The Anthony Amen Show

Throwback: Jordan Syatt on Why Consistency Beats Intensity (And How to Make Health Stick)

• Anthony Amen • Season 6 • Episode 5

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Throwback Episode | The Anthony Amen Show (formerly Health & Fitness Redefined)

What if the hardest part of fitness isn’t the workout—but choosing the long game when no one’s watching?

In this throwback episode of The Anthony Amen Show, formerly known as Health & Fitness Redefined, Anthony sits down with Jordan Syatt to break down what actually drives long-term health, fat loss, and strength. From starting as an eight-year-old wrestler to becoming a science-driven coach, Jordan shares how consistency—not intensity—built his career, his online business, and his three-year run coaching Gary Vaynerchuk every single day with no breaks.

This conversation goes deeper than workouts. We unpack the psychology of behavior change, why all-or-nothing thinking sabotages progress, and how food guilt turns small setbacks into spirals. Jordan explains how simple anchors—adequate protein, fiber, sleep, and just two strength training sessions per week—create momentum that actually lasts.

As the founder of Redefine Fitness, Anthony connects these lessons directly to what he sees daily in a high-end personal training environment. We discuss why health outcomes continue to decline despite more gyms, more apps, and more information than ever—and how ultra-convenience, isolation, and hyper-palatable foods work against us. The solution isn’t extremes; it’s building systems, structure, and habits that make the healthy choice the easy choice.

This episode reflects the core philosophy behind Redefine Fitness and The Anthony Amen Show:
train smarter, build strength for life, and prioritize habits that improve physical and mental health long after the workout ends.

If you’re looking for a realistic, science-backed approach to strength training, fat loss, sustainable fitness, and long-term health, this episode delivers a clear blueprint.

Subscribe to The Anthony Amen Show for expert conversations on fitness, nutrition, performance, and behavior change. Share this episode with someone who needs a reset—and leave a review to help others discover the show.

What’s the one habit you’re committing to this week?

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Learn More at: www.Redefine-Fitness.com

SPEAKER_01:

Hello and welcome to Help 23 to five. I'm your host, Anthony, and then don't mind my tiredness for all that you have been watching. Really happy. I just had a kid, so trying to get through the sleepless nights in the beginning, but we're getting there. So without further ado, let's hop into another show. Let's welcome to uh someone I've been trying to get on for a couple years. Jordan, Jordan, it's a pleasure to have you on today.

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks for having me on, brother. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh the biggest highlight for just me personally as a entrepreneur, someone who follows Gary B very well. I saw that and I was like, look at that. Huge win right there.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, he's definitely uh inspirational in this field. But before we hop into anything like that, just tell our audience a little bit about why you got into the training room, kind of what got you started and go from there.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so I'm uh I'm a short, bald, nerdy Jewish guy. And uh when I was young, my mom wanted my brother and I to be able to uh protect ourselves. And uh, you know, we're short, short Jewish kids, and she didn't want us to get bullied at school. So uh she came into the room one day. I was like eight years old, and she was like, I'm gonna put you both in wrestling. And uh the only wrestling that I knew of was like WWE style wrestling. So uh I looked at her, I was like, You want me to hit someone with a chair? And she was like, No, you idiot, like Olympic style wrestling. And uh so she put us into wrestling. I fell in love with it, and I was I was terrible in school. I was in special education, I was not like I was I was not good at school, but I really, really fell in love with wrestling and sports and athletics. And uh I ended up making varsity as a freshman in high school. I beat a junior out for the varsity spot. But when you look at freshmen who are like 13, 14 years old, going up, like mostly going up against juniors and seniors, 16, 17, 18 years old, uh, the strength differential is huge. And I did not have enough strength. So uh I I lived in Massachusetts at the time. I I wrote an email to a gym a couple towns over from me, and I was like, hey, I'll take the trash out, I'll clean the floors, like I'll do whatever you want me to do, just like let me come and learn from you. Uh, I wrote this to a gym in a couple towns over, and fortunately they uh they took me under their wing and they were also very science-based. So I started working in a very science-based training facility from when I was 14 years old, and I've been doing it ever since.

