June 23, 2025 • 31 mins
What does it take to completely reinvent your life? Not once, but multiple times?
Anthony Amen takes us through his extraordinary journey from a severely bullied teen who once contemplated suicide to the founder of Redefine Fitness, a revolutionary approach to health that treats exercise as true medicine.
Standing at his darkest hour with a knife in hand, Anthony made a life-altering choice – instead of ending his life, he would become someone entirely new. Through what he calls "repetitive exercise" in his mind, he transformed from a shy, isolated teen into an outgoing person who created his own community of friends. Years later, when a devastating sports accident left doctors telling him he'd never regain full mobility in his neck and shoulder, Anthony once again refused to accept limitation. After three and a half years of determined work, he restored what medical professionals deemed impossible.
These profound experiences shaped his mission: creating a fitness company that genuinely helps people overcome depression, recover from injuries, and reverse health conditions that traditional medicine often manages rather than solves. During COVID, Anthony's commitment to this vision led him to raise half a million dollars for lawsuits that ultimately reopened gyms across New York State.
Beyond physical training, Anthony delivers powerful insights about micro habits that transform mental and physical wellbeing. He challenges listeners to examine how much time they spend on screens, why walking might be the most underrated health practice, and why extreme approaches to diet and exercise often fail. Perhaps most compelling is his message about personal responsibility – acknowledging that while we don't control everything that happens to us, we absolutely control how we respond.
Whether you're struggling with your mental health, physical limitations, or simply feeling stuck, Anthony's story offers both inspiration and practical wisdom for creating meaningful change. His urgent message? "Don't start tomorrow. Don't start Monday. Start right now."
Learn More at: www.Redefine-Fitness.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Health of Industry Defined.
I'm your host, anthony Amen.
Today we have another greatepisode for all of you today, if
you are watching video which,by the way, I highly recommend
you do now we are in our brandnew podcast studio.
So welcome to our Mount Sinailocation in our nice secluded
office so we can record theseclips here in person for you
(00:23):
guys.
Almost six years of doing thisand we're finally here.
We got a little professionalstudio going on, so I hope you
guys enjoy our future episodes.
We're going to bring clients on, our trainers, local businesses
.
I'm going to do way more soloepisodes because that is what
you guys want and I want to giveyou what you want so you
thoroughly enjoy this show andshare with a friend.
(00:46):
So I thought, looking back totrying to figure out what type
of episode to give you today, Ifeel like it's a great place to
start from the beginning.
I know I did, about four orfive years ago at this point, an
episode about my life and howwe got to where we are today
with this show and with this gym.
(01:07):
So why not do it all again inour brand new studio and tell
you a little bit about myselfand how Redefine Fitness came to
what it is today.
So in order to do that, we gotto go back all the way back to
when Anthony was in elementaryschool.
Things were different for meback then.
(01:28):
For those that may not know, Igot heavily bullied, and I mean
bullied every day, on the bus,on the ride in it was an hour
ride I got beat up.
In school I got made fun of allthe time, every way, and the
way home got beat up again, andthat went on for years.
Junior high school was worsethan elementary school.
(01:50):
There was more kids.
Therefore, there was moreopportunities to pick on me and
make fun of me, and I reallydidn't have any friends
whatsoever and full disclosure.
It was probably the hardestmoment of my life.
It really took a heavy toll onme because, as someone being 10,
11 years old, 12 years old, youreally don't know what else is
(02:10):
out there in life.
And it really piled on and myparents tried a lot for me.
They always were supportive.
They were always there for me.
They always told me that,listen, it's just school, it's
just a small portion of yourlife, but it was tough when
you're in it, when it wasnonstop all the time, 24-7.
I mean even fast forward acouple years to like 13, 14,
(02:32):
like online started coming about.
So I feel really bad for kidsnow because I remember AIM for
those dating myself a little bitbut getting messages from
people constantly picking on mehad no help from teachers or
anything like that, wasconstantly in counseling and
things just didn't blink.
This came to a point in my lifeI was in 8th, 9th, 8th grade,
(02:58):
9th grade it was around thattime I don't know the exact time
in my life, but it was like 8thor 9th grade, but I do remember
this.
My parents went out for thenight.
I was home by myself and it wasanother really rough day at
school.
So I Just couldn't take thecrying anymore.
I couldn't take where I was inmy personal life.
So I went into the kitchen.
(03:19):
I Pulled open the drawer.
I saw all the butcher knives inthere.
I grabbed one of them and Isaid this is it.
I figured at that moment it wastime to end my life because I
couldn't take the abuse that Iconstantly got.
But then something happened.
Instead of killing myself,which is what I wanted to do,
(03:41):
which I originally went to gofor I started thinking about my
parents and I started thinkingabout everything they did for me
and I started thinking abouthow they always told me life was
better beyond school.
I started thinking about thevacations we went on, all the
people we met on vacation, and Ifelt really bad for them and I
was like I can't do this becausethis is going to destroy them.
(04:03):
I know my parents love me andit would be horrible of me to
put this heavy toll and burdenon them, but I can't continue in
this life.
So what do I do?
And I ended up in this littlepredicament where it's.
I don't want to be the person Iam today, but I also don't want
(04:24):
to kill myself.
I can't go back.
So I put the knife away, wentand laid in bed and I was like
what am I going to do?
I started up at the ceiling forhours.
I was like I can't live thislife.
I can't do it anymore.
I can't cry every night and getmade fun of all the time.
I can't be this little shy,insecure person.
(04:44):
I need to be somebody else.
So I said you know, if you'renot going to kill yourself, be
somebody else.
And that's what I decided to do.
I went to school the nextmorning and I told myself you
are now a different person.
And I meant it.
I did something calledrepetitive exercise in my head,
which basically means I wouldreiterate you're not reiterate,
(05:05):
you're outgoing, you're outgoing, you're outgoing.
Thousands of times in my headin the hallway, with the idea
being that if I could makemyself outgoing and I could
start talking to people,eventually someone's got to
click.
I could talk to 100 people andone person would probably find
they're talking to me.
And that's what happened.
It took weeks to really get thefirst person to start talking
(05:26):
to me and I noticed that themore people I talked to, the
more people talked to me.
I talked to 100 to get one.
I started talking to 200 to gettwo, and over the course of a
year, I built my confidence upby just telling myself I was
going to be more confident andjust by telling myself I was
going to be more outgoing,reiterating it so many times
that my brain would not forgetit.
And I ended up building a groupof people who also felt like
(05:52):
outsiders and brought everyonetogether, and I completely and
utterly changed my personalityover the course of that next
year.
That went all the way throughhigh school, went into college,
had no problems in collegewhatsoever with that.
I was a completely outgoingeccentric person, made a lot of
friends quick.
That went all the way throughHigh school, went into college,
had no problems in collegewhatsoever with that.
I was a completely outgoingeccentric person, made a lot of
friends quick.
And then I was 20 years old.
I was playing a sport calledbroomball.
For those that may or may notknow, in this story I tell a lot
(06:14):
more.
But I was on the ice.
My friend blew his ankle outthe night before he went to go
slide tackle me.
I didn't want to hurt him, soinstead of sitting down bracing
for it on the ice rink, Idecided to try to step around
him.
Doing that made him hit me inthe back of the calf.
My legs flew up, my head flewback.
I went boom on the ice so hardit stopped both games.
(06:35):
I laid there for a coupleseconds, went out, was analyzed
by a couple people hey, are youokay, are you okay?
