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Derick is mixed and growing up in the south, he saw hate from both sides but used it as fuel along with the dark upbringing in a home of alcoholism and rage. Derick used fitness as an escape and quickly was able to stay calm in most moments people would break down or snap. He used these experiences to thrive in the US Army along with his coaching career. Derick healed himself and teaches others how to do the same.
Biography
Derick Johnson is a US Army Veteran, Life Coach and Trainer that has helped over 500 clients and 50 companies go from just surviving to thriving through his coaching modalities and marketing efforts. Derick was awarded Soldier of the Year for his battalion 3x, received numerous Awards for PT and took his leadership skills, certifications and life experiences to help people take control of their mind and body so they can THRIVE, not just survive.
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Derick Johnson
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Wounds of the Faithful podcast, brought to you by DSW Ministries. Your host is singer, songwriter, speaker, and domestic violence advocate, Diana Winkler. She is passionate about helping survivors in the church heal from domestic violence and abuse and trauma. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counseling or qualified medical help. [00:00:26] Now, here is Diana. [00:00:33] Hello everybody, friends. Welcome back. Thank you for being here, and we have a great show for you. And you think, Diana, you say that every week. Well, I have the best guests on my show, and that’s not an exception this week either. We have Derick Johnson on the show. He is an abuse survivor of alcoholic parents. [00:00:59] Raised in the [00:01:00] military, and he uses fitness and discipline to improve his life, and he thrived in the military because of his mindset, and his principles, his discipline, his fitness. And so we’re going to talk about his story and then he’s going to talk a little bit about his fitness regimen and his coaching. [00:01:26] And I think you’ll really like him. He’s an incredible very sharp young man. I think that you will enjoy his conversation with me. I’m going to read his bio here for you. Derick Johnson is a U. S. Army Veteran, life coach, and trainer. that has helped over 500 clients and 50 companies go from just surviving to thriving through his coaching modalities and marketing efforts. [00:01:53] Derick was awarded Soldier of the Year for his battalion three times, received numerous [00:02:00] awards for PT, and took his leadership skills, certifications, and life experiences to help people take control of their mind and body so they can thrive not just survive. Derek is mixed race and growing up in the south he saw hate from both sides but used it as fuel along with the dark upbringing in a home of alcoholism and rage. [00:02:27] Derick used fitness as an escape and quickly was able to stay calm in most moments. People would break down or snap. He used these experiences to thrive in the U. S. Army along with his coaching career. Derick healed himself and teaches others how to do the same. [00:02:47] So those of you that are former military, current military, you will probably enjoy this and… I like to talk about different ways of healing. Not everybody heals the [00:03:00] same if you’ve listened to the podcast for any length of time. That each guest that comes on the show, they have a different journey towards healing. [00:03:09] And so, listen to what he has to say because he brings some really valuable advice, just for life in general. So I hope that you enjoy my conversation with Derick Johnson. [00:03:25] Alright, please welcome my guest today, Derek Johnson. [00:03:29] Thank you so much for being with me today. [00:03:33] Thank you for having me. Thank you for having me. I appreciate you. [00:03:35] Wow. We have some things in common. You come from a military family now I do too. I wore my shirt today. My dad got me my dad’s a Navy veteran. And let’s see. [00:03:48] I’ve got two, two air force siblings. And then I’ve got a a brother in law’s in the army and I had a couple uncles that were on [00:04:00] Normandy Beach. You come from an army family, is that right? [00:04:04] Yes, my father was in the army for 20 plus years and my mother was, for 40 plus years, was a kindergarten teacher. So, started with public schools in Germany. So, just back story, my father’s African American and he’s from Starkville, Mississippi, so he’s from the country. He grew up on a farm and he went into the military because he wanted to leave the state. [00:04:23] And then he met my mother in Germany. They have my sister, I have two older sisters, and then I’m the youngest. And my mother, she’s German. So, as a child, we lived in Germany. And then in third grade, from third grade on throughout college, I lived throughout Florida. So with that upbringing, both parents were very strict, very disciplined, which helped a lot. [00:04:44] So Germans are very gung ho and then also the military style. So having both of the alpha parents, it helped a lot with structure. The home was always clean, just good grades doing all that. But also on the flip side, their upbringing, they were [00:05:00] both The oldest of multiple siblings. So they had to grow up fast to raise them and they saw drugs, alcohol, and all that in their upbringing. [00:05:11] So a lot of that trickled into my upbringing and everything. So essentially the careers, everything was successful. And also they were very. popular. So as the kid, as the teen, I never said anything to anyone. So even my best friends didn’t know anything that was happening at home because I just didn’t want to complain. [00:05:29] But I would learn about stories that were much worse than mine to give myself a different perspective, to work on my faith, look at gratitude, and then also say, you know what? Yes, these things are going on, but there’s a lot of things to be grateful for. So at that time that really helped me along with exercising, working out. [00:05:49] And it was more so for the mental calmness. After pushing my body and mind past limits, and then I would be calm because I would be prepared for the nightly rage of 9 p m [00:06:00] to 1 a m. When the last bottle was drank, there’d be a lot of screaming, yelling, glass being thrown, just all kinds of stuff. And this was always after the guests left or after the last phone call was made. [00:06:11] So everything was positive. When guests were there, we had a beautiful home in Pensacola, Florida and the panhandle. We had screened in pool, everything looked great from the outside, but once the door was closed to the last guest, that’s when their past traumas would be released. So the first few times that it happened, I was shocked. [00:06:29] I was a kid. And then after a while, when I was around 11 or 12, it started to click that I could see it in their eyes that they were yelling through me, not actually at me. So I could see that they didn’t see their son. They were like speaking to somebody else or A situation, but I could tell that they were basically like blacked out and they would just go on a rage. [00:06:49] And then I realized that they were functioning as in the next day, there’ll be up at four or five working out, running. My mom would be in the living room doing Taebo, Billy Blanks tapes, [00:07:00] all those classic cassette tapes and the DVDs, and my dad would be running or in the gym. So like, it didn’t affect their career the next day at all. [00:07:08] It was just at night. And then they’d be like. Hey, want to go have lunch today? Where are we going to have dinner today? And in my head, it’s like… Do you don’t remember what happened for three hours straight last night? And they wouldn’t, sometimes they wouldn’t, but it was one of those things, it was a hush, like we wouldn’t talk about it and there was never like, I apologize. [00:07:23] It was more so like, Hey, this might happen every now and then, but we don’t mean it. So kept it hush, but yes. So on the outside, successful family, beautiful home, great careers, good reputation. And that’s why I never spoke up about it. Cause I didn’t wanna bash their reputation at the time. So I worked more so on my body and mind. [00:07:43] And then that helped me work on my faith. So after a workout, that is when I would dive deep into faith. And then that’s when I felt that my gift was discernment, being able to read, not just them, but read a room, read people’s energy [00:08:00] and can sense