Small Habits, Big Change

From YouTube's automatic captions, so a few words may be wrong.

00:00 Hi and welcome back to the Body by Phil podcast. This is Phil. You know, there was a time in my life when I wasn't sure I was going to live long enough to see my son grow. And when I tell people that, I don't say that for drama. I'm saying that because it is 100% fact. It is truth. I was over 300 lbs.

00:31 I was addicted to alcohol. I was addicted to food. And I was addicted to excuses. I had been arrested. I had been in toxic relationships, in particular a very toxic marriage. So toxic in fact that one night on New Year's Eve back in 2002, I was shot in a drunken altercation and nearly killed. You know, people say you have to hit rock bottom

01:02 to uh actually climb out and get to the top. I feel like I was beneath rock bottom. It's what it felt like anyway. Um and the truth is honestly, this didn't happen overnight to my life. This didn't happen. Um it was the result of many, many years, 20 plus years of bad decisions. I made one bad decision at a time. Slowly taking me further and further

01:35 from the man I feel I was truly meant to be. But the good news is I learned some things. Uh number one, I learned that if your life can fall apart one bad decision at a time, then it can also be rebuilt one good decision at a time. You know, when I tell people my story, they say, "Well, you know, you've really been through a lot battling obesity and and addictions, incarcerations, DUIs,

02:08 and then you became, you know, um a personal trainer and a champion natural bodybuilder to inspire other people. You know, I haven't been through half as much as what you've gone through." And yeah, I totally understand that. I mean, how many people have been shot or addicted or uh obesity all at the same time? But here's something that I think we could all agree and all share and relate to. Every one of us has felt tired,

02:40 right? We've felt stuck where we are. We may have looked in the mirror and thought, "Is this it? Is this as good as it gets?" I know for me, the older I would get, the louder those voices in my head would become. You know, I would hear that voice tell me, "It is too late. You are too far gone. You know, this is just how it is now." And I got to tell you, you know, I am actually here as living proof to tell

03:12 you that that voice it is telling you these things is lying to you. Everything that changed in my life changed when I decided to make one decision. Not a hundred crazy decisions. Not a complete life overhaul. I made one decision. I decided that I was not going to die in the current state that I was in. I decided that my son deserved a better

03:44 father. And I decided that I deserved to live a better life. So how did I do this? What did I do? Well, for me, I hired a personal trainer. Now, I didn't want to hire a personal trainer. I certainly was not motivated to do this. I had zero confidence. I was not confident that it confident that it would even work. I didn't feel ready. But I did it anyway.

04:15 And I think that's where most people get quote stuck. They're waiting for that moment that they feel ready. Let me tell you what really changed my life. You don't need to feel ready. You just need to decide that now's the time to change. Why? Well, because feelings will lie to you. Feelings will tell you to stay comfortable. Feelings will tell you to wait till tomorrow.

04:46 But decisions, good decisions will change your life. If I would have had my trainer start me too fast and do things that were too impossible, things that were too daunting, it wouldn't have worked for me. So my trainer started me small. It started with me showing up. Moving my body. I started to make better choices. Not

05:18 perfect ones. Perfect doesn't exist. Better. Better choices. And over time, everything changed. I lost over 140 lbs in my first year. I got sober. I became a natural bodybuilder. I stepped on the stage 20 times of natural bodybuilding competitions winning four championships. But let me be clear about something. It wasn't the weight. It wasn't losing the weight that changed my life.

05:49 It was the discipline. It was the consistent effort. It was the the decision to show up when I didn't feel like it. That's what changed everything. And this is where this becomes about you. Because I know some of you are thinking, "I'm too old to start this. My body will never respond that way. I've already done too much damage or I have too many afflictions or my knees hurt, my back or my neck hurts."

06:22 I know what you're going through. I felt all those same things and I believed that same thing. But let me challenge that right now by telling you this. Your body is incredibly powerful. It doesn't care if you're 20, 30, 50, 70. If you give it the right stimulus, it will respond. Muscles can be built. Strength can be gained and energy can come back, but only if you give your body a reason to

06:52 change. And here's the good news, okay? You don't have to do anything super extreme that's completely out of your wheelhouse. You don't need to live in a gym. You don't need to eat perfect. You don't have to have a perfect diet. You need consistency. Keep it simple. Maybe walk a little bit every day. Move your body. Drink more water. Get plenty of rest. Pick up a couple light weights and do

07:22 some resistance training, right? Challenge your muscles in ways they may be not used to doing it. And most importantly, make one better decision today than you made yesterday. That's it. Because small habits repeated over time create massive change. Hear that again. Small habits repeated over time create massive change. I've worked by now, I don't know, with a thousand people or more, and I can tell

07:54 you this. When you're trying to lose weight, if that's one of your goals, weight is rarely about food. I mean, that's a part of it, but it's mostly a has to do with stress, loss, loneliness, pain. And I feel and I felt those things deeply. These things motivated me and inspired me to change. People open up to me every day. They tell me how movement and how these types of programs have changed and improved their lives. And I carry those stories

08:26 with me. I carry them to inspire other people. I see people fighting back. I see people in their 50s, 60s, 70s. I even have a trainer that's almost 80 years old. She was a client and now she's a trainer. She was loaded with limitations and now doesn't have any. You take your life back. This is not easy. It's not something you're going to go into and have setbacks.

09:00 But it's powerful. And here's something I had to learn really the hard way. You cannot heal in the same environment that's keeping you sick. Sometimes that means changing habits. Often times it means that. You have to change your habits. Sometimes that means changing who you're around. Sometimes that means finally putting yourself first. And let me tell you, that is not selfish. Putting yourself first sometimes it's necessary for your personal growth. You have to.

09:32 Everything I went through, the addiction, the weight, the trauma, the shooting, it could have and probably should have destroyed me. And for a long time, I really thought that it would. I really didn't think I'd come out of it. But instead, it became fuel. It became fuel for change. It became fuel for growth. It became fuel to help other people realize they are not stuck.

10:05 Let me leave you with this. I didn't change my life because it was easy. I changed it because I finally believed I was worth it. And so are you. You are not too old. You are not too far gone. And your best years are not behind you. Your best years are waiting. They're waiting on your next decision. Your story is not over unless you decide it is.

10:37 You're stronger than you think. You are more resilient. Take that bold and decisive step to make some good changes. Start today. I believe in you. I know you can do it. Thank you for listening to the Body by Phil podcast, and I'll see you next time.