What happens when life forces you to slow down?

[00:00:00] Speaker A: What up, what up? What up? Welcome back to the Bad Podcast. Brad and Wayne in here, another episode. I know you guys missed us. We're back in the building. Brad, man, what are we talking about today? [00:00:10] Speaker B: Let's talk about consistency over intensity. A lot can be packed up into this message, so tune in, baby. It's gonna be a good one. [00:00:18] Speaker A: Let's get it. [00:00:22] Speaker B: Are you ready? Are you ready? [00:00:38] Speaker A: What a little light would it be like what it do? Back in here, another episode of the Bad Podcast. Brad and Dwayne and Brad, man, I ain't even gonna lie, bro. A couple weeks ago I didn't know if I'll be in this space. Right. I didn't know if I was gonna make it home a couple of Sundays ago, brother, I ain't gonna lie. [00:00:57] Speaker B: Yeah. And you know, I, I, I saw the scare myself and obviously Adrian had heard far before I had, but, you know, that's kind of what I want to talk about, man. I want to talk about what happened. And you know, just these things are those emergency phone calls that we get, those emergencies that, you know, kind of wake us up a little bit. They're the wake up call. [00:01:16] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:01:17] Speaker B: You know, and so many of us experience, experience that wake up call and hopefully, you know, it's not one of those like too late wake up calls. It for you. It's not. But you gotta, you gotta take some intentional steps of recovery here. But let's, let's talk about what happened and. [00:01:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Share the story I got you, man. I got you. Many people have been waiting for this, this, this story, man. So Super Bowl Sunday, after my prediction was completely off in the other direction, I should have, the number was about right for the other direction. Like, yeah, it was a blowout the other way. But so here's the thing. I didn't care about no football at the time. I woke up Sunday, my stomach was hurting. I thought it was just constipation, you know, going through prep. I go, I go through that a lot. So, you know, I was kind of miserable all day. And then, you know, my wife kind of got concerned because it just kept lingering. And so we, you know, got some stuff to try to get some stuff moving along and, and we got some stuff moving along but no relief. Like my stomach was still hurting, still real bloated and, and so once I had a couple moves and nothing changed, I was like, you know what, let's go to the doctor. My mom, my mom was trying to get me to go to the doctor, like 1pm like she was like, go now. We ended up waiting, and we didn't get there till probably about. About seven or eight. We went. Went to the emergency room, and once in the emergency room, you know, still uncomfortable. They had me in the back running test. They did a. They did a ultrasound. Didn't see anything there. And about 11:35, something reached up into my belly and just said, out of nowhere, man, excruciating pain. I. I was sweating. I couldn't stay still. I was hollering, I was cussing. Like it was. It was bad. And, you know, my wife is panicking. She's trying to keep me calm. I can't lay down. It's uncomfortable. Stand up is uncomfortable. And. And, you know, in Fayetteville, at emergency room, you know, they see all kind of stuff. So they were just walking around like, I'm in there yelling. And so finally the nurse came, and she. She hit me with some morphine. And she was like, this should. This should calm me down. In about six seconds, nothing. And my wife was like, did you say six seconds or 60 minutes? Like, what? I'm still hollering. So then they gave me some more, man. And I finally calmed down enough to do a CT scan. When they did the CT scan, they found out that my appendix was on the verge of rupturing. It. You know, it was getting ready to rupture, and so they scheduled me for surgery that morning. That morning. Surgeon did his thing, got it out of there. He came in, and I didn't hear this part, but he told my wife. He was like. It was real nasty. And I was like, it already started to ooze out. I had holes oozing out. And so I had a lot of, like, pus and, like, toxins in my belly. So I had to do a lot of cleanup, a lot of suction and all of that. And. And, yeah, so I had an emergency appendectomy, is what they called it. And. And it took. I had to stay in the hospital for a week just because of the amount of poison and toxins in my belly. Had to run antibiotics through my system in order to get all that out. So it's been a whole week in hospital, a lot of. A lot of pain. But this is the part when I was like, I want to talk about this. So, you know, it's one thing to, you know, you take pain medicine, you