The Firestone Files Fitness Episode

Dr. Chris Firestone. Today I have a special guest, my daughter Rebecca Firestone. And the reason I've asked her here is because we're going to be talking about fitness in particular, my fitness in the coming 2026 new year. That's coming at you today on the Firestone Files. So, here we go. Oh my goodness. This is heavier than I thought. All right. Well, here we are. Full disclosure, it is still 2025. December 31st, 2025, late in the evening. And uh we're going to be talking about a new fitness regimen for me. Um Becca, you volunteered. Well, actually I asked you, you didn't really volunteer, but you were amanable to it to join me in this uh discussion over my fitness in the coming year.

What What are you seeing? Well, we were on our way to Goodwill, um a typical setting for us. And yeah, you said you're interested in trying to work on, you know, getting some fitness back, back to shape and that kind of thing. And Yeah, I'm excited to see where this journey will lead you this year. Me, too. Um, to be honest, I've been it's been a rough semester. Those who are following the Firestone Files will know that I've been on special assignment down in Fort Worth, Texas.

Uh, we had the Charlie Kirk assassination. We've had uh my journey with the students through teaching a prep year and all the things associated with that. But in the meantime, I've felt although I've been running here and there and doing a little bit of athletics with the students, I've kind of had more food intake than normal. And uh you and I just went upstairs, found a scale, and what did you see there? Well, I don't know if you want this number to go. I want the I want the number out there because we we got to document this for um Well, dad stepped on it and he weighed 240 lb, which I believe is the most I have ever seen you weigh.

Yes. I have to say I was a little shocked myself when I saw that. He was shocked. Yes. And then we couldn't get the scale working after that. I actually broke the scale apparently. Uh, and so I think we did get it running finally again, but man, it looked like I broke it for sure. 240 lb. I was, if I look back in my history, I was once 240 uh, one other time. I don't know when that was uh, 10 15 years ago, and I had to go on a radical diet and do some things. And I did manage to bring my weight down. My normal weight should be somewhere in the 210 to 220 range, I think. Would you say that's fair? I mean, I'm no expert, but that sounds about right.

I do know one time we calculated your BMI that was back when you were like 230 maybe and it was a little high. So, 120. So, I'm I'm definitely in would you say a problematic area at this point? Once again, I am no expert. Um, and there's a lot more than just your weight that goes into your health. Yes. Um, you know, you could be an extremely muscular person and weigh more than you do at your same height and be much healthier than you are right now. Okay. So, body composition is also very important. Okay. Well, here's here's my thought. There are probably other people who watch the Firestone Files who might be on a similar pathway.

I know in America we have an obesity problem generally. Um, I don't I don't know my audience for sure in this area, but I would say that I'm going to have a New Year's resolution. It is New Year's Eve right now and in I don't know about 3 or 4 hours it'll be midnight and I am resolved in 2026 to drop I haven't thought of a number yet. Haven't gotten that far into the plan. I guess I want to say at least 25 lbs. Would you say that's fair? That'll get me to 215. Yeah.

Is that a reasonable number for 3 months? Three months? Yeah. What would you say? Three, four months? I thought we were doing the whole year. The whole year. No, no, no. I want to I want to actually report back to our listeners here before Easter, which I mean, goals are made. You know, you got to you're not going to get anywhere without an ambitious goal. So, okay. Well, that's about somewhere around 6 to 8 pounds a month. I don't want to do a massive drop or anything like that. I like to do a steady one, but that seems like a Well, I also feel like this should be progress focused and part like process focused, I guess.

Okay. Um, tell me more about that. What do you mean by that? Well, there's a lot of unpredictability in your weight. Things like stress. Okay. Um, can influence that journey. And I think that the more important thing is just building a healthy sustainable lifestyle that you're enjoying while still, you know, yes, working towards your goal. So I don't I don't want at the end of these three months if you haven't dropped exactly 25 lbs, but you have, you know, improved your lifestyle, you are feeling a lot healthier and higher energy than you have in years for you to be like disappointed.

