October 22, 2025 • 27 mins
A hospital wristband, a bag of orange pill bottles, and a photo so jarring it broke years of denial—this is the moment the story turns. I walked to the edge of the “easy way” with bariatric surgery and GLP-1 drugs and realized every shortcut still demanded the same hard truth: I had to choose. Not once, not perfectly, but daily, in boring, unglamorous ways that rebuild trust from the ground up.
I share how I canceled surgery twice, cleared just enough space in the fridge to breathe, and cooked a simple breakfast that became a line in the sand. No macros, no miracle workouts, no guru. Instead: water before coffee, a hundred extra feet on the sidewalk, turning away from a fast food line to make a plain sandwich at home. Those choices felt small and almost pointless—until they stacked into momentum. The bloat eased, energy returned, the scale moved, and my mindset thawed. Food stopped being the enemy and became information. Control, I learned, is fear dressed as discipline. Trust is freedom.
We dig into why medicalized shortcuts can silence symptoms without healing the pattern, how the industry profits from learned helplessness, and what it takes to build a backbone instead of chasing willpower. The framework is simple: question urges, choose alignment, track integrity, and let momentum do its quiet work. I lost 140 pounds by refusing to outsource effort and by practicing relentless honesty. If you’re done waiting for motivation and ready to meet your body halfway, this conversation is your invitation to stop dieting and start choosing.
If this resonates, subscribe, share it with someone who needs a nudge, and leave a quick review. Then tell me: what’s the one small choice you’re making today?
Lose Weight Without Starving or Obsessing! Learn the simple, no-BS system that helped me lose 140 pounds naturally—no extreme diets, no endless gym hours, just real, sustainable fat loss for real people.
Join the Effortless Weight Loss Academy HERE
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Send me questions or comments to Jonathan.Ressler@gmail.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Announcer (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 hurtwhen you hear someone speak the
absolute real and raw truth, youshould leave.
Like right now.
This is Shut Up and Choose.
(00:22):
The podcast where we cutthrough the shit and get real
about weight loss, life, andeverything in between, we get
into the nitty-gritty of makingsmall, smart choices that add up
to big results.
From what's on your plate andhow you approach life's
challenges, we'll explore howthe simple act of choosing
(00:43):
differently can transform yourhealth, your mindset, and your
entire freaking life.
So, if you're ready to cutthrough the bullshit and start
making some real changes, thenbuckle up and shut it up,
because we're about to chooseour way to a healthier, happier
life.
This is Shut Up and Choose.
(01:04):
Let's do this.
Now your host, JonathanRussler.
Jonathan (01:13):
Hey, welcome back to Shut Up and Choose, the podcast
that cuts you the noise and thenonsense and all the bullshit
that you had industry and thoseinternet and Instagram
influences are throwing yourway, telling you lies about how
to lose weight and not reallygiving you the true story.
So today I'm gonna actually tryto give you what that really
looks like.
So in early April of 2023, whenI walked out of the hospital
(01:38):
after 21 days, I didn't walk outhealthy.
I walked out patched together,like basically a Frankenstein
held up by medication and luck.
Sepsis had nearly killed me.
My body was wrecked.
They sent me home with aplastic bag full of fucking
orange bottles, blood pressuremedication, cholesterol meds,
blood thinners, a diuretics,something for gout, something
(02:00):
for kidneys, and something tohelp the side effects from all
that other shit.
And I remember looking at thatlineup of pills and thinking,
man, this is my new breakfast.
It was so complicated, I had toset reminders on my phone just
to keep up with the schedule.
Every morning it was the sameritual.
Choke down the meds, chase themwith some water, wait for the
dizziness and nausea to fade,and then just kind of pretend it
(02:22):
was normal.
And the doctors kept repeatingthe same warning to me.
Jonathan, your heart's weak,your kidneys are damaged, and
you can't keep living like this.
I nodded, I promised I'd dobetter, and I said all the right
words.
But the second I got home, thevery same day, I went right back
to my bad habits.
Because that's what addictionlooks like when food is your
(02:44):
drug.
It's not dramatic, it's quiet,it's autopilot.
You don't binge because you'rehungry, you binge because it's
the only thing that still feelslike control.
So there I was, a walkingpharmacy with failing organs,
sitting in my kitchen orderingtakeout.
The hospital bracelet was stillon my wrist.
(03:05):
That's the kind of sick that Iwas, not just physically, but
spiritually.
My body had almost died, and mybrain's first instinct was
let's eat.
That's a level of denial thatdoesn't even feel like denial
anymore.
It just feels like routine.
And that's where I was living.
The days after the hospitalwere a blur of pain and pills
(03:25):
and all kinds of shit.
My legs hurt, my joints were onfire from the gout.
I could feel my heart workingtoo hard, and every beat was
like a warning siren.
But instead of listening, Ijust fucking numbed it with
food, with TV, excuses, and thensome more food.
You can't medicate shame, soyou just buried on something
that tastes good for like fiveminutes.
(03:45):
And everyone around me, myfamily, my doctors, they were
scared.
My cardiologist looked me deadin the eye and said, if you
don't lose weight, you're gonnadie.
You need bariatric surgery.
You don't have a choice.
I'd heard those words before,but I I really didn't even give
a shit.
I just wanted to be left aloneand get back to the only thing
(04:06):
that brought me joy, which waseating.
So if you read my book, youknow all about the singing pink
gorilla and how it saved mylife.
If you don't know the story,here's the short version.
Vicky, my lifelong friend atthe time, now significantly
more, but she sent me a singingpink gorilla gram for my 59th
birthday.
It was funny, and I knew I hadto send her a photo of me and
(04:28):
the gorilla to her as a thankyou.
At that moment, I saw a photoof myself, and I didn't
recognize the person at all.
I I had avoided all reflectivesurfaces, and the person in the
picture is proof that I wasliving a life of delusion and
denial.
I wasn't someone I recognized,and I surely was not someone I
was proud to be.
(04:49):
When I finally saw myself, Iactually started believing the
doctor.
I didn't feel invincibleanymore.
I felt fragile, like I wasbreakable, like I was like one
cheeseburger away from aheadline.
So I did what scared people do.
I looked for the fastest wayout.
I started researching bariatricsurgery.
I read about the sleeve, thebypass, the band.
(05:12):
I watched testimonials frompeople crying on camera, how it
saved their life.
I wanted that.
I wanted to be safe.
But insurance might not touchit, and the waiting times were
months and months and months.
I felt like I didn't havemonths.
