Training Tuesdays: Health & Wellness with Michael Anthony Lombard

We kick off Training Tuesday with a hard look at driver health and a proven blueprint from Marine veteran, former owner-operator, and Ironman Michael Anthony Lombard. One habit at a time, he shows how to turn ELD rules, fuel lines, and shipper delays into real fitness, better food, and more energy.

• why driver health is the industry’s hidden crisis
• Michael’s journey from 280 lbs to Ironman while OTR
• habit stacking for movement, food, and recovery
• using ELD windows for walking, runs, and prep
• Walmart routing, Trucker Path, and fast food swaps
• protein targets, calorie awareness, simple tracking
• walking laps around the rig for safe cardio
• step-ups, squats, cat-cow, and push-ups off the cab
• safety tips for night movement and women drivers
• how small wins protect your DOT medical card
• building accountability and finding your why
• community, creativity, and sustainable momentum

Bonus!! Michael Anthony Lombard has volunteered to be your coach… free of charge. Look him up if you are ready to take control of your health!

Transcript

Training Tuesday Launch & Stakes

SPEAKER_02 0:06

Okay, welcome back to Trekking with Tammy, everybody. Happy New Year. It's January 2026, and we are hitting the road running. Today marks the launch of my new series, Training Tuesday, and we are kicking it off with the foundation of everything. Health and wellness on the road. So whether you're a brand new driver just getting your CDL, all wide-eyed and ready to roll, or a veteran who's logged millions of miles and fills every single one of them, this series is for you. So let's be real. Trucking is tough on your body. Studies show that truck drivers face some of the highest rates of obesity in any occupation. And if you look around at the truck's office, you'll see that's true. Around 70% of drivers drivers are also at a higher risk for diabetes, heart issues, chronic back pain, and an average life expectancy that's shorter than most folks. But here's the truth, guys. It doesn't have to be that way, right? So this year we're going to change the game. We're going to prepare new drivers that are entering our industry to set up habits that will give them a long, strong career. We hope. You know, limit the burnout, limit the bodies breaking down early. And you veterans, hey guys, I'm talking to you. It's time to get up off your rear. Literally get off that rear. Shake off that stiffness and let's reclaim your energy, okay? So to help us kick this off right, I've got an incredible guest who's living proof that massive change is possible even while hauling free. And if you're in the trucking industry, this man needs no introduction. But Michael Anthony Lombard is a U.S. Marine veteran, owner, operator, trucker, Iron Man triathlete, fitness coach, and the host of the Lombard trucking show. He went from struggling with his weight on the road to completing full Iron Man races, a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and a marathon all in one day. Now he coaches drivers just like you on how to build real strength and endurance without ever needing a gym. So, Michael, welcome to the show and thank you for joining us on day one of Training Tuesday.

Meet Michael Lombard

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Thank you so much for that wonderful introduction. I truly appreciate it. That was a lot, that was a lot of momentum building up, and I am super stoked to be here.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

I am so glad that you were able to join us, Michael, with your experience and what you went through. I thought you were the perfect person to help me kick off this health and wellness journey.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Yeah, I can I can't appreciate that compliment enough. Uh it's definitely something I uh I'm very passionate about. I've said this before on my own show as well as to other people. Um there's something, uh I mean, it kind of just lives in my heart. It's a calling I have, um, not only just to genuinely help people, but help people in this specific way. Uh, because I believe that this industry, uh, especially I believe it's the most vulnerable when it comes to to issues, you know, with health and wellness. I think, I think, large and part, I mean, this is a national issue. I mean, we we see this, you know, the idea of health, overall health, fitness, and overall wellness has really come into the the mainstream these past few years. It has, but yet it's still, there's still not a lot of light shining on this, on the on the issue, specifically within the trucking industry. And I believe that if the trucking industry can start to thrive in this area, then it will trickle down onto the into the rest of the country in such a phenomenal way. And there's been great wins along the way with you know, the colleagues I've worked with, like guys like Dr. Mark Monera and Jeremy Raymer and the Project 61 team. And uh, and that's why I won't stop talking about it. So I'm stoked to be here today.

SPEAKER_02 3:57

Well, you're not just talking about it, you lived it. I mean, this is something that was a personal journey for you as well.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

That's exactly right. I definitely would not be, I wouldn't be talking about this if it wasn't a lived lived experience myself and didn't see the the the ROI on it. Like there has been like going through uh a weight loss transformation like the like the one I have, uh, which is over the you know the course of several years, is something that I mean it trans, yeah, it transformed my physical body and my physical health. But what it also did for my mental health put me in a position to want to give back, want to be involved, want to talk on this issue. Because as I lived through this experience, for as hard and as difficult as it was to like build and learn and get into these new habits, the again, the ROI there, the return on investment has just paid off in dividends with relationships I've built, relations, you know, building better relationships with ones I've had, um, my overall mental health, wellness, you know, reduction in anxiety, depression, like there's been such a trickle-down effect to living, like, you know, living and walking through this testimony that has made me now want to go and you know, there's this old saying, uh this is something I've heard is you know, you work very hard to climb up to the top of a mountain. Once you get to the top of that mountain, you kind of become responsible to go back down and take other people up to the top too, because that view is so good. That view that view is so good at the top of the mountain. And that's and I wouldn't say I'm at the very, very top, but I'm a lot higher than what I was, you know, back in in 2018. And I got to, you know, I'm at this high peak right now, and it looks so good, and I feel so good. I feel compelled to go back down and bring people up to the top with me so that they can see it too, just to know how good it can be.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

So those people down at the mountain, those are going to be our future drivers. So a lot of those newbies out there don't know who Michael Anthony Lombard is. They don't know the Lombard story. Would you like to share your story with all the new people looking to get into the industry or the people in the industry that might not be familiar with who you are?

The Lombard Family Trucking Legacy

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Absolutely, because uh, you know, aside from living through the testimony, like I had said, I don't exist without the without the Lombard story in general, without without my family story. I'm not in this industry without it, too, because that's what kind of that's what called me uh, you know, to work in to work in this industry. And it has everything to do with with my last name, my last name being Lombard. You know, my family owned uh a motor carrier called Lombard Brothers Incorporated, which was known as Lombard Trucking. This was started by my great-great-grandfather, Nikki, and his brother John. And this is back in the early 1900s. They had uh eight horses, two carriages. They incorporated as a motor carrier in 1923. And for the majority of the 2020th century, they became one of the largest motor carriers east of the Mississippi. Uh, they had you know terminals from Baltimore to Maine. Um, they're a very large enterprise. My grandfather, uh, and this is what I'm most proud of because I grew up with this um, the, you know, who I consider my hero for a good chunk of my life. He was uh he was an owner, you know, he was a part owner of Lombard, and his primary job as owner of Lombard trucking was driver. That's that's that's what he did for for 30 plus years. Uh Lombard eventually sold in 1984 to North Penn Transfer, largely in part to the 1980 Motor Carrier Act, which is known as deregulation. For for anybody who doesn't know or new drivers, that was a piece of legislation that um essentially opened up the market. Overall, it gutted the Teamsters Union, of which Lombard Trucking was an affiliate of uh because it eliminated the ICC. So it had eliminated um freight rates and minimums and kind of opened up the market for any, you know, essentially anybody to get a motor carrier authority. And so it became very hyper-competitive. And with companies like my family's company that had great wages and pensions and benefits, um, they they were no longer able to kind of compete and they limped on for several years. They sold to North Penn transfer in '84. North Penn ended up folding due to union contract negotiations in 1991. But again, I grew up with my grandfather. Um, and I've always known him as, you know, as the truck driver, one generation separated from him. My father owns a small parts manufacturer in Connecticut. And so I've grown up in a blue-collar household and with that kind of mentality. Now, where I kind of come into the story, where I kind of blend into it, me myself, I uh, you know, I grew up, I went to high school in Waterbury, which was the headquarters of of Lombard, which where the where HQ was, there's a strip mall there today, still still called Lombard Plaza, right off of I-84. Uh, I served in the Marine Corps from 2008 to 2012. Uh, I deployed to Afghanistan in 2010 with my unit, Charlie Battery 110. Uh, I got out of the Marines in 2012. When I had gotten out, I went to school um because with the GI Bill and uh still not really having that much of a direction, which that's a whole other podcast episode in itself, just talking about uh veteran transition into the civilian world. But uh I had gone to school, I finished school in 2016. Um, and that's when that's when really I'd say things started to started to spiral because at this point college was some somewhat of a band-aid from coming out of the brain core because I was involved with the club lacrosse team and was still it was still in this different type of environment where you're with people a lot, and then all of a sudden it was gone. I'm in the real world. I worked for a year and a half at enterprise rent a car, doing like working in customer service and sales, and it just like and it was, you know, it's it's rough. Anyone who's done time with the the green machine, I mean it's a it's a tough job. Half your customers are drug dealers, the other half have just gotten into a car accident. So it's like you're not working with the the happiest of clients. You know, it's almost like you'll, you know, you'll never you're working in a people-pleasing role and you'll never put please the people. So it just, you know, kind of ran me down, felt very purposeless for a while. Um, you know, and this is also where where you know health issues started to arise. I gained an incredible amount of weight, um, was, you know, was drink definitely drinking excessively. Uh, I had no good exercise habits, nothing, nothing really good at all uh that was going on, especially in the in the health space, because it was just like living for the weekend, so to speak. I end up uh getting in touch with somebody else who I went to college with who works for a wholesaler in the Northeast because I needed to get out of this job. And so I connect with him and you know, we're talking, and I was like, finally, this is my way out. And so I end up getting this job in 2017, work working working at a warehouse. And this is kind of where I first start to enter into the industry working specifically in like freight, because working in this warehouse, I was unloading trucks every day, talking to drivers. Um, I did a lot of inventory stuff. So I was finally on that on that side of things. Mind you, at this certain time though, in 2017, I also was the first time like a doctor recommended that I should be on cholesterol medication, 27, mind you. So this is a young age.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

I was just gonna ask, yeah, you were young.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

It's a you know, so it's kind of frightening. And in my mind, I'm also thinking, oh, heart disease, quote unquote, runs in my family because my my grandfather, he passed away in 2013 due to um, you know, due to complications from heart disease. His father and he and my grandfather also uh had his first heart attack at 50 before I was born. His father died, I believe, in his 50s as well, his father also being a driver. So when I hear that I need cholesterol medication, I'm kind of getting scared. But in my mind, I was like, no, I don't want to do this. I it in my head, I was just like, I'll eventually turn this around. And and I so quick question What was your at this time?

SPEAKER_02 11:45

This is where you were the highest weight, right? And this is when you started your journey. What was your can do you share what your your high weight was at that time?

SPEAKER_00 11:56

280 pounds.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

Okay. I just wanted to kind of paint a picture um for our listeners. Because if they look at you, you look really fit, really healthy, and they're like, Yeah, you know, what this guy. But so I want them to understand where you started.

