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Running Lean with Patrick McGilvray

Inspiration

43. Embrace Discomfort

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Most people are afraid of being uncomfortable. I think this is a real shame since getting uncomfortable is the only way to achieve anything worthwhile in this life. But it happens all the …

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Podcast Transcript

My name is Patrick McGilvray. And I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve learned that running more and eating less does not work for weight loss, and that there’s a better way. Now I help runners like you to get leaner and get stronger, so you can run faster and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.

Hey there, and welcome to episode number 43 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today I want to talk about how to embrace discomfort. Most people are just afraid of being uncomfortable. Let’s face it. I think this is a real shame, though, because getting uncomfortable is really the only way that you’re going to achieve anything worthwhile in your life.

But I see it happening all the time, people will willingly trade away their big goals and their dreams just so they can avoid any kind of discomfort just so they can stay comfortable. Here’s the thing though, the only thing that stands between you and your goals is the discomfort of getting them. So in this episode of the podcast, I will explore what it means to embrace discomfort, and why it’s such an important factor in achieving everything you want in your life.

But first, let’s talk about the Running Lean community on Facebook. This is a positive energetic, encouraging informative group of like minded runners that goes hand in hand with this podcast. And I have a big announcement for you. If you are not currently part of the Running Lean community on Facebook, I would encourage you to jump in there as soon as you can, because I am doing something next Sunday November the first that I’ve never done before.

And you have to be in the group in order to check it out. I’m doing an epic training event. You will not want to miss this. The event is called Getting Lean, How To Transform Your Body Into A Lean, Fat Burning Machine. So you can run without bonking, lose weight without calorie counting, and develop the habits required to make it all last for a lifetime.

So I’m sharing my proprietary kind of six part framework for becoming a lean running machine. This is the exact framework that I use with my coaching clients. I’m pulling back the curtain. I’m sharing it all with you.

That will be Sunday, November the first at 4pm, Eastern time in the Running Lean community on Facebook, it’s free to join, you have nothing to lose. You do not want to miss this event though. It’s going to be awesome. So just go on Facebook and search for Running Lean community. And join us on Sunday, November 1 For this epic event. Okay, let’s talk about our Running Lean manifesto.

So today, the principle I’m sharing with you is to embrace discomfort. So what is the Running Lean manifesto? Well, a few months back, I created a list of things that were important to me: my guiding principles. So a manifesto is a list of guiding principles, it’s a set of values to live by, these guiding principles have become my North Star.

As long as I’m following these principles, I know I’m living the kind of life that I want to live in that I’m heading towards my goals. And I want to share this with you because I want you to adopt this as your guiding list of guiding principles as well.

So your manifesto is a blueprint that you can live your life by. It’ll help to keep you on track, help you keep moving in the direction of your goals, your dreams, everything that you want to achieve. So it’s just, it’s always easy to see where you are by checking out where you are in accordance with these principles.

Am I where I’m supposed to be? Am I following these principles? Yes or no? It’s pretty easy to know. Okay, if so, following this list of principles, having this manifesto actually gives my life meaning and purpose and drives me forward.

So here’s what the Running Lean manifesto is. Number one is eat real food. Number two is live vibrantly. Number three is to thrive in your body. Number four, embrace discomfort. Number five, run because you love it. Number six, love yourself unconditionally. Number seven, think, feel and act with purpose. And number eight to be an example of what’s possible.

So I’ve been sharing a few of these. And over the next few episodes, I’ll share the rest of them taking a little bit of a deep dive into each one of these principles. And again, my hope is that these become your guiding principles, too, that these help you to create the meaningful life that you want for yourself.

So today, we’re talking about the fourth principle from the Running Lean Manifesto: embrace discomfort. And I did an episode a few episodes back called Embracing The Suck, episode number 35 of the podcast, which is just a different riff on this same topic, but it’s definitely worth checking out.

I got a lot of good feedback from that episode. But it will help to round out this whole idea of embracing discomfort. Okay, so let’s get into this. Here’s the problem as I see it. We all expect life to be comfortable all the time. We want to stay comfortable.

And this kind of makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint, we as humans have evolved to avoid pain and seek pleasure. And this served us really well, as we were evolving as humans, as we were hunter gatherers.

When we were faced with an actual danger, like a saber toothed Tiger, we were programmed, we’ve programmed our brains to run away, that served us really well. It kept us alive. Understanding that there’s danger. And you know, wanting to avoid that danger, wanting to avoid pain, and seeking pleasure is good. It’s a good thing.

But today, there’s no saber toothed Tiger. But we still see danger all around us. Right, we see danger in work stress, we see danger and fear in the way people talk to us. We see danger in fear in people’s comments that they make online. Our primitive brain still wants to avoid pain, and is always trying to seek pleasure.

So we’re always still trying to kind of feel good all the time. Even though there isn’t any real danger out there. Or a focus of our energy is always on just being happy all the time, if that is our only goal in life, just be happy all the time, feel good all the time. The problem here is that this is not the way life works. This is not reality.

Reality is different. Reality is this life is kind of 50/50 when you accept only the good stuff in life, and you reject all the quote unquote, bad stuff in life, you are basically miserable 50% of the time. So 50/50 means that half the time, life’s gonna be pretty good, you’re going to feel good things, you’re going to kind of go your way, and the other half the time, not so much.

Things aren’t going to go your way, you’re not going to feel good. You’re going to experience good emotions, about half the time. And then you’re going to experience some negative emotions about half the time. That’s just the way life is. 50/50 means that we embrace all of it though, because this is what it means to be a human being.

The human experience is not just feeling good all the time. The human experience is experiencing all of it, the good and the bad, not just the good stuff. Okay. When we only accept the good and want to reject all the bad, we are in so much turmoil. We put ourselves through so much turmoil, because we’re not accepting half of the way life is. Okay.

Here’s an example from my own life. Honestly, every day when I wake up, I feel some level of discomfort. And no, not just because I’m 53 years old. I wake up and I feel some amount of fear and anxiety every day, because I have to show up. I have to show up to coach people, to create this podcast, to run my business, to run.

You know to go out there and run miles and miles. I have to show up to work out to stay fit. I show up every day in a way that I want to practice all of these principles and everything that I do. And I have to say that it’s not always comfortable, it is uncomfortable. So I wake up and I feel uncomfortable.

And I’m putting myself out there, you know, especially as a person who does a podcast with a following, and a big Facebook group, you know, I’m putting myself out there every single day. And here’s the thing about me, I’m an introvert, this is not comfortable for me. It’s not.

But you know what? I do it anyway. If I rejected discomfort, I would just stay in bed all day and watch Netflix. That’s comfort for me. That’s easy. That’s what’s safe. That’s what feels good. But that’s just my primitive brain, trying to avoid the pain and seek pleasure. That is not what I do.

Why don’t I just do that? Why don’t I just stay in bed? Why don’t I just watch Netflix all day? Why do I put myself out there like this, even though it’s uncomfortable? Here’s why. Because I decided that my job is to make a difference. My job is to be an example of what’s possible.

My job is to become more, to create change. Do you think I could do that? Do you think I could do my job if I’m in bed watching Netflix all day? I wish I could. But that’s not how this stuff works. That’s not how life works. It’s because I want more for myself. It’s because I want to become more that I’m willing to embrace this discomfort of putting myself out there.

Because that discomfort, that’s what it takes to become more, that’s what it takes to get there. Discomfort is the price you have to pay. If you want to achieve more. The cost of achieving your goals is discomfort. You cannot be, do, or have more without experiencing some amount of discomfort. You just can’t.

You know if being, doing, or having more was comfortable, you’d already have it. If it was easy, you’d already have it. Everything you want, but don’t already have lies outside of your comfort zone. And it’s precisely because it’s so hard and uncomfortable. That makes it so worth it. I know I hate how that works, too. But that’s the way it works.

Losing weight is hard. It’s an uncomfortable process to go through. No one would disagree with that. But when you embrace the discomfort instead of rejecting it when you put in the work, and you get to that goal. What an amazing accomplishment. What an amazing feeling that is.

I put myself through a lot of discomfort this year, getting to my goal weight. So I’ve told this story before but you know, I had put on like 40 pounds over the last couple of years. Even though I was eating what I thought was a great diet. I was eating a plant-based diet. But I was addicted to sugar.

So earlier this year, I was like I have to figure this out. And so I did all the research, I read all the books, I listened to all the experts, I attended seminars, workshops, I got training on not just the physical aspects of weight loss, but the mental aspect and the emotional side of things, too.

I went all in on creating change for myself. And honestly, this was a very uncomfortable period for me. I stopped eating sugar, and carbohydrates. Basically, I stopped eating processed foods. And I even went back to eating meat again, which was a whole nother uncomfortable place to be. This was a big decision for me, by the way.

And I did a whole podcast about that. Because it was a big uncomfortable thing for me to go through. So you can check that out when I can’t remember what number that is, but it’s called why I decided to start eating meat again. But I did all of these things.

And all of these things, you know, not eating sugar, not eating processed foods. Going back to eating meat again. All these things went against everything I was believing in up to that point. It was a very uncomfortable transition period for me. But I knew that the only way through it was to embrace the discomfort and go all in on it.

And here’s the thing, we runners, we are pros at embracing discomfort seriously. We do it all the time training for a marathon. Come on, that is a very uncomfortable thing to go through. Running every day, maybe you’re doing a run streak and you run every single day. That’s uncomfortable. Getting up early in the morning and running in the cold, or the rain or the snow, or the ice or the heat of the summer. I mean, just getting up early every Saturday morning to run. That is uncomfortable.

We put ourselves as runners, we put ourselves through all kinds of misery on purpose, we get super uncomfortable. We willingly suffer through months and months of training, just so we can say we ran a half marathon or a full marathon or an ultra or whatever your goal is.

I remember training for 100 miler a few years back, and I put in the training, it was like a year long training now, but you could probably do it shorter. But that’s how long I chose to do it. So I trained like for a year. And at the peak of my training, I was doing 30 mile runs on Saturdays, and then 20 mile runs on Sundays.

That’s uncomfortable, to be honest with you. Runners are pros at embracing discomfort. Right? We do it all the time. We’re good at it. We actually brag about it. But here’s the crazy thing. As soon as I suggest that, maybe you stop eating sugar, so you can actually become a super healthy human being and maybe lose those extra 40 pounds you’ve been carrying around. You’re like, oh, this is too hard, Patrick, this feels uncomfortable.

And I just laugh because I’m like, this is ridiculous. You’ll happily endure 17 weeks of marathon training and all the discomfort that comes with it: the painful, long runs in the dark, the black toenails, the sore legs, the long hours out in the elements, the blisters, that chafing, GI issues, all the struggling, all the suffering. You’re all in on all of that. All that discomfort, 100%. No problem.

But when I say like, hey, maybe quit eating sugar. And you do and you experience a few moments, a day where you’re having a craving like, I could probably go for something sweet right about now. And those cravings actually go away after the first week or so by the way. But when you experience a little craving for something sweet, you’re like, Oh, my God, I can’t do this. It’s too hard. It’s too uncomfortable.

Why is there such a disconnect there? Why do we have such a cognitive dissonance when it comes to this? This is fascinating to me. I believe that it’s all about deciding what’s important to you. You know, my best guess is that you’ve made marathon training, your number one priority, which is fine. That’s an important decision. And it’s a big goal. And it takes a big commitment.

So you made a decision at one point that you’re gonna go all in, you’re gonna run a marathon. And here’s your training schedule, and you are all in on that decision, no matter what, no matter how much discomfort you are going to experience, you are crossing the finish line on this date.

You know, when you run your marathon, you decided at some point that embracing the discomfort of training and of running that race was the price that you had to pay to reach that goal to get across that finish line. What if you decided that you were going to go all in on losing that weight? What would that look like for you?

What if you committed to that goal, the same way that you commit to training for a marathon? What if you decided to go all in and actually just embrace that discomfort of losing weight? How would you show up differently? How would you show up for yourself? What would you start doing differently? Maybe what would you stop doing? Because here’s the thing, you get to decide.

My suggestion for you is that you choose discomfort, whatever that looks like for you. But my suggestion is that you choose discomfort and go for the big stuff. Because you already have all the easy stuff, all the simple stuff. I want you to go after more. I want you to go after all that stuff that lies outside of your comfort zone. Be more, do more, have more, become more, just know that there’s a price that you have to pay to get it and that price is discomfort. That’s it. It’s just discomfort.

