The Power of Walking: Frank Ring’s Cancer Recovery Journey w/ Josh Hewlett

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Can Simple Daily Walks Transform Your Health?

In this episode of Pulse Beat, host Josh Hewlett sits down with educator and fitness coach Frank Ring to share his powerful journey of overcoming prostate cancer—and why walking became a cornerstone of his recovery. Frank explains how consistent movement supports both physical strength and mental clarity during treatment, and how men can take control of their health through simple, daily habits.
Frank also introduces his Strong Program, a holistic framework focused on mindset, training, nutrition, rest, and mental navigation for recovery. From PSA awareness to building resilience during difficult seasons, this conversation highlights the importance of consistency, community, and proactive health choices for long-term wellness.
Whether you’re supporting a loved one, navigating your own health challenges, or simply looking to stay strong as you age, this episode offers practical insights and real encouragement.

00:00 Introduction to Frank Ring and His Journey
07:09 The Power of Walking for Health
12:48 Navigating Prostate Cancer: Frank's Experience
18:17 Signs and Prevention of Prostate Issues
25:54 The Strong Program: A New Approach to Recovery
39:18 The Importance of Consistency in Health
42:00 Final Thoughts and Call to Action

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Alright, thank you everybody so much for joining us here today on the Pulse Beat, sponsored by Cardio Miracle. We are so excited to have our guests today. I'm gonna go ahead and introduce him. Today's guest is Frank Ring, an educator, author, fitness coach, and mindset mentor who's dedicated his life to helping people move better, feel stronger, and live healthier through the power of walking. After overcoming serious back injuries and later prostate cancer diagnosis, Frank turned to personal setbacks and to purpose. He developed a strong through prostate cancer method to help men stay physically and mentally strong during treatment and rebuild confidence afterwards. Frank is the founder of Walking for Health and Fitness and the author of several best-selling books, including Walking for Health and Fitness and Fitness Walking and Bodyweight Exercises. His work has inspired thousands to make movements simple, sustainable, and enjoyable. He's also known for completing an incredible 11,285-mile virtual walk through the entire perimeter of the United States, proving that consistency truly changes lives. Through his podcast, coaching, and programs, Frank shows that walking is more than exercise. It's a gateway to clarity, confidence, and lifelong wellness. Please welcome Frank Ring. How are you doing today, Frank?

SPEAKER_01 1:44

I'm well, I'm great, Josh. I think we can stop the interview right there. That was I thank you for that introduction. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Yeah, it's like we just cut it. No, it'd be great. No, man. Frank, I'm so excited to have you, man, because I myself, I didn't even tell you this off-air, but I've lost 200 pounds through walking, man. I mean, I walk like, I mean, it's nothing like 11,000, but I do, I do 9,000, I did 9,625,000 or 9,625,000 steps last year, actually. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Yeah. Awesome. Fantastic. Yeah, it's it's great for losing weight. It's just, it's the consistency and what you said in the introduction that is so vital for us to keep our bodies moving day after day. And it doesn't, you don't have to walk around the perimeter of the United States, but if you every day get out for just to get into the habit of just a walk after a meal, after lunch, uh after dinner, after breakfast, those steps add up. Uh even the steps you walk around your house to do housework, they add up. It's just movement in in general that keeps that keeps the body fit.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

