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Make it Make Sense: Understanding the Fitness Journey is a podcast for everyone, from beginners to seasoned athletes. Hosted by pro men's physique athlete and experienced fitness coach Frank, the show explores all aspects of fitness—physical, mental, and emotional. With candid conversations, practical advice, and insights from across the fitness spectrum, this podcast is designed to inspire, inform, and empower all demographics on their unique fitness journeys.
Yo. Yo. Yo. What's going on? We are back at the make it make sense podcast.
Speaker 1:I'm your host, coach Frank. And y'all know the motto, be grinding or be nothing. Alright. So we are a couple weeks away from the NFL season. We are a couple no.
Speaker 1:No. What's today? Friday? Oh, we already in college football season. Look.
Speaker 1:I'm from Florida, and I don't know about other folks, but I know in Florida, we really, really get down with football. I don't know if people can tell who I'm a fan of, but very little known secret. I am slightly fond of the San Francisco 49ers. And it's wild, you know, because people ask, you know, like, Frank, you're from Florida. How are you a 49er fan?
Speaker 1:Like, simple. When I was a kid, I played Pop Warner football. And that's wild in itself. Right? Because I had never my parents and I had never talked about playing football.
Speaker 1:All I know is I was home one day sitting in the chair watching watching cartoons after school or whatever. And my mom comes home and she tosses me this plastic bag and with this stuff. And I was like, yo. What's that? She's like, oh, this is your football uniform.
Speaker 1:You got football practice in thirty minutes. Who who who played football? And she's like, you played football. And I was like, since when? And she's like, you got your first practice today.
Speaker 1:I was like, we never even talked about this, but here we are. You know? So, I didn't even even know how pads went. So I took my pants. Well, I put on my pads in the pants, whatever, and got my uniform.
Speaker 1:My mom takes me, to the practice site. And and what's wild is, right, I see everybody from class there. And what was really, really telling and I'll say, you know, what was really telling and and I didn't really, really get it until years later was everybody on my block or everybody that I interacted with, my next door neighbor who's supposed to be like one of my best friends, my next door neighbor was on the football team. All the guys I knew in Oviedo, there's a lot of baseball played, so we played baseball. Like, all the guys I knew from baseball were on the team.
Speaker 1:All the guys I see in school every single day, these guys are already on the team, and they've already been on the team. And ain't nobody ever say anything to me. You know? And it says you know? And then years later, you know, I I reflect back on that, you know, just a quick little segue, to understanding that coming from a small city, I realized that the friends that I thought I had in that small city were only my friends because we were in a small city.
Speaker 1:And they were only my friends as long as I stayed in that small city. Now that I've moved on and I moved to Arizona and, you know, and I'm a little different than how I was growing up, my perspective on things rather, like, yeah, those same people are not my friends, but it was really no. I should have picked it up then. And when I was a kid, like, they weren't my friends then either. They were just the people that I grew up with.
Speaker 1:And and, you know, and that's and that's gonna help in a little bit. I'm gonna get back on that here in a second. But but anyway, so go to the first practice. Right? See all the guys on the team.
Speaker 1:The And coach looks at me in my uniform, and he has this kid come over, Mitch Rogers. I remember him because his mom, miss Rogers, was my teacher. And she came and he came over, and, you know, the coach told him, like because to help me out because I had put my pads in my pants wrong. So I put my knee pads where the thigh pads should go and thigh pads where the knee pads should go. Because I I never played football, let alone put this stuff in pants.
Speaker 1:So I don't know how this this this shit go. So we get that done. We have practice or whatnot. You know? Years later, you know, still play pop Warner, become one of the guys on the team or whatnot.
Speaker 1:But but, yeah, but always stayed but that's what got me into being a 49er fan. So the first year sorry. The first year, I was number 16. Number 16 in the league then was Joe Montana. And I was like, alright.
Speaker 1:So who is because I hadn't really watched a lot of football, so I was like, alright. 16, Joe Montana, 40 niners. Cool. That's where I'm at. And then the next year, you know, as a point flip, I played wide receiver, and I was number 80.
Speaker 1:Now I was still sort of on the fence as far as, like, a team to like. So I was like, I but I really like Steve Largent as a wide receiver, but he retired. So there was only Jerry Rice left. So Jerry Rice already with the forty niners. Joe Montana's forty niners.
