PP 284: The Million Pound Mission with Adam Schaeuble

Adam Schauble is aka the “PHD” (Previously Heavy Dude). He hit a rock bottom moment in his life where he weighed 327 pounds. He then went on his own hundred-pound weight loss journey. As he was on this journey, he started to inspire people in his hometown to join him. He started a gym and a boot camp program and helped his hometown lose over 35,000 pounds in five years. Now, he’s the host of the top-ranked health podcast, the Million Pound Mission, where his goal is to inspire 1 million pounds of healthy results, which he tracks on his website, millionpoundmission.com. Adam is known for helping females and a few men over the age of 30 that are super busy being employees, entrepreneurs, partners, friends, and moms. Adam impacts his community by teaching them his Seven Steps for long term weight loss success that have produced a total of 55,000 pounds of results for his clients and community members so far.

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Kim Sutton: Welcome back to the Positive Productivity Podcast. I am so happy that you are here to join us today, and I’m thrilled to introduce our guests, Adam Schaeuble. Adam is the head transfer monologist with transformationcoach.me. 

Adam, welcome to positive productivity. I’m so happy that you’re here.

Adam Schaeuble: I’m psyched to be here, Kim. I appreciate you inviting me on, sharing your platform and your audience with me, and I’m ready to fire it up. So anytime I’m a guest on somebody’s show, it’s one of my goals to be one of the top reviewed and ranked shows that you’ve ever done. So we’re really going to try to deliver some value for your audiences today.

Kim Sutton: That sounds amazing. And I’m already psyched because, listeners, I have to share with you that Adam lost over 100 pounds, and in his boot camp has produced over 35,000 pounds of weight loss. Am I reading this right?

Adam Schaeuble: That’s correct. Yes. 35,000, just in my hometown.

Kim Sutton: In your hometown?

Adam Schaeuble: Yes.

Kim Sutton: Okay. Well, you sort of left that off which makes it even more outstanding. You’re in Indiana, I’m in Ohio, my hometown. I hate to say that could really use 35,000 pounds of weight loss. That is so bad. I don’t know how many listeners I have in my town. I’m sorry if you’re one of the people who could benefit from Adam. But it’s true, it’s so Positive Productivity, but it is so real.

Adam Schaeuble: The Midwest, we’re the breadbasket of America, and it’s because we eat so many carbs. So say a good market to be in a good place to make a difference for sure.

Kim Sutton: Oh, my gosh, you are so right. I think in my town, we have at least 12 Pizza shops.

Adam Schaeuble: Oh, my goodness.

Kim Sutton: And within about two minutes of a drive, I could get to Wendy’s. Two Wendy’s, not just one. There’s three subways, a McDonald’s, everything bad. But you have to really go searching if you want to find something healthy to eat, which is so sad.

Adam Schaeuble: Yeah, that’s a bummer. But that’s something that, I mean, that’s part of the reason why I created my million pound mission initiative. I’m about the change that.

Kim Sutton: How are you going to do that Adam?

Adam Schaeuble: Well, I think like you said, it kind of starts with my story, and that’s where everything kind of evolved. I used to weigh 327 pounds. I reached a point in my life where I was very overweight, I was unhappy, I was dealing with anxiety and depression, I was in a ton of debt over $40,000 in credit card debt, I was 26, 27 years old, all these things. I just found a female that I was dating, I fell in love with and she was getting ready to move away, about an hour away to pursue her. Her doctorate degree, all these things are happening. It’s kind of negative, all right. And I just hit a point where everything needed to change. I plugged into a little bit of personal development for the first time in my life. It all got kicked off of a DVD called The Secret. I started watching that, and the law of attraction, and then that led to Tony Robbins, and Robert Kiyosaki, and all this. I just started mass consuming, personal development, positive focus material, and it’s like the light switch went on for me. I could see clearly for the first time, and I saw that I was so focused on all the negatives and I needed to focus more on what I wanted to achieve, and putting a plan in place so that I was accountable to taking some sort of action every single day to make progress towards those goals. So I ended up losing 100 pounds. And I have a method that went through. I went through as far as my goal set, if you want to dive into that, I like a five year process that I went through.

Kim Sutton: I would love to hear that.

Adam Schaeuble: Okay. It’s kind of a deep dive, but it’s an important part of my story. So basically, what I did was I sat down when I hit my rock bottom moment. I remember I was in a grocery store and I have all this credit card debt, I’m overweight, things aren’t going right, relationship wise. I remember standing there holding my credit card in my hand just wondering if I had enough money on my account to buy my groceries of my unhealthy food. And when I went home–

Kim Sutton: Sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt you, but I am there so I understand the pain.

