Transcript
Brian J. Gutierrez (00:00)
when I started this journey at 370, I just wanted to get back to 280. That was it. And then when I got to 280, was like, ooh, let’s get to 250 so you can go skydiving. I’ve always wanted to go skydiving. And I was always too big to go skydiving. So I’m like, you know what? Let’s go skydiving. And now at 242.8 pounds, I’m thinking to myself,
I’ll wait until I’m 225 because I’m starting to scared of skydiving. I still want to go, but let’s give it a little bit more.
Jollie (00:21)
You
Hey, everyone. It’s Jollie here with Interrupt Hunger’s Move Eat Give Podcast. Thanks for joining us again today. We got Brian Gutierrez from San Antonio, Texas. Brian, thanks so much for joining us.
Brian J. Gutierrez (02:42)
Thanks for having me, Jollie.
Super excited and pumped to be here, man.
Jollie (02:45)
It’s appreciated, man. So, so Brian and I just, I don’t know, just been a few months since we’ve known each other, but we’ve had some really, really neat conversations. You’re a smart guy. I love where your heart is. You wear your heart on your sleeve. really kind of drives everything you do. And, and you’ve told me about this health journey that’s happened. So why don’t you just introduce yourself? Just, if this is your first time listening, these, I did it episodes.
episodes
are kind of, you know, interspersed in between experts and exercises. Medicine food is medicine food and security. We focus on people doing really neat community health initiatives. But today is all about you and your journey. So I like to ask people start with your personal dynamics like how old you are, your family dynamics, and then your work dynamics, what you do for a living. And then we’ll just we’ll just go from there. All right, so introduce yourself if you don’t mind.
Brian J. Gutierrez (03:34)
Yeah,
absolutely. Well, Brian Gutierrez, I am 43 years young, I guess is what they say when you get over 40. And I am married. My wife and I actually just celebrated our 20 year wedding anniversary. And we have two teenage daughters and they are 17 and 13. And I can just say that, you know, our family dynamic is, I mean, man, we are, we were really built around
a faith-based household, very spiritual. We’re United Methodist and we are 100 % just following the journey that Christ has led for us. it’s a blast and it’s providing us, I guess you could say, the sense of security and the hope that I think some people just kind of need in all of their life. And that’s what we have found. And Abby and I found that and built our entire marriage around that.
You know, I guess I could say that, you know, from a work dynamic, I work for Neo Home Loans, Neo Home Loans powered by Better, and I’m a mortgage advisor. We call ourselves co-creators, and the reason is because we have very much a say in where the direction of this business is going. We feel that the mortgage industry is changing constantly, especially with all the tools and AI and technology that, you know, is coming out in every industry.
We’ve really embraced that and we’ve championed it. the purpose of, I guess you could say my journey in lending is to teach the consumer that if you’re going to borrow money, you’re going to borrow money the smartest way possible by just having a conversation with Brian Gutierrez, right? Or somebody at Neo Home Loans powered by better. So I know it sounds a little like, wow, that sounds different. And it’s meant to, right? It’s meant to…
you know, just make the consumer make the industry partners just kind of go, hmm, I’ve never heard that before. And there’s a reason behind it. You know, providing a holistic approach to make sure that people don’t just borrow big bags of debt after buying a house, but they know how to manage that debt down to zero. So they can grow, you know, the, I guess you could say cliche term of generational wealth that everyone always talks about, but there’s never a how behind it. So essentially that is, you know, my work side.
Man, my health journey has been a, it’s been, it’s been eye opening. I mean, I’ve, I’ve kind of gone through everything. I’ve gone through the, you know, the weight loss pills. I’ve gone through the fad diets. I’ve gone through the intermittent fasting, starving myself, all of the things you can think of, right? You know, and I’ve done that, I would say my adult life. I realized probably in,
I want to say I was about 22, 23, that I just had to do something different. Started working out, started eating a little better. And I lost some weight. I went down from about 300 and I would say like 30 pounds down to about 280 pounds. And then I met my wife, in love. And sometimes the rest is history. You just start eating out a lot.
and doing all the things that a newly couple does. But I will say that as life went on with having kids, being married, I started to really bring those pounds back on and I started suffering a lot. Health with not feeling well, not waking up at my best, having to deal with sleep apnea, having to just…
really go through what I felt was a little bit of a struggle with my own mindset and where I really wanted to be. And so, you know, as I started to kind of, you know, go through the motions of trying to feel better, trying to eat better, I still find myself making, you know, poor decisions, poor food decisions is what I call it. And, you know, it all kind of comes back to work, right? I had a gentleman come in from
Octane Athletic Performance, he’s still the owner of that gym, still operating in the Dominion area. Jason Benavides, he walked in with a giant jug of water and I thought to myself, it’s one of these guys. But it really did give me an eye-opening experience because in that conversation, he saw something in me. And I don’t know if he saw something in me in my mannerisms or how I talked or what I…
You know, or maybe it was the fact that I was drinking, you know, a Bill Miller cup full of, you know, Dr. Pepper at the time that he was like, man, and you know, he’s this health guy. So, you know, he, definitely recognized that. he invited me out to his gym, you know, just to try to do something different, that I wasn’t doing before.
And Jason basically put me in a, you know, in a program called Fit in 50. So I had 50 days where I was waking up at four o’clock in the morning to be at the gym at five. And it was a 50 day run of just health. And in that Fit in 50, you know, they talked about,
you know nutrition they talked about you know course diet you know exercise and the right type of exercise and I really fell in love with hit training I had never done that before you know 40 seconds on 20 seconds off you know kind of thing and doing all these different circuits where you’re going upper body lower body upper body lower body you know and and it really did just jump start my mindset because I started to naturally lose weight and
You know, I will say for myself looking inward, mean, you know, I started to naturally lose weight because I mean, I was a bigger guy. I wasn’t doing any physical activity. And when you start adding physical activity and eating right, hey, lo and behold, ta-da, you start losing weight, right? So, you know, as at that time when I jumped in, this was circa 2000 and I want to say 17.
