Ep. 117: Overcome and Motivate with Sidney Smith

that gives them a reason. So yeah, that's I think we kind of all get kind of muddled down in our own little bs of our daily lives, and we kind of like forget about those kind of things. But but then I start thinking, like you know, all the little things like when I'm feeling down in the dumps or whatever, I start thinking about the things that someone or something has happened. That that's that's makes me like shake it off or whatever.

hate public speaking. Everyone says it was easy, but I'm like, yeah, but you got to do something I absolutely hate, you know. I hate talking in church, I hate speaking in front of people. And so I ended up getting like a C in that class. But it's still it's still better to me. But what ended up happening is is, uh, you know, I never I said I'll never speak again. This is, you know, dumb. I'm glad I got that off my list. It was just to get credit for

a class. And then turns out that in twenty fifteen I had my legs amputated due to complications to a disease I was born with called Charco Marie Tooth and just a backstory with that. You know, it's it's something that's a progressive muscular distripty, something I gained genetically sometime down the road, and it progressed heavily in deforming my feet to the point where I couldn't function. Then I couldn't do the things I love, such as hunting and fishing,

hiking and all that stuff. And then when I hit about thirty three, doctors kind of gave me an ultimatum saying, you know, we coul get a wheelchair or we could try you know, amputation and see what prosthetics will do. So in twenty fifteen, I did this surgery, and you know,

it was hard, you know, changed my life. Obviously, it was a big decision, But in the long run, it was the best decision I've ever made because I've had so many amazing things happen in my life that's blessed me and my family and has taught me things about you know, gratitude and things to be grateful for and how you know, God gives us certain trials in life to make a stronger individuals and purpose to help other people that are also struggling and to be the example

to others. And so yeah, I just caught the fire after that point. And someone suggested that I speak to a group of cub Scouts and telling my story. And I said, okay, I'll talk to these you know, ten year old boys and telling my story and the challenges that I've overcame and the things that I've accomplished. And it felt good. And next thing, I know, you know, a couple of schools started reaching out and and then before you know it, I started going, you know, traveling

all over the country. It's not something I do full time. I have a nine to five. It's just something I enjoy doing. And uh, it's it's been a blessing in my life to share my story. So that's where I'm at.

I mean that, like that whole process has got to be like so.

see gone it was it was hard. You know, there was tears in the hospital bed and knowing that, you know, I won't be able to feel cold grass and the sand beneath my pose, and and you know, the fear of the unknown, like am I gonna do activities such as hunting and fishing and the things I love, play with my kids, keep a job. And then my wife came into the hospital room, and you know, I'm still down on myself, and I'm telling her, you know, I'm sorry,

this is now a burden on you. I was just thinking, you know, you, you might as well just go ahead and leave me, honey. I totally won't judge you for that, And she says, you know I could, but the doctor gave us this handicapped parking pass and now that, uh, we can get excellent parking at Walmart. I don't see any reason why I would leave you. So, uh, there's there's a there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

But that's back to your back to your question, where do you find, you know, to get out of the dooms of stuff like that? Uh, you know, for me, it it was hard to accept the fact that life is going to be harder at first, and I just overall, I'm trying to be a kind person, and ultimately I felt guilty that I was a burden to everybody, and so, you know, the thoughts of a suicide came in pretty heavy towards at the beginning. But then, you know something

that I with this disease. I've always felt like life is not fair, but it's just the way it is, and you know, you have to live with that. And for me, I've thought, you know, maybe this, you know, why did God give me this challenge? And you know it's not fair, but you know, I still have to live with it, and I have to have a positive attitude. And when I was thinking of suicide and you know, all these awful thoughts, I still had a young family

at the time, and I had a little daughter. She's now ten years old, but she was just learning how to walk, and ironically we're learning to walk together. Oh wow. And I just remember learning to walk with my prosthetics and she's learning to walk at the same time. It just dawned on me that you know, it may not be fair that I had gotten this disease, but to her it's not fair that they she'd have a dad that may end his life. And I can't control my disease,

but I can control the outcome of my daughter. And so it just kind of clicked that the purpose of life is a lot different than what I thought at that moment. It's not all about me. It's all about Noah, my kids, and and everyone else as well. And so I just knew I had to combat this fear and anger that I had towards this disease in my situation and find myself out of it. And so I heard at church one time the opposite of fear is faith. That is the antidote. But they work the same way.