things. And I feel like a lot of people that have been through hell, quote unquote, or have been raised in upbringing around alcoholics, rage, drugs, anything of that nature. [00:08:11] We can read a room much better because we were hyper aware as the kid who was waiting to be hit, punched, thrown at them, yelled, and you were just always on edge and looking back in hindsight, that helped a lot with my career with sports also in the military of just always, I wouldn’t say paranoid as a child I was, but then I was expecting things, but then it got. [00:08:34] hyper awareness for sports and all that. So it helped a lot. So on the positive side, all those things did prepare me for the path that I took. But then on the flip side, the words, I love you were never really said in our home. And I would notice when I would spend the night as a child at my friend’s houses, I was always like, Oh, you guys have dinner together. [00:08:55] That’s awesome. So we rarely did only if we had guests. That’s when we would sit [00:09:00] together. And then we would look like the happy, beautiful family. But if the guests weren’t there, then their masks came off. But again, it was all stemming from their upbringing and their background. So I knew that they just didn’t deep down get the help. [00:09:14] Or the resources, the tools that they needed, or maybe they did have them, but they didn’t want to continue to do the work because I noticed that it kept getting worse every year. [00:09:23] Did they physically abuse you and your siblings? [00:09:28] Yes, it was physical and verbal. So more so deeper on the verbal. [00:09:32] Because the physical, it wasn’t really extremely violent, but it was more so like shaking the head, grabbing the hair, things of that nature. But also, being in martial arts, I was just calm in the physical aspect, and it didn’t bother me as much, at least at that time, as much as the verbal. So an example could be when your own mother says that I wish I had an abortion multiple times, like you hear it hundreds of times a year. [00:09:56] But it was only when… Who’s drinking. So the next [00:10:00] day would be like, Hey, where do you want to have sushi at today? There’s a new restaurant downtown. And as a teen, I’m like, I don’t want to go. I understand she’s being nice right now, but we can’t just pretend that this didn’t happen for two hours last night. [00:10:13] And I’m supposed to enjoy myself and put on a smile having sushi. So it was a, it was an interesting dynamic, but in hindsight, it does make sense of why I was always so close to friends or I would just be there for people as in, if I was sitting at a bus stop at an airport or just anywhere in public, I noticed as a teenager, people or kids would just come up to me and just like pour out. [00:10:42] And I was just sitting there neutral, like just blank, or I’d have my headphones in. And then I realized that. I needed that when I was a kid that I would just speak to whoever I felt comfortable around. So I saw it in hindsight and I said everything connects so people can sense when somebody has a level of calmness and it’s mainly because [00:11:00] they’ve been through so much that they’re like. [00:11:02] What else is going to happen? I’m not stressing anymore. Like, we’ve seen the worst of the worst, so anything else really doesn’t faze us much. So, people sense that calmness, and I feel like people that have been through a lot of traumatic things, they can relate to that because, one, maybe we were able to open up to someone, or now, people open up to us, and it feels good because people rarely actively actually listen to people. [00:11:25] They more so listen to respond. We all have tried to open up to someone and they’re like okay. And they try to rush you and then they’re not really listening. So you stop trying to open up to these people. But when a stranger from the outside, sometimes I can help the most cause like they’re actually engaged with you, they’re listening or they’re giving advice if needed, but it was always very interesting. [00:11:46] So I wanted to be that person, the listener and give advice to people because I was lacking those things at home, but it was like that. Happy medium that I would see I had the rough discipline and all that which helped [00:12:00] sports career or martial arts and all that But on the flip side, I had to learn how to train the soft side or train the caring side and all that So it was an interesting dynamic. [00:12:12] You have a kind face for those that are just listening on a podcast and not on YouTube you have an approachable manner about you so I can see that you’re sitting there at the bus stop, and it’s not, scary or intimidating, or you’re just laid back, and like you say, relaxed, and I think the world needs more people like that. [00:12:34] Yeah, I totally agree, and it’s more so that when I’m in public, I just try to be very present. Like, about an hour ago, I was at the mall, just had to get some supplements, get some vitamins. [00:12:47] My girlfriend got annoyed I used the rest of her caffeine. So I got her some caffeine for tomorrow for the workout. So while I was walking through the mall, I was there maybe 20 minutes, but I’m just hyper aware, looking at everyone, smile at people, [00:13:00] or just be very aware. And you can always sense who needs somebody. [00:13:05] Or who’s planning to do something. And if you just make eye contact, you can minimize a potential situation, but it’s very interesting just to really be aware and read people. And that also just stems from one personal traumas, family traumas, or somebody was trained for it, whether they were in sports, whether they were in the military, they can always read a situation much better. [00:13:26] And I like to think of. Let’s just say somebody’s on an airplane, and there’s someone drunk and belligerent. They’re arguing with the flight attendant. They’re not sitting down, and they’re not doing anything too crazy yet, but at that very moment, everyone looks around the plane looking for the individual who’s gonna help. [00:13:45] And it’s usually the people that are the calmest, and it has nothing to do with their body type, how tall or short they are. It’s always the people that are calm. It could be The, an example, the Asian lady that’s like 70 years old, who’s four foot 11, and she’s just like shaking her head and we make eye [00:14:00] contact and we’re just like, all right, if something happens, she and I are going to go help tie him up, do whatever we need to. [00:14:05] So he stays calm, but it always interests me to see when moments are about to happen, when you look around, it’s always the calmest people who take control because there’s the fight, there’s the flight, there’s the freeze, there’s also the run, or nowadays there’s also the. I’m going to take a picture and video and not help anything. [00:14:23] So that’s also very common. So I challenge people to work on their hyper awareness. But it all starts with yourself. The more aware you are of yourself, the more clarity that you can have, the better you can read a room, the general public, and then you can just assess the situation better, because people that can’t, it’s because they don’t really know themselves, and that’s why they’re reacting to everything happening around them. [00:14:47] But the people that can, I’ve noticed that they’re very proactive in those situations. Because they’ve done a lot of deep inner work, they have faith, so they’re, they less likely have as much fear that can cripple [00:15:00] them. [00:15:00] You have an incredible amount of maturity for a young kid just the way that you’re describing your childhood and your reactions to that. [00:15:10] I’m wondering While you were going through this traumatic time, what was your concept of God at the time, and did you blame God or ask why? What did I do to deserve this because I’m a good kid? [00:15:25] That’s a great question. I honestly never complained to God. I’m not saying that in like a alpha male bravado way. [00:15:32] I’m just saying it in regards to, I literally got obsessed with stories. That were much darker than mine. So I minimize my whole situation. So even while that was happening, I had a, I don’t know where it came from, but I had a skill of popping out of myself as in I would pop out of myself and pretend that I was watching what was happening to me. [00:15:55] And then I would say, what reaction will I give them? And it didn’t happen at first, but [00:16:00] it happened so many times that I got tired of being the shy, insecure boy, and I