00:00:01:03 – 00:00:20:22
Brad Singletary
You’ve never seen a person of tremendous influence who didn’t have some sense of control over their energy. The most influential people in your life have carried themselves with unmistakable vitality and positivity. Those high value qualities are generated in our minds and in our bodies, and alpha is a man of energy.

00:00:21:16 – 00:00:38:15
Brad Singletary
If his mission is to have life, create life in himself and others and preserve life, you must be focused on the needs of his body. You must use it as a machine that helps him deliver high level energy into his daily life and share contagious energy with those in his influence.

00:00:39:27 – 00:00:46:22
Brad Singletary
Our man manages the care of his physical machine as a predictor of his successes with everything and everyone with which he is involved.

00:00:57:16 – 00:01:18:20
Speaker
If you’re a man that controls his own destiny, a man that is always in the pursuit of being better, you are in the right place. You are responsible. You are strong. You are a leader. You are a force for good. Gentlemen. You are the Alpha. And this is the alpha quorum.

00:01:23:28 – 00:01:56:19
Brad Singletary
Welcome back to the Alpha Quorum Show, Brad Singletary here, you guys, I’m so very excited about what we have going on today. I’ve got two medical professionals joining us today. I’m going to introduce them here in just a second, but we’re in a series right now talking about the red nine some principles of living a healthy life, and this one has to do with energy. We talked a few episodes ago with Joshua Roy, who talked about some of the psychology of energy and how we can use our bodies to produce good moods and those kinds of things.

00:01:56:19 – 00:03:10:05
Brad Singletary
These two guys come from the medical world and are also very. Talented and disciplined in their care of their own physical bodies and including some fitness and some pretty high level things that they’ve been involved with that I want to first introduce Gavin Hillman. He’s a firm believer in the importance of physical health and how it can affect multiple other facets of a man’s life. He has been actively engaged in structured and organized physical health for over 25 years. As a young man, he participated in various sports and training, working as a personal trainer as he got himself through school. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science from the University of New Mexico, then moved on to his doctorate in physical therapy from UNLV. For the past decade, he has specialized in working with the geriatric population with physical rehabilitation from various orthopedic, neurologic, cardiovascular and other medical condition. He’s 16 years married with three wonderful children. He continues to keep his physical health a priority and regularly takes part in running events, hikes, biking and scheduled gym time for resistance training. Gavin, thank you for being here, man.

00:03:10:06 – 00:03:11:04
Brad Singletary
Welcome.

00:03:11:12 – 00:03:12:01
Gavin Hillman
Thank you. Glad to be here.

00:03:12:10 – 00:03:21:07
Brad Singletary
I have a little story that your wife shared with me about you. Should I? Are you? Are you embarrassed about what this might?

00:03:21:12 – 00:03:23:21
Gavin Hillman
Yeah. Who knows what that can be? So let’s hear.

00:03:24:00 – 00:04:08:02
Brad Singletary
Gavin has a beautiful family and a great wife. She’s a friend of my wife, and both of these guys actually live in my neighborhood. And so she’s quite a colorful person. But she said, I remember the first time we did a Tough Mudder. It was the very first event ever, and it was advertised as a big, strong muscle man type of event, which it turned out not to be. And Gavin was pretty confident going in the entire group was, she said, at Mile three. Gavin’s legs started cramping and everyone could see his quads contracting with every step, and he was grunting. He was in agonizing pain. He said, I’ve never seen a man in that much pain in my life. He grunted and grunted with every step and completed another eleven miles to finish the race.

00:04:09:09 – 00:04:17:21
Brad Singletary
He showed us all that day. That was the true meaning of grit when he puts his mind to something, he does it. Thank you for being here, man. I really appreciate.

00:04:18:08 – 00:04:25:05
Gavin Hillman
Thank you. I do remember that. And he’s right. That was a lot of pain that day. And yes, but we did finish. We finish the race.

00:04:25:06 – 00:05:14:12
Brad Singletary
If I get a cramp here, you guys, I’m assuming, will know what to do to to help me here. Our second guest is Tanner Smith. Tanner is an emergency room physician assistant with over seven years of experience. You worked the night of the Las Vegas mass shooting on October first, 2017. Their emergency room team saw around 200 patients in roughly the span of two hours as a result of the shooting as an outlet for stress and maintaining physical fitness, he enjoys running and cycling daily. He has qualified and completed the Boston Marathon three times and has a personal record in the marathon, running in two hours and 52 minutes. He enjoys promoting fitness and helping people stay active by coaching people looking to get into running and leads weekly group runs or lifetime Athletic Club here in Henderson, Nevada. Tanner.

00:05:14:27 – 00:05:29:02
Brad Singletary
Dude, I was just talking about as he walked in. Tanner lives two doors down from me and I was thinking, Who is his celebrity double? And I thought, It’s Jesus. It looks like he looks a little bit like Jesus here

00:05:29:02 – 00:05:29:10
Tanner Smith
Today I do.

00:05:30:16 – 00:06:36:06
Brad Singletary
Both of these guys are world class alphas, and you’re going to find out wise as we get talking here, we’re talking about health. But I had a story about you, Tanner, and I’m friends with Tanner’s brother, Trevor, who also used to live in our neighborhood and has since moved to another place with his family. But I asked him about his brother, Tanner, and he told me something pretty special about you, about one of the Boston marathons where you performed CPR on a lady who was running and basically saved a person’s life, who like had a cardiac arrest right there in the marathon. And he sent me the article, which I’ll post in the show notes here, where you were in Runner’s World magazine featured in there with this lady where you were. She has like a nine at a nine month old kid and is basically, I guess, laying there, having some episode. Well, good thing you. This is your day in and day out work as an emergency room physician assistant. And so you’re sitting there performing CPR. What? What an awesome story.

00:06:36:23 – 00:07:53:03
Tanner Smith
Yeah, I mean, it was it was the most recent Boston Marathon, honestly. So it was just, you know, a couple of months ago in October and. You know, I’ve seen dozens of cardiac arrests come into the E.R. and you’ve got, you know, all your equipment, everything all laid out and you you’re getting like a story of what’s going on and everything. So to be running a marathon and being focused on your race and then all of a sudden, you know, you see somebody laying in the middle of the course that’s just absolutely, you know, blue. There’s there’s no color to their skin. It’s it’s a different experience than what you see, you know, on a day to day working basis, but. Honestly, it was it was a complete miracle to see how well she’s doing at this point in time, honestly, you know, fortunately, most people don’t do that well, especially if they go down in a situation like that, so. I mean, I’ve chatted with her here and there, and. Seems like she’s recovering fine, she’s actually even starting to do some running, but, you know, she’s got a nine month old child and it’s just amazing that she has, you know, no problems as far as as a result of this cardiac arrest that she experienced. And she’s able to go about taking care of her child and still enjoy things that she likes doing. So it’s it’s it’s a miracle. I don’t know how else to describe that experience.

00:07:53:16 – 00:08:42:27
Brad Singletary
Dude, that’s amazing. People have asked me, You know this, the name of this whole thing, the Alpha Quorum, I mean, it probably was some half baked idea. And I hate some of the super kind of worldly kind of the bastardized use of the word alpha. And I hate the association with what some people see that to mean. I think what an alpha is, is what these two men are. And you’ll find out as we get going here. But one of the things you talk about is he has life. He creates life, not not necessarily just having children, but you’re creating life in other people and you preserve life, like to be an alpha is about life. And here’s here’s an example well, in both of you and what you’re doing, but in this a profound way where you’re literally saving someone’s life. You don’t have your equipment, you’re probably several miles in how far into the race where you do remember?

00:08:42:27 – 00:08:44:24
Tanner Smith
As is getting close to Mali.

00:08:44:24 – 00:08:53:05
Brad Singletary
So you’ve been running for eight miles. Hold on. Let me save this lady’s life. Do you have do you keep in touch? It sounds like you’ve got some contact.

00:08:53:05 – 00:09:16:02
Tanner Smith
We kind of keep in touch between just like social media and Instagram and messaging back and forth. And we haven’t talked over Zoom a little bit and stuff. But I mean, it sounds crazy, you know, Miley doing CPR. But honestly, the best thing about that race after not only the fact that she’s doing so well, but the additional 18 miles I had in the race to just kind of reflect and run and think about it so.

00:09:16:02 – 00:09:22:02
Brad Singletary
That is just wild. And was that your personal record race or was that the one or two? I’m guessing.

00:09:22:03 – 00:09:23:07
Tanner Smith
Oh, no, no.

00:09:23:14 – 00:09:24:10
Brad Singletary
Take some time out.

00:09:24:10 – 00:09:34:24
Tanner Smith
As a little time off the clock stopping to do CPR, but it was still good race. I mean, I ended up running through twelve, but that wasn’t the important thing in that day.

00:09:34:24 – 00:09:47:19
Brad Singletary
So wow, that’s crazy. Just even to qualify. So that’s not any average Joe Schmo gets to do that right. You have to reach a certain pinnacle before you can even show up to that, right. Not everyone can be there.

00:09:47:20 – 00:10:01:23
Tanner Smith
Yeah. So for Boston, they have qualifying times based on your age, whether you’re male or female. And so you have to run a race on a Boston qualifying course and meet that time standard in order to get into the race.

00:10:03:00 – 00:10:16:13
Brad Singletary
So, you know, you guys are friends, and I understand that you’re you’re kind of doing some training together right now. Is that true? Is that who’s who’s training who and what’s happened with your tell me about how you know each other and your friendship and so forth?

00:10:17:23 – 00:10:34:03
Gavin Hillman
Yes, we are doing a little bit of running together. I mean, Tanner is the runner. I do not claim to be a runner. I do run, but he is the guy that I go to when I need advice or if I need a training schedule, or somebody to keep me accountable to get out there and run again.

00:10:34:14 – 00:11:15:04
Brad Singletary
Sometimes I get up in the morning. I mentioned that Tanner’s two doors down and I get up in the morning, barely barely awake. You know, it’s 7:00 or so I’m taking the kids to school or whatever, and Tanner sitting around in his driveway sipping on, you know, I don’t know, some Gatorade or some water. And he’s already cooled off from like he’s probably already run miles and miles that day and he’s already there and he’s no longer sweating and he’s just kind of calming down, maybe just being reflective. And I just think, I would love to be able to do that, and I maybe someday I get to the point where I can. I’m just afraid to run right now. If it if I if you see me running something bad is happening, so check in with me.

00:11:16:20 – 00:11:20:02
Tanner Smith
You are just going to stand, you know, everybody has to start at some spot.

00:11:20:05 – 00:12:03:17
Brad Singletary
So I would be happy if I was walking. I would be happy if I walked 26.2 miles. So appreciate you guys being here, man. So really briefly talk about your profession. So we know, Gavin, that you’re doing your physical therapist, correct? By the way, these guys are licensed medical professionals and whatever they talk about today, don’t interpret that to mean any, you know, medical advice or anything like that. This is this is a podcast, so don’t get it twisted. We’re just we’re just talking and they’re sharing from their experiences. But please don’t take anything they say is any specific, you know, instruction from a medical person to you. But so you’re working with people in a rehab type facility or what’s the?

00:12:04:02 – 00:12:40:21
Gavin Hillman
Yes, it’s an inpatient rehabilitation center, so it’s primarily geriatrics or your older folks. And these are individuals who have gone to the hospital for various reasons. Maybe they fell broke a hip or elective surgeries like knee replacements or hip replacements are also individuals that got sick. They got they had a stroke or they had some type of respiratory issues. And so they went to the hospital. They stayed in the hospital for X amount of time. They got very weak. And so they’re not able to go home. So they come to us and we’ll see them for a few weeks to build them back up and help facilitate them going on to hopefully home.

00:12:41:23 – 00:12:44:25
Brad Singletary
OK. And then, Tanner, how about yourself, sir?

