In this weeks episode Lisa Tamati and Neil Wagstaff talk about the benefits and disadvantages of using the various technologies available to improve your training results and optimise your performance.
From watches to apps and heart rate monitoring they look at the good the bad and the ugly of using these tools.
Here is the link to the blog on the Heart Rate Reserve Method of monitoring your training intensity
We would like to thank our sponsors
Running Hot - By Lisa Tamati & Neil Wagstaff
If you want to run faster, longer and be stronger without burnout and injuries then check out and TRY our Running Club for FREE on a 7 day FREE TRIAL Complete holistic running programmes for distances from 5km to ultramarathon and for beginners to advanced runners.
All include Run training sessions, mobility workouts daily, strength workouts specific for runners, nutrition guidance and mindset help Plus injury prevention series, foundational plans, running drill series and a huge library of videos, articles, podcasts, clean eating recipes and more.
www.runninghotcoaching.com/info and don't forget to subscribe to our youtube channel at Lisa's Youtube channel www.yotube.com/user/lisatamat and come visit us on our facebook group
www.facebook.com/groups/lisatamati
Epigenetics Testing Program by Lisa Tamati & Neil Wagstaff.
Wouldn’t it be great if your body came with a user manual? Which foods should you eat, and which ones should you avoid? When, and how often should you be eating? What type of exercise does your body respond best to, and when is it best to exercise?
These are just some of the questions you’ll uncover the answers to in the Epigenetics Testing Program along with many others. There’s a good reason why epigenetics is being hailed as the “future of personalised health”, as it unlocks the user manual you’ll wish you’d been born with!
No more guess work. The program, developed by an international team of independent doctors, researchers, and technology programmers for over 15 years, uses a powerful epigenetics analysis platform informed by 100% evidenced-based medical research.
The platform uses over 500 algorithms and 10,000 data points per user, to analyse body measurement and lifestyle stress data, that can all be captured from the comfort of your own home
Find out more about our Epigenetics Program and how it can change your life and help you reach optimal health, happiness and potential at: https://runninghotcoaching.com/epigenetics
You can find all our programs, courses, live seminars and more at www.lisatamati.com
Transcript of the show
Speaker 1: (00:01)
Welcome to pushing the limits, the show that helps you reach your full potential with your host, Lisa Tamati brought to you by Lisa Tamati.com.
Speaker 2: (00:12)
Hi everyone. Lisa Tamati here at pushing the limits once again with my business partner Neil Wagstaff in Havelock North. How's it going Neil?
Speaker 3: (00:20)
It's good. Thanks Lis I am good.
Speaker 2: (00:22)
Good. And we've got another great show for you today. What are we talking about today? Neil
Speaker 3: (00:26)
We're going to be talking about using technology. Technology is a great thing. It can be a scary thing. It can be something that can, we can use to our advantage but also if it's used inappropriately it can, it can really slow us down with, with getting the results and performance we want.
Speaker 2: (00:41)
Yeah. So technology and we have to qualify that in regards to training. Now we're talking about, I'm using technology didn't relate here unnecessary evil in our world, but we are actually going to be talking about things like your Watchers, your heart rate monitors and your strivers and net, my runs and, and apps and, and that type of thing. And how to, how to use it and what benefits they bring, the pros and the cons of doing it. And how we use it a little bit with our athletes, with some of them and not with others. And why that is. So Neo, what watch do you use for starters? What's your favorite?
Speaker 3: (01:18)
I'm a Garmin fan. I've been a karma fan probably for past four or five years now. And it allows, it gives me the information I want and I'll find the, eh, for the length of runs I'm doing it, it gives me, gives me good battery life, a lot of the accuracy and a lot the lot of feedback it gives me.
Speaker 2: (01:35)
Yeah, I've got a Alma Gammon girl toe Garmin four runner two, three five as my one. And I'm not a big statistic person generally, so like you're a lot more statistics orientated than they may personality wise, but I still find it things like, you know, your sleep and your sleep quality and how deep you are sleeping and some of those sort of aspects. Good. As well as your heart rate monitor when you're training. But I don't get absolutely hung up on all the statistics like some people do and some people that, so that's a benefit. So we're both Garmin fans but there are a lot of other great watches out there, some too well some of the others polar you know, having a watch that as a sport orientated, watch that you can use it whether you're doing lap times, if you want to control your heart rate all of these things can be beneficial.
Speaker 2: (02:24)
List. Talk a little bit about heart rate monitoring, how you can use that to monitor the intensity of your training. We've just put up a blog on our website, at www.lisatamati.com which looks a little bit, it was a quick meant to the quick guide to how to sort of workout how intense your training is based on your age. And this is a bit of a, you know, a guide, not to be Satan concrete, but Neil, do you want us to discuss that a little bit and how that happened? Yeah,
Speaker 3: (02:58)
Let me, I mean the beauty of beauty of watches these days is if you're giving the watch tracker your information, so you, when you set up your watch, it'll ask you if you're age and ask you if your resting heart rate ask you for various different types of information. So the watch will give you very good idea on training zones anyway. What we're not so good at a lot of the time is following those. So if your watch tells you you need some recovery, then listen to what it's what it's saying. So the, the idea being that once you got your heart rates in there, then if your program says you should be doing a high intensity interval training session, then you're going to be operating up at 85 90% of your, your max heart rate. If you should be doing a recovery run. And that could be lower down at 55 60 maybe top 65% of your maximum heart rate.
Speaker 3: (03:44)
So the beauty of the watch is it will give you all that information so you can use the watch based on your programs. So right, these are the designs and areas I want to work in. If you're not using a watch though and you just want a snapshot of how hard you should be working, then you can use some simple formulas out there. We use the heart rate reserve method or Caveda method. And what we're looking at there is I'm just doing a simple two 20 minus your age punched only two 20 minus your age. You then take off your heart rate and so your resting heart rate and work out your percentages from there. And most people would recommend your workout from 60% up to 90% in 5% increments. And then you simply add back on your heart rate so that your resting heart rates that number and it'll give you training zones.
Speaker 3: (04:28)
So easiest thing to do with that is refer to the blog. Lisa can put that in the show notes just that day and that take you through, walk you through how to do it and it gives you an idea of where you, where you should be working. Where this becomes really useful is if you've been struggling with runs or you feel like you could get more potential out of your body, then actually doing either a full max heart rate test or actually seeing how your heart responds on a run. It's a really useful way to work out. Are you really getting best bang for your buck? Good example is when we, when we ran when we ran across the country for for Samuels trust and a few years back, I'm, I'm notorious for going out quick and really focusing and this is a good example of, of how not to, not to use a be watch.
Speaker 3: (05:13)
I become very focused on my case per minute. Okay. So I'm flexing, right? I, I want to say that, for example, a five minute case and that's, that's what I want to want to be doing. So if I'm, if I'm doing that, then that's fine. Up to a certain distance. If I need to be running longer than that's gonna hurt me. Yeah. So what we're very, very well for me with heart rate is going right, I need to be operating at a much lower heart rate. So if I am operating at around one 35 one 40 beats per minute and I know regardless of pace I'm going to be good for a long distance because I can, I can hold that. So bringing in heart rate into the mix there really does start to, it made my training more effective. I didn't worry about speed, I worried about right a stand the zones I set my set, my watch to beep if I went above it and then no worries on how fast it was going.
Speaker 3: (06:02)
I needed to know that I could last a long time and a long, a long period. So use it for your, for your goal. At the moment I'm running a lot shorter and I'm more interested in getting results for my four four and five K times. So I'm more interested now in taking the data out and going, right. I want to know the heart rate zone. I should be pushing hard for some of my runs and it should be up in the 85 90% effort. More importantly, I can keep an eye on how fast my Kayser and then again on top of that from a technique and performance and efficiency point of view, where's my cadence at? So I know if I can push my cadence up, my efficiency is going to get gonna get better and therefore I'm going to be going to be getting closer to my goal. So use the information in particular heart rates we're talking about here to apply it to your goal. Okay. Apply it to your goal. If you're getting warning signs, like you're going out and doing a recovery run and it's showing you that you are 70, 80, 90% of your max heart rate. Something's not right either with the technology or your body.
Speaker 2: (07:00)
Yeah. And this is actually we, the has a little bit of limitations and I know that I,n my my life is, is I don't actually conform to the, the age thing. So 220, minus my age, I, if I'm running it there and then trying to do 60 to 80% of that, then I'm actually in the anaerobic zone according to that a whole lot of the time. So it's a general rule of thumb and it doesn't always give you a completely accurate results. So sometimes like I'll be operating at a higher heart rate than I should be, but I know that I'm actually aerobic and I know that because I've got enough experience to, to know where my body is going in and out.
Speaker 3: (07:43)
With a lot of our one on one clients and there's a couple I've done this with in the past. The past few weeks is we send them out to do a max heart rate test. This can be done on there's no need for it to be done in lab conditions, which isn't practical for most people. So we use a field test we put in place, which are people interested in. We'll send you the guidelines on what the field test is and then that will give you a true maximum heart rate. Once you got the true maximum heart rate, then we work out the percentages from there. And in both of these, these clients' cases once we've got the true maximum heart rate, we then started getting more bang for their buck from their interval, the interval sessions in their threshold sessions. Because all of a sudden we were pushing up a beat cause like you were their age, they weren't, they weren't falling into the averages. So if you're interested in that, what you've got to be willing to do with that though is with the field test you've got, you've got to be comfortable, get pretty much going to your, to falling over.
Speaker 2: (08:36)
Yeah. And which isn't much fun. But yeah, because there is that, that role of some role of 220 minus your age, you know, can be completely skewed if you're a particularly good for your age, hopefully that's what it's showing me and it's therefore not quite appropriate. So just understanding the limitations of the test. And then using it to your best advantage. And the other side of the side of that coin is that you can become so tied up with the science. And we have some, some of our athletes, a lot of stuff, very much, well looking at the genetic profiles, most of them are crusaders like you kneel and I'm very analytical, very do you want to know about those different buyer types? And if your genetics we can take you through that one day. But very analytical, very statistic buys, very wanting to have all that data and want to be able to work completely with data.
Speaker 2: (09:30)
And that works for some people, but other people, they find that completely intimidating. They don't want to know all that. They just want to be able to run it and joy and you know, and, and sometimes people get a bit obsessive with the statistics and that can become a actual negative as well because you can be so focused on that you're not actually listening to your body and not actually actually feeling how am I actually feeling right now and should I be pushing this? So it's, it's having the, the, the experience and the wisdom a little bit to use a technology to your advantage but not to, not to be a slave to the technology and, you know,
Speaker 3: (10:05)
Totally, totally agree. One of the ways I've I've overcome my obsession and addiction with numbers is I I, I I no longer plug my, my, my watching, I plug it in to charge it, but I don't save any of the data or download any of the data. I don't actually look anymore at this point in with where I'm at, cause I use the watch to see where I'm at on my run and then I won't compare runs from previous runs or anything like that. I just look at where I'm at on the day. I use our wellness check with all our clients. So you get a subjective view before I leave for my run. Where am I at from a nutrition point of view, a stress point of view or hydration point of view, movement, niggles, injuries. And then I, I take all that and go, right, I'm feel good to go.
(10:47)
My scores are good and then I'll just keep an eye on Watchers. I'll go, but I won't any more. Use it as a to go back and track track data sometimes. I that's useful. And for some of, as you, so for some of our opponents we do do that because it gets some great results, but it's very important, which is what you're alluding to is that you use it to your advantage.
Speaker 2: (11:07)
Yeah. You'll personality chart. Yep. You know, and you make it work for you. And the other, the other danger was things like, you know, or I met my run and Cobra and all those apps that monitor your, you know, your kilometers, you're doing the speed, you're doing it at the, the, the road that you're taking and the comparisons to last week. And then you've got all the comp, the competition that comes out through that. And like, I know my husband finds that great. He loves it. You know, he's always putting his stuff up on striver and comparing how he did last week on that road to how someone else's doing. And comparing where he's on the ranks and all that sort of crap. Whereas I just not interested in that. And the, the problem that can come with that is then that you come, you very much come painting every time you go for a training and you're not actually doing what's on your actual training pain, which said you should be going out for cruisy day recovery day and then you're going fast.
