Hi team, I'm Fitz Kohler, your mashed potato loving fitness pro from fitness.com and welcome to the fitness show and happy Thanksgiving. This is the week of Thanksgiving and I am all about it. It's one of my favorite holidays. It's been one since I was a wee little girl, although things have changed dramatically over the years, but I still love it. I love it. What it stands for. I love, I love that we're supposed to gather with family and friends and be grateful for crying out loud.
What could be wrong with that? It's a very nice tradition and I'm proud to be a part of it. And I know us Americans do it and Canada's got their own Thanksgiving and I think others do as well. So happy Thanksgiving, everyone. The main theme of this show is going to be game planning for a healthy Thanksgiving, which I know the start of the holidays really throws people into, I don't know, a ditch, a fitness freaking ditch. That's right. Drops you to the ground, smushes your face in the dirt and.
Makes us do things we may not want to do, right? So we're going to talk about doing Thanksgiving the right way, in a way that allows us to enjoy our family, enjoy our friends, have lots of fun, enjoy that gratefulness we're supposed to experience, right? And manage our family, oh, because not all of our family is enjoyable. And then, of course, our intake. And, you know, Just because the holidays are here, there's no reason we all need to gutter ball our life, right?
We don't need to go into the gutters and go flying down with no strikes, no spares, no nothing, right? We can do better and we should. And reminder, you are completely in charge of you. There is absolutely nobody on earth in charge of putting food into your mouth, choosing the food you eat. You always have free will to say, yes, please, or no, thank you, or even a big hell no, homie, don't play that, right?
You can just say, that is not on my agenda. That is not good for my body, or I'm not interested, whatever. Make up a lie. Tell the truth. It's up to you. But know that you are ultimately in charge of everything that goes into your body. So let's start there. Control. You've got it. You just have to execute it. And then once we're done talking about Thanksgiving, we are going to talk about some nonsense, some fun things that I think are...
Worthy of discussing. To be frank, it's things that I think are worthy of discussing. And you can listen and then tell me, yeah, those were good topics, fits, or they sucked. Whatever. I don't care. Just respond. Just tell me what you think. I like that. And I do, I love your feedback after these podcasts when you guys reach out and tell me what you loved or what you'd like to hear in the future. Even if you don't like something, I'm all right with that. I'm a big girl. I can take it.
Just be, be kind when you say mean things, if you can. Right. Right. I don't get a lot of hate. I don't get a lot of hate. People are mostly pretty nice to me. I think because people know I love them, but you're more than welcome to disagree with me. I think that's part of a healthy society, healthy community. We should be able to disagree or learn from each other. Blah, blah, blah. And we will be right back. Are you looking for the perfect gift for a loved one battling cancer?
The Cancer Comeback series by Fitz Kohler offers hope, inspiration, and practical guidance with Your Healthy Cancer Comeback, My Noisy Cancer Comeback, and The Healthy Cancer Comeback Journal. These books are a lifeline for all patients and survivors. Right now, you can order autographed copies at a special discount. Show your support and help a loved one go from sick to strong. Visit Fitzness.com today. That's F-I-T-Z-N-E-S-S.com. fitness.com. We're back. Okay. So Thanksgiving is coming.
If you are listening now, it's the weekend. You've got a few days before Thanksgiving. If you're listening on Thanksgiving day, oh, well, start where you can. So we're going to start by making this a particularly healthy week. You're going to be particularly active and you're going to make really good choices with food. Now, mind you, I know not all of you overeat on Thanksgiving day.
I know the whole world doesn't get reckless, but I would say a good percentage of people do so if we can prepare for one day we're planning on overindulging. And I actually think it's pretty okay to overindulge a bit on Thanksgiving, right? We're not rigid, crazy people. I'm certainly not a rigid, crazy person. I believe that perfect is boring. And if your habits throughout the year are overwhelmingly healthy, well, you cannot do all that in just one day.
So no, nobody's expecting you to be perfect up front. But if you can start doing better ahead of time, great. get a little closer to the good side leading up to Thanksgiving. So on that day, things will even out, right? You know what I'm saying? You build up, it's like saving up some money so you can spend it on Thursday. So start by being extra healthy with the food you consume, lots of water, reject the alcohol, skip out on the bad stuff and exercise more, right?
Exercise more. And here, this is just one week, one day we're talking about, but overwhelmingly the holidays can become problematic. And so what I want you to do is not only stick with the great habits you have held onto throughout the year, hopefully you have, right? I'm guessing some of you may not have been perfect and you're thinking, gee whiz, I could really start getting healthy now that it's the. Your health is a result of your habits, of the accumulation of your choices.
So you can get to the new year, get to New Year's Day fitter, not fatter. And some people get so upset. She's using the word fatter, whatever, weight gain. You know what I'm talking about, right? So you can choose today to be the person who gets to New Year's Day, one pound less, 10 pound less, if weight loss is a priority for you. Or it could be, I'm going to get to New Year's Day, able to run four miles more than I normally can, or touch my toes, or do 50 push-ups, whatever.
