Why 95% of People Regain All Their Weight (And How to Be in the 5% Who Don't) | Mind Pump 2896

Key Takeaway

Stop treating weight loss as a punishment. The most sustainable approach isn't burning calories through intense cardio—it's building muscle through strength training just 2 days per week. This can boost your metabolism by 500 calories daily while you feed your body with high-protein foods instead of starving it. Replace the tyrant mentality with care: you deserve to be healthy, not punished into shape.

Episode Overview

This episode explores why 95% of people regain lost weight and how to be in the successful 5%. The hosts discuss the critical difference between unsustainable calorie-burning approaches versus building muscle to increase metabolism, and most importantly, shifting from a punishing 'tyrant' mentality to one of self-care and balance.

Full Transcript

Transcript of Why 95% of People Regain All Their Weight (And How to Be in the 5% Who Don't) | Mind Pump 2896 from Mind Pump Show. Auto-generated from episode audio; may contain minor errors.

All right, we're going to talk about why 95% of people regain the weight that they lose. And we're also going to talk about how to be in the 5% who don't. Let's get to it. The 95 comes from uh after year two. Uh this is uh after I think I think it's uh after two it's close to 70% when I guess at five years. Oh, it's five. Okay. Cuz I know I know like the first year a large percentage already gain it back. the second year I think that that the gains I thought it was by the third year but maybe it's five.

five. five. Yeah. So most all put it back. Well, here's how Okay, this is this is where it gets really uh dismal. The data a small percentage of people actually accomplish what is considered statistically significant weight loss. You guys want to guess what that number is? is? is? 5 to 10% of their body weight. Yeah. So if you're 300 lb, 15 to 30 lbs would be considered uh statistically significant. Most people I I don't know about most, but a good chunk of people need to lose more than that.

Okay. The percentage of people that actually accomplish that number is something like 15%. Of the 15% that lose the 5 to 10%, 95% of them gain it back. So if you look at the big total total number, your odds of losing the weight and keeping it off, it's like not going to happen. happen. happen. Yeah. Pretty pretty slim. It's really really really slim. So, this is an important topic because we focus a lot of time and energy. When I say we, I talk I'm talking about the the health and fitness industry and the diet industry focuses a lot of energy on how to lose the weight.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They focus uh almost no energy on how to keep it off. Uh I do think they're connected though. I think how you lose it does contribute to Oh, for sure. The biggest loser uh study that was like even worse uh in terms of like the statistics. statistics. statistics. No, it follows it follows most of them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But the difference the difference with Biggest Loser though is that most of them do lose weight, right? Okay. Yeah. But they all gain it back.

It's just the the rebound is substantial. substantial. substantial. They all gain it back. So it's really really tough. Uh and and then if you look at other data, the more often this happens to you, um in other words, uh let's say you are in that small percentage of people that lose the weight, but then you gain it back and then you do it again and then you gain it back. each success uh you know successive attempt uh becomes more difficult and then what tends to happen is people give up.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. After they've lost and gained the weight back you know two or three times uh they're just like I'm not I'm not even trying. trying. trying. Well yeah cuz the you know your point the method that that which they go about it is so miserable just to get there and then to to a lot of times fall short of your ultimate goal or feel so miserable for so long. And what I mean by that is the the the method at which they approach this is super low calorie, tons of activity, cardio.

Yeah. Just white knuckling their way to get there and you look back and you go, you know what, say your goal was to lose 80 lbs and you got 30 or 50 even off, but you didn't even reach all the way to your goal and you're just like and you feel miserable. Yeah. You feel miserable. Um you've sacrificed so much. you go, man, I just I'd rather be 50 pounds heavier and do everything that I want, you know, and eat the way I want to eat.

And that's kind of what happens. And the unfortunate part is when they do that and they give up and they go back the other way, this it swings back even harder. harder. harder. That's right. That's right. That's right. So, not only do they gain it all back uh really fast, but then even more of it comes back on because now their body's adapted to all that activity and that low of calorie. And so, it's just a dangerous recipe. dangerous recipe. dangerous recipe. It is. Uh and this is why people when they stop uh kind of to your point, Adam, when people get off uh the wagon, stop the workout, you know, go back to their old eating habits, if often times what you'll hear is people will say um well, I just want to live my life.

I just want to enjoy my life, which is interesting. I've I've brought this up uh before on the podcast, but when this first dawned on me, this was years ago, years ago. I remember the first time I heard that where it actually sank in because I'd heard that before. We've all heard that if you've worked in gyms, you hear people say that. Oh, I just stopped because I just want to enjoy my life or I can't do the diet anymore because I just want to enjoy food.

And uh I heard that so many times, but one time it really sank in and I thought to myself like this is very weird because uh enjoying your life, you should be able to enjoy your life more being healthy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And yet people are saying they're going to allow themselves to be less healthy to enjoy their lives. There's something wrong here. There's there's something a miss. there's some some wires being crossed because uh we know that improving your health and fitness improves your your quality of life for sure 100%.

I think logically people know that and yet people are stopping because they want to just enjoy their life. So the method we could start by talking about the method and why uh or how people approach it and why it's so wrong. I think it's important to start with this uh point which is uh whatever you do to lose weight or get in shape, it has to be something that you feel like you can maintain. Y Y Y okay. So otherwise uh when you stop you're you're going to go back to where you were before.

So whatever the method is, you have to ask yourself is this something that I will want to continue doing? Part of it's discipline. The other part of it is if you do this in a very ineffective way, you're going to do way more work than is necessary and you're just going to make it a lot harder on yourself. And this is where people screw up. Yeah. So, what they tend to do is they tend to look at activity as a way to burn calories. calories. calories.

So, I got to move more and move more. And then they look at uh totally restricting um with their with their diet and cutting their calories low. So, it's like burn a lot of calories, eat a little calories. And this is really not a very successful Yeah. And it's looked at as like a temporary um like all-in kind of effort. Like I have to, you know, sacrifice all this to get to this point where I feel like I'm going to um achieve this physique that I'm uh trying to achieve.

And you know, once you get there, it's like, okay, well, you have to continue to, you know, do the work. You have to continue to exercise. You have to continue to eat correctly. And I think that the misconception is that we're going to get to this place and then it's all going to kind of settle itself at that point. that point. that point. Yeah. So, so let's talk about like the like let's move as much as we can to burn calories. That is a very difficult way uh to get your body to burn more calories is through movement.

Now movement is good for you. So I want to be clear like you should move but if your approach around exercise is burn as many calories as possible, it's a lot of effort for very little in return. Okay. So like just to give you an example in in every cardio machine out there and every workout program that claims differently is wrong. We have actual data on this typical person working out really hard for an hour like I mean like really hard intensive what people would what what we would label as calor you know calorically expensive activity hit cardio or you know you know running or something very difficult.

You're going to burn maybe 5 600 calories in an hour. That's it. five to six00 calories in an hour of breaking your butt. You can eat that two seconds. You could drink, you could have a couple sodas. Yeah. And you get that. That is a very difficult way to burn 5 to 600 calories. Not to mention, the more you do it, the better your body gets at it and the less calories you actually burn while doing it. I know that sounds crazy, but the better you get at a movement or skill, the body learns how to become more efficient with it because it's this wonderful adaptation uh process that we have.

So now you're doing an hour of intense like really hard make you feel like you want to puke workouts every day just to create a 500 calorie uh extra burn. Yeah. Um it's not very effective. The other strategy is what kind of exercise gets my body to burn more calories on its own. own. own. That is a much better approach. Well, it's also a behavior that's almost impossible to sustain. Like how many people have you ever met that went on a mission of running on the treadmill for an hour every day or even every other day for that matter and then kept that up?

up? up? The only people I know that kept it loved running. loved running. loved running. That's not a lot of people. You have to point. point. point. You you you have Exactly. If you're going to choose a modality like running or swimming or it better be something that you love to do regardless of you want to do forever, regardless of your weight and your aesthetics. It's like it can't be motivated by I need to look a certain way. It's that I love to run. I'll do it anyway.

anyway. anyway. Yeah. I love to swim. I don't care if I'm 50 lbs over, underweight, doesn't matter. It's like I love to do those things. things. things. Great point. Great point. Great point. Then that makes sense. If it's not one of those things and then you choose to go pick up running, it's just not sustainable. You're far better off either one going the direction that you are about to go right now in the conversation, which is, you know, building muscle and building your metabolism or changing behavior like lifestyle behaviors.

I've had way more success with clients that I convince to, you know, make walking for 10 or 15 minutes after a meal a habit or, you know, hey, why don't you make it a tradition that you and your spouse on Saturdays go for an hour hike where you get to connect and stuff. You know, if they can find ways to attach it to other things that add value to their life or build it within their daily habits that doesn't require them to go to the gym, doesn't require them to get all sweaty, those are far more sustainable.

They are. And and and you're also not doing it for the calorie burn, right? A 10 15 minute walk after breakfast, lunch and dinner is not going to burn a ton of calories. It's good for you, but it's not going to burn a ton of calories. So my point with it is if you're doing the workout for the calorie burn, that's not a sustainable approach. You're going to fail. If you're doing the workout for adaptations, that can lead to a metabolic rate that burns more calories.

Much better approach. For example, you could strength train a couple days a week. For most people, two days a week would accomplish this. Two days a week strength training. Feed your body to build muscle. And you could, you know, and we do this pretty reliably with the people that we've worked with that we continue to work. We have clients that work with our with our trainers now that do this, but I done this for 20 years. I could reliably get someone's metabolism to go up by 500 calories a day with with two days a week of strength training.

Now, you're burning 500 more calories a day, but you're not doing an hour of intensive crazy workout. You're just burning more calories. Much much better approach. And with the diet strategy, I'm not going into the diet thinking I need to cut. so many calories to lose weight. I'm thinking, how can I feed this adaptation? this adaptation? this adaptation? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How could I build this muscle? So now it looks more like a high protein diet. I'm, you know, I'm feeding myself when I'm hungry, sticking to whole natural foods because I don't want to overeat because processed foods will encourage that.

But I'm also not trying to like starve myself. So I'm going to feed my body and try to build into the body. such a more positive like way to look at it too for feeding the body and you know going to to get nutritious food as opposed to like this math you're going to play in that calorie burn kind of game where it's like oh no I ate this and now I have to go run this it's like this punishment for like the uh the amount of calories that were off on your diet and then we have to equate for that.

Also consider this. Um, if we had a person that that is listening right now that feels like, I really need to get started on my health and fitness journey and I need to lose 30 or 40 pounds. I would make the argument that that person who's thinking that way, if they were to add 10 pounds of muscle, which would make the scale go up and not lose any weight, they would look better than if they lost 10 pounds off the scale. scale. scale. So, think about that, too.

So, not only is it advantageous metabolically to your point, but I even think you would look better adding 10 lbs to that same quote unquote fat body that you feel so fat or you don't like the way you look and feel adding 10 lbs of pure muscle to that body versus just losing 10 lbs on the scale. scale. scale. So, not only is it metabolically advantageous, advantageous, advantageous, which which will contribute to more fat loss, loss, loss, right? Which and and it would be easier to go in that direction for you discipline wise, right?

because you're you're feeding the body what it needs and nourishing it versus uh taking away from it being catabolic. You'll look better, you'll feel better, and then you'll also speed up the one one method requires 1 hour of exercise, intensive calorie burning exercise a day, every day, every uh day. So, 1 hour a day versus two 45 minutes to 1 hour workouts a week. One of them speeds up your metabolism. The other one requires you to burn them manually. Yeah. One of them you feed your body to build.

The other one you starve your body to lose. Uh much better, more sustainable approach. approach. approach. But then then we need to talk about the mentality because here's the deal. The mentality drives all of this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you don't get the mentality going into this right, you will end up uh uh with poor results, poor sustainability, or in a dysfunctional state. So let's let's get to that for a second. So, this is something that I've talked about before and uh I've organized it into um something that I think is catchy that I think people can kind of identify with um that kind of communicates to this mentality that we get into when we're trying to uh change how we look and feel through uh diet and exercise.

And so, it kind of looks like this, right? Average person finally decides I'm going to do something about the way I look or the way I feel. And typically it starts with this like, man, I feel gross or overweight or inadequate or I don't like the way I look in that picture or somebody said something to me or I'm tired of, you know, feeling this way type of deal. Then they shift into the mentality of a tyrant. And a tyrant, they become this tyrant that then tyrannizes tyrannizes tyrannizes uh this other part of them.

So the tyrant says, "You're fat. Go to the gym. You can't eat that food. How dare you? Go train hard. I can't believe you're so undisiplined. You need to do this. Make it happen no matter how you feel. And so you tyrannize yourself into producing these behaviors that you think are beneficial. And so when people offer you food that's off your your diet, it's like, "No, I can't have that." Which is an interesting thing to say. I can't. It's like, what do you mean you can't?

Either you do or you don't. Can't is like, who's telling you you can't, right? Or you go to the gym and you work out so hard that you can't walk. uh two days after or you feel like you're going to throw up and you leave and even though you feel like garbage, you say to yourself, "Great workout. That was a great workout." Why? Because this person I'm tyrannizing deserves punishment. So, it feels cathartic. So, you get into this mental state of tyrannizing yourself. You're the tyrant.

