The ConverSAYtion
The ConverSAYtion is simply a couple of middle aged men sharing company and conversation. Psych and K take their time sorting through so much to say about society, culture, relationships, education, finance, technology, health, and more. Inspired to find engaging ways to entertain and enrich the lives of their listeners is their primary pursuit. Join them as they invest themselves in providing value to their audience. Welcome to The ConverSAYtion.
The ConverSAYtion
Unlocking Fitness Success Beyond Resolutions
What if your New Year's resolutions didn't fizzle out by February? We explore this familiar cycle and the "New Year, New You" mindset, promising insights on how to maintain your fitness goals long after the holiday indulgences. From understanding the motivations that fuel fitness journeys to savoring the spirit of novelty with a taste of Milagro Cristalino Añejo tequila, this episode covers it all. Expect a lively discussion on what truly keeps us committed to our health aspirations.
We bring you the unexpected world of stone fruits and their surprising members—have you ever considered olives or avocados as part of this category? This revelation propels us into a broader conversation about health, as we share impactful personal stories of health scares and the critical role of regular check-ups. With societal trends in obesity on the rise, we stress the importance of proactive health management and awareness in extending both life expectancy and quality of life.
Balancing fitness with the demands of everyday life is no small feat. We talk about the power of goal setting, community support, and the allure of social media success stories that often overshadow the hard work behind the scenes. Listen as we share stories of companionship in fitness, from workout partners to Spartan races, and tackle the challenges of setting realistic goals amidst a busy lifestyle. Join us as we journey through the art of starting and maintaining health goals with genuine commitment, urging you to find that pivotal moment of change.
You don't gotta do it if you don't want to, you don't gotta do it. If you don't want to, you don't gotta do it. If you don't want to. It's just a suggestion, come on.
Psych:That one had a little bit of an echo. Yeah, good reverb Stung a little bit, a little redness right here in the palm.
Letter K:That's what you should be doing in your spare time is doing TikTok, hand clap tutorials.
Letter K:Clap uh um tutorials yes,
Psych:I b uilt for it. Cheers it has. It's good on the nose.
Letter K:Yeah, welcome back
Psych:smoo th.
Letter K:Yeah, I like that to the conversation podcast. Um, new topic, new bottle. So uh, you want to tell us what we're, what we're doing now.
Psych:Well, the new year is, it's right, here it's right here we're in it. So what do people like to do in the new year?
Letter K:They like to kid themselves by pretending that the new year, new you phenomenon is a thing that actually happens. Sure, I'm already getting all the memes. I subscribe to a dozen or so different, what do you call them? Channels, fitness channels? And they're all doing the memes right now of making fun of the people who go to the gym for January, february, and then it just disappears.
Psych:Yeah, absolutely.
Letter K:We are very cyclical beings. Idea of of starting fresh, of being able to pick a moment at, you know, the the go, the go square on the monopoly board is, uh, it's enticing to people and so, yeah, sure,
Psych:clean slate tabula rasa fresh, fresh start
Letter K:especially after all of the holiday debacles. You know, oh yeah, heavy drinking, heavy eating cakes, cookies, candies, pies, the whole bit. You know what New Year's coming around? I'll start January 1st.
Psych:Makes sense. Get all of your binge drinking out of the way and all of your throwing. Be done with all throwing caution to the wind when it comes to your diet and nutritional content of things. Eat all the cookies and the cakes and whatever tastes good and you know what the thing is. Most people know it tastes good because they had it last year and they had it the year before that and they know what it's going to be like. But they do it anyway and then they get a pressure.
Psych:So I thought for this particular episode and well, this episode is going to start us down this journey of exploring fitness. Let's try to get into fitness and health. And what does that mean for people? What does that mean about this time? How do people get started? What are some of the pitfalls that people should avoid? How do people stay consistent? How do they keep it going? How do they get success? What drives people to continue after they have received that success? Get success. What drives people to continue after they have received that success? What gets people to stop after they've already had a fair amount of gains and success and they have things that they can show and what? What gets what? What would cause somebody to abandon all of that and what would get them right back to. You talked about the cycle restart
Letter K:so, um, I think that's great.
Letter K:This is a fun topic for me because I've been on quite the health journey in my life, uh, and and in true, in true, in true health oriented fashion, let's start off by talking about what we're drinking today. Let's so today we've got the Milagro Cristalino Añel First time I've seen this.
Psych:I li ke the bottle.
Letter K:Yeah, I do, I do. So this is a. This is. I think there's a trend of white Añels coming out, and Adonio is one that I really like this one here. So you talk about aged tequila. This is an aged tequila and they say it's aged 18 to 24 months in French oak barrels. Usually it comes out a nice yellow color, but they get the aged tequila to come out white like this by charcoal filtering it. And then they talk about the process here. So we're looking at an aroma of vanilla, stone fruit and cooked agave. Stone fruit is such a broad category for a scent.
Letter K:It's kind of funny,
Psych:I didn't know anything about stone fruit. Well, I knew things about stone fruit. I wasn't familiar with that particular nomenclature. I didn't understand the title, the name and what fell underneath it.
