PP 358: Anthony Treas, Men’s Health and Brain Performance Coach from S.T.R.O.N.G. Men Coaching

Website: https://strongmencoaching.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/strongmencoach/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/strongmencoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonytreas
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/strongmencoach/

Kim Sutton: Welcome back to another episode of Positive Productivity. This is your host, Kim Sutton, and I’m so happy to have you here today. I’m also thrilled to introduce our guest, Anthony Treas. Anthony is a Men’s Health and Brain Performance Coach from Strong Men Coaching. He is an Iraq War Veteran and is on a mission to radically change men’s mental health. His mission in Iraq was to provide personal security for US Generals and government officials. And now, his mission is to inspire men to reclaim their health, sense of adventure and purpose. 

Anthony, welcome. And I have to say before I even throw the mic over to you, thank you for what you’re doing. I am married to an Air Force Veteran who has been through his own struggles since leaving the service, and I so appreciate what you are doing. So thank you for your service and for what you’re doing now.

Anthony Treas: Well, thank you, Kim. It’s exciting to be here with you in this moment, in this time, and I’m excited about the conversation that you and I are about to have.

Kim Sutton: Oh, me too. So I would love to hear. And I know the listeners will as well. I mean, we have an idea already of how you got on the journey you’re on today. But can you take us a little bit deeper? And tell us more about that journey?

Anthony Treas: Yes. What got me to this point here is what happened eight years ago. I returned home from my deployment to Iraq. And as you mentioned, my job in Iraq was to provide personal securities for generals, government officials, and even provided security for the Vice President, Joe Biden. And it was very high intensity missions, zero air type of environment. When you’re there, you’re focused, you have a job, you’re trying to get home safe and sound. And unfortunately for me, shortly upon my return home, I began to suffer from PTSD, and some anxiety and depression, and just lack of kind of a purpose in my life. I come back home, and things changed for me. Things radically changed for me as I came back home. Fortunately, two months before coming back home from my deployment, my then wife sent me an email indicating she wanted to divorce upon my return home.

Kim Sutton: Oh, my heavens.

Anthony Treas: I was in Baghdad, Iraq, I was a team leader, I had other soldiers I needed to take care of. And so I couldn’t do what a person who’s not in that environment would normally do either. They want to spend time with friends, kind of decompress. Really kind of understand what is happening, and I didn’t get that opportunity. I had a mission to do. And the unfortunate thing is, I got this really rather unique and reminder that I wasn’t home safe. While we were transitioning for the new unit to take over that was coming in, oftentimes, the enemy would learn from orders over into our base, and they would do it at night. However, this time, they were very ambitious and very taken risk of unit during the day. There was a system in place on base that would shoot these mortars down. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get all of them. 

And while I was preparing to leave, I’m outside near these vehicles, a mortar was flush and shot over my head. Obviously, not just above my head, but up in the sky above me. Because once it was shut down, it began to rain shrapnel all over me. And one of them hit me on the shoulder, just more likely just a tap on the shoulder and then bounce to where my foot was located. And I’ve been down to pick up this piece of shrapnel, and I’m looking at this piece of shrapnel. And to me, I got so mad because I was still in a very hostile environment. And everything that was going on, knowing what was happening back home and this change that was happening, but still yet it was this rather unique indication that, or this unique experience that in a time is like, I looked at it and just realized I’m not home safe yet. You’re still in a very dangerous situation, and you’re not home. It was kind of a reminder to me to stay in the fight. You still aren’t home safe, you still have a job to do, and don’t let your guard down, stay focus, stay in the fight and get home safe, back to your family. 

So basically, I went back home to an empty house, and it was a rather unique transition. A very difficult transition not only to come back home from my deployment, but also come back home to divorce. And shortly after I began to suffer from, as I mentioned, symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and depression, really, lots of things that were happening to me at that time. What eventually happened is, during this time of my struggle, I isolated myself. But there was something a part of me in working with, eventually, did get help and started seeing a therapist. And one of the things that was encouraged was to start focusing on some goals. 

