The 5 Steps to Becoming the Fittest You've Ever Been (For Life This Time) | Mind Pump 2886

Key Takeaway

True fitness isn't about making your body your life—it's about using fitness to enhance every part of your life. The sweet spot? Being strong enough to do what matters, moving well enough to play and have fun, and maintaining a healthy body composition (11-18% body fat for men, low 20s for women) without obsession. If you can't take a week off training without it messing with your head, fitness has become your identity rather than a tool for living better.

Episode Overview

This episode explores what sustainable, healthy fitness really looks like. The hosts discuss how their relationships with training and nutrition have evolved from performance-driven or aesthetic-obsessed approaches to viewing fitness as a tool that enhances quality of life without consuming it. They outline five key components of true fitness and emphasize the importance of strength, mobility, and balance over extreme body composition goals.

Full Transcript

Transcript of The 5 Steps to Becoming the Fittest You've Ever Been (For Life This Time) | Mind Pump 2886 from Mind Pump Show. Auto-generated from episode audio; may contain minor errors.

All All right, look. We're going to give you five steps to get you the fittest you've ever been in your entire life. Follow these. It will work. Let's define it first. Let's go. Yeah. Let's first define. Are we going Yeah. Are we aesthetics? Uh or are we talking about movement, mobility, or are we talking about all both? both? both? Let's talk about that cuz uh when I say fittest, I think people start to have different ideas. I would I would I would imagine most people's idea of fittest uh is like the best that they look.

That's what I would think. Like the most lean and the most that are like their most conditioned. For some reason, a lot of people think that like ah I can get up and run on you know so many miles. Yeah. So I I want to define what true and good fitness really looks like. Uh and the context here is um it's got to last. Uh it's got to last and uh it should last for the rest of your life. Okay. I I'm not interested just as a coach or as a personal trainer.

Um I'm not interested in helping people or not as interested I should say in helping people accomplish a flash in the pan experience with fitness because that doesn't really help um anybody. What I'm cons what I'm concerned with the most or what I'm most interested in or I should say in the back half of my career when I started figuring things out a little bit was uh how do I get somebody uh to want to do this uh and what does this look like forever? um because it could truly be life-changing.

Um and so I think that's kind of the direction that we should probably go. Um and so I I I think the first kind of qualifier is for that if that's what you want and I think everybody watching probably would say that sounds awesome. I think I'd like that is uh it should improve your life. Yeah. Like it's going to enhance everything that you're already doing. Like it's going to complement it really well. well. well. Yes. Um I love talking about this uh to people. Uh, you know, I just recently for [snorts] the last maybe six weeks started uh personal training again.

It's just one client. It's a friend of mine. Um, great guy. I've talked to you guys about him uh before on the show. He's a ER doctor, super smart dude. And um so I get to have these conversations again uh one-on-one, which uh you know, side note, by the way, it's it's really remarkable how when you stop training people for so long, um how you kind of forget uh what it's what it's like to train people. It's like you're out of practice. practice. practice. Yeah. Uh, and I get to have all these great conversations I used to have all the time, uh, with my clients.

And we were talking about this and I said, you know, there really isn't an area of your life that proper fitness wouldn't improve. Like, think of your life and think of all the areas of your life that are important to you. Uh, it could be your work. Uh, it could be your family life. It could be as a husband or a father, a mother, uh, or a wife. It could be relationships with other people. Um it could be uh things like mental health, depression, anxiety, could be energy, libido, sleep.

Like there isn't an aspect of your life that you won't have a better experience with if your fitness isn't better. So it's a quality of life enhancer across the board. Another way to say that is, you know, whatever the thing is that is your top priority, whether it's being a father, a husband, uh your job and profession, your sport, the whatever it is that you care most about is, you know, would the healthier version of you enjoy that or be better at that, right? right? right?

That's That's That's on on the other side too and in in every aspect. aspect. aspect. Totally. And then on the other side of that, uh, you live a long life. You're going to go through challenges. You're going to go through suffering or illness or deaths or, you know, loss of your job or whatever. In those moments, a more fit version of you, again, in the truest sense, is more resilient resilient resilient for sure. for sure. for sure. And more better outlook for sure. 100%. Um, now there's a key here, and that is that it doesn't become your life.

life. life. I'm glad you put that in there. Yes. because you can make fitness your life, which looks like obsession, body obsession, uh it could look like um orthorexia. Uh that's not what we're talking about. What we're talking about is this tool that can improve everything um if it's used uh properly, which is great because what I love most about this uh one of the most I'd say probably, for lack of a better term, bastardized terms in health is balance. You see this in business, too.

I know Adam hates it when people talk about balance uh with with business. Um it's this kind of bastardized term because like what does that mean? That mean you do an equal amount of everything. Uh life never looks like that. Like I don't know about you know as a parent I don't think you ever have balance uh or as a spouse or as a business owner there's no like equal you know I I spend you know 25% of time here 25% here. That's not what balance look like.

What balance looks like with fitness is uh I can modify my training and my nutrition to improve my life regardless of what's going on. I had uh an an experience of this. I've talked about this before where I went through a really difficult period of time when somebody close to me was um terminal had terminal cancer and um you know I somebody I really cared about deeply and my workouts and my nutrition looked very different during that period of time. um it very quickly turned into turned into turned into keeping me healthy enough and strong enough uh and resilient enough to be there for this person and for my family.

And so balance was kind of baked in. Balance also looks like like this. Um you know, I'm going to go out with you guys. We're going to go out to dinner. We never go out to dinner, right? Uh altogether unless we're traveling. Am I going to sit there and count every macro and look at my food like I'm, you know, trying to maximize my aesthetics? Or am I going to sit there and enjoy hanging out with, you know, some of my best friends and business partners?

Um, it also looks like this. I'm going to the gym today. Man, I am stiff. I am tired. I think today I'm going to do mobility and stretching. Uh, or hey, I got a lot on my mind. I think I'm going to listen to a book while I walk on the treadmill. Or, hey, I am on fire, man. I feel great. I got great sleep. let's go get after it in the gym. Balance is baked into this kind of naturally when you look at it as a way to improve the quality of your life and the important things in life.

How has this changed and evolved for both of you guys in your because obviously uh convincing the two you or anybody else that's listening that would consider themsel a fitness professional or a fitness enthusiast. It's not hard to convince that person that every aspect of their life is improved or better when they're healthy and fit. That's the easy. I'm kind of more interested in how that's changed and evolved because that's an easy box to tick, I think, for all of us. Like, of course, go to the gym, get fit, be be whatever.

whatever. whatever. So, how has that changed over your personal journey? Um, you know, when you first started and maybe like the way you trained and you looked at health and fitness versus, you know, 45year-old version of you, how is it different? Yeah, I'll let you go first because that's a loaded one for me. It is a loaded one. It's a lot. Um I think for me it was um my mentality was to improve what I was doing on the field or what I was doing you know on the court or you know sportsdriven pursuit so very performance related.

Um and I I mean I enjoyed being strong and I enjoyed lifting. Um, but it was always towards something. And so it always had to be like this was going to get me x amount more performance uh and I'm going to get faster. I'm going to get like it was like a metric. I always had to have like some metric attached to it uh for it to have value to me. Uh otherwise, you know, it I knew that it was good and I felt good, but it wasn't really like I was put a lot of emphasis on that.

I would I would go more and go harder uh and suffer the results of like overtraining, you know, just if I thought it was going to like push me into another category uh sports- wise. And and I think that identity shift leaving sports and leaving that um has really you know been a hard transition for me to just lift because I'm just trying to enhance my everyday life you know and like uh then sitting a lot has been really tough for me to like you know reconcile with like I used to be like I'm so active and I stand all the time and I'm moving and uh so now I like I I literally use fitness in like little spurts and I'm like this is going to enhance me.

I'm going to get strong. Um, but but really I'm trying to like lift my mood. I'm trying to like, you know, boost my cognitive ability. I'm try it's like such a different completely different uh mentality I have. And it's it's like what what's going to like help my sleep? What's going to, you know, make me more uh less moody, you know, around my kids or whatever. And so it's really like really like really like uh a completely different mentality than I had before. Would you say there's more or less structure to it?

And is it more of an eb and flow to your lifestyle now? Like is it would you say it's like really inconsistent even like how you how you work out and train and every diet and all the things like and where I imagine if you were uh early days performance it was probably very focused and if you're going after metrics it's very very very consistent and so does it look consistent now or does it look very inconsistent right now and what what is that what does that look like in comparison?

Yeah. I guess the biggest um if I go back and look at that series I did, you know, when I was trying to get that red press, like brought me back in the mentality I used to have. to have. to have. Sure. Sure. Sure. And so it was like it was a very stark contrast for me and it was like very structured, very much on top of my head constantly. So it was it was all consuming. And so like your first point with this, it doesn't become your life.

Like that was my life. Like my identity, everything I was pouring in was like my physicality and my strength. And like I was always thinking about how to improve that. So to kind of, you know, put that on the on the back burner and think about the rest of life and like all these other moving parts and, you know. Yeah. So it's it's it's inconsistent, but it's I try to keep it in there because it makes me feel good and like I know the value of it uh and what it does and how it translates to everything else now.

Uh so yeah, but I it's definitely like an undulating thing. Like I'm like I haven't been in a while. Then I'll go through runs and then I'll come back and and kind of, you know, coast a bit. And so the 15 minute kind of style I'll do for a while and then sometimes I'll go like two hours. You know, it just depends like more on my mood and how I'm feeling. Adam, yours looks so different from when I first met you. So radically different. What's that been like for you?

Cuz that's a it's so so different. I mean, it's so drastically different. Yeah. Yeah. Um I mean, I can identify a lot with what Justin's saying. The only difference is that he was so performance metric driven. I was so aesthetic driven but very similar bodybuilder. Yeah. Like if I'm training I was very all or nothing and it was all to improve my physique. It was like I'm there was no other every once in a while I went through kicks when I was playing basketball like that where I'd want a little bit of performance stuff.

But generally speaking for most of my training career uh if I was in the gym I am trying to change my body. I am body composition focused and everything from my diet to my training uh and to my mindset all the time like he said. So very very relatable to what Justin is saying right now was my mindset just it was purely around a second. Now it's really really really different. Um I've completely let go of that and I don't mean that but like I've just like let myself go and I'm like way out of shape but but but attachment.

attachment. attachment. Yeah. I've really accepted something that I think I think it's important because I think this is something we preach on the podcast quite a bit of this, you know, a healthy a healthy male body is somewhere between, you know, 11 to 18%. And and and kind of an eb and flow in that. And I think I really allow that to happen a lot right now. I could there's many times in just the last year where I was probably down to 11 and then there's been times where I've probably peaked at probably maybe not 18, maybe 17.

So, I probably bounce between 11 and 17, which a pretty good swing, but it's never drastic. I never go from 11 to 17 overnight. It's kind of like it slowly might creep there because there I've got a lot of other things that are going on in my life and then I can then I start to bring it back down, but it's not the driver. Um, I really look at uh our activity through the week. Like, for example, this weekend, um, I didn't do any sort of training this weekend.

Uh, but I swam and was out in the sun and I saunaed and I did and so and I went for a really nice walk with my wife at the beach and like so that I count that now like I never used to think of that as like cuz it wasn't a workout. Yeah. It's not it's not moving my that make my chest look better. You know what I'm saying? So, so to me that would never check a box of I'm doing something to be healthier.

But in fact, uh I would argue that it sometimes that's more important to my health journey. getting sun like that, taking a good walk, connecting with my wife. And so to me that was a very healthy fit weekend. But I wouldn't think that way in the past, right? Where now I I consider that uh pursuit of being healthy and then you know I'll get in the gym maybe two times uh maybe three if I'm lucky. Um but normally two times during the week um where I get a lift in and it's it's pretty moderate.

