The Iron Table
The Iron Table
You Versus You: Redefining Men's Health Beyond Nostalgia
Ever wondered why that "dad bod" creeps up on men after 40? Our fascinating conversation with fitness expert Ronald Quick dives deep into the psychology and physiology behind middle-aged men's struggle with health and fitness.
Quick brings twenty years of physical education experience to the table as he challenges our nostalgic attachment to our younger athletic selves. "You can't outwork a bad diet," he reminds us, sharing the sobering reality that fitness isn't fair—those cookies that take seconds to eat require significant exercise to burn off. But rather than discouraging listeners, this truth serves as a wake-up call.
The most profound insight? Stop competing with others or with your younger self. "Write down where you are right now...beat that person, because that's the only person you're competing with," Quick advises. This shift from external comparison to internal improvement provides a revolutionary framework for men's fitness after 40.
We explore how social dynamics enable fitness decline—married couples often gain weight together, mutually accepting physical changes—and how today's youth, unaccustomed to physical exertion, will face even greater challenges maintaining health in middle age. The solution? Finding activities that require "effort but not exhaustion" and creating sustainable routines rather than exhausting regimens that lead to burnout.
Quick exposes fitness industry secrets, warning against gimmicky equipment and fad diets while encouraging each man to treat his body as a personal "science fair project"—discovering which foods and activities work specifically for his unique physiology. This customized approach, combined with honest accountability partners who won't sugarcoat feedback, forms the cornerstone of lasting health improvements.
Whether you're struggling with your own fitness journey or supporting someone who is, this conversation offers practical wisdom, tough love, and the encouragement needed to make sustainable lifestyle changes. Ready to stop romanticizing your 20-year-old self and start improving today's version of you? This episode is your starting point.
Welcome to the iron table, where iron sharpens iron, so should men sharpen men. I'm your host, bryant, and I'm joined by my boys, keith, danny and Steve. We are bringing you truth with a side of humor loaded with accountability and thought. We now bring you to our program already in progress. It always gets a hot reaction. We kind of got a special guest and you can see on the screen. He's in the middle because that's what we do for our special guest and actually he's the second guest, but he's in the middle. So before we go into introductions and letting know who we brought to the table, we just want to go around and just check on the brothers and just see how they, how they've been doing since the last time we talked no particular order and've got to unmute. You For some reason, you can't do it. There we go. All right, no particular order. Okay, these brothers aren't talking.
Speaker 2:I'm going to say my last week has been, uh, pretty, pretty interesting. Um, just uh, work. Um, it was a short week, but when you're not working, uh, for the federal government, you working for home, and so it's summertime, um, which means that my family is home 24-7. So the me time is when I'm coming home or going to work, but it was a good week. Got some work in grass, cutting a little bit of exercise yeah, just pretty chill. Oh, and I finally bought myself this VR platform and I finally turned it on to make sure that it worked. So I'm looking forward to some type of virtual exercise. Maybe I can connect my old Nintendo to it and pretend like I'm in Contra and do some of them Contra flips. We'll see what happens, but if not, I've got at least three guys on this screen that can take me to the ER, and one came very close to doing it themselves. Alright, who's next?
Speaker 3:I'm good man. I've been blessed and highly favored to be here today Enjoying the summer Ready to be here today Enjoying the summer, ready to take a nap. Ditto had a good week.
Speaker 4:I'm a school teacher, so I'm on summer vacation, so I'm part of that. Back home, chilling, getting naps whenever I want work out in the morning. No school buses out here. Everybody's kids are back to them. I'm enjoying life. Right now. It's the second week of my summer vacation, Trying to recharge the batteries from a long, long, long school year. But that's about it. So far, so good.
Speaker 3:That's what's up. My hat's off to all y'all school teachers. I used to want to do it. I used to want to do it.
Speaker 4:Definitely a calling, especially in these times.
Speaker 5:There's different beasts.
Speaker 4:They say there's only two reasons to be a teacher and it's June and July Two months, man. And this school year got pushed back so far because of uh, all the snow that came from on the winter break. So we ended up with two weeks and that one weeks. We had to make all those days up. So that's gonna be a lot. We had five days we had to make up. We just got out like the 23rd way too late in the game.
Speaker 3:Yeah right, that's that's. Somebody got tickets somewhere to some beach by then.
Speaker 2:That is too long, all right, so let me give a little background. So it was 2000, I would say maybe 17. I want to believe that and I was given. I was asked by some of my peers if I wanted to. I'm hearing some feedback. Anyone else hear that? I'm hearing that. Alright, let's go through. It might have been. Danny must be on the iphone again um so say, 2017?
Speaker 2:um, I was given, uh, I was asked by a mutual friend between me and our special guest if I wanted to play softball, and I was like softball it must be simple, it's baseball, just a bigger ball, easier to hit, you know. And and so I was like all rightball must be simple as baseball, just a bigger ball, easier to hit, you know. And so I was like, all right, you know, I'm pretty athletic, you know, I was athletic in grade school and high school and early in college and I had to lay off and I'm like I play basketball, I'm pretty decent in that. So softball should be a simple just run, catch the ball, swing at it and it go far. Well, I joined a team. I even buy all this gear, you know. Colors were orange and black, so I bought some orange and black Nike cleats, had this big glove. My first glove was kind of small, but it had this big softball mitt and I'm out in the outfield and I'm like, ok, I think they put me in right field. They put me someplace where a lot of balls weren't going to come.
Speaker 2:So I'm sitting there and I I'm looking at these guys back here I don't know anyone, but maybe like four people, it's a church league team, church league softball team. And so the ball gets hit to me and I'm just like, okay, let me just go and put my my glove up. And I hear this, I got it. And I'm like who's saying I got it? And so I look to my right or left, I don't know. You know my direction is off and I see this guy running. I mean running, it's if you ever wanted to know what the sound of a swoosh sounds, like it was. And he just jumps in front of me and catches the ball. Like I'm like, who is this dude? Oh, come on. So I'm like, all right, this is one time. I'm new, you don't know me yet. Let me, you know, show him up. Same thing happened again and again and again and I was just like why am I even out here? Am I just a body? Well, fast forward to To last year and me and this guy quick, we, we've interacted.
Speaker 2:I've been over his house a couple of times, built his bar he entrusted me to be. That was when I first became a negro carpenter. It was my first project and it's it's still there. So there's a lot of screws, um, but I, when I started the iron table, I was like one day I want to have a, I wanted to kind of be a gm, a sponsor my my own team, and so I created Iron Table jerseys and I brought them out and I was like this guy and he's number 10. So that's probably the number of times I've beaten him in a game. Now, hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me say this Because he's going to say something.
Speaker 4:He should say something. This is a good time to mute my mic, but go ahead.
Speaker 2:I'm used to being the best person in my um. Well, in in the small grade school that I went to, I was the best person, I believe that, going into high school but didn't get an opportunity to do that College. You know, intramural basketball won an award for most offensive player. But when I, when I played against him, I hated it because I had I thought I had lateral movement. Now I've had knee surgeries, I've had a replacement hip.
Speaker 2:The only way I stand in front of him is when we're all in the middle of the court picking teams and I'm on the opposite side because I tell you I can't be on his team. He's just that good that I don't want to. I don't want my wins to be tainted by his greatness. So when I realized that I was putting together a team and I wanted this team to be people of my peers and I wanted to bring in somebody who was good, someone who would challenge the team, to realize that you can be, you can play at a certain level if you're willing to put in the work, I'm glad that he stayed with us throughout the entire team. I mean entire season because there was some rough parts, but he's a he's a stand up guy.
