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PODCAST Adam Guthrie: From heart attack patient to Iron Man
I was lucky enough to be in the audience to hear Adam speak as part of the Nutrition in Health Symposium in Melbourne last month. His journey from heart attack patient to Iron Man was incredibly moving and inspiring. He totally filled the room with his energy and passion.
Until I heard him speak that night I didn’t know much about him and of course when a bit of time opened up the following day I jumped at the chance to sit down with him. I hadn’t prepared a single question, talking point or note, we just decided to wing it and I really could not be happier with the conversation that followed. We laughed, we cried, we took a deep dive into addiction, mindfulness and emotion.
I’m now proud to call Adam a friend, I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
Spud Up!
Andrew
USEFUL LINKS:
Adam’s website – www.ifeelgoodprograms.com
Louise Hay – You Can Heal Your Life
CONTENT:
WHO IS ADAM GUTHRIE…..(00:02:16)
AFFIRMATIONS AND THE EFFECTS OF CONSISTENT MEDITATION…..(00:24:05)
SHIFTING BELIEFS FOR THE BETTER…..(00:40:29)
FUTURE PLANS AND CONCLUSION…..(00:48:16)
Adam Guthrie: From heart attack patient to Iron Man
G’day everyone and welcome to episode 4 of the Spud Fit podcast with Adam Guthrie. What an honor it was to sit down with Adam. He was a, he’s an amazing inspirational guy with uh with an incredible story to tell and it’s a real pleasure to be able to share that with you today. I met Adam at the Doctor Kim Williams Symposium, uh, he was one of the speakers there and he really, really did a great job of inspiring and motivating the room and I think uh, drew more than a few tears out of the audience to so. And he did it again during this podcast just quietly. Uh, so I’m really excited to share this conversation with you a really enjoyed talking to Adam. I could talk to him all day long and I think just his message is one that needs to be heard and especially for those that are have suffered with heart disease of any kind. This is a a really amazing and inspirational story of recovery.
Before we get onto that though, if you want to. Find out more about me and what I’m doing, then you can go to www.spudift.com. You can buy a book called The DIYs but fit challenge, which will help you to do your own Spud Fit Academy.
It’s got all sorts of information about the uh, the hows and whys and all of that to do with. D
doing your own Spud Fit Academy as well as lots of uh psychological tips and tips for dealing with cravings. That’s spudfit.com. Also, I have to thank my wife Mandy and for doing the theme music for this podcast, which you’ll hear in just a second when I shut my big fat mouth, uh until that if you’re interested in finding out more about her then you can go to mandyvanzanon.com. And you’ll learn more about her and the amazing music that she’s made in her past and continues to make. Thank you Mandy.
All right. Adam Guthrie, episode 4 of the Spud Fit podcast. Here we go!
WHO IS ADAM GUTHRIE
Andrew: We’re on I’m uh, we’re talkin with Adam Guthrie. I spoke with Adam Guthrie a little bit last night at a Doctor Kim Williams event, the nutrition in healthcare Symposium. And uh, I was going to start telling your story for you then but I should hear it from you shouldn’t I so-
Adam: ????
Andrew: Before we start though. I have to explain that for the other interviews. I’ve done I’ve had a lot of uh, not a lot of time but I at least done some research before we started and uh, and I’ve had some notes in my book of things topics. I wanted to cover and questions but this sort of came up spur the moment.
So I’ve heard you talk last night and apart from that. I don’t really know a whole lot about you. So let’s wing it and see what happens. Okay?
Adam: Sounds good. We’ll get to know each other.
Andrew: All right, so. Who is Adam gaffer?
Adan:Who’s Adam Guthrie? It’s a big question. Um, I’ll probably start that with um, who am I now? Because there’s been a lot of shifts over the last 30 years.
Yeah, and but who am I now I’m a person who, who am I now? I’m a heart attack survivor. That’s what I am and now I share um that story of how recovered from a heart attack. To give people some inspiration and hope and know that there’s another way of healing rather than just taking medications. And I’m really committed to sharing with people on how they can reverse heart disease through a whole food plant-based diet because that’s exactly what I did and I was able to get off all medications in 6 to 12 months of having a heart attack and then I went on to do an Ironman Triathlon. I was a 110 kilos and now I’m 80 kilos. So it’s been a quite interesting Journey. Now I share that with people and teach them how to-
Andrew: And I was I was lucky enough to be in the audience last night while you shared your story with a large group of people and um, it was a really moving story and I enjoyed listening to it, it was inspiring and uh, Yeah, that’s the chance to sit down with you and talk more about it as something I couldn’t pass up one spot in my calendar opened up my busy schedule. So yeah, I’m totally uh, I’m inspired after hearing that still I think and uh, yeah, I’ve said a few times now that last year I’m Spud Fit, you know, last year was all about the spuds. This year it’s time to put the fit in Spud Fit. So I’m especially interested in hearing about you know training for your ironman and things like that.
But let’s take it back to the beginning. Uh, so you talked about uh, uh surfing, morning. You mate rang you up one morning. So, tell us what happened.
Adam: Yeah, mate rang me one morning back in 2009. He said, “Adam, Surf’s Up. I’ll meet you in the car park. In 15 minutes down at the beach.” So I went down there and the surf is huge. No one’s out but the car parks are full, everyone’s watching the surf and he and I decided to go out with a couple of the mates. We paddled out. And I pedaled him to the first wave and called a nice wave. And as I was paddling back out. I saw on the horizon this huge swell building and I thought to myself if I don’t get over these waves. I’m going to be in a lot of trouble.