Speaker 2: (12:01)
Cause you don't want anyone, it's think you can only run X amount of minutes per kilometer. And so you get too competitive and you're not actually following the structure of the plan, if that makes sense. And the flip side of that is also that a lot of people just want to collect kilometers for their strava account because if it doesn't, if it's not on, strava it didn't happen. This is a bit like Instagram, you know, life didn't happen if it wasn't on Instagram. And that mentality can also trip people up because you know, you're, you're, you're not doing it for the right reasons and you're not, you competing all the time rather than actually having a benefit. And what's most important is that you realize that strength training and mobility training, which is what we preach all the time, is also iPod and you are training. So if you're if you're getting an extra 10 K's a week, but you've sacrificed to strengthen your mobility, you gotta be way worse as a runner in the long run than if you had done those.
Speaker 3: (12:59)
And that's the, I mean that's, that's the beauty of our app as well. Cause you can use strava. Yes. That's actually should be our by line. If it, isn't on running hot app it didn't happen. We can connect to our app strava and Garmin. So you can not only see the runs, you see the mobility sessions completed and the and the strength sessions completed as well. But, but getting that balance, getting that balance as you say is, is key. But just want to come back to the personality types a bit as well, if, because again, for some people who are going through the pros and cons and there's not going to be, we're not gonna give you a perfect answer at the end of this podcast saying this is how to do it.
Speaker 3: (13:44)
We just want to make you very aware that what you should be paying attention to. The other thing that some people get great results from has been part of the community. So as a big part of what our business and running hall is built on, it's been in part of the community where you get support. So the technology can provide that as well. It can help you do that. If you are part of a community, if you are sharing it on Strava, if you're part of a sharing through Garmin, if you're doing it through running halt, then it does, it does definitely help with allowing you to know that you've got that support and accountability around you.
Speaker 2: (14:15)
Yeah, absolutely. And so once again, using it to your advantage and you know, so without at, so we have a you know, an a mobile friendly app that you can, you have on your phone and you can use it when you go out and you'll get all your mobility workouts, all your strength workouts as well as your run station. So it's not just counting your kilometers and ignoring the other thing. So it's actually quite good when you have it on your calendar. Yup. Tech, tech tech. I did, I did my mobility, I did my strength and I did my actual run stations to where strap variety counselor kilometers. I so that, that's really important. I think. So. what else? You know what I was sort of technology stuff is out there. Neo and what else do you use? I mean like this, you know, running with music, running
Speaker 3: (15:00)
Well I'll use, yeah, I use when I'm, when we started creating our programs like five years ago, at least as part of creating the programs weren't for the process of checking they were. And one of the, one of the things we built in one of our foundation programs was using a metronome. So for five weeks on our foundation one program, I literally ran with a metronome to make sure that the intervals were putting together the sessions we were putting together. They worked, they did what they said on the packet and they got the results they they should. Once I tested it, we then tested it, well the people and does it work and as we built the, built the programs up, that's that's how it was done. So running with a metronome is great. If you're looking to increase cadence and efficiency and run more constantly injury free, you can download. We use one from frozen eight you can download a simple metronome, put it on if you want to do what I did and remember the beep in your ear. That's reasonably insane. Way to do it. If you'd rather listen to some music on now I now use, I just got onto a Spotify list
Speaker 2: (15:57)
and I will download run music for 180 beats per minute.
Speaker 3: (16:01)
You can do it 170 and there's various different options on there. So do a base test, which you can easily do straight away. Go out and count your cadence, how many times you've put such as a four in one minute. Tom's about to, you can do it off your left foot, your right foot, and then see where you're at. If you want to increase it slightly, go and get some music. If you're at one six, eight go and get some music that
Speaker 2: (16:21)
Susan, one 70. Yeah. So what is the, what is a good cadence? You know, like I'm for people who don't understand what cadences are speeding your feet that are turning over and then the last time you were actually on the ground, the more efficient your running stylists. So if you're planting your foot and again you've got a very slow and big long strides but slow, steep and you're putting all the weight into the ground each time, then you're not going to be as efficient as someone who's just you know, like running on hot coal was a few like and going very fast with the legs. Smaller, smaller steps perhaps, but they're going faster. That's what you call a high cadence. And that coupled with all the techniques, stuff helps you run faster basically in run more efficiently energy. And you know, that's a topic for another day as forms and drills and so on. But so what is a good cadence in your answer?
Speaker 3: (17:11)
going go on and look now, then they probably get around that they can, well, they work, they get around the 180 plus and some of the stuff that people will read and again, don't, don't get hung up on it. Another example we're talking on technology you shouldn't get hung up on is you know, if the 180 is the sweet spot and anything above that, then great that there's great evidence there that shows that. However, what we'd rather you do is see where you right now. So we are fans of meeting you where you are at right now and then helping you improve from there. We've had great wins with people improving their cadence from one six eight one seven five and now they're running pain free, no injuries. And the pain that they had had is gone.
Speaker 3: (17:56)
And they're quite comfortable. Do they need to get up to one I80. they might get small wins, but if they're happy where they are, it's about the individual. So please, when you're looking at all your numbers on your watch, your heart rate, your speeds, your cadence, however you're doing it, and whatever type of technology are you using, please use yourself as the baseline. Don't worry about what anyone else is doing and understand, which we've talked about on other podcasts. Your why. So don't worry about, I speak, we speak to a lot of people that want to get here because that's what, that's what the world says I should do. That's what you're told. You do get to where you want to be because it's your purpose and it's your why and understand that yeah. Improving cadence will help. Having a bit of a heart rate will help, but it should be better in relation to where you want it to be too.
Speaker 2: (18:43)
Yeah. Yeah. We don't want to have to be an Olympic athlete so we can stop. Where we are at, and it's comparing you to you always, and we're very big on that anyway. That it's not about comparing yourself to every other person on the planet. It's about, you know, doing, doing the base for your body at this time and for your goals that you've got. Sit out for us. What other technology? I'm just trying to rack my brain of different technologies that are out there. I mean, what's your take on running with music? In regards, like for safety on like not a great fan of, of wearing headphones or having things in your ear when you're running on roads and stuff. And even on, even in the Bush, like if you've got both ears covered, I sometimes run with like one athletic in one ear.
Speaker 2: (19:30)
It's, you know, I like to be aware of my surroundings and you're just sometimes with your toe into the music and it can be really motivating. It can be really good, but you watch out for traffic. Right. Cause you know, I have been hit once and, and when I was running through New Zealand in Oakland and I had my things on and I just didn't hear this car come around the corner and hit me. Luckily I wasn't injured, but you know, it could have been different. And that's cause I hate the things in my ear. And even in nature, I like to, there's this subtle things that your brain picks up when it's actually tuned into your environment and when you put in something in your ears and it can broke out that part of the perception that's on their almost subconscious level. And you can, you know, not hear the, somebody coming up behind you or this, you know, those sort of things. So just being aware of your safety or at all times if you have got stuff in your ear.
Speaker 3: (20:23)
Yeah, correct. That's , and again, it will be very personal. It'd be very much down to people's people's health type profile and where they're at, what weights, what makes them right. But I think the key message there from, as you say, is make sure it's, it's safe. It's and you aware the environments around you. If you really are gonna need your senses, then don't block them. But if you're running in a safe environment that you know, you know where you're going, you know what you're doing, your notes, you know it's very safe then and music helps you then then use it to help you. It definitely helps me. I'm a huge fan of running your music but there's certain times or a one if I'm running certain areas or yeah, place, I don't know. But it does that, it allows me to relax and get into my, in smaller [inaudible]
Speaker 2: (21:12)
I was just going to go to a, in regards to technology
Speaker 3: (21:17)
And I've lost my train of thought. I think the, the, the bits we've covered there leaves with the, you know, the, the main ones of what is the main message we wanted people to take away from this was understanding how to use it to your advantage, understand the, how to apply it to your to your programming, to your goal, to your why. And I think what you mentioned there as well, the, the so many apps out there to help you with your, with your running, with your, with your fitness, with your health fits, choose things based on your why. I think it should be the, the clear message. If you're going to add a tool into the mix with your training, the tool should help you get to your why, your goal, your purpose a whole lot quicker. If the tool is you're just adding it in because everyone else is using it, then if it's not going to give you any value, don't use it if it gives you value personally and that's where we can help because for some people with our programming where we're so right, heart rate training is definitely for you.
Speaker 3: (22:16)
For others, we wouldn't even, some people, some of our clients I've actually told to throw the Watchers way but more, we don't want to put it away in a drawer. You're not using that for the next six months because it's confusing issue. Yep. Others we say, right, you need to go and buy a watch. But that's because it's very relevant to their, to their why and what they want to achieve. So when you make new choices, make it based on what you want to, what you want to achieve.
Speaker 2: (22:37)
Listening to your body is always a good message. I think that's probably covered that set subject. Any last words that you wanted to put up and then any other areas that you wanted to cover off under this?
Speaker 3: (22:50)
No, I don't think we were just bringing people back to full circle to what you finished with there on our a wellness check. So do what you're getting from a technological point, technology point of view. Please, please, please listen to what your body's saying. So our wellness check allows you to do that from a very subjective point of view. So going through a simple checklist of where your body is at each day, we'll let you know where you're at. Trust your trust your heart, and trust your gut with your decisions as well. And that's probably a whole, whole another side.
Speaker 2: (23:21)
That's the whole another subject. At the moment studying. Yeah. Are you
Speaker 3: (23:28)
Making your decisions? They, your gut will tell you things. Your brain tells you things and your heart definitely tells you things. But those are those three things where you're making your decisions and includes around the technology. The technology might be worth telling you one thing, but the gut, the heart, the brain one, all three might be telling you another, don't stop listening to this because
Speaker 2: (23:48)
We've got the technology
Speaker 3: (23:49)
Well, the technology say tell you something. No one knows you better than you. I don't care what any coach says. Any thoughts or any health professional, the person that knows you better than anyone else's you. So you, you've got all the answers. You just need to choose which tools you're going to take to get those answers. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2: (24:07)
And you need to trust your instincts and your intuition and use the need to understand when you're being just lazy or when you've been actually sensible. You know? And this is what the wellness check helps people do. So for those who haven't heard us talk about our wellness chip before, it's just basically a spritz switch spreadsheet that you look at every day. That ticks off is an eight different areas I think. So hydration, nutrition, sleep your stress levels, whether you got any injuries and you're writing yourself on a scale of one to 10 now one being not so good, 10 being on point. And if your hydration and nutrition and you had a bad sleep and you had been stressed to hell at work and you meet to go out and do a really intense long session, then that's not a good combination. So you might want to shift days around.
Speaker 2: (24:50)
And so this gives us a a day by day a taste, a few like a quick one minute taste to say, yep, these are my numbers and Whoa, I'm not doing too well today. I'm feeling a little bit often. My hydration wasn't good and I had a really shitty nights and order this for the staff and then I probably shouldn't go and smash my body on top of it. In the past, I used to, if I didn't feel good, I used to go harder. You know, if I, if I had had a couple of drinks a day before, then I'd gone special South, even worse because I'd been bad. There's actually a really dumb thing to do cause your body's already under stress and you're actually overstressing on top of the streets. And the number one intimate of performance is stress. The number one enemy of, of everything alive as stress.
Speaker 2: (25:37)
If we have too much stress in our bodies, our digestion doesn't work properly, our immune system doesn't work properly. Intuitive nature doesn't work properly. And Brian Stein say everything, it's got tunnel vision. You can't make decisions. All of these things. So we don't want to be adding to the streets liberals in their body. We want to be working with optimizing our performance and this wellness cheek. I'll put a link in the show notes or you can contact us to get one of those as well. But that's a really good subjective way. You know, old SKO, not part of technology but just a subjective way to test everything.