I'll tell you what, I I get on my um, you know, I put on my headphones and do calls every day. And um I've I've just told all my all the contractors that I work with and the people that I work with in general, I'm like, hey, if you're not okay with cars passing me and you know, things happening outside and the elements, like we, you know, we're gonna have to get used to it because I'm always walking, I'm always pacing. You know, yesterday I got 32,000 steps, so I was just a pacer, man. So just really cool.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Uh I'll tell you an interesting story. So I'm a high school teacher. In the morning, I'd get down before school and I'd walk laps around my track. That's what I did. Every so many people, uh colleagues who saw me would say, Wow, that's great. I should come join you. No one ever joined me. No one, no one ever joined me. So I'm in my class one day, and the guidance counselor comes down, my friend Nelson, and uh he had just he started, he'd probably been there about a year. And he said, Hey, uh, I hear you're the walking guy. Tell me about it. So I tell him what I do. I've written the books and this and that. He says, I need to lose weight. So at the time he was getting into his mid-30s, he said, I always used to go out to the track and do sprints because he was a sprinter in high school. He said, now I find I'm getting hurt all the time. And I said, okay, just start walking. Forget about the, you know, forget about the hard effort. I mean, we're always taught no pain, no gain. As we get older, that doesn't make sense. It's just crazy. And um, so that's what he started doing. Start, and I would see him in the home. I'm like, you're starting to lose weight. I could see it. Calls me up to his office one day, and under his desk, he had one of those uh treadmills, one of those little standing treadmills, totally hooked on, and he's he's but maintained the weight loss and he looks in great shape, and he's been injury-free. So it there's a huge power to walking, and especially as really as early as our early 30s, uh, you know, the hard workouts have their place, but as we get older, I I've been hurt so many times from doing everything but walking. So that's why I got into walking, you know, with the back injury that had happened.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Yeah, yeah. And a couple of my podcasts, I tell I I tell people that that a lot of people sleep on walking because it's, you know, I was 480 pounds, and in 2021, I decided I was um decided that I I took a walk of shame, is what I call it. So I was going to get a CPAP test, and um the clinic couldn't read my weight, so I had to walk across the street to weigh myself on a pallet scale um at a warehouse. And I'm like, I got I gotta do something. And then during my CPAP test, the nurse came in four times to turn up the oxygen. He's like, You're still dipping below 40% oxygen. So he's like, I thought you were gonna die in my table, man. He's like, you need to do something about this way. So I started walking, just walking, because my knees, you know, high school football injuries and college football injuries, and and I used to be a strongman competitor, so I'd lift cars and flip telephone poles and just let it get out of hand. But I'm telling you what, walking has been such a therapeutic thing for me. So I I know that's not really what you're focusing on these days, but I just love that you have you're so accomplished.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

That's actually that is a huge part of what it is all encompassing with what with what I'm focusing on now with the prostate cancer treatment. But the the walking, you said it right there. You really at that point you couldn't do anything else, right? And it came down, and think of all the injuries you had doing those other sports. And when we're younger, because that's what we do, you know, we'll run through a wall to compete. Uh, but um, I was a cross-country coach for years. And uh one of the coaches on another team, I I didn't know him well, but he was a before he became that cross-country coach, he was a very successful football coach. And then as he got older, he gave that up, went over to cross-country, and he was a runner. He had started running himself, and he said, I always taught my guys, like, you know, football, no pain, no gain. He said, now that I'm running, he goes, I realize how foolish that is because I'm in pain all the time. So, you know, it's it, I think the earlier we should all start walking, the better. The better, the better off our health will be.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

For sure, man, for sure. And so what can you kind of explain what you're focusing on these days with prostate?

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Sure, sure. So um I was diagnosed last um March, March of 2025, uh, prostate cancer. Um, I my course of treatment I decided on was to do uh ADT, androgen deprivation therapy, which cuts your testosterone, stops the cancer, tumor, stops the tumors from growing, and then after they stabilize you there, you do radiation. I did 28 treatments of radiation. So as I researched it, I realized like I looked at the radiation, I didn't think it would be the radiation part didn't worry me at all. They'd been doing it for years, they had it really down. What worried me was the ADT, what that was going to do to my body. Weight gain, muscle loss. Think about it, you have no testosterone. And so I said, okay, I had a game plan going into treatment. My ADT shot was May 28th. May 27th, I was at my field, my track at high school. I did my usual uh four laps before school, but I'd stopped every half lap to do push-ups. So I said, all right, let me have a baseline going into this. And I was doing uh eight sets of 50, so 400 push-ups. And what I was worried about with the ADT was the loss of muscle and all of this. And so I get the shot, and immediately I felt, and then I had written out exactly what I was going to do each day. As far as not like day by day, but I want to focus on my fitness, nutrition, I want to focus on my mindset. And I'm telling you, within like two weeks, that whole plan just went out the window because of how just how I just felt off. It's the only way I can explain it. And anything I did physically, even walking up my driveway, I my body would get this, I only call it a buzz. Uh, if you've ever worked out really hard, let's say you had to do yard work one day, and you know, you how many people, you know, we don't really do yard work all the time. So you get out for that big spring cleanup, and the end of the day, your body feels buzzing. I mean, I felt like that just walking up the driveway. So something had changed dramatically. And um I call it and what I realized, I called it the fog of war, in that there are so many things that I knew were good for me, and I just couldn't put it together. Uh it was really strange. Like some days I'd get out and walk, and other days I'm like, I just don't, I just don't have it. And I'd get down on myself. I just wasn't really feeling good. Started putting the weight on because now I'm not walking as much. I had never really been someone who had a huge appetite. Uh to me, food was just, all right, I just need to eat to sustain myself. Now all of a sudden, I was like, I couldn't stop eating. So it had really made a huge uh change in my body. Um, I got through the radiation treatments by the end of October. So that ADT was in my system for about five. Well, it's technically still in my system, but that five months, I came early on, I came to the realization that, you know what, I had this plan, I don't know what the hell is going on. I'm just going to get through this. Let me get through it when I'm done with the treatments, then I'll deal with the consequences of what I've gone through. So I got through the uh radiation. Uh first two weeks, I same thing. I just wasn't feeling right. The only way I can put it. Um, my girlfriend suggests we join a yoga studio. And I'm like, you know what? I think I need that. Maybe just some breathing. And, you know, I thought yoga was more of like ohm and a little stretching, but we were doing some fitness yoga, so it really taxed me. And I realized that that was what I needed, that that had helped me to start to feel better. The stretching, the breathing, the consistency. We we were going about five times a week. And then I was out on a walk and I thought, you know, I went through this thing. I'm going, I'm still, you know, the symptoms of it and and the uh the effects of it are still on my system. What would I do differently now that I I'm starting to feel better? I can think a little bit more clearly. And I just started making notes every few days of like, hey, if I had to do this again, I would do this, I would do this, I would do this. And as I started to look at what I had, I'm like, you know, maybe some other men, maybe other men need this. Because when I was uh in my doctor's office when the ADT started and then the radiation started, I was given a sheet of paper. Hey, here's some diet suggestions, and um, you know, here's some exercise suggestions. That's it. And I realized looking back that um my medical team, awesome, they were on top of everything. They really knew what they were doing. And they treated the disease. Uh, right now my blood work came back, my PSA level is less than 0.1. So they did their job as far as curing my cancer. But there was a lot of the mindset stuff that was just not there. There was no, and you know, they would they suggested, I didn't even suggest joining uh a support group. It was just like, here, you know, here's here's this piece of paper. Diet and you know, do some exercise. So I thought, you know, I could probably do a much better job helping men go who are going through this themselves. And so that's what I've been focusing on now.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

