January 27, 2025 • 12 mins
Meet Ariel and Lucas, your guides on Lifestyle Strength, as we bring you inspiring tales of resilience and the pursuit of well-being. In this episode, we promise you'll uncover the secrets to transforming your health amidst life's whirlwind. Our guest, whose journey from athletic competition to overcoming a debilitating injury, reveals how accountability and motivation fueled their path toward a healthier life. They share the raw truth of hitting rock bottom with five herniated discs and the powerful motivation to live longer for their loved ones.
Join us as we explore the real struggles and triumphs of a weight loss journey marked by a year-long commitment to dietary changes before introducing exercise. Discover why allowing yourself grace during setbacks is crucial and how balancing indulgences with long-term goals is not only possible but essential. Listen in to gain valuable insights and encouragement to start fresh and thrive, even when the path seems daunting. This heartfelt conversation will leave you inspired to embrace a balanced and healthy lifestyle.
Support Ariel by booking a massage:
https://www.competitorsedgemassage.com/
Support Lucas by booking training:
https://www.hydefitnessconsulting.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Lifestyle Strength, your guide to
mastering health and well-beingin the real world.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm Ariel, a massage therapist with over a decade of
experience in holistic health,and I'm here with Lucas, a
seasoned fitness coach, who'stransformed the lives of
hundreds in Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We're here to share real stories and expert insights
about embracing a healthylifestyle while balancing the
everyday hustle.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Join us as we explore practical ways to achieve
wellness and thrive amidstlife's challenges.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Let's dive in.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
On the calls did you?
You know?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
obviously taught you how to count calories.
Yeah, what did you find was themost useful from those calls?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Was it the technical information?
Was it just the?
Speaker 1 (00:39):
like I got to show up every day and tell these people
what I ate.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Or was it the?
other people on the call withyou know other people going
through the same thing.
What was it for you?
A lot of it was theaccountability of all right, I'm
in this program to lose weightand I want to lose weight and I
wanted to.
I don't know, it was more a lotof competition too, like, all
(01:06):
right, I want to lose weight andI wanted it.
I don't know, it was more a lotof competition too.
Like I want to lose more, Iwant to be top dog, you know.
So channeling some of thatdrive that you had in sports,
yeah, yeah, a lot of that andjust a lot of.
I just wanted to be healthy,you know, I just wanted to be
able to live a lot, live longer,be healthier, you know hurt and
(01:27):
just be there for my wife, youknow right, or just want to be
able to hang out with her, and,yeah, hurt yeah that's a good,
that's good motivation.
That's uh sounds like you wereconvicted.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, you know I.
I think that's the thing that alot of people don't really feel
when they start.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
You know I around people all day to say one things
, but then they act in differentways.
Sometimes they're, you know,they're even paying for it.
Yeah and uh, you know you couldtell the difference in the ones
that really want it.
Yeah, because they're going tomake it happen.
Yeah, I mean, sometimes youjust have to hit that rock
(02:12):
bottom and then it'll just click.
And that's what happened withme.
I mean five herniated discs andbeing in pain.
That's a pretty tough spot.
Yeah, it was pretty bad.
Yeah, I still work, but youstill walk your whole route with
five discs.
Well, I didn't really walk itkind of worked with me okay.
(02:37):
I mean I didn't walk as much asI eat I should, but I did what I
could, yeah, and went every day, you, and worked and I was
hurting, but I just did it.
But you know, now it's betterand I hardly have any pain.
I have some arthritis, but itis what it is Right, it's better
(03:02):
than what it was.
Yeah, absolutely, it absolutelyis.
Did you feel like through thatwhole journey would you say it
was?
Speaker 1 (03:05):
yeah, absolutely it absolutely is.
Did you feel like through thatwhole journey?
It would you say it was overthe course of what like two
years or so, that you got.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Well, the diet was about a year, okay, and After
that, that's kind of when Istarted doing the exercise.
Okay, that's when I introducedexercise into my life.
Okay, did you find any point intime before you got to the
exercise Like, were you like I'mgoing to give up?
(03:32):
Did you have any strugglesthere, like hard days?
Are you just like I'm not, I'mnot going to do this anymore?