And then I found this clinic inMexico, part of a booming
medical tourism world.
(05:32):
They promised expert surgeons,five-star recovery suites,
luxury hotel transfers, andresults that would quote unquote
change everything.
It sounded like salvationwrapped in customer service.
So I did it.
I scheduled the surgery, 30days out.
That night I sat on my couchsurrounded by prescription
bottles and junk food wrappersand thought, maybe this is how I
(05:54):
finally win.
I felt like handing my lifeover to someone else, and for
the first time in years, thatactually felt like a relief
because I was tired of beingresponsible for me.
I didn't tell anyone how scaredI was or that I was even doing
it, to be honest.
I just kept imagining waking upthin, healed, and fixed.
But later that same night whenthe adrenaline faded, it was
(06:16):
just me in the dark, I startedthinking about everything that
could go wrong the surgery, theanesthesia, the infection risk,
the recovery, being alone in aforeign country.
And somewhere in that storm offear, a single sentence from the
doctor came echoing back to me.
And that was start eating lessnow, start preparing your mind
for life after surgery.
(06:38):
And I kept hearing that, and Iheard it in a repeat.
Start eating less now.
Well, if I can start eatingless now, why the hell am I
flying to another country tohave my stomach cut open?
That question, it wouldn't letme sleep.
It was like my brain finallycalled my own bluff because the
truth was brutal.
I didn't need a surgeon, Ineeded accountability, I needed
(07:00):
honesty, and I needed to stopwaiting for someone else to fix
the shit that I kept breaking.
So that night somethingcracked.
I saw myself clearly 411 poundsfull of medication, barely
functioning, and still trying tofind the easy way out.
And I thought, hey, maybe thehard way isn't the enemy.
(07:20):
Maybe it's the only way left.
I didn't decide to change mylife that night, to be honest.
I just decided not to surrenderit.
So the next morning, I canceledthe surgery.
And for the first time in along time, I didn't feel
hopeless, I felt awake.
Because the truth had finallylanded.
I didn't need surgery.
I didn't need Ozempic.
I didn't need another miracle.
(07:42):
I need to start fuckingchoosing again.
Because what I really neededwasn't a smaller stomach, it was
some self-respect.
So the morning after I canceledthe surgery, I woke up with
that same pit in my stomach, theone that comes when you do
something huge and immediatelywonder if you just made the
biggest fucking mistake of yourlife.
My phone was full of remindersfrom the clinic of Mexico, some
(08:03):
paperwork, asking for a deposit,travel itinerary.
I stared at him for a minute,and then when the last email
disappeared, the silence wasdeafening.
No plan, no surgeon, no safetynet, just me.
And the same broken shit thathad put me in the hospital bed
in the first place.
I gotta tell you, it didn'tfeel empowering.
(08:23):
It was honestly a littleterrifying.
So I walked in the kitchen, Iopened the fridge and saw the
wreckage of my old life.
Half-eaten takeout containers,soda bottles, leftover shit and
food that honestly smelled likedenial.
I didn't even know where tostart.
So I did the only thing I couldthink of was that I threw shit
(08:43):
away.
Not all of it, not somedramatic Instagram ready purge,
but just enough to create somespace because sometimes the
smallest act of defiance is justcleaning up your own mess.
And then I made myselfbreakfast, and not a healthy
one, not like some perfect mealplan, just something real.
I made some eggs and toasts andI had a glass of water.
(09:04):
It wasn't much, but it wasmine.
And for the first time inyears, I sat down, I ate slowly,
and I actually tasted my food.
No phone, no guilt, no plan,just a quiet, stubborn sense of
maybe I can do this.
And I have to be honest, forthe next few days I was in a
fog.
Physically I felt like shit.
(09:25):
My body was still wrecked fromthe hospital.
Every step reminded me of howfar I had actually fallen with
my swollen legs and achingjoints and a heart that felt
like it was running uphill.
But somewhere under that pain,something new was growing.
And it was curiosity.
I started asking myselfquestions instead of making
excuses.
Why am I hungry right now?
(09:46):
Why do I eat when I'm bored?
Why do I reach for food whenI'm scared?
For the first time, I think Iwasn't trying to be perfect.
I was just trying to be honest.
About a week into that, Icalled the cardiologist and he,
of course, he asked me, So didyou schedule surgery?
I said I did, but then I cancelit.
Nothing.
Silence.
Then he sighed.
(10:07):
That disappointed parent kindof said, like, Jonathan, you're
gambling with your life here.
And I said, No, I already didthat for years.
I'm done gambling.
I'm going all in on me.
He didn't get it.
Most people wouldn't, so Ichose to tell no one.
To them, surgery wasdiscipline.
To me, it felt like surrender.
They didn't understand that Iwasn't chasing a smaller
(10:29):
stomach, I was chasing a biggerlife, and that's really
important.
So in those first 30 days,everything was kind of hard.
Cooking was hard, moving washard, saying no to comfort food
was hard.
It felt like betrayal.
But every day I made one small,smart choice.
Just one.
I didn't overhaul my lifeovernight.
I just started stacking smallwins.
(10:51):
I'd walk a little bit further,and believe me, that wasn't a
lot.
Walking a hundred yards waswind, I was wiped out.
But I tried to walk just alittle bit further.
I drank water instead ofanything else instead of iced
tea and soda.
I took my meds on time.
I tried to go to bed an hourearly.
I really tried to focus on me.
Tiny things that look pointlessto anyone else, but to me they
(11:13):
were proof.
Proof that I wasn't done yet.
And every time I kept a promiseto myself, I felt the flicker
of something I hadn't felt inyears.
And that was trust.
That's the thing aboutrebuilding your life.
It starts in moments so smallthat you almost miss them.
You don't wake up one daymotivated.
That's a bunch of shit.
You wake up and realize you'retired of your own bullshit.
(11:35):
And that's what I did.
I remember one night, maybe twoweeks after canceling the
surgery, I was sitting in my caroutside of a fast food place.
The same shithole that I goneto a hundred times before.
I could smell the grease fromthe fries, and it was right
there.
My brain was screaming for it.
And I just sat there.
And then this quiet voice in myhead said, You don't have to do
(11:56):
this shit anymore.
So I didn't.
I turned on the car, I drovehome, and I made a boring
sandwich.
That was it.
No fireworks, no dramatictransformation.
But in that moment, I felt morepowerful than I ever did when I
was chasing a miracle cure.
Because I didn't follow a rule.
I had made a choice.
(12:16):
And that's the difference.
Rules keep you obedient, andchoices keep you alive.