You can aim to be fitter, not fatter, on New Year's Day. So that hopefully is a goal for you. And our game plan up front right now is going to be leading to that. So yeah, you're going to, this week before Thanksgiving, you're just going to do better, right? You're going to store up some credit so you can spend it on Thanksgiving Day. Now, if you are the cook, if you are the person, the victim in charge of preparing the meal, well, bless your heart.
Number one, that's a tough job. In fact, I'll be preparing part of my Thanksgiving meal. My mother-in-law is going to be providing a decent amount of the food, which is great. And she's going to bring chicken or turkey. I think probably turkey. Anyways, I'm a vegetarian. I don't love cooking meat. I will do it if my kids need it or want it, but I don't prefer it.
So she's going to bring some of that stuff. But I get to make the mashed potatoes, which as I introduced myself, I love me some mashed potatoes. But if you are preparing the food, maybe let's start by making some healthier choices up front when you're shopping. Are you buying a salad? Are you buying corn? Are you. Preparing desserts? What are our good choices? Maybe when you're buying bread, you buy whole wheat or whole grain bread instead
of just white buttery biscuits, right? So there are some choices. And actually, I truly feel that most Thanksgiving food is pretty healthy. Turkey, turkey breast, pretty healthy for you. The mashed potatoes, as long as you're not dumping loads of butter in them. Potatoes are healthy. Potatoes are great. I see no problem with that. What else? We got corn. We got sweet potato casserole. Hmm. I don't know. There's the green beans with the little fried onion things. Not so bad.
Cranberries. Now, if you're having real cranberries, super healthy. I'm not sure how healthy that cranberry molded blob is. I think it's probably high sugar. I don't think it's dense with fat. But anyway, most Thanksgiving food is pretty reasonable. It's pretty healthy unless you're cooking something interesting that I'm not aware of. Dessert can get chaotic, but whatever. It's Thanksgiving. You can have a little dessert.
But yeah, plan to choose healthy options. And if you are not the person bringing or making the whole meal, maybe make sure you bring a healthy dish. If health is a priority for you, bring a big fruit platter or your favorite potato dish that's not loaded down with marshmallow marshmallows. I just said Marsha Mellows. Who is this Marsha? I'm discussing Marsha Mellows. But I think if my name was Marsha, I would change my male name to Mellows. But that's regardless.
Bring something healthy. And then perhaps you bring a non-alcoholic beverage. For me, I'll show up with a decaffeinated Diet Coke, a few two-liter bottles of decaffeinated Diet Coke. Why? Because that's what I want. That's what I want to drink. If I'm coming to your Thanksgiving meal, I want my decaf Diet Coke. So it's calorie-free and it's sugar-free and it's caffeine-free and that just suits, fits color just fine. So maybe you're going to bring your version of decaffeinated Diet Coke,
whatever makes you happy and is a healthier version. Great. If you're going to a place where lots of people are drinking alcohol and you're choosing, maybe that's not a good choice for you this year, bring something. Sparkling apple cider, Rudy Novotny, who is the other half of Team Noisy. Everybody loves Rudy. I think Rudy's almost 40 years or maybe he just hit 40 years sober. So he shows up with bottles of sparkling cider.
And I just think It's adorable and charming and as sweet as can be and wise, right? I don't think he's at risk for falling off the wagon because someone's got wine out, but it's a nice option for him to be able to enjoy some sort of sparkling sweet beverage while his friends are also enjoying their glass of wine or whatever. So yeah, be prepared and preserve the things that you want because it's your Thanksgiving too.
Even if somebody else is cooking, you should have things that you like on that table and especially things that you find delicious because it's Thanksgiving. Okay. Now, when we get to Thanksgiving day, this is what you got to do. You got to wake up early if necessary, but hopefully you get to sleep in a little bit. But you wake up and go do a turkey trot. Even if you've never done a run of any sort or a race, turkey trot, sure, there are some for money and prizes.
But most people are just getting out to get active on Thanksgiving Day because they know they're probably going to stuff their face later. So it's a wonderful way to engage in your community and meet some new people and get some fresh air and just really get your body moving. Most turkey trots are 5K, which is 3.1 miles distance. Some are 10K or half marathon. If that's what you're game for, good for you.
Go for it. But I find there to be such a tremendous this benefit of just waking up and going to do that. And it's really fun. I did one last year at an animal sanctuary and there was a 5K and a 10K. It was small. I would say maybe 300 people. It was through the woods on a trail and the trail was crazy bumpy. And I just thought the people that were running were a little bit insane because someone was bound to break their wrists on that trail.
But I didn't. I walked the whole way and chit-chatted with everybody and I just had the best time. And then when we crossed the finish line, there were no medals. There was no shirts, none of that, which was fine by me. There was a whole bunch of cows and they had this massive bucket of cow pellets for us to feed to the cows. and the cows are so cute and they put out their big scratchy tongues and oh, it was heavenly. It was such a wonderful, wonderful start to my Thanksgiving.
In fact, I barely remember Thanksgiving last year other than the turkey trots. So please go do something like that. If you look online, you're bound to find one in your area. In fact, you may find a few. You may find one on Wednesday, on Thursday, on Saturday. If you wanna dress up like a turkey, everybody loves that. If you want to wear your favorite fall colors, great.
