The Everyday Awesome Project

95: GUEST: 5 Mindset Shifts to Shed Shame and Pounds w/ Kelly Thrush

• Polly Mertens & Samantha Pruitt • Season 2 • Episode 95

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An addicted body on the brink. A liver transplant just in time. And a life rebuilt through small, stubborn, daily choices. Another broken down body and brain. And a life transformed through self compassion, self investment and self love. Now these two humans are here to offer a gift to others suffering. This intro to their free new workbook is for anyone looking to shed shame, self imposed suffering and pounds.  

Kelly Thrush joins Coach Sam this week to trace the full arc—from bar culture and denial to end-stage liver failure, four and a half months in the hospital, and the first breath on the other side of a transplant. What followed wasn’t a montage; it was one day at a time, stacking quiet wins: taking seventeen stairs without a handrail, tossing a hidden shooter, learning to run far, and then farther—DNFs included—until a 300‑mile finish line proved what self investment can do.

We zoom out from survival to a method you can use. We walk through five core truths (suffering is optional, worthiness is a given, you are a statistical miracle, impermanence is real, everything is interconnected) and turn them into practice with five grounded strategies: clear the decks, build your A‑Team, replace hope with a plan, stack wins, and choose progress over perfection. Then we tighten the bolts with mindset shifts that last—move from “I can’t” to “I’m learning how,” trade punishment for nourishment, turn shame into empowerment, and ditch quick fixes for a sustainable lifestyle. This is where sobriety tools, sustainable weight loss, stress reduction, and mental health meet: biology aligned with behavior, community aligned with accountability.

If you’re an addict, sober‑curious, rebuilding after a physical or mental health break down, or just tired of being stuck, you’ll hear practical steps and zero judgment. We also launch a free workbook—The Five Truths, The Five Strategies, The Five Mindset Shifts to Shed Shame and Pounds—to help you put this into action today. Subscribe, share with someone who needs a nudge, and leave a review to help others find these stories. 

Ready to make the next 'right' decision? We are here to offer tactical tools, experienced success strategies, and unconditional love. 

-xoxo Coach Sam and guest Coach Kelly 

LINK TO FREE WORKBOOK IN INSTAGRAM BIO

https://everydayawesomeproject.com/5-mindset-shifts-workbook/


Follow Coach Polly @getbusythriving and Coach Sam @thesamanthapruitt

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Website/About Us: https://everydayawesomeproject.com/about-us/


Samantha Pruitt:

Hey everybody, welcome to the Everyday Awesome Project Podcast. What's up, beautiful humans? I'm here with a good friend of mine, Kelly. We meet again on the podcast.

Kelly Thrush:

We meet again.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, and you have been on the pod before. So I will put a link to that episode in the uh blurb on this particular pod so you can find out more about Kelly's detailed story and my interview after you did your 300-mile race. But today we're here to talk about something a little bit different. Uh, before we get into the stew, the meat and potato stew we're about to serve up. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself, please?

Kelly Thrush:

Sure. Uh my name's Kelly, obviously. I am a husband father. Uh, but more pertinent to this particular podcast, uh, an altar runner. I have been sober now for seven and a half years, coming up on eight here, pretty quick. Woo! Thank you. Uh, and a full liver transplant recipient. Uh, also seven and a half years ago. Weird how those two dates coincide. Isn't it though? It is weird how that worked out.

Samantha Pruitt:

That's so crazy, dude. And you're a good friend of mine. Check us out, hanging out. Yeah. We've known each other for many moons now, and I'm stoked to be collaborating with you on this project. We're going to tell people a little bit what what we're up to. Basically, um, you and I have a lot of shared things that we're into besides ultra running. Okay. Yes, obviously, that is how we met. We were, well, you were running around in circles like a madman, a gazillion hours at an event that I was helping to produce.

Kelly Thrush:

That's well, you were my Mr. Miyagi uh on that particular day, because not that I know much more now, uh, but I really didn't know what I was doing then. Uh, and so you were helping me guide me through those wee hours of the morning for sure.

Samantha Pruitt:

I think it was your first uh what was it like?

Kelly Thrush:

First 100k.

Samantha Pruitt:

Okay, okay. That's so freaking awesome. And I'm so stoked that I got to bear witness to your suffering. That's a little bit of suffering. Yeah, well, that's what ultra running is. So we love that in common. Okay. We also love humans. And in particular, we love helping humans through our own transformational stories. And we have some continuity there as well. Yours is not exactly like mine, but I do want you to tell yours up front, your your transformation of going from your prior life, your non-sober life, your non-transplant life. Um, just give us a little blurb about, you know, who are you and what is your transformation story? What's the story here, Ben?

Kelly Thrush:

Sure, absolutely. So prior to transplant life, uh, I ran bars and restaurants, bars most specifically. Uh, and I was pretty good at it. And part of the bar culture uh is partying and booze, in my case, uh, is pretty much embedded in that, you know, environment around bars and restaurants. Uh, and I got caught up in it pretty good. Uh, and so I'd spent, oh gosh, I don't know, 15, 18 years running restaurants and bars until finally, uh, again, seven and a half, almost eight years ago now. So it would have been January of 2018. Uh my liver finally had enough because the alcohol had now become no longer fun. It was no longer social, it was every day, all day, uh hiding it from everybody. Those closest to me knew what was going on, maybe not the extent of it, uh, until finally I was jaundice and my eyes were yellow, my skin was yellow, um, and I had to go to the hospital. And by the time I was forced to go to the hospital, because I wasn't going willingly, it was taking and screaming. Uh, the doctors broke the news that I was at end stage liver failure, uh, walking around, still drinking at that point. Uh, you know, even not the day I went to the hospital, but two days prior to that, I was still drinking. And um, yeah, that is a uh, well shoot, that's a sobering moment, I guess, is a good time to use that key phrase. Uh and so the the short version of that story is I spent four and a half months in the hospital. Um, got to the point of the.

Samantha Pruitt:

You never left the hospital for four and a half months?

Kelly Thrush:

I would leave for hours at a time. They would discharge me, and then something would go wrong. My blood pressure would bottom out. Um part of the problem that I had, or that most liver transplant recipients have is your liver and your kidneys are very intertwined. And so when I was in the hospital on all of the IV medicines, not just fluids or antibiotics or anything like that, but medicines, uh, as soon as I came off of those, my kidneys would stop functioning. And so my blood pressure would bottom out uh in cases, or I would spike a fever because I had infections, because my immune system, I mean, there was a plethora of problems. And so typically there I only spent uh a total of those four and a half months. I spent seven days, but not full days, out of the hospital. They would send me home and I'd go right back. Um, three times by ambulance. Uh they had to do that.

Samantha Pruitt:

So you were hanging on by a thread.

