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Health & Fitness Redefined
Health and Fitness Redefined with Anthony Amen. Take a dive into the health world as we learn how to overcome adversity, depict fact vs fiction and see health & fitness in a whole new light.Fitness Is Medicine
Health & Fitness Redefined
You Can't Diet Your Way to Lasting Health
Kevin shares his transformative journey from a health crisis in his mid-40s to becoming a fitness coach specialized in helping people over 50 build strength and optimize health through sustainable lifestyle changes. His wake-up call came after a hospital stay where he thought he was having a heart attack, prompting him to reconsider his approach to health beyond traditional "eat less, exercise more" advice.
• Kevin's health deteriorated in his 40s despite previous marathon experience
• Traditional advice of "eat less and do more cardio" led to underwhelming results
• Discovering strength training completely transformed his approach to fitness
• The dangers of "skinny fat" syndrome and muscle wasting from extreme dieting
• Why GLP-1 medications like Ozempic may create long-term health problems
• The importance of building muscle for long-term health and independence
• How our cultural victim mentality undermines personal health responsibility
• Why the medical system often fails to address root causes of health problems
• Taking radical responsibility as the foundation for health transformation
• The power of small, consistent habit changes compounded over time
Don't forget to share this episode with someone who needs it because we care about you. Remember, fitness is medicine.
Learn More at: www.Redefine-Fitness.com
Hello and welcome to Health and Fitness Redefined. I'm your host, anthony Amen. Today we have another great episode for all of you, so, without further ado, welcome to the show, kevin. Kevin, it's a pleasure to have you on today.
Speaker 2:Hey Anthony, Thanks for having me Excited to be here Talk to you about all the things health and fitness related. Man, yeah, just diving right into it.
Speaker 1:Right on, let's go. Just tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got to the fitness world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, as you probably know, most of us that are in this space have a story. Mine started probably in my mid forties. I found myself as unhealthy as I'd ever been in my life and it sort of it all came to a head with a three day stay in the hospital. I thought I was having a heart attack. I was just in really, really shitty health metabolic health. I was overweight, had high blood pressure, high cholesterol. My blood sugars were starting to come up. Prior to that I'd consider myself a pretty healthy guy.
Speaker 2:In my 30s I did a bunch of marathons and a bunch of triathlons. I went down that endurance rabbit hole there. Somewhere along the line I just quit that. Cold turkey rolled into my forties. Like I said, overweight, really unhealthy. But when I looked around at my peers I wasn't an anomaly. I mean, most of my peers kind of looked like me. We had dad bods, right. So I had a lot going for me. I had a young, beautiful wife, beautiful kids, nice house. My career was going gangbusters.
Speaker 2:But that stay in the hospital really shook me. I didn't want to be that dude, because everybody hears in the news or somewhere in social media about that dude or lady in their forties just drops dead of a heart attack and nobody. Well, where did that come from? I didn't want to be that guy. So that's really what sent me down this rabbit hole, if you will, of really trying to be at first not sick. And then, as I got better, I started realizing oh, there's layers to this and I started chasing optimal health. Now I'll back up a little bit more and kind of tell you, as I came out of this hospital stay and I went back to my regular doctor, I said, look, you've got to eat less and you've got to start exercising. And so that was the prescription he gave me. Right, it was look, you need to clean up your lifestyle. And I went back to what I knew, which was running. I started running again and I started trying to eat less food and, as you might imagine, that prescription eating less food, doing a lot of running it kind of sort of worked. I was ridiculously under-muscled. I was over, not tremendously overweight, I was like 20, 25 pounds overweight. So I wasn't morbidly obese or anything like that. But what happened is I'd lost a little bit of weight, not much, I mean very unspectacular results, but I found that it was just really difficult to try and be. You know, just eat salads every day. I don't particularly like salads and I was trying really hard to eat less food and eat more vegetables and I was killing myself running and I was just like I said, I was getting these really, really unspectacular results and then something crazy happened.
Speaker 2:I've always been a big fan of podcasts, love listening to podcasts. Of course, now I've got my own podcast, go figure. But I heard this podcast episode with this guy, dr Jonathan Sullivan, and he's the author of a book called the you probably know it the Barbell Prescription. It's like strength training for life over 40 or something like that. But he was on there and he was talking about the importance of strength training for metabolic health, for healthy aging, and he was talking about strength training in that very strict sense of do deadlifts and do bench presses and do barbell back squats, all the things that I'd never in my life ever done.
