Bruce Schutter: A Guide to a Healthier Mind through Diet and Exercise

What happens when you combine the raw, honest experiences of a mental health warrior with actionable strategies for wellness? Meet Bruce Shutter, our guest who’s been through the trenches of bipolar disorder, alcoholism, anxiety, and PTSD, and lived to tell the tale. Bruce doesn’t just share his story—he brings a powerful message about the intricate connection between diet and mental health, making us re-evaluate the role of sugar and refined carbohydrates in our lives.

Discover Bruce’s compelling transition from high school struggles and self-medication with alcohol to facing intense stress as an EMT, which led him to legal troubles and psychiatric holds. In this episode, we unravel the undeniable link between nutrition, physical activity, and experiential living as keystones for mental wellness. Bruce’s insights, backed by his certifications in personal training, health coaching, and nutrition, reveal how simple lifestyle changes can be revolutionary. From reading food labels to maintaining a diet low in processed foods and hidden sugars, Bruce offers practical advice that anyone can follow.

But that's not all—Bruce introduces his Mental Health Warrior Program, a holistic approach designed to empower individuals on their own paths to recovery and resilience. With tools like a free e-book and a motivational Mental Health Warrior Challenge Coin, Bruce’s program is rooted in actionable steps and personalized strategies. He shares how he moved from despair to a life full of enjoyment and challenges listeners to believe in their potential for growth and recovery. Whether you're searching for hope, practical tools, or just a story of triumph, this episode is packed with insights that promise to uplift and inspire.

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Transcript

Florence: 0:02

Hello everybody, welcome to a podcast episode. I am interviewing today Bruce Shutter, who reached out to me to say, hey, my story, my firsthand experience with this topic of the role that sugar can play in our mental health challenges, our physical challenges, how it can block recovery firsthand experience, he said. So I'll tell you a little bit about him. He struggled with bipolar disorder, alcoholism and anxiety for decades and at one point reached a really low point and thought about contemplated ending his life. But instead of that he actually thought, okay, there's got to be a solution. I'm going to find it. And where he wound up is really understanding mental health and how to work. A solution I'm going to find it.

Florence: 0:44

And where he wound up is really understanding mental health and how to work with it and the role that diet plays in it and how they work together. And so he's got this whole kind of process. Now he calls himself a mental health warrior and he has a mental health warrior program where he can walk, he teaches people what he learned that saved his life and saves the lives of others. But he's particularly he reached out because he's like quite particularly tuned into the role that food and processed refines, carbohydrates and sugar itself can be both a source of you know a thing that dysregulates our nervous system and also blocks recovery. So welcome Bruce.

Bruce: 1:26

Thank you, thanks, and I appreciate this. So I don't know if you want me to give you a quick background on that program I created. Would that?

Florence: 1:37

be okay, sure, sure, we could start there, or you could fill in your story a little bit more too. But yeah, where do you want to start? You go where you're feel called.

Bruce: 1:46

I say my story, I say the program. It's all intertwined.

Florence: 1:49

Great, take it away.

Bruce: 1:50

And you led off with my challenges. I have even other ones. Those are like the three main ones. I include PTSD.

Bruce: 1:58

From time when I was an EMT back in high school and college things I saw that took me again on that whole path and, as you mentioned, what happened was when I started out in high school and I'm trying things like the EMT going through high school and I knew something was off and I did not have the information. We didn't even talk about things like mental health challenges at that time and so of course I had no idea what was going on. My emotions would swing to the ends of the spectrum. Well now you would say, oh, that sounds like bipolar, because we see that everywhere and we hear about that information, totally unfamiliar with it. Anxiety disorders they were just classified as two or three different things. They started early again, but not to the level or classification I should say you know. Social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder it kind of progressed and doctors put a new name on it, but it was still fear and worry about everything and I thought that was just me and it is. But I felt like I was powerless and so what happened was I really tried to hide from my emotions. I constantly. I jumped into the deep end of the pool, if you will, of life quickly by becoming an EMT and all the normal things as you're going through college and those stressors as you learn to study different subjects, pick things for your course of your life. But I kept trying to hide and that's all I knew. It's kind of what I learned from even some of the people, the movie society At that time.

Bruce: 3:28

There was no internet, we didn't have the cell phones. I'm dating myself a little bit, but the point was the information wasn't there and the information that people had was you tough it out, you just don't talk about your emotions. And it seemed wrong because that's where I was always in an emotional state, that's where I was constantly struggling. But the advice was we try to tamp this down. And so I started again self-medicating. That was where the drinking started and the things I saw were literally life and death as an EMT and had people not to jump off on such a tough subject, but people dying in my hands and you're 17, 18 years old. And at one point we had an accident with people at a neighboring high school so kind of our competitors and an accident that could have been us and our crew was all under 18 at that time and we were EMTs drivers, because we were really into helping people and doing this but that shook me to the core and that further reinforced that.