And one of my lifetime goals has been to finish my degree, I was 34 at the time. It was encouraged for me to start working on these goals, and one of my goal was to finish my college degree. I wasn’t ready to go to an offline University so I started taking online classes. And one of the classes that I had taken was a health and wellness class. It was this class that just enlightened me to the many different areas of health and why people are healthy, what do they do, and what helps somebody really thrive in their health and in their wellness. And so it was that class that eventually led me to, after a couple years, transfer over to Oregon State University where I then finished a bachelor’s degree in health promotion and health behavior. And then I actually continued for a master’s degree in Public Health. After graduating, I then went and worked as a health educator for a health organization. And it was during this time that I began to notice, because I working for this health organization they had, they’ve been around for about four years. They had two Women’s Health Program, and nothing for men. My job was to help to improve the health and wellness of Alaskan Natives, the sufferings that they have, and part of it were men were suffering as well. And this just didn’t sit well with me so I ended up conducting a men’s health workshop during Men’s Health Month, which is the month of June.

Kim Sutton: I didn’t even realize there is a Men’s Health Month.

Anthony Treas: Most people don’t know. Before, I didn’t know either. It was during my workshop that I received nothing but praise from the mandate. They wish they had received this sort of information that I was giving them information about what really about their health, and what really happens, and what really needs to be in place in order for someone to be healthy and to thrive. And they just wish that there was this information much sooner in their lifetime. Because oftentimes, men are exposed more to information about lifting weights and fitness. And don’t get me wrong, that’s all important as well. But there’s a lot more to it than that. There’s so many chronic diseases that men are suffering from today that are completely preventable. And I shared this during the Men’s Health workshop and really received a lot of great feedback. And then just the light bulb moment went off for me where not only was I struggling, and my struggles with PTSD, anxiety and depression, and it still at this time. And then going through my education, both my undergraduate and graduate level education, and then going into the public health field and just saw how there was this lack of men’s health promotion. And so that’s what ended up leading me to do what I am doing today, helping men to reclaim their health and their mental well being.

Kim Sutton: Wow, you’ve hit so many chords for me just because of my husband. And first, I have to tell you, when he was married to his first wife, he was married to her when he went into the service. He came home from multiple deployments and found the house empty. She wouldn’t tell him while he was deployed that she was leaving. When he would get home, expecting to find her and their daughter waiting for them with open arms like you see on the Hallmark videos.

Anthony Treas: Yes, yes.

Kim Sutton: And nothing. And then he would get to their home and it would be absolutely empty. And that happened multiple times. And then he decided that was enough, and then he got remarried in the service, and they were supposed to be re stationed together to North Dakota. Might not, one of the coldest places in the US from what I’ve heard. And in between in a month or so between when he came back, and she was still abroad, she cheated on him numerous times. And then he got out of the surface shortly thereafter and went through his own struggles, feeling alone, not knowing what to do with his life, he ended up homeless. And for anybody, that would be really hard. 

But I do believe that eventually he ended up turning to some mild drugs, because he didn’t know what else to do. And I can imagine that a lot of men would find themselves in the same place because they don’t understand that there are people, well, it’s not that they don’t understand. Maybe I’m generalizing here, but I think a lot of men have an ego that prevents them from really reaching out and getting the mental support that they can. And then he was actually injured while he was in the service. He was an Air Force structural maintenance man. So he would do repairs to jets, and he ruptured a vertebrae and herniated another. 

So like a lot of men in my life that, I’m talking to you, if you’re listening and resistant to go to doctors, and pardon my phone, people, I forgot to throw the phone into a different room, but he did not want to get the surgery required at that time. So he’s been dealing with chronic pain, not a chronic disease, but chronic pain for the last 10 years. So there is the mental break that accompanies the physical pain. Brake isn’t the right word, but that was the best thing I could come up with. The anguish, mentally, because he’s not able to do everything physically that he had hoped to be able to do when he got out of the service.

