214: Jody's Back—The Ironman That Wasn't, and What's Next

Scot: We're talking to Jody. Jody, of course, has been on a couple of other times. Last time he was on, he was preparing for his Ironman. He ran into a little bit of a health issue. So we're going to talk to him about the outcome of that Ironman.

And by the way, Jody, I was so sad for you. I texted everybody here that, unfortunately, he didn't make it. You had kind of a harsh Facebook post, Jody, that made me a little bit sad. We'll talk about that.

But I want to kind of find out what happened, things that were around that decision, how that decision felt, what was going through your mind. But then, ultimately, where I want to go is you would put a lot of kind of stock on this to be the gateway to continued healthy behaviors, and this had kind of been taken away. So I just want to find out where you are now, what the plan is now, what you're trying to do. Again, with the theme of it's always an ongoing struggle.

And by the way, out of this room, who all has done an Ironman say aye?

Jody: Aye.

Scot: All right.

Jody: Oh, yeah. Repeat that question. No, I'm just kidding.

Scot: Well, it's who in this room has done an Ironman?

Jody: Aye.

Scot: Yeah, I like that. John, I didn't hear you. Was your mic off or something?

Dr. Smith: Yeah. If you catch me swimming a long distance and then thinking I need to run and do anything else, I think you've found the wrong John Smith . . .

Scot: Okay.

Dr. Smith: . . . for certain.

Jody: There are only a few, I'm sure.

Dr. Smith: I know. Some of us are probably wild enough to do that, but not this guy.

Scot: There are other John Smiths, perhaps, who could have said yes. This John Smith, no.

Dr. Smith: Yes.

Scot: All right. The question today is have you ever built a plan around something that was supposed to happen and then it didn't?

I'm going to go ahead and just say, I'm sure for all of us on the podcast and everybody listening, the answer is yes. And for Jody, completing another Ironman was his gateway to a lifetime of continuing fitness, but, unfortunately, that was supposed to happen September, October, I think, wasn't it? October?

Jody: Yeah, it was October.

Scot: Yeah. Didn't even make it to the start line, which breaks my heart a little bit and broke Jody's heart, quite frankly. So we're going to find out what happened and how you're thinking about going from now.

This is "Who Cares About Men's Health," with inspiration, information, and a different interpretation of men's health. My name is Scot. I bring the BS. Dr. John Smith brings the MD to the proceedings.

Dr. Smith: Good afternoon.

Scot: Producer Mitch brings the new attitude. He now cares about his health.

Mitch: Hello, there.

Scot: Yeah. And Jody, back on the podcast. Jody, I've got to say, first of all, you bring the inspiration, because even in failure, you continue to always inspire me and I wanted to dig a little bit deeper. And this is probably a hard thing to talk about. Is this a hard thing to talk about? I mean, you're very open most of the time.

Jody: It is, but for some reason, I am having a flashback to an 8th grade, junior high dance, and Chicago's "You're the Inspiration" just came on the speakers and I'm looking for Jenny. I won't say her last name. And yeah, that's a flashback. But now I'm the inspiration. I am your Jenny. That sounds very weird.

Scot: I was going to say maybe I should choose something else. This is off to a terrible start, Mitch.

Let's just jump into this. So the Ironman that you were going to do was your second Ironman. And it was part of your continuing long-term health plan. It seems like when you have this big audacious goal, then you're more motivated to do the everyday things that will lead hopefully to better health. Is that why it mattered so much in your life back in September/October, or were there other reasons that it mattered to you?

Jody: Yeah, I had this big hairy audacious goal that scared me and pushed me and motivated me, and I just thought, "Man, if I can achieve that and do that again . . ." I did an Ironman in 2011. Having lost over 200 pounds and then preparing and getting ready to be at the starting line of an Ironman, and then hopefully at the finish line about 17 hours later, that could really propel me into the next phase of my life and health and physical fitness and a happy ever after.

