Hey he couple of quick words before we hop into Episode 40 This week, I pre recorded this for the second time because for the second time since I rewrote we started this podcast a couple of weeks ago. I have lost the audio on the first recording. I don't know what happened. Somehow my microphone got unplugged. I probably was futzing figuring things out moving these around. I swear I was watching the levels yesterday during the recording. Anyway, away it went. I had an hour of uses audio useless video we recorded today. So I'm super fired up for this episode. I did talk about a ton of things yesterday, I think I got most of them today again. I really want to talk about people that don't take responsibility, how we can grow and learn from our life experiences. It is a little bit more serious than usual. But I would say is still as a lot of my usual nonsense of bullshit if I'm being honest. Let's see, what are we talking about? We talked about hobbies and how hobbies advance our careers and life. I think it's weird, honestly, weird, scary, stupid, strange. You name it. When people say they don't have hobbies, I think sometimes people might feel a certain way about their hobbies. But I feel like we all have hobbies at some point. Yeah. Some might be temporary, some are more long term. But I talked a lot about that. I do talk a lot about a some of my frustrations in life. That's kind of where I get it on this high horse about taking responsibility. I feel like a lot of people don't. Surprisingly, today, when I re recorded, I got emotional about how alcohol really kind of affected me and took over my life before my stroke. And I really I got a little heavy got a little deep, a little unusual for this particular show. But I think it's good it. Hopefully it resonates with people. Hopefully people learn from my mistakes, and they don't get to that place before it's too late. But I do talk a little bit about stroke and how it could save my life. I did talk about yesterday in the episode unfortunately, I forgot today talked about Tim Wakefield that that connection with my grandfather and my father, and how I used to throw the duck ball because when I played baseball as a kid, I needed something besides I didn't have the good curveballs, Tim Wakefield, his passing kind of hit me strong on Sunday. Does sort of Travis Kelce is still interesting. not that interesting. I'll talk about how I don't like people who only do things from the phone. I feel like yes, it's 2023 do a ton for your phone. But be honest. Sometimes you just gotta be behind the computer. And then I talked about Duke Notre Dame football on Saturday night how these games are awful. Anyways, enjoy episode 40 of the podcast My name is Schmierer Welcome back to another episode of wobbly a podcast today is episode 40. And we're gonna be talking, talking about bracing corks, challenges, unplanned moments, all things responsibility, so many topics. The exciting part of this episode is I'm recording this for the second time because I'm an idiot. And I absolutely didn't realize that microphone was unplugged yesterday. For the second time since I've restarted this particular show. This is the fourth episode since restarting this podcast, the lovely the podcast. And this is the second time out of four. So we're betting 50% where I have to rerecord the episode. So I'm excited and fired up today. But yeah, we have tons of topics to talk about. I actually, because of yesterday's hiccup, I took the time to make a little bit of an outline. I know this is not as structured as the lovable survivor for those that may listen or watch both. But this is supposed to be fun. Ironically, I feel like yesterday's was a little bit of a downer. So maybe everything worked out for reason. I will say I do not love my outfit right now. I'm wearing a Jaguars hat which I am not a huge fan of the Jags but I gotta be honest, my giants are looking terrible. So we can talk about Monday night football because that was not only embarrassing, and awful, and all the things but I have a lot of thoughts on the New York Giants and frankly, the Jets even without Aaron Rodgers are looking better than the Giants. But yeah, super happy to be re recording this episode. For the second time, oh, we got a lot of fun topics that I've actually spelled out of yesterday. That wouldn't have been on this episode, episode 40 If I did not mess up the audio. And to be honest, I was wearing an orange hoodie yesterday to do something a little bit different. And it was fine, but I look like a giant fucking pumpkin. I'm sure I will wear the hoodie again, because it is the month of October. But yeah, I don't know. But yeah, we got tons to get into. And we'll get right into it. Let's see. I have a bunch of notes. And I'm kind of reading them as we're starting this episode. Again, we're re recording, Episode 40, silver lining in mishaps, embracing unexpected things in life. This is kind of the norm in my life, from my stroke to having three kids. As much as I tried to plan as much as I tried to do things in a consistent, repetitive. I've designed my life to be that way. But it is not without complexity, and hiccups and tons of things going on. So where do we want to start? Sorry, I have so many notes and I had so many random thoughts. I just got off another phone call today. So I'm going back to back to back to back. recording this episode getting ready to record the other show. But yeah, let's see where do we start? Obviously, we recording is annoying. So we're already going through that. I'm sorry, I'm reading my notes as we're starting. Now let's talk about the giants to start off. I did the whole episode yesterday, the first time through without talking about football. But I feel like we should talk about football because it's now Tuesday. The Giants looked off all last night in mnay football and but I mean, awful would be putting it nicely. They look lost. They look very uncompetitive, that I know that's not a word. But I gotta be honest, they were depressing at home. They couldn't get it together. I don't know what's going on. I do know that I probably agree with a lot of the professionals and I'm trying to DJ because I feel like I learned my lesson with Eli. I did not I've been very clear and I think a lot of my friends are felt the same way. But Eli started with the Giants. I really wasn't sure back in the 2000s. You later proved me wrong. Although unfortunately for Eli, the way his career ended was not as great as the middle. I wish he could have kind of ended on a better note. But it was a great career. Nonetheless, he did beat Tom Brady twice to win both Super Bowls