Would You Be Willing to Loose Weight If Coached by an NFL Player?

Episode 1927 Transcript:

00;00;01;14 - 00;00;05;16

Announcer

And now America's Healthcare Advocate, Cary Hall.

00;00;05;21 - 00;00;22;16

Cary Hall

Hello, America. Welcome to America's Healthcare Advocates Show, broadcasting coast to coast across the USA. I'm your host, Cary Hall, my producer, Mr. Darren Willhite. Welcome to the show. We're happy to have you on board. You can follow me on Facebook or on Twitter at America's Healthcare Advocate. That's America's Healthcare Advocate.

00;00;22;22 - 00;00;42;23

Cary Hall

We are on 15, actually 14, 14 podcast platforms and YouTube. I know you all know because you're out there listening to it and watching it on YouTube. In fact, we have some people in Turkey watching your show now, I understand is one of our clients was in Turkey to do a presentation and walked in and there we were on his computer and he said, Is that you?

00;00;42;25 - 00;01;04;05

Cary Hall

He said, Yes, he is. So we're happy to have all of you on board wherever you are across the globe. Also, want to take a moment to welcome our newest affiliate, our newest radio affiliate, WGBS AM in Largo, Florida. We want to thank Mr. Al Christopher for putting us on there. We're happy to have them on board. We've got quite a few stations down in Florida.

00;01;04;11 - 00;01;24;26

Cary Hall

We're happy to be on the radio down there. Once again, welcome the good folks at WGBS AM Radio in Largo, Florida. All right. So if you are looking for Medicare coverage or you're looking for individual ACA coverage, you can call the good folks at RPS Benefits by Design from anywhere in the country. They can help you. It doesn't matter where you are.

00;01;24;26 - 00;01;43;02

Cary Hall

You can be in Alaska, you can be in Florida. You can be in Arizona, or you can be right here in Kansas. If you want to give them a call, you can do that at 877 385 2224. Ask for the lovely Joyce Thompson or Carolee Steele. They'll be happy to help you with that Medicare coverage if you're chronologically challenged like I am.

00;01;43;09 - 00;02;08;16

Cary Hall

Okay, feel free to give them a call. 877 385 2224. If you're an employer looking for a better way to do health insurance for your employees, call Maria Ahlers at RPS Benefits by Design. Again. 877 385 2224. All right. Joining me in studio today, actually joining me in studio from New York is Russ Allen. He is the CEO of Wellness now.

00;02;08;18 - 00;02;31;27

Cary Hall

And we're going to talk about Russ is a unique individual. He is an entrepreneur. He's been in the health care field for a very long time. He is affiliated with the NFL Alumni Association. He is actually a volunteer director for a program that they have implemented. We're going to talk about that program today. And then we're going to talk about how that program has now been turned into something that you can participate in.

00;02;32;02 - 00;02;37;19

Cary Hall

So we'll chat about that. But first, let's welcome Russ to the show. Welcome, Russ. Glad to have you on board.

00;02;37;21 - 00;02;44;14

Russ Allen

Thank you very much, Cary. Very big pleasure to be here and share about the NFL alumni program tackle obesity.

00;02;44;21 - 00;02;50;12

Cary Hall

And that's what we're going to talk about. Folks, is tackling obesity. First of all, where are you at today, Russ? Where are you at in New York?

00;02;50;14 - 00;02;52;09

Russ Allen

I am in Queens, New York. Okay.

00;02;52;09 - 00;03;08;21

Cary Hall

So you're right there in the heart of the city, in Queens, New York. All right. So you're right there in New York City. So let's just kind of get into it a little bit. First of all, I know you've worked with us at Neurologic Life, our medical equipment company done a lot of work with the WAVi brain scan.

00;03;08;21 - 00;03;28;22

Cary Hall

We can talk about that a little later. And that's how we know you, because my partner, Steve Sanborn, introduced us. Talk a little bit about this NFL alumni associate and you're very involved in it. You are a volunteer director for this program, Tackle Obesity. And just talk a little bit about the NFL alumni. I'm guessing a lot of people in the audience don't even know that exists.

00;03;28;24 - 00;03;32;08

Cary Hall

Talk about what they do, what their mission is, and how you work with them a little bit.

00;03;32;08 - 00;03;59;23

Russ Allen

Russ In the sixties, a group of former NFL players formed this association specifically to do two core missions to serve their members, especially guys and you got to remember the sixties, seventies, even the eighties, when a guy finished football, he had very little safety net and they really came away with a significant amount of of physical disorders, you know, given their play.

00;04;00;02 - 00;04;14;13

Russ Allen

So the association works to support our membership there. And then secondly, we do a lot of fundraising and support events for children's charities across the country to our 40 chapters.

00;04;14;15 - 00;04;28;25

Cary Hall

That's remarkable. I didn't know and I know a fair amount about the NFL alumni only because of what Steve's told me in working with you over the last several years. But so I didn't realize that they do a lot of charity events as well. So they're involved in a lot of charity events for children.

