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November 6, 2024 24 mins

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Weight isn't something that just happens to us; it's a result of the choices we make every single day. On 'Shut Up and Choose,' I, Jonathan Ressler, confront the participation trophy mentality head-on and challenge the myths that often cloud our understanding of weight loss. Life is full of stress and the temptation of junk food, but the focus should be on how we respond rather than the obstacles themselves. It's time to embrace accountability and discipline, letting go of the fallacy that mere participation leads to success. This episode is a wake-up call to stop making excuses and start making conscious, smarter decisions that lead to genuine health and happiness.

Through the timeless lesson of the tortoise and the hare, I emphasize the power of steady, consistent effort in achieving long-term weight loss success. Forget the quick fixes hawked by the diet industry; real progress is like planting seeds—small, smart choices can yield significant changes over time. We'll tackle common excuses such as lack of time and genetics, and I'll share why expecting immediate results is a trap. Health is wealth, and taking responsibility for our well-being is not just about us—it's about being there for our loved ones, too. Join me to explore how consistent efforts in health can lead to a happier, more fulfilling life, and why it's never too late to choose a healthier path.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
If you're a whiny snowflake that can't handle the
truth, is offended by the wordfuck and about 37 uses of it in
different forms gets ass hurt.
When you hear someone speak theabsolute, real and raw truth,
you should leave Like right now.
This is Shut Up and Choose, thepodcast where we cut through

(00:25):
the shit and get real aboutweight loss, life and everything
in between.
We get into the nitty gritty ofmaking small, smart choices
that add up to big results.
From what's on your plate tohow you approach life's
challenges.
We'll explore how the simpleact of choosing differently can
transform your health, yourmindset and your entire freaking

(00:48):
life.
So if you're ready to cutthrough the bullshit and start
making some real changes, thenbuckle up and shut up, because
we're about to choose our way toa healthier, happier life.
This is Shut Up and Choose.
Let's do this Now.
Your host, jonathan Ressler.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Welcome back to Shut Up and Choose the podcast, where
we cut through the bullshit andthe noise that the diet
industry is spewing at you, thatinternet gurus and all kinds of
people out there are giving youthat bad info, and I'm here to
cut through all that noise andhelp you make sense of it all.
I'm Jonathan Wessel, your host,and I'm happy you're here.
So today, what I want to talkabout is the same thing that I

(01:38):
talk about all the time is, ifwe start with that simple,
brutal truth that nobody likesto hear is you're fat because
you choose to be fat.
Yep, I said it again and I knowit stings, but the fact is,
your weight is the result of thechoices you made in the past
and continue to make in thepresent.
You didn't accidentally wake upone day overweight, just like

(01:59):
you're not going to accidentallywake up one day thin.
So, whether you like it or not,your health and weight are
direct reflections decisionsthat you've made and you
continue to make about how youeat, how you move and really how
you just take care of yourselfoverall.
And that's not to say thatthose decisions were easy, or
even conscious, for that matter.

(02:20):
Sometimes life throws shit atyou, it throws it at all of us,
and I'm talking about stress anda busy schedule, some emotional
eating when shit's not goingyour way, and the availability
the 24-hour, 7-day week, 365-dayyear, availability of
convenience foods.
But at the end of the day, it'snot about those obstacles, it's
about how you respond to them,what you do, how you act, and

(02:43):
for too long we've beenconditioned to think that we
deserve the results withoutreally working for them.
And that brings me to the maintopic of what I want to talk
about today, and that's theparticipation trophy mentality.
It's all effort and no reward,and I think one of the biggest
problems we face today is theparticipation trophy mentality

(03:04):
that's been drilled into us.
And well, maybe not I'm 60, somaybe it's not as me but it's
definitely been drilled into ourkids and every generation
coming up.
We're teaching kids that simplyshowing up is enough.
When I was a kid, showing upwasn't enough.
If you sucked, you didn't getpicked, you didn't make the team
, you didn't get to playwhatever.
But today you don't have to winor even be good at anything,

(03:26):
you just have to show up, youjust have to be there and then
you get a pat on your back likethat trophy as a reward for your
effort.
But here's the thing On aweightless journey and really in
life, just showing up isn'tenough.
We've trained our kids to thinkthat the effort doesn't need to
be tied to results, and that'sa lie and it's fucking dangerous

(03:47):
.
It might sound harsh for allyou people out there who well
you know, everybody should get afair shot.
Fuck that.
Life isn't built that way andwe're building culture where
everyone expects success withoutthe sacrifice.
Kids today grow up thinkingthat just because they showed up
for practice or they played ona soccer team for three months,
they deserve to be stars.
And unfortunately, kids and allof us carry that mindset into

