Episode 460: Wesley Hunt: The "Sweat Every Day" Rule That Built a Congressman's Unbreakable Mindset

13m
What's the secret to building discipline that actually sticks? In this Fitness Friday episode on the Habits and Hustle podcast, Congressman Wesley Hunt shares his no-nonsense approach to developing mental toughness through daily physical challenges.

We discuss why sweating every single day is non-negotiable - even if it means walking five miles on a treadmill after a steak dinner. We also explore his "just do it consistently" philosophy, the power of accomplishment psychology, and why he chooses intermittent fasting and strategic workout timing over perfection.

Wesley Hunt represents Congressional District 38 in Houston, Texas. A West Point graduate and former Apache helicopter pilot with three master's degrees from Cornell, Hunt served eight years in the Army before entering politics. He recently interviewed for Secretary of Defense and continues to serve on the House Judiciary and Natural Resources committees.

What we discuss:

The "sweat every day" rule for building discipline

Why consistency beats perfection in fitness routines

Using superficial goals (beach body) as legitimate motivation

Michael Jordan's self-motivation mind tricks

One meal a day strategy for busy travel schedules

Working out between noon and 4 PM vs. morning routines

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Find more about Wesley Hunt:

Website: https://hunt.house.gov/

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Transcript

Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins.

You're listening to Habits and Hustle, Gresham.

Hey, friends, you're listening to Fitness Friday on the Habits and Hustle podcast, where myself and my friends share quick and very actionable advice for you becoming your healthiest self.

So stay tuned and let me know how you leveled up.

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Okay, so let's talk about discipline.

I think it's a big one.

We said it a few times here, right?

How to build discipline, right?

I'm a big person.

I'm a believer that the number one thing,

besides doing all these other, you know, ancillary things and this, that, and the other, I think the first thing is you need to have a daily like workout regimen.

That's the best way to build discipline, in my opinion.

And it teaches you so many different skills.

How do you feel?

What are the best ways?

If someone's listening to this podcast,

and if they're not that disciplined, how do they start

training that muscle?

My first word of advice is do something where you sweat every day.

When you're starting off, it doesn't matter what that is.

Go on a mile walk.

I don't care.

Go on a mile walk.

Go to the gym whenever you can.

Even go to the sauna if you need to do something where you break a sweat every single day.

Because that's the challenge that you have to put in your mind that you have to overcome that.

And it lingers in your mind every day.

So, you know, if I start getting to the afternoon, even at night and I've had a very busy day and I get back to my house in Houston, I get back to my apartment up here in DC and I haven't worked out yet.

I'm not putting my head in the pillow unless I go do something where I work out.

There have been times where I've been busy all day, going, went out to dinner, had a steak and dessert and all this stuff.

I haven't worked out, get back to my apartment, and I go walk on the treadmill for five miles.

For five miles?

Almost I can't sleep.

I mean, also, I think working out, people have this like idea that like, oh i'm too tired i can't work out but like energy begets energy right like i feel way more energized when i work out not not to mention the mood enhancing thing like if i don't work out my my productivity throughout the day is so much worse than if i actually did that workout psyche the human psyche and human condition human condition thrives on accomplishment

So as difficult as it was to get to the gym, the level of accomplishment that I feel when I am done is always worth it.

Yes, I totally agree with you.

It is just sometimes getting there is always the hard part.

But once you get there and show up, you'd be surprised at what you can accomplish.

I think that level of accomplishment is like, I think that's a really great way of putting it because that level of accomplishment,

it kind of proves to yourself, like, A, number one, I did it.

So there's like this like feeling of like, confidence that you get that you actually followed through and that you finished something but it does like shift in your brain something where it just allows for everything else.

I feel like to me, that's why it's the most fundamental habit before you, before anything else.

And I get like, I get why you did that.

Like, even though it was like 10 o'clock, let's say you got home from dinner, you had this huge steak or whatever else, but you probably felt so like gross that you needed to kind of do that to kind of

offset it.

Yep.

Offset it, right?

Yeah.

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What are other things?

Like, tell me how other ways that people can start training that disciplined muscle, in your opinion.

My best friend from Westbrook was

a powerlifting champion while we were there.

His name was Adam Smoot, and he was a physical freak of nature.

Just a complete animal.

And everybody would always ask him for advice, like Adam, like, what do we do?

You know, like, what program,

what supplement?

Like, how much protein?

Like, do you do creative?

Do you all this stuff?

He had the best answer that stuck with me now for over 20 years.

He said, it doesn't matter what you do.

Just do it consistently.

He goes, go find a workout program.

Go find a workout regimen that's conducive for your schedule and your life and your needs, what your goals are, are, and just do it consistently.

And you will ultimately get better.

And then as you get better and you see improvement, well, then you want to see more improvement, want to get better.

And then that's how you start to build that drive within you.

You start, you start losing some weight.

You start getting stronger here and there.

You're like, well, I'm going to get stronger.

I'm looking pretty good.

How can I get better?

That's one way of doing it.

The other thing you talked about was setting a goal for yourself.

So like summer is coming.

Summer is always coming.

Spring break is always coming.

This is back.

This is back in the day.

We were going to Cancun and Acapulco, all that fun stuff.

It's like, you don't want to go Cancun and Acapulco looking like a slob.

So

you start realizing that, like, I want to work out because I want to look good when I'm on the beach.

That might seem like something that's like so, so mundane and so subtle that like, who cares about that kind of thing?

But it's

like, it's so superficial, but that sometimes is all you need.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Like, how do you, how do you motivate yourself to give yourself that drive?

Yeah.

I'm a huge Michael Jordan fan.

And now that you're seeing all these stories come out about Michael Jordan and things that he did to motivate himself, he would lie to himself about one of his opponents talking trash about him just to get himself going in the game.

And then he would obviously go out and score 40 points and be like, what happened?

Well, I told myself that this dude said that I wasn't the best player in the world.

Another player would be like, I never said that.

Well, I told myself that to get myself going.

That's just one example.

I know.

Whatever you can do to motivate yourself,

it might be literally as superficial as I want to look good when I go to the beach.

Totally.

I think like, and there's nothing wrong with having these mental mind tricks.

Like all you should think, you should hear some of the crazy ideas or the crazy things that go through my hand when I'm running just to kind of keep me from stopping.

Right.

Because I think the funny thing is everyone thinks for me, and they're like, oh, how would you stay so motivated?

Believe me, it's not motivation.

It's actually discipline.

I don't love working out.

I hate it.

I hated it today.

I hated it yesterday.

I dread it.

But it's that feeling of accomplishment and feeling of I did something that like helps me go through the rest of my day in a different, in a different mindset.

So it's not about liking it.

God knows.

I do a lot of things I hate.

Right.

And, but I was also going to say about the Michael Jordan thing, like to me, it's like whatever gets you to do what you need to do, who cares?

But what I, what I was also going to say, and I can't really remember what I was going to say now, but that, but I don't remember now.

But one of the things for me, too, is like I have little kids.

I have six, four, and two-year-old.

And

I want to be healthy for them.

Yeah.

I mean, by the time they're graduating high school and college and all this stuff, I still want to be, I still want to be a tip-top shape for them.

You know, so it's not just about, it's not just about you.

It's about your family.

It's about your overall health.

It's important to be a healthy person, to have a leaner phenotype.

All these things were really important, not just for, you know, for the superficial side of it, for the look side of it, but for the functional health side of it, too.

Absolutely.

So, what is your routine?

Give me your day.

What's the day in the life now?

Uh, for my workout splits, or just in general, like, give me your what's your habits?

Like, what are your mate?

What's your morning routine?

What's your habits?

Like, how do you stay?

Here's the crazy thing about being a congressman.

Every day is different.

I actually don't have a set day, so a set like time.

Like, yeah,

at the same time every day, it depends on when I can squeeze it.

And so, usually, I carve out time at some point, a couple of hours between noon and four o'clock is when I go to the gym.

I also eat one meal a day.

That's my thing.

I eat one meal a day.

And that meal usually comes at about between four and six o'clock because you get up to DC, running around, you're traveling all over the country.

I was on 138 flights last year.

And so by the time you're done with breakfast and then lunch and then cocktail hour and then happy hour and then dinner, you look up and you've gained like 20 pounds.

So I have made this a very simple proposition for myself.

One meal a day, work out between noon and four o'clock at some point, accomplish those two things.

I'm good to go.

That works for me.

Doesn't work for everybody else.

Some people don't have time to leave working meal a day.

So you got to get up in the morning.

You got to do it at night.

What I discourage people from working out at night, because by the time you get home and you've had a full day, it can be quite difficult to motivate yourself.

Therefore, getting up in the morning and knocking it out is also not a terrible terrible.

Right.

Why don't you do that then?

Why are you waiting until noon to four?

Why don't you just like knock it out the first thing in the morning?

Because I got old.

Now you got old.

And I got old.

And getting up in the morning, I'm not, I want to have a very good workout.

I want to walk around for a little while, get, get, get the joints going, get moving around, feel awake, and then do it.

If I have to get up in the morning, I will, though.

So there, there are times where I look at my schedule, and the only time I can do this is at five o'clock in the morning.

And I'm in the gym at five o'clock in the morning.