00:12:45:16 – 00:13:46:00
Tanner Smith
So I worked at primarily sunrise emergency room right now. Our group covers several emergency departments throughout the valley, but that’s where I’m primarily working. And I mean, it’s it’s one of those things I don’t try to search out the most difficult or complicated patients to take care of, but, you know, sometimes like. You know, the first of October, we don’t really have a choice, we we were there to help, you know, whoever came through the door. So, you know, I see a variety of things give me anything from a broken bone to appendicitis or, you know, any of these types of things so. And, you know, it can be even just something as simple as giving somebody something to eat. But I mean, there’s it’s. You never know, I think that’s the thrill about emergency medicine as you never know what’s going to walk in the door and what surprises your face and why everybody is different. So some things that you would think are like a normal presentation for a kidney stone might have something entirely different.

00:13:46:16 – 00:14:18:07
Brad Singletary
Yeah. So I’m curious about some of the most common things that you see. And you know, our audience here is men, mostly men. Maybe 20% of our listeners are women, but mostly men, probably from the age range of 25 to 55 with an average maybe of this a 40 year old dad. If you can just picture that. What are the most common medical ailments that lead men to, you know, either a medical emergency for you, tanner, or some kind of injury? What kind of problems are people having because they’re not taking care of their health?

00:14:19:22 – 00:15:15:13
Tanner Smith
Well, one of the unfortunate things that I would say is, you know, we get your every day, you know, sprains, strains, broken bones, things like that that just, you know, happen from day to day life, people being active, doing things, but when I was in school, we were always trained, you know, type two diabetes is this medical illness that affects people that are primarily older and age meaning like, you know, above 50, 55, 60, you know, it’s it’s the diabetes for the older generation. The sad thing is, is due to. The lifestyle that you know, the American lifestyle that we’ve adopted and how easily it is to get a hold of fast food or, you know, whatever it is, we’re starting to see type two diabetes being diagnosed in a much, much younger population.

00:15:15:13 – 00:15:52:19
Tanner Smith
I mean, it’s affecting even, you know, teenagers to adolescence, whereas this is an illness that was primarily only being diagnosed in an older population. So. You know, it’s interesting. It just goes to show, you know, how much taking care of your body actually matters. So and and thing is diabetes is one of those complications and one of those diseases that really unfortunately causes a lot of problems for more than just having a high blood sugar affects the heart. It affects the kidneys. It affects the skin. I mean, you name it, diabetes can contribute to a problem with that part of your body.

00:15:53:09 – 00:15:57:03
Brad Singletary
And with that one specifically, what kind of what leads to that?

00:15:58:08 – 00:17:19:29
Tanner Smith
So. There is type one diabetes, and unfortunately, you know, some people with diabetes type one, you know, you’re pretty much born with that. I mean, it’s, you know, you’re just not producing insulin. But the way the type two diabetes, you know, and the easiest way of explaining that pretty much what happens is, is our body produces insulin for us. And depending on our diet, you know, every time we eat food, our body’s like, I’m going to create insulin, and that’s going to cause the body to take all of those, you know, nutrients and absorb them and and hold on to them to store them up or, you know, send them some other place in the body to utilize them. So when you’re eating, you know, really lots of food or just really high sugar food, your body has to increase the amount of insulin that it’s producing and secreting in the body. So if you’re continuously doing that all day long, all day long, eventually your body’s like, Well, am I really getting that much, you know? And then it’s like a signal, you know, it’s like a little boy cries wolf, you know, you keep crying, crying, crying, and it’s like, Well, I respond to that anymore. And so the body thinks of it the same way. It’s like, Well, there’s a lot of insulin. Do I really need to respond and do something with all this, you know, sugar or whatever else is nutrients in the blood? And eventually it just gets worn out and it’s not functioning anymore.

00:17:20:21 – 00:17:32:13
Brad Singletary
Wow. So when you see that coming in, I mean, you’re kind of like, well, here’s another complication that maybe could have been prevented based on, you know, health choices. Some of that, at least, were the type 2, right?

00:17:32:13 – 00:18:31:12
Gavin Hillman
A lot of it can be prevented and, you know, from what we see. You know, I see those. Like I said, I’m dealing with a lot of older generation, the geriatrics and I see how those effects of poor decisions that they made for a lifetime and how it affects them now that that they’re in their later years in life. So when you talk about the hypertension and the diabetes and now they’re at higher risk for strokes and for cardiovascular diseases and pulmonary diseases and their ability just to function everyday function as declined and just doing simple things of getting up out of bed or sitting up in a chair for a while or trying to get up and go across the room to go to the bathroom. Those have become so difficult and so, so laborous for them because they have made this lifetime choice of not taking care of themselves.

00:18:32:27 – 00:19:00:19
Brad Singletary
These two guys are a picture of health, we talked about their, you know, running and some of their activities and competing and so forth. I’m guessing that what you see out there, maybe you would just be the typical chubby guy if you weren’t. If you didn’t see that stuff day in and day, I wonder if it motivates you like, well, I do not want to. I don’t want to be like this guy. You know what? I’m 50 years old or I do not want to, you know, I want to preserve my strength. Does that help you stay motivated?

00:19:01:15 – 00:19:40:10
Gavin Hillman
Yes, it can. He can motivate. I mean, I’ve had several patients where I come out of there and I just think of myself, yes, I do not want to end up like that like life, but you yet sometimes, you know, joke around and you come out of a patient in a bariatric patient who’s 350 pounds, and it’s just so difficult to take care of them, and everything is so hard to be able to help them. You come out of there and just think, Man, life’s harder when you’re fat, like a really is like this. Just, you know, this is the truth. Like, it makes things harder if you’re if you’re not taking care of yourself, your body’s not in, um, you know, decent shape. You might be in great shape, but at least decent shape, then yes, life is harder.

00:19:41:18 – 00:20:19:13
Brad Singletary
Yes, I agree. This, so this is episode 82 and this is the only one. This is the first episode where I get to just ask questions. I don’t have to say anything. I have nothing I can teach about physical health. I’m the fat guy in the room, and so I’m just so glad to have these guys here. One of my goals is to spend a one hour a week with an alpha, and so if I spend two hours with these two, I’m like way ahead of schedule because they’re going to teach me some things about health. So what about you? You’re motivated by seeing these things, and some of it’s just pure accident, maybe that you come in. But when it comes to like this is complicated by health choices that motivate you to stay on top of things?

00:20:19:17 – 00:20:34:19
Tanner Smith
Well, you know, one of the interesting things is, you know, eat the unhealthy person you always think of is, you know, the big fat person or whatever and. Body size isn’t necessarily always the biggest predictor of how unhealthy you might be.

00:20:34:20 – 00:21:38:20
Tanner Smith
I mean, you could be a skinny guy weigh and, you know, 150 pounds, but you know, if you’re smoking three packs of cigarets a day, right? Or, you know, doing whatever else, I mean, everybody’s metabolism works different. I mean, I’ve seen skinny guys, but you know, they love their cheeseburgers. And so they, you know, 20 of those a day or whatever. And I mean, ingesting that much, you know, cholesterol is not good on the heart, and they end up with heart attacks at age 50, so. Really, you know, everybody’s body is different and a plan for everybody to, you know be physically fit or, you know, live a healthy lifestyle. You know, everybody doesn’t fit into the same box. I wish the body was that simple. But as far as what motivates me is like, I see these guys that are like 70 years old and they’re still running races. And I’m just like, Wow, I wish I if I can be that active at age 70, I think I’ll just be loving life because I’ll still be able to do something that I enjoy. I think once the enjoyment of something you love and you can do and you can’t do that anymore, I think that really kind of sets things back.

00:21:39:18 – 00:22:17:14
Brad Singletary
So you’re inspired more by the. The positive examples of men who have taken care of their health rather than like the the lame or guy who can’t, you know, can’t get around very well and he’s sweating while he sits, you’re you’re you’re inspired by the guy who’s still doing it at later in life. That’s awesome. So you talked about type two diabetes, other general things like common problems that come into men’s lives because of like not paying attention to their physical health. What are the what are the things you see over and over and over that could be prevented?

00:22:17:23 – 00:22:47:07
Gavin Hillman
Hypertension, High blood pressure, high hyperlipidemia where your cholesterol is elevated? You know, all those things just increase your risk of so many other ailments things like stroke or heart attacks or things like that. And a lot of those things are really there are food borne illnesses. You know, we think of a heart attack or think of cardiovascular disease. And most of the time that was caused by like he said it was 20 cheeseburgers that you’re eating on a daily basis.

00:22:47:29 – 00:22:49:18
Tanner Smith
Couple visits to heart attack grill.

00:22:51:09 – 00:23:15:18
Gavin Hillman
And a lot of that can be prevented. And you know, we live in a society now where people, those things are so common that the go to prescription is just take medications, and so these days when taking medications, you know, sure Tanner can see this. The people I deal with when I look at their medications, they’re on a list of 20, 30 medications.

00:23:15:18 – 00:23:15:28
Brad Singletary
Goodness.

00:23:17:10 – 00:23:25:02
Gavin Hillman
And where a lot of those things can be solve, not just by taking a pill, but by changing your lifestyle or changing your eating habits.

00:23:27:04 – 00:24:37:05
Tanner Smith
Yeah, I mean, it’s it’s true. You know, I think everybody has a little bit different mentality of how they want to, you know, deal with the situation. And for some people, it’s like, Well, if I get type two diabetes, I’ll start taking the medication for that. Whereas another person might be like, Oh, I got type two diabetes, what can I do to reverse that? So I don’t have to take a medication? And I will say, you know, just being like, Hey, I’m taking medication and continue on with life is much easier than saying, Well, I got to exercise now. I’ve got to change my eating habits. I will do all these different things. So we’ve kind of created a world where, you know, there’s always these easy little fixes, but they’re not necessarily the easy way out. I mean, medications only do so much, but the body’s ability to actually make the adjustments and deal with diabetes is much better. If you can reverse that, which type two diabetes actually can be reversed so. So if you, you know, make some modifications to your lifestyle, you could actually get off diabetes medication if you had type two. Obviously, that depends on the extent, but still, it’s pretty amazing what the body can handle and adapt to.

00:24:38:12 – 00:25:17:16
Brad Singletary
I guess that’s another part of what you see is not just the broken sick people, but maybe it’s and maybe all you’re seeing, Tanner is the is the person on day one, but I’m guessing you also see resilience and healing and the person who has an accident or has an episode. But because they were healthier and because they’ve been, maybe they’re a runner, but they had something happen. And now they’re able to bounce back in a faster way because they were mindful of their health. And yes, they had this thing happen. But I guess you see not only Illness and, you know, sickness, but also strength in people at times do.

00:25:17:27 – 00:25:45:05
Gavin Hillman
What we get great to see the body recover or bodies have an amazing ability. Our bodies are awesome. I mean, that’s that’s what got me into this profession that I’m in is because I’ve always been just amazed with what the human body is and what it can do. And one of those things is they can recover, it can heal. It can overcome a lot of these things and a lot of these ailments that we’re now we’ve been discussing to some degree, and in certain instances, they can be reversed. And it’s amazing. Awesome.

00:25:46:11 – 00:25:58:28
Brad Singletary
You see that sometimes, Tanner, where someone comes in, they’ve had a situation happen, but because they appeared to be really on top of things with their health, they were in less serious condition.

00:26:00:02 – 00:26:39:14
Tanner Smith
I mean, you can, you know, I look at this girl that I performed CPR on during the marathon and I mean, she’s someone that’s just incredibly fit. You know, an elite athlete, she’s a Olympic Trials qualifier, so she’s extremely fast. And honestly, I think part of the reason why she had such a good outcome with what had happened is because of how well she takes care of her body. I think had that been, you know, someone else just, you know, a random person out in the world that probably wasn’t doing those things, they might not have had to go to the end result. That’s just because, you know, she’s super fit and takes care of her body. I think that really made a difference, honestly.

00:26:40:12 – 00:27:27:03
Brad Singletary
You know, so much of this, so much of our health and problems that come up, it seemed like some of it is going to occur because of aging and accidents will happen and so forth. But man, so much of this is within our control, and that’s what I want to be focused on is controlling the controllable. So I want to talk about fuel. That’s one of the things we talk about in the in the energy that. An Alpha, a person who’s really mindful about the way he lives, he burns premium fuel is intentional about food and water when it comes to nutrition, hydration, what really matters the most, would you say? And I know there’s probably 10,000 different ways of looking at, you know, all the different diets and so forth. But. At a basic level, what do you think is most important when it comes to nutrition and so forth? Hydration.