Speaker 2:I'd never touched a weight in my life up to this point. So here I am probably late forties and for the first time ever I very timidly walk into a globo gym where there's all these big buff dudes and toned ladies and everybody seems to know what they're doing. And here I am, this ridiculously at this point now skinny fat, I'm not even really overweight, I'm just ridiculously under muscled and I've got this fluffy midsection, got some nice man boobs to cope with that. And I walk in the gym for the first day and, just like most folks, I just kind of wandered around, tried some of the machines, but that's what started this whole thing right. So from there I found this magic pill all of a sudden, as the strength training started to take its effect, for the first time ever I was losing fat and building muscle, which is really what I wanted. I just didn't understand that's what I wanted. My doctor just said move more and eat less. I tried that. That didn't really work. So as I went down this rabbit hole, I started selecting more whole foods and prioritizing protein and making strength training the priority and just making cardio more the side dish. And that's really what led me to get into not just being not sick, but to optimal health.
Speaker 2:I really I find myself in my fifties as strong, fit, capable as I'd ever been in my life, so as healthy as I've ever been. And today I'm. I'll be 61 next month and I can tell you right now I'm as strong, fit, healthy, capable as I've ever been in my entire life, and that really lights me up, and so that's my passion. So today I'm a full-time coach. I've got a team of three other coaches that work for me. We work exclusively with men and women in their fifties and sixties who are tired of the diet rollercoaster and the you know the cardio.
Speaker 2:Just be a cardio. Cardio cardio eat less, eat less, eat less, try and be smaller. I'm like, no, let's not try and be smaller, let's try and be bad-asses, let's try and be strong, let's try and be fit, let's try and be capable and let's try and do that for the rest of our lives. Right, let's make this a lifestyle. So sorry, that's a long winded story for a question you asked about how I got here, but that's how. That's why I'm here today doing what I'm doing, talking to you.
Speaker 1:I mean, you fit right in the norm, right? Everyone that's in this industry had something that scared the shit out of them and was like we all have a story how we got here.
Speaker 2:Yes, 100%.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but those are the people that always have, like, the biggest passion behind it to help each of the people. Hey, I learned this.
Speaker 2:Let's teach you before you end up like I was Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Right, so that's the biggest thing. You mentioned some cool things in there which totally love. Where it's. You hop into that skinny fat phase right where people think that eating less and doing more cardio is the answer. And that was what about 10 years ago roughly.
Speaker 2:We're doing that. Yeah, a little over 10 years ago?
Speaker 1:yeah, so if 10 years ago, now the new thing is ozempic and that's where we are exactly with that that same skinny fat. When people think the answer is, let me eat less, take medicine, I'm going to drop a bunch of weight and be happy. But what they don't realize is they're muscle wasting, meaning your body's just burning their muscle and you're destroying your metabolism. Same thing the keto diet did prior to that. Same thing that whatever atkins diet and whatever everything like. It's just these fads that people look for a quick let me just drop weight.
Speaker 1:But dropping weight isn't necessarily a good thing. It's about how you feel, how you move and, like you said, optimizing for building muscle. So how do you, how do you talk to those people to prevent them from going down that rabbit hole it like? Because, I mean, cardio and calorie cuts are one thing right, you can, it's okay, but it's not going to do your body super harm, ozempic, I mean. I keep saying there's going to be studies that are going to keep coming out how bad it is for you and how you shouldn't be on a long-term and how it's just not the answer in my eyes and I don't want to see three years from now. Well, you won Ozempic for this amount of time. Call us today, yeah that's right.
Speaker 2:You may be entitled to compensation. Yeah, right.
Speaker 1:Exactly so how do you talk to those people?