So over the next few weeks, mybody started to change.
Not drastically, just littlesigns that something real was
happening.
The scale started moving, myenergy shifted.
I had a lot more energy, andthe bloat started to fade.
And believe me, there was a lotof bloat, partially because of
(12:37):
the medicine, but mostly becauseof the food.
But more importantly, mymindset started to thaw out.
And for the first time, Ididn't wake up hating myself.
I woke up thinking, let's seewhat happens if I keep going.
That's when I realized I didn'tcross some, I guess, invisible
line from surviving to actuallyliving.
Because when you stop lookingfor someone else to save you,
(12:59):
you start saving yourself.
And it's messy, it's slow, it'spainful, but it's fucking real.
By the end of the month, Ilearned more about myself than I
had in 40 years of diets.
I learned that food was neverthe enemy.
It was my escape hatch.
I learned that comfort is justanother word for avoidance.
And I learned that I didn'tneed to be fucking perfect.
(13:20):
I just needed to show up.
That was the real wake up.
Not the hospital, not thesepsis, not the doctors warning
me I'd die.
It was the quiet moment after Icanceled surgery when I
realized I didn't need to besaved.
I needed to takeresponsibility.
That's when I stopped waitingfor motivation and started
building momentum.
I didn't know it yet, but that30-day window, that time that
(13:43):
was supposed to lead up to thesurgery, became the first
chapter of my actual recovery.
Because what I discovered wassimple but life-changing.
The human body will fight likehell to survive, but you gotta
meet it halfway.
I wasn't trying to lose 140pounds.
I was trying to find the manburied underneath all of them.
(14:04):
And for the first time inyears, I believed he was still
in there.
So before I ever even bookedDeath Fantasy Mexico, I went
down the rabbit hole everynight, sitting there surrounded
by pill bottles, lefters.
I was scrolling, bariatricsurgery forms, YouTube
testimonials, before and afterpictures that looked like
fucking miracles.
I was desperate.
(14:25):
I wanted hope that came in apackage with tracking
information.
The more I read, the more Ifelt like salvation.
People saying, finally feltfree.
Other people crying on camera,holding up these genes and like
they were holy relics, thesemassive genes.
And then I kind of stumbled onthe other half of the
conversation.
The new miracle, everybody wasraving about.
(14:45):
It was Ozempic or Wagovie, itwas one of the GLP ones.
All you have to do is take ashot once a week and poof, your
hunger's gone, your craving'sgone, appetite gone.
It was marketed like magic andit still is.
And I'll be honest, I almostbelieve it.
Because when you're 411 poundsand scared to die, magic sounds
logical.
(15:05):
If a needle could make thenoise in my head quiet down, why
wouldn't I do it?
So I did what I always do whenI'm a little bit nervous or
scared.
I researched the shit out ofit.
At first it was hope, then itstarted to feel like dirty or
cheating.
Like I don't want to do this.
People posting about constantnausea, vomiting, muscle loss,
ozempic face, the insane reboundwhen they stopped.
(15:28):
Some said they couldn't eat,others said they couldn't stop
once they went off.
The pattern was obvious.
They hadn't changed.
They'd just been chemicallysilenced.
And that scared the shit out ofme.
Because I realized if I neededa needle to stop eating, I
wasn't really healing.
I was outsourcing my willpower.
That wouldn't be fixing aproblem.
It would just be finding, Iguess, a shinier version of
(15:50):
denial.
That's when the surgery startedto feel like the same trap,
just more expensive.
Every article promised a newlife, but buried in the fine
print was the same instructionmy doctor gave me.
Start eating less now and startpreparing for your new life
after surgery.
Wait, eat less now?
If I can eat less now, why thefuck am I paying for someone to
(16:11):
cut me open?
Same thought.
That single sentence punchedthrough every layer of bullshit
that I built for myself becauseit exposed what I really didn't
want to admit.
I was still searching for ashortcut.
So I convinced myself thatsurgery or a Zempik would save
me when what I really wanted todo was stop being responsible
for my own choices.
And I don't think it waslaziness, it was exhaustion.
(16:34):
I was tired of failing.
But there's a big differencebetween being tired and being
done.
So before I officially bookedthe surgery, I sat there with
all my research spread out, myclinic brochures, my cost
breakdowns, my medical orders,and it hit me like a freight
train.
Every one of these solutionsrequires me to do the same thing
(16:54):
they claim to make easy.
Eat less, move a little bit,pay attention, and be honest.
The surgery just forced it andthe drugs numbed it.
They both treated my body likea machine that needed rewiring,
not a fucking human being thatneeded rebuilding.
That realization cracks on theopen at me.
Because the truth is, I wasn'tlooking for a cure.
(17:15):
I was looking for permission tokeep running from myself.
If I can make it medical, thenit wasn't failure, it was
treatment.
Or if I can make it chemical,then I was out of control.
I was just imbalanced.
That's the bullshit that keepspeople stuck.
We medicalize what's really abehavioral problem, then sell
the cure on a payment plan.
The diet industry, thepharmaceutical companies, the
(17:38):
fucking influencers, they allthrive on one message.
You can't be trusted withyourself.
And that's the lie, that's thebullshit that I almost believed.
I looked at the numbers again,the deposit, the travel, the
risk, and something inside mejust snapped.
I'm about to pay thousands ofdollars to fly to another
country and have someonephysically restrict my ability
(17:59):
to eat.
Then maybe the problem isn't mystomach, maybe it's my spine.
So I, like I said, I didn'tbook it.
I closed the laptop, sat therein silence, and realized I'd
just dodged the most expensivesurrender of my life.
And yet, the next day I came.
I convinced myself I wasoverthinking.
That was fear talking, notlogic.
So I called the clinic back andscheduled it.
(18:20):
30 days out.
But that night, lying in bed, Icouldn't breathe.
Not just because of my weight,because that was also a problem,
but because I knew I justbetrayed myself again.
All those hours of research,all those red flags, and I
ignored them because I was stillchasing easy.
That's the real addiction.
Not to food, but toconvenience.
At two in the morning, I gotout of bed.
(18:42):
I opened my laptop.
I reread every horror story Ibookmarked and pretended that
didn't matter.
The ones where people couldn'teat without puking, the ones
where they lost weight but notto shame, the ones that ended
with I wish I tried harderbefore I did this.
That last one really hit mebecause that was me.
I I really hadn't really tried.
I just kept outsourcing theeffort.
(19:03):
So I canceled the surgeryagain, this time for good.