00;04;28;27 - 00;05;04;23

Russ Allen

They are they have probably close to 100 events a year across the country, each of which raise money for local children's charities. And those are run at a local chapter level. And then they have a national event called the Super Bowl of Golf, which is run as part of the the Super Bowl period. And the winning foursomes from each of those local events are invited to come to a playoff at the Super Bowl city and participate in the Super Bowl of golf.

00;05;04;26 - 00;05;06;02

Russ Allen

And it's quite thrilling.

00;05;06;07 - 00;05;09;17

Cary Hall

It's so you were actually there was you if I remember correctly.

00;05;09;19 - 00;05;39;18

Russ Allen

I was there last year. I organized a number of events, including the NFL Alumni Wellness Expo at Arizona State University's downtown campus. And we also organized separate from the alumni, the Vets Wellness Summit. And I really looked at ways, you know, during, you know, I think you mentioned that, you know, age is not a character flaw. It's a medical condition.

00;05;39;20 - 00;05;55;28

Russ Allen

Right. You know, as I've gotten older, you know, you recognize I got so many ticks, the clock left and I want to make as much good happen in the world as I can. And so I volunteered with the NFL night for the last ten years and then last year started working with veterans as well.

00;05;56;05 - 00;06;16;01

Cary Hall

Well, you know, you talk a little bit about he talked about the sixties and seventies, even the eighties. A lot of these players coming out. I mean, I remember, you know, some of the players, you know, that were so crippled. I remember some of the Oakland Raider players specifically that that, you know, had very difficult times. You know, there's a saying that Katharine Hepburn coined it said getting old is not for sissies.

00;06;16;01 - 00;06;34;14

Cary Hall

Okay, boys, you remember that. But yeah, but, you know, back at young people, it's really kind of interesting, you know, to kind of talk about this. Let the audience hear about this because, you know, you hear about all the money the NFL players make and people think, well, they got the best health care in the world and they've got you know, they've got a lot of money.

00;06;34;20 - 00;07;05;08

Cary Hall

That's not always the case, number one. And number two, they have some very specific health issues. I know you do. You know, you're the association and the programs you're involved with. There are a lot of screenings that you do. That's actually how the WAVi brain scan program got introduced here with all of that. But, you know, just talk a little bit about this perception that people have that these NFL players, first of all, the salaries back in the day weren't what they are now, number one.

00;07;05;10 - 00;07;13;19

Cary Hall

And number two, they don't, you know, the health care they a lot of them did not have health care after they left football. Am I right or wrong about that?

00;07;13;24 - 00;07;43;10

Russ Allen

Well, first of all, you're absolutely right. The it kind of works like this. You played for three and a half or more years in the NFL. You were vested. And then over the last 30 years, the collective bargaining agreements between the association and the NFL have improved. What is given to the players in terms of their compensation, Both for their retirement and for their health.

00;07;43;13 - 00;08;24;10

Russ Allen

Now, right now, if you played for the NFL after three and a half years of you, you retire, you're given five years of extremely good health care. Now, depending on the years that you played, your your other benefits have all migrated up as a league has made more money. The players are making more money and really in the last ten years is when things really hockey punked in terms of what so the what used to be I mean I'm working with guys where the the average salary was 20,000 a year and they were working three jobs to just keep playing football.

00;08;24;17 - 00;08;40;06

Cary Hall

Yeah, I remember Len Dawson here in Kansas City talking about how when he was in Cleveland, he he would you know, he would work a job after the season to support himself because they didn't make the kind of money they make now. They weren't making with Patrick Mahomes is making okay.

00;08;40;09 - 00;08;45;08

Russ Allen

You know, the average salary is nowhere near what Patrick Mahomes. makes.

00;08;45;11 - 00;09;00;09

Cary Hall

But that's what people focus on, Russ. That's what people hear. And they think, you know, that's not the case. No. Yeah, we're rolling up here on the break pretty quick. But you did say one thing I want you to do before we before we go out on this break. You talked about the health plan for five years. What happens after five years?

00;09;00;09 - 00;09;03;16

Cary Hall

Then they're on their own for coverage.

00;09;03;18 - 00;09;05;29

Russ Allen

Depending on the years they played, they're on their own.

00;09;06;01 - 00;09;23;07

Cary Hall

Okay. That's very interesting. You know, I think this can be fascinating show, folks. I'm really happy to have Russ Allen on board. When we come back, we're going to talk a little more about this, you know, about what it means to be the volunteer director of this program. It's called Tackle Obesity. And then in a third segment, we're going to talk about how you can tackle obesity.

00;09;23;07 - 00;09;39;16

Cary Hall

That ought to be really interesting, right? All right. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate. Broadcasting here on the HIA Radio Network. Coast to coast across the U.S., if you want to go up on the website and learn about this, I mean, if it's good enough for the NFL, right, it ought to be good enough for us. What do you think?

00;09;39;18 - 00;09;49;21

Cary Hall

Go to the website, tackle obesity dot com. Stay tuned. We'll be right back after the break. We've got more here on America's Healthcare Advocate.