Letter K:And so full disclosure. As a grocer, I've been using stone fruit for a long time as talking about stone fruits, but I never knew why they were called stone fruits. I just looked it up while we were getting ready for this episode. And stone fruit the stone fruit term comes from a large or a hard pit or stone found inside the fruit, so it's the seed. So peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines, olives fall into the category, so do cherries, so do mangoes, so do avocados. Those are all stone fruit technically.
Psych:Anything that would feel like a stone in your mouth if you decided to bite down on it.
Letter K:Yeah, like Furiosa just sucking on the peach pit for six years. Yes, exactly, Exactly so. One of the first things to do with better health is get plenty of fruits and vegetables.
Psych:Oh yes, we're getting that.
Letter K:Excellent segue.
Letter K:Yes. So how do you want to start this?
Psych:Well, I think we should start with how people get started. I think we should start with people's whys. Why do people decide? What is the idea that people have in their minds, or ideas that cause people to even consider altering their health? I know, for me it was a lab report that said your cholesterol is a little high and I was like, oh, let's do something about that. And I was kind of treating my lab numbers like a video game and trying to alter them however I could. And then, once I started to see success and I was actually moving the numbers in the right direction, I was feeling great. I was feeling great. Then, okay, well, now how do I do all of these things better after that? But the beginning was, hey, I don't like my lab numbers. I want to be healthy, I want to be around for my family, for my children. I want to enjoy life to the fullest as a healthy and able individual. So let's do what it's going to take to do that.
Psych:That's kind of how it started for me.
Letter K:I'm a strong advocate for lab work as a barometer for how you're doing health-wise, because they do the full thing. They take the five vials of blood or whatever and they give you all these different data and your doctor can discuss those things with you. But you know, I have Kaiser and I do it every year and they give me every result and they show you the range. If you're within the range, boom, healthy. So I mean I'm a big fan of getting your numbers done. That was, that was kind of so. I didn't. I didn't do that until after I started my health journey. You know it was for me, it was actua lly I.
Letter K:I rebooted my father's uh journey because he was when he was, you know, younger. He was unhealthy, he was, he was gaining weight, he wasn't doing you know he was being, he was a normal, normal American male kind of stuff. But my family has a has a history of of uh obesity, heart disease, like large portuguese men dying young, and so when he started to get to an age where his body wasn't responding like he expected it to and went to the doctor, the doctor was like bro, you're gonna die, and for him it kicked off this, this health journey that I mean. He took it, he went full on hardcore after it and he lost so much weight so fast that we thought he was going to die from that.
Letter K:Like
Psych:he just dropped another human
Letter K:, yeah, I mean, and he's still around today. He's in his 70s, he's doing great. But yes, for me it was the same thing. I was in groceries, I was a young manager and the stress and all of the stuff I found myself eating way more than I needed to like stress eating hard I was a hard stress eater than I needed to like stress eating hard.
Letter K:I was a hard stress eater and I had, you know, I had this like, had this like like feeling in my chest, like right here it was like pounding. Turns out it was muscle spasms, but you know, you don't know, I thought, I thought it was my heart, but at the time I was 250 pounds. I was very, very unhealthy, I was drinking seven days a week. I was just not living a good life. And when I went to the doctor I also found out that I was type two hypertensive and he told me the same thing that my dad's doctor told him many years before you're going to die. So the first time that I really got into the health kick it was mostly diet and it was because I went to the doctor and the doctor was like, bro, how long do you want to live? Exactly, yeah,
Psych:that's.
Psych:that's really the first. The first, I mean, you have to, you have to know your body, you have to be aware of whether or not you're healthy or not, and chances are, if somebody has to ask the question, they already know the answer.
Letter K:So, according to here's some basic statistics that I pulled off from the chat for GPT before we started as of the most recent CDC data, 42% of adults in the US are obese Over 40? How many? 42%? 42% and the related chronic health conditions like heart disease, diabetes and cancer are also on the rise, and they're directly tied to obesity. Approximately one in four adults doesn't meet the recommended physical activity guidelines, which is 150 minutes a week. I find it funny that approximately one in four so that means approximately three in four do, but the obesity rate is much higher. So it's not enough. It's not enough. It's not enough.
Letter K:Here's the one that really got my gears going here. Us life expectancy has dropped 2.9 years since 2019. So the most recent data that I was able to pull is from 2001, and it's gone down and we can't entirely blame the pandemic. There are other factors and I can get into that if you'd like, and I can get into that if you'd like, but the fact that science is going this way and we're going this way is cause for alarm,
Psych:I agree.
Psych:I agree Almost half I mean approaching half, approaching 50% of the country is no longer at a place that could even enlist and defend our country. Should we ever need to have an army or a military force here? God forbid we were ever invaded and we had to go back and revisit the draft right. Getting people to come in, getting people involved, getting people to help for a particular cause, if we ever had to do that. Well, we only have what 58% of the people in the country able to do that. Not all of them are adults yet, so it's not much.
Letter K:And just because you're not obese doesn't mean you're healthy necessarily either
Letter K:Correct If you have asthma, you can't be deployed with an inhaler on the front line, because you might not have that inhaler with you.
