March 31, 2025 • 35 mins
Kevin shares his transformative journey from a health crisis in his mid-40s to becoming a fitness coach specialized in helping people over 50 build strength and optimize health through sustainable lifestyle changes. His wake-up call came after a hospital stay where he thought he was having a heart attack, prompting him to reconsider his approach to health beyond traditional "eat less, exercise more" advice.
• Kevin's health deteriorated in his 40s despite previous marathon experience
• Traditional advice of "eat less and do more cardio" led to underwhelming results
• Discovering strength training completely transformed his approach to fitness
• The dangers of "skinny fat" syndrome and muscle wasting from extreme dieting
• Why GLP-1 medications like Ozempic may create long-term health problems
• The importance of building muscle for long-term health and independence
• How our cultural victim mentality undermines personal health responsibility
• Why the medical system often fails to address root causes of health problems
• Taking radical responsibility as the foundation for health transformation
• The power of small, consistent habit changes compounded over time
Don't forget to share this episode with someone who needs it because we care about you. Remember, fitness is medicine.
Learn More at: www.Redefine-Fitness.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hello and welcome to Health and Fitness Redefined.
I'm your host, anthony Amen.
Today we have another greatepisode for all of you, so,
without further ado, welcome tothe show, kevin.
Kevin, it's a pleasure to haveyou on today.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey Anthony, Thanks for having me Excited to be here
Talk to you about all thethings health and fitness
related.
Man, yeah, just diving rightinto it.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Right on, let's go.
Just tell us a little bit aboutyourself and how you got to the
fitness world.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, I think, as you probably know, most of us that
are in this space have a story.
Mine started probably in my midforties.
I found myself as unhealthy asI'd ever been in my life and it
sort of it all came to a headwith a three day stay in the
hospital.
I thought I was having a heartattack.
I was just in really, reallyshitty health metabolic health.
I was overweight, had highblood pressure, high cholesterol
(00:50):
.
My blood sugars were startingto come up.
Prior to that I'd considermyself a pretty healthy guy.
In my 30s I did a bunch ofmarathons and a bunch of
triathlons.
I went down that endurancerabbit hole there.
Somewhere along the line I justquit that.
Cold turkey rolled into myforties.
(01:11):
Like I said, overweight, reallyunhealthy.
But when I looked around at mypeers I wasn't an anomaly.
I mean, most of my peers kindof looked like me.
We had dad bods, right.
So I had a lot going for me.
I had a young, beautiful wife,beautiful kids, nice house.
My career was going gangbusters.
But that stay in the hospitalreally shook me.
I didn't want to be that dude,because everybody hears in the
news or somewhere in socialmedia about that dude or lady in
(01:34):
their forties just drops deadof a heart attack and nobody.
Well, where did that come from?
I didn't want to be that guy.
So that's really what sent medown this rabbit hole, if you
will, of really trying to be atfirst not sick.
And then, as I got better, Istarted realizing oh, there's
layers to this and I startedchasing optimal health.
Now I'll back up a little bitmore and kind of tell you, as I
(01:57):
came out of this hospital stayand I went back to my regular
doctor, I said, look, you've gotto eat less and you've got to
start exercising.
And so that was theprescription he gave me.
Right, it was look, you need toclean up your lifestyle.
And I went back to what I knew,which was running.
I started running again and Istarted trying to eat less food
and, as you might imagine, thatprescription eating less food,
(02:19):
doing a lot of running it kindof sort of worked.
I was ridiculouslyunder-muscled.
I was over, not tremendouslyoverweight, I was like 20, 25
pounds overweight.
So I wasn't morbidly obese oranything like that.
But what happened is I'd lost alittle bit of weight, not much,
I mean very unspectacularresults, but I found that it was
just really difficult to tryand be.
(02:39):
You know, just eat salads everyday.
I don't particularly likesalads and I was trying really
hard to eat less food and eatmore vegetables and I was
killing myself running and I wasjust like I said, I was getting
these really, reallyunspectacular results and then
something crazy happened.
I've always been a big fan ofpodcasts, love listening to
podcasts.
Of course, now I've got my ownpodcast, go figure.
(03:00):
But I heard this podcastepisode with this guy, dr
Jonathan Sullivan, and he's theauthor of a book called the you
probably know it the BarbellPrescription.
It's like strength training forlife over 40 or something like
that.
But he was on there and he wastalking about the importance of
strength training for metabolichealth, for healthy aging, and
he was talking about strengthtraining in that very strict
(03:21):
sense of do deadlifts and dobench presses and do barbell
back squats, all the things thatI'd never in my life ever done.
I'd never touched a weight in mylife up to this point.
So here I am probably lateforties and for the first time
ever I very timidly walk into aglobo gym where there's all
these big buff dudes and tonedladies and everybody seems to
(03:44):
know what they're doing.
And here I am, thisridiculously at this point now
skinny fat, I'm not even reallyoverweight, I'm just
ridiculously under muscled andI've got this fluffy midsection,
got some nice man boobs to copewith that.
And I walk in the gym for thefirst day and, just like most
folks, I just kind of wanderedaround, tried some of the
machines, but that's whatstarted this whole thing right.
(04:06):
So from there I found thismagic pill all of a sudden, as
the strength training started totake its effect, for the first
time ever I was losing fat andbuilding muscle, which is really
what I wanted.
I just didn't understand that'swhat I wanted.
My doctor just said move moreand eat less.
I tried that.
That didn't really work.
So as I went down this rabbithole, I started selecting more
(04:27):
whole foods and prioritizingprotein and making strength
training the priority and justmaking cardio more the side dish
.
And that's really what led meto get into not just being not
sick, but to optimal health.
I really I find myself in myfifties as strong, fit, capable
as I'd ever been in my life, soas healthy as I've ever been.
(04:49):
And today I'm.
I'll be 61 next month and I cantell you right now I'm as
strong, fit, healthy, capable asI've ever been in my entire
life, and that really lights meup, and so that's my passion.
So today I'm a full-time coach.
I've got a team of three othercoaches that work for me.
We work exclusively with menand women in their fifties and
sixties who are tired of thediet rollercoaster and the you
(05:12):
know the cardio.
Just be a cardio.
Cardio cardio eat less, eatless, eat less, try and be
smaller.
I'm like, no, let's not try andbe smaller, let's try and be
bad-asses, let's try and bestrong, let's try and be fit,
let's try and be capable andlet's try and do that for the
rest of our lives.
Right, let's make this alifestyle.
So sorry, that's a long windedstory for a question you asked
about how I got here, but that'show.
(05:32):
That's why I'm here today doingwhat I'm doing, talking to you.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
I mean, you fit right in the norm, right?
Everyone that's in thisindustry had something that
scared the shit out of them andwas like we all have a story how
we got here.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yes, 100%.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yeah, but those are the people that always have,
like, the biggest passion behindit to help each of the people.
Hey, I learned this.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Let's teach you before you end up like I was
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Yeah, Right, so that's the biggest thing.
You mentioned some cool thingsin there which totally love.
Where it's.
You hop into that skinny fatphase right where people think
that eating less and doing morecardio is the answer.
And that was what about 10years ago roughly.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
We're doing that.
Yeah, a little over 10 yearsago?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
yeah, so if 10 years ago, now the new thing is
ozempic and that's where we areexactly with that that same
skinny fat.
When people think the answer is, let me eat less, take medicine
, I'm going to drop a bunch ofweight and be happy.
But what they don't realize isthey're muscle wasting, meaning
your body's just burning theirmuscle and you're destroying
your metabolism.
(06:33):
Same thing the keto diet didprior to that.
Same thing that whatever atkinsdiet and whatever everything
like.
It's just these fads thatpeople look for a quick let me
just drop weight.
But dropping weight isn'tnecessarily a good thing.
It's about how you feel, howyou move and, like you said,
(06:55):
optimizing for building muscle.
So how do you, how do you talkto those people to prevent them
from going down that rabbit holeit like?
Because, I mean, cardio andcalorie cuts are one thing right
, you can, it's okay, but it'snot going to do your body super
harm, ozempic, I mean.
I keep saying there's going tobe studies that are going to
(07:17):
keep coming out how bad it isfor you and how you shouldn't be
on a long-term and how it'sjust not the answer in my eyes
and I don't want to see threeyears from now.