Bruce: 4:31

I think the idea is you just keep trying to hide from those emotions and you put yourself further in a hole without realizing it. And so what went on is, as the increase of responsibility, or as you move along in life and you're accomplishing things on the outside, inside you're crumbling and what's happening is you're going further and getting more repercussions I guess that's the best word I can think of it. And so what happened in my life is I'm going through obviously not being able to handle or drinking to excess, not being able to handle these mood swings and not even understanding them. I would get more and more trouble or go into those adventures I call them and they became more adult adventures where you're going into the workforce and now you're traveling for business additional stressors and the repercussions the things that happen on the bad side got worse and worse and, to sum it up, it started to be where then you have interactions with the law. I spent some time you know, a weekend in jail, things like that, because of disorderly and different things. Well then you keep progressing and trying to hide, and I'd like to call it. You're just reacting and so you're starting this cycle, which happens a lot with every type of addiction. You try short-term solutions, they make it worse, you try more short-term solutions, so you keep trying to avoid those emotions or avoid your problems and this culminated to where times where I was with the police and then going into a psychiatric hold for a 72-hour weekend hold. Now you have to imagine, this is somebody who's working in IT field at a really big company, like a Fortune 100 company, and I'm spending a weekend trying to get myself checked out and prove to them I can handle this and then come back to work Like, well, how was your weekend? Well, mine was a little different, but I certainly am not gonna tell you about it. So I like to bring that up because it shows you the absurdity of where addictions lead us and our behaviors.

Bruce: 6:29

But for me, and what really turned the point then, was that powerless feeling grew and grew to, while even I had successes on the outside and you know, we got married and buying a house and trying to interact with family and friends and moving around the continent. What happened was I reached a point, as you mentioned, where I just saw no out and so I tried to end it and luckily it did not happen. I mean, it didn't go through successfully, I got saved. I kind of tried to end it and placed the call at the same time. So I reached out because that was the last bit of hope I had, that maybe there was an answer.

Bruce: 7:07

And when I got that second chance, I said there has to be an answer. And I found, through a bunch of introspection and going to try and take care of my challenges, it was my mental health and myself obviously at the core of everything. And I said, oh my God, if I have this power to work on my mental health and it has the power to disrupt my life to this extent, what if I flip it and use that power to help me recover, to help me learn, to manage these things? So I set out and found that answer and I created this program and the name of the program is the Mental Health Warrior Program. The idea being the very first thing that I got so tired was people view mental health and they say, well, let's whisper about it. Let's always talk about the problems. And I was like no, we need to be out there talking to everybody. We need to make it something we can talk openly about. And so I decided the warrior idea would be a nice, strong concept to talk about mental health.

Bruce: 8:04

And then, which led me to want to talk to you and do these other interviews is I started to see this gap. I kind of looked at it like up here we have your professional help and we have medications and things, and we have the people down here, myself included, and I felt like I got thrown again into some of those solutions but I wasn't prepared and so, of course, they fell apart. I tried to work with a therapist, but if you're not interested it's very difficult. You know they're trying to help you. You're not interested in doing the things, but you know you need to be there. It's that catch-22.

Bruce: 8:38

It just went on like that and I realized there seemed to be a gap of we need some type of self-help program so that people can use their power to start to take control of their life, and maybe they need to move to that top level for tougher challenges. Maybe they need a starting place, like I did with medications at the beginning. But then maybe there's lifestyle things we can do so that I don't bring in those additional problems or I don't start using all these short-term solutions that I didn't see a long-term path on. So I wanted it to be something where we could build and kind of continue to grow our power, change our life and build a lifelong skill set. And so then this is where I decided to create this program and use all of my experiences on that and all of the different things I've been through. And so this kind of led us to where we're at now, where I have the main warrior program book and it's kind of my story.

Bruce: 9:31

It lays out the components of the warrior. There's four main components, and the neat part is that gives you some structure, and some of that structure is also I include things like values, which allows you to, once you learn to deal with your emotions, chart that course for your life. That's correct too, and along the way, combining all of that, you end up with a very strong path, and a large portion of that is then having the tools and I've written right now. So actually I have this core book and then I have eight others and I explore yeah, thank you, I explore all these different areas that we can take action in and improve our mental health through, like everyday activities or things that are right there in front of you, and again, we were just talking a little bit about that, like food, for example, and I started realizing, well, there's an untapped area, there's something we do. It has to impact our bodies. We know that physiologically it impacts them, but we don't connect the dots. Well, that would make better brain functioning, better cognitive reasoning. Maybe there's something we can do.

