December 27, 2024 • 52 mins
We all face adversity everyday, and some days have some huge set backs. This week Dirk talks with motivational speaker and hunter, Sidney Smith. Sidney is a double amputee who has overcome loosing both legs, only to go on and lead an extraordinary life. Sidney still enjoys hiking in the mountains and hunting, not to mention competing in Iron Man, and Bodybuilding competitions. His story is uplifting and motivating to say the least.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome back to another episode of Cutting the Distance podcast.
I'm Dirk Durham and this week I have a guest
who is someone I've been following on Instagram for years.
He's a motivational speaker and his attitude on life is contagious.
Anytime I start thinking that I cannot physically do something,
my mind drifts to Sydney and I'm motivated to try harder.
(00:35):
Sidney Smith, Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Hey Derk, thank you so much. This is exciting. I've
been following you for a long time too, so yeah, yeah,
and you motivate me. Oh that's that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Man, that's I don't know, I don't know. I don't
even know how that's possible.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
But that's one thing. You never know who you're motivating.
So it's important always share your story because well, person
told me your story maybe another person's survival guide. So yeah,
that's that's true. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I had I had someone tell me that years ago.
They're like, there's someone out there that you maybe you
barely even know them, but you've impacted their life somehow,
some way, just even by meeting them, greeting them and
having a simple conversation, you've probably impacted someone's life to
where they think about that moment or that that whatever
(01:30):
it was that you told them or the conversation or
whatever it was, they think about that a lot, and
that gives them a reason. So yeah, that's I think
we kind of all get kind of muddled down in
our own little bs of our daily lives, and we
kind of like forget about those kind of things. But
but then I start thinking, like you know, all the
(01:51):
little things like when I'm feeling down in the dumps
or whatever, I start thinking about the things that someone
or something has happened. That that's that's makes me like
shake it off or whatever.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
So oh yeah, no, I've had that, like even years
and years, Like I'll speak out of school and they'll
be like five or six years later, you know, they're
all grown up with two kids, and they told me, say,
I remember when you spoke at our middle school and
you I just in this story and this and this
really changed my life. Here. I was like, I had
(02:21):
no idea. I had no idea. You can make impacts
on people's lives. So that's that's very true. It could
be infectious.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
So we'll good, that's incredible, So tell tell our listeners. Uh, tell,
take us down the path of your story of how
you even became a motivational speaker.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Well, it's something fairly newish, like it kind of fell
into my lap. When I was in college, I had
to take one elective course that you know, just to pass,
you know, and to get my degree, and so I
had to pick some course out there, and I chose
public speaking because they said that was the easiest. And
(03:03):
I had straight a's through college except for one class,
and it was freaking public speaking. Because I'm like, I
hate public speaking. Everyone says it was easy, but I'm like, yeah,
but you got to do something I absolutely hate, you know.
I hate talking in church, I hate speaking in front
of people. And so I ended up getting like a
C in that class. But it's still it's still better
(03:25):
to me. But what ended up happening is is, uh,
you know, I never I said I'll never speak again.
This is, you know, dumb. I'm glad I got that
off my list. It was just to get credit for
a class. And then turns out that in twenty fifteen
I had my legs amputated due to complications to a
(03:47):
disease I was born with called Charco Marie Tooth and
just a backstory with that. You know, it's it's something
that's a progressive muscular distripty, something I gained genetically sometime
down the road, and it progressed heavily in deforming my
feet to the point where I couldn't function. Then I
(04:07):
couldn't do the things I love, such as hunting and fishing,
hiking and all that stuff. And then when I hit
about thirty three, doctors kind of gave me an ultimatum saying,
you know, we coul get a wheelchair or we could
try you know, amputation and see what prosthetics will do.
So in twenty fifteen, I did this surgery, and you know,
(04:30):
it was hard, you know, changed my life. Obviously, it
was a big decision, But in the long run, it
was the best decision I've ever made because I've had
so many amazing things happen in my life that's blessed
me and my family and has taught me things about
you know, gratitude and things to be grateful for and
how you know, God gives us certain trials in life
(04:51):
to make a stronger individuals and purpose to help other
people that are also struggling and to be the example
to others. And so yeah, I just caught the fire
after that point. And someone suggested that I speak to
a group of cub Scouts and telling my story. And
(05:12):
I said, okay, I'll talk to these you know, ten
year old boys and telling my story and the challenges
that I've overcame and the things that I've accomplished. And
it felt good. And next thing, I know, you know,
a couple of schools started reaching out and and then
before you know it, I started going, you know, traveling
all over the country. It's not something I do full time.
(05:34):
I have a nine to five. It's just something I
enjoy doing. And uh, it's it's been a blessing in
my life to share my story. So that's where I'm at.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Man, that's awesome to Probably one of the hardest things
of that whole story is back to what you were
saying about public speaking. I mean, I think for a
lot of us that's really hard. I know for me,
I struggle public speaking too. I get nervous and I'm
always always my worst critic, of course, but it's it's great,
(06:10):
like you're like overcoming a lot of hurdles a lot
of us have on a daily basis, right, you know,
back to when you had to have your legs amputated.
I mean that, like that whole process has got to
be like so.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Impactful. It's not just like, oh I just cut off
a hangnail. This is something that's.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Like like just the healing time of becoming to where
you know you're where you were amputated, to get that
to heal and to be like not painful all the time,
and then to try to like dig out of the
there's got to be some depths of depths of despair
there too, Right, how did how do you find how
did you find your way out of such a dark
(06:53):
place and into the light after that?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, you nol that it it's not it takes time.
It's not like I woke up out of the hospital
bed and been like, okay, I'm I'm ready to to
to go kill an elk or do an ironman or
something like that. It it at first, it was actually
really difficult to the especially the day of the surgery,
to wake up. And I remember I was in the
(07:21):
hospital bed and I looked themder the sheets, and you know,
sure enough I knew this day was coming. And it
was always kind of a surreal moment, but to actually
see gone it was it was hard. You know, there
was tears in the hospital bed and knowing that, you know,
I won't be able to feel cold grass and the
sand beneath my pose, and and you know, the fear
(07:44):
of the unknown, like am I gonna do activities such
as hunting and fishing and the things I love, play
with my kids, keep a job. And then my wife
came into the hospital room, and you know, I'm still
down on myself, and I'm telling her, you know, I'm sorry,
this is now a burden on you. I was just thinking,
you know, you, you might as well just go ahead
(08:04):
and leave me, honey. I totally won't judge you for that,
And she says, you know I could, but the doctor
gave us this handicapped parking pass and now that, uh,
we can get excellent parking at Walmart. I don't see
any reason why I would leave you. So, uh, there's
there's a there's a light at the end of the tunnel.
But that's back to your back to your question, where
(08:28):
do you find, you know, to get out of the
dooms of stuff like that? Uh, you know, for me,
it it was hard to accept the fact that life
is going to be harder at first, and I just overall,
I'm trying to be a kind person, and ultimately I
felt guilty that I was a burden to everybody, and so,
(08:50):
you know, the thoughts of a suicide came in pretty
heavy towards at the beginning. But then, you know something
that I with this disease. I've always felt like life
is not fair, but it's just the way it is,
and you know, you have to live with that. And
(09:12):
for me, I've thought, you know, maybe this, you know,
why did God give me this challenge? And you know
it's not fair, but you know, I still have to
live with it, and I have to have a positive attitude.
And when I was thinking of suicide and you know,
all these awful thoughts, I still had a young family
at the time, and I had a little daughter. She's
(09:35):
now ten years old, but she was just learning how
to walk, and ironically we're learning to walk together. Oh wow.
And I just remember learning to walk with my prosthetics
and she's learning to walk at the same time. It
just dawned on me that you know, it may not
be fair that I had gotten this disease, but to
(09:56):
her it's not fair that they she'd have a dad
that may end his life. And I can't control my disease,
but I can control the outcome of my daughter. And
so it just kind of clicked that the purpose of
life is a lot different than what I thought at
that moment. It's not all about me. It's all about Noah,
my kids, and and everyone else as well. And so
(10:20):
I just knew I had to combat this fear and
anger that I had towards this disease in my situation
and find myself out of it. And so I heard
at church one time the opposite of fear is faith.
That is the antidote. But they work the same way.
Where you can't see fear and you can't see faith,
(10:42):
but if in your mind, if you have a belief
in one and grow and develop that, nurseh you know,
the fear or the faith, one has a positive aspect
and one has a negative aspect. And so I what
really started it all was just faith. Is that I
had to believe that I was going to get better,
that God has a plan for me. I'm going to
(11:05):
trust in him that He's gonna provide me a life
that's going to be worth you know, hanging on and
that's where it all began. And I just kept believing
that and exercising that faith to where it's turned into
something beautiful and strong. Yeah, that's awesome. It kind of
reminds me.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I hate to be so cliche, but it reminds me
of a saying I seen on Instagram, and it said,
we all have two wolves inside, and you know, a
good one and a bad one, you know, and whichever
one you feed will grow, right, So that kind of
goes right back to what you said, you know, you
either feed your faith or you feed your fears. And
(11:45):
I can, yeah, I can definitely see that. It seems
like negative thoughts. If you're dwelling on negative then more
negative comes. And if you're dwelling on positive things and
you know, keeping the you know, shutting out the negative
stuff just kind of keeps you on track. So just overcoming,
(12:06):
you know, the part of losing your legs and and
trying to find a way to live a normal life again.