Adam Schaeuble: Yeah, yeah. And it’s that rock bottom moment. A lot of us have been there. Just like you said, Kim, you’ve been there. A lot of people that are listening have been there. And I believe everything happens for a reason. So when I go home, this is almost 10 years ago now so there was in the age of the DVD. I don’t know if any of your listeners remember DVDs, but it was a while back. So we had a DVD, sitting on my DVD player called The Secret, I popped that in. And like I said, it’s kind of like I was in a hallway and the lights were off so I couldn’t see any of the opportunities  open doors in front of me, and being plugged into something like The Secret, and the law of attraction, and just all this positivity and personal development material. It’s like the light switch finally came on, and I could see doors that were open in front of me. I could choose to walk through if I wanted to, and I started building momentum. So that night, I sat down and mapped out the life that I wanted to achieve in five years. I set a date, July 12, 2012. 

So July 12, 2012 was the end date, the deadline to achieve this overhauled life. So now, I teach this concept now, and I podcasts on it, I call My Lifestyle Rehabilitation Statement. So I needed to rehabilitate everything in my life, my mindset, my physicality, my relationships, my finances, it was just an overhaul. So it was a big deal. I spent a lot of time just hacking through this process and getting it down on paper. So what I came up with were some rules where it had to be in present tense. So when I wrote it out, it wasn’t, I will lose 100 pounds. It was, I have lost 100 pounds. I have found my soulmate, we have a beautiful family, I’ve got a 5,000 square foot facility, I’m a fitness professional, all these things, all these goals written with positive affirmation. That was very important. So I created my statement, and I mapped out what I wanted to achieve in the next five years. And none of them were even close to happening. Like none of the goals. They were big, hairy, audacious goals as the term is. So I wrote it out, and then this is where people leave it off. The biggest mistake with goal setting is they get psyched about it, they write them out, and then they put them in a drawer, or they hit the save button on their computer and good luck. So what I did is I set up accountability because I knew in my life that areas where I was held accountable, I made progress, there’s saying that what is measured and you’re held accountable to you will make rapid progress. So that’s what I wanted to set up, a little system for myself. 

So I set up a process where every morning and every night, I had to read my goals out loud, and I had to feel them. Read them as if they were true, and feel how it would feel to be there to accomplish that. What’s it going to feel, what’s my confidence is going to feel like after I lose 100 pounds? What’s my heart gonna be feeling like when I find my soulmate, we create a beautiful family together? What’s my energy going to be like when I walk into my 5,000 square foot facility and it’s packed with people ready to learn from me? I read this every morning, and that was kind of the focusing session. I read it and got fired up for the day out loud, and that opened up my mind. It was kinda like that, again, that light switch in the hallway. It goes on, and I can see opportunities in front of me because those goals are top of mind. So I go throughout the day looking for opportunities just to make incremental progress. It doesn’t have to be one email, one connection, one five minute session of reading a book to learn something. I’m building a business, anything. I was looking for any open door. And then at night, I would read it out loud again, and that was accountability. Did I make any progress yet today towards any of these goals? And if not, I had to do something. I had to send an email, I had to read for five minutes, I had to do something every day for five years. Just chip away, chip away, chip away. And eventually, things started to happen. I started to build rapid momentum. I started losing weight. I started teaching people in my hometown how to lose weight. 

Like you mentioned, I started my boot camp program before I had a facility just all started kind of going. I started achieving every single goal, that woman that was, this is kind of the weirdest part. The woman that I was dating was moving away, we were in love and she’s supposed to buy a house. I moved her up there, we’re gonna try the long distance relationship, her mortgage falls through and she has to move back, has nowhere to live so she moves in with me. Now, 13 years later, we have two beautiful children. So it’s just weird how things happen, especially when you are focusing on positivity for so long. Wrapping up the long story, the deep dive on this whole process, I achieved every single goal. Every single goal. I was seven days late when I walked into my brand new, I didn’t do a 5,000 square foot, 8,000 square foot facility. I walked in seven days past my goal dates, we opened that up on July 19, 2012. 

Kim Sutton: Oh, my god.

Adam Schaeuble: A hundred people were waiting on me, and I never told anybody what I was doing with this. And I told it for the first time in public that day. I got a hundred people there at 6:00 in the morning, Kim. It’s not like midday or whatever–

Kim Sutton: They didn’t even know why they were there?