Speaker 3: (26:13)
But if your technology laces, if you're, the technology you've got is doing the job, it should, when you test you, when you go through that subjective score, you, if you get it right and you've got in tune with your body, and that's the whole point of going through this we want are the people that are working with us and the people that are listening to us to be in tune with their body. If you're in tune with it, then you've got this right and your scores are low, your watch should be telling you you need sleep and rest. If you, if you, if you scored high, then you'll look at your watch and say, yeah, go run and go and go heart. And that's what important want to get. Where we want to get everyone to is that they're that in tune, that they listen to the body, that that needs the technology. But the technology is just confirming that this is, this is, this is good. You're doing well.
Speaker 2: (26:55)
It's better to go to a yoga session today, then go into a city, Karen maybe, right?
Speaker 3: (26:59)
Yeah, and vice versa. Sometimes it's best thought. You go out and you do your 30 K run cause everything's stacking up as it should.
Speaker 2: (27:06)
Yeah. Alright, well thanks Neil. It's been a great little subject for the today's podcast. I hope you enjoyed that. Just a heads up guys. I had the real great privilege them a couple of days ago being on a do at church radio and just want to give a plug to met and a Eugene over at [inaudible]. It's radio. Fantastic Comcast. Make sure you go and check out that episode that I did with them and also all of their other great guests that that had on there. I think the guys are brilliant. I'm going to have them on my show shortly. So watch out for that and yeah, make sure you go back and check out all the other great podcasts episodes that we've done on here. We've had a couple of great weeks with JJ Virgin last week and Tom Cronin, who's the producer of the portal, a massive worldwide huge movie coming out very, very soon.
Speaker 2: (27:52)
So you don't want to miss out on all that action. And if we can ask you guys a favor, please go and do a writing and review for the show on iTunes. That really, really helps the show get exposure, get a better rating and all those things are really, really important for the show. So if you enjoy that and you like what we do in the content that we've reduced sets away that you guys can help support the show and we'd really, really appreciate it. And there's always, if you want to reach out to Neil awry, you can reach us either via the website. Just go to Lisa@lisatamati.com. Hit us up on the contact buttons here. You can or you can just email me at least the, at least at lisa@lisatamati.com or neil@runninghotcoaching.com. Okay. All of those things will find us. We're pretty easy to reach. We're on all the social media, at least lisatamati on Instagram. Lisa Tamati on Facebook and yeah, really easy to find and please reach out to us if you've got any questions or we can help you with your journey. We'd love to do that. And we'll see you again next week guys. Thanks Neil.
Speaker 1: (28:54)
That's it this week for pushing the limits. Be sure to rate, review and share with your friends and head over and visit Lisa and her team at least at www.lisatamati.com.
The information contained in this show is not medical advice it is for educational purposes only and the opinions of guests are not the views of the show. Please seed your own medical advice from a registered medical professional.
JJ Virgin is a 4 x New York Times Best Selling Author, TV show Host, Triple Board certified Celebrity Nutritionist and a warrior mum.
In 2012 JJ's 16 year old son Grant was the victim of a hit and run accident and was left barely hanging onto life, after weeks in a critical condition and defying all the odds he slowly emerged from his coma with major brain trauma and 13 fractures and a near torn aorta.
JJ was told from the outset he wouldn't survive the first night, that he wouldn't survive the airlift to the hospital, that he wouldn't survive the operation and that if by some miracle he did his brain damage would make it a life not worth living.
But JJ is a fighter and she decided from the outset that her son would survive and thrive and that she wouldn't rest until he was 110%. The years of rehabilitation and the strategies she used to get him there is what we share in this interview.
This powerful story resonated with me because I have been through the same experience with my mother and I too refused to give up, had to advocate for her rehabilitation and took a multple pronged approach to her recovery as did JJ with her son.
This incredibly powerful woman is a testament to what the right mindset combined with love, belief, faith and the ability to build a team around her can do to beat the odds.
We would like to thank our sponsors
Running Hot - By Lisa Tamati & Neil Wagstaff
If you want to run faster, longer and be stronger without burnout and injuries then check out and TRY our Running Club for FREE on a 7 day FREE TRIAL Complete holistic running programmes for distances from 5km to ultramarathon and for beginners to advanced runners.
All include Run training sessions, mobility workouts daily, strength workouts specific for runners, nutrition guidance and mindset help Plus injury prevention series, foundational plans, running drill series and a huge library of videos, articles, podcasts, clean eating recipes and more.
www.runninghotcoaching.com/info and don't forget to subscribe to our youtube channel at Lisa's Youtube channel www.yotube.com/user/lisatamat and come visit us on our facebook group
www.facebook.com/groups/lisatamati
Epigenetics Testing Program by Lisa Tamati & Neil Wagstaff.
Wouldn’t it be great if your body came with a user manual? Which foods should you eat, and which ones should you avoid? When, and how often should you be eating? What type of exercise does your body respond best to, and when is it best to exercise?
These are just some of the questions you’ll uncover the answers to in the Epigenetics Testing Program along with many others. There’s a good reason why epigenetics is being hailed as the “future of personalised health”, as it unlocks the user manual you’ll wish you’d been born with!
No more guess work. The program, developed by an international team of independent doctors, researchers, and technology programmers for over 15 years, uses a powerful epigenetics analysis platform informed by 100% evidenced-based medical research.
The platform uses over 500 algorithms and 10,000 data points per user, to analyse body measurement and lifestyle stress data, that can all be captured from the comfort of your own home
Find out more about our Epigenetics Program and how it can change your life and help you reach optimal health, happiness and potential at: https://runninghotcoaching.com/epigenetics
You can find all our programs, courses, live seminars and more at www.lisatamati.com
Transcription from the show.
Speaker 2: (00:02)
Well, hello everybody. It's Lisa Tamati here at pushing the limits today. I have a really wonderful special guest with me all the way from Tampa in Florida. She's an absolute superstar of a lady. She's a celebrity nutritionist, four times New York Times best seller fitness hall of Famer and she's also a warrior mum and she has a very interesting story today that we're going to delve into both in her career and what she's achieved but also,uwas ubrain injury in regards to his son grants. We had a hit and run x events. So welcome to the show JJ. It's fantastic to have you. Thank you. Good to be here also.
(00:42)
So JJ, I just want to start a little bit of it with a background. If you wouldn't mind sharing, what you do and your, your books and your work a little bit. That'd be fantastic.
Speaker 3: (00:54)
All right. I am a nutrition and fitness expert and so I've got a bunch of books I've written over the years. Online programs. I speak, I do TV. I had a couple, I was kind of helped start reality TV because I was on Dr Phil's weight loss challenges for two years. It was really when that whole thing was kinda getting going. Then I had my own show on TLC called freaky eaters. So I've been really fortunate to just be able to work in something that I'm super passionate about, which is anything related to health and wellness. And then I also have an organization where we help other doctors and health experts get their message out to the world called mindshare.
Speaker 2: (01:37)
Oh Wow. And that is something that we definitely want to delve into a little bit too. So now I want to go back to you've got two sons, Bryce and Grant and in 2012 Grant was the victim of a hit and run accident. Can we share a little bit about that story and what you sort of went through with him and you know, it really resonated with me, your book and your story because a lot of the same dramas that you have over there, it was with the system a few like we have here as well. Probably even worse, the speaks and you had to be a real fighter and therefore the title of your, your book sort of really resonated with me as well. So can we go into that story a little bit and tell us what happened with Grant?
Speaker 3: (02:29)
Yeah, it's really a story I realized after the fact. It's really a story about what it takes to be a caretaker and I think that's important to underscore because it's a role all of us will have to play, right? I mean, at some point in your life you're going to be taking care of kids, you're going to be taking care of your parents. Maybe you're taking care of both at the same time or a spouse or siblings. So it's, it's one of those roles in life that you will probably face and how you show up during that role can make the difference between life and death for that person. So and also you know, how you show up is going to make a difference on your personal health too. So the grant was 16 years old. My other son was 15 years old.
Speaker 3: (03:15)
Bryce and grant went out to walk to a friend's house one night and got hit by a car and I didn't see this. A neighbour didn't see him getting hit. He just saw him lying on the street. You saw this woman get out of her car, gasp, get back in and drive off. And he then called nine one one and he was airlifted to the local hospital. When we got there, they told us that he had a torn aorta and it was going to rupture sometime in the next 24 hours unless it got repaired. But that he would never survive the airlift to the next hospital. They couldn't repair it there. He would have to, but that he wouldn't survive that. And even if you were to survive that, he would most likely not survive the surgery. And even if you were to survive that, he'd be so brain damaged.
Speaker 3: (04:07)
It wouldn't be worth it. I mean, literally they said that, I remember looking at this doctor going, he didn't, did he say that? And My 15 year old looked at the doctrine, he said, well, maybe like, is there a 0.25% chance he'd make it because the doctor already said his aorta was going to rupture sometime in the next 24 hours. And the doctor said, that sounds about right. Bryce could looked over at me. That's not zero. You know, and we're like, we'll take those odds. And because I think any, any parent out there or anyone who loves anybody would have to agree that as long as there's a chance, even if it's the teensiest little chance, like you've got to go for it, you know, you've got to fight for it. I mean, the idea that I was gonna let my son die here, there was absolutely no way I was going to do that.
Speaker 3: (04:52)
So we overruled. This doctor. Had Him airlifted. He survived the airlift, went through surgery, he survived that surgery. Now when he came out of the surgery, he had a stint in and he was, his aorta was fine, but he was in a deep coma. The neurosurgeons were like, we don't know if he'll wake up. And I remember standing in the hospital and he had 13 fractures. He was in this deep coma, multiple brain bleeds. And there were like literally Lisa, two little fingers I could hold on to everything else was either covered with road rash. It was bandaged shoes and cast. And I was standing there holding this little fingers and I said, grant, you know, I love you so much and nothing, you know, just the beeps of the machine he had, he was on a respirator, he had a central line. So it was all these things being monitored.
Speaker 3: (05:43)
And then I said, and your brother Bryce loves you so much. And I felt the littlest fingers squeezy and Huh. And then I said, you know, grandma loves you so much, nothing. And I said, your girlfriend Kenzie loves you so much. And that's when I felt this big by my hand getting picked a little bit up. And I said, you know, grant, you're going to be 110% your name means warrior. I got this. I've got so many friends in the business who can help, but I need you to fight. You've got to fight, you've gotta hang on for me and your name means warrior. Turns out. So I said, you just got to you. You've got to fight all, handle the rest and we're going to get you to be 110% and I just lived that 110%. I was so afraid to let anything else get into my brain that, that you know, the what ifs.
Speaker 3: (06:31)
Like what if he doesn't wake up? What if he can't walk away? I just, cause I felt like if I thought it, it would happen. So I've always been one of those people who believes that you can, you can create your reality. And I just managed my mindset. I stay focused on the 110% and you know, and there are a lot of times in there, things were not looking like they were even gonna make it to like 30%. You know, I'm much less a hundred, much less this like unrealistic number that doesn't exist. But I will tell you today, after being told that he would never survive an air lift or surgery, he'd be so brain damaged. He'd never wake up, he wouldn't walk, he couldn't hear like over and over and over again. He is better than before that accident is so, and you know, it has been this thing in our life that has made all of us in the family so much better and stronger because now you know, the, the things that would average most people would get rattled about, the average person would get upset about, they don't even like, they don't even trick, trick trigger us at all.