Speaker 1:I was like, bam. Here I am. You know? And so years later, I'm still a forty niner fan. And you know what's wild is I've never seen the stadium where the forty niners play.
Speaker 1:Well, I had never seen it until earlier this year. We went to San Francisco or went in the surrounding area, Santa Clara for the stadium, things like that, and up to the Redwoods and volcanic national forest and things in Humboldt County and and all those things. But the shining light for me, of course, is obviously going to see the field and see the stadium. I couldn't see a lot because they were doing a construction on it. But even still, you know, it's like, as a fan, you know, for me, you know, really growing up in a small city is like and I tell people all the time that a lot of these teams, they existed, like, only on TV.
Speaker 1:Like, the 49ers were my team, and I understood it was San Francisco, California. I mean, I get it. But as far as, like, going there, like, nah. It was never a thing. I didn't think I'd ever actually see the field.
Speaker 1:You know? And same thing when I went to Utah. You know? Like, Utah was like, okay. Did the Utah Jazz and stuff like that, but it's only on TV.
Speaker 1:But when I went to Utah, I was like, okay. You know? And it just opened up a whole different world for me. But but yeah. So we got football season coming up.
Speaker 1:My girl and I love football. She is very competitive. You know? I I love and I love my girl for that. She she's a big basketball fan.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Phoenix Mercury. Shout out Alyssa Thomas. If she is not MVP this year, then I don't know what's going on. Somebody got their views all wrong. If she ain't what is what is she?
Speaker 1:17, triple doubles so far, seven triple doubles this season. Think I she had three back to back triple doubles. Like, yo, Alyssa Thomas is legit two five Phoenix Mercury. Say less. Let's see.
Speaker 1:But yeah. So we got, you know, the the merc coming up, your mighty Mercury. This weekend is college football. Normally, we would, be at the house, week one. Probably week one next weekend for, NFL, and I get some the big party wings from, Costco.
Speaker 1:And we just have like, I put them on the grill, either smoke them or grill them wings, and and we go to town. But but my girl and I, we both just love sports. Like, all sports, but, like, Merck NBA. Well, Mercury anyway, WNBA, and football. I know.
Speaker 1:I'm obviously here, but she is a cardinal fan. So, you know, it's it's whatever. It's whatever. You know, everybody make mistakes. So we won't say who made the mistake, but I didn't.
Speaker 1:So let's see what else is going on. I'm getting ready to go home in a couple weeks, see see the family. That'd be cool. I think I was home earlier this week this year, though. I was home in May.
Speaker 1:I was home in May, but I don't think my father's a truck driver, and I don't think he he wasn't home, so I hadn't seen him. So I'll get to see him again. I don't think I've seen him this year. So I'll get to see my pops, see the family, see the folks. So that'd be cool.
Speaker 1:But let's get into today's show topic, which is creating your environment. Right? What people don't fully understand when they're on their fitness journey is that if you are at a point where you're needing improvement of something, like if you're if you've been overweight for years or you've been underweight for years or you've just been unhealthy for years, you know, a bad trainer will tell you all you need to do is get up and go. But that's just simply not the case. Like, if you know me, you know how much I understand how how much the the the mint the mental health plays into those situations.
Speaker 1:Like, when you're overweight, you're clearly going through some physical repercussions of that. May that be joint pain, respiratory issues as far as, you know, breathing heavy when you're doing, like, small activities. Or or if you have to go buy new clothes and you have to buy bigger clothes, like, you know, those are things that are happening as you're overweight. Oh, also, I mean, buying the amount of food you need to not only be overweight, but to continue gaining weight. Now someone will tell you, hey.
Speaker 1:Just put food down. Just get in the gym. And it's like, first, you have to understand, alright, why do you think it's okay to be this way? And I'll ask clients that a lot. You know, I'll ask them, you know, before we embark on their fitness journey, you know, I asked him, you know, why do you think it's okay for you to be overweight?
Speaker 1:And, you know, of course, it's always, I don't think it's okay. That's why I'm here. It's like, no. No. No.
Speaker 1:You understand now that you need to change. Yes. I get that. But there's a there's a point where you were becoming overweight and you were okay with that or you allowed it to happen. And not saying you allowed it to whereas you said, hey.