So to go that timeframe of just raising babies and everything and doing all those things, know, in 2017 when I met Jason, that’s when the eye opening thing came that said, hey, I can take control of this. I can feel better. I can fit into better clothes, right? I used to joke that I would say that, you know, I just long for the time to be able to run into like, you know,
of a Neiman Marcus or a Dillard’s, right? And just buy something off the rack that wasn’t on a big and tall rack. Because that’s where I was shopping constantly, was big and tall. And it got to a point where I didn’t have to accept it anymore. I just needed to make the change. So when that mental kind of, you know, I guess you could say a confirmation came that I can do this. That’s where I started kind of shedding the weight, shedding the pounds. So from 2017 to about 2019, you know, I was working out with Jason.
you know, going through the motions of just kind of like losing weight at the time, Jollie, was 370 pounds when I started. So, you know, I started bringing myself down. And again, you know, if you follow on the story, sorry, it’s a little choppy here, but you know, to be down to 280 pounds in 2004, meeting my wife, right? And then going all the way up to 370 pounds after two kids and
you know, marriage and all those things. It’s, you know, we were 12 years married at that point, you know, when I met Jason and I met Octane and the team there, that’s when I started thinking to myself like, man, you know, this, this, this can’t get better. And as you get older, right, I started to notice that friends were having health issues, friends were having, you know, trials and issues, you know, just from, you know, being overweight, whatever you call it. And so at the end of the day, I thought I got to do something. And when I,
kind of took Jason on this offer of, of, know, trying this fit and 50 out, you know, going those 50 days really, really changed my mindset about food. not necessarily where it is now today. My mindset’s a little bit more like, you know, food is fuel and you know, what you put in your body, you know, really affects kind of the next day, the next few hours. Like, you know, but back then it was just like, I can change my mindset around portion control, you know, eating the right foods and
Naturally, I feel like when you start losing weight, you just make better choices. It’s not anything crazy, you know, just sometimes you start, you you lose 20 pounds and the next time you go to a restaurant, you think, well, I’ll just have a salad this time, you know, like it’s, just, it’s a mental kind of positive movement that you, everybody naturally goes into, I feel that way. ⁓ Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Jollie (11:07)
Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, right? Let me pause you for a second, okay?
Because you talked about what it was like. Well, wait a minute. Here, let’s back up quite a bit. You said you were at 280 and like right around 2000? Okay, 2004.
Brian J. Gutierrez (11:22)
2004, yeah.
Jollie (11:23)
Okay. So 2017, um, this guy walks in to your life and like, like zero in on, on this because like there’s before and there’s after. And once you hit that after, once that flip, once that switch has been flipped, like it’s just easier. Your mindset is, is everything. And you just try to build a life, build an environment around you.
Brian J. Gutierrez (11:47)
100%.
Jollie (11:51)
so that healthy living is just easier in its habits. But, I think people can envision what that looks like. I want to get to that. I want to be able to say, you know what, I’m just going have a salad today. Or, you know what, I am going to wake up at four o’clock. I wake up at five every day and it’s just part of life now. I don’t even need an alarm, I just wake up. ⁓ Talk to us about, where was your head when, what’s his name? Jason?
Brian J. Gutierrez (11:59)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jason, yeah, yeah.
Jollie (12:18)
When
Jason like was there, it’s not just like, I don’t know what happened. What was, what exactly was the, was the switch? Were you already primed to get there and then just.
Brian J. Gutierrez (12:29)
I mean,
so I think there’s a point where as humans, right, when we’re dealing with weight loss, we’re dealing with our own physical, you know, just just our body, right? I feel like there’s a defining moment that everyone has where you can say, I’m tired of this, I’m tired of looking like this, feeling like this, being like this, eating like this, whatever it is. And then there’s acceptance of, and this is just life, right? So there’s one or the other. I think that there’s that moment for me.
I was tired of it. didn’t know what to do. But to answer your question, I thought to myself, know, Jollie, I don’t want to wake up at four. I don’t want to do this. You know, like, I mean, three days in, I was like, I have to do this every day. You know, like my only day off is Sunday. Like it just, it wasn’t, it wasn’t the easy thing to do, but I always saw, I guess you could say the vision, right? And the vision for me was,
You’ve been at 280 pounds before. mean, heck, I’ve been at 225 pounds before. I was in high school, but I was there. And then I had to kind of always reflect back. And I think that when you have those reflections in life of, I remember being 225 pounds as a senior in high school and thinking to myself, man, I am big. I am so overweight. am so whatever. Insert whatever negative thought you have.
Jollie (13:43)
Yeah.
Brian J. Gutierrez (13:44)
And then at 280 pounds, even, to lose that weight and be there to think to yourself, man, I would love to be at 225. And so for me with Jason, and really the team at Octane, Jason was the start of my journey and where I work out now.
at River City Strength, you I met those individuals working out at Octane Performance. They just went and kind of started a new gym that was closer to our new house. But you know, it’s with, with that initial kind of jump into all of this in 2017, you know, it was tough. It was something that I had to really kind of push through and build a habit forming healthy lifestyle that I wasn’t used to.
I didn’t grow up in athletics. I grew up trying to play football, but not really jiving that way. then finding out that I was more of a choir kid and a theater performer and jazz hands and yeah, like that, that was more me. ⁓ And so I never really put myself in any type of physical activity or physical regimen.
Jollie (14:44)
you
Brian J. Gutierrez (14:53)
when I started doing this fit in 50, you know, I knew that it takes two to three weeks, right? To form a habit, you know, so I’m sitting there thinking to myself like, all right, well, this is 50 days. I should at least hit the 30 day mark and this should be some sort of habit forming for me, right? Whether I scale back and I only do, you know, three days a week or two days a week, at least I’m doing something compared to what I was doing before. And that’s just what worked for me.
But that’s exactly what happened. You know, I did the fit in 50 and then when I was done, um, I started working out just, you know, two days a week and sometimes I would just be one day a week. Um, and then it would turn into, I keep losing weight and from three 70 now I’m down to, you know, three 40 and it’s, know, 30 pounds is 30 pounds. You know, I don’t know if anybody just go lift a 30 pound weight. That’s how much weight I lost. Right. And
Jollie (15:41)
Yeah.
Brian J. Gutierrez (15:42)
You know, I would think that like, you know, I’d grab a weight and be like, man, Brian, you’ve lost 30 pounds since this journey. And I’d hold it. And I’m like, man, this is how much fat you’ve lost, you know? And it was those types of reaffirming makes you think like, man, just I can move better. I can go upstairs. I’m still winded, but I’m not as winded. Right. You know, it’s like, so all these things are kind of like, I, I personally, in my mindset, I have to see these winds and I have to kind of put myself into these winds. Right. So that that way I can just keep moving forward.
And then from 340 down to 320, right? 315. You know, in that moment, this is all kind of, you know, going from 2017, 2018 and 2018, I cut alcohol. was a heavy beer drinker while I was going through this whole exercise, right? And when I say heavy, I mean, you know, I thank God I didn’t have any issues or anything with alcoholism.