know, you're trying to take the edge off, to relax. But in my case, especially when it came to, like, Wednesday or Wednesday, the pain medicine, I mean, I. You know, I wanted to take the edge off, but it was actually hindering my process progress because it takes longer for your, your organs to wake up the more you take pain meds. And so I had to make a decision, Brad. Do I stay comfortable and taking these pain meds or do I grid it out to get better, bro? And I was like, yo, somebody need to hear that, man. Because I could have took the easy route. I'm like, keep giving me them oxies, you know what I mean? Keep them, keep them, keep them on schedule. But what I did, man, I was like, I, I don't want to stay here much longer. And so I turned down the Miz. And I'm not, not saying you don't need to take meds, please don't take it the wrong way, but I felt like I needed to, to get healed up. In order to do that, I had to grind through that pain, that discomfort that. You know what I mean? I had to, I had to, I had to hug that pillow. Yeah. And, and go through that so that I could recover, man. And because taking that payment actually made the recovery slower. And a lot of times we, we take that, that thing to take the, the ease off. We get that, that short comfort. But bro, that, when I, when I went through that, I was like, Brad, I got, I got something. [00:06:28] Speaker B: You know, that's, that's, that's really important, man. And, and you know, first and foremost, painkillers are a very slippery slope. I, you know, it just, just ha. Just so happens to be within this week, I had a, I had a dear friend of mine pass away from. Boy, it's been many years now, but, you know, he was addicted to painkillers. And it is a very slippery slope. And you gain that comfort from those painkillers. And it's just like with what we talk about all the time, you know, everything's a slippery slope. If you start drinking alcohol and you have a couple beers here, and then tomorrow you have a couple beers and then it's another couple beers and then it's just a slippery slope and we gain trust in that comfort and, and that becomes the norm. Right? And then one day you just have to have a wake up call. You gotta hug the pillow. You gotta go through that pain, you gotta go through that discomfort and say, you know what? I, I gotta, I gotta wean off on this even, just so slightly. Like, did you go cold turkey? [00:07:22] Speaker A: I went cold turkey, man. I went cold turkey with the oxy. I kept the Tylenol going, but I went cold turkey with the oxy. Man. And the nurse was like, you sure? You sure? I was like, yeah, like I, I gotta get past this. Because at, at this point, the discomfort wasn't the incisions. The discomfort was like gas and bow. You know, just my stomach waking up, which is part of the process. But I was like, you know, in the time I was like, let me sleep. Like, I worry about gas and bottle, like, give me something so I can, I can sleep throughout the night. But then, you know, like I said, eventually whenever I kind of had a realization like, yo, like, the longer you do this, the longer it's going to take. You gonna have to go through this discomfort in order to, to progress, man. And, and yeah, whenever I stop, I think I stopped on Wednesday, so I hadn't, hadn't touched it since I had pain, but, you know, had. It was all a part of the process, man. [00:08:21] Speaker B: Yeah. And just like what we talk about, you know, we hold tight on to those things that give us comfort. And you know, sometimes you do just have to go cold turkey. Sometimes you do have to just go all in, you know, dive in head first. You know, if you are struggling with fitness, like just, just cut ties with old, old habits. And I know from this side of the screen, it's easy for me to say. It's, it's, it's ingrained in you and I because it's our profession and, and for the common folk, like, it might not be that simple. A couple of steps. One, you know, get the support system around you. You had your wife, hey, this is, this is your decision. I got your back. You know, you have to have that support system. And then two, you just got to start establishing new behaviors, new new habits and routines and, and that's going to get you projected in that right direction. Now I want to take a step back here. [00:09:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:09] Speaker B: What. Because this, this might be important for somebody to hear. You know, we, we fight through that pain and never realize that something, you know, deep inside of us is, is occurring. What, what, what brings this on or what caused this in you? I mean, you're, you're training for, you know, physique and you're, you're on a very specific diet. You know, what causes something like this? [00:09:32] Speaker