Yeah, I mean, everybody does.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Everybody has hard days.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah, you just got to put that hard day aside and
just be like all right, that dayhappened, I can start over.
Yeah, this hotel in the holidayseason reporting this and I
tell my clients I'm the type ofcoach that I'm like go have the
(04:00):
meal, put it behind you, no good.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, you know there's no good in just saying
that you can't have this andyour whole family's there and
you know all kinds of things aregoing on, all kinds of reasons
that you should enjoy yourself.
It's not that you can go crazy,but it's like just go eat the
meal, don't make a big deal outof it.
Wake up tomorrow morning.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Get back on your routine, move on, yeah.
It wake up tomorrow morning.
Get back on your routine, moveon, yeah it's one meal.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah, it's the same with the hard days.
You just gotta.
Just gotta move on like youstill, if you still want it
right, yeah, which you did.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, I mean, it's it's one day, it's one meal,
it's not gonna ruin everything.
Right, it's a progress.
It's a marathon, not a race.
Yeah, yeah, that's how I lookedat it.
You know you run a marathon.
I mean I haven't yet, but I'vedone 5k's, but is that on our
(04:52):
list?
Are you gonna run a marathonsomeday, someday?
Yeah, it's we go.
One of my goals I might run onewith you.
I have to say it on here,otherwise I won't do it.
I mean, that's myaccountability is having
somebody to run against.
Yeah, I mean, 3.1 miles is alot.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
I mean, growing up, I'm an asthmatic.
I have my whole life, you know,and growing up I ran a mile,
you, I ran a mile growing up andjust couldn't do it.
My asthma got the best of me.
It's too hard to breathe, yeah,but now I can do a 5K, no
problem.
Yeah, well, I imagine you've 26years, you said at the post
(05:33):
office, so that'll do it to you.
Yeah, you put in the work everyday, yeah, I mean, actually
that was one of my first goals,was running, was doing 5k?
That I mean.
As far as exercises, as far asexercise, yeah, and I first
thing I bought was a treadmilland when I it's tough, I mean I
(06:01):
knew with my asthma it was badand I've always been scared of
running and that you know andeverything.
So I'm like, all right, let'sdo this.
And so I started at once, a dayI get on there, walk a mile,
and I would do it every dayuntil it got easy, and then I'd
(06:25):
either go faster or I'd put theincline in and then I would just
keep doing that over the day.
Just one mile, yeah, and thisis after walking during your day
.
Right, how many miles would yousay?
Not to sidetrack from theconversation.
Do you know how many miles youwalk in in any given day like a
(06:51):
normal route?
Well, I have, I have a drivingroute now, okay, but back then
probably my routes would havethree miles, okay.
So you spend, yeah, what, eighthours a day outside walking,
yeah, and who knows what weather, and then you get home and you
would do another, yeah, anotherwalk for a mile.
Yeah, yeah, that's what I woulddo.
That takes, that takesdedication.
(07:12):
I don't want to be doingsomething with my hands at that
point.
Yeah, yeah, and you know, I Ihave that.
I have pictures on my phone ofme backing my heaviest and I
would look at that.
That'd be kind of my motivation, a lot of it too.
So that helped with thetreadmill.
(07:33):
And also I would, instead ofsitting there in my sitting
there on the couch, eating, andI would put my iPad up on the
treadmill and watch a movie orwatch a show or watch whatever
while I'm doing it.
Yeah, I think that's why I lovethe treadmill, because I can do
that.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah, I got in.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I've never been a runner either Um always lifting
weights or, you know, runningthrough sport by playing
ultimate, having a reason to runrather than just that steady
state and I got motivated thislast summer to run more and I
would do underdog fantasyfootball drafts.
(08:12):
So in between, when it wasn't myturn, I would be jogging and
running and it was my turn toslow down and walk, make my pick
and then start running againand that would take 45 minutes.
So I'd just go as hard as Icould.
But that's the great part abouttreadmill, because you can kind
of distract yourself and gamifyit a little bit.
Yeah, it works.
(08:33):
Yeah, it was treadmill.
That was the best investment Ibought was that treadmill?
Yeah, I had it for two yearsand then I think I was getting
up to I was doing what was it?
10 minute miles.
(08:53):
I got down to Pretty solidamount.
Yeah, yeah, that's good.