Next weekend, I am running a marathon. And the reason that I’m telling you this and that it’s a big deal for me is because about two years ago, I decided that marathons were too hard. I had run 14 marathons, and I was like, marathons suck, right? They’re too long, it takes too long for the training. These runs are way too painful.

You know, plus, you know, you’re out there all day. I decided that I was going to stick to half marathons, you know, you get it all done, like two hours, you never have more than like a 10 or 12 mile training run. You know, after your marathon after your half marathon, you can still walk the next day, like, I could justify all these reasons why I was going to just stop doing marathons and go back to just doing halfs.

And a few months ago, I was out running with some friends. And they’re all talking about creating this marathon in the Fall here and running a full marathon. And I was like, Yeah, you guys enjoy yourselves. You’re crazy. I’m not in. No, thank you. I’m just into halves now.

But then I really started to think about what it is that I really wanted for myself. Did I want to stay comfortable and small? Or did I want to see what I was made of? Did I want to push myself? Do I want to become more?

I decided that yes, I wanted to be more, I wanted more for myself. I didn’t want to settle for the comfortable. I didn’t want to settle for the easier, softer way. I wanted to prove to myself that I can still do hard things. And that meant that I had to embrace the discomfort and go all in. So I started training for a full marathon.

This will be my first full marathon in over two years. And I’m really excited about doing this by the way. It’s going to be fun, I feel good about where I am and in all of this. But I made a decision that I was going to be an example of what’s possible when you embrace discomfort.

So I’ve done all of my runs in the fasted state. That means no food for like 12 hours or so before the run. I’ve taken zero calories, have taken in zero calories during the runs. So I’ve done several 16’s, several 18’s, 20 miles with zero calories and no problems at all, tons of energy. Because I’m fully fat-adapted. And I feel like I’m virtually bonk proof at this point.

And I’m gonna run 26.2 miles in a week. Fasted, zero calories to show you what’s possible. And I have to tell you, I’ve been feeling amazing. I’m kicking ass on my runs, even at 53 years old. That’s right. But here’s the thing.

If I chose during my life if I chose to stay comfortable. If I choose not to embrace discomfort, I would never know what I was capable of. If I had chosen to stay comfortable in my past, I wouldn’t have quit drinking. I wouldn’t have done an Ironman. I wouldn’t have run 100 miles, I wouldn’t have lost 40 pounds. I wouldn’t be running a marathon next week.

If I constantly chose comfort, I wouldn’t be here talking to you on this podcast right now. I’d be at home on the couch watching Netflix wishing that I was more wanting to be more, but instead just staying comfortable and safe instead.

So here’s my call to action for you for this week. I want you to embrace discomfort. What does that look like for you? I want you to think about that and then go all in on the discomfort. be uncomfortable. It’s okay. Please go for the hard stuff too. Don’t go for the easy stuff.

That’s simple stuff that’s like right there within your reach. That easy stuff that’s not where the growth is. Go big. Embrace all the discomfort. And I’ll leave you with this thought: discomfort is temporary, but becoming more is forever.

All right, I’ll be diving into more of these principles from the Running Lean manifesto in the upcoming episodes. So this is really fun sharing this with you guys by the way. And don’t forget next Sunday, November the first I’ve got this epic event that I really want to share with you.

It’s called Getting Lean: How To Trasnform Your Body Into a Lean Fat Burning Machine. So you can run without bonking, lose weight without calorie counting, and develop the habits required to make it last a lifetime. I’ll be sharing my coaching framework for becoming a lean running machine.

That’s over in the Running Lean community on Facebook Sunday, November the first 4pm Eastern, just search for Running Lean on facebook and join us. That’s all I got for you today. Lots of love to each and every one of you, my friends, keep on Running Lean, and I’ll talk to you soon.

If you’ve tried to lose weight by running miles and miles or starving yourself and you’ve had zero results, you are not alone. This model of weight loss is broken. It’s never worked, and it has to be replaced. That’s why I created a powerful new training just for you called How to Become a lien running machine. You’ll discover why running more and eating less does not work for weight loss and you’ll learn the three secrets to losing weight and keeping it off for good to get this free training right now just go to runningleanpodcast.com/lean and learn how you can become lean running machine.

41. Live Vibrantly

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If you ask most people how they feel about their life, they’ll probably tell you their life is pretty dull, pretty ordinary, maybe even dreary. Today, I'm here to tell you that this is NOT how you …

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Podcast Transcript

My name is Patrick McGilvray. And I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve learned that running more and eating less does not work for weight loss, and that there’s a better way. Now I help runners like you to get leaner and get stronger, so you can run faster and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.

Hey there and welcome to episode 41 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. If you ask most people how they feel about their life, they’ll probably tell you that their life is pretty dull, pretty ordinary, maybe even a little boring or dreary. Today, I’m here to tell you that this is not how you are supposed to live your life.

We have one very short life here on this planet. Do you really want to settle for a life that can only be described as dull and ordinary and dreary? Because here’s the thing, you get to choose. You can choose to live a dull and dreary life. Or you can choose to live a big, bold, beautiful, vibrant life. In this episode, I’m talking about choosing to live vibrantly, and why it’s such a powerful principle to live by.

But first, if you like this podcast, please come and check us out on Facebook. The Running Lean community is a positive, energetic and fun group of like minded runners. And it kind of goes hand in hand with this podcast. I do weekly live coaching in that group on a whole bunch of different topics, you know, focus around the same kinds of things we talk about here on the podcast, but it’s a chance for you to ask questions and get support of a very large, thriving growing group of runners just like you.

So just head over to Facebook, search for Running Lean community and join us over there. And then listen becoming a fat-adapted runner, breaking old habits, creating new ones, developing the mindset to make all of this stuff permanent in your life can be challenging to do on your own. That’s why I offer one-on-one coaching.

I’ll help you figure out the right nutrition plan that will get you to your goals because everybody’s different. You’ll have me holding you accountable and keeping you on track and always moving in the direction of your goals will help you to do things that you don’t want to do so that you can be the person that you ultimately want to be most importantly you’ll develop the mindset that you need to make these changes for life.

Here’s a comment from one of my coaching clients Hannah and she says, “I did another virtual half marathon today fasted again. My co-runners are really surprised that I don’t need any gel or goo and I am fine. I see no difference in my pace and energy. In fact, I had two strong finishes recently. I didn’t feel like I was tired or exhausted. Patrick, I’m still carrying lessons that I learned from you. Really gives me this jumpstart I needed to change my eating habits. My weight has been stable for six plus weeks. So glad I found this page and eventually you.”

Yes Hannah, changing your eating habits will definitely give you more energy and stronger finishes. If you’re ready to stop screwing around with your weight if you’re ready to change your eating habits if you’re ready to start living vibrantly, then apply for a one-on-one coaching with me just go to innerfiretribe.com/weightlosscoaching, one word. Do it now, I promise you it will change your life.

Okay, so several months ago, I sat down and wrote out the Running Lean Manifesto. This is just a list of the things that I wanted to live my life by a set of principles, the things that I stood for the things that are important to me. And now I’m sharing this with you guys because I think this is a great framework for living an amazing life healthy in mind and body.

And I’m calling this the Running Lean Manifesto. What is the manifesto? Well, it’s just a set of guiding principles or values and it’s like your North Star, something that you can always do that is always keeping you on track.

Why do we need a manifesto? Well a manifesto provides a blueprint to live by. Okay, it helps us to stay on track and always moving towards our goals. It’s easy to see where we are so you can say, “Am I living up to these principles yes or no?” Following these principles helps to give our lives purpose. And I believe we should all have some sort of manifesto to live by.

So here’s what the Running Lean manifesto is. Number one, eat real food. Number two, live vibrantly. Number three, thrive in your body. Number four, embrace discomfort. Number five, run because you love it. Number six, love yourself unconditionally. Number seven, think, feel and act with purpose. And then number eight, be an example of what’s possible.

So over the next several podcast episodes, I’m going to be talking about each one of these separately. And remember, these are the guiding principles for what I do. And they are the guiding principles of the Running Lean community. So these can be your guiding principles too, it’s totally fine. They are our guiding principles. Okay, so these are the principles that drive us forward together.

It’s the blueprint we can all use to become the best version of ourselves. Okay, so today I’m talking about the second principle, which is to live vibrantly. And what does that mean? And what kind of an impact can living vibrantly have on your life?

Well, first, let’s look at the definition of vibrant, what does that mean? Vibrant or living vibrantly means the word vibrant means full of energy and enthusiasm. Pulsating with life. Vivid, bright, striking, strong. That all sounds pretty amazing, right? The opposite of vibrant is spiritless, listless, dull.

So when I talk about living vibrantly, it means living a vivid life full of energy and enthusiasm. Not a dull, spiritless, listless life. Okay. We all squared away with that part? So are you doing it? You say, yes, I want to live a vibrant life. But are you actually doing it?

On the surface, you’d probably agree that you don’t want a dull spiritless life. But how are you living your life? Really ask yourself that question. Go inside, what’s the answer? I think way too often, we stay stuck in our own little cocoon, our little safe, comfort zone, safe from all the scary, hard things that are out there in the world.

For example, when I started coaching entrepreneurs, so I started my coaching career as a life and success coach for entrepreneurs. And that work was fine. It was safe. But I was feeling like it was kind of dull and listless. You know, looking back on it, like it wasn’t really challenging me.

And I wasn’t really passionate about this work that I was doing. You know, I was an entrepreneur and I had some success as an entrepreneur. I was helping some people but it was like, it’s okay.

At some point, though, I decided I want to work with people I connect to at a deep level. I want to work with people who are passionate about running the way that I’m passionate about running. The kind of weirdos you know, that are like, yeah, and you know, you know who you are, the ones that are like, want to go run 20 miles on a Saturday morning.

I want to connect with those people. Because I get that, I get that mindset. I wanted to work with runners on helping them to develop that mindset, and then their nutrition and help them solve the weight problem. And this felt really scary to me. I had to put myself out there.

This topic of like helping runners lose weight, especially when I talk about hey, you know, let’s get off the carbs. And there’s another way of doing this. It’s kind of controversial, right? Not everyone agrees with me. And that’s okay. I don’t need everybody to agree with me. It’s okay that you’re wrong about me.

But here’s the thing, I could stay safe and work with my little entrepreneurs over here and make some good money and have a nice little biz. Or I could go and do something that I was really passionate about, but I was like going into uncharted 10 Atari it was. It was scary though, there were a lot of unknowns. And it felt bigger than me. But that’s what I wanted. I wanted something that was bigger than me.

I love, love, love this quote from John Shedd. And if you’re if you’ve ever been to Chicago, you know, there’s the Shedd Aquarium up in Chicago. And so he had this quote, he said, “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships were built for.”

Oh my gosh, that’s so good. A ship and harbor is safe, but that is not what ships were built for. So for me, I was not built to stay small and safe, and sit here on this shore. Doing my little entrepreneur thing over here, I was built for something bigger, something that lights me up, I was built for life so big and bright and vivid, that I blow my own mind every day.

Because the alternative to that is a comfortable life, but a very small life. It’s not what I wanted for myself. I’m not going to dull and dampen my experiences just for the sake of comfort and safety. I had to make that decision. I did that. For most of my life. I stayed small, you know, I stayed comfortable for a lot of my life.

And it got me sick and fat. I had diseases, I was you know, very unhealthy in a lot of ways. And my life was very, very small. When I gave up drinking, my life became bigger. When I gave up, you know, eating junk food. My life became bigger. My life is so big now, because I choose to live vibrantly every day.

Now, this does not mean that every day is always rainbows, rainbows and unicorn farts, okay, because it is not. Stuff gets hard sometimes. So how do you live a vibrant life, when everything is like crashing down all around you? And I get that sentiment I really do. It can feel like your life is falling apart sometimes.

But honestly, that’s just a thought in your head. That’s a thought that you are choosing to think my life is falling apart. It’s just a thought you’re choosing to think here’s the thing. Life is not supposed to be great all the time. We’re not supposed to be happy all the time. We’re just not.

If you expect yourself to be happy all the time. Or if your goal is to try to be happy all of the time, you will be gravely disappointed about half the time. Life is 50/50. 50% of the time it’s pretty good, 50% of the time, it’s not. And it’s okay. The goal is not to be happy all the time.