I was like yeah, yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine.
I told myself I was fine,waited a couple minutes, went
back, finished the game.
Whatever, that was stupid.
(06:55):
Don't ever do that Went back tomy dorm room that night.
I was sitting in my bed and Iwas like, oh, I'm just going to
lay down.
I was starting to get aheadache.
I laid down, someone asked me aquestion and apparently at that
moment I couldn't speak anymore.
I was just gibberish.
I was going like nothing wasmaking sense.
I really started slurring mywords At that point.
They're like we're going to thehospital.
We went to the hospital.
(07:16):
I really don't rememberanything from that point.
That was in February until aboutMay.
All I could tell you isthroughout those three months
that I herniated every singledisc in my neck.
I ended up with a massiveconcussion.
I did not stay the night.
I don't know if I stayed thenight at the hospital, I just
thought I was in school.
I will tell you full disclosureto my parents.
I never told them.
I just kind of tell themeverything was okay and that I
(07:41):
was fine and that school wasgreat, even though I just laid
in my room for three months.
I couldn't look at light, theyused to give me tension,
migraines, couldn't move myshoulder, couldn't move my neck
and was pretty screwed up fromthat accident.
I people ask why I stayed inschool.
I think the reason was becauseI knew that if I came over my
(08:02):
suicide, then then I can getover this, and I wanted to show
that I can get over this.
But I still, at this point inmy life, thought I needed to get
help from other people.
So I started doing whateveryone would do.
I went to different doctors, Iwent to physical therapists, I
went to massage therapistsespecially when I went home that
summer, my parents eventuallyfound out, couldn't really hide
it and we went to about 20, 25different doctors.
The last doctor I went to toporthopedic surgeon, walked into
(08:23):
his office, pulled up my chart,looked at everything and said I
can't help you.
Close the chart.
I'm a physician, not a magician.
You can leave now.
And that was heartbreaking,because I thought my whole life
I had to rely on all thesedoctors and these people that
knew more than me.
And they kept telling me listenlike.
I know you can't move your neck.
I know you can't move yourshoulder.
I know you're on musclerelaxers.
I know you're on pain medicineTough shit.
(08:44):
You're never going to be ableto do everything again, never
going to be able to put yourhand above your head again,
never going to be able to moveyour neck again.
Can't help you with that.
But I knew that wasn't it.
I knew that wasn't it.
I knew that.
You know there is more to life.
I knew I could Back then.
This isn't bad.
What I went through in juniorhigh school, that was bad.
(09:04):
This is easy.
So I started going to the gym.
Through a lot of trial anderror and I mean lots of error I
started getting moving back.
It took three and a half yearsto be able to do this again
raise my hand above my head, tomove my neck from left to right.
Three and a half years of hard,grueling work to give me my
life back.
(09:25):
And I remember I broke downcrying in front of my parents
when I finally was able to liftmy hand above my head again,
because it was such a relief tome that I was creating this
movement again.
I knew this was my passion.
I knew this was my purpose.
So I started getting into thefitness industry and I started
doing everything I would doStarted bouncing around
different gyms, worked here,worked here, tried learning the
(09:47):
ins and outs and thought maybethat you know, I need the
guidance from other people inorder to get me where I want to
go.
But what I realized is realquick.
The fitness industry knowsnothing.
These people are all in it forlooking good, feeling good, and
it was still very bodybuildingheavy and it was kind of taboo
for people that had a shit tonof injuries to go and work out
and no one ever thought of it asa form of medicine.
(10:08):
And I was like, listen, fitnessis medicine.
Fitness is something that savedmy life and gave me the ability
to cope with day-to-day tasksagain, and that is what I wanted
to give to other people.
And there was nothing out therelike that.
Trainers were gettingcertifications online.
They would just sign off on itand then all of a sudden they're
personal trainers.
You don't even need one ofthose certificates in the state
of New York, so they're justteaching people bad exercises
(10:29):
from people they learn frombodybuilders, and it was just a
shit show.
So as I was bouncing around, Ihad the opportunity for one of
the owners to tell me that hedidn't want to do personal
training anymore.
He's going to cut thedepartment.
I pay rent, I start my company,and that's what happened.
So, going back eight years agoalmost to date, the date was
July 18th.
I started redefine fitnessinside of a gym it was called
(10:50):
retro fitness at the time andPort Jeff station and I said
this is the company that isgoing to redefine what it means
to be fit.
And I don't mean that you'regoing to look good, feel good.
Yeah, those are things that aresecondary nature.
I mean, you have depression,we're going to fix it.
You have a shoulder injury,we're going to fix it.
I want this company to be sowell known that when they go to
the doctor and they say, if ABCDissues, you're good enough, go
(11:12):
to Redefine Fitness.
They're going to be able tohelp you.
They're going to be able togive you your life back, because
modern medicine just isn'tthere yet.
So inside this company, weworked real hard.
We got our first location openin December 2018 over in Mount
Sinai, just a town away forthose that don't know the local
area and I pushed.
I was like we're changing thisindustry.
(11:35):
We started with, first off, thetrainer quality we hired.
We were like, listen, you gotto know more than the basics and
I started putting trainers totest.
I started implementing weeklyeducation inside of them and we
rode that avenue hard and thenyou know what Did that for a
year?
Boom, covid hit May 16th 2020,march 16th 2020, never gonna
(11:56):
forget that day in my life.
Governor Cuomo goes on TV andtells me I'm not good enough, I
have to close my gym because ofsome disease going on in the
world.
Does that for two and a halfyears.
For those that watch the show,they know very deeply.
This is where the podcaststarted.
I got involved with somebody andwe sued the state of New York.
We are the only reason thatgyms got to open.
(12:16):
We are the only reason thatgyms got to open.
I repeat, the next few peopledon't know that we raised a
quarter of a million dollars.
We sued the state of New Yorkbecause we thought it was unfair
that other industries were openand we were not, when it has
been shown time and time andtime again, and still to this
date, five years later, thatfitness is the best fix for
COVID.
The people that were dying fromCOVID had underlying conditions
(12:37):
, the biggest one of that beingobesity, and you know what fixes
obesity Exercise.
So we sued the state afterraising a quarter million to all
these gyms that were sufferingand broke.
We had a class action lawsuit.
The gym we used to represent.
Our class action lawsuit was upin Syracuse and we got a lot of
hate from it from people, butwe didn't care.
We kept pushing forward.
Day before the court hearing,governor croman was advised he
(13:05):
was going to lose.
So they told us uh, they toldhim and ford to open the gyms,
because if you go to courtyou're going to lose and they're
going to get a blanket open.
So that day he went on tv andannounced we should open with
limited capacity.
For those that remember thatlimited capacity wasn't good
enough, we still couldn't makeends meet.
We didn't get any loans fromthe government that people think
we did.
We got no grants.
(13:25):
I was shit broke, starving itwas.
It came to the point about sixmonths in that I looked at my
wife.
I said, honey, I don't know ifwe could pay our mortgage.
And but at the same time Ilooked at her and I said, honey,
I don't know if we could payour mortgage.
But you know, let me tell youthat one time, back in ninth
(13:47):
grade, I overcame suicide, againin 20.
When I had a bad accident, Iovercame a severe neck and
shoulder injury that people toldme never get over, honey.
I started a new company when Iwas told I was too young and I
never get off the ground runningand I got us successful in a
year before we got everythingtaken away from us.
So I'm going to make this workand we struggled for years.
