November 13, 2025 • 45 mins
This is an episode of my podcast with my client Ray Lee that is worth to share, especially for parents.
Have you ever worried about not having the energy to keep up with your kids in 5 or 10 years? Or worse, not being there for the big moments down the road? It’s a heavy thought, but it’s a reality that starts with the small choices we make every day.
My client Ray, a dedicated father of two, found himself on this path. For years, the daily grind meant his own health was an afterthought. He got complacent and accepted age, pain, and even weight gain as a normal part of being over 40.
This led to a slow decline that was stealing his vitality and his ability to be the dad and athlete he wanted to be.
His story of transformation is why we recorded this latest podcast episode, "The Daily Choice: Shaping Your Body's Future."
Ray made a conscious decision to change. He started showing up for himself, even when it was hard. The result? He's down 40+ pounds, running marathons, and at 49, has the energy of his 35-year-old self.
He didn't just get his health back; he secured a more active future with his family.
His story proves that it is never too late to make a divine choice for yourself and, by extension, for your loved ones. The journey to becoming a healthier parent, partner, and person starts with a single decision.
I truly believe this episode can be a catalyst for that change.
Let me know what you think.
All the best,
Dr. Jason Won.
If you need some help from me and have decided from today to make a choice to be healthier, would love to support you in seeing a brighter and healthier future. Click here: https://go.flexwithdoctorjay.com/apply 👈
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Interested in working with us? We're looking for healthcare workers, busy parents, and working professionals over 30 who want to eliminate chronic pain from their life so they can enjoy a more active life with their friends & family. We've helped over 550 people find long term success in becoming pain-free. Book a call here to speak with us: https://www.flexwithdoctorjay.co/book
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
All right.
Welcome to the Won Body Won LifePodcast.
I'm your host, Dr.
Jason Won, lifestyle physicaltherapist.
Who I love to work with arenormally busy parents that
either struggle with chronicpain or struggle with
consistency with exercise, andstruggle with anything in which
they feel like they're worryingabout their health breaking
down, or they feel like they'regonna be a burden to their
family.
Or maybe they're just reallywanting to put themselves first
(00:24):
for a change.
And so right now I have one ofmy clients here, Ray.
And he is more than a client.
I've actually known him for avery long time, so I think we
can dive into that in just abit.
But I think that if you do stickaround for this whole podcast
episode, I think that one, Ithink you'll be very motivated
and you'll want to make thatspark for change.
And I think that raise a personthat personifies that.
(00:46):
The topic of today and the titletoday is called The Daily
Choice.
I think that.
Yes, I always talk aboutconsistency, but I really liked
how Ray actually framed this tome when we were working together
is that he said something thatwas very profound to me.
He said that, I, Jay, I haven'tbeen on a diet, I haven't been
on a workout program.
Yes, you gave those things tome.
I haven't been on those things.
(01:08):
I've been on a choice.
And I thought that was veryprofound.
'cause every single day of ourlives are a mix of daily
choices.
And those choices can benegative, they can be positive
they can help to compel changeand they can help to.
Send you the wrong direction,you can go into a state of
decay.
So I really wanna just bringlight to that and share ray's
(01:28):
journey here.
So Ray obviously I've known youfor a long time, but welcome in.
How are you doing today?
Thanks, Jake.
I'm doing great.
I'm feeling great.
And yeah, just wanted to sharesome of.
My journey, how I got here andand how you're a part of my
journey.
Definitely, just a littlebackground.
I've always been in a veryphysical world basically an
(01:49):
athlete growing up, playingbasketball.
I eat, breathe loved basketball.
I played basketball at onepoint, like seven days a week.
I was pretty athletic.
I just.
I just knew that this issomething I loved.
And as I got older, I still tryto keep the sport near me.
But injuries like tore myAchilles having a family, a lot
(02:11):
of things happened that justdidn't really align with,
playing basketball.
I got into biking.
So biking and just it startedwith it started with just a
simple around the block aroundLake Merced.
And next thing I'm riding 20milers, 30 milers, 40 milers.
Even.
I've done it even a century.
(02:32):
But even with that being said,biking on a week every weekend I
was biking, but it just might.
My, my health, like peoplethought I was pretty healthy
because I was like, biking ahundred milers and doing all
this stuff, but I wasn't, Ilike, something wasn't right and
until just recently my my, mypops, he was diagnosed with like
(02:54):
cancer and like at that pointsomething struck in me, like
health is super important.
It's, it could just come and goas, as is and it was something
that like it triggered in myhead like, I, I want to do
something.
So I think at that time I was210 pounds.
I decided that I wanted to Iwanted to challenge myself.
(03:17):
It was September of 2024.
I said I wanted to challengemyself and I wanted to run 30
days for.
For 30 30 minutes for 30 days.
And I was never a runner.
I always played basketball allmy life, but I was never a
runner.
So I ran for the first fourdays.
It, I was so scared.
I would just run down the streetand run around the school and 30
(03:39):
minutes later, I would just comeback home and I would be
dripping with sweat.
I would be breathing harder thanI've ever breathed before.
And then my, my my phone wouldsay, oh, you've only ran like a
mile and a half.
It's like barely moved.
And my body was in shock.
Like it was telling me like,what are you doing after the
(03:59):
fourth day?
I was like.
I remember being in this seatexactly where I'm talking right
now, and I was hunched over andI wish I like whispered in my,
to myself I'm gonna give up.
I'm gonna give up.
Like I'm gonna give up.
And then my son, he's 15 atthat.
Yeah, 15 at that time.
He's dad, you're not gonna giveup, are you?
And I was like, oh my God.
(04:21):
If I give up now what is thatgonna show my son?
So I was like, nah, I'm notgonna give up.
So I just kept on kept ontrying.
I didn't figure out like how torun and I just finally my body
gave up, collapsed.
I got really sick.
Long story short I, whathappened was I think November
(04:42):
December rolled around andfinally said, you know what?
I'm gonna give running a tryagain.
I didn't.
At that time I found a certainmethod of running, so I started
doing that, and then I startedfinding success.
Like every time I ran I wasn'ttired anymore.
I was like finding success, butat that time I was like I was
losing like a pound a day.
(05:02):
But it wasn't it motivated me,but it wasn't like the
motivator.
But I was like something'sright.
Happening.
That's right.
But I need help.
So I said I, I wanna getstronger, right?
Like I think I, that's what I Icame to you and I said to you, I
said, Hey James I wanna get.
(05:23):
I want my legs to be stronger,but all my life I've been
lifting weights and I've beenlifting weights.
Like I could, I, I used to beable to squat like 307 pounds.
I used to deadlift, I used to doeverything, and then I came up
to you and I said, but I wannalearn how to, I wanna get
stronger and running.
And I, I don't know if youremember that day I was like, I
want to get stronger andrunning.
And then you're like, okay.
So you put me on a program andthen you said, here, this is
(05:46):
what you need.
You just need to at that point,like I chose.
I chose to get I wanna getstronger.
I, I wanna get better atrunning.
So then I said I need, Icouldn't do it on my own at that
point.
I said I, I needed more.
'cause I'm a competitive person.
I wanted to get more.
And then not knowing that this,getting more.
(06:06):
Was gonna open up more doors formore things.
And so you taught me a routine.
You taught me four routines lateday one, late day two upper
body, one upper body pull, andthen upper body push.
And then it was just like, Ithink it was like 30 minutes, 40
minutes a day.
I went to the gym, did it, andthen I started I started, like,
(06:27):
when I started running it, itwas, it's getting easier.
And then not only that like myweight, it just started to get
small it started shrinking.
Like I started losing moreweight and I was like, okay,
something's good's happening.
Something is definitelyhappening.
But then I said, you know what Ihave to choose.
There's must be more.
And then I, so I said, you knowwhat?
(06:48):
I started I love to have mybeer.
I love to have to drink andthings like that.
And and I said, I'm gonna, I'mgonna see what, how, what I feel
like if I stop that.
So I stopped drinking, and thenI was like, whoa.
Like I could run for farthernow, and like my legs feel
better.
It doesn't have to recover.
My muscles aren't recoveringright.
(07:09):
And then, so I'm like, whoa.
This choice that I'm making,right?
Like it's making me feel good.
And and I'm like, you know what?
There's other choices I canmake.
I ended up cutting sugar onlyeating like real fruits.
I cut, I started I said, oh Imade a choice not to eat
processed foods.
And then I just, and then I juststarted making different choices
(07:31):
every day.
I realized that small victoriesevery day, which is if working
out.
Was a victory.
Not doing certain things as avictory, just going on a 30
minute run as a victory, likesmall victories on a daily, it
started compiling into asnowball.
And I, I think, I startedfeeling stronger.
(07:54):
I lifted all my life.
I always thought I was stronger,but not only was I getting
stronger I started seeing changein my body.
Yeah.
It's a lot of one from a mentalstandpoint, you realize that
every day that you made theright choice was a small victory
that led into a much largervictory.
I think some people, they don'treally get started because
they're looking for somethingquick.
(08:15):
They're looking for a quickresult, and it's good to feel
like that endorphin rush fromone run to another, where you
get your workout done, you madea choice, right?
There might be days that you'resuper tired, but you're like,
you know what?
I'm still gonna show up to thegym because this is, I'm taking
ownership of.
The responsibility to my ownbody.
I'm making the choice to go tothe gym regardless of my
(08:39):
emotions or how I feel that day.
Or if you had a bad day youstill decide to show up, right?
You also made the choice to cutout beer and to cut out more
processed foods or cut outsugar, and each of those choices
while you didn't see an effectimmediately, you might have seen
it like a week later or a monthlater, and now we're talking.
(09:00):
Six months later, after, nowwe've been doing this for over
six months now, and so now Ibelieve, what are you not what,
30 to 40 pounds down from whenyou started?
I'm I think, I started at two.
I remember scaling at two 10.
I'm I'm down to at least 1 65.
It's, I don't feel like I, Ithink.
(09:22):
For me, one thing I've realizedis that it's it just feels so
much more easier.
When I used to.
What?
Park the car.
And I'm like, oh, I got allthese groceries.
And I'm like, oh, you know what?
It's not even that bad dude.
Just pick it up and just go,it's oh let's go up these
stairs.
I work in a physical world.
I work in automotive, but it'sjust like even my coworkers,
(09:45):
they just started seeing melike, be more.
Motivated and moving.
And it's it's one of thosethings that like I just started
enjoying it and, but I think theone thing that really motivates
me is that it's crazy js I'm 49years old and I feel like I'm
35.