I just thought if I can do everything leading up to that, then that would certainly push me on the right path. We kind of got partway there, and so that was good, but . . .

Scot: Good. I'm glad you appreciated it.

Jody: I put too much emphasis on the goal instead of the journey, even though I kept telling myself not to do that.

Scot: So, to be clear, the reason that health is kind of important to you is because you've struggled with your weight yo-yoing a lot of your life, right? Is that the primary reason that you exercise, for weight control?

Jody: Yeah. I'm 54 and as an adult, I've been under . . . And I'm only 5-foot-7, so I am not a tall man. In my adult life, I've been under 200 pounds for probably three, four weeks.

Scot: Oh, geez.

Jody: Yeah, I've been over 440 pounds longer than I've been under 200 pounds, so obesity and morbid obesity is something that's plagued me for the last 35 years.

I have lost about 225 pounds over the last couple of years, and so definitely trending in a better direction, but I'm still not out of the obese category. So that's something I've dealt with.

And so trying to eat healthy and take some steps to improve my health from that vantage point has been a key, but also being physically active and fit and trying to move and get my body going has been another component. It's been tough to get those both going at the same time. And not only get them going, but consistently keep them going is the really hard part.

Scot: Definitely is. So on race day, you made the decision not to go to the start line. When did you start to realize that was likely going to be the case? Was it day of? A couple of weeks before?

Jody: Well, it was a really crazy, ambitious, probably too big of a goal in the first place. I hadn't exercised hardly at all when I signed up for the race about five and a half months before. And just as a reminder, the Ironman is a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, and a marathon, 26.2 miles, back to back to back. You have to complete it within 17 hours.

I did that once in 2011. I still don't know how in the heck I managed that. But I thought I could duplicate it if I was consistent and really pushed myself.

And for about the first three and a half months, I did an awesome job of exercising and I was posting about it. I didn't hit every single workout and I was struggling, especially on the swim. But overall, especially compared to where I was, I was making tremendous progress.

The problem was I just didn't give myself a large enough window. And I could tell pretty early on that this is going to be harder than it was the previous time just because of age and time and my weight. Those were all factors that were pretty difficult to overcome.

So about two or three months out, I started thinking, "I just can't do this. I'm going to keep trying. I'm going to try, come hell or high water, and we're just going to at least get to the starting line." And then something happened about a month and a half before the race that prevented that from happening. I decided, "You know what? It's probably for the best that I just bow out of this one, and learn and lick my wounds and hopefully move on and maybe attempt it another time."

Scot: Yeah. I remember a pretty brutal Facebook post day of the race, where you were reflecting on that. Could you tell us kind of where you were on that day? I'd imagine making the decision was one thing, and then when race day came, that was probably something else.

Jody: Yeah, because the race starts about 7:00 in the morning, and so you wake up, and I had built this up that this was going to be this really life-changing, monumental moment for me and that it was going to help me for the next 10, 20, 30 years of my life just be in a better place.

I put all those eggs in this basket, and like I said, I thought if I did the right things and if I could accomplish this goal, then what couldn't I accomplish? I could do anything.

And here I was on that day where I just felt like a big quitter. It was reinforcing these probably unfair judgments I have on myself, because I am my harshest critic. And trust me, I have a lot of other critics, but I'm the harshest of them all. Just a lot of self-doubt. I was really critical of pulling out of the race and deciding to not go and not doing what I needed to do to get to the race.

And some of that was really unfair because a month and a half before, I was in a smaller race, a sprint triathlon, and one thing led to another, but I ended up . . . I was coughing up blood. I finished the race, and there's a whole story behind that, which we can get into a little bit later if you'd like to.

But I finished that race, which was really cool, but in the process, I had to take a week or so off of training per doctor's orders. And then that was just in the critical stage of my training where I was supposed to be putting a lot of time and hours and effort into building my base, and I was sitting on my rump.

