November 27, 2025 • 46 mins
This week’s episode is all about something we all need a little more of—gratitude, grounding, and giving ourselves grace through the holidays.
With Thanksgiving right around the corner, we’re diving into simple, practical ways you can weave gratitude into your running and daily life. Not in a “force yourself to be grateful” kind of way, but in a gentle, real, “let’s slow down and notice what’s good” way. From a 30-second pre-run gratitude pause to a post-run cool-down chat with yourself, these tiny practices can completely shift your mindset, your training, and honestly… how you feel about your body.
We also talk openly about something many runners struggle with but don’t always discuss—holiday food anxiety. The pressure, the comments, the guilt, the urge to “earn your food”… we’re not doing that this year. I walk you through how to approach holiday meals with more compassion, less fear, and a lot more presence so you can actually enjoy the season without feeling like you’re betraying your goals or your body.
And because consistency can get tough this time of year, we share strategies to help you stay connected to your training without feeling rigid or overwhelmed. Spoiler: flexibility and grace are part of the plan.
We also introduce our brand-new 30-Day Running Reset inside the new RLR app, built to help you rebuild your foundation, reconnect with your body, and fit running, strength, and mobility into real life—even during the busiest season. The app makes it easy, doable, and supportive, so you don’t have to figure things out alone.
As always, we close with a huge dose of gratitude for you—our community. You’re the reason this podcast continues to grow, and it means the world when you leave a review or share the show with another runner who might need it.
Take a breath, take a moment, and let’s step into this holiday season grounded and grateful—together.
01:28 The Power of Gratitude
06:19 Gratitude in Running
13:45 Thanksgiving Food Anxiety
22:09 Reprogramming Your Relationship with Food
22:27 Fueling Your Body for Performance
24:32 The Myth of Ketogenic Diets for Athletes
25:39 Enjoying Holiday Meals Without Guilt
27:55 Training Through the Holiday Season
33:49 Maintaining Consistency and Identity as a Runner
Join the 30 Day Running Reset and get a plan that will help you build a strong and injury-proof body by combining running and strength training in a way that actually works for runners like you.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Angie (00:00):
Welcome back to the Real Life Runners podcast, episode
number 437 Happy Thanksgiving.
If you're listening to thisepisode on the day that it is
released, it is Thanksgivinghere in the United States.
So today we are gonna do alittle Thanksgiving episode.
That's going to be a buffet, ifyou will, smorgasborg of sorts.
talking about all differenttopics.
(00:21):
We're gonna go in a coupledifferent directions here, but
somehow tie'em all back intoThanksgiving, so stay tuned.
(00:50):
What's up runners?
Happy Thanksgiving to all of ourUS people, and if you're not in
the United States, happyThanksgiving to you too.
Even if you don't celebrate, Sotoday we're talking about lots
of things related toThanksgiving.
'cause we were brainstormingwhat we wanted to chat about
this episode.
We were like, we could go inthis direction, we could talk
about gratitude.
And we've done a lot of episodeson gratitude, especially around
(01:11):
Thanksgiving.
But it's never too much, I don'tthink.
'cause I think gratitude is oneof those things that we can tap
into that can completely change.
Our life and also our running.
We talked about, oh, okay, wecan talk about food and we can
talk about how you can eat andnot feel guilty in the holidays,
and we can talk about lots ofdifferent things.
So we're gonna just put it alltogether.
(01:32):
So whether or not you likeTurkey or stuffing or mashed
potatoes or sweet potatoes orapple pie or whatever it is that
you love about Thanksgiving,we're gonna give you a little
bit of all of it today.
It's a
Kevin (01:41):
cornucopia of running around Thanksgiving.
Angie (01:43):
I do like Cornucopias.
They're very pretty.
Very pretty.
Yeah.
So where do you wanna start?
Kevin (01:49):
gratitude.
Angie (01:50):
Gratitude.
Yeah.
I think that we could start,even the topic of gratitude is
such a big topic.
One of the things that I like tothink about, and we've been
doing a gratitude challengeinside of our membership this
month, which I love, and we'vehad a different theme for every
week.
So like week one, we asked ourmembers to post about something
gratitude for the good, becauseI think it's easy for us a lot
(02:11):
of times to be grateful for thegood things in our life.
And so a lot of people wereposting about family and running
and the, lots of different.
Blessings, their dog, where theylive, the good food.
there's lots of good things inour life and I think it's always
a good thing to train the brain,to find the good in our life
because when you choosegratitude, when you
(02:34):
intentionally try to find thegood things in your life, you
are training your brain and yournervous system to continue to
look for those things.
So especially if you are aperson that tends to.
Kind of default to more of apessimistic type of attitude, or
someone that likes to thinkabout all the different things
that are troublesome orworrisome or you have issues
(02:57):
with anxiety and worrying.
Shifting into gratitude andfinding the good things in your
life can truly rewire the waythat you.
Are able to perceive the world.
Kevin (03:07):
it's like when you're buying a car, suddenly those are
the only cars that you see.
if you're looking for aparticular thing, dozens of them
on the road.
Or the story that I like to tellmy students of, it's clearly a
made up story, but it's thecollege professor that said he
was gonna give a pop quiz and hepassed it all to the tests and
they were upside down.
He said, okay.
Everybody turned the page overand.
On the other side of the page,there was simply a blank white
sheet of paper and a single likespot in the middle of the paper,
(03:30):
just a black spot in the middleof the paper.
And he said, your assignment forthis class period is to write
about what And then after likein 45 minutes, everybody turned
their pages in and he startedreading them all out loud to the
class.
And every single persondescribed the spot on the piece
of paper, the size of it, theshape of it, how dark the black
spot was.
No one pointed out the white.
Portion of the paper, which wasthe vast majority of what they
(03:53):
were actually looking at.
And he was like this is yourlife.
The black spots, the smudges arenot the overwhelming amount of
your life, but if that's whereyour attention is drawn, that's
all that you see.
And that's what everybodyactually wrote on.
Angie (04:06):
I like that story.
I've never heard it before.
Thank you.
That's surprising.
I
Kevin (04:09):
made that up just now.
Angie (04:10):
Oh no, I did not.
We've been married for a longtime and I've never heard that
one, but it's so true.
And I think that when you.
Talk about that.
It makes me think of the conceptof having a bad day.
I think that one of the thingsthat we've been navigating is
how to help our teenagedaughters to navigate the world.
(04:32):
Let's just say it that way.
I like it, and I think that alot of people in general.
And I think that it's even moreamplified in our teenage years
because I remember as ateenager, I felt everything was,
I don't wanna say everything wasgoing wrong, but like you, we
tend to, as humans, we do have anegativity bias.
(04:53):
I think that's important for usto understand too, that our
brains have a negativity bias.
We have more negative thoughtsthan positive thoughts every
single day because our brainsare wired for survival.
And so in order to survive.
We have to, or our brains, Ishouldn't say we have to, but
our brains are naturally wiredto find the threats and find the
things that might threaten oursurvival.
(05:15):
So if there's something badgoing on in your life, you are
gonna be more naturally wired tolook at that thing because
that's how your brain is wiredto survive.
And When there are things thatare stressing us out or when
people are not talking, doingthe things that we want or
acting the way that we want,they, it can cause people to
spiral and it can cause peopleto go down that tube and say, oh
(05:38):
God, I just had the worst day.
And I'll never forget somethingthat I read.
And I'm sure lots of people haveseen this, whether it was like
on Instagram or.
Who knows where, and it's justone simple question, which is,
did you have a bad day or didyou have a bad five minutes that
you then let bother you all daylong?
Kevin (05:57):
Yeah, that's what I did a lot when I was in high school
because in, in high school, andI mean I think that it still
happens all the time, but I knowin, in high school particularly
the brain way your brain isdeveloping, the world is much
more centered around you.
And so anything that happens toyou is the entire world like, so
it's not just like a thinghappened in the universe, it was
(06:20):
the center of the universe, hada bad thing happen to it, and
that seems much morecatastrophic.
And so then it's easier to makethat spiral because it.
It was this huge catastrophicthing, even though it was really
like a teacher calling on me andI didn't know the answer in
Spanish class.
Like suddenly that was the worstthing ever.
And looking back on it, it'sfine.
Yeah.
But at the moment it seemedawful.
Angie (06:41):
And I think that's what we have to start to train our
brains to, and this is one ofthe things that gratitude will
help us do is to help see.
All the white space on the pageand not just focus on the black
dots because there's so muchgoodness in our life, especially
if we start to focus on it.
If you just go for a walkoutside and animals running
around, or you are in a placewhere you live, that you are
(07:02):
able to go for a run and notfeel threatened by something.
What a blessing like that aloneis so beautiful, and I go out
for a run sometimes and it'sI've got trees and I've got,
friends that I'm running with.
there's so much that we can begrateful for.
And when we shift to gratitude,it can literally change your
(07:23):
physiology because it helps youto regulate your nervous system
when you have.
An attitude of gratitude.
I'm just gonna go ahead and sayit because it had to.
Yeah, you, somebody had to sayit.
It had to hit at least one timein this episode, you're actually
training your nervous system tofind the good.
And when you find the good, youfeel more relaxed.
And so you're helping to shiftyour nervous system from that
(07:43):
sympathetic fight or flight modewhere that's, when we are
noticing the bad things, that'swhen we tend to get into anxiety
and worrying and spiraling.
And noticing all the ways thatlife is not going our way versus
when we shift into gratitude andwe start to find the good things
and focus on the things thatwe're grateful for.
That actually helps your nervoussystem shift from
(08:06):
parasympathetic or fromsympathetic into parasympathetic
mode, which is your rest andyour recovery and your digest
mode.
And so you are actually, you canthink of it as gratitude
actually helps your training asa runner, which is pretty
freaking cool because.
Your body during the hardworkouts, during the hard runs,
you're in sympathetic mode, butyou're actually building
(08:29):
strength and adapting to yourtraining in parasympathetic
mode.
And so you can use gratitude tohelp shift your body over into
that mode so that your body'sactually recovering and adapting
to your workouts in a betterway.
Kevin (08:42):
This is the benefit of Cool Downs.
The best part of Cool Downs isnot the going out and running
for five to 10 minutes, likethat's not the benefit of it for
the most part.
Like it can be.
Sometimes it's nice to get someof the extra movement in there.
If it's a longer cool down, youcan build up a little bit of
cardio off of that.
But if you're doing like a shortcool down, that five minutes is
not doing a huge amountphysically.
(09:03):
But five minutes with yourfriends that you just did a
workout with can be huge becauseit completely flips your mind
from the hard workout tochatting about anything, even if
it's completely off the workout.
Like the conversation that helpsyou start moving your day
forward into the rest of yourday and off of the very
difficult workout is amazing.
(09:24):
When I was in high school, afterevery race, the varsity squad
would head off.
For a cool down and after fiveminutes, they would find
someplace to sit down and talkabout the race, good, bad, or
otherwise, just talk about therace that was so much more
worthwhile than the 10 minutejog was the 10 minute chat that
was drastically important to howwe felt the next day.
(09:45):
Way, way more important thanjogging around for a little bit.
Angie (09:48):
And I think that's a wonderful example.
I love that you guys did that.
we really need to startimplementing something like that
in our team.
I've tried so many times.
we will keep trying because thatsounds amazing.
And so that to me is a verylike, simple practice that you
implement it as a team, but weas real life runners, maybe you
don't have a running group.
If you do, I think that's agreat idea to just shift into.