Speaker 2:Yeah, great question. And really you hit the nail on the head right, especially and this is more true in my age demographic maybe than for younger people, but it is an unfair Wadovis et cetera that we're going to lose about 40% muscle, 60% fat. And I'm here to tell you again, if you're in your fifties and sixties especially, but really at any age, that is a shitty deal, cause what happens when we just eat less food and of course, if you take a take Ozempic or something like that, it decreases your appetite, causes you to eat less food. But that's the really the primary mechanism of most diets. Right, you look at a Weight Watchers or Jenny Gregg or any of these programs you're trying to get you to eat less food, a Zempix trying to get you to eat less food. Well, when we do that and you said we eat this muscle wasting and we know that term in my age bracket, the sarcopenia, that age-related muscle loss and specifically that type two muscle loss that we preferentially lose as we age anyways. So that leaves you as a smaller, weaker, less capable and less healthy human than you were before. So I want to repeat that because a lot of people miss that muscle building or muscle preservation, at the very least, and we're just going to these gimmicky things like GLP-1s or calorie restrictions or some of these goofy cleanses and things like that 21-day challenges. What we do is we end up being a smaller, weaker, unhealthier version of ourself, and I'm here to say that that's not a fair trade. What you want to be is a lean, strong, capable body. That's what you want to build. You want to build that for life, and you're not going to get there by just eating less food.
Speaker 2:Look, how much you eat is important, but we work with a lot of our clients come in and they're actually overweight and under eating, and so their metabolism is basically a dumpster fire. They back themselves into this corner where dieting is now actually dangerous. It's detrimental. They eat less food. You take a lady who's been in Weight Watchers for the last year and she's currently eating 1,200 calories. How are you going to tell that woman to eat less food? And she's got 20 pounds to lose, right. What's she going to do? Eat 800 calories. That's ridiculous. So what that person would do then is what we call the reverse diet.
Speaker 2:I'm sure you're very familiar with this. We're actually going and it's what it sounds like we're going to get that lady or guy to eat a little bit more food, but we're just going to switch what types of food. We're going to prioritize protein. We're going to prioritize whole, healthy foods. And we're going to get that person off. If they're on the treadmill six days a week, we're gonna say stop, please stop, don't do that anymore. We're going to put you in a gym for three days a week, 30, 40 minutes at a time, to start full body strength training workouts. And that is the prescription. That's the way right. We're going to choose healthy foods. We're going to prioritize protein. We're going to focus on strength. And lo and behold, some of these people that have been struggling with their weight all of their life. Not only are they feeling better, they have more energy, better libidos, but now they're starting to get the body composition change that yeah, I mean you can even tie it into the first thing I hear with muscle wasting.
Speaker 1:Muscle wasting is a precursor for osteopenia and osteoporosis, 100% Bone density issues and you're ready muscle waste or sarcopenia as you age. Right, if you're not using it, your body's going to take it away and you're going to throw that in with under eating and throw that in with GLP-, gop ones and ozempic. So now you're going to be at a higher chance of developing osteopenia and osteoporosis. And do you want to be that frail 65, 70 year old that has to worry about falling and breaking a hip? Right, that's a death sentence, especially when you get about 70 years of age, like, and you don't have the muscle tissue on your body, like you're just asking for trouble.
Speaker 1:So do you want to fix and get a temporary solution to feel slightly better about yourself now? Or do you want to develop a habit to have a permanent solution and really not have to worry that as you hit the later age of life 70, 80, that you can say I'm living a good life, I'm being independent, I'm doing things I like doing? Because I didn't care about that quick fix of taking a shot, I took my health in order, I put my priorities first. I put it into weight training, I put it into eating more of the right types of food. And now, 30 years from now, looking back, I'm way more independent than anyone that took that quick fix and never learned to develop a habit for life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, amen. Look, here's the problem with diet culture. Very often what's sold to us is you need to go on a diet, right, so we're already. We're faced with this odious task I can't eat the foods I like. I've got to eat these crappy foods I don't like and I can't eat very many of them. Well, that's not lifetime sustainable. That's a horrible existence.
Speaker 2:And what you're alluding to is, and of course, what most people, even intelligent people, miss certainly I did early on is we go on a diet, we lose some weight and then we go back to what we were doing before, expecting to maintain that weight loss. Well, guess what? Anybody who's ever been on that rollercoaster knows how that ends up. You're going to gain all of that weight back, probably a few bonus points to bonus pounds to boot, just for your efforts. But if we can figure out how to make habit changes, how to fall in love with the, with a healthy lifestyle, and look doesn't mean you have to love every single workout you do or love every single healthy food choice you make. That honors your body, but it does mean that you have to make some.
