[00:00:31] Speaker A: Welcome to Vital Signs where we talk about all things, your greatest asset, your health. Here today, I am really excited to have a conversation that's been on the top of a lot of people's minds. How do you stay motivated during your health journey? Yes. I know you have asked and I have heard your requests, so I have curated the best expert for you. It is Brian Fetzer. He's been here before. He is. He has over 28 years of experience in peak human performance, sports medicine, et cetera. And he's going to dial in on how to stay motivated and maintain that healthy lifestyle. Lifestyle which sometimes feels like a losing battle. Welcome back to the show, Brian.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: Jen, it's a pleasure to join you again.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: I know we were talking before we came on the air about this particular topic, but it seems to be hitting very heavy. So a lot of people hit it hard. January, February, we're going on this amazing journey. Maybe we've dropped a few pounds, maybe we're feeling a little bit stronger. And then life starts happening and we fall off the bandwagon or things just get busy at work, et cetera. I know you've seen this before. What strategies do you recommend for people who, when life happens, fall off the bandwagon so they can stay consistent with their health goals?
[00:01:56] Speaker B: Well, there's several points to that. One, you have to make sure you're doing things that you enjoy. Fitness doesn't have to be necessarily running or working out or, you know, any of those kind of specific things. Say working out, strength training with weights. You can do a lot of variety. You know, getting a walking group, you know, joining a group that goes on walks together, you know, getting in a membership with a, with a fitness regiment that has, you know, others involved. Community is the absolute key to maintaining. I'm self motivated. I love to work out. That's my stress relief to get in, put the headphones on. I don't want to talk to anybody. I want to go hit the weights and do it. But that's me. That's not most people. My wife's definitely not that way. You know, she wants to be in a class where there's others that are kind of going through that same struggle of being motivated. Hey, you want to be fit, you want to be in shape, but you really got to do it with somebody else. And that's a huge piece of it, is have a community, have, have some accountability within yourself and within the group and choosing something that you like to do.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: You know, I couldn't, I couldn't agree with you. More if we don't love it, we don't show up. It's really hard to build those habits, really hard to stick with it when it get tough. And so for the people who are asking, well, I really don't want to join a gym or something. How do I find that community? Do you have any advice for those people in finding or maybe building a community to help them with their motivation?
[00:03:29] Speaker B: You know, it's funny, a lot of people go to coffee, have coffee shops, they have little bulletin boards on coffee shops to talk about walking groups. A lot of churches and civic organizations have specific, hey, we're gonna walk on Wednesdays. I have a friend that's based out of Nashville, Tennessee and she has a walking group on Wednesdays that a bunch of women get together of like, like mindedness. And they get together and they go for a walk. Something as simple as that. That to me that sounds simple, but.
[00:03:58] Speaker C: That'S a great way.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: You're out in fresh air, you're getting things going, you're getting your body moving. It's a good starting place for that fitness journey.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: I really like that. And I'm a huge fan of vitamins, fresh air and sunshine, which we get usually here in the Houston area.
So talk to me about the nutrition side of this because it's a little bit easier to think about community and that support and accountability. When we're going out and we're walking and we're meeting with people, we're doing something fun. How do we do that for the other side of it, like the nutrition side, for example?
[00:04:30] Speaker B: Well, one thing you got to plan, you've got, you got to have plan in place. You can't just, you know, free will, you know, free, free swinging it, trying to get meals together. Typically when people eat something that's not great for them, it's because they do it at the last minute, they rush through. That's the whole premise of fast food. Hey, I'm hungry, I want to grab something. Typically that's not something that's, that's best for you. Do some meal prep. You know, if Sunday is your, you know, your day before you start the week, prep some meals so you can at least get through Monday through, you know, Wednesday of having some meals that are prepay prepared ahead of time that you can, you know, put together and, and eat during the week. From a nutrition standpoint, a lot of times it's, we're deficient in, in certain items, we're deficient in protein. Protein is probably the item that most people are the Most deficient in because takes a little more to prepare. You can't just nuke it in the microwave. You've got to prepare it a little bit more challenging to prepare. But getting protein in your body, eggs, you know, good, you know, red meats, fish. And if you're vegetarian, you know, there's, there's beans, there's a lot of other items that, you know, can kind of fill that void of getting some protein in you.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: Let me, let me, let me talk about this because you and I talked about the importance of protein in the past and I'm a woman of a certain stage. And what we to be told, you know, in the 1990s was acceptable is not, is not what research shows anymore. And as we're all deficient, many of us are deficient in protein. What should we be aiming for in an easy math sort of way, or maybe no math sort of way in a daily, on a daily basis? From a nutrition standpoint, if we're, you know, if we're looking to get that in and make sure we're not in deficit.