Where you can't see fear and you can't see faith, but if in your mind, if you have a belief in one and grow and develop that, nurseh you know, the fear or the faith, one has a positive aspect and one has a negative aspect. And so I what really started it all was just faith. Is that I had to believe that I was going to get better, that God has a plan for me. I'm going to trust in him that He's gonna provide me a life that's going to be worth you know, hanging on and

that's where it all began. And I just kept believing that and exercising that faith to where it's turned into something beautiful and strong. Yeah, that's awesome. It kind of reminds me.

negative comes. And if you're dwelling on positive things and you know, keeping the you know, shutting out the negative stuff just kind of keeps you on track. So just overcoming, you know, the part of losing your legs and and trying to find a way to live a normal life again. Now that's one thing which is remarkable that in itself, to me, is is motivating. But then I look at

a lot of the other things you do. You you go hiking in the mountains, you go elk hunting, you've competed in iron Man, you've competed in triathlon, you've you've been in a body building competition. I mean, I mean, you've just checked off a lot of boxes that like to do one of those in a normal person's life would be like an accomplishment, right that like a bucket

list accomplishment. You you are checking all these boxes and people might think or see like you know, no, nobody sees the hard work, right, no matter what anyone does, they always see the outcome, like the result, like you know, a successful el kint summit on a mountain, you've you've you've hiked up to or or you know your your your body condition at the end of training for a body competition. But the day in, day out training and grueling to get from point zero to to the to

the goal that is that's that's the real stuff. And I feel like not everybody gets to see that, And what are your opinions on that? Like you have you probably have put in so much work that nobody will ever see, and overcame a lot of little things, like little things we take for granted on a day to day just to accomplished those those things.

was hard, but that wasn't the hardest part. The hardest part was all the training. I had an infection six months prior to the race that almost put me out where I you know, they had to drain all go in there and cut into my limb and drain all the infection just you know, twenty plus hours of a week of just training every Saturday completely on my bike or swimming eight or nine hours and then eating. Just in doing that for a year straight, that was difficult.

Like even hunting season. It was frustrating when I wanted to go hunting, but I had to to go run first, and so that little stuff like that. That was the hard part. But that's you know, if it wasn't if it was easy, then everybody would do it. That's that's the part that is rewarding, is that that grind. And uh, I mean, just to answer your question, it's not easy,

but that's what makes it worth it. That's what really is going to change as an individual, because if it was easy, then then you wouldn't see this, you wouldn't have the desire, wouldn't be as cool for you. Rewarding, Yeah, absolutely. I feel like it's proof to the thought that human humans are capable of amazing things in and our abilities are way further than what we first you know, the first little stop our brain says, oh, I think we're done.

back and think, what is your mind? What's your mindset?

basically has started all my endurance over. You know, what do I do? And and I thought about it, prayed about it, and this was this was in twenty nineteen when I did this race, and so I was like, well, maybe I'll push the race into twenty twenty, Like what's the worst that can happen in twenty twenty. And as you can see, I decided not to go that route.

And had I done, you know, then the race of twenty twenty would have been canceled because of COVID, and then who knows what other things could have happened in my life that would have completely derailed me from the race. So I just said, you know what, it's going to be worth it. I'm going to give it my best, because I'm not going to regret it if I don't give my best. If I don't finish, that's one thing. I could always sign up and do this again. But if I if I don't even show up to the course,

and don't even try. Then it's it's not going to be rewarding, because that's that's where it is. Same thing. Like like we talked about elk hunting that this last fall or this current fall, sorry that we're in, I guess it's still fall. I just shot an elk last month and my biggest bull to date. You know, I'm super stoked about it. But when I shot him, I shot him down at the bottom of this canyon and it you know, I knew when I saw him he's one of those bulls you just don't be like, well,

he's too hard to get. I'm not going to pass. I mean, this is a once in a lifetime thing by far, And I went and I shot him, and and the best thing about elk cunning is having buddies with you because then you feel confident getting him out of there. Right. Sure, we spend all day breaking him down and you know, boning him out and getting him up the hill. And you know, my buddy was like, you know, you should have shot him from the road or you know, to see if he would have came

up the road. But I look back at it now, I was like, I'm glad that he was in the worst hell hole. Otherwise this reward wouldn't be as as great. I mean, it would felt like I mean, don't get me wrong. If they're sitting on the road, that's awesome.