Uh and then there's another side of you that's the tyrannized. And here's what happens eventually. Eventually, you start to identify more with the tyrannized than you do with the tyrant. And what does someone do when they feel like they're being tyrannized for a long period of time? They rebel. They rebel. Yes. Yes. Yes. They rebel. And this is why when you go off your diet, you don't just go off a little bit. little bit. little bit. You go way off your diet. It's like you're giving yourself the middle finger.

finger. finger. It's like, "No, I'm not just going to have one cookie. I'm having the whole damn sleeve of Oreos. No, I'm not skipping one workout. I'm not going back for months. Like, I'm done. I'm off this whatever." And so, you rebel. And this is why people swing so hard in one direction uh or the other. Um by the way there's another direction that this can also turn into. It's a small so it's much smaller percentage of people. Most people end up rebelling but there's a very small percentage of people that go in another dysfunctional direction and most of them work in the fitness industry.

industry. industry. And this is not the rebel. This is the robot. Mhm. robot. Mhm. robot. Mhm. This is the person that uh becomes orthorexic with their diet, whose workouts they never miss, no matter what's going on, who says things like, "Food is fuel. Food is fuel. That's all it is. I work out no matter what. It's all about discipline. You know, I'll never skip. This is my life type of deal." And on the outside, they look very fit and healthy, but on the inside, they're quite uh dysfunctional, unhealthy.

And again, we know a lot of these people, and I've struggled with this uh myself. So the solution to this is to change the mentality which is uh I'm not a tyrant tyrannizing myself. I am somebody uh who uh is worthy of being cared for. I need to take care of myself. Why? Because I deserve to be cared for because I'm a human being. So what's that going to look like? And what that ends up looking like is balance. Workouts are more appropriate. Uh nutrition is more balanced.

There are going to be those occasional times you go out and enjoy food with your friends and it's okay because right now it's not about eating something healthy. It's about hanging out with my friends, but most of the time I'm probably going to eat healthy. Um, and sometimes my workouts are hard. Sometimes, man, I'm tired and stressed. I think my workout needs to be a little easier or I need to take the day off. And you develop a relationship with uh diet and exercise where you're you enjoy it because it's caring for yourself and it's very very balanced.

And that mentality has to be uh the starting point. Um, and it has to continuous continuously be worked on otherwise you end up in a bad situation. Also, brand new maps program, maps upper lower. It's an upper body, lower body split. It's a 4-day workout program. We have male programming and female programming. Slightly different because men and women are interested in different looks to their body. It's a great bodybuilding style routine. It's great to shape and sculpt and build the body. And it's brand new, so it's 40% off right now.

Go to mapsupper lowerower.com, use the code launch. That'll get you the 40% off discount. Back to the show. Going back to the rebellious part and you talking about that being like this this mentality, right, of being tyrannized and then you then you you rebel uh from that. Wouldn't you say too there's also a physiological thing that's happening too? So, it's not just the the mentality, which I think we agree is is a big piece of that, but even the physiological part of this is what happens when you deprive your body of calories for such a long period of time.

Your body's na will have these natural signals of like we got to eat. I mean, I I remember going through this when competing and you'd be in a a deficit for a long period of time. You've I've dreamed about food and all I thought about after the competition was like, I am going to eat this and I'm going to eat that and it's like all of a sudden you start fantasizing about that. But I think part of that too isn't just the mentality of like I'm telling myself I can't have these things.

It's also the physiological side going like you haven't had we want calories. You want calorie dense foods because you're going so low. You're not eating to nourish your body. You're not eating in a balanced way. You're eating in this crazy deficit. And then you're also also also you go too far me mean yes many times pushing the body and so the body is screaming at you like yo we need a lot of calories. Well, there's two parts of that. One is you can definitely go too far uh where you're starving yourself uh and pushing yourself too hard in your workouts uh where they're excessive.

They're not beneficial. beneficial. beneficial. And I think that's hard to gauge s because results come slow. Yeah. M. Yeah. M. Yeah. M. And so what ends up happening is a lot of times people start off with this deficit or start off with a little bit of cardio and a week goes by and they only see one pound move or no pounds move. And so what what do they do? Ramp it up. Throttle down. Well, instead of an hour cardio a week, I'm going to do two hours of cardio a week.

Instead of eating a 500 calorie deficit, I'm going to go a,000 calories deficit. Your your your diet and your exercise routine should uh improve the quality of your life. That's it. So, if your quality of life is not being improved, if it's like, "This is dreadful. This sucks. I hate this. Life sucks. I can't move. I'm too sore. Oh my god, I'm I'm dreaming about food all the time." It's not benefiting you. Uh you should feel better through this process. You should feel better. Uh as an effective trainer and coach, uh you learn this over the years, like, "Wow, the more my clients enjoy this, the better the results come and the more consistent they are, they stick around." Yeah.

So you you should definitely it should improve the quality of your life regardless of what's happening in your life, which this is why your workouts and diet change uh throughout the whole period. You know, workouts aren't going to look the same all the time. Sometimes they're going to be you can't train hard. Same thing with diet. There's going to be times when you're on vacation and I'm not eating perfect. This is where the robots, by the way, freak out, right? Put them on vacation. Watch what happens.

All of a sudden, they're stressed out because they can't count every macro or they don't have a gym, you know, that's right next to them. them. them. Uh so this mentality aspect is very important, but it's also important to note here. Look, you are going to feel some hunger. some hunger. some hunger. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You are going to have uh some temptations and directions that want to bring you back to kind of how you lived before. And that's just cuz you're changing things. Like if you're used to eating lots of heavily processed foods and you switch to whole natural foods, uh whole natural foods isn't going to excite your brain like the other stuff does.

does. does. It's gonna be a big contrast. If you're in any kind of a calorie deficit, even if it's a minor one, consistently, you might get a little hungry, hungry, hungry, but but it's different. when I'm feeling a little hunger, but I'm doing it because I'm I'm caring for myself. Very different than when I feel a little hunger and I'm telling myself, how don't you dare, don't even think about eating food right now, like you're fat or whatever. Like, good luck with that. At some point, you're going to again, you give yourself the middle finger and you're going to go in the opposite direction.

direction. direction. Well, that's the thing. That's the the challenge is to stick with it like on that end of the spectrum versus the other one is like to double down, to throttle down, to like add more. And it's like, you know, the real discipline is to just trust in the fact that like this is, you know, benefiting my body the most. I'm building and the building part, you're going to have to wait for that transition really to kick in. Well, speaking more to the mentality piece, I I think that this is uh it's so important that the the self-awareness kicks in here, too.

Like, cuz to your point, during this process, when these you'll you'll start to notice when these cravings and patterns and behaviors happen. And if you if you don't approach it uh with through that lens of like I'm trying to learn about my own behaviors or peer into that because I think at least in my experience I don't think I've ever had a client that was you know overweight by 30 plus pounds that didn't have a lot of behavioral things that they they didn't see before that when you start to restrict they start to reveal themselves like oh wow I noticed that noticed that noticed that every time I have a rough day at work I want to do this thing you know I want to have this or every time my wife and I are kind of getting into it, I kind of want to do this thing or wow, I can't have dinner and not feel like I need to go have a second serving or I can't have dinner and not feel like I have to have a dessert.

It's like, or man, every time I walk past that peanut jar, I have to go like, you have to peer into all that to start to unpack and unlock um all these behavioral things that you have going on and then find ways to to work on and change that. Otherwise, you know, it'll all rear its head. it all come back and you know you can you can white knuckle it for you know so long before all that stuff well I just want people to know like this what we're talking about is how we coach people coach people coach people y y y um it took us all I would say it probably took each of us a good 8 to 10 years to kind of figure this out and then after that I'm listen this is 100% you guys my success strategy and Justin and Adam are the same our success strategy when we figured this out with our coaches went through the roof the roof the roof like 10 years into my career where most of my clients became consistent uh and still haven't stopped.

The first half of my career, most of my clients were not consistent and we couldn't figure this out. So, it's very it's a very successful strate. This is how we coach our coaches and trainers here at Mind Pump. This is how they work with people. So, it really does work and I I have no there are no other ways that I've seen that will give you uh success. Yeah. Less turnovers, more lifers. That's right. Even my personal journey has changed a lot um through this lens.

I think that I think we're we're all we're all on this spectrum, right? Like maybe I'm not the full tyrant and don't totally tyrannize myself, but I'm certainly uh guilty of somewhat of that. And I'm certainly guilty. I can connect and relate to that rebellious, you know, rebellion sitting down and eating a whole thing of ice cream when it's just like what what am I doing? Like I can have ice cream anytime I want. Like what? like what what is that? Right? And so I think I think we're all and just because maybe I don't ever let it go as far as maybe some some other people that struggle with it uh doesn't mean that uh I'm immune to it or I don't struggle with it also.

I think we're all somewhere on this spectrum. And it's taken me a long time, probably almost into my 40s, to really find that nice balance of not allowing the pendulum to really swing hard anymore and trying to find that even balance and of both exercise and diet. It just doesn't neither looks really extreme anymore. It looks like a much healthier balance of eating eating when I like out of balance every once in a while, but then not going out of control. I had a conversation with one of our uh one of our clients here uh at Mind Pump.

So, we have we have trainers that work with people and every once in a while I hop on calls and I love doing it. Um just reminds me of why I love training people so much. But anyway, I was I was in a call with someone and we were having this very conversation and I said, "Why are you afraid that if you don't tyrannize yourself that you're just going to run in the opposite direction?" And she said, "Yes." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I said, "Look, I get it.

Like I I know if you're in that position, you're like, "Look, if I don't hammer down on myself, I know what I'll do. I'll binge or I'll go in this crazy direction." I said, "Look, first off, it's not working for you because you're still doing that." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I said, "But you may you may run a little bit in the other direction, but uh we have to get to this other place." And so the truth is for somebody feeling this, yeah, you might have to switch gears.

And you might find if you don't tyrannize yourself, suddenly you feel like you have this like freedom to like go off a little bit. And you may go off a little bit, but you'll you'll bring yourself back. You'll bring yourself back and it won't be this wild swing. Um and then you'll develop a relationship with us where you know that's exactly the way I feel it's it's it's gone for me personally. Big swings. Exactly. It used to be this dramatic swings in my 20s and then the swings got a little bit smaller and then smaller and then it's very very subtle now.

It's like and now what it looks like is I can come off of a week vacation where I enjoy myself. I maybe only get one or two workouts in more just like active golf things like that. You know, we we all are eating whatever we want, having nice drinks, but I'm not splurging or overdoing it. It's just this nice. And then here I'm back to Monday. Meals are prepped, ready to go. Yeah. Back. And it's like and I didn't put on any real weight. I didn't feel like I fell out of shape.

like it's just they they look these very real SL and it feels so much better, but it's taken me a long even myself personally a long time to get there. there. there. Speaking of breaks, I so because we were gone, which I'll we'll talk about that. Um I hadn't used Ketone IQ for uh almost a week and a half, right? Cuz we we were up in Arizona last the week before, then we were gone for a week. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And um you know when you use something consistently and then you stop and then you use it again.

That's how I always know if something worse or not. Dude, I came doing that. doing that. doing that. So, I haven't used it for like a week and a half, right? And typically, I use like two a day, especially when I'm here. here. here. This morning, I took one before I went to get my haircut. Just lit up a bit. Oh, bro. Oh, bro. Oh, bro. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So clear. So clear. So clear. That's how I always know what a supplement really works to me is like I can never tell like just starting.

That's why I'm always hesitant when someone asks, "How do you feel?" Yeah. It's like it's when I stop it and then I come back to it again and then I can I feel like, "Okay, now I can tell the difference." So, you notice a huge difference. difference. difference. Oh, dude. clear like mental energy sharpness. It's so different from caffeine and I totally noticed it because I had stopped for a little while. So anyway, I had a great time by the way. I was out uh we were out in Yellowstone.

Yellowstone. Yellowstone. Uh Uh Uh I saw some of your videos all the bears and stuff. and stuff. and stuff. So you actually went to that spot where you could feed the bears. So I you can That's crazy. That's crazy. That's crazy. Okay. So there's a place called I didn't know that. There's a place called Bear World. It's called Bear World. like somewhere in like Florida where they do like those like crocodile like I thought it was a nudist colony. No, no, not those kind of bears.

No, you do that San Francisco. No, there was uh it was near So we we flew into Idaho Falls. So it's kind of like in that area and you drive your car through. So there's two places. There's a part with rides. So there's actually kids rides, kids rides, kids rides, but the main part is you drive your car through. Yeah. And there's like there's grizzly bears just walking around. Grizzlies. Grizzlies. Grizzlies. Grizzly bears Grizzly bears Grizzly bears and black bears. I mean, they got to be more lazy.

They're just walking around. They come up to your car. They're like, "Keep your windows closed." I'm like, "Yeah, no, no, no, no crap, dude. I'm not going to open my window." But they'll walk up to your car. They'll walk around. They're scratching their backs on the trees. They're like, you know, moping around. It looks, of course, the kids are like, "They're cute." I'm like, "Don't don't open the door, kids." You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you drive through slowly and there's just grizzly bears and black bears everywhere.

everywhere. everywhere. Then there's this part with rides and then there's this separate thing that you could pay for where they take you on this that's I don't know what you would call it. It's like a big tram like car or whatever and you go up on these steps so you're high and then the bottom part of it is all like protected so the bears can't reach you and they give you food and they pull up and you just you throw the food over and you just feed the bears.

bears. bears. Why is this so like the worst idea? Well, they're not wild. They're all encapsulated. I didn't The grizzly bears and the black bears cohabitate. They can do that. do that. do that. No, they keep them separate. Okay. I say I didn't think they could. I figured like them grizzly bears probably eat them black bears. They would. Oh, wow. Yeah. But we were feeding them and dude, the bears are like hilarious cuz obviously they get fed all the time. So they'd walk up to the to the tram or whatever and they'd come up on like two legs legs legs like dogs.

like dogs. like dogs. Yeah, dude. You throw they catch their mouth like mouth like mouth like claws hanging down. So I've never been to Yellowstone and Yellowstone's definitely on my list to go there. So you guys went in through Idaho. Idaho. Idaho. So we we we Yeah, it was a long uh travels cuz her brother drove from Vegas. So the last time I went, we we flew into Bosezeman, which is closer. We had to go to Idaho uh Falls, which is a regional airport. So you have to take two planes.