And so at the end of that week, I thought, "I'm already way behind and this put me even further behind, and my swimming just isn't there, and my health is now at risk, so it's just best if I decide to sit out this one." It was really hard to get to that point, but in the long run, it was the smartest thing to do. It's just hard to deal with that.

Dr. Smith: I don't know if this is the right time, but I remember hearing about kind of the race day post that you put out and it seemed like that was a low point there from just the way it felt. I'm not you, I don't know how your feelings felt, but it came across that way. It's just really raw.

And I just want to know, you're three months removed from that, what mindset have you taken? Where are you at now? What's your thought process? And then looking forward to further things down the road.

Jody: It's interesting because I haven't really gone back and felt bad about not completing the Ironman that much. I did write that long post and it was kind of a "woe is me. Let me feel sorry for myself" moment. But I kind of got that out of my system.

It described the struggles that I have where I want to accomplish a goal and then it's really hard for me to get on track to get to even working towards that goal, and then I fell off the bandwagon. And so I detailed all that and the whole story.

I've kind of moved past the Ironman. I'm at peace with my decision to not do the Ironman. It sucked because I spent like $1,000 to . . . The Ironman races are ridiculously expensive. That part is not fun to think about, so now my blood's boiling a little bit and now I'm kicking my butt again.

The bigger thing is what I just mentioned about the habit that I have of setting a goal and then failing to reach that goal. And then the hardest part, and honestly, that's where I'm kind of at now, is getting from the failing part to moving forward part and just picking yourself up part.

I know I'm doing some things now that I'm going to get there, so I feel good about that, but I'm still not fully recovered and I'm not really doing much lately.

And so a lot of times when I fall and I fail, whether it's pulling out of a race or I didn't hit the goal weight that I had or I stopped my diet or whatever it may be, the question then is, "How far am I going to fall before I decide to stop falling and pick myself up? How much damage is going to be done in the meantime?"

Honestly, I've gained probably 20, 25 pounds since then. I was exercising a lot, and my eating hasn't improved. And so I'm not worried about gaining too much more weight. I had the weight loss surgery, so that's kind of a buffer. It helps me a little bit. It's not going to save me completely, but that's not as big as a concern as it was before. But clearly, I'm doing some things that aren't going to get me to any healthy goals, so I need to snap out of that.

Dr. Smith: So I want to follow up. You said you're not quite fully recovered.

Jody: Well, physically. So I was coughing up blood. I didn't know what was going on. I did the swim. It was about a half a mile swim and I was coughing the whole time and I'm like, "Man, this is . . ." I didn't feel like I swallowed a lot of water and I couldn't stop coughing.

I got on the bike and I was just really sluggish and I was behind everybody else pretty much. And I started coughing again on the bike and I noticed that I was spitting some stuff out. I'm like, "That was a weird color." And I spit in my hand, and I'm like, "Oh, that's like a dark rust color. That's bizarre."

And I was about a mile into the bike ride and I thought, "Should I turn around and go talk to the medic?" which I probably should have done. But I'm like, "No, I'll just talk to . . . There's probably a medical person up further along the road, so I'll just keep going."

Saw a police officer directing traffic. He hailed an ambulance for me. The paramedics put me through a series of tests and they said, "Well, physically you're doing fine other than coughing up blood." And they're like, "Do you want us to take you to the hospital?" And I said, "Can I finish the race first?" I still had about 10 miles of a bike ride and then a 5K. I should have had them drive me through the course. That would have been the smartest thing.

Scot: Well, then you could have finished it. Yeah. I'm assuming they said, "No, you should probably not finish the race. You don't have to go to the hospital, but maybe not finish the race." Is that what they told you?

Jody: No. Shockingly, they said, "Well, you're okay. All your vitals are fine. If you keep coughing up blood and you're not feeling good, let us know and we'll come grab you and take you to the hospital."

I didn't feel any worse the rest of the race. I just slowly biked. I didn't even run. I walked the entire . . . It was only a 5K, so 3.1 miles. I just walked the whole thing. I'm like, "I'm just going to finish this damn race, whether it kills me or not. Hopefully not."