I feel really I feel better nowthan I, I probably did when I
(10:08):
was 35 years old.
And it's not because I thinkit's just the choices that you
make and with the things thatyou go, okay, you know what I
enjoy this and I, I wanna run.
'cause as a kid you always.
You always as a little kid, ifyou watch your kids, right?
Like they always run and whenthey're running, they're always
laughing and smiling, right?
And as an adult when you're notable to run, it's like you, you
(10:32):
cut something off.
But once you realize that youcan run again, like run, you're
like, whoa.
There's a instant joy or runswim or do something fun, right?
Like you could be doing that.
And I was like.
In my mind I was, I'll be honestwith you, Jace.
I know I talked to you about itand you said, oh you always said
to me like, what do you think?
(10:52):
You think you're gonna playbasketball again?
I'm like, no, I don't thinkthat's gonna happen.
But, the one thing that actuallybrings joy is that like I'm able
to do other things.
I, I'm able to like, spend timewith the family and not be
tired, chase after the kids, ordo things with the kids or do
the things I enjoy doing now.
And I think that's what thechoices that I've made in the
(11:15):
last six months is allowing meto do going forward.
Hopefully, I can sustain thesechoices so that I can move,
continue to.
Grow as that individual.
Yeah.
Let's go back to a point thatyou made when you made the
choice, even before I wasworking with you to decide, hey,
(11:37):
I'm just gonna do, I'm justgonna start running outside.
Obviously the first four daysfelt like hell felt very brutal.
And at that point there was,again, there was another choice,
right?
One of your choices that wasreally in your head was like,
I'm just gonna give up fromhere.
And then you found somemotivation from, whether it's
within yourself or maybe your,it was your son, that little pep
talk that was like, Hey, yougonna give up now?
(11:59):
Take me through those moments onthe people out there that may be
listening right now that, theystart something and let's say it
feels like hell or they feellike they've had a setback.
Some people they start somethingand then they feel like a
strain.
How do you, how would you depictthat in your head on how you
were able to push through?
That initial bout of hellness,right?
(12:19):
That initial bout of I candecide to give up now versus I
can continue to push forward andtry to see more good outta this.
I think from the journey I'velearned something really true
that is.
It's, I think what you said inthe with me and you.
When we started workingtogether, you said, okay, you
can have a bar, you can throw315 pounds on it, and I'll tell
(12:44):
you, go there and then go benchthis.
You're not gonna be able to doit.
I know you can't do it.
And you might be able to do it,but.
You probably gonna strainyourself.
You might hurt yourself.
And you might not ever want todo it again.
And I think that's one thingthat I've learned through this
journey is that you can't gothere and just jump into the
(13:05):
ocean and, but think that you'regonna, you're gonna swim three
miles.
You're not, and I think you needto start, you need to start.
Like a certain point where ifit's if it, even if it's
running, like you can't justsay, I'm gonna go run a
marathon.
You need to start at a pacewhere it's comfortable for you
and then you build on a dailyand you grow and you could like,
(13:28):
but you have, like you said, youhave to grow on a daily.
If it's just say, I'm gonna goout and just do.
One mile.
Okay, that's fine.
One mile.
Like just walk one mile, andthen maybe to next day you feel
so much, you feel actuallypretty good.
You're gonna walk one mile andthen maybe speed walk.
Maybe when you feel comfortable,then you go, okay, you know
(13:49):
what?
I'm gonna speed walk half thetime and then maybe walk the
other time.
But maybe this time I'm gonnaadd maybe another half a mile,
and then I'm gonna add maybe.
One mile another mile.
Next thing you know, you'redoing two miles and then you're
constantly building.
Then you go, you know what Ithink today I might just try to
do a light jog and pushyourself.
(14:10):
I think that kind of mindset, itthat can relate to, you, can
relate that back to your abilityto grow yourself.
When you put that expectationwhere, oh I need to go out there
today and run 10 miles you'regonna, you're just setting
yourself up to fail, and you'regonna set yourself up to not
want to go do that.
But when you set yourself upcorrectly and then, and build
(14:33):
yourself, you're gonna, you'regonna achieve bigger and better
things that you might not even.
Have that expectation.
So you don't need to have thatexpectation.
It's just gonna be, it's gonnabe just gonna keep growing and
your body will tell you, Hey,it's okay.
You can keep growing, keepgoing.
There is no set goal becauseyou're gonna be able to keep,
(14:54):
continue to grow.
As I, I've learned is the more Ido this, the more I go, you know
what?
I can grow stronger, I can growfaster.
I'm gonna grow and I start push,I start putting these mini goals
and they say, Hey, you knowwhat?
I think I'm gonna try to dothis.
I'm gonna try to do this.
I started with barely can't evenrun a mile and I.
(15:19):
I know I I've ran a marathon.
It's crazy.
You ran a marathon, which isridiculous.
I just woke up one day and Isaid, I feel like running out.
I feel like running.
And I started running and thenand I said, I feel so good.
I just kept on running likeForge Gump.
And then next thing I'm like.
From Daley City I'm all the waydown to Chase Center, and then
I'm running all the way to goinga bridge and back.
(15:39):
And the next thing you know, myclock, my watch says a marathon.
And I'm like, holy crap.
I just ran a marathon.
And but, but in my mind, likeit's, it wasn't like I, I woke
up one day and said, I'm gonnarun it.
I actually like it.
It built it, it built up to it.
And I think whatever you yourbody is so much more powerful
(16:02):
than you think.
Your mind will always tell you,no, you can't do it.
You can't achieve it.
But believe it or not, like youcan overcome that.
And when you do overcome, theonly way you can overcome that
is by making that choice to getto that.
Like these choices that you makewill overcome that mindset.
Yeah.
(16:23):
I think you hit on some goodpoints around taking a more
gradual approach.
The gradual approach is likewhen I first met you, it's
always to get a good, strongbaseline of where you're at.
So giving you the right tools sothat those tools that I give to
you, you're not gonna to like,take those tools and also all of
a sudden injure yourself,hopefully, is to provide like
the right guidance and tools andeven the right progressions.
(16:44):
So just want to hit on a fewpoints that I thought would
allowed you to be successfuland.
I think you can find someagreement here is like the
tracking of things, right?
Knowing and understanding thatlike, okay, if you did a mile
today, you should be trackingthat and knowing that the next
week you can do a mile and aquarter or a mile and a half,
right?
It's very important.
Or if you wanted to go from fourmiles an hour, you're not gonna
(17:04):
immediately just jump to ninemiles an hour and expect your
Achilles and other tendons to beokay with it.
You gotta take a more gradualapproach to that.
The, there's a system toeverything, right?
And.
Going back to that point of whenyou were at, that point of four,
four days into your 30 days ofrunning is that you could have
said to yourself like, I'm gonnagive'em from here because it's
(17:27):
just too damn hard.
And it's very true.
It's like many people feel likethe hill, that the hill is too
steep to climb, right?
The ladder is too long, right?
I cannot scale to the top of thebuilding.
But when you really do put yourmind to it, as cliche as that
sounds, is that your body isextremely capable, extremely
resilient.
It doesn't matter if you're, I'm35, 36.
(17:49):
You're 49, but at 49 years ofage, that's incredible.
To go from just seven, eightmonths ago, barely even able to
run, 30 minutes to now running amarathon for fun.
So it's good to see that journeyunfold, but to see that every
single day was indeed a choice.
The choice to continue toprogress, the choice to not just
(18:12):
maintain the choice, to not skipa workout when it was drizzling
outside of it, is that these areall the choices that we do make.
I've al always been a person ofchoice where, I choose.
To put my body through hellwhile working out for 16 to 90
minutes, but while I'm feelingthat suffering temporarily.
(18:34):
That it's allowing me to gainthe pleasures of, like you said,
being able to keep up with mykids or being able to squat down
with my kids and not have kneepain or, to pick up a ton of,
like we're going on vacation,not to carry the gr, the Rocco,
the crib, everything.
And to be able to do thatwithout injury, that was a
product of just daily choice.
(18:55):
So yeah, I, one, I just wannacommend you,'cause obviously
this has been a journey thatI've seen.
Unfold you're 45, 50 pounds downrunning marathons, and obviously
you're gonna con continue tokeep this up.
I guess that the next thing Ican ask you is in terms of.
Main so there's something that,that I always say is that you
(19:15):
usually don't find growth whereit's comfortable, right?
You don't.
It's like you need to findgrowth through discomfort.
Or another way to say it is youneed to be uncom, you need to be
comfortable with beinguncomfortable because in the
moments of discomfort is whereyou're gonna see growth.
So even nowadays, even at thepeak that you're at right now
(19:35):
you're 49, but you're feeling35.
How are you continuing to justpush through and like level up
from here?
I'm just curious on what yourmindset is now.
It's funny that you asked that.
I think, going through workingwith you, Ja, like my mindset
was like, okay I wanna get to acertain point I got here and I'm
like, okay, you know what?
(19:56):
I think I'm cool here.
I'm cool here, right?
And then the more I started toget to that point where I
started to start saying tomyself, I'm cool here.
I'm cool here.
That's, and then I just recentlyrealized,'cause I I tweaked my
back go, coming back from Hawaiivacation.
And, I was running and workingout at the gym and then and I
(20:17):
was just not really working onmy back.
And next thing like I justlifted a tire and I tweaked it.
And I realized I think thereason why I did that is
because.
Like I wasn't like, I wasn'tthere.
I was just accepting the factthat I'm okay.
I'm not pushing myself.
And then once, once I realizedthat I, that I, I didn't that I
(20:39):
lost my, I, I I had this painand I lost this ability to get
my back straight and there wasthis pain, a sharp pain in my
back.
I was like, dude, I never wantthat.
I never want that.
Like it really, it just there'ssomething in my brain that says
I never want that and I said,you know what?
I know how to prevent that andthat, that is to strengthen like
(21:02):
con, make sure that I'm alwayscontinually pushing and
strengthening my back.
And it's crazy because I was,for the last three weeks I was
help, like working with a friendand then we're working out and
then, it was, and then Ineglected working on my back and
I think back on it and I'm like,oh man, maybe two, three weeks
(21:23):
and then the vacation, and thenI didn't, I all of a sudden,
like I tweaked my back on, on amove at work that I do hundreds
of times the same thing.
And then I just tweaked it and Iwas like, dude, like how am I
gonna, how am I gonna preventthis from happening?