But I would like to have a pint or a couple of pints of beer two, three times a night or at a networking event in my industry. in doing so, it’s still, that’s when I really started listening to my body. I was like, man, I just don’t, I don’t feel right. I keep teetering at this 315, 320 range. So I’ll never forget it. was November of 2018.
Jollie (16:39)
you know.
Brian J. Gutierrez (16:54)
We were at a Houston Texans game, me and my best friend. And I was like, this is the last time I’m gonna drink beer. And he goes, why? He goes, we love football. Like the season is still going, like, you know? And I was like, well, not for the Texans, but you know, so, you know, they did win that game against the Tennessee Titans. Yeah, go Texans. But, you know, as I did that, I went alcohol-free.
Jollie (17:02)
Well,
Brian J. Gutierrez (17:16)
until 2021. And it wasn’t anything other than I told myself, hey, when I go out of the country with my wife, that’s when I’ll have another cocktail. Right? And right before, and this is again, where life kind of puts you. Well, let me rewind real quick. So in 2018, I quit drinking alcohol, specifically beer, because that’s really all I drank. I wasn’t a big liquor guy.
And then in 2019, Abby and I moved to these, you know, kind of the north part of San Antonio. And at the time that commute from our home to Octane Athletics Performance was just too long. I mean, it was a 45 minute commute from our house to there and it just wasn’t going to work. And I was really afraid of losing this journey that I had created over, you know, at that point, two full years. Very habit forming to your point that
I had found out that one of the trainers right from Octane Athletic Performance opened his own gym and it was very close within 20, inside 20 minutes of my new house at the time. So we started working out there and that’s River City Strength and that’s the threads I’m repping today. So, ⁓ but at River City Strength, Jesse Melien, you know, he formed this gym and it’s a little bit more of
Jollie (18:17)
I like it.
Brian J. Gutierrez (18:25)
You know, it’s functional strength training, so mobility, flexibility, right? And his big saying is there’s nothing wrong with getting older and just being stronger, right? And having the ability to catch, yeah. Yeah. Did you say headstrong? that what said? Old man strong. There you go. Yeah. Old man strong. But you know, it’s being able to catch yourself if you’re gonna fall, right?
Jollie (18:35)
Old man strong. That’s right, damn it.
Old Man Strong.
Brian J. Gutierrez (18:49)
You know, if, if, if you do, you know, pick something up, knowing how to pick something up the correct way. And, and, you know, that’s why both of those gyms were part of my journey because, know, the habit forming of, I really like this came from octane to start. Right. And then River City strength has just kind of fine tune and made all the dial turns for me, right. For what I can do today. still alcohol free. It just wasn’t my thing. You know, like just, Hey, I don’t need to drink to have a good time. You know, I’m very.
know, jovial and you know, the, glue in a lot of relationships and friendships that I have. And you know, like I, I’m sometimes I’m, I’m just the life of the party, which is great. That’s it’s like, I don’t need to be on alcohol to do that. and you know, never a big fan of like, you know, nicotine smoking or anything like that, you know, occasional cigar or once in a while to, know, for two days, tasting that in your mouth going, why am I doing this? But, you know, it ended up getting to the point where in 2021,
You know, I made that mindset of when Abby and I are out of the country, I’ll have a cocktail. Like we go to Mexico, I’m going to want to have a margarita in Mexico. You know, like it’s just that that’ll be great. So ended up going to Cancun. But a month before I went to Cancun, I did my normal physical and jolly, I found out that I had a gluten allergy. And to think back, I cried. I did the moment she, well, first I got very angry because I was like, what do mean I have a gluten allergy?
you know, 39 years old or whatever it was, you know, at the time, you know, in my thirties, my late thirties. Um, and she said that you’ve always had it. You just never knew. Um, and you know, sometimes we find these things out later in life and that’s exactly what happened to me in my journey. But I cried because I would only drink beer and there’s so much gluten in beer. And I thought to myself, I can’t get underneath this 315, 320 pound. And at the time, think about it. I quit drinking beer in 2018.
Jollie (20:25)
Yeah.
Brian J. Gutierrez (20:34)
I end up going to, you know, 2021, right? It’s like spring of 2021 and this doctor tells me I have a gluten allergy and I’m still 315 pounds, 310 pounds. I cannot break under 300 only to find out it’s what I’m eating. And that right there was when the switch went off and I thought, wow, what you put in your body really matters. It does.
Jollie (20:49)
Yeah.
It absolutely
matters. That’s it.
Brian J. Gutierrez (20:56)
It matters so much. It matters to your gut health, your brain health, your heart health, your, I mean, your, respiratory system, you know, your blood, your sleep, you know, even to when you do go workout, like what’s actually firing off in your body and what, what, what is actually working when you go and exercise, you know, so it’s, it’s very interesting, you know, when I found that out and I started going through that journey,
And I’m very surprised that people don’t know I have a gluten allergy because if you have a food allergy, everybody knows, right? So it’s like, you might as well just put it in the express news and just tell them. Cause I think that’s the way that people with food allergies get through food allergies is by sharing it all the time because it’s like us kind of reaffirming that. Yes, you have one. Yes, you have one. Yes, you have one. So, um, but you know, as I started to go through the gluten and pulling all that out, that’s when I really started seeing the change and I saw the change where
you know, I brought my weight down to 280 pounds at that point. So that was, and still, you know, having an occasional cocktail or an occasional, you know, gluten free beer now at this point, right? Yeah.
Jollie (21:59)
So, wait a minute.
So you’re at like 315, 320, you find out you have a gluten allergy, and then you got down to like, I mean, 280, like…
Brian J. Gutierrez (22:05)
I… Yeah.
280 in
a span of about a year and a half. I lost, I lost even more pounds just from eating right from removing the gluten directly out of my diet. And I’m a cold turkey kind of guy. Like I could just say, all right, enough is enough. And I just go, right. I’m so blessed that God gave me that ability. Right. I mean, I have plenty of faults though. Don’t think I’m perfect, but, but you know, I,
Jollie (22:11)
Yeah, thanks.
Brian J. Gutierrez (22:30)
But I put myself in a situation where I said, hey, well, if this is affecting me and I’m going on this health journey, let me jump all in. Let me stop eating gluten. Let me really pull this back. And I noticed immediately, yeah. Yeah.