A: So appendix failure is, I mean, it's, it's usually common in, in children is not really like a certain thing or cause or there's nothing I couldn't, you know, should have not eaten or anything like that. It's just one of those, those, those things, man, in my situation, apparently, like some, some I guess the better term is Finkel matter kind of got clogged, and that's what caused, you know, it to stop operating correctly. And, you know, nothing on my side that I could have did to prevent it. It's just one of those, one of those things, man. Because, you know, that's. That, that was part of the frustration too, you know, Like, I work out, I eat good. You know, I'm strict. Like, why, why am I in here? [00:10:18] Speaker B: Right, right. [00:10:19] Speaker A: You know, and, and even I had the nurses laughing, you know, because I was after the surgery, like, I was bloated for so long in my belly, I was like, bro, I worked out too hard not to have my ass going right now, man. You know, like, what, what's going on? But, but no. Yeah. So appendix. Yeah. Apparently you can live without it. And there's nothing that, you know, nothing that I'm aware of that would cause it to falter or fail. It's just one of those, one of those things, man. I just, I, I, like I said, it's, it's weird because you can't prepare for it, you know, like, eat. I wish I could say, hey, if you eat more broccoli, it, it'll protect your appendix, you know, but, yeah, no, there's nothing, no lead up, no nothing, man. You know, I, again, because of prep and just those extremes, I, I have, like, stomach issues. Like, I, you know, cramp up, you know, I get, you know, constipated or runny or whatever. Like, it's never like, yeah, you know, smooth move, you know, with me. And so leading up, you know, I just thought it was just another one of those aspects, but, yeah, this is something different, bro. [00:11:31] Speaker B: Well, let's jump on the other side of the tracks here. You're in recovery, and, yeah, it's, it's been. And it's going to be a slow and steady process. And, you know, both you and I, we both have put our bodies through some turmoil, a lot of resistance, you know, and, and really been harsh to ourselves. And I want to talk about the consistency that you are creating now slowly, because you can't, you can't go in and lift heavy now. You can't go and, and get back to what you were doing three weeks ago. So let's talk about your recovery and how consistency beats intensity. [00:12:06] Speaker A: Absolutely. So, I mean, first off, you know, it's so funny. People's like, man, especially to my wife, he can't work out. He. Oh, I know he's sick. I know he, he can't do this. All the stuff he do, I'm like, I'm actually cool, man. I like, sleeping in right now. [00:12:22] Speaker B: Feels good. [00:12:23] Speaker A: I bet it's not, it's not that bad, you know. And then I, you know, I lost, I lost about 20 pounds in the hospital. [00:12:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:32] Speaker A: You know, because for, for two days I didn't eat anything. [00:12:34] Speaker B: Like. [00:12:34] Speaker A: Sure, yeah. So I lost about 20 pounds. And so, like, right now I'm like eating, just, just eating without tracking. I was like, man, this is kind of fun. Like, let's start there. Like, I, I'm okay mentally, y'. All, you know, there's, there is a level of frustration as far as, like, wishing I could jump back in, but I'm not, I'm not to a point where I'm like, you know, like, not depressed or anything, because I can't. And what, what I did is. I went to chat, man. I went to chat and I was like, hey, this is my situation. I wanna, I wanna recover properly, you know, help me just, just figure this out mindset wise. And so that's where all the posts that you see come from, is like, just understanding, you know, what, what can I do? What can I control? That was my first post. What can I control? I. I can control, you know, what I drink, what I eat, and whatever movement that I'm able to, I'm physically able to do. Because I can't lift heavy for at least another six weeks. I can't in two weeks. Well, when this drops, the following week, I go back to the doctor. So I may be able to do like some premium workouts or something like that. But what I can do is I can, I can still eat on plan, I can walk, I can get my water. And so it's building that consistency in this time, man, is what, what makes the difference, you know, whenever you're going hard in the gym and you making my, making my videos, my music and I'm pumped up, you know, all of those things are motivators. But when you, when, when, when that aspect is no longer available, you have to find something else. You have to find something else to motivate you, something else to, to cling on to, man. And so just for