The Same Habits That Make You Fit Make You Rich

What if the secret to building wealth isn’t just about money—but about how you treat your body? We crack open the uncomfortable truth: discipline in health and wealth aren’t just linked—they’re the same battle.

📌 Key Topics:
✅ Why wealthy people often prioritize fitness (and it’s not just about money)
✅ The hidden cost of "convenient" choices—from fast food to financial shortcuts
✅ How to reframe hard habits (early mornings, workouts, side hustles) as identity shifts, not chores
✅ Balancing family, health, and ambition without sacrificing what matters most
✅ Manifestation vs. action: Why clarity on your future self drives today’s choices

One question to leave with: Are you using health and wealth as tools to serve others—or trophies to validate yourself?

Listen now and audit your habits. The gap between where you are and where you want to be? It’s smaller than you think.

Chapters

00:00 The Connection Between Health and Wealth

11:09 Discipline: The Key to Success

20:00 Balancing Health, Wealth, and Family

29:57 Manifestation and Mindset in Health and Wealth

Transcript

Ryan Miller (00:00)

So Tanner, I would argue that if your body's out of whack, meaning you're unhealthy, you're overweight, you're lethargic, you aren't sleeping well, then everything else in business and life suffers. You're tired, you're reactive, unfocused. And I've seen so many times that people, or with better, ⁓ with more financial wherewithal or whatever word you want to, know, more wealthy people.

Or most of the time in better health. And I think there's a strong correlation between the two to what makes them healthy and what makes them wealthy. And I think it's kind of starting to change that's talked about more and more, but I think there's a huge gap there between the haves and the have nots when it comes to wealth and health. have, uh, what are your thoughts on it? I mean, I know you're, you don't like working out, so.

No, it's not that I don't like working out. I think I need to make it more of a priority. But I think that there's an argument to be made that the people that are wealthy are in extremely good shape because they have the finances to be able to afford them the time and the trainers and the best equipment. you're saying correlation versus causation. Exactly. I think that there is an argument to be made there. But I also agree with the people that

are extremely successful and wealthy have become the type of person that overcomes hard things and going to the gym is just a hard thing. Getting up in the morning early is a hard thing and they're just better at doing that. And if how you do anything is how you do everything, someone who can get up at four in the morning, make time to work out and get their day started probably is a little bit more.

shows more adversity in all things than someone who gives into the comfort snoozes the alarm 12 times and then gets up at 11 o'clock. They're probably the one that's gonna take the path of most comfort and work an easy job that just barely pays the bills constantly. Obviously there's an 80-20 rule there that not every wealthy person is in extremely good shape.

I'm sure there's a good majority of them that are though. And there's probably a larger population of wealthy people that also are avid health nuts than there are in the average, ⁓ obese category. Yeah. I've said here, as you're saying that like wrecking my brain and like, trying to think of someone that I can think of up top of my head. That's an obese billionaire. only one that came to mind off top of my head is probably because he's in the news right now.

but as the governor of Iowa or Illinois, JD, whatever his name is, but he's a billionaire. I don't remember his last name, but I don't really follow him. I just know that he's in the news right now for other reasons. so, but that's the only- I even looking like Mark Zuckerberg, like he's ripped now, right?

He wasn't always like a purple belt jujitsu. Yeah, but he wasn't always when he was in his building stages, which is, know, 20 years of his life. Like he was no beast, but he definitely was unhealthy. What about what about a little nerdy Elon? Elon was was not in really good shape for most of his life. Like ⁓ Jeff Bezos was not ripped most of his life and then they got wealth and then they got. Yeah, but I'm not talking about ripped him.

All that stuff. Like obviously those people, yeah, they can afford the best trainers. I'm bringing up exceptions to the rule that I'm just talking about. Just before we started, I made this correlation that with the more money I see some of the most obese people that I find are the most poor people. And as their wealth increases, they're

body fat percentage goes down. So money goes up, body fat percentage goes down. And it just baffles me as to why, like there has to be some correlation there. Yeah. And I think lifestyle choice, like we talked about the people that are doing hard things or doing hard things in all areas of life. I do also subscribe to the argument that people with more wealth can afford healthier choices, organic foods that can, know, that

I do think that the most fast food, is typically going to be cheaper than going out and eating a steak or fish or whatever. steak or fish, yeah. Right. But to eat healthy, good, lean meals is more expensive than getting a Whopper or whatever. Don't sue us.