00;09;49;24 - 00;10;22;29

Steve Kuker

The golden rule. Treat others as you want to be treated. I'm Steve Kuker and this is one of the founding principles of my firm senior care consulting. Since 2002, our value statement has included honor our mother and father, respect our elders, care for those in need, and treat your family as our own. We've been honored to help hundreds of families make one of the most difficult decisions they could ever make, serving them in their greatest time of need.

00;10;23;02 - 00;10;50;29

Steve Kuker

If you're looking for someone who can provide you experienced and objective guidance when searching for a senior care community, reach out today and discover the services of senior care Consulting at 913 945 2800. Know your options and choose with care at senior care consulting dot com.

00;10;51;02 - 00;11;18;26

Cary Hall

Welcome back. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate show broadcasting coast to coast across the USA. Here on the HIA Radio Network, my producer, Mr. Darren Willhite, on the audio side for Audacy Broadcasting here in their studios today. And behind the camera, Mr. David Thiessen, who does all of this stuff, including posts at all 14 of those podcast platforms and on YouTube where a lot of people are watching, we had 48,000 of you download the podcast since January.

00;11;18;29 - 00;11;39;20

Cary Hall

I think about 257,000, if I'm not mistaken, on the YouTube side. So obviously we're getting a lot of interest in joining me from New York, by the way, not here in studio is Russ Allen. He is the CEO. And we're happy to have him on board of Wellness Now. And we are talking about the program that he has called tackle obesity.

00;11;39;20 - 00;12;04;15

Cary Hall

The website is tackle obesity dot com. And we're talking about his affiliation with the NFL Alumni Association, where he is the volunteer director of this program. So, you know, Russ defines obesity as a disease. All right. And we're going to talk about that and how he the way he looks at this and the way the NFL Alumni Association looks at this program is very different than what you see out there.

00;12;04;22 - 00;12;25;15

Cary Hall

Typically in the space where you and I occupy in the public space for health care. So I thought this would be an interesting show. It's very interesting. See, obviously, it's embraced by the NFL Alumni Association. This must be a pretty good program, which is one reason why we're doing this today. The website for his for the for the program that you can get involved and you can actually go up on the website.

00;12;25;21 - 00;12;39;00

Cary Hall

We'll talk about how you can do that in the third segment. But tackle obesity dot com is the website tackle obesity dot com. Russ let's just talk a little bit about how you became the volunteer director. Did you play football in the NFL?

00;12;39;02 - 00;12;43;17

Russ Allen

I didn't Cary, I played left out a little bit.

00;12;43;19 - 00;12;47;20

Cary Hall

I like that line I got over that you played left out. Okay. Not left tackle.

00;12;47;20 - 00;13;13;02

Russ Allen

Left out OC left out of JV Varsity at Concord high school, okay, but I had a great experience in football Cary, I will tell you, there's something that happens to a young man when he gets knocked out and he's able to get back up and shake himself off and go at somebody. You know, you change your confidence level grows, your independence grows.

00;13;13;04 - 00;13;20;19

Russ Allen

And my father said it best when he said, I don't know who they sent home from freshman football, but it wasn't my son.

00;13;20;21 - 00;13;42;20

Cary Hall

You know, that's really funny. You tell that story. My grandson is playing football for the first time. He's a freshman. And this kid, Jonah, is not the kid that I thought would go off football and said it's the last thing I ever thought he would do. He absolutely loves it. He had his first big scrimmage. He gets into the high school and I talk to him every day and I'm like, Jonah, what part of it did you like, Papa?

00;13;42;26 - 00;14;04;05

Cary Hall

I destroyed two guys. I just destroyed ‘em, he's a linebacker, okay? I mean, this kid is the most reserved kid you'd ever want to meet in your life. So it's really funny that you told that story because the family's kind of sitting around going, Where did this Joe come from? This is not the Jonah. This isn't the Jonah, you know, you know, that goes to a Christian school and all the rest of this.

00;14;04;11 - 00;14;09;25

Cary Hall

This is off. This is a whole different kid. We got here now. So it's kind of funny the way you told that story.

00;14;09;27 - 00;14;34;15

Russ Allen

Well, that's honest. It's the honest truth. And I was never a big deal. Right. The experience of camaraderie, of working together in a team and really confronting your fears was so my pay it forward has been to be involved with the NFL Alumni. And about ten years ago, I was introduced to an incredible guy, Bart Oakes, who is the president of the NFL Alumni.

00;14;34;17 - 00;14;35;27

Cary Hall

I recognize that name.

00;14;35;29 - 00;15;01;24

Russ Allen

Yeah, he played for the Giants and for the 49 years. He also won two championships in the USFL. And Bart was, you know, I got to know him early on. And four years ago the alumni started what was called the “Huddle up. Let's talk obesity”. And after a year of that, he called me, says Russ, it’s time to quit talk and start doing.

00;15;01;26 - 00;15;22;24

Russ Allen

And so we we pivoted to become the Wellness Challenge and we had 18 players from the NFL Alumni Association actually go through a weight loss program that was six months average guy loss, 35lbs and two of them lost over 80lbs. One of them lost 92lbs?

