Climbing Out Of Bad Habits
Rewind to 2020 with me. We’re months into Covid and life is chaos. Restaurants and gyms are closed. I’ve buried my head in work for the last 6 months.
Nobody wanted to send their family members to a nursing home due to infection breakout risk, so more people than ever were being discharged home from the hospital with home health instead.
As a home health physical therapist, my schedule is packed. Not many people want to work in the home health setting. Understandably so. I’ve had a gun pointed at me, seen apartments littered with bed bugs and had to call emergency services on several occasions due to unsafe living conditions. Not to mention coming home most days covered in random hair and smelling like dog urine.
Needless to say, there is always a shortage of home health physical therapists. Combine that with the phobia of nursing homes and I’m busier than ever. On a slow day, I see 1.5x a typical caseload. On a busy day, over double the expectation.
Blinded By Ego
Hard work never scared me. I wore it like a badge of honor. I was proud of it. But pride is expensive.
In my burnout from work, I was missing the mark in other areas. I’d come home from a long day and have paperwork to finish up. I’d wake up early to get a jump start on it again. Weekends were spent catching up.
Even when I was around, I wasn’t present.
And my health? Not good. I was sleeping maybe 5 hours per night. And the quality of those hours was terrible. I’d wake up in the middle of the night with my mind racing. I’d think about a specific client case, the paperwork I was behind on or looming student loans.
My nutrition was junk. Frozen pizzas, takeout, fast food. We lived across the street from a KFC, A&W and a Jack in the Box. Convenience got the best of us way too frequently. My wife would cook but we never made it a consistent priority. There were always bigger things going on in our life. Or at least that’s the excuse I made.
Our saving grace was that we lived in Colorado and the idea of being active outdoors came easily. The only “exercise” I was doing was occasionally hiking nearby. But that alone wasn’t enough.
The True Cost
My blood pressure was through the roof, I had undiagnosed insulin resistance and I felt terrible. My joints were sore, I was always tired, and I was just working for the weekend (only to work some more oftentimes). It was affecting my outlook on life, my relationship with my wife and I was chronically pessimistic.
One good thing about healthcare is that you get a daily reminder of what it looks like when you don’t take care of yourself. Chronic kidney disease, heart attacks, falls, type II diabetes. This was 90% of my caseload. And my lifestyle showed glimpses of theirs. It was surreal. How did I get here?
I played college basketball at a small school in Wisconsin. I was in great shape and it wasn’t that long ago. The worst part was I didn’t have any real excuses. I knew the information. I knew what it would take. So why couldn’t I do it? It certainly wasn’t because I was lazy. I was working twice as hard as most people. The reality was that I didn't have a plan. I was reacting to my life instead of attacking it. And that meant my schedule would fill up with whatever came along (usually more work) as opposed to me creating the lifestyle I wanted.
The Turnaround
It was time to change. But it’s not like we just started eating clean one day and never looked back. Overcoming food addiction and bad habits can take time. It did for me. So even though I knew that you can’t outwork a bad diet, I still started with exercise.
There’s no right or wrong answer to this. But for me, it was the right stepping stone. I was stressed out. So working out provided a physical outlet.
I wasn’t perfect. But I kept showing up. And it gave me the endorphin release that I had missed for a long time. I felt better. I was still drinking too many beers (Colorado has great breweries) and not eating clean but I was putting a few points on the board.
I built off of that. Even with subpar nutrition, I was getting stronger in the gym. Mentally, I felt sharper and emotionally I was less irritable. I pressed on. And I’m competitive so having a goal to chase was rewarding.
Momentum Builds Quickly
Movement is medicine. And not just for your body. I was drastically improving what I assume was at least some degree of anxiety/depression. And this gave me the momentum I needed to start looking at other pieces of my life to improve. I audited my nutrition, my personal relationships, my time management, the media I was consuming and my overall values. Chris was on a similar journey of his own, and fine tuning our routines eventually led to us starting a business and helping 100s of others with their health directly and 1000s of others indirectly.
My twitter feed is flooded with things that you shouldn’t do. Can’t eat this, don’t do that. The reality is that early on, it’s much easier to focus on what we CAN do. Shooting for optimal means you stick with it for 2 days and then quit.
And feeling like you failed at something again just makes restarting feel overwhelming.
But you do have to start. For some guys it’s a full lifestyle overhaul and they are in the right headspace and time of their life to do that. For others it’s committing to a few small actions everyday. A 15 minute walk. Subbing unhealthy snacks for better ones. Sprinkling in a few bodyweight exercises throughout the day. As the habits build, more changes can be made. And eventually you look back on your life and wonder how you were ever living the way you used to. And there’s no going back.
Habits (Good or Bad) Compound:
Dr. Vince is a business owner who went through a similar transformation with us over the last 6 months.. The more of the steps he committed to, the better he felt and that increased energy and mental clarity translated to more success in his business.
Here’s what he had to say:
“I have had a phenomenal experience with the program… what’s been great is the simplicity… the diet is perfect… I own my own company so I need consistency, energy and clarity of thought..I highly recommend them.. Losing the weight is just the first stepping stone.. For me, it was more energy, better decision making, and overall just happier… follow the plan it definitely works.”
Talk to you Tuesday!
Brett
Brother2Brother
P.S. “Where did people hang out during medieval times? … The knight club”