Running on Coffee and Christ
We are an energetic couple, focused on building a community that is able to impact their families, friends, and their world by; Growing their Faith, Improving their Fitness, and Pursuing their Future.
The topics we discuss, revolve around the hopes that YOU are inspired to better yourself and that you could dare to dream above and beyond all that you have ever imagined for yourself.
Running on Coffee and Christ
Episode 5 Journey Towards Health With Family and Faith: Special Guest Caleb Salamone
Caleb’s journey from a sedentary lifestyle to becoming an enthusiastic runner showcases the power of accountability, community support, and gradual change. With improvements in health metrics and a newfound passion for running, he emphasizes that celebrating small victories leads to greater motivation and success.
• Introduction to Caleb’s background and personal journey
• Lighthearted discussion about favorite coffee mugs
• Struggles with weight fluctuation and sedentary lifestyle
• Accountability from family leading to active lifestyle changes
• Insights on running races and the joy of community support
• Health statistics showcasing significant improvements
• Importance of rest and recovery in fitness journey
• Celebrating progress and uplifting others along the way
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Music from #InAudio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5NgiN3KLb4
Hello everyone and welcome to episode five. Can you believe it's episode five?
Speaker 2:Already, and this is going to be our first interview episode.
Speaker 1:I love the number five because five, you know, numbers have meaning. My dad has always been big about that. But five is like my number because my name has five letters in it. I was born in the fifth month, the fifth day, 85th year, but five means grace. So that's just a little tidbit, it's not all about you, Holly. Okay, as you can see, we have a special guest here today. It is my husband's twin right.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can tell that these two are brothers. Y'all pray for me. I'm stuck in the middle of these two, but we are so excited to have Caleb Calvin's brother on here today and he's going to be sharing his testimony from running faith and we're just going to see where this conversation leads to. We're very glad to have him on here and that he was willing to come and be on here.
Speaker 2:He's had a couple of really increases in his journey. That's been significant here lately when it comes to running and his faith and his physical health and he's been advancing his education and things like that. So we're really, really excited. He's been a high school math teacher. Some of his handles on things, math, prof and things like that it's just part of his life, it's built into him his being a teacher. But he's had some really significant things happen here lately that we've been really proud of him.
Speaker 1:And we felt like it'd be a great way for him to come on here and share what's been going on in his journey. We totally think that what's been going on with him is going to be such an encouragement to you I know it's been an encouragement to us you just never know how your life is encouraging other people and so we feel like he needs to share that. But before we get into that, I think that we need to make sure we talk about our coffee mugs before it gets away from us. So, Caleb, what coffee mug did you choose to bring today?
Speaker 3:Well, I've got the Elf. I'm a cotton-headed ninny muggins I don't even know if I can pronounce that correctly, but I love the show, the movie Elf.
Speaker 2:It's a staple in our house too. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And he always is kind of hard on himself. And I've kind of always had that mentality. I've always been a little hard on myself. It's not the most ideal way to be, but sometimes you have to give yourself some slack.
Speaker 1:You know what I like about this mug.
Speaker 2:What's that? It's massive. It is large.
Speaker 3:You can put a ton of coffee in this, yes, at least an 18 ounce coffee mug yeah, I don't I don't do little coffee mugs, no, um, okay.
Speaker 1:So my cup that I have today is wicked. Now everybody knows this a movie that's come out, but we have been wicked fans for a very long time and actually the first time we ever saw Wicked was in Chicago.
Speaker 3:Yep with us With.
Speaker 2:Caleb and Brandy, who is?
Speaker 1:actually behind the scenes right now she's over here but we actually all went together before we had kids. We went to Chicago, had a great time. Remember the Italian restaurant oh it was fantastic.
Speaker 3:I thought we might be kidnapped or, I don't know, mugged or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we didn't know where we were going either. You know, like we're just walking by homeless people. But we saw Wicked and absolutely fell in love with the story because I've always loved the Wizard of Oz. Anyway, when it would come on TV one time a year, I was there. But this mug is one of my favorites because it's a great memory that we had with you guys.
Speaker 2:Yep, my mug today is a Where's Waldo mug. I remember looking at this cup. We've had this in our household for a long time, haven't we? This was one that when we were growing up that we had this one. You can just look at it and stare and try to figure out where Waldo is forever. It's such a time mover I forgot where he was, but I took a few minutes to find him.
Speaker 1:I see him now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's right here at the very end and they're actually running a race. They're actually oh, I don't know if y'all can see it or not, or here, but they're running a race course. Uh, people have their bib numbers and everything on it, which I thought was pretty neat that is neat. I never noticed that until I either out to say, hey, this is my where's where's waldo mug yeah so now you know, our coffee, our fun.
Speaker 3:Yes, we are um well, speaking of coffee, I just I do want to tell you I'm very proud of y'all for what you've accomplished here at sharecroppers and I cannot believe that, um, that y'all been doing as well as you have is considering that you're not in a huge hub of a mass amount of people coming around. People make special trips to come visit y'all and that's a big deal, and what y'all offer here is very consistent, it's very good and anyway, I'm proud of y'all Proud of y'all for more than just that Well you played your role in helping us get it going
Speaker 3:too, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Always A lot of labor hours.
Speaker 1:I have to say, when we have an idea that arises, or calvin's needing help with something he calls his brother and he always makes a way and we're thankful for that, we love you. We love y'all too, so let's get into caleb's story, yeah so go ahead.
Speaker 2:So, caleb, I guess just start out with telling everyone that doesn't know you um or uh, doesn't really know your story, where you're from, kind of what you do, who you are just give us a quick bio of yes all right, so I went um.