Adam Schaeuble: They were there for the workout, they were there to open the studio, they were there for the first workout. And I said, five years and seven days ago, I dreamed this up, and none of it was even close to happening. I told the story that I just told you, and people were crying. They’re like, that’s crazy. And it’s just the power of positivity, it’s the power of consistency. But you know that it has to be both because I feel like a lot of people get into the law of attraction, they get into the secret, but you can’t just think yourself into situations, you can’t just sit and think and be just in your chair visualizing. That’s one part of it, but you have to be consistent, be open, look for opportunities and chip away every day. You have to be in action every day. Positivity plus action equals amazing results. And that’s what I saw. That’s what I did. That’s what my life represents. I lost 100 pounds, my hometown lost over 35,000 pounds. And now, the big goal is The Million Pound Mission. I’m going to try to my podcast, which is called The Million Pound Mission, and we’re going to try to inspire over a million pounds of healthy weight loss results across the world. And it’s going to get done, I believe it, I’ve already felt it. I already know what it’s gonna feel like when I achieve that goal. And the same process that I’ve gone through before. It’s a done deal. Now, just being consistent, being positive and putting in the work. So that’s my story, Kim.

Kim Sutton: Oh, my gosh. Okay, I want to come back to The Million Pound Mission in just a moment, and I’m going to say that I will do my part to contribute from Troy, Ohio. Okay, because I have a little bit, and I can’t really blame it on twins anymore because they’re three years old, but I still have twin weight to take care of. 

So Adam, I do have to share that I became, I was introduced to the law of attraction in 2008, 2009? 2009, I think. My chiropractor who’s now a great friend introduced me, and I’ve called his office to find out what the exact date was because it was eye opening. And that night when I got home after hearing about it, I researched it and I looked it up online, and I was just enthralled. I know exactly what you were talking about when you were talking about the dark hallway where you couldn’t see anything, because that’s exactly what I was living. I’ve shared this on the podcast before, he’s not my ex husband, but he came home that day and we did not get along. Let’s just say that we should have never gotten married, we get along better now that we’re divorced than we ever did, dating or married. But he got home and he was annoyed with something and I just looked at him and smiled, and it annoyed the heck out of them. He looks at me and says: “Why are you smiling?” And I said: “Because you no longer have the ability to control my happiness. It is all up to me.” And yeah, it was awesome. Yeah, it was scary, but I had to share. How you wrote it down your, I am going to call it your I am statements, I have I am statements. 

I actually wrote down at the soulmate spec sheet. I realized that I needed to move on from him for my sake and for my boys sake. And I wrote down, if I was ever going to date somebody or marry anybody ever again, that these are the qualities that they needed. And I had no idea at that time that Tony Robbins had written down his whole profile of his wife who he did meet like a year later, I think the story goes. And two weeks later, I met my husband totally on accident. Listeners, I will not deny that I was still married. I didn’t mean to find my husband before I was divorced, but I am totally transparent on the show. But I found him and I knew I had written down exactly what I was looking for. And here we are, eight years later after writing my soulmate spec sheet happily in love, married. I’m married to my soulmate with three more kids on top of the two I already had. So yeah, I love it. But I want to go back to your statement while I do have my I am statements, and I’ve talked about them in a previous episode. By the way listeners, I will link to that episode in the show notes

Adam Schaeuble: Amazing.

Kim Sutton: Which I believe you’ll be able to find at thekimsutton.com/pp278. I had the number in my head right before we started, but it just escaped me. I’ve written about my I am statements but up to this point been qualities of myself and I am A to Z. For each letter, I have a quality but it’s never been I am, like yours, I am a successful, whatever I want to be, and you’ve given me a huge aha because I do journal. Tonight, my journaling assignment to myself is to write that down. So thank you, and it’s not always been, when I do look into the future and I see what I want, I have always written I will and not I am, so thank you.

Adam Schaeuble: Nice. What I would add and how I coach people is, you write I am, and then add on how you feel about that. So add the feeling behind it, I am someone that weighs 100 pounds. So I weighed 327 pounds, I wanted to get to 227 pounds. So I weighed 227 pounds, and I feel amazing and energized because I no longer have this excess body fat that’s holding me back. I can dress how I want to dress, I can go and sit where I want to sit and I’m comfortable. And just to add all those feelings behind it because that’s where you get connected to your why. And anytime you set, a big goal needs a big why behind it to kind of set you on fire. So that’s how you make that little bridge from, in your statement, it gets to be a goal connected to a why. And by doing that, you go from I am to how I feel. And I think that will be a big game changer for people.