Then you have to drive an hour and a half to where we stayed in Island Park, which is 30 minutes away from the park. So it's just a long It was long travel. Okay. So So that's not how you would do it if you were That's not what I did last time. So how would you suggest to do it to go in through Bowman the closest to get to it? Yeah. I knew we stayed there and that's what we did last time. But anyway, we went into the west entrance and um uh Yellowstone's crazy, dude.

Like we we at one point we went to the Grand Prismatic. So that's those are like those pools of water that are Oh, that's a cool color. A bison just walked right through everybody like onto the walkway, bro. He was like where Doug is. That's how close he was. he was. he was. Like just chilling with you guys. Just chilling. Now I Now everybody's like, "Oh, look at the cute dumb bison." And I've seen videos. Yeah. He's seen people get launched. I'm I'm yelling at my kids, "Get up.

Get your ass." My daughter trying to get close and get back here. Trying to keep everybody cuz I've seen videos of Bison launching people. launching people. launching people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In the air, dude. It's not a Disney movie. No, dude. But they look so like, you know, like cute and like they're not going to do anything. I'm like, "No, dude. That thing's a pile of muscle." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But he walked right in front of us like a ton. Those things are huge. Huge, bro.

I pulled up a video of one like pushing a car over. Yeah. Them and moose are like they they surprise you when you're in person. I didn't see a moose. We wanted to see. Oh, you didn't see a moose out there. No, a bull moose is pretty hard to see, I think. I think those are hard to see. Well, I mean I when I was in Jackson Hole, I was from here to Justin for one. Wow. Wow. Wow. A bull moose. Oh, that's huge. That'll launch you, too.

Uh-huh. With the baby, too. But they were were were Oh my god, that's dangerous. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, I was on a uh on the P just walking around the little uh courtyard where all kinds of people were at just I mean I wasn't going to mess with it for sure. You know what I'm saying? And I had like a little uh like this little it was like a walkway with like a a fence. A fence that would not stop him if he wanted to, but at least made me feel like there's something separating us.

separating us. separating us. I guess they're big deer, right? Like it's in the same family. I mean giant. Well, yeah, I know. But they're notorious for going in people's yards eating. eating. eating. I mean, you go like this. You go deer, elk, and then moose. Cuz cuz elk are like giant deer, and then moose are like moose doesn't even look right. Like a like a like like an elk looks big in person. A moose is just I've seen a step like a tank. I saw a moose a long time ago far away and it looked it didn't look right.

It looked like a dinosaur. Like that's the biggest biggest biggest I didn't know they were that big. They're huge. They're so But yeah, it was great. It was a super great trip. And then my son, my 5-year-old caught a fish. fish. fish. Oh, really? Oh, really? Oh, really? His uncle took him fishing. Stoked. Stoked. Stoked. And uh you know, he's like you know, wheeling it in or whatever. It's so important to catch it if they're doing that. Yeah. To to get Oh, there you go. Did I Did I do it right there?

Goes deer. What's in between there between the deer and the elk? See if I can get this thing to clear out here. Um. Oh, a caribou. Yeah, the caribou. Yeah. So, it goes deer, caribou, elk, moose. moose. moose. Moose. So big. Yeah. But look how big the moose is compared. It looks like it just dwarfs the rest of them. Yeah. But he we he caught a fish and we everything everything everything now every day. Did you So did you uh did you ever you guys just hang out the house or did you guys go in every every every time and go Most of the days we went out and did something.

But one day we we went to the cuz the kids were tired so we just took them to movies. We watched Toy Story 5. Oh, how Max and Katrina went. It was cute. I love I love the idea of the villain being the iPad. It was one of those movies. Do you guys remember when Wall-E first came out? Remember Wall-E? And how it kind of made you uncomfortable cuz it was a little too much truth. Yeah. You're like, oo, this is kind of hitting home. hitting home.

hitting home. Yeah. Toy Toy Story 5, bro. Listen to this. Like the kids all in their electronics and not playing with each other. It was a little too like So Katrina Katrina took M. So we we were up in Truckucky with all of our our family friends and stuff like that. And uh you know, I've openly talked about this. This is one of the unique things that I think uh we do with Max that's different than my friends is he gets no iPad, right? So he hasn't had an iPad for well over a year or two now.

And uh they all get them and they all went to Toy Story 5 together with all the moms. the moms. the moms. Oh. Oh. Oh. Right. So they all they all go watch it and and so Katrina and I were talking about this afterward. She goes, "It was so crazy. We went and watched that." And she goes, "It was so great." She goes, "It's everything we talk about with the iPad, this and that." And so the story line's great. And she goes, "Literally, we come back to the house and all the kids grab their iPads." It was like had like no effect.

Yeah. Like no effect. It was like, "Oh my gosh, you just watched that and no effect on the parents enough to be like that." Like you said, they hit close up. Now, I didn't see it, but I know the story line. And I know that the main villain is the iPad. And the whole idea is that the kids are now all on their iPads in the same room with each other. No one plays with the toys anymore, right? I'm assuming that's what Right. And so um like there's one there's a scene where this little girl she gets her first like it's not an iPad but it's like a like a starter type one like a leaprog type of deal.

deal. deal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So she gets it and all the toys are like what's going on? She's not paying attention to us and she's just glued to it it it but then there's a part is really it really makes your heart hurt where she she's trying to make friends. So she's like kind of needs friends. So she messages through the app through the thing her friends and then they tease her through it and you know like the things that actually happen with like messaging and stuff and she's this little girl and I was like oh my heart was breaking for Yeah.

When I see stuff like that man I get emotional. get emotional. get emotional. Well one of my friends has uh Well one of my friends has uh they even though they haven't eliminated it they have dramatically reduced the amount and they've connected the dots to the difference in his like my godson's behavior. And so they've noticed not noticed a big difference. And they had a hard time this week because they've been really pushing to do that, but he still has it. And then the other kids have theirs.

And so they're like, man, like they're letting their kids get on it right first thing in the morning. And normally we don't let him get on his and but then he's coming to us like, "Mom, dad, everybody's on their iPad. How can I can I get mine?" And so they felt they felt terrible. And so they would give in and let him do it. M Max came in. It's so funny cuz Max has had one forever and he asked just because all the kids were on it.

No. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. The way he asks, he knows. You know, we save that stuff for like when we're on a plane or a long car ride. Like that's where we start to kind of use it. I think it could be valuable cuz you know, especially when be want to talk to your wife. your wife. your wife. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. But yeah, dude, that movie was like you you could see it. You could see it in kids, you know. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Oh yeah. I had like the opposite experience. Um, so I I was like hanging out. I I spent a good amount of time with Everett, just me and him. So, we got to spend some good quality time. Um, but it was the opposite because I was like being stretched a lot more in terms of freedom and allowing him to adventure and do things a little outside my comfort zone a little bit. And you know, so I had him like set up on my my ebike and um my other friend, his his kid's actually a year younger and so it was like I'm like, "Okay, he's a little bit younger, so you know, maybe they're not going to be as wild and and crazy and like it." So, not the case, but you know, it's it started out well.

Like, so I I at least was like, "Okay, I'll be comfortable with this if you know, I go I went and rented a bike for myself." And then he had a bike. And so, we all kind of like went on this tour of like here's the roads and here's the beach access and like here's the kind of the areas that I was like okay with and like you know, traffic-wise like and we went all the signals and everything else and all that. Uh, and so we're kind of going through all that and it was fun, having a good time and all that and then it's like, okay, they just want to go out on their own, you know, and I'm like, all right, like, you know, keep your phone on you and like we could obviously we could see like where they're going and whatnot.

And then, uh, you know, one of the days they just like they went so far. They ended up like in some farm and they're like they found some like pump track where they're like jumping it and stuff and like I had to like fix the bike. We went and picked them up. Oh go get them and pick them up. But it's like dude so memorable for them. They were like just you know beside themselves because they're having so much fun. And it was like, you know, it was just it was a struggle a bit for me cuz two, you know, like Courtney was with, you know, Ethan at his competition and so we we were kind of split with all this and uh and I know she has more of an issue of like I'm like nothing can happen, you know, know, know, like not on my watch on my watch, get hurt at another time.

Not this time, you know, like it's my responsibility like when you're an older brother and your sibling gets hurt. She should put it back. Yeah. Rub it out. I'm so curious on how I'm going to handle that phase. Uh I was with my buddy. It's funny you're bringing up the ebike and letting him go cuz this is what my buddy uh Mike and I were talking about literally yesterday. We're sitting down uh and just chopping up with this. His son is 12 or 13 and he's got one of those really fast ebikes, you know, now like the motorcycle dirt bike ones or whatever.

And they go they they go really fast. Pretty quick. Pretty quick. Pretty quick. I know. Real fast. Yeah. You get pulled. They'll take those bikes now if you don't have if it's a class above. It's like class three, they'll take them. So he's So he had he did this. He's registered it in another state so he could drive because you they're illegal in California. in California. in California. You need a license. Yes. So he's got these, right? And he's like he grew up over here, right?

And he remembers when he was a kid like he just had free reign, go wherever. And he's like, "Man, I have such a hard time with letting Now as a parent Yeah. letting my boy do it." So, we're like talking it out like like I'm the same way too. My parents I they Well, they didn't have a choice. They couldn't they couldn't stalk us. They couldn't track us. Well, that's that's the part that's crazy. Like we have more 12 hours of not knowing. We We have We have just come back at this time.

We have AirPods and phones and watches and and so much and we know it's safer like so logically you go it's safer now. You have more trackable things than you have before. Why do I struggle so much with allowing that freedom because it's in we're too aware of the all the dangers and the fear but you but you we all know that it's not it's it's less and yet we we don't want and so him really he was weird talking that and I now I have the kid who's little I'm not faced with it so it's real easy for me to say oh man come on just let him go yeah he'll be fine right right but I've seen too many of my buddies that have feel that same way and then they get that to that age and then they're like it's weird dude I Yeah.

So I logically in my head I hear Justin talk about that. I hear Mike talk about that. I'm like dude just let him go. I'm always I always knew cuz he's the baby too, you know? It's like it's not my oldest. So it's like I a little bit different with the oldest. And then him is like you kind of want to keep him, you know, like this little kid and it's like you can't. Yeah. Katrina looked at me all crazy this weekend because I I was already So I don't know if you saw we got Max one of those big wheels, right?

And he's like he's into it. So it's awesome. Like like finally he's into like a thing like that. He's all about it. And uh I'm like I'm already and so uh Hunter and Jojo. So my buddy's kids are uh eight and nine. nine. nine. And I'm like, "Hey, let's let's encourage them to just go, you know, let them ride the whole neighborhood and just, you know, have give the oldest the walkie-talkie and say, "Yeah, a safe and enclosed place in Truckucky. Everyone drives their cars slow in there." And she's like, she's like, she's like, "Are you tripping?

He just started riding this thing like he doesn't even like no way. And I'm like I mean we got a kid that when you were six your mom was letting you walk this give you the keys. I pulled up my old neighborhood just cuz so this this topic was all about this. So it's funny you went this way cuz this was a topic all week for us. Second grade and I'm like so yeah it was it was it was no it was third and fourth grade.

It was third and fourth third and fourth. What is that? Seven eight. Yeah it was third third and fourth grade. And it was about a two-mile walk and it did have to cross a four-lane road to get to get there. And I, you know, and and you know, I think back like so, uh, to like those things like, God, that's crazy. And probably the part that, um, I think I worry about more than the danger is just how naive you are as a kid. Cuz I I do remember two times that I got in huge trouble because uh, even though I was told a million times, come straight home from school, do this.

I, you know, ran into a friend on the way and like, "Hey, come over. I just got the new Zelda." Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. You know, and like, "Okay." And you're just thinking in your head as a kid, you're thinking, "I'm sure if I go back." back." back." Yeah. And and and that quick little stop by his house turned to 2 hours and my mom waiting for me to be home and like freaked out, called the cops, did all this stuff. So, I think I worry more about just my son being naive like that more than I feel like the danger.

You know what I'm saying? So, it's it's weird. It's all it's a lot of it's in our head. But the truth is, part of the reason this people aren't going to like this, but statistically speaking, speaking, speaking, they're safer. they're safer. they're safer. It's safer today. But here's why it's also safer. Kids are out less. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. So kidnappings are down. Well, yeah, cuz kids are harder to kidnap because they're not outside like they used to. That's an interesting thought. Alone. Cuz here's cuz this is what I told.

Think about it. Like, think about if you go back into the 80s and you're a kidnapper. kidnapper. kidnapper. There's kids everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. AND THERE'S NO PARENTS WATCHING THEM. It's true. In the 80s when we were out like we were diamond cousin all these kids all you all you need is a kid that's like oh let me I'll come in your van like now it's harder because kids are not everywhere and their parents don't like ice cream as much. So statistically speaking that's one of the reasons why my but my buddy got oh my god his wife right before we went on the trip this happened and so she was like not speaking to him like she was like not speaking to him for like a week.

She was so angry at him cuz he had been having him walk home from school and she had no idea. Oh. Oh. Oh. Because they both work and sometimes he's with a patient still and you know they live two blocks, two and a half blocks or so from the school and so he's been doing it. And then other times when uh he can't go home, he's got to uh his work is across the main road and about four blocks away. And so he'll sometimes he'll tell his son like, "Hey, just start walking towards my work and then I'll meet you at the main stoplight, but don't cross the main stoplight." So, he'd been doing this with his kid for like months and she had no idea.

She found out and oh my god, she freaked out on him like that. And he's like, "Nobody's going to kidnap our son." And she's like, "Are you kidding me? You let him out there. There's so many cars. So many somebody can pick him up." Like, "Have you ever sat in the car with our kid for 5 minutes? That kidnapper would bring that [ __ ] bring our kid back so fast." That was his argument back. He was annoying. He has no way. He annoyed the [ __ ] out of some kidnapper within 5 minutes.

