Mirror Trickery

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, y'all, and welcome to Rule the Gym, the podcast
that covers everything you need to know before, during, and
after your workout, from gym etiquette, to workout plans, memberships
to machines. If it happens in the gym, we're talking
about it. So what do you say we go ahead
and get started. And because it's got a lot to
talk about today. Like me in fifty nine, you want

(00:24):
to look in the mirror and you want to look decent.
You want to look good for your age. You want
to be able to take your shirt off at least,
you know, in front of your wife and not be embarrassed.
You know, you want to look in the mirror when
you're shaving and not have your your towel pulled up
over your chest because you don't want to look at yourself.
You know what I'm saying. I mean because most of

(00:45):
us have been there. I've been there once or twice
and I'm a gym rat. It's still at fifty nine
years old. I mean, I haven't been able to work
out because of an injury in the past four weeks
car accident we had. We hit a certain delivery actually
a certain delivery truck hit up blindsided us. So my
wife and I are both we both hurting a little bit.

(01:08):
Maybe some surgery on the spine area in the near future,
let's hope not anyway, different story, but we want to
look good. We will look good and feel good. So
I just want you to know right off the bat
that you're not alone on that. And I know we
talk about, you know, being healthy on the inside, and
that is super important. I mean, that's the most important thing,

(01:31):
but we also want to look good on the outside.
So just know you're not alone on that. And as
we get further into this, we're going to make it
clear how to do that now. I do have another
podcast called Rule the Gym, and it started out as

(01:51):
Rules for the Gym, because so many people have such
bad gym etiquette, especially the twenty somethings out there that
just have no clue and it's very frustrating. You know,
the ones that sit on a machine for ten minutes
checking their email, sending some text, taking a video. Yeah,
I'm kind of like the gym police because I'm big

(02:11):
enough and I look like stone cold Steve Austin, So
I look bad enough. I can get there. Hey like that,
I'll work here, and I do own gyms, so I've
got that in my behalf. So I'm not saying that
you need to be the gym police. But anyway, so
that podcast started out as Rule the Gym and it
has gone more into lifting heavy over the age of forty,

(02:33):
and I think it's great. My wife does a lot
of it too, as far as the podcast goes. She
has a much better voice than I do. So anyway, today,
what do we talk about? Last time, we talked about
assessing yourself right, a true assessment of what you feel like,
look like, what your current state of health is. And

(02:55):
we asked you to be honest about that and that's
hard to do sometimes. You know, go do the touel
tests when you get out of the shower and you're shaving.
Let me know way that shower that towel is. If
it's way above your waist, we got some work to do, man.
So anyway, now that you have a clearer picture of
your current health status, and I hope you're honest with yourself,

(03:19):
I don't care. I want you to be healthy, but
you're the one that's got to want it. It's time
to translate that understanding into actionable goals. This isn't about
setting unrealistic expectations. Okay, So I've been lifting since I
was fifteen years old, fourteen or fifteen whatever eighth grade is, so,

(03:40):
and I lifted for football so and I haven't stopped
other than the past four weeks. So you can imagine
I'm six to one and I'm about two hundred and
two hundred and thirty five pounds, and you know, it's
been a month. I'm starting to get a little flabby
in the middle. I don't like it. But I can't
do a whole lot about all of that right now.

(04:01):
Any that's a whole different story. I don't want to
go there. Uh Anyway, So you I wouldn't expect, and
you shouldn't expect, you know, if you haven't ever been
in the gym or sparingly, or you're just doing cardio
or your diet's not good to suddenly I want to
walk in the gym a couple of times and then

(04:23):
and have this great, you know, body like the rock.
You know, it's not going to happen, and that's unrealistic
and you're going to end up giving up on so
many different things. So a little bit at a time, so,
and you don't want to set these unrealistic expectations. Right,
We're not going to look like the rock. I'm not

(04:44):
going to look like the rock, you know, Duayne, I'm
not gonna look like him at my age, but I
should try. But I don't get frustrated. And that's not
that's not an expectation that I have. So remember it's
small changes, positive changes, and it's one step at a time.

