September 8, 2020 • 38 mins
Tom welcomes TV host, author and actor Montel Williams to the show to discuss his approach to diet and exercise. Day in, day out we are all fighting our own battles. No matter how big or how small they may be, the way that we prepare for, and approach them has an impact on the outcome. Exercise can not only make our bodies bulletproof, but exercising can also teach us things about ourselves that will make us better equipped when we need to be. Listen as Tom and Montel discuss how diet and exercise gives them a chance to stay out in front!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland and this is Fitness Disrupted, Climbing
Higher and Living Well with Montell Williams. Yes, my guest
today none other than Montell Williams. For those of you
(00:23):
who may have been living under a rock for the
past several decades, who is Montell Williams. Well, he is
an Emmy Award winning TV personality, a decorated Navy officer,
and inspirational speaker, and yes, a best selling author. Alright,
his TV show ran for twelve years, seventeen seasons, for
a total of four thousand episodes. Could not be more
(00:47):
excited to speak with him, could not be more excited
for you to hear from him, Because Fitness Disrupted is
not just about the science and not just about you know,
anecdotal stories. It's about all of the above. I'm bringing
you all the tools you need to live your best life.
And one of those tools is hearing from people like
(01:11):
Sean Swarner, who was a guest not too long ago
climbed Everest. First cancer survivor to climbed Everest two separate
totally distinct forms of cancer survived them both both should
have killed them. Amazing story and many of you have
reached out about him and Montel Williams diagnosed at age
forty three back in with MS multiple sclerosis. And he's
(01:40):
going to talk about how he has not only survived
but thrived, and his journey and how he's pushed through.
And we're gonna talk about the diet and the exercise
and the mental fortitude that he has exhibited and continues
to in his struggle. And he also recently had a stroke,
(02:04):
So so many different obstacles, but that's life. And I
know it sounds harsh, and I know I often give
the analogy of the endurance races. I do. You know,
it's not a matter of if something is going to
go wrong, but what and how much? And that is
another reason I love endurance races is everyone is suffering together,
(02:25):
everyone is suffering in their own way. And again, that's life.
So Montell has such an incredible story, and I'm gonna
tell him right off the bat how much I loved
reading his books because everything he's about, his philosophy, his
approach is everything I'm about. So obviously I'm a little
biased because we agree he's about science and He's about
(02:46):
the simple solutions, and he's about trying different things that
work for you. That then diagram I talk about that
applies to fitness disrupted. Take the science, take the anecdotal,
take common sense. See where it all connects. And that
is what Montell's about. You know, he has taken the
(03:10):
scientific approach to his not only physical journey, but his
mental journey as well. And just sit back. I think
you're gonna get a real kick out of this when
we come back from the break, Montell Williams, We'll be
right back, and we are back. Could not be more excited.
(03:43):
You know. I always say on the show that I
have the greatest job in the world. I get to
help people look better, feel better, and live longer. And
part of that job entails getting to speak with amazing
people like Montell Williams. Montell, thank you so much for
taking the time. Thanks for having me sor I appreciate it. No,
you know, reading your books, Montell, I have to say
right off the bat, it was so ridiculously refreshing to
(04:05):
read your books. And I'm calling this show Climbing Higher
and Living Well with Montell Williams, because uh, it's so
rare to have. You have that combination of, you know,
a scientifically based approach to diet, an exercise, keeping an
open mind, you know, being so honest with your kind
of experimentation, and then not having that personal bias montell
that listen, so many celebrities obviously have and so I
(04:29):
just it was so refreshing. And where where did you
get that from? You know, where did you get that
kind of ability to go for the science and not
bring you know, some crazy bias like so many people do,
you know? I mean, I I've worked on exercise and
been in the fitness my entire life, right, but then
when I faced you know, a life crisis, you know,
I you know, I got my degrees in engineering from
(04:51):
the United States, right, and I got a minor international
good affairs and so I don't believe in doing anything
unless you know, you back it up with research and study. So,
you know, when I was diagnosed with MS, first thought
that went through my mind is how dare someone tried
to hold a crystal ball out and tell me what
I'm gonna do? And what's gonna happen to me? When
they can't crystal ball anybody? If doctors were God's none
(05:13):
of us would be sick and they are not God's
and so they go to school, they study, they learned,
sometimes they read the right articles, sometimes they don't. So
it was incoming upon me to make sure that, you know,
after initial conversations with the doctor who literally showed me
that he had not done enough research himself, I needed
to do more research to understand what this clown was
trying to say to me, right, And I started digging
(05:35):
and digging and digging and digging, and the more I dug,
the more I learned. And you know, the reason for
those books was because I feel it's almost criminal too,
you know, gay knowledge. Learn something that can improve your
life and don't share it with other people and brew theirs.
Was this the same doctor Montell who told you you
had ten years before you're gonna be a wheel chair? Yeah,
you know, I mean it's really it's really very interesting
(05:55):
because you know, if you go back again when I
was I should have been diagnosed in and was misdiagnosed
by some of the top doctors in the world. I
went to JOHNS Hopkins, I went to you know, Walter Reid,
I went to you know, the Mayo Clinic. I went
to the walmer I Clinic and everyone others doctors I
(06:15):
saw completely made a misdiagnosis. And then from the next
nineteen years in the military, I was misdiagnosed. So that
tells you right there clearly that if they knew everything,
that I would not have been misdiagnosed, but I was.
And so twenty years later I finally get a diagnosis
that I could have had twenty years before, and from
a doctor who tried to lay out a crystal ball
(06:37):
and I'm going, you know, dude, you didn't know me
when I walked in the door. How do you think
you're gonna know me five years from now when I
don't come back in your door. And so I tried
my best to figure out and learn as much as
I possibly could. And my journey is has been, you
know now almost the thirty year journey with m S.
And I dealt with some other life crisis that I've
had to deal with and and journey through. And you know,
(06:58):
every time something happens that it's about knowledge. Knowledge is king.
That's what they tell you when you're young, and and
that's there's truth on that. I love it. You know.
One of the first guests I had on was Dr
Daniel Lieberman from Harvard who is the barefoot running guru,
just all about running and how we're born to run
in the documentary or and the books were based on him.
(07:18):
And he reminded me I didn't even know, Montell that
the third cause of death in the United States was
dr you know, malpractice, basically doctor screwing up. So when
we were talking about this very topic, that's why, right
so Joan, I'm I'm I'm not casting an assursion would
say that they don't know everything. But the truth of
the matter is they don't know everything. And I would
say again, if they knew everything, none of us would
(07:41):
be sick. What's going on right now with the COVID.
I mean, you have some of the greatest, the brightest
minds in the world can't get out of each other's
way because everybody's trying to figure out how they can
wint a dag On Prize, the Nobel Peace Prize or
something for science where they're not really paying attention to
their original hypocritic oath and do no harm, you know.
So it's now time for these same doctors to start
digging into the research. Big, big, big, big, big looking
(08:03):
at science. And even though we live in a time
when our politicians don't want to believe the science, those
who claimed to have studied medicine, those who claims to
have taken that hypocratic oath to serve the public, need
to step up to the plate and do exactly what
they promised they would do when they got the degree.
And I love when you talk about in your books
as well, Montell, because I love doctors too. But like
(08:23):
we were talking about, I want the best information and
I'm gonna, you know, go to three doctors, five doctors,
as you were talking about, But you never let that
kind of prevent you from still looking for the best
information from the best doctors. You talked about therapists too.
You know, we're depressing at best, and you know probably
you know, really bad at worst. Um. But I think
that's such a great lesson to people, as you don't
(08:44):
throw out the whole industry just because they're they're bad doctors.
There's there's bad everybody, and I mean, you know sign bad.
You know, one scientific experiment can go bad, but a
hundred of them can go well, or one can go
well and a hundred can go bad. So that doesn't
mean that we throw out all signed and science is
what's gotten us here, Contrary to popular belief. Science is
the reason why we're live. Science is the reason why
(09:06):
you know, we don't drink you know, two point nine
alcohol water content. You know, I mean, if you remember
back in the beginning of the you know, when this
country was first creative, people don't recognize the fact that
all human beings, all Americans, even down to infants out
of the womb, drank an alcoholic beverage all day. Why
because if you drank the water that you know, passed
(09:28):
through the rivers, you got sick because it was so
much disease in the water. You know, up streamed from you.
There's a bear taking a lake and you were drinking
at and so you know, we started boiling water. We
started boiling it adding alcohol to it. And that's how
we lived our lives. That's you know, when you think
about cannabis. When we were back back at the turn
of six hundreds, you know, all of our forefathers grew hemp.