That kidnapper dropped that kid right off. That's so funny. Yeah, I used to walk home every day. I remember one time we actually got chased by a homeless guy. Like he was throwing bottles at us. Like it was wild, dude. We would go through like horse trails and like, you know, I almost got bit by a rattlesnake. All kinds of stuff. My sister almost got kidnapped. My sister was walking home and I'm not making this up. A dude pulled up in a van. Yeah. van. Yeah.

van. Yeah. Opened the door and he's like, "Hey, do you want to come play? I have I have kittens here." And now my sister, my mom told her if anybody ever said So my sister ran away and told us about it and she was like, but literally a dude literally was like, "Here, come in my van, play with my my cats." cats." cats." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my god, that actually happened. I know. So that's funny that you say you saw that because one of the things I speculated with my buddy Mike was like, you know, I know it's safer, all the stats, blah blah blah.

But I, you know, you grew, I said, you grew up here 20 plus years ago, 25 plus years ago when this was like mostly farmland and there was it was a slow town. I said, "Now it's not it's it's normal to walk outside and see a homeless person or a crazy person talking to themselves." We didn't see I didn't see that as a kid. Yeah. It's a lot more prevalent. Yeah. I was say so I see I think so there's a part of that's in the back of your head too.

Like it's not weird for me. I mean I was just driving to work the other day and somebody was like right in the middle of a fourlane like main road just walking down the diagonally and yelling at cars. You know what I'm saying? like you just I don't I don't remember seeing at least I don't remember seeing that as a kid and so now thinking like having a kid and going like oh man I would that would freak me out if my kid cross I don't know man I I think back to when I was younger and I'm like let's say 12 or 13 and I'd go off with my friends we did a lot of stuff that if I as a parent now I'd be like that is dangerous we did a lot of stuff yeah of course that was terribly we never knew about it and we were gone my mom's like come back be back at 5 for dinner Okay.

And we're gone hours just disappeared. She had no idea where I was and we were doing things that were like Oh, yeah. No, not good. not good. not good. Well, maybe that's probably half of what also makes you just like I do a lot of the stuff that I was doing. But, you know, the other side of it, I was just talking with um uh my niece and my daughter about this the other day is we would do things and nobody could film it and post it.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank God. I know cuz now kids are like super hyper aware that oh if I you know someone's going to film you know take a picture of me post this everyone's going to share it like thank god nobody had a camera when we were out there anyway so lucky I was going to ask you guys so we've been now uh using the super patch for a while have you guys been using any of them consistently them consistently them consistently yeah uh I haven't been consistent this last week because we just came off of vacation but I was using the pain one for a while because of my elbow and I told you it it I it brings it down from like I said like an eight to a five or something.

something. something. I was talking to my buddy about this. He's a an ER physician and of course he looked at me like is this like oh you told him about what is this? This is like what is this bro? And and he he trusts me. So I'm like no listen I said I sent him the studies. I said look at the studies like the study on the pain patch it's by the way these are these are controlled studies. These are published peer-reviewed. peer-reviewed. peer-reviewed. It's equivalent to Advil.

It's equivalent to to taking an NSAID. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's how effective the pain there's no medicine in it. It's not transdermal. It's all based off of haptic, what's called haptic technology. Uh the sleep one is wild. Put the sleep one on, track your sleep, watch what happens to your REM. Yeah. It increases. So, I did I did the sleep when we were testing it, but I haven't been consistent with it. I was And I did it enough to test it. Well, I use it every night.

Yeah. And I will track it with my aura and it was improving it. So, it's wild. It's like I still have It's a new science. It totally doesn't it remind you of when we got when they dropped the red light therapy on us? I feel it the same way. I was like, "So, get out of here, you know? Get out of here with this BS. But I can't argue with actual data like and these are there's like 15 15 or 16 peer review. peer review. peer review.

The one that won me over was the pain one with it being equivalent. How many times have you guys taken Advil? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When you have a little bit of every day last week, right? I mean, so it's like if if you if you take Advil and use it for things, especially when it chronic pain, low back, I had low back stuff the other day. like that if you have stuff like that going on it's like and you would take it an Advil like why would you not take a patch if like the all the studies are showing that it's equivalent to that and you're not having to take something like way better way better route for sure.

sure. sure. Anyway, I got to tell you guys like one of my favorite uh segments on in social media world right now. Have you guys seen the videos of Europeans? Yes. Yes. Yes. Cuz you're here for the World Cup FIFA. Yeah. FIFA. Yeah. FIFA. Yeah. And how much they love America? I love it. I know. I love it. It's so great. It's a good reminder. It's a great reminder. Like there's there's videos of people in like AC cuz they have air conditioning. So like it's so hot.

I come inside and it's so cool. You don't know what it's like. And they're talking about how like they don't have air conditioning, you know, where they're at. There's people refills on their drink. Bro, there was this one ice in their co. There's this Italian dude and he gets a Coke and he's like, I cannot believe. He's like, it's free. And the guy's like, no, you paid for that. I only pay I didn't pay for five of them. He's like, I drink as much as I want.

Coke. It was Yeah. Triple. My fair was um this uh these two guys were at like a barbecue place and they're eating ribs. Oh. Oh. Oh. And he was like about to eat it with his fork and knife and then the owner comes over. No, no, no. You guys eat it with your hands and they're like what? And they didn't know what to do. And they're like eating it. Like I've never had meat that like falls off the bone like this. Like they're tripping out. Yeah.

There was a couple of them went shooting and they were just tripping that you could just like shoot stuff. My god. Like this is amazing. amazing. amazing. That has to be like Yeah. If you're going to visit America, you have to do that. that. that. I didn't even think about that for Europeans coming over here for the gun. Oh yeah. One guy. They're so not allowed to have guns either. There's this one British guy. He's got He's got great videos. And he's like, "Oh, and they go into Walmart and they freak out.

They're like, you can't see the end of the store." He's like, "It's as big as a I saw I saw the Target ones. All All the chicks that were like so pumped, oh yeah, there's ones the girls are like, oh my god, Target. Everyone's all excited about Target." But it's so good to hear as an American because so much media is so focused on how like negative stuff and and you even see some of the videos people are saying like man our media lies. They said this that and the other.

But I love it here which is pretty it's pretty cool to hear as an American. No American. No American. No to see that kind of stuff. That's really that's really cool. Hey, did you guys see that uh I meant to tell you too that um I don't know how much you guys were on if you're on his social cuz I posted a little bit on on Max's stuff but my buddy I have to give him some love, dude. He's he's the teacher of the of the group and the friends friends friends and he was the one last year that uh put on the whole talent show for the kids and everything like that.

So this year was the Truckucky Games. Did you see it? I saw I saw I saw Oh yeah. Yeah. So he Yeah. He split all of us he split what is the names dude? He had these I don't know where he came up with these these names for all of us. But he he split all the all the all the kids and all the adults up. And there was there was three teams. We had we had color bandanas on. There was a whole he made a whole PowerPoint video with music for the kids to watch to get everybody all all hyped up before and then and the game is game is game is something my brother would do.

Well, and I was I was really I was really nervous. I told because I knew he was doing something. I didn't know what and I know how my son's not uh you know he's not competitive and so like I was really worried that he was he was going to like not want to do it. And when he got announced he had this moment, this is where we're at now. like we've gotten to a stage where we don't cry, but I can tell when he wants to cry and he's like regulating his emotions.

And so he did the whole video. All the kids are hyped. I'm hyped. And I'm like looking in the corner of my eye, my son. And he can see him just like no just watching it. And and so if everyone kind of finished and and my buddy I he's I think my buddy sees it, tries to hype up my my son. My son's like not feeling it at all. And then like he just gets up and he walks over into our our ma the master bedroom over there and uh and just goes in there.

And Katrina looks at me and I'm like, "Give him a few minutes." And so a few minutes I walk in there and and he's like he's laid down in his bed. It's like middle of the day. I'm like, "What are you doing, buddy?" He's like, "I'm just going to take a nap." I'm like, "What are you taking a nap for, dude?" He's like, "I'm just I'm just going to take a nap for a little bit." And so I'm like, "You know what? I'm not even going to push because if I push into it, it's going to make him more emotional.

Just see if he gets himself out of it." So I walk back out and I tell Katrina, I'm like, "He's he's laying down. He's fine. He's laying down." and she went in a few minutes later and just talked to him and said and she I don't know if I I remember you talked a long time ago. We're really consistent with like the the affirmations. You're brave. You're strong. Yeah, you're a leader. You know, and so and so and so it was a great opportunity for Katrina.

She reiterated that to him. You know, these are the reasons why we say this is we, you know, we believe that you're a leader. We believe those things and one day you'll believe it too. And so he like totally like got himself together, went out, did it, had a blast, won like two of the events, and did really good. Wow. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So it was a really cool moment to watch this. Oh man, you're getting me choked up. So great. great. great. Yeah. No, it was it was cool to see one, it was cool to see go through that challenge.

challenge. challenge. Yeah. To see him one not default to crying cuz that's like a year ago we would have been crying and like just I don't want to do it and like making him think like that. It was like you could tell he didn't want to. You could tell that he was gonna he was going to take get, you know, take care of his emotions, gather himself, still do it. Katrina kind of had that little talk with him, and then he ends up having a great time.

So, it was the the caffeinated koalas, the feral goldfish, and the unstable hamsters. Yes, those are all the Yes, those are all the names. And we did he did he came up with this this this this cup stacking relay thing. So, it was just red cups that you had to stack. And then uh and then one of the and then the kids had to wrap a whole roll of toilet paper all the way. A mummify a parent was one. They did the you know our upstairs balcony down to the jacuzzi.

They put a bunch of red cups and you had to drop ping pong balls. That's cool. And yeah, they were like perfect. They were like another one was like a bean bag toss into the the buckets that we have out there. And so yeah, they were all like really good like fun that achievable for their Yeah. Achieve. And that's why I was so worried. I was like, "Man, you you make my son do a bunch of stuff where he's going to get his ass whooped and everything like that.

Like, it's not going to he's not going to it's going to be so hard to convince him to do anything." do anything." do anything." So, it was like so so perfect. And it was a cool moment to watch like him go through that whole cycle and then to be able to experience that and I was like, "Oh, man. Maybe there's maybe." maybe." maybe." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I want to hear about? I want to hear about Justin's note uh on the guy that injected Cinema into himself cuz I see I see this note up there.

I like to throw some chaos. And while we're talking, I just keep seeing this note and I'm like, if I don't don't don't like I can't not I'm going to bring this up because Justin might not cuz Justin won't find a transition. Speaking of that, speaking of kids, I'm definitely not a good The irony is like I found out where they came from. came from. came from. All right. So, what's the what is this? So this guy uh I think he was from Ireland but like decided that he had super spunk if you will uh and it was going to heal his back pain pain pain and so just started take it upon himself to collect it uh put it in a syringe and inject it like in his arm.

What? What? What? Uh it's like one of the only recorded cases of somebody do that. But I just was like was like was like I didn't know that. I I was like this isn't real. Like nobody's really done that. Like who would think to like die? Of course you'd be a guy. It's always dudes that you're like I have magical I mean Yeah. How do you even make that leap? leap? leap? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like where do like what what makes you go like oh this could be a healing heal a whole another level cuz you've heard of people like drinking pee for like some kind of like weird longevity like uh reason uh reason uh reason some scientist.

I'm just kidding. Well guys listen I mean if you were in a desert and you had no water that'd be one of the ways to hydrate yourself. So I can even see the leap there. I cannot see the leap of injecting injecting yourself with your own. He just had this understanding that it was going to going to going to get infection. get infection. get infection. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It looks like that's his armor. He did for a long time, too. Like until it Yeah. It's an abs.

Oh, god. Oh, god. Oh, god. So gross. So gross. So gross. Did it work, though? Yeah. He no longer could feel his back pain. pain. pain. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. He no longer had back pain. He was Hey, I'll tell you who would do tell you I'll tell you who would do that. If there was anything at all that made it anabolic, bodybuilders would be doing [ __ ] like that for probably would. Yeah. They're the ones that were drinking. Jesus gross breast milk cuz they read somewhere that it was again.

Even that seems less of a leap than this. This is what you do with someone like this. Wild, dude. I couldn't believe somebody drain it. drain it. drain it. Well, no. What I'm saying is you you help solve the immediate issue, but then you have to refer them to mental health specialists, right? Like obviously decision-m process. decision-m process. decision-m process. You're not all error dude. So yeah, you would have to exact. That's what I'm more curious to how you make that leap like that. It's not like a there's no logic behind that.

So, there's something going on with this person. person. person. Yeah. And is there like somebody online that's like preaching this kind of stuff? Yeah. I was like, cuz you know how the whole sunning and all this like weird stuff people do. Maybe Google that, Doug. See if there's Google injecting semen for back pain. I'm just kidding. Watch AI confirm it. It automatically Hey, it Hey, it Hey, it did you click on those? What's going on here, bro? Welcome back. I know. Speaking of speaking of weird stuff, I have to bring this up.

This is really it's, you know, not a long conversation, but really interesting. interesting. interesting. So, there's this mushroom, the psychedelic mushroom that produces a specific type of um hallucination, which is really weird. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, you think you would think that hallucinations are individual. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. But people see the exact same thing, a shared one on this this type of mushroom, and it's called uh lamb lamoa. Seiotica. Aiotetica. When they eat it, they see little people everywhere. What? Everywhere? What? Everywhere? What? Everywhere? Yeah.