Speaker 2:If you want permanent changes in your body composition, you're gonna have to make permanent changes in your lifestyle and that's the really hard sell. It's easy to sell somebody hey, luke dropped 20 pounds in in two months and on this you know miracle snake oil, potion, workout diet, whatever it is right. That's an easy sell. You and I can get rich selling that. A lot of people out there are. It's a much, much more difficult sell to get somebody to actually make slow but permanent, healthy changes in their lifestyle and to learn to fall in love with that, to become the kind of person that embraces healthy aging. So yeah, you're spot on. It is all about how do we restructure habits and lifestyle that supports our long-term goals of being. You know, I want to be in my seventies and eighties and be strong, fit, capable and be able to do stuff. I don't want to be frail, weak, fall, break a hip in the end right, or need assistance to go to the bathroom.
Speaker 1:Don't want that. So let's ask the million dollar question. Bring it. Where does this stem from? Where does this wanting to have a quick fix and getting this simple solutions? Why do people think that way? And then the follow up question is how do you get people in society to think differently?
Speaker 2:Ooh, that is the million dollar question. Yeah, so I think the first, the answer to the first question why are we like that? I think it's pretty obvious, right, if let's say, you know, in my practice I'm, I am going to sell you a six month program and it's not even a weight loss program, right, if you come in and you want to lose weight, like I said, chances are we're going to work on your metabolism for at least half that time before we even worry about what, what the number on the scale is. Compared that and explaining hey, we need to fix your metabolism and you want to change your healthy habits for life and make you strong, fit and capable to. Hey, I, I'm going to, I'll get you dropped 20 pounds two months. Give me your thousand dollars and let's go. This is the program, just follow it and you'll do it.
Speaker 2:And you know that, that Amazon mentality, that we want it fast, we want it to be easy, we want it without effort. It's just, I think it's baked into human nature, right? So I think it's easy to see why people might still go for that quick diet, that quick fix. They just, you know, especially as we get older, we start to realize, hey, that's you know, that's that's not really working so well. And also, what happens? There is some of us who have been on on and off diets some of us all our entire adult lives. We start to internalize those diet failures as personal failures. As me, I failed, I'm a failure. I can't figure this out. I'm so smart and successful in other areas of my life. Why can't I get this one thing right Now? How do we get people to buy into this? That therein is the crux, and that's my mission. I suspect it's your mission. It's why I have the podcast, it's why I have social media, it's why I'm in this business.
Speaker 2:I want to evangelize this way of thinking that look, yes, this is a longer path, this is a frankly, this is a more difficult path than a quick fix kind of thing, but it's a permanent. You can either lose weight quickly or you can lose it permanently. And if you're interested in not just losing weight but losing fat, building muscle, being strong, fit, capable, there's really only one way to do that. You look at a 56 year old man or woman who's strong and fit. They didn't get there by accident and it's not because they're rich and they spent money to look that way. They got there by just making probably slow, gradual lifestyle changes over a long period of time and they continue to do that and will do that for the rest of their lives. So, yeah, that's a tough sell, man. And look, if you figure out how to sell that, let me in on that, because me and you'll be rich. It really is a difficult sell.
Speaker 1:I'm going to throw a ringer in here, because I think it's important for people to think differently by thinking of a different type of example, right, yeah, so I'm going to go exactly off what you said, right? People look at somebody who like me, like you, and they go oh, it's just genetics and it's you know, you're just lucky and this is just the way I look. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Not knowing small little habit, lifestyle changes, like how many times did we say no, I don't want dessert today? I'll have dessert once a week, but I'm not going to have it every single day. And you cut 50 calories of bad processed crap food and substitute that with good quality, high nutritious food. Put that over 10 years.
Speaker 1:The compounding interest of that is insane, Right? Tie that into, I think, one of the most polarizing things right now in society financial status, right? So don't even look at it from a health point. Look at those financial stats. How many people look at rich people? Look at Elon Musk just as a stream puller example. It's unfair. He's that rich, he doesn't deserve it, not. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. What they don't see. He spent five, 10 extra minutes every single day working above and beyond, compounding that interest over time. And he was in the same boat, you and I, and everybody else was in the beginning. That's the beauty of being a self-made billionaire, the key words being self-made. We're self-made, millionaire, self-made.