I think that the convenient choices that you'll find at a gas station or at a fast food restaurant are more affordable.

they cater to people who are less wealthy. know, granted, I think there's another exception to the rule of Warren Buffett eats McDonald's every day. But I think the point remains, I think it's fair to say that people who are wealthier are healthier because of the lifestyle choices of doing hard things. And also they can afford, not can afford, because they have the money to do so, they prioritize their health. Because they want to live long lives, you know.

And someone who is unhealthy doesn't have the resources to even know where to start with that. Yeah, it's hard. mean, talking chicken or egg, I'm not trying to make this about like, this is the answer type thing, but it is something that's kind of weighing on me. because

My wife and I are trying to go the more organic, the more natural, uh, you know, just kind of change it. Like we bought new pots, like stainless steel pots to not, you know, have aluminum pots. had cheap aluminum pots before and stuff. Right. So it's like just these little small things. Like I got rid of our, well, I quit using our curing. just moved to downstairs and just started using a stainless steel French press to make coffee.

It's little things like that. I mean, that might not be little and it's, it's just trying to be more health conscious about stuff. it's. You know, I guess I would argue that if you buy a $30 coffee pot at Walmart, can wait a little while and buy the $40 tea kettle. True. But also, I mean, just looking at

being in a calorie deficit, caloric deficit versus not abundance, over consuming. If you're trying to lose, what is it? 10 pounds, you have a 500 calorie a day deficit for three months and you'll lose two pounds, whatever that math works out to be. The person who isn't doing those things, I mean, we're talking just a coffee pot.

And then also doing something, you know, buying 70, 30 meat instead of the 90, 10, and then also has fast food once a week because it's cheaper. And then also we'll reach for the pizza before reaching for the salad. Like all of those little habits lead them down a path of obesity. So it's not just one area. I think it's all areas of life. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think the more

I'm not trying to turn this to the health thing, but the more I go down the health rabbit hole in my personal life, the more I realized like all the stupid things you just said, like the salad, but we go and have a salad. That's a thousand calories, right? You know, because we think that like, I'll go back to a and drown it in ranch. Yeah. Yeah. Go back to an ad in the nineties. It's like four out of five Olympians drink milk. Like, what's that say though?

Yeah. Like, okay. Like correlation or causation. Exactly. But, that was the marketing thing. So now everybody's drinking milk and, and solids are healthy. No, I guarantee you I can go eat a steak and asparagus and have less calories, more nutrition than your little garden salad drowned in ranch. Right. So, but it's just all those, I was just picking on you with saying the stupid things, but

It's all those little things that we believe as a society. That's what we're told. Like salt bad. It's this, like, I'll tell you, like, I just had a hamburger the other day with some American wagyu beef that was 75 25 and it was delicious. And I think it's more healthy than a lot of other things that, ⁓ right. So, so the steak and asparagus is going to be a better option than the salad, right? But is

That's my, is it fair to say that the salad is a better choice than eating a large pizza to yourself? I don't know. Well, think 2,500 calories versus a thousand calories. I guess I was just going calorie for calorie. Right. So calories for calorie. I would agree. But point remains that the one who is making healthy choices is probably making healthy choices in all areas of their life. And

Not just one area. think. Kind of what we're talking about is, or what we've mentioned here is not all things that were marketed to or could not everything that is preached as factual. And they kind of have to do your own research nowadays. Like, I mean, I can't tell you the amount of times I've had conversations with people.

Like I knew what they were saying were factually true or untrue. And I'm just like, like, you know that you can't convince them. So why even continue with the argument? And I feel like health is one of those main things. Like, you know that you're a hundred pounds overweight, but yet you're arguing with me about whether what you're doing is right or wrong. Well, but so on the original topic, would you say that being in shape?

is a luxury of being wealthy or? I don't think so. So what's your stance on?