And the funny thing is it justhappened like yesterday.
(21:46):
And that same day I, I know Itexted you, but you didn't
respond.
But that day that right when ithappened I wasn't like super
injured, but I knew I tweakedit.
I went right to the gym and thenI did a light back workout and I
came home and I was watching TVand I was doing like like
squatting and thing bending overwithout without any weights.
(22:06):
And then this morning I woke upand my back was like, feeling
pretty decent.
Like it was back to like goodany other time.
Like it wouldn't have been likethat.
And I think it was just thethings that you've taught me and
like the things that you'vetaught me to strength is so
important.
You need to address the problem,not like rest the problem to
(22:27):
avoid it.
So for me, going forward.
Like this actually was a reallygood experience for me because
you have, I think, when you gothrough things, you learn and
you you want to get, you want togrow from it, and I'm like,
never again do I want this tohappen.
I'm gonna push even harder.
I wanna I wanna get strong.
Like I wanna, I want to get thenumbers higher.
(22:49):
I want to get like I'm abeliever.
Let's do it.
Yeah.
Sure.
And sometimes it take, sometimesit takes something like that to,
for it to happen.
Yeah.
Like if everything was kosher,maybe I didn't need to go push
myself.
Maybe I didn't need to do that.
Maybe, but something like thishappened, she's you know what?
I know why it happened.
It's because like I, I took abreak and you can't take a
(23:11):
break.
Like you, you gotta.
The ultimate is a choice too,right?
It's yeah.
The very common thing thatpeople do if they get sick and
I, I don't blame people.
'cause it's like, whether it'swhat has worked for you in the
past or whether it's a productof experience where hey, if your
dad or mom got sick, theyusually will rest in bed.
(23:32):
I used to do that too.
I used to be like, Hey, I have afever.
Fever and a lot of times, yeah,you don't wanna push your body
so hard, so you gotta understandwhere your capacity is, right?
If you have a fever, yourcapacity for exercise is
obviously lower, right?
'cause there's somethinginflammatory that needs to be
outletted from the body.
But that doesn't mean that ifyou have.
(23:53):
Fever or that you have a cold orlike a little flu that you go
completely cold Turkey, and linebed all day.
And these are things thatobviously, like when I did reply
to you, I was like, yeah, Ithink that the mistake that you
need to learn from was like whenyour body hurts or when
something hurts, is to notnecessarily just rust it, right?
It's like you can maintain someform of activity, whether it's
(24:15):
walking or you did a lighterversion of your leg day.
Then all of a sudden, then yourbody responded in a positive way
where it's whoa.
It felt that load, it felt theweight of the bar on top of your
spine and your spine actuallyfelt better as a result of that.
All of this is just neurologicalchanges as a result of when
things hurt is like you can makethe choice of.
(24:36):
Resting in bed or putting a heatpack on or just doing nothing
because it hurts so much.
Or you can decide to actuallystill move your body and you can
still go to the gym, or you canstill, at least at the minimum,
walk on a treadmill and usually90% of the time when you choose
a more active approach versus amore passive one.
(24:56):
Usually your body responds in amore positive way.
And I want explain something interms of mountains, like you
ever see like a mount like themountaineers and they're like
putting the spike through themountain and then they're
putting like the carabiners andthen they put a little, like a
point where they can just hangfrom that point.
Because a lot of times, likewhen we achieve our goals.
We think that we're at like thetop of the mountain, right?
(25:18):
And a lot of times we feel alittle complacent.
We're like, we get a spike ofdopamine.
We're like, yeah, I feel good.
I feel great.
Because I'm at the top of themountain right now.
And then little do you know thatif you just turn to the right
and you're looking, there'sactually another mountain,
there's another, and you'relike, shoot.
Like I'm either can be like, Iwork so damn hard to be at the
(25:42):
top of this mountain and I canjust choose to stay where I'm
at.
Or I can decide to take the nextjourney and level up again,
level up in terms of speed,endurance, power, resilience,
strength, and all that.
And that's my decisions too.
Like most people at age 36, it'sI just passed their prime, but I
know I'm not passed by prime.
Like I, I can continue to pushheavier weight, continue to get
(26:03):
faster from.
So people need to realize that,like when you have that
mentality of maintenance, isthat's a choice too.
I just wanna maintain, I justwanna do the same three days a
week of exercise.
I'm okay doing the same weight,I'm okay doing the same rests.
That's a choice, but guess what?
That choice gets you toMaintenance is better than your
(26:24):
couch potato.
But the maintenance people thatdecide I'm gonna do the same,
waste, the same stuff.
When you turn one year older orone decade older, or two decades
older, if you're trying tomaintain, guess what happens?
You're actually not maintaining.
You are indeed declining becauseyour muscle mass and everything
are decreasing.
You think you're maintaining,but you're not.
So that's why like everybody inthe world, even when probably
(26:47):
when I turn 80, I'm gonna havethat mentality to push my body
to the capacity of what my80-year-old self can do.
If I continue to push thoseboundaries, I'm going to
maintain a higher quality oflife, maintain a higher level of
mobility and strength comparedto my peers.
That is a choice of continuingto push into those later years.
(27:08):
Yeah.
Am I gonna push the same amountweight when I'm age 36 compared
to 80?
Maybe not, but like I said,that's also a choice as well,
right?
You ever heard of the guy, JoeStockinger?
If you haven't yet, Ray, that'sa great person to look for.
He's 93, 94 years of age.
He's in, by far like one of theoldest powerlifters, yet he
(27:29):
continuously just shows up andthere's video clips of him going
viral where he's still lifting400 pounds off the floor and
he's 94 years of age.
That's a person that madechoices.
Hey, Ja I wanted to sharesomething that I experienced
with you to, to the peopleduring our like training
ventures together.
I, I remember in the beginningof our.
(27:52):
Are like, when I first started,you gave me this workout routine
for my legs and you're, you saidto me right away, you're like,
Hey, Ray, man you're hamstringman.
You're, they're like, they'reweak.
And then I was like, oh, like I,I've been predominantly like
doing squats for my quads.
And then you're like, Hey, Ray,just let you know your heavens
(28:12):
are kinda weak.
And then, so I was like, okay.
Cool.
And then so you gave me like aleg day one, leg day two
routine.
And I think I remember going fora month or maybe three weeks and
then, and all of a sudden, likeI, I injure myself like, like I
strained my hamstring.
Do you remember?
Do you remember that?
Yeah, because, so I string myhamstring again.
(28:33):
I remember you, I think it wasthat like I even stopped working
out.
I didn't even tell you that likeI stringed my hamstring until we
met up.
'cause we, we meet up once amonth and then you're like, oh,
so what's going on Ray?
How's everything going?
And I said, oh yeah, like inweek two I screened my
hamstring.
And then I think you said oh,how come you didn't tell me?
(28:55):
And I was like, oh, I didn'twanna bother you, so you know I
didn't, or something like that.
And I said, oh I don't know.
Jay's it's pretty bad.
Should I, what do you think?
Should I just rest it?
And then I think I was like, oh,should I rest it?
And maybe when it feels betterI'll get back on the leg program
and then all of a sudden youhear crickets.
And then I think you, it was afunny moment.
(29:17):
And then you said to me, you go.
Ray, I don't think you know meby now yet.
And then I'm like, what do youmean?
He goes, Ray, that's not the wayI work.
And I'm like, okay.
Like how do you work?
I guess I didn't know you atthat.
Like I didn't know the way youwork.
So you said to me, you're like,Hey, you Ray, what I'm gonna do?
It's gonna add three exercisesto your workout.
(29:40):
I was like, what?
And then you like, add more add.
Oh, I'm just making me laugh.
I was like, what?
You're gonna add three moreexercises?
He goes, yes, Ray.
So what you're gonna do isyou're gonna, you're gonna be at
home.
You don't even need to be at atthe gym.
You're gonna be watching TV andyou're gonna do three more
(30:00):
exercises.
All right.
You're gonna do this exercises,this, that exercise and this.
And he showed me how to do it.
I remember specifically.
And I was like, okay.
And then you're like, I want youto do it.
Three times maybe three times aweek, once in the morning and
once a night, it's like a pill,right?
And then and I was like, oh,okay.
(30:21):
I think I did it maybe fourtimes.
It was gone.
The pain was gone.
I was like, holy crap.
Like the pain is the hamstringpain is gone.
I could run I could do the legworkout.
The pain is gone.
I still, to this day, I don'treally under you you just
strengthened my hamstring.
(30:42):
Is that what you did?
I don't know what you did, butit was like, it was a miracle
thing that I was like, oh myGod.
Like it's gone.
But I think I needed to be onthe program to find out what was
weak so that you can adapt theprogram to make.
What was weak, stronger.
And it allowed me, and may,throughout the whole thing I
(31:03):
was, I came back and I said, oh,my Achilles not hurting.
Okay, here's three moreexercises for your Achilles.
This is not, it just I likevent.
Finally knew oh, this is how theprogram works.
It's not about the program, it'sabout how your body's reacting
to the program and how are wegonna adapt to get your body
stronger and align to theprogram.
(31:25):
Yeah.
And I think that's somethingthat I've learned, through,
through this experience with youis that don't avoid let's attack
the problem.
Let's, it's not about restingit, it's about attacking it and
doing it in a, in the rightmethod where it's gonna
strengthen it and it's gonnabetter yourself.
A lot of co, a lot of doctors ora lot, a lot of people, let's
(31:47):
say rest it take ibuprofenheated cold, I don't think
you've ever.
Told me to ice it once or heatit once or rub it out.
No, I never I rarely recommendice or heating.
I don't think you've ever even,I don't think you've mentioned
like, even rubbing it or likemassage.
I don't remember you sayingthat.
Rarely that you can do that.
I mean that sometimes things canbe like, your hamstring could
(32:11):
have been so irritable that Iwould've, I could have
recommended like, massaging itout or using a foam roll, but I
usually will say that's lessimportant.
Than loading it in the rightamount.
So just for frame of reference,you'd be like, it's a miracle.
I don't know really how itworks.
This is how it works, right?
It's that usually if you tweakanything, is that your capacity
(32:35):
for that.
That capacity in the hamstringis a little less tolerance to
load, right?
So if you tweak your hamstring,but then you try to add on an
intense amount of load, like youtry to just sprint.
You might have just sprained itworse.
You've seen that in NBA plentyof times where like people, they
overdo it, they over sprint orthey land wrong and then they
tweak the hamstring.