Anthony Treas: Yeah. One of the most difficult time periods in a deployed military personnel is time that we integration back home, whether they are active duty or reserve. I was in the reserves. So for me, I went back to being a civilian. And when you’re there, when you have a mission, that means a lot like that is as powerful part of my mission. So I had to redefine my life. I don’t find a new mission. My new mission is to help men make that transition to understand how important their health is. Not just now, but also in the future. And there is this ego thing, there is this idea that when my body is hurting, that I can just wait. And the problem is that back in the day, you hear these stories about how man were out working and someone smashed their hand or whatever, or cut their arm or something and they would just, oh, let me just wrap it up. I’ll go later on, or whatever. Maybe go later and get it checked out. There’s just this understand, like, oh, yeah, let’s just keep working and just keep moving on, keep driving on. There are some instances where, yeah, that just needs to happen. But if you think about it, it’s not wise to not get the help. Because if that injury gets infected, or that injury is worse than what you think it is, then you make it to where you can’t work and you’re not providing for your family. And that’s what’s happening right now where so many men are suffering from chronic diseases, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, pre diabetes, these things that are totally preventable. But if they don’t change, they’re going to suffer. And there’s so much we don’t often hear about the preventive side of these things. It’s just all about, here’s a drug for it. Here’s a drug that you need to take or that you can take. But oftentimes, when people do get into taking medication, potentially, there will be side effects.

Kim Sutton: Oh, my gosh, yeah.

Anthony Treas: Then they have to take another medication to alleviate that side effect, and on and on.

Kim Sutton: The VA prescribed oxycontin to my husband for his back. And that actually made him suicidal.

Anthony Treas: Hmm, oh, yeah.

Kim Sutton: Is my back gonna feel temporarily better, but I’m going to feel like killing myself. Or am I going to deal with the back pain and know that I’m not going to inflict bodily harm on myself. So he chose the latter, and I will be forever grateful. But yeah, I see so many men, I mean, my dad had a heart attack when he was 50. And up until that point, he was not living a healthy lifestyle. He was high stress job, drinking more than he should have, eating more than he should have. I don’t remember as a child ever hearing that he went to the doctor besides the dentist and the eye doctor. And he went golfing occasionally, but that was the extent of physical fitness, and even riding a lawn mower. But I will be forever grateful as well that the day that he had the heart attack, he knew something was wrong. Even with heart attacks, there’s so many men and women alike who just think I ate something. And I’m not saying be a hypochondriac and rush to the doctor every time. But we really, men and women, we need to be more aware of what’s going on in our bodies and in our minds.

Anthony Treas: Absolutely. One of the things that I say is what is wealth without the health to enjoy it. What is being successful in business, if eventually need to take care of yourself physically, which then puts your family in a situation where now they have to take care of you. And so one of the things that I share in that that I’ve developed is the strong method that helps men to really redefine their life and look at health in a whole new way, and that’s really starting. The thing that changed for me, was where I discovered about my brain, how my brain was functioning and how I was having issues in my life as a result of the way my brain was functioning. And the thing is, oftentimes, we don’t think about our brains, we think mostly of our bodies, our hearts, our lungs when we’re exercising, we’re working out our muscles in our body. And yeah, physical activity is beneficial for the brain, it sends more oxygen, more blood flow to the brain, and that’s helpful. But when it comes to our brain, most often, people don’t think about what they’re eating and what they’re drinking is impacting their brain. Yet, our brain is the very thing that we use to make the decisions that we make in our life. And it is the decisions we make on a daily basis that end up developing the kind of life that we live. 

