The Pulse Exercise and eating Kevin Swannigan

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Happy Fourth of July weekend. Everybody. Hey, I am Stormy and we
are keeping our fingertips on the pulseof our community, you guys. And
I've got a guest on the shownow. I don't want to spoil you
wiki. I know y'all been doinga lot of eating and caring around here.
Probably ain't got no kind of workout. Well, I'm here to help

(00:22):
you out, those of you thatmaybe want to. You know, you
need some ideas for the holidays tomaybe get you back up and going.
And cause yeah, when we gettogether and see family and all that,
we be tarned some food up,I know, I know. So I
have another special guest on the show, Ladies and gentlemen, mister Kevin Swan
again. Hello, Hello Kevin.Kevin. Tell everybody at Memphis what it

(00:49):
is that you do. Oh,I'm a personal trainer at the moment,
I work at my own business,Elemental Fitness. On White Station, Stormy
was talking about eating well, eatingis good, but you have to always
make the right choices. So I'mhere to make you're aware that eating is

(01:11):
good, but make the right choices. Oh okay, So Kevin, you've
been doing You've been a personal trainingfor how long? About forty years?
Forty years? Yeah, one ofthe old timers in the industry. That's
a long time. Seriously, that'sa little bit of time. Yeah,
because not a lot of people dothat for that long, you know what
I'm saying. But you are oneof the I guess one of the few.

(01:33):
Maybe would you say, how manypeople do you know that started out
doing what you do in the businessthat you're in, they're still doing it?
Zero? Nobody? You know?Nobody I know that started off when
I started out still doing this,is still doing it? Wow? Wow?
Okay, that means you're committed tothis. So I'm committed. It's
not just a job for you.It is also a way of life.

(01:56):
Yeah, so it's a lifestyle.It's me. It's what I do.
That's what you do? Okay,all right? Because you're still fit for
your age? How old are you? Fifty two? Fifty two November first,
I'll be seventy wow, seventy yearsof age. Ye, and you're
still training and training people and stillabout that life I am. Do you

(02:19):
do you wake up every now andthen and say to yourself, I ain't
eating right today, I ain't gonnado it. No, But I know
that life is wait a minute,life is not a perfect condition, man,
So you don't do that. Inthe forty years that you've been doing
this, you've still been eating healthy. I eat healthy, but not one
hundred percent of the time. Okay, nobody's perfect, That's what I'm trying

(02:43):
to say. Oh, okay,so you don't have a day, but
you still don't have a day whereyou get up and say i'n't do what
I won't. No, not really. You don't know the whole day.
Know, I might a meal ortwo eating out with friends or family or
something like that. Okay, butafter that meal is over, back on
it you are. So how dowe get disciplined to be that way?

(03:07):
I don't know that everybody can bethat disciplined. I competed as a bodybuilder
for about twenty five years. Didyou ever win? Did I have?
I won a few times. Icompeted on a pretty high level. See
now, I worked with a bodybuilder, Mike Evans, and Mike was did

(03:27):
he win a Mister fifty when hewas somewhere up in there? But so
you're saying you competed on that level. I competed on a pretty high level.
I competed some national contests as well. Really, I went to a
Team Universe at the Trapeker in NewYork City. Really, what did you
come in as well? I wasthere. You have to qualify to go.

(03:52):
Okay, okay, you qualified,but you didn't win it. Okay,
well you went, and that beatseverybody probably listening because most of us
have never gone in the first place. But congratulations, So have you?
Do you have any Tennessee titles?I was this Tennessee state champion thirty five

(04:12):
and over and fifteen over? Wow, well, congratulations you do you still
compete? No? I stopped competingabout ten years ago. How sixty?
How old are the people that oris the oldest person that can you know
of that's competing now? I reallyI don't keep in touch with it that

(04:36):
closely in and more so, Ireally don't know. But most contests will
have competitors sixty and over. Really. Yes. When I was competing,
though, I would also not onlyenter my age group, but I would
also enter the open division. Opendivision, that's where the toughest competition is.