The goal is to have this life that’s 50/50 and be okay with all of it. You know, at the beginning of this year, I was going through a divorce, I was living alone. I had started two jobs and then lost them due to the pandemic I was delivering for Uber Eats just so I could pay my rent and make ends meet.

And I could have decided at that point that life was unfair. Everything’s crashing down around me. I’m just going into survival mode here. Go back to the shore. Stay safe. Have this safe, comfortable, dull, listless life. Or I could choose to live vibrantly. I wanted more.

I wanted to create a life so big and bold and beautiful and vibrant, that I would wake up every day and I would blow my own mind. So I worked on my business during the day, I recorded podcasts, and I was coaching people. And then at night, I was out delivering food.

You know, this was really hard for a while. It felt like I was starting over. You know, like I was in my early 20s you know, just starting out on my own again. It was really a very, it was a hard time for me. I kind of felt like a loser at times.

But I had to decide that I wanted something more. I had to decide that I wanted a life that was big and bold and vibrant. And how am I going to create that for myself? How can I live that way? Despite the fact that things around me do not seem awesome?

And the answer is, life is 50/50, we have to experience all of it. And we just have to accept all of it. And that’s the key right there is that you have to be willing to experience the good and the bad. You have to be willing to experience all the good stuff that comes your way. And all the challenging stuff that comes your way. It doesn’t mean you have to agree with everything.

You know, it doesn’t mean you have to like suffer. But you do have to learn how to experience the whole breadth of experiences and emotions that we all feel as humans, it’s all part of the human experience.

So I wasn’t trying to dull my experiences, I was willing to experience everything that life had to offer all the good, the bad, the terrible, the discomfort; the not knowing if any of this stuff was going to work. And I faced it all head on. I took on all those things with courage and determination as best I could.

I was determined to create a life that was pulsating with energy. That whole 50/50 thing life is, you know, half good half not so good. You have to accept this as truth. You have to, you have to accept everything. You can’t reject the bad stuff. You can’t reject the hard stuff. You can’t resist the uncomfortable stuff. Because that’s when you have that small, safe, dull life.

So be willing to feel that, be willing to experience the entire range of human emotions. You know, without sadness, we wouldn’t know what it feels like to be happy. Without anger and frustration, we wouldn’t know what peace feels like. Without hurt, we wouldn’t know relief. Without chaos, we wouldn’t experience calm.

If running a marathon was easy and pain free, do you think it would feel the same crossing that finish line? Do you think it would feel as amazing to cross that finish line if running a marathon was easy? No. It’s because of the struggle. It’s because of the fear and the pain and the suffering through the training that when you cross that finish line, it feels overwhelmingly joyful.

If you’ve ever run a marathon, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Or maybe it’s a 10k or a 5k or whatever that is for you. This is one of the reasons I love running so much. It’s not because it’s easy. It’s because it is hard. Because I’m willing to go out there and challenge myself and push myself and experience all of it. I’m willing to leave that safe harbor, so I can create a life that is buzzing with energy and enthusiasm.

This is what it means to live vibrantly. What would it look like for you to live vibrantly? Be honest with yourself. Are you living vibrantly right now? Or are you playing it safe? Do you have big goals and dreams for yourself? If yes, are you moving toward them? Are you taking action every day? Do you have a plan?

You know, one of the most powerful things about coaching is that working with me we create a plan for your big goals and your dreams. And then we work the plan. We take action and we move toward them every day. The power of coaching is having someone there to guide you, to hold you accountable to keep you focused to keep you on track to keep you motivated.

Now if you don’t have big goals and dreams, why the heck don’t you? Why wouldn’t you want a big, beautiful, bold, vibrant life for yourself? Seriously, ask yourself why you don’t want that. What kind of life do you want for yourself? The kind of life where you push yourself out of your comfort zone? Do more, be more, become the most amazing version of yourself yet? Or do you want the kind of life where you stay at home and stay safe and sit on the couch and binge watch Netflix all day? Because you get to decide.

Do you want the kind of life where you’re still carrying around that extra 40 pounds from now until the day you die? Do you want to constantly be struggling with your weight and your self image? Do you want to keep hating how your clothes fit or hating how you look in the mirror, or hating how you feel about yourself, or do you want something else?

Do you want something bigger? Do you want something more vibrant? Because it’s just a choice. And when you make that decision, like when you really decide when you go all in on living vibrantly, there is nothing that will stop you from getting there.

So my call to action for you is to make a decision to choose to live vibrantly, starting right now, what can you do right now, that would light you up. Now it doesn’t have to be like, oh, go jump out of an airplane or climb a mountain or, you know, this is not what I’m talking about.

You know, for me, it’s doing this right here. It’s recording this podcast. It’s teaching these principles to you. It’s encouraging you to live an amazing life. It’s motivating you to get out there and do something bigger than what you have now become more than who you are right now.

Doing this lights me up about what I do. And here’s a little secret for you guys. This is not easy. It’s still not easy for me to come on here and talk about these things. It’s uncomfortable. But I make the decision to show up every day with courage and determination. And because of that my life is pretty amazing. It’s pretty vibrant. Because I choose it.

I choose to live vibrantly every single day. I want my life to be pulsating with energy and enthusiasm. That just sounds so good to me. I want my life to be vivid, bright and meaningful. So what does it look like for you to live vibrantly? Maybe you have a big dream to get incredibly healthy, get back to your natural weight.

Maybe you want to run a 10k or a half marathon or a full marathon or maybe an ultra marathon. Maybe you want to run 10 miles a day for 100 straight days, like Andy in the Facebook group. This guy is a beast. He’s running 10 miles a day for 100 straight days. What if you just wanted to walk for 30 minutes a day for 100 days?

Maybe you want to start a business or get a new job or find your soulmate. Or maybe you want to quit eating sugar or maybe you need to cut back on your drinking. Doesn’t matter what it is, it matters that you choose to begin that you choose to live vibrantly.

Decide that you are not a ship that was built for safe harbors, and go out there and face the unknown. Face those turbulent waters with courage and determination and see what amazing, vibrant life you can create for yourself. All right, I’ll be diving into the other principles that I mentioned at the beginning from the Running Lean manifesto in upcoming episodes.

I’m so excited to be sharing this stuff with you guys. It’s super fun. And we continue this conversation over in the Running Lean community on Facebook. So just come by and check us out. Challenge yourself to live vibrantly, to get healthier, to lose weight, to become a better runner, to become the best damn version of yourself yet. That’s all I got for you today. Lots of love to each and every one of you, my friends, keep on Running Lean, and I’ll talk to you soon.

If you’ve tried to lose weight by running miles and miles or starving yourself and you’ve had zero results, you are not alone. This model of weight loss is broken. It’s never worked, and it has to be replaced. That’s why I created a powerful new training just for you called How to Become a lien running machine. You’ll discover why running more and eating less does not work for weight loss and you’ll learn the three secrets to losing weight and keeping it off for good to get this free training right now just go to runningleanpodcast.com/lean and learn how you can become lean running machine.

22. Colin McGilvray on What It Takes to Hit a Big Weight Loss Goal

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I recently sat down to have a candid conversation with one of my favorite clients - my son Colin! Colin has struggled with his weight his whole life. He's always been the "big kid", and that hasn't …

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Podcast Transcript

Patrick McGilvray
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, running coach and mindset expert. I believe mindset is the most powerful and most underrated tool you have as a runner. So I’ve devoted my life to helping runners like you develop the mindset you need to fuel your inner fire and become the badass runner you were meant to be. This is The Running Mind podcast.

Well, hey there and welcome to episode number 22 of the running mind podcast. My name is Patrick McGilvray. I’m your host, Master Life Coach and weight loss coach for runners. And hey, if you’ve been dorking around with your weight your whole life, you need to stop doing that. You need to take action, you need to do something about it, your time has finally come.

I’ve got a weight loss masterclass that starts next Monday, June 1, it’s an intimate interactive six week class, where you will discover the real causes of your weight gain, you will learn how to recalibrate your hormones so that you stop overeating.

You will learn how to eliminate the uncontrollable cravings, urges and desires that you have around food, you will learn how to master a healthy mindset of eating, you will learn how to break the emotional eating habits. And you’ll be able to create the exact future that you’ve always wanted for yourself.

Here’s the thing, if you want to get in, you just need to enroll now, because enrollment closes Sunday the 31st at midnight, I only take about 10 people through the class at a time so that each person gets my personal attention, and the personal coaching that they need to succeed.

Just go to innerfiretribe.com/stopovereating and get signed up. Let’s get you to your goal weight. You know one of the most appealing aspects of this class is the personal attention that you get. I run all the classes live on Zoom, where you get to ask questions as we go. You get personal coaching time with me. And I personally teach you exactly how to get your goal weight and walk you through it every step of the way.

And doing it as a group is amazing. Everybody loves that aspect of this, I know you’re ready to do something. So let’s do it. Just go to innerfiretribe.com/stopovereating. And let’s go. Okay, recently, I had this amazing conversation with one of my best clients, my new favorite client, who just also happens to be my son, Colin.

So a little backstory, Colin has kind of struggled with his weight for most of his life. He’s always been “the big kid”. And I know it’s not always easy to be looked at that way, especially when you’re in like middle school in high school. So we talked about all that we talked about, like what it was like to go through middle school in high school as the bigger kid.

And then we talked about why he finally reached out to me for help with his weight. Now as his dad, I always knew that I could help him but I never like forced my ideas onto him. I was wanting to call him to decide for himself what he wanted to do. And when he was ready for help. If you want it from me, that’s fine. If not, that’s fine, too. But he finally did come to me a few months ago. And we started working together.

And I started doing the coaching with him exactly the same as I do with any other client. Almost exactly like he maybe got a little bit more of my time and attention. But he’s my son, so whatever. But this is a really fun interview, I just wanted to share, I wanted him to share his experiences that he’s had through this process, because he’s had some amazing results so far.

So we talk about the challenges he’s encountered throughout the journey so far, how he’s been able to get through those challenges. We talk about what it’s like to lose a significant amount of weight. Because this will challenge anyone, it was challenging for him. But he knew he could do it.

And he knew he could get through those tough moments. And he did, and he talks about that. And then he talks about how he’s come out the other side. And he’s just got these amazing results. He looks better, he feels better. He’s more confident. And honestly, as a parent, this is all we want for our kids.

You know, we just want them to feel good about themselves. And he does. It’s so awesome to see this. I’m really proud of myself too, for being able to be a part of this journey of his. I know you will be inspired by Colin’s story. And it’s a story that’s still in the making. Like he’s made amazing progress toward his goal.

He wants to lose 100 pounds. He’s not there yet. But he’s getting there. He’s super motivated and inspired to get there and I have no doubt he’s going to do it. He has no doubt he’s going to do it. Why? Because he has the right attitude about it. And this is the difference between people who succeed at something like this than people who don’t, you know, getting to some huge goal, whatever that goal is, is all about developing the right mindset. It’s all your mindset. Mindset is everything.

And he has the absolute right mindset to do this. And this is why I’m so passionate about helping people get the same kinds of results. Because when you’re armed with that, right mindset, there’s nothing you can do. You’re like unstoppable. You can totally train your brain to do whatever you want. Lose 100 pounds, no problem, bring it on. Okay, let’s do this. I want you to hear this interview with my son, Colin. He’s like my new favorite client.

By the way, I think you’re gonna really get a lot out of this. So here’s my interview with Colin McGilvray.

Okay, so today, I’ve got something very special for you guys. I’m actually having a conversation with one of my best weight loss clients. who just happens to be my son, Colin McGilvray. Colin, how are you?

Colin McGilvray
Great. Thank you.

Patrick McGilvray
Awesome. Thanks for coming on here. And having a conversation with me today. I just wanted to share your experience with people. I wanted people to hear your personal experience with kind of the work that we’ve been doing together, because you’ve had some pretty amazing results so far.

So we’re going to talk a little bit about your journey in the past. What’s it been like six, eight weeks now? Roughly?

Colin McGilvray
Yeah, roughly.

Patrick McGilvray
Okay, roughly, over the last two months, basically, of, of working on the mindset, the emotional piece, and then obviously, the physical piece of losing weight. So tell me like, just I know where you were, but like, for everybody else’s sake, like, let’s just share, like where you were when we started working together?