for the Giants in 2000. What was seven and 12 or eight and 12? I can't remember exactly over a decade ago now. But yeah, I guess I was hoping Daniel Jones would start to turn around. I know he needs some help. But he definitely looks like a lost animal and the African Sahara right now. That not a great analogy but yeah, he looks like a deer in headlights. And you know the offensive line did not look good. I'm not super up on everything giants. I believe in the Giants. I'm sure they will probably salvage the season to some degree. But they definitely need some help. At the receiver position. Dennis Jones has shown moments of real you know, you can see why they drafted him. And I think playing in New York is tough. Playing in New York without a core around you like Zach Wilson. We saw this past weekend this past Sunday night game Jetson chiefs. They weren't able to pull it out either. But that was a much closer game. Certainly in the second half, and I think you saw glimpses of Zach Wilson. You surround him with a good defense. You surround him with offensive weapons you surround him with running backs. I think Zack Wilson actually will turn it around. I think he had a good press conference. You know. Football's an interesting sports are. Some weeks are good. Some weeks are bad. You could do all the things right? One week, and everything goes to hell in a handbasket. The next week. You know, I think it was just an ugly game by Last night, but I still don't think the giants are terrible I want to believe and I feel like Daniel Jones can be a good quarterback for the Giants I think even when a UI pulled it out the first couple years honestly, I think he was getting questioned most of his career and a unfortunately for Daniel Jones that are probably go the same way. But hopefully they start winning. They build a bigger, stronger team on defense and offensive line. Sort of more weapons around because say Quan is great, but he can't be the only one especially with his track record of Unfortunately getting hurt a couple of times out in his career, so I don't know. It was just kind of a bummer to watch that game on Monday Night Football but it was you know, the Giants. I'll take that game over probably Oregon on Thursday night with the Redskins are the sign up then the Washington commanders and the bears because that will probably be awful. But I did talk about yesterday when I recorded the first time how much I enjoy the Thursday night crew and the job that Amazon puts on with their production every week. Because for Patrick Sherman Gonzalez, Andrew Whitworth presa Thompson, that is a really great crew on Thursday night football. In fact, I look forward to the before the halftime and the end of the show I care less about the game. I just enjoy that team very much like NBA. on TNT, I really enjoy Ernie Shaq Kenny and Charles, I think the four of them and the five of them on Thursday night football are two really good examples. Actually great examples of how to build a cool show. And it doesn't matter the teams that are playing. You know, I don't think the broadcaster's necessarily need to shine. But I think it helps when you have an exciting crew and an exciting show outside of a game because you don't always get to pick the games. Sometimes there's injuries, sometimes teams that you line up for a great game isn't a great game. So I think having both a relatively good competitive game and having a great crew on the sidelines or in the reports or doing the broadcast is a nice addition to any programs, and especially one like Amazon where they only do the Thursday night game, or to have notoriously been not so great. This is a really welcomed, enjoyable experience as a viewer. Whether you're watching it doing work, like I like to do work in the evenings, sometimes casually, and watch sat in the background. So like, if I really want to focus I could focus. If I really want to watch the show I could watch the show. I think it's a good show. But yeah, things I was talking about again yesterday that I'll kind of rehash today talk a lot about hobbies. Hobbies is a big topic lately for me. And in fact, one of the things I was just talking about on my phone call is that I really enjoy hobbies. And I probably am guilty of having too many hobbies too many activities. I like to put my my hands a lot of projects I like to put my focus in a lot of areas that is sometimes a blessing and a curse. But I feel like having hobbies it's weird because I talked to a lot of other adults and a lot of people always say they don't have hobbies or I don't even notice that they don't have hobbies is that they don't consider their hobbies to be legitimate or they're embarrassed or I don't know whatever the case may be because it seems to vary from person to person, but I feel like a lot of people either don't enjoy discussing their hobbies they might be embarrassed, they might not just want to want to share but I feel like hobbies have so many benefits. Its hobbies are like a helpful movie, a helpful way to escape. daily pressures daily life, get away for a minute, let your mind and body relax but also be able to use your mind and brain whether it's like Sudoku or Wordle you know, these are not complex hobbies but their hobbies nonetheless, some people enjoy puzzles some people enjoyed knitting. I used to enjoy woodworking got a story about that this past weekend. Yeah, I think the benefits of hobbies are really it enhances our work day to day whether you're an entrepreneur or you work for somebody else. You know, it helps build the age of diverse skill set. You know, sometimes having a bunch of different skills doesn't always make sense until it kind of does make sense like over the course of my life, all the things As I've done, I've learned I've added to has actually helped me in a lot of areas. Yes, sometimes it also takes away. But I feel like overall, it helps to make a more rewarding, feeling. Satisfying, being able to do a lot of things excites me. And it's not for everybody. And again, hobbies don't have to be complex, there's no need to feel ashamed at hobbies, but I feel like you know, if your hobbies watching TV, I mean, I don't think that's a bad thing. It just, it is what it is kind of, and I hate say that, but like, you can also watch TV with a purpose. Like I watch a lot of podcasts now. And I like to learn what they're doing. And I watch with a purpose and it's not. Is it the quote unquote? Is it the best hobby? No, but is it a hobby, I enjoy the programming, a lot of podcasts are on YouTube now. So like, I enjoy what they're doing, I enjoy. You know, I look for different