Letter K:So by degrees. While you were talking, I looked up obesity rates in the US during World War II, because you talked about going to war, and while precise statistics are hard to come by for that period, estimates suggest that it was less than 5% of the population of the US
Psych:and there's other ways.
Psych:You can go back and watch an old Yankees game right and the footage from the park the fans Finals game in the 1960s 1970s. It was difficult to find somebody overweight in the stands during that time period and now it's quite the opposite. You're really finding it difficult to pick out really fit and healthy people just visibly in in those crowded environment.
Letter K:They stand out. You know, even like even you, even when you go to the gym I hate to say this because going to the gym is great if you're going to the gym regularly. Even you know I don't know where you're at in your health care journey or your better health journey, but there's a lot of overweight people in the gym.
Psych:But I applaud them for going and attending. They're there. I'm not always in tune with people's motivations for going, especially if they have a tripod and camera and they're setting up, especially if they have a tripod and camera and they're setting up or if they. You know, we've seen we've seen those videos of people that walk in the gym and they they post their location, they take a status update, they take a shot, they're in they're in a very attractive looking piece of gym wear and then they exit.
Letter K:Yeah, yeah, no, I mean so. Yes, if you're going to the gym, don't let me dissuade you. Please keep going to the gym. You will be amazed what consistency can do. And that's the thing is, we've got the first of the year, gym memberships and I know some groceries sales of SlimFast go through the roof. Is that even still a thing? Oh yeah, oh yeah. I just, just, uh, just, bought a case of it for my, uh, for my roommate. Yeah, okay, so it's totally, it's totally still a thing. But all these things dietary stuff goes, goes up in january, february, dies in March. So so you know, however people find their, their drive, their motivation, their determination, how they're going to do what they need to do to get better health, you know, be more fit. You got to stick with it. Yes, so the biggest thing for me, I think the number one thing, and I wrote it down with the pen consistency, consistency and sticking with it. You're not going to get the results you need in Q1 2025
Psych:.
Psych:No, no, you have to. Well, even with me, I started I was like, ok, let's do this. Well, I have the updated labs, so I'm going to retest in six months. And that was a good amount of time for me to have a little bit of ups and downs, hopefully more ups than downs, hopefully more successes than failures, hopefully more time engaged in my own health than not. And when I was able to do that in a six month period of time, I was able to lose almost 40 pounds and really just, really just shred up and feel good, feel good about moving, feeling good in my body, feeling good in my skin. Again, like getting to that level.
Psych:And for me, I was. I was an athlete all the way through high school and through college and so. But I had all when I was living that life, early, early twenties, even into approaching 30, even into approaching 30, I'd always been an athlete, I'd always been fit, I'd always been healthy. And when I got into my thirties, that was the first time I was starting to phase out of that mode. So I I was. It was that feeling of, oh, the way of moving, what I can and cannot do, is different. What is this? I don't understand it. No, that doesn't. This doesn't. I don't like this. What do I do about it? And I didn't? I don't know. It should have occurred to me right away. In fact, I knew the answer, but of course, procrastinated or made excuses or found distractions to feel the time. But it wasn't until I took those laps and my doctor was on the verge of prescribing me some medication that I didn't want to take and I didn't think I needed because, hey, if I can get healthy without this, then I'm just going to do that. I'm not going to take anything.
Psych:I have since learned about quite quite a few other options. There's a huge, there's a whole industry that has labs that aren't affiliated with your health insurance. Basically, you can go in and get elective labs done that are farther reaching than what something like Kaiser or Blue Shield or whatever healthcare provider you have. They're pretty much doing the bare minimum healthcare provider you have. They're pretty much doing the bare minimum. And I was listening to a podcast recently and they were diving into all of the health options that are available if you're willing to pay out of pocket and the information and the data that it can get you. There's quite a few labs here. This is my first attempt at using Gronk today.
Psych:So LabCorp, quest Diagnostics, healthlabscom, healthlabtestcom, alpha Labs I think I've heard of Testology Incorporated those places will check for so many other things, including your hormones. They'll dive into, dive into okay for your body. You should probably avoid these things and you should probably seek out these things. As far as diet, nutrition, yeah, they'll let you know, almost, almost to a t, what, what vitamins you are deficient in and how much more sunlight you need it. Just it takes it a step further. So if somebody is more, if they really want to get in the weeds and dive off the deep end and try to figure out how much more that they can do for, for something that would cost about what a nice dinner out would cost and you'd only have to do it once a year, it could provide a lot of results.
Letter K:yes, yes, you are not lost in the weeds. Someone dropped you off in the middle of the fucking forest here. So if you have the money and you want to know absolutely everything, listen to this. If you want to be normal, healthy, listen to K. Here's the deal. Here's the deal. Nobody needs that level of micromanagement with their healthcare journey.
Letter K:If you eat right, moderately, exercise and just do better at life, you're going to be fine
Psych:and nobody needs to drive a Lamborghini, but people like to drive the Lambos. All right, do you want Lambo healthcare, lambo Labs Right here. Let's coin that. Just made that up right now Lambo Labs. I'm going to look this up on Gronk after this episode airs and we're going to see if somebody picked up on that and if not, I should trademark that.