Yeah, then I got into 30minutes.
I would put on a show.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I do whatever.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
I can see how far you go yeah, and then when the show
was over I looked down I'm like, oh, it's been 30 minutes, all
right.
Yeah, did you keep a log of it?
Speaker 1 (09:16):
to like see how you're progressing, or did you
just kind of like mentally keeptrack?
Speaker 3 (09:20):
um, I mean, the treadmill kind of remembers, it,
kind of shows you the lastworkout you did.
But I also would, I would haveI bought a calendar and every
day I would put how many miles Iwent that day on the treadmill.
Did you find that that helpedyou keep that competitive edge
like for yourself, where you'relike, okay, I got to do, I got
(09:46):
to do a little bit better.
Just gotta do at least this, atleast that, yeah, that, even
that.
Yeah, I always got to improve.
You know, if anything, justpoint one right in the treadmill
, just anything, just keep that.
Say you're doing a five Speedon one incline and do that for a
week.
Just keep that.
(10:06):
And then the next week just do5.1 or go up one in clock.
Yeah, push yourself then evenjust a little bit.
Now look down and make our well, more weights gone down.
Yeah, I think I, I was down tolike 265, I think.
(10:29):
And then that's kind of likewhen I plateaued.
Okay, I think that's when Ilearned about pickleball, and so
where are we at in timeline?
You're what, like a year and ahalf ish in, I think?
Yeah, about a year and a half,maybe two.
(10:51):
So I think I learned aboutpickleball in about 2022,
somewhere around then.
That's how I heard it.
I first heard about it, yeah, Ithink it's when the craze
started really happening.
Yeah, right there, right afterCOVID was starting to come
towards the end.
(11:11):
Yeah, I mean, I was actually.
I actually heard about it on apodcast.
Someone said they were, theywent and played pickleball and
I'm like who's this?
Yeah, on my phone and went onYouTube and was like, oh wow, I
know it's kind of like ping-pong, yeah, and tennis, and you have
(11:32):
backgrounds of both of thosethings, right?
Well, I never played tennis.
Okay, I played ping-pong, tabletennis.
I've heard whatever people say.
I've heard it both ways, and II played ping pong my whole life
too.
I mean, we had ping pong tablegrowing up and my church had it
(11:52):
and we just I'd go on my summersand I'd go and play ping pong,
you know, with all the kids andlike, oh well, this kind of
looks like fun.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
So Thank you so much for listening to today's episode
.
We want to invite you back nextweek as we continue the
conversation and be sure tofollow us on social media to get
all of our content and clipsand anything you might've missed
.
Again, thanks for listening andwe'll see you next week.
Welcome to Lifestyle Strength, your guide to
mastering health and well-beingin the real world.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm Ariel, a massage therapist with over a decade of
experience in holistic health,and I'm here with Lucas, a
seasoned fitness coach, who'stransformed the lives of
hundreds in Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We're here to share real stories and expert insights
about embracing a healthylifestyle while balancing the
everyday hustle.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Join us as we explore practical ways to achieve
wellness and thrive amidstlife's challenges.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Let's dive in.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
On the calls did you?
You know?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
obviously taught you how to count calories.
Yeah, what did you find was themost useful from those calls?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Was it the technical information?
Was it just the?
Speaker 1 (00:39):
like I got to show up every day and tell these people
what I ate.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Or was it the?
other people on the call withyou know other people going
through the same thing.
What was it for you?
A lot of it was theaccountability of all right, I'm
in this program to lose weightand I want to lose weight and I
wanted to.
I don't know, it was more a lotof competition too, like, all
(01:06):
right, I want to lose weight andI wanted it.
I don't know, it was more a lotof competition too.
Like I want to lose more, Iwant to be top dog, you know.
So channeling some of thatdrive that you had in sports,
yeah, yeah, a lot of that andjust a lot of.
I just wanted to be healthy,you know, I just wanted to be
able to live a lot, live longer,be healthier, you know hurt and
(01:27):
just be there for my wife, youknow right, or just want to be
able to hang out with her, and,yeah, hurt yeah that's a good,
that's good motivation.
That's uh sounds like you wereconvicted.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, you know I.