00;15;22;27 - 00;15;23;14

Cary Hall

Wow.

00;15;23;15 - 00;15;33;24

Russ Allen

And I, you know, and for men to lose weight and and the most striking one was Dick Butkus, who at 79 years old, lost 47lbs.

00;15;34;00 - 00;15;40;20

Cary Hall

Wow. That's a testimonial in and of itself. Dick Butkus lost that. That's really quite remarkable.

00;15;40;22 - 00;16;11;26

Russ Allen

Well, and he's you know, he has the annual Butkus Award show that recognizes the top linebacker in high school, college and the pros every year. And I've been honored to be able to go to two of those events. And on tackle obesity, you can see those interviews. And because during the show, Dick had me record a segment about what we were doing together, and he's become a friend and obviously somebody that I revere tremendously.

00;16;11;29 - 00;16;37;12

Russ Allen

Last year, I organized his Lifetime Achievement award and an event at ASU actually down in downtown Arizona. And so my my own experience working with NFL alumni is kind of like when I started in football, I just blossomed and have really had a marvelous time. And getting to know people like Bart Oates, who has just a down home kind of guy.

00;16;37;17 - 00;16;47;19

Russ Allen

Bart grew up in Georgia in a small town in Georgia, and he was the only Mormon within 500 miles.

00;16;47;21 - 00;16;50;29

Cary Hall

So, yeah, there are not there are a lot of Southern Baptists in Georgia, but not a.

00;16;50;29 - 00;16;51;22

Russ Allen

Lot of Mormons

00;16;51;24 - 00;16;54;12

Cary Hall

You get a little closer to Utah to make that work. Yeah.

00;16;54;13 - 00;17;05;16

Russ Allen

Yeah. Well, and he was going to play for the Georgia Bulldogs and his daddy went, No, you're not. You're going to BYU. So he actually ended up playing with McMahon and with Steve Young.

00;17;05;18 - 00;17;06;24

Cary Hall

I'll be darned. Yeah.

00;17;06;26 - 00;17;27;05

Russ Allen

And so he and Steve played together and USFL and then Steve went out to San Francisco. Bart went to New York, won two Super Bowls with Parcells, and then Steve is his contract was up. Steve called him and said, Listen, I want you to come out here, play with me. And and so he was they offered him a deal and he took it.

00;17;27;05 - 00;17;45;16

Russ Allen

And then the Giants came back and said, wait a minute, we want you to keep playing. But he says, no, I made my deal, you know, on a handshake, that that's the kind of guy Bart is. So he moved out to San Francisco his last two years and won another ring with one of the greatest quarterbacks that we have had in modern history.

00;17;45;16 - 00;18;06;19

Russ Allen

And a guy who frankly, could have played a lot longer and done a lot more traveling. He was backup to one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Joe Montana. Yeah. I mean, you know, you can only say, you know, sorry guy you got but he got his shot and he won and so Bart has become a dear friend and I worked with him in the local chapter level.

00;18;06;25 - 00;18;28;07

Russ Allen

And then when he became president, he called me up and said, Russ, we're going to do this. So we did it three years ago. Very successful. We did it again last year. And again, what I did was I took the group of players that went through the challenge and were successful, losing weight, pick three of them and then train them to be coaches.

00;18;28;09 - 00;18;50;04

Russ Allen

So now going forward, those NFL pros will be the coaches on tackle obesity and anybody who goes to tackle obesity dot com, puts it in their email. They can join that team of the player they want and then go through a career long I'm sorry, a season long training program to begin to tackle their own obesity.

00;18;50;04 - 00;19;09;09

Cary Hall

It be said yeah that and that that that's a tremendous opportunity. So when we come back from the break this is the next segment we're going to talk about how you can do just that and you can be trained. You heard you just heard Russ say this. You can be trained by one of these NFL players who are going to be the coaches for tackle obesity.

00;19;09;15 - 00;19;28;18

Cary Hall

Reggie Brown, Michael Faulkner or Richard Walker, all three of them. We're going to talk about how you can do that. So stay tuned. We'll be right back after the break. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate broadcasting here on the HIA Radio Network. Coast to coast across the U.S., we've got more. Don't go anywhere.

00;19;28;21 - 00;19;36;07

Cary Hall

Welcome back. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate show broadcasting coast to coast across the USA here on the HIA Radio Network.

00;19;36;12 - 00;20;00;03

Cary Hall

My producer, the always perfect Mr. Darren Willhite, my producer behind the camera, Dave Thiessen. I'm your host, Cary Hall. I want to welcome once again our newest affiliate in Florida, WGBS. As AM in Largo, Florida. We are very happy to have them on board. Welcome to America's Healthcare Advocate family. I want to thank Al Christopher, the program director there, for giving us the opportunity to connect with his audience.