That's amazing. I love it. And and what what are the what are some of the biggest like I guess I don't know, I don't want to say like red flags, but what are some of the biggest signs to like someone with the with the whole prostate issue?

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Um, okay. So all right, pro so prior to the diagnosis, some of the signs are, you know, uh uh frequent urination. That that's caused by the uh BPH uh in large prostate. There is some sexual issues come up. But basically what men should do if if and any man listening to this, get your PSA level checked. Go to the physical get a physical exam, you get your blood work done, have them do a PSA test, because that's the first indicator that you can you can track that year by year, and that's what I did. So I my first PSA level was probably like 1.0. My dad had prostate cancer, so I was checking my PSA from when I was in my 40s. Oh, okay. And slowly, you know, and every year it came back good, came back good, came back good. Mid-50s, all of a sudden it started jumping up. Oh, it went up a little bit. Okay, no worries yet. It went up a little bit next year, no worries yet, went up a little bit. Hmm, we should look at this. I think it was at like a 3.2, and then it just every year, and then I'd say, hey, I'm under a lot of stress, what's going on in my life? I'll watch my diet, I'll exercise more, and it would come down. So I was able to, you know, kind of keep it under control. At least that's how I felt. And then finally it got to the point where it went up, and then the following year it went up, and my doctor said, Look, let's just do an MRI, let's see what's going on. So they did the MRI, and then he said, Hey, let's schedule a biopsy, we see something. So, you know, when you get to biopsy, if they're scheduling a biopsy, there's most likely something happening. Pretty much.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

And and the crazy, so here's what happened with the crazy story of this is so I get the biopsy. A week later, I happen to be in my general doctor's office for a physical. And I said, hmm, I didn't hear from my doctor yet. Let me just check the portal. Maybe I missed something. And sure enough, it's there. And there it is. There's the the the word, there's cancer. And I am like sitting there in the waiting room, kind of like freaking out. So what do I do? I put it into Chat GPT. Hey, what am I looking at here? Put the report in, amazing. And it came back, yeah, suggestions, guidelines. Um, my prostate level, the PSA was up. What the biopsy showed were called the Gleason score. And in a sense, it's not like the next level of uh diagnosis. So mine was a seven. Gleason was made up of two numbers. I had some four threes, which is worse than three fours. Three fours is a little bit better than four three. So now I'm freaking out about that. And I went into my doctor and she said, How are you? I said, I'm not good. I'm like, you know, freaking out here. I've got, you know, I've got cancer. So she looked at it and she's great, and she just went through it. She actually took my phone, looked at what Chatchi PT said, and said, uh, she just reassured me, she said, Look, you've got cancer, but you'll get it taken care of and you're gonna live a long life. And I thought, okay, I like to hear that. That's really good. But but hearing that, and then also having experienced a history of cancer, not me, but in my family, you know, it it kind of was unsettling. So um I I talk about this um that movie Brian's song. Had you ever seen that movie Brian's Song from 1971? It's it's an old okay. So there's a football player, Brian Piccolo, in the 60s. He was roommates with Gail Sayers. Now, I'm watching this movie at eight years old. I think it's a football movie, right? What it was, it was it was a social commentary because they were roommates, a black man and a white man in the 60s was a big deal.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