Speaker 3: (07:39)
Like we're like, Eh, no one's dying here. You know, and I'm sure you relate, right? I mean like stuff like this, you realize the stuff that people let get them upset on a regular basis. It just doesn't, who cares? You know,
Speaker 2: (07:57)
Actually. Yeah. And I mean, I've, my lesson is, know my story with my mom and very similar, not gonna survive if she does miss and brain damage, if she, you know, when she did wake up after weeks in a coma sh lights on, nobody home
Speaker 2: (08:16)
Years and years of rehabilitation and we're out a story's cross. And why this is so important for me is that you never gave up. You keep your mind on the know. Exactly. I had that 110% in my head too when I go around still saying that. And my mom's only at 90%, so I wa I've still got a wee way to go. But in their whole process, it's not that you don't have doubts and disappear and times where you're on the ground crying going, oh my God, how am I going to get through this? But it's keeping it standing back up every time,
Speaker 3: (08:48)
Every time. And Hey, here's the thing, Lisa. So you went for 110% and got to 90
Speaker 3: (08:55)
That's a lot better than the zero they were giving you. Right. You know, like you look at it, I kept thinking, oh, I'm going to go for 110% if I get to like wherever I get to is better than the zero that they, the 0.25 they gave me. So you know, you just gotta keep going. And by the way, it's only been recently that he really has been getting to this hundred and 10% I just figured as long as he's alive, there's always something else I can do. It's something amazing I can do. So he is now better than before the accident. But now I'm not showing, you know, we're just going to keep
Speaker 2: (09:27)
Pushing. Exactly. And you've got to, you've got to keep that focus. One of the things, the, the title of my book that's coming out is called relentless. And that's exactly what you have to be is totally and utterly real. And I know, and with my journey, I came up against a huge opposition to the way that I was wanting to rehabilitate my mum in both the resources that I wouldn't try to get hold of. In my approach, I was criticized a lot for why are you putting you through such a rigorous and difficult training regime? Why don't you just let it be comfortable and know
Speaker 3: (10:07)
Rest, no wrestling cupcakes and just let her be
Speaker 2: (10:10)
Exactly. Cupcakes and this, I mean, I'm a ultra endurance athlete. I've been an athlete my entire life and I know so we, you know, do 200 300 kilometer races and things and I know how to overcome when your mind is trying to stop you. I know that people are capable of so much more than what we think we are. Yeah. What I have issue with, I understand that the medical professionals do not want to give you false hope, but to take away your hope creating. Huh. Any hope makes you have a weak action. Like you're not going to fight because you don't believe there's a waste at home. You know, here's the thing.
Speaker 4: (10:55)
Okay.
Speaker 3: (10:55)
No one can take our hope away.
Speaker 4: (10:57)
Cool.
Speaker 3: (10:59)
So what we've really got to manage is, is we're, we, we're putting people in the wrong places. What you're going when you're going to a doctor is you're getting an opinion. You can do what you want with the opinion. That's what you're getting as an opinion. You know, like the opinion of the doctor at the first hospital was the complete opposite of the opinion of the doctor in the second hospital. Why the first hospital doctor worked in Palm Springs, California, where the average age coming into the urgent care, the trauma center was about 75. Oh Wow. And for 75 year old with a torn aorta, multiple brain bleeds, multiple fractures, this would've been it.
Speaker 3: (11:40)
But for a 16 year old, it's not. And so the trauma center, we got them to, which is the second trauma centers, number two trauma center in the country in us, they see all sorts of gang fights, people thrown off, overpasses, all sorts of stuff. This was like not out of the norm. Right? So you're just getting their opinion based on what they know. And they're going to give you the best opinion they can based on the information that they have. And then you get to make the decision you want out of it. I think that we're giving people power where we shouldn't be, you know, so and yes, people thought I was absolutely crazy. But then they started to get behind it cause I started tell them what, you know, what I was doing and what we were going to have, especially when they walked in, said, oh he's never gonna walk again.
Speaker 3: (12:30)
I go, well, Huh. You know, he had a crushed heel. And I said, well what if Kobe Bryant were in this bed cause I'm pretty sure that you would be doing everything possible. So that's what we're going to do. And you know, then they told me he was in the second hospital, which was a rehab hospital. And they told me that you know, there was a swimming pool and they go in there. They go, oh he's not ready for that. And there was a gym and I would sneak into the gym with him and do stuff and they get mad at me. So then I got to t I got a little furlough where I got to take them out for four hours. So we took them to an Olympic size pool. We took a video of him swimming perfectly through this pool. Then we took him to the gym, and then I took the video of him doing all this workout stuff at the gym. And I said, he wants to be challenged. Human beings need to be challenged. They, you know, that's how we actually get stronger. We don't get stronger by doing a little less than what we're capable of. We get stronger by being pushed beyond what we think we're capable of. And that's what we have to do.
Speaker 2: (13:34)
I mean, that is just absolutely amazing. I mean, well, I had all this opposition when I was in the hospital that she would not even live for a few weeks even when she was stabilized. And that she would never, I would never be able to care for her. And I just, I, I was determined to take her home like this, you know, once they said, look, she's not improving, she's never going to do anything again. You have to put her in this, you know, a hospital institution. And I really fought tooth and nail to get her home and to get a little bit of support. So with caregivers in the morning for an hour and just, you know, for personal cares and some time out because she was 24, seven around the clock here and the, they would not give me the resources that I need. I had to really, really fight.
Speaker 2: (14:23)
And this is one of the important points that I've heard you make before too, and then abuse it. I've listened to did you have to really advocate for your loved one? You can go and, and you've, you're fighting against not only the, the, the accident or the aneurysm or you know, the, the results of that you're filing against the system that if you don't be a pushy, quite, you know, strong person. I mean, I'm, I'm lucky. I'm like, you, I don't really care if people don't like me when it comes to my mum, you know, like, I wouldn't
Speaker 2: (15:00)
Like a, a lot of, you know, oh, she's said pushy daughter. She's very forceful. You know, she's here again, me, I'm sure they hated me. And, and did not believe that I could do any of this. And I actually, at one stage, I remember going in and throwing my other two books at the doctor and saying, this is who I am and I am not putting my mom in a home and you better get used to it. You better give me what I need. And he still wouldn't, you know. So then I'm walking up brother, and who's very big man, and we got results. What we needed. You do, what ever you take to, to give your loved one the best chance possible. And you know, like with, with you taking grant into the gym and seeing, isn't it a, isn't it a beautiful feeling to actually get them out of the hospital situation and finally into some way like a gym or swimming pool surrounded with, with athletes and people that are actually all about improving themselves rather than being in a rehabilitation place where that's what I found that, you know, when she was surrounded by other young athletes training hard, she rose to the next
Speaker 3: (16:15)
Well think about, you know, what we know about obesity, that's super interesting. As they, you know, the studies in the U s about obesity being contagious, you catch it from your friends that you will tend to weigh what your closest friends way, even if they live across the country. And so one of the classic things I say when someone says, all right, well now I've gotten healthy and fit, how do I stay that way? I go find fit friends. So, you know, grant, when we took them, we took them out of the hospital after four and a half months earlier than they wanted us to. And then we had them in a Rehab Center for another month, but then I took them out of that, brought them home and I brought them to a training center that is the Athletic Training Center for that area. And they are amazing what they do. There are all sorts of, you know, like rope training, balance training power, like really cool stuff. And that's what we had them doing. And he's still now doing it to this day, like all sorts of crazy balanced stuff and you know, climbing and ropes and that kind of stuff that, you know, again, the average person won't do much less. Someone with rods in their thighs and, you know, he had ac joint problems, all sorts of stuff. And like
Speaker 2: (17:37)
He's fine, he's fine and he's fighting back. And did you with a brain injury? Did you have to teach grant everything from scratch again or did he start like with mum, it took me 18 months to teach mum just to roll over and bead, you know, it was that she couldn't push a button or she couldn't sit like she was completely floppy and no special awareness. Did grant have those issues as well?
Speaker 3: (18:05)
Yeah, that's very interesting. So grant was in a coma for a couple of weeks and I thought like in the movies, you know, in the movies someone's in a coma and then one day they wake up and they go, hi, I love you. So that is like shame on those movies. This does not happen this way. We, he didn't wake up from that coma overnight. It happened over time and a lot of time. And we basically got to start all over again at, first of all he did was stare off into space. He wouldn't make eye contact and you moved one arm has only thing that was in a cast. He moved one arm back and forth all day every day. And I was like, Oh, you know, and then we'd sleep off and on and then then you started, you know, being able to make eye contact. Then he started. Then one day I wasn't there at the time, which is so sad. His girlfriend came in and he said, I love you. And so he just, things started to come out, but we had to start all over again with teaching them how to brush his teeth, how to eat, how to go to the bathroom. He knew none of this, none of it. So it was quite like, it was like raising a very big, a 16 year old baby.
Speaker 2: (19:16)
Yeah. I had a 74 year old baby and they don't think very well.
Speaker 3: (19:20)
Yeah. Right. It's not a, it's very different.
Speaker 2: (19:24)
And, and, and this is what people don't quite understand is the dates of the rehabilitation. Every time you get something back, you realize there's another deficit that you haven't thought of. Yeah. You haven't come up against that problem until that one is sort of right. Right.
Speaker 3: (19:37)
That one installed and you're like, oh no, now they're going to get up. And they can't gonna have any balance. Oh, now that they want to get up, now they've got to go. You know, it's like, yeah. Every single thing was,
Speaker 2: (19:49)
Was relearning and retraining the brain. Now you were very, in a very lucky situation, you hit some of the world's top doctors and brain doctors like Dr. Daniel Amen. Who's amazing. They supported you through the students. [inaudible] Yeah, most of them don't have such amazing friends, if you like. And the opportunity to get the information that you needed. I want to go a little bit into the, like the supplementation side of things and then get into hyperbaric because hyperbaric is something that we both did. And I know with my mom, it was absolute key factor in her recovery. Can you tell us what your nutritionist, you're an amazing nutritionist, triple board certified, you know, everything about the right foods. What's wrong with the stuff that they give you in the hospital?
Speaker 3: (20:41)
Things grant said was, you know, when they tried to give him hospital food was disgusting. And I was like yeah, I made a point, especially at the first hospital, the second hospital had better food, but the first hospital had just the typical, it was a county hospital and it was all processed. It was horrible. Honestly. It was like ensure and white bread and I mean just horrible stuff. And he needed wholefoods. He needed you know, good and mega threes, he needed lots of vegetables. There was none, there was nothing there to be had. And so I made a point of bringing and it was a pain in the bucks. His hospital's parking lot was under construction, so I'd end up parking anywhere from a mile to two miles away every single day. And it wasn't in a great neighborhood. So sometimes this would be like six in the morning, nine at night.
Speaker 3: (21:38)
So it was like, I look at me, I don't, I don't know how the heck I would do this and I would bring a cooler bag of stuff cause there was nowhere to store it there. There was no fridge or freezer or anything else I could use. And so I would just bring this stuff in and I'd make him me smoothies where I'd put fish oil in and Greens and load him up with supplements that he needed. Cause my gosh, when you're healing like that, he had 13 fractures and your brain is healing. You need to be, have heavy duty nutrient dense food and supplements like you don't, this is when you need the most of it. And the last thing you should be doing is eating white flour and you know, bad fats and sugar. Like are you kidding me? You know, we don't want to waste calories here. We've got to make every single thing counts. So I was getting wild salmon and bone Brah and Avocados. I mean I was just loading him up with stuff and thankfully once he started to eat he was a pretty good eater. But you know, at first it was mainly smoothies.
Speaker 2: (22:41)
Yeah, a new triple a was my best friend. That was a thing I could get into mum cause she could only draw. And this is really, really important that you talk about fish oils and there's a whole lot of other supplements that can really help with brain health. And this is not general knowledge. This is I did CBD oils. I did you know, fish oils anything that was anti-inflammatory, tumeric and things like this. What are some of the secret sauce things, if you like that you grant, and I know you hit them on high doses of fish oil.