Speaker 1:I wanna be overweight. But, no, you kept you kept with the habits that would that would that would produce those results. You know? You weren't active for whatever reason. You continue to buy additional food, you know, because people will tell you how expensive it is to be on a diet and eat healthy food, but don't but don't understand how expensive it is to buy the amount of food you need to be overweight and gain weight.
Speaker 1:Like, you save a considerable amount of money if you stop eating to continue to be overweight. But mentally, you have to be able to say, okay. I'm good. I'm done. That's enough.
Speaker 1:But when I'm always when I'm training people, you know, I I never like the person that says, just wanna I just wanna lose weight. Because what does that mean? Lose weight to do what? I just wanna lose weight. Okay.
Speaker 1:You lose weight and then what? I wanna lose 20 pounds. For what? That's not a real goal. That's just things that that marketing and advertising can can attach itself to.
Speaker 1:Like, when you see all these, lose weight by taking this pill, lose weight, excuse me, by taking this shot, lose weight, but lose weight for what? You know? And then when you get to you know, you get down to the nitty gritty with someone and you say, why do you wanna well, you know, I wanna wear this dress. Okay. So so the dress you're showing me, you know, or the outfit, you know, you have round shoulders.
Speaker 1:Will just losing weight give you the round shoulders and give you the back that you want as far as being able to stand up straight with posture? You know, if you're looking for, you know, a flatter stomach, like, will just losing weight give you any of that? Losing weight doesn't do anything but lose weight, and that that's a math problem, really. You know? And I'd say this all the time.
Speaker 1:Losing weight just means that you're burning more calories than you're taking in. That's all it means. Gaining weight means taking in more calories than you burn. Now there you know, if that's a tree, there are many branches that allows those things to happen, but at the root of it, of the root of this tree, it's it's just math. If you wanna lose weight, burn more calories than you take in.
Speaker 1:Now with that being a very simple goal, and and I believe in personally, you know, in the, what, two decades that I've been doing this, that that is why people fall off of their fitness journey because the goal isn't real. I wanna lose weight. Like, at what point is the weight you wanted to lose, or at what point is it enough? Because what happens is, you know, when people start these, these fitness programs, I just wanna lose weight. They'll lose five to 10 pounds and be happy with that because their goal was to lose weight, lost five pounds, boom, goal accomplished.
Speaker 1:And then the momentum sorta, like, slows down and the consistency with the, disciplined diet, things like that slow down because your only goal was to lose weight. You've done that, but that's not your where the goal should be. Now the goal should be or I I push my clients into an actual goal that I call their honest motivation. Say they wanna lose weight. I wanna lose weight so I can do this.
Speaker 1:You know? I wanna lose weight, so I can because I wanna put on some muscle. I wanna lose weight because I wanna be healthier in this. I had a a a guy client once say he wanted to lose weight so he could play football with his son. Now right.
Speaker 1:So we gotta lose weight. But within that, we also gotta make sure that we increase your stamina. We increase your endurance. We increase your muscle strength so you can go out there and tackle this physical activity of playing football with your son. But it there always has to be something behind the lose weight.
Speaker 1:Like, what is going to push you? Because losing weight is like at the start of the road. That's the easy part. Like, what's gonna keep the momentum going? What's gonna keep the discipline?
Speaker 1:What's gonna keep you driving? Or for lack of better phrases, what's gonna cause you to keep grinding. Right? So it's always has to be an honest motivation. Sometimes you wanna lose weight.
Speaker 1:Well, I'll talk you know? And I'm giving examples, of course, of people I've dealt with. I've trained about over thousands of people. So I have a a very large sample size in regards to this. And sometimes people wanna lose weight for their children to show their kids that, you know, that they can do certain things.
Speaker 1:But whatever it is, never set that low bar, that low goal of I just wanna lose weight. Put purpose to the reason why you're doing things. And that is actually going to make you think about what you're doing because and then your physical health becomes more intertwined with your mental health, and that's the only way you're gonna grow. Because I tell everybody, your body does nothing that your mind does not wanna do. Now when you're on your fitness journey, there will be conflict.
