Shadowing Practice: how it feels to be fat - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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This is what it looks like to glow down.
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This is what it looks like to treat your body with disrespect for a full year.
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And now you're finally realizing, man, I have subscribed to the Chud lifestyle, which is so funny.
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I think that word also is being misused to just mean like someone who's fat
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and likes to eat fast food every day.
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I think it has a completely different meaning.
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So look it up before you use it.
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Funny enough, I just used it and whatever um
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but no i i am like really really embarrassed to be making this kind of video
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but i know that this is the most real thing i can talk about at this moment
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because it is the only thing that's been on my mind
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for the past half a year what does it mean to
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be fat we have had such a discourse in society over
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the past i don't know probably five ten years about being fat and what does it mean to love your body, appreciate your body?
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What does it mean to care for it?
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Should you go out of your way to make sure that you are in the best shape, even if it means not eating meals and not feeding yourself the proper nutrients that you need?
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Should you completely go the opposite way and not worry about what you eat?
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Because at the end of the day, you're going to be six feet under.
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Well, I think that what we've lost is the idea that it depends.
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It all depends, man.
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And what I can speak on is my experience.
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And that's what I'm going to do today.
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And I'm going to tell you what's going to happen in the next year.
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So first of all, why did I get here?
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Like, why am I sitting with extra weight on my body?
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I didn't used to look like this.
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This is what I used to look like probably, I don't know, eight, 10 years ago.
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Very, very different.
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I was very, very skinny.
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Um, actually a little bit too skinny.
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I remember I had one game in, uh, in high school.
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I was playing varsity soccer.
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I got called up as a sophomore because I was running super, super fast in pre -training.
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And they're like, this guy's going to be good to give some of the other guys a break. And
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because of this, I had my first ever experience where I was like trying to muscle the guy next to me
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while we were playing this like exhibition game that meant nothing.
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I'm trying to muscle this guy that's next to me.
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And he, he was a senior.
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He was a big guy, big stocky guy.
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And I remember as I was bumping into him, he like stopped, looked at me, grabbed me and just threw me into the net on a corner kick.
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It was the most insane physical feat that I ever experienced.
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And I was just like, what in the world is going on?
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I need to hit the weight room, classic weight room thing.
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And so throughout my teenage years and throughout my young adult years, kind of leading into college, I was very good with keeping a consistent routine going to the gym.
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And the main reason behind that was one, I wanted to be strong for soccer, but the real reason was I wanted to have a girlfriend.
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And everyone knows as you're growing up that getting a girlfriend is about looks, at least when you're younger, you believe that.
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And so you do everything you can to make sure that your body is in good shape.
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It also didn't help that throughout my childhood, I was pudgy.
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I had a little bit of extra weight on me.
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I wasn't lean.
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I didn't have a six pack at age 14.
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So I wasn't Snapchatting girls pictures of my six pack, which is crazy that this is even a thing, but that is the reality of life.
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At least that was for a lot of us that had no internet guidelines or understanding.
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But anyways, going back to like being big, right? um my reasoning for losing a bunch of weight
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and getting into shape was always dependent on other people
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and how other people would view me and how I would come across to other people and
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I was so so lucky enough that about a year ago I fell in love with somebody
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actually a year
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and a half ago a little bit going on two years fell in love with someone
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and they accepted me for who I was
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and this pressure of keeping up a certain kind of body
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image keeping up a certain kind of weight making sure
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that I was in good shape I mean I'm just going to be completely honest it completely went away
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because I had this I had this baked into my mind
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that like I needed to be skinny fit and you know
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and muscular in order to attract anybody and this person proved that
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that wasn't what they liked about me they liked my brain
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they liked how I made them laugh they liked the fact
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that I acted in certain ways and that I was my own man and I just let myself go
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And I let myself go.
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Big thing for me was when I realized that I had this consistent love from somebody else, I kind of felt like I didn't really need to keep up with myself that much.
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I used to go to the gym at least, you know, three, four times a week.
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And then, you know, I would go with my roommate.
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We had this really, really good routine.
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And then I just started going like, well, you know, I'm going to work instead.
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When I wasn't really working, I was probably calling my girlfriend and talking to her.
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And also, this level of indulgence kind of became an issue because, you know, when you are in a relationship with somebody,
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oftentimes, you guys want to go out.
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You guys want to go on dates.
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You guys want to experience things together.