SPEAKER_01:

That's awesome. I just enough something in nutshells. How many people nowadays would reach out somewhere and be like, hey, teach me, I'll do whatever you want, take your trash out of cleaning floors. Like, you don't even hear that nowadays anymore.

SPEAKER_00:

It's very rare. People have a lot of entitlement to be like, I'm not gonna do it for free. I should be getting paid for my time. And you know, I I have two girls now. I just I have like a three-month-old girl and a two-year-old girl. And uh I'm very excited to have them grow up and like try and really instill good work ethic and make sure like they're not getting anything for free. Like, um, because I see a lot of that. And to be fair, it's not even just I know a lot of people hate on younger generations, I see it in people my age and older. They just there's this feeling of entitlement. I get this people will DM me on Instagram and listen, I love uh when people ask me questions, but sometimes it's impossible to get to every single one. And people will get mad if I don't reply to their question on Instagram in what they consider a timely manner. It's like, what is this entitlement? It's a very interesting world that we live in right now.

SPEAKER_01:

I I'm like I'm like slightly below you then. We just I have an eight-day year old.

SPEAKER_00:

So that's amazing. Congratulations.

SPEAKER_01:

First kid, but that was like one of my first thoughts. Like when my wife was pregnant and stuff. I was like, you know, I want him to grow up to not have an entitlement. I want to start giving him all these books that I didn't start reading until I was 30. Like, listen, this is what you need to learn, this is what you need to grow, and then learn, which is the main premise of the show. And I really am excited to put it to use that when you fall, that is the biggest opportunity to learn and grow and move up. So failing is more of an opportunity than it is an adversity.

SPEAKER_00:

Correct, 100%.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that. So you went from there, you were working at this gym, you're building education and stuff like that. What made you take that leap into the online realm? And what what do you think was really the Kickstarter for you to make it big?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, so at that point, so I was 14, I did that all the way until I was 18. After after high school, I took a year off. Again, I was terrible in school and I didn't want to go to college. So I actually took a year off and I went to Israel for a year. I worked with Holocaust survivors and uh I have family there. So I was there for a year and just volunteering. I was teaching underprivileged youth like English. And um, and then I came back and I went I went to the University of Delaware. I initially went into exercise science. After about a month and a half in exercise science, I was like, this is nonsense. Basically, because I'd already been coaching people for four years plus at this point. Um, and I realized that you could have the best workout program, you could have the best nutrition program, but if someone's not following it, it doesn't matter. And I realized there were so many other behavioral and psychological components to fitness that weren't being addressed. So I dropped out of exercise science and I went into behavioral health psychology and um because I wanted to know why people are making the decisions they're making. Like everyone knows that smoking cigarettes is bad for you. Everyone knows that. Why do people not not just if they're addicted, but why is someone right now going out to get their first box? And why are they opening it up, even though there's a skull and crossbones on it, even though they know it'll kill them, why are they doing it? Uh you have a hundred people and they like you ask a hundred people what's better for you, an apple or a donut. Every single person will tell you the apple is the better choice. But if you ask them which one they're going to eat, like you get one for free, not everyone's gonna take the apple. Why are people making these decisions? I wanted to understand that. So um I I switched into that, which was turned out to be a great decision from an educational perspective. But I also was uh competing in powerlifting at that time, and I had the opportunity to train at Westside Barbell and Cressy Performance and some really amazing uh training facilities. And I I ended up making a website when I was uh uh what was it? It was July of 2011. So that was my uh my sophomore year. It was the summer going into my sophomore year of college. I made a website and I was just literally going to upload videos to YouTube and write about my own training on the website. I just wanted to help teach people. This is before Instagram existed. This is by before I knew an online business was possible. I was just like, I'll educate people about what I'm doing. And um, I had no idea an online business was going to be a thing. I thought one day I would open up a gym and um I I would write at least one big article every week. And by one, like it was it was like at least 2,000 words. It wasn't like an Instagram post, like it would take me like 16 to 24 hours to think of the article, write the article, edit, edit the article, format the article, publish it, all that. Um so I would do at least one of those every week for two for two years. Um, and then by the time I ended up graduating college, I ended up having enough people, like there's the the first person who did it, it was uh a woman from Brazil reached out who had been reading my website, and she was just like, How much do you charge for online coaching? And I and I had the way she phrased it took me by surprise because I coached people, but they were all just people who I just did it for free. Like people who reached who read the website, they'd be like, Hey, can you write me a program? I would do it for free because I never thought about charging. And uh she was like, How much do you charge? And I was like, I don't know, 300 bucks. Like I didn't even have a timeline, I was like, just 300. Like it was just that's it. And uh, and so she was like, Cool, how much how do I pay you? And I was like, I have no idea. So I found paypal.com and I made an account and she sent me 300 bucks and I designed her like a 12-week training program, nutrition plan, and she was my first ever online client. And and by the time I graduated college, I had enough online clients to where I could actually like I wasn't like I wasn't like making a ton of money, but for like a 21-year-old kid, 22-year-old kid, like I had enough to pay rent and had enough to get groceries, and so um that's when I was like, oh wow, this could be this could be something. But even then, I didn't think it was gonna be my main business. I still thought I was gonna open a gym. So I moved back to Boston, got a job at a gym in Boston while I was doing uh while I was doing my online, so it was sort of like 50-50. And um, and then about six months into that job, I really did not like my boss. I left and opened a gym with someone else in Boston, Massachusetts, and we opened a gym together. And then I didn't really enjoy that, like we we didn't really click in terms of business partners. And by the time, like now at that point, a little over a year had gone by, so about a year and a half since I graduated college. And at this point, my online business was doing well enough to where I could support myself. So I actually uh left the in-person, went fully online, and I moved back to Israel because I I loved it there, and then I was living in Israel for a while, just doing my online coaching and hanging out and lifting and coaching people, and and just all it was all online. And then I got contacted by Gary Vaynerchuk's team, and and they were like, How would you like the opportunity to coach Gary? And uh I thought it was a joke. I was like, there's no way this is real, and uh, but it turned out to be real, so I flew from Tel Aviv to New York, coached Gary for an hour for an interview, flew back to Tel Aviv, and then six weeks later I found that I got the job coaching Gary, so I moved from Tel Aviv to New York and I coached Gary every day for three years straight from June 1st, 2016 to June 1st, 2019, seven days a week, three years straight, no weekends, no vacations, no nothing. Wherever Gary was, I was. If he was in Hong Kong, I was in Hong Kong. If he was in Amsterdam, I was in Amsterdam. If he was in LA, I was in LA. Coached him every day. And throughout that entire process, I also was still posting on social media, still building my email list, still coaching people online, still making content. And and then once June 1st, 2019 came, I was like, all right, I think I'm good, Gary. Like I was very intense. I I need to have some time to myself, and uh that's it. That's what I've been doing.

SPEAKER_01:

What a story, man. There's so much wrapped up in that that you could just take a million takeaways, even going back to your previous point about expectations and what people expect out of life. You literally took giant leaps of faith and did, for example, even the beginning, you did two years of work for free, right? Yeah, how many people would do that? Spend hours every single week going in, put making the content, doing the work on it, and then over time, people say, Oh, you got lucky. Maybe you didn't get lucky, maybe you just put so much investment into so much opportunity into it that it ended up paying dividends on the back end for you and helping you grow.