Andrew: This is already quite interesting to me this point because you said you 110 kilos 35 odd kilos overweight. Uh, and, was that right? 30-35? you were way too heavy. Yeah, um, but you’re still an active guy you’re out surfing and you know, you gotta be reasonable fit to be out surfing.
Adam: I wasn’t that fit and and I in actual fact, I always used to ride a short board. And I just go into a longboard couldn’t handled the short board anymore.
Andrew: Maybe couldn’t hold you up anymore, so-
Adam: Yeah, that’s right. And that’s what that’s what scared me because with a longboard in really big surf, hard to handle, and I think to myself gosh, if I don’t get over these waves, I’m gonna like, I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced, um being held under waves from time.
Andrew: Yeah I’ve surfed as well. Maybe not as much as you but I surf.
Adam: Yeah, so I um it, you know scared that if I didn’t get over, I’m not fit. I haven’t been doing any exercise for a long time. I’d have a surf maybe once a month and but I’ve gotta be small surf and fun. But I have surfed since I was 12 so, I’m a quite competent surfer. But I wont to say I’m a great surfer. I know what I’m doing. I have fun doing it. That’s what it’s all about. But I do like big surfs. I like to paddle into bigger waves than smaller ones. And um, I thought if I don’t get out of these waves, I’m gonna be in a lot of trouble being held under and so I thought I don’t want that to happen.
So I wanted to paddle out as fast as I could. So I paddled and got over the first one and got out of the second one, and paddle, paddle, paddle. Got over the third one and then the fourth one was the biggest of the set which is always the case in surfing and I got over that, um, third one and then the other ones like a mountain and I’m paddling up.
And just as it starts to cool over, that’s the danger zone.
Andrew: Yeah, that’s when you’re gonna get flipped back.
Adam: Totally and and I thought I’ve got to give it everything. I gave it everything. Punch through the lip of the wave got to the other side and then bang, I’ve got this pain in my chest and down my arm and I thought to myself I pulled a muscle and um, anyway, the pain was there for a bit.
Andrew: ??? common thing. I don’t know people that have had heart attacks. Is it common I guess. Yeah, if you’re sitting on the couch, you’re not going to think you pulled a muscle from sitting on the couch.
Adam: No, you’re not. It’s paddling like that you feel, Oh god, I’ve just pushed it too hard.
Andrew: That makes sense too.
Adam: Yeah, so I went in came home and thought I’d better get it checked out, get a massage or something. Yeah, and um, I had a shower, went downstairs sat down to do some paperwork and then, It really happens. I sat down and then I just got this crushing pain in my chest just like um, it felt like someone was sitting on me and I couldn’t get off and I was pinned down, I was crushing and really intense pain. And I had this cold sweat and I felt really sick like nausea like I’ve never felt before. And I had this pain just running down my left shoulder blade right down my arm. And um, I’ve never felt like that before and I didn’t know what was happening to him and it was quite scary.
Andrew: They didn’t know it was a heart attack yet. No, I didn’t know the symptoms. Yeah, and um, so I rang my wife and she said, um, and said to her look, you know, something’s wrong. Um, can you take the hospital? And she said to me, Adam don’t worry you’re just having a heart attack. But not a heart attack, Don’t worry Adam. You’re just having a panic attack she said to me not, yeah, freudian slip there. Anyway, so she said um, I said to her no, something’s really wrong. Can you um, can you take me to the hospital and she’s said look, I’ll be home in 30 minutes so we’ll go to the hospital. She took me to the um, she said look, I’m um, I got off the phone from her and I said, and I thought to myself, I said to myself, Something’s really wrong. I’m not right. So I rang my mother-in-law who lives down the road and she came and picked me up and took me to the hospital and then I got to the hospital and I walked in and they rushed me straight into a bed and they put all these gadgets on me stuck needles in me took all this blood.
And then I came back sometime later. I don’t know exactly how many minutes but they came back and said Adam you’ve had a heart attack and I said to them, “You gotta be kidding.I can’t have a heart attack. I’m a vegetarian and I’ve been vegetarian like for 30 years, 20 years, you know, how can a vegetarian have heart attacks, they’re not meant to!”
Andrew: That’s a rude shock there.
Adan: I was only 39 as well. So I thought you know, how can this happen it’s a rude shock and scary I didn’t know what to make of it.
Andrew: Absolutely that would, yeah, to think that you’re someone that’s got no risk of a heart attack suddenly having one. You know, just being out surfing the morning, you’re a healthy guy. Or you probably think you’re ahealthy guy anyway, you know.
Adam: Well, that’s an interesting point. I did think I was a healthy guy, even though I was big and I looked back at the before, you know, my before photos. And I can’t believe how big I was because in my mind, I thought I was still. You know, um, I thought I was in shape. I felt like I was good. I thought I was a strong vegetarian. Some big but I was full of muscle. But I wasn’t.
Andrew: I can relate to that too. Because you know, I grew up as a I was in a junior long-distance kayaker and you know, once I finished with that then, I played local footy and then I was always a little bit overweight, but I was an athlete and that idea that I was an athlete sort of never left me even though clearly was not anything close to an athlete you know? A year and a bit ago, I still would tell myself that I was.
Adam: And you believe it!