Colin McGilvray
Sure. So when we started working together, I was about 300 pounds. And I weighed in once we first started doing this, at 295. Really lethargic, basically no exercise. Very little energy. Really not in a good spot.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, so how, how was that for you? Like, you’re the reason you wanted me to help you is because of why like, why did you reach out to me for help?

Colin McGilvray
I reached out because I wanted to change. I wanted it to be different. Other people in my life kind of hinted that I needed to change. There’s a lot of people I know in my life who were as big as I was and had serious health problems. And so I know that if I kept going on that route, I was gonna have some serious problems.

Patrick McGilvray
And how has it been for you? Because you’ve always been like a bigger kid, you know what I mean? Like you were born a bigger kid, you know what I mean? And so and that’s fine. But you know, how was it growing up for you? Like as a, you know, middle schooler and a teenager in high school? Or was that challenging for you being like the bigger kid?

Colin McGilvray
Yeah, so I played sports when I was growing up. And I always knew I was the biggest kid. And I was a little slower than everybody else. I ran cross country, kind of, towards the slower side there as well. So I always knew I was bigger. It’s not something that was like hidden. I always realized it.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah. So how did that make you feel, though?

Colin McGilvray
It didn’t make me feel really good at all, like, on the wrestling team I was probably one of the one of the biggest kids there. And, you know, I knew it. And I was really self conscious about it.

Patrick McGilvray
So when you like came to me and was like, Dad, I think I need some help with this. Like, what was your thought about that? Like, what was your thought of what you wanted to do? Like, what did you want from this?

Colin McGilvray
I want, ultimately a better body. I don’t want to worry about having health problems. I want to look better. I want to, I want to feel better, I want to have more energy, I want to sleep better. I want to be able to go out and exercise and be able to climb a few flights of stairs and not be out of breath.

Patrick McGilvray
Was that kind of challenging for you exercising and stuff like that?

Colin McGilvray
Yeah, for sure. You know, you get in a routine where maybe you go to the gym for two weeks and it kind of falls off.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah. And I would imagine that being overweight being, you know, roughly 100 pounds overweight right? Is probably challenging trying to get out there and exercise. And so you don’t feel like doing it because it’s so hard, which just kind of perpetuates the body image issues that you’re having. And the fact that you know, you just don’t feel good about yourself. Right?

Colin McGilvray
Definitely.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah. All right, so we started working together. And how old are you now? Colin?

Colin McGilvray
I’m 21.

Patrick McGilvray
You’re so young, literally, and baby still. But Colin’s 21 and, you know, he’s gotten, you know, he’s, he got up to 300 pounds. And that’s, that was kind of a wake up call for him. Like he told me like, when I saw that number on the scale, like, what did that mean to you? When you saw that? Like, what did that feel like?

Colin McGilvray
Oh, I mean, the first time I was 300 pounds was like in high school, like, probably my junior year, and I fluctuated between like, 300-35, I’d go on a diet, get down to like the 270s. And then it would all come right back. So I mean, recently wasn’t the first time I’d seen that I’d gotten so used to seeing 300 pounds. And I would purposely not weigh myself, because I knew it was going to be well over 300 pounds.

Patrick McGilvray
Wow. And so like you were ready to finally do something about that. Right?

Colin McGilvray
Absolutely.

Patrick McGilvray
Okay, that’s cool. So you and I kind of got on this plan, I started coaching you, we started talking about, you know, what you’re going to eat, what you’re not going to eat. And then we worked on some other things, like your mindset and stuff like that, and we’ll talk about that. And then, uh, but you know, walk me through what it was like, at the very beginning, like, how was the beginning of this program? Like when you and I started doing this, and I really, the biggest thing was like, I was like, you got to stop eating sugar and flour. Like, we got to get rid of the refined carbohydrates and the sugar. And so we eliminated that first, like, what was that like?

Colin McGilvray
Yeah, honestly, when we first started it within the first few days, I was like, wow, what did I get myself into? This is difficult. It started out pretty, pretty rough, because I would drink a lot of Mountain Dew every day. Yeah, like 52 ounces of Mountain Dew, which is a lot. And so tons of fast food, fried chicken, fried anything, McDonald’s. And so it was almost daily. So is a big, huge lifestyle adjustment. For sure.

Patrick McGilvray
How did you feel though, when you stopped eating sugar?

Colin McGilvray
I felt really good. I noticed that probably two days.

Patrick McGilvray
Well, first, though, at first, how would you feel first?

Colin McGilvray
Okay. So, you know, this first few days without eating sugar, it was a little rough. Because you know, you really have that sugar craving, your body really wants it, you really want that mountain dew or that candy. But like I said, probably a few days afterwards. It’s just, I just didn’t have those cravings anymore.

Patrick McGilvray
Okay, so it only took a few days. That’s cool. Yeah, so when you eliminate sugar, like you will kind of go through a withdrawal phase. And, and it’s short, you know, if you do it the right way. And you get rid of the refined carbs and the sugar, just like 100% like eliminate it, it will kind of be terrible, you will feel terrible for a couple of days, which I think you experienced.

And you and I talked about that. But then it goes away and then it gets better. So after that, like after you got over that initial thing, we just started getting you on an eating protocol, which just means like, a way of eating that serves you like it’s a way of eating food that fuels your body.

You know, so when we talk about a protocol, it’s not a diet, it’s not like you have to eat these certain five things or whatever. You get to choose what you want to eat. But it’s a high fat, low carb diet, you know what I mean? Like, it’s just, we just get rid of the refined sugar and carbs.

And when we do that, it gives your body a chance to, you know, rebalance the hormones. We’ve got to bring those insulin levels down, which you did, you know, when the insulin levels come down, then your hormones get balanced out so you don’t feel as hungry. When you do eat, you feel more full.

And when you’re eating a lot of processed food and sugar those things are all out of whack. So you’re like always hungry all the time. You know. So tell me about your experience with the eating protocol in general. Like, how’s that been going for you? And yeah, how’s it going today for you?

Colin McGilvray
Yeah, the eating protocol’s great. I think it really helps that some of my favorite foods are high in fat. Like I really enjoy eating steak, and I can eat that a lot. And it’s nice to be able to find something in your protocol that you do enjoy eating. So it’s been really good so far. Like I said, at the very beginning, kind of settling into it took a little bit of adjustment for sure.

Patrick McGilvray
Okay, cool. Um, so you are eating food that you enjoy?

Colin McGilvray
100%.

Patrick McGilvray
Do you feel hungry all the time?

Colin McGilvray
I do not feel hungry all the time.

Patrick McGilvray
So that’s, that’s good. That’s one of the benefits of eating a higher fat diet. So if you’re eating good, good fats, then it will fill you up, and you shouldn’t be as hungry. So then, one of the things I wanted to talk about, which is, you know, one of my areas of expertise, and one of the things that you and I have talked extensively about, which is kind of the mindset piece, because there, there have been times that have come up where you’ve been challenged by some of the things. So give me an example of a challenge for you during this whole mental weight loss process.

Colin McGilvray
So we have a party at work, and there’s a bunch of food that’s not in the protocol. Tons of sugar, flour, fried food, just big tables of candy and Cheetos. Doritos. So, you know, I just, I had the right mindset about it, like we’ve, like we’ve talked about before.

Patrick McGilvray
Well was that mindset like? So what is it that gets you to not have to like, feel like you’re deprived or something?

Colin McGilvray
Sure. So that mindset really becomes thinking about myself at my ideal weight. And thinking about what I’m going to look like, how I’m going to feel, the exercise I’m able to do, and knowing that, you know, if I eat that bag of Cheetos, that’s not helping me get there. So why would I really want to be eating something that’s ultimately going to hurt me?

Patrick McGilvray
Right? So what is your ideal weight? What do you want to get down to?

Colin McGilvray
I want to get down to 180 pounds.

Patrick McGilvray
Okay, cool. I think you can do that. For sure. So tell me more about that ideal version of yourself that like future Colin like, what does that look like for you?

Colin McGilvray
I’d like to be you know, around 180 pounds, whatever my healthy weight is going to be, I want to have, you know, I want to be in shape, you know, I want to have some muscle muscle definition, I want to be able to have a lot of endurance, do a lot of running.

Patrick McGilvray
And what will that do for you? Like, let’s say you get to 185 pounds, 180 pounds, you’ve built some muscle you can like go out and run five miles at a time or whatever it is you want to do? Like, what does that mean for you?

Colin McGilvray
For me, all the issues we talked about earlier, like heart disease, being extremely overweight, and the possibility of diabetes. I won’t have those worries anymore. And just kind of proves to myself that, you know, I could do anything I really set my mind to. And it would give me a lot of empowerment for other other aspects of my life.

Patrick McGilvray
That’s awesome. So having that vision of yourself, is that what kind of helps you get through some of these challenging situations? Like that situation described at work, like does it help to like know that you know, who you want to be in your future is more important than like this bag of Doritos?

Colin McGilvray
It does. It really, it really helps because I think about, you know what I’m gonna look like. And I don’t really have that craving anymore, because I’m just kind of over it. I don’t need that. It’s at my ideal weight. I’m not going to be eating that. And it’s not going to help me get there. So why would I really want to hurt myself?

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah. So looking through this whole process of like, you know, losing weight, so how many pounds would be lost so far? Let’s go. Let’s talk about that.

Colin McGilvray
So right now. I’m at 257. So over 37 pounds so far.

Patrick McGilvray
Dang. That’s awesome.

Colin McGilvray
Yeah, it feels really good.

Patrick McGilvray
That is awesome. Because you’d lost a few pounds before you and I started like doing this together. But really the weight just has been dropping off like crazy over the last five or six weeks for sure. Which is awesome. But what’s been like the hardest part of all of this for you?

Colin McGilvray
The hardest part is seeing a lot of other people eating the food I used to eat. So you know people coming in with fast food, or pizza, or junk food at work sitting next to me eating it. That was really hard at first. And that’s the hardest part.

Patrick McGilvray
Has that gotten better?

Colin McGilvray
It’s gotten a lot better, just with the you know, the mindset that we’ve talked about and and thinking about, you know, 180lb Colin and how that’s not going to help get me there. And I don’t need to eat that food.

Patrick McGilvray
Okay, when you think about that future version of yourself, do you have like some feelings associated with that some like emotions that that kind of come up when you think about that?

Colin McGilvray
I do. Yeah, I really want to get to that point. And I think I’m willing to put in whatever amount of work it takes to get there.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, because it’s not easy sometimes. Right? I mean, there can be challenges, you know, you get fast food shoved in your face at work. There’s cupcakes and Doritos, and all this stuff. And yeah. You’re doing great, though. Really proud of you. Colin has been an ideal client, you know, like you really have like, you’ve been doing everything that I’ve told you to do. You know, and honestly, some of this has been hard, right?

Colin McGilvray
It’s been really hard. Not gonna lie. Yeah, there are times where it is very difficult.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, but you get through it.

Colin McGilvray
Definitely. And there’s also times where it feels amazing to know that like, you know, wow, I’ve lost 37 pounds, I look visibly different. I’ve had to buy new clothes. Like, I’m doing this, it feels really good.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, and I tell my clients this all the time, like, it’s not easy. Like, there will be challenges, you will be challenged mentally, you will be challenged physically, you will be challenged emotionally. But I help you get through all that stuff. That’s the beautiful thing about having a coach there to help you get through stuff like this.

Because honestly, if like, losing 100 pounds was easy, everybody would just do it, it wouldn’t be a problem there wouldn’t need, we wouldn’t need any help at all, it would just be like, just eat this and you’re fine, you know, but we’ve been conditioned and trained our whole lives to eat food that just creates this, this unnatural craving inside of us.

And it creates this emotional connection to food. You know, so many of us use food as an escape from our lives as an escape from reality, because it feels good, feels good to eat the fried chicken, and eat the Snickers and eat the Doritos, you know, and so why should we deal with our emotions and our thoughts and whatever, when we can just eat instead?

You know, and one of the things that you and I have talked about is like, how to stop eating, because you don’t want to feel a certain feeling. You know, so you’ve learned how to kind of process some of those emotions and stuff.

And as a 20 year old, 21 year old, I think that’s pretty, pretty awesome, that you’ve been able to do that you know that you have learned how to manage your mind. Right? And how to process emotions, so you don’t have to eat over them.

Colin McGilvray
Definitely.

Patrick McGilvray
And you’ve also learned that you can have a fulfilling life without having to just eat food or like food doesn’t equal a good life. Right?

