Why Working Out Won't Guarantee Good Health | Beyond the Tats

I got elbowed in the chest, knocked the wind out of me, didn't think anything of it. Then I was walking upstairs in our house that night and I just collapsed on the stairs. At the time, it was the most painful thing I'd ever experienced. Every breath was just knives. No anesthesia. I'm fully awake. They gave me Novocaine for the incision and that's it. We can go through your sternum or we can go through your back. I said, no sternum. Then he says, Chris, it's a quicker recovery. Despite us breaking your sternum, I said no, no, go through my back. They went through my back, and he had to take his hand into my chest cavity, pull off my lungs from the chest wall. That was when I really kind of just started using alcohol and food to kind of cope with a lot of things.

Would be willing to share it with us? Yeah.

You want to know about all the surgeries or just my?

Yeah, I want to know the whole story. We got time.

Okay, cool, cool. So yeah, so I am an identical triplet. My brothers and I were adopted from Korea. My dad's from Pennsylvania. My mom's from New York. So my dad worked for ExxonMobil for his entire career. So—

Oh, wow.

We lived overseas most of my life. So they adopted us. We flew into JFK Airport. We were in New Jersey for a little bit, nursery school and stuff like that. And then we lived in Sicily when we were babies. I don't really remember any of that minus the baby videos. And then kindergarten to 5th grade, we were in Singapore. 6th grade to middle of 7th, we were in London. Middle of 7th to 10th grade, we lived in Norway. And then our last 2 years of high school, we were in Texas. Where my parents currently still live.

So are they, are they in the Houston area, I suspect, or?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Got it.

So they were in The Woodlands for like 15 years and then they downsized to Conroe, Montgomery area. Got it. But yeah, so basically lived my life overseas. You know, I think that was challenging, just moving to different countries and cultures and customs and languages, you know, every few years.

But in retrospect, you're almost an Army brat, right? Same kind of culture.

I mean, literally all my friends are either expat or NATO, like, or Air Force or Marines.

Right, exactly.

So, so yeah, so that's basically the expat community. So But yeah, so I, it was, I was in 8th grade and the private school where we went to in Norway, I mean, basically if you showed up for tryouts for a sport, you basically made the team because the school was so small. We were scrimmaging the faculty because we really didn't have anyone to play. And so long story short, I got elbowed in the chest by one of, his name was Mr. Mullins. I'll never forget it.

Yeah.

Oh yeah. Knocked the wind out of me. Didn't think anything of it. And then I was walking upstairs in our house that night and I just like collapsed on the stairs. And at the time it was the most painful thing I'd ever experienced. Like, I just, every breath was just knives, right? And I didn't know what was going on. Yeah. So I, it was, I was in so much, I couldn't even like call for help. So I just sat there, right? Just taking these short shallow breaths. And one of my brothers found me and my dad took me to the ER and they, they took an x-ray and they're like, oh, you have collapsed lung. So I was like, okay.

So you're in 8th grade?

8th grade. So we go into the OR and I remember they're like, okay, we're gonna, we have to put in a chest tube. I said, okay. And no anesthesia, so I'm fully awake. And they gave me Novocaine for the incision and that's it. And so as you can imagine, once that chest tube enters your pleural space, there's no Novocaine up there, right? So it's just every millimeter. I mean, it's the longest 30 minutes of my life. So they told me at the time, oh well, your lung will reinflate, we'll remove the chest tube, you're all good. So, and then it popped again?

How long?

That was maybe, I'd say within the year.

Wow.

And so then they basically explained to me that I was born with blebs on my lungs and if there's too much pressure in my chest cavity, they rupture. So what they need to do is a pleuric cystoracotomy, go in, cut out the blebs, suture them, and then they do that whole—

Glue it basically. Glue it.

Yeah. So having that done—

so this is like 9th grade now?

Yeah, 9th grade.

Can I, can I ask you? Yeah. Your other brothers, your identical twin brothers? Yeah.

No issues.

