I Thought I’d Crush It And Almost Blacked Out

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Ready for a reality check that actually sticks? I walked into a firefighter tryout convinced I’d breeze through on grit and lifting strength—and nearly blacked out during the PACER test. That moment of shock became a catalyst: exposing my cardio blind spot, deflating my ego, and forcing a return to fundamentals that real performance demands.

We unpack how a strict carnivore diet kept my weight steady while masking a glaring conditioning gap, and why “I hate cardio” isn’t a strategy. I share the simple, sustainable interval plan that rebuilt capacity: short sprints, measured rest, and hybrid sessions that weave lifting with conditioning for a practical HIIT-style rhythm. No heroics—just consistent wins that retrain pace, breathing, and recovery. Along the way, I dig into the mindset traps that derail progress, from the seductive “I’m the exception” story to the endless “I’ll start tomorrow” promise that never lands.

There’s also a hard truth about control: you can’t change someone who isn’t ready. We talk about the emotional toll of watching a partner or friend self-sabotage, the resentment that creeps in, and how to pivot toward responsibility you actually own. When you drop the urge to manage other people, you gain energy to improve your habits, set better boundaries, and model the change that invites others without pushing them away.

If you’re craving honest fitness talk, real-world habit change, and a mindset reset that respects biology, this one’s for you. Hit play, take what helps, and build a plan that works on your worst day. If this resonated, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a quick review to help more people find the show.

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Episode Transcript

CoreyBerrier (00:00):
Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast.
I'm your host, Corey Berrier.
And today, folks, it's going tobe a little bit of a shorter
episode, just because I'mrunning tight on time.
But what I want to talk abouttoday, first, I'm going to share
a quick story with you.
And I just want you to picturethis.
You know, I my pride and my egothinks that I'm in pretty good

(00:25):
shape.
Right.
For 47 years old, arguably, I'min pretty decent shape.
So I decide about a month agothat I'm going to go and apply
to the fire department.
I'm like, there's zero chancethese people are going to accept
me into the fire department.

(00:46):
I am 47 years old.
And I get an email back,congratulations.
You've been accepted into thefirst round of the fire
department.
And interestingly, I get thereand I'm like, I'm going to crush

(01:09):
this.
I'm looking around and I seeall these people that don't look
very fit.
And uh I think I'm going tocrush these people.
I'm going to crush them.
I'm going to stomp them intothe ground.
What I didn't realize, or whatI didn't think about, is I don't

(01:32):
do any cardiovascular exercise.
Like I do, like I walk from myapartment to my car and from my
car to my apartment.
That's about it.
And so I get up there and theytell they they tell me, they're
like, okay, we're going to dothis pacer test.
And I'm like, all right, whatthe hell is a PACER test?
I have no idea what it is.

(01:53):
And they're like, oh yeah, youdid it in high school.
And I'm thinking, okay, well, Iprobably must have missed that
day.
Not taking into accounteverybody in this training, in
this uh um first round firedepartment thing, is like half
my age.
So they all knew what they weretalking about.

(02:16):
I had absolutely no idea.
So I'm like, okay, we're gonnado sprints first.
It's not really sprints, it'ssort of sprints.
And I take off.
So like you run down, let'scall it a half a basketball
court, you wait for the buzzer,you head back down to the other
end, so on and so forth.

(02:37):
So keep in mind, too, I am onthe carnivore diet.
I have not had a carbohydrateor sugar in my body in five
months.
So uh it did not pay off today,on this day, that I didn't have
any carbohydrates in my body.

So here's what happened (02:53):
I take off like a bat out of hell.
I mean, I am full out sprintingto each one of these things,
each one of these, each end,right?
About the fifth one, I am sogassed, I literally can't

(03:14):
breathe.
I literally think I'm gonnablack out in the middle of the
fire department test.
I was so cardiovascularly outof shape, I quit.
I'm like, I'm out.
I can't, I literally can't evenhardly breathe.
I'm so out of breath.

