Gains’o’clock ep. 2 - steps to a healthier You - “MindSet”
Disclaimer – this is a bit of a long one. I could have continued on down this path to elaborate even more because of its sheer importance. I will save those thoughts for future blog entries.
If you’re reading this, I assume you have reviewed Step 1 and have implemented my challenge. If not, please review it here! As you implemented step 1, what did you notice change? Please comment at the bottom of this page with any thoughts on how it went, changes you noticed good or bad, etc.
The infrastructure behind this blog will be providing small nuggets of information of varying categories all of which are incremental adjustments for long term habits. What I mean by this is, my previous post started with nutritional changes. I don’t want to delve into another nutritional change in this post, because we already started some chaos in that department. So, we’ll shift our focus to another area, while continuing to maintain my first challenge as outlined in Step/Episode 1.
This step involves more of the mental or psychological changes you will need to initiate. Arguably, this department is the most important in regard to making real, impactful long term lifestyle changes. You have to develop the right mindset in order to not only start on this journey but shape it into a sustainable lifestyle. What I want you to try and develop is a mindset to where these changes aren’t optional. Develop your mind to the point where you are convincing yourself that you do not have a choice but to go workout, or go on that walk, or adjust your meals according to your lifestyle. Don’t leave room for excuses – if that makes sense.
But how? How does a person develop this mindset? I think for me, its about perspective. When you look at things through a specific lens, you can see things differently. What’s important to you as a person may shift because you looking at your life a different way - or through a different lens. What’s important to you at 15 years old is usually significantly different at 35 years old - for example. When I consider my perspective in life as whole, I always come back to certain moments, or core memories, that help me keep my focus on what is important and what is not.
More recently, I had a life changing experience that really helps me with my perspective in life – not necessarily pertaining to health and fitness itself. If you don’t know, I was a team lead for a portion of Operation Allies Refuge where the U.S. helped evacuate Afghanistan refugees when Afghanistan’s control fell back under Taliban in 2021. While my part was very small in the grand scheme of things, this experience really helped me grow as a person and even more so – help put my life into a new perspective. My team was in charge of security in cooperation with homeland security, re-integration and assignment to other refugee camps, searching bags and personal goods, facial recognition scanning for any known terrorists, and more. We were one of the final stops in the refugee camps before they boarded their final aircraft to a new home and new beginnings. While some citizens, to include myself, do not necessarily agree with everything their respective governments do – this was one of the proudest moments in my 20 years of Active-duty Service. Regardless of the actions or decisions that led up to this evacuation, our assistance and aid we provided, as a nation, to these Afghan refugees was life changing for them…and especially life changing for me.
Its hard to complain about first world problems like poor Wi-Fi speeds or connections, shitty service at a local restaurant, etc when there are people in this world like these refugees who have never even experienced those things. I remember one of the biggest problems we had in our cell was basic amenities such as shoes, clothing, food, water, beds, etc. I remember kids running around barefoot on the asphalt or dirt because they’ve never owned shoes. Mind you, we had giant groupings of port-a-potties for them throughout the camp, most of which leaked…so the grounds these kids were running around on wasn’t exactly the most sanitary. The teams who delivered all the donated goods, which by the way was an insane amount, would have to hide the stuff as it was brought into the camps and hangars because it would cause a riot. I’m talking like yoga mats, shoes, water, basic amenities that, to them, was the most important thing in the world. We would be part of the security detail to deliver some of these goods to certain parts of the camp. Fights would break out because it got so intense from everyone trying to grab this and that. There were no ill intentions by the refugees, they were just completely starved from these basic commodities.
But the most humbling thing of all, in this whole experience, was realizing that these families were carrying everything they owned. We would have families ranging from 2 to 40+ at a time processing through our lines. Every single thing on this earth that they owned was in their hands or in a pack on their back. Most of which, we had given them because of the gracious donations of other people, our allied partners, etc. Hand me down military backpacks, duffel bags, woobies, donated clothing articles, shoes, etc. Can you imagine that? Having to not only uproot everything you’ve ever known, frantically trying to escape your home country on another nation’s aircraft…then processing through lines like cattle carrying every single possession you own on this entire planet in your hands, or in your small backpack…then boarding an aircraft to an unknown location for it to be your new home for you and your family.
Talk about really changing my perspective on life. I remind myself of this life changing experience any time I want to complain about petty shit like people driving 10 under the speed limit, poor service at a restaurant, Netflix buffering because of our internet speed, and more. Its easy to get consumed by these expectations that everything needs to be a certain way or else you are unhappy, disgruntled, etc.
How does all this apply to your journey towards a healthier life? Well, it translates directly. Think about a person who is an amputee, or born with a debilitating condition, or similar. If you’re healthy enough to move without excruciating pain or something comparable…what are you even doing with your life? I bet those people, or people in similar or worse situations, would give up anything to be able to do what you can.