(14:08):
Through COVID we had to raise aquarter of a million to get sued
to get open the first time.
Then we had to raise anotherquarter of a million because we
ran a second class actionlawsuit again because the right
for limited opening, like I wasexplaining earlier, just wasn't
good enough and we sued thestate again.
Same thing happened again daybefore the court date.
Como was the vice?
He was going to lose.
He should just open us.
And that's eventually how jim'sgot open.
(14:30):
You're welcome.
But we, we fought that fightand we got our opportunity to
get open.
A quarter quarter of gyms wentout COVID.
It was probably the saddest day, saddest couple years, because
we were already losing thebiggest fight.
The biggest fight in my eyes isobesity.
When you have an issue insociety where almost 70% of
people are overrated and obeseand that number still climbs,
(14:52):
you have bigger things coming.
Covid was just the tipping ofthe iceberg.
It was the top.
It was the frosting on the cake.
When you start putting allthese underlying conditions that
obesity hits, such as type 2diabetes or depression or all
those other things that factorinside of it high blood pressure
, you're going to have a lot ofthings you're susceptible to
(15:15):
that are going to kill you.
We need to fix this.
We need to fix obesity at theend of the day before we worry
about anything else out there,and instead of going to
prescribe things like we'redealing with now, like ozepic
and zepound these are great, butthey're destroying muscle
tissue.
I did a whole episode and Irecommend you go check that out.
(15:37):
But when you destroy muscletissue, you drop someone's
metabolism.
Therefore, you're not fixingthe underlying problem.
You're still not fixing thehabits and the issues associated
with that.
So what does that mean?
For Redefined as a Whole iswhere we are now.
Well, I'll tell you simply,redefined as a Whole started to
function out like I was sayingthe belief that fitness is
(16:00):
medicine redefined and evolvedinto taking the training
education to a whole new level.
We're the only gym that employspeople full-time.
I don't mean full-time thecapacity that most trainers are
used for those that don't knowthe fitness industry which is
only pay per session and ifyou're not training you you
don't get paid, sorry, or youget some shitty floor rage that
(16:20):
you're working trying to makeends meet, pay time off too bad,
and you're going to get paidalmost nothing and this is going
to be a step through job foryou.
I wanted to get people thattook this as a career and were
serious about it.
So I pay people full-time pay,irregardless of the training
with PTO.
But on top of that oureducation requirements are
stringent.
(16:40):
We are doing education sothoroughly involved it's closely
related to physical therapythan actually using even
personal training.
So those weekly educationsturned into the COVID, which we
launched, a brand newapprenticeship program.
This apprenticeship program wewanted to get the state somewhat
control over licensing for us.
That was the idea of thelawsuits, because the state
(17:00):
didn't want to open us, becausethey had no control, because we
had no license to the state,like we would expect of a
physical therapist or a nurse ora doctor, someone in that realm
they could pull the license.
They don't follow their rules.
So we created this to set ahigher standard.
We got it approved.
We're not the only gym in theentire country that has an
approved apprenticeship program,which means that we do
on-the-job training and we getto send our trainers to college
(17:22):
on top of the educationrequirements that they're
learning here.
So, fundamentally, we're takingthings to a whole new level for
what it means to be a trainerand their education beyond that
From a client standpoint.
A lot of gyms focus on thebelief of not teaching and
educating their clients.
(17:43):
Right, you're gonna go in.
They're gonna say, okay, seeyou next week.
Goodbye, instead of sittingwith you, going over your
program and being like, okay,based upon your movement
screening God forbid, they do amovement screening.
We see X, y, z, so our programneeds to be A, b, c and we're
gonna work with you on this andwe're gonna teach you everything
.
Not only are we gonna teach youeverything, we're gonna log
(18:04):
everything into an app whichwe're both gonna have access to.
This is two things One for aclient standpoint they're gonna
have videos, directions, exactlytheir weights, reps and how
many sets they're doing andeverything, so they can start
learning how to work out On topof that for us as a trainer.
And the second thing is, if youwant to work with somebody else,
because everyone is so educated, that trainer can go into that
(18:26):
app.
They can read exactly whatyou're working on and say oh wow
, you did ABCDE last time withthis trainer, so today we're
going to work on all of thiskind of stuff and it gets a
continuing program, but it givesyou the capability of your
crazy schedule to not worryabout following one person's
schedule.
Now you have 20 trainers youcould track off of.
(18:47):
So if your trainer goes away oryou need to come in later that
day, whatever doesn't matter,the trainer's going to have your
program ready for you to go.
So you walk in, boom, andyou're not going to hear our
staff saying what are we workingon today?
Because that's a trainer's jobto design that customized
program for you, not you as aclient to dictate what you're
working on.
Because how do you know that'swhat Akeem says in the first
(19:07):
place?
Does that make sense?
Unless, of course, you're anathlete, you have some
super-strained program, then wecan go off that.
But people, it's not that case.
So we dove into my story.
We dove into redefining how wetook that as a whole and the
(19:39):
only thing I coming to the gymBecause, yes, we stress time and
time again, exercise has beenshown to be just as effective as
the leading antidepressants onthe market, by the way, with no
side effects.
So if exercise could do italone, what other habits could
(20:01):
we do to help fix especiallydepression, but also help with
anxiety and even obesity as aside effect of it?
And I think that comes down tohabits.
And I think it not only comesdown to habits.
I think it comes to people'seducation of different types of
habits and how they associatethose.
So let me break that out forthose that want to truly
(20:23):
understand what I mean.
When we went to school and wetook health class and I remember
for myself it was just one timein sixth grade and then one
time in seventh grade with likea chapter on nutrition the
things we learned weren't true.
So what we learned is healthyended up not being considered
healthy 20 years later.
So when we say and I see this alot in assessments, when I talk
(20:46):
to people people say I eathealthy.
Ok, explain to me what healthymeans.
No, no, I eat healthy.
No, explain they break downbreakfast lunch dinner.
Ok, well, that's not healthy.
No, explain they break downbreakfast lunch dinner Okay,
well, that's not healthy.
So people have amisunderstanding of what healthy
is, so they're reaching for thewrong cup.
They're not understanding whatthey need to do and what they
(21:13):
need to go for because theynever learned that information.
And I think that ties intobeyond nutrition, but even
day-to-day micro habits thathelp make us better people and
help us function better as awhole.
So another big commonality,besides not understanding what
to eat and how to eat, would bewhat to do day-to-day outside of
(21:33):
the gym and work.
A lot of people go straight forthe phones, go straight for the
TV.
I know people who watch TVpre-work and post-work, or they
scroll to their phone pre-work,post-work and then complain that
they're depressed or thatthey're bland or they can't get
their brain working or thatthey're tired.
(21:54):
But meanwhile, if you add inall the times you're looking at
your screen for example, mostpeople it's an hour before work,
it's eight hours at work, thenit's during your lunch break, so
eight nine for lunch break hourbefore 10 hours, and then it's
at least two hours post, so 12hours a day.
And then you add eight hours ofsleeping if they're lucky, so
12 hours a day, which is halfthe day you're looking at a
(22:15):
screen and then you want to tellme that you don't know why
you're tired all the time or youdon't know why you can't lose
weight, and those two are thesame.
I'm not saying that TV orscreen makes you overweight, but
the habit of watching TV andlooking at a screen makes you
overweight and makes youdepressed and adds to your
anxiety because you're notunderstanding what to do in
(22:38):
replacement of that.