Scot: That's right. You did tell us this on the last podcast. I'm remembering this now.

Jody: Yeah. And so I finished it, and then I took that week off, and since then, my lungs are cleared up, and I think all that is well. I think it's more the emotional, just, "How do I get the eye of the tiger back?" Once you fall down, you step down, you walk away from a goal, how do you get it back?

And that's where I'm like, "Well, maybe signing up for an Ironman and doing these drastic things or saying, 'I want to get down to my ultimate goal weight and be a swimsuit model or whatever,' maybe those aren't the smartest things. Maybe it's more about setting small daily goals that are actually achievable and finding a happy medium that doesn't include going 140.6 miles in one day."

Scot: Or doing things that make you cough blood. I mean, I'm thinking if we exercise and we engage in physical activity to be healthier . . . And that resonates with me because there was one point where I wanted to strength train to get really big and buff, so I was doing stupid stuff in the gym. I was lifting weight I had no business lifting.

I would be so sore for four or five days, and not muscular soreness, something else sort of soreness. Like, the small muscles couldn't handle it where I couldn't bend down to pick something up, I couldn't squat to do work in the yard, and I'm like, "What am I doing? What's the goal of me engaging in healthy behaviors? Is it so I can't move around and be mobile?"

So I really had to ask myself that question. It sounds like maybe there's a similar question for you, maybe, possibly.

Jody: Yeah, exactly. Well, I don't understand people who can just go to the gym every day, or run every day, or do whatever every day consistently, five days a week, whatever, four days a week, just to do it, just to be healthy. I don't understand. That is like a foreign language to me that I don't understand.

But that's where I'd like to be. I think that's the healthiest way to be. "Hey, I'm going to go for the next half hour and walk, or jog, or lift weights, or whatever," instead of, "Hey, I've got two hours of intense training as part of my routine to do an insane Ironman at the end of the summer," which I think insane goals are great, but not at the risk of your health.

Scot: Yeah. Hey, guys, do you think maybe Jody should go back and listen to our "min/max" episode?

Mitch: That's actually what I was going to suggest. First and foremost, if anyone's coughing up blood, I think you can take the day off. I don't know. I'm not a doctor, I'm not anything, but just in my heart I know that.

But even just thinking about it, Jody, the Facebook post from back in the day, you were so hard on yourself. But even just hearing you talk right this second, your maximum is so much higher than I would ever be able to accomplish. And so there's some serious hats off to you and all of that.

Do you see a path forward, I guess, in being the type of person that might go to the gym a couple of times a week or . . .

Scot: Just because we know that doing so is good, even though it might not help you complete an Ironman.

Jody: No, I want to. And in fact, honestly, that's what I was . . . I like you guys. You have a fun podcast and helpful. Scot and I go way back. But selfishly, I'm thinking, "I need something out of this podcast."

When you invited me, it was the beginning of December. I thought, "Oh, clearly, I'll have my New Year's resolutions and I'll be well on my way to another goal, and I can impress these guys in the audience, and everybody will throw me up on their shoulders, and chant my name, and I'll be the . . ."

And that's the problem, is that kind of thinking. Instead of just doing something to better my life, it has to turn into this big spectacle, which is a flaw that . . . Unfortunately, I just lost my therapist, so I need a new therapist. You three are my therapists right now.

Scot: Oh, boy, you're in trouble.

Jody: But I would love to. So I'm definitely going to go back and look at that podcast. I was doing a project at work and I came across the SMART goals, that acronym SMART, meaning specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. I really like that concept of making these small, achievable goals instead of a crazy goal.

It just takes me so long to get back into it. That's really frustrating, a flaw about myself. Instead of just popping right back up, it takes me a long while to get back up.

And this isn't even that long. It's been three or four months. Sometimes I go years of just thinking over and over and ruminating and feeling sorry for myself and plotting and planning instead of just doing and just trying something.