Speaker 1:Those things will your body and and your mind, they go they're they're gonna fight. They are gonna fight because your your body is gonna start not necessarily resisting growth and change. It's your body is gonna try to hold on to what feels good to it. And your your mind is gonna know, as long as you have an honest motivation, your mind is gonna develop habits to where you're like, no. Get get your ass up.
Speaker 1:Let's go. But what happens when on the flip side, when people are underweight or overweight and they have these habits, that's because their mind and their body have gotten together to say, hey, man. We ain't gonna do shit. That's that's just not we we go buy the extra food. We go binge watch Netflix, Hulu, whatever.
Speaker 1:And and we're just gonna buy bigger clothes, and we're gonna find things to latch on to that make this the the condition be okay. And that is what boils down to your environment. Now people say you'll have to leave some people behind. This is what I've learned. Your environment is here.
Speaker 1:That is your environment. Your goal, your honest motivation is here. It is yours. It belongs to you. Other people will adjust to you if you make your environment that real.
Speaker 1:Right? So let's see. I got into fitness and working out because because I'd never got I'd never been a weight guy. I was always you know, I call it runner's lean. When I was when I graduated high school, was about six one, six two, and I was only a hundred and forty pounds.
Speaker 1:So it was like, I've never been a big guy. It's never been lifting weights. Any of that was never my thing. You know, to the point where I was getting ready, I was gonna go to college. And so my senior year, I took a weightlifting class because it's like, didn't wanna go into college still being runners lean or whatever.
Speaker 1:And when I was taking the class, we had an intern, this guy from UCF, and I'm doing I'm doing some workout one day. And he's like, yeah, man. You know, you're an ectomorph. I'm like, what does that mean? He's like, man, you just you're never gonna be able to put on muscle.
Speaker 1:Well, then why the hell am I in this class then? You know what I mean? Like because I well, I didn't know then what I know now, obviously. But it's like, well, if you know more than me, you're the teacher. You're telling me this isn't gonna work.
Speaker 1:Like, why am I here? So I I got out of the class and did something else for the rest of my senior year, but I I left it alone. When I got to college, I got into you know, me and one my boys, Daryl, we used to work out. You know, everybody lives in an apartment in college, so different apartment locations, working out in their gyms. I think I'm sure we had a gym on campus at FAMU, but I don't know if I ever worked out on campus.
Speaker 1:I know I just pretty much worked out at, like, apartment complex gyms and stuff, but nothing serious. It would just go, you know, what, lat pull down, chest press machine, bicep curls, whatever call it a day. But fast forward, I got into fitness, you know, because I was rear ended by a drunk driver. And when I got rear ended, I was left with bulging disc in my lower back. And and so, you know, around then, you know, I was a little older.
Speaker 1:I was in my twenties, mid twenties or so, and I was around one seventy five, maybe one seventy eight. I remember specifically, may have been one eighty. Who know? We'll say one eighty because I felt like I was a big guy. But after the accident, you know, I lost a lot.
Speaker 1:I was getting back spasms all the time, so I was barely eating. I was oh, yeah. I wasn't working. I wasn't doing anything because at the time, you know, that the accident happened, I was you know, I thought I was gonna play basketball overseas. I was going to tryouts and stuff like that thinking that that was gonna be, my future.
Speaker 1:But after the accident, the doctors were like, yeah. You're never gonna play basketball like that again. You know? You're gonna have back problems for the rest of your life. So I'm like, alright.
Speaker 1:So well, that sucks. So, yeah, I went into a crazy ass depression. You know? I ain't a lot. I was smoking three packs of cigarettes a day.
Speaker 1:You know? And back then, you know, I'll just say they were cheaper. They were $2.50 a pack. So, you know, it was $7.50 a day on cigarettes. I was I was finishing two packs definitely within the course of a day, and I was definitely, you know, a good couple sticks in of the third pack by the end of the day, you know, every single day.
Speaker 1:I was drinking, like, the v eight sun splash drinks. I would, like, either drink most of it or pour some of it out and then pour vodka for the rest. You know? And it was just a bad time. But, you know, what it does what that situation did was help me understand more that as I got into fitness training and began training other people that, you know, there is a mental state and a mind state that people are in that either prevents them or propels them to whatever their goal is, pushing towards a goal or keeping them from their goal.