So if you could take a microhabit, for example, looking at
your phone or watching TV pre orpost work, turn that into
something productive, as inclean your room, like you're
moving, your body's movingaround, put your phone away, go
do that or go for a walk.
I think walking is one of thoseunderrated things.
I go for walks pretty muchevery day, minus when it's
(22:58):
raining out or when it'sliterally zero degrees, but,
like in the summer, it's almostevery day and it's almost an
hour, so it's an hour of blockthat I can take my dog for a
walk, so my dog's gettinghealthy.
I go with my wife, whenpossible, and my kid, so
therefore it's family bondingtime and that's when we turn our
phones off and we have Awesomefamily bonding time with each
(23:20):
other.
Now not only just that I'mmoving my body walking, I'm
getting vitamin d.
Vitamin d has been shown justas much as exercise to help with
Depression, along with a bunchof other things like immunity
response.
I'm getting the exercise in fromwalking and moving my body, my
blood's pumping.
I'm helping my exercise in fromwalking and I move my body and
my blood's pumping.
I'm helping my blood sugars bywalking and I'm regulating my
(23:42):
eyes to the circadian rhythm tohelp me sleep better.
So when we watch the sun riseand watch the sun set, it helps
our body regular circadianrhythm, which is basically our
internal clock.
For those who don't know whatthat means, especially if sunset
will help your body know thatit's time to release more
melatonin, which helps us sleep,and it will trigger us going to
bed and be able to regulatesleep time, as opposed to
(24:03):
looking at a screen which hasblue light which triggers midday
sun and makes you think thatit's mid-afternoon.
And I love the reasoning.
Well, it makes me feel tiredwhen I watch tv.
Yeah, no, duh, your eyes arestrained as hell.
If I had to stare at a lightall for an hour and you looked
up near the sun not directly atit, but near it your eyes are
going to get strained and you'regoing to feel tired.
You're going to not, you'regoing to go into, maybe, stage
(24:25):
one sleep.
You're not going to go intostage four REM sleep, which is
what makes you feel better.
So so your eyes are strainedand you close them and you might
feel internally slightly better, but you're not getting into
that deep sleep.
It's like comparing a nap togoing to bed at night when
you're napping.
Some people think napping islike full deep sleep.
No napping you can still heareverything around you.
You don't realize how quicklytime's elapsing, but you can
(24:48):
still hear everything and you'restill semi-aware.
That's a nap.
You're not in stage four sleep.
You're in stage one or stagetwo, whereas deep sleep you
don't hear anything around you.
You're out like a light becauseyou're trying to teach your
body.
This is bedtime and this is whenyou need more melatonin and
it's time to relax.
And sleeping is where, forthose that don't know, your
muscle tissue repairs.
(25:09):
It flushes out toxins out ofyour brain, it boosts your
metabolism, helps with loweringyour cortisol levels, which is a
stress, and it helps curbappetite, because when we get
stressed and we tend to overeat,especially bad stuff.
So it's important to notatethat sleep helps regulate all of
(25:31):
that Super under the hood microhabit.
But what helped trigger thatmicro habit before Not locking
your phones before bed?
So whatever we replaced goingto phones before bed for we did
that with a walk, or we did thatwith family bonding, or we did
that by reading a book, or maybegoing for a walk, then reading
a book right, reading the bookcould be something productive.
If you own a business, maybeit's a business book.
So now you're getting yourexercise in, you're learning
(25:53):
something, then you're going tosleep, then you're waking up.
I prefer walks in the morning,overnight, but for me it wakes
me up, it makes me feel good, Iget my brain pumping, feel great
.
So I get to watch the sunrise,feel awesome.
I get to have quality familybonding time.
I feel refreshed when I go towork because I was exposed to
the sun.
I feel awesome, I get a greatworkout in to feel great.
(26:16):
And those habits just continueand stack on top of each other.
We don't need the extreme, andthat's what people tend to live.
I mean, you see all these dietsall the time where it's keto,
cut carbs completely, or it'sthis, or it's this, or carnivore
diet, which cut everything butmeat.
No, it's take the good habitsout of things and formulate it
to take 80% of what's good outof it.
(26:37):
So carnivore diet example I'lldo an episode on this later but
it's 80% good.
You still need fruits andveggies, you still need some
forms of carbs, but meat 80% ofyour diet is amazing.
100% is not.
So micro habits 80% micro habitis great.
Overdoing it with all thesefucking things and having a
four-hour wake-up workoutroutine what's that doing for
(26:57):
you besides distracting you?
Now small, quick things are waymore productive than lining up.
I'm going to meditate and thenI'm going to go in that sauna
and then I'm going to work out,then I'm going to read.
Then it's like, by the timeyou're done with your morning
routine, my day's over over andyou've got no work done or you
didn't get to have fun andtherefore it becomes a chore.
And once something becomes achore, then you tend to not do
(27:20):
it, because now it's work, oh,I've got to go do all this again
.
And it just adds up in yourbrain.
Of all those things you nowhave to do, it's like oh, my
goodness, that's so many things.
I can't believe I have to dothat right now.
So if you just made small littlechanges and amplified the
things that are the mostbeneficial for us, like walking,
or like hitting the gym forhalf an hour, or just reaching
(27:41):
for better quality food overworse quality food.
Small, little quality changesare going to stack over the long
period of time and, overall,make you feel better.
That, in and of itself, is howwe fix depression, anxiety and
the obesity epidemic all in oneMicrohabits, fitness and the
(28:03):
understanding and I think thisis the last vital point I'm
going to make, especially fromsociety that we have to take
blame for what we do as humansand we can't rely on other
people to fix it.
We have to fix it for ourselves.
We need to teach our kids andwe need to learn for ourselves.
(28:26):
It's not the government's fault, it's not your boss's fault.
It's not your boss's fault.
It's not your parents fault,it's not xyz trauma's fault and
that gives me the right to bedepressed.
That's not true.
The person who dictates how youlive your life is you.
(28:46):
I was asked this question twoweeks ago by somebody.
I I told them my whole storyand they go.
Would you relive it?
Didn't blink an eye.
Yes, every single moment, everypainful moment, every good
moment, I'd relive 100% of it toget where I am today.
(29:08):
Those moments that happened inmy life defined who I am today
as a human being.
If I didn't get beat up, getbullied, I never would have
committed suicide.
If I didn't ever go to commitsuicide, I never would have
learned that I could pick myselfback up.
If I never got hurt, I neverwould have learned that the
fitness industry is where Ibelong Never, never, would have
(29:30):
started this company.
If I never got into the fitnessindustry, I never would have
met my wife.
If I never met my wife, I wouldhave never had my kid and
surprise, by the way, we'rehaving another one.
For those that don't know,great way to find out.
With all that being said, it'simportant to understand that I
took responsibility foreverything else and I changed my
(29:53):
own personal outcomes basedupon what happened in my life.
I'm the one who dictated how Iwent forward with every single
obstacle that was put in my way,and I'm the one who tried
reaching out to people andrealized it didn't work, and the
only way it did work was totake that responsibility back
into myself and fix it and givethe life that I wanted to give
(30:18):
to myself.
So if you're looking at thisand you need a little shove in
the butt, it's you need to startnow.
Start now and takeresponsibility for every little
moment and every little thingthat goes on in your life and
redefine who you are and noticesomething I said start now.
(30:43):
I didn't say start tomorrow.
I didn't say I'm going to startMonday.
Why?