Jollie (22:41)
Yeah, hold on just a second. So
I think this is a really key point. So I’m really diving in and I’ve learned so much in just the last couple, three months about the biology and genetics of weight gain and weight loss. so you are, what you just described is what countless people
are undergoing under the surface just they’re they’re not aware of because you think like what’s wrong with me i can’t break this 315 now working out you’re eating better you cut out beer like
Brian J. Gutierrez (23:06)
Yeah.
Jollie (23:15)
It was funny, I was with some friends last week and there was three of us together and all of us just kind of naturally, we’re just like not drinking as much. Like I used to be a craft beer guy all the time. And when you cut out craft beer as much as I like it and like Scheiner Bock, it’s like the official beer of Texas, like it just tastes good and you’re friends. But when you cut that out, like you’ve still got friends and nights are still fun and parties and everything.
Brian J. Gutierrez (23:27)
Same.
Yeah.
Jollie (23:43)
But on the biology, like you didn’t know this and you think it’s like, like what’s wrong with me? Like I just need more willpower, more discipline, but it’s not just you. Like you’re internalizing that struggle, but for society still at large, we’re going in the right direction, sorry, but for society at large, they see somebody with obesity and you’re like, damn, you just like.
need to eat less and move more. You just need to have some more discipline, right? And that’s man, if somebody has is struggling with obesity, man, there is just so much there could be some mental health issues, there’s gonna be some abuse issues, could be like genetics and epigenetics and allergies and like there’s there’s countless reasons why somebody has obesity. And
Brian J. Gutierrez (24:19)
Yo, trauma?
Jollie (24:29)
We have to figure that out. But we also have to be empathetic and have some grace towards folks and not like, shame them and not hold bias and stigma in our minds. that’s like, we’ve got to figure this out as a society right now. Cause it’s, it’s like every time I hear somebody struggling with these and I’ve had my own struggles. I mean, we talk about this, but every time I hear somebody just, man, it just makes me sad. Like there’s absolutely no reason for all that shame. Like it just.
Brian J. Gutierrez (24:43)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jollie (24:55)
Nothing we can do about it. Like it’s our genetics, it’s our biology, and it’s the environment that we live in. So thank
Brian J. Gutierrez (25:01)
Yeah, that’s a hundred
percent. I mean, you know, I have my fair share of, growing up with trauma. mean, food was a coping mechanism for my household. You know, my mom, I’m one of, you know, three, three boys, you know, from, you know, my, mom and dad’s original marriage. And there’s four of us total. So I’m sorry, I three boys, but I have three brothers. So four, four boys all together. And you know, when, when we celebrated, we ate.
When we were sad, we ate, you know, when, when something bad happened, we had food around us to make us feel better, you know, and, and my mom, you know, God bless her and God rest her soul. She, she was an amazing cook, you know, to the day she died, like, and, know, it, it really, to answer your question, like, or to, kind of go back to what you were saying there is, is it really did make me think. And the reason I kind of, you know,
I cried over this was because I realized that man, Brian, you’re working out, you’re giving yourself such a hard time for not being able to get under this target goal that you basically set for yourself, which really, I wasn’t realizing that to go from 370 to 315, mean, dude, that’s 55 pounds, right? Yeah, but I’m thinking I gotta get better. I gotta get better. I gotta get better. And you know, and
Jollie (26:07)
That’s huge win! That’s a huge win!
Brian J. Gutierrez (26:14)
When I found out about the gluten allergy, was almost like, you had like a, you had like, you know, this little thing inside you that was just always going to prevent it until you knew about it. Now that you know about it, you know, the anger came with the, with really a lot of the self-realization of like, man, it, it wasn’t, it really wasn’t my fault of lack of exercise or eating the wrong things. was more so like, Hey, it’s
It’s really time to make that dial turn and grow within this health journey and understand what you put in your mouth really does matter, right? 80 % of it is, what do they say? 80 % is half the battle, 80 % of it is what you put in your mouth when it comes to weight loss. And I didn’t really understand that until that gluten allergy. know, I jumping on that, I did lose the weight. Now I’m at 280 pounds and I’m feeling better, right? And
It was, it was actually 2023. You know, I, I talked to my doctor and I was like, there’s, it’s just, it’s not really there, right? Like something’s going on where I just, something in my body is not feeling right. And I had some blood work done and I found this test. I don’t, I’m not even sure if it’s FDA approved, but it basically just measures what foods cause inflammation in your body.
I strongly encourage everybody to do it. It’s called P88 is the test. And, you know, I can share some of that stuff with you, you know, for when you drop this, but it essentially allowed me to know what foods specifically cause high inflammation in my body to kind of cause similar things, stomach issues, digestive issues, leaky gut really is probably the best way to say it. I was never diagnosed with leaky gut, but I think I got to the point where
had I continued going through life the way it was, that’s what would have happened, right? I would have had leaky gut syndrome, you know, probably all the things that come with, you know, gastrointestinal issues, like, you know, stomach issues and all of that. but as I found that out in May of, of, of last year, actually,
And I went cold turkey on cutting all the good things out. And I’m telling you, this list, Jollie is crazy, right? It’s, know, the, the, the, you know, chicken, avocado, black pepper, garlic, salmon, green beans, you know, carrots. I mean, I had to take all that out. It was causing inflammation in my body. White potato, sweet potato.
Jollie (28:26)
What? Wow.
Brian J. Gutierrez (28:30)
I mean, you name it, all the things that everyone goes, I love all of that. It’s like, yeah, so did I, you know, but it, it was things that were causing inflammation in my body. And the reason why I was okay cutting all those major foods out, I eat a lot of Turkey. I had a lot of, you know, lean red meat, tuna, you know, I can have tuna, flounder, like other types of, you know, types of wild fish, right?
Jollie (28:34)
and
Brian J. Gutierrez (28:53)
And what I found is that, you know, we can sit here and talk about in nauseam, the FDA, but like the foods that are kind of like mass produced in a fast rush, high demand way, those were the ones that were affecting my body. And, you know, and I ate a lot of all those foods and I think that, you know, too much, we all know the saying, right? Too much of anything is bad for you. I was probably just eating a lot of it throughout my lifetime. I did grow up on
you know, a lot of chicken. So that made sense. You know, that chicken just, need to chill out on that and eggs and, and, and all those things. But because of the gluten allergy and going cold turkey and because of the gluten allergy and going cold turkey and realizing, right, that if I cut it out, you know, I’ll shed the weight to feel more healthy. wasn’t always just about losing weight and looking better, right? The vanity thing is, is, is kind of not where my head’s at. My head was just wanting my body to
and feel like it should, like the human body should, right? That’s all I ever wanted. That’s all I ever wanted. I want to be able to wake up, you know, and not feel groggy. I just want to get up and go. I want to be able to lift. I want to be able to, you know, exercise. I want to be able play with the kids. I want to be able to have healthy habits so they can see it want to jump on that journey with me as a family, which, you know, my wife has done, you know, the kids have done, you know, we were very mentally, you know,
Jollie (29:46)
You wouldn’t feel good.