Colin McGilvray
Exactly. And the world doesn’t revolve around what I’m going to eat next.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, so you were talking about going on vacation soon. And whenever you go on vacation, you have a lot of memories about like food with that. Yeah. So what are you going to do now? So you’re going on vacation soon? What are you going to do differently?

Colin McGilvray
Yeah, so a lot of it is, you know, we go on vacation in the same spot, there’s all these restaurants we always go to, and really not a whole lot of what they have is, you know, on protocol. And it’s a lot of just realizing that the vacation is going to be just as fun if you don’t eat that food.

What I put into my body does not determine whether or not I have a good vacation. It’s people I’m with, the experiences I have, you know, making memories. It has nothing to do with the food. And you know, if you’re, if you’re motivated enough, if you really care enough, you’ll figure out a way to make that work and not make excuses. Like, I’m going to go off protocol, just because I’m in a situation where it’s harder to stay on protocol.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, so that you may be challenged on that vacation, but there’s no reason for you to change what you’re doing right. Here’s the thing, when we use food, food as an escape or as food as a way to feel good. We lose the beautiful moments that we have with our family and with our loved ones with our friends, you know, because we’re not really fully present to be with them. We’re not fully present for the experience.

You know, I used to have the same feeling about when I was drinking, you know, I used to drink. And, and I thought there’s no way I can have fun out with people without drinking. Like if alcohol isn’t involved, why bother? You know.

And, and I’ve learned that my life is so much better without alcohol. And my life is so much better in the same way without those foods that I used to eat as an escape because I thought that to eat the certain food or drink, the certain thing meant I was having fun. But it didn’t at all, it meant that I thought I was having fun.

It felt good for a moment. But then I had the terrible hangover, and I was gaining weight. And I felt bad about myself. And I was lethargic, like, there were all these negative side effects, these negative consequences of using food and using alcohol as an escape from my life as a buffer from my real life, you know.

And so for you, one of the things we’ve talked about, and you’ve sort of embraced is like, I’m going to go on vacation, I’m going to spend time with my family, and my friends, and we’re going to hang out and talk and I’m going to be there for the experience of being with them. And you always find something to eat at these restaurants, you know, I mean, a big piece of fish, eat a steak, whatever you want to do.

Like, there’s lots of good options, you know, you can definitely find the food that works for you. Or you can just, you know, eat what feels good and feels authentic for you, you know, and maintain that integrity that you have with yourself, because you’ve built up over these last couple of months, Colin, you’ve built up a lot of integrity with yourself, you know, like you’re not cheating on your protocol, you’re not eating what you’re not supposed to.

And when you do that, and you continue to reward yourself, you reward your brain by not eating and giving in to those urges and cravings that you used to have for like Mountain Dew or fried chicken or whatever. When you continually do that you build up this trust in yourself and this confidence in yourself. And it’s I can see it in you like you’ve changed, you know, which has been awesome to see, you know. So that’s cool.

Like, obviously, Colin is, you know, my son. And so I’ve been working with him a lot like he and I have had a lot of long conversations about this stuff. And he’s made a lot of progress in a short amount of time. But honestly, anybody I work with can see the same kinds of results, it just depends on how much work they want to put into it.

You know, Colin just happens to be really committed to this, you know what I mean? He has this vision for himself that he has created that is like, it’s really powerful. And he thinks about that, you know, like when he’s challenged with the food at work, like he’s like, that person that I want to be in the future is much more important to me than this bag of Doritos right here. Like, that’s cool. That’s really cool, Colin. So what has been like the most surprising thing out of all of this work that we’ve done together, like, what surprised you the most so far?

Colin McGilvray
What surprised me the most is how the coaching that we’ve talked about and we’ve done, the coaching model, essentially, changing your your thoughts that you have about things, has helped me in so much more than just weight loss, relationships with other people, with my family, with co-workers, or just situations that pop up in my life. I mean, it’s helped me everywhere.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, like you’ve had some experiences, you work in customer support. And you’ve you know, I’ve had some, like angry customers, you know, I’m sure they call and like, you know, want to yell at you, you know, and just take out their frustration. And you’ve learned how to separate, like, the circumstance of this angry customer from what it means to you, like, it doesn’t mean anything about you, you know, and you don’t have to take that personally and you don’t have to react to that, you know, you can respond in a very mature and very in a way that’s like, very resourceful in a way that’s that’s very helpful for them and for you, you know.

Colin McGilvray
Yeah, just realizing, you know, what they’re saying doesn’t mean anything about me. It’s just a fact. And what they’re saying is what they’re saying. I’m gonna choose to think the thoughts that I want to think about it.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, they’re just words. Oh, this person said some words. You know, you can choose what that means to you. You can choose that means like, you don’t know what you’re doing. Or, you know, you know, they’re mad at you or something like that. But you can also choose that it doesn’t mean anything doesn’t mean anything about you. So that’s cool. All right. Any other thoughts about this process so far?

Colin McGilvray
Yes. So I’ve tried several, like weight loss programs before. And none of them prepare you for how hard this is going to be mentally. None of them tell you that, you know, you’re going to be around people who are eating this fast food that you are not going to eat. And it’s never prepared you for that. It’s never really gone into the coaching side of it. And I think that’s what’s really different about this. And this is why I’ve been able to get this far with it.

Patrick McGilvray
Awesome. Yeah, I mean, that’s one of the things that I definitely bring to the table with my clients. And I tell them this all the time, it’s like, you know what, it will be hard, it will be challenging, you know, changing your diet, like changing what you’re eating, and stop using food as an escape from your life stop using food to feel better, is going to be challenging.

But I got you through that, like, that’s my forte is like, you know, working on the mindset piece with people and helping them process the emotional piece so that they can get through this. And diets just don’t do that. They’re like, here’s what you eat, or don’t eat, and good luck, you’re on your own, you know, they don’t talk to you about, okay, what happens when it gets really hard? Like, what am I supposed to do?

Or I’m having this situation, what do I do about this? Or I have this thing coming up at work or this vacation. Like, how do I get through that? And that’s one of the beautiful things about having a coach working with you is like, you get answers to all of your questions. You get to help working through your particular situation, you get somebody there, walking you through every step of the way of this process, through the hard stuff. Has it gotten easier, like are things easier now?

Colin McGilvray
Sure, like I was gonna say earlier a ton about it being really hard. And you know, it isn’t the beginning of getting off a sugar craving and you kind of build a you obtain a skill set that you have to help you with all these different, all these different situations. So you’ve essentially given me that skill set to get through all of this, and it gets a lot easier as you go. There’s still hard moments and things come up for sure. But you get through it, and it just gets easier and easier.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, and like I said, at the beginning, this has only been we’ve only been working together for like eight weeks, you know, honestly, the first five or six weeks are probably the hardest part, like just like you got to get through that initial, you got to get off the sugar and get off, get off the sugar withdrawals, because that’s definitely a mental and a physical issue that we gotta get over.

So we did that pretty quickly. But then we learn the mental piece. And that takes a few weeks to like, kind of work through that stuff. But once you get through those, like the first six weeks, then you’re pretty well situated, right? Like, you know, the last couple of weeks, we haven’t talked too much. And you’ve been doing really well. And you keep losing weight, and you’re sticking to your protocol, which is awesome.

Like you’re doing such a great job. I wish everybody was like, honestly, because people they’re like, oh, I want to change, I want to lose weight. And then I’m like, cool, here’s what we’re gonna do. And they’re like, whoa, I don’t want to do anything different. You know, like, I don’t want to like be uncomfortable at all. And like, you gotta get uncomfortable, right? Like, has that?

Colin McGilvray
Yeah, I definitely had a fear of being uncomfortable. Yeah, sure. But like you’ve said before, I must embrace the suck.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, that’s a phrase we use in Ultra running a lot or in triathlon is like, embrace the suck, because it will suck at times. But just know that so. So it’s been uncomfortable. You got through it, and now you’re reaping the rewards of that right?

Colin McGilvray
Absolutely.

Patrick McGilvray
Do you feel better?

Colin McGilvray
I feel so much better.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah. And do you still have that like strong vision of future Colin? And is that still the thing that’s kind of like your north star that keeps you pointed forward?

Colin McGilvray
I do. Definitely. And, you know, I started out with that vision, and it’s only gotten stronger as we’ve done this. As I get closer, and that number between 2- or 300 and 180 becomes smaller and smaller. That vision only becomes stronger.

Patrick McGilvray
When’s the last time we were in the 250s?

Colin McGilvray
I don’t remember it was probably junior high. Yeah.

Patrick McGilvray
That’s crazy.

Colin McGilvray
It is.

Patrick McGilvray
That’s awesome. Well, here’s what I want for you. I mean, I love you because you’re my son and I want obviously all the best things in the world for you. But I want you to feel good about yourself. And I think it’s tough growing up as a kid, that’s the bigger kid in the class, you know, I mean, you’re tall too, you’re like six, three, right?

Colin McGilvray
6’2.

Patrick McGilvray
So like 6’2, okay, so you’re like tall, and then the big kid. Like, I think that’s tough. And there’s a lot of stuff that goes on, you know, around that, you know, there may be teasing, there may be bullying, there may be, you know, just some like, passive aggressive stuff, talking behind your back or whatever.

So, I mean, I know that that can be challenging. And, and I know that, you know, what I want for you is that I want you to feel good about yourself and feel confident, I want you to feel like you can do anything, because you can, I have so much faith in you. And I have so much confidence in you.

And I’m seeing you building up that self confidence in yourself. And it’s amazing to watch. And the more you do this, the more you stick with what you’re doing, the more that builds, the more that self confidence builds, the more that relationship with yourself, gets stronger, and gets better and more powerful.

You know, you’re learning very quickly, too, by the way, but you’re learning how to like, be a more powerful person and to like, step into that person that you really want to be. Because we all have that within us. We all have that ability within us to be who we want to be. And you’re starting to see that. And it’s awesome.

Colin McGilvray
Yeah, I definitely look at challenges a lot different already. Now.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah. So you probably see challenges as more of like, an opportunity for you to grow.

Colin McGilvray
Exactly. And I started to feel, you know, a lot of things I thought I could never do, are suddenly possible.

Patrick McGilvray
Awesome. Anything is possible.

Colin McGilvray
It is.

Patrick McGilvray
Well, you’re doing great. We’re going to check in with you later in a couple of months and see how things are going. My prediction is that you should get your goal weight here in a few months, you know, if you’re kind of on this steady decline, so average weight loss in a program like this is anywhere between like one to seven pounds a week, you know, I mean, you’ve been in about in the middle about five pounds a week, I guess.

Colin McGilvray
Yeah, something like that. And it fluctuates, too, you know, some weeks you lose a little less than others. Some days you get on the scale, and you notice a couple pound difference.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah. And sometimes it goes up and you’re like, what the heck is going on here? But then we’ve learned and one of the things I talk about is like not to be afraid of the scale. It’s just data. You know, I mean, it’s just like a number. It’s a number. This, you know, it’s a number that means how much your bones and your skin weigh and the water inside your body, you know.

Colin McGilvray
Exactly and ultimately still have that downward trend. Yeah.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah. And that’s what we’re always looking for. We want it to keep going down for sure. So while you’re doing great, I’m really proud of you. And we’re going to check back in like I said, and a couple of months and see how you’re progressing. But you’re one of my favorite clients. You’ve been like one of the best coaching clients I’ve had. So keep up the good work Colin, and we’ll be checking in with you soon. Okay?

Colin McGilvray
Thank you very much. I enjoyed it.

Patrick McGilvray
Oh my gosh, I love that kid so much. He is so awesome. I’m so happy for him too, as a parent. I’m like, so proud of him and so happy for him. And I’m proud of his progress. And I’m proud of the fact that he’s continuing to make progress and continuing on this journey.

And I want to keep you guys posted. So you know, we’ll definitely share more of his journey with you as we progress along here. I think a couple more interviews with Colin would be awesome. And then just a quick reminder here. The next weight loss masterclass starts June 1, only about 10 people can get in this class.

So if you want to get in, you have to enroll now, innerfiretribe.com/stopovereating and get signed up, get your body ready for the summer, become that lean running machine that you know you can be innerfiretribe.com/stopovereating and enroll. Alright, that’s all I got for you today. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate it so much. And as always, I have lots and lots of love for each and every one of you, my friends, and I’ll talk to you soon.

