He’s a fitness coach and lifestyle coach with over 22 years of experience. 

Our host Wade T. Lightheart was excited to get another interview with Joe DiStefano - a true winner who overcame a traumatic brain injury years ago that astounded his doctors. His unique personal story gets covered in episode 99 of the Awesome Health Podcast (link below). 

After recovering, Joe built a successful health and wellness business called RUNGA - an experiential lifestyle brand that includes a robust online community of healthy-minded people. RUNGA has adapted to recent changes brought on by Covid and is still thriving today. Joe loves empowering individuals to live highly effective and sustainable lives that fuel health, wellness, and performance. 

Through the course of Joe’s career journey as a fitness trainer, he has put together a unique method for sustainable happiness that is the primary focus of this episode. Listen in and discover Joe’s six life-changing methods that are so simple, anyone can do them. When done consistently, Joe’s clients achieve a reliably steady level of overall wellbeing. 

Joe is also the host of the STACKED podcast, where he interviews compelling guests on topics related to health and wellness. Wade is one of those exciting guests. (Link to Wade’s interview on STACKED below.) 

In this podcast, we cover:

• Why you cannot rely on the government to keep you healthy
• Joe’s six powerful methods for living life with sustainable happiness (one is intermittent fasting)
• The type of people reaching out to Joe and what they’re looking for
• How Joe defines the differences between fitness and health
• How Joe coaches former athletes who are aging and need to make adjustments in their fitness routines and goals
• Why kettlebell workouts help you sustain happiness
• The health benefits of cold immersion (another of the six methods to lasting happiness)
•  The urgency to take responsibility for your wellness in 2021

People contact RUNGA to find THIS

Wade asks Joe at one point: what does a typical client of RUNGA look like, and what are their needs? 

Joe describes his customer base as a spectrum of avatars. Some are like Wade - they know their stuff and want to find a community of like-minded people. Another avatar consists of fitness buffs who have not achieved their fitness goals for whatever reason - it could be a trauma or some emotional barrier or a negative relationship with food. 

Joe and his team carry out a careful application process. Every person that wants to come in is personally spoken to - and heard. 

Through that application process, RUNGA then curates a group of people that Joe and his team believe will work well together. This group grows close during the RUNGA four-day events. Sometimes a group that is dealing with the same issue gets curated together. 

On the outside, these clients might appear quite different. However, they all need to find a sense of stillness. They need to quiet the mental chatter, addiction to the latest and greatest, new diet, new things, etc. 

RUNGA brings people back to the basics. Joe’s clients have a profound interest in health and wellness, but they know something is missing, something isn’t right. They might look like Mr. Universe but still suffer health issues (like Wade did years ago.) 

How to get back to daily exercise when life takes you off course for a while

During the interview, Wade asks Joe how a person can get their fitness back on track after letting themselves go during the pandemic. (People in the U.S. have gained an average of 29 pounds since the lockdowns began in 2020.) 

Joe’s response: “As long as you make space for (exercise), and you understand that that happens automatically, and you don’t try to force anything, it’ll happen and take you on this journey. I think we’re so used to being in control. We are used to forcing everything and working for it. We can’t let go enough.”

“That’s one thing I can help people with - that understanding. I just had a call with a woman who had some surgery, and now she’s saying, ‘I gotta get back to the gym. I gotta do this.’ You know, she just had her neck cut open. She’s got a big wound there. So I’m like, “Hey, right now, be a little easy on yourself. If I told you right now to do a thousand burpees in your garage, that’s not going to be good for you. What would be good for you is to walk into your garage and peddle a few times on your bike. Pick up a kettlebell a couple of times, and leave. Because we’re trying to anchor that habit of getting into the garage, but we’re not judging what happens in the garage right now.”

“All we’re doing is maintaining that habit so that the wheels don’t fall off. Then, when you’re ready to crush it again, you don’t have to start at zero because the routine of going into the garage at 10:00 a.m. never leaves.” 

As the pandemic fizzles out, now is the perfect time to get back to living a more fit and healthy lifestyle. If you are tired of working out alone in your basement and are yearning to find a community of health-minded people who want to achieve a more consistent, steady level of happiness and contentment, tune in to this episode. Joe explains the six methods to feeling great every day. You just have to “anchor the habit” because the government can’t do it for you! They don’t even know how, obviously! 

Listen to Joe - practice these six simple things and get ready for more energy and bliss! 

Episode Resources:www.rungalife.com www.coachjoedi.com Stacked Podcast Runga Life on Instagram @rungalifeJoe Distefano on Instagram @coachjoediRunga Life on Facebook /RUNGALIFERunga YouTube ChannelJoe DisStefano on Twitter: @coachjoediJoe Distefano LinkedIn ProfileAwesome Health Podcast Episode 99: Overcoming Obstacles and Finding a Tribe with Joe DiStefanoSTACKED Podcast Episode 63: How To Reverse Magnesium Deficiency & Optimize Your Biology with Wade Lightheart Use code AWESOME for 25% off Runga Mobility balls (https://www.rungalife.com/shop/runga-mobility-balls)