Bruce: 10:33

There was a lot of other topics like that on the books that the program kind of covers and gives you this full set of tools and areas you can in your life Like. The other part of the area was about this. One book I wrote is called the One Bag Life and it's about how less stuff and more experiences in my life was another turning point where I had collected so many things and you know, a bigger house and multiple cars because you think you need all those in society to be successful and again I found like that was causing a hamster wheel of stress and I was constantly putting more and more stress for more things I didn't need, which, in turn, left me no time to do the things I really enjoyed, and so a lot of these areas are where this program can help everybody out. And one of the neat things is and the reason I reached out is the whole food angle and the power of it, and what I found in my recovery from things like alcoholism and the role it played with bipolar disorder was amazing, and so I've got the first book right now.

Bruce: 11:38

In order to make it sustainable and easy for people to follow, I created this book called the Three Food Rules of the Mental Health Warrior. And the second rule is no sugar, and the first rule is low carb, and then the third rule is minimally processed foods. Now you can see how they all tie together. And again, when I saw what you were doing and other people doing things on food, I thought, well, I'll try to reach out, because I think it'd be a neat connection Not that you don't talk about the mental health, but just somebody's personal experience with how big a role that played in my recovery and then continued like maintenance, support, building that foundation.

Florence: 12:18

Amazing.

Bruce: 12:19

Sorry, doing to go on and on. I do get excited about it, and this is where it's neat. I love talking about it, so I will let you talk a little bit, sorry.

Florence: 12:27

Not at all. No very good. I actually really love as an interviewer when I can just kind of like get someone started and they just go. I'm like I love it.

Florence: 12:36

I sit back and enjoy it. Two things I wanted to say. One is that I think so many of us can identify with it. We just keep moving forward, we know something's not right and we just keep sort of trying to reach for what we think will make us happy or make things right in our lives, escalating until one day, you know we we hit bottom, we hit multiple bottoms and we hit a bottom.

Florence: 13:05

We look back and we think what happened, like I used to be so this I used to be so that, like what happened to me, right, and it was just, there was something, there was a core skill or two or something you know in that wasn't in play, that led to this problem that was growing underground, growing underground until all of a sudden, you know we're like this is a crisis. The second thing I wanted to say is just the last thing you said there is that you had realized that these three food rules for you, you know, were so essential to your recovery. Do you think you would have reached full mental health recovery without those three food rules?

Bruce: 13:47

No, I don't think. I do not think that it would be just them, just to be clear, Like they played a major role. Activity plays another role physical fitness. This other book and the less stuff, more experiences, really changed how I viewed living every day in life. So I feel like they're the three main components, and food being one of those pillars or one of those pieces of my strong foundation.

Florence: 14:13

And how did you become so confident that it needed to be a pillar? Because lots of people in mental health still to this day maybe not the people listening to this podcast, but still to this day don't think that the connection between food and mood is really all that big a deal.

Bruce: 14:29

Well, it's funny, in order to pursue some of my interests and help myself in recovery, I went and became certified as a personal trainer and so I started training with some people working with them, and it was funny because they were very interested in talking about the gym moves and the actual exercises, but they certainly didn't want to talk about or change their foods, which I thought was kind of odd because I kind of knew they were connected personally. Then I went and became a health coach and so I figured we could talk a little more broader and then I found nutrition was so impactful I actually went and got certified as a nutrition coach and then I went and got like a sports nutrition one because I've always loved the benefits of the physical activities and working out, so I had that like professional support. That said, these facts add up. And then I had my personal experiences in things like when I started my recovery and when I started taking care of my bipolar, my alcoholism, I had so many additional problems that I had caused because when I was in those mood swings and either end of the spectrum, of course, if I'm up on mania, I'm not thinking of anything that I could eat anything, I'm just going to go, go, go for days at a time when you're in depression. I'm looking out for sugar laden foods, the box of donuts, all those things. And then, of course, I go to the doctor and we move on from okay, here's how we're going to help you with the bipolar and the alcoholism or things like that. But, by the way, your blood pressure is super high. You need to be on cholesterol medications. You need to do all these different things for your physical health and I was kind of a wreck at that point.

Bruce: 16:03

And again, if people are familiar, anytime you go to like a recovery meeting and stuff, a lot of times it's the foods, the coffees, the things, that kind of the other bad habits. But we're saying, hey, I'm not doing this. So it's kind of okay, I understand the logic, but I felt like, boy, all these people are bringing in additional problems and now we're going to get sober, as an example, and now we're going to still have six more problems to deal with that we caused. So I started seeing and talking to more people and then I started making. I worked out with the doctors. I kind of cut a deal, if you will, and I said I'll make lifestyle changes and let's see how they work for six months and then see if we need these meds. I was willing to do both and that's where I was like this whole part of being a mental health warrior is.