If you want to dress up in Christmas style, you've got your Santa hat or your elf outfit or I don't know, your who down and whoville hairstyle. That makes these turkey trots even more fun. Usually people come out and they're pretty festive about it. But yeah, you don't have to run. You can walk the whole way just like I did and walk and talk, but turkey trot's a wonderful way to start your day. Now, if you're not going to do that, get out and get active.
Get a person you like and go walk or run with that person. Bring your doggos. Your doggos definitely need the exercise. If you're going to be a stress ball cooking inside all day, telling your dogs to get out from underneath your feet, well, then you definitely need to get them outdoors and get them going. That will give them some mental health on Thanksgiving Day. And your other great option is go alone. That's right.
You're going to be possibly packed with people all day. And maybe you just need some time to clear your head. Do that, but just get moving. And I'm going to back up for a second. I know not everybody has someone to be with on Thanksgiving, and I wish I could be with you. I imagine that if I were alone on Thanksgiving, I would be sad. It's just one day. Just one day. So don't let that make you miserable. I know the holidays are a time for deep depression for some people.
Please control what you can. It is your responsibility to know that this feels bad. This is making me sad. And then be proactive. Join a club, go to the gym, do bingo, go to a dance party. Invite a friend over. Maybe you need to be the person who says, Hey, please come to my house. I've always done strays, right? So I don't live near family anymore. Most of my family's in Port Lauderdale. I'm in Gainesville, Florida.
And so on holidays where I've been alone, I've decided to say, okay, I'm just going to invite everybody over here. And I have some people who I know are, they don't have any family nearby and they're, They're not romantically involved and maybe they might be alone. In fact, my neighbor, Glenn, he's Jewish. And so he's fine on Christmas Day. He doesn't care. But I always feel like, oh, my gosh, Glenn is alone on Christmas, even though he doesn't celebrate it.
And I invite Glenn to my house for Christmas Day because he shouldn't be alone on Christmas Day. Right. So so maybe you have to reach out. And I want to encourage you to do that because physical health is very, very important. Physical health is vital, but so is your mental health. And, you know, much like physical health, you can control what's going on. most of the time. So perhaps you might want to volunteer.
You might want to go to a homeless shelter and feed people there, or maybe a Ronald McDonald's house where there are families that are living at the Ronald McDonald house because they have sick children and they will be there over the holidays because their kid isn't miraculously healthy because it's Thanksgiving. So perhaps you could be with those people. And I think serving others is really rewarding and may be your favorite Thanksgiving ever.
So if I'm talking to you and you're shouting at your earbuds or at your car stereo, Fitz, I'm not going to be with these people, blah, blah, blah. I get it. Please reach out and go be with people that are meaningful to you or just enjoy the day alone. It's your choice. But if it makes you sad to be alone, you shouldn't be. So I know there are options for you. And a simple Google search on volunteer activities for Thanksgiving Day,
you'll find it. And especially if you go to a turkey trot, there's a lot of people there. In fact, you might fall in love at the turkey trot. You may make a new bestie at the turkey trot. You might find out that someone you meet is also alone for dinner and just boom, have dinner with that person. You can even order pizza. You don't have to worry about the turkey and the mashed potatoes. You can just do whatever on Thanksgiving day and then be grateful for your new friend.
Okay, so that's that. And then you exercise in the morning and then I guess we're going to start cooking, right? Someone's going to cook. Try not to nibble. I know it's hard. I know it's very hard not to nibble, but you don't want to fill up before the meal, right? It's nice to get to mealtime actually hungry. So avoid nibbling while you prepare. Now know this, the adult stomach, when relaxed and empty, has a capacity of about 2.5 ounces. That's like two and a half shots.
So small. Your stomach is actually so small. And I say stomach, I'm not talking about your torso. so, I'm talking about the organ that digests food, the big food receptor organ. Your stomach, 2.5 ounces is all it contains when it's empty and relaxed. Now, when you're filling it up, it can go as large as one quart, but it shouldn't go far before that. So what I want you to do on Thanksgiving day, I want you to look at a quart of something.
Find a cup that's a quart or a bottle that's a quart, and then start making choices. Know that you only have a certain amount of space before you get sick, before you feel bad. And really, I've seen some people just keep shoving down way more than a quart of food. And that's got to hurt, right? That's why they have all these bowel issues and they feel bad. And of course, they have to unbutton their pants, which is just not acceptable if you are not alone.
That's right. If you're alone, you can undo your pants, but one quart of food. So let's, let's kind of make a game plan what we are going to do with our court worth of space. Will you put some turkey in there? If you're not a vegetarian like I am, you probably are going to fill in a certain amount of space with turkey, okay? Is there room for mashed potatoes? What about, are you going to have salad? Are you going to have the corn? Is there going to be potato casserole or the rolls, right?
So now you're going to have to decide. And if you visualize that upfront, what's most meaningful to you? I mean, for me, it's the potatoes. If you haven't heard, I love potatoes. In fact, I need some sort of potato outfit, some potato song. I really enjoy potatoes and I'm Irish, so duh. But yeah, maybe start off visualizing your quart, what you're going to put in it. So then when you start filling up your plate, you will be strategic, right?