(32:56):
So it wasn't about I always saythat like avoidance.
Yeah.
We talk about choices all thetime.
It's a daily choice.
Avoidance is a choice, but alsoI also think that avoidance is
the enemy.
And I think you know that veryclear not right.
Avoidance is the enemy, right?
Is that you might have tweakedsomething, but now you have a
choice whether you want to justsit on the couch and just mope.
Or you could decide, Hey, I'mgoing to still supply that
(33:19):
injured tissue with the rightstimulus, with the right
stimulus and it, the stimulus.
Right now, the medicine is not,wasn't sprinting because that
would be overmedicating, thehamstring, but you want to
medicate it the right amount sothat you feel better the next
day.
So that could have been.
Single, like hip brushers athome, or maybe it was just like
light lunges or something that'sstill loading the hamstring.
(33:41):
If you load it in the rightamount, it's going to yield
positive adaptations.
If you load it too much, whichis the same thing like a doctor
tell tells you to takemedication, heart medication
three times a day, but youdecide to take six times a day,
that heart medication might workagainst you.
You might have some sideeffects.
So that's ultimately how itworks.
Is.
(34:01):
There's physiological benefitsto loading injured tissues.
There's also mental benefits towhen you're doing the exercise
and in the moment that you'redoing the exercise, you're like,
wow, my body can still toleratehip thrusters.
My body can still tolerate alittle hamstring load.
I don't have to avoid.
So there's a mental benefitduring the workout while you're
(34:23):
doing it.
And then not just that, but thenyou recheck things and you're
like, you do the same exercisethat, that just injured you.
One to seven days ago, andyou're like, oh my God.
These three other exercisesactually made a world of a
difference, and now I can do thesame exact exercise and get back
to running in half the time thatI would have if I simply just
(34:44):
avoided.
So psychological benefits,physiological benefits.
Again, we always talk about howmany people in their health and
fitness journey will makechoices with how they respond to
setbacks.
They'll make choices on whenthings feel like suffering or
when things feel like they'reburning or when you're lifting
heavier, your weights, you canhave that choice.
(35:06):
I'm gonna stay exactly where I'mat, or you can make that choice
to just be 0.5% better or 1%better.
Those 0.5 to 1% betters.
Yeah, it might have pushed you alittle harder than what you
anticipated during that workout,but you see the mental,
psychological, the long-termbenefits now that you are, head
(35:27):
over heels better in every waypossible, physiologically, less
weight, probably your hearthealth is every better.
You're less visceral fat.
These are all the like 0.5 to 1%better choices that we make on a
daily basis, which is obviouslywhat you led in with this
podcast.
But yeah it's not miracles, it'slegitimately just science,
(35:49):
understanding the nuances ofhealth, healthcare perceives
pain relief and how healthcarehow healthcare tells people in
terms of like diabeticmanagement or heart management's
play it safe, low impact.
Or when things hurt, don't doanything.
Stop.
Avoid the stuff that initiallyhurt you.
And now we know that howhealthcare should be, that you
(36:10):
wanna still push those sub maxthresholds.
You still want to do somethingactive.
And then you start to see thoseacute and long-term benefits.
Yeah.
Case.
Yeah.
I'm curious on your end, likehow this is I don't know if,
this is a silly question, butthe why factor is we talk about
(36:31):
daily choices and you can alwayslook at this like fork on the
road, right?
One is I feel tired, so I caneither just skip my workout and
just sit on the couch and watchNetflix or the choice of, or I
can continue to push through.
I'm just curious in your head iswhat is your why?
Like why do you continue to.
Be better.
Why do you continue to be 1%better?
Is it simply more of that Hey, Iwant to prioritize my health and
(36:55):
just be self-care.
Is it about your kids?
Is it a combination of things?
The why factor is something Italk about a lot with a lot of
clients.
'cause I really want to knowfrom your end, what is your deep
sense of why and why youcontinue to do the things you do
well?
Jace I think you might evenlaugh if I told you my wife
after.
It's because I have addictivepersonality and I'm addicted to
(37:17):
feeling this.
Like I'm addicted to thefeeling, the feeling of waking
up and feeling wow.
Like I feel good and I'maddicted to like the food, what
it makes me feel that feeling.
And it's like when you're ableto.
Like for the longest time, Idon't know how long, my, my
(37:41):
body's been eating certainfoods, been going through
certain things and like I justdidn't even know what feeling
good felt like.
And once you like that, thatonce you get to that feeling,
it's like it's, and it's freeand you don't even have to pay
for it because you just have tojust make the cho the choice.
(38:03):
The choice to to put what youput what is right.
Eat, you can eat as much as youwant, as long as it's in, in
that right food group, or youcan go out and do what you want
to do.
It's gonna, it's gonna make,it's gonna make you feel better.
Even if it's just walking, justthat little bit.
It's going to, it's gonna be somuch better for you.
(38:24):
And I think that the why Icontinue to do it is because I
just love that feeling and Ijust have like I said, I have
addictive personality and Ijust, I'm addicted to feeling
good and I, I just wanna I go,you know what, how am I gonna do
it today?
And if it's something where Ican just need to go to the gym
for 30 minutes or if, even ifjust waking up making a cup of
(38:48):
coffee doing 20 pushups, doingpulling, doing like 10 pull-ups
and, air squats or whatever, andthen you just wake up to that
and you go, wow, all right.
You know what?
Like it's this way to startsomething good.
And it's like a, it's like aroutine.
You just, it's the mindset.
And I think once you get, havethat mindset, it just gets
(39:10):
easier.
And that's damn sure.
Yeah, you the mindset is like,it's you if you work hard now,
it does become easier later.
You can say that in a number ofways because if you work hard
today, it is going to feel hardfor the next few days or even a
(39:31):
week or even a month.
But you know that if you justcontinue to push through and be
resilient.
Is that hard is now gonna becomeeasy.
Right now that hard, which waslike 30 minutes of running for
you, 30 minutes of running foryou is like cakewalk.
That doesn't even feel likerunning for you anymore.
It's it's just unusually easy.
(39:53):
But for another person, or maybethe version of Ray that was five
years ago that was, drinkingmore or was a lot heavier, you
wouldn't have imagined that,right?
That 30 minutes is that washell.
Now for you, that's heaven.
That's easy.
It's like a mental cognitivebenefit to be able to run 30
minutes.
So anybody that is consideringstarting a health and fitness
(40:15):
journey, just understand thatyes, it is going to be hard in
the beginning, but you have tomake that choice.
You have to make that choice tocontinue to push through
regardless of whether you strainsomething.
Learn from it or, yeah like Isaid, I work with Ray, coach
them through it, coach themthrough a hamstring injury or
(40:37):
coach them through a littleAchilles strain.
Don't have these little setbacksbe the thing that has you
stumbling down the mountain.
Continue to push up themountain.
Because at the end of the day,you will get up to the top of
the mountain if you put yourmind to it.
And after that, then you canwillingly decide to look to the
right and be like shoot, there'sa bigger mountain there.
(40:58):
Now I'm willing to climb thatone.
Then you're, then your new levelof hard is now way up here.
Your level of hard a year agowas all the way down here.
That's amazing thing to see,just to see that growth.
Any case, I feel like we canjust keep hitting on these
points, but I just wanna let youguys know that if there's one
person that personifiesobviously like hard work ethics,
(41:19):
making daily choices.
That's right.
I think we both have a pretty.
Addicted personality, right?
But I really love how you saidit and the way that you said it
was like, I'm addicted tofeeling good.
You don't even know how good youcan feel when you decide to
actually start, whether it'srunning, which is more of
aerobic activity, great sport tohave in your life.
(41:40):
I run all the time to strengthtraining.
I think that obviously, now knowthe benefits of how good
strength training can make youfeel.
But yeah, it's like you, youstart that journey, right?
You start that journey.
It's hard in the beginning, butit comes way easier.
And your life in general theability to just do day-to-day
things, carry groceries or carryyour kids or run with your kids
(42:01):
and play soccer you're notwinded, right?
You're enjoying those moments.
You're enjoying your vacations.
You're enjoying the fruits ofyour labor, you're enjoying your
seventies and eighties, versussome people in their seventies
and eighties, they're in thewheelchair, they're in
hospitalized.
You can enjoy those momentslater on.
So any case I'd love to end thiswith some sort of note here,
rave there's anything else thatwanna share that, I think you
cap off this podcast.
(42:22):
Is there any sort of notes ofadvice or encouragement or
anybody, anything that you wannasay?
To the group?
I just believe that you gotta belike a turtle, right?
And, it's not a it's not a fastsprint race to the finish, but
it's a long journey.
And the journey, you gotta enjoythe journey and through, through
(42:45):
each decision that you make andthe changes that happens, you
can't do it all.
You can't change everything atone time, it will naturally
happen.
Like just the.
Small victories.
Small victories are the onesthat you go for.
And then those small victorieswill lead to like bigger ones.
And not knowing that, it's gonnabe like a snowball effect, but
(43:10):
do the expectations, be realwith yourself and when you are
real and don't and you can makethat choice the correct choice
on a daily.
You're gonna be all right.
And I encourage anybody to go onthis journey because it's your
journey, your individualjourney.
(43:31):
Not nobody else's.
It's not that other person'sdon't compare yours to the other
person.
How that person, this and that.
Everybody has their journey,but, take, be eternal.
And believe it or not, thatturtle is gonna run super fast.
It might be run faster than someof the fastest people that you
might think that they're, oh mygosh, they're so fast.
(43:52):
But that turtle's gonna catch upand it's gonna be a very
powerful one.
Absolutely.
Great.
Great way to end that.
Right?
You're probably thepersonification of somebody that
was obviously seeing you growup.
You were one of the.
Faster people that I've seen.
So you wore the hair right?
And all of a sudden, likesetbacks and injuries and life
choices, right?
The life choices that you madeled you to feeling like a very
(44:14):
slow turtle at one point in yourlife, right?
Where you didn't feel good,you're lethargic.
You didn't feel athleticanymore.
There was injury after injury.
And then now, then that's slowturtle now has become the hair
again, right?
Obviously it's been really goodto see the journey.
I look forward to continue tosupport you in that journey.
Even the times that like, we'llcontinue to.
It's a touch base.
And and this kind of caps offthe daily choice, right?
(44:34):
You have the fork on the road.
You willingly decide today whatyou want to do.
Do you wanna go down this moresedentary route?
Do you wanna choose the activeroute?