Kelly Thrush:

It was by a thread, by by a very thin thread. Uh the day on March 22nd, the day that I was told uh they had recovered a liver for me that was going to work, um, they whisked me down to the ICU and prepped for OR. Uh, and my body crashed that day. I mean, I was, in the words of the nurse, now this is tearsay because I was in and out of consciousness, but but my wife Jamie was there taking care of me in the ICU. Uh, the nurse said I had about five or six hours at that point if I didn't get the surgery at that at that moment. Uh, because at that particular problem, that particular day, uh, I was bleeding out. Um, part of your part of your liver function, it does many, many things, not just filter your food, but it does lots of stuff. And part of it is it helps produce platelets uh so your blood can clot. Um, mine obviously wasn't functioning, uh, and I was bleeding from anywhere you can bleed from. Um, I was puking it up, it was coming out my nose, other places. Um, and I was losing more blood than they could transfuse back in. Um, I had 27 liters of, or not 27 liters, excuse me, 27 units of blood transferred um prior to surgery, uh, which is uh a unit of blood is about 250 milliliters. So whatever that is. How many liters? Yeah, it's a lot.

Samantha Pruitt:

A lot.

Kelly Thrush:

Yeah. Uh so when I woke up uh the next day in the ICU with all the tubes hooked up to me and the machines hooked up to me, and and I couldn't breathe, or well, I could breathe, but I couldn't talk because I had the ventilator uh stuck down my throat. Um it my my whole life changed. Like I once I realized I was on the other side of that, the reality actually set in because even going into the OR, I I still was in denial. Were you? Uh oh yeah. I well knew I was sick, knew I was having surgery. Okay, but it was gonna be okay. I'm a pretty optimistic person by nature, and I was just not letting it uh the gravity of the situation sink in.

Samantha Pruitt:

And were you blaming alcohol at this point, or were you just like oh no, we no, I knew what the problem was.

Kelly Thrush:

Um, you know, and and there were lots of factors. Alcohol was the catalyst for all of it. Um, but I knew alcohol was the problem. Um, I mean, there was no other there's no other reason for it. I mean, it it was. Um, that's a good question, actually. I've never really talked about that out loud. Even after transplant, um, I tried to downplay the role alcohol took, you know. Um, it took, it took a couple of, well, I would say probably six months before I would at least admit it to myself how much alcohol was the actual problem. Okay. You know, people would ask me when they heard I had a transplant, especially if they had any sort of medical background whatsoever. They said, Oh, how much of a drinker were you? Well, you know, not that much. You know, I drank, you know, obviously, but I, you know, I'd I'd lie about it because I was embarrassed and ashamed. Um part of, and this is true, part of the problem too was Tylenol and over-the-counter pain medicines, a leave, ibuprofen, so forth. Um, I would pop those like candy because I felt like crap every day. Every day I woke up, I felt awful.

Samantha Pruitt:

Oh, that stuff is rough on you.

Kelly Thrush:

And you know, at the bottom of those bottles, right, they have a little warning that says if you drink more than three alcoholic beverages a day, do not take Tylenol, so forth, and so on. Yeah, that's a real warning. They're not making that up. I mean, that's and so part of my liver problems was that as well, because I would take any types of over-the-counter ibuprofen, leave, or NSADS, I guess, and Tylenol, acetomyofin, um, all day every day because I just felt like crap is the best way to put it. Um you were in survival mode. How old were you at this point? 38 when I got sick, and I spent the birthday in the hospital. Um, so it was 39 when I got transplanted. Uh when I when I received uh received my liver. What a hell of a birthday present. Well, it was prior to about a month before. So birthdays in February, transplant in March, but I was in there at at that point. I mean, we had a little birthday cake for me, uh, and things like that. So um coming out the other side of transplant started me on this journey that we're gonna talk about. Um, because I knew that I had to give back um in some fashion. The way I look at it now is really two parts. One, um the only reason, the only logical reason that I made it through was so I can help other people. It's that's it's the only thing that makes any sense to me. Otherwise, why why bother getting me through this?

Samantha Pruitt:

You know, it's so yeah, and so I think you got a gift, you got an incredible gift.

Kelly Thrush:

Uh-huh. Yeah.

Samantha Pruitt:

Not to be squandered.

Kelly Thrush:

Correct. And and I need to be able to uh share my time and and experience and uh lifting you know heavy suitcases or whatever it is for other people. I need to do those daily. I have to do that stuff. And the other way that I look at it is uh every uh every moment that I've had uh since I woke up that day, uh until whenever my last moment is in the future, uh, they don't belong to me. They belong to my donor, uh they belong to my donor's family, they belong to Jamie, they belong to my family, they belong to the doctors, they belong to all of those people that are still suffering through whatever uh mental health or addiction or substance abuse or whatever it is that they're suffering through, I owe it to them to earn this gift that I have been giving because it it's it comes with a debt that that I feel like I I have to at least attempt to repay. I don't know that I ever will fulfill that, but I'm gonna give it a shot day to day.

Samantha Pruitt:

How in the hell do you stay sober?

Kelly Thrush:

Oh man, it's it cliche is cliche, it's one day at a time. Uh it really truly is. It is just one day. Hit the pillow sober. That's that's the only goal for today. And then we'll we're gonna rinse and repeat tomorrow.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, and there's a lot of different ways to look at sobriety, you know, um, and have the experience of becoming a sober person, whatever that looks like for you. And we'll talk about that when we talk about the workbook, since that is part of it. But also in your story is a weight loss journey and a discovery of a thing called running and ultra running in particular.

Kelly Thrush:

Yeah. Uh at my peak weight, I guess peak's the right word. Sure. I was tipping the scales. Uh, probably I I I know for a fact I was in the 290s at one point, 290 pounds. Uh, I am 220 as of this morning. Uh, I like to be walking around about 200. Um, but uh I think I probably got over 300 pounds, but I'll be honest, I didn't I didn't get on a scale. I didn't want to know, you know, and so uh I'm sure I did at some point. The pictures I see of myself during that era suggested that I was over 300 pounds. Um, and yeah, it about two years after transplant, um, I read a book by our friend, uh Charlie, uh, and decided I was gonna run 100 miles. I had never been a runner before in my life. I played sports, I played baseball pretty competitively. So I had ran okay, the physical motion of it, but endurance sports, absolutely not. I I had friends that ran marathons in my 20s, and I couldn't understand why on earth they would do something like that. And so something, I I don't know what, but something about it kind of resonated uh with me, and I decided I was gonna run 100 miles. Uh, I had had one, well, at that point, two half marathons under my belt. That was it. Okay. That was the only two times I ever put on a bib.

Samantha Pruitt:

I mean, 13.1, 100. I mean, this seems reasonable.

Kelly Thrush:

For those, for those of us that have my attic skill set, uh, that that is that is pretty much exactly how it goes. I went from zero to a half, a half to a 50K, and then a 50k to my first official uh was a hundred mile attempt. I DNF'd that race. But uh yeah, I skipped all the steps in between because sure, why not? And then DNF those two 100s. And of course, the next logical step is to do, you know, 300.

Samantha Pruitt:

Which you completed.