Speaker 1:It's gonna be, you know, what you're thinking. Long story short, you know, I went in one of my, checkups with the doctor on my back, and he was like, yo. You know, you're getting worse. You need to start working out. If you don't start working out, you're going to need back surgery.
Speaker 1:So me, who damn near cries if I get a paper cut, it was like, well, I am not getting surgery. They're not cutting me open. I am just gonna start working out. So that's how I got into fitness. And when I hit it, you know, I hit the ground running.
Speaker 1:Like, I was just this is what I do. I work out. I met my friend Chris. Well, not met. You know, I ran into my boy Chris in the gym, who I knew from church when we were kids.
Speaker 1:He was already, like, like, there. You know what I mean? He was definitely, my first inspiration as far as what I wanted to do because here was someone that I actually knew, who didn't you know, he was skinny like me when we were growing up. And now he is, like, huge chest, abs, everything. You know?
Speaker 1:So, like, I I've I've met him, so I'm working on the gym. Now I'm still in the same city that I grew up in. I was still in Oviedo. You know? I was still seeing the same people, same family, same environment, externally, but my environment changed in here.
Speaker 1:Chris, someone who I hadn't really spoken to in years, was someone that I was seeing every single day, seven days a week, we were at the gym. The I knew everybody at the gym at a certain time because, you know, when you go to the gym at the same time, same people are there. My environment changed in here, so now I'm having conversations with different type people, and I'm opening up to different people. I moved to Arizona. I still just worked out.
Speaker 1:I hadn't gotten to competing yet. I was just working out. But then once I got into competing, I told everybody that I knew, like, hey. This is what I got going on. These are my this is this is my process.
Speaker 1:This is what I have to do. You know? These are what my goals are. And, again, same people in Arizona that I used to just go play basketball with, go to happy hours with, go to clubs, whatever, go to the bar with. Those same people externally were still in my corner, were still my friends, but my environment changed here.
Speaker 1:I was at the gym more. I was watching what I eat. You know? And the people that recognized woah. The people that recognized what I was doing and how focused I was on my goal, because it was my honest motivation.
Speaker 1:Like, when I got into competing, number one, I'm a very competitive person, so I wanted to win. You know? And the the vision I got in, men's physique, was still new. So I'll be honest. I didn't even know what I wanted to win.
Speaker 1:I just know I wanted to be better than the other dudes that were standing next to me on the stage when it came time to do my show. And then once I found out, you know, you could go pro or you could be a pro athlete, was like, yeah. So, you know, that was definitely my honest motivation. Like, I didn't wanna compete just to compete. I wanted to compete to become a professional.
Speaker 1:And I'll talk about how that was sort of a downfall at some other time, but that was my goal. So in the three years as an amateur while I'm competing, I still know the same people. My boy Daryl from college. When I moved to Arizona, he's still in Florida, and he would just call me, and he would ask the same question. You you in there, you were on your way from there, or you're on your way there?
Speaker 1:And it was the gym. And he was like, am I in the gym? Am I on my way to the gym, or am I leaving? And if I said I was on my way to the gym, he would say, alright. Then just call me back, you know, when you finish because you got you need to focus.
Speaker 1:And I was like, yeah. But you can talk. He's like, no. No. No.
Speaker 1:He's like, I wanna see you get that card, so you gotta focus. I'll talk to you when you're done. My other homeboy, Cameo, same thing. And they these guys didn't even know each other, but they were still but he would ask the same thing. You in there.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're on your way, or you're leaving? And if I wasn't if I wasn't leaving, then neither one of these guys would talk to me. And we were just talking about shit. You know? Not nothing major, but they wouldn't do anything at all to derail me from what they understood because I'd created my environment.
Speaker 1:So and that didn't mean my friends had to change. I still got my same friends. Cameo, I've known since preschool. You know, he'd seen me through all phases of life, and he knew nothing at all about bodybuilding. I told him this is what I'm trying to do.
Speaker 1:Alright. Then that's what you're doing. Alright. Then I got your back. And and that's a friend.
Speaker 1:That's a real friend. Daryl, real friend. Like, I knew him from college. You know, if you go to college, you know, especially in Tallahassee, you know, we went to FAMU, and so you got FAM, and then you got Florida State, and you got, what, at the time, TCC, Tallahassee Community College. Like, it was just a wild time for college.