(10:12):
Talking about something else.
And that's one of the reasons Ialso love my Tuesday runs
because on my Tuesdays I go outwith my running buddies.
We do a speed workout everyTuesday, so it's not an easy
run, but we always have the cooldown at the end where we run for
at least u usually about 10 ishminutes.
Today it was a little bit longerand my legs were so tired and I
did a lot of walking in the cooldown today,'cause I don't know,
(10:34):
something's a little off with metoday.
I was feeling like a littlelightheaded, but maybe hydration
or fueling or something.
But anyw who.
Once we get back to the parkinglot, there are a couple people
that have to take off and gethome to get their kids off to
school.
But there's a couple of us thatstick around and just do a
little bit of stretching.
And the stretching is helpfulphysically, but it's more also
(10:55):
just allowing your body to winddown before you jump into a car,
tighten up all those muscles andyou just connect, what do you
guys got going this week?
And you just talk about thingsother than running.
So if you.
Even if you don't have a runninggroup, I think that having a
simple gratitude practice maybebefore, during, and after a run,
(11:15):
pick one of them, right?
Like maybe it's before the run.
You're like, I'm thankful forthese shoes that I get to put on
my feet.
Maybe it's after that run whereyou allow yourself to say, you
know what?
I'm really thankful I got my runin today and just take.
Literally three deep breaths.
That's going to help your bodyshift into parasympathetic mode
(11:35):
and get into that recovery sothat your body can start.
Rebuilding and recovering fromyour workout.
Kevin (11:41):
And that gratitude after a run really helps you practice
being grateful.
Whether it was a positive ornegative run.
if you had a bad workout theother on Monday, I almost threw
up on the turnpike.
That was would've not been coolfor the people driving below.
but after the run, I wasgrateful that I was able to put
my body in a position.
What were you doing?
200 meter.
Hard efforts up the how manytimes?
(12:04):
12.
Angie (12:05):
Okay.
Kevin (12:06):
On the last one, I was real, I really pushed it.
Yeah.
and it was harder than I'dpushed in a long time.
And so like with about foursteps to go, it was like, Ooh,
that's breakfast.
and it was, but.
On the cool down on the, likethe jog back to the house'cause
it's a couple miles back to thehouse from that, what we call a
hill here in Florida of the tinylittle overpass over the
turnpike.
that during that two miles itwas like, wow, that was awesome
(12:28):
that I was able to do that.
Just that one that I'm able togo out and run, period.
And two, that I was able to pushmyself so hard that I felt that
terrible briefly.
Angie (12:39):
We are very twisted as runners.
Like I said to our group todayon our real life runners
coaching call.
I'm like, we are weirdos.
Y'all just keep that in mind andwe need to be proud that we're
weirdos because the thing that Ijust thought about too when you
were talking is after a run likethat, when you are just pushing
yourself to that effect.
(13:00):
to that level on that cool down,you're like, oh God, that was
awful.
And I like, that's a lot oftimes like, that was awful.
And I just thought to myself,awful and awesome.
Start with the same two letters.
Kevin (13:12):
Yes.
Aw.
Angie (13:15):
yes.
Kevin (13:15):
Yep.
Angie (13:15):
We're
Kevin (13:16):
just gonna, that's what I got.
That's it.
That's all you have?
Yeah, that's what I've got.
Angie (13:18):
Okay.
So when your brain says awful,you can just say, Aw, awesome.
Instead of all, yeah.
Kevin (13:25):
I'm sure that it's probably Latin.
They're probably basically thesame thing, probably.
Angie (13:30):
anyway, so gratitude.
Yeah.
So gratitude can literallychange your body's.
Physiology and your response toexercise.
So put some gratitude in afteryour run.
That would be my challenge forall of you this week is like
after your runs, after yourworkouts, just take a minute,
literally one minute to findsomething that you're grateful
(13:50):
for and just breathe.
do some deep breathing and I betyou're gonna feel better after
that.
Kevin (13:54):
All right, I gotta rhyme it too,'cause you gotta say it.
So put a little gratitude inyour attitude and then you can
wrap up your run and move alongwith your day.
Okay.
Angie (14:02):
Sounds wonderful.
Perfect.
All right.
Shall we move on to the nexttopic?
Yeah.
What else you got?
so Thanksgiving I think is atime where a lot of runners can
become anxious because of food.
And I say runners, but I justmean people in general.
I think a
Kevin (14:16):
lot of people can become anxious around Thanksgiving
because of food.
Yeah,
Angie (14:19):
because of food.
And I think that.
It makes me sad.
I used to be in this category aswell, that food used to cause
anxiety and I just think it'swild, like when you really think
about it, that food, literallythe thing that God gave us to
nourish our bodies and keep usalive causes anxiety.
(14:39):
Just the act of.
Eating, which is the thing youneed to do to stay alive causes
so much anxiety for us.
And we all know why.
We all know we've talked aboutdiet culture, we've talked about
all the messages that we've beenreceiving since the time that we
were young.
But have you ever just taken amoment to just realize that like
the thing that is actuallykeeping you alive, food is
(15:02):
causing you anxiety?
Because we allow it to.
Kevin (15:06):
Do you think that's part of the success of Turkey trots?
Is people relying on the anxietyof others that if they go off
and run a 5K in the morning,they feel better about the food
later in the day?
Angie (15:15):
100%.
Kevin (15:16):
that's the 100%.
what other big holidays do youstart the day with?
A 5K?
Angie (15:21):
No, it's because people feel like they need to burn
calories in order to earncalories.
But a 5K is just done.
Did you like that rhyme too?
I did
Kevin (15:28):
like that rhyme.
But a 5K is honestly not burningthat many calories.
No, it's
Angie (15:32):
not.
But it's the psychologicalaspect of it, right?
Like it's the psychological ofI'm gonna go push myself hard so
that I can eat without guilt.
Because for some reason we haveit in our mind that just eating.
Requires guilt or eating certainkinds of food or the amount of
food that you're going to eat onThanksgiving.
You have to feel guilty aboutthat unless you do something
(15:54):
like go for a run.
Kevin (15:55):
But you also don't have to eat uncomfortable amounts of
food, right?
Like just because it'sThanksgiving and there are
television shows that suggestthat you should overeat on
Thanksgiving does not mean youhave to.
you could be like, actually, Ireally all of these things.
This is one of the reasons Ithink a lot of people overeat.
If you look at the, like theThanksgiving spread, there's
instead of three differentthings you could put on your
(16:16):
plate, there's eight and youenjoy all of them.
Yeah.
So you want a little bit of allof them and suddenly just a
little bit of all of them is ahuge amount of food sitting on
your plate.
Yeah.
I think that's where, people
Angie (16:25):
also serve themselves like a normal serving of what
they would have.
If there were only three thingsthen, but there's eight and then
now there's eight.
So because like you feel bad insome way, especially with some
families.
Like some families, when peoplebring different dishes, they,
people feel bad if they don'ttake enough because Aunt Rita
(16:46):
made this, I was gonna saythat's grandma.
Kevin (16:48):
Stuffing.
Yeah.
You better eat grandma'sstuffing because Exactly.
We don't know how many moreThanksgivings we'll have with
her.
Angie (16:54):
Oh my God.
Kevin (16:54):
And your
Angie (16:54):
grandma loved feeding you?
Kevin (16:56):
both of them had their own special stuffings.
Yeah.
And so yes, you had to make surethat you had all this, whether.
Either of them were there atThanksgiving or not.
Both types of stuffing had to bemade every year of my childhood,
Angie (17:07):
right.
But there that is guilt, likebuilt into the food right there.
And in that case it was guiltfor you not eating enough food.
And then people have guilt foreating too much food.
So you're screwed either way.
Kevin (17:20):
I literally, I, because there was.
There was Grandma Brown stuffingand Grandma Gail's stuffing.
And I vividly remember havingthis thought as a kid of I have
to eat an equal quantity of bothStuffings.
I need to make sure at all timesthere is the same amount of each
stuffing on my plate.
So I'd have one bite of one andthen one bite of another to make
sure there was matching amountsof stuffing at all times.
(17:41):
Did
Angie (17:41):
you have a lot of Thanksgivings with both
grandparents?
Kevin (17:44):
No, I never had.
But both.
You never did?
No, but both Stuffings wereserved every Thanksgiving.
Angie (17:49):
Did they send them or your mom made both versions?
What?
Why?
Kevin (17:54):
My mom made both versions.
she made her mom's version.
And then when Grandma Brown wasthere, my dad's mom, she would
make her version.
And so then there were twostuffings.
But I feel like either.
My dad's parents came outregularly for Thanksgiving, or
there may have been times thatmy mom made the other stuffing,
(18:15):
and then we had both of themthere, even without
grandparents.
I don't know.
Thanksgivings were not aconsistent holiday.
One year we had a randomAustralian guy at our house for
Thanksgiving, I remember.
Yep.
I definitely remember him andhis name was Kevin.
I remember that.
we had a random Australian guyfor Thanksgiving one year, and
his name was also Kevin.
That was excellent.
That was a weird holiday.
Angie (18:34):
maybe it's.
Maybe your dad wanted his mom'sstuffing and so your mom made
both?
Kevin (18:38):
Possibly.
But her stuffing was not as goodand that was the problem because
I felt like I should eat asmatching amount of both of them.
Angie (18:46):
Yeah, so guilt around food, right?
Like I think that this is whatthis topic is going back to, and
we talked about this on our calltoday as well.
Where I told people and justreminded them like, you don't
have to feel guilty for eatingfood, and if you think that
you're going to overeat, reremember, like you do have
(19:08):
control with how much food youput on your plate and just
because someone might be upsetwith you.
Doesn't mean that you have toovereat to the point where you
feel uncomfortable.
It doesn't mean that you need tohave guilt over the amount that
you're eating.
Like I feel like I've gottenpretty good at this over the
years because I used to overeat,because I would want, like I
(19:30):
genuinely liked the food that wewere eating, and so I would just
eat it and then I would getuncomfortable and now I.
Put stuff on my plate and I eatwhat I want to eat.
I have a little bit ofeverything and usually I end up
taking too much and then I handmy plate to Kevin.
Kevin (19:45):
Yes.
Because I usually have threeplates for Thanksgiving.
so I have mine, then I cleanyours, and then I go back and
get myself a second plate.
Yeah.
And then sometimes just a littlebit extra of your cranberry
sauce.
because
Angie (19:55):
my cranberry sauce is good.
It is
Kevin (19:56):
amazing.
Yeah.
Did you see I got two bags ofcranberries just in case you
wanted to make some extra.
Angie (20:00):
we have to make two.
Perfect.
Yeah, I always make two.
Kevin (20:02):
Oh, good.
Okay.
I was hoping I, maybe I shouldgo back.
get a third bag.
Angie (20:06):
Perfect.
But I think that, first of all,it's important that we are
aware, right?
Like of what your, what are yourthoughts around food, around
Thanksgiving, around thisholiday or this meal, and.
What do you want them to be?
I think that those are the twothat I like to what I would also
invite you to journal on theseif you want to, is like, what
(20:28):
are my current thoughts?
And then just write them down.
Just dump them out on a piece ofpaper and then ask yourself, how
do I wanna feel aboutThanksgiving?
Or what do I want my thoughts tobe on this Thanksgiving?
What?
What is your intention like?
My intention is I'm gonna make alot of really good food and I'm
going to eat the food that Iwant to eat without guilt, and
(20:48):
I'm going to eat things onThanksgiving that I don't
normally eat, and that's okay.