They see little tiny people or gnome like beings that appear and they last for 12 to 24 hours or sometimes stick around for days and they interact with the objects around you. So like if I ate that, I would see little people walking up on the microphone or climbing up. up. up. This has got to be where all this folklore comes from, right? You know, like all the legends of all these like little sprites. But it makes you wonder why is everybody seeing the same exact thing?

thing? thing? It doesn't make any sense. Are you are we like tapping into like another dimension? Are they like are they really there? Well, that's like that that DMT uh red laser experiment that everybody is talking about. talking about. talking about. I'm so curious about that one. You see the matrix? See the matrix? You see numbers? It's the same numbers. Everybody sees the same code. Yeah. Like there's an underlying code to everything is what they're talking about. I know. I won't eat those, my friend. friend.

friend. No thanks. No thanks. No thanks. What is Dose for Your Liver? So, Dose for Your Liver is a clinically backed liver health supplement. It's not just another capsule or powder. It's a liquid supplement. And if you take it daily, 2 ounces a time at a time. So, 2 oz shot. It tastes like freshsqueezed orange juice, by the way. It cleanses the liver of unwanted stressors that are slowing your liver down. So, it promotes healthy liver function. There's no sugar, no junk in there, no calories.

So, what does this do for you? Well, you get more energy. You get better digestion. By the way, dose liver uh their liver product has been shown to affect positively affect liver enzymes in real studies. In other words, it really does work. If you want to avoid midday crashes, you want to feel better, you want to support liver health, go to doseaily.co/mindpump. Use the discount code mind pump. Get 25% off. Back to the show. Our first caller is Carolina from New Hampshire. Hampshire. Hampshire. Hi Carolina.

Hi. Morning. How are you? Morning. Morning. Morning. Good. Um, I'm going to start off the way that, you know, most people do and say I really love your podcast. Um, I just kind of started listening a couple months ago and I work I work three uh 12-hour shifts Friday through Sunday. So, you're basically in my ear for 36 and 1/2 hours a week. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, it's it's good stuff. Um, I will start by just um I'll just read my question. Uh, and I'm going to update a couple of things just as we go.

Um, so I wrote, "I've lost 600 lb. Yes, you read that right, but not in the way you'd think. I'm 30, female, 5'5. My current weight is 152, starting weight 340. I have lost and gained over 150 lbs four times. I'm tired of wrecking my body. I've successfully lost the weight again and am the smallest I've ever been. I started lifting in January and I'm loving strength training. Uh I had been eating 1,500 calories a day for over 14 months before I found your podcast. Um now I'm slowly reverse dieting which scares the crap out of me.

I am up to 1,800 calories now and my weight is stable. I really really want to do things differently this time. My question, I guess, is how do I not repeat the pattern I've fallen into so many times? I understand how to do the reverse diet, but I'm a little confused on how it actually works. My metabolism is definitely damaged right now. If my weight is stable at 1,800 calories, do I keep adding every week? And how are people getting up to 2500 to 2,800 calories?

H Thank you for being the first thing in 30 years to shift my mindset enough to actually try something different. Carolina, thank you so much for calling. for calling. for calling. Thank you, man. And I'm I'm so happy that you're saying your mind shift your mind is shifting and changing. Do you mind if I ask you a few more questions? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Um, so you've lost 15. That's a significant amount of weight to lose and gain. Uh, and so the uh I can only imagine the mental state uh or how you feel about yourself and behaviors are radically different at both ends.

Yeah. What are the differences in in both of those? Not necessarily the behaviors like, you know, eating and activity, but what's the difference in in in how you're feeling or or what's it like to gain 100 and lose 150? What's the difference between the two? Well, so I grew up obese. Um, you know, I weigh less now than I did in third grade. Um, so you you kind of get to a point where you just you're used to being invisible, so you don't really like what's the point in trying for a lot of things or for me like overeating was a way to really feel calm for the like the only way I could feel calm.

feel calm. feel calm. Um, Um, Um, but with that comes, you know, you're so full, why would you bother exercising? You don't feel like it. Um, and then I had kids. Um, so that, you know, really this time around I'm I'm down 180 88 lbs, I think, right now. Um, but I have a 4-year-old and an 21-month-old. 21-month-old. 21-month-old. Um, and I realized that if like if I go to the park with them and the baby goes left and my older son goes right, what am I going to do?

You know, it's a safety hazard. So, I had to try safety hazard. So, I had to try again this time. But I I don't know. When you're when you're over 300 lb, you just just just your life just kind of uh like you don't you don't really try. Um and now, you know, and and it comes slowly, but um you start to put more effort in in every aspect of your life. Um you start to enjoy exercise because you're eating well enough that you have the energy to kind of want to do it.

Um, and you don't you don't really hate yourself as much, I guess. I guess. I guess. Yeah, I hear that. Be blind. Be blind. Be blind. On the I hear that. I heard you say uh eating made you feel uh calm in the past. past. past. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When you're on your way up, when you're gaining weight, does that feel like do you feel like free in that period of time? And does it feel restrictive when you're trying to go in the other direction? Uh yeah.

Yep. It's like um I've in the past I've been so strict that uh you finally like relinquish relinquish that control that you have and um you know do whatever you want. But as far as like gaining that much weight and I when I gain I gain really quickly like within a year um um um you kind of just you're kind of going through the motions and just ignoring it like you know you know it's happening obviously but uh you just kind of telling yourself you don't care but you do.

Obviously you do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I totally hear that. What is it about our show that got like got the mind uh shift for you? What did you hear us talk about or tell us a little bit about the mind shift that you're experiencing? experiencing? experiencing? Yeah. So, um well, you know how media is these days, Finn is in um but after repeated, you know, 10 hours a week of listening and then oh, I really like this 20 then, you know, my whole work week.

Uh just having you constantly hammer fuel your body, build muscle, longevity over and over and over again. Whatever it got it to kind of stick in my head a little bit. That's great. So I Is it okay if I challenge challenge challenge um how it felt for you to go down and up and maybe the mentality around it? Okay. It it's um it's a false feeling of freedom when you're going up. Um it's actually um you're you're you're in chains. You're in bondage. You're in bondage to uh you know moving your body in a direction that you know is not healthy uh emotionally and physically.

But the reason why you feel free is because when you go the way down, the way you get yourself to go down is you treat yourself like somebody that needs to be held down and controlled. Because if you take the control off, I'm going to go the other way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like if I don't tell myself you can't have that, how dare you and you better keep this up and remember what happened last time and you better and you beat yourself up. If I don't do that to myself, I'm going to go in the other direction.

direction. direction. Does that resonate? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. No wonder it feels so free to stop doing that to yourself. So, there is a solution. It's uh simple but not easy. Okay. So, it's simple because it's uh it's not true, Carolina. It is not true that for you to maintain a healthy body and behaviors that you need to beat yourself up. That's actually false. And we have evidence of that. Do you want to know what the evidence is? evidence is? evidence is? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You escape and you go in the other direction.

direction. direction. So, it's actually doesn't work and it doesn't feel good. And I've ne it's I've never had success with a client who hated exercise and hated eating healthy long. It just doesn't work. So, we have to find a way for you to actually enjoy doing it. And the only way to do that is for you to switch the paradigm a little bit and treat yourself like you would your own child, which is like, hey, I'm I'm going to take care of myself. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Cuz otherwise, taking care of yourself feels like stop tyrannizing yourself. So, we got to stop that. Now, I'm going to just let you know what this will look like. It's going to be it it would be it's a scary process. And by the way, at the end of this, I'm going to give you more more specific advice and maybe some some directions to go, okay? But initially it's scary because you've learned to lose weight through this process of beating yourself up. So initially when you stop beating yourself up and you start saying, "I'm going to take care of myself a little bit." You test it and so it looks like a little binging, a little moving in this direction.

Oh, okay. Now I'm going to go back and then I'm going to and you're going to kind of start to find the balance. It's really important you give yourself grace and don't uh revert back to beating yourself up because it'll just keep doing what you're doing. What eventually happens, Carolina, by the way, I'll just let you know, that process, eventually people give up and they're like, I'm done beating myself up. I'm done. I'm just gonna enjoy my life. That's it. I'm over. I'm done. I'll never try this again.

So, so that's kind of what it looks like. Now, I can there is a right way to do this in terms of like the structure and behaviors, but the root of it, the the the the fuel, the thing that drives it has to be from self-care because everything I say after that doesn't work if it doesn't come from a self-care model. Does that does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, reverse dieting in a nutshell, by the way, your metabolism is not broken, hun. I want to let you know your metabolism works.

That's why you gain and lose weight. That means your metabolism is actually doing what it's supposed to. Uh it's not broken. Uh your your if it was broken, you'd be in the hospital. Let me put it that way. Uh it's just adapting. Okay? So what we want to do is go through a process of building your strength, uh improving how you feel about exercise, changing how you feel about nutrition, and giving you something called flexibil metabolic flexibility. So it doesn't feel so restrictive because no matter how you cut it, 1,700 calories, two kids, busy mom forever is going to feel restrictive.

Even if you're doing it the right way, just not that much. So, we want to kind of move you in a direction where you've got more flexibility and you can eat more and it feels like, you know, you don't if you go off, it's not going to turn into something. something. something. I do want to say that I I um I don't know if I made it sound like I didn't, but I do love exercise now. I walk every day. I love the gym. Um, however, it's 15 months and I have not had a single bite bite bite of food that was not on my at least planned out.

planned out. planned out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think it's the exercise that's the issue. the issue. the issue. Yeah. I think it just comes paired with the nutrition, but I don't I don't think exercise is the issue. It's the it's the nutrition. Uh it's the food p. By the way, I'm going to straight up that's the hardest part for everybody. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Every there isn't a single person where the exercise isn't easier than the nutrition cuz food is connected to everything. It's what you eat every day.

It's connected to celebrating. It's connected to like your feelings. It's also marketed all the time and you're surrounded by really tasty food all over the place. It's super cheap and easy to get. And so that's the hard part. It's engineered to be addictive. Yeah, that's the hard part is going to be the exercise won't be the hard part. With the exercise part, we're just going to try and get you strong. That's what we're going to try and do. Get you really like getting strong. What What does the uh training look like right now?

What are you doing as far as your lifting? Uh so I do um three to four days a week and it's kind of just like a chat GPT program, but um buys and tries, chest and back, lower body. Um, I'm in there for like an hour and 20 minutes. Oh, we're gonna give you a program that's way better. You went to a gym then? then? then? Yeah. Uh, which off off comment here. Uh, I pulled up to the gym on Monday and there was an eviction notice on the dorm.

So, dorm. So, dorm. So, Oh, darn. Oh, darn. Oh, darn. I don't know what I'll be doing, but doing something. doing something. doing something. I hope you didn't do one of I hope you didn't do one of those prepaid membership. I hate it when you you you So, are you are you So, where are you in a rural area? Are you near another gym? I am. The the issue is the child care aspect. Um cuz I have to bring the kids. So, but I'll I'll figure something out.

Good. Good. Are you open? So, here's the deal. So, what I said is definitely the path. It's going to be really hard because it's going to feel super uncomfortable for a while. It's because you're going to do this kind of like back and forth and I don't know if I can treat myself like somebody I care about. Now, I'm going to beat myself up. How dare I? I can't believe I went off and I went off big time. And it's going to be this kind of up this up and down.

100% it's going to be up and down. 100 percent you're gonna like feel like you're running and you're gonna fall in your face. You're gonna want to get back up and and keep going. Uh you you would do really well with a coach through this process. process. process. Like your your success rate would qu is going to quadruple if you work with someone who can check in with you and work through this process with you and give you grace every time you stumble. Is that something that you're open to?

Um it 100% is and I totally agree with you. It's just the um I can't really afford it right now. Um I I 100% agree. Okay. Okay. Okay. But right now it's not feasible. We have uh we have different options. We have one that's called concierge which is a much much lower cost and you would meet with somebody once a month and you could check it out and just see and have someone call you. In the meantime, I'm going to send you a program that I think is good called Maps Muscle Mommy.

I think you would love that. You'd be in the gym I think three days a week. It's going to be way better than Chad GBT's program. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Also, just in ca just regardless whether you work with one of our coaches or not, I'd like to see you in 30 days so at least we could check in on you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Are you hitting protein targets? Tell me the specifics about what you're doing with your 100 your 1700 calories. Yeah.

So, I'm I've reversed up to 1,800 now. Um but I'm one of those weird people that I've heard you guys talk about that has no issue getting protein in. I I get 160 to 180 grams from um all from um natural food. I don't supplement. supplement. supplement. Good. Good. Good. Yep. Yep. Yep. No, you're doing great. Now, is how structured is your diet? Is it like the same? Are you meal prepping everything and making it all the same? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very, very structured. Okay. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. If you end up not working with a coach, I want you to ponder this so you can if you feel like you can do it, do it. If not, then then stay the course until you feel like you can. I would like for you to have a day where you don't eat exactly the same foods. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. And what you're gonna do is you're gonna kind of tip your dip your toe in the water. And if you go way off on that day, give yourself grace.

Get back on and go again. But we got to kind of play with moving outside of this really rigid structure. structure. structure. Otherwise, it's because it's unsustainable to do this for forever. I'd I'd actually like to put her in the muscle mommy group with Karen. She's going to get she's going to get calls weekly with a coach in there. She has a group of women that are most of them are reverse dieting what she's going to learn in there and and support help especially bad idea.

Yeah. Especially if obviously having a coach one-on-one every week would be the most ideal thing, but I understand the financial thing. So, I'd like to put her in the muscle mommy group. All right. So, if you end up not working with a coach, you get that. At least we'll put you in there. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate you. Yeah. I just want someone Yeah. I just want someone because like S's saying, uh the advice is easy that we can give you. It's the week to week.

It's it's inevitable. We're going to have some setbacks. And having somebody talk you off that ledge when you do and remind you that this is not that like you're okay. This is great. It's fine. No big deal. It happens. Now we do this. Um through that process uh is just it's you can't put a price on it. It's so valuable and it's what it'll take and it'll take a while to get there. But the other side of this is is amazing. And the other side of it looks like not tracking calories and having some flexibility to still enjoy some foods that are enjoyable and still be able to maintain a very healthy fit physique and be strong and have energy um and eat a lot more calories than where you're at.