It's uh touch kind of everything full body and moderate intensity. I'm not trying to move or gain. I'm really trying to maintain the muscle that I have and and just stay active and move. And so I really look at it uh like that and just try and stay that way. that way. that way. I want to be clear too for people listening that doesn't mean structure is bad uh especially in the beginning. It's the attitude uh going into it is I think what you guys are I I also think too that u you guys have been doing this for so long you know what to do.

That's right. Structure is really good for people the first five years. Sure. But the attitude that goes into it isn't that it becomes your life. And admittedly, this is the most admittedly, this is the most challenging one for me. I can speak to this all day long. I'm good at communicating it. I'm good at coaching people through this. Applying it to myself is very difficult. Is a very big struggle struggle struggle uh for me that I constantly struggle with or I have for uh for most of my life where it becomes my life.

It becomes an area where it's too high on the totem pole of uh priorities. Um, and it takes away from uh my quality of life. My saving grace, just thank God for this was uh training clients because I really care about I really cared about the people I worked with. I really care about the people that I communicate to on the podcast. So, I'm able to have a little bit of that clarity at least when I uh communicate it. Uh but if it becomes your life, it doesn't improve your life.

Uh that's what people need to realize. And the challenge with that, and I'm being honest, uh this is a struggle that I have. A lot of people who represent fitness are not honest about this. No. And so what happens is you look at them and and the way they look or the way they communicate fitness and you get a message that really isn't 100% uh accurate. Um because the way they're communicating is from coming from a place of this is life when fitness is not life.

Uh fitness is a way to improve. improve. improve. I I would I would go as far as to sell to argue that most are not. I think it's very rare to find somebody who is really really fit and hasn't allowed it to become most of their life and they try and make the argument of like oh that's just I get up early every day at 5 it's no problem it's part of my but it's still so they're so focused on it that it that it that I mean here's it like if that person can't take a week off of training and it not mess with them then it is become that it's become that and I think a lot modify it when there's an injury or modify it when there's a challenge that's coming up like lack of sleep or you know you know you know and why I think this is such a why it's not a good message for the majority of people because I don't think a majority of people connect with that or want that very few normal people like just your average teacher engineer doctor why it doesn't work because they follow the advice the advice the advice because yeah they see they see oh what I need to become is this this guy or gal that that that gets yeah does this thing every does this thing every day and and maybe for a period of their time when they're when they're heavily focused or they really or their doctor just gave them crazy news, they feel motivated to be that person and then life happens and they realize no, I don't like it and they and they think that that's what they have to do to maintain a really healthy and it's not.

And a lot of like, you know, getting back to some of the things I've that's really changed for me. A lot that has changed is my relationship with food. Uh, I've learned to, you know, really figure out the balance of, you know, being able to allow myself on a on a weekend like this weekend with Katrina, you know, have a couple drinks at dinner. Uh, but they be mindful of, oh, you know, I was low on protein. I overconumed alcohol calories. Definitely should probably go take for a walk.

Definitely want to be mindful of tomorrow how I eat. Like, I'm just more aware of that. I was very on or off. If I like in the past it would be like if I was drinking I'm also ordering dessert and we're putting our feet up tomorrow and eating pe like it was just one extreme to the other and I think a lot of people do that. I think a lot of people feel like oh they do that one thing and they effed up and so may as well f the whole thing up where I'm not like that now I have this just I'm more mindful of of those those choices and I and I choose them in moments when I think they really serve me in my pursuit of overall health.

Totally Totally Totally connecting with my life watching live music. Oh yeah. This is one of those times. Yeah. You know, uh Tuesday, watching the the, you know, the finals, you know, the Spurs play while I'm by myself. I don't you know, sure, a glass of whiskey does sound nice, right? But it's not that, you know what I'm saying? I'm going to pass. No, I I remember uh I had a client um years ago. I was an early this was a young trainer. Uh he was a very successful self-made uh businessman.

He was an entrepreneur, no formal education, just this really cool guy to talk to. And he he trained with me because his wife got him training. So, it's one of those situations where his wife's like, "He needs to work out. I'm going to get him training. I'm going to force him to do this type of deal." So, he [clears throat] came in kind of reluctantly. Then, he started to like it, mainly because him and I, you know, became friends. And then, I'll never forget, he came in and he said to me, his name was Jim, and he said to me, S, I'm never going to stop.

And I was like, why? Why? And he goes, I give better be meetings. I give better sales trainings. I'm a better entrepreneur. Because that's something that was really important to him. And what he noticed was when he took time away from work to improve his health, he actually got better. at that thing. So step one is with this is uh how is this going to improve my life and the things that I I I know to be really important. Okay, so that would be step one.

Here's the second thing to look at. You're strong. Strength is very important. The the most important thing to consider as you get older is frailty. Mhm. I know we talk about things like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, all very important things to focus on, but those are actually downstream of frailty or loss of strength or loss of mobility or loss of muscle. Um, strength is a very important pursuit for everybody. Now, can you go extreme with it? Yes, if it becomes your life, then you go extreme in that direction.

But, uh, what does it look like to have good fitness? Uh, you consider strength. Do I have the strength to do things uh for myself? Do I have the strength to lift things? Do I have the strength to help people? So, it's a very important thing to consider. I think that's also been something that's evolved and changed for me that is uh taken a lot of time like it's hard when you've you've done some pretty cool physical feats for yourself, right? All relative to who you are, right?

like to to get my squat up to, you know, to over 400, to get my deadlift over 500, to hit these, you know, numbers that were big deals for me, to still be attached to those. Uh, it took me a while to break free of that, too. It's like cuz strength is important, but it's also relative to like like what you need it for, right? Like being being strong enough to to deadlift 550 is pretty irrelevant to my lifestyle. like there's not anything that that's there's a point where the the returns on the investment are diminished like you sacrifice this is for average person you talk about there's some people can deadlift 550 without sacrificing a lot but most of us to pursue that deadlift what other things are you sacrificing to get that and it's not worth it like for now like now when I like I'm deadlifting and I'm lifting and like I can be and it took me a while to do this because my ego wants everybody else in the gym or that's around to know that I deadlift more than 315 on there.

But it's just like 315 serves me. It's like it's strong enough that like that keeps me strong, keeps good muscle on me, keeps me capable, also keeps me away from a lot of risk. Start creeping up over 400 and I start pushing that like all the injuries start happening and I have stuff and so it's like even this is like understand there's a relationship with this that it's like strength for the average person. Absolutely. Go get as strong as you can. And then there comes a point where it's like okay you've now figured that piece out just like the aesthetic piece now the you know to use your word back weed or balance what that looks like is you know it's not balance in like I have this perfect pie chart it's that I understand that I've built good strength I don't need to be my PR numbers but keep that level of strength and maintain that for as long as I can.

Totally. I feel like it's it's so philosophical like strength itself and like to be strong like it for me it's it's it goes way beyond that. Yes. You you build this resiliency towards so many things. Uh and it's that mental resilience is something I think is so overlooked when you're strong and you're pursuing things and challenges are in front of you and you're overcoming them and it's giving you these rewards as a result of that. you see there's a way through. And I and I just think that like people that don't physically uh achieve like any any bit of this uh with lifting weights or challenge themselves, you know, on that level like it I think they really struggle, you know, and I think it's it's harder as a result because you're just in your mind all the time and you need to get out of your mind.

mind. mind. Yeah. I never forget as a kid I was I went one summer I was helping my dad and he had this helper that he was like a bodybuilder looked kind of like a bodybuilder. I don't know how big he was as a 14-year-old though. He looked like this super muscular guy and I remember him just gassing out doing blueco collar work with a bunch of dudes that were half his size and me realizing like oh that's uh there's a big there's a difference here.

There's strength and then there's like cuz here's three and four. I'll give you number three and four real quick. You can move well and you can play and have fun. So that's quality of life. like quality life is like I can move well abilities. I don't have I'm not losing abilities. What does that mean to move well? Like I can get up up up and gra, you know, down off the ground. Uh if I need to reach up and do something, I can jump. If I want to run and play with my kids or we're at the park and we're climbing or like being able to move well and being able to play and have fun uh is a massive uh quality of life uh improver.

Um and that those are like I said, it's number three and four. And then number five, we talked about aesthetics. What does this look like? And Adam, you kind of mentioned this. It doesn't look like 7% body fat for a guy or 15% body fat for a woman. It just doesn't. Now, I know people are going to point out the super rare crazy genetic anomalies that exist in the world, the one in a millions, and they're they're out there. You know, those there's people out there that just eat Skittles all day and seem to look like uh you know, they're dedicated to the gym.

the gym. the gym. But 99.999% of everybody, this is what it looks like for most for most people. You look generally generally muscular, generally lean, you move well, and you feel good. Your body fat percentage as a guy is in the teens, somewhere in the teens. For a woman, it's somewhere probably in the 20s, give or take. Uh, and you've got, again, you you move well, you play well, you look healthy. It's not shredded, everybody. It's not the person that walks by down the beach and everybody stares at them and goes, "Oh my god, that guy looks super crazy." that person doesn't have in a a relationship with fitness that improves the quality of life.

That person's life is fitness and the gym. And I'm going to tell you right now, it's not worth it's not worth it. It's actually a very unhappy place. unhappy place. unhappy place. Yeah. And I don't want to come off like uh shaming that person either because I think there's tremendous value similar to Justin's point about strength. I think there's similar value to uh getting yourself to that at a period of time just but just like the like it doesn't serve me to be deadlifting 550 all the time.

doesn't serve me to be 5% body fat all the time, but to pursue that, you know, the mental aspect to getting strong, the things you're saying, huge value, huge return from that. And also all the muscle that I've built and what the what I get from muscle memory because of that. Amazing. Same thing goes on the aesthetic side. huge value in in proving to yourself you can be disciplined in regimen around your nutrition and your diet and be consistent with your workout routine to be able to get yourself into a low percent body fat to see what that looks like to know what it takes to know what that because then then I think you do find balance you see that you find the ends right obviously most people know it's like to be out of shape they've all experienced out of shape at one point in their life but have you ever been in the best shape of your life and then go okay I don't want to be at either ends of this spectrum all the time how do I kind of hover here.

I know what this takes. I know what obviously I know what that takes. Well, not a lot, right? To get here. And I know this takes a lot of sacrifice and discipline. And I'm not happy happier over here. So, where where is that at to find that that middle? So, I think there's lots of value. By the way, this feels relaxed, right? It's a relaxed place to be. Stressful and when you get to that when you get Yeah. When you get to that level, that's why and and you you touched on it well by saying like I don't want, you know, earlier when we're talking about just and I having this like no structure.

Well, we've earned that right to to have that eB eb and flow because I I know what very structured looks like and where it can take me and I I know what completely no structure looks like and not giving a [ __ ] And so what is giving a [ __ ] with no structure kind of looks like? Well, it looks like easily hovering. hovering. hovering. It's also it's also a never- ending journey cuz look uh you know Justin, Adam and S uh now are not going to be Justin, Adam and S in 20 years and so fitness is going to be different for us then.

What do we what's it going to look like? I can guess but I don't know for sure. So it is a never- ending journey but if number one remains number one is this improving the quality of my life um then you'll be the fittest uh in the most real way uh and it'll last. It'll be something that you enjoy doing. By the way, the reason why this is top of mind is because uh like this is top of mind for me because this is a constant struggle like I said earlier because you're almost 50.

No, not because I'm almost 50, 50, 50, but because but because but because no, but because you know it's just it's it's an idol for me, dude. something that I I I'm dealing with. I I I try to deal with. I try to work on. I had a conversation with my wife over the weekend. She totally called me out too, which I got really mad. We got an argument over, but then I sat in the garage by myself for a while and I was like, I think she's right, dude.

I was like telling her like, "I'm going to start doing this, you know, with my workouts. I think I'm going to start running." She's like, "You're just fooling yourself." She's like, "You're just trying to manage this uh this thing." I'm like, "No, I'm not. I'm actually going to try, you know, running." I told her to start running. And um she called me out. I don't like getting called out. I don't think anybody does, especially not from your wife. But I sat there with it and I thought about it for a while.