I it comes back to discipline. there's more millionaires than there are people with six pack. So I don't think the two kind of, I mean, I don't know what the numbers are, but how many millionaires are there with six pack? there's low percentage there, but I think it's just the discipline. It's being able to do the mundane small things.

day in and day out that made people successful and they're able to take that in any area of life. And you just see it in those two, two areas. I do think that if you can start off.

By just saying, Hey, I'm this type of person that's not going to eat sweets. And then you use that and then you say, I'm the type of person that's going to spend two hours a day on a side hustle. So those two go well together. Not that they have any synergies or anything, but just the discipline and habits and the, uh, being committed to the word that you say. I think that's where they go together. And I'll add one thing to that.

I think the energy that you get from being healthy, from working out, ⁓ is another key contributor. There's a study that says, and I don't know these numbers, but we'll, so we take these in America, all these SSRIs and all this stuff for mental health. I don't know what SSRI stands for, but you know,

You know, you're depressed, your anxiety and all that stuff. And you take these pills working out for 30 minutes a day. think it is, is like threefold more benefits than taking these SSRIs. But it's just the fact that I can pop a pill versus I have to go work out for 30 minutes. So it's easier. So I just think there's so many, I think we're just a sick nation, unhealthy, unhealthy sick nation.

And I think there's also a population of people who are active and they have something hormonally wrong that they're not getting any support from doctors or traditional medicine that don't have the resources to fix it. And so that's, I think that's a...

Someone who, why are they harmoniously wrong though? guess would be my, so I saw an interesting, whether it's true or not real on Instagram this week. And it was talking about Amish people. They have basically no obesity. ⁓ Like America is full of fertility issues. know, Amish have basically no fertility issues. Mental health is.

substantially lower than the American population. I mean, they have no electronics. have no, like all their food's organic. Like when I lived in Europe, like there wasn't an organic food section and a non-organic food. It's just what it is. Only in America do we have this crap that we pass around as food. So as you can tell, I'm not real big on our food system around here. I agree. So.

But anyhow, going back to your hormones, I know you're making a point and I interrupt it. No, I just think that it's having the resources accessible to be able to get to the root cause. Like you said, why is there a hormone issue? I have no idea. I don't know, because I don't have the resources to do that. I mean, I'd love to, but...

Well, I think it starts with choosing the healthy life and doing the hard things in all areas.

If you went, when you have the monetary success to be able to allocate more resources, like I've heard the rumors that Elon Musk is going to figure out how to, how to freeze a human for a hundred years and you know, whatever, all that, all that crap. I, I think that it starts the, the premise of this conversation was becoming the type of person who does hard things. That's my stance on it.

And I think it's more like you said about the discipline of becoming a person who chooses the gym over choosing a movie and popcorn, you know, that, that is where the true lifestyle change comes and the core it's, it's a correlation, not a causation to being wealthy. Yeah. And I would say if you're the average person working W2 listen to this, you're better served initially.

getting your health under control, then go on and start a side hustle on trying to get wealthy because that's going to take more time, more energy out of your day. which is harder? Is it harder to make a million dollars or is it harder to get in shape? Well, the fine in shape. Like you, gave a,

you had a million dollars is tangible. Like what is in shape? Like, so that's, you don't have any, anything to like rounds of shape, you know, like, but I don't know what's on tour there, but I think you need to start off by defining what is in shape. And I would say that most people aren't, but I guess back to my point, was

If you start getting in shape, start working out every day, you will have more energy to do the other things that you need to play with your kids. ⁓ all that stuff and you will do better in the long run. You can start taking those extra two hours to, ⁓ develop a side hustle and build a business or whatever it is. But I think taking the 30 minutes an hour every day to work out.

will benefit you more on the side or in the long term. Yeah. And I think that there's a lot of similarities in getting healthy to getting wealthy. Like you said, it's, you can't overnight become healthy just by working out for 24 hours straight. Like it's the daily practices and it takes time to become healthy. Yeah. Same is true of becoming wealthy.