Kelly Thrush:

I did finish that one.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, dude, you were just getting warmed up. Yeah, all those other things, it's for you were just like working out the kinks, you know, just stretching it all out and getting your mind in the right place and all of that stuff. I mean, it's so important for us to share our stories. I'll share a little bit of mine about mine, but it's important because we're inviting people to partake in their own journey, right? We we want to help facilitate other people's healings and transformation. So we've created this workbook together that is about all of these things. It is about getting sober if that's one of the challenges in your life, or be a sober, curious person like me. I'm playing in this space now, or losing weight. We both have weight loss stories. We're both ultra runners and ultra humans out doing extraordinary things. But our story is, you know, not uncommon. I know that there are people out there like us who have been just as freaking miserable. I mean, I lost 50 pounds. I had a mental and physical health crisis in my late 20s, and I didn't have any athletic background or any of those things. But I was living a very unhealthy lifestyle, no physical activity, lots of stress, poor nutrition. Stress was really a big part of it. I developed an autoimmune uh disorder through that, but I didn't know what was wrong with me at the time. I went undiagnosed for over three years. So I got very, very heavy, very toxic. My body wasn't functioning, things were literally not moving through the system. And I got to a point I really couldn't eat anymore. So I was totally malnourished, oddly enough, um, but completely overweight, swollen, puffy, everything was inflamed, toxic, full of toxins. And so my brain stopped working also from all of this compounded issues. You know, the body and your brain are together. They're bullshit to work together, people. Yes, exactly. Um, and we'll talk about that. You know, that's one of the things we talk about in this workbook is how these things work together. But my story is a little bit different in that I basically thought I was had an undiagnosed disease of some sort. They just couldn't figure it out. I went to all these Western medicine doctors, nobody could really tell me what was going on. And so I thought, figured I was dying. I mean, I got to the point I couldn't really get out of bed, couldn't function. You know, I had a young child at home. I was, you know, my husband and I were running a business. I couldn't partake in any of those things. I just barely was getting through the day, you know, trying to survive. And it was really miserable. And I just had my own come to Jesus moment on the toilet one day, because that was one of the challenges I had is I couldn't go to the bathroom. Um, and I thought, this is it. You know, I've got some kind of terminal disease. I can't figure it out. I need to make peace with this, or or I can take another route and say, fuck y'all. I'll figure it out on my own. I am not going down without a fight. And so I literally quit my job, quit anything that was stressful in my life, eliminated all of the stress, and committed to just take care of my health, make that the primary reason I existed in the world, right? I have to heal this thing. All of this stuff is broken. And I'm the only one that can take responsibility for this. So I actually went back to school, I studied holistic health, became, you know, an expert in all of these things that I really was doing it selfishly just to figure out hey, what about me is broken and how can I fix it? And I discovered crazy things, Kelly, yeah, like nutrition and exercise, sleep, and stress reduction. I mean, things that I just wasn't taught growing up, it wasn't part of the lifestyle in my family household. These were these things were new to me. It sounds ludicrous, but I think many people can relate, depending on your family unit and your growing up experience. We don't know these things. And it's ridiculous for us to assume that people should know these things. We're not teaching our children this stuff, and many times we're not role modeling it. So, you know, we can't blame ourselves even for your situation finding alcohol. I'm sure you feel a sense of responsibility in making these choices. But there's reasons that these behaviors, like I was eating freaking ho-hos and ding-dongs, and I don't even know what the hell, you know, Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald's, and that's how I was raised. This is what we did. So I was doing what I knew to do. And if there were coping mechanisms, whether it was alcohol or food or you know, binge watching TV or whatever, all the things that we all do as human beings, we've all done it. You know, like life is incredibly stressful. It's challenging for humans, and we're all humans.

Kelly Thrush:

I think you hit the nail on the head that when you talk about people can relate. I think, Pete, every person out there, every strong word, the majority of people out there can relate to one piece of your story or one piece of my story. There are tens of millions, hundreds of millions of people in the world who have a poor relationship with alcohol or a poor relationship with food, or they're stressed to the guild. I know that in my 20s, I think Doctor, some of the things I said in my 20s, like, stress is an illusion. I was super stressed. Like, but I just convinced myself that I wasn't, even though I'm sure that I was, because you know, we were a young married couple with young kids. And most of the time when the kids were young, it was just my income, which was by choice. We wanted her to stay home because we couldn't afford childcare. You know, we didn't have any, you know, we didn't have the money that we wanted or that we that we tried to live up to. Um, it was super stressful, you know. Uh I had a stressful job. I worked 60, 70, 90 hours a week. You know, I was at this place. It was, I I remember one specific one. This is in Colorado or before in Tucson before we moved to Colorado. I went home to the morning radio show after working, you know, probably 18-hour day or whatever it was. I went home, took a nap, woke up, took or took a shower, came back to the same radio show. I caught the end of it before I, you know, the morning show. And I think about that, going, that's ridiculous. And I would do that because it was normal. That was just kids, that's what my job entailed. Exactly. Just what I had to do.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah. I mean, I was taught, and my parents immigrated to this country, and I'm grateful for that. But, you know, I was taught to chase the American dream and like work was everything, money was everything, security with house and things and cars and whatever was everything. So I subscribed to the same methodologies. You know, it seemed like what everybody else was doing, right? Um, when I was younger, I definitely did abuse drugs and alcohol. That was part of my story for quite a long time. And when I became a young adult and had this health crisis in my 20s, like I said, I wasn't using at that time, but I do believe all of these things exasperated these health conditions, like this perfect storm, this perfect shit storm for my body to say, hell to the no, enough of this. And the reason I think you and I care so deeply about this now as well is we don't really want people to ever get to that point. We don't want people rolling on into a hospital on the brink of death holding on by a shoestring. And I don't want people, you know, at any time to be contemplating, you know, their existence if they're going to be here tomorrow. Stop, right? If you can be honest, and that's step number one of all things, right? And it's and it's and it's tough to do. Wake the hell up and be honest. Yeah, exactly. But hey, we'll do it with you. If you can be honest about what you're up to, there are solutions for everything. And we both believe that, a thousand percent believe that. And it's just about these small incremental steps forward. So, this workbook we decided to uh get busy doing. So I've been spending the last 25 years now, since that moment, um, coaching on a variety of different levels. You know, I did became a personal trainer and an endurance coach of trathlon and running and all the things, and ultimately a race director in the industry. That's part of my story, sure. And I am an athlete myself, endurance athlete. Love it, love it, love the lifestyle. Um, it did become, you know, my drug of choice probably for many, many years to keep myself sane. And I did get healthy and I did get physically fit and, you know, have done a lot of cool, cool things. I'm grateful for that. But really, the most fun has been working with other humans to help them see what is possible for themselves. And so just through experience and through, of course, gaining knowledge and expertise and all that stuff, I've been coaching people for about 25 years now on a variety of different levels. And for you, you're a little bit new to the coaching space, but you're all about to go hard in on this. And obviously, you do public speaking. And your foundation that you started, you've got a lot of cool stuff going on. And it's time that we launch something, right?

Kelly Thrush:

Agreed. Yep.

