E25 Why Do Police Officers Need To Be Physically Fit?

[Intro]

911, what’s the nature of your emergency? 

 

Ashlie: Welcome back to another episode of tactical living by Leo warriors. I’m your host Ashlie Walton. 

 

Clint: And I’m your cohost Clint Walton. 

 

Ashlie: And for today’s episode I want to talk about how important it is for the health of a first responder to be in alignment with their career choice. So just sit back, relax and enjoy today’s content. Now Clint I am going to pick at you a little bit. 

 

Clint: Dang it.

 

Ashlie: I want to just have this journey where we can reflect on this time last year versus where you’re at today in terms of your physical health and how that pertains to your line of work.

 

Clint: You know this on last year I weighed two hundred and eighty-three pounds and over this journey where I’ve really, I had an epiphany almost of changing my outlook on food. I didn’t do any of the fat diets. I really darted to eat things that gave me nutrition instead of eating processed foods and everything all the time and when I had that epiphany and made it so easy for me just to lose the weight and stop eating the junk food that’s out there and through that it’s increased my energy levels. It’s you know made me feel better about myself and tying that into you know law enforcement, a lot of times you know I got an ideal suspects and they look at you like man I could run away from this guy and he would never catch me. 

 

Ashlie: Can we dive into that a little bit. And can you maybe think about some things that were actually difficult for you to do being overweight that you identify now that really held you back in your career, 

 

Clint: You know being overweight is not fun. But it was comfortable for me at the time. In going into my day to day job you know I had to get bigger uniforms. I had an appearance where I felt I didn’t look as professional as I wanted to. It was one of those things where I just didn’t feel like I could, if someone did run for me, I felt like I couldn’t catch them. So I didn’t let that happen. But in those instances that we all have where they decide to run or they decide to fight, my endurance just wouldn’t have been there. And that led to a safety issue for me. And that’s not even what gave me the motivation to want to change my outlook on food or to really start bringing in physical fitness into my life as a regular practice. It was just my own feelings about myself. 

 

Ashlie: So can you talk about those moments of the possibility of inflicting maybe a lack of safety on yourself as an officer because of being overweight, not in shape and not having that endurance. Like put yourself in the worst-case scenario. How does being out of shape in that line of work create a more dangerous situation for you as an officer?

 

Clint: Well most of all it leads to more injuries. So if I were to start fighting with somebody, I’m more likely to injure myself. Because my joints, my bones, just my body’s not able to protect itself as much. But for anyone who’s ever been in a fight before you fight for say one minute. One minute seems like a lifetime if it’s a fight that you’re legitimately fighting with somebody and if you run out of energy, if you gas out on that, the aspect, they’ll get the upper hand on you easily. That’s why you know luckily, I’m good with my tactics and how I approach different situations and I’m good with my wrestling skills or whatever else it may be.

 

But if that person was in better shape than me and I wasn’t able to take them into custody very efficiently, I would have gassed out and they could have gotten my gun. They could have taken any of the weapons on my belt and used it against me or one of my partners. And that’s not something that I would ever want to happen. The safety aspect of it is just so huge when it comes to your fitness levels. I have a partner he you know was shot in the line of duty and the one thing that really saved his life was being in as good physical shape and having taken care of his body so well where it would have killed anyone else who wasn’t. 

 

Ashlie: Yeah that’s a crazy point to bring up. Can you maybe talk about how any of your training has changed in your ability to like dive into those tactics and be more resourceful by having a new physical outlook on your health as it pertains to your career.

 

Clint: Well it starts out, it’s funny because I’m a very hands on person if need to be. I very seldom utilize any of the items on my belt. I go hands on with people if I have to and that’s it that situation deems necessary. So I’ve always been the type that I won’t push back and try controlling situation with my baton or pepper spray or something like that. I go straight into it and use my manpower to take them into custody. That has changed for me over the years a little bit because you know the older, I get the less I recover from you know slamming my knees on the ground or just the minor abrasions or bruises that you get. You get sore from it. But I never associated that with being overweight.

 

I just associated with I was getting older. When I started this journey I didn’t even think of it about that and I’ve really started utilizing my own strengths and weaknesses turning those weaknesses into strengths to where I can combat those situations with minimizing injury to myself or the suspect and the tactics have changed just on, I got into a foot pursuit maybe a few weeks ago and I actually beat my trainee to this suspect because and she straight out of the academy and I’m not knocking her in any way. She’s actually very capable of doing it. I just was quicker than her and I tease her all the time over it.