You won't just put it all on and God help you if you do clear your plate, make deliberate choices. And I think that's the way for you to enjoy your meal the best. You have a little bit of everything that you want without having too much. And again, you don't want to have that. Satiety is one thing where you feel full. Fine. It's nice to feel full. You start off hungry. You get full goal attained. But when you push, when you go too far, that's when you start to feel bad.
That's when your digestive system starts to revolt. And so if you're envisioning that quart-sized container and you only fill up that amount of food, you're going to be in pretty good shape. And know this, You, if you're cooking, you can put leftovers aside in advance, right? So you can just take a scoop of mashed potatoes and a scoop of the stuffing and you can put it in the fridge in advance and put your name on it if you want.
And, and a skull and crossbones to trick everybody into thinking that is poisonous food that you've removed for their safety. And if you're a guest, you can always ask, Hey, if there's any leftover, would it be okay if I took some leftovers home? I mean, the reality is I can get mashed potatoes 365 days of the year. It's not just Thanksgiving Day.
Mashed potatoes are available. So even though I might be very enthusiastic this Thursday about my mashed potatoes, I can also get them June 1st and March 3rd. You know what I'm saying? So don't feel pressured into eating it all on that one day. And if you really want to have some leftovers, and gosh darn it, I don't blame you, ask in advance, or if you see there's still a whole bunch on the, on the table when everyone's done, ask again, say, Hey, can I bring a Ziploc bag for crying out loud?
Bring a container, bring a Ziploc bag. So if they say, sure, you can just scoop yourself some leftovers and, and know that you can enjoy a turkey sandwich at lunch in a couple of days. Do you remember that episode of friends where Ross and his turkey sandwiches, leftovers were eaten by a coworker What a ghastly thing to do. Yeah, if you do have leftovers, protect them with all of your might, right?
So that's where the skull and crossbones comes in. But one quart, and I say one quart, that's the average. I'm sure I probably get less than a quart. I have a teeny tiny stomach. Oh my gosh. I think when it's empty, it's probably half an ounce. And then, I don't know, I take four bites of food and then my stomach says, all right, cut it out, lady. You've had too much. So a quart may actually be too much for you, but that visual probably will go a long way. And when you start to feel full.
Accept it. Throw in the towel, concede, wave the white napkin, and then know that you will live to eat another day. Now, when it comes to dessert on Thanksgiving, enjoy yourself. Don't be reckless, right? You don't have to go nuts. You don't have to have one of everything. But yeah, have some dessert for crying out loud. You don't have to feel like you're on some crazy strict diet, people.
You should never be dieting. You should be people who normally eat the right amount of the right food for the size you want to be. Gluttony has no place in your life. You don't have to be rigid and crazy restrictive. You eat rationally and that's why you're losing weight with the exact formula. And that's why you maintain your weight loss with the exact formula because you are rational. Gluttony is not who you are. It's not who we are. So don't be gluttonous about
dessert, but have fun. Have some. Enjoy my approval in advance. Enjoy your dang dessert. Now, don't waste your calorie on liquid options. That's one of the things I feel strongly about. This is not really a day to have a strawberry daiquiri or five beers, right? Because those calories may make you feel bloated. They may deter you from enjoying things that are good for you on Thanksgiving. If you have too much, they may also make you reckless, right?
So alcohol tends to help your guard down. And that may be you thinking, well, screw that quart of a stomach. I'm going to have half a gallon or I'm going to have a gallon worth of food. So people tend to be reckless when they're drinking alcohol. So maybe don't consume those calories because alcohol is very caloric and stick with water or decaf diet Coke or hot tea or coffee. I don't know. There's probably some good options out there, but alcohol is not going to be your best friend.
If you're going to have some, stick to one, maximum two, and that will also help you avoid telling your cousin exactly what you think of her because she's been asking for it, right? If you drink, you may be inclined to tell every single member of your bloodline exactly what they've needed to hear. And I don't know if that's a good idea. I don't know if that's a good idea. So midday, I kind of skipped over this, but between turkey trot and dinner time.
You should get active with your family. That's one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving as a child. When I was a child, my mother always hosted. And we'd have probably 25, 30 family members and friends come over for dinner. And we'd have this huge chain of tables, you know, the card tables, the fold-out tables. And sometimes it would be in the dining room. But it used to go from fine china and silver to paper plates. And who cares? We were all together. But while the food was cooking.
We'd all head down to the park down the street and we would play football and we would play soccer. I remember when I was pregnant with Ginger climbing the fence because they had locked the gate at the park and my family was in there playing soccer and I had to be there. So I climbed the fence. How many months? Probably about seven months pregnant at the time. All the men in my family were stationed around either side of the fence to make sure if I fell, they caught me. I was just fine.
But yeah, you got to go throw the pigskin and kick the balls and blow the bubbles. Sometimes we have ordered bounce houses for Thanksgiving Day weekend or Thanksgiving Day in the weekend, which is a lot of fun. So just provide activity options and then go be a part of it, right? Perhaps you just, that turkey takes freaking forever to cook. So set it on medium or whatever. It's about 350 and then go, go play.