Hitting Rock Bottom To First Habits

SPEAKER_00 12:11

Yeah, I'm for for reference. I'm in the purgatory of height. I'm 5'11, so I'm not cool enough at six feet, and I'm you know, but I'm not quite um, you know, not quite the the midget, but in the eyes, so I'm in the purgatory of height. So five, yeah, I was 5'11, 280.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

Okay, okay. Just there you guys go. There's your picture of where Michael started.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

And so from there, from 2017, um, you know, flash forward to 2018, this is when this is when I started to make a change. I had gotten engaged that summer, still didn't do anything. But in November of 2018, and I always highlight the reason why it's November, and I'll go back to that later, especially as we start talking about it being the new year and with new goals in November of 2018. I uh a very good friend of mine, somebody who I went to Afghanistan with, suddenly, suddenly passes away. And that in that it came out of left field. It was big time, and I remember stepping on the scale, seeing that number at my highest weight, which was really like 282, 283. Like it would, I would float. I'd float between, depending on how much I was drinking or what I had the night before, between 278 and 283, like floating between that weight. And I remember looking at my hands, looking how my cheek looks, cheeks looked in the mirror. And in my head, the first thing I can think of uh is, and my friend's name is Matt Brown, was if I could talk to him right now, if I could talk to him right now and tell him how I was feeling, what would he tell me? And uh, you know, what what would he have to say to me if I was to tell him about how unhappy I was, all this stuff, you know, XYZ, what could he tell me? Even though he's gone, what would he? And I mean, that that following week or within the next few days is when I started going, I started going to this CrossFit gym, not far from the warehouse I worked at. Not this warehouse, I worked some longer hours. We had a we had a longer rat body truck that I had I had driven and a box truck. Um, so I kind of did that. That's that was the perks of working in the in the warehouses. I I did kind of every job. I would sometimes be at the desk, I would be driving a forklift, I would use the box truck for deliveries. And um, so it was really busy. It was it was like longer hours, 10, 11 hour days. But this CrossFit gym I joined, this is what's really important, is it was the path of least resistance. Is I joined this gym because A, so it's least resistance because it's group fitness. One, so I don't have to plan the workout or figure it out. It's you know, it's coach-led. Two, there's two ways to get back to where I lived. I was in West Avon, Connecticut at the time. There were two ways I can get home from the warehouse, and both ways I could go, I would have to pass this gym. So no matter what, there wasn't a back way, there wasn't another way, there was another cheat code to where, like, so I had to physically drive by it to get home. And so, and there were days that I've driven by it because I just wanted to go home and felt so bad that I drove back past it, felt like such like a loser that I would turn around and go back. Like instead of taking the 5 30 p.m., I would take the 6 30 p.m. So it's like almost like a punishment. So I continue this process. I lose a, you know, I go this is 2018. We go into 2019. I get married in fall of 20 or September 2019. And but you know, before my wedding, I had managed to lose about lose about 40 pounds. Now, the process of this weight loss started with, which is important, especially as I, you know, talk go into being over the road and for new drivers, is I was stacking, I was creating new habits and then building on top of them. So what had happened was the first thing I did was get move. I was like, I need to move, I need to move my body. And so that's what I did. No matter what, I went to this class. What movement looked like, it didn't matter. It like it was because I knew I was going to be there for one hour. In that one hour, I was going to get a little bit of cardio and a little bit of lifting. It didn't matter what it was. I wasn't tracking steps, I wasn't tracking miles, I didn't have like weekly mileage or anything. I just knew I needed to get this movement, whatever it was. And that became a habit. I did that for several months. I didn't really change anything about what I was really eating. I didn't really change because I didn't have any of those habits. Because in the Marines, you can kind of eat whatever you want because you're always running, you're always in the field training, and you're also 20 years old. So your body is just that resistant.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

High metabolism.

Stacking Movement And Food Wins

SPEAKER_00 16:17

Yeah, you're just you're able to do that. And so, but that's the first thing I did. And for several months, I did uh, you know, I go to this gym, I build this habit. The weight doesn't really budge. I maybe lose like eight, 10-ish pounds in like three months. And then, but this coach, he starts to develop a relationship with me because he sees my consistency, and then that's when he starts asking me, asking me about he's like, What are you eating outside of here? And he's like, Hey, you should kind of and he starts giving me the direction to go into with um focus focusing on protein. Do this. So from there, I started to grocery shop, and that was it. So I just I just would just at this point I was buying my own food for a week. Like, what was going to cover me for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the week? And I just and path of least resistance, once again, I had an air fryer. I like I wasn't meal prepping for a week. I did it the the quickest and most efficient way I could to cook uh chicken breast, and I got frozen vegetables and I was microwaving them. I still was not tracking anything or anything. So he did so, those are two habits right there that I stacked, and that's what I kept doing. That's what I kept doing. But along the way, as I started to change my diet, we're talking going into summer of 2019. Um, I get the habit of movement now is now six, seven months in. The food habits about three months in. Because I'm on this good path and I'm starting to see progress, I'm I'm drinking a little bit less alcohol because I want to wake up on a Saturday morning and go to this community workout. Uh like I so I'm not gonna go out on Friday nights. Like I start, like my lifestyle kind of starts to change. Like there's this because I stacked these two habits and I'm seeing this progress. I was like, oh, I don't need to go on a Friday night. I really want to go to this workout, and then I'll have all day Saturday if I really want to have fun, or if we're gonna go out, if we're gonna go party and do do whatever we want. And so I end up losing this weight to, you know, leading up to my wedding, but you know, about 40 or so pounds after we get married. And this this is an important part too, because this is why uh, again, I talked about those trickle-down effects earlier about mental health. But five weeks before my wedding, I was actually offered a promotion to run a store and warehouse in northern New Jersey. And so this is the first time ever, really, I had been offered a promotion at a job outside of being promoted to corporal in the Marine Corps. And so getting this promotion, I was very excited. This that what the salary was was not what I know the job should have been. And for the first time ever, I stood up for myself. I negotiated salary for this promotion. And um, what what ended up being a good thing is it didn't go my way. Like it was it was turned down, like my negotiation didn't work. It was like, no, this is what it is, and this is kind of the trajectory of what it would be. And for the first time ever, I valued myself enough to be like, that's not that's not gonna do it for me. So I turned down this promotion. And but if that happened to me a year prior, I think I would have accepted it because I didn't value myself enough to have because I would have thought the promotion was high enough and good enough of a reward as it was that oh my God, I can't believe I'm being offered this. So if that happened in 2018, like that that same summer, I might have accepted it, not valuing myself, not realizing I was actually worth more. Whereas in 2018, when I or 2019, when I get offered it, I'm like, no, I'm actually worth a little bit more of this because of my experience, because of XYZ. I turn it down. And they wanted me to move five weeks before my wedding. It was like pretty, pretty nuts. So we get married. It's a lot. Yeah, it's it was a whole lot real quick. We get back, you know, from our honeymoon. This is October, and I'm at this point now where I've turned down this promotion. So I've I've got to think about next steps. I'm 29, I'm turning 30, and you know, just a few months, you know. Uh and my my wife at the time, she's you know, she's also in the same boat of what's what's next. We're married now, with you know, we're we're thinking about our future, you know, having a family, etc. Where do we want to where we want to be? We start making plans, you know. Long story short, we start making plans that we're gonna move, we're gonna move to Texas. And I knew full well, just from had having worked in a warehouse now for three years, and I have called myself on the internet Lombard Trucking since 2010. That's uh that's always the important part. When I was still in the Marines, I made a Twitter account in 2010, called myself Lombard Trucking because the idea of having a username was like brand new, and I wasn't gonna use my AIM screen name as my username, as my username on Twitter, um, because that would have been embarrassing. So I've called myself Lombard Trucking. I work in a warehouse, I talk to drivers all the time. I knew coming to Texas, I was like, I'm when we move, I was like, this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna get my CDL, I'm going to, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna honor my family, my family's legacy, and I'm gonna see what this can do for me because I know it can open up doors. So we get to Texas in 2020, and all the while I'm still continuing these good habits. I'm in CDL school now, and then you know, and I have a conversation with my brother, and he's just like, hey, you've been making good progress. You remember how, you remember how Pa died, our grandfather. He, you know, you remember how he died. You're gonna go into an unhealthy, you're going into a very unhealthy profession. Uh, you know, and I said earlier, again, my grandfather had his first heart attack at 50, you know, before I was even born, which is which is which is not okay. Like that's not, you know, that shouldn't be considered normal. We shouldn't, you know, we shouldn't be tolerating that. And so that kind of stuck out. Like I remember having this gut check, like, here I am, passionate about to get into something I really, really want to do that I'm being driven and feeling called to do. But now this these great habits that I've built are now all of a sudden at risk. So I start, you know, I start going, I start doing some research online about ways to ways to stay healthy, what you should do on the road. I bought David Goggins' first book, Can't Hurt Me. And knowing full well that the that access to the gym, and this is COVID, by the way, so gyms weren't really like that open. When I moved to Texas, I was basically, I was like riding Peloton and uh I wasn't running at all. I was like riding Peloton and riding like a road bike and just like going for walks and uh and going to whichever gym was open. And so I realized I'm losing everything. I pick up Goggin's first book and I back myself into a corner. I didn't know what going over the road was like, I didn't know what the lifestyle was gonna be. I didn't know what the gym was gonna look like, but I knew that at the end of the day, you can run anywhere. Like running's free. Like you bought you buy one pair of shoes, they're gonna last you X amount of time. Like no matter what, if you're in a parking lot, like you can run in circles. That was it. And so while I was in CDL school is when I started to, and when I started to run, when I started running, I can go back on the Strava or my Apple Watch Fitness, like it would be a two two mile run, like in it, and it would take me 25 minutes or what have you, however long it would take, because the endurance wasn't the endurance, really wasn't there, so it's just not endurance is there a lot more than it would be if I started running.

SPEAKER_02 22:58

I couldn't conduct two two and a half miles out the gate.