me, you know, because I've gotten a lot of messages like, man, you, you're down, but you're still encouraging other people. You still, you know, trying to. And I was like, man, I love that, like, no matter what situation I'm in, I would always like to inspire somebody because I've never been on this side. And so there are Thousands of people that's been on this side been in recovery, people said, like, I'm so glad you posting this, or, I wish I would have seen this whenever I was down, because you can, you can still control what you can control. You still can show up, you still can motivate, you still can inspire and, and that, and building that. And, And I have to say, Brad, it. The, the, the habits I built before this is a hundred percent the contributor to why I'm able to be where I'm at right now mentally and just, you know, being able to continue to, you know, just push and, you know, help other people. Man. [00:15:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, this is one of those prime examples. And, and you're in the crossroads of, you know, hey, you got to make some decisions here. And you have already built that foundation, you know, with your, with your discipline and all those things, and now you're, you're, you're slowly, you know, going through it. I, you know, it's, it's one of those wild things where from, from the outsider's perspective, you don't really know what somebody's going through. You're, you know, it's similar to my bike ride right now. I've done a lot of reflecting in a different way than you are right now, you know, and you just, you gain an appreciation for what your body can do for you and what you can do, like, with what you can control. And I have been doing a lot of reflecting with my bike ride. And on the other side of this, I'm going to take a step back because I have been so intense with my body, similar to you. And, you know, it's, it's, it's not all about pushing the limits every single day. Am I all about pushing limits? Absolutely. But, you know, you can, you can find different ways to push your limits. Start reading books or start listening to podcasts or start writing books or, you know, there's, there's so many ways that you can push your limits, and right now you're pushing different limits. Like, you are not lifting weights. Like, for you to, to keep yourself mentally, mentally tough and, you know, keep that mindset of, in inspiring others. Like, that's pushing limits like that. That's really tough. Not doing the actions that you have been used to for the last five years and still motivating, still empowering, still encouraging others. Like, that's huge. And what's the alternative to, to being positive? Like, being a negative Nancy? Like, is. Is that really. Is, is that really how we want to go through life? And I Think that's the easy way out sometimes. And that's what a lot of folks. Folks are, you know, in pursuit of, is the easy way out. And I encourage every, everybody to, you know, face their own discomforts and face their own trials and tribulations and, you know, remain positive no matter where you're at in life. Because Dwayne's a prime example right here where he's going through it. He's, he's going through it mentally, he's going through it physically. He's not able to do the things that he is used to doing. And here he is still out there inspiring the world, you know, through his words and, and through his post. So. Prime example, Dwayne, and, and I'm proud of you for this comeback and. Yes, sir. Yeah. What's. So what's next for Dwayne? What's next on the schedule? [00:17:32] Speaker A: Oh, man, look, if you'd asked me that Monday, it'd be like eating something without my stomach hurting. Like, it's small things, bro. Small things you, you, you take for granted, you know, and, and for me, you know, right now is just recovery, you know, I'm not rushing it. I'm not, you know, whenever I talk to the doctor on that, on that Monday, I think it's the 10th, you know, I'm not rushing it, bro. Like, and, and that even same thing. When I was in hospital, I was like, yo, I'm not rushing, getting out of here. I just, I want to make sure that everything's right. And once I'm released, you know, I, I, I envision just kind of taking everybody on that journey. You know, one of my, my favorite kind of content. It was like, if I had to start over, you know, this is what I would do. And so that's gonna be my open montage. If I had to start over. You know what? I am starting over. Come, Come with me on this journey, man, and just show people that. Even from ground zero, because, you know, eight weeks without lifting and going back, we're back at ground zero, man. I mean, there's some, you know, there's some muscle loss going on. You know, there, there's fatigue, all those things. And so