And that's, you know, there's a lot to be said over people saying we have family dinner every night. And good for you. That's, that's lovely. And when I grew up, we did a lot of family dinners, but I, I put a little more priority on family activity time. We're, we're chasing, we're smashing into each other. We're throwing to each other. We're giggling. We're, we're also talking while we're playing. So get out and play, especially if they're family members you haven't seen in a long time.
And especially if you're all older, you got a bunch of grownups. Everybody's over 60, get out and throw the ball or throw the Frisbee or go down and play some pickleball, whatever. Just do cool shit together. I'm going to curse on this podcast. I just said it. Do cool shit together, especially if you're grownups because life is short and maybe 10 years from now, you might not be able to go throw the football or the Frisbee or, I don't know, chase bubbles. So do that.
Finish the evening. I'm going to say it again. Finish the evening in an active way as well. And that after dinner walk feels fabulous. The sun is setting and the wind is fresh and your tummies are full and one lap around the block will make all the difference. And then you could go back to the couch and sit and catch up on old times or new times, right? But finish the day in an active way as well. I think the more activity you put into Thanksgiving, having.
The less of a consequence you're going to pay for whatever you consume that day. But really, the better you're going to feel. Life is not all about caloric intake, right? So it's smart if you want to maintain your weight, not to be crazy. However, the more active you are, the better you're going to feel. And you're probably not going to want to overindulge if you know that there's a fun pickleball game going on or the bounce house is set up. So yeah, just be reasonable.
How about that? You're aiming not to be sick. Feel great the entire day. Have fun. Get fresh air. Be active. You know, Thanksgiving is not just about food. It's about those people you love and the things you're grateful for. And it's always nice when people mention the things they're grateful for. And I love to tell people that I love, that I care about, that I love them, and that I care about them. And so if you're shy to do that, please get over it.
Get over it. when you see people this Thanksgiving is tell them, gosh, I haven't seen you in a long time. I've missed you. You look wonderful. I think about you all the time. I'm so happy we're together. Those things aren't weird to say. They're kind. And of course, they will make that person you feel connected to, make them feel good, make them feel exactly the way you want them to feel. I remember, it was a long time ago. I can't remember what year, maybe 2008, but my father was dying.
He had, he had esophageal cancer that cured that. And then he was instantly diagnosed with melanoma and it had covered his lungs. And he died just a couple of days after Thanksgiving, but we had his hospice hospital bed set up in the big family room. And there was 30 of us around doing the Thanksgiving thing and visiting with him. And yeah, we told him, we told him, we love you. And just all the cousins got to go over and talk to my dad and it was meaningful.
And okay, so we knew he was dying, right? We knew he was dying. We knew he'd be gone in a few days and he was. But maybe the people that show up at your Thanksgiving this year won't be there next year. You know, will you regret not telling them how meaningful they were to you? And yeah, health, it's physical, right? But it's also mental. And I don't know, life is short. I'll say it again until I'm blue in my face, but you have so much control.
You have control over you, over the actions you pursue with your body, over your intake, your food, your beverages, all of those things, but you also have control over your mouth, right? And try to say nice things. And of course, if you have those family members that drive you mad, if you're walking into a situation where you think, gosh, this is going to be hard, okay, you can do hard things.
And I don't know why that person in your family is so horrible, or that friend who comes over every year, even though you wish they wouldn't, be kind, be kind. And if they get out of line, just get inside your own head and just. Focus on moving forward, right? Focus on getting past it. Oh, and it's funny. I was announcing Mud Girl San Diego last week. In fact, that's why you didn't get a podcast last week because I had had a voice, but it wasn't a very good voice.
It was a very weird, scratchy announcer voice. And I didn't want you to have to tolerate that, but I was there and I don't know, we have 12, 15,000 athletes over the course of the weekend. At some point, these wave of Girl Scouts come up And I'm talking to them and, you know, all the women in the group are not all of them. I think everybody feels fondly about the Girl Scouts, but there was a lot of Girl Scouts. There was a lot. I'm a former Girl Scouts. And I asked the wave in front of
me, how many of you used to be Girl Scouts? And a whole bunch of hands went up. And then we started talking about Girl Scout cookies, which everybody loves. And I just thought, you know what? This is the thing our country can agree on, right? We've just had a big election, so many elections, not just president, But all the states and the counties and the cities, there's lots of elections and a lot of people are doubling down on their hatred for the other half of
the people. And I just thought, you know what? Girl Scout cookies is something we all like, right? Republicans and Democrats and independents and the Green Party. I think everybody likes Girl Scout cookies. So, you know, can't we all just get along? And I think we can. I mean, if we've got to form a big unit, the Girl Scout cookie party, perhaps that might be the thing. But know that not everybody's going to agree with you, right?
If somebody walks into your house with a MAGA hat and you're like, screw those assholes, get them out of my house. All right, well, you're missing the big picture. If somebody walks in with a Walton Harris hat and you want to throw them out, you're missing the big picture. You have to be able to segregate your political differences from real life. I mean, think about how many times you go to a movie. Are you going going to find out in advance who those actors voted for?
