Fitness Notes: Stop Hesitating, Start Doing

Chris Albert 00:00:00 (link to this point)

This is Chris Albert, and I'm here to remind you of one thing. Someday, you're going to die. Now that's not some morbid statement or scary idea. It's solid fact. Your time here on this earth is limited.

And we need to be reminded of this as much as possible for one simple reason, to live your best life while you can. This is the Warrior Soul Podcast.

You know, one of the biggest problems I see out there when it comes to health and fitness is that people wait for the perfect time. They hesitate. They don't wanna start their diet, their training plan. They don't wanna start doing anything until they have all their ducks in a row. And therein is the inherent problem.

You know, if you are waiting for the perfect time in your life to start something, you're gonna keep waiting. But there's something that goes beyond just that statement that I just said. If you're only training when your life is perfect, you're not gonna be able to sustain what you're trying to do. And the reason there is because nobody at any point in their life is immune from tragedy or hardship. And so if you're just training when times are perfect, if you're just training or dieting when when everything is right in your life, then inevitably, you're gonna give up and you're gonna fail.

So what we're gonna talk about today is how to get started and how to maintain everything that you're doing to keep yourself healthy, to keep yourself fit, to keep your mind right, and to keep you moving forward throughout your life, not just for a temporary period, but throughout your life so that it becomes something that you do that's like brushing your teeth or making your bed. Something that's part of your daily routine that's gonna continue to benefit you both in good times and in bad. My name is Chris Albert, and this is the Warrior Soul podcast. This podcast was started to help US military veterans in order to live their best lives. The reason we do this is because over the past decade and a half of war, we've had an extremely high veteran suicide rate, extremely high rate of veteran homelessness, and an extremely high rate of chronic disease in the veteran community.

And while a lot of people out there have been putting a lot of awesome effort in raising awareness about these issues, we told ourselves that awareness just isn't enough. It's not enough that we stop veterans from committing suicide. We need to help all veterans to truly live. And so that's what this podcast is about. If you're not a veteran, you're still gonna get a lot out of it.

We deliver tools, tactics, ideas, talk about issues, and we introduce you to experts on everything to do with your life. And this past Monday, we just published an episode with Steve Sims, high end concierge who works with some of the super rich in this world. And to do his job, he's had to become a master of human dynamics in helping in recruiting people to his efforts. And if you ever read his book Bluefishing, it's an absolutely amazing book. He came on to deliver some of his secrets to our audience.

I highly suggest you check that episode out. And every Monday, we're publishing an interview with a top expert in a specific area. On Wednesdays, which we're publishing this episode on Wednesday, I give specific advice about fitness, about health, about taking care of your body. And then on Fridays, we do our Warrior Notes episodes, and those talk about a specific mental, strength issue that that we want to cover. So you get three different types of episodes here on the Warrior Soul podcast, and, know, we publish three times a week.

And all we ask from you in exchange for what we do here is for you to give us a review, to share these episodes out with those who need them, and to let people know by giving us a five star review up on iTunes. It really helps us to spread this word, and it really helps us with this movement to wake up the veteran community so that it can have impact that needs to have on our country. So with that, let's get into the topic for today. So let's get started with the subject. How do you stop hesitating and how do you start doing?

And inevitably, I just said it right there. You've got to start doing something. Right? Now I did a podcast on August 10. It's called how to get started.

I highly suggest you check that one out. In that, I talk about some simple things to get you started with health, with fitness. But I'll review some of them here. Alright. If you are worrying about getting started, one of the biggest problems I see with people is they become overwhelmed and they freeze with fear.

Right? So they've got all this stuff going on in their lives, and they know they're getting out of shape, but they're looking at that long path ahead up the mountain. And they're looking at the top of the mountain, and that's where they wanna be. They wanna be at the top of the mountain, but they're looking at that path ahead. And they realize that it's gonna take a lot of work, and so they become overwhelmed.

And they start telling themselves, well, you know what? Things aren't right right now for me to do this. Right? So I'm gonna do this when things slow down at work. I'm gonna get started when, you know, maybe the kids are back in school and it's not summertime.

I'm gonna get started after the holidays. Right? So they keep telling themselves these things. And what happens is if this is life, things keep coming up. And so they keep themselves from ever getting started because they're fearful that what they're trying to do isn't gonna integrate with everything else they're doing in their lives.

So my advice to you on this is if you're just getting started, if you've been sedentary for a while, stop looking at the top of the mountain and look at the next 100 yards. Alright. Set yourself a small goal that you can do right now. Alright. So if you're not doing anything, commit yourself to going for a walk twenty to thirty minutes a day.

Alright? If you can't do twenty to thirty minutes a day, try ten minutes. Alright? Commit yourself to go for a walk for ten minutes. Try to do that every single day.

Commit yourself to doing it. If you can't find ten minutes, there there's definitely, you know, you you definitely can find ten minutes. If I can find ten minutes with all the stuff I've got on my plate, you can find ten minutes. Go for a walk. Right?