Really?

Yeah. So I was the lucky one, I guess.

Wow.

So that happened. And then, you know, obviously, you know, depression and all these things started to kind of creep in. I had identified with sports my entire life up until then, and now I couldn't do anything. So that was kind of a shock. And then we were— it was a summer in Jersey. We were going to go to like a stayaway basketball camp at Montclair State University. And my— I was sitting on my grandparents' couch and boom, just hits me. And I know exactly what's happening now. It's on my left side. And I start to not only have the pain of a collapsed lung, but now I'm having panic, like a panic feeling because I don't want to go through it again.

Because you know what this means.

Yeah. So they rushed me to the hospital based on the history. They went in and just did the whole procedure. But fortunately in the States they give you anesthesia. I don't remember any of it. So I'm like, yeah, gimme all the drugs.

Yeah. Anesthesia.

So that doctor, I'll never forget his name, Dr. Kaplan, did the procedure and then maybe 2 years later I had like a 50% collapse. He had done it incorrectly. So all the parts that he had tried to get that to stick, it didn't.

Yeah.

But then I was in Texas at the time and Texas Children's Hospital. And I don't remember, actually, I don't remember the surgeon's name, but he was like the best. But he basically, he said, look, Chris, we have 2 options. We can go through your sternum or we can go through your back. And I said, if you go through my sternum, do you have to break my sternum? He's like, yes. I said, no sternum. And then he says, Chris, it's a quicker recovery despite us breaking your sternum. I said, no, no, go through my back. And so they went through my back and he had to take his hand into my chest cavity, pull off my lung from the chest wall, redo the whole procedure. I'm coming out of surgery literally sitting like this. I can't even sit up because all my intercostal muscles have been moved around. It was the longest recovery. And I remember it must have been weeks, if not months. It was months. Months.

Yeah.

And I remember him saying to me in this really smug way, like, it's like a formal kick in the ribs. I'm like, really, dude?

Haha.

Funny. I'm sure you say that to all your patients. And then—

and how old were you when that was?

Right when I was graduating high school. So 2001.

So, and just by the way, I'm just curious, as far as your educational career and all these hospitalizations and being sick and recovery, so you're able to like continue and I mean, you—

I graduated on time. I went to— I got into the School of Architecture at the University of Miami. So that's undergrad.

Yeah.

And then basically throughout college, that was when I really kind of just started using alcohol and food to kind of cope with a lot of things. And when I entered college, I was 117 pounds right out of surgery. And then by my third year, it was a 5-year program. By my fourth year of college, I was like 195. So I had gained a lot of weight, but it was just, I was in a fraternity. I was a co-ed cheerleader at the University of Miami. So I had that whole thing and then I was in architecture school. So it's like 3 things that I was just trying to juggle. And then sophomore year of college, I fell asleep driving and with my brothers and I, we rolled, I rolled our car down a hill and all 3 of us. So then I had a piece of windshield in my head. I had like 37 staples. And so then I couldn't sleep lying down for like a few months because I would get vertigo.

But no pneumothorax?

No pneumothorax. But it fed into the whole victim mentality where I was just like, why is this stuff happening to me? What's the point of getting excited about anything if I'm just going to end up back in the hospital? Because this is my life.

And you were a sophomore, so you're 20 or something, right?

19, 20. So I lived in that. I played that victim card for years. I graduated college, was working for an architectural firm in Miami, and then—

How was the recovery from all that?

A car accident was a while. I would say like 6 months before I could, like, where I didn't feel any residual effects of it.

Wow. And all this time, though, you were able to stay on track with school. And, you know, that architecture degree is a big deal. You know, 5 years. Yeah, it's a lot. I mean, that's—

It's a lot like having an MD in the family. One of my older sisters is a partner at an immigration law firm in Miami, and then my dad's an engineer. So it's like You know, I thought, oh, architect, it's like, oh, it's on that same level, right? Like, it's got prestige. And then when you get out there, you realize architects make no money. My starting salary in 2006 was $32,000. It was like, University of Miami costs $40,000 a year, right? So it's like, how am I supposed to pay off student loans if my starting salary is $32,000? So 2008 hit, building economy crashed.