Speaker 2:Rough parts I'm just going to say that he's a stand up guy and I just had to bring them so that everybody can see just how at least for men. As we age and we have to deal with our bodies not being how they once were in our teens, you know there is something that we can do about it instead of just giving up and just accepting it the way it is. So I'll allow a quick to introduce himself and just to let y'all know that's not a nickname, that is. That is who he is. So and that was also something that I was like, I ain't calling no dude quick. You know I got too much pride, but that's his government name, so I have to do it.
Speaker 4:So, with that wonderful introduction, my actual name is Ronald Quick. Mr Quick, I think a lot of people on the basketball team thought it was a nickname to a guy. We played against one guy who got into it with me and he was just like you ain't even all that fast to have quick on the back of your jersey and I'm like dude, y'all are by 60. You got to relax, got to relax. It was a lot going on in that league. I hope we get to a lot of those conversations during this.
Speaker 4:But I didn't think I was going to be fighting at 12 o'clock in the morning with other Christians. But here we were Right, grabbing my jersey, pushing me out of bounds and stuff. Like it got physical and it got rough. My background I got 20 years of experience in physical education, so I'm a PE teacher, I'm a personal trainer. I walked into the gym the first time. I was just happy to meet people Like I'm a people person. I'm around 13 to 15 year olds all day long, every day, so I'm hearing all of the new slang and all the new garbage that they have to say, so just being adult men a breath of breath until I saw that layup line and then I was like Brian.
Speaker 4:So here's the thing Brian set me up. I'm going to let y'all know in advance. Brian was like, hey, there's no way we go anything less than like eight and six. I'm like oh, okay we set.
Speaker 4:Be good, like y'all ain't kidding me and I'm jumping in here Like I just know I could just be a help At this. I'm coming off a torn. Jesus fixed it. We're going to leave that where it is. So I'm like all right, I'm just going to jump in the squad, help out, distribute the ball. Folks are going to do the scoring. I get in the gym.
Speaker 4:Knee wasn't great that. First time y'all met me, I think y'all thought I was a lot better off than I was and they was like oh we're. When we got out there it got a little hectic, but I was just happy to see people working out. I think we jumped into it with the wrong mentality. Bryant saw himself on video. So this is how this whole conversation started. Bryant saw himself on video and he was like how many pounds does the camera add? And I was like zero, it's just whatever you've been adding over time, bro. So Bryant had picked up a couple pounds and I didn't have any other way to tell him this. But he is lumbering, and that is the verb that I'm going to use up and down and yell at anybody else on the team.
Speaker 4:Y'all got to go back and look at the videos. I take that back. Jason, he's not on here. I yell at jason. Jason and brian are the only two people I'll yell at, and I'm like brian if you just run the lane and b is he's like I am running the lane. I'm like in slow motion. Bro, if you would just get there, and then I'm running around.
Speaker 4:I'm like this is my guy, like. So we started talking like, what can I do for this? We got to take some baby steps to this thing. We got to look at your diet, we got to look at your fitness level. We can't just jump in the gym and remember when we were 18, I was 18.
Speaker 4:I used to do this because our image of what we used to do is always going to be distorted. I used to do 360 dunks. That's a lie. I did one in my lifetime, and I think that we just don't need to kid ourselves sometimes, but the past just looks so attractive to what we were and what we did. We are now. It's not necessarily the same person, so how do you adjust? So that's where I think this conversation goes. Today is like what do you do now that you're 42 and not 14, and the world is telling you to shut that thing down, don't even worry about a dad bods, and there's a dad on here. I'm not a dad, so I can't can't have a dad with no kids, but the world's telling you that that stuff is okay? Is it, though, like so that I hope that we get into some of those conversations from different perspectives today?
Speaker 2:that's it in in my defense. I've had two knee surgeries and a hip surgery. So he at no point throughout the and I would pick him up so that we could have our pre and post game talks the pre-game talks was cool, you know, it was like all right but I mean, there's actually video where he has yelled at me bryant, I need you here.
Speaker 2:And I'm like dude, I don't know how to play basketball, but this is, that's the type of friend that I needed, because I I've had friends that will just, you know, be like all right man, it's cool, it's all right man, whatever. But no, I needed someone to just tell, getting choked up, to tell me straight up like dude, you suck, you are going to suck until you make these changes and I'm not going to tell you otherwise until you're willing to make those changes. And so one of the great things he did was he opened up the gym so that I could get an opportunity to play. So I'm going to put everything. On Saturday, we had some challenges. There was this grip test where I gripped it and there was a number that was supposed to show up. I don't think that number went above 15. I don't know what that means, but I thought I was squeezing strong and I was like, nope, this is not my thing, I'm just going to, I'm just going to just go in this corner and just shoot jumpers or something like that.
Speaker 2:But, um, yeah, this is why I brought it on here, because I was like I need, we need and it's not just me, we need to be um, to be shocked, because you know, like he said, one of the worst things you can do is still think that you're a certain way or still think it's like you're you're 14, you're 18, when it's for me 47. So 47. So the fact that I'm out there is cool, but I actually want to to be out there and not just there. So all right. So I got a couple of questions kind of uh, do the first one no? In your opinion, why do men struggle with health after 40? Um, and it might even be 30. I don't know. I know that because of my current lifestyle and just really just getting comfortable. I used to. My normal weight was like 180. I'm 205 now, so I'm 25 pounds overweight. So I'm 25 pounds overweight. But like, why do you believe and you've seen, you've worked with kids, you've seen some adults, you know why is there a struggle?
Speaker 4:I'm going to go first or somebody else wants to go. I think it's social acceptance. I think a lot of men end up married and in relationships and they have kids. Their wife has gained a couple pounds, so they've gained a couple pounds, and nobody's holding anybody accountable because we're busy. I think the I'm busy man. I just got off of work. When am I supposed to do this? In the mornings, I got to get the kids ready, I got to pack these lunches, I think. I think there's a litany of excuses that people come up with for why they don't want to do it.
Speaker 4:My number one thing about fitness is you versus you. It's not anybody else. Brian, you're not competing with me and you shouldn't, but I'm not going to let me down. That's. That's how that works. I'm going to pick't about anybody else. I think so many people are making it about everybody else. Single people work out more than people who are married. Why? Because we're still trying to get our person. So we got to present ourselves out to society, to be prepared to bring women in, to bring men in. So that's the people who are living in the gym. If you and your spouse aren't in the gym together and she's telling you you're okay and you're making lasagna and having pizza again tonight, then both of y'all grow old and fat together and everybody's happy. So after you get past four, we settle into who we are. And if the only person who can judge me is the person that I put a ring on it and she's not going anywhere because I gave her three kids and I ain't got to do anything, right.
Speaker 3:I mean it's not adding much to it, but just piggyback on what was said. Look at our youth, our teens. A lot of them aren't active. They game, they on their phones, they scroll. So by the time they get to the age where their metabolism starts to slow down, they don't have that habit of getting out, going to do things. They freak out at the fact that they're sweating. Oh my gosh, I'm about to die. My heart's beating fast Like oh my gosh. So when they hit 40, if you've been that way your entire life and you hit 40, you're not going to have that drive to get up and go get this done. It's a habit now to just, like Quick said, just sit there and eat and notice the weight gain, notice the changes, but you don't have the motivation or the knowledge to do anything about it.