Okay. Well, that's a good it's a good uh sort of check on my expectations, I guess. Um, thank you for that, by the way, because I I do tend to be a goal oriented guy, and if I don't make it, I could have a kind of like disappointment at the end of all this. Um, here's here's my generic strategy. Now, you're an athlete at the Taylor University, finishing up your senior year here, and you're uh running track and cross country and all that good stuff. Uh, and you've done a lot more looking into health and fitness than I probably will ever do. Uh, but my thought right now is diet and exercise.

That's like a classic formula. Yeah. So, I'm hoping to pull back on the sweets. I'm hoping to uh eat more vegetables and watch watch what I did in the past is kind of watch my points. Like anything that's heavy, try to cut back on that and then add regular exercise. Maybe even ramp that up a little bit in the new year. Am I thinking rightly? What else would you say? Yeah, I'd say that's a healthy plan. I also think something I've noticed in your habits is eating later in the night. That can be your weakness. You know, bag of chips next to you.

We're watching a movie. You're kind of going at it. I have to say that's that's a nice experience. And so taking something from mom's book is she's always telling us take a handful out, put it in a bowl, put the bag back. I'm much more used to having the bag with me and maybe leaving a bowl changes that we're trying to address. Okay. All right. So, the late night stuff. So, try to have a cut off time. Yeah. I don't know what time would that be. Like 8:00. Um uh I'm not sure what time what when do you go normally go to bed? Let's say 11 12.

Yeah. I mean I think I mean I know eating right before bed is not healthy for you. Okay. And so trying to pull back that time. Do you eat breakfast generally? I usually have a cup of coffee. I don't often have breakfast, but if I do, it would be something quite simple. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like focusing on your three meals a day and making sure you're getting those in and you're being consistent with your eating, yes, is pretty important. Um just building habits and routines and Okay. I don't know how much you're eating out versus mom's cooking, that kind of thing.

Yeah. Well, since we've been down in Special Assignment in Fort Worth, Texas, I've been eating robust lunches and dinners. Yeah. They have like a whole buffet spread out for them. And my parents basically were eating free there. So, they just would go to the buffet for every meal. It was good food, but it was uh it was nice to have a buffet, readym made food, but zero limits. Zero limits. Yeah. And I I knew better, but I felt like I was not just doing the one plate, but I'd often go back for the second plate. And some simple things that I think I knew cognitively better, but it was there.

They had so many good choices. I said I wanted to try them all. Uh, and it's gotten me into the position which I now find myself. Um, okay. Well, now let's because you're an athlete, I would like to talk a little bit about what my daily and weekly and monthly plan is. What I've done in the past, you can tell me what you think about this is I try to run at least a mile almost every day or every other day. Um, I do push-ups and sit-ups almost every day, sometimes every other day. Um, that's it. I mean, I I can do up to three miles, you know, but it takes it's going to take me some I haven't been running in the last month. Mainly because weather changes so much a prep year to to finish up in terms of weather. Hold on. Weather change.

Yeah. Well, when I was I was in Texas just two weeks ago and it was 70° every day. It was beautiful. Okay. It wasn't really the weather change. It was more of the work. You're right. I mean, compared to what we're used to, I had no excuses, but I was looking for excuses. Fair enough. Fair enough. But I did have a lot of grading, a lot of teaching to do, uh, wrapping up with students and and and all of that. And then we had Amfest and other things going on. So there was a lot going on about a month where I really didn't do much Straa work like I normally did.

Uh, I'm planning to change that in the new year, but uh, it's going to take some time. I'd like to go from one mile to three miles over the course of maybe a month. Yeah. Um, might be able to do longer than that, but I I found that my body at this age just having turned 60 to three miles feels like a stretch but still something I capable of five I start seeing yeah injuries injuries and other things uh uh you know stacking up a little bit. So that's the game plan right now. I did discover cuz I was with I guess it was Matthew Firestone who's over there at Champion with me that we discovered it has a really nice set of weights. Uh he calls it an iron garden.