Now that's one thing which is remarkable that in itself,
to me, is is motivating. But then I look at
a lot of the other things you do. You you
(12:27):
go hiking in the mountains, you go elk hunting, you've
competed in iron Man, you've competed in triathlon, you've you've
been in a body building competition. I mean, I mean,
you've just checked off a lot of boxes that like
to do one of those in a normal person's life
would be like an accomplishment, right that like a bucket
(12:48):
list accomplishment. You you are checking all these boxes and
people might think or see like you know, no, nobody
sees the hard work, right, no matter what anyone does,
they always see the outcome, like the result, like you know,
a successful el kint summit on a mountain, you've you've
you've hiked up to or or you know your your
(13:11):
your body condition at the end of training for a
body competition. But the day in, day out training and
grueling to get from point zero to to the to
the goal that is that's that's the real stuff. And
I feel like not everybody gets to see that, And
(13:32):
what are your opinions on that? Like you have you
probably have put in so much work that nobody will
ever see, and overcame a lot of little things, like
little things we take for granted on a day to
day just to accomplished those those things.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Yeah, it I My wife is uh to the point
now it's like, hey, when are you just gonna sit
back and relax honestly, and uh, I My personality is
just consist where I have to be doing something new.
It just keeps my mind out of the gutter. I
like challenges. I like things that are going to test
(14:08):
my body to the limits. But that's that's part of
the fun. Like, for example, in the Iron Man, that
was still to this date the hardest thing I've ever
done was an iron Man. But the race itself it
was hard, but that wasn't the hardest part. The hardest
part was all the training. I had an infection six
(14:31):
months prior to the race that almost put me out
where I you know, they had to drain all go
in there and cut into my limb and drain all
the infection just you know, twenty plus hours of a
week of just training every Saturday completely on my bike
or swimming eight or nine hours and then eating. Just
(14:52):
in doing that for a year straight, that was difficult.
Like even hunting season. It was frustrating when I wanted
to go hunting, but I had to to go run first,
and so that little stuff like that. That was the
hard part. But that's you know, if it wasn't if
it was easy, then everybody would do it. That's that's
the part that is rewarding, is that that grind. And uh,
(15:16):
I mean, just to answer your question, it's not easy,
but that's what makes it worth it. That's what really
is going to change as an individual, because if it
was easy, then then you wouldn't see this, you wouldn't
have the desire, wouldn't be as cool for you. Rewarding, Yeah, absolutely.
I feel like it's proof to the thought that human
(15:40):
humans are capable of amazing things in and our abilities
are way further than what we first you know, the
first little stop our brain says, oh, I think we're done.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
I feel like we are capable of so much more
than past that first little speed bump.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
You know.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
You you talked about, you know, having that infection six
months before your your race, and like how many how
many of us during elk season have gotten like an
ingrown toenail or a little blister on her foot or
something like, oh man, I don't know if.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I can go down to the hell all the day.
It's and you know, it's it hurts.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
It's it's you know, or you know, there's always like
some little little thing that that's difficult, that's not easy,
that like will derail a lot of people. Like I
feel like you're saying six months before that you almost
derailed by having that infection. It wasn't just a simple
little thing. It's like a lot, you know. And then
(16:52):
to stay the course, do you just like what do
you what do you focus on to stay on that course?
Do you'd like sit there like looking at that set
back and think, what is your mind? What's your mindset?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Are you saying?
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Are you saying, Okay, just we're gonna get through this.
You know, it's gonna be fine. We're just gonna as
soon as soon as I can get this healed up,
I'm gonna start working hard again to accomplish this. What
what what do you tell yourself to get there?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Then it's gonna be worth it. Like that's that's the
goal right there, It's gonna be worth it. And I
don't I think the older I've gotten, you know, I'm
now in my forties, the thing that's hardest to live
with being older is regrets. Right, That's just something I
just find I don't doesn't go away. And when I
(17:41):
had that infection, you know, ultimately I talked to my
coach and my doctor. I says, okay, I'm out for
a few, you know, six weeks. I can't train. I
basically has started all my endurance over. You know, what
do I do? And and I thought about it, prayed
about it, and this was this was in twenty nineteen
when I did this race, and so I was like, well,
(18:01):
maybe I'll push the race into twenty twenty, Like what's
the worst that can happen in twenty twenty. And as
you can see, I decided not to go that route.
And had I done, you know, then the race of
twenty twenty would have been canceled because of COVID, and
then who knows what other things could have happened in
my life that would have completely derailed me from the race.
(18:23):
So I just said, you know what, it's going to
be worth it. I'm going to give it my best,
because I'm not going to regret it if I don't
give my best. If I don't finish, that's one thing.
I could always sign up and do this again. But
if I if I don't even show up to the course,
and don't even try. Then it's it's not going to
be rewarding, because that's that's where it is. Same thing.
(18:43):
Like like we talked about elk hunting that this last
fall or this current fall, sorry that we're in, I
guess it's still fall. I just shot an elk last
month and my biggest bull to date. You know, I'm
super stoked about it. But when I shot him, I
shot him down at the bottom of this canyon and
(19:06):
it you know, I knew when I saw him he's
one of those bulls you just don't be like, well,
he's too hard to get. I'm not going to pass.
I mean, this is a once in a lifetime thing
by far, And I went and I shot him, and
and the best thing about elk cunning is having buddies
with you because then you feel confident getting him out
of there. Right. Sure, we spend all day breaking him
(19:28):
down and you know, boning him out and getting him
up the hill. And you know, my buddy was like,
you know, you should have shot him from the road
or you know, to see if he would have came
up the road. But I look back at it now,
I was like, I'm glad that he was in the
worst hell hole. Otherwise this reward wouldn't be as as great.
I mean, it would felt like I mean, don't get
(19:48):
me wrong. If they're sitting on the road, that's awesome.
But at the same time, just to earn that bull
has now made it more of a memory and every
you know, this is my first bull that I'm actually
going to mount, and now I will remember that elk
and that experience of the pack out more than just
you know, if I were to shoot him on the road,
and so it's got to be worth it and that
(20:10):
those are the moments you got to live for. Otherwise
having regret, it's just an awful thing to have. Absolutely, yeah, yeah,
living with regret it sucks. I know. Over the years,
I've been elk.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Hunting, deer hunting for thirty I don't even know thirty five,
forty forty years, but thirty five plus years, and like
there's some some times I can think back to where
I didn't give up my all or I gave up
on whatever, and then I had to live with that
(20:44):
regret for a whole nother year. But then it's not
just another year. It's it's that one little thing that
always like gnaws at your the back of your mind.
I to this day there's still someone some do overs.
I really wish I could of just because I gave up,
you know. You know, I like to talk a big
(21:05):
game and say, you know, don't ever give up. But
that's a lot of that is me talking to myself,
don't ever give up. I have to give myself that
my pep talk every now and then because it, Yeah,
you do face hard, hard hunts or hard things, and
it's like, well, do you want to you know, you
want to think about this for the you want to
carry that monkey on the back of your back for
(21:26):
the next year or the rest of your life.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
No, I don't.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
So yeah that I can definitely see see that you
don't want to live with regrets. How hard was it
to relearn to walk?
Speaker 2 (21:39):
I can only imagine, just be.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
It's got to be a whole new process versus like
and I hate to even compare this, but I had
ankle surgery here a couple of years ago, and I
had to go into a bunch of physical therapy and
I could walk, but it wasn't right, you know, I
had to they had to show me how to do
it right. So I would learn how to use that
(22:04):
ankle again properly, but with muscles that I've used in
the past to walk. Now I can imagine everything is
different now with prosthetic limbs, with prosthetic legs to walk,
you're using some of the same muscles but differently, and
there's probably some other muscles that coming into into play
to learn how to walk.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
What was that like? Well, it it is different for
like a single amputee versus a double amputee. Like a
single amputee guys that I've I've hunted with with my charity,
they they struggle with like the fatiguing and then the
other leg. For me, where my struggles is because I
(22:47):
don't have an ankle, a lot of my stability comes
into my knees and my hips, Okay, and so one
of the things you know, when I train at the gym,
those are things I like to focus on, is you know,
stability on my hips, mostly because that's what's gonna help
with my walking. But to answer your question, like how
hard was it to learn to walk? You know, prior
(23:11):
to having my legs amputated, I wore those forest gump braces,
those big metal things, and so you know, ironically, I
got those braces when that movie came out, and so
everybody at the playground would always say, you know, run
Sydney Run. So that's and I still have those braces.
But because of those braces, they actually kind of helped
(23:33):
me understand the mechanics of relying on a device. And
so I actually picked up pretty well on the prosthetic,
but I still had pain. Like when you first lose
your limb, your your your limb is huge and it's
got to loose size. And then your they change the
shape of your socket that go you know, the socket
(23:56):
goes around your limb and that changes, and then you
have to have soft because throughout the day the volume
can change based off like sweat, your diet, inflammation that
your calf muscle because it's got a atrophy completely. And
then it was about probably going this yo yo about
a whole year. Did I feel confident where I could
(24:17):
walk throughout the whole day and not have any pain.
And then when it came to hunting, that was you
know another element because now I'm adding pressure on my back,
which is more weight inside my socket, which is you know,
this hard carb fiber. So I got to adjust to
that I'm more top heavy, and so the carbon fiber
(24:38):
has a different response based on my weight, and so
I got to adjust to that. Sissy sticks. I know
Bryce Bishop with the Peaks equipment. He got me some
of those trekking poles. Yeah, I use those for hunting,
even when you know the trail is actually not treacherous.
I still like that. But you know, challenges for me.
(24:59):
You know, a sage brush because I can't feel the ground.
I can't feel when that sage brush grabs your feet,
you know, because I'm trying to scan scan the horizon,
trying to look for animals. Uh steep going downhill just
because my my toe doesn't flex downwards, so I'm basically
walking on the edge of my heel. That's kind of hard.
(25:24):
Uh goll league upheels nice because that my my foot's down,
you know, kind of digging in anyways because it's flat, right.
But yeah, that's that's kind of the gist of prosthetics.