Speaker 3:You know, I was born in California when we moved to Florida, lived there for about five years. We moved to Alabama and I remember being asked um if I was for Alabama as a team and I said, of course, you know, I live in Alabama. And then I the kids that asked me that they were pretty obnoxious. So, uh, I changed my mind, became Auburn fan, um, mainly because they were all crazy.
Speaker 2:Just for spite Just for spite, really.
Speaker 3:And then you know, through the years, I always loved the school that we went to there in Cleveland. And you know, after I got saved I got saved it was August, the 9th 1999. And it was right after I graduated high school and the Lord miraculously saved me. And then I started praying about what to do with my life and he showed me exactly what I need to do. He wanted me to teach math and I've been doing that now for 21 years and it's an honor, you know, it's not.
Speaker 3:I really don't feel like I go to work. I do work and I do have to grade things and all. But when I'm in my element, I very much enjoy that and it's really good. But it is a kind of you don't move around a whole lot on the job and through the years I've gotten a little bit sedentary, I guess, of not being as active. I still have a kayak, I still like to do hikes and camping and all the different outdoorsy things. But when you get older it's a little harder to maintain. If you don't stay consistent with something, you can get pretty out of shape.
Speaker 3:But I've been having some health problems, you know, and wanted to. You know, be honest with you. I wanted to do better for my family, because when you look at a family like mine, that's fantastic. You do want to be there for them and not leave them as early, you know, as as you could. Uh, if you don't, um you, you should do what you can do. You know it's all in the hands of the Lord and you're going to go when you're going to go, but I do believe it's important for us to be considerate of our family enough to try to not put them in a bind, uh, to have to take care of you if you're unable to do things.
Speaker 3:And I've I've always wanted to, you know, be more active. Never did any type of sports. I did martial arts. As far as uh, group sports and team sports have never been something in my um that I've ever done, but I've always worked. But I've always, you know, been interested in getting in better shape and I coached soccer one year at Pinson and I went out and ran with the boys and had a good time. And then I coached some football at Appalachian and then here at Cleveland. You know, I do our stats at the football team which you run with that up and down the field.
Speaker 3:I do move around a lot, you do, but that is seasonal, it's not consistent. It's not consistent in your life, it's not.
Speaker 2:So, as far as I can remember, you've had a little bit of fluctuation with your weight up and down, and you've had moments of time in your life where you've been more active than others, sure, and I remember a couple of different times where you worked on, like dieting and things like that yes and um.
Speaker 2:But the reason why, um, I really wanted, I was inspired to bring you on this podcast with us was because you've had some really good advancements in showing, like increases in your, your ability with running and your health statistics with some of your numbers, the data that came in recently. You always have a yearly exam right. So you always with your school education health insurance, you always have numbers to go back on, so you have history, so tell us about that.
Speaker 3:Okay, so first I've fluctuated with my weight, probably probably dealt with my weight as an issue my whole life always been. My mom always said I was husky and and big boned but I've never seen a big bone skeleton, so I don't, I don't know that that's a thing I think they say.
Speaker 3:I think they say that to make fat people feel better. But but anyway, since I'm, since I'm on here trying to just be honest with y'all, I have always dealt with being uh, overweight and then and then fluctuating. I I did some low carb stuff for a while not super sustainable and and how long did you do that?
Speaker 3:I feel like it was a long time roughly a year, and my goal was to get below one, below 200 at that point, and I did get down to 199. But the way that I did it it caused me to feel very weak and I even wound up having a kidney stone during that time, and I think it's because I was so small that I've dehydrated myself also. But anyway, then when I went back off of that I went back up and I've tried it again since then and and lost down a little bit, but but then I wound up, um, you know, going back up to around the two, 70 mark, something like that.
Speaker 1:Okay, Is that the? Is that your peak?
Speaker 3:Probably two. 75 is probably my biggest.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I um, when I had, uh, just recently I guess it was maybe a year and a half ago Calvin actually told me he said I'm worried about you. And I was like, okay, he said I'm worried, you're not. You know you're not taking care of yourself and I'm like well, I don't think I know this.
Speaker 3:And he said I said, well, I don't really have time. Well, you know, giving your brother excuses, that you pretty much has been in your life, your whole life. He knows exactly how to see through that. And he said, well, how long would it take you to do a little exercising, and would you rather do it in the morning or in the afternoon? I said, well, in the afternoon sometimes I'm tired. Blah, blah, blah, and excuse after excuse.
Speaker 3:And he said, well, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to call you when I get up for work, cause my brother, uh, ungodly hours, uh, sometimes the jobs he's had and he was getting up at you know four or five in the morning probably. And he said I'm going to call you. I'm gonna call you about five, 30. I was like I think it was five, 30, was about five, 30. Okay, he said I'm gonna call you about five, 30. And I don't care what you do, so long as you do something. So the first day he called me, I knew it was going to happen. So I went ahead and laid my clothes out and I got up and put my clothes on and I went outside and it was a. It was a chilly day. It was probably um, I don't know maybe November-ish, something like that. So probably this next November will be two years, okay, and? And I went out and raked pine straw because it was needing to be done anyway.
Speaker 3:I got my rake out and I raked pine straw until I busted a big-time sweat. I even have pictures on my phone one of these days. I'm going to post those. But sweating really good, just trying to move around and there I am, 275, just sweating real bad and got a shower and during the day I felt so much better I felt like, okay, so I've done something. And then even the choices I made during that day. Well, I worked really hard this morning.
Speaker 3:I may not want to eat that snack, you know or whatever you know and I've experienced that before in life, but I never became consistent with it. Probably about a month there he was calling me about every morning and I'd get up and do something and started doing some walking and started doing a little bit dabbling in that and then, um, uh, I, I helped them, I helped y'all here at at the um, um, the thankful five the first the first race y'all did yes um two years ago, this past november, we host a.