(03:34):
I pull the shit out of myhamstring, dude.
I like it's still sore, andit's like a week and a day
later.
And my point in telling youthis story is you know, even
though I'm sober, even thoughI've been working on myself,

(03:57):
growing personally, spiritually,uh in recovery, dude, my ego
still takes over.
My still my ego still willallow me to go to the fire
department training and thinkI'm gonna be more successful

(04:20):
than everybody else there.
And so you might think, well,Corey, that's a uh that's a
great, that's a great way to,you know, it's a great way to
think, right?
You think ahead, you're you'repositive.
Dude, that's fine.
And that is great.
And I'm glad that I that Ithink positively.
However, the truth of thematter is I look like an idiot

(04:49):
on this thing.
I mean, like when I say looklike an idiot, dude, you know
they uh you know those people inthe fire department, they've
seen people like me come in,right?
They're like, Yep, but youevery one of them thought to
themselves, look at this idiot.
He is gonna do exactly what Idid, which is completely burn

(05:11):
out within the first like fiveminutes of this stupid thing.
So I'm grateful I was had thewillingness to try.
And it's opened my eyes to howmuch I need to be doing
cardiovascular exercise.
You know, I keep my weight atthe exact same weight because I

(05:33):
eat the carnivore diet.
So I don't really feel the needto do cardio.
I hate doing cardio, I haterunning, I hate doing, I just I
it is just like the mostunappealing thing to me on the
planet.
Doesn't matter because I'mdoing it now.
So I've started runningsprints.

(05:56):
Like when I say sprints, likeI'm running at level six on the
treadmill for like a minute on,minute off, minute on, maybe two
minutes off.
And fortunately, my apartmentcomplex has a a gym that's super
convenient, and of course, Iget up at the literally before

(06:17):
anybody can even think aboutgetting up.
So there's nobody down there,so I just leave the treadmill
running.
And so I'll do sometimes I'lldo intermittent, right?
So I'll do the I'll do the run,I'll do the sprint, so to
speak, and then I'll go lift,and then I'll do the sprint and
lift.
So so basically it's like a hitworkout, if you will.
But man, you talk about ahumbling experience.

(06:40):
Holy crap, I was humbled.
I mean, I was really humbled,and it just goes to show you,
like sometimes, you know, evenwhen you think you're a badass,
you're not, and you can't alwaysbelieve what you think.
I mean, I it's interestingbecause as I'm mentioned, as I

(07:04):
mentioned this last in this lastthe podcast before this one,
the the letum theory.
She's the thing that she saysin there is what did she say?
Completely lost my train ofthought.
And I I didn't write anythingout today.
So normally I have notes that Ifollow, and you can clearly see

(07:26):
I have no notes today.
Um Jesus Christ, I literallylost what I was gonna say.
Uh oh, I do, I know what itwas.
She said, Okay, so imagineyou're a vapor, right?
If you vape, you think you'rethe only person in the world

(07:49):
that's never gonna haverepercussions from vaping.
So do I.
I don't vape, but if I didvape, that's what I would think,
right?
So I you're the only person inthe world that can that eats
shit throughout the week, andyou think that you're never
gonna you know have high bloodpressure or whatever the case

(08:11):
may be.
If I eat shit every week, Iwould think the same thing.
In other words, we think webelieve, because it's us, that
we're um that that that theserules don't apply to us because
it's us, which is crazy.
I mean, it's like, you know, itbefore when I started drinking,

(08:37):
I didn't think I was gonnabecome an alcoholic.
Of course, I didn't think that.
I thought there would be noconsequences.
Now I've proven this over andover and over that I've had
massive consequences fromdrinking, drinking and driving.
That's been a long freakingtime, like I don't know, uh 25
years since I've got caughtdrinking and driving.

(09:01):
But the point is, is like,think about that.
If you're a drinker, you alwaysthink you can drive after three
or four beers because it's you,you know what you're doing, you
can keep it between the lines.
But the truth of the matter is,alcohol affects you the same
way as it does me.