Samantha Pruitt:

So we're starting with this. We're starting with this workbook. And we came together in a collab because we like each other, and we have shared values and a shared mission and shared passion, obviously. So this workbook is free, but obviously, you and I are available for coaching and for speaking and for events and all that stuff. The actual workbook itself is called The Five Truths, The Five Strategies, the Five Mindset Shifts to Shed Shame and Pounds. It can be about addiction or addictive behaviors, it can be about weight loss, it can be about just feeling like shit and being fed up. Anything that you can think of, this all does relate to. We don't get into the weeds about what you should eat and you know how much exercise you can do and all that stuff. First of all, that's all free on the internet. We can coach that if people need that. But what we felt strongly about most is communicating this core set of values, right? The truths, the strategies, the mindset shifts that people really ignore. You know, they ignore. And if you don't do those things, you got nothing.

Kelly Thrush:

Well, because you have to start there, right? There has to be a mental shift in your thought process, which I think is the hardest piece, um, because otherwise it's not going to work, right? So if you take uh I'll use the word dieting, right? Like you can physically do all the right things in your diet. You're gonna count your calories, you're gonna watch your macros, you're gonna probably, in most cases, starve yourself in some fashion or another. I know, it's horrible. But people can can do that physical stuff. But if they haven't, if they haven't changed how they think and approach about it, sooner or later it's not going to work. We're gonna revert back to old habits, something's gonna derail you, it could be a vacation, it could be a stressful moment, or whatever. Who knows? But until you address the I the shame part of it, which is which is a very powerful word, until you address that, I don't think anything's gonna change long term.

Samantha Pruitt:

Exactly. Exactly. And by us telling our stories and being so public about them, like I got nothing to hide, people can ask me anything. I'm in the same boat.

Kelly Thrush:

I tell people all the time.

Samantha Pruitt:

Whatever, bring it the hell on, bring it the hell on. Unless you are able to step out of the darkness and into the light, you're never gonna work your way out of that brown paper bag or that dark room or whatever the thing is, that cloak of shame, right? So let's roll through them and maybe we'll add just a few things. Obviously, the workbook is free and it's available. So you'll find this on links on our Instagram, you'll find it attached to this podcast, you'll find it on our websites, etc. So it's there, it's available, it's free. Download it. It is quite a robust workbook. So there actually is a lot more than what we're gonna cover in the book. There is homework, there is more relatable things in there for you to think about, to digest, to consider. But today I just want to go through the truths, the strategies, and the mindset, and just pepper them with just a little bit of what they can anticipate. Okay, so let's start with truths. Number one, suffering is optional.

Kelly Thrush:

Yep, love it.

Samantha Pruitt:

Okay, right out of the gate. Now, I'm studying Buddhism and they're all about suffering and exploring that as a human condition, and obviously part of the practices are ways to deal with being a human in the world and not experiencing suffering so much or working your way through it. So when we say suffering is optional, what does that mean to you?

Kelly Thrush:

Oh, I think you get to choose how you want to suffer, right? So, yeah, suffering is part of the human condition. It it defines uh humanity, what it means to be human, right? It really truly does. But I like that we, I get to pick how I want to do that. What I don't do any longer is choose to suffer in the mornings when I wake up and have to have a drink sitting on my nightstand so I can function during the day. That's suffering. I don't choose to do that anymore. My my suffering of choice is you know running uphill for days on end. Um, but you get to choose how you want to do it, right? You don't have to suffer with the things that you feel like are controlling you anymore. I think that's what choosing your suffering means. You don't have to, it's a choice.

Samantha Pruitt:

Exactly. You're not trapped, right? You have choice, you have agency. It might not feel like it when you're an addict. It might not feel like it when you're stuck in a body that doesn't feel good, that you don't love. It feels like a trap, right? That's the suffering, the being trapped in that. So through these things we're going to talk about, and through coaching and experience, you can break the cycle. It is possible, which means me to number two. This is one of our truths. Go all in on your worthiness.

Kelly Thrush:

Because yes, you are. You're worth it. The worthiness is a key, it's a key point. Is tough for people, dude. It is hard. It was super hard. It took me uh, I'm gonna say three to four years of being sober to kind of finally figure this piece out, truly figure it out. I had moments, yeah, right? Yeah, but the guilt and the shame that came along with my drinking days and the and the the the stress that I put my family through and the pain and the heartache and all of those words, um I wasn't worthy of of the love that people were giving me. You know, I wasn't worthy of of all of those things, and it really did. It took me a couple of years to figure it out. And what I hope we can do is uh maybe fast track that for some people because here's the fact the fact of the matter is uh is if you are overweight uh and in that vicious cycle, uh or if you are in the middle of a uh just a binge uh uh addiction, drinking binge, whatever it is, you are not a bad person, right? No, you are a A worthy, lovely human being who's stuck at the moment. Yeah. And there's some there's some hard choices we're gonna have to make, but but it doesn't make you any less worthy than anybody else. No, and that's what people get caught in that is what's gonna stop you.

Samantha Pruitt:

Correct. We have to just bust that thing wide open. Every human, a relevant, and every living creature, of course, is worthy at birth all the way through death. Doesn't matter what they do and how they do it and all these things, believe it or not, even the crazy, horrible people that we see out in the universe, they are a worthy human being of being saved, of being, you know, changed, of having a life that they want and deserve. Everybody is worthy of it. It's just a matter of them discovering that.

Kelly Thrush:

Correct.

Samantha Pruitt:

That's the work, right? Uh, this is a big one for you. You are a miracle.

Kelly Thrush:

Baboo is my favorite topic.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah.

Kelly Thrush:

Uh, you know, I'll I'll I'll paraphrase because I can't quote it, but there uh the physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has a has a you know a reel on Instagram that talks about the astronomical odd that you were even born in the first place, right? That the the math that goes, and I don't know what it is, hundreds of billions of trillions of whatevers to one. Yep, that all the stars aligned and you were actually born. It's insane. It's insane that I showed up here, right? It's just stupendous. And so, yeah, everybody is is just a pure miracle, just just in the math in it of itself, right?

Samantha Pruitt:

Exactly. Exactly. The fact that they were born, period, and stop. If they do nothing else after that, right? But then we do so many freaking miraculous things. We only think about the things that we feel shame about and our dysfunctional behaviors or our physical appearance or the lack. Uh, you know, we think about all the negatives, we forget about all the positive things that we've done, and you know, part of it is taking inventory and being real about that, right? Uh, number four, everything is impermanent. Dun dun dun dun. Yep. Including this moment right now. Yep. You, me, including every single moment right now. So, what in the hell are you doing wasting time? And then also, what are you doing fixating on this thing right now? Wait 90 seconds. So, if you don't get into the psychological trap of attaching yourself to a story, which would be a thought, if you don't get into that trap within 90 seconds, it actually will pass. If you don't attach onto it, cling onto it, and start to ruminate it. That's literally the science. Within 90 seconds, that fleeting thought is fleeting out the window, and you'll be moving on with your life now. Everything is impermanent.