And I'm like, "Yeah, you know, she's right, dude. I got to really try to make peace with whatever a good relationship with fitness looks like. I got to make peace with that. Not try to manage the look with the the you know, like I'm trying to manage the result that I want with all the little pieces versus like let's just see where it takes me." Um, and so I think I'm actually for sure I'm I can say this on the podcast. the podcast. the podcast. It's hard, dude.

It's really hard. I know. Uh, know. Uh, know. Uh, we're all different, bro. Yeah, it it's really hard because I know and I I can relate to you because I know that you also you're I mean, you have like Justin and I and you like you are very obsessed with the strength part of Justin and you're obsessed with the aesthetic part like me. So, you kind of have both of our attachments and wrapped into one. And so, uh, it's a lot to it it takes time to do that.

It took a long time for me to truly accept and be okay. You see yourself at a which you have experienced 5% body fat and see yourself hitting these numbers. It's hard to like completely let it go and be like, can I really be okay with 10% higher body fat than that or, you know, 20% or 30% less strong than that guy and be okay. Uh when you when you when you know you're capable of that, something clicked. I'm not going to pretend to say it's going to stay clicked.

Uh but something clicked and so I'm actually gonna go to jiu-jitsu tomorrow night. So I'm actually Oh, you are. are. are. I'm gonna roll tomorrow night. Well, you do you have always said that was the best relation. The healthiest I was mentally with fitness. Yeah, fitness. Yeah, fitness. Yeah, for sure. Cuz it took me away from body like image and from like lifting. Yeah, cuz neither one of those neither one of those are served there. No. Being completely ripped or hella strong where you're pring stuff isn't neither one of those serve you in jiu-jitsu.

No, not at all. There's a community aspect of it. Um you know what my fears are? I'll tell you what my fears are. Besides the fact I'm going to lose gains and all that whatever stupid stuff. I hate saying that on the show because it sounds so dumb. The the fears are am I going to get hurt and am I going to have a target on my back back back because who you are because you're big dude coming in. Oh, and I was a purple belt.

No, I'm going in white belt. Can you do that? Can you restart? I I don't care what they tell me. I do not deserve. It's been 20 years, dude. I'm not walking in with my purple belt. No way. Hey, that would put a target on your back. Be coming in as a jack guy with your purple belt would put a target a target a target puts a target is is is you know kind of a bigger dude. But also uh you know the podcast if they recognize me like oh I'm going to go kicks you a lot of jiu-jitsu fans I've heard.

I'm for sure I'm like as soon as I go in I'm going with my brother-in-law so he knows the whole deal. And I'm going to tell whoever I go is like check it out dude. I'm going to go super easy bro. So just please go easy with me. I mean, I'm going to step out when I need to and just be real cuz I don't want to get hurt. Uh cuz it you're wrestling grown men. I mean, it's not it's not controlled. You're like going in I I have a safe word, you guys.

Banana banana. Banana banana. Banana banana. So, yeah. So, yeah. So, yeah. D, did you watch the UFC fights or No. No, dude. No, dude. No, dude. You didn't watch any of them? No, man. No, man. No, man. Watch, bro. This is It's modern. You have a skewed opinion about Listen, it's modern Rome. You like MMA, you like jiu-jitsu. I can't, dude. Yeah, I I have those same inklings like And it's funny cuz like I was like waiting for Trump to be like finish like someone feeding him grapes.

But dude, it was I'm sorry. I'm sorry, dude. All the hate whatever is is mute, dude. It was the sickest thing I've ever seen. It was It was the most amazingly well put together event, dude. And like everything just hit. The parallels with the Roman Empire are so crazy. crazy. crazy. I know. I It's like uh for, you know, for the glory of Rome, you know, you got like the the jets flying over, American flag, blue angels with the Thunderbirds together, dude over every fighter is probably like pumping up, you know, military everywhere.

It was sick to back your argument. I mean, of course, let's say this weekend was not just uh that. I mean, you had the NHL finals, you had the NBA finals. So, it was just like World Cup. World Cup. There's like a bonanza of the Ro, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's all it's all the coliseums going on right now. right now. right now. But of all of them, the one that looks the same of like wrapping the the patriotism and all that. It's in front of the White House on his birthday.

Oh my god. I know. It's like it's like we got we're we got wars that are going on. We're crazy spending. This is Rome. Rome used to do this. They expand themselves. I know, dude. Put themselves into crazy debt. PE distract the people, you guys, with crazy news. We got UFO stuff, entertainment, and bread. Yeah. Don't let them look at the Epstein stuff, you guys. Let's distract and then let's just get them excited with violence. This is exactly what Rome did. So, I couldn't watch it, but it was awesome.

I couldn't watch it. Yeah. The sport of it still so good. You know what I'm saying? I love the fight. I So, I feel like I could do both. Like, I feel like I can be very aware of what I'm being fed. You know what I'm saying? At the same time, enjoy the steak. This is like like I know I know I know damn well what I'm being distracted from. from. from. Yeah. Yeah. But it's the taste. The steak still tastes good. You know what I'm saying?

I'm saying? I'm saying? Fully aware. Fully aware. Oh, it's great. Speaking of which, it's like that, you know, speaking of all this like stuff when you know SpaceX went uh public, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you know what breaks something in me every single time? I don't mean in a good way. Seeing politicians rail on uh someone who became a trillionaire. Oh my gosh. my gosh. my gosh. Oh, inside of me. I get this like stirring. stirring. stirring. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, like you know, Gavin Newsome.

Your money. Your money. Your money. I'm like, you of all people can't talk about this. You do nothing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You create no value. You've never employed anybody from your own money. You've never innovated anything. How are you a millionaire? You create I know what your salary is for everybody. for everybody. for everybody. What's What's Gavin Newsome's salary? It's like 200 grand a year. How is he a millionaire? How's Elizabeth Warren a million? How is Bernie Sanders a millionaire? millionaire? millionaire? I know it's crazy to see this.

And yeah, we got a guy who employs tens of thousands of people, innovates like crazy. I'm not like I don't know the guy, so I don't know if he's a great guy, but from that perspective, like he I don't there's two categories. Okay. So, and I've heard somebody break this down, but there's like uh creators and there's destroyers. there's destroyers. there's destroyers. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Politicians are destroyers. 100%. They're takers. They're takers. They do nothing. No. No. No. Yeah. I mean, you see this with NOS's and everything else.

And so, like, I don't even listen to destroyers. Like, they can go [ __ ] off. You'll also never hear anybody who's ever built a business and employ people say that about someone like Elon. Oh, it's only somebody who clock punches in and gets a wage and has no idea how that company that pays their paycheck every single day got to that place. like just know it's never it's never somebody who knows what it's like to build something from zero to actually build it to where it has even a handful of employees cuz that's impressive to go build a business that employs five people is incredibly impressive.

It's a very small percentage of people that can do that. And if you actually make it to where you employ hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. there's just there's a there's very few humans that can have ever done that. And that that like you just discount that that that shouldn't be rewarded is come on stop it. I know it's crazy. So look again I don't know Elon know Elon know Elon and the guy who does and of all the guys because there's lots of you know billionaires and a couple trillionaire right he's the only real official trillionaire now but of all he's he's the dude that doesn't have super yachts and jets like all the rest of these cats do.

There's a a lot of these guys businesses. businesses. businesses. Yes, dude. There's a lot of these guys that have like mega mansions all over all over the country and he's innovated in ways. So again, I don't know the guy. I don't know if he's a good guy. I'm not saying he's like my hero. We're not lifting them up like that. that. that. From a business perspective, he went into uh businesses that were like, nobody would be like, "That's a good idea. I'm going to get into the car industry, you guys.

One of the most regulated industries, and I'm going to make an electric car." Crushes it. Then he's like, "Yeah, I'm going to going to going to rockets." rockets." rockets." Rockets. Who builds rockets? decides, hey, I'm going to like address rockets, dude. He reduced the cost of it so significantly uh through innovation and his own money. Um, it's wild. So, it's crazy. Super impressive. Super impressive. Super impressive. I know. I know. Super impressive. But anyway, we'll see. I Well, I can't believe you're in for the ride.

So, you're crazy. I'm I'm sitting back. sitting back. sitting back. You know what it is? I see. Hey, you see this guy was calling and texting me like every every 50 minutes. You know what it is? Hey, I am not I am very riskaverse with investments. I'm super conservative business. I'm risky. I'll go on business. You know, you guys know this. We're all well worked together when it comes to money I make. I'm like super conservative. super conservative. super conservative. Uh I just don't have good u you know risk tolerance.

But I look at SpaceX and it reminds me of um uh what's his name who made the railroads? Rockefeller. railroads? Rockefeller. railroads? Rockefeller. Oh, the Rockefellers. Rockefeller made the railroads that the industrial re revolution needed. So you're building business energy complex. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So SpaceX is he's creating essentially the modern railroads for the future. uh future economy. Everyone's going to have to go through SpaceX to build uh their businesses. So, but what's crazy is I bought, you know, they IPOed. I bought had to buy at a premium because because because I bought on E Trade.

So, what So, right out the gates, I lost money. [snorts] I I'm not going to see how much, but I texted Adam like, "Oh my god, I just bought it. Two seconds later, I lost this. What the hell just happened?" You're in for the ride. ride. ride. I'm in the positive now. I'm okay. But it was hopefully it stays there. It was a little stressful. You're crazy. You're You're crazy. I'm like, I can't I can't watch that stuff anymore. I literally feel like I I made this great thing that I did two years ago where I committed to I'm done sports betting and I'm going to, you know, start doing start doing start doing as if betting on the stock market.

I know. It's like you know more about sports. I do. I'm just way better. I was way better at that. And so I' I'm I'm all in the other direction now. I've I've sold off and on Max's portfolio. All the just bet on the economy. Just just literally index. It's just I'm not going to look. come. It's everything's auto and I'm just going to be that guy who does that and then just walks away from it because trying to pick in time has just been it's been a nightmare for me and then I feel more stressed out about it and I do worse than I did in the only way I can do it Adam cuz I've done a couple of those but I'm pretty conservative but the only way I can do it is I have to really believe in the company like genuinely cuz then I can write it.

The only other time I did that was what you guys remember when I bought GW Pharmaceuticals back in the day. They were doing canabonoid research and I had learned about canabonoids and how they affect whatever. And I actually bought them on Pink Sheet which is even before they hit the market and then they got orphan drug status for like the epilepsy. Yeah. And it was only because I knew the science and I believed in the company and I rode that uh and did really well with it.

with it. with it. You know, to that point, there's something I've learned in the in the real estate investing game and I feel like same thing that I've heard in the stock that I think is two big pieces of advice. Uh, and I remember going through all this with the real estate thing, getting going deep down the rabbit hole of uh, you know, I had all these spreadsheets and, you know, making sure that everything penciled out like amazing. And, uh, you know, when when I look back now after almost 10 years, the ones that did the best were the ones that were heart picks areas that we love this.

This is such a desirable place. It's it's not it's not a great investment, but over time that ends up being one of the best investments. I feel like in the stock world, I've heard this advice before, a smart thing to invest in if you don't know anything about picking companies, is where do you spend your all of your money? Like, are you somebody who has, you know, four Sony TVs in your in your house and you have all like and you have a roy like a fan?

fan? fan? Yeah. Are you have you bought every Apple phone? You know, these are probably smart things. If like if you are if you consume a lot of that that company and have consistently probably a good like you're already putting money towards their company probably not a bad idea to invest in their company. Also I think it's kind of a similar type of concept is like if if it's desirable enough to where you own a bunch of the their stuff inside your house and you're constantly buying their products probably a pretty good pretty good company.

company. company. I'm bought in so up down whatever I'll I'll I'll stay in there. Yeah. Yeah. I got a stat for you guys that I think is an under I think it's a low number, but it's still a number that I think people need to hear about. CDC says that over 60 million people in uh America are infected with parasites. I saw that. Yeah, but I think that's a low number. I think that's a really low number. Uh that's a lot still reported. These are these are people No, this is 60 Oh, I think that the 60 million that are unaware.

