October 5, 2025 • 11 mins
Speaking from experience, Osher explains how getting real results requires taking small steps around your ego.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Getto Thanks for listening to the show. This is better
than yesterday. Useful tools and useful ideas every week since
twenty thirteen that will hopefully help make your day to
day better than yesterday.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Does what it says on the box.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Get it manas Joshiginsburg, thank you so much for being here.
I know this feeling all too well. You may recognize
this feeling and get an invitation of something in the future.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
It requires you to wear a suit, no problem. I
own a suit. I've had this suit for a long time.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Brilliant, I'll be there, you reply, just imagining in your brain,
I'm going to look so good, worrying that fantastic suit
to that fantastic thing. I had a tailored I look
great in that suit. Weeks go by, the day of
the event arrives, You liberate the suit from the dry
cleaning bag. You go to put those pants on, and
there is a chasm of flesh where the pants used
(00:55):
to be able to button up. They do not fit,
not even close. That suit was tailored exactly for the
way your body was shaped when you bought it.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Something in this equation has changed shape.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
It's most definitely not your outfit. This has happened to
me more than enough times. A previously good run of
eating and also moving my body, well, it gets interrupted
by a holiday, a new job, a new partner, new kid.
You blink your eyes, A year goes by, and now
(01:29):
you're texting your host with the fancy dress code.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I'm so sorry, something's come up. I'm not going to
be able to make it.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
There's a challenge to be anything but reactive in these situations.
I've certainly been there, and you know, I've thought.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
To myself, what that's it?
Speaker 1 (01:43):
The very next day, going absolutely nuclear on myself, straight
into a strict fasting protocol, trying to replicate my previous
five kPr, even though I hadn't run a five k
in a number of months. I mean, it's that or
heading back into the gym and trying to lift the
same amount of wheels I lifted last time. The only
thing that happens then is I'll either blow out my
(02:05):
back or overtrain so hard I'll end up sick for
two more weeks, and that delay will usually sap the
momentum out of any drive to start moving again, and
then I'm back in my track pants thinking about takeaway food.
If this cycle sounds familiar, you're not alone. We know
exactly what to do in this situation. I know exactly
(02:25):
the gentle curve of activity that I need to introduce
if I want to get moving again after a period
of inactivity. I discovered it in my late teens. I
graduated high school about one hundred and twelve kilos, no muscle,
all fat. And when you're a fat kid, walking is
the enemy because unless you have a gate like a
(02:47):
Jack Rooge is back from Musta, walking makes your thighs
ruped together. And when this friction combines with the special
steaminess of the subtropical southeast Queensland, that's sweaty raws, skin
can quite quickly get kind of fungal, and yeah, you
end up with a whole world.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Of nasty in your trousers.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
It was hellish, and I ended up planning my days
to minimize the amount.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Of walking that I would do wherever I could.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
When I was about nineteen, i'd been at Taye for
about a year, and in the end of that I
found myself unemployed, living back with my mum and slipping
further into uselessness as each day went by, just sitting
in front of the TV mindlessly eating.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
After a few weeks of it, I started.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
To notice that my brain was kind of turning to jelly,
along with the rest of me, just sitting there, too
numb to even mute the ads as I just consumed
another bowl of mid morning Nacho's which I'd made for myself,
and there was an ad on TV with a bloke
saying I didn't want to have to get ready for
a job, so I just got ready for whatever might
(03:52):
come along. I got a hand it to whoever wrote
that ad, because I heard that as a call to action.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I was inspired on it.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Even Oh outside for a walk? Wow, outside a guy
for a walks too hard? So I made another sandwich
and then got back on the bean bag and waited
for Oprah to start. But in a rare window of
self reflection, when I woke up the next morning at
(04:21):
the crack at ten am, I realized, I'm gonna have
to trick myself if I'm going to get anything physical done.
So I told the part of my brain which didn't
want to go for a walk, I'm just gonna go
check the mail, which is a twelve meter walk down
the hill where we lived on an incline, so I
driveway went up and down a hill. So it was
(04:41):
a twelve meter walk down the hills in the mailbox
and then twelve excruciating meters back up the hill to
the front door. That'd be well enough exercise for one day.
