Today on the Idiot's Guide we are talking about, there is in shape and there's a shape. We all fall into one of these two categories, but what does it take to move from one to the other? I can tell you, one is a lot easier to get into than the other is, and everyone loves a good seafaring tale, especially when it involves Brazilian cattle ranchers, 19,000 stinky cows and a cargo ship in Cape Town, south Africa. I'm your host, adam Richardson, aka the profit hacker, and I'm joined by the man in charge, mr Joe Haslam. Welcome to the Idiot's Guide. ["the Idiot's Guide"]. ["the Idiot's Guide"].
Speaker 1:Well, today what I want to really get going on is how nervous I am about attacking something that, honestly, I don't like talking about.
Speaker 1:But I find that right now I've had a lot of conversations about this I think most people who find it a struggle okay, and I want to be careful about this because there's a culture out there right now and whatever you feel about the culture is your business, but it's this. I heard it said the other day if I fits, I sits, and that I've seen for puppy videos and cat videos, but also very, very plus-sized people touring locations, and so I'm like mm. Okay, I'm just I'm gonna reserve nothing, I'm not gonna say anything about it, I'm just gonna say like I saw it, I heard it and I'm just kind of like, okay, neat, that's for puppies and kittens. Not necessarily your statement, but okay, whatever For me. I have a problem with how I feel about myself as far as physically, and it's not necessarily like man. I'm just I'm like shaming myself at home and you know, or that I'm beating myself up, but I know I am not in good shape. I am a shape, I am in the category of a shape.
Speaker 2:You've got the perfect dad bod.
Speaker 1:Right, you know, and we had the conversation about, you know, being Hollywood fat, which is a really really weird conversation when I explain that to people. But I'm like Thor, fat, you know, fat Thor. He's like, yeah, okay, all right, that's good. But lately, like when I go out to places or I interact with anybody, they always kind of give this like whoa, you're huge. And I'm like I don't know how to take that. Like am I huge? Like I scare you, or am I huge, like I am obviously out of shape and overweight, or is it all of the above? Cause I feel like it's all of the above, but maybe it's not, maybe it's, maybe I am just a massive thing that I should be shaming at home, but I, needless to say, I feel like it's something that I am attentive to, I am aware of it, and it's something that I don't want to stay in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and to be clear, no one, no one, should ever fat shame Right? That is the worst type of thing for anyone's mental health, and the reason is because you have no idea why that person is overweight. There may be legitimate reasons. There are medical problems that cause people to be overweight, so there is a tumor. So I actually, so I've been through a lot of doctors trying to figure out what's going on with my body. We've talked about this a little bit in past podcasts because I am overweight, but I try a lot of different things, can't get the weight to go away. One of the first things they thought were potentially this tumor that grows on the adrenal glands and it causes people to gain weight significantly, and so someone literally could have cancer and you're fat shaming them.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:You don't know. There are adrenal problems, there are thyroid problems, there are a lot of hormonal problems. There are a lot of reasons why people are overweight. It can be genetic, so there are genetic components that cause people to be overweight, or impacted by environmental factors, so they could eat the same thing as someone else and they are fat and someone else is skinny. Okay, so here's a quick example.
Speaker 2:When I was younger, I was a very, very skinny individual and I had a friend of mine and we ate a lot of meals together and I ate a lot. Back then. I had a very good metabolism back then and he actually commented to me. He said if I ate the way that you eat, I would blow up like a blimp. If you ate like I eat, you would drift away to nothingness. And that's true. Back then, and I did probably a lot less exercise than I do now. I ate probably a lot worse. No, not probably. I did eat a lot worse than I do now, but I was very much in shape then, good body structure, and so the idea is you don't know what's causing it. So never, ever fat shame, because that's just. That. Just shows you what kind of person you are.
Speaker 1:Is it fair to self-deprecate?
Speaker 2:To a degree and again. So when it comes to self, that's a completely different thing. We should always be striving for self-improvement.
Speaker 1:I think you know I guess it isn't fair, because if I want to communicate a message, I don't want that message to be go home and shame yourself, right? No, you know. So you know, even if it's you getting on yourself, we have so many motivators out there for self-image, body image, that are false, that are lies, that hurt people, and taking that and carrying it home and holding it as some gross standard against yourself is abusive, and that is that's what we're talking about. So, technically, to answer my own question, yes, it's bad, it is, it's wrong.
Speaker 2:It's self-abuse when you shame yourself into thinking that you are bad. You are in. You are not fulfilling society's view of what you should be. Now there is a degree here, because there's a point where you can get lazy about self-improvement. The whole idea behind the idiot's guide is we've been through the mistakes, we've been down the road and hopefully helping other people not make the same mistakes we have, and so learning and self-improving and making oneself better is the process of life, and so we should never shame ourselves that we're bad or not keeping up with someone else or someone else's image of what we should be. But we should always be self-improving and there is there's a fine line between that. But it's very important that we stay on the line of self-improvement and not self-shame.
Speaker 1:So I wanted to. There are a thousand different directions you can go with this. We can talk about what you eat, how you know what. You know kind of what's the best diet, what's the kind of supplement you should take, who, who should you follow? You know what kind of restrictions should you do Carnivore diet, vegetarian diet, mediterranean diet, atkins diet. Okay, so that's all food consumption.