00;20;00;10 - 00;20;20;13

Cary Hall

All right. So in studio and not in the studio in New York, joining us by Zoom. God, it's amazing what we can do with technology these days is Russ Allen. We are very happy to have him here with us today. We are talking about this NFL alumni Association and a program that has come out of that that he pioneered called tackle obesity.

00;20;20;13 - 00;20;39;13

Cary Hall

The website is tackle obesity dot com. You know, you heard me say in the other segment that Russ defines obesity as a disease. Okay. And that is really what it is. All right. You know, a lot of us are struggling with it. I've got an issue with right now. I'm at least 10lbs overweight, probably more like 15. All right.

00;20;39;16 - 00;20;58;02

Cary Hall

And I work out three times a week and I try to pay attention to what I eat. But as you age, this becomes more and more difficult. So, you know, I thought this was a very appropriate topic. Obviously, you know, they pioneered with the NFL alumni. That should tell you something. Okay. But I thought it'd be great for the audience to hear about this.

00;20;58;07 - 00;21;11;11

Cary Hall

And so now I'm going to ask for us to talk about the program and how you can get involved this program. Guess what? I'm going to make a pledge right here today that I'm going to do this and we'll see how I do. All right. So, Russ, I'm going to start with that. And who's going to be my coach?

00;21;11;11 - 00;21;13;25

Cary Hall

Is it going to be you or is it going to be.

00;21;13;28 - 00;21;14;02

Russ Allen

Is.

00;21;14;02 - 00;21;16;08

Cary Hall

It going to be Reggie? Michael, are you?

00;21;16;11 - 00;21;22;16

Russ Allen

No, it's Russ. It's but I coached all of our coaches and then people like Dick Butkus.

00;21;22;16 - 00;21;46;12

Cary Hall

And so. So you're going to be the coach. All right. All right. We'll see how I do it. So let's let's just start with you know, we've talked about the genesis of this. You know, how you started out with the players that the NFL Alumni Association, they've had great success with this program. Let's talk about, you know, how how, how now people out in the audience can get involved this and do this and talk about what does it cost and how do they get involved?

00;21;46;14 - 00;21;48;16

Russ Allen

Well, the good thing is it's free Cary, right?

00;21;48;16 - 00;21;51;26

Cary Hall

Wait, hold on. Stop right there. Go back and do that one more time.

00;21;51;29 - 00;21;52;20

Russ Allen

Sure.

00;21;52;22 - 00;21;52;29

Cary Hall

Yeah.

00;21;52;29 - 00;21;55;17

Russ Allen

It's what the good thing is. It's free.

00;21;55;18 - 00;22;01;27

Cary Hall

Okay. There you go, folks. So you're not going to pay anything to do this. So now talk about the program, how it works.

00;22;01;29 - 00;22;31;01

Russ Allen

Certainly, it's as simple as going to tackle obesity dot com and putting your email in the join the team and then once your emails in there, you're given an opportunity to select which coach you would like to be coached by. Okay then so you'll have an option of the three coaches we have that all played professional football and then you select your coach, they'll see and we'll be adding more coaches as we go.

00;22;31;03 - 00;22;50;04

Russ Allen

Then you will have 12 different educational segments we call the locker room and we have a playbook. So you're given training by these coaches on how they lost weight and how you can not only lose it, but carry you brought it up. How you can maintain it once you've lost it.

00;22;50;07 - 00;23;11;01

Cary Hall

Yeah. So let's start. Yeah, let, let me, let me stop you there. That's the whole problem. You know the problem in this country is we all want a quick fix for us. You know, the new obesity drugs are the rage. The pharmacies can't even keep them in stock because people are trying to get these things. You know, whether it's that okay, which I have a lot of skepticism about in terms of what the long term effects of those things are going to be.

00;23;11;01 - 00;23;29;00

Cary Hall

But that's another topic. Then there's that you then there's you know, then then we've got, you know, the Nutrisystem where the food gets dropped at your door in a cardboard box. And if you eat this stuff, you're going to lose weight. Well, the problem is what you just said, you lose it and it's like a yo yo. Then then what do you do?

00;23;29;07 - 00;23;42;17

Cary Hall

You got to stay on Nutrisystem all your life. You're going to keep taking these medications all your life. You're going to stay in weightwatchers all your life. It's not a sustainable model. So that's what fascinated me about what you're doing. So let's go into that some more.

00;23;42;20 - 00;24;16;28

Russ Allen

Well, that program we call is “trained to maintain”, and what you learn about is things like hydration. One of the most powerful ways to control your weight is as simple as drinking a glass of water before you eat when you get hungry. Because most of the time when we get hungry, we're not necessarily hungry. We're thirsty. So also when you do drink enough water, the sugar that collects in your liver and different organs is able to flush through so you don't necessarily convert it to fat.

00;24;17;00 - 00;24;39;09

Russ Allen

You're going to learn about the different types of foods that you eat are carbohydrates. There are proteins and there are fats. Interesting. When you eat a carbohydrate, it takes about 10% of the energy in the carbohydrate to metabolize it. When you eat fat, it takes 1% of the energy.