The secret the secret iron garden. Is that the secret iron garden there? Champion. So is that something I should add to my repertoire? And what advantages are there for that kind? Okay. Well, I think I need to preface this by saying I have no formal um exercise science training. I have my own personal experience. Um, and also obviously my body composition and my workout routine is going to be very different from yours. Yes. Yes. That's a good preface. Now, where do we go from here? Lifting weights is good for you. Okay. I would say yes.

I would also say for you at your age, you want to be thinking, I mean, I think this is for everyone, too, but what do you want to be able to do in 20 years? Yes. It's those kind of, you know, do you want to be able to get on the ground and play with your grandkids? Yes. Um, that would be nice. So, that kind of mobility stuff, I think, is going to be key, especially considering that's not your strong suit right now. That's not your So if I'm Let me see if I've got this right now. You know, I like to mountain bike as well.

So if I either run or mountain bike every other day with some push-ups and sit-ups, what my normal ritual is, but in the my off days, go to the secret iron garden and do some extra work just in the weight room. Maybe arms one day, legs another day, you know, that kind I've seen the kids do this kind of stuff.

Yeah. Is that sufficient to get me to where I want to go? Um, I also think you don't want to jump in with everything all at once. So, I think that that is a great starting point. Okay. So, here's here's what I'm going to try to do then. I'm just formulating this on the fly with you. I'm going to try to reinstitute my normal kind of simple schedule of running or biking every other day with some push-ups and sit-ups thrown in just for general maintenance, but I'm going to try to add in those in between days. Yeah. visits to the Secret Iron Garden, which is basically a workout facility there at Champion.

It's a very small workout facility. Yeah. And uh add add, you know, 30 to 45 minutes at least, maybe 30 minutes to an hour. I would say for that side of it, you're going to want to have a plan, like an actual lifting plan that you get probably Andrew or Matthew, my brothers, to write for you. Yes. Just cuz I know for me that's like having a lifting plan is very helpful because, you know, you can keep track of what muscles you're working out. you can make sure you're getting enough rest and recovery and then it's also motivating.

You know, you go in and you've got your set things that you're going to do and then you can push yourself and try to okay get new PRs. Now, when we come back 3 months from now, there'll be sometime before Easter, I hope. I don't remember is Easter in March or in April this year. Do we know that? Anybody know that? Any Fire Stones out there listening know when Easter is in 2026? Um trying to get some help from behind camera out there in the living room. Uh Sunday, April 5th. April 5th. Sunday. It's perfect. It's three. Is that three months? January, February, March, April 5th.

It's perfect. So by Easter, I'm going to have a follow-up Firestone file on fitness. What I hope to do is to have a chart like a whiteboard where I've listed out everything I've done over the last 3 months so we can kind of review it together. Um, and then kind of see where we've gotten in the weight category, in the fitness category, have made some progress. Is that is that a good plan? Yeah. Okay. I think that that's might be what we try to do. Um, is is Matthew Firestone out there anywhere? Is Matthew Firestone out there?

He is. I would like to review this with him. Maybe get him on the microphone. See if it meets his certification here. Um, um, okay. Here's what we came to. I am regret regretting to inform you that I'm now 240 lbs. Um, it's a little it's not the I think it's about my max of my lifetime. I I've hit that number 10 years ago. or I don't know if you remember that when I did a dramatic weight loss, but I've made it back up there now apparently thanks to a very tough semester. So, what we discussed was that I would get back into my normal rhythms every other day of either running or mountain biking with some push-up sit-ups.

That's kind of my normal ritual every other day. But we're going to add the concrete, what's that? The secret concrete garden in those intervening days. The secret garden of iron. Was that right? Yeah. Sorry, I had the wrong. It's Yeah. The secret garden of iron. Is that what it's called? Okay. Uh basically a weight room that not too many people use at Champion, but I'm going to be using it in those intermediate days where I'm going to do 30 minutes to an hour of either upper body or lower body, some kind of alternating rhythm.