Speaker 1:But then on the other side of that is, you know, just thinking, okay, well-rounded, stop eating pizza and Twinkies. Okay, usually a good idea, right, as long as you know, honestly, an easy way for you to start making a change go home and cook. It's, it's, it's literally. It starts there, and I know that that's like okay, well, what if I only know how to cook hamburger helper, then go home and make that first, because you can also buy turkey meat instead of hamburger, beef meat, which will change the dynamic of that meal all in itself.
Speaker 1:So, yes, and if you want vegetables, add a pack of frozen green beans in there. Yes, there's fiber, there's vitamins in there, it's green, you have some stuff. So all of that in, just you know, hamburger helper. No, I'm not going to say like please go do this, but I'm trying to say we always put barriers in front of us to try to make it more difficult for us and over complicate things. But doing one little simple change like that, where you go, instead of eating out over and over and over, go home and cook.
Speaker 2:Well, and one of the big problems with eating out is remember that these restaurants even packaged foods at the store. They are high in preservatives like sodium. Yep, you know, you think back. That's how you preserve food on ships. When you had to be on a voyage for six months, you salt packed everything because it preserves the food. It also makes it taste better, which was an extra plus. But by salting it, you preserved it, and so we use those same practices today. That's why, when you open up your can of corn or green beans it's high in sodium. Drain it, rinse it so that you get rid of a lot of that extra salt. It's just a preservative. That's what it's there for, and so that's why it's so high in everything that we eat when we eat out. And sodium, I mean that is one of the biggest problems that we have today is we are consuming so much sodium that a lot of the weight that a lot of people have isn't necessarily fat, it's water weight.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And so the body is absorbing all this extra water in order to keep a balance because that's how it works you have to have that water sodium balance within the body, and so it has to drink all that water. That's why you're always extra thirsty after eating out. But yeah, that's the problem with eating out is it's not necessarily they're out there to make it unhealthy. It's because the foods they're making food for hundreds of people every night and they're ordering food Not that day. They ordered food three days ago in order to have the stock for today and it has to be preserved.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:By eating foods at home, by growing your own vegetables, things like that, if you can, great, you're reducing the amount of those preservatives in it and you know where that food came from. You can eat it fresh. Now, we can't all do that, I don't do that, but I get as close to fresh as possible and I rinse my food. I eat canned corn. That's part of my everyday dinner is a cup of canned corn and I rinse it. I get the no salt added. It still has a little bit of salt, but it's looking out for those things and just being aware by cooking at home, you're saving yourself money. You're saving yourself on the nutrition side of it. Yeah, it takes more time.
Speaker 1:But with a little bit of planning and go back a couple episodes, you'll see how much time you have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, there's plenty of time in a week to prepare meals in advance, so that's what I do I prepare an entire week's worth of meals in advance.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so I have my little to go containers I bring, so I do salads for lunch every day. I make myself a very nice chicken Caesar salad for lunch every day and I put them in my little to go boxes and I bring my six salads and put them in the fridge here at the office and I eat my side is.
Speaker 1:lettuce is a little sad, but that's OK, not if you get it.
Speaker 2:Not, not if you get the right kind, so all right.
Speaker 1:So I wanted to, you know, like, because there's so many choices, because there's so many directions that we could go with this, I wanted to zero in on something that doesn't have a cost but is a tremendous resource, and I've been using it for a number of years. I know, I know you're going to say like you have really, you've really been using it. I was like, ok, quite a few years ago I would probably say back during quarantine time I had nothing better to do than to be at home and work on working out, so doing, you know, had a body yoga mat and I was out in the backyard not doing yoga but using it to do these exercises. And the website's called dare be dot com and it's D, a, r, e, b, e, e dot com.
Speaker 2:They are not a sponsor. It's just someone that we've used, or Adams used, that he feels strongly about.
Speaker 1:This is not a sponsor, but he has personally used this site, so their their apps are antiquated, so don't don't bet on an app that you're going to be able to use. However, their website is mobile optimized, so it doesn't matter. Even if you go to their website, you can get everything that they have their entire library. You have access to it. It's free. It is overwhelming how much information is there, but it's really easy to be able to go through and kind of search out what you're looking for. And let me give you kind of an idea.
Speaker 1:If I go to workouts and I just collect or select workouts, there is twenty two hundred different workout programs that you can look through to. Just you can browse them, you can open them up and if something stands out to you, you download the PDF and you can have it on your phone just as a doc. You can put it as your home screen so that you can look at your workout every day and it remind you of what you want to do. When you're looking at your phone, instead of looking at Instagram for the next reel you're going to post while you're flexing in the gym, you know you are looking at a workout program that's going to walk you through your health. The other part of it is another area that's called live like, like, it's libraries basically, or Let me see here the collections. I think is where it is. Nope, it's not. Anyway, it's somewhere on there.
Speaker 1:Essentially it's OK. So one hundred and fifty plus guides in the database. This is different guides for different situations how to improve grip strength, how to breathe correctly during exercise, how to stay healthier longer, you know, like all sorts of different things, but one of them that stands out to me because it is me is how to start with exercise if you're overweight. Now, I exercise, I do, I train jiu-jitsu, but it's been probably about two months since I've been to training. One of the reasons why is because I am overweight.
