2514: Hard Choices Easy Life with Jerzy Gregorek

LifeBlood: We talked about making discomfort comfortable in service of a healthy lifestyle, how to create new habits that will compound over time, the importance of having and sticking to a plan that works, how long it takes to create a new habit, and how to get started, with Jerzy Gregorek, creator of The Happy Body, and author. Listen to learn why feeling and looking better is only 30 minutes a day away! You can learn more about Jerzy at TheHappyBody.com, Instagram, X,Facebook, and LinkedIn. Get your copy of The Happy Body here:https://amzn.to/498Rc4Q Thanks, as always for listening! If you got some value and enjoyed the show, please leave us a review here:​​https://ratethispodcast.com/lifebloodpodcastYou can learn more about us at LifeBlood. Live, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook or you’d like to be a guest on the show, contact us at contact@LifeBlood. Live. Stay up to date by getting our monthly updates. Want to say “Thanks!” You can buy us a cup of coffee.https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lifebloodCopyright LifeBlood 2026.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:42Speaker 01

  Jersey Gregorek is the president of The Happy Body. He is a doctor of philosophy and is the author of The Happy Body: The Simple Science of Nutrition, Exercise, and Relaxation. Welcome to the show, Jersey.

• 0:56Speaker 02

  Thank you. I appreciate to be here.

• 0:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, excited to have you on. Tell us a little about your personal life, some more about your work, and why you do what you do.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  All right, so we talk about we have 20 minutes, not two hours. All right, I was a fireman in Poland, quick, right? When I was 19, I really appreciate to be a fireman. I really like the feeling of helping people and rescuing people. I really like that. And I liked so much that I went to the Fire Protection Academy Engineering in Warsaw and studied there for four years. And in 1981, solidarity was really at its peak, and the government tried to use the fire department against demonstrations.

• 1:48Speaker 02

  And that created a problem for us. We began the strike, and the strike was crushed 10 days after negotiations. So we didn't know what would happen with us, but we survived. And I think that that was Reshnev and the whole Soviets' way of approaching the countries was different, and we were lucky. And then came 89, and we were able to become free country.

• 2:30Speaker 02

  Because of what I had done with risking my life and fighting for freedom of Poland, I was given four different medals and in 2018, the president of Poland was giving me a cross for independence and he said, "I was nine years old when you were risking your life for my freedom, for my country that is today, and I am deeply appreciating that what you've done."

• 3:07Speaker 02

  So I began fighting for freedom, for independence early, went to Sweden, Germany, and came to the US in 86 and began the personal training work at a power source in Burbank. Really love to help people solve problems and any kind of physical problems, mental problems, and enjoy watching people getting better, happier.

• 3:44Speaker 02

  Love that and did that for 40 years and during the process, created the Habibade program, a program of why we do what we do, so there is all philosophy, why to do that, and then there is a plan, how to get this, how to live this skillfully, that kind of a life. And there is also a part of the diet and food and how to control the body weight that

• 4:20Speaker 02

  is important part of living long and living with calmness and joy, pleasantness, power, the strength, flexibility, all of it, we put into standards and...

• 4:39Speaker 02

  And published the book in 2009. After the book was published, everything was like instructional already there. The difficulties always is to actually practice and to achieve what we know. So the knowledge, the wisdom could be there, but the practice is hard. So we started creating different programs, different videos and to help people to practice. And today I started this everyday practice with people.

• 5:23Speaker 02

  I come to the Zoom and go through the Happy Body Practice. And it helps, I hope that it will help people to create the habit of the Happy Body, daily habit, and they will find a way through it to the joy, to the skills, to the, to the habit of doing something like that on a daily basis.

• 5:52Speaker 01

  Well, that's a beautiful thing. It certainly makes sense and your background and everything that you laid out is really compelling. And thank you for all of that.

• 6:01Speaker 02

  Thank you. Yeah, appreciate.

• 6:04Speaker 01

  And I work in personal finance and so it's not dissimilar. And I always liken, I sort of see the mirror reflection and I intellectually understand I'm supposed to be doing something, but it's really hard for me to do.

• 6:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, finance is interesting. I will talk about compound interest.

• 6:24Speaker 01

  There's so many, there's so many crossovers, right? It's like, I understand I'm supposed to not be spending so much money, yet I do. And I, I, I love the slogan behind you and on your websites, talking about hard choices, easy life, easy choices, hard life, because that's what it comes down to, right?