Speaker 1:You know, definitely nothing really, like, asterisk fitness that I was doing now, but still, no, bro. That's what you're doing? Alright. That's what you gotta do then you gotta focus. I motivation and my discipline was so real that there was a a a grocery store, sunflower, I think, at the time.
Speaker 1:I think it's a sprouts now, but it a sunflower. And they used to have these dope as oatmeal raisin cookies, the best I've ever had. Mad big and and, like, super soft, my favorite kind of cook favorite oatmeal raisin cookie. But I would see the same and it was right next to the LA Fitness where I worked. And I would see the same cashier every day.
Speaker 1:I would go in and go to work, get me a cookie, go to work. Right? And then one day we were talking, I was like, yeah. You know, I'm getting into bodybuilding now. I got a competition coming up in a couple months.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm not gonna be able to eat cookies like this anymore because I'll be on a diet. And so I remember when I started my prep, I went in one day and she was doing something else and, you know, I listen. I was new to competition and new to, like, eating on a diet. So I tried to grab a cookie. I went to get a cookie, and I went to the register.
Speaker 1:It's, like, one of the little lanes to pay for it. And you could and I promise you, don't sell him a cookie. I don't know. We're looking around. Don't sell him a cookie.
Speaker 1:It was the same cashier whatever coming up telling one of her colleagues, no. No. No. He's got a competition. He's he's doing bodybuilding.
Speaker 1:He can't have cookies anymore. Frank, you know better. Put the cookie back, and she put the lady in her, oh, no. I can't do that. I can't sell you.
Speaker 1:Come on. What are you doing? I created my environment. You know, I told the people that instead of, like, latching onto my comfort and and, you know, comfort foods and things like that that made me happy, I moved my environment to the areas where I knew I would need help. Right?
Speaker 1:So this cashier knows what Frank's doing. This cashier is not gonna let Frank get off his goal because my environment I created my environment. I had these friends out here in Arizona, Veronica and her kids and her and her family. I've known shit, twenty five years, over twenty years, something like that. And I remember once I went to their house after after Halloween.
Speaker 1:And I was training for a competition. And so I come over there a few times and brought my my food and ate only my food. Now these are friends that I used to just hang out with, watch football, drink with, you know, and but now that I was competing, you know, they were my they stayed my friends, go over there every day and like, hey, you got your food with you? Well, you can't eat anything over here. But I remember their son Hashim, who's a big man now, proud of him.
Speaker 1:He was maybe between six and eight, and he had his bag of candy from trick or treating. He has banged out. I was like, like, yo, Sheam. Sheam. Hey, man.
Speaker 1:Let me see your bag. Let me get some of that candy. He grabbed his bag. No. You got a competition coming up.
Speaker 1:And he kept walking. I was like, yo. But same friends, right, that knew my goal, knew knew what I was trying to do, did not need to leave me or or not be in my life anymore. They were able to stay my friends, but they were also able to make sure that, no, Frank, you got you're doing something. We're paying attention to you, so make sure you take care of that.
Speaker 1:Man and then, you know, it I I would it would really suck if I didn't say this. There was this this restaurant, US US egg. It was not it was very close to the LA Fitness also. And on my my diet was I think it was a cup and a half or two cups of egg whites, half a cup or a cup of oatmeal, I think a quarter cup of blueberries. For a while, that was my my my meal one.
Speaker 1:And this place I used to go to USA, you know, I ordered it a couple times, and they then they asked, like, you know, why do you keep eating the same thing? You know? Because before, I used to eat this big skillet thing they had, like chicken and hash browns and eggs and grits and all this stuff on it. Then they asked why I switched up why would to, my menu. Why was I eating something different?
Speaker 1:And I was like, because, you know, I'm trying to compete in bodybuilding. I got a competition coming up. This is what's on my diet. So after that, they wouldn't even serve me the old stuff I used to serve anymore. I would call in, and they would and they could recognize my voice.
Speaker 1:Is this Frank? I was like, yeah. Alright. We'll have it ready for you at your booth because I was sat at the same table. And they started calling the Frank special, two cups of egg whites, cup of or whatever the oatmeal and the blueberries.