Speaker 2:I mean a question about the knowledge. I mean I've heard stop eating more than you're working out, Isn't that true? I mean, does it like cap, Does calorie count really matter? Cause, like I mean, someone told me that walking could help lose weight. Is that true?
Speaker 4:People look at me crazy all the time, like yo, you should be out here running, and I'm like you should be out here doing something, like I walk every single day. You have to do something. There's two points that were made. Speaking on the youth, Keith, I agree with you 1,000%. My kids play against me in basketball and PE every single day and they're like, oh man, in 2K, I'm nice, I'm like no, this ain't pressing a button. There's no circle, no spin, no R2 for a lob. You actually have to do this.
Speaker 4:So, as morbidly obese we are as a society, this is only about to get worse. I don't think people understand what's on the horizon. So, because these kids don't go outside, I talk to my kids all the time and the thing that I say is like we have more technology now to track you than any of us had when we were kids. We would go outside at the beginning of the day. Our parents have no idea where we were. The street light would come on and they're like my stray dog, I mean, my child better find their way back to this house.
Speaker 4:And if they don't find their way back to this house by 10 o'clock when that news came on. Do you know where your child is? That's the only time I'm going to pay. Now we can track them. We got iPhones and everything like that. We won't let them step foot out of their front yard. That's hindered their, their progression, their society growth, their social skills all of that. So a lazy child that you want tucked up underneath of you for their safety has now become this detriment to the system. So that's that's been interesting. So handing them video games and ipads at such a young age instead of letting them play and be kids has been a setup for failure as well, absolutely well, I find it's kind of hard, at least now with all the kids being inside, like I mean, deuce is only child.
Speaker 2:So, friends, is it's hard to come by, you know, trying to set up play dates. So what we'll do is we'll send them to a indoor um trampoline or play yard and just tell them hey, man, just run around, just randomly meet somebody, make a friend, do what your dad did, and maybe that friend will stick around for seven, eight years and come on your podcast at some point and talk crap about you, absolutely.
Speaker 4:But who made our friends? For us guys, this is always like parents. I sit in PTA meetings all the time and parents are just like I mean and they say what you said and I'm not judging you at all slightly Like we set up these play days. That's why our kids aren't puppies, like we can't stop taking them to the puppy park. Like, how did you make friends Go outside, find somebody? There's a kid across the street, he's weird, you're weird, be weird, don't tell somebody else.
Speaker 3:But you're weird.
Speaker 4:It's just weird, we're doing too much.
Speaker 1:We are. That's the problem, because when the other kids call me weird, then I'm crying because I can't take it that the other kid called me weird.
Speaker 4:They got to call me weird first, so then I can get out and find my weird tribe, Come on man.
Speaker 3:No, you're absolutely right. We made our own friends. In fact, we wouldn't even know the kid's name. We could spend all day with someone playing ball out in the front and my mom would be like well, who were you with all day? I don't know Black bike. And my mom will be like well who were you with all day?
Speaker 4:I don't know Black shirt. You done went to this house, got water, got a pop sip and went back outside, or anything like that. We're not there anymore, though we lost our maybe this is a conversation for another day.
Speaker 4:but we lost our sense of community too, because we don't trust anybody. We don't trust our next door neighbor people If I was in the neighborhood I was safe. We don't trust our next door neighbor people Like if I was in the neighborhood I was safe. Anybody can say anything to me playing football in the middle of street. Drive up the street, ronald, get your butt out of the middle of the street. It's not like I'm a. Go tell my mom she won't square up Like we.
Speaker 3:just we've lost our way in a lot of ways. So that trickle down effect is going to be dangerous. It's it's dangerous now because, as a teacher, you're seeing it like I'm sure you, I would imagine. Have you been approached by parents who didn't like the way you talk to their kids, when you motivate them to run some laps or or to push themselves?
Speaker 2:I bet parents are afraid of him All right.
Speaker 4:So I'm different. God put me on this planet to be a teacher. I'm going to say that with no hesitation. So anything that comes out of my mouth, when I know that I pray before the school day started, that God like monitor my words, I'm good with it, because if God said this was okay, then we good, I'm letting it fly. I might be one of the most sarcastic teachers on the planet, but it's in order to save lives.
Speaker 4:I told I had a lesson this year and this is where I get usually most of my emails and phone calls. I need everybody to get your mom and your dad in your mind. Everybody, every kid, does this. They close their eyes tight and I'm like are you cool with that? You cool with looking like that? Later on, and everybody opens their eyes and they're like, ooh.
Speaker 4:I said, all right, so we got to do something different, because they done already ran their route. What route you going to run? Because the genetics are telling you that's what you're about to be, that's where you're headed. Different, otherwise that image that you just had in your head. Be cool with that. And again the boys got this thing about here. All my dad's ball. I'm like well, thus you will be too enjoy these days, find that early in the game, but this is where we're headed.
Speaker 4:So if you don't, if you're not okay with looking like your mom or your dad, but y'all are all eating the same meals and they're feeding you, then where are we going? Where are we going? And they hate that. And I'm like you. Have somebody who can put you in a position. That's not your mom or your dad. Maybe your mom and dad are super fit and that's fine with you. But if it's not fine with you, you need to get with somebody who's going to put you in a position to be better off. That's why we send our kids to school. Is it not To put them with experts that can do things that we can't do? But if we're sitting there and we're this like trust that you're sending your child somewhere that is going to build upon what you can't build on at home. But again, another conversation, just interesting.
Speaker 2:It sounds like the parents are reinforcing bad habits that they are, or they are the the main teachers of these bad habits and are not holding their child accountable. And when you come and try to correct course, correct something that they, they know, but I guess pride won't allow them to agree with you, then that just perpetuates this, uh, this roller coaster of dysfunction the problem with having a kid and I don't have any.
Speaker 4:So people are often like oh my gosh, you don gosh, you don't have any kids. You don't understand. Okay, I haven't been up at three o'clock in the morning because of baby star crime, but I've taught 20,000 kids in my life. So when it comes to this, it's just like what do you do when you know it's not the child's fault? No child is fat on their own. Every kid is broke. I tell them every single day they come to class you're broke. So every time you get pizza, somebody bought it for you. Every time you get Chick-fil-A, somebody was rewarding you. The kids are just like Mr Quick, what are you going to get your child? Go, turn the lights on and say you're welcome, Like, this is what you have. We got to stop rewarding people with garbage. Brian, when we won that first basketball game the firster against the same to have four players on this live, If you would have been like let's go celebrate and go to McDonald's, I'd have chopped you in the throat Because people are celebrating with bad.
Speaker 2:No, I was pissed that day.
Speaker 4:We got to celebrate with a smoothie and some kale. We don't, we don't celebrate like that. And I told the kids your parents bought you a salad for your birthday. They don't love me, mr Quick, and that a problem, but people love you by shortening. Here's another cake and ice cream. Here's diabetes. You can die sooner, like we gotta. We gotta change a lot of things, folks, and I'm trying to catch them young. So then, I ain't gotta like put my foot in behind, like brian who can't get up the basketball court, but you gotta start young. And how many people are going to hear the message and receive it, I don't know, but you can't say that you weren't told and so brian got uh, got chastised all the time.