• 6:42Speaker 02

  Right, it's really hard to understand and practice this way of life. Because first, we don't know why and how to actually get there. So that's why I need to take a minute to talk about compound interest. So, compound interest happens when we have five dollars and, you know, we save five dollars a day. And after forty years, we have seventy-two thousand. But if we have compound interest, let's say ten percent, it can be a million.

• 7:20Speaker 02

  So, how to actually engage this compound interest is difficult because it's dangerous too. We can lose the money there, because you know. So, the exercise is kind of the same thing. We exercise every day for ten years and we don't have to change at all. Or actually, we can't even get worse. So, we can run, we can do things, and after ten years, we are worse than actually before. So, it is important to create this compound interest effect when it comes to exercise. And in order to create that, we have to be progressive and we have to improve.

• 8:04Speaker 02

  That's where the hard choice comes in. The hard choice is something that we do that actually creates us different than ever and better than ever. So, it means that, you know, we, let's say, getting stronger, faster, getting more money, and so on. So, it's always when not only the effort is there, but effort is logical, effort is compound, and effort delivers the progress.

• 8:43Speaker 01

  Effort is logical. So it's logical to exert ourselves and to try to try and improve ourselves.

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• 9:55Speaker 02

  Yes, exactly. So it's like athletes do. Athletes, when they go through the process, their hard choices, the logic of it is in the heads of the coach. And he knows what to do on a daily basis. So the athlete, after five years, the pole vaulter jumps from two meters to five meters, and there is a five years' gap to improvement and progress and so on. So that is the logic here, how to create the plan, how to make it happen, how to coach,

• 10:38Speaker 02

  how to train, how not to do too much, and how not to do not enough. So that's kind of a self-mastery is needed for everyone to create this independent way of living. And the happy body delivers that independent mastery.

• 11:00Speaker 01

  Which I think is such a beautiful thing. I am such a proponent of self-management, becoming a self-manager. We're always interconnected with other human beings. I don't want to be reliant on other human beings. So I appreciate that. So from a logic standpoint, it's if I do this consistently, this is the result that I can expect. And that's of value because I think it's the uncertainty is what leads to anxiety and how do I know that this thing is going to work? So I'm just not going to try or I'm going to stop doing it?

• 11:34Speaker 02

  Yes. So here is interesting that how we can coach ourselves and how we can use micro progression and how we can see micro progression in action. So we eliminate expectations that is too much. And that is usually what happens. And that's why we progress too fast. And once we progress too fast, it's too hard. It's actually too hard. We don't like it and we crush and we go to something else. So it is important, you know, element here, how to practice, how to coach yourself, how

• 12:15Speaker 02

  to become the self-coach, how to, how to progress and plan the progression that, that the body has time to adapt without too much struggle. So the body needs to adapt to the higher level of resistance. But this higher level of resistance requires, let's say, two weeks and three weeks of practice and not three days. So if we are wise enough to deliver that three weeks and then adapt, accumulate the place and then make the place comfortable, then we can move to another place.

• 12:57Speaker 02

  And, and these are the hard choices in action, hard choice in action when the body is ready, the hard choice can be presented.

• 13:09Speaker 01

  Comfort versus comfortable. Those are really similar words, but very different based on what I just heard you say, because certainly comfort for me could be just going through a drive-through and sitting on the couch. But something that's comfortable for me is that I exercise every day and I wake up early and I drink lots of water and I make sure I get a lot of sleep. But that's not comfortable for somebody who's just getting started.

• 13:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's so that the progression needs to be somehow looked into. So it is comfortable. You know, one of my clients said, "You make me comfortable in uncomfortable place." So how we actually can do that comfort in uncomfort, right? Well, that's really extremely important to create this compound interest idea. Because without compound interest, we cannot progress. But we need to progress, especially when we age and the body gets worse and so on.

• 14:14Speaker 02

  So it's already, you know, something happens to us that, you know, we become worse over time. So the compound interest here is, you know, extremely important. But how to engage it? How to, where to start is important. So when actually we can start in the place of the beginning. And where is the beginning? Everyone has to find the beginning. Let's say one person, the beginning of the, one person needs to squat on a 20-inch box. But the other one will be 12-inch and another one just to lower down three inches. And another one will start from 11 inches or the full squat. So.