Kelly Thrush:

Well, I had there was a moment uh shortly after surgery, I'm gonna say it was in the summer, uh, because I had a rough summer after surgery, mental health-wise. I all of the things that we have just talked about, I was uh on the other end of that spectrum with. Uh, and I would ruminate off all day. I would think about all of the mistakes and all the damage that at the time I thought was uh irreparable damage. Like there was no way to fix this stuff. Uh and I remember coming home, it was it was dark, but it was just after sunset. So I'm gonna say 7:30, 8 o'clock, 8:30, somewhere in that line. I was driving home, and I had a good thought. I had a happy thought, and I noticed that I had a happy thought.

Samantha Pruitt:

Nice.

Kelly Thrush:

So what did I immediately do? Rabbit? No, no, I went to the house. No, you kept it. You can't have that happy thought. Go back to the other stuff. You don't deserve that happy thought. Whoa. But it was the first step towards going the other direction.

Samantha Pruitt:

Because you thought it was possible.

Kelly Thrush:

Uh-huh. I noticed that I had a good thought.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah.

Kelly Thrush:

And it it was, and I I can tell you exactly where I was. It was about a mile up the road from my house, right here. Um, but it just takes the one. That was the seed that got planted to land me to this conversation that we're having right now. That was that was moment number one that sent me on this trajectory.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah. You know, and things are always going to be changing. We're changing on a cellular level every second. Our thoughts are changing, the environment around us is changing. So it would just be normal that our life would change. Right? We don't have that much control, right? We have control over our thoughts and our actions, and we can do some things. We do have agency, right? But clinging to things doesn't serve us in any way, which leads to number five, which is everything is interconnected. What does that mean for you?

Kelly Thrush:

Oh boy, it's all well. Let's start just with the physical. You touched on it earlier. You know, the the mind and body are one two parts of one unit. And uh we'll just we talked about stress. We'll talk about that. Stress is held into your at the cellular level in your body and inflammation. And I know that's a very broad word, and we talked a little bit about that in the book as far as how to break that down a little bit. But um it it's all interconnected. If you eat better and get good sleep, and notice how I didn't say perfect, I didn't say eat great, I just said eat better. Um, get good sleep and move your body in whatever fashion you want to move your body, you're gonna you're gonna have better thoughts. Yeah, and when you have better thoughts, you're gonna move your body and eat better. And I mean, it just it's just it's all connected to each other. Exactly.

Samantha Pruitt:

Exactly. I mean, uh biology and science are a real thing, you know, and it is fascinating. And there's so much science now of people that want to nerd out about this stuff because I want to do it all day long.

Kelly Thrush:

Oh, yeah.

Samantha Pruitt:

It's freaking fascinating how much what you think, and of course, what you put into your body. And when I say put in, I mean through your eyes, your ears, your mouth, of course, your skin, your oxygen, etc. All of these things have an influence over how you feel and how you think and process and see the world, right? It's all interconnected, and then from a human-to-human level, dude, you want to change your life, stop hanging out with the yahoos, like get out of the space that has not worked for you. Okay, stop hanging with the people that go to freaking McDonald's every night or go to the bar or whatever. Like all that interconnectedness, too, the amount of influence that there is upon us, we have control over that too. So, like, in every way you can think of, there's interconnectedness. So use it for the good.

Kelly Thrush:

Sure.

Samantha Pruitt:

Use it for change. Okay, let's get into some strategies. Uh, let me talk about clear the decks. Number one is clear the decks. What I mean by clear the decks is make some space for this healing journey. If you do not put some time and energy and resources into this healing journey, there's no room for it to actually happen. So people think, let me just add one more thing to my to-do list. No, you've got to clear the freaking decks, meaning that all this stuff you're focused on right now needs to get pushed aside until you are well. It doesn't mean you can't hold down a job and stay married. I'm not saying that. But all of this BS that you waste time on that you think is all that important doesn't mean shit. And it sure the hell won't when you're being wheeled into a hospital bed or when you're like me contemplating your life if it's going to be here tomorrow. It will mean nothing. So make time, make space, redirect some resources, okay, and invest. I call it self-investing. Um, number two is build your A-team. What does that mean to you? Who's your A-team?

Kelly Thrush:

Well, you just well, my A team specifically, I can name them. There's four of them, there's four of them right off the top of my head.

Samantha Pruitt:

What do they do for you?

Kelly Thrush:

Oh, they have they each have a different role specifically for my mental health, right? There's Jamie, my partner in crime with all of this stuff. I mean, she helps me. My wife's name is Jamie. She helps me in every which way. Um, so she's got the you know, the the number one starting gig. Um, but you build people around you that are emotionally invested in you in a good way, right? Because you can have you can have negative. Codependent. Correct.

Samantha Pruitt:

Not codependent.

Kelly Thrush:

But they want like um here's here's the best way to put it. Who are the people that when something good in your life happens that you would immediately call to tell them about? Because we all have the bad things that happen to us, and and really easy to relate to a stranger about the guy that cut you off on the way to work, right? It's easy to to bitch about things with people. But very rarely do I think do we call somebody to tell them something good that happened, right? It's a it's a small group, and I think those are the people, the cheerleaders that they just want to see you do well in whatever that is.

Samantha Pruitt:

Exactly. I mean, uh that's how I've always felt what a real coach's job is, is basically I'm gonna believe in you more than you believe in yourself. I'm gonna see more of what's possible for you than you currently see for yourself. Eventually you will see these things, right? But in the beginning, it's rough. I mean, how do you think you got into this mess?

Kelly Thrush:

Yeah.

Samantha Pruitt:

So having other people, a core group of people, even one, if you can just get one, right? Who believes in you, your worth, your potential, what is possible for you. And they are gonna show up every damn day until they see that freaking manifest, until they see that happen. They're not going anywhere, right? Unconditional, unconditional. Okay, the other one is number three. Hope is not a strategy. I I always say this. I love this one. It's not a freaking strategy. This is not like, God, I sure hope this thing works out. I wonder if I'm gonna survive this, you know, another DUI, another 50 pounds, another 10 pounds, another bypass surgery. Oh now, I'm pre-diabetic. Well, you know, like hoping that these things miraculously solve themselves is not a strategy. You actually have to have a plan and you gotta and work, right?

Kelly Thrush:

And do the work there there there are no shortcuts, there's no magic pills, there's no shortcuts, and some of it's hard, some of it kind of sucks. Yeah, but it's it's just the way it goes. And eventually, if you if you really get into it, the parts that quote unquote suck, they really become the fun parts, right? If you really get into it, like looking forward to those workouts at four in the morning, five in the morning, looking forward to, oh, we gotta do hill repeats today. Most people go, Oh, we have hill repeats today. No, man, that's the hard part. That's that's the best part of this, right? Is that is that the the trenches of getting to your goal, whatever it is.

Samantha Pruitt:

Well, you're waking up to yourself, you know, and when you do that a few times and you start to discover, hey, I got some skills in here, I I have some things to offer the world. I'm actually pretty cool, cat. But that's how you build confidence.