(09:49):
All of them ate a hemp seed protein or hempseed
porridge every day. Why because they've realized very quickly that
hemp was one of the highest protein laden seeds on
the planet. It wasn't just because they were trying to
get high, but at the same time they also recognize
that a little buzz help them get through. You know,
the day, you know, we didn't have air conditioning, we
didn't have heaters. You were sleeping on the ground, you
were wiping your butt with leaves. Okay, so science is
(10:12):
what got us the toilet paper. And you have the
great line that goes to all that. You know that
you just you're you're constantly looking and then have an
open mind. And I think your mind is I have
an open mind to all approaches to health, conventional medicine,
non traditional and alternative therapies, acupuncture and Eastern medicine. And
I say montel because people ask me all the time,
you know, cupping and acupuncture and all tho things like
(10:33):
go listen, whatever works for you and whatever doesn't hurt you, right,
try everything and see what works for you. Look, you know,
I mean, let's just get it straight. You know, Western
and Eastern medication. Eastern medication has been around for five
thousand years. Okay, so for five thousand years. Yeah, they
may not have been doing it all a hundred percent right.
But they were getting something right, or nobody would have
repeated it for five thousand years. Remember we're only we're
(10:55):
only in about you know, a hundred and fifty years
worth of Western science medicine, and not all those techniques
that were early we're early touted by doctors. Remember they
used to slice your wrist and believe you, when you
were sick, if you had the flu, they used to
put leeches on your body. And I mean now we
found out in some cases that leeches still do work.
(11:16):
That's right. We actually we actually use some of the
you know, the expectorate from around the leech's mouth to
help with you know, I'm not collaborating your blood quickly.
So I mean there's things that we learned along the way,
and we should be open to them and open understand that,
you know what may not as long as it doesn't
hurt you. I don't see any reason why we can't
practice medicine that will help you, right, And that's what
(11:38):
this show is about. Montel is always say, you know,
we take the science, we take our experiences, and we
take comment sense, right, and then then you take what
you can do, Like what what do you like this
green drinks. You know, are you still drinking the drinks
by the way, you know, And I gotta tie something.
You know that this whole pandemic has just jacked up
my whole world in some ways. I mean, for you know,
(11:58):
for almost two and a half month, you know, you
couldn't go to a gym. Uh you know, so I
was exercising in my apartment, trying to exercise by my
my wife walking, you know, and taking long walks. But
now that I have limited use of the gym, I'm
back to the gym. Um. I will probably get back.
And my wife is just saying it to me the
other day, we gotta get back to taking some green drinks,
and I will, but I try my best to make
sure that I put in a you know, I'm eating
(12:19):
about a sixty plant based by it now. Yeah. And
and you know, one of my terms of Montel is
excessive moderation, right. And that's what I love again about
your philosophy is it's it's not extremes. You talked about
doing the rough food diet and how it worked, and
then you saw always probably extreme. And I love when
you talked so openly about, you know, seeing someone who
was on a specific diet. You said, didn't look like
(12:40):
the healthiest person in the world. Like I always go
by resigns as well, right, so it's moderation correct. And
then I learned, you know, I had a really tough lesson.
Talk to me about two years ago when I suffered
a major no category four hemorrhagic stroke and almost took
my life. I'm very lucky to be here and be
alive today. And I was working out like crazy. I
was doing an hour forty minutes every day. I was
(13:01):
banging big heavy weights. I was running around acting like
a dag on the antithon and I'm closed at the time,
I'm you know, I'm fifty eight years old, acting like
an idiot. And you know, there comes a time when
you have to just recognize a fact. I had to
recognize fact, I'm never gonna be in another bodybuilding contest.
I'm never going to you know, stand on Mr. Olympian stage.
So with the devil am I trying to push myself
(13:22):
so hard for you know, let's stop for a second, breathe,
you know, and and and enjoy the roses. And so
you know, it's the same thing when it comes to
diet you know, I went through a key too thing
here for about an eight month period of time, so
extreme that you know, I stopped and I realized, Man,
you know, just a little bit more to just being
alive than every second of the day trying to figure
(13:44):
out exactly what I'm gonna put in my mouth. Well,
I I you know, pay attention. I pay as close
attention as I possibly again, and you know, I concentrate
on making sure I make good choices, right. I'm happy
to be the cook in the house, and um so
I try to make sure that I do a variety
of foods that my wife will you consume along with me,
(14:04):
and we just sit down at the table to eat
at the same time together. And you know, I try
to make it make sense rather than try to make
it a chore. Right. Yeah, I'm a Mediterranean guy myself
as far you know, whole foods. Keep it simple. If
man makes it, you try to avoid it, right Jack Olaine,
You're interviewed many years ago, and it's just such a
great line, you know, keep it simple. You know, it
(14:25):
just doesn't sell books, montell, and it doesn't sell videos
when we have this kind of and I love I
read a bunch of the comments on some of your books,
and you know, so many people and the same thing
about my books. They go, well I kind of knew that,
and you go, yeah, well, then you got to apply it.
I say, people know the solutions, montell it's just the application.
Extremes are easy. It's the application. And you're absolutely right.
(14:45):
So I write something that you are never gonna do,
which you go, wow, that really works. Well, how do
you know it works if you never do it? Right?
So let's do some things that you know you're going
to do. Make good choices, Yeah, simple steps, and let's
go right to that obstacles you obviously diagnosed at forty
three most people you know, that's it. That's it, and
you have, as you said, three decades, not only survived,
(15:08):
but thrived. Talk to people about just you know, the
overcoming obstacles. We see those memes all the time, but again,
the actual doing day to day and getting yourself up.
You know, how do you do it? And where do
you find that? You know? You guess? I mean, and
I don't. I don't think it's something that was born
in me as much as I think it's just something
that you start to recognize when you do things, and
(15:30):
you accomplish things, you get benefit out of it. Once
you see some benefit, then why not rely on the benefit?
I mean I I It's like, you know, if you
take a match and you hold your finger over and
you burn yourself, you ain't gonna do that again. Let's
hope enough to do a second well, so you know,
let's be smart. If you do something and you get
(15:51):
you know, good gains out of it, well, you know
that made me feel pretty good yesterday. Let me try
it out again today. I feel pretty good today. Let
me try it out again tomorrow. Feel pretty good to
borrow and then maybe the next day you wake up
and you go, oh man, I'm tired. I'm a past
And I used to be one of these people who
literally worked out until I couldn't work out anymore. I
mean I would go fourteen fifteen days in a row
without taking a break and realized I wasn't even giving
(16:12):
my muscle as an opportunity to recover. And now you know,
I'm just not. I don't beat myself up that way anymore.
I try to work out more days a week than
I don't, so if I can get in five days
or six days in a week and six days in
a row, that's good. I make sure I take the
seventh day off even if I don't feel like I
take it off, just to cut my body a break,
(16:33):
you know. And you need to because you know, as
we especially as we start to get up in in
our you know, we're in that last quarter. You get
up in years, you know, you've done as much lifting
as I've done and much strain as I've done. You know,
I'm now, you know, almost three quarters in shorter than
I was when I was twenty years old. Well there's
a reason for that. Because I was putting you know,
three d four pounds on my back you know, five
(16:54):
days or three days a week for twenty years. Yeah,
compacting my spine. It's time to stop. That's stupid, you
know what I mean. So there's some things that you
just gotta figure out that you have to do. When
you start, you know, your tendants start to hurt a
little bit. Maybe I didn't need to do giants sets
for seventeen days in a row. Maybe I could have
done you know, just supersets, or maybe I could have
(17:16):
just done straight sets, or maybe I could have just
done moderate resistance training. And I don't have to do
this where I write down a regiment and say, for
the next sixty days, I'm gonna do X y Z.
I can do something for the next ten days, do
something else in the next ten days, to something else
for the next ten days, as long as I'm doing
something right. And and that's the thing, montell. I tell
people to take the words justin only out of their vocabulary,
(17:38):
especially as we get older. Right, they'll say, oh, I
only walked three miles today, or I just did you know,
twenty minutes of strength training a go. No, you did
twenty minutes. You walked three miles, right, And there's nothing
magical about the gym, right, There's nothing magical about an hour.
It's about doing it consistently, as you said, And that
should be great news to people. Right. It's always surprised me.
Montell what I tell people you don't have to do
as much, and they get angry, right, you know, I mean,
(18:00):
like I tell you what I've done. And one of
the things I've done, really literally during this whole COVID
crazy is that I have tried to maintain the idea
of intermediate fasting. I've been, I've been, and my fasting
is where I try to make sure that I eat
my evening meal no later than six thirty every day.
(18:20):
And if every if I happen to slip in and
I put the last bite in my mouth at seven o'clock,
I make ready I register that I don't put another
piece of food in my mouth until at least a
minimum twelve or thirteen hours later, you know, intermittent fasting
that cuts that gut a break, So I'm not you know, snacking,
and and the match back it up because every once
in a blue moon, maybe one day a week, I
(18:41):
may eat a little popcorn with my wife at nine
o'clock at night, but I don't eat my first meal
of the day until ten or eleven o'clock the next morning. Period,
So I always put twelve hours before between the last
thing I ate and the first thing I ate. And
by doing so, I've now started to notice that, you know,
I don't do breakfast, lunch, dinner. Whoever came up with
that crap? Anyway, when did we ever decided you had
(19:03):
to eat three hours a day every day? And when
we weren't out, you know, running around on the savannah.
