NEW: Plant Yourself merch designed by my daughter, Yael Zivan.

Tim Kaufman on Doing a Little More Today Than You Did Yesterday: PYP 163

tim-kaufman-pre-postWhen Tim Kaufman was in his late 30s, he weighed about 400 pounds, struggled with addictions to pain killers, and figured this was how his life was gonna be from now on. After all, he had been diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), a genetic disease that messes with connective tissue and left his knees essentially useless.

We spoke a couple of weeks after he finished his first marathon.

(Pause to let that sink in.)

As our mutual buddy Josh LaJaunie notes, when people make excuses about why they can't turn their lives around, they spit on Tim's story. He's got every excuse in the book at his disposal, but one day he stopped indulging and starting disputing them.

His mantra: “Eat plants, move your body, and do a little more today than you did yesterday.”

[powerpress]

Our conversation ranged over many topics:

  • training for a marathon in the snow, at night, in Yak Tracks
  • becoming slightly famous in Buffalo
  • how a high school dropout became an engineering teacher
  • quitting college because he couldn't sit at a desk
  • growing up strong on a farm and on the line of scrimmage
  • discovering his EDS, and making sense of his childhood “clumsiness”
  • arthritis, painkillers, splints, crutches, and canes in his 20s
  • “get an office job”
  • learning a year's worth of trigonometry in 45 minutes when the application was obvious
  • using genes as an excuse
  • when it's better to attack symptoms than root causes
  • “one more year and I would have been dead”
  • the double-edged sword of sympathy
  • the double whammy of family cancer deaths that shook Tim out of his self-pity
  • change as pins in a tumbler lock
  • getting rejected for bariatric surgery
  • praying for strength to do more, rather than a miracle
  • the initial dietary transition (jerky and mozzarella sticks instead of wings and burgers and fries)
  • the life-changing magic of juicing (courtesy of Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead)
  • watching Forks Over Knives twice at one sitting
  • buying produce wholesale
  • “my son is gonna die if you don't help him” – the pressure of Facebook advocacy
  • walking, jogging, and climbing mountains
  • “I'm just a fat guy who ate some apples…”
  • consistency (“It snowballs out the same way it snowballs in”)
  • everyone has 24 hours; it's priorities, not time
  • and much more…

Enjoy, add your voice to the conversation via the comment box below, and please share – that's how we spread our message and spread our roots.

Links

Tim's site: FatManRants.com

Tim's story on the Buffalo ABC news affiliate (complete with video with tearjerking music)

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead – documentary

Forks Over Knives – documentary

Support the Podcast

Like what you hear? You can contribute to the growth and improvement of the podcast by becoming a patron. Click the “Support on Patreon” or “Donate” buttons on the right to help out.

Gratitudes

Thanks to all the perspicacious Patrons of the Plant Yourself Podcast:

  • Kim Harrison
  • Lynn McLellan
  • Anthony Dissen
  • Brittany Porter
  • Dominic Marro
  • Elizabeth Clifton
  • Barbara Whitney
  • Tammy Black
  • Amy Good
  • Amanda Hatherly
  • Mary Jane Wheeler
  • Ellen Kennelly
  • Melissa Cobb
  • Rachel Behrens
  • Christine Nielsen
  • Tina Scharf
  • Tina Ahern
  • Jen Vilkinofsky
  • David Byczek
  • Michele X
  • Elspeth Feldman
  • Viktoriya Dolomanova
  • Leah Stolar
for your generous support.

Announcements

I'm currently offering a free month in my Healthy Habit Huddles. To find out how, click the button below and tell me your name and the best email address to send the registration information:

Sign up here

I can help you navigate the medical system and adopt a healthy lifestyle

I'm available for one-on-one consulting and coaching to help you navigate the medical system, make informed decisions, take control of your health destiny, and achieve true wellness and not just medical management of disease.

Ask your questions or share your feedback

Comment on the show notes for this episode (below)
Call 919-794-3735 to leave a voicemail
Email **@pl***********.com

Connect with me

Visit Howard Jacobson's health consulting site, TriangleBeWell.com
Subscribe, rate, and review in iTunes
Join the Plant Yourself Facebook Page

Music

The Plant Yourself Podcast theme music, “Dance of Peace (Sabali Don),” is generously provided by Will Ridenour, a kora player from North Carolina who has trained with top Senegalese musicians.

It can be found on his first CD, titled Will Ridenour.

You can learn about Will, listen to more tracks, and buy music on his website, WillRidenour.com.

Disclosure

This post may contain amazon affiliate links. I may receive amazon gift certificates from your actions on such links.

Dr Howie Jacobson

This podcast is a labor of love and a way to give back to the world that has given me so much. That's why there aren't any sponsors (except me :).

My day job is helping leaders and their teams master their mindsets to remove all obstacles to heart-centered high performance.