And so one of the aspects that I share in my coaching is the importance of developing this brain envy, this brain health, because you can be as strong as you want to be. But if you don’t have the cognitive health and cognitive ability, you’re really not going to have that quality of life. So part of what I share, what end up changing my life was when I end up getting brain scan, a SPECT scan specifically which measures the cerebral blood flow which can indicate where your brain is most active or underactive while at rest and well during concentrating. And my results indicated that I had very active areas of my brain that made it very difficult for me to focus. It made me very susceptible to anxiety, to depression, being hyper, alert, hyperactive. These are the symptoms that a lot of veterans are coming back from the deployment and our suffering today, but what they’re doing is they end up taking these neurological medications that make them very susceptible to as when you indicated suicide. But also, these medications make them susceptible to suffer from side effects, which eventually, and I know many veterans that are on three, four or five medications. And yet, for me, the lightbulb moment for me was, wait a second, I could be that person taking that medication. 

But for me, I was lucky that I looked at my very brain. Because when doctor, psychologist prescribes a medication to guess, it’s a guessing game. But for me, they knew exactly what was going on with my brain. And I do fall under a category where I could take medication. But fortunately for me, I can take natural supplements. I can take natural supplements that are just as effective and without the side effects.

Kim Sutton: I love that. I’m speaking from personal experience here in 2008. I was admitted to the mental hospital as a result of sleep deprivation and thyroid issues combined. That’s a dirty mix. You don’t ever want to experience that. And even though the doctors knew that I was sleep deprived and that my thyroid was out of whack, they describe three antidepressants which were totally unnecessary in my opinion. Because had I been sleeping and had my thyroid levels been right, then I wouldn’t have been facing the issues I was. So I love this. I love this. What does STRONG stand for?

Anthony Treas: That’s a great question. There are three parts to the S. The S is Starting with your brain, understanding your brain, understanding how to have a healthy brain. And really understanding whenever you are trying to improve your life, you must consider how your brain works because your brain is basically programmed with our habits. Everything we do is a result of what’s programmed into our brain. You can’t go outside of that. You can begin to look into new ways and then change, but you are operating on a certain program that you currently have right now in your brain. 

One of the unique things about the brain is to keep you alive, and it doesn’t want to work any harder than it has to. And when you’re trying to make changes in your life, you’re going up against your brain. So you have to understand that your brain, in order to make real lasting change, not temporary change, real lasting change. Because what you’re doing is when you’re creating new habits, you’re developing a new neural pathway. And it takes some time to create that new you, that new programming. The unfortunate thing is that old programming is still there, and it can light up. Just like if you haven’t ride in a bike for a long time, it’s not as active. But as soon as you get on that bike, that neural pathway is lit up, and it goes right back because you’ve done it enough. And it’s a habit. So any habit that you currently have and you want to change it, you’re working against your brain. You have to take in consideration what’s going on with your brain and understanding the different aspects that entails. So that’s the first part. 

The second part is really a question. And that question is, what is it that you want? And it’s being very specific. For some, losing weight. Oftentimes, you hear that a lot of as it pertains to health, The unfortunate thing, and I’m not trying to be grocery thing, but you lose weight every time you go to the bathroom. So to say, I just want to lose weight. Well, it’s not specific enough. And so really going down to specifically what it is you want. The other question is, why do you want it? This is going to be kind of the fuel to the fire of why you want what you want, because it’s not strong enough. You won’t stay with it long enough in order to make that change in your brain. That why is, why I want to stay around to be with my kids? I want to play with my grandkids. I don’t want my family to have to take care of me. I want to continue to work well into my 70’s, 80’s, and so forth. But yeah, why has to be very strong. And then the last part is why now? Oftentimes, something’s happened. Either a friend is suffering from a heart attack or something and they’re like, I’ve been doing the same thing. I don’t want to suffer from a heart attack, I don’t want to put my family in that financial situation. So that why now is really important. Oftentimes, there is a why now because they’re contacting me for a reason, and that why now is also important. So that goes the first part. 

The T stands for totally committed. You got to be totally committed to this process. And that’s where I think of a time in a relationship or being on a team. When in that relationship, when there’s not that total commitment, it isn’t going to last. It can’t last because someone is giving way more than the other. And also think about it being on a team, a time when maybe you weren’t giving it your all, or somebody else on the team wasn’t giving it their all, they’re either going to be called out and it’s just not going to be a good teammate. It doesn’t work. So you gotta be totally committed to this change in your life. The R stands for–

Kim Sutton: Can I pause you for a second?