Well, I'm not going to enjoy this movie because there's a Democrat or there's a Republican in there. Really? Or are you just going to only enjoy the scenes based on an actor that affiliates with your party? Is that how you're going to go? That's insanity. Are you going to get on the airplane and go ask the pilot, who'd you vote for? I tell you what, when I get on a plane, I don't care what the pilot looks like. I don't care where they pray. I certainly don't give a rat's ass who they vote for.
I want to know I have the best freaking pilot flying the plane. And so if you've been harboring those hostilities about the person who didn't vote for the same guy or the same gal you voted for, or all the guys and gals. You need to come to grips because the whole world, especially our country, there's about a 50-50 split. It's a little more than that. I'd say, I don't know, 54, 46% this year. But you have to remove so many people if you're going to hold that grudge.
So at Thanksgiving, at your table, get over it. Get over it. Go and go inside yourself and think about all the things you do like about that person. that they do a good job in the community or they're a great parent or they're a great baseball player or they really know math, whatever it is, but your opinion isn't the only opinion. It certainly isn't the opinion everybody in the world should have. Trust me, I don't agree with you. I don't know who you are listening right now.
I mean, I know a lot of you, but I'm sure we disagree on a lot of things, but we still like each other. So don't let the election, don't let any of this nonsense screw with your Thanksgiving. Giving, share kindness, share appreciation, do the thankful thing, be the best at being thankful. And if somebody turns on you with nasty words, oh my gosh, then the thing that will kill them the most is if you smile big and say, well, thank you.
I've had some people say some really horrible things to me. And when I smile so big and I light up and I say, thank you, they just implode. It's the best and worst thing I could do for them at the same time. And I'm not going to sacrifice who I am for some a-hole being an a-hole, right? So let's have the best Thanksgiving ever. Okay. I love you guys. I love you so much. Let's start off the holidays the right way, be in control of you on Thanksgiving day.
And then November 8th and December 1st and December 13th, you can also be in control of you, right? Every day is not a holiday. It's the holidays. And if you can execute some decent amount of self-control on Thanksgiving. That's going to set you up for a really healthy holiday season, which I love. And I want that for you. I want it. I want it so badly. Okay. So some of the other things I want to talk to you about that Mike Tyson fight. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with him as a fighter.
Golly, he was the great white shark. He was an executioner, right? He was going into the ring and you knew you were going to get a spectacular knockout. So I was very excited to see him fight Jake Paul. I am neither here nor there on. I don't have any opinions about him. He's a YouTuber my kids are into, kind of, maybe not really. Anyways, I don't really care about Jake Paul. I wish him well. But I was excited to see the fight.
Very disappointed in the aftermath that I've heard there were some contractual. Are there restrictions put on the fight? Now, I don't know. I haven't seen the contract, but this is the word on the street, is that both Jake and Mike were told that they would be paid less if the fight was over in two rounds. So let's say Mike Tyson went out and did the Mike Tyson thing. I mean, we've seen videos of him training. We know what he's capable of, and he certainly did pop Jake in the face a few times.
If the fight would have ended at two rounds, He, Mike, wouldn't have earned the $20 million check he earned for letting it go eight rounds. And I think Jake Paul earned $40 million for letting it go the whole way. So I think they were de-incentivized to knock each other out, which made it less awesome for us and what I've heard. And again, it's hearsay. So I'm not stating claim, but this is the topic we're all talking about.
It's that that was a Netflix thing. Netflix wanted eight rounds of excitement. And I think what they, I think if that is true, well, they misfired because I don't know, I'd pay way more money to see a first round knockout, right? And Mike Tyson knockout for crying out loud. One of his bombs. I actually heard that he was contracted not to throw uppercuts.
And again, who knows if any of this is true, but for crying out loud, if anyone did actually set these contracts up to de-incentify these guys from fighting their hardest and, and, and, and trying to win. I mean, we all love the women's fight, right? Serrano and golly, Katie, what was her name? I can't remember. Taylor, Taylor, Serrano and Taylor. Wow. That was a battle. That was extraordinary. And those weren't girls in the ring. Those were fighters, right?
Those were talented athletes, skilled, skilled warriors. You know, I find it really weird when people call me a cancer warrior. I don't know if the word warrior really fits, but those chicks right there, warriors, they fought. Oh my gosh. Incredible. Incredible. And so what if Paul and Tyson had gone in it the same way? I mean, I just, I was so excited when. I thought Jake Paul's entrance into the ring was pretty cheesy.
That green convertible and his stupid outfit with the silver jacket and the dumb diamonds on his shorts. I mean, cringe, cringe, cringe. Now, mind you, he's making 40 million bucks a night. So certainly he's doing something way better than I'm doing at this point. But I didn't like that. I didn't think it was cool. I also didn't like that nobody played ruckus, rowdy music as their entrance song. Even Katie Taylor, she had some weird lady, peaceful, meditational kind of song.