Andrew: That sometimes, some time or another you just got to accept it. I used to be an athlete, you know? I
Adam: can relate to that too. And I was really active and I was young I used to like rugby league and I was cricket, and everything sporting I was into. And when you and I just love to run. When I was younger, It was a cool cool thing, but when you get older you, um get into you know, work and it sort of takes over. It’s really, I put on most of the weight when I became vegetarian. When I became vegetarian I was 21, when I became a vegetarian. Um, but it wasn’t, I was a very healthy vegetarian. I was in good shape. Yeah up until. Um, I turned 30 and then I started to put on weight because I was working a lot. Seven days a week, Long hours always in the car. My car was my office and I’d be pulling into service stations and going grabbing bottles of coke and chips and chocolate bars. I was vegetarian and I just put on this weight, you know, and I love to eat and it’s interesting.
You know, I’ve heard a few of your podcasts and your Vlogs and. And it’s really interesting about the emotional eating and, I was in a situation where I wasn’t satisfied in my work and how my life was and it wasn’t the picture I had for myself at that point in time. And um during that time I put a lot of weight, um, because I was trying to cover up this emotion that was trying to surface and I don’t want to look at that emotion, deal with that emotion.
Andrew: Exactly. I can totally relate to that too. It’s like, you know you, if you, it’s hard, I don’t blame you for it because it’s hard dealing with these negative emotions or these, you know, whatever issues are going on in your life.
It’s hard to face them and you know stare them down so to speak and you know, it’s hard to work through this stuff. That’s how much easier to have a box of ice cream and you know?.
Adam: Did you sit there and just eat a whole box in front of the TV watching a movie? Yeah, every night.
Andrew: It’s it’s easy. That’s the easy way out isn’t it? And you know, it doesn’t actually fix anything but you don’t think that at the time you think, This ice cream’s good. I’m glad I have to think about that shit day I had.
Adam: Yeah, I feel you. I know exactly how that feels and I used to I don’t know about you but pizza was my thing as well.
Andrew: Yeah, I was big on pizza as well.
Adam: Oh, yeah, two big pizzas, vegetarian pizzas cheese, and I go through two a night you know, like yeah, two-three nights a week.
Andrew: I would have had a large pizza to myself and probably a leader of ice cream and a liter of Coke to go with it as well. Those are the days.
Adam: I’m really glad they’re gone now because it led to a heart attack for me.
You know, that’s where I ended up. Um, but um, I had you know, let’s come back to the heart attack. Yeah, so they they told me I had a heart attack. They airlifted me from Shell Haven Hospital on the south coast of New South Wales to Sydney and to do an angiogram and when they had the, did the angiogram they discovered that.
The inside wall of my artery had torn this little flap was hanging off the inside wall and the blood clot happened to try and heal that tear and that stoppped the blood flow and that little tear had started to happen just where plaque was building up underneath the artery wall. And apparently most heart attacks happen at that early stage of plaque build up. Ff you watch Forks Over Knives, Caldwell Esselstyn explains it in there.
Yeah, and that’s how a lot of heart attacks happen. And that’s why you see really fit guys getting these heart attacks.
Andrew: Yeah, I often hear about um, you know, who is the guy, It was a long time ago now. Crazy John the uh, telephone. Yeah. I’m about to I’m not trying to make light of it but he was you know, big successful businessman, fit looking guy. Out for a walk one morning and just drop dead of a heart attack and like, seemingly nothing was wrong with him. It was in good health. And uh, yeah imagine it was something along the similar lines to what happened to you that-
Adam: Yeah exactly. He had no idea was coming and I I’ve heard of you know, triathletes and other athletes. Super fit on top of their game. Look like amazing, you know really super fit guys and they’ll be on their ride and they have a heart attack. And Caldwell Esselstyn, Um, I’m pretty sure if I watch it again, so um, it’s, he says that once you get past that time if you don’t have a heart attack in those early stages, it’s a long time before you have a heart attack when the plaque starts to build up and block the arteries. Um, and then you know, that’s when you’re in your 60s and 70s where it happens. So, I’ll sort of um, pretty unfortunate happened. But I’m very fortunate that I’m still alive. It’s not many people-
Andrew: Depends which way you look at it, you know? iI you didn’t have that, you know, obviously no one wants to have a heart attack, but if you didn’t have that heart attack, you know, what road would you have gone down?
You know that was, that was a life-changing thing for you and uh, you know, Maybe you would have just continued on down the road if you didn’t, if that didn’t happen. So, you know 20-20 hindsight perhaps it was a good thing that you had the heart attack.
Adam: Well, it was a good thing. Yeah, because you know, I’m really happy.
Yeah. I haven’t like, I’ve never been this happy like, I’ve come to a point in my life where um, Yeah, all of a sudden gratitude is one of my daily routines and just so grateful to be here.
Andrew: That’s a really good attitude. Yeah.
Adam: Yeah, and it feels good and it’s been a lot of work to get to that point, you know, um, there’s a lot of things you have to cope with mentally and either come those and in actual fact, my whole life has been a bit of a roller coaster.
So I remember even as a kid, I was always searching for something I didn’t um, no. I just always feel uncomfortable in my skin. You know, I always felt uncomfortable around people even I quite gregarious now and um, you know, I love to talk and um, but I’m actually an introvert. But I’ve learned how to do that and even being a um, when I’m out there in the extrovert Adam, I have to retreat and go into a cave and to recharge because it drains me.