things, the camera shoot the angles, questions, topics, the conversation, how it blows different things. From the tactical to the non technical, again, you can just sometimes I just watch, just to watch, just to enjoy. That's okay too. Hobbies are supposed to be enjoyable activities. And it's okay, if you are super into a thing. And you're super focused on one thing and one world. That's okay. But it's also okay to go beyond your that world and explore something new or different or uncomfortable or just learn about a different thing with no pressure. I think what hobbies are great for is learning and adding to things you already know and things you're learning actively about. But also, for the hobby, you don't have to feel the pressure doing it all the time, you could have a hobby that you enjoy a hobby or activity that you enjoy once a month, once a week. Maybe it's an activity you enjoy with your partner or wait for spouse or whoever. A kid, you know your children. And you have a different hobby with each kid that you enjoy spending time with them doing. I feel like I just feel like people always kind of shit on Hobbies, or I just feel like I've heard it a lot lately is that. And if you don't have hobbies, that's fine, too. And maybe there? Maybe this is worth considering? Is there something you can add to your life? Is this something that you're interested in? Again, it may not be something tons of people are interested in that hobby could. Again, it could just be a hobby, but it could be something that you use later in life, it could be used something you use, in addition to what you're already doing in life. Again, I see it as an add to less of a takeaway. And again, if the only benefit to you is you enjoy it, and you're having a good time, why not? Now, the reason I was thinking about that is because I guess I saw this, I was thinking about hobbies, and I was thinking about successful people. And a lot of you know, entrepreneurs who are successful do a lot of different things. And maybe they have a particular focus at one time. And they get really good at that one thing. And then once that one thing is really a well oiled machine, they then add to and I think that a lot of times is sort of that is good advice and something to look at. Because there's no reason you can't do a lot of things throughout the span of your life and career. But I think starting small and focused is super helpful. And I think adding to over time. You know, I've started to learn this year, and I have always known this but I think sometimes doing is harder than actually like you're so in it. You're thinking constantly your brain is moving a million miles an hour that sometimes we we get lost in our own stuff and our own life. And we get sidetracked even people who are really good at staying on track, you tend to get sidetracked. And I was thinking about Shaq because he's somebody who is a big guy, a big body a big human, big personality. He's been a part of a lot of things. But if you think about Shaq from the beginning, and again, check is probably about 10 years older than me. So I'd say he's around 50s I know he's in his 50s but check. Yep, built his career on being a big dude playing basketball playing in the NBA did an amazing job for the magic for the Lakers, or the heat for the Celtics for a number of teams in the NBA and had a very successful career. He was always dabbling in things like I remember Shaq back in the 90s was trying to trying to get into acting a little bit in hip hop and rap. It wasn't very good and it was kind of not great, but he was always like playing around and dabbling, doing different things outside of that. Basketball. He was very into building businesses and charities. And he's always been kind of this big fun guy. This I take a lot of inspiration from Shaq because I like to be, you know, obviously, there's podcasts called Lobos rare, but I'm at my core, I'm a big fun, lovable idiot. Like, that's why that show this show is named the lovely about guest. Because I recognize that it can be very serious, I like to have fun. I call myself an idiot, probably, you know, I don't actually mean it. I don't think I'm an idiot. But I can be all over the place at times. And I'm a guy who appreciate life. And sometimes I don't look like it. Sometimes it can be very serious. Sometimes I get myself in trouble because I go far off the other way, like, way too silly or goofy, not enough serious. Sometimes it needs to be a little bit more pendulum in the middle kind of. But again, that's my brand. That's my personality. That's me, whether I like it or not. Sometimes I need to rein it in a little bit. Which you know, is another thing I was talking about today is that I can be all over the place a lot. I'm literally the shape and size of to average adult male human beings. There are not a lot of people walking around at 640 325 pounds. Again, I was talking about earlier, as I was running before my phone call before recording that I did a quick six miles this morning, or mid morning basically. And I gotta go do more later today. The person has to do is like gamma strokes or IRA with Ms. I didn't start running until last year, this Friday will be a year since I've run consistently every day for the calendar year. So October 6 22 to October 6 23 will be gear I've only missed to date. So assuming I don't miss another day, I will only have missed four days of running in this calendar year. Three of which I was away on vacation, one of which I had a little hiccup and I took a day of rest. So all in all, I have run a crap ton of times this year, 361 days out of 365 this Friday. You know it's a thing and I know I got way off track from Shaq. But so let's go back to Shaq was not talking about my running right now. But I just wanted to mention that because it's still it's insane to me that I've gone that far. But again, back to check and things like with hobbies and running it as a hobby of mine. So that's probably why I was getting sidetracked there. But what I love about check is you played in the NBA. For what 17 1819 Let's say check played roughly 18. About 18. Right 18 to 20. We'll say 20 has rounded up twice say shocked by both 20 years and the MBA, long career, great career, a lot of charitable work, a lot of business work that he did on the side when he was applying full time. But he was primarily focused on basketball since basketball ended. He's been primarily focused on broadcasting, but he's still been building businesses. He's still been building his personal brand. I don't think Shaq needs to build a personal brand. He just is a personal brand. Because he's a big guy. And