Kelly Thrush:

Right? That's how you build confidence is by doing hard things. You know, confidence isn't a personality trait, it's a red, it's a resume. Like, why are you confident that you can get this done? Because I've done similar stuff a hundred times. Exactly. And maybe, and maybe I failed 75 of those, or excuse me, 25 of those hundreds, but I but I accomplished 75, whatever it is, but that's how you build confidence where somebody throws a new challenge your way and you look at it and go, Yeah, I can do that.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, yeah, totally, totally. Okay, stacking wins. Oh, that's just what you went into next. You just slid right in there, you slid right in.

Kelly Thrush:

Yeah, yeah.

Samantha Pruitt:

Stacked the freaking wins. The first win for you when you got sober and you exited the hospital, because in the hospital you're in a controlled environment. So, you know, bro, you had some guardrails, but you step out into the real world, and what was your first win that you stacked?

Kelly Thrush:

There were two that come to mind. Uh, one of them, I'll paint the picture. We were taking our youngest for his eighth grade pictures, right? He was graduating eighth grade. Uh, and there's a little state park 10 minutes from my house, and it's gorgeous. It's deserts and whatnot. Now, at this point, I am 140 pounds. Uh, I can't walk any distance. I have to use a wheelchair. I can walk in the house, okay, but if we're leaving, I have to take a walker, a wheelchair with me. If I fall, somebody has to come get me. I can't get up on my own. And so I was not healthy yet. I was working on it. And I started with little, little things a couple weeks afterwards, where the first um, I was staying at my grandmother's house. The first one was, I'm gonna walk to the mailbox and back. And I did that a few days, and then it was the neighbor's house, and then it was the down the street house. The first big win was we were at this state park, and we put the parking lot's kind of up top, and then you have to walk meander down to where this vista and there's a cave there and all sorts of stuff. And so we took the the uh wheelchair ramp all the way kind of around this sort of hill into the platform there. About an hour goes by. I now tell Jamie, like, hey, I'm I'm I'm running out of steam. I got we gotta go, I gotta take a nap. I gotta get home. Okay, so as we're coming back, we come to a fork in the road. To the left is the wheelchair ramp, and all the way back around this hill. To the right are 17 steps to the parking lot, straight shot. And I all I did is I looked at the ramp and I looked at the steps and I looked back at the ramp, and I did that about three times. And then behind me, Jamie goes, No, please, please don't. And I looked at her, I said, I'm taking the stairs. And she goes, No, please just let's take the ramp, you're tired, and so I said, I'm taking the stairs. And then, of course, me being me, I looked at her, I said, and if you keep it up, I'm not even gonna use the handrails. And so I made the right and took all 17 steps and up we went. And I didn't use the handrails. Uh, and I got to the parking lot and I yelled, I gave in this very serene and quiet national park this this to quote John Keating, this barbaric yell of a woo. And I gave a stranger a high five, and I'm sure they're looking at this gaunt-faced, like baggy clothes, sickly looking human being that's giving him a high five and giving a yell. That was win number one. Win number two was ah months after. I don't know how far, but I'm I'm new to sober. I was less than a year sober. Um, I was in my car that I used to drive, and I was driving just driving wherever, and I went to go clean it out, and I found a very full shooter underneath the front seat.

Samantha Pruitt:

It was oh damn, buddy.

Kelly Thrush:

It was and it was just me. Nobody else is around.

Samantha Pruitt:

Anything could have happened.

Kelly Thrush:

Yep, and I stared at it for only a few seconds, it wasn't long. And I went and I threw it away. Um, and then I immediately told Jamie what happened. And that was a big win because that could have very easily gone the other direction. And because nobody nobody would have known until they knew, because now that one has turned into a whole case and I'm passed out in somebody's front lawn. But um, that was a big win. I I remember very specifically looking at that little shooter going, oh, well that because I didn't know it was there, it was underneath the seat, kind of stuffed in a crevice, you know. That was pretty cool.

Samantha Pruitt:

What you're reminding me of, it's freaking amazing, is how built is trust one decision at a time. You only need to make the right next decision. You don't have to think beyond that. And it doesn't matter if it's what are we having for dinner? Am I gonna drive through the freaking in and out burger on my way home, or am I gonna go home and make myself the meal I had planned to have? Because again, nobody would know if I'm doing that instead of this, right? Nobody would know if I'm getting up in the morning and getting my morning exercise in, except for me. Right? So it's all of these elements of building self-trust, and with that comes deep freaking respect. And you cannot, once you start building that back after a long ass dark road, when you start stacking them wins, yeah, you don't give that away. You don't give that away. That's basically your money. Progress, not perfection.

Kelly Thrush:

Oh, yeah, and ain't nobody perfect. Yeah, we can fuck it up every day, but we're every day, everyone fuck it up every day, like every day. Like it's it, but it's not about perfect. No, it's perfect, nothing is, you know. That's why I said earlier, I said eat better. Exactly. I didn't even say eat great, I just said eat better.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, and I don't believe in uh diets or nutritional programs that are, you know, I don't believe in that. I believe that each person is incredibly unique and individual. So what your needs are are definitely not what my needs are, and so on and so forth. And that's across the board, across the spectrum. Everybody's life is so unique, their body, their needs, etc., right? So there is no such thing. Stop looking at Instagram, clicking on the thing, buying the things, whatever, just stop, right? If you need some help with information, which is called real knowledge, and you want to read or listen to things and gain insight through actual factual knowledge and then make decisions for yourself, fantastic. If you need to get a coach or somebody to hold you accountable to help you with the steps, whether it's sobriety steps or nutrition and exercise steps or whatever the thing is, cool. There are people out there to help.

Kelly Thrush:

I have four coaches in my life. There you go. I have like my I have my running coach, I have an ultra coach, I have my personal trainer coach, and I have sobriety coaches. Like this awesome. And it's yeah, and it's you know, everybody needs that extra person there, maybe for the information for the accountability piece. That's mine. I I and I know it firsthand that if those 5 a.m. workouts, if it's just me, chances are I'm sleeping in.

Samantha Pruitt:

But if you need the accountability piece, it can't do it.

Kelly Thrush:

But if I'm needing five people to go for a run, okay, I'll be there.

Samantha Pruitt:

They're gonna be like, where's that dude? And there's a lot of info out there, so you might need help deciphering all of this. It's pretty nutty, okay? All right, now we're gonna shift to mindset. Uh go from I can't to I'm learning how.

Kelly Thrush:

Yeah, so I have one of my favorite ones uh is changing our relationship with the word failure, right? Like the F word. The F word. That's that's one of my speeches. It's called the F word. Uh and I I think most folks have an incorrect relationship with that word. Failure is just information. That's it. That's right. It's a feedback. Plain and simple. So you didn't achieve whatever goal that it is, yeah, right. Um, okay, figure out what you missed, when you missed it, how you missed it, what you need to change, and tweak it, and then go back and do it again. And eventually you're gonna get there that you don't have a choice.