Anthony Treas: Absolutely.

Kim Sutton: Or interrupt you. Like we see every single year people sharing their new year’s resolutions. But after three weeks, a lot of new year’s resolutions fail. So what do you see as being a tool or mechanism that can really take us past the point of saying, well, I guess it was it’s the WHY and the WHY NOW. The why and the why now will take us into totally committed.

Anthony Treas: That totally committed will come from those two aspects. Yes. But part of it is, and you mentioned New Year’s resolutions. The reason why New Year’s resolutions don’t work is actually three. One, your why isn’t strong enough. Two, they don’t have the support. And three, they’re not doing it long enough in order to create a new program, a new person. Basically new programming. And even the best of us, even the best of the best can maybe last three to four weeks, maybe a little bit more, maybe a little bit less. Even the best of us can only last three to four weeks in that new desire, whether that’s going to the gym, or starting to work out, or being physically active. And I’ll go this, it’s also in the method as well. But if there is no support, it isn’t going to last. And it’s because we’re running on this energy of wanting to make that change. But what ends up happening is, life happens. 

As I mentioned before, the brain does not want to work any harder than it has to. And when you’re trying to make a change, whether that’s increasing your physical activity, changing your nutrition, adding foods, cooking your dinners, doing these different things that maybe someone hadn’t been doing before, a day is going to come where you’re just not feeling it. And then a day becomes a week, and then a week becomes a month, and then a month becomes a year. So understanding that at the very beginning, if you’re trying to do any sort of New Year’s resolution, you have to understand you are going up against your very programming and it’s going to take time. And that’s where coaching comes in. I had a client who came to me who wanted to lose belly fat. He was around 43 years old, and he wanted to lose belly fat. Well, for anyone in their 40’s, men or women, it becomes very difficult to lose weight. And come to find out as he was addicted to sugar. So I had him take a food journal or more of like a soda journal. And for a week, he came to realize that he drink a lot of soda. And during our course of coaching, he would say the important thing is it wasn’t kind of like, I’ll stop drinking soda. That wasn’t the goal. That wasn’t the point. It was to decrease it to eventually eliminate it. Oftentimes we were like, I’m gonna go cold turkey. Oftentimes, that doesn’t work. Can it work for some people? Yes. But for the majority, it’s not going to work. 

And so for him, it was slowly weaning himself off of it. And eventually, he came to see how it was impacting his family. Because every time he would go somewhere, he would take soda with him, and his family were also that same way too. So he was having these influences from his family as well. So it was really a difficult time period to wean off of that, because being addicted to sugar been shown through research to be just as addictive as cocaine. And so having that support and that accountability is what’s going to allow somebody to recreate those neural pathways to create a new programming for them in whatever goal they hope to, or New Year’s resolution that they have. So that’s the T is totally committed. The R is taking full responsibility for your current state and well being. Your current health and well being. And really, this is a tough one. We don’t want to claim the responsibility for why we are where we are. Yes, there are other influences that we have zero control. Yes, there are things that do impact our health that we have zero control over, but it’s about taking full 100% responsibility for what you do have control over. Okay, you do have control over what you bring into your home. You do have full control over what you have for lunch, and what you do with your day, and what you do with your life. There was a book written several years ago by Jack Canfield called The Success Principles. And the very first principle before any other principle, and you can’t go on to any other principle because this is the foundation. What he mentions in his book is that you’ve got to take full responsibility for your life or your business for the way you are today. And oftentimes, it’s very difficult because we want to say, give that power over others, but that’s what it is. Its power. When you take full responsibility for your life, you’re taking back the power.

Kim Sutton: When would you say that you realize that you had that power in you, or you needed to take that power? Or did you always know? Because personally, I realized that in 2009, it’s still a struggle. There’s still days that I’m, and I don’t know that it will ever not be a struggle. So I have realized that I can’t play the blame game for any part of my life. So that’s hard. I’m over. But in 2009, anything that was possibly going on in my life wrong is somebody else’s fault.