CDL School, Running, And Using The ELD

Fuel Island Meal Prep & Shipper Time Hacks

SPEAKER_00 23:01

Yeah, it and you do you have to be every everybody starts different places, and we'll get into that in a little bit. But I I started running no matter what. When I got back from from CDL school, I would get you know from being there all day. And I was driving and I had to drive far. I had to drive about 40 minutes uh to Killeen. Uh I went to ATDS, would would go to school, come back. I was probably back around 5 30-ish and would go and would go for, you know, and then would go for a run, whatever that looked like, whatever that that distance was. When I got with my so I finished CDL school, I get over the road with my trainer. I'm reading the David Goggin's first book, and I highlight it because it did. It flipped a switch in my brain about just time management overall and and about when to utilize your time and how it's how how you we actually have more time than we than we're led to believe. And nowhere did this make more sense because of the electronic log and the idea of you know, you could drive 11 hours a day in this 14-hour window, you have to take a 10-hour break. And so even if you can only take 10 hours off, there's two hours of you time that you that that I would dedicate. And while I was with my trainer, I also, so this research I had been doing in CDL school, I had downloaded my fitness pal and learned how to track food. This is what I do. And this which and this is where it gets a little bit confusing. This is where people can get lost. But again, this is where we'll touch into that for what new drivers can do. Cause to overwhelm somebody, and this is what's important about like the new year, when you overwhelm yourself, because that's not how I started. Again, I explained how I started. It was just one habit. I didn't start by going to the gym, tracking my food, um, quit quit drinking, do like I didn't bring five new, I didn't overhaul my lifestyle for this. Like again, we're talking this is a year and a half of transition into going going over the road of building these habits to where I was then open now to this idea of adding tracking. So I download my fitness pal, I learn how to track food, I go out my trainer. I can't bring the air fryer with me or anything. So I'm just barcode scanning and uh Googling what the nutrition facts are for like subway. And at the truck stop, I'm finding uh I'm finding where who has fruit, who has the fruit, who has the protein bars. And I'm just tracking everything I ate. And I went off there and made sure I stayed within this calorie goal. So I'm with this trainer for two weeks and I did that for two weeks straight. So for where no matter what, like I know for food, this is what I need to focus on is just making sure I stay within this calorie number. That's it, not focusing on anything else, carbs, protein, anything else. I just wanted to stay in this calorie number. So in two weeks, I built that habit. I get out in my own truck. And then, but also during those two weeks, when we shut down, I talked to the trainer. We'd route, we'd route plan the next day. So we'd be like, okay, we're shut down now. We'll stick a gonna start rolling at four, five, six in the morning. So that's 10, 11, 12 hours from now. All right, I'm gonna go for a four 45-minute run. Sometimes it was a walk, sometimes it wasn't even a run. I would just get my headset on, go make phone calls and walk. So two weeks with my trainer, I built those habits myself. When I get out over the road myself, that was priority number one. Where I then learned while I was with my trainer, you can a tractor trailer can pull into any Walmart. So I knew I can grocery shop there. So you might not be able to park there overnight, but I know I can grocery shop there. And that's how I lived this lifestyle. I had I had the air fryer. I made sure I kind of ate the same stuff every day. Um, I tracked my macros and I tracked what I ate. And no matter what, every time I pulled that yellow tab, I would drive with my running shoes on again, path of least resistance. So that lifestyle became waking up, I would go to inside, breakfast was an apple, banana, protein bar, come back, finish the pre-trip, start driving, drive five, six hours or what have you. Take take the 30-minute break, get your hours back. Sometimes, depending on how far I was driving, like depending on where I was going. Like if I'm if you're only if you only need to drive so many miles in a day, sometimes it'd be longer than 30 minutes. And I would again get some steps, get some steps in there, would just walk the lot and then drive the rest of my clock, park. And as soon as I parked, I would go on Google Maps, look around, see where I should go. And I would just throw on my water pack and I would get out there. There were days where it was just walking plenty of times, and I just drilled this habit into myself. Again, though those are the keys right there is using the ELD in front of you, and then uh like proper route planning. But the idea of that's where I would get my food, grocery shop at Walmart. I was getting chicken, frozen vegetables, cups of rice, um, and making sure I was staying within this consistent goal. Reading the Goggins book is kind of where the key flipped because once I finished it in fall of 2020, I it went from, oh, this isn't just about being healthy anymore. I need to be, I need to be an outlier. Like I need to, I need to stand out. Like I should be. And if you followed Goggins on social media, he's always talking about being in the 1% and all this stuff and being uncommon amongst the common. So in my head, I was like, this is what I need to do. And so it almost became like, you know, you could say it's an ego thing, but that's what it became is like I need to be, I need to be the best version of myself. Like uh, and you know, when people hear ego, they think of it as a bad thing. It can be bad, but also it can also be it, you can also let it work in your favor. And so I thought in my head, I should be an outlier. I'm doing this very difficult job, it's very strenuous. I should, I should train for longer runs, longer endurance events. And so, and so I did, like over time. And but to make myself stand out a little bit more, and as I was getting more and more in shape, this way I talk about that trickle down stuff. For the first time, I start making and creating content. Like I start making TikTok videos about me me going on these runs, and I would talk about history and and scream and about this is why you should be in shape. And finally, and I would have tried to run a marathon in 2021, but it was still like covety, so those events weren't happening. So I I I kept running. I was in this very, very good rhythm and routine. I mean, I was down to like did and I'm not saying everybody needs to do this, but I was at the point where if I was waiting in line at the fuel island, I would uh be if there was a two trucks in front of me, a guy getting fuel and another guy in front of me, I would be parked, pull out the air fryer, scale the chicken, put it in, put it in the air fryer for 20 minutes. By the time I'm I'm getting fuel, the chicken breast is done. I would microwave the microwave the vegetables, pull around, park. There's lunch right there. And I had a high protein meal that that was lunch. It was already, it was already done. So if we're talking like fast food, like I made fast food myself. Like that's that that's what I would do. I would make it in the fuel island. Anytime I had a rare opportunity, same thing if I was at a shipper or receiver, you're gonna be at a shipper receiver no matter what for an hour. Sometimes you get lucky, you know, you're there for 30 minutes. Like you every now and then you get a you get somebody who's who's red hot, but shipper receiver, I'm I'm getting steps. Like I'm walking, even if it's just lengths of the truck, or I'm swinging the kettlebell, or I'm doing something. If you're at a shipper receiver for one to three hours, that is an opportunity to move your body around and do something, even if it's just stretching. You know, the uh that's also would be like shipper receiver, I'm cooking dinner there. Oh, instead of waiting to eat or waiting, like I'll eat here, and then when I get when I get parked, instead I'll have a lighter dinner, I'll just have like fruit or something like that. So finding the time where you where you where you wanted it, that was the most important thing is not really finding the time, but making it and utilizing it in your favor. If you're at that shipper receiver for three hours, you're there for four hours, I would get in three, four miles of walking, like at waiting at some of these shippers and receivers. Should should drivers be waiting at these places that long? Should like is detention a huge issue in this industry? Of course. But like I kind of pull this energy from guys like Goggins and Jocko, where it's like there's nothing you can do to change that right now. You can't fix detention at that very moment. You can't get you can't get the green light any quicker. So, what can you do? What can you do at that point in time? You've got to change it. Okay, I'm here for three hours, I've been here for three hours. What's something good I can do in between? Like you can get on TikTok and make an angry video and maybe get you know a hundred thousand views, but does that does that do anything? It's not gonna help, it's not gonna help you in the in the long run. So, like finding that time is very important. Along again, reading that book, having this idea of being uncommon amongst the the the common. That's why I that's why I was like, I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do a marathon. This is why I'm gonna sign up for it, to to show. And the entire goal wasn't, and I've said this time and time again, it's not about saying this is what you have to do. It's about it's about leading by example to say there's no limits to what you can do. Like just just because just because you're a driver, your career choice doesn't dictate your your your health. Like your career choice doesn't have to dictate your health, and that doesn't mean you need to run a marathon. However, this shows you that this is how far you can go if you really want to. This is what you this is what you can do. It's not impossible. You can do it. And I've I've lived it going from not running, being somebody who was a cigarette smoker for also nine years. I quit smoking in about 2016. So it's like I smoked cigarettes for nearly nine years. I've lived this entire lifestyle and completely, completely, you know, essentially 180 it, gotten to a career where running marathons is extremely rare and was still able to do it. And that's why I had led by example. And those are the keys, especially if you're over the road. Like, and this is why I'm doing what I do now and getting at the and like, especially with new drivers, and this is why it's so important, is because this all needs to be taught in CDL schools. Like this needs to be part of the curriculum, part of the other education of hey, this is like there needs to be an entire like I think day or two days where you talk about you're gonna be at shippers and receivers, this is your ELD, this is why you need to do it. It needs to be what I'm doing. I don't want to, like I said, nobody needs to live exactly how I lived, but basic there needs to be a basic foundation of this job and this career where uh where you where it needs to be a part of the curriculum. Because if it's not built on top of that, like if we're not teaching new drivers, hey, this is where you should grocery shop, this is how you should do it, this is when you can move, this is where you should get exercise. If we're not teaching them that and they don't go out with that, it's very hard. It's very hard for somebody to do to has already, you know, and again, you said it in your introduction, there's already drivers out there who can start this at any time right now. But again, it's really hard to pry your way out of it when you're already that deep into it at a certain at a certain point. So for new drivers coming in, it's incredibly important because that's how I think, because if we were to just go into the industry now on an individual level and help drivers who've already been driving for five, 10, 15, 20 years, it's hard to affect an industry change. But if the entire new generation of new drivers is learning this now, as they enter the industry, it it'll compound faster. That's kind of why it's more important. I'm not saying we ignore veterans in the industry, absolutely not. I'm just saying for the overall change, the the basis of this job needs to be set on the foundation of health and fitness, or it will lead to serious issues as they start to advance in their career. Because, like you said about the age, like when people you can get away, when you're in your 20s, 30s, and early 40s, you can get away with ignoring all this stuff. You could still operate at a high level, you can do all this stuff. But once you get into your 40s and into your 50s, the twilight of your career, that's when the health issues are going to start coming up. That's when the DOT, that's when your DOT medical card is gonna start being at risk. And that's when you need the money the most. When you are later in life, when you have family that's growing up, when they're starting to finish high school, when they're starting to go to college, when there's your kids are starting to get married. If you're in your 40s or 50s, that's when those things are happening. That's when you see like you're you're not yet at retirement, but you're also not that new, like you still need to be providing that income. But all in all, I I uh again, as I went across, not to sidetrack because we'll get into that kind of that stuff in a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 35:00

We sidetrack a lot on this show, it's okay.

Marathons As Proof Of Possibility

SPEAKER_00 35:02

Yeah, um, that's just a little bit of of overall philosophy. But my journey over the road, because I spent I was over the road for three years and I ran five marathons in that time, and that was not planned, like that wasn't planned at all. Um, and again, the reason why I did it was to to just like live and lead by this example. But the thing is, is the healthier and healthier I got, the more and more involved I wanted to be. And again, I started I I said I started making content. I I made I started the podcast show that I did, and it started, it became something of my story. And then when I had owned, when I had uh you know owned my own truck and I was leased on to a couple different carriers, that uh because I was living this healthy lifestyle and this brain fog was kind of reduced, I started wanting to like, and once I got my own truck, I really started to learn about issues in the industry, especially, especially in this the tumultuous time that was really 2022 when fuel started to skyrocket and rates really started to flatline and double brokering was becoming a major issue, and um, you know, the price of equipment was like skyrocketing because of this massive like elastic ban issue. So I started really focusing and paying attention to what was going on. So I started having drivers onto the show talking about stuff in the industry, realizing that there's problems, also realizing that this health issue. So I've been on this journey for so long. That's when I started to cross paths with guys like Mark Monera and other people in the industry who were also talking about this. And that's when I learned about the stats. When I was still driving, I learned about the this whole idea that the average life expectancy is 61, that the rates of chronic disease are double that of the working class population, that the you know, the percentage of drivers who are living with two or more chronic conditions. And this is, and because I started learning all this stuff, is again this as I was climbing up this mountain, I'm thinking, I need to go back down and I need to start, I need to start, you know, I need to get involved with helping people feel how I'm feeling and be able to do what they're doing. Because I was operating when I was over the road, I was operating on this level where I'd have days of waking up, start driving at 4 a.m. Drive, you know, be shutting down around three or four in the afternoon-ish, depending on how far I had to drive. And then I would shut down, go for a run for 45 minutes, come back, record a podcast, cook, cook my own dinner, and go to bed for still get seven, seven, eight hours of sleep and wake up and do it all over again. Like I like that that's a that's a well-oiled to be able to do that is incredibly difficult. It's like to have that level of mental bandwidth. And I still sometimes don't know how I did it, but I did it because I was living this healthy lifestyle that gave me the energy, the natural energy I needed to be able to do that. And in my mind, I was like, imagine if there was two of me, imagine if there was four of me, imagine if there was, imagine if you just you if you quantified, again, not people doing exactly what I'm doing, but imagine if this is how every driver was operating, where they were, they were able to be this level involved with OIDA and their state trucking association or all any of these other advocacy groups, because that's why that's when I got involved with organizations like Owida. That's what got me to go to the Mid America Truck Show. That's what got me to want to, you know, talk and get networked with people on LinkedIn. I just wanted to meet and connect with more people on this to talk about these major issues going on in the industry because I'd been living this lifestyle and I had the bandwidth to give into it. When you don't have that bandwidth, you could be mad and you might know about the issues, but then it's very hard to commit any commit to any action to help solve in these, like getting involved in organizations and showing up to meetings and being on committees and going to certain events, going to the truck shows, going to, you know, some of some of the events that that you you attend. It's very hard to want to do those things. And then by the time you're on home time as well, you're you're home, maybe you're home for four days, you know, day and a half, two of those days, you're sleeping. It's very hard to be involved if your physical and mental health is not there. You might know the problems are exist, you're upset about them, but the physical and mental health is not there to participate in trying to help solve these issues isn't going to be there. So, in my head, this is what I'm thinking as I'm learning about all these issues and these health issues. And in my mind, I was like, they're one and the same. I was like, if we can get this industry healthy, because if the industry starts getting healthy, then maybe some more people will start thinking, thinking kind of on the same track that people like you and I start uh start thinking and how we're talking about the issues going on in the industry. And that's what where I started to lean into coaching when I was still driving, is when I got my ACE certification uh because I was going to lean into this. I didn't know how that was gonna look, like in general. I just wanted, I just knew that if I was going to differentiate myself as just just a guy on the internet talking about health and fitness, I should get some form of form of credential that said that that's like, oh, you're an actual registered fitness, you know, you're you're an actual like certified fitness coach, so to speak. So I didn't know what coaching was gonna look like, but I knew that, oh, maybe I should get credentialed in this and learn more. More and learn more about this so that way I can talk on it that much more. Because like Mark Maneri, you know, he's a physical therapist. You know, this guy's a doctor. He kind of has, you know, he has a leg to stand on when it comes to health. And if I'm just a healthy guy, so I did it to kind of like legitimize myself along the way. And that's really where I where I started to lean into coaching. But I know I just dished out a lot. Um, I'd love to do that.