Like CDC says that there's 60 over 60 million. Yeah. That are unaware. ites are way more common than people think in in modern societ I think we think of third world countries when we think of parasites uh but you know what a lot of people do in third world countries uh is they treat themselves for parasites once a year year year every year they treat themselves when you live in a modern society uh you might not be obviously you're not exposed to parasites like you would if you were in a third world country uh but if you've lived for you know 20 30 40 years odds are you've been exposed and you've never done anything to do to deal with with with I mean they always ask if traveled someplace, but like yeah, nobody looks in their backyard.

Like all the opportunities there are for parasites to find their way to you. No. And and this the side effects of this are like anxiety, skin issues, of course, gastro issues that keep are hard to reoccurring SIBO. Like if you treat yourself for SIBO and it keeps coming back, could be a parasite, you know, poor motility, constipation. Uh Uh Uh I remember that was a huge unlock for you because I mean you had done all the gut stuff forever and then all a sudden you do the parasite and the fixed.

fixed. fixed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Fixed. So we're getting messages cuz uh so Organifi has uh in my strong opinion one of the best allnatural I just got my setup for that. It's got one of the best allnatural parasite um products I've ever seen. So you know two ways you can treat with parasites. You can go pharmaceutical route or you can go natural. Natural is actually pretty good. Everybody, if you look at the data, uh if it's formulated right, it'll do a pretty good job. And Organifi has a natural parasite uh product.

Comes with two bottles. Uh one is for the parasite, one is to heal your gut. Um and the messages are rolling in. People are saying, first off, crazy stuff. Like, I can't believe what I saw come out of my body. Uh, but a lot of people are getting like really good um uh symptom relief from using it. But I want people to know with parasite cleanses like the Organifi one, it's probably a good idea to do two rounds of it. Do one round, wait maybe like 15 days, do another round because uh you got parasites and you have the eggs that'll hatch.

Um, and then once a year, once a year do do something like this. Doug just pulled up. Are those what the most common ways people get it? Is that that is? that is? that is? Yeah. So in the like the US for example uh children of course because they are at daycarees, preschools, pinwords, things like that. Giardia uh sexual practices can do that as well. People with specific sexual practices. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like butt stuff. butt stuff. butt stuff. All right, Justin, thanks for the clarification.

clarification. clarification. Say it. Say it. Say it. Uh that's good to know. Uh can contaminated food and water. Um, obviously if you eat like sashimi, you could probably could probably could probably anything that's not cooked, vegetables, salad, even that kind of stuff. And then of course pets, you know, dogs, cats, livestock, things like that. I've lost it. You can you can actually transfer from pets. I didn't I didn't know that one. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't know that. that. that. Yeah. Yeah. So, but if you like raw food, like if you eat salad all the time or vegetables or sushi.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you do that all the time. Well, yeah. This a toxopplasmosis or that one from the cats. Oh, that's a bad one. Yeah. Like it I guess it gets you really impulsive and like really high risk behavior like after being exposed to that. that. that. Is that true? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is that the one that makes which is the there's a parasite that makes mice the urine they get attracted to to cat urine? urine? urine? Yeah. It causes conditions humans can what are the the side effects of that uh symptoms?

Scroll down. Wait mice get it from cats cuz they're attracted. attracted. attracted. So mice will get attracted they get it and then it brings them like more attracted to the cat. The cat eats it gets the parasite. It's like this cycle. What? What? What? I know. I know. I know. That's wild. That's wild. That's wild. Isn't that grease? Really? Yeah. Flu lights like symptoms. That's wild that something would would make you attracted to your predator. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There. Well, there's one That's crazy when you think about how that that that parasites parasites parasites doesn't uh there's a fungus that does that with bugs where it makes them crawl on top of a branch and and position itself and then sit there to be eaten.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, it could get transferred to the dude. It's like It's like you're a zombie. zombie. zombie. Is that Cortiseps? Cortiseps might do it. So, this this weekend I I told you we're hanging out at the pool this weekend and uh I'll I'll connect the dots here, I promise. Uh and I we have a peach tree Uh and I we have a peach tree in our backyard and man, the squirrels go to town on my peaches. And I mean, and it's pissing me off because they're not ripe and ready to completely pull off the tree yet.

So, I can't just go pull them all off. And so, they're just And have my dad come over, bro. He's like the arch enemies of my last last week my BB gun my plet gun came in. So my I've got my plet gun and scope and everything like that. Dude, I'm all I'm all set up. And Katrina's like, "What are you doing?" And she's like, "You're not going to shoot the squirrels." I'm like, "100% I'm going to shoot these squirrels." They're not going to get our treats.

treats. treats. Yeah. So I now this thing I keep this thing down at and when we're at the pool ready, loaded, cocked, everything to go and you see me jump out of the pool, get it. So this is the first the first weekend I've had it and uh we're floating around and sure enough here comes this squirrel and he and we're like and I try Katrina doesn't want to see me shoot HIM SO SHE'S LIKE SHE'S LIKE SCREAMING to see give I warn him so he'll run off and I'm already going for the gun you know pull the gun that little [ __ ] jumps on the tree rips a peach off he's got his hands and bro first shot just blah got it and and Max is Max yeah Max and Max is like did you get him daddy and I go oh yeah I got him and Katrina looked at me like freaked out like and she's you could see her like staring at me how I'm going to explain this to my son that that I killed this squirrel.

It's like yeah you know son we dad daddy got him like I'll I'll clean it up and he's like oh my god and you could tell he was totally fine. I can see my wife freaking out cuz she's not at country at all. Never seen an animal get shot and nothing like that. I'm like honey it's a rodent. It's a literally I know they're furry and it's cute. Yeah, I know. It's like a rat. You know that, right? that, right? that, right? If it was a rat, she wouldn't have a problem.

problem. problem. It's a furry rat. It's a fluffy cute rat. rat. rat. All you need is cats. Like they'll display carcasses daily in front of your house. Yeah. You know, they they kill everything. Yes. They're awesome. I know. I So I have We have both our neighbors uh have cats, too. I wish they would keep the squirrels away, but they do not keep the squirrels away. This So Doug, my dad So I have has done everything. I have the owl. It doesn't stop nothing. Okay, so listen.

So, I have the I have two of those owls and I set the I moved it from the peach trees cuz it used to be the bottom peach to on the fence where they come in and for about 3 days they were they would they were scared. Yeah. And they figured it out. They figured out and then they just walk around them like literally walk around them and stuff but they it it works for a day or two. Yeah. They're not they're not effective at all.

Listen, nobody hates squirrels more than old Sicilian men. [snorts] My grandfather, my dad, it's like it's like arch enemies. Like my you bring up squirrels to my dad, you see his face change. You see me like that now. Katrina's like sees she's seen like this whole new side of me. I'm like so defensive about my peach tree. peach tree. peach tree. My cousin My cousin My cousin because it drives me. I'm like I'm watching the peaches as they're starting to change colors. I'm like, "Oh, that one's almost ready." And then I come out the next day, it's [ __ ] gone.

AND I'M LIKE, "OH GOD, SQUIRREL'S GETTING MY PEACHES, DUDE. That's so funny, dude." My cousin lived with my grandparents for a little while when he was in his I want to say in his maybe 20s. And my grandfather, of course, he was old school Sicilian. I mean, this is like post, you know, great depression like and he had these traps out and my cousin's like, "What are those for?" "No, no." And he's like, "For the damage squirrel." And he's like, "What? What do you mean for the squirrel?" I I get the catch of the squirrel.

My cousin's like, "What do you do with them afterwards?" "I kill him." My cousin's like, "You're not going to kill a squirrel." He's like, "Oh, yeah, I kill him." So anyway, my cousin was keeping an eye on the traps cuz he's like, "He traps a poor squirrel. I'm going to let him go." He's like an animal lover. And they both saw a squirrel get trapped at the same time. So he ran over. My grandfather grabbed that thing and he filled up a bucket cuz he was going to drown it.

And my cousin's like, "You're not going to do that." And my my grandfather goes, "Yeah, I hate that the damn squirrel he ate all of the fruit." My cousin's like, "You're not going to do that." So he threw it in the bucket and my cousin kicked the bucket over and let the squirrel go out. My was like one of the biggest arguments of the like one of the biggest arguments he ever got. He's like, "I never seen Noo get so mad in my life cuz he just freed one of his I can only imagine him.

I don't I don't even have that much like uh pride in my garden like he does. You know what I'm saying? Like he's got to have a lot of pride which is going to be interesting because you you planted a lot of stuff and you like has been crazy with that. Like she'll get the gun before I even I get it. You know, you know this might be illegal. Can you not Are we allowed to shoot squirrels where we're at? Is this like is this a problem?

We need to censor this. No, I think so. I mean l Katrina was fascinated because it says my my BB gun on the box says pest control. Oh, it is it is legal to kill certain types of squirrels in California, but the rules depend heavily depend heavily depend heavily on the species of squirrel. Okay. How do how do you know? They all look look look I check I checked mine. They're cover I got. Speaking of kids, my son my son Aurelius is like this little entrepreneur suddenly on his Yeah.

Don't listen. This is so funny. We go there's a toy store by our house and every once in a while we'll walk over there and I'll let him pick something or whatever. And so Jessica took him and he wanted to pick a jewelry making kit. Now why him and I a while ago had a conversation that I don't know where where he came from, but he's asking me about gems and how valuable they are. So he sees this jewelry making kit. So he's like, "Is this valuable?" And she's like, "Well, you could maybe make them and like sell them." He's like, "Okay." He comes home, makes a bunch of bracelets, sends a video to family members.

Of course, everybody's buying it, right? So now he wants to keep buying jewelry stuff. Then he buys this kit where he can do uh like fingernails and toenails and stuff like that because he sees Jessica get her nails done. Why? Cuz he wants to paint his little sister's nails cuz she's got a little bit of money cuz we give them money sometimes. Oh my goodness. So I see him painting his little sister's nails and she gives him a dollar. I'm like, "Bro, are you selling your little sister on that?" That's so funny.

You know what's funny is that this is almost the exact figuring out. I think this is the exact age when Max put together paint drawing and painting pictures that he could sell to the family members. It's right around that same. Remember when I talked about that on the podcast? Well, so now we got I think it releases right around we're going to have a conversation now on the cost of product cuz right now it's 100% margin. He has no idea that dad bought him. So I'm going to try and explain profits to him like okay now you can buy it.

Yeah Yeah Yeah and then if you sell it for this much Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. then you make money. That's why Ethan's shirt business went under. under. under. like, "Oh man, I got to buy all the inventory and all the ink and like, yeah, bro." yeah, bro." yeah, bro." Yeah. Figure that out somewhere. somewhere. somewhere. I'm going to buy it for you. That's hilarious. Dude, this How do you guys like the new lollipop flavors? This cherry vanilla one is blackberry vanilla. vanilla. vanilla. Is so good. I wanted to try this one right here that you did.

The I had that one yesterday. Not yesterday. Sorry. Last week. Super good. Yeah. This is the only one I haven't tried yet. tried yet. tried yet. Oh, that's good. Isn't it good? This What does this taste like? There is there was a popsicle. Yeah. So that that one like the push one that's like a sherbet. sherbet. sherbet. Oh, the push pop. Push pop. That's what it is. I'm like I know I've had like an ice cream like this. this. this. Push pops are great. So this is Well, they're killing it.

50 calories. And the one I have um and uh very note it's got nine grams of of uh eight grams or nine grams of fiber in it. They kill it. Did they get bought out? Did they get bought out? Did they sell I I know. They're everywhere. everywhere. everywhere. I've seen commercials now. Yeah. Yeah. And they're and I've seen them in all the big store. I'm curious. Did they see if they got bought out? I can't remember if someone bought them or not. or not. or not.