Kim Sutton: Oh, yeah, absolutely. This is the first time I think that I’ve ever shared this on the podcast, but I smoked for 15 plus years. I mean, as soon as I was legally able to purchase cigarettes, I did just because all my friends were in high school. And after I had my two oldest children when I realized that I can no longer push them in the swing without feeling winded. I realized, okay, this is not good. And I was so happy that I made that decision. I’m not saying that my littles don’t wear the heck out of me. I mean, they do. But the fact that I can push them in a swing now without feeling winded, I want to be able to do that in every area of my life. I get it. I don’t like running, I just have to put it out there. I do not like running. But whatever physical activity I’m doing, I don’t want to get winded unless I’ve built myself up to that. If I’m on the elliptical, yes, I’m going to get winded, but I put myself in that. Pushing your kids in the swing shouldn’t make you winded, in my opinion.

Adam Schaeuble: Right, right. And I think the key with any goal and goal setting, you have to think about your why versus your why not. And so with you, you’re quitting smoking. Your why with your children was bigger than any in all the why not combined. And you got it done that’s why you achieved it. And with a lot of people with weight loss, they say they want to lose weight, they have a goal of, I want to lose 20 pounds, but they don’t really have that emotional attachment behind it. And the why nots when, it’s easier just to go to Taco Bell drive thru, or it’s easier just to sleep instead of going to my bootcamp class to work out at 6:00 in the morning, the why nots will win if the why is not big enough. So that’s if any of you are out there that are listening have had some of that, it’s what I call the black hole of fitness doom where you go back and forth, back and forth, you lose weight, you gain weight. I do a lot of naming of processes by the way. Can help people visualize what their body is going through and what their transformation looks like. So the black hole fitness doom, there’s four phases. 

First phase, and this is going to ring true with a lot of people. That’s all the reason I bring it up. The first phase is we try something new, we do a new bootcamp, we read a new book, we join a new Facebook group, and we learn something new that has to do with nutrition, fitness or both. And that’s the first phase, we’re psyched about it. Second phase is we get initial results because we have a new stimulus. Our body is not used to this workout or this nutritional regimen, and we’re psyched about that we’re building momentum. Phase three is where we lose it, that’s when life happens. We’re not ready for it, and that’s where our danger zones pop up where there is work stress, or the even something as simple as our kids going back to school, or summer vacation starting and it changes the routine and people can’t handle that curveball. They’re not ready for it. 

And then the fourth phase is a crash and burn. We go right back to where we started, we regain weight, we lose momentum until that next thing comes along and the process starts over, and over, and over again. And each time we go through it, it gets harder because we are starting to realize that we’re wasting time, or wasting money, we’re wasting effort, we’re depleting our willpower, we’re depleting our hope. And it just gets harder, and harder, and harder. I like to find people in this situation and drag them out of it and say, okay, here is where you’re at, here’s where we can get to, here’s where we want to be, and here’s how we get there. Here’s a roadmap. Like I said, I have a lot of just, I like to create processes and name them so that people can visualize where they’re at so they aren’t just trying. People are willing to try. But I want you to try and understand your location and say, okay, I’m here, here’s where I need to go. Here’s the roadblock in the way, here’s how we solve that roadblock, overcome it and keep making progress. So that’s kind of my unique ability. That’s where I’m a little bit different from where I’m not the, let’s design my super spectacular nutrition plan, or my super secret Russian workout program, or whatever the fat melting. I’m just like, you know what? Let’s really focus on those life happens moments, let’s focus on those danger zones and say, what’s always screwed us up? Let’s fix that. If you’re on a road, there’s a giant hole and you just keep on driving into the hole instead of switching cars. Let’s fix the hole. And that’s what I focus on so that people can actually make progress. 

So a good example is, I’ve got a client, that’s an accountant. She would lose 30 to 50 pounds during that nine months of the year, and then tax season would hit and she would gain it all back because she would just totally check out and eat whatever she wants, not exercise, and then back and forth, back and forth every year. So I said, let’s focus on tax season. It doesn’t matter what nutrition program we’re on, what exercise program we’re on, let’s focus on the danger zone. Let’s solve that. And we don’t have to completely solve it. Let’s only gain half the weight back, so that next year, we succeed. And okay, we only gained half the way back. The next year, we have that again. And now, she’s able to maintain weight loss, no problem. 

I try to encourage people to think differently with their bodies, with their health. A lot of us are entrepreneurs, I’m sure you have a lot of entrepreneurs that listen to your show and we will do that. We’ll map out our business strategy, our podcasting strategy, mapping out all our guests and scheduling. We have all these charts and goals, but we don’t do that with our health. And without our health, we have nothing. So I just challenge people to take a step back and really invest in time thinking about their health, thinking about what danger zones they tend to fall in, and let’s attack those so we can start making progress.