Speaker 1:We host a thanksgiving 5k every year to raise money for shoes for, like cross-country athletes and track and field athletes kids that might need it or just are deserving of it. That's right, and I'm, and I'm very, and I and I love the thought process and but I helped clip everybody's shoes, yes, and when I was, yeah, I had to cut everybody's chip off because we couldn't lose the chips.
Speaker 3:You know what I'm saying. So I'm down there. I'm down there clipping them off of their shoes, and I'm seeing these people that are exhausted and but they seemed so rewarded Fulf that are exhausted and but they seemed so rewarded, fulfilled, yeah, and and I was like I'm gonna do this.
Speaker 2:I don't want to clip shoes anymore, just putting yourself in the environment.
Speaker 3:Yeah, motivates you, sure, anticipate and so I was like, okay, in a year and I'd already been doing the walking thing and a little bit, you know, before that November and so I was like I'm gonna do this, I've got a year to get ready for it. And what's three? You know, three miles to me, a never a runner ever.
Speaker 3:That's a long ways that's forever a mile's long, yeah, yeah but, um, and so I started doing some runs and things like that. Some walks, I never could run the whole time. Where I live is very hilly and, um, yeah, yeah, it's bad.
Speaker 2:A mountain, a one giant hill. It's lots Down, you have to come up.
Speaker 1:What is the mountain called? You guys are on Skyball, skyball Mountain.
Speaker 3:Okay, and so it's up and down, up and down, up and down, and I was able to do it in around 15 minutes somewhere in that neighborhood, the run. So I was like, okay, this process you know you mentioned in one of y'all's last ones you talked about like you can't just have that goal, you have to have like goals along the way. And one of the things that I did was I started intermittent fasting because I'd recognized that I was addicted to constant input of sugary and carbohydrate food and I knew when I went low carb I lost real fast, but I was still eating a lot too. And I started eating like lots of fats and meats and which was fine for that particular diet, but I lost really fast but it wasn't super sustainable for myself. And then I also did the kidney stone thing. I was like like I don't want one of those again.
Speaker 3:If you've ever had a kidney stone, you don't, you're not signing up for another one so uh, the next thing I did was the intermittent fasting, where I would eat for about two hours in the afternoon and, uh, then I would try to avoid eating anything, just just a little bit of coffee, black and um water and um hot teas was all I would do during the day so in the front in a 24 hour window, you would only eat for two hours of those.
Speaker 2:Right, you could eat like whatever your family was eating.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, reason, yeah and then I would go ahead and eat a time or two during that two hour window, so it wasn't like I was eating one meal right, I would eat a meal, but then, maybe an hour or two later, I would have something small too.
Speaker 3:But my body had time, I guess, to get rid of all the the sugar in my blood, and I would. I would be in a fasting mode for a larger portion of the day, so my body started burning off other energy sources, including fat which you would you'd normally eat like at dinner time, right?
Speaker 2:yes and then. So your body would basically digest your dinner during the nighttime. And then during the day, you would have your fasting phase. You're moving around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when you first started it, did you have any kind of like moments of weakness, like that your body was having to get used to it, like, maybe, like in that morning time or whatever, just felt weaker?
Speaker 3:well, I don't necessarily feel like I felt weaker, but I did have acid reflux. I have. I have gastric reflux disease I have a hiatal hernia. I have um oversensitive gut, they say ibs. I've had all these issues for years, but I honestly believe it's because I kept putting food in it.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 3:And so when you put food in there it would cause the acid to have to produce more to be able to digest that and it just was a vicious cycle. So it gave my body a break from eating and it made me have less of the acid problems, but not for the first week or two. The first week or two were pretty Not fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I was looking forward to dinner, for sure, but I was addicted to food in the fact that it was the quick, easy fuel source for my body's energy. So when I got used to not having the quick, easy source, my body got used to, I guess, more or less burning off things that were not just sugar based.
Speaker 3:And when I say sugars, I mean anything that's a carbohydrate, not just sugar sugar. But in that process I was able to lose weight at a very consistent, slow, steady rate and I've lost about 50 pounds probably in that time period.
Speaker 2:So have you been able to see the difference in running with the weight versus without the weight?
Speaker 3:Yes, Well, okay, so my muscles were already. Already I'm not saying I was very strong, but I've I've been able to still do things as a 275 pound person.
Speaker 1:So pause on that, because I recently talked to somebody. I have these fitness fitness classes that you know I do every week here at sharecroppers and one of the participants that comes she's lost over 100 pounds and she did it through intermittent fasting as well, but what she realized is, when we're doing these workouts, that her arms are just super weak, but her core and her legs- yeah are very strong and it's because she was carrying around a lot
Speaker 3:of weight, all of that weight for so long that actually her muscles were pretty strong so when you do low carb I'm not anybody that does that's fine. If it works for you, hallelujah. But when you do low carb, you wind up using up some of your low tone muscle, which is your corrective muscles not your big core muscles, but all the corrective muscles. Your body starts eating that away and I did go through a weakness, uh, physically, when I got down to that one, 99, which right now I'm two, 20,. But I feel a hundred times stronger this time because I've not lost all that small muscle, if that makes sense, because this weight loss journey has been a very gradual, consistent like constant small numbers while you've been just healthier actually.
Speaker 2:Yes, your heart and your, your core and everything, uh, all together it's like an overall health increase with weight loss.
Speaker 3:That's been consistently, you know, over time and then the exercise thing, which a lot of people don't think about, is you're? You're um, kind of like your break in time period for a car. If you buy a car and you baby it all the time, that engine's never going to be super efficient, it's going to build up carbon, it's going to have problems. That's just from a car standpoint. Well, the human body, it's designed to be able to do things. It's not just sitting there stagnant, and what you put in, it's important, but what you're using that fuel source for is also important. And the walking, running I called it logging because it was like walk jog. That was all I could do and it was hills, and going down the hills was difficult at a heavier weight because it was harder on my knees. So I would run uphill and walk downhill, that's what I just did during that window.