(04:59):
You might be he competing against somebodytwenty five or something like that.
So I wouldn't just enter my divisionbecause oh, okay, usually that was,
I hate to say, kind ofeasy for me. Oh yeah,
you were just beating them all.Huh pretty much pretty much. Well that's
good. That means you were reallygood at what to do. But it
gets tougher when it's an open competition. Huh. Oh yeah. I can

(05:23):
remember. I went to Alabama onetime and competed in the fifte and over
class, and the state champion fromAlabama in that class, he said he
was just tuning up to go tothe Nationals. And I beat him,
and he couldn't believe it. Wow. He came to me and asked me
how I trained and what was Idoing, because he just knew that it
would be easy. I said,well it's not that easy. Wow,

(05:46):
okay, okay, So what didyou tell him? What? And what
would you tell some of the peoplethat are listening now that just yeah,
I guess maybe need some They're wantingto get started with this workout thing,
and you know, it's we tooksome food up for the holidays and we
want to get started. We're startingover on Monday. So what would you
tell us to do? What wouldbe the first step you would tell us

(06:06):
to do. The first step wouldbe to get moving. That's always a
good initial step. A lot ofpeople will look at what they've done and
they'll get frustrated, Oh I can'tdo this, I can't do that.
But shouldn't get frustrated, Yeah,you should think about what I need to
do to get started. Yeah,and once you get started, you need

(06:31):
to be consistent. And that's anotherproblem most people have that they're just not
consistent enough. It's not what youdo today. You can lift a thousand
pounds today, but if you don'tdo anything tomorrow or next week, you're
not going to be successful. Soconsistency really is the key. And you
also, I think, have tokind of take a holistic approach. Some

(06:53):
people think that weight loss is justexercise, but it's not. You have
to look at your diet, youhave to look are you getting proper rest.
So it encompasses more things. Youget some people coming to the gym
and they think soon as their handstouch the weights, boom, something magic
happens and they'll lose twenty or thirtypounds. But it encompasses more than that.

(07:15):
So instead of just following verbating,what someone has to say, I
think you have to commit yourself toit and try to learn some things for
yourself, because everybody's body is stilleven though we're so similar with everybody's body
is a little different. So basically, the first thing we need to do
is get moving. Yes, okay, that's step one. Okay, once

(07:36):
we do step one, we masterthat, then what's next? Master moving?
Do you know how long it takesto master one thing? How long
does it take? Heaven? Oh, could take a lifetime. Bruce Lee
heard of Bruce Lee Avantur I have. One of his famous sayings was that

(07:56):
I fear not the man that cando a thousand punches, but I feel
the man who's thrown a thousand punchesone time. So I mean one punch
a thousand times. So it's notThat's one problem that a lot of people
have. They get so bored withdoing one thing. But you have to
do it enough to master it beforeyou can move on to something else.

(08:18):
People say, well, I'm tiredof doing this. Can we do something
else? Develop a base, becomea technician of what you do, and
then you move on from there.Oh, just aren't that patient? Now?
Oh? What is it about us? We aren't as patient as we
used to be. Oh. Ithink it's something to do with the environment.
We were like a raise, we'relike a microwave oven society. We've

(08:39):
got to have yesterday, not evennow, but yesterday. Oh man.
We got to get out of that. We got to shake ourselves out of
that. So I guess a goodway to shake ourselves out of that is
to just get moving and to giveyourself some grace, because you ain't.
If it didn't take you one dayto put on twenty six pounds, you're

(09:01):
not gonna take it off in oneday. I would like to say that
life is not a perfect condition,and nobody is perfect. So so many
things can interact in your life thatcan cause you to stumble here or there.
Right, you just can't beat yourselfup. You just have to get
back on it. Yeah, youknow, I don't know why you got
me thinking about, you know,just practical things like going to church and