It could take a beating. I I've had experiences where
I've broken my prosthetic in the mountains. You know, I
get blisters, I get sores, just like everybody else. It's
(25:46):
just in different places. Yeah, do you do you once
you kind of once you get I would assume it's
just like anything, the more you use it, the tougher
it gets. Right.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
So you know, if you're if you're training for one
of like a marathon or whatever, training for elk hunt
maybe if you've been sedentary for a little while and
then like, okay, I'm gonna start picking up my training here,
I would assume like you probably in the beginning start
having some blisters, but then you will it'll like things
can target toughening up right. You know, by the time
(26:19):
elk seasons there, it's pretty good. But then you get
on some other train and you may experience some other
other other issues with blisters, but it probably develops more
of a callus there. Eventually probably use it and lose it,
or use it or lose it.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Right, yeah, I mean the beginning, like you taw archery
season starts in August, and you can't to replicate, you know,
to train for hunting. The best way to train for
hunting is go more hunting, go hunting more, I guess,
And so usually August is when it's like those first
few hikes or you know, oh that kind of hurt
(26:56):
and then by the time I'm hunting in October November,
I'm a row But yeah it uh, I would say, yeah,
the blisters are pretty much healed and calloused over and
and my muscles are you know, a little better shape
for for for hiking. So it it's just like, yeah,
just like anybody else.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
So now bodybuilding, you shared some some pictures and your
bodybuilding story on Instagram and I didn't even know you
were training for that, and then you showed your before
and after pictures and I was like, holy cow, Like
what a what a transformation? An incredible transformation, And like
(27:43):
working out a lot is is one thing, but then
there's got to be an insane diet control, you know,
to get into that kind of in that kind of
shape to look like that.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Can you talk about your your training and then also
your diet working for your for body your bodybuilding competition. Yeah, yeah,
you're not the first person that says, WHOA, I didn't
even know you were doing this, And there was a
reason for that.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Like it, I I was playing basketball about a year
ago and I tore my mcl and you know, I
couldn't run and do the you know basketball for a while.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
So I decided to hit the weights, and I just enjoyed,
you know, lifting weights in the iron and talking to
guys at the gym and seeing that you know, they've
done you know, bodybuilding shows. And I just kind of asked,
you know, what do I do help me? What do
I need to do? I'm curious about it. And so
my biggest demise is I can exercise all day long,
(28:49):
but when it comes to food, I love to cook,
I love to smoke, I love to to Food is
a social thing for me, and I eat, you know,
poorly most of the time. Right, So that I knew
that was going to be the hardest. Every time I
tried to lose weight for something, it's it's always the
pizza and the cookies that end up getting after me.
(29:12):
The smoked meats, oh yeah, the smoked meats. So I
just I just decided, you know what, this is kind
of a new iron Man for me. It's something I
you know, it's it's in good puts me in a
good headspace to have a goal that's hard in mind.
And so I just told myself, I'm going to do
(29:33):
a show in October and and and go for there.
So how it looked out, I gave myself about a
year to prep for this show. I was two thirty
six when I started, and it just what it looked
like was in the beginning, I would, you know, eat
high proteins. My calories would be pretty high, about thirty
(29:55):
five hundred, and I just have a high protein to
try to bulk up, tried to get strong, lift heavy,
and then I continued that from about oh December till
May ish is when I started what they call the cut.
And so I figured out, you know, how much weight
(30:18):
or how many calories I needed to cut back before
I started losing weight and then minus five hundred calories.
So I kind of measured everything that I ate, weighted
everything that I ate, logged everything that I ate, and
then I watched my scale. If I started losing weight,
then that's what I knew where I was supposed to be.
So I went from like thirty five hundred calories to
(30:40):
twenty five hundred calories and then I kept that for
a while and I was hoping to lose about a
pound and a pound and a half, and then I
dropped to two thousand calories because sometimes I would plateau,
but I for food wise, I ate probably a whole
elk all by myself because elk has the best protein
(31:06):
per calorie ratio, and when you're trying to keep for
calories low and your protein's high, like for my macros,
if I weighed about two hundred and twenty pounds, I
wanted to try to eat two hundred and forty grands
of protein, which is that's a lot of food. And
so you know with you know, mountain hoops, protein shakes
and elk, and I fish a lot, so I caught,
(31:27):
you know, kept all of my fish that I would catch.
I just kind of developed a diet. I got a
little creative with like different egg whites and chicken, but
ultimately I had to cut out the things I loved,
which was pork, you know, you know, starchy foods, bread,
you know, heavy breads, pizzas, sugar, soda, all that. And
(31:51):
that was the hardest part of the bodybuilding show. Actually
the muscles. There are just muscles that I had. I
don't think I really grew any stronger. I didn't get
stronger in the gym. It's just when you lose all
that weight from doing all calorie deficit, that's when it
shows up. And that is the hardest part is just
the food. So were you did you avoid carbs at
(32:14):
all costs or were you mixing in some carbs some
like clean stuff. I do what they call a carb
rotation or so on leg day and back day, which
were my largest groups of muscles that I was exercising,
I would have more carbs. But ultimately the goal was
to be about one hundred carbs for the day, except
(32:36):
for the last month. The last month is when it's
extreme cutting. I was anywhere from twenty five to fifty
and very irritable and angry, and I was a little bitchy.
I'm not gonna lie. My wife said. I was on
PMS for the month of September.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Man, I feel that anytime I do, like try to
do carnivore or keto, dude, I get so pissy. I'm
just like a grouch and like walking around bambug, I'm like,
what the hell's wrong with you?
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Man?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Like why are you so grouchy? And then it's like, oh, yeah,
because I don't have any that comfort.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Food to just like, oh, chinnamon rolls or mashed potatoes
or any of that fun stuff to eat. But man,
it's not fun to eat strict that and you just
said it, like that's a lot of us. That's our
biggest nemesis is you know, working out, and that's one thing.
(33:31):
But they say you can't outwork out a poor diet.
Right No, absolutely, not, Like even if you when I
was doing the Iron Man and I was you know,
thousands of calories I was burning on a regular basis,
I still had a good old tire belly like it was,
you know, a beer belly. And it's just because I
(33:51):
was eating so much carbs and sugars to try to recover. Right, No,
I learned a lot about my body in this competition.
Like I could still like I've had pizza a few
times since my competition. I could still find waste to indulge,
but I I mean I would eat like a whole pizza,
and now I can be okay with just a few slices.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Right did it kind of almost change? Like I found
I feel like after I've eaten really strict for a while,
I don't like the things I used to love. I
don't like them as much. I mean I still kind
of like them, but it's not like, oh, I have
to have my mashed potatoes with my steak, my elk steak,
or whatever.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
It's like, eh, I'm good with or without it. Oh, correct,
your body responds when you're eating clean for that long.
Your body responds to port or bad foods, you know
pretty well. Like for example, our neighbors brought us some
Christmas cookies and I tried one. I'm like, oh, that
was good. So I tried another one, and my whole
(34:53):
body was like, oh, you suck eras I just felt
like I ran into like a pole. And it's so
I quickly learned that eating clean, you're just you're doing better.
You think better, you feel better, you know have you know,
I have more confidence, and uh, you know, you'd be
more efficient. Like even when I was you know, I
was training for this competition. You know, the carbohydrates that
(35:16):
I could have was rice, and I it's amazing what
a cup of rice could get me two or three
miles on the mountain, just just a little bit of rice.
What those carbs could do. You know before I would
have to eat, you know, a box of donuts to
get that kind of carbohydrates effectively in my body. So right,
I noticed that too.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
One time, I ate keto all summer and then a
couple of days before Elksen. I'd been I'd been hiking
this hill every day, this steep ass hill, and I'd
hike it, and with zero carbs, I was just I
would struggle it take a you know, just like fu
one foot in front of the other. And then a
couple of days before I left for my elk hunt,
I grabbed I was like, you know what, I think
(35:57):
it's it's close enough. I'm gonna I'm gonna eat some
And so I got me a couple barbecue beef burritos
from the deli at the store, at the at the
gas station, and.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
I ate those.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Man, I flew up that hill. It was like I
was I had rocket fuel. It's like, holy cow, like
doubled my time up and down. It's like, holy cow,
that was awesome. But that doesn't that doesn't work like
that when you've been eating like crap all the time, No,
it you're slug then yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Because well, because your body already has all that glycogen
storage in you, it always all that flat storage in you,
and so when when you already are just adding to it,
it does nothing but makes you feel like crap. It
doesn't burn like a like a like a fire inside
it's so, yeah, you did the right thing. By that's
that's probably the best time to have that kind of
(36:47):
food is when you know you're gonna burn it off.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
So you're Elk, you got a heck of a bull. Elk,
you were talking about how what what kind of a
tag was that?
Speaker 2 (37:07):
Was that?
Speaker 1 (37:07):
A like did a rifle tag? And for how long
was the season? And tell tell us about that?
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Yeah, I got blessed. I was given a tag my
brother in law, he kind of worked out some magic
with a friend of his that owns cwn U property
here in Utah. And it was a tag that not
normally like there's there's you had a chance at a
bull because it was very late season, which I've never
(37:35):
hunted late season bulls like that. So I mean, i'd
really you know it it like you know, I'm a
big fan of watching Corey Jacobson films and Elk one
on one stuff and so you know, I I, you know,
I blow phelps and so I thought, oh, I could
call a bull in, but at that time of year,
they don't like to be called It's more like a
(37:58):
mule deer hunt, right, And so I was just it
was kind of out of my element, you know, to
not call or to try to locate. Instead, we're just
basically going up on these ridges. It's here in Utah.
It's a transition unit. So what they told me that
(38:19):
this hunt could be where it was a five day
hunt and it could be anywhere from seeing a couple
elk the whole trip, or seeing twenty or thirty bowls
the whole trip. Wow. And prior to this hunt, we
had a really nice snowstorm in late October and it
(38:42):
just triggered all these elk where every day we were
seeing probably eighteen or nineteen bowls and that's it was awesome.