And so the good you're you're at a good place though. Uh I think you have the right attitude already with exercise and it's really the diet thing and building that confidence and uh we'll get there. We will we're going to help you through that. What I what I hear from you is um you sound like you got some good resolve like you know what I'm gonna do this different this time which is which is really really positive huge that's that's positive really really positive to hear that we're going to get there we're going to get there thank you and like the way that it's gone before and you guys are totally right like I would um I would lose 150 lbs in I don't know 10 months and then I'd have one binge and then completely off the rails off the rails literally just one that's all it all takes for me.

So that's that is common. That is super common. What I want you to do if that happens again, okay, is when it happens, I want you to write this sounds silly. Please try this, okay? I want you to write a letter to yourself giving yourself grace and then encouraging yourself to continue to get back on track. Y and it literally like you're writing a letter to your kid. Like that's how I want you to talk to yourself. yourself. yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it sounds silly.

It sounds super dumb. Uh, but writing your thoughts out gets it out of that emotional reactive state. It's also a buffer between one binge and the next and you're going to give yourself grace. You start with that. Hey, I totally understand. This is really hard. Uh, I get it. Like that type of deal. And then encourage. Don't say you better get back on, but encourage yourself. You can do it tomorrow. it tomorrow. it tomorrow. I want you to start it again. Just like you talk to your kid.

Just like you talk to your kids. Same way you talk to your kid. And I it sounds silly, but it is really effective at breaking that that uh that cycle. We're going to stay we're going to stay in touch with you. We'll see you in 30 days regardless. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to we're going to stay in touch with you. Yeah, that sounds awesome. Thank you guys. guys. guys. You got it. Thanks for calling. All right. See you in 30 days. You got it. All right.

Bye. That's tough. That's tough. That's tough. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That is tough. She's she's at a good spot though right now. now. now. I just got to say this like for people listening like for sure. I 100% hiring a good coach. I say good because there's a lot of coaches out there, but a good coach, the investment the investment the investment 100% it's among it's among one of the most expensive investments in fitness you can make. A gym membership doesn't come close. Our programs don't come close.

Like hiring a trainer in comparison to all the other things you can do or invest in with fitness is the most expensive thing. Okay. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. That being said, it the you get the best odds of long-term success with a good coach, and it doesn't even come close. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, for anybody listening who's like, "Oh, it's a big investment." Uh, yes, it is. But a good coach, let me tell you, uh, if you're if you're if you're over having to deal with this and you're over having to live your life a particular way, you're like, I just want to this fixed forever, uh, nothing will get you there.

It's a psychological battle. you got somebody in your corner that way for sure. sure. sure. And and it's an investment because even after you're done with the say the 3 months or the 6 months or however long it takes to to get go through this, it it it forever pays itself back. That's right. That's right. That's right. And so it's upfront it can be for a lot of people, but once you get through and she's already proven that she can lose the weight. the weight. the weight.

Yep. Yep. Yep. She's already proven that she she knows that she can white knuckle the way she does it. Yeah. She can white knuckle herself down 150 180 lbs. But to build a better relationship with that, it takes help in coaching. It's uh it's not it's not as it's uh again easy advice, not simple to do, right? do, right? do, right? Our next caller is Michelle from Ontario. Ontario. Ontario. Hi, Michelle. Hi, Michelle. Hi, Michelle. Hi. How are you guys? Good. Good. Good. Good. How can I help you?

Um so I'm currently trying to like figure out how to get back on track of like working out. So it's been kind of a while that I've been off. I've had a baby. He's 14 months old. Um, so it was kind of a complicated pregnancy and birth. So just trying to get back into like getting back to myself and like working out. So I've just been like kind of wondering how to do that. I did purchase your PPL I think uh the women's one. So I've been working with that and I just kind of finished phase one.

So I've been wanting to start phase two this week. this week. this week. Okay. Was that the first uh like workout program you did since the pregnancy? Since the baby was born, I went back to the gym a couple of times. My husband's a big kind of gym person, so he's kind of helped me there, too. But going to the gym is has been a little bit difficult just because of having my son. So, I've just been trying to do stuff at home more. I guess like program wise, this would be like the first big thing that I've kind of gotten back into.

Okay. And then what about history? Uh any exercise history before you had your Yeah, I used to go to the gym quite often. I would say maybe like two I would say three times sometimes four times a week. This was before I had my son and then just once I got pregnant I couldn't I was put on bed rest and that just kind of I think How long were you on bed rest for? Uh I want to say almost 3 months. Oh wow. Okay. And then how was the how was the delivery?

Um the delivery was kind of scary. So he came 8 weeks early. M so with that I was put under so I wasn't even like awake during it. Um the recovery after so I did have a C-section. Um so the recovery after like was definitely hard but like not as hard as I thought it would have been. Like I was up I maybe like four or five hours after the surgery walking and moving around. So I knew that that was a big thing that like I wanted to make sure that I was up and moving right away.

Okay. Good. Good. And then you said when when we opened that you need help getting back on track. What do you mean by that? by that? by that? I guess just trying to like manage my time and really focus on like what I can be doing working outwise. Like I obviously don't want to spend hours upon hours in the gym cuz I don't have that, but I also want to make sure that I'm using the time that I have efficiently and like getting workouts done properly.

Yeah. And you also want to train appropriately. appropriately. appropriately. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, um I I think PPL is the wrong program for you. Okay. Um, we we want something that's going to because there's been some changes to things like your pelvic floor, your core musculature. musculature. musculature. Um, you also had a uh pretty traumatic uh process through pregnancy and birth uh which also affects things like the central nervous system and whatnot. So, we want to start with a program that's appropriate to start with.

Um, which which may feel to you I'm going to warn you like it's too easy. Easy. Easy. Easy. Okay. So, you might do it and be like, "This is not enough." But, uh, it's it's going to it'll get you better results and it'll prevent things like burnout and injury, uh, where where the risk is a bit high considering all the things that you told me. You put on starter first. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I have a program called MAP Starter, and I'd love you to run that program.

We'll send that to you. Yeah. And and I'm also looking through. Do you mind if I read through some more of your email that you sent in? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Maybe Doug, you could scroll a little bit here. It says um you had uh cortisol was low in the morning. You had inverted cortisol. This was before uh pregnancy. pregnancy. pregnancy. Yes. So I had done a bunch of testing with my family doctor and that's what we found out. So I was doing IV therapy to help with that.

Okay. How's energy and everything feel now? now? now? Back to like what it was. So like So like So like like very low and like not there. Okay. That makes that helps me a lot. Okay. So we also don't want again like I thought with how the CNS is being impacted uh we have to be very careful and judicious with how we apply stress which is what strength training uh will do. And so if it's right you're going to feel good. feel good. feel good. If it's wrong you're just going to be the doing the workouts and be like why do I still feel like crap?

I feel like wore out or why do I feel wore out? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Uh so this just confirms map starter for me even more. Mhm. And what I want you to do, I'm going to add a little bit to it, is I want you not just to follow Map Starter, but I want you to do it easy. Okay? Okay? Okay? So, I want you to feel like you're going through the motions, okay? okay? okay? And I want you to do that until you start to feel more energy.

And then you can increase it the intensity a little bit. So, be very like judicious. Okay? I'll go a little bit harder. I still feel good energy. I'll go a little harder. Oh, I'm crashing. Okay. I got to back off a little bit because we're going to heal your body uh through that process. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Uh, talk to me a little bit about nutrition. nutrition. nutrition. Um, probably definitely not the greatest. I feel like I barely eat. Um, when I do eat, I probably eat way too much, but it's definitely like not enough.

enough. enough. Okay. Uh, that I can give you some pretty simple advice. Sounds like you're having a tough time, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Uh, so I can give you some pretty basic advice to get you started. And um I think hitting what I'd like you to start with is trying to hit your target body weight. Okay. Okay. Okay. In grams of protein. Just do that. Okay. Okay. Okay. And I want you to eat in the morning. Yeah. I think that's the biggest thing is that Yeah.

I don't eat in the mornings. mornings. mornings. Yeah. So that'll help you manage um your blood sugar and insulin which may have a positive impact on the cortisol. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Do you have an appetite at all or does it feel like you have no appetite? Depends on the morning, but it's usually like I don't have the appetite and I usually probably don't eat until my eat until my son's down for his nap cuz I feel like that's when I have the time to eat.

Sometimes something light like a Greek yogurt with berries or something like that to start when you're not when you're feeling that way cuz that's sometimes the ch like asking you to go eat a you know four eggs with meat and something heavy uh if you don't have an appetite. Um, but if I don't if you're okay with like things like Greek yogurt if you like that. Um, some Greek yogurt, blueberries. blueberries. blueberries. Um, they make stuff they make Greek yogurt too that's already like higher in protein like 15 20 grams in those little cups, cups, cups, you know.

Yeah, I have one or two of those to to kickstart the day. It'll be really good. really good. really good. Yeah. So, it's like, okay, what's my target body weight? Uh, and then you eat maybe a little less than that in grams of protein and just try to prioritize that. It's probably going to look like 30 to 40 grams of protein per meal. uh per meal. Um um and so doing that. Let's take a step back for a second though. I want to take a step back with you, Michelle.

How does everything we're saying, how does that feel to you? Do you feel like does it feel like you could do it? Do you feel like it's overwhelming? overwhelming? overwhelming? Not that it's overwhelming. I just I've tried and like I will say I've failed at it. So, I know it's something like I need to be on top of better. Okay. You got a lot to manage, don't you? you? you? Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Is it feasible for you to outsource this to have a coach manage this for you financially?

No. financially? No. financially? No. Okay. All right. That's okay. Because off of work right now, I there's I have no income. Then here's what we're going to do then, Michelle. We're going to put you on. We're going to have you back on in 30 days so we can check in with you again. Okay. Okay. Okay. Does that sound helpful? Yep. Yep. Yep. Okay. I'm going to give you I'm going to encourage you a little bit. Okay. It gets a lot better. Yep. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Yep.

Yeah. I I promise you it gets a lot better. Okay. It's one little step at a time and the stumble the challenges are going to be are going to look like this. Okay? You're going to do a little bit and you're going to listen to what we're saying and then you're going to start to feel better and then you're going to feel like you need to go hard. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Okay. Okay. Okay. And that's going to set you back. Okay. Okay. Okay. I want you to be real gentle with yourself.

yourself. yourself. View the workout as something that just while I'm doing it, I feel good and I get a little time to myself. Don't view the workout like I need to get in shape. I need to build some muscle. I need to sweat. I need to push. I need to burn body fat. Don't look at it that way. Just be like, you want to feel good. Just like, okay, here's my 35 minutes of me making myself feel better right now. now. now. Get energy from it.

Like right now it's going to make me feel better. That's how much so it's going to look right now probably with the energy and stuff you got going on. Like you're kind of going through the motions and you're just kind of like, "Oh, that feels good." Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Okay. Okay. Okay. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. Any any idea on um your like activity level throughout the day? Like your steps? Do you know how many steps you take a day? Um, I did start trying to track it and like at one point like I was hitting at least 8,000.

Um, it's just it all depends on the day and I know like that's has been a goal of mine is to make sure that I am hitting it 8,000 at least. Now, so even better way to do that if you I was coaching you would be to just kind of monitor what a normal week looks like because maybe 8,000 is double what you do on a normal day that you're not trying too big of a jump. It's too big of a jump. And so and and and part of this key and if you're not picking up on it from Sal is like we want to set very easy goals that we can win and build consistency versus I doing the most you can do.

I'm not trying to do the most you can do every day. I want to know okay looks like in a normal week when you're not even trying you only step 3 to 4,000 steps. Okay. So if that's the case the goal is 6,000 steps a day. I Okay, let's just try and get 6,000. And so it looks like going through the workout like Sal is saying where you're taking care of yourself. You're going through the movements. It's more therapeutic than it is push and grind and put and sweat and do that thing.

And then it's hey, make sure I get my walks in today so I hit my 6,000 steps. That's what it looks like. And it looks like let's just be consistent with that and let's do our best to try and get that protein. And even if you have a day where you have a setback, it's okay. We get right back on the horse tomorrow. We'll make sure we're better about it starting early in the morning and get that Greek yogurt in. And like that's what it looks like.

And it looks like just building some consistency around that and momentum versus I feel good today so I'm going to go after it as much as I can. And then all of a sudden you feel like crap and then it sets you back and then you feel then you beat yourself up like you failed and it's like so we want to avoid that and just build some build some build some Think of it like this, Michelle. Think of it like this. Right now you need to be taken care of a little bit.

So the the workout and the nutrition, I want you to think like, okay, I'm going to take care of myself right now. And and so the workout, like I said, is going to feel gentle because right now that's what you need. What you don't need is to get stressed to feel the stress of the workout. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and and just do that for a little while and I promise you it's going to move you forward. It's going to get better. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I promise you it's going to get better.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Y Y Y Okay. I'm going to send you map starter and we're going to have you back on in 30 days. 30 days. 30 days. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Okay. And literally between now and then, the just good goal is, like I said, just move the steps up a little bit from what your normal would be and be consistent with that and and get consistent with the breakfast with some protein in it. If you come back in 30 days and you've like, "Hey, I've got my workouts.

They're feeling good. I'm making my steps. I'm doing better than protein." That's a huge win in 30 days right there. That's a good and a good goal. Good goal for us to do that and be consistent with it. So, let's set that as our first goal between now and seeing you again in 30 days and then we'll stack on that later. Yep. Mhm. Yep. Mhm. Yep. Mhm. Okay. Okay. Okay. Sound good? Sound good? Sound good? That does. Thank you. We got this. Yeah, we're going to do this.