Hey, Chris, do you have a GoFundMe?

No, I don't. Yeah, that would have been great back then. So then I got out in architecture and I was miserable. I just hated it. I really did. 2008 hit, building stopped, and I decided to leave that profession. And I decided to open— at the time it was, we opened the second CrossFit affiliate in Miami in 2008. I had gotten into CrossFit around 2005 on my own and then kind of left architecture and everyone thought I was crazy. I just remember all the conversations with my parents and just a lot of yelling and like, you don't know anything about running a business. Gyms fail all the time. You put all this time in this career and this degree, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, no, I hate it. And so So yeah, so I owned and operated that affiliate with my partners for 10 years and then I sold my portion of the business in 2018 when I got married. And then my now ex-wife is that for the longest time I always said things are happening to me. And then I really, when I started to truly believe things happened for me, not to me, it changed everything, right? I got him to lose 160 pounds.

I mean, there's no better empathy of going, yeah, I get it. I heard it. I was there, you know? Yeah.

Yeah. And I, I, I think my mental illness that I've just coexisted with for my entire life, I always viewed it as this crutch that, oh, I'm never going to be able to be my full self or my true potential because of these hurdles. What I realized now is that it is a superpower because it allows me to show empathy to people that struggle with the same. When you look at heroes and villains, they both have the exact same backstory. They both come from tragedy, trauma, But the difference is the hero— or the villain says, the world hurt me, I'm going to hurt everyone else. And the hero says, the world hurt me, I'm not going to allow it to hurt anyone else.

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So everything in life, no matter how terrible it is, it's an opportunity to Take something from it, right? And use it as fuel. And so when I think back on that, I'm like, wow, like I totally made that right choice with going through the back. And so now I have these metal plates in my sternum and my surgeon's like, hey man, you're coming out stronger than you came in going in. So it's like this is a win-win. And yeah, so that's kind of in college in Miami, as you can imagine, you're surrounded by the culture of Miami. It's just beach bods, right? So it's dudes just lifting heavy weights. It's like all upper body, no legs. And you know, bicep curls and bench. And what I, I just thought, all right, I just need to eat to fuel to look like jacked. So I just literally would just house everything in the cafeteria, like cheeseburgers, french fries, whatever it was. And then obviously on the weekends, I'm in a fraternity. I'm binge drinking all weekend. I'm eating Taco Bell at two in the morning. I'm doing all these things. And so I remember, but I am like my face is swollen. I'm just like I'm puffy. And then once I, you know, guys kind of go through this ebb and flow of like, hey, I want to. Look lean and ripped like Brad Pitt in Fight Club, or I wanna look like, you know, Ronnie Coleman, just super yoked. And so that's kind of where I toggled. It was like, okay, well now I, I think I'm jacked, but then I'm like, I can't run. I have no cardio, I have no stamina. So then I started running marathons and ran marathons. I went from 195 down to like 150. But then as old school training of like, oh, we're gonna carb load and we're just gonna eat whatever and then run it off.

Yeah.

And then it wasn't really, I think, quote unquote healthy way of living or sustainable.

Yeah.

And then I, I could run marathons. I was like, oh man, I'm the fittest I've ever been. And I was like, wow, now I can't do a pull-up, I can't do a push-up. And then 2005 came around and the movie 300 came out and I'm like, whoa, what are those guys doing? Gerard Butler looks insane. And so I looked it up online. They trained at a gym here in Utah called Jim Jones.

And oh really?

Yeah. So they, I followed their workouts online. They gave free workouts on the website and it was very intense on the website. Like if you're fat, get outta our face. Like they were really like, We're Spartans. We only train fit people. So if you're a slob, like, you're not gonna get our attention. And I was like, wow, that's really, that's really hardcore.