SPEAKER_02 40:20

You did, but I want to address that last little part you said. You know, there's a lot of trainers that come out here and they don't have the accountability because they didn't have the journey that you had. And a lot of people are going to follow the guy who lived it versus the guy who just talks about it.

Why New Drivers Need Health In CDL Curricula

SPEAKER_00 40:38

Absolutely. I mean, I think lived experience, and that's and it's especially important in an industry like like trucking, like when when it comes to like it, I think in other industries it could catch on. Like, you know, say you're, you know, I at a corporate event and you have a motivational speaker at it, and that motivational speaker has a completely different story. But he, I think he they can still inspire a room. But when you need to speak to this industry, like but when it comes to speaking to the trucking industry, if you if you don't speak driver, it's really, really hard to get drivers to to tip that cap and to lend you that lend you their ear be because of that. I think I think that that which I don't which is good and bad, because I think that there are there's probably are a lot of good people who do want to help this industry and be very involved. And maybe, maybe sometimes they go a little bit ignored, or it just takes them a little bit longer to earn that trust. But that again, that that that exists for a reason. It takes so long to earn drivers' trust because they've been railroaded and have been being railroaded since the Motor Carrier Act of 1980. Like, if we're being real, drivers have been raked through the coals, they've seen it deteriorate since 1980, especially who's been around a while. That it's going to be really hard to trust somebody because a lot of people who have also tried to come in and help are really just looking for looking for your money. Like, hey, I've developed this new piece of technology. We're here to save your business and do all this stuff. Like they've been raked over the coals, so it's hard to earn that trust, which is all the more reason why I knew like I need to, I need to put my stake in the ground on this because I have lived it. I've known it from my own family experience, from my own experience. And that's why like I've I essentially declared like no matter what, I can't separate myself from this because I I believe and fully I fully believe that every driver deserves to feel the way I would feel and as healthy as I felt when I was over the road, because I know what it can do for their life, their livelihood, their family, their relationships, their job, and their career.

SPEAKER_02 42:35

Yes. Thank you for, I mean, your story is very inspirational. And I hope anybody new watching will take the time out to go check it out and all you do because all those videos that you're doing now and the lives and the TikToks and the reels on Facebook are very high energy motivating. You are a high energy motivating force, and it's awesome to see. And I think it's very addictive.

Creativity, Content, And Energy

SPEAKER_00 43:02

No, I appreciate that a lot. It's it's become it's become a lot of fun, and it and especially over the road, it was really fun because of how I and I remember the first time I went to the Mid America truck show, and that was like the first time I'd ever gone to like gone anywhere that wasn't like you know related to uh like maybe a high school reunion or something. Like it's the first time I went to an event where people I've never met before uh recognized who I was, mainly because of my hair. The the hair definitely sticks out uh in a lot of ways. And I remember like somebody telling me, like, for the first time, like, dude, man, that video you posted the other day uh when you were screaming about Napoleon or whatever, because of how I tie it in, which is very specific to me. Like, I'm definitely a big history guy, I love it. And I and I just have this idea in my head of like, you know, you think about events in, you know, ain't you know, whether it's ancient history or even as recent as you know, the second world war or what have you. When you look at those events and the and what those people have. And and again, for anybody who's who's maybe never seen any of my videos, they can reach out and I can send you some. When I look at these historical events, like take something from like the Napoleonic Wars. I look at you look at what their resources were, like so an army like that, which is wearing wool uniforms, they basically are eating bread and whatever they can find, and they're able to do these monumental tasks and achievement. They win these great victories that you read about, but like in my head, you have to realize like these people were like if when they weren't in the army, they were like farming or like a blacksmith or drove a wagon, or they were very common people, like they had nothing and they had a lot less resources, they didn't have the internet, they didn't have freaking coaches, they didn't have they didn't have all the the they didn't have any of the means that we have today, but yet they accomplished these like really heroic and and gallant gallant tasks, uh you know, during during like the Napoleonic Wars or the Civil War or the First Second World War. You hear about these stories and we we glorify them. And it's like, how how can you how can you relate that to how can we learn from that today? And I think that's the way that's that at least that's how I learned from it. And that was an excuse for me, like especially in a day where it's 10 degrees in Iowa, and I know I've got to at least go for like a four-mile run. In my head, I'm like, well, back then they didn't have, I'm like, these guys in Bastone, you know, you watch Band of Brothers, they didn't have warming layers and all this stuff. I'm like, I got a ski mask, I've got leggings, I've got gloves, I've got a scarf. Uh, there's no reason I can't go outside for and these guys were in Bastone for however long they were during the Battle of the Bulge, freezing to death. I was like, I can go out in this weather for 45 minutes and just jog and come back. And I was like, I can make that into a video. Like, hey, these guys were also doing stuff in the cold. They didn't have a warm truck to go back to, they didn't have warming layers, they didn't have this, and that's kind of where I learned to combine it is like, we want to do these things, we want to be healthy, we want to eat right, we want to get outside and move. Like, people know that that's the right thing to do, but the excuses, you know, excuses will pile up very easily. I say often, you know, there's one why and there's a million why nots, and you've got to really, you've got to really wrestle and fight through the why nots to get to the why. And when you can really lean on that idea, and so that's why I would make those videos about like, hey, these people, these like nobodies, this this nobody army was able to do this, like you can get outside and go walk. Like you can get after it. Like, even if even if it's just going outside for 10 minutes to you know, just to stretch your legs, like if they can do those that difficult of a task under under, you know, under duress, you can willingly make the choice to go out there and do that. And it just yeah, it became almost like and it became like a competition with myself. Like it opened up my creativity. That's and that's one of the reasons why I'm really passionate about social media is because I think for as much bad as social media kind of kind of kind of has has done for, you know, whether it's news, media, society, you know, young people's mental health, I think that there's there's been an extreme gain where people have also gotten to lean and lean in and find some of their own creativity within their own personalities that they wouldn't quite experiment with because not everybody's a writer, not everybody, you know, you know, it's very hard to buy camera equipment. You think about making old videos in like the 90s, where now people are able to kind of explore their own creativity. And as you do that, you start to get more and more creative over time, and that's where it's kind of and it's kind of just written itself. Uh, and as the technologies improved with editing and stuff, you're able to really add in your own per personal brand, personal touching touches into it. That's become a lot of fun. And the high energy needs to be it. The reason why, and again, if you meet me in person or if you come take one of my orange theory classes, like if I'm gonna be someplace, I'm gonna be there. And uh, you've got to give that energy because I think everybody knows what it's like to be either in a classroom or anywhere where somebody's sucking the energy out of the room where it's like oh yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 47:57

But so, you know, you brought up some great um points, and I I think at this what I want for people to understand when they're coming into the industry are the lifestyle issues that they're going to be facing right off the bat that they're gonna have to adjust to. And the main ones and the biggest ones, in my opinion, are going to be the extended periods that you are sitting. It's going to be that limited access to food and exercise that you're gonna have to get creative with. It's the stress. Uh, we know the chronic stress the drivers face with traffic and deadlines, um, working that clock, that that's an everyday thing, the sleep disruptions. And one of the biggest ones that people seem to put on the back burner is the social isolation that drivers are dealing with on a daily being away from friends and family. And all those things you think, oh, well, you know, you lose some sleep. Okay, traffic was a little stressful. You know, what's what's the harm? What's that gonna do to me? Well, it's gonna make you fat. You know, drivers, 69%, 70% truck drivers are obese, with the national average is like 40, 42%, right? High blood pressure, diabetes, um, sleep apnea. I mean, I think our industry has the highest number of people that have sleep disorders and are on sleep apnea machines. You know, um, not to mention, I'm not a smoker, but I know most of the people that I know that drive smoke, which increases that. Um and then you have your back and joint issues from sitting for long periods of time and not doing anything. So you enter the the the trucking career, the lifestyle, you're gonna have to face all these issues. And you come up with some really great ways to take all of those lifestyle issues and find a way to make them work for you.

SPEAKER_00 50:00

Absolutely. Yeah, I I and you listed all the top big ones right there. So, like when it comes to- I think I did.

SPEAKER_02 50:05

I think I got them.