Bruce: 16:46

It's neat, is you say? I accept that I have problems, I accept that things aren't going to be perfect and I have my challenges and in my case they're chronic. They're certainly not going to go away because I waved the warrior magic wand so I decided to try things like that and they were so successful to try things like that and they were so successful I didn't need to go on the meds and that was for the physical health things. And then I worked with therapists to actually come off the meds. And again, it's a personal thing. I'm not trying to take a stand and say one way, the other's right.

Bruce: 17:16

I feel it's like a learning process, kind of like when you go to school you start out that first level of a class and you know nothing about the subject and by the time you've done it for a couple of years or after a while being in a job, you can touch on the advanced stuff. And that's kind of how I view the warrior program. It's that get started and keep building your foundation, keep building your knowledge. So I really saw it as the personal examples, personal examples.

Bruce: 17:41

And the more and more I recommended it and talked to others, then they made changes and saw positive changes, which again I kind of as a clearinghouse for that I'm telling people about it and again more and more people approach it for like a different use, but they're still getting the mental health benefits. You know there's people that have talked about and said I like your three food rules because I'm diabetic. But I also found that being in control a little bit and having this path makes me feel just like myself, more alert, and my mental clarity is better. You know I'm not riding the waves of sugar. I'm not constantly seeking out just as quick meals that leave me not even fulfilled, you know, as far as your hunger. So I just find it amazing the food and the power of it. So that's why I've definitely made it one of the three pillars, if you will, as one of the things I like to really bring as part of the program.

Florence: 18:44

And I can imagine that many of the people that would be working with you I would say what? No sugar, what? That's impossible. Bruce, I can have a little right. So how do you navigate? The people find it impossible and incredulous to think that we would just feed our bodies whole foods. I mean it's a no brainer, but I imagine you face that. How do you? How do you help them through that? It's a no brainer, but I imagine you face that. How do you? How do you help them through that?

Bruce: 19:08

Well, so there's two things. One one, I tell them the most powerful word I found with the three food rules is substitution. And people say, ok, I'm familiar with that concept. We're going to take something and just replace it. But it sounds kind of boring. You know where's the excitement. But then I tell them there's so part of the mental health warrior program.

Bruce: 19:30

Some of the warrior tools are these things called mindset rules and a mindset rule. I have this book on them. There's 53 of them. They're simple truths that we get lost and we forget because the hectic pace of the day and when we use them we can kind of get out of trouble or we can stay out of trouble. And one of them is to remember to approach learning with a beginner's mindset.

Bruce: 19:56

So what I tell people is, when we go to talk about foods and this new way of living where you're going to have low carb and that no sugar, which go together, because a lot of times it's the same types of foods we're trying to avoid, what I tell them is be a beginner, open your mind and try some stuff, because today I can show you 20 different recipes because I love to cook. I can show you 20 different things I can make with cauliflower. And before cauliflower would have been like yeah, I know it's that little veggie over there, but what can you do with it? And it's really a big head of cauliflower. And now I'm like, well, I can make you a pizza out of that or I can make some brownies out of zucchini. And people are like, no, no way. And that's where it's so exciting and I try to show them all the things you're kind of missing or maybe just didn't see, that are right in front of you, that you can do that, are almost more exciting again than that way we used to eat.

Bruce: 20:46

And with substitution, what I like to remind them is because I'm a big fan of desserts and I love treats and all those things. And sometimes my wife says, well, you know, I think we work out so we can eat a lot, we can eat those treats and all that. And I say, well, okay, it's a balance. You know, we're going to balance it out. We like to do our hard workouts, we can go out and then eat some stuff, but I love making like the low carb, sugar free donuts and the sugar free, like a peanut butter bar and all sorts of neat, delicious treats. So I try to show people some of these and say, look, you will not be limited, if anything. You're kind of opening up this giant window of foods you can eat and or maybe didn't even think have a lot of benefits. So it's been kind of exciting and that's where I'm working on two other books to bring in.

Bruce: 21:36

What I want to show people is the mental health benefits of all the various foods and also this cooking therapy to show them the power of these recipes and how you can do this and, again, take care of your mental health from two different angles you can take care of while you're cooking. It's very calming. It's a great time to process your emotions. At the same time, you end up with treats and desserts or dinners that are also going to fuel your body correctly and then fuel your mind. So I find it really over the top exciting and I usually try to get them excited, just like if you try to get somebody to maybe start a workout or something you don't want to just talk about. Well, we're going to be doing this for the next six months and that'll be it. You know you try to get them excited by. Look at the fun you can have, when you can carry in your groceries and not even struggle with them, so when you feel strong and vibrant.

