me is I am an eternal optimist and I am very positive.
Speaker 2:I think when people see me on the news, they think, oh, he's always mad, he's always. First of all, that's passion, and passion is often confused for anger when people don't have passion. But also I'm normally talking about some pretty heavy topics. So when I'm talking about officers getting shot, yes, I am very passionate. I'm never going to fucking apologize for it, because if you haven't been there when someone has been shot, when your best friend has been shot, when you haven't seen the families in the aftermath when an officer has been killed, you try not being passionate because to most people, we're just statistics, but we're actually real people who are putting our lives on the line every single day. So yeah, I'm passionate about it and I'm not going to apologize.
Speaker 3:But I think what's cool is you said you've been shocked by the response to your physical fitness videos. But it is because you're you're empowering and you're uplifting and you're educating, you're not beating them down. First time I got up to talk about mental health was eight or nine years ago and I got up kind of saying that we're all broken and I'm broken. And the response afterwards I wasn't expecting because I was just stating facts. I started getting all these calls and people at the conference are coming up wanting to share their story and I think people just want to see that it's okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And they want to see positive, not how you broken, mentally ill bastard, you've been through too much and you're you've turned into a piece of crap or a drunk and same with yours. Don't beat them down. You're in your power in them with free information. And I think I'm shocked that you're surprised at the response you've got, because people, people are passionate about it and they may not want to come forward and go.
Speaker 2:man, I'm, I don't even know what to do, but you've motivated them to you know, start looking or to reach out to you offline, not publicly, and it's amazing and everybody who has reached out like behind the scenes or even just phone calls, texts and stuff like thank you, because it has been the motivation for me to keep doing it. Because, as I said, this is way out of my comfort zone, like I'm used to talking about officer issues and all this other stuff and now talking about like health and fitness is way out there and it can be, you know, kind of scary to put yourself out there like that. So getting that feedback, just like let's me know I'm on the right track, I'm going to keep doing it. So you know, let's go.
Speaker 1:Well, we greatly appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Well, and is it? Are we going to post up the speedo picture he was talking about? Let you unveil one that here is a smile.
Speaker 2:There's no speedo photos that are available for public consumption, but there are some bathing suit photos, you know but they're, they're regular bathing suit at the speedo.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, brother, I can't thank you enough. Dude, we reached out. We've been planning this for a couple of months now, and so thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, guys for having me on. It's absolute blast Anytime we get together. I know we go on for like two more hours on this stuff, Just just cutting it up. Thank you so much for allowing me on and thank you for giving me this platform to talk about the health and fitness stuff. It really means a lot to me that you're able to give me this opportunity. So thank you.
Speaker 3:I'm thankful that we have someone at the national level pushing back and ensuring our narrative search, because there's a long time and I said this for several years before you hit the media circuit is we lost the messaging game. It was hijacked, taken over, controlled, and we were, we weren't even in the mix. And to now have someone that will stand up and ununashamedly, boldly get our narrative back out and get our voice back out and push back, even when it's not an easy topic. If you want to get in our face and tell us what we are, we'll stand back and give it right back to you. I'm thankful that you've taken that on.
Speaker 2:As long as I'm breathing, I'm fighting.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1:We're behind you. Appreciate it. Man, you guys take care, you got anything else.
Speaker 3:That's all I got. Anything we didn't hit.
Speaker 2:That's it. Thank you again.
Speaker 1:All right, you guys, take care, stay safe. God bless you and, as always, may God bless Texas.