You know exactly the reason why we ate three meals
a day was to provide enough energy so that we
could get all that work in. But you know, when
we're not doing all this work, do you really have
to have breakfast, lunch of dinner. Do you really have
to go in and make that sandwich and eat those
chips and all that crap in the middle of the day. No,
(19:25):
you don't. So now I'm by to myself. I'm eating.
You know, I've reduced a lot of you know, some
of my animal protein and take. But like I'll eat
oatmeal every moment my wife makes the cooks because it's
burgerency makes opmeal with with uh walnuts or pecans every day.
So that's my first meal of to day. I won't
eat again until my six pm meal. And and I
(19:48):
don't snack. I don't go if I'm gonna snack, I'll
go grab an orange, I'll go grab some grapes. I'll
go grab some watermelon. You know, I'll do some piece
some fruit in the middle of the day and maybe
you know, like a cup of that. But I'll eat
my second meal of the day, which is six o'clock,
and that's all I need. That's all I need, just
to feel energized and to keep myself up and running.
I don't need to throw in that extra meal in
the middle of the day just because and things change, Montell,
(20:11):
And people are different, as you say in your books, right,
you gotta try what works for you. And what I
love though, is I have a brother. I got five brothers,
one who has always struggled with his weight, Montell, and
he uh, he started intermittent fastening. But he said to me,
is it's so great, Tom because I don't eat and
then I can eat whatever I want, like garbage. And
I said, no, no, no, you're getting it wrong. And
that's what I love about you. You can't. So let's
(20:32):
talk about healthy foods and how you know, Yes, like
eating less is a great thing for so many people,
but when we do eat, the protective elements in foods
that people just don't realize, right, the anti cancer effects
and just phytochemicals, minerals and everything that we get from
food that people don't realize. It's about eating more good
stuff and so much of it has been grown out
(20:53):
of the food that we get right now, you know,
whether we like it or not. When we think that
we're eating organic, we're not eating organic. We think that
we're eating you know, hunter percent whole food. We're not
necessarily eating Hunter present whole food. But you know the
objective is to try to eat around, especially if you
can the outside of that perimeter at that grocery store
first before you started ducking up and down the aisles,
and you know, the outside perimeter normally has in it
(21:15):
the basic foods that you need, and that's where all
the you know, the vegetable aisles are, and that's where
you know on the outside runner, that's where the meat
and fish aisle is, outside perimeter. So I mean, I
try my best, and I think you know I'm right now.
You know, I hate to say it, but I'm sixty
four years old, and I'm looking at trying to make
sure that at least sixty seventy percent of what I
(21:35):
take in every day is a vegetable of So I'm sorry,
that's what we're fer so if I can can get
in sixty seven percent vegetables and food, so I try
my best. And my wife, you know, at least six
days a week we eat a pretty I'm talking about it.
I make on myself. So we eat a pretty large
salad um every evening meal with our meal, and and
you know, and I make sure that that salad, you know,
(21:57):
has at least three types of greens, you know, I
you know, iceberg, lettuces, just water. But so that's just
the filler. But I make sure that I use garden greens.
And I make sure I eat a lot of spinach,
and you know, you know, our spinaches, and up to
as far as it used to be, I still eat
a lot of spinach. I chop it up, you know,
and I try to put carrots in it if I can.
And I try to make sure that I fill that
(22:19):
salad with you know, after i've I've put all the
greens in, and I do in roma tomatoes. I've gotten
away from the big beef steak tomatoes, so I try
to eat romatovators so I can cut down on some
of the seeds that you you actually consume. And then
I eat a lot of nuts. I put a lot
of nuts in my salad. My salad is filled with almonds, pecans, walnuts,
(22:39):
chopped pray leans. I put them in there too if
I want to. And I make my own salad dressing
every day, which is you know, avocado oil, extra virgin
olive all and be interred, and you know, I may
shake a little salt and pepper in there, but that's
that is every dinner that I've had for the last
now six months, I try to make sure I include
that and maybe maybe one day equal skip that, you know,
(23:01):
and I might you know, good sports. I have a
French friar to doing an a air fryer, but you know,
I try to make sure that that's the basis of
my diet. Then, you know, I try to spread out
my red meat and if I'm eating it. For a while,
I went, you know, years without eating any red meat.
Now I'm back to eating a little bit. I eat once,
you know, twice a week maybe if that, and then
(23:21):
I try to eat chicken maybe twice a week, and
then I eat fish the rest of the time, or
I skipped the meat. I love it. And that's you know,
the blue zones. As you know, that's exactly what people
who are eating right who live to be hundred and older.
It's the nuts and the seeds and the and we
just need to find those foods Montel that we like
always tell people like you, I'm sure you look forward
to that meal. It's not like you dread it. You
and little also look forward to cooking. You know what
(23:44):
I mean. It's like, you know, putting your hands on
what you're gonna put in your mouth is uh uh,
it's a treat. It's a treat. Knowing when you know
my wife's smalls, it goes out really that it's how
over day, well, thank you, and I do too, And
I realized what it's doing for our guests, So I'm
glad that you like it. We'll keep eating. You know,
we control three things, montell. We control how much we
move what we put into our mouths, as you've been
(24:04):
talking about, and our attitudes, right, and that's amazing, And
people don't realize that how much control we have. I mean,
there's so much, especially now that's way outside of our control.
But when we control how much we move, I mean
I run ultra marathons and marathons for sanity, right, not
for vanity, for my head like you the depression. You know,
it's a whole another show. But um so powerful how
much we move what we put in our mouths and
(24:25):
our attitudes, our state of mind. And you talk about
self talk. I mean, it's one of the most important
things in my life and when I coach people, you know,
the positive and negative self talk, and we're in control
of that and it's so powerful. Well yeah, I mean
I think people don't understand that, you know, we especially
right now this time of you know, pandemic, where people
are are really sheltered at home. I mean I did,
I just realized, you know, yesterday or this morning. You know,
(24:49):
I didn't go outside yesterday at all at all. I
was inside all day long. Didn't even open up the blinds.
I was inside. How stupid was I? So you know
this morning I did. I walk with puppy well outside,
got a fresher breath there, David. For yesterday I was
outside and realized, Wow, how beautiful it was outside, just
to be outside. And you know, right now, it's so
(25:11):
easy for us to slip into inspiral ourselves down into
a depression, not recognizing that we can also spiral ourselves
right back up out of that depression. You know, I
think there was a study that was done now it's
almost almost twenty years ago, Blue Ramorski study that I
talked about in my Living Well book. That was a
study of unhappiness and how you know, how humans are
(25:35):
and what we're we're happy. It's comes from but we
gotta know that a whopping for of how we are
at any given moment of a day is based on
our gen x. I mean, when you're born, you're born,
and some people are you know, oh what was mean people?
But you know they're born with that. That's part of
your psychological mitochondrial makeup. However, another forty of it, another
(25:58):
sixty of it is based on everything from circumstances into
how you personally tell yourself you feel. Just as easy
as you conspire yourself down into a depression, you can
inspire yourself up out of depression by focusing on those
really good things that happened in your life. We have
that control and that ability to do that. And so
(26:20):
often people think that no depressed, Well, you know, if
you're clinically depressed, you know that's a real term. But
that was really a term. It was only designated for
people to you know, experience for about a two week
period of time. You're a human being. Human beings have
highs and lows. There's nothing wrong with having a low
(26:40):
when that low seems to stretching the six and seven
and eight weeks. Now, you gotta stop and go talk
to somebody and say, wait a minute, there's no reason
for and you don't need drugs to get out of it.
You just need to turn your butt around. That's what
I feel about it. Yeah, you have two great lines.
As we wrap this up. And when I love is
you say you own the definition of who you are.
That's my mantra, my friend, that's how I live. And
you know, and finally, you know, you're not depressed. You
(27:02):
just have to figure out how to regain your happiness.
We're in control of that so much more than people,
you know, have any concept, correct, you know, especially right now.
I tell you one of the things I've been doing.
You know, I used to do this fifteen years ago,
twenty years ago. I used to take a piece of
paper before I went to sleep at night, and I'd
write down, at the end of the day, what did
I do today that's worth talking about tomorrow. I write
(27:23):
that sentence. Then I've list two to three things, okay,
and then I fold a piece of paper up to
sit up the side of bed. And then when I
wake up in the morning, I grab a piece of
paper going the bathroom while I'm standing there and get ready.
You know do my business. I take a look at
that piece of paper so that I'm reading the three
things that I thought were great about yesterday, which are
three things that helped me start my day off with
(27:43):
a success. Now I don't have to write it down anymore.