Because there's no other biggerpriority than you.
Your body, your life is adirect reflection on the habits
and those things that you do andthe responsibility that you
(31:04):
take inside of your own life.
Why put that off another day?
What makes anything else in theworld more important than this?
Right now?
Nothing.
There's no birthday party,there's no dinner date or
whatever.
That's more important thanchanging your life for the
(31:24):
better so you can give back toyourself and your community and
live the life you always wanted.
So don't start tomorrow, don'tstart Monday.
Start right now.
And if you know somebody thatneeds some tough love, I want
you to share this episode withthem right now and hopefully you
(31:44):
can change somebody else's lifeand hopefully this is something
you needed to realize that thetime for change is now.
So thank you, guys, forlistening to this week's episode
of Health and Fitness andRedefined.
Don't forget, fitness ismedicine Until next time.
Hello and welcome to Health of Industry Defined.
I'm your host, anthony Amen.
Today we have another greatepisode for all of you today, if
you are watching video which,by the way, I highly recommend
you do now we are in our brandnew podcast studio.
So welcome to our Mount Sinailocation in our nice secluded
office so we can record theseclips here in person for you
(00:23):
guys.
Almost six years of doing thisand we're finally here.
We got a little professionalstudio going on, so I hope you
guys enjoy our future episodes.
We're going to bring clients on, our trainers, local businesses
.
I'm going to do way more soloepisodes because that is what
you guys want and I want to giveyou what you want so you
thoroughly enjoy this show andshare with a friend.
(00:46):
So I thought, looking back totrying to figure out what type
of episode to give you today, Ifeel like it's a great place to
start from the beginning.
I know I did, about four orfive years ago at this point, an
episode about my life and howwe got to where we are today
with this show and with this gym.
(01:07):
So why not do it all again inour brand new studio and tell
you a little bit about myselfand how Redefine Fitness came to
what it is today.
So in order to do that, we gotto go back all the way back to
when Anthony was in elementaryschool.
Things were different for meback then.
(01:28):
For those that may not know, Igot heavily bullied, and I mean
bullied every day, on the bus,on the ride in it was an hour
ride I got beat up.
In school I got made fun of allthe time, every way, and the
way home got beat up again, andthat went on for years.
Junior high school was worsethan elementary school.
(01:50):
There was more kids.
Therefore, there was moreopportunities to pick on me and
make fun of me, and I reallydidn't have any friends
whatsoever and full disclosure.
It was probably the hardestmoment of my life.
It really took a heavy toll onme because, as someone being 10,
11 years old, 12 years old, youreally don't know what else is
(02:10):
out there in life.
And it really piled on and myparents tried a lot for me.
They always were supportive.
They were always there for me.
They always told me that,listen, it's just school, it's
just a small portion of yourlife, but it was tough when
you're in it, when it wasnonstop all the time, 24-7.
I mean even fast forward acouple years to like 13, 14,
(02:32):
like online started coming about.
So I feel really bad for kidsnow because I remember AIM for
those dating myself a little bitbut getting messages from
people constantly picking on mehad no help from teachers or
anything like that, wasconstantly in counseling and
things just didn't blink.
This came to a point in my lifeI was in 8th, 9th, 8th grade,
(02:58):
9th grade it was around thattime I don't know the exact time
in my life, but it was like 8thor 9th grade, but I do remember
this.
My parents went out for thenight.
I was home by myself and it wasanother really rough day at
school.
So I Just couldn't take thecrying anymore.
I couldn't take where I was inmy personal life.
So I went into the kitchen.
(03:19):
I Pulled open the drawer.
I saw all the butcher knives inthere.
I grabbed one of them and Isaid this is it.
I figured at that moment it wastime to end my life because I
couldn't take the abuse that Iconstantly got.
But then something happened.
Instead of killing myself,which is what I wanted to do,
(03:41):
which I originally went to gofor I started thinking about my
parents and I started thinkingabout everything they did for me
and I started thinking abouthow they always told me life was
better beyond school.
I started thinking about thevacations we went on, all the
people we met on vacation, and Ifelt really bad for them and I
was like I can't do this becausethis is going to destroy them.
(04:03):
I know my parents love me andit would be horrible of me to
put this heavy toll and burdenon them, but I can't continue in
this life.
So what do I do?
And I ended up in this littlepredicament where it's.
I don't want to be the person Iam today, but I also don't want
(04:24):
to kill myself.
I can't go back.
So I put the knife away, wentand laid in bed and I was like
what am I going to do?
I started up at the ceiling forhours.
I was like I can't live thislife.
I can't do it anymore.
I can't cry every night and getmade fun of all the time.
I can't be this little shy,insecure person.
(04:44):
I need to be somebody else.
So I said you know, if you'renot going to kill yourself, be
somebody else.
And that's what I decided to do.
I went to school the nextmorning and I told myself you
are now a different person.
And I meant it.
I did something calledrepetitive exercise in my head,
which basically means I wouldreiterate you're not reiterate,
(05:05):
you're outgoing, you're outgoing, you're outgoing.
Thousands of times in my headin the hallway, with the idea
being that if I could makemyself outgoing and I could
start talking to people,eventually someone's got to
click.
I could talk to 100 people andone person would probably find
they're talking to me.
And that's what happened.
It took weeks to really get thefirst person to start talking
(05:26):
to me and I noticed that themore people I talked to, the
more people talked to me.
I talked to 100 to get one.
I started talking to 200 to gettwo, and over the course of a
year, I built my confidence upby just telling myself I was
going to be more confident andjust by telling myself I was
going to be more outgoing,reiterating it so many times
that my brain would not forgetit.
And I ended up building a groupof people who also felt like
(05:52):
outsiders and brought everyonetogether, and I completely and
utterly changed my personalityover the course of that next
year.
That went all the way throughhigh school, went into college,
had no problems in collegewhatsoever with that.
I was a completely outgoingeccentric person, made a lot of
friends quick.
That went all the way throughHigh school, went into college,
had no problems in collegewhatsoever with that.
I was a completely outgoingeccentric person, made a lot of
friends quick.
And then I was 20 years old.
I was playing a sport calledbroomball.
For those that may or may notknow, in this story I tell a lot
(06:14):
more.
But I was on the ice.
My friend blew his ankle outthe night before he went to go
slide tackle me.
I didn't want to hurt him, soinstead of sitting down bracing
for it on the ice rink, Idecided to try to step around
him.
Doing that made him hit me inthe back of the calf.
My legs flew up, my head flewback.
I went boom on the ice so hardit stopped both games.
(06:35):
I laid there for a coupleseconds, went out, was analyzed
by a couple people hey, are youokay, are you okay?
I was like yeah, yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine.
I told myself I was fine,waited a couple minutes, went
back, finished the game.
Whatever, that was stupid.
(06:55):
Don't ever do that Went back tomy dorm room that night.
I was sitting in my bed and Iwas like, oh, I'm just going to
lay down.
I was starting to get aheadache.
I laid down, someone asked me aquestion and apparently at that
moment I couldn't speak anymore.
I was just gibberish.
I was going like nothing wasmaking sense.
I really started slurring mywords At that point.
They're like we're going to thehospital.
We went to the hospital.
(07:16):
I really don't rememberanything from that point.
That was in February until aboutMay.
All I could tell you isthroughout those three months
that I herniated every singledisc in my neck.
I ended up with a massiveconcussion.
I did not stay the night.
I don't know if I stayed thenight at the hospital, I just
thought I was in school.