Speaker 1:If I train jiu-jitsu, I am too big and I so, essentially, there's form to what you do in jiu-jitsu. If, if all I am is just big and large, the only option I have is smash and they die, you know. So I don't want to hurt anybody. I am big enough to where everyone that I go against, even the black belts, potentially get injured because of my size, and so I have to be really careful, which means I'm putting undue stress on myself to make sure I'm supporting myself, which means I'm not doing the correct form when I'm doing the, the, the strategy that I'm doing or technique that I'm working on, and so I'm always compensating, which offsets my, my actual training. It's hurting me as in the long run, I'm going to either injure myself or, if I let go and use my own strength, I'm going to injure somebody else. So, that being said, I need to lose weight. But it's really, really difficult. How do you get started? How you like, even with jiu-jitsu it's easy because they do a little bit of warm up. I get out of breath and I know I'm out of shape because I can't even do the little warm up without dying.
Speaker 1:And so here's a couple of things, reasons, reasons why exercise is so difficult when we haven't actively engaged in anything physically in a while. And the first one is new change in routine makes a greater demand in the body's energy needs and the body resists it, okay. Number two is getting into exercise after a long layoff or as a newbie, is initially hard on the joints, heart, the lungs, everything. I have athletic induced asthma. If I started working out, guess what goes away? The athletic induced asthma. That's weird. If I do the athletics, I actually lose the asthma weird, okay.
Speaker 1:Number three the central nervous system is not yet used to controlling the body in new ways of movement. Number four them the metabolic system has not yet geared up to increase thermogenesis or thermogenesis, thermogenesis, thermogenesis at the rate required when you exercise. And then the last one is the joints, tendons and ligaments are De-strengthened because of a period of inactivity and they will experience Significant mechanical stress once you start to exercise. All of those things spell Discomfort. You can't even sleep at night because it hurts so bad. So all of that, factored in, when you try to just jump in and say I'm gonna take charge of this is is all stacked against you. Yeah, so that's not to say that it's impossible, it's just to say how do we get going in a way that Continues to keep this stuff in mind and keep us safe through the process?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and safe is really important throughout this whole process. Yeah, because, again, I hear a lot of times again being overweight. We both hear a lot of comments about our weight, even though we're actually Pretty healthy. I think I'm a little bit healthier overall than you are. You know when you're talking about, you know things like blood pressure overall, a heart, physical body health, all those kinds of things. I got a lot of extra fat, but overall health. But we hear a lot of things that we're making excuses. You know that. Oh you, you get pain. Oh, that's just an excuse. No, it's not, it's a reason. Now I've got things. I've got a bad knee, I've got bad shoulders, so I've actually got Bone spurs in my shoulders. I've got osteoarthritis. I got lots of problems that make it very difficult for me to find Exercises that are going to be for my benefit, that won't cause actual harm to my body. If I go try and run, it's actually going to cause Physical harm to my body right now.
Speaker 1:If I get up in the morning and go down the stairs, walking, it hurts. I have. I hurt my like I can't remember what's a plantar fasciitis the tendon underneath. So your plan, your planter fascia or whatever it is, is the name of the tendons that go underneath your heel. Something happened about a year ago and, because of the weight gain, I can't. I can't get through it. So it is always hurting. If I sit at my desk for too long and I get up and I'm like just got to go to the bathroom, I'm like, oh, so, like running is not an option.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so and one thing I I was looking for this. I was trying to find what is Some thing online that showed the difference what is a reason, what is an excuse? And I found a really good blog post. It's Leah genders fitness, so I think her name is Leah genders is the one that does the site. It's her fitness studio site, whatnot and she actually did a really good blog on the difference between reason and excuse. And and that's really important, because when we talk about our Problems, these are not excuses. These aren't saying, oh, we give up. These are reasons why certain exercises don't work, why we can't do certain things, and One of the important things so she talks about it's. So this is directly from her, so I'm just gonna read it.
Speaker 2:Excuses generally cast blame on someone or something else, and they exist to make us feel better about not following through with Commute commitments. Excuses quiet a guilty mind and save save face. It's not my fault. Reasons allow us to reflect, reassessed and adjust our actions or goals. We take full responsibility, with a proactive approach, to making necessary changes to keep moving forward.
Speaker 2:I missed a workout, but I will make these adjustments so that I don't encounter this obstacle, as often Excuses happen when we miss and let ourselves off the hook, but reasons give us the information we need to adjust our training for a better outcome in the future. An excuse I miss missed my workout because I worked late. A reason I missed my work, my training, because I had to work late. But I will plan my activities in the morning next week so I know I will get my exercise in even if I work late, and that's a big thing is we each have a lot of challenges, so I do want you to talk about some of the mental health challenges that you've had over the last little while, not in detail, but just how it relates to physical health and getting the actual exercise going.
Speaker 2:I think for me, but For for me it's the physicality.
Speaker 2:Yeah you know, there are some things I physically can't do. I can't run, I can't walk, I can't do high-impact exercises. I used to play soccer, I used to play baseball, I used to play volleyball, all those things that I love that actually, as you hear me say, those things you can think about Every one of the injuries I have, somehow go back to one of those. But I can't do those anymore because of Whatever injury I have now. But there are other things I can do. I can get a stationary bike, which I have one. I actually have a stationary rick here at the office that I jump on every now and then I can go swimming. That's a little difficult for me, because swimming requires you to go to a public place when there are a whole bunch of people staring at you while you are 90% naked. Whoever thought public swimming pools were a good idea?
Speaker 1:I don't know who they were- but you just need one of those like propelled lap pools, the little ones that are just like you're doing laps, but it's a jet that's against you, resistance wise, like like a treadmill for swimming, you know.