What do you think about this plan? I think I think it's a pretty good plan. Okay. Uh yeah, I think key to the plan are going to be program of progression. Yes. Does that mean in the weight room in everything that we're doing? Yeah. In the weight room, but also in the in the in the running probably. I mean the biking you can you can bike that in your sleep, but if you're going to get back more into running, you're going to need to build up. Okay. Or you hurt yourself. I'm thinking about trying with a mile and then by the end of the first month get up to like three miles.

It seems like from past experience when I go beyond three to four or five I start risking injuries of various sorts. Mhm. So, I'm trying not to make that the necessary centerpiece until, of course, if I run that 5K that we do in in July. Um, I may start getting higher later, you know, in the early summer, but by April 5th, I'm trying to be in that three mile regular range at least, and then having an everyday experience in the weight room alternating uh with those other things. Yeah. So that's uh I would say that's a that's a lot.

That might be too much. I mean that's an everyday thing. Do I get any off days in this plant? Weekends? No, I the weekends are most likely for me to be able to do stuff. Yeah, I I would keep it flexible. You're very busy, right? Very busy guy. So I'm shooting for like five days out of seven. I think that would be good. Something like that. five days out of seven with like flexibility and which ones of those are rest days and which ones are training days. Is there any other advice you would give me like diet was one thing we talked about. I need to stop eating late at night.

Snacks in particular. Uh I didn't hear hydration. That's usually one that's significant. Yeah. Uh, hydration is important. Um, in terms of diet, you I would probably start maybe not tracking your macros, but making a pointed effort to eat more protein. Um, and then if you could find some like zero calorie snack of some kind and have that be your nighttime snack or something. You've already used a word that I'm not I'm not familiar with. Macros with regards to food. What does that mean? Uh macronutrients. Yes. In food, they're very major one. You have carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.

Okay. It's you need more protein unless almost everyone needs more protein in their diet than they they consume. Okay. Unless they really make a pointed effort. I see. And I'm also seeing you and your brother in particular sometimes Becca too. I think this stuff called creat creatine. Creatine. Yeah, creatine is a great supplement. It's a great supplement. Uh it's the most wellressearched supplement that there is unless you count whey protein. Um it's yeah it's great for strength and training. It's also great for brain health. Uh you could start taking that if you wanted to. You have to take it you really should take it every day.

You should take about five grams of it a day. Um, and yeah, the the amount your body absorbs will slowly build up until Does any of that help with like cramping or other things like that or is that creatine? Probably won't help with cramping. That'll be hydration. Okay. It's water and salt. Okay. So, I'm going to add some creatine. Do you think I should do the protein drinks, too, or should I simply up my strengthen my diet? I think that's a good way to do it.

Buying protein powder is the cheapest way to buy protein and the easiest way to get a bunch of protein without is that going to help me increasing your I mean I'm looking at weight loss as well as fitness in this whole regimen. Should I uprote or not? Uh weight loss is going to be a function of roughly speaking a function of just how many calories you eat. So does protein shakes have calories? Yes, protein protein has every gram of protein has four calories roughly. Okay. But if you were to try and if you drink a protein shake that has 25 g of protein in it.

Yes. Overall, that shake is going to be less calories than almost any other source of protein that has 25 g of protein cuz other sources that have 25 g of protein will have carbohydrates and fats and other things in there. I see. Okay. So, if I were to up to a lot of vegetable fruit and vegetables with protein drinks, is that a viable pathway? I'm looking for some kind of regular Yeah. dietary uh Yeah, that's definitely a viable a viable pathway. Yeah, you should still be eating like your whole foods, your meats and Okay. I don't know if I can get this past your your mom or anything like that, but I function like an all-in kind of guy. So, I'm thinking maybe fruits and vegetables with the protein shakes and uh maybe partaking of some other meals.