But at the same time, just to earn that bull has now made it more of a memory and every you know, this is my first bull that I'm actually going to mount, and now I will remember that elk and that experience of the pack out more than just you know, if I were to shoot him on the road, and so it's got to be worth it and that those are the moments you got to live for. Otherwise having regret, it's just an awful thing to have. Absolutely, yeah, yeah,

living with regret it sucks. I know. Over the years, I've been elk.

I really wish I could of just because I gave up, you know. You know, I like to talk a big game and say, you know, don't ever give up. But that's a lot of that is me talking to myself,

don't ever give up. I have to give myself that my pep talk every now and then because it, Yeah, you do face hard, hard hunts or hard things, and it's like, well, do you want to you know, you want to think about this for the you want to carry that monkey on the back of your back for the next year or the rest of your life.

the past to walk. Now I can imagine everything is different now with prosthetic limbs, with prosthetic legs to walk, you're using some of the same muscles but differently, and there's probably some other muscles that coming into into play to learn how to walk.

other leg. For me, where my struggles is because I don't have an ankle, a lot of my stability comes into my knees and my hips, Okay, and so one of the things you know, when I train at the gym, those are things I like to focus on, is you know, stability on my hips, mostly because that's what's gonna help with my walking. But to answer your question, like how

hard was it to learn to walk? You know, prior to having my legs amputated, I wore those forest gump braces, those big metal things, and so you know, ironically, I got those braces when that movie came out, and so everybody at the playground would always say, you know, run Sydney Run. So that's and I still have those braces. But because of those braces, they actually kind of helped me understand the mechanics of relying on a device. And so I actually picked up pretty well on the prosthetic,

but I still had pain. Like when you first lose your limb, your your your limb is huge and it's got to loose size. And then your they change the shape of your socket that go you know, the socket goes around your limb and that changes, and then you have to have soft because throughout the day the volume can change based off like sweat, your diet, inflammation that your calf muscle because it's got a atrophy completely. And then it was about probably going this yo yo about

a whole year. Did I feel confident where I could walk throughout the whole day and not have any pain. And then when it came to hunting, that was you know another element because now I'm adding pressure on my back, which is more weight inside my socket, which is you know, this hard carb fiber. So I got to adjust to that I'm more top heavy, and so the carbon fiber has a different response based on my weight, and so I got to adjust to that. Sissy sticks. I know

Bryce Bishop with the Peaks equipment. He got me some of those trekking poles. Yeah, I use those for hunting, even when you know the trail is actually not treacherous. I still like that. But you know, challenges for me. You know, a sage brush because I can't feel the ground. I can't feel when that sage brush grabs your feet, you know, because I'm trying to scan scan the horizon, trying to look for animals. Uh steep going downhill just because my my toe doesn't flex downwards, so I'm basically

walking on the edge of my heel. That's kind of hard. Uh goll league upheels nice because that my my foot's down, you know, kind of digging in anyways because it's flat, right. But yeah, that's that's kind of the gist of prosthetics. It could take a beating. I I've had experiences where I've broken my prosthetic in the mountains. You know, I get blisters, I get sores, just like everybody else. It's

just in different places. Yeah, do you do you once you kind of once you get I would assume it's just like anything, the more you use it, the tougher it gets. Right.

elk seasons there, it's pretty good. But then you get on some other train and you may experience some other other other issues with blisters, but it probably develops more of a callus there. Eventually probably use it and lose it, or use it or lose it.

to train for hunting. The best way to train for hunting is go more hunting, go hunting more, I guess, And so usually August is when it's like those first few hikes or you know, oh that kind of hurt and then by the time I'm hunting in October November, I'm a row But yeah it uh, I would say, yeah, the blisters are pretty much healed and calloused over and and my muscles are you know, a little better shape for for for hiking. So it it's just like, yeah, just like anybody else.

poorly most of the time. Right, So that I knew that was going to be the hardest. Every time I tried to lose weight for something, it's it's always the pizza and the cookies that end up getting after me. The smoked meats, oh yeah, the smoked meats. So I just I just decided, you know what, this is kind of a new iron Man for me. It's something I you know, it's it's in good puts me in a good headspace to have a goal that's hard in mind.