Speaker 2:Lovingly, I mean, I started eating salads during the. You know, when I was at home during lunch, you know, I'd have a big bowl of salad, maybe cut up some grilled chicken.
Speaker 4:I'm just looking at the faces on the panel like this doesn't sound right and I was drinking water. Yes.
Speaker 1:I need some steak, y'all crazy.
Speaker 2:But I realized that it wasn't even that I stepped on the scale. It was that people who? It wasn't even that video, because I only watched it once, a hundred times While you were lumbering. Oh man, he would probably put out all videos of me lumbering Even the jerseys In his mind.
Speaker 3:I know he thought the jerseys were going to fit a certain way when we painted them. Jerseys on.
Speaker 1:I'm kind of glad I didn't get mine, because I had a feeling it wasn't going to fit.
Speaker 2:You and Danny's jersey was fine because y'all is slim, but the rest of us, I was like and they were 2X.
Speaker 4:That joint was like a paddle shower. We got our dresses and we ain't feeling them. It was bad. We were already at the rehearsal dinner. It was rough. We here now.
Speaker 3:Showtime.
Speaker 2:But I realized, you know, I started eating salads, started drinking more water, because that was my Achilles thing.
Speaker 3:I was. You were late to the party with the water.
Speaker 2:I mean I used to Prime.
Speaker 5:I think I had Prime at that point Sugary, sugary water, I just want to jump in and just say real, fast though, um, like, even though the thin frame is there, that doesn't mean you in shape, as as we found out. Because like, for real, for real, um, and y'all don't need to be smiling on this part, but your boy was out there struggling with my salad eating self.
Speaker 5:Well, yeah, that one game, but, nah, just getting up and down, that was like it. It was definitely something that I was not prepared for, and I'll say to to quick's point. You know, fitness is way more than just eating salad and um, staying, you know, thin and keeping your weight down because, um, you got to be able to have endurance and so it's, it's a. It's a much broader conversation that, um, I think it's important, because you see people who are thin, who drop dead all the time too, you know, and people get surprised OK, well, how do you have a heart attack? He was like, well, was he healthy? He wasn't fat. That don't mean jack squat, and so, just keeping that as a part of the conversation and I appreciate the, the, the chastisement as well yeah, when did you get some?
Speaker 2:All I've heard is my name.
Speaker 5:It was more collective and collaborative because y'all had a deeper relationship. But certain things they'll be saying like yeah, he talking about me, let's come with it yeah I had no idea how y'all view me, and I still don't.
Speaker 4:I was just like I was just having a good time. I didn't mean any harm to anybody. I don't think I said anything crazy except to anybody but brian. So, steve, you weren't at any of these games. I'm crazy. I'm playing a match, I'm playing a mess. So the whole game, 40 minutes running up and down the court with a mask on because we can't lose by 60, and somebody sneezes on me and I got the flu. We can't do both. Like I got to pick a struggle, so I wear the mask and people are just looking at me like quick, you're not struggling to breathe. You good, you're good and I'm like what's wrong? Yeah, I know, I asked you, I'm going to play it. It's like for me and for y'all. I'm around a thousand kids every single day. I don't want to bring anything here and I don't want to leave it with anything either. So I'm, I'm heavy.
Speaker 3:I got kids in my house and it only take one.
Speaker 4:And then the whole house sick. It's not one kid Like y'all, don't isolate them. And then we sending them to school too, because, yeah, the first question out there, brian, I think, just when we get over 40, and I also think, like we're told, we're OK, everybody's struggling, so let's all struggle together. We don't have to, though you don't have to struggle, it's a choice.
Speaker 2:Ok, so I mean, I know I can't get on you Well, let me not say that, because that's already thinking negatively that I can't get on your level of fitness, can't get on your level of of fitness. But what can I do? Um you know what, outside of prayer, what can I do? Um to kind of have a balanced fitness program, because one I I love basketball and growing up at venice that was the only sport that we were really allowed to play. Um, we didn't play soccer. I mean, there was kickball, but there was no. I definitely know I can't take this group into a kickball league. I've seen the videos.
Speaker 3:We might do better with that.
Speaker 2:I'm just going to tell you that now.
Speaker 4:These folks in the kickball world how they came from that world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you think that just kicking the ball. Some of these people don't even kick the ball. They don't even kick the ball up. They are positional kickers and they run. This ain't kicking like oh man, I know this is going to go over the fence. No, no, this kickball league is a real sport. It is. It should be on the o show it was on there today.
Speaker 4:Um, they asked me to play. Yes me, I had kickball on there today. Um, keith, I'm gonna. I'm gonna hit on your topic when we lost that first game to those 17 year olds and those people who are playing varsity for whatever school, why are we playing them?
Speaker 5:I've always said that outside of school.
Speaker 4:If I land in any location where there is more than six 17-year-olds. I've done something wrong in my life and that night, with them running that layup drill up and down the court on us, I realized I had done something wrong with my life. If we play in a 40-and-up league, I promise you we would have got two wins I'm not saying undefeated, but we would have beat more than one person. To be more than one person, so it has to be the oldest team in the league by a lot. It wasn't close. Yeah, people calling me a spring chicken at 42 is a problem, like I can't be your young player. That that can't be it. Then maybe we need to get amongst our peers and dog them, some people who are I told brian that.
Speaker 3:I told brian that we are here with babies, like in our minds. We still move that fast. But we got a chance to see. We know where we should be on the floor. But the the spirit there was the, the the flesh was. The flesh is willing to sweat. Our spirit is willing, flesh is weak. We couldn't move, we couldn't get back.
Speaker 2:We couldn't be that young man tried to dunk at the end and you step on them like six seconds on the clock.
Speaker 4:The game where you got six points, three tackles and four fouls, that one.
Speaker 2:I am not allowing no man to put his balls on my shoulders and anywhere around my head, and that's what I saw and I thought I caught him.
Speaker 4:I thought I caught him. These hands where you have them are for your wife, not another man. You sit there and caught that man in mid air, in mid air, in mid air, the Russian judge, let me ask you a question.
Speaker 3:I have a cousin that's a trainer and he said part of the problem that he has with people with training, as of late he's seeing people who are having more mental issues. It's hard to train them because they have more mental issues to work through. So when it comes to pushing, when it comes to just coaching, it's hard because they're dealing with things that he's not. That's not his expertise.
Speaker 4:My advice to him would be when we're training, we're training. I need people to get a singular focus in some things. I think when you bring so many different things into your environment, it can go south. I didn't plan on sharing this, but I have somebody who just had a kidney transplant. So if I bring that everywhere I go, then I'm not going to be my full self when I'm in that moment. Has she gone through the kidney transplant? Absolutely. Has it been a nightmare at times, a blessing at times, all those things.
Speaker 4:But if I just live in that and what that struggle is, and I don't when I go to my workouts, I don't think about that. That's not to say that I care less about the situation, but when I'm here, I'm focused on this. When I'm at school, I'm focused on this. I think if we can just find better lanes where we don't let everything bleed, we don't let good things go over into other lanes, but we let bad things bleed over into everything that we do. So I think that ends up being a bit dangerous. So for him, when I'm training people, I'm not asking anything about your boyfriend, your life, your husband, your car. I don't care about any of those issues and I know that sounds disrespectful, but we're here to do this and if you do this it's going to make your psyche and your mental so much better later on that maybe you'll be able to deal with those things in a better capacity if we do this right for this one hour, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:It does, and I think what I'm hearing is like when I talk about knee surgeries and hips. I got to leave that at the door because it's already happened. It's done, move past it, let's push through it and let's do something. Things just like when I was younger. I had to do all that because I didn't know what else I could do. But now that I'm in my adult life and I have a job, I have a family to support. A family to support is one of those.