If you’ve tried to lose weight by running miles and miles, are starving yourself, and you’ve had zero results, you are not alone. This model of weight loss is broken. It’s never worked, and it has to be replaced. That’s why I created a powerful new training just for you called How to Become a Lean Running Machine. You’ll discover why running more and eating less does not work for weight loss, and you’ll learn the three secrets of losing weight and keeping it off for good to get this free training right now just go to therunningmindpodcast.com/lean and learn how you can become a lean running machine.

7. Randy Kreill on the Joy of Running Ultramarathons

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Randy Kreill is a cool cat and a passionate ultrarunner. In 2019, he ran 13 ultramarathons including 6 100-milers. The cool thing is that he does it all on a plant-based diet and running in …

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Podcast Transcript

Patrick McGilvray
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, running coach and mindset expert. I believe mindset is the most powerful and most underrated tool you have as a runner. So I’ve devoted my life to helping runners like you develop the mindset you need to fuel your inner fire and become the badass runner you were meant to be. This is The Running Mind podcast.

Hey there, and welcome to The Running Mind podcast. My name is Patrick McGilvray. I’m your host, and I’m a life coach for runners. And I want to help you get better results from your running and from your life. And if you’re listening to this podcast, that means you want more out of your running and your life and I hear you. That’s why I created The Runner’s Edge. The Runner’s Edge is a community based coaching and training program where I share everything I know about mindset, building mental toughness, gaining confidence, getting your running mojo back, basically, everything you need to get the most out of your running and out of your life.

So I take the concepts I talked about here on the podcast, and we take them to the next level. This is a results based coaching program. It’s all about getting results. And it’s designed to help you get what you want to help you reach your goals, whatever those may be for you. So here’s the deal though, most people don’t take action.

Most people will listen to a podcast like this, they’ll hear a bunch of great stuff and they’ll think oh, that’s that’s good information. But they never do anything with it, they don’t apply it. And so nothing ever changes for those people. On the other hand, there are people who get results. Those are the people who do something different. They take action, they take the knowledge, they take the information, they take the things that they learned and they apply them.

So if you want something different from your running, if you want something different in your life, if you want different results, you have to take different action. Check it out, go to innerfiretribe.com/edge and get the edge you need to perform at your best in running and in life.

All right, onto today’s interview. Randy Kreill is a cool cat. I’m just gonna tell you, I like this guy. He’s a passionate ultra runner. Last year he ran 13 ultras. So that’s more than one a month including 600 miles last year in 2019, and he does it all on a plant based diet. And he does it all running in sandals. And we talk about why he does all of this stuff.

And his answers are really interesting. And it’s not what most people say. So most people say they run because it’s hard. They want to push themselves. They want to see what they’re capable of. They want to challenge themselves. They want to move away from their past or who they used to be. And Randy has kind of a different take on this. It’s really cool.

And I’m gonna let him share that with you because I won’t do it justice by explaining to you here. But Randy and I are like fast friends and we could talk forever and just fair warning. Like we laugh a lot during this interview because it’s just so much fun talking with him. He’s such a positive guy and super fun and such an inspiration to me. So I’m going to stop talking now and get on to the interview with Randy Kreill.

Okay, today I’m talking with Randy Kreill. And Randy is an interesting character. I love everything about Randy and I first heard of him or met him out on a trail race. I was doing a 50k, I think. It was another day, another 50k. You were kind of passing me. I was passing you. We just kept kind of finding each other out there. And the reason I remembered you is because I’m like this dude’s running in sandals.

There was nobody else out there running and sandals. I’m like this is interesting, but I heard you talking to some people you’re running with about you know, eating a plant based diet and I eat a plant based diet and it was just like a cool you know, and and then I would see you around at other events and stuff and then I started following you on Facebook and YouTube and stuff like that.

And then a couple years ago I was running the Flying Pig. I think it was 2017 and I’m running down Erie Avenue and I just hear this slap, slap slap I’m on the pavement behind me. And I’m like, somebody’s running in sandals. I betcha that’s Randy. And sure enough, here you come running up behind me. We chatted for a little bit. That was really cool.

But that’s my introduction to you, Randy, the guy who runs Ultras, the guy who runs in sandals, the plant based guy, the YouTube guy, you’re just a cool, cool cat, you know that you really are. So I wanted to get you on here just so we could have a conversation and just talk about running, talk about Ultra running and whatever else comes to mind. So Randy, thanks for being here.

Randy Kreill
Well, thank you for having me. This is fantastic to finally do this. Not quite sure where to really start. I guess, going way back, I did absolutely no sports in high school. And I used to hear a lot from my parents about how I was a late bloomer, I was yet one of the youngest kids in my class. And in kindergarten and first grade, the teacher, I believe, in first grade wanted to hold me back, because they could not teach me to skip.

So my brothers were fantastic popular students in high school, great athletes, I did nothing. So I kind of felt like, I was not the athlete, I didn’t get that gene. And so that was kind of where I came from. But then in my 20s, I was fascinated by the idea of the Ironman Triathlon. It was becoming popular kind of back in the 80s. And so in my 20s, I started doing some biking, a little bit of running, and really had to overcome some fears and swimming, to be able to do open water, sprint distance triathlons, never got really good.

Maybe on my best day, I was in the middle of my age group, but I loved it, and then kind of got away from it, got into building some homes, I was busy with my job, I finally got married, had kids, and all of a sudden, I’m 42 with a cancer diagnosis, overweight, quite a few health concerns, there were there were a lot of warning signs. And that ended up being a huge turning point in my life. Because I had to become a lot more honest about what you know, what caused the cancer, how can I minimize the risk of a recurrence.

So after a whole lot of lost sleep, kind of some, a lot, a few years, really filled, filled with a lot of fear. I was trying to figure it all out. And it was a few years after that, cancer was in ‘04, the book Born to Run came out. And I was really ready for a lot of the messages there. And so I started changing my diet right away, I started adopting all those changes right away.

I ended up on a 100% plant based diet after going minimalist and barefoot with my shoes. And I’m not even sure when I first realized that people could run 100 miles, I thought an Ironman Triathlon was an incredible feat. And it might have been born to run where I learned that people could actually run for 30-40 or more miles at one stretch. And I was intrigued with it.

But again, I’m not an athlete, I didn’t get that gene I never would have imagined going from, you know, my deteriorated physical condition with flat feet and broken ankles. I had a couple broken ankles to actually be able to do it myself. But as I started adopting the barefoot and minimalist running, I noticed that my stride improved.

I was finally learning how to run properly in my late 40s and came off of a first marathon at the Air Force marathon here in Dayton and barely stumbled across the finish line, really literally hopping on one leg. But that was before Born to Run. Before reading Danny Dreyer’s book, Tai Chi Runnin. I like Tai Chi Running, that really taught me everything I needed to do from my head to my toes to learn how to run in a more natural injury free sort of way, efficient way.

And so you know that changing the diet, changing the footwear, I started noticing my feet getting stronger, the mid foot got thicker, I was running longer distances with less energy used, I’d say I was feeling better about it all and losing some weight. And I’ve even found out that my vision was actually improving.

And so, you know, when I initially went with this 100% plant based diet over nine years ago, I didn’t realize how many incredible unintended positive benefits there would be. But in my late 40s, I was told that my bifocals wouldn’t get thicker. It just happens. That’s life. But in fact, with these changes, I didn’t need my bifocals. I wasn’t using them anymore. And I still don’t.

And it’s so it’s been nine years of improving or stable vision, my eye doctor, she’s just kind of stunned. She doesn’t see 57 year old patients with the way my eyes focus in and out really quick and how healthy they are and not needing the bifocals that I used to wear. So it’s just been a fascinating trip into something I never thought I was capable of doing.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, that’s cool. And I can really relate to a lot of that, because I had the cancer diagnosis back in ‘03. And at that time, I was in very ill health, I was really overweight, drinking too much, eating, you know, the standard American diet and was very unhealthy. That cancer diagnosis was my wake up call.

Yeah, I completely changed my life. And I started running, I started eating better. I went from like, eating every, you know, just the regular American diet to going vegetarian. And then some years later going plant based. And, and for me, running was the catalyst, you know, running was the thing that kept me on that path. You know, it kept me on the beam, so to speak, you know, so I kept I wanted to do more and more like I wanted to, you know, run my first marathon and then I wanted to do start doing the triathlons and I wanted to do an ultra marathon and then so it just kind of was this thing that kept me moving in that direction, that healthy direction. And so I can really relate to a lot of that and I wasn’t athletic in high school, either. I didn’t play sports or anything like that. I’m very surprised they wanted to hold you back because you couldn’t skip. That’s ridiculous. Like that’s their criteria of like an athlete.

Randy Kreill
When I crossed the finish line of the Falls 100 about a month and a month or so ago, only eight people finished out of about 28 starters. And I don’t know if anybody even noticed it was late at night but I skipped across the finish line which I also got an honor.

Patrick McGilvray
They’re like, you know, this kid smart and everything but the skipping I don’t know. I think we should just hold him back. So, tell me what was your year like this year for your ultras? Because this is something I wanted to kind of touch on and I’m just gonna like, prompt you here because I want to hear about your okay, what you did this year, what you accomplished?

Randy Kreill
It’s been absolutely phenomenal since 2011. Spring I guess running that first 50k another dam up in Inglewood. Really each year I’ve ramped it up. So in ‘18, I ran 11 ultra marathons, I can’t remember how many 100 milers and then in ‘19 I wasn’t necessarily setting out to run an ultra marathon every single month. But I ended up running 13 Ultras, finished all 13, ran at least one per month and ran 600 milers including three, which to me I considered really hard to resist and it was just unbelievable.

I just everything came together on how the weather was always just good enough to get me through. Got redemption at one of my hardest races ever. Injury free running for almost nine years. Everything just came together phenomenally and just a couple of weeks ago, ran a 50k in Columbus through lots of rocks and roots in the sandals but with some toe socks on and finished in like eight minutes under the cut off time.

And that made it that put me at 13 months in a row of running ultra marathons. So anyways, I’m not fast. I’m not out there to try to be on the podium or anything but the consistency of it and enjoying the time running as a person close to obsessing about the pace, my time is my focus.

But what’s become the real goal I think is to maximize the number of hours of runner’s high that I expect it’s over a lifetime. So it makes it a really long term goal, I would hope to maybe be running Ultras, at least that decades into my 70s, possibly beyond. So my race, I guess, as I think of it different way more than five years out, planning for that, and we’re hoping for the best.

Patrick McGilvray
Talk, talk a little bit about that. That runner’s high, like, what do you, you know, different people have different interpretations of what that means, tell me what that means for you.

Randy Kreill
Um, sometimes it’s pretty subtle. But obviously, there’s a lot of biochemical changes that happen. And I guess what I’ve noticed is, if I work hard enough and execute the plan, I can really increase my odds of a runner’s high, but it’s basically a euphoric feeling. And it can happen really any time during a run.

And it varies though. The 100 miler, but I think when I got truly hooked at 100 milers was my very first one. And I think we started about 7am. And by 7pm, it was dark. And the coffee was coming out. And I had gone past 50 miles. So I noticed, gosh, once I made it to 50, and everything was still working. And I’m counting down from 50.

So my mindset, mindset shifted big time. And so counting down from 50 was a big I don’t know it was a boost to my energy level. And as you know, I got some fluids in me, took care of a little dehydration and started feeling better than when the coffee came out about the same time. All these things were in deploy, the weather was good. A runner’s high kind of kicked in and it just went for hours.

And one thing that sticks out in my mind was I don’t know what time it was. It might have been 1, 2, 3 in the morning, running by myself on a course I’d never been to. No Pacer, no crew just walking around the 100 mile race near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. And I was just honest, crazy high come into this aid station, just kind of hooting and hollering.

And I remember one of the volunteers really thought that maybe it was not a natural high. I was just like come in there hooting and hollering, and said, you know, I wish I could bottle this up and sell it because I would probably be a billionaire. If I could just give this feeling to people, they wouldn’t have to work for it, they wouldn’t have to run, then I’d be set for life. But it’s not that it’s not that easy.

And I think what I’ve been doing kind of since then it’s just riding this way. Once I finished that 100 and a lot of pain. The last 5-10 miles were extraordinarily painful, but I didn’t care. I knew I was coming back. And I don’t know, I just got to the point where I realized everything that I can do in all areas of my life, that would make me a better runner. Kind of makes me a better person in general. And so kind of chasing that runner’s high as part of it.