You didn't stand on the edge of that big deep hole, did you?

Yes. No, no, no. And so then basically I was following their workouts and then they, they posted a workout called Fran and it said Fran via CrossFit. And I'm like, what's CrossFit? I looked it up. I'm like, oh, they're getting everything from this thing. So then I started following crossfit.com and then that's when they, that was the first fitness program that I'd ever started where they really started talking about nutrition. Because they talked about this pyramid that they designed where it's like your foundation is food, right? Then it goes, you know, food, you know, we'll talk about like sleep, weightlifting, you know, sport, you know, kind of this tiered thing. And so I'm like, oh, okay. So I started kind of dabbling in that and then I realized, wow, like it makes sense. If you put really crappy fuel in your tank, your engine's not gonna run very well.

I see.

So it's kind of this, this idea of like, all right, if I wanna be mediocre at everything, which is what CrossFit's methodology essentially is, it's like, You know, we want you doing what you wanna do for long as you can, you know, basically live independently for as long as you can. And so that's when I, when I opened the gym, I noticed, all right, we can get people in here, they can work out 5 days a week, but if they're not focusing on how they're taking care of themselves outside the gym, nothing's gonna change. And then that's just really terrible advertising.

So, and then they're gone in February.

Exactly. So I started doing something that my mother did to all my siblings and I, and every time we'd leave the house, she'd always say the same words, be safe. And I could just hear this phrase and it just got to a point where it was annoying. And I remember when I got to college and I'm partying and I'm doing all the things, I remember thinking, well, that's not safe. Oh my God, am I being safe? And then I realized what my mom was doing was instilling this phrase in my head because she knew she couldn't be there every moment. And so then I started doing that with my clients by saying, how's nutrition? Every time they step in the room, hey, how's nutrition? And then they like look away or they, you know, ignore the question. And then it got to a point where they started thinking about it outside the gym. And then I started running nutritional challenges within the gym. And then I realized, This is what we need to be focusing on. Exercise is great. Don't get me wrong, we need resistance training. You and I both know that skeletal muscle mass is really what we want.

Muscle's key.

Muscle is your biggest lever towards longevity. And so, but you know, if you're just eating whatever you want or you're undereating or you're doing whatever fad diet is out there, I mean, you're just gonna yo-yo. And then, you know, so we, then I realized, wow, there's so much psychology around food. Obviously people use it to cope just like I was using it to cope in college with alcohol and food. And so it's really, that's when I started realizing, all right, well, if I wanna take care of my heart, I need to also fuel my efforts. And then it, then it goes into sleep, right? Like, you know, sleep is, is such a priority for me. And I, I, I impose that onto my clients where every morning when they send me a food picture, they have to let me know how many hours of sleep they got the night before. And if it's 7 to 9, I'll give 'em a heart emoji. If it's less than 7, I'm like, hey, what's going on? Right? And so we need to prioritize that because also there's a reason why the Guinness Book of World Records nixed that challenge. It's just too many negative impacts on someone's health. They'll let you eat an airplane, but they nix sleep deprivation, right? So, right, right. So then, then you realize that, you know, heart health, mental health, physical health, everything is connected. And if you don't talk about everything, you don't address everything, then you're gonna be deficient in some area. So, yeah. Yeah.

It's like putting a, a square on your, your, your car instead of wheel, right?

I mean, exactly.

It has to be balanced.

Yep. Yep. So, so then that's what led me into what I do now is I just work with people on nutritional coaching. Obviously we talk about fitness, we talk about steps, we talk about sleep, stress management, but nutrition is the foundation of it is really like holding them accountable, giving them a very simple plan, just reading, eating real whole foods. You know, I think there's a time and place for supplementation, but that shouldn't be plan A. I think there's lots of great supplements out there, right? Like creatine monohydrate, I think everyone should be taking. But, but hey, let's, let's start with eating some fruits and vegetables, you know, let's, let's read ingredients.

And then add on to that.

Yeah.