No. Oh, No. Oh, No. Oh, good. It's independent still. That's awesome. That's awesome. That's awesome. Wow. They have a valuation of 1.8 billion. billion. billion. Wow. 400 million in revenue beverages. beverages. beverages. Wow. Wow. Wow. Good job. Good job. Good job. Wow. Crazy. Wow. Crazy. Wow. Crazy. It's it's a great So, it was it was the other their competitor sold. competitor sold. competitor sold. This is a this is it's such a great market. Uh people like tasty beverages. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But they're full of sugar and just not good for you.

This is like 50 calories instead of 150 or 200. Yeah. Better option almost like no sugar uh in this versus you know 30. It's crazy how uh popular this this is category has become. It was not a thing like just 5 10 years ago. ago. ago. Well, people are aware of sugar. They're more aware of like soda has been demonized I think for the most part rightfully so. And so I think people are just they you know they still like to taste uh at times. I mean that's me.

I fall in that category. Yeah. No, this is that's why this is why I was such a fan early on of Lollipop when we first started working with them was I admittedly have that that sweet tooth. You know, Lollipop was the one that created that market. They were the first ones. ones. ones. Were they first? They were the first ones. Yeah, they I know they were one of the first. first. first. They were the first ones. Doug just pulled it up. Oh, wow. 2018. So, they created the market.

Isn't that cool? You know, when someone does a great job when they come out with a product and then copycats. You know what's even cooler I like to think of is that we've been attached to a lot of these. I know. Okay. Viori. Okay. Viori. Okay. Viori. Yeah. on the athleisure side for men for sure. Caldera men like that Alipa. I mean, think of some of these brands that we we've found and we've worked with from early on that were like leading in their space. their space.

their space. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, it's cool, huh? That's really cool. Yeah. Uh I I want to mention a peptide that I started using that Doug, you have experience using the Delta sleep inducing peptide, DSP. Yes, I have. Yeah, that works. that works. that works. It does work. Yeah. Works absolutely for sleep. Works sleep. Works sleep. Works sick. sick. sick. You know what it does? So, so what it does, it increases delta wave. So, the the kind of deep restful sleep uh when you take it. So, you take it before you go to bed.

I I I could sleep less hours and wake up and feel like I slept more hours. It's really weird. So, I feel rested. rested. rested. I've experienced with it and I find uh the timing of it is very important. So, I I've made mistakes of taking it and not being like ready to go right to bed. Oh, Oh, Oh, and then you missed the window and then it actually it actually didn't help. Like so I it's like I got to take it right before I decide that's what we do.

Yeah. Right before you lay down because it's like I think they suggest like 30 minutes to an hour or like that before. Um and I've made the mistake of taking it before I like shower, get ready for bed and then I watch a show or something and then it's like 2 hours later or something something something and then now I've kind of missed that window. I stayed awake when it was trying to bring me down. And so you it's smart if you do take something like that to take it go like right the rest.

I've never had a sleep anything that didn't there's lots of sleep things that'll help you sleep better or whatever. But sometimes I feel groggy the next day. Not with this dude. I wake up and I'm like I feel rested. It's wild how effective uh how effective it is. Yeah. You guys you guys get Yeah. Let contact our dudes at uh MP Hormones. Have them send it over to you. It works. It works. It works. Ziotics is a pre-alcohol probiotic drink that breaks down an unwanted alcohol byproduct called acetalahhide.

acetalahhide. acetalahhide. It really works. It's genetically modified bacteria, by the way, uh patent pending. You can't find this anywhere else. So, here's what you do. You drink your ziotics, then you enjoy yourself with your friends. This probiotic sits in your gut and it breaks down something called acetalhide. When acetalahhide is released in the gut, it wreaks havoc on your health. It makes you feel like crap. Uh, by the way, uh, the ziotics last for 18 to 24 hours. So, you just have one and it lasts all night and a little bit into the next day.

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Uh, doing great. Just wanted to say thank you for having me on. Uh really uh listening to some of your podcasts over the last six months to a year. I I really appreciate the focus you've had on kind of having a mature outlook. Um really focusing on on family and a lot of the stuff that's important. Um that's great in life. Awesome. Thank you. How can we help you? So I I've kind of had a unique uh journey. I'm sure you guys hear this a lot, but uh I've uh had a long history of weight loss.

So, in middle school, I was kind of a chunky kid. Um lost about 100 pounds um before Ozic, before any kind of gastric bypass surgery or anything like that. Just, you know, kind of uh sweat and cried it all off. um and then gotten involved in uh school sports, wrestling um at a low weight class and have basically been on a 15 to600 calorie diet since that time. Um got into weights kind of in high school and bulked up a little bit. Um but still never really been able to get away from that that that kind of calorie count count count mentality.

And I've been on about every diet that they make from keto to um you know low carb um lowfat all all the variations that kind of come through the time. Um and I'm in my mid4s now so looking to kind of make that transition away from trying to be so focused on on a calorie count and just maintain my strength. I've got three kids trying to be a good example of what it looks like to be a healthy guy kind of at this point in life.

um set set a good role model for them, but also uh be a be a good dad and and show them how to maintain health and fitness kind of in the in the meantime. That's great, man. So, have you been maintaining the kind of 1500-,700 calories for for most your adult life? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Wow. Wow. Yeah. I'm reading your question here. Would you mind if I paraphrase it a little bit? little bit? little bit? Sure. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. [clears throat] [clears throat] [clears throat] So, um, you've recently over the last four years regained about 15 pounds, uh, from your your lightest, I guess, body weight, which was what, 156?

Was that where you were at before? No, my lightest body weight was actually in high school. I get down to around 120 119 is what I wrestled at. I I went through a really stressful time kind of through training and work and, uh, gained up to 150. Okay. And Okay. And Okay. And and I that's about where I'm at right now. 155. now. 155. now. 155. So 155 is your weight after you've gained 15 pounds over the last four years. years. years. Yes, that's correct. Okay, cool.

And you're and you're and you're 5'6, it says. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Okay. So 156, 5'6, and strength training 3 to 5 days a week. Um and eating 15 to,700 calories and you're you feel like you've kind of plateaued. That's correct. That's correct. That's correct. What does that mean? What What does that mean? What do you mean when you say plateau? What do you mean by that? Um, I I would love to get back to kind of that leaner physique. At one point I was down to like eight or nine% body fat.

Uh, right now I'm probably sitting about 18 19. Um, my strength actually did go up significantly when I gained that weight. Um, which was kind of surprising kind in your early 40s. Um, but it did happen. Uh, so I'm trying to get kind of a good health healthy balance between the strength and and kind of that lean physique. uh uh for strength but also for longevity and and overall health. overall health. overall health. Okay. And um uh talk about the energy difference. So when you gain the 15 pounds, any change?

Because obviously you're stronger, so I'm assuming you probably felt more energy. Um I actually had more energy when I was lighter, I think. But that period in time in life was just less stressful, too. too. too. Got it. Okay. Tell me about the stress that's going on right now. Is it just regular family stuff? Says says you got three kids. Uh yeah, I I work a 50 to 60 hour a week job. I have multiple jobs. U three kids, high school, um middle school, that kind of stuff.

So I feel you. And you wrestled you wrestled in high school. How long did you wrestle for? Um I wrestled for about three years. Um I had a shoulder injury. Um had a posterior s shoulder dislocation that kind of ended my career. um didn't want to end up having to have su uh shoulder surgery and and just decided to continue with the weights, do some rehab and and do the cardio kind of zone two cardio and hit training as I could after that. Got it. Okay.

So, uh what I'd like from you, Daniel, if it's okay, if I can ask you a couple questions. Sure. Sure. Sure. What does healthy because you mentioned you want to be a good dad, role model, uh I'm assuming you want energy to be able to do the things that are important in life, uh your job, you know, uh with your kids. you still want to be able to be mobile and strong and feel good. Um, what does healthy mean to you? Let's define that a little bit.

Um, so we could get a little deeper. Yeah, it's a great question. Um, really being able to be physically active. Uh, not fall into one of those I I mentioned this in my question, one of those dead bod type things where you beard gut sitting on the belly. uh you know, I was sitting on the couch on the on the weekends kind of uh not setting the best example for for the kids, being able to to run with them, um stay physically active, kind of longer into life, um and and still be strong, too.

Okay, good. And are you able to do that now? Do you feel like you can play with them and do all that stuff now? Most of it. Um you know, the the my middle schooler going to high school is kind of a challenge to keep up with. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, but uh there the little ones I'm I'm able to do that with now. Okay. So, there's a couple conflicting things in uh what you want. Okay. Uh 8 to 9% body fat uh in your mid-40s um is not typically healthy.

M so it's not a body fat percentage we can typically sit at and maintain without sacrificing uh hormone profile resilience resilience resilience energy energy energy energy and just overall um quality of life. life. life. Uh it requires uh a level of um control and meticulous like you you basically got to look at everything you're doing all the time with diet and exercise which really isn't a healthy place to be. um when you're also trying to be a dad and work and do all that stuff. And to be quite honest, Daniel, when you're in your mid-40s, active, healthy, usually usually that looks like a body fat percentage that's in the mid to high teens.

teens. teens. Okay? And so the challenge for people often times and and I I asked you about your wrestling because wrestling, especially when you're in a weight class, class, class, I don't need to tell you this, but I'm going to say this so people watching understand, it's not a very healthy uh sport from that aspect. I mean, you're you're you're making weight and controlling what's going on at a level that uh I would equate it to like a fashion model. Obviously, it's a different it's fashion model is not a sport, but you're like counting everything and looking at everything and Okay.

And you also have a history uh when you were a kid of kind of being overweight. So there's probably a fear, maybe correct me if I'm wrong, that you're going to blow blow up and balloon up into Okay, that's not going to happen. I'm going to let you know that's not going to happen. Yeah. Um your your your calories are way too low uh for for the things you're looking for. Now, for. Now, for. Now, it's also too low to hit to to be able even maintain 9% anyway.

Um, you can't go around, you can't do what you're doing with your work, uh, life, um, and then that much activity with exercise and sit at 15 to,900 calories as a man. It's not going to happen. It's going to it's going to impact your hormones can impact quality of life. I'm curious if it hasn't already. Have you checked Have you had blood work done and seen your testosterone levels? testosterone levels? testosterone levels? I No, I have never. I would high I would highly recommend that because I I I would would would guess that that low a calorie with as high as stress in work that you do at our age um more than likely your testosterone levels are suppressed.

I mean are definitely not optimal. Yeah. And if you notice it says here with your sleep you have issues with sleep. Is that just is how long has that been going on? Oh my whole life. But especially in the last I would say 5 to 10 years. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I have a suggestion. I think if we if we wanted to improve sleep, if I bumped your calories up 500 and and dropped your activity, I bet you'd see an improvement in sleep in sleep in sleep for sure for sure for sure within the first week.

Yeah. I I I want to share a little bit about uh what I'm going through with a client of mine right now. Uh personal client that I'm helping with reverse dieting. In fact, uh their calories [snorts] [snorts] [snorts] were similar to where yours are at. and uh she's experienced the same thing that you did when you increased the 1900 which is this you know yeah I got stronger and some of these things these but I also feel like I just put body fat on too I don't feel like I put a lot of muscle on and so what will happen and what I've explained to her is that we have to get really we have to get healthy first before our body will start to respond and build muscle the muscle thing kind of comes first what we'll feel what you'll feel is and in other words your body needed those calories so bad it's just like okay we're on the right track of getting healthier.

The first response that we know we're getting healthier is we see the strength go up in the gym. It's like, oh wow, we're getting stronger. But it doesn't all it doesn't line up right away like, oh, I'm stronger, therefore I should be more a bunch more muscle on my body cuz that's not what's happened for either. She just put on some body fat and her body's kind of getting to this healthier place of, well, this is the calories we needed. This is the body fat we needed.