(04:11):
adulthood, believing we deservepromotions at work just for
clocking in whether we should bethin and healthy and in good
shape just because we ate asalad for lunch.
Well, here's some bad news.
Life doesn't work that way.
Weight loss doesn't work thatway, and the sooner we realize
that and wrap our brains aroundit, the sooner we can start

(04:31):
making real changes that lead toreal results.
Here's another truth that youmight not like but losing weight
isn't hard.
I know people go fucking crazywhen I say that, but it's not
hard Really it isn't.
It doesn't require hours ofgrueling exercise or starving
yourself.
That's just a myth of the dietindustry is selling you.
The hardest part is beingconsistent, and that's where

(04:53):
people get all tripped up.
They think because they ate asalad today, they should
magically weigh 10 poundslighter tomorrow, and when that
doesn't happen when they didn'tlose an ounce, they quit.
Consistency is where the realwork comes in, and it's not the
kind of work where you'resweating buckets or starving
yourself.
It's the kind of work thatrequires a word that I don't

(05:14):
like but discipline andwillpower and really a why, why
you're doing it day in and dayout to make better choices, not
perfect choices I'm not lookingfor perfection but better
choices every single day.
Think about it like this it'slike the old fable with the
rabbit and the turtle.
The rabbit is fast and flashy,but he burns out because he's

(05:34):
overconfident.
The turtle, on the other hand,moves slowly and steadily, but
he never stops, and in the endthe turtle wins the race.
Why?
Because he's consistent.
Weight loss is a slow race.
If you go all out with somecrash diet or some nutty extreme
workout plan, you might losesome weight quickly.

(05:54):
At first, I always say thatdiets work and those things work
, but they don't last.
You'll burn out just like therabbit or the hare.
But if you make small, smart,consistent decisions every day,
you can eat a little bit better,move just a little bit more and
stick with it over time you'llbe the one that wins the race.

(06:15):
You'll lose the weight and,more importantly, you'll keep it
off.
Those small, smart choices.
They really add up and peoplelike all the time.
They underestimate the power ofthe small choices they make.
They think that in order tolose weight, you need to
overhaul your entire life.
Just take everything, throw itout and get this on this new

(06:35):
crazy plan that you saw on theinternet.
Whatever they believe, theyneed to completely cut out carbs
.
I did it they need to startrunning five miles a day.
I would never do Well.
I shouldn't say that I don'tthink I'll ever do it, or spend
hundreds or even thousands ofdollars on miracle supplements
or shots.
I know I'll never do that, butall that stuff it's not

(06:56):
necessary and it's not true.
In reality.
The small smart choices are thethings that add up.
The problem is, when we don'tsee the results of those choices
right away, we assume they'renot working.
So when you choose to drinkwater instead of soda, or you
decide to take the stairsinstead of the elevator, it
might not feel like very much inthe moment, but over time those

(07:17):
little decisions compound.
It's the same principle ascompound interest in a bank
account.
I know I've said that before,but small investments grow into
big returns if you're patientand consistency, and this is why
consistency matters so much.
Look, let's say you go out andhave a salad today and you feel

(07:37):
great about it, but tomorrow youfollow up that salad with a
week of unhealthy eating.
You're not going to see anyprogress.
However, if you eat a littlebit better every day, week after
week, and make those smallsmart decisions they don't all
have to be perfect, but justmake more small smart decisions
the pounds will start to comeoff, and that's where people

(07:59):
often fail.
They expect immediate resultsand when they don't see them,
they just give up.
But just because he can't seethe progress right away doesn't
mean it's not happening.
Think of it like it's plantingseeds.
Right, you don't plant a seedtoday and expect to go out in
the garden and see a treetomorrow.
It just doesn't happen that way.

(08:20):
But if you water that plantedtree and you give it the
sunlight and you care for itconsistently, and if you're a
freaky, deaky, earthy crunchy,you might want to talk to it and
tell it you love it, eventuallythat plant or that tree is
going to grow.
So it's about consistency,small choice, the little things
that make the difference.

(08:40):
Now, I've done some crazy shitin my life and one of the things
that I did a long time ago wasI got into this network
marketing company and the onlyreason that matters is there was
a guy who was one of theleaders, one of the guys that
was stealing everybody's money.
But anyway, he always saidremember, the harder you work,
the luckier you get.
And let's talk about that for asecond.