Anthony Treas: Yes. You bring up a good point. And for me, that was one of the struggles that I had in the sense that I had been in. I wasn’t taking responsibility. My life wasn’t improving even though I knew I’d always been in a personal development, I’ve always been fascinated with the human brain, the potential that we have through our brains, or the brain’s potential. But for me, I wasn’t improving. And that’s where the anxiety and the depression was really kind of had that grip on me. And yes, it is a struggle. I do things differently today. But yeah, I still have my days. Of course, we will always have our days, that’s normal. But when it becomes debilitating, that’s something different. And so for me, I felt I did take ownership. I think it was within a year or so. 

Because here’s one thing I’m just said to myself, and this was before coming back home. I’m not sure exactly if it was before or after I got notification that my wife wanted a divorce when I got home. But I made a promise to myself when I was in a wreck and this is, like I said, this is before I even knew I was going to be suffering from PTSD, anxiety, or I think I was going to go through a divorce, or wasn’t aware of that I was going to go through divorce. I made a promise to myself that I was going to take care of myself mentally, physically and spiritually. Not in a religious sense, but in my spirit, my soul. And I made that promise to myself, and then I came back home. And then I began to suffer from this anxiety, this deep depression and these different things. And so I did start taking care of myself. I didn’t want to stay in that state. I was meditating, I did go to a meditation retreat, I was getting, feel like I was taking care of myself nutritiously. I was doing these things. But even though I was doing those things, my life just wasn’t improving. And that’s where I feel like, where I got these brain scans is what changed my life. Because now, there wasn’t a guess as to what was going on. There wasn’t a guess, there was no need for medication to be prescribed to me in hopes that it would work. I never blamed anyone. I didn’t blame anyone for my current state, I just didn’t understand that why everything I was trying wasn’t working.

Kim Sutton: So is O is take ownership?

Anthony Treas: O is Optimizing your environment.

Kim Sutton: I thought I was onto something–

Anthony Treas: Optimizing your environment. When you’re trying to improve, like we could go back to the whole new year’s resolution. Your environment dictates your decisions. Whatever you bring into your home such as your food, those are your options, that’s what you’re gonna decide to do. So if bringing things into your environment that aren’t going to be supportive to your goal, you’re only making it that much harder for yourself.

Kim Sutton: People, places and things, yeah.

Anthony Treas: Absolutely. And the thing is, remember, this is an individual thing. You may have a spouse, a partner, you have roommates and they have to create that environment for you and not expect that other people are going to change for you. But that this is you, and that you can ask for their support. And hopefully, you get their support and make it something. Everybody’s situation is different. Some people have kids, some people don’t have kids, and so it’s going to be different to were bringing in things into your environment that are going to be supportive for you. But as men, we’re going back to responsibility. Whatever you have control over, take that ownership and make those changes that you need to make in order to support you in accomplishing your goal. So optimizing your environment is huge. Whether you think of your environment everywhere you go. Your work, your office, how’s your office, your home, how’s your room, how’s your closet, how’s your garage. All these different places. Oftentimes, people think, well, I know where it’s at, and it’s messy. If I were to hire somebody and organize this, how would you feel? And you knew where everything was at. That’s going to bring relief. I don’t think there’s anybody who really thrives in a chaotic situation.

Kim Sutton: Looking around my office right now, and even though I keep on telling my littles to take their toys to their room, somehow, all these toys still wind up in my office. I’m looking, there’s like Legos on the floor, a baby doll, and it drives me a little nuts because it distracts me when I’m trying to be focused. Yeah, this little baby doll on the floor.

Anthony Treas: And that’s a perfect example. And as I mentioned, everyone in their life is going to be different. Some people have kids and some people don’t. You’re right. When you see those things, when we wake up each morning, let’s think of it as, you have 100% energy when you wake up. Let’s just think you had a great night’s sleep yet wake up with 100%. But as soon as you start seeing those toys all over the place, or your piles of papers, or disorganization, it starts sapping that energy away little by little. And by the end of the day, you’re just worn out because everything’s taking away your energy. And so optimizing your environment is really thinking and considering all these things that play into what’s giving you energy, and what’s taking away energy and kind of optimizing it so it supports you in your goal. The end is to never give up.