Well, you won Ozempic for thisamount of time.
Call us today, yeah that'sright.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
You may be entitled to compensation.
Yeah, right.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Exactly so how do you talk to those people?
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, great question.
And really you hit the nail onthe head right, especially and
this is more true in my agedemographic maybe than for
(08:01):
younger people, but it is anunfair Wadovis et cetera that
we're going to lose about 40%muscle, 60% fat.
And I'm here to tell you again,if you're in your fifties and
sixties especially, but reallyat any age, that is a shitty
deal, cause what happens when wejust eat less food and of
course, if you take a takeOzempic or something like that,
it decreases your appetite,causes you to eat less food.
But that's the really theprimary mechanism of most diets.
(08:24):
Right, you look at a WeightWatchers or Jenny Gregg or any
of these programs you're tryingto get you to eat less food, a
Zempix trying to get you to eatless food.
Well, when we do that and yousaid we eat this muscle wasting
and we know that term in my agebracket, the sarcopenia, that
age-related muscle loss andspecifically that type two
muscle loss that wepreferentially lose as we age
(08:46):
anyways.
So that leaves you as a smaller, weaker, less capable and less
healthy human than you werebefore.
So I want to repeat thatbecause a lot of people miss
that muscle building or musclepreservation, at the very least,
(09:06):
and we're just going to thesegimmicky things like GLP-1s or
calorie restrictions or some ofthese goofy cleanses and things
like that 21-day challenges.
What we do is we end up being asmaller, weaker, unhealthier
version of ourself, and I'm hereto say that that's not a fair
trade.
What you want to be is a lean,strong, capable body.
That's what you want to build.
You want to build that for life, and you're not going to get
(09:26):
there by just eating less food.
Look, how much you eat isimportant, but we work with a
lot of our clients come in andthey're actually overweight and
under eating, and so theirmetabolism is basically a
dumpster fire.
They back themselves into thiscorner where dieting is now
actually dangerous.
It's detrimental.
They eat less food.
You take a lady who's been inWeight Watchers for the last
(09:49):
year and she's currently eating1,200 calories.
How are you going to tell thatwoman to eat less food?
And she's got 20 pounds to lose, right.
What's she going to do?
Eat 800 calories.
That's ridiculous.
So what that person would dothen is what we call the reverse
diet.
I'm sure you're very familiarwith this.
We're actually going and it'swhat it sounds like we're going
(10:10):
to get that lady or guy to eat alittle bit more food, but we're
just going to switch what typesof food.
We're going to prioritizeprotein.
We're going to prioritize whole, healthy foods.
And we're going to get thatperson off.
If they're on the treadmill sixdays a week, we're gonna say
stop, please stop, don't do thatanymore.
We're going to put you in a gymfor three days a week, 30, 40
minutes at a time, to start fullbody strength training workouts
.
And that is the prescription.
That's the way right.
We're going to choose healthyfoods.
(10:30):
We're going to prioritizeprotein.
We're going to focus onstrength.
And lo and behold, some ofthese people that have been
struggling with their weight allof their life.
Not only are they feelingbetter, they have more energy,
better libidos, but now they'restarting to get the body
composition change that yeah, Imean you can even tie it into
(10:52):
the first thing I hear withmuscle wasting.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Muscle wasting is a precursor for osteopenia and
osteoporosis, 100% Bone densityissues and you're ready muscle
waste or sarcopenia as you age.
Right, if you're not using it,your body's going to take it
away and you're going to throwthat in with under eating and
throw that in with GLP-, gopones and ozempic.
So now you're going to be at ahigher chance of developing
(11:18):
osteopenia and osteoporosis.
And do you want to be thatfrail 65, 70 year old that has
to worry about falling andbreaking a hip?
Right, that's a death sentence,especially when you get about
70 years of age, like, and youdon't have the muscle tissue on
your body, like you're justasking for trouble.
So do you want to fix and get atemporary solution to feel
(11:40):
slightly better about yourselfnow?
Or do you want to develop ahabit to have a permanent
solution and really not have toworry that as you hit the later
age of life 70, 80, that you cansay I'm living a good life, I'm
being independent, I'm doingthings I like doing?
Because I didn't care aboutthat quick fix of taking a shot,
I took my health in order, Iput my priorities first.
(12:03):
I put it into weight training,I put it into eating more of the
right types of food.
And now, 30 years from now,looking back, I'm way more
independent than anyone thattook that quick fix and never
learned to develop a habit forlife.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah, amen.
Look, here's the problem withdiet culture.
Very often what's sold to us isyou need to go on a diet, right
, so we're already.
We're faced with this odioustask I can't eat the foods I
like.
I've got to eat these crappyfoods I don't like and I can't
eat very many of them.
Well, that's not lifetimesustainable.
That's a horrible existence.
And what you're alluding to is,and of course, what most people,
(12:37):
even intelligent people, misscertainly I did early on is we
go on a diet, we lose someweight and then we go back to
what we were doing before,expecting to maintain that
weight loss.
Well, guess what?
Anybody who's ever been on thatrollercoaster knows how that
ends up.
You're going to gain all ofthat weight back, probably a few
bonus points to bonus pounds toboot, just for your efforts.
(12:58):
But if we can figure out how tomake habit changes, how to fall
in love with the, with ahealthy lifestyle, and look
doesn't mean you have to loveevery single workout you do or
love every single healthy foodchoice you make.
That honors your body, but itdoes mean that you have to make
some.
If you want permanent changes inyour body composition, you're
gonna have to make permanentchanges in your lifestyle and
(13:20):
that's the really hard sell.
It's easy to sell somebody hey,luke dropped 20 pounds in in
two months and on this you knowmiracle snake oil, potion,
workout diet, whatever it isright.
That's an easy sell.
You and I can get rich sellingthat.
A lot of people out there are.
It's a much, much moredifficult sell to get somebody
(13:41):
to actually make slow butpermanent, healthy changes in
their lifestyle and to learn tofall in love with that, to
become the kind of person thatembraces healthy aging.
So yeah, you're spot on.
It is all about how do werestructure habits and lifestyle
that supports our long-termgoals of being.
You know, I want to be in myseventies and eighties and be
(14:01):
strong, fit, capable and be ableto do stuff.
I don't want to be frail, weak,fall, break a hip in the end
right, or need assistance to goto the bathroom.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Don't want that.
So let's ask the million dollarquestion.
Bring it.
Where does this stem from?
Where does this wanting to havea quick fix and getting this
simple solutions?
Why do people think that way?
And then the follow up questionis how do you get people in
society to think differently?
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Ooh, that is the million dollar question.
Yeah, so I think the first, theanswer to the first question
why are we like that?
I think it's pretty obvious,right, if let's say, you know,
in my practice I'm, I am goingto sell you a six month program
and it's not even a weight lossprogram, right, if you come in
and you want to lose weight,like I said, chances are we're
going to work on your metabolismfor at least half that time
(14:51):
before we even worry about what,what the number on the scale is
.
Compared that and explaininghey, we need to fix your
metabolism and you want tochange your healthy habits for
life and make you strong, fitand capable to.
Hey, I, I'm going to, I'll getyou dropped 20 pounds two months
.
Give me your thousand dollarsand let's go.
This is the program, justfollow it and you'll do it.
And you know that, that Amazonmentality, that we want it fast,
(15:15):
we want it to be easy, we wantit without effort.
It's just, I think it's bakedinto human nature, right?
So I think it's easy to see whypeople might still go for that
quick diet, that quick fix.
They just, you know, especiallyas we get older, we start to
realize, hey, that's you know,that's that's not really working
(15:36):
so well.
And also, what happens?
There is some of us who havebeen on on and off diets some of
us all our entire adult lives.
We start to internalize thosediet failures as personal
failures.
As me, I failed, I'm a failure.
I can't figure this out.
I'm so smart and successful inother areas of my life.
Why can't I get this one thingright Now?
How do we get people to buyinto this?
That therein is the crux, andthat's my mission.
(15:57):
I suspect it's your mission.
It's why I have the podcast,it's why I have social media,
it's why I'm in this business.
I want to evangelize this way ofthinking that look, yes, this
is a longer path, this is afrankly, this is a more
difficult path than a quick fixkind of thing, but it's a
permanent.