The Real Lifestyle Risks Of Trucking

SPEAKER_00 50:06

Yeah, no, the the big the biggest things. What's crazy is in the in uh a newsletter I do weekly, which is called tail lights, I always put a health tip of the week and I'm always harping on things, especially like sleep, because there's very there are like very minimal things you can do that will have such a huge benefit to just how you sleep, how you feel, and how you and and how you you know how you're gonna perform throughout your day. And so that number one, that number one thing you mentioned, which is the sedentary lifestyle, the idea that you're going to be sit sitting a lot. What's really that and that right there lays as number one. I think it's like number one and number two most important things that are going to get you on the right track is number one, the movement. Number two is the is the food. I think the food is definitely more important. What we what we put in our bodies is definitely a factor, but what you can do first, and I only say this because this is what I I did first, and it could be different for everybody, is the movement. So for that sedentary lifestyle, and this is for somebody who's extra it's could be extremely at risk, somebody who is three, you know, three, 350, close to 400 pounds. When I say at risk, I'm talking the category of being more morbidly obese, which is a which is a medical term. Somebody who's in that boat, one of the biggest things that they can do, uh, and this is what I tell any new driver, somebody who's at risk, and it's technically two of these things, but that movement is really important. And so maybe you can't run, that's fine. Maybe you can't lift any weights or squat or lunge, that's perfectly fine. But what anybody can do, and you have to do this, no matter what type of, no matter what line of freight you're in, is walk. Walking alone is the biggest thing you can do. And say walking from the truck to the door of the truck stop makes you winded, that is okay. You need to break it into increments. Again, the same reason like I didn't go from running two miles to the marathon in a week. It took, you know, it took months and months, it took year years to be able to do that. And it takes people years to do that. It took me years to go, you know, to be able to be fit enough and believe in myself enough to go to Iron Man. Like none of that happens, happens very quick. And I think, and again, and again, this is kind of a sidetrack, people want things quickly, and I think technology and and the idea of comfort has ruined that. You know, we have Amazon Prime, there's you know, your next date is one swipe away on a dating app. Like every everything is very quick, and we want our problem solved, and this technology does it. Nothing, yeah, convenience and comfort, nothing comes comes quickly. And so for somebody who is extremely at risk, that sitting, just so just so people know it's clear, because I think the the fear part is important. And I talk about this whenever I go and speak at events, is living a sedentary lifestyle of getting 3,000 or less steps per day and doing no exercise is just as dangerous to your to your health as smoking. Again, so 3,000 or less steps and zero exercise is just as bad for your body, for your blood pressure, and for your heart as being as being a cigarette smoker, which that right, I mean, that right there should kind of wake people up, like, oh wow, me just not doing anything is the same as smoking cigarettes. That's pretty horrible. And when it comes to that movement, getting those steps, if walking for five minutes gets you out of breath, then walk for five minutes and take a break. Wait, take, take a, take a small break and then go for another five minutes. If you only have five minutes, get the five minutes then, get the five minutes on your 30 minutes in the morning, get the five minutes on your 30-minute break, and get the five minutes at night. You've had 15 minutes of of daily and intentional movement that you wouldn't have normally done when you used to have zero. And that right there will already start filling up. The benefits of walking, by the way, is that it is zone two cardio. It's very good for your heart, doesn't put a lot of strain on you. Nobody has ever gone out for a walk and came back and said, I feel worse, like I'm in a worse mood or anything. What it does for your blood flow, because again, when you're sitting, you have to think about the angle of your body. You're essentially at a 90 degree angle. You got to think about how the blood travels throughout your body. It's very, it's, you know, it takes a lot, has to go through a lot of different, you know, it has to take a lot of turns. So your heart has to work harder and puts a little bit more strain. When you're walking, you're allowing blood to start freely moving. And uh, you know, it's gonna help with your digestion, it's gonna help with your sleep. Moving into the food piece. So that's first and foremost. So that is your if you're extremely at risk or brand new, walking is the number one thing for for anybody that you should be doing at any point in time, whenever you can. You don't need to squat, you don't need a lunge, you don't need to get any sort of fancy equipment. There are people who have lost hundreds of pounds purely by walking, and they've changed their diet in other ways too. And if you're somebody who can do two things at once, if you are able to incorporate just 15 to 30 minutes of walking per day, and you're a soda drinker and you switch to diet, you're not only burning more calories than you than you have before you started walking, you're taking in less calories just by switching to diet. Like those are the the when it comes to two pieces of advice I think can set anybody where if they're anybody's looking to start up for success would be incorporate any sort of walking. And then if you're if you're if you're drinking your calories, so this could be juice too. If you're drinking any beverage that has calories, switch to the diet option and you're automatically burning more and taking in less calories, which is how you lose weight. Weight is lost by calories in versus out, how much energy you use and how much energy you're eating. Those are like the first two big things for anybody getting started. And they're fairly and they're they're fairly easy to do because you can walk anywhere. And no matter what, I know that these travel centers do sell the diet version of this drink.

SPEAKER_02 55:45

Yeah. Uh for those that don't know, um, I do believe it's 30. Um, uh, let me Google what it's like 35 laps around your truck and trailer equals a mile. 33. It's 30, 30 something, 32, 33, 34, um, laps around your truck and trailer combination makes a mile. So most truck drivers, when they get out um at a shipper receiver, fuel, um, use the restroom, they do a walk around. So if you can increase your walk arounds throughout the day um to where you are walking around that thing 35 times, even if you're doing it multiple times at night and in the morning, you know, that's a mile.

SPEAKER_00 56:29

Exactly. You can find, you can find where those things are. I mean, if you're when it comes to the time factor or the walking, I I know that it's a very tough job when it comes to the time. I know drivers have the time to do it because I did live it. Um, so and I knew where to find the time, but I see how many drivers are very active. Drivers are very active on TikTok and YouTube and and all forms of social media. They're very active. I know that they're active because they're in my comment section. They're in other people's comments sections. I see comments, and drivers have a lot of time. You can drop those comments while you're walking. Everybody's got the headset, everybody's got the Larry Call of Hits.

SPEAKER_02 57:06

We need a hashtag for making laps around the walking hashtag and have them send videos in. Um, we'll create a hashtag. How's that? And have them hashtag and tag us in videos doing laps.

Walking First: Simple, Safe, Sustainable

SPEAKER_00 57:23

Yeah, when you when you're walking. Yeah, when you're actively walking, you do it. But I would I have done that multiple nights where I would I would jump in a Twitter space with a bunch of drivers, or I would jump in a tick jump on a TikTok live and I would throw on my weighted vest, put my headset on, and I'd have a head, and sometimes if it was dark, I'd have a headlamp, I'd wear my say, you know, safety, safety jacket, and I would just walk in circles around the parking lot with my headset on, jumping on a TikTok live, walking around or jumping on it or on a Twitter space and be doing it as opposed to sitting, as opposed to sitting or laying down in the bunk. Like if you're gonna be up scrolling on your phone, let like I like I'm not gonna tell anybody, oh, reduce your screen time, do all that stuff. Like, do what you want with your time, but make it work for you. Like you, you can you could doom scroll all you want, but doom scroll where your legs are in motion. Like if you can, if you could do that, like because that right there, because if you do that, if you start doom scrolling while you're walking, you'll probably start start doom scrolling a little bit less.

SPEAKER_02 58:22

Yeah. And women, for safety reasons, make sure you're in a well-lit area. And if you don't have a well-lit outside area, you can go inside, like inside a rest area and do um laps inside. So make sure wherever you're at that you do it safely.

SPEAKER_00 58:37

Yeah, that's that is the one thing I I've definitely recognized that, and I would be remiss to not say that. I I do always I've always considered myself lucky that I was able to do what I've done. I've definitely ran in some weird neighborhoods. Uh, I've been chased after by like four pit bulls uh in some you know rural areas, and I've uh been very, very lucky. And I've you know, and then one time I had a guy, you know, kind of threaten me at this in this random neighborhood in Oklahoma, um, where he was, you know, he was like, Oh, what if you saw me running around your neighborhood? And I was like, and at the time I was jogging with like literally, I was wearing my like safety vest that you'd wear if you're like at a shipper receiver, and I have like a camelback, and he's like, What would you do if you saw me running in your neighborhood? And I was like, and I looked down at myself wearing this safety vest, and I was like, honestly, nothing. And so it's like, I but I realized that it is it's it's definitely far more difficult for for women, and I know that, and that's an issue that I that I take very, very personally. I've had women come on my show talking about having to to hide underneath trailers because of being followed by people, and I know that's an extreme risk, and what stinks and and and you know, hopefully there's a reality where that doesn't exist in the future, um, ways around that. I mean, I know on TikTok shop and stuff, especially for any ladies out there, if you are concerned for your safety, you know, I think one of those walking treadmills would be is one of the best investments, whether whether you are a woman in trucking or you're also just you don't want to go out and it's negative 10. Up in the upper Midwest, those you know, those walking treadmills, you could doom scroll inside your cab while you're doing it. And if you are doing that, you are just walking. I need to reiterate, just walking and getting those steps in is saving your life. It is adding years onto your life. And that's how it needs, that's how it needs to be viewed.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:18

So what besides walking, um let I know we're gonna go over some exercises for in a little bit. Let's talk about the um access to food. Um, so one of your things you said was Walmart. You know, as a prior Walmart driver, and even before I was a Walmart driver, you know, um, I shopped at Walmart and and that's where I did all my prepping for the truck um while I was out on the OTR. Um, and a lot of people they they know they can't always park at them, but they don't realize that they can actually pull in and go do their shopping um and go. Um, so besides Walmart, um, well, Walmart is nation nationwide, which is a great thing. Um, what are your tips and tricks for uh food prepping and where to shop? And um, do you have maybe some suggestions? Uh Michael lists a do's and don'ts for when you're in a pinch and you only have fast food location since you did your scanner.

Better-For-You Food Choices Anywhere

SPEAKER_00 1:01:22

Yeah, absolutely. So downloading the free version of like MyFitnessPal is definitely really good. I personally use an app called First Form, which is one S T P H O R M. Um, and there's that one, that one you pay a little bit of money for, but you get a lot of great benefits. There's a lot of great videos, educational information. I don't need to pitch that. It was just my tool that I had used while I was on the road. So getting one of those tools is good because what it will do, getting that tool is going to help you with step two, which is being cognizant of what you're eating. So, for example, say grocery shopping at Walmart is out, like you know, you you really can't get to one this week or you're you're in a bind. And say you are only restricted to being at these truck stops. My number one tip I tell people is focus on protein. Like that it sounds, I know I sound like a total, you know, kind of fitness, fitness bro, but if if you keep protein on the forefront of your mind and that and that's how you're going to choose what you're going to eat, you're going to end up making good choices. And so, you know, I especially if I was running, running and gunning, I definitely I leaned on Subway a little bit. Um, and I know that you know Subway's not really all that great. And I know that the food quality, you know, we can contest that. That's fine. But through using my FitnessPal, I chose a certain type of bread at Subway, essentially where I knew that the sandwich I was eating had it had about 800-ish calories, but it also had like 50 something grams of protein, so uh, so to speak. So Subway can be your friend if you make it, if you get the grilled chicken, if you stack it with some veggies, if you get the um a certain there's a different type of bread that's uh a little bit lower in calories. But say you yeah, I yeah, I do they have a zico there? I I'm not sure. I'd have to really look up which which bread I'd use. I'd forget off the top of my head. But like I'd say the number one place with healthiest with the healthiest options would be I I think I think loves tops lifts. Loves and quick trip definitely top top qt's and then the quick q nothing, yeah, nothing tops QT.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:18

I mean Quick Trip uh up in Wisconsin and the northern states that have the grocery stores in them are yeah, they're they're top top tier travel centers for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:28

But if you can keep protein on the front of your mind, there's where you win. So, for example, so if you go to that center aisle, that center piece that has like the fruit cups, the uh hard-boiled eggs, that area right there also has these pre-made sandwiches. Go-to to go lunch that I would get was so they'll have these, they'll have these uh, you know, smoked ham and cheese sandwiches in that big center kind of refrigerated piece where you'll see like the cantaloupe, the pineapple, hard-boiled eggs, all that the salads and all that stuff. And again, people that's that's another thing people get confused in. People think like salad equals healthy, and it's like, yes, it is because it's less calories, but you can also add calories with dressings.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:08

Don't don't want to sidetrack protein in them unless they have chicken or meat. So exactly.