Brian J. Gutierrez (30:07)
very big on mental health, very big on spiritual health and very big on, you know, body health. Right. So that’s kind of our main family dynamics of, of, of a lot of what kind of serves us. but when I went from the gluten allergy to having this test done, remember this gluten allergy happened in, you know, 2021 and here I am again in 2024, finding all this stuff out about all these inflammatory foods. And guess what wasn’t on the list of causing inflammation.
Gluten. That’s right. Because I had taken out of my diet for so long, I can now have gluten. It even said I could go have, what is it called? Barley, like basically barley and like brewer’s yeast is what it was. I could have brewer’s yeast, could have barley, I could have all those things. And I thought to myself, know, thank you God, I can have a beer again. know, like, but it, put me.
Jollie (30:52)
Wow.
Brian J. Gutierrez (30:54)
It put me in a mindset of saying, okay, Brian, if you go cold turkey and if you really laser in on this stuff and you do want to go through this journey in life, right? And if you start removing these foods that cause inflammation, because there were times where I’d eat a salad, a chicken salad, like with no dressing, and I’d feel like, Brian, like I look at myself in the mirror and be like, did you gain weight? Like I really hard on myself, right? And that’s a struggle that I think a lot of people work on and I have worked on.
my self-deprecating humor, right? I used to do that all the time. My, what is it called? Self-worth, you know, and just kind of, you know, like the negative talk in your head of like, man, you look terrible in that outfit, you know, like those things I have worked on. And I know that there’s people listening to this that think to themselves, man, I just did that this morning or last night, you know, and that is something that, you know, truly when you start giving yourself grace, right?
Jollie (31:38)
Yeah.
Brian J. Gutierrez (31:44)
because of the situation that you’re in, whether it be I have food allergies or, I just need to buckle down because trauma or something I went through in life really prevented me from wanting to grow forward. The moment you realize that, that’s that growth moment. And that’s when life just pushes you in the positive way. then you have different sort of, know, conversations with yourself and they’re a lot more positive. They’re a lot more graceful. They’re a lot more forgiving.
And I hope that for everybody. really do. want that for my kids and I want it for everybody outside, you know, in the real world. but, when I had this whole, you go ahead.
Jollie (32:17)
When you, when you really.
Man, I got to focus in on this for a second because when you make that mind shift and you realize it’s not me, like I, you know, and you find your newfound self-worth and your own value, life is just better. It is so much better. You learn to be appreciative of…
Brian J. Gutierrez (32:37)
Mm-hmm.
Jollie (32:41)
all your relationships, so much more appreciative of your family. uh, I don’t like things don’t bother you as much anymore. Like that’s what we should all try to get to. So I love that you shared that. Thanks, man.
Brian J. Gutierrez (32:53)
Yeah. It’s,
you know, also when you see somebody who, you know, maybe gets angry at something, you know, and in your mind you’re thinking, man, that’s so trivial. Like why would you get angry at that? You know I mean? Like all the way down to even getting cut off, you know, when you’re, when you’re driving, right? You know, somebody cuts you off and people are like, bam, bam, bam. And you know, it’s in my mind, it’s like, I always just go, go ahead.
You know, I don’t do that out the window so they can see it. That’s just not the gesture you want to do. But you know, it’s in my head, I just say, go ahead. There’s something going on. You you woke up angry, you woke up feeling whatever, or maybe you’re in a rush. Maybe you got to get your kid to daycare because you’re in that nine to five and traffic always messes it up. And if you’re, if you’re another minute late, they’re going to let you go and that’ll just change your entire mindset there. And I don’t want you to lose your job. Get in front of me, go, you know, like,
If I feel like if you have that sort of mindset, life is, is it’s just easier to get through because life is going to keep throwing these curve balls at you and Jollie, you’re going to get knocked down and you’re going to feel like you’re running through quicksand, right? You’re to have moments where you just feel like, I don’t know how anybody gets through this, right? But it’s not going to define you. Whatever you’re going through will not define you.
It’s literally a ballpoint pen on a blank piece of paper, put a dot in the middle of that page. that, if the blank piece of paper is life, that little dot in the center is your problem you’re going through right now. And when you back up and look at that and go, it’s really not that big. That’s what it helps you get through it. And my weight loss journey was not going to define me.
you know, or I guess you could say my being overweight was not going to define me. I was going to make the change. You know, I was going to, you know, feel better so that that way I could have longer lasting, right? Life, you know, as, as much as God will bless me with, you know, but I wanted to get healthy for my wife, for my kids. But the number one reason I wanted to get healthy was for me. Right. And
Jollie (34:46)
you
Brian J. Gutierrez (34:55)
You know, when I cut these foods out, 280 turned into 260 and then 260 turned into 245, right? And officially I’m at 242 pounds. So I weighed myself this morning. It was like 240.
242.8. So I want to say 242 is what I’m going to say. But I don’t, I round up in mortgage math, but I don’t round up in weight loss. But you know, again, going back and saying, you know, 129, 128 pounds, you know, to, lose that. I mean, what is that? That’s a seventh grader.
Jollie (35:26)
That’s fine.
Brian J. Gutierrez (35:41)
You know what I mean? it’s it that right there. Yeah, that that’s when I get to look back and think to myself like, you know, not you did it because I still want to continue to keep going. Right. But it’s you’re doing it. You’re doing it, Brian. And and you’re you know, you’re going down the journey that you wanted to. And I mean, I feel like there’s these.
Jollie (35:43)
That’s a lot of work.
Brian J. Gutierrez (36:03)
I’ve been taught actually through Jesse Medine and the River City strength train team is that there’s three real big defining moments in your life, right? 40, which I was, you know, I feel like my body, just started working out at the right time at like, you know, 36, 37, but 40 is usually when you start recognizing big health issues, you start kind of feeling different about yourself. That’s where you see a lot of the midlife crisis is kind of come into play for people, right? Because they just want to change. A lot of times it’s not,
Jollie (36:23)
Yeah.
That’s right, I have mine.