Like it was like, I've never been a part of
a hunt where you see that many elk. I mean
where I live. I live in you went to mountains
northeastern part of Utah. It's an open bowl unit. And
(39:04):
you know, if you see a spike elk in this
open bowl unit, that's a trophy. Yeah, and you may
not ever see another elk ther whole time. And so
it was really hard to to pass on an elk.
But when you see on the first day, I think
we saw fifteen bowls and uh, you know, I was like, oh, lead,
I don't want to shoot one on the first day.
Then the hunts over, I already got worked off, and
(39:27):
all my buddies were saying, don't shoot one on the
first day because we don't want to go back to
our wives. Let's just try to this as long as possible.
Let's enjoy this, Let's let's sit back and enjoy it.
I mean we were we were we were cush hunting,
like we I brought my camper and we were you
know that had a you know, heater in it and
stuff like that. So we we were having a good
old time. And and the second day hit saw a
(39:48):
few more bulls. I saw really really pretty five point
like score is not something i'd chase per se. But
if there's there's a difference between oh that's a pretty
pretty bowl and there's another one that makes your butthole flinch,
you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, and this this
this bull had that and so but at the same time,
(40:10):
I don't I saw him on the second day and
I wanted, I want to shoot this big, huge five
point I mean, just super mature body, but he was
uphill it was like six hundred yards, and I just
didn't feel comfortable. Shooting that distance. I could, but I
didn't feel comfortable because it was just an awkward position.
(40:32):
So we tried to get a shot and never could
get him. And then I spent the next two days
trying to find him and never did. And then it
just so happened to be where we found this other
bull that ended up being bigger. Oh wow. And you know,
in the meantime, I was, you know, passing three hundred
inch bowls through fifteen's and that was you know, that
(40:53):
was really hard to do to pass an elk that size.
And then when I saw this bowl, it just is
the same thing. It was just like you just know, yeah,
that's it's just there's just next level. You know, your
heart starts sinking, your eyes your eyes start you know,
watering because it's just so beautiful. I love it. I
love it it. That's that's so awesome.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
I'm so glad you got to enjoy that experience a
hunting one of those cwmus. You know, some people will
sit here and they'll they will throw rocks and poo
poo on that.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
Oh it's privately, no, nope, I'm out.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
You know, you get all the comments and it's like man,
sometimes normal guys should get that opportunity, you know, every
now and then, which I'm all for. You know, it's
not always some rich dude getting those tags. It's it's
cool to see regular guys that you know would really
(41:52):
appreciate it get that kind of a hunt. And some people,
I mean, how many people would turn down an opportunity
to do that if somebody said, hey, why don't you
come up here and hunt? Nobody's turn that down?
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Right, So I knew this was a once in a
lifetime thing for me too. I mean, I don't I
don't have a lot of money to mount animals, and
so I I knew this was one that I would
have to mount because I knew I wasn't gonna get
another shot. But yeah, you get you do hear the
negativity and it's usually the same loud group that's against
(42:25):
the cwm US. I know a lot of operators. What's
nice is a lot of other these operators will work
with my nonprofit charity where we give you know, kids
that are terminal an opportunity to hunt elk on these properties. Yeah,
the way they treat the property like the elk, the
very healthy animals, beautiful properties and really the way people
(42:48):
forget and you taw you could draw for these units.
In fact, in this this unit that I hunted in
of course, there was you know, guys that buy the
tags every year. They have a lot of money. But
the guy that shot the biggest bowl this year was
was a public land guy that drew that put his
name in it and drew it. He shot a three
(43:09):
sixty bowl. Yeah, that's awesome, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
I had the opportunity to hunt a CWMU here a
few years ago, twenty twenty two, and there was a
guy and his son. The guy had drawn a tag
and yeah, he got to stay at the same place
I got to stay. They even provided a guide for
him they. I mean, it was awesome, like that guy,
you know, was out there just living living the dream.
(43:36):
So I think it's a good program, you know. I
feel like everybody should get a chance someday to to
go on that.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
You know.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Unfortunately, with the drawing systems, it makes it tough. You know,
it's really hard, especially utahs is you got to be
invested for a lot of years to to draw a tag.
And but but anyway, so what's next, what's uh, what's
on the horizon. Do you got any or do you
or maybe you don't want to share what your next
big goal is. Man, you've checked some pretty impressive boxes. No,
(44:13):
there's there's always something on my mind. I'm working on
one right now.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
This I usually don't go this long, but I wanted
to find something that kind of resonates with me. And
there's one that I've always wanted to do, and that's
to swim the English Channel. It's from France to England.
It's it's a marathon, but it's a swim. But it's feasible.
(44:37):
It's really hard. You know, my my wife right now,
it's not something she's eagerly anxious about. There's something that
I'm probably going to do this year is to swim
to Alcatraz Island and back. So I'm working with a
charter company out there to see what it costs and
see if I could, you know, maybe do a charity
(44:58):
event where I can raise money for that swim. And
you know, I just there. You have to swim at
a certain pace otherwise the current to go to out
to Alcatraz will push you off course where you're actually
not going forward, you're going sideways. And so I have
to qualify for that to swim to Alcatraz Island and
(45:19):
back and they so that one's probably something that would
be the next one that's coming up twenty twenty five. Awesome.
Are you a pretty strong swimmer? Yeah? I swim in
high school and in college. I mean with my disease
because my feet were deformed, it was just it was
something that I could do well at. The disease is
(45:41):
in my hands as well, but it's it's uh, I've
been working with the physical therapist I'm on. I got
on tier T here a couple of years ago. That's
kind of helped me retain muscle, and so the disease
hasn't really affected that badly. There's some days it's bad,
but for the most part, I'm still able to use
(46:02):
my hands. Do you feel pain or is it just
loss of function? Both? Pain just because uh, the arthritis
and it everything's really feeble, like I have a broken
wrist that still hasn't healed, and then just functions. So
like fatigue, So like with swimming, if I get too tired,
(46:24):
then my hands can't they cramp up like this like
a I guess while we're on a podcast, so kind
of like a monkey hand where it just kind of
closes up, grip yep, and so to swim, I want
my hands open, so I can, you know, like paddles
and to hold that position is it can be hard
when my disease gets gets bad. Oh wow, yeah, right on.
(46:47):
Well man, what are any closing thoughts you'd.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Like to give our listeners as far as motivational stuff,
I think we'd all like to hear a little bit
of the good stuff.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Well, one of the things I love to talk about,
and this, you know, applies to everybody, I think, not
just hunters or is one of the things what I
when I go out and I public speak. The topic
that I am most passionate about is gratitude because it
(47:23):
honestly is the most powerful thing that we can have
as human beings. Powerful feeling besides love, is to to
have gratitude. And one thing that I learned through many
lessons in life is, you know, is you have to
be grateful for what you have. And the more things
that you spend focusing on what you're grateful for, you know,
(47:47):
you won't find any time to sit around and say, well,
I'm not grateful for this, or I'm you know, woe
is me and this sucks. It has a powerful force
behind it to where I try to practice gratitude every day.
I make it a goal in the morning, especially in
the morning, because I feel like that's when my mind's
(48:07):
the clear where I could set the tone right for
the day to think about at least two things that
I knew in my mind that I'm grateful for. And
you'd be surprised, like that does not get old. There's
always something to be grateful for, you know. My even
with my situation, I could say that I'm even grateful
(48:27):
for my trials because it's taught me things that I
don't think I could have gained anywhere else. Taught me
things like patience and perseverance and compassion for other people
with disabilities. That has rewarded me in life like it's
made me a better husband, it's made me a better father.
That's given the patience and over chaos, has helped me
(48:51):
get stand out at work where I've gotten promotions. And
all these attributes were something that I gained because of
this trial. So I mean I could safely say that
I would never change my life for anything else. So
as I guess to add on to that or to
close of that is, I I think maybe reconsider some
of the hardships that we've had in our lives as
(49:14):
opportunities to learn from and and find ways to grow,
where these are just stepping stones to your success.
Speaker 3 (49:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:22):
Wow, I love that, I really do. I think that's
a huge point.
Speaker 1 (49:26):
And I think a lot of us skip that, skip
that gratitude getting up in the morning. You know, I
think all the other things with life and all the
other clutter, you know, whether it's you know, politics, news,
social media, whatever it is you're facing with your day
to day grind, it's easy to lose lose that focus
(49:47):
on gratitude.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
Especially in the morning. Like what's the first thing most
people do when they wake up? What do they go for?
Speaker 1 (49:55):
Yeah, they go for the new the news, or their phone,
their phone, Yeah, they're gonna get the or social they.
Speaker 2 (50:01):
Want to see who's who's like this, or who's doing that,
or who's doing this. Of course social media it's got
some beautiful things to it, but a lot of times
people look at like, oh man, I wish I was
doing this, I wish I was doing that. And in
the end, it's just you know, to start your day
where you just wish you were somebody else. Is not healthy. Yeah,
I starting your day with envy. Just practice, yeah, practice gratitude,
(50:24):
then look at your phone, you know, just try it,
try it out. Yeah yeah, I'm going to do that.
I'm going to do that.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
So Sidney, where can people find you? If they want
to follow you?
Speaker 2 (50:38):
You could? I'm pretty active on social media, I guess
with with Instagram. I haven't caught on to to Snapchat,
although my kids think I should. I don't. I'm not
going to do that, but I can. I can only
keep up with really one snap or Instagram. Facebook. I
don't do really much on TikTok, but uh, Instagram, that's
(50:59):
trying no the tri I underscore, no feat and then
our Facebook is just Sidney Smith. I'm probably the only
Sidney Smith that doesn't have legs, so I think that's
one easy way to find me that way.
Speaker 1 (51:10):
So right on, Well, I appreciate you coming on telling
you sharing your story. Like I said, I've been following
you on social media for years, it seems like, and
I've enjoyed I've enjoyed your motivation and and I just
wanted everybody else to be able to enjoy it as well,
so thank you for.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Having for coming on. Hey, I fell honored, Dirk. I
mean it's like I said, I've been a fan of
what you guys do and I look forward to seeing
you at the Hunnecks be here in a few months. Yeah, yeah,
I can't wait to hope to see you there. Good deal. Thanks,
thanks again,
Welcome back to another episode of Cutting the Distance podcast.