Speaker 3: (23:20)
Well, high dose fish oil was definitely the biggest one that we did. They wouldn't let us do it right away. Now, here's what I would say is prior to the accident he was doing five grams of fish oil a day. I believe that that was one of the key things that helped him get through this because it protects your brain. You never know when your brain is going to get injured, right? And if you've got that on to begin with before it happens, you're going to be in better shape. So he had an on board to begin with. Then as soon as I could, the hospital refused to give him more than two grams. So as soon as he took out his feeding tube, which he spit out himself, then I started in. And so that's how I got the fish oil up.
Speaker 3: (24:04)
Cause I gave this the hospital, the studies and they refused. And the next thing I did was make sure that he had a lot of protein on board and good amino acids because, and that's why something like bone broth or adding Collagen, you need all of that so he can, he can heal. He had all these broken bones, he had so much healing to do and he was sarcopenia. Q had been catabolic from you know, being coma and then not moving and then being on a feeding tube. So I kicked his, his protein way up and I was giving him also these really good amino acids. Super you know, bioavailable. And then a lot of, I did vitamin D. Um, I couldn't give him k cause he was on Warfarin, which you know, it was a little bit, I just gave him vitamin D and then I gave him trying to think about curcumin Acetylcarnitine a ton of brain nutrients like I just through the brain nutrient book at him at the time CBD wasn't out yet.
Speaker 3: (25:10)
So it wasn't a thing. Otherwise I would absolutely do that. I gave him progesterone and topical progesterone and I don't know, cause the studies, I did it based on Donald's Donald Donald Stein's work out of Emory university on how they saw that reduce brain inflammation. I don't know if it did or not, but here's the thing, like, you know, people ask what worked and I go, I don't know cause I did everything I possibly could and I figured I did things based on what was the pathway, how would it work and what's the risk versus what's the reward, the risk. We're so low on progesterone versus the potential reward, you know, same with like Fischel. There's no, there's no risk there. The rewards way bigger. So I, that's how I just started dosing. Everything is risk versus reward. When we got him out of the hospital, then I could start hyperbaric.
Speaker 3: (26:01)
We did multiple rounds of stem cells. I think five rounds of, of stem cells. We thread doing stem cells straight into a spine. Wow. And we did a lot of neurofeedback and a lot of exercise, a lot of bringing, like to me, if you to pick one thing that is the most under and has the biggest impact, it's exercise, it raises something called BDNF Alpha. It's going to help you create, you know, create a new brain so to speak. So super important fact that yeah, this is, this is really important. Oh yeah. Yeah. One other thing we did obviously first in the hospital was to and then I wrote to him on this a couple times. Obviously, you know, sugar and gluten are gone, but we had him on a ketogenic diet because when you have a brain injury, your brain can't get glucose in, but it can use ketones for fuel. So, and you can use you can use exotic genus ketones if you have an issue not being able to do that where you're at, like based on what they're feeding. So there's other ways to do it, but that's what we did.
Speaker 2: (27:11)
Yeah. And those are all really important things. So exalted in as keen t times you can get and things like that. MCT Oils and
Speaker 3: (27:18)
Yup. Oh, an MCT oil. Yes, we use that. And coffee. You know, coffee has helped him a lot too. So coffee, MCT oil, lot of healthy fats, a lot of fish. Doesn't really, sugar doesn't eat gluten
Speaker 2: (27:35)
And, and all these things. And this is one of the things that I've, you know, cause I get asked a lot too, what was the one thing that you did it, it's a multifaceted approach. There's no, there's no silver bullet.
Speaker 3: (27:50)
There is one. Lisa, there is one silver bullet and I think this is the most important part of this story is the most important thing that you did was to make this decision that you are going to do everything you possibly could to help her. And relentless and to do what it takes. And that's the decision I made that night in the hospital. And I think the important takeaway is when you make that decision, there's the most important thing that you have in your arsenal in order to pull that off is you. And in order for you to help your mom come back, the thing you have to do before all else is make sure that you, you put yourself in your health first, that when you think about caretaking, you're the first person you take care of because you cannot help someone else unless you are like at the top of your game. And this is a tremendous amount of stress. And I find with so many people, they just stopped taking care of themselves. So super duper important when you look at this to take care of yourself first. Never feel guilty about it. It's actually selfless to do it. Not Selfish because then you can really show up like you need to.
Speaker 2: (29:00)
Yeah. Is, and that's something I probably didn't do too well for the first couple of years and ended up quite sick myself. And, and you know, it was its own journey, but that's a really important point because when you, you're, you pouring in, you're giving all the time, every day, all day. You know, I still work with my mum seven hours a day, even though like now she's driving the car and got a full driver's license and walking and doing everything again, I'm still like, you're like, I want that 110%.
Speaker 3: (29:29)
Oh goodness. At this point of what she went through and how far she's come.
Speaker 2: (29:34)
He has no recollection of the first 19 months. And so she can't believe. And I, you know, I show her the videos and the little, you know, photos and stories that we've got and she's just like, Nah, that's, that's, you know, I, I can't remember any of that. Or I was like, you're very lucky. You don't really cause it was horrific and it's really horrific to look at the, in the eyes of your loved one and they don't know who you are and they don't know what's happening to them. And then to actually see them come back into, be like fully like your whole personalities. The same. She's intelligent woman again. You know, it's just so wonderful. I remember the first time my mum actually rang me on the phone after, I don't know, a year and a half or something and I was just crying my eyes out because she'd worked out how to use the phone, you know, and she could, you know, just the little things like that, you just know, oh, this is working.
Speaker 2: (30:28)
And she's coming back. And the, the biggest thing I found too was that on the day to day grind, because it is a grind, it's a day to day battle of training that you, you don't see the progress often for months at a time. You will see nothing happening and things are happening on the cellular level, but you don't see them. And this is where most people give up in that time when you're in a plateau. And if you can push through that, then you can look back and all of a sudden you have another, you know, another little jump in your abilities. And you'd get something back and you'd look back and how far you've come. But when you measuring it on a day to day basis, you're not actually
Speaker 3: (31:09)
Never, you know, I say this to grant now because he's made some tremendous strides and he doesn't see it. I go, because grant, you don't go out and look at the grass everyday and go, wow, look how much the grass grew from today. But if you went out and looked at the grass f not cutting it for two weeks, you'll look at the grass. Holy Moly. So I go, you cannot, you're going to have to take my word for it. And people who are like seeing you once a week or once a month, you're never going to see this ever. And that's really how life is. Like, you know, everyone wants to have that success. They see the person with the bestselling book or you know, win the race and they think that that just happened and they don't see the grind. And so to me, the paralleling life life is a grind and it's a little consistency every single day that create what we see. Like, people look at grant, I'm sure they're looking at your mom and they go, it's a miracle. I go, it was really flipping grind.
Speaker 2: (32:10)
A lot of miracle is fricking hard work. It is. And, and this is something that fascinated me with your story too because okay, I'm not as, as amazingly successful as you are. And but you had to continue your career. You keep writing your books. I remember you saying, you know, sitting on the side of your son's bed and trying to get your needs, you, your book out, which was at that very same time sort of thing. And
Speaker 3: (32:36)
I remember a sweet woman wrote in, posted on my Facebook page and she goes, don't worry about your job. It will be waiting for you. And I thought, yeah no app won't actually the New York publishers, that will be that, you know, it's like I have a, I have a book, I have everything invested in it. If it doesn't go, I will not get another book deal and I'll be bankrupt and then I will not be able to take care of my son. And so, you know, I don't have a job waiting for me. I run my own business. If I'm not there, it's not happening. And so there wasn't that option. There just was that, that realization that if I want my son to be 110%, I'm going to need to be even more successful because this is not free. You know? And a lot of this stuff that you do, like hyperbaric [inaudible] never covered that stem cells insurance never covered that.
Speaker 3: (33:33)
You know? So it's like, so many of the things that I was doing, insurance just didn't cover. You know, we had he had heavy metal poisoning from some of the stuff and insurance didn't cover that. I mean, just thing after thing after thing. Right. So it, you know, you just, you just do it. You have to do. And it's amazing what we have a capacity to do, you know? Yes. And I, I think for so many people, they're not where they want to be in life because they make success optional. And it wasn't optional here. Right. I mean, in order for me to do what I needed to do for my son, success was no longer an option. It was required in order for me to have what I needed to be able to take him, get him what he needed. And so that was that.
Speaker 2: (34:24)
Yeah. And you had to stay absolute. This is where the mindset stuff really, really kicks in. And I think because you know both you know, running your own companies and you, you have a huge city successful empire now, but it's the combination and years and years and years of work. And if you dropped the ball for five minutes, when you run your own company, that can be the, you know, it's, that cycle wasn't, as I said difficult to coordinate all this stuff. So you have to, I would have to work with mum all day and then I would come home at eight o'clock at night and work til one in the morning in. This is where I burnt out of course working on my businesses and then, you know, wake up at six in the morning and re repeat rinse. And repeat for day in, day out, seven days a week for the last, you know, four years nearly.
Speaker 2: (35:17)
In prior to that, it wasn't exactly not working either. You know, like you were still working like mad and it costs a lot of money to rehabilitate someone. I mean, we, we didn't have a hyperbaric er clinic over here at all, so I had to go into commercial dive company and begged them to be able to use their their chambers. And then I got xs for a little while and then it had to be taken off on a contract. So I had to mortgage the House and buy a hyperbaric chamber, a mild one. And then I actually opened up a clinic because I was such a success.
Speaker 3: (35:50)
Of course you did because you're an entrepreneur. Exactly.
Speaker 2: (35:54)
And I want to be able to have access to this planet. I'm so good on now. So someone else's running it, but people have access to it. And hyperbaric as a, as one of the key things that I just do not understand why it's not an every hospital in every country of the world. Why this is not often for so many things is because I know no lemon drug money behind it. And this is just tragic for so many people that could be helped by this amazing therapy if they would take it, you know, have enough treatments. So there's a lot of things wrong with the system, not only in America, but in New Zealand. So what would be your advice to people if they're facing something like a brain injury or anything in the hospital if they've got a loved one? How do you know, how do people, I mean, we have access to the Internet. We have resources. We know how to research. We know how to, you know, take action. A lot of people listen to the doctors, either experts and just leave it all up to them. That really isn't gonna work as it.
Speaker 3: (37:00)
So the doctors, the hospital saved my son's life. And literally put him back together again. And I think what we do wrong here is that we, they are, they're amazing at trauma. And at that piece of it, what they weren't, and they told me they go, this is not our part. We don't do the Rehab. We don't do this piece. They are in the urgent emergent here. Like these bones are broken. The say orders rupture. Like what, what do we need to do? And so just making sure that you're, like, for some reason we think of say a emergency room doctor is not where I would absolutely go if my son broke his leg is not the person I would go to if my son's moods were unstable or if he, you know, didn't have the energy he needed to have. Like we're going, we're assuming that they do everything.
Speaker 3: (37:57)
And when you really look at it, that is this trauma care, you know, and there's trauma care and then there's disease care and then there's health care or wellness care and there are all different things. But yet we go to two doctors expecting like expecting them to have all the answers, which doesn't make any sense. You'd never go to a gynecologist with a tooth problem. Right. You know, I mean it just, you wouldn't go to your hairstylist for a manicure. Like let's, let's put people ask the right things of the right people because in their zone of genius, like it's amazing. I mean, my son wouldn't be here except for some of these amazing at Harbor UCLA and at Children's Hospital La, you know, I mean they were just incredible. But then we expect them to all of a sudden change gears and do a part of medicine that's not their part.
Speaker 3: (38:47)
And I'd argue that health care really, you know, the wellness side of it probably isn't, that's not where they should even, that's not their part, their parts trauma and disease. Right. Those are different. So I think the first part of all of this though is just making that decision that you're going to be an advocate for your or your loved one. And I know in the hospital they were like, oh my gosh, cause I'd be there every morning when the grand rounds came through and I was doing my research and I was pulling in my expert opinions and I was getting help and I was, and I was walking through and I wanted to understand it. And I have every right to do that, you know, and, and guess what, we have the right to ask for more information to question things, to bring in other ideas.
