Welcome to our podcast listeners wherever you may be in the world today. This is Steve Shallenberger, your host. And we are excited to have a wonderful friend and guest with us today, Ron Williams. Welcome, Ron!
Ron: Steve, thank you so much, man. I’m glad to be with you.
Steve: Now, Ron is a repeat visitor on this podcast series. I met Ron, for the first time, about a year ago and we had Ron talk about fitness. He told us about his background which is an amazing background and to what he’s doing today which is helping people all over the world to improve their fitness, their health, and of course, that leads into their happiness.
So as we think about The 12 Principles of Highly Successful Leaders, each one of those has a big impact on our life. But they come together to help us be highly successful leaders as we touch not only our own lives have an influence in our relationships but also help contribute to best of class, world class organizations. So one of those principles is to Live In Peace and Balance. Part of that is how do we maximize our own health: our fitness, our mental health, emotional health?
Well, it just so happens that that is exactly what Ron does. And when we had the chance to visit a year ago, I mentioned to Ron on the air that I have been trying to lose 10 or 15 pounds for maybe 10 years. I mean, I’m not like really overweight but it’s always there. Do you know what I’m talking about? Can anybody that’s listening relate to this? And it just kind of rubbed me wrong. I felt like I could do better but it was just really hard to knock it off. And so I asked Ron what his thoughts were, and we talked about a few ideas. At the end of our session, we turned off the equipment and I told him, I said, “Ron, really, I’m serious about this. I’d like to lose 10 or 15 pounds.” And Ron said, “Well, I’ll tell you what, I’ll think about this and I’ll call you tomorrow.” And so on the phone the next day, he said, “Well, I’ve been thinking about this and you don’t need to lose 10 or 15 pounds.” And I threw my hands up and I said, “Yes.” And he said, “You need to lose 20 to 25 pounds.” And I gulped and I said, “Okay, but I’m going to need your help.”
Over the next few months, I did indeed lose 25 pounds. It was an amazing process, and the fact is it wasn’t a torture for me. It was a positive upbeat process. And one of the things that I found as I went to my periodic checkup with the doctor, he was amazed, first of all, but second, we noticed that my blood pressure had decreased. It wasn’t really particularly high before, it was in good shape, but it had gone down. My cholesterol levels had gone down, and this is tracking a 16-year baseline that I had with this particular doctor. And so we had all of this data, and you can push a button right there and it automatically graphs everything. And so you see this graph, and it kind of goes up over the years and all of a sudden, a big drop. Found that my weight had a big drop, and that this was a correlation throughout across the board and that I was much healthier. And so, first of all, I credit Ron. There’s a number of things we did, and we’re going to have the chance to talk about some of those today.
First of all, Ron, I’m just going to invite you to share anything that you would like to about what’s been happening in your life over the last year. I have also recommended Ron to a couple of friends and they’ve had similar experiences. So why don’t you bring us up to speed on anything that you would like to talk about, experiences that you’re having, what you’re seeing? But what would you like to just introduce yourself with?
Ron: Awesome. First of all, I want to say thank you, Steve, for all that you have done for my business. One of the things that I found with working with Steve was this is that here I am coaching this guy, thinking,”You know what, I’m doing him a great service,” and you know, we lost the 25 pounds, but the little nuggets that I got from him let me know that I needed a coach. And he became my coach. So Steve is my coach today, and I want to appreciate him in what he does. But some of the things that have happened over the year is that I’d been able to put together programs for corporations that have drastically changed the face of you know, the companies, and we’ve really been enjoying that. And we realized that the principles of what we teach cross boundaries, meaning that we work in several areas: faith, family, fitness, and finances. And with that being said, regardless of what direction you’re moving in, there are universal principles that actually cross those boundaries and we call them “Champion Principles,” and if you apply it as far as your fitness is concerned, those same principles apply in your business, in your relationships, and across the board, Steve.
Steve: Well good. Well, all right. So since we’re having this discussion, Ron…and Ron has been a great coach for me, and I’m glad that we’ve been able to be of help to him. It’s been fun to see some of the things that have happened. Ron, together with his wife Tanya, have created a 9-week fitness program that they have shared with a few special clients. Would you mind telling us about that and how it’s designed, and what some of the end results that you’re having? And the purpose of doing this is that I’d like to have our listeners today have some hope, have some encouragement that if they do certain things, they can get to a better place that makes them feel better, frankly.