I'm Dirk Durham and this week I have a guest
who is someone I've been following on Instagram for years.
He's a motivational speaker and his attitude on life is contagious.
Anytime I start thinking that I cannot physically do something,
my mind drifts to Sydney and I'm motivated to try harder.
(00:35):
Sidney Smith, Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Hey Derk, thank you so much. This is exciting. I've
been following you for a long time too, so yeah, yeah,
and you motivate me. Oh that's that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Man, that's I don't know, I don't know. I don't
even know how that's possible.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
But that's one thing. You never know who you're motivating.
So it's important always share your story because well, person
told me your story maybe another person's survival guide. So yeah,
that's that's true. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I had I had someone tell me that years ago.
They're like, there's someone out there that you maybe you
barely even know them, but you've impacted their life somehow,
some way, just even by meeting them, greeting them and
having a simple conversation, you've probably impacted someone's life to
where they think about that moment or that that whatever
(01:30):
it was that you told them or the conversation or
whatever it was, they think about that a lot, and
that gives them a reason. So yeah, that's I think
we kind of all get kind of muddled down in
our own little bs of our daily lives, and we
kind of like forget about those kind of things. But
but then I start thinking, like you know, all the
(01:51):
little things like when I'm feeling down in the dumps
or whatever, I start thinking about the things that someone
or something has happened. That that's that's makes me like
shake it off or whatever.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
So oh yeah, no, I've had that, like even years
and years, Like I'll speak out of school and they'll
be like five or six years later, you know, they're
all grown up with two kids, and they told me, say,
I remember when you spoke at our middle school and
you I just in this story and this and this
really changed my life. Here. I was like, I had
(02:21):
no idea. I had no idea. You can make impacts
on people's lives. So that's that's very true. It could
be infectious.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
So we'll good, that's incredible, So tell tell our listeners. Uh, tell,
take us down the path of your story of how
you even became a motivational speaker.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Well, it's something fairly newish, like it kind of fell
into my lap. When I was in college, I had
to take one elective course that you know, just to pass,
you know, and to get my degree, and so I
had to pick some course out there, and I chose
public speaking because they said that was the easiest. And
(03:03):
I had straight a's through college except for one class,
and it was freaking public speaking. Because I'm like, I
hate public speaking. Everyone says it was easy, but I'm like, yeah,
but you got to do something I absolutely hate, you know.
I hate talking in church, I hate speaking in front
of people. And so I ended up getting like a
C in that class. But it's still it's still better
(03:25):
to me. But what ended up happening is is, uh,
you know, I never I said I'll never speak again.
This is, you know, dumb. I'm glad I got that
off my list. It was just to get credit for
a class. And then turns out that in twenty fifteen
I had my legs amputated due to complications to a
(03:47):
disease I was born with called Charco Marie Tooth and
just a backstory with that. You know, it's it's something
that's a progressive muscular distripty, something I gained genetically sometime
down the road, and it progressed heavily in deforming my
feet to the point where I couldn't function. Then I
(04:07):
couldn't do the things I love, such as hunting and fishing,
hiking and all that stuff. And then when I hit
about thirty three, doctors kind of gave me an ultimatum saying,
you know, we coul get a wheelchair or we could
try you know, amputation and see what prosthetics will do.
So in twenty fifteen, I did this surgery, and you know,
(04:30):
it was hard, you know, changed my life. Obviously, it
was a big decision, But in the long run, it
was the best decision I've ever made because I've had
so many amazing things happen in my life that's blessed
me and my family and has taught me things about
you know, gratitude and things to be grateful for and
how you know, God gives us certain trials in life
(04:51):
to make a stronger individuals and purpose to help other
people that are also struggling and to be the example
to others. And so yeah, I just caught the fire
after that point. And someone suggested that I speak to
a group of cub Scouts and telling my story. And
(05:12):
I said, okay, I'll talk to these you know, ten
year old boys and telling my story and the challenges
that I've overcame and the things that I've accomplished. And
it felt good. And next thing, I know, you know,
a couple of schools started reaching out and and then
before you know it, I started going, you know, traveling
all over the country. It's not something I do full time.
(05:34):
I have a nine to five. It's just something I
enjoy doing. And uh, it's it's been a blessing in
my life to share my story. So that's where I'm at.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Man, that's awesome to Probably one of the hardest things
of that whole story is back to what you were
saying about public speaking. I mean, I think for a
lot of us that's really hard. I know for me,
I struggle public speaking too. I get nervous and I'm
always always my worst critic, of course, but it's it's great,
(06:10):
like you're like overcoming a lot of hurdles a lot
of us have on a daily basis, right, you know,
back to when you had to have your legs amputated.
I mean that, like that whole process has got to
be like so.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Impactful. It's not just like, oh I just cut off
a hangnail. This is something that's.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Like like just the healing time of becoming to where
you know you're where you were amputated, to get that
to heal and to be like not painful all the time,
and then to try to like dig out of the
there's got to be some depths of depths of despair
there too, Right, how did how do you find how
did you find your way out of such a dark
(06:53):
place and into the light after that?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, you nol that it it's not it takes time.
It's not like I woke up out of the hospital
bed and been like, okay, I'm I'm ready to to
to go kill an elk or do an ironman or
something like that. It it at first, it was actually
really difficult to the especially the day of the surgery,
to wake up. And I remember I was in the
(07:21):
hospital bed and I looked themder the sheets, and you know,
sure enough I knew this day was coming. And it
was always kind of a surreal moment, but to actually
see gone it was it was hard. You know, there
was tears in the hospital bed and knowing that, you know,
I won't be able to feel cold grass and the
sand beneath my pose, and and you know, the fear
(07:44):
of the unknown, like am I gonna do activities such
as hunting and fishing and the things I love, play
with my kids, keep a job. And then my wife
came into the hospital room, and you know, I'm still
down on myself, and I'm telling her, you know, I'm sorry,
this is now a burden on you. I was just thinking,
you know, you, you might as well just go ahead
(08:04):
and leave me, honey. I totally won't judge you for that,
And she says, you know I could, but the doctor
gave us this handicapped parking pass and now that, uh,
we can get excellent parking at Walmart. I don't see
any reason why I would leave you. So, uh, there's
there's a there's a light at the end of the tunnel.
But that's back to your back to your question, where
(08:28):
do you find, you know, to get out of the
dooms of stuff like that? Uh, you know, for me,
it it was hard to accept the fact that life
is going to be harder at first, and I just overall,
I'm trying to be a kind person, and ultimately I
felt guilty that I was a burden to everybody, and so,
(08:50):
you know, the thoughts of a suicide came in pretty
heavy towards at the beginning. But then, you know something
that I with this disease. I've always felt like life
is not fair, but it's just the way it is,
and you know, you have to live with that. And
(09:12):
for me, I've thought, you know, maybe this, you know,
why did God give me this challenge? And you know
it's not fair, but you know, I still have to
live with it, and I have to have a positive attitude.
And when I was thinking of suicide and you know,
all these awful thoughts, I still had a young family
at the time, and I had a little daughter. She's
(09:35):
now ten years old, but she was just learning how
to walk, and ironically we're learning to walk together. Oh wow.
And I just remember learning to walk with my prosthetics
and she's learning to walk at the same time. It
just dawned on me that you know, it may not
be fair that I had gotten this disease, but to
(09:56):
her it's not fair that they she'd have a dad
that may end his life. And I can't control my disease,
but I can control the outcome of my daughter. And
so it just kind of clicked that the purpose of
life is a lot different than what I thought at
that moment. It's not all about me. It's all about Noah,
my kids, and and everyone else as well. And so
(10:20):
I just knew I had to combat this fear and
anger that I had towards this disease in my situation
and find myself out of it. And so I heard
at church one time the opposite of fear is faith.
That is the antidote. But they work the same way.
Where you can't see fear and you can't see faith,
(10:42):
but if in your mind, if you have a belief
in one and grow and develop that, nurseh you know,
the fear or the faith, one has a positive aspect
and one has a negative aspect. And so I what
really started it all was just faith. Is that I
had to believe that I was going to get better,
that God has a plan for me. I'm going to
(11:05):
trust in him that He's gonna provide me a life
that's going to be worth you know, hanging on and
that's where it all began. And I just kept believing
that and exercising that faith to where it's turned into
something beautiful and strong. Yeah, that's awesome. It kind of
reminds me.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I hate to be so cliche, but it reminds me
of a saying I seen on Instagram, and it said,
we all have two wolves inside, and you know, a
good one and a bad one, you know, and whichever
one you feed will grow, right, So that kind of
goes right back to what you said, you know, you
either feed your faith or you feed your fears. And
(11:45):
I can, yeah, I can definitely see that. It seems
like negative thoughts. If you're dwelling on negative then more
negative comes. And if you're dwelling on positive things and
you know, keeping the you know, shutting out the negative
stuff just kind of keeps you on track. So just overcoming,
(12:06):
you know, the part of losing your legs and and
trying to find a way to live a normal life again.
Now that's one thing which is remarkable that in itself,
to me, is is motivating. But then I look at
a lot of the other things you do. You you
(12:27):
go hiking in the mountains, you go elk hunting, you've
competed in iron Man, you've competed in triathlon, you've you've
been in a body building competition. I mean, I mean,
you've just checked off a lot of boxes that like
to do one of those in a normal person's life
would be like an accomplishment, right that like a bucket
(12:48):
list accomplishment. You you are checking all these boxes and
people might think or see like you know, no, nobody
sees the hard work, right, no matter what anyone does,
they always see the outcome, like the result, like you know,
a successful el kint summit on a mountain, you've you've
you've hiked up to or or you know your your
(13:11):
your body condition at the end of training for a
body competition. But the day in, day out training and
grueling to get from point zero to to the to
the goal that is that's that's the real stuff. And
I feel like not everybody gets to see that, And
(13:32):
what are your opinions on that? Like you have you
probably have put in so much work that nobody will
ever see, and overcame a lot of little things, like
little things we take for granted on a day to
day just to accomplished those those things.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Yeah, it I My wife is uh to the point
now it's like, hey, when are you just gonna sit
back and relax honestly, and uh, I My personality is
just consist where I have to be doing something new.
