Talking Health, Nutrition, and Perspective with World Series Champion, Ryan Kalish

And we are live, man, here in beautiful Colorado. We're alongside the Colorado River. Got one of my closest friends, Ryan, with me.

Man, it's beautiful.

Man, this is.

What a day.

Yeah.

What a day.

This morning, just. We're having our coffee, just talking about resilience and. And, you know, battling back to, you know, in any capacity, you know, whether it's work, personal.

Yeah.

Sports, which is, in your case, work. You know, it's just, you know, you've been through so much with your 14 surgeries. That's, you know, 14 more than.

Millions.

Of people have ever had, you know, and just was something that. That is such a high amount of having to battle back, so to speak, if you've only had a couple.

Yeah.

Or one that's traumatizing in its own right, for sure. But, you know, just the. The route that you've been on in the journey that you've had, man, to lead to where you are right now in the space. The mental space that you're in, I don't think you change. You know, you told me earlier you wouldn't change a thing. I mean, it's just. It's created this. This untouchable, you know, just mentality of, I'm gonna be all right, you know.

Yeah. I mean, you know, when you start looking at what you do have and not what you don't. You know, for so many years, when I'm going through all these surgeries, I'm sitting back like, oh, man, I'm missing out on baseball, not doing what I love to do, but, like, it was so hard for me to see what I actually had. And what I had was, you know, an amazing support system, amazing friends. I've made it to the major leagues. I've been to the top. Yeah, I saw it going differently, but think of how many things in life we see going one way, and then the next thing you know, it goes somewhere else. So, yeah, that's basically. That's pretty much the gist of really what I've honed in on, especially since I've moved here to Colorado to get my knee right on surgery number 14. Like, I'm looking at what I do have, and, you know, I got a lot of really, really good things in my life. And, yeah, you know, it was really nice to look at it that way. Yeah.

And it's. That's. That's refreshing to hear you talk. And it so, like, not. It's not like, a level of content, but just taking pride in the life that you've worked to achieve. So Far. And it's just getting started.

I know.

And. I know, dude.

Just beginning.

I know, man. And it's like, it's.

It's just.

Yeah, I've always been a big believer in you, but, like, it's just, it's. It's. I don't know, man. It's got that special feeling because it's of your.

Of your.

Your headspace, where your head's at right now. Just completely different, dude, than you were when I first met you in the Chicago clubhouse. And then not only that, a couple years ago, face to face when you. When you moved to Venice in the off season, kind of just, you know, grabbing food for the first time. And then I've seen a change just. Just knowing you in the small amount of time that I have. And it's just. It's beautiful, man, because it's just the lesson to be learned from that is one of perspective. And that's. Man, can you imagine if everybody. There's no problem.

There's.

That you can't. What is there to complain about as long as we're here moving and breathing and chewing and smiling and. You know what I mean? Like, if you can't. You can't shake that mentality when you have a level of perspective because what, you know, traffic.

Oh, man.

You know, certain things like that, throwing some music, we're here, dude. How many up. Things happen to people daily that, oh, my God. You know, just wrong place, wrong time. And that's.

That's.

That's just something that it's. I mean, that you have the ultimate perspective, you know?

Yeah. I mean, comparatively, though, even 14 surgeries later, there are such a. You know, there's a percentage of humans out there that have had it so much harder than me. And, you know, for a long time, I felt like, you know, my world was collapsing with all the injuries. And now, honestly, man, like, I. I don't really think I would take a second back. I really wouldn't, like. Yeah, and the thing that we talked about today, we, you know, we were talking about, oh, how cool was it to reach the big leagues? How cool was it to get back. What's really going to be cool to me no matter if I get back to the show and do what I think I can do in my 30s, what will be really cool for me is just the fact that I tried, man.

Yeah.

Like, no one's ever going to be able to say what if I. Yeah, they're never going to be able to say what if with me, ever. No one's going to be able to say that. And for me, that is a beautiful thing. And I'm so proud of myself now. Whereas again, before, I didn't see that and something happened over the last eight months where this mental shift has gone down. I'm really content each day. My stress levels, my anxiety, you know, without any medicine has just. It's been a mindset. It's a choice for me. It was like, I always heard that, like, oh, you can make a choice thing, and I didn't believe it, but now I believe it.