Speaker 2:We were just talking about this, about modifying your workouts, or modifying your runs early on. That way you get used to moving. You get used to your heart rate being elevated for longer periods of time. That way you can build up that cardiovascular system and build up your endurance to where, when you do run, that you're able to run actually sustain it. And same thing with any kind of muscle workouts, yeah.
Speaker 3:And I had exercised enough to where that I I knew I was going to do the run. That was like my goal, but then we wound up doing one for roger yes, and so roger armstrong. So, yep and um my, I went ahead and signed up for that race. That was my first race and um, I was not super prepared because I'd never actually even went more than two and a half miles in one given time on an exercise thing, so I was like okay, this is my first one.
Speaker 1:You had never ran this course, not this course. You didn't know what to expect, and so I did have to do some walking.
Speaker 3:You know, there was some jogging going on, and that would have been in November of, um well, that was, that was August.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that would have been August. That that's right.
Speaker 3:And so I had to walk some and I never really considered myself a runner. But I can't say that anymore, Cause I can now do a whole 5k without walking which that was the goal when we did the Martin Luther King race. But anyway, we'll get to that one in a minute. But the first one I did was was the rallying for Roger and I'd never experienced. Now this is. I hope I don't get emotional, but I don't really care if I do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't either.
Speaker 3:I'd never done an athletic event. I did martial arts and I'd been cheered for. But that was when I was like 15, 16 years old. Right, you get cheered for a lot when you're 15 to 16, but when you're 44 years old, you don't. You don't get cheered for a lot you don't?
Speaker 3:you don't have people going. Yay, you know, yeah, cheering for you, and and so, anyway, during that run I got down there and I'm coming back, and I find out that jude finds out that, uh, I'm not back yet, so he goes to find me, and so they're cheering for me down here at the corner yeah, and runs back with me.
Speaker 3:and then when I cross the finish line, people're cheering for me down here at the corner and runs back with me. And then when I cross the finish line, people are cheering for me and I never really like like that's addictive. Like you want more of that, because you don't give yourself a whole lot of credit in life, and when somebody cheers for you it's a big deal. I recommend highly that, if you've never done a run, go do something where your family are there. They're expecting you to try hard and they'll cheer for you.
Speaker 3:Whether you PR or not, who cares?
Speaker 1:Yes, but go do it Anyway.
Speaker 3:so I started doing the running up in the mountain, and then my goal was to do November.
Speaker 1:What was your time at?
Speaker 3:42.
Speaker 1:Okay, so your first one was a 40.
Speaker 3:Well, it's 41, 50 something so it's right around 42 minute, uh 5k okay and um.
Speaker 3:and another reason which I'll mention this real quick about this journey is my best friend, josh, got in a car wreck and he almost lost his life. You know he almost didn't make it and, speaking of him, he's having another leg surgery Tuesday to hopefully repair where they tried to fix it the first time with a rod. They're going to have to do a different size rod maybe or something in his leg. But when he went down like that I was like, okay, I might have to carry the guy, I might have to help him.
Speaker 1:And I was not physically able to do that. Can you pause for one second? Yeah, so concerning Josh too, josh ran our very first 5K here, ran. It did an awesome job, yep. Less than a year later, at our run for Roger which would have so that was in November of 23 was our first race. Then, by August of 24, josh was at our race again, but he was in a wheelchair. Yep. With a halo and everything our race again, but he was in a wheelchair.
Speaker 1:Yeah, with a halo and everything I can't even believe that he was even there in that condition, but he, he wanted to be there, so so bad for the cause and he's, he's a very strong and he's a strong person.
Speaker 3:He'd broken his neck and uh in a way that is um. The mortality rate for that particular break is almost 100 through the roof people don't live to and and I've always thought of him as a very athletic guy and he is he still is, um, and and I really believe that's why the lord kept him here is because the lord, you know, gave him the ability to go through that.
Speaker 3:We don't know why, and he probably wonders why too, but when that happened I was like, okay, I'm going to have to step up and be what I can be, and I don't want to, you know, be a burden to my family and I'm having to witness one of the strongest people I know having to go through that anyway.
Speaker 3:So that was a little bit of a motivation too. So, in the running process of knowing that my best friend's not able to run the next one, so I'm going to run it. And I ran it with several of his family members, yes, and he wound up walking the one mile. I believe it was that one right? Yes, he went ahead and walked.
Speaker 1:So in August he was in a wheelchair.
Speaker 2:Then you go September.
Speaker 1:October, november by November. That was our next Thankful Four race.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:And Josh walked.
Speaker 3:Walked the one mile Walked the one mile.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and you know everyone's journey like this you know you were talking about the. I guess it's a high when people are cheering you on yeah, that you don't normally experience that in most phases of your life. It's because I think that everyone that's there understands what you just put your body through, yeah, no matter what your journey is, or where you're at in your running journey. I think everyone understands and they know that it might not be hard for them right then to do what you did, but they know how hard it was for them when they were in your position.
Speaker 1:Well, I think the person that comes through let's say that the first person that comes through has a 17 or 18-minute 5K time they're going to feel the same way as someone that comes through that at a 50-minute pace. Because if you're giving it your all, then you're all going to feel the same at the end of the race, and so that's why you have such a mutual respect for one another, no matter what your time was. So, caleb, from running it in august to running in november, what was the change?
Speaker 3:okay, august to november. So you're asking from the first one to the second one yes, okay by the second one, did you?