Speaker 1:And that was all they would serve me. But, again, I set my environment. You don't have to lose the people or get rid of the people that that are close to you. Like, your circle doesn't have to get smaller just because you your your your path changes or you have a different goal. If they're truly the people that should be in your in your circle and you let them know what your goal is, then they're gonna maintain.
Speaker 1:That's still gonna be there. Like, I always say this, like, I've never lost one friend in life ever. I've never lost one friend. I've probably don't communicate with people that I was once associated with on a regular basis, but that doesn't make them my friends because you don't lose friends. You know?
Speaker 1:And that's just the way it is. But it's your environment. Right? So once you understand that you create your environment based off what your goals are, based off what your motivation is, then you realize that your environment goes every single place you go. Like, no matter where I was in the time in the years that I was competing, you know, my friends, you know, they wouldn't tempt me with certain things, with going out to eat or going to do these things.
Speaker 1:They would they would ask. They would always ask, hey. So where are you at on prep? Can you can you do this? No.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I can go. Alright. So we're do this. We want you to come hang out and do this.
Speaker 1:But if you're stable in your environment, then the people around you will be they will become your environment as well. And it's not it doesn't have to be new people. It could be the same people. They just want you to make sure that you stay focused on your goal. Right?
Speaker 1:So one of the hardest things that people have within their environment are their loved ones. When I was competing, like, my parents didn't know anything at all about bodybuilding, whatever I was doing. All they knew is that I was unhappy when I didn't win, and they were happy when I did well. That's all they cared about. And and, again, novice, they they knew less than I knew, and I didn't know anything at all.
Speaker 1:And my parents were just they just had my back. You know? I'll do what you wanna do. You know? My my siblings, hey man, keep going.
Speaker 1:I like what you're doing. Keep it up. Again, they knew nothing at all about it either. But sometimes people's environment and their family don't work with them that way. And it's very unfortunate.
Speaker 1:I've seen cases of abuse where the husband will verbally and emotionally abuse the wife. And it's really an insecurity on them because they don't want their wife to change to get better or feel better about themselves and gain an independence and stuff like that. So, you know, it's the environment that that person in, that that female is in that wanted to change. Now she has a husband or whatever that doesn't wanna see any of that. And so the environment is different.
Speaker 1:You know, that's why I was saying it's not just so simple to just get up and, like, just start working out. Like, mentally, you have to make sure you are in a place that this is gonna happen. You have to make sure that the people in in your circle, hey. This is my goal. This is what I got coming up.
Speaker 1:You know? I need you guys to support me. If folks aren't with you on that change and you trying to better yourself, then clearly, you don't need those people around. They're not the folks that you need in your environment. You have to protect your environment and the people that want you to progress.
Speaker 1:Anyone that wants you to be stagnant and and stay the same, they should not be in your environment. Does it make it easy to remove those people from your environment? No. You just have to have an understanding of where to put those people along your journey. They may have to be to the side.
Speaker 1:You may have to only interact with these be or be able to interact with these people maybe once a month, you know, once every couple months, you know, major holidays, something like that. But you have to come to a mental understanding of, okay. I want to do this. I need to do this. The people around you need to know that you want to do, you wanna lose weight, you wanna gain weight, you want a job promotion, you wanna stop drinking, you wanna stop smoking, Whatever it is that your goal is that you want to stop doing, the people around you, your environment has to be in tune with that.
Speaker 1:They have your environment has to change according to your goal if you're gonna complete it. You know, I was I was listening to something the other day, and I heard someone say, success doesn't come because somebody else believes in you. Success comes because you believe in you. Right? Like, I tell people all the time, or excuse me.
Speaker 1:When folks ask, how did you become a pro? Like, was it like? Did you eat this and that? And I was like, it's very simple. And I've said this before because I told myself I would.
Speaker 1:Like, I'm a competitive person. They said you could become a pro. That was my goal. I told myself I would do it. And it was like, no.
Speaker 1:I had to be harder than that. Like, you made the judges and this and that. I was like, no. No. No.
Speaker 1:I just told myself I would, which means I told myself I would have to wake up and do the cardio and wake up and eat, you know, my breakfast and and and wake up and do my workouts. And if it caused, do another workout and do some more cardio, you know? But because I told myself I would win, I had to tell myself I would do those things too. So when you tell yourself you have a goal, like, wanna lose weight to be able to wear this outfit or whatever, then when you make that goal, the process is just what's done. Like like, I remember somebody asked me once, you know, on the final year, I was an amateur and I got my pro card.