Kim Sutton: That is so huge. I have just recently shared in Episode 275 of the podcast, by the way listeners, I did have the episode number here wrong, it’s Episode 284. You can get all the show notes and everything over at thekimsutton.com/pp284. But in Episode 275, I shared, just a couple of weeks ago, I was actually in the hospital, Adam. I was so guilty about scheduling everybody else’s appointments. Even clients, I am so guilty of putting everybody’s needs before my own that I have been very lazy about addressing my own health needs. I have hypothyroidism, but I was being lazy about going to the endocrinologist who is truly the best doctor to help me with that. I have been going to, we have Kroger here in my town. It’s one of our best groceries, and they have what they call the little clinic inside. So I was going to them just because it was so fast. I could reserve my time online, go for my appointment. But they’re not specialists, that’s not what they’re trained in. So I ended up winding up in the hospital because they weren’t trained to know what to look for. And actually, on the day that this episode goes live, it’s my 39th birthday. At 38 years old, I was experiencing all the classic signs of a heart attack.

Adam Schaeuble: Wow.

Kim Sutton: Chest pain, the horrible pains down the arm, and it’s all because my thyroid levels were so out of whack despite the fact that I was taking my medication every day. But there’s something deeper going on and this would probably, I’m sure very much contribute to me helping with the million dollar challenge. But I’m going to be tested for celiac disease so it’s gonna be a drastic diet change for me. I mean, goodbye McDonald’s, goodbye every single fast food establishment in my town. No more wheat.  And it’s not just gonna be me, it’s going to be my whole family. I can hear my son groaning in the background, he’s home sick today. So yeah, he turned around and looked at me like, what? And it’s not just women in my family, but Midwesterners, and Americans, and to those listeners who are not, what I’m about to say? I’m not trying to stereotype you, but we’ve gotten so lazy and we’ve been omitting the fresh stuff from our diet, because it’s just so easy to not. I mean, in Kroger, they put the bulk candy right next to the fresh produce. How’s that helping us?

Adam Schaeuble: That’s crazy. That’s crazy.

Kim Sutton:  So what do you see as being your clients biggest hiccups? I know you brought up the accountant, is it just too easy, I have to say it that way, to blame everybody else? Is there an issue of not taking accountability for ourselves and we can just blame it on others?

Adam Schaeuble: Yeah. Projection versus ownership is a big deal. That’s something that I podcast on quite a bit. I do a lot of kind of one on one client sessions where we talk about this, just taking responsibility. That’s part of being positive, being productive and moving towards your goals is owning your situations. When I close out my podcast, my tagline is owning every meal every workout every day. So that’s how we have to view it. There are always going to be excuses, and we can make progress. Or we can make excuses and we can’t do both at the same time. So a lot of people will point that finger and they pointed on their husband or their wife. 

I had a man that I was counseling, I was coaching him. And his big trip up was he’s been to my program three different times, done three different a week boot camps. First time, we lost 50 pounds. Second time, he regained a little bit and then lost 30 pounds. I was like, alright, man, let’s figure out why you’re regaining in between. He goes, well, my wife won’t cook me the right things. I’m like, dude, welcome to the year, like 2000. Let’s learn how to cook something. Like, this is ridiculous. Yeah, that was his thing. He was just totally pointing that finger out. I got the honor of hearing Mel Robbins speak this last fall. She said: “When you point the finger of blame outward, just remember that those last three fingers are pointing right back at you.” So that’s what I told him. You have to take responsibility for situation, you can’t rely on anybody else to be cooking your food for you. You need to learn how to throw some meat and veggies in a freaking crock pot and turn it on. It’s gonna take five minutes. So I walked them through it, and we got them over the hump. And now, he’s self reliant on his food. That excuse is eliminated 100%. We just cannot blame, we’re talking about our health. 

Another good example, I just interviewed a young man whose name is Nick Santonastasso. And his interview is coming out here in a couple of Wednesdays, he was born with something called hanhart syndrome. So that causes underdeveloped limbs. He basically has no legs, he has one arm. And on one arm, he only has one finger. He doesn’t use that as an excuse, this young man, he’s 22 years old, he’s a fitness model, he’s a bodybuilder. If you search, if you just go on Google, Nick Santo, S-A-N-T-O, his videos will blow you. Waste flipping 200 pound tires, doing pull ups, bench pressing, he learned how to drive. He basically took the checklist that his doctors told his parents that he would never be able to do, all the things he never be able to do. He’s going and checking all those off, and it’s just amazing. 