There's, there's the engine and the supercharger, right?

Yeah. Yep.

Yep. Yep.

You know, you have to— it's all— and, you know, I think a lot of people struggle because, you know, it's ignorance is bliss. You know, it's just, hey, I don't want to do blood work. I don't want to know, you know. But it's like, okay, well, you only get one ticket, so what do you want to do?

You know, ignorance may be bliss, but it won't be for long.

No. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. It's that famous line in Princess Bride where the 5-fingered or 6-fingered man says to Prince Humperdinck, he says, you know, if you don't have your health, you don't have anything at all. You are not wrong.

Yeah.

And I think, you know— yeah, go on.

No, no, go ahead, please, please.

No, I was just saying that I just think that it's the thing that I see most people struggle with is honestly, like, like I said, it's, it's more of not wanting to know. I think, you know, modern medicine is great for acute care, right? You get in a car accident, you break a bone, great. But the lifestyle, the long-term diseases, it's just not really doing super— yeah, it's not great. And I think, you know, if people were just a little more proactive and you and I both know, obviously, like Heart disease is the number one killer for men and women, and especially if you have history of it. You know, I just think that, you know, I left architecture, and in a weird way, for me, architecture was— I originally wanted to be an architect because I think it's a mixture of being adopted, moving around so much. As much as I love my family, I felt like, you know, oh, if I could build my own home, I have security. I built my own home. I built my own safe space.

Yeah.

And then as I've gotten older, I realized, as moving around, moved around so much, Home is not a place. Home is a place in my mind. And so then I started focusing on things like, you know, breathwork and meditation and all those things. And then so what I left architecture initially wanting to build buildings, now it's like I'm kind of building people from the ground up. And if I can get someone— I remember this one client I had, I got him to lose 160 pounds.

Wow.

He's a big guy, but 160 pounds. And I remember he comes into the gym and—

Could you imagine wearing a 160-pound backpack?

I say that's like a backstreet boy, right? Like, that's a physical person. So, yeah, he comes in and he's like, Chris, something truly amazing happened like a few weeks ago and I didn't— I forgot to mention to you, but I wanna tell you. And I was like, well, what happened? He's like, a few weeks ago I could see my penis. And I was like, oh my God, why are you telling me that? And he's like, no, you don't understand. I was so big.

Yeah.

I could never see it.

Yeah. Yeah.

And I'm like, dude, high five. You know, it's just like little things like that that you don't even think about.

Yeah. Yeah.

And I think that that is That to me, I'm like, wow, I'm making a bigger difference than anything I would have done in architecture, um, on a smaller scale with an individual.

Yeah, but I think too, with their background, I mean, you lived it, right? You came from it, right? You, you pulled yourself out of that, that hole. And so as you work with people, what an amazing way to— I mean, there's no better empathy of going, yeah, I get it, I heard it, I was there, you know? Yeah, yeah.

And I, I think my, my mental illness that I've just coexisted with for my entire life I always viewed it as this crutch that, oh, I'm never going to be able to be my full self or my true potential because of these hurdles. And what I realized now is that it is a superpower because it allows me to, you know, show empathy to people that struggle with the same thing. Because the worst thing someone can hear when they're depressed is someone say, just be happy. It's like, right? Yeah. You think I wouldn't have done that? Right.

And so—

Well, just, just lose weight. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just eat less, move more, you know, just, just, just do that. All right. And there's a—

Calories in, calories out.

Exactly. There's a great book called First Rate Madness, and it talks about a lot of our historical leaders.

Oh yeah, I read it. Yeah, it's amazing. It's unbelievable. Unbelievable. What would our world look like if, you know, Adolf Hitler, Lincoln, you know, just fascinating.

JFK was manic. Churchill, Gandhi, MLK, like all of them.

It's like, that's crazy.

So that book also showed me, hey, this isn't a negative thing, you know, like maybe I can use this as a way to pay it forward to help others. And look, I have dark days, right? And it's just part of my life. But I think that there are holistic ways of mitigating the super dark moments. So it's allowed me to gain more agency around that part of my life. But it's just, it's tough, you know?