Speaker 1:start training differently in between?
Speaker 3:Yes, I stayed more consistent and my goal was to run closer to 10 miles a week. Okay, but what I'm doing right now, what I did the last couple weeks, is way more Like.
Speaker 1:I can do way more, yep.
Speaker 3:It's almost like you don't have an excuse anymore. You can do this. And I've run through the cold and I heard one of y'all's most recent one talking about running through the winter. Yes, and the cold. And I heard y'all on the one of y'all's most recent one talking about running through the winter. Yes, and like I didn't know that that was not a thing. Yeah, because I've been. I didn't even worry about the winter. I've ran in at 20 degrees and I had ice pellets on my mustache.
Speaker 1:Yeah, from my breath.
Speaker 3:A lot of people start going treadmill, running in the well, I tried that it's not for me listen either um, we went on a and I was wanting to run and it was raining outside and I went to the gym over there and got on a treadmill and I found it had a fan on it. If I wouldn't have found that I would have fainted it was. I don't like it.
Speaker 1:I think it's harder too. It is, it's a mental game, but the speed that it has you running like I'll be running a 10 minute pace on a treadmill and I'll feel like I'm dying yes I'm like what is this? So treadmill training.
Speaker 3:If you do that all the time, kudos to you man, josh's wife runs on the treadmill and I, and I'm like candace, I don't know how you're doing that. Yeah, hey, a real quick one.
Speaker 2:I just saw the other day that the world record for the longest treadmill run I saw that was it a 48 hour or 48 hours, the most mileage ever ran and it was ridiculous. I can't remember what it was like 250 or something like that.
Speaker 1:It was a woman that ran straight 48 hours on that Straight 48 hours on a treadmill that was crazy. That's great. I don't know, I know.
Speaker 2:I didn't even stop to either.
Speaker 3:But anyway they say the treadmill, that uh candace says something about. Well, you can just watch tv. I'm like that's not why I'm doing it like I want to go outside. Yes, okay, but back to your training, sorry. So the first 5k I did was the first 5k I ever ran. Yes, so it's not, not even in training. Never ran 30.1 miles ever right and, uh, I remember my legs.
Speaker 1:They were just, they were dead and I gave it all I had and it was around you.
Speaker 3:You know the 42 mark.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 3:I'm like okay, so let's beat 40. Like I have these goals, like what's the next thing to beat? Next thing to beat? So, the one in November. My goal was to beat 40. And I did. I think I got 38-something.
Speaker 1:That's a huge improvement in a few months.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but let's go back to the cheering, because, again, when your family is all there cheering for you, coming across the finish line that is fantastic, so sign up and run a race. I promise you'll do it.
Speaker 1:I will say this too, because when I ran my first half marathon, it was on a Sunday, and we try not to do races on Sunday because that's the Lord's Day, so it was going to be early enough. I knew I could run it and go straight to church. I was like I don't care if I'm a sweaty mess, I'm going to church, you know, but anyway. So my fan like you were not able to be there. Elle wasn't, Jude was running the race, so we didn't have anybody there to cheer us, and so like.
Speaker 1:I'm running and like I don't even know what mile I was out like maybe six or seven miles and I hear my name shouted out go holly and I was like who was it? And it was jude's barber.
Speaker 1:Yes, because his wife was running and they got the full marathon, so he happened to be there and I was like just that one person oh my god, hey they saw you and everything and I was, and all I could think about was jude was ahead of I was like. I bet he saw Jude and I know he said Jude's name. So, drew, if you're listening like that was a good, that was a good pig me up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's good and then. So my next goal was to not have to walk any.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:So I did a lot of runs and I'd learned that go ahead and run more than a 5K, even if you have to walk yes, yes because what ultimately winds up happening is you condition yourself in a way that you can continue to run a little bit longer, maybe the next time.
Speaker 3:And another mentality thing I learned was, instead of, uh, running as hard as you can and then having to walk so so you can run again, instead of doing that, I learned that it's easier for you just to say I'm going to walk so I can run again. Instead of I'm going to run until I have to walk Because the negative mentality of oh my gosh, I just ran as far as I could and now I have to walk.
Speaker 1:Instead of doing that, I'm like.
Speaker 3:I'm going to run.
Speaker 1:And you know what.
Speaker 3:When I feel like walking, I'll just walk a minute and then I'm going to run harder. So it was like a different thing for me, like I would walk and then I would run, but it was the same amount of walking and running, I'm sure. But, it was like a switch went off in my head where it's okay to do that.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:You don't always get to do everything in the same speed or in the same time, and it's a little frustrating, but my goal was to be able to run in the one we did for Martin Luther King, the Martin. Luther King Jr run, which, by the way, if you want to go do a fun run, that's fantastic.
Speaker 1:It was great.
Speaker 3:Look, you're getting cheered on by people you don't know. Yes, and they cheer really well. And there's like drums, and there's drums playing Drum lines throughout the whole thing. I felt like I was running and there was a rock, like I was in a Rocky movie saying dun-da-da-dun-da-da-dun-da-da-dun yes it was fantastic and there were so many different styles too. There was that African like tribal. They had the African drum type things.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I'm saying that, right, yeah, yeah, it was really cool.
Speaker 2:They had like b.
Speaker 3:At that run you were able to do really long turns and then turn down that way instead of just long stretches.
Speaker 1:Except for the end.
Speaker 3:Except for the end. That one got me. I turned at the end and I was like, okay, I'm going to crank this thing because I ran that whole time and I could see the finish line.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, it feels like it's getting further, doesn't it?
Speaker 3:It was a little further than I predicted, so I kind of gassed myself a little bit at the end before I got to the end.
Speaker 1:So what was your time then?