So at the time at eight years old, I didn't realize that. But Brian Piccolo dies of cancer. Gail Sayers gives this emotional speech, and I'm eight years old by crying my eyes out. So, like, and I'm like, what the hell's got like I had no idea, like I'm feeling this emotion for this, you know, football player. But then I thought, well, we, you know, this football players, big, strong guys, and you know, this guy's brought down by cancer. My uncle died a year later of cancer. And then, you know, as we get older, we always know somebody who has a cancer diagnosis. My mom died of pancreatic cancer. So even though she had reassured me, the reality of what of my history was, hmm, this could be really serious, you know. And so that's I think part of what threw me off. And uh going through like the fog of war, that confusion I talked about when I was in it, that's also what led like led me to, I think I could help other men get through this without that, having someone to talk to. You know, get on a call and let's you know, let's let me regulate, let's get you regulated. Walking is a big part of that. I mean, I think in every recovery program, whether it's physical, emotional recovery, we need to get the emotions down first. Walking helps do that before the recovery can start taking place or as the recovery is taking place.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

Sure. And so is there um like with this hereditary type of thing in your family, um, it are there things that you can do to prevent? Uh do you did you find any of that out?

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Yeah, so there's as far as prostate cancer, there's uh as far as prostate cancer, there's nothing you can do to prevent it. Same thing, my mom died of pancreatic cancer. So nothing healthy living is gives you a better shot. It's really it. What I've researched on prostate cancer was that nothing I did beforehand affected it. There are guys who are absolutely clean living and they develop prostate cancer. There are guys who have the worst diets and the worst diet uh habits, and they don't get prostate cancer. You know, that's a kind of a crapshoot. But as we get older, that PSA level comes up, and and they're most men will face some kind of prostate issue. But the important thing is what you do after, like what I'm doing now after prostate cancer is important. Diet, exercise, clean living. That is important for it to not reoccur.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

How long, uh how long of a process has that been for you? Has that uh how many years have you been doing that now?

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Well, uh the the the prostate cancer, my treatment just ended uh last um October. So so I'm I'm I'm really like right, I'm still feeling the effects of the ADT. I in fact next month I have an exam to see if my testosterone level has started coming up. Uh but prior to that, I mean I really did live a pretty healthy lifestyle with all the walking I did. Uh and that's what I was gonna ask. And and and I was, you know, I'm not a I'm not a big uh I've never been a big drinker. Uh dietary-wise, I mean my my weight has had been steady for years. I mean, I was in the 170s probably for 15 years. Um, you know, as soon as it got up to 175, I'd say, hey, let me cut back here, cut back there. Once I had the ADT, and my weight jumped up. I gained 17 pounds. So I went from 171, the the morning of the shot, to I would say three months later, less than three months later, I was up to 180, 188, which really like, what the hell is going on here? You know, so what my focus is with my strong program, strong through prostate cancer, is to help men avoid that, okay? Because I feel one, physically, I I felt lousy, emotionally, I felt lousy, but I've also lost time because now I'm I'm kind of gained, I'm trying to catch up again. Or I'm putting things in place now that had it had in place back in May and June when all this started, I would be so much more ahead of where I am now. You know, so it's a time factor, you know, money factor if you're working, you know, you need you need to be on top of your game. So uh that's where I'm going towards now.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

That's amazing. And uh, can you can you give us a little teaser on the whole Strong program?