You know. My brain then catches me grabbing some socks,
starts getting suspicious.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Like, what's going on here?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Is no, no, no, no, just putting my shoes on because
I don't want to get hit by any bindies.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
You know, been to his front yard barefoot bad.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I didn't want to alert my brain to my cunning plan,
and so I plodded down the hill. When I got
to my letterbox, I just kept walking all the way
to the end of my street, left at the corner
to loop back around to our street and back to
my letterbox, where indeed I did pick up the mail,
and then I went inside. My brain did not cotton
(05:25):
on to the length of that walk, because yes, ah,
we had just checked the mail. We did what we
said we're gonna do. I was exhausted. It was only
six hundred meters. I've measured it on Google mats. Some
only six hundred meters, and I was so cooked. I
didn't even make it past the first at break in Oprah.
I just passed out on the beanbag from effort. But regardless,
I did the same thing the next day. On the
(05:48):
third day of doing this, I told that reluctant part
of my brain just going to go for a walk
around the block. But I didn't say which block, because
there was another loop in our hilly suburb of Culder Sacks,
which it was a little longer, well three times. It
was very nearly eighteen hundred meters. That was quite the challenge.
And sure enough, when I got back to the letterbox,
(06:08):
I picked up the target catalog or whatever, and I
had just gone to check the mail. Now, after a
little while, I no longer needed to trick myself like
I'm a dog with a werving tablet. It felt good
when I did this, and so I started to want
to do this, and I started to want to walk
further and further. I had nowhere to go. I had
nothing to do. I just walk exploring the extended neighborhood.
(06:29):
No phone, not even a walkman to listen to. I
just walk and think. I hadn't really put together why
I was walking for so long, But I did notice
that the more I walked, the more I felt like walking,
and I looked forward to my walks and I slept.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Better because of them.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
After a couple of weeks of this, setting out for
my daily walk, something enormous rose up inside of me
and I just had to It was as though I
would burst if I didn't run.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I just hurled myself forward, the.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Wind in my hair, my chest, aching my lungs, burning
my legs, screaming each step, just you know, flying me
down the street faster than I.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Could have dreamed.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
It felt incredible to move like this until my intercostal
muscle started to feel like I'm getting stuck with a
prison shit, and oh my god, I had to stop.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
My stitch was so bad.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
And I came to a whole hundred a shady purple
jack around her hands on my knees, just gasping for breath.
After a while, I'm finally able to stand up see
how far I'd come, and it was the distance of
two power poles around forty meters. I was quite happy
that I had run that far, and then I just
(07:52):
walked for another two hours. The following day, I ran
to the next power pole and then kept walking twenty
meters out of time, I would increase my run to
walk ratio, and within a month of first checking the mail,
I ran that full six hundred meter block and from
there my capacity just increased exponentially. The weight started to
(08:14):
just fall off my body. Bear in mind, I was
nineteen een and I'm a protein synthesis and testosterone producing
machine at that point in my life. But having this
transformative experience at that age, you'd think I'd be smart
enough to know intuitively this is what I need to
do when I'm starting something up again. But I have
(08:34):
to admit that I'm not that smart sometimes. So now
instead of tricking my brain into training, I kind of
have to trick my brain into not training so hard.
When I'm getting back into something, I'm not going to
do my regular workout. I'm just gonna I'm just going
to grease the wheel a bit, and instead of grabbing
the twenty four kilogram kettle bell, I'll just grab the
(08:55):
twelve kilogram kettle bell. I'll do the same movements, just
a lower intensity to make sure don't get carried away,
and try to match the pr of how many sets
for time that I can do.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I won't even write it down.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
The fact is is whether you're nineteen or forty nine
or fifty one as I am today, starting from zero
or getting back to where you were, the same principle applies.
You can't leap straight into the person that you want
to be or the person that you used to be.
(09:32):
You kind of have to start with who you are today.
And that's enough. Forget the idea of a health kick.
You're probably going to slip and fall. Take a health
step instead. Tell your brain, I'm just checking the mail
or whatever, and they just keep walking. Because if there's
one thing I did learn under that Jagoranda tree, gasping
(09:53):
for breath after my almighty forty meter sprint, it would
be that instant transformation is a fantasy. It could be
the transformation from zero to hero or even just after
a few weeks off due to illness or injury, back
to your regular training load.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
That's an imaginary thing. It doesn't work. I have to
remember that. I just need to.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Get my ego out of the way and be prepared
for the change to happen. One step, one rep, one
bide at a time. All I have to do is
show up for each of those things and the rest
takes care of itself. Thanks heeps for listening. I hope
that was helpful. Let me know if it was, Sandosha
(10:40):
email at gmail dot com. If you' want to support
the work I do, please consider subscribing or following, or
rating or liking or sharing this podcast, buy a book.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
So What Now? What is out? Now? As is back
after the Break?
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Come and See You More show. It's called story Club.