SPEAKER_00:

The way I look at it is, and this is something that I want to instill in everyone, especially my children, though, is when I started my website, I'm very I was blessed because I didn't know an online business was possible. I have a feeling if I knew that making money was possible, I probably would have given up because then I would have been doing it expecting to make money at the end, like every time I publish, all right, time to make money, and why am I why am I not making money? But I was just doing it because I really loved it. Like I really, really enjoyed it. And it doesn't mean it wasn't hard work, it was grueling, it was very difficult, but I also really enjoyed it. And so because I didn't expect money on the back end, it made it easier to keep going because I didn't look at I didn't look at not making money as a failure. I looked at it as just like I'm doing this because I enjoy it anyway. I'm gonna do it whether I make money or not. And so I think that for me was a huge takeaway that right now I think many people they'll give up on stuff too soon because they're not making money as quickly as they'd like. But if they kept doing it and did a really good job with it in two years, three years, five years, seven years, ten years, they would end up they they could make it their career and they could uh make a significant amount of money and help a significant amount of people and have a wonderful life that they've built. But uh, one of the my my quotes that I didn't make this up, but one of the quotes that I enjoy very much that has held true for me is most people massively overestimate what they can accomplish in one year and underestimate what they can accomplish in seven years. And when you're in the process, like seven years is a long time, it feels like forever. But in the grand scheme of your life, God willing, it's really not that long.

SPEAKER_01:

That that you know that right in the head. Like when I first opened the doors in my gym, I was like, one year I've been making gross than a million bucks uh a year, and then COVID happened. So obviously that went downhill, especially being in New York.

SPEAKER_00:

So one year closed doors during COVID. Oh my gosh, especially as a gym owner. Oh man, that's like the worst of the worst.

SPEAKER_01:

I 25% of uh gyms in New York State went out of business for good, and we stuck it out, wrote it out for years. It was a lot of hard work, but I mean, we're kicking now, man. That's what it's all about. But it's going through seven years of because we opened technically the dream company started since 2017. So seven years of making no money whatsoever, and then all of a sudden things started going. It's all that extra back end work, all that investment, all that risk that eventually you know will pay out because you're saying, Hey, in seven years I can do something.

SPEAKER_00:

Correct, correct. That's exactly right. Well done, brother. Huge congrats. That's a testament to your hard work. I appreciate that, and it's it's fun.

SPEAKER_01:

Fitness industry is fun. You don't like being a gym owner, I love it.

SPEAKER_00:

No, it was I liked being a gym owner. I didn't like working with my partner at that time. Fair enough. By the way, is he's a great guy, like as a person, I really enjoy him a lot. As a business partner, I didn't like it. That's why I did it myself. Yeah, that's very smart.

SPEAKER_01:

I was like, I can't tolerate people, but no, it was it was phenomenal. It was a really great choice. I want to tie this in um just a hit more of a general perspective, right? We talked a lot about this is what business owners do. Like you take a risk, you're underestimating what you can do in seven years. Tie that into nutrition and what you learned at behavioral psychology. People overestimate how much they can accomplish in two weeks when it comes to working out a nutrition. Even a day, I've heard people, oh, that was a part of a day. But they underestimate all the time what they can accomplish in a year or two years. What do you think the biggest drawback is, especially in that comparison of the apple and the donut, that makes people choose that donut nine times out of ten if both of give them for free?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, why like why do I think people are choosing it?

SPEAKER_01:

Why do you think people go that route instead of going the little tiny sacrifices every single day to really get where they want it to be to feel better when they know good help is right on the flip side of just making a good choice?

SPEAKER_00:

So, you know, here's here's the sort of the major issue is the issue isn't choosing the donut once. The issue is you choose the donut once, and then you think you messed everything up, and so you now you need to choose the donut every day, every meal, because you ruined it because you had it that one time. And then after two weeks of having the donut for every meal, and again, this is like hyperbole, but you're you have the donut all the time after two weeks to four weeks or or three years, however long it is. Then you get sick enough of yourself, we're like, all right, I'm never having a donut again. I will I will never eat a donut for my whole life. And then you go a day, no donut. Awesome. You go two days, no donut, great. Day three, uh-oh. I swear to one donut, but I'm not gonna have it. Day four, no, white knuckle it, not gonna have it. I'm not having it. Day five, have a donut. Then you ruin it again. And then you this is the cycle where you think you have one donut and you've ruined everything. People view the donut as the you you said something earlier. You said, I don't view failure as adversity, like you use it as a good thing. Um, people view the donut as a failure in a bad way when you've identified that one food, and it could be a cheeseburger, could be fries, whatever the fuck, whatever it is. But if you view that as a failure in a bad way, then as soon as you have it, you are now a failure and you're a bad person. And so my job is how do I get people to understand that it's it's uh not what you do inconsistently, it's what you do consistently that matters, and that any one individual choice, especially when it comes to food, isn't going to make or break your progress. And so I think our job as coaches is not to demonize the apple and sensationalize, not to demonize the donut and sensationalize the apple. Our job is to understand, yeah, like the majority of time, let's make sure we're having the apple. But occasionally when you have the donut, I want you to enjoy it and I don't want you to feel guilty about it because the more guilt you feel about it, the more you're gonna feel like a failure and the more you're not gonna get back on track. And so um I that's where my general uh philosophy comes into play in terms of understanding the more we demonize this and make it seem like a failure, the more people are gonna fail. And then the more listen, like all I want to do every time I see a uh uh a fire alarm is pull it. Because I am not I know I'm not supposed to pull it. Like I've been told my whole life don't pull it, don't pull it, don't pull it. It's like that's all I want to do. Basic human psychology 101, you tell someone not to do something, they want to do it.

SPEAKER_01:

Don't think of a pink elephant.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, immediately. If you tell someone you can't eat a donut, now all I want is a donut. So uh telling people not to have it is not the right choice. It's it's getting them to be okay with having it, but also understanding just because you can have it doesn't mean you should have it all the time.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, I have the world's hardest question for you. Go for it. I hope you're ready for this. As coaches, trainers, life coaches, we're very good at working with people who had that, okay, I need to make a change. So the question is it's two part. One, why are some people different in the sense where that failure mentality, right? Okay, now I need to make a change. Why does it take one person three days and one person four years and one person 20 years to come to that realization in a cycle? And then two, how do you open up the conversation with people who don't even have it in their mind that they need to make a life change?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. So this is um this is a really wonderful question. And you're right, it is very difficult. It's very multifaceted. There's actually an entire model. Uh, there are many models based on this, but uh, if you haven't heard of it, my personal favorite is called the trans theoretical model of behavior change. Uh, this is an entire model, and and it goes all the way from the person who doesn't even know that they need to make a change all the way to someone who's like, okay, I know I need to make a change, but I'm not really ready, willing, or able to make a change, to someone being like, okay, I know I need to make a change, and I'm ready, willing, and able to make a change, but I don't know what to do. It's like, okay, I'm ready, I know what to do, but I just need help start. It goes all the way up until like the the end. Point is the end point isn't uh they've made the changes they're sticking with it. The end point is actually unfortunately the end point is relapse, which is like all right, you get to the end point, okay, now they relapse and they go back. So hopefully they never reach the true endpoint. Hopefully they just stay at the second endpoint, which is they continue on with their healthy habits forever. Um but what's what I find interesting is well, we'll start with your first question is like, why is it why are people different? Like, why are why does it take someone three hours, someone else three days, someone else three years, someone else 30 years to figure out and some people never. Um it's so it's multifactorial. Uh part of it, I I would, I mean, there's a genetic component to everything, like to everything, even to like there are some people who brush their teeth six times a day, floss four times a day, and no matter what, like their teeth just won't look the way they want. And other people who barely brush, barely floss, they've got these glistening white teeth. Like it's like, what the fuck? There's just genetic some people who lift a weight one time in their life and they're jacked and shredded. Another person who lifts for 20 years and they like look soft, and like they're like, Wow, like you actually lift, that's crazy. So there's a huge genetic component to basically everything, including this. I think a major one, potentially the most important one, even more than genetics for this one, is environment. I think who you surround yourself with or who you are surrounded with plays a gargantuan role in terms of what you do, the choices you make, what you think is important, what you think you're capable of. Uh I think the environment that you have, which is really difficult, especially as a young kid, when you don't necessarily get to choose that. You don't get to choose who your parents are, you don't get to choose what they have in your house, you don't get to choose what they're putting in your ear, uh, what they're saying to you, your siblings, all of that, your who's in school, your teachers. Um, I mean, I like we can dive down the whole topic of privilege, which I think is very overdone nowadays. But if you want to talk about the ultimate privilege, I think the ultimate privilege is having like two parents who really love you and care about you and who will do anything to fight for you and to speak positively to you and encourage you, and then being in an amazing school system with teachers who support you and uh and like who are a great curriculum and who are trying to hold you accountable. Uh, these are all like, I think the ultimate privileges in life. And so if you have that, I think you have a much greater uh chance of being able to recognize, okay, these are the mistakes, these are this is my behavior. I need to change, this is what I need to do going forward. But even then, when it comes to health, there are many people in that world who really struggle with their health. Um, and it's there's so many different factors at play, whether it's trauma and it could be physical trauma, it could be mental, emotional trauma. Um, but these are all different things that can impact why. So, and by the way, it changes based on the behavior. There could be someone who is really struggling with their weight and their nutritional choices, but they could like all of a sudden, like have no issue saying, hey, I've got to get my finances in check. And all of a sudden they stop useless spending, they make a budget, they figure out their finances, they they save really well, they're a millionaire by the time they're 40, like on like$100,000 a year or less, like they crush it with finances. But when it comes to their own personal health, they struggle with making those choices. So it's not even just like the type of person, it's also the individual task and behavior for that person. So there are so many reasons why that it's impossible to just say this is this is definitively it. But I think the uh an important uh uh uh surrounding yourself with great people with the same values or the same values that you want to emulate, and then being objectively honest and aware of your decisions, and and also I think from our perspective is educating people on what can really happen with minimal effort. This is what I've seen a lot of people think they need to work out seven days a week, three hours a day, they think they need to be perfect with their nutrition, they think they need to be losing weight every single day, and if they're not, then it's never gonna work. Whereas it's like, do you if you if you strength train two times a week, and if you if you loosely keep track of your calories and you just have protein, you prioritize your protein and you prioritize your fiber, and like you you prioritize your sleep, just like general prioritizations, it doesn't have to be perfect. If you show them that like the the increases in bone density, if you show them the increases in lifespan, if you show them the improvements that they can have, all of a sudden they're like, holy shit, this is worth it. Even if I'm not doing it to the extreme, at least doing a little bit is going to be beneficial long term. I think as an educational resource, that's one of the most important, if not the most important things we can do to get people to make these small changes.

SPEAKER_01:

Like I said, it was a hard question.

SPEAKER_00:

It was a brutal question. It was, it was.

SPEAKER_01:

But I appreciate the super in-depth answer that you gave on a lot of it. And you had a lot of really good points where it's people are just overall different. It really depends on the prioritization of what they find important, whether it's the finances or whether it's their health or whether it's their time with their family, it's what you really want to focus on. But I think this all ties into the biggest question of all, which is why are we losing? And I mean that by the sense there's more gyms, more trainers, more free information than there ever has been in the history of the world.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

And the life expected age is still going down, the debt we're getting involved in from the obesity rate is exponentially increasing. People are getting sicker sooner. There's obesity in 10-year-olds with type 2 diabetes that never like has never been around ever. And we're just the obesity rate rises every single day. So why are we losing and what can we do as individuals to really change that? And even to get more specific and more of a micro level, because I think that's the most important factor of it. Do you think it's right for somebody who, let's say, has a relative that's 100 pounds overweight to say, hey, look, listen, you need to make change now? Or do you think it's too, hey, we need to stay out of it, step back, it's their decision, it's their choice?

