Health PSA

So I’m going to begin today’s episode with an excerpt from a song that’s been on my mind lately as little aggressive hip hop. But I want you to key in on the words that this gentleman by the name of chic, Lutz has to say in a song called Money Power and respect and [the lyric] that takes me back to my youth For I tell you so when I was young, and I heard those lines, and let me repeat them back slowly for you [He repeats the lyric.] But when I was younger, I didn’t think that I took for a lot for granted. And that’s what happens with youth youth is really deceptive youth is one of those things that I’m gonna be honest with you, you can get a way with a lot more, you can drink two liters of cola, you can eat a whole pizza, and you can just move around.

But as we get older, we become a little bit more sedentary. We sit in our chairs, we sit on the couch, we don’t move. We’re not agile, we’re not playing basketball. We’re not doing things that engage our body with the world. And as testament to that, if you look at the last calendar year, there’s been a lot of deaths. That happened too soon. People who look fit like say Kimbo Slice heart related disease, heart related death. There’s people in the news I’ve heard that I’ve I’ve grown up loving their contribution to culture, losing a toe, right, or diabetes, diabetes related deaths definitely preventable. But the bad habits it begins to stack on top of each other. Even in my personal life, some maybe two degrees, one degrees of separation.

I’ve had a lot of People in my life pass on. Now, obviously I don’t have the coroner’s report. I didn’t do the autopsy but I know with me right now 2017 Rahim, Rasul I make a pledge to you, I am going to do my part with my health. I haven’t always been with that attitude. But I tell you what some of these things have begun to really grab my attention. Last year, I got to the place where I was tired of being tired. I was looking at my youth, thinking that it wasn’t going to get better. These little aches and pains were going to be with me. For the rest of my life. I wasn’t necessarily pessimistic, but I also wasn’t optimistic. I probably weighed in about 265.

Probably the largest I’ve ever been. It’s cool, because I was able to hide it in the clothes. At least that’s what I told myself. But I took a different approach. And I decided to make a change. Without going into detail about the change I made. That change. Were the ideas that I began to gather and begin to execute on. And I guarantee one thing over the course of a few months, I got all the way down to 210. So last summer, I lost 50 pounds. And I’m happy to say that that weight is still off me. Because here’s what I want to share with you. Here’s the reason I’m doing this health kind of PSA is because we need you. I may not know each of you personally.

But there’s a family member who needs you. There’s somebody that you inspire that needs you. The world needs, what you can contribute to the world. And the best way to guarantee that is to prepare for the future because you’re going to be older, a lot longer than you’re going to be younger. As I walked through the streets in New York, I see people of various ages. And me and my mobile self new framed body, I just skip along hop along with a whole lot of mobility paths people of a later age. And I see them struggling on canes. I see them like walking at a snail’s pace without the gelatin or step. And I asked myself, Rahim, is this how you want to be when you become that same age?

I see younger individuals may be in their mid to late 40s walking around with canes and walkers. And so this perplexes me is like how do we get to the states. And it’s so interesting because it’s an accretion. It is a culmination of habits and things that we take for granted. Today. You don’t realize that this body is a machine that you’ve you were born with, and you’re gonna go with there’s there’s no replacing the muffler, the fender, the door, the engine, none of that stuff, you are going to have what you have now until the day that you transition on. So what can we do? What can you do? What can we collectively do to raise the level of intelligence to raise the level of execution to understand how to combat this thing called poor health?

The first thing it is, is do a little bit of research. I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on the internet. But we know we know that things that we’re putting in our body. We know when the clothes don’t fit anymore. We know when we have those nagging aches and chronic pains, that we can do something about it. If I didn’t learn anything in 2016 I learned that it can improve. As soon as I stop eating a certain type of food. Certain aches just kind of floated away the inflammation and receded and I felt that vitality that I had more in my youth than I’ve had in recent years. So you’re worth it man. You are worth it. And guess what? You don’t have to make it a Herculean task up front.

What I began to do is before bed I had listened to a podcast and walk around the block. And that walk might be point seven miles or a mile, but it can begin there. When I began I only went to the gym 15 minutes a week. We can all do that we can all engage in my office, I began to stand up and not sit on the chair, and I have an elevated desk. So we can begin to make little steps here and now to make ourselves more active, so we can feel more alive. Because when it comes to traveling the world once you retire, you’re going to need your body. When it becomes time to see your daughter or your son get married, you want to be able to move and dance.

Far too many people have been struck down far too young. When we have within our power, the ability to make better choices. Like I said, I don’t I don’t want you to start with a Herculean goal. I don’t want it to be so big that it intimidates you to begin. For those of you who this is relevant to start in small steps, listen to first domino episode, and let the first domino fall. It’ll begin there, then you’ll get your momentum, then you’ll feel your sexy, then you’re gonna go for abs and then you’re gonna go for marathon, you’re going to try to run 5k and then your goal, your goals are going to evolve as your body begins to evolve. So obviously, I’m not talking to everybody out there. But if I’m talking to you, you have my support.