Maybe do a few sets of body weight squats or body weight exercises, push ups. Maybe get yourself a kettlebell. Keep it right in your house, and commit yourself to working out that kettlebell or even a set of very light dumbbells every single day for ten minutes. You can get a great workout that way. Alright?

I post a lot of these up on the Warrior Soul Fitness Academy face private Facebook group. You guys can check those out. There are so many ways to get a workout in right in the comfort of your home own home in just ten minutes a day. I've also talked about this, before in previous podcasts. You know, science actually even demonstrates that going to a gym and just working out for an hour a day isn't as beneficial as doing a few different workouts, throughout the day for for for ten minutes.

Right? So if you kept a kettlebell in your office or in your car or in your truck and you're at work and you did, you know, three sets of 20 kettlebell swings three to five times a day, that would actually be pretty beneficial to you. Right? But whatever it is you're doing, just start with something. Like I said, it could be walking, could be kettlebells, it could be dumbbells, it could be push ups, it could be anything.

Right? There's so many people out there who are just like, I need to wait until I get a gym membership, or I need to wait until I could get over CrossFit, or I need to wait until I could do this. No. You don't need to wait. The more you wait, the more you are going to deteriorate.

The more your body's going to deteriorate, The more you're gonna become depressed because you haven't done something you want to do. The more you are going to have difficulty when you're trying to get back into it because you're in worse shape than you are now. You don't wanna wait until a health problem or until you become so deteriorated that it's gonna be really hard for you to start training to start doing it. Too many people are starting later in life. And starting later in life is better than never starting, but you'll be in a much better position the earlier you start, and you'll be kicking yourself because you didn't start earlier.

Now, number two, you started. You're going. Right? You need something that's gonna keep you going. You need something that's gonna keep you in the game for the long haul.

Right? Something that's gonna drive you to keep doing this stuff no matter what's going on in your life. And this is where goals come in. This is where real goals come in. Now if you ever read the free guide that I put out there, it's called fitness is freedom, and I give it out when you sign up for our email list over at menshealth.warriorsoulagoge.com.

In the ebook, I talk about setting real goals rather than novel goals. Right? Now what's the difference? A novel goal is the typical goal you see with fitness. Right?

This is, oh, I wanna bench press 500 pounds. I want to, fit into that pair of jeans that I wore when I was 18 years old. I wanna fit into my dress blues. I want to, you know, get a certain time on a five k race. Right?

Now all these, they're they're they're great goals to go for, but they're novel goals. Now why are they novel goals? Well, here's the thing. If you you might really want to fit in your dress blues, but if you don't, guess what? Life goes on.

Right? You're still able to put food on the table. You're still able to, live your life. It's not gonna really change anything about your life. Right?

And that's the problem. It's something that's nice to have. Right? Fitting your old dress blues, fitting your old blue jeans, bench pressing 500 pounds, getting a certain time on a five k. It's something that's nice to have.

And what happens to nice to haves when your life gets hard? Well, they get shit canned. You toss them out as quickly as possible. Right? The first thing to go when most people start to face hard economic times is gonna be the gym memberships.

It's gonna be all the other things you consider to be extracurricular activities. And that's the problem with considering fitness as a hobby or as an extracurricular activity. The second your life gets hard is the second you're gonna give it up in favor of other things that you think take a higher priority. A lot of people use the excuse, hey, I need to put food on the table. I need to work.

I got kids. I got family. I got a wife. Well, here's the thing, and here's the big secret you're missing. If you are not taking care of your body, if you're not taking care of yourself, if you're not taking care of your health, then you're not gonna be a good father.

You're not gonna be a good husband. You're not gonna be able to do your job for very long. You're not gonna be able to be a provider for very long. So you need to think about your longevity. You need to think about if not your longevity or or the amount of years you have on this earth, how long you're gonna have a good quality of life on this earth?

How long you're gonna be able to do the things that you need to do in order to be a good provider, in order to be a good husband, in order to be a good father, in order to accomplish anything else that you want to accomplish on this earth. I've seen peoples, people whose health is falling apart at age 35. And we're seeing that in the veteran community. One in four veterans admitted to the VA system has full blown diabetes. That's a ridiculous statistic.

What is going to happen to them for the rest of their lives? You know, you don't want to be in that situation. So that's the thing. Rather than setting these goals that are based around things that are nice to have, base them first and foremost around your life. Right?

Base them around the things that are important to you, the things that get you out of bed in the morning, the things that bring a tear to your eye. That's how precious they are to you. It could be your family. It could be your job. It could be your career.

It could be anything that drives you as a person. And if it's not important to you, if it's not meaningful enough to you, eventually what's gonna happen is you're gonna put it to the wayside, and you're gonna give it up. I'm not saying that you shouldn't still go to go for being as strong as you can, or go for fitting into those jeans, but attach that goal to something that's so meaningful to you that it's gonna become like a religion. And that it's going to, you know, eat at you if you say to yourself, hey, I'm gonna have that piece of chocolate cake, or hey, I'm not gonna go to the gym that day, or hey, I'm just gonna take this week off. Right?