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and in my life like a big thing has been the fact
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that like I didn't really get to eat out a lot
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when I was younger it was always a special thing
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and I mean the dopamine that hits my brain
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when somebody prepares me food
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and I get to eat it is immense it's immense for me
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and for a lot of you know us it kind of is
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that as well I can imagine especially now when it's so easy it's so easy to get.
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And so obviously, you know, I want to take my girlfriend out on dates.
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I want to go and do and experience things and having this kind of framework that like, this is special because going out to eat is a special thing.
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I would, I wanted to try everything.
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I wanted to order an appetizer, a main course and a dessert.
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I wanted to do that and go to two different restaurants in one day.
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If I had the funds, why not?
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You know, why not do it?
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And there comes a certain point where you start to slowly over time make these little by little by little changes
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that then lead to a snowball in your life.
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And you don't even realize it.
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This is kind of the thing.
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People talk about how you can ruin your physique in a matter of months.
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I mean, yeah, it's true.
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But again, it's a matter of months.
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And if you aren't being perceptive about this, if you are not being like, wait a minute I've been eating out like every single day this week
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or you know I am eating out
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but I'm not even taking care of my body I'm not
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even like going on walks I stopped walking I used to
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walk all the time I used to go on at least
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one walk a day I wasn't hitting 10 ,000 steps
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but I was I was keeping up the pace you know I was mushing up the pace I stopped doing
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that I just stopped I you know I used to go
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even on walks talking to my girlfriend in my headphones
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and I just decided okay I'm you know laying in bed is more comfortable watching a movie is more comfortable
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and again over time the idea of doing these things for myself just kind of got swept under the rug
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and now I'm sitting at 235 pounds 6 '2 no I'm
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kidding 5 '9 let's let's you know with height boosters 511 you see
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that you know how people like tiptoe max like they gotta
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dude what is this world coming to it's it's amazing um
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no i i i really am like not ashamed of it
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but i i am realizing what the problem is the problem in my life has been the fact
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that i never did it for myself.
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I never lost weight because I wanted to do it.
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And I always thought about it in that way of losing weight.
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I need to lose weight when in reality, my lifestyle is trash.
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My sleep schedule is trash.
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My understanding of like what matters to me, eating healthy, whole foods, cooking for myself is not something that I prioritize.
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And this is an example.
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This is the receipt of that.
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And I kind of want to also touch on this factor
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that I don't think that you need to look a certain way in order to be truly,
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truly, truly comfortable with yourself, right?
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But does that mean you're healthy?
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Because right now, I'm not healthy.
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Am I comfortable with myself?
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No. I'm finally at that point where I'm like, no, but I've met people where they are,
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they're not healthy, but they're comfortable with themselves.
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Right.
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And I think that at the end of the day, it's your decision.
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I don't think that we should force anybody to get into shape because it doesn't, it doesn't work when you force people and you tell people, you know, you're fat and you just completely,
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you know, dog on them.
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There's honestly two types of people and I think the latter use that as motivation not to actually get into shape,
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but to keep enabling bad habits because you're making them feel bad.
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I honestly think that the best kind of change and the one
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that will last the longest is something intrinsically that makes you go, wait a minute, dude, I am like 25.
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I still can get into good shape if I want to.
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I need to focus on something.
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I need to push and I need to genuinely give this a good shot.
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I need to learn about cooking.
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I need to learn how like take care of my body
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because i get one i get one in this lifetime
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and instead of taking care of it and enriching it
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and giving it all that it needs i am just depriving it of everything right
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so it's this weird like six seven balance no
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that was trash uh it's this weird balance
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that you as an adult have to learn
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and for me like the the stuff that's really been icking me recently has been the fact
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that like old t -shirts I used to wear
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and I used to look good in I have the droopy
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the droopy boobs I have the gut that's hanging out
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and the reason I'm not wearing a shirt in today's video is
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because I want to push against this notion
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that like oh you know my body is disgusting I I hate I used to hate taking off my shirt
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when I would go to the beach I used to think that I was just so disgusting and, and, and lard full.
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And now I'm, I, you know, I'm realizing I need to, I need to champion this.
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If I want to change this, I have to like be okay with the fact that this is me now.
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This is me now, man.
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Yeah.
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I am this size.
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Yeah.
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I, you know, I have a gut.