You can either lose weightquickly or you can lose it
(16:18):
permanently.
And if you're interested in notjust losing weight but losing
fat, building muscle, beingstrong, fit, capable, there's
really only one way to do that.
You look at a 56 year old manor woman who's strong and fit.
They didn't get there byaccident and it's not because
they're rich and they spentmoney to look that way.
They got there by just makingprobably slow, gradual lifestyle
(16:41):
changes over a long period oftime and they continue to do
that and will do that for therest of their lives.
So, yeah, that's a tough sell,man.
And look, if you figure out howto sell that, let me in on that
, because me and you'll be rich.
It really is a difficult sell.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
I'm going to throw a ringer in here, because I think
it's important for people tothink differently by thinking of
a different type of example,right, yeah, so I'm going to go
exactly off what you said, right?
People look at somebody wholike me, like you, and they go
oh, it's just genetics and it'syou know, you're just lucky and
this is just the way I look.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
(17:19):
Not knowing small little habit,lifestyle changes, like how
many times did we say no, Idon't want dessert today?
I'll have dessert once a week,but I'm not going to have it
every single day.
And you cut 50 calories of badprocessed crap food and
substitute that with goodquality, high nutritious food.
Put that over 10 years.
The compounding interest of thatis insane, Right?
(17:41):
Tie that into, I think, one ofthe most polarizing things right
now in society financial status, right?
So don't even look at it from ahealth point.
Look at those financial stats.
How many people look at richpeople?
Look at Elon Musk just as astream puller example.
It's unfair.
He's that rich, he doesn'tdeserve it, not.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
(18:02):
What they don't see.
He spent five, 10 extra minutesevery single day working above
and beyond, compounding thatinterest over time.
And he was in the same boat,you and I, and everybody else
was in the beginning.
That's the beauty of being aself-made billionaire, the key
words being self-made.
We're self-made, millionaire,self-made.
(18:23):
But people look at this part ofsociety and they say it's unfair
.
You were given certain, whichis just not true.
They just did the work aboveand beyond that everyone else
did.
And now, true, they just didthe work above and beyond that
everyone else did.
And now we're just in the pointblame game because we don't
like where we're at.
You put that back into healthand fitness.
I'm going to do the point blamegame.
(18:43):
It's not fair.
You just look that way.
You just have a great body, notrealizing the sacrifices people
make to get there.
So, yeah, is it a culturalphenomenon for humans as a
species to just sit here andblame people that have it, the
people that don't have it?
And how do you get people to belike, no, you can get there.
(19:03):
This is what you're supposed todo.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah, great questions , man.
I think that our modern culturereinforces this victim
mentality.
It reinforces us not takingradical responsibility for
ourselves.
I strongly believe that, infact, one of the coaching
programs we have is called theAlpha Edge.
It's a men's group and it'shelping men step into their
(19:26):
authentic masculinity, right?
So we talk a lot about radicalresponsibility.
We are responsible foreverything in our lives.
We're responsible for ourhealth, we're responsible for
our relationships, for our work,for our finances, for
everything in our lives, andthat's a tough pill to swallow
for some people, right?
And look, that's not to saythat shitty stuff hasn't
happened to you or isn'thappening to you now.
(19:47):
You're still ultimatelyresponsible.
I think that goes counter toeverything in our culture today.
We have this very softening,almost feminizing part of
culture right now that isallowing us to kind of play this
victim mentality, and that'svery disempowering.
That's very disempowering.
You can have and I'm talking toanybody listening to this course
(20:08):
anybody tuning into a healthand fitness redefined podcast.
I'm probably preaching to thechoir, but you can have anybody
you want, anybody you want,regardless of your starting
point, right?
I'm not saying it's going to beeasy, um, but when you again
going back to the.
You know, anthony, somebodylooks at you, somebody looks at
me and they say, oh, you must belucky, you must have good genes
.
And yeah, that's.
(20:28):
That's the same as looking at aself-made millionaire and say
it's the same as looking at aself-made millionaire and say,
oh, he must be lucky.
Well, if maybe you call luckythat person making small
incremental changes or depositsinto their 401k every single day
of their life, whether it's ahealth 401k or a financial 401k,
and then you use the termcompounding interest, that's
(20:49):
exactly what happens.
Look when you.
I mean health and exercise.
Nutrition is kind of funny.
Let's say you decide tomorrowyou're going to start a diet,
you're going to eat really cleanfood, you're going to eat high
protein, you're going to workout.
Well, when you look in themirror the next day you don't
look any different.
And then the next day you dothe same thing.
And the next day you do thesame thing.
The next day you do the in themirror you don't look any
(21:10):
different.
But a month later you start tomake a little bit of notice.
You notice a little bit ofchange.
Three months later, a littlebit more.
A year later there's drasticchanges.
Heck, five years later, you'renot even recognizable, right,
and that's that power ofcompounding interest that you
were talking about.
And it works the same infinance as it does with health,
and that's the story.
We need to tell people that youare not disempowered.
(21:31):
You are, in fact, empowered.
You can do, you can haveanything you want, but it starts
with this radicalresponsibility.
I am responsible for my health,not my government, not the
healthcare system, not bigpharma, not big food.
I'm not a victim becauseKellogg's is pushing pop tarts
and crap to me.
No, that's not why I'm out ofshape.
(21:52):
I'm out of shape because I'mmaking choices that don't honor
my sacred body, plain and simple.
So how do you teach it Right?
Gently, I'm talking to you asanother health professional, but
yeah, Whose responsibility isit to teach people?
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Because obviously the path we're going now isn't
working.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Yes, so it's funny.
You say that I feel spirituallycalled by God, that this is my
mission in life.
This is what I was put here todo.
So I feel that it is not, it'snot my responsibility to change
the entire world, but it is myresponsibility to share my
passion to make a dent in thisuniverse in this, in this little
way.
But I feel it's ourresponsibility, anthony, you and
(22:33):
I.
I mean we hold, we have thisknowledge, we've been given this
gift, and what we do with it, Ithink, especially at this time
and age and in history, isabsolutely critical Because,
look, we are heading the wrongway.
By all means, by every measurethat you can measure Western
health, we are going backwards.
So it's this grassroot yes,it's this grassroots effort and
(22:57):
for the first time I'm actuallyvery optimistic.
We have, you know, the Dr CaseyMeans of the world has now got
a voice of RFK Jr as a healthsecretary, and whether you love
him or hate him, he has someradical ideas about health.
We don't need small incrementalchanges in our healthcare from
a policy standpoint here in theUS.
We need some radical, frickingshifts, and I think we're on the
(23:20):
precipice of that.
So now there seems to be alittle bit more awareness.
Of course, there's a lot moredivisiveness than ever, but I
think it's our those of us inthe fitness, health and wellness
industry it's ourresponsibility, it's your
listeners responsibility to goout and share, unashamedly share
(23:40):
their passion about healthyliving, healthy aging, healthy
body composition, health ingeneral, with their friends,
with their family, with theircommunities.
So I really I take it as apersonal responsibility.
It's my responsibility tospread this message.
It's your responsibility.
It's, it's our collectiveresponsibility in this industry
now to rise up collectively, tryand cut through all the noise,
(24:02):
because there's so much crap outthere.
I think you do a great job ofthat as well To cut through all
that noise and just lead fromthe front by example.
Look, this is how it's done.
It's not rocket science.
It just takes a little bit ofmotivation, a little bit of
discipline, a little bit ofknow-how, but it's not out of
reach for anybody.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Yeah, and I agree a hundred percent right.
For you and I, it took a lot ofmental push to understand hey,
this is where we need to be.
Take a typical person and I'mgoing to walk through really
briefly Sure States of growingup and how society impacts your
health and fitness.
Right.
Yeah, it's not a pretty picture,yeah Well first thing, before
(24:46):
school, you learn from yourparents, and your parents were
taught nutrition and health 30years ago.
It regards to when you're born,it's between 30 years depending
on when you're born, so ourindustry changes every six
months, so it's totallydifferent science.
Then, after you learn thatinformation, you go into school,
and in school you're learningtwo things.
One you're learning that testtaking is more important than
(25:12):
activity.