00:27:29:12 – 00:28:05:15
Gavin Hillman
As far as nutrition is, you got to eat good food. You know, we all know what good food and what bad food is. And we just have to be willing to eat good food is the majority of your diet fast food or pre prepped, you know, microwavable type of meals. And if it is, then you’re probably not getting the best. Like you said, the best fuel for your body. Are you taking any notice on what you’re eating as far as trying to shop the produce section and get some fresh foods? And if you’re doing that and you’re getting some of those foods in you, then you’re going to be getting some good fuel.

00:28:06:06 – 00:28:31:25
Tanner Smith
One of the ways I always looked at it was and I probably read this somewhere along the way and it always just kind of stuck with me, but I always think of, you know, our body is like, say, a Ferrari or, you know, a jet or something like that. So when you think about those two things, what kind of fuel do you put into a Ferrari? You know, you don’t show up, you know, 7:11 and choose like the 85, right?

00:28:32:07 – 00:28:33:09
Brad Singletary
Put some diesel in it.

00:28:34:07 – 00:29:18:00
Tanner Smith
So you’re putting you’re choosing like the highest grade fuel in order for these things to perform at their maximum efficiency and do what they were designed to do, right? So the body, I think, is almost the exact same thing. If you want your body to function at its best ability, whether that’s running or just getting through the day, it’s going to require really good fuel to do that. So, you know, I’ve messed around with the million diet’s probably. And I think the most important thing is is. The more ingredients you see in that, the less it’s in its natural state, and that means it’s probably been manipulated, you know, millions of times, so it’s probably not the best fuel.

00:29:18:16 – 00:29:48:25
Brad Singletary
Yeah, if there’s 37 ingredients in something in a package that you have to do all sorts of things too, versus something you can grab out of the refrigerated produce section. That’s, you know, it’s refrigerated because it’s alive and it’s going to die soon. That’s probably better for you. one of my friends used to say, if it has a logo on it, it’s probably not good for you. You know. It’s got packaging. And if it had, you know, you put it in a plastic bag and they have to weigh it, it might be. That might be better for you. Right?

00:29:49:06 – 00:29:58:09
Tanner Smith
I mean, it’s not even stuff just in the produce section, but it’s like an egg. You know, what’s in an egg? An egg, right? Yeah. What’s in a steak? A steak? Hopefully just a good steak.

00:29:58:09 – 00:30:55:07
Gavin Hillman
But you know, one of the things for me a few years ago, I try and change my my way of thinking as far as food. And, you know, in the health field, you think a lot of macronutrients you think of, Oh, I get enough proteins and enough carbohydrates, fats, and we can tend to really hyper focus on those things with our diet today and the food that we have available. It’s very easy to make sure you’re getting enough proteins and enough carbohydrates, enough fat, things like that. But I started thinking more about the micronutrients. You know, am I getting enough vitamins? Am I getting enough minerals? Am I getting enough of the various chemicals that are in the, you know, fresh fruits and vegetables? And if I focus more on those and started building my my meals around that, you know, the macronutrients took care of themselves. But now I’m trying to think, am I getting enough of those other nutrients that are often lost or not even thought about in my diet?

00:30:57:11 – 00:31:57:20
Brad Singletary
So this is a little tangential, maybe, but it still relates to diet so you both are family man, you’ve got younger children at home. Something that I struggle with is like, you know, I have a son who only wants to eat macaroni and cheese or that, you know, cereal and it’s really garbage food, but there’s it’s around, you know, and so I struggle sometimes because and my wife will kind of say, well, they’re not going to eat anything else. They’ve got to eat something. And when it comes to just the choices of food in your home, so you can have an I talked to men who are idealistic and they want to eat the healthy stuff and they want to eat the pure foods and look at their nutrients and everything. But in a family life and in a busy world and in it, we’ve got to feed kids. And so now we’ve got, you know, goldfish and graham crackers all over the place or whatever. How do you guys handle that type of thing where? Maybe in order to. Does that make sense, what I’m asking?

00:31:58:02 – 00:32:53:11
Gavin Hillman
Absolutely. You know, and I can’t say my kids don’t eat goldfish and graham crackers, I mean, we’re dads, we have kids. Yes, I mean you. Those things are going to happen. And I don’t think it’s bad. You know, I can’t say that everything I eat is highly nutritious or anything. I mean that that’d be insane. But like you said, to about those food choices and so what foods are he bringing in the house? Whatever foods you’re getting at the grocery store and the foods that are in your refrigerator and pantries, those are the foods that your kids are going to end up eating. And so are you constantly buying, you know, chips and Oreos and and whatnot and bringing those home? And if you are your kids, you can make the most delicious, nutritious meal. But there are no those Oreos are sitting in there in that cupboard. And that’s what they’re going to want to gravitate to. And so I wish I had a great answer as far as how do you get your kids to eat healthy? I think it’s a whole different topic.

00:32:53:11 – 00:32:55:22
Brad Singletary
That’s a whole another show. We’ll have you back for that one.

00:32:55:22 – 00:34:06:15
Tanner Smith
Well, I mean, like, you know, I got a year and a half a kid and a five year old. And I mean, trust me, I like eating food just as much as anyone. I’m going to go eat a whole pizza if I’m really going to eat some pizza. But one thing and I don’t think I have this perfected by any means, but definitely, like Gavin was saying is, is what do you buy and bring home, you know, is going to influence what they see as being available to them to eat? I mean, if they’re hungry, they’re going to eat something. It’s a question of what do they see? And what are they going to grab first? And you know, little kids, why deprive them of things that you know, other little kids have? I think, you know, some sugary cereal? Great. But it’s a question of, you know, are you going to let them have two or three bowls of sugary cereal? So one of the things we try to do with with my kids is like, Hey, do you want to have some cereal? Here’s your one bowl of cereal. You’re still hungry. You have the option of having, say, a banana or an apple, something that’s more nutritious to kind of, well, hopefully balance that. But at least that way, they’re still, you know, able to get what they want, and they’re also getting some kind of nutrition on top of that.

00:34:08:09 – 00:34:18:13
Brad Singletary
When it comes to what you personally prefer, when you’re trying to be mindful and you’re trying to eat well, what things do you want a lot of and what do you want to try to avoid personally?

00:34:19:27 – 00:35:24:10
Tanner Smith
Well. I think, you know, from the this is one of the biggest things that I think there’s so many things out there that it’s like, you know, you see all these diets, it’s like, OK, you need more fat, let’s go with the keto diet, you need to eat more protein. You know, you got all these different diets that are promoting one specific, you know, thing. And it’s like. If you’re an athlete, you’re going to need a lot more protein, if you’re doing like endurance type of things, you’re going to need more carbohydrates on top of that. So I would say the regular day to day person, you know, even then, it’s even still complicated because everybody’s body’s different. Everybody metabolizes things differently. I mean, there’s just because I’m interested in this kind of stuff. There’s this website, a company called Genopalate, and now you give him a DNA test and they’ll tell you, you know, what types of things you metabolize better than others based on your genes and how much of that is 100% backed by, you know, the data and research they’ve done? I don’t know 100%, but there is some genetic linkages to a lot of these different things.

00:35:24:10 – 00:36:40:21
Tanner Smith
My body, structure requires more protein than probably the average structure. That’s just my genetic build up of muscle and everything like that. So, um. You know, it’s I don’t I think the best diet you can do is you have to choose what you like to eat. If you deprive yourself of what you like, then you’re going to be miserable and you’re not going to stick with that diet for very long. So I always think of people like, you know, I have a lot of friends that are into the weightlifting and bodybuilding, and they do competitions and they do their cheat meals and things like that. And you know, if that’s what gets you through living a whole week of just really good, strong diet and then you know, you have your cheat meal once a week or whatever. I mean, that’s one way to do it or my thing is I try to figure out how I can just balance things in general, so I try to eat really healthy or at least the best I can because trust me, I like I like other foods that are not so healthy. But, you know, instead of having like five cookies at night, I’ll be like, I can have my, you know, one thing that I love, which is one cookie and I’ll call it a day with one cookie, but I don’t do it by email. So I think it’s better to be able to have that self-control to say I can have one cookie and call it a day.

00:36:42:03 – 00:36:42:23
Brad Singletary
It’s interesting.

00:36:42:24 – 00:38:07:07
Gavin Hillman
You know, for me that that balanced approach is has been successful. I’ve never been very strict on I have to eat only this and not this, because that tends to lead you up to fail because we all know it. You know, why deprive yourself of foods that are available or you’re meeting with your family and there’s cookies or cake or something involved and you don’t want to have that guilt or anything like that? Or I can eat this or I’m going to, you know, destroy my diet. And so, yeah, I mean, I enjoy those things. But like you said, the majority of my diet I know on my before I’m eating breakfast, lunch, dinner, you know, snacks, things like that I know are typically good foods or healthy foods, things that I’m trying to be intentional about eating or preparing to eat. And so I’m not trying to, you know, preparing. I guess that’s where I’m going with that is being intentional about what I’m eating. I’m not trying to guess where I’m going to be eating or, you know, you go out for the day and you think, I don’t know where I’m going to go. And so you end up getting fast food or things like that, and then you end up doing that every single day. I mean, those those calories and that that type of food adds up. And so I think trying to figure out of planning out ahead or at least having an idea of what you’re going to be eating on a day to day basis and trying to make the majority of that food good, nutritious food, then you can balance out with the other stuff.

00:38:09:10 – 00:39:21:10
Brad Singletary
So I am a still quite an unhealthy person, but at one time I weighed 426 pounds. I had actually had weight loss surgery and at my best at my at my best I think I I think I’d lost about 165 pounds. But in some of the preparation for that, you had to go to nutrition classes and different things. And one of the things they mentioned was you’ve got to stop eating for entertainment. When I think about these elite athletes here, we’re we’re you’re talking about. You’re considering what this is doing to the machine, not just this will be fun. This will be fun and I know you do that sound like I think Tanner, if it’s OK, if I say your Instagram handle is donuts and run, and that seems like a part of your sort of, you know, identity like, I’m going to run and then I’ll have a donut. And that’s a cool way to kind of balance some of that out. But if your daily eating whatever sounds good or whatever, it’s entertainment, does that make sense? Don’t eat for entertainment. I think that’s part of our culture. You know, think about everything is connected to food and the and the just how fun can we make food? And that’s where we maybe get into problems sometimes.

00:39:21:19 – 00:39:34:17
Gavin Hillman
Right. And are you eating because you’re bored or eating because you’re in the emotional state or something like that and in your right? I mean, when you’re associating foods with those, you know, those type of mental states, then you can become dangerous.

00:39:35:12 – 00:40:50:22
Tanner Smith
Yeah, I mean, I think and you know, it’s such a tricky thing because people give food just such a negative thing, you know, especially lately, it seems like food is just, you know, so many negative things about food. And then people have all these, you know, bad relationships with food. I think food should be fun to some extent. It’s just it’s just a matter of you being able to figure out how to control that. And that’s just with anything. And so I mean. We go to, you know, I love going out to dinner and checking out a new restaurant when I go, I’m like, you know, if I’m going to go to the restaurant, I’m going to try everything on the menu and see what this restaurant’s all about. And now, you know, you got Instagram and all these other things to advertise all these places and see what they have to offer. So I think in our culture too, you know, we’re we’re a type of people that we like to go out and meet up with friends and, you know, go out to eat and share the experience with people and stuff. So I think that food needs to be fun. It’s just a matter of you figuring out how to control that, so yeah, we don’t have to be. Maybe once every day type of fun isn’t a good thing, but you know, maybe a once a month say, Hey, you know, I’m going to go check out this new restaurant this month and you’ll meet up with some friends and go, Have fun.