You're going to be good. We'll see you in 30. Okay. Yeah. See you in 30. Bye. Thank you. She's having a tough time. Oh, I can feel it. I can feel it, too. I can feel it, too. Poor girl. Poor girl. Poor girl. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, so bed rest for 3 months. That's rough. That's rough. That's rough. And then emergency C-section all is traumatizing. Well, you could I mean, come on. She You could see her holding back to tears just just you asking her about it.

about it. about it. I know. I know. I know. Yeah. Yeah. I know. For sure. Very very traumatic if it's still affecting her that way. that way. that way. But the workout, first off, workouts are always self-care. That's what I want people to understand. Uh they're always self-care. Sometimes it looks like I'm pushing my body to adapt because that is what self-care is. In her case, pushing her body to adapt with exercise is not going to heal. It's to heal right now. Yeah, we got to heal.

She has to feel good right now. Uh, and that's what the exercise should be for her. her. her. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Our next caller is Sandy from Connecticut. Connecticut. Connecticut. Hi, Sandy. Sandy, how you doing? Hello. Hello. Hello. Good to see you. Welcome back. Welcome back. Welcome back. Thank you. Good to be back. Give us the update. You look healthy, by the way. the way. the way. I do. I do. I do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Give us some updates.

updates. updates. Um, okay. So, uh, up and down stuff. It's It's been a very different 30 days than the first 30. So, um, more stressful situations, stressful situations, stressful situations, um, cuz I didn't have enough, you know, so, so, so, uh, continuing the emails and things for the the lawsuit going on and, you know, having to fill out paperwork and affidavits and all that jazz. So, so that's that's going on. Um the uh I have made the decision that I am going to go to the sentencing at the court at the end of the summer.

Um so that'll be I don't know why just want to be there. Um, Um, Um, my daughter's been going through some medical stuff, some challenges and health issues and a lot of testing being done to and they haven't got a definitive diagnosis on anything yet. We're still waiting for some some test results. So, that's been stressful. Um, but you know, she is feeling better. Um, and you know, with just some diet changes and and things and some supplements. So, I'm I'm feeling hopeful um about that.

And uh what else? Um well, that's that's kind of on the stress side of things. However, with that said, I have to say my thinking and attitude about it has is different than in the past. Um like I said, I'm feeling hopeful. I, you know, helped her make a few changes with things and I'm I'm seeing the positive things, you know. Um, yep. This court stuff is stressful, but it's coming to an end. So, I've move on, you know, and and figure out, you know, what life is going to be.

So, um, getting past it kind of thing. Um, the my sleep is better and I I don't really know why because I haven't changed anything as far as making myself sleep better. Like, I'm not taking any medications or supplements or I'm following the same routines and things. Um, I I did start wearing my Fitbit these 30 days um while I sleep just to get some real data on it and it was averaging four to five hours. Um, and that and then it I bumped all the way up to six or seven hours.

I had three nights in the past 30 days at 7 and 1/2 hours, which is nice. A lot. Um, this week I dropped back down to an average of five. I don't really know why, but anyway. Um, so it it feels better though, so that it is better. So that's good. And what else? Um, community stuff. Um, I met with the pastor at the church 101 and just kind of told them how much life has sucked for the past couple years and and uh why I was there and what I was looking for and and uh I officially joined this last Sunday and it was kind of a presentation, you know, at the church.

It was kind of cool. Um it was also um another couple joined. So they they're just such a welcoming com uh community and things. So there's there's a lot of committees that they have and groups and things that they do. Um you know, so they were talking to me about that. I did go to the social hour after and things are talking to me about that like what do I want to do? what do I want to do? And um a lot of it is they're they're kind of a sit around kind of group of people um which I am not.

So um I wanted I want to contribute something in my wheelhouse you know kind of thing. So, I'm really noticing I'll say, you know, like there's 50 to 60 of us at service each week and I'll say a third of them are complaining about aches and pains and illnesses and and things and, you know, people with walkers and canes and, you know, their highlight is telling about their their pain of the week or their new new diagnosis or whatever. So, I kind of want to introduce maybe some exercise in life, but not use that word cuz I know it would freak them out.

But I love that. Can I give you an idea? Can I give you an idea? I think uh that's not as as scary to those type of people for like exercise is a walking group. Yep. I think that's a great idea. Is start a walking group within that community and and the church. that. Yeah, I think that would I think that's a great idea because you know it's the church is on this cute little street flat surface and stuff so we could walk right there and you know instead of you know what I'm sitting with them in the social hour and they all have their coffee and their cake cake cake and you know it's like you're telling you're sitting here talking about all your health issues eating cake.

What are you doing? You know obviously don't say those things but Maybe let's grab a water and go for a walk. Anybody want to come? You know, I love that idea. That I love that idea. That would be so good. Puts you at ser and you're you're serving. Uh it's a great way to build community and it's something you're offering that I think is so valuable. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah. My son um he he works for Anytime Fitness. I don't know if I'd mentioned that before, but he's um he developed the uh in uh consulted with somebody.

I don't remember the guy's name, but anyway, did did and has developed the um ageless program. program. program. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Um Ageless Fitness. I know what that is. And he's he's huge. He's 66 and you know, a muscle man. And all these little old ladies and guys that he works with just feel so safe with him. Um you know, they he works with a guy in his 80s who falls cuz he had a stroke and you know, Kyle catches him and things.

So I was thinking about asking him maybe to come in to one of the they have a lot of different groups in the evenings and things and maybe just talking to them about the ageless program and so wonderful. Yes, I love that because he knows what he's talking about too. At the very least he could offer advice. That's wonderful. That's wonderful. That's wonderful. Yeah. Um if I can get him to do it. So, but just to hopefully spark he can he can motivate anybody to, you know, to exercise.

And exercise. And exercise. And he sent me a video last week of this 90 year 92 year old woman walking across the gym unassisted. Wonderful. And she and she started in a wheelchair. So, it's that kind of stuff. So, anyway, I thought maybe with his motivation just might spark some interest and I could get him to do something. Um, so what else? Um, oh, I did connect with a a women's shelter in town that is a 24 bed facility um for recovering addicts. Um, they needed stuff.

They needed kitchen items and those kind of things. So, I just went through the house and, you know, I have plenty of stuff and brought over bunch of boxes of stuff and whatever I can do to help them. Um, so again, looking for things to that don't cost money, but you can still do with people to help. So, uh, what else have I done? Um, it says you got a lot stronger in your email, Sandy. email, Sandy. email, Sandy. Yeah, you know, so here's my here's my frustrations and stuff.

Yes, I I definitely definitely definitely feel stronger and it just seems like it's happening fast and I'm almost back to the weights that I was lifting, you know, couple, you know, prior to the train going off the track with the hormone mess up and then the knees and all that jazz. And I was like, wow, this is really fast. Um, and is really this is really fast. Um, and then I was thinking, well, maybe it is some of that muscle memory you guys talk about, you know.

um bouncing back from things. So yeah, the went back to um like leg presses and things like I had to stop on the leg press machine when my knees were so bad cuz it was just so much inflammation and and pain and you know I was a little leerary of it. Greg was starting light, you know, like I started at um oh what was the weight? It was 135 lbs just to start and I'm up to 225. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So So So nice. nice. nice.

So, so that's good. The in the sled um when I first started doing the sled again that I was again getting a lot of inflammation in my knees. Um but I'm not anymore. And so we just kept pushing through and I started at 165 and I'm up to 265. to 265. to 265. Wow. So Wow. So Wow. So that's great. that's great. that's great. So that feels good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um it's funny because there's I I struggle with um the barbell um press, anything that I'm laying on a bench or even deadlifts because I feel a strain in my back when I do those things.

So my tendency is to, you know, try and then say, "I can't do it because of my back." And, you know, Greg said, "No, you can't do it because of your head. Get out of your head and pick the bar up." So, um, you know, so I am I'm doing it. So, any if there's anything that was one of my questions this week, if there's anything you can advise as far as any maybe some more priming things that to strengthen that back for those specific lifts.

So, and I think part of it is I I'm worried a little bit. I feel a little unsafe. I feel like I might hurt my back and I don't I cannot be out of the gym again. So, So, So, um um um Well, anything that if you're It sounds like So, you have your coach. So, you're doing it with your coach, right? Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. So, listen to his prompts. Brace your core when you're doing the lifts. And if you don't feel safe going heavier, don't.

And just say, "Okay, I just want to stay at this weight and maybe I could slow the reps down." Um, and so and then embrace your core because what can happen sometimes we can overarchch overarchch overarchch our backs when we're so we're trying to be straight but what ends up happening we overarch and the way you offset that is you brace your core like you're trying to brace it as if someone's going to poke you in the stomach. Okay. Okay. Okay. While you're doing the lift when Yeah.

I I arch my back a lot. Um so overarchching will make it feel like there's some shearing pressure in the low back. low back. low back. Okay. Um, yeah. I still can't get my arms flat against the wall when I'm doing the priming. You know, that's hard. That's hard. Sandy, as long as you're making progress, you got a lot stronger. Your sleep is improving. improving. improving. You're building community. This is like some of the best progression I've seen in 60 days. Where's the downside? Yeah, you're doing great.

great. great. Like, you're killing it. I can see it in your face, too. You look good. Yep. Yep. Yep. Well, thank you. Um, I got to say though, the the the other priming exercises, I'm rocking it. I mean, I never thought I could make my arm go all the way around on the wall cuz the first time I tried it, there was like, like, like, no way. This is impossible. It's like I think Justin and Doug had rubber bands instead of bones because I can't do this.

And I'm doing it. I not a problem. That's awesome. Um, and the squats, everything, but not the arms on the wall. Cannot get them there. That's a tough one. That's a tough one, too. too. too. That's a tough one. That's a tough one for me. It's tough one for all of us. But if you're seeing improvements everywhere, I mean, I mean, you're chipping away. chipping away. chipping away. This is 60 days. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's only 60 days. Like, you're This is You're kicking butt. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. My My back is better. Um much better. And And And but I do stiffen up after my workouts. And you know, unfortunately, I'm going from a workout to sitting at a desk. Um, and it's just so stiff and sore. But so the downside, the downside, the downside, do you know how to do pelvic tips? Tilts. Do you know how to do pelvic tilts? tilts? tilts? Just going to say back. Yes, I know how. And and when you said that, I can't even tell you the last time I really practiced it or was prompted to do it.

So So you could practice pelvic tilts while seated. A better way to do it is laying on your back with your knees bent and you'll have a natural arch in your low back and you just flatten the low back. Squeeze your core down. Let it arch back up, flatten, let it arch back up, flatten. Butt stays on the floor the whole time. We squeeze our glutes really tight, especially when you go to bridge and hold it at the top and reinforce that. Come back down. Adjust so your back is super flat again.

Then we go back up. Do we have a pelvic tilt video done we could could could on Mind Pump TV? That would be a good primer for you to do uh before anyone and even afterwards. Yep. Yep. Yep. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Great. Good. I will do that. That will help kind of reinforce that strength. strength. strength. Okay. Okay. Okay. The downside is the nutrition. Um I I think just with stuff going on, I got sloppy with tracking and planning and prepping everything.

It just kind of That's why That's why That's why and then I got all in my head about that. It's like, "Oh my god, I failed. I don't want to go back on the podcast, tell the guys I didn't do what I was supposed to do." Sandy. Sandy, I I I don't care. Don't trip. trip. trip. Honest to God. You know what? Can I tell you something real quick? I'm actually happy you stopped tracking. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. I think it was just too much control. Too many things to worry about, which is probably why you stopped.

Uh, and everything else is doing great. I don't care. If you want I don't care. If you want to get back to tracking, go for it. Just try to make healthy choices for now. Uh, I'm not worried about your tracking right now. Yeah. Well, I know I didn't up my calories much. Um, which, you know, I get so frustrated that I don't see physically see the progress. In fact, I lost my mind because I had a couple events this in this past 30 days that people took pictures and posted on Facebook and oh my god, I'm not going to let I'm going to stop you right there.

I'm not going to let you do this to yourself. When you look at the bar that you're lifting, do you see a difference between when you started and now? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. So, there's a diff. You see something? something? something? I do. I do. As long as I don't look at my reflection. my reflection. my reflection. I don't want to hear but you're moving in the right direction and your body's going to follow. What we're seeing right now is change. So, let me put it this way.

You're shifting. You're shifting. You're shifting. The Sandy that leg pressed 135 is not the same Sandy that leg pressed 220 lbs. You're actually different. It's fundamentally different. Okay. Now, the changes might not be big enough for you to notice in the mirror, and that might be because they're subtle. It also might be because you might be overly critical, but it's only been 60 days. You are moving in the right direction. right direction. right direction. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. I know. And Greg says, "It's been 60 days, you know, like um I know.

I want I want to get to 365." Like, Like, Like, don't don't get in your head about that. That'll that'll slow everything down. Just you're doing You're great. I'm glad you're not tracking. If if you want to get back to it, go for it. But if it feels like too much, don't do it. You're and you're eating enough. Obviously, you got stronger. got stronger. got stronger. A better a better goal nutritionally than getting back to like tracking everything is like if you know um like most people have a thing that they're they know that I'm bad at skip I skipped breakfast or I know that I should have ate this time that should have been more protein.

set a a nutrition goal like that instead of getting more into tracking every single calorie or trying to up like where where do you skip a meal or where could you make a better choice and like just that one thing. It's like hey I'm going to be more consistent with starting my day with this meal or ending my day with this meal or making sure I have this many ounces of meat when I whatever the thing is instead of like making it a big deal about the every single thing that you consume or all day tracking.

It's like, I know I can be a little bit better at this time of the day with my food. I'm going to make it a goal to make that choice there or add that protein shake, whatever it is. But make a simple goal nutritionally and just focus on that versus the whole thing. Well, yeah, that would be dinner because, you know, I eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch every single day. day. day. Okay, good. So simple. So, if I could just because sometimes I just find myself I'm hungry.

I go grab something and it tends to be nuts or something and then I like oh my god they're so high in fat and you know I start beating myself up about that cuz I didn't pay attention to how much and it's like oh so I would say snacks and dinner if I could get a grip on that I'll feel good. There you go. So let's just focus on one of those things. just just focus on one of those things and be be more consistent with it.