It just keeps my mind out of the gutter. I
like challenges. I like things that are going to test
(14:08):
my body to the limits. But that's that's part of
the fun. Like, for example, in the Iron Man, that
was still to this date the hardest thing I've ever
done was an iron Man. But the race itself it
was hard, but that wasn't the hardest part. The hardest
part was all the training. I had an infection six
(14:31):
months prior to the race that almost put me out
where I you know, they had to drain all go
in there and cut into my limb and drain all
the infection just you know, twenty plus hours of a
week of just training every Saturday completely on my bike
or swimming eight or nine hours and then eating. Just
(14:52):
in doing that for a year straight, that was difficult.
Like even hunting season. It was frustrating when I wanted
to go hunting, but I had to to go run first,
and so that little stuff like that. That was the
hard part. But that's you know, if it wasn't if
it was easy, then everybody would do it. That's that's
the part that is rewarding, is that that grind. And uh,
(15:16):
I mean, just to answer your question, it's not easy,
but that's what makes it worth it. That's what really
is going to change as an individual, because if it
was easy, then then you wouldn't see this, you wouldn't
have the desire, wouldn't be as cool for you. Rewarding, Yeah, absolutely.
I feel like it's proof to the thought that human
(15:40):
humans are capable of amazing things in and our abilities
are way further than what we first you know, the
first little stop our brain says, oh, I think we're done.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
I feel like we are capable of so much more
than past that first little speed bump.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
You know.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
You you talked about, you know, having that infection six
months before your your race, and like how many how
many of us during elk season have gotten like an
ingrown toenail or a little blister on her foot or
something like, oh man, I don't know if.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I can go down to the hell all the day.
It's and you know, it's it hurts.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
It's it's you know, or you know, there's always like
some little little thing that that's difficult, that's not easy,
that like will derail a lot of people. Like I
feel like you're saying six months before that you almost
derailed by having that infection. It wasn't just a simple
little thing. It's like a lot, you know. And then
(16:52):
to stay the course, do you just like what do
you what do you focus on to stay on that course?
Do you'd like sit there like looking at that set
back and think, what is your mind? What's your mindset?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Are you saying?
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Are you saying, Okay, just we're gonna get through this.
You know, it's gonna be fine. We're just gonna as
soon as soon as I can get this healed up,
I'm gonna start working hard again to accomplish this. What
what what do you tell yourself to get there?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Then it's gonna be worth it. Like that's that's the
goal right there, It's gonna be worth it. And I
don't I think the older I've gotten, you know, I'm
now in my forties, the thing that's hardest to live
with being older is regrets. Right, That's just something I
just find I don't doesn't go away. And when I
(17:41):
had that infection, you know, ultimately I talked to my
coach and my doctor. I says, okay, I'm out for
a few, you know, six weeks. I can't train. I
basically has started all my endurance over. You know, what
do I do? And and I thought about it, prayed
about it, and this was this was in twenty nineteen
when I did this race, and so I was like, well,
(18:01):
maybe I'll push the race into twenty twenty, Like what's
the worst that can happen in twenty twenty. And as
you can see, I decided not to go that route.
And had I done, you know, then the race of
twenty twenty would have been canceled because of COVID, and
then who knows what other things could have happened in
my life that would have completely derailed me from the race.
(18:23):
So I just said, you know what, it's going to
be worth it. I'm going to give it my best,
because I'm not going to regret it if I don't
give my best. If I don't finish, that's one thing.
I could always sign up and do this again. But
if I if I don't even show up to the course,
and don't even try. Then it's it's not going to
be rewarding, because that's that's where it is. Same thing.
(18:43):
Like like we talked about elk hunting that this last
fall or this current fall, sorry that we're in, I
guess it's still fall. I just shot an elk last
month and my biggest bull to date. You know, I'm
super stoked about it. But when I shot him, I
shot him down at the bottom of this canyon and
(19:06):
it you know, I knew when I saw him he's
one of those bulls you just don't be like, well,
he's too hard to get. I'm not going to pass.
I mean, this is a once in a lifetime thing
by far, And I went and I shot him, and
and the best thing about elk cunning is having buddies
with you because then you feel confident getting him out
of there. Right. Sure, we spend all day breaking him
(19:28):
down and you know, boning him out and getting him
up the hill. And you know, my buddy was like,
you know, you should have shot him from the road
or you know, to see if he would have came
up the road. But I look back at it now,
I was like, I'm glad that he was in the
worst hell hole. Otherwise this reward wouldn't be as as great.
I mean, it would felt like I mean, don't get
(19:48):
me wrong. If they're sitting on the road, that's awesome.
But at the same time, just to earn that bull
has now made it more of a memory and every
you know, this is my first bull that I'm actually
going to mount, and now I will remember that elk
and that experience of the pack out more than just
you know, if I were to shoot him on the road,
and so it's got to be worth it and that
(20:10):
those are the moments you got to live for. Otherwise
having regret, it's just an awful thing to have. Absolutely, yeah, yeah,
living with regret it sucks. I know. Over the years,
I've been elk.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Hunting, deer hunting for thirty I don't even know thirty five,
forty forty years, but thirty five plus years, and like
there's some some times I can think back to where
I didn't give up my all or I gave up
on whatever, and then I had to live with that
(20:44):
regret for a whole nother year. But then it's not
just another year. It's it's that one little thing that
always like gnaws at your the back of your mind.
I to this day there's still someone some do overs.
I really wish I could of just because I gave up,
you know. You know, I like to talk a big
(21:05):
game and say, you know, don't ever give up. But
that's a lot of that is me talking to myself,
don't ever give up. I have to give myself that
my pep talk every now and then because it, Yeah,
you do face hard, hard hunts or hard things, and
it's like, well, do you want to you know, you
want to think about this for the you want to
carry that monkey on the back of your back for
(21:26):
the next year or the rest of your life.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
No, I don't.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
So yeah that I can definitely see see that you
don't want to live with regrets. How hard was it
to relearn to walk?
Speaker 2 (21:39):
I can only imagine, just be.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
It's got to be a whole new process versus like
and I hate to even compare this, but I had
ankle surgery here a couple of years ago, and I
had to go into a bunch of physical therapy and
I could walk, but it wasn't right, you know, I
had to they had to show me how to do
it right. So I would learn how to use that
(22:04):
ankle again properly, but with muscles that I've used in
the past to walk. Now I can imagine everything is
different now with prosthetic limbs, with prosthetic legs to walk,
you're using some of the same muscles but differently, and
there's probably some other muscles that coming into into play
to learn how to walk.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
What was that like? Well, it it is different for
like a single amputee versus a double amputee. Like a
single amputee guys that I've I've hunted with with my charity,
they they struggle with like the fatiguing and then the
other leg. For me, where my struggles is because I
(22:47):
don't have an ankle, a lot of my stability comes
into my knees and my hips, Okay, and so one
of the things you know, when I train at the gym,
those are things I like to focus on, is you know,
stability on my hips, mostly because that's what's gonna help
with my walking. But to answer your question, like how
hard was it to learn to walk? You know, prior
(23:11):
to having my legs amputated, I wore those forest gump braces,
those big metal things, and so you know, ironically, I
got those braces when that movie came out, and so
everybody at the playground would always say, you know, run
Sydney Run. So that's and I still have those braces.
But because of those braces, they actually kind of helped
(23:33):
me understand the mechanics of relying on a device. And
so I actually picked up pretty well on the prosthetic,
but I still had pain. Like when you first lose
your limb, your your your limb is huge and it's
got to loose size. And then your they change the
shape of your socket that go you know, the socket
(23:56):
goes around your limb and that changes, and then you
have to have soft because throughout the day the volume
can change based off like sweat, your diet, inflammation that
your calf muscle because it's got a atrophy completely. And
then it was about probably going this yo yo about
a whole year. Did I feel confident where I could
(24:17):
walk throughout the whole day and not have any pain.
And then when it came to hunting, that was you
know another element because now I'm adding pressure on my back,
which is more weight inside my socket, which is you know,
this hard carb fiber. So I got to adjust to
that I'm more top heavy, and so the carbon fiber
(24:38):
has a different response based on my weight, and so
I got to adjust to that. Sissy sticks. I know
Bryce Bishop with the Peaks equipment. He got me some
of those trekking poles. Yeah, I use those for hunting,
even when you know the trail is actually not treacherous.
I still like that. But you know, challenges for me.
(24:59):
You know, a sage brush because I can't feel the ground.
I can't feel when that sage brush grabs your feet,
you know, because I'm trying to scan scan the horizon,
trying to look for animals. Uh steep going downhill just
because my my toe doesn't flex downwards, so I'm basically
walking on the edge of my heel. That's kind of hard.
(25:24):
Uh goll league upheels nice because that my my foot's down,
you know, kind of digging in anyways because it's flat, right.
But yeah, that's that's kind of the gist of prosthetics.