Andrew: I’m the same. I do, I didn’t before but now that I’ve sort of been forced to get used to being out and talking to people and uh, you know a bit like you get up on stage and you bare your soul to a room full of strangers. It’s a hard thing to do and I do enjoy it now. But yeah, like I need to uh have my time to you know, go for a run by myself or a ride or you know, I have some alone time to recharge. I think that’s a common introvert kind of thing.
Adam: It is definitely is and that’s just the introvert trait and that’s okay and you learn to accept that um, and you know as a kid, I was really shy, I used to hide behind my mum’s leg, when she’s talking to something. I was just so shy and um, but um, yeah as a kid, I was always thinking there’s got to be more. I was asking the big questions. Why are we here? Where do we come from? What is it all about? As a kid growing up. I never shared that with anybody until now actually. I was hung-
Andrew: That’s a privilege.
Adam: Yeah. Well you make people feel really comfortable. Um, and so I um, Yeah, and that actually led to a lot of my change happened when I was 21 and actually the biggest change to happen on my 21st birthday.
Andrew: Yeah, and that was when you said you went vegetarian too, when you’re 21, and yeah what led to that then? what made you-
Adam: Well on my 21st, I used to when I was young I started drinking when I was 12 years old. I’m actually an alcoholic. Yeah, and I can’t have a drink. Otherwise, I’m um, I can’t control it. I have one and I can’t stop and if I keep drinking I will, um when I was younger I would end up in a fight every time. And it’s not very nice. Yeah, um, and you know, yeah anyway, actually that’s um, and that makes me quite nervous talkin about that, but that’s the truth. No, but I’m happy to share it.
Um, so I’m actually an alcoholic and um, but I drank, started drinking with us 12 been drinking every weekend with my mates, but on my 21st birthday we had this massive big party at my mum and dads. We had a small acre tree where I grew up and all my mates and it was a big big I never really took I never took drugs really, anything.
It’s just alcohol i was into. Yeah, and um, anyway, I was wasted this night and I had um, I was in a relationship and I told her to leave that night. Yeah, and um, and then Angie did um, and I was regretful for it, saying it. And that put me into a bit of spins. So for the next three months, I was just preparing drunk. I’d wake up in the morning drinking, I go to bed after midnight drinking. And I just lived off T-bone steaks and actually chips and ???. And as a result, I put on a lot of weight and I remember sitting in a pub one night, three months later in the corner. All by myself, drinking beer, looking around and being so paranoid that every person in that room was looking at me, and talkin about me and I just got weird and I left and I thought to himself if I’d, I’m either going to die tonight. And if I don’t die, I’m going to change my life and um, so I. I didn’t commit suicide and I woke up in the morning and I’m like, I said, that’s it.
And then someone had told me about a book You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay.
And I went the neck that day and went and bought that book, but my self-esteem was so low with that point. I couldn’t walk into the shop. This is too embarrassed for the title. You can hear your life, there’s something wrong in my life. So I walked into the shop and um, I went past five or six times pass to the shop and I said no, I have to do this.
I walked straight in and I went to this and brought it and brought it back to the counter and put it face down. Anyway, I went home and I took a month off work and I was a chef at the time. I’m actually a qualified chef. Yeah, and I went through, I went through the, all the programs in there and all the exercises and she talked about working on your body, your mind, and your spirit. And I thought well the bodies out of shape. I’m gonna work on that.
Andrew: Well, three months of steak and drinking will do that.
Adam:Yeah, exactly. So when it’s all natural pass and I said, look, I’m looking at this book, you know working on buying money and spirit. Can you help me with my body? I’m going to do the affirmations and work on the line with her. I’ll get to the spiritual stuff later. So she got me started and I started feeling good and it was all more plant-based food. I started reading books and vegetarianism, and etc. And I came across Anthony Robbins at the time and he was vegetarian and that. So I jumped into the vegetarian thing almost immediately and I got lost, a lot of weight quickly. I felt great and all this energy and then. I started working on the mind with a layout formations that she talks about and that was helping with my mindset.
AFFIRMATIONS AND THE EFFECTS OF CONSISTENT MEDITATION
Andrew: Can you talk us through that process a little bit. Affirmations, yeah. That’s something that uh, you know, the mind is a big area of interest for me and uh, yeah, so I want, I enjoy hearing about what other people do to improve the way their mind works.
Adam: Okay. Well, she takes you through a series of exercises and it actually, with her work, It’s, she takes you to the point where you realize it’s all it’s just your internal, um affirmation that I’m not good enough. Yeah, I’m just not good enough. And she gets you to that point where you realize, that that’s what’s controlling everything that I feel like I’m not good enough. And then she gives you affirmation. She’s all about how the um physical illness starts with a thought. Yeah, then she takes you through certain exercises and she’s actually got scripts where you’ve got this illness. You’ve got this pain somewhere. There’s a thought that’s creating that and then she’s got a corresponding, there’s a thought pattern that you’ve got which is a negative one that’s creating that. And then you add, you can switch that thought pattern with an empowering affirmation that will reprogram the mind. And then that stops that thought for manifesting.
Andrew: That’s cool. That’s that’s something that I worked on myself. Uh, when I first started making my big changes and you know now that I’m working with other people as well. It’s a similar thing. It’s, I don’t call it affirmations or anything. I don’t really have a name for it, but it’s you know, people when you’re taking on a big challenge trying to change something, there’s always these negative thoughts that I’m not good enough.