I can just memorize it. I remember it. I say
that to myself every day, what did I do today
that's worth talking about tomorrow, So that when I get
up in the morning, I talked to myself and tell
myself those three good things. That's what helps set my
day as a not an old wool was me day,
that's such my day as hey, I can't wait to
do three more good things right. And I wrote down
(28:04):
that line Montel. I look for every opportunity to just
do something different today, something good today. And it's the
small things, right. But people try to swing for the fences,
I would say too often. And you started by talking
about self efficacy. And it's those small victories that give
us confidence to go forward and do bigger things right.
And it's it's there are no small victories right there,
just victories absolutely. And I mean and and you know,
(28:25):
as much as you can try to focus on things
that you can do to help others. I mean, you know,
I spend a lot of time, you know, it's it's
very strange. But even in this strange time, I've been
involved in virus mitigation and involved in trying to develop
out and help people figure out some and and working
with companies across the world looking at different forms of ppe,
(28:46):
look at different forms of mitigation techniques, and trying to
share that with as many people as I can. But
at the same time, I'm working on a protocol for
you know, curing PTSD. I'm working on a protocol to
help with traumatic brain injury. And I try to east
engage myself in a conversation about one of those things
each day. That makes me know that I'm doing my
part for make hunt that's amazing. And one final thing
(29:07):
you are doing is that Military Makeover show. Amazing. I
had it was fortunate to be apart, but tell people
about Military Makeover who might not have seen it. I'm
so glad and thank you so much for participating in
so much fun. Thank you for having me. Yeah, the
family we're featuring right now. You know, Military Makeops a
show that you know, if you kind of remember it
was at home make Over home improvement where we we
(29:28):
take really deserving veterans and we literally make their home
over from the ground up. But it's not a handout,
it's more of a hand up. We turned their home
into it forever home. And you know, in the cases
of veterans that are handicapped or or differently able to
we try to make sure we can figure home to
make it easier for them to get around. But we
do everything from the floors to the ceilings, to the walls,
(29:49):
to the kitchens, to the paint, to turning their homes
into a smart house. You help us, you know by
having some equipment donated for the family that we're working
on right now, which is the Marquess family out of
the Coola, Georgia that we're working on. And these these guys,
you know, um they needed help now. You know. Marcellino
Marquez is as a soldier who spent his whole career
(30:12):
had three different ms is in the military and this
final MS working basically as a more titian and going
out and retrieving the precious remains of our fallen and
also civilians who were killed at the same time in
Afghanistan and literally taking them back and trying to help
turn those disfigured bodies and something that a family could
(30:33):
honor in an open casket. And you know, you don't
think about the trauma that that brings on an individual
has to do that day in and day out. So
we're so happy that you guys really stepped into the
plate to help his family. You know, Marcella is a
big workout guy. You got some equipment, and I know
that when our our final episode airs on September, and
that final episode air's a seventh thirty in the morning
(30:55):
every Friday morning, but that airs, I think you guys
are giving away both flex C six bike that people
can watch, tune in and get the details on how
to win. And I really appreciate that, man, honestly, Oh well,
thank you again so much for having me. It's so
amazing and I love that it's not just one episode,
two right, it's five different episodes. I believe for his
family because you did so much to this guy's house.
It's incredible about well, you know what we do is
(31:16):
people don't get it. We we basically when we filmed
at Home Makeover, we tried to before COVID. We were
accomplishing our makeovers in ten days and now they're probably
taking it between eleven and twelve days, but we're getting
them done. And we filmed the whole thing and then
we break those into episodes or seasons, and those seasons
really last about four to six weeks, so every individual
family has a four to six week airing of the show.
(31:38):
And we, you know, give a shot out to all
the sponsors. I'm telling you that we just sponsors and
give us everything from floors to ceilings, the windows, two
tiles for the roof, to backyards, you know, you name it,
and it becomes a whole community affair. I'm not just
saying thank you for your service and doing with lift service,
but actually showing thank you for your for your service. Yeah.
(31:59):
We When I is on the back porch just admiring
the house before I left Montell, there was a gentleman
who was cutting down some trees or something, and one
of the production people said, I said who's He said
hi to me. I said hi back, and I said
who's that And they said, oh, it's just a neighbor.
And they said he offered a couple of weeks ago
to come over and he's been just like clearing the
woods and I mean just helping out, so it wasn't
just people of the production team. But as you said,
(32:21):
I mean, it's so amazing, so you have to check
it out. Military Makeover so fortunate. Thank you for having
both flex and allowing us to help him in his transition,
right because as you and I both know, we've been
talking about helping him with the exercise, with that stress
and PTSD. You know, hopefully it is a small help
to him and is you know, transition to his new life.
Absolutely no, thank you so much. I missed so much,
(32:42):
and you're absolutely right when people understand when Military Makeover
comes to your town, we take volunteers. We love volunteers.
The whole community comes out. They swing hammers, they they
push brooms, they swing paintbrushers. It's the community that makes
this happen. That's where the magic really is. Montell thank
you so much. Such a pleasure and an honor to
speak with you. And uh, congrats on on you know,
(33:02):
being such a fantastic role model, right for all these
people with exercise and nutrition. It's so rare and it's
so nice to talk to you. And you know, I
encourage everyone. I mean, you have what eight books nine books.
Now I have eight books out, six of which were
New York Times bestsellers. Yeah and um yeah, so I
mean I think that they're worth a read without a doubt.
You know, living well, living well emotionally, and climbing higher
(33:22):
is my journey with a mass. But I also wrote
a book which was a Mountain Get Out of Our Way,
which just talks about my own personal motivation, and several
books in between. I have a fitness book, Body Change,
that shows some of the exercise routines and some of
the stuff that I was working on and doing. And um,
you know, and again you know, I I lived by
the mantra you know, you didn't do what works for
you and everything in moderation. Right, We'll have a perfect
(33:46):
way to end, Montell. Thank you so much. Everyone. Check
out Military Makeover Montell. Hope to speak with you again soon,
absolutely sure. Thank you so much. I have a great day.
You stay safe out there. Ye and we are back.
(34:09):
I want to thank Montell one final time for taking
the time out of his busy, busy schedule to be
a guest on the show. And I said it at
the start, and I mean it. I have the greatest
job in the world hoping people look better, feel better,
and live longer, and part of that is speaking with
and meeting people like Montel Williams. And I truly considered
(34:33):
a gift because I learned from every guest. I'm inspired
by every guest, and you know, you get an appreciation
of all that we have our health when you speak
with people like Montell, and everyone has an issue. Everyone
(34:55):
is battling something. Sometimes it's extreme, sometimes it's not so,
and there's those fluctuations, but we learned from adversity. We
become stronger when things go wrong. And Montel is such
(35:18):
living proof that you keep moving forward, you control what
you can. And I just love that he is so
much about the science, finding the best answers to the
things he needs, and that's what this show is about.
I'm trying to give you the best science. You may
(35:40):
not like the answers, but they're the answers based on
the current research, and that changes, of course, but I
just love his approach and it's worked for him. Look
at the results, and I love that he talked about
he is obviously prone to the extremes and then he
(36:06):
learns from them, and that's pretty much all of us
and the goal is to not go too far into
the extremes, and then the goal is to try to
avoid them and focus on yes, excessive moderation. All right,
So again, Military Makeover Show. Check that out. You can
(36:26):
watch it on Lifetime. You can also check it out
on online. The shows will be up there. Military Makeover
with Montel an amazing show and I'm so glad to
have been a part of it, to have been able
to give just an amazing home Jim thanks to bow Flex.
And I just have the greatest job, as I keep saying,
so I hope you enjoyed that. Montel Williams so inspirational
(36:48):
no matter your issues, and we could have talked for hours,
hours about all his battles. But you keep moving forward.
You can troll what you can get the best information,
do the work, as he said, and really good things happen.
But there's no giving up. There's moving forward. There are
(37:10):
no small steps, and obstacles are made to be overcome.
Thank you for listening. If you have a spare second
or two, that's all it takes. Just rate the show
and subscribe to the show. I love hearing from you.
So many people again reached out about the Sean Swarner
(37:33):
show that I did recently, amazing, amazing guy climbed Everest,
first cancer survivor. And I'm gonna bring you many more
guests like Sean, like Montell. If you have any requests,
let me know. Tom h Fit is Twitter and Instagram
for me, Tom h Fit. You can also reach out
right through Fitness disrupted dot com. Check out my new
book by the way, if you have it, The micro
Workout Plan, perfect for what we're going through right now.
(37:56):
Great workouts done at home or wherever you want to
do them. Uh. And it's all the philosophy, all that
we're talking about here. And I have to say one
final time, we control three things. Montela's living proof of that,
and it's in his books and it's what he's lived.