The example with that is PEgets cut more and more and more
and you can sit there and take atest now in physical education,
as opposed to going outside andbeing active right.
And recess gets cut.
More and more about beingpeople active.
Then you're taking healthclasses, learning about health
topics that have been disproven30 years ago because they're
reading from textbooks that aretoo old.
Yeah, so you get all thatinformation plus, you're being
(25:35):
catered in a society that pushesvictim mentality.
Right, it was my generationthat started it full
transparency when we startedgiving uh trophies for people
participating.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Yeah, that was a terrible idea.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
I don't care.
People say that's what startedit.
Yeah, and then you, they growup thinking that everyone
deserves a lovely trophy.
It doesn't matter about yours,your actions mean nothing, it's
all about a group as a whole.
Then you graduate.
Then you're in a society whichpushes being inactive.
You're in a society that pushessitting at a desk.
(26:08):
More and more jobs become likeyou're just sitting down and not
being physical activewhatsoever.
And you're still learning itagain.
If you go to college Bad scienceand you're learning from your
peers Bad science, then you goto the doctor and the doctor
sits here and says you need tolose weight.
You gave that example yourselfin the beginning.
What are doctors teaching Badscience?
Lose weight.
You gave that example yourselfin the beginning.
What are doctors teaching badscience when it comes to health
(26:29):
and fitness?
Why you mentioned it in thevery beginning.
We're gonna go back.
They said lose weight.
They didn't say lose body fatpercentage.
They said lose weight becausethey're still going off of bmi,
which is bmi in the scale twohorrible measures of your health
, yeah horrible measures of yourhealth.
Yes, we went up for that.
I'd be considered overweightbased upon my weight.
So the doctor's telling you notto eat less.
Because you know what thenutrition textbook looks like
(26:49):
it's like five fucking pages,and I know that because I read
it.
Like I always use the example.
My whole family is doctors Likethere's nothing in there that
teaches them about nutrition.
But they feel like they comefrom a role of responsibility
and it's their responsibility totake care of their patients.
So they're looking for quickfixes because that's what other
(27:11):
patients want.
They want to go in for a 10minute consult, so it's all the
time the doctor has with themand say fix me.
So the doctor has nine minutesafter hearing it.
Hey, fine, here's a quick fix,go on.
So then they're pushing them inthe wrong direction and all of
this just compounds to peoplethinking it's somebody else's
responsibility for their healthand fitness.
And then when the governmentcomes out and says, as a great,
(27:32):
perfect example of thingshappening right now, rfk comes
out and says SNAP benefitsmeaning SNAP benefits are
benefits that people that can'tafford food get to go buy food,
no longer pay for soda, whatpeople don't know.
Snap benefits you cannot usefor cigarettes and alcohol
because they're bad for yourhealth.
Go get something healthy Soda.
(27:54):
Same example.
And people flip out.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
What do you mean?
They can't buy soda.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
What do you mean?
Like we're thinking about lifebackwards because we're so
polarized over everything andwe're so pushed into believing
the victim mentality.
It's time to say I'm going totake responsibility for my
health.
I'm not going to wait tillMonday.
I'm not going to wait tilltomorrow.
I'm going to start right now,Right, this, very, very second.
I'm going to change who I amand become a different person.
(28:22):
Stop compounding issues.
So in a year from now, when Ilook in a mirror, I feel better
Because at the end of the day, Ifeel better.
I'm on way less medication thanall my friends are.
I'm moving way better, I'm wayless dependent on the health
system, and all of that is goingto lead to an overall better
society and individual person.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Bring it.
Bring it, brother.
Preach, yeah, I agreewholeheartedly with you.
I think that that is our.
Our biggest obstacle right nowis just this victim mentality
and people not willing to takeresponsibility for their health.
And it's it's a verydisempowering feeling that most
of us have and we have so manyforces working against us.
(29:04):
Like you'd mentioned, you go tothe doctor and the doctor gives
you a pill and that treats asymptom, has nothing to do with
cause, and we don't, most of usjust don't realize that it's not
that big of a lift to be, to gofrom unhealthy to healthy, and
then from there from healthy tosuper healthy, and then from
there to optimal health, andeverything changes.
When you get there.
You're a better human being,You're a better parent, You're a
(29:27):
better child, You're a bettersibling, You're a better
employee, employer, coworker,You're a better community member
, You're a better citizen,You're a better human on this
planet.
When you are functioning the wayyour body's meant to be
functioning and it's not.
Again, it's not that difficultto do.
It's just making choices thathonor your body and not dishonor
your body.
(29:48):
It's so easy Look, I don't wantto downplay that it's so easy
to make choices that don't honorour body to eat the crappy food
, to get the highlyultra-processed delicious food.
Let's face it and sit on thecouch and watch Netflix instead
of moving our bodies eating realwhole food.
It's simple to do but um, notworth the trade off.
(30:09):
That temporary hedonisticpleasure we get from those
things is not worth what we'redoing to our long-term health.
I think a lot of us just missthe forest through the trees on
that, on that story.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Yeah, it's, it's eyeopening and I liked how you
said it's those that understandthat, like you and I, it's our
responsibility to go push it outand help people.
And I've learned over God.
How long have I been in theministry?
10 years now.
Like you're, like I'm donebeating around the bush.
(30:41):
Yeah, the beating around thebush thing didn't work.
It's gotten worse and theperfect example is that lifespan
of humans is going down.
Yeah, that's eyeopening.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
And spend of, in spite of medical and pharma
spending going justastronomically through the roof
and $4.5 trillion annually herein the US, and we are sicker,
fatter and unhealthier than ever, and our longevity is actually,
for the first time in a longtime, slipping backwards.
We're not doing this right.
We need to change.
But I think you agree with meChange starts with each one of
(31:20):
us individually, and thatindividual responsibility
Doesn't start with RFK Jr or thegovernment or the culture or
whatever political party you'reaffiliated with.
It starts with me and you.
It starts with us.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Yeah, it starts with us, and go grab a friend hey.
John you and I are really closefriends.
We need to start takingresponsibility for our health.
Why don't we just go for walksonce every morning for 15
minutes?
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Come on, yeah, love it.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Start simple, yeah, easy you create an easy habit
that's not very time consuming15 minutes is nothing and you
cut up 15 minutes of show orscrolling through your phone
that you're going to be doinganyway, and then you and John
start becoming healthier andstart feeling better and start
laughing and become closer, oreven with your wife or even with
the kids you can do this.
Then you're building strongerrelationships with those people
(32:08):
and now you're feeling mentallya lot better.
And then they're probably gonnabe telling their friend and say
, hey, gene, I'm going to walkwith anthony, so why don't you
go for a walk with cara in themorning?
And you guys start doing thatand this is just gonna expand
and that little habit change allof a sudden explodes in society
(32:30):
as we go through time and thenwe can start seeing positive
impact throughout our cultureand really take back Western
culture and bring it more towhat it's supposed to be, which
is prioritizing our health andfitness, prioritizing our mental
health, which is just gone atthis point.
(32:50):
As a society, we need to takeback our mental health.
We need to have more positivity.
Everything needs to change andall stems from how we feel about
ourselves and not tellingpeople it's okay to be unhealthy
, because it's not okay, and I'mgoing to be the first one to
think it's not okay.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
You need to change, because be the first one to
think it's not okay, you need tochange because I want you
around.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
I want you to feel better, and you should want
yourself around and you shouldwant yourself to feel better.
These are all good things thatwe need to push together as a
whole.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Come on, yeah, let's go.
I love it.
Yeah, hey, that was a lot oftangents, so yeah, great
conversation, though I thinkthat this is the conversation
that needs to be had.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Yeah, I totally agree , Kevin.
I'm just going to ask you thefinal questions.
You've got to show up, Sure.
So the first one is if you wereto summarize this episode and I
know it was a lot in one or twosentences.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
What would be your take home message?
Yeah, the power to changestarts with you.
You are radically responsiblefor your health and as you start
to do that and everything inyour life levels up and it will,
that becomes contagious to thefolks around you.
So start today, start with you,start with your loved ones.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
I love that.
And then how can people findyou, get ahold of you and learn
more?
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Yeah.
So you know what, sinceeverybody listening to this is
podcast listeners, check me outfor you, those of you that are
over 50, I have a podcast calledthe over 50 health wellness
show.