Now, let's go build on that. And so muscle will tend to follow that and it could take months later before you start to see the payoff from that increased calorie and that strength. And what ends up happening psychologically to people like yourself and like her who have that fear of like opening weight is you let yourself go up calorie- wise. You don't see the muscle. You just see kind of body fat go on. And even though maybe the strength and some other signs are seeing good, you go back down because you're like, "Oh [ __ ] I don't like the what what I look like." And so this is the cycle she's been in for a very long time before she's hired me.

And a lot of the conversation that we have to have is like stay the course. You're doing good. Like what we see happening in the gym, I know is where we're heading the right direction. Just be patient. You've kept yourself so low in calories for so long. Your body isn't comfortable yet there and it'll take some time. And so I think you're in a very similar situation due to how long you've kept low calorie, high stress, a lot of stuff going on. And so yeah, you had initial bump and you saw strength increase, but then maybe you didn't see the body composition that you wanted right away and probably bailed and went, "Oh, [ __ ] this." Went back down and and and freaked right, which is this is very normal with someone who's kind of kept their calories where you're at.

Um, but this is what we need to do. My suggestion is because I know how difficult this I know how much work her and I are doing on the psychological level. Outsourcing this to somebody else would be something extremely valuable to somebody who's got as much on your plate that you trust to take you through that. Um unless you feel confident that you can push through this. But if you kind of know yourself like I felt like she did and which is why she cuz it wasn't a lack of knowledge.

She's got all the knowledge to do it. It was Adam, I need someone to just kind of be that voice that reminds me I'm heading the right path and confirm that. U does that resonate with you or do you feel like that's not you? No, I I I do think that I probably should get some help in that area. Yeah. And I I definitely, you know, despite all this going on and the kind of the calorie restriction over the years, you know, I I think I'm kind of at the limit with what I can do in my own home weight setup that I have basically have, you know, the the home at home bench and the and the dumbbells.

Um, so I'm really looking at where do I go from here? I I've maxed out the weight that I have. I mean, I've done the reps slower and all all the things that we do to make make the the workouts better. Um, so I think I am ready to kind of level up whatever I'm I'm doing in terms of a workout. Oh, yeah. That's helpful. If you got a rack and a barbell, yeah, you'd be it would be There's better options for that now, too. I don't know if you've explored like PRX or anything like that.

Have you seen PRX yet? Oh, it's super cool. Uh, it's a it's it we all of us that's what we all have personally at our own homes and inside here. It's a rack that folds into the wall so it only sticks off the wall uh six inches. So you can still park your car in the garage and everything and everything gets mounted on the wall. And you could also like they have this thing where you can literally pay it like a gym membership too. So you can literally finance all of it, pay it like a membership, have it all shipped to your house, basically build an in-home garage gym gym gym for what it would cost to get a gym membership.

membership. membership. Yeah, we'll send you a link to that. Yeah, I'll have Doug send you a link. what it what it looks like what Adam's explaining what it what it generally looks like and there's always of course there's differences in how people respond but generally what it looks like is you you start eating more you get stronger start feeling a little better probably gain some body fat but you start to feel better then you start to build muscle then that muscle boosts your metabolic rate and then we start to see you get leaner that's what it starts to look like and I'll I'll I'll let you know guy a a man with your activity what you're doing uh your your calories should be around 26 2700 at least.

So you're well you're so low your body's really metabolically adapted. It's really learned how to burn as little calories as possible as possible as possible and it's essentially at this point it's going to try to store extra calories as body fat because you've been for lack of a better term starving yourself for so long. Um now what a coach would do is walk you through that process. Ultimately what this looks like Daniel uh at the end of this is you you don't track anymore. track anymore.

track anymore. Mhm. you're not counting everything that goes in your mouth. That's not a so that that is not a healthy uh way to live uh with diet. It's a kind of a stressful another thing you got to manage manage manage way to live. And it is very uh it is very possible it is plausible if you do this right that at the end of this you don't have to really track. Every once in a while you'll track to see where you're at, but really you just kind of eat in a way that's healthy.

You stick to all natural foods, eat high protein, uh your metabolic rate adapts in a direction that makes gives you much more flexibility. flexibility. flexibility. You feel good. uh you're walking around 13% body fat, 14, you feel good and it's not something you have to like constantly watch and manage and you don't feel like you're going to swing in one direction uh if you you know have a weekend with your wife somewhere or something like that. I think this energy that you have kind of moving towards uh barbell training is really going to benefit you just to push you more into just strength pure strength focus.

You're you're fueling that. So now you're you're shuttling all these calories uh you know into prioritizing like building muscle u and it's just going to have that compounding effect where then yeah we don't have to prioritize uh your diet nutrition be hyper obsessed over that so much and and it really will pay off. That's actually a really the fact that you shared that with us is exciting. That's a that's a huge plus. A lot of opportunity there that there's that you haven't gone and moved to barbell training and you've kind of maxed out your dumbbells at home is a really huge plus because that gives us a lot more to work with and barbell training will be novel and just that novel stimulus alone your body will want to adapt and change and feeding it properly at the same time will will send a really nice signal to your body and so that's a that's a huge plus.

So let me do this Daniel do you have any of our programs? I I haven't bought a program yet. I was looking at the the anabolic anabolic anabolic which which which I think it was a strong Oh, yeah. So, do you like So, that's strong man inspired training. Uh power would be good. Power lift. So, I here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to send you maps anabolic. anabolic. anabolic. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. You can there's a there's a two-day a week and a three-day a week version on it.

So, do the three-day a week version. Uh there's a dumbbell only option in there. Uh but then, of course, the full program involves barbells. Once you get the barbells, do that. Uh, so I'll send that to you. Um, we're going to send you the link for PRX cuz I think we we have a discount. So, we'll get you a little bit of a discount and then I'm going to have a coach call you and you can determine if that is right for you. If you want somebody to coach you through a process of, you know, 6 months or whatever where they kind of walk you through this process of of of reverse dieting.

That's essentially what you're going to do. You're going to do what's called a reverse diet and we're going to get your metabolism to adapt in a direction that's going to make this much more flexible. In other words, you'll be able to eat far more calories without gaining body fat. And that's it's it's not just possible. That's plausible. What'll what'll probably happen for sure is if we do this right, and we've done it, we do it all the time uh with people. And your calories are so low.

I feel super confident uh that we're going to move in a direction where you're going to be like, "Wow, this is wild. I can't believe I'm eating this much and I'm not gaining body fat. This is great." I'm I'm going to really push you and encourage you to do that with a co just to give you some forecasting what that looks like and what it's been like for her and I for like the last six months together is you know I keep trying to work her up on calories and then when we have to do what we call diet breaks is I can see this I can see the psychological part with her and so and and that's really what that's why it's not as simple as like oh here's this blueprint follow this for the next six months is your coach will be in communication with you and their job is to be able to see that in you and you're going like hey man this feels like this and I don't like And then it's like, okay, this is what we're going to do.

We're going to switch it up. And so they'll be modifying the training. They'll be modifying the diet based off the feedback that you're given as you go through that process. And it looks different for every single person. Yeah. They'll modify the mass program for you, too, so it's much more individualized. individualized. individualized. Yeah. So, I highly encourage that. I think it's uh it'll be very valuable to you. And then once you've gone through the process, you're going to be good to go. go. go. So, you're going to get the PRX link maps anabolic for free.

Uh I'll have someone reach out to you and let's see if that works out. Thank you so much. Yeah. And you're right. There's a lot of kind of psychological fear around loosening up this. It's been 30 years. 30 years. 30 years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hell of course. I've been doing this. So, I think Daniel, I really appreciate you sharing that because I think men are terrible at talking about this. Like, we tend to just kind of bury it. We'll figure it out ourselves. Uh, and so there's probably thousands of people listening right now that uh your vulnerability of sharing and talking about it is going to help.

And so, just want to commend you for that cuz not not a lot of people do it. Definitely not a lot of men do it. Um, and so you sharing that there's this is so common. We've been doing this for so long. I can't tell you how many clients I've had to help through this process. And it's not as simple as just go do these things. There's a psychological barrier there that a good coach will help somebody work through that. So, appreciate you, bro. bro. bro.

Lots of opportunity for you though on the other side, man. You're going to do great. great. great. We got you. Thank you so much. We got you. Got it. Got it. Got it. Take it easy, Daniel. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, he's gotten his body to adapt to really low cal. He's actually quite resilient to be able to do it that long. That's a wrestler mentality. I know, dude. Totally. It's wild. But I mean, just, you know, people listening like that like calories can get up quite a bit when you do this, right?

But if you teach your body and train your body to survive on really low calories for long periods of time, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. you got to get yourself out of that. Your metabolism adapts in both directions. And part of what uh you know we're going through right now and that's why I wanted to share that with him is it it's a it's it's a long road. I had we had I had a long conversation last night uh with my client and I was just saying like hey you know what I realize is that this is going to take longer than what we thought.

You know it's we it's been you've been underfed and overtrained for so long. I've I had two two clients I trained just like that Adam and I actually had to tell them we're going to gain body fat first. That's actually the goal. I mean, this is what exactly what I I said to her was like, "Listen, you need to get comfortable with [clears throat] possibly 21 23% version of you, which is uh yeah, which is you've never seen." Yeah. Right. But that for this person is like, "Oh my god, I've never seen that." And it's like you need to get comfortable with that and comfortable with that for a while because what I'm see what I'm noticing is that your body has been in this place for so long.

It's going to take a while before it says it goes, "Okay, I'm safe. I can now respond the way and somebody who is 45 and has been eating 1,500, 1,700 as a man since he was in high school is in the same boat. It's like this isn't like you extreme dieted for a year. You've been you've been in an extreme deficit and deficit and deficit and he's conditioned your body so much that he actually he doesn't even realize realize realize he he's he's adapted so well for so long that he doesn't even know that he doesn't feel great.

Yeah. This is what And so very similar process that we're going through and it it can be a the longer you have been in that that place of low calorie and overtrained over stress often the longer it takes to get out of it. And [clears throat] so just you know be prepared for that. But hey, on the other side, dude, side, dude, side, dude, huge win. huge win. huge win. Double the calories, double the strength, libido goes up, energy goes up, sleep will like sleep will improve that he's like almost everything, almost everything, almost everything, everything.

And that is that is going to be the best example for the kids. Our next caller is Matild from Singapore. Hi, Matild. Hi, Matild. Hi, Matild. How you doing? Oh, it's so nice to see you guys. How are you? you? you? Good. Thank to have you on. You're a champion for staying up for us. Thank you. Thank you. How can we help you? Yeah. So, I'm going to read my little email so that I don't lose track. So, starting with a big thank you for all of your information.

You've truly changed my life for the better and I'm so grateful for all of you. Um, so my question is about period recovery. I'm 29. I lost my period about uh two and a half years ago due to I think under eating and over exercising because at the time I was doing Pilates every single day and walking 10 more 10k steps um more every single day while eating I believe less than 1,500 calories. So I think it was too much for my body. And since discovering your podcast two years ago, I started strength training and reverse dieting.

Um I'm now following MAP 15. Uh I merged the day together so that I can do four workouts with three exercises each um and because it's easier for my schedule. And I'm now at 2,800 calories um from my from my reverse diet. And I'm continuing reversing. Um, and I also lowered my steps to about se 7,000 during the week uh a few months ago. Uh, it's often more on the weekends but less during the week. Um, my sleep is okay about 8 hours per night as well as my stress.

So, my question is that I feel like I'm doing everything right. U, my OB/GYN also confirmed that nothing is wrong with my hormones. I did all different testing. So, uh, still my period is not bad. So, what would you recommend? Should I continue my reverse diet? Um, yeah. I don't know if you have any ideas. any ideas. any ideas. Oh, yeah. How long have you been doing this for now? How long we've been doing the reverse diet? Uh, it's been about one year consistently. At first, I was doing I was a bit still scared to gain weight.