How much we move, what we put into our mouths
(38:16):
and our attitudes. I don't just say this lightly at
the end of every episode. When you truly embrace that fact,
it's life changing. Control what you can and let the
other stuff go. Thank you for listening. I'm Tom Holland
this is Bitness Disrupted, Believe in Yourself. Fitness Disrupted is
(38:41):
a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland and this is Fitness Disrupted, Climbing
Higher and Living Well with Montell Williams. Yes, my guest
today none other than Montell Williams. For those of you
(00:23):
who may have been living under a rock for the
past several decades, who is Montell Williams. Well, he is
an Emmy Award winning TV personality, a decorated Navy officer,
and inspirational speaker, and yes, a best selling author. Alright,
his TV show ran for twelve years, seventeen seasons, for
a total of four thousand episodes. Could not be more
(00:47):
excited to speak with him, could not be more excited
for you to hear from him, Because Fitness Disrupted is
not just about the science and not just about you know,
anecdotal stories. It's about all of the above. I'm bringing
you all the tools you need to live your best life.
And one of those tools is hearing from people like
(01:11):
Sean Swarner, who was a guest not too long ago
climbed Everest. First cancer survivor to climbed Everest two separate
totally distinct forms of cancer survived them both both should
have killed them. Amazing story and many of you have
reached out about him and Montel Williams diagnosed at age
forty three back in with MS multiple sclerosis. And he's
(01:40):
going to talk about how he has not only survived
but thrived, and his journey and how he's pushed through.
And we're gonna talk about the diet and the exercise
and the mental fortitude that he has exhibited and continues
to in his struggle. And he also recently had a stroke,
(02:04):
So so many different obstacles, but that's life. And I
know it sounds harsh, and I know I often give
the analogy of the endurance races. I do. You know,
it's not a matter of if something is going to
go wrong, but what and how much? And that is
another reason I love endurance races is everyone is suffering together,
(02:25):
everyone is suffering in their own way. And again, that's life.
So Montell has such an incredible story, and I'm gonna
tell him right off the bat how much I loved
reading his books because everything he's about, his philosophy, his
approach is everything I'm about. So obviously I'm a little
biased because we agree he's about science and He's about
(02:46):
the simple solutions, and he's about trying different things that
work for you. That then diagram I talk about that
applies to fitness disrupted. Take the science, take the anecdotal,
take common sense. See where it all connects. And that
is what Montell's about. You know, he has taken the
(03:10):
scientific approach to his not only physical journey, but his
mental journey as well. And just sit back. I think
you're gonna get a real kick out of this when
we come back from the break, Montell Williams, We'll be
right back, and we are back. Could not be more excited.
(03:43):
You know. I always say on the show that I
have the greatest job in the world. I get to
help people look better, feel better, and live longer. And
part of that job entails getting to speak with amazing
people like Montell Williams. Montell, thank you so much for
taking the time. Thanks for having me sor I appreciate it. No,
you know, reading your books, Montell, I have to say
right off the bat, it was so ridiculously refreshing to
(04:05):
read your books. And I'm calling this show Climbing Higher
and Living Well with Montell Williams, because uh, it's so
rare to have. You have that combination of, you know,
a scientifically based approach to diet, an exercise, keeping an
open mind, you know, being so honest with your kind
of experimentation, and then not having that personal bias montell
that listen, so many celebrities obviously have and so I
(04:29):
just it was so refreshing. And where where did you
get that from? You know, where did you get that
kind of ability to go for the science and not
bring you know, some crazy bias like so many people do,
you know? I mean, I I've worked on exercise and
been in the fitness my entire life, right, but then
when I faced you know, a life crisis, you know,
I you know, I got my degrees in engineering from
(04:51):
the United States, right, and I got a minor international
good affairs and so I don't believe in doing anything
unless you know, you back it up with research and study. So,
you know, when I was diagnosed with MS, first thought
that went through my mind is how dare someone tried
to hold a crystal ball out and tell me what
I'm gonna do? And what's gonna happen to me? When
they can't crystal ball anybody? If doctors were God's none
(05:13):
of us would be sick and they are not God's
and so they go to school, they study, they learned,
sometimes they read the right articles, sometimes they don't. So
it was incoming upon me to make sure that, you know,
after initial conversations with the doctor who literally showed me
that he had not done enough research himself, I needed
to do more research to understand what this clown was
trying to say to me, right, And I started digging
(05:35):
and digging and digging and digging, and the more I dug,
the more I learned. And you know, the reason for
those books was because I feel it's almost criminal too,
you know, gay knowledge. Learn something that can improve your
life and don't share it with other people and brew theirs.
Was this the same doctor Montell who told you you
had ten years before you're gonna be a wheel chair? Yeah,
you know, I mean it's really it's really very interesting
(05:55):
because you know, if you go back again when I
was I should have been diagnosed in and was misdiagnosed
by some of the top doctors in the world. I
went to JOHNS Hopkins, I went to you know, Walter Reid,
I went to you know, the Mayo Clinic. I went
to the walmer I Clinic and everyone others doctors I
(06:15):
saw completely made a misdiagnosis. And then from the next
nineteen years in the military, I was misdiagnosed. So that
tells you right there clearly that if they knew everything,
that I would not have been misdiagnosed, but I was.
And so twenty years later I finally get a diagnosis
that I could have had twenty years before, and from
a doctor who tried to lay out a crystal ball
(06:37):
and I'm going, you know, dude, you didn't know me
when I walked in the door. How do you think
you're gonna know me five years from now when I
don't come back in your door. And so I tried
my best to figure out and learn as much as
I possibly could. And my journey is has been, you
know now almost the thirty year journey with m S.
And I dealt with some other life crisis that I've
had to deal with and and journey through. And you know,
(06:58):
every time something happens that it's about knowledge. Knowledge is king.
That's what they tell you when you're young, and and
that's there's truth on that. I love it. You know.
One of the first guests I had on was Dr
Daniel Lieberman from Harvard who is the barefoot running guru,
just all about running and how we're born to run
in the documentary or and the books were based on him.
(07:18):
And he reminded me I didn't even know, Montell that
the third cause of death in the United States was
dr you know, malpractice, basically doctor screwing up. So when
we were talking about this very topic, that's why, right
so Joan, I'm I'm I'm not casting an assursion would
say that they don't know everything. But the truth of
the matter is they don't know everything. And I would
say again, if they knew everything, none of us would
(07:41):
be sick. What's going on right now with the COVID.
I mean, you have some of the greatest, the brightest
minds in the world can't get out of each other's
way because everybody's trying to figure out how they can
wint a dag On Prize, the Nobel Peace Prize or
something for science where they're not really paying attention to
their original hypocritic oath and do no harm, you know.
So it's now time for these same doctors to start
digging into the research. Big, big, big, big, big looking
(08:03):
at science. And even though we live in a time
when our politicians don't want to believe the science, those
who claimed to have studied medicine, those who claims to
have taken that hypocratic oath to serve the public, need
to step up to the plate and do exactly what
they promised they would do when they got the degree.
And I love when you talk about in your books
as well, Montell, because I love doctors too. But like
(08:23):
we were talking about, I want the best information and
I'm gonna, you know, go to three doctors, five doctors,
as you were talking about, But you never let that
kind of prevent you from still looking for the best
information from the best doctors. You talked about therapists too.
You know, we're depressing at best, and you know probably
you know, really bad at worst. Um. But I think
that's such a great lesson to people, as you don't
(08:44):
throw out the whole industry just because they're they're bad doctors.
There's there's bad everybody, and I mean, you know sign bad.
You know, one scientific experiment can go bad, but a
hundred of them can go well, or one can go
well and a hundred can go bad. So that doesn't
mean that we throw out all signed and science is
what's gotten us here, Contrary to popular belief. Science is
the reason why we're live. Science is the reason why
(09:06):
you know, we don't drink you know, two point nine
alcohol water content. You know, I mean, if you remember
back in the beginning of the you know, when this
country was first creative, people don't recognize the fact that
all human beings, all Americans, even down to infants out
of the womb, drank an alcoholic beverage all day. Why
because if you drank the water that you know, passed
(09:28):
through the rivers, you got sick because it was so
much disease in the water. You know, up streamed from you.
There's a bear taking a lake and you were drinking
at and so you know, we started boiling water. We
started boiling it adding alcohol to it. And that's how
we lived our lives. That's you know, when you think
about cannabis. When we were back back at the turn
of six hundreds, you know, all of our forefathers grew hemp.