Or for those of you under 50,bet, you've got parents, friends
that are in that age bracket.
Send them over there.
We do a weekly podcast.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Kevin, thank you so much for coming on.
Thank you, guys, for listeningto this week's episode of health
and fitness.
Don't forget, do the firstthing you're supposed to do
(34:44):
share this with a friend thatneeds this.
Hey, I'm doing this for youbecause I care.
And also, don't forget, guys,fitness is medicine.
Until next time, thank you.
(35:15):
Outro Music.
Hello and welcome to Health and Fitness Redefined.
I'm your host, anthony Amen.
Today we have another greatepisode for all of you, so,
without further ado, welcome tothe show, kevin.
Kevin, it's a pleasure to haveyou on today.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey Anthony, Thanks for having me Excited to be here
Talk to you about all thethings health and fitness
related.
Man, yeah, just diving rightinto it.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Right on, let's go.
Just tell us a little bit aboutyourself and how you got to the
fitness world.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, I think, as you probably know, most of us that
are in this space have a story.
Mine started probably in my midforties.
I found myself as unhealthy asI'd ever been in my life and it
sort of it all came to a headwith a three day stay in the
hospital.
I thought I was having a heartattack.
I was just in really, reallyshitty health metabolic health.
I was overweight, had highblood pressure, high cholesterol
(00:50):
.
My blood sugars were startingto come up.
Prior to that I'd considermyself a pretty healthy guy.
In my 30s I did a bunch ofmarathons and a bunch of
triathlons.
I went down that endurancerabbit hole there.
Somewhere along the line I justquit that.
Cold turkey rolled into myforties.
(01:11):
Like I said, overweight, reallyunhealthy.
But when I looked around at mypeers I wasn't an anomaly.
I mean, most of my peers kindof looked like me.
We had dad bods, right.
So I had a lot going for me.
I had a young, beautiful wife,beautiful kids, nice house.
My career was going gangbusters.
But that stay in the hospitalreally shook me.
I didn't want to be that dude,because everybody hears in the
news or somewhere in socialmedia about that dude or lady in
(01:34):
their forties just drops deadof a heart attack and nobody.
Well, where did that come from?
I didn't want to be that guy.
So that's really what sent medown this rabbit hole, if you
will, of really trying to be atfirst not sick.
And then, as I got better, Istarted realizing oh, there's
layers to this and I startedchasing optimal health.
Now I'll back up a little bitmore and kind of tell you, as I
(01:57):
came out of this hospital stayand I went back to my regular
doctor, I said, look, you've gotto eat less and you've got to
start exercising.
And so that was theprescription he gave me.
Right, it was look, you need toclean up your lifestyle.
And I went back to what I knew,which was running.
I started running again and Istarted trying to eat less food
and, as you might imagine, thatprescription eating less food,
(02:19):
doing a lot of running it kindof sort of worked.
I was ridiculouslyunder-muscled.
I was over, not tremendouslyoverweight, I was like 20, 25
pounds overweight.
So I wasn't morbidly obese oranything like that.
But what happened is I'd lost alittle bit of weight, not much,
I mean very unspectacularresults, but I found that it was
just really difficult to tryand be.
(02:39):
You know, just eat salads everyday.
I don't particularly likesalads and I was trying really
hard to eat less food and eatmore vegetables and I was
killing myself running and I wasjust like I said, I was getting
these really, reallyunspectacular results and then
something crazy happened.
I've always been a big fan ofpodcasts, love listening to
podcasts.
Of course, now I've got my ownpodcast, go figure.
(03:00):
But I heard this podcastepisode with this guy, dr
Jonathan Sullivan, and he's theauthor of a book called the you
probably know it the BarbellPrescription.
It's like strength training forlife over 40 or something like
that.
But he was on there and he wastalking about the importance of
strength training for metabolichealth, for healthy aging, and
he was talking about strengthtraining in that very strict
(03:21):
sense of do deadlifts and dobench presses and do barbell
back squats, all the things thatI'd never in my life ever done.
I'd never touched a weight in mylife up to this point.
So here I am probably lateforties and for the first time
ever I very timidly walk into aglobo gym where there's all
these big buff dudes and tonedladies and everybody seems to
(03:44):
know what they're doing.
And here I am, thisridiculously at this point now
skinny fat, I'm not even reallyoverweight, I'm just
ridiculously under muscled andI've got this fluffy midsection,
got some nice man boobs to copewith that.
And I walk in the gym for thefirst day and, just like most
folks, I just kind of wanderedaround, tried some of the
machines, but that's whatstarted this whole thing right.
(04:06):
So from there I found thismagic pill all of a sudden, as
the strength training started totake its effect, for the first
time ever I was losing fat andbuilding muscle, which is really
what I wanted.
I just didn't understand that'swhat I wanted.
My doctor just said move moreand eat less.
I tried that.
That didn't really work.
So as I went down this rabbithole, I started selecting more
(04:27):
whole foods and prioritizingprotein and making strength
training the priority and justmaking cardio more the side dish
.
And that's really what led meto get into not just being not
sick, but to optimal health.
I really I find myself in myfifties as strong, fit, capable
as I'd ever been in my life, soas healthy as I've ever been.
(04:49):
And today I'm.
I'll be 61 next month and I cantell you right now I'm as
strong, fit, healthy, capable asI've ever been in my entire
life, and that really lights meup, and so that's my passion.
So today I'm a full-time coach.
I've got a team of three othercoaches that work for me.
We work exclusively with menand women in their fifties and
sixties who are tired of thediet rollercoaster and the you
(05:12):
know the cardio.
Just be a cardio.
Cardio cardio eat less, eatless, eat less, try and be
smaller.
I'm like, no, let's not try andbe smaller, let's try and be
bad-asses, let's try and bestrong, let's try and be fit,
let's try and be capable andlet's try and do that for the
rest of our lives.
Right, let's make this alifestyle.
So sorry, that's a long windedstory for a question you asked
about how I got here, but that'show.
(05:32):
That's why I'm here today doingwhat I'm doing, talking to you.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
I mean, you fit right in the norm, right?
Everyone that's in thisindustry had something that
scared the shit out of them andwas like we all have a story how
we got here.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yes, 100%.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yeah, but those are the people that always have,
like, the biggest passion behindit to help each of the people.
Hey, I learned this.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Let's teach you before you end up like I was
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Yeah, Right, so that's the biggest thing.
You mentioned some cool thingsin there which totally love.
Where it's.
You hop into that skinny fatphase right where people think
that eating less and doing morecardio is the answer.
And that was what about 10years ago roughly.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
We're doing that.
Yeah, a little over 10 yearsago?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
yeah, so if 10 years ago, now the new thing is
ozempic and that's where we areexactly with that that same
skinny fat.
When people think the answer is, let me eat less, take medicine
, I'm going to drop a bunch ofweight and be happy.
But what they don't realize isthey're muscle wasting, meaning
your body's just burning theirmuscle and you're destroying
your metabolism.
(06:33):
Same thing the keto diet didprior to that.
Same thing that whatever atkinsdiet and whatever everything
like.
It's just these fads thatpeople look for a quick let me
just drop weight.
But dropping weight isn'tnecessarily a good thing.
It's about how you feel, howyou move and, like you said,
(06:55):
optimizing for building muscle.
So how do you, how do you talkto those people to prevent them
from going down that rabbit holeit like?
Because, I mean, cardio andcalorie cuts are one thing right
, you can, it's okay, but it'snot going to do your body super
harm, ozempic, I mean.
I keep saying there's going tobe studies that are going to
(07:17):
keep coming out how bad it isfor you and how you shouldn't be
on a long-term and how it'sjust not the answer in my eyes
and I don't want to see threeyears from now.
Well, you won Ozempic for thisamount of time.
Call us today, yeah that'sright.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
You may be entitled to compensation.
Yeah, right.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Exactly so how do you talk to those people?
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, great question.
And really you hit the nail onthe head right, especially and
this is more true in my agedemographic maybe than for
(08:01):
younger people, but it is anunfair Wadovis et cetera that
we're going to lose about 40%muscle, 60% fat.