(09:01):
You've probably heard it rightthe harder you work, the luckier
you get.
And a lot of peoplemisunderstand that it's not
about working yourself to deathor grinding endlessly without a
payoff.
It's about putting inconsistent effort over time and
eventually that effort pays off.
So the harder you work atmaking small, smart choices, the
luckier you're going to get.

(09:22):
You're going to get luckybecause the weight's going to
come off.
So think about athletes.
The ones who succeed are veryrarely the most naturally
talented.
They're the ones that put inthe work day after day, even
when no one's watching.
A football player doesn't justshow up for a game and expect to
win.
He's been practicing for months, maybe even years.

(09:43):
He's preparing his body, he'sstudying plays and he's honing
every skill he has, depending onwhat position he plays.
When he finally gets a chanceto be on the field.
All that hard work makes himlucky.
The same goes for weight loss.
It's not about luck, it's aboutconsistent effort.
The people who seem lucky enoughto stay fit and healthy aren't

(10:04):
just genetically blessed.
They've put in the work.
And by work I don't mean hoursin the gym or eating nothing but
kale.
Notice, I didn't say quinoabecause I told you last week I
kind of like quinoa now.
But they didn't spend hours inthe gym with these crazy
workouts or not eating carbs ordoing whatever.
They've made all these small,smart choices every day that add

(10:28):
up to big results over time.
Weight loss is not a race.
If you look at it as a race, ifyou're looking for a quick fix,
if you're looking for it tohappen quickly, you're going to
fail.
So the principle of consistenthard work aren't just true in
weight loss.
They're true in every area oflife.

(10:48):
I just talked about sports.
If you look at the world ofsports, you think Michael Jordan
became the best basketballplayer.
Now I know people are going tolose their shit.
They're going to say thatthat's LeBron James, but for my
generation, michael Jordan isthe best basketball player in
the world.
Do you think he became that wayby just showing up to games?
No, of course not.
He practiced harder thananybody else.

(11:10):
He worked on his craft, on hisskills every single day.
Even when he was at the top, henever stopped improving.
So if you're one of thosepeople that freaks out and say
LeBron is better, you know what?
Then just substitute LeBron inwhere I said Michael Jordan.
The work is still the same.
They're still doing the samestuff and it's not hard work
because they love doing it.
Or look at like in theworkplace, for instance.
People who get promoted aren'tjust the ones who clock in and

(11:34):
clock out every day.
They're the ones who go theextra mile, who learn the new
skills, who take on extraresponsibility.
Success at work, like success inweight loss, is about making
consistent efforts over time.
And here's where a lot ofpeople get it wrong.
They think just because theyshow up, because they put in
some effort, they deserveresults.

(11:54):
But just like in sports and inwork, you only get out what you
put in.
So if you're not willing to putin the work, you don't deserve
the results.
That's not being mean or beinga dick, that's just reality.
That's the way life works.
The harder you work, theluckier you get.
And if you look at even in thebusiness world, if you look at

(12:16):
some real life examples wherepeople fail countless times but
instead of giving up, they keptworking, they learned from their
mistakes and they ultimatelyachieved massive success,
consistency and persistence arecritical for any kind of
long-term achievement, whetherit's weight loss or career
success.
Consistency and persistence arecritical for any kind of
long-term achievement, whetherit's weight loss or career
success.
Look at Thomas Edison.
You probably heard of him, theguy that invented the light bulb
.
Right, well before he inventedthe light bulb, I read that he

(12:38):
failed over a thousand times.
A thousand times in experiments, that's more times than I've
failed on diets.
But he didn't give up.
Nope, his famous quote prettymuch says it all I have not
failed.
I've just found a thousand waysthat don't work.
And I guess for me, when itcomes to dying, I haven't failed
.
I just found a hundred dietsthat didn't give me the results
I was looking for.

(12:58):
And that's what consistencylooks like.
Edison kept showing up everyday, making small tweaks to his
process and eventually I mean Ithink you would agree he changed
the world.
But look at Walt Disney, one ofthe greatest visionaries in
entertainment.
He was once fired from anewspaper job for lacking

(13:18):
creativity.
Imagine that Before Disneybecame the household name it is
today, he filed for bankruptcy.
He had multiple failed businessventures and plenty of
rejection.
His first animation studio, thefirst one he created before
Disney, went under and hestruggled to fund his early
cartoons.
But he didn't quit.
He just kept pushing, keptcreating and eventually gave us

(13:40):
Mickey Mouse, disneyland andarguably one of the most iconic
brands of all time.
It was about continuing on.
It was about all time.
It was about continuing on.
It was about being consistent.
It was about believing in whathe was doing.
I'll give you one more, justbecause we all kind of love this
guy.
Colonel Sanders Name was ColonelHarlan Sanders.