It needs to be so important to you that on Christmas day, you're gonna wanna get up, and you're gonna wanna train. And you're gonna want to make sure that you're not falling down that path that's gonna take you to a worse state of being. And for those of you out there who might not have a family, who who might be alone right now, who might be in a situation where you're not happy with your life, well, then what you need to do is you need to attach this to what you want your life to be like. And let me explain what I mean here. Few years ago, I was alone and I was living out of my car.

And throughout that time, I kept training. I kept doing everything I could to keep my body healthy. The reason why I did that is because I told myself that I wasn't gonna be in that situation forever. I wasn't gonna be alone forever. That I wasn't going to be broke forever.

And that I needed to keep myself healthy for those times when I did have things that I needed to live for. When I did have a reason to get up in the morning, when I was in a relationship. And that's what drove me at that point. So at least have a vision for what you want your life to be like, and work for that vision. Work for everything that you want in this world, those things that are so important to you.

Now, the last thing is this. A lot of you, some of you are alone, others of you are out there and you have families. You got the kids. You got everybody, that is depending on you. And what you need to do is you need to sit those people down, those people who are most important to you in this world, and you need to tell them why exactly you're doing what you're doing.

Explain to your wife why training is so important for you as a husband so that you could be there for her, so that you could be there for the kids. Explain to her exactly why you're doing this so you can live a longer time so that you guys could be together. And then try to get her to come along with you on the journey. Try to get her to do her own workouts. Try to get her to to eat right like you're eating right.

Try to explain her why that's important. So such a a a very important thing because we can't, as human beings, be alone in this world. And if you're surrounded by people who aren't supporting your goals, then a lot of times you're just gonna give up. And you're gonna allow everything that's important to you to fall by the wayside. So you need to recruit those around you to help you with your effort, to be there as allies for you.

And that's all I got for today, guys. Just to recap what we've got. Number one, make sure that you get started. Right? Start by doing something small.

No matter what it is, commit to doing something every day. And then little by little, add a little bit more challenge to it. Number two, make sure you know why you're doing it. It's great to have goals. It's great to set those goals and and make them be specific and attainable.

But if those goals aren't meaningful enough to you, all you have is a hobby. And hobbies get put to the side when times get hard, and you wanna be training for when times get hard. You wanna be training during the roughest times of your life, not just during the easiest times in your life. Number three, make sure you're recruiting those around you to your effort. Make sure you're letting them know why it's so important to you.

Right? And if you do that, then fitness will be part of your life for the rest of your life. Your life will be much richer. You'll have more experiences. You'll be better at everything you do.

You'll have better relationships. You'll be better at being a husband, a father, and you'll be a better version of yourself. Just a note here, guys, if you are looking to get help on your quest, we have a number of ways of doing that here at Warrior Soul. Number one, we've got our free Warrior Soul Fitness Academy. That's our private Facebook group up on Facebook, obviously.

And basically, that's a group of us who get together, who push each other on each other's goals. And that's where I draw a lot of the questions that I get for our q and a podcast here on the Warrior Soul podcast. So if you're looking for a little extra push, head over to the Warrior Soul Fitness Academy. You could also sign up from one of our free training groups. We've got Warrior Soul Keto Camp.

If you're interested in the keto diet, that's got everything you need to know about starting the keto diet. That's up at www.warriorsoulketocamp.com. We've also got our free men's health newsletter, and that's up at menshealth.warriorsoulagoge.com. If you're looking for a little something more, alright, I've created something called the Warrior Soul Agoge. And what that is is a low cost group training program that I've put together, and it includes the Warrior Soul diet.

It's a diet that is going to be able to be customized to you and your needs. We've got a library of training programs that I've created for some of my elite clients over the years. Any number of programs that you wanna choose from. We've also got our Warrior Soul Agoge specific program that we're putting out on the Warrior Soul Agoge private group, and we get weekly calls, weekly group calls on Zoom. So it's not like just a phone call where you can't see me.

I put them up on Zoom, and basically, it's like a video conference call between all of us. And we get together once a week on Thursdays, and we talk it out. We we troubleshoot problems. We talk about things you're going through, and that's how I can personally help you. We're also gonna be starting a Slack channel, for the group as well.

And if you wanna check that out, that is up at membership.warriorsoulagoge.com. Also wanna mention our amazing sponsors for this podcast, f bomb nutrition. They make delicious awesome packets of fats. Really, really awesome macadamia nut butters. They mix them up with chocolate.

They mix them up with sea salt. They mix them up with pecan butter. And they're sending packs of this stuff overseas to the troops. Really great people. If you want 20% off of your order of f bombs, your first order of f bombs, you can head over to www.dropanfbomb.com and use the code Warrior Soul at checkout, and I'll get you 20% off of your first order.

So with that, guys, I wanna thank you for listening to the Warrior Soul podcast. Remember to try to leave us a review on iTunes to make sure and make sure you subscribe to the podcast so you're not missing anything. And we will back be back at you on Friday with another Warrior Notes. Thank you so much for listening. Now get out there, start training, and live your best lives while you can.