Walmart, Trucker Path, And Route Planning

SPEAKER_00 1:04:13

And it and you could end up overdoing it with dressing. So I would get one of those smoked ham and cheese sandwiches, which is which was about 450 calories, would have has almost 30 grams of protein. And so that right there, so it's a low calorie, has protein. I would get that, get one of the fruit cups, and then I would get one of the protein bars. So I would be having essentially anywhere between six and seven hundred and fifty calories, but also getting myself uh, you know, you're ending up eating you know 50 plus grams of protein. And a good metric that I've left out is you want to be, and this is something that this is why I don't want to overload anybody, but generally speaking, people you want to be consuming one gram of protein per pound of your goal or ideal body weight. So if you want to weigh 150 pounds, you should aim for 150 grams. Very difficult. So what I always tell people to do is shoot for 100, like shoot for 100 grams of protein, whatever you can do. And then number two, when it comes to food options at truck stops, is again like avoid like not drinking your calories. Like if you can drink black coffee, switch to diet, get the get the zero sugar Gatorades. And the argument against that is always, well, are aren't artificial sweeteners bad? And to not go into too long of a diatribe, I've read through the study. The study is very it's very bad because it has to do with like soaking wrath. It's it would be impossible for artificial sweeteners to really, really be bad for you and to really screw up your system. You'd have to drink like you know, 35 diet cokes every day for like the next 60 years or something like that. And overall, if artificial like there's no real evidence against artificial sweeteners, the most dangerous thing for your body is uh is like to have that unhealthy lifestyle. When there is visceral fat on your organs, so when you are like just being you know overweight or obese, having the visceral fat that's on your organs is far more dangerous for your overall metabolic health than artificial sweeteners ever will be, because that's what affects your liver, that's what affects your blood pressure, like that's what helped like the the existence of fat on your organs is what can cause cancer. Like that, those are those are the things that are cancer causing. The artificial sweeteners are not going to damage you more than excess weight on on your body and and lit eating unhealthily. So that's just my only like little argument against that. But though those are the things to look out for is reading reading the nutrition label, uh, go and focusing on protein. And again, another tool, which Mark Monero I know will talk about is this new app called Off Shift, which is 100% free. So, an off-shift, this is the best part because I've figured this out on my own, but now the app does it for you. It gives an entire menu option for almost every fast food chain, better for you options, meaning this is what you can get. It's not necessarily quote unquote, it falls under the all the metrics of healthy, but from a macro nutrient standpoint. When I say the word macros, by the way, I'm talking about the big four, which is calories, protein, carbs, and fats. And carbs and fats don't really matter that much unless you're an endurance athlete or bodybuilding. What really matters are the calories and the protein. People vilify carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are not the enemy, it's the calories that come with the carbohydrates. So just to just to kind of square that away. And so offshift will give you the best for you options at McDonald's, Carl's Jr., everything. That means getting the grilled chicken sandwich, swapping the fries for the side salad instead of the regular Coke, the diet coke. And it kind of maps it out for you how you can, like if you need fast food, you need something quick, this is what you should get. And normally across fast food chains, that's the healthier option is getting the grilled chicken sandwich instead, swapping out possibly the gluten-free bun, could have a few less calories. Um, getting the diet soda, swapping the fries for the either either the side salad, uh Chick-fil-A's, the kale crunch side. Like there's it has to swap it out. And that app right there, and I know fast food is at every restaurant, but say you don't have this app, say you don't even have a smartphone, what have you? When you're at a fast food place, keep protein on the top of your mind. Think about grilled chicken. Think of, you know, think about those things, are the best way to do it. Even thinking about it and from like zooming out, and I tell people this all the time even if your only option is McDonald's, if you just get the double quarter pounder with cheese, and this is a fun fact, if you just get the double quarter pounder with cheese, you're getting 740 calories with 50 grams of protein. If you get no fries and just the burger and this and the soda, you've actually got, like from a macro standpoint, a pretty healthy meal if you're trying to lose weight. Like you can, one of my go-to meals over the road was these burgers I made. I would go to Walmart, get ground beef, get sirloin patties, and these, you know, the patty itself only has so much, and I would buy this low-carb keto bread, and then I would get like fat-free singles American cheeses, and I would make two burgers in the air fryer, use that low-carb keto bread, and I was eating two burgers I made myself that had together combined roughly, you know, a little less than 800 calories with with like 70, 80 grams of protein between the the cheese and the and both those burger patties. So it's like changing that view of the difference between what's healthy and what's not. Sometimes people think it's it's always the food on a long enough scale. Again, I know that food quality is a huge problem. I'm not a fan of the ingredients and all the stuff and the chemicals and the pesticides. I get that, but we can't solve that now. But what we can solve now and what drivers can do now is formulate that way through resources like offshift, using my fitness pal, and just realizing, being cognizant of how much you're consuming, you can dial that in now and make the better. That's why I don't call them better. Uh, like they're not better for you, they're better for you options. Like they're just they're better than the than what the primary, the go-to is. Like to think, and this also helps people who are extremely at risk going into this, you know, it's the new year, it's January. A lot of people are overloaded with New Year's resolutions, setting goals, they want to lose weight. We you cannot realistic. I didn't lose 100 pounds by completely overhauling my lifestyle. Like I didn't on day one change everything about how I lived. Like I that that doesn't happen. And for most people, that's that's why people fail. That's why people fail at New Year's resolutions, that's why they fail at some of their goals, is because you're trying to do too much at once and you're changing your entire system of life. It's impossible. It's impossible to do it. Whereas starting with one thing, starting with one goal, that's why the better for you options are better, is because once you've figured out how to choose the healthier options, eventually, three, four, five months from now, you're not going to eat it at all because you're going to discover this whole other bit of food that you like that you're going that you're going to eat. But to just say if you're regularly eating fast food every day, drinking, you know, full sugar sodas, and to just go from years of doing that to all of a sudden completely stopping and then and then only eating salads and drinking water, you you might make it two weeks, but then you're gonna you're gonna cave into it. But if you could just swap one out at a time, or you just like, oh, I have to eat McDonald's, and you're like, I'll get the grilled chicken instead, it it's a far better it that's that path of least resistance I was talking to on what led to my success.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:32

And for people who um are curious about getting to a Walmart, um, most of the Walmart locations are within a mile of the interstate. And one of the most commonly used apps is Trucker Path. So, as a new driver, if you don't have Trucker Path, I strongly recommend getting it. And Trucker Path has Walmart as an option. You just click on it, it'll give you a list of all the Walmart locations. And if you click the reviews for each one, it'll tell you whether you can park there or if it's just somewhere you can shop at and go. Um, and then you can go in and make those healthier choices shopping-wise and save money buying your groceries versus going to fast food.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:15

100%. Yeah, trucker path is key. I had a Rand McNally GPS, and what was great. That's that's how I was able to find Walmarts and why I was able to plant. So easily that Rand McNally GPS I had um if along my route, like it would show it would show you know parking truck stops along the route, and Walmarts would come up on them. So I'd know if I was going to if I was going from Columbus back to St. Louis, I know like that like on the list, it would give me Walmarts that are along the route. And then if I knew I was gonna stop at this Walmart and wherever, you know, whether it's Richmond Indiana, wherever I am, I would go on Google Maps and I'd be like, oh, this is where I seem to pull in. And so I'd know as soon as I got off the exit, this is where I pull in. You pull into the Walmart, you can go in the back by their docks, wherever, find some space, grocery shop. I have done it on a 30-minute break. I have pulled in, yeah, gotten to a Walmart, gotten out, been back 28 minutes, and boom, I'm back driving on 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:11

I don't think it takes any longer than it does pulling into a truck stop. I mean, by the time you're waiting for trucks to maneuver around the fuel island or to get a parking spot, go in and come out. I think Walmart's just as quick, if not quicker.

Make The Clock Work For You

SPEAKER_00 1:13:24

Absolutely. It's it's just that frame of reference in the time, which is I I go back to the David Goggins book so much and I harp on it and I promote it so much because his testimony, similar, similar to how why I share my testimony, his testimony proves that you have the time, especially when he talks about you know these other ultra-marathoners that you meet. And I, and having now been in the endurance world, I know these ultra marathoners, these endurance, these iron man athletes who have these very hard jobs. You know, some and some of them make a lot, they make good money, you know, people at Iron Man. I can't say that, but some of them are like lawyers, and lawyers work work incredibly long hours. You know, they they yeah, they're not drivers, but they're behind desks, they're reading, they're working late at night, but they are but they have found their time to be able to get on the bike and do this. And the Goggins book really, especially because of his life story and where he came from and how he was brought up, kind of it it's what it's what it's why I make the TikTok videos I did, like why, if this random French soldier was able to win, do this glorious thing in battle, it's the same kind of thing. Like Goggins had this has just had this such tough upbringing, and for him to come around and then become one of the most accomplished uh ultra athletes of all time. And again, I'm not trying to be him or am I going to be him, but I know I can at least be the best version of Lombard that I can be because of his testimony. Like he's just being the best Goggins. I'm just trying to be the best me. And his book does that, and that's also why I talk about what I do and talk about how I find the time. We we are new drivers in this industry coming in need to start viewing time as such, as opposed to this ELD is against us. This and again, I don't love the ELDs. I don't think that they're great. I think that for safety, they've definitely had a bad effect on safety. It's definitely not good. It's it's messed around with sleep. It's it can be it can be uh somewhat oppressive. How do we make it work for us? How do you make it work for you? And I think changing that, you know, turn turn like turning the bad into the good, just like you're at that shipper for four hours. Well, great. I just got I just got free. Yeah, you're not getting paid. Yeah, it stinks, but you were just given time you thought you didn't have to move or to cook the healthier meal, to go for a walk, to do some push-ups, to do XYZ. Like you turning that bad into the good is that's where the change starts to happen. And that's and that's where the change can start coming from.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:43

So let's talk about that change. So, new year, new me, right? I want to lose weight, I want to reduce my sugar, you know, I want to lower my cholesterol, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Gung ho day one, two weeks later, the gyms are empty. You know, overkill, burnout, pull the bat muscles, oh, I hurt, hurt too much, I can't work out tomorrow, and then it's over. So slow and steady wins the race, not you know, hot out the gate. So if a truck driver is already making bad choices and they say, okay, I want to start. And you said, okay, start walking. Um, switch out your Pepsi for diet Pepsi, make what do you think if they start walking, how long should they give it to make it a habit before they add the next thing?