00:40:51:23 – 00:42:05:27
Brad Singletary
I’m guessing you’re not seeing people in the emergency room who eat healthy all month, and they went out one time and had some pizza. Now they’re all jacked up. This is the chronic, you know, the person who’s just chronically choosing the worst kinds of things. So, yeah, we don’t have to demonize the donor. We don’t have to demonize food, but to handle it with some mindfulness and some care and some intention about it, that seems to be what makes the difference. What about water? So I will admit something. I am 35 days now sober from Monster Energy. I was drinking five of those a day that I think I calculated about 700 milligrams of caffeine a day. And I’m lucky to be sitting here because I did that for years and years and years. I even remember I went to I was out on a camping trip with Tanner’s brother here and some of the kids in our neighborhood for a scouting event, and I had to have an ice chest with some monster energy or I didn’t think I could function. And anyway, so I just quit that I’ve been drinking mostly water. I have a little sparkling water here with me now, but talk about the value of hydration and what that does if you are not properly hydrated.

00:42:07:25 – 00:42:50:09
Gavin Hillman
Yeah. I mean, with water comes out, you just have to drink water. I mean, people, I get a lot of excuses of people. I don’t like the taste, you know, the water stale, you know, a lot of reasons why they don’t drink water. And the interesting thing about thing about that is, you know, water is one of the characteristics of our of our biological makeup. I mean, it’s you have NASA that has spent billions of dollars of creating and developing equipment to go scour the cosmos to find planets with water. Right, right. And here we have water right here like, we need water. We need to drink it. And people for some reason have created this aversion to drinking water. They they have to oh, well, there’s water in soda or there’s water and energy drinks and there’s water and coffee and…

00:42:50:11 – 00:42:51:19
Brad Singletary
Water and beer. What do you mean?

00:42:51:24 – 00:43:13:03
Gavin Hillman
Beer? I drink that and you know, in in that instance, like, I just it just boggles my mind. Like, your body needs water, your body needs to be hydrate. It’s one of the most overlooked, I think functions to our everyday health that people don’t think about, like we just need to drink water. So my advice on that is just drink some damn water.

00:43:13:03 – 00:43:14:13
Brad Singletary
Right? Yeah.

00:43:15:07 – 00:43:42:22
Tanner Smith
Well, the funny thing is is, I mean, I’m not the best of drinking water. I think honestly, I drink water because my body recognize that recognizes the need for it, especially with, you know, running and cycling and things. But at the end of the day, you can drink too much water and that could end you up in the in the air too, because too much water unfortunately dilutes all of the other, you know, nutrients and everything in our body. So too much water is a bad thing. So one of the…

00:43:43:07 – 00:43:49:08
Gavin Hillman
When when you’re saying too much water, I mean, you have to have a lot of water, I mean that.

00:43:49:14 – 00:44:09:26
Tanner Smith
So the funny thing is, believe it or not, there is actually a lot of people that do endurance events, whether that’s a marathon or a cycling event or an Ironman or something like that. And they actually over hydrate and they end up in a medical tent because they drink too much and their their potassium is super low because they drink too much water, basically.

00:44:09:27 – 00:44:12:15
Gavin Hillman
I can see that, but let’s bring it down to the audience here.

00:44:12:20 – 00:44:14:27
Brad Singletary
Yeah. So how much are we talking like when?

00:44:15:06 – 00:44:40:18
Tanner Smith
And that’s kind of the point that I’m getting to. I mean, you hear about people saying, I need to drink two gallons of water because Tom Brady does that or he already has some crazy, you know, formula for why? And so the way that I think is about water is is and this is one of the things they kind of I’ve read about it within running and stuff is you should drink to thirst if you’re thirsty, drink some water. If you’re thirsty, you don’t need to stress out about drinking more water just to drink it.

00:44:41:15 – 00:46:02:16
Brad Singletary
Oh, that’s a good thought. When I moved to Vegas, I think this happened here in Vegas on the radio station here. I don’t know if it’s a syndicated program or whatever, but the WII was pretty, new WII, you know, the game console and they had this contest. It was called Wee for a WII and they sat there in the audience or they sat there in the studio and their drinking water, and whoever could drink the most water was going to win the WII. So we for a we like, how much can you pee or whatever? Anyway, the lady died because she drank so much water. And that’s one of the things that turned me into like, I guess you could be, you could overdo that. But recently, something I read was about cholesterol and the buildup in your arteries. So my dad, had he had a seven bypass heart surgery, so they bypass seven vessels or veins. I don’t know which one it is in his heart because there were some of were like 99% closed, 95% closed. And I read about that water. One of the reasons that happens is because you don’t have enough water and it’s just kind of build up and you can you can flush some of that with proper water. And I mean, my dad was a fan of buttermilk. And so I’m thinking. To me, I’m thinking of like I’m thinking of like paint, you know, paint thinner, you know, it’s going to thin the stuff. And so maybe water like thins thins your blood a little bit. So it’s not just tracking all this mud, you know, through your through your blood system.

00:46:02:17 – 00:47:06:10
Brad Singletary
I don’t know. I just I found the benefits from that recently. one of the things that made me look at that was. And some of my clients listen to this show, but I would have appointments with people all day and I would have to cancel like three or four in a row because I couldn’t stay awake, so I’m drinking. By that time in the morning, I would had two or three monster energy drinks and I couldn’t stay awake and I would have to cancel appointments. Sleep right here on this couch, take a nap, and I shouldn’t have had to do that. But once I started drinking water, I had like no more fatigue like that. It just helped me so much so, so water, obviously very important. Let’s talk about activity, physical activity, so what’s the role of movement in? Maintaining optimal health, obviously, these guys are sold on it themselves, but how important is intentional movement, not just you work a physical job, you’re on your feet all day, but like literally. Going out there to exercise?

00:47:07:15 – 00:47:34:28
Tanner Smith
I think the most important thing when it comes to exercise is if you’re going to make it a daily routine and make it a pattern in a lifestyles, you have to find out what you like to do. OK? If lifting if lifting weights is your thing that you love doing that, you’ll probably go do it three or four times a week. If you like to run, you’re going to go do it three or four times a week if it’s something that you don’t enjoy doing. I mean, you’re just setting yourself up to stop doing it after you just get burned out on it.

00:47:35:03 – 00:47:43:07
Brad Singletary
Now you hate yourself because you’re never doing it, but you have this idealized thing that you think is would be great. But you’re saying, do what you like to do.

00:47:44:01 – 00:48:12:16
Tanner Smith
If you like to swim. Go swim. You like to ride a bike, ride a bike. I mean, everybody’s body is different. And you know, I wish I could say everybody could be a runner, but it’s not always the easiest thing to do, especially on the body. So. And even somebody like me, I mean, you know, I run a race and my body takes time to recover from that because it does take a beating. But finding what you like, I think, is the most important thing to setting up yourself for a good, solid routine of doing it.

00:48:12:26 – 00:48:13:26
Brad Singletary
Well, that’s good advice.

00:48:14:16 – 00:50:07:16
Gavin Hillman
And when you say, how important is this movement? I’d say it’s vital. I mean, our body is designed to move. Our joints need movement. Our muscles need movement or connective tissues. Everything in there, you know, our heart needs to be elevated, needs to be taxed to have a good cardiovascular system and all those things. So our bodies need to move. And what I see on a day to day basis are people that have neglected movement and they don’t want to because for whatever reason, it’s hard or they heard they’re in pain. And when you neglect that movement, the body is that old “Use it or lose it”. If you don’t move your body, you’re going to lose it. I mean, we all think about, Oh, you know, I used to be able to do this. I used to be able to go out and play basketball or I used to be able to, you know, these things. But if you stop doing it for a long time, all of a sudden you can’t do it anymore. I went out, I was playing softball this couple of years ago and I hadn’t played softball in a long time, you know, and I thought, Oh yeah, I can just go out there and it’ll be just like the good old days, right? And it wasn’t. It was hard. You know, my my reaction time was off. My my ability to judge the fly balls and things like that was off because I hadn’t done that for a long time. And so our bodies are they need that movement on a consistent basis. Otherwise, it’s going to forget and it’s not going to be as optimal in a way of being able to do that movement again. And sometimes that movement becomes just our basic movement of things of, you know, getting up and being able to do our daily chores or our daily activities or whatever it may be. And so your body needs movement. That’s what you got to understand. I guess that’s my my big message is your body needs to be moved in one way or another. So like often we’re saying find a way that you enjoy moving your body and there’s a lot of different avenues. You can go about doing that, but you need to incorporate that into a healthy lifestyle.

00:50:09:07 – 00:51:13:06
Brad Singletary
Yes, so I have had a couple of knee surgeries and on one of them, I had an ACL reconstruction and I didn’t follow up on the physical therapy and I still have if you look at my my quad on this leg, it’s way smaller like this has been so, so long ago and because of, I don’t know maybe three months of of of less activity on that leg and and I don’t remember how long I was on crutches, not moving, but I didn’t do that. I didn’t continue the movement and that the atrophy, I think, is the word. It’s just it’s it’s still there. You could look at my you could look at me standing up and you could see that my left leg is just way smaller because I didn’t continue the movement. I’m also wondering, too, with like the elderly, when it comes to their bone density and stuff like that, does that is that affected by? A movement, I mean, I guess there’s a lot of factors, but the little old lady or a little old man who is not moving very much, does that make them even more vulnerable to bone breaks and stuff like that?

00:51:13:09 – 00:51:23:04
Gavin Hillman
Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, you get that, you know, osteoporotic individual and a lot of times that bone density has decreased because just a lack of load. Our body responds to load.

00:51:23:17 – 00:51:29:28
Brad Singletary
And so I like that. Well, no, no. It’s going to respond really well to mine. I got a big wide load here. But I mean.

00:51:29:28 – 00:51:56:21
Gavin Hillman
If if we give it a control load, you know, our body can accommodate to that and it can be. And so our bones are the same way. And, you know, by going out and running and lifting weights or do whatever it is, you’re putting weight bearing stress onto your bones, they’re going to become more dense. And so if you’re not doing that for a period of time that our bodies are going to react to that as well as it become less dense. And so you’re going to be a lot more susceptible to the breaks and things like that.

00:51:57:06 – 00:52:20:14
Brad Singletary
Oh my gosh, that’s that’s great. Our body responds to load. That’s such a cool idea. Like we have to. Put ourselves under some pressure under we have to. Absolutely blows my mind right there. Tanner thoughts on the healing power or the preventative nature of like how movement prevents us from having problems.

00:52:21:21 – 00:53:41:29
Tanner Smith
Well. You know, it’s a lot of buzz about Gavin has already talked about as far as preventing so. If you’re lifting weights or doing anything that’s, you know, weight bearing or resistance training or whatever it is, you’re you’re preventing the breakdown of muscle. Right? So as as you know, as we age, unfortunately, everybody deteriorates, and that’s one thing that we can’t control, but we can’t control how much exercise we do or what we do to kind of preserve that or decrease the rate at being at as far as things breaking down. So exercise is huge as far as preventing that, and it regulates a lot more things than just, you know, our muscles or our bones. There’s a lot of other hormones and different things related about related with when we exercise and so exercise is something we just I think we need to do. And in the definition of exercise is all how we want to put it. I mean, if walking around the block is exercise, you know, and you can label it that, I don’t really consider riding my bike as exercise I do it because I like doing it, and it’s it’s actually more of a hobby and fun. But then if it is, it’s exercise too. So.

00:53:43:11 – 00:54:31:20
Brad Singletary
I hear a lot of people saying I feel this way, too, that it’s easier for me to exercise if it’s a game, if I’m running round with my kids or I’m playing you in just a little like softball game, that’s I guess there’s not a ton of movement in softball or whatever, but versus like soccer or basketball but to compete with other people and have a if this is playing a game, a field game or an indoor court game or even, what are the old guys playing now the of. Or just whatever to kind of get to move a little bit? That’s seemed like what you said. If you enjoy it, you’re going to be more much more likely to do that. I’m curious about what you guys do for your own physical routines. I mean, what? How many miles you run and how much do you lift? Do you what is your typical when you’re doing well and you’re feeling good? What are you doing in a week or a day or a month?