Speaker 2:Like I can't afford to get hurt. I can't do X, y and Z, at least physically. Now, eating wise and probably you know other things you know do contribute to an unhealthy lifestyle. But you know, what do you do when you have that? I mean because it's like I can. I don't have to do this because I have friends that are like man, I ain't play basketball in an X amount of years. I got, I got a W2. I got to focus on that making sure that I can pay these bills. And getting hurt playing basketball, football, softball, kickball Anything is not on the menu.
Speaker 4:The life of being a hamster and getting a treadmill isn't appeasing or appealing to anybody. What I would tell anybody who's just starting out as somebody who's trying to figure out what do I do after 30, after 40? You go in the mirror. Today, you look in the mirror and you write down all your stats for who you are today and tomorrow. You try to be better than that person and next month you check those previous stats and you see that where you are, I think it's in the Bible and it's everywhere. And I have my pastor, keith Battle, who says all the time that we keep competing with people and losing ourselves. So we look on social media and we see the guy with a six pack might not be in the cards anymore. We might a one pack. Maybe we got to figure out what our goal is going to be and have a real.
Speaker 4:I walk 10 miles a day or I get a combined 10 miles a day. So walk, running and bike. If y'all walk out of here and try to do that tomorrow, you're going to lose a lung, a kidney and a rib. So it's no reason for y'all to go chase that. You have to chase your best you and stop chasing other people. So when you see other people be like man, I want that car, clothes, house and all that stuff you lose yourself trying to become somebody else. Look yourself in that mirror. Write down where you are right now. I am 205 pounds. I can walk for X amount of time. I can run for X amount of time. This is my diet. Write it down, beat that person, because that's the only person that you're competing with. It's you. There's nobody else that you're battling this life, this existence with, except for yourself. Don't let yourself down. So figure out what your workout is going to be.
Speaker 4:People are like man. I would think that you could run 20 miles. What am I going to be tomorrow if I run 20 miles? I'm not going. So what can you do? My easiest sell to my clients is what can you do that is effort but not exhausting. Find that and do that every day. What can you do every day? That's going to be effort but not exhausting. So you still have it for your wife, you still have it for your kids. You still have it for yourself, because that's the New Year's resolution. So Brian came in and he saw this lesson that I taught my kids and I'm going to ask everybody on the panel to see what you think. So January 1 is where I make all my money. People give me thousands of dollars. I'm about the same Last year. I know I said this last year, but this year I'm on it. How long does it take for people to quit their New Year's resolution? There's a national holiday. How long do you think it takes? One week. Steve said no, no, no, you said a week.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to figure that out. Because I'm trying to figure out On our end we start getting money. Because on the other end, when everybody quit their New Year's resolution and they come and see the therapist because they woe is me and it's depressed, I'm trying to think what that is. You said it's a national holiday.
Speaker 4:It's a national holiday. You can look it up on Google. I told my class about it and they couldn't believe it. But it's what we are. We're naturally quitters when something gets difficult.
Speaker 3:What would you recommend to maintaining?
Speaker 4:consistency. It's that thing where it's not exhaustion If you exhaust yourself. So what I noticed when people go to the gym they get their tripod. I'm doing it, it's real. You tell everybody on social media. That's why they come to the therapist afterwards, because they're so crestfallen from telling everybody that they're about to do it. And then they couldn't sustain it. Then now I got to go talk to somebody and sit on the couch because I let myself down again, and I've been letting myself down for years. So that date is actually January 10th.
Speaker 1:They only make it from the 1st to the 10th oh, I was almost there.
Speaker 4:I said, I said and then they strap out and they're like I can't do this. So the key to being able to maintain your fitness is to find something again that's effort, but not exhausting. If you're exhausted, you're not going to keep doing it. Nobody wants to do anything that's going to drive them into the ground. So when you go and you lift every way to Planet Fitness today and then you wake up the next day and you can't move because everything hurts, you're going back. Nope, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:I learned my lesson.
Speaker 3:We're going to run it back soon. You're not going back. But speaking to what you said about community, does that help? Do you feel like? Does that impact performance and long endurance at all? I think you got to have a community of people.
Speaker 4:I have a group of old ladies that I walk with every day. They're like 70. Joanna Meredith, like they're old ladies and they was like yo, can we walk with you?
Speaker 3:Are you nice to the old ladies? Shut up, meredith, come on, I am.
Speaker 4:I love my old ladies to death.
Speaker 3:But they go out there with their canes and we walk at the slowest pace on God's green earth.
Speaker 4:We get it done and people will look and they'll be like, oh man, they're walking slow but you're not doing any. Find something, start with something, and that something again starts in that mirror and that reality conversation that you have to have with you and then build on that. So then when we do get to December 31st, you're like, damn darn. I look back at who I was and now this is who I am, and now I still got to build on that fitness. I have this shirt Nike made it. I can't even take any credit for it. There's no finish line. If I could hit pause right now on my body right now, and then just keep this for the rest of my life, I think most of us would. Brian, I don't know, but I would just take it. But we can't. If I take two weeks off, I could be Brian. That scares me. I can't do that. If Brian's able to check me, something's gone wrong with what I've done.
Speaker 4:I can't get there, I can't allow that.
Speaker 3:Now I see why you start working out. You ain't had no choice.
Speaker 2:No, I had a choice, but I got tired of hearing a game. I'll tell this so everyone can hear the story. I had this man beat 15 to, I think, one 15-2.
Speaker 2:15-2. Okay, 15-2. Going to game 16. I had the tallest dude in the gym. All I told him I was like I just need to get you the ball. You're tall, turn around and we lose 16-15. We lose 16-15. And there's nothing. There is nothing I could do about it, because and we got the ball, we had the ball these seven times and we just needed one point. And I'm trying to figure out why guys are leaking out to the three-point line just to shoot a jumper when I'm like the, the highest percentage is close. This is my only time where I can step on this man's neck and have a quality win that I will hold on to for him. No, no, I don't.
Speaker 1:I don't have that one quality win.
Speaker 2:No, I don't.
Speaker 4:I don't say he plays against me, but he fights and I hate losing to him equally the 10 times this happened out of 250. But it's a fight 's a fight, it's. It's a big brother, little brother type of battle constantly, even though one is older than the other one. But it's respect, it's respect and for me that's what older or slower?
Speaker 2:motivated me both yeah, I, I picked the fastest person on the team just to make sure that I don't have to check him the entire game. But when the game is on the line, I will say let me, let me check him. I will put myself out because it's it's for me, it's a pride issue. I want to be around the person that I'm, that I'm not better than in order to push myself to get to the point where I can say you're my equal. So when he opened the gym, I can remember when I first got out there, what is it? I might be able to play two, three games and then I'm like sitting on the side. But the last couple of times I'm out there every game. I don't want to come off. I'm like all right, y'all, y'all picks. I'm on this court, Someone pick someone else.