Brian J. Gutierrez (36:32)
Yeah, a lot of times it’s not lifestyle. A lot of times it’s just, know, I want to buy a new Corvette or I want to buy a second home so the family and I can, you know, do this or whatever, right? 60 is the next one where, you know, at 60 years old, you usually start seeing a lot more health issues. A lot of people in their sixties have a tendency to have, you know, like major health issues like heart attacks, strokes, you know, they find, you know,
different types of issues with like gout or you know, whatever it may be. And then at 80, so 40, 60, 80, 80 sometimes can just be, you know, being called home, right? You know, death, could be a major heart attack. It could be a stroke. It could be all of those things. And you know, when I, when I was being, I guess you could say programmed and taught to know those things, it was like, man, I want to, I want to do something better.
with my life, you know, and I want to, I want to, I want to not have these milestones hit me as hard as, mean, they still hit me, you know, at 43 to, you know, to still have issues of, of, you know, I have to have a routine in the morning just to kind of get everything working. Right. It’s like that’s, Hey, welcome to 43 Brian. but at the same time, you know, my mom, she, again, never really
She got healthy at times and there were things that she had done, but she never quite got the health that she needed and she passed away at 65. I lost my mom at a very, very young age. And that was an entire experience to go through as well at my age. But when I lost her in 2022, she was overweight. She was obese, whatever you want to call it.
She had four stents put in just because she just wasn’t feeling great. and that was an emergency kind of surgery into her heart, got her going. And then a week later, you know, she popped the prescribed blood thinner pill and passed a clot and that was it. And you know, it’s, it was such a sad, tragic moment for my brothers and I, right? I mean, you know, we’re a very tight family, very trauma bonded.
you know, just the way we grew up and, I will say that like, that was a moment of saying, okay, you know, Brian, you, you, gotta make sure that, that that’s not something that happens to you. Anything can happen. We don’t know our journey. We don’t know where God’s leading us. She passed away September eight, September 12th of 2022. So we’re about to come up on, you know, that, three year anniversary. Yeah.
Jollie (38:49)
When did she pass away?
is in.
Sorry to hear that,
Brian J. Gutierrez (39:02)
⁓
but those, you know, looking back though, before, you know, my, my mother passed away when I really started doing this, I lost my grandma to, you know, heart issues. My dad has congestive heart failure now, right? But he is, he’s always been on the other side. He’s been a, you know, like a, like a big time runner and you know, he’s always just been exercising and
He’s got great, great genes in genetics cause he’s, he’s still rocking, you know, God, God keeps on, you know, having him rock and roll through, you know, and him and my, my stepmom, Sherry, they, have an amazing diet. So, you know, and they have for years, you know, been able to kind of, you know, just keep health and everything right. and, and you know, they’ve, I guess I can say is like through the loss that I saw in my
early thirties, late thirties really made me think, okay, you don’t have to go like that. You don’t have to be in that position, right? you know, but to have my mom affected with basically, you know, obesity and overweight and heart issues and health issues, it was even more of a, I guess you could say like a, like reaffirming what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. Right. that was my mom’s journey. And, and, and,
you know, that’s my mother. And as much as, know, you can sit here and think to yourself, whoever’s listening to this or watching this is that, I can help them or I can change them. It, mean, that was my mother and I couldn’t, you know, I couldn’t do it. ⁓ numerous talks to the point where it would get frustrating to the point where I had to just say, okay, mom, I just got to accept you for who you are because it’s causing me more angst and pain talking to you about you losing weight than
Jollie (40:21)
Yeah. Yeah.
Brian J. Gutierrez (40:37)
than anything else. And I don’t want to have resentment, know? And so I was so blessed at the last two years of her life. It was very just, mom, I love you for you. Like this is, if this is your life, this is your life. Who am I to change that? Right. But at the same time, you know, whoever’s listening to this know that if you have that partner or if it’s, you know, it’s, it starts with, you have to have it in you. You have to want it. Right. So
when you’re going through that journey, know that you’re going through that journey for a reason. I’m, I’m never the guy to sit there and preach and tell people like, well, you know what you should do? You know what you should do? You know what you should do? I’m not, I’m not that guy. You know, if somebody comes to me and says, how did you do it? I’ll tell them how I did it. Well, why did you do it? I’ll tell them why I did it. Well, where can I do that? I will introduce them to the people that can, you know, if you’re on I 10 and 1604, you know, there’s Jason Benavides and Octane Athletic Performance, you know, if,
Jollie (41:24)
Yeah.
Brian J. Gutierrez (41:30)
If you’re on 281 and 1604 or Castle Hills area, got Jesse Medellini, his team at River City strength. like, you know, it’s, I got two different sides of San Antonio. You guys can play it, you know? So for me, it, it, my mother’s death, as sad as it was and as tragic and as much as it hurt, right. It was realization of, okay, you know, like you have to want it for yourself, right. Or
Jollie (41:41)
That’s awesome.
Brian J. Gutierrez (41:54)
you know, the, the, the worst could happen, right? And depending on how you look at it, right? Um, so that, that was really just kind of, I guess you could say the, the, the journey to continue to keep going. Right. So if you kind of follow that path, my mom passes away in 2022, you know, I went about a year, right? Never getting over it, but just kind of getting through it. And then in 2023 in the fall is when I started having
you know, these questions about why I still feel like my body isn’t performing the way it should. And then in 2024 is when I jumped in with that, that blood work and I realized what was causing inflammation. And if I’m sure, you know, as well as I do, inflammation is the key driver in every illness, sickness. I feel like crap. I look like crap. I can’t think, I can’t do, I can’t, mean, a lot of it is just inflammation.
Jollie (42:42)
Yeah.
Brian J. Gutierrez (42:50)
Right? Is what it is. And if you can tackle inflammation, and I’m so blessed and honored to say that the reason why I’m able to be so hyper-village in and so focused on just doing this this way is because I don’t want to take a shortcut. I did the diet pills. I never did the gastric bypass. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I just, I, I’m, I’m not a big surgery guy. Like I never have.
Thank God no surgeries in my life. so, you know, not trying to have any, you know, and, you know, I wasn’t going to do, you know, the, the, I wasn’t going to do Ozempic or Mounjaro or anything like that only because I was never diabetic. I was always borderline diabetic. I was never diabetic and I didn’t want to take any type of weight loss supplement. You know, if that’s for people because you know, they want to boost their direction and get a jumpstart at it. Perfect. I’ve been there. I’ve done that.