Bruce: 22:28

Yep.

Florence: 22:29

So tell us a little bit more about your warrior mindset rules. You've got 53. Would you mind sharing some of the ones that you found the most impactful in your early days of trying to turn things around?

Bruce: 22:43

Sure. So in the first book I put these 10 that kind of are some of the really powerful ones. Now I'll just tell you quickly the first one, and I call it the duh rule, because the first rule says make your mental health a priority. And then people go. Well, bruce, I'm pretty sure I got that one. I'm saying yes, but I can tell you a number of days where I've gotten to 4 o'clock because I've been so busy and I forget to take that break to process my emotions or what happened, good or bad, and that got me in trouble in the past. And then the same thing with make sure you take a little time for yourself. Now there's some other ones that are a little more impactful. So then there's a mindset rule that says forgive yourself for what you know today and what you didn't know yesterday, what you didn't know before.

Bruce: 23:27

Because what I find is, as we learn new skills, a lot of times myself included I'll say well, why didn't I do that 10 years ago? Why did I let this happen so long? Why did I struggle and make these poor choices? And again, it's really interesting because we have to actually not put down our achievements by saying, well, we should have known these earlier. It makes sense when you think about it and it gives yourself that break. Some of the other ones are things like there's some simpler ones like. One of them is micro steps. I like to remind people it's small steps and it's a bunch of small steps that'll lead to big change, and so that's kind of a neat one. Another one, then, are things like give yourself the same break you would give others, because, again, I find most people are very harsh on themselves, myself included, and yet if somebody else was stumbling or somebody else had that challenge, we'd be the first ones to say it's OK, you can get through this, it's OK to have the challenge. So, again, these are the kinds of things with the mindset rules that I like to use and remind myself of, and I find that a really powerful tool to keep you out of trouble sometimes and then also to get you out of trouble. I'll give you one more.

Bruce: 24:47

Another one I use a lot is the answers you're looking for that last longer than 24 hours are found within yourself, and that, again, is that whole part of I was on this path that outside looked great and people were saying, oh, look at all those things you have. Look at what you're doing. And yet none of them made me happy because it wasn't spending my time on the things I was enjoying, or even spending time to connect with people because I was working so much or doing so much work. And so I have to remind myself to always stay true to my course and I think that's kind of a neat motivational part. That even fits the food, because a lot of times we get put in tough situations and we say we're going to try this new way of eating and then people say well, but then again I have a family party coming up, or then again I can only go out to fast food at lunch because I only get 30 minutes.

Bruce: 25:37

And the neat part is in this food rules book is I have a bunch of tools and tricks that you can use to get through those situations.

Bruce: 25:45

Again, we want to remember to stick with what we believe in and is working and not let again external things say well, because you're in not a controlled environment, you're not in your house, I guess you can't do this.

Bruce: 25:59

I think that's a lot of times where people stumble and they fall, especially when they're trying to kick something like sugar, where it is in everything, as you as, as you know, I know I'm talking to somebody who obviously has uncovered this, but when I first started, too, I was like wow, my whole eyes were open so wide because I looked and I said sugar and bread that I've been buying, and there's sugar in the milk to this extent and, oh my god, I had no idea they had added so much sugars to things.

Bruce: 26:28

Um, and so again, some of the parts of the book and some of what I try to teach people is not just about the three food rules and the benefits, but things like reading food labels. I kind of label that as a secret skill. Once you master it, you can use that anywhere, and you can use it at a restaurant, because a lot of times the information's there and you can make some smart choices and you can just breeze through it and have a fantastic meal, whether it's a work trip or a personal trip or a family party.

Florence: 26:59

And hopefully, ideally, you don't even need to read labels. Like it's just like is it a whole food? Great, I can eat it.

Bruce: 27:05

Yeah, well, that's the third rule. The minimally processed helps you out too, because, again, I'm coming from the angle of loving to cook and finding the benefits, the therapeutic benefits of cooking, and then kind of mirroring that with these activities Because, again, we all need to eat each day and we all like to eat each day, so why not turn it for the good? And again, one of the neat things, then is I just love that we can find simpler ways to make it sustainable is the best way I can describe it. The reason for the three food rules is I felt a lot of the other approaches get a little complicated, and I understand that's for certain people. They like to track everything and, if you really like, a lot of numbers, but personally and a lot of people that I was talking to, it became so difficult for them to manage that during your regular day and your family issues and your work and commute and everything else.