I'm going to eat.
More sweets than I normally eat,more desserts than I normally
eat, more carbohydrates than Inormally eat.
And that's okay.
one day is not going to derailyour nutrition.
It's not gonna cause you to gaina bunch of weight.
It's not going to derail yourtraining.
(21:10):
And this is really important forus to hear because there's so
many people out there that thinkI need to make up for what I
eat, or I have to burn caloriesin advance in order to create
this calorie deficit so thatwhen I eat, I am not.
Going overboard, and that's justnot the way that your body
works.
Like your body always wants tobe in homeostasis.
We all remember the wordhomeostasis from like biology 1
(21:34):
0 1, but it's your body's senseof balance.
And so if you're overeating onone day, just the same way as if
you undereat on one day.
You're not going to starve.
If you overeat on one day,you're not gonna suddenly gain
10 pounds.
And I know that if you're awoman in perimenopause or post
menopause, sometimes it feelsthat way because sometimes it
feels like your body's just notresponding the way that it used
(21:55):
to.
And it feels like just lookingat food will cause you to gain
weight, which is not obviouslytrue, but it's a lot of things
that are going on in your bodyin the changing hormones and
things like that it, they do.
Change the way that your bodyresponds to food.
So we do need to be moreintentional with the choices
that we're making.
That doesn't mean that we needto diet, it doesn't mean that we
(22:16):
need to restrict, it just meansthat we have to be intentional.
So if there's a food that youreally like, enjoy it.
Put it on your plate, eat it,and try do your best not to feel
guilty about it because you dohave that choice.
You have been programmed.
A lot of us have likely beenprogrammed to feel a certain
level of guilt when it comes tofood, but.
(22:39):
That is actually optional.
That guilt is optional and youcan start to reprogram the way
that you feel about food.
Kevin (22:46):
All right, I wanna go one, one step further than this.
If you go out for a run the dayafter Thanksgiving and you
indulge nicely on Thanksgiving,you ate a whole bunch of food,
at some point you may haveactually felt even twofold, and
you go and you run on the dayafter Thanksgiving and you feel
good on that run, you are like,man, I feel really good on this
run.
Consider that you might not befueling yourself enough on most
(23:10):
of your days.
If the day that you really wentfor it and you ate a whole bunch
of stuff, and you may even hadjust a little bit of guilt that
you're trying to actually beokay with, but then you felt
amazing on your run that thenext day it's possible that you
actually just fully fueled yourbody on Thursday, and then when
you headed out for a run onFriday morning, you felt be good
because there was enough.
(23:30):
Fuel in your body to do the workthat you're asking it to do,
because that has been the casewith some people that we've had
on our team.
That's been the case with somekids that have had on the
cross-country team is they werelike, oh man, I ate so much on
Thanksgiving.
But then I went for a run onthat Friday and it was the best
I felt in months.
I'm like, oh, that.
That might not be the sign thatyou think that it is, like that
might just be that you've beenunder fueled for the last two
(23:52):
months.
that was, that's I thought itwas a weird takeaway.
Angie (23:55):
What a weird takeaway.
Kevin (23:57):
because that wasn't the connection they made.
They thought that there wassomething like magic that they'd
eaten the day before, and I'mlike, no, it's that you actually
ate the day before.
Angie (24:04):
Yeah.
And they.
Ate enough carbs too.
Because Thanksgiving does tendto be a more carb heavy type of
meal.
Like a traditional Thanksgivingmeal does tend to have more
carbohydrates than protein andvegetables.
Kevin (24:17):
it's carbs with a side of carbs.
that is really the meal.
It's a Turkey surrounded bycarbs.
Angie (24:21):
Yeah.
And again, this is not bad,right?
these holiday meals that wehave, they're not actually bad.
They can actually support yourtraining.
Like what Kevin just said, ifyou are someone that normally
restricts carbohydrates and youhave a bunch of carbs on
Thanksgiving, and you feelbetter the next day, then think
about that, right?
Like maybe it's worthwhile foryou to track your intake for a
(24:43):
couple of days.
Actually see, am I gettingenough carbohydrates?
Because carbohydrates are yourbody's preferred source of fuel
as a runner.
They have done multiple studies.
I know there was like this wholepush towards like keto adapted
becoming a fat adapted athleteand all this baloney, but
there's plenty of researchstudies out now that show.
(25:04):
Ketogenic diets and fat adaptedtraining can actually lead to a
decrease in performance in mostpeople.
Now, there's always outliers,right?
There might be like thisphenomenal triathlete that is
fat adapted, that it works forthat one person, but as a whole,
as the human species,carbohydrates are your body's
preferred source of fuel.
Kevin (25:25):
That was like the elite triathlon when we were kids and
watching like the Hawaii Ironmanon television.
Yeah.
That guy who like won it reallyis that guy.
Yeah.
He won it like six times in arow and then he made this huge
push to be like ketogenic andfueled purely off of an
incredibly low carb diet.
But he was a freak of nature.
Yeah.
Like he had already won.
Like the Ironman WorldChampionship multiple years in a
(25:48):
row and then was like, I'm gonnado this to my diet.
He could have done whatever hewanted to his diet.
He could have fueled the entireday on gummy worms and probably
still would've beaten the fieldbecause that was the freak of
nature athlete that he was.
Yeah.
Angie (26:00):
And so essentially, I would invite you all on this
Thanksgiving if you're,especially if you're listening
to this on Thanksgiving morning,and you have the rest of the day
ahead of you, is to approachthis day with enjoyment, with
confidence with.
Without guilt, right?
And just say, okay, I'm gonna goin and I'm gonna eat some food
today.
that is a factual statement.
You don't have to put a good ora bad on it.
(26:23):
Like food is not moral.
I'm gonna say that again.
There is no morality to food.
There is no food that is good orbad.
Food is food.
Food is fuel for your body.
Your body takes the food and itbreaks it down into different
particles in the body, and lotsof them become glucose.
Some of them become amino acids,like they all get broken down in
(26:45):
the body.
Some of it turn turns into fecesand you just.
Crap it out.
this is what happens.
You took the whole route
Kevin (26:51):
there,
Angie (26:51):
didn't you?
I did.
I went the whole way.
But like it's when you thinkabout it more objectively like
that, right?
I think that you maybe you canremove some of the guilt.
if you, maybe you just think toyourself like, I'm probably just
gonna crap this out anyway.
Kevin (27:05):
I'm sorry, I was laughing so hard because I had made the
joke that pause in the sentencewas a colon that you put in
there was that not appropriate?
Angie (27:11):
It was an M dash, not a colon.
It was a colon.
Yeah, I know, I get it.
Think
Kevin (27:15):
just because of the colon,'cause of the digestive
system.
Angie (27:19):
Do you wanna say the word crap too?
He's literally walking awaylaughing.
Anyway, If you are listening tothis after Thanksgiving, it's
also not too late to rewriteyour thoughts about it, right?
So even if you did have guilt onthat day, you can choose today
to start thinking about itdifferently, which is a pretty
cool thing.
You can literally reroute.
(27:41):
Rewrite your story and rewriteyour thoughts anytime you want
to.
And it doesn't mean that thosethoughts are never gonna come up
again.
Because when you have awell-worn pathway in your brain
of a thought and a belief thatyou've been thinking for a very
long time, it does take time andreworking of that thought.
'cause it's gonna pop up andyou're gonna have to rewrite it
and it's gonna pop up and you'rehave to rewrite it.
this is part of what it means torewire your brain or change your
(28:03):
mindset.
It's not easy, but it ispossible.
Kevin (28:06):
I like it.
All right.
What else do we got besidesgratitude and food?
Angie (28:10):
Where would you like to go?
I don't know.
I have a place.
Kevin (28:12):
Okay, go for it.
Angie (28:13):
What about you?
Kevin (28:14):
no.
you lead the way.
Angie (28:15):
I lead the way.
So the last part that I wasthinking about was training
through the holidays, becauseThanksgiving starts the holiday
season and we go throughChristmas and then we go into
the new year and there's a lotof people in this time of the
year that get quote unquotederailed from their training.
And so I wanted to talk abouthow to navigate the holidays and
(28:38):
run through the holidays.
Without the guilt, without theshame, without the baloney and
how to do so more like withintention, because there's a lot
of stuff going on in this timeand there's some people that
just throw up their hands andthey're like, I'm just not gonna
be consistent during this timebecause life is too crazy.
And if that's what you want todo.
Then fine, make that choice.
(28:59):
And then again, don't feelguilty about it because you made
that choice intentionally.
So if you're like, whatever, mytrain's gonna be inconsistent,
then don't be mad at yourselfwhen, if you gain weight over
the holiday or if yourperformance declines, or if you
have a race in the spring andyou're not well prepared for it.
'cause if you're gonna choose tobe inconsistent, you can't be
(29:20):
mad at the results ofinconsistency.
Kevin (29:22):
Yeah, the December, this is a benefit of my having a race
in January is you're, I'm notallowed to have inconsistency
through December.
it's just, it's not apossibility.
If you have a spring, it's
Angie (29:32):
always a possibility.
It's just not the choice thatyou're gonna make.
Which,
Kevin (29:35):
it's certainly not the choice I'm making.
you're right.
it is a choice I could make.
Yeah.
I could phone it in December andDNF in January.
that is.
That is likely the consequenceof that choice is how that would
play out.
Angie (29:47):
think about your first marathon in Chicago, like when
you were 21 years old and youdecided not to train for the
three weeks leading up to themarathon.
Well,
Kevin (29:56):
I decided that I needed to pass those classes and there
were a lot of tests,
Angie (29:59):
which was a good choice.
Kevin (30:01):
Yes, there were a lot of tests and a lot of projects that
were due.
Yeah, and I was, I still ran, Iran three Wednesdays in a row on
the intermural cross countryrace, so I did three, five Ks in
three weeks.
That was my final preparation.
We call it tapering.
Angie (30:14):
Tapering, but tho those choices led to the.
Experience that you had inChicago, which was poor, which
was less than ideal, right?
you still ran a ridiculouslyfast time because of who you are
and what your running backgroundis.
But it led to that was a bit ofa struggle for you.
Yeah,
Kevin (30:32):
it, it was way more painful at mile 22 than it
should have been.
I've done more races and I knowthe pain of mile 22, that mile
22 was a different sensation andit wasn't just,'cause it was the
first time that I'd ever runthat far.
It was the first time I'd runthat far and been so ill
prepared for the task I wasundertaking.
Angie (30:50):
Yeah.
So the number one thing that Iwant you all to take into the
holidays is the fact.
It says, this is not a belief,it's a fact.
This is a fact.
And there's, not a ton of factsin the world nowadays, but the
fact is, you have a choice.
You have a choice on how tonavigate these holidays.
(31:10):
There are things that are goingto pop up and there are things
that are going to not be fullyin your control, but you always
have a choice in how you respondto them.
So you can.
Think that you don't have timeand you can think that, you know
you're going to be inconsistent.
And if you're thinking thoughthose things, the result is
likely that you're gonna missworkouts and be inconsistent.
(31:34):
Versus if you realize I have achoice here and I'm going to
intentionally, I'm going to beintentional with these choices.
Maybe I'm not gonna be able toget in my normal 60 minute
training session, but.
I have time for a 30 minute, Ihave time for a 20 minute.
I have time, and I'm going tochoose to make time for this
because this is important to me.