And so I just told myself, I'm going to do a show in October and and and go for there. So how it looked out, I gave myself about a year to prep for this show. I was two thirty six when I started, and it just what it looked like was in the beginning, I would, you know, eat

high proteins. My calories would be pretty high, about thirty five hundred, and I just have a high protein to try to bulk up, tried to get strong, lift heavy, and then I continued that from about oh December till May ish is when I started what they call the cut. And so I figured out, you know, how much weight or how many calories I needed to cut back before I started losing weight and then minus five hundred calories.

So I kind of measured everything that I ate, weighted everything that I ate, logged everything that I ate, and then I watched my scale. If I started losing weight, then that's what I knew where I was supposed to be.

So I went from like thirty five hundred calories to twenty five hundred calories and then I kept that for a while and I was hoping to lose about a pound and a pound and a half, and then I dropped to two thousand calories because sometimes I would plateau, but I for food wise, I ate probably a whole elk all by myself because elk has the best protein per calorie ratio, and when you're trying to keep for calories low and your protein's high, like for my macros,

if I weighed about two hundred and twenty pounds, I wanted to try to eat two hundred and forty grands of protein, which is that's a lot of food. And so you know with you know, mountain hoops, protein shakes and elk, and I fish a lot, so I caught, you know, kept all of my fish that I would catch.

I just kind of developed a diet. I got a little creative with like different egg whites and chicken, but ultimately I had to cut out the things I loved, which was pork, you know, you know, starchy foods, bread, you know, heavy breads, pizzas, sugar, soda, all that. And that was the hardest part of the bodybuilding show. Actually the muscles. There are just muscles that I had. I don't think I really grew any stronger. I didn't get

stronger in the gym. It's just when you lose all that weight from doing all calorie deficit, that's when it shows up. And that is the hardest part is just the food. So were you did you avoid carbs at all costs or were you mixing in some carbs some like clean stuff. I do what they call a carb rotation or so on leg day and back day, which were my largest groups of muscles that I was exercising, I would have more carbs. But ultimately the goal was to be about one hundred carbs for the day, except

for the last month. The last month is when it's extreme cutting. I was anywhere from twenty five to fifty and very irritable and angry, and I was a little bitchy. I'm not gonna lie. My wife said. I was on PMS for the month of September.

you know, a beer belly. And it's just because I was eating so much carbs and sugars to try to recover. Right, No, I learned a lot about my body in this competition. Like I could still like I've had pizza a few times since my competition. I could still find waste to indulge, but I I mean I would eat like a whole pizza, and now I can be okay with just a few slices.

You think better, you feel better, you know have you know, I have more confidence, and uh, you know, you'd be more efficient. Like even when I was you know, I was training for this competition. You know, the carbohydrates that I could have was rice, and I it's amazing what a cup of rice could get me two or three miles on the mountain, just just a little bit of rice. What those carbs could do. You know before I would have to eat, you know, a box of donuts to

get that kind of carbohydrates effectively in my body. So right, I noticed that too.

it's it's close enough. I'm gonna I'm gonna eat some And so I got me a couple barbecue beef burritos from the deli at the store, at the at the gas station, and.

hunted late season bulls like that. So I mean, i'd really you know it it like you know, I'm a big fan of watching Corey Jacobson films and Elk one on one stuff and so you know, I I, you know, I blow phelps and so I thought, oh, I could call a bull in, but at that time of year, they don't like to be called It's more like a mule deer hunt, right, And so I was just it was kind of out of my element, you know, to not call or to try to locate. Instead, we're just

basically going up on these ridges. It's here in Utah. It's a transition unit. So what they told me that this hunt could be where it was a five day hunt and it could be anywhere from seeing a couple elk the whole trip, or seeing twenty or thirty bowls the whole trip. Wow. And prior to this hunt, we had a really nice snowstorm in late October and it just triggered all these elk where every day we were seeing probably eighteen or nineteen bowls and that's it was awesome.

Like it was like, I've never been a part of a hunt where you see that many elk. I mean where I live. I live in you went to mountains northeastern part of Utah. It's an open bowl unit. And you know, if you see a spike elk in this open bowl unit, that's a trophy. Yeah, and you may not ever see another elk ther whole time. And so it was really hard to to pass on an elk.

But when you see on the first day, I think we saw fifteen bowls and uh, you know, I was like, oh, lead, I don't want to shoot one on the first day. Then the hunts over, I already got worked off, and all my buddies were saying, don't shoot one on the first day because we don't want to go back to our wives. Let's just try to this as long as possible. Let's enjoy this, Let's let's sit back and enjoy it.