• 15:01Speaker 02

  There is this way to find the beginning. You know, when I coached a survival policy boy for five years, I started with aluminium fifteen pounds bar and it was too much. So I started with three pounds bar, wooden three pounds bar. And progress after five years, the boy could, you know, press 170 pounds almost. So when we do the right thing and we have idea of what micro progression is and give it time to adapt, magic can happen, magic. It's what the coaches do and I guess what the, you know, people in finances do too, right?

• 15:45Speaker 02

  Because they really grow money in a compound interest, which we can easily lose.

• 15:55Speaker 01

  I love everything you're saying. So every day that we're doing this, assuming that we find the right beginning, that we are compounding and building and starting with a three pound weight and moving it all the way up to 170, which, which, which, which is amazing.

• 16:13Speaker 01

  We're proving to ourselves every day that we're somebody that's capable of doing this. We're reinforcing that, we're giving ourselves that great reputation.

• 16:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, so on a daily basis, we really need developing the habits first. At the beginning is tough because we don't have a habit and everything is hard. So I have to survive these two, three weeks to... That's why I say, well, you know, we have to fall in love with something that we don't like, but it's good for us. So when you think about that the happy body is good for you, then you have to survive this kind of two, three weeks going to the gym or doing this in the room and find the joy and pleasantness of movement

• 17:06Speaker 02

  once you get into it and no challenges beyond the capability of adaptation. How once you are able to do it after about three weeks?

• 17:21Speaker 02

  You can start feeling better. And that feeling is important because that feeling eventually will help you to get out of the bed on Sunday and go and do the training, right? Thirty minutes training. But when it's integrated, the habit sometimes, you know, take about 250 days. It is not like two weeks like what people say. It depends what is it. So integrate what, but when it's integrated, the feeling in you wants that. So when you wake up, you want to go and do the happy body. Because you, the feeling is not only that feeling when you go there and then do it

• 18:06Speaker 02

  and then feel better, the feeling is there. But also the craving, it's almost like crave the food. Like I would crave pierogies, you know, Polish food. Because it's so integrated in me. So about, you know, certain time when you integrate something, you, you, you do it and you don't even think that you're doing it, right? Because, you know, I, I do every day two trainings. I do the happy body on Olympic weightlifting. I don't really think about that. I, I go and I love it. So I drag myself there. So I go there.

• 18:43Speaker 00

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• 19:44Speaker 02

  So this important element here is that there is a practice, there is the feeling inside that does something what is really not comfortable or not really easy, but when it's integrated, the body system loves it and sends you there.

• 20:09Speaker 02

  You crave it, right?

• 20:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, I love the idea of falling in love with something that you don't like.

• 20:17Speaker 02

  But it's good for you. Well, you know, at the beginning, we somehow, we have to have a mental wisdom that something is good.

• 20:28Speaker 02

  And how we actually survive this time of integration? The only way that we can survive is that our philosophy about that has to be the way that it is good and I'm going to do it. It's hard for me. I don't want to go and do this training. I don't like this training, but I know it's good for me. And I'm going to fight for it. I'm going to make it integrated within my system, my body. So eventually I will like it, I will love it.

• 21:09Speaker 02

  And it's something that can be done and people do it. And it's necessary for, you know, people. So we have to find a way into it. Like, you know, do meditation, like, you know, Chopra said that TM is not tuning out, it's tuning in. So when you tune in to the happy body, you start feeling the pleasure of the movement. You start feeling the meditative system that works. You start becoming calmer and then the body becomes more water body,

• 21:54Speaker 02

  like, you know, Bruce Lee said. And then those feelings are, when they start happening, you start feeling better about yourself. If you're proud of yourself that you were able actually to pass this time. Of thinking that resisting it and not liking it.

• 22:18Speaker 01

  It strikes me that if I'm a person, if I'm an adult human being and I don't have a history of exercising or working out, that it could be pretty intimidating to walk into a gym. I don't know what I'm to expect. I don't want to get made fun of. I don't know how these machines work. So how do you think about making something accessible, making exercise and fitness accessible for people so they actually do it?