Yeah. Are there traps to doing these things? To creating wealth, to becoming healthy? Like, do you start chasing the scorecard of wealth? Do you start becoming vain about your appearance?

I mean, yeah, I'd say so. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I think it just is what it is. I think too much vanity in either sense is a problem.

Yeah, we've talked before about losing yourself in the pursuit of money or losing your family or whatever.

I think that if you're pursuing health for the lifestyle and living a long life, then it's a noble cause. But if you're pursuing it just for the vanity of looking better, I don't know. mean, who am I to judge? Yeah. Yeah. I think ⁓ your ego, both of those things are unchecked.

Ego, she's going to run, run crazy. And that's where you have the family issues, the marital issues, the friends issues, the, those things. How do you grow in those areas without risking getting hurt or.

through trying to think exactly how, you know, not hurting your family, I guess, is what I mean. How do you?

I'll back it out one. You only have so much time in the day. So now you're, I work eight hours, I drive an hour, you know, half an hour there, half an hour back, ⁓ take a lunch break, all this stuff. So by I get home, 10 hours of my day is already gone. Tell me I should sleep eight hours a day. So that's 18 hours of my day gone. It only leaves me with six more hours of the day. Now you tell me I need to work out for an hour. My family needs time. We got to make dinner and all that stuff.

So how do you kind of balance that? How do you have that conversation with your wife and be like, Hey, I understand I'm taking the extra hour out of my day, but I need this in order to whatever. How do you bridge that conversation? Yeah. think the conversation my wife and I have had a lot is that if the reason that we're doing everything, the reason that we're working and that we're being trying to be more healthy and all these things is for the kids, then we can include the kids in everything that we're doing. And it's not.

The kids should never get what's left over. The same is true with, we've talked a lot about your relationship with God. It's like God doesn't get what's left over. He needs to be the priority and the kids are the priority. My wife's the priority. So if that's true, then you remember the analogy of the rocks, right? They are the big rocks and everything else fills the gaps. It's not work gets the

chunk of the time, sleep gets a chunk of the time, and then if there's any time left over, my kids get that time. They get the time, I think bringing the kids to work out, bringing the kids to meetings, whatever's feasible, finding a way to insert them in the businesses.

and showing them the lifestyle that we're trying to pursue, I think is the answer. Yeah, I guess I would give another perspective. I think

comes down to quality or quantity. Like, yeah, I can spend five hours hanging out with my kids, barely alert, know, wishing I was somewhere else and all that stuff. But if working out gives me more presence in the ⁓ time that I have with them, then that's better served by working out. but that doesn't mean that you can't work out with them. I'm not, you know, I'm not.

saying it's an either or thing, but maybe you can have both of them. Maybe you can work out with that hour, go for a run, know, rocking, lifting weights, whatever. And then also have more energy for them later on in the day. Yeah, absolutely. To cook that nice steak. Or that thousand calorie salad. Or that thousand calorie salad. Yeah, I'm guilty. I like actually steak on my salad.

That's the, the real, real McCoy right there. Um, does discipline in one area help another? So we'll kind of hit on that a little bit. Um, what other, let me change that up. What other areas in life can you start having discipline? Excuse me. Start having discipline that will help in all of the areas working out. hard to start with discipline, you know, to be honest with you. Cause it doesn't feel good in the moment.

I think you read the book, Make Your Bed. I think I might have lent it to you while ago, but he talks about how making your bed is more than just the act of making your bed. It's about being more organized and preparing for the day. And even if you have a long day, at least when you come back, you haven't made bed, you know, the one thing accomplished. Exactly. Yeah. So I think

being organized and prioritizing the health and ⁓ dieting and looking for opportunities to be healthy. you go out and eat a big meal, you're probably going to go for a walk because you know it makes you feel better. But someone who is taking the comfort route, they're going to get something that's unhealthy because it's more convenient than

having to go cook their own steak or do whatever, and that's maybe not a fair example, but I think that through those types of habits and becoming the type of person that chooses them more, like all goes back to choose your heart, right? Working out is hard, being overweight is hard. So choose which one. Yeah, I think that brings up a great point. was like,