Speaker 1:I was on off of my prep, I was on, like, three hours of cardio a day. And the guy asked, you know, man, you don't think that was too much? I got my pro card. How clearly, it wasn't too much. It had to be the right amount.
Speaker 1:Right? So, you know, once you set your goal, then the process is just what it is. Like, I'm gonna do this to be able to do this. The steps there is just gonna you just have to take them. You have to do it.
Speaker 1:Like, you know, when the easiest people for me to train are the ones that can easily understand that you just have to do it. You know what I mean? It's gonna be tough some days. There's gonna be moments when you when you when you don't want to, and I get that, but you just have to do it. You know, I don't know.
Speaker 1:You know? Oh, man. I'm so tired. Like, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That usually happens when you work out. You know? Oh, I'm so sore. Like, yeah.
Speaker 1:Again, that usually happens when you work out. So I don't know what to tell you in regards to that. Right? You just have to do what you have to do. You have to create your environment.
Speaker 1:Your environment is so important. It's your mental environment. It's so important towards progression of anything that you wanna do. You will not your body will not involve itself in actions that your mind is gonna hold it back from. If your mind doesn't want put you into a state of being disciplined enough to achieve your ultimate goal, not lose weight, but lose weight to do this, not stop drinking, but stop drinking so you can do that.
Speaker 1:Whatever the case may be, if your body and mind don't line up, then it's just not gonna work. So, you know, to wrap it up, you know, in regards to this, understand first that even though you see some people that, man, they just started working out and this and that, understand know that there was something that went on in here first. There was a mental a switch that switched that flipped mentally because your body isn't just gonna get up. Your mind has to say, alright. It's Monday.
Speaker 1:Gotta go to work. After work, gotta get the kids, take the kids home, whatever, go home, feed the kids. And I gotta go to the gym or I gotta do my workout at home or I gotta walk around the block. Like, I I have to do this. And when the mind flips and and so tells you that you have to do these things, then your body is just gonna no matter how reluctant, your body is just gonna do them.
Speaker 1:Now there's gonna be a fight at some point. But if your mind is strong, if you are focused mentally on your goal, always, always, always be focused mentally on your goal. Your body is gonna have to is gonna have to do it. You know? Because alright.
Speaker 1:Case in point, and I'll end with this. Somebody was asking me once, what's better to lift heavier weight for short reps or lighter weight for a for a larger amount of reps? And I asked the person, alright, what's heavy? And they're like, well, you know, like, I don't know. Like like like, two twenty five or something like that.
Speaker 1:I was like, do you think your body knows that that's two hundred and twenty five pounds? Your your body got eyes? Your body read that? Your body had does your body have ears? Like, someone did someone no.
Speaker 1:You saw that. You recognized this two hundred twenty five pounds. What your body did was recognize that there was a force that needed to be moved. And so your body worked with your mind to move that force. It's always gonna start here.
Speaker 1:Heavy is relative to the individual lifting the weight. That has nothing to do with it. Everything has to do with your mind focused and connected with those muscle fibers and with those muscles to move the force, to do the exercise. So it's always gonna be your mind. You'll work out better if mentally you want to work out.
Speaker 1:You'll stay focused on your diet better if mentally you wanna be focused on your diet. You'll stay in tune with your relationships at school, at work, at home, whatever, if mentally you're in tune with those those things as well. So wrapping it up, then your environment is your your mental state. You create your environment by what your mind wants. Your mind and body will coincide, and they will work together as long as your goal is something that you really want to accomplish.
Speaker 1:Stay focused on your goal. Alright? Let's go ahead and get out of here. It's coach Frank, make it make sense podcast. If this episode, you know, connected with you and you wanna talk later, feel free to hit me up on my my Instagram DMs or or message me here.
Speaker 1:Instagram, I'm at frankly fit underscore body blueprint. Leave a message here. Have your friends look at it if you think you have a friend where this would help them also. And, hey. Y'all know the motto, be grinding or why do I never do that right?
Speaker 1:Be nothing. Alright. Peace.