00:54:33:04 – 00:54:38:16
Tanner Smith
So a lot of that depends on if I have an event on the calendar that I’m training for.

00:54:38:24 – 00:54:39:03
Brad Singletary
Mm-Hmm.

00:54:39:05 – 00:56:35:21
Tanner Smith
So. I actually signed up for events because that motivates me to continue on training one when, you know, there’s definitely a time after an event that you need to recover. Let the body heal that kind of thing from the training that you put it through. And that’s part of the strengthening processes is recovery and in, you know, rest. So it varies a lot depending on whether it’s a marathon. I’m training four or five K half marathon cycling race. It just kind of varies. But I think, you know, even when it’s that time after the race. I still have that need for consistency and just being like, I need to go out and do something today because, you know, you really they call this what they call it, marathon blues in the running world. And that’s this period of time where people take time off of running because they just ran a race and they’re just like, Man, what am I going to do with my life now? You know, I was running four or five, six times a week, and now here I am, you know, in this recovery phase of not running at all. And so they have this void that they’re like, I don’t know what to do with it. So we developed that consistency, you know, I think that’s the most important thing, whether it’s one mile, you know that you go for a walk or a jog or whatever, but doing that regularly is the most important thing. I don’t think it’s funny because I know people that they’re not that consistent. But they have this weekly mileage goal that they think they have to get to to be ready for a race. And so here they are, come, you know, Saturday, and they’re like, Oh man, I didn’t run all week long and I still got to get 20 miles this week. So then they end up running to ten mile runs. But. And that’s not the best way to do it. I mean, you think of 2:10 mile runs, and that’s I mean, that’s a pretty long run. But 20 miles in a week, if you just broke that up and you know, couple of four mile runs here and there, that’s much easier than a ten.

00:56:37:07 – 00:56:44:28
Brad Singletary
So are you running almost every day? He does five days a week or what’s your own a typical again average average weaker?

00:56:45:11 – 00:56:48:24
Tanner Smith
I would say I’m active, probably on average five days a week. OK.

00:56:49:22 – 00:56:57:13
Brad Singletary
And you’re do you do treadmill, running around the neighborhood? Go in the mountains. You want to be on hills. What’s your preferred or do you mix it up?

00:56:58:06 – 00:57:28:12
Tanner Smith
I think the body likes change in some ways, and so and the body adapts to whatever stimulus you give it. So if running on the same exact road, day in, day out, your body is going to adjust to that and it’s going to become easier and easier. And it can also cause problems at the same time. So mixing things up, so I do I do a variety of things. I ride my bike a couple of days a week. I run on the treadmill, you know, a day, a week or something like that, and then run a variety of different routes on the street as well when I’m running.

00:57:29:18 – 00:57:30:09
Brad Singletary
How about you, Gavin?

00:57:30:14 – 00:58:20:19
Gavin Hillman
I am a man of routine, OK? I get into routines and I am able to stick to routines, so yes, I am. I wake up at 4:20 every morning and leave the house. I’m walking into the gym at 5:00. I used to do a 15 minute warm up, you know, a run or so on the treadmill. And then about 30 minutes of lifting where I’ll do, I’ll do weights, and then I’m leaving the gym at 6:00 and heading out to work. And so I typically do that four days a week and then I’ll do one day of treadmill running, or I try to get a 30 minute run in at least a little over three miles. And then, you know, the weekends are my variable right now. Tanner and I are getting up early on Sunday mornings and running because we got to the rock and roll race.

00:58:20:20 – 00:58:24:00
Brad Singletary
Oh, is that December? That’s this month? Or when is that one?

00:58:24:13 – 00:58:25:21
Gavin Hillman
That one’s in February.

00:58:25:21 – 00:58:28:27
Brad Singletary
Oh, that’s not a. We used to do a Vegas one the rock and roll in Vegas in December.

00:58:28:27 – 00:58:31:29
Gavin Hillman
It used to be in November every year, but…

00:58:32:11 – 00:58:40:15
Brad Singletary
There’s this one here in town? You’re doing the rock and roll. Oh, nice. Vegas one. I’ve been to a couple of those events. Those are pretty cool. Yeah, rock and roll stuff.

00:58:40:19 – 00:58:45:15
Gavin Hillman
Yeah, yeah. Tanner’s he’s been doing them for I think a number of years or so. This will be my first year doing it.

00:58:46:12 – 00:59:32:25
Tanner Smith
Yeah, it’s a. And that’s the thing is, you know, some of these events, they they they give you a goal to set your mind to and to train for, which makes it a little bit easier to be motivated to get out the door and, you know, get moving. But then, you know, the events also the reward, as far as you know, this is the rock and roll event they put together. They have like rock bands set up, you know, throughout the course, like you turn a corner and then there’s a stage with some band playing some music and stuff. And I mean, if you want, you know, you can stop and watch for them and keep on your keep on with the chorus or whatever you want to do. And then they have like a big, huge concert before the race starts and stuff. So I mean, it’s a cool environment and experience, and if you can recruit people to do it with you, then you got someone to train with and it’s a little bit more exciting too.

00:59:33:19 – 01:00:30:24
Brad Singletary
That’s so awesome. So I went to a couple of those with my ex-wife. She’s I wouldn’t say a runner, but she did that just to challenge herself. She did the Nashville rock and roll and then the Vegas one. And I have to tell you, if you had ever been there, maybe just go to the race, even if you don’t know anyone or whatever, just if you go to that environment, you guys, if you want to kind of look into this whole idea of doing this thing, just go down there, just just watch the people. And it’s the most positive environment I’ve ever seen in my entire life, and I’ve been around some nice people. But man, that whole world of like fitness and the competitions, everybody’s just here and everybody, all the people in the race, they’re just digging in and they’re just pushing through, trying to get a record there. It’s amazing. The the atmosphere is just it’s electric with positivity and just hearing you talk about it. I got a little bit of goosebumps because I have some memories of that as a as an as a a observer, what do you call that spectator?

01:00:31:02 – 01:00:33:07
Gavin Hillman
Spectators can enjoy it.

01:00:33:07 – 01:00:40:14
Brad Singletary
Yeah, you get a buzz from just watching that stuff. But and then you’ve done some like Tough Mudders or some of those kind of I’m interested in those. Yeah.

01:00:40:15 – 01:02:13:03
Gavin Hillman
And you know, when you were what you were saying about that vibe, I remember that that first Tough Mudder, that was the one that we talked about earlier where I had the extreme cramping and all that. So it was hard. But I remember finishing that race and thinking, man, like as I thought about, you know, everything we just did, the thing that stood out my mind was it was like this utopian society where everyone was helping me like everyone was, was, you know, helping me get over walls or cheering me on or, you know, things like that. And it was like, you go to those things and there’s such a positive vibe. And I think that’s what it draws people out because you’re you’re doing something hard, you’re doing something and taxing like, I shouldn’t be enjoying this, right? I am. I’m putting myself through hell, you know, trying to run this marathon, but you’re enjoying every minute of it because of the of the people that are out there and because of the the vibe when I did the St George marathon a couple of years ago, you know that when you’re coming down off from the canyon and once you get to the last few miles you, that’s when you run into the town of St George. And all of a sudden the streets are lined with people. You know, kids and families out there with signs, you know, rooting you on and cheering you on. And I remember I got to a point in the race where I thought I was going to throw up. Like, I just I started feeling really ill. And then as I saw those all those kids there, you know, rooting me on, I thought, I can’t, I can’t now. I can’t do that in front of them. And it just gave me that motivation is OK. I got it’s got to keep going and I got to finish this thing out.

01:02:13:23 – 01:03:31:26
Brad Singletary
Dude. Yeah, that’s just he’s right about the crowd is just cheering for you. I mean, their person is there still an hour away from the finish line, but they’re cheering on you because they’re connecting with you. It’s just it’s that I think that might be a goal for myself is just to go to one of those events
in the next couple of months. Maybe I’ll go to one of the February. If you guys are doing it, maybe I’ll go and you have kids out there. It’s just fun. There’s always good food. And like you said, entertainment, I want to talk about the beginner, you know, couch potato guy like me. So I have, you know, earlier in my life. So I played college football. So I spent a lot of time training and doing weights and all kinds of exercise, and I was in much better shape, solid at 200 pounds, I felt good. But I’ve gotten so far away from that for the guy who’s not done much, you know, middle school was middle school, he was the last time he he really exercised. Where should he began? What can he do? Maybe one of the ideas Tanner is find something that you enjoy. But if a guy just wants to get moving and start, what would you recommend for, you know, 50 guy? He just 50 year old guy just quit smoking and he’s trying to preserve his health and he wants to incorporate some activity, some exercise. What would you say to that guy?

01:03:32:23 – 01:03:56:06
Tanner Smith
I mean, I think about all these like success stories of other people that even motivate and inspire me. And in for a lot of these people, it’s like, Hey, you know what? I made the goal today that instead of, you know, if you go get your, you know, morning coffee or whatever it is or you go, you know, you have like some kind of thing you like to do once a day. They’re like, you know what, instead of drive in my car, I’m going to walk to that point and I’m going to get that and then I’m going to walk home.

01:03:56:06 – 01:03:57:05
Brad Singletary
Walk to Starbucks.

01:03:57:05 – 01:04:19:07
Tanner Smith
There. Yeah. So you walk to Starbucks to get your drink and then you walk back. So I mean, it’s just making that small, small adjustment to your life and finding a way that’s motivating you to get out and move a little bit. So if you’re motivated that you got to have your Starbucks in the morning, you’re like, Hey, I definitely got you my Starbucks, how am I going to get there? I’m going to walk today. So you walk, you know.

01:04:19:12 – 01:04:29:08
Gavin Hillman
When you say small things? Or or am I going to drive around the parking lot for 20 minutes trying to find the closest spot to finally take one of those back lines and walk an extra 30 feet?

01:04:29:09 – 01:04:30:03
Brad Singletary
Oh, that’s awesome.

01:04:30:03 – 01:05:25:15
Tanner Smith
I mean, yeah, that’s that’s that’s why, you know, you hear about the people that are like, You know what? I’ve decided I’m no longer going to take the elevator, you know, work. I’m going to take the stairs from now on or exactly park in the back of the parking lot and walk to the front of the store and get a few extra steps. And so I think those are all places to start. Along with finding something you like to do and you know, your past medical history obviously will limit you to some extent to, you know, surgeries and things that you’ve had or, you know, some things are going to be easier than others to get involved with. But everything when it comes to exercising, whether it’s lifting weights, running, cycling or whatever it is, you have to start out in baby steps. And a lot of people get, you know, so amped and so jazzed about, Oh, I’m going to, you know, go out and run eight miles today and they haven’t ran, you know, in years. They do that eight miles and they’re like, Yeah, I can’t walk for days now. And it’s like, Well, you’re not going to go run tomorrow because you’re not you’re not going to be filling it anymore.

01:05:25:15 – 01:05:28:00
Brad Singletary
Overdo it early on, kind of thing.

01:05:28:01 – 01:05:43:26
Tanner Smith
Yeah. And you get in, you get burned out and things like that. So you really have to. I mean, this is life is a marathon. It’s a long race. You have to start out nice and slow and you’re just building up slowly up to a point where you want to be or, you know, whatever you’re training for

01:05:45:13 – 01:06:52:02
Gavin Hillman
Yeah, I would say, you know, what do you need to start with, I’d say first, you need to start with the goal, you know, what do you really want and figure that out? What were you wanting our viewers? You wanting to, you know, just improve how you feel? Are you wanting to improve how you look or are you wanting to improve your energy? You know, if you have that goal in mind, that’s going to make you feel a lot more likely to be successful with it. And then, you know, don’t be scared to go out there and find somebody to help you if you need to hire a trainer, if you need to find a running buddy. There’s a lot of weight in accountability. If we have somebody that we’re accountable to, that we’re reporting in with to make sure that we’re doing those things, we’re going to be a lot more successful. And if you’re not the also the benefit of, let’s say, hiring a trainer is if you’re not sure what to do, you can’t hurt yourself there. There are injuries. You can inquire and then that’s just going to set you back and discourage you. And so if you get somebody that you that is as qualified to be able to help you start, then they’re going to be able to point you in that right direction and prevent you from going out running that eight miles right off the bat and then never wanting to run again in your life because he has such a miserable experience.