And I'm here to tell you again,if you're in your fifties and
sixties especially, but reallyat any age, that is a shitty
deal, cause what happens when wejust eat less food and of
course, if you take a takeOzempic or something like that,
it decreases your appetite,causes you to eat less food.
But that's the really theprimary mechanism of most diets.
(08:24):
Right, you look at a WeightWatchers or Jenny Gregg or any
of these programs you're tryingto get you to eat less food, a
Zempix trying to get you to eatless food.
Well, when we do that and yousaid we eat this muscle wasting
and we know that term in my agebracket, the sarcopenia, that
age-related muscle loss andspecifically that type two
muscle loss that wepreferentially lose as we age
(08:46):
anyways.
So that leaves you as a smaller, weaker, less capable and less
healthy human than you werebefore.
So I want to repeat thatbecause a lot of people miss
that muscle building or musclepreservation, at the very least,
(09:06):
and we're just going to thesegimmicky things like GLP-1s or
calorie restrictions or some ofthese goofy cleanses and things
like that 21-day challenges.
What we do is we end up being asmaller, weaker, unhealthier
version of ourself, and I'm hereto say that that's not a fair
trade.
What you want to be is a lean,strong, capable body.
That's what you want to build.
You want to build that for life, and you're not going to get
(09:26):
there by just eating less food.
Look, how much you eat isimportant, but we work with a
lot of our clients come in andthey're actually overweight and
under eating, and so theirmetabolism is basically a
dumpster fire.
They back themselves into thiscorner where dieting is now
actually dangerous.
It's detrimental.
They eat less food.
You take a lady who's been inWeight Watchers for the last
(09:49):
year and she's currently eating1,200 calories.
How are you going to tell thatwoman to eat less food?
And she's got 20 pounds to lose, right.
What's she going to do?
Eat 800 calories.
That's ridiculous.
So what that person would dothen is what we call the reverse
diet.
I'm sure you're very familiarwith this.
We're actually going and it'swhat it sounds like we're going
(10:10):
to get that lady or guy to eat alittle bit more food, but we're
just going to switch what typesof food.
We're going to prioritizeprotein.
We're going to prioritize whole, healthy foods.
And we're going to get thatperson off.
If they're on the treadmill sixdays a week, we're gonna say
stop, please stop, don't do thatanymore.
We're going to put you in a gymfor three days a week, 30, 40
minutes at a time, to start fullbody strength training workouts
.
And that is the prescription.
That's the way right.
We're going to choose healthyfoods.
(10:30):
We're going to prioritizeprotein.
We're going to focus onstrength.
And lo and behold, some ofthese people that have been
struggling with their weight allof their life.
Not only are they feelingbetter, they have more energy,
better libidos, but now they'restarting to get the body
composition change that yeah, Imean you can even tie it into
(10:52):
the first thing I hear withmuscle wasting.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Muscle wasting is a precursor for osteopenia and
osteoporosis, 100% Bone densityissues and you're ready muscle
waste or sarcopenia as you age.
Right, if you're not using it,your body's going to take it
away and you're going to throwthat in with under eating and
throw that in with GLP-, gopones and ozempic.
So now you're going to be at ahigher chance of developing
(11:18):
osteopenia and osteoporosis.
And do you want to be thatfrail 65, 70 year old that has
to worry about falling andbreaking a hip?
Right, that's a death sentence,especially when you get about
70 years of age, like, and youdon't have the muscle tissue on
your body, like you're justasking for trouble.
So do you want to fix and get atemporary solution to feel
(11:40):
slightly better about yourselfnow?
Or do you want to develop ahabit to have a permanent
solution and really not have toworry that as you hit the later
age of life 70, 80, that you cansay I'm living a good life, I'm
being independent, I'm doingthings I like doing?
Because I didn't care aboutthat quick fix of taking a shot,
I took my health in order, Iput my priorities first.
(12:03):
I put it into weight training,I put it into eating more of the
right types of food.
And now, 30 years from now,looking back, I'm way more
independent than anyone thattook that quick fix and never
learned to develop a habit forlife.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah, amen.
Look, here's the problem withdiet culture.
Very often what's sold to us isyou need to go on a diet, right
, so we're already.
We're faced with this odioustask I can't eat the foods I
like.
I've got to eat these crappyfoods I don't like and I can't
eat very many of them.
Well, that's not lifetimesustainable.
That's a horrible existence.
And what you're alluding to is,and of course, what most people,
(12:37):
even intelligent people, misscertainly I did early on is we
go on a diet, we lose someweight and then we go back to
what we were doing before,expecting to maintain that
weight loss.
Well, guess what?
Anybody who's ever been on thatrollercoaster knows how that
ends up.
You're going to gain all ofthat weight back, probably a few
bonus points to bonus pounds toboot, just for your efforts.
(12:58):
But if we can figure out how tomake habit changes, how to fall
in love with the, with ahealthy lifestyle, and look
doesn't mean you have to loveevery single workout you do or
love every single healthy foodchoice you make.
That honors your body, but itdoes mean that you have to make
some.
If you want permanent changes inyour body composition, you're
gonna have to make permanentchanges in your lifestyle and
(13:20):
that's the really hard sell.
It's easy to sell somebody hey,luke dropped 20 pounds in in
two months and on this you knowmiracle snake oil, potion,
workout diet, whatever it isright.
That's an easy sell.
You and I can get rich sellingthat.
A lot of people out there are.
It's a much, much moredifficult sell to get somebody
(13:41):
to actually make slow butpermanent, healthy changes in
their lifestyle and to learn tofall in love with that, to
become the kind of person thatembraces healthy aging.
So yeah, you're spot on.
It is all about how do werestructure habits and lifestyle
that supports our long-termgoals of being.
You know, I want to be in myseventies and eighties and be
(14:01):
strong, fit, capable and be ableto do stuff.
I don't want to be frail, weak,fall, break a hip in the end
right, or need assistance to goto the bathroom.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Don't want that.
So let's ask the million dollarquestion.
Bring it.
Where does this stem from?
Where does this wanting to havea quick fix and getting this
simple solutions?
Why do people think that way?
And then the follow up questionis how do you get people in
society to think differently?
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Ooh, that is the million dollar question.
Yeah, so I think the first, theanswer to the first question
why are we like that?
I think it's pretty obvious,right, if let's say, you know,
in my practice I'm, I am goingto sell you a six month program
and it's not even a weight lossprogram, right, if you come in
and you want to lose weight,like I said, chances are we're
going to work on your metabolismfor at least half that time
(14:51):
before we even worry about what,what the number on the scale is
.
Compared that and explaininghey, we need to fix your
metabolism and you want tochange your healthy habits for
life and make you strong, fitand capable to.
Hey, I, I'm going to, I'll getyou dropped 20 pounds two months
.
Give me your thousand dollarsand let's go.
This is the program, justfollow it and you'll do it.
And you know that, that Amazonmentality, that we want it fast,
(15:15):
we want it to be easy, we wantit without effort.
It's just, I think it's bakedinto human nature, right?
So I think it's easy to see whypeople might still go for that
quick diet, that quick fix.
They just, you know, especiallyas we get older, we start to
realize, hey, that's you know,that's that's not really working
(15:36):
so well.
And also, what happens?
There is some of us who havebeen on on and off diets some of
us all our entire adult lives.
We start to internalize thosediet failures as personal
failures.
As me, I failed, I'm a failure.
I can't figure this out.
I'm so smart and successful inother areas of my life.
Why can't I get this one thingright Now?
How do we get people to buyinto this?
That therein is the crux, andthat's my mission.
(15:57):
I suspect it's your mission.
It's why I have the podcast,it's why I have social media,
it's why I'm in this business.
I want to evangelize this way ofthinking that look, yes, this
is a longer path, this is afrankly, this is a more
difficult path than a quick fixkind of thing, but it's a
permanent.
You can either lose weightquickly or you can lose it
(16:18):
permanently.
And if you're interested in notjust losing weight but losing
fat, building muscle, beingstrong, fit, capable, there's
really only one way to do that.
You look at a 56 year old manor woman who's strong and fit.
They didn't get there byaccident and it's not because
they're rich and they spentmoney to look that way.
They got there by just makingprobably slow, gradual lifestyle
(16:41):
changes over a long period oftime and they continue to do
that and will do that for therest of their lives.