So if he can do that and we’re sitting here saying, well, my work schedule is really busy so I can’t eat healthy. I mean, really? So we have to hone in on that why. And another episode that I recently did on the show was called, Find Your Why Before Your Why Finds You. Because that heart attacks coming, that stroke is coming, that diabetes is coming and you find your why or that why is going to find you. It will. Your health will catch up to you, and that’s why we have to get serious about it. I try to deliver a few wake up calls every once in a while, and I’m not shy about doing that. I’ve lost clients because I tell them, I use the term, you must now retract head from BUT region, and let’s get serious about this and just realize that your health is your most important investment. And without that, you should be thinking about your kids, your grandkids, the people that need you to be around, and to be effectively around to have quality time together for years, and years, and years. That’s how you’re investing. That’s how you’re getting up at 6:00 in the morning to work out for. That’s who you’re eating, you’re taking time to meal prep, think about your danger zones and all that stuff. That’s who you’re investing time with. The whole taking ownership is everything. If you are blaming somebody else, that’s the first thing we need to eliminate, own your situation. And really, that’s the first thing. You have to start making positive progress.

Kim Sutton: Adam, have you read The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks?

Adam Schaeuble: No, I have not.

Kim Sutton: Oh, my gosh. Okay, it’s a recommended read for anybody who’s listening to this episode. Because once it conquers your hidden fear and takes life to the next level, it’s sitting right in front of me even though I actually finished reading it while I was in the hospital. And one of those topics that he does discuss is blame game. And there’s a whole other bunch of reasons why we don’t go to the next level. I mean, there’s even self sabotage. I’ve seen it in my own life. People start to see something good in their life and they will self sabotage because they’re afraid of what’s going to happen when that big goal comes, but we need to stop being afraid and just go for it.

Adam Schaeuble: Yeah. I see that exact situation happening with people on a major weight loss journey. So within the 35,000 pounds in my hometown, I’ve helped 15 different people lose over 100 pounds from my hometown of Bloomington, Indiana. It’s really cool having my fitness studio because I’m on the frontlines of this battle. I guess obesity. I’m in the trend, and I see trends happening. So a trend that I would see, people falling victim to, they’ve got over 100 pounds to lose and they’re kind of being that hard charging person, I’m in it, saved my life. And then all of a sudden, they reach their 100 pound goal. I call it the new purpose, new identity. That’s the kind of conundrum that they hit where they’re like, okay, I’ve run out of real estate, I don’t have any more weight to lose. Now, who am I? What’s my new purpose? What’s my new identity? And a lot of times, they fall back. The people that aren’t ready for that, I tried to make sure my clients are ready for that. We start to set new non scale goals, non scale victories. Alright, let’s learn how to do pull ups, let’s make sure we can do push ups, let’s run a 5k, let’s do an obstacle course race, let’s jump out of an airplane or whatever. Let’s set some physical goal that has nothing to do with your body weight, that’s nothing to do with your scale and start shifting our energy towards that. Because eventually, you run out of weight to lose. And it’s a real issue for a lot of people. Same thing, again, with people that are very motivated by getting married or losing weight for the wedding. And then that happens, and then that’s over. Okay, now, what’s going to motivate you. So anybody in that situation where it’s kind of a deadline, a timeline goal. 

Even with me, my five year plan, if I just kind of crossed the finish line and decided like, alright, cool, now I can just chill, then I would start to backslide in a lot of those areas. But instead, I just set new goals and we start doing the same process. Process worked once it’s created a really amazing life and lifestyle for myself and my family. You can’t be in that situation where it’s like, oh, this is working. Well, I believe I will now quit doing it all together. If it’s working, we keep going. That’s another key. Captain obvious takeaway, just for the listeners out there.

Kim Sutton: Just to follow along with what you were just saying, I have a few very close people in my life who have had gastric bypass surgery. Up until that point, they did not believe that they could lose the weight on their own. They had tried, but I believe that they were going through the slingshot diet method. And it just never went well. And out of the three people that I can think of, one of them has gained much of the weight back, one of them has stayed where they were after the surgery. I mean, there was weight loss, don’t get me wrong, but that was where I ended. And the other one has lost another 100 to 150 pounds since just because, and I’m not going to gender specific guys. See? I’m looking around making up words now. But just because they have put even more effort now, this is done so let’s see how we can make it better. And it’s been really amazing to see their journeys. I’ve been blessed. Maybe blessed isn’t the right word to have incredible metabolism. However, I don’t care how great your metabolism is when you’re just continually adding junk to it. Your why will find you. I mean, my mom has had two strokes, and I don’t know if she listens to the podcast. Sorry, mom. But there was plenty of fast food growing up, and I know that didn’t help. She’s still young. She is very slim, but two strokes. I know that all the sodium and everything cannot help.