01:06:53:08 – 01:08:42:08
Brad Singletary
That’s great. Yeah, I like that. So decide what you want to do. Find ways to increase your movement in your natural everyday life. Take the further parking spot. Maybe don’t take the elevator, take the stairs, walk to get your get your drink or find ways to increase your steps. So when COVID started, I had a gym membership. At the time I canceled it because I wasn’t going because you had to wear a mask in the gym and I said, All right, I don’t want to load up my garage with weights and equipment. It’s hard for me to, you know, pay for a fee to go to a place and I have to wear a mask to work out. I didn’t want to do that. Maybe those are just excuses, but I found this app that it was just like a bunch of bodyweight exercises. You know, air squats, dude. If you haven’t done anything, do 20 air squats and see how you feel tomorrow because you will be shocked that it’s going to be hard to sit down and take a dump because you’re so sore. If you haven’t had a lot of physical activity or, you know, push ups and sit ups and those kinds of things, really, there’s no excuse not to have more physical activity. If you say, I can’t afford a gym, I don’t want to go to the gym, it’s too early. We got too much going on in my life. I just think if you can be honest about the fact that you don’t want to do that, then you feel less guilty, but you can do it in your living room. Sometimes I don’t get home from work until. 11:00 at night, everyone’s asleep. I don’t want to be loud and doing anything, and I can sit in my living room and do this little routine where I’m doing, you know, a combination of push ups and all these different things that it leads you through. There’s an app, there’s a low cost, maybe trainer. There’s a program, there’s a class at your gym, at the rec center. They have stuff or you can walk around your neighborhood and every now and then pick it up and double time it with some jogging.

01:08:42:08 – 01:09:19:08
Brad Singletary
I just I just think if you’re trying to be healthier, you’ve got to decide what you want to do and start moving in some way or another. But I agree. Don’t overdo it. I don’t think you should overdo it. You’re going to get hurt. I’ve been that guy to where it’s like, Whoa, I can’t even move or I’ve ripped my shoulder. I was bench pressing too much. I like it. And now you’re not going to be in the gym because now you’re at physical therapy. So what are the things lead to failure men start stuff. They start a routine. They they try to begin. What about psychologically? You know what? What about our mood or our mental weakness?

01:09:20:27 – 01:10:05:16
Tanner Smith
I think I think the biggest, you know, and it’s like you were saying there’s 1,000,000 excuses you can come up with why you can’t do something and. The accountability, I think, is one of the most important things, so last night I went to that we we’ve been planning these these runs for a couple of guys that we know every Sunday morning. And so I’ve been sending out a text and saying, Hey, all right, we’re meeting up, you know, 6:00 a.m. or 6:30 or whatever on Sunday morning to go for a run. And then I’ve just kind of taken it upon myself to kind of send out this routine message to see who’s all going to show up or, you know, to kind of give people a reminder that, hey, we are going to meet up and go on this run. And last night, I went to the Foo Fighters concert.

01:10:06:00 – 01:10:06:17
Brad Singletary
All right.

01:10:06:23 – 01:10:35:24
Tanner Smith
And so, you know, the Foo Fighters play a strong concert and that went and I didn’t even get home till like 12:30. And but prior to that, I didn’t realize they were going to be playing till, you know, 12:30 at night. And so I had already made arrangements to meet up with Gavin and a couple other people in 6:00 a.m. and I was like, You know, I go home. I was like, Well. I’m I said I was going to be there, so I’m going to be there and, you know, I get there and nobody’s out there and I’m like wow.

01:10:36:29 – 01:10:42:01
Brad Singletary
All right, Gavin, you dog doing this right now. OK, let’s go. So.

01:10:42:04 – 01:10:57:00
Tanner Smith
So a couple of people, you know they did. They were there at the time we had planned on and I was like, All right, I’m going to give Gavin because he said, he’s going to be here. I might give him till 6:05. Sure enough, 6:05 Gavin’s right there. He’s like, Man, I was here at 5:58, but I had to go to the bathroom, so.

01:10:57:00 – 01:11:01:27
Gavin Hillman
I went back home and I was like, I can go back in and go to the bathroom quick.

01:11:02:04 – 01:11:56:21
Tanner Smith
But long story short, you know, I don’t think had I not had that accountability, the people that had made arrangements with, I probably would have been like, You know what? Much easier. Just sleep in, not go for a run. But because I had made those arrangements and somebody had to be accountable to, I was out there at 6:00 a.m., you know, getting a run in. And one thing that over the years that I’ve always. That I’ve come to realize is the only runs or cycle, you know, cycling rides that I regret are usually the ones that I don’t go on, like, I never like, look back and like, Man, I should have really slept in today and not gone on that run or anything. It’s like usually the ones that I sleep in. I’m like later on them, like I should’ve just like, got up and gone for that run. Like that was. That’s a weak excuse. So. Anyways.

01:11:57:14 – 01:11:58:10
Brad Singletary
Oh, that’s awesome.

01:11:59:04 – 01:12:22:21
Gavin Hillman
Yeah. You know, I think. You know, why do we fail? You know, there’s a lot of reasons of why we fail, but when it comes to activity, you know, boredom and again, just forgetting why you’re doing it. You know, for me, I like to be healthy because I like to know that I can go out and play with my kids at anytime. You know, I don’t have to. I know I’m not going to overtax. I can get down on the floor and and play around with them and the rest of.

01:12:22:21 – 01:12:22:24
Brad Singletary
The rest of the day

01:12:22:29 – 01:12:55:06
Gavin Hillman
Way back up. I can go out and throw a ball or go running. So those are those type of things, you know, they motivate me to stay active and to be routinely active. And so, again, just just going back and knowing what your goal is, you know, if you’re feeling discouraged or whatever the case may be or if distractions come about, or if you fall out of routine for a bit, just go back to, you know, why am I doing this? And that’s to have a better life and to be of stronger influence, not only in my life, but in the life of those around me.

01:12:56:21 – 01:13:18:21
Brad Singletary
So what drives you to compete? I mean, you’ve talked about some of these your hobbies in that you do these things, but why do a race, why pay money and travel to Boston? Why? I mean that that’s an obvious, you know, high level thing. But what makes you want to run the local marathons and stuff like that? Why not just jog in your neighborhood a little running group? And why do you want to join a competition?

01:13:20:11 – 01:14:50:05
Tanner Smith
It’s kind of like I was saying before, you know, paying the money and committing yourself to something. It raises the accountability level. You know, you can only put off training for a race for so long before you realize, well, I’m probably not going to run this race unless I actually started training. So at some point, you know, that’s going to click in your mind, you’re going to start moving or you’re just going to say, Well, there goes $100 or however much it costs to enter that race. But. For one of one of the things that kind of really sucked me into these events and Gavin’s ran the St George marathon, but it’s it’s amazing to be a part of something that’s much bigger than yourself. Like, you know, there’s a lot of you. I played high school sports and, you know, moving on from high school, I’ve always been, you know, into sports and competing and things like that. And you can’t ever go back and play high school baseball or football or basketball or anything like that. So it’s for someone that’s been there and experienced that. And I think that’s why a lot of people don’t continue on, you know, doing a lot of active things just because they’re like, the experience is never going to be the same as that high school sport or whatever. But I think in doing some of these events, like running, you bring some of that back and it’s being in the atmosphere of others that are competing and you know, you get that adrenaline kind of rush and it’s like you’re at the starting line and it’s like, Oh man, this is so amazing. I’m going to run so fast. And then you’ve got other people that are competitive and you’re like, I can run faster than them. But you know, and you don’t know that until the finish line.

01:14:50:05 – 01:15:48:16
Tanner Smith
But I think that that’s one of the big motivating factors. And it’s, you know, you get to the point of the Boston Marathon, which is even, you know, a bigger scale way in at the Boston Marathon. That’s one of the races where the professional runners that are actually sponsored and getting paid, they’re running the exact same course as you on that same day, and they’re starting a little bit before you. So, you know, it’s like going and playing baseball and you’re in your, you know, in the LA Dodgers Stadium, right? Yeah, I mean, it’s it’s it’s a pretty amazing experience and that was like a long term goal for me was I ran one marathon. I was like, You know what? I think someday I could get to Boston, and I thought it was going to be an easy thing to get to, you know, several years and several marathons down the road, I finally qualified. But it’s it was amazing to be able to do that and it’s cool to be a part of something much bigger. And it’s it’s motivating and drives me to want to go back and do it again. And it’s just fun.

01:15:48:17 – 01:15:54:16
Brad Singletary
Love it. How about you, Gavin? Why do you compete and sign up for things is similar to what the trainer said or you have?

01:15:54:22 – 01:17:06:07
Gavin Hillman
I mean, you know, Tanner, he’s running in a lot more competitive level than I am. You know, I’m more of your your hobby athlete. You know, I’ve always been active. You know, running is something that’s new to me. I’ve never been an endurance athlete at all. That was more my wife. She was she was always doing that. Me, I was, you know, I’d go into the gym and I’d lift and I do those things because I like to feel good and I like to know I could take my shirt off at the beach and ride halfway. Decent, right? And then she was the one she was, actually. She’s like, Hey, I signed you up for the St George Marathon. This was like an April, right? And she was like, Well, one says she’s like, It’s an October. I sign you up. We paid the money OK. And then I started thinking about I said, You know what? This is going to be different becomes something completely different for me. I’m not I’m I’m not used to that type of athleticism or that type of training. And so for me, it was the challenge be OK and I challenge myself to do this. Can I commit to doing this? And Tanner actually gave me a training program to follow. And by the end of that training program, I was able to say I was 100% compliant to that training program. I ran every mile that he said to run that race.

01:17:06:08 – 01:17:06:28
Brad Singletary
Wow. Nice.

01:17:07:09 – 01:17:33:10
Gavin Hillman
And there was an element of feeling good, right? So when I went to to do that race and then you talk about, you know, we already talked about the excitement of being at those races and that was my first one. And that was all true. I mean, it was exciting being there and to know that I had put forth the effort, I had done everything that I could do, everything that I was instructed to do, everything that I felt I could do. And I was I was there to run my best race. And that feels good. It just feels good to to challenge yourself in such a way and to be able to achieve those goals.

01:17:34:08 – 01:18:55:29
Brad Singletary
That is super inspiring, man, I love that you’re one of the things we talk about in this whole in this whole program, our whole larger, broader message is that men need men. You need a tribe of people. You need someone who’s further along in whatever you’re doing in your professional training. You had to learn, you had to shadow the other, you know, the other folks and you had to do your rotations and whatever you call that. And in here you’re saying, I’ve leaned on someone who’s been there before and done this and I’ve and I’m using the power of a social, you know, social pressure or the accountability that comes from other people. I’m leading out in a in a little running group. I’m challenging myself up along with these other people in these races. It’s just beautiful what you guys are doing, man. I’m just super inspired by by what I’m hearing from you. I want to talk about like medical treatments and supplements and stuff like that. So men are kind of, you know, it’s the joking thing about men never go to the doctor and so forth. What? Why is it that men are just so stereotypically not interested in medical care going to the doctor? Looking at things or taking their medicine or being compliant with something that they may need, you know, Old Guy, maybe he’s got high cholesterol or high blood pressure and he’s not really good or he’s type to. What in the world is the reason for that, would you say?