said something has to change, so step one was physical fitness, like I was the very skinny kid, picked on, I’m also mixed, so the way that I look, we got bullied in the South, on the basketball court you had to prove yourself that you weren’t the quote unquote pretty boy or whatever, so I had to fight. [00:16:20] Number one, so then fitness was more so I had to build myself so people stopped bullying me. I got into martial arts, not to fight the bully, but to have a sense of calmness and discipline and all that. And I just fell in love with pushing the body and the mind past its limits. Because that’s when you really have calmness. [00:16:39] And that’s the best time to pray, visualize, meditate, whatever somebody chooses. But the only reason is because the mind has stopped. The mind is just neutral. It’s like, we need some water. We just crushed a workout, running, weights, whatever it is. But I noticed that a lot of spiritual things would happen at those moments. [00:16:58] And I would have [00:17:00] his voice in my head. Whether it was God, my ancestors, a guardian angel, whoever. Something was always like giving me a pat on the back and it’s hard to explain, but I feel like those are the gifts that I was given was perspective hop, which is pop out of myself to look at this situation and pop back in and then also pop into the younger version. [00:17:21] So, like, future self, current self and past self. I would always do that since. Middle school. And it was like my cheat code to get through anything. I don’t know where it came from, but the older I got, I realized that I was doing shadow work and all types of other stuff that I didn’t even know existed until I got older. [00:17:37] And I was like, wow, this is amazing. But I truly feel that some people that have this urge to not continue generational curses, they do a deep dive on themselves where I feel like I killed my pride and ego in middle school. Not in regards to like, it doesn’t exist, but more so that I can be fully transparent and there’s no fear.[00:18:00] [00:18:00] There’s no insecurity in regards to, like, these topics or things, because I did the work back then, and now that is why I enjoy helping others, number one, identify the pattern of what might be happening, what they might carry into every friendship. Relationship, career, whatever it is, figure out what it is and then break it so they can feel like they’re thriving, not just surviving. [00:18:23] Because a lot of people they carry that trauma, so we identify why you have that trauma, where it’s stored in the body, and then we aim to release it. So with me, it was stored in my chest. I would have shortness of breath. I didn’t have medical issues, but I knew that it was on a spiritual level. Like, I went to the doctor for a heart murmur before in middle school, and I would run on the treadmill. [00:18:45] They had all these things on my chest, and I would tell them, like, there’s something deeper. And every test came out positive. There’s no issue. They’re like, oh, you just have a heart murmur. And then every few years, like my heart would always twitch, but it was only when I was stressed, as in [00:19:00] it felt like somebody was grabbing it. [00:19:02] But every time I went to the doctor, they would show me, they would scan, do all kind of tests, were like, it’s totally fine. And something told me, I was like, this is not physical, this has to be spiritual. I feel like every time that there’s… major stress or anxiety, things of that nature, or a past thought creeping in, my chest will start to flutter. [00:19:19] And it only happens then. And so one of my favorite books that really helped me was Outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill. [00:19:32] So the book is all about, he’s having a conversation with the devil and he’s asking him why and how he controls most people. And it’s not like a dark demonic book or anything. It’s just a perspective. And it’s a one on one conversation, and if people don’t read the plot, the audio book sounds like a podcast, so the devil has a very low and deep voice and it’s interesting listen if people want to listen to it, but it more so just dives deep on family [00:20:00] traumas, like, This situation, why things continue in the family tree, why the family tree doesn’t change a lot of the times. [00:20:08] And then he mentions how he manipulates people. So essentially, it’s somebody that doesn’t want to do the inner work that maybe still has their pride and ego in the way. And it’s like, this is not going to work. The Bible is not going to help me. Jesus is not going to help me. Whatever, whoever’s not going to help me. [00:20:23] And they’re very against it. The devil will manipulate those people because it’s much easier for him to, because they’re not open for change. And that’s always step one is the person has to be open. So it basically dives deep in that. I don’t want to give away the whole synopsis of the book, but it always interests me because as a child, I was doing the perspective hopping. [00:20:42] So I always gravitated towards stories that would show you different perspectives to make it make sense rather than just. This way or the highway. And then I was just that kid that always had questions. Like I would raise my hand in church and say, why did this happen? Why did that happen? How do we know this? [00:20:58] And I always got in trouble for [00:21:00] asking too many questions. And the older I got, I was like, I was onto something. Maybe I did annoy the teachers or the preacher or whoever I was asking, but I always had questions. But I think this stems from just seeing a lot of trauma as a kid or as a teen. And just always wondering not so God, why is this happening? [00:21:19] But What is the reason this is happening for? So I remember I was 11 or 12 in my dad’s car. He was playing Tony Robbins cassette tapes. And he said, so I was just listening and. At first I was looking out the window and I was like, he’s saying some real honest things. And then one of the things he said was, if my mother gave me the love that I wanted, I wouldn’t be the man I am today. [00:21:44] And I was 11 or 12 hearing this and I was like, I felt it and it made sense. And another thing he said is, You get what you tolerate. You get what you tolerate. And it really stuck out to me because I was like, I’m tolerating the bully at school. [00:21:56] I’m tolerating the bully parents. I’m tolerating all this. I have to [00:22:00] stand up for myself. So that’s what really pushed me to work on my body, work on my mind, stand up to the bully, and also stop giving the reactions to family. As in, if they expect you to cry every time they say this phrase, if they expect you to scream and yell, if they expect you to get violent, whatever they expect, doing the opposite in a calmer way. [00:22:21] So I got to a point where I was just blank. I wouldn’t say that I was nonchalant and didn’t care about anything, but it was more so that I just wouldn’t show a reaction. And growing up, a lot of my friends were always like, you’re so chill. You don’t really stress about stuff. And I wouldn’t go down the rabbit hole of why, but it was more so that I made a decision back then to not allow people or situations to. [00:22:46] Yes, I get angry. Yes, I get sad. Yes, I get stressed. Yes, I have anxiety, but it’ll only last for 5 to 10 minutes because I give myself a window. So the thing I do with a lot of my clients and friends, I ask them, how long do you want to feel this way? [00:23:00] And it throws people off when they’re pissed off or however they feel. [00:23:03] How long do you want to feel this way? And they’re like, I don’t know. Two days, ten minutes, and they start laughing because they don’t think of that, because sometimes the anger might last for five days straight, or five hours, and nobody wants to be around them. And we do understand these things are real, the situation that triggered it or that happened, but if we look at ourself, We’re giving this person or the past situation that happened when we were 12 so much power over ourselves that we’re ruining a potential good relationship, friendship, career, whatever the situation is. [00:23:35] But if we look at it like that, before we say nobody understands me, I’m the only human on earth who’s ever been through this because that’s how we feel in this situation sometimes. But if we can like just not have ego and pride in the way and just say. I’m allowing mom, dad, uncle, the stranger, whoever did whatever to us, I’m giving them way too much power. [00:23:56] And I’m not saying it’s going to dissolve everything instantly, but if we [00:24:00] train our mind to start thinking of that more and saying, am I allowing him or her to control every area of my life? When am I going to put my foot down? And that’s a good, powerful step to do that work. And again, it’s not easy at all, but if they can think of that more than the pain, then they can start to. [00:24:19] Work towards getting through whatever they’re enduring currently or in the past. [00:24:25] Mr. Miyagi was always calm. You ever notice that? You watched Karate Kid, I’m sure, and he was this little guy, this little unassuming man, just, kicking butt and he, but he was calm. Unlike, the Cobra Kai. I wanted to swing around to your sensei because he must’ve been a really big influence. [00:24:51] Not all of them are positive role models. So, tell me what difference did he make in your life? What did he teach you?