It could take a beating. I I've had experiences where
I've broken my prosthetic in the mountains. You know, I
get blisters, I get sores, just like everybody else. It's
(25:46):
just in different places. Yeah, do you do you once
you kind of once you get I would assume it's
just like anything, the more you use it, the tougher
it gets. Right.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
So you know, if you're if you're training for one
of like a marathon or whatever, training for elk hunt
maybe if you've been sedentary for a little while and
then like, okay, I'm gonna start picking up my training here,
I would assume like you probably in the beginning start
having some blisters, but then you will it'll like things
can target toughening up right. You know, by the time
(26:19):
elk seasons there, it's pretty good. But then you get
on some other train and you may experience some other
other other issues with blisters, but it probably develops more
of a callus there. Eventually probably use it and lose it,
or use it or lose it.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Right, yeah, I mean the beginning, like you taw archery
season starts in August, and you can't to replicate, you know,
to train for hunting. The best way to train for
hunting is go more hunting, go hunting more, I guess,
And so usually August is when it's like those first
few hikes or you know, oh that kind of hurt
(26:56):
and then by the time I'm hunting in October November,
I'm a row But yeah it uh, I would say, yeah,
the blisters are pretty much healed and calloused over and
and my muscles are you know, a little better shape
for for for hiking. So it it's just like, yeah,
just like anybody else.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
So now bodybuilding, you shared some some pictures and your
bodybuilding story on Instagram and I didn't even know you
were training for that, and then you showed your before
and after pictures and I was like, holy cow, Like
what a what a transformation? An incredible transformation, And like
(27:43):
working out a lot is is one thing, but then
there's got to be an insane diet control, you know,
to get into that kind of in that kind of
shape to look like that.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Can you talk about your your training and then also
your diet working for your for body your bodybuilding competition. Yeah, yeah,
you're not the first person that says, WHOA, I didn't
even know you were doing this, And there was a
reason for that.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Like it, I I was playing basketball about a year
ago and I tore my mcl and you know, I
couldn't run and do the you know basketball for a while.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
So I decided to hit the weights, and I just enjoyed,
you know, lifting weights in the iron and talking to
guys at the gym and seeing that you know, they've
done you know, bodybuilding shows. And I just kind of asked,
you know, what do I do help me? What do
I need to do? I'm curious about it. And so
my biggest demise is I can exercise all day long,
(28:49):
but when it comes to food, I love to cook,
I love to smoke, I love to to Food is
a social thing for me, and I eat, you know,
poorly most of the time. Right, So that I knew
that was going to be the hardest. Every time I
tried to lose weight for something, it's it's always the
pizza and the cookies that end up getting after me.
(29:12):
The smoked meats, oh yeah, the smoked meats. So I
just I just decided, you know what, this is kind
of a new iron Man for me. It's something I
you know, it's it's in good puts me in a
good headspace to have a goal that's hard in mind.
And so I just told myself, I'm going to do
(29:33):
a show in October and and and go for there.
So how it looked out, I gave myself about a
year to prep for this show. I was two thirty
six when I started, and it just what it looked
like was in the beginning, I would, you know, eat
high proteins. My calories would be pretty high, about thirty
(29:55):
five hundred, and I just have a high protein to
try to bulk up, tried to get strong, lift heavy,
and then I continued that from about oh December till
May ish is when I started what they call the cut.
And so I figured out, you know, how much weight
(30:18):
or how many calories I needed to cut back before
I started losing weight and then minus five hundred calories.
So I kind of measured everything that I ate, weighted
everything that I ate, logged everything that I ate, and
then I watched my scale. If I started losing weight,
then that's what I knew where I was supposed to be.
So I went from like thirty five hundred calories to
(30:40):
twenty five hundred calories and then I kept that for
a while and I was hoping to lose about a
pound and a pound and a half, and then I
dropped to two thousand calories because sometimes I would plateau,
but I for food wise, I ate probably a whole
elk all by myself because elk has the best protein
(31:06):
per calorie ratio, and when you're trying to keep for
calories low and your protein's high, like for my macros,
if I weighed about two hundred and twenty pounds, I
wanted to try to eat two hundred and forty grands
of protein, which is that's a lot of food. And
so you know with you know, mountain hoops, protein shakes
and elk, and I fish a lot, so I caught,
(31:27):
you know, kept all of my fish that I would catch.
I just kind of developed a diet. I got a
little creative with like different egg whites and chicken, but
ultimately I had to cut out the things I loved,
which was pork, you know, you know, starchy foods, bread,
you know, heavy breads, pizzas, sugar, soda, all that. And
(31:51):
that was the hardest part of the bodybuilding show. Actually
the muscles. There are just muscles that I had. I
don't think I really grew any stronger. I didn't get
stronger in the gym. It's just when you lose all
that weight from doing all calorie deficit, that's when it
shows up. And that is the hardest part is just
the food. So were you did you avoid carbs at
(32:14):
all costs or were you mixing in some carbs some
like clean stuff. I do what they call a carb
rotation or so on leg day and back day, which
were my largest groups of muscles that I was exercising,
I would have more carbs. But ultimately the goal was
to be about one hundred carbs for the day, except
(32:36):
for the last month. The last month is when it's
extreme cutting. I was anywhere from twenty five to fifty
and very irritable and angry, and I was a little bitchy.
I'm not gonna lie. My wife said. I was on
PMS for the month of September.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Man, I feel that anytime I do, like try to
do carnivore or keto, dude, I get so pissy. I'm
just like a grouch and like walking around bambug, I'm like,
what the hell's wrong with you?
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Man?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Like why are you so grouchy? And then it's like, oh, yeah,
because I don't have any that comfort.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Food to just like, oh, chinnamon rolls or mashed potatoes
or any of that fun stuff to eat. But man,
it's not fun to eat strict that and you just
said it, like that's a lot of us. That's our
biggest nemesis is you know, working out, and that's one thing.
(33:31):
But they say you can't outwork out a poor diet.
Right No, absolutely, not, Like even if you when I
was doing the Iron Man and I was you know,
thousands of calories I was burning on a regular basis,
I still had a good old tire belly like it was,
you know, a beer belly. And it's just because I
(33:51):
was eating so much carbs and sugars to try to recover. Right, No,
I learned a lot about my body in this competition.
Like I could still like I've had pizza a few
times since my competition. I could still find waste to indulge,
but I I mean I would eat like a whole pizza,
and now I can be okay with just a few slices.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Right did it kind of almost change? Like I found
I feel like after I've eaten really strict for a while,
I don't like the things I used to love. I
don't like them as much. I mean I still kind
of like them, but it's not like, oh, I have
to have my mashed potatoes with my steak, my elk steak,
or whatever.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
It's like, eh, I'm good with or without it. Oh, correct,
your body responds when you're eating clean for that long.
Your body responds to port or bad foods, you know
pretty well. Like for example, our neighbors brought us some
Christmas cookies and I tried one. I'm like, oh, that
was good. So I tried another one, and my whole
(34:53):
body was like, oh, you suck eras I just felt
like I ran into like a pole. And it's so
I quickly learned that eating clean, you're just you're doing better.
You think better, you feel better, you know have you know,
I have more confidence, and uh, you know, you'd be
more efficient. Like even when I was you know, I
was training for this competition. You know, the carbohydrates that
(35:16):
I could have was rice, and I it's amazing what
a cup of rice could get me two or three
miles on the mountain, just just a little bit of rice.
What those carbs could do. You know before I would
have to eat, you know, a box of donuts to
get that kind of carbohydrates effectively in my body. So right,
I noticed that too.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
One time, I ate keto all summer and then a
couple of days before Elksen. I'd been I'd been hiking
this hill every day, this steep ass hill, and I'd
hike it, and with zero carbs, I was just I
would struggle it take a you know, just like fu
one foot in front of the other. And then a
couple of days before I left for my elk hunt,
I grabbed I was like, you know what, I think
(35:57):
it's it's close enough. I'm gonna I'm gonna eat some
And so I got me a couple barbecue beef burritos
from the deli at the store, at the at the
gas station, and.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
I ate those.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Man, I flew up that hill. It was like I
was I had rocket fuel. It's like, holy cow, like
doubled my time up and down. It's like, holy cow,
that was awesome. But that doesn't that doesn't work like
that when you've been eating like crap all the time, No,
it you're slug then yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Because well, because your body already has all that glycogen
storage in you, it always all that flat storage in you,
and so when when you already are just adding to it,
it does nothing but makes you feel like crap. It
doesn't burn like a like a like a fire inside
it's so, yeah, you did the right thing. By that's
that's probably the best time to have that kind of
(36:47):
food is when you know you're gonna burn it off.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
So you're Elk, you got a heck of a bull. Elk,
you were talking about how what what kind of a
tag was that?
Speaker 2 (37:07):
Was that?
Speaker 1 (37:07):
A like did a rifle tag? And for how long
was the season? And tell tell us about that?
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Yeah, I got blessed. I was given a tag my
brother in law, he kind of worked out some magic
with a friend of his that owns cwn U property
here in Utah. And it was a tag that not
normally like there's there's you had a chance at a
bull because it was very late season, which I've never
(37:35):
hunted late season bulls like that. So I mean, i'd
really you know it it like you know, I'm a
big fan of watching Corey Jacobson films and Elk one
on one stuff and so you know, I I, you know,
I blow phelps and so I thought, oh, I could
call a bull in, but at that time of year,
they don't like to be called It's more like a
(37:58):
mule deer hunt, right, And so I was just it
was kind of out of my element, you know, to
not call or to try to locate. Instead, we're just
basically going up on these ridges. It's here in Utah.
It's a transition unit. So what they told me that
(38:19):
this hunt could be where it was a five day
hunt and it could be anywhere from seeing a couple
elk the whole trip, or seeing twenty or thirty bowls
the whole trip. Wow. And prior to this hunt, we
had a really nice snowstorm in late October and it
(38:42):
just triggered all these elk where every day we were
seeing probably eighteen or nineteen bowls and that's it was awesome.
Like it was like, I've never been a part of
a hunt where you see that many elk. I mean
where I live. I live in you went to mountains
northeastern part of Utah. It's an open bowl unit. And
(39:04):
you know, if you see a spike elk in this
open bowl unit, that's a trophy. Yeah, and you may
not ever see another elk ther whole time. And so
it was really hard to to pass on an elk.