(14:00):
I don't know if he was reallyconcerned, but he's the guy
behind KFC.
I don't really love KFC, butanyway, he didn't hit success
until he was in his 60s.
Kind of like me, I had nosuccess in my weight loss
journey until I was 59.
But before that he failed in aton of businesses.
His chicken recipe was rejectedover a thousand times before he
found his first taker.

(14:21):
Most people would have given upafter a few rejections.
I gave up a million times afterevery diet failed after I put
the weight.
Let me rephrase it every dietworked, but after I put the
weight back on I quit again.
But Colonel Sanders with thatfabulous beard and mustache, his
persistent consistency led himto one of the biggest fast food

(14:42):
franchises in the world.
Okay, I'll give you one more,because this guy is just fucking
awesome.
Steve Jobs you ever heard ofApple?
Of course you have.
Did you know that Steve Jobswas fired from his own company
in the 80s.
You probably knew that it tookhim years of learning from his
failures and starting newventures like Pixar, and making

(15:03):
constant and consistent effortsto innovate, before he turned to
Apple and transformed it intothe tech giant it is today.
Imagine if Steve Jobs gave upafter getting kicked out of the
company he found.
I mean, I wouldn't be recordingthis on an Apple computer, I
wouldn't be using iPhone, and alot of us who knows what would
happen.
But he didn't.
He was persistent, he wasconsistent.

(15:26):
These people, all the peoplethat I just mentioned they're
huge successes.
But what people forget is howmany times they failed before
they succeeded.
They didn't just wake up oneday at the top.
I didn't just wake up one daylosing 140 pounds.
I was consistent.
I made small, smart choices.
If you failed a hundred timesbefore, my father used to have

(15:46):
this corny saying.
He used to say to me all thetime and it really makes sense
he said what if the guy thatcreated seven up quit at six up?
Just because you failed in thepast doesn't mean that you're
going to fail this time.
This time is going to bedifferent.
Here's the part that peoplereally struggle with.
The actual work of losingweight is not hard.
It's not hard to make a healthymeal, to go for a walk or to

(16:08):
drink more water.
The hard part is doing itconsistently.
Anyone can eat a salad today.
Anyone can go for a jog or awalk once in a while, but doing
it day after day, that's wherethe real challenge lies, and
people make excuses becauseconsistency can be tough.
I say losing weight isn't hardwork, but being consistent can
be hard work.

(16:28):
People say they don't have thetime.
I said it all the time I don'thave time for this right now.
Now, or they're too tired orthey'll start tomorrow.
One of my favorite excusesinsert any date with tomorrow,
and I said it.
But excuses are going to get youthe results.
They're all excuses.
The only thing that's going toget you results is showing up
for yourself every single dayand making the right choices.

(16:52):
So so stop with the excuses.
Stop blaming your schedule,your stress or the best one, my
favorite the genetics.
Stop thinking that Because youmade one good choice today, you
deserve to be thin tomorrow.
You don't.
Weight loss doesn't work thatway.
Shut up and choose.
You know I love that phrase.
Choose to make better decisions, not just today, but tomorrow

(17:13):
and the next day and the dayafter that, every single day.
And, by the way I always say it, it's not about perfection.
You'll make some bad choices.
I made a shitload of badchoices on my journey.
I just made more good choicesthan bad choices.
So here's the thing At the endof the day choices.

(17:35):
So here's the thing At the endof the day.
Weight loss is about takingresponsibility for your own
choices.
It's not about waiting for somemagic diet plan or some pill or
some shot that's going to saveyou.
It's not about expectingresults because you showed up
for a week.
I actually just hit the pausebutton for a minute because I
had to figure this out.
I had to know what the statsare, and I just Googled it and

(17:56):
the average diet for Americanslasts four to six weeks before
they quit.
Well, that makes me feel prettydamn good about myself, because
I've been on this thing for nowApril to now probably about 18
months, and not that I was on adiet.
But that just shows me how wellthis thing works because I

(18:18):
consistently make small, smartchoices.
So the average person lastsfour to six weeks on this big
life-changing thing that they'regoing to do?
I'm going to cut out carbs.
I'm only going to eat meat.
I'm going to figure out mymacros.
I'm going to take cold waterplungers you got to be kidding,
but anyway, that's a podcast foranother day.
But four to six weeks.