(31:55):
So yes, there's a lot of thingsgoing on and yes, you might have
to make some adjustments, butyou can be intentional and put
something in, even if it's just10 minutes of movement, like you
have 10 minutes at some point inyour day.
Maybe not every day, but youdefinitely, I would argue you do
have 10 minutes somewhere inyour day.
Kevin (32:15):
You do as long as you can get over some of the thoughts
that you're disappointing otherpeople.
Because if you have people comein and visit or you're visiting
other people for the holidaysand you wanna spend as much time
with them as possible, it canfeel impossible to leave and go
get in a run.
Angie (32:30):
Yeah.
But how many of those times thatyou feel that way do you, are
you like sitting on the couch,like watching a movie, which is
great.
I'm not trying to knock on thatby any means, but you're also
sitting there being resentful.
Of that.
A hundred percent.
Been there like you're sittingthere dude, I could be out on a
run right now.
Like what?
We're not even talking, we'reall just watching tv.
And not to say that's not afamily activity because that is
(32:53):
a family activity that a lot ofpeople engage in, but.
Then you're sitting there andyou're mad about it.
Als also.
Kevin (33:00):
Yeah.
And it's not even the movie thatyou wanted to choose.
So now you're upset with that.
And Timmy's over there playingon his phone and you were
supposed to stay so that youcould talk and albe as a family,
and your brain just startsspiraling that direction.
And it doesn't have to.
You could be like, oh, this isan activity that I can actually
opt out of.
Like the activities where peopleare super engaged.
(33:20):
quite frankly, you could opt outof those also, but you can find
time to separate yourself, evenif it feels like you should be
spending all the time with afamily that you are visiting or
is visiting you.
You can create time.
You can simply choose to opt outof whatever event you want to.
But there is, as you pointedout, there is likely events
(33:41):
during that where you're like.
I, no one's going to even missme if I'm not here during this
window.
I could go get in even a longrun.
They just started a two and ahalf hour movie.
I could take off for two hoursand no one will notice.
Angie (33:53):
Or you could choose to wake up early, that's another
thing.
And get up and do your thingbefore the rest of the family is
even awake.
Kevin (34:01):
Yes.
Be, unless they're waking upwith a crack of dawn to put a
Turkey into the oven.
Angie (34:05):
Yeah.
Yeah.
there's always that, How can youstay connected to your body, to
your training routine?
Even when your, like the, yournormal daily routine changes.
The number one key in my opinionis going back to your identity
as a runner, your identity as anathlete, because as a runner you
(34:25):
are an athlete.
So as someone who runs, you area runner.
Let's take it a step back.
Okay.
So if you're listening to thispodcast and you don't think
you're a runner.
You are listening to a runningpodcast.
So in all likelihood, prettymuch I can say with probably 99%
certainty, you are a runner.
So if you run regardless of yourpace, regardless of your
(34:47):
distance, if you just put someshoes on and head out the door
and go run, you are a runner.
And as a runner you are.
Athlete and as an athlete, youneed to think about all of the
things that affect how youtrain.
Because if you're listening to arunning podcast and you want
your running to improve in someway, it's not just about, it's
not just something that you doin order to lose weight or stay
(35:11):
healthy, like you probably wantto improve in some way.
And so you have to startthinking, okay.
It's not just about my runninganymore as an athlete, I have to
think about my mindset, numberone, my identity as an athlete.
I have to think about myrunning.
I have to think about strengthtraining and nutrition and
recovery and sleep, and all ofthese pieces that play a role in
(35:33):
how I feel as a runner.
Because when you.
Ignore those things.
Your running's not gonna feelgreat, and then you're gonna be
less motivated to do it.
You're gonna be less consistentand you're gonna fall back into
this trap.
But if you are thinking aboutthese things, like I know that,
like we can look at it in twodifferent ways here, right?
Because you already have a lotof things on your plate over the
holidays, and so if you'retrying to also think about
(35:55):
nutrition and training.
Recovery and all of thesethings, some people can move
into that state of overwhelm,but it doesn't have to be
complicated.
It can be simple things that youdo to stay connected to
yourself, to make sure that yourbody continues to feel good so
that you can show up in the bestway for the holidays.
You can be present with yourfamily and doing all of the
(36:18):
millions of.
Errands and things that you haveto do, ordering all the
Christmas presents, going,shopping, traveling, all these
things, all of those things arevery physically demanding as
well, and mentally demanding andrunning can help you stay on
track, both physically andmentally.
So it's something that you canactually do to help yourself
show up and handle the holidaysa much better way.
Kevin (36:38):
It can be.
It can be your source ofgrounding no matter what else is
going on.
And no matter how your schedulegets thrown around that run in
your day, and if you're stayinghome, if you're in your same
location, it can be thatconsistency of the loop that you
always do just provides somestability when everything else
seems to be changing and you goout for that same loop, that's a
(36:59):
very stable place.
And if you're traveling andyou're in some.
New place.
Just being able to say, allright, I'm still gonna go out
and run for 30 minutes becausethat's what I do.
I'm gonna go get in 45 minutes'cause that's what I do.
That consistency can be superhelpful and use that as a
grounding thing as the worldaround you continues to spin.
Because there's a lot ofschedules that get thrown off
(37:20):
over the holiday season and Ithink that's what leads to most
of the inconsistency.
But saying, Hey.
It's Tuesday and on Tuesdays Ido.
This is really helpful.
Having some sort of scheduleplanned out for what December is
going to look like, even knowingthat it's probably going to not
follow that schedule perfectly,but having a plan for December
(37:41):
that you can then adjust, oh,this is what I was gonna do on
Monday, but on Monday.
The whole family decided to dothis thing for four hours and I
can't get my run in after it.
So if you have a plan, it'seasier to adjust a week when
your plan is.
I'll run when I have time.
It's a lot easier to never findthat time.
So the better scheduled youhave, the more likely you are to
(38:04):
maintain your consistency.
Angie (38:05):
Yeah, I totally agree.
If you want help with that, ifnow is a great time for me to
put a shameless plug in here.
I've created a program calledThe 30 Day Running Reset, and it
gives you exactly what you needto do on every single day.
It gives you your runs.
It's a program that gives youboth your running days and your
strength.
Days.
So it integrates strengthtraining and mobility and you're
(38:26):
running together.
And depending on where you are,you can do this in 20 to 30
minutes a day.
We can use plans and workoutsthat meet you where you are.
And this is really important.
It also gives you daily lessonsso that you can start to.
Work on some of those otherhabits that are going to support
you as a runner, like the sleepand hydration and nutrition.
(38:49):
Like you get one lesson everyday.
The lessons are usually betweenfive to 10 minutes.
There's a couple that are like15 minutes.
but it's a daily thing to keepyou on track and we.
I just launched a brand new app,so the 30 day reset is now in
our brand new app, and so allyou have to do when you sign up
over@realliferunners.com slashreset, you sign up for the
(39:11):
program, you're gonna get anemail that invites you to our
app.
You click that link and thenyou're gonna set up a your
account in the app, and then ittakes you to the home screen.
You're gonna answer a couplequestions so we can see where
you are right now, and thenevery single day.
Your activity and your task ofthe day shows up right there on
your home screen.
So it's one of those, greatthings where if you are a box
(39:34):
checker like I am, that you lovechecking the boxes.
You just have your task for theday.
You watch the video, you checkthe box, you do the daily action
item.
You check the box and it willtake you through 30 days and so
that you don't even realize it,but you are just continuing to
get stronger, to buildconsistency and also to build
these other habits that aresupporting your running.
(39:55):
Every single day for 30 days.
Kevin (39:57):
that's a great way to cover the month of December
where a lot of people getderailed.
Like you could actually be like,ah, I was just gonna throw it in
and maybe I'll get a new startin January.
You could start now, right?
And cruise into the new year,actually.
Angie (40:09):
Yeah, and that's one of the reasons that I mentioned
this because it is one of thosethings where a lot of people
just blow off this time of yearand they're like, oh, I'll
figure it out when January 1stcomes around.
I'll get back on it in the newyear.
But imagine.
Where you would be on January1st if you didn't do that?
Like where, what would you feellike on January 1st knowing that
you had been consistent over thepast 30 days?
(40:32):
And I always tell our teammembers too.
Consistency is not aboutperfection.
They are not the same.
A lot of people think, oh,consistency means I can't miss a
workout.
I have to be perfect.
That is not what it means.
Here at Real Life Runners.
We believe that consistency isvery important, but consistency
looks different for every singleperson.
It's not about never missing it,it's about being intentional and
(40:54):
trying to get it in andunderstanding.
Sometimes life gets in the wayand then you're gonna get right
back on it.
You're going to get right on thenext task.
And that's the beauty of thisprogram and of this app because
those tasks are there.
So if you miss a day, it'll staythere until you check it off.
So you can just alright, Imissed this day.
I'm gonna just get back on itthe next day and then you can
get back on that.
And again, it'll just help takeyou through the holidays, giving
(41:18):
you exact exactly what to do.
Four your runs give you theexact strength workouts, the
exact mobility exercises, you goright through, it's all right
there in the app.
You can watch a videodemonstration of the exercise
you put in, how much, how manyreps you did.
If you're using a weight, youcan put that in and you check
off the exercise and you just gothrough it.
(41:39):
and it's a fantastic app and.
We've just been getting the bestfeedback on it.
Kevin (41:42):
In case you can't tell.
Angie's really excited about ournew app and wants to share this
with the world.
I do.
She's very excited for it.
So give it a shot.
It's gonna be amazing.
Angie (41:52):
Yeah, and I'm continuing, like I'm still building the app
out.
So the 30 day program is.
Basically built out at thispoint, but I'm continuing to add
new things to the app, so it'sgoing to be something that I'm
just so excited about.
And so when you're done with a30 day reset, if you wanna
continue on as part of themembership, then that's an
option too, because you're gonnasee how freaking amazing this
(42:13):
is.
Kevin (42:13):
If you started now, that could be a Christmas present.
God, this all just lays outperfectly.
It's like you've got this wholething planned out.
This is gonna be fantastic.
Alright, so to recap, let's begrateful for everything.
I'm super grateful for you.
And, and the running of thewhole year.
but mainly you, because withoutyou, I don't think that I could
run as much as I possibly do.
so thankful for you and youtaking care of me and our whole
(42:37):
family.
and this podcast and this wholereal life runner community, that
you support all of us.
And I think I speak for a lot ofpeople when I say thank you for
taking care of us.
Angie (42:48):
Thank you.
I'm thankful for you too, and Ididn't have a little speech
prepared, but I love you and I'mvery thankful for you also, for
everything that you do tosupport me.
And all of my crazy ideas inbusiness and in life.
Like a new app.
Like a new app.
This app is a game changer, I'mtelling you.
but yeah, I think that.
you and I make a very good pairand a good partnership.
(43:11):
and I support you and yousupport me, and we support each
other, and I think that'sexactly what a marriage is
supposed to be.
Kevin (43:16):
Perfect.
happy anniversary.
It
Angie (43:19):
is our in,
Kevin (43:19):
it was our anniversary last week.
It was recent enough.
Angie (43:21):
Yeah.
So anywho, If you wanna get inon the 30 day reset, again, that
website is real liferunners.com/reset.
But if you just go to thehomepage, there's a link, on the
homepage of real liferunners.com.
That'll take you there as well.
And if you have any questions,just reach out, let me know.
I can help you to personalizethe plan.
So if there are certainexercises that you can't do, if
(43:43):
you are, if the runs, if you'renot able to run 30 minutes yet,
we can tailor it, we can do arun walk thing.