Speaker 3:Oh goodness, I'm wanting to say that I was 35-something Wow.
Speaker 1:Wow, so think about that From. August to January, you went from 42 to 35. Guys, that's amazing, yep.
Speaker 3:And then the one we just did. I broke 35.
Speaker 1:So I'm 33 right now yeah, because we just ran another one. Yeah, so I think it's so.
Speaker 3:When I ran the half marathon last weekend, caleb and Jude ran the 5k and her explaining in the last podcast about her, uh, being a little bit mad. Uh, she, she was still godly Christian I was. She was angry and sinned and sinned. But she did not want a water bottle from Jude and Jude was just trying to be nice, he was. For a teenager that's a stretch, because it's hard for them to be nice to their parents sometimes, because I'm around them all the time.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to kind of hit pause on this conversation, because the reason why I really wanted to bring you with us was because of your health data, your information on that, but I wanted to. Also, we thought of a scripture right before we started, um, talking and it was from hebrews 12 1. And I was just thinking about this while you were talking about being cheered on and the people who are witnessing you in your journey and thing like that, and it really tied in even more to the scripture that we were thinking about. But it's hebrews 12 1. It says, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, so there's so much around us that is witnessing our journey, whether it's spiritual, physical witnesses in this world.
Speaker 2:Let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with perseverance many weights that we carry with us in our lives, whether it was emotional, spiritual baggage from our past, or whether it's an addiction to food or to laziness or slothfulness currently, or whether it's the relationships that we have with either people in our lives that could be holding us back or situations that we come up with excuses very easily to not do something you know and you've had to lay aside a lot of those weights very consistently for a while now to get where you are and I want you to just kind of explain a little bit about how your numbers have improved from your previous years to now.
Speaker 2:that the reason why you actually wanted to share that with me earlier.
Speaker 3:Well, I had good cholesterol and you know they they say that that's a good, you know, indicator of your health is you know how thick that your arteries are and how you're able to transfer blood through your body. And I totally agree that if your cholesterol is not good, you probably don't feel great. And I've not had good cholesterol numbers.
Speaker 3:I've always been, you know, 10 to 15, some odd, maybe even 20 points above the bad and below on the good, and there's good cholesterol, bad cholesterol yes and I've always tested bad, like I'm talking about always, like they've sent me numerous times and I'm probably I was really close to having to go on cholesterol medicine and um, but anyway, this last time they checked me, which they do say, yeah, diet and exercise. They just throw those things out there, diet and exercise. Well, they don't tell you what diet to do, they don't tell you what exercise to do, but I think anything's better than nothing.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:And what I've been doing with dieting and what I also have been doing with exercising has helped me a ton. My good cholesterol was never in a good range like never, and it's way above what it should be. I think it's like 67, something like that. And then my bad cholesterol HDL, I guess it was, or LDL. No, HDL's bad, LDL's good, I think.
Speaker 1:Whichever the.
Speaker 3:HDL was was it supposed to be brandy? Do you have it? It's supposed to be 199 or less. 199 or less, and mine was what was it one?
Speaker 1:181 181.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it was 181, but it's been in the 200 somethings like forever yes forever and uh the health.
Speaker 1:You've never seen that number, oh no no, no, no, never, never, ever.
Speaker 3:And it was so good that the triglycerides, which is a measure, that kind of averages all of it kind of together, it there wasn't enough there for it to actually even give me a data reading like there was. There was no triglyceride reading, supposed to be 150 or less, it's been 222, wow, and it did not even read wow so in one year's time, and so that's the thing.
Speaker 3:Like y'all mentioned, like to get started. I'm very hard-headed, I, but I do need motivation, just like that guy that was cheering for you on the on the thing yes but you'll also have people that kind of doubt you and they're like, oh well, you know you're 220 pounds now and you're still claiming that you can run and I'm like, well, yeah, I kind of can look if you can.
Speaker 2:That's if you can run a 100 meter dash or you can run a 50 mile ultra marathon.
Speaker 3:You're a runner yeah, if you intentionally do it and it's a part of your life I mean it's such a joke that I I would be like I have a shirt for uh for um fourth of july that says fireworks expert. If I run, you run yes like yeah yeah and and and I've. I've always just claimed that if I'm running you need to be very afraid because, something is very dangerous yes right, like that is Right. I'm running away from something dangerous.
Speaker 1:If you see me running, you know a lot of people will say if you tell them that you run, they'll always and I know you've probably had people say this to you well, if I'm running it's because something's chasing me.
Speaker 3:Chasing me.
Speaker 1:That's the only time you're going to see me run. But I always come back and say if someone's chasing you, you're probably not going to be able to run, they're probably going to catch you like running is actually a great self-defense mechanism of course, yeah, and and and the sprint.
Speaker 3:Because, like, you're going to do hardcore sprinting but you cannot, if you can't run consistently, you certainly aren't going to be able to sprint yes and sprinting kind of hurts my ankles a little bit, so I've tried to kind of keep that low key and, um, just stay consistent with the jogging, fast jogging, Um, but I'd like to beat 30 next. You know that that's, I'd like to be sub 30 and that's, and that'd be cool.
Speaker 2:And that's definitely a goal. That definitely is a wonderful goal to shoot for and we look forward to be able to see that happen, you know.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 2:I'm 100% super proud of you and your journey.
Speaker 1:I think we really wanted Caleb to be able to share that, to show that he's put in the work, like for a solid year and you really weren't even exercising for the solid year? No, not, not really, not solidly, but that.
Speaker 1:So the eating was extremely important in there and then he started like exercising to to build his muscle, to build strength, to build cardiovascular, you know, health and energy. Um, and so when he started doing these things, and then you take, you do these health tests and it shows such vast improvements, guys, what we want you to see is that this consistency which we talked about in the first episode or in another episode we talked about just starting and obviously you haven't quit. All these episodes are coming together, guys. The proof is in the pudding. Look at the numbers.