Speaker 1:But people look at this part of society and they say it's unfair. You were given certain, which is just not true. They just did the work above and beyond that everyone else did. And now, true, they just did the work above and beyond that everyone else did. And now we're just in the point blame game because we don't like where we're at. You put that back into health and fitness. I'm going to do the point blame game. It's not fair. You just look that way. You just have a great body, not realizing the sacrifices people make to get there. So, yeah, is it a cultural phenomenon for humans as a species to just sit here and blame people that have it, the people that don't have it? And how do you get people to be like, no, you can get there. This is what you're supposed to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, great questions, man. I think that our modern culture reinforces this victim mentality. It reinforces us not taking radical responsibility for ourselves. I strongly believe that, in fact, one of the coaching programs we have is called the Alpha Edge. It's a men's group and it's helping men step into their authentic masculinity, right? So we talk a lot about radical responsibility. We are responsible for everything in our lives. We're responsible for our health, we're responsible for our relationships, for our work, for our finances, for everything in our lives, and that's a tough pill to swallow for some people, right? And look, that's not to say that shitty stuff hasn't happened to you or isn't happening to you now. You're still ultimately responsible. I think that goes counter to everything in our culture today. We have this very softening, almost feminizing part of culture right now that is allowing us to kind of play this victim mentality, and that's very disempowering. That's very disempowering.
Speaker 2:You can have and I'm talking to anybody listening to this course anybody tuning into a health and fitness redefined podcast. I'm probably preaching to the choir, but you can have anybody you want, anybody you want, regardless of your starting point, right? I'm not saying it's going to be easy, um, but when you again going back to the. You know, anthony, somebody looks at you, somebody looks at me and they say, oh, you must be lucky, you must have good genes. And yeah, that's. That's the same as looking at a self-made millionaire and say it's the same as looking at a self-made millionaire and say, oh, he must be lucky. Well, if maybe you call lucky that person making small incremental changes or deposits into their 401k every single day of their life, whether it's a health 401k or a financial 401k, and then you use the term compounding interest, that's exactly what happens. Look when you. I mean health and exercise.
Speaker 2:Nutrition is kind of funny. Let's say you decide tomorrow you're going to start a diet, you're going to eat really clean food, you're going to eat high protein, you're going to work out. Well, when you look in the mirror the next day you don't look any different. And then the next day you do the same thing. And the next day you do the same thing. The next day you do the in the mirror you don't look any different. But a month later you start to make a little bit of notice. You notice a little bit of change. Three months later, a little bit more. A year later there's drastic changes. Heck, five years later, you're not even recognizable, right, and that's that power of compounding interest that you were talking about. And it works the same in finance as it does with health, and that's the story.
Speaker 2:We need to tell people that you are not disempowered. You are, in fact, empowered. You can do, you can have anything you want, but it starts with this radical responsibility. I am responsible for my health, not my government, not the healthcare system, not big pharma, not big food. I'm not a victim because Kellogg's is pushing pop tarts and crap to me. No, that's not why I'm out of shape. I'm out of shape because I'm making choices that don't honor my sacred body, plain and simple. So how do you teach it Right? Gently, I'm talking to you as another health professional, but yeah, Whose responsibility is it to teach people?
Speaker 1:Because obviously the path we're going now isn't working.
Speaker 2:Yes, so it's funny. You say that I feel spiritually called by God, that this is my mission in life. This is what I was put here to do. So I feel that it is not, it's not my responsibility to change the entire world, but it is my responsibility to share my passion to make a dent in this universe in this, in this little way. But I feel it's our responsibility, anthony, you and I. I mean we hold, we have this knowledge, we've been given this gift, and what we do with it, I think, especially at this time and age and in history, is absolutely critical Because, look, we are heading the wrong way.
Speaker 2:By all means, by every measure that you can measure Western health, we are going backwards. So it's this grassroot yes, it's this grassroots effort and for the first time I'm actually very optimistic. We have, you know, the Dr Casey Means of the world has now got a voice of RFK Jr as a health secretary, and whether you love him or hate him, he has some radical ideas about health. We don't need small incremental changes in our healthcare from a policy standpoint here in the US. We need some radical, fricking shifts, and I think we're on the precipice of that. So now there seems to be a little bit more awareness.