next for me is, man, and just taking people along on the journey and people watching this podcast. This is the first time they seen me in probably about two weeks. I hadn't posted any selfies. Yeah, I had the last video, whatever. I was actually in the hospital. I hadn't posted anything visually of me in the last, you know, last two weeks. And so Once I'm ready for that, you know, I say, you know, come along with the journey. Come along for the journey, because we're going to take our time. We're going to build it up. We're gonna build it up better. You know, we're gonna. We're gonna. We're gonna, you know, really. Really focus on recovery, really focus on, you know, balance and. And. And try to. Try to show people that, you know, because. Because that's the thing, Brad. A lot of people see our. Now they don't know where we come from. Right. And so you're going to see. I mean, I'm not gonna be 250 pounds, but, you know, it's gonna be day one in the gym, and so, you know, you're gonna see day one in the gym and. And working my way back up. [00:19:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I love that, Dwayne. And. And obviously, you know, I haven't been doing a whole lot of weight training. I've been on the bike for six, seven, eight hours a day doing that and that. Only I'm not working on my core. I'm not working on any strength. And it's always a frustrating thing for me because I like strength training. I like, you know, dropping the weights. I like doing that kind of thing. And I'm doing cardio and cardio only. And there's a lot of folks out there that do cardio and cardio only, because back in the 90s, like, that was the thing, like, hey, do cardio and you'll lose weight. Like, yeah, you will lose weight to an extent, but that strength training component is, like, massive. So, you know, frustration is, like, definitely at the forefront for me. But one of the things that you had said, and it just. It just sparked. And I had mentioned this in one of my recent. My. One of my workouts, but some people don't do my workouts because they don't have a treadmill or don't have a spin bike. So, real quick, you know, you said something about, you know, taking life for granted. So, as a lot of the folks know, we were in Florida this past week, a couple weeks ago now. And so the first day, we are at the hot tub. My. My two boys are in the hot tub. Beckett is five years old. He's tall enough to be in the hot tub, but little rushy. He's just a little guy. [00:20:52] Speaker A: He. [00:20:52] Speaker B: He's not tall enough to stand, but he was in that hot tub with no. With no life jacket on. And my dad and my grandfather and I, we were all talking and we were just chopping up, chopping it up, chopping up. And. And, you know, they say the. The silent death is. Is drowning. And, you know, things got quiet, and all of a sudden, Beckett said, dad. And I looked over, and he was holding Rushy up out of the. Out of the deep end of the water, and he had been bobbing and bobbing and bobbing. And, you know, so I rushed over there, obviously, and, you know, we got it all taken care of. But it's. It's those heightened moments in our lives that we're like, like hyper aware of the. Our surroundings and the things that we have going on in our lives. And sometimes it takes that emergency, right? And so, like, the rest of the week, I was on high alert. Like, there was no way I was letting my Rushy, you know, out of my sight. So fast forward to the second to last day. Dwayne. He was fighting me all morning. I don't want to wear my life jacket. I don't want to wear my life jacket. I said, all right, well, we'll get in the hot tub, but I'm going to be right there. And, you know, it's. It's one of those things, man, where we start to gain comfort again, right? And we. And we stop being so intentional with. With paying attention to the things that are important to us. Fitness, health, kids, whatever, finances, right? And so I'm literally 10 inches away from my. My Beckett, or excuse me, my Rushy. And Rush, he said, hey, take the hot water and pour it over to the pool. Because that's what we've been doing all week. We're just getting the hot water to the pool, you know, heat up the pool and all that. And I'm so. I'm. I'm swiping the water and swiping the water. He's right behind me, goes quiet, and I'm swiping, I'm swiping. I look back and he's bobbing again, man. And like, the, The, The. The. [00:22:30] Speaker A: The. [00:22:30] Speaker B: The look that he gave me, like, you just let me down, right? And, man, it was. It was an emotional time, and just. It was scary, right? [00:22:41] Speaker A: But it. [00:22:42] Speaker B: It sometimes takes those scary moments to wake us up. But I don't think it should, you know, take those moments. You know, we. We. We