It's her walkout song. I don't know. That's not at all what I would choose. Trust me. I think I'd play Ludacris, Get Back, because that's a fun one. But yeah, I thought Jake Paul's entrance was super cheesy and the music was lame. And then, of course, Mike Tyson comes out as Mike Tyson with none of the hoopla because he doesn't need it because he's Mike friggin Tyson, black shorts, black towel over his head. When I was fighting, I actually had a towel with a slit down the middle for myself.
That was me channeling Mike Tyson, which whatever, maybe it's nerdy, but, you know, you got to help yourself out, pump yourself up. And that's what I did. Trust me, I never came out in a weird outfit with a weird posse and a weird car with lame music. But I digress because that show was a home run across the board. The Jones fight was awesome. And worldwide Netflix certainly had a boom in viewership. In fact, of course, they couldn't handle it because the streaming was pretty crappy.
But it's exciting. And I'm really excited that there's some interest in boxing again. I think UFC kind of killed boxing or maybe boxing killed itself. But it would be fun to have a resurgence of that particular sport because I love it so much. I do enjoy boxing and kickboxing more than the grappling sports. So fingers crossed. There's some more attention given in that area and some great characters and stars and people to get excited over.
But yeah, I hope they weren't contracted not to hurt each other because I don't know, people were pissed, right? People were just storming out, walking away. I hear that arena was pretty empty by the time the eighth round, was finished and they probably paid a lot of money for those seats. So blah, blah, blah. Okay. A couple of other things I want to, I want to share before we wrap up.
So when I flew into Fort Lauderdale, so I went from San Diego and then I flew down to Fort Lauderdale to visit family. And I got to the carousel where you check your back or you receive your luggage, right? The luggage comes out and we're sitting there, I don't know, maybe 50 people just waiting for our carousel to turn on and there's a red light in the ceiling over the carousel. And all of a sudden it starts honking out the Macarena.
Just honked out the Macarena and we're looking at each other thinking what the heck is going on? And that's when the luggage started going out. So I felt very at home in South Florida when that Macarena started playing and our luggage came. I just thought it was hilarious. And whoever is in charge of that at Fort Lauderdale airport, you have a very good sense of humor.
And I think it would be awesome if each town, like if you went to Detroit and Eminem's Lose Yourself, Lose Yourself started being honked out and New York, New York and New York. I mean, obviously New York could probably come up with a few songs, but yeah, I would love to see city by city, everybody have their little carousel light, honk out the tune of the town before the luggage arrives. So that's my thought on that. And then I went to a casino with my mom in Fort
Lauderdale just a couple of days ago. We went out, we play the slot machines. That's right. We put in 40 bucks each and we let the chips fall as they may. I'm not a big gambler. I don't hit the tables, but I'm willing to commit 40 bucks to X amount of time, a fun time with my mom. And then if I lose a 40, it's gone. I never put in. The third $20 bill. But we ended up having so much fun. And we were playing this Frankenstein machine.
And I think I won about 150 bucks. And she actually was winning too. And it was eight o'clock at night. And she goes, well, we should go home because you have to get up early. I was driving back to Gainesville the next day. I said, no, mom, it's okay. And she goes, no, I want you to get to bed early. And she's my mom. So I said, okay. Mom's giving me the bedtime. I guess I got to go. So we get up and I said, can we go to the bar? I want to grab a drink. I wanted to grab a Diet Coke.
I'm still struggling with sore throat and so forth from work. So we go over to the bar and then she wants to have a Diet Coke too. And we go to sit at the bar. So now we're in the barstools and it's eight o'clock at night. We're at the casino. We're having big time, big fun grownup time out there. She actually suggests she's going to have a seven and seven. And I thought maybe not mom, maybe wobbly whoopsie is not a good idea.
So she's stuck with Diet Coke, But we're sitting there and some guy behind my mom starts smiling at me and starts winking at me. And I'm just being polite, right? Smiling, smiling at everybody. I hate to think that a smile is flirtatious, but he eventually came over and he introduced himself. He goes, hi, I just saw you over here and I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Mike. And I said, well, hi, Mike. My name is Fitz. This is Joan.
And he shakes our hands. He goes, well, Fitz and Finn, that's a good pair. He goes, I'm Mike Finn. And I'm sure Mike Finn's probably not listening to my show. So I feel okay outing him. And there's probably a lot of Mike Fins in the world, right? But he was so nice. And he was trying to figure out how to ask me out. And I would not have said yes, but I was just being cordial. Eventually, I think he got the hint and he went away. But I was telling a friend about this after. and my friend said,
well, you were so nice. And I thought, well, of course I was nice. He liked me. He thought I was cute and he wanted to talk to me. And why would anyone be angry that someone is attracted to you or thinks of you in a nice way? And so please, if you're dating or even if you're married and someone approaches you, know that they're probably enthused about you. They think you're special or interesting. And they want to get to know you. And that's not mean. That's not hostile.
There's a lot of people doing rude, rude things. Now, if somebody comes over and was like, hey, sexy, you want to go back to my place? Okay, fine. Then tell them off. But if somebody just is doing their best to maybe try to make an inroad to get to know you, to see whether the coast is clear or not, be nice. I actually had a guy try to pick me up in the gym a couple of weeks ago too. And again, I was friendly. And then I told him I was unavailable. when he moseyed off, but.