(09:22):
And I can look at you and go,yeah, that's not a good idea to
drive after four or five beers.
But you're like, I'm good.
You know, I'm good.
I I can do this until you get aDUI or you wreck or whatever
the case may be.
So I guess the point here islike sometimes you can't believe
everything you think.
I cannot believe everythingthat I think because sometimes

(09:45):
my thought process is skewed.
Sometimes the way I packagethings in my mind are only
gonna, they only make sense tome.
And so um, you know, whenyou're doing something that you

(10:05):
think to yourself, well, if Ijust eat these chips today, I'll
start the diet tomorrow.
No, you won't.
Nope, you're not gonna startthe diet tomorrow.
You said that yesterday, or yousaid that last week, or you
said that whenever.
Well, I'm just gonna drinktonight, but I'm gonna stop
tomorrow.
Nope, you're not gonna do thateither.
Until the until the drink tilltill getting drunk is more

(10:30):
painful than getting sober,you're not gonna stop drinking.
Until eating the damn potatochips is more painful than not
eating them, you're gonna keepeating them.
And what sucks is if you've gotsomebody in your life

(10:53):
romantically, or a brother or afamily member, you're watching
them eat the bag of chips andgetting fatter and fatter and
fatter, and you want to savethem, you want to try to
convince them, you want to tryto persuade them to stop doing
this thing that's harming them.

(11:15):
And when you walk in the houseand your fat husband's sitting
there, and he's piling in thechips, and he's smiling, and
he's happy, and he is happybecause that instant
gratification in the momentmakes him happy.
But you're like, damn, dude, Ican't believe this lazy MFer is

(11:38):
still sitting on the coucheating chips and watching this
stupid ass television show ordrinking the beer or whatever,
the donuts, or fill in theblank.
And then you get resentment,you get resentful, you get
resentful at this person thatthey because they won't take
care of themselves, because youcare about them.
But guess what?
You can't do anything aboutthat.

(11:58):
You can't control them.
And the more you push, and themore you prod, and the more you
try to get them to change, Ipromise you, it's natural for
people to push back.
Have you ever tried to get anemployee to do something that
you wanted them to do?
Did you like pressure them intodoing something that they

(12:19):
didn't want to do?
It doesn't really go your way.
Have you ever tried to get yourkid to eat some shit that they
didn't really want to eat?
Well, it might have gone yourway if you're, you know, uh if
depending on the situation,right?
But they did, but your kid isnot excited about having this,

(12:42):
you know, they're not excitedabout eating their dang
broccoli.
They're not excited abouteating whatever it is you're
trying to force down theirthroat.
And as they get older, they'regonna they're I'm sure they're
gonna decide they don't want toeat those things because you
force them to do it.
That may have been a badexample, but the point is if
you've got a loved one, abrother, a sister, a mother,

(13:04):
whatever, uh girlfriend,boyfriend, husband, wife, and
you want them to change, goodluck.
I'm not gonna change until Iwant to change.
You are not gonna change untilyou want to change.
And so, who does it bother themost if I get upset that you're

(13:31):
not changing?
Me, you don't give a you don'tcare, you don't care that I'm
upset, you may not even know I'mupset.
The point is, is like you can'tcontrol other people, you just
can't control other people, andI know this has been a little
bit on the craziest, like notsuper dialed inside today, and I

(13:54):
and that's okay.
You know what?
Very rarely do I do thiswithout notes, but today I'm
just winging it, dude.
I'm just winging it because itis what it is.
So I'm really grateful that youlistened to whatever how long
this has been so far.
And uh next week I'll be backwith a little bit more dialed in
show.

(14:15):
But if there if there's anytakeaways from today, stop
trying to control other people,focus on yourself and let other
people do whatever the hell theywant to do.
You'll live an easier life,you'll easy, you'll live a
happier life.
You'll be, God, you'll you'llbe less stressed for sure.

(14:35):
So I appreciate you guys.
We'll see you next Friday.
Don't forget to subscribe tothe podcast and make sure you
leave us a review.
Appreciate you.
We'll see you on Friday.