(05:04):
Think of this as you're designing your own personalized health
improvement project. Like you're the di y guy, okay, and
the project is you, so where you are both the
architect and the contractor. The more clearly you define your objectives,
the more effectively you can imagine, manage your progress, and

(05:28):
celebrate your accomplishments along the way. So key to effective
goal setting lies in the smart framework. Okay. So that's
an acronym s M a RT for those of you
that aren't smart enough to spell smart, and that stands
for a specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound time

(05:52):
bound and that has a hyphen in it, by the way,
So let's break down each element specific value goals like
eat healthier or they're vague, all right, you don't want
to be vague because it's ineffective. A specific goal would
be eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables daily.
Or you could take balance of nature like the commercial

(06:15):
that comes on Fox News every five minutes. I mean really,
so you know what I'm talking about. The more detail
you provide, the clearer your path becomes. For example, instead
of exercise more, a specific goal would be walk for
thirty minutes three times a week at a brisk pace.

(06:36):
Specific removes ambiguity and provides direction. Consider what aspects of
your health you want to focus on, physical fitness, stress management, nutrition, sleep,
or combination. You know, for me it's a combination. Be
precise in your goal descriptions, leaving no room for misinterpretations. Okay, measurable.

(06:58):
How will you track your progress for the fruit and
vegetable goal. You could keep a food diary. For me,
it's more protein goal than a vegetable goal. But we
all have our different goals. You could keep a food
diary for the exercise goal. You could use a fitness tracker,
or simply note your walks in a calendar. Apple Wats

(07:21):
does a great job with walking, measuring your steps and
things like that. So measurable goals allow you to objectively
assess your progress and make necessary adjustments along the way.
Quantity quantify your objectives whenever possible. Instead of aiming for
a better sleep, aim for seven to eight hours of

(07:42):
sleep per night consistently for a month. You see where
I'm going with that. So this allows you to track
your nightly sleep duration and identify any potential deviations achievable.
So ambitious goals are admirable, but they should also be realistic.
Like I said, we're not going to look like the

(08:03):
Rock tomorrow if you're If you're currently sedentary, aiming for
a marathon in three months probably is unrealistic and could
lead to discouragement and probably injury. So start with smaller,
more manageable goals that you can build up to. Perhaps
begin with fifteen minute walk three times a week and

(08:25):
gradually increase the duration and frequency. Setting achievable goals, ensure
that your experience early early wins and celebrate those early
wins you know, not necessarily with crappy food boosting your
confidence and motivation. Don't jump into intense workout routines if
you are currently inactive, Start slowly and progressive progressively increase

(08:49):
the intensity and duration of your workout. So don't work.
Don't walk on the gym for the first time in
two years and think you're going to go jump on
their bench press three fifteen. I mean, you know, one,
you're gonna get hurt, and number two, you gonna do
it right, and then you're just gonna get discouraged. Well,
when I was eighteen and I could do this five times, great,

(09:10):
Guess who's not eighteen anymore? You relevant, and that is relevant.
Your goals should align with your values and overall life objectives.
If you aspire to run a five k but have
no interest in running, it's unlikely to be sustainable. I'm
not a long distance runter. I never have. You want

(09:32):
to like lose me quickly in something, you know, let's
start playing a five k run because I'm not going
You want to go for a nice long walk. You
want to go to the gym, you know, go play
a little football something like that. I'm in but just
going out there running for five miles. Nope. And I'm

(09:53):
going to tell you something else. Okay, And this is
my personal opinion, and it is somewhat educated. Running. When
you get a little bit old, and I'm saying forties.
I don't think it's a good idea because there is
so much impact on your body when you were running.
I don't care what shoes you wear. You're doing damage.