[00:25:00] [00:25:00] He made a major difference by just sensing my energy. He never asked me what was wrong. I knew him maybe 15 to 20 years. He never asked me the question, what is wrong? Because I don’t know if he knew what was going on at home. [00:25:13] Cause I literally never told anybody, even my best friends, they didn’t know until like a couple of years ago where I was like, Oh yeah, you remember back then? That’s why I didn’t sleep. Cause just me, I’m not saying this is right or wrong, but me internally, I was like, you’re not allowed to complain. And I would tell myself that the reason why is because I would think of worse situations that family members went through. [00:25:34] And I said, we have air conditioner, we have food. I can sleep in multiple rooms. Like what is there to complain about? And that’s what I would tell myself. I don’t say that’s the best way, but it worked because I would look at. Example, my grandma in Germany, my Oma, she survived the Holocaust and she was hiding in the attic. [00:25:56] So in stressful situations, I think of that, or I think of my dad’s [00:26:00] side, great grandpa in Mississippi, African American male. We all know how that state is. So I would think of the worst dark situations and say, all right. And then I’d pop back into the present moment and say, what am I going to complain about right now? [00:26:13] And it would humble me. So I would figure out how to work on whatever I’m feeling rather than just like. Complain and say, why me, God? Cause I would say the only reason I exist is because of them and what they went through. So why blame him or blame them or blame whoever? Let me just see, what am I going to do to fix what is inside internally? [00:26:33] Cause I can’t change the parents. I can’t change their past. I can only change the way that I react. And again, that goes back to the perspective hopping. And again, I don’t know where it came from, but I feel like that was a gift as a kid, where I would be to a point where I wanted to get violent, I wanted to do this, but something just told me, it’s like, no, just tap out, go for a walk, go work out, go help somebody, do something positive, where I stopped giving people that response. [00:26:59] So what [00:27:00] my sensei taught me a lot was… Doing the repetitive form, just like most martial arts, repetitive forms, doing all that. But also he would say, Hey, I can tell you’re angry today. Do it in slow motion. And he would make me do the things in slow motion. Even though I wanted to be aggressive and skip the warm up and just get on the punching bag. [00:27:21] He’s like, no That’s not what we’re doing here so he would train me to train my mind even though he could tell I was angry about something that I would just do stuff slower and then by the time that we did spar did anything else I was becoming much better and I was just calming and controlling I can read everything better where I wasn’t stiff because When it comes to fighting in general or anything in general, the stiff person is always the one that’s easy, easier to control. [00:27:48] So it could be in the workplace. It could be in a fight. That’s the person that usually gets knocked out or gets choked out or whatever, but also in a public setting. The person that’s [00:28:00] super tense, people can see that in their body language and they try to irk them and control them. So, the less loose you are, the better you can flow with it. [00:28:09] So like, if you think of an example, Bruce Lee movies. He didn’t stop moving. He was always loose. He didn’t even have a fist until the last second that he punched somebody. So it was always interesting to see because he was so smooth and you didn’t know what was coming next. But if you look at most fighters that are angry about their last loss, they come into the ring super tense and you’re like, Oh, he’s going to waste so much energy. [00:28:32] Sometimes they do win out of anger, aggression, and power, but the majority of the time they still lose. And then they get humbled and they come back a different fighter, but it’s interesting to see, but things like that always stood out. So it was more so being able to control the mind, to be calmer, not just breaking boards and hitting punching bags. [00:28:51] Thank you for pointing that out. Yeah, I love, love, love Bruce Lee movies. I’ve got enter the dragon and never get [00:29:00] tired of it. And fun fact. He hired a stunt man to do his backflips in that movie. I thought that was very interesting. [00:29:07] He could not do backflips. He did all the other stuff, but yeah, I, I love that about your sensei and how He had you slow, slow down and deal with that pent up anger in a different way. That’s fascinating. [00:29:24] Another thing he did was he forced me to train the kids, especially the bad kids. [00:29:30] I say necessarily bad, just the kids that weren’t listening. Cause let’s just say I walk in 16 years old. I’m annoyed about something and it wasn’t always family related. It could have been about school or whatever. I was just ready to hit the bag and he could tell that I wanted to release. And he was like, no, we’re doing that later. [00:29:45] So, go train them, teach the white belts how to do the forms, and I’m in a room full of, I don’t know how old kids are in second and third grade, I don’t have kids, but second and third graders, they’re obviously all over the place, and he’s like, teach them how to do the form, if they don’t know how to [00:30:00] do it at the end of the class, then you gotta keep them after the class, and I’ll tell their parents that Derick is still gonna teach them longer after class, and I was like, But I got really good at working with the kids after a while because I knew how to communicate with them differently. [00:30:14] So this kid would learn faster than the other. This girl would learn slower. So it really worked on my patience, but it helped a lot. So that’s what he would do is those two things, go train the kids while you’re angry, because it makes you be calmer and focus on helping them. And then the other side is do stuff in slow motion. [00:30:33] Yeah, that’s some humbling stuff right there. You talked about complaining. I’m a complainer. I’m working on it. I know that God has poked me a few times and said, look how I blessed you this year and look at all that you’ve received from me and you don’t have anything to complain about. [00:30:53] And so I’m working on it. You’re good. I’m getting there. I’m getting [00:31:00] there. Now back to the military, you made a statement I heard on another show that you went into boot camp and it didn’t faze you one bit. With your drill instructors and stuff. And it was almost like, is that all you got? [00:31:18] 100 percent and the reason why is because I was just used to that happening at home because in my head I was like You know that my five foot five German mom could take all of them out And then my dad is six foot three. He’s taller than me So I’m so used to them being in my face yelling and screaming that drill sergeants, I almost laughed, but I didn’t because then they’ll just like make you run all over the place. [00:31:40] But there’s a few times where I almost laughed, but that’s why I was chosen as a leader because they could sense that I wasn’t stressed. And then they’re like, Hey, you get up there. Cause that’s what they do at bootcamp. They try to see who’s going to break, who needs more training. All it is a game. [00:31:55] And it’s an interesting way. So from their perspective, they can tell who needs the most training, which is [00:32:00] the one that’s. Falls on the ground, crying, is trying to run away