And for the first time, thesilence didn't sound like fear,
it sounded like freedom.
That's when it finally clicked.
The easy way is always the mostexpensive.
It costs your autonomy, yourconfidence, and your
self-respect.
You can shrink your stomach,you can cut off your appetite.
(19:25):
But if you never learn to trustyourself, you'll always need
another fix.
So yeah, I canceled thesurgery.
I skipped the shot.
I chose the hard way because Ididn't need a smaller stomach.
Honestly, I needed biggerballs.
I needed to prove to myselfthat I could still make choices
and live with them.
And that's exactly what I did.
(19:46):
So when I canceled that surgerythe second time, I didn't have
like some fucking movie moment,like no soundtrack, no sunshine,
no, no teary epiphany.
Just me sitting in bed in thedark, surrounded by prescription
bottles, realizing there's noplan, no backup, and no miracle
coming.
But somehow that didn't scareme anymore.
It just kind of pissed me offbecause I finally saw it.
(20:09):
Every time shit got hard, Ihanded my power away.
A doctor, a diet, a guru, aprogram.
Every single time I said fixme, instead of I'll fix this.
So that night I made a dealwith myself.
If this kills me, it'll atleast be on my terms.
No more outsourcing, no morelooking for easy, just raw,
daily choice.
(20:30):
That was the beginning of therebuild.
Like I said, the next morning Istarted small.
I drank water before I drankcoffee.
I ate breakfast, a realbreakfast instead of dog shit.
I walked just a couple hundredfeet because that was all I
could do.
But I moved.
And then I did it again thenext day and again the next day.
And by the end of the firstweek, something happened.
Like I said, the scale dropped.
(20:52):
Not a pound or two, but fucking10 pounds.
The bloat, the information,that all that poison that I've
been carrying, it started toleave my body like it was
escaping a burning building.
By week two, the differencehonestly was visible.
My face was less swollen, myankles didn't feel like
sandbags, and I could actuallybreathe.
And that's when the momenthappened.
(21:14):
I was in the grocery store, thesame Publix where I used to
grab all kinds of shit.
And I walked past the bakerydepartment, past the fried
chicken, past every comfort foodthat I used to owe me.
And I didn't want any of it.
Not because I was being good,because I was finally done being
numb.
Right there, a couple weeks in,I realized something I'd never
(21:36):
felt before.
I wasn't dieting, I wasdeciding.
People always talk about slowand steady, but fuck that shit.
My body was ready to heal theminute I stopped assaulting it.
Once I cut the poison andstarted moving, it responded
like it had been waiting forfucking years for me to show up.
That's the part no one tellsyou.
Your body doesn't hate you.
(21:56):
It's just begging you tolisten.
The weight, like I said, cameoff fast, but it wasn't luck.
It was the compound interest ofevery honest choice finally
paying off.
And every pound I dropped mademe more dangerous because it
proved the bullshit was wrong.
The doctors who said Icouldn't, the industry said I
needed them, the voice in myhead that said I was fucking
(22:17):
broken, all of them wrong.
I kept going another week, thenanother, every day, just
another small, smart choice,eating food that fuels me,
moving more than I didyesterday.
And again, just a cup, maybeeven a couple more steps, but
sleeping, hydrating, don't quit.
I never tracked a fucking macroor counted a single calorie.
(22:37):
I tracked integrity.
Did I keep my word to myselftoday?
Yes, then I'm winning.
Because every promise kept is abrick in the foundation of
self-respect.
And for the first time inyears, I was building something
solid.
By the end of the first month,I was down almost 30 pounds.
My clothes were loose, myenergy was up, and to be honest,
(22:59):
I was fucking shocked.
But the number wasn't thestory.
The ownership was.
I wasn't living by restriction,I was living by alignment.
Food stopped being the enemyand started being information.
And the more I listened, themore my body responded.
If I wanted to eat donuts orcake or candy, I just would.
But the funny thing is, Ididn't want to.
(23:20):
I knew I could, but I didn'tbecause I knew I was on the path
that I'd been searching for forliterally my entire life.
That's when I understood thistruth.
Control isn't the goal, trustis.
Control is just fear pretendingto be discipline.
Trust is freedom.
I stopped dieting and I startedchoosing.
(23:44):
That became my mantra, mycompass, basically my rebellion,
because I didn't lose 140pounds by finding a better plan.
I lost it by finding mybackbone, by finding the balls.
I stopped worshiping willpowerand started practicing awareness
and being present.
I stopped chasing disciplineand I started chasing honesty.
(24:05):
And every time I made a choicethat aligned with who I wanted
to be, the old version of medied a little bit more.
And I didn't mourn thatmotherfucker either.
I buried him.
That's what led to my book ShutUp and Choose, because when you
strip away the drama, thehacks, and the systems, what's
left is the truth.
People don't need another diet,they need to believe they're
capable of choice.
(24:26):
That's the core philosophy.
That's what stop dieting, startchoosing actually means.
It's not some motivationalfluff.
It's my middle finger to thebillion-dollar energy built on
keeping people helpless.
Because when you finally choosefor yourself, they can't sell
you shit.
You don't build transformationin big cinematic moments, you
(24:49):
build it in boring, relentlesshonesty.
The kind where nobody'sclapping, the kind where it's
just you versus your oldpattern, and the kind where you
win because you refuse to quit.
That's what I did.
That's what anyone can do.
So yeah, the weight came offfast, but what stayed off for
good was the bullshit.
And if you take nothing elsefrom this story, take this.
(25:10):
You're just one choice awayfrom momentum, and momentum is
one choice away from freedom.
Here's the truth you don't needanother plan, you don't need a
new fucking pill, you don't needanother guru in your feed
pretending to care about yourjourney.
You just need to decide thatyour life matters more than your
comfort.
That's it.
That's the secret.
(25:31):
I found the 411 pounds coveredin hospital wristbands and
excuses.
The moment I stopped lookingfor easy and started choosing
hard, and hard is a relativeterm.
And to be completely honest, itwasn't hard.
It was liberating andempowering.
And if you're listening to thisright now and thinking, hey,
maybe I could do that, thengood, because you can.
(25:52):
You don't need surgery, youdon't need ozempic, and you
surely don't need fuckingpermission.
You need honesty, consistency,and a little bit of
self-respect.
That's what my book, Shut Upand Choose, is all about.
It's not a diet book, it's amanual for taking your power
back.
It's how I lost 140 pounds,built trust with myself again,
and created a life that Iactually enjoy.
(26:15):
And if you want something youcan use right now, go to my
website, jonathanwrestle.com,and sign up for my free weekly
tips.