It's on every month in Sydney. Tickets are in the
show notes. Thanks for listening, oh
Getto Thanks for listening to the show. This is better
than yesterday. Useful tools and useful ideas every week since
twenty thirteen that will hopefully help make your day to
day better than yesterday.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Does what it says on the box.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Get it manas Joshiginsburg, thank you so much for being here.
I know this feeling all too well. You may recognize
this feeling and get an invitation of something in the future.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
It requires you to wear a suit, no problem. I
own a suit. I've had this suit for a long time.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Brilliant, I'll be there, you reply, just imagining in your brain,
I'm going to look so good, worrying that fantastic suit
to that fantastic thing. I had a tailored I look
great in that suit. Weeks go by, the day of
the event arrives, You liberate the suit from the dry
cleaning bag. You go to put those pants on, and
there is a chasm of flesh where the pants used
(00:55):
to be able to button up. They do not fit,
not even close. That suit was tailored exactly for the
way your body was shaped when you bought it.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Something in this equation has changed shape.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
It's most definitely not your outfit. This has happened to
me more than enough times. A previously good run of
eating and also moving my body, well, it gets interrupted
by a holiday, a new job, a new partner, new kid.
You blink your eyes, A year goes by, and now
(01:29):
you're texting your host with the fancy dress code.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I'm so sorry, something's come up. I'm not going to
be able to make it.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
There's a challenge to be anything but reactive in these situations.
I've certainly been there, and you know, I've thought.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
To myself, what that's it?
Speaker 1 (01:43):
The very next day, going absolutely nuclear on myself, straight
into a strict fasting protocol, trying to replicate my previous
five kPr, even though I hadn't run a five k
in a number of months. I mean, it's that or
heading back into the gym and trying to lift the
same amount of wheels I lifted last time. The only
thing that happens then is I'll either blow out my
(02:05):
back or overtrain so hard I'll end up sick for
two more weeks, and that delay will usually sap the
momentum out of any drive to start moving again, and
then I'm back in my track pants thinking about takeaway food.
If this cycle sounds familiar, you're not alone. We know
exactly what to do in this situation. I know exactly
(02:25):
the gentle curve of activity that I need to introduce
if I want to get moving again after a period
of inactivity. I discovered it in my late teens. I
graduated high school about one hundred and twelve kilos, no muscle,
all fat. And when you're a fat kid, walking is
the enemy because unless you have a gate like a
(02:47):
Jack Rooge is back from Musta, walking makes your thighs
ruped together. And when this friction combines with the special
steaminess of the subtropical southeast Queensland, that's sweaty raws, skin
can quite quickly get kind of fungal, and yeah, you
end up with a whole world.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Of nasty in your trousers.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
It was hellish, and I ended up planning my days
to minimize the amount.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Of walking that I would do wherever I could.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
When I was about nineteen, i'd been at Taye for
about a year, and in the end of that I
found myself unemployed, living back with my mum and slipping
further into uselessness as each day went by, just sitting
in front of the TV mindlessly eating.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
After a few weeks of it, I started.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
To notice that my brain was kind of turning to jelly,
along with the rest of me, just sitting there, too
numb to even mute the ads as I just consumed
another bowl of mid morning Nacho's which I'd made for myself,
and there was an ad on TV with a bloke
saying I didn't want to have to get ready for
a job, so I just got ready for whatever might
(03:52):
come along. I got a hand it to whoever wrote
that ad, because I heard that as a call to action.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I was inspired on it.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Even Oh outside for a walk? Wow, outside a guy
for a walks too hard? So I made another sandwich
and then got back on the bean bag and waited
for Oprah to start. But in a rare window of
self reflection, when I woke up the next morning at
(04:21):
the crack at ten am, I realized, I'm gonna have
to trick myself if I'm going to get anything physical done.
So I told the part of my brain which didn't
want to go for a walk, I'm just gonna go
check the mail, which is a twelve meter walk down
the hill where we lived on an incline, so I
driveway went up and down a hill. So it was
(04:41):
a twelve meter walk down the hills in the mailbox
and then twelve excruciating meters back up the hill to
the front door. That'd be well enough exercise for one day.
You know. My brain then catches me grabbing some socks,
starts getting suspicious.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Like, what's going on here?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Is no, no, no, no, just putting my shoes on because
I don't want to get hit by any bindies.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
You know, been to his front yard barefoot bad.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I didn't want to alert my brain to my cunning plan,
and so I plodded down the hill. When I got
to my letterbox, I just kept walking all the way
to the end of my street, left at the corner
to loop back around to our street and back to
my letterbox, where indeed I did pick up the mail,
and then I went inside. My brain did not cotton
(05:25):
on to the length of that walk, because yes, ah,
we had just checked the mail. We did what we
said we're gonna do. I was exhausted. It was only
six hundred meters. I've measured it on Google mats. Some
only six hundred meters, and I was so cooked. I
didn't even make it past the first at break in Oprah.