he's always doing big things and great things. He's having fun. He seems like he's having fun. Obviously, I don't know Shaq personally, but he just gives off that vibe that he's enjoying life. Having fun, saying relatively healthy, good shape. Still a big dude. Going back to that music. He's always had that as like a hobby and like an activity and he's never really pursued it in a big way. I think until the last couple of years. He's really kind of transitioned out of the rap and hip hop and got into DJing. And I think he's really good at that. Because check, again is a big personality. He draws a crowd. He has all of the intangibles of being a great DJ. I think a lot of EDM and digital producers and artists in the digital, you know, doing DJing is great DJs but they don't they're not Shaq, right, and Shaq has both personality size. People are enamored with him, he can build a crowd, he can bring an audience. He could bring people into this, the dance EDM world, which you wouldn't think Shaq is a real big part of but now he's older. He's made all these connections through business through basketball through broadcasting. And he's put himself in a place to take a hobby and take it to that next level because he now has connected and is built through other means to now really take his DJ career to the next level and DJ diesel, you could see it even on if you follow Shaq on Instagram or Tiktok. You see, he's drawing crowds, he's going to bigger events. He's doing this thing. And this is now potentially, you know, I mean, honestly, he said so many things that he's done in his career. It's, it's exciting. It's, it's inspiring to somebody like me, who likes to do a lot of things. And you could see that, you know, just because you focus in one area doesn't mean you can't explore other things. And it actually has made him better and more well rounded person I believe. But it's so cool to see Shaq, even at age 50 doing this, he doesn't have to do this. He could sit around broadcasts all day. I mean, he could literally just chill on TNT with Ernie, Kenny and Charles till in time, but he's always staying active. He's always kind of pursuing things that are just cool. So I think when people say different things about like, hobbies and like, you know, to each their own again, it doesn't matter to me, I don't care if you have hobbies or not, I just think it's weird when people don't know, I think Shaq has a good example of like, yeah, not everybody Shaq but like, take that and scale it to somebody who maybe isn't Shaq, but there's a reason it doesn't scale down or up. I mean, I don't know how many people are bigger than Shaq, but scale to your own life and, you know, pursue it in a way that works for you. I don't know, I just think there's a lot of benefits of it. I felt like talking about it. I thought Shaq was a really good example. Honestly, I think Charles is a good example too. Because I don't know about as much about Kenny and. And Ernie. I know they're great on that show. But like, Charles is obviously a great NBA player has been a great broadcaster for the last 1520 25 years, maybe right? And he is not necess. But he does different things. He's more of a golfer and he's never been the greatest golfer but he's always fun. He's having Barney pursues that hobby. It's something that you know, he's passionate about, you see, Charlie's doing a little bit more outside of TNT. And he's doing I've seen him on more podcasts. I don't know if he has his own podcast yet. But yeah, he's just doing different things. I think those two are, you know, that whole team is a great team. But I just enjoy watching other people do inspiring stuff. And definitely things that you expect. I think that's what I love about Shaq and Charles is that they're always keeping that old team and always keeping people toes, keeping people guessing. And showing people what is possible. Yeah, on life, pursuing hobbies and activities and things like that. But yeah, that's kind of a big thing that I was bringing to this episode talking about how he's speaking of unexpected things. So it's kind of good. It's not exactly one to one here. But the thing that gets me fired up every week is planning. So I admittedly have never been the best long term planner. In life. I'm more of a week to week, probably month to month, if I'm being honest, at best, long term, I just can't wrap my head around certain things like a heat. Certainly that kind of like a dot like I see my primary care twice a year. I know that's going to happen. I do other things with different doctors twice a year. I know those are going to happen. I can reasonably the plan those but also like, yeah, just give me another date for the next appointment. And it'll be March and then I'll have no idea until like the week before, if I can actually make that appointment. But something that's come up my life, it's something that happened this past weekend with my wife that drove me absolutely crazy, who I love. Who's amazing and why I bend over backwards for my wife is because she's my wife, and I love her. Despite the shit I talk sometimes it does drive me crazy. But that is kind of our relationship that is our dynamic that is unique to us. Honestly, I think we can all admit, there are things we love about our partners and spouses. And there are things that drive us crazy. And one of the things that drives me crazy is sometimes her her lack of planning, and I know this comes back to a little bit of heritage, probably a little bit of growing up in Miami. I'm guilty of it too. But she just has a little bit rule. She's a little more relaxed than I am. I'm fun. I'm lovable. I love to have a good time. But as much as I'm not a planner, I know I'm not the best planner. So like I'm very good at like, in the week in the month, give me what's on task, what's to do to kind of figure out how I'm gonna handle it all because I'm gonna get it done. I'm gonna figure it out. It's all little stressful. It's not ideal, but I just, I can only handle what I can handle. Anyways, last minute so I think I talked about it last week she was headed down for a bachelorette party this weekend was a bridal shower for the same person. We've all the wedding again is not until December. So I don't know why all this happening right now. Kids are in school, they have birthday parties on the weekends. I freaking hate that I could talk about ad nauseam. Love a kid's party, but that caused me a lot of stress. I rarely wished I think I think I'm going flat like, now everybody gets a gift card for the birthday. I don't hear about it. Yo party, my kid's gonna show up. You're gonna get a gift