So anyway, we're going to get into action here. Nothing makes you feel better than getting into action.

Dr. Smith: Let me ask you this, Jody. Has there ever been a time when you haven't had just . . . Because you've done a lot of cool, big goals and we've talked about these grandiose things that you've done. Have you ever had a time when you have done the consistent little things of like, "I'm just going to go to the gym and do a 30-minute workout three times a week," and just have that kind of be your norm? Have you ever had that, or has it always been, "I'm going for the big bad wolf," kind of thing?

Jody: Yeah, it seems like it's always attached to something. I've never really been a weight lifter. And so I remember I was in a contest for Bill Phillips. He had the transformation contest, and it's a 12-week contest. I remember doing the weightlifting, and that's the only time I've really been consistent about that. With running, I always have a 5K or a half-marathon or a triathlon.

And I might fall into the same trap again because I have a friend who wants me to go on a . . . We've done a hike or two in the last couple of years and he wants me to start hiking with him. He's hiking up Mount Timpanogos in Utah County this summer and he wants me . . . He's like, "Hey, I would love for you to come with us. You've talked about wanting to do that." And I'm like, "Yeah, that would be a great goal."

But then here we are talking again. I can't just walk down the street back and forth a couple times or do a mile around my town. I have to climb up a freaking 11,000-foot mountain to make myself feel good.

Scot: Yeah. I think some of those are okay, right? So some of the things we've talked about on this podcast that have been helpful for me, and maybe they'll be helpful for you . . . And guys, you can jump in too. We've had a couple episodes where we celebrated the small victories.

And the small victories could be stupid. One of my small victories was I could go to the gym and I could hang on the chin-up bar for 45 seconds without my forearms giving out. Stupid, right?

Mitch: Crushing it.

Scot: Crushing it, yes. There might be some guys that would listen to this podcast and go, "You're weak. That's dumb," whatever. But for me, it was better than I was two months before. So I celebrated that small little victory.

So just even allowing yourself to celebrate the small. The small can be, "Did you go this week twice? Did you go twice for 30 minutes?" That could be the small goal. I think sometimes we think that it has to be more heroic than that.

I'm curious where you get this idea that everything has to be that heroic. I know media can do it to us, social media can do it to us. We feel as though . . . Maybe it's your history as a newsperson. It's not worth talking about unless it's big, right? So just showing up to the gym twice a week for a month, that doesn't seem worth talking about. But that is something absolutely worth celebrating because it's that consistency.

Number two, that I want to throw out to you is SMART goals are awesome, but I've actually found more value in process goals. Meaning at this point in my life, I know the movements, I know that moving some weights, having some resistance training, even if I'm not pushing super hard, I know that getting my heart rate up and sweating a little bit, the Matthew McConaughey rule, that's what he says, "Just do something and sweat for a half hour a day," that's all you have to do.

The process goal is just doing the stuff. You don't attach "I have to lose five pounds to it" because there might be a million other reasons why doing the stuff, doing the exercises, doesn't result in a five-pound loss. But yet you've done the stuff and that's good because we know doing the stuff alone inherently actually makes a difference.

So I'd consider process goals. I mean, take a look at both. Take a look at SMART goals, because I totally believe in those as well. Anyway.

Mitch: So when you guys mentioned the newsworthiness of it, that hit really deep. Jody, as you're talking about the kind of needing a big goal, needing people behind you, kind of all this sort of stuff, it takes me back to 2019, 2020 when we were doing the Mitch's Mid-May 5K. And that was to celebrate and kind of get out of quitting smoking and proving to myself I could run again.

We were making posts. People were being a part of it. There were t-shirts, the whole nine yards. And I wrecked my leg. I wrecked my ankle really bad and had to slow everything down.

And there was a really long time period for me that was just like, "What's the point? Why am I even doing this if I don't have a big overarching goal? If I don't have a groundswell of support, why would I do it?"