I just passed out on the beanbag from effort. But regardless,
I did the same thing the next day. On the
(05:48):
third day of doing this, I told that reluctant part
of my brain just going to go for a walk
around the block. But I didn't say which block, because
there was another loop in our hilly suburb of Culder Sacks,
which it was a little longer, well three times. It
was very nearly eighteen hundred meters. That was quite the challenge.
And sure enough, when I got back to the letterbox,
(06:08):
I picked up the target catalog or whatever, and I
had just gone to check the mail. Now, after a
little while, I no longer needed to trick myself like
I'm a dog with a werving tablet. It felt good
when I did this, and so I started to want
to do this, and I started to want to walk
further and further. I had nowhere to go. I had
nothing to do. I just walk exploring the extended neighborhood.
(06:29):
No phone, not even a walkman to listen to. I
just walk and think. I hadn't really put together why
I was walking for so long, But I did notice
that the more I walked, the more I felt like walking,
and I looked forward to my walks and I slept.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Better because of them.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
After a couple of weeks of this, setting out for
my daily walk, something enormous rose up inside of me
and I just had to It was as though I
would burst if I didn't run.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I just hurled myself forward, the.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Wind in my hair, my chest, aching my lungs, burning
my legs, screaming each step, just you know, flying me
down the street faster than I.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Could have dreamed.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
It felt incredible to move like this until my intercostal
muscle started to feel like I'm getting stuck with a
prison shit, and oh my god, I had to stop.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
My stitch was so bad.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
And I came to a whole hundred a shady purple
jack around her hands on my knees, just gasping for breath.
After a while, I'm finally able to stand up see
how far I'd come, and it was the distance of
two power poles around forty meters. I was quite happy
that I had run that far, and then I just
(07:52):
walked for another two hours. The following day, I ran
to the next power pole and then kept walking twenty
meters out of time, I would increase my run to
walk ratio, and within a month of first checking the mail,
I ran that full six hundred meter block and from
there my capacity just increased exponentially. The weight started to
(08:14):
just fall off my body. Bear in mind, I was
nineteen een and I'm a protein synthesis and testosterone producing
machine at that point in my life. But having this
transformative experience at that age, you'd think I'd be smart
enough to know intuitively this is what I need to
do when I'm starting something up again. But I have
(08:34):
to admit that I'm not that smart sometimes. So now
instead of tricking my brain into training, I kind of
have to trick my brain into not training so hard.
When I'm getting back into something, I'm not going to
do my regular workout. I'm just gonna I'm just going
to grease the wheel a bit, and instead of grabbing
the twenty four kilogram kettle bell, I'll just grab the
(08:55):
twelve kilogram kettle bell. I'll do the same movements, just
a lower intensity to make sure don't get carried away,
and try to match the pr of how many sets
for time that I can do.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I won't even write it down.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
The fact is is whether you're nineteen or forty nine
or fifty one as I am today, starting from zero
or getting back to where you were, the same principle applies.
You can't leap straight into the person that you want
to be or the person that you used to be.
(09:32):
You kind of have to start with who you are today.
And that's enough. Forget the idea of a health kick.
You're probably going to slip and fall. Take a health
step instead. Tell your brain, I'm just checking the mail
or whatever, and they just keep walking. Because if there's
one thing I did learn under that Jagoranda tree, gasping
(09:53):
for breath after my almighty forty meter sprint, it would
be that instant transformation is a fantasy. It could be
the transformation from zero to hero or even just after
a few weeks off due to illness or injury, back
to your regular training load.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
That's an imaginary thing. It doesn't work. I have to
remember that. I just need to.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Get my ego out of the way and be prepared
for the change to happen. One step, one rep, one
bide at a time. All I have to do is
show up for each of those things and the rest
takes care of itself. Thanks heeps for listening. I hope
that was helpful. Let me know if it was, Sandosha
(10:40):
email at gmail dot com. If you' want to support
the work I do, please consider subscribing or following, or
rating or liking or sharing this podcast, buy a book.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
So What Now? What is out? Now? As is back
after the Break?
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Come and See You More show. It's called story Club.
It's on every month in Sydney. Tickets are in the
show notes. Thanks for listening, oh
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