[00:06:25] Speaker B: Well, it one is making sure you have protein with every meal. Another basic just thought process is if you can eat enough protein in a sitting that's about the size of your fist.
Basic, easy, you know, a piece of chicken, a couple eggs, a small piece of meat, small piece of fish, that at least gives you the guidelines or the basis for, hey, this is, this is about what I need to eat now. There's so many diets out there right now. I mean you have the carnivore diet and you have all kind of diets that you see kind of go up and down Paleo keto. I mean I could run through a list of them. And I know, Jen, you, I'm sure you've probably seen or heard all of them.
But diets don't really work. They might last for a little bit, but it's really changing the lifestyle and making sure that you stick to what you're going to do and do it for a longer period of time. 21 days is about the time period. Research shows that a habit can be created. 90 days is when something becomes permanent and you do it for good. So if you kind of keep that in mind, 21 days, 90 days to kind of get things to where they need to be.
[00:07:43] Speaker A: And so I'm hearing you, I love what you're saying. What about snacks? Like what are some of the ways to get, get that in? Do we need proteins in our snacks as well? Because this came up like it seems like, it seems like there's a lot of misinformation and there's a lot of back and forth out there. What should we think about if we are hungry between our meals? How should we be solving those problems?
[00:08:04] Speaker B: Well, I mean, nuts are a great way to provide a high protein, good, dense source and that's very nutritional. Protein shakes or different meal replacement shakes are also great. One of the things that has been a mainstay with me and trying to help my discipline of what I eat is if it's not in the house, I'm probably not going to eat it. So if you don't want to be snacking on potato chips or a lot of processed foods, make sure you don't have it in your house. Make sure that the items that are in your house are or at work with you or bringing a snack bag with you to work, make sure those items are actually good for you. If you have to read a label to determine whether it's good for you, it's probably not good for you. It's just another simple hint.
[00:08:54] Speaker A: I love it. Keep it simple.
[00:08:57] Speaker B: If you think about our grandparents and back in the day, they weren't looking at the label ingredients and saying, oh, I think this has the best stuff in it. No, because it was eating a chicken or eating eggs or drinking milk, it was very simple. Apples. I mean, I could go on a list of different fruits and vegetables and proteins that are good for you. But if you happen to read the label to determine if it's good for you, it's probably not going to be good for you.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: I think that's an excellent piece of sage advice. So, folks, I just want to kind of wrap up this before we have to take a break. Ryan, you've been absolutely phenomenal. We've all been working on this. We're trying to stay healthy, get a community, find something movement wise that you love and find a community to help you stay motivated in your fitness journey.
And always get protein in every meal. Think about whole foods, not processed foods. If you have to read a label, it's probably not the best idea. And meal prep, those are some excellent strategies for staying motivated and keeping going and consistent with your health goals. And I want to reiterate something else that Brian said, and that's 21 days to form a habit, to start a habit, 90 days for it to just become a part of who you are and what you do. So 21 and 90 are your numbers to know. Brian, how can people reach out to you if they'd like to learn more.
[00:10:13] Speaker B: They can go to our our website, ironfaithnutrition.com they could hit me up on LinkedIn at CoachFetts or on social media. I definitely respond. Or you can shoot us an
[email protected] and I will absolutely, you know, make sure that email will make sure it gets to me.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: Fantastic. Thank you for your expertise. We do have to take a brief break, but you want to stick around because we're going to talk about avoiding burnout and injury and fitness while you're trying to uplevel your will be right back after these messages.
Foreign welcome back to Vital Signs. I am here with our amazing coach Fetz, Brian Fetzer talking all things health, wellness, lifestyle, how to be the absolute best that you can and take control of your greatest asset, your health. I'm going to dive into the topic that has been coming up very frequently and that's burnout. How do we avoid burnout while we're trying to improve our fitness? How do we avoid also on the other side of it, injuring ourselves or overuse, which feels very discouraging. We all started the year strong. We dove in and then we maybe have something that happens. We get back in the gym and we're really struggling. So what are some things that we can do to avoid burnout where we're trying to improve our fitness and continue to make those gains without falling into overtraining?