But just for me, these kinds of process goals that Scot's talking about . . . I mean, I think I've been more consistent in just going to the gym and even just walking for 20 minutes, if that's all my day is. If that's all the energy I can give, it's the process. That process is such an effective method for me so that I can get out of that newsworthiness fallacy when it comes to my own health.

Jody: Yeah, I relate to that a lot because. Yeah, maybe it is because of that news factor, because I want to make a splash and maybe . . . I'm self-analyzing here. Maybe it's, I don't know, a little bit of narcissism that I want others to follow me and I want to be this great inspiring story and write a book and go and talk to people and motivate and just, "Hey, everybody come with me." It seems like this awesome worthy goal and kind of a movement and . . . But that puts a lot of pressure on you as well.

I admire my ex-wife's uncle. Cool guy. Chris. He does Ironman and he doesn't post a damn thing about them. He just goes out and works out, and then shows up to the Ironman, does it, and then moves on to the next one. His wife will post a picture, "Hey, Chris did another Ironman. Awesome." But he didn't say a dang word about it.

So I don't know. I guess probably part of it is that I got so overweight and my health was so bad that I'm just trying to find self-worth and trying to overcompensate by saying, "Hey, you know how fat I used to be? Well, now I'm really fit. Yay, me." Like, "Accept me, please, because now I'm more like you than I was before." And that sounds kind of weird, but . . . I don't know.

Dr. Smith: No, I think everybody wants to be accepted. I mean, raise your hand if you want everybody to ignore you.

Jody: And I think that's my way of trying to compensate for . . . It's kind of like when I was growing up, I was always the funny fat kid because I wanted people to accept me, and I'd tell the fat joke before they could. I don't know. It just kind of goes along with that.

Scot: I've heard this too and I fell into this trap. I talked about it a little bit earlier, this idea that I was a skinny ranch kid and I thought if I lifted weights that I'd get big and buff and in shape, and then my life would be good. Girls would like me. My life would be good. I'd feel good about myself then.

And I've heard since then people talking about having kind of that same sort of feeling, and what they discover is, unlike me, they actually accomplish it and they're like, "I'm just as empty as I ever was."

They're putting the effort into the wrong thing to fix the problem. The problem isn't the physical appearance, it's something else. It's how we're feeling about ourselves. And that really hit hard. I think it's a pretty common story, is what I'm saying. I think many of us have felt that way.

Jody: Yeah, I totally understand that. And again, I've thought about it too. I'm like, "Well, if I had followed through . . ." Here it is January. The race would have been in October. I would have maybe been a little bit thinner, and I would have a medal. And other than that, what would have changed about my life? I'd probably be pretty close to where I'm at right now.

So I don't know. It is really about the journey, and that's such a hard concept to have sink in and really take hold in your heart, that it's just about being consistent and doing it over and over and over . . .

Scot: And that's boring.

Jody: . . . and making it be part of your life. Yeah, it sounds really boring.

Scot: Yeah. Unfortunately, it is, I think.

Hey, John, being the physician in the room, any thoughts as you're hearing Jody's story? If you had a patient and you had the prolonged amount of time you could actually have this discussion with them, where would you end up? What are you thinking right now?

Dr. Smith: I mean, I think talking about kind of the reasoning behind our goals on some of this. I have patients who come in . . . In the men's health space, everybody wants to be 20 again. Everybody wants to roll back the clock and be healthy and they want to be strong and they want to have all those things.

And I think when it comes down to it, the motivations that we have, good, bad, or otherwise, it's nice to have that. I think I would kind of go down that path and say, "These big goals that you set, obviously, there's something inside of you that wants these big goals," and kind of bring it back down. "But why not shoot for the little stuff too and see how that works out for you?"

Setting those little things, just like we've talked about on the podcast multiple times, make a ton of difference for weight loss, for things.

And I think in some cases we may be compensating for things. Like you said, you had that persona of the funny chubby kid. You were the first kid to make the husky jeans comment or whatever with your friends. I think we take some of that into adulthood, and I think sometimes, as adults, we get to kind of re-create ourselves if we want to. I think that motivates us sometimes, and sometimes we want to re-create ourselves in a grand fashion because it feels fun to do, but in reality, just creating ourselves a new normalcy again.