They take less than a minute toread.
There's no sales pitch, nobullshit.
I'm not selling you anything.
It's just practical, bite-sizedtruths that help you make
small, smart choices thatactually work.
Because the longer you wait tochoose, the longer someone else
profits from your hesitation.
(26:36):
So start today, not fuckingMonday, not after the holidays,
right fucking now.
You've tried every diet, you'vetrusted everyone but yourself.
It's time to do somethingradical and make your own
choices.
Stop dieting and startchoosing.
Because you don't need surgery,you don't need a syringe, and
(26:57):
you don't need permission.
You just need to shut up andchoose.
Announcer (27:02):
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, and we'lllet you in on a little secret.
No fucking gym.
And guess what?
(27:24):
You can do it too! We hope youenjoyed 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 at JonathanWrestlerBocaraton.
Until next time, shut up andchoose.
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 hurtwhen you hear someone speak the
absolute real and raw truth, youshould leave.
Like right now.
This is Shut Up and Choose.
(00:22):
The podcast where we cutthrough the shit and get real
about weight loss, life, andeverything in between, we get
into the nitty-gritty of makingsmall, smart choices that add up
to big results.
From what's on your plate andhow you approach life's
challenges, we'll explore howthe simple act of choosing
(00:43):
differently can transform yourhealth, your mindset, and your
entire freaking life.
So, if you're ready to cutthrough the bullshit and start
making some real changes, thenbuckle up and shut it up,
because we're about to chooseour way to a healthier, happier
life.
This is Shut Up and Choose.
(01:04):
Let's do this.
Now your host, JonathanRussler.
Jonathan (01:13):
Hey, welcome back to Shut Up and Choose, the podcast
that cuts you the noise and thenonsense and all the bullshit
that you had industry and thoseinternet and Instagram
influences are throwing yourway, telling you lies about how
to lose weight and not reallygiving you the true story.
So today I'm gonna actually tryto give you what that really
looks like.
So in early April of 2023, whenI walked out of the hospital
(01:38):
after 21 days, I didn't walk outhealthy.
I walked out patched together,like basically a Frankenstein
held up by medication and luck.
Sepsis had nearly killed me.
My body was wrecked.
They sent me home with aplastic bag full of fucking
orange bottles, blood pressuremedication, cholesterol meds,
blood thinners, a diuretics,something for gout, something
(02:00):
for kidneys, and something tohelp the side effects from all
that other shit.
And I remember looking at thatlineup of pills and thinking,
man, this is my new breakfast.
It was so complicated, I had toset reminders on my phone just
to keep up with the schedule.
Every morning it was the sameritual.
Choke down the meds, chase themwith some water, wait for the
dizziness and nausea to fade,and then just kind of pretend it
(02:22):
was normal.
And the doctors kept repeatingthe same warning to me.
Jonathan, your heart's weak,your kidneys are damaged, and
you can't keep living like this.
I nodded, I promised I'd dobetter, and I said all the right
words.
But the second I got home, thevery same day, I went right back
to my bad habits.
Because that's what addictionlooks like when food is your
(02:44):
drug.
It's not dramatic, it's quiet,it's autopilot.
You don't binge because you'rehungry, you binge because it's
the only thing that still feelslike control.
So there I was, a walkingpharmacy with failing organs,
sitting in my kitchen orderingtakeout.
The hospital bracelet was stillon my wrist.
(03:05):
That's the kind of sick that Iwas, not just physically, but
spiritually.
My body had almost died, and mybrain's first instinct was
let's eat.
That's a level of denial thatdoesn't even feel like denial
anymore.
It just feels like routine.
And that's where I was living.
The days after the hospitalwere a blur of pain and pills
(03:25):
and all kinds of shit.
My legs hurt, my joints were onfire from the gout.
I could feel my heart workingtoo hard, and every beat was
like a warning siren.
But instead of listening, Ijust fucking numbed it with
food, with TV, excuses, and thensome more food.
You can't medicate shame, soyou just buried on something
that tastes good for like fiveminutes.
(03:45):
And everyone around me, myfamily, my doctors, they were
scared.
My cardiologist looked me deadin the eye and said, if you
don't lose weight, you're gonnadie.
You need bariatric surgery.
You don't have a choice.
I'd heard those words before,but I I really didn't even give
a shit.
I just wanted to be left aloneand get back to the only thing
(04:06):
that brought me joy, which waseating.
So if you read my book, youknow all about the singing pink
gorilla and how it saved mylife.
If you don't know the story,here's the short version.
Vicky, my lifelong friend atthe time, now significantly
more, but she sent me a singingpink gorilla gram for my 59th
birthday.
It was funny, and I knew I hadto send her a photo of me and
(04:28):
the gorilla to her as a thankyou.
At that moment, I saw a photoof myself, and I didn't
recognize the person at all.
I I had avoided all reflectivesurfaces, and the person in the
picture is proof that I wasliving a life of delusion and
denial.
I wasn't someone I recognized,and I surely was not someone I
was proud to be.
(04:49):
When I finally saw myself, Iactually started believing the
doctor.
I didn't feel invincibleanymore.
I felt fragile, like I wasbreakable, like I was like one
cheeseburger away from aheadline.
So I did what scared people do.
I looked for the fastest wayout.
I started researching bariatricsurgery.
I read about the sleeve, thebypass, the band.
(05:12):
I watched testimonials frompeople crying on camera, how it
saved their life.
I wanted that.
I wanted to be safe.
But insurance might not touchit, and the waiting times were
months and months and months.
I felt like I didn't havemonths.
And then I found this clinic inMexico, part of a booming
medical tourism world.
(05:32):
They promised expert surgeons,five-star recovery suites,
luxury hotel transfers, andresults that would quote unquote
change everything.
It sounded like salvationwrapped in customer service.
So I did it.
I scheduled the surgery, 30days out.
That night I sat on my couchsurrounded by prescription
bottles and junk food wrappersand thought, maybe this is how I
(05:54):
finally win.
I felt like handing my lifeover to someone else, and for
the first time in years, thatactually felt like a relief
because I was tired of beingresponsible for me.
I didn't tell anyone how scaredI was or that I was even doing
it, to be honest.
I just kept imagining waking upthin, healed, and fixed.
But later that same night whenthe adrenaline faded, it was
(06:16):
just me in the dark, I startedthinking about everything that
could go wrong the surgery, theanesthesia, the infection risk,
the recovery, being alone in aforeign country.