Speaker 2:So yeah so there are things that I can do, which I have adapted my exercise routines for now. Even with that, I can't get a lot of exercise in, so I mitigate that by being very strict about my diet yeah, about watching what I take in my fat content. I eat about 25% of what the normal person Consumes for what the daily recommended value for fat consumption is, because I have to be very careful about what I take in, and so these are Reasons for why I can't do what I would like to do. They are not excuses. And again, there are a lot of people that see we talk about the reason why and they think we're making up excuses. They are not excuses. And make sure you're not excusing yourself out of doing exercise, but find ways. You know this do be is a derby. Derby, yeah, is a great resource because it gives you a lot of those options to find other Routes, other ways, other things that you can do when you've got limitations.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the page that I mentioned was, you know, there's there's 2,200 plus on on the workouts page. Then the programs where there's high intensity workouts. There's 30-day programs that you can do, where you do a push-up challenge or a pull-up challenge or whatever it is. There's all these challenges you can do. There's low and low impact Trainings, so there's hit workouts, there's lit workouts, there's recovery workouts, all sorts of different things geared toward anybody who is looking to be Physically active. That is it, yeah, and so I love the resource because it's like walking into every, every physical training program that's out there that everyone's like for this much month a month, you can. You can join my shredded club and you can do, you be as ripped as I can. I was like Bro, I've never looked like that, like ever, ever in my life, like You're for a military.
Speaker 1:I've prior service military. I have been in excellent shape and never looked as dumb as you do. Okay so, but I, you know, like I don't, I don't get liposuction and freaking model body crap, and you know I don't take any supplements. I know that you know, doing freaking dips and push-ups and sit-ups with a with a weight on my chest Was what made me get so cut those three freaking workouts. That was it for Six months and I was a beast. That's, that's easy. So you know I like it's.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying that you should do that, please don't. But but the idea is that it it doesn't take such a complicated Strategy to really just get get a grip of this. And one of the things that I would say is that you know, to kind of answer your question about some of the, the mental stuff, and over the last year has really contributed to my dramatic increase in weight. Okay, you know, you get to the point where I am. I would say that probably I'm an emotional eater. I'm sure that there are people who can attest to that, why, you know, rather than me, go drink my feelings away or take some kind of a Influential, you know something, drug or whatever it is, or go and, you know, pick up some other habit or Punch a wall and break and increase my medical expenses. You know I there has been a lot of things that have come my way and to my family and have really, really impacted how.
Speaker 1:The last year has, you know, mentally impacted to the point where, you know both, you know both, my wife and I have been on, been on watch because we have considered finishing it, and you know that's, that's a terrible thing to to even to admit to, but it's something that I can say. You know we are through, we are, we're through that, but it's something that we we're not proud of having to deal with that struggle. Well, a lot of the emotional side of this, the way that we were seeking comfort, is through food, and I'm a foodie, I'm not, I don't like, necessarily like sweets, so I'm not gonna go get a cake. My wife would, but me I'm like dude, a big, giant bowl of pasta and I am in heaven, you know, and it's. It's not necessarily terrible for me, but it's bad for me.
Speaker 2:So, especially if that's where I go so continuously, feeling like I don't have an outlet anywhere else yeah, and I think one of the big differences with you is you saw help and you got help from a mental health practitioner. You, you got the resources and and that's an important thing and then now you're on the other end of it. Obviously it's not in. You're cured. There's no such thing as cured for mental health. It's a continuing thing that all of us face regularly.
Speaker 1:We all have issues with one struggle or another and I guess you know why would we, why would we say this and communicate this. I meant to say this at the very beginning. It's because we want to bring our listeners along with the challenge that we are going to tackle this and do this, and, as a team, this is something that we we plan on, this being something that we are communicating regularly about, about our progress, and you know, we hope that if you gain and become a subscriber, that you might want to give us some constructive criticism and rag on us about all the stupid people out there selling their packages and I'm like, well, I get it all for free, so shut your face.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I mean just talking about. You know we're gonna be going through this. We, we are making a commitment to lose weight. Hopefully it works. You know it may not. You know, my weight could be a hormonal, it could be a lot of different things, yeah, and so I may not lose any. Well, we'll figure it out. But we're gonna go through all this so that you can see. You can see through our challenges, through what we're going through, so that hopefully that encourages you a little bit more, as well as to bring it back to that mental health side. If you are fat shaming someone, think about if that person is eating their feelings, which is not good. But if that's the reason that they are overweight, think about all the added hate that you're putting on them by fat shaming them.
Speaker 2:They're already going through the worst period of their life and now you're adding on to that well, and to say the mental health wise I, I can attest that oftentimes I am going to be my biggest enemy and so I don't need your help exactly, and so those of you if you're struggling with overweight, for whatever the reason, if it's, if it's hormonal, if it's mental health related, if it is injury related, whatever the reasons, there are ways to be able to work through that and make sure that you don't ever feel put down upon by someone else who shames you because, coming from two overweight guys sitting at a table right here right now, you are valuable you honestly, just just for the fact that you are interested, you're, you're looking, you're thinking about ways to improve yourself.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. Yeah, you know I. I would say that you know it's, it's. It takes a tremendous amount of courage just to stay in that space because, like for me, like it's, it's it, all of these things like you talked about they're not necessarily excuses, but feeling like I've got odd stacked against me. I didn't know where to go and I didn't have the time or headspace to even motivate myself to get out of bed to go do something with it. And so I am where I am right now. Now I feel a lot better, but I still struggle with stuff and I don't I don't physically feel better. So now it's going okay. I got to change all this.