I'm trying to figure out what I can do in 3 months to pull this off. Yeah. Um, so what exact in 3 months? What you're talking about a timeline now? Yeah. I'm trying to drop 25 lbs as well as raise my fitness level in 3 months. 3 months. All right. Well, that one goal, it's good and that's specific and measurable. Second goal. Not that specific, not that measurable. So, we can refine that. Uh, your first goal is also very ambitious. Dropping 25 lbs in 3 months. That's more than 8 pounds a month, right? Is that bad for me? Uh, I think probably probably not. It is a lot of It is a lot of weight to lose, right?

Okay. Well, I'm I'm up to trying. I mean, I don't know. We'll have to report back in early April. I'm thinking I'm going to have a chart that I'm going to put together with everything that I'm doing physically o over the course of three months. I'll probably report back on my general diet and then we'll look at the weight again. Um, does that sound like a fair followup? Uh, yeah, that would be a fair followup. Um, if you you have fitness goals, too. So, you should probably running and biking and then measure your performance in some lifts and then track those over time.

Okay. So, that's what I'll do is I'll try to not only put the, you know, the fitness chart together, food chart together, and just see where I'm at at the beginning and then track it and then look at it April 1st or whatever, 3 months later. Mhm. And see where we're at. Are you willing to come back and Beck, are you willing to come back and tell me in that time if possible? I don't know if you can. Yeah, I'm not sure I can make it. I'm not sure I can be on location in April. Yeah, it might it might be a uh a Zoom call.

I can maybe do a Zoom call. Okay. All right. Well, actually, that's my I'm on spring break that week, so Oh, you might actually be back. Who knows? Okay. Well, cool. I think that I think we got a workable plan. I'll try to chart that out next time we go revisit this and see where I'm uh where I made it or not by that time. I'm excited to see where this goes. Uh any last bit of advice for me? It's a lot of talk right now. That's what concerns me. We'll uh we'll uh we'll write up a more specific plan for you. Um maybe I'll I'll link that in the description of this episode. Uh, and yeah, I think I'll give you a results are okay. Well, this is a good road map.

This is what they call those things like realistic media here. Uh, reality TV. Reality TV. Yeah, we'll figure out whether whether or not I can do something, you know. Uh, hope I don't fail. Uh, but it's nice to have you guys along for the journey with me. I guess this is day one. I think it's January 2nd or 3rd. Just made it back from Minnesota. My journey begins today. I'm just trying to get started. Um going to run a mile, maybe a mile and a half, come back, hope to do some push-ups and sit-ups. It's kind of was a ritual I had before I left town uh five, six months ago.

But uh just get started today. I I don't think I'm going to make it to the they call the what my son called the secret garden of iron. Uh but I do plan to get there soon, maybe even tomorrow. So, was able the good news is I was able to do 1. 4 miles. The bad news is that my mile time is over 12 minutes. Um I think it was 1217. I've got a picture of that. Um you can see in the picture my straa and uh so good news and bad news I am still able to run with a little extra poundage. 1 2 3 4 20 21 22 3 4 Okay. Oh 45. All right. Here we go. 3 2 1 15 more. Here we go.

1 2 30 14 15 All right. All right. 1 2 4 40 41 43 4. I'm not sure if I can do 15 more push-ups straight. I guess there's only one way to find out. A trained athlete always beats a natural athlete. All right, here we go. One, two, three, four, five, 6. Okay, I got to 55. Five more. One, two, three, four. That's good. All right. Well, I think I've got most of the ingredients I want to try today.

I'm going to be um making I don't know what these are called, smoothies or milkshakes or what they are, but my kids have helped me to and uh one of my colleagues, Matthew Swift, are helping me to figure out what to put in this thing. So, I've got some protein, some whey protein. Uh I got the chocolate kind. And I guess I'm a uh chocolateaholic really, so I thought I'd try that one. I've got some creatine that I just opened here. Um going to try a scoop of that. Got some applesauce. I had peanut butter somewhere around here, but I couldn't find it. Uh so I'm just going to go with some peanuts.

Um put a few of those in there. Um, this is just basically 100 100% peanuts. And we got some spinach. I got some uh skim milk here. I don't know what this all adds up to, but I'm going to start um enjoying these uh for lunch and, you know, maybe once a day or something and uh make it part of my diet. And hopefully this will uh help me get to my goals here. So, let's go ahead and put a few of things in there.