Bruce: 27:59

So where I say on the low carb for food rule number one, I suggest people stay 50 grams or less and they try to shoot for that. I suggest people stay 50 grams or less and they try to shoot for that. Again, with that caveat of you know, you call it the 80-20 rule, but basically, with the caveat, as long as you're doing the majority and paying attention to it, you will get good results. You know there can be a few times that you allow yourself that treat and things like that, but again, that number is achievable. Where a lot of times, a lot of the diets or ways people try to eat, I think they become so restrictive that you almost say after a week I can't even manage this. Because when I was trying some of the low carb things at the beginning you know vegetables have the natural carbs and I was like my God, I can't even eat a piece of broccoli because it's going to blow my total and I said this is not the level I need to be at in order to keep this going.

Bruce: 28:50

So, like you said, you find those approaches and you find you kind of get that intuitive knowledge. You can kind of look at things and say, well, I look at things and I oh bakery treats. A lot of times you know that's coming with a lot of sugar and other things added in, especially if it's pre-packaged. And, like you said, there's a quick, easy choice Something that's sitting homemade or something that's sitting on that plate versus wrapped up in the wrapper that's good on the shelf for a year probably the bad choice, yeah.

Florence: 29:22

And just because we make something at home from, seemingly you know, whole ingredients, that doesn't necessarily for people who fall on the sugar addiction spectrum, those foods might not be safe either. Yeah, they just yeah. And again.

Bruce: 29:37

That's. What's so neat, though, is the ability and the availability of ingredients today and the things where you have alternatives to that processed flour and you can use a nut flour, and then the taste is actually even better, I find, than what used to be the processed flour used to cook anything. And again, that comes with all of that processing and additives, things that were added in, and I just find it to be amazing there's so much availability. It's kind of like what I was saying back before, when I was trying to figure out what problems I had and I didn't get diagnosed, and I didn't really put, I guess, a label or official diagnosis on things until I was 40. So I went through 20 years of struggle, knowing there were problems, knowing there were issues, but not knowing anything about them, and it was a turning point where I try to tell people it's a very positive turning point because it's the start of your learning, and by somebody putting a diagnosis or you saying I'm going to stop with sugar now, you can start to learn, because you have, like, a direction, you have a way to set and say set and say, okay, this is what this is about. Now, what can I do about it and I feel it's the same thing with with the foods and the sugars and things like that.

Bruce: 30:50

You know, we start out small, we start learning and making that commitment. I'm going to clean up the diet, I'm going to clean this up and I think a lot of people find like rule number two is so straightforward and what you're doing, kicking sugar, but that leads into those other two. It says, wow, well, these carbs are coming from the sugar that was added in and stuff. You know there's a little bit of natural, so that's okay. And then there's the processed foods and, oh my God, look at the number and amount of sugar or carbs. You know, I feel like those three give you a nice, easy to maintain way to eat in a very powerful way, very powerful, absolutely.

Florence: 31:28

When did you first learn about low carb? Is that when you became a personal trainer?

Bruce: 31:33

Yeah, it was probably about maybe about 10, 12 years ago. It was like a lot of people were doing the Atkins and low carb and doing all sorts of different ones. It's before they even started with things like keto and paleo and the whole 30. But there was always that approach again, with people who were into fitness, kind of eating the whole foods. So you kind of knew this made some sense.

Bruce: 32:01

And then when I started the low carb, I realized there had to be more to it and it just felt like there was more to learn and I believe it's gotten bigger and more popular. But also, I still think a lot of it is people need to do some of that of figuring out what works for them. You know it's you could say I'm going to do no sugar and you need to figure out how it fits your lifestyle, just like I tell people, you have all these mental health tools and what works for me may or may not work for you. You know, again, let's meet in the middle and then we'll all succeed, we'll all be able to do that?

Florence: 32:35

Yes, totally, Totally. So is there? I know that when you emailed me, you said you had a free gift for people. Do you want to tell us a bit about that?

Bruce: 32:49

Sure, yeah. So I know I'm talking about all this information on the Warrior Program and there's a lot to it. So what I created was I created a free e-book, okay, and it's about now I have to remember it's about 38 pages. So the reason I say that is because it's an introduction to it's kind of my cliff notes version to get people started, and I wanted to do two things with it. One, I wanted to show them my story and I wanted to show them a little bit about, like, the warrior components so they could see there is a real path and there's a way that you can do all these things yourself. And then again, like I said, if you need additional help or you want to go and expand from that, you know you may start with yourself and then you want to learn how to be the warrior, to then talk to your family and different things, like I had to go through, and so the book's supposed to introduce you to that. And then there's five tools. So we've got two mindset rules and three of these mental health warrior tools in there. So, again, I want people to walk away with five things they can use today to start building that strong mental health, to start learning to manage their emotions. And then there's some more information, because the program and all these ideas I have I've been kind of growing them and hence the number of books, but it's on my website and everybody can get it. It's right at the homepage. You can get that for free.