It's okay. It's okay. I think if people are trying, that means they think highly of you in some regard. And it just makes me sad to know that sometimes women are being really dismissive and mean to men. I'm sure men are mean and dismissive to women, but if somebody is approaching you because they like you, please be kind. And you can be firm and say, no, thank you. I'm unavailable or uninterested, whatever that goes, but just be nice.
It doesn't hurt. And have a son and it would break my heart to think that he saw a girl and thought that she was super cute and he was gonna muster up the courage to go speak to her and if she shot him down, I would wanna strangle her, right? That's a mother's instinct to protect my boy, but yeah, it would just be really mean and if my daughter tried to talk to a guy and he was nasty to her, I'd also be really upset about that.
So I don't know, be nice And if you have younger people in your family, children or grandchildren, try to encourage them to do the same. I can't, I've never had to go ask somebody out. I don't think I've ever done that in my entire life. And my rule of thumb when I was in high school and college, for the most part, anyone who asked, and I had these thoughts many years ago that it was so kind of somebody to like me. And I would give every last one of them a chance, whatever they look like.
It didn't matter to me. I would go out with almost everybody who I thought was a safe, decent person. I would say yes and give them a chance. And I didn't give everybody the second date. But I thought, if he is kind enough and he thinks that I'm special, then why would I not? So, yeah, be nice. That's it. That's it. I'm such a nerd here. I'm really supposed to be talking about fitness all the time, right? But sometimes I get into the other side because I like people to be nice.
It's nice to be nice until you got to put your foot down and go ahead and do that too. Okay. Communication tip of the week. It's a big one and I hope you use it on Thanksgiving. Put your freaking phones away. If you are having a conversation with someone, someone that's meaningful to you, take your phone, turn the notifications on vibration and put it in your pocket. And so, okay, your kid calls you.
You can peek, right? Maybe you have the special ring or the special vibration for your kids, but we're gonna get a lot of calls throughout our lives. We're gonna get a lot of messages, a lot of emails. We are under no obligation to respond instantly to all of them. In fact, I respond to messages when they come in. I can't tell you how many texts I am bombarded with every day from wonderful, incredible people, family, friends, work, people.
The thousands and thousands of runners I meet every weekend or private messaging me, I return messages on my time when I have the ability. I don't sit around my phone waiting for messages, looking to please let me get a message so I can respond quickly and immediately. And I don't have that pressure on myself.
So please don't have that kind of pressure on yourself. If somebody is reaching out to you, you can finish your conversation and then you can get back to the caller or the messenger when it's convenient it to you. But yeah, on a holiday, do not sit at the table with your cell phone out. Put it in your pocket. Leave it on the counter. Who cares? You're entitled to an hour-long meal with special people without being on a constant call, right? Like a SWAT team member.
Oh my God, I got a call. I got to go. You're not that person unless you are. Okay, SWAT members and ER doctors, if you are on call, you can check your phone. But the rest of us, put it away and be polite. Use your manners. Communication tip that will work in every situation. All right. And our song of the week, song of the week is Busy Latino by Busy Signal. That's right. It's a very fun Spanish song that I like very much.
And even if you don't speak Spanish and you don't normally listen to Spanish music. I think you'll really enjoy this. It's a fun beat and it's a song that makes me smile. It's called Busy Latino. And I want you to listen to it while you're doing your turkey trot. And I want you to listen to it while you're shoveling snow, because I know some of you are doing that, which is insane because it's only November. And yeah, that's crazy. We're nowhere near snow here in Florida.
Probably not going to be. Anyways. So yeah, so you're doing turkey trot, your shoveling snow, and you know what? Your post-Thanksgiving meal, put on the Busy Latino and break it down. And maybe you can get grandma or grandpa to be a part of a TikTok. That's right. Busy Latino by Busy Signal. I love you all so much. And know this, I'm incredibly grateful for you. I love connecting with so many of you, not only through this podcast, but.
At our events throughout the year, the fact that we get to connect and I get to hug you and even just at a finish line or just for a few minutes at an expo. You're such a wonderful part of my life. And the fact that you let me guide you on fitness and health is so special. It's the thing I've built a career just to get to you, just to get into your ears and try to make a difference in your life. So thank you for letting me in. Thank you for listening.
Thank you to those of you who share these episodes of the Fitz in the show. You help me connect with other people. You help me help other people live better and longer. That means so much. My Fitz in this fiends, you guys are killing it. And I love you so much. And yeah, I love everybody. That's the kind of mood I'm in today. Big kisses, get to work. Hi, this is Rudy Novotny, the voice of America's marathons. We all love how much running has benefited every aspect of our lives.
So much so that most of us only wish we'd started sooner. Wouldn't it be wonderful to gift the opportunity to children of today? Well, you can. The Morning Mile is a before-school walking and running program that gives children a chance to start each day in an active way while enjoying fun, music, and friends. That's every child, every day. It's also supported by a wonderful system of rewards which keeps students highly motivated and frequently congratulated.
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