And somewhere in that storm offear, a single sentence from the
doctor came echoing back to me.
And that was start eating lessnow, start preparing your mind
for life after surgery.
(06:38):
And I kept hearing that, and Iheard it in a repeat.
Start eating less now.
Well, if I can start eatingless now, why the hell am I
flying to another country tohave my stomach cut open?
That question, it wouldn't letme sleep.
It was like my brain finallycalled my own bluff because the
truth was brutal.
I didn't need a surgeon, Ineeded accountability, I needed
(07:00):
honesty, and I needed to stopwaiting for someone else to fix
the shit that I kept breaking.
So that night somethingcracked.
I saw myself clearly 411 poundsfull of medication, barely
functioning, and still trying tofind the easy way out.
And I thought, hey, maybe thehard way isn't the enemy.
(07:20):
Maybe it's the only way left.
I didn't decide to change mylife that night, to be honest.
I just decided not to surrenderit.
So the next morning, I canceledthe surgery.
And for the first time in along time, I didn't feel
hopeless, I felt awake.
Because the truth had finallylanded.
I didn't need surgery.
I didn't need Ozempic.
I didn't need another miracle.
(07:42):
I need to start fuckingchoosing again.
Because what I really neededwasn't a smaller stomach, it was
some self-respect.
So the morning after I canceledthe surgery, I woke up with
that same pit in my stomach, theone that comes when you do
something huge and immediatelywonder if you just made the
biggest fucking mistake of yourlife.
My phone was full of remindersfrom the clinic of Mexico, some
(08:03):
paperwork, asking for a deposit,travel itinerary.
I stared at him for a minute,and then when the last email
disappeared, the silence wasdeafening.
No plan, no surgeon, no safetynet, just me.
And the same broken shit thathad put me in the hospital bed
in the first place.
I gotta tell you, it didn'tfeel empowering.
(08:23):
It was honestly a littleterrifying.
So I walked in the kitchen, Iopened the fridge and saw the
wreckage of my old life.
Half-eaten takeout containers,soda bottles, leftover shit and
food that honestly smelled likedenial.
I didn't even know where tostart.
So I did the only thing I couldthink of was that I threw shit
(08:43):
away.
Not all of it, not somedramatic Instagram ready purge,
but just enough to create somespace because sometimes the
smallest act of defiance is justcleaning up your own mess.
And then I made myselfbreakfast, and not a healthy
one, not like some perfect mealplan, just something real.
I made some eggs and toasts andI had a glass of water.
(09:04):
It wasn't much, but it wasmine.
And for the first time inyears, I sat down, I ate slowly,
and I actually tasted my food.
No phone, no guilt, no plan,just a quiet, stubborn sense of
maybe I can do this.
And I have to be honest, forthe next few days I was in a
fog.
Physically I felt like shit.
(09:25):
My body was still wrecked fromthe hospital.
Every step reminded me of howfar I had actually fallen with
my swollen legs and achingjoints and a heart that felt
like it was running uphill.
But somewhere under that pain,something new was growing.
And it was curiosity.
I started asking myselfquestions instead of making
excuses.
Why am I hungry right now?
(09:46):
Why do I eat when I'm bored?
Why do I reach for food whenI'm scared?
For the first time, I think Iwasn't trying to be perfect.
I was just trying to be honest.
About a week into that, Icalled the cardiologist and he,
of course, he asked me, So didyou schedule surgery?
I said I did, but then I cancelit.
Nothing.
Silence.
Then he sighed.
(10:07):
That disappointed parent kindof said, like, Jonathan, you're
gambling with your life here.
And I said, No, I already didthat for years.
I'm done gambling.
I'm going all in on me.
He didn't get it.
Most people wouldn't, so Ichose to tell no one.
To them, surgery wasdiscipline.
To me, it felt like surrender.
They didn't understand that Iwasn't chasing a smaller
(10:29):
stomach, I was chasing a biggerlife, and that's really
important.
So in those first 30 days,everything was kind of hard.
Cooking was hard, moving washard, saying no to comfort food
was hard.
It felt like betrayal.
But every day I made one small,smart choice.
Just one.
I didn't overhaul my lifeovernight.
I just started stacking smallwins.
(10:51):
I'd walk a little bit further,and believe me, that wasn't a
lot.
Walking a hundred yards waswind, I was wiped out.
But I tried to walk just alittle bit further.
I drank water instead ofanything else instead of iced
tea and soda.
I took my meds on time.
I tried to go to bed an hourearly.
I really tried to focus on me.
Tiny things that look pointlessto anyone else, but to me they
(11:13):
were proof.
Proof that I wasn't done yet.
And every time I kept a promiseto myself, I felt the flicker
of something I hadn't felt inyears.
And that was trust.
That's the thing aboutrebuilding your life.
It starts in moments so smallthat you almost miss them.
You don't wake up one daymotivated.
That's a bunch of shit.
You wake up and realize you'retired of your own bullshit.
(11:35):
And that's what I did.
I remember one night, maybe twoweeks after canceling the
surgery, I was sitting in my caroutside of a fast food place.
The same shithole that I goneto a hundred times before.
I could smell the grease fromthe fries, and it was right
there.
My brain was screaming for it.
And I just sat there.
And then this quiet voice in myhead said, You don't have to do
(11:56):
this shit anymore.
So I didn't.
I turned on the car, I drovehome, and I made a boring
sandwich.
That was it.
No fireworks, no dramatictransformation.
But in that moment, I felt morepowerful than I ever did when I
was chasing a miracle cure.
Because I didn't follow a rule.
I had made a choice.
(12:16):
And that's the difference.
Rules keep you obedient, andchoices keep you alive.
So over the next few weeks, mybody started to change.
Not drastically, just littlesigns that something real was
happening.
The scale started moving, myenergy shifted.
I had a lot more energy, andthe bloat started to fade.
And believe me, there was a lotof bloat, partially because of
(12:37):
the medicine, but mostly becauseof the food.
But more importantly, mymindset started to thaw out.
And for the first time, Ididn't wake up hating myself.
I woke up thinking, let's seewhat happens if I keep going.
That's when I realized I didn'tcross some, I guess, invisible
line from surviving to actuallyliving.
Because when you stop lookingfor someone else to save you,
(12:59):
you start saving yourself.
And it's messy, it's slow, it'spainful, but it's fucking real.
By the end of the month, Ilearned more about myself than I
had in 40 years of diets.
I learned that food was neverthe enemy.
It was my escape hatch.
I learned that comfort is justanother word for avoidance.
