3049: Lost and Found by Steve Kamb of Nerd Fitness on A Journey from Burnout to Realignment

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[00:00:30] This is Optimal Health Daily, Lost and Found by Steve Kamb of NerdFitness.com. And I'm your host and narrator, Dr. Neal Malik. A very happy Tuesday to you. Welcome back to Optimal Health Daily, where I read to you from popular health and fitness blogs to help you optimize your health. And with that, let's get to today's post and start optimizing your life. Lost and Found by Steve Kamb of NerdFitness.com.

[00:01:01] So the past three weeks have been a challenge. Between getting sick, visiting family in Boston, losing and then getting back my laptop, attending a wedding in New York, hosting six friends in my one-bedroom apartment, and launching the Nerd Fitness Academy, I've been a complete disaster. However, I've been drawing inspiration from a Scotsman on Lost, a fish from Finding Nemo, who does exist, and a hip-hop group formed in the late 80s.

[00:01:31] I haven't gone crazy yet thanks to Desmond, Dory, and De La Soul. Yes, I realize the irony that the two previous sentences would most likely confirm that I have, in fact, lost my marbles. Words of wisdom from Desmond. My favorite episode from Lost involved Desmond and his lost love Penny, titled The Constant. Spoiler warning, if you haven't watched it yet, shame on you.

[00:01:55] Anyways, Desmond is in the process of dealing with all of the issues that come with time travel. Tell me about it. He's starting to go crazy, except for the fact that he has a constant in his life, Penny. Talking with Penny, years apart, keeps him grounded while everything else around him is changing. When I exercised around the world, literally, I used exercise as my constant to keep me grounded while being in a completely different location every few days.

[00:02:22] Although I travel less now, I still use exercise as my constant. While traveling in Boston and New York for 10 days, I made sure to find time to exercise. I even signed up for a week's gym membership while visiting my folks to make sure I stayed fit. Over the past two weeks, I've been back in Nashville and haven't slept very much. I've continued to use exercise as my constant. Despite the fact that I could have easily told myself I don't have time to exercise right now, I knew that would be a big fat lie.

[00:02:52] For the past month, despite flying by the seat of my pants and being a mess, I have missed one workout session. Why is exercise so important when other things can appear more crucial? I remember this quote from Richard Branson, hat tip to my buddy Scott Densmore. When asked, how can I be more productive? Branson simply replied, work out. Regardless of what you think you have time for and what you really have time for, exercise makes everything better.

[00:03:19] However, creativity, alertness, focus, etc. all increase as a result of physical exertion. It's a kind of catch-22. We are tired and don't want to work out, but a workout is precisely what we need to feel better and get re-energized. So, how do we force ourselves to work out when working out is the last thing we feel like doing? Just keep swimming. Words of wisdom from Dory. Dory. Hey there, Mr. Grumpy Gills.

[00:03:47] When life gets you down, do you want to know what you've got to do? Marlon. No, I don't want to know. Dory. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim, swim. Marlon. Dory. No singing. Dory. Dory. Ha ha ha ho. I love to swim. When you want to swim, you want to swim. Marlon. Now I'm stuck with that song. Now it's in my head.

[00:04:18] Dory. Sorry. Happens. Life gets busy. We travel. We have kids. We have projects at work that occupy all of our time. We see our workout schedule of three sessions of one hour each week, and we don't think we can cut it. We see unhealthy food as the best and quick option. We tell ourselves, I'll get back to exercise and eating right when things slow down. We justify a week or two off because life got busy. I'm here to tell you now that this is the opposite of what you need to do.

[00:04:48] Never underestimate the power of momentum, especially when you're trying to build a new habit. No matter how tough things get, I need you to channel Dory and just keep swimming. Here's how you can apply Dory's advice to your life. Don't have time for an hour of exercise? Do 30 minutes. Or 15 minutes. Or 5 minutes. Don't have time for 3 healthy meals today? Eat 1 healthy meal. Don't have time for your run today? Go for a walk at lunch.

[00:05:17] I'm not gonna lie. My workouts over the past few weeks have been unimpressive. On Monday, my workout was front squats and pull-ups. That's it. I walked into the gym and out 20 minutes later because I was so tired and out of it. Yesterday, I scaled back how much I was lifting on my deadlifts and cut out my last 3 exercises. I hadn't eaten and was 4 hours behind for my scheduled workout and it was a struggle to get through the entire thing. So, I did the best I could.