[00:12:10] Speaker B: I think one of the first things you got to do is make sure you know what burnout is. Just because you're not feeling it one day doesn't necessarily mean you're going through burnout. You know, loss of motivation definitely is one, mood swings is another. You know, common injuries or injuries that prolong over time and, you know, restless night, sleeps, if you're not getting a right sleep, you're probably burning out a little bit. So once you kind of see those kind of actions and put and put in place and you're kind of seeing, you know, how you are, then it's kind of taking the next steps to try to avoid the burnout. One, a basic, you know, a couple things that you could do. One, take some naps, you know, take some naps, make sure you're getting the right nutrients in your system. For a female, iron is very important. I've seen many times over years coaching that females that have low iron have a decrease in performance from an athletic standpoint, which translates same thing over to, to normal everyday life.
Making sure you're getting vitamin D, you Know, the best vitamin D is outside in the sun, letting it hit your face, hit your body, enjoying that. But if you don't, or if you're in a situation where you're not getting a lot of vitamin D, make sure you're taking vitamin D supplement, make sure it's in a good form. Take it with K2 and it's D3. Add zinc to it, magnesium. So you're getting those are some, some, some specific nutrients or vitamins and minerals that are, they're important to take to kind of help, help avoid the burnout. Because when you don't feel very good, that's kind of where it takes place. Getting in a sauna, you know, getting in a nice hot sauna, taking a warm bath, warm shower, great ways to, to help recover, to kind of decrease the burnout effort.
Foam rolling, doing mobility, doing some kind of mobility exercise, to kind of loosen the joints, loosen up your muscles so you feel better. The worst thing to ever happen is you work out for the first time in a while, you get really sore, you get, hey, this isn't for me, I don't want to do this. And you get discouraged.
So if you take care of your body a little bit better, it's going to help decrease burnout.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: So let's talk about that because there's been, we've just made it through a winter, there's been some nasty bugs going around, and it literally has set people back two, three, maybe four weeks. And then they feel very discouraged and they go back and they want to start back where they were. Talk to us about how to start back up after we've had something like this. Because you, you know as well as I, when we've been through an illness especially or, or even if it's overcoming an injury, our body is not optimal. So what are some things that we should do to make sure that we're set for success so that we don't over train as we're just getting back into the routine?
[00:15:05] Speaker B: Well, it really kind of comes into play athletics. If you have an injury in athletics, they bring you back slowly. She can come back and be ready to perform at your optimal level when you're ready. No difference between, you know, the average Joe, average Jane out there that's just working out. You've got to take time. And if you've been normally working out three days a week or four days a week and you get sick, come back, work out two days a week, and then build it back up over the course of the next couple weeks, start off slow if whatever your, your weights you've been working out or the amount of time that you've been working out, cut that back, cut it back in half just to get yourself restarted. I'm a horrible testament to it myself because if I don't feel good, I take a day off and then, boom, I'm back in it. But you should also do something if you're, if you are a little bit under the weather. When I say something, it doesn't mean go work out, you know, put reps in heft weights, go for a walk, just get some movement in, get the blood flowing in your body to help regenerate that process and get the regeneration process going.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: You know, I'm going to ask the next question because you said, you mentioned mobility and a lot of people don't know the difference between joint mobility and mobility exercises versus, let's say, static stretching. Can you give us a little bit of insight into that and why it's so important to focus on mobility exercises? Because we talk a lot about peak human performance and especially as we get older, it is so incredibly important for us to even stay functional to focus on that.
[00:16:48] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:16:48] Speaker B: If you think about mobility, if you think about static stretching is still.
Mobility is moving. It's an easy way to go. The difference between a static stretch, the traditional stretching, and something that's mobile or mobile movable in exercises. Static stretching is.
Research has shown that it honestly is not the best for you because you're basically taking, if you take a, take a raw piece of meat and try to cut it, it's a little bit tough to do. But when you heat that meat up and get some, get, get it, you know, at a much warmer state, it's able to cut. Pretty simple. That's a great kind of analogy to think about when you're talking about muscles. You got to get the muscles moving, you gotta get blood flow in them. So doing movement exercises, and there's a wide variety of them, you know, that you can, you can look up online movement exercises or mobility exercises. Those are great opportunities to be able to do things, to kind of get things going in place.
[00:17:50] Speaker A: I couldn't agree more. And if you think about it at home, it's things we're not like doing the old school hamstring stretch. Hold it for 30 to 60 seconds anymore, folks. What we're doing is we're, we're walking, we're doing some high knee marches, we're doing some things that are getting all of our joints moving. And it's so important because one Day we're going to be trying to get on and off the floor and going to realize that, hey, if we didn't do our mobility training, we're not able to actually do that. So it's really important for us, especially now, and it's important as when we're younger, to keep that. I want to switch the talk a little bit to the mental health side, if that's okay with you, Brian, because I know this is a really big area of your expertise. Can you talk a little bit about the mental health aspect of overtraining, burnout, getting back into the gym, if you will?