I will tell you full disclosureto my parents.
I never told them.
I just kind of tell themeverything was okay and that I
(07:41):
was fine and that school wasgreat, even though I just laid
in my room for three months.
I couldn't look at light, theyused to give me tension,
migraines, couldn't move myshoulder, couldn't move my neck
and was pretty screwed up fromthat accident.
I people ask why I stayed inschool.
I think the reason was becauseI knew that if I came over my
(08:02):
suicide, then then I can getover this, and I wanted to show
that I can get over this.
But I still, at this point inmy life, thought I needed to get
help from other people.
So I started doing whateveryone would do.
I went to different doctors, Iwent to physical therapists, I
went to massage therapistsespecially when I went home that
summer, my parents eventuallyfound out, couldn't really hide
it and we went to about 20, 25different doctors.
The last doctor I went to toporthopedic surgeon, walked into
(08:23):
his office, pulled up my chart,looked at everything and said I
can't help you.
Close the chart.
I'm a physician, not a magician.
You can leave now.
And that was heartbreaking,because I thought my whole life
I had to rely on all thesedoctors and these people that
knew more than me.
And they kept telling me listenlike.
I know you can't move your neck.
I know you can't move yourshoulder.
I know you're on musclerelaxers.
I know you're on pain medicineTough shit.
(08:44):
You're never going to be ableto do everything again, never
going to be able to put yourhand above your head again,
never going to be able to moveyour neck again.
Can't help you with that.
But I knew that wasn't it.
I knew that wasn't it.
I knew that.
You know there is more to life.
I knew I could Back then.
This isn't bad.
What I went through in juniorhigh school, that was bad.
(09:04):
This is easy.
So I started going to the gym.
Through a lot of trial anderror and I mean lots of error I
started getting moving back.
It took three and a half yearsto be able to do this again
raise my hand above my head, tomove my neck from left to right.
Three and a half years of hard,grueling work to give me my
life back.
(09:25):
And I remember I broke downcrying in front of my parents
when I finally was able to liftmy hand above my head again,
because it was such a relief tome that I was creating this
movement again.
I knew this was my passion.
I knew this was my purpose.
So I started getting into thefitness industry and I started
doing everything I would doStarted bouncing around
different gyms, worked here,worked here, tried learning the
(09:47):
ins and outs and thought maybethat you know, I need the
guidance from other people inorder to get me where I want to
go.
But what I realized is realquick.
The fitness industry knowsnothing.
These people are all in it forlooking good, feeling good, and
it was still very bodybuildingheavy and it was kind of taboo
for people that had a shit tonof injuries to go and work out
and no one ever thought of it asa form of medicine.
(10:08):
And I was like, listen, fitnessis medicine.
Fitness is something that savedmy life and gave me the ability
to cope with day-to-day tasksagain, and that is what I wanted
to give to other people.
And there was nothing out therelike that.
Trainers were gettingcertifications online.
They would just sign off on itand then all of a sudden they're
personal trainers.
You don't even need one ofthose certificates in the state
of New York, so they're justteaching people bad exercises
(10:29):
from people they learn frombodybuilders, and it was just a
shit show.
So as I was bouncing around, Ihad the opportunity for one of
the owners to tell me that hedidn't want to do personal
training anymore.
He's going to cut thedepartment.
I pay rent, I start my company,and that's what happened.
So, going back eight years agoalmost to date, the date was
July 18th.
I started redefine fitnessinside of a gym it was called
(10:50):
retro fitness at the time andPort Jeff station and I said
this is the company that isgoing to redefine what it means
to be fit.
And I don't mean that you'regoing to look good, feel good.
Yeah, those are things that aresecondary nature.
I mean, you have depression,we're going to fix it.
You have a shoulder injury,we're going to fix it.
I want this company to be sowell known that when they go to
the doctor and they say, if ABCDissues, you're good enough, go
(11:12):
to Redefine Fitness.
They're going to be able tohelp you.
They're going to be able togive you your life back, because
modern medicine just isn'tthere yet.
So inside this company, weworked real hard.
We got our first location openin December 2018 over in Mount
Sinai, just a town away forthose that don't know the local
area and I pushed.
I was like we're changing thisindustry.
(11:35):
We started with, first off, thetrainer quality we hired.
We were like, listen, you gotto know more than the basics and
I started putting trainers totest.
I started implementing weeklyeducation inside of them and we
rode that avenue hard and thenyou know what Did that for a
year?
Boom, covid hit May 16th 2020,march 16th 2020, never gonna
(11:56):
forget that day in my life.
Governor Cuomo goes on TV andtells me I'm not good enough, I
have to close my gym because ofsome disease going on in the
world.
Does that for two and a halfyears.
For those that watch the show,they know very deeply.
This is where the podcaststarted.
I got involved with somebody andwe sued the state of New York.
We are the only reason thatgyms got to open.
(12:16):
We are the only reason thatgyms got to open.
I repeat, the next few peopledon't know that we raised a
quarter of a million dollars.
We sued the state of New Yorkbecause we thought it was unfair
that other industries were openand we were not, when it has
been shown time and time andtime again, and still to this
date, five years later, thatfitness is the best fix for
COVID.
The people that were dying fromCOVID had underlying conditions
(12:37):
, the biggest one of that beingobesity, and you know what fixes
obesity Exercise.
So we sued the state afterraising a quarter million to all
these gyms that were sufferingand broke.
We had a class action lawsuit.
The gym we used to represent.
Our class action lawsuit was upin Syracuse and we got a lot of
hate from it from people, butwe didn't care.
We kept pushing forward.
Day before the court hearing,governor croman was advised he
(13:05):
was going to lose.
So they told us uh, they toldhim and ford to open the gyms,
because if you go to courtyou're going to lose and they're
going to get a blanket open.
So that day he went on tv andannounced we should open with
limited capacity.
For those that remember thatlimited capacity wasn't good
enough, we still couldn't makeends meet.
We didn't get any loans fromthe government that people think
we did.
We got no grants.
(13:25):
I was shit broke, starving itwas.
It came to the point about sixmonths in that I looked at my
wife.
I said, honey, I don't know ifwe could pay our mortgage.
And but at the same time Ilooked at her and I said, honey,
I don't know if we could payour mortgage.
But you know, let me tell youthat one time, back in ninth
(13:47):
grade, I overcame suicide, againin 20.
When I had a bad accident, Iovercame a severe neck and
shoulder injury that people toldme never get over, honey.
I started a new company when Iwas told I was too young and I
never get off the ground runningand I got us successful in a
year before we got everythingtaken away from us.
So I'm going to make this workand we struggled for years.
(14:08):
Through COVID we had to raise aquarter of a million to get sued
to get open the first time.
Then we had to raise anotherquarter of a million because we
ran a second class actionlawsuit again because the right
for limited opening, like I wasexplaining earlier, just wasn't
good enough and we sued thestate again.
Same thing happened again daybefore the court date.
Como was the vice?
He was going to lose.
He should just open us.
And that's eventually how jim'sgot open.
(14:30):
You're welcome.
But we, we fought that fightand we got our opportunity to
get open.
A quarter quarter of gyms wentout COVID.
It was probably the saddest day, saddest couple years, because
we were already losing thebiggest fight.
The biggest fight in my eyes isobesity.
When you have an issue insociety where almost 70% of
people are overrated and obeseand that number still climbs,
(14:52):
you have bigger things coming.