And if the one day happens when you're not perfect, it's not a big deal. Tomorrow will be good about it. Just focus on that one thing versus tracking every single thing and over thinking it. Just focus on that one. I'm going to tell you, you helping other people is going to make it so much better for how you are with yourself. You doing the thing where you where you went to the women's shelter, maybe starting this walking group. I think that's going to be so awesome.

I think be so good. Oh yeah. Be way less critical about yourself. Yeah. In 30 days, let's let's let's check in and see if how those went. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's really I guess I I started beating myself up because I felt like I failed you guys. You know, it's like all I had to do was be good for 90 days and I blew it. How the heck could you fail us? You're killing it. Even if you didn't, by the way, I'm going to tell you something, Sandy.

Sandy. Sandy. Even if you didn't get stronger, even if you get on here right now, you're like, "Guys, listen. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't do any of it. I'm really stuck right now. You showed up. Yep. Yep. Yep. Like you showed up. You got back on the call with us. I did. I did. You did. You're doing great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're doing good. We'll see you in 30 days, Sandy. All right. All right. All right. Okay. Great. Okay. Great. Okay. Great. You're doing great.

We love you. You're doing great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Okay. Bye. Bye. Bye. She's so sweet. The the the connecting with her community, community, community, helping other people be so good. It's going to be so cuz you see how how quickly quickly quickly she wanted to switch to like turns it back in. Yeah. Like I'm terrible. First off, objectively you're kicking the ass objectively. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh so um it's just inaccurate. I think that's just a tendency and we got to stop that.

But I think helping other people is going to be such a great such a great thing to do. Our next caller is Jackson from Florida. What's up Jackson? What's happening dude? dude? dude? Hey guys. Thanks for having me on. Really appreciate it. You got it, man. How can we help you? I got to say first off, the biggest thing I've taken away from you guys is the less is more. So, thank you for that. Um, sweet. Um, sweet. Um, sweet. I'm going to jump into uh jump into my question here and uh it revolves around bulking and cutting.

I've been training for around 20 years and while I'm definitely stronger than when I was 15 years old, it feels like I'm somewhat treading water. I've always looked stronger than most of my peers, but I've never really uncovered my abs, which I'd say is kind of my biggest uh kind of what I'm looking to do. Uh to get some added context, about three years ago, I herniated my L5 deadlifting. I was doing MAPS anabolic, and unfortunately, your program worked way too well. Um I was getting super strong, doing like 500 lb for around three reps with a a hex bar.

Um I tried everything, but eventually had to get surgery after about a year and a half of recovery. Um, I'm back in the gym now with mostly no limitations. Biggest thing I'm hesitant to do squats or deadlift under about seven or eight reps. Um, closest I've come to feeling uh, ripped, I would say, is when I cut down to about from 187 to 180. I'm uh about 6' tall and I was using Lane Norton's carbon app uh tracking all my food to kind of get down and figure out uh where that was.

Um, with all that being said, my main question would be to try and look better with a shirt off living in Florida going into summer. Do you all recommend cutting down to a lower body weight and then hitting maintenance calories? Um, do you bulk first? Uh, do you, you know, like I'm just kind of trying to figure out like if I were to try to bulk first, I feel like I'd largely add fat since I've been doing so since I've been training for so long. Um, and then just a real quick side note for this specific question.

Uh, I just am getting over mono. Um, I'm about a week, uh, at this point. It's more like two weeks into training and I'm probably functioning at about an RP8 at this point. Um, and I'm just kind of ramping that up uh, slowly. I lost 7 lbs during mono. So, uh, I'm I'm right around 180 from where I normally sit at 187. Um, so I'm I'm less weight, but I'm also I didn't lose it in a good way. I lost it because of the mono. So, where do I go from here?

Uh, for both training and nutrition. And in the future when mono is kind of out of the question, what would sort of your standard advice be? be? be? Yeah. Good. So, let's back up for a sec. What was the surgery that you had? Uh, it was a discctomy. Okay. So, you have no disc or they replace it? replace it? replace it? Uh, they just they just shaved out a little bit. little bit. little bit. Okay. Okay. All right. All right. So, you're okay with not squatting or deadlifting below seven reps and you're totally with your experience because you sound I mean you're using terms like RP.

You've been strength training for a long time. Split stance exercises are perfectly fine for a guy like you. So, uh because you've probably built up your squat at different moments of your life to pretty good numbers, you could switch to split stance exercises if you want to go heavy and then stick to the higher reps with the squats. You'd be totally fine. uh as far as a deadlift is concerned, you could always treat that uh just with lots of respect once again because you did get your weight so high.

So like you I mean you could pull you pulled a lot of weight. So I wouldn't you're not a guy that would be like nah let's challenge it and be like no no no we'll just we'll just do the deadlifts and maintain them and get stronger on other lifts uh if you feel like it's a big risk. Do you know what you're eating now? What your calories look like now by any chance? chance? chance? Uh yeah, I'm right around 3100 I'd say for maintenance. 31 32.

Yeah, dude. And you know when you're active active job, what do you do for work? work? work? I make ice cream, actually. Oh, really? Oh, really? Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like literally like like your ice cream truck. What do you do? Well, no. So, I'm I'm like the batch planner and uh like purchaser and stuff for we make we make like three gallon tubs for scoop shops and stuff here in Florida. Florida. Florida. Oh man, you'd be a dangerous friend of mine. mine. mine. I was just going to say pretty great.

pretty great. pretty great. Yeah, we couldn't we couldn't hang out, bro. It' be all been a drug dealer down a few times. Well, okay. So, when you're over the mono, your calories aren't a bad they're they're good. You could definitely cut from there. And I don't do your body weight is you're probably already relatively lean. Would you do you have a guess for what your body fat sits at when you're doing all right? If I had to guess, I'd say I'm like 145. Oh, yeah. I look a little even at this like new one.

I I said 180. I'm more like 182. Probably doesn't matter to you guys. Um, it's I definitely look a little fluffier though than what I would think I I should look like at that weight. weight. weight. Well, you just had mono, so uh and you're you're still in that. So, but under normal circumstances, if you're eating like 31 3200 calories, 14% body fat, you could go in a deficit, go down to 2500, 2400, that'll get you down to 11 11 10%. So, it wouldn't be hard to do that.

Also keep in mind because we um the the goal to see abs and and be strong be strong are kind of conflicting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So just and I heard you say that earlier when you're talking about like wanting to get stronger in your lifts and and things like that and where you're and the where you've already been and where you're heading and then wanting to see abs and they're they're kind of two different things. Like I'm if I'm going to focus on seeing abs, I'm not really tripping about how heavy of a weight I'm lifting because I'm going to be weaker.

I'm going to be low calorie. I'm depleted. Being that low is not ideal. So definitely make sure that's not like in your head of like oh man I'm only doing this now. It's like let that go if we're going to if if we're going to head that way. If we're going to say let's see how shredded we could get. Just accept that you're not going to be your your lifts aren't going to be going up. They're going to be going the other direction more than likely.

Now if I had to pick one because especially because you're coming out of motto is I would go into building and I would build for maybe 45 60 days and then I go on the cut just cuz you're coming out of getting sick. sick. sick. Mhm. So would you keep it like maintenance calories or would you add 100 200 kind of thing? I think I would add a little bit with some strength training. Yeah. And you're going to see some strength gains anyways coming out of illness.

So I'd get up to like 3,300 calories at least. I would how you got 35. You feel like you have a healthy metabolism. You could probably jump up to 3500 calories be fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think honestly the the biggest thing that I find when I'm like eating higher calorie amounts is like I get to the end of the day and it's like well we got to have a bowl of ice cream kind of thing. It's like I'm I I'm eating I think I guess I just got to add more like fatty meats and things like that in order order order to not do that because I think there something can be said about a calorie is a calorie but also there's things that you know go way beyond that.

No, I mean that can also be the thing the one thing that's kind of keeping you that kind of fluffy feeling that you're feeling right now too is that you add calories but then they come from things like ice cream. So, which I could totally relate to what that's like and it's a big difference if you and sometimes okay just so you know um so this is a sign that when I'm not eating enough calories so in in easy way without me getting crazy and tracking for me to kind of lean out get ripped build muscle it's like kind of the Goldilock zone is when I'm still at the end of my day and I know I've had my meals I've hit my protein and I'm still hungry and then I go get ice cream or something like that simply just not having ice cream and making another meal makes a huge difference just obviously my metabolism saying I want more calories still muscle ramping up if I can just discipline myself to not go have the 800 calories of you know basically sugar and go go have a you know 500 calorie high protein meal oh man that's a so if you feel that sometimes that's that metabolism ramping up and saying I I still want more food and I'm I'm too low calorie low calorie low calorie and on the flip side if you get to 3100 calories you've hit your protein at the end the day you're like, I'm full.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, I don't want to eat anymore. Then don't then shut it down. You have your protein, you're fine. Yeah, shut it down. Yep. Okay, that's cool. What? So, it sounds like you're saying go ahead and add some calories back in. Like, I'm pretty close to being able to go back into the gym. I feel like 100%. Um, so adding some calories back in, trying to gain, would you would you kind of try to stay like like what sort of training do you guys look at when you're either either in the gaining or kind of the the more cutting phase?

Like do you let that affect or is it just it just it just all strength training is trying to build muscle whether you're in a cut or in a bulk. So it just really depends on Well, I'll give I'll give you I'll give you a tip for a guy who's advanced like you because uh do something novel. So if you are the person who typically would like follow a maps anabolic type of protocol then run something like a performance protocol or or symmetry or strong or so like a good a good strategy for guys that have been lifting for a long have a lot of experience in the gym and you want to build uh is doing something novel like if you've never done like a oldtimey lift like that type of training we have a program like that like follow a program of ours that you normally wouldn't follow you know what I'm saying instead of falling back into the kind of norm of what you do go after something that you haven't and that novel stimulus with the additional calories that'll put some good muscle on right away.

right away. right away. Yeah. So, Yeah. So, Yeah. So, okay, that's awesome. Yeah, I've actually I've got MAP Symmetry, so maybe I could run that one again. Um because I think that that's the one that does like the split stances that you're talking about, about, about, right? That's perfect. That'll be good for you considering your low back injury. injury. injury. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I like that. Awesome. And then um you had mentioned so after after the uh the symmetry you said either was it performance or aesthetic that you would recommend?

Oh after symmetry you could do performance but you could also do almost any other program. PPL would even be good if you want to do more of a bodybuilding split. bodybuilding split. bodybuilding split. Okay. Yeah. I'll um I'll check I'll check them out. And uh I really appreciate, you know, you guys um and kind of I wasn't really thinking that I you guys were going to say like build from here. And so that's kind of that's some good advice to to go build and then from there to kind of cut down.

So especially coming from off the mono like that. That'll that'll do well for Are you Jess? Do you check do you track your uh steps? Do you know what you do like per day? per day? per day? I don't actually get that many steps because of what I do for work. Um, we have been renovating a house and so like Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I've been getting quite a bit of activity in, but that's stopped over the last month. And so my guess is my average step count is like 6,000.

like 6,000. like 6,000. Okay, so this is here's I'm going to take further advice for you. So you go, okay, so this is what this path looks like to me. Get up to 3500 calories, follow symmetry, follow that through like through basically a full bulk and kind of stay there till you're kind of hovering around the weight. You're not gaining anymore. You're not losing any weight. you're building getting stronger through the program. Then when you go on the cut, cut it back down to 3,000 to 31 range and just bump steps by 2,000 steps a day.

That's your first like that's your first protocol. And then literally kind of keep your calories there and just try and increase your steps and then and then go down a little bit on the calories maybe down to 2,800 and just keep kind of playing that game of trying to slowly increase steps every week over week while just kind of cutting a little bit of calories. And if we do a really good job, you should probably still be able to eat 25 to 2700 calories and be pretty shredded.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. If you get up to 35 Yeah. If you get up to 35 3500 calories maintaining your weight, feeling good, put on a couple pounds of muscle and then we just kind of slowly incrementally come down in calories and then slowly inc incrementally go up in steps. That should be enough to nice lean you out really nice. Okay. And the steps are basically just to get you that little extra bump in calories. calories. calories. That's right. That's right. That's right. Yep. right. Yep.

right. Yep. Awesome. Cool. Awesome. Cool. Awesome. Cool. Well, hey guys, I really appreciate it. Thank you very much. You got it, man. Thanks for calling in. All right. Yep. Bye. He'll do well. Healthy metabolism. Healthy metabolism. Healthy metabolism. Oh, yeah. Yep. He's strong. He's at that weight eating 3100 calories and he says he's pretty sedentary, actually. That's actually Yeah, he's in a good place. Yeah, he he'll build it. He He'll build, you know, he said to me earlier, that's why I point out, you know, you sometimes you have goals that are a bit conflicting.

Oh, yeah. I want I want abs and be strong. strong. strong. Yeah. It's like Yeah. That's a good point. Yeah. point. Yeah. point. Yeah. Yeah. it's not going to do you so well uh trying to cut and then also and then that's a recipe for injury, right? You're you're pushing the weight like crazy cuz you're you're stuck on I want to get stronger, but then you're also low calorie and it's just like then you get hurt trying to do that. That's right. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram.

It's Mindput Media. All right, I know you like that episode. If you did, check this one out. Walking. It's one of the best things you could do for your health, bar none. But there's a better way to approach it. Yes, you can just walk, but if you follow the right protocol, it's far more effective. Let's talk about talk about talk about walking. I can't wait to hear your walking protocol. walking protocol. walking protocol. Well, there is a Well, there is a protocol. So, and I'll start with the first thing, right?

Because just first off, uh let me start with this. One of the reasons why walking um is such a great form of just activity is because it's low risk of injury. Now,