I think that's the thing that alot of people don't really feel
when they start.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
You know I around people all day to say one things
, but then they act in differentways.
Sometimes they're, you know,they're even paying for it.
Yeah and uh, you know you couldtell the difference in the ones
that really want it.
Yeah, because they're going tomake it happen.
Yeah, I mean, sometimes youjust have to hit that rock
(02:12):
bottom and then it'll just click.
And that's what happened withme.
I mean five herniated discs andbeing in pain.
That's a pretty tough spot.
Yeah, it was pretty bad.
Yeah, I still work, but youstill walk your whole route with
five discs.
Well, I didn't really walk itkind of worked with me okay.
(02:37):
I mean I didn't walk as much asI eat I should, but I did what I
could, yeah, and went every day, you, and worked and I was
hurting, but I just did it.
But you know, now it's betterand I hardly have any pain.
I have some arthritis, but itis what it is Right, it's better
(03:02):
than what it was.
Yeah, absolutely, it absolutelyis.
Did you feel like through thatwhole journey would you say it
was?
Speaker 1 (03:05):
yeah, absolutely it absolutely is.
Did you feel like through thatwhole journey?
It would you say it was overthe course of what like two
years or so, that you got.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Well, the diet was about a year, okay, and After
that, that's kind of when Istarted doing the exercise.
Okay, that's when I introducedexercise into my life.
Okay, did you find any point intime before you got to the
exercise Like, were you like I'mgoing to give up?
(03:32):
Did you have any strugglesthere, like hard days?
Are you just like I'm not, I'mnot going to do this anymore?
Yeah, I mean, everybody does.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Everybody has hard days.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah, you just got to put that hard day aside and
just be like all right, that dayhappened, I can start over.
Yeah, this hotel in the holidayseason reporting this and I
tell my clients I'm the type ofcoach that I'm like go have the
(04:00):
meal, put it behind you, no good.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, you know there's no good in just saying
that you can't have this andyour whole family's there and
you know all kinds of things aregoing on, all kinds of reasons
that you should enjoy yourself.
It's not that you can go crazy,but it's like just go eat the
meal, don't make a big deal outof it.
Wake up tomorrow morning.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Get back on your routine, move on, yeah.
It wake up tomorrow morning.
Get back on your routine, moveon, yeah it's one meal.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah, it's the same with the hard days.
You just gotta.
Just gotta move on like youstill, if you still want it
right, yeah, which you did.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, I mean, it's it's one day, it's one meal,
it's not gonna ruin everything.
Right, it's a progress.
It's a marathon, not a race.
Yeah, yeah, that's how I lookedat it.
You know you run a marathon.
I mean I haven't yet, but I'vedone 5k's, but is that on our
(04:52):
list?
Are you gonna run a marathonsomeday, someday?
Yeah, it's we go.
One of my goals I might run onewith you.
I have to say it on here,otherwise I won't do it.
I mean, that's myaccountability is having
somebody to run against.
Yeah, I mean, 3.1 miles is alot.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
I mean, growing up, I'm an asthmatic.
I have my whole life, you know,and growing up I ran a mile,
you, I ran a mile growing up andjust couldn't do it.
My asthma got the best of me.
It's too hard to breathe, yeah,but now I can do a 5K, no
problem.
Yeah, well, I imagine you've 26years, you said at the post
(05:33):
office, so that'll do it to you.
Yeah, you put in the work everyday, yeah, I mean, actually
that was one of my first goals,was running, was doing 5k?
That I mean.
As far as exercises, as far asexercise, yeah, and I first
thing I bought was a treadmilland when I it's tough, I mean I
(06:01):
knew with my asthma it was badand I've always been scared of
running and that you know andeverything.
So I'm like, all right, let'sdo this.
And so I started at once, a dayI get on there, walk a mile,
and I would do it every dayuntil it got easy, and then I'd
(06:25):
either go faster or I'd put theincline in and then I would just
keep doing that over the day.
Just one mile, yeah, and thisis after walking during your day
.
Right, how many miles would yousay?
Not to sidetrack from theconversation.
Do you know how many miles youwalk in in any given day like a
(06:51):
normal route?
Well, I have, I have a drivingroute now, okay, but back then
probably my routes would havethree miles, okay.