Letter K:Trademark Lambo Labs. It's catchphrase is going to be hella dumb.
Psych:You heard?
Psych:it here first.
Letter K:So so my question is um, because I mean, obviously I've watched, I've watched you dedicate yourself to to better health and I've watched you fall off the wagon and I do the same thing. What when? When you were, when you were just hardcore into doing it, just like with me and Rod every Saturday, and you're doing it on, you're doing your hours in the garage.
Psych:What was keeping you going shallow? It was so. It was more or less. I think I look good, you want to look fly, I look good, and so I put in the work. I felt good in my clothes. I bought clothes that I wouldn't have bought or worn otherwise. It wasn't so much attempting to draw outside attention although my wife did take notice no, it was more personal. And then, second to that was probably how I felt it was more personal and then, second to that was probably how I felt. Or maybe they were tied. I would say they're probably one. It could be one or the other depending on the day or what I was feeling like, but after a good workout session it felt great. But it took time. I was putting in.
Letter K:It took time for you. Yeah, you were putting in how much?
Psych:Two to three hours a day, yeah, so it was taking time away from family. It was taking time away from other things, and you mentioned falling off the way. Is that the term? I mean, we're drinking, so I don't know.
Letter K:It's a general expression.
Psych:Yes, so when I had setbacks with injuries and illnesses, I'm more or less like an all or nothing. I just want to go, go, go, go go, and if I can't continue to do that, I don't want to do this anymore.
Letter K:Yeah, I know.
Letter K:I know you are,
Psych:but I'm sure I will find my way back.
Letter K:I don't find your reasons for wanting to have better health shallow at all. I think that looking better and feeling better, those are the two reasons I mean maybe it's because I'm the same way. I do that for the exact same reason. I love looking better. You know, I love getting up in the morning and the dehydration abs in the mirror. I love that. And, again, like you, I do it for me, first because I like the way that I look, and then anybody who does care to comment. It's a welcome bonus. It's a welcome bonus.
Psych:I would say, if somebody is not doing it for themselves first, if it's for external factors, if there's variables outside of themselves that are motivating them to do that, well, those variables can and will change over time and they're not always going to make themselves available, and so that's really going to interfere with one's consistency and ability to continue down that path. If it's always within them, if it starts with them first, regardless of the reason, you can always go back to yourself and figure it out Okay, my, why was? Oh, I want to live to see my grandkids. Okay, that's my way. Oh, I have this thing on the calendar that I want to go do that. That's a huge why.
Psych:I think that was also a motivating factor for me, because I like to do stuff and I like to go places, and when I got started, I immediately started putting things on the calendar, and then injuries and illnesses started removing things from my calendar, and then I just got frustrated and defeated.
Psych:And so I think I think putting things, having goals, having something to look forward to, for most people, if you know, hey, you wanted to go to, you wanted to go to LA, great, okay. Well, hey, there's a, there's a 10k there, great. When is it? Three months or six months out or something. Okay, go to LA and do all the stuff you wanted to do in Southern California and go do that run.
Psych:And, while you are leading up to that, go for walks and then go for a run around your block and then go for a longer run on the weekend at your local high school track and work your way up to that thing that you want to go do and then, after you accomplish it, go celebrate, go have a nice dinner out on the town, go go do something fun with friends and family and people that you enjoy being with and the people that support you while you are on that journey, because you are obviously taking time away from them to pursue that, so get some of that time back to them,
Letter K:yeah, so I agree that you should.
Letter K:So we're talking about better health. You should do it for you. It's like it's like going on going on a flight and listening to the, listening to the pre-flight safety briefing. You have to put your mask on first and then you know you have to do. Health is always for you, for you, yes, so do it for you. And then, yes, also find things that keep you going, because you've found the reason why, but that doesn't necessarily give you the drive or the motivation or the consistency, so you do need things that keep you going. For me, it's two things that keep me going consistently. The first one is finding somebody to do it with. The most important thing for me every time I've ever successfully engaged and exercised regularly or consistently, it's been because I know that I have to be available to do that, because this person is doing it with me.
Letter K:It was me and my wife. For a long time, we would do the workout tapes in our living room and then, when she wanted to get away from doing like the lifting and stuff and she wanted to do yoga, I kind of I kind of petered off and then I was in a. I was in a weight loss challenge with the guys at work and I started to do, eat better, do better and when that ended, you know kind of kind of petered off now I have you know it's. You know it was you you were of. Petered off Now I have you know it's. You know it was you. You were with us for quite some time. But now me and me, me and Rod, get together every Saturday and do Spartan training and I know that in order to do that which is not just running, it's all kinds of DIY obstacles and physical things I have to, I have to stay strong, and physical things I have to stay strong. So that keeps me committed. That keeps me committed.
Letter K:And then, not just the exercising, but the actual events. You plan these Spartan events in the future, and I've done a Spartan when I was out of shape and it's got to be top 10 worst experiences of my life. It's brutal. You get a kilometer out into the nowhere and you can't turn around. You got to go through it and so, even if you skip all the obstacles which you paid a premium to do, and just try to get to the end, it's still a horrendous experience. So I know that I got to be ready for that.