I can’t do that or you know, what if I fail, you know, What if I fail? That’s a really big one for people you know, I’m not good at this. I’m going to fail, I’m gonna let people down or whatever and I try to, I start obviously, I started with myself and I say to other people, you got to start changing the way you’re thinking and start, you know, when you find yourself thinking what if I fail, what if this goes wrong? What if what if what if. Start thinking about what if I succeed and what if what if everything I do I’m trying to do works out, then what?You know get excited about the possibility of success rather than you know, trying to just be negative all the time. What if things go wrong, Well, if things go wrong, then nothing really. You’ve just exactly the same thing that’s happening now will still be happening.
But what if you succeed that’s that’s the big thing.
Adam: And it’s exciting when that happens. If you shift that just one word, just a different question in your mind, and that creates hope and you get excited about it. Yeah, so, you know, I recommend her book because um, you know, if anyone’s listening grab it and go through her exercises and you learn all about affirmation in there.
Andrew: I’ll try and find and put a link in in the podcast page and go look it up.
Adam: Yeah. So then, you know, that was all, I was becoming happier and I’ll starting to change. Um opportunities coming my way and just everything looking out for this was cool. And then I went to my naturopath and I said to her, Look I’ve gone through the body and the mind everything’s working. This is three or four months down the tracks. I said but you know, I want to work on spirituality now she’s talked about that and she gives different options around that but I said to my naturopath, I said, Look, I’ve just grown up as a Catholic. And I went to Catholic schools. And that’s all I know about spirituality. What do you know? She said, “Adam, there’s a whole library in my reception area all on Eastern philosophy. Pick a book. Take it out read it and if you got any questions about anything and I’m happy to talk you through it.” So a book I pulled out was called liberation of the soul. It was based on a um, a philosophy in India called Sharat Shabbat Yoga, which is um, it’s a yoga, it’s a meditation yoga which helps you come in contact with the soul. Yeah. Well what they say is the soul. Which is an energy that is flowing through you and I. it’s the same energy. It’s actually the energy that sustains every living thing. And teaches you how to come and contact that. And that energy manifests enlightened sounds and then they teach you how to listen to that sound and follow that sound and light back to its source. Which is where you come from. It’s pretty deep.
Andrew: That is pretty deep.
Adam: But I got, It just grabbed me, you know? And um, um, so I explored that and I followed that philosophy to this day and the principles of that philosophy are, eat
a vegetarian diet with no eggs and and or even a vegan diet. And live a moral life. No drugs or alcohol because it affects the mind. You can’t still the mind in meditation. If you’re under influence of that. It takes over, you know, pour some alcohol in there you go do things that will create Bad Karma.
Andrew: Yeah, you know meditation, yoga, It’s about giving you mind still isn’t it? You know, how can you keep mind still when you’re, when you’re drunk. You can’t keep any part of you still let alone your mind.
Adam: Yeah. So um, and then it’s um, and then, you know a couple of hours meditation a day.
Andrew: Couple of hours. Do you still do that now?
Adam: I still do that now. Yeah, it takes some yeah, it’s part of my daily routine. Yeah, um, um used to get up at three in the morning do it. Now it’s more like five to 7:30, you know, sometimes when you-
Andrew: I tried to get into meditation many times and I will again, but uh, you know, I’ve tried doing 10 minutes a day and even that is hard, you know, I really love the idea of meditation. I love everything I’ve read about it and talkin to people like you and I had a good conversation with James Aspie about meditation to him. Yeah, it’s really something that I want to get more into. It’s just hard, you know.
Adam: Well it is hard and when I first started meditating it was um, I couldn’t sit still for two seconds. But what’s interesting is like, um, the good analogy people can’t see this, but I’ll explain it to them, I’m holding a glass of water and if you can imagine the glass as the body, yeah and the water inside being the mind, so, if you move this glass the mind keeps moving. And the purpose of meditation is to still the mind. So as soon as you still the body though, you put the glass down on the table and let it go. Yeah, what happens to the water? What happens to the water?
Andrew: Yeah gradually it become still. Slightly, bit by bit and watching it now, there’s some little ripples and there’s a little bit of a vibration on the top and now, it’s just becoming totally still. That’s a really good analogy.
Adam: So if you still the body, the mind will still. So, but the beauty of me doing the meditation it um, it helped me with my anxiety that I had. Anyway, that’s a big part of my life and it’s always in my life.
Andrew: Keeping with that, You’ve just made me think because um, you know often when I’ve uh when I’ve been trying to get that meditation habit going and uh, uh for whatever reason of skip today and and I’ve always told myself, Well, it’s okay. You’re gonna go for a ride or go out in the kayak and that sort of like active meditation. Which I believe active meditation is a it’s a cool thing. Oh, there’s no doubt. There’s something to it. But um, yeah, I haven’t, you know, my body’s not still is it, so yeah, the my mind can be still, more still than normal I guess. But it’s never going to reach that stage where your glass of water is now unless I stop and see it.
Adam: Yeah, and you know the beauty about stopping, instead sitting in becoming really still is that your intuition rises? You start to get more intuitive about what foods you should eat, and what foods make you feel good and what environment you’re living in, how that affects you. An intuition with making decisions, you know? Things come across and you just know that this is what I have to do and you trust it. You actually start to be aware of your intuition and you start to get a trust that, Yeah, that is because what happened to me in the past, I would, things would come away and I get confused and then I would be I should I do it, should I do it, should I do it, should I do it and we just go around circles make a decision. But the more I meditated now more I know when it’s given intuition and I get a feeling in my body. And I know what that feeling is that sort of you might, sort of down here and then into my gut down my left side where my heart is, from my heart and down and when I get that, okay, go that’s it. And I’ve also learnt when to test if it’s intuition. Don’t act on it straight away. Leave it a day. And if it’s still there, then leave it another day if it’s still there, leave it another day and let it go for two weeks. And if it’s still there, something will show up and give it to you. Hands it to you and then runs with it. It’s important not to, it’s important acts sometimes and intuition tell you to act sometimes straightaway and sometimes intuition say no just hold off and test it and see if it’s right.