So the goal of this program,like I said again, is to meet
you where you are.
And that is the most importantthing because if you are jumping
into a program that is beyondwhat you're currently capable
of, that is a very quick way tobecoming inconsistent.
Not motivated or even gettinginjured, and we don't want that
(44:05):
for you.
We want this to be like thekickstart into 2026 and get
getting you like off and readyso that on January 1st you're
not starting over.
You are just continuing the goodhabits.
You've already started thismonth.
thanks for joining us.
We are grateful, so so gratefulto all of you.
All of you listeners that, thatdownload the episode, that share
the episode, thank you for allof you that have left us
(44:27):
reviews.
If you haven't yet, that's awonderful way for you to show
gratitude towards us and to showthat you're grateful for the
podcast that we put out everysingle week by leaving us a
review on Apple Podcasts orSpotify.
we would be so appreciative ofthat.
And as always, thanks forjoining us.
This has been The Real LifeRunners podcast, episode number
437.
(44:47):
Now, get out there and run yourlife.
Welcome back to the Real Life Runners podcast, episode
number 437 Happy Thanksgiving.
If you're listening to thisepisode on the day that it is
released, it is Thanksgivinghere in the United States.
So today we are gonna do alittle Thanksgiving episode.
That's going to be a buffet, ifyou will, smorgasborg of sorts.
talking about all differenttopics.
(00:21):
We're gonna go in a coupledifferent directions here, but
somehow tie'em all back intoThanksgiving, so stay tuned.
(00:50):
What's up runners?
Happy Thanksgiving to all of ourUS people, and if you're not in
the United States, happyThanksgiving to you too.
Even if you don't celebrate, Sotoday we're talking about lots
of things related toThanksgiving.
'cause we were brainstormingwhat we wanted to chat about
this episode.
We were like, we could go inthis direction, we could talk
about gratitude.
And we've done a lot of episodeson gratitude, especially around
(01:11):
Thanksgiving.
But it's never too much, I don'tthink.
'cause I think gratitude is oneof those things that we can tap
into that can completely change.
Our life and also our running.
We talked about, oh, okay, wecan talk about food and we can
talk about how you can eat andnot feel guilty in the holidays,
and we can talk about lots ofdifferent things.
So we're gonna just put it alltogether.
(01:32):
So whether or not you likeTurkey or stuffing or mashed
potatoes or sweet potatoes orapple pie or whatever it is that
you love about Thanksgiving,we're gonna give you a little
bit of all of it today.
It's a
Kevin (01:41):
cornucopia of running around Thanksgiving.
Angie (01:43):
I do like Cornucopias.
They're very pretty.
Very pretty.
Yeah.
So where do you wanna start?
Kevin (01:49):
gratitude.
Angie (01:50):
Gratitude.
Yeah.
I think that we could start,even the topic of gratitude is
such a big topic.
One of the things that I like tothink about, and we've been
doing a gratitude challengeinside of our membership this
month, which I love, and we'vehad a different theme for every
week.
So like week one, we asked ourmembers to post about something
gratitude for the good, becauseI think it's easy for us a lot
(02:11):
of times to be grateful for thegood things in our life.
And so a lot of people wereposting about family and running
and the, lots of different.
Blessings, their dog, where theylive, the good food.
there's lots of good things inour life and I think it's always
a good thing to train the brain,to find the good in our life
because when you choosegratitude, when you
(02:34):
intentionally try to find thegood things in your life, you
are training your brain and yournervous system to continue to
look for those things.
So especially if you are aperson that tends to.
Kind of default to more of apessimistic type of attitude, or
someone that likes to thinkabout all the different things
that are troublesome orworrisome or you have issues
(02:57):
with anxiety and worrying.
Shifting into gratitude andfinding the good things in your
life can truly rewire the waythat you.
Are able to perceive the world.
Kevin (03:07):
it's like when you're buying a car, suddenly those are
the only cars that you see.
if you're looking for aparticular thing, dozens of them
on the road.
Or the story that I like to tellmy students of, it's clearly a
made up story, but it's thecollege professor that said he
was gonna give a pop quiz and hepassed it all to the tests and
they were upside down.
He said, okay.
Everybody turned the page overand.
On the other side of the page,there was simply a blank white
sheet of paper and a single likespot in the middle of the paper,
(03:30):
just a black spot in the middleof the paper.
And he said, your assignment forthis class period is to write
about what And then after likein 45 minutes, everybody turned
their pages in and he startedreading them all out loud to the
class.
And every single persondescribed the spot on the piece
of paper, the size of it, theshape of it, how dark the black
spot was.
No one pointed out the white.
Portion of the paper, which wasthe vast majority of what they
(03:53):
were actually looking at.
And he was like this is yourlife.
The black spots, the smudges arenot the overwhelming amount of
your life, but if that's whereyour attention is drawn, that's
all that you see.
And that's what everybodyactually wrote on.
Angie (04:06):
I like that story.
I've never heard it before.
Thank you.
That's surprising.
I
Kevin (04:09):
made that up just now.
Angie (04:10):
Oh no, I did not.
We've been married for a longtime and I've never heard that
one, but it's so true.
And I think that when you.
Talk about that.
It makes me think of the conceptof having a bad day.
I think that one of the thingsthat we've been navigating is
how to help our teenagedaughters to navigate the world.
(04:32):
Let's just say it that way.
I like it, and I think that alot of people in general.
And I think that it's even moreamplified in our teenage years
because I remember as ateenager, I felt everything was,
I don't wanna say everything wasgoing wrong, but like you, we
tend to, as humans, we do have anegativity bias.
(04:53):
I think that's important for usto understand too, that our
brains have a negativity bias.
We have more negative thoughtsthan positive thoughts every
single day because our brainsare wired for survival.
And so in order to survive.
We have to, or our brains, Ishouldn't say we have to, but
our brains are naturally wiredto find the threats and find the
things that might threaten oursurvival.
(05:15):
So if there's something badgoing on in your life, you are
gonna be more naturally wired tolook at that thing because
that's how your brain is wiredto survive.
And When there are things thatare stressing us out or when
people are not talking, doingthe things that we want or
acting the way that we want,they, it can cause people to
spiral and it can cause peopleto go down that tube and say, oh
(05:38):
God, I just had the worst day.
And I'll never forget somethingthat I read.
And I'm sure lots of people haveseen this, whether it was like
on Instagram or.
Who knows where, and it's justone simple question, which is,
did you have a bad day or didyou have a bad five minutes that
you then let bother you all daylong?
Kevin (05:57):
Yeah, that's what I did a lot when I was in high school
because in, in high school, andI mean I think that it still
happens all the time, but I knowin, in high school particularly
the brain way your brain isdeveloping, the world is much
more centered around you.
And so anything that happens toyou is the entire world like, so
it's not just like a thinghappened in the universe, it was
(06:20):
the center of the universe, hada bad thing happen to it, and
that seems much morecatastrophic.
And so then it's easier to makethat spiral because it.
It was this huge catastrophicthing, even though it was really
like a teacher calling on me andI didn't know the answer in
Spanish class.
Like suddenly that was the worstthing ever.
And looking back on it, it'sfine.
Yeah.
But at the moment it seemedawful.
Angie (06:41):
And I think that's what we have to start to train our
brains to, and this is one ofthe things that gratitude will
help us do is to help see.
All the white space on the pageand not just focus on the black
dots because there's so muchgoodness in our life, especially
if we start to focus on it.
If you just go for a walkoutside and animals running
around, or you are in a placewhere you live, that you are
(07:02):
able to go for a run and notfeel threatened by something.
What a blessing like that aloneis so beautiful, and I go out
for a run sometimes and it'sI've got trees and I've got,
friends that I'm running with.
there's so much that we can begrateful for.
And when we shift to gratitude,it can literally change your
(07:23):
physiology because it helps youto regulate your nervous system
when you have.
An attitude of gratitude.
I'm just gonna go ahead and sayit because it had to.
Yeah, you, somebody had to sayit.
It had to hit at least one timein this episode, you're actually
training your nervous system tofind the good.
And when you find the good, youfeel more relaxed.
And so you're helping to shiftyour nervous system from that
(07:43):
sympathetic fight or flight modewhere that's, when we are
noticing the bad things, that'swhen we tend to get into anxiety
and worrying and spiraling.
And noticing all the ways thatlife is not going our way versus
when we shift into gratitude andwe start to find the good things
and focus on the things thatwe're grateful for.
That actually helps your nervoussystem shift from
(08:06):
parasympathetic or fromsympathetic into parasympathetic
mode, which is your rest andyour recovery and your digest
mode.
And so you are actually, you canthink of it as gratitude
actually helps your training asa runner, which is pretty
freaking cool because.
Your body during the hardworkouts, during the hard runs,
you're in sympathetic mode, butyou're actually building
(08:29):
strength and adapting to yourtraining in parasympathetic
mode.
And so you can use gratitude tohelp shift your body over into
that mode so that your body'sactually recovering and adapting
to your workouts in a betterway.
Kevin (08:42):
This is the benefit of Cool Downs.
The best part of Cool Downs isnot the going out and running
for five to 10 minutes, likethat's not the benefit of it for
the most part.
Like it can be.
Sometimes it's nice to get someof the extra movement in there.
If it's a longer cool down, youcan build up a little bit of
cardio off of that.
But if you're doing like a shortcool down, that five minutes is
not doing a huge amountphysically.
(09:03):
But five minutes with yourfriends that you just did a
workout with can be huge becauseit completely flips your mind
from the hard workout tochatting about anything, even if
it's completely off the workout.
Like the conversation that helpsyou start moving your day
forward into the rest of yourday and off of the very
difficult workout is amazing.
(09:24):
When I was in high school, afterevery race, the varsity squad
would head off.
For a cool down and after fiveminutes, they would find
someplace to sit down and talkabout the race, good, bad, or
otherwise, just talk about therace that was so much more
worthwhile than the 10 minutejog was the 10 minute chat that
was drastically important to howwe felt the next day.
(09:45):
Way, way more important thanjogging around for a little bit.
Angie (09:48):
And I think that's a wonderful example.
I love that you guys did that.
we really need to startimplementing something like that
in our team.
I've tried so many times.
we will keep trying because thatsounds amazing.
And so that to me is a verylike, simple practice that you
implement it as a team, but weas real life runners, maybe you
don't have a running group.
If you do, I think that's agreat idea to just shift into.
(10:12):
Talking about something else.
And that's one of the reasons Ialso love my Tuesday runs
because on my Tuesdays I go outwith my running buddies.
We do a speed workout everyTuesday, so it's not an easy
run, but we always have the cooldown at the end where we run for
at least u usually about 10 ishminutes.
Today it was a little bit longerand my legs were so tired and I
did a lot of walking in the cooldown today,'cause I don't know,
(10:34):
something's a little off with metoday.
I was feeling like a littlelightheaded, but maybe hydration
or fueling or something.
But anyw who.
Once we get back to the parkinglot, there are a couple people
that have to take off and gethome to get their kids off to
school.
But there's a couple of us thatstick around and just do a
little bit of stretching.
And the stretching is helpfulphysically, but it's more also
(10:55):
just allowing your body to winddown before you jump into a car,
tighten up all those muscles andyou just connect, what do you
guys got going this week?
And you just talk about thingsother than running.
So if you.
Even if you don't have a runninggroup, I think that having a
simple gratitude practice maybebefore, during, and after a run,
(11:15):
pick one of them, right?