(09:24):
your pastor preaching the same thing.Sometimes you be like, what, I
can't even preach some mil But maybethere's a reason behind method behind that as
well, trying to dig get itoff into us. Okay, So okay,
so we can throw these punches,but we need to throw them or
work out as I'm throwing punches.Basically, do it with consistency. Yes,

(09:45):
do it tomorrow, but to continueto do it, maybe do it
today. Holistic approach. Okay,so it's sleep, trying to stay away
from as much stress as you can. Okay, Dan, properly. You
can eat too much and you cannot eat enough. I mean most of
us know when we're eating too much. But your body needs a certain amount

(10:07):
of energy to power you doing theactivities that you do. Yeah, so
a lot of people to lose weight, they will just well, I'm not
gonna eat today, or I'll justeat one meal. But that's not drudge.
I used to think that I did, and there were times when I
lost weight not eating. But whatI didn't realize was as soon as I
sat down to eat and I starteddoing that consistently. But all that body

(10:28):
is smarter than you. You willlose weight, but a lot of that
weight you lose is your lean musclemass. And when that happens, if
your body breaks down the lean musclemass and use it for energy, then
metabodically you're not as not as active, so you're not gonna burn calories at
great weight, so you've affected yourmetabolism, you've lost muscle, and it

(10:52):
just kind of impacts a lot.So I'm talking to Kevin Swanagan, you
guys, and I'm Stormy. Thankyou for joining us for the show,
just in case you just stepped in. We're talking about getting back into the
swing of things as far as you'reexercising, eating right is concerned, Okay,
because it's the holidays, and Iknow you're not the only one.
A lot of us have done someeating some things over the holidays that we're

(11:13):
like, why did I eat that? Yeah, But and it happens because
we're not Kevin, you said it. None of us are perfect, right,
Okay, So I'm gonna tell youyears ago, I've learned better now.
But years ago, I thought thatif I wanted to lose weight,
the best thing I could do wasto not eat bad, bad, bad.

(11:37):
So I'm hearing though. Little BIRDAtold me that breakfast is like the
healthiest meal of the day. Butyou don't just eat breakfast. Is it
three meals? Is it five?Is it six? What should we do?
Well, there's been a lot ofresearch in that regard. Mm hm,
you know a lot of people willsay three meals plus two snacks.

(12:00):
Some people recommend depending on how manycalories you have to take in just maybe
every two to three hours, makingsure that you're eating something. Yeah,
then some people say three meal shouldbe sufficient. So you know, research
kind of shows that any one ofthose strategies could be good if you're taking

(12:22):
in sufficient amount of calories to coverthe activity level that you're doing. So
if I eat a good healthy breakfast, maybe do a good healthy smoothie,
and then I decide for lunch,I'm going to eat a snicker bar,
good or bad. Bad That sniggerbars got the calories I need, but

(12:43):
the nutrients you have to What's ina snicker Bar's a bunch of yummy stuff.
Sugar is often a culprit and alot of bad things in your body.
So you want to stay from awayfrom high sugar things. If the
food that you're eating is mostly sugar, that's not a good thing for you.

(13:07):
So you try to stay away fromthings like that. And I'm hearing
sugar, man, I hear sugaris so terrible for you. I hear
sugar is the cause of heart attacks. Eat too much of it? Heart
attacks diabetes, cancer, and ahost of other things. That's what the
research shows. Yeah, sugar andoil, trans fat. So would you

(13:31):
say, okay, some meal too, no meal, meal too, I'm
gonna eat okay, had a healthybreakfast, had a healthy lunch, had
a had a salad for lunch?Meal three? What was on the side?
I had some fish salmon okay?Okay. And some people think that
alogias eat the salad, just thevegetables. But you still need every meal

(13:54):
you should have some type of proteinwith it. So okay. If you
don't have something like fish or chickenor something that's higher in protein, just
the salad greens probably not sufficient.Okay. So and this and the salmon,
by the way, was grilled,not fried. However, for dinner,
I'm gonna have me some fried chicken. Now why'd you say that?