Speaker 1:I've had lots of doctor appointments over the last little bit and it has come back to a common denominator. That is obvious and depressing and it's the only thing that I can do because I have all of these things, that I'm going to the doctor saying I'm struggling with this and this and this and this and this and this, and they go. You know, if you just lost some weight, probably 90% of that would go away and I'm like I hate you, right, you know, and it's so hard. Like they're not fat-shaming, they're being as honest as they can, caring about my health, having other people come, like my, my jiu-jitsu professor, like he came to me a while back and he goes, he goes, he goes, we're gonna go, we're gonna put you on the don't die diet, like all the things that you talk about and you're dealing with and you're increasing weight and all that stuff. Like I don't want you to die, I want you to be here for your kids yeah, and and to be clear, I mean that is legitimate.
Speaker 2:There are certain situations where it is if you lose weight then you're good. There were when I first started going to doctors, when I had a lot of the weight gain. It was kind of the first impression. Okay, let's talk about maybe some of the environmental factors for why you're overweight. You know what do you eat, what do you exercise, you know all this. Once they ruled that out and know that I exercise as much as I am physically possible. I eat very well. Then we started looking into other possible reasons. And that's what a doctor is there for, is they're not just gonna fat shame.
Speaker 1:You know some of them will find a new doctor, but yeah, but they are there and if there is a legitimate reason for it, they will help you find it and, honestly, if I went and used my insurance and talked to a specialist in the medical field, I'm sure I could find somebody who isn't as blatantly obvious and would do what I'm trying to accomplish in a simp and in an easier road, more expensive but easier road. I'm a combat veteran. I have VA health care. That is where I get my health care. Yes, I have health insurance. I don't use it for myself because I have VA health care. So when I'm talking to a veteran doctor who's been there for 30 years and you know he, his bedside man, is probably not the nicest, but one of the things he's like, yeah, we could do this, we could go down this road, we could do the surgery, but I guarantee you you're gonna get to the surgeons table and that surgeon will not operate on you. Yeah, and and that was that was a hard statement to hear to go like.
Speaker 2:I did that to myself and I want to clear up something that I just said that if you go to doctor and there's a legitimate reason, I I'm not saying that they're being overweight because of mental health or overeating or any other things are not legitimate reasons I I just want to be clear.
Speaker 1:I'm using I used a couple. Things were hurt, yeah.
Speaker 2:I used a common vernacular there and I apologize.
Speaker 1:I meant to say a medical reason, if there's a medical reason for you being overweight yeah, and the medical, real way that you have a lot of eyes, how you, you have certain things in your body, organs, tissue, that isn't working the right way, right, all of those different things can contribute to that in in different ways. And so, yes, seeking that medical professional help gives you that perspective to be able to weigh that part of it as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, as part of this, anyone who what? Who listens to this, watches this on YouTube put in the comments what your journey has been. We legitimately want to hear this because we want to encourage you, as well as, on future episodes of the podcast, we want to talk about what people have been through, because we're starting this journey right now. Now we've been through some of these things with with doctors. We know some of the reasons for why we're overweight, but we are going to be putting in a lot of extra effort to lose those extra pounds right, and so we want to hear from our listeners, from our subscribers what have you been through? What have you tried? What has not worked for you? Where are you at on your journey?
Speaker 1:because we want to be that support for you and we want you to be that support for us yeah, because we are a community of idiots who are moving forward to improve ourselves every day and just get that step closer so if you haven't exercised in a while or you have an injury or you are just getting started and you have some weight challenges ahead of you, one of the biggest things to hear, just to basically to begin this is start small. A Lot of times the biggest injuries happen because we do too much too soon. And it's not saying that you, you don't have to. You know like it, you have to start.
Speaker 1:It's start small, one of the things that talks about as fat, as stored in the body, as a Metabolically active organ, which means that you are fighting not just this oh, I'm a, you know, fat burning machine. No, your body is feeding that giant consuming thing, however much weight you have. So it's what you consume as far as food. It pictures. Your mind and your body Sees that as an organ that it needs to continue to feed. So Everything it's doing is trying to keep it alive. Well, that's counterproductive to try to lose it if you want that organ to go away. So, not not saying that fat is an organ, but it acts like an organ Metabolically. So that means that, digestively, all all the nutrients that you're doing it's going to throw it at all that stuff because it's going to try to disperse it to everything in your body, which means your fat cells are taking from the nutrients that your other organs are going to do, which means your organs are depleted of the right nutrients it needs and your health deteriorates. And so, again, there are a lot of factors that hurt this. The biggest thing there's three of them.
Speaker 1:Okay, this is number one is Consistency. Consistency is you need to do something that gets you active every day. If that means and and you know, on Derby, one of the things that's on Derby comm is and again, they're not a sponsor. I just love them because I've been using them and they're free, so why not? Okay, and this is a great hack. This is a fitness hack that blows everybody else out of the water. So, you know, one through five, everything scaled on a one through five, so one being like Standing, their breathing. Okay, to like basic walking patterns, there's there's a 30-day walking challenge that is level one. That is it. But you also have walking challenges that are level five and that's more like rocking challenges, where you're carrying a bag of boulders with you. But, but the idea is is like, all of these things are in Derby comm, and so it's something we're looking at. Be consistent. Do something active every single day, choose Consistency.