The only problem that I’ve had with that is that they’ve never lasted. Like it’s never been something that went, you know what I mean? The distance with me forever, to be down to 280 pounds because I was on a weight loss pill, you know, from 350 and then to balloon back up to 370, right? Like that, that, that was in my head constantly. I don’t want to take leaky gut syndrome pills. I don’t want to take, you know, pills that are going to help me, you know,
use the bathroom. Like I don’t want to do any of that. I want to know what I’m putting in my body. Cause obviously that’s what’s causing this so that that way it can perform the way I want it to perform. And that, that is what really drove me to just focus in on the food piece, focus in on the nutrition piece. Right. and that’s been a game changer. It’s been a game changer with how I feel, how I react. I mean, I used to be very hot headed.
You know, every little thing would boom, set me off and derail me and make me go different directions. I don’t know why he looked at me like that. I don’t know why he just crossed his arms when I said that. It would sit in my head and live rent free and I’d dwell on it. And then I’d go and have a conversation and it’s like, what do mean? I always liked crossing my arms. I didn’t mean anything by it. But when you’re not feeling right inside,
Jollie (44:40)
Yeah.
I know.
Yeah.
Brian J. Gutierrez (44:53)
subconsciously,
you know, all these other things just magnify. So now I’m not sitting here saying I have this zen like state, right? Where I’m, you know, just like kind of like, okay, you know, like, yeah, it’s nothing like that, but it has allowed me to form different habits of waking up without any, I don’t even need an alarm. I just kind of like wake up. My alarm goes off and sometimes I’m like, man, Brian, you beat the alarm, you know, it’s like,
And when I don’t beat the alarm and the alarm wakes me up, I usually feel, I usually feel bad. I feel like crap, you know, and, and sometimes it’s because we went to a Texas road house for our 20th anniversary with the kids and my mother-in-law and you know, I’m sitting here eating it going like the sodium levels in this are so high and my goodness, like I really shouldn’t be eating mushrooms, but I’ll have one or two, know, and
Next thing I know, it’s like I, I, I, you the alarm woke me up and I’m getting up and I’m Jollie I’m just going, what did I, what have I done? So it’s, but I, but I want to feel that because that tells me that what I’m doing is working right. That when I’m eating clean and when I’m eating right, then I find myself being able to perform life at a way better, way better form.
Right? I mean, I can perform. I feel like life is our Olympics, right? And, you know, we’re all competing against ourselves, right? We’re not, I’m not competing against you in life. I’m competing against myself in life. And at the end, when I am called, I get to look back on this resume and either say, wow, I did some things over here that are pretty questionable and I got to ask for, for, for some forgiveness or
Hey, I did everything that I could, right? With everything that I knew I needed. And I gave it my all and my best effort and I finished at whatever place you rank me at. And I’d much rather go that direction, right? I’d much rather go the direction of being in control of it, feeling great, being able to think clearly.
I mean, if you, if, if you have a gluten allergy, you deal with foggy brain syndrome. And I don’t know if anybody knows what that feels like, but if, if, if you wake up and you just feel like your thoughts are just cloudy. And the best thing I can think of is Benadryl. If you’ve ever taken Benadryl, you know, like a heavy dose because your allergies were real bad and you wake up the next morning and you just feel like you’re in a fog or you’re still asleep, that’s foggy brain syndrome. And if you’re experiencing that,
I mean, it could just be a simple food, you know, like reduction in your diet, take something out of your diet, and it will cure that. And I promise you, and I know it sounds crazy, but it
Jollie (47:24)
No, yeah,
it’s a lot of people don’t have
We don’t have the awareness level yet of this because so many people are feeling like what you and I both used to feel like. And it was neat. I want to go back a few minutes because you were talking about.
Brian J. Gutierrez (47:29)
Yeah.
Jollie (47:37)
You had two overlapping things, your spirituality and your exercise. And I’ve mentioned this several times on the podcast, but it’s just one of my favorite visuals. So my favorite pastor several years ago, he had this whiteboard and he drew like a stick figure of Jesus, a little stick figure guy with a beard. And then another stick figure guy over here. He’s like, okay, this is you and this is Jesus.
and there’s a line and his point was like Jesus doesn’t care where you are on your line, right? Every single person, all eight billion of us are on a different journey to their spirituality on that line. It doesn’t matter where you start. It matters which direction are you going? Are you walking towards Jesus? Are you walking away? ⁓ The same thing.
Brian J. Gutierrez (48:08)
Yeah.
Yep.
Amen.
Jollie (48:25)
You can do the same visual for exercise. Like this is where you are now. This is where you want to be. It doesn’t have to be perfect. You’re not looking for perfection, right? This is better. It doesn’t matter where you are on that line. Everybody’s on a different continuum on that line. We’ve had family members, different parts on that line. We’ve been at different places on that line.
Brian J. Gutierrez (48:35)
Yeah.
I love that.
Jollie (48:46)
Which direction are you turning? Are you facing? Are you trying to get healthier? Are trying to have a more meaningful life? Are you trying to have better relationships? Be a better dad? Be a better husband? Be a better friend? Everything is just easier.
Brian J. Gutierrez (49:01)
Yeah.
Jollie (49:01)
Um, when, when you’re facing the right direction, it doesn’t matter where you are. It doesn’t matter where you start. You started at 370 something, right? Um, now I’m feeling at 53, I’ve been on this journey for awhile. December will be 14 years as a leukemia survivor. Um, I don’t want to say addicted cause that has a lot. Thanks.
Brian J. Gutierrez (49:20)
First of all, that’s awesome. I’m just going to clap for you. I’m clapping
for you there.
Jollie (49:24)
Thanks man.
And it’s crazy. I saw somebody last week, I hadn’t seen in a while, and they’re like, man, Jollie, you’ve been like, like last time I saw you, looked healthier. And now you’re even, it’s pretty crazy. Like the weight I’m at now.
Like I’m two pounds less than I was when I went through officer candidate school back in 1993 and like the best shape of my life. But I’m 53 now, which is insane, but I’m always trying to get healthier. It’s not an addiction. It’s just like, what brings me joy? Like I’m working on with my physical therapist. Now I had, I had a major, major ankle surgery seven months ago in January and I’m like halfway there to full recovery, but like,
Brian J. Gutierrez (49:46)
Yeah, heck yeah.
Jollie (50:06)
My surgeon was cool. He’s like, what? Is there anything else you want to tell me? Is there anything else like you want to be able to do that you can’t do now?
And that was one of the coolest things a doc has ever asked me. And I’m like, yeah, I want to be able to like get into plyometrics again. I want to do box jumps. I want to do like, there’s this Hyrox race that I want to do next year. So I want to be able to do like burpee broad jumps and like be able to do, uh, like walking lunges, carrying kettlebells for the race. And, you know, I can’t do that now. And he’s like, that’s fantastic. Let’s, let’s get you, you know, a prescription for a physical therapist. And, and to be able to tell that my, my, my DPT
Brian J. Gutierrez (50:34)
Yeah.