Andrew: So maybe. You know your thoughts about uh, you know, should I do it, should I do it, should I, you know, it’s it comes from you know, you’re having some sort of internal debate going on. There’s reasons why you should and reason’s why you should. Do you find that, um that you know meditation and being more aware of your thoughts allows you to tell which of the which side of the debate is bullshit? Basically you just, you can you know, maybe you quiet the debate quickly, rather than listening to breaths as you can easily pick up on you know, which sides trying to argue for something that’s good for you and which sides not?
Adam: Yeah, you definitely do end up knowing the difference. Yeah, and you don’t question it anymore. It’s just the feeling you get you go act on it now. Do the action and just let it, let it unfold and sometimes that’s scary. To take that action in that direction. Um, but you just know it’s going to work out. Yeah, you know, you know and it might not work out the way you think it’s going to work out. But it’s something you, that’s the other thing that I’ve learned that meditation has helped me understand. And that is that I’ve learned from it is that um, you can’t control the events in your life. But the only thing that you can have control over is your thought and your attitude to what happens. Something you might think that, this is bad situation that’s happened to you. Or you might think it’s a good thing that’s happened to you, but the um, but the, And if it happens bad people go, you know, it’s so terrible and so bad but actually that could be the best things ever happened to you.
So you stopped-
Andrew: Your heart attacks are perfect example. Yeah, at the time I’m sure you were devastated about it. But yeah, you know, you can only really judge any situation with the benefit of hindsight and if you try to judge it. You know, in the moment, and there’s a good chance tou’re going to get your judgment wrong.
Adam: That’s right and accepting, accepting the situation is that everything, you know accepting it as is, as it has meant to be that way and then that once you accept, I find that it allows you then to move forward. Okay, that’s okay and now, we can move forward positive.
Andrew: For me that was massive with my journey as well. Just accepting that, like I said, I’m not an athlete, it’s time to accept that. I’m not healthy. It’s time to accept that. A big thing was a I had to accept that, I couldn’t be trusted with food and I you know, I’ve got to make some rules here and I don’t do anything outside those rules because if I try to make a decision, It’s probably going to be wrong. So Its just time to accept that and just deal with the situation and yeah, so I love that your thoughts on you know acceptance as well. Just accept the situation and do something about it. Act rather than, rather than sitting and thinking and worrying and whatever do something. \
Adam: Exactly. You know, I think last time I talked I said, you know, Action separates the doers from the talkers and things happen.
Andrew: Yeah, you had that slide last night with the four squares and I can’t remember all the words that were in the squares, but I, that, when you talk about action that really resonated with me, you just reminded me of that part of your talk. Can we go? That’d be cool because that was that was one of my. Uh, yeah, one of my favorite bits of what you spoke about was that that Four square anyway, you can explain it.
Adam: So, it’s all about your beliefs. Is what that little frame is about. So what ,I one of the things that I worked on to recover actually, this is a good segue back into, you know recovering from the heart attack to doing ironman, but um one of the um, One of the things I worked on to recover from a heart, from the heart attack was my beliefs about something. And the reason why the beliefs came about thought about beliefs came about was because when, after I got out of thehospital, I took the medications and um, religiously I was given five. And then after a month, you’ve got to see the cardiologist. And the cardiologist said to me, um, I sat down with him and I said, look, I’m not feeling too good. I’m really feeling flat. My mojos gone. Yeah, and he said to me, um, well Adam, it’s some side effects, but you need to get used to these, you’re going to be on these medications for the rest of your life. And I said, well, I don’t want to be, I don’t want to feel like this rest of my life. Yeah, and he said, Well, it’s your lot in life. So you need to get used to it.” In my head I went, I don’t think so. And I left there I came and researched and I came across, you know Forks Over Knives, plant based diet and I went on the plant-based diet and Forks Over Knives was a good thing to shift my belief system about what was possible because, this little Matrix that I have, It’s like what I realized that our beliefs what we believe about something, affects the decisions that we make. Yeah and the decisions that we make, determine the action that we take. And the action that we take determines the result that we produce. And then our results reinforce our belief systems.
And this little sort of circle can go in two ways. If you have a limiting belief about something let’s say that you have a limiting belief that I’m going to be on medications for the rest of my life and heart disease can’t be reversed. Then with that sort of belief, what sort of decision do you think you’re going to make? Well, you’re not going to make a decision to take some action to get off medications because you believe that can’t happen which means you’re not going to take the action of getting off medication which reinforces the belief that you rre gonna be on these medications but the opposite is true. So if you have this belief like is possible to get off medications. It is possible and doing an Ironman Triathlon Triathlon after, after a heart attack. And that you can lose all this weight and you can feel amazing. If you had that sort of belief, what sort of decision are you gonna make?
You’re gonna make a decision to take some action to try and make it happen. Yeah, and then you produce the result and then you, that just reinforces the belief and you get fitter, healthier and better and better.