(14:20):
Kevin? Anytime you fry, youhave some concerns. What do you frying
it in? Because those some oilsare more favorable than others. But uh,
you know, uh vegetable which wastouted for years has been so great

(14:41):
for you. They foind finding outnow that maybe maybe it's not as good
as we thought. Lard that's notthat good either, so lard was baby,
that's what we A lot of usgrew up on that large. A
lot of us, we know,but mama, mama had shoes, she
had us going to the store toget that large. But when we learn
better, we do we do better. Okay, okay, do better.

(15:03):
Yeah. So what would you sayis it is a pretty good healthy oil
for us to cook in. Well, it's been kind of indicated that,
uh, some of the oils likethey using Mediterranean diets, like olive olive

(15:24):
oil, and uh, you know, for a while they were saying coconut
all but coconut oil is uh saturated, so they're saying that that might not
be good for you. But Ireally haven't seen anything bad on olive oil
at all in fact. But aproblem now, they say, is that
a lot of the olive oil that'scoming into America now it's it's not really

(15:46):
olive oil other things. So we'regonna have to make our own olive oil
by our own olives. We're gonnahave to make sure that the sources we
get are pure sources sources. Okay, man, that's what you have to
take ownership for yourself. A lotof times we just believe verbating what people

(16:07):
say, but something, do alittle research but yeah, yeah, yeah,
do some diving it and that isone of the things though. It's
tough though when it comes to somany stories out there on what you should
and shouldn't do. But I wouldsay, I would say the best thing,
like you were saying, is wouldthe best thing be to just start

(16:27):
and just start eating as healthy asyou can? More vegetables, Get more
vegetables, some fruits or more fruit? What do you what's your stance on
fruit? I think fruit is goodbecause in the natural state it's not as
bad. You know, people talkabout the sugar fruit, but in the
natural states is not as bad.So I personally, we'll eat anywhere from

(16:55):
eight to ten pieces of fruit today. That's a lot. Yeah, and
I still stay relative. You mustbe rich rich, Come on you,
I'm not eating the sak and porklike a lot of y'all are. Oh,
so what are you eating if you'renot eating fish and chicken? Person?
Okay, so you're eating a lotof lean protein pretty much. Okay,

(17:15):
okay, a lot of lean protein. Yeah, and it's on sales,
so hey, you stack up andput it in a freezer and you
eat a lot of that. Buteven in that, there are some considerations.
What what's the consideration? You know, like fish now where you're concerned
about the mercury levels. So there'ssome recommendations that you should not eat fish

(17:37):
more than two to three times aweek, right, so you have to
be careful with fish. Yeah,Chicken, the way they raise chicken,
you know, antibiotics and things likethat, you know, and this is
organic. They say they don't putantibiotic, send them no more. That's
what they said. Do our research. But if you research and see it

(17:57):
the way that they raised these chickens, these chickens probably wouldn't survive. Oh
my goodness. Well yeah, okay, so we got to do our homework.
But okay, So I have seena lot of people, especially people
that have had health scares, youknow, maybe something with a hard or
even strokes, that have turned overa new leaf and a lot of people

(18:22):
who are better now than they werebefore. So is there hope when it
comes to in your opinion? AndI know there is, But is there
hope when it comes to people thathave had a health scare? Can we
can we get ourselves back on track? Sure? I mean there have been
studies done all the way back tosixties and seventies showing that I don't know

(18:45):
why we're so slow to change,but you know the evidence has buried it
out. If you're willing to makethe commitment make necessary changes and died and
nutrition, exercise more certainly, itwill impact your life to the point where
you will be better. You're notgoing to be as good as you could
have been, say, for instance, when you were twenty four if you