Adam Schaeuble: Yeah. Like I said, that why is gonna find you if you don’t find it first. And it’s sad. I see so many people, I tried to hit them off in the past and make sure that they are engaged and actively thinking about who they need to be around for. But we don’t save everybody. Heart attacks happen, strokes happen. We got to circle the wagons and deal that situations, and that’s not a game over scenario, then you’re putting up a chance because maybe you don’t survive that stroke, maybe you don’t survive that heart attack. So let’s not even get in that realm and let’s take action before any of that sort of thing happens to us.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely. And what daily rituals do you have in your life?

Adam Schaeuble: I’ve got a pretty good little regimen. So every day, I journal. I’ve tried a few different journals. I like the Five Minute Journal quite a bit. I’ve recently found one that I like called the BestSelf Journal, and I don’t have any affiliate links, or I’m not sponsored by anyone or anything. So just kind of honest recommendations, I really like that a lot because it breaks down into quarterly goals, and it fits along with my lifestyle rehabilitation statement. Reading it down, it just meshes nicely. I do that, I meditate every day. I like the headspace meditation app,  I like that a lot that. I like how they are divided up into different categories, different styles of meditation. I like the one that’s called reset. I like the one called taking a break, one called waking up. So different times of the day. 

Actually, just before we got on, I just recorded a little, my Friday episodes, like a five minute quick tip episode, I just recorded one about meditation I talked about. I like to either meditate first thing in the morning, right before bed. Or one of my favorite times to meditate is right between when I stopped working and when I start to engage in family activities. Just as a buffer of, okay, I’m switching modes, and I need to be present. It’s kind of like deleting the memory banks and all that stress of work stuff, and allows me to be fully present for my family. So that’s probably my favorite way to use meditation. Then working out. I work out Monday through Friday, different styles of workouts, strength training, and bodyweight training, and lots and lots of mobility. That’s something I’ve been very focused on the last couple of years, especially lots of stretching, lots of range of motion stuff. I want my body to feel good and operate really well because my body is a big part of my work machine. I’m getting ready to launch a new Facebook group where I’m gonna be going live, doing follow along workouts for my people that are in that group, and they can request stuff. I kind of just on demand, interactive workouts live with me. So it’s pretty cool, but I have to be able to move, I have to be able to lead the charge and lead by example. So investing, a lot of time in body maintenance is very important. 

Other things I like to, part of my routine is always spending quality time with my kids and my wife whether it’s storytime, ask them how their day went. I try to be one of, we all get wrapped up, like you’re talking about earlier, just in the flow of the day, all the tasks, all the checkboxes, we need to check off and we can forget, or just minimize a lot of the most important things. I try to be that instigator of, okay, let’s slow down and let’s talk how did our day go. What do we accomplish today? I talked to my kid. My son is seven. And when we do bedtime stories, I talk about what was his favorite part of the day? What didn’t he like so much about the day? How can daddy be a better Daddy tomorrow than I was today? Little conversations like that. I like to just connect as much as possible, and that’s it. That’s kind of the basic routine. 

And then when I connect with clients, I try to be fully present, whether it’s at my gym, running classes, doing workshops, going live on social media, doing podcasting. I try to be present with my audience even with the podcast. You know how it is, Kim. When you’re talking, you’re coaching on a topic, it can be kind of weird because you’re just kind of yelling into the microphone. But I just try to imagine that my audience is right there, and I’m talking to him. So like right now, I’m just imagining you guys listening to this. I’m like, okay, I’ve got to be present. Fully, fully present for you guys, and deliver as much value as I can with every interaction. So when somebody hits me up on Instagram or Facebook, I really try to deliver like, I try to go above and beyond kind of a grassroots kind of guy, bootstrapping all my efforts, and I do a lot of handwritten notes every day. 

Somebody walked in my office like, what the heck are you doing? I have terrible handwriting, by the way. It’s like a seven year old’s handwriting like my seven year old son. I don’t write in cursive, I print and it looks like my son wrote it. I mean, it’s terrible, but I love handwritten notes. So I will hand it, somebody will send me, you guys can try me. If you guys are listening in, send me a message on Facebook or Instagram. Just my handle is @transformationcoach.me, that’s where I’m at on social. Send me a message, I will send you a message back. And more often than not, I’ll ask for your address because I want to send you a free copy of my book, and I’ll write either in the book or I’ll write a handwritten note. I do this all day every day. 

A lot of times, I’m just connecting with people getting my message out there. But I just feel like so many fitness people especially, they go real broad and they have all these things, I want to go deep, I want to connect. The only way that The Million Pound is going to be achieved is me really connecting with people, and they know that I’m a real person. I’m not some fancy fitness celebrity. I’m a dude from the Midwest. I go by my podcasting moniker, whatever is the PHD, that previously heavy dude, and I’m just a real person. I want to connect with you, and I want to coach you, and I want to make an impact. I know that if I help the world become a million pounds healthier, that good things will flow from that. And I’ll be taken care of all that good mojo that would be reciprocated. It’ll come back my way, I know that 100%. And so now, it’s just a matter of connecting, coaching, making impact, and keep on putting good stuff out there, and putting good programs, good energy, and doing what I can to make that goal happen.

