I Thought I’d Crush It And Almost Blacked Out

Ready for a reality check that actually sticks? I walked into a firefighter tryout convinced I’d breeze through on grit and lifting strength—and nearly blacked out during the PACER test. That moment of shock became a catalyst: exposing my cardio blind spot, deflating my ego, and forcing a return to fundamentals that real performance demands.

We unpack how a strict carnivore diet kept my weight steady while masking a glaring conditioning gap, and why “I hate cardio” isn’t a strategy. I share the simple, sustainable interval plan that rebuilt capacity: short sprints, measured rest, and hybrid sessions that weave lifting with conditioning for a practical HIIT-style rhythm. No heroics—just consistent wins that retrain pace, breathing, and recovery. Along the way, I dig into the mindset traps that derail progress, from the seductive “I’m the exception” story to the endless “I’ll start tomorrow” promise that never lands.

There’s also a hard truth about control: you can’t change someone who isn’t ready. We talk about the emotional toll of watching a partner or friend self-sabotage, the resentment that creeps in, and how to pivot toward responsibility you actually own. When you drop the urge to manage other people, you gain energy to improve your habits, set better boundaries, and model the change that invites others without pushing them away.

If you’re craving honest fitness talk, real-world habit change, and a mindset reset that respects biology, this one’s for you. Hit play, take what helps, and build a plan that works on your worst day. If this resonated, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a quick review to help more people find the show.

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Scene And Bold Goal
• 3:40 Fire Department Pacer Test Reality Check
• 6:20 Carnivore Diet Meets Cardio Deficit
• 8:10 Ego, Humility, And Course Correction
• 11:30 You’re Not The Exception Fallacy
• 14:40 Control, Resentment, And Letting Go