Speaker 2:Of course, there's a lot more divisiveness than ever, but I think it's our those of us in the fitness, health and wellness industry it's our responsibility, it's your listeners responsibility to go out and share, unashamedly share their passion about healthy living, healthy aging, healthy body composition, health in general, with their friends, with their family, with their communities. So I really I take it as a personal responsibility. It's my responsibility to spread this message. It's your responsibility. It's, it's our collective responsibility in this industry now to rise up collectively, try and cut through all the noise, because there's so much crap out there. I think you do a great job of that as well To cut through all that noise and just lead from the front by example. Look, this is how it's done. It's not rocket science. It just takes a little bit of motivation, a little bit of discipline, a little bit of know-how, but it's not out of reach for anybody.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I agree a hundred percent right. For you and I, it took a lot of mental push to understand hey, this is where we need to be. Take a typical person and I'm going to walk through really briefly Sure States of growing up and how society impacts your health and fitness. Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not a pretty picture, yeah Well first thing, before school, you learn from your parents, and your parents were taught nutrition and health 30 years ago. It regards to when you're born, it's between 30 years depending on when you're born, so our industry changes every six months, so it's totally different science. Then, after you learn that information, you go into school, and in school you're learning two things. One you're learning that test taking is more important than activity. The example with that is PE gets cut more and more and more and you can sit there and take a test now in physical education, as opposed to going outside and being active right.
Speaker 1:And recess gets cut. More and more about being people active. Then you're taking health classes, learning about health topics that have been disproven 30 years ago because they're reading from textbooks that are too old. Yeah, so you get all that information plus, you're being catered in a society that pushes victim mentality. Right, it was my generation that started it full transparency when we started giving uh trophies for people participating.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was a terrible idea.
Speaker 1:I don't care. People say that's what started it. Yeah, and then you, they grow up thinking that everyone deserves a lovely trophy. It doesn't matter about yours, your actions mean nothing, it's all about a group as a whole. Then you graduate. Then you're in a society which pushes being inactive. You're in a society that pushes sitting at a desk. More and more jobs become like you're just sitting down and not being physical active whatsoever. And you're still learning it again.
Speaker 1:If you go to college Bad science and you're learning from your peers Bad science, then you go to the doctor and the doctor sits here and says you need to lose weight. You gave that example yourself in the beginning. What are doctors teaching Bad science? Lose weight. You gave that example yourself in the beginning. What are doctors teaching bad science when it comes to health and fitness? Why you mentioned it in the very beginning. We're gonna go back. They said lose weight. They didn't say lose body fat percentage. They said lose weight because they're still going off of bmi, which is bmi in the scale two horrible measures of your health, yeah horrible measures of your health.
Speaker 1:Yes, we went up for that. I'd be considered overweight based upon my weight. So the doctor's telling you not to eat less. Because you know what the nutrition textbook looks like it's like five fucking pages, and I know that because I read it. Like I always use the example. My whole family is doctors Like there's nothing in there that teaches them about nutrition. But they feel like they come from a role of responsibility and it's their responsibility to take care of their patients. So they're looking for quick fixes because that's what other patients want. They want to go in for a 10 minute consult, so it's all the time the doctor has with them and say fix me.
Speaker 1:So the doctor has nine minutes after hearing it. Hey, fine, here's a quick fix, go on. So then they're pushing them in the wrong direction and all of this just compounds to people thinking it's somebody else's responsibility for their health and fitness. And then when the government comes out and says, as a great, perfect example of things happening right now, rfk comes out and says SNAP benefits meaning SNAP benefits are benefits that people that can't afford food get to go buy food, no longer pay for soda, what people don't know. Snap benefits you cannot use for cigarettes and alcohol because they're bad for your health. Go get something healthy Soda. Same example. And people flip out.
Speaker 2:What do you mean? They can't buy soda.
Speaker 1:What do you mean? Like we're thinking about life backwards because we're so polarized over everything and we're so pushed into believing the victim mentality. It's time to say I'm going to take responsibility for my health. I'm not going to wait till Monday. I'm not going to wait till tomorrow. I'm going to start right now, Right, this, very, very second. I'm going to change who I am and become a different person. Stop compounding issues. So in a year from now, when I look in a mirror, I feel better Because at the end of the day, I feel better. I'm on way less medication than all my friends are. I'm moving way better, I'm way less dependent on the health system, and all of that is going to lead to an overall better society and individual person.
Speaker 2:Bring it.
Speaker 2:Bring it, brother. Preach, yeah, I agree wholeheartedly with you. I think that that is our. Our biggest obstacle right now is just this victim mentality and people not willing to take responsibility for their health. And it's it's a very disempowering feeling that most of us have and we have so many forces working against us. Like you'd mentioned, you go to the doctor and the doctor gives you a pill and that treats a symptom, has nothing to do with cause, and we don't, most of us just don't realize that it's not that big of a lift to be, to go from unhealthy to healthy, and then from there from healthy to super healthy, and then from there to optimal health, and everything changes. When you get there. You're a better human being, You're a better parent, You're a better child, You're a better sibling, You're a better employee, employer, coworker, You're a better community member, You're a better citizen, You're a better human on this planet.