Speaker 2:And I was determined not to be on his team because I knew I could win if I was on his team. His skill set, my, you know, in between game we would win. But I was like I don't want that. And so for me working out, I need to be around that Bryant by himself won't work out. I'm just going to be real. I'll try to eat. I might go for a walk. Uh, I got a bike is still hanging up on in the um with bike hooks in the ceiling. But basketball was all I knew, because it was cardio, it was trash talking, it was. It was just my entire existence. So now, without having that consistently, this is where that that Bryant bod comes in.
Speaker 2:What I don't get it.
Speaker 4:I have somebody in your community that can support you and that's in all things. That's in your religious walk, that's in your religious walk, that's in your fitness walk, that's in your financial walk. But the thing that I love about this panel, but I hate about our community, is we got two therapists on here. You have a personal trainer on here. You got a teacher on here. People only seek us when his life or death. You got to find us a lot sooner than that.
Speaker 4:I'm so tired of trying to find some people off their deathbed. You're now 400 pounds when you could have sold me at 300. You could have sold me at 200 and I could have done so much more for you to extend your life. But when you get a bad diagnosis, I'm the first person you call amen. They told me I got three months to live, like yeah, I've been telling you that, like not not on joke time, but now you want to call me and my my rate is going to go through the roof because I want to work out 24-7 and I know y'all get that with getting on the couch. You've known that you haven't dealt with this problem, but the black community has this stigma on paying people to help them do something that you're already supposed to do. If you could read the nutrition facts for yourself, you wouldn't need me. You can't, so you need me, I remember that board you had.
Speaker 4:There's no hometown discount, discount or anything like that. Because your life is at stake. I charge people more because my cancellation fee is more than you working out with me, because you can't afford to cancel, you can't you locked in you five hundred dollars to cancel. If you're one of my high-end clients, you get five hundred dollars, so I want you to feel hurt that you have to give me $500 for doing nothing and I'm only going to charge you $200 to work out. But I'm going to hit you over the head because why are you letting you down?
Speaker 4:Make it hurt. Y'all might want to get on. Y'all might want to start charging people when they cancel these sessions. You still need it, you know you need it, we do.
Speaker 1:Oh, oh yeah, I don't have a lot of cancellations.
Speaker 3:I don't well, because I think we do great well. I know I can speak on Steve as well. We do great work, but on top of that they gonna feel that cancellation and that slot might not be available when you come back in two, three weeks.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm absolutely. You've been on and off for like the last three years and you hit me up and you're like, hey, I'm trying to get into this dress because no good, good luck.
Speaker 4:I I will say no to clients with the quickness all money isn't I need you to figure this out and I my my goal for my clients is to not need me. I don't need you tethered to me for the rest of your life because there's there's endless people who are fat, who are obese. For me to be able to go, I need you to get your stuff together enough where you don't need me. So I'm giving you all the keys and all the secrets where you can build your own fitness program and all this stuff where you don't need me. But all these other trainers just want you to be dependent upon them so you can't go anywhere else for fitness but me, because I'm the only one, I'm the gatekeeper, and I think that's garbage.
Speaker 2:That is garbage what is your opinion on? Are we?
Speaker 5:gonna have to edit the f word out?
Speaker 2:I'm just curious like you, always get on me about saying stuff I cursed no. No, he didn't curse yes, he did. You said word fat.
Speaker 4:No, that's different than what you said.
Speaker 2:We're not going back to that, but let me ask you this Fitness equipment, like those waist belts that are supposed to shock you, or the little vibration plates? Oh yeah, I think I saw and I know what you're going to say.
Speaker 1:You went to some time Bruce Lee's workout while sitting on the couch.
Speaker 4:That ain't exercise.
Speaker 2:Bruce Lee had these little electric little discs and he was sitting there typing something while he was doing an interview and it was agitating his body. I knew when I um knee surgery that was, uh, a tens unit, but there are some that are geared to, you know, agitate, you know, the get through the fat and the vibration plates. In your opinion, is that just wasting time, like will so, even if my machine yeah, I'm going to say it, my machine, my vibrating machine, just shakes me, isn't?
Speaker 4:that like doing something. Oh, be careful what about that machine.
Speaker 2:Life is called Life Pro, life Pro Vibration Plate. I got to go into specifics because this team is just terrible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's called muscle contraction. It's like doing sit-ups while you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so does that really work?
Speaker 4:I'm going to teach y'all a secret that most people don't know, and I'm glad that I'm on this forum to say this, because I tell my kids this. I got approached by a equipment company like you're talking to, talking about Not a vibrator or vibration, but a different company. What they told me was Wait a minute.
Speaker 1:That's what I've been saying too.
Speaker 2:Ryan started electric shock. I said vibration plate, that's what.
Speaker 1:I said yeah, that's what you said. Vibration plate.
Speaker 4:So what the company told me was and nobody knows this and it's a dirty game is we're going to pay you $10,000 to gain 20 pounds. We're going to take a picture of you now and then after you gain the 20 pounds. That now and then is flipped and people don't know that You're telling people who are fit gain weight because we know you can lose it. Not this person used the shaker weight that Bryant got and that's how they lost 40 pounds. That's not how they lost 40 pounds.
Speaker 2:Hold on, I want to make sure we're not talking about shake weight.
Speaker 3:Okay, I was like you got the shake weight beat.
Speaker 2:Oh man, this is bullying. This is what this is.
Speaker 4:You told me I was chilling on summer break, but yeah, so that whole image of this person did this and that's how they got slim. That's not how they got slim. That's not how they got slim. We paid this person to gain weight. That's crazy.
Speaker 2:I know that that is interesting.
Speaker 4:All right, so I need to just go out and just old school walk. My perfect question If this had come up in class, why is somebody in a third world country that doesn't have the shaker weight, doesn't have access to a gym and everything like that, why is he fit? Because he does push-ups and sit-ups In Jumpin' Jackson. He runs, he doesn't have any equipment whatsoever and he's chiseled. How'd he get there?
Speaker 3:So if that can't get it done, then we don't need all this modern technology to get anything. Get your butt on the floor and you don't need anything Now.
Speaker 4:I have a gym downstairs, but if I don't have a continental lightweight room downstairs, you ain't going to miss that continental breakfast. You better get your butt outside and go for a walk or a run and make something happen.
Speaker 1:A thousand percent. A thousand percent Because me and Kiefer just talked about this, me and Nika just started getting back into pull-ups, just pull-ups, oh my God, oh no, no, that's a beast.
Speaker 2:Oh, my god, oh my god your own weight against you. Now what about those seven ten minute workouts? Does that really work?
Speaker 4:if you're on zero minutes, then seven minutes is more than zero. I'm I'm helping, happy I can help math. Math is my thing. Seven is greater than zero, so yes.
Speaker 2:Next question okay so I need to get rid of some of this uh yeah, stop buying all this stuff on qvc.
Speaker 4:They targeting you. I'm vibrating things right, this man, if you just put this youtube, then it's going to rattle your ear and you're going to get better balance and shake weight.
Speaker 5:Uh, and shake weight, don't try to hide it in the background how come steve never gets censored man this isn't fair.
Speaker 4:Steve did the hand thing that got to go. There's no way no.
Speaker 2:I ain't doing nothing, okay, okay.