[00:18:36] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:18:37] Speaker B: The biggest thing is discouragement. You know, you go in and you haven't done something for a little while, you go back in the gym, you go back in and you start working out and you get sore, you get really sore and it doesn't feel good. So what do you do? Oh, I got to take some time off. And it kind of decreases that thought process that, hey, I want to do this because most people don't like soar, most people don't like discomfort.
And if that's the case, you got to start slow and with, with the mental health part. We talked about getting in a group that you can do things together. People that are trying to accomplish the same things you are, you're more apt to have that communal that, that, that communal group to be able to do things and stick with it when things aren't going great than it is just to venture out on your own. Get your husband, get your wife to join your boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever it might be. Get groups together at work, you know, at lunchtime, go out and walk, you know, if you've got a little bit of time just to get together and do things, because that's from a mental standpoint, it's going to help motivate you to continue to do. Another thing you can do is journal. Put a journal down and write in it. Just simple. Hey, felt great today, had a two mile walk. It was awesome.
Those are, those are two ways. The other one is using some kind of modality to kind of get your mental health in. I wear a ring, an aura ring. There's a whoop, there's Apple watches. There's a plethora now of technologies out there. But it kind of keeps me motivated and keeps me in line and allows me to feel good about my accomplishments that I'm doing personally to kind of keep me going along, which then plays into the mental health part and makes me more encouraged.
[00:20:18] Speaker A: I'm over here giggling A little bit, because I have a Hume scale, and I use it because I'm very focused on hydration.
Hydration is a big area. Where I live in the South. I'm a woman of a certain age. It's hard to stay hydrated. And so it tells us and it counts your steps and it has our goal. And if I'm not there and it's 8:00 at night, I go, I've got 2,000 steps to get back in. Come on, babe, we got to do this. And if it's raining outside, I'm walking around my house. So you're absolutely right. When we have something like that to kind of kick us in the butt and remind us where we need to go, it's a goal, it's something to strive for, and it's something to feel good about once you get there.
So I really like that you brought that up. It was really key. So I just want to kind of highlight a couple of things that we've talked about with Brian, because it's really important. Get community, get an accountability buddy. Do exercise with people. And if you are coming back from an injury or from an illness or you haven't been in the gym for a while, make sure you start slow. We can't start where we left off. That's what sets us up for disappointment, discouragement. Start slow. It's okay. It's not a failure. It just means that you're getting back in the saddle. And you'll be really happy to know that when you start slow, you are set for inevitable success. Thank you so much for your expertise today, Brian. How can people reach out to you if they'd like to learn more?
[00:21:35] Speaker B: Hey, they can. They can go to our website, Iron Faith Nutrition.com they can get me on LinkedIn or any social media. It's at coachfetts on most all the social medias. And then they can always shoot us an
[email protected] and I can reach out to them and kind of help out.
[00:21:56] Speaker A: That sounds great. And we have just about 10 more seconds. Give me the one thing you wish that people would know when they're getting back in the saddle.
[00:22:05] Speaker B: It's okay to start slow. You're not going to accomplish your goal in the first session. It takes time. And if you stick with it and make it a lifestyle choice as opposed to just a fad, you're going to be in good situation.
[00:22:19] Speaker A: Fantastic. Thank you for your expertise today, sir.
[00:22:22] Speaker B: Absolutely. Thank you.
[00:22:25] Speaker A: And we were good. We were. We are due for a brief break. We will be back after these brief messages. See you.
Welcome back to Vital Signs. If you're just tuning in, you're going to want to go to NowMedia TV, click on Vital Signs and catch the first half of today's show because it has been epic. But now we are going to shift gears and today we are spotlighting a mission close to the heart of Texas. Houston is home to one of the largest veteran populations in the country. And more of our heroes are fighting invisible wounds, ptsd, tbi, chronic pain, long after their service. Joining me today is Colonel retired Michael Burroughs, a 36 year army veteran and advocate for veteran wellness. Victory for Veterans is his initiative to bring innovative integrative therapies like hyperbaric oxygen treatment to veterans and first responders free of charge. He's on a mission to heal the mind, body, spirit and reduce the suicide rate amongst our nation's heroes. Welcome to the show, Colonel.