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I have like, you know, uh, we, we call this in Polish a ponka, but it's basically like i have like a tire you know
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and so what and so what what what am i going to do to change
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that you know what are you going to do to change
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that if you are looking in the mirror right now
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and you're uncomfortable with yourself and with your body right is is it really your body
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or is it how you feel is it your your lifestyle
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because yes you know my body i i it looks a certain way
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that I don't necessarily like it doesn't fit a certain fitness
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standard that's probably created by my feed in my mind of what a healthy person looks like
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but are my actions healthy you know am I sleeping enough
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am I actually making it a priority to go to the gym not just telling myself
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that I'm gonna do it and going twice in a week
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and then being like oh bro yo I got plans bro I'm gonna to make some plans with the boys, and we're going to game.
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Like, that's not prioritizing it.
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Prioritizing it means it's a sacrifice, okay?
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And you have to carve the time out, like on a rock, like a piece of stone.
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I'm looking for a rock, and I don't have one.
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On a piece of stone, you have to carve it out and be like, this is my time where I'm going to the gym, because this matters to me, because this is important.
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It's difficult.
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It's not easy.
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For a year, I went through my life not worrying about it.
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For a year, I was just like, whatever.
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I don't care.
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Because I was so, I didn't care.
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I honestly didn't care.
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I didn't care that I was getting bigger.
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I knew it was happening.
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I knew that it was inching.
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But I was like, oh, whatever.
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I'll get in shape eventually.
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But the thing about it is, if you don't catch yourself now, it will continue to snowball into the future.
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And this is like a general life thing that I've learned as well, man.
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The receipts of your life are all of the actions that you took on the micro level, on the day -to -day.
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That is what you see in the end result, hand over fist.
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Yes, people get lucky.
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And yes, you know, what is it called?
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That one drug that, sorry, drug.
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No, the GLP, right?
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People take GLP, okay, and then become, you know, they have the eyes like the Ozempic eyes.
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It happens, but it still doesn't mean that they're healthy.
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Okay.
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Frankly put it, it does not mean that they're healthy.
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So be careful about that, dude.
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There is no quick, rich scheme to building long lasting health.
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And in a day and age, this is kind of where it's all coming to Zerky show.
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It's like in a day and age where bro, we, we get robbed of everything.
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We get robbed of everything.
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We get robbed of our money, get robbed of our time we get robbed of our attention
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robbed of finding a partner robbed of like everything is hijacked health is one thing
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that at least you have some kind of control over at
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least yes you know you have to you have to be
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so so persistent about like looking into what you're eating what is in
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that food you know i like to eat out
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but some of the ingredients that is
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that are used in the cooking of eating out dude they're
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not good it's like low -key poison i'm just saying right it's not good for your body so
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Figuring out what
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that looks like for you in my opinion at least in
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this phase of my life is like really really important
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And in the meantime you got to be comfortable with where you're at
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You know the one consistent thing in life
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that we have is change We know that things are going to change
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and if you are doing the same actions over and over
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and over again Well things probably will not change if it's the same Trajectory you're gonna go down that same path,
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and so for me the change looks like in my day -to -day
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making the sacrifice of going to sleep a little bit early.
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That's really the worst habit here.
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That impedes on everything else.
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And it's going to be a sacrifice.
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It's going to mean that I'm going to, you know, if somebody has plans at a later time, I can't do it.
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I'm sorry.
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I can't because I make the sacrifice and it's easier said than done.
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Um, I am starting off on this journey.
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I'm super excited.
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Um, and I don't know what it's going to look like,
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but But I know that there's somebody out there that is thinking about putting some time into the gym,
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starting to go running again, all of these things.
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And I just want you to know that it's worth it.
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It's worth your health.
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It really is i started to notice as well in in my like body
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and in my mind um
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when i stopped working out it became very very easy for me to become overwhelmed with emotions
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and overwhelmed with anger this became like hand hand over fist very very um very very persistent in my life
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because i used to have a good outlet.
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I used to be able to, you know, throw 45 on the, on the, on the bar and go to town.
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But when I stopped doing that and I stopped making that time, that anger had nowhere to go.
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That, that, that ability to just push something, move some kind of weight and forget
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was just gone I had nothing to replace it and
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so well I say I had nothing to replace it
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but I did actually have something to replace it the bad habits are to replace it so like my binge eating
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my um my use of like adult material all of these things became
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so much more potent because I didn't have something healthy
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that I was able to put my time into
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and I think part of it too is because in the past I've tried to lose, lose weight.