card. That's it. That's as much thought as I want to put into it. I don't care if they want to care if they want to transformer give a shit like you're getting a gift card. And that's it because I just wanted to remove some friction and stress in my life. Because on top of all this, my wife is going to make a custom gift for her bridal shower this weekend. She told me this on Friday that she planned on using a machine that we bought a couple years ago that I bought specifically for woodworking. It's called the Glowforge. It's a laser engraver. It's a high end machine. Not everybody as as very few people have it. It's a really cool thing. I'm lucky to afford it and have it I enjoy it. I enjoy doing different projects with this machine. It has been an integral part to me staying in woodworking but I really have not been utilizing it a ton this last year which my wife has seen because the projects have been largely smaller or bigger, bigger in terms of like actual scale, smaller in terms of tactical know how and like they're not the most complex woodworking projects since my stroke four years ago, or almost four years ago. I've been less active in woodworking. I don't do it as often. Again, I've said this probably at nauseam, not looking lose fingers I survived a stroke, I figured out how to come back from from not great shape to get big getting back in good shape, doing all the things that needed to get my life in order. Long story short, Friday, she tells me we're going to do this project she has no idea how to use machine, she's yelling at me that I've never taught her. We've had it for three years. I can do the damn project but it's only because of those hobbies and skills that I acquired over the last 20 plus years to be able to do this project turn around in less than 48 hours. Not very few people can do naturally your boy did it. You got it out shipped done given lovely gifts, but I will tell you it added a ton of stress to my life this again she handed me the project and the bowl she handed me these plates that were not flat. The machine is a great machine. You can do not flat projects but it takes some work and finagling and you only get one chance if you only have one set of plates you know or in this case it was one big plate with one big plate with four little plates long story short we only had one supplier this something got messed up so we had to switch no big deal when making cutting boards so lovely gift just not quite as lovely as the first gifts but you give me she hasn't seen me do a lot of these projects in the last year you know like I don't know this is somebody crazy like first of all very few people could do this very few people have the machine or the ability to make these kinds of projects on Jesus like oh we are we just gonna whip up my project for my I mean just a heads up like give me a week like a weird amount of being whole thing when you really get into an argument but as a con you need to tell me ahead of time because this is crazy like I just happen to know how to do this how to put the graphics together how to align the project honestly the mistake was my fault I could have made a jig by spent a little bit of time and done it right and made the original purchased item that she had made it work but I was rushing and I made a mistake we didn't have a second set or a second plate because I couldn't save the four bowls but like we didn't have a second plate that matched exactly so like we had to scrap it I don't know it's it's one of those things and I just I hate you don't have to be I know I'm not the best planner but like it's funny to me that my wife who is very helpful knows that I'm a stroke so our lives with me has seen me struggle battled back for almost four years now. sees me handle ms knows that I can do a lot but I can't do certain bangs away used to can't do anything nearly as quickly. It's just super frustrating. And the moral of that story, I think, is I think what everybody should take away from that is really doesn't tie into anything. But I think in life, we all one of the things that I learned in college, and I think I learned it younger, but no, you don't have to go to college learn this. But I think one of the silver benefits of going to college or some kind of similar experiences is transitioning from sort of high childhood and middle school, grade school, high school. And then having that time before you become an official adult, and working in the real world is like having a couple of years to kind of figure out some of the intangibles like planning, meals, planning life, planning your own schedule, like figuring that out. Serve on your own time. And in your own way of living life. And like how how you handle stress of daily living, like obviously, having kids probably doesn't happen for a lot of people to later, you're probably already in a career at that point. That's a very different set of circumstances. But that those those years where you would go to college, if you don't go to college still living on your own, not at home, learning to manage a household, even a small apartment, living with somebody else like these are these are those life skills are really super important. And I think that is one of the benefits of going to college. I think doing that in an affordable costs, cost efficient, cost effective way, is probably the best advice I can give anybody, I would never say don't go to college. But I don't think one of the things that I always thought we went back to Florida with Allie and I thought her going to school in Florida was that she kind of go, you can go a pretty good distance in the state and feel like you're away. And like a way away if you want to be away, but not even actually have to leave the state. You know, we've talked about some things there. But yeah, but I think, in general, like I see people do hobbies is a great way to escape some of the stress of daily life, right. And again, going back to like, planning, like, one of the other things that gets me fired up every week is like meal planning, I plan my meals meticulously, and I'm gonna get into why. But I also try to help my wife with planning meals, but we have three kids are there honestly, sometimes that are a little bratty, I think we gotta get that under control. Sometimes, because my daughter analysis is old enough where she, she doesn't want to, you're not going to eat it, she can go to the store, buy our own food, make her own food. The boys are not, as you know, I mean, very different diet than my wife and kids. Then you have potentially my wife helping me make a meal though, I'm trying to really get it to a point