[00:24:01] Speaker C: Hey, thanks for having me. And it's just great to be back.
[00:24:05] Speaker A: You know, you're doing, you're doing amazing work and I want to just, I want you just to kind of start with Victory for Veterans. What is it? What drove you to champion in a great of healing practice for veterans and first responders?
[00:24:22] Speaker C: Well, man, that's a long story, so I'm going to keep it really, really short. So when we first started Victory for veterans back in 2017, we really just wanted to raise money, you know, as a foundation and give to other nonprofit organizations to help reduce veteran suicides.
We went around the country, we did a bunch of fundraising and nothing was working. And at the time, I was the chairman of the board. So we shifted gears and we said, hey, you know what, we've got to do something. We've got to do something that's real and that's going to make an impact on veterans. Initially it was just veterans. Now it's first responders because the suicide rate for both is so high. And a lot of our first responders have served in the military on the front lines during the 20 years of war, you know, between OIF and OEF. So, yeah, we just, we just said we got to do something different. And so as the chairman, I worked with the former CEO and the founder, Steve Durgin. And we just said, hey, what can we do? And hyperbaric oxygen just kept coming to the top. And, you know, we sat down and we said, hey, you know, let's build out a facility, you know. And after we started putting the numbers together, we're thinking oh my God. Quarter, quarter million dollars. Right. So we came up with a whole new concept which I'll share with you today on how we're doing it, which makes it a lot more easy for us to get out there and help our veterans right away.
[00:25:57] Speaker A: So you talk about hyperbaric oxygen for the audience. What is it? How does it help with some of these invisible injuries, if you will. And how are you guys working that into your current model?
[00:26:14] Speaker C: Well, hyperbaric oxygen therapy is just, you know, it's a chamber that people can get in.
You know, our chambers are all steel with glass openings. We don't want anybody to get hype, you know, get claustrophobic or anything like that. And it's got two way communication. And what we're doing, you know, we put a mask over their face and we're pumping, we're. We're converting ambient air into oxygen into pure oxygen. And we're pumping it in about 98% oxygen into the body, which allows it to go through the entire system. It allows it to pass the brain barrier, which helps with traumatic brain injury, it just helps people focus.
It helps people with all different types of symptoms. You know, with PTS or ptsd, however you want to name it these days, the traumatic brain injury, it just helps clear the fog. And we can either do 60 or 90 minute sessions.
I've done four or five myself. And I can tell you it's the best night sleep I've ever gotten. And so veterans that are struggling with sleep, it really, really helps. I've got a couple stories to share, you know, about people that we've helped. But yeah, I mean, it's been around for a long time. And we just think it's a good holistic way to help veterans get down off the ledge and start getting their life back.
[00:27:44] Speaker A: You know, it really has been around for a while. It was around for a long time in more of the healing and wound care setting initially than what we're seeing the use cases today. I'm going to ask you, why are you prioritizing expansion in places like Houston, San Antonio? What makes Texas such a critical state for this care?
[00:28:05] Speaker C: Well, I mean, you mentioned it at the very beginning of the onset, you know, when we started this discussion today. And you know, Houston is, does have the second highest population next to San Diego in veterans. Right. And we've got a lot of first responders and.
Well, first of all, I live here, right. And we were very, very fortunate to run into our first doctor, you know, his name is Dr. Jeffrey Prusky. He's a chiropractic doctor up in Huntsville. And we presented the scope of what we wanted to do, and he said, oh, my God, I love veterans. We've been open with him now for two years. And I mean, he has dedicated people that are serving veterans, you know, six and a half days a week, you know, all day long doing these dives, monitoring, checking for the outcomes.
It's amazing. And, you know, we've incorporated a couple other things. We're doing some red light therapy along with the hbot, you know, which really helps, you know, with anxiety.
And it's just, it's amazing. And so it's just, it's grown from there. So we're down in Austin now. We got Dr. Simon Forrester down there that runs a chiropractic office for the last 30 years. He's been up and running since November. And then all of a sudden it's just kind of taken off. I'm getting calls from everybody, hey, we want to partner with you. We want to do this here. We want to do that there. From Denver to San Diego to a multitude of cities here in the state of Texas. So we're really excited. We're super excited.
[00:29:43] Speaker A: It's really exciting that this is catching on. And it's tremendous, the work that you're doing. What's the biggest challenge in bringing this care to more cities? Is it the funding? Is it awareness? Is there something else that's slowing that progress?