Here are three gigs that I do:

1. Executive and Senior Leadership Mentoring and Facilitation

I work with high performing executive teams in organizations — and executive teams that need to become high  performing. My focus is mindset mastery, because it’s our mindsets that either support high performance or get in the way.

At this level, everyone’s got the skills and experience to excel and contribute at the highest level. What holds people back is mindset stuff: specifically the triggers that get them out of creative engagement and into fight-or-flight defensiveness.

My practice is all about teaching people to respond differently to those triggers by updating old maps — essentially removing the glitches that the triggers grab onto.

2. Executive Coaching: Quick Wins for High Performance

I work with individual executives and leaders, one on one. The program is called Quick Wins for High Performance, and what we do is, we work strategically on one or two areas that are holding you back and keeping you from performing at your best.

We reverse engineer the presenting problems — too much work and not enough time, underperforming employees and teams, maddening organizational inefficiencies, etc — and identify and rewire the suboptimal mindsets that are behind those problems.

The work is all about updating your mental maps so your actions and responses are always appropriate, proportionate, and strategic.

3. High Stakes Conversations for Fast Growing Small Business Teams

I help small business teams have high stakes conversations with skill, humor, and grace. When people feel safe, they can do their best, most creative, most collaborative work.

So that's what I do. If you'd like any of those results, drop me a line and tell me about yourself.

You CAN Change Other People!

Well, that's what Peter Bregman and I claim in our provocative book of that title.

What we really mean is, you can bring out the best in the people around you. If you think you're powerless to help people change, it's because you've been going about it the wrong way.

Discover our straightforward, replicable process here: You Can Change Other People.

 

Music

The Plant Yourself Podcast theme music, “Dance of Peace (Sabali Don),” is generously provided by Will Ridenour, a kora player from North Carolina who has trained with top Senegalese musicians.

It can be found on his first CD, titled Will Ridenour.

You can learn about Will, listen to more tracks, and buy music on his website, WillRidenour.com.

Gratitudes

Thanks to Plant Yourself podcast patrons – Kim Harrison – Lynn McLellan – Brittany Porter – Dominic Marro – Barbara Whitney – Tammy Black – Amy Good – Amanda Hatherly – Mary Jane Wheeler – Ellen Kennelly – Melissa Cobb – Rachel Behrens – Tina Scharf – Tina Ahern – Jen Vilkinofsky – David Byczek – Michele X – Elspeth Feldman – Leah Stolar – Allan Kristensen – Colleen Peck – Michele Landry – Jozina – Sara Durkacs – Kelly Cameron – Janet Selby – Claire Adams – Tom Fronczak – Jeannette Benham – Gila Lacerte – David Donohue – Blair Seibert – Doron Avizov – Gio and Carolyn Argentati – Jodi Friesner – Mischa Rosen – Michael Worobiec – AvIvA Lael – Alicia Lemus – Val Linnemann – Nick Harper – Bandana Chawla – Molly Levine – The Inscrutable Harry R – Susan Laverty the Panda Vegan – Craig Covic – Adam Scharf – Karen Bury – Heather Morgan – Nigel Davies – Marian Blum – Teresa Kopel – Julian Watkins – Brid O'Connell – Shannon Herschman – Linda Ayotte – Holm Hedegaard – Isa Tousignant – Connie Haneline – Erin Greer – Alicia Davis – Heather O'Connor – Carollynne Jensen – Sheri Orlekoski of Plant Powered for Health – Karen Smith – Scott Mirani – Karen and Joe Crabtree – Kirby Burton – Theresa Carrell – Kevin Macaulay – Elizabeth Rothschild – Ann Jesse – Sheryl Dwyer – Jenny Hazelton – Peter W Evans – Dennis Bird – Darby Kelly – Lori Fanney – Linnea Lundquist – Emily Iaconelli – Levi Wallach – Rosamonde McAtee – Dan Pokorney – Stephen Leinin – Patty DeMartino – Mike and Donna Kartz – Deanne Bishop – Bilberry Elf – Marjorie Lewis – Tricia Adams – Nancy Sheldon – Lindsey Bashore – Gunn Marit Hagen – Tracey Gulledge – Lara Hedin – Meg from Mamasezz – Stacey Stokes – Ben Savage – Michael K – David Hughes -Coni Rodgers – Claire England – Sally Robertson – Parham Ganchi – Amy Dailey – Brian Tourville – Mark Jeffrey Johnson – Josie Dempsey – Caryn Schmitt – Pamela Hayden – Emily Perryman – Allison Corbett – Richard Stone – Lauren Vaught of Edible Musings – Erin Hastey – Sean Owens – Sagar Naik – Erika Piedra – Danielle Roberts – Michael Leuchten – Sarah Johnson – Katharine Floyd – Meryl Fury – for your generous support of the podcast.

Disclosure

This post may contain amazon affiliate links. I may receive compensation from your actions on such links. It don't cost you a dime, tho.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *