Michael Chernow - Fitness is the Key Ingredient to Fight Addiction

Sep 7, 2020

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FITNESS IS THE KEY INGREDIENT TO FIGHT ADDICTION!

Struggling to be happy in recovery? Are you sick of trying everything to escape addiction only to realize it's not sustainable?

Then you will need to listen to this episode with Celebrity Chef and Fitness Personality, Michael Chernow!

“The business of business is relationships, and the foundation of relationships is trust, because I believe that. I say that in business, but it's also just in general. The business of happiness is relationships and the foundation of relationships is trust.”- Michael Chernow

With that quote alone, you can already say that there are lots of things you can learn from my guest today. He is Michael Chernow -- a chef, entrepreneur. He is the founder of Seamore, co-founder of The Meatball Shop, and co-founder of WellWell. He's quite literally the modern-day renaissance man. But what I love most about him is he's really into fitness, and fitness helped to save his life from the depths of addiction, and which we will definitely get into.

How is Michael’s life adjusted since this whole COVID thing hit?

Instead of upgrading their apartment when they had their second child, they bought a place out of the city which is their best decision because they are staying there for two and a half months now. Their boys are enjoying their life out of the city.

Unfortunately, his grandfather, 98, contracted the virus on Friday of last week in his nursing home. He has lived a very fruitful life. It's a shame that this is potentially what could be the end for him, and Michael’s family sort of really bummed out about that.

However, Michael is a positive optimist, he always finds the silver lining in everything and he also tries to make lemonade whenever he sees lemons and at this time, he’s actually out there just trying to make some lemonade.

Michael is greatly inspired by his grandfather because he absolutely lived a wonderful life -- born in 1919, survived the 20s Great Depression, fought World War 2, created businesses, and failed at some businesses. His grandfather is now 98 years old, and his number one priority was great relationships with people and he had an amazing network of friends.

For Michael, we all need to reset and pump the brakes. He has done a lot in the last 10 years and he admits that it hasn’t been the healthiest.

He is just extreme in anything he does. He was an “addict.” When it comes to business and work, he’s been into the grindstone non-stop for the last 11 years and this time has forced him to slow down, to not beat himself up, for not producing an enormous amount of shit every day, and to slow down to hold his son for more than two minutes.

For Michael, what is life all about?

It's ultimately about love. That human beings were put on the planet to love and be loved at the end of the day.

In his own experience, he drank and did drugs because he wanted to be loved, and learn how to love himself and, and in his own perspective, everything that we do at the core of motivation or lack of motivation is the desire to love and be loved.

How did Michael get out of doing drugs and drinking?

He fell in love with escapism. At an early age, he fell in love with it. He started working in restaurants at 13. He worked in the night and he was perfect for it. There were a bunch of years where it was just super fun for him. But suddenly, all of the fun stopped and he started drinking and partying. His dad passed away when he was 20. Michael was not on good terms with his father, and he always used that as a grand excuse to just take it even further.

From 20 to 23, he was on a death march, but he still always had a job and always kept his job in a restaurant or nightclub.

The last few years were pretty dark for him. He stopped enjoying it, and it became just like part of his routine. There were moments like he just wanted to die. He couldn't believe that he found myself back there again, after promising not to do it again.

He clearly remembers catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror saying, “Man, I hate you more than anything on the planet.”

He wanted to die, and luckily, he didn't kill himself. He woke up 16 hours later and he had locked himself in his room and people thought he had actually died.

His boss, Frank, said, “I love you to death, man. I do. I love you to death but I can’t watch you kill yourself. You’re fired.”

Michael really loves his job so he begged for it and his boss said, “I can't give you your job [bar managing] anymore. I just can't put you behind the bar. But if you get sober, if you actually get sober, and you come to work at eight o'clock in the morning, and you clean the restaurant with the porters for 30 days, I'll consider giving you your job back.”

So Michael did all of it. He walked into a room of people that took him in like a brother, and they understood each other.

Then a couple of guys from that group knew that he had like a little bit of a aggressive sort of anger components, and they dragged him into a Muay Thai gym, and they said, “This is where you're going to wake up, where you’re going to have breakfast, you're going to come meet with us and hang with us for about an hour. And then you're going to go over to the gym and train. And then you're going to go home and take a nap. And then you're going to go to work. And you're going to eat chicken and broccoli.”

He just can’t live like that anymore.

And very quickly, he started to discover who he was. And it wasn't the guy that was abusing himself constantly.

What helped Michael to reestablish commitment to loving himself on a daily basis?

It was absolutely Muay Thai and discipline of exercising. He owes his life to that.

Tune in to this episode to learn more about how he became who he is now. A lot of people can surely relate and will be inspired and motivated to keep on moving forward in life.

Some words of wisdom from Michael:

Just do what you say you're going to do. And that's the way you get it.
There's a big difference between listening and waiting to speak.
You can't learn without listening. You might be able to learn a little bit by seeing something, but the actual long term growth and knowledge come through listening.
The less you say, the better off you are when it comes to timing. You don't always have to be hurt. The more you listen, the stronger you'll be in life.

Connect with Michael Chernow:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaelchernow/

Website: https://michaelchernow.com/

Podcast: Born or Made Podcast

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Website: www.dougbopst.com/gift