Speaker 2:When you are functioning the way your body's meant to be functioning and it's not. Again, it's not that difficult to do. It's just making choices that honor your body and not dishonor your body. It's so easy Look, I don't want to downplay that it's so easy to make choices that don't honor our body to eat the crappy food, to get the highly ultra-processed delicious food. Let's face it and sit on the couch and watch Netflix instead of moving our bodies eating real whole food. It's simple to do but um, not worth the trade off. That temporary hedonistic pleasure we get from those things is not worth what we're doing to our long-term health. I think a lot of us just miss the forest through the trees on that, on that story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, it's eyeopening and I liked how you said it's those that understand that, like you and I, it's our responsibility to go push it out and help people. And I've learned over God. How long have I been in the ministry? 10 years now. Like you're, like I'm done beating around the bush. Yeah, the beating around the bush thing didn't work. It's gotten worse and the perfect example is that lifespan of humans is going down. Yeah, that's eyeopening.
Speaker 2:And spend of, in spite of medical and pharma spending going just astronomically through the roof and $4.5 trillion annually here in the US, and we are sicker, fatter and unhealthier than ever, and our longevity is actually, for the first time in a long time, slipping backwards. We're not doing this right. We need to change. But I think you agree with me Change starts with each one of us individually, and that individual responsibility Doesn't start with RFK Jr or the government or the culture or whatever political party you're affiliated with. It starts with me and you. It starts with us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it starts with us, and go grab a friend hey. John you and I are really close friends. We need to start taking responsibility for our health. Why don't we just go for walks once every morning for 15 minutes?
Speaker 2:Come on, yeah, love it.
Speaker 1:Start simple, yeah, easy you create an easy habit that's not very time consuming 15 minutes is nothing and you cut up 15 minutes of show or scrolling through your phone that you're going to be doing anyway, and then you and John start becoming healthier and start feeling better and start laughing and become closer, or even with your wife or even with the kids you can do this.
Speaker 1:Then you're building stronger relationships with those people and now you're feeling mentally a lot better. And then they're probably gonna be telling their friend and say, hey, gene, I'm going to walk with anthony, so why don't you go for a walk with cara in the morning? And you guys start doing that and this is just gonna expand and that little habit change all of a sudden explodes in society as we go through time and then we can start seeing positive impact throughout our culture and really take back Western culture and bring it more to what it's supposed to be, which is prioritizing our health and fitness, prioritizing our mental health, which is just gone at this point. As a society, we need to take back our mental health. We need to have more positivity. Everything needs to change and all stems from how we feel about ourselves and not telling people it's okay to be unhealthy, because it's not okay, and I'm going to be the first one to think it's not okay.
Speaker 2:You need to change, because be the first one to think it's not okay, you need to change because I want you around.
Speaker 1:I want you to feel better, and you should want yourself around and you should want yourself to feel better. These are all good things that we need to push together as a whole.
Speaker 2:Come on, yeah, let's go. I love it. Yeah, hey, that was a lot of tangents, so yeah, great conversation, though I think that this is the conversation that needs to be had.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I totally agree, Kevin. I'm just going to ask you the final questions. You've got to show up, Sure. So the first one is if you were to summarize this episode and I know it was a lot in one or two sentences.
Speaker 2:What would be your take home message? Yeah, the power to change starts with you. You are radically responsible for your health and as you start to do that and everything in your life levels up and it will, that becomes contagious to the folks around you. So start today, start with you, start with your loved ones.
Speaker 1:I love that. And then how can people find you, get ahold of you and learn more?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So you know what, since everybody listening to this is podcast listeners, check me out for you, those of you that are over 50, I have a podcast called the over 50 health wellness show. Or for those of you under 50, bet, you've got parents, friends that are in that age bracket. Send them over there. We do a weekly podcast.
Speaker 1:Kevin, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you, guys, for listening to this week's episode of health and fitness. Don't forget, do the first thing you're supposed to do share this with a friend that needs this. Hey, I'm doing this for you because I care. And also, don't forget, guys, fitness is medicine. Until next time, thank you. Outro Music.