and quit. They need the most training because they’re just either not used to it. Like it is what it is, but that is the reason that they do. [00:32:10] The training is to put them in different harsh situations so they can learn how to control that and their reaction. And then the people that are the most calm, they’re naturally chosen as the leaders, and then they keep trying to irk them to see who’s going to break. But they saw that psychologically or physically I wasn’t gonna break, so then they chose me as a leader, but I appreciated it, but also what happened in hindsight is that anytime somebody would mess up in my platoon, it was my fault, so I would have to sprint and they would have to watch me. [00:32:39] or they would have to circle around me and I do push ups or whatever wild stuff they came up with, they would have to circle around me and just watch me and clap or just like do other stuff, even though they didn’t want to, but they had to. So it was interesting. It made me a better leader really quick because if I didn’t teach them right and they messed up, it was my fault, but it was a great learning [00:33:00] experience because one, they could see that I could handle it. [00:33:02] Two. Yes. I was annoyed sometimes ’cause I said I taught you a hundred times how to do this. How do you not know how to do it? . But you had to approach it differently. But all those harsh scenarios, it just teaches you to just be calmer and that if you can get out of your mind and into your body, you can actually just release. [00:33:23] Breathe, stop, and just focus on everything. So an example could be, you’re watching a movie, the main character is in a stressful situation. They close their eyes and they pop into another perspective. And they think of a time they walked on the beach with their grandpa and they’re calm, whatever the calm situation is, then they come back into their body and they’re like, I need to take control of this because I want more of those experiences. [00:33:49] So, that perspective hopping is what I did as a child and teen and I would do it, still do it to this day, but that is something that I would challenge people to do is… To practice just perspective [00:34:00] hopping to pop out of what’s happening right now. So think of version 10. 0 of yourself. What are his or her attributes and characteristics? [00:34:10] How do they look? How do they feel? What do they do for their career? Are they married? Do they have kids? Every detail that they can think of a version 10. 0. And then what is a piece of advice that current you right now? needs from that version. And it’s an interesting concept. Not everyone can do this at first, but if they can really, number one, create all the characteristics of the version 10. [00:34:34] 0 of themselves and be hyper detailed, and then see, what would that version tell current version? A piece of advice. It could be one statement. But if people can do that, they’ll be surprised how calm they feel that yes, they might get emotional of the piece of advice that they give. But after that, if they pray after that, it’s interesting what happens. [00:34:55] Everybody has their own experience, but it’s always positive and [00:35:00] empowering after the fact, because it’s just a different approach to it, and they just feel calmer. And they’re like, this is totally different, but… I thought of a better version of myself, he or she gave me advice, and then I prayed or talked to whoever they believe in, and they noticed that they feel much calmer. [00:35:18] And then also their prayer goes deeper because they were able to calm themselves down rather than like, why is this happening? Why is this happening? What are you teaching me with anger and aggression? Because everybody’s been there to an extent where we blame or we’re wondering why has this happened to me or to somebody in our life. [00:35:33] Well, I never heard that before doing 10. 0 of yourself. And I I’m going to have to think about what that would look like for me. Now being in the military, obviously you had a good career in that really was your skillset. What do you think about, I’ve had a bunch of guests on the show that were abused in the military. [00:35:57] Did you witness any of that? What are [00:36:00] your thoughts on the abuse in the military at all? I’ve seen it. So one, it didn’t happen in boot camp. So none of my drill sergeants, I had the the best leaders, but I have seen it in different bases and units around the country, and it was more People that looked, I don’t want to say look like a victim, but it’s just like a schoolyard. [00:36:23] The bully is gonna pick on the kid that is very timid. That’s a great analogy. So with that being said, is the person that is very timid and on edge, it’s the same analogy that they’re going to pick on that individual, male or female. So I did notice that. And that was on different bases, not really in training environments, but more so on bases and all that, where it was essentially like a high school movie where the bullies and the jocks got together with the popular girls. [00:36:51] And it was the same thing, but on a psychological level in the military, but also some leaders. They go through the ranks, [00:37:00] but everything is ego and pride, and their whole intent, they didn’t, they did not heal their inner child, so their whole intent is to have power and control over others. So they have a badge, they have a rank, it’s on their chest, and they do this. [00:37:14] If people aren’t watching the video, is I’m pointing at my chest, which is where the rank would be, and then they would hold it up and show you their rank. Which essentially just means, shut up, I’m in charge, so you’re gonna do what I say. Even if their leadership style is terrible, that’s what they say. [00:37:31] Because it’s usually the person that is insecure, timid, something happened to them, so now they have to have control over women, control over the skinny soldier, control over anybody that they feel that they can have power over. So yes, that is common as well. And that right there is honestly a big reason that… [00:37:50] I did not go 20 plus years because I did notice that at least the places that I was, a lot of that started to infiltrate. And I was getting very annoyed and angry where [00:38:00] I felt like one day I was just going to snap on these leaders and not a violent person, but I was just like, I have to get away from these people because I would give advice, but people like that, they just don’t listen. [00:38:11] They’re like, it’s my way or the highway. So I had to distance myself from that situation, [00:38:17] you look like somebody that wouldn’t go on Liberty and go get sloshed drunk and do stupid stuff. [00:38:26] No and that’s the thing that also doesn’t get talked about enough in the military is if you don’t go, not everyone, again, in person, but in settings that I’ve seen. [00:38:35] If you’re not the brown noser, and you don’t go drink with these individuals, mainly males, then they’re going to think that you’re not part of the clique, quote unquote, and then they might forget to sign your papers for promotion, they might forget to sign your papers for your insurance, whatever part of their job that they had to do to take care of the soldiers, if you’re question. [00:38:57] Not hanging out with these people. And this is for male and female [00:39:00] soldiers. I’ve seen it firsthand where people get screwed over on paperwork, where something doesn’t get done for them or their families or on the flip side for rank or payment. I’ve seen some soldiers not get paid because something wasn’t signed. [00:39:12] They’re like, Oh, we forgot. But it’s because they don’t like that individual. And that happens in corporate America as well, but yeah, it does happen a lot. Things like that just always irked me. Like I’m not an angry person at all, but those situations where you’re messing with someone’s wellbeing. It literally just makes me want to snap, but I never got to that point because I’ll allow anyone to make me snap, but it just irks me because like, what does that person get out of it? [00:39:36] But it, but when you zoom out, it’s always that they’re unhappy with themselves. They sense that somebody else is in control of themselves, or they’re just miserable and misery loves company and they literally get enjoyment out of it. Cause, and also on a spiritual standpoint, they lack faith. And I noticed a lot of them, they’re into the occult. [00:39:59] So that’s a whole nother [00:40:00] rabbit hole, but that’s a huge thing that