Speaker 3:Look at what's showing. I don't even have to like get out of breath when I'm doing the run. It's so weird to me Like used to, when I would first start running, I'd have to time my breaths to every second or third step and it was very labored, very concentrated, very focused to not get out of breath. The stitches in my side not had any one of them. Probably, being 50 pounds lighter is helpful, yeah for sure.
Speaker 2:Now, if someone was to look at you like never met you before, like obviously, like I look at you and like I can still tell like you have extra weight on you.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But knowing, like your journey and knowing where you are now compared to where you used to be, but knowing like your journey and knowing where you are now compared to where you used to be. Like if someone is your weight and not doing anything, you're a hundred times more fitter than they are because you are your weight and you are doing something.
Speaker 2:You know like you are advancing your physical fitness and you know I was just thinking. You know. You know we've been in church, we grew up in church our whole life. You know, like when the doors were open we were there. And I think about where I am now, just in this last year of consistently intentionally reading the Bible and intentionally trying to grow with what we've been doing with our Bible study me and Holly, and being able to talk and communicate and really grow in that. Seeing growth in that is just as important. And same thing with like intentionally on your education, with teaching your students. You're intentionally doing things to grow your ability to be able to teach them. I know you just recently started taking back. Is it your master's?
Speaker 3:Master's.
Speaker 2:It's your master's classes and that's been a struggle already because it's added to your workload.
Speaker 3:It's added.
Speaker 2:And you shared with that like, oh man, I'm having to do this. But then there's also some exciting things that you're learning. Yeah, that journey also, that you're like this is really cool, this is really neat, and you're being inspired in different ways. So, when it comes to every area of your life, just because someone's from the outside looking on, looking in, and they take an immediate snapshot of who they think you are, where they think you are, that does not actually determine what's going on in your life or who you are.
Speaker 2:You are the only one that knows where you're at on your journey.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, and when you have people that recognize you as where you are on your journey and they celebrate with you, that's huge and that should give me motivation to not only think about when people are celebrating with me, but what am I doing to celebrate with them.
Speaker 3:What am I doing to?
Speaker 2:make it not about myself and what. I'm doing but to externalize those vocal, vocalize those thoughts when you see someone who is winning in some aspect, whether it be their fitness or their finances, or their business, or their school or education or their relationship with God. Whatever it is. What am I doing to make it not about me? Yeah, and that's just as important as putting yourself in a position to receive those cheering on. Yeah, but I really do. I cheer you on, brother, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3:I I don't and I still don't believe like, I still don't feel like deserved of any kudos, because for one I'm hard on myself I should have not been in the position that I was in. I should not have been. But you can't dwell on that so. So if you're thinking about, like, maybe doing something better for yourself, you can't dwell on where you're at now. You do need to acknowledge where you're at, because then you can set goals that are reasonable and attainable. Me running a marathon next week probably isn't going to happen.
Speaker 1:It's not an attainable goal.
Speaker 3:No, it's not Not for me right now, but it might be one day.
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 3:I don't know, I don't know. The thing is, you have to forgive yourself. I guess I think that's why the scripture says lay aside every weight and the sin. So yes, we need to not sin, but we carry so much baggage, we're very hard on ourselves. We never, hardly ever, will forgive ourselves. We'll easily say we're sorry to somebody. I don't have any problem saying I'm sorry, I've not always been the best brother. I haven't. It's not hard for me to say that. But it's really hard for me to forgive myself.
Speaker 1:We have to have grace.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and and it's easier for y'all to forgive me than it is for me to forgive myself, and so, like, like the cheering thing, who? Who are we building up? Who are we making? Who are we enlightening who? Uh, because what the lord did for us, like we don't have, like what we have to offer. A lot of people say and I mentioned this in sunday school class this morning we say, well, I'm only human. Well, that's a lie, it's not true.
Speaker 3:You're not only human, no, you're made to be more yeah, and if you're not ever pouring back into somebody and giving them, uh, you know what the lord gave you, then what's the point? You know, uh, how, how can you really help somebody if you're not you know? Um, you have to actually put some effort into it for one, and you can't really be a blessing or helpful to anybody if you're not in a position where you can help them. And that's what Dave Ramsey says, and I'm not going to go off on that. But I tell my kids, like you cannot help somebody, you can't help your parents, you can't help your family If you're in a financial bind in such a way that you're living from paycheck to paycheck. You can't help anybody with their power bill. And the Lord didn't put us here for just us.
Speaker 3:He put us here for other people.
Speaker 1:That's true.
Speaker 3:And so you get a lot more fulfillment out of cheering for somebody else at a finishing line than just finishing yourself. Yes, but we still got to finish the race Right. But let's cheer each other on support each other.
Speaker 1:I would like to add to this conversation, too, just a little bit of when we're talking about the consistency of what Caleb did and it's hard work consistently. But when you are trying to achieve something like this, whether it's losing weight or becoming more physically fit, we think that we have to go so hard all the time, and being consistent doesn't mean going hard. So, for instance, Caleb, like how important is the rest?
Speaker 1:Oh, yes, and honestly, guys, we probably are going to have a whole episode just on this topic, because it's something that I wrestle with a great deal, because I feel like if I rest, then that means I'm quitting.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, or I'm quitting, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Or I'm not continuing the journey. But I know this last half marathon. It knocked me off of my feet.
Speaker 3:You got to rest.
Speaker 1:I don't know what it was, but this one was just extremely hard. It really took it out of me, and so I only ran one day this week. That's the least amount that I have ever ran in, I would say in a year's time, and I was beating myself up over it. But my body physically just couldn't handle doing much more than that. So I want you to just kind of tell your journey in that too, of incorporating rest and all of that.