Speaker 4:So yeah, fad diets and fad exercise. They're fad for a reason they know that they can target people who are already in deep. There's no quick fix to anything. Again, I play on my name. But there's no shortcuts, because every shortcut comes with something that is going to make the journey so much harder. There's hurdles on that shortcut. You just don't see it right now. Anytime you get something that on television newest greatest. Why do we have so many newest greatest if the original staple still works?
Speaker 3:Right Money, somebody making money Right what's?
Speaker 1:your opinion on the Wagobe and the Ozempic craze that's going on right now.
Speaker 4:That's a crazy conversation. We're at the age where we remember seeing those late night commercials where it was like if you decided to take such and such, you may need a lawyer. I think everybody is stabbing themselves in their stomach stomach and I'm not throwing any shade towards those people because they didn't see a different way. But we don't know how this is going to play out scientifically later on down the road and what it's going to cause. People didn't want to go get a kobe shot, but you're going to go stab yourself with olympic to lose 15 pounds make it make sense exactly, exactly, and I'm not judging on anybody.
Speaker 4:But we're like I don't know what's in that needle, but then you're, you don't know what's in this one either. What we pick and what we choose is just wild to me. And again, I don't trust the government, but that's also still coming from the government. Go get some blueberries, inject that into your system. Let's go, man strawberries, those things work. There's real ways. We just don't want to take them. We don't want that. So we're going to go any path that's shorter than that to make that happen. This guy was like man, I want to look like you and I'm like you have to look like you first and figure this out Like again. So I told Brian I'm pissed because my watch is on a fritz. I'm on 797 days in a row of closing my rings. 1,000 calories, 75 minutes of exercise. If you're on day one. You shouldn't do that. You got to figure out your day one so you can get to day 797. Because if you mess up day one, you're not going to make it to day two. That's how that works.
Speaker 2:When you're saying 1,000 calories, are you saying per meal or just for the day?
Speaker 4:No burn, Are you saying burning.
Speaker 3:Oh okay, Burning, no burn.
Speaker 4:Hey, burn. Hey, I thought they asked that question. Calories per meal. Yeah, nah, so burn. I'm at 960 right now for the day, so I'll close after this is done and then be good to go.
Speaker 1:But yeah, let me look at mine uh me, me and nico coming down and uh working out with you, man, because uh 197 and again meal plan.
Speaker 4:So I think what people say is the craziest thing. I got into a conversation a couple days ago I can't eat out, so whatever is in the food that's out I don't know if it's in my mind, I don't know if it's in my head Every meal that I've had for the last four years is cooked by my hands. When you know what's going into your food, then you know that it's not sabotage. Not saying that people were back there sneezing on yourself and everything like that, but like, oh, we got to get the red lobster and get this boiled, this six, it's the butter inside that boil. And then you're like man, I ate good but I feel bad the next day, Like if we All kind of inflammation mucus irritation.
Speaker 4:So you need to start picking your own meals so you understand exactly what you're putting into your body. Take it serious. You can't outwork a bad diet. You can out-diet not working out kind of, but you can't out-work a bad diet. You cannot eat a Papa John's pizza and go run a mile and think that you can break even. Fitness ain't fair. That's my brand. It's not. If you eat two cookies right now, you got to go run eight laps around the track. Those cookies took you 14 seconds to demolish. Now you got to go run half a mile to break even. Who's doing that?
Speaker 1:you're making me feel bad right now I mean I love y'all imagine
Speaker 4:this being 11 years old, because this is exactly how I teach straight to the 11 year olds like yo we gotta get it together.
Speaker 2:No more birthday cake, shut up yeah, I remember when they came into the gym, that board and you flipped over and it was like one slice of pizza. This is all you have to do and I was like yeah, I just know on the track is that thin crust?
Speaker 4:let's add toppings. Let's do this, and I don't want pizza, no more. Mr quick, I'm sorry, you can manage it. I have one cheat day for a month and I cheat. I get everything. But you can't have a cheat life and then want success you can't eat healthy once a month you're like, yeah, I had that salad, babe. Like again, but your wife accepts it, or whoever you're with accepts it, and you don't feel any need to change because you're accepted in your home see, I needed to meet this man.
Speaker 2:When I in 20 2001, when I got out of college, and uh, and you weren't drinking water and you never oh well, then, if we're doing that, we need to go back a little bit further. But but I drink water now, man, I do.
Speaker 3:That time you almost died, hey man.
Speaker 2:Right now, what did I say? Yellow pee is a goal, because brown pee just ain't. Wow, it is not. I mean, that's just a joke.
Speaker 4:Make it clear it's supposed to be light lemonade If you pee in Mountain Dew. We got an issue of issues. It was dark, Charlie.
Speaker 3:Brown.
Speaker 2:Well, we coming up on an hour and I don't want to hold anyone. People got stuff to do and maybe I need to go in a corner and cry. Y'all just been tagging along.
Speaker 3:I'm about to go outside and just walk. Wait a minute, Brian. Don't you got an Oculus?
Speaker 2:Yes, and I have a.
Speaker 1:You got all the technology in the world. You can be on those boxing apps. They got fitness things on there, for sure that thing is no joke. It'll put you on your behind. It works.
Speaker 2:I know I just it's me your headset is stink, but it works.
Speaker 2:It is me, because I want to have accountability and I want to put it on someone else. I got to first start with myself. I'm going to be honest, this is that breakthrough moment and this is why I wanted to have a quick on here, because there's a lot of us that have that mentality that we'll do it if somebody else is doing it with us, someone else is challenging us that pride factor. But what I'm hearing is that it's me, you know, and I've. I've got to look at me and say this is what I want to do and move in that direction and make those lifestyle changes. And that's that is hard. So I'm going to put this as the last question.
Speaker 2:When you hear the term lifestyle changes, what does it mean? And we don't have to go really deep into it, but you know, for me it it's letting go of that nostalgic. It's letting go of that nostalgic that this is who I was, is who I still am, just in this shell. But no, I've grown, I've evolved, I've, you know, life has made some changes and I got to do things different. I can't get back to 1996, bryant, that's not, that's not a realistic goal. But I can get better than today, brian. And so that requires making some, some tough decisions, because the easy ones are putting me in a place where, you know, one day I mean my son's about to be 10, and then two weeks yeah, 10 and two weeks he may be able to outrun me, and that shouldn't happen, shouldn't happen. So when you hear lifestyle changes, what comes to your mind?
Speaker 4:Let's say one thing that brief. I judge people on two things, and I think people in the world don't necessarily enjoy that I do this. I judge you on your fitness and I judge you on your finances. Those are two things that you control. If somebody told you you had to get more money right now, you would come up with a game plan to be able to do so. When it comes to your fitness, if we're telling you that you need to lose weight, you need to be able to come up with that same game plan.
Speaker 4:All of us right now knew if we needed to come up with X amount of money because we have something crazy to happen in our lives. We have a game plan that's going through our head right now for how we would get there, but we don Do. We got to find somebody who can help us with that. People who struggle financially you need a financial planner. You can't just continue to say I'm headed household and y'all still messing up bills and Pepco and turning your lights off Like we got to make adjustments and be okay with who we're sitting with in the mirror.
Speaker 4:Brian, I don't want you to get into a position where you're just like I'm not 19. You didn't become this version of you overnight, so you can't get back there overnight, but you can get to the best version of you. We're not just throwing the hat in, we're not just giving up. There are some things that we got to let go, like maybe we don't dunk anymore, but we should still be able to get up and down the court. But when we just start doing this wholesale, I can't do this anymore. What was me? Then we start, we start buying into what everything society is telling you.