And I learned that I didn'tneed to be fucking perfect.
(13:20):
I just needed to show up.
That was the real wake up.
Not the hospital, not thesepsis, not the doctors warning
me I'd die.
It was the quiet moment after Icanceled surgery when I
realized I didn't need to besaved.
I needed to takeresponsibility.
That's when I stopped waitingfor motivation and started
building momentum.
I didn't know it yet, but that30-day window, that time that
(13:43):
was supposed to lead up to thesurgery, became the first
chapter of my actual recovery.
Because what I discovered wassimple but life-changing.
The human body will fight likehell to survive, but you gotta
meet it halfway.
I wasn't trying to lose 140pounds.
I was trying to find the manburied underneath all of them.
(14:04):
And for the first time inyears, I believed he was still
in there.
So before I ever even bookedDeath Fantasy Mexico, I went
down the rabbit hole everynight, sitting there surrounded
by pill bottles, lefters.
I was scrolling, bariatricsurgery forms, YouTube
testimonials, before and afterpictures that looked like
fucking miracles.
I was desperate.
(14:25):
I wanted hope that came in apackage with tracking
information.
The more I read, the more Ifelt like salvation.
People saying, finally feltfree.
Other people crying on camera,holding up these genes and like
they were holy relics, thesemassive genes.
And then I kind of stumbled onthe other half of the
conversation.
The new miracle, everybody wasraving about.
(14:45):
It was Ozempic or Wagovie, itwas one of the GLP ones.
All you have to do is take ashot once a week and poof, your
hunger's gone, your craving'sgone, appetite gone.
It was marketed like magic andit still is.
And I'll be honest, I almostbelieve it.
Because when you're 411 poundsand scared to die, magic sounds
logical.
(15:05):
If a needle could make thenoise in my head quiet down, why
wouldn't I do it?
So I did what I always do whenI'm a little bit nervous or
scared.
I researched the shit out ofit.
At first it was hope, then itstarted to feel like dirty or
cheating.
Like I don't want to do this.
People posting about constantnausea, vomiting, muscle loss,
ozempic face, the insane reboundwhen they stopped.
(15:28):
Some said they couldn't eat,others said they couldn't stop
once they went off.
The pattern was obvious.
They hadn't changed.
They'd just been chemicallysilenced.
And that scared the shit out ofme.
Because I realized if I neededa needle to stop eating, I
wasn't really healing.
I was outsourcing my willpower.
That wouldn't be fixing aproblem.
It would just be finding, Iguess, a shinier version of
(15:50):
denial.
That's when the surgery startedto feel like the same trap,
just more expensive.
Every article promised a newlife, but buried in the fine
print was the same instructionmy doctor gave me.
Start eating less now and startpreparing for your new life
after surgery.
Wait, eat less now?
If I can eat less now, why thefuck am I paying for someone to
(16:11):
cut me open?
Same thought.
That single sentence punchedthrough every layer of bullshit
that I built for myself becauseit exposed what I really didn't
want to admit.
I was still searching for ashortcut.
So I convinced myself thatsurgery or a Zempik would save
me when what I really wanted todo was stop being responsible
for my own choices.
And I don't think it waslaziness, it was exhaustion.
(16:34):
I was tired of failing.
But there's a big differencebetween being tired and being
done.
So before I officially bookedthe surgery, I sat there with
all my research spread out, myclinic brochures, my cost
breakdowns, my medical orders,and it hit me like a freight
train.
Every one of these solutionsrequires me to do the same thing
(16:54):
they claim to make easy.
Eat less, move a little bit,pay attention, and be honest.
The surgery just forced it andthe drugs numbed it.
They both treated my body likea machine that needed rewiring,
not a fucking human being thatneeded rebuilding.
That realization cracks on theopen at me.
Because the truth is, I wasn'tlooking for a cure.
(17:15):
I was looking for permission tokeep running from myself.
If I can make it medical, thenit wasn't failure, it was
treatment.
Or if I can make it chemical,then I was out of control.
I was just imbalanced.
That's the bullshit that keepspeople stuck.
We medicalize what's really abehavioral problem, then sell
the cure on a payment plan.
The diet industry, thepharmaceutical companies, the
(17:38):
fucking influencers, they allthrive on one message.
You can't be trusted withyourself.
And that's the lie, that's thebullshit that I almost believed.
I looked at the numbers again,the deposit, the travel, the
risk, and something inside mejust snapped.
I'm about to pay thousands ofdollars to fly to another
country and have someonephysically restrict my ability
(17:59):
to eat.
Then maybe the problem isn't mystomach, maybe it's my spine.
So I, like I said, I didn'tbook it.
I closed the laptop, sat therein silence, and realized I'd
just dodged the most expensivesurrender of my life.
And yet, the next day I came.
I convinced myself I wasoverthinking.
That was fear talking, notlogic.
So I called the clinic back andscheduled it.
(18:20):
30 days out.
But that night, lying in bed, Icouldn't breathe.
Not just because of my weight,because that was also a problem,
but because I knew I justbetrayed myself again.
All those hours of research,all those red flags, and I
ignored them because I was stillchasing easy.
That's the real addiction.
Not to food, but toconvenience.
At two in the morning, I gotout of bed.
(18:42):
I opened my laptop.
I reread every horror story Ibookmarked and pretended that
didn't matter.
The ones where people couldn'teat without puking, the ones
where they lost weight but notto shame, the ones that ended
with I wish I tried harderbefore I did this.
That last one really hit mebecause that was me.
I I really hadn't really tried.
I just kept outsourcing theeffort.
(19:03):
So I canceled the surgeryagain, this time for good.
And for the first time, thesilence didn't sound like fear,
it sounded like freedom.
That's when it finally clicked.
The easy way is always the mostexpensive.
It costs your autonomy, yourconfidence, and your
self-respect.
You can shrink your stomach,you can cut off your appetite.
(19:25):
But if you never learn to trustyourself, you'll always need
another fix.
So yeah, I canceled thesurgery.
I skipped the shot.
I chose the hard way because Ididn't need a smaller stomach.
Honestly, I needed biggerballs.
I needed to prove to myselfthat I could still make choices
and live with them.
And that's exactly what I did.
(19:46):
So when I canceled that surgerythe second time, I didn't have
like some fucking movie moment,like no soundtrack, no sunshine,
no, no teary epiphany.
Just me sitting in bed in thedark, surrounded by prescription
bottles, realizing there's noplan, no backup, and no miracle
coming.
But somehow that didn't scareme anymore.
It just kind of pissed me offbecause I finally saw it.