So, yeah, that's a tough sell,man.
And look, if you figure out howto sell that, let me in on that
, because me and you'll be rich.
It really is a difficult sell.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
I'm going to throw a ringer in here, because I think
it's important for people tothink differently by thinking of
a different type of example,right, yeah, so I'm going to go
exactly off what you said, right?
People look at somebody wholike me, like you, and they go
oh, it's just genetics and it'syou know, you're just lucky and
this is just the way I look.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
(17:19):
Not knowing small little habit,lifestyle changes, like how
many times did we say no, Idon't want dessert today?
I'll have dessert once a week,but I'm not going to have it
every single day.
And you cut 50 calories of badprocessed crap food and
substitute that with goodquality, high nutritious food.
Put that over 10 years.
The compounding interest of thatis insane, Right?
(17:41):
Tie that into, I think, one ofthe most polarizing things right
now in society financial status, right?
So don't even look at it from ahealth point.
Look at those financial stats.
How many people look at richpeople?
Look at Elon Musk just as astream puller example.
It's unfair.
He's that rich, he doesn'tdeserve it, not.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
(18:02):
What they don't see.
He spent five, 10 extra minutesevery single day working above
and beyond, compounding thatinterest over time.
And he was in the same boat,you and I, and everybody else
was in the beginning.
That's the beauty of being aself-made billionaire, the key
words being self-made.
We're self-made, millionaire,self-made.
(18:23):
But people look at this part ofsociety and they say it's unfair
.
You were given certain, whichis just not true.
They just did the work aboveand beyond that everyone else
did.
And now, true, they just didthe work above and beyond that
everyone else did.
And now we're just in the pointblame game because we don't
like where we're at.
You put that back into healthand fitness.
I'm going to do the point blamegame.
(18:43):
It's not fair.
You just look that way.
You just have a great body, notrealizing the sacrifices people
make to get there.
So, yeah, is it a culturalphenomenon for humans as a
species to just sit here andblame people that have it, the
people that don't have it?
And how do you get people to belike, no, you can get there.
(19:03):
This is what you're supposed todo.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah, great questions , man.
I think that our modern culturereinforces this victim
mentality.
It reinforces us not takingradical responsibility for
ourselves.
I strongly believe that, infact, one of the coaching
programs we have is called theAlpha Edge.
It's a men's group and it'shelping men step into their
(19:26):
authentic masculinity, right?
So we talk a lot about radicalresponsibility.
We are responsible foreverything in our lives.
We're responsible for ourhealth, we're responsible for
our relationships, for our work,for our finances, for
everything in our lives, andthat's a tough pill to swallow
for some people, right?
And look, that's not to saythat shitty stuff hasn't
happened to you or isn'thappening to you now.
(19:47):
You're still ultimatelyresponsible.
I think that goes counter toeverything in our culture today.
We have this very softening,almost feminizing part of
culture right now that isallowing us to kind of play this
victim mentality, and that'svery disempowering.
That's very disempowering.
You can have and I'm talking toanybody listening to this course
(20:08):
anybody tuning into a healthand fitness redefined podcast.
I'm probably preaching to thechoir, but you can have anybody
you want, anybody you want,regardless of your starting
point, right?
I'm not saying it's going to beeasy, um, but when you again
going back to the.
You know, anthony, somebodylooks at you, somebody looks at
me and they say, oh, you must belucky, you must have good genes
.
And yeah, that's.
(20:28):
That's the same as looking at aself-made millionaire and say
it's the same as looking at aself-made millionaire and say,
oh, he must be lucky.
Well, if maybe you call luckythat person making small
incremental changes or depositsinto their 401k every single day
of their life, whether it's ahealth 401k or a financial 401k,
and then you use the termcompounding interest, that's
(20:49):
exactly what happens.
Look when you.
I mean health and exercise.
Nutrition is kind of funny.
Let's say you decide tomorrowyou're going to start a diet,
you're going to eat really cleanfood, you're going to eat high
protein, you're going to workout.
Well, when you look in themirror the next day you don't
look any different.
And then the next day you dothe same thing.
And the next day you do thesame thing.
The next day you do the in themirror you don't look any
(21:10):
different.
But a month later you start tomake a little bit of notice.
You notice a little bit ofchange.
Three months later, a littlebit more.
A year later there's drasticchanges.
Heck, five years later, you'renot even recognizable, right,
and that's that power ofcompounding interest that you
were talking about.
And it works the same infinance as it does with health,
and that's the story.
We need to tell people that youare not disempowered.
(21:31):
You are, in fact, empowered.
You can do, you can haveanything you want, but it starts
with this radicalresponsibility.
I am responsible for my health,not my government, not the
healthcare system, not bigpharma, not big food.
I'm not a victim becauseKellogg's is pushing pop tarts
and crap to me.
No, that's not why I'm out ofshape.
(21:52):
I'm out of shape because I'mmaking choices that don't honor
my sacred body, plain and simple.
So how do you teach it Right?
Gently, I'm talking to you asanother health professional, but
yeah, Whose responsibility isit to teach people?
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Because obviously the path we're going now isn't
working.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Yes, so it's funny.
You say that I feel spirituallycalled by God, that this is my
mission in life.
This is what I was put here todo.
So I feel that it is not, it'snot my responsibility to change
the entire world, but it is myresponsibility to share my
passion to make a dent in thisuniverse in this, in this little
way.
But I feel it's ourresponsibility, anthony, you and
(22:33):
I.
I mean we hold, we have thisknowledge, we've been given this
gift, and what we do with it, Ithink, especially at this time
and age and in history, isabsolutely critical Because,
look, we are heading the wrongway.
By all means, by every measurethat you can measure Western
health, we are going backwards.
So it's this grassroot yes,it's this grassroots effort and
(22:57):
for the first time I'm actuallyvery optimistic.
We have, you know, the Dr CaseyMeans of the world has now got
a voice of RFK Jr as a healthsecretary, and whether you love
him or hate him, he has someradical ideas about health.
We don't need small incrementalchanges in our healthcare from
a policy standpoint here in theUS.
We need some radical, frickingshifts, and I think we're on the
(23:20):
precipice of that.
So now there seems to be alittle bit more awareness.
Of course, there's a lot moredivisiveness than ever, but I
think it's our those of us inthe fitness, health and wellness
industry it's ourresponsibility, it's your
listeners responsibility to goout and share, unashamedly share
(23:40):
their passion about healthyliving, healthy aging, healthy
body composition, health ingeneral, with their friends,
with their family, with theircommunities.
So I really I take it as apersonal responsibility.
It's my responsibility tospread this message.
It's your responsibility.
It's, it's our collectiveresponsibility in this industry
now to rise up collectively, tryand cut through all the noise,
(24:02):
because there's so much crap outthere.
I think you do a great job ofthat as well To cut through all
that noise and just lead fromthe front by example.
Look, this is how it's done.
It's not rocket science.
It just takes a little bit ofmotivation, a little bit of
discipline, a little bit ofknow-how, but it's not out of
reach for anybody.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Yeah, and I agree a hundred percent right.
For you and I, it took a lot ofmental push to understand hey,
this is where we need to be.
Take a typical person and I'mgoing to walk through really
briefly Sure States of growingup and how society impacts your
health and fitness.
Right.
Yeah, it's not a pretty picture,yeah Well first thing, before
(24:46):
school, you learn from yourparents, and your parents were
taught nutrition and health 30years ago.
It regards to when you're born,it's between 30 years depending
on when you're born, so ourindustry changes every six
months, so it's totallydifferent science.
Then, after you learn thatinformation, you go into school,
and in school you're learningtwo things.
One you're learning that testtaking is more important than
(25:12):
activity.
The example with that is PEgets cut more and more and more
and you can sit there and take atest now in physical education,
as opposed to going outside andbeing active right.
And recess gets cut.
More and more about beingpeople active.
Then you're taking healthclasses, learning about health
topics that have been disproven30 years ago because they're
reading from textbooks that aretoo old.
Yeah, so you get all thatinformation plus, you're being
(25:35):
catered in a society that pushesvictim mentality.
Right, it was my generationthat started it full
transparency when we startedgiving uh trophies for people
participating.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Yeah, that was a terrible idea.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
I don't care.