00;24;39;14 - 00;24;58;21

Cary Hall

Wait a minute, you got to go back to do it again. So so everybody hears it's you know, you can't eat fat. You know, you got to trim the fat off that steak. Don't cook. That's taken it that fat, you know, yada, yada, yada. And it takes this is going to be really interesting. So it takes 1% of energy to get rid of the fat and 10% for the carbs.

00;24;58;23 - 00;25;23;11

Russ Allen

Yeah, 1% of the food energy that you eat when you eat fat is used in metabolizing the fat. But if you eat protein, it's 20 to 30% of the energy that's in that food is used up in metabolizing, turning it into something the body can use. So our bodies are really we run on carbohydrates, our muscles are made of proteins.

00;25;23;14 - 00;25;49;28

Russ Allen

So nature worked it out that the last thing you body wants to metabolize is its muscle. Because why? Otherwise you start eating yourself. So it's really good at storing fat. So when you naturally or normally you'll eat carbohydrates, your body just loves those. And when it has enough of those, it says take that fat and put it right here on the love handles.

00;25;50;00 - 00;25;53;22

Cary Hall

And that's where it's at. Trust me. Okay. Yeah.

00;25;53;24 - 00;25;56;06

Russ Allen

Then it'll stay there for a long time.

00;25;56;08 - 00;26;00;15

Cary Hall

Yeah, I am. You are. You are 100% correct. Yes, sir.

00;26;00;18 - 00;26;04;26

Russ Allen

The average male gains about a pound per year Cary as we age.

00;26;05;03 - 00;26;14;08

Cary Hall

Well, I have not gained 74 pounds so I'm good now. Okay. I just. I'm 74 years old and I'm not 74lbs up, so I least I've got that to say.

00;26;14;10 - 00;26;15;23

Russ Allen

You're in your mind.

00;26;15;25 - 00;26;18;20

Cary Hall

There you go. Yeah. All right.

00;26;18;23 - 00;26;25;08

Russ Allen

I met with Dick Butkus, and in the interview I said, because Dick had lost 47lbs and I said on.

00;26;25;08 - 00;26;27;20

Cary Hall

This program, he lost 47lbs?

00;26;27;20 - 00;26;28;10

Russ Allen

Absolutely.

00;26;28;10 - 00;26;29;27

Cary Hall

And I said, It's amazing.

00;26;30;00 - 00;26;51;19

Russ Allen

You have bought years to your life. You will extend your life and your vitality and and your you'll eliminate some of the co-morbidities that you experienced when you're obese. Right. And he's done it now, Dick. He likes his Jack Daniels, you know, And he was able to during a period of time. Now, this is one disciplined guy, right?

00;26;51;25 - 00;27;04;28

Russ Allen

By the way, he's got hands like catcher's mitts, he is still a big man, you know, And of you know, he was but he was able to stick to it and able to lose weight. And he's kept all but 10lbs of it off, which is remarkable.

00;27;04;28 - 00;27;12;14

Cary Hall

That is amazing. So so talk a little bit about you know, you talked about the locker room. You talked about trying to maintain go into a little more of that.

00;27;12;17 - 00;27;44;05

Russ Allen

Sure. The train to maintain is there's a sequence of 12 locker room sessions that you have with your coach that will do more than just talk about, you know, caloric deficit, which is how we lose weight. But it's much more how do we deal with stress, how did we deal with the different kinds of food, how our body as we age, by the way, Cary what is considered a healthy percent body fat and everybody wants to weigh themselves or they want to look at their BMI?

00;27;44;08 - 00;27;45;05

Cary Hall

Yeah, well.

00;27;45;08 - 00;28;20;11

Russ Allen

You can have two people that have same height, same weight, but our one is a blub and the other is a stud. Okay. What's different is a percent body fat. Okay, so the real number that we really want to understand, if we're going to track one number, is it's percent body fat. So I encourage people during the wellness challenge and beyond to get a scale that not only tells them their weight, but it tells them they're percent body fat and 30% body fat or above is considered obese.

00;28;20;13 - 00;28;43;13

Russ Allen

So as you look at it and you want to know because everybody has what should I wait, you know, how much should I weight? And that answer is a function of how old you are. Are you a male? Are you a female, how old you are, and then your percent body fat. So as you age, your your allowance for what's considered a healthy percent body fat goes up.

00;28;43;16 - 00;28;54;14

Russ Allen

Now men that are you know when we hit sixties are sixties you know it's about 25% it's considered healthy women it's about 35%.

00;28;54;17 - 00;28;57;02

Cary Hall

While women get 10% more than we do.

00;28;57;04 - 00;28;59;22

Russ Allen

Well, you know, they work that much harder. Yeah.

00;28;59;25 - 00;29;01;11

Cary Hall

Yeah, yeah.

00;29;01;14 - 00;29;14;11

Russ Allen

But that is an interesting notion about, you know, why the competition needs to be fair is because men have a higher percentage of muscle. Yeah, you know, because our bones are that much bigger, but our muscles are bigger.

