Forged by FIRE with Ryan Rodriquez

The bulk of the food that we consume consists of carbohydrates, fats, and protein.  These are known as macronutrients.  Other elements that make up the foods that we eat are called micronutrients; these are the vitamins, minerals, and electrolytes that we intake.

Macros influence our body’s ability to digest food, absorb nutrients, and produce hormones.  They also impact our immune function, our metabolic function, cell structure and function, and our overall body composition.

In today’s episode, I’m going to talk about what macronutrients are, how they affect us, and how we can manipulate them to get the results that we want.

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Firefighter Podcast Facebook Community

IGNITEd Readers Book Club

MyFitnessPal (Macro tracker)

If It Fits Your Macros (Macro Calculator)

Eat This Much (Macro Meal Planner)

Body Fat Percentage Scale

How To Read and Understand A Nutrition Label

3 Keys to Dialing in Your Macronutrient Ratios

Federal Dietary Recommendations

We have a lot of different things occupying real estate in our minds at any given moment.  One thing that we sometimes forget about is the fact that WE are the owners of that real estate and make the choice as to who or what occupies that space.

While on the fireground or EMS scene it’s important that we remain focused.  But how can we work on that while we aren’t ON emergency scenes?

In today’s episode, I will talk about why it’s so important to train our brains, and I will provide some practical steps to take in order to become more disciplined in our mental game.

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Firefighter Podcast Facebook Community

IGNITEd Readers Book Club

GRIT: The Power of Passion and Perseverace

Beyond Grit: Ten Powerful Practices to Gain the High-Performance Edge

In today’s society we are told that we need to accept others for who they are.  But with that acceptance sometimes comes a lack of standards.  I said it in a recent podcast episode, “the minimum standard becomes the new standard.”

It can be unhealthy and even dangerous to cling to the level of acceptance that we are provided by the people we choose to be around.  Like it or not, we are all products of our environment, good or bad.

We all have a choice as to who we allow into our lives and how we allow their influence to affect us.  Today’s episode is focused on our mental health.  Specifically, how our mental health is affected by those who we allow in our lives and in our proximity.  I will talk about the different ways people affect us and possibly even stifle our potential and I will give you some strategies that you can implement in order to qualify your sphere of influence.

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Firefighter Podcast Facebook Community

IGNITEd Readers Book Club

Proverbs 27:17

“Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”

The self-contained breathing apparatus (or SCBA) has a direct impact when it comes to our personal safety on the fireground.  Our lives literally depend on it’s proper operation and use.  So, it’s not news to those of you who are currently serving as firefighters that you should be checking it off and making sure it’s in operating order at the beginning of each shift.

We may be operating with different sizes of SCBAs (30, 45, or 60 minute bottles).  Knowing what you’re working with is important, but what’s even MORE important is knowing how long you can make that bottle last when you’re working performing fireground operations.

There are a lot of factors that contribute to how long your bottle lasts.  Fortunately, you have control over one of the biggest factors; how you breathe.  A lot of this goes hand in hand with your level of fitness as well.  So, in today’s episode, I will talk about some of the limiting physical factors and how we can use conscious methods of breathing to help us maintain control and last longer when it counts.

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Firefighter Podcast Facebook Community

IGNITEd Readers Book Club

XRT Pro SCBA Firefighter Breathing Trainer

As we progress in our careers, sometimes we fall into complacency.  And like I mentioned in the previous episode, complacency kills!  As we become more complacent in our abilities, we place ourselves further to the “liability” category. 

When we sat in our interviews to get hired for the career of a lifetime, we told the panel that we’d bring a lot to the table.  We were motivated and eager to contribute to our respective organizations.  But, why does that change?  And what can we DO about it? 

You’ve heard me say it before; on the fireground, you are either an asset or a liability.  In today’s episode, I’m going to talk about what exactly that means and I will provide some steps that you can take to self-evaluate and work toward making the changes that may be needed in order to become the firefighter that you’d want on your crew!

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Firefighter Podcast Facebook Community 

IGNITEd Readers Book Club 

Are You an Asset or a Liability? 

Reducing Line-of-Duty Deaths Through Healthful Cooking

We hear a lot about mission, vision, and values when we go to our department trainings or when a new chief shows up, but do we think of them any other time? Or do we even hear them when we aren’t sitting in these meetings?  Maybe you don’t even hear them in those meetings!  And if that’s the case, then there is more work that needs to be done.  But I’m getting ahead of myself...before you can be a champion of your values, you first have to identify and then define what they are.

If your vision is what you want to do, your mission is how you get there; but it’s your VALUES that make you unique and set you apart from the other people and organizations around you. 

In today’s episode, we’ll review what core values are, how to identify them within yourself and your organization, and I will give you some steps you can take in order to implement them in your daily life so that you can be the firefighter you’d want on your crew; and be the organization that people would be proud to be a part of. 

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Firefighter Podcast Facebook Community 

12 Days of Leadership 

The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni 

Get a Grip by Gino Wickman & Mike Paton 

Chick-fil-A: Who We Are