Speaker 1:The second one is structure know what you're gonna do. What do you know what you do needs to provide enough variety to make each day interesting and progression to gradually challenge and change your body. So if, if you know, I went, let's say we're walking, okay, walking for me right now because of my heel, I will pay the price, but I still want to try to some extent. I'll probably try to find something lower impact than walking, but walking is something I have to know how to do pretty consistent, consistently. So, structure wise, I would say, you know, in a walk I walked three blocks.
Speaker 1:I went around three blocks. Today, maybe, I took my dog for a walk with me. Okay, because my dog looks like me, so you know they need it too. Tomorrow, I did four blocks. Finally, I did one big city block. Then, two weeks from now, I'm doing, you know, I'm doing a mile and a half and all I'm doing is walking. But I see more things. I see what's going on. I'm walking gives me a chance that we're always zipping by in our cars, but going on a walk in our own neighborhood Slows down that whole picture and we start seeing like, wow, I didn't even know there was a playground right there.
Speaker 2:That's pretty cool, you know so a great resource for that, for walking. I'm just gonna throw this out there yeah, pokemon Go, yeah Pokemon Go. Okay, I know this was a craze from years ago, but there's a. There's a Harry Potter one too.
Speaker 1:Oh, is there Okay.
Speaker 2:But yeah. So years ago we were in in a different office space that was more conducive to walking around the, the parking lot. So I would do, I would take a 15 minute break twice a day and I would just walk around the, just the little parking lot.
Speaker 2:If of our office that we were in and you know that's kind of boring just to walk around. So I'd pull up my Pokemon Go. I got teased by my family for having Pokemon on my phone, but I'd have Pokemon Go up and just walking around that little thing, I'd find a couple of different things, a different couple of different Pokemon or things to do. You get your Walking counts and things like that. It tracks how far you've gone. So it was kind of a bonus for that to know how far I've actually walked every day. But it keeps your mind engaged while you're doing that and so that's just a fun thing. I mean, see how far you can go, see how far you can go to get those Pokemon. Do some of those fun activities while you're out there walking. Don't just make it a. You know I'm out here To lose weight or to exercise. Make it fun, yeah. Make it make it something engaging. Listen to a podcast.
Speaker 1:I Know a few. If you want some recommendations, okay. So the third one is patience. Patience is nothing happens overnight and it is very unrealistic to expect it to. Honestly, you're not really gonna feel much after two weeks.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, you might. You might feel physically a little less in pain, but if you're gradually increasing with that structure, you're you're gonna be pushing that no matter when that is, but Basically I mean like almost the first day. Well, basically You're gonna feel different in two weeks from now, but almost from the first day of your activity. It will be at least twelve weeks before you begin to see any meaningful physical changes and that you know. If you want to go Crazy, hardcore, you can. You can adapt to that. It depends on what you feel like is a structure that you can handle and physically you can handle, because Most people, when I'm talking about being overweight and not having an exercise structure, you're not gonna be the dude who's just slamming Crossfit and throwing the ropes around like you're a boss, like, yeah, like I did kettlebell one day and I'm like I'm done, I can't do this for another three years.
Speaker 2:So I had one trainer. So I've got problems with my right knee, really bad problems. I've been through multiple physical therapists to try to resolve the issues and I've still continued to have problems at my right knee. But I had one personal trainer that she consistently tried to get me to do. I think it's Lunges, where you kind of kneel down and then you get up and then you put the next four foot forward, kneeling down the stress on my knee. Every single time I tried to tell her I can't do this, my knee is not going to let me, and she was a young trainer, but she she Kept trying to push me into putting more and more pressure on my knee, which was against the physical therapists recommendation.
Speaker 2:But you know. So you have to find the right trainers as well and just be aware of your limitations. Be aware of them. That's part of being patient is. Just know that not all exercises are going to work. If kettlebells may not be for you, lunges may not be for you. Find ones that work and be patient until you find the ones that are actually going to work for you.
Speaker 1:And on Derby it. I mean it says, when you first start to exercise, find the level that's suitable for you, so you might be able to handle a level two or three. You might not have to start at a level one, but, you know, make sure that, like, test it and if it, if it's too too much, too overwhelming, bump it down. You know, but the the point is is to start, and I want to say one of the biggest things that it emphasizes here is be positive. You are freakin rockstar if you are Doing this. Just thinking about it is makes you that so.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, like, screw the people that are fat shaming, like it's that f you fat sort of thing. Let's do that, okay, and and like that. That's that's what I the only fat I'm in a shame is the fat that I'm like you need to go somewhere else, you don't live here anymore, okay, but it's it's. It's being positive about it, being positive about how freakin awesome you are for for even just considering Trying to, trying to overcome this and and trying to figure out ways to improve your health. That's, that's amazing. And and I like there there's I'll link this in the show notes the this actual article, that way you can go through, but there's a list of a couple recommended. There's about seven of them that are recommended, like hey, you can start here, hey, you can start here and again. There are all things that you can open up. Save the PDF to your phone and you have that document you can refer to.