where I can, I'm starting to cook and at least for myself, to take that off her plate, because I realized she sort of has taken a lot on since since I became stroke survivor years ago. And this is actually super funny, but I feel like you know globality a podcast, we talk about a lot of things from things, things that are funny things are fun, trying to keep it light hearted. But this show is about being fired up and fired up. I'm fired up about meal planning. Like it's, there's so many tools that I think people sometimes don't think to take advantage of when it comes to meal planning. I know with kids, all parents, there's trouble and issues and like some people are, you know, cab this or don't like that. So blah, blah, blah. And I almost want to go back to the old school way in the 90s, where my mom was like, well, you eat this or you think I don't really love that modality. But I feel like I feel like there's a way to work. Like, you don't have to necessarily do that. But like there's a way to work within the system. I don't know where I'm going with that. But it's just like yeah, I just did a podcast for the other show on stress and relieving stress. And this is why it's funny that I did that last week. And then all of a sudden more stress was thrown into my plate because it was it was meal prep, it was clean. It's like I do a lot of the grocery shopping now. And I do a lot of it online because I have Walmart plus, you know, I can drive to the grocery store, but I don't enjoy that. So now that I can have things delivered, I can more things take it off my plate. I think that's one of the advantages. Like obviously I still like to pick out certain certain fruits or vegetables, certain things that sorry, I like to be the person selecting them. But there's plenty of things that we can buy where I can at least honestly, I had to be honest as a parent, like I grew up in Jersey that we didn't have a Walmart are really where I grew up. It wasn't a big thing, but later in life, Walmart was closer to where we lived. It's just something I guess when you have more kids, you start to realize it. All right? Well, it's probably worth driving to Walmart but the Walmart here long story short, I paid for Walmart plus because to have things purchased, picked up and brought to my house from Walmart and to not have to go to Walmart is worth every dollar of the tip and the monthly costs to Walmart plus select. It is the best service ever invented because I hate a Walmart parking lot. I love the prices from Walmart, I love everything about Walmart, except for actually going to Walmart. And it's specific to the one that is closest to us. There are some others that are better in the area. But we don't always frequent those areas. So to be totally worth it, shout out Walmart plus, sure they don't need me to shout them out. I'm sure they have plenty of subscribers, plenty of people utilize their service. But I think it's a great thing. If you have a nice Walmart in your area, but just hate the experience of actually going into a Walmart. It is the worst. But it's hard to beat those surprises. Anyways, so yeah. meal planning stresses me out. But that is because I had been and I'm working on. So I know keto is a big topic. It has been all the rage in a lot of areas. Tons of podcasts, I think Kuperman talks about it. I think Burke talks about it. I know. Tom Segura talks about a lot of comedians, a lot of actors, a lot of people talking about keto. I have decided because I am now destroyed, like I said, will be a year since I started running every single day started running a little over a year. But at this point, I was still doing Walk Run. But yeah, I started running I started, you know, I've been paying attention to my diet and my lifestyle. Every which way since my stroke and 2019 Really 2020 started getting a handle on things. 2021 definitely take it to step two. Step three was obviously last year starting to run bike. I mean, I've been exercising probably pretty often pretty regularly since 2020. As I had some home equipment, especially in 2020 but I started going back to the gym and 2021 When I left my previous career and so really been utilizing the gym, I have more equipment at home now. I run in the neighborhood at around 80 miles a day on average now which is a shit ton. Probably unnecessarily large amount but I realized okay, good. Awesome. Feeling good. Love it soon. All these good things for me, but I was like, Oh, I can do hard things. I've survived a stroke. I have MS. Like I have three kids. I have a wife whose death I have not really tried Cheeto and I just as usual, I poo pooed it I brushed it off. I said eff keto. I don't care. eating pasta all the time. For the first year. He's like, Oh, I'm running every day I can eat carbs. That is true. I haven't gained a single pound this year. But I you would expect to be running you know 10 plus miles day and now we're up the 15 Plus now are almost at 18 Plus on a regular basis. I have not been shedding weight the way you would think and I don't really care because it's really about running and fitness for me. It's not it's never been about losing weight since starting last year. But I just thought me well. Why not try keto and I've been looking into it last couple weeks. I've kind of slowly transitioned to keto. I would not say I'm full on keto yet but I'm very close on kind of weaning out carbs testing it I definitely I've made some mistakes which is probably why I'm not technically for keto yet because I example I was just eating beans and actually so I'm eating beans on occasion. But I'm eating all these things that are genuinely healthy for you. There's no harmony beans just they're not strictly in Quito. Also, I think we all know I don't enjoy following rules and they don't follow rules very well. So yeah, no surprise there that I think that's the thing like I want to be more fit. I want to even take my fitness to the next level. It's not a midlife crisis. I mean, if this is a midlife crisis, this is the worst midlife crisis in the world because it might midlife crisis involves having a stroke at age 37. getting diagnosed 37 and a half with Ms. Yeah, it's it's fine i Whatever. Whatever it is, it's just it's not a midlife crisis. It's just when you go through something of that you kind of realize a lot of things I could do. One of the blessings, about having a stroke at age 37 was because I don't think and I don't know if I've said this here, the other show or both. I don't know that I would have ever stopped drinking. Had it not been for the stroke I might have. Honestly, I might have accidentally continued to drink and