Kim Sutton: I love everything that you just said. And I do have to share, I love the transition meditation.

Adam Schaeuble: Yes, yes.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. And listeners, if you’re looking for one listener, if you don’t have headspace, Brendon Burchard, actually has his release meditation. And you can find it on YouTube. And that’s what he uses it for, as well as in between his different activities, he’ll do his release technique and it will get him more present in the moment. And I have to say, I have only, well, to be totally honest, just last week, redownloaded headspace, but I’m really passionate about getting into everyday because I held myself up for meditation, because I thought my mind needed to be clear. And that’s just in the preliminary training audios, headspace. The call with the foreign accent says, yeah, he just says, if you find yourself with your thoughts wandering, just gently bring them back. Something like that in it. It was really encouraging for me to hear that. And then I just want to say really fast. I love how you ask your kids how you can be a better parent. I am scared to ask that question, but I think I’m gonna have to ask that tonight. I have never asked them before, I can only imagine.

Adam Schaeuble: Yes. Yeah, there’s no filter. I mean, it’s like crazy stuff from like, you could comb your hair in the morning because it’s kind of weird. My son is just like me, he’s full of energy, full of life. And he will just say whatever’s on his mind. You can give me more candy, things like that happen a lot. As long as nothing like you makes me cry all the time, as long as that doesn’t pop up, then I know I’m on a good track. So it’s a fun little activity. You can try that.

Kim Sutton: Oh, I know. I can just imagine, especially my daughter [inaudible]. I don’t know if you know, Adam, but my husband is a video game developer.

Adam Schaeuble: That’s awesome.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. I’m sure that she will have the most classic answer. Might have to do a Facebook Live, just be totally transparent about this tonight. Adam, this has been amazing. I can’t wait to meet in person. And just a month and a half listeners, we will both be at [inaudible] new media summit in April 2018 in San Diego. I’m going to put a link in there. Yes, I have to disclose just because it’s my nature. It is an affiliate link, but it’s such a great event. I know Adam and I, well, I’m gonna say for myself, but I’m sure based upon what Adams already said, we would love to meet you in person if you’re listening. Adam, this has been amazing though. And again, I can’t wait to meet you in person. Where again can listeners find you online?

Adam Schaeuble: Yeah. The kind of tip of the spear of my whole Adam Schaeuble experience is my podcast, The Million Pound Mission. It’s on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, SoundCloud, everywhere that you go for podcasts, I go three times a week. I like to do a kind of a coaching session, a 20 minute coaching session on a topic once a week on Mondays. I do interviews on Wednesdays with anybody that’s a health influencer. And then on Fridays, I do a quick five minute tip where you can take that and apply it right away over the weekend. So that’s a great place to start. And then you can always check out my website, @transformationcoach.me. Just go to millionpoundmission.com, it goes to the same place. So it’s easy to remember, we’re working on that transition. But on social media, Instagram and Facebook are my gems, and that’s @transformationcoach.me. Let me know what you thought about what we did with the interview today. I’d love to get your feedback, or if you have any questions from that. And also, I want to challenge you all. Please leave a review for this show. Kim has done a great job with the show, I really enjoyed the vibe of it. Anybody that’s putting out positivity is good in my book, that’s needed right now in this world that we live in. I would love for you to leave a review of this episode. Mentioned the PHD, that Previously Heavy Dude. We’ll know that we did a good job. So do that for me if you got any value out of this episode,

Kim Sutton: You rock. That was awesome, I wasn’t expecting that. So thank you, Adam. I would love one last piece of parting advice or a golden nugget for listeners please.

Adam Schaeuble: Let’s see. Now the pressure is on. I would say that if you’re out there and you’re in a similar situation that I was in almost 10 years ago now, where you feel like life has kind of got you down, maybe an overweight thing, and maybe a stress thing, and maybe a work thing, maybe kind of everything happening at once like it was with me, just take a minute to breathe and realize that you’re in control of your destiny. I want you to think about flipping that light switch on and focusing on taking control over your thoughts, over your mind, and focus on the positive, and just give yourself a seven day challenge. A seven day challenge where you’re going to write down your goals. I want you to read them morning and night, just with the format that we talked about before. It’s got to be positive, it’s got to be present tense and let’s see what happens. I think momentum is so precious. And if I can help you capture a little bit of positive momentum, you can take it from there, my friends. And then anything is possible, and good luck to you.