Um, looks like I got a scoop already made for me. Let's go ahead and drop that in. Just going to try one level teaspoon of this here. What this stuff is, I don't know. I'm going to sneak in a few bits of spinach here. They did say to put some berries in there. You know, that's the one thing I don't have out right now. Let me throw some of these in. Man, this is starting to come together. That can't be bad for you. I'm going to throw a few of these peanuts in there. Mainly because supposed to have peanut butter, but Let's go ahead and throw a little granola in there. I like granola generally. We're early. It's my first attempt at this and I'll probably figure out what I like as I go along. Okay, let's pop that open. And uh that is my first ever healthy shake. All right, here we go. Taste test.

Not bad. Not bad at all. All right, here I am. It's January 4th. Yesterday, I went running, did some push-ups and sit-ups. Today, I am taking my first stab at the Secret Garden of Iron. I'm inside a underutilized facility here on the campus of Champion Christian College. Um, apparently students come in here now and again. Uh we're not yet to when uh students are back on campus. So uh I'm not under the risk of them coming in now. Uh so I'm going to go and show you that a room off to the side here. And let me shut the door. See what we've got in here.

So we've got this is kind of an area that I've been afraid of for years to be honest. It's the free weights. And so we've got all these free weights. We've got these things for curls and other things. Got a treadmill. So I don't know that I'll be using that all that much, but you never know. Then we've got I guess this is where you do squats and other things like that. And then of course here's the bench press. And uh well I'm hoping my son gets me a program here. in light of what I have access to that I can add on.

So, today I think I'm just gonna do um some curls, some arm raises, some uh some uh bench press until I get that program of uh of of of um you know, workout program for my son. But I'm going to try to get started here today and uh yeah, I'll let you guys know how it goes along the way.

My experience with squats uh began and ended probably 15 years ago when uh I really threw out my lower back doing squats. Uh I don't think I had good form and yeah it wasn't the best. So what I propose to do now I got a little bit of training from Matthew Firestone Matthew Swift. Uh could definitely use more, but uh I'm going to try some basic squats with just the bar. Not exactly in the best of condition for this. Okay. Five. Six. 7 10. Okay, I'm gonna start with that. I know that's not super impressive. Oh, but I'm not very um flexible. My form isn't that great and I'm not super strong with that one at this point in time.

So, I'll go ahead and do 10 more. I think I've got that in me just to break the ice. and 10. Okay. All right. I'm starting slow. No doubt about it, but uh I'm starting. And that's uh that's important. So, here we go. Oh my goodness. It's heavier than I thought. Okay, let's put it back this way. Here we go. Okay, I'm going to try to do one, I think. One, two, three, 10.

I was able to get 10. I'm happy with that. I haven't done this uh well with free weights in 15 years. Let me see if I can actually do uh 10 more of these. So, I better stop. That's That's seven. I did seven extra. So, 17 total. One, two, three, four, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40. Okay, that is good. All right. Well, that was that was 20 curls with each arm. 25 lbs. One, two, three, four, 10. Okay, that was harder than I anticipated. All right, well, that's it for now. This has been another edition of the Firestone Files, the Firestone Files Fitness, where I'm going to try to um, you know, put myself back together here in the next couple of months.

Thank you for listening. See you next time. Thanks for stopping by to spend some time with me here on the Firestone Files. I hope today's reflections offered you some new insights and perspective on life. If you enjoyed the episode or found it valuable, I'd appreciate it if you'd take a moment to like, subscribe, and share it with someone you care about. I'd also love to hear your thoughts. What resonated with you? What challenged you? Or what would you like to hear more about in future episodes? Drop a comment below or send in your suggestions to the email in the description. Your input helps shape where we go next. This has been Dr. Chris Firestone. Until next time, keep asking the big questions and remember the kingdom journey is always best with your friends. Further up and further in. Bye for now.