SPEAKER_00 1:16:45

If I was going to coach somebody right now, so say a driver, and I've offered this to people and I've helped and I've and I've helped people try to build build these habits. You know, there's a great driver I met at a truck stop who did this and he he ended up losing 30 pounds from it. And he's got it, I should give him a call, actually. I know it, I know he's he's got another blue, blue collar line of work, but regardless, like what I would do is if I was to coach a driver right now and they really want to start and get into it, I'd say, hey, look, you can text me at any time. We're gonna talk on the phone once a week. I would say, here's what you need to do for the next seven days. Five out of the next seven days, you need to get like you need to time out 30 minutes of walking. And then, and I'd also tell them to switch diet diet. I'd say, let's do it five out of the next seven days. We're gonna talk in seven days, and then you're gonna show me what you did. We talk, say we talk in seven days, and he did do it five out of the next seven days. I'm gonna say, great, let's do it again. If he doesn't do if he only does three or four out of the seven days, then I'm gonna say, Great, we're gonna do it like I'm gonna challenge you to do this again. That so that's what I would do. I would do it until he naturally gets seven out of seven of those days. And if he gets seven out of seven of those days, then I'd say, okay, great. And then we'd move, we'd probably move on to the next step. You went for 30 minutes, let's go for 40. And then I would, I would that's that's the type of baby steps I would do. So I would wait. So normally you'd probably be about two weeks. So if out of so if out of 14 days you did 30 minutes of walking for 10, that's a monumental achievement. We have to look, we have to look at that. And that's how the that's how people need to view it. Where because you went from zero minutes a day to where all of a sudden 10 out of 14, 10 out of 14 is a B plus, A minus. When you think about it, 10 out of 14, you've you've won the majority of your days. So you went 10 out of 14 days. That's I mean, 30 minutes of walking out of 10 days, you times that, that's how many hours you did for something, that's a huge win. So if you're able to get 10 out of 14 days, you've got a over the over the course of those two weeks, great. Let's go for four, let's go for 40 minutes now, and you still do it five out of seven days. That means you could fail one day, do it the next day. And if you're not, and if they're then if they're not able to do 40 minutes a day for five out of the seven days for two weeks, we're gonna do it until they until they finally do it.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:02

Until they get it down, yeah.

Habit Progression And Accountability

SPEAKER_00 1:19:04

Do it until they finally do it. And I'm gonna and I'll text them every day, I'll ask them, I'll be like, hey, you walk in, what have you? And that's kind of what I would do. That's the kind of the timeline to work off of setting that goal. Because if I'm gonna talk to somebody, especially if they're extremely at risk, I think it's case by case is always different, especially if somebody's coming from zero. But that's what I do. I would say, let's make this down, and also I would go have them go one step further. I'd say, get a notebook, right? You know, put Monday, Wednesday, put the seven days of the week on there. And after you do the 30 minutes, check a box. Check Monday, done. And once you do that, and they and I think that that's another incentivized thing. I would say, once you check the box, set send me a picture of that check in the box. And if all of a sudden you've checked off five of seven or you checked off seven of seven, you're gonna get a dopamine hit from it, and that's what's gonna help you continue to keep going.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:55

So you offer your services to help keep people accountable and provide your personal training services to truck drivers.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:04

Absolutely. I'd love nothing more. I've got a, you know, I've got a Slack group that I I kind of chime into every day with drivers who need it and need help. I left myself wide open. I would love nothing more than for anybody who does want to reach out, be like, hey man, I'd really love some help. Can you help me for X amount of time? I'm pretty, you know, I'm pretty, I'm kind of chronically online. I have my phone on me, just given the nature of what I do for what I do, you know, at my full-time job work working at truck parking club. Like I'm pretty always all around available. And so I have no problems if any driver is like, I would love for you to coach me, coach me and help me run a 5K or do anything or help lose weight. And we can come up with that plan at any point. And I'll do that I'll do that at no cost.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:44

Like I have no problem no cost drivers.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:49

No cost. I have no problem writing like to to work with me one-on-one. Here's my number let's book a time on the calendar. This is we're gonna when we're gonna meet weekly this is your plan. You can text me every day I'm gonna start texting you often I have no problem doing that for anybody. I I I'd love nothing more than to do that more.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:06

That's awesome. That and it it's so many trainers so I used to uh I wanted to do fitness competitions. So I've I have paid for more than my fair share of um trainers and my favorite was a an ex-marine who was just amazing um because I need that drill sergeant type personality when I work out um but it it's not cheap. I mean a lot of them charge quite a bit to do that and you're going to help them do their fitness their nutrition and help with the accountability and keep them motivated for nothing for for no charge. That is quite a lot.

Free Coaching Offer & Reality Check

SPEAKER_00 1:21:45

And do you have very many people hit you up for that uh not as not as many as as I would like and there's there's people who have probably over the past year um who who I have I've given them that stuff and I've followed up with them and then and I've and I'll get I've gotten ghosted um so it's just like at a certain point like I can only give so much like if I'm texting you every day and I'm saying hey did you get your steps in or hey this or hey are we going to talk on the phone? And if I'm getting ghosted like I can't I can't make anybody do anything. Like all I could do is talk to you try to inspire you give you the reasons why uh on why you should be doing this and they because I'll ask I'll be like hey did you get your steps in today and they'll be like no I did I didn't really have time. Let's talk about your day and it's it can be very hard. It could be because it requires being like where I think you know yeah I'm showing this kind of uh benevolence with you know offering to work and coach with people for free but however if you're not willing and oh if you're not willing and open to being vulnerable to making mistakes then then it is going to be incredibly difficult. So to work with somebody or if somebody does want to work with me they've got to be open to the fact that they're gonna mess up they're gonna make some mistakes it's not going to be perfect and that's okay because that's what it's supposed to be. That's what it is for everything. I mean if we if we make a mistake at our job I say this all the time to people like if you make a mistake at your job or you screw something up you don't quit like say say you miss a deadline on something or like whatever your job is like if you or say you're late for a delivery trucking and sometimes I know that can get you fired if it's repeat but like say there was a like you are there was an accident or something and you were late you don't quit your job because you're late if you get a flat tire you don't sell your car like we don't do these things the same way and I almost use this reference too like if we're gonna go on vacation like say you're gonna take a vacation this year. Everybody loves a vacation you're going to spend weeks planning that where to go what's the best flights what's the best hotel what's the best beach in the area what's the best restaurants people will spend all this time researching that they'll spend all this time and weeks planning for what could either be a weekend like a long weekend or one week. And so same kind of mindset if you're gonna take all that time to plan this vacation that you might only be spending three to five days doing you could take the the 10 minutes to talk to a guy like me on the phone or the one hour to kind of map out what your week's going to look like and where you're gonna fit the exercise in where you're gonna fit uh you know where you're gonna stop at your truck south we will we will spend all this time planning for these other things but when it comes to this one thing it always seems to get kicked on the back burner and which I was going to close with kind of like my philosophy of of why that is and it just has everything to do with education which is why I think doing this podcast is important and why at the new driver level this needs to be driven home.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:40

Yep and and that's right and I think that that them kind of pulling back has more to do with the mental health aspect of it which we're not going to cover today but that ties into it because once they disappoint themselves and then they're disappointing somebody else um then they retreat inward um which is also has its own effects but what we're gonna do now is I you're gonna do some live uh demonstrations or some exercises that um people can do in the truck or on the road and I'm gonna play with this thing and make you bigger let's see oh no I want to make you bigger not me bigger let's see here let's see oh they won't let me pull back it just doesn't give me enough options here whatever you want to do I want you to be the big box not me be the bug box all right so if you would demonstrate a few things now I always took a jump rope with me um there's plenty of videos out there where drivers are like looking at her she's jump roping at the shipper but um you're more of a runner and a a a high energy athlete than I am so what do you got for us?