Kim Sutton: Oh, I love that.

Anthony Treas: You’re gonna fail, and there’s nothing wrong with failure, whether you want to start a business or build a business. I mean, you’re perfect. Your podcast is perfect. What’s you’re saying, Kim, give it to him.

Kim Sutton: Positive Productivity is not about perfection. I mean, hey, look at this episode, it took three times for me. Listeners, in full disclosure, I canceled on Anthony twice. The first time I think because I had lost my voice. We were both just coming out of The New Media Summit. Plus, I was also in the depths of Steve’s current launch. And then we’re supposed to do it again last week, and the launch was just taking up all my mental energy. So yeah, Positive Productivity is not about perfection on any given day. I mean, we’re recording this on Zoom today, which is not where I typically record podcasts. But Skype is not working for us. So yeah, don’t ever give up.

Anthony Treas: Yeah. And it’s so important. And oftentimes, we look as failure as a bad thing. And even if your goal is to lose weight, or if your goal is to, I’m in the process of starting my podcast, it isn’t going to be perfect.

Kim Sutton: My podcast still isn’t perfect.

Anthony Treas: But oftentimes, many of us just want these to be so perfect before we launch something, or so just in place. And although there’s nothing wrong with dotting the I and crossing the T, oftentimes, that limits us. We’re preventing ourselves from taking action. And like I’ve heard before, the first time you do anything, you’re not going to be the best at it. So when you’re trying to reprogram a new way of living, a new way of thinking, a new life for yourself, remember, going and understanding that you’re going against your brain, you’re going against this program that you have however long you’ve lived, that has been around for you. However long you start believing in that belief, or that thought, or just that programming in your brain, that’s what you’re going up against. So if you’ve been doing the same thing for 5, 10, 15, 20 years, you have that many years of your neural pathways, your brain operates a certain way. You’re going to get some resistance, you’re going to crave certain things, you’re going to do things. And that’s just part of the process. Have compassion for yourself. Have some understanding, but learn from those failures, learn from those falls. Get back up and keep going.

Kim Sutton: Yes, I love that. Yeah, I’m so curious now.

Anthony Treas: Gut check your progress. In the end, you have to be honest with yourself. If you’re not making the changes, if the changes aren’t happening that you want, you got to go back and say, look at your why. Are you totally committed? Are you taking full responsibility? Are you optimizing your environment? How can you optimize your environment to be more supportive for you? All these things, are you letting your failures get the best of you? Once you gut check, you’ll probably realize, okay, this is where I’m at right now. I can’t go back, but here is where I’m at right here right now. All I can do is move forward. And that’s kind of the micro look at what the strong method is about. And that’s what I help clients. It’s all individualized in a sense, it’s really kind of really working with them in a sort of way that helps them in their situation. But also the biggest thing and helping people change is accountability. Really that accountability, coaching, I strongly encourage not for that accountability partner to be a friend because it’s really easy to give friends some leeway, a little more forgiveness. Not that a coach doesn’t. But oftentimes, accountability is better for those who can provide some support, but also kind of provide that accountability as well.

Kim Sutton: Oh, I love that. I was actually just talking to somebody earlier this week, and I don’t remember who. At New Media summit, you heard me say that there’s no excuses. There’s no excuses. There’s just none. But the friends will let us slide with excuses. Oh, that’s too bad. But no, it’s not too bad. Why did you take that soda when you knew you’re committed to staying sugar free? My husband is addicted to soda. I don’t remember, I think it was in December of 2017. Yeah, that sounds about right. I actually gave up soda, but I have had a couple since then. And this sounds gross saying it now, but five to six cans of Mountain Dew to maybe one every two weeks.