(09:49):
All of them ate a hemp seed protein or hempseed
porridge every day. Why because they've realized very quickly that
hemp was one of the highest protein laden seeds on
the planet. It wasn't just because they were trying to
get high, but at the same time they also recognize
that a little buzz help them get through. You know,
the day, you know, we didn't have air conditioning, we
didn't have heaters. You were sleeping on the ground, you
were wiping your butt with leaves. Okay, so science is
(10:12):
what got us the toilet paper. And you have the
great line that goes to all that. You know that
you just you're you're constantly looking and then have an
open mind. And I think your mind is I have
an open mind to all approaches to health, conventional medicine,
non traditional and alternative therapies, acupuncture and Eastern medicine. And
I say montel because people ask me all the time,
you know, cupping and acupuncture and all tho things like
(10:33):
go listen, whatever works for you and whatever doesn't hurt you, right,
try everything and see what works for you. Look, you know,
I mean, let's just get it straight. You know, Western
and Eastern medication. Eastern medication has been around for five
thousand years. Okay, so for five thousand years. Yeah, they
may not have been doing it all a hundred percent right.
But they were getting something right, or nobody would have
repeated it for five thousand years. Remember we're only we're
(10:55):
only in about you know, a hundred and fifty years
worth of Western science medicine, and not all those techniques
that were early we're early touted by doctors. Remember they
used to slice your wrist and believe you, when you
were sick, if you had the flu, they used to
put leeches on your body. And I mean now we
found out in some cases that leeches still do work.
(11:16):
That's right. We actually we actually use some of the
you know, the expectorate from around the leech's mouth to
help with you know, I'm not collaborating your blood quickly.
So I mean there's things that we learned along the way,
and we should be open to them and open understand that,
you know what may not as long as it doesn't
hurt you. I don't see any reason why we can't
practice medicine that will help you, right, And that's what
(11:38):
this show is about. Montel is always say, you know,
we take the science, we take our experiences, and we
take comment sense, right, and then then you take what
you can do, Like what what do you like this
green drinks. You know, are you still drinking the drinks
by the way, you know, And I gotta tie something.
You know that this whole pandemic has just jacked up
my whole world in some ways. I mean, for you know,
(11:58):
for almost two and a half month, you know, you
couldn't go to a gym. Uh you know, so I
was exercising in my apartment, trying to exercise by my
my wife walking, you know, and taking long walks. But
now that I have limited use of the gym, I'm
back to the gym. Um. I will probably get back.
And my wife is just saying it to me the
other day, we gotta get back to taking some green drinks,
and I will, but I try my best to make
sure that I put in a you know, I'm eating
(12:19):
about a sixty plant based by it now. Yeah. And
and you know, one of my terms of Montel is
excessive moderation, right. And that's what I love again about
your philosophy is it's it's not extremes. You talked about
doing the rough food diet and how it worked, and
then you saw always probably extreme. And I love when
you talked so openly about, you know, seeing someone who
was on a specific diet. You said, didn't look like
(12:40):
the healthiest person in the world. Like I always go
by resigns as well, right, so it's moderation correct. And
then I learned, you know, I had a really tough lesson.
Talk to me about two years ago when I suffered
a major no category four hemorrhagic stroke and almost took
my life. I'm very lucky to be here and be
alive today. And I was working out like crazy. I
was doing an hour forty minutes every day. I was
(13:01):
banging big heavy weights. I was running around acting like
a dag on the antithon and I'm closed at the time,
I'm you know, I'm fifty eight years old, acting like
an idiot. And you know, there comes a time when
you have to just recognize a fact. I had to
recognize fact, I'm never gonna be in another bodybuilding contest.
I'm never going to you know, stand on Mr. Olympian stage.
So with the devil am I trying to push myself
(13:22):
so hard for you know, let's stop for a second, breathe,
you know, and and and enjoy the roses. And so
you know, it's the same thing when it comes to
diet you know, I went through a key too thing
here for about an eight month period of time, so
extreme that you know, I stopped and I realized, Man,
you know, just a little bit more to just being
alive than every second of the day trying to figure
(13:44):
out exactly what I'm gonna put in my mouth. Well,
I I you know, pay attention. I pay as close
attention as I possibly again, and you know, I concentrate
on making sure I make good choices, right. I'm happy
to be the cook in the house, and um so
I try to make sure that I do a variety
of foods that my wife will you consume along with me,
(14:04):
and we just sit down at the table to eat
at the same time together. And you know, I try
to make it make sense rather than try to make
it a chore. Right. Yeah, I'm a Mediterranean guy myself
as far you know, whole foods. Keep it simple. If
man makes it, you try to avoid it, right Jack Olaine,
You're interviewed many years ago, and it's just such a
great line, you know, keep it simple. You know, it
(14:25):
just doesn't sell books, montell, and it doesn't sell videos
when we have this kind of and I love I
read a bunch of the comments on some of your books,
and you know, so many people and the same thing
about my books. They go, well I kind of knew that,
and you go, yeah, well, then you got to apply it.
I say, people know the solutions, montell it's just the application.
Extremes are easy. It's the application. And you're absolutely right.
(14:45):
So I write something that you are never gonna do,
which you go, wow, that really works. Well, how do
you know it works if you never do it? Right?
So let's do some things that you know you're going
to do. Make good choices, Yeah, simple steps, and let's
go right to that obstacles you obviously diagnosed at forty
three most people you know, that's it. That's it, and
you have, as you said, three decades, not only survived,
(15:08):
but thrived. Talk to people about just you know, the
overcoming obstacles. We see those memes all the time, but again,
the actual doing day to day and getting yourself up.
You know, how do you do it? And where do
you find that? You know? You guess? I mean, and
I don't. I don't think it's something that was born
in me as much as I think it's just something
that you start to recognize when you do things, and
(15:30):
you accomplish things, you get benefit out of it. Once
you see some benefit, then why not rely on the benefit?
I mean I I It's like, you know, if you
take a match and you hold your finger over and
you burn yourself, you ain't gonna do that again. Let's
hope enough to do a second well, so you know,
let's be smart. If you do something and you get
(15:51):
you know, good gains out of it, well, you know
that made me feel pretty good yesterday. Let me try
it out again today. I feel pretty good today. Let
me try it out again tomorrow. Feel pretty good to
borrow and then maybe the next day you wake up
and you go, oh man, I'm tired. I'm a past
And I used to be one of these people who
literally worked out until I couldn't work out anymore. I
mean I would go fourteen fifteen days in a row
without taking a break and realized I wasn't even giving
(16:12):
my muscle as an opportunity to recover. And now you know,
I'm just not. I don't beat myself up that way anymore.
I try to work out more days a week than
I don't, so if I can get in five days
or six days in a week and six days in
a row, that's good. I make sure I take the
seventh day off even if I don't feel like I
take it off, just to cut my body a break,
(16:33):
you know. And you need to because you know, as
we especially as we start to get up in in
our you know, we're in that last quarter. You get
up in years, you know, you've done as much lifting
as I've done and much strain as I've done. You know,
I'm now, you know, almost three quarters in shorter than
I was when I was twenty years old. Well there's
a reason for that. Because I was putting you know,
three d four pounds on my back you know, five
(16:54):
days or three days a week for twenty years. Yeah,
compacting my spine. It's time to stop. That's stupid, you
know what I mean. So there's some things that you
just gotta figure out that you have to do. When
you start, you know, your tendants start to hurt a
little bit. Maybe I didn't need to do giants sets
for seventeen days in a row. Maybe I could have
done you know, just supersets, or maybe I could have
(17:16):
just done straight sets, or maybe I could have just
done moderate resistance training. And I don't have to do
this where I write down a regiment and say, for
the next sixty days, I'm gonna do X y Z.
I can do something for the next ten days, do
something else in the next ten days, to something else
for the next ten days, as long as I'm doing
something right. And and that's the thing, montell. I tell
people to take the words justin only out of their vocabulary,
(17:38):
especially as we get older. Right, they'll say, oh, I
only walked three miles today, or I just did you know,
twenty minutes of strength training a go. No, you did
twenty minutes. You walked three miles, right, And there's nothing
magical about the gym, right, There's nothing magical about an hour.
It's about doing it consistently, as you said, And that
should be great news to people. Right. It's always surprised me.
Montell what I tell people you don't have to do
as much, and they get angry, right, you know, I mean,
(18:00):
like I tell you what I've done. And one of
the things I've done, really literally during this whole COVID
crazy is that I have tried to maintain the idea
of intermediate fasting. I've been, I've been, and my fasting
is where I try to make sure that I eat
my evening meal no later than six thirty every day.
(18:20):
And if every if I happen to slip in and
I put the last bite in my mouth at seven o'clock,
I make ready I register that I don't put another
piece of food in my mouth until at least a
minimum twelve or thirteen hours later, you know, intermittent fasting
that cuts that gut a break, So I'm not you know, snacking,
and and the match back it up because every once
in a blue moon, maybe one day a week, I
(18:41):
may eat a little popcorn with my wife at nine
o'clock at night, but I don't eat my first meal
of the day until ten or eleven o'clock the next morning. Period,
So I always put twelve hours before between the last
thing I ate and the first thing I ate. And
by doing so, I've now started to notice that, you know,
I don't do breakfast, lunch, dinner. Whoever came up with
that crap? Anyway, when did we ever decided you had
(19:03):
to eat three hours a day every day? And when
we weren't out, you know, running around on the savannah.