SPEAKER_01 21:17

Yeah, sure. So Strong, it's an acronym because I thought I always like that. I I have an acronym for my walking, so I said, oh, let me try this again. And uh Strong came up. So it's really weird, but it's things that I just started working on. Like so the first one is S, set your mindset every morning. During uh actually, when I wrote out in my notebook prior to the shot, that was one of the things. Hey, I need to get up every morning, I need to start doing some reading for my mindset, and I didn't do it. I just did it. So after it started, that's what I started doing. First thing I did was a gratitude journal. And I had this book on my shelf for two years. And for two years, I didn't pick it up. Two days after treatment, I'm like, I Think I need to start doing this. And so that became part of it. My uh reading for a positive mindset, um, started reading men's devotional um scripture reading, which really uh something I'd never done before. Again, another book that was probably on my shelf for three years, and so that I'm like, hmm, that would be a really good starting point for anyone just to start the day, you know, on a on a on a good note, you know, set your intention for the day. The T stands for train your body. Walking, huge part of it. The training, what I did initially was I started working out with weights and I went heavy right away. I hadn't I wrote a book, um, fitness walking and body weight exercises. Okay, body weight, not dumbbell, not barbell exercises. And I got away from that. And that hurt, I hurt my shoulder. So now I'm putting weight on. I'm not walking as much, I don't feel as good, and now I can't even do exercises because my shoulder hurt, doing something that I pretty much preach against doing. So, like again, that was that fog of war. Really just like, what the hell am I thinking here? Um, so train your body uh with uh walking and strength. It could be as simple as body weight exercises, really. That's it. And and I say simple, but that's really misnomer because they're so good for you. Uh the R, refuel intelligently, eating properly, addressing your gut health issues, which is so they're doing more and more research about that and links to cancer. So uh that's a huge part of it. The O optimized rest and recovery. During the treatment, I was napping on the couch while watching television. And finally, one day, my girlfriend said, Hey, get up, go to bed, take like a proper nap in the middle of the day, which is the thing I needed. But that goes back to our mindset as men, you know, no pain, no gain. We got to push through this. I'm stronger than this thing. And I realized, no, I'm not. I needed to step back. Recovery is a huge part of it. And then N is N of strong is navigate the mental battle because it is a mental battle. Having someone to talk to, really important. And then the G is grow into the man you're becoming, the new man, because you're not the same person after cancer as before cancer. Uh when I got that diagnosis, I'm at 62 years old and I'm thinking, wait a minute, you know, I've got cancer. I mean, do I have only a limited number of years? And that becomes a that became a real concern. And I said, you know, I'm gonna come out of this at some point. And and actually, this was more of a thought after the recovery, because like I said, during it, I was in that fog. But after I'm like, I want this to mean something. I don't want to just come out of this and I mean, I want to come out and live a long life, but I could do something with this. I've always liked, I've been an educator for 27 years, and I thought that's what I want to do. I want to help other people. And if I help other men get through their battle, I think that that would be uh something that I find a lot of enjoyment in and something that's fulfilling.

SPEAKER_00 24:59

Heck yeah. That's amazing, man. Yeah, I'm gonna take a just a short uh sponsor break here. So Cardiom Miracle is our our uh podcast sponsor of the Pulse Beat, and what we have in Cardio Miracle is goes along with a lot of what you're saying. With we have 58 whole and organic fruits and vegetables in here. Um, it's something that is a powder you put into water, you shake it up, drink it every day, and it creates nitric oxide, which is a gas that I'm sure you know about. Um it sustains it in our body and our blood for 24 hours a day. And so we're we're so grateful to have them as a sponsor and to be able to do podcasts like this so that we can get good messages out in the world like the one that you have with the strong method. It sounds sounds amazing, man. So I love that. Thank you, thank you, appreciate that. Definitely, definitely. And so if there was like one like one big thing that you could tell anybody or everybody, like uh in addition to getting their PSA checked, what would be that big message?

SPEAKER_01 26:04

Oh, get the body moving. Get your body moving. Uh and again, just a simple you don't have to walk around the country, but you and if you want to hear that story, that was really it's I want to hear it. I was gonna actually it's actually if I laugh every time I've thought about it. But the message is to just get moving. You finish your meal, just walk around the block. Because one, the physical part is great, the movement. But and uh I would how did you feel when you started walking? How'd you feel mentally when you started walking? I'm curious about that.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

Yeah, that that's what I when I started, I literally felt like I had this huge road to go down. I I did a couple walks of shame. I was kicked off of a flight because the I couldn't even buckle the extender, so they told me to leave. I got kicked off Space Mountain in Disneyland because I couldn't get the bar down. And then I walked across the street to an abandoned warehouse where they had a pallet scale and I'm in a gown, and it was just like once I once I got out of that uh CPAP um test, you know, uh oh, and I had to go, I had to go rent two additional oxygen tanks to hook up to my CPAP machine so that I could get enough oxygen while I was sleeping so I wouldn't die. And so I started walking, and my first day, I was like, I'm just gonna walk. I have a family property where it was like we have a we have our cabin and then we have a fence that's about uh the two football, two football field lengths. It's at 200 yards. Yeah, and so I walked to the fence and I was like, I feel good, I'm gonna keep going. So I kept going. And then it's just now it's become a healthy obsession, is what I call it. And so every day, I mean, this morning, you know, before nine o'clock, I got in 15,000 steps, man. So beautiful. I'm I'm kind of I'm kind of obsessive about it, but I need to hear about your walk around the world, man. It's unbelievable.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