[00:29:58] Speaker C: Well, I think the, I think we're picking up on the awareness. You know, don't get me wrong there. We've got a lot of events, we're really talking to people, we're out there advertising all the time, and we've got plenty of doctors that want to partner with us. It comes down to the cost of the hbot. They're, they're very expensive. You know, we want to use some, some of the top of the line units, you know, that, that really look good, that last a long time, that make that, that make people feel comfortable and, yeah, they're expensive and, you know, so that's our biggest challenge. We've got a big demand, but now we got to fill the supply.
[00:30:38] Speaker A: Absolutely. So I know you have a few upcoming fundraisers. How can our viewers, especially here in Texas, help bring this care to more veterans?
[00:30:48] Speaker C: Well, absolutely. So coming up this next Saturday on April 5th, we've got the north. We have the Victory for Veterans north area Houston charity ride, which includes motorcycle riders, any type of motorcycle rider, motorcycle groups, you know, motorcycle members. It doesn't Make a difference what kind of bike they ride.
We, this is our fourth year. It's been a great fundraiser. We do this in other locations around the country as well. But you know, it's going to be right here in the Conroe area. Starting out at the Hunger Crush Cafe. We got flyers out, we're doing a lot of advertising. But we included classic cars this year, right? Why not, you know, make it interesting, right? So motorcycle riders could come in and take a look at some really cool classic cars and classic car enthusiasts could come over and take a look at some really great looking bikes. Right. And you know, it's 143 miles. We're going to have a dice run, you know, so people can win some money at the end of the ride. We've got raffle gifts, we got 50, 50. We give a bunch of stuff away. We've got T shirts, you know, we got all of our merchants. But we do raise a lot of money and it really helps, you know, for one day activity. We just love to have everybody come out, come rain or shine, next Saturday or go.
[00:32:09] Speaker A: Thank you so much for your service and continuing that service through healing. If you're watching this, this is your call to action. If you know a veteran, if you are a veteran or you simply want to help bring healing to our heroes, reach out. Check out victoryforveterans.org Every voice, every donation, every connection brings us closer to saving a life once again. Colonel, if people want a ride, give us that date and how to get involved in that.
[00:32:38] Speaker C: Right? It's the 5th of April. They can go out to the Victory for Veterans website. It's under how to get Involved and it's called the BFB or the warriors for Life rides. And they can just click on there. They'll see the ride here in the Conroe area. They'll also see the ride up in Denver.
I don't think many people want to drive all the way to Denver, but that's another ride that we've got coming up in June and we'll have one in the hill country over in Bernie, Texas in the fall.
Yeah, that's all they got to do, you know, and it's, and, and it's really inexpensive. It's $30 a rider, right. So we need, we need 100 plus riders, right, really to make a difference, you know, and we can handle, we can handle as many as as they want. As many as can show up, right? Classic cars, we don't care. Hey, have fun, you know, and so it's going to be, it's just going to be a lot of fun, you know, it's going to be a blast. And if the classic car riders want to bring a whole car full of people, they can buy an extra dice sheet for five bucks, right? And you know, they can roll the dice and, and maybe they're going to, maybe they'll win some money, you know, so it's just a lot of fun. We have breakfast and coffee in the morning. We've got a stop at the, at the Cafe up in Huntsville, at the City Hall Cafe up there. We're going to end at JMB Cycles. You know, we'll have a kegger sitting up there. You know, of course we want everybody to ride and drink responsibly and some snacks and we'll be giving away prizes, you know, but it's just a great day for veterans, first responders, any kind of motorcycle enthusiast or classic car rider. Get out there, man. Let's have some fun.
[00:34:23] Speaker A: Have some fun and make a difference. Thank you so much. We are, we do have to take a brief break, but we will be right back with more from Colonel Burroughs as we explore the peer led program that's changing lives worldwide. We will be right back after these messages. Is.
[00:34:47] Speaker C: So you still there?
[00:35:03] Speaker A: Foreign welcome back to Vital Signs. Sometimes the greatest battles are fought in silence. But no one should ever feel alone in the fight for their mental health, especially our veterans and our nation's heroes. Today we're spotlighting a lifeline that's helping our vets reconnect and heal one conversation at a time. You know, I'm here with Colonel Michael Burrows, champion for Veterans Mental Health and founder of warriors for Life, which is a virtual support network offering peer led sessions to veterans, caregivers and family members anywhere in the world.
Let's dive into this. Colonel Burroughs, I really appreciate you continuing the conversation with us. Tell us a little bit about warriors for Life. What is it? Who is it for, how, how does this work and how, how did it get started?