SHIFTING BELIEFS FOR THE BETTER
Andrew: So how do we change our beliefs then? Where does that come from? I guess it started with Forks Over Knives for you?
Adam: Yes, that’s one of the things if you have a look at a let’s say a belief is like a tabletop. Yeah, and then you need legs under that table to hold it up. So beliefs sort of hold up the table. So you come across a reference like Forks Over Knives, which shows other people had done it. That gave me a belief, a reference that it could be done.
There’s one leg under the table Yeah. Okay, and then you come across somebody else or a bit of science or a bit of this, all these little references start to give you a belief that it can happen. Just once you get four legs the tables not gonna roll.
Andrew: Take some effort though. You can’t sit and wait for those beliefs to come to you. You got to go looking for, looking for the information for yourself.
Adam: And yeah, and there’s many techniques with um to shift beliefs with, you know, that psychologists and psychiatrists and counselors and things can help shift. But um, but it’s important to work on shifting your beliefs. So I shifted my belief for that, the heart attack and I thought I can get off medications when I saw that.
Andrew: So it’s not just a matter of like, sitting in the mirror like sitting in sorry, standing there bathroom looking in the mirror and saying, I believe I can run them out, do an Ironman Triathlon. I believe it, if I believe it I can achieve it. It’s, it’s let’s go and find some evidence that it’s possible more than you know, Just trying to talk yourself into it.
Adam: Yeah. Well, there’s still a good start. That’s an affirmation. Yeah. Yep. I believe I can do it. I believe I can do a triathlon. I believe I can get off medications. Because that’s starting the new thought pattern which is shifting the belief. The thing is if you keep saying that over and over again and not take any actions, it’s not gonna happen.
Andrew: Exactly. That’s what I was getting.Yeah, you got to combine it with action and nothing gets done unless you know, if nothing changes, nothing changes. If you’re not, if you’re going to sit around and talk about doing something without doing anything about it then, what’s the point?
Adam: Yeah, what is the point, you gonna stay there in circles? It’s like, um the secret, you have you heard of the secret? The secret is the thing about beliefs and manifesting things and you know, the biggest it’s all about, just saying these affirmations over and over again and it’s going to magically happen, but it doesn’t you have to go take some action.
Things only manifest when you take action. Yeah, and so I took some action I started with a little thing called Couch to 5ks and I um, for exercise and it’s a little app and that got me moving and then I changed my diet to a whole food plant-based diet and within six to 12 months, I was off all the medications. And then um, and then I started get fitter. My wife bought me a push bike. Yeah, and I started um riding with the local bike shop. Saturday morning ride. Okay, and then on that ride,
Andrew: I used to ride a bike but I dont have a bike anymore. But I did a few bike races a while back and I used to love my Saturday, Sunday morning rides with the bike shop group. That was cool.
Adam: It is cool. You know you do that, you have coffee afterwards. So it’s a bunch of guys there that were triathletes and some one guy that done a ??? you know why, another guy done eight ironman.
Andrew: And that’s big to get to ??? that’s, you got to qualify.
Adam: Yeah. So one morning they said to me, “Adam, we’re thinking of doing an Ironman.
Um, do you want to come and we’re training, you want to come swim with this one morning?” And I had swimming as my sport when I was a kid. I was in the pool every morning if you know if it’s a couple of for an hour or two and four at school. I used to fall asleep in school because in the mornings but um, anyway, they asked me to go and said, yeah, I’d love to um, and so I joined those guys and one of them was a GP and, I told him that my story the heart attack and he got really interested and he and I became pretty good friends and we used to ride together. Just the two of us. And one ride he said to me, he said, “Adam, you know will be really cool to take you from MI, myocardial infarction, which is a heart attack to IM, Iron Man.” And I went, What? And I said, Do you really think that’s possible? And he said yeah, I think we can do it. He said, I’m a doctor I’ve done Ironmans. I can coach you to do it, if you want to do it. Let’s do it. I said, okay. I’m in let’s do it right.
Andrew: There’s a change in belief right there.
Adam: Yeah changing belief and um in actual fact of always dreamt of doing it are used to see them on TV, and I thought I’d love to do that because I could never be fit enough to do that? Yeah, and it would, I don’t like pain. I don’t want to, I don’t like pushing myself that hard, So, um anyway, and he trained me and two years later, I crossed the Finish Line at Cannes Ironman in Queensland and it was pretty amazing moment and tears afterwards.
Andrew: I can imagine. Yeah, that’s that’s a long way back from where you were to come to that point of crossing the finish line of an Iron Man. I imagine that was an emotional moment.
Adam: A very emotional moment, and I can’t thank John, Um who coached me enough to get me there. Yeah, and you know, he, he actually um, he, for me it was pretty special because he saw something in me, that I didn’t see. And he helped me, um, you know a lot because it wasn’t the fact that I’m in, it was the fact that, committing to something and going through pain and and challenge, and wanting to quit, and that whole process which is required to, you know, create success in anything.
Andrew: Yeah, I’m getting tingles all over just hearing about this man.
Adam: Um, and then you know for him, he did the Ironman with me. He came in a little bit before me. Yeah, and um, He was there at the finish line and he was there with the towel, and it was a pretty magic moment. Oh, yeah, it’s pretty special.
Andrew: I’ve got a lump in my throat too don’t worry.