(19:07):
made those changes, but when youlook at where you're at now, you
can just almost change your life totallyaround. Yeah, you know, they've
done studies and people in nursing homesand stuff like that who were not amblatour
it, couldn't get around without walkersand things like that. Once they put
them on they start them off forexercising in chairs and eating properly, they're

(19:30):
were able to get up. Theircognition was better, they think better on
their own. So studies are outthere to prove that, and they've been
known for years. But for somereason we're just not ready to make a
commit. A lot of us inour ready well because it's tough and Kevin,
we have jobs. Yeah, youknow, many of us are busy,
especially parents. Man, let mesend a prayer out to the parents

(19:52):
out there and to the teachers.I mean, some of us have jobs,
and even not just that, butmanagers and people who are the head
of whatever they do. You know, when they start at the job,
they weighed one hundred and twenty poundsand now they're one hundred and nine and
nine. You know what I'm saying. So I guess with that, you
know, thinking about you know,how life can change like that, learning

(20:15):
how to prioritize yourself, putting youback into the equation because a lot of
times we're so busy taking care ofeverything and everybody else that we don't make
time for ourselves. That's why initiallyI was talking about commitment, but a
commitment. Yeah, you know,you might get a high powered job making
seven figures a year, but areyou gonna neglect your family, your children

(20:40):
because you can make that kind ofmoney. Are you just gonna leave all
them behind? Or are you goingto say, well, I need to
make changes where my family will knowthat they're still the most important thing to
me. So it's just according toyour priorities, what are you committed to
making? I mean to me,the most important job should be taking care

(21:03):
of yourself, because if if youdon't go, nothing goes right. Yeah
yeah, but we don't think likethat. We think about the money first.
So but when you know better,you do better. And that's why
I love this show, and that'swhy I love to be able to share
information like this because so many ofus don't know that. You know,

(21:25):
if we are eating a lot offried foods, we don't realize that.
And many of us have not hadthat kind of education growing up. You
know, I didn't know that wewere raised off eating, you know,
fried chicken. When we didn't eatit all the time. It was kind
of a special dish. I mean, we might have had maybe on Sundays

(21:45):
we didn't need fried chicken, butwe eate pop chops and every show we
ate. Everything was f Yeah,well not everything, not all the time,
but a lot of times it was. And so it was. And
that's how I grew up as well. Oh yeah, and I can remember
when I turned about nineteen or twenty, I started doing a little research and
I started eating a little different,and my mom said, baby, you

(22:06):
can't keep on eating like that.You're gonna make yourself sick all the fried
foods and the cakes and the piesand stuff. But I've never really had
any type of medical problem. Butmy mom actually died at a young age
of complications from diabetes because even thoughshe was a REGIS nurse, a person
in the medical field, to her, the way she was eating, the

(22:29):
lifestyle she led a stressful job,it didn't matter. She continued to eat
what she wanted to eat, andshe was overweight, had hard time trying
to lose the weight because she couldreally could not really be committed to a
consistent exercise regimen. So you know, it took a toll on her.

(22:52):
Wow, I'm sorry to hear that, you know, but that is probably
the story more often than not.Yeah, yeah, yeah, a lot
of us have had family members thathave died due to gun violence. But
we don't realize that people, youknow, die in other ways. We
kill ourselves though, a lot oftimes, so we don't realize it.

(23:14):
Yeah. I thought that the wayI ate was too extreme and it was
not good for me, but infact it probably really was because like in
November, I'll be seventy and I'venever had any kind of medical problems and
never broken bones, and stuff likethat. But other than that, I've
never had high blood pressure, diabetesor anything like that. My heart rate

(23:37):
is normally relatively low, of bloodpressures normally pretty low. Wow, So
I just never really had problems,any kind of medical problems. Yeah.
Man, I'm gonna pray tonight ifI can get my mind right to do.
You know, I know that I'mblessed. I'm not going to say
that it's because of the way Ihate, because I've exercised all my life