Transcript

CoreyBerrier: 1:00

Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast. I'm your host, Corey Berrier. And today, folks, it's going to be a little bit of a shorter episode, just because I'm running tight on time. But what I want to talk about today, first, I'm going to share a quick story with you. And I just want you to picture this. You know, I my pride and my ego thinks that I'm in pretty good shape. Right. For 47 years old, arguably, I'm in pretty decent shape. So I decide about a month ago that I'm going to go and apply to the fire department. I'm like, there's zero chance these people are going to accept me into the fire department. I am 47 years old. And I get an email back, congratulations. You've been accepted into the first round of the fire department. And interestingly, I get there and I'm like, I'm going to crush this. I'm looking around and I see all these people that don't look very fit. And uh I think I'm going to crush these people. I'm going to crush them. I'm going to stomp them into the ground. What I didn't realize, or what I didn't think about, is I don't do any cardiovascular exercise. Like I do, like I walk from my apartment to my car and from my car to my apartment. That's about it. And so I get up there and they tell they they tell me, they're like, okay, we're going to do this pacer test. And I'm like, all right, what the hell is a PACER test? I have no idea what it is. And they're like, oh yeah, you did it in high school. And I'm thinking, okay, well, I probably must have missed that day. Not taking into account everybody in this training, in this uh um first round fire department thing, is like half my age. So they all knew what they were talking about. I had absolutely no idea. So I'm like, okay, we're gonna do sprints first. It's not really sprints, it's sort of sprints. And I take off. So like you run down, let's call it a half a basketball court, you wait for the buzzer, you head back down to the other end, so on and so forth. So keep in mind, too, I am on the carnivore diet. I have not had a carbohydrate or sugar in my body in five months. So uh it did not pay off today, on this day, that I didn't have any carbohydrates in my body. So here's what happened: I take off like a bat out of hell. I mean, I am full out sprinting to each one of these things, each one of these, each end, right? About the fifth one, I am so gassed, I literally can't breathe. I literally think I'm gonna black out in the middle of the fire department test. I was so cardiovascularly out of shape, I quit. I'm like, I'm out. I can't, I literally can't even hardly breathe. I'm so out of breath. I pull the shit out of my hamstring, dude. I like it's still sore, and it's like a week and a day later. And my point in telling you this story is you know, even though I'm sober, even though I've been working on myself, growing personally, spiritually, uh in recovery, dude, my ego still takes over. My still my ego still will allow me to go to the fire department training and think I'm gonna be more successful than everybody else there. And so you might think, well, Corey, that's a uh that's a great, that's a great way to, you know, it's a great way to think, right? You think ahead, you're you're positive. Dude, that's fine. And that is great. And I'm glad that I that I think positively. However, the truth of the matter is I look like an idiot on this thing. I mean, like when I say look like an idiot, dude, you know they uh you know those people in the fire department, they've seen people like me come in, right? They're like, Yep, but you every one of them thought to themselves, look at this idiot. He is gonna do exactly what I did, which is completely burn out within the first like five minutes of this stupid thing. So I'm grateful I was had the willingness to try. And it's opened my eyes to how much I need to be doing cardiovascular exercise. You know, I keep my weight at the exact same weight because I eat the carnivore diet. So I don't really feel the need to do cardio. I hate doing cardio, I hate running, I hate doing, I just I it is just like the most unappealing thing to me on the planet. Doesn't matter because I'm doing it now. So I've started running sprints. Like when I say sprints, like I'm running at level six on the treadmill for like a minute on, minute off, minute on, maybe two minutes off. And fortunately, my apartment complex has a a gym that's super convenient, and of course, I get up at the literally before anybody can even think about getting up. So there's nobody down there, so I just leave the treadmill running. And so I'll do sometimes I'll do intermittent, right? So I'll do the I'll do the run, I'll do the sprint, so to speak, and then I'll go lift, and then I'll do the sprint and lift. So so basically it's like a hit workout, if you will. But man, you talk about a humbling experience. Holy crap, I was humbled. I mean, I was really humbled, and it just goes to show you, like sometimes, you know, even when you think you're a badass, you're not, and you can't always believe what you think. I mean, I it's interesting because as I'm mentioned, as I mentioned this last in this last the podcast before this one, the the letum theory. She's the thing that she says in there is what did she say? Completely lost my train of thought. And I I didn't write anything out today. So normally I have notes that I follow, and you can clearly see I have no notes today. Um Jesus Christ, I literally lost what I was gonna say. Uh oh, I do, I know what it was. She said, Okay, so imagine you're a vapor, right? If you vape, you think you're the only person in the world that's never gonna have repercussions from vaping. So do I. I don't vape, but if I did vape, that's what I would think, right? So I you're the only person in the world that can that eats shit throughout the week, and you think that you're never gonna you know have high blood pressure or whatever the case may be. If I eat shit every week, I would think the same thing. In other words, we think we believe, because it's us, that we're um that that that these rules don't apply to us because it's us, which is crazy. I mean, it's like, you know, it before when I started drinking, I didn't think I was gonna become an alcoholic. Of course, I didn't think that. I thought there would be no consequences. Now I've proven this over and over and over that I've had massive consequences from drinking, drinking and driving. That's been a long freaking time, like I don't know, uh 25 years since I've got caught drinking and driving. But the point is, is like, think about that. If you're a drinker, you always think you can drive after three or four beers because it's you, you know what you're doing, you can keep it between the lines. But the truth of the matter is, alcohol affects you the same way as it does me. And I can look at you and go, yeah, that's not a good idea to drive after four or five beers. But you're like, I'm good. You know, I'm good. I I can do this until you get a DUI or you wreck or whatever the case may be. So I guess the point here is like sometimes you can't believe everything you think. I cannot believe everything that I think because sometimes my thought process is skewed. Sometimes the way I package things in my mind are only gonna, they only make sense to me. And so um, you know, when you're doing something that you think to yourself, well, if I just eat these chips today, I'll start the diet tomorrow. No, you won't. Nope, you're not gonna start the diet tomorrow. You said that yesterday, or you said that last week, or you said that whenever. Well, I'm just gonna drink tonight, but I'm gonna stop tomorrow. Nope, you're not gonna do that either. Until the until the drink till till getting drunk is more painful than getting sober, you're not gonna stop drinking. Until eating the damn potato chips is more painful than not eating them, you're gonna keep eating them. And what sucks is if you've got somebody in your life romantically, or a brother or a family member, you're watching them eat the bag of chips and getting fatter and fatter and fatter, and you want to save them, you want to try to convince them, you want to try to persuade them to stop doing this thing that's harming them. And when you walk in the house and your fat husband's sitting there, and he's piling in the chips, and he's smiling, and he's happy, and he is happy because that instant gratification in the moment makes him happy. But you're like, damn, dude, I can't believe this lazy MFer is still sitting on the couch eating chips and watching this stupid ass television show or drinking the beer or whatever, the donuts, or fill in the blank. And then you get resentment, you get resentful, you get resentful at this person that they because they won't take care of themselves, because you care about them. But guess what? You can't do anything about that. You can't control them. And the more you push, and the more you prod, and the more you try to get them to change, I promise you, it's natural for people to push back. Have you ever tried to get an employee to do something that you wanted them to do? Did you like pressure them into doing something that they didn't want to do? It doesn't really go your way. Have you ever tried to get your kid to eat some shit that they didn't really want to eat? Well, it might have gone your way if you're, you know, uh if depending on the situation, right? But they did, but your kid is not excited about having this, you know, they're not excited about eating their dang broccoli. They're not excited about eating whatever it is you're trying to force down their throat. And as they get older, they're gonna they're I'm sure they're gonna decide they don't want to eat those things because you force them to do it. That may have been a bad example, but the point is if you've got a loved one, a brother, a sister, a mother, whatever, uh girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, wife, and you want them to change, good luck. I'm not gonna change until I want to change. You are not gonna change until you want to change. And so, who does it bother the most if I get upset that you're not changing? Me, you don't give a you don't care, you don't care that I'm upset, you may not even know I'm upset. The point is, is like you can't control other people, you just can't control other people, and I know this has been a little bit on the craziest, like not super dialed inside today, and I and that's okay. You know what? Very rarely do I do this without notes, but today I'm just winging it, dude. I'm just winging it because it is what it is. So I'm really grateful that you listened to whatever how long this has been so far. And uh next week I'll be back with a little bit more dialed in show. But if there if there's any takeaways from today, stop trying to control other people, focus on yourself and let other people do whatever the hell they want to do. You'll live an easier life, you'll easy, you'll live a happier life. You'll be, God, you'll you'll be less stressed for sure. So I appreciate you guys. We'll see you next Friday. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and make sure you leave us a review. Appreciate you. We'll see you on Friday.