We might all not all get to choose the day that we go.

but you can.

choose how much of that life you get to live in the meantime. Like say you, we all died at eight o'clock, 80. I don't know why I was about to say it. So, uh, at 80 years old, I can live to 79 and a half and still be active, I would rather that to meet 60 and walk around with a cane and wheelchair and all that stuff. So

Yes, it's hard, but so those last 20 years of life walking around barely getting by. I can't tell you how many times I've seen the 60 year old walking around in a cane and you know, this, that, and the other.

This one guy's talking about his back one day. I'm like, oh, I can't do this because of my back. And the doctor says I can't work out because of this. dude, can you work out with no weight? He's like, well, yeah, can. Can you do a squat with no weight? Yeah, I can do a squat with no weight. So why you just do squats with no weight? Then grab a two pound weight. Right. So it's choosing the comfort. Yeah. So like, I'd rather not do anything, even though I know I can, but he used to do heavy weights.

And so he's like, it's an ego thing at that time, at that point in time, like, well, my ego won't let me do a two pound weight. Well, you sit here and complain about your back hurting all you want, or you can try to do something about it. that drives me nuts. So, well, I mean,

If you really want to do something, you'll find a way. And if not, you'll find an excuse. This is Jim Rohn quote. We love that one. Cause I mean, you see people who are marathon runners who lose a leg and then they go and become a Paralympic, you know, champion because they don't let that stop them. The people who are choosing the comfort and choosing the easier food are going to choose that in all areas of life. And the slightest inconvenience, I've seen the meme before that

There's, you know, the one tiny cloud in the sky and say, I was going to go for a run, but it like it rain today. Like that. think it's so true because when you choose comfort, you're going to find every excuse not to do something. But the ones who they don't let anything stop them, which wealth health, know, happiness life, the ones who are pursuing that it's more about the mindset that they have going into things of I'm not going to let anything stop me. Like my mind's made up. And then.

we can get back into the manifestation conversation. No, I mean, it's. I think you're 100 % right, like you're gonna find a way or find an excuse and.

When it comes to working out, it's easy to find an excuse. I mean, I'll be the first to first admit that like I'm not.

trying to progress that, but start off small. I think the biggest reason and going back to this guy that wouldn't squat because he didn't want to squat without weight and just wouldn't work out in general because he couldn't squat with weight. ⁓ that was his excuse and he just kind of living that life, but yet he's sitting there like, I can't even get out of this chair in my back and this, that and the other. like, too. Like, ⁓ anyhow, it just drives me nuts. It's a game of inches.

You know, if you do the compound effect, atomic habits, whatever you want to call it, every single day doing some kind of movement will get you closer to that goal. Like it's not going to get you farther. If you do three pushups a day, you're not going to be in worse shape than you were when you were doing nothing. ever seen that video, the diamond Dallas page video with, ⁓ this for DDP yoga. was on Joe Rogan and,

Anyhow, it was a viral video they have. ⁓ this is guy, he was in the army. He was a airborne, all beat up from airborne jumps. I want to he was like in his forties, been over hunchbacked. ⁓ he had two like walking sticks on his hands cause he was like bent over and that's how you walked. Barely get out of the chair. Anyhow, just total like, my goodness. Like this dude's got a rough life. He took him from there doing yoga.

DDP yoga. ⁓ so this guy was like, shown a year later or whatever it was like sprinting down the street, no canes, no nothing, just sprinting down the street and pure, but he didn't let his current situation dictate where he was going to be in the future. there's a new book out. sent you the, I don't know if it's actually out, but I had the audio. sent you the thing with,

It's basically continuation of 10 X is easier than two X. his big premise in there is too often, or basically in the world, we let our past dictate our future. He said, what's your future dictate you now? who are you in the future? And how do you show up today to be that person? And I think that's what working out is.

Picture yourself, you joked about manifesting, but.