It was so here's how we started. I'm a high school teacher. I teach in the computer lab, I teach a Photoshop class. It's one of my favorite classes to teach because it's such a complex program initially. The learning curve is sharp, but I love it when my students get it. You know, I always love that part of teaching. So I thought, um, let me have some fun with this. I had read an article about these guys who ran across the country. Okay. And uh they had their whole thing. And it was a blog, and this was in the early uh 2000s. Kind of was like, even though I was in the computer lab, like blogging, that was new to me. I never even know what that was. I I read it and I was fascinated. Like every day I'd read their account. So I thought, would I do that? Would I run across the country if I had a chance? Because I was a runner at that point. I was coaching cross-country. I ran, I did like 20 miles a week. I wasn't a huge runner. Every time I tried to train for a marathon, I wanted to run a marathon, I'd get hurt. So I said, I would never run across the country, but you know, I have these running logs. What does it mean to go 20 miles? Well, from my house uh where I was living to my work in Palisades Park, New Jersey, it was 20 miles. I'm like, all right, what's beyond that? And I looked at the next town, the next town. So I'm like, well, what if I put my miles on a map? I'll put it up in my classroom, but I'll photoshop myself in different pictures, as if I'm actually running. So it was a way for me to improve my Photoshop skills. I had just started teaching it, and I could goof on the kids, right? Because they'll look up and say, What are you doing? And that's exactly what it became. The kids would be like, What are you doing? I'm like, is that me running? They're like, Yeah. I said, Well, I'm running to Florida. At the time, I was only going to go to Florida. Key West is uh, Key West is the end of Route One. Route one runs through Palisades Park, where I grew up and where I teach, uh, all the way down. And my grandfather always tells me a story when, you know, I think in the 50s he had taken a trip to Key to Florida via Route 1, because the New Jersey Turnpike and 95 wasn't complete. So I thought, okay, I'll do this virtually. And just goof. So I found pictures of just like, you know, welcome to North Carolina. And there's me in my running pose, and there'd be people waving, and my students would be like, where are you? I'm like, oh, I met these people along the line, they're along the way, they're nicest people. We went out to dinner. Like, I just had all these crazy stories. So eventually I wound up circumnavigating the perimeter of the United States. It was over 11,000 miles.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 30:45

Here's the it's it I just loved goofing on the kids, and I always have a good time telling the story. The most frustrating thing. So it was September of um 2019, and one of my students, Dominic, a really great kid, he says, Hey, Mr. Ring, you're gonna finish this thing by the time I graduate. He's senior, he's gonna graduate in June. And I did the calculations and I thought, if I do 100 miles a month, I got it. So that's what I planned. I said, Dominic, when I do this, he said, the George Washington Bridge is actually Route 1 comes over the George Washington Bridge, three miles or four miles from Palisades Park High School. If I walk the last route of this virtual run on the actual route, will you walk it with me? And I get a whole bunch of other people. And he's like, Yeah, great. And then in March of 2020, COVID happens, schools shut down. So I was walked a lot during COVID, but I wasn't keeping track of my miles. Because I just was, I mean, that was just a depressing time.

SPEAKER_00 31:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

And uh about the middle of July of that year, I'm like, where am I on this virtual walk thing? And I would have finished right in time for them to graduate. But I didn't even know it at the time because I was so disgusted with what was going on with COVID. So uh it was kind of a this 16-year journey was kind of a letdown at the end that I couldn't do my big dramatic let's walk together from the George Washington Bridge to Palisades Park High School. But but what what that taught me is just consistency. There would be days I'd be at my house, I'll call it's wintertime, now it's cold here, but I would be like, hey, let me go get another three or four miles on my journey. Let me three or four miles. And and that, and that was my my overriding goal through that was hey, this if this gets me out the door, that's a great deal. And it did when I was a runner. But was what I found interesting, so I had hurt my back in 2016 running, I'd herniated, I'd herniated a disc. Just the accumulation of all the miles. And I was doing trail running, which is really jarring on the body. So when I started walking with the idea of just, let me get back in shape by walking, then I'll start running again. And once I got out walking, I'm like, hey, I really enjoy this. I was listening to podcasts, I'm listening to music. I never did that when I ran. I'm like, this is really I felt that my body was starting to feel better, but my mindset felt so much better. I felt so much clearer about things. And that's when I thought, well, let me turn, you know, lemons into lemonade, as far as I'm recovering from this back injury, but let me start doing something with walking. And that's when I started my website, Walking for Health and Fitness. And I said, well, let me name my, let me let me write a book of the same name. And the book was the book that I was looking for. Because when I look at walking books, I go to go to the bookstore, I'm like, there's just so much information that I thought was in the weeds. You know, like, wait, page four, why are they telling me about this when I really need to get right down to it? So I wrote the book that I would have wanted to buy, and that was Walking for Health and Fitness.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

That's amazing, man. And how um how well are your books doing with the walking, the walking books?