Patrick McGilvray
Oh, man, I love that you just said that. Because I tell people all the time. So I work as a life coach, you know, and I coach people through difficult stuff, and through getting rid of the baggage from their past and helping them to just live the best life anyway, I focus a lot on runners. And what I say is, you know, it’s not about running. It’s about life, you know, the stuff we talk about the mindset of running. Running is essentially a metaphor.

You know, it’s a metaphor for the hard things that we have to do in life and the challenges and the things that make us stronger. And the things that push us outside our comfort zone are the things that make us grow. And I love it as a metaphor. I love just running in general too. I love that runner’s high as well. But it’s the same principles when we talk about the mindset it takes to run 100 miles, you know, the same principles apply to life in general, they apply to, you know, getting through that tough week at work, or that big project or, you know, starting a business or, you know, going through a breakup or whatever it is, you know, like we can get through the tough stuff with the right mental toughness, you know, yeah.

Randy Kreill
Yeah, there’s something special about running. Last injury I had was actually that first and now they’re damn 50k and 2011. I didn’t know that note at the time, but I ran it on a stress fracture, a tibial stress fracture and right ankle so you can run on that but it’s really a bad idea. I just had no, I was so green, I didn’t even understand what a stress fracture was.

So after the race, I can barely walk back to my car. And you know, after three weeks of soaking it in ice, I realized it hurt just as bad as it did after the 50k finally got an x-ray verified, it was in fact, a stress fracture. So I had 12 weeks or so to recover from that point. And I rode my bike from Beavercreek, Ohio to Cincinnati and back out 120-130 miles.

I did a lot of long distance swimming, but nothing, those things did not replicate, replicate what running does for my general well being and feeling really good. I was positive what I could when I couldn’t run, but it didn’t replace the running. So I became just laser focused on doing everything I could to become an injury free running, so I would never have to take a break from it again. And so not a knock on wood, I want to knock on wood, because every single step as a potential, you know, foot injury or leg injury or whatever.

Patrick McGilvray
So, especially running races, like roots and rocks or whatever, like there’s…

Randy Kreill
Yeah, cloud splitter, 100 mile route in Northern Virginia was the hardest one even harder than Superior 100. So yeah, to run that one in sandals, and Superior in sandals, it was a lot of fun doing in sandals. I guess I’m more known for that than anything else. But the real message behind the sandals is, we’re usually best served by wearing the very least we can get away with for any given application. So I preferred to feel the open air on my feet, and running the sandals, but a pair of minimal shoes can be even more minimalist underfoot than a thicker pair of sandals.

Patrick McGilvray
So yeah, and I’ve never run in sandals before. In fact, I was the Hoka guy for a long time. Thy were in my big, you know, as much cushioning as possible. But then I’ve gone back to the minimalist shoe and I wear like a pretty minimalist, you know, running shoe now. And I love it. You know, I feel it feels good.

It feels good to feel the the road and the trail under my feet. Yeah. Yes. And there’s this thing about like, just feeling the ground and like, you know, having that tactile sort of sensory connection to the earth. Like that is just kind of cool. You know, for you. I’m sure it’s even more. Very cool. Yeah.

So all the, all the ultras, all the hundreds, you know, how do you stay mentally? Like, here’s the word I’m going to use, like, how do you keep your mojo going? With the constant training and the constant showing up for these really challenging events?

Randy Kreill
Um, I don’t, I know a lot of ultra runners kind of glamorize the suffering and the pain and all that. And I kind of flip all that the other way. I do it mostly for fun and pleasure and adventure. Sure, it hurts a lot. But generally, I mean, for the 100 miler, the vast majority of those minutes, I expected to be feeling really good, if not phenomenal.

I like to think I joke with people semi joking that a 35 hour 100 miler is just a 35 hour free full body massage from the feet up, I’m gonna it’s just a body massage. And I think of it differently. You know, we’re going back to this whole mindset thing. And so I, you know, it goes back to what you think about and feel about you attract more of, and so if I’m focused with my running on, enjoying the time enjoying the place, enjoying the people being fully present.

There’s not much I don’t really need to keep myself hyped up and motivated. Although I’ve never really had a pacer crew at 19 100 mile attempts and 15 finishes at that distance. I think I part of the reason is, I enjoy the self motivation aspect of it, or even more, so if I find somebody out on a course that struggling, being able to maybe help them out. Helps me to feel better about what I’m doing and helps propel me along runners.

I was running with a wonderful woman who was doing her first 50k Roots and Rocks up in Columbus couple of weeks ago. And she was having a blast. She finished a couple minutes ahead of me too. But I said, you know, it’s, I just love what we do, because we we push and pull each other along. And that’s kind of what it’s all about. I don’t mind if a 70 year old woman passes me on the trail. I think it’s fantastic.

Patrick McGilvray
So, yeah, yeah, more power to them. Oh, my gosh, I hope I’m running trail, you know, ultra marathons at 70 years old. Yeah, so what you focus on you attract, I love that. I mean, I coach people and talk to people about that all the time, when you’re focused on how hard running is, or what if you might fail, you know, that’s what you’re gonna get, it’s gonna feel hard, it’s gonna, you know, your chances of failure go up exponentially, if that’s what you’re focused on.

So you sound like you have a pretty easygoing attitude about this stuff. You know, 100 miles is no joke. I’ve only done one. It was two years ago and, you know, I remember the training, you know, when I kind of started the training season for that, you know, I train maybe for a year or whatever, nine, 9-10 months. And I remember starting it and thinking, like, I don’t know how I’m gonna do this, I really have no idea. But at some point, you know, a few months later, I just got to this place where, where I was, like, I’m going to finish this, I’m going to do it, I can do it. I and I, it I shifted from, from I can’t to I can, and I kind of adopted this identity of like, I am 100 miler, you know, I’m 100 mile runner, I can do this. And it shifted things for me. And then I just, the training became easier. My thoughts became lighter about it. And I was focused on a successful outcome. Yeah. And it was, you know, painful at the end. But, you know, it was, it was successful.

Randy Kreill
Yeah, yeah. You’re probably familiar with the concept of VMR, or visual motor rehearsal. Have you heard of them? Put Olympic lates I collected a lot of high tech wires to them, and had them run through their routines just on their minds. And their bodies reacted as if they were really good.

And the race was about the power of the mind. And so I always try to use that in my hundreds. It doesn’t always work. I can go. I can visualize feeling the goal and finishing the race, but I still might not finish, but usually it does work. At C&O Canal 100 I met a guy at the pre race dinner, who had run the race the year before it finally happened to have his buckle with him. And so I was just like, oh, I kind of just check it out, because I wanted to feel it in my hand. Cuz I’ve been for months, feeling that knowing what it would be like to cross the finish line and get that hardware in my hand. It’s kind of squeezed and I got that feeling, I think even before the race started, which was nice.

Patrick McGilvray
So do you ever feel like during any one of your mantras that you said you’ve had like 19 attempts and 15 finishes of the 100? So let me ask you, I’m gonna ask you two questions. The first one is when you have to quit, you know, or you know, you’re not going to make the cut off like what’s going through your mind at that point?

Randy Kreill
Um, well, disappointment, but I don’t like to focus on the negative at every one of the 4 100 mile DNF. I’ve had extraordinary experiences. At the biggest race I ever tried to do at the time, Cloud Splitter, 100 mile or a tough time was based out of Elkhorn City, Kentucky, they had to move the race but for me, that was like my leadville.

It was a 40 hour race. 25,000 feet of climbing, super technical. I trained like it was the Olympics. I went out there. I was a little nervous. Beautiful weather had a great time with the runners, but I kept getting off course. And it just kept happening, whether I was running alone or with other people. And then in the middle of the night on a real long, lonely section in the most remote part of that course. I evidently went into the woods to use the bathroom and came out and went the wrong way for hours.

So while I’ve never quit a 100 mile race, I’ve timed out four different times. And you know, I gave it my best. I made about 100k on Cloud Splitter, but then got a ride. I was with him but he’s back to the finish and watched all the rest of the runners come in and talk to the volunteers and talk to the locals. I just had a blast there till the very last runners came in. And I’m still friends with some of those people.

But a few years later, I came back to that race in ‘19, and finally finished. So, I’ve had a case where I timed out at 32 hours at Mohican, I ran about 99 miles, and I was worried that if I kept going I knew I wasn’t gonna make the cutoff. I know it was a strict cutoff. So I pulled my bib off into a shortcut back to the start finish, because I didn’t want to maybe get in trouble and sit down. I’m trailed, dehydrated and have to be rescued by anybody. So I knew I couldn’t get back to the start. And that was a heartbreaker. But it was still a great story. And I was very proud. And you’ve heard a lot around those 99 miles.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, well, 99 miles is no joke. I mean, come on. It’s close enough. Let’s just say no buckle, whatever.

Yeah, so the second part of this is like, okay, so, because I’ve experienced this, like, have you ever felt like just quitting? You just felt like, I just, I gotta, I cannot do this. But somehow you mustered the mental fortitude to go on? Has that ever happened to you? And then like, what do you what do you like, do? Or what do you say to yourself to keep yourself going?

Randy Kreill
I’ve actually, I, I don’t think that’s ever happened. Many, many times where I’ve been very fearful that I would make the cut off. Or I’ve gotten very scared. Because I was off course. And that can be dangerous, whatever, who knows how long you might be lost? I’ve been through fearful moments of not finishing, but I’ve never wanted to quit any of them. Yeah. So I think part of my whole philosophy on this running is, and life is anything worth doing is worth doing less than perfectly. So I may not be the fastest, or important to be consistent. And, and, and that’s just what I’m chasing.

Patrick McGilvray
That’s really cool. I mean, that’s awesome, that you’ve never really felt like I just can’t go on anymore. You know, because, I mean, I think most of us have felt like that at some point. And then, you know, you gotta like, conjure up that I know, for me, you know, I ran the Hallucination 100, that was my 100. Yeah, sign off. Yeah, and that’s a 16 mile loop until you do six loops.

And then coming in, off off the fifth loop. Coming into the finish area, everybody was cheering for me. And they’re like, great job. And because they thought I was done. And I was like, I just got one more loop to do. And I just sort of felt dejected at that point, not because of them, really, but my feet were killing me. And just like I could barely, I could barely walk and I just didn’t know how I was going to do another loop and something.

You know, I sat down for a minute, I got some food or drink or whatever. And something just shifted in my mind. I was like, I am just going to just get out there and do the best I can and finish this thing. I’m going to finish strong. And I just started running hard. I was feeling the pain, but it wasn’t going to get any worse.

And I was just like, I’m just gonna keep going. And so anyway, it was just like I had to pull everything I had, everything I had. It was kind of like the training that I did for this thing helped me to build that endurance engine, you know, right, right.

Randy Kreill
Yeah. The self talk is critical. It’s like I said, I’ve had to dig deep a lot just just to try to finish. But I’ve always wanted to finish so badly that I’ve never, never considered quitting. Yeah, so I guess I’m lucky that way I’ve haven’t needed to have a crew and or peace or whatever to talk me off the ledge. It’s just been part of the challenge of learning to solve those problems more independently.

Patrick McGilvray
So, what does that look like for you digging deep?

Randy Kreill
I like how Eric Orton is one of those allegedly top running coaches in the world. The guy from Hawk from the Born to Run, book and store. He likes to say in his book, The cool impossible. I got some good training ideas out of that book. He likes to say athleticism is all about awareness, which you can obviously say that about just life in general.

So basically, when you’re so tired, you can barely walk. It’s just really a matter of finding some gratitude that you’re out there doing it. Taking a real deep breath, taking a full inventory of all the feelings in the body and emotions, and just doing whatever it takes.

Do I need hydration? Do I need food? Do I need to stretch some muscles? Do a little yoga out there in the truck, whatever it is. Be in tune enough with yourself and fully present to solve that problem. What is it I need to do to keep going and then just do it and keep moving? So like you said you wanted to do, do you want to get better and listen to Jim 100? Hallucination 100? Buckle.

Patrick McGilvray
Postnational honor.

Randy Kreill
Yeah, I still don’t have it. I did the 100k there. It was my first and only 100k. So I’d like to talk on that as well. But you want it bad enough and you weren’t going to get up on it. So you could do it. Just dig deep and get her done?