SPEAKER_00:

Great question. So to start with, the why are we losing? Again, multifactorial, but I think it's much, it's actually a much easier question. Uh, and I'll start with we have we live in the most convenient time in history. Like to be alive right now, could you imagine even 20 years ago? Never mind 50, 100 plus years ago, telling someone it's like, hey, you pick this phone up and you can order any food you want, and it will be delivered directly to your house. Never mind just like a meal, you can get your groceries delivered to you. You can get package like Amazon, like you could get whatever you want delivered to your door today. You don't have like gift shopping before you had to get up, you had to go to the store, you had to look through all the store, you had to go to the mall, you had to go if you wanted to do your returns, you had to go back. Like it if you're going to the grocery store, and many people still do this stuff, but you don't have to. Um, you could do your doctor's visit over the phone, you have telehealth, you have every you bear you could many people work from home now. Like, you don't even have to leave your house. And so the the I mean, I was actually out. We do uh family walk every day. We're gonna do family walk when we're done with this podcast. I look at kids now and they have like electric scooters and electric bikes, they don't even pedal the fucking ground, they just zoom and they go super fast, not wearing a helmet, by the way, which I feel super old saying that, but like these kids like they zoom by on a scooter that they don't even have to use their body for, it's just like they pull the handle. Um so for me, I think the the obesity crisis, uh and we could go to nutrition as well, but I think it's mainly fueled by movement. A lack of movement is I think the biggest, biggest, biggest, biggest issue because not only does it affect calories, burn, and all of that, but it also a lack of movement affects your mental health. Uh, it will lead you to choosing worse nutritional choices. Uh, the lack of movement, I think, is the starting point. Uh, it will lead to more depression, it will lead to more anxiety, it will lead to craving more sugary foods, more high-fat foods, it'll lead like the lack of movement, I think is the biggest thing. Um, in addition to that, we have social media, which leads to more isolation, and then you see these extremist views. And there's no question that uh the longest-living societies have the they have the best communities. People have like in-person communities, strong uh in-person relationships. And now we have access to anyone and everyone online who has any opinion from for whatever, and it could be like the dumbest thing you could ever hear. And then your blood pressure goes up, you're like, What the fuck did that person say? I can't believe they said that. Then your day is ruined, and you're arguing with someone who you've never met, you never will meet, it doesn't matter. And then, but you're not actually paying attention to your family that's in the room with you, you're not going to meet with them, you're doing everything over Skype or Zoom or whatever. Uh, so we're not moving, we're lacking in-person relationships. And in addition to that, the food we have access to is super high calorie. It's made to be addictive, it's made to be super outrageously palatable and enjoyable that it's hard to like Pringles. Like, once you pop, you just can't stop. Like, literally, the purpose of these foods is to make it so it's hard to stop eating it. They spend hundreds of millions of dollars testing these foods with focus groups to see which ones are going to be more difficult for people to put down. So, like, all of these combined with one another makes it very difficult to actually be healthy. So, I I get pissed when people blame it just on sugar or just on seed oils or just on food dyes, when it's real, it's like, no, it's all of this put together, but I think lack of movement, lack of community, and uh and and eat too easy of access to this very highly processed, highly palatable food, hypostatiating food is I think the the the three biggest, biggest, biggest issues for sure. As for what do you tell someone who's severely overweight, like a family member? Here's what I'll say. And this comes from someone whose entire family has struggled with obesity. Um, my brother was severely overweight, he literally just lost 150 pounds recently. Uh, my mom was very overweight for a long time, and she's just recently lost like 50 or 75 pounds at this point. Um, so I have a lot of personal experience with it, and I'll say number one, if someone has a lot of weight to lose, they know they have a lot of weight to lose. Like they're not fucking stupid. They're they're acutely aware that it's a problem and they're likely very embarrassed about it. Uh, if they talk about it a lot, usually it's their defense mechanism just to get it out of the way and talk about it because like they're they're self-conscious about it. If they don't talk about it a lot, it's because they're self-conscious about it. It's because they they they they know and they just like they don't they are aware of it and they're worried about what people think about them. So if they talk about it a lot or they don't talk about it a lot, they're insecure about it. I promise you. So generally, and this is again basic psychology one-on-one, you tell someone what they need to do, especially as an adult, they're gonna be like, fuck you. Like almost always. You the the best strategy is uh letting them ask you for help. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean you wait until they do it and you just never bring it up. The strategies that I adopted for both my brother and my mom were always hey, because sometimes they would bring it up occasionally, and whenever they brought it up, they would be like, Yeah, I think I need to lose some weight. I'd be like, listen, I'll tell you what, if you need anything, I'm here. Like, I love you no matter what. But if and when you decide it's time for you to make this change, great. And uh for my brother, it was, I mean, I had these conversations with him for over 10 years. It and uh for my mom, it was for like her whole my whole life. Uh and it only happened with really with my mom, it happened when my first daughter was born. That's when she was like, oh shit, like that was her moment. And these are like the often like the rock bottom moments where it's like, fuck, like I've got to do something. And for my brother, it was around the time when I think he was like 34, and he was like, I really want to get married and have kids. And I think he was like, I don't know if that's gonna happen if I stay the way I am. And so having like, I'll tell you what, this is sort of an unpopular opinion that I have, but uh one of the major things that I do with my podcast is I I talk to people who've lost 100 pounds or more and kept it off. And I've spoken to many, many people who've done that. And the most common theme among these people uh that led them to doing it is fear. And so I know like it's not like I'm not, I don't want people to, I don't want to scare people, but if you look at people who've been drug addicts and been able to remove drugs from their life, when they hit rock bottom, it's usually fear. There's something that scared the shit out of them to be like, I need to make a change. And so I don't think it's necessarily our job to try and scare them. They need to have something happen that will scare them into doing it, which as a family member, as a friend, it can be really difficult. But often trying to like shove it down their throat will actually push them further away. Oftentimes they'll need something to happen for them to realize they need to make that change.