Like maybe it's before the run.
You're like, I'm thankful forthese shoes that I get to put on
my feet.
Maybe it's after that run whereyou allow yourself to say, you
know what?
I'm really thankful I got my runin today and just take.
Literally three deep breaths.
That's going to help your bodyshift into parasympathetic mode
(11:35):
and get into that recovery sothat your body can start.
Rebuilding and recovering fromyour workout.
Kevin (11:41):
And that gratitude after a run really helps you practice
being grateful.
Whether it was a positive ornegative run.
if you had a bad workout theother on Monday, I almost threw
up on the turnpike.
That was would've not been coolfor the people driving below.
but after the run, I wasgrateful that I was able to put
my body in a position.
What were you doing?
200 meter.
Hard efforts up the how manytimes?
(12:04):
12.
Angie (12:05):
Okay.
Kevin (12:06):
On the last one, I was real, I really pushed it.
Yeah.
and it was harder than I'dpushed in a long time.
And so like with about foursteps to go, it was like, Ooh,
that's breakfast.
and it was, but.
On the cool down on the, likethe jog back to the house'cause
it's a couple miles back to thehouse from that, what we call a
hill here in Florida of the tinylittle overpass over the
turnpike.
that during that two miles itwas like, wow, that was awesome
(12:28):
that I was able to do that.
Just that one that I'm able togo out and run, period.
And two, that I was able to pushmyself so hard that I felt that
terrible briefly.
Angie (12:39):
We are very twisted as runners.
Like I said to our group todayon our real life runners
coaching call.
I'm like, we are weirdos.
Y'all just keep that in mind andwe need to be proud that we're
weirdos because the thing that Ijust thought about too when you
were talking is after a run likethat, when you are just pushing
yourself to that effect.
(13:00):
to that level on that cool down,you're like, oh God, that was
awful.
And I like, that's a lot oftimes like, that was awful.
And I just thought to myself,awful and awesome.
Start with the same two letters.
Kevin (13:12):
Yes.
Aw.
Angie (13:15):
yes.
Kevin (13:15):
Yep.
Angie (13:15):
We're
Kevin (13:16):
just gonna, that's what I got.
That's it.
That's all you have?
Yeah, that's what I've got.
Angie (13:18):
Okay.
So when your brain says awful,you can just say, Aw, awesome.
Instead of all, yeah.
Kevin (13:25):
I'm sure that it's probably Latin.
They're probably basically thesame thing, probably.
Angie (13:30):
anyway, so gratitude.
Yeah.
So gratitude can literallychange your body's.
Physiology and your response toexercise.
So put some gratitude in afteryour run.
That would be my challenge forall of you this week is like
after your runs, after yourworkouts, just take a minute,
literally one minute to findsomething that you're grateful
(13:50):
for and just breathe.
do some deep breathing and I betyou're gonna feel better after
that.
Kevin (13:54):
All right, I gotta rhyme it too,'cause you gotta say it.
So put a little gratitude inyour attitude and then you can
wrap up your run and move alongwith your day.
Okay.
Angie (14:02):
Sounds wonderful.
Perfect.
All right.
Shall we move on to the nexttopic?
Yeah.
What else you got?
so Thanksgiving I think is atime where a lot of runners can
become anxious because of food.
And I say runners, but I justmean people in general.
I think a
Kevin (14:16):
lot of people can become anxious around Thanksgiving
because of food.
Yeah,
Angie (14:19):
because of food.
And I think that.
It makes me sad.
I used to be in this category aswell, that food used to cause
anxiety and I just think it'swild, like when you really think
about it, that food, literallythe thing that God gave us to
nourish our bodies and keep usalive causes anxiety.
(14:39):
Just the act of.
Eating, which is the thing youneed to do to stay alive causes
so much anxiety for us.
And we all know why.
We all know we've talked aboutdiet culture, we've talked about
all the messages that we've beenreceiving since the time that we
were young.
But have you ever just taken amoment to just realize that like
the thing that is actuallykeeping you alive, food is
(15:02):
causing you anxiety?
Because we allow it to.
Kevin (15:06):
Do you think that's part of the success of Turkey trots?
Is people relying on the anxietyof others that if they go off
and run a 5K in the morning,they feel better about the food
later in the day?
Angie (15:15):
100%.
Kevin (15:16):
that's the 100%.
what other big holidays do youstart the day with?
A 5K?
Angie (15:21):
No, it's because people feel like they need to burn
calories in order to earncalories.
But a 5K is just done.
Did you like that rhyme too?
I did
Kevin (15:28):
like that rhyme.
But a 5K is honestly not burningthat many calories.
No, it's
Angie (15:32):
not.
But it's the psychologicalaspect of it, right?
Like it's the psychological ofI'm gonna go push myself hard so
that I can eat without guilt.
Because for some reason we haveit in our mind that just eating.
Requires guilt or eating certainkinds of food or the amount of
food that you're going to eat onThanksgiving.
You have to feel guilty aboutthat unless you do something
(15:54):
like go for a run.
Kevin (15:55):
But you also don't have to eat uncomfortable amounts of
food, right?
Like just because it'sThanksgiving and there are
television shows that suggestthat you should overeat on
Thanksgiving does not mean youhave to.
you could be like, actually, Ireally all of these things.
This is one of the reasons Ithink a lot of people overeat.
If you look at the, like theThanksgiving spread, there's
instead of three differentthings you could put on your
(16:16):
plate, there's eight and youenjoy all of them.
Yeah.
So you want a little bit of allof them and suddenly just a
little bit of all of them is ahuge amount of food sitting on
your plate.
Yeah.
I think that's where, people
Angie (16:25):
also serve themselves like a normal serving of what
they would have.
If there were only three thingsthen, but there's eight and then
now there's eight.
So because like you feel bad insome way, especially with some
families.
Like some families, when peoplebring different dishes, they,
people feel bad if they don'ttake enough because Aunt Rita
(16:46):
made this, I was gonna saythat's grandma.
Kevin (16:48):
Stuffing.
Yeah.
You better eat grandma'sstuffing because Exactly.
We don't know how many moreThanksgivings we'll have with
her.
Angie (16:54):
Oh my God.
Kevin (16:54):
And your
Angie (16:54):
grandma loved feeding you?
Kevin (16:56):
both of them had their own special stuffings.
Yeah.
And so yes, you had to make surethat you had all this, whether.
Either of them were there atThanksgiving or not.
Both types of stuffing had to bemade every year of my childhood,
Angie (17:07):
right.
But there that is guilt, likebuilt into the food right there.
And in that case it was guiltfor you not eating enough food.
And then people have guilt foreating too much food.
So you're screwed either way.
Kevin (17:20):
I literally, I, because there was.
There was Grandma Brown stuffingand Grandma Gail's stuffing.
And I vividly remember havingthis thought as a kid of I have
to eat an equal quantity of bothStuffings.
I need to make sure at all timesthere is the same amount of each
stuffing on my plate.
So I'd have one bite of one andthen one bite of another to make
sure there was matching amountsof stuffing at all times.
(17:41):
Did
Angie (17:41):
you have a lot of Thanksgivings with both
grandparents?
Kevin (17:44):
No, I never had.
But both.
You never did?
No, but both Stuffings wereserved every Thanksgiving.
Angie (17:49):
Did they send them or your mom made both versions?
What?
Why?
Kevin (17:54):
My mom made both versions.
she made her mom's version.
And then when Grandma Brown wasthere, my dad's mom, she would
make her version.
And so then there were twostuffings.
But I feel like either.
My dad's parents came outregularly for Thanksgiving, or
there may have been times thatmy mom made the other stuffing,
(18:15):
and then we had both of themthere, even without
grandparents.
I don't know.
Thanksgivings were not aconsistent holiday.
One year we had a randomAustralian guy at our house for
Thanksgiving, I remember.
Yep.
I definitely remember him andhis name was Kevin.
I remember that.
we had a random Australian guyfor Thanksgiving one year, and
his name was also Kevin.
That was excellent.
That was a weird holiday.
Angie (18:34):
maybe it's.
Maybe your dad wanted his mom'sstuffing and so your mom made
both?
Kevin (18:38):
Possibly.
But her stuffing was not as goodand that was the problem because
I felt like I should eat asmatching amount of both of them.
Angie (18:46):
Yeah, so guilt around food, right?
Like I think that this is whatthis topic is going back to, and
we talked about this on our calltoday as well.
Where I told people and justreminded them like, you don't
have to feel guilty for eatingfood, and if you think that
you're going to overeat, reremember, like you do have
(19:08):
control with how much food youput on your plate and just
because someone might be upsetwith you.
Doesn't mean that you have toovereat to the point where you
feel uncomfortable.
It doesn't mean that you need tohave guilt over the amount that
you're eating.
Like I feel like I've gottenpretty good at this over the
years because I used to overeat,because I would want, like I
(19:30):
genuinely liked the food that wewere eating, and so I would just
eat it and then I would getuncomfortable and now I.
Put stuff on my plate and I eatwhat I want to eat.
I have a little bit ofeverything and usually I end up
taking too much and then I handmy plate to Kevin.
Kevin (19:45):
Yes.
Because I usually have threeplates for Thanksgiving.
so I have mine, then I cleanyours, and then I go back and
get myself a second plate.
Yeah.
And then sometimes just a littlebit extra of your cranberry
sauce.
because
Angie (19:55):
my cranberry sauce is good.
It is
Kevin (19:56):
amazing.
Yeah.
Did you see I got two bags ofcranberries just in case you
wanted to make some extra.
Angie (20:00):
we have to make two.
Perfect.
Yeah, I always make two.
Kevin (20:02):
Oh, good.
Okay.
I was hoping I, maybe I shouldgo back.
get a third bag.
Angie (20:06):
Perfect.
But I think that, first of all,it's important that we are
aware, right?
Like of what your, what are yourthoughts around food, around
Thanksgiving, around thisholiday or this meal, and.
What do you want them to be?
I think that those are the twothat I like to what I would also
invite you to journal on theseif you want to, is like, what
(20:28):
are my current thoughts?
And then just write them down.
Just dump them out on a piece ofpaper and then ask yourself, how
do I wanna feel aboutThanksgiving?
Or what do I want my thoughts tobe on this Thanksgiving?
What?
What is your intention like?
My intention is I'm gonna make alot of really good food and I'm
going to eat the food that Iwant to eat without guilt, and
(20:48):
I'm going to eat things onThanksgiving that I don't
normally eat, and that's okay.
I'm going to eat.
More sweets than I normally eat,more desserts than I normally
eat, more carbohydrates than Inormally eat.
And that's okay.
one day is not going to derailyour nutrition.
It's not gonna cause you to gaina bunch of weight.
It's not going to derail yourtraining.
(21:10):
And this is really important forus to hear because there's so
many people out there that thinkI need to make up for what I
eat, or I have to burn caloriesin advance in order to create
this calorie deficit so thatwhen I eat, I am not.
Going overboard, and that's justnot the way that your body
works.
Like your body always wants tobe in homeostasis.
We all remember the wordhomeostasis from like biology 1
(21:34):
0 1, but it's your body's senseof balance.
And so if you're overeating onone day, just the same way as if
you undereat on one day.
You're not going to starve.
If you overeat on one day,you're not gonna suddenly gain
10 pounds.
And I know that if you're awoman in perimenopause or post
menopause, sometimes it feelsthat way because sometimes it
feels like your body's just notresponding the way that it used
(21:55):
to.