SPEAKER_01 33:56

Oh, the walking books, they do all right. I mean, uh, you know, I'm not getting I'm not getting rich from from walking books.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

Well, no, I mean, uh my brother wrote a my brother wrote a book and said, No, very few get rich from writing books.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

No, no, that's it. Unless I turn my walking book into a movie. But it um it it's enough that covers some of the expenses of the website and stuff like that. But it's just the i i the idea here's so when I was, I was, you know, I'd be on my walks and I'd listen to different marketers. I had my website up there, and they all said, well, if you want to be taken seriously, you have to write a book. So I'm like, write a book? What the what am I gonna write a book about? Like, how do I write a book about walking? But you know, I put together chapters and outline, right? Like they teach you in school, and I just plugged away just a little bit here, a little bit there. This was all pre-AI, you know, I didn't have Chat GPT to help me. And um I've read I I read a book that's called Um oh well, now the name is given how How to Write a Book. So I first got that book, How to Write a Book. And the one thing that stuck with me was be careful with this process because it becomes addicting. So I'm like, I'm just trying to get through this. But the crazy thing was, I wrote the second book, Fitness, Walking, and Body Exercises, like maybe not even three months later, because I was on such a roll, and I'm like, I really like this. I love the process of getting home. My son was in middle school at the time, so he was busy studying all the time. Uh so once I got home from cross-country practice, I was like, hey, let me just sit down and start writing. And uh it's been a great process, and I like that. So I've written five books now, and again, it's just it's just something to do and you know keep the mind going and keep my mind focused on you know the health and fitness aspect that I like to.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

I love it, man. Hey, tell us about your podcast.

SPEAKER_01 35:51

So the podcast is surprisingly, it's called Walking for Health and Fitness. That is right, you didn't you didn't expect that, did you? I love it. Uh but uh so again, it was just a a way of can I had been listening to podcasts. I'm like, hey, can I can I do that? It was more of a challenge to myself. Sure. Can I do this? Um I initially just thought, all right, what would I want to talk about on the podcast? I wrote out, I think I had like 10 different chapters or 10, 10 different episodes. I would write about this, this, this, this. So the first one is really just starting and getting out the door. And I enjoy, I again, I enjoyed the writing of it. I enjoyed the recording, I enjoyed learning all of the podcasting stuff. Uh, I put it out through uh the company Podbean, and it was just fun. And it was just me in front of the camera. Actually, it wasn't even in front of the camera, it was just the audio. And then I would release the audio onto YouTube. And then at school, uh, we had a speaker, beginning of the school year, um, Diane Lang. She we called her the happiness woman because she wrote a book about happiness. She was a psychologist, she got burnt out and started following positive psychology, and that was her, became her specialty. And she talked about walking in the presentation. All my friends around me are like, hey, hey, you got to go talk to her. So afterwards, I introduced myself. I said, Hey, do a podcast. I've never I I had introduced, I had interviewed one man before this. I said, but would you like to come on? And she was great. She was a great guest, so it kind of helped ease me into having guests occasionally. Uh I find it much easier. I like to do it myself. When I have a guest, I get more, I get uptight only because I want to do such a good job for them. Uh I think I put a little too much pressure on myself. But uh so that but the podcast, what am I on? 36 episodes. And I've been the focus has gone from it's still walking, but now it is health and fitness. I've gone to talked about my prostate cancer battle, now transitioning over to what I'm doing helping men in recovery. And then the recovery could be anything, recovering from anything, whether it's any kind of addiction, um, recovering from physical injuries. So there's really uh there's a lot of latitude I have in to talk about whatever. Um the fitness becomes so much bigger with when you're talking about subjects like that. Recovery.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

Oh, it's for sure. No, it's for sure, man. So my dad, so my dad started cardiomerical, and he started it because um, you know, his dad's his dad's dad died from heart disease, and his dad died from heart disease. And so um his dad and his dad's dad were really young. They're in late 50s, early 60s, and so my dad is in his uh he's he calls it his 74th year. And so we're we're trying hard to break the trend of dying early, you know, from heart disease. And so we're really excited that we're we're able to assist people with the health aspect of taking their health into their own hands, and you know, that's why Matt reached out to you, our producers, so that because we are on the same page as far as like taking your health into your own hands, and you know, with the walking, I I've noticed that if I don't make a conscious effort to get out the door and go for a walk, even while I'm on the phone or whatever, like I could very easily sit back in my chair and just take a call. Yeah. And but I mean, man, you gotta get out there and just walk. So I love the aspect of taking your health into your own hands, and you're super driven, Frank. It's amazing what you've done.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