[00:35:59] Speaker C: Well, it actually got started with me and a lady that were doing some virtual stuff on called Sponsor a Vet, right?
And unfortunately she had stage four Lyme disease and we had connected with a bunch of veterans, you know, online and they didn't want to leave, right? So I reached out to one of the veterans and I said, hey, you know, we got to keep this going. We got to come up with a different name. And they came up with warriors for Life. So I can't even take credit, you know, for coming up. The name it was A veteran, you know, that was suffering with PTSD and traumatic brain injury. That was eight years ago. And it really kind of kicked off after my father in law, who was a Marine veteran in Vietnam, died from suicide. It had a major effect on our family. And so I just started doing it every Saturday night, right? Just doing this peer support. And I had a bunch of people, a bunch of veterans showing up from all over the world, right? And all over the United States.
And it's just grown. And so now we're doing 10 sessions a week.
All of my facilitators are 100% disabled veterans who were attending my Saturday night that just wanted to give back. And they've been volunteering their time for the last three or four years, just doing this out of the kindness of their heart. So we're just reaching more and more and more people.
And it's free, you know, and you can do it from the comfort of your home, which is so important. You can do it on your iPhone, you can do it on your Android, you can do it on your laptop, you can be on your PC. You know, you can have your camera off, your camera on. It doesn't make a difference. We don't record any of the sessions. So everything is confidential. There's just no stigma, there's no judgment. It's just veterans talking to veterans and first responders talking to first responders. And we invite the caregivers, we want the family members to come in so they know what's going on and what are the topics that we're discussing. So, yeah, it's, it's. We've saved lives. We know we are. And we're going to continue to do this until they fold my flag.
[00:38:08] Speaker A: You know, many veterans suffer in silence. A lot of times there's feelings of isolation. Maybe they don't understand how to communicate effectively with people around them. Talk about how peer support breaks that cycle and speak to maybe the veterans or the family members of veterans who want this support but don't know how to reach out.
[00:38:37] Speaker C: Well, I mean, first of all, it makes them feel comfortable that they're talking to other veterans, right when they leave active duty or they get back from deployment. You know, you miss that camaraderie, right? So there's an immediate connection there right away.
And again, a lot of veterans and first responders, when they come in, they just want to listen. They want to feel comfortable. They want to build that trust, they want to build that comfort. They want to hear other people talk. And as they hear other people open up and as they hear other people talk, talk about things that they've done that help them, things that they've done that haven't helped, they start building that confidence and that trust, and then they start opening up themselves. And once they start opening up, it's like lifting 100 pound bag of rocks off your shoulder, right? Being able to open up, be able to tell your story. What have you done? Where are you at in your healing process?
It's amazing. It's just really amazing. I have seen people come in totally silent for the first two or three times, and two or three years later, they're like, hey, can I be one of your facilitators? Can I help other people?
To me, that is monumental. Okay? And it's holistic and it works.
And you develop friendships. I have developed friendships over the last eight years that will last a lifetime. And it's amazing.
It's just amazing.
[00:40:13] Speaker A: It's really powerful. And there's a, there's a huge element of healing when you have a community who is going through it, has been through it, when you realize that you're not alone, we don't have to suffer alone. So talk to me a little bit. For people watching, if they're a veteran or if they're, if someone they know or care about is going through this, how, how can they share this resource with, with the veterans in their lives?
[00:40:41] Speaker C: Well, we've made it really easy. Okay? Our, our website, Victor for Veterans.org is very interactive. If they go to that website and they go to the warriors for Life drop, all they have to do is click on Meet the Team and they can, they can see every night of the week. Okay. Or Monday or Friday morning, everything that we have going on and the times and who the facilitator is. And it's got a bio on each one of the facilitators. So they, they know a little bit about them. They go at that time and they just click on the zoom link. Boom. They're automatically in. That's how easy we made this. Right? We do advertise on Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter. You know, we're constantly putting the word out on nextdoor.com.
yeah. I mean, it's just. And then invite a friend. Just invite a friend. Have them die. Have them click on. They can keep their camera off. They don't have to talk, just listen in. And once they feel comfortable, if they want to come back, that's fine. And if they feel comfortable on a specific night or they like a specific facilitator, all of Our facilitators have specific people that are coming back to them time after time. We're doing all kinds of neat stuff. You know, on Monday nights we have a Reiki master, right, who is certified in emotion and body code and can do amazing things. It's just, it's just really great.
[00:42:05] Speaker A: And so if people would like to reach out and support this program so that it can help you to grow and reach more veterans in crisis. How, how can they, how can they support.