That's really up to you.
So every day is a choice.
So for anybody here that youknow is considering change, that
wants to make lifestyle changes,you wanna get stronger, you
wanna get healthier you're abusy parent, but you know that
you need to take care of yourhealth.
Like I said I'm going to link adescription.
(44:55):
There is a link to for anapplication.
After the application, you canbook in for a free consultation
with me and my team to see if wecan help you.
And if there's any otherquestions or any other feedback,
just feel free to comment below.
And let us know what you thinkabout this podcast.
So we'd love to get yourfeedback.
In case Ray, I really enjoyedspeak, speaking with you.
I've known that we've spoken toeach other since.
If you guys didn't know since Iwas four or five years of age,
(45:18):
but it's been really cool to seethe journey.
I look forward to supportingyou.
Okay, thanks Jay.
Thanks for having me.
Alright man.
All right.
Welcome to the Won Body Won LifePodcast.
I'm your host, Dr.
Jason Won, lifestyle physicaltherapist.
Who I love to work with arenormally busy parents that
either struggle with chronicpain or struggle with
consistency with exercise, andstruggle with anything in which
they feel like they're worryingabout their health breaking
down, or they feel like they'regonna be a burden to their
family.
Or maybe they're just reallywanting to put themselves first
(00:24):
for a change.
And so right now I have one ofmy clients here, Ray.
And he is more than a client.
I've actually known him for avery long time, so I think we
can dive into that in just abit.
But I think that if you do stickaround for this whole podcast
episode, I think that one, Ithink you'll be very motivated
and you'll want to make thatspark for change.
And I think that raise a personthat personifies that.
(00:46):
The topic of today and the titletoday is called The Daily
Choice.
I think that.
Yes, I always talk aboutconsistency, but I really liked
how Ray actually framed this tome when we were working together
is that he said something thatwas very profound to me.
He said that, I, Jay, I haven'tbeen on a diet, I haven't been
on a workout program.
Yes, you gave those things tome.
I haven't been on those things.
(01:08):
I've been on a choice.
And I thought that was veryprofound.
'cause every single day of ourlives are a mix of daily
choices.
And those choices can benegative, they can be positive
they can help to compel changeand they can help to.
Send you the wrong direction,you can go into a state of
decay.
So I really wanna just bringlight to that and share ray's
(01:28):
journey here.
So Ray obviously I've known youfor a long time, but welcome in.
How are you doing today?
Thanks, Jake.
I'm doing great.
I'm feeling great.
And yeah, just wanted to sharesome of.
My journey, how I got here andand how you're a part of my
journey.
Definitely, just a littlebackground.
I've always been in a veryphysical world basically an
(01:49):
athlete growing up, playingbasketball.
I eat, breathe loved basketball.
I played basketball at onepoint, like seven days a week.
I was pretty athletic.
I just.
I just knew that this issomething I loved.
And as I got older, I still tryto keep the sport near me.
But injuries like tore myAchilles having a family, a lot
(02:11):
of things happened that justdidn't really align with,
playing basketball.
I got into biking.
So biking and just it startedwith it started with just a
simple around the block aroundLake Merced.
And next thing I'm riding 20milers, 30 milers, 40 milers.
Even.
I've done it even a century.
(02:32):
But even with that being said,biking on a week every weekend I
was biking, but it just might.
My, my health, like peoplethought I was pretty healthy
because I was like, biking ahundred milers and doing all
this stuff, but I wasn't, Ilike, something wasn't right and
until just recently my my, mypops, he was diagnosed with like
(02:54):
cancer and like at that pointsomething struck in me, like
health is super important.
It's, it could just come and goas, as is and it was something
that like it triggered in myhead like, I, I want to do
something.
So I think at that time I was210 pounds.
I decided that I wanted to Iwanted to challenge myself.
(03:17):
It was September of 2024.
I said I wanted to challengemyself and I wanted to run 30
days for.
For 30 30 minutes for 30 days.
And I was never a runner.
I always played basketball allmy life, but I was never a
runner.
So I ran for the first fourdays.
It, I was so scared.
I would just run down the streetand run around the school and 30
(03:39):
minutes later, I would just comeback home and I would be
dripping with sweat.
I would be breathing harder thanI've ever breathed before.
And then my, my my phone wouldsay, oh, you've only ran like a
mile and a half.
It's like barely moved.
And my body was in shock.
Like it was telling me like,what are you doing after the
(03:59):
fourth day?
I was like.
I remember being in this seatexactly where I'm talking right
now, and I was hunched over andI wish I like whispered in my,
to myself I'm gonna give up.
I'm gonna give up.
Like I'm gonna give up.
And then my son, he's 15 atthat.
Yeah, 15 at that time.
He's dad, you're not gonna giveup, are you?
And I was like, oh my God.
(04:21):
If I give up now what is thatgonna show my son?
So I was like, nah, I'm notgonna give up.
So I just kept on kept ontrying.
I didn't figure out like how torun and I just finally my body
gave up, collapsed.
I got really sick.
Long story short I, whathappened was I think November
(04:42):
December rolled around andfinally said, you know what?
I'm gonna give running a tryagain.
I didn't.
At that time I found a certainmethod of running, so I started
doing that, and then I startedfinding success.
Like every time I ran I wasn'ttired anymore.
I was like finding success, butat that time I was like I was
losing like a pound a day.
(05:02):
But it wasn't it motivated me,but it wasn't like the
motivator.
But I was like something'sright.
Happening.
That's right.
But I need help.
So I said I, I wanna getstronger, right?
Like I think I, that's what I Icame to you and I said to you, I
said, Hey James I wanna get.
(05:23):
I want my legs to be stronger,but all my life I've been
lifting weights and I've beenlifting weights.
Like I could, I, I used to beable to squat like 307 pounds.
I used to deadlift, I used to doeverything, and then I came up
to you and I said, but I wannalearn how to, I wanna get
stronger and running.
And I, I don't know if youremember that day I was like, I
want to get stronger andrunning.
And then you're like, okay.
So you put me on a program andthen you said, here, this is
(05:46):
what you need.
You just need to at that point,like I chose.
I chose to get I wanna getstronger.
I, I wanna get better atrunning.
So then I said I need, Icouldn't do it on my own at that
point.
I said I, I needed more.
'cause I'm a competitive person.
I wanted to get more.
And then not knowing that this,getting more.
(06:06):
Was gonna open up more doors formore things.
And so you taught me a routine.
You taught me four routines lateday one, late day two upper
body, one upper body pull, andthen upper body push.
And then it was just like, Ithink it was like 30 minutes, 40
minutes a day.
I went to the gym, did it, andthen I started I started, like,
(06:27):
when I started running it, itwas, it's getting easier.
And then not only that like myweight, it just started to get
small it started shrinking.
Like I started losing moreweight and I was like, okay,
something's good's happening.
Something is definitelyhappening.
But then I said, you know what Ihave to choose.
There's must be more.
And then I, so I said, you knowwhat?
(06:48):
I started I love to have mybeer.
I love to have to drink andthings like that.
And and I said, I'm gonna, I'mgonna see what, how, what I feel
like if I stop that.
So I stopped drinking, and thenI was like, whoa.
Like I could run for farthernow, and like my legs feel
better.
It doesn't have to recover.
My muscles aren't recoveringright.
(07:09):
And then, so I'm like, whoa.
This choice that I'm making,right?
Like it's making me feel good.
And and I'm like, you know what?
There's other choices I canmake.
I ended up cutting sugar onlyeating like real fruits.
I cut, I started I said, oh Imade a choice not to eat
processed foods.
And then I just, and then I juststarted making different choices
(07:31):
every day.
I realized that small victoriesevery day, which is if working
out.
Was a victory.
Not doing certain things as avictory, just going on a 30
minute run as a victory, likesmall victories on a daily, it
started compiling into asnowball.
And I, I think, I startedfeeling stronger.
(07:54):
I lifted all my life.
I always thought I was stronger,but not only was I getting
stronger I started seeing changein my body.
Yeah.
It's a lot of one from a mentalstandpoint, you realize that
every day that you made theright choice was a small victory
that led into a much largervictory.
I think some people, they don'treally get started because
they're looking for somethingquick.
(08:15):
They're looking for a quickresult, and it's good to feel
like that endorphin rush fromone run to another, where you
get your workout done, you madea choice, right?
There might be days that you'resuper tired, but you're like,
you know what?
I'm still gonna show up to thegym because this is, I'm taking
ownership of.
The responsibility to my ownbody.
I'm making the choice to go tothe gym regardless of my
(08:39):
emotions or how I feel that day.
Or if you had a bad day youstill decide to show up, right?
You also made the choice to cutout beer and to cut out more
processed foods or cut outsugar, and each of those choices
while you didn't see an effectimmediately, you might have seen
it like a week later or a monthlater, and now we're talking.
(09:00):
Six months later, after, nowwe've been doing this for over
six months now, and so now Ibelieve, what are you not what,
30 to 40 pounds down from whenyou started?
I'm I think, I started at two.
I remember scaling at two 10.
I'm I'm down to at least 1 65.
It's, I don't feel like I, Ithink.
(09:22):
For me, one thing I've realizedis that it's it just feels so
much more easier.
When I used to.
What?
Park the car.
And I'm like, oh, I got allthese groceries.
And I'm like, oh, you know what?
It's not even that bad dude.
Just pick it up and just go,it's oh let's go up these
stairs.
I work in a physical world.
I work in automotive, but it'sjust like even my coworkers,
(09:45):
they just started seeing melike, be more.
Motivated and moving.
And it's it's one of thosethings that like I just started
enjoying it and, but I think theone thing that really motivates
me is that it's crazy js I'm 49years old and I feel like I'm
35.
I feel really I feel better nowthan I, I probably did when I
(10:08):
was 35 years old.
And it's not because I thinkit's just the choices that you
make and with the things thatyou go, okay, you know what I
enjoy this and I, I wanna run.
'cause as a kid you always.
You always as a little kid, ifyou watch your kids, right?
Like they always run and whenthey're running, they're always
laughing and smiling, right?
And as an adult when you're notable to run, it's like you, you
(10:32):
cut something off.
But once you realize that youcan run again, like run, you're
like, whoa.
There's a instant joy or runswim or do something fun, right?
Like you could be doing that.
And I was like.
In my mind I was, I'll be honestwith you, Jace.
I know I talked to you about itand you said, oh you always said
to me like, what do you think?
(10:52):
You think you're gonna playbasketball again?