[00:05:45] I focused on the big wins and just kept swimming. Words of wisdom from De La Soul. When times get tough, we need to keep swimming. And when we don't even have the time to swim, we need to tread water. To borrow a quote from the awesomely 80s band De La Soul and their appropriately titled jam, If there's no one here to help and no one to get involved, always look to the positive and never drop your head.

[00:06:12] For the water will engulf us if we do not dare to tread. So, let's tread water. When life is busy, you need to do whatever necessary to tread water. For example, go through the motions of putting on your running gear, even if you only run to the mailbox and back. Stuck eating fast food? Drink water instead of soda. And then make up for it with the next meal. Can't sleep? Don't compound the problem with other bad decisions in the morning.

[00:06:39] We need to stop telling ourselves, eh, the day's already a waste, to justify more bad behavior. If you had a crappy breakfast and lunch, dinner is not ruined. Make it healthy. If you didn't get to work out at all today, the day is not done. Do 50 push-ups and 50 squats before bed. Tread water to conserve energy and to stay afloat. Keep the momentum alive. So that when you have enough energy and things do slow down, you're not starting back at square one. You pick up right where you left off.

[00:07:08] Make it count. One bad decision will not send you off the rails. However, bad decisions, made as a result of other bad decisions, will. Every decision counts. Every minute of exercise counts. Every meal counts. So to recap, when things get bad and busy and your life is in shambles, make exercise your constant, swim when you can, shred water if you must, but keep moving. And don't ever stop.

[00:07:42] You just listened to the post titled, Lost and Found, by Steve Kam of nerdfitness.com. And I'll be right back with my commentary. Oikos presents 15 seconds of strength. Here we go. Steve's got a trunk full of groceries and no one to help him. Oh, that's tough, Jim. Looks like a five-trip load at least. He grabs the first bag. The second. Bob, it looks like he's trying to do it on one trip. He shimmies the door open, steps over the dog. Oh, and he stumbles. Oh, right into the kitchen without missing a beat.

[00:08:10] Jim, now that's a man who eats his protein-packed Oikos. With 15 grams of complete protein in each cup, Oikos Triple Zero can help build strength for every day. Oikos. Stronger makes everything better. Ah, da ist meine Prime-Bestellung. Was? Jetzt schon? Nur eine Sache begeistert so sehr wie die schnelle Lieferung mit Prime. Und zwar das tolle Unterhaltungsangebot von Prime. Was schauen wir uns an? Heads of State, die neue Action-Komödie mit John Cena, Idris Elba und Priyanka Chopra-Jonas. Sieht mega aus.

[00:08:37] Schnelle, kostenlose Lieferung, geniale Unterhaltung und mehr gibt's bei Prime. Für nur 8,99 Euro pro Monat werde jetzt Prime-Mitglied. Die Inhalte können Werbung enthalten. Die fortlaufende Mitgliedschaft. Mehr auf amazon.de slash prime. Dr. Neil here for my commentary. I think we all just need to agree that we are all busy. Well, let me put it another way. We're all busy in our own ways, meaning we all have different priorities. Maybe work is a priority.

[00:09:06] Maybe your family is a priority. Paying your bills, yeah, that'd probably be a high priority. But as we start to list our priorities, chances are eating a healthy meal today and getting in at least 20 minutes of exercise, probably really low on the list. I still get folks that are retired. They don't have a job. They're set for life. Their house is paid off. They'll tell me, I just don't have time to exercise. I just don't have time to eat healthfully.

[00:09:37] You're retired. So really, it's not a question of time. It's a question of priorities. What they're basically saying is, it's just not my priority to do those healthful things. And I get it. It wasn't my priority for the longest time either. And that's where so many of Steve's tips are so valuable. Once you get a little bit of momentum going, once you do a little bit of something that's good for you, that's good for your body, it tends to accelerate.

[00:10:06] So I love his idea of just put on your running shoes, even if you're not going to go for a run. Because chances are, just by doing that, now you've triggered a little bit of momentum. So you may not go for a run, but maybe you went for a walk. That counts. There are so many days where I have planned a workout. I'm going to do this workout tomorrow. And then when tomorrow comes around, my body is just not there. My mind is just not there.

[00:10:32] And so what I'll do instead is, just like Steve mentioned, I'll do 50 sit-ups and 50 push-ups, and then I'm done. You know what? That's good enough. And that's okay. But I know I feel better just for having done even that little bit. Then I don't feel so sorry for myself. And it changes my entire outlook for the day. So just doing a little bit can go a long way. All right. That's enough out of me for today. Thank you, as always, for listening. Thank you for being a subscriber and sharing the show with someone.

[00:11:00] I'll be back here tomorrow, as always, where your optimal life awaits.