I would probably go down that route and have a conversation of, "What really is your driving force? What things are important to you? And let's set goals around that."

I don't know if that's what you were looking for, Scot, but that's kind of how I would take the time to sit and have that discussion, because I think those are the things that are going to help with consistency and moving on and getting hopefully to a spot where it's easier to go.

Scot: Jody, based on that, what are your ultimate goals? What is it that you're really trying to accomplish?

Jody: That's a great question. I ended up not doing any resolutions. Here it is mid to late January and I still haven't made any 2026 resolutions. But I think, ultimately, I would like to get to a healthier weight. I'm still probably 60 pounds overweight, so I would like to get a lot closer to that. Get under that 200-pound mark. Get out of the obese range.

I know, ultimately, it's not about those numbers or that title, but it's healthier. Not packing around as much weight and not having the fat around your organs, that's going to help me be healthier, live longer and happier, and be more active.

And I would like to get to the point where being active, going to the gym, going on walks, hikes, that that's just not something I do, but it's who I am. Ultimately, that's what I want to be.

Ironman is a great goal, but it's not something so outlandish because I've been doing the smaller sprint triathlons or just being a regular exerciser is part of who I am. That's a hard thing to incorporate when you're in your 50s and hasn't been a consistent part of your life.

Scot: Amen.

Dr. Smith: So as your new therapist . . .

Scot: And MD and physician.

Jody: I like it.

Dr. Smith: . . . what's keeping you from doing that? What do you see as roadblocks in your way?

Jody: Probably the biggest roadblock, and this is kind of silly, is aside from being lazy and enjoying the couch and watching Netflix, I wait to exercise until I have a goal in mind. And so instead of just exercising to exercise or for the benefit of it, I wait until I have this plan.

Right now, I'm talking with my buddy and he's like, "Hey, let's start walking and get some hikes in. You're five, six months away from the time where I would want to hike Mount Timp, so let's get going." And for some reason, I haven't fully committed myself to that goal yet, so I'm not in action. For some reason, there's this mental block that I have that prevents me from moving until I have a goal.

Scot: Yeah. What about the goal of just going for a walk with your friend? How about that for a goal? Or is that boring? For a guy that wants to do Ironmans, that's probably pretty boring.

Jody: If he was cuter, that would probably help.

Scot: Yeah, that would definitely help. I could see that.

Jody: It's something that I'm really trying to get to the bottom of because, obviously, it's keeping me from achieving just that consistent health.

Scot: Yeah, it's hard. Another thing we've talked about that's been helpful for me is something called habit stacking. I mean, you don't have to weight train, but for me, that's something I want to do. And I have to put that up with another habit or something else that's going on in my world.

So I have a particular thing I do every Tuesday and Thursday, and then immediately after that, I go exercise. And it's like that thing before triggers your brain that, "Oh, it's time to do the thing after now."

Part of it is it's convenient because I'm driving by the gym anyway, because the thing that I have to do before is somewhere else. So I don't know if that would help, if you could habit stack.

Jody: I've studied about habit stacking, and I have started doing a little bit of that. I mean, you don't want to hear about a bachelor's messy house, but sometimes I would let dishes kind of pile . . . You take the pizza plate or the cups into your room and watch TV while you're in bed or whatever, and then on your nightstand, you have a stack of dishes. Well, I decided one day, I'm like, "I don't want to have a stack of dishes. That's kind of gross and I'm tired of running out of dishes downstairs."

So I guess that is a habit stack thing that I've done. When I go downstairs, I make sure I take all the dishes, which is now just either a cup or a plate or something. It's not a stack.

Scot: Right. Let's wrap this up. So the Ironman didn't happen. What does recalibration look like? You were putting a lot on that big goal as the thing that's going to drive you to do the small things that are going to help you accomplish your goals of weight loss and just a healthier lifestyle.