take life for granted. We take our fitness for granted. We take our health, we take our kids, we take our finances. We take our homes and our vehicles for granted. Like, folks, you got a roof over your head. Golly. Be grateful for that if your kids are Healthy. Be grateful for that. If you have air in your lungs, be grateful for that. There are people, millions, if not billions of people that don't have it like we do. And I'm. I'm. You know, in the world that we live in, man, there's so many people just focused on so much negativity and toxic energy. And, man, just be thankful, you know, for the life that we have. And, you know, if you have healthy kids, you have a healthy spouse, you have, you know, a couple bucks in your bank account, man, be grateful because his life is short, and it shouldn't take an emergency phone call or emergency to. To. To get you really aware of what you have and. And how grateful we all should be. [00:23:40] Speaker A: Absolutely, brother. Like, that's spot on. Spot on, spot on. You know, he just. It's so, like, easy to think, you know, you know, this tomorrow, Saturday, it's another day, you know, tomorrow, the next day. You know, I'm. I'm thinking Sunday morning. Oh, yeah. You know, this is my week to go to Charlotte, you know, like, it's so easy. Just kind of just take yourself out and think that everything is just gonna be everything, man. But you just never know what. What's to come, what's to happen. So that's why you got to be grateful in all of those moments. You got to be. You got to be grateful. You got to be thankful, you know, and appreciate them, man, because we. You know, I. I saw a real. And I was getting ready to wrap it up, but I saw this real, and it said, you ever, you know, how we feel like time flies? You know, he's like, the older you get, the faster time, you know, seem like it flies. So he explained it, and so when you're a kid, you know, they call these, like, I guess, flagship or. You know, there's certain times in moment where you just remember so many things as a kid, like, it just. This happened, this happened, this happened. So it feel like time is forever because you have all these mental flag poles as an adult, you don't lay that flagpole down as often. And so you might have a flagpole six months ago and then a flagpole today. And then when you think back, it's like, man, that was last week. No, that was six months ago, because the flagpole is way over there. Because we don't appreciate the now, and we don't appreciate the small things. And so that's why time feel like it flies, because we're just going throughout whatever. As a kid, you was excited about everything. You Know, ice cream on Friday, you know, going to the park on Saturday. You know, everything was an event. But as an adult, we get to the place where we. We don't. We don't celebrate or think these small things are significant. And that's why it feels like time flies, because the last significant thing was a couple months ago. And so you, like, man, that was yesterday. Like, no, it was six months ago. So that. That's something. When I. When I heard that and read, I was like, you know what? And it was right when I was laying in the hospital, I was like, bro, like, we. I gotta have. I'm gonna have to take more time to appreciate where I am. And we say it all the time. Be where your feet are. We say it, but do we really mean it? Like, right. And so it's a difference between just saying it and just, like, you know, really standing on that and really appreciating, you know, where we are and. And, you know, what we've been through. [00:26:12] Speaker B: Yeah. All seasons of life will pass, man. If you're on top, that. That season will pass. If you're on. If you're in the deepest valley, that season will pass. Now, I want to read something that my wife posted on Instagram, and it relates to this perfectly. Like, as soon as you started talking, I was like, I got to pull this post up. So imagine you're 85, body slower, energy thinner. You get one wish to come back and do it all over again. You open your eyes, you're here, this age. Strong, adventurous, capable, with people you love still within reach. You have one do over, and you're sitting in it. Live like it's your second time around. [00:26:48] Speaker A: Yes, sir. That's. Man, that man. [00:26:52] Speaker B: Goosebumps, man. Going on. [00:26:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:56] Speaker B: Live like it's your second chance, guys. Live like you get a do over today. Appreciate all the small things. Appreciate life. Appreciate what you have. [00:27:04] Speaker A: Boom. That's the ending right there. Till next time, y'. All, we appreciate y'. All. We love y'. All. Thank you for all the kind words, all the messages. We appreciate y'. All. We out of here.