So, consistently for one year. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Good. Okay. And your OB, you said checked your hormones. You made sure everything was uh working okay. Okay. So, I got to say this. Obviously, we're not doctors, but I am going to speak out of experience. Okay? So, I have trained a few women who lost their periods. Um, a few of them gained it back within 3 to four months. I had one woman that took over a year and a half. Um, I will say this, you seem Um, I will say this, you seem to be doing everything right.

Yeah, they're on the right path for sure. sure. sure. Yeah. And so, I want to ask you this. How do you feel now versus before with the increased calories, the more appropriate exercise? How do you feel energy-wise? How do you feel with everything else? Is there a big difference? difference? difference? Yeah, I feel so great, which is I think the most frustrating part is that I feel so great and I'm like maybe I'm still like stressed about the period not being back and then I overfocus on it and it's like kind of a mental block.

But that's the only thing I see because otherwise I feel super great. I mean even workout I I feel balanced. Yeah. Good. So, if you feel good and based off of what you're doing, it seems to you're doing everything well. Your calories went up significantly, which is phenomenal. phenomenal. phenomenal. I'm sure you're a lot stronger. Um, you're doing you're doing everything right. right. right. Um, and if you've checked your hormones and everything looks good, I think we just need to wait. Now, there are there may be some medical options to kick things into gear that you might want to check with your doctor if you're really like, "Look, I want this to happen now." What I don't think you need to do is any radical changes to your exercise or diet.

Definitely not. Definitely not. Yeah, that that's all good. I I don't think gaining uh or or adding more calories will make it happen necessarily faster. faster. faster. I don't think changing your workouts will make it happen any faster. That's all great if you feel good and based off what you're eating, your activity, you're all you're doing the stuff that I would uh that my expertise is in, you're doing all that stuff, right? I I'm curious. Have you um have you had uh your body fat checked at all during this process the last year?

Like do you know where you were where you're at now? Like kind of give me an idea what that journey's been. journey's been. journey's been. Uh I did it at the start. I was at 16% and now I'm at 21%. Okay. Okay. So this So this is what So if you started at 16 and you're just now at 21, which means you were probably at 17 then 18 and so you probably have only been over 20% for a little while, right? I don't think you've probably been over 20% for very you're just now probably where I would want you like I would want you over 20% body fat for that to happen and so give it some time now that you're here I feel like you're in a really good place what you're doing training what you're doing exercise-wise where your body fat percentage is to me like now the clock really starts of like how long it's been till the period coming back cuz I think where you're at now and what you're doing now is perfect but you came all the way from 16 which was so lean your your body needed more body fat.

Well, it's also to mention, Matild, if you don't mind me going through your question a little bit, if that's okay. You mentioned in there that you had uh osteop was that did you have any No, that was a different question. When you were eating very little calories, how long did you do that for? I did for a long time, I think, because um yeah, I think more than one year, one year and a half. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I mean, and I'm glad Adam asked you about body fat percentage, and you could look up the data on this, but fertility seems to be best in my experience with my clients, the women that I've trained in the in in the mid20s is typically when things start to for the body, the fe the female body likes to have a little bit of body fat before it says, "Hey, we can have a baby." And you sat at low body fat percentage for a long time, but you're doing everything right on our end.

end. end. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, the other conversation would be with your doctor. there is anything medically I could do if you're if you're really in a hurry. But I think if you just stay on this path, I mean, you're doing everything right. Oh, you will. You've cuz you really only have been over 20% for a probably I don't know a few months maybe. Right. Maybe three to Right. So when we were at 16, way too low still. 17 way too low still. 18 way too low still.

19 we're getting closer. 20 now we're in a good place. 21 doing really good. Like you're So you're really just now experiencing kind of where a healthier place. you could still even afford to go up another percent or two to Sal's point. So, I think where you're at calorie-wise is great. You'll probably still maybe put a little bit more on. Maybe if you if you're hungry, I mean, if you're hungry, I'd feed you more. If you're satisfied, I'd keep you where you're at. So, that's kind of how I would I would advise that is, hey, if you feel like you can eat more, I go ahead and let you eat more because we can afford to put another percent or two of body fat on.

Are you taking any um supplements? Uh I take creatine and magnesium at night. night. night. Okay. Uh, I would take a multivitamin. Um, so they have all of them. And then you could also get your nutrient levels checked. Sometimes suboptimal nutrient levels can cause issues, vitamin D being one of them. And so you can get those all tested. But a multivitamin uh is a very inexpensive thing to take. Typically good for most people. I like that you're taking creatine. Uh, how much are you taking? Uh, five milligrams.

Perfect. Five. You mean five grams, I'm assuming? assuming? assuming? Five grams. Five grams. Five grams. Yeah. Yeah. I would add a multivitamin to what you're doing and um and then stay the course. Yeah. You know, you're doing great. Let me have you back on in 3 months. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Great. Okay. Great. Okay. Great. Yeah. Keep it going. You're doing great. Yeah. I mean, you're doing everything right, that's right, that's right, that's and the fact that you feel so much better is such good news.

And I know it feels like it's been a long time cuz it's been a year since you've really started this journey, but it's only been a few months since you've been in that really good place. So now, get be patient. Don't stress about it. It's going to come back. You're going to be fine. Keep it keep going where you're going. You're doing great. Okay. Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. We'll have you on again in a few months. Thank you. Thank you. Byebye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

It's really frustrating. I can hear and I can tell and I've worked with people like this where it's like what's going on? I'm doing everything right. Yeah. Uh so the woman that I had that I trained where it took I think it was like a year and a half before her period came back. Now she was trying to have a baby. She did not want to do like fertility stuff. She wanted to see if she could do she nutrient deficient natural. No, we just her we had to get her body fat percentage up.

I that's my guess. It was just we were a long time. It's hard to see cuz she was kind of dark, but I'm like she looks really lean to me still. And so I'm like if she's been eating that many calories for the last year, I bet she was really she reverse dieted for a year. I don't think it's been up that that whole time. Well, yeah, but I mean she But my point is that she's been reverse dieting for a year and gaining. If that's what And she looks that lean right now.

I bet that was why I asked. I figured she came from a very lean place. So 16 way too low. 17 way too low. 18 weight, you know what I'm saying? Like she's she's she's to So she's only probably been experiencing 20 21% body fat for maybe a month or two. So at that point it's just like signal. Yeah. Like now give yourself and I bet you less than a year she gets her. Well, the one client I worked with and again it's one person. There's such an individual variance when it comes to stuff like this.

But I I I distinctly remember remember remember at that point when the frustration was kind of getting there, I we're like, "Hey, I think we just need to get fatter." Yeah. Yeah. And I remember the look on her face was like, "What?" So, let's get fatter. And I believe we got her body fat percentage up into the mid20s and then things started happening. She got pregnant. pregnant. pregnant. Our next caller is Christina from Missouri. Missouri. Missouri. Hi, Christina. Hi, Christina. Hello. Hello. Hello. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Hi. Uh, it's it's mainly a programming question. question. question. Okay. Okay. Okay. Um, I'm 51. Um, Um, Um, I've been trying to do this myself. I got a got a got a notebook that I write down stuff. Um I have an arm day, a leg day, a glute day, and um I just started listening to you guys about six to nine months ago. And um so I started actually writing stuff down and I'm not progressing for what I'm doing. I'm doing. I'm doing. for what I'm doing.

I feel like I should be a lot more. I'm really nervous. No worries. No worries. No worries. How long have you been doing this uh programming for yourself? Uh well, this time around, uh it's been about a year. I had they call it a it's it's not a dex dexa scan, but it's skyu or something like that. Okay. Okay. Okay. Does that sound right? I'm not familiar, but if you don't mind, Christina, can I go through your question a little bit that you wrote in? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. It says that you uh you had a broken foot and uh osteopenia, so you had some bone density issues. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And this was how long ago? Uh probably three years ago. I was lifting three to four years ago and I uh I have some stomach issues also. So I started doing intermittent fasting. Mhm. could made me feel better. But then I lost all my energy went down and then I hurt myself and broke my foot and then I just quit doing everything for a while.

this past uh it's been probably about a year now um that I I I bought me a a squat rack and a bench and I got a bunch of dumbbells and plates and I started trying to get back at it and I started listening to you guys and so I was at 1,800 calories then I bumped it up to 2,000 and then I was at 2100 and now I'm easily 23 2400 calories a day and I'm starting to I'm keeping track of my steps cuz I I where I work at, I sit all day mostly.

day mostly. day mostly. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. So, every chance I get now because I'm aware of it, I'm walking around building and I'm hitting about 10,000 average steps a day now. Um yeah, I don't know if you can see what I do, but um like arm day I've been stuck with the same weights, you know, 15 20 pound weights and like then my leg day is I do bar squats and I was doing like five to seven reps just the bar. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And so you're you're strength training.

How many days a week is that? Well, six days I I do two two days of arm, two days of legs, and two days of glute. glute. glute. Okay. Okay. Okay. And I get up at 4:00 a.m. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Monday through through Friday because it's easier for me because I have no distractions, you know, there's nobody else is up and I can easily get up at 4, dedicate an hour, you know, 5 days a week. weekends come and it's like I sleep in and my son's up and then it's like, you know, I got things I got to do around the house and it's like working out.

It's it's it's really hard on the weekends. weekends. weekends. Mhm. Um you're probably doing too much. Yep. Sounds like it. Yeah. An hour five days a week is uh is too much for most people for strength training. And in the past with the osteopenia, if you were strength training before and you had osteopenia, that usually means you were really undereating for a long time. I know I was I I was down to 112 pounds at one and I'm 5'11. So, it's going to take it's going to take some time to start to reverse the bone density.

Bone density takes a little while, little while, little while, but if you get stronger and you eat enough uh over time, you see the bone density increase like clockwork. But your strength training program is just way too much. Yeah. I would never have I would I would not have you work out in the gym lifting weights 5 days a week. No. If you were in the gym 5 days a week, we'd have you on Mass 15 where you do two exercises. That's it. 15 20 minutes you're out.

We got two options for you. If you like to do the longer workouts, uh I can send you a program that's like three days a week. week. week. If you like to do where you get up and do something every day, then I can send you mass 15, which is two lifts a day. And I think you'll see strength gains right out the gates with that. Well, you know, they say you're supposed to do so many sets a week. How do you how do you thing?

No. No. No. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nope. Nope. Nope. You know, so I know what you're referring to. You're referring to the studies studies studies that'll say, you know, 12 to 20 sets and X amount of volume. Do you know who those studies are done on? Yeah. Average college men that are eating 3,000 plus calories. College college aged males. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you know how many clients I've trained where that was the ideal set range? range? range? Just not probably like 10% 5%. Yeah. Uh, MAPS 15.

If you follow that, keep feeding yourself, I' I'd like to see you increase your calories a little more. I think you'll see strain gains within the first few weeks. More than 2400. You're at 24 right now. Well, I've been I was at 21 and then here lately I have been up and it's about 2400. about 2400. about 2400. How long you been at 24? Uh, maybe a month or two. All right, let's let's let's keep it at 24. 2500. follow mass 15. Y Y Y and I think by week two or three you see you you'll see your strength go up.

I I thought about the anabolic but you don't think that'd be we could do that too. You could. The difference is that's only three days in the gym for an hour and then that's all you do. If you like like Sal said getting up every morning that's kind of your routine then you would do MAPS 15 but you just do the two exercises that's it. So you shut So it really depends on you. If you prefer just a three-day week routine, we could do anabolic. If you prefer getting up every day, walk and and or or even do some mobility the other days.

Very much. Very much. Very much. I honestly like mass 15 better for you, Christina. I think that's going to give you better results. Yeah. You got to discipline getting up anyways. I think it'd be good for you. Yep. And I I'm telling you right now, by week two or three, you'll see your strength go up. Yep. Yep. Yep. Okay. Okay. Okay. Just got to get that I'm try something different because this ain't working for me. me. me. Yeah. No, let's do it. I'm gonna send it to you right now.