Speaker 3: (39:36)
We can do that. They don't, you know, they like it though. So we, yeah. Well, you know what if someone, I actually had, I had amazing relationships with most of them. I've, I, you know, one woman who was a bit snotty. But for the most part they actually were pretty cool about all the stuff. And I finally at Children's Hospital La, the meetings, which would have all the doctors and therapists had, me too. I go, you know, I see. I know things you guys will never know because you are not the mom. Like, so I got into all the meetings and we all helped guide the care because, you know, and it was very, very different. So I think it's really coming in from a spirit of teamwork and how can we work together? If I've got a doctor who doesn't want to work with any other doctors, that is not going to be my doctor. Just like, like right now, I just moved to Tampa, we're remodeling the house. And if I'm, I, you know, we have an architect, well, if the, if the person who's going to do the construction doesn't want to work with the architect, we don't have a, we don't have anything going on. Like they're not going to work together. Right. With the doctors. Like they all have to work together. And this is just expectations and don't let someone intimidate you. You're the customer. Yes. You're exactly right. You know? Yeah.
Speaker 2: (40:52)
Him and I did by the, you know, I think we put doctors on a pedestal sometimes, which I mean they're amazing, you know, intellectual incredible people, but they don't always know every answer there is in, just because you don't have a doctorate doesn't mean that you haven't been able to research stuff and find the best doctors that can help you. And you've also got a brain in your head and you, and you're sitting there 24, seven or you know, your family is around the clock with that person. They can see the changes where a doctor hadn't, he has five minutes to spend with you before they move on to the next one.
Speaker 3: (41:27)
Quite often we can see, give them valuable. I had a son with a psych disorder with a brain injury. Yeah. And so I was like going, you know, I can tell you what's new and what's old and where like they would never have been able to tell any of that stuff and what he'd been on before and what worked and what didn't work and where we need to go from here. And I mean that it was a big learning curve and I could spot when things were starting to go sideways with them. Like I could see it right in the middle of his forehead. They could not see it. I go right now, you know, so cause we had to medicate him enough to keep him calm and stable but not so much as bring wouldn't heal. So I mean there's, there's just a lot that can happen when everyone comes as a team and you know, it comes from what I want is an Improv called the yes. And you know, instead of the yes, but philosophies. So, and that's what I found is for the most part, they all worked in the, yes. And especially when I got to children's Hospital La, they were very collaborative. They took it team approach. Everyone from the nurses to the therapist to the docs all had, you know, important things to say and it mattered. [inaudible]
Speaker 2: (42:38)
Well, and it's amazing that [inaudible] grant is now back into life and loving life again and fully well and like you, let's talk a little bit about your mind share summit in your, you know, the work that you do. Cause I want people to, you know, that are listening to this to follow what you do, to read your box, to hop online and learn all about you. So JJ, tell us a little bit about your mind share stuff and what you're into at the moment and where you're going with your career.
Speaker 3: (43:07)
Well my career I've probably got two more books that I'm going to write in the health space. Wow. one much more on how a cure a kind of a caretaker's guide to surviving and thriving. Because that's what really came out of all this with warrior mom is that this really is like we're all caretakers. And then one about really how to, how diets do work were just using them wrong and how to, how to navigate your health. Cause we don't, you know, we don't change our health. We, we haven't been feeling rotten and being sick for 10 years and now we're going to change it in 10 days. You know, it's like takes, it's a process. And what we can accomplish in anything over a year is amazing, but we all try to do it in a week and then beat ourselves up. So working on those two things.
Speaker 3: (44:00)
But my real passion now lies in fact that I have been fortunate over the years to know so many amazing practitioners and doctors and so I've really devoted my life to helping them identify their messages and their purpose and get that out to the world and then find other people to collaborate with. So that's what mindshare summit is, is bringing health care people, health experts, doctors help entrepreneurs together. They can share ideas, support each other collaborate, not feel alone like so many entrepreneurs do. And that's really kind of my bigger, bigger mission now is how do I help people have better resources? When I was in the hospital with grant, I had amazing resources. And you know, now that the Internet's out there, you don't have to be able to send Dr. Daniel Amen. A text message. You can now get to this information. And that's, that's what I want to see out there is more easy access to information so that when these things happen, you can just plug it in and find out. And, you know, biggest threat we have to all of that right now is, is Google and the search engines trying to dictate what you should be able to locate and find. So we're also working on that piece to make sure that, you know, this information stays open to all and it's not censored, which is so obscene. Huh?
Speaker 2: (45:30)
Well, yeah. Now how do we get involved with that? Can we get involved with that? You know, from New Zealand's, because I mean, I'm very passionate too about sharing this knowledge. And this is one of the reasons why I've got this book coming out is because I want people to have the tools that I didn't have when I went into this situation. Yeah. And I, I, you know, I got access to it via the Internet. You know, is there ways that we can be involved with that from New Zealand?
Speaker 3: (45:57)
Which one, which, you know, mind share is, is if you are a health expert doctor, entrepreneur, yes. Mindshare collaborative.com gives you a place to join. It's a membership and then within that we're working on a task force for the rest of this. Cause you know, it's like the whole thing is how do you create information that everyone has access to so that money isn't, isn't the defining line as to whether you can get healthy or not. And you know, the Internet should be the great equalizer. It shouldn't be. All of a sudden you find out that these bigger companies have grand schemes because they own pharmaceutical companies and now they're going to keep the information from you. Like it just, it just is discounted. Really. Yes. It's evil. It's evil. But I think it's, it sounds like it's going to get shut down. If not, you know, there's other options out there. That's hopefully what we get through here with this group
Speaker 2: (46:56)
And with the box and so on. So JJ, before, just as we wrap up as you, any messages that you want to get across that we've, we've covered a lot of ground today. I know that you've worked on, I did want to mention the broken brain series, which I've bought and, and devoured the, the work that those doctors and professionals are doing. This has been a really important thing. I think that's a huge resource. If I'd had that four years ago, we've been brilliant, you know?
Speaker 3: (47:26)
Yes. Oh my gosh. But mark Hyman and drew per it have put together an amazing, Mark's been a longtime friend for like 20 years. You know, he's, he's just doing incredible things. Anyone with any kind of brain stuff going on, broken brain is just incredible resource source for you know, loads of interviews, et cetera. And then drew continues with this broken brain podcast. So there's that too.
Speaker 2: (47:52)
It on jury's podcast. Maybe you can put on a good or on your thoughts for that, that her with the [inaudible] stories.
Speaker 3: (47:58)
Well, yeah, you have to be in person. You must be in La to do. Yeah. So there's that. But the point is there's a lot of resources. I think the most important thing is that first, you know, when you look at what happens in life, it isn't like a, I'll give you an example. Let's say that you want to have a new sofa in your living room. Use something as mundane as that. The first thing you have to do is envision that you want a sofa in your living room. Then you go out and find the sofa you don't like all of a sudden, you know, a sofa pops in and then you envision it. It always happens in your mind's eye first, right? Yep. So same with this. If, if, when I was facing this situation with grant, the first thing was in my mind's eye, I saw him at 110%.
Speaker 3: (48:47)
I saw him getting through this. Now anywhere along the line, something could have happened. He nearly died multiple times, but I knew that I was doing everything humanly possible and beyond that to help him get there. And that's what I, you know, that's what I could do. I could manage my mindset and do everything possible on my, on my end to do that. And I think that's really important is we create it first in our mind. Thoughts create. It's very powerful. It's amazing what we can do. So manage your mindset because it's the first thing that you have control over that and commit and make a decision into the situation and always push past what you think is possible. Which was why I said 110%, you know, versus Oh, I just want grant to be alive. Grant just being alive could have been grant in a wheelchair unable to talk or see or hear or anything. So, you know, go for it, go big for it and then go for the resources to make it happen.
Speaker 2: (49:50)
Well I think that's a beautiful place to wrap it up. JJ, thank you so much for being such a warrior for being such an a fantastic mum. And being such an amazing role model for other people going through these, these sorts of journeys takes for all the work you do in this area with broken brain, with, with all the books that you have out with the nutrition stuff that you do. We can people find you online and buy bio books and know more about JJ.
Speaker 3: (50:21)
Pretty easy. JJ Virgin, www.jjvirgin.com.
Speaker 2: (50:29)
Fantastic. Thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate it. And I wish you son grant and Bryce of course all the best in the future and it'd be amazing to see what they do with the, with your mom too. She's got a, she's super lucky to have you as a daughter, Huh? He's a beautiful mom. I'll send you a book when it comes out. And yeah, it's, it's very special stories. Both of these and these stories are really important to share because it gives other people hope. And the biggest piece of the puzzle we've heard today is your mindset. And they never ever give up and that you throw everything in to the pot. You can't the universe, but you can control what you do. I think that was the biggest takeaway from today. I very much enjoyed today. Thank you.
The information contained in this show is not medical advice it is for educational purposes only and the opinions of guests are not the views of the show. Please seed your own medical advice from a registered medical professional.
Tom Cronin in a previous life was a Finance Broker of 26 years experience, he lead a life like that portrayed in the "Wolf of Wall St" movie. Life was full of stress, adrenaline, risk and partying. Burning the candle at both end he began to suffer the consequences as his nervous system broke down and anxiety and depression haunted him. Doctors advised the pharmaceutical fixes for these common ails but he decided to go down the route of meditation and studying eastern philosophies and taking a journey within instead. Studying Vedic meditation in particular.
His life was transformed and he eventually became a teacher of meditation and left the high flying world of the financial broker to start "The Stillness Project" to finally teach this amazing knowledge and wisdom to others but he wasn't content to just run courses and seminars instead Tom took on the riskiest, toughest journey of his life to bring to the world a powerful movie and book which discusses these themes.
It's taken hundreds of people working on the project, tons of investors to finance the project and many times spent wondering how he was going to get through but Tom had a vision, he wanted to change the world for the better through meditation. He believes so powerfully in his message that this book and movie just had to come out and now it is just about to be launched and is set to the take the world by storm.
Here is what he says about the project
Our world is in crisis. People are stressed and confused. Humanity is at a crossroads. Yet within each of us we have the capability to bring ourself and our species back from the brink.
The Portal brings to life the stories of six people who’ve overcome adversity and crisis, inspiring the audience to follow in their footsteps and realise the unique potential that all humans have to change our world–from the inside out.
Revealing a centuries-old road map to human transformation, this life-affirming book and documentary take us through the portal behind our minds to what we need to live and thrive today.
About the film "The Portal"
A cinematic experience to inspire us into a new era, THE PORTAL
is about how personal transformation can spark a global shift.
Supported by insights from three of the world’s foremost futurists–and a robot–THE PORTAL nails the zeitgeist of a generation, blending personal stories, ancient wisdom, technology, and human potential as it takes the viewer on their own mindfulness journey.
Opening hearts and minds to a new way forward, this life-affirming documentary invites all 7 billion people to reimagine life by entering THE PORTAL.
You can find out more about Tom Cronin at www.tomcronin.com and about the film and book, screenings and events at https://entertheportal.com
We would like to thank our sponsors
Running Hot - By Lisa Tamati & Neil Wagstaff
If you want to run faster, longer and be stronger without burnout and injuries then check out and TRY our Running Club for FREE on a 7 day FREE TRIAL Complete holistic running programmes for distances from 5km to ultramarathon and for beginners to advanced runners.
All include Run training sessions, mobility workouts daily, strength workouts specific for runners, nutrition guidance and mindset help Plus injury prevention series, foundational plans, running drill series and a huge library of videos, articles, podcasts, clean eating recipes and more.
www.runninghotcoaching.com/info and don't forget to subscribe to our youtube channel at Lisa's Youtube channel www.yotube.com/user/lisatamat and come visit us on our facebook group
www.facebook.com/groups/lisatamati
Epigenetics Testing Program by Lisa Tamati & Neil Wagstaff.