Letter K:And so, by by giving myself that date, I don't let things like injury and illness stop me, like it stops you. I just keep going. You know I'm a savage, I don't give a fuck, and so and so, yes, he is the iron man. No, not even close. No, I'm the slowest, I'm the weakest, but I'm still doing it. So do it for you. Find a group of people, or just one person, I just have one person, but a group of people that are at your fitness level or at least in a range where they can motivate you to help you build you up and keep you accountable for your, your exercise needs. And then, yeah, find an event. Find that 10k in la. Find that.
Letter K:That's that spartan, you know somewhere I mean, that's what you're doing with the spartans. Now you are venturing out of state I've got the season pass.
Letter K:I've got eight or nine planned. Good, I'm gonna. And, yes, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna do the one in west virginia. The, the spartan championships are in west virginia, okay, which is weird, no idea why, but it's in the middle.
Psych:Is that where they had the first one?
Letter K:I'm not sure
Psych:, or their bases?
Psych:but that's headquarters,
Letter K:that's where it's at, but my wife's family also lives in west virginia. So, yes, we're. We're going to plan a family trip that I would not have done if I didn't have this thing to dedicate preparing for.
Psych:Now it's motivating too with my boys One about to enter high school, he wants to run track and cross country and things like that and I know that. Well, we did that triathlon relay together.
Letter K:Yeah what a mess.
Letter K:I don't want to talk about it.
Psych:Well, we won't, but they have since availed themselves to minors, so anybody 17 years or younger can participate free of charge. They can just sign up and go and they don't have to do a whole triathlon. They could sign up just for the run or just for just the swim or just the bike and they get to pick and choose or maybe do two out of the three. And both of my boys they want to participate. It's like all right, let's hey, I don't have to pay. My boys they want to participate. It's like all right, let's hey, I don't have to pay. I mean we'd have to pay to travel there or travel there and lodging and you know, food, whatever it is. But we could turn it into a weekender or a mini vacation and it gets the whole family involved and it's something that we all enjoy.
Psych:It's also helps that my wife and anybody out there. If you're going to, if your goal is to get fit and stay fit or head that, do you want to head that direction? You might want to match yourself or partner with somebody who also has similar goal, because if they're not on the same page, if they don't understand why you're going to the gym or training or spending this time away from them or, if you even better, if you can find a workout partner and you can motivate each other. Speaking to your first key finding people, finding a circle of support to help. The camaraderie, the stories, the experiences that are shared with people make it great.
Letter K:Support is a huge part of it, and I hate to say it, but we live in a world where nobody wants to see you succeed, and so everybody around you is trying to tear you down back to where you started, back to where they are, back to where they're comfortable.
Letter K:They don't want to see you succeed. I've got a story about when we were all doing the weight training in my garage and I had one of my coworkers trying to come in remotely Dude's fat. He's unhealthy, he's got health problems that go back generations. He's living the same trap that his dad and his grandfather and such lived and he was trying to join us and he joined us for maybe four sessions and then he said his family was making fun of him for trying to exercise and get better health-wise and he stopped. He stopped because his family wasn't on board supporting him, and I think that's kind of fucked up, because you know he's trying to live to see his grandkids, like you said, and his family wasn't, wasn't on board with his, with his better health journey, so they felt the need to tear him down and now he doesn't do it and he hasn't he hasn't done anything since those four, those four
Psych:that's absolutely terrible.
Psych:Why would somebody the person who is working to care for everyone in the family, who? Who I mean? I don't know their situation, but I know his profession and his job was above average and his ability to earn an income and support the people that he loves is probably tremendous. So why would you want to get in the way of somebody's ability to continue to do that with good health and being fit?
Letter K:I think it's more common and, like I said, I honestly think it's because we are a spiteful, hateful society that doesn't want to see other people succeed. If you're the kind of person who is authentically happy when you see somebody doing better, that's the kind of person that I want to spend my time with. If you're the kind of person who gets jealous and starts thinking about comments you could make that might deter that person from continuing that journey towards something better, you know, fuck off, how's that, but I mean, I encounter it a lot. But it goes back to you first Do it for you and then find people who will support you and those who won't support you. Find people who will support you and those who won't support you.
Letter K:You know just either. If you can't trash them, if you can't get rid of them, if you can't leave them behind, at least find a way to tune them out.
Psych:I think for some I would actually venture to say for most people don't want to see other people succeed in areas that they also would like to succeed. So if, if they are going out and getting something that you also wish you could obtain, or you, if you could change your life and make it better at the snap of a finger, you would go do that. And now somebody close to you is getting up and they're going to go do that, and they're going to go do that without you. They've invited you, you're close to them, you can participate or not, you can be a part of it or not, but you opt out and they continue without you.
Psych:That doesn't feel good for those people that are getting left behind. I think, whether that individual is willing to admit it or not, it's either in their subconscious somewhere floating around. I want what they're going to go get, but I'm unwilling to do it. And if I can't have it, I don't want them to have it either.