Jody: Yeah. Well, here we go. I'm just going to commit. I'm going to start taking steps. So I think just starting small again would be a good thing and start consistently doing 15- to 30-minute walks and see where that goes. I honestly would like to hike Mount Timp this summer. I think that's a fun . . . It's not a crazy goal. It is a large goal.

Scot: It is.

Jody: It's a tall mountain. But I think let's just get going. So there we go. I'm going to go on a walk starting today.

Scot: All right. And then find some smaller peaks maybe before you do Mount Timp. I don't even know if I'd want to do Mount Timp right away.

Hey, John, as a physician, is Jody just wasting his time walking for 30 minutes a day? I mean, that's not really a Nike commercial, is it? You know what I'm saying?

Dr. Smith: If Nike gave real-life advice, it'd be a lot more boring than their commercials would be. No, exercise in any form is good. We know that walking for 30 minutes a day, if you can get your heart rate up, you can improve VO2 max and those types of things.

I mean, there are a lot of good things with just walking and sometimes increasing your pace of your walk to where you could barely carry on a conversation. Those are worthwhile things to do, even if it's only for 15 minutes a day, 3 times a week. I mean, if you can get that in, cardiovascularly and just health-wise, it's great for your body.

Scot: Something's better than nothing. One minute is better than zero minutes.

Dr. Smith: A hundred percent.

Scot: Yeah, five minutes is better than four minutes. I mean, there's a point of diminishing returns and there's also a life that you have to take into account. I'd imagine training for two hours a day really sucked a lot out of your life as far as being able to do other things.

Jody: Oh, that's all I did. I mean, I'd work and then I'd have training. I'd say that I'd do it before work. That never happened. So then I'd go to the gym at night and that's all I'd do.

But you just made me think. When I was going through my divorce and I was separated and I was living in a buddy's basement, I made myself go on a walk around his neighborhood every night. And it wasn't a long walk. Sometimes it was 15 minutes, 20 minutes. I don't think I was getting a lot of physical fitness out of it, but it made me feel better every single time.

It didn't solve any of my problems. My ex still dumped me and all that went through, but I felt a little bit better every single time I went on that walk. So there you go. Hey, there's something to be said about not just the physical benefits, but the mental as well.

Scot: Gentlemen, any final thoughts? We'll start with you, Jody. What do you think?

Jody: I'm glad we had this conversation because I've been thinking about it, I've been stewing about it, I've been making excuses, and avoiding action. And this makes me want to get moving again. So I appreciate it, guys.

Scot: Just one small action. That's all you have to do. Just one small action. Like you said, action . . . I can't remember exactly what you said, but what I took away from the action thing is once you start doing an action, then it's easier to do more actions.

Jody: And then we can all do an Ironman together.

Scot: No, no, no. I might go with you and your buddy to Mount Timp. That sounds kind of fun. That's been something I've been wanting to do.

Jody: All right. Let's do it.

Scot: I don't know that I can do it. I have some problems I have to solve first. So maybe. John?

Dr. Smith: I'm in.

Scot: Are you really?

Dr. Smith: Yeah, I'll do it in a heartbeat, man. Yeah, let's go.

Scot: All right.

Dr. Smith: Scot, I've been trying to get you to hang out with me for a while. So if this is what it takes, I'm in.

Jody: If I have to hike a 12,000-foot . . .

Dr. Smith: Yeah. If I have to shoot up to 11,000 feet to get to hang out with Scot, sign me up, dude. Just tell me what Saturday, Thursday, I'll take work off for it.

Scot: Well, if we can, I'd like to follow up in a few more months. Jody, as always, thank you very much for coming on the podcast and sharing your story.

If you're listening right now and you have any thoughts or if this story really resonates with you, you can reach out to us and you can tell us about it, and we'd love that, at hello@thescoperadio.com.

Thanks for listening and thanks for caring about men's health.