 

But it’s one of those things I would have never been able to do that before and seeing what I’m capable of now compared to where I was is just an amazing feeling and it gives me motivation to keep down this journey and it also does help extremely because you have people recognized that haven’t seen you in a long time like, you don’t even look like the same person anymore. And I just kind of chuckle and but inside that makes you feel good. So it all goes around and around. Whether it’s your own personal well-being making you feel motivated to keep going down that route or just safety wise of not injuring yourself as likely or your recovery time is a lot better if you do get injured during those altercations. 

 

Ashlie: So it’s easy for you now to be able to identify this motivation. But you didn’t have that a year ago. So if you could go back and tell yourself one year ago without any kind of prequel, without knowing what you know now what kind of advice you would give to yourself or maybe to the listener as they’re listening to this. If any of this hit with them to help them to just take that first step. 

 

Clint: You can’t give up on yourself. It’s not easy. By far it’s not easy but you have to keep yourself motivated and you have to have people in your life that motivate you, like you motivate me, and you have to have those forgiveness for yourself. Because there’s going to be days where like you know I really don’t feel like working out today and that’s where that motivation factor from your spouse or whoever else it may be comes into play.

 

But for me personally it was, I would start working out and I would look back at when I was in high school. I could work out for hours and I would be sore the next day but I could go back and do it again and I start comparing myself to how I used to be compared to where I was at that point when I started this journey and get less motivated because I’m like I can’t do what I used to be able to do. So why am I even trying. 

 

Ashlie: And I’m just thinking back to when this new journey began for you. I’ve always worked out and there’s been countless times where I’ll be upstairs working out and you would be downstairs doing whatever it was that you were doing but not working out with me. And in reflecting back to where I see that your turning point first started with all of this, I drink a green drink every single day, I do it religiously. And I remember you decided let me try it out. I started to talk to you about all the health benefits of it.

 

You know I have a stomach condition, so I had to make sure that I really researched every little ingredient in this particular drink. And it was trial and error and so I had been taking this green drink for about six months or so.  And this is a powdered green drink one that when we’re on the go we drink. And I remember you were apprehensive, and you were worried that it was going to cause you more harm than good. And so I remember the first time that you ever drink it and you had a little bit of a sour face but then you understood that this actually doesn’t taste bad at all. This one that we have in particular it tastes like green tea.  It’s awesome and it has two servings of vegetables, tons of micronutrients, minerals and I remember you telling me you had an upset tummy felt like the first week or so but then you stuck with it and you started drinking it every single day. And I think that one small change started to snowball and lead to more and more changes in your life.

 

Clint: Absolutely. That one little change for me was like well I took this step, so let me take the next step. And it just snowballed from there. And so when I started drinking that I started working out a little bit more when I didn’t feel motivated. 

 

Ashlie: I kicked you between the legs. 

 

Clint: You would, after I got up from the ground, I would get upstairs and I’d workout. And that green drink I never really thought about it that way of that was that first step for me to really start changing the behaviors, my patterns that I had before, and it was just a simple scoop of green drink in the morning.

 

Ashlie: And we hear the experts, we hear the gurus, we hear all these people at these different fad diets, and they all have their own opinions on what you should and shouldn’t do. And it’s my personal belief that your fitness journey belongs to you. Like your health belongs to you. And whatever pings that you as what could potentially be your first step, I would encourage you to lean into that.

 

Maybe you’re still one of the people that drink soda or any form of sweetened drink. Maybe you think you need to live on energy drinks. Maybe it’s ok for you to stop through the drive through because you just had a 12-hour shift and you think you deserve it. I get that. We’ve all been there. But I encourage you as you sit there to think of one thing that could be your start to your own snowball effect to start the trajectory of turning your reality into something absolutely incredible to where people don’t even recognize who you are and you’re proud of it.

 

Clint: And I have to put this in there just as the recognition side. I was somewhere I was eating lunch with my parents and they were sitting somewhere, and I walk in and my mom looks right at me and then looks down. She didn’t recognize who I was and that’s my own mom. 

 

Ashlie: And that’s incredible. And another thing I think is important to point out is that you did not do any of this in an unhealthy way. You did not starve yourself. You didn’t take any of these bogus fat loss pills. You didn’t stick to any strategic diet, be it of a thousand or more that are out there on the market. You said okay I know what I want to be, and you incorporated your own lifestyle, your own diet, your own fitness regimen and you did a lot of trial and error to see what worked best for you. And it’s hard for you as you’re sitting there for any of us to understand that we have the ability to create our own diet, our own lifestyle.

 

It doesn’t have to be this structured rubric just because it has the title keto in it. Make it your own, but it has to start somewhere. And I hope you can find that one thing, that one thing you can change in your life that will start to lead you down the path of making more like decisions and when you’re able to do that and you understand that you deserve to create your own path, your own journey, then you’re really able to enjoy your tactical living.

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Tactical Living