01:18:57:10 – 01:20:51:23
Tanner Smith
I think there’s a pride aspect involved with that. You know, men like to take care of themselves and take care of their family and everyone else. And so it’s like, you know, maybe it’s a humbling experience to say, Well, I’ve got to go get help from somebody else. And you know, I’m a medical provider and. Even for me to keep up with seeing the doctor, I mean, my wife and I have made it a goal that we’re going to see the doctor once a year. I mean, that’s what our insurance covers. So we’re like, you know, we should at least do that at the minimum, right? Right. So we do that once a year and we get our routine blood tests and. I have hypothyroidism, so I have to take so I have to take levothyroxine, it was just one of those weird things that, you know, my my doctor decided to run some blood tests and he was like, Hey, guess what? Your thyroid is a little bit low. So we kind of watched it for a watch for a while and it was continued being, you know, low and so like, well, nothing you can do about that, but take a pill unfortunately, there’s not like a reverse on on hypothyroidism. I wish there was. But you know, taking one pill a day is it’s a lot of work. It really is like for someone that doesn’t take pills like one pill. A day is a lot of work, and it’s easy to forget taking that one time dose. So I think about a lot of these patients that I have in there, like on multiple medications. I’m like, I just can’t imagine the the stress of having to remember all of these medications. And so going back to the importance of a doctor, I mean, I think it is very important to go see a doctor because it’s kind of like taking your car in for an oil change. Like we all need to see somebody that can kind of look at us from a different angle and say, You know what you need, you know, a couple of little tweaks here and there. And if you can keep up with those and you know you’re going to keep yourself out of the auto body shop or, you know, getting some major overhaul down the road.

01:20:52:06 – 01:21:36:07
Tanner Smith
So I think a pride thing is the big part. I mean, and there’s probably a fear aspect to, you know, it’s like, I don’t want to go to the doctor and find out that I actually do have problems that I got to deal with, too. So I mean, I think there’s a lot of things that keep people out. But honestly, if you think about it as more of a maintenance kind of thing like we all need maintenance, our car needs maintenance and our bike needs maintenance, whatever it is, everything needs maintenance in at least a once in a once a year type of thing, I think is is pretty reasonable to do and getting some routine blood tests because honestly, if you catch a lot of the medical conditions early on in life and you get started in the right direction, you can prevent much worse problems down the road.

01:21:36:15 – 01:22:07:20
Brad Singletary
So interesting when you talk about the thyroid thing may. So my wife has had some challenges over the last few years, and most of that looked like psych shit. OK, so there was mood and anger and these different things, and she went to doctors, went to therapy, did some it took some antidepressants and different things, and none of that was working. She gets bloodwork. She got zero thyroid function. She starts on the levothyroxine or whatever that is and changed her world completely. Completely healthy, normal person. We have a happy life again.

01:22:09:19 – 01:22:11:29
Gavin Hillman
It’s crazy, right? What medication? But you would you?

01:22:12:00 – 01:22:50:26
Brad Singletary
She would have never known that that was even a thing. I mean, he would. Who even know? We did not know what even the thyroid it does. And so when she got some of that squared away, it’s amazing. And you would have never known without blood working. And that’s why all these different approaches will. Let’s try this or this is a spiritual problem, or, oh, this is because we’re not eating well. Let me let me change what I’m eating and all these different approaches. None of it worked till we got the chemistry right. And that’s that’s a great example there about the bloodwork. It’s important. So any thoughts on that about men and seeing doctors and going to the physical therapy or the whatever treatment they need and they refused to do it?

01:22:51:03 – 01:23:46:24
Gavin Hillman
Yeah. Well, I think it’s just priority, right? I mean, we got to at some point prioritize ourselves. You know, we’re always trying to take care of other things, taking care of our families, our jobs, things like that. And we neglect ourselves so much. And so being open and understanding and willing to take care of yourself on a health basis, making sure that you’re doing the things you need to do, go into the places you need to go, see the people, you need to see them, keep yourself healthy. You know, with men, I think we often time accept those stereotypes, right? I mean, for me, growing up, you saw Al Bundy sitting on the couch with his hands in his pants or Homer Simpson fat and lazy and just eating donuts all the time. And we see those things like, Oh, well, that’s how men are right. We’re we’re we’re naturally disgusting, sloppy, sloppy, unhealthy individuals or whatever the case may be. And it’s like, No, I mean, we we can be much more than that. And so understanding the our potential as as healthy individuals and then prioritizing that.

01:23:47:14 – 01:25:26:22
Brad Singletary
When I think about something that motivates me for health, it’s I saw something one point it said, we need to live how we want our children to live. And I see certain things with my kids. My oldest is 18 now. You know, he’s he’s he’s got a little, got a little gut you know, and he’s kind of just doesn’t really have the healthiest of habits. And I think, how can I best motivate him is not going to be lecturing him. It’s not going to be telling him. I haven’t had enough of that cereal or whatever it is or don’t you want to get moving or it’s to show him and be an example and be a model of the thing that I want him to do because I want him to be happy hour. I’m long past being able to go to the go to the beach and take my shirt off. I haven’t swam in 15 years because of that. No, I’m just kidding. But I want him to be able to do. That I want him to be able to be attractive and have a good mate, and someone was talking to me about attractiveness and what’s attractive is the healthy human form. You know, that’s that’s what we find attractive is a person who’s healthy and when we’re not healthy, that’s you take any healthy human being and they’re going to be attractive. It’s like it’s wired into us to see other people. And when we see someone who’s attractive and if we could say healthy and say it’s the same thing, we also assume that that means they’re intelligent and capable and whatever. So there’s so many layers of our life that are affected by our physical health. Talk about supplements and stuff like that. So, you know, vitamins and. It’s things to add, in addition to just food. What are your thoughts on that stuff in general? Are there any dangers associated with that?

01:25:27:22 – 01:27:59:04
Tanner Smith
Well, I mean, not being in the medical field and just, you know, being an athlete and things like that. Supplements are like, I’m always like, what edge can I find either perform better or recover from an injury faster or anything like that? And I and I’ll say that. The one supplement, if you are really going to take a supplement to enhance your well-being in some form, would be protein. And that doesn’t mean you have to go out and buy protein bars or protein powder. I mean, like Gavin was saying, you can just increase your protein by eating foods that are high in protein. But. Our body structure does kind of determine that to some extent and in our activity level in. I don’t know exact numbers, but I want to say it’s like somewhere between like 1.5 kg and two kilograms of weight per gram of protein per day or something like that. And the thing is is, you know, protein such a hyped thing. But the one of the things most people don’t understand about protein is our body can only metabolize so much protein at one sitting. So say, for example, I’m supposed to consume 90 grams of protein in a day. That doesn’t mean I need to go out and, you know, eat a 90 gram protein steak or whatever at one sitting. My body is going to take maybe around somewhere between 20 and 30 grams and actually utilize it the correct way. The other 60 grams are probably just going to go straight to my belly, like it’s not going to digest it and metabolize it the way that I’m intending to do that. So with every supplement, you have to really know how the body takes it in, metabolizes it, how it how it’s used all those things. So proteins good. It’s studied. Every athlete you know in the world probably has some formula of them getting the right amount of protein because it does actually work in in. In order to build muscle, you have to have protein. But, you know, supplements or whatever. I think if you’re supposed to be on a medication, you’d be surprised how many people come to the E.R. and it’s like he got diabetes or you got hypertension. When was the last time you took your medication? They’re not taking their medications for whatever reason. So maybe if you have one of those conditions just being compliant with your medication, taking it every day is one of your supplements. Do you really need to be on top of and that’s going to enhance your health overall just by being compliant with those medications.

01:27:59:27 – 01:28:06:03
Brad Singletary
that’s awesome. Your thoughts on that kind of stuff supplementation, Gavin?

01:28:06:13 – 01:29:14:06
Gavin Hillman
As with supplements, you know, they’re just the other supplements. So. So I would say, you know, I’ve talked to people or they become so reliant on supplements, you know, overreliance on them. Just remember that the majority of your nutrition can and will be met through your through your diet and and whatnot. But if you if you’re looking at supplements, I don’t use a whole lot of supplements like Tanner said. I do get, you know, the Costco protein shakes and I’ll have one of those at work because, you know, I’m busy and mid-morning. I need a quick snack. They’re they’re quick and easy, and so they do provide some convenience there and. But when you’re looking at, you know, you can get there, just so many supplements out there. I mean, it’s a multibillion dollar industry. And you can easily become over consumed with getting every single type of supplement out there thinking that you’re going to be more healthy or taking all of those and you don’t necessarily need to. I mean, I would say don’t become too overreliant or too hyper focused on supplements. You know, look at what you’re eating first. And if there’s things that you feel like you need to add in there, you know you can add them in there as you need it.

01:29:15:04 – 01:29:38:27
Brad Singletary
I was taking a mouthful of gummies recently gummy the gummy vitamins and it was, you know, all these vitamin D and zinc and multivitamin, and I added up the sugar. It was like 30 grams of sugar for all these vitamins. Like, like eight teaspoons of sugar in my vitamins, like so. I probably need to get back to traditional vitamins. Maybe not so much of the gummies.

01:29:38:27 – 01:29:55:15
Gavin Hillman
Yeah, we took our kids to the dentist a little bit ago, and that’s one thing that our pediatric dentist asked. He’s like, Well, does he take or do they take vitamins because all the kid’s vitamins are gummy vitamins? He was like, Yeah, there’s so much sugar in those that because a lot of tooth decay.

01:29:55:18 – 01:29:56:12
Brad Singletary
Oh my goodness.

01:29:56:12 – 01:30:02:09
Gavin Hillman
You are giving your kids these vitamins, thinking you’re being healthy for them and just promoting the cavities and the writing of their teeth.

01:30:02:22 – 01:30:25:08
Brad Singletary
Oh man. So what about rest guys, so sleep and just general risk? You’ve talked a little bit tanner about recovery and rest, you know, after a big race, you’ve just done 26 miles and things like that. But what about daily routines and with rest and sleep? And in that kind of thing, we talked about exercise diet. What about rest?

01:30:25:15 – 01:31:18:02
Gavin Hillman
You need to rest, our body needs sleep, it needs recovery and it needs a you know, daily sleep, unfortunately, something I struggle with. I can I can go days where I just do not sleep well, and it can be super frustrating. And so for all those guys out there that say, Man, I have a hard time sleeping, like, I totally sympathize with that and understand that. But it is important we need to make rest again part of our healthy lifestyle. And if that means going out and getting a better mattress, like spend the money on a mattress, think of all the stupid things that we spend our money on it. A good mattress. The first several years of being married, we slept on futons and just garbage mattresses. And remember when I graduated, you know, from physical therapy, I said, that is going to be my gift to myself, and I went out and bought a nice.

01:31:18:02 – 01:31:19:01
Brad Singletary
Nice mattress like a.

01:31:19:01 – 01:31:41:08
Gavin Hillman
Proper yeah. And it made a world of difference, like it was super comfortable. And I do. I mean, I I slept better on that than I did with sleep and other stuff. So yeah, I mean, invest in a good mattress, invest in a good pillow. Be aware of your positioning at night. You know what’s going on because there’s a lot of those type of factors that you can tweak to help yourself to be able to sleep better.

01:31:42:19 – 01:32:16:07
Brad Singletary
Wow. I would say just from mental health, that’s one of my first questions for people is like, tell me about your sleep, how much is sleeping? You stay asleep. Are you waking up a lot? It’s just critical with the mental health side of things. But so you’re talking about the bed itself. I mean, we spend a we’re supposed to spend a third of our lives in it, right? So it might as well be something that’s comfortable and promotes good sleep, even the pillow. And I’m just thinking of the typical guy, you know, who buys a pillow. He’s got his favorite pillow and he keeps it for 30 years. Like, you might need to be willing to take that stuff, isn’t it? Yeah. How about you, Tanner sleep?

01:32:16:17 – 01:32:22:03
Tanner Smith
You know, you asked me about sleep, and honestly, I probably have some other worse sleep habits than anyone.

01:32:23:00 – 01:32:23:29
Brad Singletary
The graveyard shift.