Jollie (50:43)
PT, like, hey, these are the three things I want to be able to do. And he’s like, that’s fantastic. Most people just come and say, like, I don’t want back pain anymore, you know, and then the back pain is gone, you lost. But like, this path you were on,
Brian J. Gutierrez (50:52)
Yeah
Jollie (50:55)
When you were still anywhere more than where you are now, you’re on one path, right? And now you’re on a different path. And it’s like, what path do you want to take? It’s a big, it’s really, really hard to change directions. But man, when you start doing like one tiny little, tiny little habit at a time, you get that stack effect, you know, and it might be months, it might be years, it’s probably going to be years.
Brian J. Gutierrez (51:07)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jollie (51:17)
that like all those little tiny habits that you’ve been stacking up like that’s a new life. It’s hard as hell to get there but it man like life is so good right now it just everything.
Brian J. Gutierrez (51:23)
Yeah.
Well, I love
that. And one of the key things for me was
when I started this journey at 370, I just wanted to get back to 280. That was it. And then when I got to 280, was like, ooh, let’s get to 250 so you can go skydiving. I’ve always wanted to go skydiving. And I was always too big to go skydiving. So I’m like, you know what? Let’s go skydiving. And now at 242.8 pounds, I’m thinking to myself,
I’ll wait until I’m 225 because I’m starting to scared of skydiving. I still want to go, but let’s give it a little bit more. You know, let’s, let’s get, let’s go a little, little longer. ⁓
Jollie (51:54)
You
That’s awesome.
Brian J. Gutierrez (52:04)
but yeah, it’s, it’s thank you. And you’re absolutely right. you know, it’s, I think of it as a big flywheel and when you start kind of pulling that thing down, it doesn’t move very, very fast. And then as you eventually see going, like your flywheel is just going and you keep hitting it every morning, right?
and you keep pulling it down. And that’s exactly what I hope people hear in this is that, you didn’t put all that weight on overnight. You’re not gonna lose it overnight, right? Miracle pills and all those different things may help jumpstart stuff, but it’s creating the habits in life and creating the healthy habits to move forward that when that direction turns, even if the ship is
just turn, you know, if that, if that Island is right here and then, know, tomorrow it’s, it just moved that much. At least it didn’t go this direction. It went, it went the right direction. Right. And as long as you’re turning the direction you need to, eventually the ship will be going the opposite direction than what you were doing before. And, and that’s when you’ll notice that your attitude, your mannerisms, you know, what, how you treat people, more importantly, how you treat yourself will change. Right.
If you want it to be about vanity, can be about vanity, but I promise you, if you just get healthier, you know, the, the, the looks, the, you know, all of those things will just naturally happen, right? You’ll make better choices in life and you’ll start seeing that. but really finding your self-worth and your purpose, right? Is, is where I think that this fitness journey has gotten me, it’s gotten me to a point where, you know, I, I, I love
I’m getting kind of choked up saying this, but I love myself for who I am. I do feel that I am the best version of myself than I’ve ever been. I feel like I’m the best version, you know, to my kids and you know, my wife and I wake up every day in love, every day in love. And, you know, we’re able to focus on what matters most and
you know, that’s ourselves and our, and our family. And, and we have literally everything under our roof that we need, right? It’s, we’re not out trying to chase the next new sports car, the next new car, the next big house. Like it’s, it’s not about that, man. It’s, it’s about just having what you need to keep navigating life in the healthiest way, right? And mentally, physically, and spiritually, that’s us.
Jollie (54:21)
That’s beautiful. That’s a beautiful place to end on. I love that. I love that. This has been fantastic, man. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting to know you. I think we’ve gotten pretty close in just a very short time, just because, I don’t know, we’re both…
Brian J. Gutierrez (54:25)
You
Yeah!
Jollie (54:34)
We’re both aligned on a lot of things and, uh, man, just, uh, I just really appreciate that we’ve gotten to know each other and this you share in your journey today. been so vulnerable. Um, thank you for that. Last question I’ll ask you is, uh, and you, you don’t have to have an answer here, but is there anything else you want to share that you haven’t or if somebody, how about this? If, if somebody came to you this afternoon, uh, or saw you at church today, like
Brian J. Gutierrez (54:45)
Yeah.
Jollie (55:02)
Brian, like, I’ve been watching you, like, you’ve just, you know, you’re an inspiration for me. Like, how, where do I start? What would you tell him?
Brian J. Gutierrez (55:10)
Man.
That’s a great question. I would say…
Start small.
Like just what’s one thing you can do different within the next 12 hours that you would have never done before that is not going to discourage you from the bigger picture and the journey that that you want to take. You know, if that’s, I’m going to go outside and I’m just going to sit on my front lawn and just get some sun. Okay.
You know, as long as that’s different than what you did the 12 hours earlier. Why I just, you know, binge watched an entire Netflix series. Okay. Well then yes, that’s, that’s growth. So just start small. Just get the, get that ship going one direction, turn that flywheel, just, you know, pull that flywheel just a little bit, you know, insert whatever metaphor you want, but it would just be.
start small and then you’re going to naturally feel the win because subconsciously, Hey, I did that. You know, Hey, I went out in the sun and I got a little color and I feel like I look a little better. You know, like there’s, there’s the, the, mean, unfortunately as humans, we need sometimes, you know, those types of affirmations for ourselves. need to see those results to continue to keep going on in the journey.
Jollie (56:10)
You
Brian J. Gutierrez (56:23)
Right. And that’s, man, that’s what I would tell somebody.
Jollie (56:26)
That’s fantastic advice. Get comfortable making changes and feeling that win. You’re like, hey, I did this. Celebrate those, man, celebrate tiny wins all day long. That is just fantastic advice, Brian. Thank you so much, man. This has been really cool.
Brian J. Gutierrez (56:39)
All day.
Brother, you rock. Thank you so much for having me. Look forward to seeing your journey as well. if anybody ever needs to reach out or just have a conversation, I love meeting new people. So feel free to send them my way if they reach out and you guys can know how to find me. Just Google Brian Gutierrez, Neo Home Loans, NEO, like the matrix. So yeah.
Jollie (57:03)
I love that. I love it. Well, cool, man. Thanks a lot. Appreciate you.
Brian J. Gutierrez (57:06)
Alright brother,
appreciate you. Thanks man.
***
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