So tell me about your podcast career, how you got into that, how you've built it.

I created that handle because, you know, I think people judge people by what they look like. I mean, I get it a lot. I have a lot of visible tattoos.

That's why I have no friends or family, by the way. Oh well. Which is why I'm talking to you at 5 o'clock at night.

Yeah. So it was just this idea that, you know, I think the first time I saw someone with like a full neck sleeve, it was a little jarring. Saw someone with a head tattoo or face tattoo, I'm like, ugh. And I think, yeah, and yeah, exactly right. Mike Tyson. But I wanted the handle just to show that, like, and if you follow me, you know, it's a lot of my content is, you know, revolves around humor. I think that that is a universal language and I think the world needs more of it right now. Laughter. And it's allowed me to talk about serious topics in a light way. So it's relatable. And so, yeah, so that's really—

I'm signing up right now. I'm gonna make sure I'm Yeah, I'm following you here. So there we go.

I'll follow you back. So yeah, so, so really it's just that idea that like you shouldn't judge— like people can judge me based on my physique and my tattoos, but there's a lot more to me. I mean, most people wouldn't have guessed that I'm a Taylor Swift fan. Like, I like rom-coms. I am basically a big softie.

Yeah.

So yeah.

Yeah, that's very cool. That's, that's amazing. So I, I really just wanted to thank you for telling your story. It's great. We love that resilience course. We love Sleep, diet, exercise, lifestyle, just all that you have overcome and really just turn— I mean, I know it sounds trite, but turn the negatives into positives. And that's a mind thing. The body comes afterwards, but that's a mind thing. It's how we think about the world and not what the world has done to me, but what I'm going to do. Yeah.

So I use this because I'm a big superhero fan. And when you look at heroes and villains, they both have the exact same backstory. They both come from tragedy, trauma. But the difference is the hero— or the villain says, the world hurt me, I'm gonna hurt everyone else. And the hero says, the world hurt me, I'm not going to allow it to hurt anyone else. So it's like, you can be the hero in your own story. It's a choice, right? And I think it's easier to project and lash out and, and do all the things.

Oh, sure.

You know, it's more challenging to use the negative stuff as fuel. And I always say it's like, it's this rare resource that people just miss out on. It's like rocket fuel if you can utilize it. So, yeah.

Wow. Well, listen, I really appreciate your time tonight. Thanks for telling us the story. It's just amazing. So, I like to think birds of a feather flock together, so hopefully we'll continue to flock.

Yeah.

I am now following you. So, but thanks for being on The Power of Prevention. We love any kind of prevention. Obviously, I'm focused on cardiovascular, and of course, you had your own enough run-ins with that. Hopefully, the valve's doing great. You're taking your warfarin and your baby aspirin and no bleeding, and life is great.

It's good. Everything's good. So I appreciate you and thanks for having me on.

Oh yeah, no, it was awesome. So thanks again. Uh, good luck. We'll be continuing to watch and follow you, and, uh, I look forward to our paths crossing again.

Me too.

And also too, by the way, get on Beyond the Tats on Instagram. Do you have any other social media or—

TikTok, same handle.

Yeah. Okay, so TikTok, Instagram, Beyond the Tats. So check, check Chris out, follow. Fascinating stuff. This is the kind of stuff that we want to celebrate what you have done, and it's a real testimony. So thank you. And again, I hope our paths do cross soon, but thanks so much for taking the time out tonight and being on Power of Prevention. Yeah, wonderful, wonderful story. So, all right.

Thank you.

Have a great evening and we'll talk soon. Don't miss this other episode right here on the screen where we will reveal the missing answers you need to know about true cardiovascular prevention. And if you're ready for absolute clarity on your arterial risk, click the link in the description to schedule your Cleer Cardio patient assessment. We'll look at your specific risk factors and see if our advanced program can help you.