You know exactly the reason why we ate three meals
a day was to provide enough energy so that we
could get all that work in. But you know, when
we're not doing all this work, do you really have
to have breakfast, lunch of dinner. Do you really have
to go in and make that sandwich and eat those
chips and all that crap in the middle of the day. No,
(19:25):
you don't. So now I'm by to myself. I'm eating.
You know, I've reduced a lot of you know, some
of my animal protein and take. But like I'll eat
oatmeal every moment my wife makes the cooks because it's
burgerency makes opmeal with with uh walnuts or pecans every day.
So that's my first meal of to day. I won't
eat again until my six pm meal. And and I
(19:48):
don't snack. I don't go if I'm gonna snack, I'll
go grab an orange, I'll go grab some grapes. I'll
go grab some watermelon. You know, I'll do some piece
some fruit in the middle of the day and maybe
you know, like a cup of that. But I'll eat
my second meal of the day, which is six o'clock,
and that's all I need. That's all I need, just
to feel energized and to keep myself up and running.
I don't need to throw in that extra meal in
the middle of the day just because and things change, Montell,
(20:11):
And people are different, as you say in your books, right,
you gotta try what works for you. And what I
love though, is I have a brother. I got five brothers,
one who has always struggled with his weight, Montell, and
he uh, he started intermittent fastening. But he said to me,
is it's so great, Tom because I don't eat and
then I can eat whatever I want, like garbage. And
I said, no, no, no, you're getting it wrong. And
that's what I love about you. You can't. So let's
(20:32):
talk about healthy foods and how you know, Yes, like
eating less is a great thing for so many people,
but when we do eat, the protective elements in foods
that people just don't realize, right, the anti cancer effects
and just phytochemicals, minerals and everything that we get from
food that people don't realize. It's about eating more good
stuff and so much of it has been grown out
(20:53):
of the food that we get right now, you know,
whether we like it or not. When we think that
we're eating organic, we're not eating organic. We think that
we're eating you know, hunter percent whole food. We're not
necessarily eating Hunter present whole food. But you know the
objective is to try to eat around, especially if you
can the outside of that perimeter at that grocery store
first before you started ducking up and down the aisles,
and you know, the outside perimeter normally has in it
(21:15):
the basic foods that you need, and that's where all
the you know, the vegetable aisles are, and that's where
you know on the outside runner, that's where the meat
and fish aisle is, outside perimeter. So I mean, I
try my best, and I think you know I'm right now.
You know, I hate to say it, but I'm sixty
four years old, and I'm looking at trying to make
sure that at least sixty seventy percent of what I
(21:35):
take in every day is a vegetable of So I'm sorry,
that's what we're fer so if I can can get
in sixty seven percent vegetables and food, so I try
my best. And my wife, you know, at least six
days a week we eat a pretty I'm talking about it.
I make on myself. So we eat a pretty large
salad um every evening meal with our meal, and and
you know, and I make sure that that salad, you know,
(21:57):
has at least three types of greens, you know, I
you know, iceberg, lettuces, just water. But so that's just
the filler. But I make sure that I use garden greens.
And I make sure I eat a lot of spinach,
and you know, you know, our spinaches, and up to
as far as it used to be, I still eat
a lot of spinach. I chop it up, you know,
and I try to put carrots in it if I can.
And I try to make sure that I fill that
(22:19):
salad with you know, after i've I've put all the
greens in, and I do in roma tomatoes. I've gotten
away from the big beef steak tomatoes, so I try
to eat romatovators so I can cut down on some
of the seeds that you you actually consume. And then
I eat a lot of nuts. I put a lot
of nuts in my salad. My salad is filled with almonds, pecans, walnuts,
(22:39):
chopped pray leans. I put them in there too if
I want to. And I make my own salad dressing
every day, which is you know, avocado oil, extra virgin
olive all and be interred, and you know, I may
shake a little salt and pepper in there, but that's
that is every dinner that I've had for the last
now six months, I try to make sure I include
that and maybe maybe one day equal skip that, you know,
(23:01):
and I might you know, good sports. I have a
French friar to doing an a air fryer, but you know,
I try to make sure that that's the basis of
my diet. Then, you know, I try to spread out
my red meat and if I'm eating it. For a while,
I went, you know, years without eating any red meat.
Now I'm back to eating a little bit. I eat once,
you know, twice a week maybe if that, and then
(23:21):
I try to eat chicken maybe twice a week, and
then I eat fish the rest of the time, or
I skipped the meat. I love it. And that's you know,
the blue zones. As you know, that's exactly what people
who are eating right who live to be hundred and older.
It's the nuts and the seeds and the and we
just need to find those foods Montel that we like
always tell people like you, I'm sure you look forward
to that meal. It's not like you dread it. You
and little also look forward to cooking. You know what
(23:44):
I mean. It's like, you know, putting your hands on
what you're gonna put in your mouth is uh uh,
it's a treat. It's a treat. Knowing when you know
my wife's smalls, it goes out really that it's how
over day, well, thank you, and I do too, And
I realized what it's doing for our guests, So I'm
glad that you like it. We'll keep eating. You know,
we control three things, montell. We control how much we
move what we put into our mouths, as you've been
(24:04):
talking about, and our attitudes, right, and that's amazing, And
people don't realize that how much control we have. I mean,
there's so much, especially now that's way outside of our control.
But when we control how much we move, I mean
I run ultra marathons and marathons for sanity, right, not
for vanity, for my head like you the depression. You know,
it's a whole another show. But um so powerful how
much we move what we put in our mouths and
(24:25):
our attitudes, our state of mind. And you talk about
self talk. I mean, it's one of the most important
things in my life and when I coach people, you know,
the positive and negative self talk, and we're in control
of that and it's so powerful. Well yeah, I mean
I think people don't understand that, you know, we especially
right now this time of you know, pandemic, where people
are are really sheltered at home. I mean I did,
I just realized, you know, yesterday or this morning. You know,
(24:49):
I didn't go outside yesterday at all at all. I
was inside all day long. Didn't even open up the blinds.
I was inside. How stupid was I? So you know
this morning I did. I walk with puppy well outside,
got a fresher breath there, David. For yesterday I was
outside and realized, Wow, how beautiful it was outside, just
to be outside. And you know, right now, it's so
(25:11):
easy for us to slip into inspiral ourselves down into
a depression, not recognizing that we can also spiral ourselves
right back up out of that depression. You know, I
think there was a study that was done now it's
almost almost twenty years ago, Blue Ramorski study that I
talked about in my Living Well book. That was a
study of unhappiness and how you know, how humans are
(25:35):
and what we're we're happy. It's comes from but we
gotta know that a whopping for of how we are
at any given moment of a day is based on
our gen x. I mean, when you're born, you're born,
and some people are you know, oh what was mean people?
But you know they're born with that. That's part of
your psychological mitochondrial makeup. However, another forty of it, another
(25:58):
sixty of it is based on everything from circumstances into
how you personally tell yourself you feel. Just as easy
as you conspire yourself down into a depression, you can
inspire yourself up out of depression by focusing on those
really good things that happened in your life. We have
that control and that ability to do that. And so
(26:20):
often people think that no depressed, Well, you know, if
you're clinically depressed, you know that's a real term. But
that was really a term. It was only designated for
people to you know, experience for about a two week
period of time. You're a human being. Human beings have
highs and lows. There's nothing wrong with having a low
(26:40):
when that low seems to stretching the six and seven
and eight weeks. Now, you gotta stop and go talk
to somebody and say, wait a minute, there's no reason
for and you don't need drugs to get out of it.
You just need to turn your butt around. That's what
I feel about it. Yeah, you have two great lines.
As we wrap this up. And when I love is
you say you own the definition of who you are.
That's my mantra, my friend, that's how I live. And
you know, and finally, you know, you're not depressed. You
(27:02):
just have to figure out how to regain your happiness.
We're in control of that so much more than people,
you know, have any concept, correct, you know, especially right now.
I tell you one of the things I've been doing.
You know, I used to do this fifteen years ago,
twenty years ago. I used to take a piece of
paper before I went to sleep at night, and I'd
write down, at the end of the day, what did
I do today that's worth talking about tomorrow. I write
(27:23):
that sentence. Then I've list two to three things, okay,
and then I fold a piece of paper up to
sit up the side of bed. And then when I
wake up in the morning, I grab a piece of
paper going the bathroom while I'm standing there and get ready.
You know do my business. I take a look at
that piece of paper so that I'm reading the three
things that I thought were great about yesterday, which are
three things that helped me start my day off with
(27:43):
a success. Now I don't have to write it down anymore.