I'm like, no, I don't thinkthat's gonna happen.
But, the one thing that actuallybrings joy is that like I'm able
to do other things.
I, I'm able to like, spend timewith the family and not be
tired, chase after the kids, ordo things with the kids or do
the things I enjoy doing now.
And I think that's what thechoices that I've made in the
(11:15):
last six months is allowing meto do going forward.
Hopefully, I can sustain thesechoices so that I can move,
continue to.
Grow as that individual.
Yeah.
Let's go back to a point thatyou made when you made the
choice, even before I wasworking with you to decide, hey,
(11:37):
I'm just gonna do, I'm justgonna start running outside.
Obviously the first four daysfelt like hell felt very brutal.
And at that point there was,again, there was another choice,
right?
One of your choices that wasreally in your head was like,
I'm just gonna give up fromhere.
And then you found somemotivation from, whether it's
within yourself or maybe your,it was your son, that little pep
talk that was like, Hey, yougonna give up now?
(11:59):
Take me through those moments onthe people out there that may be
listening right now that, theystart something and let's say it
feels like hell or they feellike they've had a setback.
Some people they start somethingand then they feel like a
strain.
How do you, how would you depictthat in your head on how you
were able to push through?
That initial bout of hellness,right?
(12:19):
That initial bout of I candecide to give up now versus I
can continue to push forward andtry to see more good outta this.
I think from the journey I'velearned something really true
that is.
It's, I think what you said inthe with me and you.
When we started workingtogether, you said, okay, you
can have a bar, you can throw315 pounds on it, and I'll tell
(12:44):
you, go there and then go benchthis.
You're not gonna be able to doit.
I know you can't do it.
And you might be able to do it,but.
You probably gonna strainyourself.
You might hurt yourself.
And you might not ever want todo it again.
And I think that's one thingthat I've learned through this
journey is that you can't gothere and just jump into the
(13:05):
ocean and, but think that you'regonna, you're gonna swim three
miles.
You're not, and I think you needto start, you need to start.
Like a certain point where ifit's if it, even if it's
running, like you can't justsay, I'm gonna go run a
marathon.
You need to start at a pacewhere it's comfortable for you
and then you build on a dailyand you grow and you could like,
(13:28):
but you have, like you said, youhave to grow on a daily.
If it's just say, I'm gonna goout and just do.
One mile.
Okay, that's fine.
One mile.
Like just walk one mile, andthen maybe to next day you feel
so much, you feel actuallypretty good.
You're gonna walk one mile andthen maybe speed walk.
Maybe when you feel comfortable,then you go, okay, you know
(13:49):
what?
I'm gonna speed walk half thetime and then maybe walk the
other time.
But maybe this time I'm gonnaadd maybe another half a mile,
and then I'm gonna add maybe.
One mile another mile.
Next thing you know, you'redoing two miles and then you're
constantly building.
Then you go, you know what Ithink today I might just try to
do a light jog and pushyourself.
(14:10):
I think that kind of mindset, itthat can relate to, you, can
relate that back to your abilityto grow yourself.
When you put that expectationwhere, oh I need to go out there
today and run 10 miles you'regonna, you're just setting
yourself up to fail, and you'regonna set yourself up to not
want to go do that.
But when you set yourself upcorrectly and then, and build
(14:33):
yourself, you're gonna, you'regonna achieve bigger and better
things that you might not even.
Have that expectation.
So you don't need to have thatexpectation.
It's just gonna be, it's gonnabe just gonna keep growing and
your body will tell you, Hey,it's okay.
You can keep growing, keepgoing.
There is no set goal becauseyou're gonna be able to keep,
(14:54):
continue to grow.
As I, I've learned is the more Ido this, the more I go, you know
what?
I can grow stronger, I can growfaster.
I'm gonna grow and I start push,I start putting these mini goals
and they say, Hey, you knowwhat?
I think I'm gonna try to dothis.
I'm gonna try to do this.
I started with barely can't evenrun a mile and I.
(15:19):
I know I I've ran a marathon.
It's crazy.
You ran a marathon, which isridiculous.
I just woke up one day and Isaid, I feel like running out.
I feel like running.
And I started running and thenand I said, I feel so good.
I just kept on running likeForge Gump.
And then next thing I'm like.
From Daley City I'm all the waydown to Chase Center, and then
I'm running all the way to goinga bridge and back.
(15:39):
And the next thing you know, myclock, my watch says a marathon.
And I'm like, holy crap.
I just ran a marathon.
And but, but in my mind, likeit's, it wasn't like I, I woke
up one day and said, I'm gonnarun it.
I actually like it.
It built it, it built up to it.
And I think whatever you yourbody is so much more powerful
(16:02):
than you think.
Your mind will always tell you,no, you can't do it.
You can't achieve it.
But believe it or not, like youcan overcome that.
And when you do overcome, theonly way you can overcome that
is by making that choice to getto that.
Like these choices that you makewill overcome that mindset.
Yeah.
(16:23):
I think you hit on some goodpoints around taking a more
gradual approach.
The gradual approach is likewhen I first met you, it's
always to get a good, strongbaseline of where you're at.
So giving you the right tools sothat those tools that I give to
you, you're not gonna to like,take those tools and also all of
a sudden injure yourself,hopefully, is to provide like
the right guidance and tools andeven the right progressions.
(16:44):
So just want to hit on a fewpoints that I thought would
allowed you to be successfuland.
I think you can find someagreement here is like the
tracking of things, right?
Knowing and understanding thatlike, okay, if you did a mile
today, you should be trackingthat and knowing that the next
week you can do a mile and aquarter or a mile and a half,
right?
It's very important.
Or if you wanted to go from fourmiles an hour, you're not gonna
(17:04):
immediately just jump to ninemiles an hour and expect your
Achilles and other tendons to beokay with it.
You gotta take a more gradualapproach to that.
The, there's a system toeverything, right?
And.
Going back to that point of whenyou were at, that point of four,
four days into your 30 days ofrunning is that you could have
said to yourself like, I'm gonnagive'em from here because it's
(17:27):
just too damn hard.
And it's very true.
It's like many people feel likethe hill, that the hill is too
steep to climb, right?
The ladder is too long, right?
I cannot scale to the top of thebuilding.
But when you really do put yourmind to it, as cliche as that
sounds, is that your body isextremely capable, extremely
resilient.
It doesn't matter if you're, I'm35, 36.
(17:49):
You're 49, but at 49 years ofage, that's incredible.
To go from just seven, eightmonths ago, barely even able to
run, 30 minutes to now running amarathon for fun.
So it's good to see that journeyunfold, but to see that every
single day was indeed a choice.
The choice to continue toprogress, the choice to not just
(18:12):
maintain the choice, to not skipa workout when it was drizzling
outside of it, is that these areall the choices that we do make.
I've al always been a person ofchoice where, I choose.
To put my body through hellwhile working out for 16 to 90
minutes, but while I'm feelingthat suffering temporarily.
(18:34):
That it's allowing me to gainthe pleasures of, like you said,
being able to keep up with mykids or being able to squat down
with my kids and not have kneepain or, to pick up a ton of,
like we're going on vacation,not to carry the gr, the Rocco,
the crib, everything.
And to be able to do thatwithout injury, that was a
product of just daily choice.
(18:55):
So yeah, I, one, I just wannacommend you,'cause obviously
this has been a journey thatI've seen.
Unfold you're 45, 50 pounds downrunning marathons, and obviously
you're gonna con continue tokeep this up.
I guess that the next thing Ican ask you is in terms of.
Main so there's something that,that I always say is that you
(19:15):
usually don't find growth whereit's comfortable, right?
You don't.
It's like you need to findgrowth through discomfort.
Or another way to say it is youneed to be uncom, you need to be
comfortable with beinguncomfortable because in the
moments of discomfort is whereyou're gonna see growth.
So even nowadays, even at thepeak that you're at right now
(19:35):
you're 49, but you're feeling35.
How are you continuing to justpush through and like level up
from here?
I'm just curious on what yourmindset is now.
It's funny that you asked that.
I think, going through workingwith you, Ja, like my mindset
was like, okay I wanna get to acertain point I got here and I'm
like, okay, you know what?
(19:56):
I think I'm cool here.
I'm cool here, right?
And then the more I started toget to that point where I
started to start saying tomyself, I'm cool here.
I'm cool here.
That's, and then I just recentlyrealized,'cause I I tweaked my
back go, coming back from Hawaiivacation.
And, I was running and workingout at the gym and then and I
(20:17):
was just not really working onmy back.
And next thing like I justlifted a tire and I tweaked it.
And I realized I think thereason why I did that is
because.
Like I wasn't like, I wasn'tthere.
I was just accepting the factthat I'm okay.
I'm not pushing myself.
And then once, once I realizedthat I, that I, I didn't that I
(20:39):
lost my, I, I I had this painand I lost this ability to get
my back straight and there wasthis pain, a sharp pain in my
back.
I was like, dude, I never wantthat.
I never want that.
Like it really, it just there'ssomething in my brain that says
I never want that and I said,you know what?
I know how to prevent that andthat, that is to strengthen like
(21:02):
con, make sure that I'm alwayscontinually pushing and
strengthening my back.
And it's crazy because I was,for the last three weeks I was
help, like working with a friendand then we're working out and
then, it was, and then Ineglected working on my back and
I think back on it and I'm like,oh man, maybe two, three weeks
(21:23):
and then the vacation, and thenI didn't, I all of a sudden,
like I tweaked my back on, on amove at work that I do hundreds
of times the same thing.
And then I just tweaked it and Iwas like, dude, like how am I
gonna, how am I gonna preventthis from happening?
And the funny thing is it justhappened like yesterday.
(21:46):
And that same day I, I know Itexted you, but you didn't
respond.
But that day that right when ithappened I wasn't like super
injured, but I knew I tweakedit.
I went right to the gym and thenI did a light back workout and I
came home and I was watching TVand I was doing like like
squatting and thing bending overwithout without any weights.
(22:06):
And then this morning I woke upand my back was like, feeling
pretty decent.
Like it was back to like goodany other time.
Like it wouldn't have been likethat.
And I think it was just thethings that you've taught me and
like the things that you'vetaught me to strength is so
important.
You need to address the problem,not like rest the problem to
(22:27):
avoid it.
So for me, going forward.
Like this actually was a reallygood experience for me because
you have, I think, when you gothrough things, you learn and
you you want to get, you want togrow from it, and I'm like,
never again do I want this tohappen.