I mean we were we were we were cush hunting, like we I brought my camper and we were you know that had a you know, heater in it and stuff like that. So we we were having a good old time. And and the second day hit saw a few more bulls. I saw really really pretty five point like score is not something i'd chase per se. But if there's there's a difference between oh that's a pretty pretty bowl and there's another one that makes your butthole flinch,

you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, and this this this bull had that and so but at the same time, I don't I saw him on the second day and I wanted, I want to shoot this big, huge five point I mean, just super mature body, but he was uphill it was like six hundred yards, and I just didn't feel comfortable. Shooting that distance. I could, but I didn't feel comfortable because it was just an awkward position. So we tried to get a shot and never could get him. And then I spent the next two days

trying to find him and never did. And then it just so happened to be where we found this other bull that ended up being bigger. Oh wow. And you know, in the meantime, I was, you know, passing three hundred inch bowls through fifteen's and that was you know, that was really hard to do to pass an elk that size. And then when I saw this bowl, it just is the same thing. It was just like you just know, yeah,

that's it's just there's just next level. You know, your heart starts sinking, your eyes your eyes start you know, watering because it's just so beautiful. I love it. I love it it. That's that's so awesome.

that are terminal an opportunity to hunt elk on these properties. Yeah, the way they treat the property like the elk, the very healthy animals, beautiful properties and really the way people forget and you taw you could draw for these units. In fact, in this this unit that I hunted in of course, there was you know, guys that buy the tags every year. They have a lot of money. But the guy that shot the biggest bowl this year was was a public land guy that drew that put his

name in it and drew it. He shot a three sixty bowl. Yeah, that's awesome, that's awesome.

to Alcatraz Island and back. So I'm working with a charter company out there to see what it costs and see if I could, you know, maybe do a charity event where I can raise money for that swim. And you know, I just there. You have to swim at a certain pace otherwise the current to go to out to Alcatraz will push you off course where you're actually

not going forward, you're going sideways. And so I have to qualify for that to swim to Alcatraz Island and back and they so that one's probably something that would be the next one that's coming up twenty twenty five. Awesome. Are you a pretty strong swimmer? Yeah? I swim in high school and in college. I mean with my disease because my feet were deformed, it was just it was something that I could do well at. The disease is in my hands as well, but it's it's uh, I've

been working with the physical therapist I'm on. I got on tier T here a couple of years ago. That's kind of helped me retain muscle, and so the disease hasn't really affected that badly. There's some days it's bad, but for the most part, I'm still able to use my hands. Do you feel pain or is it just loss of function? Both? Pain just because uh, the arthritis and it everything's really feeble, like I have a broken

wrist that still hasn't healed, and then just functions. So like fatigue, So like with swimming, if I get too tired, then my hands can't they cramp up like this like a I guess while we're on a podcast, so kind of like a monkey hand where it just kind of closes up, grip yep, and so to swim, I want my hands open, so I can, you know, like paddles and to hold that position is it can be hard when my disease gets gets bad. Oh wow, yeah, right on. Well man, what are any closing thoughts you'd.

be grateful for what you have. And the more things that you spend focusing on what you're grateful for, you know, you won't find any time to sit around and say, well, I'm not grateful for this, or I'm you know, woe is me and this sucks. It has a powerful force behind it to where I try to practice gratitude every day.

I make it a goal in the morning, especially in the morning, because I feel like that's when my mind's the clear where I could set the tone right for the day to think about at least two things that I knew in my mind that I'm grateful for. And you'd be surprised, like that does not get old. There's always something to be grateful for, you know. My even with my situation, I could say that I'm even grateful for my trials because it's taught me things that I

don't think I could have gained anywhere else. Taught me things like patience and perseverance and compassion for other people with disabilities. That has rewarded me in life like it's made me a better husband, it's made me a better father. That's given the patience and over chaos, has helped me get stand out at work where I've gotten promotions. And all these attributes were something that I gained because of this trial. So I mean I could safely say that

I would never change my life for anything else. So as I guess to add on to that or to close of that is, I I think maybe reconsider some of the hardships that we've had in our lives as opportunities to learn from and and find ways to grow, where these are just stepping stones to your success.

try it out. Yeah yeah, I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that.

our Facebook is just Sidney Smith. I'm probably the only Sidney Smith that doesn't have legs, so I think that's one easy way to find me that way.