Speaker 3:Okay, so we mentioned about getting sore and things of that nature. Okay so, so we mentioned about getting sore and things of that nature. Um, and of course, if you don't have enough, you know, oxygen to push that acid out of your muscles, like you're going to wind up having a lot of soreness. So breathing is a big deal. If you people that do a lot of weightlifting, you'll hear them breathing very heavily and again their oxygen is pushing their the, the little acids, whatever they're called I can't remember what they're called, I'm not a science teacher but out of your muscles and your body can absorb them easier. Well, you don't ever quit being sore. Your body just handles that particular soreness in a certain way. Well, if your muscles are just wore out and you don't ever rest, yes, you might prevent yourself from having soreness, but you can actually deplete your your muscles too, like they'll become weaker.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:And um so when I would run really heavy or really hard, uh, I had to give myself a day or two to recover from that, but it's equally important to do recovery exercises. That would keep you flexible, keep you, keep you, you lubed up. I guess you could say yeah and that first half mile, or whatever, of every race I do is torture. It's, it's, it's hard, but it's not because I'm hurting myself, but it's because I'm like, I guess, shedding away the, the, the tightness that's already there and um, it's really good for you to do like recovery exercises and stretches and things of that nature, especially especially after you've used yourself.
Speaker 3:And then also we have seven days in a week and we have a day of rest, which we're meeting today, on Sunday, and I've had a very restful day. I was able to catch up on not necessarily sleep, but just time with my family and just breathe. And if you don't do that, it's not good.
Speaker 1:you cannot, you know, work out every single day and benefit, because your muscles won't ever have time to heal yes um I think I just wanted to say all that to encourage you guys that you don't have to go hard seven days a week. Being consistent means, yes, you are consistently, it is part of your life. You are doing it a majority of the week, but also rest is equally important in there. And I think that that's what's led to you having such great results. Yeah, and I'm just, I'm really. Do you have anything else that you want to add?
Speaker 3:No, I'm just glad that Calvin called me at five 30 in the morning.
Speaker 2:So a couple of quick questions before we go.
Speaker 3:All right.
Speaker 2:What's a you wear? You wear earbuds when you run sometimes. What's your favorite thing to listen to when you run?
Speaker 3:Okay, so there's this, there's. There's this really happy peppy band from uh canada that I started listening to, called walk off the earth okay, and it's they're really, really upbeat. It's kind of like rend collective type style music um and uh they, they're.
Speaker 3:The rhythm's not overly fast, but it's certainly not slow. And um, there's commercials that play, and what I told jude was is I'm gonna start sprinting during the commercials to kind of do some intermittent training. So when ads come on, they're like 30 seconds long, something like that. So I would try to run a little harder during that time and then pace myself back down after it. That's great, so I do that.
Speaker 2:Okay, and then, what's your favorite after-race drink? Well, with your intermittent fasting, I'm sure it's a drink, not food. So what's your favorite after-race drink? Well, with your intermittent fasting, I'm sure it's a drink, not food. So what's your favorite after-race, after-run, after-workout?
Speaker 3:I tend to like if it's kind of cold and yuck outside, I'll do like a peppermint tea. I like that. And then, of course, if it's a morning run, the very next thing I'm doing is making my coffee for going to school. And if it's an afternoon run, I try to run before I eat, because running after you've eaten is not the most fun at all, unless you eat a little bit. And then you run, then you eat a little bit more in my two-hour window.
Speaker 3:That's okay too, but um, I don't depend on the. I think that my body has plenty of fuel yes I don't, I don't need like a bunch of little packs of something to kind of keep myself going. My body has the fuel in it.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:My body needs to learn how to use that fuel. But at the same time, I think if I was in a marathon or something like that, I'd probably need a little something to keep me going.
Speaker 2:Last question yeah, worst moment of your training Fall trip slip, something I'm going to say this and probably fall, but I have yet to fall.
Speaker 3:Okay, I have yet to fall. I praise God for that, because I think it would hurt. I think probably the worst thing. Well, I don't know, I really don't have anything bad. That's happened. I've been chased by a few dogs, but if you just ignore them, they don't know. I really don't have anything bad that's happened. I've been chased by a few dogs, but if you just ignore them. They leave you alone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've got some dog stories. We could probably do a podcast on all the terrible things that have happened in our lives.
Speaker 3:I have run up on a few deer apparently.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, which is kind of cool yeah.
Speaker 3:You'll see some deer. That's cool. Yeah, um, that's always fun. At one time I was running, it was so cold I spit on the ground and when I turned around, came back, I curiously reached down to see if it froze yet. And it had that that was a very cold cold run.
Speaker 2:You're not touching someone else's spit it.
Speaker 3:I guess it was mine. I'm pretty sure it was mine.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, Caleb, thank you for coming on with us, and we know that we'll probably have you back to cover other topics. Sure and definitely have Brandy on here as well, she's way more entertaining than us.
Speaker 1:I already have some ideas up my sleeve and we've already contacted some other people that are going to be on here. We're probably going to try to have a guest sharing their running or faith testimony at least once a month. We're going to try that and hey, if you feel a leading that you want to share your testimony, message us. You can reach out to us on our social media, you can message us that way. I guess that's probably the best way to reach us.
Speaker 1:We have a Facebook and Instagram of Running on Coffee and Christ. We have that page, and you can also reach out to us on our personal pages or on our sharecroppers page. We have a lot of pages that we have to manage, but we are once again so thankful that you joined us on this episode five and we can't wait to see you next time. So remember that we hope that the Lord blesses you, keeps you and makes his face shine upon you. We love you.