I'm gonna push even harder.
I wanna I wanna get strong.
Like I wanna, I want to get thenumbers higher.
(22:49):
I want to get like I'm abeliever.
Let's do it.
Yeah.
Sure.
And sometimes it take, sometimesit takes something like that to,
for it to happen.
Yeah.
Like if everything was kosher,maybe I didn't need to go push
myself.
Maybe I didn't need to do that.
Maybe, but something like thishappened, she's you know what?
I know why it happened.
It's because like I, I took abreak and you can't take a
(23:11):
break.
Like you, you gotta.
The ultimate is a choice too,right?
It's yeah.
The very common thing thatpeople do if they get sick and
I, I don't blame people.
'cause it's like, whether it'swhat has worked for you in the
past or whether it's a productof experience where hey, if your
dad or mom got sick, theyusually will rest in bed.
(23:32):
I used to do that too.
I used to be like, Hey, I have afever.
Fever and a lot of times, yeah,you don't wanna push your body
so hard, so you gotta understandwhere your capacity is, right?
If you have a fever, yourcapacity for exercise is
obviously lower, right?
'cause there's somethinginflammatory that needs to be
outletted from the body.
But that doesn't mean that ifyou have.
(23:53):
Fever or that you have a cold orlike a little flu that you go
completely cold Turkey, and linebed all day.
And these are things thatobviously, like when I did reply
to you, I was like, yeah, Ithink that the mistake that you
need to learn from was like whenyour body hurts or when
something hurts, is to notnecessarily just rust it, right?
It's like you can maintain someform of activity, whether it's
(24:15):
walking or you did a lighterversion of your leg day.
Then all of a sudden, then yourbody responded in a positive way
where it's whoa.
It felt that load, it felt theweight of the bar on top of your
spine and your spine actuallyfelt better as a result of that.
All of this is just neurologicalchanges as a result of when
things hurt is like you can makethe choice of.
(24:36):
Resting in bed or putting a heatpack on or just doing nothing
because it hurts so much.
Or you can decide to actuallystill move your body and you can
still go to the gym, or you canstill, at least at the minimum,
walk on a treadmill and usually90% of the time when you choose
a more active approach versus amore passive one.
(24:56):
Usually your body responds in amore positive way.
And I want explain something interms of mountains, like you
ever see like a mount like themountaineers and they're like
putting the spike through themountain and then they're
putting like the carabiners andthen they put a little, like a
point where they can just hangfrom that point.
Because a lot of times, likewhen we achieve our goals.
We think that we're at like thetop of the mountain, right?
(25:18):
And a lot of times we feel alittle complacent.
We're like, we get a spike ofdopamine.
We're like, yeah, I feel good.
I feel great.
Because I'm at the top of themountain right now.
And then little do you know thatif you just turn to the right
and you're looking, there'sactually another mountain,
there's another, and you'relike, shoot.
Like I'm either can be like, Iwork so damn hard to be at the
(25:42):
top of this mountain and I canjust choose to stay where I'm
at.
Or I can decide to take the nextjourney and level up again,
level up in terms of speed,endurance, power, resilience,
strength, and all that.
And that's my decisions too.
Like most people at age 36, it'sI just passed their prime, but I
know I'm not passed by prime.
Like I, I can continue to pushheavier weight, continue to get
(26:03):
faster from.
So people need to realize that,like when you have that
mentality of maintenance, isthat's a choice too.
I just wanna maintain, I justwanna do the same three days a
week of exercise.
I'm okay doing the same weight,I'm okay doing the same rests.
That's a choice, but guess what?
That choice gets you toMaintenance is better than your
(26:24):
couch potato.
But the maintenance people thatdecide I'm gonna do the same,
waste, the same stuff.
When you turn one year older orone decade older, or two decades
older, if you're trying tomaintain, guess what happens?
You're actually not maintaining.
You are indeed declining becauseyour muscle mass and everything
are decreasing.
You think you're maintaining,but you're not.
So that's why like everybody inthe world, even when probably
(26:47):
when I turn 80, I'm gonna havethat mentality to push my body
to the capacity of what my80-year-old self can do.
If I continue to push thoseboundaries, I'm going to
maintain a higher quality oflife, maintain a higher level of
mobility and strength comparedto my peers.
That is a choice of continuingto push into those later years.
(27:08):
Yeah.
Am I gonna push the same amountweight when I'm age 36 compared
to 80?
Maybe not, but like I said,that's also a choice as well,
right?
You ever heard of the guy, JoeStockinger?
If you haven't yet, Ray, that'sa great person to look for.
He's 93, 94 years of age.
He's in, by far like one of theoldest powerlifters, yet he
(27:29):
continuously just shows up andthere's video clips of him going
viral where he's still lifting400 pounds off the floor and
he's 94 years of age.
That's a person that madechoices.
Hey, Ja I wanted to sharesomething that I experienced
with you to, to the peopleduring our like training
ventures together.
I, I remember in the beginningof our.
(27:52):
Are like, when I first started,you gave me this workout routine
for my legs and you're, you saidto me right away, you're like,
Hey, Ray, man you're hamstringman.
You're, they're like, they'reweak.
And then I was like, oh, like I,I've been predominantly like
doing squats for my quads.
And then you're like, Hey, Ray,just let you know your heavens
(28:12):
are kinda weak.
And then, so I was like, okay.
Cool.
And then so you gave me like aleg day one, leg day two
routine.
And I think I remember going fora month or maybe three weeks and
then, and all of a sudden, likeI, I injure myself like, like I
strained my hamstring.
Do you remember?
Do you remember that?
Yeah, because, so I string myhamstring again.
(28:33):
I remember you, I think it wasthat like I even stopped working
out.
I didn't even tell you that likeI stringed my hamstring until we
met up.
'cause we, we meet up once amonth and then you're like, oh,
so what's going on Ray?
How's everything going?
And I said, oh yeah, like inweek two I screened my
hamstring.
And then I think you said oh,how come you didn't tell me?
(28:55):
And I was like, oh, I didn'twanna bother you, so you know I
didn't, or something like that.
And I said, oh I don't know.
Jay's it's pretty bad.
Should I, what do you think?
Should I just rest it?
And then I think I was like, oh,should I rest it?
And maybe when it feels betterI'll get back on the leg program
and then all of a sudden youhear crickets.
And then I think you, it was afunny moment.
(29:17):
And then you said to me, you go.
Ray, I don't think you know meby now yet.
And then I'm like, what do youmean?
He goes, Ray, that's not the wayI work.
And I'm like, okay.
Like how do you work?
I guess I didn't know you atthat.
Like I didn't know the way youwork.
So you said to me, you're like,Hey, you Ray, what I'm gonna do?
It's gonna add three exercisesto your workout.
(29:40):
I was like, what?
And then you like, add more add.
Oh, I'm just making me laugh.
I was like, what?
You're gonna add three moreexercises?
He goes, yes, Ray.
So what you're gonna do isyou're gonna, you're gonna be at
home.
You don't even need to be at atthe gym.
You're gonna be watching TV andyou're gonna do three more
(30:00):
exercises.
All right.
You're gonna do this exercises,this, that exercise and this.
And he showed me how to do it.
I remember specifically.
And I was like, okay.
And then you're like, I want youto do it.
Three times maybe three times aweek, once in the morning and
once a night, it's like a pill,right?
And then and I was like, oh,okay.
(30:21):
I think I did it maybe fourtimes.
It was gone.
The pain was gone.
I was like, holy crap.
Like the pain is the hamstringpain is gone.
I could run I could do the legworkout.
The pain is gone.
I still, to this day, I don'treally under you you just
strengthened my hamstring.
(30:42):
Is that what you did?
I don't know what you did, butit was like, it was a miracle
thing that I was like, oh myGod.
Like it's gone.
But I think I needed to be onthe program to find out what was
weak so that you can adapt theprogram to make.
What was weak, stronger.
And it allowed me, and may,throughout the whole thing I
(31:03):
was, I came back and I said, oh,my Achilles not hurting.
Okay, here's three moreexercises for your Achilles.
This is not, it just I likevent.
Finally knew oh, this is how theprogram works.
It's not about the program, it'sabout how your body's reacting
to the program and how are wegonna adapt to get your body
stronger and align to theprogram.
(31:25):
Yeah.
And I think that's somethingthat I've learned, through,
through this experience with youis that don't avoid let's attack
the problem.
Let's, it's not about restingit, it's about attacking it and
doing it in a, in the rightmethod where it's gonna
strengthen it and it's gonnabetter yourself.
A lot of co, a lot of doctors ora lot, a lot of people, let's
(31:47):
say rest it take ibuprofenheated cold, I don't think
you've ever.
Told me to ice it once or heatit once or rub it out.
No, I never I rarely recommendice or heating.
I don't think you've ever even,I don't think you've mentioned
like, even rubbing it or likemassage.
I don't remember you sayingthat.
Rarely that you can do that.
I mean that sometimes things canbe like, your hamstring could
(32:11):
have been so irritable that Iwould've, I could have
recommended like, massaging itout or using a foam roll, but I
usually will say that's lessimportant.
Than loading it in the rightamount.
So just for frame of reference,you'd be like, it's a miracle.
I don't know really how itworks.
This is how it works, right?
It's that usually if you tweakanything, is that your capacity
(32:35):
for that.
That capacity in the hamstringis a little less tolerance to
load, right?
So if you tweak your hamstring,but then you try to add on an
intense amount of load, like youtry to just sprint.
You might have just sprained itworse.
You've seen that in NBA plentyof times where like people, they
overdo it, they over sprint orthey land wrong and then they
tweak the hamstring.
(32:56):
So it wasn't about I always saythat like avoidance.
Yeah.
We talk about choices all thetime.
It's a daily choice.
Avoidance is a choice, but alsoI also think that avoidance is
the enemy.
And I think you know that veryclear not right.
Avoidance is the enemy, right?
Is that you might have tweakedsomething, but now you have a
choice whether you want to justsit on the couch and just mope.
Or you could decide, Hey, I'mgoing to still supply that
(33:19):
injured tissue with the rightstimulus, with the right
stimulus and it, the stimulus.
Right now, the medicine is not,wasn't sprinting because that
would be overmedicating, thehamstring, but you want to
medicate it the right amount sothat you feel better the next
day.
So that could have been.
Single, like hip brushers athome, or maybe it was just like
light lunges or something that'sstill loading the hamstring.