00;29;14;11 - 00;29;32;18

Cary Hall

Yeah. So this is interesting. We come back and next segment, we're going to continue this because this is fascinating people. I mean, I hope I hope you're learning something. You know, I've been doing this radio show for 17 years and we've talked about this topic with doctors. We've talked about this topic with coaches. You know, go through the list of people I've had on this show to talk about this.

00;29;32;22 - 00;29;49;00

Cary Hall

I have never heard the things that I'm hearing here today. And I'm going to tell you something. I'll commit and I'll come back and I'll talk about this, you know, later on in the year as we go through and do more programs with us. But I'm going to join this program and I'm going to see if I can make it work for me because I've tried a lot of things, not the drugs.

00;29;49;00 - 00;30;03;26

Cary Hall

And I certainly haven't tried the food in a box. Okay. But I've tried a lot of the programs, I've tried keto, I've tried a lot of this stuff and it simply doesn't work. Okay, I have a very difficult time with it. And so I'm personally taking this challenge and I'm going to urge you to do the same thing.

00;30;03;26 - 00;30;24;03

Cary Hall

The website is tackle obesity dot com. Here's the thing it's free people. You don't have to pay for it. You can go up there on the website and get involved. We'll be right back after the break. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate broadcasting here on the HIA Radio Network, Coast to Coast across the USA. Stay tuned. I'll be right back.

00;30;24;05 - 00;30;46;19

Cary Hall

Welcome back. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate broadcasting coast to coast across the fruited plain here on the HIA Radio Network. You can find out more about us by going to the website America's Healthcare Advocate dot com. This show is going to be on all those podcast platforms, all 14 of them. And on YouTube, you probably ought to tell people about this show if it's your husband, you know, that's struggling with weight.

00;30;46;19 - 00;31;15;23

Cary Hall

Maybe it's your father, your grandfather, mother, I don't know. Okay, Maybe it's you like me. All right, This is an opportunity to do something to make a difference. The website is tackle obesity, dot com tackle obesity dot com developed by the NFL alumni Association. And our guest, Russ Allen is the volunteer director of this thing. And clearly he knows what he's talking about because you're hearing here things today that I have not heard in the past, like the importance of drinking water with losing weight.

00;31;15;25 - 00;31;31;04

Cary Hall

I drink here's the Fiji water. I drink this constantly. You see it every week on the show. But how that relates to weight loss, I had no idea. There are a lot of other things that we're going to talk about that. So let's go into that locker room once again. By the way, the website tackle obesity dot com.

00;31;31;11 - 00;31;41;24

Cary Hall

Let's go into the locker room one more time, Russ and pick out a couple of these programs. Of the 12 programs you go through pick out a couple that you can talk to us about.

00;31;41;27 - 00;32;08;09

Russ Allen

Let's expand a little bit on hydration. Let's talk about caloric deficit and understanding that and then let's dive deeper into percent body fat because those are key elements of understanding your body and everybody needs to understand. So let's just deal with hydration. First of all, there is such a thing as too much water. People have actually died from drinking too much water.

00;32;08;12 - 00;32;31;01

Russ Allen

The body actually stops functioning, dilutes the sodium in the body, the nerves stop firing and you die. But that's a rare event and it takes way more water than you're normally going to be able to drink but, you know, the rule of thumb has been eight glasses. Reality is you need to drink typically more than that and you need more.

00;32;31;01 - 00;32;32;26

Cary Hall

Than eight glasses a day.

00;32;32;28 - 00;32;52;16

Russ Allen

Absolutely. Because what you want to look at is to a glass before you eat breakfast, glass afterwards in the middle, you know, you get hungry in the middle of the day. First thing you should do is drink some water for the non clear I use up, you know, the ocean spray five five calorie thing because I diluted the half.

00;32;52;16 - 00;33;17;27

Russ Allen

So I'm drinking two and a half calories per glass. Right. But it tastes good. Bring it down. Yeah. And you know, so whatever gets you to do it. Highly caffeinated. Not a good idea even if it's the diet because the caffeine actually dehydrates you lot of coffee. I love coffee. You know, I minimize the amount of caffeinated coffee I drink because it again, it's a you know, it's a diuretic and takes the water out of you.

00;33;17;27 - 00;33;32;18

Cary Hall

Yeah. I want to go back to that real quick, But but we'll get to two. But one of these sodas that people drink, these diet sodas, they are not diet drinks. Okay? And they are not helping you lose weight. And that that is a fact. Am I right or wrong about that?

00;33;32;20 - 00;33;33;14

Russ Allen

100% right.

00;33;33;14 - 00;33;34;10

Cary Hall

Okay.

00;33;34;12 - 00;33;42;09

Russ Allen

Yeah. No, in fact, it is worse in that they create a leaching of certain nutrients from the body, so it's not something that's helpful.

00;33;42;14 - 00;33;44;14

Cary Hall

Okay.

00;33;44;16 - 00;34;08;01

Russ Allen

And honestly, you know, Americans are so spoiled because we're over sweetened. Everything is so sweet, right? Sweetening, sweetening things actually creates a craving. I was just listening to a podcast on this, and I have to confess, Cary, people think I know a lot. And I mean, there are people that know so much more. My virtue is to dumb it down so that everybody can get most of it right.