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, yeah. So you’ve done a lot of amazing things, you’ve got a lot of amazing accomplishments. You know, you’ve got a regular job. And as this isn’t your profession that you just have this passion about running, but what would it have been what’s been like, your proudest moment as a runner? Biggest accomplishment? Well, however you want to say it.

Randy Kreill
That’s really hard to pinpoint. One, I mean, getting Superior 100 done was huge. That was like a five year bucket list goal. But then earning the 500 mile club buckle at C&O Canal 100 was huge as well. Now I’m going after the 10 year on the 1000 mile vogel but getting finishing the C&O Canal, 100, 5 years in a row, five PRs on the courts in a row for me, and five consecutive years and get there at age 55? All the stars just kind of lined up. That was pretty huge.

Had a phenomenal final 20 miles. So that race was just beautiful. But all those moments are fantastic. But one of the things I love has been able to help another runner who’s struggling? One case, I think it was the second C&O canal 100 There was a guy 67 or 68 years old who was a legend in the ultra rank community. And I can’t think of his name right now. But he was the final finisher at C&O Canal that year, I think it would have been 2015.

And I caught up with this fella in the dark was sleeting runners were dropping left and right. It was miserable. Luckily, I had just enough warm clothes on. And anyways, I got to talk with this guy. And right away, I knew who he was because I’ve read all about his comeback at Pine Creek challenge 100. And he had had Lyme disease. And so he was out of alternative for maybe eight or 10 years and have really bad news from it really horrible night vision.

And so I was like, Oh, well, I’ll listen to your stories for quite a while. And I’ll help get you up that we had to do like sub stream crossings on real steep technical climb to get up to the start finish area. And he needed help with it. It was kind of scary. But anyway, stayed with him. And on the way up the hill. He stopped at one point and said, well, I’m gonna have to drop off here.

And I was like, well, don’t don’t make that decision. Yeah, once we get up there. I’ll wait for you. We’ll talk again, I’ll get you back down the hill if need be. And maybe 15 minutes later, the race directors writing down names left and right, people drop and it’s cold, trying to sleep was just miserable. Colder than predicted. So people weren’t ready.

And I see this guy all of a sudden sitting there with no shirt on. And I was like, oh, what’s what’s up? He’s like, Well, they’re giving me some dry shirts. And I said, Well, it means we’re going back down that hill. Right? And it was an honor to help this guy. It might have been his last 100 mile distance at his age and ended up taking a long time to get him down that hill but we got him down the hill safely.

And then he was okay on the towpath. And the next morning I don’t know how he got ahead of me. I thought maybe he dropped out but the next morning, I ended up passing him on my way into the finish and he ended up getting last place. So that was cool.

Another time at St. Mary’s. I was talking with a young guy I’m doing his first 100 miler. He had the pacer get a crew he had a coach out west he was working with it was really into it. But it was like in the 90s that day, way it way higher than record high temps really unseasonable for the rest, and humidity, there was pollen in the air, it was tough. And he was really loose on the water, I was concerned for him. And we talked for quite a while.

And he was really interested in not only the sandals, but my diet, a whole plant based diet, and just asked him a lot of questions. And some put mine I thought later hours and hours later that he must not have made it. But then right before the cut off, maybe two to five minutes before the 30 hour cut off. He comes into the finish. And it was really cool to get to see him do that.

And what was even better was several months later, I was actually on Thanksgiving Day, I get a text from him, saying, hey, my family, we’re having our first vegan Thanksgiving day, we’ve been staying in touch, I’ve been coaching him along on diet changes and some lots of information. And so both him and his wife and his child were making this big diet change. So being a little part of helping people make those kinds of changes as a result of these adventures in this run. And yet again, another unintended byproduct of all these changes, is helping other people learn these things.

Patrick McGilvray
That’s awesome. You’ve got like such a great attitude about life in general. Randy, you really do like, what, what how would you like? How would you? Like what’s your secret? What is your like philosophy? How do you stay so positive?

Randy Kreill
Um, well, after going through the cancer surgeries and all that stuff, that was a pretty dark, fearful time, but I felt really lucky to get through all that I don’t know, I guess we usually use the word secret. And it kind of made me smile because one of my favorite documentaries is called The Secret or they talk about quantum physics and the law of attraction. A lot of the movie is pretty hokey. A lot of it’s focused on money, rather than maybe health or fitness, which is weird, right?

My thing is more health is wealth and so that at this time, that’s more my focus, but so trying to come back from that low point. I learned from Ruth hydric, who Dr. Ruth hardrick is in her 80s Now, but she was a key part of the Born to Run book. And she was really the person who closed me on going all in on the diet change.

I picked her brain for about a week online via email, and I was like, Okay, I’m gonna do this 100% Cold tofurkey I’ll go plant based. That’s mid December of 2010. So, you know, here’s a woman who in her 40s had stage four breast cancer and is famous. I’d say she’s probably the most world famous, self healed cancer survivor, brilliant woman, she’s now written five books. And you know, she’ll tell you the most important thing is the four letter word diet.

So I’ve been kind of approaching this thing from a mindset, attitude point of view, a healthy emotion point of view, and the nutrition. And those are kind of to me, that’s the three fountains of views but that they all work together. So your topic mindset really caught my attention right away today. I wonder, you know what’s really most important for Ruth to heal herself from the cancer with no chemo, no radiation. She signed up for her first Ironman. She’d been a marathoner. And she thought on this doctor, he convinced her to not do chemo, not do radiation, simply go to an all plant based diet of mostly whole foods, and it worked then three months or cancer was fading off of her body scans.

And then she went on to become one of the fittest woman in the world, and was writing books and so forth with a sponsored athlete. I think she got first place at the Japan Ironman years ago. And so anyways you know, but she had to change her mindset first. She had to sign up for an Ironman too, she was going to change her diet and execute on that and stick with it.

And she doesn’t learn how to use your body in a healthy, healthy way, healthy motion combined with the right nutrition and the right mindset. But the healthy motion and the nutrition definitely impact the mindset. I know that if I’m not taking them the right nutrition, I don’t feel as well. I have, if I’m not feeling well, I’m probably going to have less positive emotions, which is going to impact the power of the mindset. So, you know, there’s just that kind of that yin yang to the balance of trying to create an upward spiral. And using all three of the fountains of youth so to speak.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, like, that’s your three legged stool there, right? Yeah. Yeah. You kind of need all three legs in order for it to work. Right. You know.

Randy Kreill
Yeah, they all work together. There’s a synergy. Yeah.

Patrick McGilvray
So yeah, that’s really cool. Like, I’m a firm believer in that you can heal, you know, all kinds of ailments, you know, using the power of your mind using the power of diet, and it’s really cool stuff. What’s next for you? What do you got coming up?

Randy Kreill
Um, my instinct is to kind of back off a little bit this year, but I still have that streak go when of, you know, 13 months in a row, run an altar every month. All right now I’m thinking about maybe keeping that going. But Rocks Roots 50k is on February 16. Coming right up. Usually, I barely finish, but I’m hoping to get that double 50k finishers buckled three years in a row, which is pretty hard to get.

The success ratio on that is probably a lot less than at most 100 milers like proud of those, those buckles. I’ve signed up for the seventh year in a row at C&O Canal 100 in late April, and then the Canal Corridor 100 up in Akron, Ohio for mid July. But I haven’t really, really committed to anything else yet. Lots of ideas. I’m still trying to decide what I want to do.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, cool. Well, it sounds like you’ve got some things you’re committed to. So that’s awesome. It’s always good to have goals out there. Right? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So I know, having a goal for runners is kind of key like keeps you mentally moving toward that goal, you know? Awesome. Well, this has been really, really amazing. I just love talking to you. And we’re going to do this again, because there’s a lot more we can talk about. But for now, where can people reach out to say hey, or thank you or whatever? How can we connect with you?

Randy Kreill
On YouTube, I just use my real name Randy Kreill, last name is KR E I L L. So if you plug that into YouTube, you’ll see my channel and people can comment and connect there otherwise, is I’m really easy to find on Facebook. My intention here is to get a blog going very soon and have another way to get my messages out to people. So hopefully that will happen very soon. I do a little bit on Instagram, not a whole lot. But I try to keep my real name and all the social media presences. Not hiding behind any aliases or anything like that.

Patrick McGilvray
Cool. A podcast is a great way to get your message out to there.

Randy Kreill
People have suggested this has been fun. And I hope to do more of these. I actually wrote down almost five pages of notes of things for us to talk about. So we can definitely get together and do this again. I think if I go through these pages…

Patrick McGilvray
Of those five pages, do we hit some of the stuff you wanted to talk about? I hope so.

Randy Kreill
My main message I wanted to get out to your listeners was that it really to humanity is to focus on what you want. We don’t do that. What you focus on you get more so most people will tend to be obsessed and focusing on what they don’t want in the world or inadvertently probably contributing to creating more of that.

And one of the good examples I was wanting to mention was before I turned when I turned 49 I decided on my 50th birthday I was going to do a full Ironman Triathlon, but on a do it yourself basis. It was not an Ironman event, but it was fun. Hold distance. And a few months later, I ran the New Year’s Eve Resolution run 5k.

And while I got up to leave from that I was in sandals, my heels hurt so bad. I thought maybe I had plantar fasciitis or a major running injury, I couldn’t walk, I got put it into a boot. And I realized maybe three weeks later, it still hurt. I was barely doing any running. And I had this huge 50th Birthday lifetime goal coming up. And one day, I just realized that I’m focusing on not being injured so much, I need to flip that.

And I focused on, I’m going to be a healthy happy runner, and I’m going to run my Do It Yourself Ironman, I’m not going to be focused on injuries. And almost immediately, everything shifted. And it’s been eight and a half years of injury free running. So it’s just a mental shift that paradigm shift to you know, not thinking, Gosh, I’m not an athlete. Flipping, flipping, flipping the negatives over and staying laser focused on that. Humanity would benefit from getting away from the war on drugs, the war on hunger, the war on terror and focusing on the opposites. What we need is a warming broccoli.

Patrick McGilvray
More, yeah…

Randy Kreill
More people consuming broccoli, I guess.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah. What you just mentioned is a very subtle devil, you know, focusing on what you don’t want. Because we think we’re doing the right thing. We’re like, I don’t want to fail, I don’t want to quit, I don’t want to drop out of this race, I don’t want to miss the cut off. And you just keep focusing all your effort, all your energy on that thing that you don’t want. Alright, it sounds like you want the opposite of that. But you’re not focusing on that.

And the interesting thing is at the subconscious level, the subconscious mind takes in so much. And just, it does what you tell it to do, you know, and it doesn’t really process the negative in there. When you say I don’t want to fail, all it’s hearing is like, oh, fail, okay, let’s do that, you know, it creates a picture in your mind of you dropping out or failing or tripping or, or whatever it is. And that’s what you get.

And so that’s a very subtle, but very important distinction there. And something that I talk to my clients about a lot because, you know, let’s say somebody who’s, you know, they want to lose weight, they’re like, I don’t want to be overweight, I don’t want to be fat, I don’t want to, and they’re just focusing on, on being overweight and being out of shape and, and being everything they don’t want to be. And they just keep getting more of that and they can’t understand. So very, very subtle, but very important distinction there.

Randy Kreill
Yes. Cool.

Patrick McGilvray
I love that. And I love this conversation today. This is really cool. Thank you very much for coming on here and talking with me. And like I said, we are going to do this again.We’ll take a deep dive into some of those other topics you wrote notes about.

Randy Kreill
Sounds good. Thanks for having me. I love the music that you play at the beginning and at the end. So by chance, if I said anything really cool during the interview, feel free to splice on some music.

Patrick McGilvray
Put in a few little guitar riffs just to go along with what you’re saying. I love it. That’s a good idea. I should start doing that. Awesome, Randy, thank you so much.

Randy Kreill
Hey, you’re welcome. Great talking to you.

Patrick McGilvray
Did you know that most runners fail to reach their goals? It’s not because of lack of training, lack of desire, whether it’s running faster or running farther, I believe most runners just haven’t developed the mental toughness they need to get them across the finish line. That’s why I created a step by step training called How to Build Mental Toughness and Become A Badass Runner. I want to show you how to train your mind so you can tough it out when the going gets tough. And the best part, this comprehensive training is yours absolutely free. To get it right now just go to innerfiretribe.com/badass and get started today.