Speaker 1:So better than an app, because it's right there you know, so you don't have to wait for service or anything like that to get access to I don't know whatever, but I like, I like there be calm because it it provides so many resources at no cost and and lots of different directions, and it meets you where you are from, from the the. I have no Experience doing this and I'm scared to. I am just jacked and I've. You know, I've got the, the best thing, the best workout program ever, and Derby will be like let's see.
Speaker 2:And this is not an ad for Derby. They are not a sponsor, just being clear. If Derby doesn't work for you, there are a lot of other ones. There's tons of options. There's. There are resources for anyone, at any level, in any area. Just just go out there and find them. We will help you find anything. That's why we're we're talking about Derby. That's what works for Adam.
Speaker 1:He really likes it, you know just, my wife did a bunch of fitness challenges. She went on Pinterest and found all of these different things. One of them was a squat challenge really weird, okay. So it's not like squat bar in the in the gym. It's literally just sitting there physically squatting over and over and over and over and you're doing like deep squats. So you're you're legit, pressing work in your legs, your knees, everything.
Speaker 2:Okay that just hurts my knee thinking about it.
Speaker 1:Okay, she's. She's doing these like 30 30 day challenges. Man, like my wife's butt looked so good, but you know like it was that she did push-up challenges she did. I think she did a burpee challenge, which I hate. Burpees like they suck, you know they're, they're terrible.
Speaker 2:I don't like burping.
Speaker 1:So, like, do what, do what you feel comfortable doing. So this works for me, but it may not work for you, but I would give it a chance if you're, if you are, because there is tons in there.
Speaker 2:So if you, don't have anywhere to start, start there. Yeah, because it works. And so, again, this isn't an ad for that, it's not Anything like that. This is just us, having been down that road a little bit longer, hoping to impart some of our hard earned Learning so that it's a little bit easier for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I hope you come along for the ride, as we are keeping you guys up to date on our progress. Hopefully we have progress. That's the goal and we're really we're really taking this and and and Really controlling it. But before I move into the next thing that I wanted to talk about, joe, I have a gift for you. Okay, and I don't know where you're gonna go, what you're gonna do I sent you a link for some gym membership Discount stuff that you know I I had access to, but I decided that I would pick us up something to Make sure we had something in order to hold our phones and Maybe go over a derby workout program or whatever workout program you want, and and listen to your music or watch your favorite episode, but this attaches to your arm.
Speaker 1:This is tribe fitness from Amazon. No, we're not an affiliate. No, we don't benefit at all, but these were really cool wristbands and they they just their arm bands. They go all the way up to your bicep if you want, and and they're they're water resistant, but if you sweat a lot, you need to wash it because it will reek.
Speaker 2:And so and these things, honestly, I mean I obviously I haven't tried one like this before, but on my stationary bike it's actually got the Phone holders so I can put the phone up so I can watch yeah, you know podcast, I can watch videos. When I'm doing that it helps the time to go by faster. On my road bike I've got a little pouch that holds my phone so again I can be listening to stuff or playing Pokemon Go. If you go over a certain speed limit on your certain speed on your Road bike, it actually thinks you're in a car. So you got to manage that speed a little bit.
Speaker 1:Be like I'm a car, I'm a car, I.
Speaker 2:Have gotten up to 40 miles an hour.
Speaker 1:Over 40 miles an hour, I think it was 43 miles an hour on my road bike every single time I get a bike it gets stolen, like I, just I don't buy bikes because they get stolen. That I don't. I don't live in terrible areas.
Speaker 2:Like.
Speaker 1:I just. I had a really nice apartment where I had bikes hanging on the balcony, that they were hanging from the rafters and my bike left. My wife's didn't, my didn't, mine did, but yeah.
Speaker 2:They, these things are great have, because this, like I said earlier, make it fun, make it entertaining, make it. It's not just exercise, this is an activity. Yeah and so these are actually really cool. This is awesome because Now, any activity I do you have, I have this so I can have, like, let me get my handy dandy arm band. So yeah, make it fun, make it enjoyable. You know, that's what makes exercise doable, and you will feel better, you will be healthier. It's not about being skinny, it is about being healthy.
Speaker 2:Yep you know the and and. Here's the problem. So this is why I know we're way over time, but I do want to say so, talking to my doctors. One of the reasons why it was so important to find why I am overweight. Obviously I'm doing right, health or food wise. I'm exercising. I could do more, but I'm exercising Is because the way that the fat compresses the organs in the center of the body, specifically with the way that the fat is distributed in my body where it's all on the central core, it compresses all of the organs.
Speaker 2:So it compresses my heart, it compresses my lungs, all those things. It causes legitimate health problems or Potential health problems not being able to breathe as well, the heart having to do more effort. It's not about being skinny, it is about Health, and so losing these extra pounds for me is about putting less pressure on my internal organs and and therefore I'm going to be able to live longer. It's not about skinny, it's about healthy. I've got good blood pressure, I've got good cholesterol. Medication is helping those, but as much as those help, I've still got a lot of that pressure on my midsection, and so losing the weight is what's going to help make me Healthy and be able to live longer. So for me, skinny, just because my body structure is, is healthy.
Speaker 2:Yeah but not everybody is the same way. You, adam, will never be as skinny as I was In my prime, it's just you have a large body structure.
Speaker 1:I know what my like opera, like my ideal weight is, but I haven't seen it in a Long time and so it in years.
Speaker 2:It is about being being healthy, yeah, and that's the goal, that's the key and that's the journey that we're on is not necessarily skinny. Now is about healthy.