Samantha Pruitt:

And even when it happens, who do you think you are? You think you have this much control, you know, that we can control all the things that are going. Okay, so I've had I've had eight businesses, I lived in so many different places, I've done literally hundreds of races over 200 races, no doubt. Some of them epic failures, just insane level of failure. I don't give a shit. I'm still showing up and doing the friggin' work. And I learned from each of those things, but in most instances, you have to be honest, like, I'm not the ultimate controller of the universe. Sure. Okay, I'm gonna give it all I've got, and that's what I've got today. Tomorrow, maybe I'll have more or something different, but this is what I have now, and you can only ask that of yourself, correct? Yep, yeah, that's all you can do. All right, number two, from punishment to nourishment. Ooh, this is a good one. Yeah.

Kelly Thrush:

Well, we kind of touched on it just a little bit ago, specifically about food, right? Yeah, and and I and I'm still guilty of this stuff where I'll I'll eat something that I wasn't on my plan to eat today. Boy, it sounded delicious. And I eat it, and as soon as I eat it, here come those thoughts. Like, oh, we shouldn't have done that earlier. I mean, it was 30 seconds worth of eating something, you know what I mean? Um, but it's okay. Like it's fine. I don't need to punish myself because I had a slice of pizza or or whatever, or two slices of pizza. You don't need to punish myself. It's fine. Now, the next right decision, all right, that's right decision, exactly. Make the next make the next one right, and then you'll go from there. And that's definitely win then, you know, and just those one one decision at a time. And if you nourish yourself with all the things we talked about, eating better, getting some sleep, and moving your body, uh if you if you do those three things as often as you can, you're you're gonna feel better. You there's no which way around it, you know, and things will come and things will come up.

Samantha Pruitt:

You won't be able to do it every day. Nourishing, dude, human connection.

Kelly Thrush:

Absolutely.

Samantha Pruitt:

You know, so many of these behaviors that we're talking about, these slippery slopes into the abyss, happen because people are freaking lonely and they feel disconnected from community, sometimes themselves, their own physical bodies, their own realities, their family, their whatever, right?

Kelly Thrush:

Well, and that's when your 18 comes in, you know. So if you have that moment or those thoughts or that disconnect, talk about it. Exactly. Yeah. Because the other human sitting across from you has had those thoughts. And if they say they haven't, they're lying to you. And they shouldn't be on your 18. Like it's clear.

Samantha Pruitt:

Or well, you're in recovery, and I've recently been experimenting and going out into the world and like checking it out. So I told you I went to a Dharma recovery meeting, which is a Buddhism-based recovery meeting, was amazing. Here I was. I totally loved it, by the way. Perfect strangers in a room. Didn't seem like anybody really knew each other. A few of them had been to this meeting before, but there was a lot of people that said, Hey, this is the first time I'm here or whatever. And there was community right there, completely free, completely available, with zero judgment. I mean, I was like, damn, this is freaking beautiful. I find community generally, like at my local coffee shop and in my gym, and you know, with my people or whatever all is going on. And I feel like it's just a normal part of the life I live now. But for many years, I didn't live that life, and I definitely was isolated, feeling horrible, grinding out the day, just trying to get through the emotions, you know, just basically survive. So if you're feeling like crap, before you do one of these other moves, you might consider reaching out to a human being, and that might be enough to satiate that calling, whatever the calling might be.

Kelly Thrush:

And it could just be a random email or phone call to you or I, you know, because especially in the sobriety world, on that realm of this workbook, uh, if somebody reaches out in my day-to-day life about sobriety type questions, one, there is zero judgment because whatever your story you're about to tell me, I got a similar one. Exactly. And same, yeah, there's there's zero judgment behind any of it. And then we're just gonna sit here and talk about whatever it is, you know, and try to rewire some of those thoughts that you're having behind it.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, yeah. And we never want another human to feel like there's nobody out there. We have zero problem talking to strangers all day long. You know, somebody could message or DME, fine by me. You know, let's go. No, again, no judgment, whatever the conversation is. And it might just be as simple as bearing witness to that person's suffering for a moment, right? Yeah, we've all freaking been there. Okay, so shame, go from shame to empowerment. This is a mindset shift, critical mindset shift. We've talked about shame quite a bit. What the hell is empowering?

Kelly Thrush:

You have oh boy, how do you define that? So empowerment, um giving yourself the giving and it is it is giving yourself the right to have these things that are that you want in front of you, whether that's sobriety or eating healthy or whatever it is. Um you have to empower yourself to be allowed those, if that makes sense, right? Because you are it's all the things we talked about. You are worthy of them, right? There is no shame behind whatever has already happened yesterday. It's yesterday. Gone, can't do nothing about it. Yep. And and you have you can deserve and earn those things in front of you by going through it. And that's empower, it's very empowering when you cross that bridge.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah. And empowerment to me really is yeah, having a sense of agency over my own existence and decisions and giving no power to people outside of me. Never giving up my power. I don't really care if it's my husband, my spouse, my boss, whomever. He ain't the boss of me. Anything that I do with this, and I do a lot of crazy shit, you know. I still continue to, I take full responsibility for the good, the bad, and the ugly. And that makes me feel so empowered, you know, is that I can get myself out of really crazy circumstances, you know, and also create magnificent things. This is what I'm doing in the world. I get to own all of those things, right? So with it comes responsibility and agency over making the next right decision and doing it different moving forward, creating whatever. Dream about anything, let's make it happen, right? Okay, uh, temporary fixes. Oh, hell no, to a lifestyle choice. That is definitely a different way of seeing the world. Sure.

Kelly Thrush:

Well, there is no temporary fixes, right? There is no there's no magic bill, like I said earlier.

Samantha Pruitt:

It's not a fix then.

Kelly Thrush:

Yeah, you can well, it's it's that diet analogy I gave earlier, right? You can band-aid it for a little while, but that's it. And then eventually whatever is that you're working on is gonna come back. And in the case of for me in sobriety, if I were to decide to like I tell Jamie all the time, like if I were to decide to drink today for whatever reasons, today's today's the day, okay. Uh, three weeks from now, maybe two, it will be back with a vengeance and it will be worse than it was seven years ago, eight years ago, right? Um, it's just the way it goes. There are no temporary fixes. This is this is how it is.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, and that's what happens with unhealthy weight loss as well. Right. Yeah, you see that rebound, right? You hear about it all the time. Absolutely. The body is not stupid, right? It really loves comfort zones. You think you, as the human, love a comfort zone? Well, the physical body is all about comfort zones. And so doing drastic things, you know, losing 20 pounds to get in your wedding dress or crazy ass diets or exercise regimens or even all of these things that are being sold in the marketplace. What was so wild for me on my journey when I lost the 50 pounds was that I, of course, did it all naturally, but I didn't really know another way. And I guess I didn't have the resources or the money or whatever to do any other crazy radical stuff. But when I was growing up, you know, I definitely did disordered eating and experienced a lot of body dysmorphia and issues with my body as a young female, you know, growing up trying to figure stuff out. But then when I was an adult and I was heavy all of a sudden and I needed to lose weight, I guess it's because I got educated. I guess it's really the only thing that saved me, or else I probably would have gone right back down that slippery slope of a form of self-abuse through either starvation dieting or some other of old tricks, right? But I learned how the body actually works, and I realized that none of that stuff was ever gonna stick. And so if I wanted to really feel good in my body, then I was gonna have to do it the right way, just basically through solid nutrition, you know, exercise, sleep, and all of the lifestyle choices that come with that. Now that's a hell of a lot slower, yeah, but good thing I am patient. Yeah, you know, when you're self-investing, you better be patient.