Live Exercise Demos For The Road

Find Your Why And Protect Your Medical Card

SPEAKER_00 1:25:56

Well yeah I think one one of the most important exercises somebody can do and I'm actually going to flip my camera too so that way I can uh that way we can figure this out so take me off screen so that way we can get like the full body thing I want to be in a position where you can kind of see my legs at least I know if you want to woohoo how does that how's that the muscle them them them triathlon legs runner legs yeah I'm a weightlifter see I I'm not a cardio girl I'm more of a my trainer used to always tell me he could throw weights at me all day long and I'd take it the minute he gave me cardio I'd crash. All right sweet all right perfect so you can kind of see my legs in this I'll move it back a little bit further. So one of the best one of the best exercises especially for your spine especially for your spine would be to squat now what's tough about squatting is is proper form. So a lot of times when people a lot of times when people will squat they'll lead with their knees they'll kind of like if you and actually I can move my camera back a little bit further if you and for people who can't go all the way down just if you just go a little bit to get used to it find your resistance you find your balance and what's great yeah so a lot of times when people squat they'll be trying to go straight down they lead with their knees and they're on their toes and when you do this it can become very painful and if people try to do that so if you're going forward kind of down here you're putting a lot of pressure on your knees and so when you think of squatting and this is good for your spine too is if you think about putting the weight back in your heels and if you watch I'm gonna stick my butt out and you're putting the weight in your heels and as you come down you're going to drop it straight down you're gonna feel it right back here and then yeah getting your thighs parallel to the deck are pretty are like always the most important but with me you can't see it but my toes are up because the weight's in my heels and you come straight back up what you're doing is you're working your glutes your hamstring your glutes and your hamstrings which are parts of your body from the sitting that are becoming that are becoming weaker from from from from the amount of sitting they're relaxed there's there's pressure on them. So just like just that's in a great way and holding your arms out is a great way to help you keep balance if you're somebody who can't go all the way down great key here is is if you is you if you have some TRX straps you could but even so say you have a say you have a flatbed trailer you could be on the side of your trailer and hold it as you're dropping yourself down but going as low as you can go so if here is the only as low as you can go that's fine. That's perfectly okay you can you can do that. Squatting is I'd say the the one of the number one things you can do number two another one which gets the opposite side of the leg too like the front part of the quad would would be a lunge and coming back in a lunge is you sticking your leg down dropping your leg back dropping your leg back and coming straight up that like those ones right there just for your spinal movement I'd say reverse lunges are are number one. Another good one too especially just for movement especially for walking say there's snow on the ground you really can't walk using the steps of your cab to simply step up on the steps and stepping back down. Like those are key calf raises are big ones too and you can have your toes on the you can have your toes on the step of your step of your tractor and just coming up and doing calf raises even if you're doing them from the floor say you can't balance about that. So yeah say say you can't balance on the on the step or say it's too hard just doing them from the floor doing a few of those calf raises right there what it's going to do for your for your calf muscles that have been disengaged all day are are pretty massive another huge one and I'm actually going to drop my tripod to show it because I think it makes sense because say any of these movements are very hard or what or whatever they could be again I know I'm no this isn't I wonder how this looks now okay it's lower. So again for that squat and I've got all this stuff in my room oh so you can see my feet now too so notice my toes weight back in my heels there's that squat you go all the way down you're driving yourself back up you're thinking straight back my toes my toes are up the weights in the heels this is where you go all the way down same thing with that reverse lunge as you come down and kind of lean forward one leg's down your knee doesn't even need to touch the ground and you're coming back up there's your toe raises another great one uh like I was saying this is just for your lower back in general which is just I think this is super necessary especially for anybody with lower back pain it's called cacao it's a yoga thing you can do this on your butt you can do this on your bunk you can do this in between your seats you can do it on your top bunk if you need to depending on space but it's getting into tabletop so you're on all fours and this one right here this one's really huge is where you you round out your back right here. That feels good too you yeah you arch it and then you round it back out. So this one like this this one's a really huge one because a lot of times drivers suffer from sciatica sciatic pain that that pain that can shoot down your legs. What that's coming from is either a a bulging disc it's coming from spinal you know degeneration which is weak weaknesses happening and kind of disks that are out of place whether there's a slight herniation or a slight bulge and it's hitting into a nerve and so when you're doing that when you do that cacao exercise what you're doing is you're putting it back in like you're you're exercising it to put it back in place like as you bend it. And if you do that over time and I'm not sure you know and if you're a driver who's ever had an injury like say you've hurt your shoulder or something like sports injury from high school you've gone to physical therapy you know it's a lot of like small tedious work that's what that is so doing that cacao is a huge one for your spine especially for longevity we're talking because if this is going to be your career if you know that this is going to be the next five 10 15 years of what you're going to be doing you don't want to have to simply like you don't want to be in pain to do that job. That's that's a huge one right there. I'd say the next biggest thing is which is the world favorite is doing push-ups. Now the best part about doing push-ups if you're somebody who can't do a regular one and I don't know if you can still see me you can still see me right yep so if you can't go all the way down and back up like from there you should do that pushup from the knee. And a great thing to do to take care of your shoulders is have the hands underneath the chest. So my hands aren't way out in front of me. They're not way out to the side you want the hands in line with the chest and you're on your knees and you go all the way down and back up. If you cannot do the pushups from your knee what you can do and this is especially important is if you're on is if you're outside you're on your tractor you can get a yoga mat or something to kneel on to take care of your knees you can put your hands on the steps on the steps that's what I do. I do mine off the steps and there and there's and and there there it is that is the most dialed back version and you should be able to go all the way down and back up what that's especially good for yeah a lot of people are going to be like I don't want to get down on the ground at a truck stop because we all know what the ground is like at a truck stop so and you can do it inside your cab too if if you set yourself back from your you know if you're if you're if you say the bunk is right in front of me right here if I'm staring at my bed you can put your hands on the bed which is you know probably right here and you can do it you could do it down that way. Those are those are great keys. Other ones so I mean especially if you're looking to level up I carried a kettlebell with me on the road and so just like with that squat you know you can start wait you can start weighting your squats so just holding it up here back down you can do the same thing with those reverse lunges as you come down this one's you're just gonna it's gonna help you build some more muscle work them to fatigue kettlebell swing great and all these exercises can be done outside or in your truck there's plenty of room in your truck for this exercise. Plenty of room yeah and this one again for your for your back your glutes your hips like it because we're talking about movements that are great for for your longevity this one your back your glutes your hips because you're using you're letting your torso fall and you're gonna you explode through your hips to pop it straight up about shoulder and chest height and back down that's what it's working all down there. And again same way you can use this kettlebell for multiple things little shoulder presses as you come all the way up and down another great exercise too that's important especially because when we're talking driving it really is all about the lower back the glutes and the hamstrings is just the idea so say you have this kettlebell and you're outside of your truck you've got the steps up onto the cab holding onto a weight and placing your foot up here and doing a lateral step up so if there was a you know if only I had a box or actually I've got this thing right here. We need to get you the side of a semi yeah I know so this right here so say I'm on you know say this is your step just going like this just this you do 10 on each side you do you do 10 on the right 10 on the left you do three sets of that just this right here will keep this you know the the side of your glute strong like that those are huge and those are those are also workouts for life like if you're doing it and you could just do it regular straight up you can you know if you have a flatbed truck so you're grabbing a weight you step up onto it you step back down that right there is you when you're 65 75 years old that's you going to the carrying your groceries up the up the stairs so you carrying your grandchild up the stairs like all those are very functional movements those are also all good very good movements that you can do uh on the road 100 awesome thank you for the demonstration because most people yeah don't think about what they can do in the restrictions of those space and I'm always here and that's another thing I'm here for 100% whereas if anybody wants help or needs help with form and form correction and something's hurting or anything like that like I'm I am I'm down to talk to anybody. I've got a plethora of YouTube videos about form or good exercises what they've got especially if they do have lower back issues or if they do have sciatic I've uh like I I'm I'm at least if if I don't have the answer straight up I'm at least connected with enough people to find it yeah any uh thing that I did not ask or go over that you want to touch base on before we sign off today absolutely I mean what I like to lead people lead people all with off with is um I mean is the why like so like I to I said earlier that there's a million there's a million why nots there's one why finding your why is really important and and your why is different for everybody. You know my why why I continue to keep doing what I'm doing is I mean at this point it's it's it's it's continue it has everything to do with you know it has everything to do with leading by example but really overall has to do with honoring my family and I think a lot of people's whys is their family like I do what I do and and and compete and um you know go on shows and you know still work in this industry and work at Truck Part and Club like everything part of my life now has everything to do with the my last name and and really honoring it the same way that my family built it uh to be up at one time. And so that's that's really huge for me. And when it comes to finding when it comes to finding your why and if you can lean on that and uh with whatever it is, especially when it comes to making these different choices and lifestyle choices, that's going to help you. I normally start off, you know, whenever I speak at like an event about this I'll always ask people a question about what they I'll ask them what they think the number one reason is for obesity just in general I'll be like hey what do you I'll ask a crowd what do you think your number one reason for obesity and they'll list things that cause it they'll list they'll say oh sedentary lifestyle not good food uh lack of exercise that all causes it but the reason why those like we we know that that's what causes it but the reason why those cause it has everything to do with education and and I kind of add a little joke to it I'll ask the crowd I'll be like did anybody wake up and smoke crack like did any of you guys wake up and and and do that and you know people will laugh and be like oh of course not and the reason why nobody woke up to smoke crack is because we're very well educated on the dangers of what what using crack looks like and we're not we're not as educated about what the dangers of an unhealthy lifestyle lifestyle do and how and and the reality is is that you know when it comes to chronic disease and obesity it is not is not an acute issue it doesn't happen very quickly with crack if you smoke it once you can die or go to jail or or or worse or you know there's there's things that will happen to you very quickly. However with with health and lifestyle choices it it will happen to you quicker it will happen to you younger but you don't see it happen you don't see that that that negativity happen to you right then and there when you do it but what it does lead to is an average life expectancy of 61. What it does lead to is all these uh chronic diseases that can lead to cancer and all that and so it's the education piece that matters the most and for for anybody out there who know um who who really needs to have this point driven home and I mentioned this earlier again you can get away with kind of and I also want to go back just one step further. This isn't about perfection so I you know about you know almost two years ago I did I haven't I haven't I haven't touched alcohol since but that's just because of the road I've been on and at this point it doesn't suit it doesn't suit my lifestyle I don't tell anybody to give up anything I've never given up Terry Black's barbecue I've never given up pizza I've never given up ice cream I've never given up uh I didn't give up Thanksgiving or dessert none of that was has been given up I participated and have fun and all of that that's not what this is all about that's not the message I preach at all preach uh at all but there's there's time and a place it's about those habits and the reality is is if you don't is if you you again you can get away with this in your 20s your 30s into your 40s you can get away with this and be fine but on a long enough timeline when you need it the most when when you need it the most when you're in the twilight of your career going into your 40s, going into your going into your 50s, if you suffer, you know, you're putting you're putting your career at risk because if you have one of these chronic diseases that leads to an event, if you lose your dot medical card, if you've been driving for 20 years, you're not you can't retire yet. So if you've been driving for 20 years and you have a heart attack or a s or a stroke or especially a stroke, you lose that DOT medical card, there, there's your job right there. There's there's there's your type in and I'm not saying you can't get another job, but what does that look like for you? Are you ready to make that decision now? And so if it's catching up to you in the twilight of your career, a lot of drivers say this a lot. I mean people work in this industry and people work as drivers because they're they want you know they need to earn an income and they want to provide for their family. And a lot of drivers and a lot of conversations I have and people say this a lot is I'll do anything for my family. I would give anything for my family. I would die for my family. Nobody is asking you to do that but can you can you just live for your family? That's the most important part. And I think that when we get back to that the idea of because I can tell you first I can tell you firsthand, especially watching how my grandfather passed away that's not how I want to go out. That's not how you're you know if you have a son or daughter you don't want them to do it. When it comes to your autonomy you we have to think about this in the terms of freedom and this is something everybody can understand we very much value freedom in the United States people do. And there's no and at the most and and and if you had an injury you've experienced this but nobody ever wants to have somebody you know you don't want to have to rely on anybody for something like say you break your leg like I don't know if you've ever broken a leg or a bone in like elementary school some kids got to carry your books or like somebody's on crutch like just being on crutches when you're limited the idea of being able to reach above your head bend over and pick something up like pick those things those are things we take for granted every single day. And when you live with chronic disease if you're in your 50s or 60s like and then and you have something happen to you whether you have to lose a limb or something for diabetes and you need help nobody wants that nobody ever wants to do that. And you would never want to and if you have and if you have a family do do you want them take do you want to force them to have to abandon their life and what they need to do to take care of you to take you to the doctor's appointments to do to do these things that were very much preventable like like living with chronic disease like so if you're because you know do you want to be that person who's 65 who's has to spend the last 15 years of their life surviving or you'd rather be thriving do you want your kids to have to take take you to the doctor because he can't drive and do XYZ nobody wants that losing your freedom is like everybody's nightmare. Like people say all the time oh if I'm if I'm on life you know people will say you know if they're in in a hospital and the and they're you know or what have you they something has happened to them they'd be like I don't want to make my family have to suffer like that's something people always say you have a child balls in your court to be able to prevent some of those things and all it requires you doing is quite literally just moving a little bit more and eating less. Like when we really zoom out at this the idea of weight loss isn't hard it's just the it's just the time piece. And I think when we get down to the educational level and when we look at it as taking care of yourself isn't just taking care of yourself. You're taking care of the ones around you the most like when you're able to do these things and just live a little bit better of a lifestyle you're serving your family you're serving your you know you're serving your family the best the best gift you can give them which is the healthiest and best version of you.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:37

Yep and your your body's your temple right it is the most important freight that you're going to haul so protect it.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:44

100% yeah take take care of yourself the best way you can uh you know it's it's tough you know it's it's a hard time for for people right now it's hard to get motivated it's hard to stay motivated which is also why you know and I I know we're running on time community is very important who you're talking to who you're associating with what kind of social media you're consuming all matters in this in the especially with the mental health stuff too all very much matters if you're in a group of five people who are saying I'll never lose weight I can't I'll fail it's I guess it's I'm not cut out for it you're gonna end up thinking that way one of the that's one of the I am so passionate about this industry because as I've gotten into it I am I'm connected with people such as yourself the people we we talk to on LinkedIn the the community is everything it's the old saying you hang out with five millionaires you'll probably be the sixth you hang out with five drug addicts or whatever that's how you're like we we truly are products of our environment in in every sense of the every every sense of the way and finding your your tribe and your community is huge and finding those like minded individuals will have a major major impact which is why I have the slack group that's why I'll coach people for free because if I'm your friend overall like the people I'm friends with the reason why I'm doing you know Iron Man and trying to compete at this level and become a faster marathoner is because that's who I hang that's who I'm hanging out with. Like I'm hanging out with people who are all doing that and I'm seeing them do it. So I want to do it. And so if your main line of friendship is with people who are who are leveling up and doing that thing you're gonna follow them. If you're with people who are just who love being at the bottom and complain all the time that's what you're gonna do. So commute community is everything um and and and again you're right your body's your temple do it do it not just for yourself but do it for your family.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:25

That's it. All right everybody that is a wrap on our very first training Tuesday here on tracking with Tammy big thank you to Michael Anthony Lombard for all his wisdom and remember this isn't about becoming a triathlete overnight this is one better choice today right for your body your energy and for your trekking career so today's episode fired you up Anthony Michael Anthony he he volunteered to be your coach he volunteered to help you out free of charge look him up thanks for being with us today this is Tammy keep the shiny side up and rubber side down later guys