probably drink myself to death. And that was not something that I saw, which sounds insane. I don't talk about this a lot. So forgive me if I get a little emotional. But I yeah, I just drank for so long, that I didn't see the problem. Because it was right in front of me. But I was having relatively good success with life and kind of figuring things out. And I think it just got to a point where I didn't even realize and recognize myself, like I look at the old picture on my license from a moved here to Florida and 2018. I look at that picture now. Honestly, I'm thinking about getting a new license, because I can't even stand looking at that picture myself. But I hated myself. And not because of anything in particular. Like I just I was drinking a lot. And I was using that as a way to escape. But I didn't listen to anybody around me. I didn't wanna listen. I just thought everything was okay. Because I was doing okay. And actually, I didn't expect this episode to go this direction. But I just I was thinking about this, I was like, yeah, it's been hard to come back from a stroke, it's certainly not a whole I recommend anybody dig themselves into or find themselves in it's, again, this is supposed to be a fun show. So I don't want to get too deep. But yeah, just like coming back from a stroke is one of the hardest things, if not the hardest thing anybody could ever encounter in life. And it's certainly not common to go through it at 30 sevens, primarily in the middle of your career. In the middle of raising kids, the middle of having a family like generally speaking, people are no more so at a minimum age 50 Even that's pretty rare. But I've noticed in my stroke group, and again, this is usually the other show that I'm doing these things on. People are getting younger and younger. So there is some crossover, there are people that are younger, they're having strokes for a variety of reasons. Some are, you know, heart issues. I mean, obviously, I meet a lot of survivors. So some people are just born with heart defects and it leads to a stroke because they don't know they have a heart defect till they've had a stroke. And that could that's honestly that's half the group sometimes. It's just younger people. Mind was not because that mine was because I was a mess. Because I was a cigarette smoker alcoholic. But again, I was like, just in a spot in my life where like, I didn't realize what I was doing to myself. And so again, not the most fun midlife crisis, but that's why I pay attention to exercise and diet because I don't want to make that same mistake. I want to be there for my kids. People ask me all the time how I do it. And I I honestly don't know how to answer that because I do it because I do love life. I mean, I call myself a global idiot. I call the show global at a podcast because for as much as there as dark. I also love the light. I love to make people laugh. I love I don't love to be the center of attention, but I happen to be the center of attention. If the situation needs that, you know what I mean? Like, I would rather somebody else be the show, but if somebody needs me to step up and fill in to make the show, I'll be part of the show or I'll make the show happen. I'll make people laugh and so on that in that spirit. Um, I don't really know where he's going with this except for, you know, with the Keto thing, yeah. Ken has a long way from keto. But yeah, keto. I feel like because I've survived a stroke because I've overcome being an alcoholic because I've changed my entire life. I am going a step further now and I'm trying to take you know, the fixing of my diet, the fixing of my body much more seriously, and I realized now that keto is in Just think to me because again, I can eat anything, obviously, because I've been up to 500 pounds. But only joy sugar that much general really needed in my life. So like, I don't enjoy sweets. I'm just not a guy that's into sweets. I'd rather have like a sandwich than a candy bar. I'm just that dude. But I realized, yeah, I mean, do I want to sit there? I guess there are things that I enjoy now that I didn't use to enjoy. I don't know if that just because I want to enjoy them. And I want to try to see. Like I was talking to my daughter last night about it. It's like, I don't really I don't want to be known as like some keto guy. I don't want to be known as some fitness guru. But there is some hilarious aspect of this whole thing. And so we'll bring it back to lovable hilarious. Shit is like, How funny is it? I mean, it's just purely ridiculous. Like, I didn't like running my entire life until two and a half years into my stroke every now three and a half years in four years. It'll be four years in December. And it's like, right, that's when I started getting into running was after the stroke after the MS after being an alcoholic no longer smoking cigarettes. That's the point at which I decided start running 18 Fucking miles a day like that is just ridiculous at every level. So now am I. Alright, well, I like saying 325 But the reality is I'm actually under 325. That's because I've been exploring keto. And I'm like Elena, I really miss sugar. Already need to eat bread. I'll be honest, I thought the beans were a little more healthy and a little less. They apparently are not as carb friendly. So yes, I'm getting a little cranky as I'm getting a little bit more strict with my Keto. But I'm not beating myself up over it. I'm just trying to like kind of enjoy figuring out how to eat in that lifestyle in a way that works for me while I be. I literally got keto strips in the mail today. I don't know that I'll ever use them religiously. But it will be interesting to try and see. Can I can I go? Full keto for a couple of days. Can you know I'm curious? You know, and I don't know where it goes or how far it goes. But I think there are health benefits that affect, you know, obviously things that have happened in my life. So I'm really curious about keto. And I want to see where it goes. And I want to see, can I get into the best shape of my life after age 40. And it's just been a really kind of interesting, not the journey I ever expected number six spected to be 40 years old, helping other show survivors kind of figure out navigating being a struggle survivor themselves, like, never thought I'd be this guy who's running at 40. Honestly, I never thought I'd be the guy running ever. But I also never thought I'd be the guy not smoking cigarettes, not smoking, anything, not drinking, eating healthy. Having multiple kids like it's it's funny where life goes. And I know this is a little deep for this podcast. But yeah, I just think