Yeah, it's it's a lot of fun. As I was researching that first book, I I don't know where the quote came from, but I forget, was a professional athlete, and he said the hardest part of the workout is just getting to the workout. It's just getting out, is getting out the door. And that became uh, you know, one of the the guiding uh lights of that book was to just you got whatever you can just say, even if you say I'm gonna go out for two minutes. Yeah, because if you can get out the door for two, you see, I'm out here, let me just go. Yeah. And that's what that was my mindset part when I first started walking was uh just get out for these two minutes and you know and go from there. And that is the hardest part. And if if if we can just get into that habit of getting out for two minutes instead of like you just said, sitting back and hey, I'm comfortable in the office here, I've got so much work to do. Yeah, you know, do I can I really get out and walk? Well, it it's it's so vital that you do.

SPEAKER_00 40:24

Yeah. Yeah, my brother challenged me. He said, because I usually get up every morning at 4.03 to go to the bathroom. And he goes, When you get up, I want to challenge you to get dressed, get put your shoes on, lace them up, and then go to the bathroom. And then after that, decide if you want to stay up or take your shoes off and go back to bed. And so literally I would just get up and put my get dressed and go to the bathroom, and then I'd be like, I might as well go for a walk. So I'll go for a walk at four in the morning, and that's what I that's when I started to get the the uh the urge, you know, to to get out every morning.

SPEAKER_01 40:59

Yeah, yeah. It becomes a I it becomes a habit. I I I it's so funny growing up, uh we grew up with my grandfather, and he was up at before five every morning. And as a kid, I'm like, how the hell does he get up as a teenager, right? You need all this sleep. Oh I'd be asleep until you know nine, ten o'clock if I didn't have some practice or another. Seriously. But now um if I if if I don't get out of bed, if I'm if I sleep until seven, which is very rare, but I do every once in a while, I'd be like, oh I lost a day. Because I like to be up like before five. Same thing. You you get up and you go to the bathroom, like, yeah, I'm up, might as well stay up. Yeah, that I do that mindset work between five and six. And if I miss that, I it kind of throws me off for the day. Yeah, so that's that's a big part of it's a big part of being consistent. And and then that leads to consistency in your fitness, consistency in your eating habits, and it it just carries over everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

In life, man, in life, and we win. So, Frank, it's been such a pleasure, man. If you if you give us 30 seconds of the of a message you want to just box, put in the box for us, I think that'd be really awesome to finish us out here.

SPEAKER_01 42:10

Yeah. Well, the 30-second message would be you need to, we talked about this, you need to take control of your own health. Uh, no one's gonna do it for you. So start with something as simple as getting out for a walk and develop that routine, much like your sneaker routine, develop that that thing that is going to trigger you to get out the door, that tiny little habit that is going to, you know, make you get out for two minutes. That's all you have to tell yourself. Two minutes, but you'll find it's the best two minutes, the best investment you can make in your own health, your own fitness, in your mindset.

SPEAKER_00 42:46

Fantastic. Thank you. And where where can we find you? Can we find you on social media?

SPEAKER_01 42:50

Uh okay. Uh social media, everything is just actually Walking for Health and Fitness. There's the website, is the podcast. I'm on social media as Walking for Health and Fitness, all of all of the platforms. Um I'm Frank Ring, I'm on Amazon, so uh you easily, easily find me. The name Ring is kind of common in in search engines for other things, not rings, but uh slowly, slowly I'm making my way up the you up the uh Google uh rankings. It would be put in the word ring, you know. But uh but yeah, so uh Walking for Health and Fitness is the website. There's so many resources there.

SPEAKER_00 43:26

Yeah, Frank, it's been such a pleasure, man. Thanks so much for your time, and we're so excited to to shoot this out to as many people as we can and and get you some visitors. And I'm excited to go look at some of your books, man. I'm gonna I'm gonna take a deep dive into that.

SPEAKER_01 43:40

Wonderful. Well, thank you, Josh. I appreciate you having me on. I really appreciate what you do. And uh yeah, let me know how I can promote your show, and we'll, you know, I'll put this up on my on my side also.

SPEAKER_00 43:50

Thank you, Frank, so much, man. Have a day. You got it, my friend.

SPEAKER_01 43:52

All right, thank you.