And it feels like just lookingat food will cause you to gain
weight, which is not obviouslytrue, but it's a lot of things
that are going on in your bodyin the changing hormones and
things like that it, they do.
Change the way that your bodyresponds to food.
So we do need to be moreintentional with the choices
that we're making.
That doesn't mean that we needto diet, it doesn't mean that we
(22:16):
need to restrict, it just meansthat we have to be intentional.
So if there's a food that youreally like, enjoy it.
Put it on your plate, eat it,and try do your best not to feel
guilty about it because you dohave that choice.
You have been programmed.
A lot of us have likely beenprogrammed to feel a certain
level of guilt when it comes tofood, but.
(22:39):
That is actually optional.
That guilt is optional and youcan start to reprogram the way
that you feel about food.
Kevin (22:46):
All right, I wanna go one, one step further than this.
If you go out for a run the dayafter Thanksgiving and you
indulge nicely on Thanksgiving,you ate a whole bunch of food,
at some point you may haveactually felt even twofold, and
you go and you run on the dayafter Thanksgiving and you feel
good on that run, you are like,man, I feel really good on this
run.
Consider that you might not befueling yourself enough on most
(23:10):
of your days.
If the day that you really wentfor it and you ate a whole bunch
of stuff, and you may even hadjust a little bit of guilt that
you're trying to actually beokay with, but then you felt
amazing on your run that thenext day it's possible that you
actually just fully fueled yourbody on Thursday, and then when
you headed out for a run onFriday morning, you felt be good
because there was enough.
(23:30):
Fuel in your body to do the workthat you're asking it to do,
because that has been the casewith some people that we've had
on our team.
That's been the case with somekids that have had on the
cross-country team is they werelike, oh man, I ate so much on
Thanksgiving.
But then I went for a run onthat Friday and it was the best
I felt in months.
I'm like, oh, that.
That might not be the sign thatyou think that it is, like that
might just be that you've beenunder fueled for the last two
(23:52):
months.
that was, that's I thought itwas a weird takeaway.
Angie (23:55):
What a weird takeaway.
Kevin (23:57):
because that wasn't the connection they made.
They thought that there wassomething like magic that they'd
eaten the day before, and I'mlike, no, it's that you actually
ate the day before.
Angie (24:04):
Yeah.
And they.
Ate enough carbs too.
Because Thanksgiving does tendto be a more carb heavy type of
meal.
Like a traditional Thanksgivingmeal does tend to have more
carbohydrates than protein andvegetables.
Kevin (24:17):
it's carbs with a side of carbs.
that is really the meal.
It's a Turkey surrounded bycarbs.
Angie (24:21):
Yeah.
And again, this is not bad,right?
these holiday meals that wehave, they're not actually bad.
They can actually support yourtraining.
Like what Kevin just said, ifyou are someone that normally
restricts carbohydrates and youhave a bunch of carbs on
Thanksgiving, and you feelbetter the next day, then think
about that, right?
Like maybe it's worthwhile foryou to track your intake for a
(24:43):
couple of days.
Actually see, am I gettingenough carbohydrates?
Because carbohydrates are yourbody's preferred source of fuel
as a runner.
They have done multiple studies.
I know there was like this wholepush towards like keto adapted
becoming a fat adapted athleteand all this baloney, but
there's plenty of researchstudies out now that show.
(25:04):
Ketogenic diets and fat adaptedtraining can actually lead to a
decrease in performance in mostpeople.
Now, there's always outliers,right?
There might be like thisphenomenal triathlete that is
fat adapted, that it works forthat one person, but as a whole,
as the human species,carbohydrates are your body's
preferred source of fuel.
Kevin (25:25):
That was like the elite triathlon when we were kids and
watching like the Hawaii Ironmanon television.
Yeah.
That guy who like won it reallyis that guy.
Yeah.
He won it like six times in arow and then he made this huge
push to be like ketogenic andfueled purely off of an
incredibly low carb diet.
But he was a freak of nature.
Yeah.
Like he had already won.
Like the Ironman WorldChampionship multiple years in a
(25:48):
row and then was like, I'm gonnado this to my diet.
He could have done whatever hewanted to his diet.
He could have fueled the entireday on gummy worms and probably
still would've beaten the fieldbecause that was the freak of
nature athlete that he was.
Yeah.
Angie (26:00):
And so essentially, I would invite you all on this
Thanksgiving if you're,especially if you're listening
to this on Thanksgiving morning,and you have the rest of the day
ahead of you, is to approachthis day with enjoyment, with
confidence with.
Without guilt, right?
And just say, okay, I'm gonna goin and I'm gonna eat some food
today.
that is a factual statement.
You don't have to put a good ora bad on it.
(26:23):
Like food is not moral.
I'm gonna say that again.
There is no morality to food.
There is no food that is good orbad.
Food is food.
Food is fuel for your body.
Your body takes the food and itbreaks it down into different
particles in the body, and lotsof them become glucose.
Some of them become amino acids,like they all get broken down in
(26:45):
the body.
Some of it turn turns into fecesand you just.
Crap it out.
this is what happens.
You took the whole route
Kevin (26:51):
there,
Angie (26:51):
didn't you?
I did.
I went the whole way.
But like it's when you thinkabout it more objectively like
that, right?
I think that you maybe you canremove some of the guilt.
if you, maybe you just think toyourself like, I'm probably just
gonna crap this out anyway.
Kevin (27:05):
I'm sorry, I was laughing so hard because I had made the
joke that pause in the sentencewas a colon that you put in
there was that not appropriate?
Angie (27:11):
It was an M dash, not a colon.
It was a colon.
Yeah, I know, I get it.
Think
Kevin (27:15):
just because of the colon,'cause of the digestive
system.
Angie (27:19):
Do you wanna say the word crap too?
He's literally walking awaylaughing.
Anyway, If you are listening tothis after Thanksgiving, it's
also not too late to rewriteyour thoughts about it, right?
So even if you did have guilt onthat day, you can choose today
to start thinking about itdifferently, which is a pretty
cool thing.
You can literally reroute.
(27:41):
Rewrite your story and rewriteyour thoughts anytime you want
to.
And it doesn't mean that thosethoughts are never gonna come up
again.
Because when you have awell-worn pathway in your brain
of a thought and a belief thatyou've been thinking for a very
long time, it does take time andreworking of that thought.
'cause it's gonna pop up andyou're gonna have to rewrite it
and it's gonna pop up and you'rehave to rewrite it.
this is part of what it means torewire your brain or change your
(28:03):
mindset.
It's not easy, but it ispossible.
Kevin (28:06):
I like it.
All right.
What else do we got besidesgratitude and food?
Angie (28:10):
Where would you like to go?
I don't know.
I have a place.
Kevin (28:12):
Okay, go for it.
Angie (28:13):
What about you?
Kevin (28:14):
no.
you lead the way.
Angie (28:15):
I lead the way.
So the last part that I wasthinking about was training
through the holidays, becauseThanksgiving starts the holiday
season and we go throughChristmas and then we go into
the new year and there's a lotof people in this time of the
year that get quote unquotederailed from their training.
And so I wanted to talk abouthow to navigate the holidays and
(28:38):
run through the holidays.
Without the guilt, without theshame, without the baloney and
how to do so more like withintention, because there's a lot
of stuff going on in this timeand there's some people that
just throw up their hands andthey're like, I'm just not gonna
be consistent during this timebecause life is too crazy.
And if that's what you want todo.
Then fine, make that choice.
(28:59):
And then again, don't feelguilty about it because you made
that choice intentionally.
So if you're like, whatever, mytrain's gonna be inconsistent,
then don't be mad at yourselfwhen, if you gain weight over
the holiday or if yourperformance declines, or if you
have a race in the spring andyou're not well prepared for it.
'cause if you're gonna choose tobe inconsistent, you can't be
(29:20):
mad at the results ofinconsistency.
Kevin (29:22):
Yeah, the December, this is a benefit of my having a race
in January is you're, I'm notallowed to have inconsistency
through December.
it's just, it's not apossibility.
If you have a spring, it's
Angie (29:32):
always a possibility.
It's just not the choice thatyou're gonna make.
Which,
Kevin (29:35):
it's certainly not the choice I'm making.
you're right.
it is a choice I could make.
Yeah.
I could phone it in December andDNF in January.
that is.
That is likely the consequenceof that choice is how that would
play out.
Angie (29:47):
think about your first marathon in Chicago, like when
you were 21 years old and youdecided not to train for the
three weeks leading up to themarathon.
Well,
Kevin (29:56):
I decided that I needed to pass those classes and there
were a lot of tests,
Angie (29:59):
which was a good choice.
Kevin (30:01):
Yes, there were a lot of tests and a lot of projects that
were due.
Yeah, and I was, I still ran, Iran three Wednesdays in a row on
the intermural cross countryrace, so I did three, five Ks in
three weeks.
That was my final preparation.
We call it tapering.
Angie (30:14):
Tapering, but tho those choices led to the.
Experience that you had inChicago, which was poor, which
was less than ideal, right?
you still ran a ridiculouslyfast time because of who you are
and what your running backgroundis.
But it led to that was a bit ofa struggle for you.
Yeah,
Kevin (30:32):
it, it was way more painful at mile 22 than it
should have been.
I've done more races and I knowthe pain of mile 22, that mile
22 was a different sensation andit wasn't just,'cause it was the
first time that I'd ever runthat far.
It was the first time I'd runthat far and been so ill
prepared for the task I wasundertaking.
Angie (30:50):
Yeah.
So the number one thing that Iwant you all to take into the
holidays is the fact.
It says, this is not a belief,it's a fact.
This is a fact.
And there's, not a ton of factsin the world nowadays, but the
fact is, you have a choice.
You have a choice on how tonavigate these holidays.
(31:10):
There are things that are goingto pop up and there are things
that are going to not be fullyin your control, but you always
have a choice in how you respondto them.
So you can.
Think that you don't have timeand you can think that, you know
you're going to be inconsistent.
And if you're thinking thoughthose things, the result is
likely that you're gonna missworkouts and be inconsistent.
(31:34):
Versus if you realize I have achoice here and I'm going to
intentionally, I'm going to beintentional with these choices.
Maybe I'm not gonna be able toget in my normal 60 minute
training session, but.
I have time for a 30 minute, Ihave time for a 20 minute.
I have time, and I'm going tochoose to make time for this
because this is important to me.
(31:55):
So yes, there's a lot of thingsgoing on and yes, you might have
to make some adjustments, butyou can be intentional and put
something in, even if it's just10 minutes of movement, like you
have 10 minutes at some point inyour day.
Maybe not every day, but youdefinitely, I would argue you do
have 10 minutes somewhere inyour day.
Kevin (32:15):
You do as long as you can get over some of the thoughts
that you're disappointing otherpeople.
Because if you have people comein and visit or you're visiting
other people for the holidaysand you wanna spend as much time
with them as possible, it canfeel impossible to leave and go
get in a run.
Angie (32:30):
Yeah.
But how many of those times thatyou feel that way do you, are
you like sitting on the couch,like watching a movie, which is
great.
I'm not trying to knock on thatby any means, but you're also
sitting there being resentful.
Of that.
A hundred percent.
Been there like you're sittingthere dude, I could be out on a
run right now.
Like what?
We're not even talking, we'reall just watching tv.
And not to say that's not afamily activity because that is
(32:53):
a family activity that a lot ofpeople engage in, but.
Then you're sitting there andyou're mad about it.
Als also.