there's a lot of fun and interesting things. The last thing I was gonna talk about was kind of like, one of the things that drives me crazy, but maybe we'll save it for next week. So I'll tease it as you know, kind of along the lines we were talking about, but not so much hobbies just like this again, this gets invited we get a whole episode on this is like, I love meeting and talking to other people who are trying to figure things out. But one of the things that drives you crazy. I don't know if you experienced this as well is like other adults who? Like, it's okay. Nobody has all the answers. Nobody all has all the language sometimes to find the right answers. Like that's why we asked each other help for help or have friends to be okay, I tried googling this thing. I was interested in this thing. And I see that you've been doing this by using the right language like I'm not getting go to Google, I'm doing a search. I'm asking chat GBT and I'm not finding information or answers to kind of get me to this other level or, you know, further into exploration. And I feel like, again, that's something you learn with hobbies is that you learn to kind of how to explore and how to figure out a thing without that pressure of actually figuring out that thing. And maybe this is part of being a developer for 15 years was that I learned how to kind of dig for answers without knowing how to get to the, you know, you kind of learn the process to go from step one to step two to ultimately step three, or some variation of that, and I don't think that is a skill that everybody has. But I do think everybody has the opportunity to take responsibility for learning new things and learning in that way. It drives me crazy. Sometimes people ask me a question. And they'll come to me and they'll ask question, I never have a problem helping to answer a question of any kind, whether it's tactical, whether it's something I've done in some other part of my career, or whether it's something I'm doing now, or something that they know I've done or think I've done, always happy to point somebody that direction lend a hand, but I get frustrated sometimes when people put no effort in and already are asking questions. I think that's very different than asking a question, when you've tried a thing, or you've at least explored or attempted to find an answer or a solution to a problem. Like, I guess I was spurred on by my wife is like, we've had that machine for three years. And she never asked in the three years until she wanted a project done by me, with a 40 hour heads up. And again, I love my wife, I'll do anything for I'm not trying to shit on her in any way, shape, or form. Just a really good example of like, she can do this to me, because I feel well, I love her, and I will do anything for her. But I don't feel that way about everybody. So I think the lesson there is like, generally, if somebody were to bring that to me, I would have wanted more time, more heads up more preparation, what have you done to prepare, so that I can go do these next steps for you or help assist you on the next steps of the project that take it over and do it for you? That is a skill set I think is often overlooked. And people often forget to see us in their daily life so that that's a good tip. For me to you, I'm sure you probably already know that. But if you don't, hopefully, you learned that is a great way to take on responsibility as a grown ass adult or even as a younger adult, becoming a more mature adult. Always kind of trying to do certain things and putting a little effort and before you go ask and receive an exchange because it goes a long way. in anything in life. This is also talking about because I just want to wrap up with a couple of quick notes. What am I watching on TV this week? Live 200 on Netflix, pretty interesting. really has nothing to do with keto, but I was interested in finding some similar paths. I've been to a couple of those places in the documentary I agree. There is something to that I've not studied Centurions I'm not really interested in living to 100 per se. But I'm definitely interested in living a good, long fulfilling life, especially as being a stroke survivor. So there's some that's interesting. You know, take it for what it's worth, if you're into documentaries, what else what else what else? Can't think of anything else I'm watching usual shows on telly. What I'm not watching is my daughter was watching the Kardashians on Hulu. And that has this I can't, I can't watch it anymore. I'm not into it. I'm not into the golden bachelor if he was watching that, too. She was getting very emotional learning that show this morning, I could deal with that, that good for him good for them. I think there was one person that just immediately turned me off to that show. So that's my thoughts on that. I know it's been a roller coaster episode full of things of course, books, I got two good books. So I'm gonna recommend two books. If you're already into art and architecture at all, or you're into Italy, Florence and Rome, particularly Florence, the book I am listening to on Audible that I've really enjoyed that I highly recommend if you're into architecture or curious about it at all. In Florence, Duomo, one of the greatest architectural buildings in the world, the book that I'm reading is called Brunel. eskies dome. And it is by Ross King, really good book. I enjoy it. But I'm an architecture geek who went School of Architecture. So it may not be for everybody. But I have a lot of fond memories of Florence and Rome and Italy. Really want to do a whole episode on Italy. And my time there in 2005, because I spent the better part of 2005 in Italy, in Florence, in Rome, a lot of fond memories, tons of time in Pompeii. So that's probably been episode for this podcast. And then if you're interested in Quito, and I don't feel like it's pushy. It's not anything. It's just a nice book with facts that you can think about or not it doesn't have too much spin from what I've read so far. The Case for keto by Gary Taubes t au B E S. Federal that's how you say it, but that's the book that's the author. Really good. Enjoying it. Thank you. No, it's not for everybody. Of course. I don't want to be one of those people preaching some kind of diet. I just feel like for me keto has has some benefits like MS and inflammation. There's some other diets we've always talked about with Ms. And yeah, it might be for you if you're not. If you're into it, read that book. Give it a shot, see if you're into it. Anyways, we'll leave it there for episode 40. I hope you have a great week and I will see you next week on Falcon