Kelly Thrush:

Sure.

Samantha Pruitt:

I'm uh, you know, we didn't get here overnight, we didn't create these situations overnight. Why should they be transformed overnight, right? Yeah, correct. Yeah, okay, and then the last one. Ooh, so the last mindset shift is going from I deserve to suffer because of these behaviors, that's again attached to the shame and the guilt, to my team wants me to win and they will help me win.

Kelly Thrush:

I think this might be for me probably the hardest one that I had to overcome. And I don't think I'm perfect at it yet. There's I have moments still uh where where a a memory will pop in uh of something I did in my past or that I didn't do. In my past or whatever. Sure. I think this is the for me, this was one of the hardest ones to overcome. Uh because for a long time, even after this beautiful gift that I have been given, the second lease on life, immediately was like, I don't deserve this. They should have picked somebody else in that hospital. Because there was somebody else that was in a similar boat that needed a liver that same day as me. Somewhere in the United States, there was somebody. For sure. Yeah. Why would they give this to me? Um, and I think it's it's a culmination of all the things that we've talked about. If you stack enough of those wins and you build a resume of things that you are proud of, and they don't have to be, you know, extravagant. They're just things that you're proud of that you have either done or not done, or whatever. Um, you're you're gonna know that you want yourself to win, that a team truly believes in you.

Samantha Pruitt:

Exactly.

Kelly Thrush:

You know, it's they they are people that want it's that coach that you were describing, you know. They want it and see it probably more than you do. And once once you build enough of that and you kind of get the doors open to that vision, uh man, it's beautiful.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, and what you'll find is that you'll start being of service to others along the way. Okay, so you become more and more quote unquote deserving. We're saying you're deserving irrelevant of anything. You don't have to do jack shit. You deserve 100% of this. But what you will find on the journey is as you go out into the world and you become of service to others by sharing your story or whatever it is you choose to do to be engaged, you're gonna be impacting other people's lives, right? You're gonna be building your own awareness to your value. The value is already there. You're just gonna be shining a freaking light on how much value you actually bring into the world, how many people's lives you do impact, how many people do love you, the work you've actually done in the world, the things you've accomplished will be showing up. They were already there, but all of a sudden, you just fall back, exactly, exactly. And you're like, damn, okay, okay. So all the crazy shit that you want to forget, you feel guilty and shameful about soon will be run over with tremendous amounts of things that you're doing or have already done. It will happen. And these people, your A-Team will remind you of this.

Kelly Thrush:

Sure. And that positive, that positive energy is contagious. Yeah, it it has momentum, all of those things where one little act of kindness or of service will will create another situation for it. It just will, because it'll you'll you'll start to notice them. Uh you'll start to notice the opportunities more frequently, right?

Samantha Pruitt:

Because you'll be attracting them to you, but also you're freaking awake. All of a sudden you're awake. Yeah. You know, you snap out of zombie mode for a day or two and you start to see things. We can laugh about it, and you have to laugh about it. We should have added that. Have a damn good sense of humor. Sure. Okay, people. Don't take life so goddamn seriously. Seriously. I mean, come on, there's no reason. Half of the stuff that we've done, if not more, is slightly ludicrous and it's definitely hilarious. Hilarious.

Kelly Thrush:

Yep.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yep. All right, my friend, that's a wrap for this. What do we want to say to people in our closing argument? Why should they go and download the workbook that will be attached to this podcast and in our bios?

Kelly Thrush:

Well, I think there's your, not yours, the people who are reading this, your, right, or listen watching this, your. Um, the most important thing in your life is your health and well-being, right? Whether sobriety or food or whatever, right? Um, I say it in sobriety often because I work a lot with people who are brand new. Like yesterday they were drinking, today they're trying not to. Okay. And the hurdle we have to overcome is their sobriety is the most important thing on the planet. It's more important than their kids, it's more important than their wife, than their jobs, and their so forth and so on. Because if you don't have that sobriety, you can't have any of the others. That's right. They go away. Yep. I I know firsthand. They go away. Um, so that's the one. Um, and I think that there's a I wish I remember I thought about them earlier. There's there was a monk that I follow on Instagram. You probably know the quote, but it's when you are healthy, you have a thousand problems. When you are unhealthy, you have one.

Samantha Pruitt:

That's right. And this might be an AA thing or a recovery drama thing, I'm not sure. But basically, I heard you give up one thing for everything, or you lose everything for the one thing.

Kelly Thrush:

For the one thing.

Samantha Pruitt:

It's your call. It's your call.

Kelly Thrush:

Those are in the rooms. Yeah.

Samantha Pruitt:

Boom, baby. That's so beautiful, really. And we really are talking about everything, like everything that is not only feeling good in the physical body when you come to terms and start to do this work, but it's also what is possible for your freaking life. Right? Everything changes. My entire world changed. Your entire world changed. It continues to change in incredible ways that I would have never freaking imagined. And I'm sure it's the same for you.

Kelly Thrush:

Absolutely. Had I not gotten sober, well, first and foremost, had I not gotten sober, I'd be dead. So that's, I mean, number one, I would not have made it. Um, if so many different dominoes had to fall at the moment they fell for me to actually exist in this world today. That's one. But if I were to continue have been drinking and and and um not been sober, I could I couldn't have been present for this conversation. I couldn't have been present as we built this book, I couldn't have uh emotionally attached myself to so many wonderful people that are now a part of my life and so many different avenues. There's no way that any of that stuff would have happened. And that's the beautiful part is when when the when the floodgates open on the other side on the other side of healthy, whatever healthy is, yeah. God, it's amazing. It is just amazing.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, it's crazy.

Kelly Thrush:

I love it, it's more beautiful than I ever would have thought.

Samantha Pruitt:

And we're just getting started. There will be a lot more to come. Obviously, both you and I are uh writing books ever so slowly, but they will get out and posting workshops and having events, and like we're we're we're out in the world making ourselves available for any human, literally any human. Let's rock and roll. If you're ready for this work, we're ready for you.

Kelly Thrush:

Heck yeah. Stay tuned.

Samantha Pruitt:

Stay tuned. All right, beautiful humans. Like we say at the end of every show, how your life feels is more important than how it looks. And thanks to my beautiful friend Kelly for being a special guest yet again. And I'm so stoked that we're doing this work together. I'm so stoked.

Kelly Thrush:

I'm excited.

Samantha Pruitt:

I can't wait to see what happens next. All right, we'll see you next time.

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Polly Mertens

Co-host
Head Shot

Samantha Pruitt

Co-host