Kevin (33:00):
Yeah.
And it's not even the movie thatyou wanted to choose.
So now you're upset with that.
And Timmy's over there playingon his phone and you were
supposed to stay so that youcould talk and albe as a family,
and your brain just startsspiraling that direction.
And it doesn't have to.
You could be like, oh, this isan activity that I can actually
opt out of.
Like the activities where peopleare super engaged.
(33:20):
quite frankly, you could opt outof those also, but you can find
time to separate yourself, evenif it feels like you should be
spending all the time with afamily that you are visiting or
is visiting you.
You can create time.
You can simply choose to opt outof whatever event you want to.
But there is, as you pointedout, there is likely events
(33:41):
during that where you're like.
I, no one's going to even missme if I'm not here during this
window.
I could go get in even a longrun.
They just started a two and ahalf hour movie.
I could take off for two hoursand no one will notice.
Angie (33:53):
Or you could choose to wake up early, that's another
thing.
And get up and do your thingbefore the rest of the family is
even awake.
Kevin (34:01):
Yes.
Be, unless they're waking upwith a crack of dawn to put a
Turkey into the oven.
Angie (34:05):
Yeah.
Yeah.
there's always that, How can youstay connected to your body, to
your training routine?
Even when your, like the, yournormal daily routine changes.
The number one key in my opinionis going back to your identity
as a runner, your identity as anathlete, because as a runner you
(34:25):
are an athlete.
So as someone who runs, you area runner.
Let's take it a step back.
Okay.
So if you're listening to thispodcast and you don't think
you're a runner.
You are listening to a runningpodcast.
So in all likelihood, prettymuch I can say with probably 99%
certainty, you are a runner.
So if you run regardless of yourpace, regardless of your
(34:47):
distance, if you just put someshoes on and head out the door
and go run, you are a runner.
And as a runner you are.
Athlete and as an athlete, youneed to think about all of the
things that affect how youtrain.
Because if you're listening to arunning podcast and you want
your running to improve in someway, it's not just about, it's
not just something that you doin order to lose weight or stay
(35:11):
healthy, like you probably wantto improve in some way.
And so you have to startthinking, okay.
It's not just about my runninganymore as an athlete, I have to
think about my mindset, numberone, my identity as an athlete.
I have to think about myrunning.
I have to think about strengthtraining and nutrition and
recovery and sleep, and all ofthese pieces that play a role in
(35:33):
how I feel as a runner.
Because when you.
Ignore those things.
Your running's not gonna feelgreat, and then you're gonna be
less motivated to do it.
You're gonna be less consistentand you're gonna fall back into
this trap.
But if you are thinking aboutthese things, like I know that,
like we can look at it in twodifferent ways here, right?
Because you already have a lotof things on your plate over the
holidays, and so if you'retrying to also think about
(35:55):
nutrition and training.
Recovery and all of thesethings, some people can move
into that state of overwhelm,but it doesn't have to be
complicated.
It can be simple things that youdo to stay connected to
yourself, to make sure that yourbody continues to feel good so
that you can show up in the bestway for the holidays.
You can be present with yourfamily and doing all of the
(36:18):
millions of.
Errands and things that you haveto do, ordering all the
Christmas presents, going,shopping, traveling, all these
things, all of those things arevery physically demanding as
well, and mentally demanding andrunning can help you stay on
track, both physically andmentally.
So it's something that you canactually do to help yourself
show up and handle the holidaysa much better way.
Kevin (36:38):
It can be.
It can be your source ofgrounding no matter what else is
going on.
And no matter how your schedulegets thrown around that run in
your day, and if you're stayinghome, if you're in your same
location, it can be thatconsistency of the loop that you
always do just provides somestability when everything else
seems to be changing and you goout for that same loop, that's a
(36:59):
very stable place.
And if you're traveling andyou're in some.
New place.
Just being able to say, allright, I'm still gonna go out
and run for 30 minutes becausethat's what I do.
I'm gonna go get in 45 minutes'cause that's what I do.
That consistency can be superhelpful and use that as a
grounding thing as the worldaround you continues to spin.
Because there's a lot ofschedules that get thrown off
(37:20):
over the holiday season and Ithink that's what leads to most
of the inconsistency.
But saying, Hey.
It's Tuesday and on Tuesdays Ido.
This is really helpful.
Having some sort of scheduleplanned out for what December is
going to look like, even knowingthat it's probably going to not
follow that schedule perfectly,but having a plan for December
(37:41):
that you can then adjust, oh,this is what I was gonna do on
Monday, but on Monday.
The whole family decided to dothis thing for four hours and I
can't get my run in after it.
So if you have a plan, it'seasier to adjust a week when
your plan is.
I'll run when I have time.
It's a lot easier to never findthat time.
So the better scheduled youhave, the more likely you are to
(38:04):
maintain your consistency.
Angie (38:05):
Yeah, I totally agree.
If you want help with that, ifnow is a great time for me to
put a shameless plug in here.
I've created a program calledThe 30 Day Running Reset, and it
gives you exactly what you needto do on every single day.
It gives you your runs.
It's a program that gives youboth your running days and your
strength.
Days.
So it integrates strengthtraining and mobility and you're
(38:26):
running together.
And depending on where you are,you can do this in 20 to 30
minutes a day.
We can use plans and workoutsthat meet you where you are.
And this is really important.
It also gives you daily lessonsso that you can start to.
Work on some of those otherhabits that are going to support
you as a runner, like the sleepand hydration and nutrition.
(38:49):
Like you get one lesson everyday.
The lessons are usually betweenfive to 10 minutes.
There's a couple that are like15 minutes.
but it's a daily thing to keepyou on track and we.
I just launched a brand new app,so the 30 day reset is now in
our brand new app, and so allyou have to do when you sign up
over@realliferunners.com slashreset, you sign up for the
(39:11):
program, you're gonna get anemail that invites you to our
app.
You click that link and thenyou're gonna set up a your
account in the app, and then ittakes you to the home screen.
You're gonna answer a couplequestions so we can see where
you are right now, and thenevery single day.
Your activity and your task ofthe day shows up right there on
your home screen.
So it's one of those, greatthings where if you are a box
(39:34):
checker like I am, that you lovechecking the boxes.
You just have your task for theday.
You watch the video, you checkthe box, you do the daily action
item.
You check the box and it willtake you through 30 days and so
that you don't even realize it,but you are just continuing to
get stronger, to buildconsistency and also to build
these other habits that aresupporting your running.
(39:55):
Every single day for 30 days.
Kevin (39:57):
that's a great way to cover the month of December
where a lot of people getderailed.
Like you could actually be like,ah, I was just gonna throw it in
and maybe I'll get a new startin January.
You could start now, right?
And cruise into the new year,actually.
Angie (40:09):
Yeah, and that's one of the reasons that I mentioned
this because it is one of thosethings where a lot of people
just blow off this time of yearand they're like, oh, I'll
figure it out when January 1stcomes around.
I'll get back on it in the newyear.
But imagine.
Where you would be on January1st if you didn't do that?
Like where, what would you feellike on January 1st knowing that
you had been consistent over thepast 30 days?
(40:32):
And I always tell our teammembers too.
Consistency is not aboutperfection.
They are not the same.
A lot of people think, oh,consistency means I can't miss a
workout.
I have to be perfect.
That is not what it means.
Here at Real Life Runners.
We believe that consistency isvery important, but consistency
looks different for every singleperson.
It's not about never missing it,it's about being intentional and
(40:54):
trying to get it in andunderstanding.
Sometimes life gets in the wayand then you're gonna get right
back on it.
You're going to get right on thenext task.
And that's the beauty of thisprogram and of this app because
those tasks are there.
So if you miss a day, it'll staythere until you check it off.
So you can just alright, Imissed this day.
I'm gonna just get back on itthe next day and then you can
get back on that.
And again, it'll just help takeyou through the holidays, giving
(41:18):
you exact exactly what to do.
Four your runs give you theexact strength workouts, the
exact mobility exercises, you goright through, it's all right
there in the app.
You can watch a videodemonstration of the exercise
you put in, how much, how manyreps you did.
If you're using a weight, youcan put that in and you check
off the exercise and you just gothrough it.
(41:39):
and it's a fantastic app and.
We've just been getting the bestfeedback on it.
Kevin (41:42):
In case you can't tell.
Angie's really excited about ournew app and wants to share this
with the world.
I do.
She's very excited for it.
So give it a shot.
It's gonna be amazing.
Angie (41:52):
Yeah, and I'm continuing, like I'm still building the app
out.
So the 30 day program is.
Basically built out at thispoint, but I'm continuing to add
new things to the app, so it'sgoing to be something that I'm
just so excited about.
And so when you're done with a30 day reset, if you wanna
continue on as part of themembership, then that's an
option too, because you're gonnasee how freaking amazing this
(42:13):
is.
Kevin (42:13):
If you started now, that could be a Christmas present.
God, this all just lays outperfectly.
It's like you've got this wholething planned out.
This is gonna be fantastic.
Alright, so to recap, let's begrateful for everything.
I'm super grateful for you.
And, and the running of thewhole year.
but mainly you, because withoutyou, I don't think that I could
run as much as I possibly do.
so thankful for you and youtaking care of me and our whole
(42:37):
family.
and this podcast and this wholereal life runner community, that
you support all of us.
And I think I speak for a lot ofpeople when I say thank you for
taking care of us.
Angie (42:48):
Thank you.
I'm thankful for you too, and Ididn't have a little speech
prepared, but I love you and I'mvery thankful for you also, for
everything that you do tosupport me.
And all of my crazy ideas inbusiness and in life.
Like a new app.
Like a new app.
This app is a game changer, I'mtelling you.
but yeah, I think that.
you and I make a very good pairand a good partnership.
(43:11):
and I support you and yousupport me, and we support each
other, and I think that'sexactly what a marriage is
supposed to be.
Kevin (43:16):
Perfect.
happy anniversary.
It
Angie (43:19):
is our in,
Kevin (43:19):
it was our anniversary last week.
It was recent enough.
Angie (43:21):
Yeah.
So anywho, If you wanna get inon the 30 day reset, again, that
website is real liferunners.com/reset.
But if you just go to thehomepage, there's a link, on the
homepage of real liferunners.com.
That'll take you there as well.
And if you have any questions,just reach out, let me know.
I can help you to personalizethe plan.
So if there are certainexercises that you can't do, if
(43:43):
you are, if the runs, if you'renot able to run 30 minutes yet,
we can tailor it, we can do arun walk thing.
So the goal of this program,like I said again, is to meet
you where you are.
And that is the most importantthing because if you are jumping
into a program that is beyondwhat you're currently capable
of, that is a very quick way tobecoming inconsistent.
Not motivated or even gettinginjured, and we don't want that
(44:05):
for you.
We want this to be like thekickstart into 2026 and get
getting you like off and readyso that on January 1st you're
not starting over.
You are just continuing the goodhabits.
You've already started thismonth.
thanks for joining us.
We are grateful, so so gratefulto all of you.
All of you listeners that, thatdownload the episode, that share
the episode, thank you for allof you that have left us
(44:27):
reviews.
If you haven't yet, that's awonderful way for you to show
gratitude towards us and to showthat you're grateful for the
podcast that we put out everysingle week by leaving us a
review on Apple Podcasts orSpotify.
we would be so appreciative ofthat.
And as always, thanks forjoining us.
This has been The Real LifeRunners podcast, episode number
437.
(44:47):
Now, get out there and run yourlife.
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