Letter K:Yeah, of course, and that's exactly what it is. It's jealousy. Doing anything right takes time and we talk about. We talk about people going to the gym January, february. You know it's, it's hard and the excuses start to come out. They can't find ways to fit it into their life, fit into a life of two months, you can't. But it's the people around them who are, who are lounging about, who are being lazy, who are like dude, why are you going to go to the gym? Come hang out with us at the lake.
Letter K:you know that kind of stuff, and it's not because they want to see you. Maybe sometimes it is, but you also have to be consciously aware of the fact that people around you don't want to see you doing better. Aware of the fact that people around you don't want to see you doing better. You know, it's just an, it's just a nature of our, of our animal instincts to you know, to thrive ourselves.
Letter K:we're a very selfish species,
Psych:so however, conversely, most people do like seeing people that they don't know, as they're scrolling through a whole bunch of whatever is out there on the socials. They like those success stories they like to see and the glamorous setting, the sensationalized event, this big shindig that's being thrown, that's out there. It's almost like a dream. I don't know them. I like that, maybe one day for me somebody else did it, it's possible, but I don't know them and I'm not so close or connected with them, so it doesn't hurt.
Letter K:Yeah, now we're talking about unattainable goals, I think, because you're seeing the end result. Yes, and that's the point I was trying to make before I sidetracked myself is that is that people go into the gym in January. I think that's great, and you've got to find your motivation, you've got to find your drive, you've got to find your consistency, but but you've got to. You've got to tune out all of the naysayers. You've got to. You've got to brush all of the doubt under the rug and you have to tell yourself, you have to convince yourself. It's going to take time.
Letter K:I was exercising consistently for almost two years before I looked in the mirror and was like oh yeah, this is kind of how I want to look Before people started making comments. Before this gal at work is like hey, I've noticed, you've been working out. You're starting to look a little too thin maybe, but they're seeing it, they're starting to say something. It's just like YouTube you get a million views and 36 likes. You've got to do it for you, and then the people who who are noticing will eventually say something. But you've got to keep after it. It's not, and you're not going to be able to start in january and get that beach body by june. It's not how it works. It has to be a part of your life now. I completely disagree that you need to spend two or three hours a day dedicating to better health
Psych:no, you do not.
Psych:You do not. That's.
Psych:That's what I like to do, and it was a combination of cardio and and strength and resistance training
Letter K:so let me ask you this did the amount of time that you were trying to spend doing that, doing that, lead to you not being as consistent as you wanted to be?
Psych:Great question. I think in the beginning it motivated me to to go. I think this past summer I had, I had a good go and I overdid it. I just I jumped in and I it was let's walk 20,000 steps a day and let's let's rock with 60 pounds in my pack for a mile, and let's let's go ahead and get on the bike and do 30 minutes and then run a couple of miles right after, and then let's. Because I had the time as an educator, I mean, even right now I have so much free time and I'm using a portion of this time to ease myself back into becoming more consistent. In fact, just last week I was on the Peloton attempting to ride at the same level that I had previously ridden on, and that didn't go well for me.
Psych:But I needed that. I needed to do that just for myself, to humble myself and to get to the place. Okay, we're going to start. And I'm not starting way at the beginning, when I, when I was, when I was completely unhealthy and out of shape and out of and well overweight. I'm not starting there, but I got to find somewhere in between between that. So I think the it's the scheduling. So I think it's the scheduling If it's not something someone can adequately schedule, if it's not realistic.
Psych:And that brings me. I was just looking at some goals for people starting out, or some advice for people starting out, and the first one is set realistic goals. Right, if you think you're going to jump in and you're going to go 90 minutes a day every day, well, you might want to just dial that back. That's not going to work for everybody. Set realistic goals, start slowly. Find activities you enjoy. That was a huge one for me. It was cycling. For me it was cycling, and then I got into running and that, and then I got into swimming and it was like, well, let's do a triathlon. And then, um, and I and I and I'm going to actually, oh, I have to schedule mine or I'm going to lose this money. I just reminded myself. Right now I've got three days to to rebook this try Anyway it might happen.
Psych:Find activities you enjoy next summer. Yeah, wine country, sonoma, you're invited Okay.
Psych:We'll go revisit the thing we're not going to talk about if you can get it booked to the next three days. I can, okay, uh.
Psych:I know it's proper form mixed cardio.
Psych:And strength training listen to your body. That was one of the hugest and most difficult. It was by far the most difficult thing for me to do, because I didn't even know what that meant and you would try to help and coach and go. Well, it's kind of like this or kind of feel like that. I was like I don't feel that, you feel that where. Oh, you should feel it here, I don't feel that there. So if I can't feel it, if I can't sense it, then I can't listen
Letter K:so.
Letter K:So that was more finding the muscle we're doing weight training listen to your body is like today.
Letter K:I didn't do my full run today because my ankle started to to like it was hard to footfall and so after, after about six kilometers, I just I had to stop. I had to tell my I didn't want to stop, but I but I had to listen to my body, had to be like, bro, you're gonna hurt yourself. Okay, that's listening to your body. Finding the muscles a totally different. Another, another argument, and that's a difficult thing to do because, like you said, trying to engage specific muscles
Psych:weren't you just saying earlier that you don't allow injury or illness?