(10:15):
And you could go out there and go for a
long walk and get about the same benefits as you
do going for that run. I'm telling you the run
and these people that go out there and just have
to run, it's as much ego as it is anything else.
Look at me, I'm running, you know. I don't see

(10:36):
a place for that. I don't And my big thing
in the gym. Check your ego at the door. I
don't care, right, I don't care if you are mister Olympia,
and I don't care if you've never lifted a weight
ever in your life. I'm gonna treat you the same,
and I want you to succeed. But don't come in
there all ego and competitive and you gotta lift as

(10:56):
much as I do or more than I do, or
look in the mirror at yourself like your you know,
Arnold Schwarzenegger's all that does is it doesn't make people
like me very happy. So consider your long term aspirations
and how these short term health goals contribute to your
overall well being and life purpose. So, like I said,

(11:17):
celebrate the little victories. You know, ask yourself if achieving
these goals will significantly impact your quality of life, both
in the short term and the long run. Time bound
setting a deadline creates urgency and helps you stay focused.
Instead of lose weight, aim to lose ten pounds in
three months. Deadlines provide structure and a sense of accomplishment

(11:43):
when achieved. Break down larger goals into smaller, manageable time frames.
For example, if you know, if you if your long
term goal is to lose twenty pounds, break it down
into monthly goals. You know, I want to I want
to lose five pounds this month, So you want to
average five pounds for four months. It makes the overall

(12:06):
goal appear less daunting and allows for a consistent progress tracking.
So let's consider examples of smart So instead of get
in better shape, you know, walk for thirty minutes three
times per week. We've already kind of gone through this before.
Instead of eat healthier, you know, get more specific. Reduce

(12:30):
processed food and take fifty percent over the next two
months and replace one processed food item per day with
a healthier alternative. That sounds like a nightmare to me,
but you kind of get what I'm talking about. Instead
of manage stress, better practice mindful meditation for ten minutes.
And I used to be totally like, that's a bunch

(12:51):
of malarkey, right, all the meditation stuff. I mean, what
are we some kind of yogi or something, you know,
I hope, Well, I've changed my mind on that because
my life has become over the years, so much more
stress involved and anxiety ridden that I mean, this happens
to a lot of us. So you know, I'm not

(13:13):
you know, singling anybody out other than myself and taking
a moment to actually meditate. For me, it's meditation, it's prayer,
things like that that really help manage my stress. It
doesn't mean that I still don't have stressful moments, and
it doesn't mean that sometimes at four o'clock in the morning,

(13:34):
I'll wake up and my anxiety is off the charts,
because it is. But all in all, it's better. So
there you go. So instead of sleep, what about maintain
a regular sleep schedule, right going to bed and waking
up at the same time, you know, for a month
of improved sleep. So I mean you kind of get

(13:55):
what I'm getting at right here. So remember to be
patient with yourself. A bill healthy habits take time and effort.
There will be setbacks. Of course, there's going to be setbacks,
you know. But here's a great thing about getting healthier
and getting a better shape is that it's okay to
fall off the wagon because you just get up and

(14:17):
get back on. Okay. And maybe you made great results
for two months and then you took a week of vacation, right,
and then you ate and did no exercise on your vacation,
and you came home and it carried over for another week,
and then you finally wake up and you look in
the mirror and you can see the difference. So you're like, man,

(14:38):
I got to get back on this. But guess what,
when you get back on it, it's easier because you've
already done it and now you're just getting back to it. Right.
It's kind of like muscle memory. And for those that
don't know what that is, we'll talk about that later.
The journey towards better health is a marathon. I'm not
going to run it with you, but it's not a

(15:01):
sprint and you know this is true. By setting smart
goals and consistently working towards them, you can create lasting,
positive change in your life. Your commitment to this process
will be the foundation for a healthier, happier, and more
more fulfilling future. And that is that's dead on right there.

(15:22):
So next time, we're going to create a personalized health plan, right,
So we're going to take the smart goals right and
s ma art and all capitals right because it's an
acron and acrony and anyway, I'm just playing now. So anyway,
we talked about some good stuff today, so good with

(15:44):
me and let's get started, all right. I can't wait
to see your results, and I know you can't wait
to see some results, both healthier on the inside and
the mirror. I mean, who doesn't want to look a
little better in the mirror every day. Well that's a
wrap for this episode of Rule of the Gym, and
keep following me and you will be ruling the gym.

(16:06):
And you can still follow the Rules of the Gym.
So whether you're a first time or a seasoned lifter,
we've got your back with tips, advice, and straight talk
to help you feel confident and get results. Be sure
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and join us next time as we continue helping you

(16:27):
rule of the gym, one rep, one run, and one
smart decision at a time. So God bless you guys,
keep working out.