Anthony Treas: Yeah.

Kim Sutton: It took a few weeks. By few, I mean three to four weeks for my husband to stop asking me if I wanted a soda. So gut check, stay committed, have that accountability with yourself and others. And actually, that’s how I stayed on it. I had an accountability tool that everybody else, that a select group could see, and I had to check off every day to say whether or not I had a soda. And yeah, they helped me to it.

Anthony Treas: I’m curious, what was your why?

Kim Sutton: I’ve been gaining more weight than I really want to, and I really just wanted to be healthier. I really want to be healthier. Actually, just this morning, two months after telling J.J Flizanes on a previous episode of the podcast that I would bring my elliptical upstairs and put it in my office. Yes, this morning, I finally brought it upstairs, and it’s staring at me now. It’s like, when are you going to use me? But I have to move some of those kids toys, or they have to move their toys back to the room, and they will stay out of here. Actually, that’s how I’m going to reclaim my office just me because they will use it like monkey bars. I knew it had to be done, and I looked at the calories and just all the sugar. This whole podcasting journey has been incredible for me because talking to amazing people like you who have opened up my eyes to see so many ways that I could be improving my life. And that’s not the journey I expected to go on with my podcast. But you’re not only helping the listeners, but you’re helping me as well. So thank you.

Anthony Treas: And that’s it. I guess the message that I would want to give to others listening is that it is a process. It really is a process, and not be so hard on yourself. Have compassion, have some understanding. It is a process, but also to understand to be honest with yourself, and to continue moving forward. But also understand, the brain loves certain things, salt, sugars and fats, and those there are good fats. We do need to have good fats, omega-3, in our diet to help with brain functioning. Sugars and fats the brain loves, and those are addictive, and those are the downfall. But you are going up against your brain and that programming that you have developed over X amount of years. And so that’s really kind of where coaching comes in. Allowing, understanding and seeing the progress that you have made, I’m so happy for you that you have had this progress. If you have one every two weeks, great. But I know and I believe that eventually, there’s a point in time where you’re just never gonna want whenever again.

Kim Sutton: I already not liking the tastes. And I have to share that one of the things, and I’m sorry, this may be gross to some listeners. But one of the things that I’m loving the most that I’m noticing is that my face has cleared up considerably. I mean, it wasn’t bad when I was still drinking soda. Feel bad even sharing this, but blackheads on my nose, they were prominent, but they’re not anymore. That’s the only thing I can really link it to because nothing else has significantly changed in that time.

Anthony Treas: Yeah. It’s great to hear your story. Because often, there are many, many, many people that are addicted to sugar and addicted to soda. And it’s unfortunate because it is so addictive. And as I mentioned, it’s as addictive as drugs, powerful drugs. And so I’m very excited to hear about your story and the progress you have made. Thank you for sharing that.

Kim Sutton: Oh, you’re welcome. And thank you for everything that you have shared. Where can listeners get in touch with you and get to know more?

Anthony Treas: They can reach me at strongmencoaching.com, at strong, M-E-N, coaching.com. You can also find me on social media at STRONG Men Coach.

Kim Sutton: Oh, fabulous. Anthony, we’ll put those in the show notes, which listeners, you can find it at thekimsutton.com/pp348. I want to thank you again so much for being here. Do you have a last piece of parting advice or a golden nugget that you can offer to listeners?

Anthony Treas: Yeah. For those who are trying and wanting to change their health and mental well being, it is a process. Believe in the process. And more importantly, if you really want to make those changes, I mean, we’re right now, it’s over a quarter of the year has gone, many people have, oftentimes, try to make new year’s resolutions, and where are they now? And oftentimes, they have given up on that. And the truth is that your health is you are worth it. I can say that all day. But my hope through this is that you begin to understand that your health is worth it, you are worth it, your family’s worth it. For those who are entrepreneurs and really wanting to build their business, know that is wealth without the health to enjoy it. So my message is really to look at your health, and to understand that you and your health is important. I hope that it will become something that you will consider.