Okay. Okay. Okay. And then you know what? And then you know what? I want you go go go rotate different programs and then we'll stick to that for now. We and then we'll we'll circle back with you. Here's what I'm going to do. Mass 15 will take you three I think it's three-month program. three-month program. three-month program. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So follow that. Let me have you back on in three months. We'll touch base again. Sounds good. Thanks. All right. Very good. Thanks for calling in.

in. in. Yeah. Keep those cows there. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. All right. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. See you, Christina. Man, uh, you know, this is where this is where studies get people so messed up. 51y old woman stuck on that trying to work out. Oh, I got to do osteopenia. osteopenia. osteopenia. I got to do 18 sets per body part. She's hitting everything twice a week. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 1 hour workouts 5 days a week. Way too much. much. much. I'm going to tell you right now, I'm 47.

I've been lifting weights forever. I'm on hormones. and 5 days a week of that kind of routine. I'd have to take breaks a lot because it would be too much for I'm sure it was osteopenia that got her really like shook to where it's like I got to work out a lot more. Yeah. Yeah. Got to do the right amount. Our next caller is Olivia from Texas. Hi Olivia. Hi Olivia. Hi Olivia. How you doing Olivia? Hi guys. Thank you for having me on. Yeah. How can we help you?

Of course. course. course. Um so essentially I want to get one of your guys' workout programs. Um and I just kind of want your advice and your guidance based on like my past or my current goals of which one to get. Um, right now I'm kind of between push pull legs and muscle mommy. Um, but I also want to have the ability to do my workout classes with my friends. I like to do Pilates sometimes or um, I play a lot of soccer. Um, I like to swim in the summer.

So, kind of just finding a good balance between it all because in the past I didn't really have much of that balance when it came to workouts and overex exercising, all that. Um, so I really want to find a routine uh that I know won't overtrain my body and that will be sustainable long term. Uh, and then I have a couple questions on nutrition and stuff. Uh, maybe after you guys answer guys answer guys answer Yeah. Let me let me ask you a little bit more about like a the like what's a t a typical week?

Um, what how many days would you do like a Pilates class, play soccer, do other things? Like is it two days every week you're doing something outside of what would be traditional weight training or is it three? Like what's a what's a normal week look like? Um, I a normal week I'll do like two leg days in the gym and then I'll do a back and biceps day and a a push day and then I play soccer once uh on the weekends with friends and then I'll take a Pilates class also somewhere in that week.

Um, and then maybe I'll go on a run or like some other like maybe go for a swim. So, soccer, some other sort of cardio, and then four days of lifting, and then one day of Pilates. And then the and the run and the swim, is that like typically like an hour worth of swimming and running? Is that is it a pretty active or more? Yeah, I'd say like this morning I was just going to go for a three mile run and then I ended up doing eight.

So, it kind of varies. Um, but I'd say it's probably about an hour of cardio. Okay. Okay. Okay. And how long you play soccer for when you play? you play? you play? At least an hour. Um, it's an hour as well. Okay. And what was the sport you played when you were uh was it says here you played a lot of sports I'm assuming in college? college? college? I played lacrosse, basketball, soccer, water polo, uh tennis all in high school. And then when I got I just graduated from college, but in college I also did a bunch of intramural sports.

So, football, soccer, I was kind of in in college, I was playing probably three to four sports a week. And then I was also running outside of that that that and lifting. Yep. And it was a lot. But I've been listening to you guys and taking notes and knowing that, you know, I was just doing too much and it wasn't really really really beneficial or adding to my life. It was kind of just taken away from it. So, I've started doing a lot of research and scaling down on all the cardio and sports, but I I enjoy them.

That's the hard thing. hard thing. hard thing. Um, and I know that I want to maintain muscle, build muscle. So, I'm kind of putting an emphasis on that. Uh, but I still [clears throat] I don't know. I I I still think back sometimes like maybe if I am training less that I'm going to lose some of my gains or not be as fit. And I know that that's not what you guys preach at all. So, I appreciate everything I've learned from you guys, but I kind of just want to have like a set way of going about it so that I know I'm structuring it the right way um and not kind of going back if that if that makes sense.

We have perfect programs for you, but they're not the two that you were looking at. looking at. looking at. No. No. No. So, that's even that's too much too much volume for for what you want to do. So, like one of our MAPS 15 programs, one of the any any program in that series. So we have a maps 15 muscle mommy. So if that like appeals to you like but that with the with the three days of kind of sport activity or classes taking you really don't need that much that much training.

If you're going to do a full hour workout it only be like one day a week. That's all you would need and you would build you'd build muscle. You get strong and that's enough activity to keep you fit and lean. Yeah. There's there's a difference between like what you can tolerate because you can obviously tolerate a lot. You've got an athletic background. There's a difference between that and following a program that's going to allow your body uh room to adapt and build and improve performance because right now you're obviously can tolerate what you're doing like you can do it but you're looking to improve and so we got to scale back a little bit and the strength training from what I hear from you Olivia like you really like to be active.

active. active. Yep. That's the priority. You have fun being active otherwise you wouldn't do it. So we don't so we don't need to make the strength training the center focus of your life. your life. your life. Compliment it. Yep. Yeah, it's going to be complimentary and so a maps 15 program is perfect. Do you have are is gym access easy for you? Cuz it's like a 5 day a week routine, but you're doing very little in the gym. Yeah, I I live at an apartment complex right now.

We have a gym, but it's all the basic things. So, I Yeah, just dumbbells and then a couple machines. But machines. But machines. But yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm going to send you Maps 15, Muscle Mommy. That's your program. You should start to see some strength gains. You'll have more energy when you go play soccer and swim. Here's what I don't want you to do. I don't want you to get all crazy and ramp up your swimming and your running suddenly. suddenly. suddenly. And then let's talk about your food, your nutrition.

I see here in your co in your uh email that you're eating about 2,400 calories a day. Yeah, that's when I was I had to track it for one of my nutrition classes. And so that was maybe six months ago when I did that, but that was when I was also doing a lot more exercise. So, I was a lot hungrier. Um, and now I haven't tracked it in a while, but I think I'm a little bit less than that. Um, but I definitely I always just look at my protein and I I weigh I fluctuate like between 130 132.

So, I kind of aim for 135 to 140 grams of protein since I'm trying to build muscle. But, yeah, I kind of wanted to know what your guys' thoughts were on that or how I should change my nutrition. Yeah, I I like what you're doing. Yeah, I think uh probably around 2500 calories would be great. Yeah, I would say keep if you don't want to get crazy into weighing, measuring everything, keep doing what you're doing with the protein. But I would also encourage you if you're hungry to eat because even if you're less than 2400 calories, you're training, lifting weights, looks like you have a job where you're on your feet, probably moving around a lot, too, and then you also have those three days activity.

That's lower on the calorie end. And so if you feel your appetite increase, I would tell you to to feed it. it. it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So do what you're doing with the protein. protein. protein. Definitely don't try to restrict. Yeah. Don't restrict like that's not what like if you so do the protein thing and if you feel hungry have another one of those high protein meals like just eat another meal like I would that would be the advice because there's a good chance that if you're only eating 2200 calories we hit the appropriate amount of strength training with the activity you have you should feel appetite increase increase increase and I don't want you to restrict from that cuz that'll keep you from building the muscle you want to build.

That's right. And here's what you'll feel when you start following uh Mass 15 muscle mommy. uh you'll have more energy and better performance on the days that you play soccer and swim and run. Um and you'll also see some strength gains probably within the first couple weeks. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. And if appetite How long is this program? Three months. Three months. Three months. Okay. Cuz I have I'm actually going to start training for a Spartan ultramarathon in Southern California. So an ultra an ultra an ultra I'm glad you told us now at the end.

An ultra marathon. Yeah. It's It's a 60k and then also has the sparr and obstacles in it. So, I know that I'm going to be upping my running probably after I finish this program. program. program. Okay. And so, that's just going to add a lot. But I probably How much should I eat then? eat then? eat then? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A lot more. Do you have a training protocol for that? that? that? No. Every time I train for a race, I just just just I don't I just like eat more.

Um, but I definitely probably end up overtraining because I don't back down with my lifting ever. I just end up doing more cardio. Um, cardio. Um, cardio. Um, all right. So, here's here's what I And this is a Spartan race with the run. [clears throat] Okay. What's the name of our program that Okay, here's what I'm going to do. Uh, do Muscle Mommy 15 right now. When you when you're ready to start training for the Spartan race, we're going to right now we're going to send you a discount code for another program that's literally designed for obstacle course racing.

racing. racing. Really? Really? Really? Yes. Okay. Yes. Okay. Yes. Okay. So, you could just follow our program. Yes. That's it. you literally designed for Spartan races. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. We wrote it all. We wrote it with Ameilia Boon who's one of the like winningest female athletes in So, so that program after you're done with Muscle Mommy 15, Doug's going to send a discount code. Just follow Maps OCR. That's your program for And don't add anything to it, please. it, please. it, please.

Only thing you add is calories and eat more. more. more. Eat more. Eat more. Eat more. Like feed feed your body. Fuel your body. body. body. But I'm cur I mean it'd be exciting to hear how you do through this. just going to the muscle mommy and feeding yourself and the appropriate amount of strength training. I think you're going to see great results from that alone. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thank you guys so much. Um, you got it. Yeah, that was kind of Oh, I just had like an extra question.

If about creatine, if you I think you guys have said you you think good things about creatine. Take it. Um, and then any brands in particular? Yeah, I like Legion. I'll send you their link. Yeah, they got really good source of creatine. Yep. Yep. Yep. Okay, awesome. That's actually the one I'm taking right now. So, that was great. great. great. Oh, you're set. You're all good. Had a girl. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. All right. Thank you guys so much. You got it. Thank you. Good luck.

Good luck. Good luck. All right. Thank you. Byebye. Byebye. Byebye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Yeah, it's good. She's moving to move in the right direction. I think she'll get great results. Uh and I'm glad she threw in at the end. Ultra marathon. Ultra marathon. Ultra marathon. She's very sporty. Oh, by the way, I'm ultra marathon. You know, typical athlete, right? Typical athlete. Uh and you said it really well with you. Yeah. you can tolerate all that, you know, and so that's the that's the hardest part with an athletes mindset is mindset is mindset is they've been conditioned to be able to tolerate a ton.

Therefore, they assume that, oh, I can do maybe I need to do more. You know, that's the athletic mindset. It's like I'm not doing enough, you know, maybe. So, it's like even the programs that she was looking at weren't appropriate with three other days of like high activity, good activity. good activity. good activity. Yeah. Yeah. If she's running running 8 miles, she's Pilates is not so crazy intense, but soccer and swimming. And I would assume she's not playing like she's playing soccer. No. And and rarely if you're playing pickup games on the weekend, it rarely it's an hour.

Whenever I play pickup basketball, it's normally multiple hours that you're playing for. And so she's probably playing for There's nothing wrong with like, you know, that mentality. You just have to like corral it by, you know, having complimentary training. complimentary training. complimentary training. Yeah. Not to mention when you play a sport, you have seasons. You're in season and offseason. When athletes come out of that playing sports, their their mentality is in season all the time. So, I'm not saying that Olivia could possibly ramp things up for a season, which she's going to do for OCR.

She's going to do it for Spartan racing, but that's not how she trains all the time. She will burn herself out. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. It's Mindpump Media. All right. I [clears throat] know you like that episode. If you did, check this one out. One of the keys to fat loss is protein. It's true. If you're not eating in a high protein diet, you're not going to burn as much body fat as you can. So, today's episode, we're going to talk about the smartest ways to use protein for fat burn and to build muscle.

You got to watch this. I wish I understood this earlier in my career. I think it was probably almost 10 years in when I started to just focus on this with clients. I knew it was important, but I don't know how important. Yeah. I also did I knew what was important and but I also