Psych:now you cut your run short.
Letter K:I cut my run short today so that I could continue tomorrow. But if I was in the middle of of training for spartan and going to that spartan, I wouldn't be like, oh man, oh man, my back kind of kind of hurts today.
Letter K:I'm just going to go home no,
Psych:dav David Goggins might have something to say yeah, yeah, fucking stay home. Hydration is key. Nutrition matters. Consistency over perfection. Track your progress, community and support. I'd probably put that up top. These are in no particular order Educate yourself, be patient, patient, adapt and overcome plateaus.
Letter K:So so back to fitting exercise into your life. Three hours, calm down, um, there are so many workouts. So how I got started, like originally, initially, when me and the wife were doing stuff, it was we were, we would get the, the video series, stuff, like we were fans of beach body on demand. Oh, not richard simmons.
Letter K:No, not, I'm not that old calm down, jesus christ, we just lost this year.
Letter K:Yeah yeah, um. So sean t is one of my favorites. Uh, he has, he has several videos, uh, video series. So we started out doing one called hip-hop abs. It was like it was like a dance cardio. It was basically, you know, like, like jazzercise, like richard simmons, you know, it's basically the contemporary version of sweating to the oldies, and so we did that for a long time, moved on to more direct cardio workout. He had another one called t25, and these were all. The t25 was 25 minutes and I included the stretching, the warm-up, the workout, the end, and it was all bam, 25 minutes a day. You're done five days a week and so, and 25 minutes day, seven days a week is 150. It breaks the 150 minutes thing.
Letter K:So for me, I think that finding a routine and that's going to take some time to figure out I went through a lot of different stuff. I injured myself in a lot of unique and fun ways before I found exactly what works for me, in what order, in what rotation, at what times. I work out in the mornings I'm not an evening exerciser Workout before I go to work. I exercise seven days a week and not a single day does it go over 45 minutes. In general it's 10 to 12 minutes of stretching. Because I stretch every day, I have to uh, otherwise I can't move. And then I do, I do uh, I do weights. I do weights four days a week, I swim two days a week and I do the Spartan training one day a week. Spartan training is the only day that goes over over 45 minutes.
Letter K:Um so it doesn't that works for you.
Psych:Oh yeah, and I know every that's one thing that's key for people to consider what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for the next person
Letter K:anyone who tells you there's only one way to do like you're on, you're on tiktok or on youtube and you've got this person like this is the only way you're going to get fit. That person is trying to sell you t-shirts or protein powder. It's bullshit. There's there. You got to find what works for you. I went through all these different things. I was taking advice from you, I was taking advice from Rod, I was taking advice from Sean T, I was taking advice from Joel Freeman and through all these different things. Eventually I found what works for me. But what works for everybody is the notion that you don't need to spend all kinds of time on it. It can be a little bit 20 minutes a day to start out. You may find you want to expand that. You can do that, but if you eat right and you exercise for 20, 25 minutes a day, you're going to get fit.
Psych:I think you made an excellent point there.
Psych:If you eat right oh, yeah, yes, yes so my recommendation to somebody who has their why.
Psych:It's firmly in their mind. They they know the reasoning behind their, their new pursuit. This journey now has a cause. If they're unwilling to change their diet or alter their diet at least some, to accommodate their new goal then and support their new progress hopefully, then maybe they should reconsider their timing. If if, for example, if you work at a five-star restaurant and you are just eating the most luxurious and high-falutin foods available every single day and you're tasting all the time on the line and then you go home and you're serving your family that food and you come into the restaurant and you have a family meal with all of your coworkers and it's just the most buttery, oily, high caloric food available, and if you're not going to change that about your lifestyle, right at least at the point that you're going to go down this fitness journey, then you're probably going to be disappointed with your results.
Psych:You've picked the most difficult example I did, and you're also to be disappointed with your results.
Letter K:You've picked the most difficult example. I did.
Letter K:And you're also, and also I completely disagree. I think you are offering people an avenue for excuses, and that is the dark.
Psych:I'm not saying don't do it. I'm saying if your expectation is, hey, this is a photo of somebody that's fit and I want to look like that person, if that is someone's goal when they start, and if I'm going to work out the 30 minutes for five days a week and I'm just going to do that and that's going to be fine, but if you're not going to reassess your diet and your nutrition, then that photo might not be achievable for you .
Letter K:So I think another thing, that people, yes, but I think one of the things that people don't realize is those people that you're seeing on the internet that just have just just washboard abs and they're fit af and they just they're just just sexy and just toned and all that shit, it's all fake. I mean, yeah, yes, they do look that way, that it's all fake. I mean, yes, they do look that way. That part is not fake, but they are professional exercisers. So your wine cook, your average dental office assistant, your regular people setting realistic goals? You said set goals, but set realistic goals, that's what I said.
Letter K:Set realistic Okay, then we're on the same page. Set realistic goals.
Letter K:I'm 46 years old, the time that I would have to dedicate the way I'd have to dedicate myself to look like the ultra fit, like superstars of the internet who are my age. Nobody's got time for that, unless they're professionally doing that kind of stuff. But you can definitely. You can definitely do better, be better, look better.