00;34;08;01 - 00;34;16;10

Russ Allen

And because I'm, you know, I call myself the wellness crash dummy I've gone against the wall in so many ways and you know I learned.

00;34;16;12 - 00;34;24;09

Cary Hall

Yeah so let's go to the next topic because we're going to run out of time here. You talked about this body fat issue. Let's talk about that a little bit and then wrap it up.

00;34;24;13 - 00;34;46;25

Russ Allen

Wants to know what's what should I weigh? What is should my goal be? Well, the healthy way to look at it is instead of the weight, look at you percent body fat. That's the key factor in how healthy you are because as as we lose body fat, it takes it away from around our organs. It stops it from slowing the circulation in our body and so on.

00;34;46;25 - 00;35;14;08

Russ Allen

So I would say of of the things you need to learn from is hydration. Percent body fat is a critical thing. And then how much protein you eat during the day, the protein timing. What we're learning now as we age, Cary, you and I are of the age where our bodies leach protein constantly. We should be eating a minimum of 100 grams of protein a day, and that's actually a lot of protein.

00;35;14;10 - 00;35;33;05

Russ Allen

You know, when you start counting all up. And so I use meal replacement bars that I get from from my website because I know that I want to augment the amount of protein. But at 70 years old, I'm going to be 70 here in October.

00;35;33;07 - 00;35;37;01

Cary Hall

You're a young man now. I'm at 74. So, I ahead of you.

00;35;37;03 - 00;36;07;00

Russ Allen

Oh, well, I'm your little brother. So what I want to be is better as I get older, not wasting away. And the reason we waste away as we age is because our body really waste loses protein as we go. So if your listeners learn those three things, they would live healthier, longer, especially as they get older. Now, you know, the 12 program segments that we have in the locker room training, it's not everything you need to learn.

00;36;07;02 - 00;36;24;19

Russ Allen

The most important thing you need to learn is that you're going to be successful. You need a coach. Michael Jordan needed a coach. Everybody needs a coach. If you have a coach and you're trying to lose weight, your odds are nine out of ten. If you don't have a coach and you're trying to lose weight, it's one out of ten.

00;36;24;22 - 00;36;34;12

Russ Allen

So just play the odds. Get a coach that we're offering is for free. So get to tackle obesity dot com, get a coach and get coach and learn.

00;36;34;16 - 00;36;39;23

Cary Hall

Say so. How long typically how long does it take to go through the program? We're coming up here on the end of the show. But how long?

00;36;39;26 - 00;36;41;18

Russ Allen

Three months. It's a three month program.

00;36;41;18 - 00;36;47;03

Cary Hall

That's not bad. Okay. And how much time is involved in doing these emails segments?

00;36;47;05 - 00;36;48;13

Russ Allen

Yeah, it's 20 minutes.

00;36;48;13 - 00;36;52;27

Cary Hall

Okay. So 20 minutes, what, Once a week, twice a week, three times a week.

00;36;52;28 - 00;36;58;22

Russ Allen

It's twice a week. Okay. That's two weeks every two weeks. No, there's 12 of them.

00;36;58;25 - 00;37;18;26

Cary Hall

Okay, so this is this is not like you. You, you're not. Yeah. You're not going to fat boot camp here. Just so you know, folks, that's not the way this works. What Russ is describing is a program that certainly sounds like it works pretty well. I mean, if it worked for Dick Butkus, it worked for these NFL players. It's a vital part of their program.

00;37;18;26 - 00;37;37;26

Cary Hall

There from the NFL Alumni Association, obviously, I think it's an opportunity for us, which is why I ask him to come on here. We're going to do more of these because there's a lot to learn here. And I've already made the commitment on air and I'm going to make it again. I'm joining this program. I'm going to do this and I'm going to come back and I'm going to talk about how it works and I'll talk about Russ is going to be my coach.

00;37;37;26 - 00;38;00;25

Cary Hall

Okay? And then I'm going to come back and we're going to talk we'll talk about how it's working, Russ and what you're doing and where this can go. So thank you again for coming on today. I greatly appreciated It was a great, great opportunity. We intend to have you back once again. The website tackle obesity dot com tackle obesity dot com you got 12 locker room segments here you've got great coaches NFL players that are there to coach you.

00;38;00;29 - 00;38;22;27

Cary Hall

I can't think of a better way to lose weight especially if you're chronologically challenged so I would strongly suggest you take a look at this. Thanks again, Russ, It was great having you on. And now, ladies and gentlemen, I leave you with this thought. The one who follows the crowd, they usually get no further than the crowd. The one who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been.

00;38;22;29 - 00;38;37;13

Cary Hall

Remember, friends. It's a funny thing about life. If you refuse to accept anything but the very best, you most often get it. Thank you for listening to America's Healthcare Advocates Show. Broadcasting Coast to Coast across the U.S.. Goodbye, America.