(33:41):
If you load it in the rightamount, it's going to yield
positive adaptations.
If you load it too much, whichis the same thing like a doctor
tell tells you to takemedication, heart medication
three times a day, but youdecide to take six times a day,
that heart medication might workagainst you.
You might have some sideeffects.
So that's ultimately how itworks.
Is.
(34:01):
There's physiological benefitsto loading injured tissues.
There's also mental benefits towhen you're doing the exercise
and in the moment that you'redoing the exercise, you're like,
wow, my body can still toleratehip thrusters.
My body can still tolerate alittle hamstring load.
I don't have to avoid.
So there's a mental benefitduring the workout while you're
(34:23):
doing it.
And then not just that, but thenyou recheck things and you're
like, you do the same exercisethat, that just injured you.
One to seven days ago, andyou're like, oh my God.
These three other exercisesactually made a world of a
difference, and now I can do thesame exact exercise and get back
to running in half the time thatI would have if I simply just
(34:44):
avoided.
So psychological benefits,physiological benefits.
Again, we always talk about howmany people in their health and
fitness journey will makechoices with how they respond to
setbacks.
They'll make choices on whenthings feel like suffering or
when things feel like they'reburning or when you're lifting
heavier, your weights, you canhave that choice.
(35:06):
I'm gonna stay exactly where I'mat, or you can make that choice
to just be 0.5% better or 1%better.
Those 0.5 to 1% betters.
Yeah, it might have pushed you alittle harder than what you
anticipated during that workout,but you see the mental,
psychological, the long-termbenefits now that you are, head
(35:27):
over heels better in every waypossible, physiologically, less
weight, probably your hearthealth is every better.
You're less visceral fat.
These are all the like 0.5 to 1%better choices that we make on a
daily basis, which is obviouslywhat you led in with this
podcast.
But yeah it's not miracles, it'slegitimately just science,
(35:49):
understanding the nuances ofhealth, healthcare perceives
pain relief and how healthcarehow healthcare tells people in
terms of like diabeticmanagement or heart management's
play it safe, low impact.
Or when things hurt, don't doanything.
Stop.
Avoid the stuff that initiallyhurt you.
And now we know that howhealthcare should be, that you
(36:10):
wanna still push those sub maxthresholds.
You still want to do somethingactive.
And then you start to see thoseacute and long-term benefits.
Yeah.
Case.
Yeah.
I'm curious on your end, likehow this is I don't know if,
this is a silly question, butthe why factor is we talk about
(36:31):
daily choices and you can alwayslook at this like fork on the
road, right?
One is I feel tired, so I caneither just skip my workout and
just sit on the couch and watchNetflix or the choice of, or I
can continue to push through.
I'm just curious in your head iswhat is your why?
Like why do you continue to.
Be better.
Why do you continue to be 1%better?
Is it simply more of that Hey, Iwant to prioritize my health and
(36:55):
just be self-care.
Is it about your kids?
Is it a combination of things?
The why factor is something Italk about a lot with a lot of
clients.
'cause I really want to knowfrom your end, what is your deep
sense of why and why youcontinue to do the things you do
well?
Jace I think you might evenlaugh if I told you my wife
after.
It's because I have addictivepersonality and I'm addicted to
(37:17):
feeling this.
Like I'm addicted to thefeeling, the feeling of waking
up and feeling wow.
Like I feel good and I'maddicted to like the food, what
it makes me feel that feeling.
And it's like when you're ableto.
Like for the longest time, Idon't know how long, my, my
(37:41):
body's been eating certainfoods, been going through
certain things and like I justdidn't even know what feeling
good felt like.
And once you like that, thatonce you get to that feeling,
it's like it's, and it's freeand you don't even have to pay
for it because you just have tojust make the cho the choice.
(38:03):
The choice to to put what youput what is right.
Eat, you can eat as much as youwant, as long as it's in, in
that right food group, or youcan go out and do what you want
to do.
It's gonna, it's gonna make,it's gonna make you feel better.
Even if it's just walking, justthat little bit.
It's going to, it's gonna be somuch better for you.
(38:24):
And I think that the why Icontinue to do it is because I
just love that feeling and Ijust have like I said, I have
addictive personality and Ijust, I'm addicted to feeling
good and I, I just wanna I go,you know what, how am I gonna do
it today?
And if it's something where Ican just need to go to the gym
for 30 minutes or if, even ifjust waking up making a cup of
(38:48):
coffee doing 20 pushups, doingpulling, doing like 10 pull-ups
and, air squats or whatever, andthen you just wake up to that
and you go, wow, all right.
You know what?
Like it's this way to startsomething good.
And it's like a, it's like aroutine.
You just, it's the mindset.
And I think once you get, havethat mindset, it just gets
(39:10):
easier.
And that's damn sure.
Yeah, you the mindset is like,it's you if you work hard now,
it does become easier later.
You can say that in a number ofways because if you work hard
today, it is going to feel hardfor the next few days or even a
(39:31):
week or even a month.
But you know that if you justcontinue to push through and be
resilient.
Is that hard is now gonna becomeeasy.
Right now that hard, which waslike 30 minutes of running for
you, 30 minutes of running foryou is like cakewalk.
That doesn't even feel likerunning for you anymore.
It's it's just unusually easy.
(39:53):
But for another person, or maybethe version of Ray that was five
years ago that was, drinkingmore or was a lot heavier, you
wouldn't have imagined that,right?
That 30 minutes is that washell.
Now for you, that's heaven.
That's easy.
It's like a mental cognitivebenefit to be able to run 30
minutes.
So anybody that is consideringstarting a health and fitness
(40:15):
journey, just understand thatyes, it is going to be hard in
the beginning, but you have tomake that choice.
You have to make that choice tocontinue to push through
regardless of whether you strainsomething.
Learn from it or, yeah like Isaid, I work with Ray, coach
them through it, coach themthrough a hamstring injury or
(40:37):
coach them through a littleAchilles strain.
Don't have these little setbacksbe the thing that has you
stumbling down the mountain.
Continue to push up themountain.
Because at the end of the day,you will get up to the top of
the mountain if you put yourmind to it.
And after that, then you canwillingly decide to look to the
right and be like shoot, there'sa bigger mountain there.
(40:58):
Now I'm willing to climb thatone.
Then you're, then your new levelof hard is now way up here.
Your level of hard a year agowas all the way down here.
That's amazing thing to see,just to see that growth.
Any case, I feel like we canjust keep hitting on these
points, but I just wanna let youguys know that if there's one
person that personifiesobviously like hard work ethics,
(41:19):
making daily choices.
That's right.
I think we both have a pretty.
Addicted personality, right?
But I really love how you saidit and the way that you said it
was like, I'm addicted tofeeling good.
You don't even know how good youcan feel when you decide to
actually start, whether it'srunning, which is more of
aerobic activity, great sport tohave in your life.
(41:40):
I run all the time to strengthtraining.
I think that obviously, now knowthe benefits of how good
strength training can make youfeel.
But yeah, it's like you, youstart that journey, right?
You start that journey.
It's hard in the beginning, butit comes way easier.
And your life in general theability to just do day-to-day
things, carry groceries or carryyour kids or run with your kids
(42:01):
and play soccer you're notwinded, right?
You're enjoying those moments.
You're enjoying your vacations.
You're enjoying the fruits ofyour labor, you're enjoying your
seventies and eighties, versussome people in their seventies
and eighties, they're in thewheelchair, they're in
hospitalized.
You can enjoy those momentslater on.
So any case I'd love to end thiswith some sort of note here,
rave there's anything else thatwanna share that, I think you
cap off this podcast.
(42:22):
Is there any sort of notes ofadvice or encouragement or
anybody, anything that you wannasay?
To the group?
I just believe that you gotta belike a turtle, right?
And, it's not a it's not a fastsprint race to the finish, but
it's a long journey.
And the journey, you gotta enjoythe journey and through, through
(42:45):
each decision that you make andthe changes that happens, you
can't do it all.
You can't change everything atone time, it will naturally
happen.
Like just the.
Small victories.
Small victories are the onesthat you go for.
And then those small victorieswill lead to like bigger ones.
And not knowing that, it's gonnabe like a snowball effect, but
(43:10):
do the expectations, be realwith yourself and when you are
real and don't and you can makethat choice the correct choice
on a daily.
You're gonna be all right.
And I encourage anybody to go onthis journey because it's your
journey, your individualjourney.
(43:31):
Not nobody else's.
It's not that other person'sdon't compare yours to the other
person.
How that person, this and that.
Everybody has their journey,but, take, be eternal.
And believe it or not, thatturtle is gonna run super fast.
It might be run faster than someof the fastest people that you
might think that they're, oh mygosh, they're so fast.
(43:52):
But that turtle's gonna catch upand it's gonna be a very
powerful one.
Absolutely.
Great.
Great way to end that.
Right?
You're probably thepersonification of somebody that
was obviously seeing you growup.
You were one of the.
Faster people that I've seen.
So you wore the hair right?
And all of a sudden, likesetbacks and injuries and life
choices, right?
The life choices that you madeled you to feeling like a very
(44:14):
slow turtle at one point in yourlife, right?
Where you didn't feel good,you're lethargic.
You didn't feel athleticanymore.
There was injury after injury.
And then now, then that's slowturtle now has become the hair
again, right?
Obviously it's been really goodto see the journey.
I look forward to continue tosupport you in that journey.
Even the times that like, we'llcontinue to.
It's a touch base.
And and this kind of caps offthe daily choice, right?
(44:34):
You have the fork on the road.
You willingly decide today whatyou want to do.
Do you wanna go down this moresedentary route?
Do you wanna choose the activeroute?
That's really up to you.
So every day is a choice.
So for anybody here that youknow is considering change, that
wants to make lifestyle changes,you wanna get stronger, you
wanna get healthier you're abusy parent, but you know that
you need to take care of yourhealth.
Like I said I'm going to link adescription.
(44:55):
There is a link to for anapplication.
After the application, you canbook in for a free consultation
with me and my team to see if wecan help you.
And if there's any otherquestions or any other feedback,
just feel free to comment below.
And let us know what you thinkabout this podcast.
So we'd love to get yourfeedback.
In case Ray, I really enjoyedspeak, speaking with you.
I've known that we've spoken toeach other since.
If you guys didn't know since Iwas four or five years of age,
(45:18):
but it's been really cool to seethe journey.
I look forward to supportingyou.
Okay, thanks Jay.
Thanks for having me.
Alright man.
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