Psych:Yes, and you can make progress towards there. I don't want okay. So my intention was not to discourage people from beginning this, this path or taking this journey. Are trying to trying to better themselves.
Letter K:I'm already coming up with excuses if I'm in the restaurant industry.
Letter K:Thanks,
Psych:If you're going to try something new with your fitness and your health, then it needs to be paired with diet and nutrition, and if you're unwilling to do both together in concert to support this new goal that you have, then you can expect not to reach the level or the progress that you built up in your mind, whatever it may be, even if you set out some unrealistic goal out there, for example, somebody who has a picture of a Ferrari on their wall.
Letter K:It's back to cars with you.
Psych:I love cars.
Psych:I love automobiles.
Psych:All right, They've got this poster in their bedroom and they look at it every day all the way through high school right All the way through college. And guess what? They might not ever earn enough money to purchase that vehicle. However, they might have more money as a result, because they tried. And same thing could happen with fitness. If you have this unrealistic picture of somebody who looks gorgeous on your wall and you're trying to get there, you're probably going to make some progress along the way.
Letter K:The conversation podcast calendar coming soon. You can make the hat. Give me a few and at least every other month it's gonna gonna give you the inspiration you need, depending on what motivates you. Better conversation inspiration.
Letter K:Yes, right, that's right now.
Letter K:So, yes, yes to uh, to kind of bring it, to bring it back full circle. You know you need the, you need the consistency and, yes, you need to eat right. So many dudes, I see so many guys who and you've seen this person too who have just got these massive arms. They're just massive, just from here up, they're just an Adonis. And then they haven't seen their dick in six years. Because they've got this monstrous beer belly, because they don't do all they do is chest and arms. And then they go and get cheeseburgers. If you really want to go full on diet, diet's 100% you can.
Letter K:When I first started losing weight, like when I first needed to start losing weight, I did no exercise, I didn't run, I didn't lift, I didn't do anything, except for change my diet. I went from 250 pounds to 210 pounds, like that, and it was a healthier 210 pounds. You know, year over year blood results. I went from being I was I was legit type two hypertensive. I used to check my, my blood pressure in the in the little, the little pharmacy kiosk at the store. You know we, you know, sit in the pajama and I was unhealthy. And just changing my diet I lost weight. I felt better. Of course, when you lose weight you feel better, and my numbers all went back into a more normal range. I still had work to do, but year over year I was 100% healthier, just from eating differently
Psych:I think the diet is one's diet is the most important.
Psych:it's the fuel for your body and you're not going to be able to adequately reach your potential if your diet is sub-optimal. So it's not going to hurt anybody to start weight and resistance training without changing their diet. It's not going to necessarily hurt them. It's not going to become a barrier or get in their way. They might gain muscle, they might get stronger, but they might not see their body physically change its form while they're doing that. I think whatever people can do to just get started, they should just do that If you can. If someone can just start and I know for me sometimes just starting something is almost paralyzing because it's so overwhelming just to start. And then, once I get past that, then I'm like oh, why didn't I do this before? Whenever I pick up a new book, whenever I get past the first few chapters, like this is amazing, why didn't I do this?
Letter K:I think your I think your experience is is more, more unique. I think most people are on the other side of the coin. Starting is easy. It's yeah, yeah. I disagree with that. People start all the time. Side of the coin. Starting is easy. I disagree with that. People start all the time. Every day, people are like, hey, I'm going to start this, and they start it, like my coworker who joined us for four things. It was easy for him to get going. It was hard for him to continue. So, starting, get started. Get started as many times as you need to, but pick that last time that you start for the first time, for the last time, and keep going.
Psych:Can you say that again?
Letter K:I cannot. So, yes, I think starting is easy. Do you know how many books I've started? Do you know how many short stories I've started?
Psych:I think your experience is contrary to what one would find in society when it comes to
Letter K:you're 100 wrong. We just started this whole thing out by talking about how the the the number of of people who get gym memberships and purchase slim fast goes through the roof every january because people are starting annually
Psych:yes, I.
Psych:I think there's a bigger conversation there surrounding the, the people that do those things. Are they actually starting something? Yes, the memberships go up, but do the? Do the gym populations increase drastically? Do people buy those things? Do they consume them before they expire? Are they actually using them how they're intended? I don't know. I don't know. That's true. Calculated, the most conservative, the most people that are put the most time into their decision making and really want their time and effort to mean something, take longer to start
Letter K:Now.
Letter K:I know you're projecting. Nobody takes the kind of time you take to make decisions. That's so I would.
Psych:You probably know me better than others.
Letter K:Yeah, well, there we are, shut it down.
Psych:All right, thank you for joining us. Shut it, oh no, but this is so good we're going to have to come back and continue. Yeah, thank you so much again for joining us for this episode of the conversation podcast. K has enjoyed entertaining me with telling you how much I've been, and I've enjoyed it thoroughly as well. Hopefully we've provided you with some notions and some suggestions and some goals, if this is what you care to start doing and come with us
Letter K:I wrote down entirely, entirely.
Letter K:See you next time,
Psych:all right.