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Right.
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And I have done it.
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But when I was doing that, the reason which like I was going after those things and I was interested in doing those things,
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it was never self -serving.
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It was always, I need to stay in shape because of soccer.
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And it wasn't that I really wanted to play soccer.
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It was just like, I needed to do it because this is like, kind of like my job or I need to stay in shape
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so that I can go to the pool
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and be able to take my shirt off so my crush sees me
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and it's awesome
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but it was never like I want to just be healthy I want to partake in certain activities
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because they're good for me they're good for me mentally
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just wasn't that case there's
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so much to talk about on this topic I see I
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feel like I'm kind of sometimes making a disservice by just focusing on one thing here
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but these are just my unfiltered thoughts, um, as every episode really is.
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But I think this is our sign to get in shape.
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So I'm going to take it as such.
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Don't feel too bad for yourself.
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Okay.
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You are going to glow down in life.
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You will have a period where you're going to not look good, not look your best.
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I'm at it right now, but I'm still going to smile.
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I'm still going to go through each day and I'm just going to focus on the next 30 days.
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Can I stay consistent?
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Can I eat better?
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Can I make better decisions if i can do
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that i know it's gonna snowball later on
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and i will be chilling yeah yeah i just wanna rolly
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rolly uh yeah dude we're gonna be we're gonna be chilling
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zerkishow i miss you so much i love you so much uh
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if you're trying something new just know
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that i believe in you i hope you've enjoyed this unfiltered access into uh my body
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which is awesome but hey it's my body my choice i'm making it
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so here you go uh no no uh i appreciate every
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single one of you as always some really really cool stuff
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is coming up uh shortly i had to take a little bit of a break i'm always on a break
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but now i'm back i'm back so uh as always
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if you're trying something new just know that i believe in you and i'm sending you all lots of love and
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peace
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 303 sentences and 3550 words to shadow. The speech runs for 19:35. The speaker talks fast, about 181 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| rob verb | /ɹɑb/ | To steal from, especially using force or violence. |
| consistent adjective | /kənˈsɪs.tənt/ | Of a regularly occurring, dependable nature. |
| soccer noun | /ˈsɑk.ɚ/ | Association football. |
| sacrifice noun | /ˈsæk.ɹɪ.faɪs/ | Originally, the killing (and often burning) of a human being or an animal as an offering to a deity; later, also the offering of an object to a deity. |
| trash noun | /tɹæʃ/ | Useless physical things to be discarded; rubbish; refuse. |
| lifestyle noun | /ˈlaɪfˌstaɪl/ | A style of living that reflects the attitudes and values of a person or group. |
| habit noun | /ˈhæb.ɪt/ | An action performed on a regular basis. |
| skinny adjective | /ˈskɪni/ | Thin, generally in a negative sense (as opposed to slim, which is thin in a positive sense). |
| muscle noun | /ˈmʌs.əl/ | A contractile form of tissue which animals use to effect movement. |
| anger noun | /ˈæŋɡə/ | A strong and unpleasant feeling of displeasure, hostility, or antagonism, usually combined with an urge to yell, curse, damage or destroy things, or harm… |
| pace noun | /peɪs/ | A step taken with the foot. |
| routine noun | /ɹuˈtin/ | A course of action to be followed regularly; a standard procedure. |
| disgusting adjective | /dɪsˈɡʌstɪŋ/ | Causing disgust; repulsive; distasteful. |
| depend verb | /dɪˈpɛnd/ | To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition |
| chill verb | /tʃɪl/ | To lower the temperature of something; to cool. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| keep up verb | To maintain; to preserve; to prevent from deteriorating or falling. |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
| hand over verb | To relinquish control or possession of something to someone. |
| call up verb | To retrieve from personal or computer memory. |
| come across verb | To change sides; to cross over to work for the opposition. |
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. |
| go away verb | To depart or leave a place. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to look · used to go · used to wear |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have subscribed · we've lost · has been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | being misused · is hijacked |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | lifestyle, which is · pack, which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 109 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: trash /tɹæʃ/, shortly /ˈʃɔɹtli/, exhibition /ɛksɪˈbɪʃən/, motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/, emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, priority /pɹaɪˈɒɹɪti/, exhibition /ɛksɪˈbɪʃən/, motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/, uncomfortable /ʌnˈkʌm.fɚ.tə.bl̩/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like rob, consistent, soccer.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.