Covid was just the tipping ofthe iceberg.
It was the top.
It was the frosting on the cake.
When you start putting allthese underlying conditions that
obesity hits, such as type 2diabetes or depression or all
those other things that factorinside of it high blood pressure
, you're going to have a lot ofthings you're susceptible to
(15:15):
that are going to kill you.
We need to fix this.
We need to fix obesity at theend of the day before we worry
about anything else out there,and instead of going to
prescribe things like we'redealing with now, like ozepic
and zepound these are great, butthey're destroying muscle
tissue.
I did a whole episode and Irecommend you go check that out.
(15:37):
But when you destroy muscletissue, you drop someone's
metabolism.
Therefore, you're not fixingthe underlying problem.
You're still not fixing thehabits and the issues associated
with that.
So what does that mean?
For Redefined as a Whole iswhere we are now.
Well, I'll tell you simply,redefined as a Whole started to
function out like I was sayingthe belief that fitness is
(16:00):
medicine redefined and evolvedinto taking the training
education to a whole new level.
We're the only gym that employspeople full-time.
I don't mean full-time thecapacity that most trainers are
used for those that don't knowthe fitness industry which is
only pay per session and ifyou're not training you you
don't get paid, sorry, or youget some shitty floor rage that
(16:20):
you're working trying to makeends meet, pay time off too bad,
and you're going to get paidalmost nothing and this is going
to be a step through job foryou.
I wanted to get people thattook this as a career and were
serious about it.
So I pay people full-time pay,irregardless of the training
with PTO.
But on top of that oureducation requirements are
stringent.
(16:40):
We are doing education sothoroughly involved it's closely
related to physical therapythan actually using even
personal training.
So those weekly educationsturned into the COVID, which we
launched, a brand newapprenticeship program.
This apprenticeship program wewanted to get the state somewhat
control over licensing for us.
That was the idea of thelawsuits, because the state
(17:00):
didn't want to open us, becausethey had no control, because we
had no license to the state,like we would expect of a
physical therapist or a nurse ora doctor, someone in that realm
they could pull the license.
They don't follow their rules.
So we created this to set ahigher standard.
We got it approved.
We're not the only gym in theentire country that has an
approved apprenticeship program,which means that we do
on-the-job training and we getto send our trainers to college
(17:22):
on top of the educationrequirements that they're
learning here.
So, fundamentally, we're takingthings to a whole new level for
what it means to be a trainerand their education beyond that
From a client standpoint.
A lot of gyms focus on thebelief of not teaching and
educating their clients.
(17:43):
Right, you're gonna go in.
They're gonna say, okay, seeyou next week.
Goodbye, instead of sittingwith you, going over your
program and being like, okay,based upon your movement
screening God forbid, they do amovement screening.
We see X, y, z, so our programneeds to be A, b, c and we're
gonna work with you on this andwe're gonna teach you everything
.
Not only are we gonna teach youeverything, we're gonna log
(18:04):
everything into an app whichwe're both gonna have access to.
This is two things One for aclient standpoint they're gonna
have videos, directions, exactlytheir weights, reps and how
many sets they're doing andeverything, so they can start
learning how to work out On topof that for us as a trainer.
And the second thing is, if youwant to work with somebody else,
because everyone is so educated, that trainer can go into that
(18:26):
app.
They can read exactly whatyou're working on and say oh wow
, you did ABCDE last time withthis trainer, so today we're
going to work on all of thiskind of stuff and it gets a
continuing program, but it givesyou the capability of your
crazy schedule to not worryabout following one person's
schedule.
Now you have 20 trainers youcould track off of.
(18:47):
So if your trainer goes away oryou need to come in later that
day, whatever doesn't matter,the trainer's going to have your
program ready for you to go.
So you walk in, boom, andyou're not going to hear our
staff saying what are we workingon today?
Because that's a trainer's jobto design that customized
program for you, not you as aclient to dictate what you're
working on.
Because how do you know that'swhat Akeem says in the first
(19:07):
place?
Does that make sense?
Unless, of course, you're anathlete, you have some
super-strained program, then wecan go off that.
But people, it's not that case.
So we dove into my story.
We dove into redefining how wetook that as a whole and the
(19:39):
only thing I coming to the gymBecause, yes, we stress time and
time again, exercise has beenshown to be just as effective as
the leading antidepressants onthe market, by the way, with no
side effects.
So if exercise could do italone, what other habits could
(20:01):
we do to help fix especiallydepression, but also help with
anxiety and even obesity as aside effect of it?
And I think that comes down tohabits.
And I think it not only comesdown to habits.
I think it comes to people'seducation of different types of
habits and how they associatethose.
So let me break that out forthose that want to truly
(20:23):
understand what I mean.
When we went to school and wetook health class and I remember
for myself it was just one timein sixth grade and then one
time in seventh grade with likea chapter on nutrition the
things we learned weren't true.
So what we learned is healthyended up not being considered
healthy 20 years later.
So when we say and I see this alot in assessments, when I talk
(20:46):
to people people say I eathealthy.
Ok, explain to me what healthymeans.
No, no, I eat healthy.
No, explain they break downbreakfast lunch dinner.
Ok, well, that's not healthy.
No, explain they break downbreakfast lunch dinner Okay,
well, that's not healthy.
So people have amisunderstanding of what healthy
is, so they're reaching for thewrong cup.
They're not understanding whatthey need to do and what they
(21:13):
need to go for because theynever learned that information.
And I think that ties intobeyond nutrition, but even
day-to-day micro habits thathelp make us better people and
help us function better as awhole.
So another big commonality,besides not understanding what
to eat and how to eat, would bewhat to do day-to-day outside of
(21:33):
the gym and work.
A lot of people go straight forthe phones, go straight for the
TV.
I know people who watch TVpre-work and post-work, or they
scroll to their phone pre-work,post-work and then complain that
they're depressed or thatthey're bland or they can't get
their brain working or thatthey're tired.
(21:54):
But meanwhile, if you add inall the times you're looking at
your screen for example, mostpeople it's an hour before work,
it's eight hours at work, thenit's during your lunch break, so
eight nine for lunch break hourbefore 10 hours, and then it's
at least two hours post, so 12hours a day.
And then you add eight hours ofsleeping if they're lucky, so
12 hours a day, which is halfthe day you're looking at a
(22:15):
screen and then you want to tellme that you don't know why
you're tired all the time or youdon't know why you can't lose
weight, and those two are thesame.
I'm not saying that TV orscreen makes you overweight, but
the habit of watching TV andlooking at a screen makes you
overweight and makes youdepressed and adds to your
anxiety because you're notunderstanding what to do in
(22:38):
replacement of that.
So if you could take a microhabit, for example, looking at
your phone or watching TV pre orpost work, turn that into
something productive, as inclean your room, like you're
moving, your body's movingaround, put your phone away, go
do that or go for a walk.
I think walking is one of thoseunderrated things.
I go for walks pretty muchevery day, minus when it's
(22:58):
raining out or when it'sliterally zero degrees, but,
like in the summer, it's almostevery day and it's almost an
hour, so it's an hour of blockthat I can take my dog for a
walk, so my dog's gettinghealthy.
I go with my wife, whenpossible, and my kid, so
therefore it's family bondingtime and that's when we turn our
phones off and we have Awesomefamily bonding time with each
(23:20):
other.
Now not only just that I'mmoving my body walking, I'm
getting vitamin d.