I noticed is a lot of those individuals were in the occult and one of the stories with that is there was a chaplain in the army that I could feel that he had some dark demonic energy. And anytime that he would come to my platoon, he would always crack jokes and they were weird and like very, he made people uncomfortable with his jokes. [00:40:24] Best way to say it. Like he would just say some outlandish stuff. It wasn’t just like, Hey, blah, like. It wasn’t like a team or a coach coming up. Exactly. No, no dad jokes, nothing funny. And I never laughed at his jokes because in my head, I was like, I’m not giving him what he wants because that means he’s going to keep coming over here to my soldiers and trying to make jokes and trying to be buddy. [00:40:44] I was like, you’re not going to make them uncomfortable and awkward. And I always had a feeling. I was like, he’s going to touch either a male soldier physically or a female soldier sexually. I was, I just had a feeling. And years later, I found out he got arrested for that stuff, [00:41:00] and he messed with children as well, and I could feel it, even as a child, I could always sense when somebody has some dark, demonic energy, or they’re just the evil person. [00:41:12] And I never said anything to my soldiers, but I would say something to my buddies, I’d say, there’s something up with that chaplain. And I’m not a gossiper, I didn’t spread the word like, oh, everybody, but I could just sense it and come to find out years later, he got arrested for a lot of things and he got let back out because that’s the brotherhood, they take care of each other, that they just get a slap on the wrist and then they’re back in the high rank. [00:41:34] So, so it is a lot, but. Things like that is what pushed me out of the military, because I saw how common it was the more I went through the ranks and the different bases you’re in and all that, where I realized I said, wow, there’s a lot of infiltration of these type of individuals. Yes, there’s a lot of camaraderie, but at least in my sector, the camaraderie of my last couple of years was split. [00:41:58] It got very political [00:42:00] where it went from a family that even if you didn’t like your uncle or whoever was in your family or in your platoon, you knew that At the end of the day, they’re going to have your back. So if we’re on deployment and if I get shot in the leg, if he and I don’t have similar views, it doesn’t matter. [00:42:14] He’s still going to pull me and I’m going to pull him. That camaraderie and brotherhood and trust was almost gone in the units that I was in, or at least that’s what I felt where I didn’t want to get deployed with these people and it was nothing on a personal level. It was just very, everyone was distracted by all the agendas and it got very separated. [00:42:33] So that’s the part that I didn’t like. Because it was totally different my first half of the military career where you’re gung ho, you’re excited, teamwork and all that. We go through hard training and you get closer to each other. And in the last couple years, all that was dissolved. And then you saw, like, one of the things that in the Army, we have a, you have an individual male or female soldier, and they’re required to They’re chosen and they’re required to [00:43:00] give a presentation on sexual harassment, and the acronym is SHARP, S H A R P, sexual harassment, and I forget what the RP stands for, but it’s called SHARP, and anybody can look this up on Google. [00:43:14] Yes, I think it is that and something else, but basically, the instructors. Give you a presentation, give you a PowerPoint, you take a test, and you just give make sure everybody’s aware of it. One thing that I noticed is that one of the guys at one of my units that gave the presentations… I would tell some of my buddies was like, something’s up with him too. [00:43:35] And they’re like, you always can read people. And I said, I’m not saying this ’cause I don’t like the person, but I can just sense and come to find out he, a lot of female soldiers would make complaints about him that he was sexually harassing them. And this is the guy giving the sharp presentations on what we should do as a team. [00:43:52] If you need help, reach out to us. And what he would do if somebody reached out to him, they’d go to his office and that thing that was happening to [00:44:00] them would happen to them while they’re in their office like, It would just blow my mind. So essentially, if a female soldier was touched by another soldier, and she would tell him anonymously, or just approach him, he would have all the paperwork and the steps to take, and then they could decide. [00:44:16] Do you want him in trouble with the law? Do you want him to lose rank? Like, there’s lots of different options, and then you guys can come to an agreement. But what I noticed would happen is that some of the female soldiers would go to this individual, and then he would, like, threaten them and say, no, you’re not gonna mess with his rank. [00:44:35] If you want me to do something, you got to do something to me. And then I’m going to like, it was a quid pro quo situation, but the guy or whoever was supposed to be in that position to help for these situations and circumstances. But going back to your original question, it didn’t happen to me physically, but I didn’t notice it where I could just see through the veil per se. [00:44:57] But a lot of those things are a big reason why I got pushed [00:45:00] out. But nowadays I am happy to see on social media and documentaries online that a lot Active duty or past male, male and female are speaking up about how common these things are. [00:45:10] Yes, I I really want to support our soldiers, of course, and being from a military family. [00:45:16] And I know that the military isn’t perfect and there’s some soldiers that had, PTSD and such. That’s probably the reason why I didn’t go into the military. Like some of my other family members is cause I was afraid to be honest. Of not being taken seriously, because I was a female and I didn’t want to, I honestly didn’t want to deal with that. [00:45:41] So I went a different direction, but now when you came out of the military and you’re now a fitness coach, how did you transition from that into what you’re doing now? [00:45:52] In middle school, I actually started writing fitness plans, training plans, nutrition plans for people. So I was doing that since middle school [00:46:00] just fitness and nutrition. [00:46:01] And then in the U S army, you have your job, which I did satellite communications. I was always a tech nerd, but I also love fitness. So the other position was master fitness trainer. So what that individual does, he or she leads the platoon with PT, physical training, and then also if somebody comes back from an injury and they gain weight. [00:46:24] I would train them on the basis of wherever we were to cut the weight. So they still have their scholarships, all their, basically all the perks and benefits, because you have to have certain height and weight and physical standards. So I would help them get back to that threshold. So they didn’t lose anything. [00:46:40] And so it was a combination, trained active duty, but then also helped individuals that either came back from injury and gain weight, came back from deployment and needed help physically or mentally. And then also somebody that may had a divorce and they’ve been binge drinking and they just need somebody to talk to. [00:46:56] Those are things that I did then. And it was empowering. It [00:47:00] was fulfilling, but I knew that I was get more fulfillment, but also make a bigger impact if I helped the general public. So with that being said, is I had a lot of experience with fitness and then also with the mindset shifts, which then I saw all the experiences gave me clear vision to go the route of coaching. [00:47:20] So nowadays it’s split between fitness and life coaching, but I’ve always believed that the mind and body have a connection. So that’s why I do both. And what got me into the life coaching was, I would see clients months or years later, and they would lose the progress, and I felt like it was my fault because I didn’t give him or her the tools, the mental tools, to shift that pattern. [00:47:42] So, it motivated me to say, hey, I don’t want to let anybody down, and I need to give them the tools. If they don’t go long term, deep down it’s their fault because they don’t want it, but nowadays, people less likely go backwards because we make that shift of whatever the trauma