But when you see on the first day, I think
we saw fifteen bowls and uh, you know, I was like, oh, lead,
I don't want to shoot one on the first day.
Then the hunts over, I already got worked off, and
(39:27):
all my buddies were saying, don't shoot one on the
first day because we don't want to go back to
our wives. Let's just try to this as long as possible.
Let's enjoy this, Let's let's sit back and enjoy it.
I mean we were we were we were cush hunting,
like we I brought my camper and we were you
know that had a you know, heater in it and
stuff like that. So we we were having a good
old time. And and the second day hit saw a
(39:48):
few more bulls. I saw really really pretty five point
like score is not something i'd chase per se. But
if there's there's a difference between oh that's a pretty
pretty bowl and there's another one that makes your butthole flinch,
you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, and this this
this bull had that and so but at the same time,
(40:10):
I don't I saw him on the second day and
I wanted, I want to shoot this big, huge five
point I mean, just super mature body, but he was
uphill it was like six hundred yards, and I just
didn't feel comfortable. Shooting that distance. I could, but I
didn't feel comfortable because it was just an awkward position.
(40:32):
So we tried to get a shot and never could
get him. And then I spent the next two days
trying to find him and never did. And then it
just so happened to be where we found this other
bull that ended up being bigger. Oh wow. And you know,
in the meantime, I was, you know, passing three hundred
inch bowls through fifteen's and that was you know, that
(40:53):
was really hard to do to pass an elk that size.
And then when I saw this bowl, it just is
the same thing. It was just like you just know, yeah,
that's it's just there's just next level. You know, your
heart starts sinking, your eyes your eyes start you know,
watering because it's just so beautiful. I love it. I
love it it. That's that's so awesome.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
I'm so glad you got to enjoy that experience a
hunting one of those cwmus. You know, some people will
sit here and they'll they will throw rocks and poo
poo on that.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
Oh it's privately, no, nope, I'm out.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
You know, you get all the comments and it's like man,
sometimes normal guys should get that opportunity, you know, every
now and then, which I'm all for. You know, it's
not always some rich dude getting those tags. It's it's
cool to see regular guys that you know would really
(41:52):
appreciate it get that kind of a hunt. And some people,
I mean, how many people would turn down an opportunity
to do that if somebody said, hey, why don't you
come up here and hunt? Nobody's turn that down?
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Right, So I knew this was a once in a
lifetime thing for me too. I mean, I don't I
don't have a lot of money to mount animals, and
so I I knew this was one that I would
have to mount because I knew I wasn't gonna get
another shot. But yeah, you get you do hear the
negativity and it's usually the same loud group that's against
(42:25):
the cwm US. I know a lot of operators. What's
nice is a lot of other these operators will work
with my nonprofit charity where we give you know, kids
that are terminal an opportunity to hunt elk on these properties. Yeah,
the way they treat the property like the elk, the
very healthy animals, beautiful properties and really the way people
(42:48):
forget and you taw you could draw for these units.
In fact, in this this unit that I hunted in
of course, there was you know, guys that buy the
tags every year. They have a lot of money. But
the guy that shot the biggest bowl this year was
was a public land guy that drew that put his
name in it and drew it. He shot a three
(43:09):
sixty bowl. Yeah, that's awesome, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
I had the opportunity to hunt a CWMU here a
few years ago, twenty twenty two, and there was a
guy and his son. The guy had drawn a tag
and yeah, he got to stay at the same place
I got to stay. They even provided a guide for
him they. I mean, it was awesome, like that guy,
you know, was out there just living living the dream.
(43:36):
So I think it's a good program, you know. I
feel like everybody should get a chance someday to to
go on that.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
You know.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Unfortunately, with the drawing systems, it makes it tough. You know,
it's really hard, especially utahs is you got to be
invested for a lot of years to to draw a tag.
And but but anyway, so what's next, what's uh, what's
on the horizon. Do you got any or do you
or maybe you don't want to share what your next
big goal is. Man, you've checked some pretty impressive boxes. No,
(44:13):
there's there's always something on my mind. I'm working on
one right now.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
This I usually don't go this long, but I wanted
to find something that kind of resonates with me. And
there's one that I've always wanted to do, and that's
to swim the English Channel. It's from France to England.
It's it's a marathon, but it's a swim. But it's feasible.
(44:37):
It's really hard. You know, my my wife right now,
it's not something she's eagerly anxious about. There's something that
I'm probably going to do this year is to swim
to Alcatraz Island and back. So I'm working with a
charter company out there to see what it costs and
see if I could, you know, maybe do a charity
(44:58):
event where I can raise money for that swim. And
you know, I just there. You have to swim at
a certain pace otherwise the current to go to out
to Alcatraz will push you off course where you're actually
not going forward, you're going sideways. And so I have
to qualify for that to swim to Alcatraz Island and
(45:19):
back and they so that one's probably something that would
be the next one that's coming up twenty twenty five. Awesome.
Are you a pretty strong swimmer? Yeah? I swim in
high school and in college. I mean with my disease
because my feet were deformed, it was just it was
something that I could do well at. The disease is
(45:41):
in my hands as well, but it's it's uh, I've
been working with the physical therapist I'm on. I got
on tier T here a couple of years ago. That's
kind of helped me retain muscle, and so the disease
hasn't really affected that badly. There's some days it's bad,
but for the most part, I'm still able to use
(46:02):
my hands. Do you feel pain or is it just
loss of function? Both? Pain just because uh, the arthritis
and it everything's really feeble, like I have a broken
wrist that still hasn't healed, and then just functions. So
like fatigue, So like with swimming, if I get too tired,
(46:24):
then my hands can't they cramp up like this like
a I guess while we're on a podcast, so kind
of like a monkey hand where it just kind of
closes up, grip yep, and so to swim, I want
my hands open, so I can, you know, like paddles
and to hold that position is it can be hard
when my disease gets gets bad. Oh wow, yeah, right on.
(46:47):
Well man, what are any closing thoughts you'd.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Like to give our listeners as far as motivational stuff,
I think we'd all like to hear a little bit
of the good stuff.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Well, one of the things I love to talk about,
and this, you know, applies to everybody, I think, not
just hunters or is one of the things what I
when I go out and I public speak. The topic
that I am most passionate about is gratitude because it
(47:23):
honestly is the most powerful thing that we can have
as human beings. Powerful feeling besides love, is to to
have gratitude. And one thing that I learned through many
lessons in life is, you know, is you have to
be grateful for what you have. And the more things
that you spend focusing on what you're grateful for, you know,
(47:47):
you won't find any time to sit around and say, well,
I'm not grateful for this, or I'm you know, woe
is me and this sucks. It has a powerful force
behind it to where I try to practice gratitude every day.
I make it a goal in the morning, especially in
the morning, because I feel like that's when my mind's
(48:07):
the clear where I could set the tone right for
the day to think about at least two things that
I knew in my mind that I'm grateful for. And
you'd be surprised, like that does not get old. There's
always something to be grateful for, you know. My even
with my situation, I could say that I'm even grateful
(48:27):
for my trials because it's taught me things that I
don't think I could have gained anywhere else. Taught me
things like patience and perseverance and compassion for other people
with disabilities. That has rewarded me in life like it's
made me a better husband, it's made me a better father.
That's given the patience and over chaos, has helped me
(48:51):
get stand out at work where I've gotten promotions. And
all these attributes were something that I gained because of
this trial. So I mean I could safely say that
I would never change my life for anything else. So
as I guess to add on to that or to
close of that is, I I think maybe reconsider some
of the hardships that we've had in our lives as
(49:14):
opportunities to learn from and and find ways to grow,
where these are just stepping stones to your success.
Speaker 3 (49:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:22):
Wow, I love that, I really do. I think that's
a huge point.
Speaker 1 (49:26):
And I think a lot of us skip that, skip
that gratitude getting up in the morning. You know, I
think all the other things with life and all the
other clutter, you know, whether it's you know, politics, news,
social media, whatever it is you're facing with your day
to day grind, it's easy to lose lose that focus
(49:47):
on gratitude.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
Especially in the morning. Like what's the first thing most
people do when they wake up? What do they go for?
Speaker 1 (49:55):
Yeah, they go for the new the news, or their phone,
their phone, Yeah, they're gonna get the or social they.
Speaker 2 (50:01):
Want to see who's who's like this, or who's doing that,
or who's doing this. Of course social media it's got
some beautiful things to it, but a lot of times
people look at like, oh man, I wish I was
doing this, I wish I was doing that. And in
the end, it's just you know, to start your day
where you just wish you were somebody else. Is not healthy. Yeah,
I starting your day with envy. Just practice, yeah, practice gratitude,
(50:24):
then look at your phone, you know, just try it,
try it out. Yeah yeah, I'm going to do that.
I'm going to do that.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
So Sidney, where can people find you? If they want
to follow you?
Speaker 2 (50:38):
You could? I'm pretty active on social media, I guess
with with Instagram. I haven't caught on to to Snapchat,
although my kids think I should. I don't. I'm not
going to do that, but I can. I can only
keep up with really one snap or Instagram. Facebook. I
don't do really much on TikTok, but uh, Instagram, that's
(50:59):
trying no the tri I underscore, no feat and then
our Facebook is just Sidney Smith. I'm probably the only
Sidney Smith that doesn't have legs, so I think that's
one easy way to find me that way.
Speaker 1 (51:10):
So right on, Well, I appreciate you coming on telling
you sharing your story. Like I said, I've been following
you on social media for years, it seems like, and
I've enjoyed I've enjoyed your motivation and and I just
wanted everybody else to be able to enjoy it as well,
so thank you for.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Having for coming on. Hey, I fell honored, Dirk. I
mean it's like I said, I've been a fan of
what you guys do and I look forward to seeing
you at the Hunnecks be here in a few months. Yeah, yeah,
I can't wait to hope to see you there. Good deal. Thanks,
thanks again,
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