(23:59):
because I think God gives you acertain genetics aware if you take care of
yourself, he'll take care of you. So yeah, yeah, and man,
don't live by bread alone. No, No, at least that's what
the word says. But yeah,it to me. I think being conscious
about what I put in my mouthand even getting exercise has become more of

(24:22):
a priority the older I've gotten,and I really want to, you know,
put that in my children and inother people that I meet. You
know, to to pay attention towhat you're eating. And I try to
do my best with what I'm doing. It's the struggle is real, but

(24:49):
but you can do it. IfKevin can do it, you are not
an anomaly. I can do it. If you can do it, you
know what I'm saying. So that'swhat I'm saying. I really wanted you
to have you on the show tojust encourage people to get back on it.
Get back on it. You cando it. The weekend's over,
get back on it, and theyor two won't kill you. Yes,

(25:11):
I have to get back on it. Get back on it. Yeah,
get back on it. Get someexercise, as we should in our communities,
and do your best to eat better, sleep so that we can have
longevity. And this is sleep,rest, and get rid of stress.
If you can't. Yes, ohthat's tough. Floyd Mercy, Kevin Swanagan.
Ladies and gentlemen, stop by theshow today. I'm stormy again.

(25:33):
For those of you that are joiningus. Any tips, okay, you
said as far as starting something,get moving, trying to eat better,
and what would be the other tipfor us? I think one problem a
lot of people have is, youknow, so many people have played sports
and things when they were teenagers andin high school and things like that,

(25:55):
and they think to get back inshape, they need to train hard like
that, but you really don't themost important thing is to get moving again.
The government came up with plan Theysay if you worked out thirty minutes
most days of the week, thatthat's enough to impact your health and fitness.

(26:18):
And I did some research and Isaid, wow, wonder why I
say thirty minutes? Is that reallyenough? But because you know, you've
got people coming to the gym wherethey say, if I work out thirty
minutes, I can look like you. So I'd checked to see what was
the information behind working out thirty minutes, but found out that they said the
reason they said thirty minutes a daybecause they knew if they had said an

(26:41):
hour or more, people wouldn't wantto do it. Wow. So they
said if you worked out thirty minutes, and thirty minutes really will impact your
health and fitness. But people arenot willing to work out thirty minutes today,
and you know that they say theydon't have time. But you know
a lot of those people will watchTV for five or six hours when they

(27:04):
come home and say two times fromthe day of work. But well,
we got to watch Netflix, Kevin. We've got to keep up saying promote
energy. Exercise does so much.I'm not one of those people to say
exercises are found the seal magic field. But it does impact you in so
many different good ways. Yeah,and you know what, maybe a bit

(27:26):
of advice if or you know tip, if you have a treadmill at home
or some sort of machine and youstill want to watch TV, put the
treadmill in front of the TV.I say you can do them both at
the same time. Is that agood idea? Yeah? There are even
some studies, you know, justwalking in plates, you know, even
fidgeting. If i was just sittinghere at the desk and I'm just moving

(27:49):
my arms and moving my legs andstuff like, I'm burning more cauntteries doing
that. If instead of just sittinghere just doing so you know, there
are things you can do throughout theday to burn more calories if you're trying
to lose weight where it would bebeneficial to you. But see, we
so quick to say what we can'tdo, but even minute changes can make

(28:12):
a difference. Okay, Well,Kevin, thank you so much for stopping
and sharing this and thank you forwhat you do in the community. Kevin
Swanagan Elemental Fitness and Performance is wherehe is still working at seventy years of
age. And still training people.How do you do it? I believe

(28:33):
in what I do. Love itall right, I'm Stormy. It is
the pulse, keeping our fingertips onthe pulse of our community. And do
you want to say any parting wordsto your wife? Perhaps doctor Swannegan at
church? Hell? Uh huh,keep on keeping on all right, it's

(28:55):
the pulse. We'll see you nextweek, same time, same station.
God bless you. I am Stormy. Have yourself a fabulous week.