Speaker 4:When you're 40, you're over the hill, man, I just I remember when I used to, and then it becomes a sob story. Now you got to sit on these two people's couches to figure out what happened, but you sabotage yourself. We just got to understand that, while we do have limitations like look at all the things that we do have this is the most financially stable I've ever been in my life and I'm just adding fitness to it. There was a time where I couldn't. Just I'm living in a lovely home, a nice car and everything like that. I couldn't have done those things when I was 17. So I'm not trying to rush back to 17 with this rear view mirror. Look at life because I got to appreciate what I have right now but still build on it. That's it. So not, man, when I was 18, I can't look fondly upon 18 because 18 had to struggle. So we just glorified the past more than we look at our president and appreciate.
Speaker 2:Okay, you know what I'm thinking, appreciate it. That's deep.
Speaker 1:Okay, you know, when I'm thinking about lifestyle changes, I think for me it boils down to paying attention to my body too as well. You know it's certain things that I flat out. You know I hear what you're saying quick about. You know you can't throw everything just out, but sometimes I need to, such as I got to understand I can't just eat pizza anymore. I can't throw everything just out, but sometimes I need to. Such as I gotta understand I can't just eat pizza anymore. I can't eat french fries anymore, like that doesn't work for my body at this point in my life right now anymore. So being able to pay attention to that and understand like hey, putting these particular things out of my life right now is it's okay because they can be replaced with other things that are more beneficial for me sticking around here on earth.
Speaker 4:I think that's a wonderful statement and I hate that we're over an hour. I'm not trying to push anybody, but every human being is their own science fair project and I don't think we look at it that way. We made a science fair back in the day. Brian probably can eat bread. I can't eat rice, guys. I can't have rice at all. If I have rice, I guarantee you five pounds and blowing up, somebody can eat rice all the time. At Asia they eat rice.
Speaker 4:You have to figure out your own body and what your project is, because we all got something we can't do. So I can't look at Brian and he's sitting over there having a cheeseburger and I know that doesn't work for me and my science fair project and then I'm envious or I just do it because he's doing it. Everybody went to cookouts yesterday. You have to know what your trigger foods are. Figure that out. Go get an allergy test Any of those things to understand what is going to put you in a bad space, was going to expand you, which you're not going to be able to digest well, and figure your science project out and continue to build on that. So what you said is big pizza and fries are your thing and you got to stay away from those and you just can't have those, or you can only have those on occasions and you make that a special occasion when you do it. I agree.
Speaker 1:And it tastes good going down. But after a while you feel like, oh, it's kind of almost like that one night stand that you didn't really want to do, and after you get done, it's that clarity that post clarity like, oh, maybe I shouldn't have did that.
Speaker 4:But again, we go to food for comfort. All the time somebody, anything, goes wrong, we go to comfort, we go to comfort food and what it ends up doing is only making us feel worse in the long run. So we had that one night stand and then we had ice cream and pizza. So I gained four pounds, and I don't know who she is like.
Speaker 2:We just we build on negativity this is good, alright, so final words, parting words final thoughts I can't read today just fire it off.
Speaker 5:I'll close, jump in verse in, I think, ecclesiastes, where it's just like solomon is like don't, don't say, why were the olden days with me? Like it's just not, that's not smart, that's my, my big takeaway from uh this. It's like, hey, behold, I'll do a new thing. Like let's, let's go the best version of me right here, right now, one percent better every day, finding somebody who can hold you accountable and maybe hurt your feelings. Like uh, you know quick here. Like for real, for real. If we don't have those kinds of people in our lives, uh, you're never going to reach the optimal version of yourself. We got to get to the point where we can have those courageous conversations and stop romanticizing the olden days, because we're going to stay stuck until we die.
Speaker 1:You're going to have to get off that apple You're going to have to get off that Apple you're going to have to. You need the Elon satellite service.
Speaker 5:I don't have no where I am right now keep saying something alright.
Speaker 3:Well, yes, to piggyback off that real quick learning body, mind, spirit, all work together and learning and reflecting on how, like you said what you call the science fair project, learning how we work. I often work with a lot of people on reflecting, even on finances, just reflecting on how they got there, why they're there. Some things are genetic, yes, but then there are a lot of things within our control in this life and what we choose to eat. For myself, I found out it was soda. When I drank soda I could gain weight overnight, but then when I found out how much sugar and everything was in soda, I stopped drinking it. I kid you, not lost 10 pounds in like a week, like I didn't even have to do anything. It was the. It was from the sugar.
Speaker 3:So, like you said, but learning yourself and this applies to physical, it applies to the mental and the spiritual we have to learn where, where we are, because everything, what, what is traumatizing for one may not be traumatizing for another. So get out there and exercise and shock your body. I promise you you're going to get through it. And stay consistent. That's the other thing, stay consistent.
Speaker 4:To Keith's point, for my final parting words is we all know where we're going or where we want to go. We got this special image of what we want to do and that's in all walks of life our finances, our relationships, our fitness and all those things. But you got to have a starting point. If you don't put a starting point in the GPS and it can't find you, there's no chance for you to be able to get to an end destination when you don't have a starting destination. Have a starting destination. That conversation with yourself in the mirror today or whenever you plan on doing it, it's your starting point and then where you're trying to go is your destination, and then we can map this out and get you there.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to say something that doesn't get me censored, but again, piggyback off of everybody. Just, you got to know yourself. You know and understand. You know, take reality into account. You know there was times that I think me and Keefe were in the juvenile detention center trying to play basketball with the youngins. Found out the hard way. You know it's OK. You're not supposed to NBA Jam dunk at a certain age. It's all right. It's all right. When you get older you get wiser. You know it's, it's okay. So, just understanding, it's okay to know yourself and know your limits too as well, because you don't want to check out of here, because we were trying to chase yesterday as well.
Speaker 2:And I would just say find an accountability partner. Especially when you can't hold yourself accountable, it is imperative. One of the things we heard today was community. When community works, there's accountability, and it's not always going to come in that sugary, nice ice. What is it Icing on the cake? Sometimes it's got to come just raw and in between the hours, because sometimes those who you grew up with, who know what you've been through, will be OK with where you're at.
Speaker 2:And if you're not OK with that, you know you got to. You got to also align yourself with those who will challenge and hold you accountable. So, but it first starts with yourself. Be real with yourself. If you ain't got it, you ain't got it. But then don't spend much time in that, because the only only difference between can and can't is that T. You got to take that T off and just move forward.
Speaker 2:So I want to thank our special guest today. Yeah, when I thought about men's fitness, he was the first and only person I thought of, because I've seen his body of work and it's not something that just happens by happenstance. It takes effort and at this point in our lives we can't just rely on. You know how we used to be. We've got to make some functional changes if we want to be different. So thank Quit for coming out here, coming to the table. Hopefully this won't be the last time it's delivery. It may be a couple of months in between, because I got to recover. You know I set this table. You know I really appreciate he's a very dear friend. I mean just one of my go to's when I need to get out of my own head. So I'm glad that he was willing to share some of that, some of our experiences and exposure. So you know, it's been an iron table when iron sharpens iron, so should men sharpen men peace. The iron table where iron sharpens iron, so should men sharpen men Peace.