Speaker 1:Yep, I, I'm gonna shift gears. Okay, I don't really have a good transition for this, other than the fact that sometimes, if you don't deodorize before you go to the gym, you might stink Not as bad as 19,000 Cattles on Cargo ship in Cape Town, south Africa. So what happened is basically on the way from Brazil is where these ranchers Probably not ranchers, but you know made for a good seafaring tail. These, this cargo ship, is transporting 19,000 cows across to Iraq, and I don't know why Iraq, but okay, that's great, you know it's going there, someone royal there's probably it someone very, very wealthy Once. 19,000 cows. Okay, this is not the first time that they've done this. They also have the. They did some sheep and goats and that kind of stuff and some more cows kind of a mixed cattle cargo ship.
Speaker 1:But they keep having to go south because of all the stuff going on with the Houthis and attacking the ships. So they're not taking the other route to get there, they're going around the southern point of Africa. So, that being said, it stops there for a resupply of food for the cattle, and it stopped there for a couple of days to resupply this ship and, in the process of that, stunk up the entire town of Cape Town, like that's a big city for it to be. So here we have a meat processing plant that used to be in Draper we call the Draper Vapor when the winds changed, because it was absolutely disgusting, and it wasn't always because of, like you know, the carcasses of animals, it was because it was a processing plant. So even just the cattle car itself, or you drive by a dairy farm, that is terrible.
Speaker 1:All of those are normal places that smell absolutely atrocious. You wouldn't think Cape Town as one of those places, but this cargo ship caused that much of a stink and so they basically, like the city officials, checked, like sewage facilities, for leaks. They didn't know that it was coming from this ship originally. They were just like why is it so terrible? So they finally zeroed in on, they find this cargo ship and they inspected and what they noticed is that the way that they were being handled and like these cattle were forced to basically stand and lay down, sleep in their own feces, and like the conditions for them to be transported, there's already like the what is the prevention of cruelty to animals, basically, or the PCA when it's protesting against this and that's because of the fact that it's so bad. Like they've said, do not transport livestock across the ocean.
Speaker 2:No, we knew that back in the 1718 hundreds there's a famous pirate who tried it and the people that I can't remember the pirate's name, Horrible histories did one of their cartoon episodes on it. But it was so bad the cows were so sick that the officials that came to arrest the pirates just left because they weren't having anything to do with it.
Speaker 1:So they found some dead and diseased ones. Eight cows were humanely euthanized. They didn't say how many they found dead. But you know, I mean thinking about, like, the conditions that they have to live in. I think their focus as they're transporting this to make sure that they're fed. But other than that, like you're, in all the elements, in the heat, in these boxes, these cattle carts that are that are, you know, massive stack cows on top of cows. On top of cows, I mean, usually some of those are four and five, you know cow height tall. So you're talking, each cattle car is, you know, hundreds of cows. And you know, I know, the cattle renters are like could you just drop them off in my yard please, because I'll take a, you know a good 50, you know. But the idea is is that you know, this is two and a half weeks on board of this just to get to Cape Town and they still have to travel all the way around to Iraq and so they still have a ways to go and they're yeah, they're really trying to trying to fix this.
Speaker 1:The SPCA has really put up a big fight trying to stop this, to make it so that it's just illegal for them to transport like this. But then you have countries like Brazil who are like, neat, I'm glad you have a law, I don't care, and they're going to do the thing. So you know you're going to run into this. The only the only thing that you would probably run into is to say, like Cape Town would say no, you can't stop here. So you know, in the efforts to try to reduce that, you know they're going to stop that. But then you're going to have the other side of that that says no, if it means that animals stay alive, you need to let them stop. Right, your town is going to stink, but you need to let them stop. So it's. It's this really vicious battle and the end of the day, it's like just stop transporting them.
Speaker 1:Like get these cattle, get, get a few cattle there and start building that cattle there, instead of it being like why do you need 19,000 cows shipped over to Iraq? Like what is the point of this? So they're doing a lot of work, they're trying to do it. The last one that actually better conditions, they were fed, they were taken care of was the 16th out of 1000 cattle, and sheep is what went over to the Middle East.
Speaker 1:And but basically, I think it actually ended up being a return to Australia. It came from Australia, so it was stranded at sea for nearly a month due to the Houthi attacks, so they, they had to turn around and go back. So, that being said, like they, they literally have to. You know, this is this is a normal practice, but it's something that, like you have decent conditions. Even having them stranded there for a month, they took better care than this 19,000 cows on this cargo ship. So, you know, I I more than anything this story was just kind of gross and I was like, yeah, it's a total like shift in direction from what we're talking about today, being that, you know, my diet's going to consist of no beef, so cattle I don't care.
Speaker 2:That's one where PETA should get involved. I'm not a huge fan of PETA. I think some of their methods are a little out there. Yeah, in principle. Yes, people should be treating animals ethically, that's, there's no question there.
Speaker 1:Don't try to lay down in front of a cargo ship. It doesn't work.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that's, that's wild. I cannot even imagine that's there. There are so many better ways, so many better ways to do that. So many better, I can't even say that enough. So many better ways, wow.
Speaker 1:Well, we've reached the end of our show, thankfully. I want to reiterate that be consistent, have a structure and be patient. You are freaking awesome and life is too short, so keep laughing, keep learning and remember. Idiots have way more fun. Check your shoes.