I heard a conversation on the Joe Rogan Experience where Joe is arguing with Mikhaila Peterson. She mentioned that her father didn’t have enough energy to exercise. Joe retorts with an argument to which I agreed with. The conversation went like this:
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Ms. Peterson stated "From my perspective, I've seen my dad and he was very—you can see from the videos from 2014 before he started going low carb and everything—he was carrying about 50 extra pounds. And he didn't have enough energy to exercise."
"That's not true," Rogan responded. "He just didn't do it. When you say he didn't have enough energy to exercise, did he walk around?" Rogan asked.
"Yeah, but you can drag yourself through things," Peterson replied.
"Then you can drag yourself through an exercise routine," Rogan said. "You most certainly can. You don't have to do a lot. You just have to do something... To say you don't have enough extra energy to exercise, that's crazy. Can you walk to the refrigerator? Then you can exercise. I'm not saying that you have to marathons. You can exercise. And everyone should f****** exercise."
Peterson went on further stating specifics regarding her situation and how after her father changed his dieting, he had energy to exercise more.
"He could've exercised then, too," Rogan said. "But to give people this excuse, 'I don't have energy to exercise,' that is crazy. You don't have to do anything crazy, just walk around the block. There's 80-year-old ladies who take yoga with me. They're f****** really old and they're in there. They're going after it. They could easily say, 'I don't have the energy to do that.' But they don't. It's a mental attitude. They make a decision."
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That is exactly the mentality you need to develop. Even as I write this now, on this exact day, I am in debilitating pain because of a pinched nerve in my neck. I have been out of the gym for a few days now and I’ve allowed myself that grace. But at some point, which will be tomorrow, I’m going to suck it up and push through tears, if I have to, to push through a legit hour-long workout. But even up until today, I haven’t just allowed myself to sit around and wallow in pity. I do pushups, I do sit-ups, I walk around, I stretch, I do whatever I can within my current physical limitations to exercise.
I don’t have a choice.
Its not like I have an option. If I gave myself an option to be lazy, guess what? I’d choose to be lazy as would most people. Hell yea I’d rather sit at a computer and ‘veg’ out on some video games and escape reality…but what do I stand to gain if I continued doing that?
If you allow yourself any room for excuses, then therein lies the possibility of those excuses existing. It sounds weird even typing that out…almost cult-like, but its true. Do not allow yourself to make excuses. This is my challenge to you.
You have to create a mindset where there is no room for excuses. To further compound this, you need to learn how to prioritize the things that are important – especially when it comes to your body. Whether you believe in reincarnation, a religion, or not, or whatever – you are only guaranteed the one body you’re in now. Your faith may say otherwise, but why not go with the facts for now. You’re in the body you’re in now – that’s a fact. Currently, your health may not be high on your priority list…but lets get theoretical for a moment.
Would you expect your vehicle to last until it reaches 300,000 miles or kilometers? Let me further add onto that question by saying, would you expect your vehicle to last that long and you haven’t been doing the preventative maintenance on it? And to even further add on to it, would you expect it to last that long if you have been pouring dirt into the fuel tank? At least the tires need changed out every once in awhile, fluid and filter changes, etc.
The answer is of course not! Your vehicle won’t even last half as long. Your body is the same way. If you do not do preventative maintenance (stretching, exercise, etc), put the proper fuels (nutrition, water, etc) in your body, how can you expect it, the vehicle which carries you around, to last as long as it should? Imagine doing nothing for your health and body and then being upset because you’re sick? There’s no replacing it like you could a car, truck, etc. I’d consider that crazy and its even hard for me to sympathize with those types of people. This quote comes to mind when I talk about this specific subject to people:
“Those who think they have not the time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find the time for illness.”
As I inch close to being on this earth for 40 years, I can already see it in my friend groups, family, etc. Sadly, for some of them, I’ve been watching their bodies deteriorate happen for over a decade. Its not because I haven’t tried to intervene and provide guidance, its because they choose to live a certain way, or are stubborn to the advice of someone who actively tries to be healthy. Its like having the cheat codes to life but then choosing not to use them – that will be an Iron Dad Quote one day…I’m sure of it. Instead, they choose to deal with it later in life when they are falling apart, forced to file for unemployment because they are sick, hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt from medical bills, having to rely on family and friends to continue to live on this planet, or whatever other terrible situation they’ve let themselves get into…when it all, or at least a portion, could have been prevented.
I say all this to say, your mindset is what puts you on the right path toward a healthier you. If you don’t get anything else from this blog, or the other blog entries, take this nugget of information with you. Mindset is everything – this I truly believe. Learn how to shape your mindset into where you need it to be.
Stop making excuses. Stop being lazy. Be intentional with your time. Prioritize exercising even if its just going for a 5-minute walk. Do not allow life’s obstacles to derail these things, so do them early in the day versus the end of the day. These are all techniques we are going to dive into the further we progress with this blog.
This is only step 2…and it suffices to say that there is an innumerable number of steps on this journey. You are barely scratching the surface of this iceberg we call health. Much more lies beneath the surface, so much more. But do not be frightened or overwhelmed. I am here to guide you to the deepest parts of the waters to ensure all angles of that iceberg are revealed.
I got a bit poetic there, didn’t I?
Iron Dad