Wouldn’t it be great if your body came with a user manual? Which foods should you eat, and which ones should you avoid? When, and how often should you be eating? What type of exercise does your body respond best to, and when is it best to exercise?
These are just some of the questions you’ll uncover the answers to in the Epigenetics Testing Program along with many others. There’s a good reason why epigenetics is being hailed as the “future of personalised health”, as it unlocks the user manual you’ll wish you’d been born with!
No more guess work. The program, developed by an international team of independent doctors, researchers, and technology programmers for over 15 years, uses a powerful epigenetics analysis platform informed by 100% evidenced-based medical research.
The platform uses over 500 algorithms and 10,000 data points per user, to analyse body measurement and lifestyle stress data, that can all be captured from the comfort of your own home
Find out more about our Epigenetics Program and how it can change your life and help you reach optimal health, happiness and potential at: https://runninghotcoaching.com/epigenetics
You can find all our programs, courses, live seminars and more at www.lisatamati.com
The information contained in this show is not medical advice it is for educational purposes only and the opinions of guests are not the views of the show. Please seed your own medical advice from a registered medical professional.
In this episode Lisa Tamati and Neil Wagstaff discuss the phenomenon of the imposter syndrome, of having a lack of self confidence and self acceptance, about understanding the power of your words and thoughts to change your attitude to yourself and to your potential as a person.
How our perceptions of others always being better than us, diminishes our power and how that is a misconception of reality. Our everyones experiences colours the way they see themselves and the world and why you need to stand in your own power and own your own destiny.
This is about shifting the self talk, about stopping apologising for not being an expert at every damn thing and understanding the power of self confidence to change what you can achieve.
Hope you enjoy the show.
We wanted to let you know we have another live weekend running seminar coming up on the 9th and 10th of November in beautiful Hawkes Bay in New Zealand so if you want to come and learn everything there is to know around running and upgrade your mindset and health while you are there visit our information page at:
https://training.runninghotcoaching.com/how-to-revolutionise-your-running-training
We would like to thank our sponsors
Running Hot - By Lisa Tamati & Neil Wagstaff
If you want to run faster, longer and be stronger without burnout and injuries then check out and TRY our Running Club for FREE on a 7 day FREE TRIAL Complete holistic running programmes for distances from 5km to ultramarathon and for beginners to advanced runners.
All include Run training sessions, mobility workouts daily, strength workouts specific for runners, nutrition guidance and mindset help Plus injury prevention series, foundational plans, running drill series and a huge library of videos, articles, podcasts, clean eating recipes and more.
www.runninghotcoaching.com/info and don't forget to subscribe to our youtube channel at Lisa's Youtube channel www.yotube.com/user/lisatamat and come visit us on our facebook group
www.facebook.com/groups/lisatamati
Epigenetics Testing Program by Lisa Tamati & Neil Wagstaff.
Wouldn’t it be great if your body came with a user manual? Which foods should you eat, and which ones should you avoid? When, and how often should you be eating? What type of exercise does your body respond best to, and when is it best to exercise?
These are just some of the questions you’ll uncover the answers to in the Epigenetics Testing Program along with many others. There’s a good reason why epigenetics is being hailed as the “future of personalised health”, as it unlocks the user manual you’ll wish you’d been born with!
No more guess work. The program, developed by an international team of independent doctors, researchers, and technology programmers for over 15 years, uses a powerful epigenetics analysis platform informed by 100% evidenced-based medical research.
The platform uses over 500 algorithms and 10,000 data points per user, to analyse body measurement and lifestyle stress data, that can all be captured from the comfort of your own home
Find out more about our Epigenetics Program and how it can change your life and help you reach optimal health, happiness and potential at: https://runninghotcoaching.com/epigenetics
You can find all our programs, courses, live seminars and more at www.lisatamati.com
Transciption of the show
00:00 Well. Hi everybody. Lisa Tamati me here once again, fantastic to have you with us. I'm here with my wing man. Neil Wagstaff, sitting over in the beautiful Hawkes Bay. How are you doing buddy? I'm good. How are you? Oh, very good. And today we've got another fantastic episode for you. We have just come off the back of our weekend run seminar that we have them head on the weekend and have a lot north. And beautiful north island of New Zealand's, if you're listening to this from overseas. It's sort of in the north island on the, on the east coast. Beautiful place. And we had a fantastic weekend. We had a full house of city od runners come to learn everything about running, but they actually went away learning a heck of a lot about mindset and about motivation and about nutrition and everything else in between.
00:47 And was really, really a fantastic weekend. We are running another live event on the weekend of the ninth and tenth of November again, and have a lot more for if anyone's interested, I'm going to put a link in the show notes for you to register and you can find out all about it. We'd love to have you come and join us if you want a fantastic weekend with like minded people that are all into health and fitness and learning about upgrading the minds, the running skills and their bodies. So it's really a fantastic weekend. Neil, how did you find the weekend, right? Did you have a good time?
01:21 Well it was great, , it's always the energy at those things that is awesome. The excitement or the stories everyone brings to it. It's epic. It just makes me smile thinking about, It gets the hairs up on the back of my neck cause everyone's there for different reason. They're there for a common interest of obviously running, but they've got their own goals. They've got their own why. And it's those special stories that, that make it for me, it's just, yeah, it's so cool. And to see people evolve over the weekend and come in a little bit unsure about what they're capable of and realize by the end of the weekend that, wow, I can do a whole lot more than I thought I was able to do.
01:53 Yeah, it's really fantastic to see that. And you know, one of the main themes that keeps coming and reoccurring at these events and you know, with us dealing with hundreds of athletes and coaching, we get this common theme coming through, which is that people come to us and they go, they qualify everything. Like, Hi guys, I'm really interested in your one coaching programs, but I'm not a real runner and I'm only just a real slow, you know, middle of the pack or I'm just starting out and everything is qualified with the words. I'm not a real runner. And so we're going to do an episode today about, I'm not a real.dot dot. Because this is, this is a thing that's not just to do with running, but it's in every part of our lives. I find a lot of people are going around saying, I'm going to not a real ... , I'm less than what we think I might be.
02:45 And we're going around with this lack of self confidence really and who we are. And we're not sitting in our power in there, you know, confidence that we can really achieve a lot of things. You know, when I go, you know, I'm studying a lot at the moment, all about real estate investing and all of this, and this is a new area to me, right? So when I go to see an expert, I don't want to go in the qualifying myself saying, oh, I'm a complete numpty. I know nothing about anything. But I do go in there and say, look, I'm new to this and I'm really keen to learn, but I don't go and say that I'm, I'm a complete idiot because that sits me up for, for being in a lower position, you know? And so being not confident in what I'm actually going to do.
03:31 Yes, I might be new to a new skill, but that has nothing to do with where I can get to and that's nothing to do with how I should be seeing myself. You're just learning a new skill and each and every one of us is a new newbie in one area and an experience in another and we don't need to feel ashamed about this fact when we're starting something new and it's scary and we don't need to qualify this. Well I'm not a real runner or I'm not a real late or I'm not a real business person or I'm not a real real estate investor or whatever your area is that you are going to try to find out about. It's super that you are here to learn and it's really important to sort of stand in your own power and say, this is who I am. I'm an expert in x, Y, Z. I'm new to this area and not have to go, you know? So like you, you heard it again and again and the weekend day. Yeah.
04:25 Interestingly throughout the week with some people I've been working with at the gym and some some of our regular coaching clients as well. I've done a couple of coaching calls this this week and one of the things we've been working on with a few of the clients is, is really what are your, what are your strong words? So often ask people that were your strong words. So rather to start your sentence with I'm not, or I can't start with I am and I can, but what, what is the strong word? I am, I am strong, I am a runner, I am good, I am gray. I'm a superhero. So the minute you reframe that in your head and start a sentence with that, all of a sudden the whole direction of the conversation and the situation will, will change. The other bit. Just backtracking a little bit on what you were saying is is where the way you are approaching situations, which is gold, you people often forget that they've got a multitude of experience and a huge skillset that is very transferable into the new thing.
05:17 The renewed yet. So I might be a Newbie at certain things you were talking about. Obviously the property investing, but the the years of experience, you've got another aspects of life they're going to pull through to that and all of a sudden you start to understand that you're going to pull on that skill set and pull it through and go, actually I understand this is just looking at it through a slightly different, slightly different Lens, so it's really about how your, your entering a room, how you're entering conversation, how you're, you're, you're, you're setting yourself up. We had usually the weekends example, a group of unsure people who less feeling a whole lot sure about what they're able to do and what they need to do and how to do it. It's, it's almost like they've mapped, got the formula that allows them to go, I am a runner.
05:57 The, I'm one of the ladies I spoke to this week, she's, she's done more ultra marathons than I have more day stage races than I have because I haven't yet done one. And I'm sitting there telling and explaining this to us saying, actually, if we look on paper, you, we could argue that you're more of a run in the lamb. Who Do you think some more the way she is, she's like, you're the, you're the runner actually. You're, you're more of a runner. So I should be one. I should be the one. And I, I definitely think I'm a runner, so it's it's just, yeah, qualifying it in your head. So the, the, the confidence lists as you, as you move forward.
06:28 Yeah. And you don't need to be the absolute best in the world. So even be a teacher like your, your, you know, like you said, you're running teaching and you were my coach for a decade before you even got into business. Yeah. Did I go to you like you haven't run 150 ultramarathons or anything? Are you see for not as experienced or not logical enough to help me? No, the opposite because you can see it from completely different it's perspective. You come from the science and the whole logical thinking and almond and the sub, you know, athlete state of yes I have the experience and that's why what we do is a really super good combination of experience and science behind the whole thing. And this is, you know, just understanding who you are, what you're capable of and just see the transformation and the people over the weekend from coming in all nervous coming into this new environment and Ireton we go to a course or a conference or learning, it's, it's a scary, you know, uncomfortable feeling when you first arrive at the front door.
07:26 Hasn't had, nobody knows each other. And you sort of like, oh my God, what am I doing here? And, and I are going to be super athletes. You know, this is, this is some of the mentality of people coming into an afterwards that tell us this, you know, I came in and expecting everyone to be superheroes. You know, and expecting to be told you're going to train harder and go more, you know, Rara [inaudible] and all that sort of shit. And they, it wasn't what they got. They actually got a whole lot of amazing information on how to, for health, those of, of what they came for, but they asked that they lift understanding the why and they leave feeling empowered in the, the doubtful thoughts that they're having, the fears that they're experiencing, the guilt that they are experiencing is common to the entire room.
08:18 And that includes you and me too. Yeah, exactly. It's so powerful. I just to understand that she had experience instead of putting everybody else up on a pedestal. And I'm down here as the lowly beginner on any side and we tend to do that. We see, we tend, you know, to always see everyone else better than us and as having everything together. And when you look around the social media world that we live in, that's very much water's portrayed in, you're always comparing somebody's Instagram moment, which is a highly tier moments. Okay. Of the best moment during the run. At the top of the hill or the, for the camera, you're not seeing the grind and the shit and the tears and the stuff on the way to the top of that man's and you're only getting the snapshot and then you and your life are going wrong.
09:13 I couldn't do that. And that'd be the main, everybody else is running a hundred and ultra-marathons a week. You know, that's the sort of feeling you start to get. And you gotta remember like social media media is just so curated. So if I spoke with, for example, knows exactly what you're into and we'll feed you a thousand runners doing a thousand crazy suits things every week. So you get this, this misconception that the whole world is out there running bigger than you are when it started. You know, Facebook was just picking out what you're interested in and there therein lies the danger. And you know, this has been discussed before with the elections and things like that. You are getting feed what you are actually interested in and therefore skews your view of what you're seeing and what you're actually experiencing online. And just being aware of that whole dynamic.