SPEAKER_01:

Go back, just quickly just go back to your smoking example you used in the beginning of the show. They put skull and crossbones on the packs. How many people are making the decision to go grab that right now? But on the flip side of that, you go back, like you said 30 years ago, how many less people are smoking? Yep, yeah. Right? Huge comparison. And then go into a study that was released a couple years ago, which you've probably heard about, is not exercising was increased your chances of dying at a younger age than smoking and exercising day.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, exactly. Insane, it's absolutely insane.

SPEAKER_01:

Correct. So you're better smoking a pack a day and still working out three days a week than not smoking and not working out.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, literally, exercising is better for you than smoking is bad for you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Mind blowing.

SPEAKER_00:

Like exercise is the magic pill.

SPEAKER_01:

Some would say fitness is medicine.

SPEAKER_00:

It it is, it is for sure. It a hundred percent is.

SPEAKER_01:

I I love it. Jordan, I'm gonna ask you the final questions I ask everybody. So the first question is if you were to summarize this episode in one or two sentences, that would be your take-home message.

SPEAKER_00:

Say, dude, I'm sorry, I like got so hyped up about the fitness and medicine that I like didn't even listen. Say it again.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, it's good. It's at the end of our show anyway. So you can say it with me. I'll let you know why. The first question is if you were to summarize this episode in one or two sentences, what'd be your take-home message?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, fitness is medicine. That's like perfect. Like here's it exercise is better for you than smoking is bad for you. If that doesn't just blow you the fuck away, I don't know what else we can say. Like, our whole lives, we all know smoking will kill you, exercise will save you. Like, that's the I don't know what else to say. That's it.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that. I absolutely love that. The second question: how can people find you, get a hold of you, and learn more?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh, I'm everywhere. Just search my name, podcast. I have a podcast on Instagram, YouTube, Jordan Siet. Like, I'm all over the place.

SPEAKER_01:

Jordan, thank you so much for taking the time out to do this. Thank you guys for listening to this week's episode of Help the Ministry Defined. Don't forget, hit the subscribe button and join us next week as we dive deeper into this every change of field. And remember, stay with me.

Contributor

Anthony Amen

Host