Bruce: 34:09

And then what I've also started is I kind of wanted to mention is I started up a podcast and it's Mental Health Warrior Program and I'm calling it no Surrender Because the idea is I would love people to join and become warriors and face any challenge life throws at you and I believe mental health gives you the power to triumph over that. And so we have information about that there, which, again, is all part of this free book, so that you can pick up the book and start taking action and then see what other resources and things we've built, or I have built, that are out there. And it's kind of it just keeps growing because I keep finding more things that we need help with with mental health. If you don't mind, if I can, just I'll just grab this too, just to show you, since we're on the video and of course, I always have trouble centering this.

Bruce: 35:01

But this is I created a mental health warrior challenge coin and on the back we have some warrior wisdom which is similar to those rules. Now this one says I am stronger than my challenges. And again, I love these coins they came from at one point I was a contractor with the Coast Guard. I was working for an IT company but a contractor on a Coast Guard base and they have challenge coins to represent a place you've served or a certain mission maybe you've been through, and it represents I met this challenge and I thought we need something like that for mental health. And again, I find it neat because you could apply this coin to saying how I want to eat and how I want to clean up my eating, because I know it'll help my mental health.

Bruce: 35:44

And so, again, this is something you can carry with you as that reminder. You know, because I also know it's hard to carry all the books around. And again, you know it's great to have the free ebook and things like that. But I just figured there's so much we can do to get people excited about it and get people wanting to see what I can do and then starting to see the benefits and that kind of starts that whole snowball rolling where you know, once you start this and I'm sure you've experienced this once I've started to talk to people about certain ways of living these lifestyle changes I keep getting more and more feedback. And it's funny because they go in directions I don't expect but are amazing, and I'm always like, wow, you decided to do this with this whole less stuff, more experiences type angle and I'm like, wow, that's a neat thing that it encouraged you to do. You know, I used it differently, but together we're all getting those benefits.

Florence: 36:40

Oh, what a great mission you've chosen. So you've got. You've got sounds like lots of different books. Is it just one program that you offer people, or can they sign up for different programs?

Bruce: 37:05

program. Yeah, so we don't right now. What we do is I encourage people to start with my triumph book. The first book is the cornerstone and I titled it.

Bruce: 37:09

I triumphed over bipolar alcoholism and anxiety disorders by becoming a mental health warrior. And then the next books are kind of like that a la carte, and it's kind of like what area do you think works best for your life and that's what's been successful in it. I offer different areas and then people can pick and choose. Just that. Like some people, I have a book out with 84 mental health warrior tools and if some people just want a tool, they want something they can use each day and they can page through the book and kind of say, well, I'm struggling with stress and anxiety, what could I do? Or I need to take a break. Is there some suggestion you have with a tool? And then other people like to say I want to focus on a different area, like the foods or some of the other areas that I've gotten into.

Bruce: 37:56

I've tried to touch on all sorts of interesting things with mental health, things with mental health, and so the program isn't right now. It's not a set of classes or anything. Okay, so it's. It's this whole self-help approach and the idea being we're going to keep providing you the information and we're going to keep kind of coaching you, if you will, with the podcast and being out there telling you you can do this. And right now, eventually, I'd like to go into like doing the classes and things, but right now what I've done is do talks or go to interviews. So I've done some talks at companies and things again to get people started on that journey and get them inspired, to even tell them you can do this.

Florence: 38:39

Okay, okay, yes, um, I don't think I was even that clear no, no, that's okay, I remember checking you out I remember checking you out, but I don't think I realized that it wasn't a program I. I saw the books and stuff but I didn't realize there was eight of them and I, and the idea is in the first book.

Bruce: 38:58

there are four core components of the mental health warrior and that's where you build this strength and it it helps you in setting the direction. So it gives you that structure, much like you need the structure with the foods and you want to have a plan in order to stop with sugar and carbs and things like that Totally.

Bruce: 39:15

Yeah so and I just like to let people kind of. Then what I really want to do is empower them. I love doing the self-help and I go slash self-empowerment because that's what I found. That will start you on the journey, that'll get you showing it's possible, and then you can figure out how much help you need, what are the steps, how far you want to take it, based on your lifestyle.

Florence: 39:39

Amazing what a mission you've chosen, so incredible that you got to come back and say, hey, listen, I was that far down into the dark and today I'm lit up by what I know to be true that people can recover and they can do it, small, micro steps, with just books and just simple tools, and appreciation and appreciation of the role that diet does play in recovery yeah, both sick and helping us get well.