10:03 And this isn't just in social media but very, you know, it's very prevalent in today's world that we see a lot of beautiful plastic people with lovely photos and then we think that what we're experiencing in our internal world, you comparing it now, bad moments and hard moments against somebody beautiful picture and it's, it's just completely an unrealistic perception of the world. And this is like the beauty of being something like a live seminar like we did. People have a perception of me, they have a perception of you and then when they actually get to meet you, it's nothing like that. They realize you're just as human as everyone else with the site.
10:42 Exactly. Exactly. And that that is the most, one of the most comforting things for everyone at the weekend. It was by far one of the most compelling things for them to just, you could see the relaxation come across their faces when they were like, these guys are normal.
10:57 Very unfortunate.
10:59 These guys, these guys are more that their normal stuff, they, they're there, they're like us. And then once you realize that you can stop, then it's people stop feeling like an imposter and they start feeling like they're at home. And that's, that's really what we want you to take away from today is that yet we're not imposters we can feel at home. We understand our why well enough and we can relax and do what we do. We need to.
11:21 Yeah. And they, and so imposter syndrome is the for when you, maybe you go through life and you're starting to feel like, oh, I shouldn't be here. I'm not good enough. I can't be teaching this cause I'm not the number one expert in the world. You know, like just if I want to go to the gym and build some muscles, do I go and engage Arnold Schwarzenegger now because he's like, you know, like so far out of my perception of what could possibly be then, you know, just having someone one or two steps ahead of you or three steps ahead of you is all need. You don't need to be the best in the world. So if you're that teacher too, you don't need to be 100 million steps are here, you know, and we talked with other run coaches too that are, you know, they have a special niche and they go, oh, we're not like you though. Like, you know, this is often the conversation I've had with people. I'm just taking absolute beginners and I go, y'all know, I'm taking absolute beginners to, Oh, I thought you'd only be working with the elite. No.
12:21 And everyone has the area with they feeling comfortable, you know, and I'm almost certainly not comfortable with Olympic athletes, you know, you have never been one. And I don't have, you know, that skill set or those genetics and I understand more the battles of the everyday person and therefore I'm comfortable in that area teaching to people that have these issues, you know, and I don't really give a shit about the top 1% but good on them. You know, they'll find better coaches than me for that. And so it's understanding we use it in the world and then setting in that power and then using those words as Neal, seeing those in your, in your thought processes saying, I am a master of this. I am a runner, I am strong. I am able to do this. Not, oh, I can't do that. And Oh my gosh, that's so amazing what you do. I couldn't even do that. And all that. If you hear yourself tight saying those things, just understand that that person's just a little bit further up the mountain than on top of the mountain either. You know, we're all on differing degrees of different mountains
13:26 And nice people we can learn so much from. And that's the, that's the thing I've got very, very comfortable with over the years is, as you said at the start or the start of the podcast today is the asking just go and, well actually that's, that's amazing. How'd you do that? Being very comfortable that you don't know and getting someone to explain to you how they've put there. That's exactly how we've moved through and how we've gone out is to go, oh, hang on a minute, explain that again. I don't, I don't fully get it. I don't understand it. And then all of a sudden you learn and realize that actually that person was in the same position as we were last year and all that and it's got no bit further ahead so we can try the information and move forward. I think as well to add into your why is just really drilling down, which is probably another podcast in itself, lesion really working out where your purposes, so really understanding what your purpose is, what your position is and purposes in life.
14:11 I want you to get comfortable with that and you understand what you want to be sharing, what you want to be doing and you want to be. It's really easy to be in your own skin and we're not falling into that trap of making the mistake of I should be this or I should be that to the company every day, just sit in their company going, this is me, this is what I want to be doing. I know what I'm doing, I know how I'm doing it and I'm not looking around again. You should do that. I'll try and do it and it just feels wrong. Move the really tight the times, work out what you, what you should be doing, the purposes
14:38 In life and where you will meet to be studying in life and they realize that you can't do everything. And this is the one of the beautiful things about getting older. You know like there's a lot of negatives about getting older and we all know those very well, but there's a hell of a lot of benefits to in, it's called wisdom and exactly yearning. And if you have an open mind and if you start to develop your skills set, then you, you know, just because you've been alive for a long time, you've got a lot more experiences to pull on and to share from. And if you keep an open mindset and continue your education, then you can end up feeling a lot more stronger as you get older then, you know, I know certainly I do. Like if I look back even 10 15 years ago where I was in as to her, I am now, as you know,
15:18 It's not there. It's night and day different. I remember from when we first met the language you used to use that and the language you use now is it's night and day and we will evolve. We will change and we should be comfortable. We should be counseled with doing that. Just to educate ourselves on an ongoing, under a hundred percent. And it's yeah, I mean there's a challenge off the back of this should be how many times this week and the listeners go out and say, everyone that's listening. I am. So I am.dot, dot. Yeah. I can.dot, dot. And I do that though. How many times should you get that in? And just the saying it that saying out loud or I am a runner or cam run, I do run. Is, is it just, it makes me feel, makes me feel better. Saying out loud. Yes, great.
16:00 And stop apologizing for existing. They would just go through the whole as all, sorry, I'm not an expert on this area or I'm love this and I'm not of that. Just having the confidence to say I am and even if you don't feel it, and the in the moment that you're saying it, you're suggesting to your subconscious and we did a podcast last week on reprogramming subconscious. Correct. We haven't heard that. Go back and listen to that because reprogramming your subconscious is what we're talking about here we are talking about and it's repeated use of that language where you want to be even if you're not the, now I am a master of x, Y,Z , that I might not be yet, but that's what I'm putting into my mind next for suggesting to my mind that I am to my subconscious that I am and it will become a self fulfilling prophecy.
16:46 It will if you keep saying it and if you keep understanding it and be going through that. The deep work last week, I've taught talk about, you know, self hypnosis and things like that that can speed the process up. And you know, like I was listening to another podcast today and it was all about, you know focusing on the end goal, you know. So even though it might seem ridiculously far away, I want you to give yourself permission to set a big audacious goal and sit there and visualize that future. Where are you gonna be in three years time? Where are you going to be in five years time? If you fulfill this dream and you're gonna, you know, be running new and B or are you going to be running Badwater, you know, and there can be a ridiculous strain seeing yourself, this, visualize the newspaper articles being written about, you visualize the, the stories being told, visualize the book that's going to come out.
17:45 This is the sort of stuff I do. And then I work backwards from air. Okay, that might be a pipe dream right now, but it's near as my, my indicator of where the hell I'm going. That's my true north. If you like. And then I have, I work back from the, so if I want to get to the year, what do I need to do in the next five years? What you'll typically find, so is that you'll go but this so far away, but if you in the first year just to one 10th of what it would take to get there, if you find that you gather momentum over the time. Okay. So the first year you might be just out of the blocks, you might just get your first 10 k done, your first half marathon done, you still dreaming of Badwater water. Okay. But the second year you might get to an ultramarathon in the Fuji, you might give to opt for marathons three ultra-marathons. I mean, Bang, you're there, it speeds up. And this is the power of like compounding interest, right? I'm learning all about compounding interests in regards to real estate. The power of it is that the interest gets the interest on the interest.
18:56 It really, really is gold. And the, I often say to people as well that if I, and when people are looking at it, if you could say 50% of this big goal that you've taken yourself in the next 12 months, would you take it and no one has ever said, no, I'll take it into your pull in. It's even taking that much and watching how that, that grow and that grow and that grow. Don't look for perfection and look for consistency. Yeah. You consistent. Then it's going to, it's going to happen. Most people that are looking for exact perfection, it falls over
19:28 If there's one for a commitment thing. Yes. If you do, you might think it's an unrealistic expectation to sit this lofty goal, but you've got, and you can't even see the pathway to getting there. But by taking those steps in, making a commitment to work on it every single day or every single week, depending on the goal and just doing half an hour every day on it, or you know, I'm going to commit to reading one book a week, or I'm going to commit to going to the gym three times a week, or I'm going to commit to a meeting with my friends and running for half an hour, you know, twice a week, whatever those micro commitments are that build it into a daily habits. And then that gets snowballs, a snowball effect so that you actually start to gather momentum and then all of a sudden when you look back what you've achieved in a 12 month period, say it's just like, holy heck, I really did that and that
20:22 All of a sudden you're saying, I am, I can, and I do.
20:25 Yeah, and you started the heat for the style. Getting out of the stat box is a really hard one. And then keeping that momentum in the first months when you haven't seen progress yet and you won't, you might get some quick ones. Like typically with runners, what we say is that it's like absolute beginners I'm talking about and they don't even know how to, you know, like run nonstop for minutes is that they get some really quick ones within a month we can have them running for half an hour straight through and the lot and then typically slows down a little bit. And so it's understanding the nature of learning and the nature of plateaus and understanding how to push through to the next level and not giving up on that allow, you know we don't, you know, working with my mum wants, again, to bring in an analogy from there, we would have times when she'd stopped to make leaps and bounds forward.
21:15 Not Literally, she's still not leaving valley anywhere, but she's, she's getting there. We would make really big gains in a very short time and then would have months of nothing, absolutely nothing, no progress. And when I look back over those months, I'm going, and those are the times when people give up. And those are the Times where you've got to push down, double down and keep going, keep it going. When you push through to the next layer, that's when you get another lot of, you know, last fall and Lisa spoken. Totally, totally agree. Yeah. So I think that's probably enough for today guys. I hope that there was a bit of a help for you. Another mindset up. You know, this is a running podcast and a fitness podcast and is, but there's a hell of a lot of mental stuff because to be honest, this is a big piece of the puzzle. Huge base of the puzzle with your runner, an athlete, a person and business. You know, in the corporate world there's all these same challenges that come across and this is why the crossing, but the crossover between all the disciplines, you learn it for running, but then you actually learn it for life or vice versa, you know? So it really helps. So Neil, any last words to end on? You know, phrasing things positively and not making excuses. You know, apologize, I am a runner, I am a runner.
22:40 I'm a master. I want you to go and write the list guys. I've got a list on my fridge over there. Let's go on. I am a master of like this 50 things on this list that I'd say oneself every time I go to the fridge, which is quite often cause I like date, I have to read three or four of them before I opened the door. And they reinforces in my mind on a subconscious level repetitively, repetitively, I am a master. And then I'll go around in my head saying I am this. And I am that in my mind, you know, and I, I haven't tire runs. Like we don't want to treat my leg, do this for example, where it's boring as hell on monetary mall. There's nothing to look at. Anyway, so I just go into this mantra and I'll pick a couple of things that I'm working on to reprogram my mind.
23:26 And I'll just repeat the mantra over and over and over for a good half an hour until I drive myself and sign. And then I'll go home and I'll start to see the fruit of that Labor, not from, not only physically from the training session, but mentally as well. So there's a quick tip for you to go and do that. Easy wins, easy wins. All right guys, we'll as usual, if you want to reach out to us, you can get hold of Neil and I, lisa@runninghotcoaching.com or neil@runninghotcoaching.com. Check out our website to Lisa tomothy.com and check out all their programs, their mindset university epigenetics program and running programs. Come and join us on our Facebook group. You can find it just a look up Facebook groups, Lisa Tamati. And hit us up on social media and we're really active on Instagram. You know, Facebook and Youtube. We have huge youtube channel on that point.
24:17 I just wanted to remind people, actually I've got about, I think it's eight documentaries on my youtube channel, full length running documentaries from places like running through the Gobi desert or death valley, the Himalayas, Australia, the outback of Australia. There's a whole lot of good stuff there. If you want some full length movies and you're sick of Netflix, come and check out my channel. Much more interesting. Certainly better than the Kardashians I can tell you that much. So yeah, check those out. Just hop on over to the youtube channel and put in Lisa Tamati. And I've got a playlist here of ultra marathon documentary, so check that out, right guys, thanks for your time today. We'll see you again next week. Thanks. Okay.
The information contained in this show is not medical advice it is for educational purposes only and the opinions of guests are not the views of the show. Please seed your own medical advice from a registered medical professional.