You can manifest something, but you take that action. Like, the Matthew McConaughey thing again, who do I want to be in 10 years? See that person. Let that be your, your driving force, your North store and, ⁓ have a North star button. So let, let that be, you know, your guiding principle.

get out do the work. And too often. And that's why I truly believe that manifesting is just programming your reticular activating system is that when you are man and some of the, if you listen to a manifestation, hypnotists and you know, ⁓ what do call it? Meditations. They, they talk about being very clear with visualizing exactly what you want. And I think that

what that's doing is you're programming your mind to look for these things. And then every aspect of your life, whether it goes from picking up the Pepsi versus picking up a Gatorade, you you start to make decisions even subconsciously that gets you to that end state. when you, the people who are very big on manifesting, they talk about every morning visualize, you know, your dream and what you're.

I'm trying to use other words than goal, but visualize clearly what, like, who do you want to be in 10 years? What are you wearing? What are you driving? Where are you living? You know, everything about it, because what you're doing is you're teaching yourself to make decisions that that person would make. And that's where I get to, all it is, is you're just creating habits. You're creating habits of the type of person that you want to be. And that is identity.

If I want to be a ripped person, I'm going to identify as someone who chooses a healthier option over a Big Mac. Yeah, I just.

I know if I necessarily agree with the manifestation. I mean, I understand what it's saying. My biggest issue, I mean, just to be frank, is I don't know if that's from God. ⁓ So that's my struggle.

I think it's more about the intentions. think you can... When you think about manifesting, I think you're comparing it to black magic or like some kind of... The people that talk about just wish it and it'll appear versus the one... I mean, there are people who believe in manifestation in prayer. Like when you...

pray with your whole heart to God that, you know, the white shiny boat, it doesn't just appear, but when God provides the opportunities for you to go and buy that boat, is that manifesting?

But I think that's where we get into. that opportunity never came and now I'm a blame God. So God's not real anyhow. We could, it's a whole, whole rabbit hole in of itself. But, ⁓ yeah, I just.

I just... I just don't know that it's...

lack of a better word, biblical, a lot of this manifestation. I think that's a whole episode on its own. Yeah. So, uh, anything else you want to add to this or? No, I think, I mean, what we talked about and I think we're on the same page is the question was, is there a correlation between being wealthy and being healthy? And I think that

the conclusion that we came to is that it's more about the discipline that it requires to become healthy is very similar to the type of discipline that it takes to become wealthy. And if you, how you do anything is how you do everything. You become the type of person that makes healthier choices. You're going to become the type of person who's disciplined enough to make wealthy choices. Yeah. One thing I would, guess add to that is

We talked about the oxygen mask, like put on your oxygen mask first before serving others and same premise. You can't pour from an empty cup. So if you weren't taking care of your health, how are you going to take care of your family? know, if you, uh, well, I just caveat off that it's, if you're not taking care of your health, you don't have the energy to take care of your wealth and your family. You got to pick and choose. And that's where people are choosing.

Yeah. And from a man standpoint, like you can fear 400 pounds overweight, obese, can't take care of your family. What happens when someone breaks in your house? What happens if, you know, like, I mean, you can go down that rabbit hole, you know, as a provider, you should be able to protect your family and stuff like that. So once again, that can be a tangent. We'd go down long enough on its own, but

I think it all comes back to the same thing. ⁓

being disciplined so that you can be all things. And I don't mean be all things like, you know, be all you can be. Yeah. What does that mean? The old army slogan. That's like how I recognize that. yeah, like, how can you be the person that can show up to your kids basketball game or soccer game or baseball game and be there and work and provide for your family and be a

be a protector and all that stuff. I do think it, I think it comes back to health, take care of yourself. I would say it's probably the, you know.

of course taking care of spiritually obviously I think that's number one but then health would be number two. Do you have a question to leave us with? Yeah, so let's see I wrote, do you see health and wealth as a tool to serve others or trophies to validate yourself? Well, the closing thought for me is if you're unhappy with your finances,

take a look at your health and see if you're equally unhappy. Go bench press and then, and then decide if there's a correlation between the two. Yeah. Cool. On that. Appreciate it.