• 22:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, everybody is done at home with only a mat and light weights at the beginning. You don't need really a gym. You can be at a towel and two bottles of water and you begin. It is at the beginning, it is more about the movement, finding the joy and pleasure in the movement. So you start there. So it's not physically too hard. You find the flexibility. You find the limitations of flexibility. You are kind to yourself. You find this kindness

• 23:20Speaker 02

  of opening the limitations of the body. So it is, you know, another element here that you can experience. You can experience of the body and limitations and experience actually releasing the limitations. The limitation becomes different limitation. And when, once you, that happens, you feel better about yourself. You're actually becoming the master of that, what, you know, what happens. And, and when the days pass and, and then months and, and years, you become a master of that thing. And once you are in that place, when

• 24:05Speaker 02

  you do the movement and you find that something happens when you are sore or something, there is limitation, you will find instantly and you will be able to release it before it builds up. So this way is a preventive system for something that could happen to us. So if you achieve the full squat and then you go to the squat and fuel in the groin or cyclical or somewhere else, you know something is happening there. And since you integrated the system, you know how to deal with it, how to release it. And it's amazing.

• 24:45Speaker 01

  I think that is amazing, a very powerful thing.

• 24:49Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 24:49Speaker 01

  Being kind to myself, that's essential. I shouldn't yell at myself as being overweight and eating bad food. I should be, I should give myself grace.

• 24:58Speaker 02

  Negativity doesn't work, you know, I, I, I call it self hostility, you know, when, when we become negative to ourselves or to others, I, I see hostility. I see negative energy that is very painful. When people blame others, I tell them, you know, when somebody blames you, you have to see that somebody is in pain because somebody needs to blame you. So it's a, it's a hostile activity that, that people that, that actually manifest that, they need really help, they need really some kind of, they are mentally challenged,

• 25:42Speaker 02

  that I would say, you know, I'm really sad that people choose to be negative and choose to be, you know, blaming others or complaining. This is something that takes us away from focus on the present moment and actually what could happen.

• 26:03Speaker 02

  We become, you know, people that keep suffering and keep, and not doing anything in order to get better. And that's sad.

• 26:17Speaker 01

  I think that that is a sad thing. So a good way to keep yourself stuck.

• 26:23Speaker 02

  Yes, well, you know, but that, that, that is, that is an energy that is.

• 26:36Speaker 02

  I'm sad about that. People are in that.

• 26:43Speaker 02

  And it's hard to really find a way to help others to come out of it. So, you know, when I see people in this place, sometimes it takes a lot of time to unlock that, to help people to stop grieving, to stop, you know, hating themselves, you know, to stop, you know, blaming others and flip into the creativity, flip into, you know, self mastery and doing something that is beautiful, creative and progressive. It's so much goodness that can be created. It's amazing.

• 27:28Speaker 02

  But it's so sad when actually you get stuck in the place that takes us away from that, what is good, what is possible.

• 27:43Speaker 01

  Couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more. We are, I think that there's more for each one of us. And if we're willing to ask ourselves that question of what it is that I really want? And do I feel like there's more for me? And then to realize that the path to that, it won't be,

• 28:02Speaker 01

  it won't be, it won't be easy at first, but it is simple and it is accessible. And you've created a program for helping people to get on that path. So I'm grateful. Thank you so much for coming on, Jersey. Where can people learn more? How can people get involved with you and the Happy Body?

• 28:21Speaker 02

  Well, the best way is to start with thehappybody.com with our web. All the information is there. There is also the Happy Body Facebook where we put the information. So there's two.

• 28:37Speaker 02

  To begin, and you know, to get the book first, the Happy Body book, and read it, there is philosophy in the book, why we do what we do. And we spent, you know, half of the book is philosophy. And philosophy that answers why, why I would do every day 30 minutes, why I would, you know, wake up and do that. So it's important for that philosophy to happen. So, you know, I would start with the book, getting the book, reading the book. And from there, I see that people, after reading the book,

• 29:22Speaker 02

  many of them, they start relating, understanding what needs to be done. And then reach to the place, how to actually make the habit out of it.

• 29:38Speaker 01

  Love it. Well, if you enjoyed as much as I did, show Jersey your appreciation. Share today's show with a friend who also appreciates good ideas. Go to thehappybody.com and check out everything that Jersey and I have been talking about. Pick up your copy of The Happy Body. You can get that on the website as well. And I'll list all those in the notes of the show. Thanks, good Jersey.

• 29:58Speaker 02

  Fantastic. Thank you, Joshua. I appreciate being here. It was very interesting, very fast, but very precise. So, thank you.

• 30:08Speaker 01

  30 minutes a day is transferable to so many things, Jersey.

• 30:11Speaker 02

  That's it.

• 30:13Speaker 01

  Thanks again. And until next time, remember, do your part by doing your best.

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• 31:13Speaker 04

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