is. So it’s trauma release or just get rid of [00:48:00] vices. [00:48:00] If somebody has an addiction to something, a substance, something online, like whatever it is, I help them break that. So that way that they have their power back, that’s the whole intent is to give them their power back. So no past situation controls them, where it’s not just training plan and meal plan. [00:48:16] It’s, Hey, we need to fix this. And then everything else will come together. [00:48:21] I may be giving you a call after I get cleared for exercise because I’m starting over again. And like I mentioned before, we started, I gained 30 pounds and not that I have any issues with the way that I look, but I now have an [00:48:38] extra chin and now I’m pre diabetic. And so I don’t want to be there. [00:48:43] Exactly. [00:48:44] So I’m going to be starting from ground zero, like your military friends there. [00:48:50] So, Hey, I know you’ll make it happen. [00:48:52] I do believe that everybody that has been through abuse of all sorts, we all have power within us and we all get [00:49:00] gifts. [00:49:00] Yes, you have the saying be present in the pain and the stress. Unpack that a little bit. [00:49:07] Yes, great question. So, present in the pain, as in vices, are very common. So, I’ll give an example. If somebody feels stress and anxiety coming, just some common things that people do, grab the glass of wine, call the friend, just to have some social escape, turn on the TV, sit on the couch, take a nap because it’s too overwhelming. [00:49:31] In that initial moment when somebody’s about to do Something and it doesn’t have to be a negative thing, but when they’re just about to escape the thoughts or the feeling, I challenge them to just sit with it for a moment. The reason why is because if they’ve been escaping the feeling for most of their life, they’re never actually going to face it. [00:49:49] And it’s hard for that person to ever be ready to face it because they’ve conditioned their mind to always run from it. And we’re not calling them weak, we’re not calling them scared, but they’ve literally just trained their mind [00:50:00] to, oh, it’s starting, where’s the bottle, where’s my bed, where’s whatever it is, or let me call my friend. [00:50:06] So everybody has a escape to an extent. And it’s not always a negative vice, but it could be. But most important is to ask ourselves, am I always running from this thing, or do I actually face it? So that’s what I mean by that is just face it. So an example could be, do I need to sit in the pain and just let it play its course for five minutes? [00:50:28] And think of that moment, maybe that individual needs to cry for two or five minutes, and release. But if they just release and face it, they can feel calmer afterwards. Because at least they didn’t hold that thing the rest of the day, and they keep trying to run from it. So an analogy that I always like to think about is, I literally imagine that Satan, Lucifer, the devil, whatever we want to call, is on my back, whispering in my ear. [00:50:55] And I tell myself, the negative thought that is coming right now, the anxiety, is not me. [00:51:00] This is not happening to me right now. He feels that something good is about to happen, so he’s trying to get me to second guess myself. So I imagine that he’s literally latched onto my back. And then I play a game and I imagine that I’m like slamming him off like WWE Wrestling. [00:51:16] I’m slamming him off me. And then from there, I feel like excitement. But again, it’s just a perspective hop analogy where instead of me thinking that, yes, somebody has stress, anxiety, depression, et cetera, all these things are real, but how much power do we give these things or the people that cause these things from the beginning? [00:51:37] But yes, it’s to just sit with it for a moment because most people, they always escape it. And we’re not trying to live in it, but just sit in it for a couple of minutes and face it because you realize how much power you actually have. And eventually that thing stops having that much control of you. [00:51:54] We’re not going to say it’s going to totally disappear. You can release the trauma and you can still have the memories, but [00:52:00] you can also use it to your advantage. [00:52:01] I’m glad that you said that because the listeners of the podcast and people in the small groups that I lead, I definitely teach them that you cannot. [00:52:13] Avoid dealing with the trauma that you went through. You can’t cover it up with drugs or sex or working or shopping or whatever. You have to go through the fire. You can’t avoid it. Cause it’s gonna rear it’s ugly head up eventually. Oh yeah. Yeah, you try and stuff it down and pretend it doesn’t exist. [00:52:34] It’s gonna manifest in different ways. And you’re probably one of the few kids that didn’t do drugs and alcohol and sleep around and all that stuff to deal with your pain. You found healthy ways to deal with it. And push through. So yeah, we’re definitely on the same page there. [00:52:53] Oh yeah. I also just wanted to say that it could also be a good addiction. So an example, family and friends, [00:53:00] or just people in general would always say you’re addicted to fitness and I wasn’t doing anything unhealthy. I’ve never touched a performance enhancing drug, never any of that, but they didn’t realize that I was just chasing the mental calmness after the fact. [00:53:13] And I was living a high and the high was after the fact of fitness, where ideas, opportunities, people’s names, just all these things would just flood to me. And I feel like we have to earn that calmness. So it doesn’t come from the bottle, it doesn’t come from a pill, it doesn’t come from the caffeine that I bought earlier, it doesn’t come from any of that, it comes from doing the work to just push the body. [00:53:36] And it could be, if somebody hasn’t walked in a while, they could just walk in nature until they’re sweating, they’re like, Ah, I’m out of breath. And if they just pause for a moment and just look around, don’t grab their phone, they’ll be surprised what happens in that calm moment. When they’re like, wow, this is the first time I walked a mile or 10, 000 steps in years. [00:53:53] And then they just start looking at the trees, the birds, whatever’s around them. And if they just take a deep breath and close their eyes, [00:54:00] something’s gonna happen. God will speak to them, their ancestors, the grandmother that passed away the other month. Like, something spiritual is gonna happen to them, which wouldn’t have happened earlier because the mind was clouded by everything else. [00:54:14] But once we train and push, that stuff doesn’t exist for a moment because we’re calm. And then if we do the deep inner work, it’s way more effective. It’s if you have kids or a dog that’s not listening to you, exercise them and then try to train them or teach them. And it’s way easier where it’s literally the same analogy that we have to do that to ourselves. [00:54:33] Exactly. Cause people forget that. Like we do that to everyone else, but we got to start doing that to ourselves, wear ourselves out in a positive way with the workout and then just have calmness. And then also the confidence goes up because that individual says, wow, I went longer than usual. Usually I can only walk that far or jog that far. [00:54:52] And they just keep doing that where they build the confidence, they feel mentally calmer, their prayers, meditations and visual visualization [00:55:00] becomes deeper. And it’s like a win, and the rest of the day they feel more in control, rather than the drink makes them feel good, that makes them feel good, but the next day they regret it, and they overshadow the regret with something else, and they just stack negativity, and then they feel like they’re sinking and drowning in it. [00:55:18] Yeah, I definitely feel better after and I wouldn’t say I’m addicted to exercise, but I definitely have developed the discipline to do it because I’ll feel better afterwards. I don’t usually have fitness people on my show. I think I mentioned before we went live because they either have all this fluff that doesn’t really help people or it’s unhealthy. I used to watch the biggest loser until they had that one contestant that was [00:55:47] like she looked anorexic when she came out. I think she was like a hundred pounds soaking wet and I, realized they’re doing some really unhealthy things with, fitness and trying to lose weight. I mean, what were your [00:56:00] thoughts on the fitness industry