Ron: Absolutely. This 9-week program is really just a basis and a starting place because our complete desire is to develop lifestyle. And that’s what I can see in Steve, is he’s developed a lifestyle. You know, he lost the weight, but if you look at him today, he looks better now than he did at the completion of the program. You know why? Because he’s continuing in that same lifestyle. And that’s what we want to do is to develop these principles so that it becomes a lifestyle to you. But one of the main principles is never to allow yourself to be hungry. It’s very important because you send your body a signal of starvation. When many times, what people think is that it’s willpower, “If I can starve myself and just have the will to keep going.” But that sends a signal to the body of starvation. So eating and making sure you’re never hungry is very important. Another principle would be to eat in combinations. Combinations are so important. If your desire is to decrease body fat, you never ever want to eat a carbohydrate by itself. The reason why, I’m going to explain this as short as I can, when you eat a carbohydrate by itself, it spikes the blood glucose level which causes the pancreas to secrete the insulin where the insulin is the culprit of the excess body fat. Your blood sugar level comes down when the insulin is secreted, but it converts those calories into triglycerides which is blood fat, and it pumps it directly into the fat cell. So we want to move away from that. If you don’t eat enough calories, then your metabolism slows down, and when you do eat, those calories convert to body fat as well. There are 75 reasons why people are overweight and obese, so we have to find out individually what are yours and which ones belong to you. Reverse that, we can get rid of the body fat.
Steve: Okay, all right. Well, that’s good advice. Now, the first time we got going on this, Ron explained this to me, the example that he used for me was that if you eat an apple…And you correct any of this if you don’t mind, Ron. But if you eat an apple by itself, it’s the carbohydrate. It will be digested by the body within 20 minutes. Is that about right?
Ron: Absolutely.
Steve: But if you’ll take that same apple and it goes right to fat, as Ron just explained…On the other hand, if you eat that apple together with the protein together with an essential fatty acid, it takes four hours for the body to digest this and it goes directly to energy.
Ron: Wow, that’s awesome that you remember that principle. Yes, and this is for those that are trying to decrease body fat. If you’re an athlete and you have a high metabolism, this would not apply for you because sometimes you would take in pure sugar to propel you forward in whatever activity you’re competing in. But if your desire is to decrease body fat, Steve is 100% spot on.
Steve: Okay, and so that was really helpful. So that’s a good tip for today is whenever you eat any type of foods, be sure you have at least three things on your plate: a carbohydrate, a protein, and the essential fatty acids. Right?
Ron: Absolutely. Beautiful.
Steve: Okay, that’s if you’re trying to, you know, lose body fat. And that’s what I was doing, and I still do that by the way. I’m trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle of an ongoing diet that I know I can sustain. People often ask “Well, what are essential fatty acids?” That’s raw almonds, avocados. What are some other sources of that, Ron?
Ron: Wheat germ oil would be another one. You know, you said avocado. There’s a new oil called avocado oil. I love the avocado oil because I can put it in any of my drinks and it’s hard to even taste.
Steve: Oh, okay. All right, good. So, Ron, what are some problems that you see are common in our society concerning excess body fat? Have we already talked about it? Have we covered that or…?
Ron: Well, one problem I see is that we in America are getting fatter. You know, years ago, it was hard to find a person that was more than 300 pounds. Now we’re 600, 700, 800, 900, even a thousand pounds. I mean, that was unheard of. The body is so resilient and I don’t know how the body can handle that. But we’re becoming more overweight and obese because of being sedentary and the other thing is poor eating and some of the things that we’re putting in our bodies, and we have to reverse that. That’s a real passion of mine.
Steve: Okay good, all right. Well, so in terms of the eating do you… I’d like to just get back to that. Are there some things that our listeners can do to have a healthy set of eating habits? Like I know that you sent to me, originally, the Champions’ Nutritional Guideline as I recall.
Ron: Yes, sir.
Steve: I don’t know if that addresses it but maybe you could take a minute to just talk about, well, what are types of healthy eating.
Ron: Okay, types of healthy eating depending on where you are, if you need to lose 15 pounds, if you need to lose 30 pounds, if you need to lose 70 pounds, or if you’re in a class that we considered a hard-loser. A lot of people go on diet, after diet, after diet and what you end up doing is retarding your metabolism. When you retard your metabolism, it doesn’t function properly the way it should. And then we have those people out there that are insulin resistant. And all of these create a huge problem. So what you have to do is find out, first of all, which category you’re in, and then, you want to start off by detoxifying the body. Because we have what you call “fat-loss resistant chemicals” along with estrogen mimickers, and what estrogen mimickers do is they create excess body fat. And we want to get those toxins out of the body so that the body will function the way it should properly. There’s certain things that 200 years ago, we weren’t privileged to put in our body, you know, and we want to go back to nature as much as we possibly can. The way God originally created food is the way we should ingest it. God didn’t create the Oreo cookie. I know some of you think he did but he really didn’t create the Oreo cookie. And what I do is I study out different ingredients, where they came from, how we came about it. And when you look at an Oreo cookie, the center of that Oreo cookie that you take…you open the Oreo cookie and you scrape that white stuff on your teeth. Do you know what that is? It would be equivalent to Crisco oil or that Crisco-thick saturated fat that you’re scraping on your teeth that has some sugar and has a little vanilla flavoring. But you’re putting that directly into your body and it clogs the arteries and creates excess body fat. Well, if we go back to nature, we’ll find out those things that we originally ate were to bring health, life, and longevity. So I would say, first of all, let’s learn a little bit about good nutritional value. Eat those things that are very nutritious. Eat organic as you possibly can. Fresh is better than frozen. Frozen is better than canned. And try to get back to nature as much as you possibly can.