Yeah.

I believe that you can make a mental choice and change the way your days in life are.

That's what I think everyone out there is going to want to know what it was.

You know, there really wasn't anything, man. I was like, I'm sitting in my apartment after a recent breakup. That was really hard for me, as you know. Yeah. And I was just sitting, sitting there and I just like, was sad and lonely and I just had this, like, this moment where I was like, dude, you need to look like you clearly need to love yourself. So let's think about yourself right now. Like, you just broke up with somebody. It was super hard. But you were an honest, faithful, compassionate, loving dude. And you, you made a man's choice. And looking back at the rest of my life, that was essentially what I had been working towards up to that moment. And when I realized I'm a man, like, I'm really a man now, that was the one moment I'm sitting there in veil and I was like, dude, I. I'm a. I'm a man. I got great things. I've been, you know, I've had structure in my life. I've worked really hard. I have my health, for the most part, it's gravy. And that was. It was like a boom. Like it just switched smoked me. Yeah. And yeah, here we are, man, sitting in this hot spring together, making a video and oh, yeah, life is good.

I know, dude.

I got nothing to complain about.

Oh, man.

You know how many people would kill to be here right now? Yeah. Doing this, you know. So, you know, I have a friend, Ryan Westmoreland, who I speak about often. And this guy was supposed to be the next come becoming of the center fielder for the Red Sox. And he had a brain aneurysm and he lost it all. Yeah. This guy, he's an amazing kid. He's now a coach in Rhode island for his high school team. And every day I go out there and do like, whatever I'm Doing, like, you know, how much he would kill if he had 14 surgeries and still have a chance to get back. Yeah, he'd take my situation any day of the week, so who am I to complain? Yeah, I'm not going to complain anymore. That. Yeah, done. Done complaining. Like, I have a great life. Like, yeah, it's like. So, yeah, when I was rehabbing some of my injuries with the Red Sox, and he was. He actually was trying. You know, he actually went from having a brain aneurysm to, like, having a brain surgery to, like, like, losing feelings in his hand and his legs. He made it all the way back and had a professional at that. And then, unfortunately, it actually happened to him again. So he what? Yeah, he. He got all the way back to being able to hit in a live baseball game after, you know, surgeries on end. You know, he had plastic surgery to fix, you know, things in his face that were messed up.

Yeah.

This guy gets back, and then it happens to him again, and he lost it all, you know, he lost his entire chance to play baseball. So, like, that kid inspires me on the daily man.

Yeah.

It's not a day that goes by where I'm sitting in the training room, you know, at pt, and my knee is a little stiff, and I'm like, I bet Westy would like his knee to just be stiff right now, you know? And I. I.

That's really cool.

Yeah, he's. And I lived with him as well. We lived together. We got to know each other.

You say you text him every now and then?

Just kind of text him.

What, he inspires a little.

Yeah. I mean, dude, I could text him every day, you know, really? Like. Because every single day, it's like, hey, Westy, just want you to know I'm, you know, I'm doing this for you.

That's awesome.

Yeah. I hope you know, how does he.

What does he say?

He loves it. We'll talk about life. He's like, I said, dude, he's coaching baseball at his old high school. He's got a girlfriend. He's happy. It's, like, really a beautiful thing. So if he can be happy, most of us can be happy.

Yeah.

You know? Yeah.

I mean, you can find beauty. It's just mindset, you know?

Yeah.

And how you're able to deal with certain situations that come up in your life that, you know, unexpected or flat tire, whatever. How do you handle that? You know?

Yeah.

How do you handle it?

You see true colors. You have a flat tire, at least you have a spare that's what you have. Yeah, right.

It's like jumping that river.

Are you.

Oh, yeah.

Is it cold?

Freezing. Thanks for joining, guys.

Have a good one.

Peace.