(20:09):
Every time shit got hard, Ihanded my power away.
A doctor, a diet, a guru, aprogram.
Every single time I said fixme, instead of I'll fix this.
So that night I made a dealwith myself.
If this kills me, it'll atleast be on my terms.
No more outsourcing, no morelooking for easy, just raw,
daily choice.
(20:30):
That was the beginning of therebuild.
Like I said, the next morning Istarted small.
I drank water before I drankcoffee.
I ate breakfast, a realbreakfast instead of dog shit.
I walked just a couple hundredfeet because that was all I
could do.
But I moved.
And then I did it again thenext day and again the next day.
And by the end of the firstweek, something happened.
Like I said, the scale dropped.
(20:52):
Not a pound or two, but fucking10 pounds.
The bloat, the information,that all that poison that I've
been carrying, it started toleave my body like it was
escaping a burning building.
By week two, the differencehonestly was visible.
My face was less swollen, myankles didn't feel like
sandbags, and I could actuallybreathe.
And that's when the momenthappened.
(21:14):
I was in the grocery store, thesame Publix where I used to
grab all kinds of shit.
And I walked past the bakerydepartment, past the fried
chicken, past every comfort foodthat I used to owe me.
And I didn't want any of it.
Not because I was being good,because I was finally done being
numb.
Right there, a couple weeks in,I realized something I'd never
(21:36):
felt before.
I wasn't dieting, I wasdeciding.
People always talk about slowand steady, but fuck that shit.
My body was ready to heal theminute I stopped assaulting it.
Once I cut the poison andstarted moving, it responded
like it had been waiting forfucking years for me to show up.
That's the part no one tellsyou.
Your body doesn't hate you.
(21:56):
It's just begging you tolisten.
The weight, like I said, cameoff fast, but it wasn't luck.
It was the compound interest ofevery honest choice finally
paying off.
And every pound I dropped mademe more dangerous because it
proved the bullshit was wrong.
The doctors who said Icouldn't, the industry said I
needed them, the voice in myhead that said I was fucking
(22:17):
broken, all of them wrong.
I kept going another week, thenanother, every day, just
another small, smart choice,eating food that fuels me,
moving more than I didyesterday.
And again, just a cup, maybeeven a couple more steps, but
sleeping, hydrating, don't quit.
I never tracked a fucking macroor counted a single calorie.
(22:37):
I tracked integrity.
Did I keep my word to myselftoday?
Yes, then I'm winning.
Because every promise kept is abrick in the foundation of
self-respect.
And for the first time inyears, I was building something
solid.
By the end of the first month,I was down almost 30 pounds.
My clothes were loose, myenergy was up, and to be honest,
(22:59):
I was fucking shocked.
But the number wasn't thestory.
The ownership was.
I wasn't living by restriction,I was living by alignment.
Food stopped being the enemyand started being information.
And the more I listened, themore my body responded.
If I wanted to eat donuts orcake or candy, I just would.
But the funny thing is, Ididn't want to.
(23:20):
I knew I could, but I didn'tbecause I knew I was on the path
that I'd been searching for forliterally my entire life.
That's when I understood thistruth.
Control isn't the goal, trustis.
Control is just fear pretendingto be discipline.
Trust is freedom.
I stopped dieting and I startedchoosing.
(23:44):
That became my mantra, mycompass, basically my rebellion,
because I didn't lose 140pounds by finding a better plan.
I lost it by finding mybackbone, by finding the balls.
I stopped worshiping willpowerand started practicing awareness
and being present.
I stopped chasing disciplineand I started chasing honesty.
(24:05):
And every time I made a choicethat aligned with who I wanted
to be, the old version of medied a little bit more.
And I didn't mourn thatmotherfucker either.
I buried him.
That's what led to my book ShutUp and Choose, because when you
strip away the drama, thehacks, and the systems, what's
left is the truth.
People don't need another diet,they need to believe they're
capable of choice.
(24:26):
That's the core philosophy.
That's what stop dieting, startchoosing actually means.
It's not some motivationalfluff.
It's my middle finger to thebillion-dollar energy built on
keeping people helpless.
Because when you finally choosefor yourself, they can't sell
you shit.
You don't build transformationin big cinematic moments, you
(24:49):
build it in boring, relentlesshonesty.
The kind where nobody'sclapping, the kind where it's
just you versus your oldpattern, and the kind where you
win because you refuse to quit.
That's what I did.
That's what anyone can do.
So yeah, the weight came offfast, but what stayed off for
good was the bullshit.
And if you take nothing elsefrom this story, take this.
(25:10):
You're just one choice awayfrom momentum, and momentum is
one choice away from freedom.
Here's the truth you don't needanother plan, you don't need a
new fucking pill, you don't needanother guru in your feed
pretending to care about yourjourney.
You just need to decide thatyour life matters more than your
comfort.
That's it.
That's the secret.
(25:31):
I found the 411 pounds coveredin hospital wristbands and
excuses.
The moment I stopped lookingfor easy and started choosing
hard, and hard is a relativeterm.
And to be completely honest, itwasn't hard.
It was liberating andempowering.
And if you're listening to thisright now and thinking, hey,
maybe I could do that, thengood, because you can.
(25:52):
You don't need surgery, youdon't need ozempic, and you
surely don't need fuckingpermission.
You need honesty, consistency,and a little bit of
self-respect.
That's what my book, Shut Upand Choose, is all about.
It's not a diet book, it's amanual for taking your power
back.
It's how I lost 140 pounds,built trust with myself again,
and created a life that Iactually enjoy.
(26:15):
And if you want something youcan use right now, go to my
website, jonathanwrestle.com,and sign up for my free weekly
tips.
They take less than a minute toread.
There's no sales pitch, nobullshit.
I'm not selling you anything.
It's just practical, bite-sizedtruths that help you make
small, smart choices thatactually work.
Because the longer you wait tochoose, the longer someone else
profits from your hesitation.
(26:36):
So start today, not fuckingMonday, not after the holidays,
right fucking now.
You've tried every diet, you'vetrusted everyone but yourself.
It's time to do somethingradical and make your own
choices.
Stop dieting and startchoosing.
Because you don't need surgery,you don't need a syringe, and
(26:57):
you don't need permission.
You just need to shut up andchoose.
Announcer (27:02):
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, and we'lllet you in on a little secret.
No fucking gym.
And guess what?
(27:24):
You can do it too! We hope youenjoyed 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 at JonathanWrestlerBocaraton.
Until next time, shut up andchoose.
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