So you spend, yeah, what, eighthours a day outside walking,
yeah, and who knows what weather, and then you get home and you
would do another, yeah, anotherwalk for a mile.
Yeah, yeah, that's what I woulddo.
That takes, that takesdedication.
(07:12):
I don't want to be doingsomething with my hands at that
point.
Yeah, yeah, and you know, I Ihave that.
I have pictures on my phone ofme backing my heaviest and I
would look at that.
That'd be kind of my motivation, a lot of it too.
So that helped with thetreadmill.
(07:33):
And also I would, instead ofsitting there in my sitting
there on the couch, eating, andI would put my iPad up on the
treadmill and watch a movie orwatch a show or watch whatever
while I'm doing it.
Yeah, I think that's why I lovethe treadmill, because I can do
that.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah, I got in.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I've never been a runner either Um always lifting
weights or, you know, runningthrough sport by playing
ultimate, having a reason to runrather than just that steady
state and I got motivated thislast summer to run more and I
would do underdog fantasyfootball drafts.
(08:12):
So in between, when it wasn't myturn, I would be jogging and
running and it was my turn toslow down and walk, make my pick
and then start running againand that would take 45 minutes.
So I'd just go as hard as Icould.
But that's the great part abouttreadmill, because you can kind
of distract yourself and gamifyit a little bit.
Yeah, it works.
(08:33):
Yeah, it was treadmill.
That was the best investment Ibought was that treadmill?
Yeah, I had it for two yearsand then I think I was getting
up to I was doing what was it?
10 minute miles.
(08:53):
I got down to Pretty solidamount.
Yeah, yeah, that's good.
Yeah, then I got into 30minutes.
I would put on a show.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I do whatever.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
I can see how far you go yeah, and then when the show
was over I looked down I'm like, oh, it's been 30 minutes, all
right.
Yeah, did you keep a log of it?
Speaker 1 (09:16):
to like see how you're progressing, or did you
just kind of like mentally keeptrack?
Speaker 3 (09:20):
um, I mean, the treadmill kind of remembers, it,
kind of shows you the lastworkout you did.
But I also would, I would haveI bought a calendar and every
day I would put how many miles Iwent that day on the treadmill.
Did you find that that helpedyou keep that competitive edge
like for yourself, where you'relike, okay, I got to do, I got
(09:46):
to do a little bit better.
Just gotta do at least this, atleast that, yeah, that, even
that.
Yeah, I always got to improve.
You know, if anything, justpoint one right in the treadmill
, just anything, just keep that.
Say you're doing a five Speedon one incline and do that for a
week.
Just keep that.
(10:06):
And then the next week just do5.1 or go up one in clock.
Yeah, push yourself then evenjust a little bit.
Now look down and make our well, more weights gone down.
Yeah, I think I, I was down tolike 265, I think.
(10:29):
And then that's kind of likewhen I plateaued.
Okay, I think that's when Ilearned about pickleball, and so
where are we at in timeline?
You're what, like a year and ahalf ish in, I think?
Yeah, about a year and a half,maybe two.
(10:51):
So I think I learned aboutpickleball in about 2022,
somewhere around then.
That's how I heard it.
I first heard about it, yeah, Ithink it's when the craze
started really happening.
Yeah, right there, right afterCOVID was starting to come
towards the end.
(11:11):
Yeah, I mean, I was actually.
I actually heard about it on apodcast.
Someone said they were, theywent and played pickleball and
I'm like who's this?
Yeah, on my phone and went onYouTube and was like, oh wow, I
know it's kind of like ping-pong, yeah, and tennis, and you have
(11:32):
backgrounds of both of thosethings, right?
Well, I never played tennis.
Okay, I played ping-pong, tabletennis.
I've heard whatever people say.
I've heard it both ways, and II played ping pong my whole life
too.
I mean, we had ping pong tablegrowing up and my church had it
(11:52):
and we just I'd go on my summersand I'd go and play ping pong,
you know, with all the kids andlike, oh well, this kind of
looks like fun.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
So Thank you so much for listening to today's episode
.
We want to invite you back nextweek as we continue the
conversation and be sure tofollow us on social media to get
all of our content and clipsand anything you might've missed
.
Again, thanks for listening andwe'll see you next week.
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