Bruce: 40:11

Yeah, a lot of times I link that and I had mentioned that one of the things is my alcoholism and the recovery, the addiction of sugar. I see the common areas that are in all of that Because even with alcohol I know it doesn't technically convert right over to sugar unless maybe you're drinking fruit juice drinks and things. So that part does really keep you going. But then the sugar amount and the way it affects your body with drinking and obviously eating a lot of sugar, puts you on that roller coaster and then that causes all your metabolic changes and problems and issues. And again, the whole idea with addiction, and one of the things I want to show people is when you start on the path to recovery and if you really align it with what's important in your life, you know, as the warrior, a big part of it is to say these things are important. So today, eating foods and eating correctly isn't just a chore, it's something I truly enjoy. And as I go along same with my recovery, I can do things today that are so simple that most people are like I feel they miss them. I can go out at four o'clock in the afternoon or five o'clock or whatever with my wife and get a soda, where before I would be searching out for a drink or I'd be looking for ways to check out, I certainly wouldn't do things at night. And that simple pleasure, that simple experience I can have, the simple experience of going out, planning a weekend that isn't centered around drinking or isn't centered around bad food choices. Again it opens up this window of an amazing life and I tell people myself that then the choice comes. I just have to ask myself do I want to give that up? Do I want to go backwards and risk it for some little short-term fix again? If I get super stressed and I say, well, nobody's going to stop me technically from drinking, you have to be responsible Nobody's going to stop me from going to buy that box of donuts again, but I'd have to give up everything I've worked for and all the great experiences I have with foods and with life. And so that's part of this exciting message I like to bring, because I think that it's just so much amazing motivation. I mean you start to realize it's just so much amazing motivation. I mean you start to realize, wow, look at what I've done for myself, look at how I've cleaned up, how I eat, and at the same time, like you can tell, right now I get so excited I could share recipes for the next two hours of all these amazing things I've made and all the cooking things which, again, people love to cook, and I can take part in that now and I'm not just slapping together something you know haphazardly.

Bruce: 42:44

I'm enjoying knowing about it, even the knowledge about it, and I find it's neat because I feel like most people want to talk about mental health, they want to talk about diet changes, they want to talk about these things, but, as you know, and with everybody says that first step is the hardest.

Bruce: 43:02

So I like to open the door with the Mental Health Warrior Program and I like to like, for example, that's why I'm wearing my oops, wrong side the shirt and that because I can't tell you the number of times that we're in line at some place and somebody starts a conversation on that, and in the middle of a grocery store line you're sharing mental health challenges with a complete stranger, giving each other that support, knowing and saying to each other you can do this and then you kind of go on your way.

Bruce: 43:28

But it's an amazing experience and I feel like it's the same way with the foods and the sugar and what you guys are doing. It's so empowering that once you start sharing it, people just light up and I think you probably find that like people are just amazed and they start saying, like you did, like wow, I never envisioned this way of eating. I never envisioned how the foods I ate helped my sleep, you know. There's another area that I found a huge impact in and the other areas, like with my anxiety, of course, with all of the morning's recovery and things like that and the excess caffeine and excess sugar. All the time my anxiety was always up here, just from the physiological changes, you know. And again, all the foods helped me build that better foundation where I have long-term energy and things like that too.

Florence: 44:21

Amazing Bruce, thank you so much for sharing your, your triumph over you know three. Just one of those alone can bring people to their knees and keep them there right Like their whole lives long. So thank you for sharing your triumph and your books and your time and your lovely energy. Is there any final words you'd like to share before we wrap up today?

Bruce: 44:42

I just like to say that my viewpoint on that and the reason there's so many books and so many tools is I like to use and make a little joke about myself, but I have a lot of challenges.

Bruce: 44:52

So I have that anxiety, bipolar PTSD from being an EMT, different things and so I want people to know there's never too many challenges to say there's no answers. There's always an answer. And then, secondly, the important part is that's the whole idea of being a warrior is there's always more tools, always more things in life that can help you and again, like we said, there's some good pillars like food and nutrition and all of that and also some other things you can do for your mental health. So I just like to make sure people know not to lose hope, because that's where I got to at that point and I just like to know and people have told me this when I was early on recovery there is a solution, there is hope, and I like to try and put myself out there not to grandstand, but just to say I'm actually enjoying life, I'm looking forward to challenges every day, which is about a thousand miles from where I used to be hiding out from the world. So that's my biggest message to leave you with.

Florence: 45:54

Amazing, amazing. Thank you so much for reaching out for me, for sharing your story and your wisdom with us, and your books Everyone go, at least get the first book and then you can choose from there. And thanks again for your time, bruce.

Bruce: 46:06

Thank you Thanks.

Florence: 46:08

Bye-bye.