(18:38):
I've been on this for 18 monthsand I never felt like I was
dieting for a minute.
So for me and for you, I hopeit's not about expecting results
because you showed up for yourfour weeks or your four hours or
whatever it is.
It's about making consistent,small, smart choices every

(19:02):
single day and yeah, it's hardto stay consistent, but when you
think about it the way I do,where you're not looking for
perfection, you're looking forprogress, where every choice
doesn't have to be a smartchoice, but as long as I'm
making more small smart choicesthan I am small bad choices, I'm
winning.
So, yeah, is it hard to beconsistent?

(19:25):
Yes, I guess it is.
But the work itself, the dailychoices you need to make, those
aren't hard.
What's hard is getting out ofyour own way and realizing that
the only person responsible foryour health is you and I said
this last week or a couple weeksago, I don't remember.
Health is wealth.
Let me tell you.
That might sound corny to youand it might sound like some

(19:47):
stupid saying.
Let me tell you, when you'relaying there in a hospital bed
thinking that you're going todie because you're so fat, your
body is shutting down.
Let me tell you somethingHealth is wealth and there's
nothing more important than yourhealth.
I put out a reel today and saidyou say that you're willing to
die for your family.
That's nice, but are youwilling to get healthy for them?

(20:09):
I mean, think about that, right, you're, oh, i're willing to
take a bullet, but you're notwilling to shut your mouth to
make some small smart choices.
I mean, it's easy to pay lipservice to this shit, but the
reality is your life depends onit, and I'm not saying you were
411 pounds like I was.

(20:29):
If you're 30 pounds overweight,the bad shit is brewing inside
of you.
It just hasn't showed up yet.
I promise you there's nobenefit, there's no health
benefit to being overweight, butthere are surely a shitload of
downsides.
So look, at the end of the day,you have the power to change

(20:50):
your body and your life.
No one else can do it for youNot some diet plan, not a
personal trainer, not a gymmembership.
You can choose to be healthy.
I started out this podcast bysaying you're fat by choice.
You choose to be fat, but thegreat news is you can choose to

(21:12):
lose the weight.
You can choose to be fit.
You can choose to be fit.
You can choose to be healthy.
So shut up, stop making excusesand choose to be the person
that you want to be.
This is all about choice.
People get mad at me when I saythat it's a choice, but it's a

(21:32):
choice.
Maybe that's harsh.
It's a choice.
People get mad at me when I saythat it's a choice, but it's a
choice.
Maybe that's harsh.
It's a choice.
You choose to be fat and youcan choose to be fit.
You can choose to lose theweight.
You can choose to do whateveryou want.
So now I'm really done withthis topic, about this
participation trophy mentalitythat we have.
It's bullshit.
So for those of you that havebought my book and have written

(21:55):
reviews and have sent me emails,all I can say is thank you.
The book is sellingphenomenally well.
But, more importantly, I'mgetting a ton of emails from
people telling me that I'mhelping them, that I changed
their life, and not just in thearea of weight loss but in their
overall lives, where they'redoing things for the first time
they haven't been able to do inyears, where they're having

(22:17):
better relationships with theirfamily and their spouses and
their girlfriends and boyfriendsand whatever.
It's just so gratifying to knowthat I'm helping people.
I don't there's not a lot morethat I can say about that?
Don't there's not a lot morethat I can say about that?
I also, as you know, have this23 video video course that I've
been selling, that I launched afew weeks ago.

(22:38):
That's really selling well,again, getting great results.
People love it.
It's really easy to watch everyvideo.
There's 23 videos.
Each one of them is around fiveminutes or so.
There might be one that's sevenminutes, but you want you can
watch the whole thing in acouple hours and it really dives
deep into how I did it, whatthe mentality is and how you can

(23:00):
do it, how you can make thetransformation, not just lose
weight, how you can transformyour entire life.
If you're interested in that orif you know somebody that's
interested in it, it's easy tofind.
It's learnshutupandchoosecom.
It's simple.
It's easy to find.
It's learnshutupandchoosecom.
It's simple and I guarantee you.
I guarantee you, it will changeyour life.
So that's it for today.

(23:21):
I don't know what else to tellyou other than how I always sign
off.
It's up to you.
You make the choice.
Now it's time to shut up andchoose.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
You've been listening to shut up and choose.
Jonathan's passion is to sharehis journey of shedding 130
pounds in less than a yearwithout any of the usual
gimmicks no diets, no pills, andwe'll let you in on a little
secret no fucking gym.
And and guess what?

(23:53):
You can do it too.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
We had a fucking blast.
If you did, make sure to like,rate and review.
We'll be back soon, but in themeantime, find Jonathan on
Instagram atJonathanWrestlerBocaRaton.
Until next time, shut up andchoose.
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