[00:42:18] Speaker C: That's a great question. We have two really cool things coming up here in May, which is pretty awesome. On May 17, right up in New Waverly, Texas, right at the Diamond G Ranch, we have Hero the Heroes and High Rollers Casino and Dinner night. We're going to have like three hours of casino where people can earn a bunch of raffle tickets and then we're going to have a ribeye dinner. We've got live music, we've got a guest speaker, and guess what? We got a live auction. You can't, you can't live in Texas and not have a live auction. We've got some really cool guns that we're going to be auctioning off. It's just a really big event to raise money and awareness of our mission. And we're partnering with the Harks Veterans Museum up in Huntsville, which has been around for a long time. They also support and help veterans. So we're working together right in Walker County, Montgomery County, Madison county, all the surrounding counties to help our veterans. And then we've got a flower on every grave now. A flower on every grave on May 26. We cover a bunch of the national cemeteries here in Texas. Houston National Cemetery. Me and my wife host that along with my 90 year old mother. Fort Dallas, Fort Worth National Cemetery. We've got, that's brand new this year. We got Fort Bliss National Cemetery, we got Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. We've got Central Texas Veterans State Cemetery where my father in law is buried.
And then we've got a bunch around the country. So that all happens on the 26th. And just keep in mind that we do need a lot of roses. So a rose cost a dollar.50 cents of that dollar comes back to us to support our mission so we can continue to grow. You know, last year we raised over $40,000, you know, at 12 different cemeteries and we had hundreds of volunteers. It's great for the family. It's great to go out there and pay respect to your loved one if they're buried at that particular cemetery. We pay respect to the following that, made the ultimate sacrifice, we just take it one step further. We also pay tribute to those who sacrificed and fought in our wars. Okay. And they're buried there now because they made a sacrifice for us as Americans. But it's a great way to celebrate Memorial Day. We do it early in the morning at 8:00. Everybody's done by 10:30, and they can go on to their other activities. But it is on Memorial Day.
[00:44:50] Speaker A: That's fantastic. This isn't really about one veteran. It's about a movement that started right here in Houston, Texas, and is making waves across the country.
Thank you so much for your dedication to veterans, for giving them a place to be seen, heard, supported. I want to speak to the audience. If you're a veteran, a loved one, or simply someone who wants to make a difference, definitely reach out to Michael. VictoryForVeterans.org, what are some of the. How can they get involved if they want to do a rose on every grave?
[00:45:21] Speaker C: Again, we made it very interactive. If they go out to our website, you go to a flower on every grave. They can become a sponsor if they're a business, right. Or if they're a company. We have five levels of sponsorship, from $100 up to 5,000. And we have a couple really great sponsors here in the Houston. We have Amrisk, okay. A big insurance company. That's one of our big sponsors. They're just awesome. And we have a number of other companies that have sponsored.
They can do it as an individual. They can do it to recognize their loved one. You know, they can put their loved one's name in there, and then if they look in the left hand corner, they can hit. I want to volunteer, right? So I'm going to donate a bunch of roses, but, man, I want to come out, I want to bring my family, and I want to place a rose at the foot of the grave, and I want to thank that veteran for his service. And I'm telling you, the kids, the children just love it. We have. We get so many photographs of children placing the rose at the foot of the grave. You know, there at Houston and all the other cemeteries.
It's awesome. You know, once you've done it, they come back year after year after year. So it's pretty easy. Just go on the website, look for a flower in every grave. All 12 cemeteries are up there. Just click on the donate now and you're off and running.
[00:46:46] Speaker A: Perfect. Thank you. So if you're a veteran, a caregiver, someone silently struggling helps. Here, make sure that you reach out for everyone watching. You have the power to save lives. Not, not necessarily with a uniform, but with your voice, with your support, with your heart. If you, if you feel called to this, please reach out and take action. That's, I think when we give back, when we take care of others, it really helps us bring light to others who need it the most and is so incredibly fulfilling for each and every one of us. Thank you so much, Colonel Burroughs, for being here and for sharing that message.
[00:47:22] Speaker C: Jen, thank you. And thanks to Vital Signs. You guys are awesome.
[00:47:26] Speaker A: And you. Yes, you. Unfortunately, all good things do come to an end, but you have an amazing action step. Reach out, share with those you love, who are first responders, who are heroes, who are veterans and be a part of the movement that makes our communities and our world greater. We will be here same time, same station next week. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.
[00:47:51] Speaker C: This has been a NOW Media Network's feature presentation. All rights reserved.