People say that's what startedit.
Yeah, and then you, they growup thinking that everyone
deserves a lovely trophy.
It doesn't matter about yours,your actions mean nothing, it's
all about a group as a whole.
Then you graduate.
Then you're in a society whichpushes being inactive.
You're in a society that pushessitting at a desk.
(26:08):
More and more jobs become likeyou're just sitting down and not
being physical activewhatsoever.
And you're still learning itagain.
If you go to college Bad scienceand you're learning from your
peers Bad science, then you goto the doctor and the doctor
sits here and says you need tolose weight.
You gave that example yourselfin the beginning.
What are doctors teaching Badscience?
Lose weight.
You gave that example yourselfin the beginning.
What are doctors teaching badscience when it comes to health
(26:29):
and fitness?
Why you mentioned it in thevery beginning.
We're gonna go back.
They said lose weight.
They didn't say lose body fatpercentage.
They said lose weight becausethey're still going off of bmi,
which is bmi in the scale twohorrible measures of your health
, yeah horrible measures of yourhealth.
Yes, we went up for that.
I'd be considered overweightbased upon my weight.
So the doctor's telling you notto eat less.
Because you know what thenutrition textbook looks like
(26:49):
it's like five fucking pages,and I know that because I read
it.
Like I always use the example.
My whole family is doctors Likethere's nothing in there that
teaches them about nutrition.
But they feel like they comefrom a role of responsibility
and it's their responsibility totake care of their patients.
So they're looking for quickfixes because that's what other
(27:11):
patients want.
They want to go in for a 10minute consult, so it's all the
time the doctor has with themand say fix me.
So the doctor has nine minutesafter hearing it.
Hey, fine, here's a quick fix,go on.
So then they're pushing them inthe wrong direction and all of
this just compounds to peoplethinking it's somebody else's
responsibility for their healthand fitness.
And then when the governmentcomes out and says, as a great,
(27:32):
perfect example of thingshappening right now, rfk comes
out and says SNAP benefitsmeaning SNAP benefits are
benefits that people that can'tafford food get to go buy food,
no longer pay for soda, whatpeople don't know.
Snap benefits you cannot usefor cigarettes and alcohol
because they're bad for yourhealth.
Go get something healthy Soda.
(27:54):
Same example.
And people flip out.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
What do you mean?
They can't buy soda.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
What do you mean?
Like we're thinking about lifebackwards because we're so
polarized over everything andwe're so pushed into believing
the victim mentality.
It's time to say I'm going totake responsibility for my
health.
I'm not going to wait tillMonday.
I'm not going to wait tilltomorrow.
I'm going to start right now,Right, this, very, very second.
I'm going to change who I amand become a different person.
(28:22):
Stop compounding issues.
So in a year from now, when Ilook in a mirror, I feel better
Because at the end of the day, Ifeel better.
I'm on way less medication thanall my friends are.
I'm moving way better, I'm wayless dependent on the health
system, and all of that is goingto lead to an overall better
society and individual person.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Bring it.
Bring it, brother.
Preach, yeah, I agreewholeheartedly with you.
I think that that is our.
Our biggest obstacle right nowis just this victim mentality
and people not willing to takeresponsibility for their health.
And it's it's a verydisempowering feeling that most
of us have and we have so manyforces working against us.
(29:04):
Like you'd mentioned, you go tothe doctor and the doctor gives
you a pill and that treats asymptom, has nothing to do with
cause, and we don't, most of usjust don't realize that it's not
that big of a lift to be, to gofrom unhealthy to healthy, and
then from there from healthy tosuper healthy, and then from
there to optimal health, andeverything changes.
When you get there.
You're a better human being,You're a better parent, You're a
(29:27):
better child, You're a bettersibling, You're a better
employee, employer, coworker,You're a better community member
, You're a better citizen,You're a better human on this
planet.
When you are functioning the wayyour body's meant to be
functioning and it's not.
Again, it's not that difficultto do.
It's just making choices thathonor your body and not dishonor
your body.
(29:48):
It's so easy Look, I don't wantto downplay that it's so easy
to make choices that don't honorour body to eat the crappy food
, to get the highlyultra-processed delicious food.
Let's face it and sit on thecouch and watch Netflix instead
of moving our bodies eating realwhole food.
It's simple to do but um, notworth the trade off.
(30:09):
That temporary hedonisticpleasure we get from those
things is not worth what we'redoing to our long-term health.
I think a lot of us just missthe forest through the trees on
that, on that story.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Yeah, it's, it's eyeopening and I liked how you
said it's those that understandthat, like you and I, it's our
responsibility to go push it outand help people.
And I've learned over God.
How long have I been in theministry?
10 years now.
Like you're, like I'm donebeating around the bush.
(30:41):
Yeah, the beating around thebush thing didn't work.
It's gotten worse and theperfect example is that lifespan
of humans is going down.
Yeah, that's eyeopening.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
And spend of, in spite of medical and pharma
spending going justastronomically through the roof
and $4.5 trillion annually herein the US, and we are sicker,
fatter and unhealthier than ever, and our longevity is actually,
for the first time in a longtime, slipping backwards.
We're not doing this right.
We need to change.
But I think you agree with meChange starts with each one of
(31:20):
us individually, and thatindividual responsibility
Doesn't start with RFK Jr or thegovernment or the culture or
whatever political party you'reaffiliated with.
It starts with me and you.
It starts with us.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Yeah, it starts with us, and go grab a friend hey.
John you and I are really closefriends.
We need to start takingresponsibility for our health.
Why don't we just go for walksonce every morning for 15
minutes?
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Come on, yeah, love it.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Start simple, yeah, easy you create an easy habit
that's not very time consuming15 minutes is nothing and you
cut up 15 minutes of show orscrolling through your phone
that you're going to be doinganyway, and then you and John
start becoming healthier andstart feeling better and start
laughing and become closer, oreven with your wife or even with
the kids you can do this.
Then you're building strongerrelationships with those people
(32:08):
and now you're feeling mentallya lot better.
And then they're probably gonnabe telling their friend and say
, hey, gene, I'm going to walkwith anthony, so why don't you
go for a walk with cara in themorning?
And you guys start doing thatand this is just gonna expand
and that little habit change allof a sudden explodes in society
(32:30):
as we go through time and thenwe can start seeing positive
impact throughout our cultureand really take back Western
culture and bring it more towhat it's supposed to be, which
is prioritizing our health andfitness, prioritizing our mental
health, which is just gone atthis point.
(32:50):
As a society, we need to takeback our mental health.
We need to have more positivity.
Everything needs to change andall stems from how we feel about
ourselves and not tellingpeople it's okay to be unhealthy
, because it's not okay, and I'mgoing to be the first one to
think it's not okay.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
You need to change, because be the first one to
think it's not okay, you need tochange because I want you
around.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
I want you to feel better, and you should want
yourself around and you shouldwant yourself to feel better.
These are all good things thatwe need to push together as a
whole.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Come on, yeah, let's go.
I love it.
Yeah, hey, that was a lot oftangents, so yeah, great
conversation, though I thinkthat this is the conversation
that needs to be had.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Yeah, I totally agree , Kevin.
I'm just going to ask you thefinal questions.
You've got to show up, Sure.
So the first one is if you wereto summarize this episode and I
know it was a lot in one or twosentences.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
What would be your take home message?
Yeah, the power to changestarts with you.
You are radically responsiblefor your health and as you start
to do that and everything inyour life levels up and it will,
that becomes contagious to thefolks around you.
So start today, start with you,start with your loved ones.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
I love that.
And then how can people findyou, get ahold of you and learn
more?
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Yeah.
So you know what, sinceeverybody listening to this is
podcast listeners, check me outfor you, those of you that are
over 50, I have a podcast calledthe over 50 health wellness
show.
Or for those of you under 50,bet, you've got parents, friends
that are in that age bracket.
Send them over there.
We do a weekly podcast.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Kevin, thank you so much for coming on.
Thank you, guys, for listeningto this week's episode of health
and fitness.
Don't forget, do the firstthing you're supposed to do
(34:44):
share this with a friend thatneeds this.
Hey, I'm doing this for youbecause I care.
And also, don't forget, guys,fitness is medicine.
Until next time, thank you.
(35:15):
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