around us? [00:56:02] So that show in particular, I’ve actually never watched a full episode, but just a lot of them that are in the media. [00:56:09] So full transparency. The doctors, Dr. Oz, all those individuals, people forget that they’re paid by all these companies to push products. So they’re all going to get a cut. So, and I don’t know them personally, so not bashing them, but I just want people to realize that because in college I worked at GNC and people would come in for the stuff that [00:56:32] all these individuals would mention and then I would say, I’m like, Hey, this is natural, but this over here is half the price and it has more of that ingredient. So at the time when I worked there, Garcinia Cambogia was popular. Green coffee bean extract was popular. Raspberry ketones, like all those things were popular and they do work. [00:56:52] They do work to an extent, but the brands that were pushed by these individuals, they had minimal amounts. Where it [00:57:00] didn’t really do anything for the person. Or let’s just say that they were chews. I would tell them like, you have to chew like 10 of these a day. The thing says eat two, but they want you to eat two, because you’re going to buy this for six months straight, and they make money off of you and all your friends. [00:57:13] And I would show them, I was like, if you get this bottle over here, it has 100 milligrams, you can just take one pill. It’s off brand, but it has way more. And at first they’d be like, thank you. And then others were like, no, I want what Dr. Oz said. I was like, hey. I just wanted you to see what the difference was. [00:57:28] If you look at nutritional facts and like, I never made my numbers with sales, cause I would do that. I would tell people, I’m like, Hey, this is the same thing, but it’s cheaper. And like, my boss was getting angry about that, but I had the most returning customers because I was just honest because I didn’t care about the commission. [00:57:44] I was like, I just wanted to learn about the products. But yes, so when it comes to the fitness industry in that regard, is that yes, some things can be extreme, and it can be overwhelming to people. So an example, they open up Instagram or YouTube, this gentleman [00:58:00] says, only eat liver, vegetables are bad. This individual says, go vegan. [00:58:04] This person says, go this route, go that route. Exactly. I don’t have any of that in my bio. Like there’s no type of diet, no lifestyle. I just say, what is something that you can do long term to live a better life? And every individual is slightly different. Like I have some clients, they don’t eat meat at all. [00:58:23] They don’t consider themselves vegans or vegetarians. They just don’t like meat because it makes them bloated. So then we structure things that work to what they feel good, and then they can make progress that way. So it’s not a particular diet, it’s more so each individual basis. Take into account those things and I’m bringing that up because when you hear an individual in the fitness space, whether they’re on TV or online, if they’re pushing something so hard, it’s because there’s a financial profit that they can gain, but also keep in mind that there’s never ever a one size fits all thing. [00:58:56] Because what works for this person might not work for the other, and we [00:59:00] have different body types, different ethnicities, body structure, and all those things. But if somebody really wants change, then they just have to sit down with someone and talk about their schedule, their eating habits. Why do they have this eating disorder? [00:59:13] Where did it come from? Were they bullied since they were seven, and that’s why they look at this snack in a negative way? Like, those real conversations, that is when you can pinpoint what the individual needs. And then they have clarity and they’re like, wow, I was this close to going keto or this close to doing this because I saw a post and this lady lost 50 pounds. [00:59:31] Yes, she probably did it. Yes, maybe she felt amazing. But look at these other thousands of people that did that diet. They get sick. Like, it’s just not sustainable. A lot of these things. So I just challenge people if they’re looking to start something, ask themselves, could I sustain this? As a lifestyle, or it’s just good for 30 days for this upcoming family reunion. [00:59:53] If it is that cool, if that’s what you want to do, but I always challenge people to think of [01:00:00] long term health and lifestyle, whatever’s going to help you long term is going to be the best thing for you. [01:00:05] Yeah, I tried Keto. I was on Keto for three or four months. I did a vegan for eight months. [01:00:14] I’ve done intermittent fasting. I didn’t lose anything from any of those diets. The only thing that had ever worked was calorie restriction and exercise. And… As you say, my, my primary care physician was a smart man. He says, make changes that you can sustain for a long time. Instead of, going to CrossFit, you can’t sustain CrossFit unless you’re like, like you and the military that’s, or your mom that does pushups for breakfast. [01:00:44] Oh yeah, exactly. It’s not my thing, CrossFit. I’ll do martial arts, but I don’t really want to do CrossFit. [01:00:52] Oh yeah I’m the same way. A lot of nothing against CrossFit, if any CrossFitters are listening, but I’ll just put it this way. If somebody’s looking to join a [01:01:00] gym or something, look in there and see if a lot of people have injuries, and that’ll tell you a lot about the training style. [01:01:06] Yeah, I’ve had a lot of injuries and I’ve had to stop doing certain things because of injuries. [01:01:11] I know we, we talked about a lot of different things today. We were all over the map. Is there anything that, that we didn’t talk about that you wanted to tell the audience today? No, honestly, I was open to talk about any topic, but I just wanted to give different perspectives. [01:01:27] And my whole intent is for somebody to walk away with one or two golden nuggets. Where they say I want to try that. Or that’s something that interests me. That’s just my whole intent with the whole conversation, but I appreciate your depth of the questions and everything. And I know sometimes I’ll go on a tangent, but I just try to express it all. [01:01:48] So tell folks how they want to learn some more from you. [01:01:55] Yeah, for sure. So my website is fitwithderick. com. D E [01:02:00] R I C K. One R. So fitwithderick. com. What they’ll see there is pictures and videos of clients, different ages, different body types, but also the reason I like to show videos is they talk about their journey. [01:02:14] Not just fitness, some individuals are already in shape, but they struggled overcoming addictions. They struggled with their self perception or their relationship with the food. And you could hear their stories. You could see their smiles, feel their energy. So I just like to show real things because social media, there’s a lot of Photoshop. [01:02:31] So again, I say real people, real results. So I just guide people to break patterns. That’s mainly what I’ll do is just, if somebody has a pattern where they feel stuck and they hit a ceiling. We can pinpoint what that ceiling is, why you’re at that ceiling and break that pattern. So then you can start to feel like you’re thriving, not just in one area, because some people they crush it in career and business and sales, but they neglect their body. [01:02:58] Or they have a six pack, but then [01:03:00] they neglect this. Or, like, there’s always an area that we could all work on, myself included, but that’s my favorite thing about it. And then on social media, it would just be Derick Johnson on any app, and then it should pop up as Fit with Derek 2. Fit with Derek with the number 2. [01:03:15] Well, I really enjoyed our conversation. I love your mindset. I appreciate it. And the perspective that you brought to the conversation was very unique. And hopefully the folks listening will contact you to get fit or get help with some life issues that you mentioned and definitely stay in touch. [01:03:35] Okay? [01:03:36] Definitely. I appreciate it, Diana. Thank you for having me. Thanks for coming. [01:03:40] Thank you for listening to the Wounds of the Faithful podcast. If this episode has been helpful to you, please hit the subscribe button and tell a friend. You can connect with us at DSW Ministries. org where you’ll find our blog along with our Facebook, Twitter, and our YouTube [01:04:00] channel links. Hope to see you next week!