I can just memorize it. I remember it. I say
that to myself every day, what did I do today
that's worth talking about tomorrow, So that when I get
up in the morning, I talked to myself and tell
myself those three good things. That's what helps set my
day as a not an old wool was me day,
that's such my day as hey, I can't wait to
do three more good things right. And I wrote down
(28:04):
that line Montel. I look for every opportunity to just
do something different today, something good today. And it's the
small things, right. But people try to swing for the fences,
I would say too often. And you started by talking
about self efficacy. And it's those small victories that give
us confidence to go forward and do bigger things right.
And it's it's there are no small victories right there,
just victories absolutely. And I mean and and you know,
(28:25):
as much as you can try to focus on things
that you can do to help others. I mean, you know,
I spend a lot of time, you know, it's it's
very strange. But even in this strange time, I've been
involved in virus mitigation and involved in trying to develop
out and help people figure out some and and working
with companies across the world looking at different forms of ppe,
(28:46):
look at different forms of mitigation techniques, and trying to
share that with as many people as I can. But
at the same time, I'm working on a protocol for
you know, curing PTSD. I'm working on a protocol to
help with traumatic brain injury. And I try to east
engage myself in a conversation about one of those things
each day. That makes me know that I'm doing my
part for make hunt that's amazing. And one final thing
(29:07):
you are doing is that Military Makeover show. Amazing. I
had it was fortunate to be apart, but tell people
about Military Makeover who might not have seen it. I'm
so glad and thank you so much for participating in
so much fun. Thank you for having me. Yeah, the
family we're featuring right now. You know, Military Makeops a
show that you know, if you kind of remember it
was at home make Over home improvement where we we
(29:28):
take really deserving veterans and we literally make their home
over from the ground up. But it's not a handout,
it's more of a hand up. We turned their home
into it forever home. And you know, in the cases
of veterans that are handicapped or or differently able to
we try to make sure we can figure home to
make it easier for them to get around. But we
do everything from the floors to the ceilings, to the walls,
(29:49):
to the kitchens, to the paint, to turning their homes
into a smart house. You help us, you know by
having some equipment donated for the family that we're working
on right now, which is the Marquess family out of
the Coola, Georgia that we're working on. And these these guys,
you know, um they needed help now. You know. Marcellino
Marquez is as a soldier who spent his whole career
(30:12):
had three different ms is in the military and this
final MS working basically as a more titian and going
out and retrieving the precious remains of our fallen and
also civilians who were killed at the same time in
Afghanistan and literally taking them back and trying to help
turn those disfigured bodies and something that a family could
(30:33):
honor in an open casket. And you know, you don't
think about the trauma that that brings on an individual
has to do that day in and day out. So
we're so happy that you guys really stepped into the
plate to help his family. You know, Marcella is a
big workout guy. You got some equipment, and I know
that when our our final episode airs on September, and
that final episode air's a seventh thirty in the morning
(30:55):
every Friday morning, but that airs, I think you guys
are giving away both flex C six bike that people
can watch, tune in and get the details on how
to win. And I really appreciate that, man, honestly, Oh well,
thank you again so much for having me. It's so
amazing and I love that it's not just one episode,
two right, it's five different episodes. I believe for his
family because you did so much to this guy's house.
It's incredible about well, you know what we do is
(31:16):
people don't get it. We we basically when we filmed
at Home Makeover, we tried to before COVID. We were
accomplishing our makeovers in ten days and now they're probably
taking it between eleven and twelve days, but we're getting
them done. And we filmed the whole thing and then
we break those into episodes or seasons, and those seasons
really last about four to six weeks, so every individual
family has a four to six week airing of the show.
(31:38):
And we, you know, give a shot out to all
the sponsors. I'm telling you that we just sponsors and
give us everything from floors to ceilings, the windows, two
tiles for the roof, to backyards, you know, you name it,
and it becomes a whole community affair. I'm not just
saying thank you for your service and doing with lift service,
but actually showing thank you for your for your service. Yeah.
(31:59):
We When I is on the back porch just admiring
the house before I left Montell, there was a gentleman
who was cutting down some trees or something, and one
of the production people said, I said who's He said
hi to me. I said hi back, and I said
who's that And they said, oh, it's just a neighbor.
And they said he offered a couple of weeks ago
to come over and he's been just like clearing the
woods and I mean just helping out, so it wasn't
just people of the production team. But as you said,
(32:21):
I mean, it's so amazing, so you have to check
it out. Military Makeover so fortunate. Thank you for having
both flex and allowing us to help him in his transition,
right because as you and I both know, we've been
talking about helping him with the exercise, with that stress
and PTSD. You know, hopefully it is a small help
to him and is you know, transition to his new life.
Absolutely no, thank you so much. I missed so much,
(32:42):
and you're absolutely right when people understand when Military Makeover
comes to your town, we take volunteers. We love volunteers.
The whole community comes out. They swing hammers, they they
push brooms, they swing paintbrushers. It's the community that makes
this happen. That's where the magic really is. Montell thank
you so much. Such a pleasure and an honor to
speak with you. And uh, congrats on on you know,
(33:02):
being such a fantastic role model, right for all these
people with exercise and nutrition. It's so rare and it's
so nice to talk to you. And you know, I
encourage everyone. I mean, you have what eight books nine books.
Now I have eight books out, six of which were
New York Times bestsellers. Yeah and um yeah, so I
mean I think that they're worth a read without a doubt.
You know, living well, living well emotionally, and climbing higher
(33:22):
is my journey with a mass. But I also wrote
a book which was a Mountain Get Out of Our Way,
which just talks about my own personal motivation, and several
books in between. I have a fitness book, Body Change,
that shows some of the exercise routines and some of
the stuff that I was working on and doing. And um,
you know, and again you know, I I lived by
the mantra you know, you didn't do what works for
you and everything in moderation. Right, We'll have a perfect
(33:46):
way to end, Montell. Thank you so much. Everyone. Check
out Military Makeover Montell. Hope to speak with you again soon,
absolutely sure. Thank you so much. I have a great day.
You stay safe out there. Ye and we are back.
(34:09):
I want to thank Montell one final time for taking
the time out of his busy, busy schedule to be
a guest on the show. And I said it at
the start, and I mean it. I have the greatest
job in the world hoping people look better, feel better,
and live longer, and part of that is speaking with
and meeting people like Montel Williams. And I truly considered
(34:33):
a gift because I learned from every guest. I'm inspired
by every guest, and you know, you get an appreciation
of all that we have our health when you speak
with people like Montell, and everyone has an issue. Everyone
(34:55):
is battling something. Sometimes it's extreme, sometimes it's not so,
and there's those fluctuations, but we learned from adversity. We
become stronger when things go wrong. And Montel is such
(35:18):
living proof that you keep moving forward, you control what
you can. And I just love that he is so
much about the science, finding the best answers to the
things he needs, and that's what this show is about.
I'm trying to give you the best science. You may
(35:40):
not like the answers, but they're the answers based on
the current research, and that changes, of course, but I
just love his approach and it's worked for him. Look
at the results, and I love that he talked about
he is obviously prone to the extremes and then he
(36:06):
learns from them, and that's pretty much all of us
and the goal is to not go too far into
the extremes, and then the goal is to try to
avoid them and focus on yes, excessive moderation. All right,
So again, Military Makeover Show. Check that out. You can
(36:26):
watch it on Lifetime. You can also check it out
on online. The shows will be up there. Military Makeover
with Montel an amazing show and I'm so glad to
have been a part of it, to have been able
to give just an amazing home Jim thanks to bow Flex.
And I just have the greatest job, as I keep saying,
so I hope you enjoyed that. Montel Williams so inspirational
(36:48):
no matter your issues, and we could have talked for hours,
hours about all his battles. But you keep moving forward.
You can troll what you can get the best information,
do the work, as he said, and really good things happen.
But there's no giving up. There's moving forward. There are
(37:10):
no small steps, and obstacles are made to be overcome.
Thank you for listening. If you have a spare second
or two, that's all it takes. Just rate the show
and subscribe to the show. I love hearing from you.
So many people again reached out about the Sean Swarner
(37:33):
show that I did recently, amazing, amazing guy climbed Everest,
first cancer survivor. And I'm gonna bring you many more
guests like Sean, like Montell. If you have any requests,
let me know. Tom h Fit is Twitter and Instagram
for me, Tom h Fit. You can also reach out
right through Fitness disrupted dot com. Check out my new
book by the way, if you have it, The micro
Workout Plan, perfect for what we're going through right now.
(37:56):
Great workouts done at home or wherever you want to
do them. Uh. And it's all the philosophy, all that
we're talking about here. And I have to say one
final time, we control three things. Montela's living proof of that,
and it's in his books and it's what he's lived.
How much we move, what we put into our mouths
(38:16):
and our attitudes. I don't just say this lightly at
the end of every episode. When you truly embrace that fact,
it's life changing. Control what you can and let the
other stuff go. Thank you for listening. I'm Tom Holland
this is Bitness Disrupted, Believe in Yourself. Fitness Disrupted is
(38:41):
a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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