Vitamin d has been shown justas much as exercise to help with
Depression, along with a bunchof other things like immunity
response.
I'm getting the exercise in fromwalking and moving my body, my
blood's pumping.
I'm helping my exercise in fromwalking and I move my body and
my blood's pumping.
I'm helping my blood sugars bywalking and I'm regulating my
(23:42):
eyes to the circadian rhythm tohelp me sleep better.
So when we watch the sun riseand watch the sun set, it helps
our body regular circadianrhythm, which is basically our
internal clock.
For those who don't know whatthat means, especially if sunset
will help your body know thatit's time to release more
melatonin, which helps us sleep,and it will trigger us going to
bed and be able to regulatesleep time, as opposed to
(24:03):
looking at a screen which hasblue light which triggers midday
sun and makes you think thatit's mid-afternoon.
And I love the reasoning.
Well, it makes me feel tiredwhen I watch tv.
Yeah, no, duh, your eyes arestrained as hell.
If I had to stare at a lightall for an hour and you looked
up near the sun not directly atit, but near it your eyes are
going to get strained and you'regoing to feel tired.
You're going to not, you'regoing to go into, maybe, stage
(24:25):
one sleep.
You're not going to go intostage four REM sleep, which is
what makes you feel better.
So so your eyes are strainedand you close them and you might
feel internally slightly better, but you're not getting into
that deep sleep.
It's like comparing a nap togoing to bed at night when
you're napping.
Some people think napping islike full deep sleep.
No napping you can still heareverything around you.
You don't realize how quicklytime's elapsing, but you can
(24:48):
still hear everything and you'restill semi-aware.
That's a nap.
You're not in stage four sleep.
You're in stage one or stagetwo, whereas deep sleep you
don't hear anything around you.
You're out like a light becauseyou're trying to teach your
body.
This is bedtime and this is whenyou need more melatonin and
it's time to relax.
And sleeping is where, forthose that don't know, your
muscle tissue repairs.
(25:09):
It flushes out toxins out ofyour brain, it boosts your
metabolism, helps with loweringyour cortisol levels, which is a
stress, and it helps curbappetite, because when we get
stressed and we tend to overeat,especially bad stuff.
So it's important to notatethat sleep helps regulate all of
(25:31):
that Super under the hood microhabit.
But what helped trigger thatmicro habit before Not locking
your phones before bed?
So whatever we replaced goingto phones before bed for we did
that with a walk, or we did thatwith family bonding, or we did
that by reading a book, or maybegoing for a walk, then reading
a book right, reading the bookcould be something productive.
If you own a business, maybeit's a business book.
So now you're getting yourexercise in, you're learning
(25:53):
something, then you're going tosleep, then you're waking up.
I prefer walks in the morning,overnight, but for me it wakes
me up, it makes me feel good, Iget my brain pumping, feel great
.
So I get to watch the sunrise,feel awesome.
I get to have quality familybonding time.
I feel refreshed when I go towork because I was exposed to
the sun.
I feel awesome, I get a greatworkout in to feel great.
(26:16):
And those habits just continueand stack on top of each other.
We don't need the extreme, andthat's what people tend to live.
I mean, you see all these dietsall the time where it's keto,
cut carbs completely, or it'sthis, or it's this, or carnivore
diet, which cut everything butmeat.
No, it's take the good habitsout of things and formulate it
to take 80% of what's good outof it.
(26:37):
So carnivore diet example I'lldo an episode on this later but
it's 80% good.
You still need fruits andveggies, you still need some
forms of carbs, but meat 80% ofyour diet is amazing.
100% is not.
So micro habits 80% micro habitis great.
Overdoing it with all thesefucking things and having a
four-hour wake-up workoutroutine what's that doing for
(26:57):
you besides distracting you?
Now small, quick things are waymore productive than lining up.
I'm going to meditate and thenI'm going to go in that sauna
and then I'm going to work out,then I'm going to read.
Then it's like, by the timeyou're done with your morning
routine, my day's over over andyou've got no work done or you
didn't get to have fun andtherefore it becomes a chore.
And once something becomes achore, then you tend to not do
(27:20):
it, because now it's work, oh,I've got to go do all this again
.
And it just adds up in yourbrain.
Of all those things you nowhave to do, it's like oh, my
goodness, that's so many things.
I can't believe I have to dothat right now.
So if you just made small littlechanges and amplified the
things that are the mostbeneficial for us, like walking,
or like hitting the gym forhalf an hour, or just reaching
(27:41):
for better quality food overworse quality food.
Small, little quality changesare going to stack over the long
period of time and, overall,make you feel better.
That, in and of itself, is howwe fix depression, anxiety and
the obesity epidemic all in oneMicrohabits, fitness and the
(28:03):
understanding and I think thisis the last vital point I'm
going to make, especially fromsociety that we have to take
blame for what we do as humansand we can't rely on other
people to fix it.
We have to fix it for ourselves.
We need to teach our kids andwe need to learn for ourselves.
(28:26):
It's not the government's fault, it's not your boss's fault.
It's not your boss's fault.
It's not your parents fault,it's not xyz trauma's fault and
that gives me the right to bedepressed.
That's not true.
The person who dictates how youlive your life is you.
(28:46):
I was asked this question twoweeks ago by somebody.
I I told them my whole storyand they go.
Would you relive it?
Didn't blink an eye.
Yes, every single moment, everypainful moment, every good
moment, I'd relive 100% of it toget where I am today.
(29:08):
Those moments that happened inmy life defined who I am today
as a human being.
If I didn't get beat up, getbullied, I never would have
committed suicide.
If I didn't ever go to commitsuicide, I never would have
learned that I could pick myselfback up.
If I never got hurt, I neverwould have learned that the
fitness industry is where Ibelong Never, never, would have
(29:30):
started this company.
If I never got into the fitnessindustry, I never would have
met my wife.
If I never met my wife, I wouldhave never had my kid and
surprise, by the way, we'rehaving another one.
For those that don't know,great way to find out.
With all that being said, it'simportant to understand that I
took responsibility foreverything else and I changed my
(29:53):
own personal outcomes basedupon what happened in my life.
I'm the one who dictated how Iwent forward with every single
obstacle that was put in my way,and I'm the one who tried
reaching out to people andrealized it didn't work, and the
only way it did work was totake that responsibility back
into myself and fix it and givethe life that I wanted to give
(30:18):
to myself.
So if you're looking at thisand you need a little shove in
the butt, it's you need to startnow.
Start now and takeresponsibility for every little
moment and every little thingthat goes on in your life and
redefine who you are and noticesomething I said start now.
(30:43):
I didn't say start tomorrow.
I didn't say I'm going to startMonday.
Why?
Because there's no other biggerpriority than you.
Your body, your life is adirect reflection on the habits
and those things that you do andthe responsibility that you
(31:04):
take inside of your own life.
Why put that off another day?
What makes anything else in theworld more important than this?
Right now?
Nothing.
There's no birthday party,there's no dinner date or
whatever.
That's more important thanchanging your life for the
(31:24):
better so you can give back toyourself and your community and
live the life you always wanted.
So don't start tomorrow, don'tstart Monday.
Start right now.
And if you know somebody thatneeds some tough love, I want
you to share this episode withthem right now and hopefully you
(31:44):
can change somebody else's lifeand hopefully this is something
you needed to realize that thetime for change is now.
So thank you, guys, forlistening to this week's episode
of Health and Fitness andRedefined.
Don't forget, fitness ismedicine Until next time.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.