Steve: Okay. Well, those are some good guidelines. And as I started adopting this, I didn’t know what to expect but what I found is that eating, for example, the steamed vegetables were amazing. I don’t know how I had missed these before. So yellow squash and steamed broccoli and the cauliflower, and there are so many amazing things that are so good. And I’ve loved the celery, the carrots. All of these things are so good, and I think they’re part of what you’re talking about.
Ron: Yes. sir. Absolutely.
Steve: kay, good. All right, well, let’s just wrap up with a couple of thoughts here. What are a few things that we could implement today that would aid in decreasing body fat? Maybe we’ve already talked about it, but…And then, I’d like to talk about…the final thing is the role of exercise versus diet.
Ron: Awesome, awesome. Well, one thing, it’s very, very simple but it’s huge, and that’s change the type of water you drink because water, you know, it’s the number one nutritional thing that we can put in our bodies. At one time, you could get water for free, but good quality water you have to pay for. It is very, very important because we’re made up of 70% water. In water, just because it’s clear does not mean that it’s clean. We have different things in our body: fat-loss resistant chemicals along with estrogen mimickers, medication. Some people are taking hormone therapy. All of that gets into the water, and you think it gets cleaned out but it really doesn’t. The other things…we have chlorine. Now, an estrogen mimicker, you’ve probably wondered where do they come from: pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, chlorine, perchlorate, which is jet fuel. All of those have estrogen mimickers. Heart medication, they’ll tell you with some heart medication that it creates tenderness of your breast or your chest which become breast, and that’s because there’s an estrogen mimicker in there. When little girls go through puberty they get that tenderness, and that starting to happen in men along with other excess body fat throughout their bodies. So a good source of water is distilled water that’s fortified with the minerals, that’s pure water. So that’s really important. You can implement that starting today.
Steve: Now, let’s just hold on a second. Where did they get that?
Ron: Distilled water, you can either distill it yourself by having a distiller or you can just go on the Internet and google distilled water in your area or you can find it on the grocery store shelf, distilled water. But fortify it with the minerals. Even on our website, if you’re looking for the minerals, they should cost you somewhere between $17 to $19. If it cost you more than that for a 90 day supply, way too expensive. We have some on our website for just $14.95.
Steve: Okay, all right. Well, let’s take this last question. It’s been a good interview and good ideas today and hopefully, some encouragement for people and keeping it simple on a way forward. How big of a role does exercise play? How big of a role does the diet play?
Ron: Well, as a competitor, exercise is a very, very small percentage, something like 20%. And the nutritional part of it is somewhere around 75% to 80%. I mean, the nutritional part of it is huge, but the combination together, utterly, utterly important. You can go on a diet by itself and you’ll receive some results or you can do exercise by itself and depending on the type of metabolism you have, you may get no results. But the combination together, scientifically, is the best thing you could possibly do.
Steve: Okay, and then one last question, Ron. What have you found is the best way to get this distilled water? Do you just buy it from a store around or can you get it in a larger container? What’s the easiest way? What have you found the best way to get it?
Ron: The best way to get it is have it brought to your house. It’s really inexpensive. If you have a store that’s fairly close, and as I said just google it, they will actually bring five-gallon containers to your house for less than 60 cents a gallon. If you go to the store, it may cost you $1.25 or maybe even higher. And another thing is distilled water… you can only drink that for two weeks. It’ll help detoxify the body but after two weeks, start putting the minerals in.
Steve: Okay, yeah. That’s a critical part, right? Because it can actually hurt your health if you continue with the distilled water without the minerals.
Ron: That’s right because water, by itself, it has open bonds, and as we receive rain, it goes through the atmosphere but it collects the asset that’s in the atmosphere then it hits the ground. But when that water is completely distilled, it has open bonds. And when it goes to your body, it does the same thing. it collects the dirt and the filth but it also absorbs those minerals and will pull the minerals out of your system. So get the water distilled, two weeks, it’ll help you detoxify. But after the two weeks, apply the minerals.
Steve: Okay, good stuff. Well, this is been a great interview. Hopefully, you have received a few good ideas. And if this is an area of interest, then certainly, the diet that we’ve talked about, the way you eat, the number of meals, and then try to have a consistent exercise program to supplement what you’re doing. The distilled water…
Ron: Absolutely.
Steve: With the minerals. Okay, good start. Now, Ron, how can they find out about what you’re doing or learn more?
Ron: Well, one is we have a YouTube channel which is just, Ron Williams YouTube Channel. The next thing, you could go to our website which is IronChestMaster.com or RWFitness.com. You can find me on the Internet just google Ron Williams.
Steve: Okay, good to know. Well, thank you. It’s been a great interview. And Ron, I can’t wait to see what happens in the next year.
Ron: Absolutely.
Steve: All right. Well, we’re signing off and remember that every one of you is making a difference in your own life. And I’d like to give you hope and encouragement that if you’ve had 10 or 15 pounds or whatever that you’ve been trying to lose, you can do it, and it’s just a steady effort and you can have fun doing it. It’s an adventure. Well, we wish you all the best.
This is Steve Shallenberger signing off with Becoming Your Best.