Adam: And you know John if you ever listen to this, I just want to thank you for supporting me through that. That’s very, uh-
Andrew: An Ironman’s a massive achievement for anyone. Let alone coming from where you came from. So. Yeah, just why wouldn’t you be emotional about it? That’s, it’s crazy just for me to think about. Uh, yeah Iron Man is an inspiring thing for me too. It’s a lot about running marathons and doing Iron Man’s and things like that. Maybe I’ll have a go at once on time. Maybe you can help me through it.
Adam: Yeah, I’ll give you one tip now. Um download Rich Roll’s book on Audible, Finding Ultra. And I was listening to that on my runs, on my longmans and training and it was enough to keep me inspired and keep moving towards it. I know you’ve been on his podcast but um, you know, if you want to do an Ironman, I found him really helpful. He’s got a good story and it was quite inspiring. Um, but yeah, it was good with John and um, anyway, where were we?
FUTURE PLANS AND CONCLUSION
Andrew: We’ve just got a few minutes left. So what’s going on in your life these days and what do you-
Adam: Yeah, so these days um right now I’ve um, we’ve just started a new business. We um, two mates of mine and it’s called pineapple crush. It’s an asian-inspired vegan salad noodle bowls eatery. Yeah, and um, it’s in Avalon on the Northern beaches of Sydney.
Yeah, and we hopefully will open one in by-
Andrew: Just one location at the moment at the moment?
Adam: At the moment. But we we see them opening everywhere. We see it as the future of fast food, within five to ten, maximum ten minutes you ordered the bowl, you have it. And it’s amazing.
Andrew: Can you open one in Elwood, where I live please?
Adam: I think so. We will do that. Someone down this way might be interested in opening one. So I’m living in Byron Bay at the moment. Um, I used to, I grew up in Berry on the south coast of New South Wales. I’ve lived there all my life and then, Um three years ago one of my daughters wanted to go to the Green School in Bali. It’s an environmental school. It’s all about entrepreneurship. Well in actual fact what the green school is, the founder listened to um, our goals, Inconvenient Truth, and he just saw these business in Bali which is a big jewelry company names John Hardy. And when he retired he looked at this and he said someone needs to create a school that teaches kids to implement this.
And this message for the future, but he said it needs to be based on entrepreneurship because if it doesn’t fund itself, no one’s going to. These changes won’t happen. So it’s all about creating new products that’s sustainable. And it’s all about sustainability. So they teach these kids this and one of my daughters wanted to go there.
Andrew: Maybe I will send my little boy that sounds like an awesome place.
Adam: Yeah, so we spent three years in Bali. Both our kids went to Green School. On and off and um, so we um, anyway we came back and we decided after living in Bali, Um, you become a little bit more liberal, a bit more creative, and when we came back to Berry, it’s a bit more of a conservative suburb and we love Berry and you know, it’s always be part of our things but we decided to go to Byron Bay.
Andrew: Yeah, and you could choose the worst place on Byron Bay.
Adam: We’re living in Byron now and um, so we’re doing that. And also I’m, I want to share this message more that it’s possible to reverse heart disease through a whole food plant-based diet. So I’ve been doing that over the years with my chef background. I’ve been doing, we’ve been doing courses and workshop and teach people how to cook the food and we’ve been talkin and we’ve got a little meal plan app that we started three or four years ago. And it’s um, I don’t know if it still is number one on iTunes. It’s called I Feel Good.
Andrew: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, um, I’ll put all the links to this stuff. On the episode page on the website.
Adam: Yeah, so that’s what I’m up to so-
Andrew: All right. Social Media stuff anyone if people want to follow you?
Adam: Uh, yeah, it’s I feel good. Yeah, um, ifeelgood.com.au is my website and you can get all the links whereever rounded there. I’m a little bit active, but I’m not that active and um, but who knows might it might start having a bit more.
Adam: Yeah, cool. Well, let’s wrap it up. We got to get moving. Uh, thanks for sharing that with me. Like I said, I didn’t have a chance to research it properly before we started but uh, I’m happy with that conversation. I’m inspired and moved me. So I hope people have enjoyed the conversation and um, Yeah, I don’t know how to finish this.
Adam: That was cool. It was cool. I had a great time! Thank you very much.
Andrew: Spud up folks!
Well, there it is Adam Guthrie the one and only I feel drained. I feel tired after that, that was emotional. We went deep. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I could, I could talk to Adam all day that was uh, as a really good experience and it really uh motivated me to do more and be more so I hope it did the same for you. If you’re interested in finding out more about Adam and check out his website ifeelgood.com.au.
You you can find all sorts of information there about what he’s doing with his time and uh, you’ll also find links to social media accounts through there and you can also check out the show notes at Spudfit.com and find links to the various things that we talked about in there.
Thanks again to my wife Mandy for creating the theme music for the podcast a little story about that. Actually we were, we went to our local library to do some work and uh, and we were in there working on getting the podcast published and we needed some theme music. And and we need it now we needed it fast.
So I sent Mandy out to the car. Mandy sat on ,if anyone’s from around Melbourne manly just sat parked in the car on on Carlisle Street and st. Kilda and recorded that theme music directly onto her iPad in the car with traffic around and under pressure and don’t think she did a great job. Uh, so go to Mandy’s website Mandyvanzanon.com
To find out more about her and her music. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter at Spudfit.com and check out our book, The DIY Spud Fit Academy on Amazon. Uh, thanks everyone for listening and hopefully I’ll see you again next week. Spud up!
Spud Fit Stuff
Thanks to my wife Mandy van Zanen for the theme music.
Adam was in town for The Nutrition in Health Care Symposium, run by Raw Events Australia
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