01:32:23:29 – 01:34:27:22
Tanner Smith
Yeah, exactly. So, you know, half the week I’m sleeping during the day and the other half of the week I’m sleeping at night. So I have a very complicated sleep schedule, but. I think the only way that I’ve really been able to manage this, you know, half sleeping during the day I have sleeping during the week is I’ve found a way to make some kind of consistency. So whether I’m getting off an overnight shift. I get home in the morning. I try to go to sleep at the same time and wake up about the same time. And when I’m off of, you know, working for a couple of days and I’m trying to do a normal routine, I try to make it a habit of going to sleep at the same time, waking up at the same time, regardless of, you know, what went on that day or whatever. And I think the body has a clock that it follows and it’s like, Hey, it’s that time, let’s go to sleep when we live this crazy lifestyle. You know, we don’t really have a set time. You know, I think there’s a lot of people out that are like, Oh man, this show’s on tonight. I must stay up late and watch this show because it’s on, you know, and so they’re not following, you know, a consistent pattern day in day out of going to sleep at the same time because there’s all these other little factors that like early warning this, this is more important. So prioritize priority if you really prioritize your sleep and you make it a consistent pattern, I think that will really help you get better sleep and more meaningful sleep in. Part of the reason why I think that, you know, I can do what I do, whether that’s working night shifts or running races or whatever, is because I do put some priority into sleep. Like if you don’t give that to your body, then you can’t recover and you can’t be performing or doing things at that level. And I think I think sleep is really something that’s a problem for lots and lots of people. And that’s why, you know, there’s Starbucks on every corner. There’s there’s 1,000,000 different energy drinks is because people aren’t prioritizing sleep, and that’s because there’s so many cool things that you could be doing. Why would you want to sleep?

01:34:27:22 – 01:34:28:10
Brad Singletary
Right, right?

01:34:28:18 – 01:35:12:09
Tanner Smith
So let’s just do another energy drink or a little more coffee, and I’ll just keep going. Yeah. And that leads into other bad habits, too. I mean, you know, you’re up at Mill in the middle of the night when your body probably should be sleeping. And here you are. I’m like, Hey, I’m hungry, man, I just eat dinner like three or four hours ago. It’s time for another meal. So then you’re eating and then you’re like, Well, now I’m going to go to bed because it’s midnight and I’m tired, so. You’d be surprised if you if you could just get a really consistent sleep pattern, whether that’s sleep, if you have to work night shift and you sleep during the day or, you know, you don’t have to do that, then just being consistent, I think will really affect how good of quality of sleep you actually get because your body will recognize that pattern and it will be ready to go to bed when it’s time to go to bed.

01:35:12:28 – 01:35:49:07
Gavin Hillman
And you talk about just rest and recovery. I mean, that’s not just sleep as well. I mean, it’s not good to exercise seven days a week. You know, our body needs some time to recover. So we’re talking about doing all these activities and stuff, and we got to remember it’s the recovery aspect is just as important to a proper training routine as as the training itself. And so realizing that that recovery doesn’t just have to be sleep, I mean, yes, we need to sleep like we talked about. But having some time of just resting, you know, whatever that resting looks like for you is going to be advantageous for you.

01:35:50:06 – 01:36:18:19
Brad Singletary
That’s awesome. I got in that habit you were talking about Tanner of. So I would I’m drinking five Monster Energy drinks a day then that I’m so wired at night I couldn’t sleep, but then knowing I needed to sleep, I’m taking Benadryl at night so I could go to sleep. So then it. Then two wasn’t enough so that I was taking three Benadryl at night and then I was so groggy in the morning. Like, I have to get up and it’s like I have to function, and now I need to now I need caffeine. And it was just an insane level of just chasing this.

01:36:19:00 – 01:36:21:11
Gavin Hillman
It’s a vicious cycle.

01:36:21:11 – 01:37:03:02
Brad Singletary
So ugly, man. And whenever I have had some injuries with activity and stuff like that, a lot of that had to do with overdoing it, not resting after the event or whatever it was. And so rest is just so important. I want to wrap this up here, you guys. I really appreciate you being here, but I wonder if you could just close us out here with. The benefits of this kind of living outside of the physical, so your healthy guys, you look great, you’re running marathons and doing all these cool races and these events and you’re able to show up. Physically and do the things that you want to do. How do these principles help you in other areas of your life?

01:37:04:19 – 01:39:29:08
Tanner Smith
I would say. Running or cycling, whatever it is, one of the big things is it’s an outlet for stress for me. Like, you know, working in the E.R. is a very stressful thing and I don’t think that’s the most stressful thing. I mean, whether it’s you’re stressed out because you know, your kids are crazy and whining and whatever. You know, you’ve got other things going on that are stressing you out. I love just being able to say, You know what? I’m going to go out for a six mile run, leave my phone at home. I can’t take any music, and I’m just going to think and reflect and, you know, clear my mind and just, you know, get away from everything. And and and that’s what I think that’s probably one of the motivators, too, that keeps me doing this on a regular basis. It’s my like alone moment. I think everybody probably needs some alone moment, and I’ve just turned that alone moment into my like, you know, exercise routine, I guess you could say, but it’s an outlet for stress, and it’s proven that exercise does relieve stress, too. So I mean, I think there’s a lot of benefits in that. But, you know, not even just that being part of a running community or cycling community, you know, the camaraderie that’s part of that. And, you know, meeting people and socializing. And then you meet people that have the same goals as you and the next thing you know, you’re falling on following them on Instagram or Facebook, and they’re motivating you because they’re running and you’re like, Oh, honey, do you know, sign up for this race and do with them because I want to see him again or, you know, and and I try to tell people that, you know, can I run fast? Yeah, I mean, I think I can run fast. There’s people that are much faster than me, but running, you know? Trying to get people out to go run isn’t necessarily about, hey, I’m trying to get you to run as fast as me or whatever, I think just getting people out and saying, Hey, let’s go hang out for a minute. You know, if we decide we want to kind of go at a different pace, that’s great. But hey, we met up. We talked, we exchanged a few words. We got to socialize for a bit and do something we wouldn’t have probably done otherwise, but we had a reason to meet up.So I think the social aspect of it is is meaningful and people need to socialize. I think that’s one thing that COVID has proven is, you know, how many people are like I haven’t seen my friend in years or can’t do this anymore because of COVID. So getting out and just meeting up and socializing is an important interaction that we have to have in life.

01:39:30:10 – 01:40:11:19
Brad Singletary
Dude, there’s so much there. You’re talking about stress relief, some solitude when you were saying you’re stressed because your kids are crazy and screaming. And remember, he’s my two doors down neighbor. He’s probably heard that at my house. But yeah, you get away. Nobody wants to hang out with you when you’re running. So it’s a way to get away from everybody. But in addition to solitude, also socializing, doing this with other people, accountability you mentioned, I’m guessing you get contacts all over the world because of running, right? You know, I mean, you’re meeting with people at these races in different parts of the country. And how about you, Gavin? What in addition to the health benefits? What other positives do you see coming out of trying to live this way?

01:40:11:28 – 01:42:05:05
Gavin Hillman
Well, it’s a piece of the puzzle. I mean, like I said, I mean, science has shown the studies have shown improved mental health. It reduces depression and it improves your sex life. It improves your relationships. It decreases your chance for so many different diseases and dysfunctions and things like that. And so it’s an important part of that puzzle for me of trying to live a well-rounded life. And so for me, it’s just, you know, it’s it’s something that, like I said, I’m a I’m a guy routine and so it’s been part of my life since I was a teenager. And it’s something that I’ll continue to have it a part of my life because I do believe in it and I believe that it’s it’s help me be successful in other ways. And it’s just nice, you know, when I go into a room with a patient and before I even introduce myself, they say, Oh, you must be the physical therapist. All right, I mean, it feels good to know that I look the part of my profession and then knowing like, you know, being a father, you know, I have that influence on my kids, you know, like that. I know that I’m modeling the behavior that that I believe will help them as they’re growing. And they can see, Hey, Dad got up early and did this, and I remember dad eating this or that, you know, you know, talking to us about what what we should do or shouldn’t do. You know, and I think that’s important, you know, as as men, we need to be good fathers. And that to me, that’s a that’s an important aspect of of my fatherhood with my kids. And so, you know, you ask, what else does it do? It’s just it’s a part of that, that full puzzle of trying to be an all around alpha guy and being a good guy and being a productive individual.

01:42:06:02 – 01:43:52:00
Brad Singletary
You mentioned mental health. I was thinking about this the other day. It makes me want to research it a little bit, but. Somebody was talking about how so much of depression and anxiety the onset of that is in adolescence, and I’m thinking what else correlates with that? We think about that is the hormonal changes and whatever comes along with teens. But I think another correlating factor is that’s when you stop running and playing. So one of the parts that my kids go to Anthem Hills. It’s right by middle school. And when my kids are there, they’re running 100% of the time. They’re they’re running around in the park. So the kids get out of the middle school and they come over and they’re just kind of standing around right there standing around chitchat. They’re not doing the things that they did in elementary school and when they were younger. And it’s fascinating to me to think about that. Just maybe this week occurred to me that so many of our problems begin when we stop running and playing. And I know this is serious business for you. When you’re paying money and traveling the country to go in a race and all this stuff, you’re it’s an investment in your health and whatever. But it’s also clear you’re not doing this if you’re not having fun with it. And my guess is mentally and with your own stress and so forth. Also, the sexual benefits of that. I can say this because I was and I’m still obese. I was once I think they would call it super morbidly obese. But yeah, when I see someone like that, I’m thinking, Oh, this poor dude. You get no booty. And if he does it for sure. It’s quite awkward. And so yes, man, you get healthier and you have some discipline over your body and you can get some control and feel better and have some stamina that helps in your job and that helps in the bedroom.

01:43:52:00 – 01:45:17:08
Brad Singletary
And that helps with your stress and with your families, you guys, I’m just very impressed, not just for what you’ve talked about here. I’ve watched you over the last five or six years. We actually go to church together in the same neighborhood congregation here, and I’ve seen their families have watched their kids, their wives are smoking hot, their kids are well-behaved, they’ve got cool dogs and nice homes. And they have they’re taking care of their business the best that I believe that they can. And it’s it’s. To know that my kids can see these, see these kinds of people and grow up with with them. It’s it’s just it feels like an honor too and then have you come into my, my space here, my office and share some of that. I really appreciate it. I don’t have any right now because I’m getting them printed, but I’m going to get you a shirt or a hat or something order, to remember this, and maybe I’ll have you back in the future for other things of your adventures and things that you might share when somebody comes here and they kill it and totally like, I don’t have to edit one thing. This has kind of been kind of nice because you’re so articulate and you speak so well and you have so many good things to say and you’re an example of it. I sometimes think I speak well, but I’m not doing some of the sh*t that I’m supposed to be doing. You guys are out there getting it done, and so maybe I’ll invite you back at some point in the future and have your, you know, regular part of this, if you’d like to.

01:45:17:08 – 01:45:18:09
Gavin Hillman
Yeah this is fun.

01:45:18:27 – 01:46:45:23
Brad Singletary
Really appreciate it. Tanner, Gavin, you guys are studs. I love that your friends. I see, I see you’re hanging out and I see neighbors stopping by. And it just it’s like, you’re not just healthy physically. You seem to be healthy socially and spiritually in so many ways. So pleased to just know you and to get to know you even better here today. And thank you for being here, you guys. We’re talking about this because if you’re going to be a leader, if you’re going to have life and create life and preserve life, you’ve got to do that with yourself and it starts with your body. Some of these things I definitely need to implement, and this is a good time of year to be reflecting on your choices on your physical health. I promise you it will affect your relationships, your productivity at work, your spirituality. Tell me that you’re not at mile 25 and there’s something spiritual may be happening or that you’ve completed some difficult thing. You’ve gone through this training regimen. Tell me that it’s not spiritual in some form. Tell me that you know this doesn’t benefit your family life and your in your marriage and your ability to focus and just the pride that you come out of that it’s it’s impressive and I look forward to. Doing some of this myself, you’ve you’ve given me some ideas about things that I might need to do and so appreciate you being here with this, guys. No excuses. Alpha Up.

01:46:46:13 – 01:46:50:11
Speaker
Gentlemen, you are the alpha and this is the Alpha Quorum.

01:46:56:14 – 01:46:57:11
Brad Singletary
That was killer.